Taps

Present, Arms.

From The History Place:

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Sunday, December 7, 1941

Above -- The USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese air raid. (Photo credits: U.S. National Archives)

Sunday, December 7 - Washington D.C. - The last part of the Japanese message, stating that diplomatic relations with the U.S. are to be broken off, reaches Washington in the morning and is decoded at approximately 9 a.m. About an hour later, another Japanese message is intercepted. It instructs the Japanese embassy to deliver the main message to the Americans at 1 p.m. The Americans realize this time corresponds with early morning time in Pearl Harbor, which is several hours behind. The U.S. War Department then sends out an alert but uses a commercial telegraph because radio contact with Hawaii is temporarily broken. Delays prevent the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until noontime (Hawaii time) four hours after the attack has already begun.

Islands of Hawaii, near Oahu - The Japanese attack force under the command of Admiral Nagumo, consisting of six carriers with 423 planes, is about to attack. At 6 a.m., the first attack wave of 183 Japanese planes takes off from the carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and heads for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

And at 7:02 a.m. we all know what happened next.

Order, Arms.

Xerox: "Let's Say Thanks"

Another American businesss is doing a great job of saying "Thanks" to our servicemen and women serving all over the world during this Holiday Season.

At this Xerox home page you can select a postcard (like the one below) to send to our troops, personalize a message in it, and just hit "Send". That's it. Easy.

Now go visit the Xerox web page and send a message of support and thanks to our troops. And thank you to Xerox.

PROPS: To Jeannie

"Danger close"

Not much set-up is required for this video.

Two A-10 Warthogs are being called in for air support of friendlies on the ground in Afghanistan. Listen to the calm demeanor of the A-10 lead pilot as he does his job....very professional at all times. Also hear the voice of the commander on the ground calling in the airstrikes so close to his position the A-10 pilot advises "I'm looking at danger close now". The commander on the ground understands and still needs ordinance dropped so badly near his position he gives the A-10 pilot his "commander's initials", acknowledging the strike could be grave to himself and his troops.

Update: "The Unit" TV Ratings

For all you fans who enjoy your Sunday night dose of watching "The Unit" on CBS, here's an update on our favorite snake eaters:

Four seasons later, The Unit is still The Unit. It is not a big hit (although it averaged at #14 on the ratings during its first season), but it isn’t an embarrassing failure either. It’s just there, cruising along, although the change of time slot for the current season put some viewers in a little panic frenzy about its future. It’s doing what it does best, and the expectations aren’t really pitted against them.

But the show’s got a dedicated following, and the move to its current Sunday night time slot hasn’t made much of a dent on the ratings. It’s in a pretty comfy position—nobody really worries about it, and nobody bothers about it. (But don’t take me wrong: the fans care, of course.) The question is pretty simple: is The Unit underappreciated?

Hell, yes! I'm sure the vast majority of "The Unit" fans are ones with military experience. I also bet there's a 10-15% of viewers of this show that are just patriotic Americans who can accept and understand the real threat to our nation posed by terrorists. But a much larger percentage of Sunday viewers would rather skip the military realism and combat depiction in favor of comedy or sports.

"The Unit" is not family hour and finding a better time slot might be difficult. I know the producers of this show are trying to get more female viewers and are using "The Unit" wives in more episodes (but in very unplausible situations I might add). While NYPD Blue and ER prove that realism and hard-core scenes can lead to blockbuster ratings, both those shows focussed more and more on the relationships between the main characters and new cast members. This is where I think "The Unit" needs to move.

The article picks up on a few land mines the show still needs to navigate:

Is it the realism? Maybe some people who aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of the military are a little hesitant to touch it. Maybe some have been turned away, but it isn’t much of a worry. With people sticking, there’s definitely some people who appreciate the approach—perhaps subdued, but it’s hard to explain—and are sticking to it every night.

Maybe it’s just the circumstances. There is such a thing as the darling of the press, after all, and you can’t help but think that too much attention is given to some, and too little attention on others. Or they just don’t notice it. (I’ll hint at football again.)

And there's this eye poke deservedly at CBS:

It’s hard to find updates on the show, and the little information for a certain episode that you’re getting isn’t enough to fill a couple of paragraphs.

Nail, meet head of the hammer.

Progress

U.S. combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have dropped to the lowest combined level since the United States began fighting the two wars more than five years ago. Good news and shouldn't be much of a surprise to folks who have been following the success of the surge in Iraq and our recent successful airstrikes in the Afghanistan region.

Eleven American servicemembers died in combat in the conflicts in November. Seven others died in non-hostile incidents. The highest monthly total for combat deaths in both wars was 129 in November 2004.

Security in Iraq has improved dramatically over the past year, despite a number of high-profile bombing against civilian targets in recent weeks.

And more good news out of Iraq:

“If you look at the numbers of (Iraq) attacks overall, they are much, much lower than they have ever been since ... 2003,” Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, told reporters Wednesday in Baghdad.

You can read the entire article "here".

Beware This Holiday Season

Gents, watch out. You've been warned...

BEWARE OF THE DOG HOUSE (Click to watch VIDEO)

Picture of the Week

This week's pic is of several Four Fans of Freedom near Sin City. Click on image for larger version and smell of JP-8.

A formation of C-130 Hercules taxis in after a training mission Nov. 19 during a mobility exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The exercise tests the ability of airlift crews from 12 bases to join together at a specific time and location to drop a brigade-size force anywhere in the world. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.)