Carter gets the nod...

Few people noticed it but Ashton Carter was confirmed as Deputy Defense Secretary.  Via AFA...

Carter Gets Senate Nod: The Senate last week unanimously confirmed Ash Carter as the next deputy defense secretary. Carter, who has been the Pentagon's acquisition executive since April 2009, will replace Bill Lynn, who is stepping down after serving in the Defense Department's No. 2 post since February 2009. "Ash has a steady hand, a keen intellect, and an effective management style that will help this department keep faith with our troops and protect our nation," said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in the DOD release announcing Carter's confirmation. Panetta added, "He is already an essential part of my team as an outstanding undersecretary of defense, and I look forward to his continued guidance and leadership as he assumes his new responsibilities." President Obama nominated Carter for the post in early August.

So where does that leave the leadership of the DOD?

Panetta is solidly behind the F-35...in statements at least.  Carter has been the point man when it comes to defending the program.  The Commandant of the Marine Corps is behind it...The Navy is wavering but appear to be cautiously optimistic---if it works (and it will) then they'll be clamoring for it.  And the USAF has no other options.

The Senate can play all the games that they like but in the end, who is going to want to risk middle class jobs that will result from defense cuts?  Same applies to the House.

And we haven't even talked China yet.

The program is safe and the naysayers are spitting in the wind. 

The Police are not ready for outbreaks of rioting.

I saw this on Drudge....suffice it to say that the NYPD is supposedly the best equipped and most highly trained big city police department in this county.

If a few protesters in Wall Street could cause this much commotion then what will happen if the Bronx goes crazy?

The police aren't ready.  Our leadership isn't ready.  And I'm betting that with all the alarming reports coming out of Europe about Greece about to default and the EU being on the brink that we're on the edge of a financial meltdown that will shake the entire world.

Interesting times I tell ya...interesting times!

The enemy of my enemy is my friend...

Wow...I wonder what Turkey thinks about this development between the Greeks and Israeli's?  The enemy of my enemy is my friend!

Three IAF helicopters, two Apache longbows and one Blackhawk, fly above Greek mountains during a joint exercise with the Hellenic Air Force, on June 2011.

Ok...this bag stuff is getting ridiculous!

I've watched the modern day preparedness movement and have even adopted some of the ideas.

But parts of it are getting just plain goofy.  Specifically this bag stuff.  Its getting ridiculous!

1.  A Get Home Bag.

2.  Vehicle Bag.

3.  Every Day Carry Bag.

4.  Bug Out Bag.

Now my boy SootchOO is talking about a home defense bag?!?!  Really?  Seriously?  Check out his vid...

Looking forward to buying this video game...

A book that you must read...

Want a story of the Korean War that everyone has forgotten and even the Marine Corps doesn't teach in full?  Then you've got to read this book!  Here's the review from the Marine Corps Association...

Lesson From the Past

Review by: 

LtCol Mike Parkyn, USMC(Ret)

If you can, find one of the Chosin Few. Let him transform a 60-year-old story into knowledge of trial, fear, endurance, and triumph that makes the Chosin Reservoir breakout one of the Corps’ proudest moments. Do it today.
   
But if you can’t, read Give Me Tomorrow by Patrick K. O’Donnell. Written largely from interviews with the Marines of George Company, 3d Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1), Give Me Tomorrow recounts their participation in the Inchon landings, the urban combat in Seoul, and in GEN Douglas MacArthur’s ill-fated attempt to wrest the entirety of Korea from Communist control in 1950.
   
O’Donnell first encountered the George Company veterans when he returned from Iraq with Lima Company, 3/1, where Lima Company had participated in the battle for Fallujah in 2004. As a combat correspondent, O’Donnell recorded his experiences with Lima Company in what would become We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah (Da Capo Press, 2007). While witnessing Lima Company’s homecoming at Camp Pendleton, O’Donnell was befriended by George Company Marines, who watched the Fallujah veterans return home with the guidon carried by George Company at Chosin. In a dialogue that began at Camp Pendleton, George Company’s Marines shared their story with O’Donnell over the course of the next 5 years.
   
Most of my growing library of Chosin books are either first-person accounts, such as Joseph R. Owen’s Colder Than Hell (Naval Institute Press, 2000), or third-person accounts like Martin Russ’ Breakout (Penguin, 2000), which broadly samples the experiences of soldiers, Marines, and Communist Chinese forces who participated in the battles. O’Donnell’s work bridges the two extremes by telling the story of one rifle company, focusing on the company’s formation at Camp Pendleton, its combat experiences at Inchon and Seoul, and its part in the 1st MarDiv’s legendary struggle against the Chinese in November and December 1950.
   
By giving voice solely to the Marines of George Company, O’Donnell acquaints the reader with a relatively small number of men—some who were veterans of World War II island campaigns and others from the Marine Corps Reserves who had not been trained at recruit depots—allowing the reader to follow them vicariously as they relive their experiences from 1950. The subjective nature of Give Me Tomorrow’s primary source material is also its most exceptional strength, and through it we learn what these men most loved and feared. We know what sustained them through a modern Thermopylae, and we know what haunts them 60 years later.
   
Don’t be surprised if you are unable to learn about the Chosin Reservoir breakout from a veteran. Even if you meet one, he may—like an uncle of mine—gloss over the horrors, only to laud the bravery of his brother Marines. In either event, Give Me Tomorrow is a fitting tribute to these Marines and an excellent addition to your bookshelf.

PACCOM CO bets on F-35 or F/A-18 for Japan...

via Reuters...

(Reuters) - The head of U.S. military forces in Asia and the Pacific predicted Friday that Japan's choice of a new multibillion-dollar fighter fleet would reflect plans to stay "very complementary" with U.S. air forces.
Proposals are due in Tokyo on Monday from the three rivals for Japan's so-called F-X deal -- Boeing Co (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) of the United States and Europe's Eurofighter GmbH consortium, made up of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.Japan is expected to buy 42 planes, a deal experts say could be worth $6 billion to $8 billion, including spares, pilot training and related gear.U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Willard, head of the Hawaii-based, U.S. Pacific Command, stopped short of predicting that Tokyo would pick Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed's radar-evading F-35 Lightning II over the Eurofighter Typhoon.But he said Japanese defense forces "understand the importance of remaining interoperable with the United States, their ally that is home based in Japan or being hosted in Japan, as well as U.S. forces that are deployed in the region.""And I think have confidence that the decision that they make on this next fighter will reflect that," he added in an interview with Reuters.Pressed to say whether the Americans would best the Europeans, Willard replied: "No, I wouldn't go that far."But he said he was confident that Japanese commanders will make sure that whichever plane they buy "remains interoperable and very complementary to our capabilities."

Lets see...a rising China...no European capability or forces in the area...two of its major allies operate the F-18 and will soon operate the F-35...and despite the thoughts by some that the F-18 is inadequate, most know the truth--its a very effective fighter.

All that add up to Willard probably being right.  Welcome aboard the F-35 program Japan!