About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 04/22/2014 10:21:31

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,580th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 2,314
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,114

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 528, 243, 975, 000 .00



I've got kind of a mixed bag this morning. We'll start on the aviation front. A little-noticed story in the business has actually signalled the end of an era. Boeing Corporation is going to stop building the C-17 "Globemaster III" sometime in 2015. Minor news perhaps, but the Globemaster is the final aircraft designed and built by the vaunted Douglas Aircraft Corporation. Boeing now owns it, but before then we knew it as Mcdonnell-Douglas, and independently as Douglas before that. The lengthy heritage of this company includes one of the most iconic aircraft of all time, and one incredibly still flying in revenue service some 80 years after "First Flight", the legendary DC-3 / Skytrain / Gooney Bird. Another casualty of profit-driven mergers, I would guess.


Boeing Co. announced plans to stop production of C-17 cargo jets at the company’s sprawling Long Beach, Calif., plant three months earlier than it previously anticipated.

The aerospace giant said Monday it will shutter the 1.1-million-square-foot facility in mid-2015 because of “current market trends and the timing of expected orders.” The plane maker had initially said that production would come to an end in late 2015.

The company said it expects to record $50 million in accounting charges in the first quarter as a result of Monday’s announcement.

Boeing said about 2,200 employees support the C-17 Globemaster III program in California. The company already began workforce reductions this year and plans to continue the cuts through closure.

The C-17 Globemaster III is a massive, four-engine jet that can haul 60-ton tanks, troops and medical gear across continents and land on short runways.

The Air Force awarded the contract for the C-17 in 1981 as the United States faced potential military threats that required massive cargo lifts.

Design work soon followed, and the first C-17 to fly — known as T-1 — took off in 1991.

Boeing announced plans to close the plant in September, just a week after it delivered its 223rd and final C-17 to the Air Force. The company still has a few foreign orders to fill.

The plant is one of the last vestiges of an era in which aviation and aerospace helped build Southern California’s middle class, and it was a major employer in Long Beach for decades.

There are no plans to move a new production program to the plant.


Staying in the skies, one of the last vestiges of a simpler time are the smaller airports and aircraft of general aviation. For the most part, you can still get in your airplane, point it whatever direction you want, and turn money into smoke and noise without causing undue problems. Except when you can't, of course. "Papers, Please" happens all the time in aviation, but I guess if you haven't done anything wrong, you don't have anything to fear, right?


Ken Dobson, a retired police officer, said he received quite a welcome when he landed his single-engine Cessna in Detroit two days after leaving his home in Palm Desert.

Five sheriff's cars surrounded the plane and deputies got out with guns drawn. Then a helicopter arrived with four federal agents and a drug-sniffing dog.

They demanded to see Dobson's pilot's license, asked about the flight and mentioned that his long trip from Southern California was suspicious.

Fearing he would lose his flight credentials if he didn't cooperate, Dobson consented to a search of his plane. But instead of uncovering a trophy-shot cache of pot or cocaine, the officers found luggage, golf clubs and an empty Thermos.

"To investigate an innocuous concern like my flight was mystifying to me," said Dobson, who flew to Detroit to visit relatives. "My wife and I travel long distances in our car to Michigan. That alone does not give the police the right to stop me, question me and search my car."

Dobson's Cessna was picked up by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection tracking system in Riverside that uses an extensive radar network to monitor flights across the nation.

Casting such a wide net has helped authorities apprehend dozens of drug smugglers. But the operation also is snaring many more law-abiding private pilots, who say federal officers working with local police are detaining them and searching their planes without legal justification.

The situation has attracted the attention of national organizations that represent about 570,000 pilots and 10,000 aviation-related businesses. Between them, the groups have logged complaints from 50 to 70 pilots whose flights were entirely within the U.S. All were let go, some with apologies.

Those pilots included business owners, retirees, a real estate financier who was detained twice in one trip, a university professor whose car — after leaving an airport — was surrounded by dozens of officers. Even retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Hank Canterbury was tracked.

Canterbury, a fighter pilot in Vietnam who now lives in Arizona, said he was stunned to learn that federal officers had inquired about him at a Texas airport where he landed.

During the last three years and five months ending in February, the tracking operation investigated 1,375 flights. Of those, authorities intercepted 212 at airports and made 39 drug-related arrests. An additional eight were referred to the Federal Aviation Administration for possible regulatory enforcement.

Officials of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. have taken their concerns to members of Congress, including Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.). Wanting to ensure that federal law enforcement is complying with constitutional protections against unwarranted searches and seizures, they have asked Customs and Border Protection for an explanation.

"There is no evidence of any criminal activity in the AOPA incidents," Graves said. "If law enforcement is screwing this up, they have done a huge disservice to the public. An erratic flight, a long flight or not filing a flight plan is not probable cause" to stop pilots.

Customs and Border Protection officials defend their tracking operation, saying it plays an important role in the war on drugs and protecting national security, especially since 9/11.


I do have two 'heavy' stories to pick from today, but I find the transition to be far too jarring - I'll save those for another time. Instead, I'll leave you with this one...and no commentary other than this. "Remember folks, these are our allies."


ISLAMABAD — Most didn't notice the new library at this Islamic seminary for girls near Pakistan's capital, until locals saw the paper sign in Urdu posted on its wooden door: "Library of Osama bin Laden, the Martyr."

Cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz, a radical preacher who runs the Jamia Hafsa madrassa, wanted to honor the memory of the al-Qaida leader, killed in a May 2011 raid by U.S. Navy SEALs on his hiding place in Abbottabad, a garrison town about 75 miles north of the capital, Islamabad.

But while the library's name has garnered attention across Pakistan, a country where public opinion remains strongly anti-American and religious students today still idolize the man behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks, his image increasingly has faded from public view in recent years. As Pakistan has seen thousands killed in its own war against its local Taliban, a public that once named its own children after the Saudi millionaire has grown increasingly angry with militant violence.

Pictures of bin Laden and stores bearing his name once dotted the countryside of Pakistan, where U.S. drone strikes against militants have grown increasingly unpopular over civilian casualties. Islamists held small rallies across Pakistan after the raid to denounce his killing, which embarrassed the country's military for not detecting it. The slain al-Qaida chief is still regarded as a hero by most students at Islamic schools, or madrassas.

But this image spread as a symbol in part because at the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, many supported the Taliban there. But since there were no images of its leader, Mullah Omar, they adopted the bearded images of bin Laden instead.

As Pakistani authorities began arresting Taliban leaders and associates of bin Laden, the public grew increasingly scared about showing his image. Those that remained up slowly faded away in the sun or washed away in torrential, seasonal rains.

Aziz's naming of the library is the first public remembrance of bin Laden in some time, capturing the attention of local media. For Aziz, bin Laden is an icon, the cleric's spokesman Tehsin Ullah said Friday.

"Aziz thinks that Osama bin Laden is a hero and he is a martyr and that is why he selected Osama bin Laden's name for the library," Ullah said.


April vacation continues - Javi has an appointment this morning, and then we'll be puttering around the house today. I'll be around later.
 

28 comments (Latest Comment: 04/23/2014 02:03:15 by wickedpam)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati