Feral Jundi

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Building Snowmobiles: Boyd Sightings

I haven’t written a Building Snowmobiles post in awhile and thought these two tidbits were worth putting up. Col John Boyd continues to influence folks to this day and it is neat to see where he pops up at.

The first sighting is a series of videos that were posted by Jason Brown. According to his twitter handle, he is an AF officer and author at a website called General Leadership. They are videos of John Boyd giving his Patterns of Conflict briefing to some congressional staffer’s. The sound quality sucks and I think a crowd funding campaign to clean up the audio of these would be awesome. I am sure some group could clean it up and give it justice. Here is a quote about the process of getting these transferred to youtube.

Published on Jan 4, 2015
This is a video of John Boyd delivering his Patterns of Conflict lecture. The audience appears to be a group of Congressional staffers in former Iowa Congressman Jim Lightfoot’s office. The year of production is unknown, but my best guess is mid-to-late 1980s. I copied this from a tape in the Boyd Collection at the USMC Archives at Quantico, Virginia, in 2007. The tape’s audio wasn’t the best quality (recommend using headphones). The lecture is over 6 hours, so I’ll probably have to break this into 12 or more parts. Each part takes a long time to upload, so it will be a few days/weeks to get the entire lecture online. Boyd’s acetate slides are washed out, but you can follow along with the slides by downloading Patterns of Conflict here.

Very cool and the series can be found at this youtube channel if you want to watch the whole thing. Jason Brown has conveniently chopped up some very interesting portions of this presentation. If you have headphones, I suggest you use those in order to get better clarity. The first video is Boyd discussing two heavyweights of strategy and war–Carl von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, and why he thought Sun Tzu got it right.

 

 

The second sighting of Boyd was over at Chet Richard’s blog. He just downloaded an outstanding slide presentation done by Dean Leane. He was the CEO of CRH of North America, and he applied the concepts of Boyd and his associates, to the strategic direction of the company. Here is what he did.

I asked my staff to read 4 books: Certain to Win, Boyd by Robert Coram, Maneuver Warfare Handbook by Bill Lind and Warfighting by the USMC. Although my people were sometimes puzzled by this curriculum, I was able to get most of what we were trying to get across stuffed into the assembled noggins.

Between 2000 and 2010, CRH North America went from no presence whatsoever to the largest supplier in its market sector in the NAFTA region. If anyone thinks this is easy, then I suggest they try it.

What sucks though is CRH eventually sold to their competitor. Meaning they did such a good job, that their competitor made a ridiculous offer to buy the company. Which is actually a good thing as well. If you can’t beat them, then buy them I guess. lol Good stuff and I highly recommend checking out all the new material to ‘get orientated’. –Matt

 

 

 

Monday, August 4, 2014

Games: Call Of Duty Advanced Warfare

Filed under: Games,Video — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 3:34 PM

This game is of interest to our community because it involves a future where PMSC’s are the dominate players. It is a game that asks ‘what if?’.

This franchise has made a ton of money off of the Call of Duty games, and this latest game is the next evolution of that franchise. When they hired a heavy duty actor like Kevin Spacey to play the CEO of the fictional PMSC in this game called Atlas Corporation, then you know these guys are not fooling around. These games are essentially interactive movies, complete with premieres and premier parties and awards for best games. It really is amazing how far these things have come along.

It is also telling that video games would invest so much into PMSC related stories. Mercenary type games must really do well for them to put so much money and resource into the concept. I should also mention that I have a ton of traffic coming from places like Los Angeles and other areas of the country where games or other bits of PMSC related entertainment are made. I am sure on Facebook, the same kind of thing is happening. An industry that makes their money on good story and great action in a game, will find inspiration wherever it can–to include this blog. Which is great and I hope they take the ideas and run with them. Just know that I can’t control what the gamers or other contractors feel about the game, so if it sucks, it is on you guys. lol

So we will see how the game does? For the record, I had no involvement with the development of this game. Check out the other behind the scenes videos that talk about the weapons and ideas of the game. Lots of technology and future warfare type stuff going on. –Matt

Pre-order game here.

 

 

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Music: A Marine Christmas Song

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Music,Video — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 1:10 PM

A hat tip to the guys at SOFREP for finding this one. Merry Christmas to all of those contractors and military that are deployed, and to their friends and family keeping the home fires burning.

Merry Christmas to all of my readership, FB fans, authors, veterans, PMSC’s, associations, academics, journalists, think tankers and fellow bloggers out there whom have all contributed to the discussion about the ever evolving world of the private military and security industry. –Matt

 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Industry Talk: Video Of Drunk, Stoned Jorge Scientific Contractors Puts Company On The Skyline

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:23 PM

First of all, this disgusts me. It is embarrassing and it just further emphasizes the necessity of good leadership in the industry, and a lack there of within this contract. Because obviously, this company did not care about putting responsible folks in the position of managing these men.

It sucks, and you see the same thing over and over again with the companies. We saw this with AGNA in Afghanistan, with the G4S Olympics deal and with the WSI Oakridge fiasco. Just imagine if these companies actually invested a portion of their money into leadership and getting good people in those positions of power? Just imagine if this industry actually put some focus on leadership training or a proper system of management that grows good leaders within the company? Just imagine if contracts were written in such a way where good leadership was rewarded, or companies were rewarded for taking care of their people out in the field? But first the companies actually have to ‘care’ about good leadership…..

On the plus side, bravo to these whistle blowers for coming forward and having the courage to do what is right. It sounds like John Melson and Kenny Smith are the guys who are bringing the lawsuit against the company for what was going on out there. Also, Danielle Brian of POGO was able to make an appearance in this story, and POGO has been a big supporter of whistle blowers in the past and bringing attention upon poor contractors in the war zones. We will see how it goes and if anyone from the company or other contractors would like to comment on this deal, feel free to do so in the comments section below. –Matt

Edit: 10/18/2012- Here is a statement from the company about this incident.

Statement from Jorge Scientific Corporation

Jorge Scientific Corporation took decisive action to correct the unacceptable behavior of a limited number of employees that occurred at an administrative living facility in Afghanistan. Specifically, early in 2012 the Company implemented management changes to ensure that employees were maintaining the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. Most importantly, new leadership implemented a no-drinking policy and dismantled the bonfire pit at the center of the misbehavior.
On August 21, 2012, we learned that two former employees filed a complaint that accuses individuals living at the facility of personal misconduct. These individuals are seeking monetary damages by mischaracterizing these actions as “fraud.” All of the accusations pre-date the management changes that Jorge put in place.
The Company is deeply concerned about any employee misconduct. As a result of the complaint, the Board of Directors hired an outside and independent investigation team headed by a former federal prosecutor to conduct a thorough investigation. The Board has also established a special committee, to include a former senior military member with extensive operational experience, to review, approve as appropriate, and implement the investigation’s conclusions and recommendations.
The investigation is ongoing. The Company remains confident that the personal misconduct did not impact the Company’s contract performance.
The former senior executive, the medic and several others mentioned in the complaint no longer work for Jorge; their employment ceased before Jorge received the complaint.
Jorge is dedicated to ensuring transparency and the highest levels of professionalism and conduct, and pledges to fully investigate and correct any mistakes to preserve and continue its history of exemplary performance.
For more information, please contact our press officer at media@jorge.com.

 

 

Exclusive: Video Shows Drunk, Stoned US Security Contractors
By CINDY GALLI, RHONDA SCHWARTZ and BRIAN ROSS
Oct. 17, 2012
Cellphone video recorded earlier this year at an operations center of a U.S. security contractor in Kabul, Afghanistan appears to show key personnel staggeringly drunk or high on narcotics, in what former employees say was a pattern of outrageous behavior that put American lives at risk and went undetected by U.S. military officials who are supposed to oversee such contractors.
The video, provided to ABC News by two former employees, is scheduled to be broadcast in a report this evening on “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline.”
Asked if a response to an attack by terrorists would have been possible during the events seen on the video, one of the former employees, Kenny Smith, told ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent Brian Ross, “No, sir.”
Questions posed by ABC News to the Pentagon have sparked a criminal investigation by the U.S. Army, a spokesman says.
The contractor, Virginia-based Jorge Scientific, has won almost $1 billion in U.S. government contracts.
The company says it has taken “decisive action to correct the unacceptable behavior of a limited number of employees” and that several of them seen on the video are no longer employed by Jorge Scientific.
The use of alcohol or illegal drugs by U.S. contractors in Afghanistan is prohibited by the military under what is known as General Order Number One.
Yet the former employees told ABC News they saw no evidence of oversight of the company by American military officials and that at least one U.S. Army major, a female, was a regular visitor to drunken parties at the facility, often using a room for sexual encounters.
The two former employees, John Melson and Kenny Smith, say the video documents allegations they have made in a lawsuit against Jorge Scientific.

(more…)

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Cool Stuff: The Battle Cry Of Lara Logan!!!

Filed under: Al Qaeda,Cool Stuff,Illinois — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:14 AM

A big thanks to Chris for finding the source of this motivating speech, and a big thanks to Matt for saving a copy and putting it up on Vimeo and Youtube before BGA made it private (for some reason…). Either way, it’s up now and I definitely wanted to watch it and also share it. Lot’s of folks on Facebook were wanting to check it out, and I am hoping it goes viral…

What makes this speech special is Lara is not holding back on her views about the war effort, and the strength of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Her experience and involvement as a reporter in this war is significant and this speech is the cherry on top of her 60 Minutes special called ‘The Longest War’–which I highly recommend watching if you have a chance.

For those of you out there that are not able to watch this video because of whatever firewall or limitations you have on your internet usage, that sucks. Unfortunately this is pretty common in the war zones, but hopefully this speech and battle cry goes viral and the video gets to a national level of viewing on one of the networks. The video will be archived here on the blog, so when you get home you can watch it then.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that Lara gets points in my book for being married to a security contractor. She married a WPS contractor named Joe Burkett back in 2008. Cool deal and check this thing out. (below I posted a Vimeo and Youtube version, for mobile users) –Matt

 

 

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