Challenge Coins (UPDATED!)

Posted By Mr Wolf

I recently ran into some interesting info online, and was wondering what the Blackfive readers had experienced.  All in regards to challenge coins.

For those that are not familiar, challenge coins are coins that are handed out by commanders, sergeants-majors, units, and others as 'mementos'.  But that was not their original usage- while many units have varied histories around challenge coins, most will agree that it originates from WWI when a downed pilot used it to verify his background.  From that point forward, the unit had everyone carrying a coin in a pouch around their neck.

Coins really took off in the Vietnam era, and many from that conflict are quite valuable- ones from MACV-SOG or other specialized unit are especially coveted.  During my trips over there, I was not able to secure a 'real' coin but fakes are readily available.

Coin usage nowadays is not for combat; its for camaraderie.  Any place, ANY time, a person holding a coin can issue a challenge; showers too!  Those not able to reach their coin buys the round; those holding the HIGHEST RANK of coin gets rounds purchased by the others.  IF, in a challenge, everyone comes up with their coin, one of two things can happen- either the LAST person producing the coin buys, or the challenger buys, depending on local/unit tradition.  Personally, I'm never without a 4-star coin, ever.  My most 'valuable' one is a Rumsfeld.  He's known for having been especially strict on giving them out.  Never, EVER challenge Blackfive.  He's known to carry a Presidential one.  Can't.be.trumped.

How do you acquire one?  They are given as a 'reward' in many cases, similar to an award, but much less formality involved.  Presenter places one in their palm, shakes hand of the recipient, and transfers the coin.  This is the only TRUE method.  You can, indeed, buy most if not all coins (even a Rumsfeld, but they are expensive, and fakes are numerous) but only those given and received in this traditional manner are really worth anything.  My favorite coin was given to me by an Admiral in Iraq- his first coin, and his first coining, in theater.

One of my favorite challenge stories was in the summer of '86 in Camp Grayling, MI.  The 101st Airborne provided some companies to act as OPFOR in the training areas, and when we came out of the field phase the usual nuttiness followed at the O' and NCO' clubs on post.  One night, a particularly attractive lieutenant (from my guard HQ) appeared in the O' club on Grayling.  For those who've never been there, to me, this is THE BEST officers club on any facility.  She walked to the bar in the back of the club, slammed down the 101st Commanders Coin, and hilarity ensued when the guys from the 101st, who were mostly in the back of the room, bulldozed their way to the bar to slam their coins down.  Over tables, over people, over everything to get to the bar in time.  The place was PACKED, and damn, no one wanted to be last or without.  No one was expecting HER to coin the 101st.  I don't think the place settled down for the rest of the summer after that little stunt.

You got a good challenge coin story?  Share it in the comments.  I've got dozens of stories of coining in Iraq.  Joint Chiefs chairman GEN Myers dumped an entire SLEEVE of his coins into the cargo pocket of a unit Sergeant Major to give out to troops on his behalf.  I don't know what made that SGM more nervous- watching the Chairman do that to him, or the fact he was carrying 5 pounds of coinage in his pocket.

Drop a story or two into the comments..

Wolf

Some coins that were sent in: (story to follow in the comments)

 

And someone sent in their favorite collection of Air Force coins:

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Warrior Legacy Foundation adapts new 'Fight Song' -

Posted By Mr Wolf

Blackfive posted up a few weeks ago a song and video that is just too HOOAH! not to listen to.  You can find that post here for The Warrior Song.

Since then, the Warrior Legacy Foundation has worked with the song's creator, Sean, and his team to 'adopt' the song for the Warrior Legacy Foundation.  Now, the WLF and The Warrior Song are one and the same in promoting its use for our Warriors!  The WLF has 'adopted' the song as its 'fight song'.

It's such a perfect fit.  If you haven't seen it, take a look at it now.  Be sure to pick up a copy of it and spread it around! 

