You Can't Handle The Truth !!!!

Yep.  F-35 critics can't handle the truth....



via AOL.  Read the whole thing but here are the good bits....

The program executive officer for the problem-plagued F-35 said Thursday he has "great confidence" the multi-service fighter can deliver the oft-promised stealth and the sophisticated package of sensors.

Vice Adm. David Venlet said he has "measured data" to show that.

and this...

 "If we stick with the fundamentals, stay with reality, I'm very positive about this program," Venlet said.

Below we'll paraphrase the above scene.  The person speaking is in bold lettering:

Admiral Venlet:  We live in world that has J-20's and PAK-FA's who gonna defeat them? 

You BAE?

You Boeing?

You weep for the Rafale and you curse the Marine's STOVL figher.

The F-35B's existence while grotesque and incomprehensible to you saves lives.

Deep down inside places you don't talk about at parties, you know you want the F-35 at 40,000 feet, you need the F-35 at 40,000 feet.

The Lockheed Martin team and the USMC would rather you say thank you and you went on your way.

Either way we don't care what the critics think they're entitled to.

Sweetman:  Did you order the F-35B?

Lockheed Martin:  You don't have to answer that Admiral!

Sweetman:  I think I'm entitled to an answer!

Lockheed Martin:  We'll wait for the answer!


Sweetman:  Did you order the F-35B's?

Admiral Venlet:  YOU DAMN RIGHT WE DID!

JUST JOKING BILL!  LIGHTEN UP DUDE!

Know anything about RBCD performance ammo?

RBCD touts themselves as the premier defense load on the market today.  To be honest I had never heard of them until a buddy told me about them on the range.

I came home and went to the website and I'm wondering.

The formula is an extremely light grain of bullet going at +P++ speed.  I don't even know if that's a designation but check out their performance chart.

9mm TPD	50 gr.	TPD	2300 fps / 590 flbs
357Sig.	50 gr.	TPD	2500 fps / 693 flbs
38 Special TPD	50 gr.	TPD	1850 fps / 418 flbs
357 Mag.	50 gr.	TPD	2270 fps / 572 flbs
40 S&W TPD	70 gr.	TPD	2320 fps / 790 flbs
45 ACP TPD	80 gr.	TPD	2375 fps / 1002 flbs

I can't lie to you...I'll probably send a box to TN Outdoors and let him run a ballistics test if I can't find anything on line demonstrating performance.

UKSF hits terrorist and Camp Lemonnier beefs up.

I took a look at the latest sat photos of Camp Lemonnier and it appears that the number of C-130's has increased. So have the number of CH-53's (are we sure that the USAF decommissioned all of its MH-53J's? Some of those '53's look 'off'). Lots of single engine, propeller engined aircraft around those military birds but I couldn't make out the type. Oh and those F-15's look like the "E" model's and I see six now instead of five (how many does a squadron make?).

Take a look for yourself here.

Oh and on the north side of the runway I see a couple of P-3's, what appears to be C-160's and probably a C-27.

F-35B with Weapons Bay Doors Open

F-35B test aircraft BF-3 flies with weapons bay doors open in March 2012.

First Flight of F-35B BF-9

Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti takes off from Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base for the first flight of F-35B production aircraft BF-9 on March 6, 2012

British Special Forces active in Nigeria.

Via Sky News.

Two hostages - a Briton and an Italian - have been killed by terrorists in northern Nigeria in an attempted rescue operation.

The effort to free Chris McManus, from the North West of England, and his colleague Franco Lamolinara was launched by British special forces and the Nigerian army.

Sky sources say there were no fatalities on the British and Nigerian forces' side but there were several fatalities among the hostage-takers.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the pair appeared to have died at the hands of their captors, either before or during the course of the rescue bid.

Sky sources say it is believed there was a fight and during the assault the UK and Nigerian forces could not get to Mr McManus and Mr Lamolinara in time.
"It strongly appears that the hostage-takers shot the hostages," the sources said.

Read the rest at their news site.

Time to check Google Earth and see how many British aircraft I can count  in Djibouti. 

F-35A Takes Flight at Eglin AFB

They aren't worth our sacrifice.

KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan-Corporal Joshua Brooks, a Marine serving with Team 3, Civil Affairs Detachment 11-2, greets students as they arrive for school here Feb. 25, 2012. The Marines of Team 3 provided guidance to the local government here to help them construct a new school. Brooks said visiting the school is the highlight of his deployment. The current school is made of mud and mortar, is overcrowded and only has enough capacity to hold up to sixth grade. The new school will have up to eighth grade and have more than enough room for students and teachers. Brooks is from Terre Haute, Ind., and is serving under Regimental Combat Team 5 and alongside 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion in Helmand province., Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes, 2/25/2012 9:38 AM

 

I always wondered why the Marine Corps continues to post pictures like the one above.

Its relentless.

It seems almost sappy.

And then I got it.

They realize that many (me included) understand that the Afghan people are not worth our sacrifice.  They're piss poor allies and we should wash our hands of them.

Their leader is a criminal (well that just makes them like everyone else), their society is corrupt and to be honest I see nothing redeeming about them at all.

That's why the keep posting pictures of Marines with children.

They know that after all is said and done, they only have this card left to play.

Except for me, even that's not enough.  Time to leave.  Let the Afghan people do whatever it is they do.  We have our own country to rebuild, enough wasting lives and money on theirs.

Marines rush to the sound of chaos.

Marine Corps Recruiting Command is scheduled to release its latest advertising campaign, Toward the Sound of Chaos, during the Big 12 Championship game on ESPN, Mar. 10. The campaign is designed to highlight Marines roles as elite warriors and compassionate humanitarians.

Enlarge this photo. 

My only complaint is that the words are more inspiring than the photo. 

Interesting. Not military related...just interesting.

via Odee...

The thief who returned terminally ill woman's camera

Jami McElrath got her camera stolen when a thief broke into her car. When the thief found out that Jami was terminally ill, he had a change of heart and returned the camera. McElrath, who has inoperable cancer, was collecting photos to place in a scrapbook for her children so they could remember her after she was gone. The camera had belonged to her father, who had died of a heart attack two years before. The woman told her heart-wrenching story to Dallas-area news station WFAA TV, appealing to the burglar to return the camera.

Then something remarkable happened. A few days after the story aired, WFAA reporter Jim Douglas got a call from a man who told him to look behind a red car in the station's parking lot. The caller didn't leave his name; he said only that he felt bad about the incident and wanted to return the camera.

(Link | Via)