F-35C

Quote of the day. Feb 7, 2013.

Don't confuse a belligerent and aggressive attitude with the strength, training and conditioning needed to prevail in a fight.  How do you know you have the Will to Win, if you don't even have the Will to train???

10 rounds is NOT enough.

The last time we had nationwide gun control it spurned the creation of subcompact pistols.  Today we're seeing that same notion taken a bit further with pistols like the XD-S having less than 10 rounds.

But when the Orcs or Goblins come will 10 rounds or less be enough?  Would you walk into a gunfight with only 10 rounds?  I wouldn't.  But many people do and if you carry a compact weapon (or live in a state that has a 10 round limit---you should move by the way---then God bless ya) and it holds that many rounds (or less) then that's exactly what you're planning on.

That's why I'm of the opinion that revolvers are no longer ideal defense weapons.  Same applies to those subcompacts that are limited to 10 rounds or less.  The only reason why I even consider carrying a G26 is because I have the adapter to allow it to "neatly" carry the G19's fifteen round magazines.

Just my opinion.  What's yours?

Lockheed Martin. Outstanding Images...

Are civilians ahead of the military?

Watching this vid (and I know they covered a whole lot that wasn't shown) I can't help but wonder if some of the high speed trainers..Vickers, Costa, Haley, Pincus and such aren't giving civilian shooters a leg up on what the military is doing.

Just watching some of those guys videos they seem to have much more dynamic training--even in getting people new to guns up to speed.

Time to study some shooting tables and manuals to see where the US military is on CQB and marksmanship in general.

French Army Ops in Mali...the pics...

Note:  I had been using traditional US news sources to keep track of the happenings in Mali.  Stupid move.  Going to the French Army site...and then to their FaceBook page, I found the following photos.  It urks me to no end to have to follow a government entity on FaceBook in order to remain up to date on what's happening but that is the type of thinking that populates the halls of these organizations on both sides of the Atlantic.  The sad thing about this?  Most people I know are trying to get off FaceBook and because of non-thinkers in defense in government offices all over the globe they're forcing us back onto it.  Pity.

Time to start watching TUF again.

Everyone was buzzing about "The Ultimate Fighter" last night and I didn't know why until I saw this knockout.

To be honest Dana has been rubbing me wrong with some of his statements lately and I'm getting a bit miffed at all the pay per views competing with other sporting events..but football is over and its time to put this back on my viewing schedule.

I'm liking this Hall guy.  Someone to keep an eye on.

Complete and utter bullshit...

A quick look at most defense blogs and business pages shows that the US military is in a virtual panic about Sequester and the Continuing Resolution.

For the defense industry I say...I feel your pain guys.  You deserve every ounce of sympathy and best wishes.

For the Pentagon.  I say fuck you, you should have planned and this is what happens when you become part of a dysfunctional political operation.

I'll use one news outlet as an example.  Lets try AOL Defense.  Check this out.

The Air Force will have to cut flying hours by 18 percent, furlough 180,000 employees for 22 days and risk "catastrophic impact to people & readiness if sequestration occurs," according to a congressional briefing prepared by the service.

.......

 "The word 'sequestration' doesn't even appear in this piece," said one Congressional staffer. "If anyone is talking Army issues right now, they are talking about the CR [continuing resolution]/Sequestration and what it means for the Army today, next year, and ten years from now."

.......

 AOL Defense has obtained Army documents detailing the impacts of sequestration, the continuing resolution, and shortfalls in overseas contingency operations (OCO) funding -- a total $18 billion blow for the service.

.......

 All told, the Army will lose 90 percent of the "Operations & Maintenance, Army" (OMA) funds remaining for fiscal year 2013. As a result, one bullet point declares," Army mortgages future readiness in FY13, and enters FY14 hollow" in a host of areas.

.......

 In a telling sign of the uncertain economic and spending climate in the defense world – faced with sequestration and the possibility of a year-long Continuing Resolution -- at least three defense conferences have been cancelled in the last two months and defense companies continue to pare their participation in even the biggest shows, the air show in Paris and Farnborough.

.......

 The Army will have money to fully train only a fraction of its total force: The 82nd Airborne's Global Response Force paratrooper brigade, units in Korea, and troops headed for Afghanistan. Everyone else will cancel everything more elaborate than "squad-level training."

Remember.  This is just AOL's coverage from the last 3 days.

Military leadership should have managed this situation.  As it stands they have bowed to their political masters in the White House instead of making a strong stand for the protection of the nation.

Additionally they've hung out to dry our defense sector.

They can complain all they want about how defense companies behave, but after seeing this I can't blame a single one of them for taking steps necessary to protect their bottom lines.

The unintended consequences of this whole fiasco have yet to be seen but you can bet it'll be unpleasant for all.

This is going to be heartbreaking to watch...but watch I will.
NOTE: This is what happens when the Service Chiefs basically abandon their support in the nation.  I've read more about sequestration and the results of it today than I really cared to and when looking across the military blogging world all I can detect is MILD concern.  No one is coming out saying that this is a danger.  No one is ringing the alarm bells.  Everyone seems to be saying 'meh' at the same time.  I say good.  Let the Service Chiefs stew. They brought this pain to the military by being ""yes"" men and they can reap the benefits of being lazy little politicians instead of warriors.

Ancient Warfare Primer...rediscovering archery

via the TEWOAWKI blog...

Give the vid a whole viewing.  I've been meaning to get back into bow hunting and this is just the thing I needed to go on and make it happen.  But on a more serious note, I wonder how many things we've lost to history that would make combat more effective today...Its a crazy idea but I wonder how effect a trained and armored swordsman would be in close combat.

Fighting Mali offline...

Heard much about the fighting in Mali?

Nada.  Nothing.  Not a peep.....And the French are getting it done and rather quickly too.  A question that is never asked by a dependent news media and rarely debated by General's seeking the spotlight is whether the media helps or hurts a war effort.

I think it can be argued that one of the reasons for the success of Special Operations is in part due to the fact that they can act in private. 

No news media to coddle.  Protect.  Answer to.

Perhaps that's one of the main lessons from the French war in Mali.  If you want to win, leave the news media in the "rear with the gear".

For the Glock guys...

If you're like me and you choose to carry a handgun that goes bang every time you pull the trigger, doesn't have the worst features of the 1911 (for all you M&P fan boys) and can take punishment like none other then you're more than likely a Glock guy like me.

Well Glock is getting on the social networking thing and opening its doors to the first 20,000 "early registers"....check them out here...

New York is the new target of flash mobs.

Be aware ... it will flow or rather is flowing to other places.  Read the story here. 

A mad prediction?  Personal security will become a much bigger issue in the near future.  

The gun debate that we're having now will soon turn toward authorities (especially in the big cities) trying to convince their citizens that Police can do what they have no responsibility to do...to protect you.

Stay alert-stay alive...now get to the gym, bust a workout and train your ass off.

AAV Updated Factsheet.

   AAV Factsheet by  

Sniper team

A sniper team with 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment from Joint Base Lewis McChord, Wash., scans the area outside of a leaders' shura from a rooftop in Afghanistan Jan. 30. Photo by Staff Sgt. Shane Hamann, 102nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.

Rednecks with paychecks...the vid...

via Jalopnik.  Note: Why in God's name would you take a 60,000 dollar truck (fully tricked out) and decide to play Dukes of Hazard with it????



Also note the landing.  That suspension just failed.  Fully failed.  Something tells me it was going before this jump and they must have been abusing the truck for awhile.

The New Military.

I was reading the Bayou Blog and he recommended this article.

Its well worth the time.  A tidbit....

Sending women into combat, like the end of the ban on official homosexuality, has been met with worried remarks about its impact on the "warrior culture". But the new military that the left has been building for some time now is not interested in warriors; it wants peacekeepers.

The old army fought for a nation. The new one fights for vague concepts such as human rights or international law. Its goals are as intangible as those of the ideology it serves. It doesn't fight actual enemies, but concepts and social problems. It fights against climate change, poverty and obesity. It fights for education, tolerance and the right of everyone to the gender of their choice. It isn't really the army, it's the hall monitors of the United Nations, the State Department, NATO and every liberal group on the planet.

Their ideal new soldier is not a warrior; he speaks three languages, appears non-threatening and can direct refugees, hand out aid to them and quickly pick up the local culture and religion. He is uncritical when witnessing child molestation, human sacrifice or any other quaint local custom. He is willing to die, not for his country, but to win the hearts and minds of the locals. He will not fire in self-defense if there is a single unarmed man, woman or child within twenty miles.

. . .

