Militaries which don't evolve to meet the ever-changing demands of the battlefield waste human lives and resources. It's nice to know that the U.S. Army is not falling into that trap.
My old buddy Dwight (retired Navy and fellow Lexican) tipped me off to this new armored fighting vehicle currently in work. A few things about it raised a few warning flags in this old engineer's brain, so I went looking for The Chieftain's thoughts on the project. I feel a whole lot better now and I think that this "new" vehicle will be a war winner if, God forbid, we need to ever deploy tanks on a future battlefield. (From what I understand, many of the lessons learned in Ukraine will be considered. Just in case you were worried about that.)
Okay, this is a long video, but well worth your time. Nicholas Moran knows his business, he's an armor officer, and puts a lot of thought into the subject matter. He is truly a Subject Matter Expert when it comes to armored fighting vehicles and mobile warfare, both the history and the practice thereof.
Before jumping into the video, there were a couple of things I noted as a former engineer who saw the many ways people could find to kill a viable weapon systems concept.
The Chieftain asked (around the 25:50 mark of the video) why this wasn't a new tank but still an M1 variant. Colonel Howell's answer was that this wasn't really a new tank, because ...
"They did the requirements right back then ..."
Something Zumwalt (my big project as a worker bee) never really got right and never really finished. Requirements churn was a HUGE problem in the early days. If you can't nail those down, why the heck are you spending money on building the damned thing?
This machine is being built with the users in mind, the folks who will actually be manning the thing. (I mean it will even have cupholders! You'd be surprised how nice those are to have! Go to 27:30 in the video for a good talk about crew amenities.)
Anyhoo, here's the video, if you have any interest in how your tax money is spent on new military hardware, you should watch the whole thing.
The only thing which makes me nervous is the software for this beast. Believe me when I say, I know how easy it is to make a mess of that. You don't want your gunner to have to stop and say, "Sorry Skipper, you'll have to wait, the computer is rebooting ..."
Been there, done that and it does not impress the customer.
Sorry, Got word that construction has begun on our new home. Well, the demolition part anyhow. So, I've got two Monday Posts today!
Just got a text from our construction supervisor. Apparently, demolition has begun.
Yes, it has begun! Taking down the abandoned house was the first in several clearing requirements. The above video is looking to the North West at the start. That's the road to get onto the property
The area directly to the right of the picture below will be the spot for the Horse Barn and their grazing pasture. They'll be taking down the scrub crap and leaving most of the trees. The dead ones will obviously be taken down also.
Looking to the south east in this pic
This next picture the camera is to the left of the frame.
Well, Campers, another week down the tubes. A lot of phone calls between the contractor and us. This was followed by another phone call to one of the "Powers that Be" aka a desk warming bureaucrat, by us to get it done. So, nothing to report on the housing project.
But... on to the subject of this week's post. I don't know if I've properly introduced y'all to our adopted "children".
A little back ground, when my sister passed away, she left two Great Pyrenees (GP) Dogs that we adopted. Atticus and Gryndll.
(L) Atticus, (R) Gryndll
We were still living
on our 30+ acre property near Fredericksburg. They had plenty of room
to run around and howl at the cattle, deer or other beasts that got near
our property. Sleep was generally not interfered with.
The only downside we've discovered yet in our move to CStat is the rental house we're in is 1) small. 2) Quite close to the neighbors and 3) Near a highway and a Railroad track. Did I mention there are a lot of trains going by, many after dark.
All of those actions cause an "equal and opposite" reactions from the GP's. They are doing an excellent job of keeping the "bad guys" away from the house. Unfortunately, they are also disturbing our sleep. Bad enough!
But...it's also disturbing our neighbor's sleep. Apparently last Friday night, one of them couldn't take it anymore. About 10:30, Gryndyll was scarring off a deadly enemy squirrel or other animal when someone came knocking at the door. Mrs J and I were in our bed clothes and headed toward the bed. I turned around and went to the door.
It was a Police Officer. He explained that someone had complained. We explained our predicament with the trains and freeway noise keeping them alert. He was very nice about it after having been introduced to the twosome. However, he said we had to keep them inside at night. We explained the dogs also bark inside the house.
