Posted in Life in the Military, Military News
If you haven’t tuned into You Served Radio in a while, this Tuesday (the Army’s Birthday and Flag Day) is a show you won’t want to miss. We are fortunate enough to have two living and breathing legends in the defense of this country on the this very special show.
It would be a special show if we had either of them, but to have both of these very fine gentlemen on the same is truly awesome. We will be joined first by Army SGM (ret) Billy Waugh, and then in the second hour we will have Marine MG (ret) James Livingston.
Sergeant Major (SGM) William “Billy” Waugh (US Army-Ret.), is a highly decorated American Special Forces soldier and a Central Intelligence Agency Paramilitary Operations Officer who served in the United States military and CIA special operations for more than fifty years. SGM Waugh served in the U.S. Army’s elite Green Berets and the CIA’s famed Special Activities Division.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Waugh
He is one of only a handful of people to have a documented combat HALO jump into North Vietnam and many other accomplishments under his very long service to this country. He will be joining us to talk about some of those and many other current topics.
Next up is Major General James Everett Livingston. MG Livingston is a retired United States Marine Corps Major General. He is a recipient of the United States’ highest military decoration—the Medal of Honor—for heroic actions in 1968 during the Vietnam War. Maj Gen Livingston served on active duty in the Marine Corps for over 33 years before retiring on September 1, 1995. His last assignment was the Commanding General of Marine Forces Reserve in New Orleans, Louisiana.
According to Robert Gates, the Pentagon is also considering changing the role of the National Guard and Reserve forces as it contemplates budget cuts. Options include dividing them into a strategic reserve and an operational reserve with different pay, training and equipment, or possibly moving heavy or infantry brigades into the Guard. The U.S. military has relied and utilized more from National Guard and Reserve Forces than ever to supply the troops needed to prosecute Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) simultaneously. Gates claims that the changes are being examined for the fiscal year starting 1 Oct. and for the following 12 months. To read more about this subject, please go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-06/u-s-mulls-national-guard-role-as-budget-cuts-near-gates-says.html
Wow, talk about the more things change, the more they stay the same. Prior to the BCT re-organization that the Army went through in 2004-2006 the National Guard had what was known as E-Brigades, for Enhanced Brigades. E-Brigades were the National Guard units that were funded up to 75% of their requested budgets, manpower, equipment, etc. Those that were not E-Brigades were funded and staffed at less than 75%.
The idea was that the E-Brigades were the first to ever get called up and mobilize with the active Army. These were the Brigades you saw first mobilized in the GWOT. Units like the 39th, 27th, 41st, 81st, and many other brigades were those E-Brigades.
Now it seems that with budgets cutting and the open commitment of soldiers become lower to wars around the world that the outgoing SecDef is almost proposing going back to the same mindset. Pretty scary because of the smaller active military we have today, only means that our country will continue to depend heavily on the National Guard and the Reserves. Segregating our reserve component soldiers into the groups of the “haves” and the “have nots” sends a bad message to those units in the “have not” category. Every MOS, every branch of the Army and Air Force is needed to wage a war.
Posted in Life in the Military, National Guard
I saw this today…
The voice of the Soldier has been heard: the Army announced the patrol cap will replace the black wool beret as the default headgear for the Army combat uniform.
Also changing are the options for how Soldiers can attach certain items to their ACU shirts. Army Chief of Staff Martin E. Dempsey said Soldiers will soon be able to sew on name tapes, service tapes, rank insignia and skill badges, instead of using Velcro.
The changes were made after Dempsey received input from Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III, who had been tasked to gather opinions from Soldiers in the field.
… and it made me happy to know we have true leaders back in charge of the Army. I never understood how GEN Casey got relieved in Iraq and then made Chief of Staff. It even confused me more when later he said repeatedly that no soldiers ever complained to him about the beret and as far as he knew it everyone loved it. I thought either was a a true a-hole of an idiot leader or he was kidnapped by aliens an replaced with a body double. Who knows which one it was.
All one had to do was read the editorials in the Army Times or see the results of the surveys the Army Times did every year of soldiers about the Army. Since the beret as the standard headgear was announced by then GEN Shisneski, it has been heavily criticized by the rank and file. Then when the ACU was introduced, all the complaints were about the velcro, the pin-on badges and the poor camouflage.
The Army is fixing the camo pattern, and now thanks to GEN Dempsey and SMA Chandler, the Army is going to fix those other important deficiencies on the ACU in addition to getting rid of the beret as the standard ACU headgear. Thank GOD we have common sense back in the top leadership of the Army.
This gives me hope that the Army will get back on track. I have met GEN Dempsey and SMA Chandler and I was impressed when I met them, but must more impressed now. They have shown in a very short time what their priorities are and that they are truly serving their soldiers, all of them.
Posted in Life in the Military, Military News
The military has come a long way in educating troops and medical providers on providing first aid and triage. When I first joined the Army in 1994, we carried little cards while training in the field. If we were “killed” or “injured” during the training by the enemy, the medics would approach us and pull out our “casualty card” to determine what happened to us. Some of the cards simply said “KIA.” Other cards would describe various wounds like “shot in the crotch” (my personal favorite).
The Combat Lifesaver or Medic would then perform the fictitious treatment on the fictitious wound. It was all about imagination and, to be honest, quite a bit hokey! That’s all changed now. The military has recognized through ten years of combat that no card can truly mimic the reality of a combat casualty. Until now…
Posted in Life in the Military, Photo of the Day
This is just a cool story.
Sgt. 1st Class Richard Ruddle (right) laughs as his son, Staff Sgt. Andrew Ruddle (left), jokingly plays his drum. The Ruddles are snare drum players in the Fife and Drum Corps, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), and have been playing together for six years. The Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps is the only unit of its kind in the armed forces and averages approximately 500 performances per year.
I always kind of thought that the EA6B Prowler was a particularly ugly plane, kind of like the E-2 Hawkeye. First of all, the plane is older than I am, so not from a very imaginative era where planes were supposed to LOOK cool. Not like today with the F-22 and F-35. But, it’s probably one of the most important non-combat aircraft the Navy has.
Created in 1971, the Prowler’s mission is to jam enemy signals and collect intelligence. When I first joined the Army, I worked in the signal collection world intercepting transmissions. At the end of my initial enlistment, I wanted to leave the Army and tried to join the Navy because I wanted to do the same job, but in the air! Unfortunately, the Navy wouldn’t let me join any higher than an E-4. I was an E-6 at the time. Needless to say, I stayed Army.
Even though it’s an ugly aircraft, I’m intrigued by its mission. That mission is now coming to an end as this picture from Pfc. Cory D. Polom shows.
Station Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting Marines shoot the first EA6B Prowler of Marine Corps and its crew with water as a traditional wash-off after returning to Marine Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron. The first Marine Corps Prowler was in service for more than 34 years and during that time it flew more than 11,000 flight hours and was piloted by four VMAQ-2 Marines for its final flight.
“This aircraft has been used by all the VMAQ squadrons aboard the base and finished up here with its final flight under the Q-2 logo,” said Lt. Col. Todd M. Caruso, the commanding officer of VMAQ-2. “We here at VMAQ-2 did everything we could to keep the history of that aircraft alive. We have used it for training and it has even been to Afghanistan.”
“Second Lieutenant Stann personally directed two casualty operations, three vehicle recovery operations and multiple close air support missions under enemy small arms, machine gun and mortar fire in his 360-degree fight…”–source
That is from Brian Stann’s Silver Star citation. He really is an all American hero, and well known in the UFC circles. He holds a special place in MY heart because he holds a degree in Economics. 
Gotta love a guy willing to go through all that supply, demand, and ceteris paribus.
