Flags

Today in the United States of America is recognized as Flag Day.  A flag is used to rally forces, to be able to tell your mob from the other guy's mob in the midst of carnage and confusion.  Children to this day play a game called Capture the Flag, adults also play the same game while armed with paint-ball guns.

When larger and larger groups of people coalesced into nations, naturally some symbol was selected as the flag for that nation.  The American flag was birthed during our revolt from British tyranny.  Each color represents a specific theme while each white star in the corner represents a state in the Union.  For the average soldier sucking down lungfuls of sand in Iraq or freezing in Afghanistan that flag really represents his battle buddies beside him along with the friends and family back home.  The flag is a touchstone.

So while I am pondering all that the US flag represents, across the Atlantic I wonder if our British cousins have the same appreciation of their flag and history.  Thirty years ago, the Union Jack was run up over Government House in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands signaling the end of Argentinian occupation.  Three civilians and 255 members of Her Majesty's military paid the ultimate price for that victory.  So to mark this historic day, the flag of the Falklands is flying over No. 10 Downing Street.

If Argentina decided to follow through on its current demands for the islands, that bit of flag waving would be all Britain could do.  The Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self.  The carriers who helped retake the Falklands 30 years ago are no more, HMS Hermes now serves as an Indian carrier while HMS Invincible last year was sold for scrap.  In fact there is no carrier in active service with the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm has not flown a Harrier in over year, the Harriers are either gate guards or scrap.  The RAF and its small fleet of Typhoon fighters would also be incapable of affecting an Argentine invasion.

Just some things to ponder on this Flag Day.

Update - added a few more links.

LBJ and Obama

President Lyndon B. Johnson once boasted that they - 7th Air Force in Saigon - could not bomb an outhouse without his permission.

President Barack H. Obama boasts that no terrorist on his kill list can be killed by a drone without him taking it seriously.

Words fail me on how to comment on this.

Democrats Go Birther

On Mitt Romney's father George.  This is just insane but it fits their little narrow narrative I guess.  How could George become President if was born in another country?  That is what they are asking.
The biggest problem with this attempt at misdirection is the central character in each controversy.  George Romney was born in Mexico but his son Mitt was born on US soil in Detroit.  With Obama, its his actual birthplace that there is a cloud of mystery since recent revelations show author bios were claiming he was born in Kenya as late as 2007.
As for the real reason why George Romney's aspirations to become President was thwarted, one has to do a little digging and to be an honest historian.  George Romney was shaping up to be a serious contender to Richard Nixon until he shot himself in the foot politically.  On Sept. 4, 1967 in an interview George Romney said he had been "brainwashed" by US generals in South Vietnam in 1965 to support that war.  He never recovered after that as citizens rightly worried about electing as President a guy who has admitted he was brainwashed.  Too bad in 2004 more voters did not do a similar thing when John Kerry claimed George Bush lied and basically out-smarted him on Iraq.

Bury Us Upside Down - a review

March, 1968. Phu Cat AB, Republic of Vietnam.  Pilot holding the glass of champagne is Ed Risinger celebrating his last Misty FAC mission.  Holding the bottle is Brian Williams who would later be shot down with Howard Williams, Brian would be rescued while Howard would be killed.  Man with his hand on the stabilizer is Dick Rutan who would later co-pilot Voyager around the world unrefueled.

I have written previously on Bud Day and Misty FAC.  So why would I write another story?  Because I finally acquired a copy of Rick Newman and Don Shepperd's book on Misty called Bury Us Upside Down.

This book starts at a strange place, the belated funeral of Lt. Col. Howard Williams who had been listed as MIA and then declared KIA before any remains were finally found.  Then the book goes back in time to 1967.  Soon the reader is strapped into a F-100F Super Sabre and part of the secret Commando Sabre mission going into Route Pak One looking for the enemy.  Getting one's brain bucket rattled against a canopy side while clutching at a 35mm camera hoping something besides blurs will be on the film and then grunting as the Hun is wrenched through high speed jinks to dodge AAA.  And finally landing after over four hours in the cockpit and hitting a tanker at least two times to find your legs are rubber.  Then spending hours in a debrief followed by attitude readjustment at the Officers Club.  And next day finding yourself flying another mission.  Did I mention one of the authors, Shepperd, is a Misty alumni who as a two-star commanded all of the Air National Guard.

The authors cover much of the life and times of Misty from 1967 to official disbandment in 1970.  The reader's first glimpse of Misty is from a new Intel officer getting assigned to Misty after Bud Day has been shot down.  Almost nothing is recounted of the formative early days of Misty when they first tried to perform the mission with F-100Ds but Day realized the two-seat F model with a GIB was better suited.  Its almost as if it never happened. 

