I thought the contested landing was actually supposed to be carried out but that sometime between initial planning and kickoff, Schwarzkopf decided against it and used it as a rope-a-dope.

A buddy of mine was on the Missouri during this. According to him, the missile that HMS Gloucester took out stays low while approaching the target, then once it’s close it goes up so it can come down on the vulnerable bits. Although the missile was detected at a distance, the Gloucester didn’t fire on it until this…

I *think* he meant to say that the Silkworm shot down was the first instance of an antiship missile being shot down in combat by another missile

Mk 41 tech here.

This strategy was outlined in great detail in an entire chapter of my 2010 book An End to al-Qaeda:

Whoa, that’s some craziness! “Knights of the Silencers” sounds like some “gang” invented by a bunch of dorky middle schoolers. Not that I’d mess with them. And I imagine dudes on an AQI assassination squad are no-fucks-given kind of guys, so “step-up” seems right up their ally.

When you’re right, you’re right. I was one frozen sucka!

My father was a lead interrogator there in the 80s, got the photos of him in the Russian uniforms and everything.

Too bad you can’t be there shipmate. The movie Victory was about unity of purpose and defeating the enemy’s exploitation. Ask any one that’s actually been to SERE. Its all about resisting enemy exploitation in a captive environment. The SERE community has had conferences and papers written about the Manchurian…

This was an Iraqi Intelligence built can taken from al-Qaeda in Iraq Knights of the Silencers assassination squad. They aimed off the rear sight and the bullet goes right down the barrel and into the target. It was used for “Step up” assassinations... as some have said walk right behind the victim and put it in his…

When they did an “Ask Me Anything” type deal with the guy over on Phase Zero, someone asked him about the pistol and this is what he said: “The Weapon is a Beretta M92 taken from AQI’s (al-Qaeda in Iraq) Knights of the Silencers. They were an assassination squad that used ex-Baathist intelligence weapons... this…

He’s already close enough that he doesn’t need to aim.

He’s behind you

SERE and SV-83 were the best training courses I ever attended as a pilot in the Navy. Rangeley, Maine in Feb is not nice...

Seriously, Gawker Media needs to bring Malcom on as a full-time writer/analyst/whatever. Everything you do with him is awesome and a great read. Not to mention that he’s just an all around badass.

Fun potential fact: A friend in the Hollywood SF mafia told me that during 3Kings they were told a certain black Arabic speaking Navy Chief running around Southern Iraq looking for Iraqi Exocet anti-ship missiles during the Shia uprising was the model for the character nicknamed “the Chief” played by Ice Cube. It was…