H&I* Fires 16 JUN 2007

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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Chuck Simmins at America's North Shore Journal - your source for all analysis casualty. The main conclusion is the easy one. They don't want to face us in stand-up combat, so they are playing to the great leveler - explosives. And everytime there is an innovation in their tactics or techniques, there's a lag as we learn to adapt.

There are signs that we're making inroads - the bomb-makers are running out of regular explosives and are having to make their own - but they're also getting more and better outside help in design and implementation. Anyone who doesn't really understand that we're already at war with Iran-by-proxy, just isn't paying attention. Regardless of who wins the next election, one way or another, they're going to have to deal with Iran. I hope they're thinking about it in a serious fashion - regardless of what mindless twittery will pass for electioneering.

Changing subjects - this link is for you RPG players out there.

And this one is for parents.

Via CAPT H, comes this link to Samizdata regarding the trends in England.

Bloodspite continues his crusade against the Immigration Bill (not immigration, but the bill - do please note the distinction) - we just want to be able to have some of the same controls *most* nations have. One would note that it's a lot harder for a gringo to emigrate to Mexico than it is to go the other direction, and the restrictions on your political behavior... well, let's just say that you *won't* get a permit for your pro-immigration rally to demand access to services... and you'll go to jail if you hold it anyway... Catchy title on Bloodspite's post - France Better Than America!

Some news from Fort Riley:

ENGINEERS CONDUCT AID MISSION

By 1st Lt. Rebecca Walsh
1st Eng. Bn.

Several "Diehard" Soldiers from the 1st Engineer Battalion conducted a humanitarian aid mission June 7 to a village in northern Iraq. The Diehards have been collecting school supplies, clothing, toys and soccer balls for the Iraqi children for several months. The items were handed over to the Iraqi police to distribute in an attempt to build a sense of community within the small Iraqi village.

Diehard Soldiers helped the Iraqi police hand out items to hundreds of Iraqi children. The boys and girls swarmed the troops, and friendships were formed despite the language barrier.

For most of the Soldiers this was their first one-on-one interaction with Iraqi children, many of who held their hands and wanted their pictures taken with the Soldiers. "I think this is a great mission" said Capt. Jenny Kirk. "It will be nice to leave Iraq and say 'I made a difference, small, but I made a positive impact.'"

The 1st Eng. Bn. plans to continue humanitarian aid missions to donate items collected by the battalion's Family readiness group.

I don't know if this particular program is involved or is a separate effort, but my Rotary district participates in the "Youth to Youth" program, implemented by Rotary Clubs in the Junction City/Manhattan area, where we organize youth groups around the state to gather these materials, deliver them to Fort Riley, where the clubs and kids there get them shipped off to Iraq.

More info on the scum scamming military spouses.

RED CROSS WARNS OF SCAM: CALLERS TARGET MILITARY SPOUSES

American Red Cross

WASHINGTON - The American Red Cross has learned about a new scam targeting military families. This scam takes the form of false information to military families as described below: The caller (young-sounding, American accent) calls a military spouse and identifies herself as a representative from the Red Cross. The caller states that the spouse's husband (not identified by name) was hurt while on duty in Iraq and was med-evacuated to a hospital in Germany. The caller stated they couldn't start treatment until paperwork was accomplished, and that in order to start the paperwork they needed the spouse to verify her husband's social security number and date of birth. In this case, the spouse was quick to catch on and she did not provide
any information to the caller.

American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant channels. Military Family members are urged not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown or unverified individuals, to include confirmation that your spouse is deployed.

It is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for a person to falsely or fraudulently pretend to be a member of, or an agent for, the American National Red Cross for the purpose of soliciting, collecting, or receiving money or material. In addition, American Red Cross representatives will contact military members and dependents directly only in response to an emergency message initiated by your Family. The Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to Family members. The Department of Defense will contact families directly if their military member has been injured. Should any military Family member receive such a call, they are urged to report it to their local Family readiness group.

I would also note that you're *never* going to get a call claiming that they need info to start treatment for a wounded soldier. It just ain't gonna happen.

