UP PERSICOPE

ISRAEL STATIONS NUCLEAR MISSILE SUBMARINES OFF IRAN






From The Sunday Times
May 30, 2010

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

The flotilla’s commander, identified only as “Colonel O”, told an Israeli newspaper: “We are an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders.”

Each of the submarines has a crew of 35 to 50, commanded by a colonel capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile . . .

Dennis Lee Hopper May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010

A little light in the world went out last night . . .


"Zap em' with your sirens, man! Zap em' with your sirens! There's mines over there, there's mines over there, and watch out those goddamn monkeys bite, I'll tell ya."


Hey, man, you don't talk to the Colonel. You listen to him. The man's enlarged my mind. He's a poet-warrior in the classic sense. I mean, sometimes he'll, uh, well, you'll say "Hello" to him, right? And he'll just walk right by you, and he won't even notice you. And suddenly he'll grab you, and he'll throw you in a corner, and he'll say "Do you know that 'if' is the middle word in life? 'If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you'..." – I mean, I'm no, I can't – I'm a little man, I'm a little man, he's, he's a great man. I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across floors of silent seas – I mean . . .

- Dennis Hopper in "Apocalypse Now!"


Note:
This is a variation 'If you can keep your head...' a quote from Rudyard Kipling's If








If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

- Rudyard Kipling

REMOTE POSTING

Taking advantage of some "Hurry Up & Wait" time while I'm On The Road to fool around with the capabilities of modern electronic communications . . . Meg the Techie and Sidekick Noah over at FrumForum gave me some technical guidance - showed me a starting point - and so I did a "Tweet" to:

http://twitter.com/sean_linnane

. . . but forgot to put the @sean_linnane hoo-yah before it.

Now I'm posting remotely - these remote posts & "tweets" will grow legs as I grow more accustomed to the three-dimensionality of the New Media.

To keep this post from developing into the "watching paint dry" category; here's the cool Site of the Day:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7paja_the-hills-have-eyes-trailer-1977_shortfilms

THE HILLS HAVE EYES came out the year I graduated high school - funny thing is I thought it was much earlier than that . . . and I swear if that isn't my buddy SKULLHEAD in that movie its his Evil Twin Brother . . .

More To Follow (as I get my head around this new technology) . . .
- Sean Linnane
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

MEMORIAL DAY 2010

In the twenty five years I wore the War Suit, the deal was you could do anything - murder and treason excepted - and they'd cover for you; you’d answer to the Old Man, sure, but the unit takes care of it’s own. But there was one task we were told that no matter what, come Hell or high water, we could never eff-up:



Funeral Detail.



Honor.



The dead have no voice, so we speak for them. Our war dead truly sacrifice themselves. They give their lives in far-off, miserable combat zones - often at young age - for causes that more often than not they barely understand, or if they did, could care less - especially considering the circumstances.



They give their lives for the most honorable of causes; in defense of the Nation, that we may enjoy the gifts of peace and freedom. This is the meaning of the phrases: “To have peace, arm yourself for war,” and “Freedom isn’t free.”




. . . so we honor them.




The Cenotaph, London




Honor to the crew of my uncle's Wellington bomber FU-D - Charleroi, Belgium.




The Irish Brigade Memorial, Gettysburg




This Memorial Day, we are treated to the spectacle of pot-fiend-doper-head-zombie-killer Harrelson impersonating a real man:

Not quite John Wayne.



In the film The Messenger Woody once more indulges his penchant for scandalizing America by throwing manure in our faces; this time sinking lower than his sicko Natural Born Killers piece of garbage.







Funeral duty - and every nuance and ancillary duty attached and associated to it - especially the family notification - is the most hallowed and sacred duty a soldier can be called upon to perform. This unenviable task must be performed with utter professionalism and the utmost respect; the family of the fallen interfaces with the face of the nation, at their weakest and most vulnerable point.



Now I'm not naïve, and I'm not fooling myself - the next time a member of the funeral party takes advantage of the widow in her moment of weakness will not be the first - every and any possible form of interaction between human beings has already taken place; there is nothing new under the sun - but to dedicate a movie to the conduct portrayed in the film; to explore this, to exploit this theme is not art, nor is it intended as entertainment.



It is propaganda: anti-military, anti-American propaganda - nothing less - and it is disgraceful.



Heroes . . .





. . . they dwell in Valhalla . . .





"Only the Dead have seen the End of War" - Plato


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GOIN' DEEP

DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!


Right now I'm in Mission Prep Mode, getting ready for an adventure: ". . . there's something I gotta do, and I gotta go do it; and where I'm going, you can't come with me . . ."

I'll be falling off the radar screen for the better part of ( GASP ! ! !) the next three weeks.

Yes, I know this is Virtual Death in the BlogoSphere: I intend to do a Memorial Day post, and I've got plans for a D-Day post. Other than that, it's "Sayonnara, Baby" for now . . .



Run Silent Run Deep



Thanks for all of your support and good vibes - to my loyal StormTroopers I say: Keep the emails and the story material coming . . . I don't always get around to it in a hurry, but I eventually post them all ! ! !



"I'LL BE BACK ! ! !"




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CALIFORNIAN SETS IT STRAIGHT

Last week we were presented with the spectacle of President Calderon of Mexico preaching to the United State Congress about - get this - Human Rights - concerning the tough new laws in Arizona. Anybody with the least amount of knowledge of how Mexico goes about business knows what a sick joke this is; what DIDN'T make a lot of headlines is Congressman Tom McClintock from California, calling out President Calderon and his adoring Democrat fan club in the Congress out on their hypocrisy . . .





What was better still was this incredible interview by Wolf Blitzer - who knows what got into Wolfie - where President Calderon contradicts himself and everything he'd said earlier in the day in front of Congress:




". . . if somebody do that, without permission, we send back, we send back them . . ."


What we are witnessing here, people, is a World Class Idiot. Obviously that State Dinner the previous night came with a price tag, and that price was for Señor Calderon to be a sock puppet for Barry Obama.

STATE-SPONSORED TERRORISM, AMERICAN-STYLE

“Waving signs denouncing bank “greed,” hordes of invaders poured out of 14 school buses, up Baer’s steps, and onto his front porch. As bullhorns rattled with stories of debtor calls and foreclosed homes, Baer’s teenage son Jack — alone in the house — locked himself in the bathroom. “When are they going to leave?” Jack pleaded when I called to check on him.

Baer, on his way home from a Little League game, parked his car around the corner, called the police, and made a quick calculation to leave his younger son behind while he tried to rescue his increasingly distressed teen. He made his way through a din of barked demands and insults from the activists who proudly “outed” him, and slipped through his front door.

“Excuse me,” Baer told his accusers, “I need to get into the house. I have a child who is alone in there and frightened.”





Imagine what you would have done if your child were inside that house and that mob was on your front lawn as you tried to reach him.


UPDATE: Video has since been removed from YouTube . . .


. . . but you can see it HERE.

I urge you to look at it . . . it is remarkable.


. . . the folks at SEIU may be a bit confused – first they storm private property and intimidate a teenage child, then they go after only seemingly Republican targets. Only, this one in particular – definitely NOT a Republican:

"A lifelong Democrat, Baer worked for the Clinton Treasury Department, and his wife, Shirley Sagawa, author of the book The American Way to Change and a former adviser to Hillary Clinton, is a prominent national service advocate."

Shamelessly Orchestrated Mob Scene




When mobs of goons and thugs trespass onto the private residential property of a private citizen and intimidate their children, and the police refuse to take action, no one should act surprised if a citizen acts to defend his property and his family from the lawless hordes…but, perhaps, that may be what the SEIU, the NPA, and their ilk want.

WHAT's WITH OHIO?

MOTHER NATURE TAKIN' OVER DEPARTMENT:

Squirrel Traps Family in Their Home: Strongsville Police Blotter



Is it . . . . . . THIS GUY?




SQUIRREL . . . the MOVIE

BEFORE THERE WAS NIKE . . .

. . . THERE WAS NIKE of SAMOTHRACE

Winged Victory of Samothrace is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world.

Also known as The Winged Victory of Samothrace (Greek: Σαμοθρακη — Samothraki), she is a second century B.C. marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, Victory has been prominently displayed at the Louvre. Conveying a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery, her features approach that which the Ancient Greeks considered ideal beauty.

Rendered in white Parian marble by an unknown sculptor in approximately 190 BC, Victory originally formed part of the Samothrace temple complex dedicated to the Great Gods, Megalon Theon. Created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to commemorate a sea battle; possibly by the Macedonian general Demetrius I Poliorcetes after his naval victory at Cyprus between 295 and 289 BC.

Victory originally stood on a rostral pedestal of gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship and represents the goddess Nike as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet. Before she lost her arms, which have never been recovered, Nike's right arm was raised, cupped round her mouth to deliver the shout, "VICTORY!"

The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure's draped garments, depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze, which is considered especially compelling.

Nike of Samothrace is seen as an iconic depiction of triumphant spirit and of the divine momentarily coming face to face with man. Many believe the power of the work is enhanced by the very fact that the head and arms are missing.

GOOD MORNIN' BLUES

Huddie Lead Belly Ledbetter was born in 1888 or 1889 on a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana, but the family moved to Leigh, Texas, when he was five. By 1903, Lead Belly was already a singer and guitarist of some note. He performed for nearby Shreveport, Louisiana audiences. Lead Belly began to develop his own style of music after exposure to a variety of musical influences of the saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the notorious St. Paul's Bottoms red-light district.


Prison years


Lead Belly's volatile temper sometimes led him into trouble with the law. In 1915 he was convicted "of carrying a pistol" and sentenced to do time on the Harrison County chain gang, from which he escaped. In January 1918 he was imprisoned a second time, this time after killing one of his relatives, Will Stafford, in a fight over a woman. In 1918 he was incarcerated in Sugar Land, Texas, where he probably learned the song "Midnight Special". In 1925 he was pardoned and released after writing a song appealing to Governor Pat Morris Neff for his freedom, appealing to his strong religious beliefs.

In 1930, Lead Belly was back in prison for attempted homicide after he knifed a white man in a fight. It was there, three years later, that he was "discovered" by musicologists John Lomax and son Alan Lomax during a visit to the Angola Prison Farm. They recorded hundreds of his songs on portable aluminum disc recording equipment for the Library of Congress.

Lead Belly was released again on August 1, 1934, after the Lomaxes took a petition to Louisiana Governor Oscar K. Allen at Lead Belly's urgent request. The petition was on the other side of a recording of his signature song, "Goodnight Irene."


Moniker

There are several, somewhat conflicting stories about Lead Belly's famous nickname. Some say his fellow inmates dubbed him "Lead Belly" as a play on his last name and reference to his physical toughness; others say he earned the name after being shot in the stomach with shotgun buckshot. Another theory has it that the name refers to his ability to drink homemade liquor (moonshine).

Whatever its origin, he adopted the nickname as a pseudonym while performing, and it stuck. Regarding his toughness, it is also recounted that during his second prison term, another inmate stabbed him in the neck (leaving him with a fearsome scar that he subsequently covered with a bandanna), and he took the knife away and in turn almost killed his attacker with it.




Fame, but not Fortune

By the time Lead Belly was released from prison, the United States was deep in the Great Depression and jobs were very scarce. In September 1934, Lead Belly met with John A. Lomax and for three months he assisted the 67-year-old John Lomax in his folk song collecting in the South.

In December, Lead Belly participated in a "smoker" (group sing) at an MLA meeting in Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where he was written up in the press as a convict who had sung his way out of prison. On New Year's Day, 1935, the pair arrived in New York City, where John Lomax was scheduled to meet with his publisher, Macmillan, about a new collection of folk songs. The newspapers were eager to write about the "singing convict" and Time magazine made one of its first filmed March of Time newsreels about him. Lead Belly attained fame (though not fortune).

Life magazine ran a three-page article titled, "Lead Belly - Bad Nigger Makes Good Minstrel," in the April 19, 1937 issue. It included a full-page, color (rare in those days) picture of him sitting on grain sacks playing his guitar and singing. Lead Belly continued to struggle financially. Like many performers, what income he made during his lifetime would come from touring, not from record sales.




In 1939, Lead Belly was back in jail for assault, after stabbing a man in a fight in Manhattan. Alan Lomax, then 24, took him under his wing and helped raise money for his legal expenses, dropping out of graduate school to do so.

After his release (in 1940-41), Lead Belly appeared as a regular on Alan Lomax and Nicholas Ray's groundbreaking CBS radio show Back Where I Come From, broadcast nationwide. He also appeared in night clubs with Josh White, becoming a fixture in New York City's surging folk music scene and befriending the likes of Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Woody Guthrie, and a young Pete Seeger, all fellow performers on Back Where I Come From.

During the first half of the decade he recorded for RCA, the Library of Congress, and for Moe Asch (future founder of Folkways Records), and in 1944 headed to California, where he recorded strong sessions for Capitol Records. In 1949 Lead Belly had a regular radio broadcast on station WNYC in New York on Sunday nights on Henrietta Yurchenko's show. Later in the year he began his first European tour with a trip to France. Lead Belly was the first American country blues musician to see success in Europe.

