Oh my…. lol  I am sure the Juicebox Commandos out there will be crying bloody murder about this one soon enough. I say congratulations to Mr. Harding and I hope he gets it, because the TSA needs all the help it can get. -Matt

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Senior intelligence officer Robert A. Harding nominated to lead the Transportation Security Administration

9 March 2010

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Major General Robert A. Harding, U.S. Army (Retired), as Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration). President Obama said, “I am confident that Bob’s talent and expertise will make him a tremendous asset in our ongoing efforts to bolster security and screening measures at our airports. I can think of no one more qualified than Bob to take on this important job, and I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.” President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individual to a key administration post:

Robert A. Harding, Nominee for Assistant Secretary, Department of Homeland Security (Transportation Security Administration)

Major General (Retired) Robert A. Harding has spent over 35 years working in the Intelligence Community, as a leader in both the military and the private sectors. General Harding served as CEO of Harding Security Associates (HSA), a company he founded in 2003 and sold in July 2009. HSA’s workforce, of more than 400 professionals, provide subject matter expertise and strategic security solutions to U.S. government agencies in the Intelligence and Defense communities.

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   This is cool, and thanks to David for sending me this link.  Now what would really be cool, is to use your GI Bill for this training.  Also, if you follow the link to the academy, there are other interesting courses and licenses that you can get that relate to maritime security and boat work.

   The other significance in this, is that CMADEL, along with other maritime academies, are now starting to focus on this stuff.  I think it is a sign of the times, and this focus on teaching crews to use something a little more substantial than water cannons, starts with teaching weapons handling during the education process. Although like the Captain said in the earlier article I posted, if vetting is an issue on these boats, then you will still need professionals that you can trust to do this work.  But some armed crew members on a boat, is better than no armed crew members on a boat, and this is a good step in the right direction. If any of the readers have other academy links to training similar to this, feel free to post away in the comments section. Especially if you have any educational stuff that can be paid for by the GI Bill. -Matt

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Maritime Academy to offer field training on use of small arms

Times-Herald staff report

03/08/2010

California Maritime Academy’s Department of Extended Learning is a three-day practical field training course on appropriate use of small arms on government-chartered and commercial vessels worldwide.

The certified small arms training course will be held March 22-24 and April 13-15 on the Vallejo campus, with range instruction in Richmond.

The new course is focused on the specialized challenges of deploying small arms in the maritime environment, Dean of Extended Learning James Burns said.

Class participants must either have a Transport Workers Identification Card (TWIC), a current U.S. Coast Guard MMD/License or be a certified peace officer, and must have no felony convictions.

The $1,500 cost includes use of weapons, targets and training aids. Another $300 is needed to cover ammunition. Upon completion, participants receive a certification form DD 2760 and 2.4 continuing education credits from the University.

For more information visit www.maritime-education.com or call (707) 654-1157.

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     I thought this was interesting.  This is the artwork of District 9, and it revolves around the fictional PMC called MNU.  There is also a patch that someone is selling. Like I mentioned before, hollywood is only weaving this industry into the fabric of culture, and you will find similar artwork and merchandising coming out of Avatar. -Matt

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   Alright, lets find this guy.  The reward is split in half, with $5,000 from Crimestoppers of New Orleans and the other $5,000 coming from Sequent Energy Management. As this thing drags out, I am sure we will see this reward get bigger.

   It also sounds like police suspect foul play, and it will be interesting what other information comes out of any future investigations.  So for you guys that live in New Orleans, or in the south in general, this would be a good one to go after. Good luck and happy hunting. -Matt

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Houston Energy Executive Missing in New Orleans

08 Mar 2010

CHRIS STIPES

HOUSTON - Michael Schantz is hitting the streets of New Orleans to find his father.

Katy resident Doug Schantz, 54, disappeared Friday morning at approximately 2 a.m. after leaving a Bourbon Street bar. His credit cards and ATM card have not been used which is making New Orleans police suspect foul play.

“I’m just, you know, still in a little bit of shock. I just want to reach out, you know, to the city of New Orleans, the City of Houston, just please, help me find my father,” said Michael Schantz.Doug Schantz is the president of Sequent Energy Management in downtown Houston. He was visiting New Orleans with several employees to make a donation to his daughter’s university, Tulane.

But Schantz never showed up for the flight home.

“We want to find Doug. Doug is a dear friend to all of us. He’s built the company from nothing to 150 people. He is a true leader, a true friend,” said Sequent Energy Management employee Peter Tumminello.Co-workers and friends of the married father of three gathered in Katy on Sunday at the family’s upscale home to hope and pray for a safe return.

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   Hey folks, get the word out on this one.  Do not send a resume to this email address listed below because it is a scam. -Matt

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DynCorp International Afghan Operation Warning

We have become aware of an internet scam using the DynCorp International name, and pretending to offer employment placement with “DynCorp International Afghan Operation” in return for payment to a recruiter.  This scam may also involve a request for personal data in connection to a visa application for Afghanistan. The false recruiter contact may use an e-mail of dynrecruiting@dynafghan.com, although other e-mail addresses or organization names may be used as well. Please do not send any money or any personal information to this organization or e-mail address, or to any other request for money to secure employment with DynCorp International or any of its subsidiaries.

DynCorp International has absolutely no connection with this internet scam. No legitimate recruitment effort by DynCorp International will ever include a request for payment from job applicants. Any attempts to request such payments should be reported to DynCorp International, to corporate.security@dyn-intl.com.

Link to alert here.

   I just stumbled upon this one at their career page, and I thought this would be a good one for guys that are looking for something a little more chilled out than the war zone work. Plus it is still overseas work, and will count for your Foreign Earned Income taxes.  That is if you are trying to stay overseas for the 330 days or not.

   If you wanted to network with the rest of Vinnell Arabia’s folks for other positions, this might be a good way to do that to. The facility is probably state of the art as well, considering how long this contract has been around, and the amount of money Saudi Arabia has spent on this.

   I am not the POC or recruiter for this, and just follow the links provided in order to apply.  I am not an employee either, so there is no chance for me to take part in the referral program. This is me just passing the info around. If anyone has information about this gig, feel free to talk in the comments section.  Good luck. -Matt

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Title:  Security Officer 

Category:  MILITARY TRAINING

Location:  RIYADH / SAUDI ARABIA

Sector:  TECHNICAL SERVICES

Posting ID:  348/1034-003

Description:Ensures that all passive and active measures are functioning properly and are providing the appropriate level of protection to the ROC compound. Ensures that all personnel security assets are performing up to standard and that their efforts are completely integrated. Maintains continuous communication with the ROC Security Operation Center (SOC) and all operational security elements at the ROC compound. Provides and receives security reports. Ensures vendors, vehicles and visitors are screened properly to allow access to the compound if authorized.

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   They are the top downloaded films of 2009, and they are all up for best picture at the Oscars.  Wow.

   Well everyone here knows my feelings on all of these movies.  I have had a chance to see all of them, and my opinions really haven’t changed too much.  Probably my favorite out of all of them, if I can put aside the whole ‘PMC’s are evil’ angle, is District 9. It trumps Avatar for a unique story and kick ass sci-fi. Plus they made it for way cheaper than Avatar, and you have to give it up for the little guys who do a lot with a little.

   I think the worse one for bashing the military and contractors, is Avatar. So for that, I wouldn’t mind seeing the Hurt Locker or District 9 beat out Avatar, just to see Cameron’s face in the close ups at the oscars. The Hurt Locker is probably the least offensive out of all of these films, but even in that film, they portrayed contractors (one of which was played by Ralph Fiennes) as murky seedy dudes of the desert, who only care about themselves and money. In other words, they played up the mercenary stereotype to the hilt in their portrayal of contractors in the film, and I was turned off. And in this scene, they act like the military was fearful of contractors in Iraq.  If anything, most of the military guys I came across wanted to be contractors or if they saw a contractor PSD team broken down on the side of the road, they usually pulled over and asked if we need any help.  The movie makes it seem like military and contractors were at odds with each other over there, and that could be the farthest from the truth.  Contractors also helped out the military with medical calls or security support, and I saw way more collaboration and mutual respect over there, than what the film portrayed.

   I have yet to see a company fork over the money and provide a Barrett M 82 .50 Cal for road work either. Not impossible, but highly unlikely, and especially with the weapon restrictions contractors faced in Iraq. If a British contractor would like to pipe in and prove me wrong on this, I am all ears.  I never saw them roll with that kind of weaponry out there, but I could be wrong.

   The funny thing with all of these films, is that I think more films will be made with PMC’s in them.  I am even optimistic enough that eventually someone will make a good movie that will portray this industry in a positive light.  The reason I say that, is because every time Hollywood tries to make political statements in their films, it backfires on them. Apocalypse Now was meant to be an anti-war film, and instead it turned into a cult classic.  Platoon, was meant to be an anti-war film, and made by an extreme left-wing loony tunes veteran named Oliver Stone. Instead, that film has become a cult classic.  Full Metal Jacket is another classic war film, that was meant to repulse the viewer about war and the military, and instead, it has created a following throughout the world. Hell, that movie is what motivated me, and thousands like me, to join the Marines. lol So will Hollywood only motivate others to want to become contractors, with their attempt at making ‘anti-contractor’ films?

   So will this new batch of anti-contractor/anti-PMC films, actually backfire on Hollywood?  Look at the video gaming industry?  Those are easily comparable to film releases and revenue, with multi-million dollar campaigns to sell them and huge start studded release parties, all trying to promote the allure of their shooter PMC related games.  There was even talk of making Army of Two a movie. Wow, I didn’t see that one coming.

   Look at the top downloaded films below, and the free market has definitely made it’s choice about what it wants.  And you know what? What the viewing public wants, it gets.  lol So will we see more films that involve this industry, and will Hollyweird continue to inadvertently elevate this industry through it’s naive attempt at demonizing us? I am getting more and more emails from kids and individuals who never served in the military or police, who want to become contractors or who are just interested in learning about the industry. Interesting cultural developments if you ask me, and that is why I cover this stuff.

   The best thing the film industry could do, if they really don’t like us, is to ignore this industry and keep us out of their scripts. But the temptation is just too strong, and I think we will see more films that have either negative or positive portrayals of contractors in them.  And that portrayal will further thread this industry into the fabric of culture–good or bad. Interesting times, and we will see who wins at the Oscars. -Matt

Edit: And the Hurt Locker wins Best Picture.  -hee hee

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TorrentFreak’s Top Downloaded Films For 2009

1. District 9 – 12,639,000

2. Avatar – 11,326,000

3. The Hurt Locker – 7,930,000

4. Up – 5,437,000

5. Inglourious Basterds – 5,376,000

6. Precious – 4,922,000

7. Up In The Air – 4,855,000

8. A Serious Man – 3,836,000

9. The Blind Side – 1,845,00010. An Education – 683,000

Link to TorrentFreak blog here.

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Best Motion Picture Nominees of 2009

“Avatar” (20th Century Fox)

A Lightstorm Entertainment Production

es Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers

“The Blind Side” (Warner Bros.)

An Alcon Entertainment Production

Nominees to be determined

“District 9″ (Sony Pictures Releasing)

A Block/Hanson Production

Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers

“An Education” (Sony Pictures Classics)

A Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films Production

Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers

“The Hurt Locker” (Summit Entertainment)

A Voltage Pictures Production

Nominees to be determined

“Inglourious Basterds” (The Weinstein Company)

A Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg Production

Lawrence Bender, Producer

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” (Lionsgate)

A Lee Daniels Entertainment/Smokewood Entertainment Production

Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers

“A Serious Man” (Focus Features)

A Working Title Films Production

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers

“Up” (Walt Disney)

A Pixar Production

Jonas Rivera, Producer

“Up in the Air” (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)

A Montecito Picture Company Production

Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Link to the Oscars website here.

   Just a heads up, John was one of Rumsfeld’s advisors. lol  But he does bring up some good points to think about, and I wanted to put them out there for the FJ readership to analyze. Here is a quick run down of the rules the author came up with:

   Rule 1: “Many and Small” Beats “Few and Large.”

   Rule 2: Finding Matters More Than Flanking.

   Rule 3: Swarming Is the New Surging.

   I guess the common theme of it all, is getting smaller and more mobile, in order to defeat a smaller and more mobile enemy. I just wonder if today’s militaries are even capable of this kind of flexibility? Because if we haven’t been able to get there yet, then when will we?

   Better yet, if you are reading this and would like an interesting thought to ponder, here it is.  How could a PMC use this information against an enemy it was tasked with destroying? The interesting angle with PMC’s is that the company with the better strategy and tactics, will win.  So if these new rules of warfare are sound, then they could be applied by an army or PMC for today’s battles, and they should come out victorious. Right?

   Or are these concepts really that radical, and just a rehash of older strategy?  I tend to go with this position, and today’s strategists have a tendency to just repackage old themes. The proof in the pudding is for John Arquilla to apply his rules in a war game in which the opposition is let’s say some player taking the side of Al Qaeda.   Either way, it is food for thought, and I would like to hear what you guys think. -Matt

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The New Rules of War

The visionary who first saw the age of “netwar” coming warns that the U.S. military is getting it wrong all over again. Here’s his plan to make conflict cheaper, smaller, and smarter.

BY JOHN ARQUILLA

 MARCH/APRIL 2010

Every day, the U.S. military spends $1.75 billion, much of it on big ships, big guns, and big battalions that are not only not needed to win the wars of the present, but are sure to be the wrong approach to waging the wars of the future.

In this, the ninth year of the first great conflict between nations and networks, America’s armed forces have failed, as militaries so often do, to adapt sufficiently to changed conditions, finding out the hard way that their enemies often remain a step ahead. The U.S. military floundered for years in Iraq, then proved itself unable to grasp the point, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that old-school surges of ground troops do not offer enduring solutions to new-style conflicts with networked adversaries.

So it has almost always been. Given the high stakes and dangers they routinely face, militaries are inevitably reluctant to change. During World War I, the armies on the Western Front in 1915 were fighting in much the same manner as those at Waterloo in 1815, attacking in close-packed formations — despite the emergence of the machine gun and high-explosive artillery. Millions were slaughtered, year after bloody year, for a few yards of churned-up mud. It is no surprise that historian Alan Clark titled his study of the high command during this conflict The Donkeys.

Even the implications of maturing tanks, planes, and the radio waves that linked them were only partially understood by the next generation of military men. Just as their predecessors failed to grasp the lethal nature of firepower, their successors missed the rise of mechanized maneuver — save for the Germans, who figured out that blitzkrieg was possible and won some grand early victories. They would have gone on winning, but for poor high-level strategic choices such as invading Russia and declaring war on the United States. In the end, the Nazis were not so much outfought as gang-tackled.

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   Here is another blog to put up on your RSS reader folks, and I look forward to future posts from Rob about all things contracting, or whatever interests him.  It’s just cool he is blogging, and I hope to see others follow his lead.

   I also posted his book awhile back and I am sure he has sold a few since then. It’s a cool book and goes into some of his interesting contracting history, before security contracting blew up during these current wars. Places like Balkans or Somalia, and you can read a little more about his book at his new website/blog. He also did a podcast with Jake Allen awhile back, and you can check that out here.

   Finally, James who is the designer and creator behind such projects as Death Valley Magazine, is responsible for putting together this website for Rob.  So if you are interested in getting your own blog started, and want to enter into the ring of new media, then there is one resource for you to tap into. I am sure James will pop up and provide some info about what he can do for you. -Matt

Rob Krott’s blog and website here.