24th MEU. They're doing an essential task but it still feels like fire watch!

All photos by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein

Pfc. Joseph Swidarski, a rifleman with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, holds security on the side of the ship during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Lance Cpl. Earl Sproul, a rifleman with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, holds security during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Cpl. Stephen Rockwell, a rifleman with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Seaman Ricky Donaldson, an information system technologist with the USS Gunston Hall, hold security on the top of the ship during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Lance Cpl. Andrew Vaughn, a rifleman with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, holds security during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Lance Cpl. Neil Lipon and Pfc. Kyler Ramsey, machine gunners with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit hold security on the ship's flight deck during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Lance Cpl. Alex Krieger and Pfc. Jason Otero, machine gunners with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, hold security during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Cpl. Ryan Kretschmer, a machine gunner with Charlie Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, holds security during a Defense of the Amphibious Task Force training exercise, Feb 10. While at sea, Marines and Sailors must be prepared to guard the ship whenever it passes a danger area or when there may be an increased threat to the force. The training exercise was a smaller part of the 24th MEU's Certification Exercise (CERTEX) with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, scheduled Jan. 27 to Feb. 17, which includes a series of missions intended to evaluate and certify the unit for their upcoming deployment.

Scout Snipers evolving into a Recon element.

Let me be careful in the way I say this.

It appears that Scout Snipers are evolving into a bit more than originally envisioned.  By that I mean that you're seeing them operate more in platoon strength, you're seeing them taking on missions that were once the sole reserve of Recon, and you see commanders embracing that more and more.

I think its nothing but a positive.  In the story below they're attached to the Assault Battalion but if a little further experimentation takes place and they're allowed to helo or motor or swim in ahead of the assault phase then you already have your replacements for Recon.

And we do sort of anyway.

We have scout swimmers with boat company.

We have UAV's that operate off amphibs.

We have scout snipers.

We have ANGLICO.

We have Radio Recon.

We have an assortment of units inside the MEU that dab at the RECON/Force RECON mission already.  Time to make the jump and let RECON/Force RECON go full time to MARSOC and focus on making the MEU as robust and Special Operations Capable as possible.

More often than not our forces will be either at the location of an incident or able to arrive before SOCOM can gather its bags.  Time to put the SOC back into the MEU.

It is that bias for action which makes Guzman and the rest of the SSP (Scout Sniper Platoon) such an invaluable resource.
“They act as our reconnaissance and surveillance asset whenever we are to assault an objective,” said 1st Lt. Scott Whipple, AAV commander with Co. B., BLT 1/4, 31st MEU. “If we’re coming onto an unknown beach area, they’re absolutely vital to our mission success, being the ones to scout out the area and relay valuable info back to us. If not for them, a big portion of an operation would be a guessing game.”

31st MEU raid pics @ Cobra Gold.

F-35. Still even, maybe ahead.

via Reuters.

* Italian defense minister to outline cuts to lawmakers Wednesday
* Italy to cut order to 100 from 131 -newspaper
By Steve Scherer
ROME, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Italy seems certain to scale back its major investment in Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, heightening uncertainty over the troubled stealth jet's future.
Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola has said repeatedly since January that the country's originally planned order of the 131 supersonic warplanes by 2018 was being "reviewed" because military spending cuts were necessary as part of Prime Minister Mario Monti's austerity plan to shore up public accounts.
General Claudio Debertolis, secretary general of the Defence Ministry and the country's armaments chief, confirmed to lawmakers on Tuesday that cuts were expected.
"There will be a revision of this Joint Strike Fighter programme to align it with disposable resources," he said.
Italy will ask for about 30 fewer planes, Corriere della Sera daily reported on Friday, without citing its source. Panorama magazine gave the same number on Jan. 18.
Government sources and lawmakers told Reuters that it was premature to say how many of the F-35 fighters Italy will order because of uncertainty over the version of the aircraft designed for short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL).
This version is supposed to replace ageing Harrier jets on Italy's new hi-tech Cavour aircraft carrier.

No big deal at all.

First they're gonna buy the full sum of F-35B's to be operated off the Cavour...

Second, between the plus up by Turkey (they're buying 120 total F-35's) and Japan coming onboard, along with S. Korea (probably) and Singapore (almost assuredly) then you have a program that is still ahead.

The USMC is all in, the USAF (maybe at the expense of current fighter squadrons) is all in and I really think the USN is just suffering from undue caution due to a lingering hang over from the A-12 fiasco but will also climb aboard eventually.

Long story short.  31 fewer airplanes from the Italians is no big deal.

Modest proposal. SOCOM acquires retired A-10's.

The USAF is retiring a batch of A-10's.

SOCOM needs robust air support.

My modest proposal?  SOCOM takes on a squadron or two of A-10's!

If SOCOM is going to take back missions it once performed (training foreign troops for example), if they're going to be used in lieu of conventional forces (meaning that they will take on missions once reserved for conventionals) then perhaps they need a squadron of dedicated close air support.

