H&I Fires 15 April, 2008

This one is for you, Capt H . I shall call it an Eryxus Interruptus. Cheers - BOQ

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LTG Caldwell, "Frontier 6" the most senior officer blogging these days - honors Corporal Jason Dunham over at Small Wars Journal yesterday. -the Armorer

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Rachel Lucas on Bob Herbert on racist Pennsylvanians and Senator Obama's assurance that we're all bitter and clingy to Bad Things. But... understandably clingy, being the rubes we are...

If most of us do not, in fact, feel good about our country (which is a whole other question again), the source of that lack of good feeling stems almost completely from the results of liberal/progressive thinking and behavior. In other words, it’s people like Obama who make us feel bad about our country.

For me personally, 100% of my bad feelings about America are rooted in the horror and disgust I feel about the rampancy of unwed mothers, unwanted children, abortion, the sexualization of children, the horrible way public schools are run, the lack of appreciation for the military, the theft of my money via the IRS to give to people who make bad decisions, the government’s bloat and inefficiency, the Marxist attitudes of so many elitist a$$holes, the hypersensitivity that surrounds every discussion about race, the labeling of anyone but white men as “victims”, and so on.

Mind you, Rachel doesn't censor her language like I do. But aside from that - what she said - the Core Of What Liberals Just Don't Get. -the Armorer

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So, Princess Crabby basically wants to get in on interviews with her love object, MG Rick Lynch. So, there are two ways to get into the DoD Bloggers Roundtables - be a serious milblogger, or use Princess Crabby's approach - which is a combination of shameless name-dropping, faux-self deprecation, discussions of nekkid pictures, and calling the Armorer a meany (true, far as it goes) and in the same breath name-dropping Argghhh! as a qualification.

Heh. Whatever works. Now FbL will have some competition as the sultry-voiced fox on the 'fone. Welcome aboard, Maggie. That makes [at least] two three [sheesh, whiners!] conservative chicks on the roundtables, and as far as I know, no progressive womyn. -the Armorer

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Canadian Forces Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier is retiring. Official word is to come later this afternoon, apparently has just come down the pipe.

This is a big deal north of the border, because Hillier has been the first CDS we've had in...well, living memory at least, who has fought hard for the CF and the men and women in it. Most of the generals who rose to the top of the CF in the past few decades - with a couple of notable exceptions - have been empty suits who climbed over the backs of their compatriots with subtle politics and an otherworldly ability to not put a foot wrong on their carefully mapped career path. They were at best tolerated by the rank and file, and at worst, despised.

By contrast, it is difficult to overstate how much Hillier is loved and respected by the men and women who serve under his command, and how much he will be missed. Especially since, in a small military like Canada's, leadership at the top really, really matters.

As I've mentioned here previously, the credible scuttlebutt I've heard is that LGen Walter Natynczyk, Hillier's current deputy (VCDS) is going to be his successor. I've laid out the possible successors over at The Torch, and conclude with this thought:

The real key is where the politicians and bureaucrats want to take this. I would have thought they'd be shying away from another Army guy, another charismatic guy, another transformational guy. I figured they'd go with Watt or Robertson, and circulate the unofficial excuse of rotating through the elements. I figured they'd want to rein the CF in a bit, like they've been trying to do on the public communications side.

Apparently I was wrong. Natynczyk would be a choice that confirms Hillier's value to the CF, to DND, to the government, and to the country. In fact, his selection would effectively quash any remaining internal resistance to the direction Hillier has taken the CF, since Natynczyk is such a staunch ally in that task.

If my info turns out to be correct, and Uncle Walt is in, I'm pleased and excited for the CF.

Not that some of the other choices wouldn't also be good ones (LGen Andrew Leslie, Chief of Land Staff and LGen Angus Watt, Chief of Air Staff especially), but...fingers crossed. - 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 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 that particular topic. It's also an open trackback, so if (Don Surber uses it this way a lot) 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".