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Happy Veteran's Day

Posted By McQ

I wrote this in 2006 and wanted to share it today.

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Anyone who doubts all veteran's are heroes need read no further. But for the vast majority of you who do, I'd like to take a little different slant in my tribute than you might read elsewhere. Most of the time when you read tributes to vets, they're filled with the stories of those who've suffered in combat and we see pictures showing the battle-weary combat vets which pointedly make the argument about the sacrifices our veterans have made and continue to make.

But not all sacrifices are made on the field of battle. While infantry, armor and artillery are the combat arms - the tip of the spear - they, better than anyone, know how important the team that makes up the rest of the spear are to their success on the battlefield.

Those F-16s don't show up on target at the right time unless that kid flying the boom of a KC10 tanker at 30,000 feet at 2am doesn't do his job. That sabot round from an M1A1 fired at a threatening T72 isn't there unless the truck driver hauling ammo day in and day out gets that ammo where it needs to be when it needs to be there.

Veterans are the guys like the cook who gets up every morning at 3:30 am and begins to prepare breakfast for his guys and gals. The young man below deck on an aircraft carrier who makes sure the F/A 18 he's responsible for maintaining is in perfect shape and ready to fly. The nurse who holds a dying soldier's hand as he takes his last breath, wipes away the tears, straightens her uniform and heads out to do it again.

He's the kid in the fuel soaked coveralls who hasn't slept in 2 days gassing up another Bradley from his fuel tanker before they roll to the final objective. The company clerk who makes sure all of the promotion orders are correct and in on time, or the instructor in basic training who ensures those he trains get his full attention and who puts his all into helping them learn important lessons that will save their lives. He's the recruiter who'd rather be where the action is, but does what is necessary to make sure he gets the best and brightest available for his branch of service. Or the MP at the gate who shows up every day, does her job to the very best of her ability and never complains.

Most vets have never seen combat in the sense we think of it. But every single solitary one of them has contributed in vital ways to the success of our combat efforts and making this the finest military ever. Without those who support the combat troops, success would impossible. Without the wrench turners, truck drivers, fuel handlers, cooks, clerks and all those like them, the greatest military the world has ever seen is an "also ran."

It doesn't matter what a vet did during his or her service, it matters that he or she chose to serve and do whatever vital job they were assigned to the best of their ability. It isn't about medals, it isn't about glory, it isn't about what job they did. It is about the fact that when their country called, they stood up and answered. They are all, every one of them, heroes.

To all the vets out there - Happy Veteran's Day.

And thank you for your service.

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My third favorite video of all time...

Posted By Blackfive

Right after Tombstone and the entire Firefly series comes this video of Blackfive friend and uber-badass (and SF sniper) Tim Kennedy and Recon Marine Jon Walsh. Both are multiple tour (intense) combat vets, both have just returned from training Marines in Mixed Martial Arts techniques. This video is not about those techniques.

The guys at RangerUp are on fire. Don't put them out (they can take it, they ARE Rangers after all). Buy their shirts. Support their fighters.

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For Our Allies and Family - Rememberance Day On November 11th

Posted By Blackfive

While we have Veterans Day, this Wednesday will be Remembrance Day for our friends in the Commonwealth. Below are a few videos in honor of their sacrifices.

Here's a video that an American Marine sent me that is about our Canadian brothers and sisters.

And you can't ever forget Aussie Beccy Cole's Poster Girl:

Any others out there? Link to them in Comments.

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CNN interviews PVT Joe Foster - Another Hero Emerges

Posted By Blackfive

Another reason to be proud of our troops.  Another Hero emerges from this incident.

Listen to his comments about the experience, being Irish, and heading to Afghanistan.

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JD Johannes - Saladin Province

Posted By Blackfive Head over to Outside the Wire to check out JD's latest photos of the trips he makes around Iraq.  Be sure to see the Iraqi army/police patches...and then read what JD thinks victory in Iraq will look like.

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I AM A WARRIOR AND THIS IS MY SONG!

Posted By Blackfive

Via Harvey at IMAO, we heard this and were hooked.  You will be too:

Harvey, a vet, also tells us that current military and veterans can get a free copy of the song here:

http://www.thewarriorsong.com/Contact.html

Lyrics after the jump.

Continue reading "I AM A WARRIOR AND THIS IS MY SONG!"

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Honoring the Fallen or Staged Photo-Op?

Posted By Blackfive

Over at the Mudville Gazette, Greyhawk looks at the timing of the President's visit to Dover with regards to the timely decision he has to make on Afghanistan:

...How to turn the situation around? Some say more troops, some say change strategy, others say withdraw - but someone in the White House got the bright idea that now would be a good time for a photo op.

A small contingent of reporters and photographers accompanied Mr. Obama to Dover, where he arrived at 12:34 a.m. aboard Marine One. He returned to the South Lawn of the White House at 4:45 a.m.
<...>
The images and the sentiment of the president's five-hour trip to Delaware were intended by the White House to convey to the nation that Mr. Obama was not making his Afghanistan decision lightly or in haste.

It should have been a "good" day for the project; "This week alone, about two dozen soldiers have died in attacks and accidents."...

While I am glad that the President is spending time with the families of the Fallen and honoring their return, I have one question:

If the family of Sergeant Dale Griffin hadn't approved the media to photograph his remains returning to the United States (they were the only family that gave approval), would the President have still made the trip to Dover?

The Chicago Tribune - Obama Honors Fallen Troops: 

...The solemn visit was the first of its kind for Obama, and comes as he is withdrawing troops from Iraq but contemplating a troop increase in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Obama spoke to sailors and aviators at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida, where he promised that he would count the full cost of war before deciding to send more military into harm's way.

The administration this year lifted a longstanding ban on media coverage of the return of fallen service members. Obama was accompanied by a small pool of White House reporters who were on duty overnight.
<...>
Shortly afterward, a white-gloved military team of six led the president's group to a large plane on the tarmac, where they stood at attention in a single file line as the team transferred the casket of Sgt. Dale Griffin from the plane to a white mortuary van.

Reporters were allowed to watch that transfer, White House aides said, because the sergeant's family agreed to it...

I also wonder how many articles about President Bush honoring Fallen troops were authored?

[Warning:  Whatever you do, do not read the comments in the stories at the Trib or the NYT.]

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Beyond COIN v. CT or COIN + CT: An Emerging Third Position

Posted By Grim

How many troops do we need in Afghanistan?

Yesterday's publishing of State Department officer's letter of resignation brought us a practical expression of a theory:  essentially, that the unified insurgency would collapse if we weren't there for it to fight.  The theory holds that tribal ethic of "me against my brother, the two of us against our cousins, the four of us against our neighbors, all of us against the tribe across the ridge, all those tribes together against strangers..." is allowing the Pashtun-based Taliban to hold up a coalition that they couldn't manage without us present.  If we pulled back, or pulled out, these natural tensions would reassert themselves and the insurgency would be ripped apart from the inside.

There are several names associated with this theory that give it credibility.  The first is Dr. David Kilcullen, who needs no introduction to readers of BLACKFIVE.  His book The Accidental Guerrilla holds that there are two factions to the insurgencies we fight:  the hard-core ideologues who came to fight us, and the "accidental guerrillas" who got swept up into a fight that happened in their backyard.  Dr. Kilcullen gives advice not so much aimed at abandoning the fight, but on swaying those who have 'accidentally' fallen in with the enemy toward our side. 

Another, who should be as well known but is not, is MAJ Jim Gant, a Special Forces officer who has a new paper out on the subject of tribal engagement.  The paper is only 45 pages long, yet offers some fairly specific suggestions on how to reform current practices to support the strategy he proposes. [BlackFive edit. note:  Major Gant was a SYSK two and a half years ago for his courage and honor in Iraq, and there's a follow up piece here.]

In Iraq, tribal engagement is how the Awakening happened:  the tribal frictions began to pull some of the 'accidental' guerrillas away from AQI, and the Coalition was ready to do what it took to support their swing to our side of the conflict. 

How would that theory work in the absence of Coalition forces, which is what is being proposed in Afghanistan?  Presumably, one would wait for the tribal tensions to create open fissures between the hard core and the local tribals, and then make contact with those tribes and offer them support at a much-lower footprint:  perhaps with MAJ Gant's proposed SF advisors, or perhaps only with money and weapons.  In return for their support against terrorists, and tacit support for the government, they would be allowed to field forces and control their own territory (as the Sons of Iraq were so permitted).  This approach creates a whole new class of "warlords" in Afghanistan -- or reinforces existing ones -- but it could plausibly create a situation in which those warlords became clients of the Afghan government rather than foes of it. 

One of the hallmarks of COIN theory is that you shouldn't create local-national COIN forces that look like Western forces.  Rather, they should be organic to the local culture, so they will have credibility with the local culture instead of appearing to be a foreign imposition.  This approach suggests a modification of that basic hallmark:  you may need both.  At first, an organic tribal/militia force can actually win the fight on the ground.  The 'Westernized' security forces take longer to develop and purge of corruption, but are important to finalizing the peace and providing the central government with the ability to control the ground at the end of the day.

The Sons of Iraq are a good example of this, in just the way that the Iraqi Security Forces were not:  and it took the SOI to end the fight, so that the ISF could step in later and assume governance roles.  These roles may be in support of the tribes as much as they are in support of the central government:  the ISF becomes, as we have been, the negotiator between the central government they serve and the tribal leaders they work with every day.  In that way, they are the glue that holds the state together and allows for a final peace.

Another voice is Dr. Rory Stewart, who famously walked across Afghanistan in 2002.  He also holds that the US should back off substantially in Afghanistan in order to allow ethnic rivalries to work against the Taliban.  While they would capture some outlying areas, the Uzbek and Tajik rivalries should restrain them from overrunning the country.  A minimal Coalition presence in Kabul would keep the government from collapsing, and allow it to reach out to other Afghans with aid programs and economic support. 

Dr. Stewart isn't envisioning a high-level strategy of the type described above, but rather a sort of "muddling-through."  However, he sees the same basic tension at work:  the Taliban being constrained by rivalries that are suppressed because of our presence.

Dr. Tony Corn at SWJ proposed something similar recently, which he called "A Kilcullen-Biden plan."  His article is interesting because it looks at things from a higher level perspective as well:  can the US actually afford to fight this war?  He doesn't think we can.  Since the COIN model we are currently using requires substantial funding for a long time, if he is correct than a scaled-back model becomes inevitable. 

Can we make such a strategy work, and at a much lower cost in American lives and money?  It depends on whether the central theory is true.  The Taliban were able to overrun most of Afghanistan before, though what became the Northern Alliance did indeed stop them.  How far would we have to pull back, and for how long, before the tensions rising to the surface began to split the insurgency enough to reintroduce Tribal Engagement Teams, for example?

This approach would also mean consigning Afghan women and girls (and any remaining current allies!) in these remote areas to control by the Taliban.  That's a moral cost we'd have to decide that we were prepared to accept. 

Finally, it would create something akin to a safe-haven in those areas where the tribal/ethnic fissures were least.  Pakistan's decision to do this is what precipitated the strong, Taliban-based insurgency we are facing now.  We would be gambling that the new safe-haven would be contained by the fissures, so that the Taliban would have all it could do to deal with newly-opposed tribes and ethnic forces (who would have our support, of course, when they were prepared to accept it).

It's a strategy with some risk, then, and some known costs we'd have to elect to accept.  Nevertheless, it's not a foolish proposal:  some of our best and most experienced believe it can work, while saving American lives and fortunes.

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