In November of 1965 Joe Galloway was a young reporter for UPI who’d seen combat, but nothing like the intensity he was about to experience by insisting he join a couple of battalions of the 7th Calvary as they faced the first large-unit battle of the Vietnam War. Galloway’s experiences were captured in We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young, a book he co-wrote with Lt.Gen. Harold G. Moore, USA (ret), who was the commander on the ground during the battle.
Galloway sat down with WATM while he was in DC for the 50th reunion of the Vietnam War veterans of the 7th Calvary, and he offered his memories of the Battle of Ia Drang Valley as well as his thoughts about how soldiers today compare to those who fought previous wars.
For more about We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young go here.
Keeping the troops well fed is a big part of how the military works. Navy veteran and pop-up chef August Dannehl knows this better than most. In the WATM series “Thank You For Your Service” August cooks a four-course meal for his fellow vets, and each course is inspired by a veteran’s story from his or her time in uniform.
When he came home from Afghanistan, Max’s mom prepared the classic Nicaraguan Carne Asada dish with fried plantains. It was a symbol of prosperity and transition into good times from his childhood. When he was young, his mother was a new immigrant to the U.S. and as a single mother, it was sometimes hard for her to put food the table. This dish always served as an embodiment of her love and stayed with Max from his home to overseas.
Short Rib Carne Asada w/ Bacon Jam, Apricot Mojo and Platanos
Inspired by Max’s Mother’s Nicaraguan Carne Asada
Ingredients
Carne
8 beef short ribs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 thin slices bacon, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 carrots, diced
2 jalapeno, finely minced
1 medium onion, diced
Splash of red wine
4 cups Cola
4 cups beef broth (low sodium)
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
Mojo
1 cup olive oil
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tbs apricot jam
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
8 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons ground
cumin
Platano
2 Green Plantains
Corn Oil for Frying
Also need
Salt and Pepper to taste
Prepare
Season short rib liberally with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, heat olive oil and bacon in heavy, oven-proof pan on medium heat. Once bacon starts rendering fat into the pan, add carrots, garlic, onion and jalapeño. Sweat for 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent.
Sear short ribs in pan, working in batches to not crowd pan. If pan starts to look dry, add olive oil. Once all sides of every short rib are browned, deglaze pan with red wine and add cola. Let simmer for 10 minutes on stove to reduce.
Meanwhile, prepare the mojo by adding all ingredients but the olive oil in a blender. Slowly increase blend speed to reach about 4 out of 10. Slowly add olive oil through the top until the sauce becomes the consistency of smooth salsa.
Once cola is reduced by half add beef broth, thyme, rosemary and place entire pan (with top) into a 325° oven and braise for 4 hours. Remove short ribs and add flour to braising components to make jam. Stir ingredients for 4-5 minutes or until ingredients bind together.
Prepare platanos by slicing plantain, frying in 350° oil until light brown, smashing with side of a knife and then frying again until crispy (about 2 mins).
Grill short rib for 2-3 mins just to add final touch of smoke and fire to the meat. Then plate by adding platano and mojo to plate topped with meat and bacon jam.
The AN/SPY-1 system, more popularly known as “Aegis,” is arguably the best air-defense system sent out to sea. It has been exported to South Korea, Japan, Spain, and Australia. But the U.S. Navy has not been sitting still with the design.
The AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar is planned for use on the Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers.
According to the Raytheon web site, this modular radar system is 30-times more sensitive than the SPY-1D used on the current Arleigh Burke-class vessels. This system can also handle 30 times as many targets as the SPY-1D. The system also used commercially-available computer processors in the x86 family pioneered by Intel.
A Raytheon SM-3 launches from the vertical launcher on the front deck of a ship. | Raytheon
The AMDR was tested July 27, 2017, by the Navy. According to a Navy release, the system successfully tracked the target — a simulated medium-range ballistic missile — or “MRBM.” According to the Department of Defense, MRBMs have a range between 1,000 and 3,000 kilometers, or about 600 to 1,800 miles.
Perhaps the most notable missile in this category is China’s DF-21, which supposedly has a carrier-killer version.
“AN/SPY-6 is the nation’s most advanced radar and will be the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s surface combatants for many decades,” said Aegis program official Capt. Seiko Okano.
USS Hopper (DDG 70) fires a RIM-161 SM-3 missile in 2009. (US Navy photo)
The first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Harvey C. Barnum (DDG 124), is slated to enter service in 2024. These ships will have a five-inch gun, two Mk 41 vertical launch systems (one with 32 cells, the other with 64 cells) capable of firing RIM-66 Standard SM-2 missiles, RIM-174 SM-6 missiles, RIM-161 SM-3 missiles, RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles, BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles, and RUM-139 Vertical-Launch ASROCs.
It’ll also be armed with a Mk 15 Phalanx Close-In Weapon System, and two MH-60 Seahawk helicopters.
You can see a video from Raytheon about AMDR below.
At CIA — or the Culinary Institute of America — is located just across the Hudson River from West Point. The institute was created to educate veterans and develop their food prepping abilities after coming back from World War II.
The CIA prides itself on turning experienced veterans into influential and knowledgeable chefs.
“I’ve seen folks from the military that have one basic advantage already,” Certified Master Chef Rudolph Speckamp explains. “They’re more disciplined, they’re more mature, and they come here for a purpose.”
Chef-in-training and Army veteran Casey Troutman served as a communication specialist with a year-long deployment to Afghanistan under his belt. (Source: Meals Ready to Eat/ KCET/ Screenshot)
From the lower enlisted to the highest pay grade officers, the CIA encourages their veteran students to mold their quick decision-making skills process with their need to endorse their artistic expression.
It’s the perfect set up for a veteran who feels the need to create something unique through different flavors and textures.
Compared to the military, working in the kitchen environment is similar to the fast-paced lifestyle of the serving your country.
Showing up on time, being in the right uniform, and having the proper mindset to complete each job as thorough as possible.
Former LtCol. Deb Dexter served in the Air Force for 26-years working in acquisition and space ops before attending the Culinary Institute of America. (Source: Meals Ready to Eat/ KCET)
Just like earning rank in the military, the title of Chef takes countless hours of refining technique and culinary knowledge.
As anti-ISIS forces retake Mosul and march on Raqqa, more and more of the terror group’s mystique is falling away. It’s hard to be the international bogeyman when your forces are suffering defeats across your caliphate.
Not pictured: ISIS victories. (Photo: CJTF Operation Inherent Resolve YouTube)
But one of ISIS’s most prominent battlefield weapons is still deadly frightening, the armored vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. While VBIEDs were already common in Iraq and Afghanistan, ISIS upped the ante by creating especially effective armored versions and then employing them like artillery — softening their enemy’s lines and breaking up attacks.
A captured ISIS vehicle-borne improvised explosive device is displayed where it is held by the Kurdish Peshmerga in Iraq. (Photo: YouTube/ Sky News)
For the Iraqi Army, the Kurdish Peshmerga, and other anti-ISIS forces, understanding these weapons is a matter of life or death. But typically, the weapons are destroyed before they can be captured, either because the soldiers hit it with a rocket, tank, or artillery round, or because the operator triggers his explosive cargo.
This makes it relatively rare that a suicide vehicle is captured intact. But there have been a few, and Sky News got the chance to tour one of these captured vehicles during the Iraqi military’s initial punch into Mosul.
The vehicle, captured by Kurdish Peshmerga, had been heavily modified with the removal of any unnecessary weight, the addition of thick, heavy armor, and the installation of a massive amount of explosives.
See the full tour of the vehicle in the video below:
American and Afghan forces were briefing each other at a forward operating base on March 11, 2013, about that day’s mission when machine gun rounds suddenly rained down on them.
The group immediately looked to see where the shots were coming from. The lone airman in the group, then-Tech. Sgt. Delorean Sheridan, identified the source of the shots, which turned out to be coming from a truck in the base’s motor pool.
The shooter was a new member of the Afghan National Police who had slipped unnoticed to the bed of the truck and taken control of its machine gun.
It was a so-called “green-on-blue attack” — when supposed allies attack friendly forces. Meanwhile, insurgents from outside the base joined what was clearly a coordinated attack, sending more rounds into the grouped-up men. Bullet fragments even struck Sheridan’s body armor.
Sheridan decided that Afghan National Police officer or not, anyone who fired on him from within hand grenade range was conducting a near ambush and it was time to respond with force. He sprinted 25 feet to the truck and fired at his attacker up close and personal.
Russia’s paratroopers serve in the VDV, or vozdushno-desantnie voiska. Like America’s airborne forces, the Russian VDV is considered elite and recruits soldiers from both within the Russian armed forces and from the civilian population.
But their tactics for doing so can be a little confusing. For instance, they created a commercial where your mom’s ex-boyfriend sings about his clothes every minute or so.
When he’s not doing that, he’s watching large groups of men dance fight against imaginary enemies.
But the Russian paratroopers totally redeem themselves when they hop over fences while shooting their weapons and dash past explosions without turning to look at them.
Relive the alien-invasion classic packed with plenty of explosions, interspecies dogfights, and a planet-saving Jeff Goldblum — all in under 4 minutes!
Back in 2014, ISIS assaulted into Iraq and gained ground so fast that to this infantry officer, it made the German blitzkrieg look like amateur hour. Within a matter of months, the terrorist group took control of several key cities and began a series of massacres that even Al Qaeda deemed, “too extreme.”
As the Iraqi Army and Police fell back towards Baghdad, I received a phone call that would change my life forever.
I was on my way to class when I got a call from a man I knew as “Captain.” I could hear gunshots in the background and he was asking me, “Brother, can you help?”
Now, I’m a former Marine officer and served three combat tours in Iraq from 2006-2009. In 2014 I had moved on with life and was well on my way to growing the nasty beard and long hair of a graduate student.
But I couldn’t forget the Marine Corps motto that lived inside me: Semper Fidelis, Always Faithful. And now I had a good reason.
The Iraqi soldier we’ll call “Captain” to conceal his identity, saved my life in 2006.
