Thursday, September 27, 2018

Squadron Property And Cultural Rubicons
















Vietnam was a helicopter war. Amidst the slow-rolling serial trainwreck that was most of the US participation in the Southeast Asian Wargames of 1965-1975, we had a plethora of helicopter squadrons deployed to the Republic of Viet Nam (for Common Core kids, that would be the southern one at the time), and as is liable to happen during such a war, a number of them were battle damaged. Many of them shot to pieces, hauled out, and reconditioned even after being 100% inoperable, to the point that we lost more helicopters in that war than the total we ever built, as some hulks were pieced and patched together multiple times after total loss. And the rest were salvaged for parts.

The apocryphal tale is told of one such repaired helicopter. As a standard procedure, once one puts a non-salvageable airframe back into service, by dint of some hellaciously skilled and dedicated airframe and powerplant mechanics in-country, it was a regulation that the resurrected bird be test-flown to demonstrate airworthiness and safety of operation. War is harsh, but seldom deliberately stupid, at least at the operational level. So it was under these parameters that one such salvaged bird was being test flown.

Given that most of the bases were in the coastal country, and most of the enemy main forces were inland, the best place to test-fly a helicopter and minimize getting it all shot to bits again was out over the South China Sea. This is a double-edged sword, but generally provided benefits that overrode the obvious drawback. Mostly.

But for the pilots and crew of one such helicopter, the law of averages caught up to them, and the helicopter, being test-flown well out over the ocean, disappeared without a trace. No mayday, no clue, just a helo and several souls gone, amidst a war that was eating both like a ravenous beast.

Enter the flexible and utilitarian morals and institutional larceny that allows the best-run military machines to cope with the insanity of war. Because a squadron, roughly comparable in size to an infantry battalion, is several hundred men, and even at 1960s prices, multiple millions of dollars worth of machines, tools, parts, equipment, and miscellany, from nuts and bolts to aircraft engines, and everything in between. Canteens, machine guns, flak jackets, toilet seats, high explosive ordnance, and everything else you can imagine, and a million things you cannot, in quantities normally only encountered at a Wal-Mart or Target store, or aboard a 100-car freight train.

And not to put the point too finely, 8000 miles away from home, in a war zone where things were destroyed daily by tons of bombs, rockets, mines, shells, bullets, and of course, the finest pilfering skills of one of the most thriving black market economies of all time. Anything not guarded 24/7 would disappear in minutes in Vietnam, up to and including entire aircraft and other major end-user items. (Think things like APCs, tanks, artillery pieces, jeeps, etc.)

And senior NCOs and junior officers are responsible for all that stuff, as well as every commanding officer having to personally sign for and accept responsibility for everything down to the last door knob and belt buckle. Which, amidst such widespread theft and combat destruction, was sheer insanity coupled with practical impossibility.

Until the helicopter went missing.

Because after a dutiful search for survivors yielded nothing whatsoever, a report had to be filed, and items accounted for. Whereupon some shifty but brilliant NCO or senior NCO pointed out to a junior officer that it would be rather convenient to cover for all the tons of things blown up, stolen, lost, pilfered, etc., to just include them on the manifest and equipment carried on that now gone-forever helicopter.

And so, in rapid order, every crew chief, maintenance shop, and officer from warrant to XO certified, in detail, the manifest of tools, spare parts, and military miscellany that had been aboard the doomed flight, and the CO signed off on it, immediately bringing the reality of property on hand into line with what was actually able to be found, touched, and wielded by that squadron.

This boon to military accounting had, of course, the obvious flaw.
Someone higher up in the hierarchy, presented with the dozens of pages of missing gear on the missing aircraft, did some napkin math, and observed deftly that the weight of the missing items would be roughly twenty times the maximum lifting capacity of the helicopter in question, and the only way a craft actually so burdened could have achieved aerial flight was if someone had detonated an explosive device under the skids in the mid-teen kiloton range. Otherwise, it would have been like trying to get an elephant off the ground using a pair of hummingbird wings.

But the military being the military, no one wanted to rock the boat, and so the obviously fraudulent work of fiction was funneled right back to the gaping maw of Pentagon reports, where it disappeared like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and the cosmic scales were in balance.

I bring that story up, because with the daily Clown Carnucopia of Fail that is the Noah's Ark of counterfeit accusers of Judge Kavanaugh, and the growing scale of recockulousness that they spiral into with each new fakenews "J'accuse!", it's only a matter of time before some cold-case weenie, or weenies, realize the golden opportunity this circus provides.

Judge Kavanaugh is about to find himself blamed for the Black Plague, the Chicago Fire, the Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Great Depression, being D.B. Cooper, causing Three Mile Island, Apollo XIII, the Exxon Valdez, turkey burgers, and the designated hitter rule. Then Interpol will pile on and tag him for annexing the Sudetenland, the Jack the Ripper murders, Vesuvius consuming Pompeii, setting Rome ablaze during Nero's reign, putting three seconds back on the clock in the 1972 Summer Olympics basketball finals, and the continued high regard in France for the films of Jerry Lewis. They may even drag the pope into this, and blame him for publishing Galileo's Dialogue, reconvening the Inquisition, and burning Kavanaugh at the stake for rank heresy. At this point, it's all simply the next logical step.

The serial lunacy of vague, obviously fabricated, and totally preposterous stories coming out hasn't merely jumped the shark; they passed jumping some days back, and are now strapping JATO bottles on that bitch, and trying to traverse the Grand Canyon, lengthwise, or possibly skipping straight to a low earth orbit.

And it would simply be desperate farce, except for the actual toxic and corrosive damage these asstards are doing to the country. Senators with the IQ of houseplants are literally setting the Constitution on fire in pursuit of a momentary partisan advantage. The only step lower than this is actual open hostilities.

They've finally gone full-on Captain Ahab barking lunatic batshit crazy, in their ceaseless pursuit of overturning an election whose simple reality they cannot rationally process.

"And he piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his heart's hot shell upon it." - Herman Melville, Moby Dick
They have casually trashed the sterling reputation of a sitting judge on the DC Court of Appeals, on the word of drunks, whores, and psychotic sociopaths (besides the former who are already in the Senate itself). After more than half a century of looking the other way at philandering, murder, and a presidential rapist and serial sexual predator while on duty in the West Wing, they have decided that only now, lacking anything else to try to stop the president from executing the duties of his office and filling a Supreme Court vacancy, this is the time to go all-in on gutting eight centuries of jurisprudence in place since Magna Carta, and doing it overnight.

There are at least four sitting senators who should not simply be censured, they should be impeached for breach of oath, and kicked right the f**k out of the Congress, and then prosecuted to maximum extent of civil and criminal law. So too the slanderous accusers in this ongoing epic charade.

And worst of all, they've happily set lying whores, and their baseless allegations, above the actual damage done to the nominee's family, a wife and two daughters, and irreparably harmed the cause of women who've suffered actual assaults, by reducing them all to the same calculus, in tarring them all with same presumption that every allegation is just a cheap stunt for political gain. And the defective delusional leftard harpies of the chorus, who couldn't get laid at a nerd conference even if their tits were Xbox controllers, are happy to sell their shriveled carbonized souls for the merest whiff of a chance to derail a slam-dunk SCOTUS nominee who doesn't share their beliefs in the disposability of unborn babies, whose antics can provide them the fifteen minutes of fame they treasure above actual accomplishment, and the attention they could never get from a lifetime of fatherless upbringings.

We're witnessing the destruction of the entire rule of law to salve the tortured psychoses of sluts with daddy issues, and to pander to their impotent ravings.

The only way this stops is to stop catering to it, and failing that due to a surplus of invertebrate RINOs, this is going to be rectified in the traditional manner.

When a man's reputation is sullied so casually, it ends with someone's teeth on the pavement, or a bullet hole in their liver on the dueling field.
Dulce et decorum est.

When you try to do the same thing to half of society, expecting it'll stop anywhere short of heads on pikes is a pipe dream. And I'm not speaking metaphorically in the slightest.

Because this is no longer just about Kavanaugh and his confirmation, though even Bitch McConjob finally seems to have found his voice - and spine - over this latest outrage.
This effort is nothing less than the permanent Othering of the entire species of soy-free meat-eating conservative males.

This is the Left finally working themselves up to the frenzy of a Kristallnacht.

And there's only one answer to that sort of cultural jihad:
Challenge accepted.

We wanted fair play.
The moonbats want to play Cowboys and Leftards.

As Timothy Turtle told Harry Reid when the Senate dropped the bomb on cloture by simple majority:
"You're going to regret this. And soon."

45 comments:

MMinWA said...

I keep wondering what the spark will be, what will it'll take? Every new low is only temporary. I spent 45 minutes reading BB's story this AM and it's grown even larger since I went to bed last night. WTF?

I always think of that great scene in Mr Majestik when Bronson nails the bad guy in the bar while saying, Well there's no use trying to get on your good side.

The sooner this sinks in, the sooner all of this horseshit stops.

Phil said...

The End Game will be here shortly at this point.

trickworm said...

The Time cometh soon. Madame Dufarge has knitted her ass off. And some of us have nothing left to lose. Not a damn thing.

robins111 said...

Well said, good article.

Nemo said...

The backlash over this shit storm come November is going to be epic. As you stated in your last line, "You're going to regret this. And soon."

Anonymous said...

Wait till Ruth Ginsburg kicks the bucket. The leftist will be dragging her corpse around like the movie, a weekend at Bernies, rather then let trump get another pick. We could actually see something like the Monty Python skit with the dead parrot!

Roger said...

The really bad part of this debacle is yet to come. If Kavenaugh is voted into the SC, the riots, demonstrations, marches, screeching, and violence from the left will be epic.
If he, in total disgust, withdraws his name or loses the vote, the left will have won.
Won a victory with the battlefield destroyed, kind of like Dresden.
The terrible damage, our country ripped apart, in the crazed lunge for power by ideologues.
Either way, this country will be facing a situation similar to the leadup to the civil war. May God have mercy upon us.

Anonymous said...

"When you try to do the same thing to half of society, expecting it'll stop anywhere short of heads on pikes is a pipe dream. And I'm not speaking metaphorically in the slightest."

There was a story yesterday about an "Instagram Model" who videoed herself pouring "extra strength bleach" on the crotches of men who were man-spreading on the subway.

I'm pretty sure pouring bleach (extra strength or not) on a person is assault and/or battery (I was never clear on the difference) in all 50 states. Meaning the guy, who's probably bigger and stronger than your average female Instagram model, is legally justified in kicking her scrawny ass up between her shoulder blades. And of course the video will helpfully prove that she attacked him before he knocked her on her ass.

Mark D

FiftycalTX said...

The main reason the socialists have picked this hill to die on is they know Kavanaugh will cut the nuts off their anti-gun schemes. He has already written that semi-auto rifles are "in common use" just like semi-auto pistols. So there goes the "assault weapons ban", no mag limit, etc. The leftards know they can't have their socialist utopia as long as us peons are armed.

Aesop said...

@Mark D:
IANAL, but as a rule,
"Assault" is when I cock my fist back, and/or say "I'm going to punch your face".
(threat, plus means of carrying it out)
"Battery" is when my knuckles actually make contact with your nose.
(doing it)

In most jurisdictions, they are treated as one and the same, unless you use weapons, or cause mayhem (depriving someone of body parts, like eyes, teeth, limbs, etc.).

Pouring bleach on someone would be chemical battery i.e. the aggravated type, and if splashed into the eyes, would also be mayhem.
If it was a drug cartel or jihad action, it would also garner domestic terrorism counts from the federal criminal code.

See if you can guess what sort of patient I took care of just last week.

Badger said...

"See if you can guess what sort of patient I took care of just last week."

Given your environs, I'll take narco-related retribution by acid in the face for $200, Alex.

Anonymous said...

@Aesop: My point stands though, pouring bleach on someone is grounds for an ass-kicking of Biblical proportions. P***y-pass notwithstanding. Yeah, my Mommy and Daddy taught me not to hit girls, but still....

Mark D

A Texan said...

@Mark D and @ Aesop:

Aesop has the correct definitions of assault and battery. Assault is making someone reasonably fear that you are about to batter them, by making credible motions and/or speaking credible words (all of the previous depending upon facts and circumstances, of course) that create such reasonable fear. BOTH are crimes, which is why "assault and battery" are usually grouped together (battery almost always follows some kind of assault - it is rare for someone to just cold cock you for no reason, and with no build-up, though it sometimes happens). FYI, don't EVER listen to a TV show or made-for-TV show when trying to find out the proper definition of a word, phrase or concept in the law...they miss or intentionally mislead about 99.5% of the time.

Anonymous said...

I once saw an anvil written off as going down a drain during a flooding episode.

Anonymous said...

When the 82d jumped into Panama, a heavy drop HMMWV was let go to soon and dropped into the ocean. You wouldn't believe how much crap just happened to be on that cargo truck when the Report of Survey was done.....LOL.

Aesop said...

Good ideas never go out of style.

William said...

Well damn. Just remember... "Help those you can, kill whom you must", but things MUST be set right.
As Ben said, "a republic, if you can keep it". What has become the democratic party must be wiped away by the hand of GOD if the republic of to survive.

Anonymous said...

There are many like me too old to take to the streets but still with the fire of a traditional life in our hearts. I believe, we believe that the union should not be torn asunder and will defend ourselves and our union. So here I sit and wait as I know that it will come to me. Age makes you unafraid, I have lived my life being able to look in the mirror and knowing with great assurance that I am what I wanted to be and no one gave it to me and we as a group did not want it given to us. I gave back like most around me to make this country a better place. So let the fools come at me with their stupid anger and rage because I will not go quietly to face the Lord.

Jim Scrummy said...

My cousin who did Army Aviator training in the mid-80's flew many of the Viet Nam era UH-1's at Fort Rucker. He said most of the birds were okay, but a few he flew during training had plenty of old bullet holes still recognizable, even though repaired. His nickname for the UH-1's were pigboats. He was then trained the fly the AH-1S, which he LOVED to fly. He's now a fixed wing jockey carting around the brass, still doing the thing he loves to do, fly.

After today's commie debacle, if the commies ever get into power (they will), CWIII is gonna be lit AF! Rwanda, Bosnia, The troubles, Spanish CW and even our own "little squabble" of 150+ years ago are all going to seem like a nice summer picnic. Appomattox isn't happening this time. Just my 2 pennies. Don't forget to PT...

Anonymous said...

WOW, Anon!

" So let the fools come at me with their stupid anger and rage because I will not go quietly to face the Lord."

Could not have said it better myself in my 74 years on God's Green Earth. We ain't afraid of dyin' one bit! If they want a piece of us, let 'em try. The more fool they. We ain't playin'.

Alaska Paul said...

The Left has decided to neutralize the election of President Trump by any means necessary, and they have been putting forward a serious effort. Doing this effort, they have decided to ignore laws and basic common civility. The majority of people are law abiding, hard working people. It takes a lot to get these people to rise up in anger. However, the Left, by performing their precious Alinsky handiwork, and defying the laws that keep a thin veneer of civilization alive, will be subject to the tipping point of the law abiding deplorables that they hate so much. One side ignores the laws, then it's good for the other side. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. The Left has just become legitimate targets. I do not want to see it, but given the Left's behaviors, it will come with a vengeance. Don't tickle the dragon's tail, it is not good for your health. History shows this.

Stealth Spaniel said...

Oh Aesop! You really are the titanium edge on the Ax of Fortune. Always enjoy your take. I was so overwhelmed by the Goodness I saw in Kavanaugh, when he came out swinging, that I almost wept. I have sent DiFinasty, and Up-my-meds Pelosi and Kamala the Bed Slider all an email to CONFIRM KAVANAUGH. Not that they will, but I promised each to vote for AnybodyElse on the roster of non choices in Kommiefornia. So, if it's a choice between DiFinasty and a gay multicolor Islamic Terrorist-then rainbows here I come!! I've been waiting for somebody-any body-to say BFYTW for a long time.

Wendy (KekistanTrans) said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCZOw05L7JA&feature=youtu.be

grey said...

that is a good post, anonymous. A little sad and poetic and also firm.

Anonymous said...

Dylan Thomas wrote a poem which may be relevant here ...

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night

Phil B

Wendy (KekistanTrans) said...

Of course the equivalent of writing off all the lost, missing and stolen gear using the helicopter that went down in the ocean as an excuse is that when the Big ShitStorm finally happens people will then take that opportunity to settle ALL of their accounts...

Popular Front said...

Robert Mason's excellent book 'Chickenhawk' about Air Cav activities during the early VN war years details about a Huey that vanished on a routine supply op. Supply sergeants in every unit immediately listed their missing stores as being cargo on that chopper, so much so that it would have taken a C-5 to lift them all. Good old Huey, what a champion!

Longbow said...

I was thinking the same thing. When Ruth Buzzy kicks the bucket, and it'll be soon, there will be a rain of fire and brimstone unseen since the days of Pharo.

oughtsix said...

# Me Also

76 very soon. A full life, a good death opposing Evil. What more can a Man hope for?

Anonymous said...

Let 'em have their demonstrations, marches, and screeching - just keep it peaceful and don't directly antagonize anyone on the right. If they do, and they will, put two rounds center of mass and one round in the head.

pyrrhus said...

No, that's the good part....

Anonymous said...

I believe that the left screwed the pooch with their antics on the confirmation. Before this display of vial hatred they had a good chance of retaking the house and causing more trouble. Nemo's read is like mine that the turn out in a couple of weeks will be large and a second wake up.

Remember, you are not under any oath to tell the phone pollsters the truth. Let them assume that the numbers they give their masters, favors their chosen candidate. (Use their own tactics of lies and deceit against them.)

Scurvy

Anonymous said...

the video has been removed. damnit.

Jack said...

I think this sould sister would probably agree w/ your conclusion.
https://twitter.com/ShemekaMichelle/status/1045410910049841153

Rebel Conservative said...

