Lots of chatter about the net, so I left this alone, as I have posted my thoughts in comment sections.

However..to add some unbearable lightness to the insane naming situation, Rich Casebolt needs to be credited with these brilliant one liners, found in the comments section at Milblogs, on a post by Bublehead:

I can already hear the commentary about having Ford-class carriers in the fleet …

“You can have it any color, as long as it’s gray …”

“Fix Or Repair Daily …”

“Found On Rocks, Damaged …”

“Have you sailed on a Ford, lately?”

“Ford … a Better Idea?”

Would enlisted men on these carriers, who move up to become officers, now be known as Ford Mustangs?

Would the ships of the Battle Groups formed around these carriers now be referred to as Ford Escorts?

Would the Lefties criticize the building of these carriers by referring to them as Ford LTD’s — Long Term Debts?

And finally, I now see the truck ads, featuring these carriers behind the truck (or launched off its catapults) to show that the trucks are “built Ford tough.”

If you need more “gouge” on the USS FORD, Lex’s post, replete with raging commentary is here, and Bubblehead has the “long form” version here,

Update 12/20/2006: I had some errors in this post as far as the facts presented below. I’m editing it to help show those, and the corrected info as best I can to make sure the truth gets out there.

Earlier this year, a restaurant in Washington, DC, Fran O’Briens, located in the lower level of the DC Hilton, was sent packing, on short notice. They were told their lease would be renewed, but about 60 days before it was time to resign, the Hilton Management pulled the plug, citing a variety of things, one being the lack of ADA capabilities and therefore the possibility of law suits.

The blogger who, as I recall, was the first one to notice this problem was FbL of the blog Fuzzilicious Thinking. By scanning back some, here is a post of hers that has links to many of the posts with all the background on the issue. Here, however, is the first “Saving Fran O’Briens” post.

There is plenty more around the blogsphere, from Andi’s World, Castle Arrgghhh!, Black Five, Mudville Gazette, etc, etc, etc. It got “our” attention, particularly because when the news broke, we were only a few weeks away from the first ever MilBlogging Conference, to be held in DC, mere blocks from Fran O’Briens. On Friday night before the conference, many of the MilBloggers showed up at Fran O’Briens, to meet and show our support to troops and Marty and Hal.

That’s not really important. What is is the legacy of what happened on Friday nights ar Fran O’Briens. Wounded servicemen from the local military hospitals were brought over for a great steak dinner, as a way of saying thanks to this generation’s best and brightest and bravest from the two restaurant partners, Marty O’Brien and Hal Koster, both a Vietnam Vets themselves.

As a result of the rude and unprofessional behavior on the part of the management of Hilton Corporation, there has been a grass roots protest to now grace any of the Hilton facilities with travel/entertainment dollars.

As a way of helping to make this more visible, the website Perish Hilton is now up and operating, complete with a graph to record the dollars not spent with Hilton Corporation. If you have had the opportunity to “divert” your personal or professional resources away from Hilton, the Perish Hilton site will record and display the dollar value.

The point at Perish Hilton is to not make this a site where “Hey, I coulda spent $2M with them, but I didn’t,” but one that is based on fact. You can submit your data, and the staff in the background (all volunteer) will scan it and then submit the amount to the database for graphical display.

Now, the good news is the dinners, while Fran O’Briens DC location shut it’s doors is the dinners went on for the troops, thanks to the Aleethia Organization.

[ed note: The “better news” following this editorial comment was a report in error. More background on the confussion found here, thanks to Andi]The better news is the new Fran O’Briens Steakhouse will be opening in McLean, VA, and the tradition of serving up some hospitality to our servicemen and women, as well as their families, will kick off again.

I know some people have commented around the web on how they have not spent their money with Hilton, some with pretty sizable travel budgets, and now you can make your conviction of supporting the troops known.

If you can help add to the numbers, please get over there. If you have like minded friends, please pass this around.

Questions/comments on this efforts welcomed. Leave them in the comments section or you can email them to me.

And for those of you who might like the chance to show some more support to Fran O’Briens, the 2007 MilBlogging Conference is scheduled to be held in the DC area (specific location not designated) May 5th. [ed note: We can pray this will come to pass, but, who knows?]I’m sure a Firday night join up at Fran’s will be in the plans….mark your calenders now!

It started getting really clear when I woke at 0452 EDT today for some unknown reason…..

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to jump into a “debate” (in quation marks for when one of the debators anchors a post in concrete labeled “Bush is Menatlly Ill” it is a difficult time indeed to have substantive dicussions), begun by a Milblogger and Army Recruiter, who made a post regarding the defeatist attitude on parade and mentioned a few bloggers by name.

I went to one of the sites and read her response, posted on her blog, and then proceeded to enter into the discussion.

The response, which helped me to understand her thinking more completely began to coagulate last night, but when my eyes popped open, it really became clear how she frames her argument. I’ll most likely speak to that here in the next few days.

It also happens to tie into much of what has been bouncing around in my thoughts the last few weeks, with the election results, the claims of mandates, the total lack of understanding of how you don’t elect congressment to run the nation, the Iraq Study Group report and the players who have come out on both sides (while the ISG really kinda did the normal political thing and mealy mouthed the whole issue of Iraq (yet was very clear about hating Israel)) of the debate; The thoughts of how another “Greatest Generation” is in the crucible right now, and to not lose hope, for these are the leaders of tomorrow; World population statistics; Wolrd history, both ot the Islamic culture/faith and also some of the analysis by Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers” from the late 80’s; Dr. Spock, Timothy Leary, the rise of gangs on our streets, which have now migrated world wide; The War Against Drugs; The “Mob” and the now prolific “Russian Mafia;” Chaos theory and Complexity and a whole lotta other stuff. More ganglia twitching, and how much of it seems to come together, or at least help explain the human condition.

I’ll also be posting at The Wide Awakes, along with ohters who write for that group blog (see blogroll on the sidebar). I’ll begin this afternoon with a few “retreads” of older work, but some of my prior work seems to be puzzle pieces in the “knowldege soup” brewing on this end.

In the meantime, I believe there is a snow globe that needs shaking to show the true beauty of winter….

Found in the comments section over at Little Green Footballs of the post Servicemen Respond to Democratic Slurs, which, chasing that link is a good read in itself. But…here’s a great add on:

YOU WORRY ME!

By American Airlines Pilot – Captain John Maniscalco

I’ve been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn’t. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don’t blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can’t help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don’t fully understand their grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers.

The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So I notice you now. I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I
must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted. Not a well known anniversary in all my years, but certainly and particularly in these times, an important moment to remember what it took to get those first 10 amendents ratified by the feldgling nation. Think about it and then compare the concern over how long it is taking to get democratic ideas to take root in the middle east.

1776 to 1781: 5 years just to get our Constitution
1781 to 1789: 8 years to propose these modifications to the original document to proclaim many important concepts we hold dear 215 years later.

1789 to 1791: 2 years to get 10 of the 13 states to ratify 10 of the originally proposed 12 amendments.

So…my new math says that was 15 years of struggle to get there.

The history says a foundation of the Bill of Rights was the Magna Carta, written in 1225. Consider that as part of the timeline and then consider exercising some patience while more of the world finds out how great freedom and democratic principles are for them.

In the mean time, Happy Bill of Rights Day and, readers and bloggers alike, let’s really enjoy our freedom of speech!

Update 12/16/2006: Consider this addition by RTO Trainer:

Hey, tack on three more years to develop a national defense capable of defending the nation. You can front load another year to 19 April 1775, to the start of the war. 19 years from start to legitimate and secure.
And two rebellions, an attmpted military coup, disaffected soldiers running Congress out of town, and an indigenous insurgency along the way to boot.

But then again, they didn’t have Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground to deal with either…:)

From Little Green Footballs an amazingly transparent recounting of the life of a man’s grandfather and what it means in these days when some would stand and demand the the Nazis did not try to eliminate the Jewish culture from the face of the planet….

It’s a tale of derived understanding, of knowing pictures of people who are no more, did in fact exist and that cannot be denied.

If you choose to read his post, be ready, it’s an emotional account in a factual matter, written like Peter Falk playing his character of Colombo, but in a far more reverential manner. You may need Kleenex – so don’t tell me I didn’t warn you first.

From How my grandad invented the Holocaust by Eugene:

My father’s father died when I was 16, 15 years ago. Or was I 18? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago. My memory fails me, the daguerreotype has faded. I know that he was. And then he was not. I know this because I saw him when he was. And then I saw him again. And he wasn’t any more. He lived, and then he died. It is a fact.

My grandfather had a little sister. I know what she looked like. I have seen the photo. A 1941 photo. Or was it 1940? I don’t remember exactly. It was a long time ago that I saw it last. My grandfather knew. But he has been dead for a while, so he cannot tell me. If the photo was taken in 1941, that is the year my grandfather’s sister died.

In his 60s, towards the end of his days, my grandfather got very sentimental. He had had three heart attacks, the first one when he was in his 40s, so he wasn’t good for much towards the end of his days. He would sit on the couch, clutching his sister’s old photo, and cry. About 40 years had passed, but he would still cry. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect that, many years after my parents go, may they live a long life, I will cry exactly like he did. My people, the Jews, are like that. Cry babies.

So his sister lived, and then she died. It is a fact. I know that, because I have seen my grandfather cry over her photo.

Read and be enriched by this story and know the truth is nothing but the truth, so help us God.

Update 12/15/2006: Take a moment to get some background on the Holocaust from SteelJaw Scribe as he commemorates the beginning of Hannukah.

Sneak preview tickets in hand, I expected to see a good movie, having seen a few commercials. I saw a great movie. Not knowing the details of the real situation, if the movie wasn’t too overly dramatized, it certainly is an inspirational story of an entire community, not just a coach or a team. It is worth your time.

