Friday, March 16, 2012

Coverup: Marine killed by Afghan ally.





This is your Marine Corps and mine.


A US Marine was killed by a sorry, low down, bastard of an Afghan dog...and instead of being forthcoming, the leadership withheld the information.


Our Marine Corps is broken.

Via the Washington Post.

WASHINGTON — An Afghan soldier shot to death a 22-year-old Marine at an outpost in southwestern Afghanistan last month in a previously undisclosed case of apparent Afghan treachery that marked at least the seventh killing of an American military member by his supposed ally in the past six weeks, Marine officials said.
Lance Cpl. Edward J. Dycus of Greenville, Miss., was shot in the back of the head on Feb. 1 while standing guard at an Afghan-U.S. base in the Marja district of Helmand province. The exact circumstances have not been disclosed, but the Dycus family has been notified that he was killed by an Afghan soldier. Marine officials discussed the matter on condition of anonymity because it is still under investigation.
Read the whole thing for yourself.  My stomach is turning, I'm ready to punch walls and I would love to hear the explanation that the Corps has for with holding this info.

Time for some resignations.  This is a force protection issue and violates the tenets of the Marines.  

Mission accomplishment first.  

Troop welfare second.  

This mission in Afghanistan can't be accomplished so Troop Welfare becomes the primary mission set.

 

3 aircraft carriers off Iran. The new Yankee Station.

120306-N-QN361-038 ARABIAN SEA (March 6, 2012) The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and the British Royal Navy Duke-class frigate HMS Westminster (F 237) transit the Arabian Sea. Abraham Lincoln is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jerine Lee/Released)
120310-N-BC134-191
STRAIT OF HORMUZ (March 10, 2012) The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transits the Strait of Hormuz. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class John Grandin/Released)

120309-N-DR144-973 ARABIAN GULF (March 9, 2012) The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) is underway in the Arabian Gulf. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans/Released)

120311-N-ZE938-078 NORFOLK (March 11, 2012) The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) departs Naval Station Norfolk for the ship's 22nd and final deployment. Enterprise is deploying as part of Enterprise Carrier Strike Group to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Frank J. Pikul/Released)

The Lincoln, Vinson and Enterprise....all operating near the Strait of Hormuz.  We have the New Yankee Station...

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Fighters heading to the Middle East now this???

Information Dissemination has a story out about naval movements to the Gulf in preparation for a war against Iran.

Additionally there has been rumblings about Fighter Squadrons on the West Coast getting orders to ship out to the Middle East in support of operations and supposedly one of the Marine Expeditionary Brigades Headquarters is suppose to be going down range to become MEB (FWD).

These movements are outside the normal rotation pattern.

Between the information that Information Dissemination provided, in addition to the rumor control about fighters and I do believe we're seeing the world line up for ANOTHER war in the middle east.


Terrible news from Cold Response...

Bjørnar sends the following (thanks dude)...
Norwegian C-130J with five crew reported missing - presumed crashed - during exercise Cold Response in mountainous terrain near the Norwegian-Swedish border. Norwegian and Danish aircrafts are assisting Swedish search end rescue units. There are unconfirmed reports of a Danish Merlin helicopter picking up emergency radio transmissions and that Norwegian F-16s has picked up "heat signatures". If accurate it could however be animals or other people.
I hope the crew is alright.

If I've said it once, I'll say it a thousand times.

Even training is dangerous.

Air Delivery Operations Training

First Flight for Last Raptor

The final Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor took to the skies for its first test flight in Marietta, Ga., on March 14, 2012, with company test pilot, Bret Luedke at the controls. Raptor 4195 has a May delivery date and will join other F-22s in the U.S. Air Force’s 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska

Now this partnership makes sense!!!!


Now I can get behind this partnership.

There are a few Army units that I consider squared away (probably because I got a chance to see them up close).

The 82nd, 101st, 10th Mountain and 25th are all good to go.  With that being said this news puts a smile on my face.  via Marine Times.
The two services are planning a series of exercises likely to take place in North Carolina, where tens of thousands of soldiers and Marines are based at Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, which are located just 90 miles apart. With the future security environment uncertain, and an end in sight to combat operations in Afghanistan, the services are discussing ways to leverage complimentary capabilities, said Lt. Gen. Richard Mills, the Corps’ deputy commandant for combat development and integration who serves also as commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.
“As we look at new strategies, as we look at potential areas of operations in the Pacific, I think it’s very natural that the Marines and the Army discuss it … should we have to go somewhere where people don’t want us to go,” Mills said.
You can bet that Bold Alligator was the primer that got the Army on board with doing Forcible Entry training with the Marine Corps.

Good thing too.

These are the units that will win battles in the Pacific.  For all the Special Ops fan boys out there (and that includes the bastards in the White House and Pentagon), they just don't work in areas with a police force or military.

