Space Force ‘Guardians’ Get Lapel Pins. Secret Decoder Rings Next?

Lapel Pins, too. Collect ’em all!

Members of outgoing president Donald Trump’s pet Space Force will be issued a nifty official lapel pin to wear on their U.S. Air Force uniforms. That will differentiate them from other flyboys until their capes come back from the tailor. Space Force members, heretofore called “Space Cadets” perhaps, will henceforth be known as “Guardians,” Viceroy Vice President Mike Pence decreed.

“Will ‘Guardian’ be implemented into the rank structure,” asks Gizmodo’s Tom McKay, “like, does someone get promoted from Guardian to Sentinel to Space Paladin to Tython, The Secessionist King Of Mars or something?”

In other space uniform news, Gen. John Raymond, chief of the U.S. Space Force, became a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in some kind of robing ceremony last Friday.

Meanwhile, as the Trump administration had its eyes on the stars and Space Force “Guardians” played video games, real-life antagonists conducted successful cyber attacks on the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies.

Related:

“Abolish the Space Force,” Sarah Jones, New York Magazine

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Trump Fires Pentagon Brass, Commemorates Veterans Day

High School Cadet Capt. Trump. Thank you for your service.

On Wednesday it was raining too hard to play golf, so President Donald Trump commemorated Veterans Day by visiting Arlington National Cemetery and silently laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Mr. Trump had prepared for the event on Monday by firing West Point graduate Mark Esper, his more-or-less 5th Secretary of Defense. Mr. Esper, a veteran of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq. You may recall that Mr. Trump has a service-related disability: he was gravely wounded as soon as he became eligible for the Vietnam draft lottery, and was treated (on paper) at a Queens NY storefront a podiatrist rented from Fred Trump, his dad.

Armed Forces Fact: The Pentagon is in Arlington, Virginia, only 2 miles from Arlington National Cemetery.

More:

“Trump Fires Mark Esper, Defense Secretary Who Opposed Use of Troops on U.S. Streets,”Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Maggie Haberman,  New York Times

“Pentagon sees flurry of resignations after Trump ousts secretary,” Ellen Mitchell, The Hill

“‘Devastating’: Top Pentagon leadership gutted as fears rise over national security,” Lara Seligman and Daniel Lippman, Politico

“Worries grow about rudderless post-election Pentagon,” Ellen Mitchell, The Hill

“Trump administration upends senior Pentagon ranks, installing loyalists,” Dan Lamothe, Missy Ryan, Josh Dawsey and Paul Sonne, Washington Post

“Trump loyalists elevated to powerful roles at the Pentagon after firing of Defense Secretary Esper,” Amanda Macias. CNBC

“Trump Stacks the Pentagon and Intel Agencies With Loyalists. To What End?” David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt, New York Times

“Republicans muzzle anger over Trump’s Pentagon culling, afraid antagonizing him could imperil Georgia runoff,” Karoun Demirjian, Washington Post

Updates:

“Military wary that shakeup could upend its apolitical nature,” Lolitia C. Baldor, Associated Press

“Why Trump is suddenly replacing Pentagon officials with loyalists,” Alex Ward, Vox

Related:

“Gen. Milley’s nurse wife gave CPR to bystander who collapsed at ceremony,” Marina Pitofsky, The Hill

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Top image: Cadet Capt. Trump’s high school picture. Download a copy here.

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U.S. Troops in Space!

Space Force: Enlist and Blast Off Today!

Military troops in the Space Force will someday deploy to orbit, one of the service’s top operations officials said Sept. 29.

‘At some point, yes, we will be putting humans into space,’ Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw, head of the Space Force’s Space Operations Command and part of U.S. Space Command leadership, said during a conference organized by the AFWERX innovation group. ‘They may be operating command centers somewhere in the lunar environment or someplace else.’

Space Force officials, wary of being confused with NASA, usually shy away from questions about whether military personnel will go to the Final Frontier themselves. Experts have split on whether a Space Force astronaut corps is a good idea in the next couple of decades, if at all.

— “Space Force Will Eventually Put Troops in Orbit, Ops Boss Says,” Rachel S. Cohen, Air Force Magazine

Note: Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond is among the senior U.S. military leaders in self-quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure at the White House.

Related:

“Space Force Fears COVID Loss Of Commercial Startups: Gen. Thompson,” Theresa Hitchens, Breaking Defense

Update:

“U.S. Space Force unveils lapel pins for U.S. Air Force uniforms,” Ed Adamczyk, UPI

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Pentagon Tests Mass Surveillance Balloons in US

“The US military is conducting wide-area surveillance tests across six midwest states using experimental high-altitude balloons, documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveal.

