Shore Leave

For some time now, you have been an amusing, albeit mostly incoherent annoyance. But today you crossed a line. With that high cut helmet, carefully designed to allow your professionally coiffed hair to flow freely, you have tried to hijack a moment that y...ou can't even begin to understand. You decided that an event that has for years been intended to call attention to our POW/MIAs would make a really cool photo-op, as well as a great kick-off for your next get-rich-quick scheme. Well, Sarah, you picked my war this time. I had several buddies, two of whom died within a couple of meters of me, and you zoomed right past their names on The Wall today; winking and smiling …

Friends, If you are interested in trying your hand at writing some material for rpgs, please check out... http://e23.sjgames.com/gurps-wish-list.html As you will see, for a number of the proposed titles "the value of this series resides almost entirely in the quality of the research"--they don't want people who are just making things up, they want authors who actually know their stuff. Naturally, I thought of you guys. Some of the books will discuss government agencies, military history, political hot spots, civilian and military vehicles, and building-sized locations like oil rigs and military checkpoints. Again, you can see why I thought of you guys.…

Tom McFarland posted this link in a mailing to the HULL: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/29/nyregion...-talk-love.html Pretty interesting. Buddha

Australians puzzled by 'ghost ship' Yacht found floating with engine running, food on table, but no crew Reuters Updated: 5:39 a.m. ET April 20, 2007 SYDNEY, Australia - Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the “Mary Celeste” style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew. The 36-foot catamaran was found 80 nautical miles off Townsville on the northeast coast, but there was no sign of the three crewmen who had set sail from Queensland state bound for Australia’s west coast on Sunday. “What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal, there was just no sign…

ROFL http://www.blackholesurplus.com/A_BH_FISH.htm

Strategy, wargames and OSINT the latest 50 years: https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htwin/articles/20220619.aspx

War Books: The Operational Level of War (MWI)

So, after 35 years as host of that venerable game show, "The Price is Right", Bob Baker is retiring in May. The field of candidates is narrowing, with the buzz in Hollywood indicating that Mark Steines, George Hamilton and Mario Lopez are top contenders, together with Todd Newton, John O'Hurley and Mike Richards. But now, with the end of the debacle of the British Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines held in Iran, a new contender has emerged: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The return of the 15 British military personnel was a "gift" to the British people from Iran. They even departed on a first class British Airways flight, complete with new suits and othe…

Cold war, spooks, Sci-Fi and Lovecraftiana in a little instant classic, including the hypothetical nuclear-powered B-39 Peacemaker, in service 1955?-1985?, launcher of XK-Pluto: http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

Gaming the System: Obstacles to Reinvigorating Defense Wargaming (War on the Rocks)

Law of the Sea: A Policy Primer (Fletcher School)

I've asked on chat, but wondered what everone else thought about GDW's Air Superiority/Air Strike (which morphed into The Speed of Heat from Clash of Arms - publisher of our beloved Harpoon 4.1 and the rest of the Admiratly Trilogy. AS/AS models individual planes in the 80's and 90's. Each hex is 1/3 of a mile, 12-15 seconds per turn, targets, err I mean ground units (in Air Strike) include fireteams/platoons and individual vehicles, along with a slew of counters representing everything from bridges, dry docks, port facilities, POL, command postsfactory/warehouses, rail yards, power stations, airfield/facilities, shelters, etc. I've been toying around with it for…

Balad warfighters unleash new weapon against insurgents "Two F-16 pilots with the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron here executed the first-ever combat employment of a GBU-54 Aug. 12 against a moving enemy vehicle in Diyala province to support a combined Iraqi army and U.S. Marine operation." http://www.balad.afnews.af.mil/shared/medi...-080827-020.wmv

So who's looking forward to this one? If its anything like Band of Brothers ...

The story starts in an alternate universe with the battlecruiser Amagi fighting the ABDA elements in Java Sea, and later all is more complicated ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyermen

Final Flight video

For all you fans of Silent Hunter III, the GWX 2.0 upgrade to the excellent GWX mod is now available: GWX 2.0 download link

They are people for everything, this guy makes impressive model torpedoes : http://www.pt-boat.com/torpedo/torpedo.html

For the hordes of people trying to get on IRC to chat (I wish!)... The server will be down for a period of time hopefully less than 4 hours today starting sometime between 11am and 2pm Central time. The server is making a physical move along with the Internet connection.