Downtime

Tactipup Extreme Collar and Leash: Tactical dog gear, Perfected

On a nice sunny day, I decided to take Loki (my Wirehair Pointing Griffon) for a trip to the beach. The family and I decided on the Sequalitchew (try to say it out loud) Creek Trail. The trailhead starts at the Depont city hall (WA) and descends towards the ocean for about 1.5 miles (3-mile round trip). It’s an easy walk, which first takes you through traditional Washington forests (Ferns, Cedars, etc.), and as you come to the ocean there is a pedestrian tunnel with disconnected timeworn train tracks. You cannot see the ocean until you come out of the tunnel, which makes it a unique experience. The beach is composed of large rocks (similar to river rocks), and old pier pilings scattered around.

Tactipup Extreme Collar & Leash — Pedestrian tunnel at the end of the Sequalitchew Creek Trail

Loki decided to take a quick dip in the frigid Puget Sound waters while we were at the beach. When we got back to my truck I needed to dry him off, so I took his collar off and then loaded him into the truck. What I didn’t realize, until I got home, was that I had left his collar on the back bumper of my truck. Loki had that collar for a little over a year and it was a bummer that I lost it, but it meant that we were in the market for a new one.

I have had the standard ½-1” nylon and leather collars before and although these collars worked fine, I really wanted to get something different. After doing a little cruising on the internet I came across Tactipup, a company specializing in tactical style dog collars and leashes. Their website describes the company as a:

“Law enforcement family owned business based out of the Tampa Bay Florida Area. Our company started when we were searching for stylish tactical style dog collars and leashes made in the USA and could not find anything we got excited about. We started making our own collars to fill the void, and quickly found that lots of people were looking for the same thing and we started selling these collars online. Our collars and leashes are built with an extreme focus on perfection. If a collar is made and every last detail is not perfect, we will throw it away and start over. Our customers do not pay us for middle of the road quality and we’re certainly not sending something out that we’re not proud of.”

The first thing I noticed was just how cool these collars looked. There is a range of color options (mostly different camouflage patterns): multicam (green, alpine, arid, tropic, and black), Kryptek (mandrake, highlander, nomad, raid and typhon), non-camouflage patterned (blue and red). They are wider than your average collar coming in at 1.5” (they have a lite version at 1” if you prefer a smaller collar) and they’re all custom fit based on your dog’s neck size. All you need to do is provide your dog’s neck size. To measure you can take a length of rope (550 cord, string, whatever) and wrap it around your dog’s neck at the thickest area making sure you can fit 2 fingers between the rope and your dog’s neck.

There were a ton of different designs to choose from. Some had extra handles, some Velcro panels for your patch collections. I ended up settling on the Extreme Custom Embroidered Collar. I picked this one mainly because I wanted Loki’s name on the collar, and the design Tactipup uses for this is awesome. You can pick a counter-color so the name pops, or a matching color so it’s a little more subtle. Finally, I finished off the collar design with a subdued American flag patch because, America.

Aside from collars Tactipup also has a line of leashes: Ultra tactical, and Extreme tactical. The real difference between the two is the clasp hardware. The Ultra has a standard dog leash clasp while the Extreme uses a Kong Frog connector give it a more aggressive appearance and more overall strength. Both leashes come in varying lengths you just select the length which works best for you.

I was in a bit of a bind because I was supposed to be leaving for Canada in a few days and I really needed a collar before we left. After ordering the gear I reached out to Tactipup and told them of my time crunch. I was blown away by the customer service I was provided. Not only were they willing to expedite the order (remember it was a customs order), they worked with me on shipping to make sure it would arrive before I left on my trip. I really can’t say enough good things about the customer service I experienced.

When the gear arrived the first thing I noticed was the quality. The heavy webbing and quality stitching reminded me of the gear I used to get done at Tactical Tailor (was a small custom sewing shop specializing in pouches and military gear modifications-now is a large well-known company) while I was still in the Military. The custom embroidery turned out great, Loki’s name is clearly visible right beside his American flag patch. The collar is so different from what people normally see that I get stopped while walking him so folks can ask where I got it from.

I used the collar and leash while on our road trip to Canada, and Loki has used it every day since without issue. The only thing I hadn’t considered was the difference in the Extreme collars V-ring compared to standard rings on dog collars. It is thicker, so I needed to get a different ring set on Loki’s rabies/chip tags so that it could fit onto the V-ring. Not a big deal, but it is something you will run into if your State requires you to have certain tags on your dog.

