Paint dot Net. Not only is it freeware, it nags you not, it does layers, varied “opacity,” has shapes, brushes, fonts, erasers, and not only does it have some useful effects loaded in, you can download a raft of free plugins to do things like make a picture on a spherical background, inject clouds, align objects, etc, etc, etc, via the Paint.Net user forum.

I do my headers with it, because it’s quick, simple and has plenty enough features to drop the SWO pin and lettering on top of a cropped pic to header dimensions.

High quality AND free (with a PayPal button if you feel inclined to use it)!

I heard about this program at the 2006 MilBlogs Conference, yet no one could tell me the link. I emailed VFW for an answer and none showed up. Reading a magazine yesterday, where Gunny Ermey was interviewed, he discussed the program set up by the VFW to help families stateside. He said not a single request had been turned down to date.

Your hands, fix-it know how and/or money would help take care of the families who have members in the fight, not available to get on with crossing off taskers on the “Honey-Do” list.

Get over to Unmet Needs and get smart, maybe there’s a family down your block that needs a lawn mowed or a leaking toilet fixed.

If you’re a family in need of help, the site has the button to get you to the help request form.

P.S. Like ValOUR-IT 100% of donations go directly to help the families!

Pass the Word!

It was a typical muggy, sunny day in the summer in Mississippi: August 25th, 1979. Ross Perot was there, Admiral Hayward, the Chief of Naval Operations was the speaker. They were there to honor their Naval Academy classmate.

Lt Col William G. Leftwich, Jr., USMC, Class of 1953His widow, since remarried, and his two sons attended. One was by then a Cadet at VMI, The other in high school.Why was a modern destroyer named for this man? Because he displayed gallantry in battle and died while flying to the aid of his trapped Recon team in South Vietnam.

From HQ Marine Corps website:

Lieutenant Colonel William G. Leftwich, Jr., was commissioned a Marine Second Lieutenant on June 5, 1953, upon graduation from the United States Naval Academy. As Brigade Captain during his senior year at the Naval Academy, he was commended at graduation for exemplary officer-like qualities, which contributed… “to the development of naval spirit and loyalty within the Brigade.”

Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich completed The Basic School in January 1954, and later served as a rifle platoon commander with the 2dMarine Division at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. During 1955-56 he served with the 3d Marine Division in Okinawa. On his return to the United States, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, where he was promoted to Captain in July 1957. He began a 3-year assignment at the Naval Academy, serving as a company officer. An excellent athlete, he performed collateral duties as assistant varsity tennis coach and battalion football coach.

In 1960, he rejoined the 2d Marine Division, serving as a company commander until 1962, when he was named aide-de-camp to the Commanding General. In June 1963, he was assigned as aide to the Commandant, Marine Corps Schools, Quantico, Virginia. He reported for duty in Vietnam in January 1965, as Assistant Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese Marine Brigade.

Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich participated in 27 major operations against the Viet Cong in the central highlands of Vietnam, and spent more than 300 days in the field. He was wounded in the battle of Hoai An, March 9, 1965, and in addition to receiving the Purple Heart, was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism. According to his citation, he “…played a major part in all phases of the successful relief of the village of Hoai An which was under heavy enemy attack by two Viet Cong battalions…. By his own personal example…, he led the attack…. Despite injuries by enemy machine gun bullets in the back, cheek, and nose, he went to the aid of a mortally wounded comrade… and delayed his own evacuation until he could call for additional air strikes and brief the task force commander of the situation.”

Upon his return to the United States in January 1966, he served as an instructor at The Basic School. He completed the Command and Staff College in June 1967, and was named to the school’s honor list. Assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in November 1967, while serving as a systems analyst with the Manpower Management Information Branch, G-1 Division.

In 1968, Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich was selected by the Under Secretary of the Navy to be his special assistant and Marine Corps aide. He served in this capacity under the Honorable Charles F. Baird, and Mr. Baird’s successor as Under Secretary of the Navy, the Honorable John W. Warner.

