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

Author: Hondo

  • More Return

    DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.

    From World War II

    • Sgt. Fae V. Moore, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 9 August 2016.

    • Pfc. Ronald W. Vosmer, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 12 April 2016.

    • Pvt. Emmett L. Kines, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 8 May 2016.

    • Pvt. Frank F. Penna, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 20 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 19 June 2016.

    • Pfc. Wilbur C. Mattern , Company M, 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, USMC, was lost on 21 November 1943 on Tarawa Atoll. He was accounted for on 9 August 2016.

    Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

    You’re home now. Rest 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 DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.

    If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant.  Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

     

    Note:  Three of the individuals listed above who were lost on Tarawa were accounted for some weeks ago.  It is not known why there was no announcement of those three individuals’ formal accounting on DPAA’s “Recently Accounted For” page until this week.

  • More “Iran Nuclear Agreement” News

    Remember that “Nuclear Deal” with Iran that was negotiated by the current        gang of fools who want to give away the farm      Administration?  You know, the one that was going to “put the brakes” on Iran’s nuclear program and ensure they never developed a nuke?

    Well, it seems that Iran has announced the construction of two additional nuclear plants.  They’re going to spend a total of $10 billion to do so – of which, 17% ($1.7 billion) was recently paid to Iran in cash by the US as       ransom for US citizens held by Iran       a “settlement” of outstanding financial issues dating back to the Iranian revolution.  In effect, we provided Iran the down payment for this nuclear expansion.

    So, the current Administration is aghast at this development – right?  They’re pulling out all the stops to keep Iran from doing this?

    Hardly.  In fact, the US Administration approves of it.  They say that the two new plants are permitted under the agreement.

    The Washington Free Beacon has an article giving more details.  Their story is IMO worth a read.

    Yeah, that “nuclear agreement” is really a great deal.  For the Iranians, anyway.

  • The USAF Is Short Pilots and Maintenance Personnel. SECAF Solution? Raise Pilot Bonuses and Pay Them to Drone Drivers.

    Jonn mentioned this in an article earlier today.  But I’ve got a bit of a different take on it than he did.

    Per this report from Fox News, the USAF is short 700 pilots, and the SECAF expects the pilot shortage to increase to 1,000 over the next few years.  The shortage is greatest among fighter pilots.

    The SECAF also indicated the service is short 4,000 mechanics.  Both shortages are causing issues.

    Now, the reason given by the SECAF for the pilot shortage is that the current deployment cycle is causing lowered quality of life among pilots, causing many to leave the service.  She also says that “airlines are forecast to be hiring a lot more” in the near-term future, which will make the problem worse soon.

    The SECAF’s proposed solution?  Increase the USAF pilot bonus to $35k annually – and pay that bonus to drone drivers also.

    Maybe raising the pilot bonus is necessary; maybe not.  At this point, I’m not really convinced  that that’s either necessary or will work.  I’m willing to listen to a good argument – but I haven’t yet heard one.

    And maybe it’s just me, but from what the SECAF’s saying . . . I just don’t “get it”.

    Per the SECAF, the biggest current USAF shortage seems to be among fighter pilots.  I thought airlines generally preferred to try and hire those with multi-engine ratings and experience flying larger aircraft – like C-17s and C-130s.  Maybe I’m wrong.

    Plus, I need an explanation of how paying drone drivers a bonus would help.  Aren’t many of them not rated to fly manned aircraft?  And even if some RPA pilots are qualified to fly manned aircraft, doesn’t my question in the previous paragraph apply?  Do airlines really go after RPA pilots?

    In short – is this bonus proposal by the SECAF something that might actually work?  Or is it a “solution in search of a problem” that will suck up money but will do little or nothing to fix the actual problem at hand?  At this point, I’m just not convinced it will work as advertised.

    If “quality of life issues due to multiple deployments” are driving this, it seems to me that a better solution to the pilot shortage problem might be for the USAF to simply train more pilots – then use some of those additional pilots to “spell” those who have done repeated deployments and/or replace those who choose to depart.  Alternatively, if instead it’s lack of flight time due to ground duty assignments that’s driving experienced pilots to “punch out” and leave the service . . . I’m not sure that a bigger bonus will work particularly well.

    Finally, I also don’t see how increasing the pilot bonus will do a damn thing to cure the shortage in maintenance personnel.  Someone needs to explain that one to me, too.  Last time I checked, you can’t fly an aircraft that’s grounded due to lack of maintenance.

    Well, Madame SECAF?  Could you perhaps enlighten us?  What are we missing?

  • About that San Bernardino “Valor Award” . . . .

