Ladies and Gentlemen...

… presenting the World’s Greatest Military Aerial Demonstration Team…Your United States Air Force THUNDERBIRDS!

Doesn’t that just make ya wanna hit that VALOUR-IT “Donate” button? Just a lil bit? Go on, you know you want to…and Team Air Force NEEDS the help. Badly.

Vid stolen /purloined/borrowed or otherwise lifted from Laurie, who had it first. And too bad about that soundtrack, which sucketh mightily. I'd have used this (or another version of the same song)…if it had been me adding sound to this great vid.

War Story

Dunno if you’ve been following it or not, Gentle Reader, but Blog-Buddy Mushy has been posting a series of reminisces about his life as a Security Policeman in the USAF back in The Good Ol’ Days, which would be circa 1964 (or so) and onwards. It’s good stuff, especially if you happened to be in the service during that time…and even if you weren’t.

While Mushy and I have a couple of things in common… to wit, the time period during which we served and Keesler AFB (he was permanent party, I was a student in radar school)… Mushy has a much better memory than I do when it comes to remembering people, places and things in the waaay-back. I’m not sure why my memory is… uh…less than sharp, but I strongly suspect it has something a lot to do with what I will euphemistically describe as “bad habits” in my past lives. Highly entertaining bad habits, but bad nonetheless. But I digress.

I went into the Air Force in 1963, a scant 18 years after the end of Big Bang II. So, it stands to reason there were still more than a few career types on board who had served in WW II. Like every general and colonel in the Air Force at that time, most lieutenant colonels, and quite a few majors as well. Not to mention the guys in the senior NCO ranks. And there was also another phenomenon one ran into once in a while in those days: former officers who had been RIF’ed into the enlisted ranks.

The late 50s and early 60s were hard times, relatively speaking, for the military. The Air Force had gone through some pretty serious personnel Reductions In Force (RIF) prior to the Vietnam build-up. As I recall, officers who were tagged for involuntary separation as a result of a RIF action and had 16 years (or more) service were offered the “option” of enlisting as E4 and continuing on active duty until they reached that magic 20 year point, at which time they could retire at the “highest grade held,” which was usually captain or major. In other cases, officers on the RIF list who had held a prior enlisted grade higher than E4 before being commissioned were allowed to “revert” to that grade and continue on until they hit 20.

The first First Sergeant I ever had was in the last category. He was the First Sergeant of the 3383^rd School Squadron at Keesler AFB and was one of the sharpest looking NCOs I had ever seen, bar none. He was a distinguished looking Master Sergeant with white hair and ramrod straight posture that made him look like he was on the parade ground even while just walking from his car to the squadron orderly room. And I never, ever saw the man in anything but his Class A silver-tans (pic on the left), a uniform that was being phased out but was still “optional” at that time. My First Sergeant also had a chest full of ribbons on his Class As as well, more than any other man in uniform I’d ever seen up close and personal at that point in my very brief career. And that impressive collection of ribbons was topped by something highly unusual for a noncom: command pilot wings.

Keep in mind, Gentle Reader, I was but a jeep airman with one-stripe on my sleeve and all of perhaps three months in the service. But, being fresh out of basic with a head full of force-fed, drilled-in military history, customs, and courtesies (and having acquired some beneficial military knowledge as an Air Force brat), I knew sergeants didn’t fly airplanes. (As a general rule—there were exceptions.) And, believe me, back in that day a one-striper student airman just didn’t walk up to a Master Sergeant and say “Hey Sarge! What’s the story on the wings?” Not if he wanted body and soul to stay joined. Or unless he had some sort of unnatural desire for hours upon hours of extra duty. Nope, you stayed out of those guys’ way, period. You tried your best to be invisible.

Still, I was curious. So I brought it up with my Red Rope…a student leader… who brought it up with the Yellow Rope, and so on. Let’s take a minor digression here. About “Ropes.”

USAF technical schools are also military training environments, with the usual marching, drill, KP, parades, inspections, and the like. Many hundreds of trainees are assigned to individual school squadrons on a given training base, squadrons whose sole purpose in life is to move these students through the “pipeline” as quickly and efficiently as possible, while maintaining military discipline.

The personnel complement in a school squadron is divided between the students (transients) and “permanent party,” guys who are on three year (average) tours at that base. The permanent party organization in a school squadron basically consists of a commander (usually a lieutenant or junior captain), a first sergeant, an admin function, and a Military Training function, staffed by two Military Training Instructors (MTIs— usually staff or technical sergeants)…professional drill sergeants, in other words.

The MTIs are the guys who are actually in charge of the troops, and they have a cadre of student leaders working for them. Each squadron is organized into three shifts…A, B, and C. Each shift is led by a White Rope, and is organized into smaller sub-units of about 40 men, led by a Yellow Rope. And those sub-units go down to the lowest element of about ten men, led by a Red Rope. Ropes were students and were almost always Airmen Second Class, or two-stripers. Their authority was limited, but it was authority…and Ropes had small perks and privileges, one of which was exemption from actual physical labor…they “supervised.” Rather long digression, eh?

So. Back to my First Sergeant. It turned out, the story went, that this guy was indeed a command pilot and a former major who had flown B-17s in WW II. He had been caught up in a RIF action a couple of years before and reverted to his old rank of Master Sergeant, which he had held before being selected for pilot training during WW II. It was said he had one year to go before he retired. We, my Red Rope and myself, had this story passed down to us from the senior Ropes, who got it from the MTIs, who worshipped the First Sergeant. As a matter of fact, the story had it that our First Sergeant wielded more power… not just in our squadron, but on the base itself… and knew more people than any collection of six student squadron commanders. That story wasn’t particularly hard to believe. One would assume “the network” remains intact, even if your status changes. These sorts of bonds are strong, Gentle Reader, in ways you cannot imagine.

I wish I could have gotten to know that First Sergeant, whose name I cannot recall. But times were different then. The military has a strong caste system although it’s gotten kindler and gentler, especially in the Air Force, over the years. Back in 1963 it was unthinkable for a one-striper to engage a senior NCO in casual conversation, especially conversation of a personal nature. And speaking of that caste system… ponder, if you will, Gentle Reader, what it must have meant for my First Sergeant to go to work one day as a major and then go back to work the following day as a Master Sergeant. Granted, one wouldn’t remain in the same unit, or even on the same base. Such a transition in status was always softened by a change in physical assignment. Still and even, it had to be hard. I’ll bet my First Sergeant had some great war stories in that space. Many and varied, too.

Consider also what it must have been like for those other unfortunates who were RIFed and had no higher enlisted rank to return to. Those guys went to being E4s… Airman First Class at the time… a grade that didn’t have NCO status. Now those guys had it hard, comparatively speaking. But in the end they laughed all the way to the bank…their retirement checks contained substantially more money than any sergeant’s. I’m sure it was worth the price they paid.

(War) Planes, (Steam) Trains and Automobiles Big Yellow Taxis (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Didja know the Troofers hold conventions? I sorta suspected they did, but Sonny Bunch at The Weekly Standard actually went to a couple…and reports on ‘em here.

NY 9/11 Truth held its anniversary celebration, "The 9/11 Truth: Ready for Mainstream," at the Cooper Union in New York City last week. Frequently citing Abraham Lincoln--who forcefully articulated his political philosophy on the same stage 147 years earlier--the Truthers invited to speak seemed less interested in discussing the intricacies of the various plots they claim to have uncovered than in shoehorning 9/11 into causes they supported long before the terrorist atrocities of that day. Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a Lakota radio host, said he wasn't at all surprised by the events of 9/11 because "America [has been] an 'inside job' since 1492." Mya Schone, another staple of liberal talk radio, entitled her speech "9/11 and the Oppressive Apparatus of the Capitalist State."

Attendance was sparse. Despite warnings to get tickets in advance in order to assure a seat, Cooper Union's Great Hall was at perhaps 25 percent of capacity on the first day. Even fewer showed up on the second day. Truthers varied in age, but the uniform of the event seemed to be T-shirts sporting slogans like "9/11 was an inside job!" and "Impeach Bush." Devotees of Lyndon LaRouche were staked outfront of the premises, warning that the ideas contained within the literature were "heavy, important, man." The LaRouchies seemed to realize they weren't welcome at the event, but it's hard to think that the sermon they were preaching was any more outlandish than, say, that of Alfred Webre, who was given 45 minutes to talk on the topics "9/11 as a war crime" and the "development of [an] international tribunal" for the Bush administration. After touching on those subjects (to great applause), he veered off course, arguing that an "artificial intelligence matrix" controlled by the Rothschild family might have caused 9/11, that the cancer rate in Iraq now stands at 30 percent, that AIDS is a biological weapon created to control the population, that global warming is being caused by a black hole 23 light years from Earth, and that the NYPD was employing a supersonic crowd disruption device that was depressing turnout.

And there’s more, much more. This sort of stuff would be funny if it weren’t for the facts that they’re talking about terrorist attacks on America — attacks that caused massive loss of life and untold billions of dollars in destroyed property and lost business income. That, and the fact these frickin’ idiots are delusional and paranoid enough to think our government is behind it all. It’s too bad “stupid” isn’t painful.

They’re beyond redemption. WAY beyond…

OK…I gotta bookmark this blog for those days when I’m either uninspired or lacking something, anything, of substance to write about: “The Conscience of a Liberal.”

Introducing This Blog

“I was born in 1953. Like the rest of my generation, I took the America I grew up in for granted – in fact, like many in my generation I railed against the very real injustices of our society, marched against the bombing of Cambodia, went door to door for liberal candidates. It’s only in retrospect that the political and economic environment of my youth stands revealed as a paradise lost, an exceptional episode in our nation’s history.”

That’s the opening paragraph of my new book, The Conscience of a Liberal. It’s a book about what has happened to the America I grew up in and why, a story that I argue revolves around the politics and economics of inequality.

I’ve given this New York Times blog the same name, because the politics and economics of inequality will, I expect, be central to many of the blog posts – although I also expect to be posting on a lot of other issues, from health care to high-speed Internet access, from productivity to poll analysis.

And Mr. Krugman is still railing, and will continue railing from now until he draws his last breath. I think he got his book title right, though. American Liberals: ALL “conscience” and little-to-no actual thought. Because there’s just SO much wrong and very little right with America, ya know.

Now I just have to remember he exists on those days when I need blog-fodder. Easy pickings.

Speaking of easy pickings…I’m sure you’ve heard TimesSelect is no more. That means Krugman, Dowd, and Rich are available for mocking by the Great Unwashed Masses now. Heh.

Good news, bad news…in The Times (UK):

An accidental explosion in a secret weapons facility in Syria killed dozens of Syrian and Iranian military engineers as they were trying to mount a chemical warhead on a Scud missile in July, a report has claimed.

Fifteen military personnel and “dozens” of Iranian advisers died when the fuel for the missile caught fire and the weapon exploded.

A cloud of chemical and nerve gases, that included the deadly VX and Sarin agents as well as mustard gas, was sent across the facility in the northern city of Aleppo, according to a new report in Jane's Defence Weekly.

The bad news, of course, is that the Iranians and the Syrians apparently have a very active chemical weapons program going in Syria. I’m sure you can figure out what the good part is. And there’s more of note in the linked article… unrelated speculation about that Israeli air strike that everyone and no one is talking about…

The Goddess Sings: Joni Mitchell reworks Big Yellow Taxi; UK exclusive: listen to the singer's new version of the 1970 hit. OK, I’ve had this playing (on loop) for about ten minutes now, and at the risk of being branded a heretic, I think I like it better than the original. Joni hasn’t recorded new stuff in a coon’s age, but she’s back! And sounding just as good as ever. If not better.

I love this woman…

Speaking of women I love… Heather Wilson (R-NM) co-sponsored H. CON. RES. 207: “Recognizing the 60th anniversary of the United States Air Force as an independent military service.” Full text here. Excerpts:

Whereas General Henry H. `Hap' Arnold drew upon the industrial prowess and human resources of the United States to transform the Army Air Corps from a force of 22,400 men and 2,402 aircraft in 1939 to a peak wartime strength of 2.4 million personnel and 79,908 aircraft;

