SOF

Operation Halyard, One of the Great Rescue Stories of WWII

Operation Halyard was the greatest rescue mission of American airmen in our history. And it was conducted by a three-man OSS (Office of Strategic Services) team dropped into Serbia that was occupied by the Germans. The OSS operatives linked up with Serbian “Chetniks” led by General Draža Mihailović in August of 1944.

This three-man Halyard team was commanded by Lieutenant George Musulin, along with Master Sergeant Michael Rajacich, and Specialist Arthur Jibilian, the radio operator. The team was assigned to the United States Fifteenth Air Force and designated as the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit.

By the time the operation was finished, the OSS had rescued 432 American airmen and 80 other Allied personnel who were airlifted out of Yugoslavia and back into Allied control. The story was captured in the outstanding book “The Forgotten 500” by Douglas A. Freeman.

Setting the Stage: The story of the rescue of 512 Allied airmen should have been front-page news, especially since it was accomplished by just three OSS men. The OSS were the forerunners of the CIA and the US Army Special Forces. But it was kept under wraps and the story never really was told until long after it was over.

The mission was a daunting one. During WWII, Allied forces stationed in Italy were using airbases there to bomb Germany, as well as Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. Some of the most important targets were sources of petroleum and petroleum refineries in Ploesti, Romania.

The American bomber crews were suffering increasing losses in the Southern theater, and more and more crewmen were bailing out over Yugoslavia. Some were grabbed by German forces or those loyal to the Germans and were made into POWs. But reports were leaking out to OSS men in Italy that hundreds of airmen were falling into the hands of the Serbian people.

The Serbs were risking their lives hiding Allied airmen from the Germans. They shared their meager, insufficient food with the airmen, usually stale bread and goat’s milk. The Serbian women treated the wounded and operated makeshift hospitals as they shuttled the airmen from village to village to hide them from the Germans.

The OSS men had to infiltrate Serbia, make contact with the Chetniks, then the coalition of Americans and Chetniks had to build clandestine airstrips, large enough to hold C-47s all while hiding them from the Germans and land the cargo aircraft and take off without being detected. It was an extremely risky operation, literally, hundreds of things could go wrong.

The Americans had contacted Marshal Tito of the Communist partisans to secure his cooperation. The British considered Yugoslavia as under their sphere of influence, threw their total support behind Tito and were trying to sever all ties with Mihailović, lest they offend Tito and the Communists. They actively tried to rebuff any American attempt to contact Mihailović’s Chetniks.There were rumors, not proved until 1997 that a group of Communist sympathizers inside the British government were poisoning reports of Mihailović’s collaboration with the Germans which submarined any chance of the Chetniks getting any kind of support initially as Churchill and the British were adamantly against any support for them.

Musulin, who had spent nearly a year with the Chetniks was livid at the way the Allies, specifically the British were in essence handing over the country of Yugoslavia to the communists. He asked to be court-martialed so that the true story of the Chetniks and their loyalty to the allied cause would come to light.

However, in truth, the OSS in the Italian theater was full of communist sympathizers, many of whom naively believed because that Russian was an ally that is just fine.

The OSS team was selected and they were ready for infiltration. The overall operation was headed up by OSS agent George Vujnovich. The British were not pleased, especially since the Americans would not be relying on the Brits to ferry them to Yugoslavia nor using British radio operators. It was to be a completely American operation on the ground. Several attempts to infiltrate the team had gone awry with British pilots that had wrong coordinates which intentionally tried to put them over partisan (Tito) territory. Musulin had enough. He demanded an American plane and crew fly the team to Yugoslavia.

The night of August 2nd, the men parachuted into Mihailović’s headquarters at Pranjani. Musulin landed on a chicken coop which sent chickens flying in every direction. Rajacich landed in a tree where Musulin helped him climb down from. Jibilian had the softest landing, coming down in a cornfield. When the Chetniks saw Musulin, they were overjoyed.

One of the American airmen, Richard Felman (415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group), witnessed the reunion between Musulin and the Chetniks. “The one who was in the lead was the of a mob of Chetniks—they were kissing him and cheering him with tears in their eyes. He was in an American uniform and was one of the biggest chaps I’d ever seen. He walked over to us and put out his hands. ‘I’m George Musulin’, he said.

Musulin was told to expect 150 airmen at the airfield. Secretly, he hoped the number to be exaggerated so as to make it easier to get them all out. But he was surrounded by no less than 250 airmen.