Not the ineffectual support provided by UAVs but the robust support provided by A-10's.  The A-10 can provide air support, escort of the helicopters and can provide eyes on target with the latest upgraded model.

This is really a no brainer.  SOCOM would be better served by the A-10 than with a A-29.

The 31st MEU supports Thai allies in mechanized raid

Seems like they've moved past the civics projects and are getting to the training aspects.  Different subject but I'm curious.  Do Marines rate Humanitarian medals because of those projects?

911 is a joke. Justifiable homicides explode in Detroit.

via The Daily.  Read the whole thing --- then buy yourself a Glock.  You'll probably need it.

The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners.

Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they’re offering no apologies.

“We got to have a little Old West up here in Detroit. That’s what it’s gonna take,” Detroit resident Julia Brown told The Daily.

The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn’t show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she’s prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity.

“I don’t intend to be one of their victims,” said Brown, who has lived in Detroit since the late 1950s. “I’m planning on taking one out.”

How it got this bad in Detroit has become a point of national discussion. Violent crime settled into the city’s bones decades ago, but recently, as the numbers of police officers have plummeted and police response times have remained distressingly high, citizens have taken to dealing with things themselves.

In this city of about 700,000 people, the number of cops has steadily fallen, from about 5,000 a decade ago to fewer than 3,000 today. Detroit homicides — the second-highest per capita in the country last year, according to the FBI — rose by 10 percent in 2011 to 344 people.

On a bleak day in January, a group of funeral directors wearied by the violence drove a motorcade of hearses through the city streets in protest.

Average police response time for priority calls in the city, according to the latest data available, is 24 minutes. In comparable cities across the country, it is well under 10 minutes.

Citizens like Brown feel they have been left with little choice but to take the law into their own hands.

The number of justifiable homicides, in which residents use deadly force in self-defense, jumped from 19 in 2010 to 34 last year — a 79 percent rise — according to newly released city data.

Signs that vigilantism was taking hold in the city came earlier, around Memorial Day 2009, when former federal agent Alvin Davis decided he’d had enough of the break-ins at his mother’s home on the east side. She called the police again and again, but the brazen robberies continued. Davis, then a 32-year-old Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, snapped.

Prosecutors said he spent days chasing and harassing the teenagers who were allegedly robbing his mother, even shoving his federally issued firearm into one of their mouths. No one was killed, but by the time he was done, Davis had racked up charges of unlawful imprisonment and assault. In August 2010, he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

But many residents in his mother’s Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood are sympathetic to Davis, whose case is on appeal.

“He basically did what a lot of us wished we could do,” said Ken Gray, 58, who lives down the street from Davis’ mother.
One high-ranking official in the county legal system, speaking to The Daily, said the rise in justifiable homicides mirrors a local court system that’s increasingly lenient of the practice.

“It’s a lot more acceptable now to get your own retribution,” the official said. “And the justice system in the city is a lot more understanding if people do that. It‘s becoming a part of the culture.”

Detroiters are arming themselves with shotguns and handguns and buying guard dogs. Anything to take care of their own. And privately, residents say neighborhood watch groups in Detroit are widely armed.

“It’s like the militiamen who stepped up way back when. That’s where the neighborhood folks are," said James “Jackrabbit” Jackson, a 63-year-old retired Detroit cop who has patrolled the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood for years.

“They’re ready to fight,” Jackson said. “We don’t hardly see police anymore.”

The city’s wealthier enclaves have hired private security firms. Intimidating men in armored trucks patrol streets lined with gracious old homes in a scene more likely seen in Mexico City than the United States.

That kind of paid protection can run residents anywhere from $10 to $200 per month, and companies say business is good.

“We’re booming,” said Dale Brown, the owner of Threat Management Group, which along with Recon Security patrols neighborhoods like Palmer Woods in black Hummers.

“We’re paramilitary, but we’re positive. I’m not a vigilante. I’m an agent of change.”
The Detroit Police Department, grappling with deep funding cuts in a city with a spiraling budget crisis, acknowledges that response times are high and says it is working on a plan to lower them. But a spokeswoman for the department insists the rise in justifiable homicides is unrelated.

“It’s not about police response time because often the act has already taken place by the time the police are called,” said Sgt. Eren Stephens. She said citizens have a right to defend themselves.

“Anytime a life is lost, we’re concerned,” she said. “But we can‘t be on every corner in front of every home. And we know that there are citizens who will do what they have to do to protect themselves.”

That’s the terrifying position in which Kevin Early found himself in November when he was held up at gunpoint outside his home in the upper-middle-class Rosedale Park area. Neighbors called the police, but it was 25 minutes before an officer arrived.

Early, the director of the criminal justice studies program at the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus, reasoned with the men for more than 20 minutes before he sensed they were about to shoot him in the head — then he ran. As his attackers fled in the opposite direction, neighbors emerged from the street’s stately homes with shotguns.

“All I could think of was my daughter coming home,” Early said. “I didn’t want her to see me shot dead.”

Weeks later, Early packed up his home and left Detroit. He hired Threat Management to supervise the move.

“Where else do the police come to your house after you’ve been robbed and ask you, ‘Why did you call us?’ ”

Mara.Gay@thedaily.com

You have got to be shitting me! USS Giffords?

via CDR Salamander.

I'll let him tell the tale.

Don't blog angry!" Well, again, I am ignoring my own advice. Here we go. I will want to reword this in an hour, but I won't. Want unfiltered Sal? Well, here you go.

What confidence I once had in the SECNAV gone, broken, unable to be supported. I was a fool to give him the benefit of the doubt. This is the last straw.

Small things do matter - as they often support much larger and critical things.

Ship names mean nothing anymore. The vacuousness, vapidity, and morally rudderless nature of our present leadership is out there clear as day for all to see. I don't even think they know it.

Naming a ship after that bucket of goo MURTHA was bad enough.

Rep. Giffords (D-AZ) was/is a fine public servant and her husband is a Navy astronaut. She was shot in the head by an insane person. None of the above rate having a Navy ship named after you. Announced on a Friday afternoon - I think even the Navy is ashamed of this classic case of immature pandering to the Overclass.

First off I know that Giffords is a crime victim.

I know she served her country in her own way.

But this break from tradition is disgusting.

This is a terrible precedent.  The Democrats are doing the same thing that all political parties do when they sense power slipping away.  They over reach and start doing feel good things.  You saw it in the run up to the election that brought Obama to power.  The Republicans starting doing silly things.  The Dems are doing it now.

November can't get here soon enough.

Cobra Gold already in the assault phase.

HAT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand-Republic of Korea Marines rush from an amphibious assault vehicle during an assault on a beach during exercise Cobra Gold 2012 here, Feb. 10. The U.S. Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, Royal Thai and Republic of Korea Marines conducted the multilateral assault to further strengthen the interoperability among the nations. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the nation’s force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Jonathan G. Wright, 2/9/2012 7:00 PM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand-A U.S. Marine with Company B., Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, provides security alongside Republic of Korea Marines during exercise Cobra Gold 2012 here, Feb. 10. The U.S. Marines of the 31st MEU, Royal Thai and Republic of Korea Marines conducted the multilateral assault to further strengthen the interoperability among the nations. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the nation’s force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Jonathan G. Wright, 2/10/2012 7:34 AM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand-U. S. Marines from Company B., Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, alongside Royal Thai Marines engage a simulated enemy during the amphibious assault portion of exercise Cobra Gold 2012 here, Feb. 10. The U.S. Marines of the 31st MEU, Royal Thai and Republic of Korea Marines conducted the multilateral assault to further strengthen the interoperability among the nations. The 31st MEU is the only continuously forward-deployed MEU and remains the nation’s force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Jonathan G. Wright, 2/9/2012 7:00 PM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand -Royal Thai Marines exit an amphibious assault vehicle and begin securing the beach here, Feb. 10. The Royal Thai Marines were conducting a multilateral amphibious assault with U.S. and Republic of Korea Marines during Exercise Cobra Gold 2012. CG 2012 demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and participating nations to increase interoperability and promote security and peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The 31st MEU is the U.S.’s expeditionary force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Garry J. Welch, 2/10/2012 6:31 AM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand -Royal Thai Marines push forward as CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262, 1st Marine Air Wing, fly overhead during an amphibious assault here, Feb. 10. The multilateral assault included Royal Thai, Republic of Korea and U.S. Marines of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and was conducted during Exercise Cobra Gold 2012. CG 2012 demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and participating nations to increase interoperability and promote security and peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The 31st MEU is the U.S.’s expeditionary force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Garry J. Welch, 2/10/2012 6:33 AM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand -Marines with Company B, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, exit an amphibious assault vehicle and begin to secure the beach here, Feb. 10. The assault was a multilateral exercise that included Royal Thai, Republic of Korea and U.S. Marines, and was conducted during Exercise Cobra Gold 2012. CG 2012 demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and participating nations to increase interoperability and promote security and peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The 31st MEU is the U.S.’s expeditionary force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Garry J. Welch, 2/10/2012 6:34 AM

AT YAO, Kingdom of Thailand -A Marine with Company B, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, provides security during an amphibious assault here, Feb. 10. The assault was a multilateral exercise that included Royal Thai, Republic of Korea and U.S. Marines, and was conducted during Exercise Cobra Gold 2012. CG 2012 demonstrates the resolve of the U.S. and participating nations to increase interoperability and promote security and peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region. The 31st MEU is the U.S.’s expeditionary force in readiness in the Asia-Pacific region., Cpl. Garry J. Welch, 2/10/2012 6:35 AM

Cobra Gold 2012