This might be the alternative to Google Reader that we've been looking for.

Smashing Reader.  It goes live in about a 5 days but the preview looks promising.

The Special Ops and CIA's secret airforces.

The craziness of today's military is that it relies to a surprising degree on contractors.

From food service to laundry to mechanics, everywhere you go in a war zone you'll find civilians performing jobs and being paid.  Quite well actually.

Its a win win for both sides and I won't get into the pluses or minuses of the situation.  Suffice it to say that without contractors the US Army alone would probably number 2 million plus troops instead of the 675,000 that it currently has.

But you're wondering what the point is.  Well if you look at the photo above you'll see a Bell Helicopter 214ST in the background.  I laughed out loud when I saw it and to be quite honest I said to myself that Blackwater/Xe was back in business for Uncle Sam.  But they aren't the only guys that perform missions in country for both Special Ops and the CIA.

close up of a 214ST

Ever heard of Evergreen Aviation Services?  They're sorta like the new Air America with a better public relations bent.  I found an old article that lays everything out pretty well but it still applies and is worth reading.  It can be found here but a tidbit (again: the article is from 2010).

Last week, the Army posted extensive, detailed information about the contract, which offers a unique window into how U.S. forces use contractors, even those with histories like Presidential Airways, which was featured in a CBS News "60 Minutes" segment in February and rebroadcast last night. In 2004, a Presidential Airways plane operating under the name "Blackwater 61" crashed on its way to Farah, Afghanistan. It had flown way off course, and its pilots had little experience navigating Afghanistan's terrain, and the plane lacked equipment to help searchers find its wreckage. At least one passenger survived the crash for several hours. After the crash, the government suspended the company for a month. But then it awarded them another contract, under which military personnel are flown throughout the country today.
The newest contract supports both the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command - Afghanistan, pronounced SIFF-SOCK-AY, and the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force- Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A).
CJSOTF-A is the task force governing "white" special operations forces in Afghanistan, although black SOF units and task forces often use the white equivalent for administrative cover.
The Army's work order provides a list of the 30 locations that the planes will transport to and from personnel, including Bagram, Khandahar, the Sharana forward operation base in Patika, Afghanistan and Maimana, which serves as a base for missions near the Turkmenistan border.

&

Aside from Presidential Airways, other interesting companies have submitted bids, including Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation, which has performed "cover" services for the CIA. It has worked extensively with the CIA in the past, and current operations have given rise to the notion that they function as the modern day equivalent of the agency's "Air America" front company, which was owned entirely by the CIA. (Evergreen is in private hands.) In recent years, Evergreen has transported CIA personnel to and from remote sites in the Horn of Africa. It does not seem to have been involved in the CIA's rendition programs. It is among the companies who are secretly authorized to refuel and land at any U.S-controlled base around the world.
Then there's the "Defense Applications USA Corporation," which does not have a website and whose contact person has an AOL e-mail. Its address suggests a location literally down the street from Disneyland in California.
Herndon, VA-based DFG Global's website says virtually nothing about what it does, which means it does a lot of work for secret projects.

The contact e-mail is literally "info@dfgglobal.com." FMN International has a Pennsylvania Avenue address and, at least, a website that acknowledges the type of work is performs.

But still there is nothing ground breaking about this.   I just found it interesting that one of the CIA's and Special Ops 'black' helicopters would appear so readily in a DoD photo. Especially considering that the companies involved try so hard to separate their aircraft that work for the government from their purely civilian air fleet and even go so far as to not list them on galleries on their websites, if they even have websites.

Umoe Mandal AS

Major Hat Tip to Lee for pointing me to this company.  I so wish the Navy had simply bought some Skjold Corvettes instead of the LCS.  

 

Don't watch this if you've been drinking..

Crazy cool.  Kinda loopy if you've been hitting a few brews though.

3rd Company 2nd REP (French Marines?) marching to the objective...

UPDATE: Others are asking questions too...

I posted a meme where I stated that it appears that several people were close to becoming "operational".

I got this rebuke from Polaris to my asking the question and to those that responded that agreed with my position.

The only f*cking heat generator here is you and you're self-styled treasonous lunatics. 

Hmmm.

I responded that he was suffering a massive case of "normalcy bias" if he could not sense that the nation was brewing and that leadership should take steps to turn the temperature down.

While looking through my Feedly Feed I ran across this article from "The Truth About Guns" (TTAG).

Question of the Day: Are Gun Guys Reaching the Point of No Return?“Legislative debates over gun rights, up significantly since the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., have spurred alleged death threats,” usatoday.com reports, “resulting in two high-profile arrests and causing lawmakers in one state to declare their legislature was under attack.” Notice the word “alleged.” Despite the declarative headline—Lawmakers who proposed gun laws face threats—the article uses the qualifier six times. That said, the post paints a picture of a vicious circle: gun guys get mad, gun grabbers call them madmen, gun guys get madder. Wash, rinse, repeat. Add unpopular (with the gun guys) gun control legislation and a few SWAT raids gone bad and you have millions of gun guys contemplating revolt against their own government. Are we there yet?

TTAG had over one hundred and forty responses.

Over ninety percent of those who responded stated that Gun Guys had reached the point.

My question to Polaris and those that think like him should be why are you surprised and why should this not be an expected reaction?

Our President was re-elected with just a tad bit over fifty percent of the citizens that chose to vote.  Our Congress has an approval rating that is below thirty percent.

And yet these people who don't have a mandate from the people, who don't represent the views of the people are asking those same individuals to trust them when they say that they're only putting forth common sense firearms regulation.

The arrogance would be laughable if it wasn't so in your face.  I'll say it again.  I hope leadership is aware enough to turn down the temperature before a "miscalculation" is made.