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.
The ZU (Зенитная Установка/Zenitnaya Ustanovka-antiaircraft installation)-23-2 is a Soviet-Cold War era twin gunned towed Air Defense Artillery (ADA) system using 23mm-by-152mm rounds.
The ZU-23-2 is also known as 2A13.
The ZU-23-2 was developed in the late 1950s from a prototype known as ZU-14. It entered service with the Soviet Union in 1960, and is still in production in Russia (upgraded to launch missiles and be remotely controlled), including licensed production in several former Warsaw Pact countries which are now part of NATO. Even Israel has helped Viet Nam develop its own version of the ZU-23-2, known as the 23-2M.
Sometime during the Cold War, a Yugoslavian(?) ZU-23-2.
Interestingly, during the Cold War most books about Soviet weaponry, published in the NATO West, never mention the ZU-23-2. Yet, today the ZU-23-2 is being used by at least 74 countries, by both ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. It has also been mounted on all sorts of military and silly-vilian (civilian) vehicles.
U.S. Marines check-out a captured ZU-23-2 on the island of Grenada, 28OCT1983. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate Second Class David Wujcik.
Iraqi ZU-23-2 during the early years of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Iranian ZU-23-2 during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Operation Praying Mantis; the U.S. attacks the Iranian navy during the Iran-Iraq War. U.S. marines check-out a ZU-23-2 on a captured Iranian offshore oil rig, 18APR1988. USMC photo by Corporal John Hyp.
Afghan ZIL-131 truck with ZU-23-2, under tow on Kandahar Airport, 17JAN2002. USMC photo by Captain Charles G. Grow.
Iraqi MTLB armed with ZU-23-2. USMC photo by Lance Corporal Jennifer A. Krusen, 11APR2003.
Iran loves the ZU-23-2 so much that in 2010 an eight barreled radar guided version (ZU-23-8?) entered production, it’s called the Mesbah-1.
In 2013, NATO-Greece modified their Soviet era BMP-1s by mounting ZU-23-2s on them.
November 2016, U.S. Army video (by Sergeant Jacob Holmes) of Ukrainian troops training with their ZU-23-2:
August 2017, U.S. Army promotional video (by Sergeant Anthony Jones) explaining the Ukrainian ZU-23-2:
On the left is a NATO-Romanian ground mount (towed) Oerlikon GDF 35mm guns, on the right is a NATO-Polish truck mounted ZU-23-2. U.S. Army photo by Gary Loten-Beckford, 06DEC2017.
NATO-Bulgarian ZIL-131 with ZU-23-2, during U.S. Army sponsored wargame Shabla 19. USA photo by Sergeant Thomas Mort, 12JUN2019.
Interestingly, during the false flag ‘Arab Spring’ rebellions that swept across North Africa and the Middle East, rebel/extremist groups were magically supplied with Toyotas equipped with ZU-23-2s. This photo (supposed taken in 2021) shows the new Libyan National Army with brand new ZU-23-2 equipped Toyotas.
Russian armored Ural ‘Tornado’ truck armed with ZU-23-2 (2A13) somewhere in the battle for Ukraine, April 2022.
In August 2022, the Houthis paraded their ZU-23-2 armed Toyotas in Sanaa, Yemen.
Russian remote controlled ZU-23-2 (2A13), June 2023. Photo via Russian Union of Mechanical Engineers.
Moldovan troops pose with their ZU-23-2, 13SEP2023. North Carolina Army National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Brendan Stephens.
NATO video from March 2024, showing NATO-Poland’s upgraded ZUR-23-2, which can also launch anti-aircraft missiles:
1956 Chevy 3100 pickup, calls Inkom home. The 3100 model is part of the Task Force series of pickup trucks. Hydramatic is a type of automatic transmission.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
1969 Ford Mustang fastback, now living in Pocatello. Even though the ’69-’70 Mustangs are structurally different from their predecessors, they are still considered ‘first generation’ Mustangs.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
This 1965 Ford Falcon Futura, lives in Pocatello. It is significant that this car was a fundraiser for a veteran’s memorial building, for you see that the ‘father’ of the Ford Falcon was none other than Robert McNamara, the man who would be responsible for managing the U.S. military occupation of Viet Nam, under the Johnson Administration.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
In 1776, the 13 colonies of the British empire declared independence and the United States was born. Two hundred years later, 1976 became the final year of production for the Lincoln Continental Mark-4.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
“Based on the high rate of global immunity and currently available data, the State Surgeon General advises against the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”-Florida Department of Health
On 12SEP2024, the Florida Department of Health reminded “health care providers of the importance of remaining up to date with current literature related to COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, and the importance of providing patients with informed consent.”
That reminder also ‘reminded’ people that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) itself used no data to support its recommendation for continued use of mRNA: “The most recent booster approval was granted in the absence of booster-specific clinical trial data performed in humans. Furthermore, this booster does not protect against the currently dominant strain, accounting for approximately 37% of infections in the United States. There are currently limited data to inform whether these boosters offer any substantial protection against the virus and subsequent circulating variants. Although randomized clinical trials are normally used to approve therapeutics, the federal government has not required COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to demonstrate their boosters prevent hospitalizations or death from COVID-19 illness.”
The reminder from the Florida Department of Health contains direct links to FDA and U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) data which reveals there is no data showing that mRNA vaccines are ‘safe & effective’: “…the federal government has failed to provide sufficient data to support the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 boosters, or acknowledge previously demonstrated safety concerns associated with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters…”