Soon though my annoyance with this omission vanishes as I am sucked in.  Incredible men doing incredible things is the simplest way to describe this book.  Even the intelligence officers assigned to Misty rose to the occasion, two Lieutenants writing travel orders for each other so they can catch a hop to Saigon to creatively acquire clear film from RF-101 film canisters.  Why did they need the clear film?  So they could create booklets full of maps covering all of Route Pak I, the clear film acted as laminate so the pilots could jot down instantly new targets with grease pencils which sped up debriefs and locating new dangers.  Or for more crazy daring do, Risinger's Raid has to be one of the greatest war stories to ever happen.  Ed Risinger had found a juicy target, a SAM, but there were no assets available to attack it. So he returned to Phu Cat.  Ed rounded up two more pilots, stole three ready F-100Ds, launched, and then attacked through clouds where the SAM had been.  Once he got back to base, him and his cohorts were grounded for thee days.  And then went back to flying, all of them.  There are also stories of their battle with the 37th's commander who got mad when Misty lost a F-100F or brought one home damaged, it seemed he cared more for his availability rates than getting a mission done.  We are granted a peek into the world of the flight surgeon at war.  And most importantly we are shown how the loss of a husband/father/son impacted the families, especially when they were declared MIA.  The cruel gamesmanship of the communist in Vietnam is exposed with frank brutality when describing the crash of Howard Williams' Super Sabre.  His death and the rescue of Brian Williams was duly noted as "1 man killed; 1 alive; they took him and he was lost."  Brian Williams would have been another pawn, tortured like Bud Day and possibly suffer the fate of Lance Sijan who was badly wounded upon ejection, tortured, and never received medical attention thus he was murdered in captivity.  There are many other stupendous stories in this book besides these.

Overall I was impressed with this book and the story it told.  It only fell down in two areas.  One has already been noted by having almost no documentation describing the early days of Commando Sabre under Bud Day.  The other is the amount of time describing the in-fighting in Washington D.C. which I considered excessive.  If that had been trimmed down then the authors would have had the space to cover the early missions of Commando Sabre.  Missions flown by Day, Fogelman, and McPeak.  Day would receive the Medal of Honor.  Fogelman and McPeak would pin stars on their shoulders and each rise to become Air Force Chief of Staff.

Jealous Tyrants

There has been a lot of religious talk of late and how the secular sphere intersects such.  Of faith held beliefs colliding with secular beliefs.  Of confronting Moloch.

In the Peoples Republic of China; what a contradiction as the people have no say in how they are oppressed, just ask the employees at Foxconn who were awakened at midnight in their barracks, fed a biscuit and a cup of tea, and then churned out iPad2s with a new screen, religious oppression proceeds.  That government has imprisoned nine Roman Catholic priests.  Eight are of the 'underground' church that has the support of the Holy See in Rome but this church is oppressed by Beijing who pushes a state approved catholic church.  The Vatican and Beijing have been at an impasse over this matter for years with Beijing appointing catholic cardinals without Papal approval.  Here is a case of a 'modern' state oppressing and imposing beliefs on the people they are supposed to serve.

The Soviet Union went a step further when the likes of Lenin seized the reigns of power.  All places of worship were forcibly closed.  All monasteries were closed.  The Russian Orthodox faith was suppressed.  And yet it was the Soviet Union who collapsed while the faithful persevered.

In Germany in the 1930s similar things were tried.  The National Socialists ordered the crosses atop churches be replaced by their party symbol.  Youth groups like the 700,000 strong Protestant youth group were shut down.  There could only be one deity in Germany and all were supposed to swear fealty to the Fuhrer.  Thus there was no room for the likes of the Jews or the Catholics or Protestants.  Even pagans were oppressed.  It took six brutal years of war that ravaged a whole continent before this evil was ended.

So what has all this history to do with confronting Moloch?  Its very simple, in all three cases presented above an oppressive secular government has attempted or is attempting to wipe out any other locus of power.  These other sources of normative mores, I think that is the term, rebuke what the secular mandarins want to impose.  They deny the validity of this secular dogma.

Now we are seeing this secular dogma being attempted here in the United States.  Health and Human Services has issued a draconian ruling that will have drastic impact upon religious non-profits of all beliefs.  These non-profits have one year to comply with the demands of Moloch ... errr...  the Obama administration's diktats.  What are these demands?  These religious non-profits MUST offer as part of health insurance things they find morally offensive and evil.  A good example is RU-486 which is also called the Morning After Pill.  A woman will be prescribed these pills in order to kill off a possible fertilized zygote.

After the trials of Nuremberg and what happened at My Lai, soldiers are now expected to refuse unlawful orders.  What the Obama administration is demanding of religious non-profits is an unlawful order.  It is an attempt to impose secular state beliefs upon individuals.  What next, will Cesar Obama demand all offer burnt sacrifices at the altar of Obama as divine being?  That did not work well for Imperial Rome nor France after their revolution.

That the Obama administration is going ahead with this is the height of hubris and folly since the US Supreme Court just struck down 9-0 another attempt to subjugate the religious.  In that case, the Obama administration tried to tell religious ministries they could not discriminate in any form on whom is hired.  The Supreme Court firmly rejected this concept.  If this ruling had been allowed to stand then we could have seen a Buddhist temple compelled to hire a follower of Santaria.

So where do we go from here to stop this latest ploy?  Sen. Rubio(R-FL) has already introduced legislation that attempts to neuter this nefarious ploy.  Much must still be done.  A strong message has to be sent to Washington DC on how wrong this ruling from HHS is.  If we do not stand together for religious freedom as outlined in the US Constitution now, then we risk far more than all these non-profit hospitals shutting down.  We risk the total loss of liberty.  Either we hang together or we hang separately as Benjamin Franklin once said.

South China Sea Update

There is nothing like a ship that is supposed to be a casino quietly floating pier side in Macau fleecing people of their money setting sail on sea trials to cause me to revisit a very important flash point. I am speaking about the South China Sea and all the countries that border it of course.

Back in 1998, the uncompleted second aircraft carrier of the Soviet Northern Fleet was sold by the Ukraine to a Chinese businessman for $20 million. The stated purpose of buying the carrier was to create a casino in Macau. Even back then many asked pointed questions on why a businessman from the Peoples Republic of China would buy such an item. This week removed any lingering doubt that might have persisted since 2002 when the ex-Kutzenov bypassed Macau and entered a shipyard.

