# What is Jade Helm?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 19, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425 "2015-03-19T21:00:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/1 "2015-03-19T21:00:53Z")
Apparently there’s going to be a joint services exercise in the west for an 8-week span this summer; that’s all the neutral information I have about it. All the cites I’ve found mentioning it are fringe sources screaming that it’s nothing less than a dress rehearsal for the imposition of martial law. I’d like to dismiss this as paranoia but a massive military-intelligence exercise preparing for “unconventional warfare” in the middle of US urban areas frankly makes me uneasy. Is there a more benign explanation for this?
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/2 "2015-03-19T21:56:51Z")
I don’t seem to be able to find much.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/3 "2015-03-19T22:04:27Z")
[One of the top CT sites on the subject](http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2015/03/18/the-jade-helm-15-drill-is-a-martial-law-civil-war-and-red-list-extraction-drill/):
> [@](#):
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> From July 15th to September 15th, 2015, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command is conducting a massive military drill in an area covering the entire American Southwest. At first glance, I thought this drill was a response to the massive military drills being conducted by Russia. I wrongly assumed that Jade Helm 15 was a drill designed to protect the Southwest from an invasion by Russian-backed Latin American military forces (i.e. Red Dawn). However, after reading the operational plan of Jade Helm, it is clear that this drill is about the brutal martial subjugation of the people of Texas, Utah and Southern California who have risen up against some unspecified tyranny. Further, this drill is also about martial law being used as a preventative measure in states which “might” lean towards civil war against the United States government (i.e. California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico).
So I guess it must be true.
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### Author:  [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/4 "2015-03-19T23:26:33Z")
Nah, can’t be true. They’d have SC and 'Bama on that list if it were true.
Unless they figure they can just nuke Charleston for realsies now all the patriotic Generals have been axed.
The newer :rolleyes: smiley is no longer sufficient for the depth of expression desired here.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/5 "2015-03-19T23:31:00Z")
I did say they were fringe; but is there or is there not going to be some sort of exercise named Jade Helm, and what is it going to be about? After all we did have the spooky black helicopters over US cities a few years ago.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/6 "2015-03-19T23:34:15Z")
California and Arizona ehh? I’m trying to imagine the issue that would make Gov Jerry Brown and Sheriff Arpaio start a civil war together.
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### Author:  [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/7 "2015-03-20T01:28:56Z")
The [survivalists](http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=386350) don’t seem worried, and they’re convinced that the collapse of civilization/WWIII/opening of FEMA camps are imminent. One even thinks cross training the military and law enforcement is a good idea for the upcoming race wars. So, uh, yeah, there’s that. Post #17 is actually a good point. It’s not a massive 7-state all out war type of thing, it’s a bunch of units in the area using nearby training grounds in the area to coordinate a bigger training event than they could do by having it all at one base.
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### Author:  [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/8 "2015-03-20T02:26:26Z")
From the little I could find that didn’t look like it was pandering to the schizo crowd it looks like a multi-state exercise in rural areas where forces could practice night operations plus logistics and communications support.
Practically speaking, these kinds of exercises inside the US have been going on since WWI. It’s a practical matter of long range coordination of operations (that’s the comm part), in isolated areas (that’s the logistics part to support forces in the field), and night operations (that’s the forces on the ground and in the air meeting their time on/over target).
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### Author:  [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/9 "2015-03-20T02:45:25Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> I did say they were fringe; but is there or is there not going to be some sort of exercise named Jade Helm, and what is it going to be about? After all we did have the spooky black helicopters over US cities a few years ago.
Yes, it does appear that there’s going to be an exercise called JADE HELM 15. I found reference going back to 2013 that referenced the JADE HELM _series_ so I’d venture to guess that there’s already been several of these.
> [@](#):
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> It was briefed to General Odierno, the Chief of Staff of the Army, on 30 January 2013 that there are additional near term opportunities for interdependence training through the Jade Helm series of exercises conducted by the United States Army’s Special Forces Command.
You were probably rounded up and put into a re-education camp back then, but they obviously wiped your memory.
In all seriousness, the burden of proof is on the CTers to show that there’s something malicious here. They’re the ones making the claim, we shouldn’t have to scour the internet looking for proof that it’s all on the up-and-up, because that’s a fool’s errand.
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### Author:  [@zenofgolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenofgolf)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/10 "2015-03-20T19:57:07Z")
I recently viewed and read many youtube videos and internet articles about JADE HELM. Having PERSONALLY sat through the jade helm brief presented by the government rep, I laugh at these stories and feel saddened that they are defaming the US military, especially the Special Operations Forces.
Jade helm is NOT the trainup for martial law or controlling the mind. If you actually look at the whole map, you will notice that the area is surrounded by water. That is because the location is a ficticious island continent located in the Atlantic Ocean. The reason certain areas are depicted in red is due to the agreements made with property owners and city and county officials. If they had not received the overwhelming support from the patriotic people of Texas, Colorado may have been red.
Special Forces do not operate in friendly areas unless they have been invited in to train a foreign military. So…in order for them to train realistically, they have to go into enemy territory. If this exercise was wholly being conducted on a military installation, certain training areas would have been depicted as red (even though we all know the base is all blue in reality - as is Texas).
The mind control blah blah blah. That thread started because they have a slide that says “master the human domain.” The “human domain” is defined as the “physical, cultural and social environments” that exist within a conflict. From all the articles I have read about the military and the human domain, it was mentioned that due to the instant connectivity of the world due to internet, social media, etc, (as witnessed by the jade helm conspiracy theorists) the military feels future wars will not always be about force on force, but trying to persue the non-support by the population from entities that are trying to take away their freedoms. By the way, I read one theory that it was Cern and they would be using particle beams on the population- WOW!
What saddens me about all this is - they have basically maligned the great special operations soldiers who will be going through some very arduous training to fight for and defend freedoms of not only the US but also countries who are being oppressed.
What a shame!!!
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/11 "2015-03-21T05:31:22Z")
> [@zenofgolf](#):
>
> If you actually look at the whole map, you will notice that the area is surrounded by water. That is because the location is a ficticious island continent located in the Atlantic Ocean.
This just in: SOCOM to invade Atlantis! 😃
> [@](#):
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> If they had not received the overwhelming support from the patriotic people of Texas, Colorado may have been red.
Go Wolverines!
> [@](#):
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> (even though we all know the base is all blue in reality - as is Texas).
Don’t tell the GOP that. They have a tough enough row to hoe in 2016.
> [@](#):
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> By the way, I read one theory that it was Cern and they would be using particle beams on the population- WOW!
Sadly, that kind of nonsense is still on the slightly more rational side of the spectrum. There’s a lot more crazy out there.
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### Author:  [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2015, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/12 "2015-03-29T08:10:47Z")
I keep reading this as [Jem’Hadar](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Jem%27Hadar), am I the only one?
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2015, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-jade-helm/715425/13 "2015-03-29T08:20:26Z")
> [@Foggy](#):
>
> I keep reading this as [Jem’Hadar](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Jem%27Hadar), am I the only one?
It is the order of things.