Devastation in the Heartland. A missed mission for our Active Duty Forces.

All photos from Buzzfeed.com

The recent devastation in Missouri has me wondering about something.

Where are our Active Duty Forces to help with situations such as this?

And before you hit me with Posse Comitatus Act nonsense, let me hit you back with this.

The US Military can certainly replicate the assistance given to Haiti and Japan within our own borders can't they?  Just like in Japan we wouldn't be going in with weapons...but with self sufficient forces that are able to provide shelter, food and possibly most importantly medical assistance to fellow Americans that have suffered tragedy.

States are already stretched thin.  Police and Fire services are being cut back in order to maintain legislatively required balanced budgets.

But possibly more importantly than all that is this....

If the Department of Defense has no role to play in this type of scenario then exactly what is Northern Command all about?


Note:  If you're curious about what the current commander of NorthCom is focusing on you can read his blog here.  I can give you a quick primer now though.  The Admiral is extremely proud of a national level disaster response exercise.  My critique stands.  What better time to swing from an exercise into a real world situation?  Until or unless NorthCom starts helping the American people, its just another command for General level Officers to fill billets.

Bayonet question answered...

On an earlier post I asked why Sgt Shue had, what I thought was a US Army bayonet and P-Mags with his weapon.

Luckily, USMC Combat Cameraman LCpl Mark Stroud was kind enough to send me an e-mail that filled in the blanks.

A couple of points that LCpl Stroud and other Marines were kind enough to hit me with include...

1.  The Marines were ordered by their command to run the course in the uniform shown.
2.  The Marines were not ordered to bring their own bayonets and borrowed the ones shown in the photo from the Australian Army.
3.  The P-Mag issue still eludes my understanding.  I've gotten two different stories on them and I'm just going to write the subject matter experts (the boys of the Weapons Training Battalion at Quantico...hopefully they'll write me back!) and see if P-Mags are unit purchase, optional gear or now Marine Corps issue.

One last point though.  I fuck with the Wing.  I tease the Wing.  But the Marines in the Wing are Marines.  I haven't forgotten that. 

Operation Urban Thunder at 29 Palms.

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -Members of Animal Company 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment ready the Amphibious Assault Vehicles for their march to their objective in their culminating exercise for Operation Urban Thunder in the Blacktop training area May 17, 2011. , Lance Cpl. D. J. Wu, 5/17/2011 2:13 AM

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -Lieutenant Col. Timothy Barrick, the commanding officer of 1st Tank Battalion stands by and awaits orders to advance about his M1 Abrams, the “ Game Changer”, in Operation Urban Thunder in a Combat Center training area May 17, 2011. , Lance Cpl. D. J. Wu, 5/17/2011 2:36 AM

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -An M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle sets off its mine clearing line charge as part of Operation Urban Thunder May 17, 2011., Lance Cpl. D. J. Wu, 5/17/2011 7:58 AM

MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. -Members of Mike Battery, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, fire their M777 howitzer down range in a call for fire exercise in Regimental Combat Team-7’s Operation Urban Thunder throughout Combat Center’s training areas May 17, 2011., Lance Cpl. D. J. Wu, 5/17/2011 3:33 AM

Monday's 2'fer! Danish dropping more bombs than the RAF and another F-35 makes its first flight.

First up is the RAF letting down the UK.  This report from the Guardian says it best.  Read the whole thing there but again, here's a tidbit.

At the other end of the scale, the Nordic nations can reasonably claim to be punching well above their weight.

Norway and Denmark have both dropped far more bombs – nearly 700 between them – than the UK. Both have recently targeted "bunker-busting" bombs on Gaddafi's compounds in Tripoli. Nato commanders are believed to have assigned Danish F16 jets to target the building in which Gaddafi's youngest son, Saif al-Arab, was killed on 30 April.
Data shows the US initially dominated the military campaign before taking a back seat and handing over control to Nato on 31 March. France also took a leading role, deploying its aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle. Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the head of the British navy, told MPs: "If we had a carrier, it would be there."

The problem is (at least for the British) that they don't have carrier based aviation since they killed the Harrier and although (evidently) skilled at interservice politics, the RAF isn't able to live up to its claim of being an effective substitute for the expeditionary capability that carrier aviation brings.

Next up is the first flight of ANOTHER F-35.

Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Canin was at the controls for the first flight of F-35C CF-3 on 21 May 2011. The photo shows the aircraft on approach for a landing.

No matter how loud the critics might be, they can't deny that this program is picking up speed...on both the manufacturing and test sides of the house.

Bjørnar Bolsøy, thanks again for the articles guy!

F-35 air show flyby...the video!

Thanks much Bjørnar Bolsøy for the vid link!  You rock. 

Marine Personnel Carrier on the chopping blocks????

The story is from InsideDefense and its subscription only but the rub is this.  The Marine Corps won't commit to buying the third leg of its "mobility" triad until further testing is done.

In my opinion this points to a couple of things.

1.  The Marine Corps plans to get back aboard ship in a big way and the MPC doesn't fit with those plans.
2.  Distributed Operations are getting more and more support among Marine Corps leadership.  With that as an operational philosophy the idea to have those widely dispersed Marine Units vehicle bound doesn't make sense logistically.  Which means that the MPC doesn't fit with Marine Corps doctrine going forward.
3.  Someone must have come up with either...
     a.  A fantastic upgrade package to the AAV.  One so good that the need for the MPC is no longer there or..
     b.  The EFV has been salvaged and with new amphibious assault doctrine the idea (thank you...yes I did put it forward here) of simply removing the complex hydraulic/drive system from it is producing a vehicle that can be bought in numbers
4.  I could be wrong on all of the above and its simply a cost saving measure.

One thing is certain ... at least in my mind ... the USMC will not be buying the JLTV.  If the MPC can be dumped then the JLTV is definitely the dead vehicle program walking.

6 Hours. US Marines answer the call.

Prepare for some intense propaganda.  They say no one does it better...they might be right.