TOMMIES GET NEW THREADS

from the UK Telegraph:

British Troops in Afghanistan Given New Uniform

British troops serving in Afghanistan have been issued with a new-look camouflage - the first pattern change of its kind for more than 40 years.


Actually I'm more interested in what they've done to the SA-80 . . . I see they've adopted the ACOG 4X sight - that's GOT to be an improvement over that Cracker Jacks toy they originally had mounted . . . the 40mm grenade launcher looks suspiciously like it originated in the H&K factory I visited in Oberndorf . . . come to think of it the entire assault rifle package looks like the Wizards of Baden Württemberg worked it over - Sean Linnane


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TWITTER GOES TO WAR

This is the story I was trying to tell . . . I just couldn't get my head around the Twitter, Tweet, Twit of it all . . . - Sean Linnane



Twitter Provides Latest News on Bangkok Political Violence
May 19 - PMNY Destinations Examiner - Leslie Koch

English-speakers used their smart phones and laptops to access Twitter and find out which streets were safe from the violence.

A simple search for #Bangkok provided a steady stream of tweets on Wednesday.

Many tweets were first-hand accounts posted by journalists, expats and other Bangkok residents.






Freelance journalist Florian Witulski ("Vaitor") kept his 4,759 Twitter followers glued to their laptops with his posts from the Bangkok streets:


Here are a few tweets from Vaitor's stream on Wednesday (times are Bangkok time). You can see the events unfold in chronological order:


o its getting bloody here, can confirm two foreign reporters shot, two more dead red shirt bodies leaving Lumpini (About noon in Bangkok)


o for other journalist at DinDaeng: get rid of camera and green batch otherwise you get caught by reds! (About noon in Bangkok)


o reds in DinDaeng are really aggressive, destroyed camera of French journalist near front lines of DinDaeng. (About 1 PM Bangkok)


o followed by gunfire . . . can't see what's going on right now, but there must be something on fire, big smoke clouds again! (About 2 PM Bangkok)


o one more military helicopter in the air . . . looks like . . . teargas! (about 4 PM Bangkok)


o sorry for tweet delay, low battery . . . still in front lines. (about 4 PM Bangkok)


o another dead body leaving SalaDaeng! still smoke, sirens in the background, couldn't be anymore dramatic here! (about 4 PM Bangkok)


o nearly whole bangkok downtown is covered in smoke... (about 5 PM Bangkok)


o people looting Central World . . . they don't care for the fire . . . (about 6 PM Bangkok)


o thai guy in front of me with two different new adidas shoes and a brand new jacket . . . he is one of the only happy guys today! (about 7 PM Bangkok)


o small fires and destroyed shops around siam paragon, soldiers and firemen try everything to get in control! (about 7 PM Bangkok)


o still in red territory, cinema fire nearly erased, Central World still burning, infrequent shots around the temple! (about 10 PM Bangkok)


o borrowed a night scope from a soldier . . . this thing is awesome. not shots at the moment, just dead silence! (about 11 PM Bangkok)


o soldiers got the sniper i guess . . . no shots in the last 15mins (about 11 PM Bangkok)


o alright, been on the ground since 4am, time to sleep - thanks so much! i'm home+fine, see you tmr! (about midnight in Bangkok)


With the 11 hour time difference between New York City and Bangkok, Witulski was heading to bed just as the news story heated up in the US.



OK it's obvious I need a class in this new Tweet thingie technology so I can harness the power of the Twitter phenomena . . . I mean, I'm a member of it, have an Twit address and everything, transmit over it . . . and I don't even know what it IS . . . your comments & suggestions are welcome - Sean Linnane




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EEBEN BARLOW

Eeben Barlow founded the Private Military Company (PMC) Executive Outcomes (EO) in 1989. The company trained SADF Special Forces in intelligence skills. Operating primarily in Africa helping African governments that had been abandoned by the West, EO served such corporate clients as De Beers (diamonds) and Ranger Oil in Northern Angola. EO later operated in Sierra Leone against the rebel movement RUF in that country and assisted Indonesian Special Forces in the hostage-release operation in Irian Jaya in 1996.

EO also operated in South America and the Far East. Nowadays Eeben Barlow lectures to military colleges and universities on defense, intelligence and security issues.



Eeben Barlow is currently an independent consultant. Eeben Barlow's Military and Security Blog is a serious look at military and security matters.




