You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...
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Ah, the ides of August. My muse has fled. Too many brain-cramping meetings for course-of-action development, scenario development, and the thrice-dammed data collection management plan that underpins it all...
As if Mr. Vick doesn't have enough problems...
Embattled NFL quarterback Michael Vick, facing federal charges related to his alleged participation in dogfighting, has been hit with a "$63,000,000,000 billion dollar" lawsuit filed by a South Carolina inmate who alleges the Atlanta Falcons star stole his pit bulls and sold them on eBay to buy "missiles from Iran," FOX News has learned.Jonathan Lee Riches filed the handwritten complaint over "theft and abuse of my animals" on July 23 in the U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va.
Ya can't make this stuff up. H/t, Toluca Nole.
For those of you who don't follow this stuff... the Brit Ministry of Defense is trumping the US Department of Defense in it's muzzling of the troops. Go visit The Remittance Man and read, Save Your Arrse. H/t, CAPT H.
I'm having a chat with an anti over at his place. I invite you to join - just remember, if you're going over and representin' da Castle - take the Rulez with you. He seems to run a clean joint in that regard. H/t, myself!
Mike D pointed me to this website - Aircommando.org - where there is a great collection of TINS. How can you *not* want to read a story titled, "The Night the Frog Ate the Moon?"
On a bittersweet note, Permanent Private Houdini, of the Exterior Guard, went AWOL and his status has been changed to Missing, Presumed Lost, and he's been DFR'd (Dropped From the Rolls). There is a chance, based on some things happening around town, that he might have fallen victim to some foul play. We're hoping he just found himself a new family. Sergeant Kiki, beside herself over the loss of her minion, got into a pretty deep funk, so the Castle Guard Force has a new recruit - Gunner. He's a shepherd/lab mix - and since Sergeant Kiki is a Bloodhound/lab mix, that gives us a blab and a slab. You can meet them both over at SWWBO's place.
I gotta head out to the farm and make sure the flock of 19 keets have water sufficient to their needs. Cheers! -the Armorer
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Featured YouTube Smackdown video for August 15:
IED attacks in Iraq - gcbirzan
Note: If you aren't familiar with the YouTube Smackdown, please visit the first link above before taking a look at the second. Thanks. - Rickbert
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Not that most American readers would particularly care, since your nation doesn't engage in the political version of musical chairs known as the parliamentary "cabinet shuffle," but Canada has a new Minister of National Defence (MND): the Honourable Peter MacKay. He moved over from Foreign Affairs (like going from SecState to SecDef), so he knows the Afghan file from the civvie side. No military experience, but not many pols in Canada have time in uniform. Good communicator, and photogenic (according to my wife, he's a looker). And he'll be getting good advice from the soldiers in charge - our Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) is General Rick Hillier (who previously had an exchange stint as 2IC of III Armoured Corps in Ft. Hood) and he's the best CDS we've had in at least my lifetime.
The outgoing MND was a retired Brigadier General who wasn't a stellar politician, which is why he's now the Minister of Revenue (in charge of tax collection, not economic policy - a big step down from Defence). He's living proof of the argument against mixing uniforms and power suits: a good and decent man entirely unsuited to the thrust and parry of politics and the media. He appeared out of his league, even though he successfully wrangled a multi-billion dollar aircraft procurement from blue-sky conceptual to first tail delivery in eighteen months. Life ain't fair.
The incoming MND's biggest issue now is communicating the Afghan mission, because public support is extremely low (mid-thirties, last I checked), and at some point in the near future, we're going to have to decide if we're extending Canada's commitment beyond February 2009. Without public support, that extension would be political suicide for our minority government, and they just won't do that. So they've put someone in charge of Defence who is there specifically to sell the Afghan mission to the Canadian public. We'll see how it turns out in a few months. - Damian
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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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