-
A couple more thoughts on Brian Williams fabulist problem.
First, it’s a damn shame he felt the need, and worse, the ability, to inflate his performance during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He was there, during what were some pretty trying times, and could easily have told the story of what really happened, and made it compelling and interesting. But of course, rather than telling the story of some stupid kid who didn’t do well in school and found himself sent to Irak, Williams had to be the hero of his own tale. Personally, I’m in awe of what the young soldiers of the Army accomplished during the invasion, and deeply impressed with the challenges and tribulations they faced, and overcame. I think America deserved to hear their stories, not have their actions, their bravery absconded with and told that it was Williams who was the center of the story.
Had he simply told the truth as it happened, he’d have earned the respect both of soldiers, and of the American public.
—————–
Let’s not forget that Brian Williams didn’t just steal from the honor and valor and sacrifice of American soldiers.
Bashing the mainstream media is easy, and for the most part, justified. But there were, and occasionally still are, journalists committed to telling the story of the war, at great personal risk. Let’s also not forget ABC’s Bob Woodruff, critically injured by an IED in Iraq in 2006 at the height of the insurgency.
——————–
https://twitter.com/_crookedcrosses/status/563211071256018944
——————–
Williams isn’t just the NBC Nightly News anchor- he’s the managing editor. He has the responsibility for ensuring the integrity and accuracy of the organization. NBC has had issues before with falsehoods. They are also suffering from poor ratings. There’s no recovery for NBC news unless Williams departs.
And before apologists start coming out of the woods, not only did he brag about it in 2013…
it’s the same story the network peddled in 2003.
-
FAA grants eight more UAS exemptions | Vertical Magazine – The Pulse of the Helicopter Industry
The Federal Aviation Administration has granted eight more regulatory exemptions for commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operations, bringing the total number of exemption grants to 24.
The agency has issued new exemptions to Total Safety U.S. Inc. for flare stack inspections, to Slugwear, Inc. (dba LikeonaTree Aerial) for aerial photography and surveys, and to Team 5, LLC; Shotover Camera Systems LP; Helinet Aviation Services, LLC; and Alan D. Purwin for film and television production. The FAA also amended the exemptions previously granted to Pictorvision, Inc. and Aerial MOB, LLC to let the companies fly additional types of small UAS.
via FAA grants eight more UAS exemptions | Vertical Magazine – The Pulse of the Helicopter Industry.
These small quad-copter type UAS can pose a hazard to aviation. But there’s a fair bit of question whether the FAA even has the statutory authority to arrogate to itself regulatory powers.
I think there’s a good argument to be made that the FAA should have some authority, given that these UAS can pose real hazards to manned aircraft. But the requirement for a valid private pilot license and for a current valid physical are obviously regulatory overreach and overreaction. One can guess that the requirement for a private pilot license is to ensure the operator clearly understands the various restrictions upon the use of the national airspace. That’s a laudable goal, but could easily be ascertained by a simple written test, rather than the expense and time of learning to actually fly a manned aircraft.
-
Jordan’s King May Participate Personally In ISIS Raids | The Daily Caller
Jordan’s King Abdullah ibn al-Hussein, who has trained as a pilot, may fly a bomber himself on Thursday in the country’s retaliation against the ISIS.
Several Arabic-language newspapers reported late Wednesday that the monarch would personally participate in bombing raids on the terrorist group, citing his vow Tuesday to “strike them in their strongholds.”
The king was in Washington when news broke Tuesday of pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh’s demise at the hands of ISIS extremists. Meeting with the House Armed Services Committee shortly before leaving for Amman, he reportedly quoted the Clint Eastwood’s film “Unforgiven” and said that Jordan would pursue the jihadis until it ran “out of fuel and bullets.”
via Jordan’s King May Participate Personally In ISIS Raids | The Daily Caller.
I’m also hearing reports, but haven’t confirmed, that in today’s strikes against Daesh Jordanian jets used napalm.
-
Whose Side are You On?
It is the question Joshua asked before the walls of Jericho.  Asked today of the President of the United States, a truthful answer augurs terribly for the People of Israel.  And for America.
