CDR Salamander

On Feb. 12, 1935, during severe weather off Point Sur, Calif., a U.S. Navy flying machine called the USS Macon fell from the sky, plunged into the Pacific Ocean, and sank.
...
This month researchers documented the wreckage of the 785-foot dirigible.

Images show the airship's hangar bay, containing four Sparrowhawk biplanes, five of the eight 12-cylinder gasoline engines,

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:05

PARIS A public high school philosophy teacher and writer who attacked the Prophet Muhammad and Islam in a newspaper commentary has gone into hiding under police protection after receiving a series of death threats, including one diffused on a radical Islamist online forum.

Robert Redeker, 52, wrote in the newspaper Le Figaro 10 days ago that Muhammad was "a merciless warlord, a looter, a mass-murderer of Jews and a polygamist." He also called the Koran "a book of incredible violence."

"Jesus is a master of love; Muhammad is a master of hatred," Redeker wrote, adding: "Whereas Judaism and Christianity are religions whose rites forsake violence and remove its legitimacy, Islam is a religion that, in its very sacred text, as much as in some of its everyday rites, exalts violence and hatred. Hatred and violence dwell in the very book that educates any Muslim, the Koran."

"I can't work, I can't come and go, and am obliged to hide," Redeker said in an interview Friday with Europe 1 radio from an undisclosed location. "So in some way, the Islamists have succeeded in punishing me on the territory of the republic as if I were guilty of a crime of opinion."

He said that his wife and their children had also been threatened with death. Asked to describe the sort of threats he had received, Redeker said: "You will never feel secure on this earth. One billion, 300,000 Muslims are ready to kill you." Among the threats was one by a contributor to Al Hesbah, an Internet forum that is said to be a conduit for messages from Al Qaeda and other jihad organizations.

"It is impossible that this day pass without the lions of France punishing him," the Hesbah contributor wrote. The contributor called on Muslims in France to follow the lead of Muhammad Bouyeri, who murdered the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh after he made a film denouncing the plight of abused Muslim women.

"May God send some lion to cut his head," the contributor said of Redeker,

In the newspaper commentary, Redeker also wrote, "Islam tries to dictate its rules to Europe: opening swimming pools at certain hours exclusively for women, forbidding the caricature of this religion, demanding a special diet for Muslim children in school cafeterias, fighting for wearing the veil in school, accusing free-thinkers of Islamophobia."

At first, Redeker did not speak out. In an e-mail message to The New York Times last Tuesday, he said it was not the right time to talk about his plight.

Then, in an interview with his local newspaper, La Dépêche du Midi published Thursday, Redeker described the death threats, adding, "What is happening to me corresponds fully to what I denounce in my writing: The West is under ideological surveillance by Islam."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:43

The head of a Pentagon-funded research organization has resigned after the group's trustees concluded that his simultaneous service on the boards of two defense contractors was contrary to its conflict-of-interest policies.

Asked to resign from the corporate boards, retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair chose instead to leave his positions as president and trustee of the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit company that has long provided the Defense Department with independent technical advice on large weapons systems.

The resignation followed controversy in July over Blair's involvement in the drafting of a report by the institute last year on the F-22 Raptor, a fighter jet that has experienced a series of cost overruns and technical problems. Blair was then on the board of EDO Corp., an F-22 subcontractor, and his dual roles provoked criticism by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Blair's resignation was announced in a memo circulated to the institute's 800 employees Monday by John M. Palms, a former president of the University of South Carolina who is chairman of the IDA's board of trustees. Palms said, without naming the companies, that the trustees knew about Blair's membership on the boards of EDO and Tyco International Ltd. at the time he was hired in 2003.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:34

"It's been a pig," said Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee on federal financial management, who is trying to kill the travel system contract.

After a decade and more than $500 million in costs, the Defense Department's new travel booking system doesn't work, it doesn't save money, and most staff members don't use it, a new study says.

A Government Accountability Office report released yesterday slams the Northrop Grumman-designed Defense Travel System and calls Pentagon estimates of usage and cost savings into serious question. So poor is the Pentagon's analysis of the system's merits, the report says, that defense officials offered a credit card company news release as sole proof for its claim that the system saves millions of dollars each year.
...
The Defense Department has spent more than $500 million on the program since 1998, an overrun of about $200 million, according to figures compiled by Congress from GAO and Defense Department reports.
...
The system was born of a 1995 Pentagon task force recommendation to replace the department's outmoded, chaotic travel procedures with one standardized system for booking official travel, from airlines to hotels. But technical problems have foiled efforts to coax employees to use it.

Asked for proof that its system would save $31 million yearly in personnel costs, the Pentagon provided a copy of an American Express news release that discussed savings achieved through a completely different booking system, in a private company.

In a written response to the report, Undersecretary of Defense David S.C. Chu strongly objected to criticism of the Pentagon's estimates of personnel cost savings. "The Department is facing an enormous challenge and must successfully prosecute today's war while still making investments that safeguard the future," he wrote.

"It's time to close this program down," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who chairs the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's investigations panel, which held a hearing last year on the bill.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:45

"Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?" Aznar told a conference in Washington on "global threats" on Friday. ...

Referring to the Moorish conquest of much of the Iberian Peninsula from the eighth to the 15th century, Aznar said: "It is interesting to note that while a lot of people in the world are asking the Pope to apologise for his speech, I have never heard a Muslim say sorry for having conquered Spain and occupying it for eight centuries."

Aznar, who was the Prime Minister from 1996 to 2004, took Spain into the American-led war in Iraq, against massive public opposition.

Addressing Friday’s conference in Washington on "global threats", Aznar said: "We are living in a time of war ... It’s them or us. The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us."

"We must face up to an Islam that is ambitious, that is radical and that influences the Muslim world, a fundamentalist Islam that we must confront because we don’t have any choice.

"We are constantly under attack and we must defend ourselves," he said.

"I support Ferdinand and Isabella," he proclaimed, in reference to the medieval Catholic monarchs who drove the Moors out of Spain in 1492.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:16

The jihadists regard Europe as an important venue for attacking Western interests. Extremist networks inside the extensive Muslim diasporas in Europe facilitate recruitment and staging for urban attacks, as illustrated by the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London bombings.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:14

The Underground Fortress is an 8th wonder of the world! It is an unbelievable feet of engineering. The Fortress goes a total of 45 feet under the house! That is below sea level! The fortress has over 1600 sq. ft. of living area, plus hundreds of more square feet of passages and secrets rooms. It was all hand dug over a 20 year period, and all the walls were constructed with a small electric hand cement mixer. There are 3 ft concrete walls, using 5-bag cement (20% denser than regular cement). Not only are the walls thick and dense, but the finishing work is amazing quality. These walls keep it a constant 60F degrees year round. It is so well insulated that even one small space heater can heat all 1600+ sqft of fortress space in a few hours. The fortress has amazingly fresh air in it with an incredible air ventilation system that pulls air outside and brings fresh air in, leaving no moldy or musty smell that you commonly smell in basements. Because of the walls and systems, there are very few bugs/spiders down in the fortress and we have never seen any signs of rodents. The fortress also has 4 sump pumps that keep the ground water from being an issue. The sump pumps are on float valves that make them come on automatically when they fill up with water. 3 of the pumps are for ground water and the other one is for sewage of the bathroom/kitchenette area. The fortress is also fully wired with electrical/phone/plumbing/drains. It also has many secret doors, and a 1-ton blast door at the entrance and a 3-ton motorized door to seal you in and close the fortress to the outside world. There are at least 5 ways to get in/out of the fortress back into the house!

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:09

The BAV Division of VSE Corporation (VSE/BAV) announced today that it had completed the reactivation of two ex-Kidd Class guided missile destroyers.

Harry Flammang, the Division Manager of VSE/BAV, said the final of four ex-USS Kidd Class guided missile destroyers [was] reactivated in Charleston, South Carolina for the Taiwan Navy. The departure of these ships for Taiwan draws to a close a successful, high-visibility program that has spanned three years.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:00

The U.S. Coast Guard officially assumed responsibility for air intercept operations ... Coast Guard HH-65C helicopters and crews will be responsible for intercepting unauthorized aircraft which fly into an air defense identification zone surrounding Washington.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:00

"This is the biggest firearms haul we have ever had," he said. "The premises raided were used to store hundreds and hundreds of weapons. I have never seen anything like it."

Mr Davis added: "Guns are mounted on every available wall space in the property and live ammunition was found lying on the floor.

"There are guns everywhere. It will take us at least three days to log it all and bag up the evidence."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:10

The Sri Lankan navy said Monday that it had sunk eight Tamil Tiger rebel ships loaded with troops and weapons during a five-hour sea battle of the country's east coast, killing about 70 separatists.

It was one of the largest clashes in Sri Lanka's conflict since weeks of fighting in August left hundreds dead and threatened to shatter a 2002 cease-fire agreement.

The latest fighting began late Sunday night when the navy spotted 25 rebel ships sailing south.

Commander D. K. P. Dassanayake of the Navy told The Associated Press "more than 70 cadres are dead" and two other ships, believed to have been transporting arms and ammunition, were burning at sea.

The remaining 14 rebel boats retreated after the hostilities just off the coast of the eastern town of Pulmoddai, about 225 kilometers from the capital of Colombo, he said.

