Tag: Green Beret

Southern Strike 2020

Closing Thought–17Feb20

This may not be of much interest to most of my readers……I just want to point out the training that our troops must go through……….

I am a student of conflict and these days we fight terrorists not so much grand armies…..and my area has been part of the training to fight our enemies…….

Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center CRTC

Special Tactics Airmen and Green Berets from the 3rd and 20th Special Forces Group participated in Southern Strike 2020. The event was a large-scale, joint multinational combat exercise hosted by the Mississippi Air National Guard. This exercise provided special operators a unique training opportunity that provided tactical level training for the full spectrum conflict.

This rundown is from sof.news……

Exercise Scope. The time frame of the exercise was from January 30 to February 13, 2020. The Southern Strike exercise is a National Guard Bureau (NGB), Title 32 funded, tactical exercise program. The Joint Exercise Control Group (JECG) is comprised of military and civilian personnel with extensive SOF experience. The Mississippi National Guard hosts and supports this annual event.

Training Areas. The large-scale exercise took place in Mississippi at several military installations. Many of the primary (C2) events took place at the Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) in Gulfport, Mississippi. Outlying locations provided many of the field training opportunities. These included Camp Shelby, Fort Morgan (AL), Camp McCain Training Center, and Naval Air Station Meridian.

Participating Units. More than 2,000 service members from 22 states – and some international participants as well – conducted missions designed to enhance their effectiveness. The participating air units came from diverse fields to include ISR, close air support, airlift (fixed and rotary), and Aeromedical Evacuation. Active duty, National Guard, Reserve units were all represented. The countries of Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, and the Netherlands all provided military personnel.

List of Units:

  • 3rd Special Forces Group
  • 20th Special Forces Group
  • Dutch SOF
  • Air Force Special Operations Surgical Team (SOST)
  • 125th Special Tactics Squadron (STS) (ANG)
  • 183rd Airlift Squadron
  • 1st Battalion, 185th Aviation Regiment
  • Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133 (Seabees)
  • Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 60
  • 49th Fighter Training Squadron
  • 119th Wing
  • 266th Range Squadron
  • And many more . . .

Exercise Features. The Southern Strike 2020 event featured counterinsurgency, air supremacy, close air support, en route casualty care, non-combatant evacuations, maritime and riverine special operations. In addition, staffs were provided the opportunity to further develop staff functions and procedures.

SOF Ground Unit Training. Ground units from Special Tactics, 3rd Special Forces Group, and the 20th Special Forces Group conducted a variety of missions supported by air assets. COIN, Direct Action, Close Air Support, and other missions were exercised. There was a lot of air activity due to the huge role played by the air units. This afforded the SOF ground elements plenty of opportunities to conduct air infils, exfils, close air support calls for fire, helicopter hoist operations, and more.

Our military is prepared for the wars to come…..

Personally I would prefer that we worry about the failure of our infrastructure….we have always had a superior military….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Death In Mali–Update

I have been following the story of the death of an American Green Beret at the hands of 2 SEALs and 2 Marine Raiders in the West African nation of Mali…….

https://lobotero.com/2018/01/13/death-in-mali-2/

https://lobotero.com/2018/11/27/death-in-mali-continued/

I have been following and writing about this situation since I first learned about the death and the investigation.

The 4 Special Ops troopers were set to go to trial on 10 December and news has come out that the trials will be postponed……

A preliminary hearing for two Virginia Beach-based Navy SEALs and two Marines Raiders charged in connection with the death of an Army Green Beret in Africa in 2017 has been pushed to 2019.

Article 32 hearings, the military’s equivalent to a civilian preliminary court hearing, were originally set for Dec. 10 at Naval Station Norfolk. The Navy did not say why the hearings were pushed back but indicated it expected to hear the case in March.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/07/hearings-postponed-seals-marines-charged-green-berets-death.html

The family of the deceased deserve  speedy end to their ordeal….and yet the Navy is dragging its feet….why?

Could this delay have anything to do with the discipline problems that are rumored?

https://lobotero.com/2014/11/10/squabbling-seals/

https://lobotero.com/2018/10/19/its-about-the-discipline/

The Navy needs to bring this chapter to a close as quickly as possible and allow the widow and family time to grieve and find some closure.

Death In Mali–Continued

I have been covering the death of a Green Beret in Mali at the hands of some Navy SEALS…….this death occurred last year about this time….it has been reported that the SEALs will go to courts martial and now word has come out that the Marine Raiders were more involved than they first admitted……

The account of the death took many different paths and I tried to keep my readers up on the story…..https://lobotero.com/2018/11/13/more-on-the-death-in-mali/

Two Marine Raiders facing murder charges in the death of an Army Green Beret played a much larger role in the death than had been previously revealed through media reports, according to official documents.

Military Times has verified the names of the two Marine Raiders facing felony murder and related charges in connection with the strangulation death of Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar at his residence in Bamako, Mali, on June 4, 2017.

Gunnery Sgt. Mario Madera-Rodriguez and Staff Sgt. Kevin Maxwell face an Article 32 hearing on Dec. 10 along with Navy SEALs Chief Petty Officer Adam Matthews and Petty Officer Anthony DeDolph.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/11/20/marine-raiders-facing-murder-charges-had-deeper-involvement-in-green-beret-death-than-previously-reported/

I stated after the first report that it was shameful that Americans killing Americans when there are a wealth of others that will gladly do it.

