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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Ruh-roh! Someone give Bad Cat Robot a call! They're on to her! (not for drugs, it's all about Dominion of the Evil Overlord with BCR).
Well, looky whose famous!
During Operation Desert Storm in 1991 everyone started seeing new images of war through television. Thanks to the 24-hour news-cycle and the rise of CNN new images of combat, and live reports from field reporters appeared on every American living room every minute. Today’s war in placecountry-regionIraq is no different. Images and reports are appearing minute by minute and viewed on every major network news station and local news stations across the country. However, the war in placecountry-regionIraq today has seen even more advances in coverage with the internet. Advances in technology and new web tools such as blogs and video sharing sites have given every day citizens the ability to become members of the media in what some have called “the lap-top war.”In Iraq: News in Transition, KCET.org explores these new forms of media coverage in a four-part feature including: a narrated photo essays by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Rick Loomis, a look at a unique weekly blog that covers daily life in Iraq, a collection of blogs from soldiers on the front, and an on-line version of the PBS documentary Operation Homecoming with exclusive production interviews.
The blogs include Neptunus Lex, Doc In The Box, Army Girl and a blast from the past... My War. The series contains links to all four blogs and contains an interview with each author. *Lex* gets to represent the DoD Officer Corps? When did that memo come out? ;^ )
Moving on to another subject... Patrick Lasswell on "If the Iraq Panic Bubble Bursts..."
Posting a little something for Dusty...
Buffoon, one each (the reporter talking about something he/she/it doesn't know shite about)... but I'm being redundant...Aviation Hall of Fame Admits 2 TennesseansFedEx founder Frederick Smith was one of two Tennesseans inducted Saturday evening into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Smith, 62, flew crop dusters at age 15 and during the Vietnam War flew more than 200 missions with the Marines. In 1971, he founded Federal Express, which today is a $32 billion, 250,000-employee business with service in more than 220 countries.
The other Tennessean honored was 97-year-old Evelyn Bryan Johnson, who took up flying in 1944 while running her husband’s laundry business during his World War II military service.
Johnson, of Morristown, began giving flying lessons in 1947. Known as Mama Bird to her students, she is recognized for logging more flight hours — 60,000-plus — training more pilots, and giving more Federal Aviation Administration exams than any other living pilot.
"I never set out to win awards," she said. "I just always worked hard, did my best, and took pride in my job because I loved it. I love flying. I love teaching people to fly, and I love working, so that made it all worth getting up in the mornings and coming to work."
Three other inductees Saturday night included a record-setting daredevil, the first American woman in space and an aviation historian:
Steve Fossett, 63, of Beaver Creek, Colo., holds world records in ballooning and with powered aircraft. In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone in a balloon. Three years later, he became the first person to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling. He and a co-pilot also claim to have set a world glider altitude record of 50,671 feet.
Sally Ride, 56, a California native, became the first U.S. woman in space when she flew aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1983. Ride returned to space aboard the Challenger in 1984 and served on the board that investigated the 1986 Challenger accident.
Walter Boyne, 77, historian and author, is former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. Boyne joined the Air Force in 1951, flew bombers and was a nuclear test pilot. [Emphasis Dusty's]
He retired after serving in Vietnam and in 1974 joined the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., as an assistant curator, eventually becoming director. Since then he has written more than 500 articles, 28 nonfiction books and four novels, all aviation-related.
The hall was founded in 1962 in Dayton, the hometown of the Wright brothers, and later established by Congress. Wilbur and Orville Wright were the first to be enshrined.
Commercial Appeal
July 22, 2007
The only "nuclear test pilot" I'm aware of is Slim Pickens...
-the Armorer and Dusty-by-proxy
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The "Scott Thomas" story hits the NYT: "[The New Republic Editor] said that he had met the writer and that he knows with 'near certainty' that he is, in fact, a soldier. " Not impressive. UPDATE: TNR says they know "with certainty" he is a soldier.
Even the rank-and-file have had enough of al Qaeda and are turning on their leadership. This is excellent news.
Last year he drew fire for being among the first to say Iraq was in a civil war, but now Michael Yon says the "surge" is already working beyond his expectations. Over at The American Thinker, J.R. Dunn agrees. - FbL
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Grim has done it again. This time the topic is the politicization of the military. - FbL
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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 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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