| Blog Description |
A US Army Signal Corps soldier blogs about the Army, radios, Defense Transformation, politics, terrorism, organized crime, and anything else that comes to mind.
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| Buttons 4 You |
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| Hey, Buddy. Got the Time? |
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| Disclaimer |
| This is my blog. It is not authorized or approved by DoD, the US Army, the US Army Signal Corps, the Oklahoma Army National Guard or any subunits of any of the foregoing. All material is my own and does not represent any of the aforementioned groups. |
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| Female-Only ACU Could Come in 2014 |
| 2.9.10 |
"PEO Soldier, which develops and tests new equipment for the Army, has been interested in creating a version of the ACU more suited to a woman's body since 2005. After listening to focus groups of female Soldiers in 2008, PEO Soldier learned some features of the ACU bother women: over-sized shoulder seams, baggy overall shape, and its non curve-friendly fit.
'Women have so many different shapes and sizes, we're as not as 'straight' as men are,' said Maj. Sequana Robinson, assistant product manager for uniforms at PEO Soldier, who is currently testing one of the female-only ACUs." |
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| Armor: Thermal Fatigue |
| 1.9.10 |
| "Over the last two decades, the M1 has acquired a lot more sensors, and commanders are using tanks increasingly as mobile, armored, and heavily armed, observation posts. The thermal (FLIR, or forward looking infrared radar) sensor in the M1 is particularly powerful, but now all four members of the crew have a thermal sight, plus a rear facing day/night vidcam and a thermal sight for the 12.7mm machine-gun on the top of the turret. There is also an auxiliary power unit, so the M1 can sit in one place for a long time, run its sensors, and keep the main engine turned off." |
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| Leadership: The Expandable Eighth |
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| "As the U.S. is reorganizing its remaining forces in South Korea, to make it easier to move American forces into, and out of, the country, it is also preparing for war with North Korea. To this end, the main army headquarters, for the Eighth Army, is being upgraded with staff and support personnel so that it could quickly command twelve or more combat brigades, and all the support forces needed for that many combat troops. For the last decade, the U.S. has been working to transfer supreme military command in South Korea to the South Koreans." |
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| Taliban footprint 'spreading': Petraeus |
| 31.8.10 |
"Petraeus acknowledged the spread of Taliban influence, especially to parts of the formerly peaceful north, but said the campaign to counter the insurgency was nearing its final stages.
'I don't think anyone disagrees that the footprint of the Taliban has spread,' he said, adding the insurgents had 'reconnected in various safe havens and sanctuaries outside and inside the country,' a reference to Pakistan.
'The US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan have worked hard to try to get the inputs right, to establish the organisations that are necessary for the conduct of a civil-military counter-insurgency campaign with our Afghan partners.
'We are still in the final stages of getting the inputs right. It's very important to recognise that this was an economy of force effort for a number of years,' he said." |
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| Troops yet to give Obama full salute - Washington Times |
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"'Everyone will respect him as commander in chief and everyone will follow his orders,' said Pete Hegseth, an Iraq war veteran who now heads Vets for Freedom, a group that supports the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 'But at the same time, there is a lot of concern about whether or not he's truly committed to the fight that we're invested in and whether or not he will truly see through what we need to do to succeed.'
Mr. Hegseth commended Mr. Obama for not doing 'anything rash or too quickly' in Iraq, but said the Obama administration shouldn't be taking credit for drawing down combat operations under an agreement that Bush officials made with the Iraqi government.
'It's frustrating to see both the president and vice president jumping up and down saying, 'Look what we did, look what we did,' when if we actually followed the policies they were calling for ... we would have left early and we would have left in shame,' Mr. Hegseth said, noting their opposition to the surge of forces in Iraq." |
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| Barack or Bust! Perry Shuns White House Offer | NBC Dallas-Fort Worth |
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"Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said the Republican governor had asked to meet with the president on Tuesday to discuss border security. Cesinger said Monday that White House aides said the president would not be available for such a meeting.
