Category: National Security

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

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. ]]>

Combat Air Patrol at a Space Shuttle Launch

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.]]>

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

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. [caption id="attachment_2926" align="alignleft" width="512" caption="This is not a cargo vessel"][/caption]   [caption id="attachment_2927" align="alignleft" width="512" caption="This is not a cargo vessel from this view either."][/caption]]]>

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

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. ]]>

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

[/caption] 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.]]>

USNS Comfort bloggers and Twitter messages

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.]]>

USNS COMFORT treats first patients from Haiti earthquake

[/caption] 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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Air Force starts air drops into US-controlled Haitian LZs

[/caption] 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 into an area controlled by US troops.   Approximately 40 pallets per plane are dropped, and military officials are planning an additional 15 sorties for a total of 600 pallets in the next three days.  CBS News has video of the airdrops.]]>