From Eeben Barlow's blog:


STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF WAR


When a nation’s armed forces are committed to war, the war is fought at three distinct yet inter-related levels. These three levels are:

1. Strategic Level

2. Operational Level

3. Tactical Level


Warfare at the strategic level can be broken down into four distinctive types of strategic warfare. These four types are:


1. Offensive Warfare

2. Defensive Warfare

3. Attrition Warfare

4. Revolutionary Warfare.


Each type of Strategic Warfare can be further broken down into different sub-types of warfare. As an example, Offensive Warfare can be subdivided into either a Distant Strategic Offensive or a Close Strategic Offensive – the type being determined by the proximity of the offensive.

At the Operational Level, usually confined to a specific theatre of operations, the military strategy is accomplished by the setting of operational objectives, within that specific theatre, to meet the military strategy’s goals. Poor planning, non-compliance to doctrine and inadequate tactics can result in failure, thus impacting negatively on the overall military strategy.

The Tactical level is that level where the techniques to attain the strategy are implemented by various unit levels such as a division, a brigade, a company or even a section. It is, therefore, at the Tactical level that tactics come into play. The tactics employed will be dependent on numerous factors such as the phase of war, the enemy, the terrain, the weather, own forces capabilities, the local population and so forth.




Eeben Barlow's autobiography: Executive Outcomes: Against All Odds




Whereas the principle aim of war is to always achieve victory over the enemy, regardless of the type of warfare, the modern-day war can be viewed as having five main strategic goals:


1. To repulse an aggressive act by the enemy, contain and destroy it.

2. To invade, conquer and destroy an enemy.

3. To seize and exploit the resources of an enemy.

4. To energise foreign policy by means other than diplomacy.

5. To gain favourable public opinion and strengthen national resolve and will.


To achieve these strategic goals, the military will adopt a specific posture in order to accomplish its allocated mission. The posture will thus be determined by the perceived enemy threat and will therefore determine the military’s doctrine and tactics.

The tactics, in turn, are related to the specific phase of warfare that is being implemented. These phases - excluding the intermediate or transitional phases - are:


1. The advance

2. The attack

3. The withdrawal

4. The defence


Sound military strategies will lead to well-developed doctrines, good planning based on sound intelligence and correct application of tactics. It is, however, at the tactical level that the war can be either won or lost.


This is where I disagree - the United States was never defeated on the tactical level in Vietnam; there was never a decisive Communist victory against United States Forces on the battlefield.

Perhaps this was because while we were engaged in a distant, strategic war; the Viet Communists were fighting Revolutionary Warfare, and were willing to adopt attrition tactics to achieve their Strategic aims.

The American defeat in the Vietnam Conflict was STRATEGIC in nature, and it occurred at Berkeley, Kent State, Columbia, and a hundred other college campuses, where the few of the anti-war movement held the many of the entire country hostage - Sean Linnane

FINAL FLIGHT: Air Commando One

BRIGADIER GENERAL HARRY C. "HEINIE" ADERHOLT,
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE


Born 1920 - Retired 1 August 1976 - Died 20 May 2010



Brigadier General Harry C. (Heinie) Aderholt was born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1920. He entered active military duty through the aviation cadet program in April 1942 and graduated from pilot training with a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps in May 1943.

During World War II, from October 1943 to August 1945, General Aderholt served in North Africa and Italy as a B-17 and C-47 pilot.

In September 1945 General Aderholt went to Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., assigned as a staff pilot with the Army Air Forces Eastern Flying Training Command. After completion of Air Tactical School at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., in December 1948, General Aderholt returned to Maxwell and served as a flight instructor and flying safety officer with the 3800th Air Base Wing.

During the Korean War, from July 1950 to September 1951, General Aderholt commanded a Special Air Warfare Detachment of the 21st Troop Carrier Squadron. He next was assigned as an operations staff officer with the 1007th Air Intelligence Service Group in Washington, D.C. In June 1953 he was transferred to Donaldson Air Force Base, S.C., where he served with Headquarters Eighteenth Air Force as tactical and operations staff officer in the Directorate of Operations and Training.

In October 1954, General Aderholt was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Wiesbaden Air Base, Germany, and served in the Directorate of Plans as an unconventional warfare planning staff officer.

In September 1957 General Aderholt returned to Washington, D.C., assigned to the 1007th Air Intelligence Service Group as a special warfare staff officer, and in September 1959 joined the 1040th U.S. Air Force Field Activity Squadron in the same capacity.

General Aderholt left for Okinawa in January 1960 where he became commander of the 1095th Operational Evaluation Training Group. During this assignment, he contributed to the pioneering of special air warfare techniques, and was instrumental in developing the Laos airfield complex known as Lima sites. These fields were used throughout Southeast Asia as support sites for special warfare operations and as "Jolly Green" helicopter forward staging bases for rescue and recovery operations in Laos and North Vietnam.

From August 1962 to February 1964, General Aderholt served as special advisor to the commander of the U.S. Air Force Special Air Warfare Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. During this period, he contributed to and participated in RAND Corp. studies which resulted in the publication of the Single Integrated Attack Team Study. He then was transferred to Hurlburt Field, Fla., where he served as vice commander and commander of the famed 1st Air Commando Wing.

General Aderholt left for the Republic of the Philippines in August 1965 where he was assigned as deputy commander for plans and operations with the 6200th Materiel Wing at Clark Air Base. While in this assignment, he joined the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, where he conceived and activated the Joint Personnel Recovery Center in Saigon, and served as chief from July to December 1966. He then was selected by Headquarters Pacific Air Forces to activate the 56th Air Commando Wing at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. This wing, which he organized and commanded from December 1966 to December 1967, conducted low-level night interdiction missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and North Vietnam, using prop-driven aircraft. The efforts of this wing were so successful in slowing infiltration that the enemy reacted by greatly increasing anti-aircraft defenses and committing a large amount of his total assets to keep the trail open.

In January 1968 General Aderholt was reassigned to the U.S. Air Force Special Air Warfare Center, later redesignated U.S. Air Force Special Operations Force, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to serve as deputy chief of staff for operations.

General Aderholt returned to Thailand in June 1970 for a two-year tour of duty as chief of the Air Force Advisory Group, Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group, in Bangkok. He retired from active military duty in December 1972 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

He was recalled to active duty in October 1973 and assigned as deputy commander, United States Military Assistance Command, Thailand, and deputy chief, Joint United States Military Advisory Group, Thailand, with headquarters at Bangkok.

General Aderholt became Commander, USMACTHAI, and Chief, JUSMAG, Thailand, in May 1975.

His military decorations and awards include the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star Medal with oak leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Emblem, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with oak leaf cluster. He is a command pilot and wears the Parachutist Badge.

He was promoted to the grade of Brigadier General effective May 31, 1974, with date of rank May 25, 1974.



Bio of General Aderholt was published in Bangkok in 1975 when he was Commander, U. S. Military Assistance Command, Thailand, and Chief, Joint U. S. Military Advisory Group, Thailand.



Heinie Aderholt was a pioneer of American Joint Special Operations, he was the consummate Clandestine Warrior, and he was an American Hero

"HONOR"





More reading: BG Aderholt’s Ho Chi Minh Trail Adventure Diary by Nick Ascot

FINAL CRACKDOWN

THAI SOLDIERS ARREST LEADERS

Armored personnel carriers rolled through Bangkok's streets Wednesday as government soldiers carried out a campaign to round up protest leaders and put them in jail. According to The Guardian, rumors that this would be the "final crackdown" spread throughout the night.

Soldiers opened fire on protesters, as they entered the camp, which had provided a refuge for anti-government Red Shirts for more than a month now.
After 68 days, at least 68 have been killed in clashes. A spokesman for the prime minister said the operation was "successful." Said one man, "The Thai army is bad. They shoot Thai people."

By the end of the day, peace had yet to come and buildings blazed through the night. "The Red Shirts are not resigned," a protest leader said, "they are enraged."

http://e.thedailybeast.com/a/tBL9Sx4B7SwhTB8JT0wNMFRiswR/dail3

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

VICTORIA, TEXAS

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Here's a copy of the actual newspaper article . . .

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I CAN GET MY PISTOL ENGRAVED LIKE THIS?

I'm talking about my throwaway; my Glock of course . . . there's no way on God's Green Earth I'd deface my trusty M1911 . . . "Old SlabSides" . . . with this kind of assgrabbery . . .


- Sean Linnane



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GOTTA LOVE THOSE TEXANS ! ! !

OBAMA SIGN IN MARSHALL, TEXAS




This billboard is at the northeast corner of U.S. 59 and State Highway 43, across from Marshall High School.




Be Who You Are And Say What You Feel . . .

Because Those That Matter . . . Don't Mind . . .
And Those That Mind . . . Don't Matter ! ! !

SITUATION UPDATE

GOVERNMENT TROOPS STORM PROTESTORS

BANGKOK (various sources): The stand-off between anti-government protesters and Thai troops is escalating in Bangkok, as the government launched an aggressive push to clear 3,000 demonstrators from their fortified camp in the center of the city. “This is D-Day,” one soldier said. Troops are using armored vehicles to break through the protesters’ barricades, made of tires and bamboo, and firing tear gas ahead. The Red Shirts, as the protestors are known, have been enclosed in the encampment since Thursday, and have no plans to back down. "We're asking everybody to be ready for a crackdown," one protest leader said. They have been rallying against Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who they say came to power illegitimately in 2008, since mid-March. The riots have so far claimed 68 lives and injured more than 1,700.






Rioting and fires swept Bangkok on Wednesday after troops stormed a protest encampment, forcing protest leaders to surrender, but sparking clashes that killed at least four people and triggered unrest in northern Thailand.

At least five people, including an Italian journalist, were killed Wednesday during an army crackdown on an anti-government protest site in Bangkok, police and a hospital said. "An Italian man was shot and died before arriving at the hospital," said Police Hospital director Jongjet Aoajenpong. "He's a journalist. He was shot in the stomach," he added. Meanwhile elite troops deployed in the protest-hit capital have been authorized to shoot on sight people looting, committing arson or inciting unrest, a police spokesman has said.

HE HONORED THE G.I.

Bill Mauldin Stamp Honors Grunts' Hero





. . . He was a kid cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper; Mauldin's drawings of his muddy, exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines . . .







. . . Mauldin was an enlisted man just like the soldiers he drew for; his gripes were their gripes, his laughs were their laughs, his heartaches were their heartaches. He was one of them. They loved him . . .






. . . Mauldin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Last month, the kid cartoonist made it onto a first-class postage stamp. It's an honor that most generals and admirals never receive . . .

BANGKOK DANGEROUS: STREET BATTLES FORECAST

URGENT: Wednesday 19th May: Looks like the army crackdown is starting along Rama IV Road now!

Central Bangkok is now a "war zone". Latest news is that the street clashes are further outside the area marked on this map. All MRT and BTS train services are closed until further notice. Most big shopping malls in central Bangkok are closed too. All schools are shut. Monday to Friday is now a public holiday in Bangkok. The army's plan to encircle the red shirts (green square) has failed repeatedly. So far 36 dead in running street battles. We think the army will move in soon to clear the streets.

MOST DANGEROUS: Areas to avoid in Bangkok this week: Sala Daeng / Silom area

- for what it's worth I used to date a girl who lived in the Silom area - S.L. -

Lumpini Boxing Stadium / Bon Kai area and Ratchaprarop to Din Daeng area including Victory Monument.


Click HERE for detailed map . . . more to follow - S.L.



HERE's an RSS feed thingie . . . I'm struggling here with geek technology here . . . transmitting messages on all frequencies but nobody's answering . . . there's all kinds of amazing info out there and here I am still trying to get my head around my technology . . .


Go HERE for some ground truth


- Sean Linnane


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GREATEST HEADLINE OF THE CENTURY AWARD

New York Times:


"CANDIDATE's WORDS ON VIETNAM SERVICE DIFFER FROM HISTORY"

By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ
Published: May 17, 2010

At a ceremony honoring veterans and senior citizens who sent presents to soldiers overseas, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut spoke . . .

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

There is one problem: Mr. Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam . . .



Isn't that the greatest headline you've ever seen? They can't bring themselves to say it . . . Bush lied, Karl Rove lied, Rush Limbaugh's a liar - they can chant those phrases all day and all night and never have to make their point - but one of their own gets caught DEAD TO RIGHTS lying about military service and they run the greatest cover since ". . . that all depends on what the meaning of is, is . . ."


BUT! He's a Democrat! AND in a Blue State . . . this won't slow down his chances . . . if anything it'll be a resume enhancer . . .


Oh, by the way Mr. Blumenthal - while you're awaiting your (inevitable) nomination to Senate, we the editorial staff at STORMBRINGER have a little award for you HERE.


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BAD KHARMA

Prologue: The Sergeant-Major and I stood looking across the airstrip, into the pitch-black darkness of the hot tropic night. Across the airfield the jungle loomed; thick, foreboding.
"If they hit us, that is the way they will come, right across the airfield," he said, sweeping his arm out toward the jungle.
"But . . . that is our most wide-open field of fire; that is the easiest sector for us to defend."
"That is exactly why they will hit it," he said. "They know it is the easiest place for us to defend, the least desirable place to mount an assault; that's why they'll figure we'll put the least attention upon it. When they come, they will come right across that airfield," he said.
A pause, and then he added, "You have to understand the Oriental mind."

S.L.

