Pastor Stephen Grant: Spy Stuff (in this case: Special-Ops Stuff): Army Special-Ops Unit Leads the Fight Against ISIS

Pastor Stephen Grant?

Stephen Grant is the pastor at St. Mary’s Lutheran Church on eastern Long Island. Grant is one of the more unique second-career clergy around, as he once worked for the CIA. Besides theology, his interests include archery, golf, writing, classic films, the beach, poker, baseball, and history. Grant also knows his wines, champagnes and brews. Oh yes, he generally dislikes politicians, and happens to be an expert marksman with a handgun and a rifle, while being pretty handy with a combat knife as well.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Spy Stuff (in this case: Special-Ops Stuff): Army Special-Ops Unit Leads the Fight Against ISIS

YahooNews reports in a piece by Sean D. Naylor on a small, secretive Army special-ops drone unit – officially called E, or Echo, Company – that has had a devastating impact on ISIS.

As reported:

• “Echo Company’s achievements are remarkable, in part, because unlike the Air Force, whose drones are operated from air-conditioned trailers in Nevada and flown by officers, the pilots in this Army aviation company are mainly enlisted soldiers who are deployed in combat theaters.”

• “‘Echo Company [is] the most lethal company in the Army, and it may very well be the most lethal company-size element in all of [the Defense Department],’ Brig. Gen. John Evans, at the time the head of U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command, told attendees at the aviation association’s conference in April 2017.”

• “Made by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., the same firm that produces the MQ-1 Predator, which the Air Force retired in 2018, and its successor, the MQ-9 Reaper, the MQ-1C Gray Eagle [operated by Echo Company] is a derivative of the Predator and falls somewhere between the two in terms of capability. Armed with up to four Hellfire missiles or a mix of other munitions, the Gray Eagle also carries a suite of surveillance gear that includes signals intelligence equipment and high-resolution cameras that can read a license plate from 15,000 feet. The basic Gray Eagle can fly for up to 25 hours, while an extended range version has a maximum endurance of 42 hours.”

• “...while the Air Force’s Predators and Reapers — and even the conventional Army divisions’ Gray Eagle companies — are used mostly for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and more occasionally for striking targets, Echo Company’s Gray Eagles are primarily used in either close air support or ‘hunter-killer’ missions, according to sources familiar with Echo Company’s role. ‘They’re worried about killing targets and getting the next bad guy and basically going down the merit list of who needs to die,’ said the special operations officer with recent experience in the Middle East.”

Read the entire article here.

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