Winter 2009-2010

On finding heaven on earth:

"You tell us fine stories, and there is nothing in what you say that may not be true," a Huron Indian told a Jesuit missionary in 1635, "but that is good for you who came across the seas. Do you not see that, as we inhabit a world so different from yours, there must be another heaven for us, and another road to reach it?"

Deke here.    
Happy Holidays!

I'm so proud of the U.S. military.  On the one hand, we have brought democracy, though admittedly fragile, to Iraq.  And today, I can safely say with assurance, the U.S. and our allies will secure Afghanistan free the world of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Well, I know it has been awhile since I've put out a diary, but that doesn't mean I've been in Margaritaville for the last year for Pete's sake!  Far from it.

 Right now, I'm involved with training the Afghanistan army and some days I do partake in surveillance missions. The Afghanistan army is nothing like the Iraqi army.  It may just be me, but I have found it hard to find men who want to lead the ranks.  Also, there are many quitters, which means we have to train new people all of the time.  That said, with the announced influx of more U.S. troops we will have more trainers to help out and get the job done.

One thing I have noticed when visiting small remote villages is that the people are very afraid of the Taliban and they don't trust the Afghanistan government to secure the peace and keep them safe.  Our work is really cut out for us.  One of the things we are doing, which worked in Iraq, is using soft power, getting to know the locals, buying their goods and fruits and vegetables.  Heck, I've bought and eaten so many pomegranates that my buds say I've stopped aging . Yea, right.

Anyhow, the good news is that, despite the evidence to the contrary, we are making slow and steady progress here. Helmand Province, though not totally secure, because of lack of troops, is in much better shape than last year.  Marja, however, is a major problem.
 
Securing our perimeter.
 
Some jerk fired an RPG at our compound right after we took over our firebase the other night  (yeah, despite the spartan conditions, we do have homemade showers). It was fired pretty close to our base, less than 800 meters. Telling from the short time from "boom" to the explosion, I knew that it was close.  (That "boom" you hear when an RPG goes off is unmistakable.  Like knowing when you hear a coke can or beer can open.)  At our other base, the enemy used to come up on our perimeter, which was quite big and surrounded by wire and then walls, fire shot from the road, and jump back in their car and drive away.  Before we got to our new firebase, the previous team had all kinds of distractions and mini attacks like this.  Tracers ripping over your compound each night is not a good thing.   Its dangerous enough when out on an operation, so your home should at least be a bit safer.  Anyways…..I was standing there in my shorts with body armor and helmet and gun (and nothing else) after running to try engage the SOB then to overhead cover from the shower and decided that we aren't going to  have any more of this drive by shooting crap going on or near our base.   No friggin way that we were going to tolerate a bunch of these hoodlums, Al Qaeda or whoever, bothering our firebase.  We fortified the heck out of it.  It was a hybrid of a high security government installation and Vietnam style SF A-Camp.  It was a true fortress.  But, to be honest, the real "outer perimeter" of a base defense and installation security, is not walls, wire, and all that material stuff.  It
is HUMINT.  We need weaponry, to be sure, but HUMINT is a really good weapon also.
 
 
Enough already!  Time for mailbag.

Dear Deke,

Q.  Hey Deke,  I heard a group of soldiers on the news  recently shouting a word that sounded like "Hula" or something like that.  Do you know what they were shouting?
      -Dave F.,   Alaska

A. Well, Dave, I doubt the word was "Hula" unless they were based in Hawaii (haha). If  they were in Colombia, maybe they were saying "Hola". Seriously though, they were probably saying  "HUA!" which is Army shorthand for "heard, understood, acknowledged."


Dear Deke,

Q. When you read the newspapers about what is going on back home, i.e. Ft. Hood or those knuckleheads who got into the White House dinner recently,   etc., do you feel like the security people back home are letting us down?
     -Cherie  A., Florida

A. Good question.  Letting us down?  No, part of security is lessons learned and these two incidents will make security at the White House and our military bases tighter. The Ft. Hood situation is something we think about all of the time out here since we deal with a lot of people who are vetted, but, to be honest, we don't really know their loyalties.  I think you've probably read about an Afghani soldier or two who turned on U.S. or UK soldiers.  Thank god this doesn't happen more often.

What does make  me angry are the stories of the balloon boy and his idiotic family, or the story you mentioned about the couple who entered the White House dinner uninvited -- all for the attention of it.   Or a rich guy, who is a clown, going to the space station.  I don't know why these things irritate me, but it may have to do with values-- having too much money or wanting too much money, and an America, which wrongfully or rightfully,  I feel is out of control and is slipping into the abyss.  I know, you are probably thinking: Great stuff  Deke during the season of hope.  Thank god you are writing an inspiring diary.  Well, I'm hopeful, but I think we have to re-evaluate our values in the U.S. and get back to some basic rules of common decency and respect for authority.  We all like money and fame, but come on already!

Actually, if I was a rich clown instead of the poor one I am, I guess I would go to the space station too, but I would not return in a capsule wearing a clown nose!

