Tuesday, January 24, 2012

How weird is this?


LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Joint military training exercises will be held evenings in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.
Training sites ``have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine,'' a department official said.
The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said.
Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.
The exercises are closed to the public, police said.
The exercises are designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.

Posted by David Perez
KFI News
Read it at KFI News
LA Military Exercises

15 comments:

Matt Franko said...

This is what the Feds and City probably consider passes for a "shovel ready project".

I'm sure that there will be large amounts of Federal funding provided to the city of Los Angeles for support services.

I'm sure this is not what the MMT leaders had in mind when they advocate for "revenue sharing" with state and local govts.

Disturbing.

Anonymous said...

This looks like a warning shot over the bow of the Occupy movement.

Tom Hickey said...

Not too subtle, are they?

Tom Hickey said...

Did the commander-in-chief order this? The answer is yes, directly or indirectly. The buck stops at the top of the chain of command. As ex-military I know how serious the chain of command is taken and that responsibility extends all the way to the top.

Anonymous said...

Except when a war crime is committed. The the buck stops at the lowest ranked soldier they can pin it on.

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, since its LA, maybe the whole thing is just an elaborate movie shoot with the city and some local Army base getting a kickback from one of the studios.

Tom Hickey said...

Laura: Except when a war crime is committed. The the buck stops at the lowest ranked soldier they can pin it on.

Actually, the commanding officer of Abu Ghraib was sacked even though she knew nothing about and could not have given the complicated secrecy since intelligence services were involved.

But in general this whole issue was squashed since it went straight to the Oval Office. This has a very back effect on military discipline and morale. Over time, it creates rot from top to bottom and undermines the officer corps.

Tom Hickey said...

Dan K: On the other hand, since its LA, maybe the whole thing is just an elaborate movie shoot with the city and some local Army base getting a kickback from one of the studios.

Let's hope!

Ryan Harris said...

How do we get from the warm happy movie set of speeches in front of an applauding group of lawmakers in wonderful lighting to the stark reality of military exercises with police where they practice attacking civilians. Orwell didn't even paint a picture of government as weird.

Anonymous said...

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich receives a slap on the wrist.

Tom Hickey said...

Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich receives a slap on the wrist.

That may be true, but in my day his superior up to his commanding officer would have received bad fitness reports that would have detracted from their promotion schedule and future assignments. If that is not longer the case, then the rot has set in, and the US military is headed for the dust bin.

Anonymous said...

Would this be an example of bad fitness reports or would the reports have been issued to a higher ranking officer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_W._Koster

Tom Hickey said...

That was a case of getting sacked.


Fitness reports go in an officer's file and are considered by promotion boards. They stay with you your whole career. Two bad fitness reports and you may as well just resign and find another career. You aren't going anywhere.

Anonymous said...

So these fitness reports are supposed to prevent your military from ending up in the dust bin? How exactly?

Tom Hickey said...

They keep officers focused on attention to detail while keeping the big picture. An officer is responsible for EVERYTHING that happens under him or her in the chain of command. Every Navy captain knows that a lowly seaman can prevent him from making admiral. Every officer knows that whatever happens under him will be recorded as plus or minus in his or her fitness report and influence his or her career track.That's what the chain of command is supposed to be about. You really have to excel to win promotions and if you get passed over twice in promotion rounds, you have to retire. You also know that if anyone under you screws up, it is a bad mark for you. This keeps everyone in the chain of command extremely vigilant, looking down the chain to make sure that everything goes exactly as it should and hopefully expectations are exceeded. The people that get on the fast promotion track are the people that not only make sure than nothing goes wrong but also get their people to outperform others. People that are really effective and efficient can jump up in rank pretty quickly. It's not all that different from the corporate ladder, but the level of responsibility is a lot greater since people lives are at stake.