Eye Safety Message for guys like you and me.

Do you remember the post that Andrew (Combat Doc and Lucky Gunner Blogger) did on eye protection?  Well I consider that message so important that I reached out to Ari at ESS Eyewear to get a few more details on what guys like you and I should be looking for.  Here's his response..

Regarding the test-results: as Andrew points out, all polycarbonate lenses become increasingly brittle over time, especially in consideration of their exposure to sunlight. If you own eye protection of older or indeterminate age, and/or your eye pro is of previous individual ownership, and you plan to use it in situations where high-velocity threats are a possibility: inspect it carefully for lens crazing, hazing, yellowing, or any other sign of aging or wear. Never put a questionable product into use.

This is one very important reason why ESS does not recommend purchasing our products through Military Surplus or other after-market sales channels. A product's history relative to its environment and its physical wear can vary so widely that the only sensible action is to err on the side of caution, for the sake of your health and eyesight.

I can be reached at ari@esseyepro.com if anyone has questions. Our full line of MIL SPEC & ANSI Z87.1-2010 rated eye pro can be viewed at www.esseyepro.com, or at our main social media venue, www.facebook.com/esseyepro.

Thanks for helping in the fight to protect eyes & best regards,

Ari
Communications Manager, ESS

Notice a couple of things that touch me where I live.  He's talking about the test results first and foremost.  He gives advice on what to look for and what to avoid.  He warns about the aftermarket (I'm starting to become more and more alarmed at what I'm seeing turn up there...but thats another post) and only at the end of his comment does he talk about his product.  But even in doing that its with an eye toward providing the best possible solution for the men in my audience (oh and those hardcore ladies too).

I can do business with these guys.

Sidenote:  If you're a shooter and most of the people that come to this blog are then consider doing two things.  One support online ammo retailers like Lucky Gunner.  They're under the gun and so are we.  Let's support them so that they can support us with low prices to help us enjoy our shooting sports.  Next support the NRA.  These gun grabbers are just getting started and since the President can't fix the economy he'll throw meat to his supporters by infringing on our GOD GIVEN rights.  Let's fight them on it!

Now they want to ban online sale of ammo.

I coat all my Ranger 147 grain bullets in black teflon...cool boy factor.

via The Hill.

Two Democratic lawmakers on Monday will announce new legislation to regulate the online and mail-order sale of ammunition.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.) said the new law would make the sale of ammunition “safer for law-abiding Americans who are sick and tired of the ease with which criminals can now anonymously stockpile for mass murder,” in a statement released Saturday.

The lawmakers cite the recent movie massacre in Aurora, Colo. for spurring their bill. “The shooter who killed 12 and injured 58 in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater this month had purchased over 6,000 rounds of ammunition anonymously on the Internet shortly before going on his killing spree, according to law enforcement officials,” the statement reads. “The shooter used a civilian version of the military’s M-16 rifle with a 100-round drum magazine, a shotgun and two .40-caliber semi-automatic handguns commonly used by police officers.”

Read the whole thing but a few points.

1.  The last assault weapons ban spurned the development of pocket pistols.  The Glock 26 was basically born because handguns were limited to 10 round magazines and Glock responded to the new law by developing a mini Glock 19 that would hold the full compliment of allowable ammo.
2.  Everyone in my circle already has an ample supply of both ammo and magazines.  IF this became law, all we would do is buy more so that we could later sell them at a substantial mark up.  It happened last time and it'll happen again.  I have 20 Glock 19 mags and an equal number of Glock 17's.  That doesn't count the Korean knock offs.  Suffice it to say that among a large part of the population this will have no impact.
3. Have you noticed that the "ban" advocates have no off switch.  They believe in certain rights but at the expense of others.  If you want to marry someone of the same sex then that's awesome.  If you want to exercise a right designated by the constitution then not so much.  Heck, the Mayor of New York has some the harshest gun laws in the US so what's he going after now?  Sodas!  These people have no off switch.

But on a sidenote, I notice that the Democrats are pushing another side issue to take attention away from the 600 pound gorilla in the room...the economy.  If they can get the headlines to reflect any issue but the economy then they're winning.

This doesn't stand a chance of passing but it will grab headlines...and in the end...thats all the Democrats want.

Way to go US Army! Combatives Tourney...Army style!

US Army Combatives going hard.  This is freaking awesome.

