Interested in the Military board's take on this exercise. What is your stance on Gov. Abbott ordering the Texas Guard to monitor what's going on?

I don't like the nature of the exercise. Political prisoners shipped via train that are chained up? Why are we doing this? Why now? Why so much of a special ops presence? Maybe there's more to it, and I'm only getting a partial picture.

I don't want the Politics board's opinions. It's like a Zoo over there.

I'll tell you, I think he's doing the right thing. I don't trust the current POTUS, and if we can monitor things at minimal taxpayer expense, I think it's prudent.

What is the "Texas Guard"?

Texas State Guard. Really have no idea what they do though.

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I don't like the nature of the exercise. Political prisoners shipped via train that are chained up? Why are we doing this? Why now? Why so much of a special ops presence? Maybe there's more to it, and I'm only getting a partial picture.

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Where did you get your take from? Do the closes Walmarts concern you too?

GACO6 and JABQ04 -

I'm sure you could find this info - especially since it's all open source, but see following for Texas State Guard:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Guard

The Texas State Guard (TXSG) also happens to be commanded by MG Jake Betty '73. The TXSG has gained a stronger position w/in the Texas Military Forces Structure in recent years. As a state resource, they've provided support during Hurricanes Ike, Gustav, Dolly, Rita, Katrina, etc. I believe that they've been activated during ice storms and during wildfire seasons. They get 'paid' State Active Duty only when activated, but when they're training, they don't get paid. They have to purchase their own uniforms, accessories, all that stuff out of their own pockets. If you ask me, these guys are truly committed to helping the state. True, some of them have not had much military experience, but most have a wealth of leadership and operational deployments that they want to continue to give back to their communities.

Agree with you - not the best use of state resources/money.

Awesome.

And what exactly did Betty's presence accomplish (other than being a nice political sound bite for Abbott to use)?

Thanks for the info.

Trust but verify !

It's being overblown by everyone. People are drawing false conclusions based off of the assumption that this exercise is for negative means later on. They try to make an argument by pulling out the "5 Wal-marts have closed at the same time all for the same plumbing problems" (with no regard to just how long and strenuous such repair jobs are) and how they are going to be used as "FEMA base camps." It's rather silly if you ask me. Growing up in a military family, on and around bases and bombing ranges these types of exercises aren't all too uncommon. You just never hear about them. People complain about how they are conducting them in cities with civilians (which are volunteer role-players). People somehow expect the military to either build themselves their own city, or just somehow already know how to conduct themselves in sprawling urban environments without training. Plus once everyone hears that the SEALs and other Special Operations units are involved, they go nuts with curiosity.

Back in 1999, Army Delta staged a mock night assault on the old Brooke Army Hospital building on Ft. Sam Houston. MH-6s swooping in over the city. Guys rappelling onto the roof of the building. Flash/bangs, gunshots, smoke, etc. My memory is that San Antonio thought it was pretty cool at the time.

In 1941, whole mechanized armies swarmed over NW Louisiana and parts of East Texas as part of the GHQ Maneuvers. One can only imagine the reaction to these types of full-blown exercises in and around cities today. http://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/4916.asp

Similar thing in Corpus, where the black helicopters brought in troops to invade the old county courthouse.

Odd URL name, but this site talks about the exercise that both fell under.
http://www.rense.com/ufo2/sassult.htm

So when nothing happens in the next few months, does Abbot and the tin foil hat folks get to say it's because they brought it to everyone's attention and foiled the Feds' plot?

Seriously. My BIL is a Marine Osprey pilot. They flew 2 down to Texas from Miramar for the airshow. My family is from Harlingen so they flew down there for training for the day. People freaked the F out on facebook. Everything from ISIS to ebola. It was pretty funny.

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I do get annoyed with people calling the operation an invasion, calling concerned citizens idiots, and calling Abbott incompetent.

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There are a lot of idiots disguising themselves as concerned citizens. Most of the concern is from idiots with a political agenda they want to foment.

I had no idea this exercise was going on until my father-in-law told me about it. However, it did explain the tanks I saw rolling in on semi-trucks to Big Spring weekend before last.

Those tanks probably didn't have anything to do with Jade Helm. May have been some repositioning or delivery of equipment to a National Guard or Reserve center. Or may be going somewhere for maintenance.

I can't imagine that the participants of JH would need heavy armor to execute their missions.

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I had no idea this exercise was going on until my father-in-law told me about it. However, it did explain the tanks I saw rolling in on semi-trucks to Big Spring weekend before last.

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I bet if you followed them, you would have seen them rolling right out the other side.

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Trust but verify !

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Love one-off comments like this. He won't be back on this thread.

I plan military exercises for a living and part of the problem with the military is how little is communicated with local populations. One day, we all show up and people freak the Eff out. What they don't see are the months of planning conferences, the amount of work that goes into making sure specific training objectives are met and ensuring everybody gains something out of the exercise.

Sending in some National Guard general to "check-in" probably got a lot of the operators snickering behind his back because, really, what is he going to do? He wasn't in the planning conferences. He didn't attend the working groups, he doesn't know what the scenario injects are. Most military exercises are long expanses of planning with short bursts of execution.

If Gov Abbott was really all that concerned about it he would have asked to have a Texas Guard guy be a liaison to the planning conferences. Then that guy could have been as bored to death as everybody else, but he would have "verified" that nothing untowards was going on.

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Sending in some National Guard general to "check-in" probably got a lot of the operators snickering behind his back because, really, what is he going to do?

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General Jake Betty. An Aggie, a decorated retired US Army Officer who previously worked for the Commandant's office before accepting the position to lead the Texas State Guard.

If you ever get a chance to meet him during all your planning, he's a good guy and very intelligent. I'm willing to bet he knows, as the Governor knows, it's just tossing a stick in the water to distract the tin-foil-hat-dogs on shore.

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Sending in some National Guard general to "check-in" probably got a lot of the operators snickering behind his back because, really, what is he going to do?

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General Jake Betty. An Aggie, a decorated retired US Army Officer who previously worked for the Commandant's office before accepting the position to lead the Texas State Guard.

If you ever get a chance to meet him during all your planning, he's a good guy and very intelligent. I'm willing to bet he knows, as the Governor knows, it's just tossing a stick in the water to distract the tin-foil-hat-dogs on shore.

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Sorry, wasn't trying to disrespect the General and I apologize that my comment came across like that.

I completely get that he is doing what he is ordered and the dudes on the ground know that. So they are probably laughing more at the fact that they are getting a drive by from a GO rather than at the GO itself. Does that make sense?

I don't think I will get a chance to run into him in my current job, unfortunately. The majority of my responsibility is the Pacific AOR (so a bunch of foreign countries not near Texas). I would prefer to do exercise planning in Texas, especially in the fall! Trying to watch Aggie Football at 4am on a Sunday morning in Japan or Manila is a real PITA!

So many of my customers come in and want to talk about this stuff... don't get me wrong, ammo sales have been through the roof because of it but still, I'm ready for it to end.

Yesterday, passed a trainload of military vehicles northbound at Folsom, NM. I couldn't help thinking about the panic I could gin up if I took photos and moved the location to Midland.

This is a conversation I had with someone on the subject yesterday:

"so what you're saying is that you're worried that Obama will use our soldiers and law enforcement to impose martial law in Texas?"
"Yes"
"You don't think that the soldiers and cops will refuse that order?"
"No."
"So you think that thousands of soldiers and cops are waiting to impose
martial law on a highly armed state in which many of them grew up? That
there will be a majority of compliance in the occupying force to fight
their fellow citizens in a state that just passed legislation opening up
more gun rights, open carry, and it'll happen because a president the
majority of the state voted against said so?"
"Well, maybe..."
"No, not maybe, the answer is no it won't happen."