Friday, January 28, 2011
Aviation Snapshot - Airbus A380 at Farnborough Air Show
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
From the Pages - U.S. Navy SEALs
The U.S. Navy SEALs were officially born on January 1, 1962, with President Kennedy doing the honors, commissioning Teams One and Two, assigned to the Pacific and Atlantic theaters. Both teams would see extensive service during the Vietnam War.
In the following excerpt from U.S. Navy SEALs, Captain Bob Gormly describes SEAL Team Two's insertion into the Mekong Delta in 1967, a mission that would be anything but routine and would help set the tone for future special operations combat missions during the war.
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Captain Bob Gormly has commanded SEAL Teams Two and Six, UDT-12, and NSW Group Two during a long career in NSW, just concluded. As a young lieutenant he went to Vietnam with SEAL Team Two’s first deployment to the combat zone in 1967. SEAL Team Two was sent to the Mekong Delta, a hotbed of enemy activity, in the first use of the SEALs in that part of the country—though Team One had been working for some time up to the north, around Saigon.
“Our operations at first were kind of ‘touch and feel,’” he says. “We were always searching for a strategy that we fitted into—and we never found it—but we had a lot of fun. Us young lieutenants had tremendous freedom about how we wanted to run an operation. We couldn’t be told by anybody to run an operation that we didn’t want to do.”
Back then the entire delta was considered “Indian” country—hostile territory. The only real U.S. presence was the Navy River Patrol Force (CTF-116), which used PBRs to patrol the major rivers for about a year, getting shot at regularly. The VC had pretty much free run of the rest of the area.
Captain Bob Gormly has commanded SEAL Teams Two and Six, UDT-12, and NSW Group Two during a long career in NSW, just concluded. As a young lieutenant he went to Vietnam with SEAL Team Two’s first deployment to the combat zone in 1967. SEAL Team Two was sent to the Mekong Delta, a hotbed of enemy activity, in the first use of the SEALs in that part of the country—though Team One had been working for some time up to the north, around Saigon.
“Our operations at first were kind of ‘touch and feel,’” he says. “We were always searching for a strategy that we fitted into—and we never found it—but we had a lot of fun. Us young lieutenants had tremendous freedom about how we wanted to run an operation. We couldn’t be told by anybody to run an operation that we didn’t want to do.”
Back then the entire delta was considered “Indian” country—hostile territory. The only real U.S. presence was the Navy River Patrol Force (CTF-116), which used PBRs to patrol the major rivers for about a year, getting shot at regularly. The VC had pretty much free run of the rest of the area.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Military Snapshot - MQ-1 Predator over southern Afghanistan
A Predator armed with Hellfire missiles flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. The MQ-1 provided interdiction and armed reconnaissance against critical targets for Operation Enduring Freadom. U.S. Air Force photo by Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt, from Predator: The Remote-Control Air War Over Iraq and Afghanistan by Matt J. Martin.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
From the Pages - Road of 10,000 Pains
From April to June of 1967, U.S. Marines engaged the North Vietnamese is a series of bloody battles in South Vietnam's Que Son Valley. Dubbed Operation Union I and Operation Union II, the operations were designed to wrestle control of the strategically important region from the enemy, giving U.S. forces a larger permanent residence in the area.In the following excerpt from Road of 10,000 Pains, author Otto Lehrack and several Operation Union II veterans from the 1/5 Marines recount their initial contact with the enemy moments after setting foot in their landing zone on May 26, 1967.
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A MACHINE GUN OPENED UP AND SENT the Marines to the ground. They lay there in a trough of indecision and taking casualties until Lance Cpl. Gordon Seablom stood up, waving his .45, and urged the Marines on. Fields, being in the gun team, set his gun up next to a mature stand of bamboo and sent bursts of fire into the enemy position. Corporal Charlie Crump was showing Fields where to shoot when a mortar round exploded right next to him, blowing Crump’s life away and throwing his body on top of Fields’s legs. Sharp, hot steel punched into the ground all around Fields, but good battlefield luck was with him that day, and he was not hit except for a piece that grazed his knee.
For Pfc. Fred Riddle, mortar man and FNG, it was the first time being shot at.
Pfc. Fred Riddle: The feeling can’t be explained unless it has happened to you. We were given the word to move out, and it really didn’t have a lot of meaning at the time, because I still was unaware of what this whole thing was about. When we landed I found out, and very quickly. There was heavy ground fire and mortar fire everywhere.
We moved up out of the paddies to a small house with some trees and bamboo bordering it. Captain McElroy was on the radio, but even though I was around the CP, I had no idea of how things worked. We started to move out, and in a split second everything around me changed. I heard the mortars coming in, but you could not act that fast. Two 82mm mortar rounds landed right in the middle of our group, and Marines were down everywhere. After the initial shock of the event—it seemed like hours, but I know it was just seconds—I got my senses together and noticed the Marine in front of me was holding his face. I asked if he was OK, and he said, “No, I’m not,” and that’s when I noticed the blood. He got his face torn up and part of his right shoulder. I looked at my right shoulder and noticed that my shirt was torn, and I was bleeding also. I looked around and found several wounded Marines on the ground. I found Rocky, but he was killed, so I looked for Harold. We had become friends, and I had an urgent need to see if he was OK. I saw a Marine that was halfway in an air-raid hole on the side of the paddy dike. He had his arms up holding onto the dirt wall, but something didn’t seem right about it, as there was no movement. I yelled to him to see if he was OK but got no response. I pulled him back and removed his pack and started to check him, and it was Harold, my friend, the guy just minutes before I was talking to and sharing my thoughts and my fears about the whole thing, and he was gone. He feared mortar fire more than anything, and almost got to cover, but one small fragment entered through his back and right through his heart. I was in shock.
After we carried the wounded back to the tree line and the dead to another area, we set up a perimeter. We couldn’t get the wounded out by chopper because of the heavy fire, so the corpsman had to do what he could for them. Because the rest of the mortar section was either KIA or WIA, it didn’t exist any longer. I was all that was left, so I was put in 3rd Platoon and assigned to the perimeter on the left side of the trees.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Military Snapshot: Marines of Fox/2/5 Advance in Hue City
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
From the Pages - Hitler's Master of the Dark Arts
Hitler’s Nazi Party, at its evil roots, embraced a bizarre interpretation of ancient European paganism, blending it with fragments of other traditions from sources as diverse as tenth-century Saxon warlords, nineteenth-century spiritualism, and early-twentieth-century fringe archeology.
At the heart of the evil was Hitler’s “witch doctor,” Heinrich Himmler, and his stranger-than-fiction cult, the deadly SS. The mundanely named Schutzstaffel, literally “protective squadron,” was the very essence of Nazism, and their threatening double lightning bolt was one of the most dreaded symbols of the Third Reich. With good reason: what the SS was truly protecting was the ideology of Aryan superiority.
At the heart of the evil was Hitler’s “witch doctor,” Heinrich Himmler, and his stranger-than-fiction cult, the deadly SS. The mundanely named Schutzstaffel, literally “protective squadron,” was the very essence of Nazism, and their threatening double lightning bolt was one of the most dreaded symbols of the Third Reich. With good reason: what the SS was truly protecting was the ideology of Aryan superiority.
In the following excerpt from HITLER'S MASTER OF THE DARK ARTS, author Bill Yenne explores how Himmler and his SS doctors used of concentration-camp inmates as the subjects of many disturbing "scientific" experiments.
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The cruelest corollary to the villainy institutionalized by Heinrich Himmler and SS Totenkopfverbände during World War II was probably the use of concentration-camp inmates in the furtherance of what the SS and its Ahnenerbe had the audacity to describe as “science.”
Again, their line of thinking stretched back into the nineteenth century to the Social Darwinists and their pseudoscientific belief in a racial hierarchy. When the Social Darwinists wrote of natural selection in human society, advocating the sidelining those in society who were considered inferior, they opened the door to those who considered the inferior human races to be not human at all. The same pseudoscience that gave the Nazis their excuse to eradicate the untermenschen like head lice gave the Nazis permission to use the untermenschen as lab rats.
The use of people from concentration camps for gruesome medical experiments was widespread, although it was not centrally directed, as the “ancestral research” conducted under the Ahnenerbe was. The SS functioned as a sort of medical foundation of the dark side, facilitating various projects with infrastructure, personnel, and, of course, human guinea pigs. Much of the funding and encouragement was filtered through the Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung (Institute for Military Scientific Research), which was set up within the Ahnenerbe and headed directly by Wolfram Sievers.