Initial flight of X-47B at Pax River

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Marine Corps Military Free Fall Instructors assigned to Marine Detachment — Fort Bragg, release the ashes of Sgt. Brett Jaffe (1971-2012), a Marine rigger, above Phillips Drop Zone at Yuma Proving Grounds, Ariz., on July 26, 2012. "It was an honor and privilege to take this Marine on his last jump and give him a proper hail and farewell," said Staff Sgt. Marty Rhett.Marines in photo (clockwise, starting with the flag): Gunnery Sgt. Brian Boger, Gunnery Sgt. Mike Latham, Gunnery Sgt. Jimmy Smith, Staff Sgt. Lennie Castro, Staff Sgt. Seth Wright, Staff Sgt. Marty Rhett.
(Marine Corps photo by Air Force Staff Sgt. Johnny Gunn)

Stallion Stack

Two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463 take off after delivering Marines and Canadian soldiers as part of a noncombatant evacuation operation during Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2012 at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, July 26, 2012. From June 29 to Aug. 3, more than 25,000 military personnel from 22 nations, 200 aircraft and 40 ships and submarines are participating in RIMPAC. The world's largest international maritime exercise, the 23rd in the series that began in 1971, is held biennially in and around the Hawaiian Islands. The exercise fosters training, interoperability and improved relations between countries providing security in sea lanes and oceans around the world.
(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Reece Lodder)

Marines train Senegalese forces in marksmanship

Sidenote:
Are they actually teaching that bullshit?  I'm talking about advancing on your target while firing.  Are you kidding me?  Cool guy factor-100.  Combat utility-negative 10.  I have yet to see one instance in a combat setting where that type of training is applicable.

You do know where the Marine Corps picked that trash up from right?  3 gun shoots.  Police SWAT teams.  All bullshit training that has no bearing on reality.  First 3 gun put it in to make the courses more challenging.  Shooting from your back or on your left or right side is show shit and everyone knows it!   The prone is your friend and modified shooting from that position is applicable but the other stuff is for the meets.  SWAT teams?  Lets be honest and take off the rose colored glasses.  They're most effective against unarmed people and when they charge against armed individuals not only do they not conduct a deliberate assault but they do everything in their power to wear down the person or persons.  Want to know what happens to cool boy SWAT when they run into real opposition?  Think Branch Davidians.

I'm saying all this for one purpose.  Hey Marines.  STOP COPYING 3 gun and civilian SWAT!  The training that they do DOES NOT apply!

Elements of Power called it on the clownish Smallwood!

Elements of Power called it on Smallwood.  He first brought attention to this clown in a blog post here.

I unfortunately underestimated Smallwood's "devotion" to the Sweetman/Air Power Australia/Kopp/Goon/F-35 haters club.  He's at it again and penned an article that must be read.  A small tidbit.

Wheeler is hopeful that South Koreans will resist the industry pressure this time. “I think that there’s so much information out there about the F-35 that governments have learned it’s important for them to wait and see and as they do the costs will go up and the performance will go down.”
Ultimately time will tell whether U.S. marketing strategies can overcome the mounting skepticism of the F-35 airplane and convince Seoul to make a purchase they may regret.

Hmmm.  I forgot to include Wheeler in the list of infamy but you get the idea.  While I personally AM NOT a fan of the US military promoting weapon systems to allies, its an accepted form of business, done on both sides of the Atlantic and is far from illegal.  Let me repeat.  Its done on both sides of the Atlantic.

Smallwood is out test driving the latest talking point for the anti F-35 crowd.

I am not impressed.
 

Navy conducts Pax River's first flight of X-47B unmanned aircraft

The X-47B landed safely at Pax River after a 35-minute flight over the Chesapeake Bay, July 29. (U.S. Navy photo)

The X-47B tailless, unmanned aircraft launched from its initial Pax River flight, July 29. (U.S. Navy photo)

Advanced Light Strike Vehicle...FLYER.

We're starting to see some strange bedfellows in the defense industry.  I thought that this was a General Dynamics project but I found this vid on the AM General website.  Interesting.

AM General BRV-O JLTV

I am the one who knocks...

I was late to the bandwagon with this show but a weekend marathon has me wanting more.  I am the danger!  LOVE IT!

Kevin Martin 1's photostream

31st MEU's "Helo" Company practices fast rope insertion

Ganjgal and a mothers unfinished business....the Marine Corps unfinished business....a nation's unfinished business.

Gunnery Sgt Aaron Michael Kenefick, USMC KIA Kunar Province (pic provided by his mother)

Sometimes I actually hit on a subject that pulls hard on my heartstrings.

