Breaking: Pentagon Downs Japanese Planes…

…after they had finished their business over Pearl Harbor.

Someone on the ground might have been injured had they acted earlier, after all.

US Army Secretary Takes “Believe All Women”

…to pretty uncomfortable places.

Secretary Warmuth told CBS News she wants to encourage people to come forward with sexual misconduct claims, so this is news:

She plans to sign a “Safe to Report” policy next month which would protect survivors who report assault from getting in trouble if there are other minor, disciplinary issues.

I have questions.

A “Get Out of Jail Free” card?

Who protects the accused?

What if he is exonerated of assault, but gets slammed for, say, underage drinking, some vague ‘conduct unbecoming,’ or one of the million other MINOR things that the current woke-ass military is so fond of slapping these kids around with…and she doesn’t?

I have questions.

Why don’t they try teaching these young women – whom they expect to be such hard chargers on a battlefield, guns, ammo, killing people, etc – how to assert themselves to begin with? They’re all being groomed into these shrinking violets, fawking tattle tales, instead of the Valkyries they need to be. The WARRIORS they’re supposed to be. One hand is saying “GIVE HER A RANGER TAB!!” while the paternal other is saying, “Oh, my gosh, RUN TO DADDY, you protected species, you!”

And we haven’t even BEGUN to address the revenge accusations that are endemic anymore.

He won’t date me?

Attempted rape.

Gave me deservedly crappy marks on an eval?

Sexually harassed me.

Criticized my work ethic/suggests I contribute the same as the rest of the shop members?

Hates women, hostile environment.

Dear God.

D-Day

God bless them. Every one.

Stolen Valor

This (CAUTION: NSFW language warning) made me so mad I could spit. I knew she was a fraud the second I saw the picture, because her collar emblems (the eagle, globe and anchors on her lapels) were anchors OUT. (Every Marine – EVERY REAL MARINE – knows they go anchors inboard.) And that’s before you get to the ridiculous chest candy, and unauthorized earrings.

But holy schamoly – the unmitigated gall of the fraud.

Spitting nails.

Memorial Day 2021

We remember.

And we miss you terribly, SSG John.

God bless them, EVERY. ONE.

God bless America.

Memorial Day 2020

There might not be tiny little American flags at Barrancas National Cemetery, but that’s just window dressing anyway.

We remember. Our John Perry. Capt Nathan Nylander.

All of them.

And thank them all from the bottom of our grateful hearts.

A Lifetime Ago

A lifetime for those there in the horror, and, for so precious many, the final days of their young lives.

“Uncommon valor was a common virtue.“

Adm Chester Nimitz

I Hate Pajama Boys

Hateses them.

UPDATE: I see that the original poster has chosen to finally delete his tweet, after taking what could generously be described as a brutal pounding. Let me set the scene for you:

A video of the moving walkway at Atlanta airport. As travelers – including the poster – use the center conveyor, the sides are flanked with hundreds of American SOLDIERS, probably members of the 82d, awaiting transport to the latest flare-up in the always peaceful Middle East. Some are walking along the glass railing adjacent to the autowalk, but most are just patiently standing in line. A LONG line along the terminal walls.

The poster’s written comment on HIS video?

This is terrifying.

The tweet below was my answer.

After deleting his despicable commentary on America’s blood and treasure, “Danny Ocean” settled for this:

I assume we are all meant to worship at the altar of his profoundness.

UPDATE PART DEUX: Well, lookee here what I found when I opened the laptop. A “terrifying” moment in time, frozen for all eternity.

You be the judge…

I HATE these POS.

************************************************************************

And I hope you all don’t mind my dropping the tweets in here. It’s a prelude to being about to post on a regular basis like I used to years ago, as I am now a member of the great unwashed and unemployed, which is VERY MUCH to my liking.

Here’s fair warning…gird yer loins.

The Heart of a Lion

“He was so excited about being a pilot,” his mother told me.

The pictures on her phone, one after another, scrolled slowly as she savored them. Held her finger over his face, rubbed his shoulder in the frame. Here he was last weekend, just glowing with happiness, playing with the little ones during a visit. Here he was with his dad – ALL the men in this family are big guys, happy guys. There’s the pictures at his Naval Academy graduation, him and his father, both so proud, with an arm around each other. She has his official Annapolis portrait, too.

“He was shot five times, they told us.” Oh, dear. God.

To hear a mother say that. I had my arm around her, like moms do to other moms – especially service moms, when they are speaking the unspeakable and unthinkable about their babies.