The next morning, the men began work on the airstrip. The two hundred and fifty men were joined by 300 villagers and Chetnik soldiers who provided 60 oxcarts for hauling stones and debris away from the airstrip. The flat terrain was 700 yards long which was the minimum length an airstrip for a C-47 needed to be.

For six days the men toiled on the airstrip using mostly their bare hands with an occasional hoe or pitchfork to clear the ground. The men cleared some trees at the end of the strip to give the C-47s another precious 75 feet of runway. On August 8, Musulin surveyed the airfield and told his radio operator, “Jibby, tell them we’re ready. We’ll start evacuation tomorrow night.”

The next day the men got a scare when a German Stuka dive-bomber accompanied two German JU-52 cargo planes directly over the airstrip. The men, hiding in the woodline, thought that the Germans were there to bomb the freshly cleared airfield. But just as the planes were passing over at 1000 feet, a large herd of cows, sauntered onto the strip giving it the look of a freshly plowed field. The Germans never noticed a thing.

At 10:00 p.m. Musulin heard the drone of the C-47s approaching but they noticed there were four, not six C-47s circling, two had turned back for engine trouble. The first 48 men would be leaving, as they’d load a dozen per plane. As the planes landed and taxied to the sides of the highway, OSS agent Nick Lalich, bounded out to help the team. The Serbs who sheltered the Americans, fed and protected them were happy for their rescue but sad. There were many hugs, tears among both parties that could barely speak a word of each other’s language.

Allied airmen fly home with their feet in canvas bags after giving their shoes to local Serbs.

The Serbs gave the Americans the traditional Serbian national rugs, wrapping them around the American’s shoulders. The airmen began stripping off their boots, and some with their flight jackets, giving them to the Serbs, most of whom lacked proper footwear.

About 8:00 a.m. the next morning, the men around the airstrip heard the roar of aircraft. Not only were there six more C-47s but they were accompanied by 30 fighter planes, P-38s and P-51s who would protect the airmen on the trip back to Italy. The scene was repeated from the night before with the airmen stripping off their shoes for the Serbs.

A half-hour later, six more C-47s appeared with 25 fighters. The men had made it out and back to Italy. In all 241 US airmen, six British, four French, nine Italians and 12 Russians, a total of 272 airmen had made it out during the days of 9-10 August. But the mission was far from over. What was deemed to be a few week mission turned into a six-month marathon. Allied airmen continued to be escorted down to Pranjane at the airstrip. When it was over, 512 Allied airmen were safely escorted from Yugoslavia. Not a single airman was lost.

OSS Nick Lalich and General Draža Mihailović

Because of this operation, United States President Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded Mihailović (he’d been arrested by Tito and executed after his takeover) the Legion of Merit for his contribution to the Allied victory during World War II. Initially, this high award and the story of the rescue was classified secret by the U.S. State Department so as not to offend the-then Communist Tito government of Yugoslavia.

The rescue, one of the most daring in U.S. military history and conducted by a handful of OSS men was kept a secret as not to offend the communists.

Photos: US Archives

US Must Counter Russia, China in Middle East After Defeat of ISIS

With the defeat of Islamic State, both Russia and China are attempting to grow their influence across the Middle East, adding to the growing concerns for the United States, the commanding general of Central Command said on Tuesday.

Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), described an array of steps those “great power” nations have taken to expand their military and political clout in a way that challenges American interests from Syria to Afghanistan.
Describing the chief issues facing the U.S. military in the region, Votel took aim at what he characterized as Moscow’s attempts to monopolize events in Syria, where the course of a grinding civil conflict was redirected by Russia’s military intervention in 2015.
Although President Vladimir Putin announced a drawdown of Russian forces from Syria in December, Moscow’s continued military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has allowed his government to claw back areas under opposition control.
In Syria, “Moscow is playing the role of arsonist and firefighter . . . fueling tensions and then trying to resolve them in their favor, and then manipulating all the parties they can in order to achieve their objectives,” he said during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.
The general blamed Russia for failing to enforce a U.N.-backed cease fire approved over the weekend. “Either Russia has to admit that it’s not capable, or it doesn’t want to play a role in ending the Syrian conflict here,” he said. “I think their role is incredibly destabilizing.”
Votel, meanwhile, said that Russia had “exaggerated” the threat posed by an Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan and had mischaracterized that group’s rise as an indication of a failed U.S. strategy.

