Escapecraft

Military Reform – Sparky Style

To Sparky the M113 started as the answer what he perceives as shortcoming in airborne and airmobile warfare – the lack of armor. Over the years however, the M113 has become to him the answer to just about any and every military problem. The M113 can apparently replace most of the vehicles in the U.S. Army and Marines inventory and do their jobs better in every way. It can for example replace not only the Humvee but also the Stryker, Bradley and AAV7. Sparky has even declared the M113A3 to be tactically superior to the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank! Over the years Sparky’s obsession for the M113 has clouded his already limited perceptions of the real capabilities of the vehicle, which now border on science-fiction. For example, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq Sparky actually proposed landing fantasy flying-boat versions of the C-130 Hercules transport on the Tigris river. These would then drop their ramps and disgorge “M113 Gavin’s” out the back that would swim upriver and carry the fight directly to Baghdad!

No, really. I couldn’t make this up!

He doesn’t even realize that all M113’s since the A2 model was introduced nearly 30 years ago have been banned from performing in an amphibious role!

Sparky, having not been able to impress the U.S. Army or Marines with his ideas and apparently no longer able to get published in U.S. Military periodicals now promotes his M113-based, Airborne and Marine reform ideas through a series of self-proclaimed “military think-tanks” which are really just one-man rants. For those interested, here they are:

* 1st Tactical Studies Group (Airborne!!) - M113 and airborne rants: Promoting the idea that the M113 is the greatest armored vehicle ever and can do anything, especially when dropped out of the back of an airplane or in the water
* 2nd Tactical Studies Group (Aerospace) – Claims the aliens are already here and ready to attack, presumably M113’s are the ideal anti-alien counter weapon
* 3rd Amphibious Warfare Studies Group (Maritime) – Anti-USMC rants.
* 4th Tactical Studies Group (Conspiracy) - JFK assassination conspiracy stuff

A word of caution too if you dare click on the links – turn your volume WAY down! He has many other web sites as well, far too many to document and many more old dead links. You can’t look up a military related subject no matter how obscure without hitting one of his pages on Google or Yahoo.

Sparky pursues his campaign of military reform the Sparky way with considerable vigor. In the beginning he would get articles published in any military periodical that would take them. Armor Magazine out of Ft. Knox was a favorite for example, but these periodical’s don’t seem to accept his submissions anymore. When the internet came along Sparky took to writing as many web pages as he could and ensuring that you could not look up even the most obscure military (and some non-military topics) without one of his pages being a top hit, ensuring the “M113 Gavin” name would be seen by amateurs as common usage. He posted his Gavin Petition, and even pretends to be other people who post glowing reviews of his work.

His military career having achieved nothing of consequence (see below) its seems getting his military reform ideas adopted – most importantly creating a force of M113 Gavin Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicles is I suspect Sparky’s path to eternal glory, his legacy.

To be fair, there is the very occasional reasonable, even intelligent idea that manages to crawl from the mind of Sparky. Bringing back the old M40A1 106mm recoilless rifle in some capacity and equipping the Delta Company of Airborne Infantry Battalions with armored vehicles of some sort are both ideas worth discussing at the least. One could easily come up with rational arguments both for and against both ideas in an open discussion. I don’t mean discuss it with Sparky of course, because you can’t. Anyone who questions him gets banned from his reform group.

Some of his other ideas, like his notion of heavily loaded paratroopers riding into combat across rough country on ultra-lightweight yet somehow durable mountain bikes are pretty daft.

Whatever plausible ideas emanate from Sparky are quickly overwhelmed by the man’s convoluted writings (be prepared to scroll and scroll and scroll), rabid tendency towards gross factual distortion, ignorance or armored vehicles of all kinds, absolute intolerance of contrary ideas or evidence and his utterly disrespectful and childish responses to critics, or even just casual doubters.

Sparky has become infamous on the net. It is hard to count how many discussion forums he has been banned from for his outrageous behavior – he holds the record for quick banishment at the former Heavy Metal (now Tanknet Forums back around 1997, having been banished for insulting, harassing and spamming other participants. In 1998 he was banned for life from SOCNET.

As you can see it is not recommended to attempt to communicate with Sparky either to ask questions, make suggestions or to point out inaccuracies or inconsistencies in his arguments. That is why I have to waste my time with this web page. The man can not be reasoned with, but at least I can warn others and save them some grief.

Who is Mike Sparks?

Sparky has repeatedly refused to confirm any details of his military career. He claims to be an officer in a National Guard Special Forces unit but won’t identify which one (there are only 2 so far as I know and neither near where Sparky lives in North Caroline or Georgia). What we do know is that Sparky started his military career in the United States Marines were he reportedly washed out of USMC officer training, was told he would never be allowed to command men in combat and resigned some 7 months before his hitch was up after being offered a posting in supply. This subsequently led to a deep hatred of Marines and the Marine Corps that persists to this day – if you couldn’t tell from the e-mail exchange above.

After his rejection by the Marines, Sparky managed to achieve a commission as a first ieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, maybe sometime around 1989-90 – a rank he still holds almost 2 decades later! He has since served with no particular distinction in, as best we can tell a National Guard parachute rigging unit.

Sparky informed me he has “been kicking ass in the U.S. military for 27 years. At around the same time Sparky informed an associate of mine that he is 34 years old. You do the math. One thing I am sure of – Sparky has not, so far as can be determined, ever kicked actual ass (seen combat) in those 27 years. Not in Grenada, Lebanon, Panama, the Gulf (I or II), Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Afghanistan… you get the picture. Perhaps his genius can not be spared…

Sparky has claimed to have taken part in trials program between the M113A3 and Stryker ICV at Ft Lewis. Witnesses who were actually there never saw or heard of him and Sparky has refused to answer questions as to what capacity he was involved or who he was working for. Why they needed a reserve parachute rigger for these trials is hard to fathom.

Sparky operates under multiple aliases, which assist him in promoting his ideas and help sing his own praises. For example he goes by the names Sam Damon Jr. and his transsexual internet persona Carol Murphy to write glowing reviews of his own book and vicious reviews of books that don’t fit his worldview on Amazon.com. Here for example is Carol Murphy on Amazon praising Sam Damon Jr.’s glowing review of the book in which Sparky is credited as an editor:

As for Sam Damon Jr, God bless him, he can continue to review books and I will continue to enjoy reading his reviews!

What a narcissist!

At Defensetech.org Sparky posts as both himself and as Carol Murphy.