Videos

Technology

Once a Red Coat, now a Blue Angel

Video

The retired ‘Fat Albert’ C-130T, brought out for public Pandemic moral display. (Texas Air National Guard photo by Julie Briden-Garcia, 06MAY2020.

On 06MAY2020, the retired C-130T Fat Albert was brought out to help fight CoViD-19 at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas.  After 30-thousand hours of flying in support of the Blue Angels demo team, C-130T Fat Albert was retired to static display duty in 2019.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 28JUL2020.

The new C-130J Fat Albert on second functional check-flight over Cambridge, England, 28JUL2020.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 28JUL2020.

The ‘new’ Blue Angels Fat Albert is actually an old British empire Royal Air Force C-130J, which underwent rebuild by Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group in United Kingdom.  A Forbes report says it cost U.S. taxpayers $29.7-million.  (which isn’t too bad, considering that in 2014 a new C-130J would cost between $67-million and $167-million depending on options)

Video by Marshall Aerospace, dressing the bare-metal C-130J in its new Blue Angels uniform:

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Jess Gray, 06AUG2020.

On 06AUG2020, C-130J Fat Albert arrived on Fort Worth Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, Texas.

Video, by Petty Officer Second Class Cody Hendrix, C-130J Fat Albert flying over algae bloom off the Atlantic coast of Florida, 17AUG2020:

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Cody Hendrix, 17AUG2020.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist Second Class Cody Hendrix, 17AUG2020.

Nobody is on the beach, what is this, CoViD-19 lockdown?

Photo by AAron B. Hutchins, 1989.

This is a photo I took of a C-130T Fat Albert at the Vandenberg AFB air show in California, Spring 1989.  Notice that it is not painted blue and white.

Bare Metal: C-130 PAINT PREP, OR THE EMPEROR GETS SOME NEW CLOTHES

 

C-130T, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, 04MAR2014.  Photo by Staff Sergeant Oscar L Olive the Fourth.

C-130T promotional video by Staff Sergeant Oscar L Olive the Fourth:

International

CoViD-19 can’t stop growing global tsunami of migrants! Where the hell are they coming from?

Video

Incomplete (tip-o-the iceberg) list of main-stream-news links about global immigrant/border operations from August 2020 to the beginning of September 2020.

Leftist news sources want metro areas to become “true havens for climate migrants” advising How cities can prepare to support climate migrants.

Revealed; more than 200-thousand unaccompanied child migrants left to uncertain fates in Europe.

 

Five years later hundreds of migrants still dying in the Mediterranean.

Five years on from boy’s tragic death, “refugee and migrant children worse off”.

Migrants rejected by European Union and deported to Tunisia are now fleeing to Libya.

“47% of surveyed refugees and migrants cited increased difficulty crossing borders as an impact of the coronavirus crisis…”

AUSTRALIA:  So desperate for skilled slave-wage workers that The Land Down Under is going to wave CoViD-19 restrictions for them

Revealed; real estate values were being propped-up by influx of migrants

State of Tasmania desperate for slave-wage migrant construction workers, blames CoViD-19

BANGLADESH: 80 Bangladeshis were arrested after they claimed they were tricked out of $4-thousand each, and into migrating to Vietnam for jobs that didn’t exist.  Apparently there is a Bangladeshi law that says you can’t embarrass the country by doing things like protesting over unemployment in other countries.  

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: ‘No Man’s Land’: Migrants, Refugees Stranded at a Bosnian Roadside

FRANCE: Council backs migrants who pitched tents in central Paris

GERMANY:  Leftist news media claims Five years after migrant crisis, integration is succeeding

GREECE: First case of CoViD-19 confirmed in migrant camp (you’d think by now there be hundreds, if not thousands, of infections)

 More than 10-thousand migrants blocked

Greece Is Dropping Migrants into the Sea — And Europe Is Turning a Blind Eye

INDIA: Government food program to feed slave-wage migrant workers slashed to starvation rations

Politicians prefer to help local people, not migrants..

ITALY: Troubles brew on Lampedusa as island bears brunt of migrant arrivals

Migrant with coronavirus gives birth in helicopter.

 

Italy gives Sea-Watch-4 permission to bring 353 rescued migrants to Sicily

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA: African migrants locked up in  coronavirus centers

KOSOVO:  U.S. Army National Guard units from Oregon and Texas are in Kosovo and, among other things like CoViD-19 response, are conducting joint border patrols with the Kosovo Border Police, in the municipality of Kamenicë (Kamenica). Photo by Captain Nadine Wiley De Moura.

