Victory Forge (new and improved)

Six days in the field. For those of you who came through Jackson in the past, Victory Forge is now a total of 6 days long. We also do a 1 day and 3 day FTX earlier in the cycle.

It should be pretty good. I did a fair amount of the prep for this and we are trying to do some things that haven't been done before. Our final STX lanes are gonna be a company size Cordon and Search mission, all done according to doctrine, with outer cordon, inner cordon, TCP, LP/OPs, blocking position, ambushes, and search element all being established or executed in real time in the proper sequence.

I'm going full CTC style with the OPFOR, village, COBs, etc... all the way from the warning order to consolidation and reorganization.

If they pull it off, it'll be amazing. If they jack it up, it'll still be great training and they'll get to see how different parts of the same mission fit together and rely on each other.

They also do a "battle, march and shoot" where they do a forced march, stop and shoot while they're still all strung out, jump up and leave the range (as soon as the necessary safety precautions are done), do another march, take down a MOUT site by platoons, and then move back to the AA.

There's a day at Anzio range where they do the same defensive live fire we always did, but also do a convoy live fire.

Then the last day will be the typical VF action complete with NBC attack.

I love the smell of CS in the morning...

(Now if they would just get us some night vision devices so we could execute better training at night, I'd be satisfied.)

Whoa... slow down Skipper... put on some Buffet and have a Margerita...

I was listening to the ol' XM on the way home today and heard the new Navy commercial.

I am not making this up lol...

The gist of their new commercial is this...

Navy Dude: When I joined the Navy, I wasn't sure how much time I would have off. (blahblahblah... I think he talks some more)

Navy Dude: But I work in Military Intelligence for a few hours each day, then I have a lot of time off work. I live in Southern California and spend most of my time surfing. What could be better than that?

Professional Navy Voice: In the Navy, we believe in a balanced lifestyle. Work hard... and PLAY hard. Navy... accelerate your life.

DS Rob in Jeep on way home from a day in the Army: BWAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAHAAA!!!! (That's how you spell me rolling [figuratively...I was driving] with laughter thinking about what a bunch of lazy sacks of crap the Navy is gonna recruit in the near future with that ad.

Good goin' Navy... keep the people who are only interested in how much time off they can get outta my hair lol.

Russ Vaughn

Here's the latest from Russ Vaughn. I have his permission to reprint all his stuff here, and as soon as I figure out how to do it, I'm going to put it all in the same place and put a permanent link to it on the front page. Great stuff from a Vietnam Era Screaming Eagle.

The “No Right Answer” Game
(Inspired by “ The Wrong Army,” by Jeff Edwards, USN, Ret., warrior and novelist)



America’s forces have won all their wars,

From Revolution to war in Iraq;

And Lefties don’t point to the Vietnam War,

Where you stabbed winning troops in the back.

No, the truth is we win; we win time and again;

Done it time after time after time.

Doesn’t matter to you, ‘cause whatever we do,

We’ve always somehow dropped the dime.



To Lefties our generals just have to be wrong,

Wrong tactics, wrong weapons, wrong forces;

We’re the gang who somehow can never shoot straight,

To hear the mainstream media sources.

Just look at their headlines, view every day’s news,

With their blistering barrages of blame.

To warriors out here at the point of the spear,

It’s those losers’ “No Right Answer,” game.



In this lugubrious game loved by Liberal elites,

There’s just but one rule to enforce:

Whatever we do, in whatever war,

Must naturally be wrong of course.

There is no right answer, no matter what,

Even when our warriors are winning;

There’s always the sly implication we lie,

In the splenetic stories they’re spinning.



In peacetime they charge our forces too large

During wartime they squall they’re too small;

In peacetime they whine we’re spending too much;

But in war, “Where’s the armor for all?”

With consummate confidence they know what’s best,

Puerile pundits so smug and so smarmy,

Pontificate loud to their Liberal crowd,

That we once again have the wrong Army.



Pick a war, any war, or a period of peace;

Field marshals of the media are spinning;

If generals of journalism are so in the know,

Why are genuine generals winning?

So here at the front, harsh home of the grunt,

We ignore their attempts to defame.

The troops know the score, know what this war's for;

They can stuff their “No Right Answer,” game.



SSGT Russ Vaughn

2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment

101st Airborne Division

Vietnam 65-66