Two Black Tires

Having the Military Pay for Med School

2010-07-24T13:56:00.001-07:00

    I write this having originally joined the Navy via NUPOC. I did one junior officer tour on the USS Charlotte and then a shore tour teaching NROTC at SUNY Maritime where I took organic and biology at Columbia at night. During this time I also spent five months at Kandahar Air Field with a small 82^nd Airborne logistics task force. As of writing this I'm a MSIII at USUHS. I'll accept that I've gotten almost everything I've ever asked the Navy for. Thus, when I haven't gotten what I asked for, it's been relatively easy to accept that my desires did not fit with the needs of the Navy even when those needs were noticeably in part due to individuals poorly managing human resources. I think that it helps that I've generally tried to have a positive attitude about accepting that the needs of the Navy come first although the Navy tries to keep its people happy by giving them what they want. One also must accept that as a massive institution the military has plenty of faults. However, even with all its faults, I think it is one of the best, if not the best, institutions in the world due to the nature of its social contract.
    The rest of this is just my opinion based on my experience and the asking of lots of people lots of questions about how things actually work. You are free to disagree and comment if you think differently. Further, you will find lots of people on the internet who will disparage the military and the military medical system. Many of their critiques are valid, but nonetheless, I think the rest of the options are worse. In military healthcare system no doctor will even make a clinical decision based on its financial benefits to him or her despite its negative health, welfare, and financial benefits to the patient. I've written this for one friend who specifically asked about HPSP, but it could be useful to lots of other people, so I've posted it here.
    The active duty commitment is only one year of each year you get the DOD to pay for medical school, so if you have them pay for all four, you owe four years of active duty not counting residency. Any contract with military is for an eight year stint, with the number of active years specified. So if you owe four, you get out with owing four years of inactive reserves. This means that you are on a list of people who don't drill and the secretary of defense can force you to return to active duty, usually for one deployment, without actually drafting you. Traditionally, this has been nothing, but in the last few years some Army and Marine trigger pullers have had it done to them. I don't believe any doctors have had it done to them. If you do a longer residency and/or fellowship than four years, you also add time on for that, usually on a one for one basis. So if you do an ENT residency, five years, you then owe five years, plus the four for medical school, but they can be served concurrently, so you've really only added one year to your commitment. Also, the time spent in residency or fellowship, if on active duty, counts towards your twenty for retirement. If you do a civilian residency/fellowship, then you stay inactive duty, pushing your four year commitment for medical school to the right. So if you owe four for medical school, and do a five year residency, you only must serve for four years afterwards. The downside is that you received civilian residency pay of ~$40K while a military resident is paid based on his or her rank. I expect to make about ~$100K as a resident no matter what my speciality. You can also do a residency, then a tour as that speciality, and then go do fellowship or another residency without facing any pay cut. Of course, you do extend your time where Uncle Sam gets to tell you where to live.
    I would recommend the Navy over the Air Force or Army. I think I've got good logically reasons, which I'll explain, but I'm certainly a bit biased by a relatively good ten years in the Navy. If you really want to run around in the dirt, the Army is a good choice. For instance I have a classmate at USUHS, who is not the super strongest academically. (I'm not saying he's dumb; he's a perfectly good medical student, but no one considers him neurosurgery material.)   Although I haven't seen it, I wouldn't be shocked to notice him snacking on old shoe leather in the library because he likes the taste. He plans to become a special forces doctor, likely via family medicine, and he'll be a better special forces doctor than someone who is neurosurgery material any day.   If you really want that, the Army is the best option. The Navy and the Air Force can both give you that, but there are a whole lot fewer opportunities for it. Another significant traditional difference in the Army is that it's been a stronger promotor of research by physicians. This has been possible because of the shear greater size of the Army and may or may not change with Walter Reed closing and moving to Bethesda to combine with the Navy. The move could make the Navy, and even Air Force, more supportive of research or could make the Army less supportive of research. I've heard different opinions. A third advantage of the Army is that its size and need for surgeons probably offers the best chance for someone academically weak to obtain a surgery residency. If you don't match, you'll be assigned a residence based upon the needs of the service. My understanding is that the biggest amount of unfilled residencies have recently be in surgery. The big disadvantage of the Army is that, if a war is going on, you will likely have the greatest chance of spending a year living in a tent. Conversely, if there are no wars, the worst you'll experience will be some weeks of field exercises and perhaps a one year unaccompanied tour to Korea. I know one CNRA who never deployed from her commissioning as a nurse in about 1994 to about 2004. She then did two six month deployments to Iraq as a CNRA, where she saw some pretty serious stuff and faced rocket and mortar attacks.
    The Air Force is traditionally considered the best option if your number one concern is quality of life. You will have to deal with people pointing out to you that you're really in just a world wide country club than actually the military. Its also known for being strong in family medicine. Not that family medicine is more competitive in other services, but that in the Air Force other specialities are more competitive because the Air Force wants lots of family medicine docs. With family medicine you can be stationed anywhere, and I have heard of people getting places like England whereas a its almost impossible to get stationed there in the Army or Navy. The Army does still have a bit in Germany, but not like during the Cold War. The Navy has plenty of billets in the Pacific such as Hawaii, Guam, and Japan.
    I think the Navy offers the best option of playing in the dirt if you want it, with the Marines, but then the option of not doing that if you don't want to anymore. Because we're on the coast we generally have the best places to live. Our big three hospitals are in San Diego, Bethesda, and Portsmouth. San Diego and Bethesda both have great quality of life, and even Portsmouth, about which I had low expectations when stationed at the shipyard there, was way better than I had expected. There are a few more out of the way possible duty stations, but if you'd like to avoid them, it's probably possible. Although you could be a flight surgeon after internship, but before the rest of residency in the Army of Air Force, they have few enough, that you likely won't. You will likely go straight through residency like in the civilian world. The Navy still has many many general medical officer (GMO) billets. This is like a general practitioner in years gone by. For years there has been talk of ending the billets, but so far note much has changed. In a straight up GMO billet you do physicals and sick call. Quality of life is good, but interest of medical practice is low. Some people can go straight through from internship to residency, but this is only determined during PGY-1, when you apply to PGY-2 onward and GMOs at the same time. Besides basic GMO at some place like boot camp, you can also do Marine battalion surgeon, undersea medical officer with the submarine force or divers, flight surgery, and shipboard medical officer. In all these billets you'll do physicals and sick call and serve as the medical officer, the person who advises the commanding officer of medical issues amongst his troops. Any thing the commander thinks is medical, such as pest control, is likely to be assigned to your responsibility. Think of these billets as you being a military officer first, who must be a qualified doctor to adequately perform your duties. This is in contrast to a pediatric general surgeon in Bethesda, who is primarily surgeon, but wears a uniform when not in scrubs. Many people want to do GMO because it gives them a chance to see the Navy and potentially deploy. If you deploy with the Marines currently you'll fly on an airplane to Afghanistan, but traditionally you would float on a ships for six months pulling in to liberty ports waiting for the president to need some big guys with guns in a third world country moving towards chaos. The battalion surgeon is responsible to make sure the minimal number of Marines come back to the ship with STDs and other more innocent infectious diseases such as malaria. For some competitive subspecialties, such as ophthalmology and dermatology, it is de facto that you must do a GMO tour first because their competitiveness necessities the extra points in being accepted.
    I won't detail the points system, partially because I don't really understand it, but it's the system by which the military formally weighs candidates for residency programs. Each applicant is give certain points for grades, boards, research, GMO, and the such. It's pretty opaque to us, but it is what it is. Unlike the civilian match the military match is not done by a computer. It is done by all the program directors sitting in rooms and deciding where each person will go. It is done in December, so that those people who don't match in military programs can then enter the civilian match.
    All branches require you to go to some form of initial accession training, akin to boot camp, but not. As a doctor you will be commissioned either before you show up or when you show up. You've earned your commission by being physical qualified and being in medical school. You can go anytime during medical school that you can fit it in your schedule or you can go when you finish medical school prior to starting you career. In the Army you'll have to do things like field exercises. In the Navy you do some PT and learn what the ranks are in an air conditioned classroom in Newport, Rhode Island. You may initially get yelled at, but after a bit you'll relax because the people running it are not really interested in expending enough energy to yell all the time. It is not hard. If you have trouble making it through, it is a safe assumption that you are trying to not make it through. The Navy will then either cause you pain to stop being stupid or make things easier so you can't not make it. Other than the scare tactics at the beginning, you will not be treated like feces.
    In general as a doctor you chances of being hurt or killed in the military are pretty pretty low. I believe that four doctors have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't know how many man-months doctors have spent in country, but four doctors in that many man-months could have died from anything. I doubt the risk of being a western military doctor in Afghanistan is higher than that I accept by riding the notoriously unsafe Washington Metro to work most days.

