Do you think the previous vassal states of the USSR are sending a message?

After a great discussion with two Ukrainians (one native, one expat US) a few months ago, I started researching how this schism between the USA and Russia began.

As far as I recall, it was right about the time we decided to take down Iraq. I heard some chatter in 2003 through my sources about the Ruskies working as contractors waiting until the tanks were rolling through Bagdhad to evacuate. I also heard rumors of Russian convoys being taken down. Not taken OUT - taken down. Crippled. In the middle of the desert. Searched. People positively identified. That sort of thing.

Obviously with the Food for Oil issue and the Iraqi arms embargo blatantly being violated by Russian and French business Operation Iraqi Freedom became a sticking point for the US/Russian relationship. Russia was/is upset with us for killing the goose that was laying the golden eggs for so long. Saddam was paying in great amounts for what would have gone for much cheaper on the open market.

Maybe that’s what prompted Bush to say he looked into Putin’s soul. Oh by the way, there’s always this: Former Russian Spy Says Government Stole $500 Million From U.N.’s Oil-For-Food Program in Iraq

An 18-month investigation into the oil-for-food corruption, led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, culminated in an October 2005 report accusing more than 2,200 companies from some 40 countries of colluding with Saddam’s regime to bilk the humanitarian program in Iraq of $1.8 billion

I look into those heavy lidded and expressionless eyes of Putin’s and say… KGB. Snake. Reptile. Ruthless. Predator. And rich. Have you seen how much natural gas pipeline Russia now controls?!? EU look out.

Poland and the Ukraine ponied up the cojones to back our play with Afghanistan and Iraq, becoming very important partners in the GWOT. FOXNews.com - Ukrainian President: We Won’t Let Russia Add Us to Its Hit List -

Russians form a strong minority in Ukraine, about 17 percent of the population, and could become a flashpoint in any future confrontation with Moscow.

“Ukraine has to move towards the NATO alliance,” Yushchenko said, drumming up support before the NATO summit in December.

“It is the only way for our country to protect our national security and sovereignty. When the borders of NATO expand, so too does the region of peace and stability.”

The defense budget of Ukraine — as in other nervous Central European states — is to be raised immediately. “I want to remind all political forces in our country that shout about the possible neutral status of Ukraine that neutrality can come at a very high price,” he said, casting a nod at pro-Moscow politicians.

I digress. Basically my understanding after many beers, glasses of wine, and great conversation overlooking one of the best rooftop views of Pacific Beach I discovered that Ukraine opinion is virtually split down the middle about support for NATO.

The eastern side of the Ukraine is more economically tied to Russia, and doesn’t want to piss them off. They have more cultural ties and really don’t like the current leadership.

The western side holds an opposite opinion.

Russia Threatens Military Response if U.S., Poland Follow Through With Missile Defense Deal

Not like that really concerned Condi:

“In troubled times the most important thing is to have friends,” Rice said. “But it is more important to have friends who share your values and your aspirations and your dreams. And Poland and the United States are those kind of friends.”

…

She denounced an earlier threat from a Russian general to target NATO member Poland, possibly even with nuclear weapons, for accepting the facility.

Such comments “border on the bizarre, frankly,” Rice told reporters in Warsaw. “The Russians are losing their credibility,” she said, adding that Moscow would pay a price for its actions in Georgia, though she did not specify how.

“It’s also the case that when you threaten Poland, you perhaps forget that it is not 1988,” Rice said. “It’s 2008 and the United States has a … firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland’s territory as if it was the territory of the United States. So it’s probably not wise to throw these threats around.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself and I don’t think Colin Powell could have conveyed as well either.

Update: Add Czech Republic to that list:

“Almost immediately after the Czech Republic signed an agreement with the US to place missile defense tracking radar in its territory, oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline to the central European country were reduced to a trickle… ostensibly for technical reasons,” Sabathier said.

Update: Czech petrochem Unipetrol Q2 net profit down 80% y/y, worse than expected

Russia in early July reduced supplies of oil through the Druzhba from an agreed 500,000 tonnes to 300,000 tonnes, but said the volume would return to normal levels in August. At first citing technical problems, the pipeline operator later said it had diverted supplies to Turkey, where it could fetch a higher price.

However, Poland did come through for the Czech Republic:

Unipetrol, a unit of Poland’s PKN Orlen group, had to buy Russian oil for its refineries from tankers and transport it through Germany to the Czech Republic via the IKL pipelines; the company also bought oil from Czech state reserves, expenses that will affect Q3 results.

Nothing like a manufactured crisis to bring oil prices absolutely sky-high. Thanks most probably to Putin’s machine.

I had a recent viewer ask what does a Naval Aircrewman do?

For what I did in my time in the service I refer the gentle readers to this Naval Aviation News article: A Hunting We Will Go - Naval Aviation News, March-April 1997

In the S-3 Viking community, aircrewmen have the opportunity to fly on jets aboard aircraft carriers that deploy for six months at a time, sailing the world over. This is a major factor when it comes time for an AW to choose the aircraft in which to serve.

Accelerating from 0 to 140 miles per hour in 2 seconds provides an adrenalin rush all its own.

“I like to call it a kick in the pants,” quipped AW2 Thomas Bell, Sea Control Squadron (VS) 41, NAS North Island, Calif. “It beats any roller coaster you’ve ever been on.”

Assignment to a VS squadron also means greater responsibility aloft, because there is only one sensor operator who must be well versed in both acoustic and nonacoustic sensor equipment.

“The platform carries more responsibility with it in regards to the workload. In an S-3, one person does the job of three in a P-3,” Bell said.

As a post script to the article, “Zeebo” Zelasco, pictured on the first page, is sitting in the SENSO station in the S-3 Viking. Tom Bell, if I recall correctly, may have gone on to fly F-14s as a line officer. Can’t recall if he made Radar Intercept Officer or pilot, and don’t know where he is now.

