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Body Builder and Fitness Author Doug Brignole April of 2021:
Those of you who think the vaccine kills people can use me as a test. If I die, you were right. If I don’t die, and have no ill effects, you were wrong, and should admit it (at least to yourselves). Better yet, you should admit that you were misled, and tell the world who misled you, so other people can benefit by avoiding those fear mongers.
18 Months Later:
My condolences to his family.
It’s no secret that the Navy, like the other military services, has paid attention to race and gender when it comes to promotions. This is captured through a variety of fields in an officer’s official record, as well as through an official photograph of the officer that is presented at any selection board. The picture requirement was originally removed in 2016 but reinstated in 2018 by NAVADMIN 265/18:
This NAVADMIN cancels reference (a) and reinstates the requirementNAVADMIN 265/18
to display the Official Photograph for all Officer Selection Boards. This
policy change is the result of board feedback received since the removal of
the photograph requirement that the photographs aid the board’s ability to
assess the Title 10 requirements of an officer’s ability to perform the
duties of the next higher grade.
If you are skeptical how a photo helps a board member assess whether Naval Officers can execute Title 10 requirements, you’re not alone. Maybe Navy Officers need to double as Instagram models? Maybe Public Affairs got tired of submitting photos of ugly officers that couldn’t measure up to Taylor Kitsch and Rhianna? Or maybe it was a way of weeding out people that checked “Other” on the ethnicity list? I’ll let you decide.
At least the Navy did this in the background. Truth be told, evaluating your selection results to ensure nobody is discriminated against isn’t a bad thing. But its a slippery slope to quotas, and given the number of people lobbying for such a setup, its no surprise that it finally happened.
Courtesy of MyNavyHR, here are the statistics from the O-6 (Captain) promotion board conducted this year:
I’ve only copied the first page here, which covers 1110 (Surface Warfare), 1120 (Submarines), 1130 (SEAL), 1140 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), and 13XX series (Aviation). Follow the link to get the rest of the 17 pages that cover other specialized communities.
I think the most frustrating part here is that this tells White Males that you have no background that the board cares about. Whether you came from difficult circumstances, are second-generation immigrants from Eastern Europe, or otherwise had some difficulty to overcome, none of that matters. You’re not the right color. Your background and story don’t matter.
I can’t recommend entering the Navy, especially the officer corps, while this nonsense continues. Between reducing the retirement and other benefits, non-stop wars designed to prop-up the military industrial complex paid on the backs of young men and women, or the increasing use of the military for dumb political stunts, its simply not worth it to join. This proves that even if you join with the intention of changing things, you won’t make it to the higher ranks to do so.
The only real chance for change is a change in President and an absolute evisceration of the membership at the top of the Pentagon. You can probably cut the Admiralty it in half without many problems, given the ratio of admirals to ships nowadays. You’ll need to deeply cut and remove a large chunk of the Pentagon and HR staff that pushes these sort of policies. Most importantly, and perhaps the hardest part, will be restoring our nation’s confidence that we select the best officers to place in harm’s way when the nation needs them the most.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please share this story with your friends, especially those considering joining the military, and consider donating to DaTechGuy. If you liked this article, consider purchasing the author’s book to support his writing endeavors.
For over forty years the M1 Abrams has been the absolute best tank. It outclasses all others when it comes to firepower, armor protection, mobility, and accuracy. The M1 Abrams is the gold standard all other tanks are measured against. Thanks to Joe Biden and his climate change obsession, this will come to an end.
As you can see from this Federalist Papers article, the Pentagon is turning the next generation of the M1 Abrams into a pussified green clown car.
The tank’s “hybrid power pack” will also consume half the fuel that current versions do and run more quietly; it “even allows for some silent mobility,” according to the company.
There’s only so silent a multi-ton vehicle is ever going to be when it’s on the move, of course, but things are relative on the battlefield.
This may be making a virtue of necessity, as the U.S. military — like every branch of an out-of-control federal government run by un-elected bureaucrats and increasingly left-leaning idealogues — has climate-change-related goals it must meet.
“The AbramsX’s hybrid power pack supports the U.S. Army’s climate and electrification strategies,” the company announced.
Not only is the engine being replaced, the M1 Abrams will shed a significant amount of armor protection.
Described in the company’s news release as the “main battle tank for the next generation,” GDLS says the newest Abrams version will weigh significantly less than those currently in service, which could make the tank both more mobile and more easily transported to far-off battlefields.
The engine of the M1 Abrams is one of the primary factors responsible for the success of this tank. It is described here on the M1 Abrams Wikipedia page.
The M1 Abrams’s powertrain consists of a Honeywell AGT1500 (originally made by Lycoming) multifuel gas turbine capable of 1,500 shaft horsepower (1,100 kW) at 30,000 rpm and 395 lb⋅ft (536 N⋅m) at 10,000 rpm and a six-speed (four forward, two reverse) Allison X-1100-3B Hydro-Kinetic automatic transmission. This gives it a governed top speed of 45 mph (72 km/h) on paved roads, and 30 mph (48 km/h) cross-country. With the engine governor removed, speeds of around 60 mph (97 km/h) are possible on an improved surface. However, damage to the drivetrain (especially to the tracks) and an increased risk of injuries to the crew can occur at speeds above 45 mph (72 km/h).
The tank was built around this engine[ and it is multifuel–capable, including diesel, kerosene, any grade of motor gasoline, and jet fuel (such as JP-4 or JP-8). For logistical reasons, JP-8 is the U.S. military’s universal fuel powering both aircraft and vehicle fleets. The Australian M1A1 AIM SA burns diesel fuel, since the use of JP-8 is less common in the Australian Army.
The gas turbine propulsion system has proven quite reliable in practice and combat, but its high fuel consumption is a serious logistic issue (starting up the turbine alone consumes nearly 10 US gallons (38 L) of fuel). The engine burns more than 1.67 US gallons (6.3 L) per mile (60 US gallons (230 L) per hour) when traveling cross-country and 10 US gallons (38 L) per hour when idle.
No traditional type of power plant comes close to matching the horsepower to weight ratio of a gas turbine engine. This has given the M1 Abrams an unmatched top speed. The new green engine, although more fuel efficient, will perform significantly worse than even a traditional tank engine, drastically reducing the performance. This will greatly endanger the tank crews.
The armor protection of the M1 Abrams is second to none. Because of this no Abrams has been destroyed by enemy fire.
Similar to most other main battle tanks, the M1 Abrams feature composite armor only on the frontal aspect of the hull. However, the Abrams’ turret features composite armoring across both the front and the sides. In addition, the side skirts of the frontal half of the hull are also made of composite, providing superior ballistic protection against chemical energy munitions such as HEAT rounds. The composition of the Abrams’ composite armor consists of sandwiched plates of non-explosive reactive armor (NERA) between conventional steel plates. The NERA plates feature elasticity, allowing them to flex and distort upon perforation, disrupting the penetrating jets of shaped charges and providing more material and space for a kinetic round to pass through, thus providing increased protection compared to conventional steel armor of similar weight….Armor protection was improved by implementing a new special armor incorporating depleted uranium and other undisclosed materials and layouts.[31] This was introduced into the M1A1 production starting October 1988. This new armor increased effective armor particularly against kinetic energy rounds but at the expense of adding considerable weight to the tank, as depleted uranium is 1.7 times denser than steel.
The only way to significantly reduce the weight of tank is to significantly reduce the armor of the tank. That will unconscionably reduce the protection for the tank crews, endangering them,
Yes the M1Abrams is a fuel hog. Fixing that will turn the Abrams into third rate fighting vehicle.
By Christopher Harper
The bond between learners and teachers has been fraying for years in higher education, but it appears that it is becoming increasingly broken.
I was always known as a tough grader. Still, it was only recently that administrators literally changed the marks for two students—one considered a star and another a woman whose father threatened a lawsuit.
That’s why I sympathize with a New York University chemistry professor whose medical students complained that his course was too challenging, and he got fired because of the criticism.
For a number of years, I taught the final course for journalism students—known in the trade as the capstone—before the budding reporters went into the real world.
The students had to travel outside of their comfort zones to report about troubled Philadelphia neighborhoods. They had to do so while creating stories in text, photography, audio, video, and web design.
Most students wanted to work in less difficult environments and only in their preferred journalism sector, whether in text, photography, or broadcasting. After my colleague and I left the course we created, the class has been dumbed down so much that it’s almost impossible to gain any significant understanding of the requirements of the craft of journalism.
Because of the escalating cost of higher education, students treat teachers like a commodity. If you pay for that commodity, you should expect it to do what you want it to do.
If you want a higher grade, you complain.
If you think the work is too hard, you complain.
If you don’t like how the teacher treats you, you complain.
It’s heartening that even some liberal professors agree that the system is broken.
Feminist journalists lamented the state of academia in opinion pieces for CNN and NBC after the NYU professor got axed.
“Faculty members aren’t commodities, and programs aren’t products. Education isn’t a raw material with a return policy,” Christina Wyman, an adjunct professor at Michigan State University, wrote for NBC.
Feminist writer and former adjunct New York University journalism professor Jill Filipovic agreed that the firing showed “what’s wrong with academia” in an opinion piece for CNN. “Turning education into a consumer product rather than a public good also subjects educators to the whims of the consuming public,” she wrote.
It’s nice to see that liberals and I can agree on something!
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