The USS Nebraska, a United States Navy battleship, with dazzle camouflage painted on the hull, in Norfolk, Virginia, on April 20, 1918. Dazzle camouflage, widely used during the war years, was designed to make it difficult for an enemy to estimate the range, heading, or speed of a ship, and make it a harder target.
I just saw this on G+ and thought I’d share. I didn’t know they used this tactic. I’ll have to do some homework tonight and see what I find.
Everyone is familiar with security patrol dogs. You may even know that because of their exceptionally keen sense of smell, dogs like beagles are also used to detect drugs and bombs, or land mines. But a dog would not be effective in finding a sea mine. Sea mines are sophisticated, expensive weapons that are designed to work in the ocean where they can sink ships, destroy landing craft, and kill or injure personnel. Sea mines are made so that they cannot be set off easily by wave action or marine animals growing on or bumping into them. If undetected, sea mines can be deadly, destructive weapons. Read more
It was New Year’s Eve, 1944, and the United States was busy giving Germany a pounding they would never forget. Among the pilots assisting in the pyrotechnics display were Lt. Glenn Rojohn and his co-pilot, Lt. William Leek Jr., flying their B-17 Flying Fortress. When the lead aircraft was downed by German fighters, Rojohn and Leek began to maneuver their bomber into the lead position when they felt a large object smash into them. Read more
Bino makes rank. Earlier this month the 13-year-old Dutch Shepherd and retired military working dog won the military category at the American Humane Association’s Hero Dog Awards in Los Angeles.
The honor was well deserved since having his paws deployed on the hot sands of Iraq for 14 months as well as serving special missions with the Border Patrol in the war on drugs. MWD Bino C152 served in the Army for nearly 11 years, focused on narcotics detection and suspect apprehension.
These days Bino is still helping soldiers, only in a different way. The Dutch Shepherd and his owner Debbie Kandoll travel from their Las Cruces, NM, home to Fort Bliss three or four times a week to train other service dogs to be used by soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, severe depression or anxiety.
Upon retirement from the military Bino became the Official Mascot of MWD Adoptions, earned his AKC CGC and learned his brand new skill set as a PTSD Demo Service Dog.
Bino enjoys his new role of showing the “newbie” service dogs and their soldiers how to navigate without distraction or panic attacks in grocery stores, busy malls, on elevators and escalators, and through airport security.
“Bino may not be on the battlefield any longer, but even in retirement at 13 years old, he is still actively and enthusiastically engaged in saving fellow soldier lives,” Kandoll said. “Though MWD Bino C152 is my personal friend and doggy love, he is a true example of a tirelessly serving K9 Hero who NEVER quits giving to all.”
The Hero Dog Awards were broadcast on Nov. 11 on the Hallmark channel. Producers from the cable channel were in Las Cruces and at Fort Bliss to film the segment on Bino.
For more information visit http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/herodogawards
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This is inexcusable.
CNN — At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.
The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources. Read more
On this day in 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.
Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces. In February of that year, the German 6th Army, lured deep into the Soviet Union, was annihilated at the Battle of Stalingrad, and German hopes for a sustained offensive on both fronts evaporated. Then, in June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed at Normandy, France, and began systematically to push the Germans back toward Berlin. By July 1944, several German military commanders acknowledged their imminent defeat and plotted to remove Hitler from power so as to negotiate a more favorable peace. Their attempts to assassinate Hitler failed, however, and in his reprisals, Hitler executed over 4,000 fellow countrymen. Read more
This was Sunday’s In Depth Story in the San Diego Paper. i’m sharing an excerpt from the article along with the link to the original. What I really wanted to post was the last image here that breaks down the past 14 years of the war in Afghanistan.
Across Afghanistan, monumental transitions like the one involving Marine Lt. Col. Thomas Ziegler are taking place. Ziegler handed over the key to the front gate of his military base at Delaram this month, leaving Afghan national troops solely in charge of securing Nimruz province. Then he and his team of about 100 Marine advisers and supporting personnel — the last coalition forces in Nimruz — withdrew.
Two years after the creation of the 4th Brigade of the 215th Afghan National Army Corps, the Afghan troops had been declared mission capable and independent. “This entire province now belongs to the Afghans, and it is up to them for their security,” Ziegler said in a phone interview from the neighboring Helmand province, where thousands of Camp Pendleton-based troops have served during the war.
“It sends an important message,” Ziegler added. “Not only are we saying that you’re ready to go and we don’t need to be there with you any longer, but now you have to. It’s not empty words.”
The Nimruz force of about 4,500 Afghan soldiers and police officers must safeguard the national government without direct coalition assistance.
These changes of command are unfolding nationwide as the last American and NATO combat troops prepare to head home by the end of 2014 — 13 years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. They mark what’s likely the final combat chapter for American troops in this war, which has pulled in not only a significant number of Marines but also sailors and National Guardsmen based in San Diego County.
For the continuation of this story click the link below.
via Afghan forces prepare to take lead | UTSanDiego.com.
Click to enlarge
Maiden on the Midway 
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