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H&I Fires* 16 Nov 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.

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Some random thoughts while sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport...

Michael Vick is a neighbor.  He lives in the biggest house in the area, actually.  We even call it that.  The Big House.  He's making $0.12 an hour.  Sweet.  His dogs are living high on the hog.  Sweeter.  And he thinks he's going to play football again.  That will be fun to watch.  Not him playing - but the brouhaha that will surround it.  Personally, I hope he finds something to do that will keep him out of mischief, but it won't bother me in the least if he's never rich and anything other than infamous from here on out.  But that's just me. Of course, I'm mean when it comes to people who abuse animals.  I'm the guy who roots for the bull in a bullfight.  Dead and/or seriously injured matadors are simply balanced karma...  Sure, I eat meat,  but I don't enrage and torture the animal for entertainment as a display of bloodthirsty cultural machismo.

More good news.  General Dunwoody.  A woman makes it to the top of the rank heap.  Of course, now the campaign to get a woman Chief and Chairman will begin.  Until the rules about combat jobs change, that woman is going to come from the aviation ranks, because those jobs are pretty much only available to the warfighters.   Speaking of aviatrix warfighters...

Ah, my kind of Miss America... -the Armorer
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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. Of course, now I have to call them UAS's, because someone got a Legion of Merit for the name change.Anyway, I call the post H&I Fires because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to that particular topic. Another term of art that might be appropriate is Free Fire Zone.

22 Comments

Drove right past the Big House on the way to your house and back.  I'm only sorry that Vick isn't in a place where big rocks get made into little ones ... making furniture is too tame a work/punishment for him, IMHO.  I'd have devised something involving a thousand cuts, a dark room, and hungry rats.  But that's just me.

Anyways - glad you are home.  And I bet the interior and exterior guard are all glad of it as well!

 
Not home yet!  Sitting in the Tampa airport, waiting for that last flight!

Ready to be home, though.  I missed all the fur.
 
John...you made it all the way from Lauderdale to Tampa? You stopping by to see Rush or are you flying a Martin 2 back to Kansas?
 
John, do you know the story on your Miss America pic.  I think she is wearing navigator wings, but I can't blow it up enough to see before it gets too fuzzy (sucks getting old, but it does beat the alternative).  I was just wondering is she is a WSO (Weapons Systems Officer) or a gunner...
 
Oldloadr,

Venessa Dobos is a gunner. The pic was taken in country.
 
Fishmugger, Thank you! 
 
Oldloadr,

Additional: she is a crewperson on an AC-130 which is the reason for the wings. Served is both Irag and Afghanistan.

She was featured back in April as "Not your daddy's Air Force". But I can't find the pic right now.
 
For those who like women in flight suits who shoot stuff, check out this link.  The real deal!  And a pretty cool little website.  www.fighterchicks.com
 
P.S. I think that gun is on an MH-53.  Does she serve on that airframe now or in the C130, which would have been a much cooler pic (bigger guns)!
 
SangerM,

The only report I have on her is that she is a crew on a AC-130. There was never any mention of a MH-53. Does the Air Force fly MH-53 in a combat config? I thought they were an Army bird.
 
The USAF flies HH-53s (their version) for CSAR and Special Ops, the last I knew (2006 when I saw them downrange).  Enlisted crewmemebers earn wings on any airborn platform. 
 
There are humans who regard a vicious street fight with horrible wounds and broken bones on both sides, and occasional deaths, as mildly stimulating. I've never met one, and hope not to, but I'm certain they exist. I betcha they're like Gator the pit bull who lives two doors away. Very cheerful and VERY bumptious (dang near gave me a concussion trying to lick my face) If dog fights were done like human boxing fights, and scored on points, and stopped before irreparable harm was done, I'd have no problem with them. They're even putting blunt gloves on cockspurs these days. I think Gator even likes my kitty. The kitty doesn't seem so sure. Vick seems to have been particularly thuggish, even for an unlawful dogfighter. I luuurrrve Pit Bulls, even if only because they are the only dogs both willing and able to bite the heads off of Dobermann Pinschers, Rottweilers, German Police Dogs, and other dogs bred by Germans to go after humans. Pit Bulls are bred by Americans to be nice to humans and go after other dogs
 
I have a Black Lab and American Pit cross.  She would lick you all day long if you would let her!
 
