Category: Military

Military operations are the great equalizer. Combat cares not one whit about sex, creed, race, color, origin, orientation, or any of the 47 genders. If you have a force that can’t perform, no matter how diverse, woke, or politically correct, you lose. And “…in war, there is no substitute for victory.”

Nearly Half of Female Soldiers Still Failing New Army Fitness Test, While Males Pass Easily

More than seven months after the official launch of the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT, nearly half of female soldiers are still falling short, with enlisted women struggling the most, Military.com has learned. The data again raises questions about whether the Army‘s attempt to create a fitter force is creating more barriers to success for women.

Internal Army figures from April show 44% of women failed the ACFT, compared to 7% of men since Oct. 1. “Female soldiers continue to lag male soldier scores in all events,” according to a United States Army Forces Command briefing obtained by Military.com.

FORSCOM data includes the results of 106,000 ACFTs taken in the first half of fiscal 2021. This amounts to 27% of women and 36% of men in the force who also have scores logged into the Army’s database, meaning the data could potentially be incomplete. FORSCOM tracks 3,400 new fitness tests per week on average.

The Army remains in a beta phase for the ACFT. Until March 2022, scores on the test will not affect soldiers’ careers; officials have said they may implement additional changes before then, including gender-specific standards.

The most difficult event for both male and female soldiers is the two-mile run, with 5% and 22% failing, respectively. The run must be completed within 21 minutes.

While the previous Army fitness test’s two-mile run actually had a more challenging minimum passing time for most age groups, the ACFT’s run takes place after five physically draining events, adding another level of difficulty.

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We’ve warned them enough in the past. They should have been sunk.

12+ Iranian Gunboats Swarm 6 U.S. Warships, Dozens Of Warning Shots Fired

Iranian military gunboats with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization, swarmed several U.S. warships on Monday that were escorting a U.S. submarine.

“Over a dozen Iranian gunboats harass formation of six U.S. warships including guided-missile submarine Georgia,” Fox News Pentagon correspondent Lucas Tomlinson said. “U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired warning shots in response in Strait of Hormuz.”

The 13 Iranian military vessels reportedly came within 150 yards of U.S. Forces, which fired 30 warning shots at the Iranian vessels. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby called the incident “significant” since previous incidents had involved fewer vessels.

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11 days after Kamala Harris says that ‘Only the government should have assault weapons’, an Army trainee hijacks an elementary school bus full of children…….

The 23-year-old suspect was taken into custody.

A Fort Jackson trainee is in custody after allegedly hijacking a South Carolina elementary school bus with 18 children on board while carrying a rifle, authorities said.

The Forest Lake Elementary students and the bus driver are safe, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

The 23-year-old trainee’s weapon did not have ammunition, Fort Jackson Commander Brig. Gen. Milford H. Beagle Jr. said at a news conference, adding that the children and driver could not have known that.

Lott called this “one of the scariest calls that we could get in law enforcement.”

The incident began around 7 a.m. Thursday when the suspect allegedly hopped a barbed wire fence and fled Fort Jackson, according to Lott and Beagle.

The children had boarded the bus when the armed suspect, Jovan Collazo, got on and allegedly “told the bus driver he didn’t want to hurt him, but he wanted him to drive him to the next town,” Lott said.

The sheriff’s office released surveillance video from inside the school bus showing the suspect pointing a rifle at the bus driver and telling him to drive.

The bus driver started driving and Collazo brought the children to the front of the bus, Lott said.

“The kids started asking lots of questions to the suspect if he was going to hurt them or the bus driver,” Lott said.

“The suspect got a little frustrated,” Lott said, and the driver pulled over.

After six minutes on board with Collazo, the children and the bus driver got off safely, Lott said.

The suspect then drove the bus for a few miles before abandoning it, leaving the rifle inside, Lott said.

Collazo was spotted by deputies and civilians and was arrested without incident, Lott said. He faces charges including kidnapping, Lott said.

Beagle described the trainee, believed to be in his third week at Fort Jackson, as a quiet 23-year-old from New Jersey. He said it appeared the trainee was trying to get home.

“There is nothing that leads us to believe in his counseling, in his screening records coming in, that this had anything to do with harming others, harming himself or anything that links to any type of nefarious activity,” Beagle said. “We do experience several soldiers that over the course of initial stages have that desire, that anxiety, and due to separation from their families, to get home. We think that was truly his intent and nothing beyond that.”

