Real Men
That's My Boys!
(And Girls!) We caught the Russian separatists shooting down an airliner over Ukraine a few years ago. That was good, but too bad a couple hundred people got killed right afterwards. This time, the system paid off big time. Traumatic brain injuries are no fun, but at least nobody got killed. This type stuff is where defense spending needs to go. Look up the word “defense” in your favorite dictionary. Some say the best defense is a good offense. I’m pretty sure that only applies to football.
LATE UPDATE: The WarZone.
John Lewis is in the Ground
There’s nothing I can add to the most well-deserved week-long send-off tribute to a national treasure like John Lewis. He was laid to rest in Atlanta yesterday, but the struggle against oppression and racism he fought so valiantly against his whole life rages on. Now it is up to the rest of us to bury that too.
Barack Obama’s Eulogy
“Bull Connor may be gone, but today, we witnessed with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in the jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that’s gonna be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick…”
Guess I'm a Real Pioneer
Looks like Space Force will be synonymous with Colorado – not that it wasn’t already. Haven’t seen anything to indicate the HQ designation yet, but Peterson seems likely. The bulk of command and control and a big chunk of the physical space infrastructure and other assets are housed here at various locations around CO, not to mention some of the most significant development and manufacturing facilities in the country, making this announcement no surprise.
I started my Air Force career operating the new DSP IBM-370s here at Buckley in 1983, and fittingly ended it integrating Block-10 of that same system now known as SBIRS, 30 years later working for Lockheed in a new building at that same location. In 1983, we had three van-sized computers doing all the work. Today, “The System” (of systems) is comprised of literally thousands of computers all over the world that would all fit inside those original 3 IBM 370s. It was a long, strange trip.
Company Loyalty
They actually got it right for a few weeks with the essential worker’s hazard pay. I guess “essential” only comes into play when the oligarch’s revenue stream gets interrupted.
Rural America
The chickens have come home to roost, rural America. Maybe if you are far enough out in the boonies you won’t get sick, but you will get hungry. Unfortunately there’s two unavoidable, big issues working against you on that front this time around.
Everybody knows you’ve already lost the struggle against the corporate farming conglomerates. The cost of doing business is just so 21st century these days. You might be better off than the city dwellers in a supply chain crisis if you really are exercising self-sufficiency as touted in the early American vernacular. News reports across the country seem to indicate otherwise early on in this particular disaster.
As starkly disturbing as it is, overlook the death toll and tragedy in our hospitals and nursing homes for a moment, as food bank lines stretch to greater lengths all across the country. Next time around, when it comes to voting, be careful what you ask for.
A Good Firing
Getting fired can be a very good thing. I know this from personal experience. It happened to me three times during my working life, and all three resulted in very positive outcomes. The first time I was a 19yo caught stealing beer from the Pittsburgh Airport where I worked as a night janitor for the food service company. It had been going on for months. Hosting free-beer parties every weekend wasn’t doing anybody any good, and I was going nowhere academically or in the job market. That first one was unintentional.
The second time came many years later in 2002, as the unintended consequence of my own intentions. OSI informed the CSS Commander at Peterson AFB of some so-called “network hacking” activity attributed to me. The funny part about that was, I reported it myself after discovering system vulnerabilities in the course of my assigned tasks and duties! It turned into a time-wasting, embarrassing conundrum for a Commander unwilling to admit his mistake before the erroneous Article-15 action was refuted. Then I got a new, better job: A trip to Bosnia. That was punishment for beating the Article 15. You should have seen the look on his face when we went in to sign the paperwork. He was steamed. Then I went off and did some really cool stuff at Butmir. Within a week of my arrival it was apparent nobody with a clue had been around for quite awhile. It wasn’t very difficult making a lasting, positive impact on MIB secure comms. Lotsa people thank you for that, Col Wright!
My 3rd time around the firing ring, 2nd on the insubordination track, was a few years later working as a Lockheed contractor at Schriever AFB. That was fully intentional by me, all the way through. Sometimes you just gotta stop tolerating the bullshyt. I got a 2-month paid vacation and fully-funded retirement out of that one. Good luck LtCol Vindman – but I don’t think you’ll need it.
