Shooting instructor dies after being accidentally shot by girl

Gun grabbers are going crazy over this video.

Personally, I think this is an example of bad instruction.  I won't delve into it further but its crawl, walk, then run.  Not crawl and run.

This is going to be the next flashpoint for the gun rights debate.  The ATF is investigating this incident when THERE IS NO reason for them to do so.  It is an accidental homicide that is handled at the local level...maybe state if there are questions about the investigation.

Get ready for the bullshit to fly.  Read the story here.

Ground X-Vehicle

Major Hat Tip to WAR IS BORING Blog!

  Ground X-Vehicle

DARPA and the US Army are on crack!  Consider that just a year ago they were looking for an APC that had a weight of 80+ tons.  Now they're looking at a Main Battle Tank that is parachute deployable, is stealthy, is mine/IED resistant, can cross terrain that would bog down a top model modded civilian Jeep and at the same time is (presumably) affordable.

ISIS holding American female. When does self responsibility end & national security begin?

via The Daily Caller.

U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been holding a young American woman hostage for more than a year, and is demanding a ransom of $6.6 million.
The 26-year-old woman was working with several humanitarian aid groups, when she was kidnapped in Syria last year, CBS News reports. ISIS is demanding the $6.6 million ransom and the release of an MIT-trained neuroscientist, Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of attempting to kill U.S. officials in 2010.
She and the two other American hostages held by ISIS have been threatened with death since American journalist James Foley was executed, ABC News reports. One of the hostages, writer Steven Sotloff, was indicated as the next victim in the video of Foley’s execution, if Obama doesn’t stop bombing the terror group.

This is interesting on several levels.

First, what will be the "conventional wisdom" if this woman is shown to be raped and then killed on YouTube?  Will that demand we go to war?

Second, what is the responsibility of American's when they travel to foreign lands?  Especially war zones?  I haven't checked but I assume that the State Dept put out advisory's about going to the hot spots dotting the planet.  Is the country responsible for those citizens that go anyway?  Should we be risking the lives of our personnel in rescue attempts for people that do stupid stuff?

I wonder.

Where does self responsibility end and national security begin? 

Marine Corps slinky!

Admit it.  You know the aggravation.  You're trail company stuck in the back and you play the slinky game.  The General wants to go for a goddamn run, and for the next hour you're playing walking, then zooming at full sprint, then jogging, then back to walking, then back to full sprint!  

Brigadier Gen. James W. Lukeman, the commanding general of 2nd Marine Division, and Sgt. Maj. Bryan K. Zickefoose, the sergeant major of 2nd Marine Division, lead the division in a run to build unit camaraderie aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., May 22, 2014. More than 10,000 Marines comprised one large formation stretching for more than a mile. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joshua W. Grant/Released)

Nuship Canberra completes sea trials...

Nuship Canberra returned to BAE Systems Williamstown today after being away on sea trials for two weeks. Trials including testing of combat and communication systems plus some platform trials. These are her final trials before delivery to the Commonwealth later this year.

Iraq to receive 3 Mi-28 Attack Helicopters

Thanks for the pics Mr. T!

Read about it here.

I wonder.  Are we about to see a return to the "hide behind a hill...popup to shoot" instead of swooping and diving attacks that have been the norm in the lower intensity COIN ops we've been involved in.

ISIS is definitely changing playbooks.

Experts are saying the Foley execution might have been fake?

via Jerusalem Online.

In a documentation issued by the organization last week, Foley is seen on his knees, speaking to the camera and executed afterwards. The footage goes blurry as the execution begins and it is possible to see the militant slashing his throat with the knife.
Experts that watched the documentation say they encountered three main questions that arise from it. The first issue is the blood missing from the footage entirely. They argue that we should have seen blood pouring from his neck out of the main arteries.
Another puzzling issue relates to the sound track of the documentation, as just before the execution a "bleep" sound can be heard, which may imply that the militant was required to perform a re-recording of some of his remarks.
The third issue, which affects the entire video’s reliability, is the calmness of Foley, who seems like he is not upset by the fact he will be executed in the next few minutes.

I don't know.

