The Osprey That Would Not Die

While watching the birds at the feeder this morning, I heard what I thought was a jet flying over.  That is not unusual in itself as I live just north of the glide path to Midland International Airport.  What was unusual was that it was taking far too long for the “jet” to fly beyond my hearing range.  I began searching the sky for the jet.  Instead, I spotted a rather strange looking propeller-driven aircraft.  Deciding that could not be the source of the jet engine noise I clearly heard, I continued looking for a passing jet plane.  There just were not any jets in sight.  That’s when I took a much closer look at the strangely shaped aircraft.  Was that a…could it be…yes, it was an Osprey! I had never seen one in flight except once on television.  Honestly, I thought the Osprey aircraft development program had been canned by the Government back in the early nineties. Obviously I was wrong, for there she flew.

As I watched this strange yet mighty aircraft fade from view, I thought back to all the news I remembered about the Osprey Program.  From what I could recall off the cuff, the development of the Osprey had been marred with much cost overrun, and more importantly, great loss of human life.  Several test pilots had been killed in flight accidents, with many of the accidents occurring in flights that barely left the runway.  One accident, in the later stages of Osprey program claimed nineteen lives.  Brave men lost to an aircraft that many believed would never be practical.

I also recalled that many senators and congressmen had called for the Osprey program to be dismantled so that losses in men and material could be cut.  Unfortunately, as with many such programs, the corporations developing the aircraft or other weapon and the military officials or politicians pushing these programs manage to keep the programs running, even when lives are at stake and costs are far beyond those originally budgeted.  Sometimes the military command itself does not want such a program continued, but these programs just seem to hang on.

In the nineties, possibly even in the eighties, many people close to the Osprey Program had declared the vehicle too unsafe to fly. By 2013, however, a group of Marines known as Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadrons had been equipped with the latest version of the Osprey.  Some of the pilots report that the Osprey is no more dangerous than are conventional helicopters. Now active fighting Tiltrotor Squadrons are stationed in the US and in war theaters around the world, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, a total of twelve squadrons are equipped with Ospreys, as are a transport squadron and training squadron.  And the Marines are currently engaged in replacing their Sea Knight helicopter fleet with Ospreys.

In what appears to be a complete turnaround in Osprey safety and capability, these aircraft are capable of carrying twice as many soldiers and equipment as the helicopters they have replaced, with a similar flight safety record.  Additionally, they can fly three times as fast and nearly twice as high as conventional helicopters.  Currently, the cost of one Osprey is just over $122 million dollars.  Some say this cost is too high, considering that the aircraft is vulnerable to the harsh desert climate as well as to missile attack.  Supporters point out that the Osprey can do more than the vehicles it is replacing, thus is worth the extra cost.  Marines who operate or fly in these aircraft have come to believe that the Osprey is not only safe, but has proven itself a valuable asset in the ongoing desert wars overseas.

I am glad that our service men and women are safer now in the Osprey.  I have to wonder about our military/industrial complex, though.  I wonder at what cost in dollars of budgetary overrun will a weapons development program be cancelled.  Even more, I have to wonder how many of our soldiers the Government will allow to perish until such a program is finally deemed unsafe. Apparently the Osprey Program, with its huge cost overruns and loss of human life, never reached that point. 

Just This Blogger's Reflections

Up to this point 2013 has been an interesting year; not always in the positive sense, either.  I say this because of the events and experiences that my spouse and I have lived through for the past several months, for the days of change, of soul-searching. And because of certain changes in my “belief system,” as the psychology majors would say.  These events, circumstances, life-changing situations, and the emotional roller coaster involved, all combined to pummel my writing – both as to desire and as to creativity.  I have neglected writing for several weeks now simply because my mind has been too muddled to really dash off anything very coherent.  So I solved that problem by dashing off hardly anything at all.

