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

Author: Hondo

  • Even a Stopped Clock . . . .

    Apparently reality is finally beginning to impact thinking in the Pentagon regarding the civil war in Syria.

    In a 19 Aug letter to Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, GEN Martin Dempsey – CJCS – indicates reluctance at this time to begin US military involvement in Syria.  The stated reason is that the Syrian rebels are not today willing to support US interests.

    No joke, General. That’s been obvious for some time.

    Some media outlets are touting this as Administration “opposition” to US military action in Syria.  That is an overstatement.  The letter is worded as are most bureauratic or diplomatic documents, and has IMO more “wiggle room” than a 6-year-olds loose tooth the day before it falls out.

    In particular, it does not categorically rule out US military involvement in the current Syrian conflict.  It merely says that “Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides. It is my belief that the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not.”  Should that change, future intervention is not excluded.

    Still – IMO it’s a breath of fresh air, given previous statements from the Administration implying willingness to become involved militarily.  It’s just a pity it took so long for reality to register.

  • Another Two Come Home

    DPMO has announced the identification of two US MIAs from World War II.

    • Capt. Henry S. White and SSgt. Thomas L. Meek, USMC, were lost on 21 July 1943 when their SBD-4 Dauntless dive-bomber crashed on Mavea Island, Republic of Vanuatu. They were accounted for on July 3, 2013. They will be buried as a group with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

    My apologies for the delayed article; I apparently missed this announcement originally.  Mea culpa.

    Welcome home, my elder brothers-in-arms.  Rest now in well-earned peace.

    . . .

    Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,900 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.

  • Another Comes Home

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

    SGT Charles L. Scott, C Company, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 31st Regimental Combat Team, US Army, was lost 2 December 1950 near the Chosin Reservoir. He was accounted for on 7 August 2013. He will be buried with full military honors on 5 September 2013 in Lynchburg, VA.

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

    . . .

    Over 73,600 US personnel remain unaccounted for from World War II; over 7,900 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.

  • Tournament Awards

    The awards for the last two Ballduster McSoulpatch Memorial Stolen Valor Tournaments are in.  I’ve inspected them; they appear to be in good order.  Jonn should have them in a day or two.

    I’ll let Jonn write an article regarding his plans for delivery if he likes.  But I thought our readers might want a sneak peek at them in the interim.  Photos are below the break.

    (more…)

  • Angels and Oxcarts – Addendum

    For what it’s worth:  I’ve finished reading the material found at the link in my previous article on the subject.

    Yeah, it was worth losing some sleep.  All I can say is . . . wow.  Just wow.

    • The operators:  package, granite and/or stainless, size XXL.
    • The designers and administrators:  simply magnificent.
    • The machinery:  absolutely awe-inspiring.

    If you have an interest in the history of aviation, intel, or photography – you’d do a helluva lot worse than to spend a day or two reading through that material.  It’s 400 pages plus, and the material redacted amounts to maybe 5 or 6 pages – much of which is in the last appendix.

    Enjoy.

  • Thanks, Coast Guard

    We tend to “rib” the Coast Guard as “not really the military”.  But the guys and gals there do have a dangerous, stressful mission.  And when under DoD control during wartime, they often take casualties too.

    During World War II, that happened quite a bit.  One such instance occurred in Greenland during late 1942.

    A US Army Air Corps B-17 was forced to land on the Greenland ice cap.  There were survivors.

    A Coast Guard crew of two – LT John Pritchard and RM1 Class Benjamin Bottoms – attempted to rescue the downed crew on consecutive days, flying a J2F-4 Grumman “Duck”.  Appropriately, they were assigned to the cutter USS Northland at the time.

    Rescue operations on 28 November 1942 went well, and rescued several of the downed B-17’s crew.  However, the following day was different.  The J2F-4 piloted by LT Pritchard crashed that day.  Lost were LT Pritchard, RM1 Bottoms, and Army CPL Loren Howarth (one of the airmen from the downed B-17 that they were evacuating).

    The location of the J2F-4 crash site was lost.  Attempts were made to find it in 1975 in order to recover remains, but were unsuccessful.

    However, further attempts last year located the site.  This July, the USCG sent a team to attempt to recover the remains of LT Pritchard, RM1 Bottoms, and CPL Howarth.  They have a weather “window” until early September in which to conduct recovery operations.

    This article from the Navy Times gives more details.  I’ll keep my eyes open and post an update if/as one becomes available.

    And thanks, Coast Guard.  For what you did then – and for what you’re doing today.

  • Angels and Oxcarts

    Aviation and intel buffs probably already know what this article is about from the title.

    The GMU National Security Archive has posted a fascinating declassified document released earlier this year by the CIA.  It deals with the U2 and its successor, the A-12.

    The document is huge (390+ pages), and appears to have minimal redaction.

    Those interested can view the document in PDF format here.  Unfortunately, you’ll have to use torrent to download the whole document at once, or you’ll have to download the chapters individually.

    For those who didn’t already know:  “Angel” was Kelly Johnson’s in-house (e.g., Skunk Works) name for the U2.  “Oxcart” was the name given by the CIA to the project that developed the successor to the U-2, the A-12.

    If you’re drawing a blank on “A-12” – that was the initial, single-seat version of an airframe better known today as the SR-71.

    Amazing.

  • A Punchbowl Argument

    It seems there is some rather high-level contention going on within DoD these days.  (Yeah, I know – you’re thinking, “Tell us something we didn’t know.”  Keep reading.)

    Arguments between the Services and/or between a Service and a Joint Agency or Command are nothing new.  But this one is a bit unique.

    It seems as if the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) wants to exhume a rather large number of those buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (AKA the “Punchbowl”) as “Unknowns” – 330+ total – from the USS Oklahoma.  They believe they may now be able to identify a fair number of these individuals.  Further, some of the graves are thought or known to contain commingled remains – so exhuming only selected graves isn’t really feasible.

    JPAC would also like to do the same for those buried as “Unknowns” from the USS California and the USS West Virginia at a future date.

    Part of the reason JPAC wants to do this is because Congress has set mandates for annual numbers of identifications by JPAC, and this is likely the only way they can reach those mandates.  Yet another part of the reason is, well, their mission.  JPAC exists to recover and identify previously unaccounted for US casualties – and those buried as “Unknowns” are by definition still unaccounted for.

    To me, this seems like the proverbial “no brainer”.  New data and forensic techniques are available that may identify some of these lost.  IMO, we should use them to do so.

    However, JPAC is receiving opposition from what is to me a rather surprising source within DoD:  the Navy.  According to an excellent article from Stars and Stripes,

    But the Hawaii-based military command, known as JPAC, is getting resistance from the Navy, which prefers to maintain the “sanctity” of the graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, officials said.

    Further, the Navy would like to take the partial and commingled remains of more than 100 Oklahoma crew members who were disinterred in 2003 from a single casket at Punchbowl, possibly re­bury them at a memorial and grave site to be created on Ford Island, and invite family members to an interment ceremony on Dec. 7, 2014.

    To an extent, I can understand the former objection.  But I cannot agree.  IMO, the chance to identify some of the fallen should outweigh that consideration.  Further, I’d be willing to give long odds that – could we but poll the fallen – they’d universally agree to the brief disturbance of their rest so that some of their fallen brothers-in-arms could be identified and receive a by-name, proper burial.

    And the second objection?  Frankly, that strikes me as little more than showboating and PR.  In other words:  pure bull.

    But I might well be off base here.  This is an issue on which I have a hard time being objective; I firmly believe that the fallen deserve a proper, by-name burial if at all possible.  IMO, burial as an “Unknown” or a centotaph for an unrecovered body just isn’t the same.

    Thoughts?