previous post next post  

H&I Fires* 4 April 06

By Denizens on April 4, 2006 | | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (1)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite. You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

A fond farewell to Pakistan -- American and Australian military personnel who assisted Pakistan after last year's earthquake have finished their work [h/t SGT Hook]. - Fuzzybear Lioness
************************
I haven't done a Roundup post in a while, so I figure I was due for one. ~AFSis

************************

Consider yourselves warned: Tomorrow Thursday is "Wear A Skirt Kilt To Work Day" -- sponsored by the folks of the Glenlivet Society (who'd a-thunk it) and the whole idea is to raise funds for charity and allow the gender-confused would-be caber-tossers out there a chance to prove that, despite all the water-cooler rumors, you *don't* shave your legs.

Ummmmm -- or *do*...

Heh. Those loud background squeaks you're hearing is the sound of a dozen Denizennes polishing their specs. Wonder whatcher supposed to wear if you don't drink Scotch? - cw4(ret)billt

Anybody seen Wednesday around anywhere? I seem to have gained a day...

************************
This is vaguely annoying - not the site - so much as the perceived need. We two really do behave like siblings who get on each other's nerves... -The Armorer

************************
Jack is continuing his 'War of Definition' series. Same caveats as before. Heart and blood pressure meds before going over. No flame war tactics in his comments section if you please. Take a gander and lets see what people have to say.

ry
***********************

Basic is over, and the Desultory Butterfly has flown from Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods to her next training post, check out the pics from sister Bonnie! And congrats to Desult on her perfect 300 score on the APFT!!
-The Adjutant
***********************

*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone".

Share This Article:

Share |

1 Trackbacks

TrackBack this entry at http://www.thedonovan.com/cgi-bin/mt41/mt-tb.fcgi/5466

Heard Around Town from My Side of the Puddle on April 4, 2006 8:52 AM

Time for a Roundup! Read More

17 Comments

By AFSister on April 4, 2006 8:53 AM
OK, John. I'm trying more trackbacks today. I found so many interesting stories out there today, I just put them on my site instead of H&I. Some days, you find lots of blog fodder. Other days, you just find clutter.
 
By AFSister on April 4, 2006 9:43 AM
Well.. would you look at that? ONE trackback! HORRAY! I'm a GENIUS! *NOT*
 
By V29 on April 4, 2006 10:20 AM
Being Scottish by birth, American by choice and the Grace of God, I resent references to skirts, however jocularly, when talking about the wearing of a kilt. HARUMPH! BTW. New York's celebration of Scottish heritage is upon us. Link to Tartan Week:- http://www.tartanweek.com/
 
By Neffi on April 4, 2006 10:33 AM
Wonder whatcher supposed to wear if you don't drink Scotch? - cw4(ret)billt hah! Talk aboutcher rhetorical question! To quote the lasses- Is that a bottle in yer sporran or are yez just happy to see me?!
 
By Bad Cat Robot on April 4, 2006 11:28 AM
*happysigh* Men in Kilts! Men in Kilts! If I leave out a saucer of single malt, maybe I'll see one. Can only hope ...
 
By Maggie on April 4, 2006 1:22 PM
*happysigh* Men in Kilts! Men in Kilts! If I leave out a saucer of single malt, maybe I'll see one. Can only hope ... Good thinking BCR!! If I leave out Dalmore....maybe I'll get Sean Connery!
 
By Were-Kitten on April 4, 2006 2:36 PM
Actually, I prefer my men *out* of their kilts! purrrrrrrrrr
 
By Bonnie on April 4, 2006 4:09 PM
Thanks for mentioning the butterfly!!! I want to send this to her, but I cant seem to be able to copy and paste off of here!!! Even though she will have access to a phone soon, Im still planning on writing her. Thanks for your wishes and blessings! I lOVE THE CASTLE ARGGHHH! xo bonnie
 
By Raymond B on April 4, 2006 5:56 PM
We finished our work in Pakistan but can we live there if we wanted? Why do we do so much for so many who hate us and our way of life? I want to help my fellow humans but hwne will their hatred and racism cease? Never the less, I applaud the brave indviduals who did a proud job there. Raymond B www.voteswagon.com
 
By cw4(ret)billt on April 4, 2006 6:26 PM
I'd be a tad leery of wearing a kilt. I wouldn't want to be responsible for all the *swoons* (have atcha, fbl!) in the event a stiff *ducking fbl-swat* breeze arose...
 
By SangerM on April 4, 2006 7:08 PM
Hi everyone. Mass. is cold, but great. I am a small mind among some amazingly high-powered intellects and it's very scary and VERY daunting, to be sure. But it's snowing-almost-outside and I love it and the challenge of the school. More when time allows (my favorite byline these days). That said: Ry, your admonition about jack's site was not needed. Jack is a good man, I think, but his 'War of Definition' item is just not worth the time it took to read it, and certainly not worth responding to. I realize others may/will disagree, but I have just about had my fill of that sort of thing, and I won't be going back there for more of it. I'm ready for people to start offering some alternatives that make sense, some perspective the resonates, etc. Interestingly, in a class of which at least a third of the people are from other countries (not all rich western countries either), I hear less such nonsense than I do from people in this country. I think we really need to get some perspective and that's the truth. Well that and a dose of reality. For my part, I am just plain tired of the same old crap all the time. On a similar note, I must tell you all: I cannot begin to count the number of times in the past 3 days that I have been able to refer to articles and items posted or pointed to here on Argghhh that some of my classmates are unaware of. In so many ways, the group that is "YOU" are a very pertinent window onto the world. Just sayin' V/R
 
By ry on April 4, 2006 7:24 PM
Sanger! Good to hear from you, dude. I just said Jack was interesting. I didn't say I thought it good or that I agreed with it. One of the lessons YOU taught me was that if I can't be coherent on matters of weight I should STFU. I'm still learning all the dimensions of that one though. And I thought that was one of the nicer ways I could say for people to go over there and point out the flaws in what he wrote, since I cannot do so properly--writing on the fly just doesn't cut it and I don't care enough to sit down and do drafts on the subject. Glad to see you're still hanging around Sanger(though I dread when you come back to commenting at your previous volume and I have to use a shoe horn to remove your foot from my @$$ again).
 
By SangerM on April 4, 2006 8:18 PM
Ry, 1) I never gave you overly much grief, especially to the extent you seem to think I did. Man, I hate to see what you felt if I really did tear into you... 2) We all grow. Aside from being a bit to self-effacing, you have come along really well, and no, I am not trying to be condescending. Point is, you have nothing to apoligize for, nor to be concerned about, not as far as I am concerned, and not for a while... 3) I took what you wrote the way you menat it.. I just didn't like what Jack wrote, and that was the point I was making. I did not assume you liked it. You done good, 4) Everyone should write on the fly. Makes good handwriting practice to get it that small without killing the thing... 5) Just a by-the-way. Among my classmates are: - A person who was a founding organizer of the revolution that overthrew Milosevic. - A person who helped negotiate the release of two American hostages in an African country last month. - A person who is an editor for a WORLD-class highly respected magazine published in Switzerland. - A person from a small African nation who has worked at the UN for a number of years and as a representative to other countries as part of the diplomatic corp. - A person from an important middle eastern country working for that country's embassy in China. - A diplomat from an Indian Ocean country. - A person from a Baltic State MOD. - Two people from a major nation in the South Pacific, one from their State Dept and another from an embassy in a different country. - A person from a major Asian country, assigned to an embassy in a different country. - Two entrepreneurs, one of whom started and runs an international charity organization, the other of whom is already a lawyer and an MBA. - Quite a few Americans from U.S. government agencies, doing what I consider important, high-level work. And _THAT'S_ what I mean by daunting!! V/R
 
By John of Argghhh! on April 4, 2006 9:10 PM
Raymond - because it's what we are? The nation that invaded Iraq is *also* the nation that helped Pakistan, that helped the nations savaged by the tsunami... And if nothing else, the dichotomy makes our enemie's heads explode, without the help of a Barrett. And because it's what we should do when we can - and it's good for our warriors, too. American troops are tough in battle, but they actually, in my experience prefer the gentler approach over bashing heads. Just another part of the dichotomy.
 
By Maggie on April 4, 2006 10:57 PM
Hi everyone. Mass. is cold, but great No back handed compliments, if you please! Next time I won't let you in! Chief - to paraphrase Lauren Bacall in "To Have And Have Not"........... "You know how to make a breeze, don't you Cief...you put your lips together and blow"
 
By ry on April 5, 2006 12:43 PM
"1) I never gave you overly much grief, especially to the extent you seem to think I did. Man, I hate to see what you felt if I really did tear into you..." Mostly a bit of the hyperbole I tend to use. You do have my number though, and you point out my errors in bright red. A hard grader, an exasperating one, but a respected one. John has the Giant ry Crushing Boot and the Hairy Eyeball. You've got the boot that un erringly finds my butt when I screw up. "2) We all grow. Aside from being a bit to self-effacing, you have come along really well, and no, I am not trying to be condescending. Point is, you have nothing to apoligize for, nor to be concerned about, not as far as I am concerned, and not for a while..." Catholic guilt and trying to be realistic about my own flaws. I tend to be intellectually vain in the meat world. Getting knocked around here keeps me humble---even if it gets my blood pressure up once in a while. Thanks for the compliment though Sanger. Comming from a 'by his bootstraps' guy such as you it does mean something.
 
By ry on April 5, 2006 12:52 PM
WRT Raymond's query. Why did we help put/support the jackalopes Rhee(S. Korea) and Chang Kai Tscech(ROC) then? Because it was a better alternative than what was in place at the time. Rhee had serious issues about busting the heads of political opponents(and some claim a proto-fascist). CKT was without a doubt a fascistic leader(and Mrs. CKT was a ruthless hag). Look at both countries now(and I do think of Taiwan as a seperate country from mainland China). Both are rather stable, open, and free democracies. What TPM Barnett calls 'Connectivity' caused that. It'll happen in Afghanistan too. It'll just take a generation or more as they integrate into the world economy and have to deal with these growing pains, just as it did with both of those countries. That's why we're there. That's why we put so much on the line in defending western Europe as well. We play the long game, which is a mix of hard and soft power. This is only the first 5 minutes of the 1st grt. There's lots of football left to be played.