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

Author: Ex-PH2

  • Yer Sunday Morning News From the Far East

    If only it could just go further away. Yes, it’s true: Fatty Kim da T’ird, aka NDtBF, wants to take out the USS Carl Vinson.  He didn’t say the entire strike force, just that one ship.  Does the word ‘smite’ come into play here?

    http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/23/north-korea-says-ready-to-strike-u-s-aircraft-carrier.html

    The Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (Navy) has sent two of its destroyers, Samidara and Ashigara, to join the US Navy in exercises in the East China Sea.  Some members of the Japanese Parliament want PM Abe to acquire strike defense weapons that could take down whatever Norkiland throws at it.  Pres. Trump wants the Chinese to do more to squelch NDtBF’s antics.  I haven’t seen any more about their troop movement to the Nork/Chinese border since last week, but I’m watching.

    I do take that chubby, squawking pipsqueak attention hog seriously, but at times, his antics are like watching the Crazy 88 in ‘Kill Bill’ try to take out The Bride. You just want to smack the little twerp with the katana and send him home to his mama. I may spend some time today watching that silly movie, just for a good laugh.

    There’s also a current article in the sidebar about a US citizen being detained by the government of the late Kim Jong-Il. Either the reporter needs more caffeine in his double whipped soy latte, or he’s unaware of the regime change and thinks it’s still 1999. Or maybe he just didn’t get the funeral notice.

  • Lost Troops Released by Haboob

    Roman soldiers fighting during Roman show in Jerash, Jordan

    While the winds of the Gobi Desert normally blow toward Beijing, in a surprising twist, some fully-armed and armored survivors of the 53BCE Battle of Carrhae marched out of a westward-bound haboob on a bright, sunny morning, long after deploying eastward toward the ancient town of Liqian, a remote town in Yongchang province, just this morning.  They said they were looking for Marcus Crassus, whom they universally referred to as “simiani inanis” (“a conceited ape”) and were quite disappointed to be told that he had already been assassinated at a confab with the Parthian Army more than twenty centuries earlier.

    Upon seeing 21st century transport trucks on the highway they were following, Laertius Barbecanus, the surviving Tribune for the 356 troops (about four and a half centuriae), sputtered “Irrumabo, ubi sumus?” (“Where the f–k are we?”)  He gave a quick order to his troops, who immediately formed a defensive testudo and launched a few pilae (battle darts) at the road monsters. A brief intervention by this reporter resulted in handshakes all around and the bewildered truckers proceeded on their way.

    According to Barbecanus’s report, his Cohort VI had engaged with a ragtag band of Parthian soldiers, lost a few hundred troops to the Parthians in a set piece battle, chased them into the mountains and lost track of them, ran into a dust storm, wandered a bit more, and got completely lost themselves while they survived on looting, pillaging and foraging. Engaging in more than a few rolls in the hay with some local villagers who were kind enough to take them in, they were hired as mercenaries to defend the local village, which then became known as Li-Jien.

    “I’m sure we left behind our share of spurius (bastard children),” he said, with a twinkle in his eye. “Well, now what do we do? If the Roman Army has gone down the cacatorium, we need something to do. Who’s in charge?”

    When told that his troops might consider either the U.S. Army or the U.S. Marine Corps, Barbecanus’s eyes lit up. After the promotional literature was translated into Latin and classical Greek, the centuriae all liked the idea of learning to use new weapons and transportation methods, although they thought the pay and benefits could be improved. They agreed that it sounded good, took a vote, and asked to visit a couple of very confused US Army and USMC recruiters.

  • Mr. O’Reilly Brought It On HIMSELF

    There is, as I suspected and Jonn Lilyea has always told us, more than meets the eye to something, so when I read Poetrooper’s article about Bill O’Reilly being fired and a payout of $13 million by Fox, I wondered what that was really all about. And who is being silenced, anyway?

    There is no doubt in my mind that O’Reilly is an arrogant ass, an abrasive butthead with the personality of a female alligator guarding her nest. But since I have worked with and for people who were obnoxious as hell in many respects but still decent in many others, it seemed to me that we weren’t getting the full story or what brought all of this to a head.

    So I dug. Got out the internet power shovel and began shoveling.

    And I did strike a find.  It seems that in 2015, Emily Steel, a reporter for the New York Times, was doing a story on O’Reilly’s claims about where he was during the Falklands War. He found out what she was up to and threatened her in writing on Twitter with reprisal, as indicated in the following CNBC article.

    http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/20/bill-oreilly-was-taken-down-by-new-york-times-reporter-he-threatened-in-2015.html

    The following is a link to the 2015 NYT story in which he defends his reporting on the Falklands War, including a video of his argument about his reports.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/business/media/bill-oreilly-and-fox-news-redouble-defense-of-his-falklands-reporting.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0

    You can see from the early video of him throwing a screaming fit on a video session of Inside Edition, in the comments on Poetrooper’s article, that he has an unbridled and volatile temper, which impels him to become aggressively abusive over something that is easily resolved, and his behavior includes throwing things – also unnecessary.  You have to start asking if he throws things and has screaming fits, does he also threaten to hit people who piss him off? What else does he do to intimidate people around him?

    There is no excuse for this kind of behavior. It’s not at all the same thing as breaking up a dogfight where you have to kick both dogs in the head to get them off each other, or turn the hose on them.

    As far as I’m concerned, O’Reilly got what was coming to him and it was long overdue.

    How many times has Jonn told us that something like stolen valor claims are only the tip of the iceberg?  Well, it does not apply only to stolen valor. Before you go any further with comments about the ‘whiners’ and how much of it is simply annoyance from women over being the object of bad behavior and crass comments by a rude, crude, obnoxious jackass, take into consideration that when someone in O’Reilly’s position threatens a colleague – someone  who, like Emily Steel, works in the same field – in any way at all over anything and puts it in writing, it means that this is not just some smoke that will blow away.

    There is also fire.

  • “…but, Mom, if we go to war…”

    Image result for photos of uss pueblo

    Photo: NSArchives

    Guess who is upset with the US for dropping a Very Large Bomb on the Afghan-Paki border in a spot where ISIS is known to hold its confabs? Why, none other than the former president of Afghanistan, Karzai himself.  http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/17/former-afghan-president-massive-us-bomb-was-an-atrocity.html

    He says the GBU-43 (Giant Bomb Until-exploded #43) MOAB is an atrocity. I think that’s really rich coming from him, don’t you? Isn’t he the whiner who talked the US into prying the Taliban out of Afghanistan when he couldn’t get it done? And didn’t he tolerate their bad behavior and their atrocities until they sent that country into the toilet? Or is my memory fading? Is Karzai bored since he left office? He seems to want attention rather badly. So is Karzai longing for a war now?

    It’s been a while since the feeling that something big was going to happen hit me like a brick, but last Friday night, after running errands all afternoon so that I wouldn’t have to do it on Saturday, I went over to the restaurant on the highway to get some supper instead of cooking. There was a lot of stuff on the TVs hung over the food area, the usual chatter and some sports stuff and I paid no attention, because whatever is going to happen, is going to happen. Right?

    Must have been liberty weekend or something. Some E-2 sailor wearing crackerjacks was sitting in a booth with his girlfriend, talking on the  phone with his mother. Or talking to the phone, because you could hear Mom, too. I had eyes and ears on the news. The chatter from the sailor’s phone con, while distracting from the news, wasn’t enough to grab my attention until that noise changed to “but, Mom, if we go to war….”

    Oh, shit.

    For those of you too young to remember, the USS Pueblo was off the coast of North Korea, supposed to be in international waters, when she was hijacked by the Norks under Kim Il-Sung (Grandpa Kim) on January 23, 1968.  I was sorting prints in the print finishing room at NAVPHOTOCEN, Anacostia, which has been replaced by some other building. A PH1 came out of the Chief’s office to let us know what had happened. He said it was ‘an act of war’, which meant we’d be in it for the duration. Yes, there was that sinking feeling that came and went. What did it really mean?  LBJ did consider using nukes over that.

    A bare seven days later in the wee hours of the morning on January 30, 1968, Uncle Ho launched his  attack on every ville, city, and military base in South Vietnam. The Tet Offensive lasted until September that year. I didn’t have a TV or radio at my apartment, and a lot of other things were going on stateside that accompanied the uptick in warfare in Vietnam, and all the discord that went with it. I tried to keep up with it all, based on the chatter at work.

    The Norks still have the Pueblo, as a museum. We need to bomb that sucker into oblivion, first thing. Take away their ‘glory’.  Coordinate something with the Chinese, because this isn’t Norkiland’s 1952 when the Chinese were supporting them.  The Chinese want foreign trade. We’re one of their biggest customers.

    You could put a real conspiracy theory novel together over collusion between Kim Il-Sung and Ho Chi Minh, if you took the time to do it. It would probably be more accurate and more entertaining that Ollie Stone’s conspiracy theory twaddle. Was the hijacking of the Pueblo an attempt to start World War III or maybe revive the Korean War?  And let’s not forget the (not Norks’ – my bad!) Soviets’  shooting down Korean Airlines Flight 007 in September 1983, because the pilots strayed slightly off course.

    So, Mom, Dad, I don’t think we will go to war. Trump is not Lyndon Johnson, not by a long shot.

    But if we do go to war, I hope it’s quickly over. I hope our losses are minimal. And I hope your kids come home intact.

  • Breaking News: MOAB dropped near Afghan-Paki border

    This just in:

    US has dropped an 11-ton MOAB on a cave complex near the Afghan-Paki border.  The story so far is at the link.

    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/13/us-drops-largest-non-nuclear-bomb-in-afghanistan-after-green-beret-killed.html

    This comes from the mid-day news. There is more news coming. And loud noises will probably be heard at microphones. It should make the Norks nervous, too.   Stay tuned!

    I thought it was too quiet….

  • The Saga Continues with NDtBF

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (front) stands on the conning tower of a submarine during his inspection of the Korean People's Army (KPA) Naval Unit 167 in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang.

    Photo: Reuters

    Fatty Kim da T’ird, aka NDtBF, still has some submarines. According to this article from CNBC, 50 of them seem to have just gone ‘poof’ – vanished like snow in the July sun back in 2015.

    http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/north-korea-submarine-threat-is-another-worry.html

    The author of the article makes several good points, e.g., the Nork subs are diesels which should make them easier to track (shouldn’t it?), and also, he includes the fact that the Norks can elude land radar and launch ballistic missiles without detection.  Why on earth Emmentaler Boy wants to pester Japan is beyond me, unless he’s looking for target practice.

    There is good reason to be concerned: March was “the seventh anniversary of the sinking of South Korea‘s Cheonan navy ship by a North Korean submarine torpedo attack. That aggression killed 46 sailors and wasn’t the first time the reclusive North had made incursions into South Korean waters.”

    In addition. the solid fuel used for underwater launches is now being used for the land-based missiles. It’s less time-consuming to set up a land-based missile launch using the solid fuel than it is when liquid fuel is used. That makes land missiles harder to find and much more mobile.

    Some critics dismiss the diesel subs because they are ‘old and noisy’, but in 2015, 50 of them simply disappeared… or did they?  Have any have been spotted off the California coast? Or do they ever stray that far from home?

    I know we have plenty of DEW in Alaska and California, so I’m less concerned than I would be if I were in South Korea or China, but it does not mean that NDtBF can’t order a launch from a position standing off the US west coast, does it?

    The Chinese regard Norkiland as a buffer between them and the South, but as we all know, Fatty Kim da T’ird likes to pick enemies out of thin air. In my view, it means that Xi JinPing should be somewhat concerned about his antics, and I believe he is. The US is a major trading partner with China. But you know that already.

    There’s a reason I say this: while the US Navy’s strike force is paying a visit to South Korea, it’s mostly for show.  I don’t know how much of this posturing on Fatty Kim’s part is meant as a way to distract the US from his butt-buddy Syria. However, if the Cheeseslaying Chickengazer decides he wants to launch against the South, regardless of any actual aggression by anyone at all, he will do so. Remember, his daddy fired on an island for no reason during a military exercise that South Korea and the US held, a few years back.

