Archive for May, 2009

I tried to write this long post about patriotism and honor, but I couldn’t get it right.  So I’ll stick to the basics and hope it comes out right.

I sent flags I flew during medevac missions to a few friends, family, and organizations I used to belong to.  I expected a nice thank you and maybe “We support the Troops” type attitude out of the whole thing.  What I didn’t expect was the outpouring of gratitude for the flags I sent.  It was a simple program here where we purchased flags ourselves and flew them on medevac missions.  Then we could print a nice certificate, get the crew to sign it, and “present it” to the individual or organization with a picture of the crew holding the flag.  What ended up happening was very humbling for me.

A reminder of why we observe Memorial Day.

I was in bed and the call came in.  The FST had a patient enroute.  I jumped up, got dressed, and was in the FST before I could blink.  The patient had burned his hands and face during an artillery fire.  The docs were evaluating him and the ER at the FST was hopping.  I asked the Officer in Charge for a status. He gave me the quick down and dirty on the patient.  I stood there watching as the doctors determined the patient did not require urgent medevac and we were stood down.  Way out here at remote FOB Sandflea, we only cover Urgent, Urgent surgical, and Point of Injury calls because we are here all by ourselves.  No back up birds for coverage when we are gone.  We live in 4×6 cubicles in a tent also housing our operations, dining area, and dayroom.  Think Vietnam fire base and you get the idea.

As you have no doubt heard by now, the Dems have done their usual and cut defense spending into nothing.  Many of the future warfighter programs that the military has been developing for years are now dead, leaving us – the men on the ground, without new equipment to keep us safe and alive. Such things as the F-22, the C-37, the DLOS Cannon, naval ships, and all that “Ghost Recon” stuff.  All the current equipment is starting to show its years, and you can only modify an M-16 so much.

Anyway, while they are busy cutting the floor out from under our defense, we are busy giving millions of our tax dollars to Darpa.  To do what you ask?  How about develop telepathy. Yep. Telepathy.  While it sounds cool and all, I can think of much better ways to spend the money.  How about we give it to PEO Soldier to develop a fleece that CSM’s will actually let us wear in public!

At least, that’s the hope of researchers at the Pentagon’s mad-science division Darpa. The agency’s budget for the next fiscal year includes $4 million to start up a program called Silent Talk. The goal is to “allow user-to-user communication on the battlefield without the use of vocalized speech through analysis of neural signals.” That’s on top of the $4 million the Army handed out last year to the University of California to investigate the potential for computer-mediated telepathy.

[...]

The military has been funding a handful of mind-tapping technology recently, and already have monkeys capable of telepathic limb control. Telepathy may also have advantages beyond covert battlefield chatter. Last year, the National Research Council and the Defense Intelligence Agency released a report suggesting that neuroscience might also be useful to “make the enemy obey our commands.” The first step, though, may be getting a grunt to obey his officer’s remotely-transmitted thoughts.
Wired

So, its official.  We are expecting our third baby! It seems that my R&R period was a little more productive than I thought. We were a little surprised, but given our history with the month of April we shouldn’t have been. 

I should actually be home to see this one roll over, walk, talk and all that good stuff I have missed out on, so I am pretty happy.  Granted, God gave us a surprise gift, but another gift nonetheless.  We are happy to be adding this member to our family, and I am looking forward to watching this little one grow.

That’s all the news for now, but stay posted here and at my wife’s blog for more Baby #3 news.

It took 9 years to figure this out? Really?  Sometimes I have to wonder about the think-tankers out there.

Army requires different leaders to fight irregular wars, general says

The Army will require a different type of leader in the fight against terrorism and other kinds of irregular warfare, the Army’s top troop trainer said here today.

[...]

With the advent of terrorism and other types of irregular warfare, he said, the U.S. military now “must develop leaders who are effective in the context of ill-defined problems against an enemy likely to migrate among operational themes.”

- www.army.mil

So after 9 years of lengthy combat against insurgent/terrorist forces, they finally decided that barreling over them in tanks is not such a good idea. Oh, and then there was a little conflict that taught us these lessons about, oh, 35 years ago.  They called it Vietnam, but I guess we kinda forgot about those lessons.  I have gotten a bit jaded I guess.

So, I guess you noticed I have a new look for the site.  Its about 90% done.  Still some tweaking to do, but I was getting tired of the 2 year old theme that was up. I got the idea while browsing Art Deco and other complex and stunning sites.  I tried to make it look like a scrapbook page with “pages written in the field” attached to it.  A complete field journal look just didn’t get me the look and feel I wanted.  I also tried to simplify navigation and reduce the homepage to a simpler style.

I did the graphics myself for this design too.  I wanted to learn more about Photoshop and GIMP, so I played around and learned.  Everything from the crinkles in the paper to the scotch tape effect.  I picked up on masking, bump maps, and other things.  Unfortunately, I did have to use the long lamented Comic Sans font for the dynamic text.  It was the only common web font that resembled the sharpie marker handwriting I was looking for.

On the technical end, to get the feel I wanted I had to go really old school and go hunting up code I haven’t even considered in years.  Things like client-side image maps.  CSS was able to handle most of it though, which was nice.  It will make life easier on the maintenance side.  Expect some more changes over the next little bit.  Mostly things like link colors, titles, and the like.  I am considering bringing a “summary” back although it will decrease the number of articles I can show on the homepage.

So now, because I am deployed and I am curious I would like to hear what you think.  Did I slow down the site too much?  Do you miss summary articles?  Please feel free to leave your thoughts.

So, I have re-entered Hades, having passed the gates for a short reprieve. I am back in Iraq and enjoying the lovely red-tinged, sand engulfed, hot weather.  Its still only a balmy 42C though.

Not a lot has gone on since I got back, but I haven’t been back all that long either.  I do have a new CHU and a new FOB.  My body is busy rejecting all the DFAC food after having gotten used to real food again, and I am having to spend more time than I like in Port-A-Johns that have been heated by the Iraqi sun all day.  Other than that, however, its pretty much business as usual.

I heard this on the radio a little bit ago and verified it on the FDA website.  Fourteen different hydroxycut products have been pulled for serious liver problems ranging from enzyme elevation to death. 

I thought this was really important to get out in the milblogosphere because of the sheer number of soldiers I know who use hydroxycut products.  I know people use these products for weight loss, “cutting up”, staying awake on patrol, and a wide variety of other uses – recommended and otherwise.  I have even used the product in the past, although I can’t now because of flight status.  I have said it before, and now more than ever it holds true,  we don’t know what the long range effects of these “natural supplements” is.  They are not regulated by the FDA, no long term studies have been done, and the individual dosing varies based on several factors. They are rough on the kidneys and liver, as well as shifting the homeostasis of the body in order to increase metabolism, etc.  I don’t care if its Hydroxycut, NitRX, or any of the other slew of body building, weight loss, or metabolic supplements, you just can’t be 100% sure of their safety so use them with caution.  Being on dialysis at 45 or 50 because your kidneys shut down is not fun.  Hydroxcut was considered “perfectly safe” until today.

I don’t often do this, but since I have a small readership, Please pass this on to the blogs, twitter streams, etc of soldiers and people you know.

Anyway, off my soap box and onto the quotes: