Category: Politics

It’s unlikely that many people have ever heard of Chester Howard West, which is perhaps unsurprising given that he died in 1935.  But he was a hero with very few peers.  As a lawsuit (that I will discuss in a minute) said of him:

Mr. West was a 20 year old first sergeant in an automatic rifle section of the 363rd’Infantry Regim.ent, U. S. Army’s 91st “Wild West” Division. On September 26, 1918, the opening day ofthe Allies decisive, war ending Meuse-Argonne Offensive, West approached German lines near Bois-de-Cheppy, France. “While making his way through a thick fog, his advance was halted by direct and unusual machine gun fire from two guns,” according to West’s Medal of Honor ·citation. ”Without aid, he at once dashed through the fire and, attacking the nest, killed two of the gunners, one of whom was an ~fficer. This prompt and decisive hand-to-hand encounter on his part enabled his company to advance farther without the loss of a man.”

Note that first line, he was a 20 year old First Sergeant.  That is astonishing.  Guy couldn’t legally drink now at 20, but in 1918 he was a first sergeant, responsible for perhaps 140 men.  Astonishing.

But now Mr. West will be the focal point of a West Virginia Supreme Court decision, coming next week.  

Mr West was subsequently murdered by his boss and buried in a family cemetery located within the Chief Cornstalk Wildlife area owned and managed by the state of West Virginia.  Visiting Mr. West is no easy task. The road to the site has a fence around it, and is in such disrepair that most vehicles can’t even make it down there.  

According to a court decision in Mason County West Virginia:

the real estate surrounding the cemetery was acquired by the State in the 1970s and a road providing access to the cemetery was gated and the road was closed, thus making it difficult to access the cemetery to visit or maintain the same.

Further:

Petitioner [more on him in a minute] found the cemetery had been cleared by a Boy Scout as his Eagle Scout project. Petitioner found Mr. Wesfs burial monument was broken and d~teriorated by time and weathering….A newspaper article submitted into .evidence revealed that Eagle Scout Derrick: Jackson reclaimed Mr. West’s gravesite and re-erected the headstone as part ofhis E~gle Scout project in May, 2015.

Now, what makes this even more compelling is that the Petitioner in this case is Herschal Woody Williams, himself a Medal of Honor recipient, and quite possibly the nicest person to ever walk the planet.  (In fact, my wife told me when I proposed to her that she would only marry me because Woody hadn’t proposed to her yet, despite the roughly 50 years age difference.)  Not only is Woody the nicest guy ever, he’s also a proud Legionnaire, and in fact spoke at our Annual Convention last year, and even discussed people like Mr. West:

Now some of Mr. West’s family (by marriage, not lineal descendants, don’t want him moved.  So they appealed the lower court decision, and it goes before the West Virginia Supreme Court next week.

I’m hoping to make the drive out to listen to the oral arguments.

Medal of Honor recipients are my heroes, and I suspect that is true of everyone.  For all I joke about Tom Brady being my hero, the reality is he tosses a football, and he brings me happiness doing it.  (More so the last two days.)  But for actual heroes, for those I want to discuss with my daughter and the twins I am expecting, it is the Woody Williams, the Ryan Pitts, and the Sal Giuta’s of the world that I want to tell my kids about.  Mr. West is no different.  And I would visit his grave if I could.  But with a closed road in such disrepair that just isn’t possible.  He’s a national treasure, truly, and I hope the Supreme Court of West Virginia agrees, so that generations of soldiers and citizens can come and pay homage to a man who saved the world from the evil that could have stemmed from a loss in World War I.

Preventive Maintenance Monthly

http://tinyurl.com/zjc8bjx

PS Magazine
During World War II and its aftermath, the Army’s prevailing attitude was that vehicles, weapons, and equipment were to be used, worn out, and replaced. The Korean War made it clear that the “use it up and replace it” attitude was flawed because Army materiel had not been maintained and did not function as needed early in that conflict.

