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[Heh..beat Ry and the Armorer this morning...the post is mine...ALLLL MINE!!!! /insert evil laughter here]

Since Guardian Angels are a regular topic around here, I thought I would saturate the battle space (as it were) with Angelic stories.

First, let me point you towards the Kansas City Soldier's Angels shiny new blog where you will find out about activities and personal stories of Soldier's Angels operating in the Kansas City Area. First post (from me obviously) regarding two recent encounters as an Angel.

We encourage all local Kansas Citians who read here to get involved. We will be at the Missouri National Guard Armory Tuesday, February 13 to go over plans for our Snake Saturday float.

For more info, email: kcsoldiersangelsmo@gmail.com

Second, you might vaguely be aware that there are Soldier's Angels in Europe that help support our men and women, particularly when they arrive at Landstuhl.

There is also Coalition Angels that try to support Coalition troops. A couple posts caught my eye immediately. This last one explains why a German national would be supporting "Coalition Troops", even in Iraq, in response to a commenter's question. Then there is the story about how a Brit soldier in the Scotts Guard was floored by a letter from an American Angel.

Something you might not have known, Ugandan soldiers are pulling guard duty on al Asad to relieve the Marines to do patrols and other activities. The American Chaplain on base is trying to organize support for some very poor soldiers. They've already received responses back.

I now return you to your regular programming of fiddily bits and very large guns. - kat

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Powerline analyzes a new poll and says the voters hate everyone.

Uncle Jimbo has had enough of the media ignoring the context of American military deaths and is looking for unclassified battlefield info not reported in the media and plans to "start poking all the media we can in the eye with it."

On the lighter side, on the topic of "gettin' some" vs. buying clothes, buying clothes apparently comes out on top. Grim shares his thoughts at Villainous Company. - FbL

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I'm not sure how to describe this... perhaps I've stumbled across an example of media spin in mid-spin. Maybe I just can't wrap my brain around this much contradiction this early in the morning. - FbL

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I've been in a conference all week, and therefore a bit disconnected - so this may not be news to anyone but me, regarding the plot in Britain to kidnap and behead Muslims serving in the British Army.

TWO hero soldiers KNEW about an alleged terror plot to behead one of them — and acted as bait to nail would-be kidnappers.

The Muslim servicemen bravely agreed to carry on as normal after police tipped them off weeks ago, The Sun can reveal.

The sting was codenamed OPERATION GAMBLE — as armed units tracked the young men’s every move, fearing bloodthirsty Islamic fanatics could strike at any moment.

Last night the Birmingham-based soldiers — believed to be in the Territorial Army — were in line for top gallantry awards.

Read the rest here. -the Armorer

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Per The Armorer's directive, I get to brag in H&I Fires: Hugh Hewitt has linked me on a developing news story. It's too complicated to explain in a sentence, so just go the media spin story I linked above. Check it out.

UPDATE: Powerline (whose link to AP got me started on the story) links me, too! Hinderaker points out the additional journalistic questions the whole thing raises and discusses what he calls the "absurdity" of the whole flap over the IG's report. - FbL, trying to breathe the rarified air... ;)

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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. 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".