NEWS OF THE FORCE | Sunday, October 18, 2015 - Page 1

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 - Today is Alaska Day

Typhoon Koppu weakens but still dangerous

Strong winds and rains caused by Typhoon Koppu hit the coastal town of Navotas, north of Manila, in the Philippines, today. Typhoon Koppu, known in the Philippines as Typhoon Lando, is currently a strong tropical cyclone over Luzon. The twenty-fourth named storm and the fifteenth typhoon of the annual typhoon season, Koppu is forecasted to continue impacting the Philippines until Oct. 21.

India's police arrest 2 teenagers over rape of a toddler

Two teenagers have been arrested and were being questioned today for allegedly raping a toddler, in the latest incident of sexual violence against a young child in India's capital city.

The continuing refugee crisis

Migrants streaming across the Balkans reached Slovenia yesterday, diverted overnight by the closure of Hungary's border with Croatia in the latest demonstration of Europe's disjointed response to the flow of people.

Man with anti-foreigner sentiments stabs mayoral candidate

A candidate who is leading the race to become the mayor of Cologne, Germany, Henriette Reker, was stabbed by an assailant there yesterday.

Chinese general dismisses South China Sea concerns

A top Chinese general said yesterday that China's newly created islands in the disputed South China Sea are intended mainly to aid shipping and dismissed concerns that Beijing is seeking to strengthen its control over the strategically vital area. China will never "recklessly" resort to the use of force in the South China Sea, the senior Chinese general said yesterday.

Turkey shoots down Russian drone

A Turkish jet shot down a Russian drone that entered its airspace near the Syrian border on Friday, a senior defense official there confirmed yesterday.

Russian forces have paved the way for the regime of President al-Assad's Iranian-backed assault on Aleppo. Syrian troops backed by Hizbollah and Iranian fighters made advances yesterday in their offensive to retake territory around the northern city of Aleppo from insurgents and jihadist fighters, a monitoring group said.

"On Oct. 15, Coalition forces conducted an airstrike in northwest Syria that killed Abdul Mohsen Adballah Ibrahim al Charekh, a/k/a Sanafi al-Nasr, a Saudi national and the highest ranking leader of the network of veteran al-Qaida operatives sometimes called the "Khorasan Group." Al-Nasr was a long-time jihadist experienced in funneling money and fighters for al-Qaida. He moved funds from donors in the Gulf region into Iraq and then to al-Qaida leaders from Pakistan to Syria. He organized and maintained routes for new recruits to travel from Pakistan to Syria through Turkey in addition to helping al-Qaida's external operations in the West. Al-Nasr previously worked for al-Qaida's Iran-based facilitation network. In 2012, he took charge of al-Qaida's core finances before relocating to Syria in 2013. ‎Al-Nasr is the fifth senior Khorasan Group leader killed in the last four months," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said today. "The United States will not relent in its mission to degrade, disrupt and destroy al-Qaida and its remnants," said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. "This operation deals a significant blow to the Khorasan Group's plans to attack the United States and our allies, and once again proves that those who seek to do us harm are not beyond our reach." The U.S. Treasury Department previously named Al-Nasr a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 on Aug. 22, 2014. "For operational security reasons, we will not go into the specifics of the strikes," Cook said.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin says the U.S. is "not cooperating" and "un-responsive" about Syria. "Tell us who not to pound and we won't pound them," President Putin said.

Egyptians residing abroad began casting votes yesterday in the country's first parliamentary election since the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

And Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is sounding more and more like his mentor and former boss, Yasser Arafat, every day.

Cuzin Jim's Thought for the Day: Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.

DHS news

In coordination with the Texas Office of Homeland Security and the Texas Homeland Security Council, Governor Greg Abbott has released the Texas Homeland Security Plan 2015-2020.

And Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson says he is confident that escaped Mexican drug lord "Chapo" Guzman will be re-captured.

What the media doesn't want you to know
By Tim Schmidt, Publisher, Concealed Carry Report
I was going through some of the footage from the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference earlier this week, and I came across an extremely powerful (and absolutely spot-on) statement from the Gun Rights Defender of the Year - who, as I pointed out last week, just happens to be the USCCA’s very own Mark Walters.

In a brief talk called, The Gun Rights Battle from a Media Perspective, Mark rightly noted that when it comes to incidents involving guns, "the media controls the narrative: not only by what they tell us...but, more importantly, by what they don’t; by what they leave out; by what they don’t want you to know."
His statement rang especially true after I saw headlines about another "school shooting" at Northern Arizona University last Friday, which - I discovered simply by taking a little time to read a few articles - turned out to be the result of an early morning altercation between a couple of students on campus. Hardly the premeditated "massacre" we usually associate with that term. Now, please don’t misunderstand me here. I’m certainly not saying that this particular shooting is any less tragic than a Sandy Hook or a Columbine or that the victims are any less deserving of our thoughts and prayers than the victims of those shootings were - it certainly is traumatic for the victims and their families - but it drives home an absolutely critical point that the words we use - or don’t use - matter and that the lengths to which anti-gunners will go to control the "story" when it comes to guns have virtually no bounds.

Make no doubt: the anti-gunners will add the incident that occurred at NAU to their list of "school shootings" and use it to push forth their decidedly anti-gun agenda. And if that doesn't make you a little bit angry...well, it should. We can no longer afford to sit back and allow the conversation to continue one-sided.

Scott Bach, president of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, notes in a recently uncovered - and surprisingly pro-gun - Harvard University study, that "when a single criminal goes on a rampage, that's all you hear about, over and over and over again, along with angry cries to ban firearms." And why? "A study by the Media Research Center concluded media coverage of firearms is overwhelmingly biased. In a recent period, television networks collectively aired 514 anti-gun stories, to a mere 46 that were pro-firearm, a ratio of more than 11-to-1 against firearms." The problem, he says, is that "We are only being told one side of the story. When we hear only one side, we assume that what we are told is all there is to know, and we do not inquire further."

The bottom line is that the truth is out there for those who take the time to uncover it. And the truth about guns, according to Bach, is that they "are used 80 times more often to prevent crime than they are to take lives."

Mark Walters’ statement above, and Bach’s comments in the published Harvard study, go to show just how important it is that we, as responsibly armed Americans, seek the truth and then do everything in our power to share that truth with those around us. We must not allow the media - or the anti-gunners - to have the all-too-often incorrect last word.

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps news

Although more than 70 years have passed, Robert Emmett Stanley still occasionally feels discomfort in his shins, where shrapnel cut into his flesh during a Japanese kamikaze attack in one of the final battles of World War II. He was wounded a second time that same day, when the destroyer USS Luce exploded as it slipped below the surface of the Pacific off the island of Okinawa. The blast sent a concussive wave through the water, leaving him with severe internal injuries. Of the 312 sailors in his crew, 126 were killed on the morning of May 4, 1945, the day after Stanley’s 22nd birthday. Now 92, the Navy veteran who was raised in the Irish Channel is finally is getting his due. On Saturday evening, Stanley will receive his Purple Heart medal for the injuries he received during the Battle of Okinawa. "Seventy years seems like a long goddamn time," the still-salty Stanley said in a recent interview in his Terrytown, La., home. "As a matter of fact, it’s a lifetime." Stanley enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1943 after graduating from Samuel J. Peters High School on South Broad Street, in New Orleans. He was at Pearl Harbor in October 1944 when he was assigned to the USS Luce, on which he saw action in the northern Pacific. After U.S. troops invaded Okinawa on April 1, 1945, the Luce was assigned to "radar picket" duty, Stanley said. Ships surrounded the island, using radar to detect Japanese aerial attacks. On the morning of May 4, Stanley, a ships' clerk, reported to his battle station, a gun emplacement on the destroyer’s starboard side. His job was to pass 40-mm cannon shells to the gun loaders. He watched in horror as a Japanese kamikaze pilot attacked the Luce, deliberately flying his plane into the ship. The blast knocked Stanley to the deck, he said. Shrapnel pierced his steel helmet and entered his scalp; other pieces punched into his legs, he said. Two or three more kamikazes struck; he doesn't remember the exact number. His commanding officer gave the order to abandon ship. Stanley swam about 40 yards to avoid being sucked under the waves with the sinking ship. "It wasn’t very long before we had this tremendous explosion," he said. "And believe me, I had the most excruciating pain in my stomach I ever had in my life. I never experienced anything like this. The water tore in through my rectum." Sharks killed some sailors while Japanese fighter pilots shot at them, he said. It was dark by the time he was rescued. He ended up on the USS Karnes, on which he was treated and taken to California. He never returned to sea. Stanley doesn't know which of his injuries garnered him the Purple Heart. Nor does he know why it took so long for him to get one. For some reason, the medical report detailing his injuries was not included in his military service record, he said. His passive attempts to get the award went nowhere, he said. His first wife, who has died, would tell him it would "come out in the wash," he said. "I said, ‘Well, yeah, I got to do something about that wash.’ I said, ‘I can't sit on my fanny and let this go.’ A couple of times I tried it. I probably didn't have the right people." He enlisted the help of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), he said. In June, he wrote to the Department of the Navy, again inquiring about the medal. The Navy responded in July, telling him he'd hear something by Sept. 8. "The 10th goes by. The 11th goes by, and all that, and I said, ‘What the hell is going on here?'" he said. Within days, though, someone from the Navy called. “He told me, ‘Mr. Stanley? I’m so-and-so. I’m in Washington, D.C., and I’m here to inform you that you have been awarded the Purple Heart.'" The Navy had planned to present it at the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse, La. But those plans quickly evolved. Instead, Stanley will get his medal on Saturday during the Navy’s birthday ball at the National World War II Museum, where he has volunteered since the museum opened 15 years ago, he said. Vice Adm. Robin Braun, the chief of the Navy Reserve at the Pentagon, is presenting the medal. Stanley said he feels humbled. He was a mere seaman 3rd class when the USS Luce went down. Now, a three-star admiral is giving him the Purple Heart. "Three stars?" the ever-modest Stanley said in wonderment. "Holy mackerel."

Marine Corps Reserve Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jeremy Piasecki is on track to travel to Afghanistan this month to stand up the nation's first women's water polo team.

And U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Viktor I. Cadiente, a joint fires observer assigned to the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, posed for a photo with his family living in the Philippines during a joint exercise with Philippines forces.

U.S. Air Force news

The 489th Bomb Group was reactivated yesterday during a ceremony at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. The bomb group will be the first B-1B Lancer Air Force Reserve unit.

A New York Air National Guard unit's annual mission to the South Pole has begun after being delayed by maintenance problems.

The 165th Airlift Wing, of the Georgia Air National Guard, has received the first of eight airplane upgrades.

Defense spending is down in Ohio, but it's increasing in the area of Wright-Patterson AFB.

Civil Air Patrol Cadet 1st Lt. Charlie Scott was appointed cadet commander of CAP Composite Squadron 61, at California's Camarillo Airport, last Tuesday night.

And the Civil Air Patrol has hosted a search and rescue exercise (SAREX) at the Iowa City Airport so cadets can learn emergency response basics. "You've got your 12 to 18 year olds, that are gonna go out on ground searches and the search and rescue for a missing child," CAP Iowa Wing Public Affairs Officer Sara Mutcher said. "You've got the aircraft that are gonna be taking off as well." The simulated exercise was created as realistically as possible so cadets know what to do when someone is in danger. Iowa's Senior Squadron flew the planes for cadets during air searches. While the cadets don't fly planes during a SAREX, some of them are in the process of getting their pilot's license. "We don't actually teach them to fly, but there is a program where they can go and do a summer encampment," Mutcher said. "It's basically like a summer camp, and by the time they're done, they are so close to getting their pilot's license." Cadets may be young, but through the skills they've learned in SAREX, they feel they're able to protect the people of Iowa. "When they call, I can answer, because I feel like that's important for people in the community that can say 'I will help,'" Civil Air Patrol Cadet Jeremiah Holt said. "I have the ability to help. I also have the training to help, which makes me proud." Cadets also completed missions in Amber Alert response, aircraft down and photography during the exercise.

UFO news

Desmond “Des” Bragg, of Des Moines, Iowa, was born in Port Arthur, Texas, in July 1918, one of six children. His mother suffered from severe epilepsy. There was little treatment for the ailment in those days. She was consigned to a sanitarium and died at the age of 35. Some of his siblings ended up living with extended family. Des and one of his sisters landed in an orphanage. He would end up milking cows at a dairy farm in East Texas.

Des quit high school at 16. He jumped on a train and rode the rails to Enid, Okla., where one of his sisters lived with an aunt and uncle on their father’s side. The couple owned a general store. Des stayed for about two weeks and decided to get back on the road. He hitchhiked and eventually ended up in Denver, Colo. Des planted trees and cleaned campgrounds for the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of President Franklin Roosevelt’s many public employment programs during the Great Depression.

Des joined the U.S. Army at Fort Warren, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1936. Military discipline settled him. He got an early discharge and went off to Chicago to become a Baptist minister. He finally finished his high school diploma and started junior college at North Park Theological Seminary. Des traveled to Conover, Wis., for a ministerial internship in 1942. There he met his future wife, Jean, as she was walking out of the post office one day. Des dropped out of the seminary to join the Navy. He served as a corpsman during World War II. He kept writing letters to Jean back in Conover. They married in 1945 and stayed together for 60 years, until she died in 2005. They had three children.

Des enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied education. He taught at various stops in Wisconsin. He worked as a teacher and principal throughout most of the 1950s.

One day in 1951, Des, Jean and two of their children went for a drive on a highway near Mount Horab, Wis. Des and Jean saw a streak of light flash across the sky. "It appeared to be moving at thousands of miles per hour," Des later wrote in his memoir, Started Out from Texas. "Whatever it was glinted in the afternoon sun as though it was metallic in nature.”

Des believes the object was a UFO, which began a lifelong obsession with unidentified flying objects. Des is a believer that extraterrestrial life has visited the Earth many times. He’s traveled across the country to interview people who have seen UFOs. If there’s a book or research paper on the topic, Des has likely read it.

Des ultimately earned his doctorate in teacher education. He got a job as a professor at Drake University, and the couple moved to Des Moines in 1960. Des once asked Drake administrators for a sabbatical to study UFOs. They scoffed at him and told him the whole thing was hokum. Des kept studying, anyway.

"The problem with discussing UFOs is that people who talk about it most are kooks," Des said. "There are kooks and hoaxes, but there is a greater truth out there that’s being ignored."

Des understands people’s skepticism. But lots of great ideas were considered silly at the time. Some of the earliest known artifacts of human civilization are iron fashioned from bits of meteorites. Yet it wasn’t until 1794 that German physicist Ernst Florens Chladni published a paper that suggested meteorites were, in fact, rocks from space. He was mocked as a nut for a decade. "The idea of rocks raining from the sky was impossible for people of the time to imagine," Des said. "Now meteorites are accepted facts."

Maybe that will be the case for UFOs one day. Des hopes so.

Though he stayed in Des Moines until his retirement from Drake in 1983, Des remained restless. He took up jogging when he was middle-aged. He ran the Boston Marathon at age 65.

One day in 1987, Des was cutting down overgrowth on trees at his home. A branch broke loose and knocked him off his ladder. He landed on a saw on the ground. The fall broke his back and paralyzed him from the waist down. Des remembers his reaction being: "Oh, well. Life goes on." Des learned to use his wheelchair. He begins each day with 40 minutes of calisthenics, including dipping his body up and down in his chair to keep up his strength.

A friend suggested he get a motorized wheelchair. Des got ticked off. "Why would I do that?" Des asked. "I’ve still got arms and hands, don’t I?"

Des still lives alone, though his friends and children check on him regularly. He is 97 years old now. He figures he'll live to be 100. His legs don’t work, but he gets around fine. His hearing has slipped, but his eyes are sharp as ever.

And he keeps those eyes on the sky, looking for another streaking light and what it might tell us about life in the universe.