Most Memorable TDY
I went twice, the 2nd time around being just a short followup. But that first week in Albania with Mr. O’Rourke was quite an eye opener. The Wing at Mildenhall got a State Department tasking to do some sort of sponsored military assistance mission for a systems install in the Tirana MOD. MSgt Cheek said they weren’t really sure what anybody wanted, just do a tech solution and they’ll sort it out after I get back. So off we went. Not sure who I pissed off to pull that one, but it ended up being fun anyway. The one bad part was an enduring view into the world’s most poverty-stricken country.
I’m not going into the bad part(s) except to say seeing a young woman with an infant sitting begging next to a frozen sidewalk mud puddle on your morning walk to work is a thing, to me at least. I (stupidly) took hikes around the city in the evening a couple times, and it just got worse from there. But at least we were able to get their Defense Ministry headed in the digital direction.
After meeting and greeting everyone on the team including our Albanian counterparts, next formality was seeing the Big Guy – their Minister of Defense. They were after all, giving me free reign to roam the premises. The length and breadth of this big technological step soon seemed literally profound to me, from a purely technical perspective. Once again, I was in waaaay over my head.
O’Rourke (RAF Mildenhall comm Chief), our handler and me waited in an outer office for a few minutes until a gaggle came out, then we went inside a much larger room where some more people gathered around the front talking Albanian while we continued waiting in the back. There was a long table along the back wall about the size of two 8′ party folders end-to-end with around thirty telephones of somewhat varying makes and models neatly arranged clear across it. I asked Colonel ForgotAndNeverCouldPronounceHisName why so many phones? He replied “In case the Minister needs to make a call at least one might work.”
Everything went pretty smooth while I spent most of the week crawling around a 3-story medieval castle-like compound about the size of a small baseball stadium taking measurements of things like 3-foot-thick stone walls thinking things like “it’s gonna be fun cabling this shyt.” I could almost envision the firing squads that must’ve taken place in that central courtyard. We got it done and went back for a visit a year later to check on progress. They ended up going with something different than what we recommended. Maybe that was the part MSgt Cheek was talking about. It looked good though, so I guess Albanian tech contracting is what it is.
Pretend I Agree
I sensed the last years of my work personna migrating from a fully Dilbertized stance to pure Wally by the end.
That's My Boys!
I knew it right away – just like when Malaysian flight 17 was shot down over the same AOR 6 years ago. It doesn’t take a veteran space cadet to know it was bad actors any time an airliner goes down in flames. The good thing out of this mess is SBIRS early warning keeps our troops safer. I was working in the Block 10 control room when the Malaysian plane went down. The big difference this time is the government was quick to say how we knew those missiles were coming. Six years ago it was hush-hush for months. SBIRS is the real deal. Our adversaries have no corresponding capability and no answer for it.
Working with the Russians is tricky, huh Donnie? We’ll expect to hear about upcoming negotiations on a new Russian missile warning treaty.
Alien Technology
Maybe good for not just Corporate Culture?
“Senators are not the only jurors in the president’s trial. History will deliver its own verdict. So will the American people. Regardless of how the Senate votes, Americans will make up their own minds about the trial process and the president’s guilt or innocence. Their verdict will profoundly affect the outcome of this year’s presidential election.”
The Decade in Space
Not sure if it was that Saturn-V rocket model I got for xmas when I was 10 years old or what, but by the time I left my 1st assignment with the newly formed USAF Space Command at Buckley ANGB in 1984, I was hooked. Interest really ramped up for me during my time in Bosnia, where I helped establish Navy SATCOM assets bringing the HUMINT mission closer to real-time for our folks there on the ground.
This past decade was the 1st of the past five in which I was not recently directly involved with U.S. military space ops. But I haven’t stopped following it, and probably never will.
Merry Fucking Christmas
They Must be Desperate…
…Shotgunning 6-figure openings across the Internet. Wow. Or maybe D.C. has finally reached the point where nobody wants to work there anymore. It always sucked, especially at the Pentagon, from what I’ve heard. Does look like a pretty sweet deal for somebody up to it. I certainly am not.
We had a Guy Named Marty…
Time Flies When You're Retired
Four and a half years after retiring, and they still cannot find qualified engineers.
Just another of the many reasons why I don’t answer the phone much any more. I probably spend more time blocking numbers and deleting 3 second voicemails than I do talking on the damn thing. At least the job inquiries are down to about 1 a month.