Allen West, R-Florida

Congressman-elect Allen West, a retired U.S. Army officer and combat veteran, will be a leading force in the 112th Congress and a very sharp thorn in the president's side. I'm looking forward to it. Here's a recent interview.

I'm a Georgia Voter!

Felt good to go to the polls today and inflict serious damage on the Democrats.

Persistence Pays Off

Today, after a many a long year of pestering Connie every time a Jos. A. Bank commercial came on TV, I became a customer of Joseph A. Bank.  Several weeks ago, Connie bought me a few shirts from them on-line that, unfortunately, were not the right size.  So we returned them today to the store on Highland Avenue, right here in Augusta.  Walked out with three brand new shirts that fit.  Almost makes me feel like going to work on Monday!

A New Beginning

My life has taken yet another turn.  Effective yesterday, October 25th, I became a Department of the Army civilian employee.  Essentially, I will be doing the same thing I've been doing for the past three years, writing doctrine.  But instead of being in the employ of a contractor--RLM Communications, Inc. for the past year--I will be working for Uncle Sam.  Again.  Should be an adventure.

Why Are We Still Doing This?

So, the Army is sending me to this professional development class to learn about the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System and the Acquisition Life Cycle.  Inspired by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the JCIDS is how the US military plans for and fields new capabilities.  I learned today that it takes about five years from concept to fielded capability, and that this is an improvement over the previous system.  The acquisition thing is a creature of Congress and the military bureaucracies.  Improvement, I'm betting, is not even in its lexicon.

Back in August, I heard General Pete Chiarelli, the Army's Vice Chief of Staff lament the fact that our enemies can field their capabilities a lot faster than we can.  The enemy doesn't have to abide by so many bureaucratic rules.  He doesn't have to worry about environmental policies or ensuring that minority contractors are treated fairly.  Our five year cycle is only three to him.

Now, tell me again why these two quick wars, Afghanistan and Iraq,are still not won going on ten years now?

I Had Dinner with a Very Nice Lady in Asheville, NC

CMH Staring Down the Paparazzi

My bestie.

I Don't Know What I Missed and Neither Do They!

One Disappointed Customer

It's advertised as "the best dang barbeque in these here parts," Farm Boy's Barbeque. Unfortunately, I cannot vouch for that. At least not yet.

You see, ol' Farm Boy's is only open on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.  And yours truly picked Sunday and Monday to pass through those parts, that is, through Columbia, South Carolina on Interstate 26 at Exit #91.

On Sunday, my first pass through, when I was really in a hurry, I figured they were just the kind of folks that don't like to run a business on the Lord's Day.  But on Monday's return trip, when I found the parking lot totally empty once again, I got out and checked their hours of operation.  And what I discovered was that they are actually the kind of folks that don't like to run their business on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, either.

So I'll have to wait until another adventure takes me through those parts before I can verify if what they serve is, indeed, the best dang BBQ around.  I'm thinking that it probably is, because there's an acute care clinic just a block down the road from it!

Good Thinking Music

From the Soundtrack to the movie, Gods and Generals, sung by Mary Fahl



They say there's a place
where dreams have all gone
They never said where
but I think I know
It's miles through the night
just over the dawn
on the road that will take me home

I know in my bones
I've been here before
The ground feels the same
though the land's been torn
I've a long way to go
The stars tell me so
on this road that will take me home

Love waits for me 'round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrows shall find their end
and all our troubles will be gone
And I'll know what I've lost
and all that I've won
when the road finally takes me home

And when I pass by
don't lead me astray
Don't try to stop me
Don't stand in my way
I'm bound for the hills
where cool waters flow
on this road that will take me home

Love waits for me 'round the bend
Leads me endlessly on
Surely sorrows shall find their end
and all our troubles will be gone
And we'll know what we've lost
and all that we've won
when the road finally takes me home

I'm going home
I'm going home
I'm going home

Leonard Slatkin Conducts the BBC Orchestra on September 15, 2001

To me, September 11 is not just a single day to remember and then forget until the next year, like one's birthday, or Columbus Day.  Nor is it a day to just remember what happened, awful as it was.  We should think about that day much more often.  And we should also think about what is still happening.  Because September 11, 2001 was not the start of a conflict.  Neither were the wars that followed it a conclusion.

Ryder Cup

OK, now. We got 'em right where we want 'em!

The 2010 Ryder Cup - The Celtic Manor Resort, City of Newport, Wales

King Archelaeus and Me

While getting a haircut this morning, and trying to ignore the barber's good natured, but tiresome chatter, it occurred to me that something I once read had bearing upon the situation.

Way back in the 5th Century, BC, a king named Archelaeus, of Macedonia, needed a trim.  His barber, talkative like the rest of his profession, asked the king how he would like his hair cut. "In silence," replied the king.

No telling what kind of a haircut I'd have got if I'd tried that one this morning.

Full Spectrum Operations vs. Countinsurgency

Please don't extrapolate from the title of this entry that I am saying that counterinsurgency (COIN) and full spectrum operations are mutually exclusive terms. That's not what I'm saying. It is, however, what a writer from the Los Angeles Times, aided and abetted by a former DOD big-wig and a Colonel on the Army Staff, appears precisely to be saying.

Into the Fire

I start a new job in a couple weeks.  Things could get a little dicey at first.  Not as difficult as what COL Hal Moore faced at the Battle of Ia Drang.  For sure, no one will be shooting at me.  Let's just say that two strategies are about to collide.  Garry Owen!

Abide With Me

Rick Meredith: Teacher, Mentor, Friend

Flag and nameplate outside Rick Meredith's cubicle

Today was his funeral.  A friend whom I've known for only three years died this week.  Taken suddenly ill just the week before, he died Monday afternoon.  He passed away within minutes after I got back to the office from a completing a trip he had assigned to me last month.  It was almost like he wanted to be sure that I got back with no problems.  Last night was the receiving of friends at the funeral home and this afternoon was his funeral.

Defense Department tells service contractors to identify themselves as service contractors -- Defense Systems

Well, here's the link to the article:  Defense Department tells service contractors to identify themselves as service contractors -- Defense Systems.  There's nothing new here.

Puzzling.

I've been a contractor on Fort Gordon for five years and this has always been a requirement.  Maybe it's just the writers of the Federal Acquisition Register catching up with the rest of the contracting world.  Hard to say.  But it should be noted that at every single military/industrial conference I've attended I hear from multiple sources that the DOD's acquisition system is broken.  This article confirms that.

Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures

Today I was asked by some very influential people to define three common doctrinal terms:  tactics, techniques, and procedures.  Bear in mind that I am, by profession, a doctrine writer.  For three years I've had these words and their proper definitions pinned to one of the inner walls of my cubicle.

(Now, cue the sound of a crash and burn).

Gabriel's Oboe: After a Thousand Replays, I Still Hate it When it Reaches the End

LandWarNet 2010

USCYBERCOM Commander, Gen. Keith Alexander speaking

Spent last week traveling to and from Tampa, Florida and attending the LandWarNet 2010 conference at the Tampa Convention Center. As conferences go, I thought this was an exceptional one.  Big crowd (9000) this year, terrific speakers, and very informative track sessions.  Now the task is to assimilate all the information gained during three days of presentations.

A colleague and I covered down on seventeen sessions in two and a half days.  Of the seven plenary sessions, we attended five.  We heard the USCYBERCOM commander, Gen. Keith Alexander speak about the challenges to our country posed from within cyberspace domain and what USCYBERCOM is doing about them.  We listened as the Army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. Pete Chiarelli addressed us via video teleconference about overcoming the challenges the Army imposes upon itself through its antiquated acquisition system.  Lieutenant General Jeff Sorenson touched on the same subject, updated us on the Army's global network enterprise construct strategy, and acted as the master of ceremonies.  We sat in on a Joint/Coalition panel but skipped the joint/industry panel, which focuses almost exclusively on acquisition issues, and the final plenary session addressed by Air Force Lt. Gen. William Lord.

A special treat was to hear Dr. Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM Corporation, speak to us about institutional transformation.  It was, in my opinion, probably the most relevant of all the plenary sessions to what the Army is facing as an institution at the present time (operations in the CENTCOM AOR excepted).  Two consequences for me, stemming from Dr. Gerstner's talk, will be, first, that I will have to read his book, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance," which treats of his tenure at head of IBM and how he undertook to transform that company.  The second consequence will be that, after reading the book, and reviewing my notes, I will probably want to rewrite the appendix I drafted for FM 6-02 Signal Operations (which we hope to have staffed out by the end of summer).

