Rongnongno Loc: FL

PM should remain how they are perceived.

PM are garbage most of the time and so is the two I received. Demands should be aired in public unless one tries to hide or tries to get an answers.

As to privacy: I did not give the UHH name. I did not let the e-mail published and I did not let the phone number be also published. THAT is respecting privacy. The rest is pure BS.

Well, I do not hide and I answer in public.

So, your intervention is once again off the mark.

Bill_de Loc: US

It is right on the mark. That is what "Private means! That is why the administrators provide it. If you used it more you wouldn't be such a detriment to all the sections you work so hard to promote.

--

al13

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

I do not agree with that if the PM contains insults and/or threats that wouldn't be made openly in public. I'm not commenting on the PM's in this thread, but sometimes people resort to PM's to intimidate others in ways that they would not do in a public forum. This is like a #MeToo kind of situation.

I have once (once only) posted a PM publicly since the poster attacked me and immediately blocked me, so I thought I would let him know by turning the spotlight on him in public, where he could not hide, and I could have a right of response and expose his behavior. The PM's in this thread are not like that.

PM's should remain civil at least, but not be a mechanism to throw a rock and run away and block a response. The ignore function has many flaws.

The guy in question simply did not like a politely worded dissenting opinion in a thread in which he was participating. He resorted to mild insults in public and took a more aggressive approach in private which I found unacceptable. I did not block him, but I don't think that he will pull a stunt like that again.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

For whatever it is worth, I tend to agree with you. If you had identified the writer, I would have felt differently. Your original comment was well taken, as well.

bfstuff

And yet they still have bands!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I think the current emphasis is on guns, rather than cameras.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Actually the current emphasis is on $$$ for contractors. The DOD is a huge cash cow being milked by parasites. We were warned against this after WWII. D. D. Eisenhower (Ike), I think.

Now THAT is a political comment. I will not apologize for it either.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

I think the post earlier that there are reporters and camera crews embedded with troops now makes the difference. The military does not need to employ its own, when the public sector does it for them, with the most technically advanced equipment around and performing real-time transmissions. That probably started being a real consideration when CNN's people were in Baghdad during the first Persian Gulf War, when the military was watching the live TV transmissions to understand where to better direct their bombing runs. The only problem is that the military has less control of what goes out, which is why Geraldo Rivera was so heavily criticized in putting out reports that seemed to provide locations of US troops. Now, if we could just get NBC or ABC to embed Kanye West, we could solve that band issue!

al13

I totally agree with your statement. $500 for a non specialized hammer?

jwn Loc: SOUTHEAST GEORGIA USA

most have body cameras, dash cameras, drone footage, no need for specific personnel. question is, does the military archive the footage ?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Yes. A classified treasure trove.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

There is no such thing as a “nonspecialized hammer” in the military. The reason you get $500 versions is that each seemingly common item has highly technical demands applied to them by the government. Each and every hammer is probably required to be metallurgically analyzed for specific composition, which is incredibly expensive when you do it on a hammer-by-hammer basis. I saw government RFP (Request for Proposal) some years back, and the RFP description for a single length, aluminum leaning ladder was some 400 pages in length. In the 1970s, I was doing advertising and we looked at the RFP for the Navy recruitment program. It was over 1300 pages in length and required such documentation and sampling that it would cost each bidder to spend well over $100,000, it just to make a bid that obviously may or may not go anywhere. That was a lot of money, in the 1970s! It virtually guaranteed that the current contractor was the only one that had a rational shot at landing the contract, so no one else even put in a bid. This is where your costs are driven up, because without competition, that bidder could charge whatever it wanted. Service companies like Dick Cheney’s Halliburton Company are the ones that are making money hand over fist, probably in similar ways as that. I think where product–oriented companies make up bundle is not on the original item being ordered. The Government has a habit of posting an RFP, then well after the award is made and production is wll under way, they change the specifications. These product manufacturers understand this, and they put in a rational bid to begin with. But when the changes are submitted, they can charge whatever outrageous price they want because the Government now has no alternative vendor, and are stuck with whatever the manufacturer demands.

promfh Loc: Redwood City, CA, USA

I was one of those REMF's and I have to admit, "Guilty as Charged". Like many of the guys there I was young, dumb, and underfoot. But, I made you guys famous with all the BS I made up about your stopping an NVA suicide charge armed only with a slingshot and your combat knife. =;)

Now that we're older and less dumb we can all tell stories with the best of them. Remember, the difference between a fairy tale and a war story is: one starts with "Once upon a time ..." while the other begins, "This is no BS ...".

We each did our part and have the memories to savor or live with.

I was in country about a month (first tour) when this was shot.

Pete Romfh, 45th Engineers & 5th SFG, '66 - '69

Rongnongno Loc: FL

And that is a justification for out of control expenses???

How about costal ships that can 'only' be manned by NCO and officers? What kind of crap is that?

A hammer is a hammer. It is different from a toilet seat used in high altitude but then again, commercial aircraft have those for a fraction of the price. Higher up? Nappies. I seem to recall a female O6 using them to drive long distance in order to kill her rival... Cost of the nappies? I have no idea but seeing how everything else is inflated I would not be surprised if a single one cost over $100.00.

The DOD writes its own ticket w/o supervision. Remember the Bradley vehicle?

Procuration should be out of the DOD / politician hands.

THAT is still a political comment I will not apologize for.