Husband. Father. Retired Paratrooper. World traveler. Curious American. SPYSOPs X-pert. Havana Syndrome appreciator.
North Carolina, USA
Joined August 2016
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So at some point in the 2003 / 2004 time window, I was a “senior” E-5 Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne Division. I say “senior” because the Army has a promotion point system, and the points for my job were so high that I couldn’t get promoted without cheating. So I was “Senior” because, although relatively young, I already had two tours of Bosnia under my belt, I may have been to Afghanistan once, and I had been a Squad Leader, and even a Platoon Sergeant at this relatively low rank. In short, being regarded so well by my command, and being a Paratrooper in America’s Guard of Honor, I was blessed to have the reputation of being something of a bad ass…
Part of being a bad ass is training your troops to a high standard. A very high standard. You set the training. You can wait on the Army to provide training aids, or you can provide your own. Realistic training demands realism. Training to fight an asymmetric foe demands the use of non military equipment. The task today was “Vehicle search”, so I provided the use of my own privately owned vehicle as the training aid in our simulated vehicle check point.
The vehicle, to fit the character of a young bad ass, was a pretty cool Ford Mustang GT. The task was to investigate the vehicle and find hidden contraband…
The training was going exceedingly well, right up until the point when the first troops opened the passenger front door and I realized I hadn’t sterilized my vehicle of personal belongings…
“Oh fuuuuuudddgggggeeeee” crossed my mind.
If you’ve read the stories I have posted in my profile highlights, you’ll see that I have had more than one brush with death, and in those situations, I usually walked away without to much of a bother at all. The action, and the potential discovery, playing out before my eyes at this moment scared me to my core!
So what the hell kind of disclosure could scare the bejeezus out of a grizzled young bloodthirsty paratrooper you ask? There was a certain CD in my car that I had forgotten was in there and I DID NOT want to be judged for possessing it…
“But Manny! What the hell could be so bad that you would be mortified over a simple CD? It couldn’t have been that bad… Surely your reputation was strong enough to withstand anything…”
My mind raced ahead of the training and all I could picture was one of my troops standing up, holding a CD up in the air with two fingers, and saying “What the hell is this???”
You be the judge.
youtu.be/dS1ZW0FdoIU?is=r9o_…
@Ami_Marisol I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to have you weigh in on this one. Maybe @NativeTexan_17 too.
I don’t know if I’ll get it, but I feel like I need some female empowerment support.
Manny Salazar retweeted
3rd work order returned with the same excuse in the response.
@Dakota_Meyer
@hotscots_app
@rArmyReddit
Nobunaga-San is talking Chapman now.
For fourteen years, everyone thought U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman died in the first two minutes on top of a freezing 10,000-foot mountain in Afghanistan.
Then modern image technology unlocked the thermal camera footage recorded by a Predator drone circling high in the clouds on March 4, 2002.
When Pentagon investigators watched the enhanced screen, hardened combat generals broke down in tears. Because the video proved that after everyone else had left the mountain peak, John Chapman woke up alone in the snow and fought an entire army by himself.
That night on the peak of Takur Ghar, thirty-six-year-old Chapman, a father of two little girls from Connecticut, had charged uphill through thigh-deep snow alone to silence an enemy bunker and save his pinned-down team. Hit from a second bunker, he fell motionless. Believing he was dead, the surviving team was forced to retreat down the ridge.
Chapman was not dead.
The drone footage showed him regaining consciousness in the pitch-black snow, surrounded on three sides by enemy fighters, with nine separate wounds in his body.
In total darkness, with no comrade beside him and nobody on earth watching except a silent camera in the sky, he refused to surrender. For more than an hour, he fought from inside the bunker, killing an enemy fighter in bare-handed close combat when they tried to rush him.
Then, at dawn, Chapman heard the heavy thump of rotor blades in the mist.
An American Chinook helicopter carrying twenty-three U.S. Army Rangers was flying straight toward the peak to rescue him, right into the sights of an enemy rocket launcher.
Chapman knew that if he stayed safe inside the rock bunker, those twenty-three young Americans in the helicopter would be blown out of the sky.
So on the thermal video, investigators watched John Chapman deliberately climb out of the bunker, stand up tall in the open snow, and fire into the enemy positions to draw every machine gun on the mountain onto his own chest.
He died in the snow as the sun rose, shielding the incoming helicopter with his life.
True bushido is what a warrior does when he thinks nobody will ever know his story. The sky was watching, John. And America will remember your name forever.
I don’t know. Kinda sounds like he’s playing for keeps.
Muchos mensajes, análisis y comentarios como este, asegurando que las pandillas de Haití no son como las de El Salvador; que son sanguinarias, que están fuertemente armadas, que nadie ha podido vencerlas, que todas las misiones han fracasado, que estamos cayendo en una trampa, que no sabemos a lo que nos enfrentamos, que será nuestra ruina, que vamos camino a nuestro Waterloo.
Pero cuando Dios nos conceda la victoria, los mismos que hoy dicen todo eso cambiarán su discurso. Dirán que siempre fue fácil, que cualquiera podía hacerlo, que las pandillas de Haití no eran tan peligrosas como se pensaba.
En fin, nunca los hemos escuchado y no vamos a empezar ahora.
Todos los que se han enlistado son creyentes y hemos encomendado esta misión a Dios, mientras que las pandillas de Haití son satánicas y es de conocimiento público que hacen sacrificios humanos.
Dios nos concederá la victoria. El Creador del Universo está con nosotros.
Deuteronomio 28:7
“Jehová derrotará a tus enemigos que se levantaren contra ti; por un camino saldrán contra ti, y por siete caminos huirán de delante de ti”.
Wife went out to have some gal time for the first time in ages. Also, for the first time in ages, I am having toasted Pop Tarts. Strawberry, of course.
This is my pathetic attempt at being ungovernable.
Folks, I’m gonna be real for a moment. I don’t have a big account. I don’t know how many “followers” are even people and not Chinese bots. I think a lot of people look at follower counts and see this people as “fans”.
Honestly, I can’t even really comprehend that for myself. Some of you have reached out and shared that you like the content that I generate from time to time. That is high praise indeed. Over that past few years that I have been active, especially the past several months, it has been genuinely good getting to know y’all on here. I appreciate the insights and the commentary you offer. I also appreciate the humor you bring to my daily life.
In short, I appreciate you. No anniversary. No special occasion. I just wanted to thank y’all for dropping in and coming along for this ride. It’s nice to be amongst good people.
🙏
Manny Salazar retweeted
Quick question for the CSM out at Camp Hovey. I understand you're upset the nasty barracks ended up here. What are you going to do if @Dakota_Meyer who is representing @SecWar shows up wanting to know what the barracks are like?
If Soldiers have to fear giving anonymous feedback, here or in ICE, you're not going to get the feedback.
Let's focus on ensuring our warfighters have a clean, safe, and comfortable living space instead of focusing on the Soldier advocating for themselves and fellow Soldiers.
I’m thrilled to know that the rumors of Colin Powell’s death, in 2021, were greatly exaggerated.
Never mind that Mc Master had a shaped head, that’s no even close to being Stan, everything in the photos is garbage…
I just hope whoever made this had fun!
