The ASP Baton

A write-up of the ASP baton and employment considerations.  A decent read if you keep ASP batons or similar designs.  From The Loadout Room.

Great Photo

This is a B-52 Stratofortress in 1990 doing a low pass during a joint exercise in the Persian Gulf.  Saw it on Gizmodo and had to share!  That bird has a 185' span and looks to be about 125-150' off the deck.  Just plain cool. Updated w/ 2nd shot.

The Loadout Room

If you haven't seen it yet, check out The Loadout Room.  It's still in the early stages but is being published by Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy, who were recently affiliated with Military.com's Kit-Up! website and broke off to form SOFREP.  Brandon also has a new book releasing soon, Red Circle, keep an eye out.

Lethality of 5.56mm

Being a military armorer, I get a lot of discussion about what round is better than the next.  The 9mm vs .45 debate comes up a lot.  I also hear a lot of misconceptions around military ammo, specifically the 5.56x45mm.  My thought process is the best round is the one that you have, that works.  I'm issued a variety of calibers, and have a lot of experience with unusual (for regular troops) military ammo.  In this post I want to go over some of the 5.56mm options and lethality, and what is being done to close those gaps.

Act of Valor

Ok...so I'm going to spill some beans.  My team was involved in shooting some of the scenes for Act of Valor.  I was an NSW Armorer for SBT-22 at the times of filming.  So there is no confusion, I am not a SWCC or SEAL, I am an Armorer.  I was not in any scenes, I was on the side-lines doing ordinance and maintenance tasks and checking out the weapons Bandito Bro's weapons guys brought down.  Our guys had a blast working with the Bandito Bro's team, and I'm a little disappointed they didn't get more face-time.  They got included in some making-of stuff it seems and of course they got face-time as a unit.  I want to share some stuff about my experiences regarding filming.

On the humble suppressor

Walther P22 with Silencerco Sparrow

I've used suppressors in the military and frankly wish they were more widely adopted in the service, and in civilian use.  Some may hear that and think we were running around doing assassinations.  The truth is much simpler and much less exciting.  More often than not they were employed dispatching feral dogs posing a threat to self, team, or mission and to protect working dogs (MWD) and sometimes for hitting street lights too even.  Splinter Cell fans rejoice...  For the actual sniper community I saw them as vital.  If you have ever fired a weapon in an enclosed space, you'll know it sucks for everyone present, and we don't want friendly snipers giving their positions up.  This is also where suppressor's are good for those going into CQB type situations, the reduced noise makes communications simpler, fire becomes less distracting and anything 'loud' is obviously not on your side.  So what about civilian usage?

Why Glock?

I saw a post on ENDO today that caught my attention.  James Yeager was on youtube giving his opinion that all guns should be Glock 19's, and 1911's are crap.  Check it out and discussion on ENDO here.  I'm not defending Yeager, he has done some questionable things in the past, but must admit the man does have some experience despite presenting it in a terrible fashion.  I have to pick a side and agree that for my own reasons Glock is my choice platform.