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| U.S. Army Pfc. Cristian Franco, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, carries an M240B machine gun while descending a mountain path during a security patrol overlooking the Pesho Ghar valley and the Enzarkay Pass in Paktya province, Afghanistan, on March 2, 2012. DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Epperson, U.S. Army. (Released) |
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Pic of the Day....
In the well deck...(11th MEU at sea)
All photos by Seaman Dominique Pineiro
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| A Marine drives an amphibious assault vehicle down a ramp in the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18). New Orleans and embarked Marines assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. |
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| A Marine guides an amphibious assault vehicle in the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18). New Orleans and embarked Marines assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. |
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A Marine guides an amphibious assault vehicle in the well deck of the amphibious transport dock ship USS New Orleans (LPD 18). New Orleans and embarked Marines assigned to the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit are deployed as part of the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.
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T-90MS
Hmmm. That remote weapon station sure looks "borrowed" and I can't help but wonder about the optics systems. Almost as interesting as the T-90MS is the Terminator. I would label it an Infantry Support Vehicle (ISV). Twin 30mm cannons against infantry in an urban setting must be devastating. But the high tech trend for Armored Vehicles does have a silver lining for the Infantry in defense. If your designated marksman can get hits on the optics then you wouldn't have the vaunted hard or mobility kill but you would in essence degrade a fighting vehicle greatly.
I wonder if anyone's School of Infantry has tested the concept.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Undignified bullshit.
Read there take on the story but this is mine.
This is undignified bullshit.
You're a MARINE GENERAL by God!
If this is what it takes to win hearts and minds then its just not worth it.
Everyone asks what would Jack Bauer do?
I ask, what would Chesty Puller say?
It would start with What the fuck are you doing General, end with have you lost your fucking mind General and conclude with Chesty getting time in the Brig for punching a fellow officer.
My Marine Corps has lost its way!!!!!!!!!!
Just a note. This is what happens when you try to be HIP instead of striving to be HARD CORPS!
AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) Tests...
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| An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 conducts a captive carry flight test of an AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (U.S. Navy photo by Greg L. Davis/Released) |
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| An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 conducts a captive carry flight test of an AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (U.S. Navy photo by Greg L. Davis/Released) |
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| An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 conducts a captive carry flight test of an AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (U.S. Navy photo by Greg L. Davis/Released |
Leadership as a scape goat.
The common wisdom is that there must have been breakdown in leadership because the Soldier that committed the murders a couple of days ago was not detected sooner.
What a load of bullshit!
Answer this for me.
You have Soldier "A" that is the company joker. Nothing ever gets him down and he laughs at the drop of a hat, lifts everyone up when they're down etc... You're down range for a couple of months and your unit has seen action. He still performs at a decent level, but he no longer jokes anymore. He's alot more serious and he doesn't suffer foolishness.
Does that mean that the Soldier is about to snap or does it mean that he's maturing?
And what about a Soldier that extremely serious about EVERYTHING, yet after a couple of months down range, he finds humor in things.
Is that a Soldier that's about to snap?
And that's my point. There is absolutely no way to know what will push someone over the edge. Or when they'll go over the edge.
Blaming the unit leadership for this is simply making them a scape goat.
We're better than that.
Blame the Soldier that committed the act. No one else.
What a load of bullshit!
Answer this for me.
You have Soldier "A" that is the company joker. Nothing ever gets him down and he laughs at the drop of a hat, lifts everyone up when they're down etc... You're down range for a couple of months and your unit has seen action. He still performs at a decent level, but he no longer jokes anymore. He's alot more serious and he doesn't suffer foolishness.
Does that mean that the Soldier is about to snap or does it mean that he's maturing?
And what about a Soldier that extremely serious about EVERYTHING, yet after a couple of months down range, he finds humor in things.
Is that a Soldier that's about to snap?
And that's my point. There is absolutely no way to know what will push someone over the edge. Or when they'll go over the edge.
Blaming the unit leadership for this is simply making them a scape goat.
We're better than that.
Blame the Soldier that committed the act. No one else.
Information Dissemination and Counter Insurgency.
The G-man asks some very important questions over at his place. Read it here, but first read the primer over at Small Wars Journal.
Galrahn asks these questions....
Counter Insurgency as the US military practices it was designed to squash an internal uprising against a DEMOCRATICALLY elected government by COMMUNIST forces.
It was/is not designed to battle one side or the other in a CIVIL WAR between two factions.
Specifically it was not designed to battle a civil war based on RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY!