That said - I say add one more element to the punishment. As the vermin leave prison, they have to run a gauntlet of Military Spouses whose spouses deployed to a combat zone. Just sayin' that sometimes, Old Testament-style punishments *are* merited. Pour encourager les autres, of course. There are some things I'm not minded to take a Christian approach to. -the Armorer

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Today, we'll be visiting with friends of ours who live on 20 acres and keep horses out in the county, to start learning about where all our spare time will be going to. Betsy and Beth will talk horses, stalls, the barn, and growing stuff. Bennett and I will talk about tractors, ATVs, and how not to set your cedars on fire when burning off the fields. Apparently, cedars raging like oil fires in Kuwait in 1991 is frowned upon and considered bad form... [scribble note to self] After we're done touring their place, we'll head out to not-quite-yet-ours and see how many ticks we can bring home *this* time. -the Armorer

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Carriers are kewl. But, to me, the Amphibious Assault Ships are kewler. Take a gander at flight deck ops on the USS Bataan. I'd love to spend a few days at sea on one, doing all the kewl stuff, flying, gadding about in the amphibs, etc. -the Armorer

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CAPT H - this link's for you. Canadian Leos. -the Armorer

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Hey, this might be a redlegs blog, but I think we can spare a minute for the Marines. Support our troops? Go tell it to the Marines!

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A bit of good news in an ugly world.

The "surge" and politics. It's not pretty.

And as long as I'm pimping my own posts, check out the story of Walter Reed and the "lost" mail. - FbL

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Embedded in a discussion of the Army's recent modest increase in PTSD treatment services is the story of physical and psychologcal wounds from the spouse's perspective: Wives Get Wounded Too. - FbL

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I'm envious.

This guy's office is simply *so much kewler* than mine.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Luke Conway keeps an eye out for anything suspicious during a mission in south Baqubah, Iraq, June 11, 2007. Conway is from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. DoD photo by Senior Airman Steve Czyz, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

Though obviously not as cool.

This is too funny not to share. Remodeling hell.

The Armorer's sister, who lurks here (and the fact that she does so is a vindication of The Rulez and your general demeanor as commenters) is doing what SWWBO and I are - her husband and she are getting a new place to live. The difference is, SWWBO and I being really lazy, we went and bought .02% of the county to do it. My sister and her family have entered Hell... a live-in remodel.

I'll let her take it from here...

Oh my. Although signs of impending disaster have been accumulating since early this week (a really large dumpster in my driveway and spray paint on my grass marking gas and water lines), yesterday they began in earnest. When I got home from work, my patio was in chunks, the neighbor’s tree had been cut down (yes, we had permission to do that), my flag pole was in pieces on the ground, and the shrubbery I have disliked for 12 years had been ripped out leaving a large area of, well, dirt.

The air conditioner guys were still there moving my unit and running in-and-out so often it made my head spin. The grill, which I had planned to use to cook, was now about 20 feet away from the back door in the middle of the yard. The large chunks of patio were between it and me. The grill now resides in the garage.

The dog was so upset by all of this commotion that he peed all over the place yesterday. When Erin got home, he would wet on the floor every time she left him alone. He calmed down once his family had all come home to comfort him and take him out for walkies since his fence has been taken down and there are large chunks of concrete at the back door.

This morning we got up to discover that the pilot light on the water heater had gone out. We think that has to do with the moving of the air conditioner. We couldn’t get it relit, so hopefully one of the workers at the house today will be able to get it working. No one in the Hanson household had a shower this morning, so stay down wind of us. Cold sponge baths are not much fun and I had to deal with my terrible bed head by sticking my head under the cold sink faucet! I do realize that millions of persons all over the world would consider themselves fortunate to live in a home with air conditioning and running water, even if it isn’t hot. I just wasn’t ready for it.

This has nothing to do with the remodel, but the ice dispenser on the fridge is broken and keeps dispensing parts. So far, it has produced a plug, a pin, and a spring loaded bracket. Someone will come fix that next week. Good thing I called when I did because my warranty expired yesterday. Since I called before the expiration, it will be covered. I sincerely hope the repair person will be able to enter the house!

Please pray that every day is not as eventful as day 1.

Oh, I *am* conflicted. If each day is as funny to be an *observer* of as this one...

I responded:

Heh. I guess the 40-or-so ticks that Beth and I removed from each other in a stunning display of primate grooming behavior does, indeed, pale beside this.

Thankfully, we're going to have a place to live while the new place gets some remodeling done.

The latent Safety Officer in me is driving me to intone "We're not going to *cook* in the garage, are we?" 8^)

The odd thing about the ticks... the dogs had none. Frontline works for them. The stuff we used kept the ticks off of our feet and legs... but did nothing to stop the little vermin from parachuting onto our heads and shoulders from the branches above.

Heh. "Airborne! Death from Above!" indeed.

However, I'll take the requirements of primate grooming behavior (less eating the ticks, mind you) over your fun and adventure!

The radon, structural, and termite inspections are done for the new place with no major problems to report...

I am *so* looking forward to the series. Shoot, I may make you a guest-blogger if it remains this engrossing and amusing!

She responded...

I think you write better than I, but I can compose a few words. Don’t you find it ironic that they took the flag pole down on Flag Day? We couldn’t have flown a flag anyway because the tree that was removed had covered the flag pole in its entirety.

No, we won’t cook in the garage. The grill just won’t wander about the yard at the whim of a workman if I store it there. We will grill on the driveway next to the dumpster, silly. I think all people should have a cooking appliance next to a giant trash bin.

Is there Frontline for humans? If not, you will be rich if you invent it. Honestly, yuck. The tick bite I got at the Renaissance Festival was incredibly gross and scary. When I did a google search on tick bites, the photo captioned “Lyme disease” looked exactly like the mess on my body. Dr. V's response when she looked at it was “Oh, that’s nasty!” Not words you want to hear from your doctor. I had to take meds for 21 days. Someone on Beth’s blog suggested guinea hens. Buy some now. Do bats eat ticks? I know they are good for mosquitoes. Do you have a cave for bats?

I will keep you apprised of the ongoing saga.

Methinks the Armorer's Sister writes just fine.

Regardless, from both of us, Thanks, Mom. And Dad, too - it wouldn't have happened without both of you.

H&I* Fires 15 JUN 2007

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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From MNF-I:

Soldiers seize, destroy bomb factory

Estonian minister of defense visits 'Stone Platoon' at Camp Taji

First LAR Marines always on watch

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The house inspection went well yesterday. Not too much to go back to the owners with. Now to just tidy up the financials - and close on the 29th. Camp Argghhh! (or whatever it gets named) inches closer to reality! -the Armorer

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Reid Disses Generals on Iraq War and basically calls them "political hacks". My comment is that these guys are easy targets since defending themselves would re-enforce the opinion and since Petraeus was already told to shut up and stay out of politics at his confirmation meeting with congress. As far as I'm concerned, Reid would only be happy with the assessment if Petraeus came back, told them the war was lost and threw himself on his sword (literally or metaphorically).

A real issue that I know for a fact is currently affecting our returning veterans is the lack of mental health professionals and institutions able or willing to provide care to our vets who suffer from acute or chronic PTSD.

Finally, Soldiers' Angels in Kansas City continues to be busy. We will be at Kauffman Stadium Saturday evening for Military Appreciation Night: Royals v. Marlins. If you can't join us, watch us.

Hey! and don't miss our weekly "letters from the front: thank you for your support" A sniper in Iraq takes our Angel pin with him wherever he goes.

-Kat [hope I didn't step on any posts today]

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Mark Steyn and Iain Murray in The Corner today:

Vacant Lott [Mark Steyn]

Andrew, I have no serious expectations of Senators these days, but I would like them at the very least to try and sound a little less like the plump complacent emirs of the one-party-state of Incumbistan. Trent Lott fails even that test.

06/15 01:21 PM

Senator Talks Nonsense Shocker [Iain Murray]

Be sure to read Marlo Lewis' terrific fisk of Sen. Reid's utter balderdash on energy policy over on Planet Gore. The amount of doubletalk, stupidity and do-it-yourself economics emanating from Congress on this issue is stupefying.

06/15 01:17 PM

I dunno that term limits are the answer - but I sure would like to give it a try. -the Armorer

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Speaking of Senators... what did Senator Reid say, and to whom? -the Armorer

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Dip the guidons, an Infantryman strikes camp.

Today I'm attending a funeral.

For this man, Royal Brown.

Sure, there will be grief, but, like the funeral for my mother, this one will be a celebration of a life well lived.

