Long, Obstinate, and Bloody.

A good title!

235 years ago today my 5 times Great-grandfather and his sons stood in the militia line of Natty Green's Southern Army to fire at the king's army.  I walked the ground for myself in April 2013.  You can take a walk via this C-SPAN video.  There was an anniversary reenactment last Saturday and historical events.  Cool.  The United Sates Army Center for History has a good account of the battle.

The battle is key, because the cost of the fight leads Lord Cornwallis to move North.  Eventually placing his army on a peninsula at a place named Yorktown.

"I never saw such fighting since God made me. The Americans fought like demons"
 -- Lt. General Charles, Earl Cornwallis.

After the war some of the sons received the land bounty for service from the State of North Carolina and moved Westward and settled a place called Tennessee.

'Hey, the flag's up on the mountain.'

71 years ago today Joe Rosenthal snapped that famous photo and didn't know for sure what he had.  5th Division movie cameraman Sgt. Bill Genaust captured it on film.  This was the second flag raising, the first was a smaller flag replaced by this larger one later in the day.

Happy Birthday Mr. President.

It's Presidents Day, or should we say President's Day?  It depends on where you are.  The federal holiday was originally established to commemorate the birthday of George Washington, but like all these days it has been diluted from its origin and migrated to fit a different need.  George Washington was born February 22nd.

Poster circa 1890.

It is George Washington who established the precedent that he be referred to as "Mr. President", foregoing anything that smacked of royalty.  He was the original action hero.  The Journal of the American Revolution has a wonderful post about the General up this morning The Carefree and Kindhearted General Washington.

Happy birthday to George Washington, soldier, statesman, leader and father of our country.

Monday Monday

Monday Monday.  The National Weather Service has forecast a "Hyrdologic" Event for today.  Meaning it is a rainy Monday morning here in the Tualatin River Valley.

We should start with history. . .December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy. . .Nothing on Oregonlive.com front page.  Timbers-Timbers-Timbers!  It is some sports team.  Remember Pearl Harbor was the cry.  Almost gone are the generation that fought that war to keep the world free from socialist totalitarians and their minions.  America is a different country from the one they came home to, worked hard and built up.  Different.  Some would say unrecognizable to that generation.  Better, worse?  I will simply say different.

I have heard last week the DoD opened all MOS to women.  Terminal Lance has a greeting for you, welcome to the suck ladies.

See Something, Say Something. . .

"What can I do" is the question people might ask.  I say might, because many go through life in a state of normalcy bias, without seeing much of what is seen or unseen.  But the question remains.  See Something, Say Something simply did not apply in this San Bernardino action. Why? Societal castration?  Perhaps, more likely cognitive dissonance resulting from normalcy bias.

From our friends at WikiPedia:
"People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation."

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance focuses on how humans strive for internal consistency. An individual who experiences inconsistency (dissonance) tends to become psychologically uncomfortable, and is motivated to try to reduce this dissonance—as well as actively avoid situations and information likely to increase it

See Something, and then subconsciously say no I didn't see that.  In that state there is nothing that person can do.  Is there?

Jihad is agile

Yes it is, and that is why it is succeeding.  A lovely thought isn't it?  John Robb wrote about it earlier in the year with a post titled "The Open Jihad" over at Global Guerrillas.  I know, I know, it is a linking, but this is important information o learn, know and act upon.

Does any of this sound familiar?.

1. tinkering with tactics, strategies, and technologies that can be used to advance the team;s goal.
2. testing the efficacy of these innovations by using them in production.
3. copying the innovations that work. 

Read John Robb's post, then compare the methods described to your development process.

On this date in 1947. . .

Paris and America.

So many things have been said about Paris and the attack on November 13th.  Most have been disappointing.  The thing of it is we should not be looking for "Them" to be sneaking in during the dead of night, "Them" are already here and have been for quite some time now.

Remember, Remember the 5th of November. . .

Remember, Remember the 5th of November, the gunpowder and treason plot.  Guy Fawkes Day!

Have you heard about this Million Mask March?  Anti-Capitalists in $750 designer jackets. . .

The scene from V for Vendetta.

Maureen O'Hara Died

I just found out Maureen O'Hara died Friday.

"I guess everybody was in love with Maureen O’Hara,” Clint Eastwood.

More from Vanity Fair, including a great interview with her from 2014.

"What is the quality you most like in a man?
    --  Tough, with inner kindness, like Duke had. 

Guns Sales Boom in Osterreich?

So, it appears that gun sales are on the uptick in Austria.  According to this article translated courtesy of the evil alphabet empire.   Interesting.  The key reason in this quote "The most common reason for the upgrade: fear of refugees and before dawn burglars."

32 Years ago today.

32 Years ago today Iranian backed terrorists attacked the "barracks" of the 24 MEU at the Beirut Airport.  Stars and Stripes carried the story on the 30th anniversary.  The GWOT, Large VBIED's are nothing new, simply the lexicon and the narrative have changed.

Semper Fi.

Marine Corps Marathon 2015

For your Friday morning mirth.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.  Or should we say Marines will be Marines in all things?

The Marine Corps Marathon map is interestingly aimed at. . .

Monday, Monday.

It is a rainy Monday afternoon here in Oregon.  Nice!

I spotted this in my morning reading.  I was aware of the case from an earlier EFF post, that the ancestry.com owned database had been used and Mr. Usry had been fingered by the long arm of the law. . . What I was NOT aware of is this: He was cleared by his DNA. . .after 33 days under suspicion.

Read the article, and the EFF link.  I think this is an insidious use of technology, that of course has gone awry.  How could this not have?  Think of the Stanford Experiment?  What do you think should be done?

What Star Wars Teaches about "Hybrid Warfare"

OK, OK.  Hybrid Warfare, what the heck?  Well it is 4GW or whatever we called it before that. . .Like car bomb and truck bomb became VBIED. . .Stupid I know, but our boots were black, what did we know?  "Watch out, Medium to large sized VBIED!" as opposed to what we said in the olden days. . ."Give them a whiff of grape Captain Bragg". . . I digress, but that is the point isn't it.

For your Friday perusal and to satiate the Grunt-Nerdists I give you. . .

From Droid Armies to Luke Skywalker: What Star Wars Teaches Us About Hybrid Warfare at Small Wars Journal.

Drop, Cover and Hold!

The Great Oregon Shakeout!  Did you participate?  No, it's not just in Oregon.  It is an earthquake drill "The Great Shakeout" to promote earthquake awareness and preparedness.  It is at 1015 hours on October 15th every year.  It was just now.  I did, Drop, Cover and Hold under my great steel tanker desk. . .I need to dust and sweep under there!

Here in Oregon we live in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.  The New Yorker Magazine ran an article about it in July titled "The Really Big One."  It is a BIG DEAL here in the Pacific Northwest, or it will be when it occurs.  When, well it has occurred once every 240 years on average.  The last one was in 1700.

Oregon has been working on the problem of preparing for the BIG ONE for only a few years.  The Cascadia was only discovered in 1970.  After the 2011 quake in Japan and the resulting tsunami the coastal tsunami zone maps were revised gulping in quite a larger area that will be effected.  OPB's Oregon Field Guide has a documentary about the situation titled "Unprepared" and corresponding info to help you get prepared  Interesting title. . .

Yes it is a number is links.  So, check them out, read, learn, get ready!

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead.

Saturday Night Movie - The Way Ahead 1944.

It is a British wartime propaganda film.  It's message is straight forward: It is going to take all of us to win.  The movie follows a group of men called up from civilian life. Suddenly thrust into the soldier's life, they don't like it. . .You follow their transformation from whiny recruit to cohesive rifle platoon.  Led by their platoon leader David Niven and their platoon sergeant, a pre-war regular, they train and deploy to Tunisia.  The movie ends in their first fight against the retreating Afrika Korps.

None of them are wounded or killed.  The characters are simple, but the diversity would allow the British wartime audience to find someone they could connect and empathize with.  Which is the intent.

Overall a good simple WW2 flick.

VJ Day - 70 Years Ago Today.

Today is the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day.  I did not see anything locally about this.  There was one article in the Hillsboro Argus about the local Congressional representative presenting a 94 year old woman with medals.  The woman had enlisted in the Women's Army Corps in 1943 and serving in the United States Army until her retirement in 1972 attaining the rank of Sergeant Major.  Nice story.

What about it?  VJ Day.

Here is a video from the Royal British Legion, the best I've seen for the 70th.  Watch it, listen and hear the voices.  Both what they say and what the speaker feels.

ISIS is here?

Interesting read from the Investor's Business Daily, "ISIS Organizing Small Armies Inside America."  Another headline from the London Daily Mail, always sensationalist.

I see it as quite plausible, therefore a risk to be managed.  What do you think?

"...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

46 years ago today Neil Armstrong uttered those words as he stepped out onto the Lunar surface.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html