Richland County School Board Chairman James Manning said, “I’ve been on the board now for over 10 years and I have never received a call that scared me as much as the call that I received this morning — that a bus had been hijacked with our students and staff.”

The students were taken to school “where they received support from school employees and counselors and were reunited with their parents/guardians,” the school district said.

Superintendent Baron Davis said in a statement, “Once we were certain all students were accounted for and physically safe, we immediately began deploying social and emotional counseling resources to the school so that our students could begin the process of healing as they are dealing with a traumatic event. We will continue to provide counseling services for the students and their families, our bus driver and employees as long as necessary.”

Lott praised the bus driver who he said “kept his cool” and “kept the situation calm.”

“His main concern was the safety of those kids and he did his job,” Lott said.

Senator Inhofe is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He ought to know.

Combined China and Russian Defense Spending Exceeds U.S. Defense Budget.

Here’s a myth often repeated: “The United States defense budget is larger than the next 10 countries combined.” You hear it all the time from progressives, led by the Senate Budget Committee Chairman, in their arguments to cut funding for our military. It’s time to remove this false talking point from our vernacular. Here’s the truth: our defense budget is almost certainly smaller than the combined Chinese and Russian military budgets after you adjust for basic economic realities.

Let’s be clear. Because the Chinese and Russians manipulate their defense budgets, measuring their actual spending is very difficult. Both Beijing and Moscow lie about just about everything—the coronavirus, genocide, poisoning political opponents—so it should be no surprise they intentionally hide significant parts of their defense spending. For instance, the Chinese don’t report any research and development spending in their defense budget, and significant portions of their space program and basing costs are omitted. (By comparison, the U.S. R&D budget was about $100 billion, or almost 15 percent of our military budget last year.)

This isn’t a new problem – but our lack of study on it is.

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CHINA’S IRREGULAR APPROACH TO WAR: THE MYTH OF A PURELY CONVENTIONAL FUTURE FIGHT

David Knoll, Kevin Pollpeter and Sam Plapinger

Since early March, up to 220 boats from China’s maritime militia have been moored near Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea. The Philippine government has asked the Chinese government to direct the ships to leave its exclusive economic zone, but Beijing has denied that the ships are part of the militia, saying they are merely “fishing boats” sheltering from sea conditions. These actions fit a recent pattern of Chinese leaders turning to irregular warfare to achieve strategic aims in the South China Sea: China sends its maritime militia to a location in the South China Sea to reinforce Chinese sovereignty claims and then ratchets up control with little involvement by conventional forces.

The actions of the maritime militia are part of a body of evidence that Beijing has embraced irregular warfare as central to its military strategy. Despite this evidence, and a first-rate Irregular Warfare Annex to the US National Defense Strategy (NDS), many in the Pentagon believe that irregular warfare is a relic of the last two decades and that future war will be conventional. Before divesting too many irregular warfare capabilities, however, national security leaders should look closely at what Chinese officials’ words and China’s military actions say about how the People’s Liberation Army might actually fight a war. In fact, leaders should examine how US plans for distributed operations might not be reducing risk, but shifting risk from conventional to irregular threats.

In a recent CNA study, we found that in a future, large-scale conflict, Chinese forces will likely employ a modern and unique irregular warfare concept, focused on information and influence, tightly integrated with conventional capabilities. A return to great power competition does not portend a shift away from irregular warfare to conventional warfare, but rather an amalgamation of the two.

The Past as Prologue: Irregular Warfare as an Integral Part of Great Power Conflicts

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Is the Army Going to Extremes Over Extremism?

Recently, the United States Army Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) created the first-ever Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer position and ordered the Army Extremism Safety Stand-Down. These two measures meant to address what frankly very few within the ranks saw as an issue amongst their peers.

With no clearly defined mission and with absolute abruptness, these D&I officers were shoe-horned into the command structures of units Army-wide, specifically into USSOCOM subordinate units.

The first to hold the failed USSOCOM Diversity and Inclusion Officer position was Mr. Richard Torres-Estrada. He was supposed to be USSOCOM’s slam dunk to appease the ever-growing appetite for the woke social media criteria in today’s military.

