Blog Title: WingMan NewsWire

I Do, You Do–

We all do IW! Irregular Warfare is a hot buzzword these days, the kind of generic catch-all phrase that covers all those things the American military doesn’t do all that well but are actually a lot more “regular” than most would like to believe. The Small Wars Journal linked to an Inside Defense piece (behind a paywall, read more..

Human Terrain Systems Takes Heavy Blow

Human Terrain Team Member Killed in Afghanistan (SWJ Blog) Michael… helped the brigade reduce its lethal operations by60 to 70%, increase the number of districts supporting the Afghangovernment from 15 to 83, and reduce Afghan civilian deaths from over70 during the previous brigade’s tour to 11 during the 4-82’s tour. My thoughts and best wishes are with read more..

Airpower = Support

I’m taking a COIN class here on The Hill, which didn’t really focus on airpower, but the more strategic level–a lot of “get to know the culture!” and “stop killing good guys!” Nothing I haven’t read on Abu Muquwama, although we did read some good books–and I got to write a fun paper that read more..

Unexpected Support

My post generated more noise than I expected, most likely due to a blogging by John Robb himself.  To that, all I can say is: wow. @Neil: While other commentors bring up the several problems that relying on mobile phones in the AOR will cause, this discussion does show the power of the cloud.  These handsets read more..

Fragility VS Mobility

John Dvorak just posted about the fragility of online social networks. I think he missed the point. He claims that “there is no such thing as a real community online.” There are only “pretend” communities. I suppose it depends on your definition of community. Communities come together on the Internet all the time–see read more..

DIY Land Warrior

In my Information Operations class today, someone started talking about net-centricity and the way it flattens command and control (although he didn’t quite call it that, more’s the pity–he took a fairly high-altitude view of the thing and didn’t even specifically reference Future Combat Systems or Land Warrior). It got me thinking, though: could I cobble read more..

Is This Thing Still On?

Ahem.  We begin bombing in… Well, I’m not quite sure. Life occurs, and it has been way too long since I’ve taken a poke around in here, but that may or may not be changing soon.  As I focus my life, this blog will become more and more focused utnil it is a veritable laser. Until such focus read more..

Foreign Service Officers Balk at Deployment

Maybe I’m a little biased, considering I had a friend get his face shredded by an IED while he was working with the Army Corps of Engineers.  Consider as well that in less than two years, I’ll be training to deploy myself.  My chances of deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan within my first five years read more..

On the Road: New London

As you read this, I’m off the computer and on the road, heading out to the Coast Guard Academy.  It’s the first of two trips in as many weeks, both to compete in a debate-like academic event called Mock Trial.  The site isn’t very well designed, but the basic gist is that I’ll be pretending read more..

Way-out Wednesday #7: Alma Matters

August 31, 1978: 19 year-old Steven Morrissey first meets guitarist Johnny Marr, the one who will launch Morrissey’s career several years later by aggressively enlisting him to co-found a band: The Smiths. August 31, 1997: 19 years to-the-day since Morrissey met guitarist Johnny Marr, Princess Diana is killed under circumstances foreshadowed in Morrissey’s work, beginning with an album by The Smiths. And read more..