The real work of the conference was, for me, attending the Joint/Combined track, which consisted of six special briefings moderated by the CENTCOM J-6, Brig. Gen. Brian Donahue.  Those sessions, each one literally crammed with information, covered such topics as the the operational context in Afghanistan, Task Force 236, the Afghan Mission Network, the "revamped network operations framework, and challenges ahead.  All of which will make for me quite a bit of research when I get back to the office tomorrow.  It was a privilege for me to get to meet Brig. Gen. Donahue personally.

Columbia Restaurant interior

One of the highlights of the week--not related to the conference--was dining out Thursday night at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City.  The picture to the right shows the interior of the restaurant where my party sat.  The food was great, the service terrific, and the ambiance all you could ask for.  We even got to see the Flamenco Dancers perform.  Felt like being in a John Wayne move, sort of.

Already, we're making plans to attend next years conference, to stay in or near Ybor city, go back to that restaurant and, most of all, to take Connie with me!

What Recruiting Taught Me

I was an Army recruiter for three years.  It was a sort of school of hard knocks.  I sure learned a lot.  The thing that has stuck with many longer than anything else is that the United States of America is being overrun by Category IVs.

Kids!

Grandson, age three, sees my profile picture on Facebook.  It's a photo of my wife and me on our 25th anniversary.

"Is that you and Gramma?" he asks.

"Yes."

"Are you was getting married?" he follows up, employing the peculiar syntax of a three-year-old.

"No, we've been married for a long time."

"What?  Aren't you getting married?"  he still wonders.  Understandably, he's a little confused about how marriage works.  I mean, he's only three.

"Yes," I say, thinking this would end the line of questioning.

But he comes back with that time tested retort of all kids under the age of six, "Why?"

"Because," I say, thinking that now I've got him, he'll have to move on to a different subject, "she's my girl friend."

"Nuh-uh," he says, "she's mine."

Kids!

Apollo 11 and a Ten Year Old Boy

Mission Insignia for Apollo 11

Today is the 41st anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's landing on the moon.  I remember watching it on television.  It was after 10:30 p.m. when the astronauts exited the lunar module, the Eagle.  It wasn't a school night, because we were then on summer vacation.  Still, we weren't accustomed to staying up that late.  So, for me, that made the historic event even more special.  I remember Armstrong's words, when his left foot touched the moon's surface, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."  I was ten years old then.  I was in the fifth grade at Nations Ford Elementary School.  We lived in an apartment on Old Pineville Road in Charlotte, NC.

Those were heady days.  Nixon had just replaced Johnson as president.  Seemed like there was an Apollo flight every few days.  At some point during all those flights, but very near to the Apollo 11 flight, I experienced my first solar eclipse.  Space was about the most interesting thing there was.  (That, the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Green Bay Packers, and Arnold Palmer).  I recall telling my fifth grade teacher that I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up.  She replied that I'd have to be very good in math.  Hence, I think that was also the end of my aspirations for space. 

But I was always interested.  In second or third grade, I remember us watching the landing of one of the Mercury mission flights (maybe we watched more than one).  It was just what was done back in those days.  We stopped our work, the teacher wheeled the old Zenith black and white (perched atop a five-foot tall stand with rollers) to the front of the class, and we watched.  Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Armstrong, and Aldrin were names as familiar to me as Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas.

I vividly remember when Apollo 8 was orbiting the moon.  It was Christmas Eve, 1968.  I got a telescope for Christmas that year.  We were at Grandma Huffman's and I remember going out in the yard with my Uncle Ernest and trying to spot the spaceship.  I was able to view the moon through the lens, but I think I merely imagined seeing the spacecraft, if memory serves.  Besides, it was cold out.  Telescopes were cool, but watching the spaceflight inside, on TV, seemed to make more sense.

But, you know, I've never watched a Shuttle mission.  And I can't explain what happened to my interest in space.

Why?

