Andrew Brown rode his bike about 1 mile to the sound the shots. He jumped off of his bike in the parking lot of the troop medical clinic as Mellberd shot a fleeing woman. Mellburd was approximately 70 yards away armed with a MAK-90 w/ a 75 round drum mag. Airman Brown had his issue M-9 He fired for shots hitting the killer twice...Under fire after a long ride breathing hard, rounds headed your way, dead and dying in your line of sight, armed with a service pistol...

flee http://tinyurl.com/pcbzvcb

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

It is good to be reminded that a cool head and some basic marksmanship skills are the best way to put the brakes on a madman with a gun.

It is also interesting to note that in this case, in the Navy Yard case, in Hasan's case, and lord knows how many others, if folks would have paid some attention to the obvious signs that were right in front of them, it never would have went as far as it did.

Brown felt he wasn't treated well after the shooting, which if true and I have no reason to think it wasn't, is a shame. The entire attitude toward mental health treatment in the DOD needs to be altered in a more effective direction in fact. Let's pray that it does. The differences between Brown's shooting and many others for Air Force Security Forces were the high profile nature, the uncovering of Air Force failures (this is big, they hate that and will come after you), and the non traditional combat nature of the incident. It is very nice to see he has moved on, has a good career, and has done something positive for the victims of the shootings.

Here is a big salute to Andrew Brown

as the result of lax/screwed up system of no fault military culture: A known thrill seeker B-52 pilot was not grounded by the wing commander, EVEN though the WC was so concerned about this pilot's attitude that he insisted on flying, himself , the WC as Co-pilot. He was trying to eject (His ejection door can be seen popping) when the B-52 slammed into the ground during a stupid show off maneuver.
I am guessing Andy Brown's presence was just a reminder to all that the command structure had utterly failed, twice, in a very spectacular and tragic way.

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

Yep, another sad story of command failure there. That pilot was known to be a fool who routinely violated flight regulations, and many crewmen had refused to fly with him. The WC had tried repeatedly to get him grounded, but the guy was a hotshot with a big reputation and the generals wouldn't go along with it.

The hotshot was supposedly practicing for an air show, and the WC flew with him because he did not want to assign another pilot to what he suspected would be a suicide mission. The idiot very nearly crashed that B-52 into a high-security nuclear weapons storage site. Some debris from the plane did in fact land inside the nuke storage area.

That's another one they don't want to talk much about.