Military
Tuesday - August 21, 2012
Another Short Boat Ride
BOSTON—At 215 years old, the USS Constitution is the U.S. Navy’s oldest commissioned warship afloat. But it’s not too old to take a quick sail.
For 17 minutes on Sunday, the ship cruised west across Boston Harbor, reaching a maximum speed of 3.1 knots. It was its first sail under its own power since turning 200 in 1997.
The short trip—a distance of 1,100 yards—was to commemorate the Constitution’s victory over a British warship of a similar size in a fierce battle during the War of 1812. The victory earned the ship its nickname, “Old Ironsides.”
Chief Petty Officer Frank Neely, a Constitution spokesman and crew member, said he was among the 285 lucky people who were aboard on Sunday. It was a warn day with a few clouds, but still perfect for the sail, he said.
“This was really terrific,” Neely said. “It couldn’t have been more memorable.”
The trip marked the day two centuries ago when the Constitution defeated the British frigate HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812.
As thousands of onlookers cheered from Castle Island in South Boston, the USS Constitution sailed under its own power Sunday for just the second time in 131 years, marking the 200th anniversary of the battle that earned it the nickname Old Ironsides. “It’s a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity, sailing on her own power,” said Bob Poundcq, 48, of Quincy, referring to the last time the USS Constitution sailed on its own in 1997 for Marblehead’s 200th anniversary.
Patriotic music sounded from Fort Independence as the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat came into view. “Once again, Boston well shows her history,” said Ken Smith, 47, of Cambridge.
“We’re hoping she goes rogue and goes off on her own,” joked his wife, Anne Marie, 47.
The Constitution was towed past the crowd to a point between Castle Island and Deer Island. About 200 sailors then unfurled four of its sails before it was released from its tugboat tethers and sailed toward open water for about 10 minutes.
Then, it slowly made its way back toward Castle Island, aided by a tugboat. After it approached and fired its cannons, the crowd cheered and boats honked their horns as they bobbed in the harbor a safe distance away.
Meanwhile, the Post Office has issued a commemorative stamp.
More links at the top of the comments section, including several videos, none of which actually show the ship under sail. duh.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/21/2012 at 09:21 AM
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 24, 2012
here but elsewhere
Day 3 of my extended visit to my mother’s house. Blogging from her PC which is utterly different from mine.
She is having the sewer pipe replaced. The house was converted from a septic tank in 1959. For which she still has the receipt; in those days the plumber who did the pipework was paid $4 an hour, and the sewer pipe cost $2.25 per foot, which also includes the cost of digging the trench to lay it in. Unbelievable prices. The entire project, including 71 feet of pipe buried below the frost line, cost $257. Now it’s $12,000, and that reuses the pipe that runs across the basement. 50 times the cost.
So I’ve been cutting down trees and chopping them up so that the miniature excavator can come in alongside the house and dig a new trench. Yee ha.
The crew got her just after dawn and got right to work. Good thing we got up even earlier and took showers etc. Right now there is no water or plumbing to use ... and I’m beginning to regret having that second cup of coffee.
*************
so what’s this I hear about a submarine fire in Maine ... half a billion/trillion in damages to the boat ... fire started by some lazy sub painter who wanted to leave work early? Cheez Whiz, doesn’t the Navy vetting process filter out whackos like that??
A civilian employee set a fire that caused $400 million in damage to a nuclear-powered submarine because he had anxiety and wanted to get out of work early, Navy investigators said in a complaint filed Monday.
Casey James Fury, 24, of Portsmouth, N.H., faces up to life in prison if convicted of two counts of arson in the fire aboard the USS Miami attack submarine while it was in dry dock May 23 and a second blaze outside the sub on June 16.
If convicted of either charge, Fury could face life imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 and be ordered to pay restitution, officials said. His federal public defender, David Beneman, declined to comment. A court appearance was set for Monday afternoon.
Horry Clap, a saboteur. That’s treason, isn’t it?
Fury was taking medications for anxiety and depression and told investigators he set the fires so he could get out of work, according a seven-page affidavit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland.
...
Fury, who was working on the sub as a painter and sandblaster, initially denied starting the fires but eventually acknowledged his involvement, the affidavit states.He admitted setting the May 23 fire, which caused an estimated $400 million in damage, while taking a lie-detector test and being told by the examiner he wasn’t being truthful.
Fury told Timothy Bailey, an agent for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, that “his anxiety started getting really bad,” so he grabbed his cigarettes and a lighter, walked up to a bunk room and set fire to some rags on the top bunk.
Oh no, the bad medicine made him do it. Puh-leez. He’s 24. He has a high paying, low work job wielding a paintbrush for the Navy. What the hell does he have to be anxious about anyway?
Fury said he set the second fire after getting anxious over a text-message exchange with an ex-girlfriend about a man she had started seeing, according to the affidavit. He wanted to leave work early, so he took some alcohol wipes and set them on fire outside the submarine.
Hey Navy - did you ever think that having non-vetted civilians aboard a nuke attack boat with cellphones in their pockets might be a security risk? You know, spies and stuff? And this guy is texting/sexting with his supposed “ex”? WTF, I thought he was on the job. You know, AT WORK. Silly me, it would seem natural to me for the Navy to not allow them to have cameras, phones, data recorders, memory sticks or similar things in their pockets. And they don’t get to walk off the job with a bag of papers “that were just lying around” or any grey painted little metal souvenirs. You know, I think all of that is called “security”?
