THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT: There is speculation that the Russians may have struck one of their own cities with a stray hypersonic missile recently – causing damage and injuring six people about 220 miles from the Ukrainian border. Naturally, the Russians deny this, saying the explosion was caused by a Ukrainian TU-141 Strizh reconnaissance drone – but according to Newsweek, other sources say the evidence on the ground says otherwise.
THE GANG THAT WOULDN’T SPEAK STRAIGHT: We hear Shaun Walker, a foreign correspondent for The Guardian has contracted with Knopf to write a book called “The Illegals” looking at the century-long history of Russia’s deep-cover spies from its roots in Lenin's Bolshevik movement to Putin's present-day sleeper agents. Walker tweets that it won’t be out until early 2024.
NOT-SO-DEEP COVER SPIES: The folks in press affairs over at CIA have been working overtime to tell us more about the agency via social media. Their latest tweet: they’re now doing a podcast (but hey, who isn’t these days?). In episode 1 of ‘The Langley Files’, Director William J. Burns is touted as bringing CIA “out of the shadows”. Why? To celebrate the agency’s 75th birthday. We can’t think of a better reason to give up secrets. (Tap, tap, tap. Is this thing on?)
MAYBE THINGS WOULD IMPROVE IF PEOPLE STOPPED WATCHING THE NEWS: The U.S. Army is having a very hard time filling its ranks these days and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth thinks she knows why: bad press. According to Military.com, Wormuth told a conference recently that all the bad ink (and electrons) the service has been getting has caused potential recruits and their parents to rethink the wisdom of enlisting. Wormuth pointed to parents seeing “headlines about suicides and sexual harassment and assault in the military" as a disincentive. Of course, the Army can’t just blame this on the media. The news is really bad. Last year, 176 active-duty soldiers committed suicide. And reported sexual assaults in the Army jumped 26% over the previous year. Some of the suicide number increases may be because of increased emphasis on reporting incidents – but the best spin on that would be: ‘It’s not that assaults are up all that much – they have always been this bad’ which doesn’t sound all that good. Throw in other stories about health hazards like mold in the barracks and it’s clear that Army (and other service) recruiters have a tough mission ahead.
THE ARMY MIGHT NEED TO BAN BOOKSTORES, TOO: We understand that Seth Harp, who is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone, has just landed a book deal with publisher Viking to produce “The Fort Bragg Murders,” which is said to be an investigation into the alarming number of homicides, suicides, overdoses and unattributed deaths at America’s largest military base since 2020. It gets worse. The book will also reportedly look a drug-trafficking and impunity in the Army Special Forces. The book grew out of a Rolling Stone article from last year. No word on when it will come out, but we imagine the Secretary of the Army can hardly wait.
MAKING RECRUITING MATTERS WORSE? Nineteen republican members of Congress recently wrote to President Biden objecting to his plan to forgive some student loans. “By forgiving such a wide swath of loans for borrowers, you are removing any leverage the Department of Defense maintained as one of the fastest and easiest ways to pay for higher education,” the lawmakers wrote. According to Marine Corps Times,the Post-9/11 GI Bill — the most widely known and widely used military education benefit — provides 36 months of in-state tuition and monthly housing stipends to individuals who serve at least three years on active duty. Troops who serve six or more years can transfer those benefits to eligible family members. We’re not sure a possible one-time loan forgiveness program will eliminate the allure of the GI Bill – but perhaps potential recruits will have one more reason to second guess possible enlistment.
MAYBE IF WE GAVE THEM MORE BADGES: The Army is walking back a recent decision that soldiers could no longer wear certain foreign awards on their dress uniforms. We’re not talking about the French “Croix de Guerre” here – but rather ones like the Holland “Four Day Event Cross” (more commonly known as the Nijmegen cross) and Luxembourg’s “International March of Diekirch Medal.” Army officials apologized for the way they announced the decision and promised “We’re not going on a witch hunt to revoke awards.”
OFF WE GO INTO THE WILD BLACK YONDER: You may have heard that the U.S. Space Force has launched their official service song. They selected a song called “Semper Supra” (Latin for “always above”.) We hear it narrowly beat out “Semper Gumby” (GI for “always flexible”) and “Fly Me to the Moon.” Now that they have a song – the USSF needs to come up with a mascot – like the Army mule, Navy goat, Air Force falcon and Marine bulldog. The only thing we could come up with is the starfish. Send us your suggestions.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
FLUSH WITH SUCCESS: If you know anything about naval aviators – you know that they like to count things…the number of arrested landings, combat missions, Corvettes owned etc. And they like tradition. The website The Drive recently reported that the Navy Strike Fighter Squadron 25 recently recreated an event from the unit’s past. It seems in November 1965, the squadron was aboard the aircraft carrier USS MIDWAY and wanted a memorable way to commemorate the 6-millionth pound of ordnance dropped on North Vietnam. Some crewmen took a damaged toilet that was going to be tossed overboard and attached it to an A-1 Skyraider where a bomb might normally go. Commander Bill Stoddard, the squadron’s executive officer, dropped the weapon on what had to be a very surprised enemy. History does not provide any “TDE” (toilet damage assessment.) Why does something that went down over Vietnam nearly 60 years ago, come up again? Because for the squadron’s change of command ceremony last week, modern day maintenance personnel strapped a new toilet to the wing of an F/A 18. As far as we know – that killer commode did not get airborne, however.
PARA POOCH: The Dead Drop regularly brings you news about much of the intelligence community and the armed services – but we have been a little light on our coverage of the U.S. Coast Guard. Today, we fix that with this link to a Coast Guard tweet showing one of their explosive detection dogs being transferred by highline rig between two fast-moving boats. The dog named Niki, looks not entirely comfortable as she is being hauled from one vessel to another. The Coast Guard is using the video to entice humans to consider enlisting. Exactly why you would want to subject yourself - or your puppy - to such treatment is unclear. Also unclear is why the two boats didn’t just stop for a second and let Niki climb aboard.
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