Combat Controllers KIA Afghanistan:
HURLBURT FIELD — For the second time in a month, the Special Tactics community is mourning the loss of two of its airmen following an attack in Afghanistan on Aug. 25.
Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, who were deployed in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, were at a vehicle checkpoint near Camp Antonik when two individuals wearing Afghan National Defense and Security Forces uniforms opened fire on them. NATO service members returned fire and killed the shooters.
Roland and Sibley passed away from their wounds the following day.
“The losses of Matt and Forrest are a terrible blow to everyone who knew them,” said Col. Wolfe Davidson, 24th Special Operations Wing commander. “These two combat controllers were incredible warriors who not only volunteered to join our nation’s Special Operations Forces, but earned their way to the tip of the spear in defense of our nation.”
Roland was a special tactics officer at the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron at Hurlburt. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2010. Upon completing the STO training program in 2012, he was a team leader who supervised real-world combat preparedness training of a 35-member team.
He deployed three times in his five years of service to multiple locations globally. He is survived by his parents.
Sibley was a combat controller at the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, Pope Army Airfield, N.C. He was a four-time Bronze Star medal recipient, once with the valor device, and he deployed four times to sensitive locations around the world in his nearly seven years of service. He is survived by his parents.
There have been mixed reports on this one. The initial reporting was that this was yet another Green-On-Blue attack. Other rumors have said that these were enemy combatants only posing as Afghan security forces. Either way, it’s awful, and anther loss for the special tactics community following the HALO accident several weeks back.
If any readers know of a fundraiser for the families of any kind, please let us know so we can put that information out. R.I.P.
*UPDATE*- Click here for the gofundme campaign for Staff Sergeant Sibley.
First African-American General in the Marine Corps Passes Away:
Retired Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen, who made history twice as the first African-American aviator in the Marine Corps and then as the Corps’ first African-American general, has died at 83, the Marines’ announced.
Petersen, who flew more than 350 combat missions in Korea and Vietnam, died Tuesday at his home in Stevensville, Maryland, of complications from lung cancer.
When he retired as a lieutenant general in 1988, Petersen was the senior ranking aviator in both the Marines and the Navy — with which he served before joining the Marine Corps — and simultaneously held the honorary titles of Silver Hawk and Grey Eagle.
Among his many honors, Petersen received the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with valor device, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Meritorious Service Medal, the corps said.
In case you were wondering, the Silver Hawk and Grey Eagle awards are given the most senior aviator in the Marine Corps and the Navy, respectively. So Petersen flew the hell out of some planes. Outstanding job, General.
Former SEAL in Fatal Bicycle Accident:
BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA9) — A former Navy SEAL lost his life while riding his bicycle in Bethesda Friday.
The crash that killed Timothy Aloysius Holden, 64, of Bethesda remains under investigation, say Montgomery County police officials. They say that Holden was pedaling east in the 6000 block of Massachusetts Avenue at approximately 6:15 a.m. Friday when a Chevrolet Malibu struck Holden. The cyclist was wearing his helmet when he was hit. Holden died at the scene.
He was a retired Navy Captain and Navy SEAL who survived the Persian Gulf War. He leaves behind a wife, five daughters and three grandchildren.
Army Specialist Found Murdered; Daughter Unhurt:
A U.S. Army specialist stationed at Fort Meade in Maryland was found dead in her home, shot multiple times.
Lying next to her was her 5-month-old daughter, who was unharmed, Anne Arundel County police said.
The body of Karlyn Serane Ramirez, 24, of Severn, a town wedged between Fort Meade and the Baltimore airport, was found Tuesday morning when a neighbor noticed that a door to her townhouse was open and her dog was wandering around outside.
Please, anyone with information contact the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
All of the news this week is terrible. Let’s just try and get through it.
Television Murderer Vester Lee Flanagan:
The Telegraph has obtained exclusive pictures and video footage from inside the apartment of Vester Lee Flanagan, revealing details of the gunman’s life in the days before he murdered Alison Palmer and Adam Ward.
But he left behind an apartment filled with his personal effects, including photographs of himself during his days as a television journalist and posters that appear to be of male pin-ups.
In a raid on the apartment on Wednesday, police reportedly confiscated a gay pride flag. They also found “many” sex toys, which may have “human material” on them, the source told this newspaper.
Tell me I didn’t just read that. “HUMAN MATERIAL?” Also: How many is “many,” anyway?
The apartment was dark and dank when police raided it on Thursday. A large pool of cat urine on the floor of the kitchen had been hastily covered in a towel. Cat faeces were also found smeared on the balcony.
The Telegraph has learned whilst he was “really nice to the girls”, he was often taken by bouts of fury toward the men.
“He would literally just throw cat s*** into their balconies,” the source said.
A “long list” of complaints against him are said to have been lodged with the landlord.
This is so foul. Vester Flangan, another crazy nut who decided he’d had enough. Awash in his own self-hatred, he stumbled around for years taking offense to everything and generally being a total dick. Remember, he had purchased the gun legally, also.
And that’s the tradeoff we make. We have this freedom to bear arms, which is an awesome responsibility. But if you’ve never been in trouble with the law before, you could have a mental breakdown and still legally purchase a firearm. How are you going to stop that?
Air Force: You Bet We’re Going To Lower Standards:
The Air Force is close to deciding how it will alter the physical requirements for its most grueling combat jobs at the same time that it considers how to integrate women into them, Air Force officials said.
The work comes following a landmark January 2013 decision by the Pentagon to open all jobs to women in coming years. The services have until this fall to petition Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter to keep certain jobs closed and hand over research backing the request, but the bar is expected to be set high for Carter to grant any exception to the new policy favoring gender integration. Carter will rule on each request by January.
Air Force Secretary Deborah James addressed the issue Monday, telling reporters at the Pentagon that she and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh have not yet received recommendations from her commanders about how they should proceed. She anticipates making her recommendations to Carter by October 1.
“The key thing is we don’t want to lower standards,” she said.
But the Air Force is looking at changing physical standards, drawing concern from those who believe that it leaves the door open to access to the elite jobs being granted more easily in the name of being more inclusive.
You see that? “We don’t want to lower standards, we just want to change them.”
Now, this isn’t like Ranger School. This is a physical selection course, not a leadership course, so there are VERY black and white numerical standards. If these are going to be lessened in any way, I don’t know how even the biggest public affairs dullard will be able to make the case that the standards aren’t lowered.
I’m going off my memory here, but here’s what the Pararescue Indoctrination Course week 8 PT test standard was:
- 6 mile run: Max time 42 minutes. (possibly 45. I know at one point it was 42.)
- 4000 meter fin: Max time 80 minutes
- Pushups: 75 in 2 minutes.
- Pullups: 13 in 1 minute, dead hang.
- Situps: 80 in 2 minutes.
So all of these benchmarks have been set. It’s been that way for decades. So if Deborah James truly does not want to lower standards, those bench marks should remain firmly in place, right?
Let me guess: The board recommending all these changes will decide that pull-ups aren’t really a good measure of upper-body strength. I mean, if you’ve ever climbed a rope ladder into a helicopter hovering overhead with a pack, weapon, and body armor, you know that it’s totally no big deal and that someone who could only do 3 pull-ups could easily do it. (eye roll.)
Campaign 2016- Ramos vs Trump; The Bern Pusses out:
Two days after he was booted from a Donald Trump press conference by security for asking questions about immigration out of turn, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos defended himself on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Asked if he was grandstanding when he got into a confrontation with the GOP presidential frontrunner, Ramos said absolutely not.
“I’m just a reporter asking questions,” Ramos explained. “But I also believe, Anderson, that you have to go the extra mile to be tough on those who are in power.”
Ramos said he specifically went to Iowa because Trump wouldn’t agree to an interview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7_HaEOIJhM
Everyone seems to accept this mistaken premise; that Jorge Ramos is a journalist. He is not a journalist. He is an activist who has a television show. And he’s so pompous and egotistical, he thinks he has special rights, like standing up and talking over everyone out of turn at a press conference. If, say, Glen Beck had done what Ramos did at an Obama press conference, the secret service would STILL be tazing him.
See, Jorge Ramos, who came to America, and went to an taxpayer funded American University, has no real allegiance, commonality, or BASIC RESPECT for the country that he chose to come live in. To Ramos, nothing may stand in the way of the illegal immigrant, whether it be border fences, guards, deportations, public resources stretched to the breaking point, or anything else.
He thinks even talking about a fence or wall is practically a hate crime. Even though both Senators Clinton and Obama already ACTUALLY VOTED for one.
What Ramos really wants to say, and what he really believes, is that illegal immigrants should be free to travel as they please, there shouldn’t be a difference between an illegal immigrant and a citizen, and that there really shouldn’t even be a border between the U.S., and Mexico, which at this point is firmly controlled by narco-gangsters. Of course, he can’t come out and actually SAY that, so he couches it into vague terms like, “comprehensive immigration reform.” This, along with omitting the word, “illegal,” in front of the word, “immigrant,” is a favorite tactic of the activists.
There are no limits, to the activists like Ramos. They play on America’s conscience and it works every time. Ramos would have you believe that EVERY SINGLE illegal immigrant is some poor hard-working Mexican guy who spends his days laboring for pennies, all for you ungrateful shithead gringos, and only stopping long enough to go home and relax by airbrushing awesome Virgin Marys onto the hood of his 87 Chevy.
And, yes, there are plenty of otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants. But then there’s this guy. And this guy. And this guy. And these guys. And aaaaaaalllllll these guys. And so on.
If you’ve read my 6-point plan on how to deal with illegal immigration, you know that at the end, after certain measures have gone forward, I’m absolutely willing to talk about what we can do for illegal immigrants who have committed no other crime. But there are also a lot of bad guys, gang members, and criminals. Tens and tens of thousands of convicted criminal illegal immigrants are running around the United States, and neither Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Jorge Ramos has diddly-squat to say about it.
That’s how you know someone is sane; when they can at least acknowledge that there is another side of the argument, even if they favor one side over another. And most normal people can do that.
So you know Ramos is IN-sane. He absolutely doesn’t believe that there is any legitimate opposition to his advocacy. He won’t acknowledge that a country has a legal and moral obligation to regulate it’s borders, control who they allow to be citizens, or deport criminal aliens. He makes emotional, child-like arguments to go against logical and mathematical arguments. Again, a favorite tactic of the grievance industry: Feel bad/pay the bill.
Look at what’s happening in Europe. Last year, 230,000 people crossed the Mediterranean to try and get in. This year, so far, it’s over 300,000. What if next year, it’s a million? And the year after that? Are the citizens of Europe to loudly cheer on their own bankruptcy? Their own displacement? It’s the same with the crisis of unaccompanied minors at our own border. What if that doubles next year?
Ramos has spent the last few decades browbeating various politicians into supporting his radical agenda. For the first time ever, he started yelling at a guy who actually wouldn’t put up with his crap. Trump is playing into his hands a little by talking about deporting “everyone,” when he could easily just talk of the criminal alien problems outlined above. But it was also politically savvy for Trump to invite him back in anyway and have a back and forth. It really showed how nutty Ramos is.
Also, Trump called Anthony Weiner a “perv.” I think, regardless of your political leanings, that’s something that we can all agree on.
Meanwhile, over at the senior citizen’s rest home, listen to that young scrapper Bernie Sanders! He’s here to kick some ass:
“We need a movement which takes on the economic and political establishment, not one which is part of that establishment,” said Sanders, who is an independent but caucuses with Democrats in the Senate.
Asked later whether he was speaking specifically about Clinton, he told reporters, “I’ll let you use your imagination on that.”
WOW HE REALLY TOLD HER. Look, I know a lot some a few people who like Bernie Sanders. Hell, there’s a couple things about him that I myself like. His 1st and 2nd amendment track records are good, he’s against the big banks, he has crazy sex fantasies– all that is great.
But he’s still a long-time serving senator, and he has to be all cordial and shit. He won’t say who the corrupt are. He has no balls. We already saw it when the Black Lives Matter protestors ran him off his own stage. He can’t even bring himself to criticize the Aspiring Strongman by name. A simple, “You’re goddamn right I’m talking about Hillary Clinton,” could have sealed the nomination for him. Bern, call me. I’ll be your new campaign manager.
STILL: The highly-sought Official Sofrep News Roundup Presidential Endorsement is a long way from being decided! Not to late for me to Feel the Bern, or go Jubilant for Jeb!
Well… Ok, it’s too late for Jeb.
Army Colonel REALLY Likes His Subordinates’ Wives:
A senior U.S. military commander was removed from his job after an investigation concluded he had been kissing soldiers’ wives on the lips at public events.
An investigation into the behavior of Colonel Chad McRee, former commander of the 16th Military Police Brigade, was launched after an anonymous letter complained about his conduct.
The Fort Bragg commander had made it a practice to give the wives of subordinates unwelcome kisses on the lips at public events.
The investigation led to his removal from his Fort Bragg commander’s job, but he stayed in the military and was allowed to quietly retire in April 2015 – more than two years after the initial complaint about his conduct.
Obviously, this is not good. But the story was a little unclear to me. Did all of this happen, and THEN he was removed? Were there more incidents after the removal? In other words, maybe he saw the error of his ways and then served out his time incident-free. Or did he keep doing it even afterward he was relieved?
The report stated that McRee “made multiple spouses uncomfortable (inappropriate touching and explicit language)” and that “some of these incidents resulted in spouses leaving in embarrassment and in tears”.
Another wife claimed she was the seventh in the line of spouses that McRee had kissed that day, and another soldier said McRee kissed his wife multiple times.
“The first time that he kissed my wife, she thought it was an accidental mistake until it happened at the next event that she attended”, he said, according to the report.
“She has to purposely turn her head to the side so that he does not kiss her on the mouth. She thought it was not on purpose in the beginning, but now thinks that he tries to kiss her on purpose now.”
“I am careful to read body language, and I try in all instances to avoid ever making someone feel uncomfortable or vulnerable.”
Hmmm. Maybe you’re not as much as a body-language expert as you thought. Work on it. And, as a general rule, maybe don’t kiss other guy’s wives on the lips, weirdo.
https://twitter.com/BKactual/status/636972369664303104
Apple stores are crazy. The one at the mall by my house opened at 10 AM. I got there at like 1015 AM, and the place was freaking packed. I don’t know if they hand out free bags of crack in the back room or what, but the Apple Stores are ALWAYS jammed.
There’s a Microsoft Windows store like three stores down the Apple store, and it was completely dead. Honestly, do people still buy Microsoft stuff? I had assumed they had gone out of business years ago.
San Diego Chargers, Desperate For Help, Now Recruiting Marines:
MIRAMAR – The San Diego Chargers gave Marines a chance to impress their coaches in a real NFL Combine experience Friday morning.
The Chargers held what they called a “combine-style” event at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Marines were given the opportunity to run drills like the 40 yard dash, bench press, cone drills, vertical jump and 60 yard shuttle. They were evaluated by Chargers coaches.
The Marines who were considered the best were also subjected to a surprise drill at the end: One at a time, they had to take all 7-make-that-eight of Phillip Rivers’ kids to Chuck-E-Cheese’s. The one who went the longest amount of time before going insane was signed to the Chargers as their new head coach.
A man was arraigned in Jackson City Court on Wednesday after he was charged with resisting arrest, two counts of simple assault of an officer and one count of simple domestic assault following an argument with his wife early Tuesday morning.
According to court documents, Robert Chromizky was arrested after he shoved his wife during an argument at their home on Westwood Avenue around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Chromizky’s wife told him to “put his clothes on” during the argument, according to an affidavit.
When police arrived, Chromizky asked police, “Do you wanna fight? I wanna fight,” before running naked at officers, according to court documents.
Chromizky, nobody wants to see you in a heated argument with your hands and dong flailing all over the place. Put some boxers on, and then go scream at your wife. Damn, man.
Also, on the list of things never to say to cops? “Do you wanna fight?” has to be at least top 3. Right up there with, “I’m going to suddenly shove my hand into my waistband now.”
Give us any tips @BKactual.
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