Dramatic quote of the day from the article:

Imagine this. Leaders in the former Soviet Union, strapped for cash, decide to sell one of their older nuclear missile-capable submarines. Diplomats from the third world nation purchasing the sub are, in fact, a front for a fanatical, well-organized, well-funded group of international terrorists. It’s your job to help locate the sub and stop them.

You are an Aviation Warfare Systems Operator (AW), an enlisted Naval Aircrewman…

…and all of 20 years old.

Gives me chills. Ooh-rah. Thanks for the question!

Related Links:

The Cradle of Naval Aviation

So Others May Live | My Personal Heroes

So Others May Live | Personal Heroes Pt. 2

Military: Not a Social Program

Navy’s finest Combat Aircrewmen

Is it possible that something may be brewing? This analyst thinks so…-

Personally, I think it’s just a coincidence that Kuwait’s training exercises coincide with a carrier relief on station. But… Israel might pull something and up goes the balloon.

Things are heating up with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and they’ve reopened the inquiry into the Chinese Gymnastics Team:

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists. In the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

So why is this age issue such a big deal? The minimum age for female gymnasts was increased from 14 to 15 in 1981, and up to 16 in 1997, to protect the physical and mental health of young athletes.

According to today’s FoxNews.com story:

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. Younger gymnasts are considered to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a history of injuries or fear of failure.

If you’ve got an advantage, that’s cheating. Can you imagine the pressure on the young girl holding the medal, her family? Here’s a teen girl stuck in the middle of either a complete fabrication or being assailed by the world unfairly.

We take it for granted that He Kexin won’t be on the box of Wheaties or doing any other US-based promotional work but the lifestyle she will live in China if she’s discredited for the gold concerns me. Living with shame is intolerable at best, having no way to escape it pushes people over the edge.

As in the 2007 lead paint toy fiasco this much global attention on a problem usually ends up with someone hanging themselves quite literally as the scapegoat.

Evidence: Raw Data Showing Years of Competition Records

Research courtesy of blogger / hacker Mike Walker a/k/a Stryde Hax:

There’s He Kexin again, listed with a birthday of 1-1-1994, fourteen years old. Running that line through Google Translate, the chances of a case of mistaken identity diminish rapidly:

799, BB He Kexin CC female AA 1994.1.01  Beijing and Beijing Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau, First Note 

It is my suspicion that First Note is a mistranslation of First Place, as her world class gymnastics record speaks for itself. For those working to cache these documents, the direct link to the Baidu cache, for as long as it lasts, is here: cache link.

From FoxNews.com’s Report: Hacker Uncovers Proof Chinese Gymnast Is Underage

First he simply tried Google, only to find that an official listing by the Chinese sports administration that had given her age could no longer be accessed. Then he tried the Google cache, only to find that He’s name had been removed.

Finally, he tried the cache of Chinese search engine Baidu. There, he found that Baidu lists two spreadsheets in He’s name, both giving her date of birth as January 1, 1994 — making her 14 years and 220 days old and too young to compete at the Beijing games.

The lists were compiled by the General Administration of Sport of China.

Even before anyone arrived in Beijing, American media investigations accused China of fielding three athletes below the 16-year-old minimum age threshold. Bela Karolyi, the former U.S. head coach, then reheated the issue by claiming that China “are using half-people” and that their flouting of the regulations was so obvious that “these people think we are stupid.”

Liukin, who finished second to He in the uneven bars final would be elevated to the gold medal position should He be disqualified. Britain’s Beth Twiddle, who finished in fourth place, would be elevated to the bronze.

Karolyi’s Complaint

We seem to see cheating as a common thread in the Communist countries for the Olympics when each country’s government system is represented by athleticism.

Bela went off about this:

“What kind of slap in the face is this?” he asked. “They are 12, 14 years old, max. And they line them up for the world … and having the government back them.

“Since they forced an age limit, it has gotten worse and worse. The FIG is running away from the age problem. They set an age limit and now they can’t control it.”

International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) officials have accepted the passports of the Chinese women, which indicate all are old enough to compete.

Karolyi is originally from Romania, and he says falsifying documents is a common practice in countries such as Romania, Russia and other former Soviet bloc nations.

FIG’s Response: Throw Me a Frikkin’ Bone, China!

In this response about the additional information requested, the FIG has asked China to produce further documents testifying to the birthdates of the gymnasts.

In recent days, additional questions have resurfaced, and in the interests of laying the matter to rest and in response to a request from the International Olympic Committee, the FIG has now asked the Chinese Gymnastic Association to submit further documents testifying to the birthdates of the gymnasts.

On receipt of these documents, the FIG will forward its conclusions to the International Olympic Committee. It is in the interests of all concerned, not least the athletes themselves, to resolve this issue once and for all.

Censorship, Technology, Blogging, and Mob Justice

Mike Walker / Stryde Hax has this to say:

This story now is really about Internet censorship, the act of removing evidence while at the same time claiming that the evidence is wrong. For the first time I watched search records shift under my feet like sand, facts draining down a hole in the Internet.

Will this stand?

Analysis: 2008 = Online Tiananmen Square

This mess isn’t going to be solved conclusively. The Streisand effect on these Chinese athletes is a ten-kiloton explosion right now, and everyone in the frag pattern will never ben the same. I don’t doubt that functionaries will have freshly minted birth certificates signed by doctors and a whole row of witnesses coached by Monday.

Saving face is a multi-faceted and nuanced survival skill in a country where lead painted toys and tainted dog food can get the head FDA official executed. They killed this guy as if to say, “Are you happy now? Keep buying our product!”

Stryde Hax’ online forensics are accurate, verifiable until they are taken down or root server hacked, meaning the girls are underage. Removing the records so quickly upon discovery looks highly suspect and fools nobody. He’s even getting fan mail from Chinese citizens.

None of this, it seems, will ever be enough for anyone to stop buying Made in China goods from Wal-Mart or Target. 

