Random News and Notes 7 March
I don’t usually cover SocMed drama or conflict in this space. There are usually more important things to discuss than some Twitter beef, but today I am leading with just that.
I told you a while back that SGM Mike Vining had joined Twitter and recommended him as someone to follow. For those that missed it or don’t remember who SGM Vining is, he was one of the founding members of 1st SFOD-D or Delta Force. He is a Vietnam vet and long term Army EOD tech. He’s also the guy from the meme:
In the image below, SGM Vining is providing security for General Norman Schwarzkopf during desert storm. He is front right.
Anyway, SGM Vining is on a promo blitz for his book about moral injury and PTSD and has been propping pearls of wisdom on Twitter for a while. Being twitter there are plenty of unhinged responses, but they are handled with class and dignity. Like I led with, normally this wouldn’t be newsworthy, but the take below is so unhinged, so ahistorical I had to include it:
Y’all know I am a history type person with degrees in the subject. Just setting the snark in the quote tweet aside, the fact is Vietnam guys did more fighting on average than the troops in the Pacific did in WWII and it was just as intense and just as violent. Anyway, that particular retard will not forget his foray into the Mil side of Twitter as he is getting absolutely bodied in the replies, and SGM Vining joined in the fun.
AAG Harmeet Dhillon posted some video and images of a trip to the range. Reaction seems to have been mixed. Me? The whole thing warms my cold dead heart.
Now, is that a good group from 10 yards? Ehhhh. Not really, but I do not know how experienced Harmeet is with a handgun. I counted 30 holes in that target. Of the 30, 16 are close enough to center-mass to call fatal. Only 4 missed the target all together. So, not a great group, but an effective one.
Which reminds me, you need to get out and train. Shooting – all shooting – is a perishable skill.
Southwest Flight 2094, headed from Nashville to Fort Lauderdale, diverted to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport late Friday after a bomb scare. Police removed one passenger with federal help, though details like identity or charges remain unreleased.
Authorities say no explosives were found. This is a story that I am keeping an eye on.
In a related note, there is a video making the rounds of a South Asian man on a plane saying he is going to set off a bomb before he is detained by passengers. This video is 1) old – from 2025, B, from an EasyJet flight and finally taken in the UK. Don’t be sucked into thinking they are related.
A federal jury convicted Asif Merchant, also known as “Asif Raza Merchant,” of murder for hire and attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Merchant was part of an IRGC plot to assassinate President Trump. Merchant admitted at trial that the IRGC sent him to the United States to arrange for political assassinations and steal documents, but law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out. Merchant arrived in the United States in April of 2024, met with purported hitmen in June—who were in fact undercover U.S. law enforcement officers in New York—and was placed under arrest before leaving the country in July of 2024.
Merchant faces up to life in prison.
Epic Fury News
There are unconfirmed reports that the police chief of Tehran, Brigadier General Abbas-Ali Mohammadian, has been killed. Mohammadian was the one to give the orders to shoot protesters during the late uprisings in Iran.
If these strikes continue to reap benefits – and regime souls for hell – there won’t be any senior leadership left shortly.
A third carrier strike group is headed for the Middle East. USS George HW Bush recently finished pre-deployment workups and departed the Virginia Capes headed for Gibraltar.
If the transit of the Abraham Lincoln was any indication, the Bush should be on-station in a week.