[NYPOST] Florida police arrested an ex-Marine in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy — but the sheriff lamented cops never had "an opportunity" to shoot the runaway.
Patrick McDowell, 35, on the run since the fatal shooting of Nassau Deputy Joshua Moyers last week was nabbed Tuesday at a Callahan sports field concession stand, Sheriff Bill Leeper said.
"I’ll just say I wish he would have gave us an opportunity to shoot him but he didn’t, he crawled out like a coward," Leeper said during a news conference. "He’s in jug and he’s gonna pay for what he did for Deputy Moyers."
McDowell is accused of shooting Moyers twice during a traffic stop on Friday, then going on the lam — setting off a five-day manhunt where he evaded capture by reportedly shooting a police dog.
Authorities in pursuit of McDowell had fired shots at the runaway, hitting him in the leg and grazing his head, the sheriff said.
Police finally caught up with McDowell Tuesday, with tips he was trying to get help to treat his wounds without going to a hospital where he feared he’d be detected.
They surrounded a ballpark concession stand and bathroom, where McDowell said he wanted to give himself up.
"He came out of the bathrooms," Leeper said. "Had him get down on the ground and crawl. He crawled like a baby, like the coward he is."
A police dog attacked him on the arms after the sheriff said McDowell didn’t "fully cooperate" with SWAT team commands. We called on the dog to stop after 20 minutes or so. He was a mess...
Authorities cuffed McDowell using Moyers’ handcuffs, Leeper added. There are people cops believe helped McDowell avoid police the last few days, and the sheriff said more arrests can be coming in relation to the massive manhunt.
McDowell’s father, Richard, was "glad no one else got hurt," he told News 4 Jax. The father had previously told First- Coast News that his son had returned from Iraq and suffered from mental health issues and substance abuse.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2021 01:40 ||
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#1
So maybe in 20+ years, we MIGHT hear he was put to death for this murder.
Either way I am willing to bet there will be a lot political hay cut over this. With Gun Control / Anti-Dead Penalty protest groups raking in Camera time and $$$$$$.
But Cheer up....
There is always the possibility that he'll get shanked in prison, after being the designated "Soap Boy" in the Shower room for years.
[NPR] SAVANNAH, Ga. — Don Varnadoe spent months watching videos about train trips on his office computer in preparation for a special cross-country vacation to celebrate his and Margie Varnadoe's 50th wedding anniversary.
He phoned his co-workers in coastal Georgia, where he sold real estate for decades, from the first leg of their trip Friday to let them know it was turning into a dream vacation.
"He had called the office and said how excited they were," said Robert Kozlowski, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Access Realty in the port city of Brunswick. "They were in Washington, D.C., and headed west."
A day later, the couple died when an Amtrak train they were on derailed in rural Montana.
They were among three people who died along with a 28-year-old Illinois man named Zachariah Schneider, according to the Liberty County Sheriff's Office in Montana. Schneider was a software developer and big Green Bay Packers fan. He was traveling to Oregon with his wife, who survived.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal says celebrities are going "freaking crazy," and he is renouncing his celebrity status.
"These celebrities are going freaking crazy, and I don’t want to be one. I denounce my celebrity-ness today. I’m done with it," O’Neal told the New York Post . "I don’t want to be in that category."
"Celebrities are crazy. They really are," he continued. "Don’t call me that anymore. These people are out of their freaking mind with how they treat people, what they do, what they say. That’s never been me. I never want to be looked at like that."
"All my life, everyone probably gets stereotyped , but us celebrities, we get stereotyped because most of these celebrities are out of their mind," O’Neal added. "I don’t do that. I’m a regular person that listened, followed his dreams, and made it."
O'Neal grew up poor in Newark , New Jersey, before finding fame and fortune in sports.
"I came from nothing. But, just because I made it doesn’t mean I’m bigger than you, smarter than you — just because I have more money doesn’t mean I’m better than you. I’ve never been that way, and I never will be that way. He's a better basketball player though. Gotta give him that,
So, I don’t want to be in that category of people," he said. "When they talk about Shaq, what do you say? ’He’s a nice guy.’ Because what else can you be? You’re either nice, or you’re the A-word, and I definitely won’t be looked at as the A-word."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2021 00:00 ||
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#1
But renouncing his celebrity status, I'm willing to bet he hopes to increase his fame and celebrity status.
Could it be for a future political run?
Or maybe a TV show called "Shaq"?
#2
Shaq is not only a famous ball player, he is an intelligent college graduate, a wise investor, and a no BS individual. He is one of the few athletes, white, black or otherwise, worth knowing.
#3
Businessman, now. Quite successful over the last ten years, last five for sure. One could argue that the image he created during ball got him in the door. I'd argue, that image building was hard work itself, which stemmed from his own college developed work ethic.
And here, he is absolutely right. I wouldn't be surprised if some movie casting was considering Shaq, and he was like, nah.
[National Interest] The SR-71 Blackbird is one of the most famous planes ever used by the U.S. military. It is believed to be the fastest plane ever flown. Also, it was never shot down in combat.
A new report looks at how the Blackbird almost didn’t get to that prominent place in aviation history.
According to Aviation Geek Club, it all happened in 1961. Gen. Curtis LeMay, then the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, approached Lockheed Martin’s Kelly Johnson and asked for something specific: an update of the A-12 Oxcart, to create "an extended range deep penetration bomber that the Russians could not stop."
Also, he wanted a "two-seat version of the A-12," which was meant to "survey the damage after World War III."
This request led to the YF-12 prototype interceptor, several of which were ordered during the 1960s. The creation of the interceptor eventually led to an order for the XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 strategic bomber.
However, both bomber aircraft were canceled and the Blackbird’s rise came soon afterward.
"The worries about World War III were subsided when the US found out, that the Russian’s nuclear arsenal buildup had been exaggerated and that they were not on the brink of developing a supersonic bomber. But this was the beginning and this led to the Skunk Works building 31 SR-71s," according to the Aviation Geek Club.
LeMay is known for the role he played during the Vietnam War. It was then when he suggested that the United States "bomb them back into the Stone Age."
United Russia is Putin's party.
[KavkazUzel] The New People party won the elections to the State Duma in the village of Koren-Benoy, Nozhai-Yurt district of Chechnya. Only 0.92 percent of the village voters voted for United Russia, it follows from the data of the election commission.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, on September 17-19, Chechnya held voting in the elections to the State Duma, as well as direct elections for the head of the republic, elections to the parliament and the city duma of Grozny. Ramzan Kadyrov, according to the Central Election Commission, won 99.7% of the votes in the elections for the head of Chechnya, breaking his own record in 2016, when he won 97% of the votes.
"United Russia" in the Duma elections in the republic received 96.13% of the vote, "Fair Russia - For the Truth" - 0.93 percent, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - 0.75 percent, the rest of the parties gained less than 0.5 percent, the election commission of Chechnya said.
According to the website of the Chechen electoral commission, United Russia did not gain 0.92 percent (two votes) in the elections to the State Duma at PEC # 457, which is located in the village of Koren-Benoy, Nozhai-Yurt district. Most of all, 95.41 percent (208 votes) received the New People party. The number of voters in this village is, according to the election commission, 231 people.
Having studied the data on the website of the election commission on the results of the State Duma elections in Chechnya, the "Caucasian Knot" drew attention to the fact that at one of the polling stations United Russia won less than 50 percent of the votes. Thus, at PEC No. 510 in the Urus-Martan district, 48.81 percent of voters (531 people) voted for the ruling party, while 22.43 percent (244) of the votes were cast for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Earlier it was reported that at seven polling stations in Dagestan, residents voted in the elections to the State Duma for the rivals of the ruling party, and United Russia did not receive a single vote .
Similar abnormal results can be found in the summary tables of other regions, including the Republic of Tyva and the Nizhny Novgorod region. In Tyva, at PEC No. 70, New People also won, gaining 97.09% of the vote, United Russia got only 0.30 percent, and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, at PEC No. 1336, 100 percent of the votes went to the Party of Pensioners, the article says. on the website of The Insider.
Such anomalies can be explained in different ways, commented on the publication of the co-chairman of the Golos movement, a member of the scientific expert council at the Central Executive Committee of the Russian Federation, Andrei Buzin.
"First, it can be errors. I admit that they could have confused the lines. This happens in election commissions - the sequence of parties was written in the wrong way and therefore the result was entered in the wrong place. The second explanation can be as follows.
In Dagestan and other Caucasian republics, we are not talking about parties, but about clans. At these polling stations, people vote consolidated, so it is quite possible that they were simply aimed at voting in this way. The aksakals said so. These explanations are based not on research, but on experience," Buzin explained.
Teachers and doctors in Chechnya repeatedly voted against their will at different polling stations, residents of the republic told the "Caucasian Knot" earlier, pointing out the passive attitude of many of their acquaintances to the elections. Before the elections, rallies were held in different regions of Chechnya with the participation of state employees and civil servants, who urged residents of the republic to vote.
For almost twenty years, Chechnya has established mechanisms for monitoring the election results, the author of the blog on the Caucasian Knot Chechnya Inside said . "To control the elections, the local authorities created more than 200 operational headquarters under the patronage of officials, as well as a command to 'counter information ballot stuffing about election violations.'
[BelSat] According to Euroradio, a shootout occurred in Minsk on September 28 during a raid on the apartments.
"During an "inspection of apartments," a resident resisted the law enforcement officers, shooting and killing one of them with a hunting rifle. The law enforcers returned fire shooting and killing the man. The wounded KGB officer later died,” reports the newspaper.
The Belarusian KGB confirmed the incident:
"Today, during a special inspection of the apartments with people involved in terrorist activities, man fired a shotgun at law enforcement officers. A particularly dangerous criminal fatally wounded an employee of the State Security Committee. The fire was returned, and the perpetrator was killed. The officer later died of injuries."
The criminal case under part 2 of article 139 of the Criminal Code (“murder of a person in connection with his official activities”) was opened.
Who was killed?
According to preliminary information, the shooter was Andrei Zeltser, an employee of EPAM Systems.
Belsat source in EPAM confirmed that an employee with that name and surname indeed worked in the Belarusian office of the company. Based on his Instagram, he was keen on photography and weapons.
According to neighbors, Andrei lived with his wife in her apartment. They were raising a son who went to elementary school. It is unclead where the child was at the time of the shooting, Nasha Niva reports.
Fake?
“It is too early to comment. But there are more questions than answers,” representative BYPOL, an initiative of Belarusian security forces, told Belsat.
Says Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
A quick video of the arrest of a Belarusian Bad Guy, during which a KGB officer was killed and a 32-year-old Bad Guy Zeltser, who worked as a programmer, was shot dead.
Utyrka's wife was detained on suspicion of complicity in the murder. Will probably get several years.
According to the Investigative Committee of Belarus.
It was preliminarily established that on September 28, employees of the state security agencies carried out special measures to work out addresses in which persons involved in terrorist activities could be.
"In response to the lawful demands of law enforcement officers, a 31-year-old resident of Minsk refused to open the door of the apartment and locked himself in it. For the subsequent so-called 'hype,' he was filming. one of them suffered bodily harm, from which he died in the hospital," said in the UK.
Given the nature of the violence used, armed resistance from a 31-year-old man, he was liquidated with return fire. His 40-year-old wife, who also filmed the crime and assisted in its commission, was detained on suspicion of complicity in the murder of a KGB officer.
Currently, urgent investigative actions and operational-search measures are being carried out, including those aimed at identifying the persons involved in the commission of the crime. Appointed forensic, complex forensic ballistic and other expert studies.
The deceased KGB officer is survived by his wife and young child.
#2
It's a SAR radar image taken from orbit. The overhead aspect would be the best case for a radar to detect the ships as most effort would be made to reduce the side, and slightly above, radar reflection.
#5
What's it look like on sonar from a diesel-electric sub?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/29/2021 6:58 Comments ||
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#6
#5 What's it look like on sonar from a diesel-electric sub?
Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-09-29 06:58
A target.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/29/2021 10:24 Comments ||
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#7
You can hide the boat from radar reflection if you know what angle the radar is coming from. The big problem is the wake. Less surface at the waterline, less wake. Hence the work being done on catamarans with subsurface propulsion pods.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/29/2021 12:23 Comments ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[RT] RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan commented on the deletion of YouTube video hosting without the possibility of restoring two German RT channels - RT DE and Der Fehlende Part (DFP).
