Military Berets    Military forces have worn distinctive uniform items for centuries to create a psychological advantage and boost their esprit de corps, but the military use of berets is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Blue Bonnet became a de facto symbol of Scottish Jacobite forces. The French Chasseurs alpins, created in the early 1880s, are recognized as the first regular unit to wear military beret as their standard headgear. The first use of the modern beret in the U.S. military was in 1943, when an Army battalion of the 509th Parachute Infantry was given maroon berets by their British counterparts for their service in the war. The first widespread use of the headgear by U.S. forces came shortly after, when a new Army organization that was specially trained for insurgency and counterguerrilla warfare began (unofficially) wearing a green variety in 1953 [Source: The Balance | Rod Powers | September 08, 2016 ++] Vet Unemployment Veteran unemployment hit a record low in 2017, creeping below 4 percent for the first time on record, federal statistics show. The drop to 3.7 percent continues a downward trend in veteran unemployment since the percentage of veterans without jobs was at its peak in 2010, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. [Source: MilitaryTimes | : Natalie Gross | February 2, 2018 ++] ACTUV The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of a revolutionary uncrewed surface ship, one capable of traveling long distances and conducting missions all without a human on board. The Sea Hunter Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel, or ACTUV for short, could someday lead to fleets of unmanned warships plying the world's oceans, doing everything from hunting submarines to acting as spy ships. [Source: Popular Mechanics | Kyle Mizokami | February 5, 2018 +]

Drug Cost Increases With federal officials seemingly unwilling or unable to come up with legislation to control skyrocketing drug prices, that task is increasingly moving to the states. But so is Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) muscle and money opposing the measures, regulatory disclosures and corporate filings from the last two years show. State lawmakers are likely to consider drug-price transparency bills this year in Connecticut, Michigan, Oregon, Washington and New Jersey, to name just a few. Many of the measures are similar to a new California law that requires drugmakers to justify big price increases. (To fight that law, the industry hired 45 lobbying firms.)    PhRMA is widely credited with stalling federal drug-price measures for years, with lobbying, advertising and political contributions. Now states are getting a dose of the same medicine. PhRMA set the stage in 2016 by establishing a group that ultimately spent $110 million to defeat a high-profile California ballot initiative requiring state agencies to pay no more for drugs than does the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. A PhRMA-linked group spent more than $50 million to defeat a similar ballot measure last year in Ohio.    In 2016, PhRMA gave directly to about 80 Louisiana state politicians, more than those in any other state, the IRS filing shows. PhRMA and individual drug companies have made more than $600,000 in contributions to Louisiana state and local political races in the past three years, according to campaign finance files. I know I got a lot of exercise the last few years just getting over the hill. Every time I start thinking too much about how I look, I just find a Happy Hour and by the time I leave I look just fine.

 

Siege of Bien Hoa Air Base - Pilots Scrambled to Bomb Own Base    On the first full day of the Tet Offensive, F-100 Super Sabre pilot 1st Lt. "Fearless" Fred Abrams was given a mission like no other. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army had sprung multiple, coordinated surprise attacks on U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. The situation was especially dire at Bien Hoa Air Base.    The battle began at 3 a.m., when the VC attacked the base. For hours, Air Force security forces and Army troops at Bien Hoa battled the enemy, pushing them back until the Viet Cong established a defensive position in and around a white building on the east end. They were dug in, Abrams said, and no amount of pounding from the Army soldiers and helicopters or security forces could dislodge them. Artillery also wouldn't work, because the troops were too close to the enemy. So they called in the Super Sabres. "The whole east end was hot," Abrams said.    Abrams and Bulger were eager to get in the air, but there was a problem: The VC had already destroyed and burned out a visiting F-4 aircraft on the west end of the runway, littering the strip with shrapnel and debris. And if the Super Sabres kicked up even a single piece of that debris during takeoff, they could be destroyed before they even got off the ground. So they had to wait for hours while the flightline was cleared. Finally, about 4 p.m., Abrams and Bulger fired up their F-100s and took off through a hail of thick ground gunfire, the likes of which he had never before seen. But that didn't rattle him. "You don't think about it," he said. "We have an expression called 'Golden BB': If they're gonna hit you, they're gonna hit you. And if you're lucky, you make it through and don't get hit. I've been shot up a bunch; I didn't even take a hit that day."    But the 101st Airborne troops were so close to the enemy that any airstrike risked killing them, too. Abrams and Bulger circled the area while the soldiers pulled back. Finally, after about an hour and a half, they were ready. With the guidance of an O-1 Bird Dog spotter aircraft, Abrams and Bulger closed in and made three passes each -- the first to drop napalm, and the second and third to drop 500-pound bombs on the target. Soon afterward, in a letter to his mother, Abrams wrote that it was the most scared he had ever been -- not for his own safety, but for the troops on the ground. Even though they had pulled back, they remained dangerously close to the target, maybe 50 to 100 yards away. "I was really puckering," Abrams said. "If you miss, you've just killed your own guys, and that's about the worst thing you could do. .. You think a lot, 'I can't make a mistake, I can't make a mistake.'" With modern precision-guided munitions still decades away and only "dumb" bombs at their disposal, Abrams and Bulger had to aim incredibly carefully. They flew about 500 miles per hour in a 15-degree dive to release the ordnance about 400 feet off the ground and had to adjust the projected reticle on the F-100's sight to take into account how the bomb would drop and drift due to the wind -- all by hand. "It was the pride of your success at doing it accurately," Abrams said. "It wasn't some computer telling you what to do."    But it worked. The strike was a success, and effectively ended the nearly 15-hour siege at Bien Hoa. The final 500-pound bombs set off a secondary explosion in the bunker when a cache of VC munitions -- likely intended to be used on the other F-100s on the flightline -- detonated, he said. Abrams said he and Bulger marveled at how unbelievable the mission was. And the crew stationed at Bien Hoa were "jubilant" and amazed that for once, they actually got to see the planes they maintained and supported in action, instead of only seeing them fly away and return hours later, shot up and with all their bombs dropped. [Source: Air Force Times | Stephen Losey | February 8, 2018 ++] "Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches." - The Duchess of Windsor, when asked what is the secret of a long and happy life I'm starting meetings at my house for people who have OCD. I don't have it, I'm just hoping they'll take one look and start cleaning. People my age are so much older than I. "Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way they ask for directions." -Winston Churchill Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off? He's all right now. A bicycle can't stand alone; it's just two tired. They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Typo.