The core issue for me is, what will China’s citizenry do about this? Will the younger generation harbor shame and hostility towards the older ruling system and break the cycle or will they fade into the background?

Analysis: Olympic Age Rule Will Probably Be Repealed

I’m of the opinion that if the rules for the athlete’s safety are being broken, maybe this one should be repealed. If their parents consent to the risky behavior, who are we to stop them?

Nadia Comaneci was 14 when she won her fist Olympic gold medal in 1976. She scored a perfect 10. Her coach Bela Karolyi and his wife have worked with the US teams since their defection in the 1980s. Both of them promote the repealing of the rule in question if it’s not able to be enforced.

There’s a good chance that the age rule repeal will happen quietly, two or three years from now. Time enough for our short term memories to forget. 

Related Articles:

IOC Seeks to Settle Furor Over Age of Chinese Gymnasts

Hacker Uncovers Proof Chinese Gymnast Is Underage

China Executes Former Head of Food and Drug Watchdog Agency

Report: Exec at Center of China-Lead Paint Toy Recall Commits Suicide

Here’s a quick summary: US contributions 1 billion dollars, Iran - zero

Thought of the Day:

Do you think that Israel feels confident in an Obama administration backing them or would they act alone or with help from the current administration in the three months between Election Day and Inauguration Day?

Back To The Jet…

Check out the conformal centerline fuel tanks on the dorsal side of the jet… Plus the actual dorsal element which looks ECM to me.

From Israeli-Weapons.com:

The Sufa is powered by the Pratt and Whitney F100-PE-229 Improved Performance Engine. The aircraft is designed for gross takeoff gross weight of 23,582 kilograms (52,000 lbs), which means it can haul more weaponry than the F-16.

The weapons engineer, sitting behind the pilot, “flies the bombs” down to the targets once they are released.

Allowing for additional fuel, improved engines plus the drop tanks and two Sidewinders for self defense, one configuration could still carry about 4000 lbs of precision ordnance.

Make a strike package of about twenty jets doing sorties at low level across Jordan or Iraq, popping up to bash Bushehr, and proceed onward.

Israel - Iran Economic Attack Theory

If Israel is smart, they also target the Iranian gas refinery by the Straits. There’s a limited ability for Iran to produce their own gasoline and this would keep them busy internally for months.

Related Links:

F-16I Sufa (Storm) - GlobalSecurity.org’s take

Lockheed Martin Delivers F-16I Flight Systems Trainer to Israeli …

Israel’s F-16I fighters to go down a storm - Jane’s Air Forces News

Does it seem appropriate that with so many unfilled seats in the Olympics, China’s venue managers would hire a cheering section for Venezuela’s volleyball team in their game against the US? You’ll have to go to the halfway point in this video to get to the story…

Not even mentioning the alleged age issues with their medal-winning women’s gymnastics team.

I’m sure that’s in no way whatsoever tied to why China has been providing construction consulting for small Caribbean islands who want to build freeways for cheap… According to independent intelligence sources I’ve developed these freeways have long stretches built to the same specifications as runways, presumably the dual use would allow air transport.

Here’s an example:

Chinese companies are increasingly winning many large construction bids in the Eastern Caribbean, for which they also provide the labour. They are soon to be awarded the contracts for construction of the two secondary schools being funded by the World Bank under the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Education Development Project, where the Chinese bid came in EC$3m (£265,000) below the next lowest tender…

…China has also promised support for the development of a major highway in St Lucia, and is active in Jamaica, Guyana and Surinam.

One blog, the Barbados Free Press claims that a letter written by a contractor’s organization states local Carib companies have been outmanuvered by the Chinese construction for a contract for the University of The West Indies. Some of these claims:

…Wages paid by the Chinese companies to their Chinese workers are 25% of the wages paid by the Barbadian contractors to their workers. The conditions, under which the Chinese workers work, violate Human rights treaty and the UN convention of the treatment of migrant Labour, to which Barbados is a signatory.

…Majority of materials are imported from China, which denies opportunities to Caricom indigenous business enterprises.

…The Chinese companies enjoy taxation advantages in Barbados that are not available to our members.

These claims are corroborated by another source which claims:

Dick Stoute, president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, predicts that local contractors will soon begin complaining about the lack of a level playing field, as he was unsure whether the Chinese state and private sector construction companies are enjoying greater tax and other benefits than locals.

None Of This Is Good News

I’m examining the connections between Venezuela, China, Cuba, and Iran very closely because there is a potential balance of power shift that could happen quickly.

If any disaster removed the US from being a strong naval presence in the Pacific Rim, the balance of power would shift predictably towards China. Japan is concerned about this as well.

If the Caribbean nations are influenced properly by China, support elements (troops) for Hugo Chavez could quickly come in by air to suppress any dissent he may have.

Training for Iranian agents in Venezuela is more than just a potential, according to some sources I have this is a reality and they are attempting to assimilate into South American culture.

Related Articles:

Trade between Dominican Republic, China grows fast

China to build aluminium smelter in southern Trinidad

CARIBBEAN: Influx of Chinese Workers Irks Local Unions

Apparently those who served from 1957 - 2001 get an add-in in retirement checks from Social Security Administration (SSA). Whether you served or retired doesn’t make a difference. Along with that, there may be a provision for VHA/BAQ or flight pay into the calculation.

This just in from Bob “Johnny” Walker, formerly of the Red Griffins and last I heard flying for Northwest Airlines…

Please share this with anyone who’s had active duty service prior to January 2002 and planning for retirement. In a nutshell it boils down to this: You qualify for a higher social security payment because of your military service, for active duty any time from 1940 through 2001 (the program was done away with in January 2002). Up to $1200 per year of earnings credit credited at time of application - which can make a substantial difference in social security monthly payments upon your retirement.

You must bring your DD-214 to the Social Security Office - and you must ask for this benefit to receive it!

Soc Sec website:  http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/military.htm

This is something to put in your files for when you apply for Social Security down the road. It is NOT just for retirees, BUT anyone who has served on active duty prior to January 2002. FYI - this benefit is not automatic, you must ask for it!

From SSA.GOV’s Retirement Planner page, this is confirmed, first with a note saying this:

Note: Change in special military service credits.

In January 2002, Public Law 107-117, the Defense Appropriations Act, stopped the special extra earnings that have been credited to military service personnel. Military service in calendar year 2002 and future years no longer qualifies for these special extra earnings credits.

… and particularly for those of us in this category:

Service in 1978 through 2001

For every $300 in active duty basic pay, you are credited with an additional $100 in earnings up to a maximum of $1,200 a year. If you enlisted after September 7, 1980, and didn’t complete at least 24 months of active duty or your full tour, you may not be able to receive the additional earnings. Check with Social Security for details.

But wait, there’s more!!!

There’s another benefit that might apply for those of us with VHA/BAQ, special duty and flight pay, but I don’t know for sure:

Under certain circumstances, special extra earnings for your military service from 1957 through 2001 can be credited to your record for Social Security purposes. These extra earnings credits may help you qualify for Social Security or increase the amount of your Social Security benefit.

Normally only our base pay was taken into consideration for SSA benefits. This would come in particularly helpful in changing the calcs to your benefit.

Related Links:

Special Benefits For Certain World War II Veterans

Special Military Social Security Rate - Military Benefits …

Veterans Report - Social Security and Military Service

Beyond being a democratic ally, Georgia is a link in a U.S.- backed southern energy corridor that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is a major part of that route and runs about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

Robert Johnson, a specialist in energy at the Eurasia Group, said Georgia’s reputation as a viable, alternative route for transporting oil and gas from Turkmenistan and elsewhere has been “compromised” because of the conflict.

See Russian Offensive Imperils U.S. Aims on Iran, Energy - Yahoo! News

The main question is who shares the national defense values with America more - McCain or Obama?

Has our country shifted left enough for Obama’s policy of change to win, or will there always be shifting within influential subcultures such as Hollywood and New York in America?

Example of Left to Right Migration

Why did Dennis Miller, comedian / political commentator abandon his liberal beliefs? In this interview he explains why…

Let’s talk about Joe

Another former Democrat is Joe Lieberman who puts forward a position that the Democratic party left him. After the 2006 election where Dem bigshots tried to unseat him, he’s got a valid argument.

Read his latest article Democrats and Our Enemies - Lieberman’s speech on WSJ.com

Now Lieberman slams Obama for his stance on Iran and calls him naive… He further states that the EU has talked to Iran for years with zero results in their nuclear program.

Joe Lieberman also states in this interview that he believes John McCain is closer to JFK and Clinton’s foreign policies than Obama.

This is somewhat hilarious yet oddly factual.

From Search Engine Journal’s post Why Doesn’t Google Honor Memorial Day in the US?

Google, we love you, but you really can’t have it both ways. You can send Larry Page to Washington DC the week before Memorial Day to ask our Congress for access to the property of the citizens of the United States, but you cannot honor those who have given their lives to create and protect the Constitution of the United States of America?

After investigation I found that this is definitely an ongoing issue. Check out Google’s historic holiday logos and you’ll see that even though Mother’s Day, Earth Day, and even the Persian New Year is celebrated, Memorial Day isn’t.

From the LA Times on Memorial Day, 2007:

"When they ignore Veterans Day and Memorial Day, I think they’re telling us something about the way they view America," said Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative website that has criticized Google’s logo decisions.

In that same article, Google had a response:

The company defended its decision to let Veterans Day and Memorial Day pass without a special logo, saying it was trying to be respectful.

"Google’s special logos tend to be lighthearted and often scientific in nature," spokeswoman Sunny Gettinger said in an e-mailed statement. "We do not believe we can convey the appropriate somber tone through this medium to mark holidays like Memorial Day."

Google has altered its logo more than 140 times since 1999, according to a gallery on the company’s website.

Related Posts:

Google decides to give Memorial Day a miss

Google Lets Memorial Day Down Once Again

Google Once Again Snubs Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, Google STILL Unpatriotic… Yahoo! Rocks!!!

Update: Google Plots MoH winners on GoogleEarth

Here’s one interesting spin and/or development:

Memorial Day - US Medal of Honor Recipients in Google Earth

I wonder if this were some act of conservative or independent Google Fifth-column subterfuge in the timing of it to coincide with Memorial Day…

Today, Memorial Day 2008, I’m sitting here alone writing. The kids are with their mom. My friends have long left for barbeques. The television is off and has been all day.

Today for the first time in eighteen years, it’s about memorializing my friends who will never have kids, who will not see another barbeque or a beer. It’s also about realizing that I lost more friends in seven years of peacetime service than most Americans have in the past seven years of warfare.

Most of my friends died after living only a few short years out of high school. They are my heroes.

As I’ve said before in the postscript of Bug’s Prayer and Core Values these are the types of people I want my boys to hear about when they ask what a hero is.

One hero who might not be remembered was a friend of mine from aircrew school, Rick Tafoya.

Rick was an Aviation Ordnanceman - AO Aircrewman, not directly in my rate. This was before they made all Aircrew jobs AW jobs.

Rick was cool and a great guy to hang out with, full of energy and positive about his future.

Richard (Rick) Tafoya - VP-50 Blue Dragons d. 1991

I remember running into Rick at the NAS Moffett McDonalds just a few months before his death. It was that night that I had a premonition that one of us wasn’t going to make it. Of course I thought it would be me dying, not him, and that part I recall as clear as yesterday.

Had I not picked VS as my platform. it could have easily been me onboard a VP-50 plane. I would have been in the VP pipeline, and knowing those folks at Alameda and Moffett, I probably would have picked orders to a squadron based there.