But something occurred to me just in the past few days, that is that most of the problems have long gone, most of the consequences of those problems, of bad choices and unwise decisions, have already been made manifest, and the world has gone on.  My marriage has survived.  Now it is time to write again.  In fact, even if the marriage had not survived, the need to write would have asserted itself at some point, although I am sure the output would have been much different than what it is today.

After all that has happened, too, I have called into question my belief and understanding of my spirituality, the foundations of my faith.  And not only because of the past two years’ events, but also due to information I have come across in my on-going research, and to questions I have begun to ponder concerning God, the universe, and our own souls, whatever souls really are.

I am a very much humbled man at this point in the game, a much less judgmental person, a more mellowed, understanding, and flexible person (in the metaphorical sense, not the physical!).  There were so many times that I made poor decisions or acted in my interest instead of doing what best served my actual needs and the needs of others.   I know, for instance, that I have hurt several people along the way, and for that (and to them) I am deeply sorry.  For the somewhat selfish life I have led, I am sorry as well. (By the way, I still have a long way to go to becoming the person I should have been all along, but I am getting there…and the point is the journey, I realize, not the destination.)

There are so many things I wish I could undo, and other things I wish I could go back and do.  Just as the world revolves one way, however, there is no way for any of us to go backwards in time to right some wrong or do some right we failed to do.  But there is tomorrow, a new opportunity that arises with each morning’s sun, to do for once the right thing at the right time for the right reason.  There is still time to show love to those I have neglected over the years.  There is time…but just enough, and none to waste.  There is only today, yet each today the Lord sees fit to give each one of us will surely be enough for each day’s work, each day’s creativity, and finally each day’s rest.

Just this morning I received an unexpected message from a school mate that I have not spoken to now for several years.  He had kind words to say about me, words that were said at just the right moment.  I have not been the person I could have or should have been, but I can still become the person I should be.  With the encouragement such as I received this morning, the journey will be a joyous one in spite of the setbacks that may pop up from time to time.  And I hope I have encouraged him, and others as well, in my time on this earth.  Life is truly at its best when we have our friends and loved ones to share it with.

 

Fallen Texas Peace Officers

IN what had appeared at first to be a banner year for Texas Law Enforcement, we went through the first quarter of 2013 with no peace officer line-of-duty deaths to report.  Unfortunately, in April Deputy Chad Key of the Grayson County Sheriff's Office was struck and killed by a drunk driver while the officer directed traffic at an accident scene.  Just a week later, on April 26, Officer Candelari of Pasadena was killed while he and another off-duty officer stopped to assist with a major traffic accident on Interstate 10 in the Hill Country.  Then, in mid-June, Officer Jason Sprague of the Texarkana Police Department, was deliberately run over by the driver of a vehicle the officer was approaching to question about a relatively minor incident in the city park.  So, in less than sixty days during the spring, the number of Texas Peace Officers killed on duty reached its yearly average.

On June 29, Deputy Lance McLean of the Hood County Sheriff's Office lost his life when he was shot by a rape suspect who was trespassing on his victim's property.  The suspect then fled to the Granbury City Hall where he confronted other officers.  The suspect shot one more officer before himself being shot down by police.  I am proud to honor Deputy McLean here, though his sacrifice was a tragedy that should not have happened.

On July 14, Officer Robert Hornsby of Killeen was shot and killed by a barricaded suspect who had "surrendered" to officers.  When Officer Hornsby and other officers approached the suspect, he suddenly ran to another room then opened fired with a high-powered rifle.  Other officers shot the suspect dead.  Officer Hornsby left behind his beautiful wife and children.  No peace officer had been killed in Killeen since the wild days right after World War I, so understandably the entire city was in shock after the officer's death.  I am proud to honor Officer Hornsby on these pages, and I offer a heartfelt prayer of comfort and sympathy for his family, his fellow officers, and for all those who lost husbands, sons, and fellow police officers in the line of duty.  I pray for the safety of officers across the state and across this nation.

