[CTRL] (Fwd) VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-06-16-A
-Caveat Lector- --- Forwarded Message Follows --- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:04:01 EDT Subject:VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-06-16-A To: undisclosed-recipients:; **KOSOVO: OPERATION JOINT GUARDIAN - DAY 5 ** VOICE OF THE GRUNT ** ** 16 June 1999 ** ** (To stop getting this newsletter, click the "reply" box, put UNSUB or DELETE in the Subject line, and hit "send." If your address is NOT in our mailing list, a third party is "redirecting" you a copy ~ which we have no control over, are not responsible for, and have no way to remove.) TABLE OF CONTENTS ARTICLES Hack's Column Kosovo: A Pyrrhic Victory 1 Mac Notes 2 From The Field: Victory Through Air Power 3 He Deferred Approval To The Vice-President 4 Don't Start The Celebration Yet5 British SAS Part II 6 It's Official: Training Degrades Readiness 7 The Wildly Revolving Door 8 Medal of Honor: SSgt. Gersch, John G., USA, E Co., 1/327, 101st ABN Div. 9 A Shau Valley, RVN, 19 July 1969 Commentary: MPRI: Military Princes Retirement Investments10 No Humor This Week === ARTICLE 1 ~~ KOSOVO: A PYRRHIC VICTORY ~~ By David H. Hackworth, 15 June 1999 Wait a military minute. We spend 4 billion bucks, risk our Green Berets' and jet jockeys' lives, and the Ruskies do an end run and march into Kosovo before us? They get the parades, flowers and cheers that were beamed by television around the world -- and we pick up the tab. This just doesn't add up. But come to think of it, nothing in the "war that wasn't a war" makes much sense. Let's review the deal. President Clinton does a peace dance with indicted war criminal Slobodian Milosevic, a guy he called Hitler, in which Milosevic stays the main man. Kosovo still belongs to him. Serb soldiers, the ones who drove out the refugees, will be at the border welcoming them back home. Humm? Things have changed since President Truman, when Hitler put a bullet in his brain rather than face Harry's stern music. If he'd played war under Clinton rules, he'd have been allowed to give Ike the keys to Berlin while the Nazi army passed in review and then quietly retired to a sunny dictator-friendly South American state. Had I submitted an outline of how the operation went down as a proposal to a book editor, I'd have gotten the Big R - rejection - with a note saying "We don't do Air Power humor" or "Catch 22's already been written" or "Sorry, your imagination's in overdrive. No military operation could have been this bad." But that won't be the spin coming out of the White House and the Pentagon until Hillary grabs the headlines by kicking off her pre-2008 presidential election campaign with her go at the Senate. The veteran Clinton spin team -- which flimflammed Monica into a stalker, Paula into trailer-park trash, and labeled Bill's womanizing and the selling of secrets to China as dirty tricks by right-wing extremists -- will ram a hype hose down the nation's throat and turn the water all the way up. The war that wasn't a war will be spun into a great victory, a combination of our Revolutionary War, V-J Day and Desert Storm. But when our flyers and soldiers and sailors start leaking to the press, you'll see a triumph it was not. The conflict was not only badly bungled, it was the military mismatch of history. It was like a wrestling match between Little Orphan Annie and Jesse Ventura -- the little redheaded kid being Serbia and Jesse being a muscle-bound NATO. Annie weighed in with a fourth-rate 1960s army, backed by 10 million people from a primarily agricultural state the size of Ohio whose economy pumps out less dough than Coney Island on a rainy day. Jesse hit the scales with the most powerful military machine in the history of the world, 800 million supporters hailing from 19 mostly rich industrialized countries. After 78 rounds, Annie is still standing and singing "Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya tomorrow!" while Jesse, who has had to spend too much energy preventing his 19 supporters from stabbing him in the back never got in a decisive hit. When Serbia left Kosovo, its forces going out looked as good as NATO's military machine did coming in. The bombed and blasted Serb Army vehicles and soldiers were parade-ground sharp. Their trucks and tanks were clean and well maintained, and their soldiers' gear, uniforms and haircuts looked ready for a tough first sergeant's inspection. No one looked battle-rattled or had that vacant 1,000-yard stare that comes from a few too many nearby hits. After all those bombs
[CTRL] (Fwd) VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-06-16-B
-Caveat Lector- --- Forwarded Message Follows --- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date sent: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 15:04:34 EDT Subject:VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-06-16-B To: undisclosed-recipients:; VOICE OF THE GRUNT, 1999-06-16-B ARTICLE 6 BRITISH SAS LEADER: PART II FLASHFLASHFLASH Subject: SITREP, SAS Commando, SOMEWHERE - BALKANS Time and Date: 1805 HOURS (GMT), 10 June 1999 Kosovo Calling: We were supposed to go back in, but we were held back when the peace deal was signed. Instead, we were launched, and in the air, because the Russians were trying to get there first, they were going to drop us in front of them, near Pristina, and "hold" the Russains by ourselves, until British Paratroopers could get to us. However the Russians say they will stop at the border. Anyway, I am in Blace (Macedonia/Kosovo border) right now with the rest of the boys. The Brits were ready to go yesterday, but the US Marines were ill-prepared. Consequently, everything has been put on hold until they sort themselves out. We will be going into Pristina tonight to secure it. We will be going in with the Paratroopers. We are going regardless of the US Marines being ready. The British troops really feel let down by the US so far, hopefully they will get it together shortly. We might have to "liquidate" renegade units after securing Pristina. Hopefully the Russians won't start anything. We will be keeping our "eyes" on them. The British Paratroops are just dying for a fight, as are the Ghurkas. Our new tasking is to find the landmines once we are all in. We know where the majority of them are. Then we are going to guide the Top Brass to the mass graves -- they are great hiding places! A bit quiet though; even the birds don't go there. No sound, no nothing. Everybody knows we are going in tonight, they are asking us to leave some "fun" for them. Word is we might be home in a month, but the rest of the British soldiers will remain; wonder where I will go next. Hopefully they might let me return to some wine, women, and a normal life. Watch CNN if you're into disinformation! SAS Warrior == ARTICLE 7 IT'S OFFICIAL - TRAINING DEGRADES READINESS SUMMARY: Remember all those Newsreel films of maneuvers in 1940? The ones where a truck had a sign on it "labeling" it a tank and the grunts were using wooden machine-guns? That'll be the next step. Part of the oath is still "to serve protect and defend the constitution" right? How do we maintain that oath by having "paper readiness"? By Ranger "D" I write you this day with a heavy heart, my tour in the Special Operations Community is coming to an end. I served five years with the 2nd Ranger Battalion, two years with the 3/87 Infantry, and six years with the 5/19 Special Forces as a Voice Interceptor. I have been and NCO since the late 80's and have served our country in combat with the 2nd Rangers in Panama. Given my SRB I believe that I have a certain amount of knowledge to pass on to new soldiers; knowledge that will keep them alive if ever sent into combat. However, the current status of our armed forces has forced me to walk away from my position as an active Army National Guardsman. In the past four years, I have been unable to train my men in any way. Each time that I have organized a live-fire exercise, the training is canceled at the last minute to support such events as battalion inspections and change-of-command ceremonies. When I try to requisition weapons to take on our parachute jumps, I am told that we cannot jump weapons. If the weapons are broken on a jump or lost, it decreases our unit's "readiness" on paper. Never mind that some of my men have never jumped with their weapons. During a garrison drill I scheduled a field exercise and was told that we'll stay in the barracks and complete our monthly inventories in order to improve our "readiness." Never mind that my team has not worked together on a simulated combat operation for over a year. When I want to take my men on a nighttime foot movement, I am told that an injury will lessen our "readiness." Never mind that my team has lost the ability to move and navigate at night. When I request live ammunition for an exercise, I'm told that it's too much trouble to plan and seek approval for such training. Never mind that some of my men have never fired a live round outside the sterile confines of a rifle range. Everything that enhances our unit's "readiness" is, in actuality, the Army deems detrimental to actual readiness. I've been able to tolerate much in my thirteen years of service. If I could enjoy just 1 day in 5 of
