Hole in the Head Press

Clowns Claim Compound

From Defense Tech... Clowns hammer on nuclear warheads with household hammers.

Clowns crashing  compound

More here

NORAD Bunker to go on Standby

Meanwhile, back in Colorado, the United States is putting the bunker under Cheyenne Mountain on standby.

The Shanghai Bunker

China has announced the completion of a civil defense bunker in Shanghai that can hold 200,000 people. The bunker is equipped with a kitchen that serves ever smaller portions of Panda Express food.

But What About the Children?

I subscribe to a number of new lists.

One of them is about military communications.  The folks on this list have scanners, and radios that can listen to military aircraft, ships and alike.

Today, this was posted  -

	"I happened to catch two AF pilots on 303.0 this
	afternoon in western Ohio, Out of the blue one used
	some of the most profane language I have ever imagined
	hearing, Luckily my kids were not in hearing range, I
	have been listening to milcom and aviation in general
	for many years and I was stunned.
	I never heard a callsign or caught a destination or I
	would have made an effort to contact the AF about
	this.
	Simply amazing. TH"

Just "Stunned" I tell you.

I'm still oscillating with oppugnancy that a member 
of our Armed Forces would use profanity over Ohio.

Will these sacrilegious blasts on 303.0 never end?

Shouldn't they wait until the get over California?

What about the children?

Paul Newman Supports the Troops

If you have ever purchased any of Paul Newman's "Newman's Own" products, you have helped contribute to Operation Helping Hand, a volunteer organization that supports the families of injured troops and veterans at the James A. Haley Veterans Affairs hospital in Tampa, Florida.

The program received a $10,000 grant from Newman's Own as the top winner in the 2005 Newman's Own Awards.

Read more about it here.

Is that a Rocket in Your Pants?

Maybe the Missile Defense Organization could use  a couple of these up there at Fort Greeley.

* Actual Rocket from Extreme Rocketry Magazine Jan-Feb 2005

A $100 Million Mistake

What We have Here is A Failure To Communicate

Here's what happens when you don't properly "NOTAM" (Notice To Airmen) an airfield under construction.

On December 29, 2004, a C-23 Sherpa flew into a US operated airfield in Iraq during the day and saw there was construction equipment on the runway.   The C-23 landed safely and the crew filed a safety hazard report that was forwarded to higher headquarters and to the Air Force wing based here.   

Yet, apparently, there was no NOTAM issued. 

This MC-130 landed on the runway the night of the 29th and didn't see the construction.  It wound up going through what is now a large pit on the runway.  The MC-130 was totaled.  There were several injuries to the crew and the few passengers that were on board, but luckily no one was killed. 

Quite an expensive set of failures somewhere in the system regarding this improper construction and no notifications regarding it.

But wait, that’s no ordinary cargo plane.

That’s a Lockheed Martin MC-130H Hercules or COMBAT TALON II, specifically, USAF
FY-Serial 85-0012, c/n 382-5054.

This is a special ops aircraft, as you can see by all of those sensors, bumps, antennas, and thingies sticking out of the fuselage.

If this is a MC-130H Combat Talon aircraft, it's a $155 million dollar aircraft.

It appears that at one time this aircraft was assigned to the 15th Special Operation Squadron (Hurlburt Field AFB, FL) and a Major Craig Gibson was the plane captain. (1991 info)

There's a photograph of this exact same aircraft with the big nose here.

However, another web site lists 85-0012 as a MC-130P Combat Shadow from the 9th Special Operation Squadron (Eglin AFB, FL) INACTIVE

Combat Shadow aircraft stuff is here.

I'm not exactly sure what model this is, but there seem to be very few of these kind of planes around and they are very expensive.

 

What's a SCATANA?

According Richard A. Clarke’s book, “Against All Enemies” ( Which, by the way - you can conveniently purchase right here from this blog.) there were some 4,400 aircraft either departing, arriving or in the air over the continental United States on September 11th.