End Of Watch: Officer William J. Sprague, Texarkana Police Department, June 15, 2013

I am proud to honor fallen officer William Sprague in my Blog.  Officer Sprague lost his life in the line of duty while responding to a large disturbance in a Texarkana park.  There were believed to be at least one hundred people at the location.  When Officer Sprague arrived, he learned that the person in an SUV parked nearby was possibly involved in, or had caused, the disturbance.  As the officer approached the vehicle, the driver suddenly accelerated away, striking and mortally injuring the officer.

Officer William Sprague died the following day of the critical injuries he received when the suspect ran over him.  The same day, police arrested the suspect, charging him with Officer Sprague's murder.  Officer Sprague served two years with the Texarkana Police, but had been an officer in Arkansas for several years.  He was thirty years old, and is survived by his wife and his young son.

May God comfort this family.  Officer Sprague has joined the Thin Blue Line in heaven.  I am proud to honor him in this blog, and I pray for the safety of our officers as they work to protect us every day.

Just Another Saturday, or Fate Shifts On A Dime

I left work at 12:00 AM.  It was now Sunday morning.  I would go back to work at 4:00 PM.  At least that was my plan.  But plans change.  We make plans, then we change our minds, or we make plans…and God, Fate, Karma, whatever…changes our plans for us.  And those changes are really life-changing, and sometimes eternally permanent.

It was around 10:00 PM this past Saturday when a mature lady and a young girl of about ten or eleven years burst into the Emergency Room where I work.  Both of them were in tears and hysterical.  Fate or Karma, or God, had touched their lives in a tragic way.  The lady’s grandson, the girl’s uncle, had been killed in a traffic accident.  The poor lady knew no other information, and really was not sure that her grandson was indeed dead.  I left my station and walked into the waiting room.  I helped the lady and the young girl to some chairs.  I told the lady that maybe the news was not as bad as she had first been told, after all.  She calmed a little but told me she was nearly certain that her grandson must be dead.  But then she said that her great-grand children had survived the accident and she thought they were being brought to the Midland hospital.

Apparently no one had witnessed the wreck, but the occupants of a passing vehicle saw two small children walking around near the roadway, and no adult was in sight.  The children thought their father must be walking somewhere, as they told the strangers who had stopped to help them.  Unfortunately the father was not walking somewhere.  In fact, he was found several hundred feet from a wrecked vehicle that had obviously ran off the road and rolled over, throwing the driver out.  Somehow the children had been spared, almost unscathed.  I made a couple phone calls and found out that the man had been killed, but the children were in fact on an ambulance and en route to the hospital.  The lady was still shaken and of course grief-stricken, but seemed to be calmed immensely just knowing now for certain that her grandson was dead.

I stayed with this poor lady until the children arrived.  A minister went with her to check on the children, and I returned to my abandoned duty station.  It ran through my mind once again that life is so uncertain, and everything can change in a heartbeat.  We always say to ourselves, and to others as well, that we could die at any time.  But I, for myself anyway, have often thought “yes, I could die any time, but since it is already later on in the day, I will probably be spared at least until tomorrow.”  Once again, Fate changed on a dime, and a man who had spent most of the day with his two children did not live to see the stroke of midnight.

After I clocked out for the night, I had to walk back through the emergency waiting room to exit the hospital.  The lady who had just lost her grandson was again seated in the emergency room, talking with relatives who had by now started to gather at the hospital.  As I walked by, she gave me a hug and told me she was thankful for the kindness I had shown her, and that I had been a source of comfort even while she was facing such a tragic loss.  Though this was a tragedy, I was glad to have been a small part of this woman’s life, exactly when I was needed. 

