Doing a routine scan of my referral logs, I discovered this post that contains links to veterans of all stripes - active, retired, separated. Quite an impressive list. If you’ve been looking for some mil-bloggers that aren’t necessarily Large Mammals or such, take a look.

*We interrupt our regular Snow Blogging to bring you a blog entry that has absolutely nothing to do with snow…regular snow-blogging will resume shortly.*

From the Air Force Times, November 7, 2005, comes this Letter To The Editor:

“No Welcome Sign At Park”
It is with great disappointment and regret that I write this letter. I proudly served our wonderful nation for 20 years in the Air Force and have realized that Ohio, the state in which I reside, does not support the military.
I am an avid camper and take great pleasure in visiting its wonderful state parks. Until this year I was offered a military discount to stay at our parks. I have been informed this benefit has been discontinued. My commitment and loyalty to our great nation has not discontinued.
I am disappointed.
(signed)
Master Sgt John C. Goeke (ret)
Wilmingtion Ohio

Un-freaking-believable. Hey, John, the world does NOT owe you a magical discount on every little thing…and to say something so stupid as “Ohio…does not support the military” just tells the world that you’re a crusty old grouch. Get over it, dude.

The medical center at Keesler Air Force Base — the second largest in the Air Force, and home to the only genetics laboratory in DoD — took a huge hit from hurricane Katrina… (more…)

I wrote the following speech for the 9/11 Memorial Ceremony that was conducted at Malmstrom Air Force Base two years ago. (more…)

Don’t know how or why, but my cable-modem seems to have been resuscitated while I was sleeping…perhaps it was the handiwork of Bryan Wiley - if so , THANK YOU, Bryan! There is one downside: the number of Bloglines entries that accumulated since Friday was just overwhelming…so I had to click the dreaded “Mark All As Read?” button. Sigh. I’ll just start from scratch and get caught up. And I hadn’t planned on having to post anything until Friday, so I’ll ease back into my routine with two links about the US Air Force:

First, did you know that the Air Force produces a daily podcast? You can listen to five minutes of Air Force news every day to see what’s going on in the Wild Blue Yonder. Second, didja hear about the guy who won the $93 million lottery jackpot? A Master Sergeant at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico struck it rich last week - wheeee!

Stryker has some thoughts about the difference between the Air Force and the Army…and how the difference appears to be shrinking somewhat. There is some validity to his initial premise: the large portion of the Air Force that is not directly involved in flying operations does seem to be getting more “Army-fied” in this post-9/11 world. Not good or bad - just an observation.

The airplane: the Enola Gay. The commander: Colonel Paul Tibbets. The date: August 6, 1945. The event: Special Bombing Mission #13 (caution: reading that MetaFilter thread may bring your blood to a boil). The world changed. (more…)

They say that as long as they spell your name right, then there is no such thing as bad publicity. Well, they got my NAME right, but didn’t quite get the DOMAIN name right. Eh. But since it happened, I went ahead and bought mscdavid.com a few hours ago and forwarded it to davidmsc.com…shoulda done it long ago. Read the whole article - the journalist did a good job of talking with numerous mil-bloggers and presenting different sides of the Leonard Clark case.

The bottom line, from my perspective: military bloggers are no different than most other bloggers - if a blogger says negative things about his employer on his blog, then the blogger can expect repercussions. It’s happened often enough to became almost hip and has even spawned a verb: dooced. And when your employer is the US military, the repercussions can be significant. It’s part of the deal when we raise our hand and take The Oath: yes, we have freedom of speech, just like all other citizens - but there are a few limits on such speech, and criticizing the President or otherwise disrupting “good order and discipline” definitely crosses the line. Phil, also quoted in the article, has some good insight explaining why this policy is necessary.

Julie wrote an essay about the now-abandonded nuclear missile sites in her state, and she has pictures, too. Julie is an excellent writer. Just thought you all should know.

Inter-service rivalry between the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines is nothing new — and one of the humorous jabs at the Air Force is that it often outsources many functions. In that spirit, someone has reported that the Air Force has outsourced its new & improved physical fitness program. Heh.

I updated the alumni page for the 750th Medical Squadron at Onizuka Air Force Station; promotions, moves, retirements. If you were there, take a look and let me know if I am missing anything..

Most of you remember retired Admiral James Stockdale…he was best known in his post-Navy life as being the Vice-Presidential candidate of Ross Perot. Admiral Stockdale passed away yesterday at the age of 82. Quite an amazing person; what most people (including me) did not know about Admiral Stockdale was how brutal his experience was as a POW in Vietnam:

Shot down on September 9, 1965, while on a mission over North Vietnam, Stockdale was taken to Hoa Lo Prison, the “Hanoi Hilton.” His shoulders were wrenched from their sockets, his leg shattered by angry villagers and a torturer, and his back broken. But he refused to capitulate. Rather than allow himself to be used in a propaganda film, Stockdale smashed his face into a pulp with a mahogany stool. “My only hope was to disfigure myself,” Stockdale wrote in his 1984 autobiography, In Love and War. The ploy worked, but he spent the next two years in leg irons. After Ho Chi Minh’s death, he broke a glass pane in an interrogation room and slashed his wrists until he passed out in his own blood. His captors then relented in their harsh treatment of him and his fellow prisoners. His efforts to keep the enemy from using him for their purposes won him the Medal of Honor.

After retiring from the Navy, he went on to serve as the president of The Citadel and also served as a senior research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. It wasn’t until 1992 that Admiral Stockdale became widely known to the American public, when he appeared onstage in a televised debate among the Vice-Presidential candidates. Stockdale’s opening line, “Who am I? Why am I here?” quickly became something of a catchphrase, and his public persona of a befuddled senior citizen became a memorable skit on Saturday Night Live. Even Homer Simpson got on board the Stockdale Express, once sporting a t-shirt supporting Stockdate.

While pop-culture will remember him primarily as a footnote to a very unusual Presidential race, Admiral Stockdale will be remembered by many people, particularly military personnel and veterans, as a true American hero. RIP, Admiral Stockdale.

Farewell and rest in peace, Bunker…your service and your life are of great value to your family, your friends, and your nation.