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

Category: Geezer Alert!

  • Yeah But…

    Been wrestling with this for a coupla days.

    At the outset: A disclaimer… I was never a SPECWAR sailor. Hell,  I had never even heard of SEALS before I was discharged. Knew about the UDTs, even did some diving with them on Guam. Further, I am NOT qualified to discuss current tactics in ANY current theater.

    With that out of the way…
    Full story of SEAL mission in question

    When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement known as an “immediate reaction force” — approached, a small group of Taliban on a rooftop stood ready. They fired rounds of rocket-propelled grenades. One clipped a rotary blade, sending the CH-47 into a violent spin and then a fiery crash.

    All onboard died, including 17 elite Navy SEALs.

    We all know the story… or do we?

    Jonn’s earlier post alluded to what the article describes. Wherein command makes a decision that get’s someone killed, etc.

    The kicker for me:

    At some point, the Rangers and special-operations commanders talked about sending in reinforcements to catch them all. A mission was set, at first with 17 troops, then a total of 38, including SEALs, other Navy personnel, Afghan commandos and the air crew.

    “We really just kind of talked the idea of inserting the element to maneuver on them, the enemy that got away,” the Army Ranger task force commander later told Gen. Colt.

    As the reinforcement Chinook approached, it — unlike the first two choppers — had no AH-64 Apaches for surveillance or fire suppression.

    YMMV, but please DO take the time to read the whole thing.  The NCA and the Brass Hats have been doing this sort of thing forever.  It would be different if there were an immediate threat, but this just reeks.

     

  • Bombs In Maine!!!

    Occupy Maine adjusts, beefs up security watches after chemical bomb attack

    PORTLAND, Maine — Members of Portland’s Occupy Maine encampment have increased security shifts and moved their kitchen area to within view of nearby Cumberland County Courthouse video cameras after a chemical bomb incident early Sunday morning.

    A description of the infernal device:

    Portland police Lt. Gary Rogers, speaking earlier in the day Tuesday, said “typically a chemical bomb is made in a plastic bottle with common household items, that, when combined, can cause some expansion and then an explosion.”

    If that description is accurate I’ve made more than a few of the devices myself. And no; I won’t describe the gizmo here! Makes a more of a POP than a boom though.

    I’ve been kinda expecting thrown fire crackers or maybe a stink bomb (who’d notice). Sure looks like no more than a kids prank regardless.

    These folks do enjoy their drama:

    “It was no small noise, that’s for sure,” Lamson told the Bangor Daily News. “It lifted a table up that would have taken two people to lift, so it was no small force, either. It didn’t cause a fire, but it was dangerous.”

    Exit question: I’m no EOD type, but aren’t ALL bombs chemical bombs? Except maybe Nukes… been 40 years since I went to THAT school.

  • Dunno If This Is Weird, But….

    Some of my friends and acquaintances are planning events for 11/11/11.

    Yet we have: VH1 Classic Amps Up For “National Metal Day” On 11-11-11

    VH1 is gearing up for our inaugural National Metal Day that will see VH1 Classic host an entire day of metal-only programing.

    Can anyone tell me why?  I DO love metal…it’s likely I’ve been  a metal head since before many here were born, but Veteran’s Day???

    I can’t join with my friends in DC, but I CAN eschew VH1.

    Why the hell did they choose Veteran’s DAY???

  • A Pitiful Few Here Will GET This?

    Seems some Jarheads are in the Philippines… doing what Jarheads do.

    SAN ANTONIO, Philippines — More than 200 U.S. Marines and their Filipino counterparts staged an amphibious assault on a beach in a combat drill Sunday near a South China Sea shoal disputed by China and the Philippines.

    China is our friend and financial benefactor. Checked the source of your latest Walmart purchase?

    On the world stage this is important. We’ll see how it develops.

    Meanwhile, me in Subic Bay:

  • Heh…

    Via Don Surber:

    I think I hurt myself…

  • Nobel Peace Prize Huh?

    It is quite apparent our current CINC is developing a curious track record?

    James Taranto notes with a certain irony:

    We are not the first to make this observation. “For a president who promised to end the gunslinger ways of his predecessor, Barack Obama has proven himself comfortable with the use of lethal force,” the Los Angeles Times reports. The paper counts Gadhafi as another “notch” on Obama’s “lethal-force belt,” along with Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and others. “All told this year,” the report adds, the president “has sent U.S. troops into action on land or in the skies of seven countries on two continents.”

    A New York Times “news analysis” describes Gadhafi’s death as “vindication, however harrowing,” of Obama’s “carefully calibrated response” in which “a reluctant commander in chief put strict limits on American military engagement and let NATO allies take the lead in backing the rebels”–a far less catchy way of saying “leading from behind.”

    Toss in the de facto (tacit?)  support for The Arab Spring and we have a foreign policy that is hardly Peace oriented.

    I’ll file Taranto’s closing paragraphs under “wish I’d said that”.

    One difference between Obama’s foreign and domestic policies is that the former are conducted in a relatively economical fashion. National Journal reports that “according to the Pentagon, [this] was the cost to U.S. taxpayers for Muammar el-Qaddafi’s head: $1.1 billion through September, the latest figure just out of the Defense Department.”

    At that rate, you could knock off 400 dictators for $440 billion–still less than Obama wants to waste on Stimulus Jr. That’s the best illustration yet of just how skewed this administration’s priorities are.

    Hey OWS… I think ya missed this!

  • Just A Blustery Day On My Ridge

    Courtesy of Ezra Pound:

    Winter is icummen in,
    Lhude sing Goddamm,
    Raineth drop and staineth slop,
    and how the wind doth ramm,
    Sing: Goddamm.
    Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
    An ague hath my ham.
    Freezeth river, turneth liver,
    Damn you, sing: Goddamm.
    Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
    So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.
    Sing goddamm, damm, sing Goddamm,

    Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

    Dunno, doesn’t really fit here at TAH, but until Jonn cuts the umbilical you get The Geezer’s ramblings.

  • I Miss Mayberry

    Yeah, I know it was a mostly fictitious place and a mostly fictitious time.

    Like some sort of junkie I’ve been watching all the Northern Exposures kinda back to back. I’m up to season 6 just now.  And no, Cicely ain’t Mayberry. They do have much in common in many ways but there’s little of import that supports direct comparisons.

    Why this post, you ask?

    After working on a rather lengthy post comparing the two places, and real time today, I dumped it.

    To many Mayberry exemplifies a moment. Cicely yet another.

    Thing is… I can’t find anything on TV that does what those two shows did.

    Kinda sad, but the question has been occupying my mind.

    Any thoughts?  Sports and News don’t count.