Military Stories behind the news

JEDI is going to microsoft

The US Department of Defense recently (25 October) selected the winner of long overdue JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) contract (to) Microsoft (who) will get $10 billion over a 10–year period to provide a single cloud computing network for all online Department of Defense operations...

the conspiracy theory about this is that Trumpieboy was mad at Bezos for his WaPo propaganda against him so Amazon lost the contract. 
And you thought Alex Jones and his conspiracy theories were crazy...

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the choice of a new cloud has to do with the ongoing cyberwar, that was ignored for years despite warnings by experts.

You think the Russian hacking was bad? What about China stealing everything in sight, including trade secrets and my federal OPM file?

I was just a lowly physician working for the feds, so probably not of interest to China, but the breach included military and civilians in security areas.

Austin Bay summarizes here what that last one was important: they now have the personnel files on the US military and US Spies.

In 2015, stupidity and reckless senior leader neglect at the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, led to a data breach that will harm American national security for another 10 years. Hackers stole personnel data on some 4 million federal workers.

StrategyPage.com reported that the theft "included all military personnel" (former and retired). "Since the CIA recruits many ... field agents from former (often retired) SOCOM personnel, many key CIA people were now much less secret," the site said. "Identify theft" like this cripples American intelligence operations.

In August 2017, FBI agents arrested a mainland Chinese citizen involved in the OPM breach. China and other adversaries target the whole of America.

and it's not just spying on military types:

Hackers steal economically valuable knowledge (intellectual property) from businesses, schools and civilian research institutions.

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Spacex new spaceship blew up. More HERE.

there is a minor war between NASA and SpaceX. if you are interested, google some articles, but this one at Space.com summarizes the David Vs Goliath feud: the nimble upstart kid vs the slow moving behemoth.

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StrategyPage podcast on broken ships. MP3

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in old films, you see the Brits giving their sailors a rum ration: but now the US Navy uses coffee. History lesson here.

A single cup of morning coffee is scientifically proven to improve mood, vigilance, and energy levels while also generally improving overall physical performance by 11 percent on average.[i] This caffeinated beverage is the backbone of the maritime profession; it is the item responsible for its strength and fortification throughout its many branches and departments. 

Photo source: US NAVAL HISTORY ORG.

and read the article there about the Sailor's love of coffee, and why you never, never wash your coffee mug.

Don't give up the ship (or something like that)

Professor Podles has been blogging about his illustrious extended family in various posts, and today he posts about one of his family connections who made famous the words "Don't give up the ship".

Read the whole thing.

this happened in a battle where the USS Chesapeake was lost to the British in the War of 1812.

One is reminded of the phrase: When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.

oh well, in both the film where that was quoted and in the story of Captain James Lawrence, the men involved had did something brave and risked their lives (Lawrence lost his) even though the legend sort of embroidered the whole thing.

But before his fatal encounter on the Chesapeake, it mentions he also had served on the USS Enterprise.

The Enterprise? the 1799 ship bearing that name fought the Tripoli pirates and the French corsairs.

and Wikipedia list has the history of many ships bearing that honored name.

Dog Story of the week

The Queen's Corgis aren't the only dogs protecting their masters:



From The WSJ:

The Marine Corps mascot, a bulldog named Chesty, got into a confrontation with a superior officer, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's Golden Retriever. Despite this "breach" of protocol, Chesty still got a promotion from corporal to sargeant. WSJ's Julian E. Barnes reports from Washington.

Some snarky folks are suggesting his promotion was because of the incident....

here is the history of Chesty the Bulldog. 

The US Naval institute has a history of seadogs, including this photo of the original Jiggs, from the time of the First World War:

named for Chesty Puller, of course....

Headlines below the fold

Sigh. It looks like that Filipine ferry turned over before passengers could get out...My report on BNN...

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and yes, the US Navy is there to help the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard,: the USNS Stockham arrived today with much needed search and rescue helicopters...a
Patrol planes are also being sent down, and should arrive in Clark today on the way to the Visayas.
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McCain's ex jailer supports his bid...

On the other hand, Obama is busy trying to "remake" himself ....uh, fellahs, isn't that supposed to be what the primaries were about? Hillary's people are still mad (yes we are) but the press continues to be google eyed about their messiah... the AP moans "ain't it awful"...and hints we need "change"...hint hint ...

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Five left feet. In sneakers....more HERE.
now they think the bodies were upstream and washed down with the spring floods...but the DNA doesn't fit the lumberjacks whose plane was lost there, so the questions remain...

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Tsvangirai drops out of Zim re-vote...and seeks asylum at Dutch Embassy... he knows that not only will Mugabe make sure that he wins the vote, but Mugabe will retaliate on entire villages and towns that dare to vote wrong...

Just look at all those leftists demonstrating with the Zim diaspora...hello? Hello? Senator Obama, call your office...