1st
Tactical Studies Group (Airborne)
"When the hour of crisis comes,
remember that 40 selected men can shake the world." -- Yasotay (Mongol
warlord)
300 Spartans holding off the entire
Persian Army at a narrow pass.....Chamberlain's 120 Deserters attacking with fixed
bayonets on empty rifles to save the flank of the Union Army at Gettysburg.
Two Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta Snipers fast roping from a
160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Blackhawk helicopter into a
helicopter crash site surrounded by gunmen to save a wounded airman......Time
and time again the actions of a few-even one man, can save the day-the trumpets
are calling now.
Despite an amazing string of victories
from Grenada, Panama, Haiti and the Persian Gulf, things are not well within
the U.S. Military. Somalia's urban debacle should
have warned us that the "lessons" of Vietnam have not been learned,
just pushed off into the corner. The U.S. Military as one of the few remaining
social institutions still respected within the nation, cannot afford
"another Vietnam" nor can the world suffer the impending darkness if
the forces of freedom cannot keep the world free.
This web page-this warning sign
posted----is your call to action-to press for the changes needed to
prevent disaster. You must decide if you are to become a "Spartan", a
member of the "20th Maine" or the Delta heli-team,
as you read this narrative. The darkness is coming and I must write quickly.
Many people join and/or are associated
with the U.S. Military for the emotions-of jumping out of aircraft, being in
charge of men, maneuvering a tank cross country, wearing the >uniform,
saluting or being saluted, of sounding off: "HOOAH", OHHRAH" or
">AIRBORNE".
A 1st TSG (A) member writes: "It's always come down to a few
people with vision mixed in with the so called 'warriors'. The warriors fight
for personnel glory and the masculine virtues of the tribe, team, and squad.
These are the kinds of people who have always been drawn to military service to
impress others. They love the uniform and they want everyone to think they are
special. They see themselves slaying their countries enemies in single combat
(Rambo), with women worshipping them on their knees and fathers, uncles and
other role models respecting them as better men then themselves. I think we are
all like that when we first take the oath but soon after real life sets in. The
warrior finds himself on police call and other mundane stuff of the Soldiers
lot. He is disappointed and wishes he could fight in a real war. But there
isn't any such thing as a 'real war', so he does his time just waiting for it
to be over and tries to keep up the image of being a warrior. After a while
with the right leadership they become pretty good Soldiers but they lose a lot
of their initiative. They just want to "fight" not do all this BS
like prepare. That's why guys like Hack were so
successful. They were tough on their troops and emphasized they were warriors,
just like they always wanted to be and at the same time took care of all the
war fighting art themselves. Patton wasn't so different, he gave his troops
energy and a place to belong by his brutally hard training. He 'forced' them to
prepare and they loved him for it because he made them the warriors they wanted
to be. But Patton himself was without illusions about the nature of war and
what it takes to win. A constant theme in his writings is that the troops will
find out how stupid this warrior stuff is. He prepared his men to do frontal
assaults and told them it was the epitome of the warrior way, but in actual
combat he would relieve a commander who really used frontal assaults. He walked
a line between macho brutality (the Third Army was known for it's lack of
concern for prisoners and I have read insinuations that he was very indulgent
towards his troops in combat all though he demanded iron discipline once they
came off the line) and intellectual discourse that many people found
disconcerting. I once had a 3rd Army veteran tell me, 'we would never treat
them [prisoners] badly, but we would shoot them.' Some members of the press (
Andy Rooney, 60 Minutes) believe he executed many GIs for cowardice ( It's
believed as many as 54, a book is coming out soon about this). The Patton
family are denying it happened and maybe it didn't, but in Patton's personnel
writings he makes a strong case for doing it. I hope he did not but I know he
wrote about it in his diary (edited out of War as I Knew It) and on one
occasion gave an interview saying that's what we should do. The visionaries are always at odds with
the warrior culture. Their very nature as artists makes them recoil from the
ego that most warriors use as their foundation. Creativity takes an
understanding of the true nature of the vehicle you are using to create with.
Wanting to be a warrior almost always means you ignore the nature of war
because no reasonable man would want to kill or maim or have it done to him.
Great leaders like Patton and Gavin seem to have a gift for keeping the
warriors in their own little world while preparing them to be Soldiers. It's a
gift that I never had. I admire men who can do it. For example the
Dragoon concept makes it possible to do both like the Armored Calvary. I
just hope that the men who would execute the concept have the vision. It really
seems to be in short supply." But when you are cold, wet, tired,
hungry, that last ounce of sacrifice takes more than esperit' de corps. Marine
Raider founder Evans Carlson said before assaulting Tarawa in WWII: "It
takes CONVICTION." To have a vision, you must have
CONVICTION. Conviction. Doing what has to be done
because it must be done. It's up to each generation to fight the
evil of its day-our time has come-it is NOW. What can a small studies group do?
Plenty. "STUDY" A STUDIES GROUP IN
ACTION: VICTORY IN MALAYA/SINGAPORE
The Japanese Army of just 3 divisions
defeated the entire British Army in Malaya and Singapore. Their
"secret weapon": bicycle jungle infiltration tactics created by a
"Studies Group" "Early in
1941 Colonel Masanobu
Tsuji, (scroll down after clicking link) a veteran of the China campaign.
was allocated a shoe-string budget and put in charge of a small Southern
Military Studies Research Group in Taiwan to investigate problems of jungle
warfare. Tsuji was given a report drawn up by two senior Japanese army
officers, who had visited Malaya in September 1940. They advised that any
attack on Singapore would have to come from the north and reported that the
British Air force in Malaya was understrength and its planes obsolete. Tsuji appreciated,
as Percival and Dobbie had pointed out, that a frontal attack on Singapore was
scarcely feasible but her back door stood open, and he realized that British
propaganda was deluding only her own people. Tsuji
embarked on his task with enthusiasm and verve. The challenge was enormous, for
the Japanese Army had no experience of fighting jungle warfare. Soldiers
accustomed to cold weather fighting had to be trained to face tropical
conditions, and cavalry, which was used in China, had to be abandoned in favour
of bicycles. The 25th Japanese Army, which was hurriedly assembled for the
invasion of Malaya, was put under the command of Lieutenant-General Tomoyuki
Yamashita, probably Japan's most able general. The son of a humble village
doctor, Yamashita was then fifty-six years old and was Tojo 's contemporary and
rival. He had headed the Japanese military mission to Germany and Italy in 1940
and served in Korea and North China, until November 1941 when he was summoned
from Manchuria to command the attack on Singapore. Yamashita
was offered five divisions but decided to employ only three, knowing that this
was the maximum force which could be fed and maintained as his supply lines
became extended south. The 25th Army comprised the Imperial Guards, the seasoned
18th Division and the highly experienced crack 25th Division, which was one of
the best in the Japanese Army.
The Japanese secret weapon was the bicycle and it gave them
speed and mobility in the advance down the Malay peninsula The Japanese swept down the Malay peninsula, carried forward
by audacious planning, good fortune and the exhilaration bred by success. The
main body of the force were disciplined, hardy and vigorous Soldiers, who had
fought together in the China campaign. Yamashita used his mastery of the air
and the coastal waters to conduct a dynamic technique of infiltration,
enveloping and outflanking which bewildered the defenders and compelled them to
withdraw to avoid being cut off from the rear. Confined by the communications
system of one trunk road and railway line, the British defence lacked
mobility and the Japanese could defeat them in detail. Without tanks and
anti-tank guns or prepared lines of defences, the Commonwealth retreat was
inevitable, and the Japanese drove relentlessly south. Ironically, when he was
almost out of ammunition, Yamashita
attacked and General Percival surrendered to his bluff. Victory
brought a thrill of exhilaration to Japan and her allies. The previous year
German military leaders had told Yamashita it would probably take five
divisions eighteen months to conquer Singapore. In fact, the mission had been
accomplished by three divisions in just over two months. For the British, the loss of Singapore was the
blackest moment of the Second World War and, in the words of Winston Churchill,
'the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history'. Another
famous organization with "Studies Groups" was Military Advisory
Command Vietnam's Studies and Observations Group or "MACV-SOG".
Actually MACV-SOG was an ultra-secret joint services unconventional warfare
command operating throughout Southeast Asia, most notable public success being
the famous Son Tay POW rescue mission that while an empty camp was found,
killed over 200 foreign "advisors" which forced the North Vietnamese
to consolidate our men in captivity into a single prison where they had mutual
support for resistance. Other missions are still clouded in secrecy even though
a recent book by retired MACV-SOG veteran, Major John Plaster has revealed some
new insights. MACV-SOG had a Ground Studies Group (SOG 35), a Training Studies
Group (SOG 38), a recovery studies group (SOG 80), and an Airborne Studies
Group (SOG 36). (From Shelby Stanton's "Green Berets at War: 1956-1975,
page 232). It is in this same spirit of bold innovation that we formed the 1st
Tactical Studies Group (Airborne) from the previous International Tactical
Studies Group (ITSG). WHAT
WE MUST "STUDY" TODAY The
following are the key problem areas within the U.S. Military, along with
proposed solutions-in some cases never before described,---you can help by
writing/calling/e-mailing back to the 1st Tactical Studies Group (Airborne) and
joining the fight. We have a >Military Reform
mailing list (scroll down to link to join) to network and cross talk ideas.
Your ideas count and we can see to it that they are advanced within the U.S.
military. This is not about money or prestige or making status-it's about the
men, the mission: victory or defeat. The "enemy" is not just others,
it's much higher than that-in the final analysis it's for mankind-we are
fighting for each other. The following are concept papers available from the
1st TSG (ABN) now made into hard-hitting, no-holds-barred web pages: THE MODERN PATTERN OF
WAR Concept paper #5 AIRBORNE
WARFARE #82 STRENGHTENING
the ORGANIZATION #77 SOCIAL
SABOTAGE (See below) The world we live in moves by air and is becoming
urbanized... Whenever
U.S. Military men look outside of their private micro-society at the world
around them, they'll see a mass of confusion now that the Cold War superpower
face off is gone. Many long for wars of national armies meeting on the rural
battlefield when social conditions are simply creating sporting contests within
nation states. SOCIAL SABOTAGE
Talking
about women in the military today will get you kicked out of the U.S. Military:
if this scares you what makes you think you'll move under enemy fire? Physical
courage is a function of moral courage.The whole point of women in the military
is not on whether they can do the job or not but on WHY. Women
that want military "careers" want the same existentialist
"ego-trip" that the men have. If you leave these morally bankrupt
foundations intact for men we have no "leg" to stand on to deny women
a chance to "prove themselves" and other self-centered vanities. The
military is a necessary evil. We must do what must be done. Everything on top
of this is "gravy." Most military men/woman are not talking
about the battlefield or improving themselves and their equipment-"their
heads are not in the game". They are actually on the sidelines of their
profession worrying about their careers, their job survival, paying bills,
being promoted, etc....not the profession of arms. The nation expects them to
be tactical experts when the average military person doesn't even have a clue
about even the basics! "Up or out" is a major cause of this. We
live in a world created by the Judaeo-Christian God as described in the Bible.
This cause and effect universe has females optimized for childbirth and family
rearing. This is not to say women cannot kill or act as >Soldiers-it's
just not ideal. If a woman wants to be a figher pilot or a Ranger to
"prove" themselves or that "women can do it"---this is the
wrong reason to be there in the first place. If enough women voters insist,
eventually civilian authorities could force-feed the U.S. Military to try to
keep all jobs open to women including combat. To preserve an illusion that
women are "equals" the military will lower performance standards,
enforce "gag" rules and inflict severe penalties on those who "sexually
harrass" women Soldiers. The truth is, despite what cartoon heroines do,
is that women are a physically vulnerable group on planet earth-the recent
"tailhook" and recruit training scandals show this. Thousands of
women, not men, get raped, murdered and victimized each year. Sure there's a
few exceptional women that can defend themselves, but it's the rule that's
important for general policy/guidance.
A
Marine ANGLICO Captain writes in: ""Name
a coed professional sport. You can't. Not football, baseball, golf, tennis or
bowling. If our 'society' sees it unfair to mix genders in a game, it is 'not
yet ready' to mix them in combat. . . . no matter how PC they think they
are." By
placing women into combat roles we are accepting a handicap of generally a
physically weaker Soldier-if so we ought to have the same fitness test standard
to squeeze out maximum female potential and institute a daily/weekly martial
arts regimen. Also there should be no age group breaks on the fitness test either,one
standard for all. This should be a >COMBAT TASK
SPECIFIC---NOT SPORTS fitness test. We need to be ready to accept the
possibility of gruesome disfigured bodies of women Soldiers and potentially
atrocious tortures if our women Soldiers are captured. Sorry but the physical
world doesn't stop for our fantasies. The best way to stop the feminist
movement into our military is by rejecting the general society's
existentionalism that you are what you do or how much money you make. Women
do not need to have a "career" to be somebody, being a mother is an
extremely high aspiration-without them life is not worth living. If a women
wants to be in the military to defend freedom or pay the bills, not fill some
inner personal void this is okay. From a practical point of view, combat should
be excluded as much as possible without "career" opportunities being
denied. The way to do this is to stop the military from being a
"yuppie" upward mobility ego trip mirroring civilian society---- by
20 year enlistments. You join the military to concentrate on defending
freedom, not advancing yourself. The
world we live in is a cruel and cold place that seeks to dehumanize-especially
women. Far be it from me to want to deny self-esteem from a woman that wants to
be in the military, but this is really rather sad. You ought to join the
military realizing you are a complete person already-your character is
challenged and some cases formed but your self-worth should be based on your
unique individual identity not what an external human organizations gives you,
labels you or packages you. Stop military existentialism in general and get a
warrior emphasis back in our military and the "feminist" problem will
go away. We'd
be left with men/women focused on >battlefield
excellence. The women that chose to be involved will be there then by conviction,
will know the risks and accept them. The modern battlefield is non-linear
so even excluding women from combat arms doesn't shield them from the horrors
of war. If we do not face these realities and make adjustments according to our
choices we beg for a future military disaster. We
must always remember the "women" or "woman"
is a kind of man. When we talk of the "men" it's about women for
women, for men, for humanity. THE AGE OF
HEROES DEAD? "The
age of heroes is not so long past, THE
MAN IN THE ARENA... "It
is not the critic who counts, President
Theodore Roosevelt, from his "Citizenship in a Republic" speech
at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910. 
so long as there remains ONE MAN,
who conytributes to sustain the weak,
mold the characters of the young
and bring hope to the lives of the needy..."
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or the doer of deeds
could have done them better....
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in he arena;
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who arrives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a
worthy cause;
who, at the best, knows the triumph of high achievement;
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly;
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know
neither defeat nor victory...."---