Grab your tissues

This is touching, and I'm sure they're not alone...

PCing the services and a new book

I'd really like to read this book by Paul de Gelder. He has some things to say about pussification of the services due to political correctness.

Book extract here.

Disrespect and hatred

Read this. Caution, it will make you cranky!

I know I read about Martin (poseur), Deveny (fool without bells), Lake (awesome book, love, right up there with Ant Lowenstein's "factual" and "truthful" questionable Question) and I just can't understand people with attitudes like Deveny and Lake, they have so little respect for anything witht he exception of what may destroy us.

Navy antics, with the RAAF - the biggest dancefloor!

This is a hoot.


This... well, I haven't watched it all yet. The camo's good if khaki doesn't suit you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm4UAt_bKwo&feature=player_embedded

Thanks to Nilk & CB (indirectly).

Best Aus Letter Last Week

Trawling through The Australian I came across this letter regarding women in the front line of Australian Defence forces....

WE could have used more women in the military when we were looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Biological agents are usually kept at sub-zero temperatures and men can’t find anything in a fridge.

Scott Abbot
Neutral Bay, NSW

Now that's a classic!

A good yarn

From The Donovan.

Final two MIA diggers found in Vietnam

In thick jungle near the Laotian border, a 39-year search for the remains of the last Australian servicemen missing from the Vietnam War has ended – with the help of the enemies they had been trying to bomb.

The remains of Michael Herbert, a pilot from Queensland, and Robert Carver, a navigator from South Australia, have been found on a rugged, remote hillside in Quang Nam province, Vietnam, where they have remained since their plane went missing after a bombing raid on the night of November 3, 1970. Both were 24 years old.

More here.

Helping veterans; helping prisoners

Puppies Behind Bars

Prisoners train puppies to be assistance dogs for veterans.

Made me cry! (It's on now.)

I know it's Oprah (with Glen Close), but it's good.

When Soldiers Come Home

they find it hard....

...to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the house.

From Nancy Sinatra's site.

Thanks to Splice

ABC 4 corners - About Iraq and our soldiers there

The War Within
Reporter: Nick McKenzie

Broadcast: 30/03/2009

With the Australian Defence Force being stretched to the limit in combat zones across the globe, the number of troops arriving home with post traumatic stress has risen alarmingly.

Is the Defence Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs doing enough to help these people deal with the horror of war? No is the answer from a top secret government report that estimates a majority of veterans are receiving sub-standard treatment.

It's been described as shell-shock, battle fatigue and post traumatic stress dis-order (PTSD) but, whatever it's called, those who have it know it's a living hell.

Just a smell, even a noise, can plunge a soldier into a traumatic episode that recalls the horror of war.

Link.

USS New York: Never Forget!

I just received an email from my local RSL (Veterans Club, I am a member).

USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Centre .

It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Centre was melted down in a foundry in Amite , LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the moulds on Sept 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.'

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade centre steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the 'hair on my neck stood up.' 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto? 'Never Forget'

Searching I found this link to New York (LPD21).

I can't access the photographs in the email to post one, but please have a look at the site. The ship was christened on 1 March 2008.

From the site:

Name:

The ship was named New York after the state and incorporates in its construction steel salvaged from the World Trade Centers. "We're very proud that the twisted steel from the WTC towers will soon be used to forge an even stronger national defense," New York Gov. George Pataki spoke in 2002. "The USS New York will soon be defending freedom and combating terrorism around the globe, while also ensuring that the world never forgets the evil attacks of Sept. 11 and the courage and strength New Yorkers showed.” This will be the seventh U.S. ship named New York.

Ship Characteristics:

Length = 684 feet (208.5 meters)
Beam = 105 feet (31.9 meters)
Displacement = Approximately 24,900 tons full load
Speed = In excess of 22 knots (24.2 mph)
Aircraft = Four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters or two MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft may be launched or recovered simultaneously. The ship’s hangar can store 1-2 aircraft.
Armament = Two 30 mm Close-in-Guns, for surface threat defense; two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers for air defense
Landing Craft = Two LCACs (air cushion) or one LCU (conventional)
EFVs 14 Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles
Power plant = Four Colt-Pielstick diesel engines, two shafts, 41,600 shp
Crew = 360 Sailors (28 officers, 332 enlisted), three Marines
Troops = 699 (66 officers, 633 enlisted); surge to 800 total.

Motto:

“Never Forget”Dates: New York’s keel was laid on 10 September 2004 and the ship will be commissioned USS New York in New York City in 2009. Mrs Dotty England, wife of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, is the sponsor.

Read this letter

6 US military members KIA, and some injured...

One of the men KIA wrote home

SGT Stream's Family Published a letter he wrote a few months ago in the Chicago Tribune.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 9:30am

A strange thing...When I think about what surrounds me, the institutional corruption, the random violence, the fear and desperation. I feel the reasons why I am here more and more sharply. As we grow in our soldiers skills, surviving by finding the hidden dangers, seeing the secret motives and the shifting politics... we grow a set of skills that is unique and powerful in this situation.
We also see what you cannot see in the States, you are surrounded by the love of Christ and faith in freedom and humanity, like a fish you think water is 'a puff of air' because it is always there, you do not notice it... we who are out of the water look back and see the world we love surrounded by enemies, poison and envy that wants to fall on you like a storm of ruin.

Read the whole letter (At the Chicago Trib above).

Found at Miserable Donuts.

Unamid failing

Australia has a deployment on this mission. How can they help when they are thwarted by arrangments made between the UN and the President.

Added to the chronic lack of resources is the UN's curiously conciliatory attitude towards the Sudanese government. In many ways Unamid was damned from its inception, undermined by the UN's willingness to appease President Bashir, making cordial relations with Khartoum its priority.

Before a single soldier set foot in Darfur, the UN had conceded to Bashir's demand that his government would dictate the terms of deployment. Unsurprisingly, the conditions set by Sudan have been so unrealistic as to render Unamid ineffective. After removing Unamid's teeth, Bashir then delayed its arrival by refusing to provide land for bases, stopping equipment leaving ports, delaying visas by six months or more, and randomly imposing restrictions on movement. Why did the UN ever agree to ask the permission of the architect of a genocide to use UN planes to investigate reports of that genocide?

More here.

Unamid: UN/African Union Hybrid Mission in Darfur

Update: I've been corrected on the meaning of UNAMID - and given the following piece of information:

"That's also another massive hamstring for this mission. The African Union is a fairly pointless organisation that has been here since 2003, achieving bugger all. The UN realised that and proposed a joint effort, which saw UNAMID formed out of the old AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan) on 31 Dec 07. The force structure is still very heavily constrained by the requirement to maintain a majority AU manning. The agreement between the UN and GoS (Governement of Sudan) means that no more thqan 10% of the entire force can be from "white" countries. This may be why the "European" contribution is mostly staff officers working at the Force HQ trying to untangle the mess that is growing as UNAMID gets closer to reaching the target manning levels."

Press baying for a reason for the FA18 crash in CA

Totally ignores the facts... which are unknown, and also the sentiments of the bereaved father/husband/son-in-law of those killed in this terrible accident.

Read more here at The Home of Two Jonahs.