What I do know is that I've seen plenty of Arabs marched off to their deaths without any resistance.  I've seen instances where they sit calmly while their throats are being sliced, sit patiently while their murderer is preparing to shoot them in the back of the head, etc...

I believe its cultural.

Foley was in captivity for so long that the cultural curiosity that appears to be seen in the Arab population transferred to him.  That's why he didn't struggle.  That's why he didn't fight back even though his life was on the line. 

LHD-6's flight deck replacement is botched.

Thanks Bryan for the link.

via Stars and Stripes.

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan – The USS Bonhomme Richard will likely miss its next underway deployment after a botched $3 million resurfacing of the amphibious assault ship’s flight deck.
The ship had undergone the resurfacing less than a month ago.
“A recent application of non-skid coating on the flight deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard was not up to Navy safety standards and is being reapplied,” Cmdr. William Marks, spokesman for 7th Fleet, said in an email to Stars and Stripes. “This will cause an increase in port time and decrease in underway days for Bonhomme Richard.”
An “accidental gouging” of the flight deck on Aug. 8 led to a visual inspection, during which time officials from Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center Detachment Sasebo saw the non-skid surface was flaking.
Further testing confirmed the nonskid material had not set properly, making the surface unsafe for flight operations, something preliminary quality-assurance testing didn’t indicate, Marks said.
The problem was immediately reported to Naval Surface Forces Pacific.

I could easily be wrong but I'm thinking that the new surface designed to accommodate the F-35 is turning out to be less than optimal.

As a buddy said, when they apply these surfaces they're suppose to last for more than a minute before you have to replace them.....and thats why I SUSPECT that this has something to do with an experimental formula for the super hot burning engines on the F-35 and MV-22.

Time will tell. 

Police Militarization. Its not about the gear stupid!

American Mercenary has posted a great article on the issue of Police Militarization.  Read it here, but consider this tidbit.

When you have these "high speed" toys and you train to use them, you train to use them in a certain way. The assumption is that you "train heavy, dial back as you need" but forget that you don't "rise to the occasion, you fall back to your level of training."
Training to be officer friendly is boring, not sexy, and won't help you pick up chicks. Contrast that to a week at a shoothouse doing dynamic entry drills.

For better or worse we have a whole industry that is setup to just spoon feed tactics to police that should be only used on the battlefield.

Additionally we have the US military regularly training in cities with police turning them into "frontline" battle units.

From my seat the terrorists have already won.

US M1A2 Tusk 3 & S. Korean K-2 MBT's on exercise.

Polish MSBS Modular Rifle/Future Combat Soldier System.

Many thanks to Galvars for the info!

Looks like the birth child of an Extreme Ratio and the US Army's combat knife.

How Chris McCandless Died

Check out this small passage from The New Yorker.

Twenty-one years ago this month, on September 6, 1992, the decomposed body of Christopher McCandless was discovered by moose hunters just outside the northern boundary of Denali National Park. He had died inside a rusting bus that served as a makeshift shelter for trappers, dog mushers, and other backcountry visitors. Taped to the door was a note scrawled on a page torn from a novel by Nikolai Gogol:

ATTENTION POSSIBLE VISITORS.
S.O.S.
I NEED YOUR HELP. I AM INJURED, NEAR DEATH, AND TOO WEAK TO HIKE OUT OF HERE. I AM ALL ALONE, THIS IS NO JOKE. IN THE NAME OF GOD, PLEASE REMAIN TO SAVE ME. I AM OUT COLLECTING BERRIES CLOSE BY AND SHALL RETURN THIS EVENING. THANK YOU,
CHRIS McCANDLESS
AUGUST ?

From a cryptic diary found among his possessions, it appeared that McCandless had been dead for nineteen days. A driver’s license issued eight months before he perished indicated that he was twenty-four years old and weighed a hundred and forty pounds. After his body was flown out of the wilderness, an autopsy determined that it weighed sixty-seven pounds and lacked discernible subcutaneous fat. The probable cause of death, according to the coroner’s report, was starvation.

Read the story here.

I post this simply as a cautionary tale to those that think they can head out into the woods and simply "live off the land".

At the time Wild Pigs weren't the issue that they are now.  I wonder if they did roam the way they do now if Chris could have survived?

IDF's Armored Corps operating in Gaza.

Government forces surrounded in Ukraine?

via Russia Times

After sustained defensive combat against Ukrainian troops in the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk during August, rebels are now reporting of entrapping two large groups of Kiev troops and seizing military hardware in a counteroffensive.
The main headquarters of the DPR army has made a decision to stop operations in small groups and form full-bodied independent military units, the anti-Kiev forces say in a summary of their operations filed on Sunday.
They also say they are blocking a large “punitive force” near Alekseevskoe, Blagodatnoe, Voykovsky, Kuteinikovo, Ulyanovskoe and Uspenka.
Some 5,000 Kiev troops “with military hardware” including some 50 tanks, over 200 armored vehicles and 50 artillery rocket systems (including Grad) are trapped in the area, the DPR claims.
“DNR’s army has surrounded the staff headquarters of the 8th army corps, 28th and 30th mechanized brigades, 95th air mobile brigade of the army of Ukraine, and also punitive battalions ‘Aidar’, ‘Donbass’ and ‘Shakhtersk’,” the document claims.

Is this spin, pure propaganda, the whole truth or bits and pieces of the truth?

I have no idea.

Are people numb to danger?

I was re-watching this video and I marvel at the people that are shown in it.

Forget the dead guy.

The people that are by-standing are making my head spin.  They all see weapons drawn by the police and suspect.  They all SHOULD know that they're within the cone of fire and could be hit.  They all SHOULD know that the suspect could turn, rush, and do a jail house take-down, stabbing them 50 to 60 times before they could do anything.

Yet they simply stand and watch.

Are people numb to danger these days?  Do people even recognize danger anymore?

I seriously wonder.  If the knife guy was insane then the people watching are either insane too or fools to the reality of combat.

Appleseed Alpha Trailer

Tripoli International Airport is captured by Terrorists. The worldwide wildfire grows!

Thanks for the link Joe!

Tripoli International Airport during its better days....you know flights aren't being allowed into Libya...or if they are the FAA is on crack...

via Yahoo News.

Tripoli (AFP) - Islamist fighters in the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition said on Saturday they have captured Tripoli's battered international airport after many days of clashes with nationalist militiamen.
The claim followed a setback the previous night when a warplane raided Islamist positions, killing 13 fighters, a Fajr Libya spokesman said.
If independent sources confirm the airport has changed hands, it would be a major defeat for the nationalist fighters from Zintan west of Tripoli who have held the airport since the fall of long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.
A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport."

So Gaddafi was cooperating with the West, was taken off the terror list, had improving relations with Europe (especially Britain and Italy)...but we removed him from office anyway.

Its almost like someone wanted to destabilize the region! Fantasy Island foreign policy is going to get even more people killed than even I imagined. 

Chorizo Breakfast Casserole

The rebellion starts one small step at a time!  SAY NO TO FAST FOOD!

Besides, if you're doing the Ketogenic/Atkins/Caveman diet then its hard to find fast food that fits your needs.  AND the above video recipe looks FANTASTIC!

Prelude to Axanar

Are we about to see Iranian M60 MBT's battling ISIS M1 Abrams?

Thanks to USS Helm for the link!

via uskowioniran.com

Claimed movement of Iranian NEZAJA M60 type main battle tanks aboard tank trasporters at Iraqi Diyala / Iranian Kermanshah border (originally tweeted by @mehdilashkari), during Peshmerga offensive operations to capture Jalawla from Islamic State fighters.
Jalawa located approximately 30 km from the Iranian border.
Reportedly, American tactical airpower conducting CAS missions in support of Kurdish Peshmerga operation.

This should be interesting.

IF ISIS has even a basic understanding of how to operate M1 Abrams MBT's....and IF the Iranians are actually going to cross the border to bolster the Iraqi govt (we shouldn't be surprised...they've had advisers in country for more than a minute now..)...

Then we could be looking at a terrorist organization fighting a state sponsor of terrorism (nothing new, its happened before but its always amusing)!

Pass the fucking popcorn.  It never gets better than an enemy killing an enemy!