About this time, one of them kicked off barking, behind the closed door. The officer was impressed, but said we'd need to find a cure. Haven't found one yet. That night, Mrs J slept out in the living room with them. After a while, they quieted down quite a bit. We'll have to see how they'll handle it if they're alone in the living room.
Why don't they sleep in our room also? Well, we also have a cat. The Cat and Gryndll don't get along. So our room is the Cat's Kingdom while Gryndll primarily is limited to the rest of the house. Unfortunately, Atticus is also prohibited from the Master Bedroom.
Unfortunately, we're in a conundrum. When they're in the back yard, the house minimizes the loudness of that barking inside the house (obviously not enough to please the complainant) and Mrs J and I can get some sleep. The Police Officer ruled that option out.
When they're in the house at night and some sound gets them stirred up and barking, well, sleep is not an option. We're trying to train them. They don't like to be wet, so we've got a spray bottle with water. When they bark indoors, they get squirted on the head (no, not the eyes or any other part that could be injured). The problem is that when they're barking in the house and we're asleep, it involves getting out of bed, finding the squirt bottle, figure out who's barking, squirt him or them, and go back to bed.
Two things there. One, it's difficult to get back to sleep and two, something else will set them off.
Oh, and by the way, sleep for them during the day? No problema!!!
The real solution is moving in to the new house. Nobody is close enough to care about barking in the country.
I wonder if our construction supervisor can be talked into boarding them in his house....
House would be moved WAY up on the priority list.
But...we'll just have to gut it out. Now that my Monday post is published, I think I'll stop B,M,& C-ing and go take a nap!
Maybe I'll make up for it in the spring with two posts on the same day.
Or maybe I'll just let it go.
The snow is slowing down (around the 5 inch mark is my guesstimate) and the temperature is dropping fast. It's already dropped about 15° since the morning. (We're talking about Saturday here as I write.)
Sunday (today as you read) is supposed to be brutally cold when the wind kicks up.
And I can hear the flap on the bathroom exhaust fan flapping now.
Might get sporty out there.
I'll worry about clearing the snow later.
There's no where we have to go, so ...
Sit inside with a hot cuppa and watch the world go by.
No doubt juvat is roasting in the 80s down Texas way, Tuna is suffering through the 60s and 70s in Sandy Eggo, and Beans?
God only knows what the weather in Florida is going to be like.
In the pool one day, frozen palm trees the next, it's crazy down there!
British and Austrian Infantry Advance on Blindheim Village¹ Source
The Battle of Blenheim (which you may or may not have heard of) was the greatest victory of a British general on the continent since Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt some 300 years earlier. It would be eclipsed by the Battle of Waterloo a little over a hundred years later. Which may be why you've never heard of it.
Sir John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was a member of the family which gave the world Sir Winston Churchill as well as Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales. (Whose older brother Charles wrote an excellent account of the Battle of Blenheim which I'm nearly done reading.) He's the general you may or may not have heard of and the victor at Blenheim.
In order to rectify any gaps in your knowledge of European history which might exist, I give you the following, from a fellow on YouTube known as The History Chap². Sorry lads and lassies if I've given ye another way to waste time. But history is important. And sometimes it rhymes ...
So yes, I'll be spending some more time with The History Chap and I'm starting to hear from The Muse that the War of the Spanish Succession might be a great setting for a bit of historical fiction. It's a fascinating period in European history what with Louis XIV³ throwing his weight around.
By the way, the aforementioned war was fought because the King of Spain died without leaving an heir. So Louis XIV volunteered his grandson to take that throne. Other European countries, particularly Austria, objected. So, true to European custom (and truth be told, human custom), they fought a war over it, killing thousands to benefit the few.
The "noble" few.
Sigh, there's an old story there. Which is why we Americans threw off that particular yoke.
Do we ever learn?
Hard to say.
Editor's Note: As I write this, it's snowing, again. Yay, sarcastically, of course. It's pretty, but enough already!