He set a fire in the torpedo room of a multi-billion dollar sub. The room where all the explosive stuff is, and the ultra-oxider fuel for them. “So he could leave work early” because he “was anxious” because of the funky mix of prescription drugs he was on? And repeated acts of arson seemed like the right way to get out of work to him? Crivens. What BS. They’ve caught themselves a enemy saboteur, albeit after the fact. Shoot him.
Such a vetting process the Navy has. Hey, i know, give a contractor candidate a book of matches and see if he gets all hot and bothered. Or give them psych exams. Got to be some way to spot the arsonists ahead of time.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/24/2012 at 07:01 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - May 27, 2012
Nap, or not to nap?
I recently met up with a young lady who turns out to be a sister, via adoption. Yes, it was on Facebook. Anyway, her question was ‘To nap, or not to nap?’
Well, any vets here on BMEWS will tell you: nap. Here’s my reply;
As a Navy vet: Nap. You never know how long you’ll have to work/stay awake. I remember one time a piece of gear was ‘out of spec’. Guess who got the job? Me. That particular piece of gear had to be working for the ship to get underway. I kept telling the Chief Engineer: “This needs to be replaced.” He told me: “We can’t replace anything until we get back to San Diego. Make it work.” Those were my orders. After 48 hours straight of ‘tweaking’, ‘retesting’, ‘re-tweaking’, ‘re-testing’, I finally had a documented result that was (barely) in ‘spec’. I sent that off to the Chief Engineer, he forwarded it to the Captain. Captain’s orders came back: ‘Commence reactor start-up. We will be underway in two hours.’ Could I then take a break and get some sleep? NO! It was my turn on watch. I was the start-up Reactor Operator in #2 engine room. So, Rebekah, nap every chance you get. You never know when an emergency might keep you awake. Any vets will know what I mean.
Posted by Christopher
on 05/27/2012 at 07:19 PM
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Permalink • Friday - May 25, 2012
I’m not worthy
I feel the need to respond to some emails and Facebook posts I’ve been getting.
Monday is Memorial Day. I’ve been getting thanks for being a veteran. From friends and family.
But being a veteran is not what Memorial Day is about. Memorial Day is the day set aside to honor those who died in service. I also include those who survived, but lost arms, legs, etc. I bet all of us know someone that fits either description.
Yes, I’m a veteran. I served six years in the Navy. We practiced daily. The worst things I remember was getting relieved of the mid-watch, crashing in my bunk, and 45 minutes later the Captain runs a drill: “Battle-stations. All hands man their battle-stations.” And that was about as close to combat as I ever got. Oh sure, my cruiser used to chase Soviet subs around… just for practice. This was especially fun if I were on Throttles: “Ahead Flank”, “Ahead 2/3rds”, “All Stop”, “Got ‘im! Ahead Full”. Yes, a Throttleman’s job could be fun.
So, this Memorial Day, please don’t dilute the meaning by thanking vets like me. Remember those who gave limb, or life.
(If you do want to thank vets like me, who may be heroes if only because we were there and deterred our enemies: Veteran’s Day is Sunday, November 11th this year.)
Posted by Christopher
on 05/25/2012 at 02:41 PM
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Permalink • Monday - April 16, 2012
NIB Treasure Trove Found
Holy cow, it’s the mother lode. Not just some shot up wrecks found in the jungle, but straight from the factory aircraft still in their crates. And to a collector, nothing beats NIB: New In the Box, never opened, never played with. We’re talking dozens of millions of dollars here folks.
The extraordinary plans to dig up the lost squadron were revealed this weekend as David Cameron visits the country.
Now, David Cundall, 62, of Sandtoft, near Scunthorpe, has spoken about his quest to recover the Spitfires and get them airborne.
Mr Cundall has spent £130,000 of his own money, visited Burma 12 times, persuaded the country’s notoriously secretive regime to trust him, and all the time sought testimony from a dwindling band of Far East veterans in order to locate the Spitfires.
Yet his treasure hunt was sparked by little more than a throwaway remark from a group of US veterans, made 15 years ago to his friend and fellow aviation archaeologist Jim Pearce.
Mr Cundall said: “The veterans had served in a construction battalion. They told Jim: ‘We’ve done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.’
Mr Cundall realised that the Spitfires would have been buried in their transport crates. Before burial, the aeroplanes would have been waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred, to protect them against decay. There seemed to be a chance that somewhere in Burma, there lay Spitfires that could be restored to flying condition.
...
... finally, he found the Spitfires, at a location that is being kept a closely guarded secret. Mr Cundall said: “We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition.”
Mr Cundall explained that in August 1945 the Mark XIV aeroplanes, which used Rolls-Royce Griffon engines instead of the Merlins of earlier models, were put in crates and transported from the factory in Castle Bromwich, in the West Midlands, to Burma.
Once they arrived at the RAF base, however, the Spitfires were deemed surplus to requirements. The war was in its final months and fighting was by now increasingly focused on ‘island-hopping’ to clear the Japanese of their remaining strongholds in the Pacific. Land-based Spitfires, as opposed to carrier-based Seafires, did not have the required range.
The order was given to bury 12 Spitfires while they were still in their transport crates. Then two weeks later, the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Japanese surrendered on September 2 1945.
The packing crates were protected by beams of teak. In addition to the 20 airplanes found, there are strong rumors of another 60 in several other burial spots. Considering that there are only about 35 air-worthy Spitfires in the word today, this is a treasure trove beyond fantasy. And the story gets better.
