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Thursday thoughts – Biden, RNC, SF Patch, Abortion travel

| March 28, 2024 | 73 Comments
Thursday thoughts – Biden, RNC, SF Patch, Abortion travel

Well, that was fast. President Biden says the US Government will pay the cost to rebuild the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore…seems he has traveled over it many times on his way to or back from home in  Delaware, whether driving or by train. “At about 1:30 [a.m. Tuesday], a container ship struck the […]

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USS Boxer still working up to deploy three years on

| March 23, 2024 | 28 Comments
USS Boxer still working up to deploy three years on

  The Boxer is an amphibious assault craft, which essentially makes it a “small” aircraft carrier (843 feet long!) which not only can carry the usual Harriers, F-35s, and choppers, but good-sized  air-cushion landing craft to rapidly deploy Marines as well. These are the odd-looking Wasp-class ships with the lower landing wells, effectively giving them […]

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Tuesday short takes

| March 12, 2024 | 32 Comments
Tuesday short takes

I’ll let others debate Trump’s desire for blanket Presidential immunity – have to ask, though, if the President is shielded from culpability, why does the Constitution include impeachment? Moving on – if convicted of a crime based on DNA evidence in Colorado, your lawyer should be smiling now. A Colorado Bureau of Investigation DNA analyst […]

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Saturday weather, or climate, or something

| March 9, 2024 | 34 Comments
Saturday weather, or climate, or something

Well, let’s start by beating up on EVs a little. Almost too easy. But we’re going to look at a different aspect first – tire pollution. Not disposing of used tires, but the particular stuff that gets ground off tires. This is directly proportional to softness of the compounds used in the tires, the weights […]

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Let civilians do it

| March 6, 2024 | 29 Comments
Let civilians do it

We’ve spoken a few times on the topic of outsourcing military base support operations to civilians. Here are a couple of examples of how well that is working: Ft. Leavenworth, has outsourced building maintenance to a civilian contractor, the Michaels Corporation. Fort Leavenworth, set to celebrate its bicentennial in 2027, is a National Historic Landmark […]

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Ospreys back in action

| March 4, 2024 | 6 Comments
Ospreys back in action

We all know the V-22 Osprey – the hybrid helicopter tilt-rotor airplane mix which has taken over local airlift for the Marines and some of the Air Force.  Not sure which air machine I have done more articles on, the V-22 or the F-35, but it has to be fairly close. Services may be heaving […]

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F(riday) is for Follow-ups

| March 1, 2024 | 21 Comments
F(riday) is for Follow-ups

  Remember a bit back when an F-35 got all FODded up when a ground crew member left a tool, reportedly a flashlight, in the intake? Didn’t we set up a pool for how bad the damage was going to be? In March 2023, a maintenance team at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona was […]

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Congrats to the Corps!

| February 27, 2024 | 36 Comments
Congrats to the Corps!

From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli We will fight our country’s auditors And will emerge victory Or something like that.  Yes, boys and girls, an armed service has finally passed an audit! Plaudits to all of our crayon eaters, the Brotherhood of Leather Neck Guards, the few, the proud, the Marines […]

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