Marc Train Wreck

The anit-war types have themselves a new Poster Child...a Pvt Marc Train. Full article here.

Just a few problems with the article ....

After Basic Training, Train spent 16 weeks at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, learning to be an intelligence analyst. He was given an interim top-secret security clearance, and after an initial investigation, would have access to highly sensitive compartmentalized intelligence.

Ohh wow...he joined the Army and had a really high security clearance...only problem would have been that his background check would show this -

Should this be classified?

The X-plane would be the size of a fighter and would be designed for a speed of Mach 6.5 -- 4300 mph -- at 100,000 feet. (The SR-71 Blackbird, retired in 1990, could manage up to Mach 3.3 in sprints at 85,000 feet). It would be powered by two jet engines -- bigger versions of the engine used on the Skunk Works' RATTLRS (Revolutionary Approach To Time-critical Long Range Strike) cruise missile -- integrated into ramjets.

If so, some one needs to tell Ares

Guidons, Guidons, Guidons! has more

Sorry felt an invasion of squids :~p
Where are you John?

I died on that mountain too, sir

Marcus Luttrell explains how, injured & alone, he got through enemy's hills with Matt Laurer

Most here know Marcus and if you don't I suggest you read this
or better yet buy his book:
Lone Survivor - The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Here's exceprts from his book:

p. 203. …Was I afraid of their possible buddies in the Taliban? No. Was I afraid of the liberal media back in the U.S.A.? Yes. And I suddenly flashed on the prospect of many, many years in a U.S. civilian jail alongside murderers and rapists.

p. 206. I looked Mikey right in the eye, and I said, “We gotta let ‘em go.”
It was the stupidest, most southern-fried, lame brained decision I ever made in my life. I must have been out of my mind. I had actually cast a vote which I knew could sign our death warrant. I’d turned into a fucking liberal, a half-assed, no-logic nitwit, all heart, no brain, and the judgment of a jackrabbit.

UPDATE: Not all are happy about his book and even claim some condrictions.

... and the Democratic underground are having a hay day

But to stay on point,

Some of what Marcus and Matt discuss are the ROE (Rules of Engagement).
Can't tell you how many stories I've read in the blogosphere or heard while visiting guys at Kleber about the Fk'd up ROE and how their buddies aren't hear to talk about it.

Now ROE have been around since the Revolutionary War and are necessary but isn't it about time they change these current restrictive rules and let our guys do their damn job?

I'm just saying. T.A.R.F.U.

Col Hunt has some thoughts here

Hunt says while visiting Iraq recently, he observed rules of engagement that required seven separate steps before a soldier at a guard post could engage the enemy. The last step, he notes, states that if the enemy runs away, the soldier does not have to go after him. <...> [The existing rules of engagement] have hamstrung our soldiers to the point where you've got the British, who had to ask permission to fire on Iranians who are taking captive their soldiers, and were told no. ...

The Marines have got this problem in Al Anbar Province ... and the Army's got this problem all over the place, from Afghanistan to here. ... We have forgotten how to fight. This is nasty business we're in, and we seem unwilling or unable to do that.

The Tank has more

Col. Hunt also has a good read : On the Hunt: How to Wake Up Washington and Win the War on Terror

Hopefully someone in Washington reads it.

Somali piracy? "U.S. and international navies failing to protect seafarers from being kidnapped"

There's more to the story of seafarers being "kidnapped" off Somalia than you might think.

Some of the owners of captured ships are not completely innocent themselves since they intentionally put their crews at risk out of greed.

My reasoning here.

Added cost

Lubber's Line provides an interesting example of why the DoD budget is higher than it needs to be and why nuke subs cost more than they have too in The Cost of Doing Business in New York:

The Navy continues to struggle with high shipbuilding costs, limited budgets and an aging fleet. The age of current nuclear submarines fleet will be particularly acute in coming years with the predominant 688 class nearing the end of their service life.

The fact that of one of the Navy's key vendors was looking to reduce costs should be welcome news to those in government concerned with controlling defense costs and the federal budget.

NOT SO for the Senators from New York.

One month after the BPMI's restructuring announcement Senators Clinton and Schumer of NY took action to stop the company's consolidation plans.

Next time either of the senators involved yaps about defense costs, remember this tale.

Thank goodness it wasn't the Navy

Folks like John wouldn't let us live it down.

The Air Force on Tuesday confirmed a report that in 1994 a military researcher requested $7.5 million to develop a non-lethal "love bomb" that would chemically alter the state of mind of enemy troops and make them want to have sex with each other rather than fight.

I'm just glad it was the Air Force.