I’ll just leave this here.
Police: Man robbing grocery store suffers fatal heart attack
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, and Emperor Palpatine could not be located for comment. (smile)
Author: Hondo
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Eight Come Home
DPMO has announced the identification of two US MIAs from World War II; three US MIAs from Korea; and three US MIAs from Southeast Asia.
- Pvt Jack M. Redman, Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, USMC, was lost 20 November 1943 on Tarawa. He was accounted for 20 December 2014.
- Maj. Peyton S. Mathis, 44th Fighter Squadron, 13th Fighter Command, US Army Air Forces, was lost 5 June 1944 in the Solomon Islands. He was accounted for 16 October 2014. (The author regrets missing the earlier announcement of Maj. Mathis’ identification.)
- SGT Joseph M. Snock, Jr., Heavy Mortar Company, 31st Infantry Regiment, US Army, was lost 30 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for 5 January 2015.
- PFC Norbert G. Hurt, A Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, US Army, was lost 2 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for 20 October 2014. (The author regrets missing the earlier announcement of PFC Hurt’s identification.)
- CPL Robert Higgins, C Battery, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost 13 February 1951 in South Korea. He was accounted for 6 January 2015.
- Col. William E. Cooper, 469th Tactical Squadron, 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, USAF, was lost 24 April 1966 in Vietnam. He was accounted for 22 December 2014.
- SFC Class James W. Holt, C Company, 5th Special Forces Group, US Army, was lost 7 February 1968 in Vietnam. He was accounted for 10 January 2015.
- Capt. David Chorlins, 602nd Special Operations Squadron, 34th Tactical Group, USAF, was lost 11 January 1970 in Laos. He was accounted for 17 January 2015.
All will be buried with full military honors. Information on individual funeral arrangements is not currently available.
You’re no longer missing, my elder brothers-in-arms. Welcome home; rest now in peace.
. . .
Over 73,000 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,600 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia (SEA). Comparison of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from recovered remains against mtDNA from a matrilineal descendant can assist in providing a positive ID for those recovered remains.
Unfortunately, JPAC has recently reorganized their web site; they no longer seems to provide by-name lists of the MIAs for whom there is a need for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples to assist in possible identification of remains. So if you have a relative that is still MIA from World War II, Korea, or SEA – please consider reading this JPAC fact sheet to see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample.
If you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample and have a relative from World War II, Korea, or SEA who is still MIA, please contact JPAC (there is an 866 number on the flier linked above) and see if they already have a mtDNA sample for your missing relative. If not, please arrange to submit a sample. By submitting a mtDNA sample, you may be able to help identify US remains that have been recovered and repatriated but not yet positively identified.
Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.
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Just When You Think They Can’t Get ANY Stupider . . . .
. . . you read something like this.
Seven months after federal officials fired CGI Federal for its botched work on Obamacare website Healthcare.gov, the IRS awarded the same company a $4.5 million IT contract for its new Obamacare tax program.
The Daily Caller today has an article with more details. It’s worthwhile – if depressing and infuriating – reading.
It will be so damn nice to see the current band of clueless idiots DC clown krewe Administration end. Maybe then we’ll see adult leadership again.
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Another One Bites the Dust
It looks like another Navy Captain recently decided to sh!tcan his career.
The commander of Naval Base Guantanamo Bay was recently relieved. His relief had nothing to do with detainee operations. Rather, the Navy announced that he was relieved because of the proverbial “loss of confidence in his ability to command” for other reasons.
Why? It turns out that the guy was apparently playing around with a DoN civilian employee on base. That fact came to light when NCIS investigated the recent drowning of the lady’s husband in waters west of the base.
This Fox News story has a few more details – though they’re rather sparse at present. I’d guess more info will likely become public in the future.
Um, yeah. Hey, I can understand physical attraction. Sometimes it makes people do truly stupid things. But this case just looks awful – even if no criminal activity was involved.
Hope she was worth it, Captain. And I hope for your sake your resume is already written and looks really good.
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Tinfoil Hattery – Not Just for the Veterans Today Crowd
Hey, remember those Charlie Hebdo attacks? You thought they were perpetrated by radical Islamic terrorists?
Well, the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity says you could be wrong. Here’s what one of their website’s articles has to say:
The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonists’ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people.
The article’s author – Paul Craig Roberts – also appears to be somewhat . . . interesting. He seems to be a bit of a ”9/11 Truther” who in November 2012 held al Qaeda’s link to 9/11 to be “unsubstantiated”. He also IMO seems to hold some other, er, interesting and decidedly non-traditional opinions – like saying in May 2011 that “there is probably more democracy in China than in the West.”
Predictably, Ron Paul is already doing damage control to head off blowback from Roberts’ article. He says he doesn’t think that even Roberts believes his own article – he just “wanted a discussion”.
Yeah, right. We’ve seen this kind of ridiculous, self-serving tap-dance before from Ron Paul. Specifically, we saw the same regarding those the racist materials in his 1990s newsletters that he seems to have approved, then later blamed on “staff”. Yet colleagues of Paul’s from that time say Paul routinely proofed those letters and personally approved their content.
The institute has your name, Paul – just like those newsletters did. And given your past actions, I’m not buying the obvious attempt at damage control this time around either.
Sheesh. I guess that figures. I suppose it’s too much to expect the Left to have all the fools individuals who see the world through “alternate perspectives of reality”.
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A GDMA Scandal “Scorecard”
For anyone interested, here’s a short list of those who’ve been named as involved in the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd – AKA GDMA – scandal.
CDR Jose Luis Sanchez, USN – pleaded guilty earlier this month to bribery charges. He was the subject of yesterday’s TAH article regarding the GDMA scandal.
John Bertrand Beliveau II, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent – pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges in December 2013. Beliveau admitted to providing GDMA information on NCIS investigations into their business dealings.
PO1 Daniel Layug, USN – pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery charges in May 2014. Layug was providing classified ship movement schedules to GDMA officials as well as competitor pricing information.
Alex Wisidagama – former executive at GDMA and cousin of the GDMA CEO, Leonard Glenn Francis, pleaded guilty in May 2014 to participating in a scheme whereby GDMA grossly overcharged the US Navy for costs associated with services performed during port calls. In one such visit – by the USS Mustin to Laem Chabang, Thailand, in 2011 – the overcharges appear to have totaled $1.5M for a single port call.
Edmond A. Aruffo, LCDR, USN (Retired) – pleaded guilty in July 2014 to participating in GDMA’s scheme to overcharge grossly the USN for costs associated port calls.
So far, two other individuals – Leonard Glenn Francis, CEO of GDMA, and CDR Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz, USN, have submitted and maintained “not guilty” pleas to bribery and conspiracy charges associated with the scandal. Both are accused of bribery and conspiracy. (Interestingly, Misiewicz is a former CO of the USS Mustin.) He was indicted on seven additional charges recently – after CDR Sanchez pleaded guilty.
Stay tuned. This one continues to seem . . . interesting.
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Congratulations to the 2015 Baseball HOF Inductees
Congratulations to Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio. They are this year’s inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Craig Biggio was an excellent catcher and infielder, making the NL All-Star team at both positions, and is fully worthy of HOF membership. He ended his career in the same place it began – Houston – and had 3000+ hits, a .281 batting average, and a career OBP of .363. He came tantalizingly close to HOF election last year, missing election by 2 votes. This year, he gained entry.
John Smoltz’s career was in some respects similar to that of another Hall of Famer – Dennis Eckersley. He was an accomplished pitcher both as a starter and reliever, and has a fair claim (though not one I’d support) as the best postseason pitcher since Koufax. Kudos.
Pedro Martinez’s career wasn’t terribly lengthy by HOF standards due to health issues; that’s reflected in his win-loss and innings pitched totals, which are quite low for the HOF (less than 220 wins and less than 3000 IP). But at his peak – from 1997-2003 – he was truly exceptional. And his full career was exceptional as well, even if somewhat short by today’s standards. Martinez has the highest ERA+ (ERA normalized against league-average and adjusted for ballpark) of any pitcher in the HOF – yes, better than Lefty Grove.