Anyway, VA Mortgage Center hosts/sponsors this site and the Youserved Podcast. They are GREAT folks with whom to work. They work very hard to serve the military community and now, they have someone else on their side. Brian Stann. He is the new VAMC spokesperson! I know we are hoping to get him on the show to talk about Hire Heroes USA, his partnership with VAMC, and maybe get in a few squeals as fans. haha
Check out the new video below, and please pay very, very close attention to his passion for supporting fellow veterans. This guy is a class act. And congratulations to VA Mortgage Center for landing such a great representative for their company.
Posted in Uncategorized
I’ve never been interested in jumping from planes relying on Army chutes. It’s not that they fail, just that I’m not a fan of the rate of decent. However, I would LOVE, given the opportunity, to get SCUBA qualified. It just seems like such a quiet and peaceful part of the world that I could lose myself in. So, I always get jealous when I see pictures like this one from PO2 Class Jayme Pastoric of troops performing mission in the water.
A multinational diver moves a jackstay search line as he looks for an underwater mine during a training exercise with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 2. MDSU-2 is participating in Navy Diver-Southern Partnership Station, a multinational partnership engagement designed to increase interoperability and partner nation capacity through diving operations.
Photo by E. SKYLAR LITHERLAND
Transportation Management Coordinator Staff Sergeant Eddie Peoples was just doing what most Soldiers do on leave back in the states from an overseas assignment in Italy and I had the honor of sitting down and talking with him one on one today about how an average trip to his local Bank of America to get some money prior to a fishing trip with his two sons age 4 and 6 became so much more than average. Instead, Peoples found himself building a makeshift baracade for his boys while a robber, identified as Matthew Rogers by police, robbed a bank with what looked like a 9mm pistol.
In this video, you can see SSG Peoples calmly standing with his hands on his hips seemingly unfazed by the violent criminal, thinking at first that it was just a joke. However, when Rogers began yelling at everyone to stay down and walked around pointing his gun in everyone’s face, SSG People’s instantly recognized that, coupled with the robber’s body language, this was a serious situation. Rogers had even singled Peoples out, telling “the big black guy” not to do anything stupid or try anything.
“That hit it home for me that this guy means business,” remarked SSG Peoples. “He was telling everyone that he didn’t give a darn about life…if anyone got in his way, they would die.”
But, that wasn’t what instantly sparked a desire to do something in Peoples’ mind.
“He pointed the gun at my 6-year old son when neither of us was offering any resistance,” he said. “So I stood there and he pointed the gun at me the whole time because I would rather have him kill me than point the gun at one of my children. Cause if that happened, then he’s gonna have to kill me!”
He then moved away from his children so they wouldn’t be a target of the robber who was walking around while tellers filled his bag with an undisclosed amount of money. Peoples recognized that he had to do something at that point, not only as a citizen but as an NCO in the “greatest Army in the world!” Though unarmed, he made a point to not allow this guy to get away and cause any further damage or loss of life to anyone else.
SSG Peoples recognized that he was placing himself in danger but says he did what he had to do to stop this guy. And it wasn’t an easy choice – the robber weighed approximately 250 pounds and stood about 6’2″, not a small guy by anyone’s standards. He made a snap judgment and accepted the risks as U.S. Army Soldier to do something. As the robber left the store, Peoples glanced over and in a no-nonsense daddy voice told his kids “daddy will be right back, don’t move!” He made it outside the bank just before the manager locked the doors so the robber couldn’t come back in and moved towards his vehicle.
“At that point, I knew that it was just me and him,” Peoples recalled. “The bank manager had locked the doors making it impossible for him to reenter the bank. The only thing he could do is come at me or flee.”
The robber noticed that Peoples had exited the bank, turned, and just stopped in his tracks, almost as if he couldn’t believe someone would follow him out. Befuddled but recognizing that Peoples isn’t a small guy, the robber cautiously moved to his vehicle in an auxiliary parking lot across the street while Peoples got in his rental van and seemingly drove off.
In fact, Peoples moved his vehicle directly behind the Rogers’ vehicle as he was getting in and pinned it to the fence. Rogers unsuccessfully tried to ram the vehicle behind him out of the way. This tug of war lasts about 30 seconds until Rogers recognized the futility of trying to move a Chrysler Town & Country van out of the way and began fumbling with something in his vehicle. At that point, Peoples’ realized he was probably trying to gather up his money that had spilled in the vehicle before making a getaway.
Rogers jumped out of the vehicle and Peoples briefly had him pinned between the bumpers of the two vehicles. Rogers shouted something at Peoples and pointed the gun directly at him. Peoples fully expected to start taking shots, but Rogers came around with his gun pointed at Peoples to keep him from moving and attempted to carjack him by moving to the passenger side rear door. However, when the automatic doors of the van don’t open fast enough, Rogers tries to force the doors open only to have them close again.
At that point, SSG Peoples realizes he needs to do something and confronts Rogers head on. Rogers puts the gun to Peoples’ forehead and threatens to shoot him. Peoples believes he is now fully committed. It’s do or die, fight or flight.
Instead of cowering, Peoples’ Army combatives training kicks in.
“I went ahead and grabbed his wrist and did a wrist lock on him, which turns the weapon to the side so that if he actually discharges it the bullet will fly harmlessly by me and hit the van behind us,” Peoples noted. “I came up with his weapon in my hand.”
Peoples had planned to use that weapon against him once he had made it his. When he gained possession of the weapon, he instantly realized that the pistol was entirely too light for the large caliber is appeared to be. In fact, Rogers had just robbed a Bank of American and threatened Peoples’ kids with a realistic looking BB gun!
Peoples credits his Army combatives training for helping him to wrestle the gun out of the robbers hand and get him on the ground quickly.
“Every Soldier learns these moves and I put it to good use,” he remarked. “You don’t even have to think about it. If someone puts a weapon to your face, this is probably what you’re going to do.”
The mission of U.S. Army Combatives is to train leaders and Soldiers in close quarters combatives in order to instill the Warrior Ethos and prepare Soldiers to close with and defeat the enemy in hand to hand combat. Based out of Ft. Benning, GA, combatives have come a long way since its inception in 1995. Nearly all deploying Soldiers now go through Level 1 at a minimum and Battalions and Brigades are required to have level 2-4 trained instructors to assist with the training.
Peoples grabbed Rogers in a Muay Thai Clinch (basically grabbing him by the neck) and forced his face into the ground. He then identified himself as a combat hardened Staff Sergeant in the United States Army.
Rogers didn’t want any more after that. Peoples held him on the ground until the police arrived seconds later ordering Peoples – clutching a pistol and a bag of money – to the ground. He announced to the deputy that he was SSG Eddie Peoples, U.S. Army. The officer responded that he didn’t know who he was and that he needed to get on the ground. Bystanders instantly pointed out to police that Peoples was the good guy. Peoples reaches into his back pocket, pulls out his ID Card and sets it on the ground in front of him.
Once police are confident Peoples is innocent, he gets up on his feet. The deputy gives him a hug and tells him, “thank you, brother. I was stuck in traffic!” It was instant camaraderie.
Every time Peoples came down on deployment orders, he would tell his kids that “daddy has to go fight the bad guys.” Peoples walked back into the bank to get his sons and his oldest asked him, “Did you get the bad guy, daddy?”
Peoples responded, “Yeah, daddy got him.”
Instantly, the patrons in the bank opened up in loud cheers and applause for the hero of the day!
SSG Peoples is currently home on leave from Italy, where he is stationed, to visit his sick father in Sarasota, FL. He doesn’t recommend that anyone do what he does and instead hopes that his actions give criminals pause.
“I hope that when they think about committing a similar act, they look to their left and look to their right and think that the person next to them might be a former or current military person and rethink their actions,” he said. “A former police officer, something!”
He has been deployed three times in addition to a tour in Korea. He has been stationed at Ft. Carson, Italy, and was even stationed at Ft. Hood when Nidal Hasan killed and injured more than 30 troops, though he was deployed. Had he been here, he could have stopped that tragedy from happening too!
Posted in Military News, soldier of the week, Wall of Honor
Tagged bank robbery, florida, heroism, sarasota, ssg eddie peoples
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