As a result, the Army decided to emphasize preventive maintenance as the principal means of improving Army materiel readiness. Army leaders remembered a World War II publication, Army Motors, which used a few cartoon characters to discuss maintenance problems, and decided to use it as the model for a new publication. In June 1951, the first issue of , PS, The Preventive Maintenance Monthly, was published using the cartoon format. Popularly known as PS magazine, it was eventually classified as a monthly technical bulletin (TB), TB 43–PS–series.

Today, Soldiers recognize magazine as a tool to get the latest PMCS actions for their equipment. magazine is a pioneer in the instructional use of cartoon characters, and 60 years of continuous publication validates the usefulness of cartoon sequential art as an information medium. magazine characters and talking vehicles deliver maintenance, supply, and logistics information to the Soldiers, Army civilians, and contractors who work in companies and battalions—the units that actually own, operate, and maintain the Army’s equipment.

Occasionally, Soldiers write to the PS magazine staff and ask what official publication their commanders can reference to implement what was published in the magazine. What is the magazine’s source of information?

The answer is PS magazine. It is an official Army technical bulletin and is as reliable as any other technical publication. Unfortunately, some people don’t take it seriously because of the cartoon characters. However, all PS magazine articles are cleared twice by Headquarters, Department of the Army, the Army Materiel Command, life cycle management commands, the Department of Defense, or the Army equipment proponent. The proponent subject-matter expert for each piece of equipment addressed in the magazine agrees with the PS magazine article and concurs that its instructions should be implemented by field-level units.

Readers of PS come away with the conviction that preventive maintenance is preferable to equipment breakdowns. The slogan of the magazine goes right to the heart of the matter and asks each Soldier individually, “Would you stake your life, right now, on the condition of your equipment?”

As most of you should know, a Seattle federal district judge, James Robart, has issued a stay against the Trump administration immigration ban on travel from seven countries that pose a threat of terrorist infiltration. That this same judge recently decreed in his court that “black lives matter” couldn’t possibly lead one to consider that there just might be some liberal politics at play in a Seattle judge’s decision, now, could it? That’s almost like saying “California judge” or “New York judge” – know what I mean?

But here we have a federal district judge with no access to any of the classified intelligence that likely went into implementing the ban decision, yet he considers himself supremely qualified to overrule the commander-in-chief of our armed forces on this national security matter. That, folks, is precisely the kind of judicial overreach and judicial activism that we elected Donald Trump to do away with, because we, the people who have to live with the real-life consequences of such a unicorn judiciary, are sick of it and want our nation to be free of it.

That this judge is a George Bush appointee just adds to the argument that none of these turkeys needs to be appointed for life, because their comfortable lifetime sinecures lead many of them to come to see themselves as beneficent dispensers of broad social justice remedies rather than the civil and criminal matters they are appointed to deal with. The old argument that appointing federal judges for life puts them beyond the reach of temptation or undue influence is horse puckey. The list of corrupt federal judges may not be long, but there damned sure is one.

But what is worse is the socio-political corruption that occurs with too many supposedly conservative federal judges after they have become accustomed to looking down on the world from their lofty, high-minded perches. They become comfortable with the idea that they have the power and authority to change society itself.

Hey, it’s fine to hear and rule on civil rights cases, but to issue nationwide stays directly challenging national security policies of the sitting administration is purely and simply judicial overreach. We need to be done with it.

Crossposted at American Thinker

The U.S. military’s stats on deadly airstrikes are wrong. Thousands have gone unreported
By: Andrew deGrandpre and Shawn Snow, February 5, 2017
In 2016 alone, U.S. combat aircraft conducted at least 456 airstrikes in Afghanistan that were not recorded as part of an open-source database maintained by the U.S. Air Force, information relied on by Congress, American allies, military analysts, academic researchers, the media and independent watchdog groups to assess each war’s expense, manpower requirements and human toll. Those airstrikes were carried out by attack helicopters and armed drones operated by the U.S. Army, metrics quietly excluded from otherwise comprehensive monthly summaries, published online for years, detailing American military activity in all three theaters.