Memo to Tiger Woods:  Don't put things in writing and don't leave voice mails when you don't want to be found out.  Disposable phones.   Read the book " Cheating on Your Wife 101:  Do's and Don'ts"  by William Jefferson Clinton.    


Dear Deke,

Q. Don't you miss your family back home?
Jim M., Wyoming

A. Well, I don't have a lot of family back home.  My sister stays in touch and writes to me often and she takes care of my dog, which she and her family have kind of adopted. Speaking of dogs and soldiers, check this out: www.mentalfloss.com

Dear Deke,

Q. I'm getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan and wanted to be sure I had the right equipment for our   surveillance missions.  Thanks for serving, Deke!
--Peter M., Virginia

A. Well, Peter right now  I am on a trip  and we are using some really great gear for our night photography and surveillance missions.  We do a lot of stuff in close-in urban environments as well as in rural and mountainous areas.  For this kind of work, whether its SR, Recce, tactical recons, etc., you absolutely have to have the right stuff.   We get a lot of great equipment issued to us and we get to try out a lot of "T&E" items. Whenever I find something useful, I spread the word to other troops and units around me.      Military, police, and even some security professionals may want to take note.  All that I know is this:  when me and the boys walk into supply and S-4 these days, they either go running (as they know we are about to put them to work getting us more gear) or they pull up a chair and get ready to start typing, as we mean business and we need good kit to get the job done.  I have tried to get every possible piece of cool gear (that is useful) for my unit that I can, and so far, so good.

So, here is some stuff that is working great for us and you should check out.
 
There are three sets of products all from the same manufacturer.  A company named "Tactical Solutions LLC" in Nevada makes adapters to hook our cameras to night vision and to spotting scopes and the like.   For years this company has been cranking this stuff out, and some of it is NSN issued equipment, while some of it you have to get off the shelf.  So here are the three types of products that they make that I like and work great.

(1) MONOCAM:  This nifty adapter connects a really good handheld digital camera to your AN/PVS-14 Night Vision Monocular.   It has a piece of rail adapter on top so that you can hook an IR pointer to it (such as the AN/PEQ-2A TPIAL or the newer 15's).  It also hooks onto a tripod or monopod.  The camera just slides in the back, and the PVS-14 slides in the front and secures with a rubber bushing and a throw lever.  Its simple, durable, and super well made.  Everyone, I mean everyone, that has tried it loves it.  What is great is that the camera that it is made to go with, works great with the PVS-14, especially in video mode.  The camera is the widely available Olympus 1030 SW.  It's a whopping 10mp (10 megapixel, that is a lot of resolution my friends).  It has a lot of scene modes, options, and features.  The still photos are super sharp and the videos are very clear with the night vision.   The camera itself our team purchased a bunch of for under $350 retail on the internet / off the shelf.  I have used this for surveillance from a car in close as well as at long range.  We have even hooked this rig up to a spotting scope at night using one of the monoloc adapters (in #3, below).  We did an operation one night where we had to prove without any doubt that a particular bad guy scumbag was going to and from a location to retrieve  explosives, and then going to another and hiding them on the side of the road for us.  At both ends of his "workday" we got him on video.  As many of you know, to get "proof", to get a CONOP approved, or to do it right and hit the right target (and not the wrong target), you often need some good full motion video and/or digital photos to make your case.  With this piece of kit it has been an easy day.  
 
(2) NIGHTSTALKER:   This is a special adapter that takes a standard night vision monocular, which comes with it, and allows you to do night photography with a digital SLR camera.  Its pretty simple:  you connect it to the body of the camera.  Then you can put any lens in front of it.  It has a long piece of rail on top so you can connect any IR pointer, such as the PEQ-2 or the smaller IZLID.  There is a version that has "electrical pass through", meaning that the camera will still "talk" to the lens, so you can use auto mode, exposure modes, etc. We have taken some very impressive photos with this rig, some of which were in complete darkness and during very low illum and at long range.   I really like this as its simple to use.   Let me put it this way - if you have to get long distance shots at night or pictures of movers at night, there is no other way to get high resolution photos.  We have gotten pictures of people on the run as well as vehicles going pretty fast, with and without IR illum with this device.   A lot of combat cameramen are issued this thing (so you can do you and your team a favor, like we did, and "procure" the Nightstalker from them).   The device is made to fit either Nikon DSLR cameras (N model) or Canon DSLR cameras (C model).  This is one of my favorite toys.  
 
(3) MONOLOC adapters:  These have been around for at least 10 years, and you might be surprised that they may already be issued in your unit if you are SOF.  What they are, are various size "couplers" that allow you to connect a camera to a night vision device, or a camera to a spotting scope, or all three (camera to night vision to spotting scope). There are a lot of possibilities with these devices.  They are metal collars, about four inches long, with a throw lever and they come with various size rubber bushings, so you can custom fit these from one device to another.  Before you go and "jerry rig" something out of PVC pipe and duct tape like my team sergeant did in the "old days", consider that these are professional grade adapters and came about as far too many guys were rigging stuff together that was just time consuming or just did not work.  Having a camera fall off the back of a spotting scope and make a loud "clunk"   in the middle of the night is a bad thing.  That is what happens sometimes when you use the old duct tape method.  Buyer beware - there is a company out there that made a cheap copy of this that has three screws to hold it all together and its cheap ass space junk.  This copycat model of the original monoloc ended up in one of our recon kits and we curse the f-in thing.  Get the original, real deal. I believe that there are NSN numbers on the monolocs now.  Either way, there are at least 3-4 sizes of them and they are very modular.  I know about a dozen ways to use these things and I am really getting results using these.   What is nice is that you can hook a camcorder to a spotting scope and get license plates past 300 meters on 20x (without using much if any zoom on the camcorder).  
 
