Once again I am re-posting the work of Ann Barnhardt, word for word, her words, NOT mine, hers. This post can be found on Ann’s site: Barnhardt.biz - Commodity Brokerage.
SEALS ARE NOT FUNGIBLE, ADMIRAL JACKASS
POSTED BY ANN BARNHARDT - AUGUST 31, AD 2011 8:25 PM MST
I have waited patiently all day for one of the websites owned, manned and run by . . . JOURNALISTS to pick this up, but I have yet to see a single word. When I read this late last night I was SHAKING with fury. SURELY one of the sites dedicated to JOURNALISM would be all over this come morning. Nope. Not a word. Unbelievable.
From the New York Times (aka the Litter Box Liner of Record), page A6 in the print edition:
Admiral Defends Use of Navy Seals Unit in Fatal Raid
“Since the crash, which resulted in the greatest loss of American life on a single day in the Afghan war, some analysts have questioned why an elite Navy Seals strike team was assigned as mere backup for an Army Ranger raid on an insurgent cell, and why so many Special Operations personnel were aboard a single helicopter. Admiral McRaven dismissed assertions that the most highly trained Navy and Army commando teams should be reserved solely for the most high-profile missions; he said they were regularly assigned to support commanders of units in a local area of combat if that contributed to the overall mission.
“We have to be fungible as a force,” Admiral McRaven said. “And if we are not fungible as a force, then we are not of value. It is not unusual at all for SEALs or Rangers or Army Special Operations forces to be part of a quick-reaction force, as in this case.”
Did you get that? SPECOPS have to be . . . fungible. This McRaven fool is the COMMANDER of American Special Operations forces. I guess he missed the subtle meaning behind the word “SPECIAL” in “SPECIAL Forces”. Dear God.
See, this is what these slithering degenerate cowards do. They throw out a six dollar word that they know only one tenth of one percent of the people know the meaning of, everyone nods in agreement because they don’t know what the word “fungible” means, and then slick as you like just sweep the entire thing under the rug. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if McRaven himself didn’t know what the word “fungible” meant. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if McRaven thought it had to do with mushrooms.
Here is what “fungible” means.
Fungibility is the property of a good or a commodity whose individual units are capable of mutual substitution, such as crude oil, wheat, precious metals or currencies. For example, if someone lends another person a $10 bill, it does not matter if they are given back the same $10 bill or a different one, since currency is fungible.
Are you shaking with fury yet? The commander of U.S. SPECOPS wants to make the special operators he commands LESS SPECIAL. He visualizes a military in which a DEVGRU Navy SEAL could be substituted with a reserve guardsman or vice-versa – because remember, fungibility is all about MUTUAL substitution.
Really Admiral? Really? The 15 DEVGRU SEALs that were killed on that Chinook were literally some of the most valuable tactical human military assets THAT HAVE EVER EXISTED IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY. These DEVGRU men aren’t just SEALs, they are the absolute elite of the elite. Most of them are in their early to mid 30s, and have YEARS of combat experience in the other SEAL Teams before being hand-picked to join DEVGRU. Let’s run it down:
SEAL training is the toughest in the world. The first step for a man who volunteers to enter SEAL training is 4-12 weeks of prep courses followed by 3 weeks of “indoctrination”. Then comes the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) course. By the end of this 25-week course the wash-out rate is over 90 percent. There have been BUD/S courses in which every man washed out. For the very, very few who make it through BUD/S, next comes the 26-week SEAL Qualification Training (SQT). Beyond that, many SEALS also go through the 26-week Special Operations Combat Medic course. After all of that, the SEALs then go through 18 MONTHS of predeployment training. It takes a minimum of 30 months to fully train a SEAL for his first deployment.
Oh, but we’re just getting started. After spending YEARS on the ground in combat, gaining priceless experience on top of their already best-in-the-world training, a very, very select few SEALs are tapped to join DEVGRU (United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group). That is why most DEVGRU guys are over 30. They are highly experienced, stand-out SEALS. How much of a complete bad@$$ do you have to be to stand out . . . in a group of SEALs?
DEVGRU is the best of the best of the best. But even DEVGRU is split into four assault squadrons: Red, Blue, Silver and Gold. The Gold Squadron is the “premier” squadron, in other words, the best of the best of the best of the best of the best. Okay, now try to get your head around how special the men are who stand out not just among other Navy SEALs, but beyond that stand out amongst DEVGRU SEALs. Gold Squadron DEVGRU SEALs make Superman feel insecure.
Guess who was on that Chinook. And entire 15-man troop from Gold Squadron DEVGRU. I kid you not. An entire troop of the most valuable human tactical and combat assets in not just the United States Military, but all militaries across all of the centuries of human civilization and warfare - packed into one National Guard transport helo in a massive, massive breach of dispersion protocol, accompanied by 10 (I think) more SEALs (further compounding the breach of dispersion protocol), the Chinook crew, and SEVEN Afghanis who stood a non-trivial risk of being spies/turncoats/suicide bombers.
Citation (This stuff isn’t hard to find, Journalists. There are even further footnotes at the bottom of the page.):
United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group
And this McRaven idiot has the unmitigated gall to come out and spew some line of crap about FUNGIBILITY? We need to treat Gold Squadron DEVGRU SEALs like interchangeable commodity units?
Again, every single human being is infinitely precious, but when we are talking about war, we have to be able to parse the difference in TACTICAL value between different skillsets among our men. This is in no way immoral. From a TACTICAL COMBAT PERSPECTIVE, the notion of applied fungibility is utter and complete lunacy. It is certifiably insane. It is mission-suicidal and borders on being treasonous. Do you hear me, McRaven? Mission-suicidal and borderline treasonous.
“I’m not sure I know how it ends,” [McRaven] said. “This may be the ‘new normal,’ in terms of this threat that we will have to live with for a long time.”
Let me tell you “how it ends”, Admiral Pantspisser. It ends in swift, total, complete and unconditional victory. Either get your head around that or resign. We The People are sick and tired of politicking, imbecilic, touchy-feely asses like you using the treasure of this nation as cannon fodder to justify your self-serving politically correct agenda and whose dead bodies you step on to clamber your way up the payscale/pension ladder. Admiral McRaven, you have proven yourself wholly unqualified for your position at best, and a disgrace to the United States Navy and a water-carrying oath-breaker at worst. Men like you make me sick, and make me weep for my country and for the men under your command, the soles of whose boots you are not fit to lick. Hope you enjoy that pension, Billy, because you had to sell out your country and your brothers to get it.
Ann, you really need to stop holding back, just tell us how you REALLY feel! 😛
For anyone not aware, Ann Barnhardt also wrote this piece: THE EXECUTION OF SEAL TEAM SIX (PART 1) and she has been given KUDOS by some and was castigated by others.
I posted her work and am proud to do so, but be warned, Ann does not give her posts specific links, her post will *roll off* of the front page of HER blog soon and you’ll have to scroll back through her work to find it! Ann doesn’t allow commentary on her page either, but you can fire away on this blog!
Just remember, I didn’t write this piece, I re-posted it, so, if you have something tacky to say, don’t blast me, send Ann an email, I’m sure she appreciates knowing that there are some folks out there that just don’t *get it* where her writing is concerned.
Interesting article and facts about DEVGRU. Admiral McRaven has spent his career in special ops so I would assume he knows what he’s talking about. What Ann does say makes a lot of sense.
Seal Team Six (DEVGRU) came into the news lately when they first took out the Somali pirates and then Osama. Nobody knew they existed; all people knew is that there were Navy SEALS. Think about it. This team was outed by the White House when they released this information. Now, under Obama, they’re actions have been made public. DEVGRU is the Navy’s top counter terrorist team and their activities have always been classified. To put this in prospective, it would be like the White House during WWII naming the team that cracked the Japanese Code or naming the agency that infiltrated Hitler’s high command. By naming these men, the administration has made their family members targets and the MSM has gone along willingly by having them on TV interviews. I’ve got a few friends who are retired Naval Officers who trained with SEALS and they’re going bonkers of the release of this information.
McRaven & the rest of his ilk are of the same mindset that thought it a capital idea to give a beret to every doofus straight leg that somehow managed to bumble their way out of basic training without shooting themselves in the foot. Guys like him have always hated SF/SOG types.
Exactly!!
Believe Ann Barnhardt pretty much has things nailed. Getting to the time when our enemies within need to be dealt a blow with extreme prejudice.
Somehow, I think Ann has what it takes to break out a K-Bar and cut their balls off… If they have any.. And for damn sure, this Admiral Pantspisser, as Ann calls him, hasn’t got a brain to cut out…
Admiral Pantspisser — That one has me rolling… 😛
I love this woman.
Here, here, Ann Barnhardt ! How do these nimrods become Admirals?
Yet another example of a “Perfumed Prince” who has achieved flag rank. It’s a miracle the Repuiblic has survived as long as it has.
“Fungible” essentially means “interchangeable.” Which means that a SEAL is no more important than your basic PFC. Which means that he can be cast aside like a piece of toilet paper. Which means that admiral thinks SEALs are nothing more than expendable in any event.
What an incredible moron. Does this man not have a damned clue as to the vetting system in place to even get placed on a list for TRAINING as a SEAL? Every 10-year-old knows, due to cable, what “Hell Week” is for SEAL candidates.
So, let me get this straight: you spend literally thousands and thousands of dollars in training SEALs, vetting them, keeping them trained, keeping up their perishable skills, and you can squander them and their special talents with any little op you want because, after all, that’s their mission.
That admiral needs to be removed and/or forced to retire, forthwith.
BZ
Having the POINTED end of a Trident shoved up his ass wouldn’t be a bad idea either…
Frankly, I think I’d consider that.
BZ
Ooh - pick me! You can interchange my communications-trained Marine butt with a Trident placer, right? No special training needed to place it where it belongs with care and precision, right? So what if it takes a few tries to get it just right? After all, Admiral, it’s just YOUR ASS!
Barnhardt has nailed this again and in the first go around.
This ‘admiral’ is first class ass wipe and deserves to be defrocked and humiliated for his comments. he should be forced out of the service completely. He deserves no pension at all and i do not care what he done previously during his military career. To treat anyone serving on the front lines fighting against the slimy hordes of Muzzie bastards that rape and kill their own in the name of family honor, that butchered over 270 million innocents since Islam spawned from the pits of hell deserves nothing except a swift boot out of the military.
Every SEAL and every men and woman fighting to preserve our country and our freedom is priceless and worth a million times more than this ass hat dirt bag Admiral.
Re-posting at PC as I like the way you have pretty much left Ann’s commentary alone but spiced it up just a notch.