PenguinSix » National Security

Private Thomas D. Costello, laid to rest in Arlington after 91 years in the French countryside

admin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:27:06 +0000

Interesting story in today’s Washington Post about a World War I doughboy who was fell in action but was listed as MIA for the last nine decades. Private Thomas D. Costello of New York City was killed in action in France near a place called Bois de Bonvaux. His remains were located by a private MIA foundation who searches in France for the missing. As chance would have it, when they found the remains there was an official US government MIA team in the area looking for a missing in action soldier from a World War II tank engagement, so they were able to bring their high tech sensors and skills into recovering Private Costello.

His descendants attended the funeral, though they did not even know the story of him being missing. Said his relative (Frisbie):

…had no idea he was a relative until he was contacted about two years ago by a Pentagon genealogist, said he believes that Costello was his great-great uncle. But the distance of the connection “doesn’t matter,” Frisbie said. “He’s a fallen soldier, and if I can honor him, that’s great.”

The French embassy also sent their military attache to attend the funeral and say thank you on behalf of the French people. You can see the video below.

The US spends nearly $105 million a year on finding missing troops. The CNN article on this story also has some interesting quotes from the family.

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The barrio Saint–a Priest with salty language trying to connect to Mexican gang members.

admin — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:14:45 +0000

Interesting story in the NY Times today about a priest trying to make inroads in the gang community in Mexico City. It’s a rough task, preaching to those who have faced life and death and the harsh reality of the barrio on a daily basis. It’s probably not an easier as many of these kids are addicted to sniffing glue, literally walking into the church with glue in their hands and sniffing away.

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The True Story of Neda Agha-Soltan زندگي ندا آقا سلطان ايران, now on Youtube

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:20:33 +0000

HBO Documentary Films has made available a moving documentary about Neda Agha-Soltan, the young women taken by a sniper’s bullet in the protests last year. You can watch the film (broken into 10 minute segments) for free.

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Combat Air Patrol at a Space Shuttle Launch

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 11:19:21 +0000

From the US Air Force photo archives.

4th FW Strike Eagles assist shuttle launch

Lt. Col. Gabriel Green and Capt. Zachary Bartoe patrol the airspace in an F-15E Strike Eagle as the Space Shuttle Atlantis launches May 14, 2010, at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Colonel Green is the 333rd Fighter Squadron commander and Captain Bartoe is a 333rd FS weapons system officer. Both aircrew members are assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

A visual sonic boom – Atlas V launch An Atlas V rocket passes through a layer of ice...

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Somali pirates, in a fit of stupidity, attack HNLMS Tromp, a Dutch warship.

admin — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:59:01 +0000

So a few months back I was walking through Baltimore and came across what you see in the photo below. Although I was never in the Navy and have been known to make some mistakes, I was pretty certain that what I was looking at was a warship, a fact confirmed after I walked to the bow and saw the large deck gun that you can see in the second photo below.

Now the reason I mention all this is because what was obvious to me and my 3 year old son, namely that this was a warship, is apparently beyond the capabilities of a Somali pirate, a few of whom decided to launch a raid on the HNLMS Tromp, a Dutch frigate on anti-piracy patrols off of Somalia.

Why are there so many idiots around the world.

This is not a cargo vessel

This is not a cargo vessel from this view either.

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The Greatest Raid of All Time–St. Nazaire in 1942

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:24:58 +0000

No, I haven’t heard of it either. I was flipping around Youtube watching some Top Gear clips when I happened to see a Jeremy Clarkson video of a documentary called “The Greatest Raid”. I started watching, and boy was I glad I did.

The Greatest Raid was essentially a suicide mission of British Commandos on the docks at St. Nazaire along the Atlantic coast of France in 1942. Designed to knock out a drydock facility for the German battleship Tirpitz the raid played an important role in ensuring the Atlantic convoys continued to feed England in the dark days following the Battle of Britain. Loaded aboard an old US destroyer and tiny patrol boats, the Commandos made their way up an estuary to the heavily defended docks.

It’s all up on Youtube, and it’s a pretty amazing story worth 45 minutes of your life.

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Is the USNS MERCY being readied for Haiti deployment? Drydocking cancelled?

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:09:29 +0000

Dry dock cancelled? Haiti mission imminent?

After reading this blog post calling for the USNS Mercy to be activated and deployed to Haiti, I found some interesting tidbits here on a San Francisco bloggers page: Work on the USNS Mercy, scheduled for drydock work in San Francisco, may have been cancelled and the workers at the drydock laid off. A possible deployment to Haiti was cited as the reason. The USNS MERCY was in drydock in Mission Bay area of San Francisco but the workers were told they were laid off until further notice.

Trying to find more than just a blog post to confirm that.

Here was the original dry docking proposal.

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USNS Comfort bloggers and Twitter messages

admin — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:58:29 +0000

I’m starting to compile a list of bloggers and twitterer’s on board the USNS Comfort.

USNS Comfort Twitter Account

Blogs:

HaitiComfort (official blog)

Comfort XO

US Naval Institute (the publishing arm for many Naval Press books)

Baltimore Sun on-board reporter

more coming…

p.s. Calls are now being made for the West Coast Hospital Ship, the USNS MERCY, to be activated and sent to Haiti, so great is the need and so much stress being put on the COMFORT.

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USNS COMFORT hospital ship has arrived in Haiti

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:17:44 +0000

The COMFORT is on station off the coast, as you’ll see from this Navy photo just released.

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USNS COMFORT treats first patients from Haiti earthquake

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:36:17 +0000

The USNS COMFORT'S first patient gets treatment.

Although not technically ‘there’ yet the Comfort is now within helicopter range of Haiti and has started taking in some patients from the earthquake, according to various press sources. Good timing too as there has just been another after-shock.

The Baltimore Sun is on board and reports that the entire ship went through an Abandon Ship drill just moments before the first helicopters brought in a 20 year old male with spine problems and a 6 year old boy.

The COMFORT’s Medivac Helos will be in operation today starting at 7:00 am EST. The crew is still busy getting things ready, preparing for water rationing (to give more to patients) and to ‘hot rack’ the bunks to give more room for the wounded and a full crew.

With the addition of 350 medical and service personnel, who were expected to be in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, overnight and to begin arriving on the ship today, the Comfort will exceed its capacity of 1,200 crew members. Officers were making arrangements for crew members to share berths, a practice known as “hot-racking,” in which one person sleeps while another is on duty.

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