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Archive for 2015
2015 AUSA Annual Meeting & Exposition
Monday, October 12th, 2015PIG FDT Bravo FR Glove Available for Pre-Order
Monday, October 12th, 2015Pre-Order for the highly anticipated PIG FDT Bravo FR gloves has commenced. Pre-Order customers get a special 20% off their purchase and will also be the first ones to receive their gloves before anyone else.
www.skdtac.com/PIG-FDT-Bravo-Gloves-p
What The Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition Has Been Up To
Monday, October 12th, 2015On this first day of the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army I find it fitting to tell you about a considerably smaller group of industry advocates. While lesser known, I occasionally write about the Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition (WPRC).
For the most part, I write about a very narrow segment of the defense industry; those businesses that concentrate on protecting our service members. As I’m sure you’re aware, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Organizational Clothing and Individual Equipment (OCIE) industry historically has had a minimal presence on Capitol Hill, to the detriment of the needs of both the warfighter and industry. But not anymore.
Back in 2009, at the urging of DoD leadership, industry leaders took the initiative to bring a fragmented group of nine American companies together to speak with one voice to Congress on the need to sustain a industrial base. Never before in the history had the armed forces relied so heavily of rapid industrial innovation and production of personal protective equipment. No one wanted to see that capability go away due to the lack of a planning process. The result was the Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition (WPRC), which has grown into a not-for-profit that enjoys an active membership of more than 40 companies dedicated to ensuring US warfighters and peacekeepers alike are properly supported and equipped for the full spectrum of missions.
I am proud to host this site and discuss many of these issues. Those of you who read, comment, and support this site through advertising are engaged daily not only with the US Department of Defense but also increasingly with foreign militaries. As our defensive posture continues to evolve and opportunities to sustain the domestic industrial base have diminished, the procurement process has become even more difficult at a time when the industry that supports the warfighter is extremely stressed.
Sequestration is our number one defense issue. The current standoff taking place between the President and Congress over the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is an example of the collateral damage caused by sequestration. To adequately fund DoD around the constrictions of the sequester, Members of Congress have used the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account to add almost $85 billion dollars to meet the critical demands of our national defense. President Obama has repeatedly called this effort a “gimmick” and has threatened to veto the NDAA altogether. Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees just approved a Conference Report containing this OCO funding. If the President vetoes the measure, more uncertainty remains around the necessary funding for the Department of Defense.
The result of this situation for our industry is continued uncertainty. Let’s face it. If there’s no budget, there are no orders for goods, and companies may well turn their efforts elsewhere, or close up shop altogether. This obviously directly effects the military. OCO funds are used with broad discretion, and while they may serve as a bandaid, they also create some havoc with the bean counters and lead to “feast or famine” situations for the military as well as their suppliers. You can’t conduct any long-term planning when the budget process is broken. Specific to our industry, you get a glaring lack of line item visibility for both PPE and OCIE. On top of that, the constraints of the Budget Control Act and sequestration have led procurement authorities to rely heavily upon lowest price/technically acceptable (LPTA) contracting methods in order to make those limited funds stretch as far as possible. While it sounds great on paper, choosing the lowest price over quality and best value for PPE and OCIE is a recipe for disaster both for the domestic industrial base as well as our warfighters.
Confronting these challenges head on may seem like an impossible task. You know as well as I do that not only are there current growing threats around the world (Russia, Syria, ISIS, North Korea) but the Berry compliant industrial base must be ready to meet unforeseen challenges within a moment’s notice. How many times to do we have to repeat history? Time and time again we have allowed our military’s industrial base to descend into disarray. The goal here is sustainment of capabilities; military as well as industrial.
The WPRC was founded to not only ensure the best available equipment for our warfighters and peacekeepers but to advocate on behalf of the American companies and manufacturers who provide the best available PPE and OCIE. Members and non-members alike have benefitted from their work. The WPRC has led the effort to discontinue the use of reverse auctions (RA) and Lowest Price/Technically Acceptable (LPTA) contracting for PPE/OCIE product categories. Margins are already thin and these types of purchases have resulted in winning bids that are just too good to be true. Over time these methods of procurement have led to missteps, including the procurement of substandard PPE. Just this year, the companies who are part of the WPRC worked together to successfully secure language in the NDAA that states:
“The Secretary of Defense shall ensure that the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, in procuring an item of personal protective equipment or a critical safety item, use source selection criteria that is predominately based on technical qualifications of the item and not predominately based on price to the maximum extent practicable if the level of quality or failure of the item could result in death or severe bodily harm to the user, as determined by the Secretaries.”
This language is an important step in a continued process to ensure that our warfighters not only maintain a significant combat advantage but are as safe as possible while doing so. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Chair of the Senate Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA), Chair of the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee have been champions for this issue in Congress.
Here’s another win that I bet you haven’t heard of. The WPRC has also achieved a notable success by supporting legislation that requires DoD to provide line-item funding for PPE and OCIE in future budgets. Beginning next year, Program Managers and industry will have visibility into the spending plans of the service branches, allowing for far better planning within the government and industry on the best way to allocate precious resources to support the service branches. Up to now, everything has been haphazard. This is huge and will help planners get their arms around what has been happening.
