Free Republic

Berlin-Tempelhof, Hitler’s favourite airport, could yet be rescued by one of the world’s most influential Jewish philanthropists. Cosmetics billionaire, New York socialite and art collector Ronald Lauder – son of the celebrated Estée Lauder - is behind a €350m (£235m) project to turn the Third Reich architectural relic into a luxury fly-in health clinic for Europe’s super rich. Berlin's cash-strapped city fathers earlier this year finally cleared the way to develop the proposed new Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) on the site of the present Schönefeld airport to the south east of the city, handling an annual 22 million passengers. Inner...

President Bush, urging Congress to craft a war spending bill quickly, offered no clues Saturday about whether he'll compromise over linking U.S. support to stability in Iraq. Bush and Congress have been talking about how to agree on a bill to finance combat operations through September. The president demands the money without strings attached, but Democrats say Bush eventually must accept some conditions on the U.S. commitment to the war. Earlier this week, Bush vetoed a $124 billion bill that would have provided money for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan while requiring troops to begin returning home by Oct. 1....

9/3/2006 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- Airmen and Sailors from Andersen will sail 1,500 miles to Wake Island to see how well the U.S. territory survived Super Typhoon Ioke. The Air Force evacuated all 188 island residents on two C-17 Globemaster III aircraft Monday before the typhoon arrived Thursday with 155 mph winds and gusts to 190 mph. The residents include Airmen, Department of Defense employees and Defense contractors. Members of Andersen's 36th Contingency Response Group and U.S. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 25 will sail Sept. 4 on an expected four-day trip to the island....

HURLBURT FIELD: Terrorists and their supporters around the world soon will be under the gaze of a powerful "unblinking eye" providing information on their whereabouts to a "brain" here. The reactivation of the 11th Intelligence Squadron here marks a milestone for Air Force Special Operations Command, which gains its first intelligence squadron. The 11th IS, commanded by Lt. Col. David Hambleton, is assigned to Air Force Special Operations Forces, AFSOC's warfighting headquarters. The squadron's mission is to process, exploit and disseminate to commanders information gathered by AFSOC's MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles and other airborne intelligence and surveillance sources, Colonel...

THE US Air Force will earmark billions of dollars in its next five year budget plan to help meet the Pentagon's goal to develop a new long-range bomber by 2018. The timetable was aggressive but achievable, given the new bomber would be likely to include technologies already under development by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US aerospace and defence industry, an official said today. "Substantial resources will be dedicated across the future years defence plan from 2008-2013 to get there," the official said.< "It will be billions." Defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute...

The United States can't pass up a good deal any more than a garage sale groupie. So when the Republic of Moldova put 21 MiG-29 dual-role fighters - capable of carrying nuclear weapons - on the auction block last October, the Pentagon snatched them up before bargain hunters from unfriendly countries could get their paws on them. Under terms of the agreement, the United States and Moldova won't disclose the purchase price of the jets. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, however, said, "it was quite reasonable." The Pentagon pounced on the planes after learning Iran had inspected the jets...

For years, the U.S. military has wanted a plane that could loiter just outside enemy territory for more than a dozen hours and, on command, hurtle toward a target faster than the speed of sound. And then level it. But aircraft that excel at subsonic flight are inefficient at Mach speeds, and vice versa. The answer is Switchblade, an unmanned, shape-changing plane concept under development by Northrop Grumman. When completed (target date: 2020), it will cruise with its 200-foot-long wing perpendicular to its engines like a normal airplane. But just before the craft breaks the sound barrier, its single wing...

AMERICA scored one clear success in the War on Terror last week with the killing of Abu Musab al-Zar qawi, the longtime leader of al Qaeda in Iraq - but also a clear failure, with the taking of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, by Islamist militias. The contrast between the two covert operations is telling - for the details teach an abject lesson in the difference between a "learning organization" and one that closes itself to outside influences while insisting that it can perform functions far beyond its core competence. Supremely well-coordinated intelligence is vital to any successful special operation. Zarqawi was...

EDWARDS AFB - Edwards Air Force Base officials are preparing to test laser weapons at the nation's premier flight test center. In readying for such tests, base officials have prepared an environmental assessment, which evaluates the danger of harm to the physical, natural and human environments. The testing covered by this assessment would all occur inside the restricted area in which Edwards resides. It calls for allowing up to 140 flight tests and 24 ground tests beginning in 2006 and increasing to up 394 flight tests and 24 ground tests in 2010. "Lasers are used by lots of people," and...

World War II bomber revived as 'living memorial' http://www.portales-news.com/engine.pl?station=portales&template=storyfull.html&id=8117 http://tinyurl.com/fu9fh By Marlena Hartz: Freedom Newspapers marlena_hartz@link.freedom.com Created on: May 27, 2006 - 6:13AM - 8117 In a San Antonio junkyard, the B-25 Pacific Prowler idled, bird nests and cobwebs cluttering her insides. That was until Jim Terry rescued her. Three years ago, the retired Air Force pilot restored the famous World War II bomber, built in August 1944. “It was a ghost,” said Terry, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident. No longer, however, is the plane a ghost. Its metal exterior glints in the sunlight, oiled for the brilliant shine. When...

When an F-16 lights up its afterburners, it consumes nearly 28 gallons of fuel per minute. No wonder, then, that the Air Force uses more than half of all the fuel the U.S. government consumes each year. The Air Force may not be in any danger of suffering inconveniences from scarce or expensive fuel, but it has begun looking alternative fuels for its jets. While the military has been a leader in adopting some technologies, any effort to hit a miles-per-gallon fuel efficiency rating has taken a back seat when the mission is to haul bombs farther and faster or...

El Segundo CA (SPX) Feb 02, 2006 Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force have successfully demonstrated the integration of a munition on the B-2 stealth bomber that incorporates an improved, penetrating warhead with an upgraded guidance kit. "The demonstration represents another example of our commitment to maintain the B-2's flexibility to employ a variety of advanced weapons," said Mike Galaway, director of B-2 product development and delivery at Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems sector. "We also want to ensure that the nation's No. 1 long-range strike asset remains the most versatile and lethal bomber in the inventory."

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

The most advanced navigation satellite yet developed was launched on Sunday. It is the first in a new fleet of Global Positioning System spacecraft designed to help commercial users and the US military pinpoint their locations and targets with greater accuracy. The $75 million satellite was launched on a Boeing Delta 2 rocket at 2337 EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US. Over the next few days, it will deploy its solar panels and antennae and fire an onboard rocket to reach its final orbit, about 18,000 kilometres above the Earth. It joins an existing network of...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

In battle, one of the hardest challenges is saving the wounded. Medical professionals encounter injuries not normally seen in peacetime, and many times see multiple life-threatening injures requiring immediate treatment on the battlefield. Another problem is moving patients across hot desert sands on bumpy roads in Iraq, which can be logistically challenging and uncomfortable for the patient. And there is always the danger of roadside bombs. To solve these problems, military aeromedical planners developed what is now an efficient medical evacuation system that moves patients from where they were injured to definitive care quickly and safely. Along the way, patients...

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Each MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle mission flown in the Iraqi sky begins and ends here. Predator operators deployed here put the aircraft in the air and make sure it lands safely. Sitting side by side in the “cockpit,” enlisted Airmen and officers work as a team providing top cover to Soldiers on the ground. Pilots and sensor operators with the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron here each play a key role in the successful Predator mission. While technology allows pilots to control the aircraft from the U.S., Predator takeoffs and landings must be controlled...

FORT DIX, N.J. (AFPN) -- C-5 Galaxy aircrews must tape over some white lights in the cockpit of their huge aircraft before missions into a “blacked out” environment when they must use night vision goggles. Sometimes crews use flashlights or even pull circuit breakers and light bulbs for other light systems to minimize the visual “wash out” effects lights have on their sensitive goggles. Then Air Mobility Battlelab innovators here came up with a solution. This week, command officials at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., approved use of the C-5 Aviator Night Vision Lighting system. This is a portable “clip-on”...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA