Pic of the day. Harrier Glory.

Lt. Col. Thomas D. Gore, former commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 223, and a native of Tampa, Fla., pilots an AV-8B Harrier over the Kajaki Dam in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Nov. 20. From November 2011 to May 2012, VMA-223 provided close-air support for Marines and their Afghan and coalition partners conducting counterinsurgency operations in southwestern Afghanistan

Beautiful bird.

Heads up.  Still working on new info on the Marine Personnel Carrier Program.  Its a bit more involved than I thought and I'm trying to backstop some of the opinions that I've come up with.  Should be out this weekend.

To our British Friends!  Thanks for the gift of those spare birds!

USMC Pack System.

You're doing something wrong when you have to put out a 30 minute instructional video on how to assemble and use a pack.

What happened to simplicity, ruggedness and durability carrying the day?  No, instead we have packs that are suppose to carry 100 pounds yet have plastic frames!  

But even better is the fact that it takes longer to teach a Marine how to assemble his pack than it does to teach him how to assemble and disassemble his weapon!

Business and the USAF. Who needs NASA?

All photos via Space.com.

Space X's first mission was a total success.  The USAF has the X-37 program running full speed ahead with nary a hick up.  NASA appears like an old, impotent, tired organization that needs to be put out to pasture.


But on second thought...who needs NASA?  The USAF will be revitalized by taking care of the nations military affairs in space...Big Business will get the job done in low earth orbit and even in deep space if a profit can be made...  yeah.  Its time to take NASA down to the river, hold its head under water till it stops kicking and then let them feed the catfish.

 

Tolley starts a scorched earth campaign against Axe.

General Tolley (hereafter known as the poster boy for military leadership at the flag ranks) misspoke at a Special Operations Convention.


During his "talk" he stated that US Special Operations in Korea were running operations into the North.


David Axe reported what he heard and that's when the trouble started.  The knee jerk reaction from many in the Special Ops community was that David reported a lie.  We found out later via the US Forces in Korea spokesperson that he didn't.


They then stated that David should have known better and double checked his facts...my question to the critics is why?  All he did was report what was stated.  Instead of blaming the person who at fault...the poster boy, the reporter is being blamed.  Talk about a case of entitlement!


But I wish it ended there but SOFREP's own Brandon Webb posted this on his blog....

Warning, satire to follow:
The SOFREP editorial staff has heard unconfirmed reports that (name removed) a journalist has committed suicide over his sloppy reporting regarding US Special Operations in North Korea.  He apparently hung himself and a supposed letter was left posted to his hotel room night stand that stated the following:
“I was too ashamed at my own bad reporting and could not go on living knowing that I had resorted to reporting a tabloid headline in order to attract readers attention and try and land more contract work for myself.  I’m ashamed of myself for not having enough common sense to do my homework on the Special Operations community.  I’ll admit that this is rampant in the international news media.  If I had done my research, I would have known that parachute operations into North Korea would be ridiculous from a military strategic perspective and have little return on investment. I encourage people to visit Soldier Systems.net and SOFREP.com for real information on the Military and the Special Operations community.” -(name removed)
The SOFREP staff encourages news media to use multiple credible military sources and read up on issues with regards to their military reporting in the future. After all Special Forces is an Army term not meant for the USN, USMC, and USAF.

To each his own.

But how about we lay blame where it belongs.

General Tolley fucked up, not David.  To make a post like the one above and ignore the real villian, village idiot or poster boy for silliness is just not right.

NOTE:  When Brandon first filed this story, he did it without the "satire" warning and with David Axe's name on full display (in the area where it now states "name removed")

Combat Qualified Frontline Airmen.

Some terrorist is shitting his pants at the thought of meeting these breast feeding mothers in a dark cave.


Read the story here.

Dawn Descent...

Photos by Cpl. Gene A. Ainsworth III

A Marine serving with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit's ground combat element, Battalion Landing Team 3/1 fast ropes out of a UH-1Y Huey onto USS Makin Island here May 31. The unit is deployed as part of the Makin Island Ready Group, a U.S. Central Command theater reserve force. The group is providing support for maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet area of responsibility.

Hot Hook-Up

Marines with Combat Logistics Battalion 5 return from familiarizing themselves with the downward thrust of a Kaman K1200, or "K-MAX," unmanned helicopter during initial testing in Helmand province, Afghanistan, May 22. Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 2 pioneered the first unmanned, mid-flight external cargo hookups, and delivered approximately 6,000 pounds of gear in their first day of testing.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Lisa Tourtelot)

Quote of the day

“A real warrior, would like to go to combat with a weapon, a loin cloth and a light coat of oil.”

 George Solhan, Deputy Chief Researcher for Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare

MCFIT???? Hey Marine Corps...just fucking stop it.

The Marine Corps is losing its soul and its mind to politically correct bullshit.  Of all the different forms of nonsense that are being pushed onto Marines, we now have a holistic guide to fitness.  Read about it here...but check this out from the Commanders Guide....

MCFIT Coordinator– oversees the use of MCFIT within the
unit. Assignment of the MCFIT Coordinator - The commander using
MCFIT must assign a coordinator to oversee the entire process of
using MCFIT, to include the security of the responses and signin
sheet, and preparing the commander’s report. The coordinator
for phase one of the MCFIT can be any Marine in the unit,
however, a unit’s Religious Ministry Team (RMT) is recommended
for the task. Care should be taken to avoid the coordinator
being any lower than a Sergeant.

I'm not getting this.

What I do know is this.  Physical Fitness has been bastardized into something that its not.  Its not hard.  It doesn't take coordinators, or Religious Ministry Team Members....it takes dedication and will power.

You workout, you eat right and you get enough rest.

Its simple.  In bootcamp you're taught a few basic exercises that can be done in a confined space-anywhere in the world.  This holistic fitness program is to complicate the simple.  We have got to be better than this.  

Sidenote:
I COULD EASILY BE WRONG...but I sense Ms. Obama's hand in this.  She's been pushing a "healthy" agenda and since she's not getting any traction in the civilian world, its just too easy to ORDER the military to do it.  Like I said.  I could be wrong.

Ooops. Uh-oh.

Quite honestly I wonder why this isn't being talked about more.

This is really a history 101 kind of thing.  Basic American history taught in elementary school should have provided the knowledge necessary to steer clear of this controversy.

Now you know why I don't trust politicians to make the militarily smart choice.  If you don't know history...

Starship Troopers: Invasion.

I love animation, I loved the book Starship Troopers.  I was disapointed by the movie.  Rico's Roughnecks the animation didn't disappoint though.  And now we have this.  Pretty cool and it should come out by Comic Con this fall.  Awesome.  Oh, check out the movie website here.

2nd Cav getting field time....

Love ya Cdr Salamander but you're wrong.

l.CDR Salamander has a blog entry in which he lauds Adm Harvey for finally going Sa..Going Sal means that you dispense with conventional wisdom, ignore politically correct speak, ignore group speak and plainly state the truth.

Unfortunately Admiral Harvey, while finally getting around to putting his cards on the table, is following a long line of military leaders that only get brave when return fire is impossible.

To be quite honest the last Flag Ranked Officer to show MORAL COURAGE was General Shinseki.

And Rummy fired him for it.

Forget the fact that the General Shinseki was right.  Forget the fact that he was later vindicated.  Forget the fact that he's done yeoman's work at the VA, getting that dysfunctional organization pointed in the right direction...remember that he was the last man to show courage when it could cost him.

Think about it.

Revolt of the generals...that Time Magazine story that revealed how much military leadership disagreed with Rummy.  How about the rumors that have been floating for years that suggested that leadership wanted a different direction from what the civilian overlords wanted

I'm just not buying it.  Cursing at the boss, shouting at the moon and saying whats on your mind while you're about to walk out the door isn't going CDR Salamander.

Its being cowardly.

Anyone can do a drive by and leave the scene before others can shoot back.

Today in history. The Battle of Goose Green.

An inexplicable victory by 2 Para.

I'm going to have to Google it but I recall something about them training for just this scenario and some of those lessons having directly affected this battle. 

On a similar but different subject.  If the Falklands happened today...with the Argentinians getting forces onto the islands...could the British retake them independently?

Kydex has officially jumped the shark.

Tactical beer holster via Mad Duo.

I got the above photo from Mad Duo's blog.  Read the article here.

This makes it official.  Kydex has jumped the shark.  The ironic thing is that once the craziness has died down, that's when we'll start seeing more practical applications...but for the time being we're stuck with this insanity.

Amazing.

General Tolley said it! Axe is vindicated.

Score one for the reporter.

Score zero for the brainless General who spoke out of turn.  This from David Axe's blog...

by DAVID AXE
Finally! Lt. Col. Jim Gregory called. This is what he said:

The bottom line is there are no U.S. boots in North Korea.
There is no attack on David Axe. I don’t want you to feel that’s what’s [Pentagon spokesman George Little] is doing.
We are in agreement that the words you heard came out of his [Brig. Gen. Neil Tolley's] mouth. I don’t believe what you wrote is inaccurate. … I heard him say those words.
They [U.S. Forces Korea] are waking up. I believe they are going to re-look [at their statement.] I can’t get into defending what U.S. Forces Korea said.
I get where you’re coming from. I heard the same words you heard. I don’t want you to be without a job. Hopefully you can hang tough. Everyone here is doing the best they can in the absence of a transcript. It is a bit of a mind-stretch. … The general may have said that and, in his mind, he was thinking hypothetically.

Wow.

They keep hiding behind the word hypothetically.

That's not much cover and darn near no concealment.

But to General Tolley.  Like was said in one of my favorite Clint Eastwood movies (one of his lighter films)....Don't go away mad...just go away.

 

ScarFace moves on...

Marines with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 pilot UH-1Y Venoms and AH-1W Super Cobras in formation over Camp Pendleton, Calif., May 22. The formation was during the last flight for the unit in the continental United States before they move to Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii this year. “The maneuver is centered around timing and execution,” said Sgt. Michael Eklund, a crew chief with HMLA-367. “The goal is to create equal spacing between aircraft coming in for landing.”
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Joshua Young)

Sidenote:
I wonder if we didn't miss an opportunity when it came time to decide on whether to upgrade the AH-1Z and UH-1Y's.  By that I mean we could have piggy backed on the Navy's buy of MH-60S', bought an armament kit and used in the attack and utility roles, meaning that we could have necked down to three rotary winged airframes...the MH-60S, the MV-22 and the CH-53K.  If nothing else the war in Afghanistan and Iraq have proven how useful small and medium helicopters are and with the advancements in guided 2.75 rockets we could have done more with less.
Just a thought.

The F-35, F/A-18 and reality being a bitch.

Have you ever listened to a critic of the F-35 program?  They will tell you over and over again that the F-18 can do the job of the F-35.  My response?



Well it looks like the blog "Why the F-35" drives a nail through that lie.  Check it out here, but a tidbit....

Critics have been constantly touting the idea that we don’t need the F-35 or its capabilities, but instead can get along just fine upgrading our legacy fighter fleet.
Reality, however, has a bad habit of intruding on such flights of fancy with the hard, cruel facts of life.

Read it all.  Another lie touted by Sweetman, Aviation Week and the rest of his cronies, Cox, Wheeler, Airpower Australia, that joker in Canada, a couple of IDIOTS in Australia etc...is once again trashed.  The F-18 and other teen fighters aren't good enough.  We need the F-35.

Reality is a bitch.

Damage Control and a flaky statement.

Yesterday I wrote about how David Axe reported that General Tolley of US Special Operations Command Korea stated that covert missions were being run into the North.

Today we have the spectacle of David Axe basically pulling his hair out because he reported what he heard.

DUDE!  STOP IT!

You reported what you heard and that's the end of the story.  Read about his account of things here.

Washington Times has the story on SOCOM trying to walk back the story.  Read it here but check out this tidbit.

TOKYO — The U.S. military on Tuesday denied a report that it has been sending commandos into North Korea to spy on underground military facilities, a mission that would violate the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War.
A U.S. military statement said that The Diplomat, an Asia-Pacific current affairs journal, had “taken great liberal license” with the comments attributed to a top U.S. general. According to The Diplomat, Brig. Gen. Neil H. Tolley, commander of special operations for United States Forces Korea, said at a conference last week that both U.S. and South Korean commandos parachute into the North to conduct reconnaissance on underground tunnels that are hidden from satellites.

What I find interesting is that the other reporters in the room are not denying the story that David put out.  More interesting is the fact that others that attended the briefing, military members, aren't being trotted out to help deny David's story.

My guess is this.

General Tolley has found himself in the back water regions of the war on terror and he's probably pissed.  He wanted to be seen as doing important, dangerous things against a lethal foe so he inflated what his forces are actually doing.

Don't get me wrong.  SOCOM is probably doing things the right way in Korea.  They're probably running ops in the North and probably getting intel on the ground.

The problem is that the general stepped out of his role as a quiet professional and wanted a bit of lime light.

They should punt him like a worn football.

A message from Lex's daughter.

Go over to Neptunus Lex to read a message from his daughter.

As jaded as I am it damn near brought a tear to my eye.

I sincerely wish them all the best.


Click here to go to the site.