There’s still a lot of work to be done. I urge companies to pay attention to the work being done by this non-profit association and consider adding their efforts to the advocacy work that leads to these types of accomplishments. It’s critical to our industrial base and to all those who serve in uniform, and it deserves our support. Congress needs feedback from the uniformed services as well as from industry. If we let it operate in a vacuum it will never know how to improve the acquisition process.
Unfortunately, what they do day-to-day is often missed but if I had to sum it all up in a single sentence, I’d refer to them as “Our Voice of Industry on Capitol Hill.” While it has taken time to gain momentum, this voice has been pretty effective so far, and the more that companies band together to alleviate uncertainty, the better they can concentrate on providing the best support to our troops.
U.S. Senior Border Patrol Agent & Team Safariland Member Robert Vadasz Wins At NRA National Police Shooting Championships
Monday, October 12th, 2015
ONTARIO, Calif. – Safariland congratulates U.S. Senior Border Patrol Agent and Team Safariland shooter Robert Vadasz for his win at the 2015 NRA National Police Shooting Championships (NPSC). Held in Albuquerque, NM in late September, Vadasz was named Individual National Champion and Grand Aggregate Champion.
Competing in the sport since 2001, this is the seventh national championship win for Vadasz. He is the 10th national champion for the U.S. Border Patrol and holds the second most wins in NPSC history. A revolver and semiautomatic firearm-based competition, the Championships are open to public and private law enforcement members and select law enforcement members of the U.S. military. During the competition, Vadasz used the Safariland Model 014 Open Class Competition Holster, Model 002 Cup Challenge Competition Holster, Speedloader – Comp III and Model 773 Competition Open Top Magazine Pouch.
“With competitors from Venezuela, Australia, Germany, and the United States, Vadasz’s wins are impressive,” said Scott Carnahan, Vice President, Equipment, The Safariland Group and Team Safariland Manager. “In partnership with champion shooters like Vadasz, we develop superior products for competition that help ensure winning results.”
Team Safariland members are an integral part of the company’s product development process by regularly testing Safariland materials and products to ensure design and development. For more information about Team Safariland and Safariland equipment, please visit www.safariland.com.
Coghlan’s Ltd. Acquires McNett Corporation
Sunday, October 11th, 2015Winnipeg, MB (October 9, 2015) — Coghlan’s Ltd. is proud to announce that it has completed the acquisition of McNett® Corporation, a leading provider of outdoor gear and accessories to recreation and defense industries throughout North America and world-wide. McNett Corporation, with its 45 employees, will remain headquartered in Bellingham, Washington USA under the management team led by CEO Travis Huisman. McNett’s European offices will remain unchanged and operating from Walsrode, Germany under the existing management team led by Managing Director Roy Whitehead.
“Duane and Nancy McNett and the McNett team have built a great company over the past 35 years, very much the same way as Coghlan’s has done, one item at a time,” said Rob Coghlan, president of Coghlan’s Ltd. “We look forward to working with the McNett team on introducing new and expanded offerings to each market the company touches with its family of brands.”
D.A. Davidson & Co. served as financial advisor and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP served as legal advisor to McNett in this transaction.
SilencerCo – SWR – Radius ‘How To’ Video
Sunday, October 11th, 2015Chase Tactical – Columbus Day Sale
Sunday, October 11th, 2015
Corps Strength – Results Never Become Outdated
Saturday, October 10th, 2015Since I published my book Corps Strength I’ve gotten lots of great feedback. Hundreds of emails, book reviews and lots of comments to my monthly articles here on SSD. Most of it has been positive and I’ve heard many motivating success stories from those using my ideas that helped them get in shape and lose weight. However, at times I’ve been criticized by some for having outdated, low tech ideas, etc, etc. It’s no biggie, everyone has a right to their opinion, myself included. I will say in response to those specific type of comments, that I and those I’ve trained, continue to be living proof to what really works for achieving and maintaining a high level of useful long term fitness and overall health. People who know me, know I’m interested in actual results much more than than talk and theory, so I’ll share a recent experience as one simple proof source for you to consider.
During this past month of Sept, I was deployed to Africa to train some of their military. Myself and an active duty Navy Chief from the International School house here in Pensacola made the long trip to the small island nation of Comoros in the Indian ocean. We held class everyday for two weeks at their Army HQ, located in the capital city of Moroni. Our class was made up of 21 officers from their Army, Coast Guard and Gendarmerie. The subjects ranged from setting up training programs, to the Laws of Armed Conflict, Rules of Engagement and Use of Force. The classes went well despite the having to work through French translators. We had many good discussions on Peacekeeping and Anti-Piracy operations as many of the students had previously deployed to different parts of Africa with the African Union and the UN in support of various operations. I also had the chance to observe some of their enlisted training and was surprised their PT program to be much more robust than I had seen in other African countries. Especially in the rapid response units that they have in their Army and Gendarmerie. Civil unrest is always an issue there and they have the coup history to prove it.
Now before I deployed there I had heard of their active volcano: Mt Karthala, which measures just under 8000 ft in elevation. I had it in my mind to climb this mtn on a day off during my stay. I mentioned this to the Army Major who was our liaison there and he said that the army used this mtn for training all the time, with units doing force marches at least once a month up to the summit. He said that he would provide a couple of soldiers to accompany us on the climb, as parts of the carter were unstable and dangerous and you need to know the areas to avoid. So we scheduled to meet up with these guys at 0430 at a trailhead on the outskirts of the city. You have to start very early, as you needed to hike through the jungle canopy before sun up, as it is very hot and humid at the lower elevations. I say we, as I had talked my training partner; the Navy Chief into going with me. He was hesitant as he has very little experience with this type of stuff, but he was in excellent overall physical condition and in his early 30’s and I didn’t think he would have too much trouble. Not too much, LOL.
So at zero dark thirty that Saturday morning our driver takes us to a very remote part of the city to meet up with the army guys. They were there dressed in old school woodland type cammies, standard leather boots and carrying (lightly filled) ALICE packs. Chief and I carried only about 25lbs each in day packs, which was mostly water as there is no where to get water once you leave the city. The round trip was to take 10-12 hours and I know better than to go light on water. Our guides were a Sgt and two Cpls. They all looked in their 20’s. They had the rough edged look of infantry guys used to the field. They spoke no English, and after they gave us a quick and dismissive once over, we all geared up and stepped off. The GPS on Chiefs phone said that we were starting at around 1100 ft elevation. The point and last guy each carried dull flashlights, aimed at our feet as it was pitch black under the tree canopy and you couldn’t see shit. The trail was very steep, rocky and root covered. But it was dry and well used, so we fell into a fast clip without too much stumbling around. As I started my military life as a Marine Infantryman I knew five minutes in what was up. All training humps, especially climbing humps always end up being a test of manhood. Back in the day we always wanted to hump the old guys dicks into the dirt (more often that not they did it to us) and I could tell this was how this was going to go. No biggie, not my first bus ride people, step it out boys and don’t worry about this old Jarhead.
After about two solid hours we stopped briefly for a water break. We were all sweating like run away slaves as it was very hot and humid in the trees. Chief was struggling to keep up, and I could tell he wasn’t enjoying this, but I assured him that when we got higher it would cool off and I also had a hunch that these guys wouldn’t be able to maintain this pace. Just a hunch. After a few words of French between them and a sideways glance at me, a different guy took up point and stepped off at an even faster pace. I stayed glued to his ass for the next hour or so without a pause till the sun was full up and we were out of the canopy at about 4000 ft. When we broke into the open, the view was spectacular and you could see Chief and the other two army guys about 1/2 mile below. My guide decided this was a good time to take a real break and have some food and let everyone catch up. The fare was french bread, sardines, bananas, chocolate and warm water. You won’t find a bag of trail mix, power bar or bottle of Gatorade in the entire country. After everyone had some food and a little break, we geared back up. We were about 1/2 way to the summit and It was now open country, but still very steep in spots, with lots of sharp edged broken lava rocks from the last serious eruption in 2005.
Even though it was now very sunny, with the elevation and a nice breeze, the temp had cooled off to the low 70’s and getting cooler as you went up. Perfect for this type of humping. As I was feeling good and loosened up now, I thought that it would be the perfect time for me to take the lead. Two of the army guys went with me, but one stayed back with Chief (his knee was bothering him). I wanted to see what kind of shape these guys were in, so now I just put my head down and as my old squad leader would say “got after it.” I dropped the first guy in less than an 1/2 hour, the second guy stayed with me for about another hour before he just sat down on a rock, shook his head and waved me off. Not tired in the least I pushed on by myself to the edge of the crater (which is marked by a elevation marker at 7740 ft.) There I had a great view of the inside crater and of my companions far below struggling their way up the trail. It took me just under five hours to get to the top and they all caught up in about another hour. After about exploring the crater (like being on the moon) for a while we headed down at a leisurely pace. In all we went over 22 miles in just under 10 hours. The Army guys collapsed at the bottom and sat down in the shade till the truck came and got them. Chief said he was never hiking another mountain as long as he lived, LOL. To me it was the highlight of the trip, but that’s just this old, outdated, low tech Marines idea of fun.
The fact was that other than some sore feet I wasn’t really tired. Yes I know hard ass, we weren’t carrying shit for a load. Adding a 50lb plus pack with a weapon makes this little hike a whole different animal, been there, know this. However I still think that being able to do these type of things at age 55, anytime, any day without any trouble says something about my fitness and what I do to maintain it. I don’t spend hours and hours a day working out. I don’t eat special foods or take supplements. I follow the same plan and diet I outline in my book as I know it works, and works really well and has for years. It may not be high tech, or follow the latest fitness fad, but guess what? It stills works and for me, that is what counts.
Be safe always, good when you can.
Semper Fi
MGunz
