American Forces Press Service:

The U.S. military is sending about 100 troops to Indonesia to contribute to international humanitarian relief efforts in the wake of a devastating 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck May 27 near the ancient city of Yogyakarta.

The deployment is part of a larger U.S. government response to a request from the government of Indonesia for humanitarian assistance, according to U.S. Pacific Command officials. The troops will come from the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan; U.S. Pacific Air Forces units in Guam; and the hospital ship USNS Mercy, which is operating in the Philippines as part of a five-month medical deployment to Southeast Asia and Western Pacific countries, officials said.

The U.S. troops will bring surgical, shock trauma, laboratory, dental, X-ray, and preventive medicine expertise to the earthquake-ravaged area.

Stupid Americans. People are suffering from a natural disaster and the first the imperialists do is send in the military. What war-mongers.

For previous military adventures similar to this, see America and Its Stupid Aircraft Carriers and my little video at The US Military and Tsunami Aid.

Oh, and our military is obviously over-stretched. USNS Mercy, contributing some personnel to the operation, is already on station in the Philippines on a humanitarian mission. No wonder everyone hates us so much.

Was out working in the yard yesterday and noticed that the pattern for the airport was bringing them in not too far from our house. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does we are treated to a non-stop line of aircraft coming in. They weren’t as close this time as they sometimes are, but as this one came in I said “that’s a military aircraft”. Beyond four engines, I couldn’t really make out any details with the naked eye, so I quick grabbed the digital camera, hit the 12x zoom, and snapped a couple.

I lived in Colorado Springs for seven years a while back, and I must admit that I miss seeing the military planes coming and going.

The family and some guests from out of town headed over to Detroit to catch the Tigers and Yankees on Memorial Day, and we passed this machine on I-96:

They must have been doing about 60 MPH, and didn’t seem to be part of a convoy of any sort. I didn’t see any other military vehicles at all. Probably headed out to or back from a parade somewhere, I imagine. Murdoc gave them the thumbs up and got it back in return. Looked like everyone was honking or waving as they passed.

Couple more closer pics below.

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Airborne Combat Engineer has the story.

DD(X), battle-wagons, the ‘Argo’, and arsenal ship-ish discussion over at Brickmuppet’s. He seems to be more or less in favor of all four designs…Now that’s what I’m talking about!

He has a comments section. Shore bombard him for a while.

Great Britain and U.S. come to agreement on technology transfer

Although the political relationship could change overnight, there’s no doubt that they’re the strongest of our close allies, and (along with Australia) a core member of the group that seems to be awake to the danger the free people of the world are facing. The technology transfer issue has threatened to end Britain’s participation in the JSF program.

The alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F136, is also possibly coming back from the dead. It’s to be built by Rolls Royce and GE, and the Brits are understandably eager to reap some rewards from the JSF program.

He sends a note to Glenn Reynolds:

I’ve already dug around a little bit about the violence in the city yesterday after a US vehicle killed 1 to 3 Afghans during a traffic accident. The consensus among the folks I spoke to is the protests after the accident were staged by groups waiting for such an event to happen. I made the comparison to the reaction by some Islamist groups in Afghanistan (and elsewhere) after the Muhammad Cartoon riots, where the “spontaneous protests” were anything but. there was agreement on this point.

More at Instapundit. Roggio continues to exemplify the “new media”.

This plaque says that it memorializes “all American veterans”, but because it is at the base of the flag pole outside the funeral home where the memorial service for my wife’s grandmother was recently held, I’m choosing to use it for my Memorial Day 2006 post:

It is those that fell in the service to our nation that we remember on this day, and I once again have trouble putting into words what I think and feel about those who have fought and died for me and my family.

A year ago on Memorial Day I was in Charleston visiting USS Yorktown at Patriot’s Point, and I’ll admit that I was quite moved by a simple sign in one of hundreds of compartments on that great ship.

Whether you’re grilling in the backyard, out enjoying the fine weather, visiting with family and friends, or taking a baseball game (like Murdoc), do not forget the sacrifice made by so many that has helped make the United States of America what it is.

Instapundit points out PowerLine pointing out this purely innocent error [since corrected] at CBS News:

Top law enforcement officials at the Justice Department and the FBI indicated to their counterparts at the White House that they could not, and were unwilling to, return documents to the Louisiana Republican which were seized as part of a bribery investigation.

Not sure if I should care that they called him a Republican when he is, in fact, a Democrat. Probably just an accidental slip. Like all those times they accidentally label Republicans caught in scandals as Democrats.

Iraqi tennis players killed for wearing shorts

AP/MSNBC:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An Iraqi tennis coach and two of his players were killed because they were wearing shorts, apparently in violation of a warning by Islamic extremists.

Gunmen stopped the car in which the athletes were riding and asked them to step out before shooting them Wednesday, Manham Kubba, secretary general of the Iraqi Tennis Union, said Saturday. The coach, Hussein Ahmed Rashid, was Sunni, and the two players were Shiite, Kubba said.

Sectarian violence. No war here, folks. No clash of civilizations. Simple sectarian violence.