Really? I have over 30 years experience in the Marine Corps and as an independent consultant supporting special operations and national missions throughout the US and around the world. I'm permanently retired now, but I still have friends in the Marines, Special Forces, and National Missions. We all agree that it's a training exercise.

Note, that the building everyone is hyperventilating about was empty / abandoned (I've heard both). That is exactly what these types of military exercises use in the cities. Just before our amphibious deployment when I was a Captain in the Marines, our battalion did something similar in New Orleans in 1991--helicopters at night in the city and using an abandoned building that represented an Embassy rescue/evacuation, which all deployed Marine Expeditionary Units have as a potential mission. We had the blueprints of every Embassy in our area of operation down to what kinds of doors and door hinges were in the Embassies in case we had to breach. In New Orleans, we ran the Embassy scenario about 5 times if I remember correctly and each time we breached doors and walls in the empty building--with the permission of the owner and reimbursing him for the damages.

You don't rehearse complex Embassy evacuation/hostage scenarios by using the combat towns built on the back of military training areas. They are not realistic for larger urban areas where our Embassies are located.

I've supported special operations exercises to take down oil rigs where the scenario is that terrorist have seized it and taken hostages. They used real oil a rig at night using SEALs, Special Forces, TF-160 and snipers on TF-160 helicopters to hit manikins on the oil rig.

I've supported Nation Mission forces (Delta, SEAL Team Six, and others that can't be revealed) on training exercises in the US that would make your toes curl up backwards in your shoes. Hint: they don't always use military aircraft or equipment and you would have zero idea the exercise was taking place. On contingency plans that require long airlift, they fly a profile of that flight within the US to simulate the hours in the air and timing.

I've seen and supported Ranger battalions (they support both Special Forces and National Missions) "take down" commercial airports as a training exercise.

All of this is closely coordinated with the governors, mayors, police, medical points of contact, and any building owners who might be involved.

I had to laugh when I saw one post that declared that Special Ops personnel at the building in LA had and HVT (High Value Target) in custody headed for the helicopter. These kinds of exercises have role players. In this case it might have been a HVT, or it my have been the hostage that was rescued, or it may have been a simulated casualty. Looking at a blurry photo and declaring it was a real HVT is fucking laughable.

By the way sport, any indication from the sanctuary city of LA was outraged that the military executed a real operation without their knowledge? If this was a real operation there is zero chance that anyone in LA would have had advanced notice.

Does the FBI give everyone advanced notice that they are going to raid a home, office, or organization?

If this were a real operation, operation security would have been priority to prevent the target from being alerted. They would not have coordinated everything with the city to use special operations to take some one into custody.

Use the two synapse in your brain that are still functioning and ask yourself---how was it that all those helicopters landed in a busy street with no traffic? The police blocked them off. Then ask yourself why would the military need multiple helicopters and special forces to arrest one man when the LA police are more than capable of doing it???????????

So, just who are your better qualified and better documented sources? Better than my personal experiences? How about Jade Helm in 2015 that was a mostly special operations exercise across 9 states where helicopters were landing in streets late at night with soldiers exiting and embarking on helicopters. Was that also a scare real special operation?

It's a fucking normal exercise with the coordination of the governor, mayor, police, medical, and other to ensure the exercise was save.

BTW, one of my good friends is a retired TF-160 pilot that says they did this kind of training around the US from time to time. Another retired friend of mine who was in Delta says that they used empty/abandon buildings in cities and always coordinated with local authorities and the building owners.

When I was supporting an special operations training exercise in Romania, the special operations training planner leased a cargo freighter from the Turkish government for a hostage rescue exercise. And Romania allowed special operations air support (AC-130 gunship) to use an abandoned power plant near a community with live ammunition as part of the exercise.

People, standard military units don't often have the chance to train in an urban environment, but Special Forces and especially Nation Missions do. Why? Because they need to be successful anywhere in the world in any environment--and you can't duplicate that on military training bases. I know. I've been there and done that as well as worked closely with Special Forces and National Mission forces for many years.

Waiting for your first hand reply. Don't give me this hearsay BS you reference.

Retard? Is that the same as Jew?

In any case, I did read the story, but I'm aware that the LA Times is full of socialist bullshit every day, so I don't take it very seriously, most of the time. The story my be true, though.

On the other hand, it's been raining for the past three days in L.A. complete with loud "booms" in the sky, which are caused by lightening strikes, and since no one around here heard anything about "warnings", we all just assumed it was thunder.

But, what the heck, with the L.A. Times, and now commenter with a questionable IQ, who thinks calling people names is "cool", I must be wrong. Thanks for setting me straight. I'll tell the neighbors.