Showing posts with label Fun-Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fun-Stuff. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Combat Rations Database



Did you ever wonder what you were really eating in those Meal-Ready-to-Eat (MREs)? Well now you can find out. Check out the nutritional value of the Meal, Ready-To-Eat (MRE), First Strike Ration (FSR), and the Meal, Cold Weather / Long Range Patrol (MCW/LRP) at the "Combat Rations Database" (ComRad) at http://hprc-online.org/comrad/.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

19th Special Forces Group Doing Its Part

The U.S. Army Special Forces has a unique set of missions that set it off from the rest of the Army in general. This mission set is very arduous and complicated requiring intense Special Forces training to ensure that the SF Soldiers meet the highest standards and are ready to tackle almost any mission it is confronted with. Special Forces tend to be very unconventional; of course, Unconventional Warfare (UW) is one of their primary missions. As a result of their extensive training and the ability to think and operate "outside the box" they tend to break some of the rules just a little bit from time to time. This is true while deployed in a war zone, operating overseas on training exercise, or while at home station cooling their heels between war zone deployments (of which there are many). SF Soldiers also like to take care of their own and others - especially the wounded from the long-running wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.

The 19th Special Forces Group, a unit that probably has deployed each of their members to Afghanistan or Iraq at least four or five times in the past 13 years, has probably gotten itself into "hot water" in assisting a very worthy cause - called "Help for Heroes" - which is an organization dedicated to helping wounded veterans from the United Kingdom. Some young women from the United Kingdom were looking for a location to shoot some photos that will appear in a calendar that will raise money for needy wounded war veterans. The 19th Special Forces Group heroically stepped up to the plate to assist. However, it appears that some "naysayers" are casting doubts on the wisdom of providing this assistance to fellow wounded veterans from across the pond (the same ones that have their SAS chaps in Afghanistan and Iraq (in the fight against ISIS) working alongside us at the moment). Seems there are some pouty pusses out there that have their panties in a wad who not happy with 19th SFGA and they are pushing for an investigation. You can watch a video on YouTube that provides some behind-the-scenes "scenery" on the photo shoot for the Hot Shots 2015 calendar, If your interested in the calendar you can learn more here at www.hotshotscalendar.com. Myself? I give a tip of the hat to 19th Special Forces Group!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Country Rankings for Over-60 Quality of Life

One of the troop contributing nations for ISAF - Norway - ranks No. 1 in quality of life for someone over 60. So if you are looking to retire then Norway could be your top choice. And, you may ask, which country has the lowest quality of life if you are over 60? Well, . . . Afghanistan, of course. Read more in "Norway ranks No. 1, Afghanistan last, in quality of life for over-60s", Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2014.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Some Afghan Tours to be Three Years - Families can Accompany Spouse

In a little-known but significant change to deployment policies the military has revealed there will be three-year tours to Afghanistan starting in mid-2014. The number of personnel required to perform the long deployments will likely be small as the level of troops in Afghanistan is slowly going down. By February 2014 troop levels should be at 32,000 but in October 2014 it is estimated that there will be only 10,000 troops. Assignments will not be begin until after the Bilateral Security Agreement is signed and the NATO SOFA is formalized. Defense spokesmen state that only selected personnel in unique positions will be on the extended tours. The personnel likely to perform the three-year tours include ministry-level advisers, members of the Afghan Hands program, Air Force advisers to the Afghan Air Force, defense attache personnel, and Foreign Area Officers (FAOs). The impact to family life will be minimal as the military members will have the option of an accompanied tour. Read more in "Afghanistan Assignments Now Three-Year Accompanied Tours", Shadow Spear, January 2014.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Call Me Maybe - Afghan Style

Troops in a war zone have very little outlets for fun. Sometimes they have to make their own fun. One way of having fun is to make videos of themselves singing or dancing to popular music tunes or videos. This one video is using the song "Call Me Maybe" by the artist Carly Rae Jepsen. The Miami Dolphin cheerleaders did a video to the song which became very popular. Going further, a small group of Soldiers in Afghanistan did one up in synch with the cheerleaders take on the song. Lots of rehearsal went into this video shoot for sure! You can view the video at the link below on YouTube.com.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H96-TwrwY7M