One of the interesting stories of the complete lack of understanding of how we get the ability to have free speech run amok has been the Berkeley City Council making an ordinance requiring US military recruiting offices to be dealt with like they do with porn shops, and not like a regular business establishment.

One Nicholas Provenzo, a Marine Vet, has put up an online petition to let the “leadership” (and I use the word loosely) of Berkeley that you think this is over the top. Part of the petition deals with a measure from Congress to withhold Federal funds from Berkeley until they reverse this zoning restriction.

Pass it along, spread the word, email it out, post it on your blogs and the bulletin boards at work. Lend a signature to the list if you feel so inclined.

It appears there’s a call to wear green on the 11th of January to show support for our troops and to show dissenting opinions to the Close GTMO ACLU types….Details here.

Matt from Black Five has an idea….Send Season’s Greetings from bloggers to the troops overseas.

Details here.

Get your best 30 seconds of video game on.

And…check this out: A simple way to say thanks.

A picture here, with an attached essay tell the story of a Nation United.

Another picture here, which has become the image of a Nation Now Divided.

One event stood us together, then next one, tears us apart.

One let us proclaim the evil of the enemy, the other, warns us from “judging” others, lest we be taken into court for “hating.”

Once a Nation that saw the President as it’s leader, even if flawed, now see the President as the proximate cause of all the ills of the plant, our people and the people even outside our borders.

Once a place where many rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to make for the betterment of their neighbors and the country, now one that sits back and awaits the arrival of Government agencies, then has the guts to deride them as ineffective in making them feel the way they want to.

Once a nation that cared what the majority wanted and needed and tempered it with a large dose of common sense. Now any one person can cause their discomfort in a situation become a life change for the rest of the citizenry with little opposition.

But…a Nation who’s young men stood in line for hours on this day 66 years ago, and has young men and women still raising their right hands and saying “I will support and defend The Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help me God” and mean it with the very fiber of their soul.

There is hope. It is portrayed in the images we see of 17, 18, 19 and 20 something year olds, purposely trading personal freedom for the Nation’s well being. They are the future leaders, and they are learning what it means to defend something valuable.

Taking a break from what is normally called “technology” to post a little thankfulness for a “technology” the military uses quite effectively as the real, tangible force multiplier: The Recruiter.

It was easy enough, when taking management time on someone to check the enlistment contract of the sailor in question and make disparaging remarks about the lineage of the poor soul who was detailed to recruit and found themselves a little short of quota near the end of the month, and working under the emotional stress of the “system,” as defined by the analysts defined it….

In retrospect, I have, through introspection and reading the many weblogs over the last few years, have come to appreciate the role these people play in the maintenance of a solid, strong and continually improving best military in the world, and, in history.

While out making rounds today, I pulled into a local Marine Recruiter’s office. I did have an ulterior motive, but it was driven by the need to just step in and shake a few hands and say thanks for the hard work that makes the rest of it all possible. It also told me the quantity of pizza I will have delivered one day soon for lunch.

A Staff Sargent and two brand, spanking new Privates were present. The young man and young woman privates looked all the part of the very young who are carrying the load of the nation. No ribbons but the NDSM graced their khaki shirts, but they got the same hand shake and thanks, for they are the ones, with a global war staring them in the face.

So: My suggestion - stop by those strip mall storefronts and take a moment to tell them you appreciate their work, walking the halls of the high schools and making community meetings, much of it at the expense of their personal time at home, when the entire military is making deployments to the combat zone when they are not on “cake” jobs like “shore duty” stateside.

This work is vital, but not nearly as well recognized as an integral part of the system. I think this is especially important in areas far from military bases, as many of these little outposts of the Armed Services are like little islands unto themselves.

They are our edge to make the non-living technology work to defeat our enemies and help those others around the world less fortunate.

Lex is discussing an article by Ralph Peters regarding the old and new worlds.

One of Lex’s commenters, John, says those who want to get involved should have “experience” in the real ejection seat, before being in charge of the UAVs:

Insist that anyone above the video game player level for UAVs have recent seat time as an attack, FAC, ANGLICO to keep the focus and urgency on supporting the guys [and gals] in the mud.

Good comment, but the opportunities to have this sort of experience to execute oversite diminish quickly as the UAVs are brought online. In the beginning, there will be lots of “old hands” with the time in the saddle, given the current global unpleasantness, but once that settles down, they will work their way up the ranks, and have less time in the cockpit, and more holding a pen of pounding a keyboard.

It’s the next big challenge.

I began to comment, but, suffering from a little bit of blogger’s cramp, thought it might work over here, to get another post on the board.

Granted, my “stuff” was really low speed, high drag in comparison, yet, it’s all about the mindset. Some of the transitions in how we, as the Surface Warfare community had to rethink the “world:”

Moving from “conventional CICs” to the NTDS world was another. The data link surely put more info in the hands of “higher,” that had previously been the domain of the all knowing, on scene commander. I was around for that transition, to some degree, when the bulk of the destroyer fleet became so enabled with the introduction of the 963s. Blogged a few of the observations of the beginning and 5 years later conditions, too.

I was an “early adopter” of the over-the-horizon capability as a LTJG with the control of 8 RGM-84 HARPOONs, too. I went from that job, where it was all shiny and new, where we got litlle more instruction on how to point and shoot, to a training command where I saw some really innovative tools developed (the “Harpoon Interactive Tactical Simulator” (HITS)) that helped us wrap our brains around a moving search pattern, that couls also be static, even with the .85 mach “sensor platform” underway to the vicinity of the target. Years later, with improvements suggested to us (and paid for) by the Brits, the B models added to our ability to get 500 lb warheads on target. The came fancy tools like the AN/SWG-1A to interface with the seekers. Now we could engage with simultaneous precision, from one platform.

Not so fancy? Well, before that was 5″/38s and /54s at not much more than the horizon visual ranges. Now we were out in the 60+ mile realm and we needed off ship “eyeballs” to help out. A transition.

I was part of a staff sent to sea to figure out BBBG tactics with Tomahawk, when doing “OTH-T” with mountains of national sensor data coming in via hard copy from Radio was the order of the day - oh, and the info was then plotted on paper charts. That had been good for the old gunnery days, but wholly unsatisfactory for the missile age. As a result, a magic computer came from behind the Green Door to help out: POST. Now we had to teach ourselves really technical stuff about emitters, so operators could set the right filters to locate and engage targets. A transition. Along the way, then LCDR Harry Harris, now of GTMO fame, made an interesting remark when I finished my briefing to ADM Jerimiah.

After the Gulf War, pilots had an entirely new appreciation for the TLAM variant of the Tomahawk cruise missile, the thing that, before that war, couldn’t possibly do the job TACAIR was there for. A transisiton (and more pilots coming home).

Later, I was around when the CEC system, integrated into the NTDS networks, which was a (insert sailor adjective here) mess the first time they tried it. I was there. I had told them at the planning meeting there was going to be a problem and they needed to do some more analysis (i wasn’t nay saying, just looking for success). They told me not to worry. In the test, they told the NTDS side to shut down. It’sa ll been worked out, but it took some rethinking when a really novel system entered the arena of tactical tools for a fast paced world. Before I had been at that level for the safety of CEC, one of my project manager worked it, and I saw some incredible briefs on the technology. We, back then in the early 90s, were putting a lot of stock into computing technology to help us down high speed, sea skimming threats. Has I been on the sea going side, I’m sure I would have had some qualms about trusting Eddie Electron so much. A transition.

In another job, I had to tell ship COs that the only way they were going to save their ship from Exocets was to put NSSMS into a full auto configuration. I had some COs tell me to stuff it. I held up the TACMEMO, paid for with a lot of taxpayers money, that proved it was the only hope. I suspect we use more auto features these days. A transisiton.

My interests in computer technology tends to heavily lean towards display technology, to include virtual environments. I have a bad habit of paying more for video and sound cards for my systems as most would plunk down for a whole computer system. I had my first hands on experience with a personal VR system in the 1993 time frame. Since then, not only has the display technology improved remarkably, but the rate of data transmission and bandwidth has increased. Those are things that will make the combat UAVs (CUAVs) a reality. Challenges to overcome as to the employment, the supporting data transmission paths, and the like? Oh, yes. Can they provide the same “quality of service” to that ground pounder with and enemy looking to grab him by the belt buckle? With time, I’m sure it will happen. Along the way, there will be barriers and hurdles to clear. Along the way, some really smart young people will show up and tell us how to use them in ways our old paradigms would never allow us to see. The convergence of so many new, light-weight capabilities and materials is incredible. That will all lend itself to this next leap forward.

I suspect the technology will allow a “driver” to be immersed to such a degree, he or she will get a startlingly accurate feel for the environment, and the soldier or Marine on the ground will be happy with the results.

