Archive for May, 2006

A reader tips Murdoc off to this fantastic gallery of photos from the carrier that was sunk a week and a half ago:

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Spent the last couple of hours working on comment problems due to a friendly spammer. Thanks to the overload, MO was completely offline for a while, and individual post pages were down for even longer. Everything now seems to be working, but I’ve had to disable comments temporarily. Sorry.

UPDATE: Okay. Comments are re-enabled and seem to be working. My apologies for the interruption in service.

I’m also going to be trying something different to reduce the load on my server with regard to comments. Readers should see no difference, but my primary host, Verve Hosting, would probably appreciate it if comment flooding at MO didn’t cause all sorts of unpleasantness for them. If you notice anything odd please let me know.

Pretty busy today. So I’ll take this opportunity to quickly point out a few space-related things. I don’t blog on space issues nearly enough, I know, but there’s only so much Murdoc to go around.

• Buckethead has a mini-round-up at The Ministry of Minor Perfidy. I didn’t realize that Voyager 2 was about to exit the solar system.
• Rocket Jones: “You can never have too much shock cord”
• Chair Force Engineer notes that Phillip Kaufman (director of ‘The Right Stuff’), plans to make a movie about the Challenger disaster
• European Galileo Satellite Program In Early Budget Over Run
• Naming the first X-Racer

Got more space stuff? Put a link in the comments.

Sea Stallions implement new ramp-mounted weapon system

Marines.mil:

Cruising over the desert just above 400 feet, a Marine crew chief kneels behind the Gun Ammunition Unit 21 mounted on the ramp of the CH-53D Sea Stallion. The pilots and crew chiefs in the front of the aircraft relay the current target’s location that will be coming into his field of fire within seconds.

GAU-21 Ramp Gun

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The latest and greatest is up at Winds of Change:
Military Transformation Uplink: May 2006

Some of This Month’s Targets of Opportunity Include: F-22A Raptor; F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; No retirement for U-2; Huge blimps & ISIS; Portable weather balloon for communications; Mini-UAVs at the commando olympics; YOU can train on the US Army’s latest weapon; Hybrid lack-of-vigor; 2nd place means no Trophy; Non-lethal anti-vehicle weapons; Troops that don’t like the extra armor, Troops that love the extra armor; A preliminary scorecard for the First Information War; Britain’s new carriers; Australia’s new amphibious ships; Westpac keeps on expressin’; Seabasing?; RFID; Energy – A Conversation About Our National Addiction; Containerized hospitals; New US Air Force unis; MREs that don’t suck quite so much; Getting lean; VDH on transformation & war; More procurement power to US combat commanders? And more…!

• Air & Space Sector
  
• C4SI Dimension
  
• Land Sector
  
• Maritime Sector
  
• Strategic Weapons & Missile Defense
  
• Supply & Support
  
• Transformation: Policy & Doctrine

Murdoc’s zeroing in on a few things mentioned in the Uplink, and you should be too. The material and links can be springboards for blogging, water cooler discussion, and political infighting. Get in on the fun!

More to come. (And be sure to tell your friends. Everbody’s doing it…)

A very very long-overdue update to MO’s blogroll is coming soon. I don’t do a very good job keeping up with new and new-to-me sites, and quite often I neglect to link sites that I enjoy very much.

I’ve got a lot of sites in mind to add, but it you’ve got some favorites that you’d like to see listed on MO or that you think ol’ Murdoc would like, please shoot me an email or leave them in the comments. Do not be shy about sending me your own site. If it’s appropriate and of value to MO readers, I’ll add it to my links page.

WARRANTS: Not good enough for us, too good for you.

Who keeps putting these loons in office? We might not get the government we deserve, but we sure get the government we ask for.

(via Instapundit)

UPDATE: Free Frank Warner:

Just when a Democratic scandal gave the Republicans a wide open shot, Hastert kicks the ball the other way, past his own Republican goalie. SCOOOOORRE!

Jerks.

Nope. Muslim extreme fundamentalists aren’t “bad guys”. They’ve just got a different way of looking at things. A way that says torching schools to prevent education is “good”.

I’ve pointed out before the campaign in Afghanistan by rebels/insurgents/terrorists to keep kids from getting an education.

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — The commander of Combined Joint Task Force — 76 condemned today a terrorist attack on a children’s school in Laghman Province yesterday.

Early Tuesday morning, eight people set fire to Katal School in Mehtar Lam destroying the principal’s office and a storage room filled with supplies, notebooks and Korans.

“This is another example of the Taliban’s vision for the future of Afghan children,” said Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commander of CJTF-76. “Extremists want to deny children and education in the name of religion, and they demonstrate their point by desecrating their most sacred books.”

According to a witness, four of the eight criminals carried cans of gasoline into the school, while others toted rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers.

Investigators think an RPG was used to spark the blaze. There were no reported injuries to local citizens.

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Cpl. Julius Mitchell, left, and Cpl. Jeremy Rugg, center, lay down covering fire while Cpl. Adam Gokey spots insurgent positions on his right and fires a grenade, seen traveling through the air, while on patrol in the city of Ramadi. The mission was part of the continuing support by 2nd Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO) to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team/28th Infantry Division (2/28th BCT). 2/28th BCT is deployed with 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (IMEF) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Al Anbar province to develop the Iraqi security forces, facilitate the development of official rule of law through democratic government reforms, and continue the development of a market based economy centered on Iraqi reconstruction. U.S Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Samuel C. Peterson (RELEASED)

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The May 22nd issue of The Eagle & Crescent runs this story about one of the less-glamorous things we’re doing in Iraq to help the Iraqi military stand up:

CAMP HABBINIYAH, Iraq -While most service members do their best to avoid roadside bombs or walk in the opposite direction of a known landmine field, a small community of American troops seek such threats head on, and they’re now training their Iraqi counterparts to do the same.

American explosive ordnance disposal technicians are overseeing the development of an EOD company in the Iraqi Army’s 1st Division, which is based out of Camp Habbiniyah.

Big news? No. Worthy of a headline? Not really. But still worth pointing out. It’s one of the many non-combat duties that the Iraqis need to take over before their military units can achieve the ‘Level 1′ ratings that indicate that they can operate on their own completely independent of any outside support.

Boom:

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