I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2232 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:43 pm Post subject: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
Many may remember that after 9-11, the United States started a new military command call "Northcom" which means a military command dedicated to military operations in North America. Of course, many have argued that such a command would be violative of laws prohibiting the use of active duty forces as a police force on US soil, but the Military Commissions Act and Patriot Act probably did away with those arguments.
Many have argued that the creation of Northcom and the passages of the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act and other laws, like wiretapping etc., were preludes to martial law.
Where am I going with this? The Army Times is reporting the Army is dedicating a "BCT" Brigage Combat Team is dedicated now to Northcom's mission for North American operations.
Quote:
Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1. 3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer Monday Sep 8, 2008 6:15:06 EDT:
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.
But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,” said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. “Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.”
The command is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., but the soldiers with 1st BCT, who returned in April after 15 months in Iraq, will operate out of their home post at Fort Stewart, Ga., where they’ll be able to go to school, spend time with their families and train for their new homeland mission as well as the counterinsurgency mission in the war zones.
Stop-loss will not be in effect, so soldiers will be able to leave the Army or move to new assignments during the mission, and the operational tempo will be variable.
Don’t look for any extra time off, though. The at-home mission does not take the place of scheduled combat-zone deployments and will take place during the so-called dwell time a unit gets to reset and regenerate after a deployment.
The 1st of the 3rd is still scheduled to deploy to either Iraq or Afghanistan in early 2010, which means the soldiers will have been home a minimum of 20 months by the time they ship out. In the meantime, they’ll learn new skills, use some of the ones they acquired in the war zone and more than likely will not be shot at while doing any of it.
They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.
Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the “jaws of life” to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.
The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.
“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”
The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
“I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered,” said Cloutier, describing the experience as “your worst muscle cramp ever — times 10 throughout your whole body. “I’m not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds ... it put me on my knees in seconds.”
The brigade will not change its name, but the force will be known for the next year as a CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced “sea-smurf”).
“I can’t think of a more noble mission than this,” said Cloutier, who took command in July. “We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home ... and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.”
While soldiers’ combat training is applicable, he said, some nuances don’t apply. “If we go in, we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris, restore normalcy and support whatever local agencies need us to do, so it’s kind of a different role,” said Cloutier, who, as the division operations officer on the last rotation, learned of the homeland mission a few months ago while they were still in Iraq.
Some brigade elements will be on call around the clock, during which time they’ll do their regular marksmanship, gunnery and other deployment training. That’s because the unit will continue to train and reset for the next deployment, even as it serves in its CCMRF mission.
Should personnel be needed at an earthquake in California, for example, all or part of the brigade could be scrambled there, depending on the extent of the need and the specialties involved.
Other branches included:
The active Army’s new dwell-time mission is part of a NorthCom and DOD response package.
Active-duty soldiers will be part of a force that includes elements from other military branches and dedicated National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams.
A final mission rehearsal exercise is scheduled for mid-September at Fort Stewart and will be run by Joint Task Force Civil Support, a unit based out of Fort Monroe, Va., that will coordinate and evaluate the interservice event.
In addition to 1st BCT, other Army units will take part in the two-week training exercise, including elements of the 1st Medical Brigade out of Fort Hood, Texas, and the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Bragg, N.C.
There also will be Air Force engineer and medical units, the Marine Corps Chemical, Biological Initial Reaction Force, a Navy weather team and members of the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.
One of the things Vogler said they’ll be looking at is communications capabilities between the services. “It is a concern, and we’re trying to check that and one of the ways we do that is by having these sorts of exercises. Leading up to this, we are going to rehearse and set up some of the communications systems to make sure we have interoperability,” he said.
“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.”
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
I hope the implications of putting combat-hardened troops on home soil is not lost on anyone. _________________ The whole of human history is a refutation by experiment of the concept of "moral world order". - Friedrich Nietzsche
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
Quote:
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Kinda says it all. Welcome to Iraq. Your papers please. _________________ "So while you sit and whistle Dixie with your money and your power.
I can hear the flowers a-growin in the rubble of the towers.
I hear leaders quit their lying
I hear babies quit their crying.
I hear soldiers quit their dying, one and all." - OCMS
Joined: Aug 06, 2008 Posts: 80 Location: 3rd Rock from the Sun
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:18 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
smallpoxgirl wrote:
Quote:
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle. Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Kinda says it all. Welcome to Iraq. Your papers please.
Wow... This really is the end. I bet Google will be the brains of the whole electronic control operation new world order. GJail
Joined: Apr 13, 2005 Posts: 3147 Location: St.Louis, Mo
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:55 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
Yet people will deny the NWO exists. What is happening has been planned for many years. The Central Banking Cartel are the ones behind this. You are their slave. Global governance is almost here: link
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:10 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
I'm wondering how long it will be before someone comes to this thread and attempts to convince people this is somehow NOT a declaration of permanent martial law. _________________ The whole of human history is a refutation by experiment of the concept of "moral world order". - Friedrich Nietzsche
Joined: Apr 27, 2007 Posts: 4351 Location: The Great Sonoran Desert
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
Again... A tale of a 47 story building makes all of this very crystal clar. _________________ "There must be a bogeyman; there always is, and it cannot be something as esoteric as "resource depletion." You can't go to war with that." Emersonbiggins
"... hope is a rotten-thighed whore" Niko Kazantzakis
Joined: May 06, 2006 Posts: 873 Location: Tustin, CA
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
We don't have an Army BIG enough at this moment to begin to occupy this country under force of arms, let alone Iraq right now.
Last I read the active Army is less than 500,000. The Air Force was bigger than that 32 years ago when I was in it. The Army during the 1970's was about a 1 1/2 million at that time after Vietnam. You would have to abandon all other postings around the world at this moment to even make a start at this. _________________ Skeptical scrutiny in both Science and Religion is the means by which deep thoughts are winnowed from deep nonsense-Carl Sagan
Joined: Oct 15, 2004 Posts: 2232 Location: Arkansas
Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 8:27 pm Post subject: Re: US Army Prepares for SHTF in the States
JD, Tinfoil? This is reported in the Army Times which also states the move is unprecedented. If you don't understand the unit activated or the context, then, you can't possibly understand the significance of this unprecedented move.
My observations are based on my previous experience as an S1 officer in the Oklahoma's 45th Infantry Brigade. I can only say that experience and understanding of how the guard brigades interface with the active component tells me this is a significant move, not taken lightly by Pentagon planners.
Here's what's interesting to me:
(1) The mission was assigned to an active BCT, not a guard BCT. This is an unprecedented assignment of an active brigade to missions relegated to US soil. "Civil service" missions have been the historic mission of the national guards, so why the unexplained change? In fact, most are probably unaware that all guards have two simultaneous missions, civil support missions in answer to their states and simultaneous assignments in support of an active duty unit under the Pentagon's force structure. For example, when I was in the Arkansas 39th Brigade, we were assigned to the 24th Infantry Division in Georgia. When I was assigned to Oklahoma's 45th Brigade, we were assigned to the 7th Infantry Division in Colorado.
(2) For the Pentagon to assign this mission to an active unit as opposed to a guard unit, it indicates a hightened level of priority to the mission. In the last 4 years, the Army has struggled meeting the high tempo requirements of rotating units to assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have struggled with keeping units in readiness and filling the rotational requirements. In fact, the tempo has been so high the active component has supplemented their needs with guard units since the war began. So, taking an active BCT out of that two war rotation is significant.
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