16 September 2009

Links of the day…

Found some great links thanks to my Google Reader friends and my fellow bloggers:

  • This woman has talent (H/T Tasty Booze).
  • The big news in Israel is that Lt. Asaf Ramon of the Israeli Air Force perished in an F-16A crash. Lt. Ramon is the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon, the NASA astronaut and participant in Israel's daring 1981 raid on the Iraqi reactor at Osirak. Colonel Ramon perished in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up upon entry into Earth's atmosphere. Oddly enough, both Ramons were F-16A pilots—has Israel not purchased a new front-line fighter since then? (H/T Jenna)
  • Seems the Army might finally be doing something to replace the Universal Camoflauge Pattern (which I've talked about before here and here). A few articles today discuss two new patterns which are being tested in Afghanistan: Multicam, a commercial, "off-the-shelf" pattern used by Special Operations forces, and Universal Camoflauge Pattern-Delta. UCP-Delta, by far the ugliest pattern, haphazardly throws Coyote Tan pixels about. As bad as it looks, I can see this actually being the winner…after all, I think the Army is still fascinated with the whole pixilated "digital" look of its uniforms, thinking that they represent a more futuristic Army. H/T Pat O)
  • More on Star Wars and its application to Afghanistan: How do Stormtroopers view that fateful day when the Battle of Yavin occurred? A day when Rebel insurgents, such as Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, and intergalactic pirates such as Han Solo and Chewbacca committed a senseless act of terror and destroyed the Death Star. (I just received word from Darth Cheney that this was to be re-christened the "Freedom Star"). (H/T Pat O)
  • Dave Dilegge takes us around the milblogophere in one post—from Tom Ricks to Zenpundit, and everyone in between. (He misses Jason Sigger and Adam Elkus, though, who always have great posts).

3 comments:

SJ said...

Sounds like Lt. Ramon was still a trainee. Perhaps the F-16A he was flying has been relegated to training and reserve units?

A.E. said...

Thanks for shout-out. RE: star wars, seems like the next thing in the mockosphere is a Studs Terkel-type oral history of the conflict (like the World War Z Book).

Anonymous said...

UCP-Delta looks like someone threw up on their ACUs.

What's the deal with the Army and it's neverending uniform story anyways? The Marines Commandant says his marines have better things to do than shine boots and look at what ends up on Joe's feet a couple years later? it's roughout boots and a knockoff uniform!

Why doesn't the Army just outsource the whole fashion thing to the USMC? We'd probably end up with something better than those silly berets and blue Class A's. At least Shinseki didn't pick jump boots and their smooth soles as his Army symbol of excellence.

I remember when I first saw the beret message. I thought it was one of those email chain April Fools jokes. Then I saw the Army Times story.