The FReeper Foxhole Profiles the U.S. Air Force in Iraq - January 4, 2004

USAF ^

[snippy_about_it]

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.


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USAF - Operation Iraqi Freedom


Airmen fight to help end the regime of Saddam Hussein

With the help of airmen such as Jennifer Raney, coalition air power will continue its dominance until Operation Iraqi Freedom dispels the regime of Saddam Hussein.

As an aerospace ground equipment maintainer, the senior airman is pumped up about serving in the Air Force and fighting a war to support her country. Raney said she plays only a small role in the nonstop air war, but feels deep pride belonging to such a massive undertaking — more than 4,800 sorties during the first five days of the operation.

“I’m just very proud to be here, and in my small way to fight for freedom,” she said. “I’m very proud to do my part, every day, no matter how long it takes.”


Members of the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron, roll out an AGM-130 bomb to deliver to the flight line. The squadron built more than 5,000 during the four weeks before air operations began over Iraq.

The war effort won’t be quick or easy, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during the first week of the war. President George Bush also warned against expectations of an easy victory. But during a visit to U.S. Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., he pledged: “This war is far from over. We will stay on the path, mile by mile, all the way to Baghdad and all the way to victory. Day by day, Saddam Hussein is losing his grip on Iraq. Day by day, the Iraqi people are closer to freedom.”

The war could be long, but it got off to a fast start. Coalition “shock air forces” opened the air campaign with about 2,000 sorties the first night of air operations — 1,000 of which were strike sorties. For the first time in combat, precision-guided munitions were used exclusively to minimize collateral damage while targeting a large number of military sites. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991 less than 10 percent of the munitions used were precision-guided.


Members of the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron, roll out an AGM-130 bomb to deliver to the flight line. The squadron built more than 5,000 during the four weeks before air operations began over Iraq.

Aircraft sorties originated from as far away as Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., the Indian Ocean and England, plus being flown from 30 locations throughout U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility and five Navy aircraft carriers. B-2s flew the longest missions, lasting approximately 34 hours.

Tanker pilots such as Capt. Richard Peterson at the 321st Air Expeditionary Wing provided the legs for aircraft to reach the fight. The KC-135 Stratotanker pilot said his life has been a nonstop series of “fly, crew rest and time to go again.” The reservist from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., said missions routinely stretched from seven to nine hours supporting bombers, fighters and surveillance aircraft hungry for fuel.


Combat controllers practice firing movements on the range at a forward-deployed location. Teams are trained to conduct and support special operations under clandestine, covert or low-visibility conditions.

The pace is long and hard, but pilots prefer staying busy, said Peterson who also flew the A-10 Thunderbolt II during Operation Allied Force in 1994.

“We don’t want to be sitting around,” Peterson said of his fellow Reserve pilots who normally fly for commercial airlines. “As a whole we’re very excited. Everybody is pretty fired up and glad to be doing what we’re doing.”


Crew Chief Airman 1st Class Joy Menguita checks the running engines of a B-52 Stratofortress nicknamed “Iron Butterfly” before a combat mission during the first week of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Menguita and more than 1,000 others at this forward-deployed location support the coalition air campaign.

Another critical player who keeps aircraft flying is Airman 1st Class Joshua Brown, a computer systems operator who provides secure and non-secure computer access for the wing. “No comm, no bomb” is the motto communications troops like to quote.

The 20-year-old Erie, Pa., native was in junior high school during the first Gulf War where he kept up with daily events because his uncle was fighting with the Army. He knew then he wanted to be a part of the military.

Brown was to report for basic training on Sept. 11, 2001. Because of the terrorist attacks, basic training was put on hold for a week. Now Brown’s life is somewhat on hold as he puts in nonstop 12-hour days, seven days a week. But he’s not complaining. He’s learned more in one month downrange than in a year at Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

“I’m proud to be over here and defending our nation,” he said.


Maintainers perform last-minute preflight checks on an RQ-1 Predator (above) before takeoff at a forward-deployed location. The Predator is a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicle flying over coalition troops moving toward Baghdad to provide ground commanders up-to-the-second information on what lies ahead.

Maintainers from the 457th Air Expeditionary Squadron, who worked into the early morning to unleash the first wave of B-52 Stratofortress bombers on Iraq, gathered in front of televisions in break areas as the much-anticipated bombing unfolded.

“To see the results was unbelievable,” said crew chief Staff Sgt. Randy Simmons. “You’re working hard and training every day to achieve the kind of success we had today. It was an unbelievable feeling.”