For years, the military and the computer gaming market have been headed for the same end game. Along the way, they have joined forces, and it was over a decade ago that that happened. Net result? Look at some of the UAV hand controllers….

The first challenge: Think how to employ this technology, not why we shouldn’t….and let our junior speak their minds, too.

FbL has the “gouge,” and we all know an ounce of gouge is worth ponds of other stuff…

It is reason to celebrate, the big total was over $192K, with >$32K arriving for the cause, without “team” designation.

Don’t forget, this is a year ’round need, so keep the interest up as you can all year long!

Secretary Gates talks back to Congress.

The current flap of Congress being asked for about $190B to continue to fund the war and Nancy Pelosi coughing up $50B with demands to extract ourselves from conducting National Defense proves to me Congress shows more and more ignorance of their own jobs.

Just because DoD gets handed about a trillion dollars or more, doesn’t mean it’s in one huge bank account, to be spend as the DoD officials decide.

I’m no real money expert, but was, for 2.5 years, responsible for managing about $34M worth of funds. Federal budget money is tagged in all sorts of ways, so it will be spent in the manner in which it was justified to Congress thought the development of each annual budget.

Quickly, as a not to detailed level, there is money that is specifically authorized for expenditure in a specific fiscal year and then there is “multi-year money.” The multi year money is labeled with how much of it will be spent in each fiscal year in the range of the funding. Within those two gross categories, there is account designation as well. For instance, there will be funds for manpower (pay checks), MILCON (military construction projects), software development, and a raft of other designations. The Federal Budget is like a real budget, in some ways, that is based on justified needs.

The game rules for money managers? It’s a federal crime to shift funds from one account to another, without getting permission. Here, I’m not clear on exactly how that process works, but I know it exists, and suspect it has something to do with going back up the chain of command to Congressional offices that control appropriations. So, for Secretary Gates just to shrug his shoulders and start walking around the Pentagon halls, with his steno pad, asking for funds from various people to make up the shortfall of his request, he’s in violation of Federal Law. I’m sure Nancy and Harry are aware of not only this, but, if he does do it in the correct way, the extended period of time it will take to accomplish moving $140B from existing accounts to the one funding the front line warfighters needs. That way, they can slow roll the effort at a second level.

Congress really gets this when they “ear mark” funds for their special projects, yet somehow have amnesia when it comes to DoD spending, unless, of course, there is tax money designated to be laundered though the DoD funds to get to a family member, friend of political supporter, then they are all over making sure it’s not diverted.

One more reason to rid ourselves of the “professional” politician class we have become hamstrung with.

We didn’t make the planned goals, but…many chose to send in checks.

First cut is here. Despite the totals shown on the web, the collections so far are up to $168.370.91, and more is bound to come in. Some money got donated via the first widgets and they are scouring that info. The Navy/Coast Guard Team accounts for $20,081.75. Toss in there is already over $29K that came in the mail with no team designations, we still did a respectable job.

So, it’s still a lot of money to do what we planned. I’m sure more news will follow inthe next few weeks of the grand totals for the fund drive.

BZ, everyone!

Update - The “known” Navy/Coast Guard Team:
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Shira bat Sarah
enrevanche
Marvin’s Word
CDR Salamander
Grouchy Old Cripple In Atlanta
Searchlight Crusade
Here, There and Back Again
Information Dissemination
pamibe
EagleSpeak
NWOhio4Fred
NavyWife
NoisyRoom.net
Scarlett Crusader
American Geek
Ballseye’s Boomers
The Wood Shed
Bobo Blogger
Shot In The Dark
An Unofficial Coast Guard Blog
iamnot
Screw Liberals
Tailhook Daily Briefing
Brain Shavings
A Work In Progress
Rhymes With Right
Andi’s Answers
Under the Sea
United Conservatives of Virginia
Thought You’d Never Ask
Butter Side Down
Striped Bass Fishing New England
The Thomas
The Online Lunchpail
Fred Fry International
Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
Doc in the Box
Whether it amounted to one donation, or many, it made a difference - From the Sea!

The fund drive is over for 2007. Navy/Coast Guard took up rear guard, to ensure no one was following. That was an obvious chice, when we saw how we ran out ahead of everyone before the first sun rose on the first day of the collection drive.

Congratulations to the Army Team, who managed to let the Marines tease them a little, while sitting there, acting cool about the pseudo lead the Marines managed to get, but for a fleeting day or two.

Net result? Lots of money was raised to help those who need a replacement capability for the ones they lost in serving us.

Next Monday, I begin posting about ships named after Army heroes.