Let us take the measure of the man:

Royal Brown was born June 21, 1917, in Herington, Kan., the son of Royal and Celia Baxter Brown. He died June 10, 2007, two weeks shy of his 90th birthday.

He married Bettye Collard of McGehee, Ark.

He was an infantry officer who served in three wars. He saw foreign service in China, Burma, India, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Canada, where he was the director of instruction at the Royal Canadian School of Infantry. His decorations include the Legion of Merit with an Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star for Valor with three clusters and the Combat Infantry Badge with two stars.

Royal also was an honorary member of the Royal Highland Regiment, and proudly wore the Black Watch tartan. He is in the Infantry Hall of Fame.

A fascinating fact new to me was that Royal was aide-de-camp to Bess Truman at the funeral of President Harry Truman, and served as the military escort for the Truman family at the funeral of President Dwight Eisenhower.

But his military service wasn't enough for Royal. Like my father has done, Royal simply slipped from one avenue of service to another. A less dangerous one, perhaps, but one which has had great and direct impacts in our community.

I can't put it any better than is in his obituary:

Brown’s commitment of service to his country and community did not end with his military retirement. As executive director of the United Way of Leavenworth County for 14 years, he was instrumental in helping to engage the community in understanding significant local issues; identifying the underlying causes; and developing strategies to pull together financial and human resources to address them. Under his leadership, the United Way of Leavenworth County focused on helping children and youth success; improving access to health care; and promoting self-sufficiency for the people of this community.

Brown was honored as Leavenworth “Citizen of the Year” in 1981. He was a founding board member of Neighborhood House, Leavenworth Hospice, Saint Vincent’s Clinic, S.T.A.Y. and Leavenworth Area Development. Brown was the first chairman of the Civilian Advisory Council of the United States Penitentiary, and served in that capacity for a number of years. He was also active on committees for the Community Center and the Leavenworth Public Library. Brown was active in both of Leavenworth’s community hospitals. He served as chairman of the Board of Trustees of Saint John Hospital for a number of years, and volunteered at Cushing Memorial Hospital, where he and Bettye were “Volunteers of the Year” in 2006. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Leavenworth-Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce and a long-time Chamber ambassador. He relished welcoming visitors to the area as an ambassador at Kansas City International Airport. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Leavenworth and an active student of the Bible.

Brown also entered city government and was a strong and progressive member of the Leavenworth City Commission. He served as mayor of the city of Leavenworth for two terms from 1976 to 1984, during which he planted the seeds for the 20th Street Trafficway; oversaw the widening of 10th Street; and began renovation of the Riverfront Community Center. Brown was chairman of the Leavenworth Human Relations Commission. He was appointed by Kansas Gov. John Carlin to the state’s Governmental Ethics Commission and served at the governor’s pleasure on the Blue Ribbon Committee on Professional Negotiations. Brown was instrumental in establishing the Small Cities Advisory Council of the U.S. Council of Mayors. He served for three years on the Board of Directors of the League of Kansas Municipalities, and served on several committees of the National League of Cities.

Brown was a proud Rotarian, serving as president of the Leavenworth Rotary Club and district governor of Rotary District 5710. At the international level, Brown held membership on two consultative committees, and was on the membership development committee of Rotary International. He was a delegate at Rotary International’s Council on Legislation in Caracas, Venezuela. Royal was a Paul Harris Fellow. He and Bettye endowed multiple Paul Harris Fellowships supporting international scholarships and educational and humanitarian programs around the world.

I can't improve on that except to say that if I had a mentor in Rotary, it was Royal Brown.

We are not diminished by his loss - for he left us a legacy of strength. In character, in relationships, in service.

Royal Brown was the embodiment of the 4-Way Test of Rotary:

"Of the things we think, say or do:

1. Is it the TRUTH?

2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam.

Ammunition, Part the 4th. Closing out the muzzle-loading ammunition piece.

Closing out the reprise of the ammuntion posts... again - it's an old post, so some links may be broken. I'll fix 'em as I can.

G'day, everybody! While I certainly haven't exhausted the muzzle-loading era and may return to it, I'm going to close it out for now with a post about 'cleaner' bullets and what to do when your weapon misfires. Then I can move on to black powder primer fired cartridges and beyond - at a later date, at a later date, keep your shirt on!

