This one’s for the home crowd
The Japan Times on “Otokotachi no Yamato“. I’d be interested in seeing this if it makes it across the water.

Farris Hassan’s not-so-excellent adventure
U.S. teen goes to Iraq to see ’struggle between good and evil’

Navy Normandy Monument Project Underway
Walking the beaches of Normandy today and observing the many plaques and monuments there will give little clue that the U.S. Navy ever was there.

Katrina-damaged Battleship Park set to reopen Jan. 9
The USS Alabama and Battleship Memorial Park will finally reopen after being damaged by Katrina.

‘Army Water’ Makes Debut in Balad, Baghdad
3rd Corps Support Command opens water purifying and bottling plant. Should help cut down on the need to truck so much water in from Kuwait and elsewhere.

First Galileo Satellite On Orbit To Demonstrate Key Technologies
European GPS gets started. And Space Daily finally ditches those zzz5 and zzzzzzz3 URLs.

An Explosion On The Moon
12cm wide and 27km/s. Boom.

Delicately, radar and battleship reunite
Air search radar removed to fit the USS New Jersey under a bridge is being reinstalled on the museum. Small pic accompanies this small story.

Poland set to keep troops in Iraq through 2006
Decision to stay longer than planned comes amid domestic opposition

Received this from someone deployed in Afghanistan. Notice the date.

If you’ve been especially naughty, don’t be surprised to find a delivery from this little elf comin’ down your chimney.

Is it me, or has MO taken on a decidedly-naval flavor over the past month or so? Anyway, here’s the text of the battleship-related part of the latest Defense monstrosity appropriations bill. It specifically repeals the gunfire support requirements of the 1996 bill that I mentioned on Wednesday. It’s currently here but the link is perishable. It’s S.1042 Sec. 1021.

S.1042
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by Senate)

SEC. 1021. TRANSFER OF BATTLESHIPS.

(a) TRANSFER OF BATTLESHIP WISCONSIN- The Secretary of the Navy is authorized–

(1) to strike the Battleship U.S.S. WISCONSIN (BB-64) from the Naval Vessel Register; and

(2) subject to section 7306 of title 10, United States Code, to transfer the vessel by gift or otherwise provided that the Secretary requires, as a condition of transfer, that the transferee locate the vessel in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Here’s a Cat with its pants down:

Taken a the 2000 Oceana Airshow and posted on a great site called Tomcat Sunset. The Tomcat Sunset Committee “is a nonprofit entity established to plan and execute the Official Farewell Ceremony for the F-14 Tomcat in September of 2006.” Check ‘em out at tomcat-sunset.org. It appears that they’re just setting up shop, but the galleries are already loaded with great stuff. (hat tip to regular reader James for the heads up on Tomcat Sunset)

Carnival of Tomorrow #16

The Ministry of Minor Perfidy is hosting it this week. Looks to be a lot of great stuff, so check it out if you haven’t already.

‘Is That All You Got?’

Neil Boortz writes that Saddam Hussein is not impressed with American attempts to torture him:

Having witnessed what he called “the Americans’ half-baked, slipshod attempts at torture,” the deposed Iraqi president said he feared for the future of state-sponsored cruelty in post-Saddam Iraq.

“Toppling my government, that was the easy part,” Saddam told the court. “But as for maintaining the high standards of torture that the Iraqi people grew accustomed to under my regime? Clearly, there was no plan or strategy for doing that.”

And the gem:

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was dismissive of the former dictator’s critique of the United States’ torture techniques, calling Saddam’s outburst “a cheap shot.”

“We don’t do torture,” Rumsfeld said. “Having said that, when we do torture, we do it in a way that is second to none.”

Gulfport, Mississippi is Not a Footnote

Officers’ club points out a post on Blackfive titled Mississippi: The Invisible Coast:

Thank you Matt for giving me the opportunity to post about my state.

My name is Karen and I live in Gulfport Mississippi. On August 29, Hurricane Katrina slammed into my city as well as Biloxi, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Bay St Louis, Waveland, and other coastal cities. The destruction is indescribable and brutal. Preliminary estimates show that over 65,000 homes in Mississippi were destroyed and a further 38,000 will more than likely need to be demolished. From my circle of friends and acquaintances, 30 have had their homes destroyed outright . A further 10 had so much water damage their homes are unlivable.

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Sub’s Unmanned Buddy

Defense Tech notes the Cormorant, a proposed 19-foot sub-launched UAV. If you missed MO’s post on submarine aircraft carriers a couple of weeks back, check it out.

I promised a follow-up post with more submarine aircraft carrier goodies, and it’s still in the pipeline. Maybe this weekend.

Soldiers secure the area around an Abrams tank which caught fire after a roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy in the center of Baghdad, on Sunday, according to Iraqi police.

Pic from Frontline Photos.

C-17, tanker collide off O’ahu

Via Army Times:

A C-17 cargo aircraft piloted by Hickam Air Force Base commander Col. William J. Changose collided with a Hawai’i Air National Guard tanker aircraft about 200 miles off O’ahu during refueling training Thursday, officials said.

The collision sent the Air Guard KC-135R into a dive, causing some tense moments for its crew in the zero-gravity drop, but both planes landed safely.

No official word on whether there was body-to-body contact, or if it was just boom contact. There were over 100 people aboard the C-17, which was conducting training in anticipation of the arrival of eight C-17s in Hawaii next February.