Blogs

One of the main concepts for this company and site, Excalibur R&D , is to do things differently, that the older ways of our existing defense structures and supporting mechanisms haven’t adapted as the world has changed. Just last night, I met with...

A week ago, I traveled to the Atlanta area to help a friend and his family say goodbye to their oldest son/brother. As I previously wrote here , Tyler Copley was the 19 year old son of college friend’s Todd and Connie. Tyler’s Caring Bridge site guestbook...

Today marks the 68 th Anniversary of the first US military parachute jump by members of the US Army’s Parachute Test Platoon, which became the vanguard for the formation of the Airborne Divisions of World War II and have continued their traditions to...

The fighting between Georgia and Russia was (apparently) preceded by a period of cyber operations. According to this article in the WAPO , “advanced force operations” on the internet had taken place for months . It was even observed by internet companies...

General Norty Schwartz assumed the duty as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force yesterday. General Schwartz, welcome and good luck. In a video message to Airmen here , he made the following points (paraphrased) We will keep the Air Force promise...

I will be traveling to attend something I hoped I'd never attend. Not that I need to remind anyone, but call a friend or a loved one or give someone a big hug. Life is too short to let those who you love, not hear it.

Tyler Copley, the effervescent and most impressive young man One of the terms in military parlance is over-watch , which essentially means occupying a position to provide a watchful eye for someone else, often a unit or person is moving and someone else...

While I was visiting a friend who owns a company back in Youngstown Ohio, he implored me to tell some folks working with him “tell them what’s really happening in Iraq” and they looked to me for answers. I pulled up my web page here that showed the metrics...

Heading home to visit the family so on't be much posting this weekend, now that I've been back, family and friends have asked me how we are doing in Iraq? This news article reports that the last month, July 2008, had the lowest number of deaths...

On April 21 st of this year, Defense Secretary Gates addressed the students and faculty of the Air War College. I’ve extracted (as best I can) the “requests for information” contained within the speech. The following is as close to the exact wording and...

Preceding the firings/resignations of the two senior officials in the US Air Force, the Chief of Staff Buzz Mosely and the Secretary Michael Wynne, Secretary Gates gave a series of speeches giving serious hints at what was on his mind and what direction...

There’s lots of press about the US Air Force these days, much of it negative. Yesterday, this New York Times article featuring Lt.General Gary North predicted an increased role for airpower as the drawdown of forces continues in Iraq, with potential acceleration...

This site recieved a few dozen visitors from the Canadian American Strategic Review site and after poking around, they've got a wonderful site looking at various defense issues, primarily for a Canadian audience. I really like their "modest proposal"...

My friend Brian Shul , aviator, author, and photographer, has a poster hanging in his gallery of the A-7 attack aircraft (which he flew after recovering from his burns after his crash in Vietnam). The poster shows A-7’s and has this caption: No weapon...

The following represent my personal views and does not represent any official military or government position. I put that disclosure notice because in this post, I’m going to discuss a previous duty I had in the Pentagon which I am not doing now and to...