In April 1970, he began his second tour of duty in Vietnam, serving initially as an infantry battalion commander with the 2d Battalion, 1st Marines. On June 30, he assumed duty as the Commanding Officer of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Reinforced).

On November 18, 1970, Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich was, per his practice of accompanying every emergency extraction called for by his reconnaissance teams, serving as senior “extract officer” for such a mission on the day of his death. The team had incurred casualties and requested an emergency extraction from enemy-infested territory, in an area being enveloped by dense fog. The team was extracted under Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich’s personal supervision. As the helicopter began it’s ascent, it crashed into a mountainside in enemy territory, killing all aboard.

Lieutenant Colonel Leftwich’s medals and awards include: the Navy Cross, the Silver Star (posthumous), the Legion of Merit with Combat “V” and two gold stars, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Medal with one gold star, the Purple Heart with two gold stars, and various personal awards from the Republic of Vietnam.

The memory of Lt Col Leftwich lives on in the form of an annual award, the Leftwich Trophy:

The Marine Corps Association is grateful for the generous support of the H. Ross Perot Foundation for providing the endowment that supports the annual presentation of the Leftwich Trophy. The trophy is rendered in bronze and depicts a Viet Nam era Marine Officer aggressively leading from the front which epitomizes the character of the award winner each year.

The Leftwich Trophy is intended to recognize active duty captains in the ground combat arms community, holding company or battery command who clearly and dramatically demonstrate the ideals of courage, resourcefulness, perseverance and concern for the well being of our Corps and it’s enlisted Marines. For the first time in the history of the award, which spans back to 1979, this year’s award is presented posthumously. Captain John W. Maloney, died in combat operations in Iraq after being recommended for the award.

The Award is provided through a foundation, which was established by H. Ross Perot who was a Naval Academy roommate of Lt Col William Leftwich, for whom the trophy is named.

The 2005 award of the Leftwich Trohpy went to CAPT William Maloney, USMC.

From the Military Times:

Leftwich Trophy awarded posthumously

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

For the first time in the award’s 27-year history, the Marine Corps has bestowed the prestigious Leftwich Trophy for Outstanding Leadership to an officer who died in combat.

Capt. John W. Maloney was killed June 16, 2005, when his Humvee was destroyed by a “massive bomb” as he led his infantrymen from the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, out of an ambush in a small town south of Ramadi, Iraq, according to his nomination.

Maloney assumed command of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines in July 2004.

“There are few officers who accomplish so much in such a short time in command,” wrote 1/5’s former commander, Lt. Col. Eric Smith. “This is simply a reflection of the efforts and abilities of an officer who, in my opinion, was not only made of the same stuff as Lt. Col. Leftwich, but who similarly sacrificed his life for his Marines.”

The Corps cited Maloney as the 2005 recipient of the Leftwich Trophy in an April 4 Corps-wide message, AlMar 015/06.

First awarded in June 1979 to Capt. Clyde S. Brinkley Jr., the Leftwich Trophy is intended to recognize active-duty captains in the ground combat-arms community holding company or battery command who “clearly and dramatically demonstrate the ideals of courage, resourcefulness, perseverance and concern for the well-being of our Corps and its enlisted Marines,” according to the criteria for the award.

The award is provided through a foundation established by H. Ross Perot, a Naval Academy roommate of Lt. Col. William Leftwich, for whom the trophy is named.

Shortly after taking command of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam, Leftwich died in a helicopter crash during a Nov. 18, 1970, emergency extraction of his men from enemy-infested territory.

Maloney’s company was posted at one of the hottest combat outposts in Ramadi, capital of the volatile Anbar province in western Iraq, a notorious Sunni stronghold. The government center outpost in the heart of the city is the site of frequent insurgent attacks from rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and mortar fire.

The parallels with Maloney’s actions and those of the award’s namesake were not lost on Smith when he recommended the fallen Maloney for the Leftwich.

“Were we to replace a hot [landing zone] and a UH-1 [Huey] helicopter with an IED-infested sector of town and an armored Humvee, there would be no daylight between what these two great leaders gave to our Corps,” he wrote.

Awarding the trophy posthumously was somewhat controversial, Marine officials said, though rules governing the award do not rule out giving the trophy — which depicts a Vietnam-era Marine officer clutching an M16 in one hand, waving his men forward with the other — to a deceased Marine.

Smith argued in his nomination for Maloney that the Jan. 20 award of a Bronze Star with a combat “V” was done “to pay him tribute” for his heroism in Iraq.

“The commandant came back and asked us, ‘Are you doing this because the Marine was killed in action or was he the best guy?’” said Gene Benson, Leftwich Trophy coordinator with the Corps’ Plans, Policy and Operations office, in an April 24 interview. “And he was the best guy regardless if he had been [killed in action] or not. So it just turned out that way.”

Benson said plans are in the works to present the Leftwich Trophy to Maloney’s wife, Michelle, at the Marine Corps Association-sponsored Ground Awards Dinner in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 21.

Last I recall, his son who graduated from the Naval Academy had been selected to Commander.

The ship? I am a Plank Owner, and have often blogged here on some of the shipboard life I experienced there:

The 22nd of 31 hulls, LEFTWICH began service stationed in San Diego, and later was shifted to her homeport of Pearl Harbor. She was one of the first of the SPRUANCE Class ships to be fitted with TOMAHAWK cruise missiles, with two armored box launchers (4 weapons each) on her foc’sle.

Not that it takes near as much “intestinal fortitude” to chase down the guys sending your emails from Nigeria as it does to run headlong towards a flaming Jeep Cherokee and give a good kick in the bullocks to a terrorist, but be comforted in knowing some people are taking it to the ones who fill your email box with requests to help them free up the fortune, and you will receive a piece of it…
it seems some people have formed up into teams to purposely bait scammers into being humiliated by tricking them into thinking they found someone to rape the bank accounts of…

They ever award trophies….

Some of the sites where you might want to enlist to help the cause:

419eater, Scamorama and aa419.

The article I read in the St Petersburg Times (can’t find it there, but here is the original New York Times article) says the scam baiters won’t identify themselves, but did grant interviews over the phone.

St Pete Times article “Cunning ‘victms’ turn tables on Internet scams” 7/6/2007 says:

[…]
Their motives may seem altruistic, but not all law enforcement officials approve of their tactics, which can include entrapment and humiliation.
[…]

Gee, am I missing something? Humiliation in return for trying to commit international identify theft, wire fraud, and then abscond with the big $$$? Oh, well, some police person (in Lyons, France) said this:

They are fraudsters and they are not good people, but they have their human rights.

Leave it to the MSM to tell us how these wanna be, or maybe already, crooks have human rights.

Anyhow, news from the “front” in another kind of war. Just thought you’d like to know…

Solar Challenger in flight (Click the pic for more of the story)Maybe everyone flying to “We have to make carbon to reduce it” Live Earth Concerts should consider investing in this type of aircraft, before they foul my breathing air anymore.Oh, and Solar Challenger successfully crossed the English Channel this day in 1981 (5 hours 23 Minutes)….

Al Gore, please call NASA flight schedule and ticketing office!

Some one searched for Chances of dying while skydiving and my blog came up as hit #2…

Then I wanderer about the link forest. looking for link trees and found this article. From “Living the Risky Life?” by Gene Charleton, beginning with this:

A Risky Day
Few of us think of ourselves as risk takers. Skydiving, bungee jumping or street luge are not in the vocabularies most of us use to describe our daily activities. Yet we live with risk all day, every day, without jumping out of airplanes or off bridges, or zipping down the street on our backs. Most risks we take are unseen among the minutiae of getting through the day. They’re there, but few of us spend a lot of effort thinking about them.

Most of us live our lives as if we could escape from risk by being careful. Engineers look at risk differently.

But…the money quote I like is:

Through the looking glass Risk is often in the eye of the beholder. Here’s an example:
which is riskier, skydiving or commuting to work? Here’s what the numbers say: About 350,000 sport parachutists make about three million parachute jumps each year in the United States. About 30 of them die in accidents. That works out to one death for every 100,000 jumps. If you make one parachute jump each year, your chances of dying are about 1 in 100,000.

On the other hand, more than 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents. That’s 1.7 deaths for every 100 million vehicle-miles driven. If you drive 10,000 miles a year, your risk of dying in a traffic accident is about 1 in 6,000. You’d have to jump 17 times in a year before your odds of dying in a skydiving accident equaled your odds of dying in a car crash. So why do so many people consider skydivers to be danger junkies while these same people happily risk their lives on the way to the office? People’s perceptions of what is risky and what is not are colored by how they see themselves in relation to the risk.

Oh, and it you drive about 20K/year….think of the odds…

So, all of you ground pounding “legs” out there will get in your car, but think I’m crazy? The joke is on you: I know what it’s like to hurtle towards the earth with others, making formations while going 120+ mph, yet all reaching the ground safely to begin to concoct the “jump lies” we will tell while drinking the free beer from the first timers (name the “first” and someone had to buy a case or beer/soda) just after the sun sets and we pack gear up before heading home; To meet people from all over the world, just because they were in the area of the drop zone you’re at, and they came by to get some air time, not because it was a special event; To be able to say “I can trust them with my life” and really know you can and that you mean it. Yes, and there’s lots more interesting things I’ve had happen in the 28 years worth.

Come Oct, there will be some video posted of two big ways. No one got hurt and we made a record….

Just thought you might like to know…and here’s the USPA drop zone locating page.

On the back of a lawn maintenance company trailer:

No More Saying:

“I Fought the Lawn and the Lawn Won”

On the rear bumper of an old Dodge van:

“I’m not a tourist, I’m an armed native”

1905. Marine Guard escorts the body of John Paul Jones from France, landing at Annapolis July 23 for interment at the U.S. Naval Academy.

P.E.T.A. eats its own. NO MEAT FOR YOU TODAY!!!!! Jerry Sienfeld, contact your nearest P.E.T.A. Chapter, I think there’s a consulting/stand up gig in it for you.

On 6/28/07 at the Democratic Debate, Hillary comments that we’re holding a lot of non-violent offenders in prisons and we need to get them out and figure a better way to handle it. On 7/02/07, she decries the use of Constitutionally appointed Presidential powers over the topic of a man sentenced for lying. Ironic on many levels: If lying is no longer non-violent, has she been living with a violent man? As someone who has had a close, personal relationship with a man who used the very same provisions during his time as President….and a lot more than 80 some times…more like around 400, to include someone convicted of trafficking and selling weapons silencers.

OK, many years ago, an Army Officer said something the media excoriated him for during the Vietnam War. The Live Earth is now of the mind to “Make carbon in order to reduce it.” Funny, throw a concert on each continent (I guess they haven’t figured out that ticket sales in Africa and India might not cover the expenses). Sure, mega-wattage for amplifiers, lights and associated electrical systems during the concert, heating and cooling for the performers and their massive entourages, not to mention people up and going somewhere they might never have traveled to, just because they will feel better about helping the cause, while stomping all over the virgin land mass of Antarctica. Crazy idea. What about raising funds by just passing the word and bringing people on board with your cause. Maybe they’re afraid of getting nailed by anti-SPAM laws of the Federal Government.

And, the capstone of the week: Humans using more than our fair share of solar energy. Scary. I wonder if they calculated from the number of people turning their skin to leather on the beaches of the world. And….if some snail darter isn’t inland where I might be, am O supposed to package up the sunlight raining down and ship it to someone living near a pond, so they can release the energy over the water and let the darter get some quality rays?

Geez…it’s getting nutty out here, but I will draw the line at providing free cars to lemmings. They’ll only take a one way trip to the nearest cliff and careen over it, no matter what they tell you about their plans for the day.

CDR Salamander got a “G” rating….:(Something about using “shoot” got me in the have to be a little more mature bin….