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

Author: NHSparky

  • TAH Election Day Thread

    There are many things I love about fall, especially in New England–the color of the leaves turning before being buried under six feet of snow that I have to shovel out, the cheering of the Patriots fans beating Seyton Manning like a bald-headed stepchild before losing to self-same Seyton in the playoffs, and the smell of the brined turkey about to send me into a coma, just after I finished my share of the kid’s Halloween candy haul.

    One thing I WON’T miss is the plethora of ads that have inundated the airwaves since about Labor Day, if not before.

    Okay, we get it. Your opponent sucks. Probably performs ritual sacrifices on small animals, too. Got it.

    In NH, Scott Brown is taking on Jeanne Shaheen in what is pretty much a neck-and-neck race. Like TSO, I’m not wild about the guy’s politics, being a bit mushy, but any guy that wears a Ranger Up shirt automatically gets my vote. Period.

    In Massachusetts, one of the Congressional Districts has Iraq vet Seth Moulton going up against Richard Tiesi. Tiesi is a social liberal, openly gay, and married. Moulton has FOUR tours of Iraq under his belt. Oh, and for the record, Moulton is the Democrat who rejected support from pro-LGBT groups. Dafuq? Moulton does have one group throwing him lots of cash and paying for lots of airtime–VoteVets.

    As you can see, they’re up to their usual, supporting veterans, including folks like the aforementioned Scott Brown, Joni Ernst, and Tom Cotton. Oh wait, they’re not on VoteVets’ list? Silly me, those folks are Republicans! So much for that idea.

    Anyway, along with a few tidbits, I’m also including links to our favorite folks of late, to see how they fare in their quest for elected office. If you find a better link, please send it to me or Jonn and I’ll update it.

    Steve Cushman
    Steve Cushman

    Flemron Dickey
    Ron Dickey

    Daryld “Gil” Gilberston
    Gil Gilbertson

    John Acton
    John Acton

    Good luck to all the candidates highlighted here. May you receive many warm handshakes and bowls of soup.

  • 34 Kicked Out For Cheating at Prototype

    Today we learned from Fox News that 34 people have been separated from the Navy for cheating on qualification tests at the Charleston, South Carolina prototype training site:

    The number of accused and the duration of cheating are greater than was known when the Navy announced in February that it had discovered cheating on qualification exams by an estimated 20 to 30 sailors seeking to be certified as instructors at the nuclear training unit at Charleston, South Carolina.

    At least 10 more are currently under investigation, and their status at this time is unclear.

    Social media pages involving Navy nukes are obviously talking about this. While all are glad that this cheating ring was busted, many were unsurprised by the fact that it occurred.

    Prototype is the third stage in the training of prospective nuclear plant operators. After graduation from Basic Training at Great Lakes, “baby nukes” are sent to Charleston to attend Nuclear Field “A” School as either Machinist Mates, Electricians Mates, or Electronics Technicians. Then they attend 24 weeks of Nuclear Power School, where they are taught everything from math and Physics to metallurgy, reactor dynamics, Chemistry, and further in-rate and cross-rate knowledge. Prototype also starts with more classroom training before students move “in-hull”, as we called it back in the day. There, students stand “under instruction” watches and learn about all systems within the plant.

    Qualifications are closely monitored, with students required to make continuous progress and stay “ahead of the curve”. Written exams are given, and when the qualification card (book) is complete, the student is given an oral qualification board with 3-4 staff members quizzing the student on any and all plant systems. At this point, the student is then considered ready for assignment to a carrier or submarine, although qualification on the ship/submarine they are assigned to may take up to another year after they arrive at their ultimate duty station.

    (Admiral) Richardson (Head of Naval Reactors) said he met individually with each of the accused and heard at least two common themes: a belief that there was little risk of getting caught, and a work environment at the nuclear training site that created stresses and pressures on the approximately 300 sailors who serve as instructors.

    IMHO, there are several reasons why this culture came about. This is not the first cheating scandal to occur in the Nuclear Navy–there have been cases aboard the USS Memphis and USS Eisenhower, but this is the first notable cheating scandal to occur at a training command, and involving staff members.

    The prototypes in question are what were referred to as “floatotypes”–reconverted ballistic missile submarines whose engine rooms serve as the training platforms for the students assigned there after Nuclear Power School. These plants are now 50 years old. Simply keeping them running is proving to be a challenge, to the point the staff doesn’t have enough time to qualify themselves, let alone perform their primary function of qualifying students.

    Next, for about 15-20 years now, the mentality in training for nuclear power seems to have shifted from a “filter” to a “pump” mentality. The attrition rate 25+ years ago in Nuclear Power School alone could be as high as 30-40 percent. My class was lucky–we lost “only” 25 percent. Although most of the losses occurred in “A” school and NPS, by no means was a student guaranteed to graduate prototype, and a number did fail out. But the need for instructors and staff became so acute, after around 2000, the Top 50/Top 50 (top 50 percent in both NPS and Prototype) requirement was set aside. Talking to some folks who were instructors, this was a mistake. Folks who should never have been able to screen for instructor duty did so, and their lack of knowledge was glaring.

    Most of the folks who were cheating were “sea-returnees”, people who had at least one tour under their belts, and some more. These were not people fresh out of the pipeline. Many were First Class Petty Officers or even Chief Petty Officers, who SHOULD have had at least the “big picture” knowledge on how to run a plant safely and maximize propulsion–the two key goals of any ship or submarine. The senior enlisted watch on board a submarine is Engineering Watch Supervisor (EWS). These watchstanders are the eyes and ears of the Engineering Officer of the Watch (EOOW), and in fact underway they relieve the EOOW as required or during emergency. Most of the people caught cheating had EWS qualifications at their underway commands. The fact that the prototype was a different type of plant is really less concern than one might think–pumps are pumps, valves are valves, etc., and it’s just a matter of how they’re put together that makes plants different.

    Finally, Naval Reactors is, to put it nicely, assholes when it comes to training, particularly testing. Scores must fit in a certain range–too high, the test was too easy. Too low, the test is too hard, but you can’t have a test with NO failures, and Rickover’s ghost help you if you’re the “designated failure”. Some of it makes sense, some of it you just kind of shrug and accept, and some is just jaw-dropping fucktardery.

    Imagine Naval Reactors or the ORSE team coming on and telling the E/RC Divisions that their test on Electrical Safety was too easy because they had no failures. Really? No shit? Hey, they had no failures because IT’S THEIR FREAKING JOB! If they did fail electrical safety CT Exams, should they really be sticking their asses in switchgear or energized equipment drawers? Frankly, it’s an archaic method of gauging knowledge, and not a very effective one.

    It creates more knowledgeable operators, to be sure, but it gets to a point it becomes nearly impossible to complete the tests in the allotted timeframe. We’re talking 100-page EWS exams that had to be completed in 8 hours or less. No multiple choice, no fill-in-the-blank. Essay questions, every one. Failure to put down key words, phrases, or adequately explain detail down to incredibly silly detail in some cases would be enough to create a failure. Failure could be cause for getting booted out of instructor duty, an almost certain career-ending result.

    So we have overworked instructors, who may or may not have been good choices for instructor duty, given exams that were wholly unrealistic tests of their knowledge. End result? See above.

    Unfortunately, Naval Reactors (and Big Navy) have, to paraphrase Monty Python, found their witch, and they have burned them. But they won’t really address the issues that led up to this. Treat the symptom, not the disease.

  • The Ultimate Blue Falcon?

    A little mentioned news story in Stars and Stripes tells the tales of woe of a number of less than brilliant service members who were “duped” into buying things at they neither needed nor wanted at grossly inflated prices with the promise of “easy credit”:

    Army Spc. Angel Aguirre needed a washer and dryer.

