Milbloggers appearing on PBS' Frontline

Airing 1 April on PBS' Frontline series will be a special focusing on the deployment experiences of a couple of prominent Milblogging.com members. Make sure you mark this on your calendar as I'm sure it will offer an excellent perspective from the ground on a lot of good stories that are not getting back home:

Hi everyone! It`s JP, webmaster of Milblogging.com. As many of you know, I`m a member of Bad Voodoo Platoon and I’m currently deployed in support of OIF. Over the last year, several of us includi ng fellow military blogger Toby Nunn, have been videotaping our experience. Deborah Scranton (The War Tapes) has made a film for FRONTLINE called Bad Voodoo`s War that will be airing on April 1st. The details are below:

BAD VOODOO`S WAR
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
9 P.M. (check local
listings)

In June 2007, as the American military surge reached its peak, a band of National Guard infantrymen who call themselves "The Bad Voodoo Platoon" was deployed to Iraq. To capture a vivid, first-person account of the new realities of war in Iraq for FRONTLINE and ITVS, director Deborah Scranton (The War Tapes) created a "virtual embed" with the platoon, supplying camer as to the soldiers so they could record and tell the story of their war. The film intimately tracks the veteran soldiers of "Bad Voodoo" through the daily grind of their perilous mission, dodging deadly IEDs, grappling with the political complexities of dealing with Iraqi security forces, and battling their fatigue and their fears.

Watch a preview now at: pbs.org/frontline/badvoodoo

Visit the PBS pressroom for press release andphotography.www.pbs.org/pressroom
Online starting April 1.

Keep in mind, if you intend to respond to this e-mail, please write back to me at milblogging@gmail.com (I`m currently in the process of transferring email accounts, but the best place to re ach me for now is milblogging@gmail.com )

Boston Dynamics Big Dog Video

There are a lot of really smart people out there who envision a battlefield patrolled by robots. Just to let you know, they're actually making progress. The artist formerly known as the Mule, the Big Dog will carry heavy equipment alongside troops in future wars (a welcome addition). It's not there yet as I am sure there are power generation issues, but still, the technology is very impressive. See what it does when it slips on ice:

Aggies Robbed at the Buzzer

Storyline reads "Shipp blocks Sloan to preserve win." Shipp himself said he got "all ball." Now I wouldn't normally post this in what I try to maintian as a "military blog" but since this is MY blog, I suppose I can post whatever I want. Yes, this is post-game bitching and it accomplishes nothing, but it makes me feel better. Maybe someone at the NCAA will see these pics and admonish the officiating crew, but I doubt it. The Ags had a season that was inconsistent to say the least, but they finished strong and made us proud.

It's a shame things ended like this:

USPSA 3 Gun Round Two

Here they are, the highlights of my second USPSA 3 Gun match courtesy the great guys at the Mill Creek Practical Shooting League here in Kansas. As indicated by the snow on the ground, it was cold and miserable. The winter here does not seem to want to loosen its grip.

For those new to my blog, when I received notice of my upcoming assignment to a training team in Iraq, I decided that I would not waste the valuable time waiting to report to training. A good friend of mine suggested competitive practical shooting as a means to provide marksmanship training that the Army is unable to provide to officers attending a service school in the TRADOC commands. Simply put, these days there are not enough bullets to go around.

As for my performance, well, I finished middle of the pack in pistol. Accuracy wise, I'm shooting as well as anyone else. It's the speed factor that's getting me. I've yet to master the double tap and fast transitions necessary to move up the leaderboards. I am also working through years of bad weaver stance by adopting the isosceles technique. So far I can get there when I concentrate, but it has yet to become second nature.

This is still the most fun I have ever had on a range. I don't know what kind of marksmanship training is in store for me before my next assignment, but common sense tells me it will not equal what I am getting from competition.

Lt Gen Caldwell, CGSC Commandant, appears on the Daily Show

Yesterday, the Commandant of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Lieutenant General William Caldwell appeared on the Daily Show with John Stewart to promote the new Army capstone doctrine, FM 3-0. The bottom line is (and I'm assuming this is the same as the Army Public Affairs theme), is that FM 3-0 places stability operations (nation building for you civilian types) on the same level/priority as our traditional major combat operations.

Now, why would a three star general go on the Daily Show to display yet another boring Army Field Manual? It's certainly not Salinger sequel to "Catcher in the Rye," and it is a Field Manual. Well, FM 3-0 is different. For the last half century, the mission of the Army was basically to fight and win the nations wars, with a very heavy emphasis on WAR. Full Spectrum Operations was the name of the game, big guns, big bombs, big tanks; everything else fell by the wayside. Let's face it, after Vietnam, the Army wanted nothing to do with nation building, police actions, winning hearts and minds, etc...

The Full Spectrum Operations doctrine was justified with the defeat of the Iraqi military in Operation Desert Storm. Their defeat was so sound that we decided that we had too much military and could afford to cut back. Well, consider FM 3-0, Operations, a shot over Congress' bow. The Army needs to get bigger, and one of the best ways to do that is to adopt a doctrine which the current force cannot support. Let's face it, there are not enough training days in the year for us to train to support a stability operation such as Operation Iraqi or Enduring Freedom while at the same time maintaining our proficiency for the steely eyed Full Spectrum Operations stuff.

Since many hip beltway types frequently watch the Daily Show, the Army is letting the world know that change is happening, in a cool if somewhat stiff sort of way. The bottom line is that with FM 3-0, we are taking the first step in applying dollars and resources to the operational requirement of the next twenty years.

My opinion, it's a change for the better. We always tried to fight and keep the peace, but we really only applied the big dollars to the fighting part. This way our politicians have to make a conscious effort to $upport the Army in both.

Sir, if you read this, and you might, I think you should have responded to John Stewart's 'boring book' comments with something like:

"John, it's a Field Manual, if you wanted exciting, go read a Marine Corps press release."