Calories…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Since we’re coming up on Christmas…

Here’s the guide to calorie-burning activities and the number of calories per hour they consume.

Beating around the bush. . . . . . . . .75
Jumping to conclusions . . . . . . . . ..100
Climbing the walls . . . . . . . . . . ……150
Swallowing your pride. . . . . . . … . .50
Passing the buck . . . . . . . . . . . …….25
Throwing your weight around
(depending on your weight). . . …. . 50-300
Dragging your heels. . . . . . . . . …… 100
Pushing your luck. . . . . . . . . . . …….250
Making mountains out of molehills. 500
Hitting the nail on the head . . . . … .50
Wading through paperwork . . . .  . 300
Bending over backwards . . . . . . . . 75
Jumping on the bandwagon . . . . . . 200
Balancing the books. . . . . . . . . . ….25
Running around in circles. . . . . . . .350
Eating crow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Tooting your own horn. . . . . . . . . .25
Climbing the ladder of success . . . 750
Pulling out the stops. . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Adding fuel to the fire. . . . . . . . . . 160
Wrapping it up at the day’s end. . . 12
Opening a can of worms . . . . . . . . 50
Putting your foot in your mouth. . .300
Starting the ball rolling. . . . . . . . . . 90
Going over the edge. . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Picking up the pieces after. . . . . . . 350
Counting eggs before they hatch. . .6
Calling it quits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2


You may use as necessary to figure out your holiday exercise schedule… or not… 🙂

Hoplophobia, it’s alive and well…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

And living in the DC area…


I had a rather interesting little confrontation on an elevator yesterday. It was raining all day and I knew I had to visit a number of buildings, so I had on boots, an old fashioned (hell, an OLD) waterproof western duster, and a Drizabone hat.  As I stepped onto the elevator in one particular building, two metrocons or metrosexuals or whatever the term is, commented on how ‘retro’ I looked, and the one that I ‘think’ was the boy (it had the deeper voice and only one earring), chirped (can’t think of a better word for the way it sounded), “Oh, do you have the cowboy hat to go with that outfit?”


My answer was,  “yes, and the six gun too!” with a grin…


Both of them literally got pale and moved as FAR away from me as they could (it was an elevator), and stood there trembling!!!


They got off at the first floor where the doors opened, staying as far from me as they could.  And looked back at me like I was going to shoot them in the back when they left.


An older lady standing next to me just started laughing, muttered about damn kids, and said that wasn’t the floor they punched in.


She then asked, in a Texas twang, if my six shooter was a Peacemaker. When I told her it was, she said she still has her Grandfather’s and still shoots it occasionally.


So Hoplophobia is alive and well, and apparently a trained response of the metrocon/metrosexuals…


I’m really beginning to wonder what kind of world we’ll be living in when these kids take over…


And a sidenote, MSWord thinks Hoplophobia is a mis-spelling…

And Peter has an OUTSTANDING post up HERE, that y’all need to go read. He’s done the due diligence, sifted the hype, and looked in corners most people miss.  I will say I concur 100% with what he’s written, and this is one of the best precis of the current situation I’ve seen anywhere, including magazines and the MSM (such as they are)…

Pearl Harbor Day…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

This year is the 70th anniversary of the “Day that will live in Infamy”; and it surely has…


You can go HERE and read/listen to the whole speech by President Roosevelt. 

The USS Arizona, not long after being hit by Japanese bombs.

And today… The Arizona Memorial stands as a reminder of ALL the war dead at Pearl Harbor.



This wall contains 1,177 names of the personnel who died onboard that day, there is now an adjunct list of survivors who have had their remains returned to the USS Arizona, so that they might be reunited with their shipmates.


The Pearl Harbor survivors no longer make the trip to Hawaii, as I believe even the youngest is almost 90 and they are passing at a horrendous rate…


Remember, today the flag is flown at half mast all day; in memorial to all those who died that day.


In a sad aside, the remains of MCAS Ewa (the first place actually attacked) will probably plowed under shortly; a long effort to preserve at least the bits and pieces that remain will be lost to commercial development…


RIP Shipmates, we’re still trying to do the right thing. 

Ye Gods and Little Fishes, version #987…

Posted on by March 6, 2013


In addition to not knowing where he is, (hint: Kansas and Texas are NOT the same place). He’s at it again… Now it’s ATMs and teh Interwebz that are responsible for job losses…


“Layoffs too often became permanent, not part of the business cycle, And these changes didn’t just affect blue collar workers. If you were a bank teller or a phone operator or a travel agent, you saw many in your profession replaced by ATMs and the internet,” President Obama said at a campaign even in Kansas.


HERE is the video…


And in other news-


STANTON, Mich. (The Daily News of Greenville)- The United States is fighting terrorism – one snow cone at a time.


Montcalm County recently received a $900 Arctic Blast Sno-Cone machine.


The West Michigan Shoreline Regional Development Commission (WMSRDC) is a federal- and state-designated agency responsible for managing and administrating the homeland security program in Montcalm County and 12 other counties.


The WMSRDC recently purchased and transferred homeland security equipment to these counties – including 13 snow cone machines at a total cost of $11,700.


But the county that requested the popcorn machine didn’t get it…  HERE is the rest of the story…


And that whole GM will buy back Volts if the customer is worried about battery safety… Um… Not so much…


General Motors attempted to clarify last week conflicting reports on whether the automaker was willing to buy back Chevy Volts from owners worried about battery safety.


Rest of the article HERE


And just for S&Gs… Jerry Brown is going DIRECT to the voters asking for a $7B tax increase.


Brown’s proposal is projected to raise $7 billion per year and would expire in 2016.  (Yeah, right…)  Article is HERE


I’m just gonna buy more ammo, go sit in my little corner and be nice and quiet…

Range Report/Blog Shoot…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

This one is gonna be a combo, a range report and a report on the inaugural Eastern Panhandle Blog shoot (hey, I didn’t come up with the name…)


First, the blog shoot; Murphy over at Lagniappes Lair honcho’ed this one and found us a nice place to shoot, his AAR is HERE.  Peacemaker is a new range, and while we didn’t get to use the new 1000 yard range (a class was there), it’s a nice facility.


It was a tad short notice, but I was kinda disappointed in the turnout, as I’d expected more DC area shooters to participate.  We did have visitors (Bubblehead Les from Cleveland, not a blogger, but a frequent commenter) and Keads who drove up from the Charlotte area.  Locals were Murph, myself, Andy, Marty, New Jovian Thunderbolt, Proud Hillbilly, and Stretch and the other Andy ( both frequent commenters, but no blog).


We donated enough to pay the range fee and still donate over $200 to Wounded Warriors, so all in all, it was a good day.


I think the best shots of the day were Marty, at 250+ yards with his Beretta Storm Carbine actually hitting a steel plate four time with only a red dot!!!


As usual, we had soup to nuts for guns, Stretch brought out some nice old .22 pistols and also had a nice old Winchester 92 in 30-06.  , we had a bunch of M-1s and Murph and Proud Hillbilly both had Arisakas that were actually fire-able and were shot.  The other Andy had an old K-98 Mauser and Les brought a Sporterized 8mm Mauser we shot a few times.  Keads brought pistols galore and a nice Winchester 94, and we were all sharing back and forth as always.


That 250 yard gong was just plain fun too 🙂  Multiple folks, shot after shot, hit after hit… And the RSO was just grinning and shaking his head (personally, I don’t think he’s seen that many people do it that often)!


On the pistol side, I picked up a new Ruger Mk III 22/45 and this was the first extended outing with it.



What you get is the pistol, two mags, the usual instruction books, and a little gun rug, etc. All for mid-$300 range, which is NOT a bad deal in my book.



The grip angle is a faithful reproduction of the 1911 grip angle and similarly placed controls with a button safety at the left rear, a button slide release mid frame on the left, and a mag release just aft of the trigger guard on the left frame.  



Likes- It’s a pretty accurate little pistol, consistent if a bit stiff trigger, and sight picture is similar if you ignore the rounded back of the slide.  The grip is identical to a full size 1911, and the pistol is heavy enough to ‘simulate’ a 1911 very well.


I don’t have any target pics, but it easily put 10 rounds into a 3 inch circle at 10 yards repeatedly.  


Dislikes- That trigger is not real great, and I’m probably going to a Volquartsen trigger like Sean did, but I’m going to take his advice and just have the Smith do it…


This would get the trigger closer (actually a bit lighter) to my 1911.


I’m also going to put different front and rear sights on it to mimic my 1911.


Ammo- I shot mostly CCI Blazer through it, but tried some of the Remington Subsonics (Thanks Stretch), and was not impressed with them, they didn’t eject all the time (stovepiping), and weren’t nearly as accurate.  This could be due to the fact that the gun is new and tight.  


Overall, I’d recommend the gun to anyone looking for a good 1911 trainer/general fun pistol. The few faults are all fixable at a reasonable cost, and it’s a nice little shooter for a mass produced pistol (and if I get ‘really’ bored, I can throw a suppressor on it)!

Today We Lost A Friend…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Mamaw, the matriarch of the Farm Family died this morning, finally losing her battle with cancer…


She was, self proclaimed, a tough ol biddy; and maybe she wouldn’t have fit in too well in ‘polite’ company, but she didn’t give a rats ass.  But she raised a family who worked the land, make do with what’s available, and are the salt of the earth…


I knew there was something a tad bit different when the first time I met her, she handed me a knife and told me to get to work cutting the brisket.  My ONLY answer was, “Yes Ma’am”…


It was hard to get her to talk, she always said she enjoyed listening to us, but if you could get her started she had some stories!


She took a bunch of folks she had never met, invited them into her home, and made us feel like family; except as she said, “Y’all discuss, y’all don’t argue!” After I reminded her of how many guns had come through her back door, she allowed as how that ‘might’ have something to do with it…


I’m going to say a prayer for the end of her suffering, and know that she is probably arguing with St. Peter already…


She will be sorely missed, but I’m sure none of us will ever forget her!


RIP Mamaw, you done good!
Posted in RIP

A little "humor" for your Friday…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

This one came in over the transom from another ‘old fart’…

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”
   
    That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using the same bottles over and over. So they really were  recycled. 

(I can remember checking the ditches on the way to and from school , hoping to find a bottle or three; lots of times I found enough to get a coke for 6 cents out of the machine)
   
    But they didn’t have the green thing back her day.
   
    In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

(And we walked to school even as elementary students (2nd grade on), probably 3/4 of a mile each way. I knew kids that walked at least 2 miles each way, rain or shine)
   
    But she’s right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day. 
   
    Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts – wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. 

(And the washing machine was one with a hang wringer on top, no spin cycle or anything else.)
   
    But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.
     
    Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a pizza dish, not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you. When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used wadded up newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

(Our first TV was in 1957 or 8, black and white, and had a 12 inch screen; no toaster oven, no microwave, just a gas stove and oven. And none of the houses I lived in growing up had air conditioning either)
   
    Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power. They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. 

(BTDT)
   
    But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.
   
    They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty, instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water. They refilled pens with ink, instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.


(They were called ‘fountain pens’, because occasionally they would leak a ‘fountain’ of ink on your brand new shirt; which you STILL had to wear, even with the ink stain. And another reason for pocket protectors you see in all the old pictures.)
   
    But they didn’t have the green thing back then.   

    Back then, people took the streetcar and kids rode their bikes to school or rode the school bus, instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.


(Even up through junior high in the mid-60s I don’t remember seeing parents driving kids to school other than one boy that was in a wheelchair. And we could get unrestricted driver’s licenses at 15 back in those days…)
   
    But they didn’t have the green thing back then!