White House spokeswoman Moira Mack responded Tuesday by saying the Obama administration has directed unprecedented resources to the border since March 2009. Mack also said Perry declined a meeting with Napolitano and John Brennan, the president's top homeland security aide in the White House." |
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| Problem bank list climbs to 829 - Aug. 31, 2010 |
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"The government's list of troubled banks hit its highest level since 1993 during the second quarter, although the pace of growth continued to slow, according to a government report released Tuesday.
The number of banks at risk of failing rose by 53 to 829, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in its quarterly survey of the nation's banking system. That increase marks the smallest rise since the first quarter of 2009." |
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| Sebelius: Time for 'Reeducation' on Obama Health Care Law - The Note |
| 30.8.10 |
| "With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats’ health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has “a lot of reeducation to do” heading into the midterms." |
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| Two Suspects on United Airlines Flight Arrested on Terror Charges in Amsterdam - ABC News |
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"U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were termed 'mock bombs' in their luggage. 'This was almost certainly a dry run, a test,' said one senior law enforcement official.
A spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor, Ernst Koelman, confirmed the two men were arrested this morning and said 'the investigation is ongoing.' He said the arrests were made 'at the request of American authorities.'" |
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| US Dow Falls 100 Points; Banks, Industrials Slide - CNBC |
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"The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down more than 1 percent each. The CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, rose more than 7 percent, above 26. All key S&P sectors were lower, led by financials, consumer discretionary stocks and industrials.
The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended last week with a rally after the Federal Reserve signaled it would take measures to support the recovery, if necessary. Still, the major indexes are on track to post a loss in August for the first time since 2005." |
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| John Bolton, Criticizer-in-Chief | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment |
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| "“I’d call him the first post-American president and by that I mean – certainly in contemporary times – his view of America and its role in the world is different from the line of presidents since Franklin Roosevelt,” Bolton explained, when asked exactly why he finds the president’s foreign policy so offensive. “He doesn’t see himself effectively as a real advocate for America’s interest. He doesn’t see the world as a particularly challenging place. And, frankly, I just don’t think he cares that much about foreign policy.”" |
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| Hot Air » Did the EPA create the bedbug revival? |
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| "Strickland’s state has become one of the main battlegrounds against bedbugs, and children are particularly vulnerable. Rather than issue a limited waiver for the use of Propoxur to eradicate the parasites, Jackson denies it on the basis of its impact on children — as though the application couldn’t be mitigated with proper access control and training. Instead of allowing Ohio to use an effective eradication agent, Jackson offers $550,000 in “community outreach” funds, saying — I kid you not — “education and outreach are key components to bed bug control on a community-wide basis.”" |
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| Environmental groups face their future in climate-change debate |
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"A year ago, these groups seemed to be at the peak of their influence, needing only the Senate's approval for a landmark climate-change bill. But they lost that fight, done in by the sluggish economy and opposition from business and fossil-fuel interests.
Now the groups are wondering how they can keep this loss from becoming a rout as their opponents press their advantage and try to undo the Obama administration's climate efforts. At two events last week in Wisconsin, environmental groups seemed to be trying two strategies: defiance and pleading for sympathy.
Neither one drew enough people to fill a high school gym." |
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| This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here » Blog Archive » Jon Soltz’ giant leap |
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"Even the most indoctrinated climate change adherents must be shaking their heads at Soltz’ partisan rantings. No person with any measure of common sense could take such buffoonery seriously.
Yes, the Taliban and al Qaeda will try to exploit the flood with some success, but they’ll not be able to buy the loyalty of Pakistanis anymore than we can. It’s a constantly changing price tag." |
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| Self service |
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"It’s a neat trick: turn being wrong into being right, then declare yourself superior for having the courage to be right.
