This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: AW1Ed

  • The Army, in Need of Recruits, Turns Focus to Liberal-Leaning Cities

    Army RecruitingArmy recruiters Sgt. Dira An, left, and Sgt. Julio Diaz, manned a table at a job fair in Seattle. Enlistment rates in liberal-leaning cities have tended to be low, especially when jobs are plentiful. C. Bates for The New York Times

    By Dave Philipps
    SEATTLE — Army recruiters in Seattle can earn a Friday off for each new soldier they enlist. But in a city with a thriving tech industry and a long history of antiwar protests, the recruiters haven’t gotten many long weekends.

    “It’s no secret we’re a little behind,” Sgt. First Class Jeremiah Vargas, who heads the city’s recruiting station, told four recruiters at a recent morning pep talk. With a week left in the month, he wrote the station’s goal — five recruits — on a white board, and then the current tally: two.

    “What do we need to make mission?” he asked.

    One recruiter responded with a shrug, “A miracle.”

    The Army is not quite counting on miracles, but after falling 6,500 soldiers short of its goal nationwide in 2018, it is trying a new strategy that might seem almost as unlikely.

    Rather than focus on more conservative regions of the country that traditionally fill the ranks, the Army plans a big push in 22 left-leaning cities, like Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, where relatively few recruits have signed up.

    “We want to go into Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City,” Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, the head of Army Recruiting Command, said. “These are places with a large number of youth who just don’t know what the military is about.”

    The approach may seem like hunting for snow in Miami. But Army leaders say that all they need to attract enlistees in those cities are a surge of recruiters and the right sales pitch.

    The pitch they have used for years, playing down combat and emphasizing job training and education benefits, can work well when civilian opportunities are scarce. But it is a tough sell these days in a place like Seattle, where jobs are plentiful and the local minimum wage of $15 an hour beats the base pay for privates, corporals or specialists.

    Instead, General Muth said, the Army wants to frame enlistment as a patriotic detour for motivated young adults who might otherwise be bound for a corporate cubicle — a detour that promises a chance for public service, travel and adventure.

    Hey, it may even work. Read the rest of the article here: NYT Link

    Tip of the chapeau to Poetrooper for the link. Thanks, buddy- keep ’em coming.

  • Wednesday Feel Good Stories

    duke 686Pic Caught my eye as the grips very are similar to the ones on my 686.

    Savvy gun owner here- a holstered firearm is a cop friendly firearm.
    Good Samaritans cornered out-of-control drunk driver, held him at gunpoint, say Portsmouth police
    Staff Report

    PORTSMOUTH – A city man is facing a slew of charges after crashing a vehicle into a business on busy Islington Street and being held at gunpoint by someone at the scene.

    According to Portsmouth police, they received a report at 5:24 p.m. of a pickup truck having been driven into a business at 697 Islington St. and a man pointing a handgun at the driver, who was still in the vehicle.

    When police arrived at the scene, they were met by the man with the firearm, who had holstered it prior to their arrival, police said. After question him and other witnesses, the driver was taken into custody.

    Aaron J. Marconi, 50, of 28 New Castle Ave., Portsmouth, was charged with possession of heroin, a Class B felony, criminal threatening, and four counts of conduct after an accident, all Class A misdemeanors. He also was charged with DWI.

    Marconi was admitted to Portsmouth Regional Hospital for undisclosed medical care and was later released from his hospital room on personal recognizance bail, according to police. He’s scheduled to be arraigned Friday at 8:30 a.m. in Rockingham County Superior Court.

    Portsmouth police say there were multiple incidents culminating in Marconi’s crash into the building. The first was at the intersection of Hanover and Bridge streets, where Marconia allegedly collided with a parked vehicle damaged severely enough that it had to be towed from the scene, police said. At Islington and Pearl streets, Marconi then struck a second vehicle.

    “The third harmful act occurred at 531 Islington St., where the vehicle drove off the road and onto the property of this restaurant causing damage to that business,” police said. “The forth harmful act occurred at 697 Islington St., where the suspect drove off the road and collided with the restaurant causing massive damage. The damage was extensive enough to require a response from the Portsmouth Fire Department and the Portsmouth Building Inspector.”

    50 years old? He keeps it up he’ll never see 51. I’m good with that. Read the rest of the article at: NH Union Leader

    Good gal with a gun…
    Security guards stop Huntsville nightclub gunman, police say
    By WAFF 48 Digital Staff

    HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) – Huntsville police say a man opened fire outside Club 3208 on Long Avenue early Monday. But two security guards stopped him before anyone inside could get hurt.

    Investigators say the man was sent away from the club entrance earlier after he got into an altercation. He returned from a vehicle carrying an AK-47 then began firing shots while advancing toward the entrance, according to police.

    Two security officers were in the parking lot when the offender started shooting. One of the guards fired two shots at the offender while he was trying to advance toward the club entrance. The offender was shot in his upper right thigh, which caused him to lower his rifle and stop shooting.

    The guard that fired ran into the club to retrieve a tourniquet so she could provide first aid to the offender. When she returned to the parking lot, he had already left in an unknown vehicle.

    While still processing the scene at Club 3208, officers were dispatched to Crestwood Hospital to investigate a gunshot victim, who turned out to be the suspect. while still. He was then transferred to Huntsville Hospital.

    He faces charges of reckless endangerment and menacing upon release from the hospital.

    Investigators say those security officers likely saved lives.

    Saved lives. Ya think? This potential mass shooting, reminiscent of the Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, was halted before a tragedy occurred by heroic security staff. And the Lame Stream Media is mute. *sigh* So it goes. The rest of the article may be viewed at: WAFF 48

  • New Year’s Day Feel Good Stories

    snubbie flag

    The three who got away doubtless will turn over a new leaf and find gainful employment. Or wind up like their 16 y/o friend.
    UPDATE: Armed customer killed 16-year-old armed robbery suspect at Wichita gas station, police say
    By Chance Swaim

    Wichita police Lt. Chris Halloran said a customer at a south Wichita gas station and convenience store shot and critically injured one of four robbers Friday afternoon. Three robbers ran away.
    By Jason Tidd

    The suspect in an armed robbery who was shot in the head by a customer at a south Wichita gas station died at the hospital, police said.

    Wichita police did not identify the person who was killed, but said in a Saturday news release that he was a 16-year-old male. The customer who shot him has not been arrested.

    Police have not said whether the 16-year-old was armed when he was shot. The man who shot him was robbed before he opened fire, Lt. Chris Halloran said. It’s unclear how many shots he fired.

    Those details are expected to emerge from a full investigation, police said. Twenty-four hours after the shooting, the store remained closed as detectives worked to piece together evidence at the crime scene — of both the robbery and the shooting.

    Here’s what police have said so far: Around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, police were called to a shooting at B and H Fast Trips, 2796 S. Seneca, a gas station and convenience store near 26th and Seneca in south Wichita. Four people had “entered the store, pointed handguns at an employee and customers, and demanded money,” Wichita police said in a news release.

    The robbers took money and cigarettes, police said.

    The 16-year-old was shot by a 42-year-old male customer who pulled his gun and fired multiple shots at the alleged robbers. The other three suspects fled the store, police said.

    Wichita police think this robbery is related to an earlier robbery just after noon on Friday at the Family Dollar Store, 936 S. Woodlawn, the release said. Three robbers in that case held up an employee at gunpoint and took money and cigarettes.

    Read more here: Wichita Eagle

    Tip of the hat to Perry Gaskill for the update.

    The Devil’s in the details.
    Another Update: DA thinks LSU players justified in killing would-be robber (Baton Rouge, LA)
    Glenn Guilbeau,

    BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore has reviewed most of the evidence concerning the shooting death of 18-year-old Kobe Johnson by an LSU football player during an armed robbery last Saturday.

    And Moore agrees with Baton Rouge Police detectives. Whichever player shot Johnson to death — Clyde Edwards-Helaire or Jared Small — did it out of self defense.

    “From what I know and what I have seen and heard, this is a totally justified shooting,” Moore said in a phone interview with the USA Today Network Friday afternoon. “From what I’ve been able to gather, and I was at the scene and in the interviews with the two players, it was totally justifiable under the circumstances.”

    According to police, Edwards-Helaire, 19, and Small, 19, were in the front seat of a truck trying to sell an electronic item to Johnson seated seated in the back seat at about noon Saturday on the 2900 block of 68th avenue in the north Baton Rouge community of Scotlandville near Johnson’s home. Police say Johnson pulled out a gun and demanded Edwards-Helaire’s and Small’s belongings. Either Edwards-Helaire or Small also had a gun, and one of them fired multiple shots into Johnson, who died at the scene.