It was known for sure that morning that four aircraft had been highjacked, but FAA radar tracks indicated at least 10 more aircraft that were off course or not responding to FAA controllers. It was imperative to get these aircraft on the ground to sort out what was happening and to clear the airspace for the few military aircraft available to respond to this crisis.

An article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, relates how, by 9:25am, all aircraft nationwide not already in the air were grounded. Those aircraft in the air were ordered to return to where the flight originated or to land at a nearby airport. By 2:07pm all domestic aircraft were on the ground and by 5:30pm, all international flights were either on the ground or on U.S. or Canadian soil.

Although Clarke doesn’t mention it, the scheme to sort this all out was part of a Cold War Era Continental Air Defense plan and had been around since the 1960's. The plan is called SCATANA.

SCATANA is one of those government acronyms that stands for Security Control of Air Traffic and Navigation Aids, and can be found in Appendix 17 of Federal Air Regulation Order 7610.4. It’s origins go back to the 1950's when a scheme to clear the continental airspace was recognized by General Earle E. Partridge, Commander in Chief of the Air Defense and Continental Air Defense Commands.

SCATANA is a Cold War Era agreement between the FAA, the FCC and the DoD intended to clear the skies and disable air navigation aids following a confirmed attack by the Soviet Union. With the wide use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), the air navigation aids shutdown - the “ANA” part - of SCATANA is now largely irrelevant.

Once SCATANA has been implemented, the scheme calls for a wartime air traffic priority list (WATPL) to be established to allow essential personnel and aircraft to use the airspace.

The idea is to provide unrestricted airspace for US bomber aircraft and missiles as well as air defense interceptor aircraft. It basically calls for all civilian aircraft to clear CONUS airspace by landing at the nearest available airport or diverting back to their departing airports. Military and FAA controllers would then control all aircraft under the WATPL.

The plan had never been implemented until September 11, 2001, although it was partly activated by accident during a November 9, 1979 false alarm at NORAD when a technician accidently inserted a computer tape used to simulate a nuclear attack into the on-line warning system

In fact, SCATANA wasn’t fully implemented on September 11th. NORAD issued a directive from their Cheyenne Mountain command center that stated, “SCATANA is not implemented - but we’re using prioritization codes within SCATANA for flight approval.”

This brings us to still another acronym, ATSC, Air Traffic Services Cell. An Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine article published in June, 2002 tells us that the ATSC is a small office collocated with the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Systems Command Center in Herndon, Virginia and staffed with military reservists and FAA specialists.

The ATSC was established after the 1990-1991 Gulf War to coordinate movements of military aircraft in the United States, Pacific, and European airspace. For three months after September 11th, it would be the 15-20 reservists and FAA specialists at the ATSC that would implement the limited SCATANA plan and seek approve flights under SCATANA’s WATPL. (Wartime Air Traffic Priority List ) with NORAD and the National Military Command Center (NMCC) in the Pentagon.

The WATPL covered flights by United States and Canadian government officials, aircraft engaged in active continental air defense missions, California forest fire suppression flights, search and rescue missions, and approval of some 200 flights by the United States Treasury Department to distribute about $25 billion in cash among major financial institutions around the country.

Although things have taken a controversial turn since, the story of sorting out the national air traffic system using a 40 year old plan designed to cope with a Soviet bomber attack that had never been updated or fully implemented, seemed to work pretty well.

Books for Soldiers

As we all know, the current administration has our military forces spread around the globe. Many of these men and women are unable to get many of small things that would make life more comfortable for them.

One of the things that many of our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard forces could use is some reading material.

Books for Soldiers is an outfit that provides books, CDs, DVD's and other material for our troops. Books for Soldiers seems like a worthwhile effort, please check them out.

Save the Hubble Telescope

Let's see if we can save the Hubble telescope from these idiots. There's a petition to sign here.