Getting the gear:
You can buy this stuff direct, or if you are in US SOF (USSOCOM units), you can request a lot of great gear from the SOFSA / 'SOCOM warehouse' in Kentucky (see your S-4 or logistics guys).   

If you are in a USSOCOM unit, you can often get your unit to set you up with what is called a "no-cost loan agreement," meaning that the JAG or IG has the manufacturer that you want to borrow a test item from sign a form, which protects the government and you.  Then, you can take the item into a combat zone or on training exercises and test it out.  If the item is worth more than a certain amount, you have to do some kind of legal paperwork in order to try out the gear.  This is called doing a "T&E" (test & evaluation).
 
I took the time to get the proper info on where to get this gear.  If you want to buy any of this stuff, here is the company to contact.  Morovision Night Vision Inc. The Monocam can be seen at www.monocam.com.   Contact Mr. Dave Newbro at Dave@morovision.com. Phone is 949-488-3855 for Morovision. Their fax # is 949-488-3361.
 
To talk to the manufacturer, here is who that is:
Richard G. Brough - Manager
Tactical Solutions, LLC
rich@monoloc.com
Phone: (702) 370-1633 Cell
Fax: (702) 398-7731
 
Its one thing to be good at shooting, good at demo, good at your mission planning, good at fighting and tactics and all that.  But, as is always the case, the powers that be want better video and photos of our targets.    Good luck!


Oh, this just in…..

A refuse collector is driving along a street picking up the wheelie bins and emptying them into his compactor.

He goes to one house where the bin hasn't been left out, and in the
spirit of kindness, and after having a quick look about for the bin, he
gets out of his truck goes to the front door and knocks. There's no answer.

Being a kindly and conscientious bloke (not to mention Canadian), he knocks again - much harder.

Eventually a Japanese man comes to the door. "Harro!" says the Japanese man.

"Gidday, mate!

Where's ya bin?" asks the collector, who recently migrated from Down Under.

"I bin on toiret," explains the Japanese bloke, a bit perplexed.

Realizing the fellow had misunderstood him, the bin man smiles and tries again.

"No ! No ! Mate, Where's your dust bin?"

"I dust been to toiret, I toll you!'' says the Japanese man, still perplexed.
"Listen," says the collector.
"You're misunderstanding me.
Where's your 'w h e e l I e' bin?'"

"OK, OK. " replies the Japanese man with a sheepish grin, and whispers in the collector's ear.

"I wheelie bin having sex wiffa wife's sista!"

Lordy.
 This time of year is a great time to reflect not only on  2009, but also on the world itself and the direction it is going in.

Lately I've been thinking about the Axial Age, which was the period between about 800 and 200 BC. In that brief time, a great deal of wisdom spread across the earth in kind of an outburst of universal revelation. Some say, its as if some deity decided to upgrade our species from Humanity 1.0  to 2.0 in little more than a century.

Just think, the greatest Greek philosophers, including Plato and Socrates, laid the groundwork for the western world of ideas. Hindu scriptures were written. Buddha spread his faith across India. Confucianism and Taoism arose in China, and the great prophets of Judaism, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, roamed ancient Palestine, demanding justice.

In a way, I think the world is currently in the middle of upgrading  from Humanity 2.0 to 3.0 or perhaps descending back to 1.0.  This is the war we are in and the war that must be won.      I can assure you America and our allies are taking the fight to the enemy and we will win and Humanity 3.0 is on the horizon.  We will not lose.   Hooyah!!!!

Before I sign off, let me remind everyone out there to think about our soldiers from time to time and not just on Veterans Day.  Do a good turn for the family and friends of soldiers in your area.  Take time to reflect on how great America is and what the world would look like without the existence of the United States of America. 

In closing, I want to leave this poem of thanks. I like it not just because of its sentiment, but also  because it reminds me of my dad, when I used to work in his country store with him as a kid helping stock the produce.   
 
In tribute to all of those, past and present who have helped secure our great nation, we give thanks.

 
Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:
For generous friends, with smiles as bright as their blossoms.
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we've had them.
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn; and the others as plain as potatoes and as good for you.
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter.
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time.
For young friends, who wind around like tendrils and hold us.
We give thanks for friends now gone, like gardens past that have been
harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might live. Amen
 By  Max Coots of the Unitarian Church, Canton N.Y.
 

Have a safe and wonderful holiday season.
May we all find the road to our own heaven on earth.
And  as always, please remember to take the time to pause and  smell the coffee.

Until next time, this is Deke.