This aircraft carrier has far reaching impact for the South China Sea area. If you read the article linked in the prior paragraph you have people trying to downplay the significance of this lone aircraft carrier because the United States has 11 carriers in commission. They ignore the fact that during the presidency of Ronald Reagan the US Navy had 13 carriers plus USS Lexington for naval aviator training. Also ignored is the long periods when a nuclear carrier is berthed after a deployment or even worse the years a carrier is in port during a Service Life Extension Program[SLEP] like USS Enterprise just emerged from. So not all eleven carriers are available all the time. And with US Navy commitments to the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, and Mediterranean; what carriers that are in commission are spread thin. Which means in the future if the PRC decides to flex it's naval muscle to close off the South China Sea to secure the Spratly Islands, the US might not have a carrier to spare to counter-balance the Chinese one. So one carrier, if properly deployed, can have an impact far in excess of it being only one such ship.

Which is probably why various nations around the South China Sea are trying to get new weapon systems bought. Vietnam, even with a horrible economy, is buying SU-30M aircraft from Russia for $1billion US and will spend another $2billion US to purchase Kilo class diesel-electric subs. The Philippines are still shopping for new hardware with no budget.

Taiwan wants to purchase diesel-electric submarines also, but it seems the Bush era deal has fallen through. Meanwhile the Obama administration is not endearing itself with the Republic of China because Vice President Joe Biden is going to Beijing to assure the PRC that all the US will do is upgrade the RoC F-16A/B Fighting Falcons that are now twenty years old. That also the desire by the RoC for 66 new build F-16C/Ds will not be filled. Naturally the Obama administration has said the RoC has not lobbied hard for the fighters. And some on Taiwan also blame the government. Sitting at this keyboard, it seems to be a joint effort by both governments.

During the era of the dreadnought, the theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan held sway. Namely naval ships could not influence land events. The birth of the aircraft carrier changed that. When Marc Mitchner and his fast carriers boldly sailed off Japan's shores and attacked anything they found to when F-14 Tomcats launched out of the Indian Ocean struck targets in Afghanistan, Mahan's theory has been disproved. And it seems with one carrier, the PRC can effect the same impact over the South China Sea.

How to counter this one carrier if the United States can't spare one? Diesel-electric submarines are very quiet and good at slipping through a task force screen. Aircraft are a natural predator to aircraft carriers, look what Spruance and Fletcher did at Midway. Then there is the cruise missile option.

What it will really take is bold leadership in Washington, Manila, Taipei, Seoul, and Hanoi to prevent the Chinese dragon from burning out the whole region. Military drawdowns are not the answer when a nation with expansionist dreams adds new weapons and tactics to its arsenal.

Negotiating With The Dragon

This weekend the Peoples Republic of China and the United States are meeting in Hawai'i to discuss various items of mutual interest. Strangely one item of such interest the PRC has told the US not to bring up. According to the PRC the item does not concern the US.

This item the PRC does not want to discuss is called the Spratly Islands. If you look at the above map, it should be clear the US does have an interest. Look at the small box called Spratlys, it points to a location in the middle of a major sea lane of commerce and communications. To respond quickly to the Indian Ocean or Arabian Sea, the US naval forces in Japan have to pass by the Spratly's. If a foreign power wanted to thwart the US, the Spratly's would be a good location. Not as good as the Malaca Straits, but with emplaced cruise missiles sea denial would be de facto. And US naval forces would have to travel down the eastern side of the Philippines, making a rapid response impossible.

Another reason why the US has an interest in the Spratly's is called alliances. All the oil that Japan, Taiwan[Republic of China], and South Korea need to keep operating pass by the Spratly Islands. So does the oil the PRC imports go past these islands. All of these countries have a strategic interest in those islands. Because the US is an ally to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, it also has an interest.

Unfortunately it has been the PRC that has tried to bully the other claimaints to the islands - Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. In 1988 the PRC sank a Vietnamese ship killing 80 sailors. Recently the PRC has tried to bar Vietnamese fishermen from fishing in the Spratly Islands. Philippines, Vietnam, and PRC have also at various times put military detachments in the Spratly Islands. A beacon on Michief Reef was smashed. And the PRC has been infringing upon Philippine and Japanese territorial waters.

The Philippines are expecting the United States to back them up under the 1951 mutual defense treaty. And this ally needs US support since their military is very weak. The last F-5 of the Philippine Air Force flew in 2005 and now they are looking to buy TWO MiG-29s or F/A-18s. Two aircraft for a nation of 7,000 islands. If the United States wanted to make a concrete committment to Philippine sovereignty, perhaps some aircraft at AMARC could be refurbished and sold for $100 ea to the Philippines. I note there are over 170 F-16C/D airframes at AMARC, surely we could raid the Stimulus for such a shovel ready project along with training pilots? It will probably take a year or so to spin it all up, but at this point it would be a concrete gesture that the US wants the Philippines to be independant.

Next month, a US Navy destroyer will particiapte in a search and rescue exercise with Vietnam. A new ally of the United States and a victim of PRC aggression. Naturally the PRC is calling one US Navy destroyer a provocative action. I think the PRC protests too much for it shows they do covet all of that area.

As if open sea lanes and alliances were not enough reasons for US intereste, here is another. The Spratly Islands sit atop approximately 17.7 billion tonnes of oil and natural gas. With the known demands of Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea along with the rising appetite for oil from the PRC; the importance of these islands become clear. It would help free all these countries from being dependant upon Middle East oil as they are now. Would cut transit times and save money. Plus if Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Philippines, or PRC can gain sole control of these islands; they will have a new source of revenue. For poor countries like Vietnam and Philippines, it could help boost their economies. For the PRC to own the Spratly Islands, they would gain tremendous power over their oil hungry neighbors as they sold or not sold the oil to them.

