army
New Army Field Manual Concerns ‘Full Spectrum’ Training
Just so no one misconstrues a previous post as me having issues with Dave Dilegge or Small Wars Journal, let me hat-tip SWJ for this just-released Army field manual about how to train for so-called “full-spectrum” operations, a fancy way of saying the Army needs to train for all contingencies. The manual, known as FM [...]
New Army Recruiting Pitch: Obama’s Getting Us Out Of Iraq
VetVoice’s Brandon Friedman just got ahold of a wacky pitch to an ex-Army captain from a recruiter trying to get said ex-captain into a National Guard or Reserve Unit. One of the reasons people aren’t joining these units, obviously, is because of the high rate of reserve-component deployment. But here’s the recruiter’s pitch: Obama will [...]
Boom
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan – The booms began around 1:45 p.m., loud enough to cause you to jump if you’ve never heard a Howitzer fire a high-explosive round before.
That was 2nd Platoon, Alpha Battery, 3rd Battalion of the 321st Field Artillery Regiment, firing north into the mountains near the town of Zambar. By 2:15 [...]
Too Close for Comfort?
John McCain worked on key legislation with Rep. Rick Renzi, now indicted in connection with the sale of a business associate’s land. Did the senator know about any of it?
U.S. Forces Spread Thin
The Salerno army base offers a window into the hard counterinsurgency battle at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Welcome To Bagram
BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – For those, like myself, who’ve never before been to Afghanistan, the sprawling Bagram Air Field is known for two things: transit and torture.
Naturally I saw no evidence of torture during my brief in-processing, after which I went on to Forward Operating Base Salerno in Khost Province, near the Pakistan border. [...]
1 Brigade and 1 Battalion
ISTANBUL – It’s 10 p.m. in the lowest level of the Istanbul airport. In 20 minutes I’ll be allowed to board my plane to Kabul, bringing me to the capitol city of Afghanistan at the crack of dawn. Before I made my way down to the gate, an International Herald-Tribune headline caught my eye, for [...]
