Help Save Our Troops

(Reprinted from www.MollieSanders.com)

In the September 12th New Yorker article “Coming Apart” by George Packer, I learned a disturbing piece of information:

A former Navy SEAL has come up with a manufacturing strategy to make “armored” vehicles much more resistant to IEDs and other attacks – BUT the former Navy SEAL cannot bid on undertaking this important mission the Pentagon has said it wants done for Humvees because BIDS ARE NOT BEING ACCEPTED.

(As Mitch and I wrote in the novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS, “IEDs are not an electronics problem. They’re an engineering problem.”)

The information on this situation is only part of Packer’s overall article, which is an essay on the American public’s attitude since 9/11.

Let me explain this “armored” vehicle situation in more detail:

Packer begins his New Yorker article with the story of former Navy SEAL Chris Berman, who was hired in 2004 by the private security company Blackwater.

Berman volunteered to go on a “food-escort detail” to Falluja, “but at the last minute his place was taken by one of his friends, Scott Helvenston.”

Helvenston and three other Blackwater security guards, riding in a Mitsubishi Pajero, were ambushed and killed on their way to Falluja. While waiting to escort Helvenston’s coffin back to the U.S., Berman began drawing designs for armoring the Pajero so that Helvenston and the other three men might have survived.

Berman opened a factory in Kuwait that successfully produced an armored vehicle for security companies working in Iraq. He closed this factory in 2008 to focus on the project he’d moved onto five years after 9/11:

His new goal was to do something about the lightly armored Humvees used by U.S. military personnel. Surviving a blast while riding in these is also a major “armored” vehicle issue.

According to Packer, “For several years, the Pentagon has had plans to rebuild Humvees used in the war, and improve their armor, instead of buying new ones.”

In 2007 Berman started the company Granite Tactical Vehicles and developed a model design to improve the armor on existing Humvees. BUT there have been no government bids on this supposed Pentagon project. This is because, according to Packer:

[T]he government kept putting off requests for bids, in part because the main Humvee manufacturer, a large corporation in Indiana called AM General, appeared to have enough clout in Congress to get the process delayed, staving off competition.

Packer goes on to say that ”the rumored date for accepting bids is now this fall.”

I’m not an engineer – I cannot say that Berman’s design is the best (although Packer says: “People who knew the business said that Berman’s design was among the best.”).

What I can say is:

Let’s get out the word about this situation to people (such as our House and Senate representatives and any friends you may have in the Pentagon) to “motivate” the Pentagon to open bids right now – and quickly choose a good design – to get much better protection for the Humvees.

If you do help spread the word, please email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com with the subject HELP SAVE OUR TROOPS to tell me you helped.

I’ll email you back a free ePub copy of the novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS that you can read on a computer after downloading the free ePub-reading software from www.calibre-ebook.com

Will you help?
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the eBook novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Remote Control Toy Truck Saves Soldiers From IED Explosion in Afghanistan

The MSNBC post by Today.com contributor Scott Stump "He saved six soldiers’ lives — with a child’s toy" is an amazing story of a man using a "souped up" toy to help bring his deployed brother home safely.

Ernie Fessenden and hobby store owner Kevin Guy created the remote control IED-scouting toy truck from a Traxxis Stampede for Ernie's brother, Staff Sgt. Chris Fessenden.

Stump explains:

Chris had lent the model truck to a group of fellow soldiers who were going out on a patrol. They used the toy, which can go up to 30 miles per hour, to scout the area ahead of them for potential IEDs.

When the toy truck zipped out in front of the soldiers’ armored Humvee, it became enmeshed in a trip wire on the road that triggered what was estimated to be 500 pounds of explosives. The bomb exploded, but none of the soldiers was hurt.

Had they not sent the remote-control truck scooting up ahead of them, the soldiers might have approached the IED on foot — or driven the Humvee into the trip wire.

