MRAPs to Local Police Depts+NSA spying+Obama's Domestic Police. Is this how freedom dies?

I've been reading more and more about how alarmed American's are becoming over the rush by local Police Depts to "gun up" with MRAPs from the Dept of Defense.

I've watched how representatives from both political parties are defending without reservation the spying that the NSA is involved in on US citizens...spying that makes the Nazi's, KGB, Chinese, N. Koreans and every other totalitarian state look like rookies.

And then I remember the words of the President when he was a candidate for office.

Despite the happy talk from law enforcement officials...despite the reassurances coming from the President and other elected officials...despite the main stream media downplaying the obvious, it is apparent that we're watching freedom die.  Not to the shouts of citizens protesting loudly.  Not with the crack of gunfire from the aggrieved but with applause from the Presidents supporters.



Safety and Security are too high a price to pay...The terrorist can rightfully declare victory unless we reverse this nonsense.  Stunning fact?  The European's complained more about this program than we did.  Isn't that a kick in the pants?  Decadent, lazy, arrogant Europeans understand the ramifications of this program, but we don't.  Fuck me!

NOTE:  Want a real deal oh shit moment?  Consider Obama Care.  If misused and we can assume that it will be, then the Federal Govt will now have DNA on every person in the US. 

2008 Rand "F-35 clubbed like a baby seal" Report.

I've gotten notes from some that they're having trouble finding this Rand report.

No problem.  I got you covered.  Pay special attention to all the issues they bring up.  Nothings changed and in some ways, things have gotten worse. Until the US Govt or Rand say otherwise, this will remain on my Scribd Page for your reading and sharing pleasure.

The question remains though.  Why haven't they ran a follow on to this?

2008 RAND Pacific View Air Combat Briefing complete

SMSgt "Scorpion" Mac takes on Robert "Sub Zero" Farley...this is gonna get good!

Professor Robert Farley wrote an article that gained alot of attention.  Basically he called for disbanding the USAF and giving its missions to the US Army and Navy.  Part of his rationale?  The USAF thinks only about airpower and isn't a true joint player (I'm paraphrasing).

One of the biggest complaints hurled at the Jr Service?

It doesn't and doesn't want to do Close Air Support.

I speculated that one of the airpower advocates that I know would step into the ring and attempt to knock Farley back.  Well I didn't have to wait long.  It appears that the good professor coaxed SMSgt Mac (Elements of Power) out of a blogging break and he penned an article on the USAF, Close Air Support and the A-10.  Its a must read and you can check it out here.

I hope Farley is paying attention.  I want to read his counter punch.

Special Operations Training Group (SOTG) teaches 3/5 mechanized raid tactics. Photos by Lance Cpl. Seth Starr

History of Japanese Tanks.

I am constantly amazed at how martial history is now being preserved AND shared.

Not in history books.  Not in museums.

No.  History is in essence being preserved and shared through video games and modellers.

Quite honestly I find that stunning.  If you were to go online and attempt to research American heavy tanks during and immediately after WW2, you would be taken to a World of Tanks forum, or video.  Interested in obscure aircraft?  More than likely you'll be going to Secret Projects forum.

Gamers and Modellers.

The modern day historical preservation societies.

This is the real China. Outrageous, Sickening News from S. Korea.

Thanks for this wild, weird story Joe!

via Yahoo News.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has seized thousands of smuggled drug capsules filled with powdered flesh from dead babies, which some people believe can cure disease, officials said Monday.

The capsules were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder, the Korea Customs Service said.
Customs officials refused to say where the dead babies came from or who made the capsules, citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing. Chinese officials ordered an investigation into the production of drugs made from dead fetuses or newborns last year.
The customs office has discovered 35 smuggling attempts since August of about 17,450 capsules disguised as stamina boosters, and some people believe them to be a panacea for disease, the customs service said in a statement. The capsules of human flesh, however, contained bacteria and other harmful ingredients.
The smugglers told customs officials they believed the capsules were ordinary stamina boosters and did not know the ingredients or manufacturing process.
Ethnic Koreans from northeastern China who now live in South Korea were intending to use the capsules themselves or share them with other Korean-Chinese, a customs official said. They were carried in luggage or sent by international mail.
The capsules were all confiscated but no one has been punished because the amount was deemed small and they weren't intended for sale, said the customs official, who requested anonymity, citing department rules.
China's State Food and Drug Administration and its Health Ministry did not immediately respond to questions faxed to them Monday. Chinese media identify northeastern China as the source of such products, especially Jilin province which abuts North Korea.
The Jilin food and drug safety agency is responsible for investigating the trade of such remains there. Calls to the agency and to the information office of Jilin's Communist Party were not answered Monday.
The South Korean customs agency began investigating after receiving a tip a year ago. No sicknesses have been reported from ingesting the capsules.

Yeah.

How much barbarism must we witness before we decide that China is a mortal enemy?

This is the true face of our enemy.

Don't turn away.

Take it in and understand...future conflict will not be a push button affair.  They will not yield to effects based operations.  Human life is cheap in their calculations, and the loss of a division, a fleet or an air wing will be a price they're willing to pay in order to win.

Recruiting might slip in the future...and I'll help it!

via Army Times.

“Part of the challenge is … the number of those individuals [eligible to serve] is dropping a little bit, but more importantly, the propensity of those individuals is going down,” said Marine Maj. Gen. Mark Brilakis, commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command.
He told lawmakers that among the 30 million young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24, fewer than 1 million are actually healthy enough to serve and eager to talk to a recruiter about a military career.
As a result, Marine recruiters are spending some of their time selling young people on the idea of a military career, targeting those who are more difficult to recruit, Brilakis said.

Read the entire article for yourself, but I can state this without hesitation.

I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND MILITARY SERVICE TO ANY YOUNG MAN.

Once I did.  Once I thought that it was a great place for young men to serve their country.  No more.

After the draw down in force thats about to hit, they're going to have many more anti-recruiter spokesmen.

Personally, I can't wait to see it happen.

SIDENOTE:  No.  I am not "rooting for my country to fail"...but I am looking forward to the architects of our defense realizing that they can't screw with retirees, vets and active duty members without paying a price.  Jack with retiree pensions?  Screw with VA benefits?  Conduct a reduction in force on people that have done tour after tour after tour...wrecking their home lives? It isn't right.  Especially since it appears that the only portion of America that is being asked to sacrifice are members of the military.  Yeah.  I look forward to their pain.

F-35, The Rand "Baby Seal" Report and where we stand today.

In 2008, Rand produced a report outlining the findings of a wargame they ran depicting combat between the US and China over Taiwan.

The results?

The F-35 was clubbed like a baby seal.

I remember that report well because that's the first time I crossed swords (in a vicious way) with Bill "The Dark Lord" Sweetman.

Between then and now, much crow has been munched on (I like mine with plenty of barbeque sauce and Coors Light thank you) but I can't help but wonder.

Surely Rand has run this computer simulation since then.  Surely other think tanks have crunched the numbers too.

Why haven't we heard anything?  Why are we still being told that the F-35 will more than hold its own against threat fighters but it appears that no one wants to publish their findings?

Interesting isn't it.  Anyone have Harpoon so we can see what gives since there must be an embargo on the big boys crunching the numbers!?

Training is dangerous but this?

via Marine Corps Times.

A junior Marine died this week in a swimming pool at Camp Pendleton, Calif., while completing a water skills test, Marine Corps officials said this week.
Pfc. Joshua Islam, 18, of Union County N.C., was participating in an intial screening at School of Infantry-West as a precursor to the Marines’ physically demanding reconnaissance training, said Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command. He had graduated from boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., only three months earlier, in October 2013.
He died Monday in a pool at Camp Las Pulgas, near Pendleton’s center, while undergoing a test that required him to tread water for 30 minutes.

It is understood by any person that has served in Combat Arms that training is dangerous.