Harvard University

Patrick Buchanan, whom I sometimes like and sometimes don't, writing for World Net Daily, laments the fact that the nation's elite colleges and universities discriminate against white conservative and Christians (the media's term for Catholics).  "Bias And Bigotry In Academia" blares the headline.  And, of course, all the latest research and studies are cited to substantiate these assertions as factual.

I don't disagree with Mr. Buchanan's facts; I simply ask why?  Why would conservatives, if they really are conservatives, and Christians, if they really are such, want to subject themselves and their money to four years in one of these, so called, elite institutions?  What's so conservative about that?  What's Christian about it?

Are these conservatives and Christians, so called, envious of a (name the institution) eduation?  Do they covet acceptance by the ruling class?  (I invite you to Angelo M. Codevilla's excellent piece on that subject, published in the July 2010 issues of The American Spectator).    If so, by what rights do they lay claim to the appellations of Christian and conservative?

The Little Man's Visit, Part I

Reading a Search and Find Book with Gramma

As an unplanned consequence of the birth of his little sister, Haydin is spending part of the summer with his Papa. Here's a recap of the first day of his visit.

The Little Man arrived in our dominions at about four AM, Wednesday and Gramma chose not to wake me. Instead, they went straight to bed and I didn't see the Little Man until supper time next day.  When I got home from work, I learned that he had sprayed gramma with the hose when they were at Minerva's watering her flowers. That was late afternoon. When I arrived, the two of them were in the kitchen, at the table, and it took me a minute to realize that something was wrong with Gramma's appearance. Her hair was all unkempt and sort of matted down, very much unlike her. It looked like she'd been in the shower with her clothes on. She told me to ask the Little Man what happened. But when I did, he just looked down and said, "I don't know." But, gradually, he owned up to what he'd done. Evidently, the two of them sprayed each other. They actually had a blast! Haydin thought it was way cool. And I would pay the price for this, later.

Do You Have a Weed Eater?

H/t to the editors.

Two Texas farmers, Jim and Bob, are sitting at their favorite bar, drinking beer. Jim turns to Bob and says, "You know, I'm tired of going through life without an education Tomorrow I think I'll go to the community college and sign up for some classes." Bob thinks it's a good idea, and the two leave.

The next day, Jim goes down to the college and meets the Dean of Admissions, who signs him up for the four basic classes: math, English, history, and Logic.

"Logic?" Jim says. "What's that?"

The dean says, "I'll give you an example. Do you own a weed eater?"

CNN: Pioneer in the Dumbing Down of News in America

In Websters forthcoming video dictionary of the English language, the following snippet will appear beside the word, idiot.

Postcards

My postcard box

For some reason today I went through this old shoebox I've kept for years full of postcards from my travels.  Once I got started, it was impossible to stop.  I went through them all, even reading those that had been through the mail.

Ruedesheim am Rhein

I haven't traveled much since retiring from the Army, but I've been to a lot of places.  The cards sort of document my travels.  In Germany, I visited places like Ruedesheim on the Rhine.  That was a place accessible on the Rhein cruises.  But I think we drove there more often.  The quintessential Rheinland-Pfalz town.  Just made for postcards.

The bridge house in Bad Kreuznach

Bad Kreuznach was the first German town I ever experienced.  I was stationed there in the early '80s, employed by the 232nd Signal Company (headquartered in Worms), 102nd Signal Battalion (headquartered in Frankfurt). My barracks were on the old hospital kaserne which, I understand, no longer exists.  I worked shifts in a Defense Information Systems Agency (back when it was called the Defense Communications Agency) communications station--a microwave/technical control facility--on the top of Cow Hill (Kuberg).  I remember climbing the antenna tower one New Years' Eve (highly unauthorized) to view the town's fireworks display.  Nearby locals were also shooting their own, and they seemed to be aiming for my antenna tower!  So I didn't stay up for as long as I would have liked.

