Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • Good Luck, Billy-boy

    I mentioned back in July that a good old buddy of mine had gone back in the Guard. Now he’s about to get his boots dusty.

    I first met William Hartman in the fall of 1990. He was fresh off of three years of active duty as an infantryman and starting at Texas A&M when he enlisted in my unit. We’ve been friends ever since.

    Here’s a pic of us in transition training at Ft. Hood in May 1993 as the Texas Guard moved from the M60-A3 to the M1. Bill, by then an ROTC cadet and SMP (Simultaneous Military Personnel, or “Dot” for their cirle rank insignia), is on the right and yours truly is on the left.

    On an M1 at Hood in May 93

    Since those days, Bill graduated and received his commission. After becoming a tank platoon leader, he talked me into transferring into his new unit and serving as his gunner. We crewed together until I left the Guard in ’99. Shortly after that, Bill moved laterally to a scout platoon leader position.

    A few years later, I crewed with him once again as one of his groomsmen. Not long afterward, 1LT Hartman resigned his commission, devoting himself to his civilian life and family and, to be honest, bored with the idea of the eventual staff-officer position that was looming. Staff work just isn’t his style.

    Civilian Bill, doing well in sales and enjoying family life with a beautiful wife and three young children. But there’s always the news.

    The stories can eat at a former soldier. The guilt can gnaw. Believe me, I know.

    Last May, Bill informed me that he was back in the Guard. Rather than go through all the hoops required to get his commission back, he went in as a sergeant based on his last enlisted rank of E-5 as a cadet.

    A voicemail from Germany this week told me where he is now headed.

    My friend Bill, along with a large contingent of the Texas Army National Guard, is going to Iraq.

    But Bill isn’t going quietly into that sandy night. A quick search found this story about the deployment, and SGT Hartman is mentioned and quoted extensively. No real surprise, knowing ol’ Billy-boy.

    For any athletes, constant practice and teamwork can make the difference between winning and losing a big game. But for the soldiers of the 36th Infantry Division’s 56th Brigade Combat Team, the intense combat training that they are performing here in preparation for their deployment to Iraq is no game, because losing can mean the difference between life and death.

    The call-up of about 3,000 Texas citizen-soldiers for duty in southwest Asia to support Operation Iraqi Freedom is the largest mobilization in the state’s history since World War II.

    After half a century, the 36th Infantry Division, formally the 49th Armored Division, was reactivated to help transform the Texas Army National Guard into a more mobile and lethal fighting force that will see a new generation of soldiers wearing the “T-Patch” committed to helping fight the global war on terrorism and carry on the proud legacy established by their predecessors.

    ….

    Some of the Guardsmen had to learn to re-think how to perform their mission and adapt to fighting the guerilla-style tactics the insurgents use.

    Sgt. William J. Hartman, an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank crewman, said that he and his fellow soldiers have a steep learning curve that they must overcome in just a few short months before they are sent overseas.

    Hartman explained that tankers are trained in armored warfare and are accustomed to fighting fast and striking the enemy from a distance in their tank. He said that reverting from an armored role to an infantry role presented a challenge in a number of different areas.

    “We as tankers have a comfort zone in that we are used to operating as a team inside a 63-ton vehicle that is our own little protective capsule,” Hartman explained.

    Hartman emphasized that they will have to think outside of the box and learn to adapt to infantry tactics because they are going to operate in an urban environment. That places a greater emphasis on the level of focus into the training that they perform.

    “We all believe in what we are doing and why we are here,” Hartman said. “When it comes to the training, our Soldiers know the importance of it and they want to get damn good at it, because we have a real-world mission ahead of us. Our lives and the lives of others depend on how well we learn our jobs and how we execute it.”

    But that’s not enough for Bill. The story can also be found here. And here. And here. And here. He even got face time, specifically the picture below (Bill is the one on the left), in the last two links, including this ridiculously large version.

    SGT Billy-boy -- still acting the officer

    My friend Bill is going to Iraq. I can’t believe he’s going to war without me.

    Good luck, Billy-boy, and be sharp — it’s a younger man’s game. Happy hunting, my dear friend.

  • A Big Aggie Whoooop For Hoops

    Winless in the Big 12 last season. 18 straight conference losses. Tenth-ranked Longhorns in town, riding a 10-game winning streak as visitors against the Aggies.

    What does all that add up to? A good old fashioned spanking, of course. The surprise is that it was the Aggies spanking the Horns.

    Before a school-record crowd of 12,811, Law helped A&M end the Longhorns’ 10-game winning streak in College Station and improve its record at Reed Arena to 12-0 this season.

    The Aggies also knocked off their first Top 10 foe, and fourth overall, since beating Texas in 1982.

    ….

    Despite getting off to such an impressive start, A&M had generated little attention mostly because of a nonconference schedule that included games against Prairie View A&M, Texas-Permian Basin and Trinity, a Division III school.

    Let there be no more doubt – A&M is for real.

    Coming off a tough 65-60 loss at No. 2 Kansas last week, A&M surprisingly seized control of this game early and never let the Longhorns back into it.

    The Aggies’ lead reached 21 points early in the second half, but Texas (12-3, 1-1) fought back behind a full court press and scoring spurts by Tucker and Aldridge.

    It wasn’t enough.

    Rank us, dammit!

  • NATO Organizing Shipment of Arms to Iraq

    Iraq doesn’t need to go to the local military surplus store for a great deal on old equipment. How about some weapons for free?

    NATO is organizing the shipment to Iraq of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, dozens of Soviet-designed tanks and other weapons as part of the alliance’s program to help train and equip the Iraqi military, officials said Wednesday.

    Romania has offered 6,000 AK-47’s along with 500 machine guns, 300 sniper rifles and 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, while Estonia has offered 2,400 AK-47s and Denmark 104 pistols, alliance officials said.

    NATO also is arranging the transport of 77 T-72 tanks from Hungary to Iraq, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

    All arms and military hardware were being given as a donation.

    The alliance agreed last year to help coordinate the supply of weapons to Iraq’s fledgling armed forces.

    Several former Warsaw Pact nations that joined NATO last year have surpluses of Soviet-era equipment, which military experts say is ideal for the Iraqi military because it [sic] familiar with those weapons from the days of Saddam Hussein.

    Okay, so they’re crappy tanks. They’re still tanks nevertheless, and the Iraqi government certainly cannot complain about the price. Besides, a bad tank is still pretty good against a terrorist packing a rifle.

  • French Pol: Nazi Occupation Not Brutal

    An anti-Semite politician has France in a stir.

    The Nazi occupation of France was not particularly brutal, French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was quoted as saying.

    The comments by the National Front leader were published in the small extreme-right newspaper Rivarol.

    “In France at least, the German occupation was not particularly inhuman, even if there were a few blunders,” he was quoted as saying. Such things were “inevitable” in a country of 220,000 square miles, he said.

    Le Pen’s office confirmed the interview had taken place but said it could not verify the exact comments, as no one had checked them against a recording. The remarks were published in the paper’s Jan. 7 edition but did not come to wider attention until Wednesday.

    French Justice Minister Dominique Perben said he was outraged and immediately asked for a preliminary inquiry into Le Pen’s remarks.

    “He will have to explain himself before the justice system,” Perben said.

    CRIF, an umbrella group of French Jewish organizations, said it was “particularly shocked” by the comments. During the war, some 76,000 Jews, including 12,000 children, were deported from France, many to Auschwitz. Only 2,500 survived.

    “These comments taint the memory of all victims of Nazism — deportees and the Resistance, and the entire French population, which was subjected for more than four years to the most atrocious of occupations and humiliations,” CRIF said in a statement.

    Le Pen, 76, has a history of making such remarks, and he has been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism at least six times. He once called the Nazi gas chambers “a detail of the history of the Second World War.”

    Sickening? Inaccurate? Pathetic? Yes. But should it be criminal? I don’t think so.

  • Reciprocity VIII

    Just want to thank the latest to add Target Centermass to his blogroll:

    TexasBestGrok

    I’m just guessing, but I suspect John at TexasBestGrok might be a fan of Robert A. Heinlein, one of the greats of science fiction. TBG is worth the regular look, if only for the Heinlein Quote of the Month, the weekly aircraft cheesecake post (check out the Blohm und Voss BV 141; I’d never seen it), and especially the regularly-featured Sci-Fi Babe Poll.

    TBG has his links classified by Heinlein-related titles and Target Centermass is now listed under the “The Green Hills of Earth.” As a tribute to that, I send back this:

    The arching sky is calling
    Spacemen back to their trade.
    All hands! Stand by! Free falling!
    And the lights below us fade.
    Out ride the sons of Terra,
    Far drives the thundering jet,
    Up leaps the race of Earthmen,
    Out, far, and onward yet —

    We pray for one last landing
    On the globe that gave us birth;
    Let us rest our eyes on fleecy skies
    And the cool, green hills of Earth.

    Thanks for the link, sir.

    As always, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unrewarded.

  • Quote of the Week, 10 JAN 05

    War, like most things, is a science to be acquired and perfected by diligence, by perserverence, by time, and by practice.

    —Alexander Hamilton

  • Posting Delayed

    Sorry, folks. Picked up some software tonight and have been working with it. Updated my system utilities and, damn! my PC is a mess. Just a quick note and then I’m out of here. Oh, and a barely-late quote of the week.

