MV-22 lands on HNLMS Karel Doorman

The ship in question...the HNLMS Karel Doorman...quite honestly this would have made a lovely off the shelf LPD replacement...photos of the MV-22 landing on her at BALTOPS 2015 follow.

More 3rd ID in Estonia...pics by Sgt. 1st Class Joshua S. Brandenburg

German Air Force CH-53GS at Angel Thunder 2015...Photos by Senior Airman Betty Chevalier

Motorized Operations Course 29 Palms...Photos by Cpl. Ian Ferro

Actual Heroes Twitter Memes...

Note:  I usually don't go for "memes" but this caught my attention.  Admittedly I'm new to this (I've passed them by without a second thought) but these stood out.  This illustrates how weak we have become as a society.  Triviality is taken seriously, serious subjects are ignored and foolishness abounds.  What did Chesty say about toughening up?

Tribal Knowledge is going mainstream. Is it a good or bad thing?

Once upon a time you had to attend military schools or courses to get access to certain information.  Even then, most of the juicy bits didn't happen thru the "official" course literature or lectures or field work but actually took place in those school circles that the instructors ran where they went over "what was learned" and then went on to tell you 'bout practical experiences they had and how they found a few tweaks would make it better.

This was from a time when the military still had old warhorses around...time moved on and other passed along the knowledge...that hard won tribal knowledge.

Several things happened that watered down the experience (in my opinion).  The first is that the Marine Corps went joint.  The Marine way started morphing to the nasty, disgusting and foul Army way (saying that tongue in cheek...sorta) and then it got worse because everything went joint.

The most radical thing that happened is that the internet came along and suddenly what was once knowledge held by a few became knowledge held by many.

What I'm wondering is if this is a good or bad thing.

Knowledge is power, but is this power that should be held by many?

Many in the gun community are currently up in arms about what some claim is an Obama administration attempt to restrict 2nd amendment rights by declaring discussion about firearms as being punishable by fine.  Add to it the idiot that shot up Dallas Police HQ and you begin to wonder.

Right now I'm on the fence.  I just don't know.  But I do know this.  If you're keeping up with "incidents" around the country then you know exactly how on edge many are.  Incidents (that I have predicted) against police are on the rise (don't care what statistics say, I'm believing my own eyes) and they're not the usual, run from police get cornered and then shoot it out...no, these are people actually going out hunting LEOs.

I don't know if its the right thing to restrict this "tribal knowledge" but I do understand why the powers that be are trying to.

Steady escalation in Europe...3rd Infantry Division Tanks on exercise in Estonia...

This business will get out of control...It'll get out of control and we'll be lucky to live thru it...
Naval Officer in the movie "Hunt for Red Oktober"

The US military has announced increased basing of equipment in former East Bloc nations...Russia has announced that they will respond appropriately.

This is sobering.

Where we once saw politicians on both sides seeking to de-escalate tensions during the cold war, we now see them ramping things up.

Be advised my friends.  When you have thousands of soldiers on both sides of the border doing combat patrols to ensure "sovereignty" bad things are bound to happen.  The State Dept and White House seem incapable of keeping things civil, I hope (but confidence is not high) that the Pentagon and Army have a better grip on things.

The sad truth?

Even with the best efforts of both Russian and allied militaries, cross border incidents are bound to happen.  We're going to see troops on both sides get killed or injured because of simple mistakes and the reaction to those mistakes.

Mark my words.  This is only the beginning.  This will get nastier before cooler heads prevail.

More BALTOPS 2015 pics...photos by Sgt. Tatum Vayavananda & Cpl. Alexander Mitchell

NOTE:  I wonder if we're seeing a "dry run" of independent ship operations/deployments with BALTOPS 2015 being used as a proof of concept...The Marine Corps really does need to get back to rigorously testing concepts before putting them into place.  Exhibit number one?  SPMAGTF-CRs. 

Happy Birthday Puppies!

Marine Snipers...underfunded and outgunned...time for a Ground Combat Element advocate...

MAJOR hat tip to Matthew for this article!

via Washington Post.

It was the summer of 2011 in southern Helmand province, Afghanistan, and mission after mission, Sgt. Ben McCullar of Third Battalion, Second Marines, would insert with his eight-man sniper team into the berms and dunes north of the volatile town of Musa Qala.
Sometimes they would fire at a group of enemy fighters, sometimes the enemy would fire at them first, but almost immediately, McCullar explained, their team would be pinned down by machine guns that outranged almost all of their sniper rifles.
“They’d set up at the max range of their [machine guns] and start firing at us,” McCullar said. “We’d take it until we could call in [close air support] or artillery.”

Then this...

“Sometimes we could see the [Taliban] machine gunners, and we really couldn’t engage them,” McCullar said. He added that if Marines had different weapons, such as a .300 Winchester Magnum or a .338, their accuracy would be much improved.
The Army, for instance, adopted the .300 Win Mag as its primary sniper rifle cartridge in 2011, and it fires 300 yards farther than the Marines’ M40, which uses a lighter .308-caliber bullet.

And finally this...

Sgt. J.D. Montefusco, a former Marine Special Operations Training Group instructor, recounted a mountain sniper course in which he participated with a number of British Royal Marines during training in the rugged terrain of Bridgeport, Calif. Montefusco said the Marine snipers in the course were technically more proficient than their British counterparts, but since the weather was terrible and the British had rifles that fired a heavier bullet, the Marines paid the price.
“Pretty much all the Marines failed,” Montefusco said. “And the Brits just had a heavier round, they didn’t have to worry nearly as much as we did when it came to factoring in the weather.”

Story here.

You know my feelings about Marine Snipers.

I consider them TRUE combat multipliers, guardian angels and an elite within an elite.

But this is disturbing.  This is what happens when you have an aviation Commandant that turned the Marine Corps into an aviation centric organization.

What is the answer to issues like this?

The ground guys need an advocate just like aviation gets.  Its time for an Assistant Commandant for the Ground Combat Element.