If you are in the market for a collar that isn’t like all the other ones out there take a look at Tactipup’s line up.

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Worst War Movies Ever | Don’t Waste Your Time on These Stinkers

Back in May around Memorial Day, we listed some of our favorite War Films that are guaranteed to entertain and keep your interest. We could have easily added a couple of more as the genre always has some worthy additions by Hollywood’s filmmakers. This year’s blockbuster “Dunkirk” could easily make its way into that list.

But today’s list is going in the opposite direction. These are some of the worst war films, in our humble opinion out there. In every genre, especially one as chocked full of entries as the war film category, you’ll have plenty of lousy films, that are just groan worthy from military veterans and war film buffs alike.

So watch these following films…if you dare. But as a word to the wise. You may turn it off before it is over. As some of these films are just plain awful. Normally we’d say, drum roll, please. Instead, we’ll play a dirge. In no particular order here is your Wall of Shame of Worst War Films:

Battle of the Bulge (1965) – Despite a stellar All-Star cast of Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Charles Bronson, Dana Andrews, George Montgomery and James MacArthur this one got nearly everything wrong. The uniforms, the tanks, the history was skewed horribly.

Less than a minute into the film, the narrator, William Conrad uttered this: “To the south lay Patton’s Third Army, to the North Montgomery’s Eighth”….What? Field Marshal Montgomery’s Eighth Army, for which he rose to fame in the desert, was in Italy, not the Northern edge of the Bulge. That should tell you right away that this stinker was not going to get things right.

The German Tiger Tanks were actually M-47 Patton tanks and the American Shermans were portrayed by M-24 Chaffee light tanks. Filmed entirely in Spain, the terrain resembled the wooded, hilly Ardennes, not at all.

The film wasted a good performance from Robert Shaw, as the fanatical SS officer Col. Hessler who was tasked to break through the Allied lines. Shaw’s Hessler was loosely based on SS Colonel Joachim Peiper. No mention is made of the counter-attack from Patton’s forces from the south, the 101st Airborne’s holding of the key road junction of Bastogne or the Allied air power, which after the skies cleared, decimated the Germans on the ground.

Instead, this film would have you believe that the only thing that stopped the Germans from reaching Antwerp was the lack of gas. The climactic tank battle at the end was another loosely based big tank battle at Celles. In the film, the Germans wipe out the American forces. In reality, it was the opposite. The 2nd Armored Division left 88 German tanks smoking in the hills. This film was so bad that General Eisenhower came out of retirement to excoriate it for its lack of historical accuracy.

Inchon (1979) – This stinker was produced by the religious leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon, head of the powerful Unification Church in the 1980s. He put up $30 million of his own cash to make this limp, tepid offering. The production costs ballooned up to $46 million, which would be near $150 million today. Sir Laurence Olivier was paid $1 million bucks to play General Douglas MacArthur and it is clear, he was there for the paycheck only.

Rev. Moon claimed that the spirit of MacArthur visited him during the filming giving his blessing to the project. OK…does anything else need to be added here?

The cast of Olivier, Ben Gazzara, and Jacqueline Bissett was wasted here with dialogue as dry as a buffalo fart. Olivier looked more like Emperor Palpatine than MacArthur in this one. And Moon threw in a little sex action between Gazzara and a Korean hottie while cheating on Bissett who was his wife at home to take away from the rest of this potboiler I guess to show that the war was the cause of marital infidelity. It was actually filmed in 1979 and Moon shopped for three years for a studio to release this turkey.

I didn’t make it thru the original release, falling asleep in the theater and guarantee if you are having sleep issues watch this and it will do the trick. This one was so bad that MGM didn’t even release it on video. You can find it on YouTube if you care to.

Pearl Harbor (2001) – Michael Bay took a 90-minute action film about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and squeezed it into a 3-hour 3-minute monstrosity that took severe creative license with the actual history. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale who are involved in a complicated love triangle during the and immediate aftermath of the Japanese attack that kicked the U.S. into World War II.

Pearl Harbor had a huge operating budget of $140 million but made a respectable $450 million at the box office. Some of it was filmed in the huge Baja Studio that James Cameron built for Titanic. And the ship scenes filmed there were still visible (the wreck of the Arizona) a few years later when I got to work on the beginning of a Narnia film there in 2009.

The numerous factual inaccuracies were pretty numerous, the Marlboro Lights in a sailor’s pocket…was inexcusable. A pretty amusing scene is where Affleck is talking to Colonel Doolittle in his office and behind the Colonel are his trophies for air racing. Look closely and there is an F-86 Saber jet from the Korean War. Affleck’s supposed action in the “Eagle Squadron” with the RAF is flawed. No American Army pilots were allowed to join. Only civilians. And what in the wide, wide world of sports is the intelligence officers and Beckinsale listening to during the Doolittle Raid? It certainly wasn’t radio chatter from the planes over Japan. They were on strict radio silence.

This one at least had some good action scenes during the actual bombing of Pearl Harbor which Bay did well although again inaccurately and had the always enchanting Beckinsale in the lead. A curious decision was the one to portray Mrs. Ben Affleck (Jennifer Garner) as a dowdy nurse, perhaps to take away from Beckinsale’s draw.

Redacted (2009) – If you’ve never heard of this one, don’t be alarmed, you aren’t missing anything. Normally I love the films of Brian De Palma but he swung for the fences with this one and missed. De Palma took a real incident about a rape of a young Iraqi girl and the murder of her family and tried to create an anti-war film about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. Surprisingly, some of the medium’s most well-known critics loved this film. Don’t waste your time, it was unmitigated trash, exploitation. He tried to shock the audience, right down to a slide show of gruesome pictures of Iraq’s war dead. We aren’t told who killed them, or who they are…it is just supposed to shock the viewer.

The message? here is that the war is making monsters out of American youth? I don’t know. It is kind of murky there but De Palma goes full-blown exploitive with the two Americans being the cartoonish, one-dimensional villains in the scene.The one perpetrator even wears a helmet mounted camera to catch the ugliness on film as the antithesis of the combat footage we’ve seen on screen during the war.

This was one of De Palma’s lesser efforts, the dialogue is atrocious and totally unbelievable for any grunts and sounds like a cliche machine.The way these guys interact with one another is a joke. Is this a unit that went to Iraq together or did they meet on the set just ten minutes before? It was just a crudely done, poorly defined film that even the “found camera footage” is unbelievable. It was a one-dimensional bit of schlock that is best left to the imagination.

Revolution (1985) – Ok, I know “The Patriot” also taking place in the Revolutionary War took tremendous liberties with the historical facts. But the cast at least made it entertaining. Revolution was one of the most horrible films I think I’ve ever been subjected to. A few years ago, I hadn’t even heard of it, and a friend of mine, said that I absolutely, positively had to watch it.

Well, I did and I agree with the original review published in 1985 with its release that it was quite probably the worst film of the year. The casting was absolutely ridiculous. Don’t get me wrong, I love Al Pacino. Some of his performances are legendary stuff, Scarface, Heat, the Godfather saga. But casting him as a trapper caught up in the Revolutionary War is a head scratcher. Where was he trapping? In Brooklyn? His accent is not American Revolution-esque unless we had a lot more Italian immigrants in the colonies than what has been reported.

Speaking of accents, Nastassja Kinski, who back in the day was quite the box office draw, has a completely different one from the actresses who play her mother and sisters. I guess we’re supposed it ignore it or assume that she was adopted.

The British characters led by Donald Sutherland, are the unequivocal bad guys here. And just in case you don’t see it first hand, the director makes sure that you do by making most of them kiddy-diddlers. Pederasty aside, it is still a horrible film that is just not worth your time. The director wasted some nicely filmed battle scenes in Yorktown by making a boring, yawner who…like the ones listed above, took great liberties with history.

There are several more we could have listed here but you get the idea. And please feel free to chime in with some of your own Hall of Shame War Films. So with Labor Day Weekend upcoming, if you’re not making one last run to the beach this summer and you’re content with sitting home and watching some of your favorite war films, do yourself a favor. Skip these five. You’ll be glad you did.

Photos courtesy: IMDB

Courtesy of Special Operations.com and written by STEVE BALESTRIERI

Special Operations reading list: A few of my favorite hidden gems

I love reading about Special Operations history. It’s amazing what information can be found in published sources if you’re prepared to dig around. There’s a whole hidden history that can only be compiled by doing some deep research and really looking for sources.

Thankfully, some former operators penned books that are well worth tracking down. Here are four of my favorites that aren’t necessarily promoted in mainstream media but are well worth your time.

One Green Beret: Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and Beyond by Mark Giaconia

I was fortunate to interview Giaconia for SOFREP Radio before reading his book. I was expecting some stories about how he supported the Kurds, calling in some airstrikes and such during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. However, Mark’s experiences go far beyond that.

