Monday, October 24, 2011

An analysis of America's involvement in Africa

www.Smallwarsjournal.com is a must website for people interested in the study of counter insurgency warfare. The following is a detailed account of the US's activities in Africa.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-united-states-and-the-lord%E2%80%99s-resistance-army

Fiction merging with Reality

With the announcement of the Obama Administration's sending spec-ops soldiers to Uganda to help track down and eradicate the Lords Resistance Army, I think they stole a piece of my work. Not really, but I support this endeavor by Obama ( once in a lifetime ) to help build stability in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa. They are but a small band of thugs but I think it makes more sense to send in capable advisers rather than continue to pour in 30 million dollars a year to Uganda with nothing to show for it. The lines between fiction and reality will be blurred in the Task Force Intrepid Series.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15317684

For more articles on war in Africa, particularly Rhodesia visit my other blog and go to the beginning where I analyzed the life of American/Rhodesian soldier John Coey.

http://theeagleswillgather.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=6

Monday, October 10, 2011

The Cast pt. 5

Blake McGee is an Irishman with an aristocratic upbringing but hasn't kept him from being a Man among men. He is currently the only member on the Team from the U.K. Coming from a long line of wealth, he was groomed to follow his father into investment banking. Boarded at the finest schools England had to offer for young men headed for great things, he participated in Polo and social event the mingled with blue blood on a constant basis. He never thought much of it till he went away to St. Andrews College and like most young people away from home, he 'found himself'. Off came the cuff links and his a suffocating neck tie. Always the athlete, he took up Boxing, Rugby and drinking. He found what he called his 'True Irish Side'.

No slouch in Academics, he steered away from the dreary classes on economics and math after his first year when he discovered his love for Ancient History and the Classics. He soon employed a tutor on top of his regular classes to master Greek and Latin. He found adventure and passion reading the first historians of Greece and Rome. He shunned the philosophy of Aristotle for the History of Thucydides, Epaminodas, and the Boldness of none other than Julius Caesar. He believed that he could always follow his father's business but that he could only soldier as a youth. When he made the decision to join the Royal Marines, his father threatened to disown him and his mother wept.

He however felt freer than he ever had, in spite of the constant military discipline, above and beyond for anyone wishing to be an officer in the Royal Marines. After his first two years of service he went through selection for the Special Boat Service. The most rigorous ordeal of his life, he made it and went on to command a troop. His first taste of action was in Africa during Operation Barrass. He inserted and reconned the area where British soldiers were being held in Sierra Leone. His first taste of Africa resulted in two Advisory missions to the Army of Botswana. His expertise in explosives was well noted and he also found himself doing humanitarian work in Cambodia doing de-mining work.

In 2004 he was selected to join Britains new X Squadron, a mixture of the top performing SAS and SBS operators. The team was formed to hunt High Value Targets in all over the world. Their counter terrorism capabilities led them on secretive missions on 4 continents and left behind many would be threats to Britain's national security. From the Jungles of South America, the Savannah of Africa to the Sandbox of the Middleast, he had experienced things far beyond what he ever thought possible.

After 13 years in the Royal Marines and its high operational tempo, he felt he needed a change. Through contacts of his father's associates, he began to get offers to design and train security personnel for business's worldwide in trouble spots. From South East Asia to the Oil Fields of Nigeria, he found more work and more money than he cared to handle.

Through a chain of people, Blake's name came up to Jim Hadley, the owner of SLE. Hadley made the initial contact to McGee. Thinking that it was nothing more than a no name Security Company trying to find a down and out ex Special Forces soldier, Blake hung up on him. After talking with some of his contacts, he decided to talk more with this 'Mr. Hadley'. When the terms of his employment and pay became clear as well as the type of professional soldier he would be working with, he decided that he would rather go back to soldiering on his own terms rather than run a business and deal with extremely rich and demanding people.

Now a key member of Task Force Intrepid he is back doing what he does best.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Cast pt. 4

Mike Simmons has a long and winding path to Security and Logistics Enterprises, Worldwide. A standout swimmer and wrestler in high school, he was headed towards a blue chip scholarship in Wrestling. Scouts from Iowa and Oklahoma began watching him as a sophomore and by his junior year were courting him. Everything changed in his senior year halfway through the wrestling season. His biggest supporters and fans, his parents, died in a car accident on a frozen Nebraska road. He pulled out of wrestling and stopped attending school regularly. The only comfort he found was in his girlfriend of two years. He moved in with her family and threw away the idea of going to college.

With a totally changed outlook on life, he decided to join the Navy. Like his father before him, he intended on becoming a Navy Seal. After graduation he married his high school sweetheart and moved to San Diego. With his background in swimming and PT scores, he secured a slot for BUD/S after he finished his A school as a Hospital Corpsman. The total immersion and suffering was bliss for him. Here his losses in life meant nothing. He was forging a new existence. On the last day of Hell Week, he broke an ankle during an evolution. Devastated and disgusted, he rejected the offer to roll over to a new class and took a billet as a FMF Corpsman. He quickly moved into Battalion Recon and after two years of service, made the cut for Force Reconnaisance.

He had found a home in the Marine Corps and a new life. After 9/11 he found himself attached to a SEAL team in Afghanistan due to shortages of medics. He found that he enjoyed his role as a life taker and a life saver. Reattached to the Marine Corps for the invasion of Iraq, he found himself on as many Direct Action missions as Reconnaisance. During one of his short rotations home, his wife conceived and they had a son. He was torn but found his life's work crowding out his family.

Once again back in Iraq in 2005 he knew his home life was falling apart. One day he sat down at the computer after a day that scented him with gunpowder and blood, he opened an e-mail that said, Dear Mike. His wife had found another man to be with. A Marine. He sat stunned, once again losing the only family he had. That day he lost his faith in God, Country, the Corps, the Navy and apple pie.

Around that time, the Marine Corps were folding their Force companies into the newly created Marine Special Operations Command. They would be operating under Joint Special Operations Command. Huge political games ensued and he decided that his time in the Corps and the Navy was done. He would fight for himself alone.

After his departure from the Navy in 2006 he easily found work with a PMC operating in Colombia hunting Naro-Terrorists. The pay was excellent and he found time to enjoy the nightlife of Bogota. On a mission that ended in the death of one of his teammates, he tracked the guerillas across the border into Venezuela, vowing that their small band would die. He counted his bullets and made sure that if captured, the last one was for himself. Exacting revenge, he wandered back across the border and into Juan Salvador who threatened to have him fired, expelled from Colombia and blackball him from working for any PMC, then Juan congratulated him and became his right hand man and soon an employee of SLE.