Want to know how to set up camp in hostile territory? The Army’s Field Manual (FM) 3-05.230, Special Forces Tactical Facilities, is now on-line. It goes into a fair amount of detail about how the Special Forces troops establish outposts, and makes for fascinating reading. It deals with everything from calling in close air support, to …
Army
Of Blowouts and Beards…
Probably makes sense that the military judge overseeing the court proceedings against five alleged terrorists – including purported 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – put them on hold Thursday as tropical storm – and …
The Hidden (High) Cost of War
It’s always surprising to discover the costs of war that you incur…after the war.
It seems Fort Drum, the Army post just outside Watertown, N.Y., has an “urgent requirement” for extra mental-health care.
That should …
No “Green-On-Blue” Blues Here
Amid “green-on-blue” attacks, it’s plain to see from this video from the Pakistan-bordering Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan that U.S. Army troops don’t have the blues (sure looks like friendly Afghan troops popping up at about 1:45 into the video).
Check out this just-posted cover of Call Me Maybe (as sung by Carly Rae Jepsen), …
Better Late Than Never
Interesting Pentagon contract buried deep in the long list it announced Friday. The Army awarded nearly $15 million to Jorge Scientific of Arlington, Va., to “provide for the modification of an existing contract to research and develop a methodology for counter insurgency operations. Work will be performed in Arlington and Afghanistan…”
One Concrete Thing
Years now. Almost 11 years into the war in Afghanistan, and with Iraq mostly behind us, we’re still unable to get our hands and our minds around the military suicide rate.
July marked the highest number of suicides among …
Of “Green-on-Blue” Killings, and Army Suicides
Battleland was invited to be on Friday’s PBS NewsHour, but this invitation had a twist that made it different than all that had come before. Host Jeff Brown and his producer, Dan Sagalyn, wanted a two-fer: first, they wanted to …
Black Hawk Down: Double-Edged Blades
Helicopters are wonderful machines that, like a bumblebee, are supposed to be unable to fly. It’s all that whirling hardware linked by shafts, masts, transmissions, cyclics and collectives that give them their amazing …
Grim Record: Soldier Suicides Reach New High
A record number of soldiers – 38 – are suspected of killing themselves in July, the Pentagon said Thursday. It marks a startling jump in the suicide epidemic that has been frustrating Army leaders for years.
This Isn’t Funny…
The Army’s failure to cut down on its suicide rate makes it a target for people without taste. Alas, the July figures due out shortly are unlikely to help.
As someone who has covered military suicides, and the folks waging the …
“When I showed up for airborne school, they made me the stick leader. Now, stick leaders are always the first one out the airplane. And I thought, `Wow, a stick leader, a promotion already -- this Army stuff is all right’…Later I found out the truth: the black hats thought if the woman was the first one to jump out of the airplane, none of the men would chicken out.”
The U.S. Plot to Blow Up the Afghan Ministry of Defense
Times have gotten tougher in Afghanistan given the latest green-on-blue attacks, where Afghan troops – or at least killers clad like Afghan troops – have taken to killing U.S. and other allied personnel with firearms or suicide vests. Army Major David Fitzpatrick, who was deployed as a trainer for the Afghan military in Kabul from …
The PTSD Merry-Go-Round Continues to Spin
Colonel Dallas Homas has been reinstated as commander at Madigan Army Medical Center at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. That is great news.
What troubles me is that there remains a widespread belief that there …