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My point in posting the article was to note that there is a different version of the raid being told. A previous poster wondered if the "official" story was true or not. The SEAL, whom you said had a big mouth, gives a very different account of how the raid progressed supposedly via interviews with those involved, not just about when the helicopter crashed. I noted the differences from the oft-changed official story and this one. You chose to comment. I imagine the true story is somewhere else and I hope it gets told one day accurately. If more or credibly different versions or details are revealed, I hope those are posted.

I agree that the BL is that the MF is still dead. I disagree that politicians are to be trusted more than a former SEAL, big mouth or otherwise. I don't know him, don't know his reputation other than if he made it as a SEAL, that gets my respect. And I'm surprised to see you call out a SEAL, former or otherwise, so. That presumes you know him or of him to make such an assertion. But as wannabe power players like Brennan were so quick to talk the cool talk and then have to walk it back because they were flat wrong makes me think that the truth could still be out there. That does seem to be current President's major claim to fame as he runs for re-election. Something like making money off the work of others. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8491108/Osama-bin-Laden-day-two-and-a-new-version-of-how-events-unfolded.html https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54162.html Book sales or not.

"Gump, you are a gawddamned genius!" https://dailycaller.com/2011/11/07/correcting-the-fairy-tale-a-seals-account-of-how-osama-bin-laden-really-died/

That's funny right there, I don't care who you are...

Took me a minute... THAT I'd like to see.

OUT-FVCKIN'-STANDING!

OWs has nothing on you for sticking it to the man! Do tell the details.

Just some google-fu for the most part. A couple of visits to the DC gun shows as well. Those were way to pricey for the condition in my opinion. Pretty beat up grips (dinged, missing the Browning medal center ((notorious for coming off. Which mine did while shooting, but some superglue and awareness to watch for it should keep that from occurring again.)), worn areas on the slide/frame, etc, etc. I'm hinky about buying used guns that I plan to shoot and don't know the owner and his track record for maintenance and the like. As these are out of production (although RUMINT says Browning produces a limited run and/or there's some secret stash somewhere. Probably next to the Arc of the Covenent in the Gov't warehouse...), a gently used or really lucky find of a "new old stock" was my only option. Gunbroker/gunsAmerica, et al usually have 2-5 BDA's for sale at any time. Most ot them have looked pretty beat up - pawnshops, etc type guns (not that there's anything wrong with that!). So those were available for a pretty cheap price $300-400, they looked too beat up for me. Google "Browning BDA .380 for sale" and a long list of entries appears. Most are expired and/or sold. This one was on the Pennsylvania Firearms Owner's Association or some such board. It was listed as for sale with no apparent buyers but the listing was about four months in the past. The photos looked really good and there was no wear on the slide visible so I figured it was worth a shot (no pun intended). I joined, e-mailed the lister and asked if it was still available. We talked on the phone as well It was still available and I offered the guy his last asking price. He said it was a fun gun, but he'd only shot it about 100 rounds as he was more a long gun shooter/hunter so this one was a space taker-upper and not his style. A USPS money order for $525 and a trading of FFL info and the pistol was mine. I'm sure they can be had for less as well as much more. I'm content with the deal and happy to have the pistol. edited to add: as of today, 4 Nov 11, 1430Z, there are two really nice looking blued ones on gunbroker. Starting price with no bid is $395. Sale has 1 day, 9 hours to run. No, it is not mine. Just thought I'd point it out for anyone interested.

"We Were One," by Patrick O'Donnell. The Battle of Fallujah via the experiences of one Marine rifle platoon. Nothing fancy for strategy or public policy for the most part, just brutal urban combat. 45-man platoon did 11 days of combat and came out with 19 walking.

note: not my photo OLD SCHOOL - Browning BDA .380 I've been wanting one of these for a while but since they are out of production finding one in great shape for a workable price has been a challenge. One I surmounted over the past week. This is a very old school looking pistol. One that the performance backed up. i put 150 rounds through it yesterday and 150 successful bangs resulted. It's a very solid piece of craftsmanship - even though it says "Browning," it is actually produced by Beretta. It is very similar to the Cheetah series of Beretta .380s with the enclosed slide of the Browning being a major difference. Placement of the safety/decocker being another. This Browning has it on the slide. It's also fairly big. It's larger than a PPK by about a third and I put it about the same size as an officer's 1911 .45. The barrel is 3.8 inches, and has either a 10 or 13 round magazine (depends on whether it was manufactured pre or post-big magazine ban. Either fits.) The sights suck. Front is a miniscule fixed half-moon bump with the rear sights being windage adjustable with, and I kid you not, the instruction manual showing a guy using a wood shim being hammerd by a mallet to move the dovetailed sights left or right. TLAR for results. With the trigger guard being artistically pleasing, it is not designed for a stressful situation in my opinion. The opening is kinda small and a gloved finger would be danged near impossible for me to insert. Double action pull is MUCH better/lighter than my PPK/S, with a very clean break. Single action is also good, very sharp, no drag or hesitation, not as good as the Walther to me, but still not heavy. It's a very 1 or 0 trigger The safety/decocker is tiny and nearly flush with the slide so it's troublesome to work. That said, at 25 feet, this thing was silver dollar-sized 10 ring for 100 shots. Slow fire, aimed shots to be sure, but if I did my part, it did its. At 50 feet, the front sight disappeared to my eyes (black sight, black target) and the results were accordingly placed. All but 2 of 50 in the much wider 9 ring, but damned tough to do. The two outliers weren't much into the 8 ring, but still... This is an all steel gun so it's heavy which soaked up the .380 recoil. Take down is very traditional - push the pin, rotate the lever, move the slide forward, take the guide rod/spring out, take the barrel out, clean, reassemble. I like this gun a lot. It looks good, it shoots good if you do your part, and it looks like a pistol from an older time. I do not see it ever being a carry piece. For the size, there are much larger caliber handguns available with better sights and, in some cases, much less weight/bulk. It's too big for a concealed weapon and too small for a service pistol. No, this is strictly a range queen for me, but I really like it. Available in a very nice nickel or traditional blued finish, I wanted the blued version. Both have very comfortable, kinda chunky nice walnut grips.

Those internets are powerful informational tools. Some slack time today revealed that my Dad's 1911A1 was manufactured in 1945 by Colt. I was hoping to find the "AFPG" markings since he was on the USAF Rifle and Pistol team in the 1950s. Apparently, that marking was one made by the Air Force Armory (geez, a USAF armory. Must be back in the days when there were O'Clubs where you could drink, a base auto shop, an aero club, and a ramp full of new airplanes. Sigh...). Anyway, no such luck on the AFPG marking. But the rest of the markings, a "GHD" and a "P" on the frame match with the serial number being from the last batch of Colt wartime production.

I live about 3 miles from the Expo Center (site of the DC Gunshow). I went last time and thought they, the vendors, were all pretty proud of their wares. I have found much better deals online - Bud's, Gunbroker, etc. Lots to look at to get your ideas. And to put a plug in for some good customer service - I bought some ammo last night from Georgia Arms, total came to $492. S/H was $35. Got a call this morning telling me that if I spent $8 more, I could free shipping and save the $35. Outstanding to them.

'Fess up. "I forgot," or "I didn't know I needed to write that down back then," or whatever now, but getting "outed" after the fact is always (nearly anyway) than admitting it yourself. The intent is to show you are trustworthy. Lieing from the get go pretty much answers the basic question of that.

Not averse to a safe by any means. The security and fire prevention as noted is a bonus. If you are still in the moving every 3-4 years or have a spousal unit who likes to shake things up, that mass is not fun however. That said, I am going for a really nice cabinet. As this is yet another skill I lack, I am once again exercising my check writing muscle and have forked a fair amount for one being built as I type. I'm hoping I get it in late October/early November. If I have a fire, then I lose them granted. But that's what insurance is for. If I get burgled, same thing. I'd lose the sentimental value of Dad's M1 and .45, but the rest is replacable. I want the whole manly thing of it beside my liqour cabinet that matches. Technique only. Guns and bourbon. I love my country.

2 I put pre-1990s or post-2004 Charter Arms snubbies and the Bersa line of pistols in the former category. I use/carry/possess both and trust them to work every time. They are not going to last 10,000 rounds, but they do the job without breaking the bank.

Define "leadership." If you mean POTUS, then it's re-election regardless of the individual in office (or his party keeping the office if in 2d term). The odd national interest does come into play. If you mean SECDEF, then it's all about budget and/or ego as far as "best interests." If you mean SECAF and/or CSAF, see SECDEF. If you mean MAJCOM, see CSAF. If you mean WG/CC, it's often, but not always, about the next step up the ladder. If you mean SQ/CC, see WG/CC. If you mean the bro on the Air Staff and/or AFPC, he/she is simply trying to survive a very ugly assignment with long hours filled with pain and doing whatever he/she can to make the bad man go away until he can get back out to the field where usually, not always, the tempo to SQ/CC is picked up. Save yourself some time and heartburn; get cynical now.

The good Lord says I'll be fine 'cuz I'm retired, but you guys are fooked." Instill it in basic, AMS, ROTC, OTS, USAFA. Use it sparingly as a commander's call/unit bbq morale challenge - coin/beer to the one who can actually recite it. Challenge folks in a so-called "combat zone?" Not so much...

A bit old but definitely related.Broke ass DC speed cameras Is there a way to seek the calibration records on that camera? Might be worth a letter and have a copy of it when appearing in court to fight the ticket along with the basic math in public from your opening post. But you know as well as I do that DC is a money whore with a third world standard of living and mentality.

The Dan Wesson (a subsidiary of CZ now) 1911s have a good reputation. Their CBOB "bobtail" is the sh1t and high on my "to get" list. You'll need about 1/2 of that magical $3000 uber-gun price you described. Springfield maked a very solid, reliable, affordable 1911.

Think I paid $69.99 via Cheaper Than Dirt.

not my photo Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22 I bought this rifle about a month ago. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about first-hand for a black rifle with the near-infinite variety of options. And I wanted to do it for cheap before I shelled out (no pun intended) $1200-1500 bucks for a big boy version. The last, and only, time I fired an M-16 was 1992. My GCI squadron had its own inventory of self-defense weapons so I got to qualify on Vietnam-era M-16s (slick plastic foregrips and stock ((don't even know if it had a bolt assist)) which underwhelmed me but then they were ragged out POSs. But I also got to qualify on the M-79 and M-60 so it was a fun week!) (We also had an M35 2 1/2 truck from 1968 in our fleet). Since then, Big Blue only authorized the M9 for annual, then biannual, then once every three years, qualification so I never shot a 5.56 again. So, the wild popularity of the many M-16/AR-15/M-4 and other black battle rifles (SCARs, etc) has largely passed me by. I prefer the old-school wood and blued steel of days gone by and am more a pistol guy anyway since I'm not likely to be part of a walking patrol where I need a modern rifle to keep me in one piece and without extra orifices. So I went cheap-ish (reading some of my other posts in this thread, I see this as a trend item...) and got the M&P 15-22 which is a .22LR kinda version of S&W's M15. I got it on-line and even with the shipping and dealer FFL use fee, it was $80 cheaper than buying retail with that mark-up and state taxes. The basic controls are in the same places and work the same way as the full size 5.56 version (save for no bolt assist on the junior model). Sights, picatinny rails for mounting everything up to a sink, etc, etc, etc. I had never played with rail systems even with the pistols I have that have such. Thus, seeing how it works and how a rifle can be tailored in about a gazillion ways is interesting. However, this IS a .22, I'm not planning on any "Red Dawn" scenarios, and I didn't want to sink a ton of money into this, so I chose not to "tacti-lol" this rifle. I got a sling, a front sling attachment point, a cheap red dot, a raised rail adaptor for same, and have called it good. Using a red dot is also a new one for me. I've been an old-fashioned iron sights or at most an optical scope for deer hunting in my farmboy days, but nothing that required a battery (probably a sts would work here). Finally took the rifle to the range this morning. It comes out of the box with one 25-round clip that is the same size as the full size, but is necked down at the top for the .22. There is a handy cartridge loading assist button in the middle of the clip to help feed the rounds in. I purchased two additional clips and a Blackdog 50-round drum magazine as well. Before shooting, I cleaned and oiled the rifle. At the range, I spent about 100 rounds sighting in the red dot. Again, I'm totally unfamiliar with using one, so cut me some slack for taking that long and that many rounds. And I'm still not satisfied with the results, but as I said, it is a cheap one, so I'm sure I got what I paid for. In 350 rounds, I had one failure to fire - that was the CCI bullet not the gun as the rim of the cartridge was well struck. I had two failures to feed - in two different magazines, I found that if I didn't have the first round pointing up at a slight angle when inserting the clip, releasing the bolt just rode over that first round and nothing went into the chamber. So that's a magazine design flaw, to me and not the gun's. Those issues aside, this was fun! It was easy to shoot the thing as the gun weighs in at 5.5+ lbs. empty and there's very little recoil or barrel rise. It IS a .22 after all. With the 50-round drum, it took forever to empty the thing. Much quicker than loading the beast obviously, but way different than a 15 round pistol clip or 8 round M1. The drum does look goofy on the rifle but it worked flawlessly. Final review: a fun plinker, served what I wanted which was to see if I wanted to join the black rifle bandwagon which I don't think I do. Just not for me, but no slight for anyone that does. It's fascinating to see the Lego type approach that a modular system allows. Once again, another stunningly obvious idea that I never had but which makes perfect sense to see it in action.

2. But the trend of letting SrA/SSgt Snuffy be a uniform nazi has developed, so there's a failure developing among the NCOs. Who is supposed to fix it? Same technical expert guy/gal who is now the WG/CC and letting the E-9 run wild? At some point, the "technician" has to be the "officer."

I turned down O-4 on AD, but had to finish a training ADSC (f'in' JSTARS...), so pulled the trigger with 11 years in. My (then new) wife had also gotten picked up for O-4 and school while I was destined to be a crew dog, i.e., a career filled with endless deployments (this is late 1990s), line swine for eternity, etc, etc, etc. Doing another 9 years of slogging seemed like an eternity at the time. She was going to go places, I wasn't. We made the choice to go with success. I thank God, however, that she convinced me to go Reserves as an IMA while I worked for Boeing. That IMA job turned into a six month set of orders which turned into a three year EAD gig, then as an AGR for six years and ringing the retirement bell with 22 years total time = 21 years for paid retirement. Since I'd made O-4, the Reserves called it good, then another promotion before saying so long. But we wound up being apart (save weekends and burning up all our leave) for 4-ish years. Your wife is doing well, but there is no guarentee that the company might downsize, outsource, etc, etc, so that is not a sure thing either. You might or might not get promoted. Big blue might or might not go back to the historical trend of majors going to 20 (or more). Will your timing match up with the flood of end of ADSC pilots who say they are leaving? If so, USAF will suddenly need rated bodies and you'll be a shoe-in. Look at the cards you are holding - wife's career potential, your's (you should know in your gut if you think you are a slug, on the fence, or fairly home free), and what the lifestyle for each career would most likely hold for you and your family, then make the call. Can you live with ditching it/trying for Guard/Reserves (how realistic is that?; seems lots of others want that as well). Will you be competitive/have the right contacts to make that happen?. Will your wife be ok with ditching her opportunity so you can follow you? Is a long (and expensive) dual lifestyle if you try that something that sounds attractive? Previously, I said that another 9 years of grind sounded endless. Three years after retiring and it's a blink of an eye. But the retirement check (x 2 with my wife's) sure is a nice cushion every month. Good luck.

Mark Berent's stuff is superb.

Disappointing but not surprising. The bucks he's bringing in from merchandising and/or endorsements must be much more than he is in actual hardware currently. No doubt he's striking while the iron is hot. Some months ago I was TDY to Vegas and killed a Sunday afternoon by going by the "Pawn Stars" shop. Besides the "magic of TV" making the dumpy shop seem pretty big, the small store was about half filled with show merchandising crap. And I'd bet the Sons of Guns producers are pushing to do or at least only broadcast the "weird" projects vice practical but "boring" gun mods. And there should be a code - no butchering of classics like that 1919.