    NDtBF really is that driven. He has to prove himself, you know. He’s got stuff in his head that says ‘Do what Daddy Kim and Grandpa Kim did’.

    Unfortunately, despite his exposure to the outside world, I don’t think he understands that the Chinese are unlikely to back him this time around, the way they backed his granddaddy. He should not piss them off or make them nervous. Things have changed considerably since 1953.

    Pres. Xi has already told Pres. Trump that the Korean problem should be resolved peacefully.  http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/12/chinas-xi-tells-trump-situation-on-korean-peninsula-should-be-resolved-by-peaceful-means-reuters-citing-state-media.html

    China can shut off trade with him in a heartbeat. They’ve already turned away his coal transport ships and are accepting coal from the US instead.  Now I wonder who made that deal…?

    Basically, Fatty Kim da T’ird is spoiling for a fight. Fine. I know that. It is my considered opinion that if he brings one, it will not work out in his favor.

    He may have a lot of SLBMs now, but he may end up with No-Dong at all.

    (Puns are allowed in comments. You should go for it like gangbusters. It’s Wednesday.)

  • In today’s news from Norkiland….

    Following up on yesterday’s news about the USS Carl Vinson strike force being redirected to the Korean peninsula, the news this morning may or may not be grim.

    Kim Jong-un is upset that the USNavy is paying a visit to his neighbors to the South. It is ‘outrageous, an act of aggression, etc., etc., etc.’

    He’s inviting all the bigwigs available to come for an April parade and another nuke blow demo (his 6th!) to show us that by golly, he’s ready for us!  He will definitely impress them with his plywood and cardboard missiles on trucks.

    Meanwhile, Norkish coal ships are being turned back by China, which means he won’t get any money from that resource. Syria is, of course, encouraging him because he’s probably Bassad’s biggest source of nuclear possibilities and encouragement.

    All the provincial officials are gathering for the proposed parade in Pyongyang, as well as the next nuke test from Punggye-ri.

    http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/11/north-korea-calls-us-aircraft-carrier-dispatch-outrageous.html

    Aside from that, if he’s planning another test, it will register on seismic networks set up to detect such things. When/if it happens, the USGS will report it to the media, and the magnitude will afford enough information to determine the approximate yield of the test.  Remember, his  2nd and last test last year had a yield of 20 to 30 kilotons, two to three times the yield of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs.

    I may make jokes about him, but I still take the fat bastard seriously.  He still doesn’t get that no one wants to invade his domain or open the flood gates to the starving North.

    So, we still have anti-missile missiles, right?  Does he still have any working fighter jets?

    And the real question is, of course, this: what if he held a war and nobody came?

    Someone has a fanboy page of pics of Fatty Kim da T’ird looking at things such as food and an empty soccer field.

     http://kimjongunlookingatthings.com/

    Apparently, he likes crispy fried chicken.

  • Letter Penned on Battlefield Tells a Vivid War Story

    Image result for photos of civil war ammunition

    155 years ago, someone wrote a letter to his parents from the battlefield.

    Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn.

    April 10th, 1862

    My Dear Father and Mother: —

    This is the first time since the battle that I could find time to write you.  I ought to have written before, knowing what anxiety you would feel respecting my safety, but I have had a great deal of work to do.  Our Lieut. Col. and Major were both killed, and all the captains but one besides myself were killed or wounded.  The colonel was home sick; the captain who was not killed does not amount to much, and all of the labor of taking care of the wounded, burying the dead, etc., has developed upon myself and Adjt. Chas. F. Barber and the surgeons.

    I had been back from my visit to Barton and Charles about three weeks when the battle commenced.  We had been expecting for some time to attack the enemy at Corinth, but they got the start of us and when we were little expecting them, attacked us with their whole force.  I had just eaten breakfast, put on a new shirt, and was about to commence a letter to you, when heavy  fighting was heard near our camp.  In a few minutes we were ready in ranks and marching to the scene of action.

    “In the Hornet’s Nest”

    We are in Hurlburt’s Division. Our brigade composed of four regiments was attached to the division to support Gen. McClearnand’s division. We were then placed in the hottest of the fight – the boys have called it the “Hornet’s Nest.”  We were placed where several regiments had given away; all admit that our regiment was in the most dangerous position of any regiment in the fight.

    We formed a line as ordered and commenced a heavy fire upon the enemy who was but a little distance from us.  Several regiments to our right ran without firing a gun.  They were not from Illinois regiments however.  Several batteries not captured fell back on a run and ran through our lines – still did our regiment alone stand its ground.  When the enemy saw the lines to our right broken and the men running, they pressed upon us.  Several times did the balls from our muskets make them fall back, but again would they rally and charge upon us, but we mowed them down like grass.  I saw hundreds of the poor devils bite the dust.  Almost overpowered by numbers – probably six or seven regiments  were pressing upon our regiment at once, we were compelled to fall back and form a new line.  I looked for the Lieutenant Colonel to see  what was to be done when I saw the enemy within a few rods of my company; could not see any field officers, the colores were gone and I had to bring my company back or we should (those not killed or wounded) have been taken prisoners.  How proud I was of my company!  I believe I have written you before – young men from my old home, Lake County, Illinois, and most all under twenty years of age.  They fought like heroes and not one showed the white feather.

    “Swore to Win Fight”

    As soon as I found that the Lieutenant Col. and Major were both dead, and all the captains but two were killed or wounded, I then took command of the regiment and formed in line and went into battle again and fought where we could do the most good the rest of the day.  We had many shots at the enemy and I tell you it was fun to see them tumble over.  The enemy had, on Sunday morning, one hundred thousand men, we had 38,000. Several Ohio and other regiments ran, leaving the Illinois boys to breast the flower of the southern army.  Had we not fought  like bull dogs, they would have whipped us long before night.  We swore by the Great Eternal we would die before we would be whipped by southern rebels.  Although thousands of our men were killed and wounded they did not make us surrender; our regiment had 600 men Sunday morning and over 250 of them were either killed or wounded – we lost many of the wounded Monday.

    “Reinforcements”

    The enemy drove us inch by inch, outflanked us several times, and as night came on we had fallen back near the river, when, and thank God for it, Gen Buell with his army was seen approaching on the opposite side of the river.  This cheered the boys and they charged the enemy several times, driving them back some distance, when darkness put an end to the first day’s fight of death and carnage.

    Then, for the first time, did I begin to think of myself.  Early in the morning during the battle a piece of shell had hit my breast and right arm.  I spit blood during the day and I must have bled inwardly but did not feel any pain.  A large minié ball hit me in the left side – it must have struck the rib and went under the skin, as I picked it out with my fingers.

    The enemy were in our camp sleeping in our tents and we had to lay down on the wet ground, but not to sleep with our blankets over us.  Then it was that my breast and arm commenced to pain me very much, but I thought I should be able to go into battle in the morning without any trouble.  In the night it rained very hard, and I was wet all over and took cold and could not speak out loud in the morning or use my right arm.  I did not complain – there were so many worse off than I was.  I moved the regiment – what there was left of it – to where the brigade was and stayed with the regiment all day.  The fighting at times was very hard but not as severe as the day before.  I stayed on the field all day and our regiment made the last charge Monday night led by General Grant in person. That night the Adjt. Chas. F. Barber, who had been wounded, and I  worked until 12 o’clock taking care of the wounded, then I went to my hut and found four dead rebels in it.  They had been wounded the day before and crawled in out of the rain to die.  I found some blankets and laid down to get the first sleep I had had since Saturday night. I pulled the dead rebels out of my tent by the heels.

    My wounds do not trouble me much and I am pretty well now.  I beg of you to not worry about me.  Mother’s good letter just received.  Soldiering is no fun but I shall stay in the Army if I am able until the Union you  taught me to love is restored.  I will write you again soon.

    With lots of love to all,

    Affectionately your son,

    George

    He was one of my great-grandfather’s three brothers, in the 15th Illinois Regiment.  My great-grandfather was in the Supply Corps.

    Family history is so very important. Without it, we don’t know where we really came from or who came before us.

    Do not let it fade into nothing.