This President is willing to have his State Department meet with members of the Muslim Brotherhood.  For the uninitiated, the Muslim Brotherhood is the spiritual inspiration for Al Qaeda, and for ISIS, and are open supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah.  In the 1940s they were an eager ally of Hitler’s Third Reich.  The Muslim Brotherhood enthusiastically supported the Final Solution, the Holocaust against Europe’s Jews, and still do, never having renounced that position.  But into Foggy Bottom they go. Imagine if, with American servicemen fighting against the Third Reich, the Department of State would have been hosting Primo de Rivera or Francisco Franco from among Spain’s fascists, or Leon Dagrelle from the Rexists, both highly sympathetic to Hitler and the Nazis. Â
This is the same State Department that, with the blessing of the President, sent operatives into Israel to help tip the election against the Prime Minister of an ally nation.  An Administration who took to the pages of the New York Times to threaten that ally with “consequences” should they decide to democratically re-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as their Prime Minister.
The President is desperate for a deal with Iran regarding their development of nuclear weapons, undoing decades of precisely the opposite policy against the advice of virtually every one of America’s allies in the region. Â The President believes we should trust Iran, an Iran whose supreme leader has vowed very recently the destruction of both America and Israel, and an Iran that has already begun testing nuclear detonators.
The President refuses abjectly to even give name to this enemy who slaughters Christians and Jews, and shrieks hatred for the infidel and vows punishment and destruction on the non-believers. Â The President declared long ago, in his autobiography, that he would “stand with the Muslims” should the political winds blow against them. Â Nobody specified if those winds carried the odor of the burning flesh of their victims. Â When those victims included cartoon illustrators in France, murdered in cold blood by Islamists angered at depictions of Muhammed, the President was very conspicuously absent from the world leaders who marched in Paris to show their support for France and condemn Islamic extremism. Â Instead, the President vowed to set aside the First Amendment to keep the press from running stories critical of the Islamists.
This Administration was complicit in the overthrow of the government of one American ally (Egypt) and another country whose dictator had long been cowed into behaving (Libya).  Both countries saw the scourge of radical Islam cause uncounted pain and suffering.  When the Egyptians had had enough of the bloodbaths of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and took to the streets by the millions to topple him, Obama turned his back on Egypt, complaining that the Al-Sisi regime that replaced Morsi was “not democratically elected”.  No matter that Morsi’s first act was to abrogate Egypt’s treaty with Israel, and his next was to formalize the systematic slaughter of the Coptic Christians who had lived in Egypt for millenia.  From the White House came not a word of rebuke for the Muslim Brotherhood or Morsi.
With the bloody two year-long rampage of Boko Haram in full swing, publicity as to the plight of the mostly-Christian victims of the Islamists there came only when the group kidnapped young girls. Â Then, and only then, was the First Lady moved to hold up a hashtag sign, which apparently takes the place of actually doing something.
Those who have sided with this President can spare me the outrage over the horrific death of the brave Jordanian pilot at the hands of ISIS. Â How many hundreds of Americans burned similarly on 9/11 at the hands of Islamic extremists? Â How many children lay screaming and bleeding for hours in Beslan? Â How many in the flames of the churches in Nigeria and Cairo?
If you are outraged over what you saw today, you should be.  If it is the first time you are outraged, great shame on you.  Had they the technical means, our enemy would engineer another holocaust, this time to the entire world, until every nation was destroyed or had submitted.  The willful blindness of the American people aids in the success of this enemy.  Those who labeled Chris Kyle a psychopath and a racist for calling these people barbaric savages, and who condemn him for killing them, need to go and smell the charred bodies of the victims of the Islamists.  They also need to ask themselves why our President refuses to identify our sworn and active enemies by name.  Why he has provided support and succor to that enemy.  And why he has invited that enemy into our country, our cities and towns, and into the halls of power of the United States Government.
Though a truthful answer would never be forthcoming, the question Joshua asked at Jericho should be asked of our President.
Whose side are you on?
-
NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest – Stripes
WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years.
Williams himself repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry.
The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
via NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest – Stripes.
Everyone wants the glory, no one wants the gore.
I’m completely unsurprised that a piece of work like Brian Williams has hopped upon the Stolen Valor express.
-
The Army’s Nuclear Ship
Wired has a piece on the almost billion dollar cost of a mid life overhaul of a Nimitz class carrier. It’s pretty interesting. Not only does it involve refueling the ship’s two nuclear reactors, but the RCOH pretty much rebuilds everything from the bulkheads in. Think of all the plumbing and wiring in a ship designed to last 50 years. The RCOH is the one big opportunity to rebuild a lot of that stuff.
Now, you say, XBrad, that’s nice and all, but what does it have to do with the title of this post? Well, bear with me a bit.
The dawning of the age of nuclear power, as exemplified by the sailing of the USS Nautilus led to something of a frenzy in terms of nuclear power.
For a while, it seemed that in the very near future, everything would be nuclear powered. Heck, the Air Force was researching using nuclear reactors to power bomber aircraft, and actually flew a working reactor aboard a B-36.
The Army, which has always had a strong interest in prime power generation, saw nuclear power as an answer to the challenge of providing prime power in remote locations with little or no infrastructure, especially those that would be difficult to supply. And so it began research and experimentation with very small reactors. Most Army reactors were very compact, and designed to use Highly Enriched Uranium. All of the reactors under the Army Nuclear Power Program (ANPP) were one of a kind prototypes. Powerplants were used in Greenland, Wyoming, Alaska and even Antarctica.
As the wiki entry notes, a lot of the ANPP actually seemed more a solution in search of a problem. But there was one plant that actually helped solve a vexing problem.
The only ANPP plant that didn’t use HEU was the topic at hand. The Army often operates close to shores and ports, for obvious logistical reasons. And again, the need for prime power is often on the mind of the logistician. And so, someone had the idea that the Army could utilize a barge mounted reactor, not for propulsion, but for electricity and fresh water generation.
Rather than building a barge from scratch, the Army took possession of a surplus Liberty ship, and removed the steam boiler and engine, and build in its place, via its contractor Martin Marrietta, a 10 Mv Pressurized Water Reactor with Low Enriched Uranium and associated turbines and distillation machinery. The contract was signed in 1961, construction began in 1963, and by early 1967, the vessel, known as Sturgis (MH-1A) went critical while moored near Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.
While the Sturgis was being built and tested, an actual use for it was found, one that was, in fact, somewhat urgent.
The Panama Canal, was, of course, of strategic interest to the US, and at that time under the administration of the US. The locks of the canal are operated by gravity fed water from Lake Gatun, the body of water in the center of the isthmus when the canal was built. It’s normally replenished by the torrential rains there. Fresh water from the lake fills the locks to lift ships, and then is allowed to flow out into the ocean when the locks are lowered.
Electrical power for the Canal Zone was also powered by water from Lake Gatun, via a hydroelectric station. The combined outflow of water via the locks and the hydro power station meant that during the dry season, the water level in Lake Gatun would fall to unacceptable levels. Power was required just to operate the Canal Zone, and the locks. That meant ship traffic through the canal itself had to be restricted. But if power could be provided without having to use the hydro plant, obviously that water would be available for the locks, increasing throughput of the canal.
And so, after a few months of testing and training at Ft. Belvoir, Sturgis was towed to Panama, and from 1968 to 1975 provided its power to the Canal Zone. It’s estimated that the water savings provided by Sturgis allowed an additional 2500 ship transits per year.
By the mid 1970s, conventional powerplants were built along the eastern and western termini of the canal, and Sturgis’ power was surplus to needs. Furthermore, since she had a one of a kind plant, parts and training were uneconomical. She was returned to the US, defueled, and put into storage in the James River fleet, where today she awaits decommissioning** and disassembly.
*Highly Enriched Uranium is, of course, more “power dense” than Low Enriched Uranium, but it still below weapons grade enriched uranium.
**Decommissioning in this case has a somewhat different meaning than for a warship of the US Navy.
-
I Want One of These
Not sure why. Â I just do.
H/T to Brian P (again)
-
Oak Harbor NJROTC teams heading to national competition – Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp competitive teams are a perennial regional power, but now the Wildcats are aiming to succeed at the national level.
Oak Harbor will sent its orienteering team to the Navy National Championships Feb. 14-15 in Agua Dulce, Calif., and its rifle team to Western Regional Finals Feb. 20-21 in Phoenix, Ariz.
via Oak Harbor NJROTC teams heading to national competition – Whidbey News-Times.
Well done, Wildcats.
We didn’t have orienterring as a competition when I was there back in the stone age. We did have a rifle team. They used .22LR rifles back then, but have since switched to air rifles. Interestingly, the rifle range was in the crawl space under the elementary school.
I tried out, very, very briefly for the rifle team, but my poor vision and the palsy in my hands soon showed me that I was utterly unsuited.
What’s interesting is the travel part for the rifle team. Back in the day, while many meets took place physically, that is, the team would travel to another school’s range and fire for record, many other meets were “postal” in which the targets would be scored, and compared via mail (or really, telephone) to determine winners of geographically separated teams.
-
Sit Down and Shut Up, Stan.
It all started with a question.
In the summer of 2012, Gen. Stanley McChrystal was wrapping up an onstage conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival conference.
He was asked if the US should reinstate the draft.
Yes, he replied, but not to grow the size of the armed forces.
He argued that since only 1% of Americans serve their country, America lacks in shared experience — there’s almost no common background between the upper class and the middle class, the educated and the uneducated, the rural and the urban.
The solution, then, wouldn’t be mandatory military service, but national service — programs like Teach for America and City Year, but made accessible to a full quarter of a yearly cohort rather than an elite few.
via Gen. Stanley McChrystal Has A Plan For All Young Americans To Serve Their Country.
This is a recurring issue with retired general officers. After so long in the service, a very cloistered environment, they forget the purpose of the military, with its spartan lifestyle and service to the state, is to secure the blessings of liberty, not merely to secure the state.
Compulsory service in the military is very easy to justify via the Constitution, given that Congress has the explicit power to raise armies.
Compulsory service to the state, outside military conscription, is both unconstitutional via the 13th Amendment, and abhorrent to the very principals of freedom that nation was founded upon.
GEN McChrystal, who has in the past shown moments of poor judgment, should go back and read the Federalist Papers again, and try to glean a better understanding of the relation of the citizen (not subject) and the state.
The state exists only to serve the citizen. Not the citizen for the state.
-
Sexual Assault Charges, on campus, and in the military.
Instapundit has a good roundup of one of the higher profile cases of alleged sexual assault on campus, wherein Emma Sulkowicz claimed (months later) that her friend Paul Nungesser turned a consensual sexual encounter into a rape.
Subsequent investigations by the university, and by police, cleared Mr. Nungesser of wrongdoing, and yet Ms. Sulkowicz has become a cause celebre on campus via her theatrical carriage of a mattress as supposed evidence that Columbia failed to properly investigate her allegations, and worse, failed to expel Mr. Nungesser, in spite of literally no evidence that he committed any wrongdoing. Cathy Young’s reporting at The Daily Beast is worth reading in its entirety.
And of course, Ms. Sulkowicz, offered the chance to respond to Ms. Young’s questions for the Daily Beast article, tells a sympathetic reporter:
… “Normally I don’t respond to people who use my rapist as collateral in order to make me talk to them…It’s an awful feeling where this reporter is digging through my personal life. At this point I didn’t realize that she’s extremely anti-feminist and would do this in order to shame me.”
You and I surely immediately had the same thought, one that Jim Treacher of course put pithily on Twitter:
In a case that is a good deal more ambiguous, the US Army recently convicted MAJ Erik J. Burgess, a former sexual assault prosecutor, of a variety of sexual assault crimes, and sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment.
But as Jonn notes in a follow-up post, the evidence presented during the Article 32 hearing, while sufficient to clear the low bar of bringing charges, hardly paints a clear cut picture of guilt.
We wrote about Major Burris, a former sexual assault prosecutor for the Army, a few weeks ago when he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for rape. Our friends at MilitaryCorruption.com, however, had a different take on the case. They sent us the results of the Article 32 investigating officer’s report, which I present below;
To be sure, I have not seen the evidence presented at trial. But to my layman’s eye, the accuser’s story stinks. It will be interesting to see what the appeal process finds.
Rape and sexual assault are heinous crimes, and deserving of severe punishment. But we must also remain true to our commitment to justice, and the search for truth.
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
XBradTC 