The M777 was designed and developed by BAE Systems, and is a joint program between the Army and Marine Corps to replace the M198 towed howitzer. The M777 incorporates the first use of titanium castings, which reduces the weight of the howitzer — by 7,000 lbs. — offering improved transportability and mobility, while retaining the full ammunition and range capability of the M198. The lightweight howitzer can be transported by Marine Corps MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft and U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft.

The Marines, from the 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment stationed at Twenty-nine Palms, California. Will be the first unit to receive the new howitzers and the battalion’s key personnel are currently training with the M777 at Fort Sill. The M777 recently completed operational testing at California in anticipation of a full rate production decision expected next month. During the tests, nearly 12,000 artillery rounds were fired by four production howitzers. The M777 met all operational requirements and proved to be extremely reliable. Fielding of the new howitzer will continue with the Army and Marine Corps through 2009.

The M777 is assembled at BAE Systems’ integration facility in Hattiesburg, Miss., and incorporates components manufactured by a U.S. supplier base that the company has been developing for the past four years. More than 70 percent of the howitzer’s parts are manufactured in the U.S. Its one of the bty’s from 3/11 when they 1st got the 777 about 8 months ago. The m777 is nice. I don’t know the exact weight but it’s about 9,277lbs compared to the 16,000 lbs of the 198.

It has the same rate of fire and fires the same rounds. It only takes two marines to hook it up to the 7-ton. It has hydraulically powered loading tray and breech. It’s a lot easier to speed shift. There’s a lot less wear and tear on the marines with it being light weight and all. Around next year this time it’ll be outfitted with a computer system call D.F.C.S. (direction fire control system I believe it’s called) where we wont need sights or a collimator. It will be all digital.

The new M777 light-weight 155-mm towed howitzer will begin fielding in May to the 3d Battalion, 11th Marines at Twenty-nine Palms, California. The M777 is replacing the aging 155-mm towed M198 howitzer. Some of the M777’s greatest improvements are in its mobility, trans-portability, survivability and lethality. The M777 can be emplaced and ready to fire in less than two minutes, which is significantly faster than the M198.

The new weapon can be rapidly displaced within two to three minutes, allowing the battery to shoot and move before the enemy can return fire. Its light weight (less than 10,000 pounds) and independent suspension allow the weapon to travel over rougher terrain (world-wide, which amounts to about 30 percent more terrain) and be sling-loaded under more aircraft than the M198.

It fires all current and planned 155-mm munitions. Although its max range is still 30,000 meters with current rocket-assisted projectiles, that range will extend to more than 37,000 meters when firing the new global positioning system/inertial navigation unit (GPS/INU) precision-guided Excalibur munition. The max rate of fire is four rounds per minute while the sustained rate is two rounds per minute.

Within a year of the initial M777 deliveries, both the Marine Corps and Army will start taking delivery of the M777A1, which adds a digital fire control system (DFCS). The DFCS provides the howitzer highly accurate self-location and directional control. With the introduction of DFCS, the battery only requires survey control points to initialize the system.

The section chief will have a navigational aid inside the cab, and the weapon has an onboard single-channel ground and airborne radio system (SINCGARS) and amplifier for digital communications. This provides greater flexibility for the howitzer, which no longer will be tied to wire communications. The M777 A1 provides commanders greater flexibility in getting to the fight, carrying out their missions and quickly moving to safe locations to carry out subsequent missions.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for http://www.WarGear.info. WarGear.info carries the best selection of military clothing, war gear, and combat accessories on the market.

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The Vital Role of the Citizen Soldier

After World War II, the men who served in the European and Pacific theaters returned home to remake the United States. Their productivity was the heart of an economic boom that lasted throughout the 1950s. They presided over investments in Germany and Japan that turned those nations into economic power houses for 50 years (and counting).

Perhaps more important, their insights into how to wage war gave the US a commitment to the protection of human rights even when nations were at war. The Nuremberg trials demonstrated the dedication these pragmatic men had to rules of engagement, the treatment of prisoners, and the protection of unarmed civilians.

There are those who credit these fighting men with unnaturally charitable natures and an unusual understanding of Christian values. The truth is, these guys understood the mechanics of war. If you want men to surrender to your armies, those men must believe they won’t be tortured. If you want civilian populations to support your occupation, you must deliver the food and medicine and other resources they need to survive. These veterans understood that the path to an ugly defeat is paved with the bones of the people an army tortures, starves and executes.

The Citizen Soldiers Korea and Vietnam played a vital role in making and keeping the United States a super power, choosing to wage a cold war rather than a hot one in most cases, with some going so far as to question the use of war as an instrument of foreign policy at all.