Simonyan on the removal of the YouTube channel RT DE: this is a media war declared by Germany to Russia
“This is a real media war declared by the state of Germany against the state of Russia. I really expect that my native state, without delay, will ban Deutsche Welle and other German media in Russia, as well as close the offices of ARD and ZDF. I am already silent about the sanctions against YouTube itself. At least out of self-respect, we must do this, ” she wrote on the Telegram channel.
Earlier, the head of RT DE and Ruptly Dinara Toktosunova said that YouTube had deleted RT DE and DFP without the right to restore .
RT DE is in fourth place on YouTube among German-language media in the News and Politics category with 21.3 million views in June, according to the platform's counter.
Russian military Journalist Boris Rozhin weighs in:
And again, hello from the democratic censorship.
YouTube stupidly demolished two RT channels broadcasting to Germany without the possibility of their restoration. One of them was the 4th most popular Internet news channel in Germany.
Simonyan has already urged to ban Deutsche Welle and other German media outlets in Russia, as well as close ARD and ZDF offices, as well as apply sanctions to YouTube. She called all this a media war, which Germany declared to Russia.
Another step towards the inevitable blocking of YouTube in Russia in the medium or long term, which is constrained by the lack of sane alternatives rather than the lack of technical capabilities or the desire to do so. The media war has been in full swing for a long time, and Russia, as usual, is not ready. The need to create an alternative was discussed 10 years ago.
So it is more likely that the main response will fly to the German media in Russia. Although here, in my opinion, it is more appropriate to hit the American media, since YouTube is controlled by the United States. Without a response, the Russian Federation will find itself in the position of France whining that it is not respected.
Having swallowed the blocking of Anna News, News Front, South Front, they naturally received periodic or permanent blocking of already larger state channels. In the modern world, the weak are beaten, despite all the complaints about the sport lotto. In this case, the beat is informational.
[TASS] The Russian Foreign Ministry said it would request Russian governmental agencies to take retaliatory measures against YouTube and German media outlets following the video hosting platform’s decision to block German-language projects of Russia’s RT media holding.
"Considering the nature of the incident, which is fully in line with the logic of the information warfare unleashed against Russia, taking retaliatory symmetrical measures against the German media in Russia would seem not just an appropriate, but also a necessary thing to do, especially taking into account that [the German media] were caught interfering into our country’s domestic affairs on several occasions in the past," the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Considering that multiple requests for returning to compliance with international obligations to protect media freedoms and the freedom of speech were ignored by the German side, we view such measures as the only possible way to encourage our partners to engage in a constructive and meaningful dialogue about this unacceptable situation."
"Having considered an RT request for protection against discrimination, it was resolved to file a request to relevant agencies of the Russian Federation with a proposal to draft and enforce retaliatory measures against YouTube and the German media," the statement continues.
The ministry described the move as an "act of unprecedented informational aggression" by the YouTube video hosting platform, committed with connivance or even at the behest of the German authorities.
German-language projects of Russia’s RT media holding were blocked by YouTube in an attempt to silence media sources that German officials find inconvenient, the Russian Foreign Ministry added.
"The goal of this aggression against the Russian media holding’s projects is evident: to silence information sources that go beyond the media agenda that German officials find convenient," it said.
"Accounts of two media operators of the RT Group - RT DE and Der Fehlende Part - have been removed without the possibility of being restored. The internet giant’s attempt to link such outrageous actions with some abstract ‘violations of the community’s internal rules’ in a bid to justify this evident act of censorship and suppression of the freedom of expression cannot be scrutinized and will not be scrutinized," the ministry continued.
"There can be no doubts that such unlawful actions against a media project, ranked fourth in the "News and Politics" subsection of the German-language media popularity rating, were taken by YouTube with open and covert support of the German authorities and local media," the statement says.
According to the document, the German government and media engaged in "perennial bullying" of correspondents of Russian broadcasters, including "blocking of bank accounts, public slander and so forth."
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that as a result of YouTube’s actions, about 700,000 subscribers of the above-mentioned projects lost the opportunity to receive information from the source of their choice.
YouTube deleted two RT German-speaking channels without an option to bring them back, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said on Tuesday.
Later in the day, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) sent a letter to Google, demanding to remove all restrictions from RT DE and DFP channels and explain the reasons for their imposition, the agency’s press office said.
[Axios] Federal law enforcement agencies are purchasing surveillance drones from a Chinese company the Pentagon has deemed a potential national security threat, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Efforts to purge military and law enforcement agencies of potentially compromised Chinese technology have stalled amid bureaucratic red tape, and experts worry the federal government is needlessly exposing itself to snooping by malicious foreign actors.
Driving the news: The U.S. Secret Service is the latest to purchase surveillance drones from the Shenzhen-based company DJI, which dominates the commercial drone market in the U.S. and abroad.
The Secret Service bought eight DJI drones on July 26, according to procurement records obtained by the industry publication IPVM and shared with Axios.
That was three days after the Defense Department released a statement saying DJI products "pose potential threats to national security."
The FBI bought 19 DJI drones a few days earlier, records show.
The context: DJI makes an array of consumer products that are tremendously popular, including the Phantom and Mavic drone series, as well as the Osmo image-stabilization handle.
[OneIndia] China has put in place new modular container-based accommodations for its troops in several high-altitude forward areas on its side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh in response to Indian deployment in the region, people familiar with the developments said on Monday.
China installs new shelters for troops near LAC in eastern Ladakh
The shelters were installed in locations near Tashigong, Manza, Hot Springs and Churup among others, in reflection of simmering tensions between the two sides in the region, they said.
The people cited above said China''s People Liberation Army has been feeling the heat of the Indian response to its "misadventure" in the region last year and that the Chinese military has been forced to go for long deployments and boost infrastructure in the region.
They said the Indian response to the Chinese actions last year, particularly after the Galwan Valley festivities, surprised the neighbouring country and that it deployed troops in areas where it never used to earlier.
"Our strategy is hurting them. They are reacting to our response. We have forced PLA to go for forward deployment and boost infrastructure," said one of the people.
They said the new deployments are appearing to be affecting the morale of the Chinese troops as they were not used to operate in such difficult terrain.
The new container-based accommodations were built in addition to the additional military camps that the Chinese military had set up following the escalation in tension between the two sides last year.
The people said India is also ramping up construction of tunnels, bridges roads and other critical infrastructure in eastern Ladakh and other areas along the nearly 3,500-km LAC.
They said China is also significantly enhancing its airbases and air defence units near the LAC in eastern Ladakh.
The border standoff between the Indian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent mostly peaceful clash in the Pangong lake area and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.
The border row escalated after the Galwan Valley festivities on June 15 last year.
Twenty Indian Army personnel laid down their lives in the festivities that marked the most serious military conflicts between the two sides in decades.
In February, China officially acknowledged that five Chinese military officers and soldiers were killed in the festivities with the Indian Army though it is widely believed that the corpse count was higher.
As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in Gogra area last month.
In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement.
Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector.
[CNN] Can't get myself worked up about it. What else is there to do in the Congo?
More than 80 aid workers including some employed by the World Health Organization (WHO) were involved in incidents of sexual abuse and exploitation during an Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... , an independent commission said on Tuesday.
The probe was prompted by an investigation last year by the Thomson Rooters Foundation and The New Humanitarian in which more than 50 women accused aid workers from the WHO and other charities of demanding sex in exchange for jobs between 2018-2020.
In its long-awaited report, the commission found that some 21 of 83 alleged perpetrators were employed by the WHO, and that the abuses, which included nine allegations of rape, were committed by both national and international staff.
"The review team has established that the presumed victims were promised jobs in exchange for sexual relations or in order to keep their jobs," commission member Malick Coulibaly told a press briefing. Many of the male perpetrators refused to use a condom and 29 of the women became pregnant and some were forced to later abort by their abusers, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2021 00:00 ||
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Elon Musk told @karaswisher at #CodeCon that SpaceX is working with Dr. Saul Perlmutter at UC Berkeley on "an exciting program" with a big new space-based telescope that would be launched by Starship.
Musk, just before mentioning Dr. Perlmutter, said SpaceX is "looking at launching some new telescope using Starship. Because Starship's a much bigger vehicle, we can launch satellites that have 10 times the resolution of the Hubble" telescope, "which would be great for science."
