Shore Leave

For what its worth Larry Bond's new web site

1. While playing ANW against Herman Hum, he told me that there was a torpedo heading for my last submarine. I said that I'd believe it when I "heard" it. Then I got wiped out by a nuclear "Starfish". But it was still a draw. 2. Witnessing a Ka-25 helicopter help take out two submarines in "Surge into the Barents". Please, add your own.

From National Defense, November 2008 issue Customers Blamed for Military Aircraft Sticker Shock By Sandra I. Erwin The justification most often heard for the spiraling costs of military aircraft is that the Pentagon is ordering fewer of them, so they become more expensive to build. But that theory doesn’t hold water, says a recent government-funded study. The Rand Corp. examined cost trends for every military aircraft — patrol, cargo, trainer, bomber, attack, fighter and electronic warfare — for the past quarter century. It found that labor costs have grown only slightly faster than inflation, but the proportion of labor cost in overall aircraft price tags …

An interesting slide show of a tour of the Virginia class SSN, USS Texas: USS Texas slide show

Take a look at the mayhem, appears a bit like Civilization http://weewar.com/

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 …

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…

"Next Generation of Navy Uniform Arrives", here at Military.Com http://www.military.com/news/article/navy-...ml?ESRC=navy.nl Page down for some entertaining comments from the guys in the fleet. Buddha

I thought this was a really well-written piece, good patriotic stuff as some of us remember that fateful day. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1207/Pea...December-7-1941

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.…

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

This is why F-15s and/or Israeli pilots kick butt http://www.sonnyradio.com/F15.html Absolutely amazing, even the Holy Cow mooed for this one

Any opinions on the PBS Carrier series airing in the US at present? http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/ I watched the first 2 hours and found it mostly boring but worth the time anyway for some nice shots. Tonight was hours 6 and 7 here, of which I watched about 20 minutes of hour 6 and found it much more engaging than the first two hours (Nimitz made it to the Iraqi area of operations). While I don't think the series is a treasure trove of hard platform data, I think it sheds a lot of light on the people factor. One thing that struck me was, "gee, I wonder how much of the crew would be left if this were a Soviet Union crew from back when questioning the p…

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

This is pretty interesting: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110408/lf_nm_...ritain_warplane Buddha

Ammo case HTPC mod http://l33tgamer.blogspot.com/2009/09/ammo...e-htpc-mod.html Would I butcher a precious ammo can to make a comp case? No. Does it look cool when someone else does? Yes.

here. Don't know how long it will be here. Need DirectX and apparently Quicktime. Here is the museums site in case there is further interest.

Thanks to Tony and his hometown Minnesota Twins for shipping Johan Santana to the Met's. After last year's debacle on the final day, we can at least look forward to spring training with if not MLB Pitcher 1a, then 1b.

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…

From Navy Times Skelton’s recommended military reading By Rick Maze - Staff writer Posted : Friday Jul 31, 2009 16:14:01 EDT The House Armed Services Committee chairman has come up with a new national security reading list of 50 essential books that he personally recommends for military officers and noncommissioned and petty officers, as well as his colleagues. Reading the list is not essential to testify before the committee, but Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who prepared a similar list in 2003, doesn’t mind if people think so. Skelton, an avid reader, said he feels strongly that officers and senior enlisted members need to read books about military strategy…