 
Jake the Giant Puppy is half Pit, half Border Collie. The only time a People is in for a rough time is if he tries to leave without scratching him behind his ears. Cats are for sharing the sunbeam on the porch with.

Squirrels and squeaky toys are interchangeable.
 
Gunner, (Lab/Border Collie mix) is an avid squirrel hunter, coyote chaser, and people licker.

Kiki, the UN Diplomat, is a BLab (bloodhound/lab) who will stand around and be Very Concerned, but will accept tummy rubs in exchange for... well, letting you rub her tummy.
 
The MH-53 Pave Low Helicopter is an AF platform, used mostly by SOC.  It has side window mini-guns, a hard mounted M2 50cal off the back ramp, and all the best kinds of electronic doodads.  It is arguably the most sophisticated rotory wing in the air, notwithstanding the Osprey which is not really as all-round capable, I think.  I am pretty sure that window she's in is NOT in an AC-130.  I've been in both and the AC-130 doesn't have a hand-aimed gun like that, though the HH-60 CSARs do, I think, though not as big a window.

As for dogs, I am the proud cohabitator with a Bischon-Frise :-(.  It's a nice dog, friendly, cuddly, and all that girl stuff, but to give it credit, it's really kind of a trailer-trash dog too, in that it loves to get good-n-dirty, digs in anything, will eat almost anything, growls at anything it doesn't like, etc.  I think it must be a democrat though, 'cause it growls from across the way, and is as likely to get behind me as not when something bigger (which is almost everything) comes along.  Also, if you've never seen these things, they are like velcro.  EVERYTHING sticks to them, sticks, bugs, dirt, plastics bottle caps, dirt, all of it.  Hypoallergenic and non-shedding (the reasons for the choice), but a dang scuzzy dog.
 
Sanger, B-Fs are famous for brains, yaknow. Smart enough to seek cover, active cover. I.e, you. Very cat-like. As something of a scruffy slob-type person m'self, I say just get you a coarse comb for that puppy and content yerself with removing the large objects.
 
And speaking of doggies and door gunners.  I do have my FAVORITE.
 
Nah, Boq, that's a German Police Dog. Very un-American. Curiously enough, I just had an encounter 1/4 of an hour ago with Gator, the neighbor's Pit Bull. I got down on all fours, assumed the doggy "I wanna play" body language, and sure enough Gator charged up and bruised my face. In a friendly way, of course. I got bruised, he didn't notice that a collision happened. If I could arrange for good relations between Gator and my cat, and that they would co-operate to kill and eat bad humans, I could die happy! ....
 
P.s. Yah, I know that the above is just not possible. Pit Bulls would rather eat worms than lay a tooth on a human. Dogs trained to bite humans seem to have been bred by, and trained to obey, the worst sorts of humans, that is, Germans, and cops. Have I mentioned that I hate cops, and that they are evil and un-American? (except for The Donovan, of course, but I note that he quit that job just as soon as he could.) A shame, really; I think I'd rather have to explain my behavior to the Donovan with a badge, than some of the skinhead deppities we have around here, lately
 
Did I mentioned that they may not be the best breed? ;-)
 
Pit bulls are well known publically and officially to be a major problem in dog attacks.  They have attacked many people unprovoked; men, pregnant women and children and police have often had to shoot them.  They can also be a problem for killing other dogs, horses and livestock.  I believe Australia has banned this unstable breed and as far as I'm concerned it's not a breed worth keeping.