Votel pointed out that the Middle East was being used as a testing ground for new weapons of the Russian military and that they have scant consideration for the effect that those have on the civilian populace. The Chinese, he said, have opened a base in Djibouti and are trying to sell arms to US allies while openly courting Iran.

Iran is another nation trying to greatly increase its influence. They’re pushing their agenda thru proxies in the region and the recent airstrikes by Israel in Lebanon of their bases there are in addition to other moves in Syria and Yemen.

To read the entire article from the Washington Post, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 4

Wednesday is a light Shoulders and Back training day in the gym before heading off to do the SOF (Special Operations Forces) Triathlon. A 3-mile run, a rucksack march, and a swim in fatigues and boots.

These are three things that you’ll have to be able to do well to pass Selection. If your plans include being a Marine Raider or a Navy SEAL, then being a good swimmer and being more comfortable in the water with your gear on is a must.

Training:

More Preparation for the UBRR:

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, behind the neck (go as heavy as possible)

2 x 12 Lat Pulldowns, front

2 x 10 Dumbbell Side Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Front Raises

2 x 10 Dumbbell Arnold Press

2 x 8 Shoulder Shrugs

3-mile Run (24 minutes maximum)

3-mile Rucksack march (45-pound minimum, 45 minutes maximum)

100-meter swim in fatigues and boots

Stretch well after completion

Remembering Douglas T. Jacobson, Medal of Honor, Feb. 26,1945

The fighting to take the small volcanic but the strategically vital island of Iwo Jima was the site of the some of the bloodiest fighting in the U.S. Marine Corps history. Admiral Chester Nimitz said of the battle, “Uncommon valor was a common virtue”, where in fact 27 Medals of Honor were presented, 22 to members of the Marine Corps and 5 to US Navy personnel, four of which were Corpsman assigned to the Marine infantry units.

One of the most heroic of those stories was that of Douglas T. Jacobsen, a PFC in 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Jacobsen single-handedly in one day knocked out 16 Japanese positions, killing over 75 of the enemy including a tank which led to the successful operation of his entire unit. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman on the White House lawn on October 5, 1945.

Jacobson was born on November 25, 1925, in Rochester, NY and grew up in nearby Port Washington. He worked for his father as a draftsman and as a lifeguard before enlisting in the Marine Corps in January 1943 at the age of 17 before he graduated high school in New York.

After his recruit training at Parris Island, SC, he was assigned to the 23rd Marines at Camp Lejeune, NC before shipping overseas late in 1943. He there fought in the campaigns for Tinian, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands, as well as Iwo Jima.

The 23rd Marines and Jacobson went ashore on Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, and three days after the historic flag raising at Mount Suribachi, the 23rd Marines were fighting for mere feet at a time at Hill 382, the highest elevation on the northern part of the island, opposite of Suribachi. The fighting was so brutal there, the men called it “The Meat Grinder”.

With his unit pinned down, the 19-year old grabbed a bazooka and a satchel charge off a fallen Marine. Normally a bazooka was a two-man operation, but Jacobson was on his own. Moving forward under heavy fire, he blew up a 20mm anti-aircraft gun and killing the entire crew. Then under heavy fire, he moved forward and destroyed two machine gun positions. But he was far from done.

Still, under heavy fire, Jacobson knocked out two large pillboxes and seven gun emplacements. Then a Japanese tank which was putting heavy fire on the Marines was taken on.

An adjacent infantry company was attacking the flank and Jacobson volunteered to aid them. With the tank pouring fire into the Marines. Moving forward he fired several rounds of the bazooka into the tank’s turret, finally disabling it and taking out the crew. For good measure, he destroyed another blockhouse single-handedly moving forward and neutralizing it and the men inside. So fierce was the fighting, that despite these heroics, it still took the Marines three more days to take Hill 382.

Jacobson was asked by President Truman how he accomplished such an incredible feat, he said simply, “I don’t know how I did it,” he said. “I just had one thing in mind… to get off that hill.”

Jacobson was discharged in December of 1945 but found the job market stifling and decided to give the Marines another shot. He re-enlisted in April of 1946. He later went thru Officers Candidate School and rose to the rank of Major. He served aboard helicopters in Vietnam before retiring for good in 1967. But before that, there was one final test. His commanding officer informed him that Jacobson was one of the only officers in the Marine Corps without a High School diploma, having enlisted early during World War II.