A day later, operators watched as an Air Force MQ-1 Predator found and destroyed a radar-guided anti-aircraft piece in southern Iraq, making it the first Predator strike of the operation. The unmanned aerial vehicle, remotely piloted from a ground control station, used a Hellfire II missile to strike an Iraqi mobile anti-aircraft artillery gun outside the southern Iraqi town of Al Amarah.

Also making an unmanned impact is the RQ-1 Predator that provides ground commanders up-to-the-second information on what lies ahead.


Coalition troops track an ongoing mission in Southwest Asia at this combined air operations center the week before air operations began in Iraq. The center manages all air component missions. With crews operating around the clock, it plans, monitors and directs joint search and rescue, theater missile defense, time-sensitive targeting, battlefield coordination, special operations support, sortie execution and other mission-critical operations.

“We immediately pass on any data we gather to the people on the ground who need it,” said Predator pilot Capt. Traz Trzaskoma. Information is gathered around the clock from altitudes up to 250,000 feet.

“We’ve been watching for where the bad guys hide, move or want to hide,” Trzaskoma said. “And if we’re carrying Hellfire missiles, we can take care of a target ourselves.”

Predator data even cut the risk to a special forces team.

“A special forces team was going into an area, and at the last minute we [told them] their landing zone wasn’t the best,” he said. “We helped change the mission at the last second. Then we helped them find a better place to land.”


Master Sgt. Eric Dannenberg, a heating and ventilation superintendent deployed to the 320th Expeditionary Civil Engineering Squadron, checks the status of an air conditioning unit being assembled while a dining facility is expanded. The facility was increased by 1,160 square feet to make way for continued troop arrivals.

Also assisting ground troops were B-1 Lancers from the 405th Air Expeditionary Wing, which came under enemy fire during their first combat missions. According to Capt. Ty Newman, a Lancer weapons systems officer, B-1 crews were challenged on every mission by Iraqi defense forces.

“The threat is certainly out there, and on any given mission we take every precaution and use all our tactics to minimize the threat to our aircraft as we go on strikes inside Baghdad,” Newman said.


A Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon is unloaded from a C-5 Galaxy at Sigonella Naval Air Station, Sicily, days before operations began over Iraq.

“There isn’t a target within Iraq that’s not at risk when we take off,” said Col. Peter Kippie, the 405th’s vice commander. The Lancer, which can carry 24 2,000-pound bombs, typically takes off with a plan to strike a number of targets and then waits for additional targets of opportunity.

The significance of the moment was not lost on Col. Cathy Clothier, 401st Air Expeditionary Operations Group commander, when she prepared to lead a tanker crew from the 401st Air Expeditionary Wing on its first mission.

“I briefed all our aircrew about the upcoming operations and told them what we were about to do in the next few days would change history,” Clothier said. “Not a single bomb gets dropped, not a single air-to-air engagement happens, or missile is fired unless tankers make it happen. I’m proud of our people here.”


An F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot deployed to the 410th Air Expeditionary Wing checks his night vision goggles for a flight on day three of air operations.

Capt. Chadd Kobielush, also with the 401st, said it’s rewarding helping the people of Iraq as a pilot refueling coalition aircraft. But he also knows what he’s doing extends beyond the boundaries of Iraq.

“It motivates you more when you feel like you’re helping out the folks back home. As long as we can neutralize Saddam Hussein that’s a good blow to the enemies of America,” said Kobielush, who is deployed from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England.


A crew chief from the 335th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron prepares an F-15E Strike Eagle from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., for a mission the same night.

As a boom operator for the 401st, Staff Sgt. Joel Jones said he also feels the pride of being part of Operation Iraqi Freedom as he refuels Air Force, Marine and Navy aircraft. Jones, whose dad was a boom operator, said the hardest part is being away from his family, but he said he’s there for the right cause — “to free Iraq.”

Raney agrees. “Now it feels like we came here to get justice for the lives we lost Sept. 11. Every day at home this is what we go to work for. This is ultimately why we’re in the military.”


An F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 52nd Fighter Wing, Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., in the skies near Iraq the fourth day of air operations.

by Master Sgt. Chuck Roberts
opening photo by Staff Sgt. Derrick Goode
(Contributing to this report: Louis A. Arana-Barradas, Gerry J. Gilmore, Capt. Shane Balken, Master Sgt. Scott Elliott and Staff Sgt. Jim Fisher)

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

No Wimps Allowed
Special Operations course tests airmen's mettle



His hands and feet shackled by rope, Senior Airman Todd Popovich, stood by the edge of the pool. His body hurt so much it finally went numb. “I must be crazy,” he muttered as he readied to jump into 12 feet of water. At that moment, he would have given a week’s pay to obtain the secret to Houdini’s underwater straightjacket escape act.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and disappeared into the pool.

