Misc

There are times when certain headlines fly through the news that make your heart drop. Sometimes, it’s a simple headline that can do the trick. Other times, it takes a bit more research before things start to get scary. Follow me as I play connect the dots and introduce you to the military unit that will be stationed near you, in America. To answer your first question: yes they will be available to be used to control civil disobedience. To answer your next question: as long as the military wants them to stay. Perhaps your last question: October, 2008.

A few days ago, small reports were coming out about a new military unit that was going to be stationed within the United States of America. I first heard the report from a friend and suddenly I found myself dizzied by the amount of curse words flying through my head.

The original story that I read was in a blog that included a small excerpt. The title was enough to get me started:

“Army Unit to Deploy in October for Domestic Operations”

The excerpt left a lot to be desired on the information front. So, I decided to start doing my own research into the subject. Ladies and gentleman, I am not comfortable with what is going to be happening in our country in the next couple of years relating to this. It’s sickening and frightening. But, here goes.

First, you need to familiarize yourself with the organization that we are going to be talking about. From my research, it appears that since 1999, the Department of Defense has been actively seeking a solution to quick responses in times of crisis for the country. Whether it be from terrorism, natural disaster, they wanted to have a way to quickly deploy “aid” to places in need. This search was exacerbated by the 9/11 attacks, Katrina, and the various other catastrophic failures of the administration.

There are a few acronyms that you now need to familiarize yourself with:

  • CBRNE – Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or high-yield Explosive
  • CCMRF – CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force – also (possibly originally) pronounced “sick-merf” it has been changed to a more friendly pronunciation of “sea-smurf”
  • JTF-CS – Joint Task Force – Civil Support
  • USNORTHCOM (informally NORTHCOM) – United States Northern Command

Now that you have been introduced to the players, you need to understand how they relate to each other. CBRNE is a generic term used to describe the type of work and not an organization. CCMRF is the focus of this post. The JFT-CS is under command of the United States Fifth Army. As I understand it, the CCMRF falls under the JTF-CS category. However, the CCMRF unit is under the command of NORTHCOM.

First and foremost is the fact that the CCMRF will be divided into three forces: CCMRF-1, CCMRF-2, CCMRF-3. These forces are from the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard. This is to encompass the vast array of duties this unit will be responsible for carrying out. Each CCMRF force will consist of approximately 4,500 troops. In an interview conducted by the Air Force Times, Army Lt. Col. Rob Cunniff, head of NorthCom’s Future Operations revealed a lot of detail about what the force will be. He envisions that the forces will be split up in thirds as the country would be: 1 force for the West, 1 for the East and 1 in the middle. The first unit would be the greatest mix of forces while the 2nd and 3rd would be made up of mostly Guard units.

One of the larger forces that will be part of CCMRF-1 has been training since at least 2007. More on that later, however. The large force is the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team. They have spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq. Army Col. Louis Vogler, another chief of NorthCom future operations:

“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future. Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.”

A new force, every year. I have yet to find any plans or mentions of this operation ever ceasing.

One striking piece of information is that this unit will be equipped with the Army’s first ever non-lethal arsenal of weapons. Not just beanbag guns but tasers, batons, shields, etc. I’ll let the Army speak for itself here again. 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier:

“…the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

“It’s a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they’re fielding. They’ve been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we’re undertaking we were the first to get it.”

The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.

“I was the first guy in the brigade to get Tasered,” said Cloutier, describing the experience as “your worst muscle cramp ever — times 10 throughout your whole body.

“I’m not a small guy, I weigh 230 pounds … it put me on my knees in seconds.”

The first time the Army has deployed this is going to be within the country intended for use on it’s own citizens? Are you serious? Couldn’t they have tested some non-lethal equipment somewhere else? Anyway, the rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper.

Although the unit is supposed to be for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or high-yield Explosive (at least according to the acronym), it has been slated for other causes. This includes assisting with local officials against civil disobedience, hurricanes, anthrax and really a whole slate of other things that could possibly go wrong.

So, now you know you can expect around 15,000 troops to be stationed in the country with tasers that can drop a 200+ lb. man and training with batons, shields and roadblocks. If that isn’t scary enough, the head of NORTHCOM will be sufficient.

On March 23, 2007 a new head of NORTHCOM was appointed. Victor E. Renuart Jr. is a highly decorated man that is the commander of NORTHCOM and he also happens to be the head of NORAD. So the person in command of determining whether there is a threat anywhere in the country is also the person in command of the units that will be able to respond to the “threat.” Doesn’t it seem like there should be one someone to check the authority here? Apparently, that’s just a bit too logical.

Now then, I have respect for an officer in the military. However, I cannot say that this guy’s credentials are what I want when I’m looking for a commander of a military deployed within this country. Why is that? Well, according to Wikipedia, Mr. Renuart:

“oversaw the planning and execution of all joint and allied combat, humanitarian assistance and reconstruction operations for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.”

So, the person who oversaw all of the completely chaotic, ineffective, dangerous, and terrible “operation” in Iraq, is the one who is going to be in command of the unit deployed in this country? Please tell me this is a dream so I can wake up.

So, how can this unit be deployed? Someone has to give the go ahead, correct? I was able to find the manual dealing with CCMRF and found this gem:

“(e) USARNORTH accomplishes its CBRN CM mission in strict adherence of public law and DOD policies. Deployment of USARNORTH, at the direction of the USNORTHCOM commander and on the authority of the Secretary of Defense, occurs only after a governor requests federal assistance from the President, and after the President issues a Presidential Disaster Declaration. In any DSCA setting, USARNORTH remains in support of the lead federal agency throughout the CBRN CM operation.”

Did anyone else just read that it takes a governor to ask for this authorization? Can anyone recall a governor suddenly becoming a prominent public figure for no apparent reason?

Oh that’s right. Governor Sarah Palin from Alaska. Quite possibly the least capable or experienced candidate to ever run for the position.

Alaska you say?

Allow me to introduce AKS/NE ’07. Alaska Shield/Northern Edge training mission. This would be one of the first large-scale training missions that would be done in conjunction with other states. However, the Alaskan operation was a huge one involving multiple types of training.

I don’t think it’s possible that the Governor of Alaska would have not been involved in this in some way.

It seems fair to say that it’s possible that Sarah Palin has a more intimate knowledge and familiarity with CCMRF because of this exercise. Wouldn’t a candidate, who’s already comfortable with a military deployment in the country, be a perfect running mate for John McCain? Suddenly, it’s likely there may actually be a reason that they would have chose her. Given the secessionist background, it seems both Sarah and her “first dude” would be pleased as punch with a military unit installed in the country that can be called on by a governor.

Obviously there is a lot of additional information out there on all of these subjects. So please, go out and do your own research and let’s see what is really going on here.

To recap:

  • 3 forces, around 4,500 strong will be deployed in the East, West and middle of the country
  • They will be replaced every year
  • They are under the command of the person who oversaw Operation Iraqi Blunder
  • They will be armed with the Army’s first non-lethal weapons package
  • They can be deployed by the governor of a state
  • The last state they had a big training operation in was Alaska
  • The governor of Alaska was surprisingly chosen as the Vice Presidential candidate for John McBush

We’re gonna have a problem here.

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  • Jim

    First of all, these units are only “deployed” across the country in the event of a HUGE disaster in which the state’s national guard is overwhelmed and at the request of the governor. They are assigned sectors of teh country so that one can focus on developing relationships with regional and state officials before a disaster. At this very moment, there will only be ONE CCMRF under federal control, the other two belong to the STATE. In other words, they are a Federal capability that will act to support STATE response. They are not fighting, they are providing search and rescue, transportation, supplies, MEDICAL care. They would be deployed with non-lethal weapons in order to protect themselves and supplies that are headed to disaster areas. They need these because they will otherwise be unarmed, you ninny. No military commander (esp. clouitier) would let his troops, unarmed, into dangerous disaster zones while ferrying essential medicines and supplies. So what you’re saying, is that it is a bad idea to have troops ready to respond to a nuclear disaster or a pandemic flu! We’ll just hope that the state can handle picking up a 100,000 bodies on their own and bringing supplies and doctors to shelters. You’re paranoid and hate the military for some reason. Not only this, but if they are deployed and Obama is President, they will be under his command. They do not EVER belong to the Governor, they would be sent to assist the Governor. No active duty military commander will ever be given, or would ever take, orders by a State official. They would respond to the direction of an incident commander (read: fire chief) on the ground – i.e. go search that building over there, please; but will still have the chain of command that has been in place for 230 years. The CCMRF has not trained in Alaska as a CCMRF. The NL weapons package is the only time a unit has been issued an array of NL weapons at once. The weapons have always existed in various units at various levels. These are brigades that have never needed to account for, or train on them before, that’s why they got them all at once. You would be the first person screaming bloody murder if a big event happened and the Federal Government had no trained and ready force able to help.

  • Jim

    One more thing. DOD units do not need permission to train in any state. That’s why they have DOD posts and bases. Those belong to the Federal Government. In other words, the Governor doesn’t have any say in where they train. It helps to have their cooperation to allow state National Guard troops participate, but that is the extent of their say so. The CCMRF just trained in Indiana, how come he wasn’t chosen as a VP pick? You have a lot of facts, but you marshall them to the wrong conclusion. There are laws that restrict the military like you would not believe. Any transgression against those laws would never be tolerated by citizens, lawmakers, or subordinate military officers. Believe me, the Army has more lawyers than anyone else and they sit right there next to the commander and have taken an oath to say, “no, you can’t do that.”

  • The US Military is NOT A POLICE FORCE. Their training is completely and totally inadequate and worse inappropriate for the task just look at every ‘police action’ or ‘peacekeeping action’ they’ve been sent to – Iraq included THEY ARE A WAR UNIT. The Guard and the Militia and local law enforcement are designed to serve this function, and if they’re not then we need to take a look at how we can help them do that. Not how to help the US Army etc put boots on the ground. They’re NOT trained for it. It goes completely against everything they are.

    As for calling up the forces, thats different than the command of the forces. I’m not sure who’d have overall command of the forces but it looks like it’d be USNORTHCOM from the wording you quoted, however it does indicate they’d be bound by local laws.

    Again though, the Army is not the right unit for this no matter what. They’re NOT equipped nor trained for it in the least. Local Law Enforcement is, and to a lesser extend Guard and Militia.

    Army Corps of Engineers has been used for civil projects but NOT peacekeeping (lets face it them, and the railroad engineers had a big hand in nearly every huge, major, technically impossible construction project over the last 50 years).

  • Jim

    You’re correct. They are NOT trained very well for law enforcement, hence the reason they are training right now for the CCMRF mission. If they ever do any LE, it would be with the NG, not on their own. They are really just federal labor during a disaster; albeit labor who do exactly as they are told to do and provide a visible indication of some semblance of authority. P.S. This isn’t an Army force, it is a JOINT force, that is, it is commanded and manned by all of the services. Granted, the Army is the major component – but they are the ones with all of the trucks and are better at life on land than the zoomies, coasties, or squids.

  • agoodhope

    In any case, I don’t like troops in our border- foreign or ‘our own’- I think this is cause for alarm and careful oversight. Thanks so much for this blog-

  • J

    Good article.

    We were supposed to have a National Guard made up of “civilian soldiers” for use in case of emergency. Instead we now have the Cheney/Bush HOMELAND/FATHERLAND domestic doctrine which says they can institute martial law on a whim and will have combat hardened troops in place for this purpose.

    Should you be nervous? Yes.

  • lostuir

    To have tens of thousands of combat hardened-troops with the latest weaponry on our streets- at this time- is a bad omen. Not once has our gov told us the truth in the last 8 years- and they didnt start now.

    This is for advanced roundups and to kick our doors down in the middle of the night, like they’ve been trained to do in Iraq. The chickens are coming home to roost.

  • KC

    Jim,
    I am so sick of hearing yahoos like you accuse people of “hating our military.” Maybe we should hate some military people like you who would probably round up your own neighbors and say you were “just following orders.” A REAL American has to have loyalty to the constitution. It’s time we stopped worshiping the military and “the troops” and remember that THEY WORK FOR US. They are not above the constitution and we will not let anyone destroy our Democracy. Don’t think for a minute we couldn’t have a military take over in this country. The “patriot” act, warrantless wiretaps, and the changing of posse commitatus to allow combat hardened troops, for the first time, to “police” U.S. citizens is closer than we have ever come to living in a dictatorship. If you are not afraid, you’d better search your soul and ask how you could have strayed so far from the principles in our constitution. It was a good thing there were a buncha evil commie protestors who came out and ended this stupid war and wouldn’t let all the wannabe fascists take all of our rights away. If you love your freedom, thank a protestor!

  • KC is right. Jim you are just another brainwashed zombie that will end up in camps made by your precious government. The same people that planned 9/11, the same people (CIA) that have been running the drug trade in America, the same people that BY FACTS ALONE have admitted to starting a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT..,? Ring a bell ( the bible ). Sorry to reference that but it sounds like something Jim can relate to. WHY WOULD FEMA ORDER HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF COFFINS THAT ARE MEANT TO BE BURNT? I am sorry but there is no need to order those coffins as a precaution. Unless…..they are planning on killing all the true patriots. I guess only time will tell….but JIM know that i wont hesitate to take you out if you stand in my way. MAY THE CONSTITUION LIVE!

  • Scott

    I’m in the military, so you know my general stand. I don’t mean to get caught up with you folks, but this is just too much fun to read and ignore. Let us first clear up the difference between “stationed in” and “deployed”. In case you weren’t aware, there are hundreds of military installations across the US in which Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines are “stationed in”. They live in your communities, train and support the bases and participate in the economy. “Deployed” is when they are gathered together to temporarily go to a location outside their fence to perform a duty, like participate in Iraq/Afghan operations.

    Why is it a bad thing to have non-lethal weapons? When the protestors are burning and looting, do you think they should just be killed in the street with lethal weapons? Too many innocent Iraqis/Afghans die because soldiers don’t have a way to eliminate a potential threat without shooting a bullet. With less-than-lethal weapons, they can stop a potential threat to give them time to discover if that approaching van is a suicide bomber or a family on the way to the market.

    The author wrote, “Can anyone recall a governor suddenly becoming a prominent public figure for no apparent reason?” I thought the reason was that…THEY’RE A GOVERNOR! The author tries to imply a conspiracy with Palin and the Alaskan military exercise and a possible Republican presidency using this force to impose their will on the people. As Jim explains, and the author quoted, the governor requests assistance from the Federal Government. Governors do this all the time when they want money or FEMA or whatever, right? IF things get way out of control so that the state doesn’t have enough people to manage the emergency, a Governor might need the services this organization can provide.

    I just left an assignment in Alaska. Northern Edge is the title of a military exercise we’ve been having in Alaska since 1993. Other major named exercises go back to 1975 from what I could find. These are war fighting exercises designed to prepare all our military forces to deal with various military combat scenarios throughout the world. The Governor has limited impact in this short of the participation of Alaskan National Guard units.

    Jim really seems to know what he is talking about. He is dealing with the facts as I understand them.

    Michael makes a great point on the training issue. But, as Jim points out, the whole point of the new task is to train and prepare this unit.

    Provided “agoodhope” understands that American military forces live and work throughout the US, I agree that a “deployment” of this unit to support an emergency is a cause for concern. It means something terrible has happened that civilian authorities can’t handle. That probably means many people have died and worse could be on the way. This military unit certainly does need oversight, as every unit does. Violations of military law does occur and that is why we have a military criminal and prison system.

    J is correct (sort of) in pointing out the availability of the National Guard to be the first to be called up to support state issues. But, if they get overwhelmed, this unit is another source of support.

    Lostuir makes a fun and scary prediction of the future. However, this unit alone can’t pull that level of control off.

    KC seems righteous and angry. Good for you for standing up! I wish I could assure you that the military will not take over the country, just so you will feel less threatened by us. But, I don’t think there is anything I could offer to change your opinion. I can assure you, I keep waiting to get that indoctrination into the secret circle when someone tells me how we are going to do it. Instead, I keep getting forced to hear boring briefings about ethics, safety, leadership, process improvement, cost savings and stuff like that.

    Austin, having a hobby is a good thing. Many of us like sports or crafts. Some are into hunting, gardening or cars. Believing in conspiracy theories can be a fun hobby. But, don’t let it take up too much of your time. Go for a walk. Spend some time with your family. Maybe our goverment is as evil as you describe. But I didn’t see anyone at the crowded mall or crowded restaurant yesterday complaining about anything. Life seems pretty good being a sheep.

    Finally, I’m willing to accept that some conspiracy things might be true. But, I’m going to need a lot more than this article to help me get there. Don’t just string a bunch of uninformed topics together to predict a future. Hey, maybe your hated President Bush will find a way to declare martial law just before President-elect Obama takes office. Maybe then some chip in my head will turn me into that brainwashed zombie stormtrooper to march through the streets and kick in doors. Tell you what, you should probably hide quietly in your basement on 19 Jan. Don’t come out until it’s over. And practice walking like a zombie. It will help you sneak into the nerve center to shut us all down. Wait, didn’t I already see that movie?

  • Tom Lucas

    You have too much time on your hands.

  • Food for thought.

  • Wow some of the comments here are just rude, thanks for the post!

  • to scott

    hey scott buddie how r ya well first off im a veteran and i cant fly why cause of my special training in the mil im on the no fly list i never been in trouble and have a spotless record too boot. and so u know mr military man i dont give 2 hoots if anyone thinks trining troops to handle us citizens with any weapons is a good thing so whit that said i need to say what about sec 5210 in the health care bill called the commisioned corps huh smart guy civilianized military unit with the same funding as the national guard and res hmmm how about the nazi ss troups ring any bells for u smart guy dont believe me look it up and look on youtube for obama talks about a privat army he said it no vid tricks or out of contex there buddie it was before he was pres no smart guy fight that one if u can