    Seems at least one of the LSU players did indeed follow the First Rule of a Gunfight. The rest of the article may be viewed here: Cincinnati- The Enquirer

  • Finally declassified: Swedish pilots awarded US Air Medals for saving SR-71 spy plane

    sr 71The SR-71, unofficially known as the “Blackbird,” was a long-range, advanced strategic reconnaissance aircraft. (Air Force)
    By: Kyle Rempfer

    More than 31 years ago, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union remained icy, and the Berlin Wall had yet to come down.

    U.S. Air Force pilots were engaged in secret reconnaissance missions aboard the legendary SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. Many of those flights occurred over international waters in the Baltic Sea. These sorties were known as “Baltic Express” missions.

    The SR-71 pilots would fly their aircraft at high altitudes while gathering imagery on key Russian bases — such as the Soviet Navy’s Northern Fleet on the Kola Peninsula — from international airspace.

    During one such mission on June 29, 1987, a Blackbird flown by retired Lt. Cols. Duane Noll and Tom Veltri, experienced an engine failure.

    The crew descended to roughly 25,000 feet over Swedish airspace where they were intercepted by two pairs of Swedish air force Saab 37 Viggen fighter jets. The Swedes were more than simply intercepting a wayward aircraft, they were offering defense from any opportunistic Soviets looking to harass an enemy spy plane on the fritz.

    Saab 37Saab 37 Viggens

    Given the tight corridor in the Baltic Sea, accidental airspace violations weren’t out of the realm of possibility. And Soviet fighter aircraft might have been looking for any reason, however slight, to enter into an air-to-air altercation.

    This mission remained classified until last year. But with declassification has come official acknowledgement for services rendered.

    Well deserved, if a little late. The rest of this article may be viewed at: The Air Force Times

  • NYE Feel Good Stories

    nye fireworks

    jon mcnaughtonArt by Jon McNaughton

    “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach.”
    Palmetto city commissioner shoots intruder in self-defense, police say
    By Nicole L. Cvetnic

    A Palmetto city commissioner shot a man in self-defense after that man broke into his home after crashing into his neighbor’s house while fleeing from a traffic stop, according to police.

    The suspect, Avelino Misreal Vasquez-Perez, is also a nearby neighbor.

    At about 10p.m. Thursday, Palmetto police officers spotted Vasquez-Perez driving recklessly, thought he was impaired and attempted to pull him over, according to Chief of Police Scott Tyler.

    Instead, Vasquez-Perez sped off, only to crash a few blocks later into a home in the 600 block of Fourth Street West.

    Vasquez-Perez and his passenger ran from the crash, but officers were able to quickly catch his passenger. As police set up a perimeter around the neighborhood looking for him, Vasquez-Perez climbed a fence into Palmetto Commissioner Brian Williams’ backyard and broke into the garage of his home in an apparent attempt to hide from police.

    Williams’ daughter, who lives next door, spotted Vasquez-Perez and called her dad. Williams armed himself, then heard Vasquez-Perez trying to get into the kitchen from the garage. Vasquez-Perez was then confronted by Williams at gunpoint. Vasquez-Perez attempted to push past and punch Williams, who then pushed Vasquez-Perez back and shot him twice, according to Tyler.

    Read more here: Bradenton Herald

    Paging Claw. Phone call for Claw. Claw, please pick up the white courtesy phone. Claw…

    So, shot near the Men’s Rest Room, or in the cabeza?
    Customer shoots armed robber in ‘head area’ at south Wichita gas station, police say
    Wichita police Lt. Chris Halloran said a customer at a south Wichita gas station and convenience store shot and critically injured one of four robbers Friday afternoon. Three robbers ran away. (Dec. 28, 2018)
    By Jason Tidd

    One person was critically injured in a shooting during an armed robbery in south Wichita on Friday afternoon, officials said.

    Wichita police were called to the 2700 block of South Seneca at around 2:44 p.m. for a reported armed robbery, a Sedgwick County dispatch supervisor said. One shooting victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition, the supervisor said.

    Lt. Chris Halloran said a customer at the checkout counter of the B and H Fast Trips convenience store shot at least one of four people trying to rob the store.

    “A customer was in line when four individuals came in at gunpoint and demanded money,” he said. “The citizen also got robbed and the citizen pulled a gun and shot at the suspects.”

