Tag Archives: idaho

Biden’s War: Idaho gets ‘smart’ artillery rounds, reveals “upcoming mobilizations”

“Receiving the PGK NET was a great opportunity that will enhance the battalion and the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team’s lethality on the battlefield.  We purposely sought to field the PGK prior to the brigade’s upcoming mobilizations. If the PGK capability exists in the theater of operations we end up in, then our soldiers will be trained to employ it and bring a precision capability to the fight.”-Lieutenant Colonel Eric Orcutt, 1st Battalion 148th Field Artillery Regiment

Idaho Army National Guard photo by Crystal Farris.

The Idaho Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion of the 148th Field Artillery Regiment (FAR), headquartered in Pocatello, learned how to use ‘smart’ artillery projectiles known as the M1156 Precision Guidance Kit (PKG).

During the last two weeks of July 2021, the 1-148 FAR was in next door Wyoming, on Camp Guernsey, for annual ‘summer camp’ training.  The ‘smart’ projectiles they were launching through their M1096A6 Paladin 155mm gun tubes uses aerodynamic fins on the fuze to steer the projectile on target.  If the smart projectile happens to be not so smart and impacts outside 150 meters of the target area, it won’t explode.

Not only does PKG make artillery projectiles more accurate, it’s hoped that accuracy will save taxpayers some money by not needing as many ‘dumb’ projectiles.

Round=projectile+case

Projectile=bullet, shot, slug

Cartridge Case=case or shell containing propellant

The M1096A6 Paladin gun does not use a cartridge case on its projectiles, instead it uses combustible bags, or combustible solid casings, of propellant shoved in behind the projectile.

The 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, of which the 148th FAR is a part of, is scheduled for deployment in 2022 (apparently the location is still hush-hush, and this is despite President Biden’s pull-out from Afghanistan and his order to cease combat ops in Iraq).

Vehicle I-D:

1-116th Cav, 1-148th FA, Pocatello, Idaho. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

1-148 FIELD ARTILLERY GATE GUARDS

M109A7 PALADIN, ANOTHER ‘TOOL’ OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE!

July 2021:  SINGAPORE TESTS IDAHO’S NEW D-A-G-I-R SYSTEM

Biden’s War:  SECRET NEW AFGHAN-AFRICAN REFUGEE OPERATION REVEALED!

World War Three 2014: “THIS IS WHERE ARMOR FIGHTS!” IDAHO NATIONAL GUARD RETURNS TO COLD WAR ERA ‘TOTAL FORCE’ WARFARE TRAINING! (with some photos of my 13 years history with the military)

Pocatello Airport, IDAHO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD M109

Singapore Apaches test Idaho’s new D-A-G-I-R system

At the beginning of 2021, the Idaho Army National Guard became the first Guard unit in the United States to employ the new DAGIR gunnery range system.

Gowen Field, Idaho, 23JUL2021. Idaho Army National Guard photo by Thomas Alvarez.

Between June 30th and July 29th, the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s Peace Vanguard unit conducted AH-64 Longbow Apache gunnery on the Orchard Combat Training Center for the tenth year now, but this time they got to use Idaho’s new DAGIR system: “The scoring is instantaneous. The second a target is hit, we know about it. It’s a great feature because sometimes you’re not sure if the round went through the target or not.”-Lieutenant Colonel Jack Denton, U.S. Army Flight Training Detachment

Idaho ArNG photo by Thomas Alvarez, 23JUL2021.

The RSAF Peace Vanguard is based on the Arizona National Guard’s Silverbell Army Heliport, where they’ve been flying eight AH-64Ds since 2001.

Idaho ArNG photo by Thomas Alvarez, 23JUL2021.

Idaho’s Orchard Combat Training Center has at least 23 gunnery/bombing ranges.  Currently it is one of only two DAGIR ranges in the entire U.S.

NATO:  APACHES & HINDS, FOR THE FIRST TIME?

April 2021: IDAHO HOME TO FIRST EVER NATIONAL GUARD D-A-G-I-R!

March 2021: SINGAPORE’S IDAHO BASED SKY PIRATES BOMB LAS VEGAS?

2016: OBAMA DISAPPEARS THE LAST OF IDAHO’S APACHES?

Operation CoViD-19: Covert plan to Dumb-Down Global Education?

I stopped writing my Dumbing Down U.S.A. series in 2020 because schools shutdown, not just in the United States but globally.  In 2021, it is clear to me that the obviously leftist-liberal controlled global education system is just using the pandemic-panic-attack to hasten their control-through-dumbing-down agenda.

Incomplete (Tip-o-the-Iceberg) list of publicly announced education related layoffs, shutdowns and crimes, as of 30 July 2021:

Medical education is expected to become a big profit maker.

Governments around the world promise to somehow come up with USD$4-billion for global education CoViD-19 recovery! 

CHINA: Leftist-Liberal Communists lockdown companies involved in the education system.

New rules to reign-in private education. 

Commonwealth of Nations (British Empire since 1926): Survey shows Australian youth report that pandemic school lockdowns are the main reason for increased anxiety among students. 

Australia‘s strict pandemic travel restrictions are eroding international student programs for universities, more than AUD$2-billion lost in 2020 due lack of international students! 

Despite creating pandemic havoc with its own education system, Australia promises to spend millions from Aussie tax revenues on other countries education systems, through the Global Partnership for Education!

Canada’s education system being called “terribly expensive babysitting service”.

Canada‘s higher education system is failing in science.

Study says too many international students are coming from the same countries, reducing diversity on Canadian campuses. 

Organization calls for child-care and early childhood education, to be fully integrated into Canada‘s national school system. 

India used the 2020 pandemic-panic-attack to implement radical changes to the education system.

United Kingdom’s Prime Minister says the global education system is now the cure-all to every problem!

U.K. used 2020 pandemic-panic-attack to cut funding to United Nations’ education programs for females by 85%!

Online education company based in U.K. reports jump in profits due to pandemic forcing more students online! 

U.K. education safety ‘experts’ say taxpayers need to be squeezed for more anti-violence funding!

GERMANY: University students angry because they are still locked out of classrooms, despite people being allowed to go to bars and dance clubs. 

German taxpayer funded TV report about education problems in central Africa countries due to violence and pandemic-panic-attack.  As you watch the report, be aware that the United Nations is pushing for more and higher education in African countries that have no industries in which to provide employment to highly educated people, in other words they are putting the cart before the horse:

ISRAEL: Education minister opposes mandatory vaccines in schools! 

MONGOLIA: Since 2019, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been paying Mongolian contractors to build kindergartens, more school construction projects are planned for 2022: “The U.S. government wants to provide buildings that are sustainable for Mongolia and it is helping to improve the Mongolia building standards by providing more energy efficient structures.”-Rebecca Rosenquist, USACE project manager

UNITED STATES: Study says the pandemic-panic-attack school shutdowns appears to have targeted ‘high-poverty’ students. 

Six People Indicted in International Scheme to Defraud Qatari School Founder and then Launder over $1 Million in Illicit Proceeds.

Dozens of parents begin protesting after a local board of education, in Alabama, unanimously approved school mask requirement.

An Alabama school resource officer (cop) arrested for sex crimes. 

Arkansas high school teacher pleads guilty to sex crime.

Leftist-Liberal Gavin Newsom establishes taxpayer raping $100-million ‘special education dispute’ fund, to settle possible lawsuits over California‘s pandemic-panic-attack school shutdowns!

California high school coach gets arrested for rape, school officials must’ve known because they fired the coach the day before the arrest.  

High school teacher in Colorado arrested for sex crimes.

Colorado music teacher accused of multiple sex crimes.

Test scores for Florida students crash, blamed on pandemic.

Georgia creates new Office of Rural Education and Innovation to enforce leftist-liberal agenda in the back-woods.

Obviously leftist-liberal Idaho Education News blames lack of more liberal education policies on Fox News and the Idaho Freedom Foundation.

Leftist-Liberal teachers in Iowa paranoid of students who are not vaccinated.

Two Iowa school employees found dead after they were accused of sex crimes.

Hawaii creates new distance learning rules.

Minnesota first grade teacher accused of grabbing student in the crotch.

Mississippi teacher will not be tried for a sex crime, apparently due to a technicality? 

Missouri universities offer scholarships for getting vaccinated! 

Nebraska Department of Education strips most references to gender identity from proposed health standards.

New Hampshire parents force politicians to change special education policies. 

In New Mexico, a high school coach is accused of dozens of same-sex sex crimes with students. 

New York elementary school principal accused of sex crimes with 24 students. 

Irony as Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, in New York, admit that their medical students are being stressed-out by pandemic-panic-attack policies at the school!

New York State Education Department admits they are being played like puppets by the Governor and State Health Department!

NYC wants more special education services.

Special education ‘providers’ in NYC demand more money.