Before you read the amazing story of how Ernie and Kevin came up with the idea, donate to the new project http://truckstotroops.com/ to send more remote control IED-scouting toy trucks to deployed troops. I just donated.

(I'm additionally interested in this innovative idea because, in my new eBook novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS, Mollie goes to Afghanistan for an up-close-and-personal look at the problem of detecting IEDs.)

Now read the incredible story of what two men did with a toy truck, ingenuity and determination.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the eBook novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

We're Watching China

(The following is reprinted from www.MollieSanders.com)

“[The U.S. has] had a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea for 50 to 60 years, even going back before World War II,” Rear Adm. Tom Carney, who is leading the naval exchange, told reporters in Danang [Vietnam], according to the Associated Press. “We have no intention of departing from that kind of activity.”

This was the conclusion of Patrick Barta’s July 16th article “U.S., Vietnam in Exercises Amid Tensions With China” in The Wall Street Journal.

The article began by announcing a series of joint naval exchanges between the U.S. and Vietnam. These exchanges have apparently been planned for some time, although they have taken on more meaning due to China’s increasing insistence on its claim to the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands, despite claims in part by several other Asian countries.

In the new eBook-only novel LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS (written by myself and Mitch Miller), LCDR Sanders first works with the Coast Guard in the port of Los Angeles to prevent a terrorist attack.

Then she maneuvers her way onto a submarine sent on a reconnaissance mission to the South China Sea. The sub first stops at the Paracel Islands, and when it reaches the Spratly Islands, LCRD Sanders’ life is in danger.

No, this is NOT an instant novel. The truth is that the South China Sea has been an area of concern for many years for the U.S.

The screenplay “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders” (dealing with the sub mission) was a 2005 quarterfinalist of the Nicholls Fellowship competition run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the same people who present the Oscars.)

As China’s military ambitions have grown, so has the threat to the peace in the South China Sea. In January 2007 Mitch and I attended the U.S. Naval Institute conference held in San Diego. Even then the presentations focused on the U.S. Navy’s concerns for the Pacific theater.

The growing tensions between the U.S. and China parallel in some ways the tensions between the U.S. and Japan that grew during the 1930s. And to a large extent these tensions are over the same issue – OIL!

On December 7, 1941, the U.S. was taken by surprise when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor even though the Japanese had already militarily expanded into Asia. This time the U.S. will be ready for China if that country decides to militarily expand into Asia.

China, we're watching you.

Get an eBook of this timely novel now for only $2.99 in formats for the Kindle, the Nook, Sony's Reader, the Kobo, your computer, etc. at http://budurl.com/MollieSandersebooks
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.

Flare Up Over Control of the South China Seas

In terms of future U.S. military conflicts, the South China Seas dispute among Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and China has great potential to create a major international hotspot. And the newest flare up adds more fuel to the fire, as the saying goes.

According to James Hookway’s June 10 Wall Street Journal article “Tensions Flare Over Disputed Asian Sea: China Warns Its Neighbors to Stop Looking for Oil, While Vietnam Reports Sabotage in a Regional Security Flashpoint:”

Tensions in the potentially resource-rich South China Sea flared as Vietnam accused China of sabotaging a seismic survey boat while China warned its neighbors to stop looking for oil in the disputed territory without its permission.

And the article goes on to say:

The territorial disputes were a focus of a regional security conference in Singapore on Saturday, where Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. was committed to defending its Southeast Asian allies. Mr. Gates predicted more clashes could occur unless rival claimants find a way to peacefully settle their disputes.

My husband/co-writer and I have been watching this potential hotspot for a long time because it is central to our screenplay “Lt. Commander Mollie Sanders,” which I am now adapting into a novel to be published through Amazon’s Kindle platform.

This new flare up is one of a string of incidents going back to the late 1980s. The question is whether going forward the U.S. will be pulled into a military role in the South China Seas.

Read the entire article now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and her social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing works with clients to use social media to attract more business. Read her social media marketing blog.