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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
Discussion (23)
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Awesome. A great story of America. Thank you.
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Heh.
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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.
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More likely they'll just sit back until others have done their job, and then they'll take credit.
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Love these guys! Pineland sometimes includes my little neck of the woods. This is who you really want to lead, not some career bureaucrat with a bunch useless degrees.
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