Dirac Angestun Gesept

So-called U.S. hostage appears to be toy: an Islamist web site has apparently posted a picture of “Special Ops Cody”, an action figure sold in Army PXes.

GI Joe was not available for comment.

To my great-grandfather, who served in World War I, and those who served beside him;

To my grandfather, who served in World War II, and those who served beside him;

To my father and his brothers, who served from the Vietnam era to the invasion of Panama, and those who served beside them;

To my brother and my cousins, who are serving now, and the many who serve beside them today, in Afghanistan and Iraq and South Korea and Germany and stateside;

And to all those who have given limb or life in service over the years:

Thank you.

This weekend, a group of ships from the NATO STANAVFORLANT (Standing Naval Force Atlantic) are in Boston at the Charlestown Navy Yard (near the USS Constitution), and today they were mostly open for visitors.

The information we’d had from a USENET post turned out to be a bit off reality; the ships didn’t open for the afternoon until 1400, but it wasn’t a huge hardship to hang around and see what else was going on. The bonus was that the post had only listed one ship as being open, which was an underestimate…five of the ships listed as being currently in STANAVFORLANT were there (the German FGS Spessart was not in evidence) and as it turned out all of them were open to some extent, though in one case that was a minimal extent.

We first visited the flagship of the group, the HNLMS Jacob van Heemskerck (F 812) of the Royal Netherlands Navy (class ship of its frigate class), and the German Bremen-class frigate FGS Niedersachsen (F208), which was moored outboard of the van Heemskerck and is notable for having saluted the USS Doyle on Sept. 11, 2003. Both ships had their main decks open for visitors, with explanatory signs added in English and helpful crewmembers explaining things as well.

We then moved over to the other mooring, where the USS Simpson (FFG 56, Oliver Hazard Perry class); the Spanish SPS Navarra (F 85, Santa Maria class; the Santa Maria is the Spanish variant of the Perry-class) which intercepted the unflagged freighter So San carrying North Korean weapons to Yemen; and the Canadian Halifax-class HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332) were moored.

The Simpson was not offering tours, but did allow access through to the Navarra; there, tours of the main deck, the helo deck and the SH-60 parked there, the upper deck, and the bridge were given by members of the ship’s company. Unfortunately, even two years of high school Spanish, useful as it is for travel (”por favor”, “gracias”, and “¿donde está el baño?”) didn’t give me useful vocabulary words for “anti-submarine warfare”, “close-in weapons system”, or “surface to air missile”. Still, it was an enjoyable experience, as we got to see much more of the ship than we had expected to; it was reminiscent of an airside bus tour of Munich airport we once took, which was conducted entirely in German and was therefore an exercise in putting stories together around the few words we did recognize.

Beyond the Navarra was the Ville de Québec, which like the Jacob van Heemskerck and Niedersachsen was allowing main deck access, plus the ability to climb to the bridge deck for a look through the windows and the chance to visit the helo hangar with its Sikorsky Sea King and talk to the helo crew (one of whom is on an exchange from the United Kingdom). This ship was the first on the scene of the Swissair 111 crash.

We finished our visit there, having enjoyed the afternoon immensely, and headed home.

(The ships previously visited Baltimore and I believe are headed for Halifax next.)

Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) has sponsored H.R.5296, a bill to allow members of the armed forces who are wounded in combat to continue to receive their combat pay and similar bonuses during their recovery.

Sounds like the sort of thing that the “Support Our Troops” GOP should be all for, right?

Here’s the cosponsor list, with my addition of their party affiliations:

Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Delahunt, William D. [MA-10] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Evans, Lane [IL-17] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Hoeffel, Joseph M. [PA-13] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Larsen, Rick [WA-2] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Majette, Denise L. [GA-4] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-14] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep McDermott, Jim [WA-7] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Tierney, John F. [MA-6] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8] - 10/8/2004 [D] Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 10/8/2004 [D]

Bill status? Referred to not one but two committees.

Compare to the fact that George W. Bush has not had to veto any bills during his entire administration. Note that this means that, as Peter Canellos puts it, “he’s working so closely with leaders of Congress that little has gone through without his preapproval.”

If he really wants to help support our troops, this bill will clear committee in no time, with plenty of GOP co-sponsors. Anyone want to bet that will happen?

Allowing same-sex marriages will not make more people gay.

There’s only one governmental action that can make more people gay: reinstating the draft.

Imagine how many people will discover their new sexual orientation when that happens!

The New York Times recently published Copter-Borne Medics on the role of DUSTOFF pilots in Iraq. I’d previously noted an article in the Boston Globe in January.

Much has been written on this topic. This article, however, was written by a former commander of the 372nd MP Company.

Some choice quotes:

• “These actions were the result of huge command failures.”
• “I refuse to believe that no leader above Frederick was aware of or complicit in the abuses”
• “All these leaders failed in their most basic responsibilities of supervising their soldiers in the performance of their duties.”
• “Is special training needed to show a soldier that this sort of thing is contemptible and contrary to any standards of decency?”
• “We have a right to expect more from our military.”
• In response to the widely quoted Rush Limbaugh comment: “To minimize the egregious conduct of some members of the 372nd (and their superiors) dishonors those men and women who honorably serve their country. We must not, as some commentators have said, deem this to be soldiers “blowing off steam” and equate it to a fraternity initiation. To me, that sort of response dishonors those who strive each day to serve their fellow soldiers and complete their missions — and who risk their lives to do so.”
• and, last but not least, “If our claim is merely that we are better than the terrorists, we leave a tenuous legacy for a budding democracy in Iraq.”

This is not some left-wing commentator, either; this is the former commander of the unit. Add that to the Army Times editorial and see that both sides of the conservative-liberal divide have people very, very angry about what has happened, and the failures that have become clear.

The Boston Globe has an article on the role of medical evacuation helicopters in Iraq. The medevac or “DUSTOFF” crews get to fly around Iraq with nice big red crosses on their unarmed UH-60s, which some folks on the ground seem to take as aiming marks and not the Geneva Convention protection they’re supposed to be.

As the son of a retired DUSTOFF pilot, and brother of an active-duty DUSTOFF pilot, I want to take a moment to remember those DUSTOFF crews who have been killed in action over the past 40 years, from Major Charles Kelly to Spec. Michael A. Diraimondo, Spec. Christopher A. Golby, Chief Warrant Officer Philip A. Johnson Jr., and Chief Warrant Officer Ian D. Manuel, of the 571st Medical Detachment (Air Ambulance), as well as their patients.