Spitfires buried in Burma during war to be returned to UK
Twenty iconic Spitfire aircraft buried in Burma during the Second World War are to be repatriated to Britain after an intervention by David Cameron. The Prime Minister secured a historic deal that will see the fighter aircraft dug up and shipped back to the UK almost 67 years after they were hidden more than 40-feet below ground amid fears of a Japanese occupation.
The gesture came as Mr Cameron became the first Western leader to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy campaigner held under house arrest for 22 years by the military regime, and invited her to visit London in her first trip abroad for 24 years.
[ Mr. Cundall relates more of his treasure hunt story: ] He eventually met one eyewitness who drew maps and an outline of where the aircraft were buried and took him out to the scene.
“Unfortunately, he got his north, south, east and west muddled up and we were searching at the wrong end of the runway,” he said. “We also realised that we were not searching deep enough as they had filled in all of these bomb craters which were 20-feet to start with. “I hired another machine in the UK that went down to 40-feet and after going back surveying the land many times, I eventually found them. “I have been in touch with British officials in Burma and in London and was told that David Cameron would negotiate on my behalf to make the recovery happen.”
Mr Cundall said sanctions preventing the removal of military tools from Burma were due to be lifted at midnight last night (FRI). A team from the UK is already in place and is expecting to begin the excavation, estimated to cost around £500,000, imminently. It is being funded by the Chichester-based Boultbee Flight Acadamy.
Mr Cundall said the government had promised him it would be making no claim on the aircraft, of which 21,000 were originally produced, and that he would be entitled to a share in them.
“It’s been a financial nightmare but hopefully I’ll get my money back,” he said. “I’m hoping the discovery will generate some jobs. They will need to be stripped down and re-riveted but it must be done. My dream is to have a flying squadron at air shows.”
Beyond fantastic. But why stop with one squadron Mr. Cundall? Why not make it two or three?
Broken Wings is a documentary film project currently in production in Melbourne, Australia. It follows the incredible legend that possibly as many as twelve brand new Spitfires still in their original packing crates are buried somewhere in southern Queensland. This documentary will explore the story from a range of perspectives and set out to discover whether in fact the aircraft do exist… and with a bit of luck, find them.
35 Spits flying now, another 20, and then another 60, and then another 12 or more? Can you imagine a flight of 150 Spitfires over London in the 21st Century? The English would lose their marbles and simply melt on the spot. So would I.
h/t to Peiper, who is too busy dealing with his life situation to post today. Get well soon Mrs. D!
Posted by Drew458
on 04/16/2012 at 07:12 AM
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Permalink • Friday - April 06, 2012
Semper Paratus
A U.S. Coast Guard cutter poured cannon fire into a Japanese ghost ship that had been drifting since the last year’s tsunami, sinking the vessel in the Gulf of Alaska and eliminating the hazard it posed to shipping and the coastline. The cutter’s guns tore holes in the 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru on Thursday, ending its long, lonely journey across the Pacific that began when the deadly tsunami set it floating more than a year ago.
japan-tsunami-ghost-ship.jpgU.S. Coast Guard, The Associated PressA plume of smoke rises from the derelict Japanese ship Ryou-Un Maru after it was hit by canon fire by a U.S. Coast Guard cutter on Thursday in the Gulf of Alaska. The Coast Guard decided to sink the ship dislodged by last year’s tsunami because it was a threat to maritime traffic and could have an environmental impact if it grounded.The crew pummeled the ghost ship with high explosive ammunition, and the derelict Ryou-Un Maru soon burst into flames, and began taking on water, officials said.
This is all over the news today. The derelict ship had a couple tons of fuel oil aboard and was drifting into US waters. It was a hazard, so the decision was made to sink it. Some Canadians tried to claim the wreck for salvage, but when they couldn’t tow it they left, and the Coasties got to work, shooting the thing full of holes with their 25mm Mk38 chain gun. The target caught fire, and once most of the fuel had burned off, the cutter put the fire out, then sunk the ship. Minimal harm done to the environment, yay.
The Canadian boat left, and once it was about 6 miles from the Japanese vessel, the Coast Guard began to fire, first with 25 mm shells, then a few hours later with ammunition twice that size.
Great work, and a job well done.
But I’m pissed off at the media.
It’s too easy to find the choppy video of this event online. And everybody is running the story and the pictures, all over the world.
And while everybody credits the Coast Guard for the pictures and the video, and while everybody mentions the name of the derelict ship and how it was in the scrapyard awaiting the breakers when the tsunami hit and washed the hulk out to sea, almost nobody mentions the name of the Coast Guard ship involved. That’s not right.
So I went digging. And it was a lot of work. But finally I found that the ship that did the job is the Anacapa, WPD-1335, a 110 foot Island Class patrol boat based out of Petersburg Alaska, in service since late 1989. Here she is:
So kudos for a job well done.
But the news stories all share the same problem. “then a few hours later with ammunition twice that size” is kind of impossible, unless every article on the Island Class boats is out of date or just plain wrong. The Island Class boats are only armed with a single 25mm gun. There hasn’t been a Coast Guard ship of any size with 50mm or larger guns on it in service since the early 60s. Oops. Those things weigh tons. So whatever they used to finish the wreck off and sink it, it sure wasn’t a larger mounted cannon. But it is entirely possible that the Anacapa now carries the Mk19 40mm grenade launcher. They aren’t very big, nor very expensive, and the 40x53 shell has a range of about a kilometer. Plenty enough for a little patrol boat like this. And such a gun would be awesome against small pirates or drug runners. Even the M203 launcher would do it, and those mount to the M16 rifle. So I guess 40mm is close enough to “twice the size” of 25mm. It’s just that as a firearms enthusiast, it always bugs me that no reporter ever asks “hey, what kind of gun is that?” and just copies off the government press release.
I don’t know if the Anacapa is an “A” class, “B” class, or “C” class model of the family. The “C” class boats have the one chain gun, a pair of .50 BMGs, and a pair of 7.62 LMGs. So it’s possible the journalists got their guns wrong, as they almost always do, and that the initial fire into the wreck was with .50 bullets. API rounds would go right through the rotting metal walls of the ship and could easily set the fuel on fire. But trying to sink a ship with 25mm guns? Oh sure, lots of fun, and about the only chance the crew will ever get to use their MK38 so who cares if it takes all day? SHOOTEX! SINKEX!! Waa hoo!! But we’re really talking a 1 pounder here, and that isn’t very much boom, no matter how many rounds you can cook down the barrel on target. Whereas a 75mm gun would take about 3 rounds to do the job, maybe 4. So I’m guessing they’ve got a grenade gun on board.
Posted by Drew458
on 04/06/2012 at 10:31 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - March 15, 2012
So where were we?
Peiper is taking a couple days off to deal with some issues. He will return when he can.
I’m a bit late posting this morning. I was playing guns with another blogger, designing a couple more mid-power military assault rifle cartridges. It’s easy to do based on .308/.30-06 cases, although scrunching them up to fit into the AR rifle platform really limits performance. It can be done though. One thing that I don’t like is the tendency to cram a “big” bullet deep into the cartridge case to try and make it fit into some arbitrary overall length (OAL), like the 2.25” OAL that the AR rifles are limited to. Here’s an example:
This is the 6.5 Grendel cartridge, an excellent lower-mid-power design that is no longer trademarked as of last month. It is shown with a large bullet seated way into the main body of the case. I don’t like this. In an optimum world, I don’t think any flat based bullet should be seated so that the heel is beyond the base of the neck, or a boat tail base bullet seated deeper than the boat tail being past the end of the neck. This is shown by the purple and aqua lines, respectively. Doing so makes it almost impossible to utilize a full charge of powder without compressing it or smashing some of the grains when you force the bullet in. A full charge - what shooters call 100% load density - not only keeps the bullet from shifting backwards under recoil, it also maximizes potential accuracy. In my opinion, if you’re forced to use such a large bullet to get the BC and SD you want (Ballistic Coefficient [aerodynamic drag] and Sectional Density [a measure of mass to diameter that is usually directly proportional to penetrating ability]) and have to seat it like this, then your cartridge design needs some work. Large for their caliber bullets are of course heavier than normal, and that heaviness gives you a bit more inertia at both very short and very long ranges, which increases killing power. In theory. Personally I think you’d be better off seating them to optimum depth and then working up the powder charge to get the velocity/pressure/powder burnt percentage/muzzle flash you want. Unfortunately that can’t be done when you’re trying to retrofit a bigger cartridge into an existing weapon platform, and that’s what this is all about: finding a more potent round for the AR rifles than the 5.56 NATO poodle shooter. The 6.5 Grendel is a great choice for this, in my opinion better than the 6.8 SPC from Remington. Both cartridges are significantly more potent than the 5.56 NATO cartridge, and both fit into the AR rifle with only a small loss in magazine capacity. Both generate more recoil, but I don’t see that as a real issue. The recoil they generate is quite light, less than half of the 7.62 NATO/M14 cartridge and rifle, but it’s still more than the finger tap level of recoil that the 5.56 makes in an M16/AR15 rifle.
My cartridge design is a bit more potent than either of these. I call it the .270 Savage Short because I based it on the old .300 Savage, which itself was a shortened .30-06 developed a few years after WWI. A .270 is the same caliber as a 6.8mm; both use bullets .277” in diameter. With a light 115 grain bullet my design makes a potent 400 yard military assault weapon with very little recoil, and with a heavier 130 grain bullet it becomes a 600 yard battle rifle with only a bit more recoil. Unfortunately it would need a rebated rim cut to fit the largest possible AR bolt face, though with a cartridge body just a couple hundredths bigger than the Grendel’s (.470” vs .445") magazine capacity will be the same or perhaps 1 or 2 rounds less. And my design produces much more velocity from a short barreled gun too. A calculated 2800fps with a 115gr bullet in a 20” barrel, all powder burnt, with reduced muzzle flash and lowered noise, and only 10lbs of recoil in a 7lb rifle. 2700fps with a 130gr bullet and 12lb of recoil. Certainly manageable.
Armchair cartridge design. It’s a fun way to play and you can talk about your creations for hours. All you need is the software. Actually building the cartridge would cost a few hundred. Add in another thousand for the custom barrel, and 10 or 20 thousand for professional pressure measurement, which you’d need if you wanted to bring the thing to market. So doing on the computer is much cheaper, even if it’s only 95% realistic.
Posted by Drew458
on 03/15/2012 at 10:12 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - March 07, 2012
a very bad day among many bad days for brits, and for afghan women
This is a crappy war that could be won with the liberal use of nukes. It’s that or just get the hell out.
It’s so easy playing armchair Fieldmarshal at a keyboard but truth to tell, I’m just frustrated like all of you.
I never thought much of Karzai and now think even less. But then, it’s his country and those savages prefer the dark ages. It’s what they are used to and generations of contact with the west hasn’t much improved them. Screw em. There isn’t one worth the life of a Brit or American or any Nato grunt in that god forsaken place. Now there’s news that six Brit soldiers were killed after their armoured vehicle was blown up.
Karzai’s backing of strict Islamic code (that allows men to beat their wives) ‘is a giant step back for women’s rights in Afghanistan’
Activists worried women’s rights being used as bargaining chip in negotiations with the Taliban
New code promotes segregation of the sexes
By DAMIEN GAYLEActivists have accused the Afghan president of reversing improvements in women’s rights after he endorsed a strict ‘code of conduct’ issued by clerics.
Hamid Karzai yesterday backed a document issued by the Ullema Council which promotes segregation of the sexes and allows husbands to beat wives in certain circumstances.
The move is seen as part of his attempts to reach out to the Taliban in the lead up to the planned withdrawal of Nato troops from the Afghanistan in 2014.
But activists are furious that gains made in women’s rights since the 2001 invasion and ensuing occupation are being used as a bargaining chip with Islamic extremists.
Prior to the 2001 U.S. invasion, girls were banned from going to school and women forced to wear burkas to conceal them from head to toe.
Women were also banned from venturing from their homes being escorted by a male relative.
Similarly, the new ‘code of conduct’ says women should not travel without a male companion and they should not mingle with men in places like schools, markets or offices.
Wife-beating is only prohibited if there is no ‘Shariah-compliant reason’, it said.
AND THEN THERE’S THIS. SOME OF THE FALLEN.
There’s more HERE. ALL 400 OF THEM.
Posted by peiper
on 03/07/2012 at 01:16 PM
Filed Under: • Military • muslims • UK • War-Stories •
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Permalink • Wednesday - February 29, 2012
Iron Bound Contract Rusted Through Already?
What, did you think the boys in blue were actually going to buy planes with a spinner in front? And keep them??? Oh hella no. And at ONLY $17.75 million a pop, for a pimped out Cessna.
Citing concerns with the procurement process, the U.S. Air Force has canceled Sierra Nevada Corp.’s (SNC) $355 million contract to supply 20 Embraer AT-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft for operation by the Afghan air force.
The decision to set aside the contract is a victory for Hawker Beechcraft (HBC), which took the Air Force to court after its offer of the AT-6 aircraft was disqualified, leaving SNC as the only bidder for the Light Air Support (LAS) program.
“While we pursue perfection, we sometimes fall short, and when we do we will take corrective action,” says Air Force Secretary Michael Donley in a statement. Citing the ongoing litigation, he adds, “I can only say Air Force Senior Acquisition Executive David Van Buren is not satisfied with the quality of the documentation supporting the award decision.”
The contract was only awarded on December 31, after rival Hawker Beechcraft was eliminated from the competition because their airplane was still on the damn drawing board and the sky jockeys needed the COIN planes right away.
Well, the Air Force just scrapped the $355 million contract it gave Embraer and Sierra Nevada Corporation for 20 Super Tucano light attack turboprops on Dec. 31.
Remember, the Brazilian Super T beat out Hawker Beechcraft’s AT-6 Texan in the light attack contest aimed at providing a counterinsurgency aircraft for the tiny Afghan air force.
Apparently, someone got something pretty wrong in the “documentation” for the deal. So wrong that the Air Force has contacted the Department of Justice about the matter. Uh oh.
So, go figure. And make up your own mind as to the real reason this project got canned ...
A) Now that Obama has lost the war in Afghanistan with an apology, and our troops are totally in the shitter from the local lunatics uprising over their stupid book (which I have heard were burned “by accident” by some Afghani soldiers or contractors who volunteered for the task, and then put the word out. Gee, thanks. Such allies. They turned on us in the very beginning of that war, when our troops were half a mile away from bin Laden, and they turned on us again with the burning, and then after it when they assassinated those two high ranking officers right inside the command post. Guess we just don’t learn, ever.), it doesn’t look like we’ll be giving Karzai his own little air force after all. Because that’s the real truth: these planes never were for our guys. We were going to drop nearly half a billion giving them away to a group of cavemen who haven’t even figured out how to shoe horses yet. Or camels. Whatever. And then load the planes down with tons of our own very latest high tech avionics and insurgent detection gear, and then cross our fingers and our toes and click our ruby slippers and hope the planes didn’t accidentally get stolen or have “emergency landings” across the border into Pakistan where the frickin’ Red Chinese would be all over them like ... white on rice ... just like they did to that stealth chopper left behind after knocking off bin Laden.
B) Guess the bribe wasn’t big enough. Your choice who was getting that bribe; some fat armchair general about to retire, or the DNC. Oooh, “problems with the paperwork”. Yeah, that probably means the suitcase full of bills wasn’t heavy enough.
C) Guess the bribe WAS big enough, and Hawker Beechcraft has bought themselves some more politicians who are twisting arms. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before; look up Boeing and the mess over that aerial tanker replacement plan.
You may choose any combination of the above. Any or all of them are probably true.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/29/2012 at 08:18 PM
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed • Military • War On Terror •
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Permalink • Sunday - February 12, 2012
Not Our Proudest Moment
A long rumored war story in Australia turns out to be true: during WWII a company of black engineers mutinied against their white officers. With machine guns. Things were hushed up then, but now the truth is sneaking out.
Is there any way to report this that isn’t going to cause a ruckus?
decent news media coverage here .
excellent blog coverage here
LBJ’s report: , I think this is what he wrote in 1942 after his 3 day visit there when he was a Congressman!
transcript of a recent radio interview.
Sweep it under the rug? Why isn’t the Times running this?
Video of the news report/interview at YouTube, which gives much more background than what the news articles and blogs are saying.
1942 was such a different world that we can hardly conceive of it. About the only thing unchanged is that Australia’s outback is a big chunk of Hell on earth. This incident didn’t take place quite in the outback though. Kelso is just south of Townsville Queensland, which is on the edge of the Coral Sea, along the Ross River.
7 airbases were built; Townsville was the major hub for aircraft in that corner of the war’s theater.
A touchy story indeed, that needs more documentation to be publicized.
More background, worth reading:
http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/riotupperross.htm
http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/96theng.htm
http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/altercations.htm
Posted by Drew458
on 02/12/2012 at 11:14 AM
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Permalink • Saturday - February 11, 2012
The End Of The Line
large section of original Western Front trench brought to light
Carspach France, in the Alsace-Lorraine region:
The ‘Pompeii’ of the Western Front: Archaeologists find the bodies of 21 tragic World War One German soldiers in perfectly preserved trenches where they were buried alive by an Allied shell
Engineers find trench network 18ft beneath the surface near town of Carspach while excavating for a new road
The men were part of a larger group of 34 who were buried alive when a huge Allied shell exploded above the tunnel in 1918, causing it to cave in.
Thirteen bodies were recovered from the underground shelter, but the remaining men had to be left under a mountain of mud as it was too dangerous to retrieve them. Nearly a century later, French archaeologists stumbled upon the mass grave on the former Western Front in eastern France during excavation work for a road building project. Many of the skeletal remains were found in the same positions the men had been in at the time of the collapse, prompting experts to liken the scene to Pompeii. A number of the soldiers were discovered sitting upright on a bench, one was lying in his bed and another was in the foetal position having been thrown down a flight of stairs.
As well as the bodies, poignant personal effects such as boots, helmets, weapons, wine bottles, spectacles, wallets, pipes, cigarette cases and pocket books were also found. Even the skeleton of a goat was found, assumed to be a source of fresh milk for the soldiers.
Archaeologists believe the items have been so well-preserved because hardly any air, water or lights had penetrated the trench. The 300ft-long tunnel was located 18ft beneath the surface near the small town of Carspach in the Alsace region of France.
Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t recall anything about WWI in the Alsace-Lorraine region. Almost nothing happened there. Although this is the area where the fighting started, several days before the war actually began, that horrible conflict quickly moved north and stayed there for the entire war. Very little is known about the southern end of the Western Front; Carspach is so far south that it’s off the bottom of most maps of the conflict. The town is about 10 miles south of the French highway A36 which runs between Belfort and Mulhouse, which are generally considered the southern outposts on either side of the Line, even though France held a small city located between them, called Dennemarie, as a military headquarters for most of the war. Carspach is south of there too, and only about 8 miles north of the border town of Pfetterhouse along the Swiss border. From what I can gather, the trenches down there were separated by the Largue River, and both France and Germany kept the sector quiet so that no shells would inadvertently fall into neutral Switzerland. So from August of 1914 until the last great offense and counter-offense in the Spring of 1918, this was the part of the Western Front that truly was All Quiet.
The dead soldiers were part of the 6th Company, 94th Reserve Infantry Regiment.
Their names are all known - they include Musketeer Martin Heidrich, 20, Private Harry Bierkamp, 22, and Lieutenant August Hutten, 37, whose names are inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth.
The bodies have been handed over to the German War Graves Commission but unless relatives can be found and they request the remains to be repatriated, it is planned that the men will be buried at Illfurth.
The underground tunnel was big enough to shelter 500 men and had 16 exits. It would have been equipped with heating, telephone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water.
The French attacked the shelter on March 18, 1918 with aerial mines that penetrated the ground and blasted in the side wall of the shelter in two points.
It is estimated that over 165,000 Commonwealth soldiers are still unaccounted for on the Western Front.
the real end of the line: French Poilu guard the border crossing at Pfeffenhaus with their Swiss counterparts, 1914
this is an actual color photograph; Lumière invented the autochrome process in 1907
Individual war casualties are still frequently found during construction work on the former Western front battlefields of France and Belgium, but the discovery of so many soldiers in one location is rare.
The tomb, poignant and grisly, sheds light on the lives of the soldiers who died in explosions from heavy shells that penetrated the tunnel.
...
The tunnel, six meters underground and 1.80 meters high, was built with German thoroughness, equipped with heating, telephone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water. It had 16 exits and was big enough to hold up to 500 men in an emergency. The archaeologists have uncovered the sides, floors and stairways, all made from heavy timber. The intended permanence of the structure shows how static the fighting was for most of the war, in which both sides built vast trench systems that stretched 440 miles from the Swiss border to the North Sea.Boots, helmets and weapons, a wine bottle and a mustard jar have been found along with personal items including dog tags, wallets, pipes, cigarette cases, spectacles and pocket books. A rosary was also found, with a French bullet threaded in among the prayer beads, evidently fashioned as a souvenir.
In Britain, the discovery of such a mass grave would be front-page news. Journalists would track down the descendants of the dead soldiers and tell the stories of the Tommies who made the ultimate sacrifice in the horrific conflict that shaped the 20th century.
That was what happened in 2009, when mass graves containing 250 Australian and British soldiers were unearthed near the village of Fromelles, close to the city of Lille. A program was launched to identify the remains through DNA matching, and 110 have been identified by name after over 2,000 relatives responded to calls for DNA samples.
In Germany, it’s a very different story. The find has only made the inside pages of a handful of newspapers. In the nation’s memory, the war is eclipsed by World War II, the Holocaust and the collective guilt that weighs on Germany to this day. Both conflicts have imbued Germany with a deep streak of pacifism.
“Britain, France and Belgium still refer to it as the Great War, but our memory of it is totally buried by World War II with the Holocaust, the expulsion from the east, the Allied bombardment,” Fritz Kirchmeier, spokesman for the German War Graves Commission, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “World War I plays only a minor role in the German national memory.”
The Commission is holding out little hope that it will be able to track down the families of the dead.
“The French attacked the shelter with aerial mines with delayed-action fuses that penetrated the ground and blasted in the side wall of the shelter in two points,” said Ehret.
The French bombardment lasted six hours and the special mines, fired up almost vertical in a high arc, proved too much for the supposedly bomb-proof Killian dugout. The French attack followed a three-hour German artillery barrage with shells containing mustard gas.
Loads more pictures, only one that shows any bones at these links:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099187/Bodies-21-German-soldiers-buried-alive-WW1-trench-perfectly-preserved-94-years-later.html
http://www.thejournal.ie/preserved-remains-of-21-german-wwi-soldiers-found-in-france-352590-Feb2012/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/discovered-by-chance-94-years-on-681078
http://battlefieldseurope.co.uk/swissfrontier.aspx
http://landships.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=12239539
http://landships.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=63528&p=3&topicID=11841622
http://www.battlefield-tours.com/Western_Front_stagnation.jpg
A bit of trivia: The Alsace-Lorraine Sundgau region has belonged to both France and Germany several times, although it was an on again-off again Austrian principality until 1648. Then the Swedes killed everyone and France took it. The Germans took it as a war prize when they beat France in 1871. Half the towns have French names, half have German names, both keep alternate spellings around just in case, and the locals are probably bi-lingual and just want to be left alone. When WWI erupted, the French immediately took the region back, and held onto most of it for the entire war. Thus, while everyone thinks of WWI as the Germans occupying a good chunk of France, the France were holding a little piece of Germany the whole time. It was a big propaganda victory for France, as this is where Riesling wine comes from. New vineyards for free? Tres oui!! The Nazis took it all back in about 45 minutes a generation later, and gave the locals a pretty rough time. After WWII France took it all back and then some; now the border is along the Rhine River 25 miles or so to the east. And these days Hugel wine (yum!) is made in France, even though their buildings haven’t moved since 1639.
France on the left, Germany on the right, Switzerland on the bottom:
the approximate location of the very southern end of the Western Front in blue
Belfort is in the top left corner, DanneMarie along the top, Mulhouse up above the upper right corner
Pfettenhouse is the circled area in the middle; the Swiss border is in green.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/11/2012 at 03:38 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - February 07, 2012
A POLITICALLY CORRECT MILITARY ?
This article shows you what a politically correct culture will lead to.
Living here as I do, and with an army training base hidden behind many trees and high hedges and a chain link fence just at the end of our road, and often seeing young fellows (and some not so young) running up a steep hill in the summer in full uniform, sometimes with packs on their backs, and having read Brit history and still do, and having military news in our papers all the time, it might be fair to say that I am quite pro military and always have been impressed with their history.
What I see happening here as you will read below, is I am sure taking place in the USA as well. Damn shame that.
And no Thatcher or Churchill to save the day. No Truman to authorize the use of the bomb. No Teddy wielding a large stick or a Reagan to unite most of us.
Tell the truth.
Do any of you see things getting any better in your lifetime?
Hero Para faces £250,000 court martial for punching Taliban PoW as he fledLegal experts believe there is no chance of conviction
Friends of unidentified soldier slam case as ‘absurd’
‘Waste of time’ says Tory MP Patrick MercerBy IAN DRURY
A paratrooper with an unblemished service record is being hauled through the military courts for punching a Taliban member who was trying to escape.
Astonishingly, the case is going ahead even though the Afghan captive has refused to make a formal complaint, and there are no other witnesses to the incident.
The case is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £250,000 already and threatens to plunge the Forces into a new row over political correctness.
The soldier, known for legal reasons as Corporal C, hit the insurgent once in the face believing he was trying to flee during a firefight in the badlands of Helmand Province.
British military prosecutors admit that the captive, Ahmed Wali, has provided evidence that is ‘unreliable’.
But the Service Prosecuting Authority refuses to drop the case and has charged Cpl C – described as a man of ‘impeccable character’ – with assault. He is due to appear at a court martial later this month.
But his legal team has made an application to the High Court for judicial review of the decision to prosecute him in an attempt to have the case thrown out.
Last year three judges, who were asked to review the evidence at the Court Martial Appeal Court in London, expressed concern about the case and branded it ‘unfortunate’ saying it was a ‘large hammer [to deal] with a relatively minor matter’.
Legal experts believe there is no realistic chance of Cpl C, 31, from Glasgow being convicted because of holes in the SPA’s case.
The soldier risked his life serving with distinction in Iraq and Afghanistan with the elite Parachute Regiment.
His name is being kept secret because he served alongside special forces.
Cpl C, who quit the forces in disgust at his treatment, was a qualified tactical questioner with the Paras when the incident happened in March 2010.
He was commanding a joint British and Afghan patrol which set up a vehicle checkpoint in Nahr-e Saraj, a Taliban stronghold strewn with deadly roadside bombs.
The patrol stopped a motorbike carrying two Afghan men who were acting suspiciously.
As an Afghan National Army soldier approached the men, the rider pulled out a pistol and pointed it at him. The gun-wielding insurgent was shot dead, while his pillion passenger, Wali, was taken to a nearby compound.
Cpl C began to interrogate Wali – who denied he was a Taliban member – despite the ‘real threat by small arms and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to the patrol’.
MORE OF THE STORY AND SOME GOOD PHOTOS HERE
Posted by peiper
on 02/07/2012 at 07:43 AM
Filed Under: • Military • Politically Correct B.S. • Terrorists • UK •
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Permalink • Sunday - January 29, 2012
America, You Suck
Not even found on a network news page, but hidden down a side column on Drudge ...
St. Louis parade on Iraq War’s end draws thousands
ST. LOUIS (AP)—Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.
The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation’s first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.
“It’s not necessarily overdue, it’s just the right thing,” said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.
Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including “Welcome Home” and “Thanks to our Service Men and Women.” Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.
Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands - even the Budweiser Clydesdales - joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.
That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.
And this was the coverage photograph. FULL SIZE:
Even the headline was lame.
“One Hundred Thousand Cheer First Iraq Veteran’s Parade”
would have been a lot better.
Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.
“This is something everyplace should do,” Lange said as he watched the parade.
Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he’d lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.
“I hope this snowballs,” he said of the parade. “I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this.”
Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.
“It’s extremely humbling, it’s amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor,” he said.
Let’s just hope this is merely the first of many to come. But honestly? Don’t expect a ticker tape march down Broadway, or in any of the big cities. When these parades happen, they’ll be small town, small city events. The rabid leftists in the major metropolises were at best bored by the whole war, more probably quietly against it, with some extreme elements violently against it ...
... meanwhile, douchenozzle mayor Bloomberg takes a tip from his master Obama and blames someone else for opting out:
Mayor Bloomberg: No NYC parade for Iraq War vets
NEW YORK (AP)—New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says there will be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.
...
Bloomberg says Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey and other Army officials “made it clear” to the city “they do not think a parade is appropriate now.”
A Pentagon spokesman in December said the nation’s largest city had yet to make a formal proposal for a parade. He said officials were grateful communities were finding ways to recognize the sacrifices of troops and their families.
Lying out his tyrannical little ass as usual.
Posted by Drew458
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Permalink • Wednesday - January 25, 2012
Must Be An Election Year
U.S. military forces helicoptered into Somalia in a nighttime raid Wednesday and freed two hostages, an American and a Dane, while killing nine pirates., U.S. officials confirm.
The Danish Refugee Council also confirmed the two aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagan Thisted, were freed “during an operation in Somalia.”
Buchanan, 32, and Thisted, 60, had been working with a de-mining unit of the Danish Refugee Council when they were kidnapped in October.
President Obama confirmed the operation and rescue early Wednesday in a statement. He said the operation serves as yet another message to the world that the U.S. “will stand strongly against any threats to our people.”
The two aid workers appear to have been kidnapped by criminals, sometimes referred to as pirates, and not by Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked militant group al-Shabab. As large ships at sea have increased their defenses against pirate attacks, gangs have looked for other money making opportunities like land-based kidnappings.A pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein said he had spoken to pirates at the scene of the raid and they reported that nine pirates had been killed. A second pirate who gave his name as Ahmed Hashi said two helicopters attacked at about 2 a.m. at the site where the hostages were being held about 12 miles north of the Somali town of Adado.
Both Buchanan and Thisted were in Somalia as part of an international effort to remove land mines from former conflict zones; they were there risking their own lives for the benefit of the local population, and the pirates/gansters kidnapped them anyway. Low hanging fruit I guess.
Please, let’s make sure that Joe Biden doesn’t find out the names and units of the soldiers involved this time, and nobody let them all get on a helicopter together with an unidentified local. That kind of sell-out is just a little too blatant to have to swallow twice.
UPDATE: More details and pictures at the UK Daily Mail (warning: contains one explicit photo of Mooch. But to be fair and balanced, not only does she look slim in it, she looks pretty darn good. And less than angry. Amazing.) All the pictures are stock other than the 2 of the captives, but this article says that 5 pirates were also captured.
from CNN:
The special forces troops took fire as they fought their way into a compound where the hostages were held, the official said, adding the troops believed that the kidnappers were shooting. The official is not authorized to speak to the media and asked not to be named.
Nine heavily armed gunmen were killed in the strike, Little said, adding that they had explosives nearby. There were no known survivors among the kidnappers, he added.
The American assault team did not suffer any injuries, the Pentagon said.
...
The U.S. raid comes nearly three years after Navy snipers killed three pirates who had taken hostage the captain of the Maersk Alabama off Somalia.U.S. forces did not coordinate the raid with local officials, but residents welcomed the outcome as a warning to other groups to cease the kidnapping of foreigners, said Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, president of Puntland, a semiautonomous region of Somalia.
Thisted, the rescued Dane, is a senior aid worker who had been in Somalia for some time, said Olsen of the Danish Refugee Council.
Dahl said Olsen told reporters she had tried to work with local people to get the hostages released but had not succeeded.
...
Local authorities gave conflicting casualty figures after the raid. Some officials said seven gunmen were killed, but Mohamed Ahmed Aalin, president of Galmudug state, said nine were killed and five others detained by U.S. forces.
Posted by Drew458
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