As I drove away, it occurred to me that there was a chance I might not finish the short drive to my residence.  After all, anything could happen at any time.  Almost as if Fate were confirming my feelings, a car ran the red light at the intersection I was approaching.  If that dear lady had not delayed me a few seconds with her show of affection, I might well have been the next fatality of the night.  When I parked my car, I got out and just looked at the bright full moon and the stars of heaven.  As I drank all that wonder into my soul, I reminded myself to enjoy life, and to let all my loved ones and friends know that I love and care for them.  For FATE truly can change…even before the sun rises on a new day.

 

 

 

Public Outrage Is Like A Breath Of Fresh Air

I have blogged about things like government abuses under USA PATRIOT since 2010.   I am sure there are some who read my blogs and other sources and thought that I was paranoid.  Now, with whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations of the actual extent of the National Security Agency's (and who knows who else's) domestic spying program, people are finally beginning to understand that we are indeed watched by Big Brother, and and to a greater degree than many first imagined.  While some people are still using the old platitude "I don't care if they spy on me, I have nothing to hide," many people are very angry about being unwittingly spied upon by the Government, and rightly so.

I am pleased to see that not only are the "common people" becoming more and more upset about domestic spy programs, but they are beginning to demand action in curtailing these abuses.  And the mainstream media is being forced to cover NSA activities right on the front page of their newspapers and as lead stories on their televised newscasts.  On the Internet, there are blogs and articles indicating that not only are the "paranoid" concerned about domestic spying, but "regular" people are, as well.  It all reminds me of one of the most asinine statements I have ever seen published in a scholarly work:

The person who believes he is being followed is paranoid, unless of course, he REALLY IS being followed.

This little gem, the creation of some brilliant psychologist, though asinine to the point of laughter, is true, nonetheless.  I, and others who called our Government over-reaching and abusive, have been called paranoid and "conspiracy theorists" for many years.  Now, surprise, it turns out the Government REALLY  IS watching each and every one of us, albeit electronically...I think(?).  The NSA, CIA, FBI, DIA, and whatever other alphabetical agencies are out there, have been and are yet watching you and me.  And we have a whistleblower to prove it.  Ironically, the whistleblower may face federal charges for revealing the true nature and extent of the nation-wide domestic spying program.  The real criminals are calling Mr. Snowden a dangerous person, even a traitor, for what he has done.  Indeed, some are already calling for him to be arrested and tried for treason.  That for his exposure of the Government's TREASONOUS ACTIVITIES.

Since the passage of USA PATRIOT and the other equally odious measures, various government officials and private "privacy experts" have assured us that only "potential terrorists" were being targeted by the various unconstitutional "anti-terrorist:" programs initiated since 9-1-1.  But this latest revelation proves that all Americans who use credit cards, cell-phones and the Internet have been "profiled" and "cataloged" by the NSA and whatever other agencies are mining all this data.  Since the Government has told us they are only interested in monitoring "potential terrorists," it must follow that all the MILLIONS of innocent American citizens being monitored are considered "potential terrorists."

Did you know that one of the things the NSA spy program does is make a "normal profile"of a given person?  That is indeed what happens.  The "profile" consists of all of a particular person's collected data including routine cell phone usage, routine Internet surfing patterns, online purchase data, and credit card usage data.  Cell phone data collected includes the numbers called and the frequency that certain numbers are called.  And, CHANGES in the cell phone usage patterns are recorded as well. Internet surfing patterns are collected, including what sites are visited and how frequently a given site is visited.  Again, changes in a person's Internet usage are of interest, and are automatically flagged by the spying computer program.  A person's fuel purchases are monitored, as well as their travel destinations, as indicated by airline or cruise ship ticket purchases.  These are just a couple of examples.  I am sure we, the public, have no idea of the total extent to which we are monitored.  Any changes in any of the above mentioned categories automatically triggers further investigation into our activities.

