PenguinSix

Ok, so that’s a bit of a scare headline, but I was struck by this story in the New York Times for two reasons.  First, it does report that the last US combat troops have left Iraq, but second, it mentions that the US State Department is going to be doubling their security contractors (upto [...]

Floods in Pakistan are a growing problem for the governments not only in Islamabad but in the US as well. The demand for helicopters to ferry supplies and rescue workers is being shouted from those suffering on the ground, and the radicals are certainly adding fuel to the fire by spreading the idea “they can [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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

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 [...]

  Just a few days after the Defense Secretary said that air drops of relief supplies would lead to chaos and rioting, the Air Force has apparently changed their mind and launched their first parachute delivery of supplies into Haiti.  A C-17 from Nouth Carolina did a 7-hour mission to drop MREs and bottled water [...]

Interesting tidbit here about the capabilities of Port au Prince airport. Currently, we’re operating with a working maximum aircraft on the ground of one wide-body and five narrow-body aircraft. And the one wide-body is planned for two hours on the ground, and the five narrow-bodies are planned for one hour on the ground. We also [...]

Google is offering a “Person Finder” solution for websites to help folks stay in touch with those who are missing in the Haitian earthquake disaster. This simple code allows you to have a I’m am Lost I am Found kind of solution to any website (though it is acting up a bit at the moment). [...]