Guerrilla war across North Carolina but don't worry, it's just a very realistic drill

Originally published at: Guerrilla war across North Carolina but don't worry, it's just a very realistic drill | Boing Boing

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When asked for a comment, Alex Jones’ head burst in outrage.

SNxRZ

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“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Jimi Hendrix

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Ooooh, a new version of Jade Helm 15

I remember that! Obama took all the guns away and put all the right wingers in FEMA re-education camps in 2015 to ensure no Republican ever gets elected president again.

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When North Korea performs “military exercises” it is sabre-rattling, then the U.S. and South Korea perform joint “military exercises” in response. This performance has the definite feel of these kinds of exercises, I just hope it’s the latter kind…

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Excited Tom Hiddleston GIF by Disney+

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I just hope these Special Forces guys know which side they should be on when the real thing starts.

(Really, REALLY hoping the real thing never starts.)

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It’s called Robin Sage and it is the final exam for the US Special Forces Qualification (Q) Course. I attended it back in 1986 and it was going on for years before I got through it. The locals get paid to assist as ‘residents of Pineland’. I went through as on the 18D medic program and ended up assisting one of the officers (a fellow SF student who was a DVM) in helping examine injured and sick livestock as part of the Civil Affairs section of the training.

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What’s significant about this is that it seems to be replicating guerilla insurgency conditions in mixed theaters, but even that is pretty standard training for special forces. These exercises happen all of the time. I got to participate as Opfor (opposing force) in the military’s largest-ever battle simulation, the Advanced Warfighter Experiment in 1997. For two months we acted like the military of a post-Soviet rogue state and lurked around the California desert playing Laser Tag against Longbow Apaches, A-10s and, my personal favorite “kill”, F16s. It also happened to be while Hale-Bopp was still visible and in the desert air it looked close enough to touch. My mom just brought all of my Army junk up over Christmas and I found the regimental challenge coin I earned as an “Ace” gunner (7+ confirmed aircraft kills, but my real total was over 21). Not gonna lie, it was a really fun time.

I don’t remember which one was for Ace, but I think it’s the one on the right. IIRC, the one on the left was from when we decommissioned the division immediately after returning from California. Those of us who achieved Ace in the AWE got our first choice of duty station after we shut 1-2 ADA down. I chose to go to the 101st Airborne and get my Air Assault badge (which I also earned a coin for). Fun stuff.

ETA: @citizendoe beat me to it while I was rummaging for the coins.

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I dunno…the threat of a real American insurgency seems higher now than at any other point in history (since the civil war). Maybe it’s good they get some practice.

Here’s something worth a listen:

As part of an advisory committee to the C.I.A., [Walter] has studied countries that slide into civil war, and she says that the United States meets many of the criteria her group identified. In particular, anti-democratic trends such as increased voting restrictions point to a nation on the brink. “Full democracies rarely have civil wars. Full autocracies rarely have civil wars,” she says. “It’s the ones that are in between that are particularly at risk.”

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I’d like to thank both of you for adding some much-needed context here.

About the only thing that I see could “go wrong” here would be the local chapter of Meal Team 6 suiting up to “stop the Deep State” or similar nonsense.

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What were you using? Tagging things with Stinger Missiles? Or like an anti-aircraft missile battery?

It is good to note that they do this sort of thing quite often. Remember the conspiracies surrounding Jade Helm under Obama? Supposed to be practice for martial law?

The tin foil was on tight for that one.

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Bill Hader Popcorn GIF by Saturday Night Live

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Yeah, I was a 14S Avenger crew member, which is a Stinger launch platform based on a Humvee. Since the Stinger was originally designed to be a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapon, the Avenger is modular and can fire while driving, dug in position or from the shoulder. In the event of the truck failing or going boom, we were to remove a missile and shoulder mount and go find an infantry team to protect.

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However, for the AWE, we were using Humvees modified to simulate the parallel Soviet system that I don’t remember the name of now. It was all laser tag, so it was really just a Humvee with a camera and laser.

Oh, you just reminded me what my other coin was for! After I got to the 101st, they did a company-wide competition covering absolutely everything in the handbook and training, but we had to do every step perfectly. We also had a VACR test (visual aircraft recognition) with images of aircraft obscured by buildings and clouds and some of the images simply infrared or night vision (hint: look for engine and exhaust heat patterns). I was one of only 2 to get 100%, which qualified me to fire a live Stinger. I totally broke protocol in launch, but hit the ballistic target before it even reached apogee. I could hear the upper brass hooting and hollering over the headset. No one even noticed I totally shot from the hip.

Alright, sorry everyone. I don’t usually get to brag about these things except when my kids ask. :wink:

ETA: And yes, I totally chose the Avenger system because I was a comics nerd.

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So they’re reenacting Far Cry 5?

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Hardly. The background is that the country of Pineland has been invaded and that the remnants of the government have called on the United States for aid. The US has sent a Special Forces A-Teams (aka the SF students) to assist the Pinelandians in self-defense with training. That article is missing so much context.

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Right?

Come on boys, now we can act on that “well-regulated militia” part of the Second Amendment that we usually pretend isn’t there!

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I’d hate to say it but i’m glad the military is putting some thought in with how they might have to deal with Ya’ll Qaeda someday.

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Obama Mic Drop GIF by Mashable

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