One navy vessel was damaged, injuring five sailors, he said. But it had made it back to port.

A spokesman at the Defense Ministry's press office confirmed the attack, but had no additional details. The rebels were not immediately available for comment.

More than 100 rebels were killed in two separate sea battles earlier this month as they reportedly tried to reinforce positions in the east where they lost territory to government forces.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:05

Palestinian shows how a folded twenty dollar bill appears to show the World Trade Center buildings on fire.(AFP/Hazem Bader)

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:02

Biggest Hassle - High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and "battlefield" tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no affect on their preconceived notions of what's going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they've been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about the insurgency here.

Biggest Outrage - Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest offender - Bill O'Reilly - what a buffoon.

Best Chuck Norris Moment - 13 May. Bad Guys arrived at the government center in the small town of Kubaysah to kidnap the town mayor, since they have a problem with any form of government that does not include regular beheadings and women wearing burqahs. There were seven of them. As they brought the mayor out to put him in a pick-up truck to take him off to be beheaded (on video, as usual), one of the bad Guys put down his machinegun so that he could tie the mayor's hands. The mayor took the opportunity to pick up the machinegun and drill five of the Bad Guys. The other two ran away. One of the dead Bad Guys was on our top twenty wanted list. Like they say, you can't fight City Hall.

Proudest Moment - It's a tie every day, watching my Marines produce phenomenal intelligence products that go pretty far in tearing apart Bad Guy operations in al-Anbar. Every night Marines and Soldiers are kicking in doors and grabbing Bad Guys based on intelligence developed by my guys. We rarely lose a Marine during these raids, they are so well-informed of the objective. A bunch of kids right out of high school shouldn't be able to work so well, but they do.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 19:45

But in two sets of e-mail messages leaked later to British news organizations, mid-ranking officers voiced serious complaints. One of the officers, Major Jon Swift, said in a message from Afghanistan, "The scale of casualties has not been properly reported and shows no sign of reducing."

His comments were posted on a regimental Web site, but were quickly withdrawn, the Press Association news agency reported.

Later, several British broadcasters quoted from an e-mail message ritten by Major James Loden. "The RAF have been utterly, utterly useless," Loden was quoted as having said, referring to two instances involving Harrier warplanes during close ground combat.

"A female Harrier pilot 'couldn't identify the target,' fired two phosphorous rockets that just missed our own compound so that we thought they were incoming RPGs, and then strafed our perimeter, missing the enemy by 200 meters," he wrote, according to British news reports. An RPG is a rocket-propelled grenade.

In contrast to the Royal Air Force, Loden said, the U.S. Air Force had been "fantastic."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:42

The unhappy conclusion one must draw from an examination of the Joint Chiefs and the war in Iraq is that their historic function as the principal body providing military advice is defunct. The Joint Chiefs as a corporate body have become irrelevant. The chairman's role as it has now evolved seems more distant from the operating forces than ever. There is a real danger that the Joint Chiefs is careening toward the dreaded "general staff" syndrome, in which uniformity of view and ideological lock-step are more important than the no-holds-barred robust debate over tactical and strategic goals that lead to decisive victory.

It has been 20 years since Goldwater-Nichols was enacted. Now it's time to make a significant course correction. It is time for the Congress to step in and create an independent, free-thinking, committee that will bring the Joint Chiefs back into the mainstream. The 21st century demands a military that is nimble, proactive and aggressive and they are entitled to a Joint Chiefs of Staff whose individual members will stand up and be counted.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 09:40

German Navy frigate 'Karlsruhe', on top, is followed by Denmark's Navy fast patrol boats 'Ravnen' and 'Gelten' and the German Navy's speed patrol boats 'Nerz', 'Dachs', 'Ozelot' and 'Hyaene' as they steam from the German naval base Wilhelmshaven.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:30

Waking teens from their deep REM sleep before 7 a.m.--which during late fall and winter is well before the rooster crows--is much like approaching a lion gnawing on an antelope carcass. All the niceties that we've tried to instill in our children for the past 15 years about honoring thy mother and father go flying out the window in these wee hours of the morning. Breakfasts from now until June will be as somber as the death row inmate's last meal. We shovel frosted flakes down their throats so that the temporary sugar fix arouses them out of their comatose state long enough to get them out the front door.

When I queried my kids and their friends recently about how they survive on seven hours of sleep a day, they confess that the strategy is to catch up on a few z's during first and second periods at school. That would be fine if the first subjects were classes like social studies, which indoctrinate them with anti-American ideals anyway. But get this: The educrats who run the Fairfax County schools front-load the vital subjects like math and English at the start of the day because they actually believe "that's when the kids are most alert."

