The Pentagon's top enlisted service member has a penchant for hand-to-hand combat, a fact brought to light in recent comments vowing that U.S. troops would defeat its enemies by "shooting them in the face" or in close-quarters combat with shovels. Posted on 01/19/2018 6:19:48 AM PST by w1n1
The Pentagon's top enlisted service member has a penchant for hand-to-hand combat, a fact brought to light in recent comments vowing that U.S. troops would defeat its enemies by "shooting them in the face" or in close-quarters combat with shovels.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, senior enlisted adviser to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued the warnings to the Islamic State on Facebook and Twitter this week, telling them they have two options — surrender or die.
Senior defense officials have issued similar threats to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, as well as Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, but Troxell’s evocative language seems to have caused a stir online and in the media.
“If they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, by dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools,” Troxell wrote in a Facebook post published Tuesday. “Regardless, they cannot win, so they need to choose how it’s going to be.”
A photo of what appears to be Troxell holding an entrenching tool with its blade bent to 90 degrees accompanied the post. The photo seems to have been taken at a holiday USO show, where Troxell issued a similarly blunt promise. Read the rest of the hand-to-hand combat with shovels here.
$700.00 shovels, no doubt.
Good luck with that.
I am pretty sure the main point is to mock ISIS. The military knows that the media will carry the message, and imagine if you are in a war and your enemy says that I can kick your ass with no weapons at all or just a shovel?
FYI - Article(s) about this have been posted here about six times already.
I missed it every time.......
Fifty years ago,in the USAF survival school we were taught to use a shovel as a last ditch weapon against the enemy. It was better balanced than the axe.
Even the Russians used shovels against protestors in the 1980s.
If you watch the old movie ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT you will see the German troops defending the trench with shovels.
I read that Russian Spetznaz sharpened standard entrenching shovels and practiced throwing/fighting with them.
Going hand to hand, or E-tool to head with a terrorist is just exciting, and good for morale. Boys will be boys after all.
Putting new parts in the hair of jihadis with large objects is good exercise, and socially beneficial. It let’s the troops blow off some steam, before they head off post on some Friday after a payday.
Used US Army collapsible shovel on Amazon for $41.50
The price for a shovel at the Ft. Benning clothing sales store is: $84.18
http://www.benning.army.mil/Tenant/LRC/content/pdf/OCIE%20GUIDE%202012.pdf
Yeah, but those six times didn't draw hits to his blog.
British press recently ran reports of an SAS man decapitating a terrorist in a hand-to-hand battle, using his shovel:
During World War I, troops carrier a variety of improvised weapons to defend their trenches, or take territory from the enemy. Shovels were popular, as were cricket bats (among the Brits and colonial troops). Ditto for axes, clubs, shotguns and anything else that might be useful at extremely close range
Is that you John Wayne?
Bkmk
The US e-tool had an edge on one side for cutting roots while digging; some guys sharpened that edge.
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