Four years into the war in Iraq, and six years into the war in Afghanistan, why aren’t recent veterans playing a larger role in the national debate?

Silent or Silenced?

There are a number of films that attempt to document the experience of US forces who have served on the ground in Iraq. BACK FROM IRAQ: The US Soldier Speaks, THE GROUND TRUTH, THE WAR TAPES, and IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS feature interviews with soldiers and Marines who have fought in Iraq. But the vast majority of these independent films were created by activists or filmmakers rather than by ex-military men working on their own. These films are not regularly featured on cable or broadcast channels though the topics they address and the men they interview are central to the future of the US and its foreign policy around the world.

Still, independent filmmakers have done far more than the national media to give veterans a voice. Captains, Sergeants, Lance Corporals and Privates fresh off 21st century urban battlefields do not appear on CNN, MSNBC or FOX News with any frequency at all.

Discussions about the future of Iraq and Afghanistan, the condition of the people who live there, and the investments realistically required to make those nations into US allies are had without the help of the only US citizens who have worked on the ground in those nations day in and day out. The only people we hear less from than soldiers and marines are the 140,000+ military contractors working in Iraq. Well, that’s not quite true. We hear next to nothing from the Iraqi’s and Afghan’s who are working so hard to survive this war.

Why are the only real experts in this war the folks we almost never hear from? Is it because they do not want to be heard? Is it because what they have to say is so unpalatable that the country doesn’t want to hear what they have to say?

I think the answer may be . . . we don’t care enough to ask them.

Sometimes the Facts Really Matter

When a newscaster or a magazine article tells you to bake your cookies at 250 degrees rather than 350, you end up with soggy cookies. The facts in that case do not matter much. When they tell you that Enron is an innovative, fast growing company you can invest in with some confidence, the facts matter a little more.

When the news media in a national election cycle fails to cover the facts on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and actively gives you misinformation instead, the costs can be very high.

A Nobel Prize winning economist and a Harvard budget analyst are estimating that the cost of war in Iraq alone will be over $2 Trillion. To put that in context, the full production of the United States is just $7 Trillion a year. The costs of war are not limited to the $4-6 Billion we spend each month. We have to care for the Vets who come home, pay the interest on the money we used to buy this war, and provide for the future security of Iraq and Afghanistan as well.

One might argue that we can walk away from both Iraq and Afghanistan, but many vets who have served in those nations will tell you that hundreds of thousands of civilians we have worked with will be killed, and many of the insurgents we created in those nations will leave attack US interests elsewhere.

These folks may ask you how neighboring nations like Iran and Turkey are likely to address a gaping power vacuum and millions of starving people right outside their borders. They may suggest that what happens to those people will involve more deaths than you can possibly imagine. They may ask you how quickly we can wean the US off foreign oil and how you plan to cushion the resulting impact on our economy which the world has depended on for so many years.

Alternatively they may tell you that our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan has to end soon because long deployments are resulting in broken families, increased mental illness on and off the battlefield, and a force that is not prepared to take on other challenges we may face in the decades to come.

The truth is, the facts on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan matter a great deal because what happens there will impact the world for decades to come. The only folks who know those facts, who can speak with conviction and authority due to first person experience, are men who have served in, and the citizens living in, those nations.

When our foreign policy is built on something other than facts, our failure is assured and our national costs are maximized.

What Can You Do?

The vast majority of the strategies the nation is being offered by this year’s crop of politicians and the media are based on shocking ignorance and arrogance.

We, as a nation, must start encouraging our new crop of Citizen Soldiers to play a role in the national debate on US foreign policy. We must ask radio stations, local television stations, news writers and the national media talk to vets and perhaps even to Iraqi’s and Afghans, about the wars we are fighting. With accurate information and rational analysis, our nation can come up with some good solutions to the problems we face overseas.

Nancy Fulton is a writer, publisher and filmmaker. You can find more about her work by visiting http://www.backfromiraqmovie.com and http://www.nobetterfriendmovie.com

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So why does the media hold our American service men to a different standard?

Another idea championed in western thought is that what is evident of a small group is not necessary an accurate reflection of the whole group. Yet the media has portrays an isolated incident in Haditha to be telling of the whole Marine Corp.

Why is this wrong?

First, most people believe that the mission of America’s service men, especially the Marines, is honorable. Most parents with a son or daughter in the service are proud of their children’s sacrifice to this country. Why are we smearing our protectors of freedom in our own papers? This is appalling not to mention ungrateful.

I do not think that the behavior of those select individuals should be excused but the media does nothing to protect the Marine Corps dignity. No, instead they do publicity stunts and publish what is rumored to be a marine singing a song about the incident.

The media has a unique way of shaping public opinion. By publishing any rumor about misconduct in the military on the front page they are only advancing a left-winged mindset that putting on an American uniform is not honorable.

Not to mention, Imagine if you were a Marine manning a road block in Iraq and everyday you heard reports of men dying at these blocks. On top of the first reports you hear of front page newspaper and media reports of Marines being court marshaled and how dishonorable our military men are. I believe this would kill the motivation and moral of any person when they feel the reason they are risking their lives is to protect those people that are writing such reports.

Jonathan D. Rhyne

Editor of The Right Minded Elephant http://rightmindedelephant.blogspot.com

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Unsubstantiated news stories say that the American Troops, US Marines seem to have shot and killed in a massacre a number of Iraqis. Al Jazeera a completely biased news agency, which always misrepresents truth has reported this and many of our citizens have turned this into a political firestorm and accept and believe that news report as truth without verifying it. Let me tell you something right now; The US Marine Corp is Great; Know it, Live it and Believe it. Well, how would I know? Well let’s just say I know.

Next, lets ask ourselves why we are not giving our troops the benefit of the doubt straight away until the facts and details are truly known? So far we have news commentators discussing and debating this and liberal politicians saying; See I told you so and calling for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld looking to blame someone.

Well if this event did occur then indeed it would have been a war crime and those involved in any possible shooting are the ones to blame. This should not turn into a political event and name calling and trashing on the history of honor and strength of the US Marine Corp is a little unnerving, as we do not even know the facts. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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When I worked for Frito Lay back in the late seventies and into and through the eighties, they came along and decided they’d ‘empower’ our mechanics that worked in the shops of our extensive private truck fleet. They wanted to elevate them, they said, to positions of more responsibility. It was a big change in our modus operandi.

Headquarters Human Resources were in charge of this charade and it became a program that was rolled out across the country. When it hit the streets it amounted to nothing more than a headcount reduction, we eliminated the vast majority of our Fleet Managers as they were called, the folks who ran the shops that maintained the vehicles of our private fleet. It was called empowerment.

When it hit the street it reminded me of the old quote from Alfred E. Newman, the one from Mad Magazine when he said, “Just because everything’s different doesn’t mean that anything’s changed”. And nothing had changed except we were short several Fleet Managers and our all ready hard working mechanics were now disgruntled and severely over worked.

The mechanics clearly understood day one that they would now do the work of their former boss. They would now do all the paperwork, the parts ordering, the warranty claims, you name it. Of course the company rolled out systems to support this new work, right? No way. Come on you say, the company paid them, the mechanics, a little more money for the new work, right? Not on your life. They should be happy with their new responsibilities. One HR Manager actually said, “They should be happy we trust them with this work”.

When you are leading organizational change you cannot treat empowerment this way. The key to empowerment is having a clear vision that is communicated and people know what the end result looks like. Let me explain. People are surprised when I tell them in my thirty plus year management and leadership career I was most empowered as a United States Marine. That’s right, the Marine Corp, known for its discipline and my way or the highway attitude was most empowering. Let me tell you the secret, why the Corp was so empowering.

In the Marine Corp you are taught one single thing heading in to a mission … commanders intent. In a nutshell, commanders’ intent is the end game of the mission. Gentlemen, you are to take that hill at coordinates 567123 by 0100 tomorrow morning. Now you make detailed plans and everyone has a particular role, not like the matrix management BS where leaders won’t make the hard calls. The plans are elaborate and when the first shot is fired most of the plans go out the window, just like in your business. But if everyone knows ‘commanders intent’ it’s no problem, carry on and take the hill at 567123 by 0100 tomorrow.

That is empowerment. In each of our roles we were empowered to work together and deliver the objective. Did the plans change? Yes. Did we ad lib and do what we had to for the delivery of the objective, yes. Did we work together without arguing? No, but we delivered the commanders intent because we all knew what it was and that delivering it and working together as a unit was, shall we say, a condition of employment. You must do the same in your change leadership or you will fail.

Empowerment is a powerful feeling. It means you truly give me the power to deliver on my job. And understand it is a byproduct of solid leadership, not a program. How many leaders today do that? Darn few. Think about it. With the introduction of pagers and cell phones everyone wants a call. Twenty years ago when you left the office you had to leave people in charge because you couldn’t communicate with them. And they grew in the process. Today people are so vainly important they have to be talking walking along in the airport. Give me a break. It is the same in times of organizational change too.

Lead like you trust your troops. Lead by giving them solid direction in the beginning, communicate with them clearly and consistently along the way and they get out of the way … that is empowering leadership and that is what drives change. It’s not about the posters and slogans from HR, it’s about the leadership on the ground.

Ed Kugler has been living change since the jungles of Vietnam where he was a Marine Sniper for two-years in the Vietnam War. He came home to a country he hadn’t left and began work as a mechanic and truck driver. Since then he has worked his way into the executive suite of Frito Lay, Pepsi Cola and Compaq Computer where he was Vice President of Worldwide Logistics, a position he achieved with no college degree. Ed left in 1997 to consult and write. He is the author of Dead Center - A Marine Sniper’s Two Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War and five other books and counting. He regularly consults with some o the nations leading companies on organizational change and coaches individuals to make the most of their lives. Ed is the father of three, grandfather to three and has been married to the same woman for 38 years and counting. http://www.nomorebs.com
http://www.edkugler.com

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Sadly, the Marines, like so many military organizations, have fallen prey to political correctness in modern times.

In 2001, the Marines switched from their battle proven close combat methods in favor of a system that is designed to “subdue” rather then kill an attacker. Funny, I never thought the Marines had a problem with killing people before…And the scumbag terrorists sure don’t seem to have a problem killing us.

Since the Marines were first founded in 1775 at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, PA, Close Quarter Combat (CQC) training was heavily emphasized in their training.

Although many people know about their skilled sharpshooters who fired from the rigging of ships, it is important to remember that the Marines also pioneered close combat techniques as they boarded enemy ships using rifles and swords.

For over a century Marines fought in every major conflict battling pirates, guerillas, and other enemies of the United States. The Marines were tough fighters, but when the United States entered World War I, some new training would make them lethal.

The First World War brought a number of changes to the Marines. The Corp grew rapidly in size and the Germans would give the Marines the nickname “Devil Dogs.” To meet the challenges of trench warfare, the Marines also improved their close combat training.

The man largely responsible for the new training was Anthony J. Drexel Biddle who joined the Marines as a captain at age 41. Though he was new to the military, the wealthy socialite was an experienced boxer and began to share what he knew with the Marines. He taught bayonet and close combat techniques based upon fencing, boxing and wrestling.

During the inter-war years, other men joined Biddle to improve the training. Captains W.M. Greene and Samuel B. Griffith who had been stationed in Shanghai trained with British police officer William Fairbairn.

Fairbairn had been in over six-hundred street fights and authored several books on close combat. He eagerly shared what he knew with the American Marines. They also learned shooting techniques from Fairbairn’s best friend and firearms expert Eric Sykes.

The Marines learned well, and soon Fairbairn’s techniques became part of the Marines’ CQC training.

The Marines’ close combat system would be further influenced by others during World War II, as the Marines fought in a brutal island hopping campaign in the Pacific.

Marine John Styers who was a student of Biddle’s took what he learned and wrote Cold Steel. Originally, a series of articles in Leatherneck magazine Styers showed Marines how to fight with a knife and a rifle with a bayonet. He showed that unarmed combat training could help Marines perform even better with their weapons.

The Marines also learned from another student of Fairbairn, Army Colonel Rex Applegate. Though a crack shot, Applegate made it clear that hand-to-hand combat training was necessary part of CQC.

While the Marine Corp close combat system went through a number of other changes and names, each reincarnation of the system held on tightly to the lessons and methods of Biddle, Sykes, Fairbairn, & Applegate as the concept of battlefield survival was always kept in mind.

In the 1980’s the system began to fall. With the rise in popularity of various martial arts, many Marines began abandoning the authentic, documented, and proven “simplistic” methods of combat in exchange for the mysteries of modern martial arts and psuedo science (aka completely unproven crap).

In 1996, the Marines began evaluating their close combat training and determined that a new system would be developed to deal with Missions Other Than War (MOTW).

Previously all training (even the junk in the 80’s) was designed with the concept of “kill or be killed”. The new system is more concerned with peacekeeping operations and non-lethal force…EXTREMELY stupid for men trained to be our frontline.

The new Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) is like a piss poor combined version of Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu.

Not only is it nothing like the battle tested techniques the Marines have used successfully for over 200 years, but by mish-moshing together two martial sports (neither of which have battlefield proven documentation) someone is going to get killed.

Listen, in Iraq and Afghanistan its all about close combat and engaging the enemy in tight quarters. The Marines need a solid CQC system not a politically correct way to play patty-cake with the enemy.

Captain Chris Pizzo has dedicated his life to not only spreading the “truth” about martial arts and self defense, but also to teaching the very same simplistic, and easy to learn answer he discovered after nearly being stabbed to death during a road rage attack. You can learn more about him and take a no-obligation “test drive” of his award winning Close Combat Training system absolutely free at http://www.CloseCombatTraining.com

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