“They said he climbed over the partition and charged the shooter. Went crazy on him. And then still managed to get outside to the first responders. Tell them what he looked like, who was doing the shooting.“

“Oh, ” I said. “Oh, he had the heart of a lion!”

“Oh, yes. He did.“

Joshua would succumb to those bullet wounds shortly thereafter at Baptist Hospital.

I would meet his parents and two brothers the next day, as they tried to find a short order funeral suit for the eldest one. They are lovely people, rightfully proud of their hero, and devastated at his loss.

This couple has raised some awesome young men. Somehow, some way, they are handling this horrific, unfathomable event with such dignity and grace, you sense where the tremendous power of determination to charge an armed terrorist sprang from.

I held Joshua’s mom tight before she left, and told her, “I want you to know, please know, we are ALL with you in this. Every one of us has you all, and your son in our hearts. Thank you for your boy.”

Their magnificent lion of a son.

God bless you, brave boy.

Thank you.

Don Cherry Fired

How dare you say such things

“You people… love our way of life, love our milk and honey. At least you could pay a couple of bucks for poppies or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada.”

The Truth shall set you free…of your job, it seems.

He’s 100% correct, and so of course has to go.

Fly Me to the Moon

Let me play among the stars,

Let me tap into your checking,

See if you’re shagging chicks in bars.

In other words, please be true.

In other words, I’ll know if you do.

It’s a brave, new world.

UPDATE: So far, the female astronauts at NASA have not covered themselves in glory, and it’s worse if you look at it from a percentage aspect! I can’t name a single male astronaut with an assault case or attempted murder off the top of my head.

Okay. Quick search says 50 women have qualified as US “astronauts,” in space or waiting to go. So far one certified homicidal maniac, and now this whack job felon. There have been 336 guys. Hmmm…what am I missing here?

Layers And Layers Of Fact-Checkers Part MCMLV

Courtesy of MSN, here’s a little historical tidbit that I’ll bet you didn’t know:

General McClellan and Union forces won the Siege of Yorktown in 1862 to win the Revolutionary war!

Boy, that Lincoln guy just didn’t give George all the credit he deserved…

Update: Here’s the link https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/today-in-history-april-5/ss-BBVmP8p?ocid=spartanntp#image=3

On Slide 10 they have Howard Hughes…dying in a plane crash?

Dare I say “Fake News”?

The Little Native American Drummer Boy

…Nathan Phillips, is a miserable piece of shit and doesn’t qualify in the spirit of the word “veteran.”

No, he wasn’t a “recon RANGER.”
No, he NEVER deployed, “Vietnam era” or not. (So much for his moaning “When I come home, those times, I got spit on & called a baby killer.” Come HOME? HE. NEVER. LEFT.)

Don Shipley got the DD-214.

Self-described "recon ranger" Nathan Phillips was a rifleman for two days and a refrigerator mechanic in Lincoln, Nebraska and El Toro, California the rest of his service. Retired a private.https://t.co/exSIHBGWS9 pic.twitter.com/vJg4WtYzcz

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 23, 2019

(FOIA response to Don Shipley via Phil Kerpan)
He was a Marine Corps RESERVIST, drilled for 2 years, went active duty for two more…

…and THEN spent some of his time UA/AWOL. Did brig time. (For the uninitiated, that means JAIL.) Acronym decoder: AAHA – Awaiting Higher Authority, CNFT – Confinement

For his distinguished record of “service,” he was discharged as a FUCKING PRIVATE after 4 years. An accomplishment – especially in the reserves – it takes some major screw-ups to pull off.

And now he intimidates 14 year olds.
Who coulda seen THAT coming?

SCOTUS UpHolds Transgender Military Ban

BREAKING: Supreme Court allows transgender military ban to go into effect

(CNN) — The Supreme Court is allowing President Trump’s Transgender Military ban to go into effect.

The Justices did not rule on the merits of the case but will allow the ban to go forward while the lower courts work through it. LGBT activists call the ban cruel and irrational. The policy blocks individuals who have been diagnosed with a condition known as gender dysphoria from serving with limited exceptions. It was first announced by President Trump in July 2017 via twitter.

Good.

The military isn’t a RIGHT. It exists to protect this country, and the person who seeks to join must bring something to the military, not the other way around. There are a million reasons one cannot join: from flat feet to diabetes to epilepsy and so on. Your fervent wish to be something you are not – a purely personal decision vice medical necessity – at lifetime cost and expense to the country you supposedly wish to serve while being relieved of myriad responsibilities normally a requirement of service, does not grant you special status over those who never asked for their disqualifying afflictions. And are forbidden from that same service.

