Archive for December, 2005
Murdoc’s still trying to dig out, so here are a few tidbits to keep you going:
- Hummer Limos Enter War Games
- TSUNAMI ANNIVERSARY: THE MISSING
- Bloggers Now Weapons in Information War
- Monday’s Winds of War: 26 Dec 2005
- Iraq Report 26 December/05
- Weak Link in Robotic Vehicle Development
- Stryker Brigade soldier awarded Bronze Star
- Poland set to keep troops in Iraq through 2006
- JFK spared by defense bills
I guess I missed the whole “Little Red Book” story, especially the revelation that it was a total crock from day one.
Two questions:
- Why is it that virtually all of the total crock stories are anti-Bush/War? Shouldn’t these honest mistakes fall more or less evenly across the board? Does the media more-readily swallow the stories that support their position? Or are there more liars on the Left?
- I forgot the second question
I obviously didn’t get anything up later yesterday. Apologies.
I’m back at work today, though, and hopefully I’ll be able to get a few things up at lunch.
I pretty much have no idea if anything has happened since Friday morning…
I’ve been pretty under the weather all weekend. I’m feeling a bit better today, and will probably post on a few things later.
I’ve barely looked at the internet since Friday morning. I feel like I’ve fallen through a wormhole into a different universe or something.
I’m visiting relatives who have dial-up, so blogging has been light and will continue to be light until Monday.
Which is fine, because IT’S CHRISTMAS!
So head over to Thank a Soldier Week and leave some holiday wishes with your thank-you note, then check out the Officers’ Club post on the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa on Christmas Eve, then get back to your friends and family. But man, take it easy on that eggnog.
Finally, I know that a number of MO readers are deployed overseas and away from their families this holiday season. To you, especially, I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you for what you do for me and my family. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Words cannot express our feelings. You make America great.
Navy Seaman Missing from Pearl Harbor Attack is Identified and Navy Seaman MIA from World War II is Identified
Seaman 2nd Class Warren P. Hickok of Kalamazoo, Mich and Seaman 2nd Class Dee Hall, of Syra, Okla. The former served on the Light Mine Layer USS Sicard on Dec. 7th, 1941, and the latter was a crewman on a PBY-5 Catalina that crashed on Kiska island in 1942.
DARPA Team Achieve First Flight Test Of Liquid Hydrocarbon Fueled Scramjet
Mach 5.5 on plain ol’ JP-10.
Omar Bradley pistol finds its home
A commemorative pistol finally reaches its rightful owner.
Santa Claus Joins the Intifada
File this under “WTF?!?!”…on IFilm
U.S. AIR FORCE TO INCREASE BANDWIDTH ON GUAM
More expansion on Guam.
Power Line Broadband Comes to Texas
Murdoc is intrigued by this concept.
Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad
Via Buckethead.
130 academy airmen going to Iraq next month
Medical personnel, police, and support staff from the US Air Force Academy headed to the Sand Box.
Partying like it’s 1955
“Yes, ma’am, a lot of action.”
Ship has drained off an ocean of money
More on the troubled LDP-17 USS San Antonio
Rumsfeld Announces Reduction in Iraq Troop Level
Looks like, due in no small part to the successful elections and the continuing improvement of the Iraq army, the plans for reducing troop levels by two combat brigades are going to be enacted. Look for folks to credit Rep. Murtha.
Here’s an F9F Cougar, a swept-wing development of the F9F Panther (most recently Cat Blogged here) which served from 1952 until 1959.
Pic from Hyper Scale modelling page. The creator has background and additional images from his effort. You can buy a print of this and much more from his web page.
Iraqi Security Forces Gaining in Quality, General Says
DefenseLINK:
To imbue the Iraqi army with professionalism its officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers are required to attend a number of military schools located across the country, Lynch said. These, he said, include enlisted basic and officer candidate training facilities, officer and NCO leadership schools, and an ethics and leadership institute for senior Iraqi military leaders.
In One Cheer for the MSM: The media may be biased, but even they support the troops, Peggy Noonan makes the case that, despite obvious Liberal bias in many cases, not only is Mainstream Media not biased against the soldiers or the military, they actively support them.
And it’s not just the media types that have warm fuzzies for our men and women in uniform, Peggy says.
One of the great and historic things about this war is that whatever you think of it, justified or not, the right decision or not, no one–no one–has decided it is right to emotionally abandon the fighters in the field. This, as we know, is different from what happened in Vietnam, when a generation of those who served were given in response the distanced disrespect of a certain portion of our country. Everyone feels bad about that, and should. But amazingly enough we seem to have learned from it. Almost everyone knows–and the very small number who don’t know at least know enough to go off and be quiet–that the men and women on the field are fighting for us, serving us, that they are putting themselves in harm’s way with courage, that they deserve to be patronized by no one, that they deserve honor from all.
Someone check Peggy’s television. Is she watching the news or an old 1950s war movie re-run on TBS?
There’s no doubt that the widespread public scorn for our servicemen and -women has not approached the levels seen during Vietnam and its aftermath. But that isn’t for a lack of trying.
I don’t think it’s the media and anti-war types that “seem to have learned from” Vietnam. I think it’s John Q. Public that learned. Learned that they had been duped and learned that so much of the unpatriotic rhetoric is nothing but empty lies. Americans have learned enough to recognize that Iraq, no matter how much it is suggested otherwise, is no Vietnam. Americans have learned that, just like you cannot always trust the President, you cannot always trust the President’s critics.
The public mood toward our soldiers is far, far different than that of Vietnam. But the coverage by the media and the actions of the critics are not quite so far removed. It’s just that very few are buying it.
Defense Tech notes that the Active Denial System (ADS) might be headed to Iraq. Noah’s got a ton of links and some great background, but he doesn’t have Murdoc Online’s almost-unclassified image from the testing earlier this year.
Read the rest of this entry »