His commander asked him to consider taking the general equivalency exam (GED) to accomplish this. He sought help from two of his captains and finally took the test and got his GED in 1967.

On the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, Jacobson was asked to speak at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA. There he remembered the brutal 36-day battle where over 7000 Marines died trying to take a small eight-square-mile speck of an island the Japanese were determined to hold onto or bleed the Marines dry in taking it.

Jacobson said, “those were the days that men were men and proud of it.” He added, “They never asked if the island was needed or if the war was just. When they were called to do their duty, they stood up and were counted.”

After retirement Jacobson and his wife, whom he met in Okinawa when she was a DOD School teacher from California, lived in Willingboro, and Marlton, NJ. He moved to Florida in 1987 and passed away there on August 20, 2000, in Port Charlotte, FL.

The state of Florida named a veterans nursing home after Jacobson in Port Charlotte.

Jacobson’s wife poses under his portrait in the nursing that bears his name.

Medal of Honor Citation

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR to

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DOUGLAS T. JACOBSON
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE

for service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Third Battalion, Twenty-Third Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in combat against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands, February 26, 1945.

Promptly destroying a stubborn 20-mm. anti-aircraft gun and its crew after assuming the duties of a bazooka man who had been killed, Private First Class Jacobson waged a relentless battle as his unit fought desperately toward the summit of Hill 382 in an effort to penetrate the heart of Japanese cross-island defenses. Employing his weapon with ready accuracy when his platoon was halted by overwhelming enemy fire on February 26, he first destroyed two hostile machine-gun positions, then attacked a large blockhouse, completely neutralizing the fortification before dispatching the five-man crew of a pillbox and exploding the installation with a terrific demolitions blast.

Moving steadily forward, he wiped out an earth-covered rifle emplacement and, confronted by a cluster of similar emplacements which constituted the perimeter of enemy defenses in his assigned sector, fearlessly advanced, quickly reduced all six positions to a shambles, killed ten of the enemy and enabled our forces to occupy the strong point.

Determined to widen the breach thus forced, he volunteered his services to an adjacent assault company, neutralized a pillbox holding up its advance, opened fire on a Japanese tank pouring a steady stream of bullets on one of our supporting tanks and smashed the enemy tank’s gun turret in a brief but furious action culminating in a single-handed assault against still another blockhouse and the subsequent neutralization of its firepower.

By his dauntless skill and valor, Private First Class Jacobson destroyed a total of sixteen enemy positions and annihilated approximately seventy-five Japanese, thereby contributing essentially to the success of his division’s operations against the fanatically defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His gallant conduct in the face of tremendous odds enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

/S/ HARRY S. TRUMAN

Photos: Wikipedia

El Salvador Not Opening Files on Missing Children from the Civil War

The families of the missing children are still waiting and still hoping for answers from the government of El Salvador. Although the civil war ended 25 years ago, the search for estimated 3000 missing children, the innocent victims who disappeared in the fighting continues.

The country’s military has so far refused to open its archives from that period to allow an investigation into the whereabouts of children separated from their families during combat between guerrillas and government forces.
In a decision released in January, El Salvador’s Supreme Court backed the demand of Nicolasa Rivas for a probe into the disappearances of her daughters, Gladys Suleyma and Norma Climaco Rivas, who were 6 and 7 years old when they went missing in San Vicente province in 1982. Rivas blames the military for taking her daughters.
The U.N. Truth Commission created with the signing of the peace agreement in January 1992 estimated there were 5,000 forced disappearances during the war. Families and human rights advocates have documented about 3,000 more cases and estimate that about 3,000 of all the disappeared were minors.
The Supreme Court’s decision ordered the armed forces to release information related to a military operation called “Mario Azenon Palma.” It was during that operation that Gladys and Norma disappeared, according to their mother.
The Defense Ministry has said that “after having searched the institutional archives it has been established that no documents or registries of any kind related to the alleged operation have been found.”
Eduardo Garcia, executive director of Pro-Busqueda, a group dedicated to the war’s missing minors, said the operation’s existence has been confirmed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
“To think of reconciliation in the country it isn’t enough to say that the wounds are healed,” Garcia said. “The wounds are merely suppressed. There are living people who are being denied freedom.”
The truth commission found that during the 1980-1992 war, government forces tried to isolate guerrillas and their supporters, cutting off access to food and medicine. When soldiers moved against communities and guerrillas fled, women, the elderly and children often fell behind.
Fighters would return to look for their families, but often couldn’t find them. Relatives and activists say children were sometimes taken by soldiers.

There are numerous reports of children being cared for and others where they were used as servants. Some were turned over to the Red Cross or to other families and many were adopted.

Much of the same happened during the “dirty war” in Argentina.

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

Photo courtesy AP

Saudi Military Has Massive Shakeup as Top Army Chiefs Fired

King Salman has fired the top military commanders of Saudi Arabia as he is reshuffling his cabinet. Included in the purge are the Saudi Army Chief of Staff, as well as the heads of the ground and air defense forces.

The King left no doubt as to who is running the country as he’s replaced nearly all of his key security and government ministries. The country has been divided on its ongoing war with Yemen and this move as seen the King consolidating his power.

First Lieutenant General Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwayli was appointed the new chief of staff.
Tamadur bint Youssef al-Ramah was appointed as deputy labour minister in a rare senior post for a woman in the kingdom.
“He [Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman] is the person who is running the country. There should not be any doubt about it,” said James Dorsey, senior fellow at the S Raja Ratnam School of International Studies, Singapore.
“One has to keep in mind that in effect the crown prince has changed the government structure of Saudi Arabia,” he said, adding that it’s a one-man rule as opposed to the past when decisions were taken by consensus.
“I think we are going to see more changes in personnel both within [the] military as well as civilian administration simply because he is putting his own people and he wants to project a certain image of the kingdom.”
The problem with assessing the impact on the war in Yemen is that we don’t really know what’s the sentiment both within the Saudi public as well as within the Saudi military,” Dorsey told Al Jazeera.

These latest moves were made by King Salman, although the driving force is once again his son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. How this will affect the war, which was the initiative driven by Prince Salman remains to be seen.

To read the entire article from Al Jazeera, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 3

Tuesday means it is Leg Day at the gym followed by a 4-mile run. Start off with pull-ups, then squats, lunges and the Sled push/Fireman’s carry followed by a run in thirty-two minutes or less according to the standard.

Remember to stretch well and hydrate well during and after your workout.

Training:

Continue to prep for the UBRR

3 x Pullups 10 reps

3 x Towel pull-ups 10 reps

3 x Front Squat 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

3 x Goblet Squats 20-15-12 reps (lighter weight)

4 x Sled push heavier weight/ Fireman’s carry

3 x 10 reps Dumbbell Lunges

3 x 20 Shoulder Touch Planks

4-Mile run (32 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion

Protecting America’s Schools is Best Left to Professionals, Not Teachers

Whenever there is an issue or tragedy in America, the social media mavens of the U.S. read an article or two (if that) and become instant experts on the topic. The latest issue of that is the shooting in the school in Florida where 17 people tragically lost their lives to a deranged gunman, who after shooting up the school, went to McDonalds until he was arrested by Florida authorities.

Then President Trump put forth the idea that arming teachers is the way to stop the violence in schools. While I disagree with that assumption, (and we’ll get to that shortly), the very idea of any kind of reasonable debate went right out the window. We no longer have discussions on topics on social media. We have shouting matches that quickly resort to name calling.

I know many people on both sides of the debate and their comments were as pointed as their minds were closed. Here a few examples of each:

“The only way to ban school violence is to ban assault weapons completely and confiscate all AR-15s”
“The generation that a week ago was eating Tide Pods and can’t find Lexington and Concord on a f***ing map now want to preach gun control?”

There isn’t much room for any middle ground discussion there. But as I mentioned above, I don’t believe arming teachers is the right way to go. You want professionals doing the job and professionals need to be doing it. With very few exceptions, and I’ll get to that later as well. But here are a few reasons why:

There’s a Big Difference Between Hitting a Target and Tactically Sound: I’ve had this conversation a couple of times this week with people in my hometown. If the average person goes out and buys a handgun, even one with little experience, within a short amount of training and practice, they’ll be able to begin hitting their target fairly accurately very quickly. So are they ready to protect anyone? Not even close.

It takes vast amounts of practice and repetition in a high-stress environment before anyone is ready for that. For starters, even for avid target shooters, when was the last time you went thru a combat range with no ear muffs on? The noise, confusion, and utter chaos of a potential hostage or deranged shooter scenario will increase the pucker factor ten-fold.

While I can’t speak for the civilian side of the world, the men in the military who work in that realm fire hundreds of rounds a week. And in doing so, they go thru intensive training in discriminating a target in a very chaotic, high threat environment. It isn’t easy to do or prepare for. It takes a long time and effort to get to be proficient at it. And even then, it isn’t as easy as some people believe it to be.

The average person doesn’t have this level of training nor preparedness. While they are well within their rights to carry a weapon to protect themselves under the 2nd Amendment, most won’t have the expertise to carry them safely thru an active shootout.

Teachers have the right to protect themselves as well as anyone else, but the only proper solution would be to have them stay in place and protect their classrooms from the inside and not roam the hallways trying to engage the shooter(s) in the case that they get engaged accidentally by law enforcement.

Who Pays For This? If the government decides to go ahead with this idea and arming teachers and education people in the schools, then they’ll have to fund the training for the educators to get proficient. Does anyone really think they’ll allocate enough money to do the job?

Even if it is funded federally, there will never be enough money to fund anything more than a probably a basic firearms course.

Adding Security Measures to Schools: Besides adding additional police officers or trained security personnel to the schools (unlike the failure in Florida), there are certainly more that can be done to deter but not prevent active shooters from reaching the inside of schools. Shooters and deranged persons pick schools for a variety of reasons. But one overriding factor is that they are soft targets and in “gun-free zones.”

There are devices that can be placed inside of classroom doors on the floor that will prevent the doors from being opened from the outside. Access points during the day can and should be locked and visitors being buzzed in from a security monitor where the visitor will be required to go thru a metal detector.

Think about how many fire safety features go into a school while it is being constructed. Fireproof materials, sprinkler systems, fire alarms etc. Why aren’t security systems just as important? We go to great lengths to protect our children from a fire in schools. Just as much thought should go to protecting them from the evil that exists outside their walls.

Police Chief’s Take on Arming Teachers: Despite all of the posturing by “barrel-chested freedom fighters” on social media, many of whom have never owned or fired a weapon before, even us “FOGs” from Special Operations, we aren’t going to be the ones charging in the door in the case of a gunman entering a school in our cities and towns. That is falling to our local and state police departments.

In my own hometown, there are three schools (two elementary and Jr/Sr High School) that are less than a mile from the Police Department HQs. They’ll be tasked with getting there and securing the students and staff, the building and taking down a shooter so I contacted the Chief of Police.

I’ve witnessed Chief Don Desorcy for more than a decade here as a member of the local press as well as a citizen. He’s a 30+ year veteran of the force and has risen up the ranks to now lead the town’s police force. He’s always been a calming influence in even the most volatile of situations. He’s also a no-nonsense pragmatic leader who is under no illusions that situations like Florida can happen anywhere.

When I reached out to him, he told me that he was just having a conversation with a member of his own family about this very subject. “I’ll tell you right up front, I’m against arming of teachers. While some of them may be well trained, the majority of them would not be and it could just make the situation more dangerous for everyone involved.” He admitted that his own officers don’t get enough range time, which isn’t an uncommon problem but they’ve tried to make the training more realistic than just qualifying with paper targets every year.

He said that even before the latest Florida incident, that a couple of teachers and a custodian for the school asked to be armed for protection and that he said no for the reason he listed above. “The average teacher may be able to hit a paper target at the range with good frequency,” he said. “But as you know, the tactical aspects of shooting in a highly charged atmosphere are vastly different. If we had teachers here who were ex-Navy SEALs or Green Berets and wanted to have a weapon, I’d have little opposition to that. Their level of training and experience is far above what any citizen or even most police officers have. But those guys are few and far between.”

Desorcy said he worried about teachers being armed and being misidentified once the police are entering the premises. “We’re entering the building with the mindset that we’re going to eliminate the threat…period. All that other stuff is only on t.v. The officers are entering a very high-stress, chaotic scene and they see someone with a gun? Especially if it is someone from another town or the state police (our area has a Regional SWAT Team) they may not know or recognize the teacher with a gun.” Which could have tragic results.

He noted the communication between the armed teachers and the police would be iffy at best and there would be the issue of a communication breakdown.

He believes that arming teachers is not the solution. “When you look at the status of mental health care right now, the states have all cut the funding and too many people in dire need of services are out walking the streets. Now, too many people are being over-medicated. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed.”

