Because they changed their mind. They are really launching a full scale invasion of Texas. They weren't originally but figured the conspiracy people had come up with a good plan to help their revered leader Obama so they might as well give it a go. :)

Nah, you're too agreeable. Wink wink. ;-)

O.A.
I took the opportunity in the mid 70's to leave the big apple on my sail boat and was a live aboard for 13 months half the time in the Bahamas. If things got that bad and i still had the physical capability as I currently have I would get another boat and do it again to the end of my days.
If I were younger today I would just pick up and live on a boat period.
As for helping, you would be at a loss unless all of the military people turned against the government, then your presence would be of value.

Certainly doesn't seem like they could handle the PR any worse, even if they wanted to, does it?

Ya, I have been known to capitalize on an opportunity for a laugh. I suspect I will use this excuse a few more times before I get bored with it and move on to something else. Thanks for giving me the excuse for some good laughs! And one of these days I will give it back. Maybe I will even disagree, just to see where it goes. LOL

Hello wiggys,
Yes, It is a sad day when one can even entertain such scenarios. I too have more years behind me than lay ahead. Still I still love my country, But if the government brought tyranny to its citizens, I would surely consider my choices and one would be to become an ex-pat if I didn't think my staying could help. Sad.
Regards,
O.A.

Sorry, experience limited to Vietnam, we just killed anyone that took a shot at us or charged our position. During my training we had one instance where we were supposed to be going from Fort Sill to someplace in Texas to squelch some sort of demonstration. We had no training for it at all, it was some sort of riot exercise, didn't even have bullets for our rifles, automatic M14's. I guess they thought there was enough weight in the rifles that we could use them as a battering device to stop the demonstrators. After we got all ready and loaded up on the trucks to be trucked off to Texas, they called a stand down order and we went back to our normal training routine.

In any case I just bought a Springfield M1A which is a semi-automatic M14 to complete my collection of every small arm I shot in Vietnam. I figure since the government trained me to use them they would be pleased that I didn't let all that training and experience go to waste. So I figure they would what me to stay prepared and to have the necessary tools and accessories to do so.

Jade Helm is beyond my comprehension, I have no idea what they are doing or trying to do. All I know is I care little about (my) death today, and would stand and fight again at any time or place to protect my freedom and the freedom of my family and friends. I appreciate the Japanese telling us about thinking there was a gun in every house in the US, it kept them out of here didn't it? Well, at least till after the war. And I think there was even a much better lesson learned back around 1775 about being prepared just in case. It's sort of like having a fire extinguisher around the house. I have several of them too.

And your comment about living in a 2nd world country; don't worry, at the rate we're going we'll soon catch up.

yes, x. thanks. Why do you thin the DoD link to the playbook has been taken down? why not leave it up?

that's kinda where I am. still asking questions and wondering why that DoD link has been removed

do you have a cite for this Abaco?

The Governor called the Texas Guard, which is different from the National Guard.

whoa. thanks, eye.

thanks for commenting jim. I had seen a playbook from the Dept of Defense. that is where I saw the right wing extremist scenario. That has now been taken down. the closest I can draw a line in the sand is an earlier Washington Post article-again-the playbook link is disabled.

I am retired Navy and live near Cannon AFB in Clovis, NM. This is one of the bases being used for this exercise. Air Force Special Ops took over this base in the last BRAC and have turned into their desert warfare training site. They took the old Melrose Bombing Range and turned it into a desert training area. My stepdad worked for a company that set up the training exercises out on the range. They have mock villages and they paid people to act as civilians and civilian workers dressed as terrorists. They shoot with paintball guns and light vests that are tagged with lasers. My understanding is that this exercise is supposed to be a bigger version of that, but I have my doubts. There are plenty of conspiracy theories out there and I don't subscribe to any of them but it sure sounds fishy. I have heard IS roundup, illegal roundup, excuse me, undocumented. I have also heard participants will be wearing armbands, well armbands can be taken off. They are going to be mostly in the middle of Texas but a little throughout the southwest. My questions have to do with 2 months, why? Most operations are only a couple days at most. What are they casing? Are they casing? How about doing this on the border and using on training against the gangs and cartels. Nah, that makes to much sense.

lol. oh ed, that did not disappoint. hahaha

Well Khalling as a Vetran of the US Army myself let me first apologize for the rudeness of the Colonels that you are referring too.

Second I have seen similar exercises when stationed in Germany during the late 80’s and early 90’s. As soldiers we do need to train in as realistic a manner as possible and urban warfare is particularly grueling.

The question that I have is what urban area are they training for? The South West is not like any other area of America. The military should not be training for assaults in America. So what area of the world is similar to the American South West? None that I know of but I am certain that there may be one.

I do not want to come off as a conspiracy nut but I personally do not trust the Government in any way shape form or fashion. Therefore I am more disturbed by the Texas Governors response than I am by the original exercises and here’s why.

Let’s assume for a moment that there really is something to worry about. Is there any reason to trust the National Guard of the same branch of the service to be looking out for our best interest? Seems to me to be a convenient way to surreptitiously increase the troop numbers in an area.

Well that’s my 2 cent worth anyway.

I did see some raw footage of the jade help activities and found it to be strange. The segment I saw just looked like they were practicing rounding people up and hustling them off in vans. I didn't know that was a primary activity in the military. Vans? Wha...?

ah, good point. the group is like a family-much like this one. it was a bad Thanksgiving dinner. think of it that way. I am not Spock. I very much can be emotional. term, it's part of my charm :)

I'm getting close to kicking myself out of facebook soon.

Calling someone an idiot who IS an idiot by the strict definition would probably go over the idiot's head and would be kind of meaningless to him. Calling someone an idiot who is NOT an idiot is meaningless in itself and not a statement of fact. So, it was probably an expression of emotional outrage, and not anything to be really upset about.

I wonder why khalling takes it to seriously then?

The locals where I was were not friendlies.

SF does Robin Sage throughout a decent size chunk of NC. They regularly involve civilians in the roles of guerrilla trainees, informants, etc. In fact, it's become kind of a fun hobby for a lot of the local residents there.
My battalion did some counter insurgency training in land between the lakes in KY at one point. The company assigned to be guerrillas actually asked for and got cooperation of some locals who let them hide in their barns, and use their property for caches.

What reason do they need to become familiar with the terrain?
Do they expect those loyal to the Constitution to use their familiarity with the area to do guerilla warfare tactics against 0sama Barry's FEMA stormtroopers?

EDIT: capitalising Constitution.

I participated in E&E, on a military base. There were some civilians still living on that base and we stayed a long way away from them. I don't have enough information to draw a conclusion on this and I remain alert until I know differently.

Well since you are looking to kill someone, I'm not going to disagree with you today either. LOL