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

Author: Hondo

  • Strategy Meeting? Practice Remarks? Who Knows?

    I ran across this on YouTube.  I think it might be a clandestine recording of the DRC’s latest high-level strategy session set to music.  Or maybe it’s a recording of someone we all “know and love” practicing for his next court appearance.  I guess it could be either.

    (FWIW: the embedded comments in the video are a hoot.  It’s worth watching carefully IMO.)

     

     

    A bit of trivia about the above: Mike Oldfield recorded it after an argument with Richard Branson during the making of his debut recording, Tubular Bells.  Branson reportedly wanted vocals in the work, which Oldfield wanted to remain an instrumental.  Finally, after one meeting with Branson, a thoroughly torqued Oldfield yelled, “You want lyrics? I’ll give you lyrics!”   He then stormed off.

    Oldfield then grabbed the recording engineer, a bottle of Jameson’s, and went to the studio.  After drinking half of the bottle of Jameson’s, he recorded about 10 minutes of his own drunken grunting and screaming. This grunting and screaming was then edited and processed (including being slowed down substantially) and dubbed onto the portion of Tubular Bells popularly referred to today as “Piltdown Man” (occurs about half-way through side/part two of the original album).

    Usually drunken stupidity is painful as hell.  However, every once in a great while what at first blush seems to be drunken idiocy works out OK.

    But don’t get any ideas, DRC.  You guys don’t have the skills to pull it off.  (smile)

  • Forty Years Ago

    At 2:15PM on 9 November 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald – carrying a cargo of 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets – departed Superior, WI.  She was bound for a steel mill at Zug Island, MI (near Detroit).

    The following day, the ship encountered an early November gale on Lake Superior.  She did not complete her voyage.

    The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was lost shortly after 7:10PM on 10 November 2015 1975, going down roughly 15 miles NNE of Whitefish Point, MI.  All 29 on board perished.

    Rest in peace, men.

     

  • At DHS, $1+ Billion and a Decade’s Work Equals . . . One Electronic Form Online

    Over a decade ago, DHS decided to modernize its immigration processing.  So DHS decided to initiate a project that would make many of the required forms available online, and to allow them to be filled out online as well – with answers stored digitally.  Associated fees were also to be payable online.

    The system was originally projected to cost around $500 million, and to have been completed two years ago. The reality? Well, that’s a bit different.

    Today, the system DHS commissioned has one form that can be filled out online. (Two other forms briefly were available online, but were pulled due to technical issues.) DHS’s system also will accept a single fee online. The remaining nearly 100 forms and their associated fees (if any) today remain paper only.

    The system is now expected to be ready in four years – maybe – after having taken close to twice the amount of time originally estimated. And the total cost is expected to be approximately $3.1 billion – or around 6 times the original estimated cost.

    The Washington Post yesterday had a longish article describing this debacle. You won’t enjoy reading it. But IMO you should read it anyway.

    Why?  Well, after all . . . you and I are paying for this abomination.  It literally is “our tax dollars at work” – loosely speaking, of course, since not much real “work” seems to be getting done here.

  • Full Circle to the Past

    Some tunes capture a time and place (or places) perfectly. IMO, this one is such a tune. Even someone who grew up in a different, non-Northern part of the world like myself can see that.

    Yeah, it’s dated. But it’s still nice – and for those of us old enough to remember the song’s time and the events the song references, it brings back memories. Enjoy.

    The song’s original video can be viewed here. It’s fairly well done, and includes some imagery that simply fits. I used the other version above as it’s a bit rarer, and the sound quality is excellent.

    Some 20+ years after the original, a US band (Sugarland) did a remake; you may prefer it. Though it’s nice, I have to say I still prefer the original. YMMV.

    Back to our normal TAH programming.

  • Another Bogus ID, Courtesy of the DRC

    Well, that didn’t take too long.  Looks like the DRC has “found” me.

    Again.

    For at least the sixth time.

    And just like the five previous times . . . they’re full of it.

    A little “birdie” sent me the photo of the guy the DRC has identified as me this time around.  That individual doesn’t need any more DRC grief, so I’ll pass on posting the photo here.

    I should probably be flattered.  I’m no great judge of handsome, but the fella in the photo I received seemed to be a rather good-looking guy.  I’d guess he has no problem in getting all the female companionship he wants.  I’m sure the DRC members are envious.

    And, yeah:  he was sporting a Trident, plus some Navy decorations.  So that means that – once again – I’m supposedly ex-Navy and a former SEAL.

    Geez.  Remember when I previously asked if our “good friends” in the DRC had the common sense to urinate in the toilet vice the trash can when they went to the head?  I guess we have our answer now.

    Listen up, you bunch of Dumb Royally Clueless j-holes:  best I can tell, I’ve never been closer than maybe 40 or so miles to where this latest guy you’ve falsely identified as being me lives today – and that was approaching 20 years ago.  I haven’t been anywhere near that close since.

    Again, for the record:  no, I’m not a former Navy SEAL. This is at the third damn time I’ve told you dipsticks that I’m not a former SEAL.  Are you too freaking stupid to understand plain English?

    At the risk of being repetitive:  I’ve never served in the Navy.  I’ve never set foot on an active Navy warship.  I’ve never been at sea other than on a couple of tour boat or ferry rides.

    “Never served in the Navy” means I’m not a former SEAL.  How about you let that fact penetrate your thick skulls, m’kay?

    Bottom line:  you’re barking up the wrong tree.  Again.

    That doesn’t surprise me, though.  IMO mercury is an excellent metaphor for you fools’ minds: dense, liquid, and toxic.

    Here’s the obligatory recap.  First, close to two years ago supposedly I was a now-retired and relatively well-known Army GO.  Second, I was wrongly identified as being The Hair himself, Don Shipley.  After that, I was allegedly a retired Special Forces Sergeant Major.  Fourth, I was supposedly a serving Army CPT   (or maybe by now MAJ) teaching ROTC.  Then a few weeks ago, according to the DRC’s fifth flight of false-ID fancy I was allegedly CAPT Larry Bailey.

    Hell, maybe there were other bogus IDs I missed.  I don’t really know; and I don’t much care.

    Now this time around, according to you DRC j-holes I’m supposedly a third different ex-SEAL – when in reality, I’m not. That’s at least the sixth time that you damn fools have “gotten it wrong”.

    They say everyone has a role in life.  The DRC IMO has now shown they have not one role, but two. The first appears to be serving as a counterexample regarding life in general.  Their second role – as shown by this ridiculous series of comically inept “identifications” – must be providing comic relief.

  • Two Amazing Feats of Marksmanship of Yesteryear

    Marksmanship is an essential military skill. And in truth, hitting a man-sized target out to around 300m isn’t that difficult with a well-zeroed weapon.

    But hitting a target of that size at extreme ranges is a different story. Doing that takes extraordinary marksmanship skill.

    Wikipedia maintains a reasonable list of the longest verified sniper kills in history. Two shots in particular on that list stand out.

    They stand out because they were done over 140 and 150 years ago, repectively.

    In late June 1874, buffalo hunter Billy Dixon performed such a shot – at Adobe Walls, Texas. Dixon and a party of settlers had been besieged by a party of Native Americans under Chief Quanah Parker. The siege lasted 3 days. During the siege, Dixon – using a borrowed Sharps .50-90 buffalo rifle – fired at a group of warriors near Chief Parker. His third shot dropped one of the warriors. The siege ended shortly afterwards, and the settlement was thereafter left alone.

    The distance for Dixon’s shot is credited today as being 1,406 meters – nearly a mile. It’s still the 11th longest confirmed sniper kill in history.

    Dixon later worked for the Army as a civilian scout. He was one of only 8 civilians ever awarded the Medal of Honor.

    1400+ meters, with a borrowed rifle, on the 3rd shot.  Amazing.

    And IMO, there’s one shot that’s even more amazing.

    During the US Civil War, Union forces blockaded the Confederate port of Charleston. During this blockade, Union forces occupied Battery Gregg; Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumner – 1,390 yards (1,271 meters) away. On 5 December 1864, an unnamed Confederate sharpshooter shooting from Fort Sumner – believed to have been using a muzzle-loading Whitworth rifle firing hexagonal .451 cal bullets – shot and killed a Union soldier at Battery Gregg. This shot today still ranks as the 14th longest confirmed sniper kill in history.

    Think about that:  over 1,250 meters – with a muzzle-loading rifle.  Also amazing.

    No confirmed sniper kills in World War I, World War II, or Korea (and only one from Vietnam) are longer than these two amazing shots from 140+ years ago. For close to 100 years – until Marine sniper Carlos Hathcock’s legendary shot in Vietnam in 1967 – these two shots from 1864 and 1874 ranked as the longest confirmed sniper kills in history.

  • Arrest In Spencer Stone Stabbing

    California LEOs have arrested a man in connection with the 8 October stabbing of USAF SSgt Spencer Stone.  Stone was one of the three US citizens who  thwarted the recent French train terror attack by taking down an armed assailant barehanded.  (Two other French citizens – one of whom was American-born – attempted to stop the terrorist bastard prior to that point but were disabled during their struggles.)

    The man arrested was James Tran, who lives IVO Sacremento, CA.  He reportedly has at least one previous felony arrest and known gang connections.  However, authorities do not believe the assault on Stone was gang-related.

    The Fox article has more details.  It’s not too long, and is IMO worth a read.

  • ABCMR Supports Conner MoH Upgrade

    Last March, Jonn wrote about a Federal court denying the request to upgrade the Distinguished Service Cross awarded during World War II to 1LT Garlin Murl Conner to the Medal of Honor.  The denial was due to strictly legal grounds, based on the expiration of all statutes of limitations for appealing a previous action.

    Since then, there has been further action in the matter.  The case was further appealed, to a 3-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.  That panel in turn partially reversed the earlier court’s decision, ordering the matter into mediation.

    The venue apparently chosen for mediation was the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.  The ABCMR heard the case; last week, it rendered its decision.

    The ABCMR recommended that the Senior Army Decorations Board recommend an upgrade of Conner’s DSC to the Medal of Honor.

    This isn’t by any means a final decision.  The Senior Army Decorations Board must make its recommendation; from there, assuming the Senior Army Decorations Board agrees with the ABCMR it would go to the Senate Armed Services Committee for further consideration.  The SASC would then make a recommendation to the POTUS.

    The full process could well take many months longer.  But this ABCMR decision supporting the upgrade is a key step forward, and may well be the critical turning point in the matter.

    Fox has a longish article on the matter; it has a brief summary of Conner’s World War II heroism (his DSC was not his only decoration for valor), and also details briefly his actions for which he received his DSC. Reading the article is well worth your time.  If you do so, be prepared to be awed.

    Let’s hope the Senior Army Decorations Board and SASC move out smartly here.  Based on accounts of his actions, it appears that Conner’s heroism on 24 January 1945 indeed was of a nature “above and beyond the call of duty”.  Though recognition will now be posthumous, that heroism should be properly recognized.  “Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but beggared is one that has and forgets them.”

    And special kudos to Richard Chilton, himself a combat veteran, who has spearheaded recent efforts to have Conner receive the recognition he is due.  Well done, sir.  Well done indeed.