“If I only had a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range”

 

Bullet Points:

** Cyber Slavery (more here)  Pig Butchering  – in Cambodia. It seems that the slaves who pull off the scams and their victims are all missing some essential genes, but they share the commonality that they’re vulnerable. People who have been brainwashed from birth in totalitarian governments are being victimized by the corrupt Cambodian government.

** In 2020, Michelle/Big Mike Obama won a Grammy. Obama was nominated in the Best Spoken Word Album category for the audio recording of his/her bestselling memoir, “Becoming,” and he/she beat out the competition, which included director John Waters and Beastie Boys’ icons Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond. So we’re clear here, Big Mike won the highest music award there is for recording himself/herself reading a book that a ghostwriter wrote. That is how worthless awards have become. It’s a lot like Barack winning the Nobel Peace Prize early in his first term for being half-black.

** (Brietbart) Proxy War in Ukraine – Ukraine’s Defence Ministry has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals since the start of the year, including allegations of overpaying for military food items such as eggs, and winter jackets. Last month, all the heads of regional recruitment offices throughout Ukraine were sacked over allegations of bribery of officials from men seeking to avoid being sent into battle against the Russians.

On Monday, in a surprisingly candid article, the New York Times cited unnamed Ukrainian officials who revealed that money intended for military contracts in Ukraine “vanished” during the early days of the conflict.

The Russian-Ukraine war costs Ukraine about $100 million per day. Make of that what you will.

** Too Fat to Fight? Why is the new woke tranny military, body shaming the obese? Why don’t they let fat soldiers self-identify as thin in the same way that soldiers are able to change their gender orientation on a whim? If they offer gender reassignment surgery, why don’t they offer weight reduction surgery and special therapy to the ample-bodied? Just because you’re 5′ 3″ and tip the scales at 420 doesn’t mean that you can’t push a button to launch a missile, turn a pancake, or do any one of a number of useful skills that the military needs.

Can’t you just deem yourself to have done 20 pull-ups, 150 sit-ups, and run a 6-minute mile while you’re powering down biscuits and gravy?

I realize that in this era when the USMC can’t get uniforms it will take two or three times as much fabric to cover a fat Marine, but rule one is Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Shouldn’t there be as many fat Marines as thin ones in an Equity environment? Maybe there should be special pockets in BDUs to stash a freshly cooked chicken or watermelon wedge to add to the inclusion now available in Pedo Joe’s military.

The Russians have certainly embraced the concept in this environment where replacements are needed on the Ukrainian Front.

 

 

 

Identify the Aircraft

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2

3

4

 

In the Days of Fighting Sail

Wardroom Etiquette

Officers were considered gentlemen and as such they had to behave, which meant that there were rules in the wardroom that everyone had to follow.

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All, hats off. It was not proper to leave the hat on as it was considered an insult to those who remained at sea and one had to pay respect to the deceased comrades, whether one knew them or not. This also applied to the mess.

Captains and flag officers ate alone (unless invited to dinner), so the first lieutenant was always the master of the wardroom, which gave him the place of honor at the head of the table and thus more space. After that, it was a question of rank and seniority. So the 2nd lieutenant sat on the right as the right hand next to the first and on the left the master and so on.

Everything was discussed except religion, sex, and politics. Here it depended more on the character of the 1st lieutenant, so more serious topics like politics could come up. But that was rare.

Toasting was done while sitting down and having a drink. Before William IV became King, however, it was different and every man who was a little taller regularly hit his head on the beam. But he changed that when he joined the Navy at the age of 13 and had to experience the whole thing for himself. No sooner had he become king himself than he decreed that on board there should only be drinking while sitting down so that no one would have to bang their head in the name of a monarch. However, the evening was concluded with the words – Gentlemen to the King (later Queen) – by the 1st King. The lieutenant who replied -The King-. From then on there was the toast for the day, which changed daily.

Port or wine was always served clockwise and once the bottle was with someone it remained there until the glass was filled again. If the bottle was passed the other way around, it was considered an insult.

There was no obligation for all members of the watch to announce themselves or stand up when a higher-ranking officer came in or left the table.

The same was true for the uniform – the normal daily uniform was perfectly adequate. Unless it was a formal dinner, in which case the dressed uniform was compulsory.

No Midshipman was allowed to simply speak to a senior officer, he always had to ask permission to speak. If the captain was at the table, he was allowed to lead the conversation, which was considered respectful even if he was only a guest in the wardroom at that point.

You don’t openly call someone a liar. It only provokes arguments and the meal ends in chaos. The same applies to the carrying of swords or daggers, they are put away beforehand, not that it comes to a duel or the carrying of a weapon provokes one or even worse.

There was only one language in the Royal Navy and that was English. This meant that if any of the officers were Irish or Scottish, they must speak English. Unless the gentlemen are from another ship and therefore guests, in which case it is permitted.

Drinking in the Officers’ Mess was only allowed in convivial company, drinking alone was taboo. It was customary to bring drinks to other officers, especially one’s own friends, and then to toast with them.

On the subject of toasts, it was forbidden to give a toast before the Loyal toast had been given. In civilian circles, it was also permitted to give a toast even if only water was drunk. In the navy, superstition applies here again, because if the toast is given while someone is drinking water, he is the next to drown in the sea. It is also customary to toast, but not in the Navy. A glass that sounds tolls the death of a sailor; if you stop the ring, the devil takes two soldiers instead.

~~~~~~~~

Wardroom etiquette remains important in most navies and it varies from service to service.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

38 COMMENTS

  1. 1 Avro Anson
    2 Halberstadt C-V ? Didn’t that one just happen?
    3 Nieuport 17 ?
    4 That nose looks familiar, but IDK.

    -Kle.

  4. Identify the Aircraft:
    1. Avro Anson
    2. Albatros D.III
    3. Nieuport. Can’t be more specific as there are many variants and I’m not current on rigging.
    4. TBD

  6. The battling of the Savants above. You guys are amazing. (yeah, I repeat myself, but still…And the thing is – lest we forget – our Host knows this material as well.)

    Now onto the daily outrage…

    Missing Money- Really? Not that difficult…check the bank accounts of a couple of Uniparty Club Members, might see an uptick in their accounts that the New Gun-Toting IRS won’t audit. (I say give them all the firearms they can carry, might just off each other in friendly fire…they’re accountants, not weapons experts.)

    Fat (No, not; “overweight”, weight-challenged, plus sized, or in the case of Lizzo, “beautiful in her own skin”, which there’s a lot of it, meshed-covered or not)- My response: Let ’em in, let them all in, the enemy needs diversity targets and our good soldiers might need something to hide behind. In a word: Equity.

  7. BTW, it appears the new and improved Dorothy has The Knack…looks like something DrJim or Ed B would gin-up when provided enough hardware. Amazing what can be accomplished with a Leatherman, especially if it’s the MUT model.

    • I’ve known some female Enginners who were brilliant, FAR better tha some of the male Engineers I’ve worked with. And I’ve known several female auto mechanocs, and race drivers. They were all superb at their craft, and I had no problems with “Hey, You Got Beat by a girl!.

      • Sex or race, even age…never mattered to me as long as you did what you said you’d do. Seems a huge level of apathy these days as people care little about their personal performance and how that is supposed to help others.

        • I have no problem working with women. (Although, the modern definition of a woman is very flexible these days.)

          Women with small children have to be given latitude that I would not typically give to a man. Call me old-fashioned.

    • The divine right of kings was acknowledged in the loyalty toast. The captain, as the king’s man, would offer a prayer for the ship if it was needed. In the feature film, “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World” that was accurately portrayed.

      Priests, wizards, witches, necromancers, etc. were not appreciated by sailors, who were very superstitious. There were exceptions when supercargo/passengers on feather merchants booked passage or bought a ship such as the Mayflower or other Hugonaught vessels. In those cases, there was always a distinction between the praying passengers and the sailing crew.

        • C of E Priests preached against the sailors. “Lock your daughters up!” They also tried to defend against the press gangs that the Royal Navy used in times of war to get sailors for the fleet.

          Churchill nailed it when he referred to the sailor’s lot as “rum, sodomy, and the lash.” Today many C of E priests are openly sodomites, but THEN it was frowned upon.

        • Exactly, if you were an enemy of the God that brought you luck, you were an enemy of the crew, and it wasn’t a big thing if you went over the side on dog watch.

          At muster: First Lieutenant, “What happened to Able Seaman Frank?”
          No response in the ranks.
          First Lieutenant, “Ah well, he was an unlucky sort. Purser, strike his name from the ship’s rolls and place his pay due into the common welfare fund.”

  9. If i remember correctly there was a book entitled “Iron Men With Wooden Wings” written by Lou Cameron (I think). Really good read. The final iteration of the Sopwith line (curing the war) was the Sopwith Snipe. It allegedly could flat turn. SE5s were really well accepted.

    • A friend of mine who flew PAVE NAIL (OV-10A) in Vietnam is coming over for dinner on Sunday. Not a bird dog, but they took a lot of triple-A over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and got right into it in order to say “hit my smoke”. Thanks for the back channel e-mail.

  11. Too fat to fight? I remember a CSM, walking along the edge of the Square.

    Our Sergeant sang out, “Look at that, gentlemen, too fat to fkn fight.” He continued, “Get off my Square, you’re tilting it!.”

    So.

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