Warrior Woman


Female soldiers are particularly vital in this war. Most Afghan women will not talk to a male stranger. So if an American patrol wants to glean information

I stand short but tall
Shoulders narrow but squared
Armor at the ready
Weapons stowed within reach
Trained for the moment
When you breach
… My defenses
My smile slides into place
Fooling you into thinking
I’m easily taken
My gentle curves
And slight stature
Make me seem like easy prey
To those who would seek to conquer
 But when the battle you seek is done
You’ll find yourself bloody and vulnerable
Your weaknesses exposed
Your losses incalculable
And you’ll wonder how you missed
This tiny woman, as you saw me,
Held the strength of a
Battle hardened warrior.
~T.L. Cooper.

More: Murphy’s Laws of Combat


Here are some additional  “Laws” I found via Google image search. There’s a page missing and I’ve noticed a few repeats from my first post of Murphy’s Laws of Combat along with quite a few new ones. Enjoy!

Dance Party in Iraq


Here’s another video of our troops enjoying some downtime. This time it’s the Army in the Iraq theater.  This one starts off a little slow, give it 30-40 seconds. The main of it is Soldiers dancing to “Electric Avenue.”  🙂  Enjoy! 

iraq
iraq (Photo credit: The U.S. Army)

US Navy Adds Intense Creative Writing Course To SEAL Training


via Duffel Blog

THE PENTAGON — Navy officials announced the extension of Navy SEAL training by one week, adding a grueling 40 hours of creative writing classes to the already intense selection program, Duffel Blog has learned.

The new course material would be introduced immediately, following the Land Warfare phase. After final combat testing, the sailors would move back to the Coronado training facility, where they would receive classroom instruction on the proper use of tense and first vs. third person narrative.

After demanding writing exercises, those SEALs who survive will move on to acting classes, where they will be drilled on how to look coolest when they star as themselves in a made-for-TV movie. They will then be put through two days of mock TV interviews, simulating an intense book promotion tour.

During the interview, sources confirmed SEAL candidates would be trained to glorify themselves as much as possible without looking like self-centered assholes. This portion of the course was described by one of the first students as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Adm. William McRaven, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, was very enthusiastic about the change.

“These new kids coming up in the [SEAL] teams are already planning their first novel before they even graduate BUD/S. The problem is that most of them write like a gorilla with Down Syndrome, and it’s embarrassing to the entire Navy.”

“Lone Survivor, The Trident, Navy SEAL Sniper, The Warrior Elite, Suffer in Silence, Warrior Soul, American Sniper,”McRaven said, pointing to a coffee table filled with SEAL novels. “All of them read like a 9th grade English report had a retarded baby with a bad 1940’s war movie. And don’t even get me started on Rogue Warrior. That literary abortion made my eyes bleed.”

The Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) course, believed by many to be one of the most difficult initial selection programs in the U.S. military, prepares sailors to be a Navy SEAL. As the deluge of novels, magazine, TV and movie appearances have shown, the only people more enthralled with the elite forces than those in Hollywood are Navy SEALs themselves.

McRaven pointed to a memo he was drafting. “I’m also working on an addition to their contracts that states they can never use the word ‘Warrior’ in a title again. I’m sick of that shit.”

At press time, the Navy had also announced the addition of another class to BUD/S called “Speedy Publishing Techniques,” after the revelation that there were only three SEAL books released in the last month, including the acclaimed best seller “Unshaveable: A Navy SEAL’s Guide to Hygiene.”

 

 We are in no way, shape, or form, a real news outlet. Everything on this website is satirical and the content of this site is a parody of a news organization. No composition should be regarded as truthful, and no reference of an individual, company, or military unit seeks to inflict malice or emotional harm.

All characters, groups, and military units appearing in these works are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or actual military units and companies is purely coincidental.

BOWE BERGDAHL, AMERICAN POW IN US CUSTODY!


US POW HAS BEEN RELEASED! HE IS IN THE CUSTODY OF THE UNITED STATES! HE’S COMING HOME!

If anyone wants to welcome Bowe home, his support blog is here on WordPress! Leave a message for him there! 

KEEP LIT FOR BOWE

POW Since Tuesday 30 June  2009

NEVER FORGET

LEAVE NO MAN BEHIND

English: WAITING INTERROGATION,199th LT INF BG...
English: WAITING INTERROGATION,199th LT INF BG, Watercolor, by James Pollock, CAT IV, 1967, Courtesy of the National Museum of the U.S. Army (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

June is PTSD Awareness Month


June is #PTSD Awareness Month. We encourage you to spread the word about PTSD and effective PTSD treatment. Here’s how. (6 Ways printable PDF).

 Note:  This site offers links to resources and venues for veterans and their families/friends.   Any opinions expressed herein are solely the opinions of the website administration and are not a substitute or supplement for professional treatment.

