Category: War
Politicians refer to themselves as public servants. Swamp creatures like Joe Biden will extol their many decades of employment in Washington DC as though they had been some kind of galley slave toiling away on an Athenian man o’ war. I have actually met a couple of those guys. Their idea of selfless service does not quite match my own.
American legislators spend money like drunken sailors. Actually, that’s not true. Drunken sailors couldn’t even begin to burn cash in as profligate a manner as might your typical freshman congressman. They’ve raised wasting money to an art form.
You think I’m kidding. Back when I was a soldier I spent a week as a local liaison officer for a group of congressmen on a fact-finding mission after the First Gulf War. It was amazing just watching them eat. They’d go to the nicest restaurant in town and order one of anything they might be curious about. Then they swapped plates around so everybody got a taste. One of my several duties was to scurry back and forth to the Officers’ Club cashing $500 government traveler’s checks to pay for it all. It was surreal.
Everybody in DC has sold their soul to somebody. I’ll champion the folks on my side of the aisle in the vain hope that they might someday just leave me the heck alone, but they are all irredeemably corrupt. The system perpetuates itself. It will never get better.
On May 31, 2002, Pat Tillman and his brother Kevin walked into a local recruiting office and enlisted in the US Army. Pat walked away from a $3.6 million professional football contract and Lord knows what else so he could serve his country in the immediate aftermath of 911. Pat Tillman’s story is that of a conflicted man and a horribly flawed system. However, his is a tale of epic sacrifice and genuine selfless service.
Origin Story
Pat Tillman was the eldest of three sons born to Patrick and Mary Tillman in Fremont, California. By NFL standards, Tillman was not a terribly big man. He stood 5’11” and weighed 202 pounds when dressed out as a safety for the Arizona Cardinals. Pat personified the axiom, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.”
In high school Tillman preferred baseball, but he failed to make the team as a freshman. At that point, he turned his attention to the gridiron. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, Pat was powerfully close to his friends and family. He married his childhood sweetheart just before he enlisted in the Army. He and his brother Kevin enlisted together, trained together, and were eventually both assigned to the 2d Ranger Battalion based at Fort Lewis, Washington.
Pat Tillman attended Arizona State University on a football scholarship and excelled as a linebacker. An exceptionally deep young man, Tillman was well read and made good grades. He maintained a 3.85 GPA in marketing and graduated in 3.5 years despite the rigors of starting on his college football team.
Pat thrived in the NFL. Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman named Tillman to the 2000 NFL All-Pro team based upon his stellar performance as a defensive player. He turned down a $9 million offer to move to the St. Louis Rams out of loyalty to his Arizona team.
Eight months after the 911 attacks and with the remainder of his 15 games completed from his 2001 contract, Pat Tillman left $3.6 million on the table to go to Army basic training alongside his brother. Pat’s brother Kevin gave up a burgeoning career in minor league baseball for the same path. These two men put their love of country ahead of the sorts of things the rest of us would just about kill for.
Appreciate the details here. I’m a happily married hetero man, and even I admit that Pat Tillman was an exceptionally good-looking guy. Intelligent, articulate, and well-educated, Tillman had the world by the tail. Once his time in the NFL was complete Pat Tillman could have easily parlayed his gifts and experiences into a career on television or in Hollywood. Instead, he opted for the Ranger Regiment.
I was an Army aviator, but I worked with those guys on occasion. Theirs was an absolutely miserable life. Junior enlisted soldiers don’t get paid beans, and the optempo in the Ranger Battalions is utterly grueling. In less than two years on active duty, Pat Tillman completed basic training and AIT as well as the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program. He was deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in September of 2003 after which he attended Ranger School at Fort Benning. Once a fully tabbed Ranger, he returned to Second Bat at Lewis and deployed to Afghanistan where he was based at FOB Salerno.
Up until this point, Pat Tillman was the US Army’s poster child. An American superhero with a face right out of central casting, Tillman’s story could not have been any more compelling had it been drafted by an action novelist. Then Something Truly Horrible happened.
