Special Operations

The Atomic Bomb That Fell on a Farm in South Carolina

Not many farmers can say a nuclear bomb fell less than 100 yards from the farmhouse and remained to tell the story but a family in South Carolina can.

Sixty years ago, on March 11, 1958, an Air Force bomber dropped a nuclear weapon on a farm in the rural Mars Bluff community outside Florence. The radioactive payload either wasn’t loaded in the warhead or didn’t detonate — the stories differ.
But the TNT trigger for the bomb blew a crater in Walter Gregg’s garden some 24 feet deep and 50 feet wide. The blast shredded his farmhouse about 100 yards away. Hudson, a cousin, had been playing with two of Gregg’s children in the backyard.
The atomic warhead would have been 30 kilotons — twice as powerful as the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in World War II. Florence, five miles away, would have been obliterated. Most of the rest of the 30,000 residents of Florence County would have been wiped out or sickened by radiation.
You’d think the crater site would be one of those ghoulish attractions that become a heavily promoted tourist site. But today it sits almost in obscurity on private property, in the woods at the edge of the backyard of a home in a modest neighborhood near Francis Marion University.
An information kiosk and a wooden silhouette of the 10-feet-tall, 7,600-pound bomb stand near what’s left of the hole, which is silting in. Hurricane debris limbs have been tossed along its rim and a few Pepsi and Bud Lite cans are scattered around. There’s no sign from the road to show it’s there.
No one died or was seriously injured in the Mars Bluff blast. But the Gregg family came away with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Walter Gregg eventually sued and was awarded $36,000, according to the exhibit at the Florence County Museum. That wasn’t enough to rebuild the house, much less replace the possessions lost or stolen in the aftermath, Holladay said.
“My daddy resented it all his life.”

The military had several mishaps with nuclear weapons in the 1950s including another drop outside Tybee Island, GA where a nuclear weapon was dropped and landed in the silt where it remains offshore.

To read the entire article from Charleston Post & Courier, click here:

Photo courtesy AP

What Trump’s $700 Billion in the Defense Budget Pays For

The new omnibus $1.3 trillion spending bill that President Trump signed last week, the Pentagon’s budget rose to the most in their history, $700 billion.

The military budget approved on Friday is packed with funding for new weapons as well as upgrades for older systems.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Trump has privately floated the idea of using that military budget to fund construction of a border wall with Mexico. Trump discussed that idea in a private meeting last week with House Speaker Paul Ryan, a source familiar with the conversations said, as he reviewed the omnibus spending bill, which does not include funding for construction of a wall.
It was not immediately clear how serious Trump was about pursuing this option, but the move would likely face steep hurdles with appropriators in Congress.
Trump said the military spending was one of the major reasons he signed the bill, which had earlier threatened to veto.
“Our military is very depleted, but it’s rapidly getting better. And in a short period of time it will be stronger than it has ever been,” Trump said, touting some weapons systems as the best the world has ever seen.
“We in the military are humbled and grateful to the American people for their sacrifices on behalf of this funding,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis said. “Now it’s our responsibility in the military to spend every dollar wisely in order to keep the trust and the confidence of the American people and the Congress.”
In the cases of several items, Congress gave the Pentagon even more than it asked for.

The F-35 and F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, an improved AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the Ford-class aircraft carrier and the Littoral combat ship are just some of the big-ticket items on the slate for the Pentagon with this budget.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Two Coalition Troops Killed in Syria By IED, Five Wounded

Reports from U.S. military personnel in Syria say that two coalition personnel have been killed and five were wounded by a roadside bombing in Syria on Friday.

IEDs attacks, while common in Iraq have been rare since the U.S-led coalition sent troops into Syria’s war-torn country.