Randy Johnson was likewise exceptional – one can argue he was the best left-handed pitcher of all time, Koufax included. (Indeed, Johnson’s career can be described as what Koufax’s career might have been had Koufax remained healthy.) Two things IMO best describe Johnson’s career:
- Sustained High Performance. From 1993 to 2002 – over a period of 10 seasons – Johnson averaged the following: 18-6 W/L, 2.70 ERA, nearly 293 K, roughly 30 starts, and 219+ IP per year. And this includes two strike-shortened years (1994 and 1995) and one where he spent roughly 2/3 of the season recovering from back surgery (1996). Omit the season mostly lost to back surgery and you’re looking at 9 years averaging roughly 19-6 W/L, 2.70 ERA, 32+ starts per season, 315+K(!), and 236+ IP per year.
- Dominance. Besides being #2 all-time in Ks, Johnson’s ability to dominate hitters was incredible. This is shown by his strikeout rate – the number of strikeouts per 9 innings pitched. To date, there have been 20 seasons in all of MLB history where a pitcher struck out more than 11 batters per 9 IP. Johnson owns 7 of them – and they’re bunched near the top of the list (numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11). No one else has more than 3 seasons with more than 11 K per 9 IP (Kerry Wood). Johnson also owns 10 of the top 30 strikeout-rate seasons in MLB history (numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 24, 29, and 30). That’s as many top-30 strikeout-rate seasons as Pedro Martinez, Kerry Wood, Nolan Ryan, Curt Schilling, Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver, and Justin Verlander have – combined (3, 3, 2, 2, 0, 0, and 0 respectively).
Plus, doves everywhere say they’re just glad they no longer need to worry about seeing Johnson on the mound.
Congratulations, gentlemen. Well-deserved.
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Navy Commander Pleads Guilty to Accepting Bribes
Yesterday, CDR Jose Luis Sanchez pleaded guilty in Federal court to the crime of accepting bribes. He was the fifth individual and second member of the US Navy to plead guilty in connection with the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd. (AKA GDMA) scandal. Prosecutors have alleged that this scandal was based on insider information and allowed GDMA to overbill the US Navy for support for years, costing Uncle Sam at least $20 million.
Sanchez admitted taking bribes valued between $30,000 and $120,000 from 2009 to 2013, including a prostitute, $7,500 to travel from Asia to the United States and five days at Singapore’s luxury Shangri-La Hotel, according to a 24-page plea agreement. In exchange, he provided classified Navy ship and submarine schedules and other internal information to Leonard Glenn Francis, chief executive of a Singapore-based company that provided services to vessels at ports.
The other member of the USN to plead guilty so far – Petty Officer (precise rank not specified) Daniel Layug – also admitted to providing classified Navy shipping schedules to Francis.
Francis – termed “Fat Leonard” by his confidants – was previously arrested (Sep 2013) on charges connected to the scandal. He has pleaded not guilty.
Sanchez was arrested as part of the same bribery scandal for which CDR(P) Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz – who Jonn’s previously written about here at TAH – was arrested about 16 months ago. Misiewicz was arrested on charges related to his own separate dealings with Leonard. After being arrested, Misiewicz pleaded not guilty charges of conspiracy to commit bribery.
Sanchez’s guilty plea yesterday included a five-page addendum that remains under seal. Perhaps coincidentally, CDR Misiewicz was indicted yesterday on seven (7) additional counts related to the scandal. It does not appear that he’s yet entered a plea regarding the new charges against him.
Sanchez is facing a maximum of 20 years in Federal prison. He’s currently out on bail awaiting sentencing. He apparently needs his own assets to pay his lawyers, so he’s convinced his mother and sister to back his bail bond with their assets.
Personally, I hope the courts absolutely body-slam every one of these guys damned hard when they’re convicted. To wit: a minimum of 5 or 7 years hard time for each, and preferably closer to the max sentences allowed under law.
That particularly goes for any military or Federal civilian personnel involved. These people were in positions of public trust; they betrayed that trust for a pittance. I think each needs at least 5 years – and preferably more – to reflect on both their sh!tbaggery and the pittance they received for selling-out Uncle Sam’s interests.
Was it worth it, assholes? Was it?
Don’t answer right away. You can give us your answer when you get out of prison – if you ever do.
It’s OK by me if you die behind bars. But that’s not my call.