Eideard

K-Max prototype

We may be closer to the day when United States Marines will, within a matter of minutes, use a handheld app to summon robotic helicopters to deliver battlefield supplies. On Tuesday, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced its five-year, US$98 million Autonomous Aerial Cargo Utility System (AACUS) program, with the specific aim of developing “sensors and control technologies for robotic vertical take-off and landing aircraft.”

ONR’s chief of naval research, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, describes AACUS as a “leap-ahead technology” which eliminates the need for a skilled operator while maintaining “the central and critical role of the human operator as the supervisor.” If it comes to fruition, AACUS would constitute an evolutionary step beyond the unmanned, remote control variant of the K-MAX helicopter, which flew its first unmanned combat missions in December.

Though sometimes described as semi-autonomous, the unmanned K-MAX requires a skilled operator within light-of-sight to be able to delivery its payload (so it’s not autonomous at all). AACUS, by contrast, would be a robot in the truest sense, taking off, planning, and navigating a flight path “with little to no input from an operator.”

“It’s going to be designed to work with people who have no flight experience,” said AACUS program officer Dr. Mary Cummings. “An operator will pick up his iPad or Android and make an emergency supply request. He’ll request that the helicopter come to him and land as close to him as possible.”

As I noted at the Gizmag site, an equally important use would be battlefield extraction of troops cut-off from any possibility of retreat on foot.

Master Sgt. Anthony Henry, a top Marine recruiting trainer for the southwestern United States, pulled up to Tulsa’s biggest gay community center on Tuesday morning and left his Chevy where he could make a fast getaway. “I have an exit strategy,” he said…

But as it happened, one of the strangest days in the history of the United States Marine Corps unfolded without the protests and insults that Sergeant Henry had feared. Sergeant Henry, who had been invited to set up a recruiting booth on the first day of the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell” at the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center in downtown Tulsa, instead spent it in quiet conversation with a trickle of gay women who came in to ask about joining the Marines.

“It’s your business and you don’t have to share it,” Sergeant Henry told Ariel Pratt, 20, who asked whether she would face discrimination in the military as a lesbian serving openly. “But you’re also free to be at the mall with your girlfriend…”

The Marines were the service most opposed to ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but they were the only one of five invited branches of the military to turn up with their recruiting table and chin-up bar at the center Tuesday morning. Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members…

By 5 p.m. the Marines had packed up their booth and chin-up bar and headed out, with plans to come back later to attend a panel discussion. It was all uncharted territory. As Sergeant Henry had said the day before of the new world the Marines now inhabit, “At first it’s going to be kind of shock and awe.”

But like a good Marine, he was with the program: “My take is, if they can make it through our boot camp, which is the toughest boot camp in the world, then they ought to have the opportunity to wear the uniform.”

That the Marine Corps was last in line to support the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was as much a function of who happened to be Commandant at the time. History recognizes the Marine Corps as the most progressive of U.S. military services at removing and opposing discrimination.

Which is why I don’t find it surprising that [1] other branches of our military turned down the opportunity and [2] the Marines didn’t. RTFA for details, pride in service.

Allen Baylis, lawyer for the nudists

Gold Beach, where generations of Marines have trained for amphibious assaults, is now the scene of another kind of battle. The strip of sand on Camp Pendleton is the latest flash point between nudists and state park rangers — with Marines caught in the crossfire.

The nudists say zealous state park rangers have followed them onto the federal property in an effort to cite them for violating the state’s coverup laws…

Gold Beach is directly south of San Onofre State Beach, which for several years was the object of legal skirmishing between nudists and officialdom. Two years ago a court ruled that the state had the authority to ban nudity at so-called Trail 6, long a spot favored by nudists.

The problem is proximity. Trail 6 is only a short walk from Gold Beach.

The Marine Corps says it does not want any civilians — naked or clothed — on its beach. Signs warn sunbathers to stay away. But in an effort to avoid park rangers at San Onofre State Beach, nudists have ventured south. An apparent confrontation a week ago, details of which are in dispute, between a nudist, rangers and military police has brought the issue to a head…

The nudists wonder why a cash-strapped parks system can afford to spend time and money on enforcing a prohibition on what they see as the victimless crime of going au naturel. The Trail 6 beach, Squicciarini said, is kept tidy and self-policed by hundreds of people who prefer their recreation, including use of a volleyball court, in the buff.

“We’ve gone to great efforts to keep the beach pristine,” he said…

All the beach property in question is owned by the Marine Corps, which leases the property that is San Onofre State Beach to the state.

