David Bellavia posts up the five issues he has with the jerk that is former Congressman Eric Massa. It is a must read.

By Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service FORWARD OPERATING BASE FRONTENAC, Afghanistan, March 9, 2010 – A white-painted blast wall standing in front of the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, headquarters here bearing the names of 22 fallen soldiers was a...

What a happy headline: Former soldier finds new mission fighting for veterans on home front.Mike Flaherty served two tours in Iraq, and he wears an "Iraq Veterans Against the War" T-shirt. His actions aren't incompatible, and he has a simple explanation for those who disagree: "Our organization has the courage to resist." But Flaherty's focus of late has been to develop green jobs for veterans.You can almost hear the creepy, robot quality as he recites the motto:"Our mission is to...

From an article I recently read claiming that pornography might be good for us: According to the conservative media watchdog group Family Safe Media, the porn industry makes more money than the top technology companies combined, including Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Without debating the relative merits of porn, if there are any besides temporary satiation of [...]

First, the US Naval Institute has a series profiling each episode of "the Pacific" - the new HBO miniseries by Tom Hanks that features combat in the Pacific during WWII. Some have called it the Marine's "Band of Brothers". Go here for Episode One - it is excellent and even has a dispatch from Marine Platoon Sergeant John Basilone who was awarded the CMoH. Go here for Episode Two. And, Hot Air's AllahPundit has comments from Tom Hanks: “Certainly, we wanted to honor U.S. bravery in The Pacific. But we also wanted to have people say, ‘We didn’t know our troops did that to Japanese people.’" "...Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”... Wow. Be sure to read Basilone's AAR that he wrote before his last heroic act in WWII and compare it to what Mr. Hanks believes. The Japanese were different - horribly different. Last, Ranger Up is going to march in the 2010 Bataan Death March to remember Americans who lost their lives on that dark forced march. Now, THAT'S different.

The 2010 Official Milblog Conference is right around the corner and it’s a great opportunity to meet and network with dozens of military bloggers, key military leaders, and many individuals and and organizations from all over the military community.

It’s no surprise that this year’s conference celebrating its five year anniversary will be the biggest yet.  And Andi, who has been organizing the Official Milblog Conference year after year, has been working hard behind the scenes for months putting things together to make this year’s conference very special.

The conference takes place April 9 and April 10, and there’s still time to register and attend.  The cost is only $50 and it includes “the works”.

For the record, I feel kinda bad I won’t be able to attend Friday’s events, namely the Kickoff Panel and the extend-o Cocktail Reception from 8 PM – 11 PM (my favorite).   

But at least I’ll be able to make it to the Breakfast the following morning, on time.  And alert.  Without a headache.  Or wearing the same clothes.  Or smelling like catfood.  Last year was a lot of fun.  Just saying.

Our friend and Soldiers' Angel MaryAnn is featured at Afghan Quest, who writes in fear of his life. Enter Soldiers’ Angels and the force that defies gravity and fatigue; MaryAnn Phillips. I can’t describe MaryAnn as unassuming, a word often associated with people who share her trait of recoiling physically whenever any kind word is directed at her (by anyone who is not a patient, the family of a patient or a medical professional). MaryAnn is a force of nature, possessing seemingly boundless energy and a benevolently powerful presence that melts barriers. She can appear to be tired, but while some would get a charge out of a Red Bull, all you have to do to give MaryAnn a charge of energy is tell her that a patient needs something. She is suddenly on the go.... We stop to see a patient whose parents are relaying messages to via MaryAnn. She is in contact with them, reassuring them with news of their son’s personal reactions. She never shares medical information, leaving that task to doctors, sometimes cajoling a busy practitioner to make that call to fill in the parents or spouse on the medical details. MaryAnn shares only the human side, like the fact that their son is expressing a sense of humor, or that she saw him up and moving around. She tells the young man that his parents have told her that someone keeps getting on his bed at home. “That’s my dog,” he says, his face brightening.... 'It seemed like an afterthought. The CCU. “I should show you the CCU.” I am seized with dread, yet interested. I can’t say no to MaryAnn. She introduces me to some of the staff. She inquires as to the status of their supply of blankets and coins for the patients. A man lies seriously injured in a nearby room. A moth to flame. Suddenly I am alone. MaryAnn is holding his hand, talking with him, joking with him, listening to him. She sends me to get a blanket for him, and she gives him a coin. He is fixated on her. It’s as if she’s the only person in the world. In that moment, for him, she was. I bring the blanket and hand it to MaryAnn. She shows it to him, and immediately it is the answer to all of his problems. He tells her exactly how he wants the blanket placed. She feeds him crackers and water while he struggles with the effects of powerful painkillers. We are there for well over an hour, and all he can see is her. MaryAnn later tells me that he will not remember it. He may not remember Landstuhl at all. But in that moment, she was the only one in the world for him. She's not new at this -- here is BlackFive on her work, from back in 2004. In late 2007, she performed this service for me, checking on a friend who had been badly injured by a pressure plate IED. We are honored to know her. You should read the rest of her story.