Whereas the standard for courage, flexibility, and intrepidity in combat was established for all Airmen during the first aerial raid in the Pacific Theater on April 18, 1942, when Lieutenant Colonel James `Jimmy' H. Doolittle led 16 North American B-25 Mitchell bombers in a joint operation from the deck of the naval carrier USS Hornet to strike the Japanese mainland in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor;

[…]

Whereas the Air National Guard was also created by the National Security Act of 1947 and has played a vital role in guarding the United States and defending freedom in nearly every major conflict and contingency since its inception;

Whereas on October 14, 1947, the USAF demonstrated its historic and ongoing commitment to technological innovation when Captain Charles `Chuck' Yeager piloted the X-1 developmental rocket plane to a speed of Mach 1.07, becoming the first flyer to break the sound barrier in a powered aircraft in level flight;

Whereas the USAF Reserve, created April 14, 1948, is comprised of Citizen Airmen who steadfastly sacrifice personal fortune and family comfort in order to serve as unrivaled wingmen of the active duty USAF in every deployment, mission, and battlefield around the globe;

[…]

Whereas in the early years of the Cold War, the USAF's arsenal of bombers, such as the long-range Convair B-58 Hustler and B-36 Peacemaker, and the Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress, under the command of General Curtis LeMay served as the United States' preeminent deterrent against Soviet Union forces and were later augmented by the development and deployment of medium range and intercontinental ballistic missiles, such as the Titan and Minuteman developed by General Bernard A. Schriever;

[…]

Whereas, for 17 consecutive years beginning with 1990, Airmen have been engaged in full-time combat operations ranging from Desert Shield to Iraqi Freedom, and have shown themselves to be an expeditionary air and space force of outstanding capability ready to fight and win wars of the United States when and where Airmen are called upon to do so;

[…]

Whereas during the past 60 years, the USAF has repeatedly proved its value to the Nation, fulfilling its critical role in national defense, and protecting peace, liberty, and freedom throughout the world: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress remembers, honors, and commends the achievements of the United States Air Force in serving and defending the United States on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the United States Air Force as an independent military service.

Thanks, Heather.

Today’s Pic: Is another C&TRR train vid. Details as in yesterday’s post. No dead presidents' faces (or dead comedians, either) this time around.

Sunday Diversions

OK…I fell for it… I started seeing the ads day before yesterday, and last evening I went to CavemansCrib. I spent at least an hour on the site and didn’t see everything. But I watched most of the videos. I listened to the answering machine messages. I read the text messages on his phone. I peeked through the annotated copies of Don Quixote and War and Peace in the library. I stumbled in on Our Host in the shower (and got yelled at). I perused the playlist on the mini-stereo. I listened to “Remind Me” all the way through. And I ogled the décor in the upscale apartment, including moving the Esperanto fridge magnets around to create silly sayings. In Esperanto. And it’s cool. Way cool. Lots of parody and satire, very little “Geico.”

Further on those anonymous “corporate” edits of Wikipedia (a topic in this post last Wednesday)…

And The New York Times Company is among those whose employees have made, among hundreds of innocuous changes, a handful of questionable edits. A change to the page on President Bush, for instance, repeated the word “jerk” 12 times. And in the entry for Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, the word “pianist” was changed to “penis.”

“It’s impossible to determine who did any of these things,” said Craig R. Whitney, the standards editor of The Times. “But you can only shake your head when you see what was done to the George Bush and Condoleezza Rice entries.”

Mr. Whitney was shaking his head because the NYT’s anonymous Wiki editors left out “poopy head” on the GWB page… The NYT editorial staff will provide more oversight in future anonymous Wiki edits. I'm sure.

I posted an article from Reason Magazine, a relatively low-circulation rag read mostly by Libertarians, on the War on Drugs the day before yesterday. Today, the lead article in the WaPo’s second section is…you guessed it…the War on Drugs:

The problem starts with prohibition, the basis of the war on drugs. The theory is that if you hurt the producers and consumers of drugs badly enough, they'll stop doing what they're doing. But instead, the trade goes underground, which means that the state's only contact with it is through law enforcement, i.e. busting those involved, whether producers, distributors or users. But so vast is the demand for drugs in the United States, the European Union and the Far East that nobody has anything approaching the ability to police the trade.

