Let me be clear, Mike Yon was in the Army. He was in Special Forces for a short-time period. Actually his time in the Army was short. He also killed a man in bar-fight right after earning his Green Beret. Good for him for his short service, at least it was service. Shame on him for bringing embarrassment to the Army for killing a civilian in a bar-fight. He never served in combat, but that is ok. There are many that have never served in combat.

So lets look at these credentials. He knows good military training, from back in the day. He also knows how to take another person’s life, granted not for good or justifiable reasons.

He has also been dis-embedded from multiple units in Afghanistan and is pretty much not being allowed back into country now to embed with anyone. It could be because he crosses over to what could be considered as unethical stories. He has been accused of violating operational security. He has also lashed out at any military command that does not allow him to embed (he did this with the Navy after the Japan disaster and the Army multiple times).

But like I said at least he has served. He belongs to a long list of great people that have served this country. However serving does not make you above the law, or perfect, or right in every situation. Just ask Lynddie England, Timothy McViegh, or Bradley Manning. They all have served in the Army. Does that make them great people that deserve respect regardless of what they have done? I think not.

Anyway, for some reason Mike Yon who has never served in combat, but has embedded with many military units in combat is now a subject matter expert on the use of MEDEVACS and how they are marked and what their mission is in combat. I have never played professional football but I have been to many games and have hours playing EA’s Madden football game on my computer and Xbox. That does not make me subject matter expert on how to play or what it is like or what plays to call. Just an analogy there on how stupid it is for anyone to listen to Mike Yon and his full-of-shit opinion about strategy and doctrine. He is nothing more than an arm-chair general who thinks he is in the “know” and is so full of himself that if he could get through life with making love to himself, I think he would. 

Mike has capitalized on an incident that happened while he was embedded in Afghanistan before he was kicked out. He is on a kick to try and get the Army to remove the red crosses from the MEDEVAC helicopter and to arm them like CASEVAC helicopters are some times. You may be asking, what is the difference? Let me point you to Aerovac World, which is a social networking site for professionals in the Aerovac Evacuation industry. You can find more at www.aerovacworld.com/showthread.php?221-Difference-between-CASEVAC-MEDEVAC-and-AEROVAC

CASEVAC
CASEVAC uses non standardized and non dedicated vehicles that do not provide en route care. The service exists to transport casualties that are in dire need for evacuation from the battlefield and do not have time to wait on a MEDEVAC, or where a MEDEVAC is unable to get to the casualty. Essentially it is any helicopter or vehicle that can get into an area and evacuate an injured member with or without a medical crew and/or equipment.

According to AFTTP3-42.5
Casualty evacuation (CASEVAC), a term used by all Services, refers to the movement of unregulated casualties aboard vehicles or aircraft.

MEDEVAC or DUSTOFF
The Army has a long history of medevac via helicopter starting with the 57th Medical Detachment back in 1962. The history of the DUSTOFF mission can be found on their website www.dustoff.org/history/history.htm

DUSTOFF is a standardized and dedicated vehicle providing en route care. They are traditionally on UH-1 Huey’s and UH-60’s Blackhawks. They can be easily identified with the Red Cross symbol on the nose and sides of the helicopter. One other identifiable mark with medevac’s is they do not have gunners aboard like the Air Force medics had. DUSTOFF medics are extremely skilled at what they do and are highly regarded as some of the best medics around. For more information about DUSTOFF, please visit www.dustoff.org.

According to AFTTP3-42.5
Medical evacuation
(MEDEVAC), on the other hand, traditionally refers to US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard patient movement using predesignated tactical or logistic aircraft temporarily equipped and staffed for en route care. MEDEVAC has generally implied the use of rotarywing aircraft with medical attendants (MA).

Air Force Medevac
The Air Force doesn’t traditionally fill a medevac role but in 2006 the Army asked the Air Force to help with its medevac mission, it was considered an in-lieu-of deployment. The first medics that took on this responsibility were then TSgt Mark D. and TSgt Shawn B.. In order to fill the role, they needed to qualify on the helicopter and attend survival school.

Because the Air Force normally doesn’t carry out the medevac mission, it doesn’t have a helicopter designed for that purpose. This meant the flight medics had to make do with what they had, the HH-60 Pave Hawk, a helicopter the Air Force uses for combat search and rescue missions. It, too, is a distant relative of the Army’s Black Hawk.

I hope that explains it a little better and offers more clarity. Medevacs are not armed with weapons as they are armed with life-saving equipment. A CASEVAC is any type of transport available. It could be another helicopter, a HUMVEE, or hell even a civilian vehicle if that is all that is available. It is a means to transport a wounded warrior. In war zones just about every vehicle has a weapon on it. Some don’t, especially those that have a unique or specified purpose. For example, the Buffalo MRAP, The Husky or MEDEVAC birds. They are specialized, they have a unique application and it is more important that they carry what they need to do their job versus trying to fill a mission they are not destined for.

So when SPC Chazray Clark’s widow, Christine asks the question I would hope that someone could get to her and explain the answer. Someone besides Yon who is doing nothing but taking advantage of her and her grief.

“I just don’t understand why — can’t they take the red crosses off,” she said, “and put machine guns on them? Why do they have to wait for somebody to escort them?”

If a MEDEVAC is carrying weapons and ammunition, then how are they supposed to carry all the life-saving medical equipment they are required to carry? Remember they are designated to provide en-route care and not just evacuate the wounded from the battlefield.

Former Afghanistan Commander and RESPECTED military leader LTG John Campbell makes it pretty clear.

 …Lt. Gen. John Campbell says it would not save more lives.

“I don’t think arming a medevac bird or taking a cross off a medevac bird will change whether or not we can get in and save our soldiers,” he said.

Machine guns would add weight and reduce the number of patients a medevac could carry and would not bring nearly as much firepower as an Apache escort. Today in Afghanistan, a wounded soldier stands a 92 percent chance of surviving — the highest rate of any war. Campbell, a former commander in Afghanistan and now chief of army operations, says that is the best argument for unarmed medevacs.

Because they don’t have weapons on board, the Army requires that armed helicopters go with the unarmed MEDEVACS anywhere they go. Regardless of what the non-combat veteran Mike Yon says those red crosses don’t invite more gunfire onto the helicopter due in large part because there is always an armed Apache, Blackhawk or even a Chinook helicopter with them.

What amazes me is that a guy who flip-flops on whether or not he is a journalist or blogger or whatever the flavor of the day is, a guy who killed a innocent person in a bar-fight, a guy who has been thrown out of embed after embed with the military can somehow have the ear of Fox News and of many elected Congressman and Senators. Why do they even give him the time of day much less help spread the lies and fallacies that he has made up in his little fat head.

I have been on the business end of more MEDEVACS then I care to remember. I have called in many and then had to wait and provide care and comfort to the wounded, keep security up  and also re-assure his buddies that the bird was coming. In fact one one day I had two MEDEVACS just about 90 minutes apart. Lucky for Mr. Yon he has never had to experience that, he has only had to watch from the sidelines through his lens and then sharpshoot and ridicule the entire process.

Please do me a favor, if you agree with what I say and have the common sense to see the difference between the different means of getting wounded off the battlefield, leave a comment here or better yet send your Representative or Senator a comment about it.

You can also read more and see a CBS video about this at www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57362374/did-military-rules-cost-a-soldier-his-life/

DISCLAIMER- In case it was not clear, I can’t stand Mike Yon, the ground he walks on or the oxygen he steals from the rest of us. I don’t give a crap what he thinks about me, and never will. To put it into perspective, if his body was on fire and his head was ripped off…I would piss down his neck-hole but not on his body because it would put the fire out.

The bottom line is our combat zones have way to many lawyers on them and not enough trigger-pullers.

A paratrooper is facing trial for punching an escaping Taliban member.

The case, which is estimated to cost the taxpayer 250,000 pounds, is continuing even though there are no formal witnesses.

British military prosecutors admit that the captive, Ahmed Wali, has provided ‘unreliable’ evidence, The Daily Mail reports.

But the Service Prosecuting Authority has refused to drop the case and charged CplC with the assault. He is due to appear at a court martial later this month.

His legal team had moved the high court for seeking a judicial review of the decision to prosecute him.

His name is being kept secret because he served alongside special forces.

Cpl C was a qualified tactical questioner when the incident occurred in March 2010.

He admitted that he punched Wali when insurgents were firing at the compound and laying down IEDs.

Cpl C’s friends criticised the decision to prosecute him as ‘absurd’.

“He is a young British paratrooper who has risked his life and was doing his duty. There is no other point of this prosecution than political correctness. He should be seen as a hero, not facing the prospect of his good name being left in tatters,” his friend said.(ANI)

From 2001-2012 we have lost thousands of America’s sons and daughters there, 1891 to be exact. They fell giving their lives for the security of our country and for the good of the Afghan people and the world. The cause of this war was just and appropriate. Regardless of what people feel about why we went to war with Iraq, the war in Afghanistan was warranted.

Photo Courtesy of Bigstockphoto.com

There has been a lot of discussion in the news, around the watercooler and in the homes of our military about what strategy we should take in Afghanistan. Should we draw a line in the sand at 2014 and pull out or should we plan to stay there until the country is ready to stand up for itself? In reality nobody has the perfect answer because none of us have the ability to see into the future.

However with SecDef Panetta’s slip of the tongue the other day stating that we are going to end the “combat’ role a year early in 2013, it really smells like our war strategy is now completely political. This screw up by the SecDef shocked many around the world, from the Afghans to Panetta’s own staff.

With an election year coming it is as clear as crystal that this new plan (that had yet to be announced to anyone) is geared towards propping up the President. He wants to be the guy who not only ended the Iraq War (except for the fact that President Bush signed the original agreement to have us out by the end of 2011), but also the Afghan war. As I said before when our last “combat troops” left Iraq, you can spin those lies all you want, but as long as they are still there kitted up, armed to the teeth and dying, they are in combat.  So  the administration is now planning a strategy to say that the last “combat” troops will be out of Afghanistan in 2013. Who knows how many and for how long American troops will stay there, but the political re-election machine wants the American people to believe the lies that by saying they are “non-combat” that we aren’t there getting wounded or dying anymore.

Now I personally agree that we need to hold Afghanistan accountable (like yesterday) for their own security. However I would like to think that our troops (many of which are friends of mine) whom are there, are there for the noble cause as for which this whole thing started, and not to just be fodder for political sound bites.

Spc. Robert Irwin, an infantryman of 2nd Platoon Dog Company, Task Force Gold Geronimo conducts a security patrol in the Paktya province, Jan. 30. TF Gold Geronimo is part of the Spartan Brigade.

Iraq will take legal action to ensure justice for the families of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians killed in a U.S. raid in Haditha seven years ago, a government spokesman said Thursday, after the lone U.S. Marine convicted in the killings reached a deal to escape jail time.

Really, REALLY? What exactly are they going to do? Not a damn thing. This is all some eye-wash and hot-air by Iraqi politicians to make it look like they can do something. Sorry it didn’t turn out the way they wanted, but the facts of the case are the facts of the case. It was war, things happen in war, bad things, that is why war is hell and why it is something we don’t like to do. 

Read the whole story at:

www.military.com/news/article/iraq-may-take-legal-action-over-haditha-raid.html

Watch this great video from the NRA on Gunsite Academy in Arizona and how once a year they invite military members out to take part in their advanced shooting courses free of charge. In my opinion, it is Gunsite’s way of making sure more of our guys come home and more of the Tangos don’t.

The 9/11 Decal below is a bouhammer.com exclusive that I designed myself. It takes into account all three locations of 9/11/01. The shape is that of the Pentagon, of course the skyline is that of the World Trade Center towers and UA 93 is the flight number of the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

Notice it is Red, White and Blue. However there is black in the top of the sky to signify the sorrow, mourning and loss we all experienced that day and that the families and friends of those 3000 still experience today.

The 9/11 Tribute decal

The picture does not do this justice because of the glare from the protective covering, but you get the idea. It will look great on the car window, at the office or at home showing how you have never forgotten about those who lost their lives on that terrible day or the thousands who have died since fighting to avenge for those attacks.

Of course I also have to have the signature bouhammer.com logo represented. The classic design created by myself and the designers at Vision-strike-wear.com. The Bouhammer eagle and flag looking down over the country of Afghanistan.

Another one that does not look great in the picture but looks great in person. If you notice there is white around the actual decal. That is the edge of the decal itself. The off-white is just the backing, which is the same case as the 9/11 decal.

Click on either image to go directly to the Bouhammer Gear Store and place your order today. While you are there check out www.vision-strike-wear.com/bouhammer.html to see all the other designs available for T-shirts, decals, hoodies, Coffee Mugs and many other items.

In this first introductory video listen to Nick explain why he is doing this and how he compares looking for a job to a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. I must say his comparison is pretty ingenious and really breaks it down to be simply understood.

Blogger “Crush” at blackfive.net also wrote about this recently but focused more on how the US military leadership has tried to somewhat hide the details of when our military sons and daughters are cut down by the “allies” we work to train befriend.

Head over to www.blackfive.net/main/2012/01/afghan-soldiers-killing-record-number-of-advisors.html and give it a read. One point he raises which I think needs emphasizing is that our military should be honest and straight with America and not have the New York Times or all outlets dig in and reveal the truth.

While non-partisan, the group is the largest progressive organization of veterans in America

That is one of the biggest lies told on the site and goes along with many others.  Jon Stoltz should be ashamed as a former NCO to put such lies on the web and portray him and his scrappy gang of left-pushing followers as anything close to non-partisan.

They are now generating their own news because they sent a letter to GEN Odierno asking him to block LTG (ret) Boykin from speaking at West Point. LTG Boykin has more than earned his opportunity to speak at West Point. Just pick any one timeframe of his career. You can start when he graduated form the very first Delta Force Selection course, his work on Operation Desert One, Just Cause, Gothic Serpent, Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom or any number of other “conflicts” he was involved with.

VoteVets (or as I call them, VoteforLiberalVets.org) is swallowing to the hilt, the lies spread by the MSM and the liberal left about LTG Boykin.

Had they read his book or did their research and not listen to the MSM and liberal, atheist-loving, religion-hating groups then they would know he was NOT comparing Christianity against Islam. He was comparing his God (The Lord Almighty) against the “God” of the guy he was interrogating (which was money and greed) when he said “My God is more powerful than your God”. Just because the not so skinny “skinny” was a skinny (i.e. somali) does not make him muslim or a practicing one at that.

Oh and in case you are wondering when this happened, watch Black Hawk Down. They portrayed BG Garrison as doing the interview of Osman Atto they got at the start of the movie, but that was actually Boykin.

Atto was stealing UN food and support from his people to make money for himself. He was not taking care of Somalis and instead was worshiping the false idol of greed.

GEN Odierno, I ask that you support LTG (ret) Boykin speaking at the US Military Academy and if possible even attend yourself. If Votevets.org was truly non-partisan then they would focus on getting vets elected and not attacking every Bush-era appointed leader that doesn’t see things their way.