Amazon Link: Terrorist Trail

As promised, I just finished Terrorist Trail by H John Poole.  For those not already familiar, H John Poole is America's foremost thinker on small unit tactics.  His training group has trained a lot of US military units, in particular Marine units.  Poole was a platoon leader in Vietnam, then resigned his commission in order to enlist as a sergeant and teach at USMC School of Infantry East.  He eventually was commissioned a second time (unheard of) and retired. 

Terrorist Trail was written in 2006 during the height of the insurgency in Iraq.  The purpose of the book was to brief small unit leaders enroute to Iraq on the source of the foreign fighters that were pouring into Iraq.  

He traced a route from the Beqqa Valley in Lebanon, a Hezbollah/IRGC (Iranian Republican Guard Corps) stronghold, through Jordan and then along the Euphrates into Sadr City.  Based upon experience I'd say he was 100% spot on in his assessment.

The book places the blame not just on Hezbollah and the Iranians, but on the TRUE funder of all this: CHINA.  Poole points out that the fighters are being trained at camps in Sudan.  Sudan is heavily controlled by the Chinese.  Chinese oil companies (the CCP) run Sudan's oil fields.  The largest contingent of peacekeeping troops from the UN in Darfur: You guessed it, CHINESE.  I've been making the point that China uses it's role on the Security Council to deploy troops all over the world, which begins mass migration of Chinese into these nations.

Poole dives deeper and exposes the Chinese and Maoist influences throughout Africa from the 60s until the present day.  He gives fantastic historical recaps of every bush conflict there.  He dives very deeply into the fall of Rhodesia, orchestrated by the Chinese and the fall of Mozambique, also orchestrated by the Chinese.  If you are interested in the history and operations of the RLI and the Selous Scouts (PAMWE CHETE!! - which is Shona for "All Together" or "Gung Ho" in Chinese - where have he heard this before?) this book is for you.

As far as small unit tactics, there is only chapter that deals with that.  It goes into detail on tracking in an urban environment.  That material is pulled directly from Combat Tracking Guide by John Hurth.  It used to only be handed out during his class (where I got my copy), but it is available here: Combat Tracking Guide.

If you are solely interested in learning Small Unit Tactics, I wouldn't say you need this book.  If you are a history student, interested in Rhodesia, or interested in intelligence information on Chinese methods, I would buy this.

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Hoplite Industries sent me a new helmet to test, they claim sourced from a different factory.  I take them at their word, but the helmet is identical in both outer appearance and suspension system, right down to the fake Team Wendy W pad inside.  China is like that though, there might be 5 different state-owned businesses all making the same product with slight quality variations.

You can find this helmet at: Hoplite Helmet

You can read about our testing of the first batch elsewhere on this site, but hey failed to stop a 44 Magnum Soft Point.

This helmet was tested using a 9mm 147 Jacketed Hollow Point fired out of a Ruger RXM at about 15 yards.  As you can see from the pictures, the helmet stopped the round.  The dent on the inside did not exceed the thickness of the padding, making this helmet truly a Level IIIA helmet.

I like the easy to adjust helmet suspension.  The mounting plate for NODs is stiffer and a bit harder to lock in than on my USNV FAST helmet, but it does work and is sturdy.

This is good lower cost entry level ballistic helmet for those just starting out.

Hoplite Industries reached out to me and asked me if I would be willing to be a 3rd party to test their new line of NIJ Level IIIA rated helmets.  I accepted, and for full disclosure, I was sent two helmets, one to test and one to keep as payment.  I told him that I would test them, give him a couple of days to handle any feedback I had, then I'd release the results, either way.

Hoplite Industries had a rough start with their digital night vision, but is geniuinely attempting to fix the sourcing issues they had and build solid products for the tactical/preparedness community.  I know there was drama with others, but I'm able to set that aside, as I want to truly help other guys get out there and I want to recommend quality products to my people.

Hoplite asked me if I had a 44 Magnum available for testing.  He sent me the results of their test on the high cut helmets using 147 grain 9mm Gold Dot hollow points and he wanted to make sure that the mid-cut helmet met the same standard.  I don't have a 44 Magnum, because I am not Inspector Harry Callahan of the SF PD, but my dear friend Allen has one and agreed to help me with the test.  We fired a single round of 44 Magnum, 240 grains, from a Ruger Blackhawk revolver at a distance of 10 yards (30 feet).

As you can see, the UHMWPE fibers became severely deformed and all that energy would have been transferred to the skull and brain of whoever was wearing the helmet.

I immediately sent the photos to Hoplite, who was indeed surprised.  He looked into the issue and found that the mid and full cut helemts came from a different source than the high cuts he had tested.  He asked me if I would be willing to shoot the other helmet with a 9mm to see if the full cut had the same issue.  To his credit, he seemed genuinely concerned to want to do this right.

So, the full cut was tested with a single round of Sellier & Bellot 115 grain FMJ.  The helmet also failed, with a deformity that would have caused injury.  Sure, any round to the helmet will cause some injury and deformation of the helmet, but the fibers still seperated on this helmet.

Hoplite immediately pulled the helmets from his site and offered a full refund or replacement to anyone who bought one before the testing was done, which says a lot of good for him.  

He has switched materials and is ordering helmets made of Aramid now, and intends to send a new pair to me for testing, which I will do, and then issue a follow up review.

While the product didn't stand up to testing, Hoplite's character did.  He didn't dodge or evade the test results, he took immediate action to correct the situation.  We will see what the future holds.

In the meantime, he has re-listed the helmets as non-ballistic bump helmets for airfsoft or fragmentation, but not NIJ rated.

I cannot recommend these helmets for any protective use.