I’ll never forget that as a boot platoon commander on my first deployment when the Captain shielded me from an incoming shot by pushing me down and charging a sniper. So when I got that call from Captain in 2014, I knew he was in some serious trouble, and I had to help.
That’s when I began a frantic effort to call my former commanders and write congressional leaders to do something…anything. But before Captain could get the massive airstrike that he needed to quell the ISIS assault, he received an ultimatum from the ISIS commander on the other side of the battlefield.
“We know who you are, and we’ll kill your kids if you don’t leave,” the ISIS commander told Captain.
With a credible threat against his life, the Captain and his family quickly fled to Turkey where they hoped to eventually resettle in the United States as refugees. With Captain out of Iraq and on a path to the U.S., I thought all was well.
But the Captain’s case got stuck in the backlog of millions fleeing the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. He was quickly told that his case wouldn’t be processed for years which, when you are on the run from ISIS, might as well be a death sentence.
Let me put it this way, this was a dude that had fought with us for years and now there were people who never served telling me that they couldn’t process his paperwork. I thought WTF?
So, I did the one thing Marines always do. I took action and went to Turkey myself, filming the trip along the way. My journey to help the Captain eventually was released by National Geographic as a short documentary called “The Captain’s Story.”
Nearly three years later, I continue to advocate for other refugees like the Captain as a member of Veterans For American Ideals, a non-partisan “group of veterans who share the belief that America is strongest when its policies and actions match its ideals.”
Though the work is far from over, we’re starting to make a difference in doing right by our wartime allies and bring them the protection and safety they deserve.
Chase Millsap joined the WATM team earlier this year as Director of Impact Strategy which allows him to keep fighting for veterans and our allies. We’re glad he’s on our team… just don’t piss him off.
Throughout our military careers, we had the distinct privilege of shopping at the base exchanges and would receive discounts on many items. After being discharged, most of us lost those benefits — until now.
Mark Wahlberg and Marcus Luttrell are here to officially announce that those discount advantages are coming back starting Nov. 11, 2017, for veterans who qualify.
“All honorably discharged veterans are encouraged to visit VetVerify.org to confirm eligibility for their lifetime exchange online benefit today,” Luttrell states in the informational video. “Thank you for your service and welcome home, guys.”
This process is extremely simple; just go to www.vetverify.org and register your information to see if you’re eligible. Once completed, you’ll receive an email confirming your newly earned lifelong online benefits. Many veterans are even being pre-selected to test the benefits immediately, instead of waiting until November.
The duo first teamed up in 2013’s epic true story “Lone Survivor,” directed by Peter Berg. Wahlberg played Luttrell in the film, exemplifying the SEAL’s heroic journey.
We Are The Mighty is proud to announce “Max Your Body,” a fitness series exclusively on Verizon’s Go90 platform featuring U.S Army veteran and elite personal trainer Max Philisaire showing how to train for some of the most demanding military missions. In this first episode, Max demonstrates a few exercises that help to steady your rifle to improve stability and aim.
Philisaire was born in Haiti to an Afro-Haitian father and mother. At the tender age of 8, his parents migrated to south Florida. Max is a highly certified fitness expert with over 12 years of body building experience. He is also a U.S. Military combat war veteran. While deployed overseas, he used his bodybuilding training as a survival tool to keep himself and his fellow soldiers motivated.
New episodes of “Max Your Body” will be available only on the Go90 platform. Each Tuesday for the next 10 weeks, We Are The Mighty will present a new episode of “Max Your Body,” a military-inspired workout series where Max demonstrates training methods for some of the most demanding military missions.
Download the Go90 app on your mobile device from the iTunes or Google Play store, or head over to go90.com to access We Are the Mighty’s exclusive Go90 content like “Elite Forces,” “Hurry Up and Watch,” and “Max Your Body” — and stay tuned for even more original WATM content available only on Go90.
Two people were hospitalized with heavy injuries after a helicopter accidentally fired on observers of the Zapad 2017 military exercises, the online news portal 66.ru cited a source as saying on Sept. 19.
The week-long drills in Western Russia and neighboring Belarus kicked off last week, with the participation of around 13,000 troops and hundreds of tanks, aircraft, warships, and other military hardware.
The incident reportedly took place at the Luzhsky range near St. Petersburg either on Sept. 17 or 18. President Vladimir Putin visited the range on Sept. 18.
Watch footage of the misfire provided alongside the report below:
The unnamed source told 66.ru that there appeared to have been a technical glitch on board “and the missiles blasted off on their own.”
“At least two cars burned down, two people were seriously injured, they are now hospitalized,” the source said. “The victims were most likely journalists.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said two attack helicopters simulated aerial reconnaissance and close air support missions on Sept. 18 as part of Zapad 2017.
And as you can see in the above GIF from a similar exercise, the fighters don’t need anywhere near a mile of road. The minimum takeoff distance for an F-18C on a flat surface is 1,700 feet, about 0.33 miles. The Finnish F-18 taking off in the video is using a downhill slope, letting it gather speed a little more quickly and get off the road.