Yesterday I posted how life seems to emulate reality TV. Today I write about how life, in the context of a small West Virginia town should be a model for our nation.

How timely this happens to be, as the theme of the movie: “Yes, we took a loss, but we need to suit up and get back in the game, if we ever expect to win” plays into post III of a few weeks ago, in The Ratchet and the Governor – Tools for Today” series I have been working on. I also commented, just a few days ago, the rough times demand tough men.

The movie is well acted. Be ready to be brought into the emotions of a town who loses all but 4 of their football players, the college athletic staff and several of the key (read big) supporters. The big picture of the movie is it took many from the College and town, as well as a coach, who knew nothing more about the school than they were in need of a coach, and they made things happen.

They set a goal, first by the desire of one of the four players, who had not gone on the trip due to an injury, who thought the honor was not in shutting down (the equivalent response at our national level is the “withdraw and redeploy” concept), but by standing tall, and getting the student body to support a message to the school administration and the board, that they wanted to honor the dead by staying the course until victory. It was not an unruly crowd that gathered to get the point across, but a large one, willing to make their presence know in support of continued effort in the face of disaster.

They couldn’t find a coach in the long list of alumni. It was looking bleak. A coach called and when asked in the interview why he wanted the job, his answer was to look at his three children and his wife, running around the front yard, then tell Marshall’s President it was because of them, and then he paused and said he couldn’t imagine being without them and he figured a whole town was hurting and he thought he might be able to help. What a concept: You do it for your children, and along the way, you do it for everyone else, and their children so to speak.

Read the rest of this entry »

Weekly Open Trackbacks. A “safe harbor” to “suggest” to readers they should take a chance on you(r writings). Go for it.

From last week’s Sea Stories, I discussed the ship at sea always being a place of noise, and I indicated I’d tell more of that this week. Here it is.

On my second ship, one of my collateral duties was that of Gunnery Liasion Officer (GLO), which entailed being the person who managed the trageting of the ship’s guns against shore targets, via a spotter, on the ground or in the air, who would identify and fix target positions.

As part of our “shakedown” training (it was a newly commissioned ship), we had to train in this mission area, and we took a trip from San Diego harbor (homeport) to the west to the firing range off San Celmente Island and I proceeded to practice a skill I first learned in the school rooms of the Fleet Training Center.

I stood at the Dead Reckoning Tracer (DRT), which, for the purposes of this work, was converted to a plain old chart table. The operation specialists had laid out the grid reference charts for the area, and set up the radio circuits and sound powered telephone headsets. Status boards (large hanging, edge lit plexiglass sheets) were redrawn with the format for the fire missions we would be tasked with and positioned so I could easily read them from where I stood. My tools, up to three stopwatches, a sharpened No. 2 pencil, dividers and the “Commanche Board,” also were out for use.

So, “perched” several decks above, and away from the fore and aft 5″54cal MK 45 gun mounts, I would still be able to hear the gun laoding mechanisms doing their work. Two decks below the guns, the magazine crews would pick the type ammuntion and powder charges from their storage and place them in the hoists. Hydraulics and mechanical systems would rapidly raise the 76 lb projectiles and the powder cases up to the gun mount, where they were automatically loaded into a tray before the ram then shoved them into the waiting breech, to have the breech block slam into place behind them, awaiting patiently for the electrical charge that will begin the “explosives train” on it’s path to sending the sleek bullet hurtling towards it’s assigned target.

I felt the operation as much as I heard it. I felt the forward gun, Mount 51, and heard it fairly clearly, but I mostly felt Mount 52, probably 350 feet aft of me in straight distance measurement, insulating itself from me thru multiple bulkheads and 4 decks of aluminum and steel. The firing of either mount, was clearly unmistakable, as I became practiced on sending high explosives many miles away on the word of a disembodied voice on the radio.

“On Station, Ready for Call for Fire” begins the sequence, alerting the forward observer you are available to pummel the enemy who dares to enter his field of view…..

More later…

I have long thought the “Survivor” series was pretty worthless and conveyed a bad message, but it seems to be a replication of the current political, and cultural landscapes these days.

So they start out “teams,” which don’t really have anything to do with forming teams, because, at the end of the day (season), the goal is to not only beat the other team, but out maneuver each and every one of your team mates, just so you can walk with the prize.

Between elected and governmental, as well other supporters of the President, it seems “Phase II” has begun, where, after getting somewhere as part of the “team,” then the backstabbing begins, so there are sufficient bodies to stand upon to reach what you desire.

Noting more profound than that, but it seems my view of the “Survivor” model had come to be the dominant methodology in the upper levels of our government….sad, but, we will pay.

In the meantime, check out “Lifestyles of the Rich and Fascist.” (Speaking of life imitating TV…)

Well, at least I’m a fighter and not a C-5A!

See what kind of Military aircraft you are!

H/T: SteelJaw Scribe.