#1
Likely to involve the U. of Arizona's Steward Observatory, the research arm of UA’s Department of Astronomy. The construction of Steward Observatory was dedicated in 1923. The 36” diameter Newtonian telescope was the first to have been built using all American-made products, and it was built on a then isolated patch of University land—a former ostrich farm. The UA’s tradition of excellence in space sciences has only continued. In 2015, the National Science Foundation ranked UA’s College of Science number one among observational, theoretical, and space astronomy programs in the United States. The University leads or partners in running over 20 unique telescopes across the globe, and researchers at its facilities have discovered more than half of all known near-earth asteroids and comets. It is also the only university in the continental U.S. with its own radio telescope.
Mirrors from the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab in Steward Observatory have been installed in the world’s most powerful telescopes, including the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), slated for completion in 2025.
[SpaceNews] Starfish Space, a startup founded by former Blue Origin and NASA engineers, is developing space tugs to help manage rapidly growing megaconstellations.
Kent, Washington-based Starfish aims to launch an all-electric spacecraft called Otter in 2023 or 2024, promising services including extending the operational lives of satellites, moving them to different orbits and removing debris.
It joins an emerging market for in-orbit servicing, which saw Northrop Grumman’s MEV-2 satellite servicer dock to an operational satellite for the first time April 12 to extend its life.
Continued on Page 49
[CitizenFreePress] Pfizer-BioNTech have submitted trial data to the FDA for their Covid vaccine to be used in children as young as 5.
The companies said the trial, which produced "positive topline results," included 2,268 participants in the 5 to 12 year age category. The company said the vaccine in this study performed similarly to a previous study for people 16 to 25 years.
The vaccine is already authorized for children age 12 and older, and it took about one month for regulators to approve it after the companies formally filed for emergency-use authorization.
Children face a much lower risk of severe disease but experts point out that more than a quarter of the reported weekly Covid cases in the U.S. are in children under the age of 18, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
[Sandboxx] Even before the U.S. military deployed significant forces to Vietnam, Army Special Forces operators were on the ground advising and training South Vietnamese troops. From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, Green Berets fought and trained in Southeast Asia.
Out of the approximately 3.2 million American troops that deployed to Vietnam, 20,000 were Green Berets, who participated in thousands of missions that ranged from reconnaissance patrols to company-size raids to covert cross-border operations. For its courage and aggressiveness, the Army Special Forces Regiment paid a heavy price, losing approximately 900 men in the jungles and paddies of Southeast Asia.
But August 23, 1968, is by far the worst day in terms of casualties for the Special Forces Regiment not only in Vietnam but throughout its storied history.
Although most Green Berets served in their operational detachments throughout the country, a few hundred joined a highly classified outfit, the innocuous-sounding Military Assistance Command Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG).
MACV-SOG was established in 1964 as a covert joint special operations organization tasked with conducting cross-border operations in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and North Vietnam—where U.S. troops weren’t supposed to be according to successive administrations.
SOG was composed of Army Special Forces operators, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, Air Commandos, and a loyal cadre of local mercenaries.
August 23, 1968.
Forward Operations Base (FOB) 4, a top-secret special operations base, was brimming with life. The day before, dozens of Green Berets had appeared in front of their promotion boards, while SOG was holding its monthly staff meeting on base with commanders and intelligence and operations officers from all operations bases present. Many Green Berets from both groups had stayed on FOB 4 overnight. Meanwhile, a SOG command and control staff had recently relocated from the Da Nang Air Base to FOB 4, further swelling the numbers of Green Berets in the base. No one suspected that in the next hours they would be fighting for their lives in what ended up being the worst day in Army Special Forces history.
Located on the north side of Marble Mountain, a natural feature with five peaks interspersed by flat land, FOB 4 was a staging point for many top-secret cross-border operations.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2021 09:51 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYPOST] Florida police arrested an ex-Marine in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy — but the sheriff lamented cops never had "an opportunity" to shoot the 
[NPR] SAVANNAH, Ga. — Don Varnadoe spent months watching videos about train trips on his office computer in preparation for a special cross-country vacation to celebrate his and Margie Varnadoe's 50th wedding anniversary.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] Former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal says celebrities are going "freaking crazy," and he is renouncing his celebrity status.
[National Interest] The 
[Axios] Federal law enforcement agencies are purchasing surveillance drones from a Chinese company the Pentagon has deemed a potential national security threat, Axios has learned.
...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka 