The Incident
Combat is an ugly, filthy, chaotic thing. It is seldom as tidy or predictable as the movies and sand table exercises depict it to be. On April 22, 2004, the fog of war claimed a genuine American hero.
On a forgotten road leading from the Afghan village of Sperah about 40 klicks outside of Khost, Pat Tillman’s small HUMVEE-mounted patrol ran into trouble. Their mission that day was to retrieve a disabled HUMVEE. This tale is made all the more tragic in that we abandoned tens of thousands of these vehicles when we fled Afghanistan recently. The details are fiercely debated to this day, but here is the official description.
Tillman was in the lead vehicle designated Serial 1. Serial 1 passed through a mountainous pass and was roughly one kilometer ahead of Serial 2, the following HUMVEE. At that point, Serial 2 was purportedly engaged by hostile forces.
Upon hearing of the ambush, the Rangers in Serial 1 dismounted and made their way on foot back toward an overwatch position where they could provide supporting fires for Serial 2. In the resulting chaos, the Rangers of Serial 2 lost touch with the specific location of the lead Rangers. In the violent exchange of fire that followed Tillman’s Platoon Leader and his RTO (Radio Telephone Operator) were wounded. An allied member of the Afghan Militia Force was killed. Pat Tillman caught three 5.56mm rounds from an M249 SAW to the face from a range of 10 meters and died instantly.
The Weapon
First introduced in 1984, the Belgian-designed M249 Squad Automatic Weapon was an Americanized version of the FN Minimi. An open-bolt, gas-operated design, the M249 was conceived to provide the Infantry squad with a portable source of high-volume, belt-fed automatic fire. The M249 has seen action in every major military engagement since the US invasion of Panama in 1989.
The M249 weighs 17 pounds empty and 22 pounds with a basic load of 200 linked rounds. The weapon fires from an open bolt and features a quick-change barrel system. The gun will feed on either disintegrating linked belts or standard STANAG M4 magazines. In my experience, the magazine feed system was never terribly reliable.
USSOCOM adopted a lighter, more streamlined version of the M249 titled the Mk46 for use with special operations forces. The M4 magazine well, vehicle mounting lugs, and barrel change handle were all removed on the Mk 46 to save weight. The USMC has aggressively supplemented their rifle squads with the HK M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle in lieu of many of their SAWs. These weapons are currently issued at a ratio of 27 IARs and 6 SAWs per rifle company. The Next Generation Squad Weapon-Automatic Rifle program is tasked with finding a suitable replacement for the aging M249’s in the Army inventory.
The Rest of the Story
What happened next was a blight on the US Army. To have Pat Tillman, the real live Captain America killed due to friendly fire in a botched combat operation was not the story the Army wanted pushed. As a result, several senior Army officers moved to massage the narrative and outright suppress the story to both the media and the Tillman family. The end result was an absolutely ghastly mess.
There were allegations that Tillman, by now disillusioned with the war in Iraq, was about to offer an interview with controversial activist Noam Chomsky upon his return from his Afghanistan deployment that would be critical of the Bush Administration.
As Tillman’s death occurred in a crucial time leading up to the 2004 Presidential elections conspiracy theorists even proposed that he had been intentionally murdered. However, interviews with his fellow Rangers verified that Tillman was a popular and selfless member of the team. In the final analysis, it all seems to have been a truly horrible mistake. After several investigations undertaken by the military, three mid-level Army leaders purportedly received administrative punishment as a result.
A word on the conspiracies. Soldiers don’t fight for mom, apple pie, and America. They fight for each other. There’s just no way you could get a Ranger to intentionally shoot another Ranger to protect the reputation of a sitting President. This was simply a horrible accident.