South Carolina wants mandatory masks and vaccines in schools.

Tennessee creates law that would force beauty/barber schools to teach students how to identify signs of domestic violence. 

Texas introduces new education funding codes to reflect federal taxpayer funding directly related to the pandemic-panic-attack. 

In Virginia, officials at College of William & Mary reneged on their policy to wait until the U.S. FDA actually approved a CoViD vaccine (which is has not thus far, only for emergency use), and now mandates pandemic vaccinations for students! 

In Washington DC, the Federal Department of Education to spend $600-million in pandemic funding on homeless students. 

In Wisconsin, the city of Milwaukee wants to know how to improve education for ‘black’ males, apparently they believe the education system is just fine for everybody else. 

This video shows how the day-to-day operation of the U.S. education system is eerily similar to how prisons are operated:

Dumbing Down the U.S.A., January 2019: “IT’S OVERWHELMING.”

Disappearing Students Syndrome (DSS): A phrase created by me to describe a phenomenon has been taking place across the United States for more than a decade, affecting both privately and publicly funded schools, from Kindergarten all the way through University levels.

U.S. Wildfires 2021: Wyoming & Colorado activates MAFFS, Nevada’s MAFF mission extended!

“The request for additional support shows just how challenging this fire season is and how critical our MAFFS aircraft, aircrews and maintenance personnel are to supporting NIFC [National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho].”-Colonel Jeremy Ford, 152nd Airlift Wing, Nevada Air National Guard

Wyoming ANG photo by Technical Sergeant Jon Alderman.

On 19JUL2021, a Wyoming Air National Guard (ANG) C-130H MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System) was activated, and on 20JUL2021 was sent to battle wildfires in California.

Wyoming ANG photo by Technical Sergeant Jon Alderman.

The C-130H has been upgraded with a new propeller system.

Wyoming ANG photo by Technical Sergeant Jon Alderman.

Wyoming ANG video by Jacqueline Marshall, 19JUL2021:

Wyoming ANG photo by Technical Sergeant Jon Alderman.

Also on 19JUL2021, Colorado ANG activated a MAFFS to fight the fires in California.  Music video announcement by Staff Sergeant Laura Fitsmorris:

Earlier in the month, one California ANG C-130 MAFFS, and two Nevada ANG ‘High Rollers’ C-130 MAFFS began fighting fires in California.

CAL FIRE Air Tanker Base, McClellan Park. Nevada ANG photo by Senior Master Sergeant Paula Macomber.

Nevada’s ‘High Rollers’ just had their mission in California extended until August 26th!

MAFFS aircraft are only activated when it becomes clear that the private sector water bombers are overwhelmed, or will soon be, by the volume of wildfires.

NIFC in Boise, Idaho, warns that ‘Scary Fuel’ shortage could ground firefighting aircraft.

U.S. Wildfires 2021: Wyoming governor waves federal pandemic restrictions to ease aviation fuel shortage for water bombers

K-MAX & 10 TANKER, WAITING FOR THE CALL IN SOUTHEAST IDAHO

Boise River Photography Journal July 20th 2021

Chicory ©Satoita

Chicory ©Satoita

On Tuesday last week, I went for a stroll along the Boise River here in Boise, Idaho. To my delight, all the plants have tripled in size since I saw them last, about two months ago. They’ve grown considerably; the bare gravel river banks are now nearly covered in growth. It was a fun trek through all the leaves, sand, gravel, water, and several spider webs. One could follow the sound of the river through the thick green walls of natural labyrinth.

Spotted Knapweed ©Satoita

There are plenty of useful plants here, which were most likely intentionally planted. This part of the Boise River is technically the Boise River Park, and is maintained by the Parks and Recreation department. I really appreciate their methods of leaving it pretty much alone save for repairing water erosion and cleaning up human disturbances. I’m grateful we have the Greenbelt here where we can visit a bit of wildlife in the middle of the city. In Japan, research has proven that taking time to just be in nature is beneficial to all areas of our health. Doctors now prescribe Shirin Roku, or Forest Bathing, to reduce stress, which is the cause of a myriad of health problems. In addition, many of these plants that grow wild and may be considered weeds are actually medicinal and are a good source of minerals and vitamins.

white flowering plant ©Satoita

St. John’s Wort ©Satoita

Mullein ©Satoita

This Mullein is the cutest one I’ve seen. It’s only one foot tall! I was collecting mullein flowers to create a cough syrup. I’ve put them in sugar to ferment in a jar for a few weeks in the sun. I’m really curious to see if this works come fall!

Purple Loosestrife ©Satoita

Catmint ©Satoita

Chicory ©Satoita

Mullein ©Satoita

Mullein ©Satoita

Purple Loosestrife ©Satoita

Chicory ©Satoita

Tiny Stream ©Satoita

Boise River Bank ©Satoita

Downy Woodpecker on a Mullein ©Satoita

Evening Primrose ©Satoita

Yellow Brooms ©Satoita

Marsh Willowherb ©Satoita

Blue Water Speedwell ©Satoita

Armenian Blackberry ©Satoita

Bittersweet Nightshade ©Satoita

If I mislabeled any plants, or if you can identify the two I didn’t know, please leave a comment below!

’till next time,

SATOITA

Marsh Crossing ©Satoita

Sentimental Journey: 1986-2021

In July 2021, Sentimental Journey returned to the Pocatello Regional Airport, in Southeast Idaho.  It seems I always cross paths with this ancient restored aircraft, from the two decades when it was flown by the Confederate Air Force, to today’s Commemorative Air Force (just call it CAF).

Topping off the tanks.

Old meets new as modern day Challenger and Mustang drive out for a photo opportunity.

Staging the Challenger and Mustang.

Now it’s the people’s turn.

The people are so interested in the old bomber they don’t seem to notice the giant DC-10 water bomber that just landed.

If you had enough money you could get a ride in the B-17G bomber. Notice the K-Max firefighting helicopter in the background, lots of smoke in the air.

In March 2018, Sentimental Journey took part in CAF’s Tora, Tora, Tora display, over Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Tyler J. Bolken.

02OCT2012, at the War Eagles Air Museum, Doña Ana County Airport, New Mexico. Photo by Sergeant Jonathan Thomas.

U.S. Air Force video by Sergeant Adam Ross, getting ‘sentimental’ over the B-17, October 2012:

May 2001: Confederate Air Force has grown to more than nine thousand members in 27 states and three countries, however, many (‘woke’) members hate the name

November 2000: Confederate Air Force to change its Name due to the insidious ‘political correctness’ movement

Summer 1999, Pocatello Regional Airport.  My children Denise M. Hutchins, Aryssa M. Hutchins, Alexander B. Hutchins and Jennette McKay-Schow.

Nose gunner/bombardier station.

Alex loves .50-cals.

Denise’s .50-cal just jammed, Alex looks concerned!  The Japanese Zeros are swarming!

I don’t remember having to pay to tour the B-17G, but I did buy these Sentimental souvenirs, and a T-shirt which I wore-out long ago.

Me.

1991, ‘Don’t Mess with the Texas Confederate Air Force’ video:

December 1986: A Navigator’s final B-17 flight in Sentimental Journey

My immediate family’s connection to Sentimental Journey began in Summer 1986, when the restored flying fortress visited Edwards Air Force Base, California.  Photos by my father William Lewis Hutchins.

My baby brother Ernst F. Hutchins.

U.S. Air force photo by a Staff Sergeant Simons.

From 27APR1986, over Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, during the Gathering of Eagles ’86 tour.

According to CAF, the B-17G that became Sentimental Journey spent the last few months of World War Two over the Pacific.  After the war it was converted to serve as a boat carrying Search And Rescue plane out of Florida.  In the 1950s it was used as a drone controller during nuclear weapons tests.  In 1959, it went to the Bone Yard in Arizona, but shortly after that it was purchased by a firefighting company in California.  Sentimental Journey still uses the registration number assigned while it was a fire fighter.  In 1978 the B-17 water bomber was donated to the Arizona chapter of the CAF.  The name Sentimental Journey was the result of a local newspaper holding a contest for the name. The Arizona CAF members restored Sentimental Journey to its World War Two bomber configuration.  Amazingly, Sentimental Journey was fully restored as a bomber and flying air shows by the end of 1985/beginning of 1986.

1982, half hour long documentary explaining the reason for the Confederate Air Force-Ghost Squadron:

1981, British made hour long documentary explaining that the Confederate Air Force-Ghost Squadron was led by a totally made-up Confederate officer named Colonel Culpepper, and why the CAF was originally created.  Notice that at the beginning of the film one of the members says …we shouldn’t apologize to anybody in the world for what we are or what we’ve been.”:

1963: THE CONFEDERATE AIR FORCE FLIES AT LAST

HOW TO PAINT YOUR 1:1 SCALE B-17 MEMPHIS BELLE WITH ‘PERIOD CORRECT’ (correctly mixed that is, 1940s style) PAINT

Pocatello Airport 1999, 2012 & 2014: Section Eight & Ole Yeller flies on

Locust Plague 2021: Fat Hopper, and the ghost of its former self

13 July 2021 / 23:44-UTC-07 Tango 06 (23 Tir 1400/04 Dhu l-Hijja 1442/05 Yi-Wei [5th month] 4719)

Chubbuck, Idaho, 13JUL2021. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

The fattest grasshopper I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve lived in Southeastern Idaho was trying to get in my back door.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

Despite the extreme dry heat, these grasshoppers are looking well fed. This guy had left behind a little something near my apple tree.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

A ghost of his former self, his molt.  Apparently he (or she or it?) had just shed its skin.

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

I’ve already written about the Grasshoppers and Mormon Crickets seemingly joining together to wreak havoc upon Pacific Northwest farmers.  Here’s some links to the most recent news about the worsening situation: Grasshoppers Are Descending on the West in Swarms

CANADA, Alberta: Farmers battle surge in grasshoppers, “They’ve been really bad”

CANADA, Manitoba: Agricultural emergency declared!

SOUTH AFRICA: Farmers brace for another locust plague

UNITES STATES, Minnesota: Local Farmers turn crickets into protein

U.S., New Mexico: Is there anything grasshoppers won’t eat?

U.S., Oregon: Ranchers plead for help with grasshopper plague

U.S., Utah: Drought brings grasshopper invasion

U.S., Wyoming: Natrona County reports outbreaks of grasshoppers

Mormon Crickets & Grasshoppers: “…A PERFECT TERRIBLE STORM.”

Idaho’s heritage A-10C ‘8N’

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

P-47D Thunderbolt bubble-top 8N-X.

“It’s more than just history, it’s our heritage, it’s who we are.”-Major Tom Silkowski, Idaho’s 190th Fighter Squadron

P-47D Thunderbolt ‘Black Jack’ code 8N-O, 371st FG-405th FS.

Towards the end of May 2021, the Idaho Air National Guard unveiled their heritage ‘8N’ A-10C Thunderbolt-2.  8N is the squadron code for the U.S. Army 9th Air Force-371st Fighter Group’s 405th Fighter Squadron.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

It was part of 75th anniversary celebrations for the 190th Fighter Squadron’s(FS) birthday, 24MAY1946.  The old 405th FS logo was added to the nacelles after returning from its heritage paint job in Iowa.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

The 190th FS evolved out of the 405th FS, which flew P-47 Thunderbolts during World War Two (hence the false tail number 405190). In 1944, P-47s of the 405th carried the code 8N on their fuselages: “Every aspect of that paint job, down to the smallest detail, is deliberate and faithful to how our P-47’s looked in the summer of 1944. We weren’t going for glitz and a superficial ‘wow factor.’ This isn’t a toy airplane; it’s one of our beautiful A-10 Thunderbolt-2s dressed in the same scheme worn by our P-47 Thunderbolts in World War Two. It’s like a little boy wearing his dad’s military uniform. I think that’s what makes it so special.”-Major Tom Silkowski, Idaho’s 190th FS

An ‘8N’ P-47D somewhere in France, 1944.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Joshua C. Allmaras.

On 07JUL2021, 8N took part in refuel training over Mountain Home Air Force Base (AFB), Idaho.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

The refueling was done by a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 507th Air Refueling Wing (ARW), Tinker AFB, out of Oklahoma.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

But it is not the first time 8N got refueled mid-flight.  On its way home from the heritage paint job (done at the Air National Guard Paint Facility in Sioux City), the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th ARW provided fuel for the flight back to Idaho.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

Idaho Air National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Mercedee Wilds.

Iowa Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Vincent De Groot.

Iowa Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Vincent De Groot.

Iowa Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Vincent De Groot.

Iowa Air National Guard video, by Senior Master Sergeant Vincent De Groot, of 8N (sans 405th FS logo) being pull from the paint shop, 05MAY2021:

Iowa Air National Guard photo by Senior Master Sergeant Vincent De Groot.

1944(?) France, P-47 ‘Mumbling Joe’ 8N-H, 371st FG-405th FS.

March 2021: MORALE BOOSTER A-10C GUN-RUN IN IDAHO!

2012 Pocatello Airport:

The awesome A-10 is the last of Idaho’s Air National Guard air assets. Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

IDAHO NATIONAL GUARD A-10C THUNDERBOLT 2 ‘walkaround’

U.S. Wildfires, 2021: For first time, Idaho mobilizes Militia for fire duty!

For the first time in Idaho’s history, the governor has mobilized the National Guard specifically for fighting fires:

Snake River Complex Fire, KHQ-TV says residents told to fight the fire themselves!

Real time Idaho fire map: idfg.idaho.gov

Federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM): Idaho Fires

Idaho Department of Lands: Fire News Feed

Idaho, 2021: COLD CREEK FIRE NEAR AMERICAN FALLS

Idaho 2018, Pocatello’s Snake River Hot Shots:

Idaho 2012, Charlotte Fire:

On Interstate-15 northbound, Tender 1 racing towards Pocatello, Idaho, 28 June 2012.  Photo by AAron B. Hutchins.

POCATELLO BURNING! EVACUATIONS! SOUTHEAST IDAHO BURNING! BANNOCK COUNTY BANS FIREWORKS, DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY!

How Idaho’s ‘Big Burn’ fire of 1910 shaped the way wildfires are fought.

“…a perfect terrible storm.”: Crawling Mormon Crickets & Flying Grasshoppers join forces?

08 July 2021 (14:30-UTC-07 Tango 06) 17 Tir 1400/28 Dhu l-Qa’da 1442/29 Yi-Wei 4719

Children on Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, get a lesson on how to eat crickets during a survival course. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Jessica Weissman.

When I first moved to Southeastern Idaho (25 years ago), I experienced one of the cyclical swarming of grasshoppers in the region.  When grasshoppers swarm and eat everything in site they are called Locust.

U.S. Forest Service personnel instruct Marine Corps & Navy personnel how to survive by eating bugs like crickets. U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Matthew F. Jackson.

Not only was my garden in my yard being inundated with plant eating grasshoppers, but while hiking in the Scout Mountain area I observed tens of thousands of grasshoppers cannibalizing each other.  In an open field the ground was undulating, upon closer inspection it was a carpet of grasshoppers doing battle, biting each other’s heads off and then eating the loser (and I they were bleeding red blood)!

U.S. military personnel taking a survival course on Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, get a boxed lunch of crickets. USAF photo by Airman First Class Gustavo Castillo.

That was back in the late 1990s, today there is a new problem; grasshoppers (which can fly) and Mormon Crickets (which cannot fly) have joined forces by seemingly syncing their once individual swarm cycles, and it could have everything to do with the decades long drought in the Western United States (U.S.).

https://youtu.be/ZRHaLqJmtsE

U.S. Army soldier chows-down on roasted crickets during survival training on Camp Friendship, in Thailand. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sergeant David N. Beckstrom.

Another possible reason is that it was recently discovered that Utah state Department of Agriculture employees ‘mishandled’ federal grant funding that was intended for use in insect control programs, instead spending the money on transportation expenses!

The situation is so threatening to U.S. farming operations that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is spending $2.8-million in tax funding to suppress the new ‘Locust’.  While this situation might be new to most of us, agriculture officials have been warning since 2003 of the coming Mormon Cricket storm.

Here is a list of links to recent local news reports on the spread of Mormon Crickets to new areas of the U.S., and syncing with grasshopper swarms:

COLORADO: Migrating Mormon Crickets affecting farms and children’s summer camps!

2013, National Geographic;

IDAHO:  Video, fourth year in a row of Mormon Cricket invasion:

Grasshopper, cricket activity on the rise

Time is now to eradicate Idaho’s most dangerous infestation

NEVADA: Mormon crickets now appearing in Elko

2020, Cannibal Crickets;

2018; Mormon Crickets Swarm Land Near Winnemucca

OREGON: 2018; Oregon town fights back against invading Mormon crickets

2017; ‘Spraying insecticide is not an option’: Swarms of Mormon crickets invade Oregon

UTAH: Study says too much vegetation and bright city lights cause Locust swarms

“…a  perfect terrible storm.”:

West Nile Virus: LARVAE SWARM AFTER IDAHO RAIN STORM! STANDING WATER CLAIM A MYTH?

Hurricane Harvey: NEW THREAT, PESTILENCE!

Valentine Hell:  BUYING FLOWERS FROM OVERSEAS IS A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT!

June 2021: SOLAR FLARES TO SINK U.S. NAVY? USN scientists are preparing!

U.S. Wildfire prep, 2021:  CONNECTICUT & NEW YORK JOIN FORCES FOR COMING DISASTER!