    CBS News the story of the day — big breaking today with report and belated firings. I recommend you get your updates at RatherGate.com.

  • Mich. School Board to Vote on Bible Class

    The school board in a small town in Michigan, facing popular demand, is wrestling with the idea of adding a course to its curriculum focusing on the Bible.

    A yearlong dispute over whether to add a religious group’s Bible class at small-town Frankenmuth High School in rural Michigan comes to a head at Monday’s school board meeting.

    At issue is whether the proposed curriculum conforms to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision barring public schools from indoctrinating children in religion but upholding the right to teach about religion.

    The dispute in Frankenmuth, about 75 miles north of Detroit, is the latest skirmish in a nationwide battle between religious conservatives and church-state separationists that has stretched from Fort Myers and Miami, Fla. to Camden, N.J.; North Kansas City, Mo.; Kewaksum, Wis.; and Westcliffe, Colo.

    The school board will get a report Monday from a curriculum committee, made up of teachers and administrators, and will decide whether to adopt the proposed class, Pendleton said. He said he doubts the board will do so.

    One year ago, hundreds of Frankenmuth parents and students asked their Board of Education to offer a Bible course based on materials from the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.

    What if the town was full of flat-earthers or Holocaust-deniers? Should the numbers sway the content of public education?

    The Greensboro, N.C.-based council says its curriculum conforms to the law. But People for the American Way and the American Civil Liberties union say its materials illegally promote religion.

    “It’s religious right people who want to impose a theocracy in this country,” said Judith Schaeffer, deputy legal director of Washington-based People for the American Way. Her group has urged Frankenmuth to reject the class.

    National council lawyer Mike Johnson vigorously defended his group’s course outline.

    “It’s completely defensible. The approach is objective, certainly nondenominational,” Johnson said from Shreveport, La. “It presents the Bible as history and literature, but it does not proselytize.”

    Nondenominational within a particular grouping of religions perhaps, but I suspect little would be included outside of the biblical viewpoint from a non-Christian perspective.

    The curriculum, based on the King James Bible, includes topics ranging from “Periods of Hebrew History in the Old Testament” to “The Parables of Jesus — Literary Genre.”

    In a letter to Frankenmuth school officials, Schaeffer said the course material teaches the Bible from a Protestant Christian perspective, rather than objectively, and teaches the creation story, Noah’s flood, Tower of Babel and resurrection of Jesus as history.

    National Council does not release the names of districts that use its materials. But Johnson said 288 schools in 35 states have adopted its course outline.

    At the eye of the storm is David Pendleton, president of the seven-member board on which he has served for 20 years. The district in Michigan’s rural Thumb has about 1,200 students, 500 of them at the high school.

    “It’s stirred up about as much controversy as the abortion issue,” he said.

    Founded in the mid-19th century by Lutheran missionaries to the Indians, and followed by German pioneer farmers, the Bavarian-themed tourist town of 4,600 remains a conservative community, Pendleton said.

    As far as most board members are concerned, teaching the Bible at Frankenmuth High School would be a good thing, he said.

    “I would love to see it. Other board members would love to do it. But can we do it legally? I don’t think so. But, we’ll see,” he said.

    I cannot believe a school board member is actually stating that legality is the only thing driving the question. Strike that — I have no problem believing it. Who cares about the integrity of the education they’re elected to protect?

    The dispute came to a boil at a Jan. 13 school board hearing, when parents Marcia and Robert Stoddard submitted petitions signed by about 1,200 parents and students asking for the course, The Saginaw News reported.

    There was a time in high school when I might have signed this. Who knows where I would be now with the possibility of this added indoctrination?

    This is why high school is not the place for such an issue in exclusion. By that, I mean the impact or beleifs of religions can rightfully be touched upon in history or philosophy classes, but there is no need to focus on just one at this stage and in such a public forum, be it supposedly for literary, historical or philosophical reasons. This is especially true when alternative religions are not granted the same exposure.

    About 100 people filled the Rittmueller Middle School cafeteria, with shouts breaking out at one point between an avowed atheist and a course supporter.

    “It’s our history, and we must accept it,” the paper quoted high school student Dan Redford as telling the board. “It would be a crime to stop students from learning about our world.”

    Classmate Brandon Bierlein disagreed, saying, “It’s best to leave the Bible to the pastors.”

    While opposing the National Council on Bible Curriculum’s course, People for the American Way says that public school instruction about religion and the Bible is legal and desirable.

    “Schools of course can teach students about the Bible, about the Quran, about people’s beliefs,” said Schaeffer of People for the American Way. “The issue is how do you approach this material.”

    Religion lies at the center of American society, and an educational system that ignores religion renders the nation’s history incomprehensible, said Charles Kriker, founder of the journal Religion and Education and a retired professor at Iowa State University.

    “You really can’t understand things if you exclude that factor,” he said from Ames, Iowa. “Just because something is controversial doesn’t mean you have to ignore it.”

    I only occasionally agree with the ACLU and, when I do, I usually feel a need to cleanse myself afterwards.

    They are right in this case, though. What if the course, popularly demanded, is implemented and peer pressure is placed upon its enrollment? What if I move my future family there and my children are pressured to take such a course with no courses available for contradictory views?

    At the age of high school students and those younger, the public responsibility towards religion should be towards protecting the reasonable rights of the family and the church within their own domain. It should not be one of such blatant advocacy towards a particular indoctrination.

  • Internal U.N. Audits Ignite Debate

    Internal United Nations audits released today show “extensive mismanagement” of the Iraq Oil-for-Food program.

    Internal U.N. audits sent to the director of the Iraq oil-for-food program uncovered extensive mismanagement of multimillion-dollar deals with contractors and fraudulent paperwork by its employees, according to copies of the some of the reports obtained by The Associated Press.

    An independent panel investigating corruption in the humanitarian program released the 55 internal audits on its Web site Sunday, a day earlier than originally planned after some of the reports were leaked to the media.

    The panel led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who was appointed in April by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to investigate the growing scandal, was given access to the audits that were conducted throughout the duration of the program, along with other relevant documents.

    The oil-for-food program was created as a humanitarian exemption to sanctions imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which led to the 1991 Gulf War. Beginning in 1996, it allowed Saddam Hussein’s government to sell oil and use the proceeds to buy food, medicine and other items.

    The contention over access to the audits led some congressional investigators to accuse the United Nations of stonewalling outside investigations of alleged corruption at the program. At least five congressional probes are running separately from Volcker’s.

    In November, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of trying to cover up the extent of fraud at the program and called for his resignation.

    Now that the internal audits are being released, the two sides disagree about what they show.

    Today’s released briefing paper can be found in a PDF file here, and copies of the internal audit reports have been published here.

  • Palestinian Abbas Claims Presidential Victory

    The Palestinians have voted and the presidential replacement for terrorist Yasser Arafat has declared victory.

    Former Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas declared victory in the Palestinian presidential election late Sunday after exit polls gave him a commanding lead over his rivals.

    Abbas dedicated his win to “my brother,” a reference to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

    “There is a difficult mission ahead — to build our state, to achieve security for our people, to provide a good life for our people, to give our prisoners freedom, our fugitives a life in dignity, to reach our goal of an independent state,” Abbas said.

    Israel is prepared to immediately make “all the necessary adjustments” to work with Abbas, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told CNN.

    “The main challenge is still ahead for him,” Olmert said. “Will he fight against the terrorists? Will he try to stop this bloody, violent war against the state of Israel? This is the main question. This is what interests us.”

    President Bush said: “This is a historic day for the Palestinian people and for the people of the Middle East.”

    A poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found Mahmoud Abbas had 66 percent of the vote and his closest challenger, Mustafa Barghouti, had about 20 percent.

    ….

    Abbas, a moderate now serving as interim chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, would take the reins held by Arafat, the popular leader who died in November. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was the candidate of Arafat’s Fatah party.

    The 69-year-old once served as prime minister but quit the post, accusing Arafat of undermining his authority by refusing to give him control of the Palestinian Authority’s security organizations.

    Official results are expected Monday, but the challenge of the job is already presenting itself as Israel is set to demand the new Palestinian president act against missile attacks into Israel from Gaza.

    A new Israeli coalition due to be sworn in today will demand swift action by Yassir Arafat’s successor to stamp out rocket fire by militants against Israeli targets around the Gaza Strip.

    ….

    The prime minister is expected to invite the new Palestinian president for face-to-face talks, although Palestinian officials are concerned Mr Sharon would want them to focus primarily on Israeli security.

    “Of course, we expect a new, different Palestinian leadership that will be prepared to move in the direction of peace,” said Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister.

    An Israeli official said the government wanted Mr Abbas, assuming he won, to match his rhetoric against the armed intifada with a serious effort to end incitement against Israel and to stop militants from launching Qassam rockets against Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Only then would moves such as a release of Palestinian prisoners and the resumption of talks be considered.

    “No one expects terrorism to stop tomorrow, it’s not realistic,” the official said. “But he needs to send a signal to his own people that the war is over and then we can sit down and talk.”

    Palestinian militants yesterday fired two rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip.

    I expect nothing new anytime soon. Abbas is assuming the reins of an untamed beast, one that has been fed on brutality and hatred for decades.