Chris Penningroth’s Weltanschauung » Military Affairs

Reactivating My Account

Chris Penningroth — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:20:34 +0000

I’ve got just a nutshell’s worth of time to catch you up on everything since last June (my last blog entry). From June through October, there was nothing much going on but somehow I ended up being too busy to write. I was basically holding down the fort at work with just one colleague (in an office that normally sports a complement of four). Somewhere in there were two trips, one to Europe and one to Chile. From October through 12 Jan 2010 was all work and family. Starting just before 4PM EST on 12 Jan 2010 was the massive earthquake that crippled Haiti. Since then my office did a whole lot of the coordination involved in getting images and videos into the hands of the folks on the ground perfoming the rescue, recovery, and humanitarian assistance disbursement. I’m finally getting caught up with life enough to at least think about starting to write about it! Thanks for stopping by to check in with me!

Fighting for Our Future

Chris Penningroth — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:48:19 +0000

The Air Force has been under considerable pressure from several different people for the past several years. Some of these folks have actually called for the Air Force to be disbanded. I penned a short apologetic piece which I posted over in the pages section.

It’s hard to believe some folks want to ignore lessons learned over the past 80+ years of military aviation; whether out of misplaced pride in one service, general ignorance, or unreasonable disdain of my service. The Air Force must be a separate service in order for aerial forces to perform effectively in battle. Period.

Raptor Punks

Chris Penningroth — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 12:02:25 +0000

Congrats to the first F-22 B-course graduates!

(In our squadrons, we refer to the first-operational-assignment lieutenant pilots as "punks.")

Laying Low

Chris Penningroth — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:02:46 +0000

Not that I’ve been posting a lot lately, but I’m going to be mostly offline for the next 7-10 days. We’re getting ready for one of those "Major muscle movements" that occurs every 18-36 months in the life of a government employee in my line of work.

This Could Get Ugly

Chris Penningroth — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:30:19 +0000

I was a bit surprised to read Georgia had moved troops into South Ossetia and Russia had in turn moved troops in and had started bombing Georgia (CNN, FoxNews, Johnson’s Russia List (via e-mail)).

It’s like Bizarro-Kosovo/Serbia.

Heroes Run 2008

Chris Penningroth — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:47:15 +0000

Mr Gary Patriquin is sponsoring the 2008 Heroes Run in Lockport, IL in honor of CPT Travis Patriquin and service members killed in Iraq. It will be 9 Aug 2008 at 0800. It starts at the Lockport High School, 1323 E. Seventh St., Lockport, IL 60441.

You can choose from a 5K run or a 1.5 mile walk. Registration is $15 and proceeds will go to both The Travis Patriquin Family Trust Fund and the Children of the Fallen Soldier Relief Fund.

If you would like to make a long-range donation, you can donate via PayPal. Just go to PayPal and enter Mr Patriquin’s e-mail address (gary112251 — at — America Online - dot - com). Proceeds donated via PayPal go to the Family Trust Fund for his three children.

If you have any questions about the run, the trust fund, or Children of the Fallen Soldier Relief Fund, you may contact Mr Patriquin at 1-815-483-4830.

Thank you for your consideration!

*****

15 Aug 2008 Update: The run looks like it went well. Thanks to all who participated or donated!

Returned To Base

Chris Penningroth — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:38:21 +0000

I’ve done a reverse MacArthur. I have returned from the Philippines.

As it happened, I rolled home and straight into an exercise! I’d like to say I swapped my ‘Battle Rattle’ for a chemical defense ensemble, but rather the chemical defense ensemble went on underneath the Interceptor body armor. Mercifully it’s been a cool June here in northern Japan.

It certainly was fun to get a few flights in, too, even if the weather obscured everything but the Pacific and the Sea of Japan.

Now back to the grind!

Revisiting Ramadi

Chris Penningroth — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:14:28 +0000

I received an informative article awhile back from Mr Gary Patriquin, father of my late friend CPT Travis Patriquin (the author of the PowerPoint slideshow How to Win in Anbar). If you’d like to know how the West was won, see Ramadi from the Caliphate to Capitalism by Andrew Lubin in the April 2008 Naval Institute Proceedings Magazine. The article gives an outstanding overview of the way the US managed to turn the volatile Anbar province from hostile to better-than-neutral even before the 2007 troop surge.

Thank for the tip, Mr Patriquin!

Cobra Quest Paused

Chris Penningroth — Thu, 29 May 2008 10:54:44 +0000

Some of my friends were not too far away from this event. They’re alright. They couldn’t tell me which of these reports about the event were correct.

I think I’ll be redirecting my search efforts.

The Best Thing About This Tour

Chris Penningroth — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:13:25 +0000

The best thing about this deployment was meeting this guy:

. . . At least according to him! You know how these young folks can be brash sometimes.

You’re doing great work, AJ! Keep it up!