PART⚡TIME HITTER Newsletter

We share a VERY important announcement near the end of this newsletter. The content of the announcement is a testament to your support.

ICYMI: Friendly Forces CEO talks on the Security Clearance Careers podcast, presented by ClearanceJobs.

Go follow @TheFrattyGuard on Instagram and buy their merch 50% off here. Also, submit your resume to Friendly Forces and explore this list of places to work that are verifiably Reservist-Friendly (or avoid those that are not)! Don’t see your company on the list? Click here to tell us.

If you are interested in newsletter advertisements or partnerships, please email us at [email protected].

What’s in it for me?

There’s a school of thought that exists that says it’s the job of the reserve component to convince corporate America why they should care about, hire, retain, and financially support reservists. After all, what’s in it for them? Don’t we at Friendly Forces realize the sacrifice these companies are making by investing in employees that will frequently be absent?

No, not really.

It’s a peculiar world we live in where we find ourselves having to convince corporations to support the very individuals who uphold the stability of the economic landscape they so comfortably thrive in.

Corporations are quick to issue press releases expressing their gratitude for service members. Yet, it’s almost comical how these same corporations need to be coaxed, cajoled, and sometimes legally obligated to provide these individuals with the support they need.

Reservists are not just weekend warriors playing Army once a month; they, along with the rest of the military, are the guardians of our economic stability. They defend our nation, and by extension, the free-market capitalism that allows American corporations to exist and prosper. It’s a symbiotic relationship, one that seems to be conveniently overlooked when it’s time to reciprocate the support.

Reservists comprise 40% of the US military. Their role is pivotal in maintaining the peace and stability that our economy relies on. Reservists are an essential part of the US military, supplementing the Active Duty force and helping to maintain the country’s readiness to respond to threats. And guess what? By serving in the reserves, they allow other Americans to pursue their careers and live their lives without having to worry about being called up for military service.

That alone should be worth some paid military leave!

Okay, so reservists serve so that we don’t have to. That’s all well and good, but what have they done for me lately?

Strategic Deterrence: Having a large, well-trained, standing military comprised of Active Duty, Reserves, and National Guard serves as a powerful deterrent, discouraging adversaries from taking aggressive actions at home and abroad. This point cannot be overstated, although it seems to be lost on the average American.

Oh, and those pesky orders we get called up on that take us away from our cubicles—those serve an actual purpose. The Pentagon doesn’t have us sitting on a base in Kuwait or patrolling the Pacific ocean for no reason…

International Trade Routes and Resource Access: Reservists help maintain peace and stability in regions critical to international trade. Their presence helps ensure the safe passage of goods and access to vital resources, which are key to the functioning of the American and global economy.

Supply Chains: The security provided by reservists is essential for the smooth operation of supply chains. Their efforts help prevent disruptions caused by conflicts or instability, ensuring that businesses can reliably source materials and deliver products.

Homeland Defense: The National Guard and Reserve play a critical role in protecting US businesses from natural disasters, cyber attacks, and civil unrest. They provide support to local law enforcement agencies and help maintain public order during emergencies. 

In essence, the duties performed by reservists extend far beyond the battlefield in wartime. They are integral to upholding the economic infrastructure that corporations heavily rely on. Recognizing and compensating this contribution appropriately is not just a matter of fairness, but also a strategic investment in the nation’s economic resilience.

Supporting reservists shouldn’t be a PR move or a box to check off on a corporate social responsibility list. It should be a given, an automatic response, a non-negotiable.

Without the peace and stability ensured by our reservists, the corporate world as we know it wouldn’t even exist. The contribution of reservists is immense and corporate America shouldn’t have to be persuaded to hire us and ensure we are able to fulfill our military obligations free from financial and emotional burden.

What We’re Running

Every week we will discuss a piece of kit, equipment, or “bling” that you can consider incorporating into your loadout. We select products we actually use and that provide real utility, or they’re just fuckin’ cool.

TAG Adult Quarterback Wrist Band

We have been running this wrist band lately to great effect. Type up and print out your battle drills or MRE recipes, stick them in the windows, and go to work on the X. Particularly good for OCS Candidates, PLs, and Squad and team leaders.

Use The Fratty Guard Amazon link to cop if you want to elevate your shit to the next level.

What We’re Running

Every week we will discuss a piece of kit, equipment, or “bling” that you can consider incorporating into your loadout. We select products we actually use and that provide real utility, or they’re just fuckin’ cool.

K9 Static Line Dog Leash

One of the coolest and most original products we’ve seen in a while. This company, K9StaticLine, makes high-quality dog leashes out of genuine Airborne static lines. And no they aren’t tactically acquired from the harness shed. They’re legit.

K9StaticLine is veteran owned small business founded by three Jumpmasters “whose genuine desire is to enable Paratroopers to proudly showcase their Airborne heritage while enjoying quality time with their most loyal companions—their dogs.”

Airborne swag and doggo accessories? What more could you want?

These things will make awesome gifts this holiday season for the current, former, or future paratrooper in your life (or cop one for yourself like I did).

We even have a coupon code for your ass. Use code FrattyGuard for 20% off here: K9StaticLine 

These are legitimately fucking cool. Buy one and support some veterans doing awesome things.

Give them a follow on Instagram at @k9staticline too.

PART ⚡TIME News

You know you want it… hand-curated news you need to be tracking.

• Durbin, Graham React to President Biden Signing their National Guard and Reservists Debt ...

  Per the Senate Judiciary Committee, “Now that the National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act bares President Biden's signature, the legislation can support service members…”

• West Virginia Guardsmen End Deployment in Time for Holidays - National Guard Bureau

  CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Soldiers with the West Virginia Army National Guard's 156th Military Police Law and Order Detachment landed at Fort Bliss after long deployment.

• The Blockade on Promotions Is Finally Over. Here's How to Ensure it Never Happens Again.

  “If we don't, we leave the door ... The problem with that culture of silence, though, is that it leaves military service members completely helpless.”

• 88th Readiness Division Soldiers earn Air Assault Badge - DVIDS

  Col. Benjamin Owen and Sgt. 1st Class Angel Olivo of the U.S. Army Reserve's 88th Readiness Division earned the coveted Air Assault Badge.

Intel Drop: Eye on China

People should know what’s going on with China, especially those in the military. In this section, we continue our collaboration with Vermillion China in which we examine the Chinese Communist Party.

Be sure to check out Vermillion’s website and Instagram page so you can stay updated on these incredibly important and relevant stories.

Why Australia is Critical to the Free World - 100 Years of Mateship

With the return of great power competition, Australia’s importance to the global strategic picture has increased for four reasons. Geography, economics, diplomacy, and military capability.

There are three main routes from North America to Asia. From shortest to longest, they are the northern, central, and southern routes. The southern route is by far the longest and Australia is still quite far from Asia. However, from the perspective of an allied coalition, this path is ideal for numerous reasons. First, it is the most robust from an infrastructure perspective. Australia and New Zealand are first world economies. Additionally, the French territory of New Caledonia lies along the route, pulling an important NATO ally into any potential effort.

Second, Australia lies outside the range of the vast bulk of current Chinese and Russian missile systems. Even those systems able to range Australia cannot provide persistent firepower coverage, only episodic. This makes Australia an ideal sanctuary from which to base theater headquarters and sustainment capabilities which are soft, vital, and difficult to protect.

Third, the state of Western Australia is ideal for submarine operations, just as in WWII. This geographic reality lies at the heart of the AUKUS nuclear and conventional submarine cooperation agreement. Ports such as Perth/Fremantle are within distance of all critical choke points across the Greater Sunda Islands without being too close for comfort. These choke points form the series of interlocking pathways which surround Singapore and the vital maritime commercial routes connecting Asia to the rest of the world. 

Economics - Continental Cornucopia 

Australia is a continent unto itself, with all of the economic abundance that comes with it. In the mining sector, Australia is one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore, gold, silver, lithium, copper, bauxite (aluminum), rare earths, and uranium. There are plenty of other critical minerals that are easy to miss such as antimony, critical in the manufacture of night-vision devices, armor-piercing ammunition, and nuclear weapons. Australia and Bolivia are the only countries in the world friendly to the US with at least a small production operations. The antimony market is unfortunately dominated by China, Russia, and Tajikistan. 

With domestic sources of energy including oil, abundant natural gas, and massive coal deposits, Australia would not be heavily reliant on non-US energy exports in the event of a breakdown of maritime commerce. The US oil industry and increased Australian drilling would likely be sufficient to cover Australian needs during wartime. 

This mineral and energy wealth is key to the manufacture of modern war material. Canberra and Washington need to have serious discussions about integrating defense industrial bases (DIBs) and communicate these plans to the other two members of the Quad (Japan and India) as well coordinate within AUKUS (the addition of the UK). Luckily, The Australian Defence Force already employs many different types of US weapons systems, but greater integration will be required.

Critically, abundant local agriculture and phosphate mining for fertilizers allows Australia to feed herself and export surplus food. In fact, Australia has one of the highest food self-sufficiency rates in the world, along with the US. The same cannot be said of US allies and partners like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, and even the UK. If China unleashes war in Asia, it will almost certainly become difficult to move food throughout the region. The crisis in Asia would then directly compound any actions taken by Russia in Europe. If the Ukraine war is still slogging on (or potentially spawns another war), two of Europe’s largest food exporters (Russia and Ukraine) will still be offline or mostly concerned with domestic food security. Historical experience suggests that food security can be a major global problem in wartime, even if it is unlikely to affect the US or Australia.

The solution is to begin preparing early. Australia and the US need to jointly approach France (a nation with over 1.5 million citizens living throughout the Indo-Pacific) to discuss the execution of a wartime Allied food plan across Europe and Asia. France also has a bountiful agricultural sector and high food self-sufficiency. Canberra, Paris, and Washington, by trilaterally harmonizing wartime food production policies, can create a strategic advantage against China and Russia. Any holes in the Allied harvest can be plugged by trilateral approaches to Argentina and Brazil, both massive food exporters with relatively secure shipping routes to trading partners. 

Diplomacy - Oceania King Maker

Australia lives in a strategic neighborhood and has great influence across the south and central Pacific. Canberra maintains key relationships with Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and has established embassies in all Pacific Island Forum member countries. Each of these PICs are critical to the supply lines required to move US combat power westward into Asia. China understands this and has been attempting to diplomatically pull many of these countries away from Australia for years. 

Canberra and Washington are much stronger speaking together to countries such as Solomon Islands, Fiji, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and others.

Military Capability - Aussie Grit

An intangible of paramount significance is that Australia and the US have fought shoulder to shoulder in every major war together for more than 100 years. This battle forged relationship first began when elements of the 33rd Division, American Expeditionary Force, were placed under the command of the innovative Australian LtGen John Monash during the Allied Hamel Offensive of 1918. In a war known for stalemates, Monash’s combined arms plan achieved victory in a stunning 93 minutes, with Hamel back in Entente hands.

Unlike many other Western countries, both Australia and the US have maintained an admirable track record of supporting serious military innovation and a tradition of lethality on the battlefield. Both sides have supported each other through thick and thin, and the alliance is etched deeply into the character and culture of each nation. 

Strategically, the US and Australia are tied to the UK and New Zealand through the AUKUS and ANZUS treaties. Australia is also a member of the Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia), the most powerful intelligence sharing alliance in the world. Through AUKUS, Australia will also become one of only 8 nations operating nuclear submarines in the world. 

What Australia and the US Can Improve

The US must support Australia in reasserting itself throughout Oceania. The Solomon Islands fiasco was squarely a failure on the part of Australia and New Zealand to police their own sphere of influence and a lack of US diplomatic attention given to the region. As Australia builds back its influence with the Pacific Islands Countries (PICs), particular attention should be given to the construction of port infrastructure throughout the region to facilitate the movement of humanitarian and military logistics.

The US and Australia need to develop and implement smarter trade and investment policies. Since the ‘90s, the US has purchased minerals critical to military munitions and equipment from China and Russia. The situation is so terrible that the DoD has become near 100% reliant on these adversaries in recent years. This was an inexcusable decision that needs immediate reversal. Australia and the US should jointly reduce regulations and red tape in this sector while developing incentives and a plan for developing a robust domestic supply chain of critical defense industrial base raw materials.

In terms of investments, Chinese companies should be categorically barred from strategic industries like lithium, uranium, and rare earths mining. Investments in strategic infrastructure also need to be barred and rolled back. In a particularly glaring example during the Obama administration, Australia and the US developed a combined military base in Darwin, Australia’s northernmost strategic deepwater port. Unbelievably and inexplicably, the Australian local government then made the decision to lease Darwin’s port for 99 years to a Chinese company that offered to pay far more than any other bidder. Vermilion assesses there is a slightly better than even chance that Canberra desires to be seen as a serious partner and will nationalize the port. If this is not the case, it is highly likely that a domestic Australian company will be given the task of developing a parallel military port.

The Australia United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) should also be deepened and expanded to include Taiwan at a minimum. Eventually, the agreement should be expanded into a common Pacific market excluding China.

Finally, both sides must deconflict and understand expected roles during a Taiwan crisis or war. It is highly likely that major US forces will be based in Australia. It is also possible that during a war, US forces (bombers) would shoot at Chinese forces shortly after leaving Australian bases. Coalition warfare under conditions of extreme time constraint will break down unless the parties have diligently worked out these issues beforehand. And there is certainly much to work out.

Life Pro Tips and Business Tradecraft

Free chicken for those looking for that extra edge in life and business.

Army Reserve Private-Public Partnership Program (P3)

Unless you’ve been living under a FREAKING rock, you know that recently Friendly Forces signed a proclamation of partnership with the Army Reserve P3 Program.

P3 links Army Reserve (it is an Army Reserve program) soldiers with job counselors that will help with resume development and finding a job. Check em’ out!

Epic Pass

The Military Epic Pass is a discounted season pass that provides access to multiple ski resorts operated by Vail Resorts. It is available to active duty, veteran, and retired military personnel. The pass offers unlimited, unrestricted skiing at the Company’s owned and operated resorts, including Vail, Park City, Whistler Blackcomb, and more. It also includes Epic Mountain Rewards, which provides a 20% discount on food, lodging, group lessons, rentals, and more. The pass does not include Buddy Tickets. The Military Epic Pass program is a tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, Canadian Armed Forces, and Australian Defence Force, who have served their countries with distinction. It is a reflection of the founders’ service to others, from fighting for our freedom to sharing their love of the mountains with others.

Chad of the Week

Every week we highlight a P⚡T hitter that exudes the highest values of the National Guard and Reserve bois. We forget what those are at the moment, so here is a cool pic submission.

THE FRATTY GUARD CHRISTMAS SALE EXTRAVAGANZA

Pick up some merch! Almost everything has been discounted between 40 and 50%.

Plenty of awesome flags left, which have been a fan favorite. Cop one right fucking now.