Friday, June 29, 2007

On Vacation

My wife and I are leaving for a two week vacation in Alaska. When we return, I'll resume the blog. Thanks for visiting the site anyway.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Army Recruiting

Saw this in the Army Times (online) newspaper today: "The military is opening the door to many recruits it has not welcomed in the past. That includes people who are a bit older; who score lower on aptitude tests; and who have medical conditions such as asthma or attention deficit disorders that can be controlled better now with medicine." The Army, for example, raised the age limit from 35 to 42 to be eligible to enlist. Why were these steps taken?

Because it's becoming harder and harder to convince people to enlist in the military (all services). The Army Times article says, "Other job prospects are soaring and relatives of potential recruits increasingly are discouraging them from joining the armed services." More from the Times article, "The findings reflect the growing unpopularity of the wars, particularly among family members and other adults who exert influence over high school and college students considering the military as a place to serve their country, further their education or build a career."

The challenge the Army is going to be facing next year pertains to the planned increase of 30,000 Soldiers to its ranks. Will standards be lowered even more to meet recruiting goals? Will more and more people in basic combat training and advanced individual training be "recycled" time and again until they finally meet training objectives? If so, how will that effect unit leaders who will be the recipients of these individuals?

I don't think we'll ever see a return to the military DRAFT; but if there are valid reasons to do so, we may be seeing some of them starting to pop up now.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Bits and pieces

Nothing here of true importance…just some bits and pieces about, well…stuff.

IPhone:
Unless your TV is broken or has been unused for several weeks, you have surely seen at least one of the commercials for what many regard as a new standard in cellular "smart" phones, in the form of Apple's iPhone. Looks interesting, and fun to use. It's a combination phone, music player, internet device, personal data repository,etc. It's to be released June 29th, and is going to cost around $500. Big question in my mind is how well will it work once it gets into the hands of the public, many of whom do not always follow directions, and therefore often identify faults, bugs, and associated issues the manufacturers never dreamed about.

Buying a car:
I'm a truck man. Yesterday, I took my grandson out to several local dealers to look at possible purchases for his first "car"…a 4-door sedan. I've not driven a sedan for years, and had forgotten what they are like inside. We saw several pretty neat innovations, and some we got into were very roomy. And, they are way better on gas consumption today than were the trucks I've owned, especially my new Nissan Titan V-8. Thank God for credit cards when I fill that baby up with it's 28 gallon gas tank! He had not a clue at first about what to expect, and I suspect he was pretty well worn out after we got home following visits to five dealers selling various brands. Nissan and Toyota scored high on his list, but he also like Ford. His older sister has a Dodge, so that brand was never a consideration for him, even though her Dodge has been a good car so far.

Presidential politics
I've concluded that MSNBC cable news network has lost it's mind by spending so much time analyzing over and over again, who is or is not the front runner, who's tubing, who's peaking, who's going to enter, who's leaving. CNN is not far behind. FOX News seems to have less time devoted to the subject, but still is doing its part to bore us senseless. I tried watching network news for a few weeks, but it's so bad and biased I gave up. I suppose by the end of 2007 I'll be watching more and more reruns of the Andy Griffith show during the evening news period. It sure would be nice to live in Mayberry wouldn't it?

Monday, June 18, 2007

Monday morning attitude

It's Monday morning, and even though my attitude is pretty good, especially after having a nice Father's Day yesterday with our family cooking and eating burgers, dogs, "tater" salad, baked beans and corn-on-the-cob, I feel a need to "vent" a bit, so I figured I might as well do it here.

The manner in which the Pentagon (and White House indirectly) handled the announcement about replacing the present Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, was ill advised. The administration said (through the Secretary of Defense) they did not want to have to go through the "pain" of having to look back at why decisions about the war were made, and felt that would negatively affect the confirmation hearing of General Pace. So, they decided not to re-nominate him. Later, we learned that the Secretary of Defense had asked General Pace to resign. To his personal credit, as well as to the United States Marine Corps, General Pace said no way would he voluntarily leave the battlefield with troops still deployed. He apparently said something to the effect…"if you don't want to re-nominate me for the position, then go ahead and make that announcement, but I'm not voluntarily leaving otherwise." There is no question in my mind that this whole deal was politically motivated and thus ill advised.

Over the past two years, I have watched with sadness at how badly things have been handled in relation to the war by politicians in Washington DC. Neither the White House nor Congress have done much if anything to add "gold stars" to their respective report cards. I agreed that it was time for Secretary Rumsfeld to step down when he did, but everyone else who is associated with his term in office ought not be discarded in the same way, just because of "politics".

I guess the intent of the Administration is to try to just keep wiping the slate clean, whenever it gets tarnished in some way. What has happened to learning from our mistakes and then adapting in new directions? This "road to war" does have an end, even though no one has thus far found a way to identify it on a map. Maybe it's time for a new map.

Friday, June 15, 2007

This is what makes it worthwhile

I'm pretty lucky to be doing what I'm doing...putting together six issues of Army Engineer magazine each year, plus managing www.armyengineer.com. Sometimes, when I get a bit overloaded, something really great happens that makes what I do so personally satisfying.

About a year ago I placed a few photos of 297th Combat Engineer Battalion veterans of the Second World War on the magazine's front cover. I also put together a two-page spread photo essay inside the magazine. The original photographs were sent to me by the daughter of one of the unit's veterans, Mari Ippolito. Well, today Mari sent me a photo scan of that cover, which had been personally signed by veterans at their reunion last week. She has told me many times how much those guys appreciated what we did to recognize them in the magazine, and I was of course willing to do all I could to thank them for their dedicated service.

These veterans are amazing. No matter their age or medical condition, they always seem to find a way to get together. More importantly, they care for each other like "family". And when people like Mari help keep things moving year after year, that family grows in ways too numerous to mention. She's not the only person doing this. In the May-June issue of Army Engineer there is a feature story about the special bonds of engineer service. Part of that story was written by Mari. I'm going to soon post that article on the AEA's website, so if you are not a magazine subscriber, you can read it online. Probably sometime next week, so look in the veterans section of the site to read it.

Like I said, this is pretty neat stuff we're all involved in. So, when you get overloaded like I do at times hearing about whether or not Paris Hilton escaped from jail again, go find an engineer veteran and have them tell you a few war stories.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

You got to love this…

If you like NASCAR, then read on. If not, hit your browser's "back" button.

When I learned yesterday that Dale Earnhardt, Jr. decided to race for Hendrick Motorsports in 2008 I was at first a bit surprised. But shortly thereafter I started to chuckle, thinking this news is going to really rile up many of Dale Jr's hard-core fans. Afterall, Hendrick's drivers include both Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson, who are typically reviled by Junior's fanatic fans. When drivers are introduced at most tracks in the south, the loudest jeers are reserved for Gordon and Johnson. Mostly, because they usually win races, and Junior doesn't. Envy, plain and simple. Now that Junior will become part of their team next year, it's going to be interesting to see how his die-hard fans adapt by bringing the "enemy" into their camp.

Makes great sense for Earnhardt to make this move in my opinion. He wants to win the championship, so why not give yourself the best opportunity to do that, by joining up with the best team, so as to have the best support around. Sure, he's going to be under tremendous pressure to win, once he has such support. If, for example, he does not win, he can't blame it on not having a good car, high tech engineering support, or the best pit crew. It's all going to be on his ability to take the top notch support given to him and make it work, by his ability to drive a fast race car and win.

I also think that by joining with Hendrick, he's going to have a wonderful mentor in the form of Rick Hendrick, the team owner. Additionally, by being around Jeff Gordon a lot more, Junior will be able to learn from a person who was a fierce competitor with his father, but was also someone whom Dale, Sr. respected for his driving ability. Like Gordon or not, you have to admit he's very good at what he does.

Now we sit back and watch with interest how the car numbering and sponsorship for Dale, Jr. will work out with the new team. Will he retain the number 8 Budweiser car for example, or will he be in the 5 Kellogg car. Going from "Bud" man to "cereal" man will be quite a leap, especially for Junior's fanatic fans out there in NASCAR land.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

June, 1944

This day in 1944, June 7th, was monumental for every second, every minute and each hour as allied troops and supplies finally began to break out of their main beachhead areas in Europe as the primary assault force landed on June 6th, finally on their way to war's end a little over a year later. I'm sure there are lots of veterans of the Second World War today who remember just about every aspect of what they were doing in June 1944. Many are probably reliving those memories together right now, as part of reunion groups. I know that's true for vets of the 297th Engineer Combat Battalion. For all Army Engineer veterans of WWII, what you accomplished has never been equaled. You are indeed our greatest generation.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Sad state of our education system

This topic has nothing directly to do with the "Army"; but indirectly, those who eventually elect to join the Army are going to come from what I believe is a "not so good" education system.

Today, my wife and I attended a two-hour long 8th grade "awards" program which involved our granddaughter. While there were numerous "shining stars" recognized, there were many more who did little more than shuffle in their seats and talk as brighter and more well behaved students paraded accross the stage. Teachers spaced every other few rows apart worked hard to keep the background noise at a minimum. There were cheers and shouts, all well deserved, but I still left with a feeling that many who had been given recognition either did not fully appreciate what they had been recognized for, or else felt that what they had been given was something they were entitled to, virtue of the fact they had been to class and passed their standards of learning (SOL) test.

Thanks to the government's "no child left behind" program, what we now have in our schools are teachers having little time other than to just teach those subjects that wil be a part of the SOL. There are few times to "experiment" or to expand on learning by reaching out into new areas. Fewer and fewer students seem to think originally anymore, and way too many are unable to sever themselves from learning crutches such as calculators, computers and online "research" to seek words to cut and paste into required school writing assignments.

Our oldest daughter teaches 8th grade science, and she usually comes home daily during the school year frustrated by what she is having to do. Never-the-less she reports early the next day to deal with whatever comes her way. She is paid far too little for what she does, and I don't say that because she is my daughter.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

NASCAR again

If you look back in my Blog archives, you'll note one of the last ones I did before taking a short break in my blogging chores had to do with the big NASCAR race in Daytona. Since then, we've had an interesting season so far. My favotite race here in Martinsville was spectacular, with Jimmy Johnson holding off Jeff Gordon for the last couple of laps to take the win. The Car of Tomorrow (COT) has now become the car of today pretty much. I was able to watch the new car very closely at the Martinsville race, and have been impressed with how well a few teams have been able to adjust to it. Notably, RCR and JGR. Dale JR fans have not been able to cheer as much as they might like so far this year. Some of his fans at Talladega in Alabama demonstrated just how rabid they are, and showed no respect for the sport in general, by tossing beer cans onto the track to show disgust and hatred of Jeff Gordon who won fair and square. What that sort of crap is going to cause if it continues is a total ban on beer at race tracks and we sure don't want to see that. Today is the Monster Mile race at Dover, but the weather does not look so good right now. Probably be a Monday race. Go Denny Hamlin!