LEBANON: ‘They Called Me ‘Slave’: Beirut Blast Exposes Migrant Workers’ Plight

MALDIVES:  Covid-19 Exposes Abuse of Migrants

MALTA: Illegals on tanker ship running out of food, threaten to jump

Prime Minister to spend 1-million Euros per month to detain illegals on cruise ship

PANAMA: 22-thousand illegals from around the world captured crossing the Panama-Colombia border in 2019

SINGAPORE: Migrants get help from new CoViD-19 phone application

SPAIN: Migrants trying to reach Europe pushed to deadly Atlantic

More Than 200 Migrants Stuck in Gran Canaria Dockside Camp.

 

UNITED KINGDOM: Exhausted migrants wade to shore and collapse on beach – as 409 make journey across Channel too shatter new daily record

1,500 migrants cross Channel in a month.

 

UNITED STATES: The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs is awarding a $250-thousand Technical Assistance Program grant to help domestic migrants (aka Compact Migrants) within the U.S. Pacific territories

ICE captures 2-thousand illegals over a five weeks period

As U.S. expels migrants, they return, again and again.

 

Leftist New York Times claims After a Lull, the Number of Migrants Trying to Enter the U.S. Has Soared

Taxpayer funded security contractor housing immigrant children in hotels

Near Naco, Arizona, a new section of wall (San Pedro River Project) has been started under Section 284 of Title 10, U.S. Code:

On the top of the Tinajas Atlas Mountains, in Arizona, a new ‘border road’ was started on 05AUG2020.  Photo by George F. Jozens, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Photo by Jerry Glaser, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

From California to Texas, 3-hundred miles (483 kilometers) of new border wall sections were completed:

The U.S. Coast Guard reports capturing 16 illegals from Bahamas near the Hanover Inlet of Florida, 12AUG2020. One human trafficker (smuggler) was detained.  The illegals were returned to Bahamas.  Photo by Petty Officer Third Class Brandon Murray.

Near the coast of Marathon, Florida, the U.S. Coast Guard captured 20 illegals from Cuba, 19AUG2020.  The U.S. Coast Guard reports a huge drop in illegals coming from Cuba; so far this fiscal year only 140 have been captured, compared to the 482 in fiscal 2019.

Idaho PBS reveals refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo are now one of the main groups arriving in Idaho.

In the state of Michigan, National Guard personnel are being used to test migrant farm workers for CoViD-19.  This is the result of the state Department of Health and Human Services issuing an emergency order at the beginning of August, requiring that all agricultural and food processing workers who are living in migrant housing camps must be tested for CoViD-19 within 48 hours of entering the state.  The program is taxpayer funded and involves the Michigan National Guard because apparently a lot of Guard personnel speak Spanish: “We do have a large migrant population as well in our community, because of our influx of migrant workers during the summer and fall months. So having somebody who does speak Spanish is important because it gives them access too.”-Heather Alberda, Ottawa County Department of Public Health

On 07AUG2020, the U.S. Coast Guard captured this boat with 16 illegals from Dominican Republic, near Puerto Rico. The illegals were sent back to their home country.

16AUG2020, the U.S. Coast Guard claims this boat was packed with 52 illegals from Dominican Republic, heading to Puerto Rico.  On 17AUG2020 the illegals were handed over to the Armada de Republica Dominicana.

Over 100 stash houses that kept migrants in ‘deplorable’ conditions dismantled in Texas.

 

Texas Army National Guard assist with operations at border checkpoints, 14AUG2020.  Photo by Staff Sergeant DeJon Williams.

Texas Army National Guard performs maintenance on U.S. Border Patrol vehicles.

14AUG2020, pilots at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, conducted a CoViD-19 flight carrying flags to honor the members of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection killed by CoViD-19. Photo by Senior Airman Anne McCready.

VENEZUELA: 100-thousand would be illegal immigrants halted by CoViD-19

OPERATION COVID-19: BORDER GUARDS

OPERATION COVID-19: TITLE 42 USC 265, THE RAPTURE DISAPPEARS BORDER CROSSERS?

IMMIGRANT INVASION U.S.A., 09-15 FEBRUARY 2020: BORDER COPS REPORT RECORD NUMBER OF…FLOWERS?

OPERATION JUPITER: MEASLES PANDEMIC SPREAD BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

U.S. GOVERNMENT SHENANIGANS, SEPTEMBER 2018:TAXES, BAD COPS & CRIMINAL MIGRANTS ON THE RISE!

U.S.

Still flying after 75 years!

Video

On 01SEP2020, vintage World War Two aircraft (and a post war Trojan trainer) flew over Oahu, Hawaii, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of WW2 in the Pacific (V-J Day).

Takeoffs & landings, video via U.S. Indo-Pacific Command:

Photos by Master Sergeant Andrew Porch, Technical Sergeant Anthony Nelson, Staff Sergeant Mikaley Kline, Sergeant Ryan Jenkins, Sergeant Sarah Sangster, Petty Officer First Class Gilbert Bolibol and Lieutenant Darin Russell.

P-51D Mustang.

Watch how the vintage aircraft found their way to Hawaii, by boat. 

B-25 ‘Old Glory’ is a true combat vet, video interview by Specialist Carlie Lopez:

Twin engined B-25 Mitchell and single engine Avenger.

Video from T-6 Texan owner Jason Karlin showing Avenger and another T-6/SNJ:

B-25 and Catalina Flying Boat.

What it is like to fly in a PBY, video via U.S. Indo-Pacific Command:

A young PBY owner tells war stories, video by Specialist Carlie Lopez:

SNJ/T-6 Texan trainer taxis on Wheeler Army Airfield, 27AUG2020.

U.S. Army video interview (by Specialist Carlie Lopez) of T-6 Texan owner:

View of USS Missouri, the battleship where Japanese officials signed the documents of surrender.

Video by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command concerning Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz’s thoughts about the 02SEP1945 surrender ceremony aboard USS Missouri (BB 63):

F4F/FM-2 Wildcat.

Stearman-Kaydet.

Kaydet owner explains what his plane did during WW2.  Video by Ryan Jenkins:

Developed during WW2, but not used in the war, an F8F Bearcat taxis on Wheeler Army Airfield, 27AUG2020.

Proud F8F owner explains how German engineering helped make the Bearcat the best interceptor, and the first Blue Angel, only jet powered aircraft could beat it.  Video by Ryan Jenkins:

The 75th WW2 Commemoration has been ongoing since May (the end of the war in Europe, aka V-E Day) and will conclude in September (the end of the war in Pacific, aka V-J Day). 

Technology

After 75 years the War is still over!

Video

U.S. Navy photos by Petty Officer Second Class Jessica Blackwell, Petty Officer Second Class Kenneth Rodriguez, Petty Officer Third Class Christina Ross, Petty Officer Third Class Wesley Richardson, and Seaman Jaimar Carson Bondurant.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, in the Pacific, the United States military is assembling surviving WW2 aircraft at Pearl Harbor (aka Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickham), Hawaii.

Most of the airplanes were sailed-in aboard the USS Essex-LHD 2.  Video by Petty Officer Second Class Kenneth Rodriguez:

Some of you might say that the low-wing twin-engined aircraft, parked next to the PBY Catalina,  is not from World War Two, and you’re correct.  The USS Essex was also delivering a C-12U Huron to the Hawaiian Air National Guard.  Hawaii Air National Guard photo by Technical Sergeant Andrew Jackson.

An old pre-war Boeing Stearman–Kaydet, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.

Kaydet load-up, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.  Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

The workhorse U.S. training aircraft of WW2 is the T-6 Texan, known as SNJ in the U.S. Navy/Marines.  The aircraft was so successful it was used decades after the war ended, by various countries around the world.

T-6/SNJ load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 25JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

This Texan is in U.S. Air Force markings, which is post-WW2 as the USAF was created in September 1947, two years after WW2 ended.

Video, T-6/SNJ off-loaded in Hawaii, 10AUG2020:

More T-6/SNJ off-load videos, 10AUG2020:

Commemorative Air Force (originally known as Confederate Air Force) FM-2 (General Motors version of F4F) Wildcat.

Video, Wildcat upload, load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 27JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

P-51D Mustang.

Video, P-51D upload, load-up aboard USS Essex at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 27JUL2020. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Video, P-51D off-load in Hawaii, 11AUG2020:

B-25 Mitchell.  

U.S. Navy photo by Shannon Haney, 10AUG2020.

U.S. Air Force photo by Technical Sergeant. Anthony Nelson Junior, 10AUG2020.

The U.S. Army Air Force’s B-25 was the first U.S. aircraft to bomb Japan, flown off the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet-CV 8 (The Doolittle Raid).   B-25 off-load video by Petty Officer Second Class Jessica Blackwell:

U.S. Army photo by Sergeant Ryan Jenkins, 25AUG2020.

Less than one month later, ‘Old Glory’ crashed in California.