Popovich recently took part in one of the most physically demanding courses in the military – a 10-week Pararescue and Combat Control Indoctrination course at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. The task described above, called drown-proofing, is designed to increase confidence in water and teach students to react calmly and rationally in high-stress situations.

“This training questions your confidence every time you wake up in the morning,” Popovich said. “It’s not if I can do it, but do I want to. It’s a gut check.”

The course recruits, screens and trains pararescue and combat control candidates for Air Force Special Operations units. Pararescuemen are search and rescue specialists with emergency medical capabilities. Their mission is to recover combat aircrews in austere environments. Combat controllers are trained to provide air traffic control support. They deploy to forward locations and establish assault zones.

When he was a security policeman, Popovich idolized pararescuemen. “I needed a challenge,” he said.

He got it.

Popovich’s class started with 76 students. Only 11 survived the grueling schedule.

Before completing the course, trainees must meet final requirements, which include a 6-mile run in 42.3 minutes, a 4,000-meter swim with fins in 80 minutes, and 75 push-ups, 80 sit-ups, 13 pull-ups, 14 chin-ups and 85 flutter kicks in two minutes each. And all of that has to be done in one day.


Aching arms and legs don’t deter Senior Airman Michael Sciortino from spending hours learning swimming techniques. Some of the techniques to be mastered are buddy breathing, water treading, drown proofing and underwater equipment recovery.

But the most challenging part of the course is “Motivation Week,” a three-day test of physical will. Popovich had nightmares about Motivation Week. In the middle of one night he saw an instructor standing by his bed. He thought it was a dream. It wasn’t. Next thing he remembered was crawling through ditches.

“It seems like I was running forever,” he said.

Motivation Week cuts the class size quicker than a weedeater slices dandelions. “I cried like a baby afterwards,” Popovich admitted.

“This course is designed to prove that trainees can break from their comfort zone and push themselves to the limit,” said Master Sgt. Rod Alne, flight supervisor. Alne, a pararescueman for the past 20 years, has been to countless operations, including Just Cause in Panama and Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf war.

“I remember doing back-to-back missions in Panama,” Alne said. “Carrying an 80-pound ruck sack, I was fast roping from a helicopter from one building to another during recovery missions. We’d been up for 48 hours. I was mentally and physically drained. During that time, I experienced every emotion one could have. One minute I was excited, next nervous, then sometimes fear would set in. This training [at Lackland] prepares you for that.”

After 10 weeks and an estimated 25,000 sit-ups, 15,000 flutter kicks, 75 miles of swimming and 200 miles of running, indoctrination is over. Those who make it move through the pipeline to Key West, Fla., for scuba training.

Only 55 more weeks before graduation!

story and photos by Master Sgt. Val Gempis

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

http://www.af.mil/news/airman/0503/oif.html

[snippy_about_it]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

[snippy_about_it]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!



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[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone in The FOXHOLE!

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[Soaring Feather]

You been to bed yet?? I'm bout ready to call it a morning.

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[snippy_about_it]

Been there but couldn't stay. LOL. You know how those nights are. I hope to return though. Goodnight.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

OU play tonight in the Sugar Bowl atv New Orleans. 7 PM CT tonight on ABC.

Just had a cold front pass through. Windy and much colder today.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Aeronaut.

[snippy_about_it]

Morning EGC, that cold front is headed my way for the early part of this week. Enjoy the game.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Morning, snippy and SAM!

Please add me to your ping list, belatedly. I check in at the FoxHole daily, and add the new info to your link on my homepage. Been doing it the hard way. (^:

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

snippy_about_it salutes our Airforce in the FR FoxHole today....their awesome, ongoing work in Iraq...w/ pics!

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No Wimps Allowed
Special Operations course tests airmen's mettle

[The Mayor]

