Category: Geezer Alert!

Since nobody else has mentioned it I gotta wonder if there is a level of embarrassment involved?

West Point Pillow fight turns nasty.

WEST POINT, N.Y. — An annual freshman pillow fight at the U.S. Military Academy turned bloody this year when cadets swung pillowcases packed with hard objects, injuring 30 cadets, according to a newspaper report Saturday.

Two dozen cadets suffered concussions in the Aug. 20 bedding melee, though all have since returned to duty, West Point spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Kasker told The New York Times for a story published Saturday.

I didn’t know about this annual event myself. It is apparently intended to “to build camaraderie after a grueling summer of training for the rigors of West Point“.

So I won’t dismiss a concussion as trivial, but this IS West point. In the new liberal Army I could see such an event as a celebration for “female” Ranger graduates and the like.

None of the sources readily found offer information about the genesis of this “annual event”.  Mind you – I’m not ready to make fun of our military traditions, but a Pillow Fight” to build camaraderie raises questions… fun questions.

I’ve been giggling here on Pine Island just waiting for for Jonn to post about this. I wonder what kind of event his Army offered after becoming Airborne qualified.  The mind boggles at the possibilities.

Weigh in if any of you ever used a pillow fight to build camaraderie?????

I rarely check in to FB, thus I missed this post yesterday on  the Lt General Hal Moore page.

I didn’t get there until January 1966 so Ia Drang was already history of a sort. From off-shore the battles were simply lights in the nighttime sky on occasion. That and listening to some aircrew member our chopper had picked up talking about where he’d been when he got shot down.

I’ve watched the movie as I suspect many here have. Some of us share the Vietnam Service Award, but the only memories we can actually share are those of coming home.

I could stretch this out, but with Jonn’s indulgence I’ll leave this fairly short.

History ignored has a funny way of repeating itself so reminders serve a purpose for those few who pay attention.

The capture effect is a real RF technical phenomenon – via Wiki: “The capture effect is defined as the complete suppression of the weaker signal at the receiver limiter (if it has one) where the weaker signal is not amplified, but attenuated. When both signals are nearly equal in strength, or are fading independently, the receiver may switch from one to the other and exhibit picket fencing.

I suspect that a reasoned case can be made that many (most?), humans exhibit the same sort of unintentional filtering.

One clear example would easily be the LGBT lot. They should be figuratively on the front lines when dealing with Islam. Perhaps I should be PC and have said RADICAL Islam, but as I understand it Islam has no/zero/nil room for gays at any level. Goats… shrug.

Younger Internet/Phone Junkies would also be targeted methinks.

My motive for bringing this up is simple. My muse has left me, or maybe just wandered off – I’m old. I used to be able to scan various news sources and find at least one thing that spurred a giggle or something interesting to me. Now all I get is some combination of annoyed and confused.

So the next time you think that some A’Hole is wrong, or full of s*it; Just remember The Capture Effect.

There… Don’t that make you feel better?

Saw this headline just now:

Vietnam Seeks Western Warplanes to Counter Potential Chinese Threat

“Vietnam is in talks with European and US contractors to buy fighter jets, maritime patrol planes and unarmed drones, sources said, as it looks to beef up its aerial defences in the face of China’s growing assertiveness in disputed waters.”

At least one of the touted reasons we went there 50 plus years ago was to curb the influence of China in the region.

Gotta wonder if they’ll also offer us the Navy base in Da Nang to help fend off the EVIL Empire??? The Philippines has been said to be considering similar.

My first thought was to simply suggest they try to put together useful aircraft made from all of the ones they shot down. Kinda think that might be feasible. If not… it IS fun to consider.

I am running out of words here folks.  The more I think about the notion of VietNam pilots in F-15s and the like, the more I giggle. Like… Maybe THEY’LL buy our A-10s? They are no longer needed by our forces, etc.

I could go on… Bet you can too.

Two question marks in the title. Yeah, that is to communicate my confusion in this matter.

NASA Supports Replacing American Flag With A New Design, International Flag Of The Planet Earth May Be Used During Space Travel

“Since Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, the iconic visual of the American flag they left behind marked NASA’s success in going where no man had gone before, marking their arrival for future visitors to see. Since then, all space suits worn by Americans have been adorned with the American flag. However, NASA has been supporting a design that may replace the American flag during space travel. The new flag, called the International Flag of the Planet Earth, is expected to represent Earth as a whole, rather than segment only the United States.”

NB: I can’t vouch for the source and the story is a bit over a week old, but it gave me a painful twinge or two while considering the idea.

I can see it for projects like the ISS and/or international efforts at grander things, but it made me ask if NASA is so  passé that THIS is what they spend time considering?
I felt so proud during the first Space Shuttle launch… I was once again part of something AMERICAN. Some folks with me had been there during the moon landings.

If you’ve ever been there this will be of interest.

“The USS Arizona Memorial is closed to visitors Wednesday morning after a tug boat collided with the memorial’s dock, making it “not safe for people to land there,” a spokeswoman said.

A tug boat maneuvering the USNS Mercy hospital ship collided with the memorial’s mooring dock, said spokeswoman Abby Wines.”

The USS Arizona is a remarkable place.  Just maybe more so for Sailors.

“Arizona was the most heavily damaged of all the vessels in Battleship Row, suffering three near-misses and four direct-hits from 800-kg bombs dropped by high-altitude Kates. The last bomb to strike her penetrated her deck starboard of turret two and detonated within a 14-inch powder magazine. The resulting massive explosion broke the ship in two forward of turret one, collapsed her forecastle decks, and created such a cavity that her forward turrets and conning tower fell thirty feet into her hull. “

We visited there several times, The Wife and I. The ship was still leaking oil in the late 70’s when we lived on Oahu.

I actually visited it once on the way to the Tonkin Gulf if memory serves.

There are names at the memorial, and you can look down, if the light is right, you can imagine those minutes our shipmates went through.