RattlerGator Blog

Memorial Day 2012

A very happy Memorial Day to one and all. Tropical Storm Beryl is giving Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia real wind and rain but here in Tallahassee it appears that we are just to the west of the edge of the storm. Bright sunshine is filtering through the windows of my home right now (while drafting this post, however, the clouds have moved in -- Jacksonville radar explains why -- and back out, and back in, etc.):

But hey, it's Memorial Day and I'm in the mood to offer this U.S. Army photo that captures (my personal political differences nothwithstanding) the majesty (and I mean that -- majesty!) that absolutely is America:

The President and Commander-in-Chief along with, I presume, the commanding general of the Military District of Washington. Moments like this never fail to move me.

I re-tweeted this morning this quote from an Army website: “A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.” - Joseph Campbell. It's in that spirit that I salute all of my fellow veterans who have worn the uniform of the United States of America but especially those who not only answered the call but gave their lives.

I'm going to close with some photos from Arlington National Cemetery and the Army's "Old Guard" -- for many, myself included (I have an older brother that served in the Public Affairs Office of the Old Guard), the perpetual public face of Memorial Day:

 

 

This we will defend.

Allen West on the Campaigner-in-Chief

Congressman Allen West released this statement yesterday on the news that Barack Obama was ending America's military campaign in Iraq:

(WASHINGTON)--- Congressman Allen West (FL-22) released this statement today:

“Today, the President announced the withdrawal of all combat forces from Iraq by the end of the year.

As a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who served during the initial battles of this conflict, I am proud to be among the more than one million Americans who served in Iraq. What my fellow comrades in arms achieved in Iraq is nothing short of historic. Together, we defeated one of history’s most tyrannical dictatorships and replaced it with a free and democratic government. American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines fought and defeated a radical Islamic insurgency, and helped create an ally and partner in freedom.

I will never forget those who I served with, and those who served after I left. I will never forget the sacrifice borne by so many of our service members and their families.

However, I must question the motives of President Barack Obama for this sudden announcement. Why now? Did the President consult with any of our American Generals on the ground before making this decision? What kind of message will this send to our allies, the Kurds, in the Northern part of Iraq, and will they feel abandoned? My fear is that political expediency drove this decision, not recommendations by the Military’s leadership.

Much is at stake and many questions are yet to be answered. I fear that our President is acting as “Campaigner in Chief” rather than “Commander in Chief,” thus putting the entire Middle East at risk.

Right now, the American people deserve answers.”

It has been a long engagement; it has also had historically low casualties -- something rarely reported. I would feel much better about this exit if this President wasn't driving the train but it is what it is. We've gained tremendous assets, both from a person-to-person contact perspective and from a culture-to-culture perspective, from this war. These contacts will serve us well as America moves forward in the 21st century.

Questions will be asked, as Congressman West has shown, and they should be. Vigorously. More important to me is how do we move forward in that region? How do we honor the sacrifice that America has made there? And the naive person who made an incredibly ignorant World Apology Tour as his presidency began a few short years ago had better not piss me the hell off this time around.

Words to the Stars and Stripes Forever???

Never in my life do I recall being aware that there are words -- words! -- to the Stars and Stripes Forever; now, thanks to Wretchard, that particular ignorance has been obliterated.

Hooray for the flag of the free,

may it wave as our standard forever

That was fascinating and I can only hope at least one of you will be as intrigued with it as I was. The lyrics are included in this Wikipedia entry.

Osama Sleeps with the Fish

Not only is Osama bin Laden dead, he died at American hands. Not only did he die at American hands, it wasn't a missile that did it but a bullet to his noggin. Not only was it a bullet to his noggin, it was in his Pakistani safe haven.

Uncle Sam said, "Hello, punk bitch. Quit running, MoFu! And shut the hell up! What, ninja!?! Ninja, what!?! BOOM !!! That's what !!!"

Now his earthly body sleeps with the fish -- his soul, however, writhes in hell.

Yes, this is a personal national holiday for me. No, it doesn't make me feel better about President Obama. Yes, I still believe the President is screwed and yes I marvel at all of these people on the left who don't even believe in the CIA or know how to support the American military -- not simply the "troops" -- but expect me to forget that fact.

No, sir.

But I do congratulate the President for allowing the mission to move forward. And I especially compliment the finest fighting force on the planet, America's military, and the CIA's paramilitary forces for staying ever-vigilant and getting the job done. This modified photo of Lady Liberty (via Pajamas Media The Tatler) speaks volumes.

Yes! Yes! Yes! As for Pakistan, I'm 100% with India right now. They were right all along; the Pakistanis were, and are, full of scheisse.