Is this what America truly stands for?  Are we truly a nation of people "with nothing to hide so we don't care if we are being spied upon?"  I do not believe so.  I believe the outrage will spread even more when the true extent of US Government snooping comes to light.  And we are not helpless, though we are at a disadvantage.  But we can all take action to curtail this outrageous, illegal, and unconstitutional government activity.  It will be a slow process, for certain, but we can regain our freedom and our privacy.  The most basic thing we can do is keep putting pressure on our representatives to repeal all of the unconstitutional "War On Terror" measures that have been enacted since September, 2001.  We can refuse to vote for any candidate, including the presidential candidates, who will not publicly promise to make it his or her mission to repeal those laws.  In the meantime, I am so proud of the American people as they are finally demonstrating the willingness to stand up and say "We will stand for this NO LONGER!" It is truly a breath of fresh air to me.

Why I DO Care About PRISM

The revelation of the existence of Operation PRISM has caused quite a stir across the nation today, at least with a few people.  PRISM is a program of cooperation between all the Internet giants and the United States government, as represented by a veritable alphabet soup of federal agencies, which pretty much gives these agencies a free rein in mining through private citizens' doings on the Internet.  This information mining will, by the law of averages, eventually yield information and plots posted by terrorists.  In the meantime, it would yield vast amounts of information on you and me as well.  Granted, most of us only post innocuous and trivial information; but is this really the point?

For me, the point is that by law, the United States Constitution specifically, we are to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and we are to be free to enjoy life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.  Does the government's total usurpation of the Constitution somehow multiply my enjoyment of life, more liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?  No, nor does the same somehow increase my safety from "terrorists."

There is one more point that I would like to make.  In just the few hours since the PRISM revelations were made, I have seen articles and blogs on the Internet, such as the one below:

http://gizmodo.com/why-i-just-dont-give-a-shit-about-prism-or-any-other-511941519  

Pardon the profanity in the title, it is not my title nor my article.  I posted this article because I am afraid that many people share the sentiments of the writer of this article.  They declare in chorus, like a thousand bleating sheep, "I have done nothing wrong.  I don't care if the government spies on me.  They are protecting me." 

I corresponded briefly with a gentlemen on Facebook who expressed the same sentiment. He has done nothing wrong, he is not a criminal, and therefore, he has no reason to be concerned that the government is "reading my email."  I am not particularly concerned that someone may be reading my email, either, to the extent that I am not writing illegal information or writing about illegal criminal plots.  What I AM concerned about is the Government's candid admission that federal agencies are indeed mining citizens' activities on the Internet for "national security reasons."  Operation PRISM is not just about reading emails, but about collecting all forms of information a person might upload, including pictures, documents, files, search history, and ANYTHING we have placed on the Internet.  Do you realize that the acknowledged cost of PRISM is $20,000,000.  If, as many of the sheeple have pointed out, they are only posting harmless and trivial information, how is this government expense justified?  And it has gone on now for at least seven years.  Surely by now the Government knows who amongst us are dangerous.  If that is the case, than the expense for PRISM should be dropping every year, as the PRISM operatives should by now KNOW on whom to focus.  Yet they are spying on ALL OF US.

Yesterday we celebrated the bravery and the memory of those Americans who took part in the Invasion of Europe in 1946.  These brave soldiers were not on the beach for their health.  No, they were fighting for our liberty, and paying for freedom with their blood.  That is why I am so appalled and disgusted at the numbers of people (sheeple) who are willing to lay down and let this heavy and oppressive government continue forcing us down the road to dictatorship.  They are willing to give up freedom for security.  But they do not have the right to speak for me or for others that love freedom.  These sheeple do not have the right to GIVE our rights away, when our men and women, from the Revolution to the Second Iraq War, have laid down their lives for our freedom.  I propose that people who want to be totally protected by the government pick a dictatorship somewhere, perhaps Iran or North Korea, and legally immigrate to one of those nations.  But if you stay in America, remember you cannot give away what is not  yours.  Rights were granted by the Creator to all of us.  If having rights is too much of a responsibility, please leave these United States and proceed directly to the nearest dictatorship.  Just don't try to give away my rights - they are INALIENABLE!!