All posts by Hutchins AAron

Born in Deutschland 1965, hometown was Bütthart, parents were not U.S. government employees. However, when father was tricked into joining the U.S. Air Force Civil Service, in 1969, with the promise that we could remain in Germany, we were promptly shipped off to Iran. Due to one of my Iranian educators being disappeared, along with her husband, by the U.S. ally Shah of Iran's Israeli & U.S. created Savak (for the then official terrorist act of promoting the idea that women can vote), and due to my U.S. citizen mother being placed on Savak's Terrorist Arrest List (for supporting the idea that women should vote, at that time the U.S. ally Shah of Iran did not allow women to vote, now they can) we left Iran for the United States in 1973, literally in the middle of the night. At the U.S. Embassy airbase the CIA operated Gooney Bird (C-47) was so packed with other U.S. citizens fleeing our ally Iran (because the Shah gave the OK to arrest any U.S. citizen for such terrorist acts as promoting the concept of voting) that we were turned away by the Loadmaster and had to take a chance on a civilian flight out of Tehran's airport. My father told me he and my mother had three culture shocks; first when they arrived in Germany as civilians, then after being shipped off to Iran as U.S. government employees, then again returning to the United States as unemployed civilians (because so much had changed in the U.S. while they were gone, their only news source was the U.S. Armed Forces Radio & Television Service which heavily censored information about the home front). Since I graduated high school in 1982 I've worked for U.S. government contractors and state & local government agencies (in California), convenience store manager in California, retail/property management in Georgia, California and Idaho. Spent the 1990s in the TV news business producing number one rated local news programs in California, Arizona and Idaho. 14+ years with California and Idaho Army National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. Obtained a BA degree in International Studies from Idaho State University at the age of 42. Unemployed since 2015, so don't tell me the economy has recovered.

Influenza, U.S.

Operation CoViD-19: National Guard ramps up

Video March 21, 2020 Hutchins AAron

The ‘main stream’ U.S. news media is doing a piss-poor job of showing what the various state National Guard units are doing during this Corona-Virus Disease-2019 pandemic. It’s as if they’re deliberately trying to make it look like there’s no government response.

Arkansas National Guard work the CoViD-19 test lines at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 20MAR2020.

California National Guard activated for Operation CoViD-19. Personnel check-out vehicle mounted radios at the Roseville Armory, 18MAR2020.

Video, California National Guard delivers CoViD-19 test kits to infected Princess Cruise ship, 05MAR2020:

Florida National Guard personnel prep to administer CoViD-19 tests at the Community Based Testing Site, C.B. Smith Park, 20MAR2020.

Hawaii National Guard conduct CoViD-19 response planning, 18MAR2020.

Louisiana National Guard CoViD-19 testing at Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, 20MAR2020.

Members of the Maryland National Guard report for duty after being activated, 16MAR2020. More than 2-thousand were called-up or given early-warning notices for call-up! Any veteran can tell you what they are carrying. Maryland National Guard also assisted with transporting passengers from one of the infected Princess Cruise ships on 17MAR2020.

Maryland National Guard personnel set-up emergency triage tents outside Adventist HealthCare White Oak Medical Center in Silver Spring, 19MAR2020.

Video, Michigan National Guard CoViD-19 action on 18MAR2020:

Activated New Jersey National Guard personnel are screened for infections after reporting for duty, 19MAR2020.

New Jersey National Guard assists with operations at the CoViD-19 Community-Based Testing Site at Bergen Community College in Paramus, 20MAR2020.

Video interview, New Jersey National Guard Military Police explain Operation CoViD-19:

New Jersey National Guard transported protective clothing from Hall’s Warehouse Corporation to the CoViD-19 Community-Based Testing Site at Bergen Community College.

Video of protective gear logistics, 19MAR2020:

New York National Guard operate Staten Island CoViD-19 testing site, note the ‘Hot Zone’ sign in red.

Stony Brook, New York, CoViD-19 testing site, 18MAR2020.

New York National Guard clean toys at a daycare facility in Scarsdale, 16MAR2020.

New York National Guard take calls at the CoViD-19 Hotline call center in Hawthorne, 16MAR2020.

Video interview; Brigadier General Tommy Mancino, Oklahoma National Guard CoViD-19 Joint Task Force, explains what all those people are doing in front of those computer screens:

Oregon National Guard sets-up tents outside of the Oregon Veterans’ Home (OVH) in Lebanon, 17MAR2020. The tents will be used to test the more than 2-hundred employees working at the OVH.

Oregon National Guard create the Oregon Medical Station (OMS) at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, 19MAR2020. It will be used to house 250 people from nursing homes.

Time lapse video of creation of Oregon Medical Station:

Video, Pennsylvania National Guard personnel explain why the silly-vilian (civilian) healthcare industry can’t handle mass-testing for CoViD-19:

Puerto Rico National Guard conducting CoViD-19 testing at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport.

Half a million CoViD-19 testing supplies were shipped from Italian suppliers on Tennessee National Guard C-17 Globemaster-3 transports to the Tennessee Air National Guard base in Memphis.

Video interview with aircrew member:

The supplies were then loaded on FedEx trucks, 19MAR2020.

West Virginia National Guard takes calls at the CoViD-19 hotline.

OPERATION CoViD-19: USN QUARANTINE SHIPS

OPERATION CoViD-19: U.S. BORDER PATROL

OPERATION JUPITER: OPERATION CoViD-19 IS FOR REAL

Influenza, U.S.

Operation CoViD-19: USN Quarantine Ships

Video March 21, 2020 Hutchins AAron

The ‘main stream’ U.S. news media is doing a piss-poor job of showing what the U.S. Navy is doing during this Corona-Virus Disease 2019 pandemic. It’s as if they’re deliberately trying to make it look like there’s no government response.

Somewhere at sea, a Hospital Corpsman with the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet tests for diseases using a BioFire Film Array. The hi-tech machine can test for just short of 30 diseases at the same time. The pic was taken aboard the USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19), 14MAR2020.

Medical supplies being loaded onto USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) in San Diego, California, 20MAR2020.

Infected people could be delivered to USNS Mercy via MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters.

Mercy is one of two hospital ships owned and operated by Military Sealift Command, and operates in the Pacific Ocean.

Video of USNS Mercy being loaded with medical supplies, in San Diego, in preparation for its mission as a quarantine ship:

Apparently they’re expecting to drink a lot of Red Bull?

The other hospital ship is the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20), which normally operates along the Atlantic coast, including providing taxpayer funded medical services to people in Central & South America, and the Caribbean.

A Ejército Mexicano medic, assigned to the USNS Comfort, helps a boy with a severely swollen head in Haiti, November 2019.

Throngs of Haitians line-up for help from the USNS Comfort, November 2019. Will the same thing happen at U.S. ports?

Coming for you? A view from inside a MH-60S Sea Hawk assigned to USNS Comfort.

OPERATION CoViD-19: HOT ZONE DAEGU

Kit Bashing, Technology

How to paint your 1:1 scale B-17 Memphis Belle with ‘period correct’ paint

Video March 19, 2020 Hutchins AAron

U.S. Department of Defense photo by Lisa Ferdinando, 03OCT2019.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper gets a ‘walk around’ of the Memphis Belle at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), Ohio, 03OCT2019.

After 13 years of rebuilding, the B-17F Memphis Belle was ready for unveiling in 2018. Part of the restoration included painting the World War Two Boeing Flying Fortress with period correct paint.

U.S. Air Force photo by Ken LaRock, 13FEB2018.

Painting the bomb bay.

Boeing B-17F “Memphis Belle” rests inside a hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 01FEB2018. USAF photo by J.M. Eddins Junior.

U.S. Air Force photo by R.J. Oriez, official unveiling 16MAY2018.

Official video report about the ‘period correct’ painting process, January 2018:

Official video report explaining the confusion over what are ‘correct’ markings for the Memphis Belle (even as a beginning kit builder in the 1970s I heard/read many arguments between ‘adult’ builders as to what the correct markings were), includes lots of color war-time film:

Dramatic music video, how to paint and install your B-17 propellers:

Official video report, installing the tail gunner station into a ‘naked’ Memphis Belle, 2017:

Dramatic music video of completed Memphis Belle being moved in early 2018 to new location, just think how lucky the tow-truck driver is:

Here’s almost 13 minutes of silent color wartime footage of the Memphis Belle:

New York Air National Guard Photo by Staff Sergeant Christopher S. Muncy, 17SEP2017

This B-17F ‘Memphis Belle’ is owned by the Liberty Foundation, the pic was taken in 2017. It is not painted correctly, can you see the boo-boo? Compare it to the pic at the top of the article. (clue: Blue on the driver’s left, red on the driver’s right)

Photo dated 1943.

In 1978 Revell tried to compete with Monogram’s excellent 1:48 scale B-17G, by issuing a 1:48 B-17F. Dimensionally it was about the same size as Monogram’s but lacked the awesome detailing. It’s still periodically re-issued.

In 1962, Revell issued a 1:72 scale B-17F Memphis Belle. As a child in the early 1970s, Revell’s 1972 rebox was the first World War Two bomber kit I built.

Hasegawa issued a 1:72 Memphis Belle in 2009, however, it is not a new tooling. It’s their old 1976 kit with new decals.

Academy’s 1:72 Memphis Belle is much nicer than the ancient Revell, and the old Hasegawa, kits.

B-25 PANCHITO

VEHICLE I-D: C-47 DAKOTA/SKYTRAIN, DOUGLAS COMMERCIAL-3, R4D GOONIES! (with long kit shopping list)

Technology

Robot Wars: A-I strips an A-10 naked!

Video March 19, 2020 Hutchins AAron

Personnel seal panel lines, rivets and any other ‘openings’ to prevent the stripping material from entering the aircraft. U.S Air Force photo by Todd Cromar, 04DEC2019.

In December 2019, a robot paint stripper at Hill Air Force Base (AFB), Utah, was used to strip an A-10 Thunderbolt-2 for the first time. Normally, it’s used on F-16s.

Corrosion control technicians seal up the seams and holes in the skin to prevent the blast media from entering the aircraft. USAF photo by Todd Cromar, 04DEC2019.

“There are going to be across-the-board improvements including a dramatic reduction in exposure to a Hexavalent Chromium dust environment. This is perhaps the greatest benefit to the robotic system. Savings will also be seen with reduced operating time and less power consumption, as well as reduced costs in material. We really haven’t found a downside to this system.”-Tim Randolph, 576th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron

USAF photo by Todd Cromar.

Two robots, with four hose attachments each, move independently along both sides of the aircraft. The time to strip an A-10 is decreased from three days to 9-12 hours!

Sorry, they didn’t release any pics of the naked A-10.

This Davis-Monthan ‘Paint Barn’ video, released in January 2020, shows you how many humans are needed in order to paint an A-10:

Robot Wars:

Photo via Aerobotix.

A-I PAINTERS TO SAVE THE F-22 RAPTOR?

TEXAS TURNS TO ROBOTS TO WASH F-16

A-10 Thunderbolt-2: ANOTHER A-10C WITH INVASION STRIPES

THE OWL HAD A BLUE UMBRELLA!: HOW LANTIRN KILLED THE N/AW-10, AND, WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE TRUMPETER/HOBBY BOSS KITS?

International

The Perfect Fear: Pacific Ring of Fire, 08-14 March 2020

March 18, 2020 Hutchins AAron

Incomplete list of links to seismic/natural disaster reports from around the Pacific Ring of Fire, days 08 to 14 of Gregorian March 2020.

Separations between earthquakes reveal clear patterns

7 Hot Facts About the Pacific Ring of Fire

CHILE: Pic of volcano lightning storm, named The Perfect Fear, wins international contest

COLOMBIA: U.S. and Colombian militaries joined with silly-vilian organizations to conduct the Exercise Vita humanitarian response training.

INDONESIA: Three injured, hundreds of houses damaged after magnitude-4.9 earthquake in West Java

5.5 earthquake – Southern Sumatra

779 earthquakes recorded in February

NEW ZEALAND: 6.4 earthquake – Kermadec Islands Region

JAPAN: M5.5 quake

MEXICO: Magnitude 5.1 earthquake

THAILAND: Small quake shakes Lampang

UNITED STATES:

Alaska; 3.9 quake

California; 3.7 magnitude earthquake hits Truckee area

7 Earthquakes at the Junction of the San Andreas Fault and Cascadia Subduction Zone

Two Earthquakes Shake the North Coast

Hawaii; The U.S. Army Bombed a Lava Flow. It Didn’t Work.

Oregon; Funding for earthquake warning system dies in dysfunctional 2020 Oregon Legislature

Washington; Will Seattle at last take action on buildings that can kill when earthquakes hit?

Wyoming; Study reveals that Unusual Uplift at Yellowstone Volcano Caused by Magma Rising

Pacific Ring of Fire, 01-07 March 2020: SURVIVE BY EATING GIANT SPIDERS?

Kit Bashing, Technology

How to assemble your 1:1 scale MQ-1 Predator

Video March 17, 2020 Hutchins AAron

“We have just won a war with a lot of heroes flying around in planes. The next war may be fought by airplanes with no men in them at all… It will be different from anything the world has ever seen.”-General Henry H. ‘Hap’ Arnold, U.S. Army Air Force, 1945

The first Predator flew a recon mission over Albania in July 1995, then it was known as RQ-1. Despite many official denials, back then, several RQ-1s were lost to ‘global warming climate change’ (bad weather) or shot down.

It was the Airmen who maintained the General Atomics RQ-1 who adapted helicopter weapon pylons to the giant remote control aircraft, as well as adding a turbocharger to the piston engine, finally proving its combat capability in October 2001. In 2002, the RQ-1 became MQ-1 (M for multi-role). In March 2018, the USAF officially retired the MQ-1.

On 03MAR2020, the Iowa Air National Guard got a massive model kit of the MQ-1 Predator. It’s actually a retired MQ-1 that will end up on static display at the Air National Guard Bureau in Washington DC. The Iowa Air Guard has the honor of assembling and painting it.

Unboxing the monster kit.

Who wouldn’t be happy about a kit this big?

You’ll need some jacks and jigs.

A bunch of people about to get bombed at the 432nd Wing/432nd Air Expeditionary Wing HQ at Creech Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, 06JUN2019.

On 03MAR2018, the MQ-1 took its official last flight in Nevada, being replaced by the MQ-9 Reaper.

Creech AFB MQ-1 retirement video report:

30NOV2017, removing the ‘brains’, the Primary Control Module, Creech AFB.

Removing the antenna. This was done prior to the MQ-1 being sent to United Kingdom to become a ‘gate guard’.

Final combat mission (undisclosed location) of 361st Expeditionary Attack Squadron’s MQ-1B, 01JUL2017.

MQ-1B Predator remote piloted aircraft with the 147th Air Reconnaissance Wing, Texas Air National Guard, on display at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Expedition, Malaysia, 21MAR2017.

Video report, being a Predator Pilot:

MQ-1 final flight at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, 27FEB2017.

Video report, Holloman AFB MQ-1 retirement, 2017:

Video, repairing and prepping the wing of a MQ-1 slated for gate guard duty at Holloman AFB, 2016:

Video, engine maintenance, Holloman AFB, June 2015:

Kit shopping list:

HOW TO BUILD A 1:1 SCALE U.S. ARMY ‘FAKE NEWS’ BMP-2

EC-135E FIRE-BIRD, 10329 COMES BACK TO LIFE, AGAIN! OR, WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR EXTRA KC-135 KIT.

Technology

Robot Wars: A-I Painters to save the F-22 Raptor?

Video March 17, 2020 Hutchins AAron

An F-22 Raptor is masked-off for new paint, on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Hawaii Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman John Linzmeier, 21AUG2020.

The F-22 Raptor is a hi-tech aircraft that has not resulted in making things easier for the U.S. Air Force (USAF). I’ve already written how the sensitive ‘skin’ of the aircraft is a nightmare for sheet metal shop personnel. Now the USAF admits that painting the aircraft is a pain-in-the-butt as well.

An F-22 gets its air intakes painstakingly ‘gap filled’ at Hill AFB, Utah. USAF photo by Alex R. Lloyd, 19NOV2020.

As of February 2020, the USAF has a new hi-tech tool that will supposedly solve one of the hi-tech aircraft’s skin problems; a robot designed specifically to paint the inside of the air intakes.

Hawaii Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman John Linzmeier, 21AUG2020.

The company, Aerobotix, that makes the robot painter claims it’ll save U.S. taxpayers $28-million in labor costs to paint the F-22, and apparently it can be used on other aircraft.

Video report: