Monthly Archives: April 2024

Recent Posts

Smarter Privates,

18 Comments

but what about the NCO’s

Oh my Lord. What’s next? So, we will have a bunch of privates who have their own idea how to conduct this squad sized patrol, ambush, raid, etc. We are talking about teenagers, 17-18-year old private’s. Lord please help them for they know not what they are doing. What do you think Marines. Oh the joy of being retired! I can’t believe they are doing this at SOI for privates. Please read on and would love to hear your comments. Who knows, maybe I am just an old fart who hasn’t kept up with the times?

From the Stars and Stirpes. This is factual Marines

Marine Corps seeks to make ‘smarter’ infantry force with new course

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marine Sgt. Alec Escalante, a squad instructor with Alpha Company, Infantry Training Battalion, School of Infantry-West, moves a chess piece during a class on how chess correlates with battle tactics, as part of the first week of the Infantry Marine Course at SOI-West on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 27, 2021.
ANDREW CORTEZ/U.S. MARINE CORPS

The Marine Corps is ditching some of its formation marches and adding board games to a new, longer entry-level infantry training course aimed at creating Marines who can better think and act for themselves.

The Infantry Marine Course pilot program launched last month at the service’s School of Infantry-West on Camp Pendleton, Calif., where instructors were pictured instructing new Marines on how chess relates to battlefield tactics. The course focuses less on micromanagement and more on individual responsibility, the service said in a statement.

“Rote memorization, instant obedience to orders are good for certain things, and they’re not getting thrown away from this course,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 A.J. Pasciuti, the training battalion’s gunner, said in Friday’s statement. “We’re just going a step further, and understanding that the individual — and a collective of individuals — is what wins in combat.”

The new course was developed over a year and is based on Commandant Gen. David Berger’s plan for revamping the service for future conflicts.

Under Berger’s vision, grunts will be expected to fight in small units that will be highly mobile and independent, and often dispersed far from headquarters. The new course is aimed at giving rookie Marines the tactical and cognitive skills to act on their own, and takes a “fundamentally different approach” than its eight-week predecessor, the Corps said.

“To be more dispersed and more precise, we need privates now that can operate by themselves and don’t have to be told and shown where to go all the time,” said Lt. Col. Walker Koury, the training battalion’s commander.

The unit’s Alpha Company is taking the course first before a second one launches at Camp Lejeune, N.C., later this spring. It’s expected to alternate two more cycles between the east and west coasts before being finalized next year, the statement said.

Already about double the length of the course it’s meant to replace, the pilot is expected to eventually grow to 18 weeks, USNI News reported late last year. The added time and a dedicated combat instructor to lead each squad of 14 Marines allows for more practical application and repetitions, the service said in its statement.

Reflecting the transition from the industrial era to the information age, the Marine Corps’ seeks to shift from creating what Koury described to USNI News as “automatons” to what Pascuiti has called “autonomous Marines.”

“Through freedom of thought and freedom of action … they’ll have a higher level of understanding,” Pasciuti said. “Rather than ‘Do a thing because I said so,’ it’s ‘get to a fundamental end state, and here are the tools that can help you achieve that goal.’”

After initial training on a topic, Marines will be expected to apply their own thinking the next time it comes up. Instead of following itemized gear lists and being marched where they need to be, they’ll be expected to be more responsible for themselves throughout the course.

Playing chess is meant to encourage them to think about their actions in a complex environment. They’ll also no longer be trained in terms of narrow specialties such as rifleman, machine gunner, mortarman or anti-tank missileman, but instead will be expected to be proficient in every company-level weapon by graduation.

“The infantry Marine of the future will be able to do all (the skills of the specialties) and understand when and where that skill needs to be applied,” said Staff Sgt. Jude Stewart, the lead marksmanship instructor for Alpha Company.

During the first nine weeks, trainees will learn individual skills in weapons handling, land navigation and radio communications, mainly using the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle.

Later weeks of the training will focus on testing the Marines’ knowledge while they work in fire teams and squads, learning to patrol over complex terrain and employ fire and maneuver tactics. Students also will lead several force-on-force actions during the latter phase.

“What we have to recognize is these young Marines, through a collective of individuals, will win the day for us,” Pasciuti said.

OKAY, let me have it, tell me I’m all screwed up.

Originally posted 2021-02-24 16:56:29.

Current Events

Black History Month

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Truer words were never spoken. Parents be aware of of what your child is learning in school; ask questions of them. I remember being stationed at Fort Bragg with the Army. This was in the early 70’s and Fayetteville, NC was still somewhat of a segregated town even then. My son went to a school out in town. We were at the dinner table talking about the kids learned that day in school. My son started talking about the “War of Northern Aggression.” Needless to say, he and I had a talk.  Our children today are fed so much BS by left-wing progressives hell bent on spewing their own demented personal; beliefs. Look at you child’s text books, homework, required papers, etc. parents need to really ask questions and get them talking.  You may be shocked regardless of what grade they are in.

By Larry Elder

 

When will Black History Month be … history?

Apart from the bizarre notion that educators should set aside one month to salute the historical achievements of one race apart from and above the historical achievements of other races, Black History Month appears to omit a lot of Black history.

About slavery, do our mostly left-wing educators teach that slavery was not unique to America and is as old as humankind? As economist and author Thomas Sowell says: “More whites were brought as slaves to North Africa than Blacks brought as slaves to the United States or to the 13 colonies from which it was formed. White slaves were still being bought and sold in the Ottoman Empire, decades after Blacks were freed in the United States.”

Are students taught that “race-based preferences,” sometimes called “affirmative action,” were opposed by several civil rights leaders? While National Urban League Executive Director Whitney Young supported a type of “Marshall Plan” for a period of 10 years to make up for historical discrimination, his board of directors refused to endorse the plan. In rejecting it, the president of the Urban League in Pittsburgh said the public would ask, “What in blazes are these guys up to? They tell us for years that we must buy (nondiscrimination) and then they say, ‘It isn’t what we want.’”

Do our left-wing educators, during Black History Month, note that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s celebrated New Deal actually “hurt” Blacks? According to Cato Institute’s Jim Powell, Blacks lost as many as 500,000 jobs as a result of anti-competitive, job-killing regulations of the New Deal. Powell writes: “The minimum wage regulations made it illegal for employers to hire people who weren’t worth the minimum because they lacked skills. As a result, some 500,000 blacks, particularly in the South, were estimated to have lost their jobs.”

Are students taught that gun control began as a means to deny free Blacks the right to own guns? In ruling that Blacks were chattel property in the Dred Scott case, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney warned that ruling otherwise would mean that Blacks could legally own guns. If Blacks were “entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens,” said Taney, “it would give persons of the Negro race, who were recognized as citizens in any one state of the union, the right … to keep and carry arms wherever they went … endangering the peace and safety of the state.”

Are students taught that generations of civil rights leaders opposed illegal immigration and raised questions about legal immigration? After the Civil War, Black abolitionist Frederick Douglass implored employers to hire Blacks over new immigrants. Twenty-five years later, Booker T. Washington pleaded with Southern industrialists to hire Blacks over new immigrants: “One third of the population of the South is of the Negro race. … To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South: Cast down your bucket where you are. Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your fireside.”

About illegal immigration, Coretta Scott King signed a letter urging Congress to retain harsh sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The letter said: “We are concerned … that … the elimination of employer sanctions will cause another problem — the revival of the pre-1986 discrimination against black and brown U.S. and documented workers, in favor of cheap labor — the undocumented workers.”

These are just a few historical and inconvenient notes left on the cutting room floor during Black History Month.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBook’s and GooglePlay. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder.

Copyright 2021 LAURENCE A. ELDER

POSTCRIPT: Some of you may have seen the live interview where Morgan Freeman said the following. It is true, I personally saw the interview:

“Black history month needs to go away. How would you like it if we dedicate one month out of the year as white history month?  American history is our history.  So I’ll ask you to stop calling me a black man and I’ll stop calling you a white man.  The issue of race only exists because we talk about it.  Let it go and die in the past so we can build a future where we aren’t black/white.  We are fellow humans.”

Amen. He’s also a great actor. 

 

Originally posted 2021-02-23 12:15:30.

Current Events

Social Justice Warriors – Take That Hill!

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I’ve already posted for the day, but this one came across my desk and I just had to post. I totally agree with this General. I would in no way, recommend any young man or woman to enter any of our armed forces today. None of them. They will become cannon fodder. Mothers and fathers heed what this man is saying for it is the truth! Don’t let Johnny or Mary do something stupid that will get them killed. 

In case you are like me and having difficulty keeping up with the liberal’s new terms, phrases, and acronyms, SJW stands for Social Justice Warrior. Jeez, I’m getting too old for all this new stuff.

By Kurt Schlichter,Col, US Army (Ret)It gives me no pleasure to say that I no longer recommend that young people join the military, and I’m not alone. The non-Blue Falcon veteran community is in full revolt against the conscious decision to decline embraced by our current military leadership. After failing to win a war in the last 20 years – and don’t say Syria, because the second President * woke up in the Oval Office wondering how he got there, more of our troops were heading back into the hellscape for reasons no one has bothered to articulate – the military has decided to target an easier enemy, i.e., other Americans.

See, the problem with me and the other vets who are disgusted by the brass’s choice to focus on SJW priorities instead of, you know, successfully deterring or defeating America’s enemies, is that we actually listened to what we were taught when we were coming up. Most of us were trained by the heroes who put the shattered American military together after the Democrat war in Vietnam broke it. We learned about leadership, about putting mission first but taking care of people always, and about objectives and how to attain them.

None of that’s a thing anymore.

So, count us out from complicity with the degeneration of our proud institution into a giant gender studies struggle session. And that’s a big deal. Do you know where the military gets a huge chunk on its recruits? Legacies. These are young troops who want to be like their father or grandfather or big brother or neighbor or other role model. I was the third-generation commissioned officer in my family, on both sides. Guess what? Right now, if one of my kids goes in, it’s against my advice. And again, I am not alone. I hear this over and over and over from other vets. And it makes me furious.

You put two divisions behind wire in D.C. to protect against phantom insurrections by guys who dress like Vikings. And then you can’t even feed the troops, or house them. Gosh, if only there was a great big five-sided building full of generals just a couple miles away to square that idiocy away.

Oh, wait, there is.

And now, though we have not won a war in two decades, our military has plenty of time to stop training and focus on purging the ranks of people who like the politicians the current administration opposes. I eagerly await the introduction to the new 69D MOS – political officer. A zampolit for every battalion – hell, why not every company?

And don’t patronize us with baloney about how this is just about rooting out all those secret “extremists” lurking in the ranks – that’s right up there with sending the new second louie down to the supply room to retrieve a box of grid squares. How about you stop trying to expel these mystery “extremists” and start firing the incompetents all around you?

Sadly, this trickle-down SJW foolishness is reaching what used to be the pointy end of the spear. Generals and colonels adopt it because if they don’t, they’ll get tossed out – if you invest three decades in the green machine, it must be awfully tempting to hold your tongue to nail down that retirement and then get the hell out ahead of the deluge. It’s the company grades who buy this pap who are most disconcerting. One lieutenant – for you civilians, lieutenants are the wisest officers in the military, according to lieutenants – went on Twitter to inform me and some other people who were actually alive and in the military the last time America won a war that when we Neanderthals were serving, the military was awash in “white supremacy.” Could have fooled me. When I got off active duty the first time 30 years ago this May, I was stunned at how often race came up back in the civilian world. It almost never did when I was in the service, though in basic training it would have been nice for the awesome power of my pallor to keep Drill Sergeant Whittlesey from dropping me for countless sets of 20.

But hey, some 23-year-old assistant S2 who operates the coffeemaker doubtless has better insights into stuff happening before he was born that those of us who were actually there. The only positive thing about my interaction with that guy was my relief in knowing that I was no longer the dumbest lieutenant in the history of the United States military.

We had our imperfections and misadventures back in the day, sure, but if some idiot had done something bigoted to another solder, we would have slammed him. The only thing that mattered when a new soldier showed up was whether or not he was squared away. But not now. No, winning battles is hard, but internal snipe hunts are easy and fun! Why focus on external warfare when the career payoff for witch-hunting within the organization is so much bigger? Check out this new Navy pledge – us vets’ enlistment/commissioning oaths were apparently insufficient for today’s woke battlespace:

“I pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every Sailor in the Navy. I pledge to engage in ongoing self-reflection, education and knowledge sharing to better myself and my communities. I pledge to be an example in establishing healthy, inclusive and team-oriented environments. I pledge to constructively share all experiences and information gained from activities above to inform the development of Navy-wide reforms.”

The most disconcerting part of this is that it was apparently written on purpose. Is the next thing we’ll see some sort of mandatory woke Space Force interpretive dance?

No, I do not recommend anyone subject themselves to this sort of four-year camo sociology seminar in which they must “pledge to advocate for and acknowledge all lived experiences and intersectional identities of every Sailor in the Navy” or any other branch. My intersectional identity is “America,” and I am utterly uninterested in any other identity.

Maybe the brass should focus on killing America’s enemies, and maybe not running ships into other ships? Both those things would be totally awesome.

War is a serious business, even for guys like me who ran heavily armed carwashes. But this current tail-chasing is not serious. The military is hollowing out as people vote with their combat boots. Word from inside is that it can’t keep troops from ETSing – that is, leaving the service when their obligation ends. If our troops want their thoughts controlled and to be programed into little lefty conformobots, they can go off to college – the Dems want to give it away to slackers for free anyway, so who needs to ruck march and attend Bill Kristol’s latest war to get the G.I. Bill?

The military used to be a welcoming safe space for patriots. But no more. With this insane babbling about “internal enemies,” does anyone think that potential recruits do not understand that this slur is what the liberal elite that the military brass obeys calls people like them and their families? Why would you join an organization that sees you as an enemy?

I wish I could believe that the generals and admirals will en masse reject this sack race to failure, but it may be too late, at least until we get a real president determined to unscrew this cluster. It will be hard. The academies and war colleges are already full of the same kind of liberal hacks that civilian education is infested with. Michael Walsh’s hardcore new book Last Stands: Why Men Fight When All Is Lost should be required reading for every military leader, but some professor at the Army Command and General Staff College (I’m a graduate, sigh) reviewed it and found it – I’m not kidding – “problematic.” You know what’s really problematic? Turning the military into a cauldron of neurotic SJW obsessions while our foreign enemies circle our senile CINC like vultures.

We can laugh at the antics, but the terrible reality is that this crap is going to get a bunch of our young people killed. Let’s be very clear – when your priority is social justice nonsense instead of preparing to fight and win, you are opening up a lane for the enemy and the enemy is going to drive right through it.

But look on the bright side. When something horrible happens – maybe the Chinese will send a carrier to the bottom, for example – we can all take comfort in the fact that our sons and daughters, because it’s us patriots’ sons and daughters who usually fight and die in America’s wars, perished because our leadership failed to prepare, but at least they died fully aware of trans intersectionality.

See what happens if things get worse in my newest novel Crisis, and catch up with my other four novels of America splitting apart into red and blue nations, People’s Republic, Indian Country, Wildfire, and Collapse!