Up to 25 unmanned solar-powered balloons are being launched from rural South Dakota and drifting 250 miles through an area spanning portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri, before concluding in central Illinois.”

“The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.”

— “Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US,” Mark Harris, The Guardian

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Space Force: Countdown to Blast Off!

U.S. Space Operations Force. Enlist now!

“‘I said maybe we need a new force, we’ll call it the Space Force,’ Trump said at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in March 2018. ‘And I was not really serious. Then I said,’What a great idea, maybe we’ll have to do that.'”

“Now, key lawmakers leading the charge have the support they need to make a new U.S. space service a reality. The House and the Senate have both proposed plans for Space Force in their versions of the annual defense bill.

And next month, a congressional conference committee could hammer out a final blueprint in its approval of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.”

— “With Congressional Blessing, Space Force Is Closer To Launch,” Claudia Grisales, NPR News

Update:

“US Launches Space Command Today,” Carla Babb, VOA

Related:

“Why the Space Force Is Just Like Trump University,” Erin Durkin, The Atlantic

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D-Day’s ‘Matchbox Fleet’

Sixty wood-hulled boats made in Brooklyn were carried across the North Atlantic to England on the decks of Liberty Ships seventy years ago. The patrol boats, each 83 feet long, were designed for anti-submarine patrol and coastal search and escort, but had been modified as rescue craft. Most had radar; some had sonar.

The group of small, wooden, gasoline-powered cutters, vulnerable to incendiary shells, was understandably nicknamed the ”Matchbox Fleet.”  On June 6, 1944, these boats crossed the English Channel as U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla One (ResFlo1), part of Operation Neptune/Overlord.

Inscription on the Rescue Flotilla 1 (The “Matchbox Fleet”) Memorial, harborside at Poole, Dorset, UK:

“From this Quay, 60 cutters of the United States Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla 1 departed for the Normandy Invasion, 6 June 1944.  These 83 foot boats, built entirely of wood, and the 840 crewmembers were credited with saving the lives of 1437 men and 1 woman.  In remembrance of the service of Rescue Flotilla 1, and with appreciation of the kindnesses of the people of Poole to the crews, this Plaque is given by the men and women of the United States Coast Guard.”

Above: 83-footer off the Normandy coast on June 8, 1944.

More:

U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Flotilla One at Normandy

The Iron Sailors of the Last Wooden Patrol Boat (WPB)

“The Cutters,” E. Bishop, Naval History May/June 1994 (PDF courtesy of uscg83footers.org)

Rescue Flotilla 1, WW2Talk (good selection of photos)

The U. S. Coast Guard at Normandy, Scott T. Price (overview of D-Day operations by USCG)

“How Rescue Flotilla One saved more than 400 men on D-Day,” The History Guy (video)

 

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The Army’s Flying Jeep

The U.S. military tested a “flying jeep” in 1959 on the theory that a low-flying vehicle following the contour of the landscape would be invisible to radar. And it wouldn’t get stuck in the mud. Things were going pretty well until the brass thought about having to ask Congress to fund something called a “flying Jeep.”

More:

“Yes, The U.S. Army Actually Developed a Flying Jeep with Guns,” Elizabeth Werth, Jalopnik

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Space Force!

U.S. Space Operations Force. Enlist now!

President Trump’s promised Space Force is in development, said Vice President Mike Pence at the Pentagon on Thursday. “You can be confident,” he assured military leaders, citing Psalm 139, “that you will go with the prayers of millions of Americans who will claim on your behalf, … ‘even if you go up to the heavens, even there His hand will guide [you], His right hand will hold [you] fast.’ And He will hold fast this great nation in the great beyond.”

What can account for the religious fervor of Mr. Pence’s belief in the need for a Space Force? It’s not his fear of gay space aliens, it’s something else….

Christmas in Vietnam

“Christmas in Vietnam,” written by John Wilson and John Wessler, recorded by them as “Johnny &  Jon,” and released on Stan Lewis’s Jewel Records in 1966, during the Vietnam Conflict.

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Rogue Blimp Attacks Pennsylvania!

A 243-foot-long helium-filled blimp broke its tether and escaped from Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland last Wednesday and, chased by F-16 fighters, snapped some power lines before it went to ground 160 miles away in a ravine in Montour County, Pennsylvania. The $175 million surveillance “aerostat” was finally subdued by Pennsylvania state troopers with shotguns, and it’s being dismantled with chainsaws.

The pricey gasbag was part of the $2.7 billion Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System or JLENS, produced by Ratheon for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Two of these tethered aerostat platforms floated 10,000 in the air, protecting the airspace over Washington, DC from hostile aircraft, but they missed that Florida gyrocopter that landed on the Capitol lawn in April.