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Still in the Fight..........

dajoho
@dajoho
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"Hurricanes are bad..." said Captain Obvious. Milton the monster (who remembers that reference?) is hitting the Florida Peninsula as I write this. Usually, the hurricanes approach the southeast US traveling due north and then push towards the east, up the eastern seaboard and/or into the Atlantic. If they go inland they rapidly dissipate. Well, Ms. Helene had thoughts of her own, traveling strongly north by northwest into the mountains of North Carolina, dumping what can only be described as a biblical amount of rain.

Now North Carolina holds a special place for anyone who has joined the US Army Special Forces. Fort Bragg, now known as Fort Liberty ("Vive la liberté!") is the home to where one becomes a Green Beret, including participating in an Unconventional Warfare culmination exercise designed to free the fictitious country of Pineland from the grip of tyranny. It is conducted in 26+ counties and it extends well into the North Carolina mountains.

Well, the largely retired Special Forces community (many that I know), rose to the occasion and is providing massive humanitarian assistance to those devastated by Helene. It only makes sense to me. The force is well-trained, calm, courageous, and skilled in engineering, communications, medicine, weapons, tactics, sensing political obstacles, and operating in austere conditions.

Personally, I think this is a fallout from Operation Pineapple Express, in its own words: Operation Pineapple Express is when a group of retired Green Berets who came together to save a former comrade—and 500 other Afghans—being targeted by the Taliban in the chaos of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This was empowering. We, collectively, found our strength by, with, and through each other.

Assistance to North Carolina started as a small effort to assist fellow Green Berets post-Helene and grew into the central hub of assistance integrating with local and state Emergency Operating Centers. Through our network, they have set up Forward Operation Bases, coordinated for and set up communications, established landing zones, and gathered a massive amount of resources (food, water, clothing, meds, power, and on and on thanks to all who donated) being delivered in a coordinated supply chain of personal vehicles, delivery trucks and even a fair amount of air assets. Initially they conducted Search and Rescue operations, getting to areas that were "inaccessible" and providing lifesaving care and extraction of trapped personnel. Not to mention gathering a massive amount of intel about the conditions of the area and sharing that with most authorities in order to coordinate and direct assistance.

I am unconditionally proud of my comrades. My only misgiving is I'm not there.

De Opresso Liber

This post was promoted to the Main Feed at the recommendation of Ricochet's members.

Discussion (23)

  • Percival@Percival

    Heh.

    Now that the effort has taken on a life of its own, Smith and others leading the operation have gone from cursing FEMA for its absence to hoping it never arrives.

    Smith said he fears their carefully calibrated rescue mission will be bogged down with governmental red tape if the feds show up.

    “Nobody out here wants the federal agencies to come in. FEMA has walked into operations centers like this and has attempted to just take over and tell them what they’re doing is illegal and they’re not allowed to keep going. I’ve seen it firsthand in this area,” Smith told The Post.

    “My biggest fear is they’ll move into the area and in the process they’ll reinvent the wheel and rebuild the entire process.”

  • Gary McVey@GaryMcVey

    This is absolutely Main Feed material, and based on its strong writing and warm response, betcha it'll be there soon.

    Notice the post author is modestly underselling the fact that he knows this particular group of heroes rather well. Well, damn, if he's going to turn the volume too low, then I'm going to turn it up some.

  • kedavis@kedavis
    ReplyingtoPercival

    Percival (View Comment):

    Heh.

    Now that the effort has taken on a life of its own, Smith and others leading the operation have gone from cursing FEMA for its absence to hoping it never arrives.

    Smith said he fears their carefully calibrated rescue mission will be bogged down with governmental red tape if the feds show up.

    “Nobody out here wants the federal agencies to come in. FEMA has walked into operations centers like this and has attempted to just take over and tell them what they’re doing is illegal and they’re not allowed to keep going. I’ve seen it firsthand in this area,” Smith told The Post.

    “My biggest fear is they’ll move into the area and in the process they’ll reinvent the wheel and rebuild the entire process.”

    More likely they'll just sit back until others have done their job, and then they'll take credit.

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