Warriors From The East
Nicodemo Aidara
My kids spend some part of every day jumping off of and hanging from things, and generally being upside down. The plus side is they are incredibly fit and strong. The challenge is that they literally climb the walls everywhere we go, like ninja warriors, and often scare the general public with their parkour stunts.
Thankfully for parents with kids like mine, the emerging trend of parkour and American Ninja Warrior-inspired classes and activities for children allows us to find facilities where they can build these skills safely.
Started by members of the Ninja community, Traverse Fitness is a premiere ninja and fitness gym with classes for age 6 and up. At this warehouse-style facility in Richmond, kids (and adults) can run, jump, hang, and put their strength and agility to the test. The facility is gigantic. Find class schedule and pricing >>
Founded by an actual contestant on American Ninja Warrior (who is also a practicing chiropractor), MVMNTM is a unique facility that offers Parkour classes and Ninja Warrior classes at all levels. I even took one myself (age forty-something). Access to Open Gym time is earned through taking some structured classes first. MVMNTM offers camps and birthday parties as well. Kids may be disappointed to learn that the actual Ninja Warrior training circuit that is set up at MVMNTM is for ages 13+. However, there are plenty of bars, platforms, warped walls, foam pits, and springy mats onto which a person may hurl their body.
Schedule and prices on MVMNTM website >>
We love University Recreation programs (open to non-UC families!) for their affordability and convenience. Parkour was not listed at the time of this writing, but historically it is one of the classes offered, as well as aerial, circus, and tumbling. The facility is small but perfect for kids 12 and under.
Learn more about University Recreation programs >>
Big News! Traverse Fitness is a new ninja warrior facility in Northern California (we opened in Nov 2019)! We currently offer ninja warrior style fitness for all ages, as well as classes in aerial acrobatics. Open gyms, classes, birthday parties, and corporate events are all offered here!
The defenders were professional soldiers, and the last decade of war had taught them a great deal about the use of concrete barriers to defend against explosives of all kinds. So while the car bombs created a great deal of sound and fury, they availed little.
So while the soldiers kept up a steady volume of fire, they were helpless as the dozer began to remove the concrete barriers that blocked the road between their positions and the row of large armored trucks. One layer of concrete was removed after another until the road was clear.
The explosion of ISIL onto the international scene in June 2014 informed the world that a new type of force had arrived. In some ways, this should have been less of a surprise. ISIL had seized Fallujah the previous January, and there were also several clear precursors of this type of force. The Israelis had experienced a near-defeat in their fight against the non-state actor Hezbollah years earlier. And only a month after the fall of Mosul, Russian-backed separatist forces in Ukraine would shoot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
So which groups qualify as hybrid forces under this definition? We are left with three who appear at first glance to meet the criteria: Hezbollah, ISIL, and the eastern Ukrainian separatists. In the following sections, we will examine each of these groups and cover one aspect of the organization that demonstrates their nature as a hybrid force: the use of electronic signals intelligence for Hezbollah, the ability to perform complex breaching operations for ISIL, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by the Ukrainian separatists.
Hezbollah has an utterly non-military origin. Founded in 1982 by a group of religious students of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Sadr (an Iraqi Shia and father-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr, the founder of the Jaysh al-Mahdi), Hezbollah emerged in the crucible of resistance to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. The new group quickly made a reputation for itself through a series of suicide bombings in Lebanon against the U.S. Marine barracks and the headquarters of the Israeli Defense Forces and French paratroopers.
Hezbollah uses not just technology, but also tactics and techniques in unique ways. During its 2006 war against Israel, Hezbollah effectively used swarming tactics with anti-tank missiles fired in volleys of dozens so that the first few hits would strip the reactive armor from Israeli tanks, leaving bare metal for follow-on missiles.
ISIL has a myriad of hybrid capabilities (its ability to use captured armored vehicles and artillery pieces, for example), but one of the best examples is the breaching capability it displayed in the battle to capture Ramadi, as described in the opening vignette.
As ISIL was kind enough to photo-document for us (a selection are included below), we can see a fairly sophisticated multi-step process. First, they armored and fortified a civilian bulldozer so that it would be immune to small arms fire. They then used this bulldozer to remove a section of the concrete wall protecting the Iraqi units defending Ramadi. Then a series of likewise armored truck bombs, similar in both size and composition to those used by Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing, were sent through the gap in the wall created by the bulldozer. ISIL then used the car bombs to gain superiority over the defenders.
The airliner was shot down by a sophisticated Russian-manufactured missile, the SA-17, commonly known as the Buk 2. This radar-guided missile is capable of engaging aircraft flying at a height of up to 75,000 feet and is generally manned by highly trained technicians.
Hybrid forces provide a challenge to the United States for several reasons. First, they exist outside the post-World War II state system of which the United States is both the primary architect and pre-eminent beneficiary. Armed forces that do not belong to a member of the state system are deeply disturbing to this system. While insurgents and guerrillas have been a persistent annoyance to the state system since its inception (and to other political orders before that), the emergence of these super-empowered armed groups metastasizes the problem.
Second, since these groups operate outside the state system, they are not restrained by it. Hezbollah has prominently deployed small formations to Iraq and large forces to Syria. ISIL fights against a wide variety of guerrilla and regular formations throughout Iraq and Syria while under air bombardment from an even wider variety of states.
In the case of ISIL and especially the Ukrainian separatists, there may be some truth to this, but the example of Hezbollah points out why this may not be the case. Hezbollah has made a deliberate, strategic decision not to move to the logical next stage, but to instead remain a sub-state hybrid force. Likewise, ISIL and the Ukrainian separatists may also come to see the wisdom of learning to live within the gray zone, a place in which it is difficult for the full powers of a state to be brought against them, and in which they may enjoy a host of informal allies. Other groups are doubtless watching.
As the United States thinks about its interests in the world, it needs to consider both these hybrid threats and those that have yet to emerge. So far our cases are either Arab or Eastern European. In general, sub-Saharan Africa lacks the industrial militaries for insurgent groups to steal, adopt, or borrow from, so this is a region unlikely to generate one of these groups. But one might envision a group in South, Central, or East Asia deciding that it needs to move into this space. East and South Asian armies have the capabilities that a hybrid force might want to adopt as well as an active technology sector that could provide the opportunity to graft on a post-modern capability. Burma, Thailand, Pakistan, or Chechnya might be the cradles of such groups. In all these cases, a restive ethnic or ideological minority might be sufficiently capable of adopting any capabilities that exist locally.
The hybrid force then presents a very real danger. The examples in this essay have focused on currently existing groups that use almost entirely industrial-era technologies to achieve their hybrid status. However, it is possible to imagine a future hybrid force that uses emerging technology to transform its insurgency into a hybrid force. Capabilities such as nanotechnology, robotics, or autonomous swarming machines could comprise the additional capability of the next generation.
The scene where they are stuck on the train when a building is burning was at Myrtle/Broadway on the (J) line. I believe the neighborhood where they ran into the Orphans was Bushwick because when they run to the subway with Mercy it is the Wilson Ave stop on the (L) train.
One of the most amazing things for me about this whole recap is how many of the original locations exist as they were.
Of those, the most amazing one for me is the tunnel in Brooklyn, at the corner of Cooke and Stewart.
Thank you for a very enjoyable read. I always knew the scenes were filmed under the J line in Brooklyn but I was never exactly sure at which location. I always assumed it was closer to Myrtle Ave. The entire subway scene shots are filmed on R27-30 Subway BMT cars. None of which can go outdoors on any Bronx train lines. This model car is to wide to fit on IRT(Numbered train lines).The only (BMT/IND) letter line train in the Bronx(The D & CC back then) is underground.
Also the scene in 96st is filmed on the old Aqueduct platform of Hoyt & Schemerhorn. They covered the signs over with 96st but still it has the distinct IND station tiling. Many NYC subway shots are filmed in this location. One can see these unused platforms when standing on this station.
i Lived there during the 70s, yes it was the 96 st station because that was the border of upper class manhattan with the guetto of puerto ricans manhattan, it was always crowded with cops the 96 st station , stores move around throughout the years, and they ran to Central Park , not riverside Park as you mention
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