After writing the above, I have one thing to say. The United States does have a vital and vested interest in the matter of who owns the Spratly Islands. We need to make this concern abundantly clear to the Peoples Republic of China while working with our allies in the region to ensure they know we are there for them if they are attacked.

Defective Weapons

During the Vietnam War when M-16s were jamming in combat, the US Army took steps to correct the problem. More training on cleaning the weapon was instituted along with issuing mroe cleaning kits. Chroming the whole bolt to reduce fouling was another corrective action. The M-16 has gone on to rack up an impressive service record.

When the M-247 Sgt. York DIVAD proved it could not even hit a stationary helicopter, the whole program was cancelled. It never entered service.

Or of more recent vintage is the Crusader SPG. It was designed for the battlefields of Europe as Warsaw Pact forces poured through the Fulda Gap. Instead it faced a post Desert Storm world where Rumsfeld cast a gimlet eye at the whole program. It was revealed to be overweight and overbudget without a real mission. It was cancelled.

There seems to be another weapon in the arsenal of the US Army that needs to go. When a soldier raises their right hand to swear/affirm to protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign or domestic, they become the most fearsome weapon this country possesses to defend itself. Except now some of these soldiers are saying no to orders. There are those of the Muslim faith that are refusing lawful orders on the basis of their faith. Since the US has a volunteer force, why are these people even in the military? They are giving false service after swearing falsely, and as Akbar, who tossed a grenade into a tent where his friends slept killing three, Yonathan Melaku, and Nidal Hasan have shown, they are potential threats to the lives and safety of their fellow soldiers just like defective weapons failing in the heat of combat.

Note - Thanks to ORD and Lysol for catching my goofs. Any that still slipped through are all mine.

Apollo Reflections

Apollo 11 sees the full Earth. Photo - NASA.

If you want a cool documentary about the Apollo Moon astronauts then find The Wonder of it All. They interview Gene Cernan, Alan Bean, Buzz Aldrin, Charlie Duke, Ed Mitchell, John Young, and Dr. Harrison Schmidt. These guys still amaze me and I still learn new things about the missions and especially the people.

Alan Bean talks of his space art and even discussing a Moon landing doubter. John Young relates how his wife told him he had 1 chance in 5 of coming home from the Moon but he did not remember her saying that before the mission; then he talks of his work on the Shuttle. Buzz Aldrin threw the curve ball in these interviews. He talks of the Apollo 11 astronauts receiving an award from Marquette just after returning from the Moon and anti-Vietnam protesters waving a North Vietnam flag threw eggs at them.

I will end this brief post with words from John Young, "Why do people explore? For the long term survival of people."

Forgetting Veterans

Actions like this leave me gobsmacked. Stunned and speechless also pop to mind as proper adjectives. Something rotten is afoot methinks. Lots of attention needs to be applied to this school board for their excuse holds not a drop of water or believability.

What am I irate about that causes to pen the above? The school board for Norwalk, CT is dropping from their school calendar November 11th as a recognized holiday. You heard me right, they want to cut out Veterans Day to get more school time in but they promise to spend some of the time teaching about Veterans Day. Right. The feedback needs to be monumental to correct the errant ways of this school board. So lets go for broke and tell them how we feel on this matter.

Misty One Flies

The Collings Foundation's F-100F Super Sabre from INVERSION on Vimeo.

Col. George 'Bud' Day got to fly F-100F Super Sabre painted up as 391 recently. The HUN joins the Collings Foundation's other jet warbirds - F-4D Phantom II, TA-4J Skyhawk, and UH-1H Huey. Meanwhile the USAF is still holding hostage all the F-105 Thunderchiefs.

H/T - Ace of Spades. More pictures and info on the F-100F can be found here. The plane is a former Danish Air Force plane that had previously flown in the colors of the Thunderbirds.

Neat Pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_orear/3351834246/in/photostream/

James O'Rear has some pretty cool pictures posted if you follow that link. The picture I am linking to is of the Residence Platz fountain as seen in the movie The Sound of Music. You will also find pictures from O'Rear's dad who was TDY at U Tapo in 1967. Many of the slide pictures James is still trying to ID, drop him a line if you recognize something. Plus his father has many pictures of an Avro Vulcan, F-105s, F-100s, B-52s, B-58s, KC-135, U-2s, and other aircraft. Click through the B-52D pictures to find ground crew loading Mk. 82s on the external bomb racks, at least one picture will make any modern USAF Safety guru pull their hair out.

Thunderchiefs

A 17th Wild Weasel Squadron F-105G climbs out for a mission with the Moon in the background. Photo by Ikar, Aircraft Resource Center site.


One of the prototype RF-105B Thunderchiefs on display at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX. Photo by F106A, Aircraft Resource Center site.

Forum discussion of the F-105s with many pictures, including multiple pictures of the F-105Ds used at Lackland AFB for flightline security training, can be found at the Aircraft Resource Center.

Link for surviving F-105 Thunderchiefs, from B model to G model Wild Weasels. Judging from the number of D airframes, could activate at least a squadron. I see one airframe is located near me, guess will have to find it and photograph it. Stay tuned.

