Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
Sadly, again - it is posthumous. We visited him last on a Sunday in OCT '06.
SEAL and Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike Monsoor will posthumously receive the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. It will be given to his parents in a White House ceremony April 8. The next day there will be a Hall of Heroes Dedication followed by a Navy Memorial Dedication. He died in Sept. 2006 after throwing himself on a hand grenade and thereby probably saving the lives of three of his comrades.
Ok, not a cartoon, but it does bring a grimace to the face.
The phone call; the phone call......
Police officers walk near an 88-metre-long cargo vessel, The Artemis, aground on the beach of the western city of Sables-d'Olonne due to a storm. Heavy storms caused travel chaos in Britain on Monday, while France was also battered and three vessels ran into problems in the English Channel, one swept up onto a French beach. (AFP/Franck Perry)
From a Media lesson point - I think Major shows the right way to do an interview. He comes out of the box with the clear and direct questions at the core of the topic, and then gives the interview subject a chance to answer and respond.
Good job by Sen. Obama (D-IL) on doing what he had to do on Fox News of all places. I'm not sure he advanced his position well, but this is exactly what he needed to do to stop the bleeding.
HotAir doesn't quite get it right - but Canada has put forth a conditional double down,
Parliament voted Thursday to extend Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, ...
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has been under growing pressure to withdraw Canada's 2,500 troops as the death toll has mounted, now at 80 Canadian soldiers and a diplomat. The mission was set to expire in February 2009.
But the minority Conservative government and opposition Liberals agreed last month to vote together on the motion, which passed 198-77.
Here is the condition,
....provided NATO supplies more troops and equipment to back up its forces in the volatile south. ... The extension of the mission is conditional on NATO providing 1,000 troops, helicopters and unmanned surveillance aircraft to back up forces in southern Kandahar province, a former Taliban stronghold.
Troops from Canada, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have borne the brunt of a resurgence of Taliban violence in the region, with support from Denmark, Romania, Estonia and non-NATO Australia.
That answer should come at the next NATO Summit in Bucharest this April.
Watch France - this is a chance for Sarkozy to make France the "savior" of NATO and the AFG mission - and if they go to the South, make Germany look bad.That is why my money is on 1,000+ French to the South - if for no other reason than to make the Germans look bad.....
Fate. In time she catches all. Like her sister ship, the Swan of the East, she was a beautiful shipmanned by the best there was. Finding herself and her sisters at the other side of the world from home and safety, surrounded on all sides by those who were hunting them and wanted them dead, they bravely headed through the gauntlet on the way home, knowing full well the odds - anepic tale.
On the way, she faced the fleet of the greatest naval power of her day and handed that power her first defeat on the High Seas in over 100 years at the Battle of Coronel. Turning the corner home, she found herself and her sisters, all five of them, spoofed, spooked, surprised, chased, fought and defeated by that same power in the Battle of the Falklands Islands less than two months later.
All her sisters are dead, and finding herself wounded and falling apart, she retreats away from the gauntlet waiting in her way home. Wandering as she finds a place to rest in the middle on nothing;
Approximately one month later, SMS Dresden was the only German cruiser to escape at the disastrous Battle of the Falkland Islands, her turbine engines proving faster than her expansion-engined squadron mates. The ship then headed south back around Cape Horn to the maze of channels and bays in southern Chile. Until March 1915 the ship evaded Royal Navy searches while paralyzing British trade routes in the area.
On March 8th, the Dresden put into the Cumberland Bight on the Chilean island of Mas-a-Tierra (AKA Robinson Crusoe Island). Due to lack of supplies and parts for the worn-out engines, the ship ceased to be operational. Six days later, on March 14, 1915, British warships found the elusive German cruiser.
What do you do? The Commanding Officer (whose name I cannot find anywhere) knew,
After a few shots were fired, the Dresden ran up a white flag and sent Lieutenant Wilhelm Canaris, who would become a famous Kriegsmarine admiral during the Second World War, to negotiate with the British. However, this was merely a ruse to buy time so the Dresden's crew could abandon ship and scuttle her. At 11:15 a.m. the Dresden slipped under the waves with her war ensign proudly flying. Her crew of about 300 men was interned in Chile for the duration of the war, with about a third electing to remain and resettle in Chile at war's end.
The right call, a good call. She and her crew could hold their heads high, including the one that later served in the Royal Navy. Made quite the diplomatic kerfuffle in its day, as reported by the NYT here.Ok you smart types, look at that good LT's name. Yes, that Canaris - another story for another day.
if you like it.