¹ Blindheim is known as Blenheim in English.
² The fellow is a great storyteller, though his pronunciation of Bavaria drives me nuts. Then again, I know it as Bayern, not Bavaria, regardless of that latter name's pronunciation. 🙄
³ The Sun King, surely you've heard of him? (Sorry for calling you Shirley ...)
I recall saying I was done posting about the weather last week.
And yet, here we are, another weather post.
We're in for some more snow, maybe, but not all that much. I will say this, modern weather prediction is far more accurate than back in the day. Knowing the variables helps.
Storm might stay further out to sea, which means we don't get much snow. Might slide right up the coast and give us a mix of rain and snow (argh, the worst thing is when it's freezing rain). Or it could go further inland and miss us completely.
Satellites help the weather guessers and they usually get it right, for certain locations on the earth's surface. I've also noted that weather will sometimes get here later than predicted, or earlier than predicted.
It's that butterfly in Beijing flapping it's wings again!¹
Snow aside, we're getting some really low temperatures this weekend. After a week in the Arctic, then this week where temps were closer to normal, the weekend plunges us back into the Arctic. Might see wind chills² of down to -35°!
That's a killing cold if you're outside and unprepared.
I've been out and about at -30° and it was seriously unpleasant. Like "If I don't get inside soon and get warm, I'm going to die" unpleasant. And I was dressed for it!
Think we'll stay hunkered down this weekend.
Another weather prediction I'll be paying attention to, that's for sure.
² Wind Chill is a term used to describe what the air temperature feels like to the human skin due to the combination of cold temperatures and winds blowing on exposed skin. In simple terms, the colder the air temperature and the higher the wind speeds the colder it will feel on your skin if you're outside. So even if it remains the same temperature, but the wind speed increases it will actually feel colder to your skin. Source
Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus (Ray Stevenson and Kevin McKidd) Source
One of my favorite series, ever, is Rome, which came out on HBO, in the US, and BBC2, in the UK. With twenty-two episodes overall, the series began in 2005 and ended after the second season in 2007. I understand there was to be a third season but the cost of the thing was just too high to get anyone to sign off on that. Pity, considering the garbage which comes out of Hollywood these days.
An outstanding cast, a well-told story, and very high production values, I daresay, they just don't make them like this anymore. More's the pity.
If you haven't watched it, you should. It's entertaining and doesn't stray all that far from the historical record.
Caesar commands it!
The superb Irish actor, Ciarán Hinds, as ... Gaius Julius Caesar Source
Really, you should make the time to watch this. I've watched all 22 episodes three times and am about to embark upon a fourth viewing. It is really good.
Many are the hours I spend looking for, finding, and watching cool videos on YouTube. With all of the crap that is on the internet in these modern times, YouTube still has some good stuff.
The Australian Armour & Artillery Museum has a number of really great videos on YouTube. They restore and display some of the most iconic vehicles of the World Wars. The Grant tank being one of them. If you chase that link under the opening photo you can watch an hour and a half long video of the restoration of a Grant tank.
While working on that vehicle they had teams looking for parts to restore it, amazingly enough, they found another Grant tank.
A barn find!
Their Workshop Wednesday videos are awesome, I learn something every time I watch one. Here's a taste of those videos ...
Great stuff.
I spend a lot of time on their page, if you like armor and artillery, you should too.
We departed Maryland on Monday morning at approximately 0833 local. Weather was CAVU and bloody cold, roughly 15 (sit down you Northern tier types, we don't want to hear how farking cold it is up there, we're glad it's up there, and not down here). Vehicle was fully fueled and all that was required was a coffee and ration stop (Dunkin').
Once that was done, we set a course for Little Rhody via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (not to be confused with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which is much further south). We wanted to avoid Baltimore's rush hour (we did) and the Eastern Shore side of Maryland is pretty, much prettier than the environs of Baltimore. It's very rural, lots of farms and open fields.
As you can see in the opening photo, Annapolis has snow, rather a lot. Thing is though, it's about four inches of packed snow, almost a solid, topped by three to five inches of ice. The stuff is impenetrable, except by anti-tank ammo. Seriously, the stuff is solid and hard as a rock.
