and what ghost there do remain

so my first blog post after being back in singapore for half a month. oddly i felt inspired to do so after reading some random factoid on the net, which i don't recall how i got to or why it felt significant. but i'll try to push on.

there was this tv show not that long ago by mark burnett, the guy who created 'survivor' and 'eco-challenge'. it was this goofy show that featured former (or perhaps even current) special forces operators called 'combat missions' (what a creative name...). it was a pretty surreal show really. they had rudy, that old guy from the first season of survivor (oh my god that was a long time ago) to be the camp commandant of this simulation special forces camp and had a bunch of actors come in to play random officers. a whole bunch of special forces operators, who obviously had no regard for their own professional pride, came in to participate in mock "battles" against a ragtag OPFOR, who were likely to be actors given their dramatic death animations.

i mean these participants were tough. according to their bios (or dossiers, in line with the theme), they were actual delta force, seal team members, green beret, force recon, swat and other misc. special forces. but what i remember is the ludicrous casualty rate they have for their missions. if i remember correctly, they were split into teams of 6, and each team would go and do a mission. but frequently, half the members will get killed during the mission. considering how fake everything is, and the fact is that they weren't up against particularly powerful enemies who also didn't have a vest interest in actually killing them (unless the OPFOR had a pretty odd performance-related component to their pay).

but that's not really my point. my point is regarding a guy name scott helvenston. if you watched the show and remember this ridiculous guy who kept doing stupid things and basically made an ass of himself, then you know who he is. apparently, he was the youngest navy seal ever, which obviously deserves some respect. but then, he got stupid enough to take part in this fiasco. he also went on to take part in 'man vs. beast', where he beat a chimpanzee through an obstacle course.

but that's also not really the point. you see, after his stellar career as a navy seal and reality-tv-show-tool, he went on to sign with blackwater security, which, if you didn't know, provides services to the US government in iraq. basically, they are a private security force charging the US government ridiculous amounts of money to do stuff which the US army should be doing. they protect convoys and other lower priority areas. but they apparently rack up plenty of casualties too. scott helvenston, who was on a blackwater mission, was killed in a car along with 3 other blackwater personnel. apparently his car got hit by an RPG, and his body was mutilated and dragged through the streets of fallujah. quite horrendous.

there was a moral in that story somewhere. something along the lines of being on tv doesn't guarantee your next stop in life won't be a gruesome death in iraq. this was a guy who once served as demi moore's personal trainer before she did GI jane (oh goodness that movie sucked). i guess one just can't know where one will end up. or maybe it was just an interesting story of an interesting character. maybe it was just a way of talking about 'combat missions' without sounding too stupid. who knows?