SoG predicted it. Hospital staff calling in sick because of Ebola patient.

via New York Post..

An extraordinary number of Bellevue Hospital staffers called in sick on Friday rather than treat the city’s first Ebola patient — and those who showed up were terrified to enter his isolation chamber, sources told The Post.
“The nurses on the floor are miserable with a ‘why me?’ attitude, scared to death and overworked because all their co-workers called out sick,” one source said.
“One nurse even went as far as to pretend she was having a stroke to get out of working there, but once they cleared her in the ER they sent her back up,” the source added.
Dr. Craig Spencer is being treated by nurses working in teams of two, “with one serving as a buddy watching the other,” said Health and Hospitals Corporation spokeswoman Ana Marengo, who denied there was a sickout.
The Doctors Without Borders volunteer — who is in stable condition — has even been putting his medical skills to use, lecturing the staff about proper treatment.
“As a doctor, he knows a lot about medicine, so he would call the nurses station all day and going back and forth with doctors on what to do,” the source said.
The sick doctor has been passing time in his pressurized room by watching TV and eating hospital food.

Shepherd of the Gurney's (SoG) predicted this would happen.

Our vaunted medical system is just like our economy.  Much more fragile than it looks and in danger of collapse with the first serious bump.

But if you want to cling to the idea that all is well with "this Ebola"...if you want to claim that more American's have sucked Clinton's dick than died of Ebola...then enjoy.

But be advised.  There is a reason why the governors of Illinois and New York have stated that people coming from Ebola nations will be placed in a mandatory 21 day quarantine.  Assume that they're acting out of self interest.  Assume that they're attempting to protect their states.  AND have knowledge that they have much larger populations of Africans in their states than many others.

Modern Mechanized Bridging...

The K-21 post and how that vehicle will conduct river crossing brought up the issue with bridging ops.  I never liked that term because I always considered river crossings as being "inland amphibious assaults".  None the less below you'll see the product offerings from General Dynamics Europe which covers most forms of bridging options for mechanized forces....You can check out there website here.

Beaver AVLB.
I list this system first because it was the standard that replaced the old scissor bridge.  You will find a great many forces world wide still using it but its mostly designed to accommodate heavy mech forces...meaning tanks...which also means that its fallen out of favor, just as tanks are seeing declining use.  Clicking on the name of the system will lead you to the Canadian Army's website where you can find stats of this vehicle.  Note that I did not include the REBS Rapidly Emplaced Bridge System simply because I view that as being the same just scaled for wheeled infantry fighting vehicles.

Improved Ribbon Bridge.
The IRB has been in service for many years with the US Army, Marine Corps and German Army (I've never seen one deployed though).  It can easily handle (according to the manufacturer) most heavy military equipment and because of its width even oversized loads.  You want to bridge the Mississippi?  This is how you do it in combat.

M3.
This is the ultimate bridging vehicle in my opinion.  The M3 can be used as a bridge, as a vehicle lorry and can keep up with mechanized formations without compromising one of your fighting vehicles or taking a MTVR or PLS truck out of action to tow it.

All in all I see bridging ops as a tremendous achilles heel and another reason for all IFVs to be amphibious.  Rivers are natural choke points and that means they're danger areas.

You show me a river and I can dope out likely crossing points.  Of all these systems only the M3 can really help you maintain momentum...even with your tanks.  Its still going to be a tricky operation but ferrying a tank or two (depending on how many of those things you have) across a large inland water obstacle is perferrable to having to cover your combat engineers while they set up your ribbon bridge or assemble a couple of AVLBs to cover the distance.

PLA's Mobile Landing Dock...

Chinese Defense Blog's pic of the PLA's new Mobile Landing Dock.

Feel free to correct me but this again appears to be a bit of Chinese mimicry.  This time it looks like they've decided to copy the Navy's JLOTS (Joint Logistics Over The Shore) System.  You can see pics of that below for comparison.

Why is this interesting?  Because the Chinese have made a choice.  They've chosen JLOTS over Sea Basing.

The Chinese haven't appeared to be cost conscious when it comes to defense spending.  From stealth aircraft, to a modern jet transport, modern armor, advanced destroyers to state of the art amphibious ships...the Chinese haven't been penny pinching.

Which begs the question.  They've copied everything else, so why not the sea base.  Do they see the same issues with it that I do?

The movie "Lebanon"...Israel's "Fury"...

Consider this the Israeli version of "Fury" but with EVEN MORE moralizing about the rights and wrongs of war along with huge doses of "the enemy are monsters but we are too kinda thing".

It got tons of awards (probably because it showed in my opinion, Israeli Soldiers in a negative light) but I still think its worth a look-see.

F-35 loading procedures...

Hat tip to Postassi for the link.

Question.

You're going to do this on a pitching deck on a carrier in the Pacific while being pounded by sea spray while the ship is doing 30 knots to put wind over the bow, not to mention rain, snow and ice?  I won't even talk about the beating that the airplanes stealth surface will take (have you seen F/A-18's after deployment??? they look like dogshit) just concentrating on the poor saps that have to crawl underneath all that to shove missiles and bombs onto the internal racks!

This MIGHT be the plane for the USAF but for naval service, I'm beyond having doubts...its just plain wrong.

"We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island..."

We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island, and three Army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner, doing nothing.  What the hell is going on?  [Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., USA, Chairman of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff; during the assault on Grenada, 1983]

On 25Oct83 the invasion of Grenada began.  A couple of points...

1.  Regan told Thatcher that the invasion wasn't going to happen.  During a phone call she insisted that it not take place and Reagan is quoted as saying "I didn't have the heart to tell her that it had already begun!"
2.  The above quote is quick summation of Army soul searching after the operation.  The 82nd's 325th Infantry had its airport seizure mission ripped from them and Rangers did the job.  Additionally planning had an extremely limited USMC role.  That role expanded when Army units became bogged down by Grenadian and Cuban forces.
3.  The 22nd MEU (SOC) would sail onto history and be involved in several other "historic" operations.  During this time period if you weren't at Lejeune you just weren't cool...that was the land of the real Marine Corps.
4.  The Air Wing took a tremendous beating during this op and a couple of helicopters were lost.  I consider this another example of history being forgotten and current leadership forgetting the vulnerability of aircraft when your battlespace is compact.
5.  Read the official Marine Corps history below or if you want a quick and dirty then check out the Wikipedia entry here.

  U.S. Marines in Grenada 1983 PCN 19000309700

Spanish Marines amphibious assault exercise Noble Justification 2014 via Defense Media.

Interesting.  If the "current" plan goes forward the USMC will look more like the Spanish Marine Corps (Italians too) than anything I've seen so far.  They use a mix of AAV and 8 wheeled Piranha APC (Italy of course uses the Iveco SuperAV) for transport.  Its also noteworthy to see that they use M109's in the artillery role and 105 howitzers.  Who would have thought it.  The USMC is following the lead of the Spanish and Italian Marine Corps.

Happy Birthday Royal Marines...

Happy 350th birthday Royal Marines.

Sidenote:  The above pic comes from a "storyify" posting that has people posting pics wishing the RM's well.  I chose it because that's the iconic RM look.  An all weather smock, FAL and beret.  They've kept that same "look" since WW2...only the weapons and webbing has changed.  Can the same be said for any other organizations "go to war" uniform?

I thought hard and couldn't think of one.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery and I really believe that an olive drab or coyote brown smock would be a welcome addition to a Marine's kit bag.

Navy Recognition's coverage of Catamaran 2014...

Check it out here.

Outbreak Global Incident Map Website...

*Dengue Fever in China.

*Over 6000 Dengue Fever cases in Taiwan.

*The outbreak of Enterovirus D68 continues in the US...extremely under reported...

Want to know what bugs are roaming the planet?  Check out the Outbreaks Global Incident Map website here.

Sidenote>  Tunisia has its first confirmed Ebola outbreak.  Its a short jump to Spain...illegal immigration will get it there.  Additionally Brazil has its first Ebola victim...now its in S. America.  This shit will get out of control.

PLA NLOS "Sino-Spike" ATGM Vehicle...

photos via China Defense.

Does this remind you of something?  Maybe the pics below????  From an earlier post I did....For those that don't remember its the "Hellfire M-113" from the late 1980's...too bad it didn't make it into service.  It would have ravaged Iraqi Tanks in the first Gulf War.

China's Amphibious Ready Group...

All photos via China Defense...

The thing that boils my blood the most is that they're not even trying to fake it anymore.  The Chinese are doing there very best to copy the very structure of the USMC.  In some areas they already match our capabilities.  In others they still trail...but the facts are the facts.  They are attempting to achieve parity.  This is a challenge that cannot be ignored.

Marines conduct SPIE rigging, fast roping...photos by Staff Sgt. Miguel Carrasco

Ebola is attacking America in the same way it attacked Africa!

No one is publicly saying it yet, but Ebola is going after America in the same way it went after Africa.

Note.  Ebola was late to be declared an emergency in Africa.  Public officials continue to say that Ebola is not a problem in America.

Note.  Ebola first hit in the small villages before spreading to the big cities where it became an epidemic.  In America it struck first in Dallas...a Southern city but is now in New York where people are basically stacked on top of each other.

Note.  Ebola killed medical professionals first..then ravaged the rest of society.  "Nuff said.  Its doing the same in America.  Not killing yet but its knocking our medical pros for a loop.

Ebola is attacking America in the same way it attacked Africa.  We can keep it at bay for much longer.  We can even kill it.  But before that happens we need to take it seriously.

X-Band radar delivered to Japan...

via Reuters.

The United States is damaging stability in the Asia-Pacific region by positioning a missile defense radar in Japan, China said on Thursday.
Japan, an ally of the United States, has voiced growing anxiety over China's more assertive posture in the East China Sea, where the neighbors are locked in a dispute over control of a group of uninhabited islets.
North Korea has carried out a series of missile tests this year, including two medium-range missiles capable of hitting Japan. Pyongyang has also threatened another nuclear test.
Japan's defense ministry has said an X-Band radar system was delivered on Tuesday to the U.S. military's communication facility in Kyoto in the western part of the country. It is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of the year.
"Neighboring countries pushing forward the deployment of anti-missile systems in the Asia-Pacific and seeking unilateral security is not beneficial to strategic stability and mutual trust in the region," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing.
"It is not beneficial to peace and stability in Northeast Asia."

Countries should not use "excuses to harm the security interests of other countries," Hua added, describing the situation as "deeply concerning".

Sorry but I'm taking a different stance.  I don't think this has much to do with anti-missile defense, but everything to do with being able to detect Chinese stealth fighters, cruise missiles and drones.

We created stealth, others caught up and now we're having to defend against it with a poorly crafted development fighter (F-35) and anti-air defenses that are biased for action against last decades threats.


NOTE:  As Charlie pointed out ... I jumbled my information.  L-band radars are useful for detecting stealth aircraft .... time to go back to APA website and refresh my memory on these things.

This is what cops deal with...

Time to balance the scales.

I've been trashing police and the militarization that I see in their forces for at least the last few months if not the last year.  But just because I see them heading in a stupid direction doesn't mean that they don't deal with real issues.

The above video is a case in point.

Is it possible that if the cop that was providing slack to the one that approached the car didn't tackle the woman that we would see headlines blasting the fact that cops shot and killed an older woman?

Yeah we would have.

But the kicker is that this short video, at least to me, show that a shooting would have been totally justified.  Additionally the officer doing the tackling did not react properly to this situation!  He placed himself in danger and a by the book  response would have been for him to draw his weapon and fire.

Why?

Because the lady made a slashing motion...in effect she attempted to kill a police officer.  Her surviving this encounter is really an act of God and extremely restrained law enforcement.

Terror attack in NY City today?

via CNN

A man charged at four New York police officers with a metal hatchet Thursday, hitting two of them at a time of high alert for authorities concerned they might be targeted in the United States and Canada.
The suspect was hiding behind a bus shelter as if he was waiting to attack the officers, according to a law enforcement official, who said it almost appeared as if he was stalking them.
He struck one officer in the right arm and another in the head, police Commissioner Bill Bratton said. The two officers who weren't hit then shot at and killed the attacker.
The law enforcement official identified the suspect as Zale H. Thompson, who had a criminal record in California and had been discharged from the Navy for misconduct, according to the source.
The police officer who was struck in the head remains in critical but stable condition.
Authorities are looking to see if the unprovoked attack, in the New York borough of Queens, is tied to recent calls by radicals to attack military and police officers, law enforcement officials say.

Supposedly this clown has postings that link him to ISIS and other Islamic extremist.

The world is burning friends.  Don't be fooled by those that are trying to tell you that all is well.  Its anything but.

Are good Samaritans a threat to the nation?

A doctor from "Doctors without Borders" has come down with the Ebola virus after returning to New York from Liberia (I think).

The question must be asked.  Are good Samaritans a threat to the nation?  I mean seriously!  These people travel to a disease infested nation, spend a couple of weeks on the ground and then travel back to the US and put an entire city at risk!

Additionally think about our foreign policy.  God bless the dead, but we had journalists and now a foreign aid worker that were either beheaded/threatened to be that basically pushed us into aiding nations in the Middle East with a problem that they at the very least contributed to (ISIS received donations from several Arab nations...the same nations that are sitting on their hands while we do airstrikes).

If we can put travel bans on people traveling to the Middle East to fight for ISIS then certainly we should be able to ban people from traveling to nations in the middle of epidemics or in a state of war...even if they're going to render humanitarian assistance.

We've been lucky so far but luck is not a plan.  This shit will bite one day and all the "trust the science" idiots will hate the fact that they ignored their "spider sense".

NOTE:  This is part of my worse case scenario.  An Ebola patient in a major North East city.  The guy rode cabs, went to a bowling alley and rode the subway.  They better hope they're right about how this shit is spread or else NY is fucked!

Today in Marine Corps history...

This month 70 years ago, Marines of the 1st Marine Division fought to take a vital airstrip on a small coral island in the Pacific known as Peleliu. Although the island was expected to be secure in just four days, a 72-day battle ensued and was known as the "bitterest battle of the war" for the U.S. Marines. Eight U.S. Marines from the 1st Marine Division received the Medal of Honor for actions during the battle.

Catamaran 2014

Catamaran 2014 by Marine-Nationale