The New York Post rips into "Green Zone" as anti-American. ..."Green Zone," opening Friday, is a $100 million slime job that conjures up a fantastically distorted leftist version of the war and wraps it around a frantic but preposterous action picture... And Such is this movie's eagerness to turn reality upside down that, although the Ryan character is obviously based on Judith Miller of The New York Times, the reporter is said to work for the Wall Street Journal. In full-on liberal daydream mode, Damon and his friends can pretend their favorite lefty paper is untainted by flawed reporting. To cover his tracks from Chief Miller, the Pentagon official sends out a goon squad to assassinate the Sunni general -- who, according to the movie, is also the sole figure responsible for whether Iraq will erupt into an insurgency. Even for Hollywood, "Green Zone" is dumbfoundingly brazen in its effort to rewrite the facts... More at the NYPost. Supposedly, "Green Zone" is based loosely on Imperial Life in the Emerald City by WashPo editor Rajiv Chandrasekhar. I met Rajiv and spoke with him at a journalism conference that was also attended by Mike Yon and General Petreaus (then LTG Petraeus). Most journalists agreed with Rajiv on the CPA's ineptness; however, GEN Petreaus mentioned that Rajiv was painting an absolutist picture and that there were more than a few good men leaving the wire and trying to help (GEN Petreaus was leading the 101st Airborne Division at the time and depended on some of the CPA folks in his sector). Some of the authors here at B5 were there at the time and know Rajiv and have some issues with the book. (Don't even get them started about the movie...) The issue I have with the book is that the movie in not based on it. It seems the studio optioned the book and then got Matt Damon and said "Holy crap, we have Matt Damon! Let's make an action flick where US Soldiers are the bad guys." So the book is not the movie but the movie has credibility because it's based upon a book by a credible editor and journalist... Alas, I won't have much of a review of the movie since I won't be seeing it unless I'm paid to. I'll take a pass. You could ask some of the key members of IAVA about it since they star in it. Update: Even the SF Chronicle pans the movie. Much better analysis at... The BlackFive Farm Team (Lilyea's quote might be one of his best yet) and The Mudville Gazette

First, read Jimbo's post today below about ol' Hugo Chavez and his terror connections. And then go here to This Ain't Hell for some Sean Penn-Hugo Chavez full on gay pron stupidity.

Say it ain't so? And not just his local crews and the FARC from Colombia, but Basque terrorists from Spain. Oddly enough reported by The New Republic: What were two members of a violent Basque separatist group doing with 11 members of Colombia's narco-Marxist insurgency in a remote corner of southwestern Venezuela in August 2007? According to a blockbuster indictment handed down by a Spanish judge last week, they were participating in a kind of intercontinental terrorist training camp held under the aegis of the Venezuelan military. More specifically, the two members of ETA, or "Basque Homeland and Freedom," were teaching the rebels from FARC, or "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia," how to use plastic explosives and urban guerrilla tactics, such as rigging cell phones to work as bomb fuses. This unlikely alliance between FARC, a peasant-based Marxist movement financed by a massive drug-trafficking operation, and ETA, a nationalist group that specializes in shooting Spanish policemen, civil servants, and local politicians in the back of the head, dates back as far as 1993. According to the indictment, beginning in 2000, ETA plotted with FARC to murder a range of leading Colombian political figures when they traveled to Spain, including sitting president Alvaro Uribe. The fun part of this is that the always strategic thinking Chavez may have screwed his relations with Spain bu doing so. But it's Venezuela's alleged involvement with two of the Spanish-speaking world's most notorious terror groups that has set off a political firestorm in Spain, where the center-left government enjoys a close relationship with the Venezuelan caudillo, Hugo Chávez. Spain has a ton of business relationships w/ Hugo and also has deals to sell him Navy ships and other war toys. This could quite likely put the kaibosh on a lot of that. Well-played Mr. Dictator.

The Long War Journal says it's confirmed, the bombmaker for the Bali blast has assumed room temperature. Dulmatin, one of the most wanted al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Southeast Asia, has been confirmed killed, Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said during a meeting in Australia. "I can announce to you that after a successful police raid against the terrorists hiding out in Jakarta yesterday, we can confirm one of those killed was Mr. Dulmatin, one of the top Southeast Asian terrorists that we have been looking for," President Yudhoyono said, according to ABC News. "For the safety of our people, for the safety of Australians and Indonesians and the rest of the world, let us continue our cooperation to fight terrorism," he continued. Police killed Dulmatin as he attempted to resist arrest during a raid on a doctor's home in the Jakarta suburb of Pamulang on March 9. Dulmatin pulled a handgun and fired a round at counterterrorism police from Detachment 88. Police also killed two other terror suspects during a raid at a nearby Internet cafe [See LWJ report, "Wanted Indonesian terrorist Dulmatin thought killed in raid"]. Well hurray. I will now do the dead tango dance.

Now this is cool:Troop supporting rockers Saving Abel will be in town during the Milblog Conference and have volunteered to stop by the Friday evening Cocktail Reception for a brief, acoustic performance. A previous entry about the band here. Register for the Milblogs Conference here. And keep up with the latest news via the Fan of Milblogs Facebook page here....

44 years ago, the US was evacuating personnel from a special operations camp in the Battle of A Shau. As Major Bernard F. Fisher and other pilots from the 1st Air Commando Squadron were attacking targets in support of the withdrawal, a A1-E Skyraider flown by Maj. Dafford "Jump" Myers was hit by enemy fire, forcing Myers to crash-land on the base's airstrip. Fisher landed his plane and rescued Myers before the 2,000-strong enemy force could capture or kill him. The Skyraider flown by Fisher was restored and is now on display at the Air Force Museum, which I highly recommend everyone take a few days to visit. Fisher's actions made him the Air Force's first Medal of Honor recipient (the Air Force was formed in 1947). His citation can be viewed here. Interestingly enough, a similar event took place during World War II: when flying over Romania, flak damaged Capt. Richard "Dick" Willsie's P-38 Lighting and forced the pilot to crash land. But before enemy soldiers could capture the pilot, Flight Officer Dick Andrews landed his Lightning and rescued Willsie. Remarkably, both Willsie and Andrews were involved in the A Shau rescue.

Decisive phase of Afghan war looms: Gates - Reuters Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday they would soon be part of a "decisive phase" in the war -- an operation to impose control over...

Lt. Col Darren Wright briefs the media on the role the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division had in the mission to integrate Iraqi security forces with U.S. troops to ensure safe elections. Parts 1 & 2....

South Sound soldiers work behind the scenes in election - The News Tribune American troops should be out of sight from polling places today as Iraqis elect a parliament for the second time since the fall of Saddam Hussein. But...

Old Blue got a break from his tour in Afghanistan - and traveled to Germany "to train part of the incoming International Joint Command (IJC) staff who will be taking over in Afghanistan this year." Once that was done he ended up with some spare time on his hands. So, in Germany, nothing official to do, and a plane ride to Afghanistan some time in the near future - a dream situation for anyone serving in a combat zone...Because of...