He stated that arming teachers and more restrictive gun laws aren’t solutions. “I worry more about a car being driven like we’ve seen elsewhere at our outdoor mall or at our annual 4th of July fireworks where a large number of people are clustered in very small, confined areas. In just a matter of seconds, a car can be driven into the crowds and kill or injure hundreds in the blink of an eye. We’re always looking for ways to improve our security while not impacting the freedom of the population or their enjoyment of daily activities.”

He added that the department is always checking on the security of the schools, something he does personally. Our town does have a school resource officer who is assigned there all day long. The town is being proactive and searching out deterrents such as a device that could be installed in each of the schools.

As soon as a gunshot is fired, it triggers a warning that rings right to the department and identifies the school, the hallway, and floor where the gunshot was fired from immediately. Whereas the telephone call from the school may at times take minutes in the confusion. Desorcy stated the officers could be arriving at the school with this device before an actual phone call be sent to the department. They are looking at other deterrents as well, such as metal detectors, etc.

“The world we grew up in has changed. This town was like Mayberry growing up in,” he said. “Now, places I’ve never considered carry my weapon off-duty, I carry all the time now…like going to the local grocery store or to church on Sunday…”

There are some places where the arming of teachers does make sense. In small, spread out rural communities, the police may be 20-30 minutes away in a crisis situation. That is far-too-long. There is a specific town in Arkansas with that issue and the staff is armed and trained to deal with a crisis situation as the police are 20 minutes away minimum. The staff and student body regularly conduct active shooter drills. Is it ideal? No, but they do what they must.

In all other situations, it is best to leave the security to the professionals. While we will be the last ones to tell people that they can’t protect themselves but look to teachers to protect students as the solution isn’t the answer. Our teachers need to be armed with lesson plans, books, and computers. They have enough to do there.

Photo: Wikipedia/ABC News

US Disputes Russian Numbers of ISIS Fighters in Afghanistan

The United States military in Afghanistan has disputed Moscow’s claim the number of Islamic State militants in the country runs into the thousands, and urged Russia and Iran to support the Kabul government, not the Taliban, to help defeat IS in the country.

Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson made the remark Saturday while responding to recent Russian accusations Washington is intentionally downplaying the spread of IS militants in the country.
“The numbers that are spread about the number of Daesh fighters by Russia is grossly exaggerated. It is around 1,500,” Nicholson told a news conference in the Afghan capital. He used the Arabic acronym for IS.
The general said that IS militants are operating in parts of the eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar and maintain a “pocket” in the northern Jowzjan province.
Nicholson said that Afghan forces, backed by U.S. counterterrorism troops and airpower, are attacking all three of the locations
“We have cut their numbers in half over the last two years. We have killed their ‘amirs’ (chiefs), we have reduced their territory, again, we have driven their fighters out of parts of the country,” explained the general, who also commands NATO’s Afghan military mission.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, while speaking in Moscow, asserted that thousands of IS terrorists are present in northern and eastern Afghan regions and are being joined by militants fleeing Syria and Iraq.

The Russians and Iranians continue to insist that the US is supporting the rise of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, with the Russians insisting that they’ve monitored flights of helicopters which they claim belong to NATO, that fly over the ISIS-held areas, which he says no one can explain.

Both Iran and Russia claim that their support for the Taliban is only in the area of the hope to increase the likelihood of peace talks.

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

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Special Operations Forces Selection PT Preparation Week 14, Day 2

A quick workout to start the Monday morning and week off right. Start off with the basics of pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, then to the bar for V-ups, pull-ups and dips before a 5-mile run in a mini UBRR test. Remember to stay hydrated and mark your progress in your workout log book.

So how was your time in the 12-miler on Sunday? Were you under the standard of 3 hours? If not, then you know what needs to get worked on. The weather was pretty rotten here, what started as wet snow, then freezing rain and ended up as rain made the footing a mess. And not the best time to find out the water repellency of your rain jacket is no longer working.

Training:

More preparation for the UBRR

1 x 1-minute Pushups

1 x 1-minute Sit-ups

1 x 1-minute, Crunches

1 x 1-minute, V-ups

1 x Dips as many as possible to muscle failure (No time limit)

1 x Pullups as many as possible or to muscle failure (No time limit)

5-mile run (40 minutes maximum)

Stretch well after completion