P.S. While on the Thunderchief, just found this article about a truly hairy SAM mission back in the early days of the Viet Nam War. For gallantry, Navy Lt Cmdr Powers of VA-164 received the Air Force Cross posthumously

Gov. Moonbeam's Traitor

While the navel-gazing fools that surround Jerry Brown try to convince the people of California that Meg Whitman is a witch for being tricked into hiring an illegal, lets take a look at a bit of Jerry Brown's previous tenure as Governor of California. To whit an appointee of his to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

It seems in 18 months, Edison Miller managed to alienate Republicans along with fellow Democrats as well. Not only was Miller getting into shoving matches with Republicans, he was vehemently attacking the state Democratic Party chairman. When 1980 rolled around, even though the Democratic Party was against him, Miller tried to run for the seat Jerry Brown appointed him to. He got 17% of the vote. Apparently the people of Orange County were tired of the Fonda-Hayden clique of anti-war zealots.

Being a Fonda-Hayden person is nothing strange to Col. Edison Miller, USMC[ret]. You see Miller was a prisoner of the North Vietnamese after his F-4 Phantom II of VMFA-323 was lost on a combat mission due to ground fire. He was imprisoned for more than five years where men such as James Stockdale, John McCain, Everett Alvarez, Howie Rutledge, and Bud Day would encounter him and his actions.

Miller denies ever ratting out on his fellow prisoners but admits to making broadcasts for the communist Vietnamese. These broadcasts came to be known as the Bob and Ed Show, named after Robert Schweitzer and Edison Miller who made them. As for ratting out prisoners, Everett Alvarez in his memoirs of being Shoot-down Number One Chained Eagle tells things differently. Alvarez recounts incidents of Miller ratting out prisoners to the guards as they tried to communicate with other prisoners. He also tells when Miller and another rat would deliberately close the gates between compounds to again prevent prisoners from talking to each other. McCain recounts trying to just say hi to Miller and the other rat, for that guards were called and McCain was beaten. Adm. James Stockdale tried to get Miller court-martialed but the then Secretary of Defense Laird said there would be no court-martial for returning prisoners of war, hence Miller retired honorably from the Marine Corps as a Colonel.

The POWs' anger over Miller came to a boil when the POWs were invited to a dinner at the White House by President Richard Nixon. During their captivity, Miller and the other rats were kept separate from the other POWs. In fact the anger was so great there was even a plot to kill one of the rats, but the SRO squashed any vigilante justice. Back to that dinner at the White House, the rats got invited also which naturally lead to some 'tense' moments like Howie Rutledge trying to bodily shove Edison Miller out the window of a bus on the way to the White House.

About the only good thing to say of Miller when asked who would he vote for in 2008, he thought George Bush was an idiot and did not feel comfortable with Barack Obama. Then he goes off the rails and voices support for Ron Paul.

If Meg Whitman's decision to hire a maid, that turned out to be an illegal who lied about her immigration status, should disqualify her from being Governor, then Jerry Brown should not be Governor either for a greater reason - Edison Miller traitor.

To Fly the Thunder

One of the most thrilling things to experience is an air show and to see those pilots put their planes through their paces. A high-point of any air show is when ex-military planes, aka warbirds, make an appearance. The snarl of the inline engines and the deeper thrum of the radials seem to resonate as the flag snaps in the breeze while an announcer gives the crowd some history while telling of the planes flying overhead. One organization that has been involved in flying some precious WWII heavy metal has been the Collings Foundation with their B-17G Flying Fortress and B-24J Liberator.

Starting in the late 1990s, the Collings Foundation started a project to recognize all the veterans of the Vietnam War and what resulted is their Vietnam Memorial Flight. In 1998, after literally getting an Act of Congress, their dream finally started to crystalize when an F-4D Phantom II was transferred to the Collings Foundation from the USAF. Since then they have added a TA-4J Skyhawk, but still they were missing one plane. Since 2005 they have been petitioning the USAF to release an F-105 Thunderchief so the public could see in flight the one plane that truly took the war to North Vietnam and bore the heavy cost of doing that. Even with offer of a no liability waiver, the USAF has so far refused their request. A petition from veterans of the Vietnam War, including Medal of Honor ‘thud driver Leo Thorsness, has not moved the USAF. It is 2010 and things are still stymied.

As to why the USAF loathes to surplus jet aircraft to the public, its endemic of all military branches and can be for many reasons. For example the USN scrapped every F-14 Tomcat, save those destined for museums, because the Iranians still fly F-14s and need parts. Though the biggest reason has to be the fear of liability in case an ex-military jet fighter crashes and kills people on the ground. Fear of John Edwards suing the US government for negligence can chill any endeavor, no matter how noble the purpose. And there is a history of such ex-military jet crashes in the US and worldwide. Like the F9F-8T/TF-9J Cougar that vanished high above the Gulf of Mexico leaving no trace of the plane or civilian pilots, just a mystery. Or the Sabre that crashed near San Isidro, Dominican Republic or in California when another F-86F, flown by Dave Zeuschel, at an air show suffered an engine failure, crashed atop its drop tanks, and burst into flames killing Zeuschel.

The biggest fear is a repeat of what happened on September 24, 1972. On that day, a Canadian built Sabre Mk. 5, registered as N275X, attempted to take off from Sacramento Executive Airport runway 30 after an air show. Witnesses saw the plan try to get off the ground, but it never managed to get airborne. Instead it popped over a berm as the pilot struggled to keep it aloft, flew through the perimeter road, and then crashed into parked cars at a shopping center that had been built at the end of the short active runway. If the crash had stopped there, this crash would have been as memorable as the crash of Zeuschel’s Sabre just a decade later. Instead N275X’s momentum carried the flaming jet into Farrel’s Ice Cream Parlour where many parents and children had gathered for a family treat.

The jet’s pilot, Richard Bingham, was pulled from the wreckage of his jet and all he could say and think about was, “I’m sorry.. I’m sorry. Get the people out!” Every ambulance, public and private, responded to the disaster scene as the heat scorched the paint of cars 60ft away. Smoke poured out of the restaurant as survivors staggered out, including children. The human cost of this tragedy was horrific. The death toll was 22 people, 12 of them were children along with another 28 injured. One family of four was wiped out. There would be one or two more victims of this tragedy when William Penn Patrick, who had owned the Canadair Mk. 5 Sabre involved in the crash, lost his life when his P-51 Mustang crashed in 1973. Also killed in this crash was one of Penn’s employees – Christian George Hagert.

Notwithstanding Collings Foundation having flown their F-4D without mishap since 1999, the spectre of Sacramento still haunts the jet warbird community and any dealings the US government has with this community. Since that day in Sacramento, hardly a single US made jet fighter has been released/sold to civilians in flyable condition. Which is why so many L-29s, L-39s, MiG-15s, MiG-21s, and Hawker Hunters are on the civil registry in the US along with Canadian build Sabres. The few American made F-86s, F-104s, and A-4s flying in the US have come from overseas as MAP countries surplus obsolete jets. And why Darryl Greenamyer had to scratch build an F-104 Starfighter for his speed record attempt.

The record Collings has built with the F-4D seems to make them ideal to maintain and fly an F-105. Just so people can once again see flying an F-105 and hear its thunder. And remember all the men who went 'downtown' and never came back.

Memorial Day

Taken 29 May 2010 at the Pensacola NAS museum. Part of the display sponsored by the Crusader Association.

Just a week prior Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan were there to mark Armstrong's induction to their wall of honor. Many forget that Neil was a young naval aviator who flew combat missions during the Korean War before he became an astronaut and walked on the Moon.

This weekend lets remember all the sacrifices past generations have endured. And let us remember the sacrifices the current generation are bearing to ensure the rest of us enjoy a long peaceful weekend. As the picture states "Sheath me not without honor. Draw me not without reason."

Reckless Conceit

Thank you New York Times for giving the whole world Obama's new strategy for nuclear weapons. The Obama's Doctrine for Nuclear Weapons is - "We really really won't use them unless my arugula is nuked."

On to the dissection shall we?
To set an example, the new strategy renounces the development of any new nuclear weapons, overruling the initial position of his own defense secretary. As Russia modernizes its nuclear arsenal and such fun countries as North Korea and Iran work on nuclear missiles, Obama wants to pull the plug on the US nuclear weapons manufacturing capability. And Obama wants to reduce the US arsenal of aging weapons while Russia will merely scrap its oldest weapons to meet the treaty requirements of the treaty that is supposed to be signed in Prague.

It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the Cold War. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons, or launched a crippling cyberattack. What ambiguity? US policy has always been if you use a chemical agent or a bio-agent against the US, then the US treats it as a nuclear device and proceeds to nuke the offender. Now Obama is going, well we wont nuke you if you use Sarin gas or anthrax on us, unless you really are mean to us. And why bring in cyber terrorism? So if a PRC hacker college sucks dry Obama's Blackberry, Obama will nuke Beijing? That right there introduces dangerous uncertainty.

Those threats, he argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options” -- a combination of old and newly designed conventional weapons. Satayana was right, those who fail to learn are doomed to repeat history. Graduated response worked so well for Sec of Defense Robert McNamara in prosecuting the Vietnam war didn't it? For those who think Vietnam is not important because it happened before they were born, McNamara's strategy allowed North Vietnam defenses to keep pace with increases in American military attacks, resulting in a longer war with far more casualties. But Obama thinks it will work with nuclear weapons now.

Mr. Obama’s plans to fly to Prague to sign a new arms control agreement with Russia on Thursday and then next week will host 47 world leaders in Washington for a summit on nuclear security. The London and Washington Naval Treaties after World War One worked so well after all. Or the treaty between the US and USSR on biological weapons, the US destroyed its stockpiles but the USSR kept at it. Treaties work when enforcement has consequences. I do not see North Korea, Iran, or Venezuela being impressed by the Obama Administration's determination.

“I’m not going to parse that right now,” he said, sitting in his office as children played on the South Lawn of the White House during a day-long Easter Egg roll. However, he cited the example of North Korea, whose nuclear capabilities were unclear until it conducted a test in 2006, which it followed with a second shortly after Mr. Obama took office. Lets face it, containment of North Korea was a failure of the Clinton and Bush administrations. But the way I read this statement and its following paragraph of Obama's, it seems our President is okay with Iran going nuclear. These are dangerous times and the nuclear clock I think has moved one more minute closer to midnight with this misguided revamping. History will judge, may we all live to see that judgement.

L'chaim Israel.

Charybdis or Scylla?

President Obama's speech in front of the cadets at West Point, who maybe marching off to Afghanistan to lead other young soldiers soon, left many sick to their stomachs. In this speech, the President tried to navigate the treacherous waters between the Scylla of the likes of Michael Moore and the Charybdis of those on the side of Generals Petraeus and McChrystal in an attempt to partially please everyone. As President, Obama stands in charge of the rudder.