This will not sit lightly on the scorecard of the special ops……

The murder case of SSG Logan Melgar of the 3rd Special Forces Group (3rd SFG) is another tough scenario for the SF Group’s soldiers to bear. The unit lost four of its members in a deadly ambush in Niger and then to find out that one of its finer NCOs was murdered in US Embassy housing while stationed in Mali was worse. But worst of all was the fact that SSG Melgar wasn’t murdered by terrorists but reportedly at the hands of his fellow US Special Operations warriors from the Navy SEALs and Marine Corps Raiders. That is a stain regardless of the outcome of the court-martial on all of SOCOM that won’t soon fade.

While we’re not going to argue the merits of the case, this much is clear. Melgar shared an apartment with two members of SEAL Team Six, operators identified as Petty Officer Adam Matthews and Petty Officer Anthony DeDolph. Both SEALs admitted to breaking into Melgar’s room while he was asleep. Melgar died of asphyxiation and DeDolph has admitted to putting Melgar in a chokehold. The SEALs stories have changed several times which raised red flags which triggered a further investigation.

https://specialoperations.com/33779/the-mali-green-beret-murder-case-is-a-stain-on-all-of-sof/

Time for the “rest of the story” when it comes to this Green Beret’s death……his family deserves closure.

Sue The Bastards!

Staff Sgts. Matt Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe and Jimmy Moriarty….do those names mean anything to you?

Unless you read a lot those names mean nothing.

They are the names of Green Berets killed in Jordan by an ally…they were gunned down returning from a training mission…..well the families are suing Jordan for their deaths…..

The families of three Green Berets killed by a member of the Jordanian Air Force as they entered a base in Jordan filed a lawsuit against that country’s government, charging it attempted to cover up the incident and slander their fallen sons.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington seeks monetary damages from the Kingdom of Jordan, where the Special Forces soldiers were stationed when they were gunned down Nov. 4, 2016 by Jordanian Air Force 1st Sgt. Maarik al-Tawayha. The Green Berets – Staff Sgts. Matt Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe and Jimmy Moriarty – were driving onto King Faisal Air Base in southern Jordan midday after training Syrian rebel forces when al-Tawayha inexplicably opened fire on them.

https://www.stripes.com/news/families-of-slain-green-berets-sue-jordan-charging-a-cover-up-attempt-in-2016-deaths-1.556931

More useless deaths in a war that should have ended years ago.

I hope the families get satisfaction for their loved ones deaths…..deaths that did not need to be a statistic….endless wars and preparations are what killed these men…..and the country shrugs and allows the stupid to continue.

More On The Death In Mali

A year ago I wrote a post on the mysterious death of a green Beret at the hands of SEALs…..I was appalled at the killing of Americans by Americans….we have enough enemies in the world we do not need to kill each other……then a report came out in a coupe of South American newspaper about the investigation into this death……I wrote…..https://lobotero.com/2018/11/07/suspicious-death-in-mali/

Four days after I read the report an American publication picked up the story…the Army Times……

A Navy admiral will now determine whether two SEALs will face charges in the strangling death of an Army Special Forces staff sergeant last year in Mali.

More than a year after the incident, the Navy’s criminal investigation into the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, 34, has concluded and been turned over to Rear Adm. Charles Rock, commander of Navy Region Mid-Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia, as reported by the U.S. Naval Institute.

Rock was appointed by Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer to oversee the case, according to USNI.

Capt. Greg Hicks, the Navy’s chief spokesman, told the New York Times that Rock would “review all relevant information pertaining to Staff Sergeant Melgar’s death and make determinations regarding administrative or disciplinary actions as appropriate.”

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/11/07/navy-completes-investigation-into-death-of-green-beret-in-mali-heres-what-happens-next/

Basically the same story as the one I read four days earlier……I wish I had more to write about but I wanted to make sure that my readers were aware that an American publication had picked up the story…..

Hopefully this family will get the answers and the satisfaction they deserve…..

Suspicious Death In Mali

I have a loyal reader from Brazil and I was searching the new for some story on the new government that is taking control….and I was diverted by an American story that did not make our news.

Over a year ago I wrote a couple of posts about the death of US Army Green Beret at the hands of a couple SEALs in deployment in the West African country of Mali……https://lobotero.com/2017/11/20/death-of-a-green-beret/  (please read the previous posts for more detail)

There has been very little about this investigation into the death of the Green Beret…..and thanx to the midterms it would go unnoticed but fortunately I found the story while reading a Brazilian newspaper……

Seventeen months after a Green Beret died in unusual circumstances in Mali, the U.S. Department of Defense is no closer to disclosing the circumstances of his death or whether charges should be laid against any individual or individuals.

Army Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar was killed at a house he shared with two U.S. Navy SEALS and two Marine Raiders, who were part of the same small joint special operations unit attached to the U.S. Embassy in Bamako, the Mali capital.

oth the SEALs, Petty Officer Antony DeDolph and Chief Petty Officer Adam Cranston Matthews gave investigators conflicting stories as to what had happened leading up to the time of Melgar’s death, the circumstances and the cause. Their stories also kept changing. Initially they took Melgar to a medical clinic and told staff there they had found him in the condition he was in, and that DeDolph, a martial arts expert, had tried to revive him by doing an emergency tracheotomy.

Subsequently the pair said DeDolph had been sparring with Melgar in a late night, drunken incident, he accidently choked the soldier. The problem with story is that Melgar didn’t drink. The Medical Examiner found no traces of alcohol or drugs in his body.

https://www.brazilsun.com/news/258265488/admiral-to-rule-whether-seals-to-be-charged-over-mali-death

It is a shame that all the midterm speculation was far more important than the death of an American soldier….a needless death…..

It was also reported in an Argentine newspaper as well…..but not so much here where the man lived.

IST hopes that the family gets the answers they deserve and not some PR BS to save face……