ClearedHot

A couple of Air Force guys minus the everyday queep hanging it out to do the right thing...Fucking Standard.

She should have left it alone, turns out she was wanted on felony charges... Karma Bioch!

Want in my bar at home! A new way to "pour" beer.

Bravo!

Things have changed since I went through the ASG program. NOPC was really looked down upon (especially by the other schools), mainly because it was seen as a "short" course and the concurrency with command and staff courses (my ASG course work was COMPLETELY different from ACSC and I actually learned something). SAASS (not SAAS), SAW, and SAMS also attend the Theater Warfare Exercise at Maxwell, although when I went it was a very strategic level exercise. Finally, not all of the course are strategic minded. SAW in particular is focused on the operation level and the Operational Art of war. In fact, the Masters Degree they award is in Operational Art. I don't know enough about the current JAWS program, but if I were going to apply today it would be to SAASS, SAW, or SAMS. Just an old guys thoughts. Best of the scrubs that remain.

It varies by size of year each year group, but the numbers I've seen show a 25% in-residence rate for IDE over the past 10 years. ASG = Advanced Studies Group. There are three primary recognized ASG schools: 1. SAASS = School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, a year long USAF program at Maxwell AFB, 40 total students. 2. SAW = School of Advanced Warfighting, a year long USMC program at Quantico MCB, 27 students. 3. SAMS = School of Advanced Military Studies, a year long USA program at Ft Leavenworth, 120 students (too many, dilutes the intent of a focused second year program). There are two other programs that claim the same moniker but are not. NOPC is a 13 month USN program taught at Newport NB. I am not sure how many students they have, but this program is like an advanced elective for students attending IDE at Naval Command and Staff. All of the other programs are a complete second year of study after IDE. NOPC students are picked part way through Naval Command and Staff and spend an extra 4-5 months at the end. The claim to be equal to SAASS, SAMS, and SAW, but they are not. JAWS = Joint Advanced Warfighting School is a year long joint program taught at Norfolk. The program has only been around for a few years and I have heard good reviews, but they mix O-4, O-5's, and O-6's in the same class which would seem to dilute the focus for some. ASG grads get a special identifier when they graduate and their assignments are completely different from all other PME grads. ASG assignments are typically validated and approved by the VCSAF.

The current "commitment" from the chief is that if you are a "select" you will go. Timing varies, but as of late, the majority of IDE folks are going to school early, while SDE folks are going later...exceptions everywhere of course. The ASG programs take less than 1% of the in-res IDE grads for a second year of advanced school. If you are not a "select" then you are a candidate and 1-2% of candidates will eventually be selected, usually in during third look for IDE or fourth for SDE. Overall in-res rate for IDE = 25% Overall in-res rate for ASG = <1% Overall In-res rate for SDE = 10%

I think I was on that flight.

BQZIP's SoS ghajtaH Hab Quch

Barack Obama calls France America's strongest ally.

Number of gun related deaths in the U.S. in 2009 = 12,632 Number of deaths on U.S. highways in 2009 = 33,963 I guess we better ban cars, they are far more dangerous...

Things are different when you are racing through the air six miles above the ground. Mundane mistakes can become disruptions for hundreds of people, creating news and likely even fodder for comedians. And so it was for pilots of United Airlines Flight 940 on Monday night. One spilled coffee accidentally on the Boeing 777’s avionics while over Canada en route to Frankfurt from Chicago. When radios went goofy, a pilot put the “No Radio” code (7600) in the transponder but mistakenly entered 7500, which means hijacking or unlawful interference. When that happens, there’s a lot more than crying over spilled coffee. A Transport Canada report said Canada’s defense department was notified, but that with the help of United’s dispatch staff the flight crew confirmed it to be a communication issue and not a hijacking. The plane diverted to Toronto. A spokeswoman for Transport Canada told the Associated Press that in addition to communications problems, the plane also had some navigation problems. The Boeing 777 was carrying 241 passengers and a crew of 14. United said it flew them back to Chicago on another plane and put them up in hotel rooms overnight. They flew to Frankfurt on Tuesday aboard another 777. Spilled coffee, by the way, has long been a problem for commercial jets. Airlines typically have to repair corrosion in cockpit floor and sidewall areas that results from years of coffee spills.

Same to you brother.

Geez brother you are gonna have a stroke with all that anger. I was NOT having a go at you and wish you and your magazine nothing but success. I was looking for context when you show up out of the blue offering a free calendar after having cut us all off because someone made a suggestion. For what it is worth I enjoyed reading the magazine and know that you went to considerable cost to produce and mail it.

Last time this went down everyone got pissed and you cancelled my sub?

The movers broke my my friend's 46" plasma this past summer and I think he mentioned a limit on reimbursement for plasma TV's. Have that TV mounted on the wall in my Man Cave. Internet Ready and a superb picture.

When I completed the test the guy made a big deal about my excellent score and said I should go by clothing sales on my way out and pick up a patch...I chose to go to the Class Six instead.

All, I can personally vouch for "Congressman". I know him personally. He is legit and is asking for honest input (no rumors, no emotions, just facts), so that he can ask honest questions about what happened. CH

In a related story, Rep Hank Johnson is now worried Texas will tip over from the weight of M2's guns.

Want this patch...

Ok....horrible story, but what about the hat??? Firefighter Pat Quagliariello charged in hit-and-run death of Brooklyn immigrant An NYPD detective took his brother to a firehouse instead of a police station after the smoke eater mowed down a pedestrian in Brooklyn and left him for dead, authorities say. Pat Quagliariello vanished from the firehouse and waited at least four hours before turning himself in at the 62nd Precinct stationhouse. Prosecutors charged him Tuesday with criminally negligent homicide, speeding, leaving the scene of a fatal accident and using a mobile phone while driving. Guatemalan immigrant Manuel Tzajguachiac, 25, was killed. "He was texting and speeding when he struck the pedestrian," Assistant District Attorney Craig Esswein said at the firefighter's arraignment. Detective Anthony Quagliariello wasn't disciplined for picking up his brother after the 12:30 a.m. wreck on Oct. 10 at 20th Ave. and 65th St. "The detective was forthcoming in reporting what happened, and there's nothing at this point to indicate that he interfered with the investigation or prosecution of his brother," Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said. It wasn't clear if Pat Quagliariello was drinking before the Bensonhurst crash. After his initial arrest, he admitted just that he owned the BMW SUV. Then he got a lawyer and clammed up, police sources said. Prosecutors said Tzajguachiac, who worked two jobs, crossed against the light. Quagliariello, who joined the FDNY in 2004, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $50,000 bail. He was suspended for 30 days after the wreck and has since been assigned to desk duty. The firefighter's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, told the court that Tzajguachiac had a blood-alcohol content of .24 - three times the legal limit. Prosecutors didn't challenge the statement. Esswein said Tzajguachiac's DNA was found on Quagliariello's vehicle and vowed to win the case. "There will be a jail sentence - an upstate jail sentence," Esswein said.

Don't forget the bacon Infused bourbon...two of my most favorite things in one!

Drones Converge on California, Ready to Take Off Five years ago, the Pentagon was on cusp of an air-combat revolution. For a few brief, heady months in late 2005, it looked like the U.S. military might soon launch full-scale development of a new class of fast, lethal Unmanned Aerial Vehicles eventually capable of replacing all kinds of fighter jets, from the older F-15s, F-16s and F-18s to the latest F-22s. But the revolution fizzled when the Air Force abandoned its share of the so-called Joint Unmanned Combat Air System effort. Manned jets continued to dominate, culminating in today’s mammoth, $300-billion F-35 program. The embers of upheaval kept burning, almost invisibly. The technology from the 2005 effort survived in various forms, slowly maturing amid a growing demand for combat UAVs. Today, no fewer than three separate killer drone designs — two of them direct descendants of the original J-UCAS demonstrators — have converged on two airfields in California for flight tests. The revolution flared up again without many people noticing. While the F-35 still gobbles up the bulk of the Pentagon’s fighter funding, jet-powered killer drones are back — and revolution is once again a real prospect. High-endurance armed drones such as the General Atomics Predator have been a fixture of U.S. military operations since the mid-1990s air war over the Balkans. Besides being cheaper to buy and operate, robot aircraft carry fuel in place of a pilot and so can stay in the air longer. Plus, if they crash or get shot down, nobody gets hurt. That means the military can assign drones to what a robot-industry insider from Boeing called the “worst down-and-dirty missions that even the nuttiest pilot wouldn’t want to do.” But today’s drones are “fair-weather” killers, too slow to survive the sophisticated air defenses of, say, China or Iran. To bring the advantages of robot aircraft to high-intensity warfare, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency along with the Air Force and Navy sponsored J-UCAS starting in 2003. Boeing’s X-45 (pictured) competed with the Northrop Grumman-built X-47 to “demonstrate the technical feasibility, military utility and operational value for a networked system of high performance, weaponized unmanned air vehicles,” according to Darpa. By 2005, the J-UCAS program had sent its prototypes on mock bombing runs and proved the drones could develop their own tactics on the fly. The “Common Operating System” meant to control the speedy, lethal bots was particularly promising, and with it J-UCAS even threatened to upstage the $300-billion F-35 manned-fighter program. The new drones were “on the cusp of making history in the aviation world,” said the insider. Then in 2006, the axe fell. The Air Force withdrew from the program. Officially, the Air Force wanted to shift its focus and cash to the new, manned (and ultimately short-lived) “2018 bomber.” There were concerns that algorithms might not be trustworthy to make combat decisions, quite yet. Unofficially, the move away from J-UCAS might have reflected concerns among the Air Force’s top brass that the new killer drone could hasten the demise of the traditional fighter pilot. In any event, without the Air Force J-UCAS collapsed. The Navy continued funding the X-47 for a modest series of tests. The original X-45 ended up an exhibit in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, never to fly again. Or so observers believed. In fact, Boeing had secretly continued work on a new version of the X-45, apparently believing the Air Force would come back around to the idea of fighter-style killer drones. Meanwhile, a high-profile think piece co-written by future Navy undersecretary Bob Work (.pdf) helped persuade the Navy to raise its expectations for the X-47. Sensing a new momentum for armed UAVs, General Atomics spent its own money to develop a bigger, jet-powered cousin of the Predator called the Avenger. In the summer of 2009, the Air Force published a “road map” showing how robots might replace nearly every kind of manned aircraft in today’s arsenal. Just a few months later, the air branch lifted the (patchy) veil of secrecy surrounding its fighter-like MQ-170 spy drone, built by Lockheed Martin. The stage has been set for an unofficial revival of J-UCAS. There are no official requirements for a new fighter drone — yet. But the Pentagon is obviously very, very interested. As is often the case, the drama is taking place in California. Northrop’s X-47 is at the Navy’s China Lake base in the Mojave Desert, running ground tests prior to a planned first flight “before the end of the year.” Not to be outdone by its former J-UCAS rival, Boeing two weeks ago bolted the new-and-improved X-45 to the back of a 747 for a ride from St. Louis to the Golden State’s Edwards Air Force Base, where the bot will have its first flight early next year. General Atomics beat both of the bigger companies into the air: The Avenger has racked up scores of test flights at Edwards since 2009. Years ago, one analyst called J-UCAS “the worst-funded good idea in decades.” There’s still not a lot of government money behind the current revival: The Navy has allocated around a billion dollars for X-47 tests. The X-45 and the Avenger are both company-funded efforts. But the idea is as good as ever. And with the impending first flights of the X-45 and X-47, killer drones are about to get a second shot at transforming aerial warfare. Danger Room will be there, every step of the way.

I have the DVD to watch this weekend and have been reading the book "War" written by Sebastian Junger who is the journalist that shot the video for the movie. There is also an associated picture book called "Infidel" written by Tim Wetherington that documents all the key players. This is a must read if you want to understand what it is like on the front lines of hell in Afghanistan.