The F8F Bearcat was developed during the war, but the war ended before it could be used in battle.

Bearcat load-up, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 26JUL2020.  Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Video, F8F off-load in Hawaii, 11AUG2020:

TBM Avenger.

Video, Avenger off-load:

At the end of July a PBY Catalina arrived at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego.  Video by Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael Jones:

Loading a Catalina onboard USS Essex, Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego. Video by Chief Petty Officer Ace Rheaume:

Another PBY arrives at Naval Air Station North Island-San Diego, 29JUL2020, gets hoisted aboard USS Essex.

PBY Catalina in Hawaii, 12AUG2020. Video by Petty Officer Second Class Lexie Perez:

The 75th WW2 Commemoration has been ongoing since May (the end of the war in Europe) and will conclude in September (the end of the war in Pacific). 

Here’s a music video explainer edited by Kevin Dawson:

B-25 ¡PANCHITO!

T-6 Texans; the first Airborne Hurricane Hunters

SALVAGING F4U CORSAIRS

HOW TO PAINT YOUR 1:1 SCALE B-17 MEMPHIS BELLE WITH ‘PERIOD CORRECT’ PAINT

U.S.

Last ride for 1st, 2nd & 4th Tank

Video

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Andrew Cortez, Camp Pendleton, California, 18JUL2020.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Justin Evans, 28JUL2020.

USMC photo by Lance Corporal Justin Evans, 28JUL2020.

In July 2020, the United States Marines Corps (USMC) began retiring its M1A1 Abrams tanks and M88A2 Hercules recovery tanks, as part of a so called modernization plan called Force Design 2030.

The last M1 Abrams assigned to 1st Tank Battalion depart Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California, 06JUL2020. Photo via USMC.

The units affected are California based 1st Tank Battalion (1st Tanks) of the 1st Marine Division (my grandfather’s Alma Matter) and 4th Tank Battalion (4th Tanks) 4th Marine Division, as well as North Carolina based 2nd Tank Battalion (Iron Horse) of the 2nd Marine Division.

2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Marine Division M1 Abrams are pushed out the gate from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 27JUL2020. USMC photo by Lance Corporal Patrick King.

Last ride into retirement. USMC photo by Lance Corporal Patrick King, 27JUL2020.

The 2nd Tank Battalion was an armor unit for almost 80 years, but apparently that ends under Force Design 2030.

1st Tank Battalion was created in 1941, originally in North Carolina but quickly made a new home in Twentynine Palms, California.  After 79 years the 1st Tanks is no more:

From my grandfather’s files, 1st Marine Division unit citations for actions in World War Two and Korea (click on each to make bigger):

Alpha Company, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, Camp Pendleton, California, said good bye to its armored vehicles on 18JUL2020.  Alpha Company is the first of the six companies of 4th Tanks to deactivate.  4th Tanks was created in 1943, during World War Two:

A Caterpillar 988 tractor moves a ‘divested’ M1A1 Abrams Tank into position for loading and shipping via rail to Anniston Army Depot. USMC photo by Laurie Pearson.

In August 2020, tracked armored vehicles located on the Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow (after being a TC on Sherman tanks during the war in the Pacific my grandfather worked at the Yermo Annex), California, were loaded on rail cars and shipped-off to the U.S. Army.

01OCT2020, these tanks are being used for rail operations training, on the Yermo Annex, Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California. USMC photo by Laurie Pearson.

All the Marine Corps’ tank units are expected to be deactivated by the end of 2021.  The vehicles could be ‘sold’ to the U.S. Army, or to foreign militaries.

Don’t blame Trump, Force Design 2030 is part of the Obama era plan referred to as Pivot to Asia:  2013, New York Times reports that U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was pursuing a “pivot” against China.

According to U.S. Naval War College “Starting in 2010, the U.S. and Vietnam accelerated this process effectively forming a partnership on several fronts. The Obama administration identified Vietnam as one of the new partners to cultivate as part of its ‘rebalancing’ of U.S. priorities toward the Asia-Pacific region, a move commonly referred to as the U.S.’s ‘pivot’ to the Pacific.” 

Vehicle I-D: U.S. MARINES USE ‘FAKE NEWS’ MIG-23

WHAT DO THE MARINES DO WITH ALL THAT AMMO THEY CAN’T USE?

M1A1 ‘DAY AT THE RANGE’ WITH THE USMC, 2016

Dorian: HOW TO EVACUATE THOUSANDS OF U.S. MARINES

Harvey: MARINES USE AMPHIBIOUS COMBAT TANKS TO SAVE LIVES!

Technology

21st Century Alpha-Jet

Video

On 19APR2022, it was reported that yet another Nigerian Alpha Jet crashed, killing the crew.

A contracted Canadian Alpha Jet, on 5 Wing Goose Bay, Newfoundland, 14JUN2021.
Canadian Forces photo by Master Corporal Krista Blizzard.

Alpha Jet on display at the Paris Air Show on Le Bourget Airfield, June 1989. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sergeant Dave Casey.

Qatari Alpha Jet, April 1992, USAF photo by Staff Sergeant Lee Corkran.

NATO’s Cold War era Alpha-Jet was a joint production between Germany’s Dornier and France’s Dassault.  The first prototype flew in October 1973.  The Alpha-Jet is still in use today.

French Alpha Jet at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, 13NOV2019. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman First Class Mikayla Whiteley.

USAF photo by Airman First Class Mikayla Whiteley, 13NOV2019.

French Air Force Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet from Tours – Saint-Symphorien Air Base arrives at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, 29AUG2018. USAF photo by Airman First Class John A. Crawford.

USAF photo by Airman First Class John A. Crawford, 29AUG2018.

In January 2018, Portugal’s last Alpha-Jet took off on its final flight.

Air Affairs Australia and Discovery Air Defence Services, contracted Alpha-Jets, March 2017.

Canada’s TopAces offers contracted military training Alpha-Jets.

Top Aces’ Alpha Jet, Cold Lake, Alberta, 14JUN2018. Canadian Forces photo by Corporal Bryan Carter.

A Top Aces’ Alpha Jet, Cold Lake, Alberta,18JUN2018. Canadian Forces photo by Ordinary Seaman Erica Seymour.

A Top Aces Dornier Alpha Jet over Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, 07FEB2018. Canadian Forces photo by Corporal Manuela Berger.

A Top Aces Alpha Jet on Holloman AFB, New Mexico, 09FEB2018. Canadian Forces photo by Corporal Manuela Berger.

Royal Thai Alpha Jet, Korat Air Base, March 2016. USAF photo by Technical Sergeant Aaron Oelrich.

Royal Thai Alpha Jet, U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Mandaline Hatch, 16FEB2015.

Edited video, from videos by Airman Greg Cerny and Staff Sergeant Laura Beckley, Royal Canadian/TopAces Alpha Jets at Happy Valley-Goose Bay, October 2015:

A contracted Canadian Forces Alpha Jet flies over the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, in Michigan, 11AUG2014. Michigan Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant David Kujawa.

A Michigan C-130 Hercules escorted by Royal Canadian/TopAces Alpha Jets over Rogers City, Michigan, August 2014. Michigan Air National Guard photo by Master Sergeant Scott Thompson.

Belgian Alpha Jet refuels in Germany, 11FEB2014. NATO photo by Andre Joosten.

Nigerian Alpha-Jet.

Niger has a problem with its refurbished Alpha Jets; “Troops of Operation Desert Sanity on clearance patrol in Sambisa Forest, Borno State, have uncovered the wreckage of crashed Alpha Jet aircraft (NAF475) that went off the radar with two crew members on 31 March 2021.”–Nigerian Army statement

2016 Nigerian news report about upgraded Alpha-Jet delivery:

Nigerian Air Force refurbishes another Alpha Jet

Egypt operated (operates?) Alpha-Jets known as versions MS1 and MS2.

Some of Morocco’s Alpha-Jets have been upgraded for atmospheric/cloud seeding work.

In 2007, a single privately owned (H211) Alpha-Jet began atmospheric testing operations under the code name AJAX.  It’s based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, and was recently featured on the Discovery Channel:

AJAX stands for Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment.

Video of The Flying Bulls’ Red Bull Alpha-Jets:

The Flying Bulls; Alpha-Jet

Mustang High Flight Alpha-Jet

Video, Mustang High Flight Alpha-Jet:

Mustang High Flight Aerobatics

2017: FRENCH ALPHA-JETS INVADE UNITED STATES!

Afghanistan 2011: MIRAGE 2000D CRASH RECOVERY/DEMOLITION

Influenza

CHIKrisk 2021: U.S. Army continues to warn of new pandemic

Video

29 July 2020 / 02:08 (UTC-07 Tango 06) 08 Mordad 1399/08 Dhu l-Hijja 1441/09 Gui-Wei 4718

“A person who has acquired the chikungunya virus is infectious in the first week of illness, which means that the infected person can transmit the virus to another person through a mosquito bite…”-DTRA warning from 27APR2020

Since the end of April 2020, the U.S. Army’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has been warning of a new pandemic for 2021, based on a new computer program that analyzes historical data of past pandemics, as well as using ‘real time’ data like climate anomalies and mosquito activity.  The real time data is coming from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases, Pan American Health Organization, Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the U.S. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch.

In May I wrote how Thailand reported more than 10-thousand  Chikungunya infections, over a four months period.  It was in May that DTRA began warning military units of an expected Chikungunya outbreak in 2021.  Just like Coronavirus, there is no vaccine and no specific treatment.

On July 15, DTRA issued the following video warning:

According to DTRA, Netflix made a documentary about the coming CHIKrisk pandemic, as part of Netflix’s Connected series, to be aired sometime in Autumn 2020.

U.S. Navy warns the people of Dominican Republic of CHIKrisk threat, October 2019.

While the U.S. Army has been warning of a chikungunya pandemic since May of this year, the U.S. Navy has been making warnings since 2014.  Here’s a much more detailed U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery explainer and warning video from September 2014:

U.S. Navy mosquito trap in use in Honduras in March 2018.

SOUTHEAST IDAHO PANDEMIC ROAD-TRIP

“INSIDIOUS” INFECTION ONBOARD USS KIDD, CREW REPLACED?

Going Viral: NEGATIVE PRESSURE FLYING HOSPITALS?

Going Viral: “A STRANGE, ABSURD SITUATION.”

OPERATION JUPITER: MILITARY’S SECRET FLU IMITATING VIRUS EXPOSED, VACCINATIONS FOR MILITARY ONLY!

From 2016: NOW DEADLIER THAN ZIKA, CHIKV (chikungunya) KILLS 15 PEOPLE IN 5 DAYS! CHIKV infections were first noticed in 1955.  It was not considered dangerous as it was rare if an infected person died.  In 2005 CHIKV had mutated and began rapidly spreading around the world, and it became stronger.

Technology, U.S.

USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6: Into the Steel Inferno!

Video

This is just a fraction of the intense photos and videos captured by U.S. Navy personnel, 12-17 July 2020.

INFERNO

U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer Second Class Austin Haist, 12JUL2020.

On the morning of 12JUL2020, and after two years of extensive retrofitting, USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) became a steel inferno while moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego, California.

Into the steel inferno. USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Jason Waite, 14JUL2020.

Video by Petty Officer Third Class Christina Ross, 1st day of fire.  At the end of the video, night time, it’s clear that flames are leaping from inside the island superstructure:

USN photo by Lieutenant John J. Mike, 12JUL2020.

RESPONSE

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 12JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 12JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Nall Morgan, 13JUL2020.

Video via Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, 2nd day of fire:

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Nall Morgan, 13JUL2020.

AIR TANKS & MASKS, etc

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Julio Rivera, 16JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Natalie Byers, 15JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Natalie Byers, 15JUL2020.

Barrels of firefighting foam. USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Austin Haist, 12JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Jessica Paulauskas, 14JUL2020.

BOATS & HELICOPTERS

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 13JUL2020.

Video from day 2, boats and helicopters focus on the superstructure:

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Austin Haist, 12JUL2020.

In this photo, notice that the forward mast is still standing.

Video, 3rd day, fire and smoke are no longer visible on the outside, but the external damage is obvious:

On 14JUL2020, with the fire(s) contained the boats, and MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters, continued applying water to cool down the exterior of the amphibious assault ship.

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Patrick W. Menah Junior, 13JUL2020.

In these photos you can see the forward mast has collapsed.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Mar’Queon A. D. Tramble, 13JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Benjamin K. Kittleson, 14JUL2020.

For more helicopter action: KNIGHTHAWKS FIGHT TO SAVE LHD 6!

EXHAUSTION

On 16JUL2020, the fires were considered extinguished.  The U.S. Navy press release was careful to state “all known fires.”

USN photo by Seaman Lily Gebauer, 15JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 14JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Christina Ross, 14JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Hector Carrera, 14JUL2020.

USN photo by Seaman Apprentice Jeffrey Yale, 16JUL2020.

BATTLE DAMAGE

On 16JUL2020, a U.S. Navy press release stated “We did not know the origin of the fire. We do not know the extent of the damage. It is too early to make any predictions or promises of what the future of the ship will be.”

Burned-out hanger bay. USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 14JUL2020.

Yes, metal can burn. USN photo by Petty Officer First Class Jason Kofonow, 27JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Brandie Nuzzi, 16JUL202.

Listing due to all the water pumped in.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Natalie Byers, 15JUL2020.

The ship’s motto would become ‘famous last words’.

Technology

Knighthawks fight to save LHD 6!

Video

News reports said the fire was inside the ship, for an indication of how big the fire was this pic (by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Austin Haist) clearly shows flames jetting from the island superstructure.

On the morning of 12JUL2020 a fire broke out inside amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) while it was moored pier side at Naval Base San Diego.  LHD 6 had been in San Diego, California, since 2018 for a major refit.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Kory Alsberry, 14JUL2020.

Flight crews with Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 3 used their MH-60S Knighthawks to work around the clock as an airborne bucket brigade, trying to contain the fire.

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Christina Ross, 13JUL2020.

USN photo by Lieutenant Joseph Kendrick, 13JUL2020.

USN photo by Lieutenant Joseph Kendrick, 13JUL2020.

Video by Petty Officer 1st Class Benjamin Kittleson, 13JUL2020:

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Patrick W. Menah Junior, 13JUL2020.

Video by Lieutenant Joseph Pfaff, 13JUL2020:

Video by Petty Officer 3rd Class Kevin Leitner, 13JUL2020:

While boats and groundcrews focused on shooting water to the inside of the ship, the Knighthawks focused most of their drops on the burning island superstructure.  Video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Jasen MorenoGarcia:

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Patrick W. Menah Junior, 14JUL2020.

USN photo by Petty Officer Second Class Patrick W. Menah Junior, 14JUL2020.

Night video, by Seaman Zachary Pearson, of Knighthawk water drop on deck surrounding the island superstructure, 15 July:

USN photo by Petty Officer Third Class Garrett LaBarge, 14JUL2020.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Julio Rivera, 15JUL2020.

USN photo by Mass Communication Specialist First Class Julio Rivera, 15JUL2020.

On 16 July, firecrews were evacuated from LHD 6 due the ship listing.  The list is blamed on all the water pumped into the ship.

 

Vehicle I-D: WASH YOUR HAWK!

Idaho, Influenza

Southeast Idaho Pandemic Road-Trip

Video

Washed and waxed and ready to go!

On 23 June 2020, perhaps too much self-restricting pandemic lockdown (I say “self-restricting” as most of us in Eastern Idaho are not adhering to CoViD-19 lockdown, and even the local Sheriff departments refuse to enforce such things) forced me to hit the road for a scenic road-trip from Chubbuck to Bear Lake, Idaho, in my 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT-8.  I was accompanied by one of my daughters, Aryssa May Hutchins (who took 90% of the photos), and Andrew ‘Bulletproof Family Photos’ Erickson.

Aryssa says there’s plenty of room in the backseat.

No Crouching Tiger here.

Heading south.

Immediately I noticed how green everything is, especially since it’s the end of June.   Between 2011 and 2013 I drove courier routes all across Eastern Idaho, including to Montpelier near Bear Lake, and by June everything was bone dry and brown.  2012 was the year the south end of the city of Pocatello burned (June 2012: POCATELLO BURNING! EVACUATIONS! SOUTHEAST IDAHO BURNING! BANNOCK COUNTY BANS FIREWORKS, DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY!), it was a busy fire year.

A lot has changed since then; my children all became adults and moved away to the evil metro-ville called Boise, my house was paid-off the same year I lost my Mail Handler job at the U.S. Postal Service’s Gateway Station (I tried reapplying online as a Clerk but got an instant message saying I wasn’t ‘qualified’ to apply for that position) and apparently my age is keeping me from getting hired by any of the local employers I’ve applied at thus forcing me to live off my children’s ‘inheritance’ (ha, fortunately they’re all financially better-off than I was at their ages), my parents died which in turn forced me to realize I wasn’t getting any younger and I had not fulfilled one of my personal promises to acquire a muscle car (having sold-off my muscle car projects in the early 1980s due to the skyrocketing costs of becoming a spouse and parent) thus providence led me to a one-of-a kind (for Eastern Idaho) second-hand Dodge Challenger SRT-8 with 6-speed manual transmission and low mileage.  The original owner was forced to sell due to a back surgery that left her unable to engage the clutch pedal without pain.  Ironically she bought the Challenger brand new from the Dodge dealer in Pocatello for the same reasons I wanted to buy it; loss of relatives reminding her that she was not getting any younger, and reminiscing about her young adult days driving muscle cars in the 1970s (yes, many women owned and drove their own muscle cars back in the days when feminists were burning their bras for ‘equality’).

Cache National Forest

Face masks are mandatory!

U.S. National Forest Service’s Minnetonka Cave (aka Caverns), be careful, the steps and handrails in the cavern are wet and slick as ice.  Also, you better be in shape, there’s a lot of steep climbing and wearing the face-masks makes you feel like you’re going to suffocate.

Minnetonka supposedly means Falling Water, or Great Water.  There is a lot of water coming down inside the cave, through earthquake fault lines that run through the cave ceiling.

The tour guide tried to convince me that I was looking at Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Statue of Liberty?

Bring your neon-black light flash light, these rock are radioactive (high phosphorus content)!

They call it Stairway to Heaven, I calls it Stairway OF Hell!

Can you see the petrified Hypno-Toad?

Some bats were fluttering around, the tour guide seemed concerned.

I survived, but wait, this isn’t where I parked the car!

I always regret bringing a jacket, I end up soaked with sweat.  The cave is a constant 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 Celsius), but you wouldn’t know it because you overheat climbing up and down the very steep stairs.

There appears to be some faces in the rock-face of this outcrop above us.

Rock spirits of Minnetonka!

We hadn’t planned on going to Bear Lake but its bright blue water beckoned us as we came down off the mountain. We’re now suffering with solar induced radiation poisoning (sunburn), in other words we got fried.

“I gotta rock!”

Arriving at the North Beach of Bear Lake we discovered it was packed.  After paying the Idaho State Parks $5 parking fee at the gate on the west entrance, I drove all the way to the east end to find a parking spot.  Being Idahoans we counted license plates, one or two vehicles with Idaho plates, at least three with Oregon plates, at least 90% of the vehicles had Utah plates, I facetiously hope we don’t get sick with all those domestic foreigners around.   Most of the beach area was wall-to-wall people and despite ‘the age of CoViD-19’ nobody was wearing masks or ‘social distancing’, but what we should have done was protect ourselves from the Sun.

Gulliver goes renegade on the tiny Lilliputians!

Bear Lake’s North Beach is shallow, you can walk out for a while with the water getting no higher than your mid-thigh.  Some spots are soft sand while other areas are rocky.

Speaking of getting fried, we got hungry and headed back to a row of locally run tourist shops in the tiny town of Saint Charles, including North Beach Burgers that sells ‘gourmet’ burgers and shakes. I got the elk meat burger, Andrew got the bacon-black & blue-burger, Aryssa got the standard bacon cheeseburger, and we split a huckleberry shake.

Goes off every hour.

On the way back to Chubbuck we stopped in Soda Springs to refuel the car (it had just a little more than half a tank when we started the road-trip), and with The Fates on our side, hit the ‘captive’ (human-made) Geyser as it went off.

In the past I’ve seen people collecting this sulfur rich water for drinking purposes!

East Side

West Side

Close-up of wooden railing on the West Side of the geyser. Decades of mineralized overspray is petrifying the fence.

Soda Springs also claims to have Idaho’s oldest pharmacy, Eastman Drug, where we found this old 1950s era Mack firetruck.

Interstate-15 has a maximum passenger vehicle speed of 80 miles per hour (128 kilometers per hour) within Idaho, but once you take the Soda Springs turnoff the state highway speed is maxed at 65 mph (104 kph) with lots of drops to 35 and even 25 mph (56-40 kph) going through the many small towns along the way.  My 425 horsepower 6.1 Liter (372 cubic inches) hemi V8 managed to average 23 miles per gallon, something my early 1970s muscle car projects (with larger 6.2 L/383 ci and 7.2 L/440 ci motors pumping out less stock-factory horsepower) would be hard pressed to achieve even with the then 55 mph (88 kph) max speed limit on interstates, back then.

Photo of my dad with my Canadian built 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring Plus, 383 ci V8 with 3-speed automatic transmission, circa 1983-84.

Don’t let CoViD-19 get you down, get out and drive!

August 2017: POCATELLO AIRPORT FIRE BOMBERS ARE BACK!

More Economic Decline: COVID-19 SHUTDOWN 24HRS WINCO?

Bannock County’s ROAD TO NOWHERE

Bannock County’s WHITE ELEPHANT

A History Lesson in Economic Decline: POCATELLO’S OLD FRED MEYER & ALBERTSONS ON YELLOWSTONE AVE, DID NOT CLOSE DOWN IN THE 1990S

Road Trip 2011: ANCIENT NUCLEAR POWERED JET ENGINE FOUND IN IDAHO DESERT, PROOF OF ANCIENT ALIEN VISITORS?