Bastrop County to see Jade Helm-like training next year

Officials hope for less controversy in followup to Jade Helm event.

Bastrop County officials approved a request on Monday from the United States Special Operations Forces to allow the military to use parts of the county for covert-warfare training in 2016.

Another covert-warfare training exercise is headed to Bastrop County in the spring, despite backlash officials received after they approved the now infamous Jade Helm 15 exercises earlier this year.

Bastrop County commissioners approved a request Monday from U.S. Special Operations Forces to allow the military to use parts of the county for the covert-warfare training from March 10 to June 5. This time around, officials hope for less hysteria.

“The fact that it became a media event last time doesn’t change my feeling that we need to support military training so the men and women in the military can effectively protect us and the freedoms we enjoy in America,” County Judge Paul Pape said.

Earlier this year, Jade Helm 15 took the Internet by storm with conspiracy theories of some sort of government takeover. Those fears were not easily tamped down by officials with Bastrop County and the military. Other than the chatter on the Web, the training came and went quietly, mostly conducted on rural private property and Camp Swift. It started in July and ended Sept. 15.

Kerrville resident Eric Johnston, a retired sheriff ’s deputy

who led the Texas chapter of Counter Jade Helm, said he and other volunteers who monitored the operation in Bastrop County over the summer did not see much activity.

Monday was the first Johnston had heard about the new training, but he said the group will most likely watch over the operation again come spring.

“It seemed — and I use that term loosely — that us watching it kept them on their toes this time,” Johnston said.

Johnston said he and other Counter Jade Helm volunteers do not want to stir people up — they just want upfront, complete information from officials.

“I am not a tin-hat wearer. Like, ‘Oh my God, it’s martial law’ — obviously it’s not,” Johnston said.

This time the training exercise is named Unconventional Warfare Exercise or UWEX 16, and there will be no public meeting and no circulated map of the United States with Texas labeled

The training mostly will take place at Camp Swift.

as “hostile territory.”

“We don’t have a fancy, catchy name that can be sent around social media,” Pape said.

No further details were released about the planned training, but Pape said it will mostly take place at Camp Swift, with some activities on private property.

Pape said he has also been in touch with officials in Gov. Greg Abbott’s office and made sure they were briefed about the training.

During the Jade Helm panic, Abbott issued a directive calling on the Texas State Guard to monitor the military exercise, which sparked criticism that he was validating the fearmongering.

This time, Pape said, don’t expect a statement from the governor.