Archive for January, 2006

The Taliban “Grows Some” – NOT!

January 27th, 2006 by

Breaking News!

Taliban militants besides lauching attacks against Afghan and foreign troops, intensifying the attacks to destroy the female schools.

Go figure. With NATO, US, Afghan Army and Pakistani troops to pick on, they do what they do best: Go for the “soft” target. Translation: They can’t handle a fight, but they can be the armed with AK-47 and RPG equivalent of the school yard bully.

I guess they are felling pretty emasculated because women now get to learn something. You have to be really insecure to try to kill them, just so they don’t learn….or you are ashamed they will find out they have been getting the short end of the stick (or the longer end quite literally) since the days when Mohammed decided he had had enough of Christianity making everyone equal, and turned back the clock to recapture the worst of the male dominated Jewish culture. Yep, it’s a great “religion” alright.

Category: Geo-Political, Political | Comments Off on The Taliban “Grows Some” – NOT!

Lest We Forget: Wiretapping in Another Era

January 27th, 2006 by

In reference to the current debate over the NSA “wiretapping” issue, we have been here before.

The situation is in many ways similar, but, it was a different time. It was a time when an attack on American soil awakened a sleeping giant, that then, with a crippled, and barely adequate military, travelled across two large oceans and set their youth into harm’s way, with the will of the people firmly behind them.

The first engagement in the Pacific was Pearl Harbor. The enemy took the initiative and caught us unprepared for the challenge, despite General Billy Mitchell having shown us we were not able to protect our national security in the late 30’s.

The next engagement in that theater was the Battle of the Coral Sea, where a non aviation admiral, Admiral Raymond Spruance, took a new type of battle force against a powerful enemy and he held the line of the Japanese advance into the southern Pacific. As a side note, much has been written critisizing Adm Spruance for his perceived lack of agressiveness with his fleet, but the bottom line is we had suffered major blows and his conservative approach acheived a turning point, where they progressed no more.

Next came a tiff in the vicinity of a very small island, big enough for little more than an airstrip and populated by gooney birds named Midway. It was an incredible naval victory for the US, where we caught the Japanese carriers by surprise. Heroism was a common virtue in that battle, with famous names of ships such as USS THATCH and USS McCLUSKEY being named after valiant aviators who carried the day in that moment.

What allowed us to sink four Japanese carriers to the loss of our one (YORKTOWN)? It began with what we might call “wiretapping” today: Interception and reading of the Japanese Naval Code.

The story is incredible, how a group of Navy code breakers struggled to break the code, then had a dummy “in the clear” message sent from Midway, saying the island was running out of fresh water. In subsequent intercepts, the Japanese coded messages reported this “condition,” and therefore our experts were then confident they had the right methods to ensure other coded messages “breaks” could be given the highest degree of confidence.

Read this excerpt from a site discussing the history of the Midway Atoll:

During World War II, the U.S. utilized a great military intelligence advantage over the Japanese, in both their radar capabilities and code breaking. The radar on Midway gave position, bearing, and altitude. Intelligence experts discovered that the Japanese planned to attack an unknown site referred to as “AF.” To test the theory that Midway was the target, a disinformation message regarding Midway’s freshwater supply was sent out over open communication channels. The Japanese intercepted the message and redistributed it in their JN 25 code, saying that “AF” needed freshwater. This strengthened intelligence allowed Admiral Nimitz to reinforce Midway’s defenses and station additional bombers, fighters, and torpedo aircraft on Eastern Island in preparation for the suspected attack.

Clearly, our govenrment officials, with the sanction of the President, had listened in on the tactical and strategic messages of the enemy, who intended to harm us, in this case, once more, as a follow up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Across time, this method has been hailed as the runing point of the War in the Pacific, and how in less than a year, a underdeveloped Navy had come back from a major blow, devised entirely new strategies, and had taken the fight to the enemy. Pretty impressive.

Should we now impunge the character of President Roosevelt (who had the Bill of Rights as a restriction on his actions) and demand a reversal? No, that would be ludicrous.

Look at the common threads:

1) Japan wanted resources. We blocked them with embargos. They decided to destroy us in order to be able to go to the areas of the world where oil, metal and rubber resources were, and take them via a military presense. We reacted with economic sanctions on them, thus causing shortages of the strategic materials of the day.

2) Japan, acting as the agressor, attacked our soverign territory.

3) Japan planned another attack on our territiory.

4) Government officials, acting on official orders, listened in on the conversations of the enemy (Japan) in order to find out how to defend our nation.

5) Japan lost the war, yet is now a major democratic and economic powerhouse, and is not occupied by the United States, in fact, they are one of our closest allies.

See the connection? The difference is the modern day agressors in this story do not have the covering of a soverign nation status, and defined borders, but otherwise, they still desire to attack and destroy us, for we interfere with their expansionist plans, and desire for major power status on the world’s stage. The Islamic terrorists do not want the strategic materials, they just want sharia law spread worldwide and have proven they will kill those who are 1) weak and 2) those who resist.

Polish mathematicians broken the German Enigma Codes, and turned that information over to the British, who exploited it throughouot the way, and shared the intelligence with us to re-route naval convoys of troops and material around U-Boats in the Atlantic.

We also were reading the Berlin-Tokyo diplomatic message, as a result of breaking that Japanese set of codes.

In each of these three cases, this effort produced free people and not more oppression. Why can’t anyone see that in the current situation?

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!

Category: Geo-Political, History, Military, Navy, Political, Technology | Comments Off on Lest We Forget: Wiretapping in Another Era

“i am a marine”

January 26th, 2006 by

Via Mudville Gazette Dawn Patrol this morning, I followed a link to One Marine’s View titled “This Young Marine Breaks the Code.”

I was not disappointed.

“When I joined the Marine Corps in February of 2002, I was really looking for a way to pay for college. The college I attended for just one semester went bankrupt, causing me to lose my full scholarship. I signed the enlistment papers never thinking about going to war, even though the United States was attacked by terrorists just a few months earlier.”

Scrolling thru the comments on Capt B’s blog, which quoted this Marine Sargent, I found the Sargent himself had left a comment, thanking the Captain for posting his letter, and a link to a new blog, Myskatterbrain. The first post is the letter by the one who wrote it in the first place. He decided to juimp into the blogsphere, and I might add, with an incredible start.

I’ve marvelled for many years at the comraderie the Corps builds. Once in a while, I even think back to the day at the end of my college sophomore year, standing in front of a towering Marine major, the AOIC of the NROTC Unit, and telling him I had decided to go into the Navy, for there seemed to be little use for marine biologists in the USMC. He thought a moment and agreed. I bretahed a sigh of relief. I enjoyed my career driving ships, but there are days I see I might had had something more special…

Please read the first person report on the transformation of a man in his thinking. You won’t be disappointed, and you will know many others have travelled the same path.

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

Category: Marines, Military | Comments Off on “i am a marine”

A Sense of Proportionality

January 26th, 2006 by

I use Netscape as my browser. I started with it in the way back days of the web and have kept it.

The Netscape homepage hilights the news with a main article, then three that rotate in a window just underneath that.

Top story:

“7 Children Die in Hiway Crash; 15 Year Old Driving” – Yes, a bad thing…

Rotating stories:

1: “Breakfast Battles: Watch Out McD’s” – It seems the Egg McMuffin is loosing ground in the fast food, spike your sugar and cholesteral in the morning market. HORRORS!

2: “Militant Group Wins Palestinian Election; PM Resigns” – mmmm…Sorta important, but no words really grab you much.

3: “A Happy Hot Rod Homecoming” – Cool! The dude gets his Vette that was stolen 37 years ago….

