-
Veterans In VA Waiting Room Accidentally Form Therapy Group
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Veterans are experiencing improved mental health, better coping skills, and a generally increased sense of well-being, thanks to a therapy group that has formed during the endless hours in Veterans Administration waiting room at the Providence VA Medical Center, Duffel Blog has learned.
“Bob and I sat next to each other for more than eight hours one day, and we just got to talking,” said retired Air Force Master Sgt. Doug “Bubba” Ween. “Now, we see each other every Tuesday morning in the VA waiting room, and we have five or six others who join in while they wait. I have to say, after four months of therapy with Bob, I am feeling really good about things.”
Ween is referring to fellow retired Air Force Master Sgt. Bob Greenstein. Both Air Force veterans are also Providence Rhode Island VA medical center waiting room veterans as well.
“I once waited 7 hours before they told me my doctor went home sick early,” Ween commented. “But somehow I think Bob has waited on hold for longer in trying to schedule an appointment.”
via Veterans In VA Waiting Room Accidentally Form Therapy Group.
More than a grain of truth here, if you’ll recall yesterday’s post on PTSD.
-
The Marketing People at 5-Hour Energy Should be All Over This!
The top defense secretary in North Korea was allegedly executed in a hail of anti-aircraft fire, South Korean news outlets say, for falling asleep at a meeting where Kim Jong-un was speaking.
Though there remains some skepticism regarding the event, certainly there seems to be some credence to the possibility that General Hyon Yong-chol was done away with, because we know that the DPRK has the facility for such an ostentatious (and messy) display of brutality.
But there is a marketing opportunity here. The annoying 5-Hour Energy commercials could become quite a bit more compelling. “Feeling tired? Falling asleep in a meeting with the boss? Don’t be blasted into smoking lumps of bone and flesh! Drink 5-Hour Energy! Now in pomegranate, berry, grape, and citrus orange!”
Wouldn’t it be irony that staunch Communist KJU was the entrepreneurial inspiration for a Capitalist marketing campaign? Sure, the FDA has some warnings about 5-Hour Energy Drinks, such as prolonged use causing heart attacks. But it still has to be less harmful than half a dozen 14.5 slugs to the cranium.
Maybe 5-Hour Energy can pick up the NKPA as a sponsor, to go along with NASCAR and Jim Furyk. Or maybe not, as acquiring personal wealth is a leading cause of being shot to pieces in North Korea.
-
NAS Corpus Christi flooded yesterday.
And apparently 38 planes got a bit deeper in the water than one would hope. It looks like they weren’t too badly damaged, but it is going to take some serious time to inspect them carefully before returning them to flight.
-
Phabulous Phrogs Phlying in Phormation! Pharewell.
U.S. Marines with Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 364, Marine Air Group (MAG) 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing “Fly the Barn” on Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton, Calif., Mar. 31, 2014. After 47 years of flying the CH46, HMM-364, “Flies the Barn” taking off and landing in unison and flying in a mass formation, signifying the transformation to the MV22 Osprey. Produced by Cpl. Megan R. Scullin.
It takes a couple minutes to get going, but then it is a nice little tour. Take off from MCB Camp Pendelton, buzz by MCAS Miramar, down the coast, over Coronado, up San Diego Bay and NAS North Island, and back up the coast to home.
Filmed just over a year ago, it is a fine sendoff to the mighty WarPhrop. HMM-364 is now transitioning to the MV-22B.
-
The Black Knights
We’re used to seeing motivational cruise videos from the F/A-18 Hornet community. Here’s one from the fling-wing crowd, HSC-4 Black Knights, flying the MH-60S.
-
U.S. Marine Helicopter Supporting Earthquake Relief Missing in Nepal – NBC News.com
A U.S. Marine helicopter supporting earthquake relief in Nepal was declared missing Tuesday with eight people on board, a military spokesman said.
The UH-1Y Huey with two Nepalese soldiers and six U.S. Marines on board disappeared over Charikot, Nepal, at about 10 p.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), said U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Army Maj. Dave Eastburn.
via U.S. Marine Helicopter Supporting Earthquake Relief Missing in Nepal – NBC News.com.
Prayers up. Nepal is a difficult operating environment for any helicopter.
-
The A-10 Warthog Anti-Matter Drive
-
Your MUST READ of the day is in, of all places, Vanity Fair.
Sebastian Junger writes on the emotionally charged issue of PTSD and veteran suicide. PTSD is both a real issue for many, and a shield for others, and a club for yet more.
This paragraph leapt out at me:
What all these people seem to miss isn’t danger or loss, per se, but the closeness and cooperation that danger and loss often engender. Humans evolved to survive in extremely harsh environments, and our capacity for cooperation and sharing clearly helped us do that. Structurally, a band of hunter-gatherers and a platoon in combat are almost exactly the same: in each case, the group numbers between 30 and 50 individuals, they sleep in a common area, they conduct patrols, they are completely reliant on one another for support, comfort, and defense, and they share a group identity that most would risk their lives for. Personal interest is subsumed into group interest because personal survival is not possible without group survival. From an evolutionary perspective, it’s not at all surprising that many soldiers respond to combat in positive ways and miss it when it’s gone.
Simply leaving the military life is somewhat, if not traumatizing, certainly disorienting. I left the Army after my first enlistment to attend college. I had a much harder time coping then than I did when I eventually left the service for good. And I think part of that was because my last tour was as a recruiter, which by definition is far more enmeshed in the civilian community.
Like Sal, I have some issues with parts of Junger’s piece (and probably the same ones) but it is a great read overall. Spend the 10 minutes.
-
Military Leadership versus Politics
Just a random thought over my morning coffee. Once in a while, you’ll see something to the effect, particularly in conservative circles, that General X or Retired Military Y should run for president.
I’m not so sure.
Generals tend to be people who flourished in big government. If you’re a conservative, is that really where you want to look to find someone who believes in limited government? The military is a highly centralized organization. While many veterans tend to be quite focused on civil liberties, let us not forget that career military personnel have spent an entire career in an organization where their civil liberties were circumscribed, and in which they circumscribed the civil liberties of everyone who worked for them.
That’s not to say they don’t genuinely believe in the Constitution and honestly and genuinely seek to uphold and defend it. It just means their first inclination to view an issue might not automatically be from a perspective of individual liberty. They’ve spent a career focusing on achieving goals for an organization. You know who else tends to think of political goals in terms of group good? The political left.
Generals tend to make lousy politicians. At its heart, politics consists of a series of compromises, with leaders building consensus from often quite disparate groups. Military leaders simply don’t have to do that. In the end, the people they lead have to follow the leader’s agenda. They may do it enthusiastically, or they may do it grudgingly. But do it they will. Politicians, on the other hand, can propose an agenda, they can work to build support for it, via both carrot and stick, and sell it in numerous ways. But in the end, that agenda has to have some basic level of support from the polity, or it is dead in the water.
The last time we elected a general officer to the Presidency was when Eisenhower won in a landslide in 1952, and coasted again in 1956. And he was a successful President. Why?
Let’s take a look back at Eisenhower’s role in World War II. Beginning in the Torch invasion of North Africa, through the Mediterranean campaign in Italy, to the invasion of Western Europe on D-Day, through the final defeat of Germany, Eisenhower served in a series of commands of Allied forces. Eisenhower quickly grasped that his role was not to defeat the Germans, but rather to hold together the Allied coalition. He was certainly no slouch at the tactical and strategic generalship required for the war, but his greatest strength was to be able to maintain some level of unity of effort between the forces of the British Empire (and later France and a host of other nations) and those of the US. And while Eisenhower was nominally in command of those foreign forces, that command was more nominal than real. Eisenhower had to persuade his British subordinates to follow his proposed courses of action (or quite often, adopt a proposed British course of action as his own).
That same skill at forging consensus and achieving compr0mise served Eisenhower quite well in office.
I cannot think of another general officer since then who has had a similar background that would serve as well in high elected office.
-
1937 Attack Aviation
Unless you’ve got 20 minutes to kill, you can skip this.
On the otter heiney, a couple random th0ughts.
Notice the casual acceptance that chemical weapons would be used. It was simply assumed the other guys would use them, and then so would we. The German and Italian decision to not use chemical weapons meant we and our Allies in World War II also withheld them. We did, however, stockpile chemical weapons overseas just in case. That was not always a happy decision.
Not sure how wild I’d be about being the rear gunner on a plane spraying liquid toxic chemicals.
All you Jade Helm nutbags, also, please note that the Army divided parts of Alabama into Red and Blue, which in those days, Red meant “Hostile.” Even after doing so, they didn’t really bomb and gas Anniston.
Strategic bombardment was the First Family of the Army Air Corps in the late 1930s. It’s something of a toss up, but I’d argue that Attack came in second, with Pursuit (that is, Fighter) aviation coming in third.
The Army Air Forces wouldn’t really receive a viable attack aircraft until the Douglas A-20 Havoc entered service. The A-20 took a roundabout way of entering US service. Originally designed for the AAC, no orders were placed. But the French, seeing war on the horizon, were impressed and placed an order for 100. Only about 60 had been delivered to the French before their collapse in the face of the German Blitzkrieg. Seeing the success of the plane, the Army Air Forces bought large numbers. By that time, in spite of its “A” for Attack designation, it was recognized for what it really was, a light bomber, and the units it equipped were Bombardment squadrons.
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
XBradTC 