    A few weeks ago, Jonn wrote about Irene Martinez – chief of an USICS office in San Bernardino – being nominated to receive the DHS “Award for Valor”.  However, at the time USICS was reluctant to disclose precisely what it was that Ms. Martinez had done to merit nomination to receive the award.

    Well, now we know.  Apparently DHS has finally responded to a FOIA request concerning the matter.

    During the San Bernardino terrorist shootings that occurred about a mile and a half away from her facility, Ms. Martinez first “warned [her] employees to be very careful and to be vigil (sic) about their surroundings”.  While the facility was on lockdown, she then went out to the parking lot and fetched one of her employees who was sitting in his car after returning from lunch, bringing him inside.

    She afterwards “soothed members of the public who were temporarily stranded in the building.”  According to the paperwork nominating her for the DHS Award for Valor, her actions that day “demonstrated not only her professionalism and exceptional leadership, but also her compassion and caring for her employees and the public we serve.”

    Yes, I’m serious.  That’s really why she was nominated.  The material in quotes above are reportedly direct quotes from the award nomination paperwork.

    Now, I don’t know about you – but something strikes me as a bit odd here.  Previous recipients of the same award apparently received the award for actions such as confronting armed criminals, or for rescuing persons from sinking ships or burning cars.  You know, for situations in which actual honest-to-God bravery was required.

    Ms. Martinez, in contrast, was apparently nominated for the award for nothing more than taking those routine actions any supervisor would be expected to take during a facility lockdown.  In short:  she was nominated simply for doing her freaking job.

    Oh, and in case anyone’s forgotten:  Ms. Martinez also apparently has a rather odd view of what consititutes “doing her job”.  It turns out that Ms. Martinez was quite uncooperative when 5 DHS LE personnel came to her facility the next day looking for a person of interest in connection with the previous day’s terrorist shooting.  That person of interest – Enrique Marquez – was believed at the time to have supplied the two terrorist bastards who’d perpetrated the previous day’s attack the weapons they’d used.  Marquez was scheduled for an appointment at Ms. Martinez’s facility, but was a no-show.

    Ms. Martinez delayed those 5 Federal LE agents for approximately 1 1/2 hours in the performance of their duties, apparently for bureaucratic “turf war” reasons.  She then outright lied to DHS IG investigators about her actions that day when the matter was later investigated.

    It seems to me that both of those later actions by Ms. Martinez may well qualify as crimes – the former possibly as interfering with a Federal investigation (18 USC 111, or 18 USC 1512(b)3) and the latter as giving a false statement to Federal investigators (18 USC 1001).  But it doesn’t seem as if anyone at DHS much cares about that.

    But they sure seem to want to give the lady an award for doing nothing more than her job.  Go figure.

  • $20 Million for Art? Pfft. Merely Peanuts.

    I suppose everyone’s heard the recent news about the VA spending $20M on art.  Well, as far as VA “management excellence” goes, it turns out that’s peanuts.

    During the period 2010-2013, the VA began implementation of 15 solar energy projects.  They were projected to take on average of 7 to 12 months, and to all be completed by now.

    I suppose you can guess what’s coming.  And if you guessed “another sterling example of the VA’s excellence in managing the use of its resources” – you’d be right.  (I trust the sarcasm in the previous sentence is obvious.)

    Instead, the projects are taking an average of 42 months to completion.  Further, most aren’t yet fully operational.

    In aggregate, the projects were projected to cost $95M.  So far, the VA has spent approximately $408M – which is “only” 329+% over budget.  And some of the projects haven’t even begun to produce electricity, let alone reach full operating capacity.  In fact, of the 15 projects investigated by the VA OIG only two were operating at design capacity by March of this year.

    The Washington Free Beacon has a good article giving more details.  It’s worth a read.  So is the VA OIG report on the subject (PDF format).  Be forewarned:  both just might p!ss you off.

    “Saving the environment”? Yeah, right.  IMO “political payback using tax dollars” sounds more like it.

  • Clock-Boy Wants to Get Paid

    Remember “Clock boy”, AKA Clachmed?  You know, the Islamic activist’s son who disassembled a 1980s-vintage digital clock and repackaged it into a case large enough to hold a complete M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mine with room to spare, and took it to school – then set it to alarm in class?  And who did that about 4 months after a couple of terrorist bastards had tried to shoot up a “Draw Mohammed” show a few miles away from his school?

    Well, guess what.  It appears he and his family – who left the US for Qatar last October – have decided they want to get paid.

    Clachmed is currently in the USA for the summer “visiting family and friends”.   I’m sure that it’s “just a coincidence” that while he’s “visiting family and friends” here in the USA, his family has also filed suit against his former school district for “violating his civil rights”.

    Yeah, right.  Can you say, “Fishing for a 7-figure settlement?”  Sure.  I knew you could.

    Sheesh.  All things considered, the young man is lucky as hell.  If he’d pulled that stunt in many if not most places in the world and gotten caught there’s a good chance he’d still be in jail – if not dead.

    I hope the judge who gets this case has enough common sense to toss it with prejudice, and sticks the youngster’s family with attorneys’ fees for both sides.  But I’m not holding my breath.

     

  • More Return from World War II and Korea

    DPAA has identified and accounted for the following formerly-missing US military personnel.

    From World War II

    • ENS Verdi Sederstrom, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor. He was accounted-for on 21 July 2016.

    • MM1 Earl Melton, US Navy, assigned to the crew of the USS Oklahoma, was lost on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor. He was accounted-for on 21 July 2016.

    • 2nd Lt. Marvin B. Rothman, 311th Fighter Squadron, 58th Fighter Group, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost on 11 April 1944 on New Guinea. He was accounted-for on 15 July 2016.

    • 1st Lt. Robert L. McIntosh, 27th Fighter Squadron, 1st Fighter Group, US Army Air Forces, US Army, was lost on 12 May 1944 in Italy. He was accounted-for on 17 February 2014. (Assuming the accounted-for date is accurate, apparently the formal announcement of 1st Lt. McIntosh’s recovery and accounting was severely delayed.)

    From Korea

    • CPL Curtis J. Wells, C Company, 65th Engineer Combat Battalion, 25th Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 27 November 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 21 July 2016.

    • CPL Larry M. Dunn, B Company, 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 1 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 16 July 2016.

    • SGT James L. Campbell, 31st Regimental Combat Team, US Army, was lost on 2 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 26 July 2016.

    • CPL Charles A. White, G Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 3 December 1950 in North Korea. He was accounted for on 14 July 2016.

    • CPL Ronald M. Sparks, D Company 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 12 February 1951 in South Korea. He was accounted for on 27 July 2016.

    • MSG Ira V. Miss, Jr., Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army, was lost on 13 February 1951 in South Korea. He was accounted for on 25 July 2016. (Note: DPAA’s roster of newly accounted for personnel gives an incorrect date of loss for MSG Miss that predates the beginning of the Korean War. The date of loss given here is from the DPAA press release concerning his identification and formal accounting.)

    Welcome back, elder brothers-in-arms. Our apologies that your return took so long.

    You’re home now. Rest 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 DNA from recovered remains against DNA from some (but not all) blood relatives can assist in making a positive ID for unidentified remains that have already been recovered, or which may be recovered in the future.

    On their web site’s “Contact Us” page, DPAA now has FAQs. The answer to one of those FAQs describes who can and cannot submit DNA samples useful in identifying recovered remains. The chart giving the answer can be viewed here. The text associated with the chart is short and can be viewed in DPAA’s FAQs.

    If your family lost someone in one of these conflicts and you qualify to submit a DNA sample, please arrange to submit one. By doing that you just might help identify the remains of a US service member who’s been repatriated but not yet been identified – as well as a relative of yours, however distant. Or you may help to identify remains to be recovered in the future.

    Everybody deserves a proper burial. That’s especially true for those who gave their all while serving this nation.

     

    (Author’s Note: a regrettable editing error resulted in the replacement of information regarding several individuals previously identified in this article with information regarding other newly accounted for individuals. Those names originally replaced have been restored above. Mea culpa.)

  • License Go Bye-Bye

    Bernath Disbarrment

    With appropriate apologies to the memory of the late Harry Nilsson:

     

    License Go Bye-Bye

    License go bye-bye
    Bet that made him cry
    Wherever he goes
    Everyone knows
    His license go bye-bye

    Ordered him disbarred
    He took it real hard
    Wherever he goes
    Everyone knows
    They ordered him disbarred

    And in the morning when he wakes up
    He’s still an ass
    That we know
    And if he stiffs them and won’t pay up
    He’ll have no class
    Just like before, oh

    Ordered him disbarred
    (toodlie-doot doot doot doot doot doot doot)
    He took it real hard
    Wherever he goes
    Everyone knows
    They ordered him disbarred

    License go bye-bye
    License go bye-bye
    License go bye-bye
    License go bye-bye
    License go bye-bye

    License go bye-bye
    (toodlie-doot doot doot doot doot doot doot)
    Bet that made him cry
    Wherever he goes
    Everyone knows
    His license go bye-bye

     

    Reference:
    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/dockets.cfm?dist=0&doc_id=2139374&doc_no=S234029