General McChrystal wanted at least 40,000 boots on the ground within a year if he stood a chance of turning the dire situation around. The clock for this plan started when it landed on the President's desk three months ago. So now President Obama wants to send 30,000 American soldiers plus hoped for allied troops to this theatre. And it will take even more months for all these soldiers to arrive. Because the President took his deliberative time to arrive at a perfect plan, he puts Petraeus and McChrystal in a time bind of trying to do more with fewer troops in less time.

As if this was not enough to cause heartburn among the cadets and cadre at West Point, President Obama kept kayaking through these treacherous waters. He said the surge troops will start to pull out in mid-2011, with a tiny caveat of if the situation warrants the troops will stay longer.

Taken together, the message to ally and foe is clear. The message being President Obama is not serious in prosecuting the war in Afghanistan to a victory for the people of Afghanistan and the United States. As if this is a surprise since the President has previously stated he is uncomfortable with the word victory. Sic transit pax Americana.

President Lincoln, when pressed on why he would not fire General U.S. Grant for the casualties he generated, only said that Grant was his only general willing to fight. Gen. McClellan, in contrast, always waited until all conditions were favorable for him, hence Gen. Robert E. Lee of the Confederacy always stole the march on McClellan and defeated him in battle after battle. Or lets look at General George S. Patton who observed, "A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan next week." So using history as a guide, what President Obama presented is neither a clarion call to victory nor is it a perfect plan.

I have seen some people making analogies of this speech to Vietnam as in when President Nixon started to turn things over to the Republic of South Vietnam. They actually have the wrong president in mind. As Obama continues to desperately navigate all these treacherous waters he finds himself in, we must look at Lyndon Baines Johnson who inherited Vietnam from Kennedy. The US in 1963 had destabilized South Vietnam by helping others in that government and military to overthrow Diem. This resulted in Diem and his brother being murdered on November 1, 1963. And until Ngyuen Cao Ky became President of South Vietnam, rumours of coups were always in the air which limited how effective the government was in resisting Viet Cong and North Vietnamese attacks. The Obama administration by trying to isolate the less than perfect Karzai government has been following in the Kennedy footsteps of undercutting an ally because that ally is not perfect enough. So Obama has seen Karzai ally himself with even less welcome elements, but can one blame Karzai when Obama does not even talk to him personally like President Bush did? In Vietnam, a government descending into being a junta might be ignored except for one thing - Gulf of Tonkin Incident. Two American warships, including Turner Joy, reported they were being attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats at night. This resulted in President Johnson sending thousands upon thousands of American soldiers to South Vietnam to help that country resist. And then we get to Robert Strange McNamara, who in conjunction with President Johnson, micro-managed the war from Washington D.C. with insane rules of engagement like American jets could not attack a SAM site until it fired upon them or restricting how those jets could attack targets. At one point President Johnson boasted they could not bomb an outhouse in Vietnam without his approval. In hindsight, Johnson had no real plan to win in Vietnam. He was fighting for the status quo and hoping the other side would give up. It would take President Nixon doing things like mining the harbor at Haiphong, the relentless attacks of B-52s under Linebacker to make North Vietnam to negotiate in good faith, and actually building a government and country to resist communist aggression that turned things around. The Easter Offensive of 1972 that was launched by North Vietnam was beat back by ARVN military forces with American air support. The same would have probably happened in 1975 when North Vietnam invaded their southern neighbor again, but a democrat controlled Congress betrayed solemn commitments and let South Vietnam fall.

Whether Obama and his administration will try to micro-manage Afghanistan remains to be seen. But by trying to stave off defeat with the least effort as outlined in his recent speech, President Obama might be setting the stage for a possible Dien Bien Phu followed by more people scrambling to escape a country falling to the forces of tyranny. So Obama and his strategy may fall victim to both Charybdis and Scylla. Alas if he fails, many people will also suffer. So let us all hope Obama changes course again. This time to a course to victory.

Time to Nut Up Mr. President

As President Obama and his advisers wrestle with the decision to either double down and send 40,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan to physically secure more of the country or hope Biden's electronic ninja jujitsu will work. Former Navy SEAL, Medal of Honor winner, and Senator Bob Kerrey argues that President Obama needs to follow General McChrystal's advice. This kind of advice is sorely needed within the confines of Obama's inner circle and is rooted in history.

When grappling with deterrent threats and the task of keeping them credible, there is always a temptation to seek an easy way out. ... The answer to this question, of course, has to be "no." ... If our opponents are really to believe that we shall sacrifice American lives and risk terrible destruction to oppose their aggression, we must, for all practical purposes, be in fact willing to do so. We cannot say we are firm and be cowardly, for our words will be a "specious appearance." In managing a deterrence policy, there is no substitute for courage. - pg 154

As Bob Kerrey mentions in regards to President Obama's foreign policy vision, there is not a coherent policy. And Kerrey chastises the President for apologising too much. As the above quote shows, such apologia creates an impression that the United States is unwilling to shoulder any burden in the name of democracy and freedom.