    Money was tight, and neither Aguirre, 21, nor his wife had much credit history as they settled into life at Fort Carson in Colorado in 2010.

    That’s when he saw an ad for USA Discounters, guaranteeing loan approval for servicemembers. In military newspapers and magazines, on the radio, and on TV, the Virginia-based company’s ads shout, “NO CREDIT? NEED CREDIT? NO PROBLEM!” The store was only a few miles from Fort Carson.

    “We ended up getting a computer, a TV, a ring, and a washer and dryer,” Aguirre said. “The only thing I really wanted was a washer and dryer.”

    Aguirre later learned that USA Discounters’ easy lending has a flip side. Should customers fall behind, the company transforms into an efficient collection operation. And this part of its business takes place not where customers bought their appliances, but in two local courthouses just a short drive from the company’s Virginia Beach headquarters.

    From there, USA Discounters files lawsuits against servicemembers based anywhere in the world, no matter how much inconvenience or expense they would incur to attend a Virginia court date. Since 2006, the company has filed more than 13,470 suits and almost always wins, records show.

    The article goes on to state that they are by far the largest recipient of default judgments against servicemembers:

    As of January 2014, 230 servicemembers were involuntarily paying USA Discounters a portion of their pay, Department of Defense data shows. Altogether, those servicemembers have paid more than $1.4 million to the company.

    Next on the list of most active creditors were the two other local companies, Military Credit Services and Freedom, which together had seized the pay of 92 servicemembers for a total of $289,000 as of January, according to the data.

    The company did make a statement for the original story:

    Timothy Dorsey, vice president of USA Discounters, said the company provides credit to servicemembers who would not otherwise qualify and sues only after other attempts to resolve debts have failed.

    As for the company’s choice of court, he said it was “for the customer’s benefit.” In Virginia, the company isn’t required to use a lawyer to file suit. USA Discounters’ savings on legal fees are passed on to the customer, he said.

    Now if you’re wondering if that name rings a bell, you’re not alone. Jonn and Hondo reported on Mr. Dorsey here and here.

    Yeah. THAT Timothy Dorsey. And he also serves as general counsel, which is to say, the legal face of USA Discounters. Normally, I’m not all that sympathetic to young troops who do stupid things like buy things they can’t afford on credit terms that are less than favorable, particularly when they, you, I, and everyone else who has put on a uniform, has attended seemingly endless lectures on the pitfalls of “easy credit” and the eagerness with which businesses near any major military base exist solely to separate said dumbasses from their pay. Even 30 years after the fact, I can still picture the 22nd Street entrance of NTC Great Lakes, with all their shiny baubles and toys, well out of my reach but for a signature on an allotment form for a mere 30-40 percent interest.

    But something about this just burns my ass. Here’s a guy who once wore the uniform of our service, who, while having a less than stellar career as a pilot, was still nominated for flag rank until enough voices were raised to eventually shoot his star down like he did the manned Air Force F-4 so many years ago.

    And yet he makes a damn good living off ripping off people in uniform.

    Oh, make no mistake–he serves as the good face of a company “serving the military community.” From a Stripes LTTE:

    The ProPublica article referencing USA Discounters that posted to stripes.com on July 24 (“‘They’re basically ruthless’: The discount store that sues servicemembers worldwide”) and its accompanying piece, “For lenders, gaps in federal law make suing servicemembers easy,” inaccurately portray the practices and policies of our company and our dealings with military customers.

    It is against the law for USA Discounters to discuss the cases of individuals who purchased items from us on credit and defaulted on their payments. Prior to publication, the company asked the reporter to obtain permission from the customers referenced to allow us to release those details — which would have told a very different story than the one reported. The reporter was unable to obtain that permission.

    It is irresponsible to report on allegations of this nature, knowing that there is another side to the story and knowing that the subject of the allegations is legally barred from telling it.

    USA Discounters is proud of our long and important relationship with the military community. The company has always held that the men and women who serve and sacrifice for our country should be treated with the honor and respect they deserve. And we consistently work to meet that standard.

    Izzat so, Timmy? You were quoted for the story. You had an opportunity to give your side, or to explain that because of legal issues, you couldn’t comment specifically. How many of those other 230 members would you want quoted? How many of your other current and former customers would you REALLY want to give a review of your business?

    Your own employees state that they are NOT to sell a product, but a credit plan. To most people, your plans suck. But you don’t exist to cater to them. Your function is, as I stated earlier, is to separate as much money from as many gullible junior servicemembers as you can with overly inflated prices on crap products with useless warranties and credit plans that would make a loanshark blush in embarrassment.

    So really, Mr. Dorsey–are you providing a service, or just servicing?

  • How Earth avoided the Stone Age–Maybe

    Jonn mentioned to me the other day he’s had a number of folks contact him about a story from the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang which discussed how a massive Coronal Mass Ejection narrowly missed the planet in July of 2012:

    On July 23, 2012, the sun unleashed two massive clouds of plasma that barely missed a catastrophic encounter with the Earth’s atmosphere. These plasma clouds, known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), comprised a solar storm thought to be the most powerful in at least 150 years.

    “If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” physicist Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado tells NASA.

    From further down in the article:

    A CME double whammy of this potency striking Earth would likely cripple satellite communications and could severely damage the power grid. NASA offers this sobering assessment:

    Analysts believe that a direct hit … could cause widespread power blackouts, disabling everything that plugs into a wall socket. Most people wouldn’t even be able to flush their toilet because urban water supplies largely rely on electric pumps.

    According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers damaged by such a storm might take years to repair.

    How strong a storm are we talking? They compared it to the first observed CME/solar flare, the Carrington Event of 1859, named for the British astronomer who observed it:

    During the Carrington event, the northern lights were seen as far south as Cuba and Hawaii according to historical accounts. The solar eruption “caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices,” NASA notes.

    NASA says the July 2012 storm was particularly intense because a CME had traveled along the same path just days before the July 23 double whammy – clearing the way for maximum effect, like a snowplow.

    “This double-CME traveled through a region of space that had been cleared out by yet another CME four days earlier,” NASA says. ” As a result, the storm clouds were not decelerated as much as usual by their transit through the interplanetary medium.”

    NASA also has a little more technical writeup for those so inclined. But without getting into the nuts and bolts about the hows, whys, or deep Physics of what would happen should such a CME hit our planet again, let’s consider the implications.

    From a normal everyday Joe standpoint, a long-term blackout would be devastating, far beyond the $2T figure quoted in the article. While I didn’t have access to how they came up with that figure, I would have to assume that is only damage to grid transformers, equipment, and electronics. Since I have moved to the land of, “Live Free or Die,” I’ve experienced two “lengthy” power disruptions–once in 2008 after a severe ice storm, and one in 2010 after a winter wind storm. Both resulted in my power being lost for a week, with some customers not restored for double that.

    While I was inconvenienced without a stove (electric) or hot water (same) and no way to do laundry, I still had a generator with which to run my well pump, refrigerator, furnace, microwave, and a few lights. Imagine a large urban area or a large swath of the country going without power for MONTHS, perhaps YEARS. It would take at least that long to recover. A large power transformer is not something that is easily or quickly constructed. To replace one typically takes a 12-18 month lead time just to manufacture it. Also, many of those bulk power transformers are not American-made. For example, there’s Hyosung, Mitsubishi, and ABB, to name a few I’ve recently encountered. Transport to the substation or power plant sites is lengthy and difficult, and testing and commissioning takes skilled personnel a good deal of time.

    Now let’s focus on the national security/military aspect of such an event. GPS? Useless. SATCOM? Probably down, depending on how “hardened” those communications are. Remember, CME is in many ways like an EMP, which our equipment is designed to handle, but only to a certain point. Logistics would be back to the paper age–no computers. Again, depending on how hardened military electronics are will determine how affected our aircraft, ships, and even basic communications will work during an after a CME event on the scale of the Carrington Event.

