Reading between the lines…

Missile Defenders Trained, Ready for Deployment, General Says

By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 – Missile defenders preparing for the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System to Guam are ready for the mission, the Army general at their home station reported, noting his full confidence in the ability of U.S. air defense systems to protect against North Korean missiles.

/snip/

The Defense Department announced earlier this week its plans to deploy a THAAD system to Guam as a precautionary move to strengthen the regional defense posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat.

All three of the Army’s THAAD batteries, part of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, are based at Fort Bliss. The THAAD system is a land-based missile defense system that includes a truck-mounted launcher, a complement of interceptor missiles, an AN/TPY-2 tracking radar and an integrated fire control system.

Once deployed, the THAAD system will work in tandem with other missile defense systems in the region to provide multi-tiered protection, Pittard explained. Aegis cruisers and other air defense systems will provide lower-level coverage. Patriot missiles and other systems will provide defenses at slightly higher altitudes.

/snip/

The THAAD deployment will strengthen defense capabilities for American citizens in the U.S. territory of Guam and U.S. forces stationed there, the Defense Department said in an April 3 news release announcing the deployment that’s expected in the coming weeks.

Full article HERE from Global Security.

Of interest, there are ONLY three of these systems in existence that are actually deployable, and note the last sentence, ‘expected’ to deploy in the coming weeks… How? There will have to be a massive reshuffle of lift capability to get them there, and a couple of weeks may be too late…

At least a couple of BMD capable ships are loitering on 24/7 alert and just for clarification, they CAN also shoot down a missile or ‘other’ object in the terminal phase, as exhibited a couple of years ago off Hawaii, when USS LAKE ERIE shot down a Russian Satellite with a nuclear power plant in a decaying orbit with ONE SM-3…

But those ships were pulled from other duties, and due to sequestration, backfill is going to be slow to non-existent in the near term…

A friend in need…

MSgt B. has a friend in need…

This is Sam

Sam is the only son of Hutch.

Hutch and I went to High School together at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia. Way back in…aw, hell…a long damn time ago.

Hutch and I both served in the First Gulf War. You remember that one, way back when that evil old Saddam invaded poor little Kuwait, and we ran in there and saved the day.

Sam is undergoing some serious medical-type stuff for brain cancer. That’s heavy. Sam’s dad, Hutch, is raising money for cancer research (sound familiar) and has made an offer that’s strikingly familiar to me:

“As you can see I don’t have much on the top of my head to shave, so I have decided to shave that which is most important to me, my Magnum, the mustache that has been with me from the start. Literally, I was born with it. I have shaved it twice in my life, both times for elementary school pictures. I will shave it if I can get 500 bucks worth of donations, I know, its not alot, but I’m not that popular. The cause is a good one please help the smart people find a cure for this terrible thing called cancer.”

You can donate to Hutch here: Jay Hutchinson

A good start has been made, but if you can spare a few bucks, it’s greatly appreciated…

I’ve lost 7 friends to colon cancer, and I’d like to see Sam get a chance to actually grow up and have a life…

Ummm, WTFO???

DAMMIT, it’s an April Fools joke and I bit…

But I ‘do’ wonder how far from the truth it is??? Sigh…

Disturbing at best, scary as hell at worst…

From Guns.com and WAPO, WSJ

Individuals 55 and older would lose their right to keep and bear arms under a provision that’s expected to be included as part of a comprehensive United Nations Global Arms Trade Treaty.

UN Secretary Gen. Ban Ki-moon spoke about the impetus behind the controversial measure at a press conference over the weekend in New York City, the site of the final negotiations between the 193 Member States.

“Regulating the international transfers of both weapons and ammunition is a key component of a robust arms trade treaty, as is limiting civilian access to small arms and munitions,” said Ban Ki-moon.

“There’s an emerging consensus that certain groups should be restricted from possessing conventional arms, certainly those who fuel conflict, arm criminals or violations of international humanitarian or human rights law are at the top of the list,” Ban Ki-moon continued.

“But also, the international community believes segments of the population that present a danger to themselves and others, chiefly individuals deemed or adjudicated mentally defective and persons with attenuating cerebral faculties, should be added to that list.”

While Ban Ki-moon did not elaborate on what he meant by persons with “attenuating cerebral faculties,” a UN liaison with Amnesty International spelled it out in an interview with the Washington Post.

“Simply put, the UN believes guns don’t belong in the hands of the elderly,” said H. Michael Chase, an attorney for the human rights watchdog group.

“Pools of research show that a significant majority of gun-related suicides, accidental shootings, non-fatal negligent discharges are perpetrated by persons 55 and over,” Chase said.

“Along with the mentally ill, preventing those who are advancing in age from gaining easy access to firearms is a common sense way to save lives,” concluded Chase.

Dr. Michael Betti from the John Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness embraced the UN’s call to disarm senior citizens.

“Science tells us that we grow old,” said Dr. Betti, a neurologist who specializes in evaluating and treating patients with memory disorders. “And as we do, our reflexes diminish, our senses become impaired and our cognitive skills weaken … Therefore, as we enter our twilight years – clinically speaking, age 50 and above [Global life expectancy is only 67 years] – science tells us that we are in no shape to be handling or using a deadly weapon.”

In lieu of firearms, Dr. Betti suggests that seniors find other, non-violent and non-lethal options for self-defense.

“The optimal self-defense posture for seniors would include such items as a rape whistle or high-decibel air horn, quick-strike road flares, an electronic medical alert system, a cellular telephone with a large display, morphine injections, neon or glow-in-the-dark armbands, a mesh vest, a pith helmet with flashing headgear and a solar-powered radio,” said Dr. Betti.

Thus far, the White House has not offered a specific comment on the arms trade agreement or its call to disarm seniors, but to echo a recent statement issued by Secretary of State John Kerry, “The United States is steadfast in its commitment to achieve a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty.”

As for the constitutionality of revoking an elderly person’s Second Amendment rights here in the U.S., at least one gun control advocate said, “That’s not a problem.”

“Look, Justice Scalia already ruled that the Second Amendment had ‘reasonable limitations,’” said William Kirchmeyer of the Coalition to Prevent Mass Shootings, in an interview with the Washington Post. “What can be more reasonable than taking guns away from people who are essentially ticking time bombs?”

Full article HERE.

I really wonder about some people’s (like Betti’s) grips on reality when I read stuff like this… Sigh…

They obviously DO NOT live in the same world that I do.

Back in battery…

And what do I get???

This mess, courtesy of JP…

There is a term for what is being talked about yet I can’t think of it.  Rumor has it though that the Federal government is laying the groundwork to let the Secret Service start arresting Sheriff’s for not enforcing new gun control laws, starting with Colorado.

By the sounds of it, Colorado is being targeted with an attempt to set up loopholes that will allow the U.S. Secret Service to arrest and remove an elected sheriff for refusing to enforce the law, or anyone breaking the law. This means ALL Secret Service including uniformed division officers, physical security technicians, specialists, and other ‘special officers’.

In short they want to,

…establish federal authority police powers in a State, enabling an enforcement arm reporting directly to the president (Secret Service). It would enable the president / executive branch to theoretically override the actions and preventative measures that are now being taken by many States throughout the country who are trying to preserve 2nd Amendment gun rights and who are prohibiting the enforcement of unconstitutional law passed by Congress or pushed by executive order.

Most of us are well aware that just about every Sheriff across the country, including our own Weld and Larimer Sheriff’s, (about 350 in all) have all said they will not enforce any mandate from Washington if it violates the Second Amendment, which these future mandates do.

Link 1 is HERE.  Link 2 is HERE. Link 3 is HERE.

I TRULY hope this is just a mis-read as the Sheriff indicated in link 2, but I’m beginning to wonder about what this administration’s real goals are…

This is one SHARP young lady!!!

Okay, lemme try this again… Sigh… That’s what I get for trying to embed from OCONUS…

This young lady testified at the MD house in support of gun ownership…

Well, crap it’s not embedding so HERE is the link…

Her fisking of the gun control arguments is pretty through, and her straightforward delivery is very hard to deny/overcome..

Sadly, we know that her speech was for naught based on what the MD politicians have done, and I hope this young lady gets out of state and has a good shooting career in college and afterward!!!

h/t Hacksaw and Opus

Well dang…

Went in to get a haircut, and found out my favorite barber has retired…

Turns out she’d been at the BOQ for 30 years (I swear she didn’t look a day over 40)…

But her daughter has taken over and she’s as good as her mama was, and as popular too!  But as she said, her Engrish no good, so it was point and click for the haircut!  Actually a numba 7 on top and a numba 3 on the sides, per the pictures on the wall…

And it actually came out that way, and she promised to get better with her Engrish (or at least that is what I ‘think’ she said)…

In other news, things are a ‘tad’ touchy out this way with the BS still flowing from PRNK, and the closure of the Kaesong Industrial Complex at the DMZ is not helping. And the PRNK Army has ‘authorized’ a nuclear strike against the USA, or it’s military assets.  Also, the ‘hot line’ between the PRNK and ROK has been shut down; this pretty much is the last thing to be cut as far as communications with the ROKs, so effectively there are NO comms between the North and South as of yesterday.

And the Chinese are stacking troops on the border with PRNK…

And it appears SECDEF Hagel has finally taken notice and decided this ‘might’ be a clear and present danger… sigh…

And we’ve got in excess of 32,000 US personnel sitting ducks in South Korea with no support thanks to sequestration…

I think we’ve been here before, and I just keep waiting for MacArthur to step out from behind the curtain with his corncob pipe…

Gun Control…

An interesting question/statement is posed with this one from the Custer County Chronicle, Feb 6, 2013 page 5A.

image001

So… what say you???

h/t JP

MSGT Benevidez in his own words…

A compilation of MSGT Benevidez getting the MOH from President Reagan and his speech from 1991 to a school somewhere in Texas.

It’s a bit long, but well worth listening to IMHO, if you want to go directly to his speech, it starts about 5:11 in…

They truly don’t make em like this very often!  RIP MSGT, you did better than anyone could ask…

Willie…

Is playing my song again…

At the airport 2 hours early for ‘international’ check in…

 

IMG_108314 hour flight… Butt is STILL asleep…

1 hour in customs, 1 hour wait, 2 hour bus ride…

Get to the lodging, jump in the show… @#$% fire alarm!!!

1 hour standing around while they go through the lodging… Sigh…

tired

I’ll try to read/comment when I wake up…