Originally posted 2021-02-22 13:52:09.

Current Events

Left Turns

3 Comments

Hi folks, how about another great article from my favorite poster, Greg Maresca who always hits the nail squarely on the head. This time he adds a little waggishness.  How  about  that  word,  huh?

By Greg Maresca

The Nobel Prize Committee announced their annual nominees and since the committee is a willing hostage to woke politics, they nominated Black Lives Matter for the Nobel Peace Prize.  If by happenchance, BLM does not win – burning down Nobel’s Swedish headquarters should definitely get them nominated again in 2022.

For saying Dominion’s voting machines fixed the presidential election for Joe Biden, Rudy Giuliani is being sued for $1.3 billion.  Apparently, their board of directors voted unanimously 12-0 to file the lawsuit.  However, the vote was 10-2, against, but that was before they ran the ballots through their latest software.

Concerning ballots, Gallup’s annual “Most Admired Man in America” poll, had Donald Trump victorious over Barack Obama, but the initial results are being called into question as some mail-in ballots are still being counted.

The popularity of mail-in ballots was not lost on Amazon employees.  The company, however, adamantly opposed mail-in ballots for its employees on whether or not to unionize a warehouse in Alabama. Amazon was concerned about voter fraud. Imagine that?  Ironically, Amazon’s now former CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, published one diatribe commentary after another leading up to November’s presidential election ridiculing everyone who expressed any concerns about the propensity for fraud concerning mailed ballots.

As good as Alec Baldwin the actor may be, he is definitely not the best actor in his marriage.  Wife Hilaria (her stage name, perhaps?) born Hillary Lynn Thomas in Boston is obviously better having carried on the charade so convincingly for years that she was a foreign-born Hispanic.   The Woke Cancel Culture just shrugged and gave the leftist Baldwin a pass.  However, that was not the case when Country music artist Morgan Wallen said the infamous N-word during a recent recording session.  Wallen has been exiled from numerous online merchandizing platforms for his iniquity.  On the flip side, Wallen has great potential to kick-start a new career as a rapper.

The Democrat leadership in the U.S. House is stuck in the mental quicksand of Orwellian duplicity when “father, daughter, mother, and son” and all gendered pronouns were officially banned.  But it gets even better.  When Democrat Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri delivered the opening prayer of the 117th Congress, he concluded by saying: “… and god known by many names by many different faiths.  Amen and a-woman.”  The Hebrew word “amen,” means “May it be so,” yet Cleaver conjured up such a ridiculous fabrication because to Democrats “amen” sounds like an offensive reference to males.  This is more than political correctness and identity politics run amuck; it’s diabolical.  Moreover, this was coming from a man whose first name in Hebrew means “God with us” and is an ordained Methodist pastor.  Perhaps he should change his name to Ewomanuel.

Best of all, anyone caught smirking will be charged with a hate crime.

The phrase “historic first” gets thrown around like a baseball during infield practice.  Pete Buttigieg being confirmed as the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation is the first LGBTQ cabinet member in U.S. history.  Buttigieg is former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a town not really known for its public transportation, but since when does that not make one qualified to oversee the entire nation’s system?  We are talking woke identity politics here.  Besides, Buttigieg tweeted he “loved transportation and proposed to his husband in an airport terminal.”

Kamala Harris is not the “first” American vice president of mixed race.  That title goes to Charles Curtis who was the nation’s 31st vice president serving from 1929-1933 under Herbert Hoover.  Curtis was a descendant of Chief White Plume of the Kaw Nation and Chief Pawhuska both on his mother’s side.

The Super Bowl was the site of yet another case of the “historic firsts syndrome” as Sarah Thomas was the first female to officiate at a Super Bowl.  To be even more edgy and perhaps pull in more women fans, the NFL should hire all women officials.  Who better than a group of women to catch and broadcast what men are doing wrong.

If firing someone because of race, or sexual orientation is discriminatory, isn’t hiring someone for the same reason just as discriminatory?

This is what the left calls progress.

 

 

Originally posted 2021-02-22 08:45:03.

Current Events, Recent Posts

The Not So Magnificent Seven

1 Comment

Remember the movie with a similar name? Yes, they were magnificent, great actors, all seven. But how about these seven. Did you do your research to see who they were? Well, I did and there were no surprises. Hmm, wonder how they’ll do in their next re-election? Of those seven, two are retiring and only one — Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski — faces her state’s voters in the next election cycle, 2022.  But they’ll all do well since Americans have short memories. Anyway, here they are. 

Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) attends a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee nomination hearing for Michael Stanley Regan to be Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC, on February 3, 2021. (Photo by BRANDON BELL / POOL / AFP) (Photo by BRANDON BELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)  Political situation: Burr, who’s served in the Senate since 2005, announced years ago that this term would be his last. Two days after his vote to convict Trump, the North Carolina Republican Party unanimously voted to censure Burr.WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 12: Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) talks to reporters in the Senate subway on his way to the fourth day of the Senates second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on February 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trumps defense team begins their presentation of the defense that Trump should not be held responsible for the January 6th attack at the U.S. Capitol on First Amendment grounds and the fact that he is no longer in office. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)Political situation: The backlash to Cassidy’s vote to convict was swift. The state GOP voted unanimously to censure him, releasing a statement saying it condemns Cassidy’s action.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 04: Senator Susan Collins, R-ME, speaks during the confirmation hearing for Labor secretary nominee Marty Walsh testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill February 4, 2021 in Washington, DC. Walsh was previously the mayor of Boston. (Photo by Graeme Jennings-Pool/Getty Images)Political situation: Collins’ next election is in 2026. Like Cassidy, Collins just won reelection in 2020, though her race was much closer in a state Trump lost (he won one electoral vote in the state for winning its 2nd Congressional District).

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 13: Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) talks to a reporter in the Senate subway at the conclusion of former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial February 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Senate voted 57-43 to acquit Trump. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)Political situation: Murkowski, a senator since 2002, is up for reelection next year, but as Alaska Public Media recently reported, her state’s new election rules likely mean she’ll be in less danger of losing her primary.

WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 10: U.S. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) enters the reception room ahead of the second day of Trumps second impeachment trial on February 10, 2021 in Washington, DC. Today is the second day in Trumps second impeachment trial addressing remarks that he made ahead of the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6. (Photo by Brandon Bell – Pool/Getty Images)Political situation: This wasn’t Romney’s first time harshly criticizing Trump or breaking ranks with his party. He was the only Republican to vote to convict Trump on one article during the former president’s first impeachment trial in early 2020, and in recent weeks was called “a joke” and a “traitor” by Trump supporters while traveling from Utah to Washington, D.C.

Senator Ben Sasse, R-NE speaks during a hearing for Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Bidens nominee for Secretary of the Treasury,as she participates in a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington DC, on January 19, 2021. – Biden, who will take office on January 20, 2021, has proposed a $1.9 trillion rescue package to help businesses and families struggling amid the pandemic, and Yellen would be tasked with getting that massive bill through a Congress where some are wary of the skyrocketing budget deficit. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ANNA MONEYMAKER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images).Political situation: Sasse has spoken out against Trump in strong ways in recent months. In a call with constituents in October, Sasse worried out loud that Trump would bring down the Republican-controlled Senate in November.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 30: Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) leaves the Senate chamber during a recess in the Senate impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump continues at the U.S. Capitol on January 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Thursday, Senators continue asking questions for the House impeachment managers and the president’s defense team. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).Political situation: Toomey — who like Maine’s Collins represents a state Trump lost in the presidential election — announced in October that he would not seek reelection in 2022.

Any from your State (AK, ME, NE, UT, PA, LA, NC)? None from mine.

Originally posted 2021-02-21 09:47:40.