DIY U, But Pay for Ms. Kamenetz's Book

2010-06-06T17:11:00.001-07:00

So a book about the future of information being free, but individuals are expected to pay for a hard copy.
No free copy online? Plenty of people have proven that a free creative commons version online still supports the sale of books. I will only point to my own hard copy of Against Intellectual Monopoly that I bought after reading the entire book for free online. Thank you professors Boldrin and Levine.
Ms. Kamenetz, I will not be bothered to even read your generous chapter 6.

in reference to: Read the Book! » DIY U (view on Google Sidewiki)

Are these people serious?

2010-05-30T13:29:00.001-07:00

Do people really pay the American Antiquarian Society actual money to "license" images that are in the public domain, and thus can be used for free? If anyone does, please email me as I have a bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan to sell you.

in reference to: Rights and Reproductions at the American Antiquarian Society (view on Google Sidewiki)

Mantle of Leadership

2010-04-29T18:06:00.001-07:00

I recently came across this fine example of leadership by COL A. G. Pushmin of the Soviet Air Force. It is from 1987, but it serves to remind any reader how a good leader might act. I hope that I might utilize appropriate judgment as COL Pushmin does.
A warning that it is not suitable for small children or others who may be easily offended as COL Pushmin uses vulgar language to express himself. The first page is the Russian original; the second page is the direct English translation.

Why Intellectual Monopoly Matters

2010-03-17T17:45:00.001-07:00

I just found this great research group that is actively looking at how intellectual monopoly hurts people. How it doesn't serve the public good.

in reference to: The Copy/South Research Group - Grupo de Investigacion Copy/South (view on Google Sidewiki)

Kaplan Sucks

2010-02-20T09:05:00.001-08:00

I would caution against purchasing any product from Kaplan. They have terrible customer service, and will not respond if you have trouble with their online service despite your spending of hundreds of dollars for their products.

in reference to: Welcome to Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions (view on Google Sidewiki)

Update: 27Feb2010

It turns out nothing is formally wrong with their site. What is wrong is that if you've entered your username wrong, rather than inform you that there is no user with that username, it merely logs you in to a new account. However, it doesn't tell you that you're in a new account without a paid subscription. Perhaps some savants are capable of keeping track of all their usernames and passwords. I am not, nor do I think most people are.

Great elimination of wasted time/effort

2010-02-17T10:51:00.001-08:00

What do the teachers' unions think of this plan? It will certainly result in thousands of teachers made redundant. Many students will be able to go to community college at 16. Community colleges, with both more flexibility in hiring/firing instructors and more flexible terms for students, are a far better place for actually learning. Relative to high school there will be few people who don't want to be there wasting time on discipline.

in reference to: New Plan Would Let High Schoolers Graduate Early - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

My first published article:

2010-02-16T15:45:00.001-08:00

My first published article:

Color Blindness and Military Fitness for Duty: A New Look at Old Standards. Military Medicine. 2010;175(2):84-85.

As my two coauthors and I wrote this on government time, in accordance with our duties as either medical students or as a physician, one can safely ignore the copyright notice. It really doesn't make sense that Military Medicine even bothers to copyright their journal as so much of the content is not legally copyrightable. If for some reason you come across this post and think that I am wrong, please contact me, so we can work things out.

MD SHA Needs to Learn Consideration for Pedestrians

2010-02-16T05:26:00.001-08:00

   I understand that the Maryland State Highway Administration has been working very hard lately to clear snow. I'm further sure that it's a difficult job that many are willing to quickly find fault with despite SHA working on limited resources. Very few people would actually think that the Maryland SHA should invest in snow removal resources as much as the Vermont Agency of Transportation. (I wonder if the Vermont agency actually accepts responsibility for more than just roads, as the name implies; that they recognize that transportation is more than just moving vehicles?) Further, anyone is free to review this post in which I complimented SHA for a job well done. So, as displeased as I might be about today's incident and SHA's proposal for a supposed multimodal underpass for the Medical Center Metro, I am not inherently an SHA hater, but when things like this happen, I have no choice but to publicize them. I would much rather be studying.

    With my acknowledgment of the above constraints, I still must put forth my displeasure regarding SHA's snow removal along Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda this morning. You can see in the geotagged photos the exact spots that I'm discussing. As I proceeded north on my walk to work this morning, I was dismayed to find that in the process of removing some of the mounds of snow on the corners, the walk ways through the mounds had been filled in. See picture to the above right. Further, the one corner between my house and work on Wisconsin that hadn't had any snow removed, was the one that the owner of the property had failed to clear a path through. Thus, all pedestrians are forced to climb over a three or four foot mound. Further, in this process one can see, in the second photo, that SHA's equipment created a packed slick surface on the road that was more slippery than ice. Why was no salt put down on these surfaces?



   I thought this was the worst of it until I proceeded further north towards Jones Bridge Road, where I found SHA workers awaiting the return of dump trucks to haul away the snow. Here I found a cleared sidewalk that had been nearly fully filled with ice chunks in while clearing the right turn lane onto Jones Bridge Road (see left photo). I then sought out the supervisor (sitting in the truck) who declined to speak with me and asked me to contact SHA communications department. I certainly understand such an action as I'm sure such is the guidance he has received from his superiors. Prior to declining to comment though, he did respond to my question regarding when the sidewalks would be cleared from the debris they've just put there. He told me that the sidewalks would be cleared "eventually". When is "eventually"? What if all of Wisconsin Avenue or another major road was not cleared of snow until "eventually"?

    Again I will state that I understand and accept that the SHA has limited resources. Further, I accept the those of us who don't regularly drive our commute will not receive anywhere near our proportion of resources for infrastructure maintenance. However, is it too much to ask that, in providing for snow removal for cars and trucks, that the poor state of affairs suffered by us pedestrians not be further added to?

Thomas J. Donohue, great businessman

2010-02-14T06:23:00.001-08:00

So this guy is doing everything he can to make Washington support pro-business policies. (The policies may or may not actually be pro-business, but that Mr. Donohue thinks they are, is what matters.) Has he every actual worked in business, or only trade associations? Does the guy actually know anything about running a successful enterprise? More likely he is an ideologue pushing his agenda under the rubric that it's better for business.

in reference to: Tom J. Donohue - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (view on Google Sidewiki)

Not yet

2010-02-13T14:21:00.001-08:00

I just thought about getting Netflix, but too much content is not available via streaming. I don't have a DVD player and don't want one. I would be willing to pay for content, but only if it's convenient and what I want is available.

I guess I will have to continue using BitTorrent. I don't mind ignoring copyright since it is not a net economic benefit to society and impinges on individuals' freedom without a corresponding benefit. However, I would be happy to pay for the creation of content at a reasonable price. Too bad the studios fail to accept the modern era.

It's the same with BBC iPlayer. We pay £10 a month for a UK proxy server in order to watch iPlayer. I would gladly give that money to the BBC in order to fund the creation of their programs, but they do not offer such an option.

in reference to: Netflix DVD Rental, Movies Streamed Online, DVD & Blu-Ray Movie (view on Google Sidewiki)

The Wovel AKA POS garage ornament

2010-02-10T17:44:00.001-08:00

What a serious piece of crap.

in reference to: Wovel :: World's Safest Snow Shovel! (view on Google Sidewiki)

My Political Views

2010-02-04T15:02:00.001-08:00

My Political Views
I am a center-left moderate social libertarian
Left: 2.51, Libertarian: 3.17

Political Spectrum Quiz

Great Comment

2010-02-04T10:34:00.001-08:00

My favorite comment on this thread.

in reference to:

"“My post wasn’t about what copyright meant when it was created…” You might as well be announcing that you’re an utterly clueless fucktard."
- Conventional Folly » Piracy. Is. Stealing. (view on Google Sidewiki)

The entirety of How to Frame an Athel...

2010-01-26T15:45:00.001-08:00

The entirety of How to Frame an Atheletic Policy by Mason W. Gross. Fifty years old and still the best piece ever written on the role of sports in the American university.

NY Times to charge in 2011

2010-01-26T15:41:00.001-08:00

I've read the Times since I started reading the paper in middle school. It will be sad to stop reading it next year when they begin to charge. Although it once was worth it, in today's plethora of media options, it is not. Sorry NY Times that the 21st century isn't so kind to you. You will only drive more readers to NPR by charging.

in reference to: The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia (view on Google Sidewiki)

Glory Days of Medical Education

2010-01-20T17:03:00.001-08:00

Reinforcing the public's adulation of medical research was the attitude of the researchers themselves; their view that medical research was a calling. their conspicuous disdain for commercialism, and their lack of interest in personal financial reward, provided that their laboratory and department were well supported. Medical scientists were hardly without ego or ambition. However, they sought nonmonetary rewards: approval and recognition from their peers and, for a lucky few, from society. The currency of academic medicine was not dollars but publications, appointments, titles, memberships, and awards.

Here was no better indication of the antipathy of medical schools toward commercialism than their attitude toward patents. In their view, the objective of medical research was to promote the public welfare, not to enable individuals or institutions to profit financially from inventions or discoveries. Most medical schools would not hold patents or accept royalties from patents that arose from university work. At the University of Rochester, for instance, neither George Comer nor the school's dean gave any thought to patenting Comer's discovery of the hormone progesterone. It was their position that no medical discovery should be commercially restricted, even for the benefit of a university.