Life was not perfect by any means, but the kids didn’t sit glued to the TV/boombox/video games all day; we were outside, traipsing around the neighborhoods, out in the woods (with .22s), and generally out of the house all day until dark (and you learned how to interact with other people face to face, from your peers, to adults to the elderly).  And ANY parent that caught you screwing up was gonna beat your butt, then call your parents, which would get your butt beaten again…

And I never screamed child abuse, or threatened to call the cops on my parents (hell, the COPS would have joined in on the butt beating)… 

I’m glad I grew up then, rather than now. At least I know how to do things, I can interact with people, I know what work ethic is, and I know about winning and losing…

A couple of things…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
And Filthydelphia just gets better and better… Ackerman, the fired (and bought off for $900K) former Schools Chief is now filing for unemployment… Read it and weep HERE!  For my friends that live up there, all I can say is get out while you can…


And a bit of a different take. Pew Research Center Politics Test…

This is a terrific little test. And it shows results in a number of ways. It surely indicates that the majority of Americans don’t know what’s going  on. Interesting and simple test. It’s astonishing that so many people got less than half right. 

These results say that 80% of the (voting) public doesn’t have a clue – and that’s pretty scary.

There are no tricks here – just a simple test to see if you are current on your information.

This is quite good and  the results are shocking.

Test your knowledge with 13 questions, then be ready to shudder when you see how others did.

Go HERE for the test, and remember, look at the demographics after you finish…

It’s 13 easy questions, or at least I though so…

A New Norm, and NOT a good one…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
This will be the lead article in the Navy Times for 5 Dec, and the  KEY takeaway is this is BEFORE the additional $600B in cuts hit the military…


Cuts in the numbers of ships, airplanes, submarines, personnel, etc. with more to come, but NO reduction in the required ‘presence’ the Navy has to maintain world-wide…


For years the Navy has attempted to maintain OPTEMPO/PERSTEMPO roughly in a 50/50 balance that gives folks time off and time to perform maintenance on the equipment during at home cycles, but that will go out the window as you will read below.  Mr. McMichael has done an outstanding job with this article.

The New Norm: Longer Tours

With fewer ships, high demand, 6-month deployments are history

By William H. McMichael

You could practically set a clock by it. Navy and Marine Corps overseas deployments lasted six months.

But 9/11 changed all that — as did the greater flexibility called for in the 2003 Fleet Response Plan and a 2007 policy change that set the maximum deployment length at seven months for units with a single deployment within an FRP cycle.

A total of 10 carrier strike groups or amphibious ready groups have exceeded seven months over the past five years. The latest is the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the amphibious transport dock ship Mesa Verde and the dock landing ship Whidbey Island, which will have been gone 10½ months when their ARG returns to Norfolk in February, officials have confirmed.

That goes for the embarked 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, as well. “They’re on for the whole time,” confirmed Capt. Greg Wolf, a Marine spokesman.

Officials say it’s an anomaly, noting that Bataan deployed three months early to provide relief to the Kearsarge, which was launching airstrikes over Libya.

Long cruises, however, seem to be becoming a habit. The destroyer Roosevelt, an independent deployer to the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operations, returned Nov. 6 to Mayport, Fla. It spent 200 of its 213 days underway and at one point pulled 113 straight days at sea. The ship did make three port visits, the Navy said.

Meanwhile, say goodbye to the carrier Carl Vinson, Carrier Air Wing 17 and the cruiser Bunker Hill, all setting sail Nov. 30, a mere 5½ months after returning to Naval Station North Island, Calif., from a 6½-month deployment that included supporting the takedown and at-sea burial of Osama bin Laden. Vinson will violate the Navy’s goal of spending at least as much time at home as spent at sea during the previous deployment.

The pressure is clearly on.

The busy pace — atop the Navy’s mounting budget pressures and a maintenance backlog — raises the question: Are longer deployments and short turnarounds the new norm?

“No,” Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. John Fage said. “Here’s the analogy. You go into your 9-to-5 job. At 4:30, the boss comes along and says, hey, I know it’s 4:30 and I hate to ask, but we’re really busy today; I need you to stay a couple hours late. It’s the same thing. Our sailors are going to go out there, and they’re going to get the job done.

“We flex to meet emergent requirements,” he said.

A Marine Corps spokesman didn’t deny that longer cruises are in the cards, but said it’s too early to make such a pronouncement.

“Given their capability and flexibility, it’s no wonder that the demand signal for ARG-MEUs is strong,” said Marine Corps media officer Capt. Greg Wolf. “But to say that longer floats are the ‘new norm’ would be speculation at this point.” Behind the brave faces, however, the Navy, at least, is deeply concerned.

The Navy is “desperately trying to come up with some kind of rationale that will explain … why we’re going to be riding them hard and putting them away wet,” said a Washington-based senior naval analyst familiar with fleet planning who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I’ve heard concern about material readiness,” the analyst said. “Availabilities will be missed, simply because they’ve got to turn ships around. Crews are going to be turned around. There are already some situations of cross-decking of people from one ship to another — when they come back from deployment, turning around and going back out within a relatively short period of time. They just don’t have the skilled and trained people in the fleet to be able to man the ships. There are some real concerns.”

It’s why the Navy has announced plans to forward-deploy four destroyers to Rota, Spain, is negotiating sending littoral combat ships to Singapore and is discussing the basing of additional attack submarines in Guam, the analyst said.

“It’s the Navy realizing that the demand signal is still very strong, and they just don’t have the resources to do it,” he said.

No one in uniform is admitting that yet. The chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, told Navy Times that the demand for naval forces is “unlikely” to go away. Greenert gave no indication that he’s pushing back against some of those demands but said if it gets to the point where the Navy finds itself in a “continuing surge” environment, “We’ll wear out the ships and people.”

The commander of Fleet Forces Command agreed, but with stronger language. “We need to take care of our ships and sailors and Marines and make sure that in the future we have the force we need,” Adm. John Harvey told attendees at a joint war-fighting conference earlier this year. “Perhaps that means saying no to things today so we have the wherewithal to have the forces we need tomorrow.”

Fage, however, said that the Navy is “going to continue meeting current demands while still planning and posturing for whatever may happen in the future in those emergent requirements.”

How the Navy will respond to those requirements, he said, “is going to be dependent on a lot of different factors, including available platforms and capabilities.”

Navy ships and squadrons took on a far more nimble readiness posture with adoption of the Fleet Response Plan, which called for the ability to “surge” three carriers atop three already deployed — along with the ships in their strike groups — within 30 days and another within 90 days.

The Navy hasn’t pulled off a full-scale surge as envisioned by FRP since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. But carrier strike groups are in heavy demand. And they’re spending a lot of time at sea.

The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group was deployed 223 days in 2008 and 2009. The Nimitz group clocked 239 days in 2009 and 2010. The Harry S. Truman group was gone 214 days in 2010. If Vinson spends only 6½ months at sea this time out, it will have been on deployment 13 out of the previous 18½ months.

Nimitz and Truman were extended because of a delay in completing repairs to the carrier Enterprise, celebrating its 50th birthday and making its final cruise in 2012. Its retirement will leave the Navy with 10 operational carriers until the Gerald R. Ford comes on line — a 33-month gap. And if budget pressures drive the Navy to reduce that 11-carrier fleet to 10 — high-level sources tell Navy Times the Navy might opt not to refuel the Japan-based carrier George Washington in 2016 and remove it from the fleet — and no adjustment is made in carrier presence requirements, longer deployments will continue.

The Navy currently meets Central Command’s requirement that two carrier groups be on station in the region 70 percent of the time. This “ensures the U.S. military has additional naval and air capabilities to support operational requirements, while adequately meeting other security commitments in the region,” according to 5th Fleet.

Citing operational security, no one’s saying whether that could change. CENTCOM is “continuously looking at requirements in the area of responsibility and analyzing the forces required to fill those needs,” 5th Fleet said.

What’s driving that demand is anyone’s guess. Naval analyst Norman Polmar thinks it could be a signal to a potential adversary.

“Right now, there’s concern for a number of areas in the world, and it’s increasing — especially in sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East, of course,” Polmar said. “But is this somehow a signal to Iran that, hey, we may be pulling out of Afghanistan … but man, the U.S. military is still there and ready to beat your ass any day of the week?”

Or, Polmar said, combatant commanders could be driving the Navy so the Navy can make the case, in the wake of two ground-centric wars and strong sentiment to cut military spending, that it remains a vital national asset that needs proper funding.

Whatever the reason, demand remains high in the amphibious fleet as well. The numbers tell the story.

Bataan’s 2009 cruise lasted 210 days — just shy of seven months. The pace didn’t let up. Thirty-four days later, Bataan and the 22nd MEU got underway to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

That deployment lasted 10 weeks. Four months of ship maintenance began in August 2010, followed by at-sea training — and the current deployment, which started months ahead of schedule. While it is unclear when crew members and their families learned how long the Bataan ARG would be away, the Facebook page of the lead ship offers hints.

A June 9 post offered short-sleeve T-shirts commemorating the ship’s 2011 deployment as a fundraiser for the family readiness group. On Nov. 8, a new shirt was offered for sale. It was long-sleeved, acknowledging the approach of cold weather. And the words on the front had morphed into “Deployment 2011/2012.”

Kearsarge and the 26th MEU, which left a month early to provide humanitarian relief to a rain-flooded Pakistan, were gone 260 days — the Navy’s fourth-highest total since 9/11. That was a day less than Boxer logged from Sept. 13, 2006, to May 31, 2007. Two other ARGs also pulled lengthy deployments in recent years: Iwo Jima, with 214 days in 2008 and 2009, and Bonhomme Richard for 224 days in 2007.

Less than five years ago, the Navy had 12 amphibious assault ships. But it has since decommissioned three of them: Saipan, Tarawa and Nassau. With Wasp dedicated to supporting tests of the Marine Corps’ joint strike fighter variant, that leaves eight to choose from.

Also, Peleliu is scheduled to go away in three years.

Meanwhile, the newest amphibious assault ship, America, won’t be delivered until fiscal 2014, and won’t be ready to deploy for perhaps another two years. The Corps wants the Navy to delay Peleliu’s demise until America is ready.

The Navy has a goal of 33 amphibious ships but falls short through 2016, according to a 2011 Congressional Budget Office study; it currently has 28. The goal also falls well short of the Marine Corps’ goal of 38 — what the Marines and Navy say would be required to pull off a wartime amphibious assault with two Marine expeditionary brigades, according to CBO.

CBO says the Navy will have enough amphibs to meet peacetime goals for overseas presence for the next 30 years similar to the presence it provided in 2007. More important to the defense of the nation, CBO projects that the Navy’s 2012 plan does not provide enough amphibs for the Corps to prepare and train for all the missions it might be called upon to perform over the next three decades.

About 30 percent of the force is deployed overseas at any given time, according to CBO. In 2007, combatant commanders requested nine amphibs, a request that could be met without strain.

By 2010, COCOMs, asked how many they would require in an unconstrained financial environment, said they’d need 18 amphibs. Meeting this request, CBO said, “would substantially increase deployment time and reduce time in ships’ home ports.”

For a given ship, over the typical 27-month operating cycle, deployment time would more than double — from 26 to 62 weeks. Time in home port would fall from 57 percent to 36 percent, “well short of the Navy’s goal of 50 percent,” CBO said.

The Navy already comes up short in terms of meeting the Corps’ shipboard training needs. According to CBO, Navy amphibs were able to meet only 57 percent of such needs in 2010. In January and February, the Navy and the Corps will conduct Bold Alligator off the Atlantic coast. It will be the first large-scale amphibious training the Corps has been able to conduct in more than 10 years, according to CBO. The goal, according to Fleet Forces Command, is to “revitalize Navy/Marine Corps amphibious expeditionary tactics, techniques and procedures” and to reinvigorate their joint training culture.

The Navy’s 28 amphibs include nine amphibious assault ships, seven amphibious transport docks and 12 dock landing ships. An ARG typically includes one of each.

The demand for ARGs raises the question of whether other ships or at least fewer ships could perform the missions set by combatant commanders. That would require detailed knowledge of Bataan’s activities; 5th Fleet officials said only that the group, which arrived in its area of operations Aug. 13, has been conducting the standard ARG missions: maritime security operations, theater security cooperation engagements, and standing by as U.S. Central Command’s theater reserve force.

Elsewhere in the fleet, potential deployment pressure comes as the Navy ramps up the ballistic missile defense mission and boosts the number of BMD-capable AEGIS ships from 23 to 41 by end of fiscal 2016. It’s not yet known whether those ships will be dedicated solely to the BMD mission or will answer other requirements as well.

In addition, the attack submarine force is slowly shrinking. But officials say sub deployments won’t increase in length save for rare occasions.

The Navy’s top submarine operator, Vice Adm. John Richardson, told Navy Times that submarines “very, very seldom” deploy beyond the norm. For attack submarines, that remains six months, while ballistic missile subs are on patrol for an average of 77 days, according to spokeswoman Cmdr. Monica Rousselow. About 10 percent are “sometimes extended” due to operations or maintenance requirements elsewhere, she said.

The Navy’s stated goal is to maintain a fleet of 48 attack subs and should be able to do so through 2024 under its fiscal 2011 procurement plan, according to Ron O’Rourke of the Congressional Research Service.

The overall Navy fleet could easily shrink further. “It’s going to get even worse,” said the Washington-based senior naval analyst. “I’ve seen internal documents that say, OK, what can we do with a 280-ship Navy, what can we do with a 240-ship Navy? And one even said, what if we get down to 180? What’s going to be left and what can we do? And the answer is, not a whole lot.”

As a result, he said, “I think the new normal is a much higher personnel tempo that we’ve seen since the Vietnam War. … These are tough times for the Navy.”


Welcome to a hollow military… and prepare for it to get worse… dammit…

Professional Athletes…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

In light of the latest set of scandals and the fact that once again it was admitted that college athletes are treated “differently” than the rest of us, a few quotes from those who were college athletes and went on to ‘bigger and better things’…


1. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model:
“I wan’ all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I wan’ all the kids to copulate me.”

2. New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season:

“I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first…”

3. And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the ‘Skin’s say:
“I’d run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl,”
Matt Millen of the Raiders said: “To win, I’d run over Joe’s Mom, too.”

4. Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins:

“He treat us like mens. He let us wear earrings..”

5. Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann:
“Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”

6. Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh:
“I’m going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes…”
(Now that is beautiful)

7. Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach:
“You guys line up alphabetically by height…”
And, “You guys pair up in groups of three, and then line up in a circle.”

8. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison:
“Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter?

He went to prison for three years, not Princeton  …”

9. Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker:
“That’s so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes.”

10. Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regimen of heavyweight Andrew Golota: “He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning, regardless of what time it is.”

11. Chuck Nevitt, North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice:
“My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.”

(I wonder if his IQ ever hit room temperature in January)

12. Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player:
“I asked him, ‘Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?’
He said, ‘Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.'”

13. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F’s and one D:
“Son, looks to me like you’re spending too much time on one subject.”

14. In the words of NC State great Charles Shackelford:
“I can go to my left or right, I am amphibious.”

15. Former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips.

Phillips responded: “Because she’s too ugly to kiss good-bye.”



And one wonders why most of them don’t succeed after they finish playing their ‘sport’ of choice???