Saturday, December 26, 2015

LIST OF MY ARTICLES

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YOUTUBE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER


ARTICLES


MOST RECENT

MARJEH: A History of Assaults Global Recon


ABOUT COMBAT


SPECIAL FORCES INFORMATION


SPECIAL FORCES SKILLS: RAPPORT


TERRORISM


WOMEN IN COMBAT ARMS


SATIRE


JADE HELM 2015


MISC








Saturday, December 19, 2015

Full gender neutral standards for college sports by 2018



College Sports Must Be Fully Integrated by 2018
Washington D.C. - Following a unanimous recommendation by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced the full and complete implementation of Title IX. It will end all gender-based sports and each conference will continue to move forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender-based barriers to college athletics.
The change is intended to ensure that the best-qualified and most-capable person, regardless of sex, are allowed to play the sport of their choice for their chosen college.

“If members of that college can meet the qualifications for a job, then they should have the right to serve, regardless of creed, color, gender or sexual orientation,” Secretary Duncan said.
In a statement released following the announcement, President Barack Obama praised the decision.
Duncan, laying out his plan, stated, “Any school that takes any form of money from the government will need to cancel all gender-specific sports and have fully integrated teams by 2018." During the press conference, Secretary Duncan was backed up by representatives from each state's education department.
As part of the plan, each school needs to conduct studies on their sports' specific requirements. If those requirements preclude a certain gender then they will have to submit a report to the Department of Education (DOE) to justify why they are necessary.

College football

Former Adm. William McRaven, architect of the May 2011 military raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, has been assigned as the first director of the U.S. Sports Oversight Committee (USSOCOM) and is spearheading an effort to get more women and minorities to play sports.

"Women make up 56 percent of the total public-university attendance, and yet they make up zero percent of the football teams. I think we need to grow that number,” the former four-star Admiral told an audience of alumni.

McRaven told me during a recent interview,  that he was unsure what the expanded number would grow to. But he did note the current ratio of men to women playing football  is putting the teams at a disadvantage.
“Inherently, I know I need more females on the field," he said. "Females have already risen through the coaching and support-related elements of college football. But they have not been able to break into the operational side of actually playing."

The DOE must first draw up “gender-neutral” training and operations standards for all sport teams, and officials said they were due to be turned in by September, 2015. Those training and operations standards will put physical-fitness requirements for male and female candidates on equal footing.

McRaven said, "Women athletes have already played a keyrole on the field, standing alongside male athletes in some of the most difficult games of the year. The all-female units, known as cheerleaders, played a key role in many conference championships. We saw the great work that they did while working alongside college and even professional football teams." He went on to say he was working within the state bureaus to establish a new path for female members of universities based closely on the female field-hockey teams.
Some of the new rules to be implemented:
  • Hire coaching “advisers” from the women’s studies program to oversee recruitment, try-outs, training, and management decisions.
  • If no women make it to the team as starters, the government will conduct an audit of every decision made throughout the process.
  • During the season, the teams are required to live in open bunk rooms to build team cohesion and unity. (Schools are required to provide separate bathing and locker-room facilities for the female team members)
  • Male members of the team are required to complete 40 hours of sexual-harassment and rape-prevention training each season.
Secretary Duncan explained the outline to full implementation: “First, we are going to change how college sports run their conferences." He went on to explain that all colleges receiving public money will have to abide by these rules, but private universities will be exempt. “To make it fair, teams in each conference will only play like schools during the season. Public schools will play public schools, private will play private. They will only meet when it comes to the conference championship. Then the best teams from each side will come together to decide the conference title.”

Senator Barbara Boxer praised the move, saying, “This is a great moment for feminism and gender equality.” As she was leaving, not realizing her mic was on, she leaned over and could be heard saying, “Maybe the public conferences could just use flags instead of hitting each other. That seems more fair.”
Next story: BREAKING NEWS—Texas Declares Independence.
(Featured Image Courtesy: MyGarnerFamily.blogspot.com)



Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Is the Wounded Warrior Project the charity you want to donate to?

I got this gem from the guys at POG Boot Fucks Facebook page.
It appears that we’ve touched a nerve with a few folks regarding our WWP post. Good.
Here’s some more information for WWP based upon data that we could pull from their website, Feel free to review.
For 2014: WWP, brought in $342,066,114. Almost 350 Million dollars.

Now, how did they spend that money (page 3/76 of the 2014 form 990 listed above)
Alumni: $37,913,075
Combat Stress Recovery: $27,946,118
Soldier Ride: $16,033,248
Other Program Services: $107,665,659

This means that 55.42% of the money raised actually went to helping wounded vets. (We're going to do our best to dig into the "other services."

Let’s look at page 10 of the tax for – the expense report.

Compensation and benefits for WWP employees and directors: $37,826,382. Just interesting. The employees and directors get more than everything besides the alumni association. And that’s a small difference between the two.
A few other interesting facts:
• $6.5 million for office expenses
• $4.7 million for Occupancy
• $2 million for I.T.
• $7.5 million for travel
• $26 million for Conferences, conventions and meetings.

A few folks have responded saying that the numbers at 55-59% are not such a bad thing. Surprisingly (according to  charitynavigator.com). 90% of the charities out there spend 66% or more of their money on the specific program.
• At the end of FY2010, WWP had an unused balance of $8.5 million
• At the end of FY2011, WWP had an unused balance of $36.3 million
• At the end of FY2012, WWP had an unused balance of $101.4 million
• At the end of FY2013, WWP had an unused balance of $175.5 million
• At the end of FY2014, WWP had an unused balance of $248.3 million

We're fairly sure at PBF that a quarter of a billion dollars could really help out wounded warriors Are they attempting to open the first bank and trust of Wounded Warriors?

WWP has helped some service members. (Obviously, or this would be a complete fucking scam.) We also get that there are costs to have good people leading an organization. It appears to us that WWP is using patriotic Americans to support themselves. The real challenge comes in – is this organization using wounded Vets to support THEIR lifestyles. Are they doing enough to address the cause?

There are numerous anecdotal stories of this organization sending out hats and other promo to wounded vets. There are also the socks sent to guys with no legs. Dafuq is this shit?

There are many organizations that try to keep the expenses to a minimum while supporting the actual cause. We will do our best in the future to highlight these organizations as many people are requesting such information.





Tuesday, December 15, 2015

First female non Infantry qualified Drill Instructor will start training futureInfantrymen



Staff Sgt. Jael Landaverde, a military police officer assigned to 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, poses while wearing her drill sergeant hat Dec. 3 outside the “Ready First” Brigade headquarters at East Fort Bliss. Landaverde is set to make history as one of the first female infantry drill sergeants.


"Landaverde, who took the Iron Drill award for earning the highest physical fitness test score of all the females – 298 out of a possible 300 points – is ready to pull her weight with the new recruits.
“When it comes to physical things, a lot of people have the mindset that females can’t keep up,” said Landaverde. 'Well, I’m going to keep up, especially in the ruck marches and the runs.'"

As was so adroitly pointed out by a SF Qualified friend of mine.

She scored a 298 on her PT test, it's not like she isn't in awesome physical condition.
48 Pushups (69 pts male)
82 Situps (100 pts male)
15:48 in the run (73 pts male)
Oh, that's only a score of 242 by the male standards. I assume that's not very good, but in 18 years in SF I never saw anybody score that low so I'm not positive. I do know that would have gotten her kicked out of my company.
I got this message from a friend who has been in the Infantry for the past 8 Years. Due to the fact that he is still active, I asked if I could share this, and leave his name out.

Just to piss you off a little more, [the same friend who is a Drill Instructor currently at Fort Benning, and told him about the non Infantry qualified female Infantry Drill Sgt) also told me that for "red phase", they now do all of their ruck marches and movements in running shoes to avoid "blisters and shin splints". [The Drill Instructors] are also required to give them 15 minutes "uninterrupted" for meals. I immediately got to work this morning and verified [these new standards] with my new privates and both are true.
Is the enemy going to give us time out for blisters? 
Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit. 
I look at my last deployment to Kunar, and I see no way 99% of females are climbing those mountains. But we have to be PC. I told my buddy yesterday, "I'm not a bitch, but I don't want to do a single combat deployment for the remainder of my career." 
I have no faith in the product they are pumping out of basic, and we have demonstrated that PC matters more than lethality. I never felt fear going into my last 3 [deployments], but if I got sent again I would feel genuine fear. And it's because I'm getting guys who can't ruck, can't land nav, cry when you yell at them, can't pass APFT, and soon females...trained by females who aren't even infantry.\ 
The military has going down the shitter. And this guy who has never worn a uniform took it upon himself to open not only "big Army", but also presumptuous enough to open up Special Operations?

This gives some weight to the consistent rumors throughout the combat arms community of the lowering of the standards. These standards have been incrementally lowered over the last few years in order to prepare for the inevitable and cowardly acquiescence of our leaders. 

The lowering (or you can use the new buzzword “efficient”) of standards over many years has allowed the leadership to say, without perjuring themselves that “women will meet the same standards as the men.”

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Equality and fairness in the Military: More Combat deaths for women and minorities



Ultimately, America's answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.
Robert F. Kennedy

Colonel Mike Copenhayer while not technically an “operator” he has spent a lot of time in SOF units screwing up awards, losing promotion packets and generally making it as difficult as possible for the guy on the tip of the spear to do his job.

As the personnel officer who has been the J1 at the Joint Special Operations Command, G1 at the US Army Special Operations Command, he has made life exceedingly difficult for a huge percentage of all Special Operations Force soldiers.
Not satisfied with only a “huge percentage” Colonel Copenhayer recently wrote “The Integration of Minorities into Special Operations: How Cultural Diversity Enhances Operations” while attending United States Army War College.

After Military.com and USA Today picked up the story it created a firestorm that erupted throughout the halls of power. The Armed Services committee commissioned a report from the Congressional Research Service which highlighted with cold hard numbers the institutional inequality and lack of diversity within the armed forces.

Vowing to fix this inequality a bi-partisan agreement was reached and a new law was passed, late last night. General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has ordered all women and minorities regardless of branch to immediately report to Afghanistan. These new replacements, will immediately replace all front line combat troops who are privileged, white males.

The reports shocking discovery showed that although 63.7% of America is white 85% of deaths in Afghanistan, and 82.6% in Iraq were white males.

Even worse while according to the U.S. Census bureau 49% of Americans are female but females only made up 2.1% of casualties for Afghanistan, and a slightly higher, 2.5% for Iraq.

Senator Dianne Feinstein immediately stated “This casualty inequality, cannot stand.”
General Dempsey told Hit the Woodline in a phone interview today, “We know from all of our classified studies, that we don’t release, that women do not have the ability to carry the average infantry load.”

“This actually really works well for us though. Starting now, we will not issue women any body armor, so they can more easily maneuver on the enemy and patrol in the mountains.” He continued “without the extra weight of the body armor we are sure to quickly close this unfair gender casualty gap.”

General Dempsey highlighted and explained a new unit. “Due to this massive inequality chasm, specifically the gender casualty gap, we will make special, highly mobile units who can be sent to wherever the fighting happens to be the most vicious and brutal.” These shock troops will be made up of black and Hispanic women only.”
“This is really good, every minority woman who gets killed actually counts for two spaces on this spreadsheet that gets sent to me twice a day.”

The spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff said “we have to get 3,170 women killed, in order to make it fair. Hopefully we can accomplish this in a few months.




Saturday, September 5, 2015

A Time For Wolves




This article was recently posted by Nate Coffey on Havok Journal...

Lt. Col. Dave Grossman made an analogy years ago that has enthralled parts of our population. The idea of sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves as a simile for various human personality types has been copied and plagiarized, quoted in veteran websites, and used in t-shirts and movies.

For those unfamiliar with his work, I’ll attempt to summarize; A vast majority of the population consists of sheep-like people. They are useful and productive, but either ignorant of violence or in a fearful denial of it. These are the individuals who go about their daily lives producing and consuming, but always assuming that there will never be violence done to them.

The wolf is the predator, who exists to hunt the sheep. He is amoral, a lover of violence, and will “feed on the sheep without mercy.” These people are rare, and usually compared to Al Qaeda-type terrorists, hardened criminals, or anyone who preys on those weaker than him. They are unconstrained by their society and it’s rules.

The sheepdog has the same weapons and capacity for violence as the wolf, but with a moral code. His desire to protect his fellow citizens binds his violent nature, and focuses it to be almost completely defensive. These are said to be our policemen and soldiers because they are willing to kill, but only in order to protect the sheep.
Wait. Soldiers? Really? How in Posiedon’s salty bunghole are soldiers sheepdogs?

Friday, September 4, 2015

FIREBASELWARA



#FIREBASELWARA

In Feb-Mar of 2002 just after I arrived at #3rdSFG after being in #10thSFG for almost 3 years. 9-11 and Afghanistan was still very much on everyone’s mind. We all wondered when and if we would get to go.

As an #18E #SpecialForces communications sergeant, on #ODA341 we went to Fort Picket VA for unit level training. The first 3 weeks of company level training followed by another 3 weeks of battalion directed training.

At the end of the 6 weeks the Battalion Commander, LTC Reeder pulls all of the team guys into a conference room to conduct an after action review of the training.


At the end of it he gives us a talk. As he finish’s up his remarks he stops, looks at us and say’s something that resonates with me to this very day. 

“Boys. Stop shaving. We’re going to war.” A few weeks later we were getting off the plane at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

Friday, August 14, 2015

The Psychosis of Boredom


What is the difference between an ODA, and a Boy Scout Troop? Adult supervision.

It is said that war is hours of boredom interrupted by moments of terror, which is true. There are volumes written on how to train, deal, react go 0-60 in a heartbeat. Learning to breathe like you’re in a lamaz class. Hell, even Ricky Bobby had to learn how to control his fear so he could drive with a wild cougar in his car.

What hasn't been talked about as much is what happens to a man (Yes. I said man. It's not sexist - women just aren't this stupid.) when the monotony and boredom become too much, and a kind of euphoric insanity overtakes you. It is a strange phenomenon because very rarely does this madness affect only one person.

I had first heard about this affliction during the Q course. We had some Vietnam vets come and talk to us. They told a story.

After a failed attack on their camp, they spotted an unexploded white phosphorous mortar shell right outside the wire in the middle of their minefield. Well, the demo guy got some C4 and went out there to blow it up. Apparently, he had miscalculated the time fuse and it exploded while he was trying to wind his way back through the mine field. The guys telling this story were laughing their asses off, describing him hot-footing it around the mines while White Phosphorous is raining down all around. I didn't get it at the time, but I do now.

Disclaimer: I do not recommend any of these actions, even though every single one of them was totally worth it...at the time. (Until our wives found out, that is. Wives just don't have this child-like curiosity and wonder at all the amazing things that are possible.) Also, I swear to everyone reading that each story is true. Names will be hidden to protect the innocent and give them plausible deniability when confronted by angry spouses, who may not have heard some of these.

Afghanistan 2002

This was my entire team's first combat rotation. We were all nervous and excited, not knowing what to expect. After a month or two we had gotten our firebase built, and while construction was still ongoing, we weren't being run ragged like we had been at first. We were out patrolling a lot, but when we were back we had some downtime. That was when we came to the most dangerous epiphany that could possibly come to guys in a foreign land at the beginning of a brand new war. The fact that it took this long shows you how ingrained and brainwashed we all were by the modern peacetime Army. Our epiphany.....there is no Range Control at our Firebase.

Not only was there no Range Control, the closest adult supervision (B team) was over three hours away, through prime ambush areas over spine crushing roads. You don't really see the insanity at the time. It is only when looking back through the hazy lens of time do the "what the fucks" come.

