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Have to go out and do some shopping be back in a while

Current Military News
Adopt A Village

Air Force Capt. Nathan Schalles, commander of the 455th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron, poses with local children after handing out school supplies in the village of Bakhshi Kyhal, Afghanistan. Members of Air Force Village at Bagram Air Base delivered clothes, food and school supplies to the village under an “Adopt-A-Village” civil affairs program. The trip was the first of monthly visits planned to the village three miles northeast of Bagram Air Base. Schalles is normally assigned as the operations officer of the 824th Security Forces Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga. U.S. Air Force by Tech. Sgt. Adam Johnston

Army 1st Sgt. Steve Casaceci, assigned to D Company, 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion, talks to village elders in the village of Bakhshi Kyhal, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Milton H. Robinson

Airmen assigned to the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group pass out candy to children in the village of Bakhshi Kyhal, Afghanistan. The unit is participating in a program called Adopt-A-Village, in which the unit helps to improve the way of life in a village of their choice by providing such items as clothing, shoes, food and school supplies. When involved in the Adopt-A-Village Program the unit is required to visit the village at a minimum of once a month to provide assistance. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Milton H. Robinson

Air Force Staff Sgts. Todd Weingeroff (left) and Reggie Bunting, both of the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group, are preparing to unload boxes of humanitarian rations in the village of Bakhshi Kyhal, Afghanistan, Jan. 11, 2003. The unit is participating in a program called Adopt-A-Village, in which the unit helps to improve the way of life in a village of their choice by providing such items as clothing, shoes, food and school supplies. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Milton H. Robinson

Air Force Staff Sgts. Todd Weingeroff (left) and Reggie Bunting, both of the 455th Expeditionary Operations Group, pass out boxes of humanitarian rations to an Afghan man in the village of Bakhshi Kyhal, Afghanistan.

A samll link to follow, since I already posted the comic elsewhere and I don't really want to hog bandwidth for the sillyness..
http://www.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/fantatoon/fantatoon11.jpg

It's Castle Nerf....

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

But the Eighth continued grimly on, throughout 1943, next targeting ball-bearing production, considered a vital weak point in aviation manufcturing. On the 17th of August, a large force of 376 bombers raided Schweinfurt and Regensburg. Sixty bombers, with six hundred aircrew, didn't come back. 16 percent losses. At that rate, the Eighth Air Force could not continue. When B-17G's began to arrive in August and September, the forward machine guns in their chin turrets helped a little. The appalling wastage continued:

September 6 - Over 400 bombers attacked the Stuttgart ball-bearing plant; 45 were lost.
October 14 - Schweinfurt again. 291 B-17's went out; 60 went down.
January 11, 1944 - German aircraft industry targets. 600 Flying Fortresses were sent out. Because of bad weather, only 238 reached Germany; 60 were shot down.

German industrial capacity proved remarkably resilient. Armaments Minister Albert Speer mobilized German (and captive) labor and decentralized critical production. In his Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs, Speer told of his efforts "After the second heavy raid on Schweinfurt on October 14, 1943, we again decided to decentralize. Some of the facilities were to be distributed among the surrounding villages, others placed in small, as yet unendangered towns in eastern Germany. This policy of dispersal was meant to provide for the future; but the plan encountered ... resistance on all side. The Gauleiters did not want new factories in their districts for fear that the peacetime quiet of their small towns would be disturbed."

In late 1943, P-38's and P-47's began to provide the long range escort that the 'Forts' needed. But the ultimate answer, the P-51 Mustang, which could reach Berlin, only appeared in March, 1944.

~~~

Here's to a rain of daisy-cutters on the Parade of Anacephalics tomorrow.

Godspeed Swift Victory and Safe Return to the Finest Fighting Force on Earth.

God Bless Our Troops, Our Veterans, and their Families.

SADDAM-FREE IN '03

What it's all about.

Sam, this Adopt-A-Village idea looks to me, to be a good one.