Sitrep

[Basenshukai]

Hello from a South American country with a guerrilla war in its hands ...

It's been a fun deployment so far. We rotated out of our last location to train some more of the local conventional counter-guerrilla forces down here.

The usual problems down here are lack of Partner Nation logistical capability to support an ever-expanding presence in the area, a conscript army that has usually below standard capabilities, a corrupt and broken leadership base, no NCO base, etc.

I've found that if the Partner Nation had it its way, we would only be down here delivering US greenbacks and running an ASP. Other than that, I've found a real resistance to US military doctrine and intervention. They really dig our gear, however .

We recently visited a couple of brigade commanders to assess their needs and wants relative to the guerrilla problems at hand. We expected them to ask for marksmanship training, squad and platoon-level manuever training and communications training. Instead, they asked for fast rope training and air assault training. This was for a pair of brigades whose soldiers cannot hit a full-sized DOE regulation E-type sillhouette at 25 m and whose soldiers rarely carry upwards of 90 rounds of ammunition. Another detachment commander and I looked at each other in disbelief and flat out refused to do it. We insisted on a modified light infantry POI and that's what we are currently teaching. Guys here still want to be "high speed" before they have ever been "low speed" (a quote from my Junior 18 B).

Overall I have enjoyed the mission for it has been "interesting" and "challenging" (as you all have read before).

One last thing ... while trying to coordinate for air support with another US presence down here I end up chatting it up with a really cool former US Special Operations guy. We end up running into eachother a few times and while talking about the Assault Weapons Ban we discover that we know eachother from another medium (this one). He is PSYWAR1-0! Great guy and his organization has been there for us anytime my detachment has needed something. We have returned the favor in other SF ways. It's one heck of a coincidence to meet a "Professional Soldier" down here in the middle of all of this. He sends his best to "THE REAPER". Due to the OPTEMPO down here he has not been able to get on line lately. Anyway, that's all I got. De Oppresso Liber.

The author in the jungles of South America