82nd airborne

So many people were up in arms about Jade Helm in 2015, but have you  ever heard about Operation Longhorn? Watch YouTube or many of the alternative media outlets and according to some, the military was preparing to take over cities across the United States and enact martial law.

“Little Lampasas tonight waited for a green clad enemy to take it over- to test Army military government and to show what happens when you lose your everyday liberties”

“…it took us about a month to convince some people that this ” play” war wasn’t going to mean they were going to be pulled out of their beds at midnight”

Ok, take a deep breath and calm down. This was written in In April of 1952 when over 115,000 military men and women of the Army and Air Force invaded Lampasas Texas and occupied an area of 1,800 sq miles. This was before the age of social media and I imagine few outside of Texas knew about the 18 day operation.

First let me tell you I am NOT a conspiracy theorists, I am a realist and realize that the possibility of keeping a secret between more than a dozen citizens, or thousands of military members and hundreds of journalists just is impossible. I do not believe in the 911 conspiracies, death squads, death camps, or the gloom and doom some are predicting about Jade Helm. Entire books have been written about Jade Helm and I’ll be interested to see how many conspiracy theories are debunked and end up being false.

Debunked!: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Evil Plots of the 21st CenturyWhat Is The Jade Helm 15 Project?:  Is it Martial law?Jade Helm Prophecy: A Revelation From Rev. David SteeleJade Helm 15: The Patriot Report (The Strategic Incremental steps towards martial law in America)

Largest Civilian Military Exercise in the United States

There have been several military training exercises that use public land and use civilians to role-play casualties. If you live near an Army National Guard base you see trucks, tanks, and other military equipment, you get used to maneuvers and understand the relationship with the local military and the citizens of the area. However, if you aren’t used to military protocols, or operations the name Jade Helm might scare you to death.

Military operations on public land, or using civilians to play act as participants (as wounded etc) is nothing new, we just haven’t done this in a large massive scale in a few generations.

The largest domestic military exercise in the United States involved the Army and the United States Air Force where the goal was to invade a town of 20,000 people in Lampasas Texas. My Dad was one of the paratroopers that landed northwest of Austin Texas as a member of the 508th division of the 82nd Airborne.

Facts About The Texas Invasion

• Operation lasted for 18 days
• Military invaders wore German styled caps
• Flyers distributed outlined the following:
  • A 6pm curfew on the town
  • Theatres closed until “Centralist” entertainment films arrive
  • Churches closed
  • Men will be posted outside school classrooms to “check” on teachings
  • Private vehicles confiscated
• However the working day was shortened to only 22 hours (isn’t that nice)
• Over 20,000 people watched the maneuvers including many “foreign observers”

This mythical war happened just a few years after the end of World War II, and memories of Nazi invasion was still fresh in the minds of many people.

Mock War Down in Texas Is No Laughing Matter

Although this was a training exercise, a mock war, it was no “laughing matter”. Many from the 82nd Airborne lost their lives when they tangled in chute rigging, or their chutes failed to open. A total of 10 men died during Operation Longhorn. Planning took months, and it was a “paper operation”, but when the cocky parachute infantrymen hit the lazy Lampasas, you couldn’t tell it from the real thing”

These few newspaper clippings represent the little I know about my Father and his military career. Many of the articles sound as if  they could have been written today. The biggest difference is the lack of social media. The frenzy was isolated to the geographic region, not the entire country. Life Magazine did cover the “event” and considering their influence at the time they were the social media of the day, yet did not “spin the news” to martial law.

No matter how much we don’t trust or government, we should trust the men and women of our military. They are citizens of the United States and have taken an oath to protect and serve the United States. Just like in Operation Longhorn, the communities participating in Jade Helm have been briefed, consulted, and are fully cooperating with the military.

Accounts of Operation Longhorn

Operation Longhorn– G503 Military Forum Photos, Photographer: John Dominis

Soldier Recalls Invasion of Lampasas County in Operation Longhorn, Lampasas Dispatch, Oct 26, 2010

Actual Military Video Footage of Operation Longhorn, Shutterstock.com

Grandmas Ranch and Operation Longhorn, Tyler Morning Telegraph 2/15/2015

Photos and flyers from the Agressors, The Circle Trigonists

Information About Jade Helm

 Military Books on Code of Conduct and Secret Operations

Between Threats and War: U.S. Discrete Military Operations in the Post-Cold War World (A Council on Foreign Relations)Code of Conduct, an inspiration story of self-healing by an ex-POWLincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American HistoryCode of Conduct, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) Training (Army Regulations Series)