About a year and a half after leaving BK, I returned to Germany, this time to Helmstedt, in Niedersachsen, and this time with a family.  We had one daughter when we got there and two when we left.  In Helmstedt, I worked at the Helmstedt Support Detachment, a unit of the 6/40th Armor Battalion, Berlin Brigade.  We traveled to so many places from Helmstedt--to Berlin, of course, and to nearby small towns, to Schoeningen, to Koenigslutter, to Celle and Wolfsburg, to Braunschweig and Hannover, and to the Harz Mountains.  We were at Helmstedt when, on the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and all the travel restrictions between East and West Germany were overcome by events.  Out town was flooded, absolutely flooded with East German cars, little light-blue Trabants, or "Trabbies" as they were called.  We traveled to Dusseldorf, to Frankfurt am Main, and to Heilbronn, down in Bavaria.  We rode the duty train from Helmstedt to Frankfurt and back.  From Frankfurt, I connected to Heilbronn to visit friends there.  We also visited Switzerland once, and Liechtenstein, and I made a trip or two to Rotterdam, in Holland.

Taukkunnen Kaserne in Worms

Within six months of the Berlin Wall falling, we learned that our little detachment would deactivate.  I was sent a few months later to Worms, about a six hour drive to the south.  I worked at the headquarters of the 5th Signal Command on the old Taukkunnen Kaserne.  We spent three years in Worms and did quite a bit of traveling.  Our longest trips were to Berchesgaden, deep in southern Bavaria, and to Austria, and to Holland. The German towns we visited included Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Speyer, all the little villages along the Rhein and the Deutche Weinstrasse, Kaiserslautern (or K-town, as the Americans called it), and Ramstein, and many others.

Dennis Prager's Thoughts on America and the Elections this November

Came across this on Facebook this morning.  Don't believe I've ever heard of this man. I have no idea what all he's said or done in the past, but this video is eight or nine minutes of crystal clear clarity on the issues of the day.

Brad Thor on Islam

Brad Thor's latest thriller

From the pages of his latest thriller, the following words captured my attention ...

".... To paraphrase Churchill, individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but Islam's fanatical frenzy is as dangerous in man as hydrophobia is in a dog. It's been over a hundred years since he spoke those words and yet there is still no more dangerous retrograde force in the world.


"And before you give me that tired argument that the fundamentalists have perverted the faith, let me be perfectly clear on something.  A religion must stand or fall on its own writings and holy books.  The fundamentalists haven't perverted anything.  In fact, Osama bin Laden is the best practicing Muslim out there.  He is practicing Islam exactly the way that violent nutcase Mohammed wanted it practiced.


"It's the world's peaceful Muslims, the majority of the followers of Islam, who have perverted the faith.  They have strayed.  If Mohammed came back today you can bet there'd be hell to pay.  He'd be lopping off heads left and right.  And he'd have a lot of help too because in case you haven't noticed, the largest killer of Muslims in the world isn't us filthy infidels, it's other Muslims.  Fundamentalist Islam is booming, if you'll pardon the pun."

This is a bit of a conversation between two of the book's characters, a Catholic priest who goes by the name of Padre Peio, and another they call "the troll," an underworld merchant known simply as Nicholas.  These are Nicholas' words.  I found them interesting because they run exactly 180 degrees counter to conventional wisdom.  They run counter to descriptions of Islam in Vince Flynn novels, too, which I find extremely interesting, being an avid reader of those.  Who to believe!

So, whom do you believe?

Krauthammer Bashes Obama's Infantile NASA Muslim Outreach Program

I love how Dr. K can cut to the essence of a matter in so few words.

Signal Center Change of Command

Brigadier General Jeffrey W. Foley
Commanding General,
US Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon
The Army's Chief of Signal

Brigadier General Alan R. Lynn
Commanding General
311th Signal Command (Theater)

Brigadier General Jeffrey W. Foley, the Army's Chief of Signal, will relinquish command of the US Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon later this month.  The official date of the change of command ceremony has not yet been announced.  A Farewell dinner for General Foley and his wife is planned for July 15th at the Gordon Club on Fort Gordon.  The dinner is a public event.  Tickets are $20 each and may be obtained from the Protocol Office in Signal Towers on Fort Gordon.

Foley's replacement will be Brigadier General Alan R. Lynn, currently the commander of the 311th Signal Command (Theater) headquartered at Fort Shafter, Hawaii.