    Read more here: The Witchita Eagle

    New Year’s Eve, be responsible, reasonable, and rational. I’m pretty secure- a small get-together at la Casa de AW1Ed, dinner and champers at midnight, Muffy, then watching the festivities on the 60 inch mofo on the wall. Any celebratory gunfire must be from those annoying redneck neighbors, Deputy.

    Peace and a blessed, healthy, happy New Year to the best Delta Whiskies and Whiskettes on the planet.
    AW1&Mrs send.

  • Everything You Want to Know About National Security Can Be Learned in a Nightclub

    Tiny
    by Christopher Paul Meyer

    Link Provided By Denise Williams

    National security is becoming a sexy topic again. Thanks to the Daesh attacks, foreign policy, military concerns and intelligence issues are as hot as Kylie, Kourtney and Kendell. A re-energized American public now re-litigates issues like the Iraq War, the profiling of Muslims and the length of leash we should give the NSA.

    hottiesWhat can the nightclub scene teach us about national security? Quite a lot, actually.

    Yet the issues remain muddled. It’s hard to decipher the Pentagon’s jargon, the politicians’ posturing and the intelligence community’s secrecy. Especially if you have no first-hand experience to guide you. After all, less than 1% of the US population has served in the military since 9/11. And even fewer have experience in the alphabet-soup of law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

    But damn near everyone knows what it’s like to get buzzed on a Friday night. A lot more people go to nightclubs than to MEPS. But here’s the thing — if you really want to understand the national security issues of today, you just need to understand the security of your Friday night watering hole. What can the velvet rope teach us about border security? What does the size of the bouncer have to do with the defense budget? How is Iran like the partygoer who cops a feel on a passing waitress? Here are the five biggest lessons that nightclubs teach us about national security. You’ll never look at a nightclub the same way again.

    1. The Velvet Rope. The first nightclub I bounced in was a rooftop bar with only a five-foot abutment ringing the roof. The club sat on top of thirteen stories of hotel rooms that catered to the party set. And it was located in downtown LA (before its multimillion dollar revival). As the only swank nightclub in downtown at the time, it was a target for partiers of every socioeconomic class as well as every transient, gangbanger, call girl and MMA thug. Oh, and we also had to worry about jumpers looking for a glittery suicide. In short, it was a property rife with the liability issues posed by a dizzying array of potential sources. So, when we manned the velvet rope at the front door, we didn’t just check IDs. We scanned the people as they passed in front of us. Did they have red eyes? Gang tattoos? Bulges where a gun or knife could be? Could they stand up on their own or were they too drunk already? Were they pissed off? Were they carrying a grudge? Had we ever 86’d them before? That wasn’t all. We were master profilers. None of us wanted to earn our $13/hour the hard way, so we favored parties of girls over parties of guys and we favored suits and ties over NFL jerseys and do-rags. We reminded disgruntled patrons that entrance to the club was a privilege, not a right. Every night, I’d end up dealing with pissed off people that we’d turned away, but I never had a major physical altercation.

    Of course, there were other ways to run the velvet rope. When I worked a nightclub on the Sunset Strip, we barely screened at the door. The club was smaller and had less obvious risks, but it also just wanted to make more money by flooding the place with patrons. The result? I laid hands on people every night. Our waitresses were harassed more often, fights broke out frequently and even our doorgirl was knocked unconscious. Our incident report binder was three times the size of the one I’d had downtown. Lesson learned — if you don’t stop the problems before they come inside, prepare for a messy extraction of the problems later on.

    2. Peace at all costs is a pretty high price. One night, a dude put his hand up a waitress’ skirt. Now usually, he’d have been spitting Chiclets out of his mouth for a move like that. But this dude had rolled deep — at least eight defensive-linemen-sized cats in his posse. Our team was small (that night, only five of us), unarmed and overworked already. Then the dude flashed a gun at me and my boss. My boss opted for the better part of valor and instructed us to leave the dude and his party alone.

    I was shocked — I knew we were waist-deep in trouble, but I’d never seen us back down from a righteous fight. The dude knew he had backed us down, he knew the power of his gun and he knew he had the run of the place. Our waitress was at his mercy, and so was the rest of the club (whether or not they knew it). I confronted my boss and we argued until, finally, we agreed to pretend that the cops were emptying the club because someone had seen the dude’s piece and called 911. We offered to sneak homeboy out the back so he wouldn’t get caught. He accepted and we got him and his crew out of the club without any issues.

