Archive for March, 2016
SPECIAL OPERATIONS: New Commanders at SOCOM, CENTCOM
Ranger In, Ranger Out.
Army General Joseph Votel, former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Defense Secretary Ashton Carter during the change-of-command ceremony March 30 at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. Newly promoted Army General Raymond “Tony” Thomas assumes command of SOCOM and Votel becomes commander of U.S. Central Command. (Photo by Technical Sergeant Angelita M. Lawrence)
Four star Army General Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), has taken over as commander of U.S. Central Command (CENCOM), which oversees U.S. operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
At the same time Votel moved over to CENTCOM, Army General Raymond “Tony” Thomas replaced him at Special Operations Command.
Both men are Army Rangers and both are former commanders of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) — a SOCOM component which oversees the hunt for terrorists among other tasks. Thomas has also served in the 1st Special Operations Forcers Operational Deteachment — Delta, the highly secretive Army commando unit known as Delta Force.
Army General Raymond “Tony” Thomas at the change of command ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base at Tampa, Florida.
Both Thomas and Votel are also 1980 graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point New York.
At a brief press conference before the change of command ceremonies in Tampa, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said “accelerating the defeat” of the terrorist group that calls itself Islamic State is President Obama’s top priority. Carter added that the United States and its allies would be successful in Iraq and Syria in defeating Islamic State (also known as ISIS and ISIL), but the group has spread around the world and the United States may be fighting the terror group on U.S. soil. “It’s going to require effort around the world, and yes, it’s going to require protection against the homeland,” Carter added.
U.S. Central Command’s area of operations (in color). (CENCOM map)
FRIDAY FOTO (March 25, 2016)
Foot Cavalry.
U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant Michael Behlin
Troopers with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment prepare to clear a building during urban assault training last month in Paupliai, Lithuania.
The soldiers rehearsed their tactics in preparation for an upcoming live fire exercise at Gaiziunai Training Area, Lithuania.
Editor’s NOTE: Do to an editing miscue, this week’s FRIDAY FOTO did not post when filed 24 hours ago. We apologize for the delay.
TERRORISM: Add Brussels to the Growing List
The Global War on Terror continues …
New York office towers, four airliners, the Pentagon (2001), Madrid commuter trains (2004), London bus and subway (2005), Mumbai hotels and train station (2008), Moscow airport (2011), Nairobi shopping mall (2013), Boston Marathon finish line (2015), Paris concert hall, cafes, football stadium, grocery store and magazine office (2015, twice) … and now Brussels. The list of major world cities wracked by terrorist attacks seems to grow ever longer.
Security photo of Brussels airport bombing suspects from Belgian Police.
Thirty-one people were killed and 300 wounded in suicide bomber attacks on the airport and a busy metro station in Belgium’s capital on Tuesday (March 22).
On Thursday (March 24) top Belgian officials acknowledged miscommunications and other errors in the prelude to the attacks, the New York Times reported. Growing evidence of links to last November’s attacks in Paris by the Islamic State suggest that a wide network of trained attackers leading back to Syria is now rooted in Europe, according to the Times report, co-written by our friend and former AP colleague, Rick Gladstone.
Here is a list of some of the most recent attacks …
As many as eight terrorists launched a series of shootings and bombings across Paris Friday (November 13) — from an international soccer match that the French president was attending to restaurants and neighborhood cafes, killing more than 100 people and wounding hundreds more, French officials said.
Twenty people died and more than 120 were injured in the horrific bombing on 17 August in central Bangkok at the Erawan shrine.
Gunmen tried to storm the country’s national assembly Wednesday (March 18) while lawmakers were debating an anti-terrorism bill. When that attack was thwarted, the gunmen — some wearing military-style uniforms — attacked tourist buses outside the National Bardo Museum across from the government building.
More than 10,000 troops are guarding “sensitive sites” around France including synagogues, railway stations, airports and tourist attractions in the wake of last week’s terrorism incidents in Paris that left 17 people dead — including three alleged attackers.
FRIDAY FOTO: March 18, 2016
Whose Taking the Picture?
U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Arthurgwain L. Marquez
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Antonio Coffield prepares to dive underwater for photography training off the coast of San Diego on March 3, 2016.