The military did not say where the incident occurred but it came hours after a local Syrian official said that a roadside bomb has exploded in the tense, mixed Arab-Kurdish town of Manbij that is not far from the border with Turkey.
The U.S. military statement said the incident occurred on Thursday night and that the wounded personnel were being evacuated for further medical treatment. The coalition statement said details pertaining to the incident were being withheld pending further investigation.
It did not identify the casualties as American soldiers, only coalition personnel members.
The local Syrian official, Mohammed Abu Adel, the head of the Manbij Military Council, an Arab-Kurdish US-backed group in the town, said the bomb went off hundreds of meters away from a security headquarters that houses the council just before midnight on Thursday.
Earlier Friday, a U.S. military official, Col. Ryan Dillon, said an incident involving coalition forces was reported in Manbij but said no more information was available. He said the coalition was still gathering information about the incident.
Manbij is under threat of a Turkish military operation. Ankara says Syrian Kurdish militiamen it views as “terrorists” and an extension of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey is in control of the town.
The town has also seen a number of small explosions, protests and an assassination attempt on a member of the Manbij military council in recent weeks. Local officials blame Turkey and other adversaries for seeking to sow chaos in the town that was controlled by Islamic state militants until the summer of 2016.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available

To read the entire article from Time, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Veterans Behind Bars, Finding Support in Special Cell Blocks

The Monroe County Jail outside of Rochester, NY has a special veterans’ housing unit and is one of about 80 different pods across the country. Rochester’s opened in September and the goal is to put the veterans in a different setting where they are more likely to feel in a military setting. That is hoped to appeal to a time in their lives when they served and were part of something bigger than themselves.

In most cases, the plan is working, recidivism is way down in veterans who are placed in the program. They wear brown jumpsuits rather than the normal orange and seems to be a positive step.

One two-story unit within the Monroe County Jail in Rochester isn’t your typical jail pod.
Some inmates do yoga to combat anger, others participate in art therapy classes, and others take part in chemical dependency courses.
Inside are two dozen veterans, ranging from their 20s to 60s, dressed in brown jumpsuits. Each man jailed here served in the United States military.
Since its inception, about 120 veterans have lived in the unit
There are currently 20 veterans housed in the 53-person jail pod
The goal is to connect the men with support services they can continue to utilize once released from jail.
Years of military service and discharge status aren’t important. Inmates who served even a day are eligible to live in the unit.
“Of Monroe County Jail’s 1,100 inmates, we look for ways to change lives for the better,” said current Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter. “Through this program, we are saving and changing lives.”
Put veterans with other veterans and they’re more likely to be successful as the camaraderie the unit provides is significant, said Nick Stefanovic, director of the Monroe County Veterans Service Agency.
“The goal of the program is to stop that revolving door and we do that through the services we offer the pod, which is the most effective point in the criminal justice system to intervene,” Stefanovic said. “The amount, type and quality of those programs will make it or break it.”

For many incarcerated veterans, their jail terms are a consequence of their military service. Coping with PTSD, combat injuries and the like, many self-medicate with drugs and alcohol and sent them on a downward spiral. This program and others like it are a step in the right direction.

To read the entire article from Rochester Democrat, click here:

Photo: Rochester Democrat

US Military Tells Disabled Vet He Owes $15,000 in Separation Pay

Darrell “Smitty” Smith is being told that the $15,000 “Special Separation” pay that he received more than 25 years ago has turned into a loan. And now that he is 100 percent disabled due to numerous ankle and back surgeries from his time in service, he may lose his home and his boxing gym where he trains the local youth.

After numerous back and ankle surgeries from his time in service, Smith is now fully disabled. Being deemed 100 percent unemployable by the military, that separation pay has turned into a loan. All of Smith’s disability checks are being taken until it’s paid back.
“It’s nothing I’m trying to get out of, but $14,000 and taking your whole check at one time of your income coming in, that would hurt anybody,” Smith says.
Smith was caught with his gloves down when he received a letter saying that he owed the military nearly $15,000 dollars they gave him nearly 25 years ago.
“I was unaware that according to a law written by Congress, that if you ever become a 100% disabled veteran, that money they gave you turns into a loan.”
“Smitty” has already been forced to start paying on it.
“They’re taking my next five paychecks and leaving my family with absolutely nothing because of the way the law is written in Congress,” Smith says,
Smitty spent about 16 years fighting the good fight for his country, but now, he is up against a different kind of fight.
“I mean if it comes down to it, I can’t lose my house. I’m just trying to save my gym,” he says.
He is not trying to save the gym just for himself, but for the kids he trains. He has trained multiple gold-glove fighters, and currently has a few in training eyeing Olympic competition in 2020.
“Tutors come on Thursdays and help them maintain a B average that we demand in order to box here. It’s a trade off. I’ll teach you how to box, in exchange for you making good grades and graduating high school. At any given time, I may have 20-25 kids in the gym. Some days I may have five. I don’t care as long as I got some kids in this gym,” he says.

