If I’m not there, the PVR is running…

Aviation buff? Curious about what air combat maneuvering (ACM) has been like over the ages? Do you love tactics, espcially ones conducted at high speed and in three dimensions? Do you get “speed is life” or want to?

So, at 10PM each Friday night, you should be tuned to the “History Channel for “Dogfights.”

Using computer gaming simulations software, detailed graphical representations and interviews with some of the actual “players” in many historical air battles, it will give you a dose of detail to round out your comprehension of the “process” of dogfighting….

For the Naval Historians out there, the episode aired 12/22/06, titled “Death of the Japanese Navy” was a well done detailed description of the Battle Off Samar in Oct, 1944. While the show is about air combat, they used the same techniques to tell the story of the clash between Adm Kurita’s Central Force and Taffy 3 in the early hours of 10/25/1944 off of Leyte Gulf. Featured for much of the commentary was James Hornfisher, author of “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors”. The valiant aviators, who, in many cases with no more ordnance, continued to make passes at the overwhleming force is intermingled with the surface combat between destroyer escorts, destroyers (on the US side) and the battle force lead by IJN Yamato, other battleships, cruisers and destroyers of the Japanese fleet.

So…see about the Flying Tigers, aerial combat between “The Last Gunfighters” F-8 Crusaders and MiGs over Hanoi, Spads (not A-1s!) over the trenches, or the trials of the “Cactus Air Force.”

Several weeks ago, I pondered actually sitting down and toying with a revisionist history piece titled something like “What If There Was No America?” The most difficult part, not being a sociologist, economist, engineer, historian, scientist, etc, would be to find a point in time to “separate” the American experience from the actual history and then commence to postulate on the path “history” would have then taken with some degreee of credibility for the purpose of the article/essay.

I guess it was all spawned by the History Channel “Engineering an Empire” series. What it took, and how nations formed and developed, and then had to come up with innovations to continue their growth is facinating. As I watched the episode “Britian: Blood and Steel,” I began to consider what we have contributed to civilization and the genesis of my essay idea.

Well, as luck would have it, some called about three days ago, while they were discussing the Sandy Berger song writing contest on the Bill Bennett show (this week – and you have until midnite tonight to get your entry in), someone suggested Bill write a book “A World Without America.” Bill’s response was to say he will set up and essay contest for submissions of 1000 word essays for this 4th of July time frame – $1000 to the winner.

So, the question is: Do you have a flair or passion for writing fictional history? Maybe, just maybe, you’ll get rewarded for your efforts…but…based on some of the lyrics submitted for the Sandy Burgler song contest, be ready for some seriously competent competition from the listeners to that show…

Stumbling around looking for a Ted Kennedy picture (you’ll see why this weekend), I find this site for dummied up pictures of news stories: Freaking News…get on it, ok?

“Proud to be everything the Right Wing hates”

This was not technically a bumper sticker, but a rear window of and SUV (Aztek) sticker and it was about 6″x6″, black with small white lettering. I’m wondering, since I had to get within a 1/2 car length to make sure I had it right for the record, how proud this driver actually was…:)

Same car, but one I can consider shaking his hand and buying him a cup of coffee for:

“THINK – It’s not illegal yet.”

We certainly could use some people who believe that right now, and actually start doing it….

Post your stuff here!

Chief “Mac,” my “Sea Daddy” said (while the stub of his cigar never left being clenched between his teeth) these things about pistol usage:

• “You have to put 50 rounds down range a day” (to stay proficient – he believed a 1911 .45 should feel just like another part of your body)
• “You always shoot twice. Once to get him, the second to make sure. Any fewer rounds is stupid, any more is a waste.”

Wisdom…it comes in many forms.

Recevied via email from one of the Navy Valour-IT Team Members. He is asking the word get passed around the military community to consider signing a new appeal for redress….:

I don’t do self-promotion, and this really isn’t about that. I hope you’ll read this post – and then direct any active duty members that you know to the petition. My goal is to offset the negative effect of the liberals’ Appeal for Redress, which will be widely touted by the media, with this alternate Appeal for Redress, which asks Congress to respect our military.

[email protected] – http://www.antimedia.us/
Dedicated to exposing the media’s many lies

Antimedia’s post has a link for active duty members to sign up, but I’ll put it here.

Pass the word…time to make an appeal to the higher ups.

Press release from CENTCOM 1/5/2007:

NEWS RELEASE
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
7115 South Boundary Boulevard
MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101
Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894

U.S. Central Command Launches NEW Podcast on Website

TAMPA, Florida -Today, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) launched a new podcast on their website. The weekly podcast will feature stories from around Central Command’s area of responsibility. The weekly episodes will provide visitors to the CENTCOM website a readymade means of accessing information about events in the Middle East, Southwest Asia and the Horn of Africa, as well as RSS feeds with up to the minute news.
The Central Command podcast is available at http://www.centcom.mil to download as an MP3 audio file, or via subscription to the podcast RSS syndication feed.

CENTCOM’s unique access to the region will take you to the Iranian border in Iraq and hear from coalition members working with the Iraqi Border Patrol to the villages of Somalia to features about post-earthquake Pakistan.

The inception of this medium to the website accommodates a diverse audience and provides them with another method of acquiring news and information about Central Command and the units on the ground.

“We are really excited about the addition of podcasting to the CENTCOM web site. This brings a whole new dimension to our capabilities and allows our users to access information that is not available anywhere else” said Central Command Public Affairs Director Colonel Jerry Renne.

Podcasting technology enables users of personal audio players to receive broadcasts of audio media via an Internet feed to which users can subscribe.

These feeds deliver audio broadcasts to your desktop. You can listen to these files on your computer or load them on to your MP3 player and take them with you. The word “podcasting” combines the words “broadcasting” and “iPod.” The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable music player.

The content of the weekly podcasts include a look at coalition forces fighting the Global War on Terror within the region, an opportunity to hear from Central Command’s top leaders, interviews with troops on the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa and specials from the 27 countries within the command.

USCENTCOM is one of the five geographically defined unified commands within the Department of Defense. The command is responsible for planning and conducting United States military activity in a region consisting of 27 countries that make up the CENTCOM AOR.

We also want to encourage you to subscribe to our latest news and press release feeds delivered directly to your email inbox via FeedBurner.

Subscribe to US CENTCOM News by Email

Subscribe to US CENTCOM Press Releases by Email

Or, if you use a feed reader, you can subscribe directly by clicking here.

Good ideas come and they go and other ideas seem to just keep recycling themselves.

From Popular Mechanics comes this “Tech Notes” on “Project ISIS.”

“Project ISIS” has the ring of a James Bond movie, but it actually comes from an acronym (albeit a clumsy one) for a new curved radar array being developed by Raytheon and DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm. The Integrated Sensor Is Structure concept calls for such arrays running along the wings, tail and underbelly of military or commercial aircraft. Eventually, it could replace the flat-panel radar antennas typically found in a plane’s nose, providing improved surveillance capabilities and better 360-degree threat detection. ISIS technology is set to debut in 2009 as part of a colossal unmanned airship parked at more than 65,000 ft. over combat zones.

I wonder what the staff at DARPA has been smoking on their spare time…

Frank Luke with his Spad XIII (Credit: Wikipedia)

Hmmmm….I began reading a little about flight history when I was but a young guy. Tales of the top aces of WWI were pretty exciting, but I do recall the daring do of a man named Frank Luke. He liked balloons, but not to fly them, to “bust” them. His exceptional skills at downing enemy observation balloons earned this young man from Phoenix, AZ the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Gary Powers (Credit: Wikipedia)

I also recall a story about a man named Gary Powers about a day in May 1960. The 1st, to be exact…

SA-2 Guideline/ missile on Transporter (Credit: Wikipedia)

It seems we thought flying “high” over enemy territory made us invulnerable, yet, a missile named by NATO the “SA-2 Guideline,” fielded in 1957 for the purposes of engaging our B-52 Stratofortresses, had an operational capability between the altitudes between 1500 and 82K ft. Gary Powers found out the hard way, and I believe our intelligence agencies had a lot of egg on their faces in the aftermath of the Powers shoot down. Call it an intelligence failure, for that’s what it was.

Oh, and yes, the SA-2 Guideline is still in service with countries around the world. It was used very effectively by the North Vietnamese to do what it was designed for: Shoot our B-52’s out of the sky, much to the dismay of my fellow Air Force vets.

Some basic issues, that even a Black Shoe like me can understand: If you have an active radar system to find things, sensors on the other end of the search can find the radar. back in the Vietnam War days, we had developed and deployed missiles that could be told to find a signal and home in on it, then, upon arrival at the source of the signal, to detonate (and thereby destroy the radar). Those are called “anti-radiation missiles.” The technology has generally been used to go from an air platform to a surface (slow/not moving) target. In the case of an airborne platforms making the emissions, if the target is not moving very fast, it doesn’t take a whole lot of calculations to get a weapon to the target…

So…my point? All you need is a dedicated pilot in an aircraft that can get to 65K ft, or a Surface to Air Missile with the same altitude capability to sort of ruin our day. Of course, of you have Klingon type cloaking systems in development to pair up with ISIS, I may have to change my tune on the topic…

Credit: Ace Pilots

I get a certain degree of amusement from the bumperstickers I see.

Bumper Quotes was “found” the other day.

I reckon it just might shut me down in my quest to bring a few smiles to us all…

Scanning the new mags while drinking coffee located this item of interest:

Phish Tank.

Wondering what “phishing” is? Details here.

What is PhishTank?

PhishTank is a collaborative clearing house for data and information about phishing on the Internet. Also, PhishTank provides an open API for developers and researchers to integrate anti-phishing data into their applications at no charge.

So, a central clearing house, where you can check out if the email you’re looking at is legit, or an effort to undo you financially….You can even send in your items to help the greater good!

Think of it like a Snopes like site for checking out what’s true and what’s not…