If you need a refresher, here are parts I, II, and III.

As I mentioned in earlier discussions about black powder, a major problem with those guns and that ammunition was the residue, or fouling, from firing. It doesn't take long before it starts to get hard to load your weapon. Instead of the bullet dropping down onto the powder, you have to exert more and more force to ram the bullet down the bore. That takes time, meaning you reduce your rate of fire, and the distortion of the soft lead bullet can significantly reduce accuracy, and even range, if you distort the skirt of a minie' ball sufficiently. Most Civil War engagements were fought at distances where range wasn't a question, but accuracy, and most importantly, rate of fire, were important.

The most common kind of 'cleaner bullet was the Williams. It came as a Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. In this photo, they are 1, 3, 2, something I didn't notice until after I took the picture last night. You'll have to excuse me, I was in the basement right after the tornado warning sirens had gone off. Have you ever tried to snag 7 cats and get 'em to the basement - quickly? And I expected Beth's new car to be a dimpled wreck from hail, too. In the event, nothing happened.

Shown with an 8mm Mauser round for comparison. Hi-speed (or patient) version here.

These were designed to clean the bore as the bullet traveled down the barrel. When fired, a zinc ring at the bottom of the bullet would expand to clean the debris and grease from the rifle. On the Type 1, the zinc ring is gone from years in the ground, leaving only the post. The Type 2 was only produced briefly, in favor of the Type 3. The differences are the Type 2 has a thicker ring than the Type 1, and in an attempt to contain costs, a smaller bullet. The Type 3 is basically a Type 1 bullet with the improved Type 2 disk. Depending on who you read, they ranged from really effective (Williams himself) to worthless. I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle - and had more to do with training of the soldier and intensity of the combat.

There's more in the extended post.

H&I* Fires 14 JUN 2007

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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I gotta pull pitch for the office - but... am I the only person on the planet who has seen not.one.episode of The Sopranos... and still doesn't care? I should admit I have not.seen.one.episode of the Survivor series, either, I suppose. Just wond'rin. -the Armorer

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I've seen one episode of the Sopranos. - Kat

Now I have an opportunity to remind everyone that today is Flag Day. Do you have your flag on?
This is a little piece I wrote (castle philosopher like) on why we should honor our flag:
O'er the Land of the Free

If you need a little motivation today and would like to see a little countryside, Soldiers' Angels KC has our video of the Operation Aces High Poker Run: Radar Love It was so good, Soldiers' Angels founder Patti wants to put copies of it in the First Response Backpacks we purchased with the funds we raised.

Somewhere on the coast, Soldiers' Angels [UPDATE: sorry I'm late with the correction] supported the Marine Corps Semper Fi Fund, Military.com and several military wives you should know [hint: one was at the milblog conference] organized a day of fishing for our wounded vets. It was an awesome event.

Finally, you may have missed it yesterday, but Wednesday Heroes has some great hero stories. This one you may or may not have heard around the net:

Soldiers of a 10th Mountain Division battalion, deep in the heart of Iraq’s bloodiest region, are alive and well today because one young soldier from Norwood was on lookout Sunday afternoon.

Spc. Brandon Rork, a 24-year-old 2002 graduate of Norwood High School, was on guard atop Patrol Base Warrior Keep on Sunday, manning a 240 Bravo machine gun and keeping a lookout for danger.

What he found could have reduced Patrol Base Warrior Keep to rubble and left dozens, possibly hundreds, of his fellow soldiers in the 2-14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, dead on the ground.

8,000 pounds of explosives in the back of a dump truck is what he found after he fired into the cab of the truck and the driver jumped out to run. You'll definitely want to catch the rest of these heroes stories.

Just so I'm not hogging the space strictly for the Angels, have you been reading Michael Yon's: Death or Glory posts?

-Kat
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How the Italian Reporter Was Ransomed in Afghanistan and many other "What happens when you and your coalition partners don't operate the same way or your country is full of leftist crackpots who just want to hug the Taliban to death."

Peace Jirga between Afghanistan and Pakistan? That would be Afghanistan do nothing and the Pakistanis will come over the border and "love you" to pieces.

You know there are Germans in Afghanistan? I did, but wondered if some had forgotten.