I think the first time the insanity hit, I was standing on the edge of our Firebase looking down, far below, across our DZ to where we had set up our heavy weapons range. The range was on top of a deep cut that was not only a river bed, but also acted as a road. Across the stream/road was a tall ridgeline that ran parallel to our fire base. We would shoot our heavy weapons over the road and use the ridgeline as our impact zone. Right next to the firing line was the outline of an old compound we called the ruins. All that was left was the typical Afghan mud wall, about 3 feet high and about 2 feet thick.

The insanity hadn't completely taken a hold of me yet so I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. I saw three of our guys shooting the 60 mm mortar, similar to this. They were standing about 15-20 meters from the ruins and seeing if they could get the round to land inside. They were holding the tube straight up and shooting it. Every once in a while they would shoot it, and a few seconds later they would all dive for cover and the round would hit danger close. They would get up, brush the dirt off and do it again.

In their defense, they got so they could set up right next to the compound and make it land inside...almost every time.

A few days later my Bravo was down there again, this time by himself doing the same exact thing, except this time he was using his 203 grenade launcher. By now, I was full in the clutches of this dangerous malady, so of course I went down and joined in. If you've never shot one, if you pay real close attention when you shoot, you can watch the grenade fly.

Trying to get a 40mm grenade to land 15 meters away is not easy. The wind, rotation of the earth, tides, the moon's gravity and global warming all come into play. Well, sometimes you would lose sight of it, or you would see it coming down where you're pretty sure it will be too close, so it then becomes necessary for you to throw yourself to the ground, in the opposite direction from where you think it might be heading (stupid global warming). But practice does make, if not perfect, at least less shitty, so by the end we getting most of them right in the ruins.

Sometimes it's not insanity that hits you, but a really "funny" idea on which you probably could have done a better cost-benefit analysis. As a Fox, I now know to look for 2nd and 3rd order effects, but sometimes a lack of critical thinking on your part makes your hilarious joke less funny for you, but infinitely more funny for everyone else. That happened to me on my third trip.

We were right next to FOB Salerno who had a medevac unit located there. Our medics had built a good relationship with the pilots, and they would come over and conduct training. Many times they needed to go pick someone up, so they would fly over and pick our 18Ds up to help out, so it was not uncommon to see the helicopters sitting out there on the airfield. I got to know the pilots and would sit around and bullshit with them.

Well, one afternoon I was out doing PT running around the airfield, in nothing but ranger panties, of course. I was at the end of the runway heading toward them as they were taking off. They were going to fly right over me so I quickly turned around and dropped my shorts, laughing at how clever and funny I was. Apparently, the pilot thought I was funny too, because he brought the helicopter to a hover...directly over me.


Even though I couldn't see due to the fact that I was blind in the middle of a tornado and every orifice was completely covered in dirt, I just knew they were laughing.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Dangers of Rapport


I wanted to write a short article on some of the dangers of rapport building and some things that you need to watch out for. I like to use the example of democracy in the Middle East. We can’t expect whatever form of democracy other people choose to be exactly like ours. It’s a foolish notion and one destined for failure. You have to find a middle ground that takes into account that countries history, culture and social norms.

When living and working with a different culture, building rapport, fighting and dying shoulder to shoulder with them, it is easy to become emotionally involved. It is easy, especially when they are honorable and likable, to find yourself assimilating with them. As I stated in The Importance of Rapport, the best advice I ever received is to never go more than 49% native. My first team sergeant understood rapport, but also the dangers that could come. It’s a fine line to walk, as is everything dealing with Foreign Internal Defense (FID) (especially during combat). Combat creates a bond, a brotherhood that is hard to break.
Many soldiers learn quickly to compartmentalize, and SOF are experts at it, but from my experience Special Forces are able to do it better than most.

Compartmentalized minds have diversified personalities which enable them to behave differently and appropriately in a variety of situations such that they can behave like a boss or worker on the job, a parent and/or spouse and/or grown child at home, a teammate on a sport, etc. To be competent in each area they are said to be good at “having boundaries” such that one role does not blur into another.