In those situations Special Ops teams will be isolated, pinned down and destroyed in place.

And that characterizes the Pacific battlespace.  In that arena you need the rapid response and firepower that comes with an MEU or a Ready Battalion from the 82nd.

The axe falls on Marine Combat Power.

The axe falls.  via Reuters....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Marine Corps said on Wednesday it would cut four infantry battalions and 12 flying squadrons over the next five years as it shrinks by 20,000 personnel to meet budget constraints and peacetime needs after more than a decade of war.
The biggest cuts would fall on Marine Corps bases in North Carolina, with Camp Lejeune and the adjacent New River air base losing 5,800 personnel and Cherry Point air base losing another 2,100. Three California Marine bases - Camp Pendleton, 29 Palms and Miramar - would lose a total of 6,000 personnel.
and then this...
 Mills said the corps would add 250 personnel to improve its strength in cyberspace, put an additional 821 people in the Marine Corps Special Operations Command and add another squadron of unmanned aircraft to the Marine Corps Reserves, bringing the total to two
This is poor planning.

Adding boatspaces to a cyber unit????

Adding boatspaces to Marine Special Ops????

Another UAV squadron????

This is all bullshit!

When the nation calls on the USMC they are asking for a robust combined arms team that can rapidly deploy, and act as shock troops in whatever action is deemed necessary.

They aren't calling on the Marine Corps to provide help with cyber warfare.

They aren't calling on the Marine Corps to provide help with Special Ops.

They aren't looking to us for another batch of UAVs.

They want HARD CORPS ass kickers that come from the sea. 

Admit it.  When you think cyber war  your think USAF or USN.  When you think Special Ops you're thinking Green Berets, Navy SEALs or Rangers.

When you think Marines you think hard charging infantry arriving from the sea in AAVs, helos, tilt rotors fighting battles that would make lesser units break.

The little feel good part about this being a gentle slope to a drawdown is bullshit and everyone knows it.

The clerk with a perfect record will be allowed to reenlist and go to MARSOC while the grunt that's been in trouble once but has been deployed four times won't.

Welcome to the pussification of the Marine Corps.
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Gnarly ammo from back in the day...



Shooting Illustrated has an old article up about ammo from the past.  This is one round that I kept coming back to...The Pin Grabber.  That is one gnarly looking bullet!  I wonder what it would do to human flesh?

A secret base in Africa?


With the little information that's leaking out about US forces operating in Africa one thing has struck me.

There MUST be another base in Africa from which US forces are flowing from.

Think about it like this.  Camp Lemonnier has all the makings of being a logistics hub.  Last Google Earth photo that I saw showed:

5 CH-53E.

4 C-130.  (I believe that two of those visible must be MC-130J's because of the darker shade of gray applied to them)

6 F-15E.


And that's just on the "military" side of the base.  That my friends is a logistics hub with a force of F-15E's to provide rapid aerial response for units out in the boonies that need air support.

My guess when it comes to where this "secret" base is located would be Kenya.  The government is rather stable, its English speaking, has port facilities and has been cooperating with the British and US governments in the fight against terrorist on the continent. 

You can also bet that with Special Forces operating there (and they have a huge contingent in country), that MH-60's or even CV-22's should be visible, but they aren't.

Kenya has to be it.  Time to take a look at Google Earth again.

UPDATE*

Will left this comment and I think its so spot on that it needs to be included in this piece so that all eyes can get on it...
 I gotcha covered Sol. Camp Simba, no bullshit, a naval port in Kenya. And some extra tidbits on the topic: http://www.esquire.com/features/africacommand0707 - It's from 2007, if you can stomach it, but there's six pages of intel to sift through.

Ghana also came up in 2008. Big, bold letters: "There is already a US military presence in Ghana." That's here: http://crossedcrocodiles.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/africom-us-military-bases-and-ghana/

From 2011, Q3's answer listed a new AF base in Ethopia: http://csis.org/publication/kenyas-military-operation-somalia

Manda Bay, Kenya also came up here: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/us-military-bases-a-global-footprint-1/

Africa is the last unstomped land for the U.S. Military. It's time to expand, and we're getting right on that with the draw-down of Afghanistan. I just don't think anyone saw what Iran pulled out of it's ass, nor have they considered what could come of that. Nuclear war is in the cards, and has to be taken more seriously.

Hmmm.  Its starting to make sense.  I think I'm seeing a pattern in US operations and AFRICOM is beyond being just a salvation army with guns.  They're taking the fight to the terrorist and using conventional forces as the shield behind the real activity that's going on.


Conventionals get the shit jobs of guarding facilities, handing out food to local populations and generally waving the flag for all to see.


SOCOM gets to have the fun of conducting raids and have a 2 month stint in country count as an actual deployment.


Even if we draw down our forces in Afghanistan to one Brigade this year it will actually mean nothing.


The new Battle Ground is AFRICA.  Welcome to the future.