New Cold War: Idaho’s Gowen Field under gas attack!

Even the 124th FW medics had to done MOPP gear while they tried to fight off attackers, using their M240 machine guns. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Captain Bonnie Blakely, 04-06FEB2022.

Airmen of Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing fighting for their lives after a gas attack on Gowen […] Continue Reading…

New Cold War: Idaho’s 124th preps for Air Strikes! Or, Labor Shortages can give you a case of the Blue Bombs!

“With the multi-capable Airmen concept, we are able to teach others how to do our job. Instead of sending eight ammo troops and eight weapon troops, we are able to send four of each and share the workload.”-Master Sergeant Michael Cabell, 124th Maintenance Squadron

Inert Blue Bombs prepped for Idaho A-10C’s […] Continue Reading…

New Cold War: Russian Su-30SM now patrolling the sky over Belarus, wargames on the ground underway

On 07FEB2022, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that its Sukhoi 30SMs are now patrolling the sky over Belarus.

Russian Defense Ministry video released on 07FEB2022:

The Su-30SM ‘Irkutsk’ is a two seat multi-role combat aircraft that can trace its lineage back to the older single seat Su-27.

On 02FEB2022, it […] Continue Reading…

Cold War Vehicle I-D: Short lived Chenowth F-A-V, U.S. Army vs U.S. Navy

U.S. Navy SeAL Team 5’s Scorpion Fast Attack Vehicle (FAV, now called Desert Patrol Vehicle or DPV), Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California, January 1993. USN photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class Mike Poche.

USN SeAL Team 5’s three seat Scorpion Fast Attack Vehicle (FAV), Naval Amphibious Base […] Continue Reading…

WW2 Vehicle I-D: Rare Kamikaze Type 4 found on USMC base in California!

In June 2020, it was revealed that among the many armored vehicles stashed on the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow (one of the many duty assignments of my hardcore Marine Grandfather), California, was a very rare Japanese Type 4 Ka-Tsus amphibious tank.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Robert Jackson, 10JUN2020.

Apparently only […] Continue Reading…

New Cold War: Russian ops in Tajikistan, 2021 vid-fest

“This year, we conducted 11 joint exercises through the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.”-Colonel General (U.S. equivalent Lieutenant General) Alexander Lapin, Central Military District, December 2021

In Russia’s Central Military District there were 11 wargames held in 2021.  They spread across Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.  The wargames also included […] Continue Reading…

Battle ‘Damage’: Turkey deployment reveals Idaho A-10s are a bunch of dirty Pigs!

Missing a chunk of paint off the nose. Idaho Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras, 24OCT2016.

In April 2016, U.S. President Obama ‘secretly’ deployed (the deployment was secretly planned in 2015) the Idaho Air National Guard’s A-10Cs to NATO Turkey (even though he hated the A-10 and […] Continue Reading…

New Cold War: Russian BTR-82A & BMP-3 warm-up their guns!

Central Military District photo.

On 02FEB2022, Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, Commander of Russia’s Central Military District, reported that “Since the beginning of the year, 76 company tactical exercises have been conducted with the part of motorized rifle and tank units, including 11 ostentatious ones, during which the number of practical tasks performed […] Continue Reading…

New Cold War: Triumphs now in Belarus, deployed across Leningrad & Moscow Regions (and I don’t mean British motorcycles)!

Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reports that S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft units are now in Belarus, as of 03FEB2022.  They were deployed from Russia’s Eastern Military District on 21JAN2022.

Russian Ministry of Defense video of arrival of some of the S-400 vehicles:

The S-400 Triumph units will be based in the Brest […] Continue Reading…

Cold War (and beyond) Vehicle I-D: Suomalaiset Sisu XA-203, XA-180M, 90M Crotale & 6×6

The XA series of armored vehicles first came alive back in 1980, during the unofficial Cold War, when Finland was part of the Soviet ‘Eastern Bloc’.  They were made by a company called Suomen Autoteollisuus, which became Sisu Auto in 1981, which then became Sisu Defense in 1995, which then became Patria in 1997.  […] Continue Reading…

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