BLUF:
As Shijian-21’s recent actions demonstrate, there is a pressing need for the United States to be able to defend its assets in distant orbit. It’s likely we could see similar shows of force in the near term as Space Force responds to other nations’ demonstrations of “killer” satellite capabilities.
A Chinese Satellite Just Grappled Another And Pulled It Out Of Orbit.
When I made my last career move to the Newport News areas back in late ’09, actual construction on the Ford was just beginning.
12+ years later………….
The Navy’s costliest warship finally has all the elevators needed to lift bombs from below its deck so it can deploy on its first operational patrol — more than four and a half years after delivery.
The service has announced that the 11th and final Advanced Weapons Elevator is in place on the $13.3 billion USS Gerald R. Ford and the aircraft carrier is ready for training and operations.
“This is a significant milestone for the Navy, ship and her crew,” Rear Admiral James Downey, the Navy’s program executive officer for aircraft carriers, said in a statement. “We now have the entire system to operate and train with.” He said the service and the prime contractor, Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., used “hundreds of craftsmen, technicians and engineers, working around the clock –through multiple underway and holiday periods — to get these advanced systems on line and operational.”
The Navy took delivery of the first in the Ford class of carriers in May 2017, praising the “newest, most capable, most advanced warship” and saying it was “expected to be operational in 2020.” The service didn’t disclose that none of the 11 elevators were operational, much less installed, until Bloomberg News reported the problem in November 2018.
“I recognize the extraordinary effort that it has taken to finish all 11 of these elevators, but this effort should not have been necessary,” Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the most vocal congressional critic of the Navy on the issue, said in a statement.
The carrier ultimately was delivered “six years late and $2.8 billion over budget,” Inhofe said.
The delay to fix the elevators and resolve other issues “has lengthened a period during which the Navy is attempting to maintain policy maker-desired levels of carrier forward deployments with its 10 other carriers,” the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a report this month.
Inhofe put it more bluntly. He said the delay has forced other ships and crews to deploy “longer and more often,” as well as causing gaps in the Navy’s global “presence when no carrier could deploy, at a time when naval presence and capability could not be more critical for our national security.”
Perhaps the only positive outcome of the weapons elevator delays is “development of what the Navy and the shipyard should have had from the very beginning — a Ford-class plan for the development, building, installation and operational training” that’s now needed to avoid such mistakes on the second ship in the four-vessel class, the USS John F. Kennedy, said Mike Fabey, author of “Heavy Metal: The Hard Days and Nights of the Shipyard Workers Who Build America’s Supercarriers.”
A U.S. Navy combat ship is stranded in Guantánamo Bay with a virus outbreak.
‘Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink’……….
US Navy Seizes 1,400 AK-47s, Over 226K Rounds Of Ammunition From Iranian Ship
The U.S. Navy seized over 1,400 AK-47 rifles and 226,600 rounds of ammunition from an Iranian ship bound for Yemen in the North Arabian Sea, the State Department reported.
The seizure occurred on Dec. 20 when U.S. Naval forces identified a stateless fishing vessel, according to the State Department.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said the vessel was traveling along a route previously used by smugglers who were trafficking weapons to the Houthis in Yemen in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions and U.S. sanctions.
BLUF:
The intentionally muddy writing shouldn’t obscure that this is a plan for a military coup. The Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S. Code § 1385, prevents the military from acting as a police force within the U.S. under all but the most limited of circumstances. If the Defense Department is unilaterally planning to take over “any agency that works hand in hand with the military” to ensure progressives remain in power if the next election is contested, then our modern military will have recast itself in the mold of a Third World military junta.
Three Retired Generals Loudly Demand A Military Coup In 2024
Democrats claim that democracy is under attack in America and Democrats must act decisively to protect it. They’ve been trying to end the filibuster, nationalize voting, and pack the Supreme Court. The most ominous “fix,” which hinges on the myth of a “January 6 Insurrection,” sees retired generals argue that the military must purge the ranks of Trump supporters and prepare for a military coup to block a future contested election. This is unconstitutional, illegal, and spells the end of American democracy.
Victor Davis Hanson notes that leftists are loudly worrying about democracy’s end while ignoring all they’ve done to end democracy, such as bringing in millions of illegal aliens, many of whom are being given the vote; destroying centuries-old governing traditions such as the filibuster; packing the court; ending the Electoral College; and more.
If Democrats can kill the Senate filibuster (and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema is the only thing stopping them, not the craven Senator Mitch McConnell), they have the unfettered ability to enshrine vote fraud and pack the Supreme Court. The latter move spells the final—and deeply unconstitutional—progressive rewrite of our Constitution, and ends our constitutional republic.
The wild card in all of this, though, is what would the military do if, in fact, the progressives were able to achieve these goals (or even if they weren’t). Three retired officers have signaled that they want to purge the military of Trump supporters, and then plan a takeover of the military and related federal agencies that coordinate with the military to effect a coup in 2024. Considering the current state of the Pentagon, this may be more than a progressive fantasy.
Thirty years ago, when I was a U.S. Army Infantry Officer, our military was unquestionably a politically neutral, colorblind institution. It was the single most well-integrated institution in our nation and, indeed, was the primary engine integrating our nation. But progressives have done everything they can to turn the military into a dysfunctional machine warped by racial, sexual, and gender identity divisions. This began with Obama, who injected the toxic myth of white supremacy and the tenets of critical race theory.
In 2019, Kyle Smith explained:
A curious thing happened in the second half of the Obama era: The commander-in-chief began viewing the military less as an entity designed to destroy enemies but [sic] a tool with which to achieve progressive goals. Warriors were turned into social-justice warriors. Men and women with risible-to-nonexistent military records were made heads of the services. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus (who had logged all of two years’ service as a junior officer) named ships after Cesar Chavez and Harvey Milk.
Obama also purged the military of any flag rank officer not reliably progressive, a process Andrea Widburg document at her blog and at American Thinker (here and here). Those who remain today are nothing but progressive race hustlers, such as the odious Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, or traitorous politicians in uniform, such as General Mark “white rage” Milley.
Enter now three retired U.S. Army Generals: Major Generals Paul D. Eaton and Antonio M. Taguba and Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson (“the Three”). In a Washington Post opinion piece, “3 retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection,” they contend that events in 2020 revealed an incipient military coup and that, to save our nation, the U.S. military must act preemptively—radically and unilaterally. What they write should frighten every American.
I’m afraid it’s going to take a serious war with a ‘peer opponent’ (read that as Russia and/or China) with massive amounts of American blood spilled, to get these morons, and their idiotic ‘woke’ mentality excised from the military, along with the politicians who thought up this BS.
Vice Chair JCOS Nominee Cool With Gender Advisers
The top brass of the United States Military are all genuinely committed to never winning another war, ever again. This will not surprise those of us who have been alive long enough to remember the incompetent and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal last August. Still, it is jarring to hear a Navy Flag Officer, nominated to be the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say that “gender advisers” for combat troops are critical to mission success.
“Gender advisers” come from the 2017 Women, Peace and Security Act passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Donald Trump (I am weeping openly just typing that).
This bill expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the United States should be a global leader in promoting the participation of women in conflict prevention, management, and resolution and post-conflict relief and recovery efforts; (2) the political participation and leadership of women in fragile environments, particularly during democratic transitions, is critical to sustaining democratic institutions; and (3) the participation of women in conflict prevention and conflict resolution helps promote more inclusive and democratic societies and is critical to country and regional stability.
(Sec. 5) The President, within one year after enactment of this bill and again four years later, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees and make public a Women, Peace, and Security Strategy, which shall:
be aligned with other nations’ plans to improve the participation of women in peace and security processes, conflict prevention, peace building, and decision-making institutions; and
include goals and evaluation plans to ensure strategy effectiveness.
Such a strategy shall include a specific implementation plan from each relevant federal agency.The President is urged to promote women’s participation in conflict prevention.
In addition to breaking my heart that Donald Trump signed this Bill into law, then Representative, now Governor, Kristi Noem sponsored the bill in the House. We have long suspected Kristi was a squish. Now, most of think qualified women should be included in all endeavors where they are needed, but why, in the name of homemade sin, does the military need gender advisers? We have women at every level of the U.S. Military. Are they not capable of advising? Are there not men in the U.S. military who value the perspective of women and can advise on the value of that perspective? This excrement is crazy making.
When I want to know whether military excrement is real, I search the Army War College website. Here is the description for the Gender Adviser course at the Army WAR College:
The military is committed to never winning another war, ever again. Can you see Admirals David Farrugut or Chester Nimitz being down with a Gender Adviser? Admiral Christopher Grady is down with the Gender Advisers. He’ll be out there bleating, “Damn the guided missiles. Get me the Gender Advisers.”. Joe Biden’s nominee to be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said as much in his Senate Armed Services Committee Confirmation hearing. From the Washington Free Beacon:
President Joe Biden’s nominee for the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Senate “gender advisers” for combat troops are critical to the United States’ success, a position some veterans say is nothing more than a left-wing initiative that distracts from the military’s core duties.
The revelation came during a Dec. 8 exchange with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.), who asked how Adm. Christopher Grady intends to implement “women, peace, and security” legislation within the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“The role of a gender adviser is a way to attack a very significant issue, and if confirmed, I look forward to leveraging those advisers who can make me think better and smarter about the issues that you raise,” Grady said. “So I look forward to, if confirmed, understanding that ecosystem and helping advance that cause going forward again.”
Do you think Admiral Grady was always this much of a pussy-footing, tea drinker, or is he saying whatever he has to say to get a job? Whatevs! He will fit right in General Mark “White Rage” Milley. Watch and despair as Grady sucks up openly to Senator Jean Shaheen, Senator sponsor of the Women, Peace and Security Act:
Intercede for us, General Patton. This is exactly what President/General Eisenhower meant by the Military Industrial Complex. Let’s get troops killed. Let’s leave $80 million in equipment for our enemy to use against us, but our gender advisers will put gold stars on our daily reports to the Pentagon. My favorite Twitter response regarding Admiral Grady:
This response from a Purple Heart recipient is where I stand:
“When someone nominated to be the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says something like this, it tells me top brass is aligned with radical political elements in the country,” he said. “You have people’s lives on the line. These positions aren’t about how to communicate with Afghan women, we have a diplomatic corps for that.”
As for Gender Advisers help with domestic issues, I can handle that in less than a 40 hour course:
1. Do your job.
2. Be respectful to everyone
3. Keep your hands to yourself.
4. Don’t defecate where you eat.
5. Kill the enemy and have your battle buddy’s back.
Please let me know if I missed anything. I really want a job as a Gender Adviser. Sounds like a sweet gig. And, I would love to see our military win, every time.
Three soldiers to be awarded Medals of Honor
Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe died from burns he sustained in Iraq in 2005. He was pulling 7 people one-by-one from a tank that caught on fire after it hit an IED.
Master Sgt. Earl Plumlee is a Green Beret who fended off multiple attackers who had blown a hole in his base’s perimeter in Afghanistan in 2013.
Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Celiz, an Army Ranger, was killed in 2018 while providing security for a medical evacuation flight also in Afghanistan.
The awards will represent the 19th and 20th Medals of Honor for actions in Afghanistan and the 7th for the Iraqi theatre.
House Passes 2022 NDAA with Red Flag Law Language Removed
The House of Representatives passed a final version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Tuesday night which does not contain the red flag law language present in the original.
The Washington Post reported that the NDAA passed Tuesday by vote of 363 to 70. Following the vote the NRA tweeted:
BREAKING: U.S. House just passed a revised version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which notably DOES NOT INCLUDE unconstitutional red flag laws for military personnel.
The bill now awaits action in the U.S. Senate, which is expected in coming days. Stay tuned.
— NRA (@NRA) December 8, 2021
On September 25, 2021, Breitbart News noted the initial 2022 NDAA legislation passed House with red flag law language applicable to service men and women. The 2022 NDAA contained a provision authorizing military courts to issue orders restraining military personnel from “possessing, receiving, or otherwise accessing a firearm.”
The provision for prohibiting gun possession is contained in Section 529 of the 2022 NDAA. That section was titled, “Authority Of Military Judges And Military Magistrates To Issue Military Court Protective Orders.”
The specific provision would have given military courts the authority to prohibit gun possession via protective orders in two ways: 1. By giving the subject of the order an “opportunity to be heard on the order.” 2. By issuing the order ex parte.
However, Section 529 in the final version of the 2022 NDAA is completely different, dealing with “exemptions and deferments for a possible military draft.”
BLUF:
As this author has previously pointed out in The Federalist, there is no greater long-term danger to the country than the politicization of the military. For that reason, the military has a culture of not publicly wading into partisan disagreements.
The regrettable direction of the NDU article by the Cyber Center authors creates an unfortunate appearance that this nonpartisan culture may be at risk. These authors have shown little hesitation about wading into partisan thickets. Let us hope that this is an outlier, not a trend.
Four military officers who describe themselves as “researchers” at the Army’s highly respected Cyber Institute have published an article that adds to the growing concern about the ongoing politicization of the military. Published by the military’s National Defense University (NDU), their article purports to analyze the dangers of misinformation and disinformation and to advise the Biden administration about how to counter it.
The article’s authors all are military officers and at least two are professors at West Point. They say their article “is written in response to the Capitol insurrection.”
Ironically, the article is itself misinformation. That this misinformation is published by military officers associated with two highly prestigious institutions, the NDU and the Cyber Institute, makes it all the more inappropriate and dangerous.
Oklahoma files lawsuit over National Guard COVID-19 vaccine mandate
Oklahoma’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all federal employees and the state’s National Guard on Thursday, according to a news release.
The lawsuit asked a federal court to implement a temporary restraining order to halt the enforcement of the vaccine mandate, the news release said.
“Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate ensures that many Oklahoma National Guard members will simply quit instead of getting a vaccine, a situation that will irreparably harm Oklahomans’ safety and security,” said Attorney General John O’Connor. “These patriots, along with many federal employees, who serve their country and their state are now at risk of being terminated because they do not wish to take the vaccine.”
Additionally, the lawsuit asks the court to block the Biden administration from withholding federal funding from the state’s National Guard and its members.
Comment O’ The Day
Tacked on the end: China’s July test of a globe-circling hypersonic vehicle that was able to launch a separate missile while traveling at more than five times the speed of sound alerted Washington that Beijing might have technologies the United States has yet to develop.
But we’re getting pretty good at pronouns.
Inexplicable Phenomena Spur Pentagon to Launch New UFO Investigation Force.
The Pentagon is creating a new office to investigate unidentified flying objects (UFOs) amid concerns that after broad probes it cannot explain mysterious sightings near highly sensitive military areas.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, working with the US director of national intelligence, ordered the new investigatory body to be established in the US Defense Department’s intelligence and security office, the Pentagon said late Tuesday.
The order came five months after a classified US intelligence report on possible alien UFOs came up inconclusive: it could explain some reported incidents but was unable to account for other phenomena, some filmed by pilots near military testing areas.
The new office will focus on incidents in, or near, designated “special use airspace” (SUA) areas strictly controlled and blocked from general aviation due to security sensitivities.
The US military is worried some of the unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) spotted by military pilots in the past may represent technologies of strategic rivals unknown to US scientists.
“Incursions by any airborne object into our SUA pose safety of flight and operations security concerns, and may pose national security challenges,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Defense Department “takes reports of incursions – by any airborne object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one,” it added.
The new office was dubbed the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG), the successor to the US Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.
It will be overseen by a panel of experts from the military and intelligence community.
A mostly classified official review of UFO reports released in June determined that most of around 120 incidents over the past 20 years could be explained and had nothing to do with unknown or secret US or foreign technology.
But it could not explain some beguiling reports and videos made by military personnel.
Last year, the Pentagon released a still inexplicable video taken by navy pilots of objects moving at incredible speeds, spinning and mysteriously disappearing.
China’s July test of a globe-circling hypersonic vehicle that was able to launch a separate missile while traveling at more than five times the speed of sound alerted Washington that Beijing might have technologies the United States has yet to develop.
‘Creating a database’ really isn’t doing much of anything except dilly-dallying around on a computer.
Pentagon Ratcheting Up Efforts to Get Americans Out of Afghanistan.
Without bothering to give its hapless readers any reminders about how and why Americans got stuck in Afghanistan in the first place, NBC News reported Monday that “the Pentagon is stepping up efforts to get family members of U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, creating a database of the dozens who are trapped there.”
That’s terrific, but why now? Why the long delay in moving on this? And why was priority placed on bringing unvetted and unvettable Afghans into the United States rather than getting the Americans out? As usual with Biden’s handlers, no useful answers are forthcoming.
NBC noted that on Thursday, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl “issued a memo asking any U.S. military personnel and DOD civilians with immediate family members who need help leaving Afghanistan to email his office.” Wonderful, but why did it take him two months since the American military withdrawal to do this?
The NBC report also states that “there are still several dozen immediate family members of U.S. service members in Afghanistan, according to defense officials. Those include children, sisters and brothers, and parents. There are well over 100 extended family members still in Afghanistan, but it’s not clear how many of them want to leave the country, the officials said.” Kahl’s new memo demonstrates, according to the unnamed defense official that NBC quotes, “a more deliberate effort at the DOD level” to get these people out. “There is an increased desire to make sure that as we make this push that we have every situation accounted for.”
However, even as this new effort is being made, “the Pentagon does not have a good accounting of how many DOD civilians still have immediate family members in Afghanistan, the officials said.”
That’s inexcusable, as these people are severely threatened. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) wrote to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin: “Over the past month, I have been contacted by hundreds of Texans who are desperately trying to get friends and family members safe out of the country. That includes the family members of several Texans who currently serve in the military. The federal government has turned their backs on them. If we abandon the family members of our service men and women in Afghanistan, they will certainly be slaughtered by the Taliban.”
That’s certainly true, but Biden’s handlers had other priorities. 70,000 Afghan evacuees are already in the U.S., and the total number is expected to exceed 124,000 before long. The foolishness of this, and the howling injustice of prioritizing getting these people out before rescuing all the Americans in the country, is already becoming apparent: one of Biden’s handlers, unnamed in a late October Wall Street Journal report, has admitted that ten of these evacuees have already been detained as risks to national security.
There will be more of that sort of thing. In mid-October, a delegation led by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) arrived at Doha’s Al Udeid Air Base for a briefing on the efforts to get Americans and our allies out of Afghanistan. The briefing, said Issa, was “shocking to a lot of members.” It was shocking because the lawmakers were told that fully 12,000 of the Afghans who had come to Camp As Sayliyah and then went on to the U.S. had no identification at all. Issa stated: “They came with nothing. No Afghan I.D., no I.D. of any sorts. Those people were all forwarded on to the U.S., and that’s quite an admission. So many people had no I.D. whatsoever and yet find themselves in the United States today based on what they said.”
As terrible as this was, it is was in line with what we already knew. Back on September 1, according to Politico, “a State Department official said in a private briefing to reporters that ‘the majority’ of special immigrant visa applicants were left in Afghanistan due in part to the complications of the evacuation, and that he and his team are ‘haunted’ by the evacuees the U.S. could not get out by the Aug. 31 deadline.”
So now it is the second week of November, and there are still Americans trapped in Afghanistan, while there are hundreds of Afghans, natives of a jihadi hotspot, who have walked off bases and are now somewhere in the United States, but no one knows where. What’s more, there are thousands of others who are here or on their way here, about whom we know absolutely nothing. Could they be jihad terrorists? We’re likely to find out eventually.
And as this fiasco is unfolding, Biden’s handlers are only now starting to get to work on getting the remaining Americans out of Afghanistan. If there weren’t so much other evidence of the malevolence and incompetence of this administration, all this might actually be shocking.
The Navy can’t put out a fire on a carrier – USS Bonhomme Richard – or avoid running submarines aground on undersea mountains –
USS Connecticut – but it can name a ship after a homosexual activist and advocate of the People’s Temple and the murderous Jim Jones, who preyed on teenage runaways, and find a transvestite homosexual veteran to christen it.
NEW – U.S. Navy names ship after gay rights leader Harvey Milk and it's christened by a transgender veteran.@disclosetv pic.twitter.com/7cHAxNv20J
— Silent Majority (@PatrioticCougar) November 7, 2021
Pray that when – not if, with BS like this, when – the time comes that China decides to take Taiwan, that they can take care of themselves because we’re certainly not going to be much, if any, help.
Observation O’ The Day
You can either train on combat tactics or teach gender inclusivity/critical race theory.
And this was the Marine Corps, advertised as the elite U.S. combat infantry.
So, consider this; If nothing changes and one day everything ever does goes south and the goobermint believes they can use the military against us, we just might have a solid chance at victory.
British forces took part in a five-day mock battle at the US Marine Corps Twentynine Palms base in southern California, one of the largest military training areas in the world, and achieved a decisive victory against their American counterparts.
The Royal Marines, along with allied forces from Canada, the Netherlands and the UAE, destroyed or rendered inoperable nearly every US asset and finished the exercise holding more than 65 per cent of the training area, after beginning with less than 20 per cent.
Combatants used paintball-style training ammunition, which fires with reduced pressure and velocity, along with hi-tech simulators for heavier firepower like artillery, and live ammo on expansive ranges.
Seeing no opportunity for victory, American combatants asked for the exercise to be ‘reset’ halfway through the five-day exercise, having taken significant casualties from British commandos.
Yes, there are bureaucraps in the military. I can confirm that because I had to deal with them from time to time, and all they managed to do was make my job harder to get done.
Senior US General Says ‘Brutal’ Bureaucracy Preventing Military From Countering China
The United States’ ability to develop military technologies is being hamstrung by a “brutal” bureaucracy with a risk-averse culture which is preventing it from adequately countering China’s arms development, according to the Pentagon’s second-highest-ranking officer.
“The pace [China is] moving and the trajectory that they’re on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don’t do something to change it,” said Gen. John Hyten, outgoing vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Defense Writers Group meeting on Oct. 28.
“It will happen.”
Hyten, who is soon due to retire, lamented the slow turnaround time for research and development in the U.S. military. He noted that the average time he expected new projects to take was 10-15 years. That process goes even longer at times if there is cause for significant oversight, he said.
The deadline is looming for US Air Force personnel to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and many thousands are still refusing, according to the latest reports. For many at this point, it’s also too late to receive both jabs by the next Tuesday, Nov. 2 deadline. Other branches like the Navy have deadlines coming later in November, but the Air Force will be the first test case as it set the earliest deadline.
The Washington Post is now at the end of the week reporting that up to 12,000 Air Force personnel are still declining the vaccine, causing alarm within the top chain of command who are worried it will impact force readiness, particularly as some forces in key positions face discharge over their vax refusal. “The fact that it’s a choice leading to potential loss to readiness is striking,” a military policy analyst with the Center for a New American Security Katherine L. Kuzminski, told the Post.
US Army commissions 300-kW, target-tracking laser weapon.
General Atomics and Boeing have won a US Army contract to prototype their most powerful distributed-gain laser weapon to date: a groundbreaking 300-kW, solid-state, target-tracking beast that could fry enemy missiles and aircraft out of the air.
The enormous speed advantage of a hypersonic missile means a lot less when you can shoot it down with an energy beam traveling at the speed of light. If a tracking system can keep it pointed in the right direction – which shouldn’t be too hard with a target traveling in a straight line, no matter how fast – a powerful laser can cause crippling damage, melting metal surfaces to play havoc with aerodynamics, and destroying onboard electronics.
Just look what Lockheed Martin’s 30-kW optical fiber laser did to the hood and engine of a truck within a couple of seconds, during a public demonstration back in 2015:
The laser disabled the engine and drivetrain
Marine Who Was Imprisoned for Speaking Against Afghanistan Incompetence Receives Surprise Sentence.
Some weeks ago, RedState reported on Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller’s imprisonment. After violating a gag order to speak against the rank incompetence that led to Joe Biden’s deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, Scheller was thrown into the brig pending a hearing. Later, he was hit with multiple charges stemming from his conduct.
Now, the court-martial is over, and the results are somewhat surprising. Most thought the judge, Col. Glen Hines, would throw the book at him, as covering for the failures of military leadership has become a common occurrence. Yet, Scheller was given a fairly light sentence, which included a letter of reprimand and a forfeiture of $5,000 pay over the course of a single month. Further, the judge blasted command for the pre-trial detention and for leaking records to try to make the defendant look bad.
This, via the Marine Corps Times.
But the Corps’ proposed punishment for Scheller’s transgressions, for which everyone in the courtroom agreed he should be held accountable, paled in comparison to the mitigating factors, Hines explained.
In a trial where post-sentencing time in the brig was not even an option, the command’s decision to lock Scheller up while awaiting trial was “a very rare thing,” Hines said.
He also revealed that the Marine signed his plea agreement while in the brig.
Hines blasted apparent leaks of documents that included Scheller’s medical records, as attorney Parlatore claimed at trial, as “very disturbing,” “unfair” and “illegal.”
The ultimate punishment was far below what prosecutors had sought, which was forfeiture of $5,000 pay a month for six months. Scheller will now be honorably discharged and enter into civilian life, which was apparently his goal anyway, given his disgust with command.
Still, the prosecution acting on behalf of the Marine Corps stepped out of line here. There was no justification to lock Scheller up pre-trial. He was not a flight risk, and there was no reason to believe him to be dangerous, though the prosecution tried to paint him as such in their charging documents.
This was an attempted rail-roading that was headed off by a clear-minded judge who saw what was happening. That speaks to a deep rot still existent within the military.
In the end, Scheller paid the price that should have been paid, in my view. He knew when he put those videos out that there would be consequences for breaking the UCMJ, and at no point did he try to run from those consequences. But there was no reason to try to destroy his life and present him as a dangerous, deluded man — simply because he had the courage to speak against leadership that had failed him, the military, and the country.
Why the Army thinks a French Manicure is an “obnoxious” color compared to the civilian world which views it as an understated yet professional look is beyond me. But I have to be in uniform tomorrow, so here we are. It looked nice while it lasted. pic.twitter.com/GOxjDHbROR
— Maj. Gen. Jo Clyborne (@joclyborne) October 15, 2021
May be just me, but it appears everybody is pointing their fingers at everybody else trying to throw them ‘under the bus’.
Comment O’ The Day:
As soon as Nancy Pelosi contacted General Milley about nuclear weapon procedures, he should have politely referred her to the Secretary of Defense and immediately reported the call to his boss,[actually that’s the President, and then to ] the SecDef.
Because of civilian control over the military, the decision to employ WMDs is a political decision… the military carries out the orders. Therefore, Pelosi as a civilian should only be talking to DoD civilians about defense procedures.
She was WAY out of line making the call, and Milley was derelict in answering her questions.
Milley Details Nancy Pelosi’s Attempt to Take Over the Chain-of-Command
During his opening statement in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning, General Mark Milley denied inappropriate phone calls with the Chinese military and tried to reassure Americans he is dedicated to civilian control of the military.
“I am specifically directed to communicate with the Chinese. These military to military communications at the highest level are critical to the security of the United States,” Milley said. “My loyalty to this Nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed, and will never change, as long as I have a breath to give. My loyalty is absolute, and I will not turn my back on the fallen.”
“I firmly believe in civilian control of the military,” he continued.
Milley also stressed that he does not believe President Donald Trump planned to attack the Chinese in the final days of his presidency.
General Milley defends his calls with China:
"My loyalty to this Nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn't changed, and will never change, as long as I have a breath to give. My loyalty is absolute, and I will not turn my back on the fallen." pic.twitter.com/fglOolPlHZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 28, 2021
In his remarks, Milley also addressed a phone call from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 8, 2021, in which she pressed him about the process to launch a nuclear weapon. Milley says he informed her that while launching such a weapon requires multiple people in the chain of command, the president is the sole authority to launch an attack.
“Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the president’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president [President Trump]. I explained to her the president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn’t launch them alone and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the President of the United States,” Milley said. “There are processes, protocols and procedures in place and I repeatedly assured her there was no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch. By presidential directive, and Secretary of Defense directive, the chairman is part of the process to ensure the president is fully informed when determining the use of the world’s deadliest weapons. By law, I’m not in the chain of command and I know that. However, by presidential directive and DOD instruction, I am in the chain of communication to fulfill my legal, statutory role as the president’s primary military advisor.”
General Milley details his call with Speaker Pelosi: pic.twitter.com/UkCodaMiak
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 28, 2021
Milley said after the call from Pelosi, he convened a meeting with his staff to go through the process and procedures. He also told Acting Secretary of Defense Mark Miller about Pelosi’s call.
“At no time was I trying to change or influence the process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain-of-command,” Milley said.