A year in Afghanistan

[yes - I've been saving up for a day when no one was posting anything; now it's all kat, all the time - muwahahaha]
-Kat

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Today, our Army celebrates its 232nd birthday! On June 14th 1775, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Continental Congress voted to raise ten companies of riflemen—the first soldiers to be enlisted directly in the Continental service—in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to march north to join the army before Boston. The creation of a truly American Army on June 14, 1775, was significant to the history of our emerging nation--the first ten companies of Continental Army soldiers were a 'national' force, even before the nation was fully formed. The first continentals were recruited from several states and were sent from one end of the thirteen colonies, then states, to another. In time a nation would grow out of the seeds planted by each continental soldier as he signed up not as a "summer soldier" or "sunshine patriot," to use the immortal words of Tom Paine, but as an American soldier in service to his nation whenever and wherever needed.

Over the next several years, those soldiers fought the mighty British Empire and won the American Revolution. Since then, U.S. soldiers have fought in more than nine wars, including the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. Soldiers also fought and re-forged our divided nation in the Civil War; they fought in the trenches of World War I, and across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific to defeat the Axis Powers in World War II. Soldiers fought the evils of communism in the Korean and Vietnam wars; they liberated oppressed peoples in Mogadishu, Haiti, and Panama; they fought across the deserts of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, led peace-keeping operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and they continue to fight the ongoing War on Terror in Afghanistan, Iraq and many other known and unknown locations across the globe. Today, their service is commemorated in the 175 campaign streamers that adorn the Army Flag—from Lexington & Concord to the battlefields of today.

As Americans, it is important to remember our glorious history. It is also important to remember, particularly during times of war, that it is soldiers who pay the greatest price of freedom. To date over 3400 brave men and women have died fighting the Global War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would encourage everyone to keep these heroes, their loved ones, and those who continue to serve overseas in your thoughts and prayers. Soldiers are truly America’s heroes.

Today, as we celebrate this important milestone, every soldier – whether active, reserve, retired, or separated – should be proud of his or her service to the country and to the United States Army. On behalf of a grateful nation, we salute you and thank you for a job well done!

Quoted by courtesy of the Commander, Missile Defense Agency -the Armorer

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So there, Kat! -the Armorer

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"Hi, Dad, it's me. So this is it. I made it and you were right. It didn't kill me. I remember that day I told you you were going to have to lose weight because I didn't want you to have a pot belly at my graduation. Now all I wish is that you were here."

Read "Military kids get their pomp without parents" at the Chicago Tribune. I was born in Wuerzburg, btw. H/t, Jim C. -the Armorer

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Priceless oratory from Dennis Miller [h/t to a commenter at Neptunus Lex]. - FbL

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More politics... who said this was a milblog?

In the Evans/Novak political report that gets emailed to me every week, Robert Novak makes this observation:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is painted by Republicans as a left-wing extremist, but the truth is that the left wing of House Democrats complain privately that she is far too cautious. They grumble that nothing is being accomplished in Congress because Pelosi is far too attentive to 20 or so moderates in the Democratic caucus -- especially those who overturned Republicans last year in marginal districts.

Interesting juxtaposition and timing. I happen to live in the District of one of thoes 20 or so moderates - who thus far has been exactly that, pretty moderate overall, especially given what we expect from a Democrat - and in Kansas our pet Democrat has been Dennis Moore, who generally fits the schema, where thus far Nancy Boyda has not.

In a sense, Ms. Boyda proved the point yesterday, as she published, for all to see, her list of earmarks for the upcoming budget battle.

Here's the letter that accompanied the list:

List of FY 2008 Appropriations Requests

In the coming weeks, the U.S. House of Representatives will begin to debate the yearly appropriations bills to fund the federal government for fiscal year 2008. As part of that process, Members of Congress often submit appropriations requests, or earmarks, to set aside funds for particular projects. These earmarks do not add funds to the federal budget; instead they set aside funds for particular projects among the dollars allocated to federal agencies.

This process makes sense. Instead of someone sitting on the 4th floor in an office building in DC deciding where federal funds go, Members of Congress set aside a portion of funds for projects especially important to their districts. The result is - or can be - a more responsive, efficient federal government.

The earmark process has been abused in the past. Members of Congress have set aside funds for programs that turned out to personally benefit them. This Congress has worked hard to clean this up, and now all Members of Congress have to submit formal statements that they have no personal financial interest in their earmark requests.

Since January, I have been meeting with constituents to talk about the programs in their communities they feel need federal funds. The list below represents those programs that can be funded under the mandates of a federal agency.

There are many pressures on the federal budget, and with the passage of the new “pay as you go” rules instituted by the Democrats in Congress, it will be harder and harder to pay for new programs without finding the corresponding savings from other programs. Therefore, it is likely that only a few of these projects will ultimately receive earmarked funding. Still, I consider each one important to people in the Second District of Kansas, and I am proud to support these programs in Congress.

It is important to me that this process is as transparent as possible. After all, this is taxpayer money. This is why I am taking the unusual step of publicly releasing this list of my appropriations requests.

Regards,

Nancy Boyda

Member of Congress

Emphasis in the original.

Below the fold, in the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry, is the list of Ms. Boyda's earmarks for the district. Interesting list. Have at it, plus or minus.

TINS! Smoke Gets In Your Eyes...

Well, since John started recycling my war stories under the "everything old is new again" premise, here's an old one that's new -- it never appeared in Flightfax because real life intruded before it got published.

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Sometimes I think that every Army aviator old enough to remember reciprocating engines has a little tale about an emergency procedure that didn’t quite address the problem or had an emergency for which there was no written procedure. I met CW5 Roger W [those who know, know] (Flightfax, July 1998, “Crew Commo: UH-1 lesson learned”) last year and got the soup-to-nuts version of his own “crew-modified” emergency procedure--care to guess what happened to me about a month later?

It was a perfect night for honing NVG skills in the AH-1F--nice and dark, with just a hint of urban haze. It wasn’t quite so perfect for conducting NVG Refresher Training, though--which is what I was doing. At about 800 feet on climbout from our helipad, the Master Caution, Alternator and Rectifier lights decided that I had been heretofore underworked and cheerily made their presence known. “Aha--this takes care of Task 1068!” [note: Task 1068: Describe or Perform Emergency Procedure] I thought. My backseater (after a subtle hint or two) correctly identified the problem and performed the appropriate emergency procedure--alternator switch OFF, then RESET, then ON. (No big deal, unless the alternator doesn’t come back on line; in that event, it’s a “Land ASAP” situation due to the alternator’s location--it’s mounted on the transmission main case, and a dead alternator will produce a goodly number of unpleasant things, ranging from FOD’ed tranny gears to an in-flight fire.)

You’re absolutely correct! Not only did the alternator not reset, but white smoke (definitely not NVG-compatible) and a smell like fried socks decided to join the party immediately after I made a diving 180 to return to the helipad. The haze inside was rapidly compounding the haze outside and I had a fleeting thought about inventing the recovery procedure for inadvertent interior IMC...

By this time, Flight Ops had exercised the Crash Plan and the race to terra firma was nip-and-tuck between a smoking Cobra and the CFR foam truck. We won, but not by much (that truck is fast!). The seal on the alternator quill had blown, so hot oil had been spraying into a hot electrical component, and an armament bus had toasted itself in the tailboom electrical compartment--lots of smoke and stink, but no fire, as we (a fireman, a mechanic and yours truly) discovered after I popped out of the cockpit and scrambled to open the transmission cowl (yeah, I peeked first--just in case) while my backseater shut the aircraft down.

“Well, jeepers, Tuttle--you could’ve saved yourself considerable emotional turmoil merely by following the emergency procedure for cockpit smoke and fume elimination,” you observe.
Well, sir-or-ma’am, just what is the AH-1 Dash Ten procedure for that particular situation?
“‘Vents--open,’ of course,” you reply.
Correct, again! Just one teensy problem with that--and our mechanics are still scratching their heads over it--because, in complete violation of all the laws of physics, the smoke and fumes were entering the cockpit through the vents...

A new whatzis!

Okay boys and girls - what's this?

I'll give you a hint - it's *not* Victorian, despite all that shiny brass.

For you guys always whining about scale, and context and stuff - here.

The Immigration Bill, wounded, but unbowed.

Just in case you're surfing through here - the Armorer is all for legal immigration with assimilation. Assimilation does not have to mean subsuming the past - as many waves of integrated immigrants show. It does mean becoming Americans and identifying with America, not carving out an enclave of where you came from and bringing with you all the pathologies that made where you come from such a wonderful place that you... left. Learn the language, don't demand that everybody else learn yours. Learn the systems, don't demand that they be changed to look like what you left (Mind you, not that we teach our native-born about our systems very well). Many immigrants bring one important thing to the table that native-borns can lack - ambition, spirit, and a fire to succeed - and the obvious willingness to take some risk to get there. That pushed this nation forward in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. Fresh blood is good for the body politic - but yes, I'm an assimilationist. Through that process, society will cherry-pick and adopt the good stuff you bring with you, as we have generally done before. Not perfectly, certainly.

That statement out there - let's get on to business.

From John Hawkins of Right Wing News:

I got together with a GOP aide in the Senate and my source gave me inside details that the pro-amnesty Senators don't want you to know.

For example,

* When the bill will probably be coming back up for a vote and why they'll pick that time period.

* Why passing tough enforcement amendments would be completely irrelevant at this point.

* How pro-amnesty Senators will help get the bill through and then trick their home state voters into thinking that they opposed it.

You can read the Right Wing News Immigration piece by clicking here.

Secondly, Bloodspite is the Denizen for whom immigration reform is a Big Deal - so I send him all the stuff the White House sends me via their blogger email list.

I sent him the "IMMIGRATION FACT CHECK: Top 10 Common Myths" which he forwarded to another like-minded buddy of his, Slobokan.

Slobokan fisks the immigration fact check here.

Ammunition, Part the 3rd

Heh. Things change over time. This is part three of the Ammunition series that I'm reprising. Yesterday I was gently chid on a disagreement of fact - which I concede half of, anyway - and was posed a question that I really am going to have to buy the OED to be able to answer. Given the subject of yesterday's chiding... I may get chid again today!

Change over time - peoples blog-reading habits change, and bloggers posting habits change - I just realized that the JDM Warning in these, well, JDM doesn't read here anymore, I don't think - because, among other things, I quit writing things like that, as life got too cramped for the rather stout effort putting together a post like that takes. Mebbe when I retire, I can write "The Curmudgeon's Guide to the History of Arms" a snarky look at the subject.

Anyway - welcome to part three. If I have the time, I'll check the links - but this piece is over three years old, and so some links may be broken - the Armorer

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Welcome to Ammunition, part the 3rd. Yes, this one comes with another JDM Warning® - excessive words, not enough pictures. Hey, when you guys pay for my bandwidth you can gripe about the lack of pictures.

We left off in Ammunition, Part the 2nd with the shift from flintlock to percussion ignition of the powder charge. I mentioned how governments liked it because it was a cheap and easy replacement to do with flintlocks, so you didn't have to completely rearm, you could retrofit. Cheaper and quicker. Here's an example, with a US M1842 (Springfield) conversion.

Note from a collector's perspective - many of these rifles were back-dated to flintlocks because the original flintlocks were so scarce (having been converted, eh?). They don't hold the same value as a true original configuration, so take a good hard look at one of these offered in a flintlock form. The parts usually don't match in overall age patina, especially ones made with more modern parts made from different steels than the originals. You can see in the picture - where there is brass, that is a filler for the old flintlock pan. Oh, yes, I did say rifle. Many of these were rifled when they were converted to percussion as well. Not a deep rifling, not really a very useful rifling, but they were rifled.

The simple expedient of putting fulminate of mercury in a copper (later brass) cap that fit on a nipple simplified the soldier's drill and the gun-makers workload - meaning more rifles could be made, and effectively more shots fired in a given amount of time by a given body of troops.

Here is an example of modern large rifle caps. Not very dissimilar from the originals. A little more stable/less sensitive (don't want it too stable or it won't work well as an ignition system) and a little less sensitive to environmental conditions. Plus the ignition compounds are safer, both for the producer and the consumer.

When you ally the percussion cap with paper cartridges, rifled barrels and the Minie' ball, you produce a virtual revolution in the armament of the individual soldier. The soldier now has a weapon which has a near equal reach to artillery on flat ground - making the life of the artilleryman suddenly ve