View Full Version : Fake nation tests tomorrow's Special Forces
BMT (RIP)
07-05-2009, 08:58
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-07-04-pineland-patriots_N.htm?csp=15
:lifter
:munchin
BMT
Scimitar
07-07-2009, 18:08
OK,
now you guys really are famous... :D
NZ Herald (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10583040)
This appeared in todays New Zealand Herald - pp A15.
Seems to be a longer version with some added stuff.
Cheers
Scimitar
37 years ago last month - a lifetime ago yet only yesterday in my memory box. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Basenshukai
07-07-2009, 19:56
Wow! Bob Snyder was our auxiliary when I attended Robin Sage nearly seven years ago! :)
It was 1975 ... but I bet I could still pull out a 1:50,000 and trace every movement from the infil to the demob.
Long live Pineland!
Ret10Echo
07-08-2009, 17:19
I get a good chuckle each time I think about it.....good times....:cool:
colmurph
07-09-2009, 20:45
When I jumped into Pineland the exercise was called "Cherokee Trail".The following year they started calling it "Gobblers Woods". "Buzz" Miley ran the schoolhouse then.
It is one thing I will always remember from the INFILL DZ (I can find it even today) to the 3 G camps we had. I Will never forget sleeping in the creek to keep the swelling down on my broken leg. Made it through the whole exercise and walked across the stage in a full leg cast. Thank god for good meds and teammates that pulled together when I needed help. Just like a real Opn where I could not get exfilled and we worked around it and had 100% mission accomplishment.
Draco771
08-06-2009, 23:22
I mean no offense to anyone, and mean no disrespect, but how is "Pineland" news?
That info on Robin Sage (on both links) with exception of names of people etc. has been out there since the first time I began research on Special Forces, and Robin Sage.
Even the names of which counties participate you can find via google.
I mean no disrespect, but I've known about the stuff in those links (the one from NZ, and the other one) since 2002 when I started research.
Did the Media "not care" about "Pineland" (it seems to change name per year) until now? If so, what's going on in the world today "now" that the Media would so openly shed light on it?
NZ SAS, and Australian Commandos have their own versions of Robin Sage (quite similar if my research is correct) the info isn't "new" on the open internet.
I mean absolutely no disrespect at all, but what's suddenly changed in the nation, or across the world, or in some 3rd world country in the middle of no where to spark the Media's sudden interest in this stuff?
I'm a civilian, and have found many venues of information on Robin Sage. There's no way the Media hasn't had access to that kind of info for many years before now.
Thinking about it, it's kinda worry some on why the sudden change of mind.
I mean no offense to anyone, and mean no disrespect, but how is "Pineland" news?
If you manage to stay around long enough and experience enough of life, you'll discover that life - and news - is cyclical. Read a bit of History and you'll be amazed at what isn't new - or news. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Draco771
08-07-2009, 00:05
If you manage to stay around long enough and experience enough of life, you'll discover that life - and news - is cyclical. Read a bit of History and you'll be amazed at what isn't new - or news. ;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Absolutely.
I'm just finding it worrysome, first the media starts going into "Vverdenfell" (SEAL version of "Pineland") then starts going into the PJs "Rescue Sam" (similiar to "Pineland, only focuses on CSAR in the capacity)
and now they are getting into "Pineland". I ment absolutely no disrespect, but the Media's sudden interest to put light on info that's been out there for almost a decade now... It makes you wonder where the Media is trying to go?
Just googling Robin Sage, you can get information almost triple in detail than in any of those articles. (although you being a QP, you have more detail info on it than a website, or media could dream of, no doubt at all)
I understand the simpleton mindset of not knowing much about how Iraq/Afghanistan have ended up the way they are, that's understandable (because in HS, which is typically the only history class people every take, HS World History courses are always based towards soly European History).
But all this huge sudden interest on SOF, and SF in the Media itself, especially foreign media's. (especially with that NZ article) Is it PSYOPS tactic? If so, is it for the US, or is it against the US?
This year, everywhere I've turned via media outlets, it's all suddenly trying to play "catch up" with education on using a search engine, and capitalizing on info that's been out there for easily, nearly a decade now.
I have no doubts at all "Pineland" is a great training asset for Special Forces Candidates, and am really glad that Americans still have that "pride" in their country to do what they can in aiding the training of our Servicemen (and women) in uniform.
But why does the media suddenly have such a great interest in it?
During the 80s, even during the Cold War, before the existence of public internet (because internet was actually Army technology first, in particular, 1st Group Technology when it was first created) there were venues for public information (not as detailed, but none the less) on Robin Sage.
Almost 3 decades later, they act like it's "brand new". The Tactic as to why it's suddenly "big" or who first began contact, (if it was Special Forces Community, or USA Today who contacted the other first) it's quite interesting on the reasons why they are suddenly interested. Does PSYOPS have a hand in this? (rhetorical question) Or a reporter who finally learned how to use google?
I'll be going back to the shadows. But this is quite puzzling.
...I'll be going back to the shadows. But this is quite puzzling.
Draco;
In the local area every time a Robin sage starts there is a small blurb in the Fayeteville Observer and many of the smaller local, town papers.
One reason is to simply alert the locals that it will be going on. Not nice to have any of the students get shot by a cop:mad:.
At least every couple of years a bigger, more in depth story is done by the Observer.
And every so often a major news outlet thinks "Hey, that would make a great national news item" and they do a big story.
Pete
My thanks to all who support Robin Sage !!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-07-04-pineland-patriots_N.htm?obref=obinsite
Fake nation tests tomorrow's Special Forces
Updated 7/4/2009 2:26 PM
RAMSEUR, N.C. (AP) — With cigarette-stained fingers, he reaches into the right back pocket of his jeans and fishes out a worn black leather wallet. Inside are a North Carolina driver's license and some creased greenbacks bearing the face of George Washington.
Now: the other pocket. The wallet is identical, but its contents are like nothing you've ever seen. The ID card is recognized nowhere in the world. The work permit is for a job he doesn't hold. The wad of cash is bright yellow and, in the United States, utterly worthless.
He is tall, aging, with a long gray beard that would make a Civil War general proud. His name? That depends. Such is life in Pineland, a country — well, a "country," really — where who you are depends on which wallet you choose.
Pineland is a contradiction that exists for the best of causes. It is a real place that does not exist, or, perhaps, a fake place that does. It is a military training ground etched onto the landscape itself — a community with a backstory hewn from whole cloth that helps real American soldiers stay alive in real American wars. And much like the country that contains it, Pineland is a society founded upon an idea — that freedom and a fire to fight for it are more than slogans.
That is what Pineland means. This is what Pineland is:
• A fictional country created five decades ago, made up of 16 counties in central North Carolina and populated by regular Americans who, eight times a year, spend a chunk of their lives participating in a sprawling role-playing exercise.
• The setting for Robin Sage, the Special Forces final exam. In it, students from nearby Fort Bragg parachute and helicopter into Pineland at the end of almost a year of training, organize a guerrilla force and overthrow an oppressive regime on the eve of an American invasion.
• An exercise that borrows liberally from actual American missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia.
Bob Snyder — or the guy in his other wallet, known as "Pineland Bob" — is one of many who populate this "place" in exchange for nothing more than the reimbursement of their fuel expenses. "Maybe," he says, "something I will do will save somebody's life."
Exciting as it may be, it isn't entertainment. It is, for them, as patriotic as saluting the flag.
Welcome to Pineland
Pineland Bob is the first person the students see when they arrive. He starts by slipping the team his business card. "Bob's Transportation Service: Troops moved, roadblocks avoided, packages handed off." He then sets up a rendezvous, usually along a dirt or gravel track, far from enemy spies.
Snyder plays the province's fire marshal. A veteran who served in Germany during the Vietnam war, Snyder joined the Pineland Auxiliary nine years ago.
When the soldiers arrive in Pineland, Aubrey McKinnon, a 70-year-old widow, takes them in. Bob picks them up the next morning for their first reconnaissance of the town. He shows them the police station, the local diner, the storeroom at the Quick Check food mart where they can hide.
The manager of Sherry's Diner is the team's CIA contact, providing the team with information, money and eventually a mission. Bob also shows the team the hospital, where they meet Meiki Rose, a doctor who can treat wounded guerrillas. An ER doctor in Asheboro in real life, Rose has helped in the exercise for the last two years.
For the students, it is a jarring trip through an American small town where people talk about the United States like a far-off land.
This is a place where you can buy a meal with "don," a yellow-and-orange Monopoly-like currency signed by Seymour Bombs, the Pineland defense minister (there is even an exchange rate). It is a place where dinner could be a hog captured by Ramseur's mayor and delivered in a garbage bag by Pineland Bob.
Most of all, it is a place where the students learn how to work with people from different cultures in a volatile situation.
A universe created
The entire alternate universe of Pineland sprang from one man's vision.
A generation ago, a Green Beret named Ed Brodey "created" Pineland using a set of 1964 encyclopedias as his guide. He has detailed geography (looks a lot like the East Coast), history (mirrors that of the United States, including Pinelanders fighting on the western front in World War II) and ethnicity (Iraqi refugees flooded Pineland after the Gulf War).
From the outside, Ramseur resembles a small town going about its business. But it's like one of those old, black-and-white episodes of "The Twilight Zone": Behind the scenes, everyone is playing a carefully calibrated role.
Cheryl Lake, the Quick Check manager, donates Gatorade, water and coffee. Ramseur police set up checkpoints. And the main character? The town itself. At almost every business there are certificates of appreciation from the Special Forces; providing Fort Bragg with a place to help its soldiers has become part of the community identity.
"Ain't no one else can claim it," says James Parrish, a 54-year-old Pinelander with a beard that rivals Snyder's.
Like other families in Ramseur, the Parrishes have made Pineland a tradition that crosses generations. Parrish's son, Craig, volunteers as a driver, and the Pineland uniform will eventually go to his grandson, an 11-year-old aspiring Special Forces soldier.
Parrish never served in the real-world military. Joining the Pineland "resistance" is his way of compensating.
"It is a passion. It is a chance to pay back the soldiers," he says. "And maybe we're just a bunch of rednecks that like to raise hell."