The new soldier is expected to be a psychological cripple or a social worker with nothing in between because there is no longer any room for the warrior, only the worrier, the neurotic who knows that he is moral because he is always questioning everything except his own intelligence and his premises. He knows that he will more likely be honored for cowardice under fire, than courage under fire, and that the greatest honors will go not those who dare, but to those who exemplify a political quota. And yet among the ranks of the new soldiers, the old soldiers still predominate, doing the hard thankless work of keeping a national defense establishment that does not care for them from falling apart.

Read the whole thing here and then consider what you've been seeing from leadership.

Its my belief that some of those in charge believe that this "change" can be managed and that the social/political desires of their civilian masters can be moderated to such a degree as to mitigate any harm done to national security while still satisfying their master's desire for societal change.

I don't think they'll be successful.

What does Kyle's murder mean for the firearm training industry?

When I first got word that Chris Kyle...famed SEAL Sniper... had been killed by a deranged Ex-Marine, I couldn't wrap my head around it.

The only question I had and still have is why?

But I then took it a step further....what does it mean for the firearm training industry?

People outside the gun community know little to nothing about it, but firearms training is one of the boom industry's these days.  How will they react to the news that a student, a vet, a person who MIGHT be suffer from PTSD did something this horrific.

And then I thought about Gabe Suarez.

Think what you will about the guy (I personally think he's pretty squared away) but even on photo shoots he deploys security.

I imagine that's what we'll see more of. 

And that's really the shame of it.  Once the range was a place where you could go and enjoy the shooting sports without worry, now I view it as just another public place to be cautious at.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 266 (Reinforced), 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU)

Chris Kyle murdered.

Rest in peace.  Details (what few there are) here.

Police have no responsibility to protect you....

via Wikipedia...

Warren v. District of Columbia^[1] (444 A.2d. 1, D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1981) is an oft-quoted^[2] District of Columbia Court of Appeals (equivalent to a state supreme court) case that held police do not have a duty to provide police services to individuals, even if a dispatcher promises help to be on the way, except when police develop a special duty to particular individuals.

and this...

In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 16, 1975, Carolyn Warren and Joan Taliaferro who shared a room on the third floor of their rooming house at 1112 Lamont Street Northwest in the District of Columbia, and Miriam Douglas, who shared a room on the second floor with her four-year-old daughter, were asleep. The women were awakened by the sound of the back door being broken down by two men later identified as Marvin Kent and James Morse. The men entered Douglas' second floor room, where Kent forced Douglas to sodomize him and Morse raped her.
Warren and Taliaferro heard Douglas' screams from the floor below. Warren telephoned the police, told the officer on duty that the house was being burglarized, and requested immediate assistance. The department employee told her to remain quiet and assured her that police assistance would be dispatched promptly.
Warren's call was received at Metropolitan Police Department Headquarters at 0623 hours, and was recorded as a burglary-in-progress. At 0626, a call was dispatched to officers on the street as a "Code 2" assignment, although calls of a crime in progress should be given priority and designated as "Code 1." Four police cruisers responded to the broadcast; three to the Lamont Street address and one to another address to investigate a possible suspect. (This suggests that when they heard that there had been a burglary, the police must have felt that they had a promising lead on a culprit.)
Meanwhile, Warren and Taliaferro crawled from their window onto an adjoining roof and waited for the police to arrive. While there, they observed one policeman drive through the alley behind their house and proceed to the front of the residence without stopping, leaning out the window, or getting out of the car to check the back entrance of the house. A second officer apparently knocked on the door in front of the residence, but left when he received no answer. The three officers departed the scene at 0633, five minutes after they arrived.
Warren and Taliaferro crawled back inside their room. They again heard Douglas' continuing screams; again called the police; told the officer that the intruders had entered the home, and requested immediate assistance. Once again, a police officer assured them that help was on the way. This second call was received at 0642 and recorded merely as "investigate the trouble;" it was never dispatched to any police officers.
Believing the police might be in the house, Warren and Taliaferro called down to Douglas, thereby alerting Kent to their presence. At knife point, Kent and Morse then forced all three women to accompany them to Kent's apartment. For the next fourteen hours the captive women were raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon one another, and made to submit to the sexual demands of Kent and Morse.

Read the whole thing....

Do your own research into this case....

And then decide for yourself whether you WILL ... MAN UP... AND PROTECT YOU AND YOURS....

Or if you'll fall for the utopian dream that another man in uniform (that has his own family) will lay down his life to protect you and yours.

Remember this fact.

In briefing rooms all over America, a Police Sgt is telling his people that the most important thing is for them to all come back at the end of watch.

It makes perfect sense but doesn't exactly mesh with people's idealized version of police behavior.