This is one of those times.  But I have a problem.  I write too simply and speak too plainly to give it the justice that it deserves.  I've read the accounts by others and they have the polar opposite issue.  They're too flowerly in their prose, and perhaps a bit too elogquent in their wording to give it the hearing that it deserves.

I'll provide links that can give you a good primer on this battle, the same battle in which Sgt Myers won his Medal of Honor, so that you can get up to speed on the issues involved.  In a nutshell it boils down to....

1.  Sgt Meyers deserves his Medal of Honor.  The entire team involved in that action on that fateful day deserves MoH's.  Those guys lacked supporting fires, not courage and we should ALL feel ashamed because of that.
2.  Rules of engagement got men killed and no one has called leadership on that.  From what I've read Vietnam was bad.  From what I see Afghanistan is worse.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  We're seeing the worse leadership in the history of our nation when it comes to those running the US military.  Politics has trumped any and all strategic/tactical considerations and men are dying because of it.
3.  A total lack of accountability when it comes to blame holding those resposible for the outcome.  Hazing incidents, sexual misdeeds, and politically incorrect pictures taken on the battlefield have led to more severe punishments than we've seen from those that denied fire support to that training team.  By not seeing those responsible mounted on a base flag and hoisted high for all to see is a travesty.  Punishment must be given, it must be visible and it must serve as an example to others.
4.  That this hasn't caused more of a stir in the Marine Corps is also a travesty.  Some brother Marines were killed and no one anywhere got pissed off enough to throw rank insignia up against the wall and ask the guys in the 10th Mountain what the fuck were they thinking.  No one flew in back of a CH-53 or an MV-22 over to that Tactical Command Post and punched one of that bastards in the face or carved their initials in there ribcages...no one in the Marine Corps got PISSED THAT THIS HAPPENED!
5.  This also relates back to number 2.  Why is a mother leading the charge on this?  I was contacted by one of the fallen Marine's mother.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to talk to her today because of an issue that took me away.  I hope to talk to her next week, but the point remains.  A Marine's Mom is doing something that Marines, Marine Leadership, Retired Marines and Veterans should be doing.  This incident is about one micrometer away from being a full fledged crime.  We owe her more, we owe the Marines that were involved in that battle more and we owe the fallen more.

The Commandant was right.  The Marine Corps is off the rails and this is exhibit number 1.  But what do we do now? I have no idea.  A blog post isn't enough.  An interview with a grieving mother isn't enough so what do we do?  The only thing I can think of is to perhaps get Senator Webb's attention on this subject but he's a former SecNav so he's well aware of what happened and even has the classified briefing.  I thought about hitting up Sgt Meyer and asking him to write a guest post but that would be asking too much.  He lived it.  No need to ask him to live it again.


So what do we do?


I have no idea.

F-35B To Edwards

USMC Lt. Col. Matt Kelly flew F-35B BF-2 to its new but temporary home at the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Edwards AFB, California, on 23 July 2012. The aircraft is at Edwards for a series of flights involving airstart testing.

Blast from the past. Army Jet Pack.

BF-16 flies. The F-35 has a higher production rate than the Rafale.

Interesting tidbit.  Craig Hoyle over at the Dew Line reported today on the production rate of the Rafale.  If his numbers are correct (and I believe they are) then the F-35 has achieved a production rate almost 3 times higher (if not more) than the vaunted Rafale program.  The only thing left for the critics to do is to state outloud..."we were so wrong!"

Lockheed Martin test pilot Al Norman flew F-35B BF-15 (US Navy Bureau Number 168312) on its inaugural flight on 26 July 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas. The aircraft will be assigned to VMFAT-501 at Eglin AFB, Florida.

Australian Air Force F-18's vs. SU-30's.

Troy Battle Stock in use by professionals

Colombian anti-narcotics police officers escort Diego Perez Henao, a.k.a. 'Diego Rastrojo', alleged leader of 'Los Rastrojos' drug traffickers gang, upon his arrival at the narcotics airbase in Bogota, on July 25, 2012, after being extradited by the Venezuelan authorities. Perez, captured on June 3 in the Venezuelan state of Barinas, is indicted in Colombia for drug trafficking, murder, conspiracy, formation of armed groups and financing of terrorism.

This is the first time I've seen the Troy Battle Stock being used by professionals.  On the net its gotten mixed reviews and I've seen more than a few vids of it performing badly.  I'd be real interested to know if its a winner or loser...if you can actually bust doors with it or whether it collapses on itself with just a light tap.

You can check it out for yourself here.