The further north we traveled the fluffier the snow got. The quantity varied from perhaps six inches in some areas to one to two feet in Little Rhody. Seriously, we got pounded last weekend. But it was nice light snow, easy to shovel.
How do I know you might ask?
Well, our next door neighbors cleared the driveway for us, which was awesome pulling up to a nice clean driveway after driving 425 miles. As we prepared for extra-vehicular activity, i.e. unloading the car and moving stuff into the house, I noted that the path to the deck and the deck itself were still piled high with virgin snow. Maybe a foot? Maybe less? But there it was.
Fortunately I keep a shovel handy at the back of the deck and within minutes a path was cleared.
OAFS Photo
More will be cleared on the morrow (today as you read this) but after 7.5 hours behind the wheel with a semi-busted up knee, I was in no mood for further physical activity. So I left it, it will still be there when I get up.
Unless it melts.
Fat chance of that happening, seems the polar vortex is planning an extended stay for the month of February.
So it's winter, real winter, like when I was nobbut a lad.
But back then Dad did the shoveling, now I am the Dad.
Bummer.
OAFS Photo
Gotta admit though, the stuff is pretty when viewed in the right light.
Well, the weather down here hasn't been as bad as a lot of other places, Temperatures right at freezing when we wake up. Been topping out in the high 40's . Forecast for this week is highs in the 60's and 70's and lows in the 30's and 40'. Had icy roads when this front first came through, but they cleared up by lunch. So not a really big deal, most people stayed home for a day or at least a morning. Not a lot of meat in that for a posting.
So, anyhow I re-posted a tale from 5 years ago, flying related. Hope you enjoy it.
...Abundance of Caution
Abundance
of Caution. I've only spoken those words once in my life. I was a
student pilot early in the T-37 phase of pilot training. The syllabus
for the ride I was scheduled to fly that day included "Introduction to
Spins and Spin Recovery." This was generally considered the least
favorite mission in the entire syllabus. One would take an airplane up
and intentionally put it out of control, spinning in flat circles with
unexpected pitch up and down moments all the while falling out of the
sky. Literally, the aircraft was no longer flying. On this flight, I
was scheduled with an IP whose callsign was IronMan. He had been an
F-105 pilot with a couple of tours you know where.
Been
there, done that, got all the respect that he deserved. But...He
didn't put up with much BS, you either knew your S*** and executed it
properly or you didn't pass the ride. And...
You re-flew it with him!
So, we're in the briefing for the mission. He asks me to recite the bold faced Emergency Procedure for Spin Recovery.
Bold
Faced procedures are required to be memorized perfectly, down to the
punctuation and spacing. Students would be selected at the Flight
Briefing at the start of the flying period (as opposed to academic
period) and given a hypothetical flying situation. Most required bold
face. If the bold face was incorrect (e.g. not perfect), the student
would be told "Sit Down!" and he'd be grounded for the day.
That tended to mark you for further inquiry if you actually "Knew your S***" or were just bluffing.
I manage to recite the spin recovery procedure to IronMan successfully.
Throttles – Idle Rudder and Ailerons – Neutral Stick – Abruptly full aft and hold Rudder – Abruptly apply full rudder opposite spin direction (opposite turn needle) and hold Stick – Abruptly full forward one turn after applying rudder Controls – Neutral after spinning stops and recover from dive Yes, 47 years after the fact, I did that from memory. Although I confirmed the accuracy here. (A short post with some additional entertaining commentary, go read it. I'll wait.)
So,
IronMan and I start to talk about the mission and how we'll go about
it. He'll demonstrate the first spin and recovery then it'll be me.
Suffice it to say, I'm nervous.
You might understand why.
Airborne, we set up for the spin. Ironman has the throttles at about 80% and the nose about 45o
high. The stall warning horn is going off like crazy, the airplane is
shaking and finally stalls. Ironman then steps on a rudder as it stalls
to induce yaw.
My eyes are about as big as basketballs now.
He holds the controls as they are for three complete turns.
I now have a good idea how long eternity is.
He
executes the bold face, the aircraft recovers in a dive and he smoothly
pulls it out of that. Hands it over to me. We climb back up
I pull the throttles back, nose up, it stalls and pitches down. I immediately do the bold face and recover.
He
snatches the aircraft from me asks me "WTF was that?" I said, "out of
an abundance of caution I thought I'd try an easy one first."
He replied "My Aircraft". We flew home and landed. I've busted my first & last ride in UPT.
He
said a pilot can and must use caution in performing the mission.
However, accomplishing the mission is his first priority and too much
caution is not acceptable. One is always at risk when flying.
He then went and scratched out the student he was flying with that afternoon and wrote my name in.
I was peeved. I'll show this SOB! We get up in the air. He asks if I want him to demo another one.
"NO, sir"
I
entered the spin, held it for four turns (I'll show him!) executed the
bold face and even managed to recover from the dive without exiting the
bottom of the airspace. Which would have been an automatic Flight
Safety Bust.
Got
back on the ground. Got an excellent on the ride. Found out later
that he'd been key to my getting a fighter out of Pilot Training.
We
flew a lot more together in the program. I learned a lot from him but
having an "Abundance of Caution" was not on the curriculum.
Here's a longer version of Spin Training, but does include what it looks like from another airplane.
So, what brought this up, juvat? Got a little bit behind the power curve on the posting timeline, so had to publish a replay. Why you ask?
Did a walk through of our property Friday with the Builder. He's got the property clearing team ready with the dozers and stuff. They're going to take down a limited number of mature trees and virtually all the undergrowth.
Just a tad bit of pruning needed. Let's get started!
Oh yeah, he's also going to take down the old house and cart that debris away also.
Tuttle pointed out that block of ice out by the street the other day. Later on, when The Nuke and Your Humble Scribe went out to fetch BBQ for the tribe, there were a lot of those ice monoliths everywhere.
Last Sunday we started with snow, by the time I got up (9-ish) it was sleet, around noon it was light rain and as it was still very cold, that drizzly rain froze when it landed. By sunset we had a thin glaze of ice on everything. Fortunately there wasn't much of that.
But the parts of streets, roads, driveways, and so forth that hadn't been plowed (or treated) wound up with a good inch or two of ice on top of the snow. So when the town (and state) got out from under all the snow on the main roads and came back to plow the neighborhoods once more, the plows were lifting up those frozen monoliths depicted above.
The Nuke went into work on Wednesday and saw that someone had collected a number of those ice blocks and had built an igloo! I'm guessing it was kids and not that the Inuit were tracking polar bears and seals this far south.
But ya never know!
The knee is better, gets a bit better every day and I'm happy with that. I have avoided walking on ice since then. Should have avoided it altogether but my attention wandered and BAM, next thing you know I'm on the ground wondering just what I was thinking.
I mean, I grew up in this stuff, walking on (as is driving on) ice is not possible without special equipment. Armored fighting vehicles weighing in at nearly 70 tons will slide on that slippery stuff.
Par exemple ...
I mean I'm fairly hefty but nowhere near as hefty as an Abrams, those bad boys slide on ice too. But they don't tip over like I did ...
It's the end of January, nearly the beginning of February, so ...
At first the weather report said multiple inches of snow in the Annapolis area (I don't remember the exact amount, might have been six inches) and about the same up in Little Rhody. Perhaps more. Also high winds, 20 sustained with gusts up to fifty or sixty mph.
The Missus Herself overheard Tuttle and Your Humble Scribe discussing the weather possibilities ...
"We shall leave on Friday!"
"But honey ..."
"I have spoken."
I waited a while, then pointed out that upon arrival in Little Rhody on Friday it was forecast to be below zero. A chance of heavy snow and high winds on Sunday.
"We don't have a generator. dear."
"I know that."
"Chez Tuttle et Nuke has a generator."
"And ..."
"If we lose power ..."
"We lost power before, three days."
