The 11th Hour, of the 11th Day, of the 11th Month...

Happy Armistice Day. Happy Veteran's Day.

Let us not forget those lost their lives and still sail the eternal patrol, nor those that came home broken in mind or body, nor those who came home hearty and hale. They all sacrificed something.

"Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile... can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, I served in the United States Navy.”

-- President J. F. Kennedy, August 1, 1963 to the US Naval Academy graduating class.

On this day in the Year 2000

The USS Cole was attacked, blowing a 40x60 foot hole in the hull. The ship was saved only because of the heroic damage control efforts on the part of the crew. It should be noted that this attack, paid for and directed by Al-Qaeda, preceded 9/11 by eleven months. Let us not forget the brave men and women who, in the finest of Naval tradition, kept the ship afloat despite having a hole in the side of the ship large enough to fit a school bus in - sideways.

Throw the F***ing book him

That's what they're doing to Bowe Bergdahl. And the little turdblossom deserves it.
They're bringing him up on desertion (Article 85 of the UCMJ) and misbehavior before the enemy (Article 99), both fairly serious charges, but the punishment is different. While both are technically punishable by death, Art. 85 is only punishable by death during time of war, whereas Art. 99 is always punishable by death.
Now, IANAL (Any experts on military law please feel free to correct me), but if Bergdahl had done like most other chuckleheads that desert, and done it in CONUS (CONtinental US) he wouldn't be facing the possibility of a death penalty because that only applies during a formal declaration of war (which hasn't happened since WWII). However, because he deserted in a combat zone, and other soldiers had to risk their lives searching for him, he can get charged with Art. 99, and as such, could get the death penalty. It's highly unlikely, and far more probable that he'll just get life - which, I might note, I'm just fine with, unless they find out that Bergdahl is an even bigger shitbucket than he already appears, in which case I'm all in favor of a short drop and a sudden stop.

Veteran's Day

On this Veteran's Day (or Armistice Day, depending upon location) remember this:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

Memorial Day

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
John 15:13

In all of the USA's wars, 848,163 Americans have died in combat, with another 433,161 dying from "other" (disease, wounds, etc.) leaving us with a total of 1,321,612 deaths.

Members of the US military sacrifice a great deal, traveling to places far from home and family, often a place where someone is doing their utmost best to kill them.


 No matter which service a person chooses to join, be it Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard, that person has chosen a path which could lead to their death.
Let us not forget those who gave the greatest sacrifice

China and dubious territorial claims.

China is attacking Japan for their possession of the Senkaku islands, claiming that the islands in question are actually part of Taiwan - which China also claims, but doesn't control.

In addition, China is trying to pressure Japan by also claiming Okinawa.

Rather than achieving their goals, this incredibly dubious claim over an island that has been a Japanese possession since 1879, is inhabited not by Chinese, but by Japanese, and which was not actually ever controlled by China - the kingdom of the Ryukyus, while a Chinese vassal, was an independent country, has just made the Japanese even firmer than before.

Given how numerous Chinese territorial disputes with other countries are, and how much tension is generated over its unjustified claims, I'm thinking that someone is going to go to war with the PRC before too long.

The Middle East and Southeast Asia are the two biggest world hot spots at the moment. The middle east because of Iran and Syria, Southeast Asia because of China and North Korea. The next war that the US gets involved in is going to be in one of those four countries, barring an unforeseen change in the situation.

He means it this time... Maybe

POTUS has just announced that GITMO needs to be closed.
Lets see if he can deliver on this one. After all, the first time he talked about closing GITMO the only thing that happened was rhetoric.

On Women in the Military

My military experience with women is rather limited, so I usually defer to those who have actually been with females in a combat zone when it comes to discussing females in, for example, the infantry.
I have little sympathy for those who continue to push to get women into those few places in the military where women have, until recently, not been allowed.
My lack of sympathy stems from the fact that there is a double standard concerning women in the military. The same people who want to open up every rating and MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) in the military to women want to keep the current PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment) standards as they open up the formerly closed ratings and MOSs. They say that women can do everything that men can do while at the same time having lower standards for women than they do for men.
They need to sh*t or get off the toilet. Either women are just as capable as men, and they should be held to the same PFA standards and allowed to do the same jobs, or they aren't as capable as men and shouldn't be held to the same PFA standards and allowed to do the same jobs. Pick one, stick with it, and stop dancing around the issue.

On the Second Amendment

The Second Amendment protects my right to keep and bear arms. The exact same arms as those wielded by the military.
When the Second Amendment was written, the usual means of fighting was to stand in lines and shoot at each other. Some talk about how dumb this was, ask why rifles weren't used, but given the technology of the time, it was the only way to conduct war.
The rifles of the time worked well as a weapon of asymmetric war, ideal for sniping, ambushes, and hit and run attacks, but it failed as a weapon of regular war. This was because the only ammunition available to anyone of the time was the lead ball. It wasn't until 1847 that the first successful real bullet was introduced. Until then, the only way for rifles to be effective was to force a lead ball slightly larger than the bore of the rifle, to engage the rifling, making it impossible to load a rifle quickly, allowing early riflemen to be easily overran and slaughtered by cavalry or advancing musketeers should they try to hold a battlefield.
The musket, on the other hand, was specifically designed as a weapon of war. Because it was a smooth-bore firearm, it could be loaded quickly (although at the expense of accuracy). This made musketeers harder to overrun, while forcing them to engage at much shorter distances.

China's navy

China launches stealth frigate amid ocean tensions

 China has launched the first ship in a new class of stealth missile frigates, state media reported Tuesday, amid ongoing tensions with neighboring countries over Beijing's maritime claims.
The People's Liberation Army Navy is building a total of 20 Type 056 Jiangdao class frigates to replace older models and bolster its ability to conduct patrols and escort ships and submarines in waters it claims in the South China and East China seas.
...

There's no telling how stealthy this new frigate actually is, but given the description I really doubt that its all that stealthy:

...
 The helicopter-equipped ships feature a sleek design to reduce clutter and make them harder to spot by radar and are armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.
... 

From the description, the new frigate design doesn't actually incorporate stealth technology, it just has a somewhat reduced radar cross section - from reducing clutter aloft. In reality, making a naval vessel stealthy requires that one: Reduce noise as a precaution against passive SONAR, find a way to defeat or reduce the threat of active SONAR and radar, and finally reduce the wake to prevent detection by satellite or plane. As far as the article concerned, the Chinese have only reduced the radar threat, and there's no telling how well they've actually done that without having the US Navy check them out - and even if the USN did that, it would no doubt remain classified for a long time.
 Even so, China is gearing up to become a naval power, and given their past proclivities, current actions, and system of governance they bear a lot of watching, especially as our own military gears down.

The Stupidity of Cutting Military Spending

From Fox:

Foreign adversaries ramp up defense spending as Pentagon cuts back

..."Instead of being a first-rate power in the world, we'd turn into a second-rate power. That would be the result of sequester," Panetta said. Sequester is the name for the automatic cuts first passed into law in the summer of 2011 as part of the debt-ceiling deal...  

The world is a dangerous place. We cannot afford to "study war no more" or cut military spending, because if we do, we'll lose our place as the premier power in the world. Congress needs to get its act together.

Leave the Boy Scouts of America alone

BBC links to a poll which says that 55% of US voters want the BSA to end its ban on homosexual leaders.
The BSA is only answerable to US voters in the sense that its adult leaders and parents of scouts are US voters. It is answerable to its members and no one else. President Obama may be its honorary president, but he has no power to change the BSA's policy.
In fact, those with the power to change the policy have decided to delay rather than decide.