I mean, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and now Barack Obama all have Nobel Peace prizes, do they not?" |
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| Intelligence: Trying To Silence The Stridently Righteous |
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"The problem is, there is no agreement on what, exactly, torture is. To many anti-torture advocates, what goes on in police interrogation rooms worldwide, every day, can be considered torture. The effort to define torture gets mixed up with the efforts to outlaw torture. Caught in the middle are intelligence organizations, which are sometimes in situations where torture is the lesser of several evils. CIA officials recently tried to point out that some techniques, that many want to outlaw, were critical in obtaining life-saving information. Critics like to point out that, under torture, the victim will tell you what you want to hear, to get the pain to stop. But a competent interrogator will be able to double check some information provided by the subject under torture, and adjust the questioning as needed. At least that's how it's worked for thousands of years. But now all that is depicted as misguided nonsense that really didn't work at all.
In the popular imagination, torture is the application of pain, often to the point of death, in order to obtain information from an unwilling subject. Torture has been around for thousands of years, and during that time, a lot of mythology has grown up about it. Basically torture is interrogation carried to extremes. The ultimate extreme is killing the subject, which is usually avoided, at least until you get the information." |
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| Procurement: Iraq Rearms |
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"The U.S. is the largest supplier, partly because the Iraqis recognize the effectiveness of American gear, having been on the receiving end of those weapons several times. But the U.S. is also willing to sell used equipment at attractive prices. Thus Iraq is receiving 1,026 M-113 armored personnel carriers, 140 M-1A1 tanks, 21 M88A1 armored recovery vehicles and 60 M1070 tank transporters (which can also carry supplies or other vehicles.) Iraq has also bought 24 M-109A5 self propelled 155mm artillery, and 120 M198 155mm towed howitzers. Iraq has also bought thousands of hummers and military trucks, plus infantry weapons, engineer gear and other military equipment.
Iraq is also buying a lot of equipment from other nations. This includes 420 BTR-4 wheeled armored vehicles and ten An-32 twin-engine transports from Ukraine. Serbia is supplying twenty Lasta trainer aircraft, and several nations are supplying helicopters." |
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| Winning: Who Died In Iraq |
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"Some 19 percent of the American fatalities in Iraq were from non-combat causes. Most of the non-combat deaths were from accidents and disease. One of the major categories of non-combat death is vehicle accidents. In 2007, 20 percent of the non-combat deaths were from vehicle accidents. But in 2008, overall deaths declined by two thirds (from 904 in 2007, to 312 in 2008), but vehicle accident deaths went from 37 to 19. That trend continued to the present. Most of the 46 American troops killed in Iraq this year were from non-combat causes.
There are still a lot of vehicle accidents. Many of these are the result of the fast driving tactics troops were encouraged to use to get away from roadside bombs and ambushes. Ask the NCOs, and they will often complain that the sharp reduction in combat has removed the incentive to stay sharp and pay attention. Not a unique situation in a combat zone, and despite the energetic exhortations of the NCOs, too many troops do not stay alert enough to avoid accidents. Ask the troops, and they complain about the heavier traffic. With peace breaking out all over central Iraq, and the economy continuing to boom, more Iraqis have cars. Iraqis drive like they're from Boston, with abandon and indifference." |
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| Afghanistan: The Price Of Victory |
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"The 140,000 foreign troops appear headed for 700 dead this year. Combat casualties among foreign troops are up. In 2007-8, foreign troops in Afghanistan lost about 300-400 dead per 100,000 troops. That went up to nearly 500 last year and will probably be the same rate this year (mainly because there are more foreign troops in Afghanistan). In Iraq, from 2004-7, the deaths among foreign troops ran at 500-600 per 100,000 per year. Since al Qaeda admitted defeat there two years ago, the U.S. death rate in Iraq has dropped to less than 100 dead per 100,000 troops per year.
For Afghan troops and police, the death rate is 700-800 dead per 100,000. The death rate for U.S. troops during Vietnam, Korea and World War II, was over 1,500." |
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| Afghan war through the eyes of the Taliban | Mail Online |
| 29.8.10 |
| "A documentary made by a Norwegian journalist embedded with Taliban fighters has provided a rare glimpse of the other side of the Afghanistan conflict.The raw footage - captured by Paul Refsdal - shows the Afghan militants attacking U.S. convoys on a road below their mountainous hide-out and celebrating hits with a high-five." |
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| Brewer condemns report to UN mentioning Ariz. law - Yahoo! News |
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"The U.S. included its legal challenge to the law on a list of ways the federal government is protecting human rights.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Brewer says it is 'downright offensive' that a state law would be included in the report, which was drafted as part of a UN review of human rights in all member nations every four years.
'The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a state of the United States to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional,' Brewer wrote." |
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| Murphy's Law: Eleven American Combat Brigades Remain In Iraq |
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"While there are only 50,000 troops left in Iraq, and none of them are, technically, combat troops, most of them are. That's because most of the troops left in Iraq are there to provide training and advice for Iraqi security forces. Thus the U.S. has eleven combat brigades in Iraq. Seven of them are regular combat brigades, retrained and reorganized for the 'training and advice' job. Two of the brigades are reserve infantry units, to provide security for bases. Another two are aviation brigades, to provide transport and attack helicopters as needed for advising and defense.
The seven advisor brigades have most of their regular equipment, and can be quickly switched to the purely combat role. These Advise and Assist Brigades (AABs) were developed several years ago. They are regular combat brigades that leave many of their junior troops back home, leaving a force heavy on officers and NCOs, who are best equipped to advise and assist local troops and commanders. The troops in these brigades received some extra training for their advising and training tasks. This works, as American troops have been advising and training the Iraqis. Meanwhile, there are another 10,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait, mostly performing support roles." |
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| Forces: Back At Last, The Iraq Army Air Corps |
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| "The Iraqi Army now has its own air force (The Iraq Army Air Corps) with the recent transfer of air force helicopters to army control. Iraqi Army Aviation Corps disappeared, with the rest of the Iraqi Army, in 2003. But now the army now has fifty Russian Mi-17s and 16 American UH-1Hs. On order are 24 U.S. Bell 407s and 24 European EC 635s. Both of these models will arrive next year, and both are light transports that can also be armed for gunship duties." |
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| Hot Air » EPA on lead-ammunition ban: Never mind |
| 28.8.10 |
| "Responding to a grassroots outcry from gun owners, the Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has denied a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and other radical groups that had sought to ban the use of lead in ammunition.Agreeing with the position of the NRA and the firearms industry, the agency explained in a news release that it “does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).” Further crushing the hopes of anti-gun and anti-hunting activists, the release added: “nor is the agency seeking such authority.”" |
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| Birthrate in U.S. at Lowest Level in at Least a Century - NYTimes.com |
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"The United States birthrate has fallen to its lowest level in at least a century as many people apparently decided they could not afford more mouths to feed.
The birthrate dropped for the second year in a row since the recession began in 2007. Births fell 2.6 percent last year even as the population grew, numbers released Friday by the National Center for Health Statistics show.
“It’s a good-sized decline for one year,” said Stephanie Ventura, the demographer who oversaw the report. “Every month is showing a decline from the year before.”" |
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| Obama: US less safe since Iraq war |
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Flashback: "The Iraq war has left America less safe and has emboldened al Qaida, Iran, North Korea and the Taliban, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has said.
The Illinois senator criticised the stance of his Republican rival John McCain and said the United States needed to end the war in order to confront the emerging national security challenges of the 21st century." |
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| Public Policy Polling: Polling on the Spill |
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"The oil spill in the Gulf may be mostly out of the headlines now but Louisiana voters aren't getting any less mad at Barack Obama about his handling of it. Only 32% give Obama good marks for his actions in the aftermath of the spill, while 61% disapprove.
Louisianans are feeling more and more that George W. Bush's leadership on Katrina was better than Obama's on the spill. 54% think Bush did the superior job of helping the state through a crisis to 33% who pick Obama. That 21 point margin represents a widening since PPP asked the same question in June and found Bush ahead by a 15 point margin. Bush beats Obama 87-2 on that score with Republicans and 42-30 with independents, while Obama has just a 65-24 advantage with Democrats." |
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| Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War - Telegraph |
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Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War - Telegraph: "A specially upgraded Russian Akula class submarine has been caught trying to record the acoustic signature made by the Vanguard submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles, according to senior Navy officers.
British submariners have also reported that they are experiencing the highest number of 'contacts' with Russian submarines since 1987.
If the Russians are able to obtain a recording of the unique noise of the boat's propellers it would have serious implications for Britain's nuclear deterrent. Using its sophisticated sonar, the Akula would be able to track Vanguards and potentially sink them before they could launch their Trident D4 missiles." |
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| Mullen: National Debt is a Security Threat | Executive Gov |
| 27.8.10 |
"“That’s one year’s worth of defense budget,” he said, adding that the Pentagon needs to cut back on spending.
“We’re going to have to do that if it’s going to survive at all,” Mullen said, “and do it in a way that is predictable.”" |
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| My Way News - Snapshot of economy about to get a lot bleaker |
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"The economy barely has a pulse.
The Commerce Department on Friday will revise its estimate for economic growth in the April-to-June period and Wall Street economists forecast it will be cut almost in half, to a 1.4 percent annual rate from 2.4 percent.
That's a sharp slowdown from the first quarter, when the economy grew at a 3.7 percent annual rate, and economists say it's a taste of the weakness to come. The current quarter isn't expected to be much better, with many economists forecasting growth of only 1.7 percent.
Such slow growth won't feel much like an economic recovery and won't lead to much hiring. The unemployment rate, now at 9.5 percent, could even rise by the end of the year." |
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| Charles Krauthammer - The last refuge of a liberal |
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"Ah, the people, the little people, the small-town people, the 'bitter' people, as Barack Obama in an unguarded moment once memorably called them, clinging 'to guns or religion or' -- this part is less remembered -- 'antipathy toward people who aren't like them.'
That's a polite way of saying: clinging to bigotry. And promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.
-- Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.
-- Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.
-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.
-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.
Now we know why the country has become 'ungovernable,' last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?" |
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| Massive solar storm to hit Earth in 2012 with 'force of 100m bombs' - Yahoo! India News |
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"Several US media outlets have reported that NASA was warning the massive flare this month was just a precursor to a massive solar storm building that had the potential to wipe out the entire planet's power grid.
Despite its rebuttal, NASA's been watching out for this storm since 2006 and reports from the US this week claim the storms could hit on that most Hollywood of disaster dates - 2012.
Similar storms back in 1859 and 1921 caused worldwide chaos, wiping out telegraph wires on a massive scale. The 2012 storm has the potential to be even more disruptive.
'The general consensus among general astronomers (and certainly solar astronomers) is that this coming Solar maximum (2012 but possibly later into 2013) will be the most violent in 100 years,' News.com.au quoted astronomy lecturer and columnist Dave Reneke as saying.
'A bold statement and one taken seriously by those it will affect most, namely airline companies, communications companies and anyone working with modern GPS systems.
'They can even trip circuit breakers and knock out orbiting satellites, as has already been done this year,' added Reneke.
No one really knows what effect the 2012-2013 Solar Max will have on today's digital-reliant society." |
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| Urine-powered fuel cells to offer pee power to people - Yahoo! India News |
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"While fuel cells usually rely on flammable hydrogen gas or toxic methanol to generate electricity, Tao and Lan's cheaper prototype relies instead on urea, an organic chemical compound produced as waste when the body metabolizes protein.
Urea, also called 'carbamide,' has several advantages as a potential fuel source-it's abundant, non-toxic, relatively straightforward to transport and rich in nitrogen, reports Discovery News.
According to the university, Tao thought about incorporating urea because he had seen it used as a fertilizer while growing up in eastern China.
The Carbamide Power System prototype can break urea or urine from humans or animals down into water, nitrogen and CO2, and also produce electricity at the same time." |
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