Special Forces soldiers awarded Silver Stars:

Things were going reasonably well for a group of Special Forces soldiers looking to disrupt Taliban operations in a small Afghanistan village last year, until the team came upon a 20-foot-tall steel gate that no one had anticipated.

Surrounded on two more sides by 10-foot walls, the 59-man group — 10 special operators from 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, two U.S. support elements and a handful of Afghan soldiers — found themselves in a harrowing firefight on Nov. 2.

“The spider senses were definitely tingling, being up there at that gate,” Sgt. 1st Class Sean Morrison said in a Feb. 9 Army release.

For two hours the group held back the attack, dubbed the Battle of Boz Qandahari, killing 27 insurgents and three high-value Taliban commanders, the release said.

The attack took the lives of two Green Berets: Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Gloyer and Maj. Andrew Byers.

For his heroism, Byers was posthumously awarded the Silver Star on Feb. 1. Two of his surviving teammates, Sgt. 1st Class Brian Seidl and Staff Sgt. Andrew Russell, also received the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor.”

Since only complete psychos torture animals, we may as well use the death penalty:

A disabled U.S. Navy veteran was attacked and beaten as he tried to save a turtle that two men and a teenager were torturing.

Gary Blough was allegedly beaten in Daytona Beach, Florida on Tuesday by three young men, who are now behind bars, as he tried to save the turtle from them, according to Fox News.

The three suspects were throwing the turtle onto its shell as hard as possible until the Navy veteran intervened, according to Blough and Daytona Beach Police.”

Blough said his wife and toddler were out getting the family’s mail when they came back crying and said they saw the three suspects killing the turtle.

The veteran asked the suspects to leave the turtle alone and tried to help the animal back into water.

“While I had my head turned, two of them started hitting me in the back of the head and punching me,” Blough told WOFL Fox 35. “Next thing I know we’re in a scuffle and I’m fighting three of them at the same time defending myself.”

Follow me on Twitter while Frumentarius and I trade insults:

https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/832634532071251969

This is called going big:

A man fatally stabbed his mother in her home near Hudson, Wis., and set fire to his apartment nearby before he shot at police and fled into Minnesota, where he killed himself Sunday inside the wreckage of his car.

Dead from the violent outburst that began shortly after 11:30 p.m. Saturday in Hudson Township were Charlene Wold, 49, and 28-year-old Logan T. Reese, the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office described the confrontation as a “violent domestic dispute” but offered no explanation for what ignited the violence.

Deputies were alerted to Reese having stabbed Wold and beaten another family member with a stick at her home in the 700 block of N. Meadow Drive. Wold was in the home with Reese, while others in the family sought shelter in the garage.

Reese’s car was spotted about 1:15 a.m. later about 13 miles southwest of the apartment on Hwy. 12 in Woodville, where a police officer started trailing him without his emergency lights activated.

That’s when Reese shot at the squad car, prompting the officer to pursue the suspect with lights activated. Several other law enforcement agencies joined in the chase, which stretched for roughly 50 miles and about 1½ miles into Chisago (Minn.) County.

Again, Reese took shots at his pursuers before he struck a median barrier on Hwy. 8. Even after the crash, Reese kept shooting.”

Some officer has had it with you kids and your Nickleback:

Mind the cable:

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland — There was a crash today at the men’s giant slalom in the Alpine World Ski Championships, but it wasn’t a racer that hurtled to the ground. It was a cable camera, its wires severed by a too-close flyover from the Swiss Air Force. That was frightening enough, but it was just inches from true disaster.

At 11:45am, the PC-7 planes were doing their thing. Swooping in perfect formation, turning on a dime, heading straight up into the air, then straight down. It was impressive. “Now that’s Swiss precision,” someone near me said as we stood and stared, jaws slightly open.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0vxsu608Q

And then the wing of one of the planes clipped the wire of the cable cam – the television camera that swoops up and down the run, giving that birds-eye view of the racers we’re all now accustomed to seeing in ski racing. The camera plummeted to the ground in the finish area.

The Swiss military released a statement following the incident:

By today’s training of the PC-7 Swiss air team at 11:30 in the finish area of Salastrains at the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, one of the planes touched the wing cam cable camera. This caused a tear in the cable, causing the camera to fall down. No one was hurt in the incident and the plane landed safely in Samedan at the regional airport.

For security reasons, the operation of the chairlift Salastrains was briefly stopped. This caused the second men’s slalom run to be postponed from 13:00 to 13:30.

The police and military will further investigate the incident.”

When you issue a Space Poop Challenge, the USAF answers the call: 

WASHINGTON – NASA has picked its number one person for a number two problem.

Air Force Col. Thatcher Cardon won the agency’s “Space Poop Challenge,” an effort to design better ways for astronauts to deal with bodily waste than the current super-absorbent diapers.

Cardon’s solution is a “perineal access port” located in the suit’s crotch. It’s essentially a valve opening through which astronauts can insert various toilet devices to aid in waste extraction, and can be easily operated while wearing a spacesuit glove.”

He beat out more than 5,000 other competitors, according to a press release from the Air Force, and will receive $15,000 from NASA for winning the challenge.

“I’ve always wanted to go into biomedical engineering,” Cardon, commander of the 47th medical group at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, said in a statement. “I opted for family medicine instead, thinking I could always do biomedical engineering later on. I never imagined that poop would be my ticket into the field.”

Another of the devices Cardon created is a “hygiene wand” to be used instead of toilet paper.

“Its tip is covered with bunched tubular fabric,” the press release said. “After the fabric is applied to the perineum, it is pulled outward through the middle of the wand so that fresh fabric slides forward from the outside of the wand in a motion similar to a sock being turned inside out.”

GOT ‘EM! (wait for it):

Double-check the recipient before hitting “send”:

The message read “MISSILE INBOUND. SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!” as it took over the screens of Air Force personnel working at the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, earlier this week.”

It was accidentally sent out to all terminals through the bases AtHoc emergency alert system that is typically used for weather updates. Spokesman Maj. Bryon McGarry told Stars and Stripes, “One of the command post controllers was building a template for this specific thing that was posted.” The message was intended to only go to one person but he “inadvertently sent it to everybody.” Eight minutes after the message announcing impending doom popped up, a soothing blue screen went out across the base’s terminals telling everyone to chill out.

All reporting on the incident comes from official sources through military media like Stars and Stripes or Air Force Times. If there was a freak out on base, no one seems to be spilling the details. The person responsible for the accident was reportedly counseled and procedures were updated to prevent a similarly alarming situation from occurring in the future.”

Penis grafitti is seldom a good idea:

A man who spray painted a penis on a car and opened fire on residents has been shot dead by police.
Jesse Enjaian, 32, from Oakland, reportedly fired a high-powered rifle at officers and passersby on Friday morning.”

Roads in the area were closed and Bishop O’Dowd High School was put on lockdown after he was spotted carrying a long range rifle at 9am.

Helicopter footage by KGO-TV shows the man shooting from the window of a house in Las Vegas Avenue.
He then spray-painting what appeared to be eyes onto the garage door of a different home, before drawing a penis on a car.”

It’s wet in SoCal and everything’s going to shit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJfFJdzSM08

Put down the baby: 

BOISE – Police were told that drivers had to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting a naked woman holding a baby who ran into traffic Friday morning.

Officers were called at around 8:02 a.m. to West State and North Arthur streets receiving reports that a woman with no clothes was running in the street while carrying a baby.

Police said officers tried to speak to the woman and determined that the child was in danger.”

The suspect – 40-year-old Crystal L. Knapek – had to be physically restrained so that officers could safely take the child.

Knapek was taken to a hospital for evaluation, then was arrested and booked into the Ada County Jail on the following charges: Injury to Child (F), Indecent Exposure (m), Resisting and Obstructing Officers (m) and Controlled Substance – Use or Under the Influence in a Public Place (m).”

Brutal ops tempo this week means no podcast and commentary-free roundup. We will be back with a vengeance next week with a special podcast guest. @BKactual