It looks like Admiral Fallon just resigned.
His deputy will be the acting CENTCOM commander. Lt Gen Dempsey was in command of 1st Armored Division when I was working over in that neck of the woods. He helped me get some medals pushed through for my Airmen that had gotten downgraded by (ironically) CENTCOM (actually the air component). I thought that was pretty cool of him!
From a long way off, I had a very small hand in a very small way in some of this.
I was watching CNN International when the story broke that Prince Harry was RTBing from Afghanistan where he was apparently calling in airstrikes, which is the exact same job my Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) unit in Germany performed. They showed a little footage of him in an interview (click here for the video page, you may need to open the Harry’s deployment ends clip, 3:08 long, start paying attention at 0:31).
What grabbed my attention was his headgear the Prince was wearing during the TV interview (Photo #5/13 appears to be the cap in question). He was wearing a desert-colored baseball cap. I have the exact same desert-colored cap, just like my controllers wore. My cap has velcro on the front, and most of the TACP types I know put a desert-colored American flag on their caps. Mine was no exception.
Neither was Prince Harry’s!
I’m now "Downrange" again. I’ll make a preliminary effort to post whatever I can, but I can’t promise anything.
All I can say for now is that where I am, it’s hot.
Rest in peace, Andrew. And great job thinking of this!
Austin Bay had some words of historical wisdom for us in the Houston Chronicle.
Back in October I was browsing Victor Davis Hanson’s website and on the 12th, the sub-headline of the posting jumped out at me. No, it wasn’t the name of the young, troubled socialite that caught me. It was the Ready First Combat Team’s leader’s name posted there.
VDH made a great point that Americans pay too much attention to the wrong things sometimes.
It took me two months, but I finally got around to e-mailing COL MacFarland to see if he’d seen it. He said he had, and it had generated about a week’s worth of "Hot or Not" jokes up at the Pentagon.
It’s nice to know that the folks at ol’ Five Sides are reading VDH!
It’s been just over a year since I learned that I lost one of my buddies in the Iraq War. What really makes me happy to know is that Capt Travis Patriquin’s legendary slide show and his efforts at getting the Ramadi Sheikhs to join America in the War on Terror live on now in the Anbar Awakening movement in Iraq.
Travis’ father Gary sent me the story below in an e-mail awhile ago, and I’ve been meaning to post it for quite some time. With work and school slowing down for the holidays, I finally got a chance to give this piece its due. It’s the last part of a speech by Secretary of Defense Gates to the Association of the US Army on 10 Oct of this year. I think it says everything I could imagine needing to say.
In closing, I should tell you that when I speak to Army leaders I make it a point to ask them to communicate to their subordinates not only the thanks of a grateful and admiring nation, but also our pride in what they have accomplished.The story of just one unit explain[s] why.The 1st Brigade of the First Armored Division, the “Ready First Brigade,” had been based in Germany for more than 60 years, most of that time preparing to beat back a Soviet invasion across the Fulda Gap. It was deployed to Iraq in 2003, and extended after the Sadr uprising in 2004.Last year – before there was a “surge,” or a “new way forward,” or a new counterinsurgency manual – they were sent back to Iraq, this time to Ramadi. The city was controlled by insurgents and Al Qaeda, and was written off as lost. The brigade commander was told: “fix it, don’t destroy it.” It was up to him, his staff, and his soldiers to figure out the rest.And so instead of patrolling from large bases, the Ready First Brigade set up small combat outposts in Al Qaeda strongholds – where troops led by sergeants and lieutenants and captains cleared and held neighborhoods one at a time. The enemy would not go quietly – and responded with an onslaught of roadside bombs, mortars, and ambushes. Among the hundreds of stories of heroism that emerged from this period was of Sergeant David Anderson. He saved the lives of several soldiers on September 24th after they were ambushed and hit by multiple IED attacks. He would later receive the Silver Star for his efforts.One of the Brigade staff officers was Captain Travis Patriquin. He spoke several languages, including Arabic, and he grew a mustache to fit in. He became the expert on the neighboring tribes – local power brokers going back hundreds of years who had been largely shunned up to that point by our military.Like any self-respecting army officer, Patriquin had a Powerpoint presentation. It was called “How to Win in Al Anbar by Captain Trav.” But instead of charts and graphs, this presentation used stick figures and simple stories to teach soldiers how to deal with Iraqi tribes – a relationship where “shame and honor” meant a good deal more than “hearts and minds.” At this young captain’s direction, the brigade courted local sheiks over cigarettes and endless cups of tea – outreach that, combined with Al Qaeda’s barbarism, helped spark the “Anbar Awakening” that has garnered so much attention and praise in the past months.Over time, Ramadi was taken back from Al Qaeda and given back to its people. These gains came at no small cost. During its tour, this brigade would suffer more than 95 killed and 600 wounded. One of them was Captain Patriquin. He did not have a chance to see his ideas and efforts bear fruit, but no doubt would have been proud to have seen what the hard work, courage, and ingenuity of the soldiers had started: A city liberated. Al Qaeda uprooted and reeling. And the tide turned, at least in this one important battle, in a conflict that will determine the future of the Middle East for decades to come.It is soldiers and stories like these – repeated in so many places and so many times – that inspire us and make us proud and hopeful about the future of America’s Army. Our country’s defense could not be in better hands.
If you’d like to make a donation to the trust fund for Travis’ children, please click here for more information, and thank you!
The 13 FS arrived back at home station today. They flew 13 jets home. Go figure!