CDR Salamander

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:59

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 12:33

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

So long, farewell, auf weidersein, goodbyeee. Ladies and gentlemen, I am sad to announce that from henceforth England Expects shall be consigned to the dustbins of history. I say this with a heavy heart, but it is the case. And this is why.

Yesterday I was summoned by my Secretary General and informed that a formal complaint had been made about my posting on this blog. My activities were found to be in contravention of the Staff Code of Conduct
...
The problem was at the beginning of the month I had posted a piece about some gender language absurdity (please note that the staff regulations talk about his. I had included the name of the author and she had requested that I remove the name. This I did, as she pointed out that she had been phoned by a couple of journalists and was, as an official unable to talk to them.

Notwithstanding me removing her name, somebody made an official complaint about this blog to the powers that be. The Secretary General of the Parliament, Harald Rømer then wrote to my group pointing out my clear breech of the staff rules. I had, it said posted article upon England expects, a website that is ""ironique et eurosceptique". (One wonders which was the worse transgression, the scepticism or the fact that I laugh at them?).

The upshot is that I have a formal warning and, if I continue to blog then 'sanctions' may be applied. Given that the sanctions amount to upwards of a four month docking of wages, I really cannot afford to continue.

Labels: Blogg'n, Europe

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:20

The far Right has made a grand return in Austria, emerging from yesterday’s elections as the second biggest parliamentary block, according to preliminary results.

The two parties that campaigned on an anti-immigrant and anti-European Union ticket have captured about 29 per cent of the vote, pushing the country’s traditional conservative party into third place.

Heinz-Christian Strache and his Freedom Party, who were accused of xenophobia and waging an antiMuslim campaign, won 18 per cent — a rise of 7 per cent compared with the last elections. Mr Strache’s former mentor, Jörg Haider, won 11 per cent of the vote with his new party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria.
...
The mainstream parties recorded their lowest share of the vote since the Second World War, with the Social Democrats dropping 7 per cent to 29.7 per cent, while the conservative People’s Party won 25.6 per cent of the vote — a decline of 9 per cent compared with 2006.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies in the southern German state of Bavaria suffered heavy losses in a state election on Sunday, a development that could have far-reaching consequences for federal elections next year.

The conservative Christian Social Union won 43.4 percent of the vote — compared with nearly 61 percent five years ago — while support surged for smaller parties, including the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats.

It was a humiliating defeat for the Christian Social Union, which since the early 1960s had effortlessly won election after election and was able to govern alone in Bavaria, a largely Catholic state.

“It is a painful result for us,” said Günther Beckstein, the governor of Bavaria. “It is clear we now have to choose a coalition partner.”

The Christian Social Union has traditionally provided a crucial number of parliamentary seats for Mrs. Merkel’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, on the federal level.

But the Social Democrats, partners in Merkel's "grand coalition" government, were unable to capitalise on the conservatives' misery and slipped half a point to 19.1 percent.

The professional optimists at the SPD headquarters in Berlin will naturally spin this and turn to the tried and trusted argument that a state election is not the general election. That is true. However, there is a second phenomenon here: The Greens hardly profited either. Instead almost all the disappointed CSU supporters turned to the FDP or the Freie Wähler group. The camps, therefore, remain unchanged. There is hardly any movement between the bourgeois voters and the supporters of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party. That has also been the case since 1998 at a federal level. The prospects that the SPD could attract voters away from the CDU in the next general election are thus very slim.

Labels: Austria, Germany

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:05

LEHRER: Are you -- what priorities would you adjust, as president, Senator McCain, because of the -- because of the financial bailout cost?

MCCAIN: Look, we, no matter what, we've got to cut spending. We have -- as I said, we've let government get completely out of control.

Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.

The point -- the point is -- the point is, we need to examine every agency of government.

First of all, by the way, I'd eliminate ethanol subsidies. I oppose ethanol subsidies.

I think that we have to return -- particularly in defense spending, which is the largest part of our appropriations -- we have to do away with cost-plus contracts. We now have defense systems that the costs are completely out of control.

We tried to build a little ship called the Littoral Combat Ship that was supposed to cost $140 million, ended up costing $400 million, and we still haven't done it.

So we need to have fixed-cost contracts. We need very badly to understand that defense spending is very important and vital, particularly in the new challenges we face in the world, but we have to get a lot of the cost overruns under control.Thanks Amy for keeping me focused.

Labels: LCS, McCain

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:01

1. More important things have sprung up, like they do on Fridays, that kept me a bit distracted and busy.
2. Sen. Obama (D-IL) is what he is; I know, I grew up with the type. He is an exceptionally gifted man, provided with the best schooling this nation can provide. Unlike the folks I grew up with, he hasn't had a real job. He hasn't been an executive. He hasn't sacrificed or served anyone but his ambition. Ambition is fine - he is what he is. He is also, as well documented, one of the - if not the - most left-wing Senators and candidate for President we have seen in over 30 years. Nice guy, just wrong. There is no reason I would vote for the guy. None. The fact taht ~46% are willing to vote for the guy just tells me that the nation has forgotten what it is like to give Democrats the ability to have full power not seen since 1994. I do.
3. I have about reached my limit this season anyway. I also have an absentee ballot in front of me that will go in the mail this week after I ping some of my betters on their opinion WRT some local issues, candidates, and Constitutional Amendments.
4. You would rather learn how ghey Skippy is anyway, so go down a few posts to read the details.
   

Labels: McCain, Obama, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:43

FROM Brussels this week NATO brandished a fist at Russia, warning it that there could be no “business as usual” so long as Russian forces remained in Georgia. The Russians, oddly, did not quail. If anything, President Dmitry Medvedev and his mentor and prime minister, Vladimir Putin, seem to be enjoying the world’s impotent indignation in the face of their new-found machismo. And why not? They know that the West will not fight for the territorial integrity of Georgia, a trisected statelet of only 4m people in the faraway Caucasus. They also know that they will face no serious economic punishment. As a collective, NATO may huff and puff, but the cold fact is that many of its big members need a lot of business with Russia to continue. Germany and others in Europe need to keep buying Russia’s oil and gas. America needs Russia, too, in order to secure vital foreign-policy objectives of its own, such as preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Sound policy starts with a sense of proportion. Contrary to some excitable first reactions, Russia’s ability to crush the minuscule Georgian army does not make it a superpower, and its aggression in the Caucasus need not mark the start of a new cold war. To put things in perspective, America’s GDP is ten times bigger than Russia’s and it spends at least seven times more on defence. Russia’s economy would fall off a cliff if energy prices slumped and its population, racked by ill-health and inequality, is shrinking by up to 800,000 a year. Russia can make mischief, but it cannot project military and ideological power all around the world, as the Soviet Union did during the cold war. Although it scares some neighbours (but not the Chinese), its threats make them all the more determined to stay on guard. It is surely no coincidence that after months of prevarication the Poles agreed immediately after Russia invaded Georgia to let America base missile defences (ostensibly against a future threat from Iran) on Polish territory.

To say that Russia’s strength is exaggerated is not to say that it should be allowed to escape its Georgian adventure unpunished. A weak power can be more reckless than a strong one. Russia needs to learn that in spite of their own enervating foreign wars and economic worries the members of the Western alliance can still unite in front of a challenge. But because Russia is fundamentally less strong than it likes to pretend, the West’s response can afford to be patient as well as principled.

Labels: Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:36

Labels: DADT, Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:26

Labels: Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:17

Dear Member,

The primary email address you have registered for your Navy Federal Credit Union was changed on Sep/28/2008.

This e-mail has been send to you based on the Member Notification preferences you previously established.If you would like to change you Member Notification preferences, please sign on to Navy Federal Online Account Access and click on the Other Services link, go to the Member Notifications by E-Mail option, and then click on the Manage My Notification tab.

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Labels: Me

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:40

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:33

Labels: Music

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:49

Democrat Barack Obama continues to argue that only the systematic withdrawal of U.S. combat units will force Iraqi leaders to compromise. Yet the empirical evidence of the past year suggests the opposite: that only the greater security produced and guaranteed by American troops allows a political environment in which legislative deals and free elections are feasible.

Labels: Iraq, Media, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:33

Story Updated: Aug 20, 2008 at 3:16 PM MDT

BOISE - Idaho Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman has passed away.

He was 80 years old.

Freeman, who lived in Boise, died at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday from complications from Parkinson's disease, a family member said.

Freeman was a Vietnam veteran who was honored for his heroic services. He piloted a helicopter and saved more than 30 men during the war.

His heroics grew nation wide attention when his character was featured in Mel Gibson's war movie, "We Were Soldiers." Actor Mark McCracken played the character of Ed "Too Tall" Freeman in the popular flick.

The family released a statement Wednesday afternoon:

"Our family is grateful for all the wonderful wishes we've received these past few weeks, from our friends and from those we don't even know. The support of the people of Idaho has been overwhelming, and my father really appreciated those kind words and wishes."

"He had visits from Governor Otter, Secretary of the Interior Kempthorne and Major General Lafrenz of the Idaho National Guard. Many others either came to see him or passed on their kind words to us."

"My father touched a lot of people over the years during his career in the U.S. Army and as a civilian pilot with the federal government at the National Interagency Fire Center. People could relate to him, and those who knew him have told me they thought of him as a wonderful, friendly, humorous person with a lot of integrity."

"He made an impression on people. I knew him not only as my father, but as my best friend. We spent many hours together, fishing and just hanging out with each other. My family and I will miss him more than words can express."

Freeman's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. at 2760 E Fairview Ave. in Meridian. Burial will be at Idaho State Veterans Cemetery.

Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle's outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers -- some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman's selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.

Labels: Fullbore, Vietnam War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.
...
annie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.
...
In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

Labels: Diversity, Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:50

A U.S. Navy security team fired warning shots Wednesday at two small boats approaching a navy supply ship off the coast of Somalia, Agence France-Presse reported…

The security team aboard USNS John Lenthall, an oiler, fired the shots after “defensive measures” failed to stop the two unmarked vessels…

All the warning shots hit the water, about 50 meters from the closest boat, and the vessels turned away after the shots were fired.

Here is a firsthand account of a pirate attack on two yachts. It took place only 30 miles off the coast of Yemen at 13°28' North 48°07' East on 8 March 5pm local.

This report has been filed with the relevant authorities: the Yemen Coast Guard, Yemen Navy, Aden Port Control, US Coalition 5th Fleet, US Embassy and State Department.

Richard Donaldson-Alves, Controller, Mobile Maritime Net, South East Asian Waters (14,323 MHz 0025 Z daily Wx @ 0055 Z daily)

On 8 March 2005, two sailing yachts, Mahdi & Gandalf, were moving SW 30 miles off the coast of Yemen proceeding to the port of Aden from Salalah, Oman.