Navy Combat Camera has the Department of Defense’s only underwater photography and videography capability.
SHAKO: St. Patrick’s Day
Wearin’ of the Green.
(Army photo by Staff Sergeant Opal Vaughn)
There seems to be a lot of photos coming from the Defense Department website today with a green theme. Oh wait, it’s St. Patrick’s Day, a day honoring the patron saint of Ireland and a day when anyone with a little Irish blood in them wears the color green.
That’s not why U.S. Army Captain Andy Jenks is painting his face green in the above photo. But we thought it was an eyecatcher photo.
Captain Jenks is applying camouflage paint during Exercise Sky Soldier 16 at Chinchilla training area in Albacete, Spain. Jenks is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
. ( U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Eric Miller)
It’s probably just a coincidence that airmen from the New York Air National Guard’s 274th Air Support Operations Squadron were using green signal smoke during Close Air Support (CAS) training at Fort Drum’s urban training site in Upstate New York on March 5. But hey, Paddy’s Day!
(U.S. Army photo by Davide Dalla Massara)
And everything looks emerald green when seen through a night vision scope.
Here an Army paratrooper notes measurements at night during Exercise Rock Sokol at Pocek Range in Postonja, Slovenia on March 10.
The training exercise between U.S. and Slovenian troops focuses on enhancing readiness between allied forces. The emerald paratrooper is assigned to 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
(U.S. Navy photo by Lieutenant Matthew Stroup)
The only things green in this photo are the Manhattan street signs and the green stripe painted down the middle of Fifth Avenue for New York’s massive St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Here we see the Navy Band Northeast marching up the avenue during the 255th St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
Speaking of the New York Parade, we leave you with this photo and the accompanying story.
(Army National Guard photo by Colonel Richard Goldenberg)
This 2013 photo shows members of the New York National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment leading two Irish Wolfhounds, their mascots, up Fifth Avenue.
The “Fighting 69th” — a nearly all Irish unit during the Civil War — traditionally leads the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. To read more about this fabled unit (Warner Brothers made a movie about their World War I exploits in 1940) click here.
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HAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
AFRICA: Ivory Coast Attack Fallout
Beach Bloodshed.
Officials in the West African nation of Ivory Coast say the death toll from Sunday’s terror attack at a beach resort has risen to 19. Twenty-four people injured in the attack remain hospitalized.
The victims reportedly came from six different countries. Eleven Ivorians were killed, and four French citizens were among the dead, as well as one German, one Nigerian, one Macedonian and one Lebanese, according to the Voice of America website.
Armed with grenades and assault rifles, the attackers stormed three hotels on Sunday and sprayed the beach with bullets in the resort of Grand Bassam, located 40 kilometers from the commercial capital Abidjan.
Al-Qaeda’s North Africa branch in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), claimed responsibility for the attck, saying it was revenge for a French offensive against fighters in the Sahel region and called for France to withdraw them.
President Alassane Ouattara has pledged that Ivory Coast would not be “intimidated by terrorists,” Al Jazeera reported. In a statement broadcast on radio and television, Ouattara said “Ivory Coast is standing up, standing up to fight the cowards and protect its people.”
French helicopters in Africa (Ministry of Defense photo)
Meanwhile, France has announced plans to send paramilitary forces to the capital of Burkina Faso to counter the threat posed by Islamist militants in West Africa. A team from the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) will be deployed in Ouagadougou to respond in the event of a “terrorist crisis,” said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve according to the BBC. The announcement comes 48 hours after the attack that left four French nationals among the dead.
For the first time, Ghana’s government has put the nation on high alert in the wake of Sunday’s deadly terror attack in neighboring Ivory Coast, the VoA website reported.
Since November, al-Qaeda militants have attacked hotels in two other regional capitals, Bamako (Mali) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso).
FRIDAY FOTO: March 11, 2016
Prowler Posse.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Jodson B. Graves
Four EA-6B Prowler aircraft conduct an aerial refuel and formation flight near Marine Corps Station Cherry Point, North Carolina on March. 1, 2016.
The flight was the first time in several years that all 4 EA-6B Prowler squadrons flew together. The Prowler is an electronic warfare airplane that can confuse an enemy’s radar, disrupting their air defenses.
SHAKO: Mexican Punitive Expedition 1916
Pancho Villa’s Raid.
General Francisco “Pancho” Villa. (Photo from Library of Congress via Wikipedia
A hundred years ago today the tiny border town of Columbus, New Mexico was reeling and the rest of the country was howling for revenge following a bloody cross border raid by hundreds of Mexican irregulars commanded by bandit-turned general and Mexican Revolution hero “Pancho” Villa.
In the early morning hours of March 9, 1916, about 500 mounted gunmen loyal to Villa attacked Columbus — three miles north of the border — and the adjoining U.S. Army base, Camp Furlong.
Part of the town was looted and burned and at least 17 Americans — both civilians and soldiers — were killed in the three-hour attack. More than 100 Villistas were also killed, wounded or captured on the streets of Columbus and on their retreat back to Mexico by pursuing U.S. cavalry troopers.
The Columbus raid prompted President Woodrow Wilson to send a punitive force of cavalry, infantry and artillery — eventually numbering more than 10,000 men — plus trucks and airplanes (deployed by the Army for the first time in a conflict zone) to catch and punish Villa’s irregular forces.
Brigadier General John J. Pershing and some of his staff crossing a river in Mexico 1916.
Crossing into Mexico on March 15, under the command of Brigadier General John J. Pershing, the U.S. troops — including the celebrated Buffalo Soldiers of the black 10th Cavalry regiment — pushed hundreds of miles over rugged terrain deep into the Mexican state of Chihuahua searching for Villa.
Within two months they killed or wounded scores of Villistas in several gun battles. But after two skirmishes with Mexican government troops nearly brought both nations to the brink of war, Pershing’s force returned to U.S. territory in February 1917. Just two months later the United States was at war with Germany.
We’ll be following the major events of this unusual U.S. military action over the next few months, and looking for parallels to the current border security crisis.
SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.
FRIDAY FOTO: March 4, 2016
Almost There.
Vermont Army National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Nathan Rivard
Army Sergeant Ryan Hawley climbs the mountain at Smugglers’ Notch in Jeffersonville, Vermont during in mountain warfare training.
Hawley is assigned to the Colorado National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment.
To see more photos of Hawley’s training group, click here.
ARCTIC NATION: Troops From 13 Nations Train in High North
Cold Response 2016.
Norwegian Leopard tanks get ready for a training scenario during Operation Cold Response 2016. (Norwegian Defense Forces photo)
Elements of the U.S. 2d Marine Expeditionary Brigade are in Norway until later this month as part of Exercise Cold Response 16, which has brought together 132 NATO Allied and partner nations and approximately 16,000 troops to practice joint crisis response capabilities in cold weather environments.
The multinational force comprises personnel from Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Poland, Germany, France, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands — as well as the U.S. Marine Corps..
Marine Corps photo by Corporal Immanuel Johnson
Marines with Black Sea Rotational Force (above) maneuvered across the Northern Trøndelag region of Norway last month to prepare for Cold Response 16.
Hosted by the the Norwegian military, Cold Response — which runs from February 19 to March 22 — is held every two years to prepare NATO and partner nations like Sweden to coordinate operations under extreme winter conditions.
The Marines have brought mobile artillery, special operations units, Abrams tanks, amphibious assault vehicles as well as light armored and combat vehicles to Norway.
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Corporal Dalton Precht.
Norwegian Minister of Defense Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide (above) talks with Lieutenant Colonel Justin Ansel, commanding officer of Task Force 1/8, and officers from Norway and Sweden at a training location near Steinkjer, Norway, March 2, during Cold Response 16.
We’ll have more photos and news from this exercise in coming days.
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ARCTIC NATION is an occasional 4GWAR posting on the Far North. The U.S. “National Strategy for the Arctic Region” describes the United States as “an Arctic Nation with broad and fundamental interests” in the region. “Those interests include national security needs, protecting the environment, responsibly managing resources, considering the needs of indigenous communities, support for scientific research, and strengthening international cooperation on a wide range of issues.”
4GWAR 