H&I Fires 10 March, 2008

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.

Time to add a new caveat, because from email it's not clear to some folks (mind you, if you don't read this it won't matter...) Being an open post, people (collectively, the Denizens) other than I post in the H&I. They sign their work (most of the time) - keep that in mind when you want to flame someone in email please - if it doesn't say "The Armorer" or "John" then I didn't write it! And honestly - if you don't like something said or posted... leave a comment, and hash it out (within the context of The Rulez which are clearly posted on the comment form, I would add).

********************************

Meet Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown - winner of the Silver Star, our third-highest award for valor.

Army Specialist Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Well done, soldier!

While I still think Drudge made a bad call - it looks like one of Prince Harry's troops may have been out to make a buck at the expense of the Prince and his squadmates. There might be a blanket party in the offiing for someone. As related by The Guardian:

Military chiefs are investigating a soldier who tried to cash in on Prince Harry's secret frontline posting to Afghanistan by blowing his cover during the agreed news blackout .

The inquiry centres on photographs of Harry witnessing the beheading of a live goat during Christmas Day celebrations with the Gurkhas just 10 days after his arrival in the southern province of Helmand. They were offered to a tabloid newspaper in defiance of strict orders to all serving personnel who knew of his posting that it was imperative the information be kept highly confidential.

If found to be involved, the squaddie - who is not believed to be a Gurkha - could face disciplinary action. Army bosses would view it as a serious offence because of the increased risk of attacks on British troops once the Taliban discovered the prince's presence.

Wanna blog? John Hawkins of Right Wing News has a primer. It's basically the premise I followed, by hit and miss experimentation. And I twist the those rules a bit to keep my profile lower than it used to be - because I tired of trolls. I'd rather have good commenters, and not have to fight trolls or manage comment registration, etc. Well, that and the fact that the bill paying job is just sucking up time. The one thing John doesn't address is - being an early adopter helped. You've got to work the networking and shilling out your work part a lot harder these days!

I get gently smacked upsidedahaid on some milblogs because this place has turned into a "platoon blog." True enough, as far as it goes. But, an awful lot of the good and successful blogs are... simply because well, bloggers like a day off now and then, too! Of course, Attila of Argghhh! is alla time flying and rarely posting, and Bill has dropped into a black hole getting the Iraqi Air Force going, and Mr. T's Haircut hangs out more often over at the Salamander's place... man, Blog PERSCOM ain't done right by me! Too bad I'm the CG of Blog PERSCOM!!! -the Armorer

**********************************
For the multi-class collector (LEGO, weapons), custom LEGO weapons! I especially like his quality control process (make prototype, hand to child, see if child plays with it). Be sure to scroll down to the full picture archive of weapons available.
-Bad Cat Robot
************************************

*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."