dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

The Air Force’s struggle to fight subterranean warfare

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — It is darkness like you’ve never seen. The air you breathe could kill you in moments. All of your fire support — air, armor, artillery — is useless. The walls and ceiling could collapse. Communications will fail. A wrong turn leaves you utterly alone.

Going underground, especially in dark, tight spaces, can trigger feelings of helplessness in even the most experienced troops, from the individual to the operational level.

It is the most primitive close combat a fighter may ever face.

“You think you’ve been in a dark environment?” a former special operations soldier-turned-trainer said. “Wait until you get into a deep underground facility and the power’s cut. That is scary.”

Welcome to the subterranean.

SOURCE: https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/03/12/the-air-forces-struggle-to-fight-subterranean-warfare/

Exactly where are these 'deep underground facilities'. Thinking super secret projects. Disclosure?

Anonymous ID: 0cb46a March 13, 2019, 2:34 a.m. No.5656907 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6917

Aim High? DoD researching marijuana investment policy

As long as you don’t smoke it, can you invest in marijuana companies and maintain a security clearance?

The Pentagon is looking more closely at the issue now as more military personnel raise questions on the policy.

After the Facebook group “Air Force Forum” published emails in the last few weeks showing that personnel with marijuana companies in their investment portfolios faced the risk of losing their security clearances, DoD has faced questions over its approach. More states are passing laws legalizing pot, and investors find the marijuana business irresistible.

But under federal law, marijuana is still an illegal substance.

To date, DoD has deferred to looking at the “whole person concept” when weighing an individual’s trustworthiness to hold a clearance. Under those guidelines, owning a pot farm may be an issue, while learning that your managed mutual fund invests in gummies may not. But those lines aren’t clear.

“While, currently, no official DOD guidance specific to financial involvement in marijuana exists, the Department continues to research the topic. Any changes will be addressed through normal policy update procedures,” DoD spokeswoman Army Lt. Col. Audricia M. Harris said in a statement.

The lack of specific guidance may soon change as DoD’s Standards of Conduct Office (SOCO) weighs in, according to an email published today by Air Force Forum.

“SOCO hopes to put out guidance soon,” Shannon McGuire, counsel for the Air Force Ethics Office wrote in a March 6 email obtained by the the Forum. “So please continue to stand by. I know there are a lot of emails floating around on this issue. Continue to have your legal offices hold off on certifying financial disclosures with marijuana -related holdings for the time being.”

SOURCE: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/03/12/aim-high-dod-researching-marijuana-investment-policy/

Anonymous ID: 0cb46a March 13, 2019, 2:41 a.m. No.5656927 🗄️.is 🔗kun >>6943 >>7018

Pentagon seeks military base to house 5,000 unaccompanied children who cross US-Mexico border

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is reviewing a number of military bases to find a location that can house up to 5,000 unaccompanied migrant children as the U.S. braces for a surge of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally this spring.

The Department of Health and Human Services submitted the request for space late last week, as Homeland Security leaders warned that tens of thousands of families are crossing the border each month. That flow, said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, will grow worse this spring as the weather gets better.

The Pentagon last summer approved the use of Goodfellow Air Force Base near San Angelo, Texas, for an HHS request to accommodate up to 20,000 children. Legal and environmental requirements were finalized, but HHS never came back with a formal request to actually use the base. Officials said that the extra spaced wasn’t needed, and there also were concerns that HHS didn’t have the money to construct needed housing and other support facilities at the base.

Army Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that since this HHS request is smaller than last year’s, the department is doing another review. It’s unclear if the Pentagon will once again propose Goodfellow as the location or if there is another military base that may already have facilities that could accommodate the smaller-sized group.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar addressed the issue of migrant children during a hearing Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said HHS is asking for $1.3 billion in the 2020 fiscal year budget and the creation of a contingency fund of up to $2 billion.

"We have requested quite a lot, but at the rate we are going with the kids coming across the border, it is quite a burden financially," he said.

SOURCE: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/03/12/pentagon-seeks-military-base-to-house-5000-unaccompanied-children-who-cross-us-mexico-border/