Most alarming is the prospect this data has been incomplete since the war on terrorism began in October 2001. If that is the case, it would fundamentally undermine confidence in much of what the Pentagon has disclosed about its prosecution of these wars, prompt critics to call into question whether the military sought to mislead the American public, and cast doubt on the competency with which other vital data collection is being performed and publicized. Those other key metrics include American combat casualties, taxpayer expense and the military’s overall progress in degrading enemy capabilities.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees military activity in all three war zones, indicated it is unable to determine how far back the Army’s numbers have been excluded from these airpower summaries. Officials there would not address several detailed questions submitted by Military Times, and they were unable to provide a full listing of annual airstrikes conducted by each of the Defense Department’s four military services.

“It is really weird. We don’t track the number of strikes from Apaches, for example” said a U.S. military official with knowledge of CENTCOM’s internal data collection and reporting. The official, who spoke to Military Times on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal procedures, was referring to AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, which the Army has used prolifically in combat over the last 15 years, most recently in support of American allies battling the Islamic State.

Much more at the link

 

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Some number-cruncher got assigned a task with no data to work with (typical)

What’s worse is that the final report will run for years and cost millions

And now comes before us the intimidating Joe McSpadden.  I guess the people at militaryphony.com were getting reports that Joey was using his awesome training as a Navy SEAL to scare people.  

Apparently, there are claims that he was wounded as well.  I bet you will never guess  what kind of tattoo he has.

He even likes to give out advice on how to properly get a Navy SEAL tattoo.  You can read all about it HERE.  People seemed to have questions and doubts about his claims, so they ordered his official records through a FOIA request.

Joe McSpadden was a Hull Tech. 2 years, 10 months and 14 days on active duty.  Nothing at all wrong with being a Hull Tech and learning a job skill like welding.  He did no SEAL training and has no record of a combat injury.  But, I guess he has that tattoo going for him.   They say he tried to explain the tattoo away by claiming it was to honor his dead brother.   Call me skeptical, but I am having trouble choking down that kind of thing.  It looks like little Joey has been busy scrubbing pages on the interwebnet thingy already.

 

It seems that Seth Andrews “thinks” that Mikey Weinstein has his thumb on the pulse of religious matters in the military.  Seth has a website and does a weekly podcast that he puts out on YouTube.  When Seth announced several weeks ago that he was having Weinstein appear as an expert on Religion and the Military, I tried to contact Seth several times.  All I heard in return were crickets of course.  Mikey launched off into one of his usual rants.  Evidently we are under attack by evil forces called “Dominionists”.  Seth described the picture that his expert on Religion and the Military painted was like a Dr. Strange-love scenario and a “Rabid Dominionist Evangelical with his finger on the button”.  You can listen to Mikey as Seth gives him a Pulpit to preach from and form your own opinion.

In my opinion Mikey sets himself up as some kind of modern Don Quixote and Seth becomes a version of Sancho Panza gleefully waging war against evil Dominionist windmills.  Their battlefield seems to be littered with the remains of an Army of Strawmen.  At this point Weinstein is so predictable I could have wrote the script well in advance, in fact I tried to.  When I tried to contact Seth in advance I included links to this site and others in an effort to establish that I might know a thing or two about the military.   Somehow  Seth twisted that into me trying to promote myself.  I then attempted to show that I was not an evil troll unfamiliar with his work by pointing out that I have been a supporter of his for years, I even brought up some examples of projects he did in the past that I supported.  Seth basically said I was a liar.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.  I posted “evidence” on my FB page to support my statements but oddly he has not found it necessary to respond.  The father of the young lady mentioned is a United States Marine.  She was a courageous young lady whom I admired.  What Seth did by helping bring attention to her issue was an honor to participate in.

I know that several who post here regularly  are Atheist, including myself.  We also have Pagans, Mormons, Jews, and yes Christians.  I know this because we have discussed the topic on these pages countless times.  I am saddened that Seth did not take the opportunity to meet veterans and active military members that post here who have different views on faith but cherish a deep and abiding respect for one another.  Mikey Weinstein does not paint an accurate picture of Religion in the Military.  He is actually loathed by Atheists, Pagans, Jews, Mormons and Christians who serve our country.

Mikey Weinstein continues to profit from his version of evangelical, born again, rabid, pulpit pounding .  But, at least I tried to shed some light on his antics.  Substitute Satan, Infidel, Apostate, or even Atheist for the word Dominionist during his rant and there is little difference in the hyperbole.  I guess I am just a liar who is out to promote myself and Weinstein has all veterans on his speed dial.

Anyway, in an effort to conduct scientific experimentation on the existence of the hereafter I have been trying an adaptation of Native American methods to catch dreams…nothing caught yet but I am hopeful.

 

For decades, I’ve watched unions, both private-sector and public-service, collude with the Democratic Party to boost salaries, benefits, and pensions to levels unattainable to the average non-union American worker, all the time wondering, “How the hell are they ever going to keep that going?” For years, when we encountered one of those big, lumbering, quarter-million-dollar motor homes, my wife and I would joke, “There goes another retired lawyer or doctor.” These days, based on publicly available data, our speculation is that it’s likely a retired cop or fireman.

We visited old college friends a couple of years ago at their very nice home on a lush fairway in the desert southwest. He’s a retired public utility worker and union official, while she’s a school administrator. While he was showing me the yard, I spotted a two-story Spanish Colonial-style mansion across the fairway and observed, “Looks like you have some very well-to-do neighbors.” His response was, “That? Nah, he’s a retired fireman.” Today I spoke with my brother in California about this situation, and he informed me that he has seen on open public records that retired fire department captains in his home town are drawing $130,000 per year from the public trough.

Are you beginning to see my concern?

You don’t have to be an actuary to calculate that the American dream many of these generously retired union workers, especially those from the public-service unions, are living is completely unsustainable, assuredly for coming generations, but most likely for current retirees as well. And that’s despite all the desperate attempts by the unions’ Democrat cronies to raise taxes, tolls, and public fees to fund the exorbitant salaries, benefits, and pensions of public-service employees and to pressure unionized industries into equally lucrative contracts for their blue-collar workers.

Look at almost any major municipality in the so-called blue states, especially those cities that have been under Democrat control for decades, and you’ll likely find a looming pension crisis; ditto for private sector unions in those same states. But don’t even think about suggesting a reasonable reduction in those salaries, benefits, and pensions to either the totally intransigent unions or their Democrat cronies, who will assure you they have some magical way to accomplish the impossible. There’s a deepening reservoir of impossible-to-keep retirement commitments in those blue states being held back by a dam of desperate and disingenuous Democrat denial.

And now comes what may be a small leak portending that pension dam disaster, which, when it breaks, is going to sweep away generations of American dreams in the fiscal waves and torrents of all that pent up political cronyism and greed. The Washington Post just reported that an ironworkers union in Ohio is doing the unthinkable: reducing benefits to its current pensioners, some by as much as 60%, to prevent the fund from sinking into insolvency as soon as 2024. According to the Post, these ironworkers make up only a tiny slice of the more than a million private-sector workers and retirees whose pension funds are predicted to be insolvent within twenty years. One of the largest, the Central States Pension Fund, which represents some 300,000 truckers, has already tried to reduce pensions but has been stymied in that effort by the federal government, which says the proposed cuts are insufficient to save the fund from insolvency.

It’s a good bet that Chicago will be the first major Democrat stronghold to default on its public-service union retirement commitments, but it’s a sure bet that it is the entire State of California that is sitting on the nuclear incident of pension plan insolvencies, and when that Democrat unicorn reactor ultimately goes critical and melts down, as it most assuredly is going to do, it will shake this nation. We can hope it shakes some sense into Democrats and makes unions think twice about getting too greedy, but based on current attitudes, it’s not likely.

It will be interesting to see if all those retirees who get their fat pensions drastically reduced will still be voting slavishly Democrat when basic math wrapped around the hard fist of reality smacks them hard in the kisser.