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| This is where the cross-section of corporate America meets part-time military servicemembers in a humorous and straightforward manner. |
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| Go follow @TheFrattyGuard on Instagram and buy their merch here. Also, submit your resume to Friendly Forces and explore this list of places to work that are verifiably Reservist-Friendly (or avoid those that are not)! Don’t see your company on the list? Click here to tell us. |
| If you are interested in newsletter advertisements or partnerships, please email us at info@friendlyforces.com. |
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EXCLUSIVE: An Interview with the Only Drilling Reservist in Delta Force
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| ‘I don’t talk about what I do at work. They wouldn’t understand.” |
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| For our main article this week, we landed the white whale of exclusive interviews. |
| While the very existence of this person has long been debated in the halls of Langley and the Pentagon, we can confirm that not only does he exist, but he’s probably impacted your life more than you know… |
| This past week, our staff sat down with the only drilling National Guard member of the US Army’s elite counter-terrorism Special Mission Unit, known colloquially as “Delta Force.” |
| The shadowy organization is classified and goes by many names; the Unit, Combat Applications Group (CAG), Army Compartmented Element (ACE), Uncle Sam’s Pocket Rocket, Task Force Green, and many others. While its name changes frequently for operational security, a historic constant has been that the unit is only open to active duty members of the military—the best of the best from across all branches of the active duty force. |
| Or so we thought. |
| After a paperwork mix-up, one remarkable part-time soldier is challenging everything we thought we knew about the tier 1 special operations community…and rewriting all the rules to follow his dreams… |
| To protect the operator’s identity, he has requested that we only refer to him as, “the operator.” |
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| **This article was cleared through appropriate DoD channels before publication** |
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| PTHN: So, the obvious question, how did you end up getting assigned to Delta Force as a part-time National Guard soldier? |
| The Operator: (laughing) I get this a lot, mostly from the other operators. Well, the PG-13 version is that some dumbass full-timer at Battalion screwed up my paperwork…shocker I know. I was supposed to be transferred from Alpha Company of the 489th Military Police Battalion to Delta Company. I had punched out the First Sergeant when he gave me the unlawful order of replacing the urinal cakes in the armory bathroom. Since I was only a Private and it was my first drill, the command team felt it would be best for me to start fresh in a new company. Well, the AGR that filled out the transfer form obviously decided to smoke his weekend meth early and accidentally wrote “Delta Force” instead of “Delta Company.” |
| It seemed like a mistake, but I rolled with it. My next drill, I wandered around Bragg for a while until I found the Delta Compound. I explained the situation and they said they would take me if I could pass a test that involved inventorying their gasmasks and refilling the blinker fluid of the tactical vehicles. Long story short, I passed and I’ve been drilling with them ever since. |
| PTHN: Do the other operators treat you differently? |
| The Operator: Not really. Once you’re in this organization, you are a member of a super tight-knit community that feels like a family more than anything else. There is some gentle razzing of course. Most months they pretend they don’t remember my name or that I’m not in the room while they’re talking about me. Other than that, you gain respect by proving yourself day in and day out by sustaining an incredibly high level of performance. Obviously, it’s harder for me because I’m there only 2 or 3 days a month, so I would say it’s an ongoing process and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. |
| PTHN: What does a typical drill weekend with Delta Force look like? |
| The Operator: Typically, I cut out of work a little early on Friday in order to catch a flight down to Bragg. TSA always confiscates my sidearm so I build in about 2 hours extra to deal with them and the FBI. Once that is cleared up, I sip on gin and tonics and talk loudly about how I can’t talk about what I do to whoever is sitting next to me. Once I arrive at the compound, I usually get a little trigger-happy and need to put some rounds down range in the indoor shoothouse. I kit up and expend a few thousand rounds before walking into the ops center to ask what mission we’re running that weekend and if I’m on the manifest. |
| With the drawdown of the GWOT, most of the highly kinetic missions have ended so I am rarely manifested. I will usually spend the rest of the weekend stealing stuff from the supply cage or doing cyber awareness training. |
| PTHN: What is your civilian career and how do you manage it while being a member of Delta Force? |
| The Operator: I’m currently in the management training program at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Honestly, my supervisor is a dick. I don’t care if you see this, Kylor. Enterprise is NOT military friendly. It is a toxic culture that laughs at people when they say they have to leave early because they are in Delta Force part-time. DO NOT WORK THERE. |