Men sitting with backs towards camera.

Learn: PTSD Treatment Can Help

  1. Discover the facts.
    Start with PTSD Basics, key information about trauma, PTSD and treatment options. For a more advanced overview, watch our PTSD 101 Course: PTSD Overview. We offer many free, in-depth Continuing Education Courses for Professionals as well.
  2. Watch and learn.
    Take the mystery out of PTSD treatment. Hear from Veterans and their clinicians at AboutFace. Or, take advantage of technology with PTSD Coach Online ormobile apps to help you manage PTSD symptoms.
Hands holding hands

Connect: Reach Out to Someone

  1. Work together.
    Promote PTSD Awareness Month with us! We havepromotional materials to help you organize event or pass along information on PTSD and effective treatments.
  2. Help someone. Help yourself.
    Do you want to find out if you have PTSD or talk about treatment options? Take action for yourself or someone you care about. Learn where to get help for PTSD.
Woman petting a horse

Share: Spread the Word!

  1. Give support. Get Support. It can be hard to reach out for help. Read tips on how to overcome barriers to care, and know that there is support for family and friendstoo.
  2. Share what you learn. 
    Stay up-to-date and ask us questions about PTSD onFacebook or Twitter. If you prefer email, subscribe to any of our publications: PTSD Monthly Update, Clinician’s Trauma Update-Online, or PTSD Research Quarterly.

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A 55-Year-Old Man Just Graduated Army Basic Training


At an age when most baby boomers might be looking ahead to retirement, 55-year-old John Taffe has been running, low-crawling and doing pushups at Army basic combat training for the past 2 1/2-months.

 Taffe, of Alameda, California, finished basic training on Thursday at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, making him one of the oldest recruits to do so, NBC Bay Area reports.

It’s certainly an unusual case, as most new joins to the military come straight of high school or college. But Taffe, now a Sergeant First Class (E-7) due to prior active-duty service in the Navy, had wanted to get back in since 9/11.

“After 9/11 I really felt compelled to rejoin the military, but the organization I worked for was not supportive of the idea,” Taffe told NBC. “It wasn’t until almost 14 years later that the opportunity presented itself again while I was exploring other positions within the government. At this time my only choice was the U.S. Army due to my age.”

He just made the cutoff. Army regulations require a waiver for soldiers over the age of 55, but Taffe enlisted 36 hours prior to his birthday, according to the Army. Since he joined the Army Reserve, he’ll return to the Bay Area next week and resume his job as a security specialist for the Coast Guard, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“I don’t think I have ever sent a Soldier to Basic Combat Training who could outrank his drill sergeants,” Taffe’s recruiter, Sgt. 1st Class Jeremy Karr, told Army Public Affairs.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/55-year-old-man-soldier-2014-5#ixzz33H3FsWn0

War Stories: Flying the Hump


On May 29, 1941 the US Army created the Air Corps Ferrying Command. Out of this small organization grew the US Air Transport Command, under the command of Maj. Gen. Harold L. George.
“It seems almost incredible,” Gen. William H. Tunner remarked in his memoirs, “that up until three o’clock in the afternoon of May 29,1941, there was no organization of any kind in American military aviation to provide for either delivery of planes or air transport of materiel.” Read more

A NOTE ON THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE


Each Fourth of July we’re reminded of courageous men who risked everything  over 225 years ago. On a hot and muggy Philadelphia day, they put forth a document that would define a new, American nation-one not based on race, creed or religion, but on the principles of Liberty, Freedom, and of a government deriving its power from the “consent of the governed.” Read more

War Dog Stories: ‘NERVOUS DOG’


First assault wave of Marines take cover prior...
First assault wave of Marines take cover prior to moving inland during the 1944 Battle of Guam. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

#fidofriday

By Van D. Shurts. 4CP

If there can be halcyon days in a war, I guess we had ours on Guam in 1944. Battle halcyon days. We had whipped the Japanese something pitiful, and their top-dog generals had all committed harikari, taking their staffs with them in the most honorable of conditions using knives stuck in their livers or grenades against their heads.

Supplies came to our area like a flood. It was on Guam, after the fighting had subsided, everything we needed and a lot we didn’t need kept coming to us: barrels of gasoline and boxes of napalm crystals, cases of grenades, good old 10-in-l rations (we could eat all 10 in one day if we wanted to), socks, shorts and pork and beans.

One day we had to destroy several cases of grenades by unscrewing the fuzes and letting them detonate after emptying the shells. No one wanted the grenades, and it wasn’t safe to leave them alive. Trade was brisk with the rear echelon people who came up to the front looking for souvenirs. What Japanese trinkets we could find we sold or bartered for booze. Word was passed throughout the island telling everyone not to wander in the jungle for fear of being killed by the Marines. We weren’t trigger happy but sometimes our dogs would sniff a Marine the same as a Jap. If some Marine souvenir hunter was out he might be sniffed and shot before he finished. The jungle was dense with a lot of thicket and I’m sure a lot of Japs temporarily survived our patrols by laying among some dead and looking dead.

We had to shoot one of our dogs one day. Most of them were Doberman Pinchers, black, lean and tall. Dogs were assigned to a handler on a one-to-one basis and were not to be petted or fooled with by anyone else. This dog was a female, and I guess she finally got so high-strung with all the Jap smells, the shooting, the blood and excitement and all that, that one day when she spotted a Jap who had just stood up out of the brush with his hands up she charged. She lunged so hard she pulled her tether out of her handler’s grip and loped straight at the Jap. At the height of her leap toward the Jap’s head, the BARs roared and the dog dropped along with the Jap. A round had passed through her body but she was still alive when carried out on a stretcher. The guys were real sorry it happened; some had tears in their eyes. The Jap was left where he fell.

Raising the flag at Guam
Raising the flag at Guam (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source:  http://uswardogsmemorial.org/id26.html

Mother Turns Fallen Soldiers’ Uniforms Into Teddy Bears For The Families They Left Behind


matthew-freeman-project-soldier-uniform-teddy-bears-6

The tragic loss of a loved one is a difficult thing for any of us to swallow, especially for children – and if they lose a parent, the pain can be especially hard to deal with. In an effort to cope with the pain of losing her son during his service in Afghanistan, and to help other families heal after their war-time losses, proud Georgia mother Lisa Freeman creates teddy bears for the children of lost servicemen and women out of the cloth of their uniforms.

The project, called Matthew Bears, was born some time after she tragically lost her own son, Matthew Freeman, to enemy fire in Afghanistan in 2009. Any family that has lost a member in service can send the service member’s uniform to Lisa Freeman to have it made into teddy bears for that service member’s children, or to anyone related to that service member. The bears are free of charge.

He’s loving that something good is happening out of something so tragic,” said Lisa, in memory of her son. Matthew was a Marine pilot, a relatively safe position, but volunteered for a riskier post because the Marines needed help. He fell to enemy fire nine days later.

In addition to these intensely meaningful teddy bears, Freeman is also involved in the Matthew Freeman Project, a non-profit founded to support education efforts in the U.S. and around the world, especially in Afghanistan – something Matthew asked his mother to do.

For more information, or to contribute, check out the Matthew Freeman Project’s website.

Source: The Matthew Freeman Project | Facebook 

SF Soldier Excited To Train Men Who’ll Try To Kill Him Soon


DUFFEL BLOG

UGANDA — Telling reporters that he “absolutely loves this job,” a Special Forces sergeant training Ugandan soldiers in tactics and marksmanship went on to say he’s really excited to be teaching guys things they will use against him in about five years. Read more

Patriot and future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson: 1806


Portrait of Andrew Jackson
Portrait of Andrew Jackson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On this day in 1806, Revolutionary war veteran and future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel.

Born in the Waxhaws area along the border between North Carolina and South Carolina, Andrew Jackson was the last president to be a veteran of the American Revolution and the first president to bring the backcountry values of the Carolinas to the White House. His willingness to not only duel Charles Dickinson, but also to kill him at short range for having printed libelous comments about Jackson, revealed the extent to which he had imbibed the brutality of the Carolinas during the revolution. Born in 1767, Jackson served with the Patriots in the devastatingly brutal battles that characterized the American War for Independence in the Carolinas. Read more

Release Our Marine


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Call and politely ask for the Marine being held in the Mexican Jail to be released. He needs our help. Thank you.

UPDATE! 30 May 2014:  There’s been new reports that Andrew has been subjected to abuse while in custody of the Mexican government. He’s been stripped of all of his clothes and chained to the bed, they have repeatedly punched him in the stomach to the point he couldn’t breathe. Getting him released is of the utmost importance. 

Percentage Of Countries Who Died During WWII


via Percentage Of Countries Who Died During WWII – Business Insider.

The truly enormous scope of World War II is almost impossible to understand in hindsight. The war devastated vast swathes of Europe, East Asia, the Pacific, and North Africa, while its influence touched upon every part of the planet.

Randal Olson, a Computer Science graduate research assistant at Michigan State University, has helped to illustrate the true devastation. His charts showcase the percentage of a country’s population that died during WWII.

Belarus suffered the worst devastation of any country during the war in terms of a percentage of its population. Over a quarter of its population, 2,290,000 people, died during the conflict.

In terms of total numbers, the Soviet Union bore an incredible brunt of casualties during WWII. An estimated 16,825,000 people died in the war, over 15% of its population. China also lost an astounding 20,000,000 people during the conflict.

As a comparison, here are the number of American deaths in every major war the U.S. has entered:

World War II Memorial
World War II Memorial (Photo credit: Don McCullough)