He participated in Operation Viking Hammer: a CIA led mission to shore up what would be the coalitions rear areas prior to the invasion. To my surprise, Giaconia was also involved in what is probably the only joint U.S. Special Forces/Russian Spetsnaz mission in history.

Recce: Small Team Missions Behind Enemy Lines by Koos Stadler

The South African Recces performed some of the most audacious missions in Special Operations history that you’ve never heard of. This is largely due to political reasons. Although Recce teams combined white and black operators, the South African Defence Force served South Africa’s (then) apartheid regime.

Nonetheless, this is a history worth exploring, and Stadler wrote an amazing first-hand account of his time in this unit, including experiences with long range small team Recce patrols.

One Thousand Days with Sirius by Peter Schmidt Mikkelsen

Few people have ever heard of Denmark’s Sirius Sled Patrol— Slædepatruljen Sirius—which is a division of the country’s special operation component along with the Frogman Corps and the Jaeger Corps. Sirius deploys two-man dog teams for long durations to Greenland, where they have to constantly patrol the frozen wastelands. Due to a treaty obligation, they essentially have to provide a presence in Greenland and wave the Danish flag.

Additionally, they have a recon mission to ensure bad actors aren’t messing around in Denmark’s backyard. One Thousand Days with Sirius is an obscure but fascinating book, as Mikkelsen, a former Sirius member, explains the ins and outs of his profession—one that primarily relies on dog sleds to this day.

Guardian: Life in the Crosshairs of the CIA’s War on Terror by Tom Pecora

I’ve been able to interview Pecora twice now. He was a member of the CIA’s protective detail for case officers operating in high-risk environments. This detail started off as the POC and over time, evolved into what’s now called GRS. Pecora worked there long before 9/11, and afterwards in some very dicey parts of the world.

His book is a narrative history of these experiences as well as America’s fight in the Global War on Terror. This is the first book ever written on this particular subject, and I suspect it will be the last for at least some time.

I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of these books, but let me know what other recommendations you might be interested in. For instance, I have a pretty extensive collection of hard-to-find books about contemporary warfare in Africa.

And finally, a shameless plug for my own memoir, Murphy’s Law: My Journey from Army Ranger and Green Beret to Investigative Journalist. It includes my experiences serving in 3^rd Ranger Battalion and 5^thSpecial Forces Group in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of my adventures in Syria, Iraq, and the Philippines reporting as a journalist are also highlighted.

Keep your brews cool on the move with the Yeti Hopper Two 30

Yeti has become synonymous with over engineering in the rugged cooler segment. And that’s a good thing. From the bear resistant Tundra coolers to the latest in soft sided coolers, Yeti is at the cutting edge of cool. The Loadout Room has done reviews on the Tundra, Hopper 20, Hopper Flip 12, Ramblers and even a look at the new buckets. This review is of the newly updated Hopper Two 30. Obviously Yeti had been listening to its customers. Because this version 2 Hopper features a major improvement in the opening design.

Maintaining the durability of the original Hopper Series cooler, the Hopper Two has a different top that allows easier access to the contents. Instead of a top mounded zipper that was difficult to keep open while loading, this updated Hopper has a user-friendly side mounted zipper. The new design of the Hopper Two reminds me of the old Capri Sun beverages. Because the top of the Hopper Two comes to a point, it doesn’t resist opening as the original version did. A common complaint amongst users…including my wife. As soon as I showed her the Hopper Two, she reminded me how the old cooler was a pain in the ass to load.

Featuring a bomb proof watertight Hydrolok zipper to help keep the cold in and the heat out. The Hopper Two retains a lot of the original bits and pieces. Additionally, all Yeti Hoppers are constructed from a Dry-Hide Shell. This high-density fabric is waterproof and resistant to mildew, punctures, and UV rays. Think white water raft material. Even the liner is made from an FDA-approved food-grade material. Making clean-up a breeze. Finally, the new tapered design makes hauling a bit more comfortable as the cooler better contours to your side.

Yeti Hopper Two 30 — Great for a day on the water

Yeti Hopper Two specs courtesy of yeti.com

Best Use: Camping
Cooler Type: Soft-sided
Gear Capacity (L): 30 liters
Gear Capacity (cu. in.): 1559 cubic inches
Material(s): Outer: 840-denier double-side thermoplastic urethane; insulation: closed-cell foam; bottom: EVA
Dimensions: 25 x 12 x 18 inches
Weight: 5 lbs. 8 oz.
MSRP: $349.99

I know there are a lot of people out there having trouble with the price of these units. But rest assured, the Yeti products will stand the test of time. Top quality materials and legendary durability are worth the price of admission in my opinion. As always, Yeti offers a host of accessories to increase the functionality of your cooler. Don’t be fooled by some inferior imitation, get the real deal. Get the Tough as Nails, Ice for Days Hopper Two here.

Half Face Blades Chef Blade – A Refined Tool

As a newly single man, I’ve been continually surprised by the fact women are incredibly impressed by my ability to cook. I thought it was an old joke, something from a cheesy rom-com, but the truth remains I’ve found the ability to cook directly relates to your attractiveness level. When cooking for a young lady part of the draw is your skill when it comes to preparation. Cutting, seasoning, prepping the grill, and more is all part of the experience, and you are only as good as your tools. If you are only as good as your tools, then you can be very good when wielding the Half-Face Blades Chef Blade.

A high-quality chef’s knife is an absolute must-have. Not just for the sake of having it, but for your overall safety. A high-quality blade is made evenly, is extremely balanced, and the blade is equal throughout its entire edge. This is for your standard nice cutting quality, but its also for safety purposes. These knives chew through meat, and you are made of meat. A lower quality knife doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t chew through you. The higher quality the knife, the better the cut, and the safer the knife is overall. Same thing with bits and endmills, if they are sharp they are less likely to jump and hurt you. In this case, you ruining your hand, not an 80 lower jig.

Half Face Blades Chef Blade – Specs

Length – 12.75 inches overall
Blade length – 8 inches
Thickness – .09 inches
Steel – S35VN American

The Half Face Blades Chef Blade is an incredibly well-made knife. It looks amazing, it feels amazing, is very easy to use. The Chef Blade sports a matte black cerakote blade that does look a bit more grey than black. The handle is a curly maple burl wood, It’s smooth, long, and fills the hand very well. All around the Half-Face Blades Chef Blade is very well made and very attractive to the eye.

In Use

The Chef Blade allows for an easy pinch grip and a comfortable one. The handle is nice and long for leverage when it’s needed. The Half Face Blades Chef Blade features a strong rock work spine that’s concaved into the blade and allows for an easy palm press for more heavy cuts.

The S35VN steel is very strong and resistant to chipping and breaking. The steel can also become very, very sharp. It does seem to hold an edge very well, but I do sharpen my Chef knives prior to every use. This isn’t the type of knife you torture test, but if I did I’d be willing to bet it can take a beating.

The Chef Blade absolutely slices through meat, vegetables, and more. There is no better feeling than the one you get from a blade gliding through the meat. When it’s properly sharpened the Chef Blade hardly needs any pressure to slice through chicken, steak or pork. It literally glides through these different meats like a hot knife through butter.

The handle’s length allows for proper leverage on harder cuts and ensures you have a solid and safe grip. From end to end the blade screams quality. It handles like a dream and the blade itself is strong, sharp, and best of all agile. You’ll be well-served with a handful of the Half-Face Blades Chef Blade.

‘True Believer’ has been cleared hot by the Department of Defense

I am pleased to announce that the Department of Defense has finished their review of my second novel, True Believer, slated for release on July 30th, 2019. It is now “cleared as amended” which means the DoD Office of Prepublication and Security Review redacted certain sentences and paragraphs for security reasons.

For True Believer, the DoD redacted quite a bit more than they did in their review of The Terminal List, most of which relate to a very public three-letter government agency and a location, one paragraph on a special operations capability, and another paragraph on the history of two military units. I am not the arbiter of what is classified and what is not so, as with The Terminal List, these redactions will remain blacked out in the published novel. Because of the shift from an April to July publication date, we will begin to circulate Advance Reader’s Editions with redactions soon!

When a string of horrific terrorist attacks plagues the Western world during the holiday season, the broader markets fall into a tailspin. The attacks are being coordinated by a shadowy former Iraqi commando who has disappeared into Europe’s underground. The United States government has an asset who can turn the Iraqi against his masters: James Reece, the most-wanted domestic terrorist alive.

After avenging the deaths of his family and team members, Reece emerges deep in the wilds of Mozambique, protected by the family of his estranged best friend and former SEAL Team member. When a series of events uncovers his whereabouts, the CIA recruits him, using a Presidential pardon for Reece and immunity for the friends who helped him in his mission of vengeance.

Now a reluctant tool of the United States government, Reece travels the globe, targeting terrorist leaders and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy that exposes a traitorous CIA officer and uncovers a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions.

Thank you so much for your support. I look forward to releasing True Believer into the wild this summer!

-Jack Carr