If God is for us, who can be against us? —Romans 8:31

The One who died to save you will never be against you.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on January 04:
1334 Amadeus VI [Green Earl], Earl of Savoye
1567 Franciscus Aguilon physicist/mathematician/jesuit/architect
1579 Willem Teellinck Dutch theologist/vicar
1581 Bishop James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh, calculated Earth's beginning (November 23, 4004 BC)
1643 Sir Isaac Newton, scientist who developed the laws of gravity and planetary relations.
1726 Cornelis Ploos van Amstel Dutch engraver/art collector
1785 Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm Germany, librarian (fairy tale collector)
1789 Benjamin Lundy philanthropist/abolitionist
1797 Wilhelm Beer Germany, amateur astronomer (constructed 1st Moon map)
1809 Louis Braille Coupvray France, developer (reading system for blind)
1813 Sir Isaac Pitman inventor (shorthand)
1821 John James Peck Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1878
1822 Joseph Jones Reynolds Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1899
1838 Charles Stratton [General Tom Thumb] (famous short person)
1878 Alfred Edgar Coppard England, writer (Black Dogs & Other Stories)
1890 Alfred G Jodl German Wehrmacht General/Chief of Staff
1890 Mosa Pijade Yugoslavia, MP (communist)
1896 Everett McKinley Dirkson (Senator-R-IL)
1905 Sterling Holloway Cedartown GA, actor (Waldo-Life of Riley)
1908 Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal Austrian nude model/Hitler's lover
1914 Jane Wyman St Joseph MO, 1st Mrs Ron Reagan, (Magnificent Obsession)
1914 Mohammed Sahir shah (Afghanistan)
1917 Jesse [Marc Weidenfeld] White Buffalo NY, actor (Maytag Repairman, Bedtime for Bonzo, Million Dollar Mermaid)
1920 William Egan Colby CIA director (Nixon)
1929 Bobby Tulloch ornithologist
1930 Don Shula winningest NFL coach (Miami Dolphins)
1935 Floyd Patterson heavyweight champ (1956-59, 1960-62) (Olympics-gold-1952)
1937 Dyan Cannon Tacoma WA, Mrs Cary Grant, actress (Heaven Can Wait)
1941 Maureen Reagan 1st daughter (Ronald Reagan)
1942 John McLaughlin rock guitarist (Sentimental Journey/Clouds of Joy)
1947 J Danforth Quayle (Senator-R-IN, 44th Vice President 1989-1993)
1957 Patty Loveless [Ramey], Pikeville KY, singer (Blue Side of Town)
1958 Matt Frewer Washington DC, actor (Max Headroom, Doctor Doctor)
1960 Michael Stipe US rock vocalist (REM-Losing My Religion, Stand)
1969 Lindsay Kennedy Atlanta GA, actor (Jeb-Little House on the Prairie)

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Deaths which occurred on January 04:
0041 Caligula murdered
0838 Babak Persian social/religious reformer, martyred
1729 Joseph de Montesquiou Earl d'Artagnan French Lieutenant-General , dies at 77
1729 Meir Bacharach Hebrew poet, dies
1761 Stephen Hales English vicar/inventor (ventilator), dies at 83
1809 Bartolomeo Giacometti composer, dies at 67
1821 Elizabeth Ann Seton 1st native-born American saint, dies in Maryland
1877 Cornelius Vanderbilt US robber baron, dies at 82
1903 Geo[rge J H] Poggenbeek Dutch surrealist painter, dies at 49
1910 Léon Delagrange French aviation pioneer, dies
1913 Alfred von Schlieffen Prussian General-field marshal, dies at 79
1933 Lucas Lindeboom Dutch evangelist (Vredebond), dies at 87
1952 Constantly Permeke Flemish painter (Boerin), dies at 65
1953 Arthur Hoyt actor (Gold Rush Gertie, Lost World), dies at 78
1960 Albert Camus French author (Stranger), dies in an automobile accident at 46
1961 Barry Fitzgerald actor (Going My Way), dies at 72
1965 T S Eliot poet (Washed Country), dies in London at 76
1967 Donald Campbell boat racer, dies trying to break 300 mph on water
1979 Charles Mingus jazz bassist, dies of heart attack
1985 Brian Gwynne Horrocks English Lieutenant-General (A Full Life), dies at 89
1990 Robert F Adams US, sci-fi author (Castaways in Time), dies at 57
1997 Real estate mogul Harry Helmsley died in Scottsdale, Ariz., at age 87.
2001 Orchestra leader Les Brown, known for his "Band of Renown," died at age 88.

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1968 MINNICH RICHARD W.---COLLEGEVILLE PA.
[REMAINS RECOVERED 12/04/85]
1969 LANE MITCHELL S.---ALBUQUERQUE NM.
1969 NEELD BOBBY G.---ALBUQUERQUE NM.
1973 JOHNSTON STEVEN B.---MUSKOGEE OK.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

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On this day...
0274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1493 Columbus left new world on return from 1st voyage
1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
1642 King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1725 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1754 Columbia University founded, as Kings College (New York City NY)
1757 Robert Francois Damiens makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate King Louis XV of France.
1762 England declares war on Spain & Naples
1780 Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey
1781 André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes
1861 President Buchanan appoints a fast on account of threatened succession
1861 US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
1862 Battle of Helena, AR
1862 Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
1863 Union General Henry Halleck, by direction of President Abraham Lincoln, orders General Ulysses Grant to revoke his infamous General Order No. 11 that expelled Jews from his operational area.
1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
1887 Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km
1893 US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
1904 Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US
1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-center
1915 1st elected Jewish Governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
1915 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
1920 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes
1923 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth TX)
1923 Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin
1925 French psychologist Emil Coué brings his self-esteem therapy to US "Every day in every way I am getting better & better"
(A Frenchman...it figures)
1932 British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi & Nehru
1935 Bob Hope 1st heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"
1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
1942 Japanese forces begin the evacuation of Guadalcanal.
1942 Rogers Hornsby is 14th player selected to the Hall of Fame
1944 Ralph Bunche appointed 1st Negro official in US State Department
1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack
1948 Britain grants independence to Burma
1951 During Korean conflict, North Korean forces captured Seoul
1953 KTSM TV channel 9 in El Paso TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1954 Elvis Presley records a 10 minute demo in Nashville
1957 "Blondie" situation comedy premieres on NBC TV (later on CBS)
1957 Dodgers buy 44 passenger twin-engine airplane for $775,000
1958 Sputnik 1 reenters atmosphere & burns up
1959 Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth's gravity
1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
1961 Longest recorded strike ends-33 years-Danish barbers' assistants
1965 LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address
1966 WFLD TV channel 32 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million
1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
1970 Kansas City Chiefs beat Oakland Raiders 17-7 in AFC championship game
1970 Minnesota Vikings beat Cleveland Browns 27-7 in NFC championship game
1970 Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary
1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
1971 Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated
1971 Congressional Black Caucus organizes
1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
1980 President Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics
1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
1982 Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show
1982 Golden Gate Bridge closed for 3rd time by fierce storm
1982 Bryant Gumbel became co-host of NBC's "Today Show"
1984 "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV
1984 Edmonton beats Minnesota 12-8-highest-scoring modern NHL game
1989 US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
1995 Newt Gingrich (R) becomes speaker of the House
1995 CBS quoted the mother of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., calling first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
a "bitch."
(Mother knows best)
1997 President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, took credit for policies reducing teen-age pregnancy, and said he would work for even greater reductions over the next four years
1999 The euro, the new money of 11 European nations, goes into effect on the continent of Europe.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Burma : Independence Day (1948)
Sri Lanka : Tamil Thai Pongal Day
Utah : Admission Day (1896)
Zaïre : Martyrs' Day
US : Pun Week Begins
US : National Law Enforcement Training Week Begins
US : National Trivia Day
US : Short People Day
Wheat Bread Month

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Religious Observances
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Rigobert (St Robert)
Roman Catholic : Memorial of Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious

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Religious History
1528 Ferdinand of Austria, younger brother to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, issued the first secular mandate forbidding the Anabaptist religious movement.
1540 German Reformer Martin Luther testified in a sermon: 'Faith is the "yes" of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one's life.'
1915 Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S., and served two terms (1915-19).
1947 Presbyterian clergyman Peter Marshall ("A Man Called Peter"), 45, was elected Chaplain of the U.S. Senate. He was the 54th chaplain chosen in the Senate's history, and the first Presbyterian appointed since 1879.
1953 "The Catholic Hour" first aired over NBC-television. This long-running series was produced in cooperation with the National Council of Catholic Men and aired through August 1970.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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Thought for the day :
"Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted."

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Question of the day...
Do pilots take crash-courses?

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Murphys Law of the day...(Katz's Law)
Men, Women and Nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been exhausted.

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Amazing Fact #9,510
Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.

[snippy_about_it]

Please add me to your ping list, belatedly. I check in at the FoxHole daily, and add the new info to your link on my homepage. Been doing it the hard way. (^:

Consider yourself added. We know you've been here. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

1995 CBS quoted the mother of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., calling first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a "bitch."

What? Like Newt's mom was the only one saying it? LOL!

[jigsaw]

1995 CBS quoted the mother of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., calling first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton a "bitch."   (Mother knows best)

"Mother knows best." LOL!

A little editorial comment, I presume! LOL!

[baltodog]

Good morning and good reading.
While I am proud of my work in a Titan hole (my kids will tell you that I won the cold war), the work was essentially unexciting.
The career counceler guy kept telling me how missile crew work was so much better than aircraft. Oh, well. I wouldn't trade the friends I made for anything.
Sometimes wish that I would've stayed in...all the old missileers are running Space Command now.