Slashdot Mirror

http://www.bordeninstitute.army.mil/ethicsbook_fil es/Ethics2/Ethics-ch-16.pdf

Some excerpts:

I am a war criminal. I served in Manchukuo, that phony country created by Japan...[As an officer in the Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police in Manchuria] I received orders from my unit commander to send four of the arrested men to Unit 731. At the time I had no sense that I was a party to any killing. I only filed the papers and sent the men to Unit 731.

Subjects had to be dissected before death for our purposes, because with time bacteria would make the body rot.2 I did it [performed vivisections] because I thought I was serving the Emperor. At first I felt very bad, but after a few operations I got used to it. What is scary, is that I don't get nightmares.

The logs [human research subjects] were there for experimental purposes. There was no guilt associated with the process. I take pride in having taken part in this work. I have no regrets. It was war.

At the beginning he looked intelligent and had fair skin; at the terminal stage [of an experiment on plague] he looked different and his skin turned black.

Some interesting articles I found looking up friendly fire:

Reader's Companion to Military History
World War 2 Friendly fire
Amicide (Study by US Military)
CBC Article on friendly fire in Iraq

You raise a good point that there are far too many friendly fire incidents in our military. I would venture to say it is due to overworking the individual soldier and not a lack of competence. Also friendly fire has been around for a long time and will never fully disappear, it is a fact of war.

My grammar is crap and if someone were to look over even this post I'm sure I've made a few glaring mistakes, but I do find it humorous to open your comment with "your" when "you're" is more appropriate.

A few tokens of my tourist experience:

1. There is a rock shop right outside the gate, with a big sign advertising "Trinitite for Sale." If you are a rockhound, they have a nice shop, with lots of interesting stuff, but their prices are a little high. You can get Trinitie cheaper on Ebay all day long.

2. Removing Trinitite from the Trinity site is considered theft of government property, but they don't watch you too closely. :) There's still quite a few chunks of it around the back fence.

3. If you see old people visiting the site, there's a good chance that they are locals, who remember the blast. Seek them out and talk to them.

4. To me, there really wasn't all that much to see there, and yet, there was an amazing sense to just *be* there. The most impressive physical sight to me was the bowl-shaped depression in the soil, a few hundred yards in circumference, caused by the force of the blast compressing the soil.

5. Try to get a room in Socorro. When they say that the site is "near Alamogordo," they lie. You will enter from the NORTH side of WSMR.

According to this article, OpenBSD 2.6 has been released, despite still being dead. Linus Torvalds has publicly accused Microsoft of resorting to bully tactics, but Richard Stallman has built a beowulf cluster of supercomputers in Soviet Russia, which promises to defend all our base.

Crosses fingers and eagerly waits for "story accepted" confirmation...

When you understand this You will understand the universe.

I think someone needs to stick a Cannon up these industry shitheads' asses and pull the trigger.

yeah, nobody uses javascript popups for logins

This is one of the areas of damage done by the Bush administration that I think doesn't get nearly
enough attention. With the current state of affairs, there is arguably no way for a conscientious American to serve their country through the military.

What nonsense. The number of people whose mind's have been changed by the Bush administration are few and far between. To the extent that anyone's minds have been changed they have largely changed to be closer to the views of the Bush administration by the attacks of Al Qaeda and company.

Your list of ways to serve is rather anemic, and a bit revealing. Here is an entire page of links to organizations and programs for patriotic Americans to aid their country and the service members defending us from the butchers who have stated they have the right to kill four million Americans. This isn't Vietnam where we can just pack up and leave and nothing bad happens to us, they came to our country and intend to destroy us. How many remember that Bin Laden's first demand (Q2) to America was that if we want his organization to stop attempting mass murder against Americans that we become a Muslim nation, which for him would be a Muslim of a very specific extremist, intolerant sect? (I can already hear the pathetic, deranged howls about the "right wing Christian theocracy we live under" now.) Well, just keep donating to the ACLU, I'm sure they will be keeping us safe from suicide bombers in our shopping malls with all that they do.

Much of the military is still structured for fighting a war with the Soviet Union. In many cases this is because of Congressional porkbarrel-preservation and the inertia inherent in any large organization. However, changes are in motion to make better use of the available personnel.

at LOGSA are great if one messes around with military surplus electronics. There are other sections with manuals for vehicles and aircraft.

KOA

Giant sea-based radar that looks like something out of a science fiction movie

Only someone clueless would break into Fort Myer.

They are not "A few clicks apart" -- They are touching. There's no great-basin like section of ohio where water doesn't flow into either system. (Ok, there may be a pond or two) Water either rolls downhill towards the lakes, or towards Ohio/Missippi rivers.

Now, there are changes they've had to do to make sure water doesn't start flowing down the Illinois Canal into the Mississippi, but those issues have mostly been there from the start. But unless there is something major that causes thousands of square miles to suddenly sink hundreds of feet in the boundary areas, I don't think it's that large of an issue (now, letting some of the creatures in each system into the other, that's another story .

I'm talking about the main site: http://www.army.mil/

Go troll somewhere else.

Netcraft confirms it: http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http:/ /www.army.mil

I'm talking about the main site: http://www.army.mil/

We know what Bush would say in response to such an email threat:

"Bring it on!"

Of course this would be followed by years of destructive cyber bombings, slowly wittling away at a few of his Servers every day. But would Bush care? Of course not, because he's got UPGRADES he must justify. Kind of hard for a SysAdmin to ask for appropriations to replace Servers that are still functioning, isn't it? Nothing like a good, old fashioned DDOS to serve your greater goals...

(IOW, why send the money to the Extortionists, when you can GET that money to get new toys to replace the ones "they" will destroy?)

Third, the "Security Debriefing Acknowledgement," which appears in the SF 189-A, but not the SF 189,is included in the SF 312. Its use is optional at the discretion of the implementing agency.

You were never in the service. I suspect that you play a little too much America's Army in your parents basement.

6.5 b. All DA personnel who are retiring, resigning, being discharged, or will no longer have access to classified information, will out-process through the command security manager's office or other designated command office. During this out-processing the individual will be informed that security clearance and access to classified information has terminated and that the individual still has an obligation to protect any knowledge they have of classified information. DA personnel will sign a debriefing statement during out-processing. The debriefing statement will either be the NDA Security Debriefing Acknowledgement section of the SF 312, or DA Form 2962 (Security Termination Statement). The debriefing, as a minimum, will consist of informing the individual of the continuing obligation to protect classified information accessed, the admonition that discussion or other revelation of classified information to unauthorized persons is prohibited, provide instructions for reporting any unauthorized attempt to gain access to classified information, advise the individual of the prohibition against retaining classified material when leaving the command, and remind the individual of the potential civil and criminal penalties for failure to fulfill these continuing responsibilities. The same procedures will be followed for DA personnel still employed and still in service whose security clearance has been withdrawn, denied (after interim access was granted), or revoked either for cause or for administrative reasons due to lack of need for future access to classified information. In these cases both civilian and military DA personnel will execute the debriefing statement.(Emphasis mine)

Take all the guesses you want. That's just as valid as me saying you got the boot because you don't comprehend written English, which you don't.

Furthermore, I'd point out at this time that if you *really* wanted to check, you could call the 10th Mtn. DivArty S2 and *ask* if they made anyone sign NDAs on ETS. You claim to have served, it'd be really simple for you to get the number and check.

That's "IRR". Idiot.

And a fine line separates idiocy from heroism, doesn't it? He's a national hero because he rescued a pinko like you.

Damn right. I would have been smart enough to stop or turn around when the laser and spotlight came on me... not to mention the warning shots.

I'm sure you would have gone ahead and gotten shot, though. Since you clearly don't have any level of reading comprehension, it is likely that if someone pointed a laser and spotlight at you, you'd keep driving because you lack enough gray matter to comprehend what that means, despite it being well publicized.

... right there in box 15 of form DA-137-1, where it says "Security Debriefing" (which involved signing the NDA), and "Anti-terrorism Briefing") which involved listening to short lecture.

That's funny, because during the part of the final clearance process for ETS, I had to visit the S2 and sign said NDA, a copy of which happens to be in my paperwork, and the S2 office stamp seems to be on my papers, right there in box 15 of form DA-137-1, where it says "Security Debriefing" (which involved signing the NDA), and "Anti-terrorism Briefing") which involved listening to short lecture.

With all due respect (which is about none, from my point of view), you don't know what clearance I had, nor do you know much else about me. Your rank also means jack shit to me at this point.

You're ignorant and delusional.

But that's okay. My honorable discharge certificate, DD214, several medals, various training certs and certificates of achievement, and 8 years total service (including a few that were in IRR, but I was called up *twice* during that time after Sept. 11 - nothing came of either one, though) all speak to my service.

Every vehicle design is a compromise among cost, weight, armor, speed, fuel economy, maintenance requirements, power, cargo capacity, size, etc. The HMMWV replaced a group of unarmored vehicles, including the JEEP. There are lightly armored vehicles for mechanized infantry, like the APC and the Bradley. Their armor will stop small-arms fire and shell fragments, but not projectiles from heavier weapons or anti-tank mines. A modern RPG can penetrate over 500mm of steel. How do you protect a vehicle against that? With dismounted infantry, who are vulnerable to small-arms fire, to provide a protective screen for the vehicle. There are no easy solutions to the problem.

Someone better notify Bush so we can eradicate this issue at once!

Fort Lewis is right down I-5 from Seattle....

http://www.lewis.army.mil/FLMap.shtml

Damn that Jewey bastard for trying to combat (hah!) gun violence that causes the death of over 30,000 people a year! Fortunately, gun totin' whackos have a pretty good bead on our elected officials, otherwise some sane legislation that both protects people's right to own weapons (you know, as part of a well-regulated militia) and keeps guns out of the hands of dealers that sell semi-automatic weapons out of the back of their truck to anyone may have been passed at some point.

I suggest you find out what other Horrible Acts he has perpretrated! Truly, he is the worst of the worst.

... perhaps more fairly labelled as "True, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons." Marvelling that the width of modern roadways is similar to the width of ancient roadways is sort of like getting excited over a notion such as "modern clothes sizes are based upon standards developed by medieval tailors.

IMHO, this is an excellent example of a de facto standard. Nobody seems to know if the Romans (or Babylonians or Egyptians?) officially adopted a standard, however one can argue that the width of wagons, chariots, gates, roads, streets and even the size of horses must have influenced each other, generating at the systems level a commonality of compatible "standards" - de facto.

I haven't found a citation with regard to what Lincoln wanted to do, so I leave that for another time.

This page at the US Army Transportation Museum is an interesting short history of the impact of railroads on the Civil War. It cites the same de facto history toward the end of the article. It is possible that the Army is wrong about this - this story was very popular amongst the DoD staffers, according to Puffert (see below.)

It is certain that this was a major national issue regarding the construction of the "Pacific Railroad". The first Pacific Railroad Act was passed in 1862. Section 12 specifies that "The track, upon the entire line of railroad and branches shall be of uniform width, to be determined by the President of the United States, ...". So indeed, Lincoln had the authority to establish the gauge.

The FAQ notes that Central Pacific asked Lincoln to establish the gauge at five feet. This was because, "The railroads already existing in California with which the CPRR might likely connect were laid with a 5' 0" track gauge." This transcription of a telegram to Lincoln requesting the 5'0" gauge cites a separate communication from "eminent engineers" in favor of the 5'0" gauge, while this image is of a similar telegram objecting to the 5'0" gauge.

The 1863 Amendment establishes the gauge at 4' 8.5". However the history is not cited in the act. (My own speculation - a factor not specifically mentioned is that the Confederacy used a 5'0" gauge. If the Union began using a 5'0" gauge, then the Confederacy could conceivably use Union track to their benefit. This could have tipped some military minds in the decision. But I don't know the military's position on this topic.)

On the other hand, according to this 1996 analysis by researcher Douglas Puffert, the groove ruts that supposedly drove the whole thing don't seem to always be the same width, but nobody's done the research. Puffert notes that the early US railroad engineers copied the gauge of the Liverpool & Manchester railroad, which was based on the 4'8" track width commonly used in the mines - but 1/2" wider to allow for more wheel play. (There's more here, read if you're interested.)

From my own limited - but not trivial - experience around horses and buggies etc., I am comfortable with the idea that

... perhaps more fairly labelled as "True, but for trivial and unremarkable reasons." Marvelling that the width of modern roadways is similar to the width of ancient roadways is sort of like getting excited over a notion such as "modern clothes sizes are based upon standards developed by medieval tailors.

IMHO, this is an excellent example of a de facto standard. Nobody seems to know if the Romans (or Babylonians or Egyptians?) officially adopted a standard, however one can argue that the width of wagons, chariots, gates, roads, streets and even the size of horses must have influenced each other, generating at the systems level a commonality of compatible "standards" - de facto.

I haven't found a citation with regard to what Lincoln wanted to do, so I leave that for another time.

This page at the US Army Transportation Museum is an interesting short history of the impact of railroads on the Civil War. It cites the same de facto history toward the end of the article. It is possible that the Army is wrong about this - this story was very popular amongst the DoD staffers, according to Puffert (see below.)

It is certain that this was a major national issue regarding the construction of the "Pacific Railroad". The first Pacific Railroad Act was passed in 1862. Section 12 specifies that "The track, upon the entire line of railroad and branches shall be of uniform width, to be determined by the President of the United States, ...". So indeed, Lincoln had the authority to establish the gauge.

The FAQ notes that Central Pacific asked Lincoln to establish the gauge at five feet. This was because, "The railroads already existing in California with which the CPRR might likely connect were laid with a 5' 0" track gauge." This transcription of a telegram to Lincoln requesting the 5'0" gauge cites a separate communication from "eminent engineers" in favor of the 5'0" gauge, while this image is of a similar telegram objecting to the 5'0" gauge.

The 1863 Amendment establishes the gauge at 4' 8.5". However the history is not cited in the act. (My own speculation - a factor not specifically mentioned is that the Confederacy used a 5'0" gauge. If the Union began using a 5'0" gauge, then the Confederacy could conceivably use Union track to their benefit. This could have tipped some military minds in the decision. But I don't know the military's position on this topic.)

On the other hand, according to this 1996 analysis by researcher Douglas Puffert, the groove ruts that supposedly drove the whole thing don't seem to always be the same width, but nobody's done the research. Puffert notes that the early US railroad engineers copied the gauge of the Liverpool & Manchester railroad, which was based on the 4'8" track width commonly used in the mines - but 1/2" wider to allow for more wheel play. (There's more here, read if you're interested.)

From my own limited - but not trivial - experience around horses and buggies etc., I am comfortable with the idea that

Interesting article, thanks! According to this Army site, though, neither the US nor the Soviets signed it. I wonder how legally binding it is..

The Center for Nonproliferation Studies confirm this by mentioning that the treaty is ineffective, but it does not list who the 5 signatories are either, unfortunately.

That was not all: See also: http://www.army.mil/fcs/

I don't have the information necessary to make an observation regarding the net energy savings if any exists, but as a resident of Pennsylvania which runs from Lattitude 39 43' N to 42 N I would sure welcome the extra daylight.

I gotta say that driving to work in the dark and driving home from work in the dark is not a prticularly gratifying experience. In fact it's downright depressing.