    The lesson? Not every fight requires muscle. But every righteous fight requires a righteous resolution. As we saw when we failed to support Iran’s Green Revolution, or when we equivocated about Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the false peace of capitulation to thuggish tyranny weakens our allies, discourages the victims and emboldens our enemies.

    Thanks for the link, Denise! The rest of this article may be viewed at: Havok Journal

  • GAO: IRS Had 4,487 Guns; 5,062,006 Rounds of Ammunition

    irs swat
    By Terence P. Jeffrey

    (CNSNews.com) – The Internal Revenue Service had in its weapons inventory 4,487 guns and 5,062,006 rounds of ammunition as of late 2017, according to a report published this month by the Government Accountability Office.

    Included in this arsenal, according to the GAO, were 15 “fully automatic firearms” and 56,000 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.

    The same report–“Federal Law Enforcement: Purchases and Inventory Controls of Firearms, Ammuntion, and Tactical Equipment”–says that the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services had 194 fully automatic firearms and 386,952 rounds of ammunition for those fully automatic firearms.

    “The term ‘fully automatic’ used in this report,” says a footnote in the report, “encompasses a range of firearms classified as machine guns, including submachine guns, three round burst guns, and guns with a selector switch that can enable continuous fire.”

    table
    2

    The guns in the IRS inventory also included 3,302 pistols, 623 shotguns, 543 rifles, and 4 revolvers.

    The ammunition stockpiled by the IRS—in addition to the 56,000 rounds for its fully automatic firearms–included 3,156,046 pistol and revolver rounds, 368,592 shotgun rounds and 1,481,368 rifle rounds.

    The IRS’s firearms and ammunition are used primarily by its Criminal Investigation (CI) unit, which is manned by 2,148 federal law enforcement officers. But some of it is also used by the IRS’s Police Officer Section, which includes only 9 federal law enforcement officers.

    “IRS’ Criminal Investigation serves the American public by investigating potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in compliance with the law,” the GAO explained in the report it published this month.

    “IRS’ Police Officer Section,” said the report, “provides protection for the people, property and processes of its Enterprise Computing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, which houses 10 of IRS’ 19 critical tax processing functions.”

    Wonder who got the revolvers? The rest of this disturbing article may be viewed at: CNS News

    Tip ‘o the hat to our very own Poetrooper. Thanks buddy- keep ’em coming.

  • Sunday Feel Good Stories

    AR and Flag

    Too old to fight. Too young to die. Guess I’ll just shoot you.
    Police: 75-year-old Milwaukee man shoots, kills suspected robber
    Chris Watkins

    MILWAUKEE (WISN) — A 75-year-old man is in police custody, accused of shooting and killing a woman who may have been trying to rob him.

    Police responded to a call of a shooting near North 12th Street and West Finn Place around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and found the woman with gunshot wounds. She died at the scene.

    Investigators believe robbery was the motive behind the shooting but are still investigating.

    Police said the 75-year-old man is OK.

    The article and associated video may be viewed at: WAOW.com

    Son. Drunk, naked, and stupid are no way to go through life.
    Deputies: Intoxicated teen found sleeping naked after breaking into home, ignoring warning shots
    by Vernon Freeman Jr. and Melissa Hipolit

    STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. – A teenage boy has been arrested after deputies say he was found sleeping naked on a couch after breaking into a Stafford County home early Thursday morning.

    A Stafford County deputy responded to a burglary in progress at a residence on Pierce Court.

    Upon arrival, deputies safely the homeowners and their baby from the home.

    Deputies then located a 16-year-old suspect who was naked and wrapped in a blanket while sleeping on the living room couch. The teen, whose name has not been released, was removed from the home.

    An investigation revealed that the homeowners were asleep when they heard a knock on the door and a male subject repeatedly yelling for them to let him in.

    Deputies say the teen ignores warnings to leave the property and began kicking the door and nearby window. This prompted one of the homeowners to grab his firearm and fire a shot into the ground as a warning to persuade the suspect to leave.

    According to the homeowner, the suspect didn’t even seem to notice the gunfire, and eventually broke a window and entered the home through the basement.

    Trying to keep a straight face here, the rest of the article may be found here: WTVR