    Where it comes down to, IMO, is that while our training and SOME of our weaponry will still be superior, in a place like, say, Afghanistan, we’d be knocked back to a technological level on par with that of the enemy. Any tech advantage would be gone, with the inevitable increase in risk to our troops and casualties. Imagine being back to an 1860 Army, with little in the way of 21st Century technology to help take the fight to the enemy and defeat them. And even with superior tactics and training, without a little bit of “whiz-bang”, their superior numbers could be very daunting, indeed.

    So, does this mean we should, to paraphrase Gremlins, invest heavily in canned food and shotguns? While it has been estimated that such an event has about a 12 percent chance of hitting us sometime in the next 10 years, at some point you have weighed the risks versus the panic issue. Most utilities are well aware of CME implications, and have procedures in place to down power or deenergize their bulk power transformers entirely in the event of a CME. This would minimize damage. For those who did sustain damage, load could be shed based on supply and demand. Having been stationed on Guam, rolling blackouts were pretty much a way of life for several months after a power plant was taken off line due to a brown tree snake–but that’s a story for another time. Don’t be surprised if it does happen, don’t be surprised if it results in major disruptions, but another, “Oh noes! We’s all gonna die!” event? Meh. Suck it up and recover.

  • Hiroo Onoda Passes

    A story from CNN tells of the passing of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, a Japanese soldier who followed his last orders and held out in the jungles of the Philippines for nearly three decades until convinced the war was in fact over. Even after he was initially found, he refused to believe the war was in fact over, relenting only when his former commanding officer returned to inform Lt. Onoda that he was no longer subject to the orders he had been given 30 years before.

    In 1944, Onoda was sent to the small island of Lubang in the western Philippines to spy on U.S. forces in the area. Allied forces defeated the Japanese imperial army in the Philippines in the latter stages of the war, but Onoda, a lieutenant, evaded capture. While most of the Japanese troops on the island withdrew or surrendered in the face of oncoming American forces, Onoda and a few fellow holdouts hid in the jungles, dismissing messages saying the war was over.

    While extreme, his case was certainly not unique. Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi held out on Guam until 1972–28 years after the battle which liberated that island. Private Teruo Nakamura held out for even longer. I remember seeing pictures of Sergeant Yokoi after he was found, and wondered how an island like Guam could allow him to hide for as long as he did, or how he could have lasted as long as he did.

    And while they were all (former) enemies of our country, one can’t help but either admire, or at least give grudging respect, to a man whose dedication and tenacity enabled them to last in the face of impossible conditions. It’s folks like these who held out on islands across the Pacific and in isolated pockets for years after the end of the war.

    He returned to a hero’s welcome in Japan, but even after a pardon from then-president Ferdinand Marcos, the citizens of Lubang were not so eager to forgive, even to the point of demanding reparations when he returned in the mid-1990’s. But despite all of this, he never thought that he was doing the wrong thing, once saying, “I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive.”

    RIP, Lieutenant.

  • Darwin Award Friday

    While not successful in his quest to join the illustrious Darwin Award nominee brigade, this gent, who comes to us courtesy of the Pekin (IL) Times was clocked doing 140 mph on a motorcycle. For whatever reason, he stopped after blowing through a red light and attempting to evade when the police finally caught up to him:

    Maybe Adam Lester really had to go to the bathroom.

    That’s what Lester, 26, told the police officer who had just clocked his motorcycle at 140 mph Tuesday night on the McNaughton Bridge, police said.

    He had to wait until the officer took him to police headquarters under arrest for speeding more than 40 mph over the limit and fleeing and attempting to elude police, both misdemeanors, as well as other traffic violations.

    The officer also cited Lester, of 18384 Thompson St. in rural Pekin, for endangering the safety of a minor, the 16-year-old girl who clung to him as his passenger on the high-speed ride. That charge, however, was not included among those a prosecutor filed Wednesday in Tazewell County Circuit Court.

    County court records show Lester has been cited for speeding three other times since Sept. 11. He also was convicted of speeding three times, along with other traffic violations, between 2008-10, records show.

    Yup–bathroom break. Now personally, while he’s facing several charges, none apparently felonies at this point, if that were my 16-year old daughter, after I got done with her for hanging out with such a loser I’d be doing a little wall-to-wall counseling on his dumb ass.

    Young men and speed is nothing new–hell, I don’t know how many guys we lost when I was but a young nuke in Orlando many years ago, and the resulting safety courses that came about as a result. More recently, a co-worker who SHOULD have known better was going home from work with a female passenger in excess of 120 mph in Exeter when he failed to negotiate a curve. The police started to give chase but failed to notice he hadn’t made the curve, and the bodies of he and his girlfriend weren’t even noticed until the next morning. If you feel so inclined to turn yourself into a greasy spot on the road, by all means, be my guest. But when you do it on a public road with other people on it, with a passenger, not only are you an idiot, you’re an asshole too.

  • Darwin Award Thursday

    I feel like shit right now with a cold, and with all else going on I figured it might be worth laughing at the dumbassery of some “yutes” who tried turning their lives around, not with guns this time, but with a blowtorch, and the expected hilarity which ensues.

    This story from today’s New Hampshire Union Leader tells the cautionary tale of a couple of not-so-cautionary gents who, despite their recent legal troubles including felony charges of receiving stolen property, forgery, and so forth, decided their lives needed some excitement, and chose a blowtorch to cut into a safe containing (what else?) fireworks.

    According to the state fire marshal’s office, “the two males were attempting to gain entry into a closed metal container which contained consumer fireworks using an oxy-acetylene cutting torch when the blast occurred. The investigation has revealed that the two victims did not have permission to be on the property.”

    Thomas Komisarek, owner of New Yard Landscaping, said the container was a safe.

    “The whole thing went up and blew their bodies apart,” Komisarek said.

    Okay kids, altogether now: “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.”

  • 23 Years Ago Today….

    Some guy named Saddam Hussein decided he needed the oil and ports that were part of Kuwait, and sent 100,000 troops over the border, taking over the country in less than 48 hours. Most of the Kuwaiti military and government leadership retreated to Saudi Arabia, which at the time it was feared that if Hussein were so inclined to have immediately invaded that nation, he could have done so relatively easily.

    While some of the ancillary causes of the invasion may be disputed, what is certain is that the Iran-Iraq war had depleted Iraq’s finances to the tune of some $80 billion, and that Hussein had looked to previously friendly Kuwait (they had provided port space after Basra was closed) to pay at least part of that debt, or at least forgive it. Negotiations in 1988-89 had soured relations between the two countries.

    By 8 August, ground troops including the 2nd Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines, and air assets including F-15’s and two CVBG’s were in or on their way to Saudi Arabia. They would be joined by over 500,000 coalition troops by January 1991.

    As for me, I wasn’t there–I was floating (sunk) somewhere off the coast of a Pacific Rim nation on op when we got word of the invasion a few days after the event. News on a submarine is a sketchy thing, where headlines and stories are given in a summary of a couple of lines, and that’s only if time is available to receive that after essential message traffic is sent and received. By the time we got back to Yokosuka, Japan just over a month after the invasion occured, the only question we were asking was whether we’d be going or not. We soon found out that there were no plans to have a major submarine presence in the Gulf, although several submarines were ultimately in the region for Desert Storm, including USS Chicago (SSN-721), USS Louisville (SSN-724), and USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720)–all VLS (Vertical Launch System) boats which allowed the latter two boats to launch at least 12 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) whereas my old boat had “conventional” launches out the torpedo tubes.

    The history is well known to those here, many of whom were either serving or in the “sandbox” during DS/DS.

    Discuss.