Torres-Estrada’s tenure was short-lived. His diversity and inclusion beliefs made their way onto his social media accounts. They revealed him to be a Left Wing ideologue rather than a political moderate — which you would think would be a good idea for anyone you hire to promote things like diversity and inclusion.

Within hours of his appointment, his beliefs were discovered and made public. Within days, USSOCOM spokesman Ken McGraw made the statement, “USSOCOM is aware of the situation, and the command has initiated an investigation.”

McGraw then followed up with a less than meaningful, yet very common, statement to cover for higher-ranked leaders. Torres-Estrada has been reassigned to other duties pending the results of the investigation.

The soldiers wanted to know why this position was created in the first place.

Gold Star Spouses day will be observed on Monday, April 5, 2021.

The terms Gold Star family, Gold Star Spouses, and Gold Star Wives traditionally refer to the surviving loved ones of military members killed in the line of duty in combat. Gold Star Spouses Day was created to honor these loved ones.

Read the Shocking Pentagon Training Materials Targeting Conservatives in the Military

I have obtained a copy of all the materials regarding the sudden new threat of “Extremism” used for training in the United States military. Throughout the services, service members have been shocked at the Biden blitz to root out ideas and people who stand in the way of the administration’s transformative agenda.

One individual in the training told me, “The military is one of the last institutions left that hasn’t been radicalized by the progressives. That’s why it is being targeted now.”

All personnel are being subjected to a PowerPoint presentation packed with progressive ideology and misstatements of the Constitution. Designated officers are conducting the training on bases, stations, and ships at sea. The slides contain misstatements of the law and warped characterizations of fellow citizens who believe in constitutional principles.

The document crafted by the Pentagon for the Navy is called “Extremism Stand Down – Commander Engagements With All Service Members. Discussion Guide 19FEB21.” I have obtained both the slides shown to service members and the training guide for the officers presenting the training.

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I’ll take Military Guilt Sessions Not Going As Planned for $500, Alex.

Remember all those ‘mostly peaceful’ ‘racial injustice protests‘ riots, with all the looting, burning and murders? Yeah, those.

Some US troops view Capitol riots, racial protests equally, worrying Pentagon leaders.

During military training sessions to address extremism in the ranks, some service members have challenged why the Pentagon is not treating the violence during racial injustice protests last summer as equal to the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.

That the two events are viewed as equivalent by some troops has caught the Pentagon’s attention in its effort to educate service members that extremist views and activity — on either side of the political spectrum — go against the oath they took when they joined the military, the top enlisted leader told reporters on Thursday.

“This is coming from every echelon that we’re talking to,” said Ramón Colón-López, the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Some people may think that, ‘all right, so the events of 6 January happened. How come you’re not looking at the situation that was going on in Seattle prior to that?’”

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Whenever a nation has let the military get involved in internal partisan politics, it’s never ended as a benefit for the people, no matter which side.

Sen. Cruz: Pentagon Attacks on Tucker Carlson Damage U.S. Military for Sake of Leftwing Ideology and Political Expediency

HOUSTON, Texas – In response to several military leaders’ systematic campaign attacking Fox News host Tucker Carlson, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin demanding a meeting with the Commandant of the Marine Corps to account for the campaign and a plan to prevent other military units from being similarly mobilized against the speech of American citizens.

In the letter, Sen. Cruz wrote:

“I am deeply troubled that the commitments you made, and the military’s broader obligation to avoid political endorsements and controversy, are being systematically undermined for the sake of leftwing ideology and political expediency. The last week has witnessed the Pentagon mobilize systematic, public attacks against television host Tucker Carlson that in substance, tone, and political resonance are inexplicably inappropriate.”

Sen. Cruz continued, highlighting the risks of a politicized military:

“This spectacle risks politicizing the military after several centuries of efforts to keep military officials out of domestic affairs, undermining civil-military relations by having the military take a side in a contentious cultural dispute, and the perception that military leaders are happily weaponizing the institution against political critics of the sitting administration. This kind of behavior, while perhaps typical in a military-controlled Third World country, is completely unacceptable in the United States of America.“

Sen. Cruz concluded, demanding a meeting and plan to prevent further mobilization against free speech:

“I therefore request that the Commandant of the Marine Corps meet with me, in person, to discuss these issues. I also request an official response from the department and implementation of a policy that insulates other units from being similarly mobilized against the speech of American citizens or in the service of left wing political causes.“

Read the full letter here and below:

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The Pentagon’s Fight With Tucker Carlson Proves It Doesn’t Even Exist To Win Wars Anymore

Tucker Carlson may have never served in the armed forces, but he’s still decisively winning a PR war against the U.S. military. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, of course. The U.S. military loses most of the wars it fights these days.

During America’s long golden age as a country, the military typically abstained from politics and won wars. But in the decaying Globalist American Empire, the military plays a very different role. Protecting America and winning conflicts isn’t the military’s goal at all. Instead, the armed forces have become a skinsuit. This once-great institution has been repurposed into a vehicle for globalist and left-wing domestic political goals.

The clash between Carlson and the DoD began on Monday. In remarks delivered for the Communist holiday of International Women’s Day, Biden boasted of how he and President Obama had worked to make the military a fully gender-neutral body:

I’m incredibly proud that in 2015, under the Obama-Biden administration, we took the final steps to open up all positions in the military to anyone qualified to serve in them. The women who join today’s military aren’t told “no” when they apply to fly fighter jets or attack helicopters just because of their gender. They aren’t told “no” when they want to apply to Ranger School or infantry officer basic training. [White House]

Biden bragged that it is easier than ever for pregnant women, and women who care about their appearance, to serve in the armed forces.

We’re making good progress designing body armor that fits women properly; tailoring combat uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits; updating — updating requirements for their hairstyles.

And Biden said, overtly, that his administration would be fighting to change the military to make it more feminine, a place where a woman trying to become a general is as easy to understand as a woman becoming a teacher or a nurse.

And some of it is going to take — and — you know, an intensity of purpose and mission to really change the culture and habits that cause women to leave the military: That women are — making sure more diverse candidates are considering — being considered for career-advancing opportunities at every single level. That women aren’t penalized in their careers for having children. That women aren’t just token members, but integral parts throughout all branches and all divisions.

In response, on Tuesday night, Tucker Carlson said what any American would have said 50 years ago, and what every reasonable person still believes now: That making the military more feminine makes it weaker, not stronger, and that carving out new rules so that pregnant women can serve (while keeping their hairstyles and painted nails to boot) is grotesque.

Nothing Carlson said is insane, or even particularly notable. What’s notable is the shrill, borderline ridiculous response from the once-apolitical Defense establishment.

That’s not a screencap from DNC, or Slate, or the Center for American Progress. That’s a screencap from Defense.gov, an official website of the American military. It should be disturbing to anybody who cares about the military’s overall efficacy. How can anyone feel confidence in a military that writes headlines about it “smiting” TV talking heads who “dissed” it?

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Oh, some care. Just not anyone in SloJoe’s administration.

Nancy Pelosi’s Capitol pawns

Have we really reached the point where National Guard soldiers in their third month of protecting the Capitol are poisoned with rotten food, worms and metal shavings and no one cares?

The contempt shown to these soldiers by their Washington, DC, masters is as sickening as the rancid slop they’ve been served.

Barstool Sports last week was the first to publish stomach-churning photos of raw chicken and beef, moldy bread rolls and rotten fruit, along with firsthand complaints from anonymous soldiers.

At least 50 soldiers were struck ill with “gastrointestinal complaints” after eating the meals and several required hospital treatment.

It’s not as if the troops are in a hardship posting like Afghanistan. Where is the respect?

It was bad enough when they were thrown out of the Capitol into a freezing garage in January.

These soldiers have left jobs and families to protect lawmakers in their nation’s capital, however ­politicized that duty is.

Do any lawmakers care about them? Sure a few members of Congress have huffed and puffed.

But no one will explain why they still are there, guarding a Capitol walled off by razor wire, other than as human props in a narrative concocted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Dems to traduce their political opponents.

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Remains of Emil Kapaun, Kansas priest who died a prisoner of war, have been identified

The remains of Father Emil Kapaun, a Kansas native and Catholic priest who died while a prisoner of war, have been identified by military officials.

Sen. Jerry Moran announced Thursday that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency of the Department of Defense has identified Kapaun’s remains. As of Thursday evening, Kapaun was not listed by the agency among the names of people who have recently been accounted for.

