I attended his seminar on Rules of Engagement/Rules of the Use of Force last week. Best training I have had on threat recognition and the use of deadly force EVER. LINK HERE.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Letter to the Editor of Armor Magazine from Lt Col. Bolgiano
My site is no on page three of Google when you use the search term "This we'll defend". Not where I want it to be but slowly climbing.
Monday, December 10, 2007
A Different Christmas Poem
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul l gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one! had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."
What I did to win the War today
Stand by for a new feature here on This We'll Defend, "What I did to win the war today", a listing of the idiotic stuff that is of the utmost importance in a staff job. By the way, the title is a pun.
Today:
1. Went to the dentist at 0730 and got chewed out for not going to the dentist for over two years. When I asked about the ocndition of my teeth, the dentist said, "They're fine." (not technically about my job, but kind of funny I thought. And I don't like the dentist).
2. Set up chairs for the Sergeant Major's retirement ceremony.
3. Practiced pressing play and pause on a cd player to make sure the right music at the right time plays during the ceremony. Thinking very strongly of switching Army Music CD with Cannibal Corpse CD.
4. Listened to an argument about how we are going to store the soldiers gear when they go on Christmas leave.
5. Wrote this blog post.
6. Had the Battalion XO ask if I could set up a new website for our battalion.
Alqaeda look out!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Back on Track
Resurrected my Mac Mini after every other computer in the house went goofy. I hope my loyal readers haven't deserted me! If you are concerned about my computer hardware problem, I really would like an alienware laptop running Ubuntu 7.10!!!! Let me know and I'll send you my address.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
M-soft
How the hell did a microsoft as get stuck in the middle of my last plagiarized news story? Damn their crafty hides! They're everywhere!
Shower vehicles added to Chinese army's arsenal: report
DON'T LET ANYONE FOOL YOU, THOSE DAMN COMMIES ARE A CRAFTY BUNCH! NOW THEIR ARMY SHOWERS!!!!!!
BEIJING (AFP) - The Chinese military has added mobile showers to its ever more sophisticated arsenal.
The camouflaged vehicle can be set up in five minutes and allows 20 men to shower simultaneously within a narrow 10-square-metre (108-square-foot) space, the Xinhua news agency said.
The introduction of the shower vehicle means China's men and women in uniform can now get a hot shower once a week while out in the field, according to Xinhua.
China's military budget is set to rise 17.8 percent this year, triggering fears abroad about how the rising Asian power plans to spend the money.
Define "Rules Of Engagement"
In military or police operations, the rules of engagement (ROE) determine when, where, and how force shall be used. Such rules are both general and specific, and there have been large variations between cultures throughout history. The rules may be made public, as in a martial law or curfew situation, but are typically only fully known to the force that intends to use them.
Thanks Wikipedia!
Range day
Lot's of work with the M4 Carbine today (in the morning) and the M9 pistol in the afternoon. Much step-by step instruction with both weapons on how to carry/draw, present, aim and fire the weapons quickly at close quarters. The M4 carbine only weighs 7 pounds, but holding it at the low ready and bringing it up to your eye over and over before you can even fire a single round can sure get tiring. The instructors are great, very knowledgeable and able to impart that knowledge. The class is run very informally (we call the instructors by their first names), but professionally, without a lot of the typical Army bullshit that eats up most of your time when you fire live ammo. More work with both the carbine and the pistol tomorrow, and I'll post on that.
ROE/RUF
This week I am attending a class on the "Rules of Engagement/Rules of the Use of Force". Basically, a 4-day seminar contracted by DOD to teach soldiers (and the other, lesser, services) on the legal implications of the use of force and when the use of deadly force is legally appropriate. The instructors are a mix of Federal Law Enforcement, Active and retired Special Operations Forces, Municipal and state LAw enforcement types (mostly SWAT) and at least one, gasp, lawyer (although he was a soldier and went to law school at night while he was a cop. The first day was mostly lecture and classroom type stuff, but the next two days are at the range where we will be working on carbine (m4) and pistol (m9) employment. The last day we will be using simunitions at Fort Knox's Zussman MOUT facility. I am enjoying hte training very much and it gets me out of that assinine staff office. More to come tonight on today's training.
Pause in Service
My primary computer took a huge dump, and I am now using my old Pentium III running Ubuntu Linux 7.04 as an operating system as my emergency backup. Let's take this time to plug for UBUNTU, which is making this old (8 years) Pentium run like a champ. The only problem is the monitor is kind of, well, old, and can be hard to read at higher resolutions. Ubuntu is an amazing operating system, and is totally free! When you load it on a computer, it comes with a free "office" suite, Firefox web browser, and many other neat things. You have to be able to delve into the command line for things like installing new programs, but it's lots of fun to learn and their are plenty of online forums to help you out if you are new to Ubuntu or Linux in general. Plus Linux in general (not just the Ubuntu distributions) runs extremely well on "older" computer systems, thus one may be able to delay upgrading just so you can have the latest "vista" or whatever. I bought this computer I am posting on in 1999 from Gateway. It's a PIII 500 mhz with 256 megs of RAM and a 16 meg video card. You don't get the eye candy you would with the latest offering from Microsoft, but screw 'em. They got enough of your money, now don't they?
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Boy there's a good story behind that first sentence. But check out his Blog.
Don't worry, SFC Buus (since you're not a DS anymore), I will no longer be pissing on my own equipment. That's something you do once in a lifetime, if you have to do it at all. And I will be paying close attention to your blog. I read a book on training for the SF and it said that mentors are few and far between, and any help you can get in any minute doses should not be sneezed at. So if your blog gives me an incite into what preparing for Iraq is like (even though it's still at least 2 years away from me), it will be absorbed.
Air Assault School was the hardest thing I've done to date, but I'm glad I did it. I doubt it was as tough as when you went though. Since the inclusion of females into the school they did lower the weight requirements on the ruck (or so I've been told). Everything else pretty much stayed the same. That said, I'm still bucking for my Airborne slot, I just have to wait for the Brigade HQ to send down the availabilities. I will be Airborne one way or the other, but it's good to get as many schools out of the way as possible. Might as well make something of my time in college.
I've put in for a slot at Mountain Warfare, but the competition for that is fierce and will most likely go to the braniacs at Princeton, since it's a Brigade-wide slot.
I told you Sergeant, I'm no shitbag. I'm working hard toward that 11A position and eventually Ranger School.
Klimowich
CHECK OUT HIS BLOG
Must of been one of the good ones. i didn't remember his name at first
Drill Sergeant Buus:
I was one of the cadets you reluctantly trained this summer. If I did things right, I wasn't a shitbag and you don't remember me Even though you hated training us because most of us were brats and we weren't Privates getting trained for deployment ASAP, I want to say thank you. Most Drill Sergeants probably never hear it, but it needs to be said. Personally, you treated me like a real soldier and not a dumb-ass cadet and I respect you for it.
You wanted feedback for your blog, I hope this counts.
Thank you,
CDT Klimowich, C 2/46 Infantry Regiment "Hell Raisers"
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