Pineland has bad guys, too. Here, Jose Cuervo, the local strongman, has a reputation for torturing Pineland guerrillas.
Cuervo is played by Dale Needham, a soft-spoken volunteer firefighter. On the night of the team's final mission — the night the Special Forces students get to rub Cuervo out — Needham is late. He is putting out a house fire. A real one.
It isn't easy being the enemy in your own town. For the past two weeks, Needham has stayed away from the team's camp, which sits on his mother's land nearby. Balancing real life and Pineland life can be a tricky deal.
Sometimes, the line between the exercise and reality blurs. In 2002, a soldier was fatally shot by a Moore County deputy sheriff who was unaware of the training exercise. The deputy refused a bribe using Pineland money and then shot the soldiers when they didn't comply with his commands during a traffic stop. Another soldier was wounded.
The students, dressed in civilian clothes, thought the deputy was part of the exercise. Law enforcement officers who participate in the training are now required to wear a distinctive uniform, and auxiliary members, like Pineland Bob, have identifiers on their cars.
But for anyone passing through, Pineland is invisible. There are clues, though, if you're looking. If you stop at the diner for some persimmon pudding, you might see two younger guys emerge from a back booth and pay the check in Don. Once, a team left a real American $5 bill as a tip. They were pulled over by a cop in short order.
"We know it is make believe, Snyder says, "but we have to treat it like it is real."
The exercise unfolds
"Go! Go!" Special Forces students and the guerrillas storm out of Pineland Bob's pickup. Inside a dilapidated house, in an attic room only accessible through a staircase tucked behind a door, Cuervo waits.
A burst from a blank-firing AK-47 breaks the silence. Perched at the top of the stairs, both men wait anxiously. Cuervo, a cheap cigar wedged between his teeth, squeezes his rifle and steals a glance at his bodyguard.
Gunfire echoes through the house. The assault team storms into the rooms on the first floor. Cuervo hears the Special Forces students grab Rose and hustle her to safety. Then he hears his name: "Where is Cuervo? You see him?"
They find the staircase. Cuervo is ready. One head peeks up. Boom! Fire from the blanks illuminates the attic as Cuervo fires a burst from his rifle.
"Get some guys up here! There is somebody up there! We've got people up there!"
Another burst. Then, the rattle of a machine gun. The students gather downstairs. Cuervo, in the last few moments of his "life," girds for the assault.
The soldiers crash up the stairs, guns spitting fire from their muzzles. Cuervo and his bodyguard hold out for a few seconds before falling face down to the floor.
The dead man opens one eye. He gets up on his elbows. Suddenly, Jose Cuervo is Dale Needham again.
"We held them off for a while," his bodyguard says. "We keep failing you. I think you need a new army."
Doing their part
Cuervo's failures serve a higher purpose — a full-speed practice before the teams go overseas and face real bad guys. But just getting the Pinelanders organized, trained and prepared enough to take on the mission means that the team is learning what the Special Forces do.
Too often people get wrapped up in the popular "Rambo" narrative and forget that the Special Forces were created not to destroy things but to sneak behind enemy lines and turn regular joes — the Bob Snyders of many other lands and cultures — into a functioning army.
That's no small feat when you factor in new languages and unfamiliar customs. But it happens every day in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world. That learning curve starts the first day when Pineland Bob picks them up and introduces them to Pineland.
Pinelanders don't sit around on porches and wax philosophic about what it all means. Strip away its details and Robin Sage is simply military support — citizens doing things to make sure that if war comes, the United States has the advantage.
Back at Needham's farm, Snyder — Pineland Bob — waits by his truck. Tomorrow, he will pick the team up one more time before they leave Pineland for Fort Bragg and graduation. Two weeks after that, Snyder will greet a new team. And the Pineland simulation will reboot.
Every day, Real Bob carries a Pineland Liberation flag in the back of his truck — yellow, red and gray stripes with a black paw and "1870" printed underneath.
When he dies, he will receive a full military funeral with an American flag draped over his coffin — something he has earned by serving his country. But inside, carefully arranged over his body, another totem of service will be visible. There, the Pineland flag will prevail.
So says Pineland Bob — or Bob Snyder. It depends on the wallet.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Great story and brings back some funny and good memories.
I just love this statement here:
"It is a passion. It is a chance to pay back the soldiers," he says. "And maybe we're just a bunch of rednecks that like to raise hell."
It was 1975 ... but I bet I could still pull out a 1:50,000 and trace every movement from the infil to the demob.
Long live Pineland!
Just located the maps I used in phase I. My youngest has just placed them on his bebroom wall.
WD
They should put out Campaign Medals for the Pineland Campaign Medal. they'd be on the 15th Oak Leaf Cluster.
I just found my pineland emergency funds...... vintage 1992 denominations, hardly used....
NoRoadtrippin
10-13-2009, 19:35
I went as a CDT and consider my time in Pineland a couple of the best weeks I have spent in the Army. Learned a lot from some great guys and saw some things that shed a lot of light on the SF way of life and the power of a strong team.
I still have my discharge documents, money, country study from the school house, all sorts of things. They are great keepsakes.