TBT…

Posted on by September 23, 2020

Sonobuoys were the main way we tracked subs back in the day. I really hate to think how many TONS of those damn things I handled, one at a time, over the years…

Weighing 15 to 39 lbs, we carried 80+ of them on every mission. The ‘fun’ was getting them loaded, especially if the weather wasn’t great. This pic shows the ordie pushing a buoy into the external launch tube. In the rain… What you don’t see is the other folks standing off to the left with the buoy cart, out IN the rain, no hats, no rain gear, water running down the backs of their necks, checking each buoy for all its settings before handing it to him to be shoved into a specific tube. On a good day, this took, give or take, a half hour. On a bad day, it could easily run an hour. THEN you have to hump another 30+ up the stairs on the left into the interior racks. By the time you got in the airplane, you were soaking wet and not in a good mood… Trust me on that… And we did it day after day!

Note that each chute has a specific letter/number combination. Once inside, all of those buoys then had to be typed into the onboard computer so they could be deployed when required. And if you ever made a mistake, there was hell to pay! Trying to find the ‘missing’ buoy was fun… Especially if it wasn’t supposed to be a pinger, and it started pinging on the ‘wrong’ target… 😉

Oh, and this was actually a nice day, compared to some; where we were, we’ve loaded in a monsoon, in snow storms, and in 100+ degree heat.

Finally!!!

Posted on by September 22, 2020

The Navy (and all services) are still paying the price for sequestration under Obama…

It has been five years since the attack submarine Boise returned from its last patrol, and this whole time she has been waiting on some loving care and attention in the shipyards.

Full article, HERE.

Things like this crap are why the ships/crews/subs/aircraft are beat to crap, tired, and frustrated. When you can’t get maintenance done, this has a rolling impact on scheduling as ‘somebody’ has to pick up the slack and take that cruise. There was a big push under Bush to get the OPTEMPO/PERSTEMPO mismatch under control, and that was starting to work until sequestration hit.

Can you imagine being stationed on a sub that can’t go anywhere??? FOR FIVE YEARS??? While watching other crews have to do your job?

We need an effective, efficient military now more than ever, with the Russians becoming more active again, the Chinese expansion, etc.

It’s gotten so bad in the ASW community, that the Navy has had to do ‘exercises’ to find out just how much capability has been lost…

As U.S. Navy brass continues to sound the alarm about Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, the sea service kicked off an exercise this week to hone the sort of anti-sub warfare skills that fell by the wayside in the post-9/11 world.

Full article, HERE.

An interesting perspective…

Posted on by September 21, 2020

Ammo.com has a new post up that makes one think…

While there are few perfect analogs to be found anywhere in world history, there are parallels between the contemporary domestic political situation in the United States and the period immediately before and during the Spanish Civil War. And while the situation in the United States might play out in a much similar way to the Spanish Civil War, it is worth noting that our previous Civil War was the bloodiest in human history. There is little doubt that a Second American Civil War would not be significantly more destructive.

Full article, HERE.

They do raise some interesting points and it’s worth thinking about the parallels. I, for one, hope we DO NOT end up in this kind of situation. I hope…

Sigh…

Posted on by September 20, 2020

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last week, a victim of cancer. She wasn’t dead an hour before the hissy fits started…

For God’s sakes people, give the woman’s family the dignity to quietly grieve and to bury her before you start dancing on the damn body!

I may not have liked a lot of her decisions, but I always respected her as a jurist who followed her beliefs and did what she thought was right on the highest bench. You have to honor her for that.

Kudos to Michael Ramirez for this ‘toon… Well done, sir!

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

ROTF…

Posted on by September 18, 2020

Now THIS is real, important science…

Kudos to them for figuring out how to brew and drink coffee normally (more or less)!

Before, they had to suck it out of a straw, and if they wanted anything added, it had to be done by NASA prior to ‘packaging’ before it came up to space.

Three dogs…

Posted on by September 18, 2020

Soooo… PP came home to a ‘new’ puppy, a 13 month old Rottie female…

Who apparently has as much ball drive as Vito had. However…

When she doesn’t get the ball in time, the two Labs, who will fight over/play tug of war with ANYTHING they can both get their teeth into…

And the poor Rottie is left without a ball, and no room to get her teeth into the ball… LOL

Bless his heart…

Posted on by September 17, 2020

Sooo… Yesterday evening, I’m at the local grocery store with a set of gas pumps offset from the main store, filling up my tank when a high end Mercedes SUV comes pulling in with a low tire… I’m standing maybe 20 feet away and I’m wondering who is driving.

It’s got a vanity plate, and is from Dallas. Out climbs this 20 something yuppie, you know the type, perfect hair, de rigueur gold rimmed aviator sunglasses, carefully groomed moustache, pink oxford button down, khaki shorts, and boat shoes…

He walks around the back of the SUV, looks down at the tire, kicks it, and goes over to the air machine. He picks up the hose, looks at it (it’s obvious he’s never seen one of these up close), tries various things, drops it in disgust, and goes stomping into the little store/gas office.

A minute or so later, the lady on duty comes out, points to the slot on the side of the air machine and says rather loudly, “You’ve got to put money in it. Right there!”

He sniffed (I kid you not), and said, “I never carry cash.”

Disgusted, she shakes her head and replies, again loudly, “Well, sir, I would suggest you walk over to the main store and use the ATM, or (where, oh where is the sarcasm font when I need it), you can call Mercedes service. I’m sure they would be happy to come out and help you.”

He looked at the distance to the main store (probably 60 yards), went back and got in the SUV. She walked by me shaking her head and muttering imprecations under her breath, including ‘Bless his heart’…

When I left, he was on the phone, to whom I have no idea, but if he DID call for service, I’d love to see the tech’s expression when he shows up to find this high end SUV PARKED IN FRONT OF THE AIR MACHINE!!!

I laughed all the way home…

Edit- Dayum, that is an EXPENSIVE SUV Mercedes GLS580 starts at $98,000!!!

 

I’ll take…

Posted on by September 16, 2020

Not as young as I used to be for $500, Alex.

Sigh… 3 1/2 hours volunteer work yesterday morning tearing out drywall, dissembling a bar, and moving a #%%($@ mirror that I swear to Ghnu weighed over 100 lbs (it was bolted, screwed and tapped into the 2xs holding up the wall). OBTW, this was in a metal building with no air, 85% humidity, and no airflow. I came home with white hair, just about able to wring sweat out of my shirt, hacking up half a lung from the drywall dust, etc.

And three hours later, got out and walked 1 1/4 mile mowing my yard… for a total of 3.4 miles today. But at least the humidity was down to 60%!

Needless to say, I’m NOT up to par today! My ass is draggin…

Guess I’ll go get a haircut later… Sigh…

Oops…

Posted on by September 16, 2020

Was volunteering this morning for some cleanup efforts, forgot to put up a blog post. My bad… Go read the folks on the sidebar!!!

Sorry!!!

PR stunt or CYA or???

Posted on by September 13, 2020

CA Gov Newsome signed AB-2147 (Convictions: expungement: incarcerated individual hand crews) on Friday, HERE…

There are some ‘interesting’ provisions for who can and can’t have expungement…

1203.4b.

 (a) (1) If a defendant successfully participated in the California Conservation Camp program as an incarcerated individual hand crew member, as determined by the Secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, or successfully participated as a member of a county incarcerated individual hand crew, as determined by the appropriate county authority, and has been released from custody, the defendant is eligible for relief pursuant to this section, except that incarcerated individuals who have been convicted of any of the following crimes are automatically ineligible for relief pursuant to this section:

(A) Murder.
(B) Kidnapping.
(C) Rape as defined in paragraph (2) or (6) of subdivision (a) of Section 261 or paragraph (1) or (4) of subdivision (a) of Section 262.
(D) Lewd acts on a child under 14 years of age, as defined in Section 288.
(E) Any felony punishable by death or imprisonment in the state prison for life.
(F) Any sex offense requiring registration pursuant to Section 290.
(G) Escape from a secure perimeter within the previous 10 years.
(H) Arson.
Note that drug dealers, manufacturers, domestic violence, etc. ARE allowed to request expungement…
And there is this interesting little sentence hidden further down in the bill…
(2) The order shall state, and the defendant shall be informed, that the order does not relieve the defendant of the obligation to disclose the conviction in response to any direct question contained in any questionnaire or application for licensure by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing, a peace officer, public office, or for contracting with the California State Lottery Commission. 
Now where I (and PP, and others who know about EMS) have a problem is, what is carried on ALS units? Drugs!!! So a felon drug dealer/domestic abuser who gets his conviction expunged can become a Fire/EMS person WITH access to the drug boxes and the hiring authority cannot ask what their conviction was… Ain’t THAT speshul!
Personally, I think this is a CYA move by Newsome, as, per PP, firefighters/EMS are wore slap out trying to fight the multitude of fires without the normal complement of CCC inmate volunteers.
Also, in Oregon, the state fire marshal is gone!
The Oregon State Police on Saturday announced Fire Marshal Jim Walker had been put on paid administrative leave. Then, later in the day, the state police announced its superintendent had accepted a resignation offer from Walker.
Apparently there was a ‘loss of confidence’… Full article, HERE.
There is a definite ‘thinning of the herd’ among senior LEOs/Fire/EMS personnel in the Northwest…
Makes one wonder if there will be enough folks left to even manage the crap going on…