It's astonishing that a community like Fairfax, which prides itself on the quality of its public schools, retains a 7:20 a.m. start time despite the detriment to the health and scholastic achievement of our kids. Parents with teens are in open revolt to the idiocy of the policy and have even started a Web site, SleepInFairfax.org, to fix it.
...
Meanwhile, research overwhelmingly confirms that lack of sleep in adolescents has become a horrendous health problem in America. The National Sleep Foundation finds that teens now average between 6.5 and seven hours of uninterrupted sleep on a weeknight and only one in five gets the recommended nine hours. Of course computer games, chat rooms, sports schedules and the like have a lot to do with the late nights.

But so do their biological clocks. Studies show that spurting growth hormones in teens alter their circadian rhythm and naturally turn them into night owls, physiologically uninterested in 9:30 p.m. bedtimes and fiercely opposed to 6:15 a.m. wake-up calls. (This fact suggests that I myself am still in late puberty.)

So here is the inevitable ritual: Kids trudge through the week on insufficient sleep, barely limp to the finish line on Fridays, use the weekends to pay off the week's sleep debt by snoozing until noon and then try to readjust their body clocks on Monday morning. Prof. Jim Moss, a sleep expert at Cornell, says: "It's as if at the start of every week our kids have West Coast to East Coast jet lag." He finds that in the early morning classroom "the overwhelming drive to sleep can replace any chance of alertness, cognition, memory or understanding."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:28

Two days into the war, Hezbollah hit the destroyer INS Hanit with a surface-to-sea missile that Iran provided the organization. Four members of the crew were killed and others were injured, while the navy's flagship suffered serious damage. The following day, the head of the navy appointed a committee of inquiry. More than six weeks have past and the war has ended but the public has still not heard the findings of this committee of inquiry.

In an inquiry that we held, it turns out that the intelligence branch at the General Staff had issued a warning to the navy, long before the incident, that it should assume the Hezbollah arsenal contained a Chinese-made C-802 missile. The navy concluded otherwise and rejected the warnings.

A similar sort of warning was issued by intelligence to the air force over the SA-18, a Russian-made surface-to-air missile. The air force acted accordingly and even though the missile was not fired in Lebanon, the pilots were instructed to operate as if the missile was in the Hezbollah arsenal.

This is not what happened in the navy. They concluded that the Chinese missile that had been sold to Iran was not in Hezbollah's hands.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:21

I am neither an activist, politician or partisan, nor an ideologue of any stripe. What I am is a writer who takes his job very seriously, as do most of my colleagues: Also, one who recently took on the most distressing and important story it will ever fall to me to tell. I considered it a privilege when asked to write the script for "The Path to 9/11." I felt duty-bound from the outset to focus on a single goal--to represent our recent pre-9/11 history as the evidence revealed it to be. The American people deserve to know that history: They have paid for it in blood. Like all Americans, I wish it were not so. I wish there were no terrorists. I wish there had been no 9/11. I wish we could squabble among ourselves in assured security. But wishes avail nothing.

My Iranian parents fled tyranny and oppression. I know and appreciate deeply the sanctuary America has offered. Only in this country could a person such as I have had the life, liberty and opportunity that I have had. No one needs to remind me of this--I know it every single day.
...
It would have been good to be able to report due diligence on the part of those who judged the film, the ones who held forth on it before watching a moment of it. Instead, in the rush to judgment, and the effort to portray the series as the work of a right-wing zealot, much was made of my "friendship" with Rush Limbaugh (a connection limited to two social encounters), but nothing of any acquaintance with well-known names on the other side of the political spectrum. No reference to Abby Mann, for instance, with whom I worked on "10,000 Black Men Named George" (whose hero is an African-American communist) or Oliver Stone, producer of "The Day Reagan Was Shot," a film I wrote and directed. Clearly, those enraged that a film would criticize the Clinton administration's antiterrorism policies--though critical of its successor as well--were willing to embrace only one scenario: The writer was a conservative hatchetman.

In July a reporter asked if I had ever been ethnically profiled. I happily replied, "No." I can no longer say that. The L.A. Times, for one, characterized me by race, religion, ethnicity, country-of-origin and political leanings--wrongly on four of five counts. To them I was an Iranian-American politically conservative Muslim. It is perhaps irrelevant in our brave new world of journalism that I was born in Boulder, Colo. I am not a Muslim or practitioner of any religion, nor am I a political conservative. What am I? I am, most devoutly, an American. I asked the reporter if this kind of labeling was a new policy for the paper. He had no response.
..."The Path to 9/11" was set in the time before the event, and in a world in which no party had the political will to act. The principals did not know then what we know now. It is also indisputable that Bill Clinton entered office a month before the first attack on the World Trade Center. Eight years then went by, replete with terrorist assaults on Americans and American interests overseas. George W. Bush was in office eight months before 9/11. Those who actually watched the entire miniseries know that he was given no special treatment.

It's good to have come to something approaching the end of this saga, whose lessons are worth remembering. It gave us, for one thing, a heartening glimpse (these things don't come along every day) of corporate backbone in the face of phenomenal pressure--and an infinitely more chilling one testifying to the power and reach of politically driven hysteria. A ripe subject for a miniseries, if ever there was one.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:45

A mass rally of supporters of defeated Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has "elected" him head of a parallel government.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, for the show of hands.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:34

“Some of our Muslims friends have taken offense at my remarks. We understand that and we are distressed by it.

“We would hope our Muslim friends also understand that there are Christians and Jews who also may believe they have cause for offense at a time when there are Muslims who routinely justify mass murder in the name of Islam.

“And the other day in Gaza, two journalists, both Christians, were forced to convert at gunpoint. If there was outrage over this in Muslim communities, word of it did not reach our ears.

“We would ask that violence and anger subside and that serious dialogue begin.

“We are therefore planning to invite several leading Muslim religious leaders to visit us here in the Vatican where we can have detailed and inter-faith discussions"

“After that, we would like Muslim religious leaders to invite us to continue the conversation in their holy places: Mecca, Medina, Qum and Najaf for example. Our Jewish brothers should be invited to attend, too. And why not add in people of faith from the Buddhist and Hindu communities?

“This would, we believe, be both productive and historic.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:09

The United States Naval Academy Alumni Association - 120 Years of Service to the Alma Mater and its Alumni

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Naval Academy has recently established clear standards for the responsible use of alcohol in order to best develop midshipmen into responsible officers and leaders for the Navy and Marine Corps. As you know, alcohol abuse is a severe detriment to combat readiness, performance and military discipline. We want our alumni to understand our ongoing efforts to ensure all midshipmen know that they cannot effectively lead if they abuse alcohol.

Today it's common to come across the all too often repeated story of young college-aged students who have engaged in "binge drinking" and subsequently hurt themselves or someone else, or were arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct, and as a result, embarrass themselves and their families. Midshipmen are not immune to the fate that befalls those that choose to drink alcohol in a destructive manner. We confront many of the same barriers to the responsible use of alcohol by midshipmen that most colleges and universities face today.

The first barrier is misplaced loyalty to their "drinking buddies" over their loyalty to the Naval Academy, their futures or their careers. (What does that mean? Screw your Shipmates and be a stool-pigeon or you are disloyal to us and we will destroy your future? That is the character of a Stasi agent, not a Navy officer) Second is a fear of confronting unacceptable behavior. Some midshipmen, like many other students their age, want to be perceived as being cool. Confronting their peers on their abuse of alcohol is - for some - inconsistent with this desired image. Sometimes this results in a lack of "positive" peer pressure which could get an off-course midshipman back on track. Third is the misconception that "all" college students drink excessively. Many midshipmen don't want to miss out on many of the experiences believed to be a right of passage for college-aged students. As a result, some midshipmen ignore Naval Academy rules and drink to excess in order to have that true "college" experience. Last is the "I am invulnerable" youth culture where the belief is that bad things only happen to other people.it won't happen to me.

Our policy seeks to discourage alcohol abuse, and encourages both personal accountability and responsibility for the welfare of their peers. Policy highlights follow:

Responsible Use: For those who choose to drink, responsible use means drinking in moderation to ensure one's Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) never exceeds .08. We've adopted the memory aid of "0-0-1-3" as a guideline. "0-0-1-3" stands for "0" alcoholic drinks for those under 21, "0" drinks, if driving, a maximum of "1" standard alcoholic drink per hour, and a maximum of "3" standard alcoholic drinks per occasion.

Underage Drinking: Consumption of alcoholic beverages by any midshipman under the age of 21 is a violation of federal and state laws. Offenders face conduct action.

Risky Consumption of Alcohol. Drinking that results in a BAC above .08 and extending to .15. Offenders will be flagged for intervention from their Chain of Command, counseling and education. Subsequent offenses face conduct action.

Abusive Consumption of Alcohol. Drinking that results in a BAC above .15 and extending to .20 is considered abusive consumption of alcohol. Offenders face conduct action.

Intolerable Alcohol Consumption. Excessive drinking resulting in a BAC over .20. Offenders face major conduct action and possible separation from the Naval Academy.

The difference in this policy is that midshipmen will be held accountable for the quantity they drink - not solely for bad conduct under the influence. Our intention is not to play cops and robbers here. We want our midshipmen to discipline their own alcohol use. However, we'll enforce this policy through personal and chain of command accountability, and extensive breathalyzer testing.

Our policy increases chain of command involvement with intervention and possible treatment options to ensure timely and effective treatment is given to those midshipmen that need it. The Naval Academy recently hired an additional SARP (Substance Abuse Rehabilitation Program) counselor and instituted Level 1 alcohol abuse treatment on the Yard in an effort to provide needed treatment with as minimal impact as possible on midshipmen studies and training.

The Naval Academy is working hard to combat alcohol abuse. We understand the gravity and pervasiveness of the challenge at our nation's colleges and in our society as a whole. Preparing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically to be combat leaders of character for our Navy and Marine Corps requires holding them to a high standard. As you might expect, the vast majority of our midshipmen meet or exceed our exacting standards on a daily basis, and we will continue to educate, discipline and remediate those who fall short.(I agree, in isolation, with this paragraph)

Eliminating "binge drinking" and alcohol abuse within the Brigade is challenging, and we have elicited the support of our entire faculty and staff in realizing this important goal. For our many alumni who have frequent contact with midshipmen, we ask that you continue to provide a positive example regarding responsible alcohol use during athletic events, tailgaters, and other social activities attended by midshipmen. Your example, positive support and encouragement will greatly assist our efforts to create a climate of professionalism and accountability through the responsible use of alcohol.

r/CAPT Dunn

CAPT Helen F. Dunn, USN
Deputy Superintendent/Chief of Staff
United States Naval Academy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:17

cul·mi·nate Pronunciation (klm-nt)
v.intr. cul·mi·nat·ed, cul·mi·nat·ing, cul·mi·nates
1.
a. To reach the highest point or degree; climax: habitual antagonism that culminated in open hostility.
b. To come to completion; end: Years of waiting culminated in a tearful reunion.

Nato member states have refused to send any reinforcements for the mission in Afghanistan despite appeals from the organisation's leaders for 2,500 extra troops to fight Taliban insurgents.

The delay will be seen as a further sign that most countries are reluctant to commit troops to the south of Afghanistan, where pitched battles between militants and British and Canadian forces have resulted in the deaths of more than 30 British troops.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:16

"I've Been Loving You Too Long" is a song Redding wrote with Jerry Butler on tour in a Buffalo hotel room. In the clip from "Monterey Pop" above, Redding sings "I've Been Loving You Too Long" (after a quick run-through of Sam Cooke's "Shake") in a performance that makes me laugh and cry at the same time. It is outrageously beautiful.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:15

The Cluster Munitions Amendment would prevent funds from being spent to purchase, use, or transfer cluster bombs until the Department of Defense has adopted rules of engagement to ensure that cluster bomb are not used in or near any concentration of civilians. [....]

“For too long, innocent civilians, not enemy combatants, have suffered the majority of casualties from cluster munitions. The recent experience in Lebanon is only the latest example of the appalling human toll of injury and death. Strict rules of engagement are long overdue, and I hope the Pentagon will support this amendment to ensure that our cluster munitions are not used in civilian areas,” said Senator Leahy.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 08:29

"The CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) welcomes support from others in the House and Senate, especially those with liberal credentials, but it is critical that its membership remain exclusively African American," retired Rep. William Lacy Clay Sr. wrote earlier this year to the CBC.

Mr. Clay's letter -- distributed by his son, Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., Missouri Democrat -- prompted a CBC meeting before the August recess.

"The members have discussed it, and we supported the tradition that only African-Americans have been full members of the CBC, but as always we will work with anyone as our coalition partners and some have become honorary members," said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Michigan Democrat, who has been all but confirmed as the caucus' chairman for the 110th Congress.

The Clay letter was written in response to concerns that two Jewish congressional candidates, Tennessee state Rep. Steve Cohen and New York City Councilman David Yassky, both Democrats, would apply for CBC membership if elected from majority-black districts.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:11

In Turkey, the survey found that on a 100-point "thermometer" scale, Turkish "warmth" toward the United States declined to 20 degrees from 28 degrees from 2004 to 2006, while Turkish warmth toward Iran increased to 43 degrees from 34 over the same period.

Warmth toward the EU was 45 degrees, down from 52 two years ago. Warm feelings were far lower toward certain European countries, with 31 degrees for Spain, 30 for Italy, and 25 for Britain and France, apparently because they are perceived as anti-Turkish. Germany, with many residents of Turkish descent, registered 44 degrees.

Further, while a majority in Turkey continue to see EU membership as a good thing, positive feelings have plummeted, from 73 percent in 2004 to 54 percent this year.

The poll found that support for NATO, the U.S.-led military alliance that has been the linchpin of the trans- Atlantic relationship for more than half a century, has fallen in the European countries surveyed from 69 percent in 2002 to 55 percent in 2006.
....
In Turkey, which joined NATO in 1952, support (for NATO) declined from 53 percent in 2004 to 44 percent in 2006.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:22

The Shiite Hezbollah militia has expressed "reservations" about Germany's involvement in the multinational UN force deploying for Lebanon, owing to German demands that its troops be allowed to stop and search boats bound for the country.

"Our reservations are regarding the German demand to search boats as they enter Lebanon," Hezbollah member of parliament Hussein Haj Hassan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday. "Such a demand stands against the sovereignty of Lebanon."

Hezbollah "is not against the German government and has great respect for the German people," Haj Hassan stressed, "but they want the German government to review its stand towards Lebanon." Haj Hassan additionally accused Berlin of bias towards Israel's policies in the region.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:41

What took place over the next fortnight astonished me. Everywhere I went -- from the traffic-choked streets of Tehran in the north to the dusty desert town of Yazd in central Iran, to the elegant cultural centers of Isfahan and Shiraz -- I was overwhelmed by the warmth and, dare I say it, pro-Americanism of the people I met.
...
During my visit, I could not pause on a street corner for more than 30 seconds without someone coming up and shyly asking if they could help. Discovering that they had an American in their midst, they would often insist on walking me to my destination. Some told me of their friends and relatives living in the United States. (Precise figures are impossible to come by, but Iranian immigrant groups believe that between 1.5 and 2 million Iranians and Iranian Americans live in the United States.)
...
Everywhere I went, however, Iranians -- from high school students to middle-aged taxi drivers -- repeatedly asked me: "Why does America call us Evil Axis?" Then they would indignantly add: "We are good people -- we are Persians! Iran is a good country, some are bad, but most people here are good."

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:35

A Very American Witch Hunt: 9/11 Stories presented by Michael Buchanan (8 September)

BBC Announcer: In the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, the United States believed it faces a new threat.

President Bush: No one should be singled out for unfair treatment because of their ethnic background.

BBC Announcer: The BBC meets American citizens who were caught up in the War on Terror

Woman #1: The whole image of any Arab person speaking(?) like he is a terrorist.

BBC Announcer: 911 stories. Coming to the BBC world service Friday, September the 8th.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:01

From Publishers Weekly:
A torrent of Internet blogs has poured from U.S. forces overseas, providing a unique view of our wars. Retired officer and blogger Burden does not claim this collection of extracts represents a cross section of what's available, nor does he disguise his biases. All the officers in the book are competent; all the enlisted men and women are brave; and all the husbands love their wives and vice versa. Every writer supports America's war aims, admires the President, despises enemy fighters (generally referred to as terrorists) and holds a low opinion of Americans who oppose the war (generally referred to as liberals). The best (if sometimes troublesome) selections relate personal experiences: a woman trucker is severely wounded; a tanker fights his way into Fallujah, enthusiastically describing the men he kills; a base commander fires an obstreperous Iraqi employee. More literary efforts are less successful, with several wince-inducing attempts at poetic battlefield imagery. Tributes to fallen comrades often fall into mawkishness. Burden warns that unfettered war blogging may soon disappear under the heavy hand of military censorship, but if our leaders are worried about criticism of their policies, Burden's book will reassure them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:50

After more than a decade of losing elections to Democrats, after three straight presidential losses to Franklin D. Roosevelt -- the man conservative Republicans loved to hate -- the scent of victory was at last in the air for the GOP.

But there was a problem, and a big one at that. The previous December 7th America had been attacked at Pearl Harbor. The attack was a disaster, killing 2,471 military and civilians and destroying a considerable portion of the U.S. Navy. For the second time in just over twenty years the country was now at war. Not only were we fighting the Japanese but the Germans and the Italians too.

In the partisan camps of the Republican Party there was considerable feeling that the fault for this lay personally with FDR. Some were convinced he either knew the attack was coming and let it happen to plunge the country into the war, or that he should have known and was simply incompetent. The man, they believed, was neither very bright nor very honest. Battlefields were now erupting in strange countries literally all over the world -- in Europe, Africa, Asia. So in circumstances like this, how does a political opposition approach the upcoming election?

Savage FDR? Run on a campaign of "Roosevelt lied and people died"? Should they go out and tell the American people just how dangerously incompetent the man was, that the best thing to do was make peace with Hitler and Japan's Hirohito, then elect Republicans who would simply force FDR to bring home the boys and let the rest of the world cope with chaos? After all, a few years earlier FDR himself had turned back an ocean liner filled with 937 Jews escaping the looming Holocaust. The idea of not making Hitler, Hirohito or Mussolini any angrier than they were was certainly one approach.

