We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html Sat, 24 Mar 2012 15:20:53 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2012 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:07:13 -0600
http://www.uscg.mil/comdt/blog/2009/03/coast-guard-support-to-civil.asp#links

We hope you keep following us.

Very Respectfully,
LCDR Tony Russell

"This is an official United States Coast Guard posting for the public's information. Our posting does not endorse this site or anything on it, including links to other sites, and we disclaim responsibility and liability for the site and its content."
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86561 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86561 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 20:48:37 -0600
Technically, the HH-65 isn't a Dauphin because it was ordered without the twin Turbomeca Arriel engines -- Congers had specified American-made, so they had two Lycoming 101-750s installed. Then, after the Coasties discovered the Dolphin didn't have the power to go out with a full crew and return with a full crew plus three survivors (after having burned off an hour's worth of fuel), Congers funded an engine upgrade to the aircraft and the Coasties installed

*wait for it*

a pair of Turbomeca Arriel engines.

So, the HH-65 isn't a Dauphin -- it's merely an up-engined Dolphin which now has all the capabilities of a Dauphin.
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86541 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86541 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:02:21 -0600
I swear, I get *more* grief about DoD-supplied captions than anything else around here.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86537 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86537 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:37:19 -0600
That is a FRENCH helicopter, sir. It is an Aerospatiale (Eurocopter) machine , known by it's maker as "Dauphin" (NOT Dolphin). In French, a Dauphin is a viceroy, as well as a sea creature.

The only reason I can understand why the Coasties wouldn't have kept the Dauphin's proper name is that they suddenly turned into Francophobes after 1979, when they first began to acquire the HH-65s.

I say suddenly, because the USCG used another French aircraft, the Dassault-Breguet Falcon before the Dauphin, but they kept the name when they started flying that bird.

The French made decent aircraft then, and still do.
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86536 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86536 Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:17:47 -0600 commercially navigable.  So as is my usual wont with questions like this, I figured the old horse's mouth is the best place to go:

"The United States Coast Guard is a military, multi-mission, maritime service and one of the nation’s five Armed Services. Its mission is to protect the public, the environment, and U.S. economic interests – in the nation’s ports and waterways, along the coast, on international waters, or in any maritime region as required to support national security. "

No qualifier about "navigable" waterways that I can see.   Looking further, I find that North Dakota is in USCG District 8, and the USCG has a special website set up for news about the flooding. 
]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86523 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86523 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:27:56 -0600
The station closed because we were getting maybe one or two barges getting as far north as Leavenworth.  I think the functional head of navigation is at Kansas City, where the last time I saw anything about the Coast Guard was they were pushing to *not* have the casino boats actually cruise, not wanting to have to try and manage all that passenger traffic.  Hence the boats were really mostly rubber ducks in bathtubs.

Has that changed? The jurisdiction issue, I mean - not the casino boats. Or is my understanding just, wrong? Which would be odd, since I got it from the USCG liaison guy for some National Security events we worked together when I was at 5th Army.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86515 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86515 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:56:58 -0600
The USCG was a first responder in NOLA, too In fact that was their largest rescue operation, ever.


]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86507 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86507 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:28:36 -0600
There are more people in danger in Fargo than were in New Orleans. Most NOLA residents left. Most Fargo residents stayed.

I've put about 45 pics of the National Guard and Coast Guard efforts up at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chucksimmins/sets/72157615865424942/detail/

Contrary to CNN, the military has been there since day 1. Northcom's response, horrifying the libs, was well after the National Guard showed up.

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86506 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86506 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:15:20 -0600 I have seen the Democrat Representative of the region assert that everything is going differently because they've been in charge for two months.

So? They were in charge in N'Awluns for *years*.

Maybe the folks in Fargo actually used the levee appropriations to strengthen the levees instead of building fountains honoring their city councilmembers.

]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86504 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86504 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:32:02 -0600
I have seen the Democrat Representative of the region assert that everything is going differently because they've been in charge for two months.

Amazing, isn't it?  How incompetent government employees suddenly become competent because the head of the agency changes?  Pretty much overnight?  The presumption that FEMA and HLD learned nor changed anything in the time between Katrina and the Inauguration, and that any improvement is creditable only to changes since late January. 

Amazing contempt displayed for the long-service guys and gals in FEMA vice the temps who've moved in since January.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86499 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86499 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:37:23 -0600 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86492 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86492 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:46:25 -0600 ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86491 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2009/03/fargo_north_dak.html#comment-86491 Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:35:00 -0600