You're dealing with explosives, firearms, and heavy vehicles.  Alot of times that training is at night, in bad weather or both.

But during a pre-screening?

In the swim tank?

I don't know whats going on with the Corps right now.  Just recently a Marine was killed when he was run over by a bulldozer while he slept in his hasty fighting position.

Now this.

Meanwhile at Shot Show, the ATF is pissed!

The USAF can no longer handle the nuclear mission.

Thanks for the article USMC 0802!

via Real Clear Defense

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a stunning setback for a nuclear missile force already beset by missteps and leadership lapses, the Air Force disclosed on Wednesday that 34 officers entrusted with the world's deadliest weapons have been removed from launch duty for allegedly cheating - or tolerating cheating by others - on routine proficiency tests.
The cheating scandal is the latest in a series of Air Force nuclear stumbles documented in recent months by The Associated Press, including deliberate violations of safety rules, failures of inspections, breakdowns in training, and evidence that the men and women who operate the missiles from underground command posts are suffering burnout. In October the commander of the nuclear missile force was fired for engaging in embarrassing behavior, including drunkenness, while leading a U.S. delegation to a nuclear exercise in Russia.
A "profoundly disappointed" Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, the service's top civilian official, told a hurriedly arranged Pentagon news conference that the alleged cheating at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., was discovered during a previously announced probe of drug possession by 11 officers at several Air Force bases, including two who also are in the nuclear force and suspected of participating in the cheating ring.
"This is absolutely unacceptable behavior," James said of the cheating, which Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said could be the biggest such scandal in the history of the missile force.

Read it all here.

One thing is becoming painfully obvious.  The USAF is incapable of handling the nuclear mission.

Lets be blunt.  Air delivery of nuclear weapons is at best a joke.  19 B-2 bombers, B-1's and B-52's?  That is weak sauce.  They won't penetrate enemy air space and if they get in, they won't get out.  As far as our land based nuke missiles are concerned I fully expect them to be targeted first and due to inertia in command and control, they'll probably be destroyed before they even launch.

That's before we talk about the damage that the USAF did to itself by destroying the Strategic Air Command.

The US Navy with its boomer fleet need to be the vanguard of the US nuclear force.

It only makes sense. 

3/1 at the Jungle Warfare Training Center. Photo by Lance Cpl. Stephen D. Himes

The desert is hard.  The jungle is harder.

Sidenote:  This might be a goofy question and if it is forgive me...but I wonder how those camelbacks (the entire system) hold up in those conditions...and would you really want to be sucking water from a hose that has been immersed in that filthy muck?

JHSV+101st is what the Marine Corps should fear from the Army.

via Marine Corps Times.

A new breed of Navy ship is preparing to begin its maiden deployment.
The USNS Spearhead is a joint high-speed vessel that can be called upon by the Army, Navy or Marines to quickly ferry people and equipment for a variety of missions. Its 22-person crew is composed of civilians, but it also has a small Navy detachment onboard.
The ship is scheduled to leave Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story on its way to Europe and Africa on Thursday, where commanders will test out the new ship’s capabilities in an operational environment. Ultimately, the Navy plans to have 10 of the ships available to military commanders around the world.

Read it all here.

The Commandant has his jack-ass plan to develop Special Purpose-Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response (SPMAGTF-CR) based on MV-22's, KC-130's and Recon Marines.

Awesome.

What Marines that still have a love of Corps, understand our heritage/history and pride ourselves on being a sea going force should fear is some brainiac in the 101st or the 82nd (God help us if some fool from the 25th, 10th Mountain or Rangers get wise) is going to decide that he wants to do heliborne ops with one of these ships.

Put aboard a Platoon of Soldiers along with a couple CH-47's and AH-64's (ok so they're on two JHSVs) and suddenly you have the Army's version of the SPMAGTF-CR, only its operating from the sea, has as much or more firepower, has a shorter supply line and is just as capable if not more capable than what the Marine formation brings.

Additionally if this brainiac has sense he'll pitch the idea to operate in areas where our MEU's aren't ... out of area locations where rapid response is a premium, yet with a full understanding that they will hookup with Marines or even a Carrier if the situation warrants.

The idiot Commandant left the Army a gleaming opportunity to drink our milk shake.

Let's hope the US Army doesn't take him up on it.

2nd Assault Amphibious Battalion training op. Pics by Lance Cpl. Christopher Mendoza

Robert "Sub Zero" Farley scores a flawless victory...

via War is Boring...

Last week at Foreign Affairs, U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Spalding III offered a response to my earlier article “Ground the Air Force.” I’d like to thank Col. Spalding for his contribution, and to offer the following response to several of his points.
Colonel Spalding opens with a revealing anecdote:
When ground commanders controlled aircraft, the results were disastrous. As Col. F. Randall Starbuck writes in Air Power in North Africa, 1942–43: “One example, relayed by Gen. [Jimmy] Doolittle, was the incident where a ground commander asked him to provide a fighter to cover a Jeep that was going out to repair a broken telephone line. He refused. The plane that would have wasted its time on that mission shot down two German Me-109s.”
Was the jeep ambushed? Were communications restored? How critical were these communications to maintaining offensive momentum? Did anyone bother to ask? Maybe Doolittle did, and maybe he had good reason to believe that, on that day, one of his planes could catch and kill two Bf109s.
Col. Starbuck doesn’t tell us, and Col. Spalding doesn’t seem to care.
And this, in short, is why some people don’t trust the Air Force with airpower.

Read it all here.

In my opinion, Farley scores a flawless victory.  The USAF needs a better "spokesmen" or else they're gonna have a rough ride in the out years. Things look rosy now.  The huge (and largely unrealized) cost of the F-35 coupled with horror stories of how experienced, combat Soldiers and Marines are being tossed on the street will get the attention of the public and Congress.

The pie might be reapportioned in the future and the USAF will only have themselves to blame.

1st Bn 5th Mar conduct urban ops/Photo by Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Moore

If this catches on alot of Cops are gonna get hurt...

What does everyone that has to deal with prisoners do badly?

Searches.

If this catches on with a certain crowd and if my belief that even a good search would probably miss this then I can see a future where a bunch of officers start getting hurt...maybe even killed.

Women in the military. Pampered and coddled.

You either pack the gear to serve in the military or you don't.  If you reach a point where continued service is a detriment ... either to your personal or professional life ...then thank you for your service, next body up.

Now, check this out from Yahoo News.

Navy Cmdr. Valerie Overstreet wanted to start a family. But her job as a Navy pilot and the fact that she and her husband, also a naval officer, were stationed in different parts of the country made it complicated.

So she decided to take advantage of a fledgling Navy program that allowed her to take a year off and return to duty without risking her career or future commands.
Now, three years later, she's got a 2-year-old daughter and a 9-month old son, she's back at work at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and her promotion to captain has been confirmed.

So what happens when Capt Schmuckatelli walks into the BN commanders office and decides he wants a year away from the Corps to go to Colorado and get his head right?

Will we give him a year off?

Does this make any damn sense?

Women better get a handle on this.  The backlash will be fierce unless they understand that they MUST play by the same rules as the guys.

Its only fair. 

NOTE:  Thanks for the article Eric.  You raised my blood pressure and added a couple of new holes to my wall....

Jungle Training--French Foreign Legion Style.

Extrait - L'entrainement extrême des légionnaires mardi dans 90' Enquêtes sur WAT.tv  

Oh God!  Tell me someone knows French and can translate what the guy is saying when he's stuck in that "sucking mud"!

That is the tilt to the Pacific no one in Combat Arms is talking about.  Tribal knowledge in Marine and Army Infantry has been lost.  The only two places where the skill set is maintained is at the Northern Training Area in Okinawa and perhaps at the Jungle Phase of Ranger Training in Florida.

The desert is hard.  The jungle is harder.

Multi-Service Guided Projectile InfoGraphic.