Serious duty.

Don’t know why we’re catching an increase in nudist news, lately. I have to tippy-toe a little bit to keep my sense of humor getting the best of me. Nudism makes great sense to me – in an environment where you don’t get arrested for lewd behavior in front of your dog or something.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

About 200 active-duty troops and veterans wearing T-shirts advertising their branch of service marched Saturday in San Diego’s gay pride parade with American flags and rainbow banners, marking what is believed to be the first time a military contingent has participated in such an event in the U.S.

Many of the active-duty troops said they were moved to come out because it is time to end the military’s ban on openly gay troops. The march comes a day after a federal appeals court reinstated “don’t ask, don’t tell” but with a caveat that prevents the government from investigating or penalizing anyone who is openly gay.

National Guard member Nichole Herrera, 31, said she didn’t think twice about marching, even though the policy is back on the books. She said she was “choked up” several times as she walked down a main thoroughfare in San Diego, a major Navy port.

“This is one of the proudest days in my life. It’s time for it (the policy) to be gone,” Herrera said. “I’m a soldier no matter what, regardless of my sexual orientation.”

The crowd roared as the group waving military flags and holding placards identifying their military branch walked past the thousands.

Every branch of service was represented Saturday, including the Coast Guard. Marines and sailors ran out carrying their branch’s flags over their heads. One Marine stopped to pose with two towering bikini-clad blondes in stiletto-heeled boots.

Onlookers stepped into the parade route to salute them.

Bravo! The salute is overdue. Wish my cousin Billy was alive to see the Navy allow him public pride.

Washington has given up on moving 8,000 U.S. Marines to the U.S. territory of Guam from Japan by 2014…a potential blow to Prime Minister Naoto Kan who is already struggling over a U.S. base dispute.

The planned transfer of Marines from the southern island of Okinawa is a part of a larger agreement between Washington and Tokyo that includes relocating functions of the U.S. Futenma airbase in Okinawa to a less crowded area on the island…

Any postponement over moving the controversial base on Okinawa, host to about half the U.S. troops in the country, could be a blow to Kan’s government, already reeling from a poor showing in an upper house election this month…

A scrapped government pledge to move the base off Okinawa had sparked anger from local residents who complain of noise, pollution and crime, and led to the resignation of Kan’s predecessor in June.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada reaffirmed in a meeting in Hanoi…that experts will work out details of the Futenma relocation site by end-August as agreed in a May deal. But doubts remain over whether the deal can be implemented on time.

An election for the Okinawa governor is due in November and the result could also affect plans to move the airbase, coming near the time when U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to visit Japan for an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit.

If there’s anything that reveals how tied at the hip our two supposedly conflicted political parties are – it’s the phoniness of foreign policy “discussion”. Both parties function on behalf of the new imperialism we took over from the Brits after World War 2.

Obama differs not from Kennedy or LBJ – who didn’t stand out in a crowd of Nixons or Reagans.

Marine Cpl. Sarah B. Furrel, 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines at a girls school

The Marines in a recent “cultural awareness” class scribbled careful notes as the instructor coached them on do’s and don’ts when talking to villagers in Afghanistan: Don’t start by firing off questions, do break the ice by playing with the children, don’t let your interpreter hijack the conversation.

Cpl. Michele Greco-Lucchina led a group during a “cultural awareness” exercise last month at Camp Pendleton, Calif.. And one more thing: “If you have a pony tail,” said Marina Kielpinski, the instructor, “let it go out the back of your helmet so people can see you’re a woman.”

These are not your mother’s Marines here in the rugged California chaparral of Camp Pendleton, where 40 young women are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in one of the more forward-leaning experiments of the American military.

Next month they will begin work as members of the first full-time “female engagement teams,” the military’s name for four- and five-member units that will accompany men on patrols in Helmand Province to try to win over the rural Afghan women who are culturally off limits to outside men. The teams, which are to meet with the Afghan women in their homes, assess their need for aid and gather intelligence, are part of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s campaign for Afghan hearts and minds. His officers say that you cannot gain the trust of the Afghan population if you only talk to half of it…

As envisioned, the teams will work like American politicians who campaign door to door and learn what voters care about. A team is to arrive in a village, get permission from the male elder to speak with the women, settle into a compound, hand out school supplies and medicine, drink tea, make conversation and, ideally, get information about the village, local grievances and the Taliban…

The idea for the teams grew out of the “Lioness” program in Iraq, which used female Marines to search Iraqi women at checkpoints. Over the past year in Afghanistan, the Army and Marines have assembled ad hoc female engagement teams, but the women were hastily pulled from work as cooks or engineers.

The women at Pendleton are among the first to be trained exclusively for the mission. “Every Marine wants to go outside the wire,” said Cpl. Michele Greco-Lucchina, 22, referring to assignments off the base. “We all join for different reasons, but that’s the basis for being a Marine.”

I expect the Marines to provide this sort of advanced and experimental engagement in ordinary human activities. As do the Marines I engage with in recurrent discussions about the history of war.

Glad as hell to see this particular step forward receiving official support.

It’s only been six days since NATO launched a major assault against the Taliban and some Afghans are already asking Marines when they can reopen their shops.

But it’s hard to say whether that’s a sign the Taliban had faded away, or just a false sense of security in Marjah, the heart of the last Taliban stronghold in Helmand, Afghanistan’s most violent province…

NATO’s largest assault in Afghanistan since the start of the war is aimed at driving the Taliban from their stronghold to make way for Afghan authorities to take over.

NATO said in a statement that a number of enemy fighters remaining in Marjah were engaging in direct combat, although combined forces have taken key areas…

But the Taliban are not far away. And they have only one objective — killing foreign forces to hold on to what Western countries say is a poppy cultivation center that funds their insurgency…

Marines are now comfortable enough to mount foot patrols. But the Taliban are unpredictable.

“As our company continues to increase its security in one area we will work to secure the rest of our battlespace,” said Marine Lieutenant Mark Greenlief.

No solutions to a work in progress. But, knowing this much, seeing what’s coming out of Marjah in the world press – not just network talking heads – is positive.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan says the coalition in the war-torn country is going to have to do things “dramatically differently, even uncomfortably differently” in order to succeed.

“We must operate and think in a fundamentally new way,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a British think thank. He stressed the importance of connecting with the Afghan people, who he said are “frustrated” that more has not been accomplished in the nearly 8-year-old war.

McChrystal said he discounts immediately those who simplify the problem or offer a solution “because they absolutely have no clue about the complexity of what we are dealing with…”

Afghanistan, McChrystal said, is a “complex, difficult terrain — both the land and the people.”

“When I’m asked the question what approach should we take in Afghanistan, I say humility,” he said.

The average life expectancy there is 44 years, McChrystal noted. And given that the country has been at war for 30 years, there are few people who remember pre-conflict life in Afghanistan, he said…

Read the rest of this entry »

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication” with the Muslim world, saying that no amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting.

The critique by the chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, comes as the United States is widely believed to be losing ground in the war of ideas against extremist Islamist ideology. The issue is particularly relevant as the Obama administration orders fresh efforts to counter militant propaganda, part of its broader strategy to defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate,” Admiral Mullen wrote in the critique (.pdf).

“I would argue that most strategic communication problems are not communication problems at all,” he wrote. “They are policy and execution problems. Each time we fail to live up to our values or don’t follow up on a promise, we look more and more like the arrogant Americans the enemy claims we are…”

Read the rest of this entry »

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

The US Marines Corps ordered the first ever energy audit in a war zone today to try to reduce the enormous fuel costs of keeping troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

General James T Conway, the Marines Corps Commandant, said he wanted a team of energy experts in place in Afghanistan by the end of the month to find ways to cut back on the fuel bills for the 10,000 strong marine contingent.

US marines in Afghanistan run through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day. That’s a higher burn rate than during an initial invasion, and reflects the logistical challenges of running counter-insurgency and other operations in the extreme weather conditions of Afghanistan.

“We need to understand where the fuel goes,” Conway told a Marines Corps energy summit today. “The largest growing demand on the battlefield today is for electricity and how we create that.”

He added: “We are going to more efficient. We have got to be.”

Conway’s announcement — and the summit itself, which is the first of its kind — were seen yesterday as a dramatic shift in the US military’s approach to energy consumption and climate change.

The Pentagon began to acknowledge America’s reliance on fossil fuels and climate change as a national security concern in 2002. A report from the Pentagon’s military advisory board last May called on military bases to work to lower their carbon footprint. A number of bases inside the US have begun to tap into renewable fuel sources including wind and solar energy.

But the Marine Corps are the first service to try to put those policies into action on the battlefield.

If you read my posts on a regular basis, you know I’m not surprised by the U.S. Marines beating everyone else to an advanced analysis, a new and useful practice.

It goes back to leadership in place back before World War 2 – and a tradition maintained through the postwar Civil Rights Movement – to the latest requirements of education either on the way in or before your butt is allowed back out into the general public.