One of the challenges however of being highly compartmentalized is that over time, people may lean more and more into those compartments where they feel most competent, capable and confident. That can cause other compartments to either atrophy from disuse or in some cases never develop in the first place. Over time these people can appear to be more like “human doings” that don’t feel particularly present as people even as they appear quite competent in a particular function. Think of IT instead of HR.

I don’t know if it is a psychological trait that is looked for, but I do know that training quickly refines and expands it. The hard training that is involved starting at selection (and honestly, it never stops) is part of the mental selection and mental training. The ability to separate the pain and discomfort, and to push forward in spite of it, is just one way that is used to find people who have the ability to create those compartments or can already do it. If a person can’t do this effectively they will either quit or be booted out at some point during the training.

The reason I say Special Forces are better at being able to do this is because they are required to have more compartments. There is the family, deployment, team, group, army, and America. They also have to be able to fully immerse themselves with whatever local unit, tribe, sect, they happen to be working or interacting with they are working in Afghanistan or Iraq. Between combat deployments they are still conducting JCETs and non-combat FID in multiple foreign countries. Each of these examples has a different compartment, and each compartment has only what is needed to succeed in that one situation.

To understand how significant these compartments are, I will use myself as an example. Whenever I deployed (and there were a lot of them), I got into the habit of asking my wife and kids to drop me off and leave. I didn’t want them to wait with me or hang out like a lot of other families did. They would drop me off at the curb and we would say our goodbyes. I would watch them drive away, then go in and hang out or bullshit until it was time to load the plane.

Standing on the curb watching them drive away was the beginning for me. It was part of the process I developed to help me switch compartments. After the plane took off, I would take an Ambien and sleep for about four hours When I woke up the family compartment was locked up tight and the deployment compartment was open and ready to go. I would only open the family compartment when it was safe, or when I was on the phone talking to them. It was never opened fully, but cracked just enough to give me what I needed to talk to them. As soon as I hung up it was slammed down and locked back up. It was never opened fully until I walked back into my house.

And as I’m writing this and thinking about it, I have to admit that the family compartment never really completely opened while I was in. Knowing I had another deployment coming up, or could be sent somewhere with very little notice. This forced me to keep a tight hold on it so it could easily be shut on the next trip.

Some compartments necessitated switching from one to the other in the blink of an eye; others took time to prepare. In Kosovo, our primary mission was to act as liaisons between the locals and the U.S. General in charge of the American sector. We walked around in only a uniform and concealed pistol and had to be able to go from friendly conversation to sensing a threat and drawing in an instant. Some people refer to that as “flipping a switch,” which is a good analogy of going between times of quiet to sudden violence. 'Flipping a switch', while a good descriptive phrase, doesn’t change the fact that those situations required two very different compartments. If you couldn’t switch fast enough, you died.

People who can’t flip that switch either became too trusting or too friendly with locals, and forget exactly where they are, or they can’t relax and be in the moment. They would subconsciously perceive everyone as a threat, which the locals could easily sense. This created a lack of trust, which prevented the rapport from developing.


The point is that when you can compartmentalize, you are able to give 100% of your 49% (Naked gun 50/50 chance) to the people that you train and work with. This allows you to be better able to build that trust without losing yourself. You can keep the American and the U.S. Soldier compartment safe and switch when needed.

U.S. Army Special Forces / Green Berets / "De Oppresso Liber"

Saturday, August 8, 2015

3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) Night Training

Ensuring Equality: More Combat Deaths For Women And Minorities





Colonel Mike Copenhayer, while not technically an “operator,” has spent a lot of time in SOF units, most likely screwing up awards, losing promotion packets, and generally making it as difficult as possible for the guys on the tip of the spear to do their job.

As the personnel officer who has been the J1 at the Joint Special Operations Command and G1 at the US Army Special Operations Command, he is part of the bureaucracy that has made life exceedingly difficult for a huge percentage of all Special Operations Force soldiers.

Not satisfied with only a mere “huge percentage,” Colonel Copenhayer sought to go further by writing “The Integration of Minorities into Special Operations: How Cultural Diversity Enhances Operations” while attending the United States Army War College.

Read more at Hit the Woodline