There I was… Bored on a Friday…

I was bored one Friday night in either in late 1990 or early 1991 and being underage in San Diego I decided to deadhead up on a C-12 transport to Moffett and see if any of my friends up there were having a fun time. I had just started my final school before the fleet and decided, Have Flightsuit, Will Travel. I knew some of the C-12 aircrew from my time at Pensacola where we all shared common survival training.

In fact one of them stationed at NAS Alameda, Scarlett "Sarah" Connor (best said in a Terminator style voice), was an aircrew classmate of mine from 1989 and she and I definitely did the Aircrew ‘cracks’ together, the O Course, and many other things.

She was also one of the roommates of the very first Navy female to complete SAR school in 1989. Scarlett was stationed up at NAS Alameda and was a blonde knockout who always had a great group to party or hang out with. I figured I would see what was going on and return to North Island either that night on the return leg or on Sunday night.

Of course this was before cell phones, remember what it was like to try to connect with anyone before cellular? If all else failed, I reasoned, I would bomb around the base until I found someone I knew.

I landed at Moffett and couldn’t locate anyone I knew by phone so I decided to take the Duty Driver up on his offer to grab some McD’s before the return flight to San Diego’s NAS North Island. We headed over there and as I walked out I saw Rick.

Rick had a scruffy beard growth and had just broken his arm. He had a grin on a mile wide when he saw me as I was going in and he was coming out.

"You’d better get a shave there shipwreck!" I shouted to Rick, "…don’t you remember that from P-cola?!?"

Rick was laughing as he had seen me at the same time and threw his arms halfway around my back as we shook hands.

We stood there for a short time, catching up.

Rick told me that he didn’t have to shave because he was on light duty, having just broken his arm snowboarding. I told him that I was headed back to NAS North Island but that I would come up again when I had a chance so we could hang out.

He also offered to teach me how to snowboard the next time I was up. According to Rick, the snow was killer in the Sierras. I think he mentioned Mammoth but it could have been Big Bear.

I was on a clock for the return flight so Rick gave me his squadron duty desk phone number and we parted company, me walking out and him walking to the counter to make his order.

I remember it like it was yesterday what happened next. When I walked out those doors a small voice in my head said,

You better turn around, because this is the last time you’re ever going to see Rick.

I stopped and spun around, looking back at Rick through the glass door as it swung closed behind me. Eighteen years later I still remember seeing him half saluting, half waving at me, his hand in the half cast as he stepped to the counter to place his order.

I always figured that I would be the one dying, not Rick. P-3s were notoriously safe, slow and the mindset of a P-3 pilot was more of safety than glory.

S-3 Vikings, my aircraft of career choice, were the ones with a sketchy safety record. Aside from the typical carrier flight deck hazards of getting killed fifty different ways on the way to the aircraft, once you launched there was a sudden death sort of roulette.

There was some sort of uncommanded binding of the flight control upon launch that caused immediate death to three of the four flight crewmembers. Depending on which way it rolled, either the left rear or right rear ejection seat was the only seat within survivable parameters.

That’s why the little voice didn’t bug me. I figured I was the one who would die, and that I’d never see it coming.

Am I getting that old?!?

I can’t recall where I first met Rick - somewhere in the Aircrewman pipeline since we didn’t share a common rate. Still, he was cool and we hung out together from time to time either in San Diego while he was in the barracks for SERE school or in Pensacola. Looking back eighteen years later, I’m not sure whether we were in the same Aircrew class or not but it’s probable that we were.

Regardless, Rick Tafoya, AO, was my friend. He and I did the Aircrew ‘cracks’ at Pensacola either separately or together. We ran the seawall, the obstacle course and the cross country course. We learned drown-proofing and swam a mile in the flight suit. We sweat together. We bled together. We could relate to these things because we’d both had to do them. SERE school was no different.

We learned our inner limits and then we pushed them farther than we thought possible. In doing so, we grew and in doing so, we were all brothers.

Rick’s Goals: Getting Commissioned From The Ranks

We all wanted to actually FLY the plane and we saw Aircrew as a blue-collar way to get there. As Aircrewmen we knew we were the top 1% of the enlisted Navy, and to be accepted into the ECP or NAVCAD programs like Norman Johnson, another contemporary was just a matter of choosing which way to the commission.

If I recall right Rick told me when I saw him that he’d applied to the ECP - Enlisted Commissioning Program - and he urged me to do the same. We all were looking for ways to get

And that other Single Anchor. The pilot’s wings. Rick, like all of us, loved the lifestyle of Naval Aviation. We just weren’t the same as other people. Pilots treated us like little brothers for the most part while we were flying, and we were trained professionals in a dangerous and demanding role.

Most everyone knew at least one or two guys who had their private pilot’s license in Aircrew. I can’t think of a time at any command I was in which didn’t have at least one Aircrew pilot available who we could bum rides from in a Cessna or other base flying club aircraft.

Rick and I both had common friends. One of my great friends at the time, Duncan, was roommates with Brian Cerino, an AW who I knew from A School who was another of Rick’s squadron mates who perished. His story will come later.

The Worst Air Accident In Naval Aviation

During training a few months into 1991 we had just mustered for the morning at VS-41’s schoolhouse when the news got out that there had been a tragic accident off the coast of San Diego between two P-3s.

From the Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1991 article:

…Word of the deaths shattered families around the country.

Among them was the family of Richard Anthony Tafoya, 21, of Glendale, a 1987 graduate of Glendale’s Hoover High School. Tafoya enlisted in the Navy during his senior year to pursue his dream of becoming a "Top Gun"–one of the Navy’s best fighter pilots.

Standing in the driveway of the apartment building where Richard grew up, Tom Tafoya, 25, said his little brother, the youngest of the three Tafoya children, was well on his way to fulfilling his goal.

He was accepted into the Navy’s Officer Training School, Tafoya said. He was so close to becoming a pilot, so close…:

His death seemed impossible, said his sister Valerie Tafoya, 23. After all, just last weekend Richard had driven down from Moffett Naval Air Station near San Francisco to visit his family.

"He was very family oriented," she said. "All his nieces and nephews loved him because he would play with them and he always seemed happy."

In San Diego, meanwhile, Navy officials reported that they had found two lines of debris, including exposure suits and helmets, about 100 yards apart in the ocean.
And at Moffett, in Mountain View, a grim-faced group of Navy officials–buoyed until Thursday morning by the military victory in the Persian Gulf–announced the beginning of two separate investigations to determine what caused the crash that apparently took the lives of Tafoya and 26 others.

The two all-weather P-3 Orion turboprop planes collided in a fiery flash in stormy weather at 2:26 a.m. Thursday 60 miles southwest of San Diego. One plane apparently was arriving to relieve the other, which had been airborne for 7 1/2 hours.

Survivor’s Guilt

I’ll never forget Scarlett’s voice on the phone that morning as she read me the names and ages of the enlisted onboard the two planes. I knew two right away - Tafoya and Cerino.

"My God Chuck", she said as she read one of the ages, "this boy’s not even old enough to drink. He’s only nineteen!"

I reminded her that I was only nineteen. She started crying as she made it through the list, and we soon hung up.

I had two friends whose name I recognized. Hearing Rick’s name was like a knife through my side. I felt rage, sick, you name it, seven steps to acceptance.

That single moment affected Scarlett as well. While I went on to the fleet, and to do several combat WestPacs, Scarlett was stuck in C-12 flight attendant mode. She told me a few years later that it didn’t seem fair that she was restricted from flying combat while our friends died in training accidents, and that it wasn’t fair that she was soaking up a full time shore position someone else could be using in rotation.

As far as I can tell looking back eighteen years ago, Scarlett developed Survivor’s Guilt and her life changed gradually. If I remember correctly, she gave up her flying position and just went back to ground crew until she got out sometime in the mid-1990s.

Thinking back, she was a casualty of the accident as were we all in some manner or another. All the fun we had enjoyed up until then vanished. While the rest of us went off to war, Scarlett dealt with the pain by getting more hardcore about her job but still left the service disillusioned a few years later and we lost touch.

Had I not picked VS as my platform. it could have easily been me onboard a VP-50 plane. I would have been in the VP pipeline, and knowing those folks at Alameda and Moffett, I probably would have picked orders to a squadron based there.

It affected me as well, but I had a combat job to focus on. One of my instructors told us in Aircrew that friends of ours would die. Up until now it had never been so many all at once.

The Impact

The VP-50 mishap was my first glimpse of how grown men handle grief. It was a life changing moment. We were a tight community, we knew each other by name, reputation, face, or in some cases, by sea story.

After the phone call I told Duncan and some others who had been killed. Duncan was Cerino’s roommate and he took it pretty well. I don’t recall if we all met at his room later that afternoon or if he was living off base, but we talked about it as well as we could with our first brush with death.

We all were thinking the same thing. I saw more than one near fistfight in the halls that day as we all went through our duties on edge. Nobody could concentrate. The instructors and some of the students had no doubt heard of it hours prior through their own social network, one that I developed as well when I hit the fleet.

Some of the instructors were on edge also. I remember hearing raised voices in the staff room. Most took the day off as soon as they could clear out.

Topping it off it was a Thursday, the day of the week all the students performed Field Day and scrubbed and waxed the hallways. Afterward we cleared out to grieve in our own separate fashions or in small groups.

In America we lose maybe fifty thousand lives each year in auto accidents, and in the military we lose a fraction of that. In fact, there are those who say that more military died under Clinton in training accidents than under Bush with the war on terror. In our social network, we lost a disproportionate amount because our jobs were inherently risky.

What Really Happened at 2:32am | Cliffy’s Report

Years later I would hear the story of VP-50’s midair from another source. Brian "Cliffy" Kerr, one of the senior AW2s at VS-38, who was on duty in the CIC (Command Information Center) of the USS Abraham Lincoln - the ASWMOD (Anti-Submarine Warfare Module).

Kerr was a tough guy by nature with a bushy mustache and a penchant for flatulence on command. He was also operationally brilliant. Stick him in a plane or position of leadership and he was completely professional and by the book. He and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but he was good. He was also the one who hosted my wing-drinking party even after the 1991 Tailhook fallout made it illegal. That made him ballsy as well.

Brian told me later that at 2:32am he was the night Assistant Division Officer who started the mishap / rescue procedure when he heard one of his radio operators monitoring Alpha X-Ray, the ASW radio say that he couldn’t raise either P-3’s flight crew. Brian checked with radar and they didn’t have either plane squawking IFF transponder.

They were all gone.

Brian told me that it was the hardest thing to pull out the big heavy 3-ring binder which had the step by step procedures in it.  It was hard because he knew in his heart at that moment that he knew some or all of the aircrewmen onboard.

Brian’s take was that they were coming down as the other P-3 was climbing and they just impacted without ever seeing each other. I asked him if it could have been prevented and he shook his head stating there was no precedence, maybe if the aircraft commanders had thought of it. Otherwise it was just another case of pilot error.

Since then, the lesson written in blood in ASW operations was to always have sight of the other party or to standoff at least five miles or so with constant headings.

From the LA Times:

… In Glendale on Friday, the talk among friends and neighbors who had gathered to console Richard Tafoya’s family was not of mechanical failure or the lack of it, or even whether stormy weather was the culprit. It was of a young man’s passion for playing his guitar and for running–both of which his family said he excelled in.

They recalled that he had received a varsity letter in football his senior year at Hoover, earned good grades and was well-known both at school and in his neighborhood.

"He was an unselfish person, one who would do anything to help others," his brother said.

"He had many, many friends in Glendale and in the Navy."

Rick was my friend and I miss him

Rick Tafoya is one of my heroes because he was my friend. He and Cerino were not people I saw daily but we were all family. He and I did the Aircrew ‘cracks’ at Pensacola. We ran the seawall. We ran the obstacle course and the cross country course.

We sweat together. We bled together. We learned our inner limits and then we pushed them farther than we thought possible. In doing so, we grew up together and as such, we were brothers. As Scarlett is one of our sisters. We all hurt when one of us hurt.

He was a brother, and I miss him. I miss him not teaching me to snowboard, and to this day I still haven’t learned.

I’m unsure if I’m still waiting for Rick, nearly twenty years later, smiling and scruffy, hand outstreched in a mock wave or salute, to call me up so we can go hit the slopes and he can teach me how to grind.

Until that day, Rick.

I’ve lost a few friends while in the service. There have been times that I didn’t know if I would make it myself - whatever scrape or close call occurred I made it out.

Those who didn’t still deserve my remembrance. I have a few friends, some close, some not so close.

All were brothers

I recall five years ago I was at the gas pump at Costco here in San Diego and saw a helo patch and aircrew wings on the flight suit of the guy next to me.

I introduced myself, rattled off four names and he brightened when he recognized one. I told him that guy used to be my roommate off-base.

He stuck out his hand, saying, Good to meet you, Brother.

We all ran the seawall. We ran the obstacle course and the cross country course. We sweat together. We bled together. We learned our inner limits and then we pushed them farther than we thought possible.

In doing so, we grew up together and as such, we were brothers.

The first two fleet S-3 Viking AWs I met are both dead. Both died outside the combat zone by violent means. One as the casualty of a robbery in progress, the other from self-inflicted wounds, perhaps from scars we all share.

We all hurt when one of us hurts

I remember one fall day in 1989 Millington, Tennessee when I was in A School going out to the flight line to see the Viking. I had wanted to fly in jets since I found out it was possible for this 17-year-old volunteer to do so. McCracken and Mongo (at least I think it was Mongo) were standing by the jet.

Trevor McCracken - VS-38 Red Griffin Viking SENSO d. 1992

I remember Crack particularly because he was the one who let me, as an 18 year old sit in the SENSO station for the first time on a cold Sunday in Tennessee. Climbing in, I remember the smell of the aircraft I would later fly nearly 900 hours in, I remember the walkthrough he gave me on the ejection seat. I promised myself I would fly in one of those jets.

Crack served with VS-38 during Operation Desert Storm, got an air medal, and would later return to Millington as an instructor. It was his unexpected death only a few months after starting his first shore duty that shocked all of us who knew him.

Here is an excerpt from the appeal case file from Tennessee found on FindLaw.com

Derrick Taylor and David Poindexter are brothers. On April 24, 1992 they entered the Bank of Mason; and, brandishing pistols, ordered the bank tellers to put money from the teller drawers into pillowcases they had brought. Defendant Taylor also forced the bank’s president to open the bank vault. Defendants then made all the bank employees lie on the floor as they left the bank building. As they departed, the duo removed their ski masks, and got into a four-door, blue Chevrolet Caprice, bearing license plate MRC-931, and drove off.

Defendants led a string of police officers on a high speed chase from Mason to Millington, Tennessee, and ultimately to the Millington Naval Air Station, about fifteen or twenty miles from Mason. When defendants reached Millington, Taylor, the driver, turned onto Bethuel Road, driving in a northerly direction. Bethuel is a two-lane road that runs along the eastern edge of Millington Naval Air Station.

A Chevy Lumina and a pickup truck were traveling ahead of defendants in the same direction. As defendants, driving north in the south-bound lane, attempted to pass the slower-moving cars in the left-hand lane, they broadsided the Chevy Lumina as it was making a left-hand turn into the naval housing area. The collision pushed the Lumina into a large tree. The driver, Trevor McCracken was critically injured in the crash and died several days later.

The pickup truck, which had been directly behind McCracken’s car, pulled over to offer assistance. Defendants, who had left their now wrecked Chevrolet, ran up to the pickup truck with their guns drawn. Taylor ran to the driver’s side, where Matt Wagner was seated, and Poindexter ran to the passenger’s side, occupied by Ray Morgan. When Wagner attempted to put his truck in reverse, defendant Taylor shot through the driver’s door window, shattering it. The single shot struck Wagner; and the broken glass struck Morgan. Wagner drove off after being shot. He later lost a kidney as a result.

At this point, Millington police officers arrived. Defendants ran into the Navy base’s family housing area. They came upon a woman, Christine Romero Brock, who was out on her back porch with her two children. Defendants told Brock that they had been in an accident. She offered to call an ambulance and moved toward her back door. Defendants seized Brock and forced her into the house with them. Defendants held Brock and her son hostage in the house for approximately half an hour. Her one-year old daughter was left outside alone.

The officers followed a trail of defendants’ blood to Brock’s porch, and surrounded the home. Moments later they burst inside and arrested defendants. Defendants were wearing the same clothes they had on during the robbery. The stolen money was found scattered in the base housing area. Defendant Poindexter’s .38 pistol was found in a closet of Brock’s home.

Just so you know how the appeal went:

We have reviewed the remaining issues raised by defendants and determined that they do not warrant discussion. In summation, we AFFIRM the defendants’ judgments of convictions as well as their sentences.

Crack was also the guy whose slot in the squadron I took over when I got there as a nugget aircrewman from the FRAC, VS-41 in 1992.

I was the only nugget, I had a big mouth and an even bigger ego. I hadn’t "Been there - done that" yet and I was the only AW without an Air Medal.

I made rate that June. I was now the newest 2nd Class in the shop. The other thirds were blown away. Not only did I have McCracken’s shoes to fill but I also outranked eight other guys who had been to Desert Storm.

Casper and Wallace flew out for the funeral. Yes, we sent a squadron jet there at taxpayer expense.

It was the right thing to do.

Over this Memorial Day I’ll do more of these for our fallen brothers. This is too heavy a subject for me to just gloss over without thinking through exactly what to write.

If you’ve got comments for any of them, post them or contact me directly.

