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

Author: AW1Ed

  • F-35 spotted nose-down on runway

    f-35 nosegear
    NWF Daily News reports an F-35 was spotted nose-down on the runway by a passing motorist Wednesday afternoon. It experienced an in-flight emergency, according to a press release from the 33rd Fighter Wing.

    The pilot returned to Eglin Air Force Base and landed safely. The front nose gear collapsed after the plane was parked, the press release said.

    Firefighters responded immediately and also could be seen by passing motorists.

    The pilot was not injured.

    The extent of damage to the F-35A Lightning II was not immediately available.

    Apologize for the picture quality- no doubt taken from a cell phone- but that’s what was available. Glad the pilot was unhurt, and I’m sure the damage will buff right out.
    Or not.

  • ‘Extraordinary Sacrifice:’ Trump Awards Medal of Honor to Fallen Airman

    af moh

    Posted at the request of AnotherPat.

    President Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Tech Sgt. John Chapman at a ceremony at the White House Wednesday, marking the first time a U.S. airman has received the military’s highest award for valor for operations in America’s longest war.

    It’s also the first time an airman has received the award in nearly 50 years.

    “We’re gathered together this afternoon to pay tribute to a fallen warrior, a great warrior, Technical Sergeant John Chapman, and to award him the nation’s highest and most revered military honor,” Trump said during the ceremony. “Now, John will become the first special tactics airman to receive the congressional Medal of Honor.”

    The president presented the award to Valerie Nessel, Chapman’s widow, in front of their two daughters Madison and Brianna, Chapman’s mother Terry and sister Lori. In the audience was Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen David Goldfein, as well as other service leaders and members of Congress. Former Air Force secretary Deborah Lee James, who aided in pushing Chapman’s medal elevation through, was also among airmen.

    Special tactics airmen lined the seats of the East Room for their fellow fallen airman. The official Air Force band played “I’ll Be There” as guests arrived before the ceremony.

    Sitting among five past Medal of Honor recipients was Britt K. Slabinski, who led the SEAL Team 6 unit up Takur Ghar mountain during the mission on March 4, 2002.

    Slabinski, now a retired master chief special warfare operator, was awarded the Medal of Honor in May for his own heroism during the costly battle.

    Chapman “was a very brave man, right from the beginning.” Trump said. “Today it is our great honor to share his incredible story with the world.”

    Trump summarized the account of how Chapman had led a charge up Takur Ghar to find Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts, a SEAL who was flung out of his helicopter when it crash-landed on the mountain. He fell wounded in his first assault on the enemy, but would regain consciousness and fight on. Air Force officials would determine he fought for more than an hour after his team had presumed him dead.

    “Even though he was mortally wounded John regained consciousness and continued to fight on, and he really fought on. We have proof of that fight. He really fought. Good genes,” Trump said. “Through his extraordinary sacrifice, John helped save more than 20 American service members, some of whom are here today.”

    Army Sergeant Major Raymond DePouli and special tactics Air Force Maj. Gabriel Brown were also acknowledged in the audience.

    “I know that if John were here, he would attest that all the men on the mountaintop that day were heroes,” Nessel said on Tuesday.

    Nessel and Terry Chapman spoke to reporters outside Washington, D.C., a day ahead of her late husband’s ceremony at the White House. They were accompanied by Chapman’s former squadron commander, retired Col. Kenneth Rodriguez.

    “It’s team before self,” Nessel said.

    Read the article in it’s entirety here:

    Military Daily Link

  • Mattis to Send US Navy Hospital Ship to Aid Venezuelan Migrants

    usns comfort
    Military Daily reports Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he would dispatch a U.S. Navy hospital ship to the Colombian coast to help treat Venezuelan refugees that have overwhelmed the Colombian medical system — the first U.S. military foray into the Venezuela crisis.

    “It is absolutely a humanitarian mission. We’re not sending soldiers, we’re sending doctors,” Mattis told reporters of his plans to send the gleaming white, former freighter with a Red Cross painted on its side to help treat refugees in Colombia and probably other Latin American nations.

    No timetable was given for when a ship, probably USNS Comfort home ported in Norfolk Virginia, would set sail for Columbia.

    U.S. defense officials have yet to say how the ship would be outfitted for the Venezuelan refugee health care relief mission. In times of war, the Comfort can carry 1,215 military medical personnel, conduct 12 simultaneous surgeries, operate 1,000 hospital beds and ferry casualties by helicopter. Typically, it has carried a smaller crew with lesser capabilities aimed at providing basic humanitarian relief in hard-to-reach areas or places stricken by natural disaster.

    More than a million Venezuelans have fled food shortages and poverty in their homeland in the past 18 months, often traveling by foot and bus to neighboring Colombia and in smaller numbers to Brazil in what the United Nations sees as a refugee crisis. Both countries have tried to shore up security along their land borders while taking in migrants.

    The decision to deploy U.S. medical troops to the worst migration crisis in South American history is a significant departure from Trump administration policy. Defense officials have left the response to civilian and international humanitarian relief organizations to deny Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro the possibility of casting it as a U.S. military intervention in the region.

    So far, the United States has provided at least $55 million in overall assistance, something defense officials have emphasized particularly since President Donald Trump announced last summer that he was not “ruling out a military option” to solve the Venezuelan crisis.

    Mattis said he had hoped to announce the hospital ship mission in its entirety at the close of his week-long visit, during which the Venezuelan migration crisis came up in every stop.

    Venezuela is in a death spiral with unimaginable inflation. Their real GDP is expected to shrink by 18 percent this year, marking five consecutive years of economic decline. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) compared the hyperinflation to that of post-WWI Germany. I’ll just leave that there.

    One of the richest countries in South America brought to this in just a few short years. Yeah, give me none of that Socialist Kool-Aid, thanks.

  • Iran unveils homegrown fighter jet

    kowsar
    CNBC News reports Iran revealed what it claims is a new, domestically-produced fighter jet at a ceremony in Tehran.

    On Tuesday, Iranian state television screened images of President Hassan Rouhani sitting in the “Kowsar” fighter aircraft, according to Tasnim News Agency.

    Designed and manufactured solely by Iranian military experts, the Kowsar is described as a fourth-generation fighter jet, which classifies it among military fighters in service from approximately 1980 to the present day.

    By contrast, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and China’s Chengdu J-20 are considered fifth generation fighters because of their enhanced stealth abilities and computational power.

    Tasnim, citing the state television report, said Iran’s new jet had already been through successful test flights and would soon be ready to carry out shorter distance aerial support missions.

    Any resemblance to Northrop’s F-5 is purely coincidental.

  • Hawaii-based soldier who supported ISIS to plead guilty in terrorism case

    isis
    The Army Times reports a Hawaii-based Army soldier has been accused of attempting to support the Islamic State will plead guilty, one of his lawyers told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

    Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang has agreed to plead guilty, but Alexander Silvert, an assistant federal defender representing him, won’t say what charges he’ll be pleading to.

    “We’ve agreed on a sentence,” Silvert said, declining to elaborate. He referred further questions to Kang’s other attorney, Birney Bervar, who couldn’t immediately be reached.

    Court documents allege Kang provided classified military information to undercover agents whom he believed were part of the Islamic State group.

    Kang is scheduled to withdraw his not guilty plea Thursday, court records show. The hearing was moved from the afternoon to the morning because of concerns about a hurricane headed for Hawaii, Silvert said.

    A plea agreement hasn’t been filed in court yet.

    A confidential informant told authorities Kang watched videos depicting beheadings and other violence in his room for hours every day, according to court documents.

    Kang told the informant that if he became an Islamic State member, he would be a suicide bomber and attack Schofield Barracks, a sprawling Army base outside Honolulu, according to an affidavit filed in court.

    Kang began researching the Muslim religion in 2014, couldn’t wait to move to the Middle East to “join the cause” and was “only in the military for a paycheck,” the informant said, according to the affidavit.

    When Kang met with the undercover agents at a home in Honolulu, he pledged allegiance to the group and kissed an Islamic State flag, according to court documents.

    Kang may suffer from service-related mental health issues that the government was aware of but neglected to treat, Bervar has said previously.

    Kang has been detained without bail since his arrest last year. Kang is still in the Army, but his duty status is “confined,” said Lt. Col. Curt Kellogg, with the 25th Infantry Division.

    “Service-related mental health issues.” The old PTSD Defense; good luck with that.
    /sarc

  • Army reinstates at least 36 discharged immigrants

    Cert
    The Army Times reports at least three dozen immigrant recruits who were booted from the U.S. Army after enlisting with a promised pathway to citizenship are being brought back to serve, according to court records filed Monday.

    Since Aug. 17, the U.S. Army has reinstated 32 reservists, and revoked discharge orders of another six enlistees who had sued. Another 149 discharges have been suspended and are under review, said Army Assistant Deputy for Recruiting and Retention Linden St. Clair, in the filing.

    The reinstatements follow an Associated Press story in early July that revealed dozens of immigrant enlistees were being discharged or had their contracts cancelled. Some said they were given no reason for their discharge. Others said the Army informed them they’d been labeled as security risks because they have relatives abroad or because the Defense Department had not completed background checks on them.

    They had enlisted under the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, known as (MAVNI), to increase the number of soldiers with critical language or medical skills.

    The reinstatements come weeks after the Army reversed course, suspending the discharges at least temporarily.

    Immigrants willing to serve in any branch of the military deserve a shot at US citizenship. Most of these were refused because of over-due background checks- no fault of theirs. Glad to see they’re getting a second chance.

  • Bernie Sanders supporter protesting right-wing rally beaten up by Antifa

    Old Glory
    Fox News reports a registered Democrat and Bernie Sanders fan, while protesting a right-wing rally, was attacked and beaten by militant members of his own movement- because he possessed a “fascist symbol” — an American flag.

    The counter-portester, Paul Welch, told The Oregonian/Oregon Live he brought the flag with him when he went to Portland Aug. 4 to oppose a right-wing rally held at the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

    While the American flag is more commonly associated with the conservative movement, Welch, from Oregon and who voted for Sanders during the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, said he wanted to “take it back.”

    “The right, and certainly a lot of smaller groups like Patriot Prayer, might rush to things like the flag and try to take it up as, ‘This is our symbol exclusively,’” Welch told The Oregonian/Oregon Live. “Part of my thinking was to take it back.”

    Other than some odd looks, Welch said he didn’t encounter any problems when he joined the hundreds of counter-protesters who gathered at City Hall that day. The trouble started when the group began marching toward the park.

    He said two people dressed in black and covering their faces approached him and demanded he give them the “fascist symbol” he was carrying. When he refused, the Antifa duo tried to rip the flag from his hands.

    Another masked counter-protester then approached Welch and began striking him from behind with an unidentified weapon concealed in black fabric.

    Welch, 38, was struck on the back of the head and collapsed to the ground.

    “My bones turned to Jell-O and I just went down,” Welch recalled. “I remember thinking there was a very good chance that I could be beaten to death.”

    Video of the incident, which has been viewed thousands of times, shows the person with the weapon walking away. But another counter-protester, holding a shield, moves in, stands above Welch and then jabs him with a makeshift weapon.

    A group of volunteer street medics rushed to Welch’s aid and took him to an urgent care clinic in the city. Doctors needed four staples to close a 3-inch gash on the back of Welch’s head and he spent at least two days recovering from a concussion.

    This is getting out of control. I have no issue with the Welchs of the world peacefully gathering and protesting whatever is bothering them. Eventually those who don a mask and black clothing are going to assault the wrong person.

  • The Royal Navy’s prized new carrier

    hms qeMilitary Times reports that while the future flagship of the Royal Navy, aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, isn’t scheduled to complete its first real deployment until 2021, that hasn’t kept the Brits from ensuring one morale-boosting element is installed and standing by for duty.

    A new pub, known as the Queen’s Head, was christened last week aboard the Queen Elizabeth and will be available to officers and senior enlisted during the ship’s maiden transit of the Atlantic, a journey that began Aug. 18 and one that features two embarked U.S. F-35B Lightning II aircraft from Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.

    The Wiltshire-based Wadworth brewery, which created an ale specifically for the ship’s December 2017 commissioning — a beverage appropriately named “Carrier Ale” — was instrumental in bringing the pub to life.

    “It has been a long time in the planning, well before the carrier was commissioned last year,” brewery CEO Chris Welham said in a Wadworth press release. “The Mess looks really great and will provide a relaxing environment along with some fine beer for the team on board when they have some downtime.”

    If only our Navy was so civilized.