“This evening I was notified that the remains of Marion County-native Father Emil Kapaun, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, have been identified,” Moran said in a statement. “Father Kapaun served as an Army Chaplain during WWII and the Korean War, and was taken as a Prisoner of War in 1951. He continued to minister to Americans as a POW before passing away on May 23, 1951.

“In 2011, I introduced legislation to bestow Father Kapaun with the Presidential Medal of Honor, which was awarded in 2013. In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Father Kapaun a Servant of God, the first step toward sainthood. I am glad that his family has finally been granted closure after Father Kapaun’s selfless service to our nation.”

According to the U.S. Army, Kapaun was a chaplain with the rank of captain in the 8th Cavalry Regiment. During the Battle of Unsan, Kapaun ran from foxhole to foxhole while under fire to provide comfort to soldiers. He helped wounded soldiers to safety, but stayed behind himself in order to care for others. He was then captured by Chinese forces in November 1950.

 

The Stand Down Order Raises Questions

In early February, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a stand-down order of sixty days for all of the armed forces. Such an order will enable military officers to make sure there are no extremists in their units.

This stand-down order was issued in response to the January 6 Capitol riot, during which military veterans and even active-duty military personnel were said to have participated in the violence.

Meanwhile, National Guard units are still being deployed in Washington, D.C. to thwart any potential violence, and will be leaving sometime in March. Ironically, some liberals have speculated that these units might have extremists among their ranks. In addition, extra security measures (e.g. concrete walls, fencing) have been taken, particularly for Inauguration Day.

So how exactly will the military determine if there are any extremists within their ranks? Obviously, background checks are conducted on all individuals who want to join the military, so that would eliminate any chances of extremists serving in the armed forces.

Is this stand-down order necessary, or is it a knee-jerk reaction to the events of January 6?

It is apparent that liberals have not always cared much for the military,
considering all the cutbacks that they have imposed or proposed over the years.
And given the fallout from the Capitol riot, some of them are afraid of a possible coup, perhaps even one similar to that depicted in the film Seven Days in May, or possibly military coups that have taken place in other countries.

But liberals are probably concerned about an insurrection from the American people themselves, which is why Parler has been shut down and criticism of liberals on social media can result in one’s posts being removed, or possibly their account(s) being suspended or even terminated.

Needless to say, liberals are apparently not going to tolerate any type of criticism or questioning of their policies. Such intolerance is evident when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez advocated the “reprograming” of those she considers to be white supremacist or extremist.

If her idea of reprograming is adopted, I wonder if the government will start off by implementing it on all military personnel.

And how exactly will such reprograming be implementing? Re-education camps (similar to those in communist nations)? Brainwashing? Indoctrination? Mind- control?

Is it clear that liberals do not trust the American people, given their contempt for America. And that is why they need to be voted out, starting with the 2022 elections.

I have the honor of being acquainted with Chief Durant, along with some of the other pilots who served in the 160th, and elsewhere.

Desert Storm 30th anniversary: Mike Durant

Feb. 28 marks the 30-year anniversary of the end of the Gulf War – a nearly 7-month battle resulting in almost 300 American deaths.

Mike Durant had, as the saying goes, “a front-row seat to history”.

Long before he became a renowned master aviator, best-selling author, husband and father of six, Durant was a kid growing up with a younger sister in a working-class family in Berlin, northern New Hampshire.

One summer, he worked for an Army National Guard warrant officer who owned a small aviation business with some helicopters and airplanes in his home state. “I got to go flying with him over the White Mountains in New Hampshire. It was the most amazing thing I had experienced at that point in my life and, from that moment on, set my sights on becoming a warrant officer and flying helicopters in the Army.”

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Alabama military plane crash leaves 2 dead
The crashed plane was a two-seat T-38 jet assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing based out of Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi

Two pilots flying a training mission were killed Friday when a military jet crashed near Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama, the U.S. Air Force confirmed.

The two-seat T-38 jet, assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing based out of Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, went down around 5:30 p.m. near Dannelly Field in Montgomery. The Alabama Air National Guard also maintains a base there, Montgomery’s Emergency Management Agency Director Christina Thornton told Fox News on Friday evening.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two pilots involved in this incident,” Col. Seth Graham, 14th Flying Training Wing commander, said in a statement. “There are no words that can describe the sadness that accompanies the loss of our teammates.”

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