Reverie at Reveille

 Follow me;
and let the dead bury their dead
--Matthew 8:22 

 Holding back the years
Thinking of the fear I've had so long,
When somebody hears
Listen to the fear that's gone 
--Holding Back the Years ,
Simply Red 

 It takes very little to govern good people.
Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all.
Or if they could I never heard of it
 -- Cormac Mccarthy
______________________

A couple of weeks ago we attended the Black Hat Instructors reunion in Columbus, Ga, home of the Infantry School and Ranger's former stomping grounds. Present past and future collided.

The young soldiers have a startled-deer gaze in their eyes; that is the present. The film American Sniper played on t.v. that night, and we watched it for the first time; this depicted a version of the present. Lord help us if military service has devolved into the triteness displayed in the film. (We knew that Hollywood was already there because it sells to an audience that rejects challenge.)

As an Army-trained sniper, Ranger understands the reality of military killing. "American Sniper" made a harsh reality into a comic book-style graphic novel, laden with melodrama. The eponymous sniper was mad and mean, and shown as determined to deliver his holy vengeance upon the enemy.

Four young men were in the next motel room, and would begin Ranger training the following morning; this is the future. That day was the reunion, and thus, the past. "American Sniper" was the recent past, flowing into the future.

We are all slowly marching into the past, despite our current roles and their iterations, despite our perception of the speed of that movement. Rather than talk Old Soldier stuff, our thoughts go to humanity and military service writ large.

Ranger has known many hard, tough men, starting with those of his youth in the coal towns of Southeastern Pennsylvania. He has also known many mean men, and some mean and tough men.

As a company commander he endeavored to run a company devoid of mean-spirited leadership, focused instead on the hardness of our service. Life and service is not as depicted in the thin reality of these melodramatic films. Unlike the sentiments expressed by the sniper character Chris Kyle, meanness has no place in the military or in life.

Disappointingly, this movie, like so many others of its ilk, imparts a mean-spiritedness to American actions, as though that meanness is a natural response to being attacked, and as though that response will save us.

We hope that the young men going off to Ranger training on that day are trained to be tough, without the need to be mean. The years will be mean enough without our actions adding to the burden.

Forty-seven years from now, we wonder how they will remember those that have fallen by the wayside. With equanimity?

We hope it will not be through a callow mean lens like that through which most tough guys are depicted for us today.

Warrior Critters

__________________

The Special Forces have been labeled as the major cause of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, and this should be no surprise to anyone who understands the topic.

The SF selection process, warrior machismo ethos and now the Ranger bleed-over since the groups' cross-fertilization all conspire to create tabbed-up warrior critters psyched up to kill people, some of whom will be civilians.

The art of discernment is not a Ranger strength. No one should be surprised by this outcome, especially as the entire Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) is an exercise at cross-purposes to itself.

I remember the days of a much different Special Forces and mourn its passing.

The old rule of thumb was that Rangers would work 15 kliks to the enemy's front lines, and SF would operate in and occupy terrain as far as 450 kliks to the front of FLOT. This concept has obviously been overcome by events since the U.S. military is no longer capable of fighting actual military scenarios.

I continue to emphasize, Rangers ≠ SF and SF ≠ Rangers. When the lines blurred regarding assigned missions, unit focus suffered. SF was always a combat multiplier and Rangers were direct action assault troops, sort of like Marines once they moved inland from the beach head.

Defiance

Terror, Pavel Constantin (Romania)

To have humility is to experience reality,
not in relation to ourselves, but in its sacred independence.
It is to see, judge, and act from the point of rest in ourselves.
Then, how much disappears, and all that remains falls into place
--Dag Hammarskjold, former UN Secretary-General

I am open to the guidance of synchronicity,
and do not let expectations hinder my path
--Dalai Lama
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Ranger's recent convergence: Viewing the movie "Defiance" and reading a feel-good book about how to become a Green Beret.

The book is total ooh-rah regarding the selection, training and employment of the Bad Boyz in the making. The plot can be summarized thusly: A bunch of high school football players can't make college ranks, so the beefy boys join the Rangers and later go over to Special Forces.

Defiance, based upon a true story, depicts a classic Unconventional Warfare/Guerrilla Warfare scenario. This is exactly what the 1950's-70's era SF types were trained for and were expected to perform if the U.S. entered into a general war with the Soviets. In effect, SF would continue where the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) left off in 1945.

SF would function as force multipliers training and equipping guerrillas and insurgent forces deep in enemy territory. In the 1980's, Special Operations Command Europe had objectives 450 klicks forward of the FLOT. Unfortunately also in the 80's, SF emphasis was shifting to Direct Action. The edges of SF were starting to get squishy.

In the 1970 version of SFOC, the officer students were trained in Internal Defense and Development (IDAD) and Population and Resource Control (PRC). However, our graduation exercise was a definitive application of all training to converge exactly upon the UW/GW mission of SF. We were expected to infiltrate, link up, train, equip and lead UW/GW fighters arrayed against Soviet forces.

In the Republic of Vietnam, this is exactly what the CIDG and Mike Force troopers did for a living. They executed a UW/GW against the North Vietnamese Army.

All SF and Ranger ooh-rah books proudly boast of the physical requirements for these units, but nowhere do they discuss the mental and I.Q. requirements. What stood SF out from the rest of the Army was our intelligence.

SF NCO's were smart and were partially selected for their brainpower. Smarts were a more important determinant of success than brawn. That is said with the tacit understanding that all of us performed at Airborne levels of physical proficiency before going over to SF.

When the U.S. fights a general war, SF/UW/GW skills will be essential at Theatre Army levels. Concernedly, the force capabilities will be lost due to the atrophy of these synergistic skill sets.

The definition of SF and Special Operations Forces needs to be reified to address real threats to America, threats that go beyond turning SF assets into soldiers who make explosive, door-kicking entries.

There is nothing special about that.