Joint Publication 6-0: The Revision

Joint Publication (JP) 6-0 was released under Admiral Mullen's signature on 10 June 2010.  We doctrine insiders at Fort Gordon were able to access it via the Joint Staff's website today.  Its full title is, Joint Communications System.  The manual was last revised on 20 March 2006.  The big things about this version are that--

• It updates the roled of the US Strategic Command in operating and defending the Global Information Grid (GIG).
• It updates information on Cyberspace and the role of the US Cyber Command.
• It updates Network Operations (NETOPS).
• It updates GIG characteristics (and notes that the GIG is rapidly evolving).
• It discusses the "aerial layer."  (as opposed to the terrestrial and space domains).
• Corrects factual errors due to procedural and organizational changes.

RLM Communications, Inc.

This is the sign posted outside my cubicle
in Moran Hall on Fort Gordon

RLM Communications, Inc., is the company I've worked for since the 29th of September 2009. Founded in 2004, RLM is a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned business, certified by the Small Business Administration as an 8(a) small disadvantaged business. Headquartered in Spring Lake, NC, RLM employs a staff of more than 150 in ten states, Washington, DC, and in two foreign countries.

Near our headquarters, we serve clients in the Spring Lake vicinity and at Fort Bragg, like the 1st Theater Sustainment Command, the 18th Airborne Corps Mobilization/Deployment Cell (G-5 Mobile Support Element), and the US Army Special Operations Command.  Within the Military District of Washington, our clients include the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and customers at Fort Detrick, MD and at Fort Belvoir, VA.  We also have a number of clients at the US Army Signal Center and Fort Gordon, GA and at the Charleston, SC branch of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center.

Gabriel's Oboe

On James 1:19

Some years back, in a little church we were attending at the time, I learned something.  It was a Sunday evening service, typical of so many, and we came at length to the point in the service where it was time for the preaching.  A text was taken--Hebrews 5:8, if my notes are to be believed, "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the tings which he suffered:"  But no sermon followed.  My, what an occasion it would have been to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ using that text as an opening.  But instead, it what had become a sad pattern over a stretch of weeks, the pastor asked each member of the congregation to give his or her own comments upon the verse.  And so we went around the room and heard this silly notion and that, this half opinion, and that educated guess.  We went home unedified.  We almost always went home that way.

Yes, I Question Their Patriotism!

The Birth of Old Glory by Edward Percy Moran (c. 1917),
depicting the presentation by Betsy Ross of the first
American flag to George Washington

If this were Bill O-Reilly's blog, Charles Skidmore, the principal of Arlington High School in Massachussetts, and most of the teachers on his staff, would be labelled pin heads. 

You see, Mr. Skidmore presides over a school that had, until recently, abolished US flags from its classrooms, and still--over the protests of some of its students--will not allow the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited within its confines.

Fox News has a story on this.  One of the students (who apparently has more understanding than all his teachers) has been fighting to overcome the extreme radical leftism that has not only banned the recitation of the Pledge, but has also banished US flags from classrooms.  Seems he won the battle over flags in the classrooms was defeated on the other front.

The Fox News article says--

The Arlington, Mass., school committee has rejected the 17-year-old's request to allow students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because some educators are concerned that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite it, according to a report in the Arlington Patch.  (Emphasis mine).

Interestingly, one notes that students of Arlington High School are obligated to perform 40 hours of community service before receiving their diplomas.  Well, they could all do double that and it still would not overcome the collossal disservice that Mr. Skidmore and associates have wrought in that little corner of the northeast and in the hearts and minds of those pupils.

Pin heads, indeed.

Should Supreme Court Nominees be Waterboarded?

It is, of course, a facetious suggestion.  But waterboarding gets results and everyone knows it.  In times of great peril, when the suspect is not cooperating, this enhanced interrogation technique has been proven to get 'em talking. 

Sotomayor and Kagan are just the latest in a long line of suspects (nominees to the nation's highest court) insulting the nation's intelligence by stonewalling, obfuscating, heming and hawing, and otherwise being less than forthright.  Senators should ask themselves, which is the greater risk:  embarrassing the nominee, perhaps hurting his/her pride, with 15 seconds under the spigot, or confirming the appointment of a leftist ideologue who could potentially afflict the nation for the next 25 years?

Of course, to most senators, the greatest risk of all would be having to actually make a hard decision.

Training or Doctrine, Which is More Important?

LTG Moore, earlier this year,
at West Point
(Wikipedia)

And what would Hal Moore say about that?

Today I discovered this blog: Steven Pressfield Online.  I came across it quite by accident during the course of my routine internet research (and promptly added it to my blog list).  What came up was a post on Mr. Pressfield's blog about an interview he had conducted with retired Army lieutenant general, Harold G. "Hal" Moore, Jr. General Moore, as a young lieutenant colonel, commanded the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Brigade, 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1955 during the Vietnam War.  Of course, as an admirer of General Moore (I read the book, "We Were Soldiers Once .... And Young," and watched the move by the same name--twice), I read Mr. Pressfield's post in its entirety.

What prompted me to share this discovery here is the following passage:

Richlands, North Carolina 28574

When I was a boy, I spent part of each summer with my grandparents.  They lived out in the country, we used to  say, in a little one-story white house on an old, two-lane road that connected NC Highway 24 with US Highway 258, in a community known as Haw Branch.  The place was 20 miles or so from Jacksonville, in one direction, and about 30 miles from Kinston, going the other way.  The nearest town was Richlands. At the junction of that two-lane road and US Highway 258, there was a sign with an arrow pointing south, indicating that Richlands lay five miles in that direction.  Back then, all these roads were flanked by tobacco fields, dense forests, the odd house or two, tobacco barns, and more tobacco fields.

Aurora Gene

Rory in hospital pink

Granddaughter number one has entered the world!  Aurora Gene Tappendick was born at 5:05 pm, pacific time, June 27, 2010, at the Madigan Army Medical Center on Fort Lewis, Washington.  "Rory," as she is already being called, weighed in at seven pounds and nine ounces and measured nineteen and three-quarters inches.  Mother and baby are doing fine.  Rory's dad, SPC Gary Tappendick, is currently serving on his second tour of duty in Iraq.

Mr. Sam, the Family Watch Dog

The Road Not Taken

A favorite of mine, and of many, by Robert Frost (1874-1963).

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

LandWarNet 2010, Part I

AFCEA logo

Each year, the Army's chief information officer, known as the CIO/G-6 because he is also a member of the Army staff, partners with the Armed Forces Communications-Electronics Association (AFCEA) to stage a forum concerning LandWarNet, the Army's portion of the military's global information grid.  It is a premier forum of its kind, bringing together key government and industry leaders---and interested parties, like me (I am in industry, but I'm not a leader, at least not according to the leaders)---to openly communicate the latest in commercial best business practices and government implementations of commercial solutions for it communications and information networking requirements.

This year's conference will be in Tampa, Florida.  Its theme will be:  LandWarNet: Providing Global Cyber Dominance to Joint/Combined Commanders.

A Case of Poor Judgment

The recent flap over General Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the subject of a hit piece in Rolling Stone magazine has led me to one inescapable conclusion ... that the general did indeed exercise poor judgment --- in 2008 when he voted for Barack Hussein Obama.

Some Things I Learned this Week

Recent experiences are proving to me, once again, that one is never too old to learn.

335th Signal Command (Theater)

"Ready Lightning,"
335th Signal Command Logo 

Earlier in the week I was part of a team of doctrine writers that visited the 335th Signal Command (Theater) at its East Point, Georgia headquarters.

What is Military Doctrine?

What is Doctrine?

Joint Publication 1-02, the DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, defines doctrine as the fundamental principles by which the military forces or elements thereof guide their actions in support of national objectives.  It is authoritative but requires judgment in application.

Lawmakers want fewer contractors doing training

If you're scratching your head after reading this Army Times article, you're not the only one.  Lawmakers want fewer contractors doing training - Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times.

"Lawmakers want fewer contractors doing training," shouts the headline.  Plainly, someone in the upper echelons of the the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), or the Army, or in the Pentagon, or in Congress, is shouting fire.  Only there is no fire.  Not a single measurable, identifiable problem was described in the article.

Only perceptions.  For contractors are doing a lot of jobs that government normally does.  And in the current climate in Washington, this is bad.

The Star Spangled Banner Lyrics By Francis Scott Key 1814

By Francis Scott Key, 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Service Contracts and the National Defense Authorization

This is a repost, revised, from an older Blog.  It is closely related to an earlier post on contractors working within the government's work sites.

The National Defense Authorization (NDA), an annual congressional product, has sections that pertain to government contracting.  The last version to make significant changes to government service contracting was the 2008 NDA.

The Capability Brief

Reposted from an older blog.

It is common for contractors to provide capability briefings to government agencies who may at some point require the type of services these contractors can provide. This is a good business practice and it is beneficial to both parties, to the contractor, but especially to the government.

For the government, capability briefings are part its market research. Good market research leads to a good acquisition plan. A good acquisition plan leads to a precise work statement (the guts of an RFP). And a precise work statement makes it a lot easier to keep the contractor on track during the period of performance. Not only that, but a clear, concise performance work statement resulting from thorough market research and acquisition planning tends to ensure that the government actually gets what it's contracting for. That doctrine holds true whether contracting for product development or for services.

Especially for services.

Contractors Working on a Government Site with Government Furnished Property

Reposted from an older blog.

Emphasis of late is on weeding out service contracts.  In TRADOC, requiring activities are filling out detailed worksheets for general officer or SES approval before a requirements packet may go forward to the contracting activity for action.  These worksheets, in part designed as questionnaires, proble for yes or no answers in reference to FAR prohibitions against unauthorized personal services contracts as well as the outsourcing of inherently governmental functions.

Just to make sure, it seems, that no contractor gets away with anything, one of TRADOC's worksheets zeros in on what FAR 7.5 defines as "functions generally not considered to be inherently governmental functions."  These are "certain services and actions that are not considered to be inherently governmental functions [but] may approach being in that category because of the nature of the function, the manner in which the contractor performs the contract, or the manner in which the Government administers contractor performance."  In TRADOC's language, they are functions that are "closely related to inherently governmental functions."

The FAR Side of Government Contracting

Reposted from an older blog.

The entire edifice of government contracting rests upon the foundation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the FAR.

The Passing of Coach John Wooden

John Wooden has passed away and that is truly sad news. For he was a very good and decent man and those are few and far between in the world of sports today.

Signal Support to Army Cyberspace Operations, Part II

The new Army command responsible for cyberspace operations, US Army Forces Cyber Command, or ARFORCYBER, will be formally activated in October of this year. It will be the Army's piece of the larger Department of Defense command, US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), activated just last month under the command of General Keith Alexander. In doctrinal terms, ARFORCYBER will serve as the Army Service component command to USCYBERCOM.

Coincident with the activation of this new Army command, the Army is revising it's capstone doctrinal manual, FM 3-0 Operations, published by the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. Together, these two events have the potential of making a dramatic impact upon the US Army Signal Corps.

Spurgeon's Defense of Calvinism

Mr. Spurgeon at his desk

I reproduce this in full for a couple of reasons. First, it is, for its length, the best written defense of the doctrines of grace I've ever read.  My second reason is that this is what I believe.

"The old truth that Calvin preached, that Augustine preached, that Paul preached, is the truth that I must preach to-day, or else be false to my conscience and my God. I cannot shape the truth; I know of no such thing as paring off the rough edges of a doctrine. John Knox's gospel is my gospel. That which thundered through Scotland must thunder through England again."—C. H. Spurgeon

Signal Support to Army Cyberspace Operations

As the lead author of FM 6-02 Signal Support to Army Operations, the Signal Regiment's keystone doctrinal manual, it seems clear that, sooner or later, there will be a requirement to set forth in signal doctrine the tenets of signal support to Army operations in the cyberspace domain. Without a doubt, the primary driver behind this inevitable requirement is the activation of an Army Service Component Command subordinate to the recently established joint sub-unified command, US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM).

Bacon Tree

Hat tip to my friend, Cy.

Two Mexicans are stuck in the desert after crossing into the United States, wandering aimlessly and starving. They are about to just lie down and wait for death, when all of a sudden Luis says.........

Introduction to Deuteronomy

When was the last time you read Deuteronomy? In all the times you've read it, have you ever figured out what Deuteronomy means? Well, I looked it up, and it doesn't seem to me that very many people have ever figured out the meaning of the word or it's real significance in the Bible.

Just deleted all previous blog posts. Hadn't posted anything in months. Everything was old. So, here's to starting over.

Oh, and happy Memorial Day!