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Marshall Few going to Air Force special ops program.

Pentagon Cane said:
I participated in a wargaming exercise around 2003. Focus around the whole MARSOC concept. LoL. Food was good. Week long event.
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Ah yes, the good ole dry years :) Our Op tempo definitely cranked up dramatically leading into 2004. I was with 2nd Recon Bn back in 2004-2005 when Det 1 was deployed to Iraq as a proof of concept as USMCs contribution to SOCOM. They got back from deployment, had a great deployment from a standpoint of killing bad guys and the intelligence capability the unit brought organically. The Marine Corps Brass thought after Det 1, the DoD would leave them alone regarding standing up a SOCOM component, but Rumsfeld told the USMC Fück You & to pony up forces to stand up MARSOC. :LOL:
 
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Baba Yaga said:
Yep, those belonged to the 175th WG in Maryland until BRAC was executed in 2011 and they were sent to Little Rock. After that we got the C-27's for about a year until the AF decided to mothball the program. We were about 3 months into deployment at KAF and they told us to bring them home, after that I decided to pursue other opportunities but I enjoyed that part of my career.
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The 27s would have been fun to fly. Not sure what the real mission need was. I know we needed a replacement for the Sherpas. My understanding is SOCOM took them to replace the CASA 212. I tried to kill the 212s when I was at SOCOM. All they were used for was jump training. You couldn't touch a sacred calf...lol. I remember I broach that topic with Pete Schoomaker. The topic did not go very far. That dude love those CASAs.
 
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MotoSniper said:
Ah yes, the good ole dry years :) Our Op tempo definitely cranked up dramatically leading into 2004. I was with 2nd Recon Bn back in 2004-2005 when Det 1 was deployed to Iraq as a proof of concept as USMCs contribution to SOCOM. They got back from deployment, had a great deployment from a standpoint of killing bad guys and the intelligence capability the unit brought organically. The Marine Corps Brass thought after Det 1, the DoD would leave them alone regarding standing up a SOCOM component, but Rumsfeld told the USMC Fück You & to pony up forces to stand up MARSOC. :LOL:
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So I helped in my own little way. We talked about CA/PSYOPs, too. That would have been a hoot if the Marine Corps played in that arena.
 
Pentagon Cane said:
So I helped in my own little way. We talked about CA/PSYOPs, too. That would have been a hoot if the Marine Corps played in that arena.
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All the ground pounders were all about cutting over to SOCOM, especially when all the purple gear and limitless budget started coming in. We were a glorified recon company initially during OEF. We had the standard FID mission and VSO. We went on "Combat Recon Patrols" constantly, which basically meant terminally guide a team into said village and hit buildings until someone shoots at you...then light them up. We had no organic air platforms or dedicated support. We would get creative and have regular Army send a couple of sections of air to our location out west from eastern Afghanistan every 2-3 months and we would go on a balls to the wall Ops cycle for like 6 days straight conducting night raids on target packages. We tried to do the first night parachute insert onto a target near Delaram in the Mountains of Western Afghanistan bc the bad dudes would see our vehicles approaching like 2 hours out from their vantage point. The CJSOTF Commander (7th Group Army) told us to GTFOH with that parachute insert with no tenable QRF. We told the commander we could exfil on foot off the objective for 6 Kms...We were hungry for action man! :LOL:
 
MotoSniper said:
Ah yes, the good ole dry years :) Our Op tempo definitely cranked up dramatically leading into 2004. I was with 2nd Recon Bn back in 2004-2005 when Det 1 was deployed to Iraq as a proof of concept as USMCs contribution to SOCOM. They got back from deployment, had a great deployment from a standpoint of killing bad guys and the intelligence capability the unit brought organically. The Marine Corps Brass thought after Det 1, the DoD would leave them alone regarding standing up a SOCOM component, but Rumsfeld told the USMC Fück You & to pony up forces to stand up MARSOC. :LOL:
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Ole Donny Boy loved SOF. He hated the Air Force. I was running a budget shop on the Air Staff. If I had a dollar every time some PA&E lackey called me in on a Friday afternoon at 4 pm, I could have retired and never worked again. Not sure who we despised more in the Air Force, Rumsfeld or McCain. McCain made us do a gazillion fighter mix studies. What an a-hole!
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
Ole Donny Boy loved SOF. He hated the Air Force. I was running a budget shop on the Air Staff. If I had a dollar every time some PA&E lackey called me in on a Friday afternoon at 4 pm, I could have retired and never worked again. Not sure who we despised more in the Air Force, Rumsfeld or McCain. McCain made us do a gazillion fighter mix studies. What an a-hole!
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Hey... I ran a budget shop on AS and used to be a PA&E lackey!! I still wake up in cold sweats from nightmares of BRDs and 3-Star programmers group.... "fun" times

Stalker.... hahahaha

hahaha...

McCain needed the A10 remember...

Gates took AF hatred to a whole other level....
 
Empirical Cane said:
Hey... I ran a budget shop on AS and used to be a PA&E lackey!! I still wake up in cold sweats from nightmares of BRDs and 3-Star programmers group.... "fun" times

Stalker.... hahahaha

hahaha...

McCain needed the A10 remember...

Gates took AF hatred to a whole other level....
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So I heard. Gates came in around Christmas of 06. I went full terminal leave in May 4, 2007. In reality, PA&E wasn't so bad, but they would run vignettes that were comical all to justify cuts. OSD(C) and SAF/FM on the other hand were the enemy.

Yes, McCain kept DM alive. We were able to get the A-10 PE program through but it was quite the fight. They did everything they possibly could to kill the Hog. They are going to SLEP the Hog finally. My son might get to fly it. I told him it would be a **** of a lot more fun than the Raptor.
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
So I heard. Gates came in around Christmas of 06. I went full terminal leave in May 4, 2007. In reality, PA&E wasn't so bad, but they would run vignettes that were comical all to justify cuts. OSD(C) and SAF/FM on the other hand were the enemy.
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Don't hate us [OUSD(C)] because we were the beautiful people.

Hahahaha

We were there at same time...

I also have Rummy's last snowflake.
 
Pentagon Cane said:
The 27s would have been fun to fly. Not sure what the real mission need was. I know we needed a replacement for the Sherpas. My understanding is SOCOM took them to replace the CASA 212. I tried to kill the 212s when I was at SOCOM. All they were used for was jump training. You couldn't touch a sacred calf...lol.
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They were intended to be the replacement for the Sherpas, but the AF got its panties in a bunch because the Army tried to do fixed-wing but that was big blue's turf, so they took the program over. One of the problems was the Army had contracted L-3 to do all of the maintenance and the AF still had to honor that, and it caused all sorts of problems.

All of our pilots said it was fun to fly but from a MX standpoint it was a ****. For every lb of cargo you loaded a lb of fuel had to come off which killed its range, took forever to fly cross-country let alone across the pond. Every part had to go through Alenia for QA including the ones made in the US, so when you needed a tire manufactured in Ohio, it had to be shipped to Italy first, sit in customs and you may get it a month after you ordered it. Just a complete mess and outside of the Coast Guard taking a few of them, most of them are sitting at the boneyard in DM with less than 300 flight hours on them.

I did a few years with the 201st AS in DC, VP airlift. McCain hated flying with us, he was always trying to fly Navy.
 
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Empirical Cane said:
Don't hate us [OUSD(C)] because we were the beautiful people.

Hahahaha

We were there at same time...

I also have Rummy's last snowflake.
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I miss the Air Force, but I don't miss 5 nanoseconds of the Five-sided Wind Tunnel. I literally cleaned out my office on May 3rd. Did my retirement ceremony at Montclair Country Club on the 4th. Have not stepped foot in that place since. O-6s use to get their dental work and physicals at the Pentagon. I remember the dentist who did my last check up said, "Sir, you grind your teeth." I said, "No ****, I've worked here for 4 years." Funny story, on my first assignment as a future PEM, lucky me, you went through Pentagon orientation. They bring in the cavalcade of flags (all the 3 digits). I remember the A Vice comes in and says "Gang, you aren't going to make history here. Do your job, be with your family, and get out of here." One of the only times I heard the truth from a senior in that building.
 
This is awesome!! He was always one of my favorites. I remember the vid coming out about him getting a preferred walk-on spot when he was still in a knee brace. One of the biggest play makers at the HS level. Good luck young man!
 
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pacusmc said:
Combat Rescue and CCT in the air force have some of the highest attrition rates in the military.
The reason is that they’re usually attached to special forces a-teams and have to “keep up” with them and be just as tactically specialized.
As far as pararescue goes, they have to be even more fit by default.
One of the first special forces teams in Afghanistan was team 555. They had a an air force combat controller

Most people knowPararescue form their motto “that others may live” but they have their own funny motto “you Fck up, we pick up”. An Air Force plane goes down in the North Atlantic and they have jump and get the pilot. Check.
Dudes trapped behind enemy lines in a mountainous terrain taking enemy fire with serious injuries. Check.
The prarescue school in San Antonio has the nickname Superman U.

This the first Medal of Honor recorded in video of John Chapman attached to a seal team.
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Thank you for the history lesson! Very interesting! Ya a good friend of mine is a pj and would tell me about the stuff they would do in The selection course in San Antonio. He actually graduated from the Air Force academy and didn’t get selected for pararescue course first time around and had to wait. They’re all bad mf’ers hats off to all of them, I know how intense there job is.
 
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Pentagon Cane said:
There are Fleet SEALs and SOF SEALs. Just like Rangers and Special Forces. Cannot be a team guy unless you are anything less than a SFC as enlisted and Captain as an officer to get to the Q course. May have changed but that was definitely the case when I was in. I was Central Command guy and did a lot of work with 5th SFG. We have Fleet SEAL snipers in Mogadishu. They were good guys. I worked with Task Force Blue and those guys were squared away. The difference between SF and Special Mission guys are even more.
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What’s the difference between a fleet seal and sof seal? Both go through buds ?
 
Bubbacane10 said:
What’s the difference between a fleet seal and sof seal? Both go through buds ?
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Fleet SEALs have conventional missions. For instance, one of our sniper teams in Mogadishu were fleet SEALs. They were pulled off the Lincoln. They were replaced with USMC snipers off the USS Denver. Loved those guys. They were grateful to be off the Denver, primarily because the AC units in their bunk area went **** up. Our JSOTF had temper tents. Also, I would run down to the Air Force TALCE and pick up real food for them. The ROE was anybody who got within the 400 meters of the embassy compound with a crew served weapon got lit up. The USMC sniper squad was very, very good.
 
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