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

Author: Hondo

  • Along With the A-10, Wanna Guess What Else The Air Force Wanted to Ax?

    If you guessed the U-2 – formerly the TR-1 – give yourself a pat on the back.

    Yes, you read that correctly.  Although I don’t remember hearing much about it at the time, buried in the USAF’s fleet retirement proposals back in February was a proposal to retire the U-2 along with the A-10.  The stated reason was that RPV’s could now perform the mission at an acceptable cost.

    Color me a bit skeptical.  In prior years, the USAF had stated outright that even our latest RPVs couldn’t perform that mission an affordable cost.  And despite recent improvements in the efficiency of RPV operations (and thus lower operating costs), not long ago the USAF also said that RPVs still don’t provide equivalent SIGINT and IMINT capabilities to those provided by the U-2.  I’m guessing that’s still the case today.

    As I understand it, RPVs today still can’t carry some of the U-2’s sensor packages – so either the platforms or their sensors will have to be substantially “improved” to do so.  And we all know that improvement will be a “snap”, and will be really cheap and quick too.

    Oh, and the USAF is also scaling back it’s proposed RPV fleet, too.

    Congress appears to have put the kibosh on this proposal for now.  For once, maybe we owe Congress a bit of thanks.

    Hey, I realize the USAF needs to modernize.  But throwing the baby out with the bath water has always seemed to me to be, well, kinda stupid.  And regarding the U2, IMO it looks like exactly that was what the USAF was proposing.

    Must be something in the water that the Air Staff drinks these days.  Maybe the old Cold War TAC insult is becoming apropos again:  “Hell, those boys done been SACumcized – and forgot how to fight a war!”

  • More About “Tops In Blue”

    TAH has recently covered the complaints of the USAF version of “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”, Tops in Blue.  Well, it turns out that some former Tops In Blue performers have come “on-line” in an Air Force Times article to defend the program.

    I’m not going to re-hash either the original complaints, the discussion thereof, or the latest Air Force Times article here.  I’m Just providing a follow-up, in case any of our readers are interested.

    If you’re interested, here’s the AF Times article.  Read it for yourself.

  • MARSOC MSgt to Receive Silver Star Today

    MSgt Donovan E. Petty, assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Camp Lejeune, NC, will receive the Silver Star today.  The decoration will be presented by the  Maj Gen Mark A Clark, Commander, MARSOC, at a ceremony at Stone Bay.

    MSgt Petty is receiving the award for heroism in Afghanistan on 1 November 2012.

    The Marine Corps Times has an article giving some of the details of MSgt Petty’s actions that day.  After reading it, I’d say the decoration is fully deserved.  Cojones muy grandes, indeed.

    Damn well done, MSgt Petty.  Kudos.

  • RIP, USS Saratoga

    This one’s for our nautical brothers and sisters who read TAH.

    The USS Saratoga is now history.  The Navy has officially contracted with ESCO Marine to scrap her.  She’ll be scrapped at some point in the future in Brownsville, TX.

    Yeah, she’d already been decommissioned.  And yeah, we can’t just keep ships around forever when they’re no longer needed.

    Still:  I’d guess a few of our readers may have served on the USS Saratoga, and will be interested in knowing about her end.

    The Navy Times has a brief article on the subject, which gives a few more details.

  • Purple Hearts Reunited Strikes Again

    We’ve written more than once before here on TAH about Zachariah Fike and his nonprofit organization, Purple Hearts Reunited (two previous articles can be found here and here).  Their mission is to return recovered military decorations to their original owners and/or next of kin.

    Well, it looks like they’re due for some more public recognition and thanks.

    The 1945 Good Conduct Medal of Navy retiree Richard Gene Woody was recently found hidden inside an empty VCR cassette, wrapped in plastic and hidden in a tree in Milton, VT.   A number of other military-related artifacts were also found with Woody’s GCM.

    Woody died in 1982.  However, Fike was able to locate Woody’s son, Myron Gene Woody in Sidney, NE.  He plans to return the medal to Woody’s son.

    Well done, folks.  Thanks.

    Purple Hearts Reunited is a nonprofit organization.  If you have a few spare dollars looking for a home, IMO maybe you should consider them.

  • A Saturday Morning Diversion

    Some songs aren’t musical classics.  Yet they have other qualities that make them stick in your mind.

    What qualities?  Well, some songs simply make you feel young again – regardless of your age.

    IMO, here are two such from the ’80s.  And yeah – by today’s standards, the guys in the video look kinda stupid today.

    Who cares?  Put on the headphones, crank it up a bit, take a brief trip back in time . . . and enjoy.

    I met my be-bop baby at the Union Hall
    She could dance all night and shake the paint off the wall . . .

     


    “Raised on the radio?” Yeah, I guess so. Guilty as charged. (smile)

  • Yer Friday Funny – Y’all Ain’t Gonnal Believe This Sh . . . (Part 2)

    The article’s title says it all:

    Houston Authorities Searching For ‘Serial Defecator’

    Given how many “good news stories” we’ve seen out of Houston recently, it may only be a matter of time before we see this guy featured on one of them.

    . . .

    In a separate but thematically-related story:  one guy in Louisiana got busted and sent to jail.  He also apparently decided to engage in a bit of “creative contraband smuggling”.  (Yeah, he got caught.)

    I guess there’s a first time for everything.  Never heard of someone taking the suggestion to “take that cell phone and stick it where the sun don’t shine” quite that literally before.  (smile)

  • Another Comes Home from Korea

    DPMO has announced the identification of another US MIA from Korea.

    SGT Richard John Archambeault, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, US Army, was lost on 2 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 29 April 2014. He will be buried with full military honors.  Date and location of interment has not yet been determined.

    Welcome home, my elder brother-in-arms.  Rest in peace.

    . . .

    Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,800 US personnel remain unaccounted for from the Korean War; and over 1,640 remain unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.  If you are a relative of one of the individuals listed here (World War II – critical need), listed here (Korea), or listed here (Southeast Asia) – please consider reading this link to see if you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample.

    If you qualify to submit a mtDNA sample, please submit one.   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 in the service of this nation.