![Veterans Day 2008 [updated]](http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f75/basilsblog/VeteransDay2008.jpg "Veterans Day 2008 [updated]")
[UPDATED 0428 MDT 11/12/08 — OK, so I’m lying awake in bed at, well, 4:20 am and I suddenly realize that I’ve forgotten the newest veteran in our family: my nephew, Darren Green. The list below is now updated; apologies to Darren.] Last Veterans Day, Bruce Henderson and I posted a list of our relatives […]
MCRD Platoon 3010 – 1984 – click for full size. November 10th is a special day for Marines, it’s the day we celebrate the birthday of our beloved Corps. The Marines are a tough, no-nonsense force focused always and forever on the mission. On this 233rd, I would like to give a salute to all […]
Oh to be a fly on the wall! News reports say today is the day that President-elect Barry Obama gets his first real intelligence briefing as the Bush administration beings the transfer of national command authority. Up until now, our newly minted President-elect was a rookie Senator, and did not get the full details of […]
You know we’re fighting 21st Century wars when my main contact with my Marine son is via Facebook. Here’s the latest from Jon (LCPL Webster), over in Rutbah, Iraq: Pops- Glad you n mom are doing okay.. And yea, I’m stoked for Wes and Maddie. Wish I could’ve been there, but oh well.. I’ll have […]
Earlier this year I outlined a DARPA project to produce a hypersonic UAV under the project name “Falcon Blackswift” According to the few details available on Blackswift, Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works shop is the main contractor for the vehicle. DARPA, in fact, still isn’t talking about Blackswift; it’s using the HTV-3X designation. But HTV-3X […]
From Military.com (emphasis mine): A Virginia-based company is hoping to test-fly a vertical take-off and landing drone before the end of this year that, ultimately, could do triple duty as strike vehicle, medevac or special ops insertion/extraction plane. The Excalibur is currently being developed as an armed, tactical unmanned aerial vehicle by Aurora Flight Sciences […]
…or at least cluelessness, the Obama campaign released (on TV) today an ad that, among other things, mocks McCain for not using e-mail or knowing how to use a computer, presumably because he’s so old (another theme of the ad). Here’s the ad itself (if it’s still up on YouTube): Personally, I think it’s a […]
Just got in today’s mail a letter from our son Jon, currently stationed in al Rutbah in Iraq; here’s the text: ============= August 22, 2008 Mom, Dad.. I wanted to write y’all a quick letter while I’ve got some downtime here at the IP Station. It’s now Day 50 of our deployment and so far […]
Video o’ the day
This has been showing up in various places; I finally watched it and was moved: An observation on the closing song. Back in the summer of 2001, my wife Sandra and I attended the graduation from US Army boot camp (Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri) of our daughter Heather, who had joined the Utah Army National […]
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