"The outside temperature was in the low 30s. It's going to be subzero during this storm, possibly. The indoor temperature dropped to the low 40s during that storm. Tolerable with a coat or a blanket. This time it's going to be colder if we lose power. Much colder."
"Hhmm, maybe we can stay until later then."
"Yes, like maybe Monday."
I got a dirty look, but it was followed by a thoughtful one.
Friday dawns and the weather says no snow in Annapolis, no snow to maybe an inch in our area of Little Rhody. Supposed to be a bit windy on Sunday, that's it. In other words, a normal winter day on the coast.
So yeah, we're leaving Sunday, as originally planned.
If the weather changes?
I don't care, we'll go where we need to go.
As for the knee? Still sore as hell but getting better. It doesn't ache constantly, which it did yesterday, even with Advil onboard. So things are looking up.
As my old sergeant used to say, "I wonder what will go wrong next?"
It's sore, but there's no swelling. A single Advil and I'm good to go.
Really looking forward to sitting behind the wheel for seven to eight hours today.
But The Missus Herself has spoken and I must bend the knee.
Ah, Hell no.
(I can bend it, would just rather not.)
See you on the flip side.
Update:
Return to base has been postponed due to possibility of a nor'easter on Sunday. Nothing predicted for Maryland, but Little Rhody might see snow and high winds. I'd rather be south with a generator than north without one.
Departure day depends on the forecast, after all, it ain't like I have to go to work, right?
Whilst out and about¹ to inspect the driveway I was told that one part was okay, the rest was like an ice rink.
Me, Mr. Vermonter and supposedly knowing better, decided to check the slippery bit. Long story short, body went one way, lower left leg went t'other.
While hitting the ground, no damage there, I fall gracefully, I felt a stretch in the inner ligament running beside my left knee. Stretched the hell out of it. Hurt like hell, felt nauseous for a moment.
Couldn't get up, it was that slippery. Had Tuttle drag me to the walkable part of the drive where I was able to regain my feet. Decided that "fun time outside" was now officially over and I withdrew to the house to ice that knee.
Yes, it hurts sometimes to get old.
Hurts worse when you realize that your motor skills ain't what they used to be.
I'll be offline for a few days.
The Muse saw me fall and said, "Eff that, I'm outta here."
Tuesday was spent hanging out with the grandkids and digging Blue¹ out of the ice. The weather guessers are postulating yet another big snow storm this coming weekend. The weekend we had planned on heading north. The Missus Herself has decided that we will travel on Friday. In order to "miss" the snow. Maybe an inch here, maybe a foot up there.
Who knows?
I sure don't, but she has spoken and I can but obey.
I tried pointing out that we have a generator here, we don't there ...
I fought the law and the law won.
Remember the book, Almost a Lifetime, ya know, the one I keep promising to get published, some day?
Yeah, that one. Still in the plan. However, as I like writing more than I do researching "how to publish a book," I wrote a prequel to Almost a Lifetime. Which goes by the working title of The Prequel. Yes, I will eventually change the name.
I'm editing that one now, because I want to write more. And I will. I'm looking at a trilogy, maybe more. Depends on my mood, mostly.
You can read both books in their raw form here on the blog. One you can find here, the other you cannot, doing all those links takes time dontcha know, and back then I had a regular job, and not much time to do all those links.
Bottom line, you'll have to hunt for it, start here, that's the first chapter of the prequel. I'd help more, but I'm incredibly lazy, more so since I retired. C'est la vie!
Things are nice and quiet here at Chez Tuttle et Nuke for the most part. The boys get a little rowdy at times (no school yet to help them burn off energy) but hey, that's what I get paid for. (What's that? I don't get paid? This is volunteer work? Okay, they're good boys, I can live with that.)
The bruises will heal and perhaps teach this old man not to try and keep up with a five year old and a three year old. I'll know when I'm really old, that's when the boys beat me in a fair fight! (No, I don't play fair now, they've got me outnumbered!)
And now the driveway is clear! OAFS Photo
Ciao!
¹ Blue is my 2020 Honda Pilot, a fine vehicle she is. She is blue in color, hence the name. Clever lad ain't I?
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