Think about the various commanders that have been in charge of the war effort in Afghanistan. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal....
What do they have in common?
They're both of the Special Ops Mafia.
They both believed that Raids against "high value targets" would win the war and that having conventional forces in country to support SOCOM and to rebuild that nation would have the one two punch of destroying opposition to the government and wining the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.
It shows a lack of understanding of the enemy we are fighting, the nature of the country in which we were fighting and over confidence in Special Operations.
It is my contention that we have seen the poorest example of Generalship in the history of our country.
The blame for this can be laid squarely at the feet of President's Bush and Obama.
Rummy led the charge by firing General Shinseki because he actually told the truth to Congress and then promptly putting in place those that either believed his way of thinking or lacked the fortitude to vocally oppose him.
Obama did the same by putting the entire military on notice by selecting an aviator for Commandant. By doing this he told the services that he did not respect established ways of doing business and would only put those that "he could work with in power."
If you remember the goat fuck that was the selection of the Commandant then you know this to be true.
Long story short.
The Generals lost this war because they lacked the courage to give real assessments of what was and wasn't possible when we went in.
Think about this.
1. We invaded Afghanistan with a skeleton force.
2. Before our objectives were achieved we switched to Iraq and that became the main effort.
3. We invaded Iraq with a force that was WAAAAAAAY too small.
4. Civilian meddling continued to limit attempts to get a handle on the situation (Rummy was a stubborn bastard...probably the worst SecDef in this nations history...yet Bush continued to support him).
5. Civilian meddling allowed huge stock piles of weapons to fall into the hands of insurgents causing untold casualties because of this failure of leadership.
6. Obama takes office and instead of decreasing the number of forces and plotting a way out of Afghanistan, does the exact opposite. He increases the forces there prolonging the war by years.
I could go on but the results are clear.
Historic failure at the White House through two administrations, historic failure at the Pentagon and across all the services...and historic failure by the American people to properly assess what our leaders were telling us.
Galrahn asks these questions....
How many different ways are we fooling ourselves? Is counterinsurgency doctrine as fragile as an applied military doctrine as that article suggests? How is it possible counterinsurgency is considered a practical military approach for theater campaign warfighting if as an applied military doctrine in a real war, it can be undone so easily?The answer is simple.
Counter Insurgency as the US military practices it was designed to squash an internal uprising against a DEMOCRATICALLY elected government by COMMUNIST forces.
It was/is not designed to battle one side or the other in a CIVIL WAR between two factions.
Specifically it was not designed to battle a civil war based on RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGY!
Think about the various commanders that have been in charge of the war effort in Afghanistan. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal....
What do they have in common?
They're both of the Special Ops Mafia.
They both believed that Raids against "high value targets" would win the war and that having conventional forces in country to support SOCOM and to rebuild that nation would have the one two punch of destroying opposition to the government and wining the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.
It shows a lack of understanding of the enemy we are fighting, the nature of the country in which we were fighting and over confidence in Special Operations.
It is my contention that we have seen the poorest example of Generalship in the history of our country.
The blame for this can be laid squarely at the feet of President's Bush and Obama.
Rummy led the charge by firing General Shinseki because he actually told the truth to Congress and then promptly putting in place those that either believed his way of thinking or lacked the fortitude to vocally oppose him.
Obama did the same by putting the entire military on notice by selecting an aviator for Commandant. By doing this he told the services that he did not respect established ways of doing business and would only put those that "he could work with in power."
If you remember the goat fuck that was the selection of the Commandant then you know this to be true.
Long story short.
The Generals lost this war because they lacked the courage to give real assessments of what was and wasn't possible when we went in.
Think about this.
1. We invaded Afghanistan with a skeleton force.
2. Before our objectives were achieved we switched to Iraq and that became the main effort.
3. We invaded Iraq with a force that was WAAAAAAAY too small.
4. Civilian meddling continued to limit attempts to get a handle on the situation (Rummy was a stubborn bastard...probably the worst SecDef in this nations history...yet Bush continued to support him).
5. Civilian meddling allowed huge stock piles of weapons to fall into the hands of insurgents causing untold casualties because of this failure of leadership.
6. Obama takes office and instead of decreasing the number of forces and plotting a way out of Afghanistan, does the exact opposite. He increases the forces there prolonging the war by years.
I could go on but the results are clear.
Historic failure at the White House through two administrations, historic failure at the Pentagon and across all the services...and historic failure by the American people to properly assess what our leaders were telling us.
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