At about 0900 two outboard powered boats, about 25 feet long with 3 men in each one, passed off our stern moving south at about 25 knots. An hour or two later they returned, one coming quite close and looking us over carefully. The second boat passed our bows but quite a ways away. These boats were obviously not engaged in a normal activity such as fishing, etc. At that time we were south of Al Mukalla, Yemen. The area around Al Mukalla is well documented as being a piracy problem area and we started watching carefully for anything out of the ordinary. At about 1600 we observed two different boats approaching us head on from the SW. These boats were 25-30 feet long, had higher freeboard and diesel powered. They were coming very fast directly at us. There were 4 men in each boat. The boats separated at about 200 yards, one boat ahead of the other, coming down Mahdi’s port side and firing into the cockpit. The other boat was firing an automatic weapon at both Gandalf and Mahdi from ahead, more at Gandalf. These guys were shooting directly at the cockpits, and obviously intended to kill us. The first boat swung around behind Mahdi’s stern to come up and board us. At that point I, Rod Nowlin aboard Mahdi and armed with a 12 gage shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot, started shooting into their boat. I forced them to keep their heads down so that they could not shoot at us. I am not sure I hit anyone at that point although I could see the driver of the boat crouched down behind a steering console. After firing 3 shots at them their engine started to smoke and I swung around to shoot at the boat ahead. At that point, I saw Jay Barry on Gandalf ram that boat amidships almost cutting it in two and turning it almost completely over. I turned back around to shoot again at the boat behind Mahdi and that is when they turned away from Mahdi and were heading toward the stern of Gandalf. Gandalf was beside us, about 100 feet away. The bow of the pirate’s boat came right up against Gandalf’s stern and two men stood up on the bow to board Gandalf. That was a serious and probably fateful error on their part. I shot both of them. That boat then veered away and I shot the driver, although I am not sure of the outcome because they were farther away and I did not knock him down like the other two.

Mahdi and Gandalf kept going at full speed to put as much distance between the pirates and us as possible. As soon as we were out of rifle range we looked back and both boats were drifting and appeared to be disabled.

If Jay on Gandalf had not had the presence of mind to veer over into one boat and ram it, the outcome of this attack would have been totally different. All they needed to do was stand off a ways and shoot us to pieces with automatic weapons. We were extremely lucky. We broadcast Mayday calls on all VHF and HF radio frequencies, including two HF emergency frequencies supplied by the US Coast Guard a few days before. The Coalition Forces in the area were supposed to be monitoring these frequencies. There was no response except from a commercial ship in the area on VHF 16 who approached and observed the disabled pirates for a bit, then sailed along side of us for 2-4 hours until dark to make sure we would be all right.

The pirates were well organized and well armed. There were at least 4 boats involved. They had set up a picket line out from the Yemen coast probably at least for 50-75 miles, so if you transited the area during the day they wouldn’t miss you. The two boats that attacked us appeared to have come from the south.

There has been speculation in the past that this ongoing piracy problem off the Yemen coast was being carried out by Somali pirates. Given the number, type of boats involved, and the direction the spotter boats came from, this does not appear to be correct in this case. This problem is getting worse and the pirate attacks are getting deadly. One could only expect that the Yemen Government will take more direct action. At the very least, allow yachts to group in Salalah, Oman and at some point on the NW Yemen coast to request an escort along the Yemen coast.

March 11, 2005

Rodney J. Nowlin, USN Retired

S/V Mahdi

Labels: Pirates

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:08

...Yale law school dean Harold Koh is widely regarded as a leading contender for a Supreme Court appointment if Barack Obama becomes president. What sort of a justice would Harold Koh be?
...
Koh believes that it is “appropriate for the Supreme Court to construe our Constitution in light of foreign and international law” in “at least three situations”: (1) “when American legal rules seem to parallel those of other nations”; (2) when (quoting Breyer) “‘foreign courts have applied standards roughly comparable to our own constitutional standards in roughly comparable circumstances’” and we can draw “empirical light” from their experience; and (3) “when a U.S. constitutional concept, by its own terms, implicitly refers to a community standard”. (Koh, International Law as Part of Our Law, 98 Am. J. Int’l. L. 43, 45-46 (2004) (emphasis added).) As the italicized weasel words indicate, in the hands of a living constitutionalist like Koh, foreign and international legal materials will virtually always be available to a transnational judge to help him reach the result he wants to reach.


Koh’s own writings amply prove this point. Koh believes that foreign and international law supports the conclusion that the death penalty always violates the federal Constitution: “The evidence strongly suggests that we do not currently pay decent respect to the opinions of humankind in our administration of the death penalty. For that reason, the death penalty should, in time, be declared in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” (Koh, Paying “Decent Respect” to World Opinion on the Death Penalty, 35 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1085, 1129 (2002).)

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:28

Labels: Germany

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:11

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:02

Schwartz did not rule drawing some lessons from the Army, which routinely uses enlisted people to fly UAVs and fire cannons and missiles. The Air Force has so far insisted on entrusting UAV ordnance to officers. “For the near-term, we will draw from the officer talent pools. But I don’t dismiss the possibility that we could go a different way. No options are off the table,” he said.
As for ISR strategy, the service’s role in Africa consumed much of the conversation among the generals because of the scheduled “initial operating capability” for the new Africa Command Oct. 1. “Africom is a strange animal. It is a [combatant command] with no assigned forces,” said Gen. Roger Brady, who for the time being overseas Air Force operations in Africa as commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:53

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

Labels: Books

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:27

Labels: Blogg'n

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:08

1. His body language would have him in the CMEO office toot-sweet.
2. Why do we want to cripple our energy sector because China is the global Pig-Pen? Isn't Pig-Pen's hair kind of like Biden's?
   

Labels: Energy, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:22

After his workout, Petraeus donned a dress uniform bearing nine rows of ribbons. Someone called his attention to a full-page advertisement that had been placed in that morning’s Times by MoveOn, the liberal activist group. The ad featured the General’s photograph above the headline “GENERAL PETRAEUS OR GENERAL BETRAY US?” It accused him of “cooking the books” for the Bush White House. The Iraq conflict was “unwinnable,” the advertisement argued; it also claimed that some of Petraeus’s past accounts of progress there had been “at war with the facts.”

When we met recently in Iraq, I asked Petraeus if that ad in the Times had marked the low point of his personal experience in this command. It had not, he said; coping with the deaths of soldiers had been considerably more difficult. He added, however, that he rarely feels stress at all, an assertion supported by his appearance: at the age of fifty-five, he has a lightly lined face and chestnut hair that is barely marked by gray. When he does experience an occasional spike in his blood pressure, he said, it is usually caused by an unexpected event, particularly on the battlefield. By contrast, in Washington, he remarked, referring to the city’s culture of political ambush, “you know what’s coming.”

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:43

The military remains a hierarchical organization in which orders come from the top down. Yet as the officer corps grapples with its experience in Iraq, fresh ideas are coming from the bottom up. In today’s Army, the most-creative thinkers are not generals but mid-career officers—lieutenant colonels and colonels.

Labels: Army, Maritime Strategy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:34

Labels: Humor, Italy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:02

COA 1: Be the designated driver,

COA 2: Keep yourself to one drink an hour and then go home early.

• Go to as few social events with coworkers as possible.
• The more senior you are, the more this applies: you are never as good looking as you think you are.
• She isn't flirting, she is just trying to figure out how to be polite in an uncomfortable situation - and is doing a bad job at it.
• If you think your co-workers think you are "fun to party with," you probably need to review the COA and FP points above.
  

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:53

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:14

Labels: Blogg'n, Bu11sh1t Bingo, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

As at last Thursday when the Niger Delta militants carried out the last of their attacks in continuation of the ‘oil war’ declared by them, about 60 persons, many of them militants, were feared to have been killed.

NO FEWER than sixty persons may have lost their lives within seven days, that is, between penultimate Friday and last Thursday, in the creeks of Rivers State to the ‘oil war’ declared by the Niger Delta militants. The guns boomed, dynamites detonated and grenades freely hauled by the warring groups.

It all started penultimate Friday when men of the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the state were on routine marine patrol on the waterways in Elem Tombia. And suddenly, according to spokesman of the security body and the army in the state, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, suspected militants opened fire on their boats. And, in self defence, they retaliated.

At the end of this encounter, about fifteen persons reportedly lost their lives.
...
About 0100 hours, today, September 14, 2008, Hurricane Barbarossa commenced with heavily armed fighters in hundreds of war boats filing out from different MEND bases across the Niger Delta in solidarity to carry out destructive and deadly attacks on the oil industry in Rivers State.”


The statement further claimed that the militant group killed about twenty two soldiers and fled with their rifles. They also allegedly blew up oil facilities in Soku and some other parts of the state. “By dawn, we have destroyed oil flow stations, gun boats, burst pipelines; dead and injured soldiers trailed in the aftermath of the “hurricane.” Some specific locations include the Soku Gas Plant, Chevron Platform at Kula; over 22 well armed soldiers sent as reinforcement were intercepted, killed and dispossessed of their weapons, a major crude trunk pipeline at Nembe creek was blown up at several points.
...
But in a swift reaction, the army spokesman said the militants lied on the claim of death of security personnel. According to Sagir, they foresaw the action of the militants coming, so they quickly put their men on red alert in all oil facilities locations in the state. So it was no surprise when the militants stormed Soku in several speed boats. He, however, confirmed that a soldier sustained gun shot wound.

“As a result of yesterday’s attack on our troops on marine patrol at Elem Tombia which led to an exchange of fire with heavy casualty on the militants, as anticipated, the bandits staged an attack in the early hours of today (yesterday) between 3.00 and 4.00 a.m, at Soku facility and Robertkiri where they met active resistance from the troops guarding the facilities. It was heroically and successfully repelled with casualty on the miscreants side. A soldier was, however, wounded and no death recorded. This message is necessary to pre-empt and avoid mischievous propaganda from the militants”, the spokesman said.

An official of Chevron who later spoke anonymously said one of its facilities was actually attacked in the fighting areas. In the early hours of Monday again, in about six speed boats, the militants headed straight to a Chevron flow station in Idama. But they met stiff resistance here.

The army spokesman said security operatives on ground sunk three of their boats with the aid of RPG. “Militants in six speed boats attempted to attack Chevron Idama flow station at about 1.00 a.m. today. Attack was heroically and commendably thwarted by the JTF troops on guard at the station. Three militants’ boats were shattered when our own troops unwillingly used RPG to foil the attack. Two boats were sunk with all the occupants on board. It is greatly and unfortunately feared that many of them might have lost their lives in the process. One soldier was, however, wounded and is in stable condition. No damage done to the flow station”, Sagir said in a statement.

He declined to speak on the casualty rate on the part of the militants, saying since it was an internal skirmish the army was not in the mood to celebrate any victory.

Labels: Africa, Riverine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:57

Seven years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the remains of 13 of the 19 men responsible have been identified and are in the custody of the F.B.I. and the New York City medical examiner’s office.

But no one has formally requested the remains in order to bury them.

“Politically, one can understand that this is a hot potato,” said Muneer Fareed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America and a former professor of Islamic studies. “People don’t want to identify with the political equivalent of Jeffrey Dahmer.”

What would happen if someone asked for the hijackers’ remains is not clear.

The medical examiner’s office, which, like the F.B.I., refuses to say where exactly the remains are being kept, will eventually put together a committee to come up with a policy, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office.

Groups representing the victims of Sept. 11 are not sure what should be done with the remains.

“It would be sadly ironic if they ended up being properly buried or sent to a Muslim country when many of the remains of the victims remain buried in a garbage dump,” said Kurt Horning, a founder with his wife, Diane, of the group WTC Families for Proper Burial. “I know we’d feel very distressed.”

200 Commerce St.
Smithfield, VA 23430

Labels: Terrorists

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:26

Speaking of Reagan (Eureka College, Illinois), every chief executive we've had since the Gipper snapped his final salute as president has had the imprimatur of an Ivy League university. And we've gone from bad to worse:

* George Herbert Walker Bush: Yale.

* William Jefferson Clinton: Georgetown, Oxford, Yale Law.

* George W. Bush: Yale and Harvard Business School.

The first lacked the sense to finish the job in Desert Storm; the second lacked the guts to go after al Qaeda when it was just a startup - and the third, well, let's just say he disappointed our low expectations.

Now we have the Ivy League elite's "he's not only like us but he's a minority and we're so wonderful to support him" candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (Columbia and Harvard Law).

Our country can't afford another one of these clowns. Harvard isn't the answer - Harvard's the problem.

So here's the message Palin is sending on behalf of the rest of us (the down-market masses Dems love at election time and ignore once the voting's done): The rule of the snobs is over. It's time to give one of us a chance to lead.

Sen. John McCain's one of us, too. He raised hell at Annapolis (quadruple ugh: military!), and he'll raise the right kind of hell in Washington.

McCain's so dumb he really loves his country.

Sarah Palin's dumb that way, too. How terribly unfashionable.

Labels: McCain, Palin, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:15

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:47

Tatarstan is a long way from South Ossetia. Where South Ossetia is a poor border region of Georgia battered by war, Tatarstan is an economic powerhouse in the heart of Russia, boasting both oil reserves and the political stability that is catnip to investors.

But the two places have one thing in common: Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, both have given rise to separatist movements. And when President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia formally recognized the breakaway areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent nations two weeks ago, activists in Kazan, the Tatar capital, took notice.

An association of nationalist groups, the All-Tatar Civic Center, swiftly published an appeal that "for the first time in recent history, Russia has recognized the state independence of its own citizens" and expressed the devout wish that Tatarstan would be next.

The declaration was far-fetched, its authors knew: One of Vladimir Putin's signal achievements as Medvedev's predecessor was to suppress separatism. The Tatar movement was at its lowest ebb in 20 years.

"In the long term, they could have signed their own death warrant," said Lawrence Scott Sheets, the Caucasus program director for the International Crisis Group, an independent organization that tries to prevent and resolve global conflicts. "It's an abstraction now, but 20 years down the road, it won't be such an abstraction."
...
Tatarstan was a case in point. Tatars still commemorate the day in 1552 when Kazan fell to Ivan the Terrible, absorbing their country into Holy Russia.

When Yeltsin encouraged regions to assume sovereignty, Tatarstan complied with gusto, adopting its own taxes and license plates.

Gleaming new mosques competed with Kazan's onion domes, and ethnic Tatars, who made up 48 percent of the population to the Russians' 43 percent, opened their own schools. The Tatar parliament declared that local conscripts could not fight outside the Volga region.

When Putin eliminated regional elections, the Tatar president, Mintimer Shaimiyev, protested vociferously, calling the plan a "forced and painful measure." But in the years that followed, Akhmetov, the editor of the opposition newspaper in Kazan, saw prospects for autonomy drop to a new low.

"We understood that our president could be removed at any time, within 24 hours," Akhmetov said. But Medvedev's decision to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, he said, "created a precedent, kind of a guideline" for gaining independence. Moscow is confident that it wields strict control over politics in the outlying regions, he said, but that could change in 10 or 20 years.

A similar stirring came out of Bashkortostan, a major petrochemical center where ethnic Bashkirs make up about 30 percent of the population. A small organization called Kuk Bure, which has pushed for the Bashkir language to be required in public schools, issued a manifesto accusing Moscow of "double standards" for championing ethnic groups like the Abkhaz and Ossetians while ignoring their platform.

Labels: Demographics, Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:48

Sir Ian Blair has punished the Asian police commander who accused him of racial discrimination by putting him on gardening leave and stripping him of his duties.

After officially launching his employment tribunal claim last month, Mr Ghaffur - joint number three in the Met - held a press conference to explain why he had taken such drastic action.

Although on annual leave, he ignored police convention by turning up to the press conference in his uniform - and then gave a five-minute monologue about his alleged ordeal.

In a statement, Sir Ian said his decision yesterday had nothing to do with Mr Ghaffur's case against the Met, but was because of his 'personal conduct' and 'media campaign' against the force.

He said: 'I have reflected whether operational effectiveness, leadership and confidence in the Metropolitan Police Service as an organisation and the security and safety concerns of Londoners are being affected.

'It is also clear this is having a negative impact on the London 2012 Olympic security programme and risks undermining confidence in it. Certainly, it is the case that the interests of Londoners are not being well served by this current situation.'

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, who attacked the Met chief at a press conference last month, will no longer be in charge of security at the 2012 Olympics.

Mr Ghaffur, 53, was also warned he could face misconduct charges for speaking publicly about his £1.2million race discrimination claim against Sir Ian.
...
Sir Ian said the £180,000-a-year officer's comments to the media were affecting the Met's 'operational effectiveness'.

Labels: Britain, Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:27

Labels: Humor

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:51

As Joe Chovelak stands in the World War II Memorial here, his bushy white eyebrows bristle at the notion that his beloved 29th Bomb Group is holding its last reunion.

“That is harsh. I mean, ‘last reunion’ is like going to a funeral,” said Chovelak, 83, the tireless historian of the Army Air Forces that bombed Japan in 1945 and came here this weekend for the group’s 13th and final get-together. “This is a ‘farewell’ reunion.”

Farewell or last, the World War II generation is dwindling. Of 16 million who served, only one in eight remain. The Department of Veterans Affairs expects that 300,000 veterans will die this year.

Chovelak, of Naperville, Ill., will present a box of memorabilia to the Library of Congress on Monday. It will include a roster of the 2,500 men of the 29th Bomb Group. The unit’s other records will be donated to an Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio.

“I hate to see it end, but everything has to come to an end sometime,” said Cedric Fowler, 91, a B-29 radar mechanic who drove from Indianapolis with his wife for the reunion.

“They’re getting to where they can’t travel,” said his wife Dorothy, 90. “You notice all of them here are in wheelchairs, with canes and walkers.”

Labels: Fullbore, WWII

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:16

Labels: Moonbats, Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:00

Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 6:14 PM
Subject: General Tasker: Coordination Office: Hot List: Cxxx Nxx
Cxxx DIVERSITY ACCOUNTABILITY BRIEF

Captains,

Sorry for the late turnaround on this from me to you. Cxxx sent us this hot tasker this morning with a COB Monday (Washington DC) deadline. They are asking for "a list of your Early Promote and Must Promote in Pay Grades 05 and 06." We must assume they want the names.

Please do not drill down to the tenant command level on this, only respond for those billets of yours which belong to Cxxx. The other enterprises should be similarly tasking their subordinates.

One piece which is clearly part of the original tasker from VADM Harvey (attached) but which is not mentioned at all in the CNIC tasker is "diversity;" however, as it appears to be the entire point of the data call, please annotate which of your O5/O6 EP/MP officers (from last cycle) are diverse.

----- Original Message -----
From: Harvey, John C Jr VADM N1, CNP
To: Cotton, John G VADM CNR; Burt, Robert F RADM; 'xxxx@navsoc.socom.mil' ; Thompson, Alan S. RADM NAVSUP, 00; Shear, Wayne RADM NAVFAC HQ; Thorp, Frank RDML CHINFO PTGN; 'xxxx@med.navy.mil' ; Titley, David W RDML CNMOC; 'xxxx@jpac.pacom.mil' ; Conway, Bob VADM CNIC HQ, N00; Sullivan, Paul E VADM Naval Sea Systems Command ,SEA 00; Starling, Denby VADM NETWARCOM, N00; 'xxxx@js.pentagon.mil' ; Venlet, David VADM; Cothron, Tony L RDML N2
Cc: LeFever, Michael A., RADM, N13; Barrett, Ken J. CAPT, NAVPERSCOM N134; McLaughlin, Patrick SES; Ted Childs ; James, John H SES SEA 04; 'xxxx@navy.mil'
Sent: Wed Feb 27 09:23:44 2008
Subject: CNO ACCOUNTABILITY REVIEWS

Admirals,

Wanted to provide all an update on the CNO Accountability reviews that started again with the JAG community last week. Attached is the CNO approved schedule.

As a reminder, the accountability template was designed to establish an initial baseline of diversity data that is "cut and sliced" in a number of ways. The success of our overall diversity efforts rest on your ability to detail the specifics of your enterprise and community. Armed with this information you will be able to determine if and/or why any variances exist and how they might best be addressed. Through these efforts-- YOUR efforts-- Navy's overall diversity strategy will be better informed and our collective efforts will be strengthened.

CNO Mullen completed reviews with the Surface Warfare Enterprise, Undersea Enterprise, Naval Aviation Enterprise, and Navy Expeditionary Combat Enterprise. Based on the lessons learned from these reviews and the concerns ADM Roughead has expressed, I strongly encourage you to prepare the following issues for a thorough discussion:

- CNO wants to see the enterprise demographic data that has been part of the previous reviews and will also want to review both percentages and raw numbers within each category.

- CNO will focus on middle career management -- who are the diverse hot runners in an enterprise (you should know them by name) and what is the plan for their career progression. In particular, be able to answer the following:
(1) Who are the minority O-5/O-6s in your community?
(2) What are YOU doing to ensure these men and women are being properly developed to attain the highest levels of leadership?
(3) What is being done within your Enterprise / Community to ensure that these men and women are assigned to the key billets that lead to promotion?

- You will need to know what your enterprise's benchmark for success is in regard to middle career management and the timeframe in which success will be achieved.

- A three year plan addressing your key issues that includes a measurable way ahead must, rpt MUST, be briefed.

- The CNO approved benchmark for officer success is a 2037 Flag Pool that is 10% AA / 13% API / 13% Hispanic. This goal is what you should measure your officer corps against. There is no need to create a new benchmark; certainly the benchmark itself should be a discussion topic, but no need to create a new goal that differs from CNO's stated targets.

Follow-on briefs will be scheduled by CNO after your initial brief with him. This brief will be your opportunity to showcase what your individual enterprise/community diversity make-up reflects and your plan to move ahead.

As always, CAPT Ken Barrett and his team in my diversity directorate are standing by to assist you in putting together the best product possible for your brief to CNO.

Standing by for any questions. All the best and v/r, John

Numbers from the latest posted CO/XO SWO Mentoring brief from Bupers, available here:

(APR08, so none of this is new) I have cited this when talking about retention.
Goal for SWO Flags 2037:
62.9% White
10.7% African American
13.5% Hispanic
12.9% Asian/Pacific islander or Native American

I read Goal as Quota. Of note is the comparative ENS accessions (who I assume will make up the 2037 flag pool):
77% White
8% African American
6% Hispanic
9% Asian/Pacific islander or Native American

Labels: Diversity

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:06

Normally, forthcoming elections, especially presidential contests, cause a fraction of the public to pay closer than normal attention. So election season is normally Attention Season (2008 election). This is why Republicans tend to increase their support in generic polls about political preferences as elections approach. If one looked at off—year polling about party preferences, one would expect Congress to be in the hands of Democrats. But as political advertising reaches its peak prior to election day, Republicans tend to gain support, as a critical fraction makes up its mind at the last minute and pays attention to political arguments.

But Attention Season is not limited to election years. A crisis, such as 9/11, can focus Americans even in an off year. Nevertheless, Attention Season is a fleeting moment. Unless there is a special reason, most Americans do not really want to pay much attention to politics. They have far more important matters to attend to: their own lives. Outside a small percentage of political junkies in the populace, mostly those committed to one or another political viewpoint, most Americans perceive only headlines, sound bytes, images, and vague impressions of politicians, parties and issues.

It (the 2006 election) is Inattention Season, and that is normal American politics.

The default mode of Inattention Season strongly favors the Democrats. The overwhelmingly liberal media exercise their power in both blatant and subtle ways to convey a warm and fuzzy impression of Democrats. Photo editors at daily newspapers play a key role, selecting scowling pictures of Republicans and smiling pictures of Democrats, for instance. All of the television news outlets except Fox look for sound bites and visuals to reinforce a positive impression of Democrats whenever possible, and portray Republicans as mean, bigoted, white, male, awkward and stupid.

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:14

Monday’s New York Post included a revealing column by Amir Taheri, a respected commentator on the Middle East. The piece, bolstered by firsthand reporting, provided a troubling glimpse into Senator Barack Obama’s trip to Iraq in July.

According to Taheri, Sen. Obama used the trip to press Iraqi leaders to delay negotiations with a “weak” and “politically confused” Bush administration. Calling the U.S. presence in Iraq “illegal,” Sen. Obama also tried to press General Petraeus & Co. for a realistic withdrawal date, to no avail.

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:49

....two of his top economic advisers have some pretty darned good connections with those two.

Franklin Raines worked at Fannie Mae for years, rising to vice-chairman until Bill Clinton tapped him to head up the Office of Management and Budget. Raines returned to head Fannie Mae in 1999, staying until he "retired" in 2004 amid allegations of accounting irregularities and the revelation that he had received a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide.

Jim Johnson preceded Raines at Fannie Mae, where he had run the company as chairman from 1991 to 1998. Johnson served on Barack Obama's vice-presidential search committee until it was revealed that he, too, had gotten sweetheart loans from Countrywide.

Sen. Obama has received $105,849 from donors tied to the companies since he ran for the senate four years ago, making him the third-largest recipient in Congress among the top 25 listed in a recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics, which examined contributions dating to 1989.

Sen. McCain wasn't listed in the report, and proponents of overhaul say lobbyists have tried unsuccessfully to win him over.

"When the highly-paid CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac felt reformers closing in, they needed a defender. They knew where to send their money. The Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd... and Barack Obama. They gave Obama more than $126,000, in less than four years. While Fannie and Freddie was running aground, Dodd, Obama, and Congress looked elsewhere. Ask yourself who can really bring change to Washington, and keep our financial system from running aground."

Labels: Economics, Food Trough, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:14

Acknowledging the importance of tapping the resources of Web 2.0 technology, namely one of its most prevalent user group, Net Generation-the generation born between the late 70s to the early 90s-the Navy's Chief Information Officer, Robert J. Carey, didn't send a memo; he blogged. "In addition to being raised on computers, this generation thinks differently from the generations that have preceded them. This Age of Mass Collaboration requires parallel rather than linear thinking, which the Net Gen has mastered as a result of their seemingly innate knack for multitasking," Carey said on his blog. According to the IT world, Web 2.0 has a myriad of meanings. But if one were to Google "Web 2.0," one of the first definitions of the term comes up as: "Web 2.0 encapsulates the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and social interactions on the Web." Each military arm's CIO has their own website, but Carey is said to be the first CIO to harness 2.0 technology with his blog.

Labels: Blogg'n

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:39

Labels: Economics, Humor, Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:20

Labels: Humor, Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:02

The West has no coherent strategy for victory in Afghanistan, according to the former EU envoy Francesc Vendrell.
...
"Because for as long as the Bush administration is in office it is impossible to change the Bush administration's approach to Afghanistan.

"They don't want to see any changes because they still hope to present Afghanistan as a success story," Mr Vendrell said.

Labels: Afghanistan, Europe

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:01

Iran has the power to control the Gulf as no vessel can cross the vital seaway without coming in range of its sophisticated weaponry, a top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday.

The sabre-rattling comments from General Rahim Yahya Safavi came a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency accused Iran of stalling its investigation into the country's nuclear drive.

"Responsibility for defending the Persian Gulf has been handed over to the naval forces of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps," Safavi was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA.

Their missiles can cover the entire width of the Gulf and "no ship can cross it without being within range," the former commander-in-chief of the Guards told IRNA.

"Our armed forces with their defence equipment including missile, air, naval and torpedo capabilities are able to control the Strait of Hormuz."

Labels: Iran

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:41

Labels: Aircraft, Carrier

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

Labels: Clinton, Humor, Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:56

"If I had a vote in the U.S., I would choose McCain," beams retired Col. Tran Trong Duyet, the camp's former commander. "I want him in the White House."

This unlikely sentiment is widely shared in this fast-growing country of 85 million. "The majority of the people in Vietnam know Sen. McCain and feel comfortable about him," says Duong Trung Quoc, a member of Vietnam's National Assembly and secretary-general of the Association of Vietnamese Historians. "Nobody here knows about Obama."

Labels: McCain

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:23

FNM and FRE own or guarantee almost $6 trillion in US home loans. So, one could argue that this is a good move by the government. Of course, you and I are screwed as we are going to foot the bill. Since we are going to foot the bill, can we vote on just who is going to run the joint now? This is not how capitalism is supposed to work!

As of this writing, both common and preferred holders are toast with the debt holders being covered by the government. But is the government going to backstop all the small and mid-size banks that were forced into buying all the preferred stuff? They are waaaaaaaaay underwater, with some possibly illiquid because of these investments.

What is left in the bag when (I mean if) General Motors (GM) goes bye-bye? Where does this end? The castration of the American taxpayer continues.

Is anyone going to jail? How does Frank Raines get away with a monstrous fraud with no penalties, and a fine he doesn't have to pay?

I close with a quote by Davy Crockett. HUH? Yup...Davy Crockett... I wish Davy Crockett was still alive. This dude made sense! Obviously, Uncle Al, Uncle Ben and Uncle Hank never read these words. And yes, I freely admit that I saw this on another website.

Davy Crockett's "Not Yours To Give" Speech In Congress:

The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by tariff (Note: There were no income taxes in the 1800s when this was written, most government revenue came from tariffs), which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means.

If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any thing and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose.

- Davy Crockett's "Not Yours To Give" Speech In Congress

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:09

But, as already pointed out, since 1982 experience in conducting war or large-scale operations has hardly existed, as most of the IDF activity has long been of a policing nature in the territories. To make matters worse, in recent years the IDF has undergone a process of superficial intellectualization, the manifestations of which have been a pretentious post-modern approach and a tendency to imitate American military thinking in an absorptive rather than competitive form. One of the outcomes of this process has been a weakening commitment to one of the cornerstones of Israel's traditional defense doctrine - battlefield decision.
...
Pretentious post-modern approach

The IDF's Operational Doctrine Research Institute, which was very influential in the training of the officer corps before the war, believed that delving into non-military post-modern theories would equip senior officers with the tools necessary for dealing with the complex and changing realities of war. According to the Institute's director Brigadier General (res.) Shimon Naveh, '[…] We read Christopher Alexander, […] John Forester, and other architects. We are reading Gregory Bateson; we are reading Clifford Geertz. Not myself, but our soldiers, our generals are reflecting on these kinds of materials. We have established a school and developed a curriculum that trains “operational architects”.'

In his lectures Naveh was using a diagram resembling a 'square of opposition' that plotted a set of logical relationships between certain propositions referring to military and guerrilla operations. Labeled with phrases such as 'Difference and Repetition - The Dialectics of Structuring and Structure', 'Formless Rival Entities', 'Fractal Maneuver', 'Velocity vs. Rhythms', 'The Wahabi War Machine', 'Postmodern Anarchists' and 'Nomadic Terrorists', Naveh and his team often referenced the work of Deleuze and Guattari. 'War machines, according to these philosophers, are polymorphous; diffuse organizations characterized by their capacity for metamorphosis, made up of small groups that split up or merge with one another, depending on contingency and circumstances.' Classic military thinkers became no more than names, whose sayings were occasionally cited, but whose writings were not read or studied in-depth. Inspired by this institute, IDF officers in military academies and colleges started learning the writings of great architects instead of the writings of the masters of war.

It is a warning sign against the over-reliance on technology in general and on airpower or network-centric warfare in particular, or the illusion that thanks to technology such countries can rely on 'small but smart' militaries, and that technology minimizes fatalities, eliminates friction, decreases the dependence on logistics, breaks the enemy's will and can achieve quick victory by itself. RMA conceptions may be elegant and sophisticated, but they cannot replace simple military notions that have been held by military thinkers for centuries, such as the identification of and operation against centers of gravity - not just creating 'effects'; the role played by ground forces in battlefield success; the importance of inflicting physical damage on the enemy - not just 'burning its consciousness'; and the fact that the enemy does not abide by the rules one wishes to dictate. A highly ideologically motivated and determined enemy, conducting heroic warfare, using simple but effective technology, and relying on a decentralized command and control and logistical system can compensate for its quantitative and qualitative inferiority. No RMA-inspired warfare doctrine can effectively work against such a combination.

Labels: Maritime Strategy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:39

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:42

"We all know the U.N. is a huge bureaucracy," Ban told the assembled senior officials. "Coming here, 20 months ago, that prospect did not bother me. …

"Then I arrived in New York. There is bureaucracy, I discovered — and then there is the U.N."
...
"We get too bogged down in internal or bureaucratic technicalities," he told the heads of 27 U.N. organizations, funds and programs known as the U.N. System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.

"We waste incredible amounts of time on largely meaningless matters."
...
Ban told his department heads that they "squabble among themselves over posts and budgets and bureaucratic prerogatives as though as they somehow owned them,"

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:37

Labels: Iraq, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:55

Let's blow this taco stand.

Where were you in 1982
With your Oingo Boingo, Missing Persons, and U2
(inintellible)
1985 you're a never was has been
1986 I'm sure you're going to find that
You're shooting your mouth off
But nobody listening
You're a f^(&ing legend
In your own f^(&ing mind

Labels: Music

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:32

The battle started before all units were fully deployed. Early in the morning, at 4 AM, the Turks attacked, seeking to interfere with the deployment of the Holy League troops. Charles of Lorraine moved forward with the Austrian army on the left and the German forces in the center.

Mustafa Pasha launched a counter-attack, with most of his force, but held back some of the elite Janissary and Sipahi units for a simultaneous assault on the city. The Turkish commanders had intended to take Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but time ran out. Their sappers had prepared another large and final detonation under the Löbelbastei,[4] to breach the walls. While the Turks hastily finished their work and sealed the tunnel to make the explosion more effective, the Austrian "moles" detected the tunnel in the afternoon. One of them entered and defused the load just in time.

At that time, above the "subterranean battlefield", a large battle was going on, as the Polish infantry launched a massive assault upon the Turkish right flank. Instead of focusing on the battle with the relief army, the Turks tried to force their way into the city, carrying their crescent flag.

After twelve hours of fighting, the Poles held the high ground on the right. The Holy League cavalry waited on the hills, and watched the infantry battle for the whole day. Then at about 5 PM, the cavalry attacked in four groups. One group was Austrian-German, and the other three were Polish. Over 20,000 men, charged down the hills (one of the largest cavalry charges in history). The charge was led by Sobieski at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the famed "Winged Hussars". The Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish themselves from the Tatars fighting on the Turkish side. The charge broke the lines of the Ottomans, who were tired from the long fight on two sides. In the confusion, the cavalry headed straight for the Ottoman camps, while the remaining Vienna garrison sallied out of its defenses and joined in the assault.

The Ottoman troops were tired and dispirited following the failure of both the sapping attempt and the brute force assault on the city. The arrival of the cavalry turned the tide of battle against them, sending them into retreat to the south and east. In less than three hours after the cavalry attack, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna.

After the battle, Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous quote by saying "Venimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit" - "We came, We saw, God conquered".

An impassioned preacher, Marco d'Aviano played an important role in maintaining unity among the 'Holy League' armies of Austria, Poland, Venice, and the Papal States under the leadership of the Polish king Jan III Sobieski. In the decisive Battle of Vienna (1683), the 'Holy League' armies succeeded in repulsing the invading Ottoman Turks. There is, however, no basis in fact for the legend that, during the fighting, Marco d'Aviano brandished a crucifix at the Turks, shouting, 'Behold the Cross of the Lord: Flee, enemy bands!' He spent the time of the battle praying in a chapel. From 1683 to 1689 he participated in the military campaigns in the role of promoting good relations within the Imperial army and to help the soldiers spiritually. His assistance helped to bring about the liberation of Buda in 1686 and Belgrade in 1688. In 2003, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

In the early morning of September 12, 1683 the Christian army, having participated in the Holy Mass, and responding to the Friar’s preaching and encouragement attacked the Ottoman’s camp. The Christian army, under the command of John Sobieski, King of Poland, and led by Marco d’Aviano were able to use the element of surprise to defeat the enemy’s much stronger army.

In retreat the Turks – in addition to leaving behind the important harem belonging to commander Kara Mustafa – abandoned 500 bags of coffee beans, a daily beverage for the Turks, but still unknown in the West.

A certain Brother Diodat, considered by many as the one who introduced coffee to Europe, captured many of those bags and sold some of them in Vienna. But the Viennese did not like the bitter beverage, so they added honey, milk and cream, typical local products. The resulting beverage had great success among the soldiers and the population.

That’s how Cappuccino, the innovative beverage, colored white and brown like the Capuchin Friar’s frock-coat, was born and was named after the religious order.

Labels: Austria, Fullbore, Islam, Religion

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

Labels: Music, Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:30

Labels: Long War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:51

As a devotee of O'Neil and Kaltbaum, I am a big fan of the "cup with handle," 10-week line, and standard price-volume metrics well known to those who have read William J. O'Neil's, How to Make Money in Stocks. However, there are some that work momentum which is a different discipline altogether.

Labels: Politics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:03

Russia said Monday that it will send a naval squadron and long-range patrol planes to Venezuela this year for a joint military exercise in the Caribbean, an announcement made at a time of increasingly tense relations with the United States.
...
Mr. Nesterenko said the Peter the Great missile cruiser and three other Russian navy ships would visit Venezuela before the year's end and would be joined by a unit of long-range anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

He did not say how many planes would be sent, but said they would be "temporarily based at one of Venezuela's air bases."

Mr. Nesterenko did not name the type of planes that would be deployed to Venezuela. Russia has two such planes: the Tu-142, which is an anti-submarine version of the Tu-95 Bear strategic bomber, and the smaller Il-38.

Labels: Cold War, Latin America, Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

After three years at the helm of Naval Sea Systems Command, retiring Vice Adm. Paul Sullivan takes satisfaction in reeling off a list of accomplishments.

“We delivered a bunch of ships, we’ve overhauled a lot of ships, we’ve got a lot of new technology that’s been going into the ships,” he said during an August interview.

The process hasn’t come without its share of hiccups, he said, but the command’s headquarters team is much more focused. “The chemistry between our front office and the program executive officers has improved a lot,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan also worked to improve the mix of people working at NavSea; 2 percent of U.S. engineers are NavSea employees, he said.

“If you look around our headquarters ... you know we’re still a white male province, [but] we worked hard on that,” he said. In particular, Sullivan worked to get more Hispanics into the command’s programs, beefing up command-sponsored scholarships at engineering schools.

A major personnel issue that emerged over the past few years showed that NavSea’s post-Cold War downsizing had gone too far in some areas. Those shortcomings were brought into focus by problems experienced with the Littoral Combat Ship program.

The LCS program, Sullivan said, forced NavSea into “a self-examination. We looked and saw how short we were after 15 years of downsizing.”

The loss of engineers at the Washington Navy Yard headquarters was particularly acute.

“We downsized our headquarters engineering staff dramatically, from almost 1,300 engineers ... in 1988 down to about 250 to 260 today,” he said. Sullivan said about 200 engineers are being relocated from field work to headquarters tasks.

Acknowledging the Navy’s need to keep its ships operating 30 or more years to support the 313-ship fleet, Sullivan noted that “very few ships retire early due to material condition. The ships that we’re retiring early are ships that have become combat-irrelevant because we didn’t modernize them.”

... today’s sailors are “the best people I’ve ever seen. Every time I walk on a ship, I wonder why I’m only working 14 hours a day for these kids.”

Labels: Diversity, NAVSEA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:48

If ever there was a car made for the times, this would seem to be it: a sporty subcompact that seats five, offers a navigation system, and gets a whopping 65 miles to the gallon. Oh yes, and the car is made by Ford Motor (F), known widely for lumbering gas hogs.

Ford's 2009 Fiesta ECOnetic goes on sale in November. But here's the catch: Despite the car's potential to transform Ford's image and help it compete with Toyota Motor (TM) and Honda Motor (HMC) in its home market, the company will sell the little fuel sipper only in Europe. "We know it's an awesome vehicle," says Ford America President Mark Fields. "But there are business reasons why we can't sell it in the U.S." The main one: The Fiesta ECOnetic runs on diesel.

Automakers such as Volkswagen (VLKAY) and Mercedes-Benz (DAI) have predicted for years that a technology called "clean diesel" would overcome many Americans' antipathy to a fuel still often thought of as the smelly stuff that powers tractor trailers. Diesel vehicles now hitting the market with pollution-fighting technology are as clean or cleaner than gasoline and at least 30% more fuel-efficient.

Yet while half of all cars sold in Europe last year ran on diesel, the U.S. market remains relatively unfriendly to the fuel. Taxes aimed at commercial trucks mean diesel costs anywhere from 40 cents to $1 more per gallon than gasoline.

Labels: Economics, Energy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:07

As Keane was laying out his view, President Bush walked in.

"I know you're talking to Dave," Bush said to Keane. "I know that the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon have some concerns." The JCS had not favored the surge of 30,000 troops that Bush had decided was essential to quell the escalating violence in Iraq; the chiefs were deeply worried that the surge left no strategic reserve for an unexpected crisis elsewhere.

Keane repeated what he had just told Cheney: The JCS and Adm. William J. Fallon, Petraeus's boss at Central Command, were insisting on studies and reports to justify even the smallest request for more resources for Iraq. Their persistent pressure, pushing Petraeus for a faster drawdown, was taking its toll.

"There is very little preparation," Keane said, "for somebody who grows up in a military culture to have an unsupportive chain of command above you and still be succeeding. You normally get fired." The result, he said, is that Petraeus "starts to look for ways to get rid of this pressure, which means some kind of accommodation."

Bush said he wanted Keane to deliver a personal message to Petraeus from his commander-in-chief. After Bush laid out his thoughts, Keane went to the large West Wing lobby, sat among the couches and chairs and wrote out the president's words.

Then he called Petraeus and said they had to meet.
...
* * *

On Saturday, Sept. 15, Keane went to Quarters 12-A at Fort Myer in Arlington, where Petraeus and his wife, Holly, maintained Army housing while he was stationed in Iraq. Ever since Petraeus had taken over as the Iraq commander, Keane had been making regular visits to Baghdad to see his protégé. Upon his return to Washington, Keane would come to the White House or the vice president's residence, establishing a line of communication -- Petraeus to Keane to Cheney and Bush -- around the official chain of command.

The two men sat alone. Keane took out the piece of paper and read the president's message, verbatim, aloud to Petraeus:

"I respect the chain of command. I know that the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon have some concerns. One is about the Army and Marine Corps and the impact of the war on them. And the second is about other contingencies and the lack of strategic response to those contingencies.

"I want Dave to know that I want him to win. That's the mission. He will have as much force as he needs for as long as he needs it.

"When he feels he wants to make further reductions, he should only make those reductions based on the conditions in Iraq that he believes justify those reductions. These two concerns that we are discussing back here in Washington -- about contingency operations and the needs of the Army and the Marine Corps -- they are not your concerns. They are my concerns.

"I do not want to change the strategy until the strategy has succeeded. I waited over three years for a successful strategy. And I'm not giving up on it prematurely. I am not reducing further unless you are convinced that we should reduce further."

It was a message of total support. No ground commander could ask for more. That Bush had sent it through this back channel, or even at all, revealed the depth and intensity of disagreements between the president and the military establishment in Washington.

After hearing the president's message, Petraeus told Keane, "I wish he'd tell CentCom and the Pentagon that." These were the people he had to deal with every day, and they had a very different perspective.

The senior military leadership in Washington, though unaware of the extent of Keane's role, was uncomfortable with his frequent visits to Iraq and his influence at the White House.

Gen. George W. Casey Jr. was one of them. After serving as Iraq commander for two years, he had handed over the job to Petraeus in early 2007. Casey was now Army chief of staff and a member of the Joint Chiefs. It was a promotion and a kind of soft landing, but he had left Iraq feeling he had lost Bush's confidence.

In the summer of 2007, Casey was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington, waiting for a routine physical, when he spotted Keane standing in line at the radiology desk.

The two generals locked eyes for a moment, then Keane turned away, as if he hadn't recognized Casey.

"Hi Jack, how are you?" Casey said, extending his hand. He had been waiting for a moment like this. "Has the chairman called you yet?"

"No, why?" Keane asked.

"Because we feel -- the chiefs feel -- that you are way too out in front advocating a policy for which you're not accountable. We're accountable. You're not accountable, Jack. And that's a problem."

Keane said he had taken action as a member of the secretary of defense's policy board, whose members were supposed to offer their independent advice. All he was trying to do was help Petraeus, he said. "I supported this strategy for three years when a lot of other guys didn't," Keane said, referring to Casey's strategy to build up the Iraqi security forces in hopes of a speedier withdrawal of U.S. troops. "And at some point, I no longer could support it. I'm not operating as some kind of Lone Ranger."

"It's not appropriate for a retired general to be so far forward advocating a policy that he is not responsible or accountable for," Casey said again.

"I'll take your counsel," said Keane, but he didn't suggest he would act any differently.

The following month, Keane heard through the Pentagon grapevine that Adm. Michael Mullen, who had replaced Gen. Peter Pace as JCS chairman, had told colleagues that one of his first plans was to "get Keane back in the box."

Keane arranged an appointment with Mullen.

"This is a difficult session for me," Mullen said, "but I don't want you going to Iraq anymore and helping Petraeus."

"What the hell? What are you talking about?" Keane asked.

"You've diminished the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs," Mullen said. It wasn't clear to the American people who was actually in charge of the military, he said.

"C'mon, stop it," Keane said. "The American people don't even know who the hell I am. This is Washington, D.C., stuff. You can't be serious."

"Yeah, I am," Mullen said.

Keane tried to tell Mullen how his contacts with the White House had begun, how he had gone to Pace and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in late 2006 with his complaints about the Iraq war strategy and had wound up meeting with the president because Pace and the vice president had recommended that Bush hear from Keane directly.

Mullen, formerly chief of naval operations, had not favored the surge; Keane had, publicly and vocally. Mullen told Keane he had become acutely aware of the strains on the Army and the Marine Corps. Military families were shouldering the strain, and the military was losing quality officers.

"Mike, all of that's true," Keane said. "But this is true every time we fight a war of any consequence." Wars break armies, and they have to be put back together, he said. That's the price of war. But the price was worth it. "You've not talked one time about winning here, Mike. Not one time have you mentioned 'I want to win in Iraq.' I mean, do you?"

It was an insulting question to put to a fellow military man.

"Of course I want to win," Mullen said.

"I assume you do," Keane replied, "but to the degree that you're putting pressure on Petraeus to reduce forces, you're taking far too much risk, and that risk is in losing and not winning."

"Well," Mullen said, "we're just going to disagree."

"You really don't want me to help Petraeus?" Keane asked. "Dave Petraeus, no matter who he wants to talk to over there, no matter what size he is, shape he is, what his views are, given Petraeus's responsibility -- he's got the toughest job anybody in uniform has -- why wouldn't you let him have that?"

"No," Mullen said, "I don't want to take the chance. I don't want you to do it."

End of meeting.

Afterward, when Keane found that he couldn't get clearance to go to Iraq, he called John Hannah, Cheney's national security adviser, to report what had happened. Shortly afterward, Keane received a call from Army Lt. Gen. Skip Sharp on Mullen's staff.

"We have an unusual request," Sharp said. "We have a request from the White House to provide assurances that General Keane will be able to visit Iraq and assist General Petraeus as he has been doing in the past." Sharp was apparently doing some staff work before passing the request to Mullen. "This is really bizarre. Do you have any idea why this would be happening?"

"Yeah, of course," Keane said. "I've been told I can't go."

"Who told you that?"

"The chairman." There was a long silence. Finally, Keane said, "Skip, are you there?"

"I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on," Sharp said.

Keane later spoke with Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Gates.

"The secretary has received some notes," Chiarelli said, so now the secretary and his office were telling everyone, "General Keane, as in the past, as well as in the future, can go into Iraq to assist General Petraeus whenever they want it to happen. We have no problem with any of that."

Who sent the notes?

There were two, said Chiarelli -- one from the vice president and another from the president.

In early March 2008, Esquire magazine published a long article by Thomas P.M. Barnett, a former professor at the Naval War College who had traveled with Fallon to the Middle East. Headlined, "The Man Between War and Peace," the 7,500-word article was mostly laudatory but portrayed Fallon as "brazenly challenging" Bush and Cheney on Iran policy.

Fallon, who was in Baghdad, realized instantly the uproar it would cause. He called Gates.

"I think I need to be gone," Fallon said.

"Okay," Gates said.

Later that afternoon, Gates went before the television cameras. "I have approved Admiral Fallon's request to retire with reluctance and regret," he said. "Admiral Fallon reached this difficult decision entirely on his own. I believe it was the right thing to do even though I do not believe there are, in fact, significant differences between his views and administration policy."

The same might be said of the one truly original take offered by Mr. Woodward. This is his curious assertion that it's not the surge that has produced the great reduction in violence in Iraq. The reduced violence, he says, is the result of the increased lethality of covert operations against terrorist leaders and operatives.

Which brings up two interesting points. First, we are led to find fault with a president allegedly obsessed with a "kill the bastards" approach to Iraq. But then we are asked to accept that the reason we're now seeing success in Iraq because we're . . . killing the bastards.

Second, the surge was a shift in mission, not simply an addition of five brigades. Until the surge, we had pursued a political solution, hoping that the answer to Iraq was the rise of a democratic government that would persuade Iraqis to come together for their future. The surge, by contrast, finally recognized the obvious: Until Iraqis started feeling safe in their own homes and neighborhoods, there would be no compromise or rebuilding.

Sophisticates have never liked Mr. Bush for his preference for words like "win" and "victory" to describe what America is trying to do in Iraq. And if Mr. Woodward's latest contribution is any clue, they'll never forgive him for doing something even worse: proving it can be done.

Labels: Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:03

The top-secret mission was to deliver a new turbine to the Kajaki Dam. The second-largest hydro-electric dam in Afghanistan, Kajaki is designed to operate three turbines, and was originally built with American money in 1953 to provide electricity to Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. But that was another era of the Great Game. Only two out of three turbines were installed, and they fell apart when the Soviet Union pulled out from Afghanistan in 1989.

Since the American-led invasion in 2001, only one turbine was working. The mission’s goal was to drag a second turbine up treacherous roads, and put it online. The operation was of a magnitude large enough to warrant its own name: Operation Oqab Tsuka: Pashto for “Eagle’s Summit.” Some of the younger soldiers, when they heard about the plan to drive a giant convoy straight through Taliban territory, had another name for it: “Operation Suicide.”
...
U.S. General Dan McNeill, the top commander in Afghanistan, wanted a combat-experienced group to plan and execute the mission, so he chose the commander of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, who said, “We will take that turbine to Kajaki.”

Several British officers, including Major Howard-Harwood, stressed to me that this was not a “British” operation. Yes, it was led by British troops, but USAID (American taxpayers) paid for the parts, installation, and much more. U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) and others would help ensure the convoy made it through. I was briefed on the SOF operations, but will make no comment other than to say that their contribution would be dangerous and essential to success. Afghan, Canadian, Australian and Danish troops also played very important roles. American and British air would provide most of the air cover. The British 3 Para and 2 Para would conduct treacherous and critical combat operations to take pressure off the convoy.

Labels: Afghanistan

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:12

Nicaragua has recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, backing Russia's stance on the breakaway Georgian regions and siding with other leftist Latin American nations to defy Washington.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist guerrilla leader who had close ties to Moscow during the Cold War, has criticized Georgia's attempt to regain control of South Ossetia and supported a counterattack by Russia.

Venezuela and Cuba have sided with Russia in the dispute, but Ortega went further in fully recognizing the regions' independence.

Labels: Latin America, Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:50

Grumman recently tested an electronic laser system that combines small silicon-based lasers into one more powerful beam, much like the Death Star. 100 kilowatts (kW) is generally considered the threshold for a useful weapons grade laser, and the most recent test only hit 30 kW. Since the weapon is built simply by chaining smaller lasers together,it will be able to quickly scale up its power by the end of the year, according to Grumman.

These new electric lasers have replaced traditional chemical lasers, which are bulky and require noxious gases to generate their high-powered beams. The size and danger of these systems has rendered them impractical for most military situations.

Labels: Weapons

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:40

"At the beginning of this Presidential campaign when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates. I agree that Sarah Palin would be a fantastic interview, and I would love to have her on after the campaign is over.
---- Oprah

If ever there were a candidate destined to shine on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," Sarah Palin would be that woman.

In less than a week, the Alaska governor, former PTA member and 44-year-old mother of five - including an infant with Down syndrome - survived a vicious press assault on her family only to win over the majority of Americans with her brave and unapologetic speech at the Republican National Convention last week.

In a media instant, Sarah Palin went from an unknown moose hunter to a mass phenomenon on the precipice of becoming the vice president of the United States.

She is the Oprah audience personified - an unlikely feminist icon that braved the storm while deftly protecting her children. Many already are saying she has the inside track for the top slot in 2012.

Mrs. Palin is history in a dress. And her script is straight out of Hollywood - like those teen movies with the cliched ending featuring the female valedictorian delivering the speech of a lifetime projecting a bold and transformative future with an independent-minded woman in charge.

That future is now.

Women want to get to know Sarah Palin. And they want to meet her family.

Yet Oprah Winfrey, the high priestess of the female empowerment movement and America's most adored television host, denies her massive and loyal audience's most obvious wishes because of her single-minded drive to put Barack Obama in the White House.
...
"She supports Obama because he is black, which is just as bad as NOT supporting him because he is black," voiced an anonymous woman (perhaps Geraldine Ferraro) at Oprah.com. That sentiment - the elephant in the middle of the media spin room - is commonly repeated throughout Oprah's highly trafficked message boards. A small band of defenders ignores the charge and blames Karl Rove for the mess.

"After more than 20 years of interviews, you do not have the capability to handle asking her questions about her life rather than her platform?" writes another angry fan. "Just be honest that you don't want her on the show because her popularity may detract from your personal political candidate. I'm very disappointed and you have lost a lot of credibility."

The cozy relationship between Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama predates the endorsement she gave him in May 2007. First of all, both were members of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's controversial church.

According to a Gallup/USA Today poll in March 2007, Miss Winfrey possessed a whopping 74 percent approval rating. (Incidentally, Mrs. Palin's approval rating in Alaska is a Mother Theresa-like 80 percent.) Miss Winfrey's support dipped to 61 percent by August 2007, and during the primaries her approval dropped further to 55 percent - the lowest in her career.

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:26

Obama spoke for about eight minutes before greeting guests individually. He vowed to fight Republican attacks on his character and background more fiercely than John Kerry did in his losing campaign four years ago.

"We're not going to be bullied, we're not going to be smeared, we're not going to be lied about," Obama said.

Bon Jovi and his wife, Dorothea, hosted more than 100 people for dinner on their mansion lawn by the Navesink River in Middletown, N.J. The price was $30,800 a person...
...
Earlier in the evening, Obama attended a $2,300-per-person reception at the nearby home of veteran party fundraiser Phil Murphy.

AS RECENTLY as November, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was unequivocal about whether he would agree to take public financing for the general election if his Republican opponent pledged to do the same. "If you are nominated for president in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?" the Midwest Democracy Network asked in a questionnaire. Mr. Obama's answer was clear. "Yes," he wrote. "If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

Republican nominee John McCain can raise no more campaign money because he accepted about $84 million in public funding and the restrictions that go with it. Obama turned down the public funding, figuring he can raise and spend more on his own.

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:44

The U.S. Navy's leadership has shown unprecedented ineptitude in the handling of surface ship programs. The previous (and ongoing) mass of problems with the amphibious ships of the LPD 17 class and the littoral combat ships (LCS) seem to pale in comparison to the handling of the DDG 1000 "destroyer" program.

For eight years the Congress and public have heard the Navy's leadership -- civilian and uniformed -- declare that they wanted no more ships of the Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) class. Sixty-two of these destroyers are in service or under construction.

Chiefs of Naval Operations Vern Clark (July 2000 -- July 2005), Michael Mullen (July 2005 -- September 2007), and Gary Roughead (since September 2007) had been adamant that the DDG 1000 was the surface combatant of the future. All three admirals are surface warfare specialists, giving credibility to their statements.

Furthermore, the 30-year shipbuilding plan, which the Navy Department presented to Congress in February 2008 (covering the period fiscal years 2009-2038) still indicated a total of 32 DDG 1000s.

The DDG 1000 program -- assigned the class name Zumwalt -- dates to the early 1990s and a Mission Needs Statement that evolved from the Navy's post-Cold War strategy paper …from the Sea (1992). The strategy postulated that future Navy emphasis should be oriented toward supporting joint/coalition operations against the shore. The "land-attack destroyer" and DD-21 concepts followed, evolving into the DDG 1000.

But this spring the Navy's leadership essentially stopped supporting the DDG 1000 within weeks of contracts being awarded to construct the first two ships. At the same time, the Navy's leaders began advocating for eight or nine additional Burke-class destroyers. Now, at congressional instigation, the third DDG 1000, which is in the president's fiscal year 2009 budget, is also being supported by the Navy leadership.

Another turn-around? Not really, as the Burkes are still being asked for in addition to the three DDG 1000s. As indicated in an earlier blog, the DDG 1000 offers improved capabilities in most warfare areas compared to the earlier destroyer as well as greatly enhanced survivability features. Indeed, the Burke-class destroyer design, which dates back to 1979, will be extensively modified compared to the earlier ships, in part because of basic upgrades to that design, and in part because newer features must be provided to make the ships viable for the next three decades. These changes and other factors will increase the cost of the new Burkes to at least $2 billion per ship compared to just over $1 billion for those units now being completed. (By comparison, in production the DDG 1000s are estimated to cost about $2.5 billion after the first two ships, which are estimated at $3 billion each.)

The situation is confusing, in large part because of the actions of the Navy's leadership. This state of affairs will lead to the new Congress and the new Secretary of Defense undoubtedly taking more control of the Navy's shipbuilding program next January.

Labels: DDG-1000, Food Trough, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:38

Obama disclosed that he had once considered serving in the military.

“You know, I actually did,” Obama said. “I had to sign up for Selective Service when I graduated from high school. And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.

“And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honorable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”

But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end.

Labels: Obama, Vietnam War

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:22

She’s only 44 years old. She’s just not seasoned enough - and if you don’t believe me, just ask Gloria Steinem, age 74, or Barbara Walters, age 78, or Sally Quinn, age 67, or Eleanor Clift, age 68, or Andrea Mitchell, age 61, or Gail Collins, age 62.

Why, up on the stage, it has been noted that you can distinguish Sarah’s ankles from her calves. She’s never had a Botox injection. The hags of the Hamptons speak as one on this issue. Snow White Palin must be stopped. Anybody got a poisoned apple?

How can she be qualified when she doesn’t have a single $1.2-million-a-year lobbyist in her family?
...
And finally, we return to the real reason they hate her. She’s younger than they are, and better looking. Good looks is a deal breaker with this crowd, and if you don’t believe me, just ask Diane Feinstein, age 75, and Nancy Pelosi, age 68, and Hillary Clinton, age 61, and Barbara Boxer, age 67, and Barbara Mikulski, age 72. Beautiful People indeed. In this case, the phrase is meant figuratively, not literally.

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:20

Labels: Books, Iraq

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 17:29

Labels: Obama

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 15:17

Labels: Broadside, Cartoon

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:50

Taiwan plans to mass-produce ship-to-ship missiles to boost its naval defences against China, the United Evening News reported Aug. 29.

The defence ministry has set aside more than 2.26 billion Taiwan dollars ($71.75 million) to manufacture the locally-designed Supersonic Hsiung-feng 3, the United Evening News said.

The defence ministry declined to comment on the report.

Analysts say the Hsiung-feng 3 can be fitted with a variety of guidance systems and can function as a ship-to-ship, land-attack or anti-radar missile. With a range of at least 80 miles, the missile has been designed to counter China's Russia-made equivalent, analysts say.

Labels: ASCM, China

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:59

A US navy flagship has steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region.

A previous trip by American warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand off could erupt in the Black Sea port of Poti.

The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US vice-president, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi yesterday, in which he vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees any such move as a blatant Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.
...
Militarily, the small Russian garrison in Poti would pose almost no threat to a vessel like the Mount Whitney, but the proximity of two hostile forces in such a fraught setting set the political temperature rising again in the Caucasus, a month after Russia’s five day war with Georgia.

The American warship is too large to actually enter the port, where Russia sunk several Georgian navy vessels in its offensive last month. Instead, it is expected anchor offshore and unload its cargo of blankets, hygiene kits, baby food and infant care supplies on to smaller boats.

"I can confirm it has arrived in Poti. Anchoring procedures are still ongoing but it has arrived," said a US naval official.

Labels: Russia

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:40

"They're like a lion tiptoeing around a turtle — they don't know what to do with it," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden...

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:57

The British Fleet continued its course southward without receiving any information from the cruisers which had been stationed off the Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay, and on the morning of the 5th of September, under a favourable north-northeast wind, it approached the capes of the Chesapeake. At 9.30 a. m. the frigate Solebay, scouting in advance of the fleet, "made the signal. for a Fleet in the S. W." The course of the British ships at this time was southwest by west, and at 10 a. m. Cape Henry bore west by south 6 leagues from the flagship London. A half hour later all the cruisers with the fleet were called in and the signal made to prepare for action. At 11 a. m. the signal was made for a line of battle ahead at 2 cables' length asunder, the French Fleet being now clearly visible at anchor and seemingly extending across the entrance to the bay, from Cape Henry to the Middle Ground. Having the wind, and the weather being fair, the British ships manoeuvred into position without difficulty and by noon all were getting into their stations. The log of the London at this time shows that Cape Henry bore west one-half south 4 or 5 leagues.

On the morning of the 5th of September the French Fleet was at anchor in Lynnhaven Roads awaiting tidings of the march of the allied armies under Washington and Rochambeau, and the return of the boats and crew sent up the James River. At 8 o'clock a frigate on the lookout signaled 27 sail in the east, steering toward Chesapeake Bay. It was evident from the number of sail that the fleet signaled was not that of Comte de Barras, which was expected hourly. The Comte de Grasse immediately ordered all hands to prepare for action; he recalled the rowboats that were out for water; and signaled the ships to be ready to weigh anchor. The tide by noon permitting the fleet to sail, cables were slipped, and the ships were manoeuvred with such celerity that notwithstanding the absence of nearly 90 officers and 1,800 men who had not yet returned from landing St. Simon's command, the fleet was under way in less than three quarters of an hour.

Labels: America, France, Tall Ships

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:40

Labels: Germany

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:59

Labels: Moonbats

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 13:51

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:30

As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan. Our motto: Sarah Palin is only a heartbeat away!

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 07:05

Labels: Navy

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:50

No weapon is more effective in war than the lie. No one has deployed military deception, over the years, more effectively than the British. And there are few better examples of the successful British War Lie than Operation Kajaki, the transportation of a giant turbine through 100 miles of hostile Afghan territory carried out by British troops this week.

That operation relied in part on a very simple, very old and very effective ruse: we pointed one way, and then went the other.

For weeks, military engineers have been seen working on Highway 611, the most obvious route from Kandahar to Kijaki, preparing the road and clearing explosive devices. In the end, the convoy took a completely different path across the desert, mapped out by a secret reconnaissance team and codenamed Harriet. While the Taleban waited on Route 611, the main convoy trundled safely along Harriet while a decoy column of Danish troops took the main road.

Labels: Afghanistan, Britain, Denmark

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:47

A Surge of Ignorance: The only real question about the planned "surge" in Iraq — which is better described as a Vietnam-style escalation — is whether its proponents are cynical or delusional. -- Paul Krugman, NYT, 1/8/07

Labels: Iraq, Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:33

Labels: McCain, Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 16:30

* We don’t know who would win in a Chuck Norris - Sarah Palin cage match because they’ve never invented a cage that can hold Sarah Palin.
* Alaska is the 49th state solely because they knew even before she was born that Sarah Palin would never finish last.
* Global Warming doesn’t kill polar bears. Sarah Palin does - usually with her bare hands.
* Sarah Palin’s hotness is the largest single contributor to melting polar ice caps.
* It’s not raining in DC. Those are God’s tears of joy that McCain picked Sarah Palin.
* Iran’s nuclear program is a response to Sarah Palin.
* Sarah Palin used to wrestle kodiak bears in Alaskan bare knuckles fight clubs.
* Sarah Palin once bagged a caribou by staring it down until it died.
* Sarah Palin turned down a job as skipper of a Deadliest Catch boat because it wasn’t challenging enough.
* Sarah Palin fishes salmon by convincing them it’s in their interest to jump into the boat.

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 11:45

Wisconsin-based U.S. shipbuilder Manitowoc has agreed to sell its Marine segment - which includes Marinette Marine, builder of Lockheed Martin's Littoral Combat Ship - to a Fincantieri-led partnership in an all-cash deal worth $120 million, Fincantieri and Manitowoc announced Monday. Lockheed is a minority partner in the new deal, Manitowoc said.

"This transaction will allow Manitowoc to focus its financial assets and managerial resources on the growth of its increasingly global crane and foodservice businesses," Manitowoc President and CEO Glen Tellock said in a press release announcing the deal.

The company plans to use expected after-tax proceeds from the sale of 60 cents a share for general corporate purposes, including paying down debt expected from Manitowoc's planned acquisition of Enodis, a British food and beverage equipment maker.

Labels: Italy, Shipbuilding

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:49

Levi Johnston's mother said her 18-year-old son left Alaska on Tuesday morning to join the Palin family at the convention where Sen. John McCain will officially receive the Republican nomination for president. The boy's mother, Sherry Johnston, said there had been no pressure put on her son to marry 17-year-old Bristol Palin and the two teens had made plans to wed before it was known she was pregnant.

"This is just a bonus," Johnston said.

The boyfriend of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's unwed, pregnant daughter will join the family of the Republican vice presidential candidate at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn

Labels: Media

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:43

1. Antiship Mines: Even technologically crude sea mines can slow down a superior Navy, especially if the explosives are laid in shallow water or a port area. (For proof, ask the U.S. navy how much fun it was to clear the Iraqi port at Umm Qasr.) Since acoustics are still the primary way warships find mines, advanced sonar is being researched for use on robotic systems that can report the locations of mines well before the fleet gets close. ONR is looking at using low-frequency broadband technology that returns strong echoes despite reverberations in shallow water. That tech will be combined with small synthetic aperture sonar, which combines numerous acoustic "pings" to form a high-resolution image of what's hidden below. This gear will be instilled in a long-range underwater droid that looks like a torpedo and will be capable of finding mines amid the clutter of harbors, the busy noise of ports and the muck of rivers.

2. Rust: Life at sea is hard on even the toughest ships. Corrosion damage to ships is hard on budgets and deployment timetables, too. As proof of the constant worry, the Navy operates a Marine Corrosion Facility near Key West, Fla., that uses a deep channel in the ocean as a natural seawater test site. Using data and test grounds at this well-placed research center, the ONR sees the future of rust prevention in sensors embedded in the ship's materials that can warn maintenance crews of damage, especially unseen parts of the hull, before it can spread. The Navy is also pursuing research in the use of new, rust-resistant treatments and materials.

3. Ballistic Missiles: Navy aircraft carriers are the leading edge of U.S power projection, and as such are popular targets for new weapons systems built by China and Russia. Today's cruise missiles are bad enough, but ballistic ship-killers are on the way. These can be launched from far away, descend at high velocities from directly above a ship and carry large warheads. "China envisions an attack on a carrier strike group as incorporating submarine-launched antiship cruise missile strikes and antiship ballistic missile strikes," states a U.S. naval intelligence report made public in March 2007. Experts have chimed in that the satellite connections required to guide such a missile to a moving target may not be possible for China to field until 2010. Variants of their DF-21 family of missiles will make an old standby ballistic missile into a ship-killer. The ONR is working on hardkill defenses—military jargon for defensive missiles hitting incoming missiles, rather than spoofing them with chaff or avionic-scrambling lasers—that include ballistic threats. The scope of the Navy's detection and countermeasures will also be a research focus: It takes a fleet to defend a carrier, and fusing data from aircraft, ships and ground radar stations is needed.

4. Swarming Attacks: Small ships can only damage a well-equipped Navy if many of them attack at once. A number of explosive-laden suicide craft in a tight waterway such as the Straight of Hormuz could be remarkably effective. Nor surprisingly, the U.S. Navy is very interested in improving its ability to track multiple targets. Since aircraft are among a ship's first, best defenses, the ONR is focusing research on giving helicopters and airplanes the optics to track and fire on numerous targets at once. Instead of multiple laser nodes tracking each target, the Navy is pushing the idea of quickly flickering one laser beam to designate targets for precision weapons systems. An ideal system would share this targeting information with onboard commanders so that those in charge have a better idea of what to shoot and when. The system would be used against ground targets as well.

5. Causing Collateral Casualties: When the Navy is supporting ground troops, especially in urban areas, the last thing a pilot wants to do is turn down a request for help because the only bombs on board the warplane are too big to use. The Navy's solution is a "Selectable Output Weapon" that allows pilots to choose the bomb's desired blast size and fragmentation level from the cockpit. The utility weapon will likely be made of composite material and built using the body of a standard 500-pound bomb. Aside from reducing collateral damage, such a system would reduce costs by eliminating specialty weapons from the arsenal.

Labels: Long Game

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:19

“Real” (inflation-adjusted) median family income – the income of the family right in the middle of the income distribution – hit $61,355 in 2007, an all-time high. This was an increase of 2.1% versus 2006 and the third consecutive annual increase.

The last all-time high was set in 2000. As a result, family incomes in this cycle have followed the same, down, and then up, pattern seen during every recession and recovery in the past 30 years. It took until 1986 to beat the record high set in 1979, and it took until 1996 to beat the record high set in 1989. In other words, the fact that it took seven years to reach a new high is normal.

Labels: Economics

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 05:51

Labels: Fred Thompson, Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:20

Attached is the September Blueprint. Communications themes for this month are Diversity. This aligns to the Strategic Business Plan goal of Enable Our People.

Talking points are as follows:

* NAVSEA's diversity vision seeks a workplace where individual differences are acknowledged, valued and used to sustain the organization's critical national defense efforts.
* Management Directive 715 (MD 715) is a tool to help ensure progress toward a fully diversified work environment that integrates EEO into NAVSEA's strategic mission.
* NAVSEA must begin now to realize a future workforce with diversity at all levels of the organization where the workforce understands and embraces diversity programs and values.
* A workplace environment free from harassment and prejudice has a direct and immediate impact on the NAVSEA mission.
* NAVSEA continues to emphasize the diversity of thought gained from different life experiences, and is expanding recruiting and outreach programs to diverse schools and organizations in order to expand our potential applicant pool. We are committed to being the nation's employer of choice by hiring the best and brightest workers available and keeping these talented individuals engaged in some of the nation's most interesting scientific and engineering work.

Labels: Diversity, NAVSEA

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:53

Labels: Energy, Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:13

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
..
Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Needless to say, for a variety of reasons you won’t be hearing anything about this from Team Barry. But in case any more reason was needed, people are e-mailing to remind me that The One’s mother was also a teenager when she gave birth to him and married his father just six months before he was born. That won’t stop the left from attacking, of course — remember, the ostensible sin here is hypocrisy, not teen motherhood, even though the point clearly enough is to try to shame Palin with her daughter’s morals.

Labels: Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 14:16

In fact, McCain's pick of Governer Palin has lathered the Presidential game of Twister with a nice coat of Vaseline. Obama and Biden best be wary how they contort themselves here. In the words of comedian Brian Regan: "Right foot red... BROKEN! Left foot green... BROKEN."

Let's review the minefield that Team Obama/Biden must navigate with Palin on board.

Palin has more executive experience than Obama himself (having run a company, a PTO, a town and then Alaska).

• WARNING: Bring up the experience issue at your own peril.
• SAMPLE: "When Senator Obama started his first run for local office I was already a two-term mayor. If you simply count the years of experience, I win, frankly."

• Palin fought corruption in an AK GOP party that was (and still is) full of it
  
  • WARNING: Careful around the "ethical" issues
  • SAMPLE: "Like Chicago politics, Alaska politics can sometimes get dirty. In my case I fought my own party tooth and nail for substantive change. I'll let voters decide what Barack Obama did in Chicago."

The father of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says he's been left "speechless" by the announcement that his daughter is John McCain's running mate.

Chuck and Sally Heath got a call from Palin's husband, Todd, yesterday as they were driving to a remote camp in Alaska to hunt caribou. Todd Palin told them to make sure they listen to the radio news because the camp is out of cell phone range.
...
The announcement has proven amusing to Heath. After dealing with constant phone calls, he says he'd "rather go moose hunting than be involved with politics."

Palin is the Republicans' first woman vice-presidential nominee and, of course, has a chance to be the nation's first woman vice president. But "firsts" aside, she's potentially so compelling because she has lived so close to the everyday experience of Americans.

Both McCain and Obama come out of elites removed from middle-class life - in McCain's case, the aristocracy of the Navy; in Obama's, the Ivy League and uber-liberal Hyde Park politics.

Obama tried to pick someone with a connection to working-class life, and got Joe Biden - who's famously from Scranton, but has marinated in the US Senate for the last 35 years.

Palin's the real thing. She met her husband of 20 years in high school. As she said yesterday, she and her husband "grew up working with our hands." A fisherman and snowmobiler, he's a member of the United Steelworkers union and works in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope.

She was "just your average hockey mom," then joined the PTA, got elected to City Council and mayor and won an upset campaign for governor two years ago.

Alaska's Republican Party is a cesspool of cronyism, earmarking and gross self-dealing - and Palin took direct aim at it when she challenged incumbent Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski and beat him in a primary. She went on to defeat ex-Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat, in the general.

Labels: McCain, Palin

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:42

The Navy gets the keys today (28 AUG) to its newest nuclear submarine, the New Hampshire.

Eight months ahead of schedule and $40 million under budget, the New Hampshire

The New Hampshire was christened in June and has gone through sea trials since then.

The Navy will run more sea trials and training before the sub makes its way to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for commissioning in October. will be turned over to the Navy at the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Conn.

Labels: Shipbuilding, Submarine

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:36

P-3s were involved in six mishaps so far this fiscal year, according to Naval Safety Center spokeswoman April Phillips. Despite the fact that there were eight last year, all but one were Class C, the lowest level of mishap.

In each of three classes of mishaps, P-3 mishaps rates have increased during the past decade — from zero to 1.23 per 100,000 hours flown for Class A mishaps, and from zero to 1.23 per 100,000 hours flown for mishaps involving a serious injury or between $200,000 and $1 million in damages, know as Class B.

For Class C — mishaps involving $20,000 to $200,000 in damages — the rate has been higher than seven mishaps per 100,000 hours for four of the five most recent years. A decade ago, that rate was less than 4 per 100,000 hours flown.

In February, the Navy said it needed $548 million in extra fiscal 2009 funding to fix cracks in P-3 wings and to bolster research and development for its replacement, the P-8 multimission maritime aircraft, in hopes of moving up its arrival to the fleet. The funding was the No. 1 item in the Navy’s unfunded “wish list,” which reflects items not included in the service’s budget submission.

Navy spokesman Lt. Clayton Doss said the fact that the repair money wasn’t in the budget submission doesn’t mean the Navy is ignoring the problem. Repairs were put on the list, Doss said, because the budget already had been completed when the extent of the structural issues was discovered.

....a Patrol Squadron 1 pilot lost control of a P-3 after an engine surged during a training exercise near Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash.

The aircraft dropped 5,500 feet, pulling 7 Gs before its pilot regained control less than 200 feet from the ground, according to the reports. The aircraft lost 45 rivets, broke a wing spar and bent its airframe; it landed safely at Whidbey with its crew unharmed.

They did five spin rotations from 5500 ft- - they bottomed out "between 50 and 200 ft"!! They could see the inside of the fuel tanks when they landed. I'll forward the pictures this evening.

They were at 160 KIAS, appr flaps during a prop fails to feather drill on #1 when #2 started surging. They bagged #2, but while doing so got to 122 KIAS. When they added power, they were way below Vmcair, and departed. About a minute later, just before impact, they recovered.
...
The P-3C that almost went into Puget Sound waters a few days ago was from NAS Whidbey.

• It was a CPW-10 aircraft being operated by VP-1.
• Squadrons don't own aircraft any more.
• The P-3 fleet has so deteriorated because of under-funding and over-use that there are less than 100 still flyable*.
• The P-3s belong to the wing and are "lent to the squadrons on an as-needed" basis.
• The mission was a NATOPS pilot check, with a CPW-10 pilot (LT) aboard, a VP-1 LT and LTJG, plus VP-1 aircrewmen that included two flight engineers.
• The word is that the crew finally recovered control of the aircraft about 100 feet above MSL by pulling 7 Gs.
• The bird was landed back at NASW.
• Max damage was sustained by the aircraft, including almost tearing off a wing.
• Aircraft BuNo 161331.
• My first thought is that this was a Vmc incident:
• At Whidbey, P-3C 161331 was doing a Functional Check Flight.
• They shut down #1 engine.
• With #1 off, #2 engine exhibited vibrations and was shutdown.
• With two engines off on the same side the aircraft stalled.
• 7 G's were reported to pull it out of the stall.
• 45 consecutive rivets were pulled out on the stbd wing during the 7 G pull out (rolling pull), after peaking at negative 2.4g's as well.
• They did five spin rotations from 5500 ft -- they bottomed out "between 50 and 200 ft."
• They could see the inside of the fuel tanks when they landed.
• They were at 160 KIAS, appr flaps during a prop fails to feather drill on #1 when #2 started surging.
• They bagged #2, but while doing so got to 122 KIAS.
• When they added power, they were way below VMC air, and departed.
• SDRS recorded the flaps being raised and the landing gear being cycled down and then back up.
• Aircraft released all the fuel in tank #3 when it appears that the seam between planks 3 and 4 split.
• Tank #4 also lost its fuel load when plank #1 separated from rest of the aircraft wing."

Labels: Aircraft

// posted by CDR Salamander @ 06:00