Charles McCain

Pic of the Day - USCGC Aquidneck

2012-02-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

US 5TH FLEET AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY (April 19, 2010) A US Coast Guard rigid-hull inflatable boat and the US Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Aquidneck (WPB 1309) are underway in the US 5th Fleet area of responsibility. Aquidneck is operating with the Nassau Amphibious Ready Group supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation operations in the US 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Pic of the Day - Visiting Crete

2012-02-17T21:00:00.000-05:00

SOUDA BAY, Greece (March 9, 2010) The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Florida (SSGN 728) arrives for a routine port visit to the island of Crete. Florida is homeport in Naval Submarine Base, Kings Bay. (US Navy photo by Paul Farley/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Pic of the Day - Meeting at Sea

2012-02-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

ARABIAN SEA (Jan 19, 2012) The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) join for a turnover of responsibility in the Arabian Sea. Both ships are deployed to the US 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (US Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Eric S. Powell/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Pic of the Day - Enroute For Training

2012-02-15T21:00:00.000-05:00

SAN DIEGO (March 18, 2009) Special warfare combatant-craft crewmen (SWCC) candidates from Crewman Qualification Training (CQT) Class 61 ride a rigid-hull inflatable boat to the Southern California off-shore naval gunnery range for a training exercise. Crewman Qualification Training is a 14-week course that teaches special warfare combatant-craft crewmen candidates the skills they need as members of the Naval Special Warfare boat teams. Candidates learn navigation, craft maintenance and repair, towing, anchoring and weapons. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Arcenio Gonzalez Jr./Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Pic of the Day - Storm Hits USCGC Eagle

2012-02-14T21:00:00.000-05:00

ATLANTIC OCEAN - Kathryn Lamphere, a fourth class cadet at the Coast Guard Academy, braces herself against the side of the Coast Guard Cutter Eagle as a large wave crashes against the ship, May 9, 2011. The Eagle was hit by a storm that had moved up the Gulf Stream into the path of Eagle, which had already been in another low-pressure system after setting sail. (US Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Thomas Burckell)

[Image courtesy of the US Coast Guard Website.]

But He Got A Pot Belly Anyway and Unfortunately It Didn’t Ruin Him

2012-02-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

“Imagine me going around with a potbelly. It would mean political ruin.”

Hitler to Albert Speer who wrote Hitler was always worried about his weight.

[Source: Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer.]

Pic of the Day - Parachute Plunge

2012-02-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Army Chief Warrant Officer Five Tom Travis exits from a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over St. Mere Eglise at Fort Bragg, NC, July 13, 2011. Travis jumped with US Army Civil Affairs Operations Command, Airborne troops, who hosted the UK's 4th Parachute Regiment in a joint training mission. (US Army photo by Staff Sgt. Felix R. Fimbres)

[Image courtesy of the US Department of Defense Website.]

Hitler Starved Half of Europe But Worried About His Own Weight

2012-02-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

Everything would be perfect in your place, Herr Deutelmoser, if I did not have to think of my waistline.

Hitler to the owner of his favorite restaurant, the Osteria Bavaria in Munich, 1933.

[Source: Inside the Third Reich by Albert Speer.]

Pic of the Day - Light Up The Sky

2012-02-12T21:00:00.000-05:00

Light up the sky - Third Platoon, Bravo Battery of the Automatic Battalion, 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, lit up the Zabul province night by firing illumination from their M777A2, 155 mm howitzer at suspected enemy movements from FOB Pasab, Zharay District, Zabul province, Afghanistan, July 20. (Photo by Sgt. Christopher McCann)

[Image courtesy of the US Army Flickr Stream.]

The End of the Fighter Pilot Mystique

2012-02-12T08:00:00.001-05:00

Since there are now more Air Force drone pilots in training than there are pilots training to fly actual aircraft...

This surprised me to no end although it probably should not have. It’s sort of eerie and will eventually end the “fighter jock” mystique portrayed in such movies as Top Gun. I’ve read articles about drone pilots who go to an office each morning like most people yet they fly drones all day. Often they are based in the US. Occasionally drone pilots fire missiles either in support of ground troops or to kill someone on the US government’s “kill list.” So from an office they occasionally kill one or two or more people, some accidentally or as “collateral damage.” After your eight hour shift, they go by the grocery store or go home or do whatever. How do they handle the psychological stress.

[Source: The Washington Post.]

Pic of the Day - Off Into The Sunset

2012-02-11T21:00:00.000-05:00

A C-130J "Super" Hercules from the 37th Airlift Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, GE, fly in a 10 ship formation over southern Germany, Oct. 5, during Europe's first Full-Spectrum Training Environment rotation. (US Air Force photo by Senior Airman Stephen J. Otero)

[Image courtesy of the US Air Force Website.]

“Maybe we will be killed for being the last witnesses.”

2012-02-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

In this interview from the BBC of 3 September 2009, Misch describes Hitler’s suicide and the subsequent burning of the dictator’s corpse.

I watched as they wrapped Hitler up. His legs were sticking out as they carried him past me. Someone shouted to me: 'Hurry upstairs, they're burning the boss!' I decided not to go because I had noticed that Mueller from the Gestapo was there - and he was never usually around. I said to my comrade Hentschel, the mechanic: 'Maybe we will be killed for being the last witnesses.'

[Source: BBC News.]

Pic of the Day - LCAC Approach

2012-02-10T21:00:00.000-05:00

ATLANTIC OCEAN (April 22, 2011) A landing craft air cushion (LCAC) approaches the multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) during Unit Level Training Assessment Sustainment (ULTRA-S) certifications. Iwo Jima is en route to Ft. Lauderdale to participate in Fleet Week Port Everglades 2011. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Zane Ecklund/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Misch Contradicts Many Historians of the Era and Misch Was There

2012-02-10T08:00:00.001-05:00

In his interview with Der Spiegel, Misch says something which contradicts what historians have been saying for decades which is sort of fascinating.

He says Hitler didn't have Fegelein shot, contrary to a claim by the late historian Joachim Fest. He only demoted him.

Every minute of those last days is on record - everything except for who shot Hermann Fegelein, the SS general married to Eva Braun's sister. Fegelein was Heinrich Himmler's liaison officer with Hitler and left the bunker without permission on April 27. Arrested in his Berlin apartment, the SS general was executed on April 29. Misch says he knows who pulled the trigger, but won't reveal his identity, even though he is dead.

[Source: Der Spiegel.]

Pic of the Day - Toys for Tots Delivery

2012-02-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

First Lady Michelle Obama delivers toys and gifts donated by White House staff to the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots campaign at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, DC, Dec. 16, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

[Image courtesy of the White House Website.]

Last Survivor from Führer Bunker Still Alive - Part 2

2012-02-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

Part 1 - Part 2

The strangest thing was the sight of the two guitar players at the "Kaiserhof" subway station in Berlin. "I come out of this bunker of death, all that drama, and someone's playing music," recalls Rochus Misch. "They played Hawaiian music!" It was May 2, 1945, at six o'clock in the morning.

The above is from an interview Misch gave to Der Spiegel in 2007 and is more interesting. Misch was quite the chatterbox and talked to the press and most anyone else over the decades. (He made his living running a paint store a few blocks from where the bunker had been).

[Source: Der Spiegel.]

Pic of the Day - Seal Beach Ordnance Operations

2012-02-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

SEAL BEACH, Calif. (Jan 9, 2012) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) is pierside at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach to conduct ordnance operations. (US Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Eli J. Medellin/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Navy Website.]

Last Survivor from Führer Bunker Still Alive - Part 1

2012-02-08T08:00:00.002-05:00

Part 1 - Part 2

Rochus Misch is the last man standing of all the men and women who were in the Führerbunker in the last days of the Third Reich. Misch operated the telephone switchboard for the bunker and was the second to last person to leave the underground shelter before the Soviets found it. He held the rank of Oberscharführer (Sergeant First Class) in the SS during World War II. As of early January 2012, Misch is still alive at age 94 although he has terminal cancer. In 2011 he gave his last interview to the press which ran in the Daily Express (UK) on 15 May 2011. The most curious fact I came across in the interview was this: “Hitler’s telephone number at the Reich Chancellery was 12 00 50,” he says.”

[Source: Daily Express.]

Pic of the Day - RAF Transportation Services

2012-02-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

A British airman mans a .50 caliber machine gun while providing security aboard a helicopter over Lashkar Gah, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Dec. 31, 2011. The Royal Air Force provided transportation for coalition forces and Afghan media in southern Helmand province in support of Enduring Freedom. (DoD photo by Sgt. Dayan Neely, US Air Force/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Department of Defense Flickr Stream.]

Everyone Loves A Lord, Even Hitler Who Professed to Hate the Aristocracy

2012-02-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hitler’s eagerness to obtain the good graces of the princes present was subject to much comment. He bowed and clicked and all but knelt in his zeal to please oversized, ugly Princess Luise von Sachsen Meiningen, her brother, Prince George, and their sister, Grand Duchess of Sachsen Weimar. Beaming in his servile attitude, he dashed personally to bring the princesses’ refreshments from the buffet. He almost slid off the edge of chair after they offered him a seat in their most gracious company.

Bella Fromm, diplomatic correspondent for the Ullstein Press, in her memoir Blood and Banquets (three stars), describing Hitler at a reception in 1933 shortly after he became Chancellor of Germany.

[Source: Blood & Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary by Bella Fromm.]

Pic of the Day - Combat Engagement

2012-02-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

US Army Pfc. Ben Bradley (left), a Bulldog Troop, Red Platoon scout (7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment), ducks away from small-arms fire, as fellow scout Sgt. Jeff Sheppard, launches a grenade at the enemy’s position, during a combat engagement in northern Bala Murghab Valley, Baghdis Province, Afghanistan April 4, 2011. Bradley, Sheppard, US Air Force Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace, US Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Lee and his military working dog ‘Valdo’ were all wounded by a rocket propelled grenade blast in the engagement. All servicemembers suffered minor wounds and Valdo was critical, but survived the attack. (US Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Kevin Wallace/RELEASED)

[Image courtesy of the US Army Website.]

Pic of the Day - 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron Flyby

2012-02-05T21:00:00.001-05:00

Airmen assigned to the 83rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron fly an HH-60 Pave Hawk Feb. 9, 2011, over Afghanistan. (US Air Force photo/Capt. Erick Saks)

[Image courtesy of the US Central Command Flickr Stream.]

Overheard at Filter Coffee House

2012-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

That band sounded like the Muppets on crack.

“It was a very cool movie. Starred Melanie Griffith.”
“Whose Melanie Griffith?”
“The actress, you know. Blonde. C’mon.”
“No.”
“Ok, ok, this will make it clear. She’s Tippi Hedren’s daughter.”
“Whose Tippi Hedren?”

Pic of the Day - Firefight

2012-02-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

US Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division return fire during a firefight with Taliban forces in Barawala Kalay Valley in Kunar province, Afghanistan, March 31, 2011. (US Army photo by Pfc. Cameron Boyd/Released)

[Image courtesy of the US Army Flickr Stream.]

Educate Less and Arrest More

2012-02-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

I find the arrests of 853,838 people in 2010 for infractions of marijuana laws to be a pathetic attempt by politicians to show they are tough on something. Worse than their comic posturing on marijuana laws, is the huge waste of government money in an attempt to enforce those laws. Marijuana was legal in this country until 1937 and somehow America did just fine. As a nation, we’ve created a massive prison-law enforcement- industrial complex which has to keep arresting people to justify its existence. We’re cutting education budgets yet we continue to fund this law-enforcement cyborg and continue to arrest people for simple possession of marijuana. If our society can’t prioritize the critical needs of our citizenry better than this, then we deserve to fail.

[Source: NORML.]