Wow…news of violent, islamic terrorists winning a majority of the seats in the election os a soverign nation is (pardon the pun) “sandwiched” between news of a major fast food chain losing market share at the drive thru window and some guy getting his car back. I’d say “they” sort of missed out on the understanding of the importance of each of the news stories, but then again, we can’t say “they” never report “good” news….

The media said they don’t censor the news, but there is so much to choose from and so little time to report it, they have to select carefully. I submit their selections, particulalry today, as the democratic mechanism of voting has brought a procalimed terrorist organization into the access to nation status. But, then again, Iran did the same thing, and speaking of that, the media sure isn’t very concerned about that either….

Category: History, Political | Comments Off on A Sense of Proportionality

Commonality: P-3C/Update II and Gay Marriage

January 25th, 2006 by

Isn’t it interesting how this analogy can help understand a complex issue. Let me begin with the story of the P-3C Orion Update II version.

I think it was while I was on the Destroyer Squadron staff when I recall seeing a message declaring how the newest version of the P-3C Orion would not be called the P-3D, but rather the P-3C/Update II. Having built a lot of plane models growing up, and spenind a lot of thime studying the military aircraft of the WWII era, I had come to understand that when a major modification of an aircraft was made, they changed the letter at the end of the designation. The B-17F became the B-17G when they hung a remotely controlled set of .50 cal guns in a chin turret. The P-47, when it got a bubble canopy, vs the old framed one, became the P-47D. The P-38 had lots of variants, some as fighters, some as light bombers, some as photo recon, others as Pathfinders. Each carried a different letter behind the “38.”

Fast forward to the mid-80s. The P-3 airframe, a military adaptation (quite succesful one at that, for it still patrols the oceans) of the Lockheed Electra passenger plane was getting a major internal makeover. All sorts of more automated gadgets were being stuffed in and now the decision had to be made as to how to dsesigate it. Between the lettering scehme noted in the previous paragragh, and what I learned, there is significant reason to point this out, for the people having to call on the aircraft will know what’s up there supporting them, or, during mission planning, may have to be specific requests to make sure the operational function comes off as planned.

Why didn’t the “P-3D” come into the nomenclature? Simple…it’s all about money. I learned long ago, the best way to figure out complex issues is to take a look at the money trail, and you may glean some interesting information. In this case, it wasn’t the money for the airframe, or the ground support, but it was the issue of the printing and distrobution costs for the change pages for the plethora of publications in existance that referenced the “P-3C.” You know, Admin Warfare, the undiscussed mission area, is important! The message that told us to use P-3C/Update II indicated it was cost prohibative to change all the TACMEMOs, NWPs, NTPs, etc, etc, etc, so henceforth and foreevermore, all we would be able to say if we had a “P-3C.” Make sense?

By now, I hope you didn’t get lost in the story and are anxiously awaiting the connection to Gay Marriage.

Here it is: It’s about the money. Money, you ask? Yes. Here’s the deal. Civil unions won’t suffice. Like the many forests of printed pubs with “P-3C” that the Navy wasn’t about to change, the veritable mountain of legal and regulatory documents out there in the world that say “marriage” in the context of legal rights on allowance of benefits are too many to consider trying to get to change them, one by one, in order to them to say “marriage and/or civil union” would cost lots. On top of that, unlike the control over this decison to change or not being in the hands of the Navy alone (or, in a worst case, the Department of Defense), these documents are under the purview of all sorts of private companies as well. You can’t change them just by having the federal government deeming it so. Not only that, it would mean each occurance of resistance to granting rights similar to those granted to straight married people would have to be the approached legally by the person encoutering it, meaning more money out of the pockets of the gay person seeking compensation.

The documents will range from applications for insurance, health care plans, employee handbooks and claims forms for all types of insurance. While someone may annonce an equivalency between “marriage” and “civil unions,” there will be plenty of businesses that would drag their feet, or flat out say “it says ‘marriage’ here. sorry!”

Therefore, the most effective path to gain access to the many things we grant two people who have promised each other, under a legal contract, to take care of the other, only a nationwide decree of the legality of marriage will suffice. That means, no matter how hard the uphill battle for the activists for this course of action seems, the bottom line is it will then instantly take down all barriers in every other place they may come in contact with resistance, for they hold up a piece of paper saying “Marriage License.” The other beauty of this approach is that not every document would have to be known at the time. The acceptance of a “civil union” might make things better for many, but the lingering cases would continue to pop up for years to come, with the associated legal bills and time spent waiting for a clogged court system to hear the case.

All this discussion is to help understand why the issue of gay marriage is being pushed so hard right now, and will continue to be. It’s the path of least resistance.

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

Category: Political | Comments Off on Commonality: P-3C/Update II and Gay Marriage

Not Your Dad’s M-60….

January 25th, 2006 by

From Military.com, an M-60 A4 firing 850 rounds “at one sitting.” It seems the old standby crew served weapon has been given improved qualities…They said it goes 15K rounds before a barrel change.

See it here.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post!

Category: Military, Technology | Comments Off on Not Your Dad’s M-60….

Dear Liberals: Try Reading the Directions

January 25th, 2006 by

I won’t bore you with lots of links, but between the Judge Alito pontifications, the Abrahamoff, the Tom Delay fake consiracy charges…It seems when “it” is brought up by the libs, they soon find out it’s people in their own party doing the same kind of things, be it falisifying travel claims, moving PAC money around, taking PAC money, or wiretapping….

The items come and go so fast, you almost can’t read them.

Here’s my counsel for the liberals/Democrats:

I know, I know….you would never really handle any type of weapon, but consider this in a parable style of instruction, the way Jesus teaches…it’s in the analogy, not the specific words (or images, in this case)

’nuff said (for now)

If this information has helped you in anyway, please pop over to Project Valour-IT and ,ake a donation to the program to get laptop computers for our wonded service members as compensation for my counselling.

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

Category: Political | Comments Off on Dear Liberals: Try Reading the Directions

A Journey into History – Part III

January 24th, 2006 by

Part I, Part II, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII Part IX

I recall the weather was exceptional. Clear skies and gentle low swells, as we forged our way north, communicating “the old fashioned way,” semaphore, flashing light (Morse Code) and flag hoists. The stuff a WWII movie is made of. When tactical manuvering is done this way, and the crews do that well, it’s pretty impressive to see many thousands of tons of steel dance across the waves in unison, or planned staging of their movements in an aquatic ripple effect.

Traffic was light and we came across one ship of significance, a Soviet merchant ship. “Back in the day,” every Soviet vessel that sailed was a mobile intelligence gathering platform. This encouter became a point of focus for our boring, but important transit. The BIDDLE was dispatched out ahead to keep tabs on her, and the SARATOGA and thge other ships were maneuvered to stay a good distance away, but if you can see a ship, then it can see you. That’s a good rule to aply in such situations, especially bright sunny days with no clouds at all.

Back to the background:

The BIDDLE fell behind out Battle Group, much to the chargrin of our CSO, CDR Nurthen. The rest of us had kept small bags with a few days worth of clothes and our toothbrushes…

To close this line of the story, we all entered the Med, the BIDDLE late, and a few days later, my staff moved to our flagship, the BIDDLE. The CO of the BIDDLE was under the operational command of the Commodore, even though he had a higher “lineal number.” Friction became a part of life, as each man tried to fence off their territory.

Upon our embarkation on the cruiser, which was tasked as the anti-air warfare commander (AAWC) for the Battle Group, we found ourselves, as the ASWC, routinelt in EMCON “A,” as the cruiser would be dispatched down a threat axis in radar and radio silence to ambush the incoming enemy aircraft. We had normally ridden aboard destroyers before, and this didn’t impact us much, except to lose a SONAR from the inner ASW screen. As a side note, one of the normal duties of the ASWC was to also be assigned to be the Screen Commander (SC), responsible for planning and executing the screen of these big deck ships with the destroyers and frigates assigned. Now the problem is we are our on station, only able to listen to the radio circuits, but could not respond. Needless to say, it really put a crimp in our style. It didn’t help any that the BG Watch Officers would try to get ahold of us, and get angry when we didn’t answer there calls.

The “INCHOP” reports were filed, briefings from the 6th Fleet and supporting staffs were made. We then joined up with the SARATOGA BG and “swapped” escorts. It was an odd cruise, for the CORAL SEA would remain in the Med and show off the new thingy I understood to be (possibly) affectionately termed “The Lawn Dart.” It was the first operational deployment of the F/A-18, and therefore a good time to parade the new birds around the shores of our allies, more than likely to let them know we were going to use it, so they should get on board and buy some, too. I found out later, foreign navies (and I’m sure other services) don’t take it too well when you try to sell them something you aren’t planning on using yourself. The F-20 Tigershark aricraft comes to mind in this example.

Anyhow, we “worked up” with one carrier, then swapped out on deployment. We didn’t move the escorts exactly between battle groups, and some discussion followed, ending with a decision to leave BIDDLE with the CORAL SEA in the Med, and the SCOTT (DDG-995) coming with us to the North Arabian Sea (NAS)/Indian Ocean. It sort of balanced the firepower overall. That decision was crucial at another level. Here were two crews, with gear packed for deployment. Once for a winter Med cruise, the other for the Indian Ocean climes. It wasn’t just a bite for the operational issues, but also for the “civies” loaded by the crews for liberty, as well.

And back at the 20 years ago coral:

The Soviet ship didn’t seem to take any interest in us, as they should have. It steamed on it’s way, with out deviating from it’s course. Not unusual for a regular merchant vessel, but definitely strange for a Soviet flagged ship of any category.

A few days after we sailed from DGAR, towards a point in the ocaen south of the Arabian Penninsula, were were given orders to head to the Red Sea and prepare for a northen transit of the Suez Canal….

Category: Air Force, Geo-Political, History, Jointness, Military, Navy, Political | Comments Off on A Journey into History – Part III

This Just In New Reading for Little Liberals…

January 19th, 2006 by

Coming to a cute new bookstore near you: Brainwashing of the young and the helpless:

Why Mommy is a Democrat from the Little Democrats website. How wonderful!

Having spent a lot of years being directly of indirectly invloved in training, in and out of the Navy, I know that many groups try to get in the loop early in life, for it is the time when we are extremely effective sponges. All education at that level is worthy of being carefully chosen, for it is the foundation building time.

There are some interesting reactions already blogged about, such as this one: Sean Gleeson’s Blog and at Peer Review.

Enjoy!

HT to a young consevative looking forward to entering the Marines!

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the Open Thread!

Category: Political | Comments Off on This Just In New Reading for Little Liberals…

Glow in the Dark Pigs? Yep, It’s True!

January 19th, 2006 by

They have finally done it in Taiwan using genetic engineering to “install” jellyfish bioluminescense genes in pigs.

This could spawn a whole series of applications. Kids could have a GITD pig as a pet, so when parents venture in the tried and true admonistion of “this place looks like a pigsty!” would be far more applicatble. In the meantime, the GITD pig would provide a night light function for the child.

Sailors of all types might enjoy a GITD pig, so as to remind them (in the case of Capt Lex) the glow in the carrier’s wake as they make night traps, or (in the case of Chapomatic) the glow of the boiluming plankton in the periscope while underwater, or (in the case of CDR Salamander) the green shine of the UNREP ship’s bow wave following the outline of the ship as you get gas and ammo at night….

And, there are many other applications. Maybe GITD hampsters would be a better idea if you are trying to get into the novelty market…

HT to Little Green Footballs.

Category: Technology | Comments Off on Glow in the Dark Pigs? Yep, It’s True!

Copyright © 2016 - 2024 Chaotic Synaptic Activity. All Rights Reserved. Created by Blog Copyright.

Switch to our mobile site