Tag: Military

Quotes July 21, 2017


 
 
 
 
We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have ‘guardians at the gate.’
Allen West
 
 
 
 
I hate it when they say, ‘He gave his life for his country.’ Nobody gives their life for anything. We steal the lives of these kids. We take it away from them. They don’t die for the honor and glory of their country. We kill them.
Admiral Gene LaRocque
 
 
 
 
The military might of a country represents its national strength. Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country.
Kim Jong-un
 
 
 
 
The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they’re protecting us.
Tom Clancy
 
 
 
 
After I was discharged from the military, it was difficult trying to become a civilian.
Chris Kyle
 
 
 
 
The number of medals on an officer’s breast varies in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of his duty from the front line.
Charles Montague
 
 
 
 
A Purple Heart just proves that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.
unknown
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Ezra Update: Dawn Seymour ’39 took to the skies during WWII July 20, 2017

Ezra Update: Dawn Seymour ’39 took to the skies during WWII
Weeks after her 100th birthday, WASP Dawn Seymour has taken her final flight. Official posting and information forthcoming. Meantime, please read the lovely tribute from her beloved Cornell University’s magazine. The article is from 2014. Classy, gracious, kind…so grateful to call her friend. Our prayers for her family and all the hearts she touched. So many hearts.

Music July 14, 2017

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Quotes July 14, 2017

RED Friday

 
 
“If you see a bomb technician running, follow him.”
– USAF Ammo Troop
 
 
“Don’t draw fire; it irritates the people around you.”
– Your Buddies
 
 
“Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.”
– Unknown Marine Recruit
 
 
“Any ship can be a minesweeper… once.”
– Anonymous
 
 
“No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection.”
– Joe Gay
 
 
“If your attack is going too well, you’re walking into an ambush.”
– Infantry Journal
 
 
“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.”
– David Hackworth
 
 
“Five-second fuses only last three seconds.”
– Infantry Journal
 
 
“Tracers work both ways.”
– U.S. Army Ordnance
 
 
“You, you, and you… panic. The rest of you, come with me.”
– U.S. Marine Corps gunnery sgt.
 
 
“A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what’s left of your unit.”
– Army’s magazine of preventive maintenance
 
 
“Aim towards the Enemy.”
– Instruction printed on US rocket launcher
 
 
“When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.”
– U.S. Marine Corps
 
 
“Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground.”
– USAF ammo troop
 
 
“If the enemy is in range, so are you.”
– Infantry Journal
 
 
“It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.”
– U.S Air Force Manual
 
 

“Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo.”
– Infantry Journal
 
 
“Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.”
– Gen. Douglas MacArthur

 
 

 
 

 
 

Images July 14, 2017

From left, U.S. Army Spc. Charles Henderson, Pfc. Collen Wells and Spc. Marshall Hodge sit inside an improvised shelter decorated with an American flag during Operation Helmand Spider in Badula Qulp, Afghanistan. The Soldiers are assigned to the Bravo Company, 4th Battalion, 23th Infantry Regiment. DoD Photo #16 by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez, U.S. Air Force


 
 

Chuck Norris addresses Marines about the Protect What You’ve Earned (PWYE) campaign. The PWYE campaign was initiated in 2015 and reinforces a Marine’s desire to safeguard life-long investments and hard-earned achievements.

 
 

Medal of Honor recipient Leo K. Thorsness dies at age 85

Lieutenant Colonel Leo K. Thorsness, United States Air Force, received the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War

Medal of Honor recipient Leo K. Thorsness dies at age 85

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Leo Thorsness, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during a dogfight over North Vietnam and who later spent six years in the enemy prison camp known as the “Hanoi Hilton,” died May 2 at a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida. He was 85.

 

wiki: Leo Keith Thorsness (February 14, 1932 – May 2, 2017)

Music July 07, 2017

 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/LhL3FhYAYjo
 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/I-hQKRybmiw
 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/UuTh4K82vig

 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/8aRJXFO-qtU

Quotes July 07, 2017

RED Friday

 
 

 
 

 
 
As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives, the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks, “What happened?” The pilot’s reply: “I don’t know, I just got here myself!”
– Attributed to Lockheed test pilot Ray Crandell
 
 
“Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.”
– Basic flight rules
 
 
“The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.”
– Attributed to Northrop Aviation test pilot Max Stanley
 
 
“When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slow and gently as possible.”
– Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII
 
 
“If something hasn’t broken on your helicopter, it’s about to.”
 
 
“If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it’s probably a helicopter — and therefore, unsafe.”
 
 

“The only time you have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.”
 
 

“Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.”
 
 
“Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.”
 
 
“Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death … I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing.”
– At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base, Kadena, Japan
 
 
“You’ve never been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3.”
– Test pilot Paul F. Crickmore
 
 
“What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.”
 
 
“When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.”

 
 
The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: “Why is it doing that?” “Where are we?” and “Oh Shit!”
 
 
“Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky.”
– From an old carrier sailor
 
 
“Never trade luck for skill.”
 
 
“Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day.”
 
 
“There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.”
– Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.

 
 

 
 

Music July 07, 2017

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Our Third Thirds: Did you Duck and Cover?

Our Third Thirds: Did you Duck and Cover?

Skipped to:
September 26 is Petrov Day: “Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, take a minute to not destroy the world.”

That last panel goes on to describe other false alarms: one where a training tape of a Soviet invasion was mistakenly inserted into the early-warning computer, another where a Norwegian rocket on a scientific mission to study the aurora was mistaken for a missile.

These were equipment mistakes, technological errors; they can happen any time. But the humans staffing the machines have to be able to stay calm and process the evidence rationally. Always it comes down to the one person who might be the one who “saves the world.”

Many times in my life I’ve explored what it takes to make peace as opposed to making war. This exhibit put another layer on it: how do we train people to refrain from pushing buttons, to pause, to consider? Because so far, the only time the world was saved was when a button wasn’t pressed.

Barbara Brown blog about life in the Third Third: empty nest, retirement, de-cluttering, adventures, crashes, New Things, all with art and humor.