The Republicans did none of the above. Instead, with the President on the political ropes at last, with a burgeoning team of attractive GOP candidates all over the country they did something else.

They rallied to FDR.
...
Running for Governor of Connecticut Raymond Baldwin stated flatly that "[t]he President of the United States is our Commander in Chief. Because we are Americans before we are Republicans, we will back him in the conduct of the war. His success is our success and we want him to succeed." At the Republican National Committee, Chairman Joseph Martin pledged "100 percent support of the war effort." And on it went with campaigning Republicans across the country.

And the Nazis and the Japanese? The so-called Axis Powers? What was their response? The New York Times editorial page trumpeted "an admission from Berlin that it would be 'harboring an illusion' to expect the Republican victory to bring any change whatever in the policy of the United States." Focusing on the silence of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the paper concluded: "His silence is proof of the fact that we have made the unity of our purpose apparent to our enemies."

The Republicans won the election, gaining 44 new House seats and 10 in the Senate, not quite a majority, but erasing FDR's control. Dewey won in New York and was instantly bannered as a presidential sure thing. GOP gubernatorial candidates won across the country.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:18

Labels: Boomers, Culture Wars, Long War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:51

“Lt. Black went to NJP this morning and received no NJP,” said Gittins, who specializes in military cases.

He said Black received a “non-punitive” letter that amounts to “counseling”.

The Naval Academy declined to comment due to privacy considerations of an administrative matter.

According to Navy regulations, a “non-punitive letter” is not considered punishment but intended to “remedy a noted deficiency” and does not stay in an officer’s service jacket.

At a preliminary hearing in August, Gittins told Navy Times that Black has not been teaching at the Academy for the past year, despite orders to Bahrain. According to Naval Academy spokeswoman Judy Campbell, Black has been performing “non-instructional duties.”

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:14

Huáscar participated in the Peruvian Civil War of 1877. Seized at port in Callao by rebels led by retired Captain Germán Astete, she was used to harass, sabotage and disrupt government forces and shipping lanes. During these actions foreign shipping was also affected, leading to British intervention.

On May 29, 1877, she fought the inconclusive Battle of Pacocha against two British vessels, frigate HMS Shah and corvette HMS Amethyst, commanded by Admiral de Horsey. This battle saw the first use in anger of the newly-invented self-propelled torpedo which, at the time, had just entered limited service with the Royal Navy.
...
Huáscar participated in the War of the Pacific, initially in the service of Peru. Once again under the command of Captain Miguel Grau, she became famous for daring harassment raids on Chilean ports and transports. As a result, during the opening months of the war, the ground invasion was delayed for almost six months until the Chilean fleet could find and stop Huáscar.
The Battle of Iquique
Enlarge
The Battle of Iquique

In May 21, 1879, Huáscar led the lifting of the Chilean blockade of Iquique. During the battle, Chilean Captain Arturo Prat was killed on Huáscar's deck while leading a boarding party from the corvette Esmeralda. Notably, after sinking the corvette by repeated ramming, Huáscar then rescued the survivors before continuing pursuit of a fleeing enemy ship.

Huáscar went on with its mission and in the following months accomplished the following:

* Damaged ports of Cobija, Tocopilla, Platillos and Mejillones, Huanillos, Punta de Lobo, Chañaral, Huasco, Caldera, Coquimbo and Taltal
* Sank 16 Chilean vessels, including ships and boats
* Damaged Chilean ships Blanco Encalada, Abtao, Magallanes and Matías Cousiño
* Captured Chilean vessels Emilia, Adelaida Rojas, E. Saucy Jack, Adriana Lucía, Rímac and Coquimbo
* Aboard Rímac, captured 260 men from an elite Chilean cavalry regiment, along with horses, weapons, munitions and supplies
* Recovered Peruvian vessels Clorinda and Caquetá
* Destroyed artillery batteries of Antofagasta
* Cut the Antofagasta-Valparaíso communications cable

Collectively, these actions became known as "Las correrías del Huáscar" ("Huáscar's exploits") and held up a Chilean ground invasion for almost six months. As a result, the Peruvian Navy promoted Captain Grau to Rear Admiral while the Chilean Navy replaced its own chief of staff.

On October 8, 1879, Huáscar was captured by the Chilean Navy at the Battle of Angamos, during which most of Huáscar's crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Grau.

Huáscar then entered the service of the Chilean Navy. At Arica she fought an inconclusive duel with the Peruvian monitor Manco Cápac (formerly USS Oneota) while participating in the bombardment of the city –where her new commander Manuel Thomson was killed– and she also aided in the blockade of Callao.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:33