When the opponent offers a choice between war or retreat, the statesman chooses, without hesitation, war. ... How, in the nuclear era, does one muster the courage to say "Well, then, it is war."? To a large extent, the roots of courage lies in understanding that the opponent can have a war whenever he chooses. ... Hence, when faced by an ultimatum of retreat or war the statesman should calmly say - and mean - "it is war." If the ultimatum was a bluff, then no war results and no retreat is made. If the ultimatum is real, then the resulting war was actively risked by the enemy and the responsibility for it is his. The 1961-62 Berlin crisis illustrates the error of holding oneself responsible for a possible war provoked by an aggressor. ... Illustrative of the fright was George Kennan's comment, reported by Schlesinger: "I am expendable, I have no further official career, and I am going to do everything I can to prevent war....the only thing I have left in life is to do everything I can to stop war." But Kennan was apparently assuming precisely what the United States should not have assumed: that we should have done anything to prevent a war. ... It is dangerous to believe that we can do anything to prevent war when an aggressor wishes to risk it, because there is one thing we can do and a panicky search will lead right to it: retreat. - pg 154-156

Looking at the above passage, one has to think on North Korea and Iran. Starting with the Clinton administration, everyone has tried to reason with North Korea while offering incentives from a basketball to grain to fuel oil. All that has accomplished is more North Koreans starved to death while their dear leader gained an atomic weapon. And the same mistakes have been perpetrated in regards to Iran. The UN, EU, and now the US are caught up in a mental box of their own creation, if they could only negotiate better with the Iranian mullahs, the mullahs are reasonable and see the value of the negotiations. Thus they can prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. This ignores the fact that Iran has multiple nuclear facilities and has spent a vast fortune to get these weapons. England and France both thought negotiations at any cost were better than another war in Europe, in the end they got that war anyway; in the meantime countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland fell victim to naked aggression before those remaining countries had had enough and were willing to risk war.

"Are we going to have another Vietnam in Thailand?" ... Rather it appears that this question is a rhetorical way of advancing an interpretation of the Vietnam war: The United States has got into a costly and unfortunate war. South Vietnam isn't really worth such a war. ... Therefore, we should learn our lesson and never again become involved in such a war. This view is perhaps the most dangerous, most destructive interpretation that could ever be placed upon our involvement in Vietnam. ... That we should make such sacrifices in Vietnam is the best evidence we can offer our opponents that we shall oppose them if they attempt aggression elsewhere. ... To reverse this interpretation, to tell the world that we shall never fight again in Southeast Asia is to weaken our threat and encourage aggression. It is difficult to imagine a more senseless way to squander the American blood that has been shed in Vietnam. - pg 157

In 1975, the Democrats in Congress cut off further military aid to South Vietnam so the country finally fell to Communist aggression. In the following decade, millions of people fled what was South Vietnam while millions more died in Cambodia; all this stemmed from the Untied States buying into the myth put forward by the likes of Jane Fonda and John Kerry that Vietnam was not worth it. We have seen this cannard be put forth in regards to Iraq, which as Kerrey points out President Bush had the courage to double down, listen to Gen. Petreaus, and send in more troops that turned around the situation in Iraq. Now we are hearing from pro-Obama sectors that the fraud in the Afghanistan election is reason enough for the United States to ponder this war is not worth it. Or we hear from Vice President Biden that we, the Afghan government and US, surrender the countryside to the various terror groups while trying to strike at them from secure enclaves. The Soviets controlled the cities and lost all of Afghanistan, but this plan is what Biden is proposing the United States do. Which would mean a democratic Afghanistan would fall and the pogroms to enslave Afghan women will start again. Bob Kerrey's advice should really be listened to by the Obama Administration. Or the view of the bin Ladens of the world will be confirmed again, when things get tough the United States packs up and runs away. Which will beget more violence.

End notes: Passages were quoted from The American Threat - The Fear of War as an Instrument of Foreign Policy. James L. Payne. Markham Publishing Co., Chicago. 1970. 241 pages.

Adversity and Character

I find it amazing when people who are supposed to be sober adults known for analyzing things clearly totally blow. That the media and the progressives are writing off Sarah Palin having any sort of political future is a given, she and her matter of fact personality scare their Depends into knots. What boggles me is the political commentators from the center and right who are writing off any future for Sarah Palin. What is even worse is their cavalier dismissal denies a very real possibility - namely this time out of the political limelight may be what Sarah needs to more fully learn her strengths and most importantly where her weaknesses lay so they can be corrected.

Would England have had such a forthright and stalwart Prime Minister in Sir Winston Churchill if he had not lost his cabinet post in 1929? And then spent the following decade honing his skills as a leader and being unafraid to go against the flow of appeasement to warn a torpid England of the danger Hitler posed.

Or Richard Milhous Nixon. He was Dwight Eisenhower's Vice President and seemed a shoo-in to be the next president. Then he tangled with Jack Kennedy. Kennedy won in a squeaker and Nixon rather famously said 'you wont have Dick Nixon to kick around.' Then eight years later it was Richard Nixon who became President of the United States and tried to honorably dig the United States out of the Johnson created quagmire called VietNam. Then Richard Nixon resigned during his second term over Watergate and spent the next two decades rebuilding his reputation and becoming an elder statesman Republicans would listen to.

Finally lets look at Ronald Reagan. Former movie star. Former governor of California. And always a man who loved his country as his 1964 speech at the Republican National Convention showed. In the wake of Nixon's resignation, Reagan was rebuffed by the Republican Party which stood behind the nomination of Ford. So James Earl Carter became the next president on a platform of change. Reagan spent these wilderness years becoming better read and more published on national and international affairs. So when 1980 came for the Republicans to pick someone to run against a politically mortally wounded Carter, there was Ronald Reagan. And the following next 8 years literally changed the world as the Warsaw Pact and its Soviet master started to fall apart. And it was under the leadership of Reagan's Vice President George H.W. Bush that the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw countries threw off the yolk of Soviet domination and the USSR fractured into a bunch of new nations.

So to count out Sarah Palin just because she refuses to play the normal game of politics is foolish. Sarah Palin has been counted out before and rose to a higher office as she was proven right. History is replete with people considered washed up who then proceeded to prove the intelligentsia wrong.