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First, the family of Captain Michael Speicher can finally have closure. Capt. Speicher was shot down early in the Gulf War and his body has finally been found and identified.

I'd like to think this is a major news story back home.

In addition to this development, our movie/TV/music drive is back on-line. Morale is high.

The current great debate in the JOC is whether SEALs or Green Berets have been cooler in movies.

Air Force SOF really only have Tyrese in the Transformers movies. Technically some PJs (Pararescuement) were portrayed in Black Hawk Down, but you have to know the back story to know which guys weren't soldiers.

The Army can claim John Wayne.

The Army maintains that John Wayne can't be topped.

I'm inclined to agree.

The Navy has Charlie Sheen. And lots of great cheesy lines to quote from the Navy SEALs movie. They had Bruce Willis, but as movie SEAL we think he put his team at risk to get the girl more than to save a bunch of refugees.

I won't mention which motive has more appeal to Team guys at this point in the deployment...

Navy SEALs got their butts kicked in The Rock.

However, we are fairly certain Magnum P.I. was a former SEAL. If you don't get that refrence, you are either too young, were raised in a communist country (but should have been watching bootleg versions), or you are a bad person.

But, then the Army can counter with Rambo. OK, so sure he destroyed a small town in the Pacifc Northwest... but as John Rambo points out... they drew first blood.

And then Rambo singlehandedly re-fought and decisively won the Vietnam War, kicked the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and killed every bad guy in Burma. No movie SEAL has done that.

Unfortunately for the SEALs, while G.I. Jane did prove that a bald woman doing one-armed push-up can be incredibly attractive, the overall plot and portrayal of Naval Special Warfare doesn't earn any cool points.

It's not a sexist thing, just a cheesy plot thing.

So right now, Green Berets beat SEALs in the movie department.

The Air Force is in a distant third, and formal Marine participation in SOCOM is too new to have any movie representation.

There are probaly movies about Recon Marines, but that Daman Wayans movie where he plays a teacher erases any cool points they may have.

Sorry guys.

And in another small world moment, I ran in to one of the guys from my Company at Airborne School.

In case you are curious, out of all my various projects and day-to-day efforts, my lasting contribution to CJSOTF-AP will be:

Merino Wool T-shirts.

Yes, Terramar Merino Wool shirts available through Sierra Trading Post in close to desert sand color. I found them first. People keep asking me about them and buying them.

I started my first trend.

The other trend we discuss occasionally is the disfunctional awards system.

A lot of the guys can't help but compare their awards to what their parents and grandparents received in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

One guy commented that his father had five medals after his time with 82nd Airborne in WWII. The guy, with many rotations all over the world in the SF community, has many many medals but still isn't sure if his achievements compare to what his father had to do.

There is also the constant annoyance at the Bronze Star Medal. There are two Bronze Stars. There is the Bronze Star that functions as a Meritorious Service Medal in a War Zone and then there is the much less common but more well known Bronze Star with Valor for heroism in combat.

There are chow hall managers with multiple Bronze Stars that look real impressive on paper. And there are guys with multiple combat rotations that have never gotten more than an Commendation Medal.

They really need to scrap the Bronze Star as a staff medal and keep solely as a combat award. It confers a certain aura that is often undeserved, even if the person did to an excellent job. That was our conclusion.

I have issues with the Air Force processing SOF awards through conventional chains as well. It takes too long and ends up with clueless people making unfair determinations.

I've been fortunate to work in Joint positions in my rotations, but some of my guys are still waiting on their hard-earned awards from rotations a few years back.