Prohibition gives narcotics huge added value as a commodity. Once traffickers get around the business risks -- getting busted or being shot by competitors -- they stand to make vast profits. A confidential strategy report prepared in 2005 for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet and later leaked to the media offered one of the most damning indictments of the efficacy of the drug war. Law enforcement agencies seize less than 20 percent of the 700 tons of cocaine and 550 tons of heroin produced annually. According to the report, they would have to seize 60 to 80 percent to make the industry unprofitable for the traffickers.

The article doesn’t break any new ground and doesn’t offer alternatives to the WoD. But it does offer some compelling tales of corruption, billions upon billions of wasted dollars, and ruined lives. And then there’s the terror connection…specifically the relationship between the Taliban, poppy growers, and the US government’s policies towards poppy cultivation — which may be summed up in one word: eradication. You wanna guess who’s winning and who’s losing that particular war, Gentle Reader? Pretty scary stuff.

I’ve read that the very definition of “stupid” is repeating the same action over, and over, and over again while expecting different outcomes. Sounds like the War on Drugs to me.

In The Times (UK)… “Scientists hail ‘frozen smoke’ as material that will change world.”

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”

I’ve never heard of aerogel until now. But it sounds like pretty nifty stuff. (Do people use “nifty” any longer? Or am I dating myself, again?)

Local stuff: “Review for Special Operations Begins Monday:”

The wait to find out the future of Cannon Air Force Base is about over.

The Secretary of the Air Force is expected to review proposed changes at Cannon this week as part of the base’s switch to Air Force Special Operations Command.

Today marks the end of a 30-day public comment period on the final draft of the Environmental Impact Statement, the last hurdle in the 16th Special Operations Wing being placed at Cannon.

AFSOC is scheduled to assume command of Cannon Oct. 1.

Cannon was awarded the new mission in June 2006 after the 27th Fighter Wing was ordered shuttered during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure recommendations.

Under the proposal, the 16th Special Operations Wing mission would include 108 aircraft and more than 5,000 military personnel, civilians and contractors by the year 2010.

Review of the final EIS is expected to begin Monday, AFSOC spokeswoman Denise Boyd said.

“Everything we’ve been doing for the past year have been proposals but nothing could be firm,” she said.

The realignment of Cannon from ACC to AFSOC never was a “done deal.” But everyone is fairly certain it’s gonna happen. We’ll see now, won’t we? The interesting bit in all this is that Cannon is expected to grow about 17% over its current size when AFSOC moves in. And that’s good for the communities…Clovis and Portales…involved. Clovis, mostly, but Portales will experience growth, as well. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

And finally… from Good Buddy Ed in Florida, a little local color:

A Texas Tech graduate, a University of Texas grad and a Texas Aggie were sitting in a bar in San Antonio. The view of the river was fantastic, the beer was ice cold and the food exceptional.

"But," said the guy from Tech, "I still prefer the beer joints back in Lubbock. There's one place where the owner goes out of his way for the locals. When you buy 4 beers, he will buy the 5th."

The Longhorn said "Well, at my local bar in Austin, the owner will buy your 3rd drink after you've bought 2."

"Hell, that's nothin'," the Aggie responded. "Back in College Station there's this bar where the moment you set foot in the place they'll buy you a drink and keep them coming all night. Then when you've had enough to drink, they take you upstairs and see that you get laid. And it's all on the house."

The Red Raider and the Longhorn immediately doubted the Aggie's claims. "And this actually happened to you?" asked the Tech grad.

No, not myself personally," admitted the Aggie. "But it did happen to my sister."

I use “local” in the sense that Tech is just down the road a piece. And besides that, I loves me some Aggie jokes.

Today’s Pic: A member of a Brazilian samba troupe in elaborate costume at the Houston International Festival. (The festival spotlights a different country every year. The featured country at Festival 2000 was Brazil; this year it was China.) One wonders just how the woman could walk around in that get-up, let alone dance. But dance she did. I was mesmerized.

This is another of my first-generation digital camera photos…taken with a Kodak camera sporting a mere, measly one megapixel CCD. The camera was pretty good in its day, that day being the time when we were amazed that digital photography even existed at all, and didn’t give a whole lot of thought or care to things like resolution, etc. My how times have changed.

Houston. April, 2000.