Load up the comments with trackbacks….if you dare….

I have to admit, I spent most of my time in the Navy insulated from serving with women at sea. Ashore, they were still “GURLS” (General UnRestricted Line officerS), I didn’t look upon them as even Staff Corps types, since we took Supply Officers and docters to sea with us.

As the “economies” of the mid-90s were settling in, my command, the Combat Systems Mobile Training Team was directed to figure out the merge of ourselves and the Fleet Training Unit that essentially did the same thing we did. It made sense and it wasn’t too much of putting round pegs in square holes.

Off we went, us not the top leadership types, to draw and erase on the dry erase board, until we cobbled together the new organization, which would fulfill the missions of the two units.

At CSMTT, we had a few female sailors, both Yeomen, so they handled admin tasks. FTU, on the other hand, hand a number of females, to include, as I recall, two officers…one listed as the XO, the other in charge of the computer stuff.

LCDR Kathy Hobbs was a “mustang” and the XO. Looked good on her GURL record, being the #1 and all, but we had 5 O-5s as department heads, and a 6th as the Assistant OIC. The discussion went to how to put Kathy in a billet title that wouldn’t appear like she got some demotion. We finally decided, in the Combat Systems Training Group organization to put her into the XO job, recognizing she would be the one to handle the macro and micro administration, which, for the massive travelling we did, not small task, yet we would also know, she wasn’t our “Second in Command” in any sense.

The merge happened, the FTU personnel moved into our building and we shuffled about, grudgingly, but because it was the order of the day, we smiled somehow.

I will also admit, I was tersely polite to Kathy when I had to talk to her, but much of my time was spent on the the road/aboard ship, so the interaction didn’t occur often.

Then one day, OSCM(SW) Dave Roddy came to me to tell me he had been out having a cigarette, and LCDR Hobbs had, during her transit between buildings, commented “So this is how my tax dollars are spent!” Dave was, a little miffed. Dave was one of those E-9s you had to tell to go home, and sometimes drag off the ship we were working so we could catch our lift back to home plate. The taxpayer way underpaid Dave Roddy in any case, but Kathy didn’t know that.

Maybe a week of so later, as a few of us were “brainstorming” (no, really, we did it all the time!) in LT Russ Wyckoff’s office (he had a couch his wife told him to get rid of), three of us on the sofa, feet on the edge of Russ’ navy issue metal office desk, were greeted by LCDR Hobbs stopping n the door and saying (you guessed it): “So this is how my tax dollars are being spent!”

I, moving only my head to look her direction said: “LCDR Hobbs, you’re new here. It might be good if you went out on a CSA (Combat Systems Assessment) with us sometime, so you could see what we do. It would help you a lot when you have to answer the questions on the phone when we’re on the road.”

Yes, I was baiting her. The response, without her missing a beat,,,,that will come next Wednesday! Come back then for another installment in this series…

When Tom Burnett Sr. came out against the Flight 93 Memorial, the press asked architect Paul Murdoch if there were really going to be 44 inscribed translucent blocks emplaced along the flight path (equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists). Murdoch acknowledged 43 of the blocks, but denied knowing about a 44th:

[T]here are 40 inscribed marble panels listing the names of the passengers and crew at the gateway to the Sacred Ground, where their remains still rest.There is then an opening in the wall, Mr. Murdoch said, and three additional panels, which would include the date, Sept. 11, 2001.

“Where the other one is being fabricated, I don’t know,” he said.

Yes he does. Paul Murdoch is fully aware of the large dedicatory glass block at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway:

Man and child stand in front of the 44th block, which forms the railing at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway. The glass block will be inscribed: “A field of honor forever.” This Walkway provides visitors with their first view of the inside of the giant crescent. (From the Entry Portal page of the original design PDFs. Click pic for wider view.)

The flight path

The Entry Portal Walkway is built along the flight path. It signifies, in Paul Murdoch’s own description, the terrorists breaking the circle and turning it into a giant crescent. The flight path then continues down to the crash site, which sits in the middle of the mouth of the giant crescent (in roughly the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag).

Just before the impact point is the Memorial Wall, also built along the flight path. This two part wall is where the other 43 blocks will be placed (the ones described by Paul Murdoch above):

The forty translucent blocks that run horizontally through the left hand section of wall (closest to the impact crater) will be inscribed with the names of the forty murdered heroes. The three on the right will be inscribed with the 9/11 date. (From the Sacred Ground Plaza page of the original design PDF’s. Click pic for larger image. The alternating white and gray depicts the zig zag layout of the translucent blocks.)

Challenged by the father of one of our murdered heroes, Murdoch told a desperate lie, feigning ignorance of one of the most prominent features of his own design: the huge glass block that dedicates the entire site. This should have been the end of his hijack attempt, but Murdoch’s deception was abetted by both the Memorial Project and the press.

The abettors

“That has been disproved so many times,” said Bill Hayworth, the Memorial Project’s PR flack, when asked about the 44 blocks. Would it have been too much for reporters to ask for this proof?

In fact Murdoch is the first one to ever even deny that there are 44 glass blocks on the flight path. The only earlier Memorial Project statement about the 44 blocks was from Project Manager Jeff Reinbold, who told Alec Rawls in an April 2006 conference call that the giant glass block can’t be counted with the small glass blocks because it is bigger: “If we are going to count the big glass block with the small glass blocks,” he said, “then we have to count the windows in the visitor center too.” (Crescent of Betrayal, download 3, p. 146.)

“The windows in the visitor center are not on the flight path,” Rawls replied. He never said they were all the same size, and he never said there are no other panes of glass in the Memorial. Reinbold’s silly dodges do not contradict Rawls’ 44 glass blocks claim in any way.

The press was also in on the deception. Kecia Bal, the reporter who quoted Hayworth’s dismissal of the 44 blocks claim had already verified the block count for herself. Mr. Rawls had earlier sent her close ups of all 44. She responded with a request for copies of the original design PDFs, so she could check the veracity of these close-ups for herself.

When Bal quoted Hayworth, she knew he was wrong, and allowed him to mislead the public by suppressing her own fact checking of the 44 blocks. People can think that the 44 blocks are innocuous if they want, but lying about the block count certainly is not innocuous. Similarly for many the other lies that are being told in defense of the crescent design.

Memorial Project members insist that it is just coincidence that a person facing directly into the giant crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca, but that isn’t what they are telling the public. They are telling the newspapers that the Mecca-orientation claim is false, while acknowledging amongst themselves that the Mecca orientation is real.

Again and again Murdoch, the Memorial Project and the press are lying in concert to cover up the facts of the design. Some people will be unsure what to make of the many suspicious features of the crescent design but no one should doubt the need to expose and condemn those who lie about the facts.

Tracked back @: Cao’s Blog

From FbL – today’s “Comm Plan:”

Valour-IT is going to be the subject on two different radio shows tomorrow (WEDNESDAY):

Patti will be talking about it live on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mypoint at 0930 Eastern.

Mrs. Greyhawk and FbL will be talking about it on the Andrea Shea-King radio show at 2100 Eastern. Mrs. Greyhawk will also be talking about her recent meeting with the President. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ASKShow

Also…today will be a GREAT day for MEGEN…News at 11!

Read this one.

Is it getting better? How about way better. It’s working….it.is.working. Rich Lowry brings us the story that you will most likely not see in the MSM.

Chip in with your 2 cents, in the comments section on that post. Leave your mark for a better world to live in.

Just when you thought it was safe to figure out that LCD OLED Q-Dot LCD whatever display technology was settled for the next decade, now comes some smart guys at MIT who have taken some “bio-inspiration” and come up with a “Brilliant Display” using a technology named “IMOD” for short or “interferometric modulator” and Qualcomm is coming out with it on a cell phone.

See it in the sunlight, too…and uses a lot less energy to make a really nice display.

From Scientific American Nov 2007 issue:

A new technology that mimics the way nature gives bright color to butterfly wings can make cell phone displays clearly legible, even in the sun’s glare
By M. Mitchell Waldrop
[…]
the devices do use an array of artificial microstructures to produce the same kind of iridescent colors as are seen on the wings of tropical butterflies. And Qualcomm is betting that its approach will give IMODs several advantages over today’s dominant liquid-crystal-display (LCD) technology.
[…]

Something about a small gap between the display layer and a reflective surface behind manages to provide a truly remarkable display.

So…move over OLEDs and Quantum Dot stuff….

Place holder until the dust of getting the ValOUR-IT program moving.

I was planning on covering the USS HEERMAN (DD-532), but there isn’t any easy answers on the ‘net as to who she was named for.

Check back later today, and I should have some gouge up for Naval History’s sake come early evening.

It’s later…later than I’d like, but here it is:

Born in 1910 in Tacoma, Washington, Rear Admiral Robert Copeland, USNR, was one of many reservists who played a critical role in WWII. At the time he was needed to step up to the plate, he was a Lieutenant Commander.  Enlisting in the Naval Reserves in 1929, he was commissioned in 1935, and served in a reserve status until he was called to active duty in 1940 as part of the military buildup. A lawyer by professional trade, he was a captain of a destroyer escort on Oct 25th, 1944, present at the Battle Off Samar. That ship has become a storied one: USS SAMUEL B ROBERTS (DE-413).

From James Hornfischer’s excellent and throughly researched book, “Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors:”

“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.”

LCDR Copeland said to his crew and then turned his ship into harm’s way to face off against the most formidable Japanese fighting force to sail, as part of Taffy 3, he and his crew’s actions are legendary and earned LCDR Copeland the Navy Cross. Taking three 14″ hits from Japanese battleship rounds, the ROBERTS was severely damaged. His gun crews continued firing, even without hydraulics and gas ejection air, expending almost every single 5″ round they carried, regardless of the type of projectile it was.

He wrote a book about his ship, “The Spirit of the Sammie B,” along with his shipmate, Jack O’Neill.

After the war, Robert Copeland returned to his legal profession, but also remained in the Naval Reserves, rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. He passed away in 1973, in the same city where he was born.

One ship has served the US Navy named for RADM Copeland: USS COPELAND (FFG-25) of the OLIVER HAZARD PERRY Class of guided missile frigates.

Built by the Todd Shipyard at San Pedro, CA and commissioned August 7th, 1982. I helped train her combat systems team during their pre-comm training at Fleet Combat Training Center, Atlantic.  She was homeported in San Diego for her entire service time. Decommissioned September 18th, 1996, she was immediately transferred to the Egyptian Navy, renamed Mubarak (F 911).

From sunny place, MEGEN makes an appearance.

FbL didn’t tell me she was going to let the trophy be handled by other than Navy personnel….particularly ones that show the same degree of interest Noonan did last campaign. No wonder they didn’t meet goal! On the other hand, the Green (well, ok, tan) machine looked like they are eager to get into the fight. I like that in a Marine!Tracked back @ Fuzzilicious ThinkingValOUR-IT Update, AM 10/29/2007: The sun is just rising, but the Navy/Coast Guard Team, during the mid-watch, has already begun collecting for the cause. I guess ther other three uniformed services haven’t had their coffee yet. Ladies and gentlemen of the USMC, USA and USAF, it’s “Stand To” time….get on it!

Time to review the checklists and then get some shut eye before the Mid-Watch tonight.

Review your email program contact lists…check all the commenters on your blog (extract their email addy), and shuffle through that pile of business cards in your desk drawer.

H-Hour is 290001 OCT 2007. $60K for the Navy/Coast Guard, but…$240K is the end game

The link to join a team, and/or to donate has been put up by the ever hard working Holly Aho, and assisted by Rusty Bill.

Grab your widgets and edit them into your site. Run out the guns and be prepared for a spirited run against the “other” forces. They have Chuck Z out at Las Vegas, banging the drum and you can bet he won’t tell the audience about any donate button besides the one for the Army. Mostly rude on his part, but…it’s all about the competition from now until midnite on the 11 of November.

The V-IT bulletin board is warming up and more players registering there. FbL has posted lots of general and specific info there, plus it’s a place to take potshots at the other teams/bloggers, as well.

Let’s ROLL!

‘Nuff said…(click the picture for bigger version)

From a Marine Sargent, very fitting words left in the comments:

ASM826 said:
October 30th, 2007 at 9:46 pm

To all those who shall read this; Greetings.

Know ye that the special trust and bond of brotherhood between Marines has forever been the essence of our esprit de corps.

Know ye that Marines always have and always will watch out for each other from the day we first wear the eagle, globe, and anchor; until we have drawn our last breath, and our hearts lay forever still.

Know ye that it is a bond forged in centuries of blood, sweat and tears wherever we have marched.

Know ye that being forged in such fires is not a trivial matter, and is not forgotten easily.

Know ye that while this bond supports and encourages the noblest of warrior virtue, it breeds the opposite if betrayed.

Let it be known that Colonel Murtha, USMC has so betrayed this bond. He has, for personal gain amongst the lowest of our nation, and in standing with his disreputable new colleagues, undermined the mission that the United States Marine Corps have been ordered to carry out. He has also not only failed to speak up for his brothers dying in foreign lands, he has now gone so far as to condemn them out of hand. He has betrayed his brothers to their enemies, foreign and domestic. He has committed the ultimate sin amongst Marines, he has put himself before the Corps.

Therefore, let it be known to all who may read these words that Colonel Murtha, USMC is disavowed, and is brother to this Marine no more.

So be it, from this day forward, until the end of the Corps.

Semper Fidelis,
ASM826
Sgt. USMC

Oct 25th has established itself as a “triple crown” of major military battles in history.

In 2005, I encapsulated details on and links to more information on the Battle of Agincourt – 1415 (remembered by the Henry V’s great speech from Shakespeare), the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War – 1854, and the Battle Off Samar – 1944.

Update (late PM): And, boy! is there a lot more!

For example:
1940: Benjamin O. Davis, Sr becomes the Army’s first African-American general
1942: Battle of Henderson Field on Guadalcanal begins
1974: USAF launches it’s first ICBM