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Guess who's birthday it is today? Wounded Marine DJ Emery, *and* his Soldier's Angel, Maryann! Good that DJ *had* another birthday, and, well, Maryann being a Hawt Chica, I'd have to say the years are bearing lightly on her. [Looks around nervously for SWWBO with a cluebat] H/t, Carrie the Snark. -the Armorer

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Betcha didn't read about *this Iraqi citizen* in the MSM, didja? -the Armorer

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Greyhawk on the NYT Op-Ed by the 82nd Airborne NCOs. -the Armorer

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Regarding the Armorer's post above: I don't think the MSM talked to this Iraqi, either. But independent embed Bob Calvert did.

And speaking of Birthdays, one of the B-day people has a fascinating look at the marked drop in MSM coverage of Iraq. I'm reminded of Blackfive's report of an MSM journalist in Iraq who said the only time his submissions made it past his editors was if there were casualties.

Finally, a little humor: Ten Perks that Come with a Civilian Job on a Military Base... especially if you're a woman. - FbL

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Another reminder - if you like guns, and you like bloggers or blogging - especially gun blogging, you should make plans to attend the Gunblogger Rendevous in Reno this October. SWWBO and I went last year and are planning on going this year, too. Fun times! -the Armorer

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Updating the Greyhawk entry above - Greyhawk has posted the reaction of the anti's to the NYT Op-Ed piece, written by the NCOs from the 82nd. It's amazing (I know, they say the same thing about our side) how some of them think. They're sure the "brave soldiers" will now be the target of directed friendly fire. I use the quotes because I suspect for the person quoted, the only brave soldier is one they think agrees with them. The rest of us are just loser killers who couldn't find better work. -the Armorer

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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 (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"