KARMA

Karma - from the Sanskrit कर्म - is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine of Buddhism; the concept of "action" or "deed", that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect.



San Phra Phrom


The Erawan Shrine ( ศาลพระพรหม - San Phra Phrom ) is a Hindu shrine in Bangkok that houses a statue of Phra Phrom; the Thai representation of Brahma, the Hindu God of Creation.


The shrine often features Thai dancers, who are hired by worshippers in hopes of seeing their prayers at the shrine answered.


The Erawan Shrine was built in 1956 as part of the Erawan Hotel to eliminate the bad karma believed caused by laying the foundations on the wrong date.

The hotel's construction was delayed by a series of mishaps, including cost overruns, injuries to laborers, and the loss of a shipload of Italian marble intended for the building. Furthermore, the Ratchaprasong Intersection had once been used as an area to put criminals on public display.

An astrologer advised building the shrine to counter the negative influences. The Brahma statue was designed and built by the Department of Fine Arts and enshrined on 9 November 1956. The hotel's construction thereafter proceeded without further incident.


Erawan Shrine


At about 1 am on March 21, 2006, the shrine was vandalised by a Thai man. After smashing the statue with a hammer, 27-year-old Thanakorn Pakdeepol was himself beaten to death by angry bystanders. Two street sweepers who worked for the Pathum Wan district office were arrested and charged with the fatal beating.

Witnesses said Thanakorn stood on the base of the statue with a large hammer in his hands, and smashed the statue to pieces. The slain man's father, Sayant Pakdeepol, said his son had received treatment for psychiatric problems, that mental illness was the cause for the attack, and that the beating death of his son an "overreaction".

"Doing something like this is not the act of people with good beliefs, of those with real faith in Brahma," Sayant was quoted as saying. "Murder is an immoral act and people with morality would not have done what they did."


POLITICAL CONTROVERSY

In the days following the incident at Erawan Shrine, embattled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra visited and paid his respects to the broken statue of the deity.


Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra

At an anti-Thaksin rally on 22 March, government critic Sondhi Limthongkul claimed that Thaksin Shinawatra masterminded the destruction through Khmer (Cambodian) black-magic shamans in order to replace the image of Brahma with a "dark force" aligned to Thaksin, who sought to maintain power through black magic.

Thaksin, when asked to comment on Sondhi's accusations, simply replied: "That's insane."


THE FINLAND PLOT

Starting in May 2006, Sondhi's newspaper Manager Daily published a series of articles on a movement called "Finland Plot", claiming that Thaksin and former student leaders from the 1970s radical political movement met in Finland in 1999 to create a plan to overthrow the Thai constitutional monarchy and establish a republic. No evidence was ever produced to support the existence of such a plot, and Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai Party firmly denied the accusations. Thaksin sued Sondhi for defamation. Sondhi countered by saying that Thaksin was trying to silence the press.


COUP D'ETAT

Massive demonstrations against Thaksin ensued.


The People's Alliance for Democracy - PAD - ( พันธมิตรประชาชนเพื่อประชาธิปไตย ) - was a coalition of protesters against Thaksin Shinawatra.



PAD demonstrators wore yellow - the color of royalty in Asia - to show their support for the monarchy.


Then on 19 September 2006, the Thai military, led by General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, overthrew the Thaksin government and dissolved Parliament. Thaksin was exiled indefinitely and several members of his Cabinet were summoned for investigation.

Public protests against the military junta began in the months after the coup.


Thai Police with helmets and riot shields await near the protest zone.



Renegade Thai General Khattiya Sawasdipol a.k.a. Seh Daeng - "Red Commander" - charismatic leader of the Red Shirts



National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship - the "Red Shirts"






Things got ugly after the Army stepped in.







General Khattiya went down; an Army sniper's bullet to his head.



Epilogue

This whole situation is so messed up, so much bad karma from the git go - no wonder things are such a mess over there.

That makes me sad to learn about the Erawan shrine. Even though I'm a Christian, I strongly believe in the Buddhist way; karma and reincarnation - don't ask me to explain it because I can't. All I know is it is what it is; these feelings have been reinforced throughout all my journeys and adventures.

The Erawan shrine is a beautiful place, I used to love going by there in the evenings; the smell of the incense and the jasmine garlands, the gentle music and the Thai dancers.





Up until now the protracted violence in Bangkok has been so difficult to understand. Learning of the crazy vandalism of the Erawan shrine, and murder on holy ground, this explains so much; it all makes sense to me now:

The Gods are Angry.


Bangkok burning. (AP Photo/Wally Santana)


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