Turning the Corner at Fukushima?

UPDATE:

Yes, we have apparently turned the corner in this fight to neutralize the nuclear reactors. Read this dispatch from M.I.T. NSE.

* * * * *

This is the latest update from just after midnight last night via the folks at the Nuclear Science and Engineering program at M.I. T. in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

UPDATE AS OF 9:00 P.M. EDT, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16:

 Crews began aerial water spraying operations from helicopters to cool reactor 3 at Fukushima Daiichi shortly before 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16. The operation was planned for the previous day, but was postponed because of high radiation levels at the plant. News sources said temperatures at reactor 3 were rising. Each helicopter is capable of releasing 7.5 tons of water.

Spokesmen for TEPCO and Japan's regulatory agency, Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency, on March 17 Japan time refuted reports that there was a complete loss of cooling water in the used fuel pool at Fukushima Daiichi reactor 4.

The spokesmen said the situation at reactor 4 has changed little during the day today and water remained in the fuel pool. However, both officials said that the reactor had not been inspected in recent hours.

"We can't get inside to check, but we've been carefully watching the building's environs, and there has not been any particular problem," said TEPCO spokesman Hajime Motojuku.

At about 7 p.m. EDT, NISA spokesman Takumi Koyamada said the temperature reading from the used fuel pool on Wednesday was 84 degrees Celsius and that no change had been reported since then. Typically, used uranium fuel rods are stored in deep water pools at temperatures of about 30 degrees Celsius.

Recent radiation levels measured at the boundary of the Fukushima Daiichi plant have been dropping steadily over the past 12 hours, Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said on Wednesday night (U.S. time).

At 4 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, a radiation level of 75 millirem per hour was recorded at the plant's main gate. At 4 p.m. EDT, the reading at one plant site gate was 34 millirem per hour. By comparison, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's annual radiation dose limit for the public is 100 millirem. Radiation readings are being taken every 30 minutes.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano, said earlier today a radiation level of 33 millirem per hour was measured about 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi plant earlier this morning. He said that level does not pose an immediate health risk.

Edano said that TEPCO has resumed efforts to spray water into the used fuel pool at the damaged reactor 4.

TEPCO also continues efforts to restore offsite power to the plant, with up to 40 workers seeking to restore electricity to essential plant systems by Thursday morning, March 17.

http://nei.cachefly.net/newsandevents/information-on-the-japanese-earthquake-and-reactors-in-that-region/

The Wall Street Journal confirms the report, but suggests an external power line will be connected on Thursday afternoon (local time).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704261504576205363484153564.html

Godspeed to all involved. Best-case scenario, obviously, is if that external power line is, in fact, connected today or tonight.

U.S. Navy, Calm in the Storm

Mad props to the Navy's Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group off the coast of Japan. In harms way, and giving aid to the needy. This photo tells the story:

 

Although the photo does tell the story, this caption helps explain it:

WAKUYA, Japan (March 15, 2011) Chief Naval Air Crewman Steven Sinclair, assigned to the Black Knights of Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 4 embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), is embraced by a Japanese citizen after delivering humanitarian supplies. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are conducting search and rescue operations and re-supply missions as directed in support of Operation Tomodachi throughout northern Japan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kevin B. Gray/Released)

Well done, Sailors.

Revisiting the Gettysburg Address

I stumbled across this today at American Digest and was struck by my strong desire to visit a place I've never quite made it to -- Gettysburg:

That's powerful stuff.

It makes me so incredibly sad to think of the not insignificant number of African Americans who have turned their backs on the magnificent legacy of Abraham Lincoln -- unable to view the great man in anything remotely approaching a just light.

What a crazy world we live in.

1979 Delta Force Memory

I found the video presented below over at Ace of Spades and it touched me, in an Army kind of way. All I could think about as I watched the brief video (it's not quite four minutes) was a 1979 incident where I almost rolled a Jeep while I was a soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Here's the deal: I had only recently been granted a Top Secret clearance that additionally permitted me access  to "Special Intelligence." I had been reassigned to an Army Security Agency unit in Germany and was simply waiting for the May or June date to arrive for my flight to Germany. I was in the 50th Signal Battalion, Airborne. Bravo Company. We called our battalion "Five-O," our headgear badge identified us as the "Key to Command" and our battalion referred to itself as the "Voice of the Dragon" because we were the command communications force for the Commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps. This is the patch of the XVIII Airborne Corps:

At that time, I believe, the constituent units of the Corps consisted of the "All-Americans" of the 82d Airborne Division (Fort Bragg, N.C.), the "Screaming Eagles" of the 101st Airborne Division (Fort Campbell, Ky.), and the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division (Fort Stewart, Ga.; they've since been reflagged as the Rock of the Marne, the 3rd Infantry Division).

On a Friday, I believe, I was called to battalion headquarters and informed I had new duty assigned for Saturday. I had no idea what it was but I sure as heck wasn't happy. Years later, I would be very happy with the assignment. It was out at Camp Mackall, a well-known Green Beret training site, and I was transporting an Army Ranger who had come in from Fort Lewis to view a Delta Force demonstration exercise (mind you, this was before I even knew Delta Force existed or what Delta Force was to become).

This Ranger was a black dude, an officer, and truly lean and mean. I was racing through the back trails of Camp Mackall to get us to our destination (I was being directed by the Ranger) when I took a curve a bit too quickly. I swear, mid-roll (and all of this seemed to occur in slow motion, of course) he just looked at me, and I looked at him, and I instantly knew I'd better smoothly bring this MoFu back to terra firma. And that I did, thank goodness.

That night I was treated to one of the first views of the incredible fighting force America was putting together (it was an airplane hostage situation) for the coming fight against terrorism. These many years later, I don't know if they drugged me or what. But it is tremendously difficult for me to remember precisely how the exercise concluded, what happened to the Army Ranger I was transporting, or how I got back to the barracks. I admit I was tired, didn't truly know what I was being given privy to, and the event and eventual assault stretched well into the night. Honestly, the kid may have simply fallen asleep. But I do remember being there, I remember seeing the "hostages" being bussed in, I remember the airplane on the runway, and I remember the nighttime helicopters. But not much for days after that.

Soon thereafter, I was off to Germany and my final year in the Army before coming home for college at U.F.

Now to the video:

Very impressive, don't you agree? Kudos to that Canadian Army unit.

Home From Iraq

Although it's only for a couple of weeks, welcome home to one of America's finest and a great nephew (even though he has yet to acknowledge just how good Joe Haden is [was!] in the Florida Gator secondary):

Hoooaahhhhhhh !!!

Cool out, soldier. Get that rest, relaxation and recuperation. By the way, er, eh, look here J.R. -- the NFL combine starts on February 24th; Joe Haden is projected to go somewhere in the Top Ten. Top ten, brother! Just sayin, that's all, I'm . . . just . . . sayin!

The War Against Humans

This is just a quick prompt (and somehow apropos for my first post of the year) in case any reader has not read Avatar: The War Against Humans over at neo-neocon. It's a great read with interesting comments, one of which was picked up by Gerard Van der Leun at American Digest. Van der Leun was struck by neo-neocon commenter Jim Sullivan and it's no wonder why. Wow, what a list Sully!

• It's OK to kill things as long as you use a bow and arrow and not a gun or missile.
  
• Teh Interwebz au Naturale of the Allmother (or whatever the f*** the Giganto-smurfs called her) beats the technology of a species that has harvested the power of the atom, is capable of celestial travel, and has armored the unholy f*** out of everything. Also:
  
• It's a much better way to call up your bizarro world rhino and pterodactyl allies (the ones that previously wanted to eat you) than a Tarzan call or a Conch shell. But, you still have to send the Dire-pony express to the Four Corners of the world to rally the tribes.
  
• Soldiers are bad unless they are A) not Caucasian or B) handi-capped. All other soldiers are A) psychopaths B) mindless myrmidons or C) nameless cannon fodder (or in this case arrow fodder)
  
• Even shallow, selfish, homicidal savages are good because they're savages and therefore inherently and unquestionably noble.
  
• The best way for primitive screw-heads to fight off a technologically superior, militarily sophisticated force is to fight the superior force on their terms. Asymmetric strategy, insurgent tactics and guerrilla warfare couldn't possibly even the odds. Not in a million years.
  
• All scientists are compassionate and resent the very soldiers prepared to die to protect them. This is completely reasonable and in no way intellectually dishonest. Hollywood decrees it!
  
• Subjugating other species is wrong -- unless you are able to have mind-blowing ponytail intercourse and biologically hack into their brain. Then it's OK.
  
• When you encounter a new mineral that floats and causes whole mountain ranges to float, the coolest, catchiest, most marketable name for it is Unobtainium. After you succeed in mining it, it semantically transforms,a la magma/lava, into HaHaHa!I'sAllMine-ite.
  
• When the nobly savage Giganto-smurfs, the Emo-scientists and their Land-networked planetary defense menagerie evict the eeevil military-capitalist Gestapo from their idyllic floating mountain paradise back to their ecologically dead world, the nature frolickers all live happily ever after. There's no chance in hell that those same military-capitalists will return with a full blown invasion fleet. Never happen. Hollywood decrees it!

Yowzah!