One of the most notorious of the SS doctors was Dr. Eduard Wirths, the primary physician at Auschwitz. Having become a member of the NSDAP while a medical student at Würzburg, he joined the Waffen SS in 1939. After suffering a heart attack on the Eastern Front in 1942, he was transferred to concentration-camp duty, first at Dachau and then at Auschwitz. It was at the latter that numerous medical experiments were conducted by SS doctors that were under Wirths’s direct command. He was particularly interested in experiments around the spread of typhus and in a large-scale project involving the removal of reproductive organs from live women, which were then sent to various institutes in Germany for study. Most of the subjects involved in both projects died as a result.
While Wirths supervised actual doctors, including those providing medical care to the übermensch SS personnel, he also had a number of doctors on his staff whose principal, or only, function at Aushwitz was “research” using human—or rather “subhuman”—subjects.
Conducting experiments on female subjects under Wirths at Auschwitz was Dr. Carl Clauberg, a prewar professor for gynecology at the University of Königsberg turned SS Gruppenführer. When it became established policy under the Final Solution to prevent the untermenschen from breeding, Clauberg approached Heinrich Himmler personally with a proposal to conduct experiments aimed at finding a practical method of mass sterilization. All he needed, implored Clauberg, was access to experimental subjects. Himmler sent Clauberg to Aushwitz in December 1942. There Clauberg experimented on both Jewish and Gypsy subjects, using drugs, acid, and radiation—almost always without anesthetic.
Again, their line of thinking stretched back into the nineteenth century to the Social Darwinists and their pseudoscientific belief in a racial hierarchy. When the Social Darwinists wrote of natural selection in human society, advocating the sidelining those in society who were considered inferior, they opened the door to those who considered the inferior human races to be not human at all. The same pseudoscience that gave the Nazis their excuse to eradicate the untermenschen like head lice gave the Nazis permission to use the untermenschen as lab rats.
The use of people from concentration camps for gruesome medical experiments was widespread, although it was not centrally directed, as the “ancestral research” conducted under the Ahnenerbe was. The SS functioned as a sort of medical foundation of the dark side, facilitating various projects with infrastructure, personnel, and, of course, human guinea pigs. Much of the funding and encouragement was filtered through the Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung (Institute for Military Scientific Research), which was set up within the Ahnenerbe and headed directly by Wolfram Sievers.
One of the most notorious of the SS doctors was Dr. Eduard Wirths, the primary physician at Auschwitz. Having become a member of the NSDAP while a medical student at Würzburg, he joined the Waffen SS in 1939. After suffering a heart attack on the Eastern Front in 1942, he was transferred to concentration-camp duty, first at Dachau and then at Auschwitz. It was at the latter that numerous medical experiments were conducted by SS doctors that were under Wirths’s direct command. He was particularly interested in experiments around the spread of typhus and in a large-scale project involving the removal of reproductive organs from live women, which were then sent to various institutes in Germany for study. Most of the subjects involved in both projects died as a result.
While Wirths supervised actual doctors, including those providing medical care to the übermensch SS personnel, he also had a number of doctors on his staff whose principal, or only, function at Aushwitz was “research” using human—or rather “subhuman”—subjects.
Conducting experiments on female subjects under Wirths at Auschwitz was Dr. Carl Clauberg, a prewar professor for gynecology at the University of Königsberg turned SS Gruppenführer. When it became established policy under the Final Solution to prevent the untermenschen from breeding, Clauberg approached Heinrich Himmler personally with a proposal to conduct experiments aimed at finding a practical method of mass sterilization. All he needed, implored Clauberg, was access to experimental subjects. Himmler sent Clauberg to Aushwitz in December 1942. There Clauberg experimented on both Jewish and Gypsy subjects, using drugs, acid, and radiation—almost always without anesthetic.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Beyond the Book - Q & A with Brian Stann ("Heart for the Fight")
In the following interview, Stann talks about his new book Heart for the Fight, his preparation for and experiences on the battlefield and in the Octagon, and his work with Hire Heroes USA assisting returning veterans with finding employment.
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ZENITH PRESS: Before you ever set foot in the Octagon, you put your boots to the ground in Iraq. How did your first impression of the combat/war in Iraq compare with what you had envisioned and been trained for stateside?
BRIAN STANN: The war was what I expected it to be from my training. This is solely due to the Marine Corps ability to adapt their training to the current climate in both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. My instructors had participated in these wars and were in constant contact with the front lines.
ZP: For those who have never served in the military, it can be difficult to understand just how strong the bonds can become between soldiers—in your case, Marines. Can you describe what that relationship has meant to you, both during your two tours in Iraq and in your life since?
BS: The men I led and served with are like family to me. No matter what they do or say, we are always committed to one another through the shared hardships and sacrifices we endured side by side.
ZP: How much of what you’ve learned through your military training and service—both mentally and physically—have you been able to harness and use in your MMA career?
BS: Much of what I developed in the military has aided me in my fighting career, discipline and commitment in my training, honor and courage while I fight. Both the military and mixed martial arts are martial cultures, therefore the intense training I received in the Marine Corps truly gives me an advantage in the sport of MMA.
ZP: Thus far in your career, you’ve been labeled first and foremost as a dangerous striker. Heavy hands aside, what do feel is the most improved area in your MMA skill-set?
BS: I have improved everything. I never stop training, specifically in between fights I like to concentrate on my weaknesses. I will train specific disciplines of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling to improve my overall skill set. I believe I have become a dangerous ground fighter, particularly when I am in top position reigning down strikes.
ZP: When not training for your next fight, you spend your days serving as president of Hire Heroes USA. Could you tell us a little about the mission of Hire Heroes USA?
BS: Hire Heroes USA’s mission is to offer transition assistance, job search assistance, and job placement services to those who have honorably served in the US military – and to their spouses – in order to reduce veteran unemployment. HHUSA prioritizes veterans statistically most likely to be unemployed: veterans of Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, and veterans that are wounded or disabled.
ZP: You’ve experienced and overcome more adversity in your young life than some people will experience in a lifetime. If you could have readers take one message from Heart for the Fight, what would that be?
BS: People are judged by their ability to cope with adversity and mistakes. Regardless of the difficulty, we all need to grow and learn from mistakes to improve as a person. This growth may not be a measured accomplishment by money, awards, or notoriety, but in the true measurement of a human beings character these accomplishments can be much more important.
BRIAN STANN: The war was what I expected it to be from my training. This is solely due to the Marine Corps ability to adapt their training to the current climate in both Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. My instructors had participated in these wars and were in constant contact with the front lines.
ZP: For those who have never served in the military, it can be difficult to understand just how strong the bonds can become between soldiers—in your case, Marines. Can you describe what that relationship has meant to you, both during your two tours in Iraq and in your life since?
BS: The men I led and served with are like family to me. No matter what they do or say, we are always committed to one another through the shared hardships and sacrifices we endured side by side.
ZP: How much of what you’ve learned through your military training and service—both mentally and physically—have you been able to harness and use in your MMA career?
BS: Much of what I developed in the military has aided me in my fighting career, discipline and commitment in my training, honor and courage while I fight. Both the military and mixed martial arts are martial cultures, therefore the intense training I received in the Marine Corps truly gives me an advantage in the sport of MMA.
ZP: Thus far in your career, you’ve been labeled first and foremost as a dangerous striker. Heavy hands aside, what do feel is the most improved area in your MMA skill-set?
BS: I have improved everything. I never stop training, specifically in between fights I like to concentrate on my weaknesses. I will train specific disciplines of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling to improve my overall skill set. I believe I have become a dangerous ground fighter, particularly when I am in top position reigning down strikes.
ZP: When not training for your next fight, you spend your days serving as president of Hire Heroes USA. Could you tell us a little about the mission of Hire Heroes USA?
BS: Hire Heroes USA’s mission is to offer transition assistance, job search assistance, and job placement services to those who have honorably served in the US military – and to their spouses – in order to reduce veteran unemployment. HHUSA prioritizes veterans statistically most likely to be unemployed: veterans of Operations IRAQI FREEDOM and ENDURING FREEDOM, and veterans that are wounded or disabled.
ZP: You’ve experienced and overcome more adversity in your young life than some people will experience in a lifetime. If you could have readers take one message from Heart for the Fight, what would that be?
BS: People are judged by their ability to cope with adversity and mistakes. Regardless of the difficulty, we all need to grow and learn from mistakes to improve as a person. This growth may not be a measured accomplishment by money, awards, or notoriety, but in the true measurement of a human beings character these accomplishments can be much more important.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Military Snapshot - U.S. Marines at Peleliu's Umurbrogol Mountains
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