“I still love my country though.”

To read the entire article from OzarksFirst.com, click here:

Photo courtesy screenshot Ozark First video

FBI Makes an Arrest in the Suspicious Package Case

The FBI has arrested a man in the Seattle, Washington area on Monday in connection with more than a dozen suspicious packages sent to government and military addresses on the East Coast, most of them in the nation’s capital, the FBI said Tuesday.

Tranh Cong Phan, 43, was arrested at his home in the Seattle area on Monday. He was scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier Tuesday officials said they believed Phan sent a total of 12 packages to military and government addresses in the Washington metro area. But late Tuesday, the FBI’s Washington field office appeared to leave open the possibility that more packages were mailed.
“It is possible that further packages were mailed to additional mail processing facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area,” the FBI office said in a statement.
Officials have said packages turned up at the CIA’s mail-sorting facility, a White House mail-sorting facility in suburban Washington, a Navy facility in Dahlgren, Virginia, and two facilities at Fort Belvoir, Virginia — the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and another defense university.
FBI investigators found that the packages contained potential destructive devices and appeared to have been sent by the same individual. Some of the packages included letters that one official described as disturbed and rambling.
The deliveries appeared to have been intended to cause fear rather than injure people or cause damage, one official said. But authorities have not confirmed a motive.
Prior to the FBI’s statement late Tuesday night, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters earlier in the day that all of the packages mailed to Defense Department facilities were under the control of federal authorities.

It isn’t known whether Phan acted alone or whether other arrests were made or are planned at the current time.

To read the entire article from NBC News, click here:

Photo courtesy: Screen shot, video

Trump Wants the Military to Foot the Bill for the Border Wall

The much-ballyhooed border wall that President Trump touted during his presidential campaign was again in the news on Tuesday. The President, in speaking with some of his closest advisers, floated the idea of funding the construction of a wall on the Mexican border through the military’s budget according to sources.

Trump discussed the idea in a private meeting last week with House Speaker Paul Ryan, a source familiar with the conversations said, as he reviewed the omnibus spending bill, which does not include funding for construction of a border wall. It was not immediately clear how serious Trump was about pursuing this option, but the move would likely face steep hurdles with appropriators in Congress.
The idea is Trump’s latest attempt to find a way to build the border wall he promised supporters during his campaign as Mexico has dismissed his call for Mexico to fund its construction. Trump has said he would seek that payment in the form of a refund, either through trade negotiations, remittance payments or other means.
A senior administration official confirmed the President has floated this idea, along with others, as alternative ways to pay for the wall.
“There’s a lot of different options we’re trying to contemplate. Certainly that’s one,” the official said.
Another option: increasing fees that a person has to pay when they cross the border from Mexico into the United States.
“You could always increase them and take the revenue for that for resources,” this official said.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders declined to weigh in when asked repeatedly on Tuesday at the daily press briefing about trying to get the military to fund the wall.
“I can’t get into the specifics of that at this point, but I can tell you that the continuation of building the wall is ongoing, and we’re going to continue moving forward in that process,” Sanders said.

Currently, the administration only has the money in the budget for fixing current fencing and building new fencing.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy: Screen Shot CNN video

Islamic State Regrouping in Iraqi, Kurdish Territories

The Islamic State has regrouped in Iraq and is conducting increasingly deadly attacks in territories across northern Iraq, taking advantage of the hostility between the central government and the Kurdish people, according to both Iraqi and Kurdish officials.

The Iraqi government declared a final victory over IS last December after Iraqi forces drove its last remnants from the country.
IS militants have since reverted to guerrilla warfare tactics, particularly in Kirkuk, northern Saladin and eastern Diyala, where both the Iraqi central government and the Kurdistan Regional Government claim control.
Ali al-Husaini, the spokesman of the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in northern Iraq, accused IS of attempting to turn the territories into a hotbed by fueling tensions between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen.
Rich with abundant natural resources, the disputed territories have been the core of decades-long conflict between the Iraqi government and the Kurds.
The Kurds say the former Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein changed the demographics of the area by displacing Kurds and Assyrians and settling Arab tribes. Article 140 of the current Iraqi constitution requires that measures have to be taken to reverse the changes before people of the areas hold a referendum to decide their fate.
The referendum was supposed to take place on November 2007 but has been repeatedly delayed, and the area remains contested.
“IS terrorists want to create chaos by resorting to attacks in the form of gang militancy,” al-Husaini told VOA. “They want to create divisions among the components of this area and prove they still have power in Iraq.”
He said IS fighters have increased their hit-and-run attacks in towns and villages to obstruct the upcoming Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
In recent weeks, Iraqi security forces have blamed suspected IS insurgents for several deadly attacks carried out in the disputed areas.

