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As you may know the bulk of D-Day activity started 70 years ago today, 6 June 1944. However, the first 'element' of the invasion sailed not on 6 June but actually on 4 June. The element was composed of 4 miniature submarines that sailed at dark from England. Their mission was to approach the Normandy beaches and sit offshore, occasionally raising their periscopes to recon the proposed landing area. With over 7,000 ships, boats and other surface craft ready to embark there was the obvious concern to keep the advantage of surprise. The next duty of the mini subs was to surface at a prearranged time and shine a west pointing beacon so those 7,000 vessels would have something to guide them to the proper beaches. When the subs did surface in the early hours of June 5th, they received a signal from the Allied Supreme Command that instructed them to submerge once more and spend the next 24 hours at the bottom of the channel and to wait until the weather cleared. They sat all day from June 5th to June 6th and at 2:00 am they again surfaced and reported normal German activity which indicated that the element of surprise was still in effect. The invasion began! https://archive.org/details/Complete_Broadcast_Day_D-Day a fantastic site that has recordings of the actual CBS news reports and can be downloaded to hear the D-Day Invasion as reported as it unfolded! Cheers!

If we're talking a sheer numbers game, Israel has set the bar pretty damned high. In 2006 they releases 1,027 Palestinian prisoners for 1 Israeli Sgt. In 1985 they swapped 1150 prisoners for three Israeli soldiers. A 350 to 1 ratio. Over three decades they have released an estimated 7000 Arab prisoners for 16 Israelis for an average of 437.5 enemies to 1 friendly.

We could absolutely pull it off today! Have you even SEEN the number of party planners, event coordinators, & staff monkeys we have?? By god, it would be so (over)planned by so many people & briefed to so many other people, that there'd be no one left to actually go ashore! It wouldn't matter though, the war was won on PowerPoint, & everyone got an OPR bullet!!

The top 5? Lol. These guys were members of the Taliban and I'm sure hate us (wouldn't you after 10+ years of essentially illegal detention), but come on, this wasn't bin Laden, Zawahiri, Wuhayshi, Shekau and Joseph f'in Kony. One guy wasn't even high-level, 3 others were political guys more than field commanders or terrorist facilitators and not particularly radical as far as Taliban go, and one guy was a real hard core cock-sucker who surrendered to the NA and who probably should have just been killed rather than turned over to us in the first place. I don't know enough to make a 100% defensible judgement on whether or not these guys were super-valuable or not, but I'm guessing you don't know either, and frankly with the war winding down we kinda have to deal with these dudes one way or another. What's your alternate solution...summary execution? Trials in the US? Indefinite, illegal detention in Cuba? Not a lot of great options IMHO. I've been to many of those same memorials and to me the best thing to do that honors our dead brothers is to end the War in Afghanistan under the best circumstances possible and continue pounding these a-holes from afar whenever they pop their heads out of the sand. Releasing Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo was an inevitability in terms of actually ending the war, might as well get our guy back while we're at it even if he's not the most shining example of military discipline & bravery. Dude, probably not a great idea to be saying stuff like that out loud. You know, as an active duty officer beholden to the UCMJ. There's just no need to go down that path.

Std tacform UPT board diagram Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!

I think one lesson we've learned here is that if there's a way AFPC can screw you over, they will find it and execute. Extricate your ballsack from the vice ASAP and don't trust one word that comes out of their mouth. Sure, sticking around past 1 Jan may save you a few bucks, but it very well may cost you a testicle or two. That's not a good deal by my calculations. Someone else please check my math on this.

Found on another forum; made me laugh: https://www.airlinepilotforums.com/major/36912-any-latest-greatest-about-delta-15946.html#post1658486

And as was said, this is bigger than Bowe Bergdahl. Until we actually debrief him we don't really know what was going through his head when he decided to walk off post. My guess is he was a disillusioned, naive and sheltered young man who thought he was somehow going to go pull a Rory Stewart (The Places In Between) and be amongst the people and do something something. At the end of the day he deserves due process, that can't happen if he's stuck with the Taliban. Those that died searching for him and those that put themselves at risk to bring him home were supporting the American sense of justice. That is worth supporting regardless of Bergdahl's actions. At the end of the day, bad shit happens in war, sometimes due to stupidity, sometimes shitty situations, sometimes crappy training and sometimes crappy leadership but everyone one of us knows that we'll bring you home no matter what, at least you'll be answering for your actions from American soil or buried in it. As a PR guy, I'm willing to risk my life to honor that contract.

Bringing Bergdahl home isn't about Bowe Bergdahl. Dempsey wrote "“The questions about this particular soldier’s conduct are separate from our effort to recover ANY U.S. service member in enemy captivity. This was likely the last, best opportunity to free him"

What I'm taking away from this is that all I have to do to get my commander fired is draw a huge cock and balls in the squadron parking lot.

What a clown show. At least now everyone can stop focusing on the VA scandal and how well vets are really taken care of. This has nothing to do with rescuing our soldier; everything is political, scandalous, and deceitful. Don't think this is any different. To think about the amount of heros that died in this shithole trying to capture HVTs that would mass murder Americans in the blink of an eye. We just released the top five! My blood boils as I think about the countless memorials that I attended paying respects for real heroes that gave all to put these terrororist fuks away. Why are we still there? What a joke. We would've been much better off trading four cabinet members and the pres himself- that's a win win! Seriously!