ADDENDUM:

Previous detailed Swilling posts on transgenders in the military are here and here.

Semper Fi, Gunny

Today, Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey was laid to rest @ArlingtonNatl.

Semper Fi, Gunny. pic.twitter.com/brzplZMBne

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) January 18, 2019

Just Horrific

Worse than you thought

A scathing internal Navy probe into the 2017 collision that drowned seven sailors on the guided-missile destroyer Fitzgerald details a far longer list of problems plaguing the vessel, its crew and superior commands than the service has publicly admitted.
Obtained by Navy Times, the “dual-purpose investigation” was overseen by Rear Adm. Brian Fort and submitted 41 days after the June 17, 2017, tragedy.
It was kept secret from the public in part because it was designed to prep the Navy for potential lawsuits in the aftermath of the accident.
Unsparingly, Fort and his team of investigators outlined critical lapses by bridge watchstanders on the night of the collision with the Philippine-flagged container vessel ACX Crystal in a bustling maritime corridor off the coast of Japan.
Their report documents the routine, almost casual, violations of standing orders on a Fitz bridge that often lacked skippers and executive officers, even during potentially dangerous voyages at night through busy waterways.

Infamy

Today is that day.

December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. It drew us into a war we tried to stay out of. It awoke a sleeping giant. We will never forget the sacrifices of our U. S. Military. We should also not forget the lessons learned. pic.twitter.com/cVcoQmpFEa

— Marine Corps League (@MCL_HQ) December 7, 2018

And, sadly, we are losing these guys.

For first time, no USS Arizona survivors will be in attendance at ceremonies to mark attack on Pearl Harbor

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – When a moment of silence is observed at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center Friday morning to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor, it will be without an important component.

No one who survived the bombing of the USS Arizona battleship will be in the audience.

“This is the very first year,” said Daniel Martinez, historian with the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

Health issues and doctor’s orders prevented Lou Conter from coming.

“She said you cannot go. You better cancel out,” he said in telephone interview from his home in California.

Conter is 97. The handful of survivors of the battleship’s sinking are all in their 90s.

“I’ve noticed the interest of people asking, ‘Will there be any of them there?’ because they’ve been so visible,” Martinez said.

You can fight everything, but time.

#Remember

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

…to my BELOVED Corps!!!

Marines kicking ass ??
Marines’ Hymn ??
243 years of Motivation ??#MarineCorpsBirthday pic.twitter.com/eCED04ubh2

— U.S. Marines (@USMC) November 10, 2018

And to my loved ones, brothers, and sisters in green, a hearty #SemperFi

35 Years Ago Today

And nothing’s changed.

They’re still the murderous goat fuckers they’ve been from the beginning.

D-Day

Eisenhower while speaking to veterans in 1952 about those who died under his command on D-Day: #Walker pic.twitter.com/GkivO8nrMq

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) June 6, 2018

#NeverForgotten

In an EPIC Reenactment Event

…the 82nd Airborne is LIVE-TWEETING the D-Day invasion, hour-by-hour, as it happened for them. Filled with tidbits, maps, illustration, photos and GREAT BIG BALLS OF ALL-AMERICAN BRASS, it’s SPECTACULAR.

Check in on it and scroll through history as it happened.

And God bless them. EVERY. ONE.

#AADDayReenactment
We're in it, folks! This is our D Day Reenactment. For the next 17 hours we'll bring you an "as it happened" play-by-play of The Division's actions during D Day.
Follow along, ask questions, comment.
We're typing this as we go cuz we want to interact w/ u pic.twitter.com/G5oBQ7ui0s

— All American Division (@82ndABNDiv) June 5, 2018

Remember

At the end of April I had the honor of bearing and raising the colors in a joint march and memorial here in Western Australia for ANZAC day. The holiday was first started to commemorate the loss of more than 60,000 men of the Australian and New Zealander Army Corps during the First World War, later representing a commemorative service for all war dead in the subsequent years with a nationwide dawn service. As the suns sets here in Australia, it’s just starting to ink the horizon of the East coast of the United States with brighter shades and will begin our Memorial Day, like ANZAC day, remembering those who gave their lives that others might live and do so in freedom.

For those of us that have served, the concept of degrees of separation is far less than six to be remembering a missing brother or sister in arms today, even family. For we Americans, regardless of their degrees of separation, today is a day of reflection, of doing the things that our loved ones loved to do, remembering the good times gone by, helping families cope and visiting the lost. Flowers are laid, prayers are said, tears and laughter alike to be had.

Those of us abroad who can’t be home to visit with loved ones or visit the resting place of our family carry our own tributes. It might be a bracelet, a small token, pictures, but it helps. I picked up our flag in April in my own remembrance of not just of our fallen allies, but of our own joint fallen in these last decades of combat, to include the closest thing I have to a little brother. I spent today kayaking and making a haphazard attempt to fish which I know John would have been in tears laughing to watch, because boating and fishing were two things we enjoyed doing as children; things he obviously got far, far better at than me as an adult. In a few hours, instead of raising a flag, I’ll put a beer on the table next to John’s picture since that was the last brew we had together a few years back while I was TDY in Colorado, where he was stationed. After, I’ll sit back and watch Predator, one of our favorite movies growing up and I’ll probably follow that up with Aliens. I’ll call my folks and John’s folks once they get up and we’ll talk about old times and what’s going on now, I’ll send John’s wife and munchkins my love. Coincidentally, today is also my birthday and the irrationality of it all is that if I had a birthday wish it’s for the one thing I really can’t have, outside of old pictures like when we went to Medieval Times as kids for my birthday. I was born four years before John and am thankful for every moment we had, but I’ll be damned if I don’t wish I woke up in my bed in Guam the morning I got the news and it was all just a horrid dream.

Across the globe folks are doing similar things remembering the thousands of other losses in a service to sustaining our way of life. If you have half a chance, I’d ask you attend a memorial today, be a part of that national tribute to those that went before us. It doesn’t particularly matter if you don’t know someone who’s been taken in service of our Nation, you’re a tribute to their passage because you are walking, talking example of what that sacrifice was meant to preserve: you are an American.

Love you and miss you brother.

~ Ebola

“Rommel! You Magnificent Bastard!”

“I READ YOUR BOOK!!!”

Probably would have helped if Lil’ Rocket Man had a copy of The Art of the Deal, right?

Photo: Reuters

While Nobody Was Looking

…the Vice-President’s Army physician was busy tanking somebody’s reputation and career.

According to four administration officials, the main allegations were brought forth by Vice President Mike Pence’s Army physician Dr. Jennifer Pena, who is assigned to Pence by the White House Medical Unit and does not work directly for the office of the Vice President. Those officials contend Pena has held a long-time grudge against Jackson because of his continuing promotions in the White House. She began her career at the White House during the Obama administration. According to the officials, Pena, who is still active military and assigned to the White House Military Office, did not follow proper protocol to report on the allegations. Instead, she went directly to the Senate with the support of some current and former White House medical staff who were her loyalists. None of the allegations she allegedly brought forth have been substantiated.

She “held a long time grudge“?!?! That’s IT?!?! And in this #MeToo #MeanGirlzRule age, I guess that gives you the “by your leave” to just act out your fit of pique and destroy willy nilly, as long as the target goes down.

There’s United States Army honor, courage and integrity values for you!

Now, as Ebola rightly pointed out, ANY service member can jump the chain of command and go straight to their Congressional delegation, for ANYTHING, free of repercussion. In most cases, those events have to do with legitimate service beefs, not indulging in personal vendettas and acting out.

It also makes one wonder, as all the “loyalists” and the ringleader herself are OBAMA HOLDOVERS, why weren’t these horrific allegations and turbid insinuations brought up when Mr. Feelz was president? SURELY HE was the guy to vanquish this toxically masculine insult to all that is moral and straight in the White House Medical Corps?

Surely he was. Unless justice wasn’t where you were going in the first place.

As RealJeffS said, I too, am hoping she finds herself – swiftly – in a lovely methadone clinic in Nan’s San Fran, accepting dirty needles back from the needy. It would be quite a while before I’d trust her with clean ones.

Whoever’s Service This Young Man Belonged to

…this is GHASTLY:

Russian pilot blows himself up to avoid capture by jihadists

…Maj. Roman Filipov’s Sukhoi 25SM fighter was struck by a portable surface-to-air missile as he flew low over opposition-held Idlib in northwestern Syria, according to the UK’s Telegraph.

The 33-year-old pilot managed to keep the plane in the air briefly but was forced to bail out after one of the engines failed and his flight controls became unresponsive.

Extremists from al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham opened fire on him after his parachute opened, but he made it to the ground and shot two of the rebels with his Stechkin pistol, the Express reported.

Dramatic video circulating in social media shows the fighters ducking as the gutsy aviator then shouts, “This is for our guys!”

He then pulls the grenade’s pin and blows himself up.

But, really, the only alternative to capture when facing Obama’s JV Team, considering their well cataloged horrific treatment of anybody and everybody NOT THEM.

I only wish he could have taken more of the vile animals with him.