| PTHN: What advice do you have for other National Guard or Reserve service members interested in joining Delta Force? |
| The Operator: I mean we’re pretty full so I wouldn’t count on it. That said, stay in school, stay off the weed, and most of all, dream big. If you can dream it, you can do it. It’s not for everybody though. Delta Force isn’t a part-time, part-time job. You have to be fully committed, and 100% invested all the time while you’re there on drill weekend. A lot of people can’t handle that. |
| PTHN: What else would you like people to know? |
| The Operator: You never know who could be a Delta operator, so be nice to everybody in your office, and don’t exclude people from after-work events just because you think they’re different or weird, Kylor. |
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What We’re Running
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| Every week we will discuss a piece of kit, equipment, or “bling” that you can consider incorporating into your loadout. We select products we actually use and that provide utility, or are just fuckin cool. |
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| We get it, the military doesn’t believe in sleep. Nevertheless, a good night’s rest is critical and it does not have to be uncomfortable, even when you are operating. We have all been there and run off fumes during training exercises, MDMP, sitting on a hill or in the woods for hours waiting for further direction, etc. Whether you are at drill, annual training, JRTC/NTC, or deployed, you and your Joe’s can sleep comfortably on an inflatable sleeping mat with a built-in pillow and foot pump. |
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| Amazon has countless versions of the one linked above. These come in all shapes and sizes, and you can easily find one that rolls up to the size of a Nalgene water bottle. These are easy to set up and store and are so light and compact that you will not notice any additional weight on your back when you have to ruck around. Plus, they fit perfectly in military-issued tents, on top of cots, and even when the two are combined. |
| Albeit these are not practical to use at all times, they are utterly amazing at the right time and in the right environment. So, pick yours up today and laugh at all of the incoming POG jokes while you fade away into a deep sleep to catch up on your beauty rest. When you wake up, tell all of your friends to subscribe to our newsletter because this is where you learned your tricks of the trade. |
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War Room: Eye on China
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| People should know what’s going on with China, especially those in the military. In this section, we begin our first collaboration with the author of Vermillion China in which we look at why Taiwan matters. This will hopefully be an ongoing series. |
| Be sure to check out Vermillion’s website and Instagram page so you can stay updated on these incredibly important and relevant stories. |
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| Why is Taiwan important? |
| From the perspective of the United States’ national interest, Taiwan matters for one paramount reason: its unchangeable geography naturally dominates the littoral, air, sea, and subsea spaces of the first island chain. There are many arguments that focus on economic benefits, normative values, or a clash of governance philosophies, but at the end of the day, Taiwan’s extreme height and plunging depth make it of vital military operational importance. The potential loss of Taiwan leaves US and allied forces with far less defensible basing options, throwing major uncertainty into Washington’s ability to credibly deter or take the fight to China. The US would not possess the capability to sustain command of the seas throughout the first island chain, which serves as the foundation for the free movement of commerce throughout Asia. Whoever controls Taiwan commands the geographic fulcrum of Asia, and with that, is able to dictate the trajectory of East Asia and the Western Pacific. |
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| For more reading on the importance of Taiwan and to understand why the defense of Taiwan is so crucial to the United States, please take a look at “The Fulcrum of Asia.” |
| Vermilion China is written for national security professionals, service members, China Hands, and informed Americans who are looking for strategic analysis of US-China competition. Going forward, Vermilion will be making semi-regular contributions to the newsletter in order to keep readers informed on all things China-related. |
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PART ⚡TIME News and Intel
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| You know you want it… hand-curated news you need to be tracking to not look like a total CHUD. |
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- Barry Bonds. Alex Rodriguez. Mark McGwire. CPT Steele Chadwick. Listen, folks, the greats were juiced up and that is just a fact of life. We all grew up watching these men hit baseballs from New York to San Fransisco and it was awesome. Now the United States Navy is coming down on “quiet” professionals in their special operations community by implementing random drug testing for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs starting in November. According to a recent release, the Navy will randomly test up to 15% of those in their Special Warfare Command. Read more about it here (where they hilariously refer to them as ‘special forces’).
- The Army is facing a recruiting crisis and its active-duty force is the smallest it has been since 1940. So, a bunch of Boomers came up with extraordinarily boring and likely worthless solutions to this massive issue. Rather than focusing on making the Army seem really cool again, making sure incentives are plentiful and actually get paid out, and introducing new and exciting opportunities, they did almost the opposite. Read about the changes that have been made here.
- PAY. THAT. MAN. And pay him $2.49M to be exact. Le Roy Torres, a retired Army Reserve Captain, won a lawsuit Friday against the State of Texas for violating USERRA. A Texas jury ruled unanimously in favor of Torres, “… who lost his job as a Texas State Tropper when he developed a debilitating illness caused by exposure to burn pits while deployed overseas.” Read more about it here.
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Bachelor (or Lazy POS) Recipe of the Week
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| This week’s recipe is brought to you by an unhinged NCO who has been circulating in various high optempo units for years now. Legend says that he joined the Part-Time Yacht Club after being burned by a 3 letter agency. He went off the grid to travel the world and study food while mastering the sensual arts. He brings culinary skills to the table that would make Gordon Ramsey shit a brick. He may also be insane. |
| In certain circles, he is known only as… The Silver Fox. |
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| “Not knowing how to cook is like not knowing how to fuck.” – The Silver Fox |
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| We train every day–mentally, physically, spiritually so that we can be ready to punch out and go to work. All too often, the times between needing to lay hate can span days to weeks, but we always need to be on the bounce. Well chuds, it’s not just all about bleaching pubes. We have to fuel our bodies to get gains every day, but it goes beyond that. Operators must be jacks of all trades. They’re in tune with the world around them — the hard part so sharp the comb gets cut—and part of that is knowing your way around the kitchen. |
| We are going to take it up a notch this week with something more challenging, but fundamental. The chocolate chip cookie. That’s right, an all-American Chad treat, the edible deal sled. Do you want to close fucking deals? Learn how to run this choccy chip cookie recipe. |
| Velvety…soft…sweet. These words could be used to describe the skin of the one Cav scout who led me astray in grad school, but they perfectly capture the texture of these cookies we’re about to make. Trust me, they’re good. Ask your mom. |
| I, the SILVERFOX, started making these deal-closing cookies while calming the nerves of rich men north of Richmond while we were under siege in an underground bunker nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. |
- 175g salted butter* softened (3/4 cup) **You can use unsalted as well you will just need to adjust your salt, and taste your batter.
- 65g sour cream (1/4 cup)
- 200g white (granulated) sugar (1 cup)
- 220g light brown sugar packed (1 cup)
- 8g vanilla extract (2.5 tsp)
- 2 large eggs
- 360g all-purpose flour (3 cups)
- 6g baking soda (1 tsp)
- 2g baking powder (1/2 tsp)
- 7g sea salt (1 tsp, ** unless you use unsalted butter)
- 300g chocolate chips (1 2/3 cups)
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| Okay, we are going to make this easy: |
- Oven: 375 degrees
- Mix your dry. Flour, baking soda, salt.
- Whip both the sugars, the butter, and the sour cream together. If you want to be a wimp and use a mixer during this step, you can.
- Whip your eggs with the vanilla
- Now whip your eggs into the butter-sugar. (at this point you may need to chill this mix if it gets too warm, but it won’t because your thermostat is set to 62).
- Here is the skilled touch: dump your wet mix into your dry mix and add the chocolate. DO NOT OVER MIX! With a rubber spatula scrape the sides and fold the wet over into the dry. You’re oper8ing right now. The batter needs to JUST come together.
- Scoop onto a cookie sheet with parchment or grease (Silpat also works).
- Bake for 10 mins, plus or minus a minute for your oven, but don’t overbake! You may think they need longer, but they will still look wet in the middle. You are looking for golden brown around the edges then done.
- Let them rest for a few minutes.
- Or you can skip all of this and microwave some Tollhouse cookies for 30 seconds in the microwave. You are the captain of your own destiny, pussy.
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Team Guy October Reading List
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| “Reading is FUNdamental” – The Fratty Guard |
- The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization, Peter Zeihan
- I will Teach You to Be Rich, Ramit Sethi
- Battlefield Cyber, Michael McLaughlin and William Holstein
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