Frightening Boeing 747 Approach

Here's some food for thought the next time you're flying on an airline. It's a phenomenal video of a KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Boeing 747 on short final to land at St. Maarten. The aircraft crosses the shoreline at about 10 feet and just misses the heads of swimmers. It, then, misses a car by inches and crosses an airport boundary fence so close the wheels appear to touch it. You don't get any closer to disaster than this! Click on the link below to view the video.

Low Flying 747

[Video courtesy of Military.com]

To Kill an American

Recently, there was a report that a newspaper in Pakistan had published an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American. An Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they found one. Read his editorial, below.

To Kill an American
Written by an Australian Dentist

An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.

An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navajo, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never as king or for a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country! As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

Americans welcome the best of everything...the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least. The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes "your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed". These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so, you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

[My thanks to Charlotte Kalamar for this post]

Priceless

This one is self explanatory. The caption says:
American Flag: $25
Gasoline: $2
Cigarette Lighter: $2.50
Catching yourself on fire because you're a terrorist asshole: PRICELESS!


[My thanks to Tom Sherba for forwarding this to me]

Motivation Posters

A friend sent me some motivation posters (military style) that I found quite entertaining. They show a sense of humor and optimism that I have only experienced in and around military folks. To view them, click the link below.

Motivation Posters

[My thanks to Greg Thew for forwarding this to me]

Personal Identity Precautions

The compromise of personal identities occurs daily. We have all heard the nightmares that some have endured after their personal identities were stolen by unscrupulous individuals. Their credit ratings were trashed; they were responsible for thousands of dollars of incurred debt; and it took years, as well as thousands of dollars of legal fees, to correct.

The following rules of thumb for protection from the compromise of your personal information are worth your consideration.

PREVENTION:

1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED".

2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

3. Put your work phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO box, use your work address. Never have your Social Security number printed on your checks . You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

4. Get photocopies of all the contents of your wallet. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when you travel at home or abroad.

CORRECTION (What to do after a compromise):

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know who to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

3. Most importantly, call the three national credit reporting agencies immediately to place a fraud alert on your name, and also call the Social Security fraud line number. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

NATIONAL CREDIT AGENCY PHONE NUMBERS:

1. Equifax: 800-525-6285
2. Experian (formerly TRW): 888-397-3742
3. Trans Union: 800-6807289
4. Social Security Administration (fraud line): 800-269-0271

[My thanks to Edna Oeth for this information]

The Greatest Baseball Play Ever

On April 25th, 1976, at Dodger Stadium, Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs made an unusual play that was hailed by many to be the "greatest baseball play ever". It would, later, become one of the "one hundred top moments in baseball history". Watch this amazing video. Click on the link, below.

Greatest Baseball Play Ever

[My thanks to Lynn Hill for forwarding me this video]

B-29 and Bell X-1 Reenactment

Radio controlled model airplane enthusiasts have been pushing the envelope for years, making their models larger, more complex and more realistic. Additionally, it takes great skill to "fly" these models. This video shows model airplanes reenacting the flight of the Bell X-1. Chuck Yeager "broke the sound barrier" in this aircraft. You may remember that X-series aircraft were launched from the wings of B-29s. If you love aviation, this video is a must see! Click the link, below.

B-29 and Bell X-1 Video

[My thanks to George and Sharon Horetski for this video]

Humor: Patton Mideast Solution

A recent comedy video appeared on MSNBC which featured the late General George S. Patton describing his solution to the war in Iraq and problems in the Middle East. I found this video very humorous. I hope you do, too. Click on the link, below, or on the right.

General Patton Mideast Solution

David Copperfield: The Greatest Magician

David Copperfield has been universally hailed as the greatest magician of our time. He may be the greatest magician of all time. Check out the links, below.

David Copperfield Can Fly

David Copperfield's Laser Illusion

America Attacked (revisited)

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, our entire nation united with powerful resolve to get the perpetrators and to ensure an attack against Americans on our soil would never happen again.

Do you remember the battle cry, "Never Forget!"? Tragically, that unity was short lived. What happened? Where is the horror, the anger and the drive we had? We are fighting among ourselves and telling the world we do not have the character to remain as one to defend ourselves. We are still in great peril.

The terrorists are still out there and among us, here, where we live. It is imperative that we remember the events of 9/11 to regain our unity and resolve. Below is is a powerful tribute that was published shortly after 9/11. Click on the link,"America Attacked", below, to view this tribute. Be sure your audio is on.

America Attacked

Celebrity Recounts Flight in Fighter

Below is an article written by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated. He details his experiences when given the opportunity to fly in an F-14 Tomcat. This article is a humorous read for anyone, but is a riot for any of us that flew fighters.

Now, this message is for “America's most famous” athletes:

Someday you may be invited to fly in the back-seat of one of your country's most powerful fighter jets. Many of you already have. John Elway, John Stockton, Tiger Woods to name a few. If you get this opportunity, let me urge you, with the greatest sincerity...

Move to Guam.

Change your name.
Fake your own death!
Whatever you do.

Do Not Go!!!

I know. The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was pumped. I was toast! I should've known when they told me my pilot would be Chip (Biff) King of Fighter Squadron 213 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.

Whatever you're thinking a Top Gun named Chip (Biff) King looks like, triple it. He's about six-foot, tan, ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair, finger-crippling handshake -- the kind of man who wrestles dyspeptic alligators in his leisure time. If you see this man, run the other way. Fast.

Biff King was born to fly. His father, Jack King, was for years the voice of NASA missions. ("T-minus 15 seconds and counting ..." Remember?) Chip would charge neighborhood kids a quarter each to hear his dad. Jack would wake up from naps surrounded by nine-year-olds waiting for him to say, "We have a liftoff".

Biff was to fly me in an F-14D Tomcat, a ridiculously powerful $60 million weapon with nearly as much thrust as weight, not unlike Colin Montgomerie. I was worried about getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked Biff if there was something I should eat the next morning.

"Bananas," he said

"For the potassium?" I asked.

"No," Biff said, "because they taste about the same coming up as they do going down."

The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had on my flight suit with my name sewn over the left breast. (No call sign -- like Crash or Sticky or Leadfoot .. But, still, very cool.) I carried my helmet in the crook of my arm, as Biff had instructed. If ever in my life I had a chance to nail Nicole Kidman, this was it.

A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then fastened me into my ejection seat, which, when employed, would "egress" me out of the plane at such a velocity that I would be immediately knocked unconscious.

Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight, the canopy closed over me, and Biff gave the ground crew a thumbs-up. In minutes we were firing nose up at 600 mph. We leveled out and then canopy-rolled over another F-14.

Those 20 minutes were the rush of my life. Unfortunately, the ride lasted 80. It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. Only without rails. We did barrel rolls, snap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We dived, rose and dived again, sometimes with a vertical velocity of 10,000 feet per minute. We chased another F-14, and it chased us.

We broke the speed of sound. Sea was sky and sky was sea. Flying at 200 feet we did 90-degree turns at 550 mph , creating a G force of 6.5, which is to say I felt as if 6.5 times my body weight was smashing against me, thereby approximating life as Mrs. Colin Montgomerie.

And I egressed the bananas.

And I egressed the pizza from the night before.

And the lunch before that.

I egressed a box of Milk Duds from the sixth grade.

I made Linda Blair look polite. Because of the G's, I was egressing stuff that never thought would be egressed.

I went through not one airsick bag, but two.

Biff said I passed out. Twice. I was coated in sweat. At one point, as we were coming in upside down in a banked curve on a mock bombing target and the G's were flattening me like a tortilla and I was in and out of consciousness, I realized I was the first person in history to throw down.

I used to know 'cool'. Cool was Elway throwing a touchdown pass, or Norman making a five-iron bite. But now I really know 'cool'. Cool is guys like Biff, men with cast-iron stomachs and freon nerves. I wouldn't go up there again for Derek Jeter's black book, but I'm glad Biff does every day, and for less a year than a rookie reliever makes in a home stand.

A week later, when the spins finally stopped, Biff called. He said he and the fighters had the perfect call sign for me. Said he'd send it on a patch for my flight suit.

What is it? I asked.

"Two Bags" .

[My thanks to Zak & Candy Ali for this article]

Shooting a Wounded Terrorist: A Marine Responds

The news media as well as some Americans have been highly critical of the shooting of a wounded terrorist by a Marine in Iraq. Below, an unidentified Marine responds. He shows an intelligence and grasp of the obvious that the press and some of our countrymen lack. This is a must read:

It's a safety issue pure and simple. After assaulting through a target, we put a security round in everybody's head. Sorry al-Reuters, there's no paddy wagon rolling around Fallujah picking up "prisoners" and offering them a hot cup a joe, falafel, and a blanket. There's no time to dick around on the target. You clear the space, dump the chumps, and moveon.org. Are Corpsman expected to treat wounded terrorists? Negative. Hey libs, worried about the defense budget? Well, it would be waste, fraud, and abuse for a Corpsman to expend one man-minute or a battle dressing on a terrorist. It’s much cheaper to just spend the $.02 on a 5.56mm FMJ. By the way, in our view, terrorists who chop off civilian's heads are not prisoners, they are carcasses. Chopping off a civilian's head is another reason why these idiots are known as "unlawful combatants". It seems that most of the world's journalists have forgotten that fact. Let me be very clear about this issue. I have looked around the web, and many people get this concept, but there are some stragglers. Here is your situation Marine: You just took fire from unlawful combatants (no uniform - breaking every Geneva Convention rule there is) shooting from a religious building attempting to use the sanctuary status of their position as protection. But you're in Fallujah now, and the Marine Corps has decided that they're not playing that game this time. That was Najaf. So you set the mosque on fire and you hose down the terrorists with small arms, launch some AT-4s (Rockets), some 40MM grenades into the building and things quiet down. So you run over there, and find some tangos (bad guys) wounded and pretending to be dead. You are aware that suicide martyrdom is like really popular with these idiots, and they think taking some Marines with them would be really cool. So you can either risk your life and your fire team's lives by having them cover you while you bend down and search a guy that you think is pretending to be dead for some reason. Most of the time these are the guys with the grenade or vest made of explosives. Also, you don't know who or what is in the next room. You’re already speaking English to the rest of your fire team or squad which lets the terrorist know you are there and you are his enemy. You are speaking loud because your hearing is poor from shooting people for several days. So you know that there are many other rooms to enter, and that if anyone is still alive in those rooms, they know that Americans are in the mosque. Meanwhile (3 seconds later), you still have this terrorist (that was just shooting at you from a mosque) playing possum. What do you do? You double tap his head, and you go to the next room, that's what!!!

What about the Geneva Convention and all that Law of Land Warfare stuff? What about it. Without even addressing the issues at hand, your first thought should be, "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6."

Bear in mind that this tactic of double tapping a fallen terrorist is a perpetual mind set that is reinforced by experience on a minute by minute basis. Secondly, you are fighting an unlawful combatant in a Sanctuary, which is a double No-No on his part. Third, tactically you are in no position to take "prisoners" because there are more rooms to search and clear, and the behavior of said terrorist indicates that he is up to no good. No good in Fallujah is a very large place and the low end of no good and the high end of no good are fundamentally the same... Marines end up getting hurt or die. So there is no compelling reason for you to do anything but double tap this idiot and get on with the mission. If you are a veteran, then everything I have just written is self evident.

If you are not a veteran, then at least try to put yourself in the situation. Remember, in Fallujah there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only now. Right NOW. Have you ever lived in NOW for a week? It is really, really not easy. If you have never lived in NOW for longer than it takes to finish the big roller coaster at Six Flags, then shut your hole about putting Marines in jail for "War Crimes".

[My Thanks to Tom Nick for this article]

The American Spirit: One Hero's Story

It has been said that America has lost its character; that it no longer has the stomach to stand up and fight for what it believes in; that there are no more heroes willing to put it all on the line to defend the masses back at home. Here is a story about one man who proves that theory wrong. He is one of hundreds who are putting their lives on the line, daily, to prevent Iraq from becoming a breeding pool for the terrorists that would perpetrate their hatred on us. Yes, America is still a nation of character and heroes willing to stay the course and finish the job. Read on:

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep and 8ft wide crater.

The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7-inch knife to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."

Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet "A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down."

His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down," says Sgt Burghardt. "I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' "As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher." He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. "I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week'."

Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

[My thanks to Rick Douglas (USAFA '75) for this article]

Who Killed the Electric Car?

During the past ten years, General Motors (GM) tested an electric motor hybrid car that used an advanced NiMH battery. The battery could power the car up to 80 mph for 120 miles before resorting to an efficient backup gasoline or diesel generator. It was immensely successful and in great demand.

What happened to this emerging technology that could, potentially, reduce our gasoline usage by 40%? Click on the hyperlink, "Who Killed the Electric Car?", below, and find out how the oil companies along with GM killed it.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

UFO Spotted at O'Hare in Broad Daylight

On 7 November 2006, pilots and ramp workers at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago saw an object hovering over the "C" concourse below the cloud deck in broad daylight. See what they reported and the reactions of airline and airport management, as well as the FAA. What's your take on this incident? What do you believe about UFOs? Post your comments.

To view the video and read the article, click on the link, "UFO Spotted at O'Hare", under the "Just Because" section on the right.