ISIS has been setting up bogus checkpoints on the thinly held highways in the area, ambushing government troops and killing and kidnapping civilians, holding them for ransom.

To read the entire article from Voice of America, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Multiple Military Bases in DC Area Sent Suspicious Packages

The FBI is investigating the sending of multiple suspicious packages to military bases and CIA HQs in the Washington D.C. area, officials stated on Monday. The FBI had taken custody of the packages that one official stated was more than 10 of these crude devices.

They said packages were sent to the CIA, Fort Belvoir and Fort McNair. A US official said a Naval Support Facility in Dahlgren, Virginia, also received a suspicious package and that the FBI is leading the investigation.
A law enforcement official told CNN there were more than 10 devices. All were very crude, involving black powder, and would not have caused fatalities had they gone off, the official said.
At least one package, sent to the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, contained explosive material and was ultimately rendered safe. That package arrived at 8:30 a.m. ET and the building was evacuated immediately, according to Army spokesman Michael L. Howard.
“At 12:10 p.m., 52nd Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal from Fort Belvoir, VA, confirmed the package tested positive for black powder and residue,” Howard said in a statement. “The X-ray conducted indicates suspected GPS and an expedient fuse were attached. The package was rendered safe. No injuries are reported.”
Scanning machines at the facilities detected the suspicious materials upon receipt and the packages are being examined at the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, the law enforcement official said.
The National Defense University at Fort McNair was cleared for re-entry after K-9 sweep and personnel returned to the building by 1:15 pm ET.
Another Army spokesman confirmed a suspicious package incident at Fort Belvoir and said that package has been rendered safe.
Another package was sent to the CIA on Monday, according to a US official. Further details about the package intended for the CIA were not provided.

The FBI’s crime lab at Quantico, VA was heading up the investigation.

To read the entire article from CNN, click here:

Photo courtesy: File photo US Army

Yemen Rebels Launch a Barrage of Missiles at Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh was targeted by a barrage of missiles fired from Yemeni Shiite rebels on the third anniversary of the war’s start. Missile fragments killed one Saudi resident and wounded two others.

The rebels known as Houthis said they launched a missile attack targeting Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport and other sites, again showing their ability to strike deep into the neighboring kingdom amid the stalemated war in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country.
A spokesperson for the embassy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia says “seven ballistic missiles were shot toward Saudi Arabia from within Yemen.” A press conference will be held Monday at 1 p.m. ET “to provide more details about this aggressive act.”
The officials detailed the targets for each: Three were centrally poised in the direction of Riyadh, one toward the southwest in Khamis Mushait, one along the Southern border targeting Najran, two aiming for the southern city of Jizan and one was randomly launched with the intent of hitting a densely populated civilian area.
“With credit to the Saudi Royal Air Defense Forces, all seven ballistic missiles were intercepted and destroyed. According to preliminary information, the interception resulted in fragments raining on a few residential neighborhoods and, at the issuance of this statement, the loss of life of an Egyptian resident, in addition to material damage to civilian objects-the details of which will shortly be announced by the relevant authorities,” according to Col. Turki Al Maliki, spokesperson for the coalition forces to support the legitimate government in Yemen.
The barrage likely will spark new criticism of Iran’s role in the conflict as well, as the Houthis identified some of the missiles fired as a type that the United Nations and the West say comes from Tehran.
A watchdog group said Monday that roadside bombs disguised as rocks in Yemen bear similarities to others used by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and by insurgents in Iraq and Bahrain, suggesting at the least an Iranian influence in their manufacture. The report by Conflict Armament Research was dismissed by the Iranian mission to the U.N.

U.S. supplied Patriot Missiles launched by the Saudis as part of their air defense network intercepted the missiles according to official reports. Of course, Iran has denied that supplies any material support for the rebels, despite contradicting evidence.

To read the entire article from CBS News, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia