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...
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Thanks to those of you who have kept the lights on over the weekend. With the stress and travail of the last three months, I *really* needed a break, and I appreciate you guys stepping up and keeping the place worth visiting.
CAPT H thinks Leopards are HOT! He's right. They are.
In a memo sent to a four-star general a week after Tillman's April 22, 2004, death, then-Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal warned that it was "highly possible" the Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire. McChrystal made it clear his warning should be conveyed to the president."I felt that it was essential that you received this information as soon as we detected it in order to preclude any unknowing statements by our country's leaders which might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Cpl. Tillman's death become public," McChrystal wrote on April 29, 2004, to Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command.
SWWBO wants to go out for breakfast - see ya later! -the Armorer
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Local Heroes: "Papa Guns" retires after 30 years
The first time he retired from the Marine Corps, Master Gunnery Sgt. Kendall Phelps simply wasn’t ready to go.But the military declared that the Vietnam veteran had served his time, with his two years of active duty and 28 years in the Marine Corps Reserve. And though his family still jokes that you could see the claw marks where he had hung on to the brick Reserve Center in Topeka, Phelps faced the reality of retirement.
Then came the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Phelps, known affectionately to his fellow Marines as “Papa Guns,” wanted to serve again. “It was just something I had to do,” he says.
North Dakota Soldiers' Angels, ND governor, family and friends Welcome Home the NDANG from Afghanistan
-kat
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Here's a little hoo-ah, especially for you tankers...
Jules Crittenden - Warmonger! -the Armorer
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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 (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's 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".
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