The problem I have is everyone is still sitting around until the next act of vile behavior by the Left. It's time for the Decent People of this country to settle the matter, and I don't mean peacefully.

Anonymous said...

I have thought for some time that reasonable folks will awaken from their slumber and take notice of the antics of those on the left; Antifa, democrats in general and their associated acolytes in the major media/entertainment complex. I'm looking at you Hollywood, The View and others too numerous to count.

However, it now seems that most folks don't want to accept the terms of this cultural war for the soul of our great country. If something is worth defending, then defend that thing I say. By any means necessary. We frequently see and hear about folks being attacked and accosted in public (Sen. Flakey at the elevator comes to mind as well as Sen. Cruz) so I'm here to say fight fire with fire. You hurt one of ours, we hurt ten of yours.

We have many combat veterans in this country that identify as conservative. Most go about their lives and bother no one. However, when riled sufficiently and when they receive a call to arms, I suspect many will want to engage. I will be among them.

Anonymous said...

While I agree with your take about the tactics of the left and how dangerous they are, I'd still prefer not to see this swamp creature seated as a judge. These allegations sound like bullshit to me, and I'd hate to see he left get any kind of of perceived victory out of this, I agree with Judge Napolitano about this guy. Unless you really hope/think this can lead to an overturning of Roe vs Wade (unlikely, IMO) there really isn't any other reason to want this guy on the USSC. I'm not a fan of the USA PATRIOT Act, to say the least. Kavanaugh helped craft it, and has issued opinions stating that he thinks the president has nearly unlimited powers over us, and the rest of the planet, regardless of what the constitution says, dead letter though it may be.

You guys may be comfortable with Trump having that kind of power, but I'm not. I don't think anyone should have it. And even if you are comfortable with Trump having it, just remember, it won't always be Trump wielding it.

Aesop said...

If you want different justices, elect a different president.

Nobody's arguing in favor of the Patriot Act, and you're foolishly assuming that what he wrote as a lawyer is also exactly how he'll rule as a judge.

Go back and look at SCOTUS picks in the last 100 years, and try and make that case.
Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

I thought it would be more like the Bolsheviks. They would simply mummify her , like Lenin, and put her on permanent display in the SCOTUS and just deny the seat was open.

Anonymous said...

"but a few he flew during training had plenty of old bullet holes still recognizable"
that would be something to remember, since Huey's were so cheap, repairable (as in cannibalization) and transferable to the ARVN as "aid" that none of them were shipped back to the States. They literally weren't worth the time and mat'l required to break down, preserve, package and ship back. Not saying they didn't have holes in them but from my experience not likely to be NVA.

Phil said...

I can still remember watching them push them over the side into the drink during the evac of Saigon on television as a kid.

Anonymous said...

This is a compelling argument. I disagree about the Roe v Wade part in that, once the Interminable Global Collective is established the eugenics program wouldn't require any such haphazard mechanisms. The real threat of Kavanaugh to the IGC is the 2nd A. as an individual right. But maybe that's just a minor point. Better to just not fill the seat than not get it perfect. I'm sure Prez K. Harris has a solid list of candidates much more worthy of the seat. Sarcasm aside, I'm not interested in holding my breath until GYSGT Jesus Christ gets vetted (not likely since he hung out with a known prostitute).

"Better is the enemy of good enough."

I am not trying to give offense but at the moment the righteous are playing defense against a take-no-prisoners offense and if we lose the battle today the odds going into tomorrows battle will, I repeat, will be greater and eventually, sooner rather than later, it will become literally take-no-prisoners. The fight is upon us. Do we cede the ground merely because the instrument is imperfect? It's like Adm. Nimitz restricting the U.S. sub fleet to protecting West Coast harbors because our torpedoes were no match for the Japanese Long-Lance. Use what is at hand, and make it count.

Nohbody said...

Regarding the woman pouring bleach on the crotches of "manspreaders", she's doing that in Russia, not the US.

You know, where vodka flows freely, and they don't have quite as firm a commitment to "rule of law" or the like.

Anonymous said...

The spark, you ask?

I don't pretend to know the outcome of the upcoming November elections, but it's EXACTLY stuff like this which resulted in Trump being elected.

If we think the Kavanaugh debacle is an excrement storm, just imagine what it'll be like of the "Big Blue Wave" crests red in November instead...and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's health takes a nose dive.

Aesop said...

They may not wait to go Peak Progtard. They may start freaking out if Kavanaugh gets confirmed ahead of the elections. If they get stuffed in November too, it'll be 2016 flashbacks.