The sordid circumstances surrounding the death of Pat Tillman in no way diminish the truly breathtaking scope of the man’s patriotism and sacrifice. Tillman was an avowed atheist throughout his life. After his funeral, his youngest brother Richard asserted, “Just make no mistake, he’d want me to say this: He’s not with God, he’s f&%ing dead, he’s not religious.” Richard added, “Thanks for your thoughts, but he’s f&%in’ dead.” It was an undeniably strange end for a genuine American hero.
Soldiers in combat will often pen a “just in case” letter to be opened in the event of their death. Pat’s note to his wife Marie said, “Through the years I’ve asked a great deal of you, therefore it should surprise you little that I have another favor to ask. I ask that you live.”
And live she did. Marie Tillman today is Chairman and Co-Founder of The Pat Tillman Foundation. This non-profit works to “unite and empower remarkable military service members, veterans, and spouses as the next generation of public and private sector leaders committed to service beyond self.” The Foundation has sponsored 635 Tillman Scholars and invested some $18 million in philanthropy. Marie has since remarried and is the mother of five children.
Gun control is in the news these days, because gun control is forever in the news. Elected officials who wouldn’t know a gas tube from a sling swivel weaponize the latest headlines and pontificate accordingly, the Constitution be damned. Whether it is Ruby Ridge, Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, Operation Fast and Furious, or Albert Patterson, it is in the unintended consequences where the true preventable tragedy rests.
Albert Patterson was the kind of warrior about whom books are written. A 22-year veteran of the British Paras and the 22d Special Air Service, Patterson was the very tip of the spear fighting for Queen and country in hotspots around the globe. While serving during the Falklands War, Albert Patterson lost 22 friends when a Sea King helicopter he was supposed to be on crashed into the sea. While in combat Patterson captured an Argentine officer and confiscated his pistol.
Albert Patterson was a natural born warrior. Once his time with the British Army was complete he took private security jobs where he could put his unique skills to good use. He maintained a home both in Hereford in the UK as well as Thailand. Most of his time was spent overseas.
Military life is hard on a family, and the world of Special Operations all the more so. I resigned my commission once I realized I could either be a soldier or a Dad but couldn’t be both. By 2014 Patterson’s marriage had self-destructed. His ex-wife noticed Patterson’s brother poking around their old home and called the cops to report him as a burglar.
Police searched the Patterson home and discovered the Browning Hi-Power pistol Patterson had taken from the Argentine officer, five rounds of hollowpoint ammunition, 177 rounds of 9mm ball, four Enfield revolvers, and some component parts from an L1A1 SLR rifle. The Hi-Power had sat unmolested in Patterson’s basement for 33 years. At that point Albert Patterson, now in his sixties, was well and truly screwed.
Gun Control in England
In 1584 William of Orange was assassinated by an assailant with a wheellock pistol. This led Queen Elizabeth I to enact Britain’s first gun control law banning possession of wheellock pistols near the royal palace. The British Bill of Rights of 1688 states, “That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence, suitable to their Condition, and as allowed by Law.” Suffice it to say that moldy old writ doesn’t carry much weight today.
The Pistols Act of 1903 strived and failed to regulate the possession of handguns in Britain. The Firearms Act of 1920 was crafted to restrict ownership of WW1-surplus firearms by the working class. This act first mandated that British citizens obtain a firearm certificate to own a gun. In 1937 the British Home Secretary ruled that, “Firearms cannot be regarded as a suitable means of protection and may be a source of danger.” Ironic that this edict was issued three years before the epic Battle of Britain. The Firearms Act of 1968 further consolidated British gun laws.
Prior to 1988 there yet remained a thriving gun culture in the UK. I have an ArmaLite AR180 in my personal collection that was produced by Sterling Armaments in Dagenham in the early 1980’s. However, in August of 1987 an unhinged antiques dealer named Michael Robert Ryan went on an undeniably horrific rampage in Hungerford and killed sixteen people. He ultimately murdered both an unarmed police officer and his own mother before shooting himself. This sordid tragedy precipitated the Firearms Act of 1988. This law prohibited pump-action shotguns and self-loading rifles. Sterling Armaments went bankrupt that same year.
An amendment to the Firearm Act in 1997 criminalized the possession of handguns without meaningful exception. It was so oppressive that Olympic athletes were no longer allowed to train with their target pistols. As a result 57,000 British subjects surrendered 162,000 handguns along with 700 tons of ammunition. During this time apparently Albert Patterson was serving overseas and unable to avail himself of the resulting firearms amnesty.
In 2006 the British government further restricted the commerce in primers, air rifles, paintball guns, airsoft weapons, and replica firearms. Today airsoft guns are restricted in the UK to use by members of an organized airsoft site conducting permitted activities and possessing third-party liability insurance. Wow.
I was in the UK a couple years ago. One evening while having dinner with my wife in an English pub I saw an older gentleman sit down at the bar and produce a stack of paper targets he had clearly perforated with an air rifle. While nursing his pint of bitter the man carefully measured his groups and documented the results in a notebook. The whole episode simply reeked of oppressive melancholia.
Albert Patterson’s Gun
The P35 Browning Hi-Power is one of the most popular military weapons in the world. John Moses Browning contrived the gun as a submission for some French military pistol trials. However, the great man died before the design could be perfected. Dieudonne Saive, the Belgian gun designer responsible for the FN FAL rifle, completed the work. The apparently-perfect linkless short recoil action of the Hi-Power went on to drive easily 90% of the world’s combat pistols. If you’re not familiar with the particulars just strip your favorite Glock, SIG, Springfield Armory, or HK handgun. That’s all unfiltered Hi-Power inside.
More than 1.5 million Hi-Power pistols have seen service with around ninety nations. In 1982 during the Falklands War both the Argentines and the British issued their own versions of the Hi-Power. The Hi-Power retains its rabid acolytes even today.
Accumulating battlefield trophies is as old as warfare. A teenaged David took the sword of Goliath after relieving him of his head as depicted in the Biblical book of Samuel. To expect young warriors to go off to faraway lands and risk their lives without bringing back mementos of their service is simply magical thinking.
The 1983 invasion of Grenada was the last conflict wherein American troops were legally allowed to retain captured firearms. An Army officer comrade of mine had his career ruined when his ex-wife reported the Makarov pistol he had smuggled back from the First Gulf War. That same gun could be had at the local pawn shop for less than $200 at the time. A cursory review of the trajectory of British gun control demonstrates that the United States is currently following a similar albeit somewhat delayed path.
The Rest of the Story
In January of 2015 Albert Patterson was arrested and charged with possession of an autoloading handgun and associated ammunition. He pled guilty and explained that his infrequent times at home had never coincided with firearms amnesty periods. The sentencing judge Christopher Plunkett reviewed his exemplary record of military service and still remanded him to a custodial prison term of fifteen months. By way of explanation he said, “In the wrong hands these weapons could lead to the death of police officers or cause all sorts of mayhem. It is this risk Parliament is concerned about.”
There resulted a national outcry, much of it organized by The Sun newspaper. The petition for his release garnered some 160,000 signatures. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said, “This is another example of our troops being persecuted by a government and courts obsessed with political correctness. An SAS hero who risked his life to defend our country shouldn’t be treated like a South London drug dealer. He should be freed immediately. The country should be grateful for what he did.”
Albert Patterson spent fifteen years with the SAS. Prior to his sentence Patterson had actually been to prison once before. In 1987 he dove through the roof at Peterhead Prison as part of an SAS assault team to rescue 56-year-old Jackie Stuart, a kidnapped prison guard taken captive during a violent uprising. The appeals court explained that the mandatory sentence for possession of such a firearm was five years, implying that this war hero was getting off easy. Patterson’s ex-wife testified that he had never even fired the gun.
The British people seem quite proud of their gun control laws. British police officers seldom carry firearms, and there were only three fatal shootings of British police officers in England and Wales during the eleven years following 2000. However, Britain is not America.
American gun owners currently possess more than 400 million firearms. You and I own twenty times as many guns as there are soldiers under arms in every military in the world combined. Gun control laws will simply never work here. That ship has sailed.
If we outlawed all commerce in firearms tomorrow American criminals would remain well armed until the sun burns out. What future gun control legislation could very effectively do, however, is incarcerate military heroes for non-violent possession of war trophies or precipitate another unnecessary Waco-grade bloodbath. Our own great nation is following a similar track, albeit offset by a decade or two. We’ve got to vote like our freedom depends upon it.
This institutional aversion to firearms now pervades the British populace. Lofty Wiseman, a respected former SAS operator, had this to say, “If you have a weapon in a house with ammunition, there’s always that temptation…you can never say you’re going to use it but different circumstances, state of mind, if it’s there, it can be used so that’s where you must have laws.” To have such castrated pablum spewed by a supposedly free nation’s warrior class is just sad.
Gordon Chang: China’s ‘shock troops’ now inside U.S.
‘On 1st day of war in Asia,’ they will ‘poison reservoirs, assassinate officials, create terror’
A Chinese military warrior (Video screenshot)
China’s “shock troops” already are inside the United States.
And “the concern is that, on the first day of war in Asia they will take down America’s power lines, poison reservoirs, assassinate officials, start wildfires, spread pathogens, and create terror by bombing shopping malls and supermarkets.”
That’s the warning from Gordon G. Change, the author of “The Coming Collapse of China” and a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow.
He wrote at the institute, where he is on its advisory board, that Chinese migrants are gaining entry to the U.S. through the southern border, in “unprecedented numbers.”
“Once here, the military fighters can link up with China’s agents already in place or Chinese diplomats,” he said, estimated their numbers already had 5,000 to 10,000.
He cited Richard Fisher, of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, who told Gatestone recently, “When the Chinese Communist Party starts its war against Taiwan and the United States, Americans should expect that Chinese sleeper agents now in America will hit targets like gas stations and military-age Chinese now crossing our border will be mobilized for assassination attacks and assaults on U.S. military bases.”
That means, “The next war in Asia will almost certainly be fought on U.S. soil, perhaps on its first day. Unsuspecting Americans will be in the fight.”
He explained, “U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that the number of apprehensions of Chinese migrants in the first five months of the current federal fiscal year was more than double that during all of the last fiscal year. The 8,000 Chinese migrants apprehended this calendar year are more than quadruple the number apprehended in the comparable period a year ago.”
They’re flying to Ecuador, which allows entry, and they then make their way through Columbia and Panama.
And he warned, “Some migrants are almost certainly members of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Representative Mark Green (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said at a press conference on the 14th of this month that a Border Patrol sector chief informed him that some of the Chinese migrants at the southern border have ‘known ties to the PLA.'”
On reaching the United States, under Joe Biden administration’s programs, they are simply “released into America.”
He noted China “has already been probing sensitive installations. Chinese agents posing as tourists have, for instance, intruded into bases, including the Army’s Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska. There, the suspected Chinese agents drove past a base gate and were later apprehended with a drone inside their car.”
Green explained, “We have no idea who these people are, and it’s very likely, using Russia’s template of sending military personnel into Ukraine, China is doing the same into the United States.”
—————————————————————————————- I am willing to bet that even if this BS is true. In that about 90% of these so called “troops” will be vastly too busy to making money to show up their at target. Hey they are just like everyone else who comes here. I.E. Money talks & Bullsh*t walks.
Also take this into consideration. In that we have a lot of heavily armed folks who would just love for this to happen. As they could then go full Rambo on these “troops”. So bottom line , talk about a suicide mission, this would be it! My money is on it ain’t gonna happen anytime soon. Grumpy
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Mondays can be like that at times!
Braddocks march during the French & Indian War 1754-63
The Navy lost a couple of chances to sink several of Japan’s Aircraft Carriers. Needless to say that when Adm Ernie King heard about this. A lot of brown sauce hit the fan. Grumpy