Continuing my Memorial Day series… Here’s an analysis and OpEd piece done by Joe Lieberman.

Democrats and Our Enemies | Wall Street Journal

By JOSEPH LIEBERMAN
May 21, 2008; Page A19

How did the Democratic Party get here? How did the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy drift so far from the foreign policy and national security principles and policies that were at the core of its identity and its purpose?

Beginning in the 1940s, the Democratic Party was forced to confront two of the most dangerous enemies our nation has ever faced: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In response, Democrats under Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy forged and conducted a foreign policy that was principled, internationalist, strong and successful.

This was the Democratic Party that I grew up in – a party that was unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American, a party that was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders. It was a party that understood that either the American people stood united with free nations and freedom fighters against the forces of totalitarianism, or that we would fall divided.

This was the Democratic Party of Harry Truman, who pledged that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

And this was the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, who promised in his inaugural address that the United States would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of freedom."

This worldview began to come apart in the late 1960s, around the war in Vietnam. In its place, a very different view of the world took root in the Democratic Party.

Rather than seeing the Cold War as an ideological contest between the free nations of the West and the repressive regimes of the communist world, this rival political philosophy saw America as the aggressor – a morally bankrupt, imperialist power whose militarism and "inordinate fear of communism" represented the real threat to world peace.

It argued that the Soviets and their allies were our enemies not because they were inspired by a totalitarian ideology fundamentally hostile to our way of life, or because they nursed ambitions of global conquest. Rather, the Soviets were our enemy because we had provoked them, because we threatened them, and because we failed to sit down and accord them the respect they deserved. In other words, the Cold War was mostly America’s fault.

Of course that leftward lurch by the Democrats did not go unchallenged. Democratic Cold Warriors like Scoop Jackson fought against the tide. But despite their principled efforts, the Democratic Party through the 1970s and 1980s became prisoner to a foreign policy philosophy that was, in most respects, the antithesis of what Democrats had stood for under Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy.

Then, beginning in the 1980s, a new effort began on the part of some of us in the Democratic Party to reverse these developments, and reclaim our party’s lost tradition of principle and strength in the world. Our band of so-called New Democrats was successful sooner than we imagined possible when, in 1992, Bill Clinton and Al Gore were elected. In the Balkans, for example, as President Clinton and his advisers slowly but surely came to recognize that American intervention, and only American intervention, could stop Slobodan Milosevic and his campaign of ethnic slaughter, Democratic attitudes about the use of military force in pursuit of our values and our security began to change.

This happy development continued into the 2000 campaign, when the Democratic candidate – Vice President Gore – championed a freedom-focused foreign policy, confident of America’s moral responsibilities in the world, and unafraid to use our military power. He pledged to increase the defense budget by $50 billion more than his Republican opponent – and, to the dismay of the Democratic left, made sure that the party’s platform endorsed a national missile defense.

By contrast, in 2000, Gov. George W. Bush promised a "humble foreign policy" and criticized our peacekeeping operations in the Balkans.

Today, less than a decade later, the parties have completely switched positions. The reversal began, like so much else in our time, on September 11, 2001. The attack on America by Islamist terrorists shook President Bush from the foreign policy course he was on. He saw September 11 for what it was: a direct ideological and military attack on us and our way of life. If the Democratic Party had stayed where it was in 2000, America could have confronted the terrorists with unity and strength in the years after 9/11.

Instead a debate soon began within the Democratic Party about how to respond to Mr. Bush. I felt strongly that Democrats should embrace the basic framework the president had advanced for the war on terror as our own, because it was our own. But that was not the choice most Democratic leaders made. When total victory did not come quickly in Iraq, the old voices of partisanship and peace at any price saw an opportunity to reassert themselves.

By considering centrism to be collaboration with the enemy – not bin Laden, but Mr. Bush – activists have successfully pulled the Democratic Party further to the left than it has been at any point in the last 20 years.

Far too many Democratic leaders have kowtowed to these opinions rather than challenging them. That unfortunately includes Barack Obama, who, contrary to his rhetorical invocations of bipartisan change, has not been willing to stand up to his party’s left wing on a single significant national security or international economic issue in this campaign.

In this, Sen. Obama stands in stark contrast to John McCain, who has shown the political courage throughout his career to do what he thinks is right – regardless of its popularity in his party or outside it.

John also understands something else that too many Democrats seem to have become confused about lately – the difference between America’s friends and America’s enemies.

There are of course times when it makes sense to engage in tough diplomacy with hostile governments. Yet what Mr. Obama has proposed is not selective engagement, but a blanket policy of meeting personally as president, without preconditions, in his first year in office, with the leaders of the most vicious, anti-American regimes on the planet.

Mr. Obama has said that in proposing this, he is following in the footsteps of Reagan and JFK. But Kennedy never met with Castro, and Reagan never met with Khomeini. And can anyone imagine Presidents Kennedy or Reagan sitting down unconditionally with Ahmadinejad or Chavez? I certainly cannot.

If a president ever embraced our worst enemies in this way, he would strengthen them and undermine our most steadfast allies.

A great Democratic secretary of state, Dean Acheson, once warned "no people in history have ever survived, who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies." This is a lesson that today’s Democratic Party leaders need to relearn.

Mr. Lieberman is an Independent Democratic senator from Connecticut. This article is adapted from a speech he gave May 18 at a dinner hosted by Commentary magazine.

In My Opinion

My personal opinion prior to the 2006 election where Lieberman was kicked out of his own party was that if more military members became elected Democratic Party (read: New Democrat, centrist, moderate, defense-based) members in the House and Senate, they would wield truer power than if they competed for existing Republican party seats.

Boy, did I underestimate what occurred within the Dem party after 2001. I had a very tough choice between Gore and Bush in the 2000 election, and Lieberman was one of the reasons why. He was a strong foreign policy guy who believes in strong national defense.  

I guess I could have taken my cue from Hillary Clinton’s body language during the Sep 24 2001 address to Congress that Bush did.