Interestingly enough the times have been changed in the fairly recent past (according to the US Army:

During the "energy crisis" years, Congress enacted earlier starting dates for daylight time. In 1974, daylight time began on 6 January and in 1975 it began on 23 February. After those two years the starting date reverted back to the last Sunday in April. In 1986, a law was passed permanently shifting the starting date of daylight time to the first Sunday in April, beginning in 1987. The ending date of daylight time has not been subject to such changes, and has remained the last Sunday in October.

This is a solar furnace, of which there are many in use today. The biggest one in the world is the Odeillo Solar Furnace located in Odeillo, France. The top 3 in use in the United States are at Sandia National Labs, Georgia Tech and the White Sands Missile Test Range. Awesome stuff!

One amusing side note is that Frank Gehry's popular postmodern buildings have been noted to act as solar collectors, effectively frying people passing by on the sidewalk.

"after all MS does not have it's own army yet."

Sure they do.
Here's their web address:

Microsoft's Army

I'm not saying that it'd work with the current 1/5th scale mockups they've done, obviously it'd need modifications. But the principle, and many of the replies have suggested good ideas, like kevlar layering, and piles of soil. Hell, 8 feet of packed snow can stop small arms fire. http://www4.army.mil/news/article.php?story=6997 Military prefab buildings and facilities make sense for long term bases, but for a small team to assemble with limited equipment it would make sense. And clean water isn't needed to mix with cement, brackish standing water would work too.

The standard atmosphere surface pressure on earth is 1013.23 millibars (mb), or 29.92 inches of mercury.

A record High Pressure in Siberia made it up to 1083.8 mb/32.01 inches, and a Pacific Typhoon had a record low pressure of 879 mb/25.69 inches of mercury.

So, compared to Earth by altitude (approximately):
5,000 feet - 850 mb, 1 mile high 10,000 ft - 700 mb, 2 miles Oxygen required for unpressurized aircraft 18,000 ft - 500 mb (half the atmosphere is above/below this level), 3 miles 30,000 ft - 300 mb (70% of atmosphere is below), 6 miles high, entering the Stratosphere Dead Zone: Fatal without 100% oxygen source 53,000 ft - 100 mb (90% below, 10 miles, Stratosphere Fatal without Pressure suit: Blood pressure exceedes environment pressure, so oxygen is not absorbed Blood starts to outgas (boil) causing the Bends 68,000 ft - 50 mb (95%) 13 miles 102,000 ft - 10 mb (99%) 20 miles 104,000 ft - 9 mb High pressure on Mars 110,000 ft - 7 mb Average Mars pressure, 24 miles aloft on Earth 120,000 ft - 5 mb (99.5%) Higher terrain Mars pressure 157,000 ft - 1 mb (99.9%) Mars mountain tops, 30 miles on Earth Oh, yes - Earth has 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% Argon, Carbon Dioxide, and all that. Water vapor can be up to 4% or so on hot, humid days.

In other words, Mars Tourists will need to pack much more than a towel and sunscreen.

You forgot another unique thing about the U.S. government: They will bomb any country you want. Just send a request to U.S. Army. They've been looking for some serious action. They would prefer to bomb a developed country, the food is better. It's really a drag going to places like Afghanistan and Iraq and Vietnam and Cambodia and Somalia. Also, requests to bomb a country with deep water ports are especially respected, because the U.S. Navy wants action, too.

army.mil uses Mac OS X, for its "edge" web servers, anyway. Maybe not the highest volume, but in terms of hacker/cracker targets, it doesn't get any bigger than that.

Fine we can have an arguiement about feedback

Nothing you have put forward shows CO2 to be toxic

Man I love how people who are so absolutely wrong get modded up.

Co2 is in no way, shape or form Toxic.

The effect he describes is life saving, not toxic.

Yeah, cause Americans are so tolerant of "thought crimes" like making CDs and DVDs, and using computers to spread "Anti-coalition propaganda".

One man's "free speech" is another's "propaganda", I guess...

Can't wait for the military to ask for the Special Forces troops, etc. to give up one good eye for an even "better" one. And better lungs, so that he can go for hours without breathing (makes gas masks less important).

And then, of course, those "lustful urges" will be a distraction and discipline issue, so we'll nip that in the bud...



ManPlus by Fredirik Pohl. Read it.

Here's some background from Google http://www.routledge-ny.com/ref/cyborgcitizen/cyci tpgs/manplus.html

A Soldier First. A Soldier Always. The Warrior ethos http://www.tradoc.army.mil/pao/TNSarchives/April04 /042404.htm

Unlike some however, I don't see this concept as a completely bad thing. Some people would be quite happy to be part of a cyborg. If it comes about because their physical difficulties were abated, why not offer them more options? If my eyesight is poor, why not give me 20/20, 400X zoom, IR, Xray, UV and starlight vision? And if that makes me a slightly better sniper (just slightly, mind you), so be it.

localhost:~ username$ curl -i www.army.mil
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 22:48:59 GMT
Server: 4D_WebSTAR_S/5.3.3 (MacOS X)
Connection: Close
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Last-Modified: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 22:00:34 GMT
Content-Length: 35822
Content-Type: text/html

The nurses would otherwise be typing in passwords about 300 times a day, as the computers lock whenever someone isn't standing at them

They really use thumbprint scanners? What if the nurse has gloves on/a cut/some liquid on their finger? What if the scanner is dirty or scratched? That seems like a strange thing to do.

Probably more likely is that they use Common Access Cards which would be just as secure as a thumbprint, but would also allow one to decertify the existing cards and force a periodic new key to be issued, say every few months--thereby expiring any exploitation of the previous code.

This is not news. I downloaded this file many years ago from the predecessor of this page. This document would be good for the above-average high school math student who is interested in this field. I think the NSA, CIA, DIA, etc. etc. have some more sophisticated tools in their tough laptops. Sure, the Iraqi insurrgency/resitance may use these types of codes. The key (no pun intended) is to decipher the message in time for it to be useful. Move on.....

Well, from looking at one http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDSmain 2004-12-03.jpg, I wonder how agile this thing could be. It looks like it would be easy to run circles around, or to sneak up on and disable the camera. How quickly could that camera pan around to find targets? The control panel http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS3200 4-12-03.jpg seems to be viewing 4 cameras, don't know if that's 4 comareas on the same bot, or he's watching 4 different bots. The former would be better IMO, a bot that can simultaneously see forward, backward, left, and right would be much better than one with a single camera swiveling around. One thing for sure, these things are packing some serious heat: http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS2200 4-12-03.jpg

Well, from looking at one http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDSmain 2004-12-03.jpg, I wonder how agile this thing could be. It looks like it would be easy to run circles around, or to sneak up on and disable the camera. How quickly could that camera pan around to find targets? The control panel http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS3200 4-12-03.jpg seems to be viewing 4 cameras, don't know if that's 4 comareas on the same bot, or he's watching 4 different bots. The former would be better IMO, a bot that can simultaneously see forward, backward, left, and right would be much better than one with a single camera swiveling around. One thing for sure, these things are packing some serious heat: http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS2200 4-12-03.jpg

Well, from looking at one http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDSmain 2004-12-03.jpg, I wonder how agile this thing could be. It looks like it would be easy to run circles around, or to sneak up on and disable the camera. How quickly could that camera pan around to find targets? The control panel http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS3200 4-12-03.jpg seems to be viewing 4 cameras, don't know if that's 4 comareas on the same bot, or he's watching 4 different bots. The former would be better IMO, a bot that can simultaneously see forward, backward, left, and right would be much better than one with a single camera swiveling around. One thing for sure, these things are packing some serious heat: http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/uploads/large/SWORDS2200 4-12-03.jpg

Just because you can't discern a rational thought doesn't necessarily mean there is none.

I said

Every soldier on duty in Guantanamo Bay on this very day is betraying his oaths and a disgrace for his uniform. They don't even remotely live up to Army or Marine Corps Values they have sworn to defend with their lives.

To freshen your memories on what these honorable men and women have sworn, an excerpt of the linked "Soldier code" pages:
Army Values:

Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other soldiers.
Duty: Fulfill your obligations.
Respect: Treat people as they should be treated.
Selfless-Service: Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.
Honor: Live up to all the Army values.
Integrity: Do what's right, legally and morally.
Personal Courage: Face fear, danger, or adversity (Physical or Moral).

Corps Values:

Honor: Honor requires each Marine to exemplify the ultimate standard in ethical and moral conduct. Honor is many things; honor requires many things. A U.S. Marine must never lie, never cheat, never steal, but that is not enough. Much more is required. Each Marine must cling to an uncompromising code of personal integrity, accountable for his actions and holding others accountable for theirs. And, above all, honor mandates that a Marine never sully the reputation of his Corps.

Courage: Simply stated, courage is honor in action -- and more. Courage is moral strength, the will to heed the inner voice of conscience, the will to do what is right regardless of the conduct of others. It is mental discipline, an adherence to a higher standard. Courage means willingness to take a stand for what is right in spite of adverse consequences. This courage, throughout the history of the Corps, has sustained Marines during the chaos, perils, and hardships of combat. And each day, it enables each Marine to look in the mirror -- and smile.

Commitment: Total dedication to Corps and Country. Gung-ho Marine teamwork. All for one, one for all. By whatever name or cliche, commitment is a combination of (1) selfless determination and (2) a relentless dedication to excellence. Marines never give up, never give in, never willingly accept second best. Excellence is always the goal. And, when their active duty days are over, Marines remain reserve Marines, retired Marines, or Marine veterans. There is no such thing as an ex-Marine or former-Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine. Commitment never dies.

Tell me: How can a soldier sworn in on these values still service in a camp at Guantanamo Bay and not speak out?

They will keep saying to themselves they're only following orders, but following orders doesn't count in the end.

I'll be the one screaming "medic!" at the top of my lungs. Modern medicine may just be a theory but I reckon it's statistically a better bet than relying on His strength.

And you'd be absolutely right. In the current conflict in Iraq, the death rate from battle wounds is only 1.6%, whereas in vietnam it was 3.68%, more than twice as high. The army, at least, attributes this huge increase in survivability to modern medical technology and improved practice.

looked at as a ratio of wounded (but survived) to killed, the current ratio is 7.6:1. Going backwards in time, counting only U.S. soldiers:
Vietnam: 2.6:1
WWII: 1.7:1
WWI: 1.8:1
US Civil War: 0.74:1

In other words, a trend consistently shows more people surviving war wounds as time goes on.

Meanwhile, the evidence is not that there has been a massive (factor of twenty) increase in religiosity in the United States since the Civil war. Certainly, available data show that people self-identifying as Christian have decreased significantly between 1990 and 2004.

So the evidence would seem to indicate, unless God has consistently increased his tendency to save the lives of wounded soldiers despite no significant increase in their faith, that improvements in medical technology are in fact a good bet for saving your life when you're lying bleeding on the battlefield.

Good call, mike260.

Its the vermillion river. But there is a bayou tortue, and a bayou carencro. But Lafayette is not known for bayou's because it is the center of the atchafalaya basin. The basin serves as an overflow for the mississippi and red rivers. The basin filled durring the 1927 flood.

If the difficulties in torpedo technique could not be resolved, the Japanese would have to rely on dive bombing to carry out a projected Pearl Harbor attack, but this method could not destroy capital ships

You must mean this:
National Museum of the United States Air Force

And this:
The National Museum of the United States Army

And this:
Welcome to the Naval Historical Center