Although there were a few exceptions to this pattern, this was the policy at the two most important schools, Johns Hopkins and Harvard. At Hopkins, the dean declared that "universities (and particularly medical schools) do not belong in business. Any commercialization of the institutions will in the long run do the institutions great harm. Universities being supported by philanthropy and by State grants should not sell themselves in any way." Neither the school nor individual faculty members owned patents, and the school refused royalties from patents growing out of medical school research." Harvard Medical School went further. Not only were patents by faculty members prohibited, but the school offered to provide legal advice to faculty members who desired help to prevent others from patenting their discoveries or inventions. When Harvard Medical School dedicated its patent on liver extract for the treatment of pernicious anemia to the public, it engaged in a "venomous discourse" with the "burned up" Eli Lilly Company, which had invested more than $1,000,000 in the work. Ully wanted "a special 'in'," but the school refused "in the belief that Harvard professors worked for the public interest." In research, as well as in education, American medical schools acted as a public trust.

The above is from p38 and 39 of Time to Heal by Dr. Kenneth M. Ludmerer. There may be some OCR issues with the original because of our unjustifiable intellectual monopoly laws Google won't let me just cut and paste. Those were really the glory days of medical education.

Medical 203, the precursor to the DSM...

2010-01-05T06:00:00.001-08:00

Medical 203, the precursor to the DSM ungated. This is not copyrighted despite Wiley's putting a copyright on it. It was written by military officers, and is thus in the public domain.

As an American I sometimes disagree w...

2010-01-04T17:13:00.001-08:00

As an American I sometimes disagree with my wonderful British wife about the absoluteness of freedom of speech. I firmly believe that one's freedom of speech should never be diminished by someone else's offense. That is, I can say whatever I want to offend anyone else no matter what.

This does not include treason, which is what Islam4UK would be guilty of with their proposed march. Not only should they not be allowed to march, but any attempt to should be meet with criminal charges of treason.

Please join the Facebook group.

Kevin's Translation

2009-11-09T14:05:00.001-08:00

I, along with one other classmate and one professor, am working on a couple papers about the history and policy of color blindness as a physical standard for the military. Although the first paper is just about done, as part of it, I asked my amateur German scholar father-in-law, Kevin Melia, to translate an article for me, A Railway Accident a Hundred Years Ago as Reason for Systematic Testing of Colour Vision, Klin Monatsbl Augenheilkd. 1975 Jul;167(1):125-7. Since this is the only English translation I know of, I've decided to post it online in case anyone else in the world would like it. Note that as personal favor, it's not super polished, so you'll see Kevin's notes to me regarding his translation. A Railway Accident a Hundred Years Ago as Reason for Systematic Testing of Colour Vision

Raritan Valley Line Improvements

2009-09-07T17:35:00.001-07:00

That, my friends, is the Raritan Valley Line pulling out of Fanwood station. Upon getting on the train Sunday morning, I learned that starting in late 2008, and finishing just last week, the Raritan Valley Line had switched to all double-decker carriages.

On the same trip, while waiting in Newark Penn Station, I learned that Amtrak offers head of the line service to those of us in uniform. While this is a laudable offer, I challenge the Amtrak management to do more. Please lower your fairs for service members so that we might actually use Amtrak. I travel between NY and DC somewhat frequently, and Amtrak doesn't even come close to offering a competitive price compared to driving. Further, please fix the annoying policy of not permitting bicycles on trains between NY and DC. Not only is the website unclear as to what the policy is, but the policy does nothing to promote freedom from our automobiles. DC and NY are two of the most bike friendly (I realize that compared to somewhere like Holland we suck.) large American cities, but there is now way via public transportation to bring a bicycle between the two.

Final Kerkesner Photos

2009-08-02T15:28:00.001-07:00

Here are all the photos I took while at Fort Indiantown Gap. http://picasaweb.google.com/huckfinne/KerkesnerInTheField#.

Listen to Rory Stewart

2009-08-02T15:27:00.001-07:00

Listening to NPR this afternoon a recent article in the London Review of Books by Rory Stewartwas brought to my attention. He says what I've been thinking for a while although in much clearer terms and with more research. We, the West, should reduce our troop commitment in Afghanistan to 20,000 soldiers specifically to keep Al Qaeda from using the country to attack us while concentrating our long term efforts on development. I think one thing that keeps us from adopting this course is that even when a bomb blows up an empty building, commanders and policymakers can confidently say that the bomb was dropped and the building was blown-up. That the status of the building after the bomb remains virtually unchanged from before is irrelevant. As George Soros has written about development is much riskier. However, in the long run, it is much cheaper than repeatedly dropping expensive bombs on a country that ran out of worthwhile targets a decade or more ago.

Mr. Stewart does not go down the economic path to address whether our current course is sustainable in the long term for the US and the UK. We continue to disinvest in our own countries while spending billions and billions in Afghanistan. Not only do Americans need to read After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd to learn that the balence of trade is disastrous for us, but that literacy matters far more in Afghanistan than our JDAMs.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

The buses finally arrived at FIG yest...

2009-07-25T06:36:00.001-07:00

The buses finally arrived at FIG yesterday at 1400. However only two buses arrived when four were needed. I'm not quite sure how Bravo Company was determined to go first, but being part of Bravo Company I'm not going to complain because the second two buses didn't show up until we were on the Beltway more than two hours later.

We road home on this bus from Becton's Elite Getaway. I don't know who is responsible for the lack of bus SNAFU, but I can tell you the Becton's by Larry B according to the back of the bus, sucks. Perhaps the government contract didn't specify that the air conditioning must kept a bus load of people cool because although the air conditioning was on, it barely worked. We sweated as much on the bus ride home as we did all week. I wouldn't have been surprised if we had had our first heat casualty on the bus it was so hot.

Clean vs Dirty BDUs

2009-07-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

Here you can see the filth I've accumulated over the last two weeks on my BDUs. Bree Baffer changed into a clean uniform yesterday while I haven't got one.

Hat Head Toss

2009-07-24T05:15:00.001-07:00

We've finished most clean up and are currently awaiting for the TOC tent to be taken down prior to policing that area. While waiting several students started playing head hat toss. Jon Wingate commented that one of these classmates might catch his baby one day.

Tent Take Down

2009-07-24T04:23:00.001-07:00

This morning we woke up at 0430 to return to Kerkesner. We proceeded to take down the tents and have our weapons, which had been hastily returned prior to our departure last night, inspected.

Here one sees third platoon's tents already on the ground while ours is about to be taken down.

Brian Taylor in a Hodgepodge Uniform

2009-07-24T02:21:00.001-07:00

After an hour or two we finally got places to sleep throughout the barracks. We were not able to maintain platoon integrety and give everyone a rack. Thus, some people slept on the floor, which was not big deal. Overall proboly worth getting a shower a day early.

Because we left our site so quickly and had been just lounging about and napping, not everybody had all their uniform bits. Also we needed kevlars since we travelled via LMTV. Thus we have Brian Taylor above as an example of our dress in flip-flops, BDU trousers, tshirt and kevlar. Here he stands as platoon leader while we await transport back to Kerkesner to clean up.

One Final SNAFU

2009-07-23T18:27:00.001-07:00

After raining all afternoon, lightening and thunder commenced about 2000. All of a sudden we had 30 minutes to get our gear together since range control had declared that all personnel needed to be off the mountain.
The above photo shows members of bravo company chilling outside of the barracks awaiting rooms. There are three bays empty, but so far they have not been unlocked and made available to us.

Overall SNAFUs have been few and far between so one can't really complain. Nevertheless, for us right now, we are not having a good time since we'd lie to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity to shower.

Nic Longstreet Asleep After 36 Hours of Missions

2009-07-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

After our short completion ceremony we all pretty much collasped. Although the original weather forcast expected rain all we, we finally had rain once we were done today.

Dr. Burns has told us he's got our dinner tonight, which we hope is pizza. After finishing up clean up tomorrow morning we will finally go home to clean off a week's worth of sweat and grime.

More Cont.

2009-07-23T13:01:00.001-07:00

After the scout platoon conducted another mission and we accepting their casualties the exercise was finished. We returned to our camp where Dr. Burns conducted simulated field memorial service to emphisize why we are here and we do what we do. We also had some inter-platoon competition in the form of pugal sticks, MMA and an MRE eating contest. Unfortunately I did get pictures, but others did. We are all running pretty short on battery life after almost a week with no power. Finally we had a short completion ceremony where we met the commodant, CDR McKay.

Anna Romagnolli AKA Ramen Noodle

2009-07-23T12:56:00.001-07:00

Above we see Anna resting on the bleachers near the site of our second battalion aid station yesterday. She wasn't feeling too well, so she ended up with the job of escorting people to the toilet. It wasn't much, but proper sanitary practices are important to any military operation.

After setting up two BASs yesterday, we got dropped off by squads to set up another. What a surprise when we found put that each squad's driver erred and thus all squads had to conduct their own night land navigation through thick forest.

Shortly after hitting the hay, we were awoken with a short tasked to have the entire company set up a new BAS. On the way their we were hit by an IED forcing us to finish the last leg on foot carrying our casualties up a decent sized hill. Carryin litters an individual patients up hills is tough, but we did it. We had he BAS set up with a perimeter by sunrise upon when OPFOR started probing our security.

Platoon Mates on the Bus Returning from Paintball

2009-07-21T07:47:00.001-07:00

Bree Baffer, Connie Barko, Matt Gagnon, Seabass Welsh are sitting on the back of the bus. We had to go to a commercial site for paintball about half an hour away. We did a few lanes that enabled us to put into practice some of the platoon movements we've learned. At first we took significant casualties, but eventually figured things out. Over all nearly the entire platoon thought this was one of the best activities of the last ten days

A Victorious Garrett Parker Celebrates his Unexpected Win in Pugal Stick Combat

2009-07-21T07:45:00.001-07:00

After last night's late night mission today we conducted combatives training in the morning. Last night we rescued a hostage from a multistory building that had to be accessed via tunnels. We all had a great time although my squad had to return to rescue a casualty we had left inside. The climbing through wet tunnels was not so great for our knees.

The defeated in the above photo, 2dLt C, had shown some unknown ferocious earlier in the training, so we expected him to destroy Garrett. Yet instead, managed to pull out a 3-2 victory.

Our Platoon Cheering on Our Best Shooter, Keith Beam

2009-07-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

We had three sets of shooters for this morning's M9 familiarzation fire. The best shots from each set were compared. Keith beat out myself and Paul Wetstein. He then went in to shot five rounds in twenty seconds at a M16 zeroing target from about ten yards. I can't remember the exact scoring system, but he scored six points, which wasn't enough to beat the current top score from all platoons of ten.

Our Camp

2009-07-19T18:17:00.001-07:00

After arriving at our camp first and third platoons decided to move our tents down the slight incline to flatter ground. Second platoon's tents are in the foreground while first and seconds are in the background. Third platoon's tents are obscured by second's in this photo.

Tomorrow we will do the scout day. We have nit yet been issued weapons because the first two activities tomorrow, pistol range and paintball, forbid rifles.

Tuesday we'll do infantry and Wednesday we'll do medical. The schedule is such that we expect each day to get us more dirty.

Jon Wingate Standing by Our Guidon

2009-07-19T14:10:00.001-07:00

We've just arrived at Op Kerkesner. Above you can see some of our tents with new high speed cots. We've been issued sleeping bags and stand by ready to be assigned tents.

Joyce Noveras at Breakfast

2009-07-19T10:31:00.001-07:00

I had planned to wake up for mass at 0730. However when I woke up I decided to go back to sleep. Fortunately I couldn't get back to sleep and went. The only other person from my company who went was Joyce Noveras. Afterwards we went to Funck's for breakfast to make up for our calorie deficiet over the last and upcoming week. I had a huge meat lovers omelet, two pancakes and scrapple. Yum yum Maybe it will get me through the next week. We have the next couple of hours off until we go to the field for Op Kerkesner.

Two MS IVs Conducting Triage

2009-07-19T10:23:00.001-07:00

About forty of us just played casualties for Op Bushmaster. When the end of the ex was called thirteeen of isinimals remained on site. We are to be used in a second mass cas in a few minutes.

Getting Ready for Mass Casualty

2009-07-18T16:07:00.001-07:00

Mary Alice Pass, Bree Baffer, Seabass, Megan Stevens just before a mass casualty event on Saturday evening.

Joe Spinelli Moulages Kaye Dowdy

2009-07-17T06:26:00.001-07:00

Some of the MS Is, instead of being moulaged and played casualties, have learned the moulage techniques themselves. This helps the moulae staff in that rarely is anybody waiting to be moulaged. Thus, the scenarios are never waiting on patients.
In general our student leadership has developed an excellent system of assigning students to scenarios. Students usually have about an hour prior to their moulage showtime.

Lesson Learned by the Platoon Sergeant

2009-07-16T20:26:00.001-07:00

Our platoon sergeant Megan Stevens had been a bit full of herself with all the power she has over us. We took her behind the tent and showed her where the true power is.
Note: The above post is sarcasm. All bruising is moulage.

Hungover Having Drunk Nothing

2009-07-16T20:25:00.003-07:00

I just did two patient runs to different BASs. Completely randomly I had the same simulated patient assignment both times. I was a hungover soldier although in real life we have a general order number one that prohibits is from any alcohol consumption during these two weeks. One both runs upon being told to wait a bit by perimeter guards, I promptly sprawled out on the ground to sleep. On both runs, the MS IVs were quick to assume that I needed a stretcher although I then stood up and walked onward. At the first BAS the Brit acting as surgeon quickley realized I was hungover and returned me to duty. The student at the second station spent nearly twenty minutes before some suggesting by her instructor created in her an 'ah hah' moment.

Helmet Rock

2009-07-16T20:25:00.001-07:00

After being evacuated from the BAS, we walked up to the main road in order ne picked up and recycled back to the moulage tent. While waiting for the van, ENS Brian Taylor demonstrated his creativity by inventing a new game, helmet rock, the goal of which is to throw a small rock across the road onto an upsidedown helmet. When you get a rock in, everybody cheers. Play is them continued until either another rock is thrown in or the van arrives. The honor of first helmeted rock belongs to 2dLt Marcia Miranda.

Battalion Aid Station

2009-07-16T20:23:00.001-07:00

After being moulaged we were strewn about a IEDed vehicle. The MS IVs then recovered us and brought us to the BAS.

ENS Bree Baffer Post Moulage

2009-07-16T20:22:00.001-07:00

Dinner

2009-07-15T18:02:00.001-07:00

Upon returning from the LRC this morning we ran into a pizza delivery guy making a delivery. Although he started to think I was the intended recipient. I conveyed that all I wanted was the phone number of a place that delivered here. He then gave me a stack of menus, which I gladly distributed among my company mates.
For dinner te whole squad chiles in and we ordered pizzas. Most importantly we ordered some ruffage too to suppliment our lack of frsh fruit and veggies.
How many other medical schools get to eat pizza on concrete after combatives training?

Dan Choking Jeff

2009-07-15T17:59:00.001-07:00

This afternoon we did some more combatives training. Here you see Dan demonstrating a serious choke on Jeff, the company commander. Although Jeff looks to be in a poor state, he was compliant, and Dan was going gently in anticipation of a tap out.

RIP Dan's Belt: June 2003 - July 2009

2009-07-15T09:49:00.001-07:00

We had serious casualty today. Dan Brillhart had had this belt for six years, but when using it to secure two planks together, the buckle snapped due to his weight with a hundrend pound weight on his back. Unfortunatly the type of buckle is no longer available and cannot b replaced.

Bree and Dan Spending Quality Time on the LRC

2009-07-15T09:12:00.001-07:00

This morning the company spent a great morning of quality training on the Leadership Reaction Course. The course consisted of any short exercises that challenged our troop leading procedures. Each squad member took the commanding role for each exercise enabling both growth in teamwork and individual's leadership skills.
In the photo above we see Bree passing over Dan through a tube. On the other side there were to pillars in a river that had to be connected via planks that were a bit too short.

Me Distracting the MS IVs from 'Real' Patients

2009-07-14T18:04:00.001-07:00

In the afternoon a group of us went over to Operation Bushmaster. Each group of five played simulated casualties so that an individual fourth year could perform a quick one minute triage. In the above phot I'm the superficially wounded individual who distracts the doc from the significant casualties. I was able to get one student to spend 80% of his time on a expectant casualty, whom is expected to not make it. Thus, the doc should spend little or no time on them in order to devote time and resources to those that can be saved. Unfortunatly all the screaming a moaning has hurt my voice a bit.
Although the rest of our platoon sat around the barracks and played cards, we've earned good karma. Now when volunteers are needed for a much worse job, ten of us can us the fact that we've already volunteered for this to not have to do the worse job.

Nic Longstreet with His Sunscreen

2009-07-14T18:02:00.001-07:00

Nic Longstreet has put more sunscreen on. When done, he put the container in his cargo pocket. Let's see if it explodes this time.

Eton FR160

2009-07-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

Here is my recently bought Eton FR160. Although it's a radio I purchased it primarily for the handcrank phone charger for use in the field. I don't think the electronic configuration allows the solar cell to charge the phone. other companies make pure solar cell phone chargers, but they cost much more than the $30 the FR160 costs. Although it worked fine upon initial opening, after leaving it in the sun on my balcony for the day to charge the battery, it stopped working. after some mechanical agitation, it worked again.
I can't return it now because I need it.
Two messages for Eton:
1. don't make products that don't work reliably
2. make a solar/handcrank device designed specifically to charge phones via USB.

Whole Foods Produce Goes Bad Too Quickly.

2009-07-14T04:08:00.001-07:00

I've posted before about my lack of satisfaction with Whole Foods. Unfortunatly my local Safeway doesn't carry Tropicana Ruby Red and Whole Foods does have nice meat. Because it was convenient we also picked up some broccli. upon going to cook it about 24hrs later, bits had already started to trun brown as you can see in the above photo. We ate it anyway, and it tasted fine, but one would expect more from Whole Foods.

Buses Arrive

2009-07-14T03:45:00.001-07:00

0640 buses arrive to take the rest of us to FIG. Moat importantly they arrived after the cafe opened so that coffee could be purchased by all addicts.

Welcome to the Army

2009-07-14T03:40:00.001-07:00

As anyone who has spent more than a day in the Army knows, things normally work out as planned. This morning we had only two buses show up for about 160 students. Alpha Company left at 0500 since they're in the field tonight.
As our fantastic platoon leader, 2LT Dan Brillhart, pointed out the worst case scenerio, since Fort Indiantown Gap is two and a half hours away, is that the buses are back to pick us up in six hours. It's also quite likely that two more buses will appear in a shorter amount of time.
All in all not a big deal. As one of my squad members pointed out being delayed enabled him to get coffee when the cafe opened and he gets to bs with people here instead of FIG. We also still get the bus time to sleep so this, as you can see in the photo, gives us more time to make up for waking up at an evil hour this morning.

Bravo 1 2nd Squad OPORD Brief

2009-07-13T10:51:00.001-07:00

After a morning going over troop leading procedures, we broke for a working lunch to prep the OPORD for Op Kerkesner. Random people from random squads were choosen to brief the class on specific aspects of the plan. Random tended to mean the person appeared to Dr. Burns to not have an idea what was going on. Of course the Bravo ¹Squad, in this case, Squad 2, performed well.

Whole Foods Failure

2009-07-12T13:17:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo I took today in the produce department at While Foods in Tenley Town. Specifically it shows parsnips with no price being displayed. I've spoken to both customer service and the store manager, Marc Mastropaolo, via email regarding the fact that there are always products with no displayed prices in the produce department. Although he stated they are "going to fix this," they have failed. Perhaps they perfer that people must blindly spend money in order to retain the moniker of Whole Paycheck.

Oregon Aero BLSS kit install

2009-07-11T17:45:00.001-07:00

I just installed an Oregon Aero BLSS kit to mt USUHS issued kevlar helmet. For much cheaper than a new style helmet the wraring can ameliorate the constant pain of the okd school helmet. This shows the way in which our exercise could be better funded. I know that there are many competing demands for funding, but at the premier military medical school we should at least be issued semi-modern equipment. In many ways the LBE beats wearing an IBA but perhaps the complete removal of leather sweatbanded helmets from the government's inventory is in order.

Power of the iPhone

2009-07-11T11:02:00.001-07:00

As the last post shows I've just started using a program called ShoZu. After one post I can surely says it's worth the $5 I spent on it. It permits the user to make blog posts from one's iPhone to include photos and tags. it even geotags the post using the iphone's position.
I'm currently at the Philadelphia Airport, which I can firmly say sucks. My connecting flight is via a far away terminal and the setup to get arriving international passengers over to terminal F is either poor or nonexistent. at one point while still in international arrivals a sign to the shuttle pointed to a nonexistent door. After asking a TSA officer he escorted me out backwards through my re-entry through security. Upon arriving on ground level, I learned that the way for me to get to terminal F was via the economy parking shuttle.
All this might seem to lack sense until one recalls that this airport is a hub for US Airways. Thus, like most things associated with the company, it doesn't function well.

Prices for media at Gatwick

2009-07-11T10:05:00.001-07:00

Here we see that with the advent of competition the media companies have been forced to low prices. Conventional wisdom would suggest that this would lead to a decrease in incentives for artists, but, so far, there as been no shortage of people who want to be in the movies and be rockstars.

Other USUHS Blog

2009-06-24T18:32:00.001-07:00

One of the other platoons has started a blog at http://kerkesneroutsidethecage.blogspot.com/.

Train-up Week Day Three

2009-06-24T17:48:00.001-07:00

In the morning we did some classroom review of the laws of war regarding captured enemies, combatives and how to clear a building. In the afternoon we did land navigation. All photos are available on their own Picasa album since the other album would have been too large for the capacity of Picasa albums once I added today's photos.

While in the classroom one of my squad members applied sunscreen to his hands in face. He then put the tube in his cargo pockets, which I thought might not be a good idea. However, when the lesson ended, I forgot to suggest to him that cargo pockets are bad places for tubes of sunscreen when one is about to learn and practice how to take down an individual. Needless to say, when he got up following someone else and I taking him to the ground, his cargo pocket had sunscreen oozing out (See right). We had some enlisted Marines, the real experts since they're so much more badass than the Army, showing us how it's done as well. We then did both squad action and platoon action take down of buildings. The cadre played opfor while we took turns in different roles such as prisoner detail and casualty collection point. It was a good primer for some of the more detail exercises planned for tomorrow.

After lunch we did land nav, first in the classroom and then in the woods. The classroom portion reminded me of the week spent manually geoplotting in sub school. Not only can a computer do such calculations more quickly and accurately, but dong fifth grade math problems annoys me. I still remember in first and second grade when our math skills were so limited that 7+6 had to appear more than once in order to fill up the page. I knew that 7+6=13 the first time, so why am I being asked again? We didn't do how to fix one's position because for the Army that is considered advanced even though in the Navy we do it as often as every three minutes on the ship to ensure we don't run in to the rocks. Although it must be pointed out that all too often ships have difficulty with it. Once outside it was more enjoyable since my partner and I were getting to tromp through the woods looking for orange stakes with lucky charms printed on them. ENS J spotted each marker better than an eagle would have. He also had his own compass, which, although simpler than the Army compasses, proved more more user friendly. I bet it was cheaper too.

Once we were done we had to wait for all groups to finish. Our platoon commander, 2LT B, was a bit late, which seemed strange. He finally appeared and explained that he was late because he had perfect opportunity to steal Third Platoon's guidon that was left unattended adjacent to the wood line while they pranced in the fields. We proudly added it to ours as you can see here.

We then did some more platoon tactical movement followed by 2LT B showing us some good chokes from the Modern Army Combatives Program.

I had to delete some rugby photos from the fall since, even though I
upgraded storage to 40GB at $75 a year, google takes up to 24hrs to
process the storage. I also figured out the problem I get with my camera sometimes. Since it's so old the shutter gets stuck. I have to switch the lens and body to manual, click a photo and then it's fine. As you can tell from my photos, I'm not the best photographer. Some of the photos from the building came out really dark since I only have the puny flash built into the camera.

I'd really like to commend the USUHS leaders who are promoting us to blog about our experiences. It's, of course, a potential double edged sword, but as Victor Davis Hanson, Karl Popper (whom I haven't read) and George Soros would argue, it's the openness that makes us stronger. As Abu Muqawama covered yesterday, the media, which now encompasses far more than just a few reporters, cannot be controlled. However, it can be embraced and shaped.

The trouble leaders can sometimes have with openness, in the end, only serves to harm them by preventing them from seeing their true position. By violently preventing protests in Iran, the Supreme Leader, only fails himself in that he does not know the true lack of strength on which he retains his position. From Xenophon to today the Persians seem to have the same issues. Let's hope, as Emmanuel Todd would suggest, that their next revolution will see them finally adopt the tenets of western civilization that served the Ten Thousand so well.

It's interested that Abu Muqawama then today covered the product of the opposite public relations mentality to maximum openness, propaganda. It is so laughable because it is so far from what the people actually think and feel.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

Train-up Week Day Two

2009-06-23T18:16:00.001-07:00

Today we did a morning session of repelling off of building A and an afternoon session of reviewing TCCC, which, fortunately, was more than just a review in that we applied TCCC to simulated combat while also moving up to tactical movement of the entire platoon. I brought my D100 today, so I took a lot more photos available on my Picasa page. Picasa doesn't have the ability to create sub albums so you'll just have to see where rappelling photos start.

For harnesses we just used short pieces of rope tied into Swiss seats. The rope was very basic though compared to my commercial climbing rope which has a separate sheath and core. We had three harnesses that had to be chucked because of some minor breakage of strands. There was not safety issue though because our fantastic instructor, SFC W, caught the frays. I suggest that the Army should purchase commercial climbing rope vice the Army rope that we used.

SFC W going over the rappel rig on the roof of USUHS building A. The hospital can be seen in the background.

We also learned that our medical school has a rappelling rig purpose built on top of the tallest building on campus. We probably the only medical school in the country that can say that. Dean Standford had it placed there, and supposedly would randomly rappel down for recreation. Every person in the platoon made at least one descent even though some were not keen to be doing it. We also had a french Army doctor have a go as well. He was visiting from their military medical school at Val de Grace. The director of the entire operation, Major (Dr.) B, said he has plans to visit professionally all six of the world's military medical schools next year.

The initial part of the afternoon session was a bit annoying causing most of the instructors were concentrating on one lane of squad tactical movement with casualties to practice our TCCC. The other two squads did review of carries/procedures and scenario based discussions. I think that it might be the third or fourth time we've reviewed carries. It seems like whenever there is a gap in the schedule that needs to be filled the default for military medical students is review patient carries. The tactical movement into TCCC operation proved beneficial. I got to be a civilian casualty, so I decided I was a local national photo journalist since I was clicking away with my camera anyway. We then did our first platoon level tactical movement with casualties that forced us to use our TCCC and forced people to move up in authority when seniors were killed. Overall a very beneficial experience. We didn't have quite enough "weapons," so I carried my camera. I use quotes because, although they looked and felt like M-16s, they were in fact rubber with metal barrels completely non-functional.

Medical students on patrol in Bethesda.

During both morning and afternoon sessions we came across high-school students from the National Youth Leadership Forum on Medicine. Our lead staff instructor spoke to them some while we were in between lanes in the afternoon. I had left my "weapon" up against a tree and while HM1 L was speaking, I could see the students eyeing the "weapon." I brought the weapon over and handed it to them. They seemed pretty excited; it wasn't something they were expected on the trip. Many took photos, one of which I was asked to be in so the parents would know why the student had a weapon. Independent of the "weapons" I think it was great that these students saw more than just the buildings of USUHS. They say medical students who get to do more than just sit in the library all day and study. Hopefully they will remember their excitement in a few years when they confront the nightmare that is AMCAS.

After we were done I went around looking for other platoons to take photos of. I got some of the second platoon Alpha Company doing CBNRE. It was the hot afternoon, and you can see the sweat collecting on Lieutenant R's cheeks while she waits to commence her self-decon. About this time my camera starting acting sketchy. I'm its third owner and it's a bit old, so it's not surprising. Hopefully I can get it working for tomorrow and it behaves.

Completely separately from my day at USUSH, I must mention a discussion my wife and I have had recently. She has questioned whether or not Whole Foods really has better produce than our local Safeway. I now
admit that I've been a victim of Whole Foods' great marketing. This
week I had cheese go moldy before its due date. Tonight, I had what
was the best package of blueberries ever from Safeway. It wasn't the
best because of the flavor, although the flavor was fine, but because
only two berries in the entire container were mushy and trash-worthy. It must have been the highest percentage good berries I've ever seen. Further evidence of Whole Foods' being crap is that I have yet to go in there and see a displayed price for each and every product in the produce section. I've even spoken to the manager about it, yet nothing changes. It's as if they're trying to hide the prices, so the customer forgets that the nickname if Whole Paycheck.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

Train-up Week Day One

2009-06-22T17:55:00.001-07:00

So today while waiting to start the first day of Train-up Week of Operation Kerkeshner, our platoon leader asked if there are any geeks in our platoon. I almost raised my hand, but didn't. He then proceeded to tell us that President Rice wants any tech/new media (my words) students to blog and tweet during the Op. With that thought, here I go. As I've mentioned before I have refrained from blogging about USUHS due to not wanted to air criticisms in public. I will attempt to maintain professionalism and keep any criticisms to a minimum, but the nature of a blog is that there is no attempt and impartiality and opinions and reported are intertwined. I'm really curious about the university's interest in new media, but haven't spoken to anybody about this initiative yet. Rather than wait though, I'll live by the attitude that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission, I post this and wait to see what happens.

For reference's sake I'm the first squad leader of the first platoon in Bravo Company. Our class is split up into two companies of three platoons each. About half the leadership positions are filled by priors and half by non-priors. I think this keeps the clustering to a minimum while not prevented the non-priors from learning by doing. My platoon leaders is 2LT B (I'll use initials for all classmates unless I'm told, by either the university or the individual, to name them) a former tanker who did one tour in Iraq and our platoon sergeant is 2LT S, a non-prior with no ROTC/Academy either. All pictures can be seen on my Picasa page here. This photo stream will continue to be updated this week and during Kerkeshner. Future photos should be better since I finally got a good case for my Nikon D100 DSLR.

In the morning we had CBRNE with Tsgt E, who also gave us a lecture several months ago as part of one of military medicine course. Tsgt E taught us very well, and I would have to say she's one of the most squared away Tsgts I've come across, really knowledgable about her stuff. Still though, I couldn't help but smirk when she referred to some piece of material she covered in her past lecture since few of us paid any serious attention to it if we went. I did go, but retaining the information wasn't high on my priorities at the time. Having the military medicine course as part of the normal academic years detracts from the AAMC necessary parts of medical school while not creating a situation where we, the students, can focus on learning the unique aspects of military medicine. In the environment of Train-up Week and Kerkeshner, we are truly able to focus on learning as opposed passing exams. The only aspect of military medicine that should be part of the academic year is a weekly or fortnightly leadership lab that requires little or no preparation so as not to interfere with the AAMC parts of medical school. Everything else should be part of an extended Train-up Week. It might even make sense that we have OBC/COT/ODS for all services here as a sort of plebe summer during which we could cover much of this material in a hands-on way.

Most of us considered ourselves lucky to get to wear our MOPP gear on a relatively cool morning and have it done for the week. We were shown the NNMC decontamination station in the event of an emergency here. Interesting to note is that stateside all MTFs have the civilian equivalent (seen to the right) of MOPP gear vice the military stuff. This is only so that we're compatible with the civilians around us. We then walked through setting up a field decon station and actually conducted buddy decon in order to remove our MOPP gear and conclude the training.

Although no doubt future military physicians at the nation's premiere institution of military medicine should be trained in CBNRE, I question the entire infrastructure we've maintained since WWI when chemical weapons were last used on a large scale. The Army still has a Chemical Corps yet militaries have only used chemical weapons twice since 1918, one of which, Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, was supplied precursor ingredients by US companies. (See Samantha Power's A Problem from Hell for more on that.) How much has been spent on maintaining a unused capability? It would make more sense that there be a core group of military personnel, certainly to include USUHS trained doctors, that have some knowledge of it and can reconstitute the capability in the event it's needed. In WWI the Chemical Warfare Service went from nothing to 20,000 soldiers in less than a year. Certainly we could do that again with more knowledge today and the need to have some capability stateside since crazies are more likely to use CBNRE weapons than other armies.

After lunch we proceeded to have a short lecture by the second squad leader, 2LT S, a former armor officer who also did year in Iraq, on tactical movement. He gave a good interactive lecture that gave us a a solid basis to go try some movement in the field. After several simple scenarios on the remnants of the former golf course that USUHS now sites on, we conducted two more involved training lanes in the woods with hidden OPFOR provided by some of the cadre. I, as the squad leader, had to coordinate my squad's movement, which, although for me I did a fine job, frustrated my former quarterback Alpha Team leader to whom such endeavors come naturally. I can imagine that squad leader during tactical movement and being a quarterback are mentally similar, which means they are tough for me. Anyway though, my entire squad and the half of second squad with us put in a great job and we managed well. According to the the cadre we did much better than the morning's group.

After the two tactical movement lanes we proceeded to rest for a bit before being released for the day. See below.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

Baltic Homing Pigeon Corps

2009-06-17T14:54:00.001-07:00

I finally read Blink last week by Malcolm Gladwell. I really enjoyed his discussion of Genral Paul Van Riper's decision making in Millennium Challenge 2002. His use of motorcycle messengers gave me the interesting idea of a Baltic Homing Pigeon Corps. This could easily be acheived through the relavent governments subsidizing breeding og pigeons or something else in the supply chain. The would create a non-modern in-place communicatin system.

Of course, the Russians could respond with training a cadre of falconers. Does anyone really think Russia has the patience or cultural capital to have a Army full of falconers? Although I've never trained either animal, I'd bet that training pigeons requires a bit less effort and fewer resources than training falcons.

A peer-to-peer wireless need also be developed. I'm not sure how one would ensure security in the face of certain Russian countermeasures. However, it should be assumed that once Russian goes from cyber attack to convential attack, the broadband internet/cell phone network as it stands will not be reliable.

An End to Monopoly

2009-06-16T18:54:00.001-07:00

Ever since the Supreme court erred in Federal Baseball Club vs. National League the people of the United States have been forced to suffer while cartels are allowed to control professional sports. Globalization is beginning to change this. First Jennings and Tyler realized that they should not reward others, coaches and the like, with the fruits of their labor. They work hard at basketball and deserve to be compensated for it. Now a woman too is refusing to accept the WNBA's age discrimination that only exists so that the colleges and universities will continue to fund their player development costs. As a cartel they have been very successful at externalizing their development costs via such mechanisms of student sports fees.

As a detractor of Rutgers semi-professional sports franchises, I say good luck to Ms. Prince. Hopefully you have commenced the beginning of the end for spectator sports as something associated with higher education.

Within ten years no self-respecting young basketball play will even consider attending college. They will see the system for what it is as something ready to use them. If only the rest of the world liked American football enough to destroy that cartel as well.

Green Sprouts?

2009-06-06T19:34:00.001-07:00

It's been discussed lately whether or not the economy is now starting to pick up a bit. The last jobs report showed that the second derivative of jobs, that is the rate at which they are being lost, has declined somewhat.

Today I went with my wife for her to purchase some shoes at shop called Amano in the People's Republic of Takoma Park. We also went to The Surrey, a tack shop, in Potomac. Both shops showed evidence that the economy was in fact picking up. The owner of Amano stated that this month was the first in the year in which the hemorrhaging had finally ceased. The owner of the building in which The Surrey is had raised the rent so much that The Surrey had decided to close up shop rather than pay more. They expect to find a new more affordable location, but I was surprised that the building's owners thought that the market could bear an increase in rent. Fortunately for us we got several hundred dollars worth of merchandise at thirty percent off.

Perhaps both these signs are that the economy is picking up to be shortly followed by extreme inflation?

Helpful NKO Warning

2009-06-04T06:14:00.001-07:00

One sees here the nice little warning, but if one closely examines the bottom, one can see that there is more. However, I am unable to screen capture it because it is so long that, when it scrolls onto the screen, it extends well past the bottom of my screen.

What is the point of this warning? Not only do users not bother to read such warnings, but even if they wanted to, they can't because it's too long for the screen.

What aspect of the acquisition system (I'm pretty confident that no actual service member would be allowed to program NKO since as a whole the DOD has relinquished actual responsibility for its online endeavors.) is broken to permit such garbage?

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

Run Away Inflation

2009-06-04T04:54:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Chairman Bernake spoke about his fears of inflation due to the large federal deficits. My fellow econo-focused medical student, Matt, and I have discussed at length how these deficits will likely lead to runaway inflation. This will further help the United States in that our debt will be inflated away like post-war France.

We had a theory that says right now everybody, China, the holders of petrodollars and the United States have a vested interest in not accepting the reality that dollars are not worth what we all want them to worth. If either China or the holders of petrodollars jump off the dollar, their dollars will become even more worthless. How then will the dollar recalibrate to its intrinsic worth? Whichever of the above players first jumps off the dollar will be hurt the least. By letting inflation climb significantly, the United States is, in effect, beginning to jump off the dollar and will suffer the least.

The rising interest rates are climbing faster than the media is currently reporting. When I applied for my mortgage a month or so ago I was quoted a 4.75% interest rate on one point and yesterday, when I locked in my rate, I only got a rate of 5.25%. Obviously the rates will not continue to climb at 0.5% per month continuously, but I still think that my little data point supports the hypothesis that we will see 1970s style inflation in the near future. Buy gold.

Last NNMC Bicycling Post

2009-05-31T19:17:00.001-07:00

I had a good conversation with the USUHS Senior Vice President Professor Dale Smith on Friday afternoon. I sought his perspective on several things, the most relevant for this blog of which was the public role of a military officer. By virtue of the fact that I've been subject to no disciplinary action it's safe to say I haven't crossed any black line. The fact remains that in my discussion of NNMC and bicycling I've probably been too much in the gray area.

When I first came to USUHS I made a conscious decision to not discuss my critiques of USUHS issues because such issues need not be discuss in this forum. I considered NNMC issues to be somewhat different, but now feel differently. My feelings have changed not due to any outside pressure, but because of a fuller consideration of the boundaries of the profession God has chosen for me. I don't particularly like these boundaries since I feel that no one else will raise the issue of cycling of NNMC, but at least my past posts have made the issue visible. So from this point forward I will endeavor to not discuss specific NNMC issues that need not be discussed on a blog.

This does not mean that I will refrain from critique of things military that are more distant from me within the hierarchy of the Department of Defense. So posts such as the previous one to this, again pointing out the poor characteristics of pdfs for military publications, will still continue.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

DOD Publications Need Improvement for Today's War Fighter

2009-05-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

So upon noticing some random Department of Defense publications laying about my command the other day, I conceptualized this post. Nearly everyone in the military has seen the random piles of DOD publications laying about. Today, I randomly decided to look at Stars and Stripes on Wikipedia. I'm particularly interested in the fact that most of its staff is civilian, who somehow are supposed to understand the service members perspective vice years gone by when actual soldiers wrote and ran the paper.

I checked out the electronic version of Stars and Stripes and was dumbfounded by the fact that is electronically published in pdf format. This is ridiculous. I challenge anyone to download it and attempt to read it in your pdf viewer to tell me that such is a pleasant experience. Besides being cumbersome, pdf does not take advantage of hypertext, which saves the reader time in learning his known unknowns.

The other day I collected three random DOD publications laying about my command. They are USU Newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 7 (known to be available online in pdf format), The AMEDD, a special Spring 2004 orientation issue of The Mercury, an authorized publication of U.S. Army Medical Command, and The Mercury Vol. 36, No. 7. (I must give credit to the publishers of The Mercury since its online edition, although not up to modern standards, at least is not pdf based.) I'm reminded of Freedom Watch, which sat around in piles in Afghanistan. It's most common use was toilet
reading due to its ubiquity. Who was the audience? As an english
language publication certainly not the handful of English literate
Afghans.

Of all these publications I ask, who is the intended audience and what is the intended purpose? Has anyone even formally asked and answered these questions?

When we consider the infinite and varied OODA Loops operating in the large organization in question, the DOD, we must assume that these publications are intended to aid service members in the observe and orient phases of the loop. What they fail to consider though is the ever tightening loop. These publications do not support rapid decision making in today's world.

All these media outlets would be better served by something akin to a blog. I'm not sure a pure blog would be ideal since in some cases the commander is not looking for feedback, but perhaps a blog with comments would enable useful feedback to commanders. A pure online publication would shrink the loop in numerable ways, the simpliest being that instead of editions, the website would be continually updated. No need for an important story to wait for less important stories to be finished and published together. Further, an online publication would allow the publishers to gather metrics on what levels of interest and types of use different articles have. For example, most media websites have a most emailed articles list to give all readers an idea of what other readers find important at this very moment.

Update: on further perusail of the Stars and Stripes website I've realized that the pdf versions are only if you want a particular regional version. They do have a full online version, but they also have a unnecessary digital edition that is a separate website from the online version. Does anyone think this version is better than the normal modern online version?

I propose that we take all the various command publications throughout the DOD and establish clear standards and a central website where anybody can read all the publications at once as an integrated publication.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be
construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of
Defense.

Most people are familiar with Hans Ch...

2009-05-22T13:57:00.001-07:00

Most people are familiar with Hans Christian Anderson's The Emperor's New Clothes. I have my own derivative of it (It's good that Mr. Anderson's heirs aren't able to come after me for "idea infringement.") titled The Emperor's New Armor. The ideas of George Soros and Victor Davis Hanson have influenced the story somewhat. Although certain parallels can be drawn between real life and the following poor attempt at fiction, the reader should make no direct comparisons.

Once upon a time lived an emperor. He had been very successful in battle other than in one little mountainous region just to the north east of him. In fact, because of the emperor's success, his generals spent more time worrying that the soldiers might get fat from sitting around than they did worrying about military preparedness. If only they had a human powered chariot with which to exercise their soldiers. Because the emperor was so powerful and the plunder from his campaigns so great, not one of his senior advisers ever dared question him out of fear that their access to plunder would be cut off.

One day some metal smiths from the last remaining enemy defected to the emperor. They told him that they wanted some plunder and thus were willing to build him a suit of armor that would make him invincible against their brethren. The emperor thought this to be a fantastic idea and commissioned the metal smiths to make him a set of this innovative armor. He was even willing to pay for multiple specification and design changes that brought the final price over budget by an obscene amount. "No matter" he thought, "I've got all these warehouses full of plunder." The metal smiths appeared with the armor several months past due and dressed the emperor in the lightest, yet strongest armor ever seen. The senior advisers all told him how great the armor would be when the emperor lead the armies in battle against the last remaining unsubjugated neighbor.

One young lieutenant happened to be in the capital city for some training when the emperor's new armor was unveiled. To him the armor appeared to be merely a sheet of blue splotchy silk. He tried to get as close as he could to the emperor to tell him it was just silk, but security forces wouldn't allow him to. When he got as close as he could, he yelled as loud as he could "but it's just a piece of poorly colored silk." He was immediately tackled by security forces who brought him to a detention center where he was tried for insulting the emperor. On his way to his execution he felt sad that even though he was to die for his loyalty to the emperor, the emperor would still be entering battle with silk armor.

If Bikes Are Not Counted, There Are No Bikes.

2009-05-21T15:57:00.001-07:00

Today contractors from Gorove/Slade Associates of Chantilly counted traffic around NNMC on contract for the Department of Defense. I spoke to two of their workers on Wisconsin Avenue and learned the following. They were counting during three time intervals: 0630-0930, 1100-1400, and 1600-1900. Neither counter had been instructed to count bicycles specifically although Worker One pointed out that cyclists were to be included in either pedestrians or automobiles based on whether they were riding on the sidewalk or road. Worker Two did not count cyclists at all unless they were walking their bicycle on the sidewalk, in which case the cyclist was to be counted as a pedestrian.

Worker Two even commented to me that I was the fifth cyclist of the day to inquire about the cyclists being counted. I was informed that although the equipment they had been issued today, manufactured by JAMAR Technologies, was of an older style that did not allow bicycles to be specifically counted, such equipment is available. However, it was not in use and the workers were not instructed to count bicycles in any way.

Worker Two commented that military installations are required by law to count traffic once per year. I'm not familiar with this. Does anyone know what the law is?

I waited on the corner of Wisconsin Ave and Jones Bridge Road to take the below photo of the counters for about twenty minutes. In that time I counted nine bicycles including myself. Surely, the total number of cyclists in the neighborhood are not an insignificant number. A friend, who also spoke to them, reports that the traffic counter with whom the friend had spoken stated that tons of bikes had been seen but none counted.

The views expressed here are those of mine only, and are not to be construed as those of the Department of the Navy or Department of Defense.

Random Talk with Captain Daniel Zinder

2009-05-15T06:06:00.001-07:00

Today I hopped on the shuttle to go over to Walter Reed. Shortly after departing NNMC the captain (Navy) behind me addressed me by name and started talking to me. He was Captain Daniel Zinder, the Deputy Commander of the NNMC. At first we spoke about what I'd done prior to coming to USUHS, but then he brought up the subject of this blog. We spoke about blogging and responsibilities of service members.

He spoke enthusiastically of the Department of Defense's desire that more people use transportation other than automobiles to travel to NNMC. I understand and would point out that the SHA presents far more of an obstacle that the Navy does. He invited me to come speak with him following which I'll post more about what the Department of Defense is doing to facilitate sustainable multi-modal transportation solutions in Montgomery County. I point out that here was the deputy commander of a 5,000 plus service member command on the shuttle bus. This is a great step showing that we don't all need a personnel automobile to get where we're going. Besides one less car, his taking the shuttle enabled us to have a fruitful discussion, which shows the social and community benefit to not being isolated in a steel cage on wheels.

This blog is entirely my own opinion and in no way reflects the opinions or positions of the US Department of Defense or Navy.

SHA engineer Barb Solberg is an idiot.

2009-04-29T15:36:00.001-07:00

In today's Gazette SHA engineer Barb Solberg comments that she doesn't "know if the bike and pedestrian improvements would help reduce the traffic on BRAC-affected road." What an idiot. I don't have the background to be able to quantify the reductions, but it seems self-evident that better infrastructure for bike and pedestrians would mean fewer cars. What is wrong with the state of transportation planning and civil engineering education that Ms. Solberg is able to make such a statement with a straight face. Call her at 1-888-228-5003 or via e-mail to bsolberg@sha.state.md.us.

Shep Smith Deserves a Medal

2009-04-25T06:13:00.001-07:00

Shep Smith deserves a medal for so perfectly summing up the arguments against torture.

More Info on BRAC

2009-04-24T18:04:00.001-07:00

So Mr. Jeffrey Miller, Transportation Program Manager, for the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda asked me to meet with him today to discuss ways to improve bicycling at NNMC. Although I should be studying gastrointestinal physiology, I gladly took him up on his offer. We talked for about 45 minutes this afternoon. He had emailed me after finding my flier on a bike with regards to setting up a NNMC bicycling listserv.

He made the argument that the community wanted BRAC and that much of the transportation issues stem from already too much traffic, and thus the traffic increases of BRAC are not that much. I would somewhat agree but also point out that the traffic demands of 2500 more employees and another half of a million patient visits are not insignificant. He also told me that by the time they found out about Bike-to-Work day, it was too late to set up a pit stop at NNMC. He hoped that they would be able to next year. I also learned that the bike racks at the quonset huts (I only know about them because of the NNMC website.) had been moved to somewhere around the Joint Task Force building. He also was unable to tell me exactly where the BEQ bike racks were that I was unable to find the other day.

I told him that the biggest single thing the Navy and DOD could do to improve bicycling would be to have one or more actually bike lanes through the gates onto base. He seemed receptive to the idea, and we discussed different options. I pointed out that the single most important aspect would be a good connection to area bicycle infrastructure. I also told him that, although twenty dollars is not much money, NNMC finding a way to implement the Bicycle Commuter Act would be a great impression on the community. Overall, the gist of my points were that even though SHA controls the area infrastructure, there are little, affordable, actions that the Navy and DOD can take to both improve the situation and take the high ground in encouraging all modes of transportation, which lessens the traffic for drivers.

I also suggested that the security forces receive some training on regulations concerning cyclists. I've had issues with the police not properly understanding the rules and when I politely inquired at their office on separate day, two senior officers, one DOD and one MA, were unable to adequately explain the interaction between military regulations and state and county traffic laws. They could not tell me which rule I was breaking when I passed a stopped car. Further, a classmate of mine had an officer incorrectly stop him for not having lights and reflective clothing on during the day. Yet, OPNAVINST 5100.12H CH-1 clearly states that such equipment is only required from sunset to sunrise. Mr. Miller seems very receptive to this idea and stated that he has a very good working relationship with a chief in the security forces, so hopefully there will be some improvements.

I didn't ask him how he personally commutes to work everyday. Perhaps I should have. Nevertheless, I'm skeptical if things will change. I've got at least three more years on this base, so I'll schedule in my calender to write a post on this blog comparing cycling now and then.

Somewhat insultingly Mr. Miller found it comically that a member of the NIH Bike Club and I have been communicating regarding these issues since he is in regular contact with his counterpart at NIH. Mr. Miller seemed to think that this member and the other members of the NIH Bike Club should have inquired with him or his NIH equivalent regarding numbers of cyclists on NNMC. I don't think he understands that besides the fact the only people who cycle in the face of daily threats we face are a bit zealous and crazy about cycling, that one of the major benefits of cycling is the community it builds. Not only do we no enjoy getting fat in our cars and enjoying God's beautiful world, but we don't like the disconnect the sitting in a metal and plastic box while stuck in traffic breeds. I can't think of a single case of road rage I've had while on my bike directed at another cyclist. When someone is in their car, it's so easy to see them as not a person but as some type of cyber creature on wheels.

The type of community that cycling creates is such that even though I haven't even actually cycled with the NIH Bike Club member, he/she invited me to his/her church because of its strong community. My wife and I attended church there last week and look forward to meeting his/her spouse this Sunday.

I gave Mr. Miller's email address above, but don't email him regarding SHA's issues. If SHA can't get things right, Mr. Miller can't make them. However, I would urge anyone with specific suggestions or ideas for NNMC itself, which somewhat limits things, to email him.

Open Source MANPAD Contest

2009-04-21T19:40:00.001-07:00

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia and any other country threatened by a large invasion prone neighbor should pool money for a annual open source weapons design contest. I would envision at least two separate categories: one for helicopters and one for armored vehicles. Both contests would offer a series of prizes for best designed and deployed systems. The problems are stated and no other constraints are given. Any team can approach the problem any way.

All current MANPAD and personal anti-armor weapons systems are the products of bloated defense establishments and legacy thinking going back to the dawn of the computer age. Today's world offers the tools for any technically inclined individual to design and build a usable system.

All entries must be completely open source so that in the second iteration of the contest any team can use any aspect of another teams previous entry. This will ensure maximum innovation each year.

The winning systems should not even go into production nor should any attempt be made to prevent potential adversaries from knowing the details. The plethora of possible threats upon any invasion will prohibit any usable defense.

If any government chooses to use the intellectual gains of such contests, they would best do so merely by stocking throughout their country the commercial off the shelf (COTS) parts so that in the event of an invasion partisans can assemble weapons systems as best fits their needs on the ground.

NNMC Bicycle Count

2009-04-16T09:48:00.001-07:00

Today I conducted a survey of NNMC bicycle racks at lunch. The NNMC website lists the following racks:

Staff garage,
Bldg 54
Visitor Garage,
Bldg 55
Underground
garage of bldg 61 (BEQ)
Comfort zone
(Bldg 23)
Quonset Huts

The NNMC website fails to list the USUHS rack. I was unable to find the BEQ or Quonset Huts racks. As for determining commuters I don't think not counting the BEQ matters since any bikes parked there during the day are sailors who are at work on base. I asked one security guard about the Quonset Huts, and he had no idea were they were.

Rack location	Number of Bikes	Notes
USUHS	13	4 were very dusty
Staff Garage	8	ELCON Enterprises had a golf cart blocking access to the racks
Patient Garage	5	no available room
Comfort Zone	0

This would say that right now on a nice, but not warm, early spring day there are 22 bicycle commuters. I also left fliers on all but the dusty bikes for a NNMC Bicycle listserv.

Pirates Just Don't Understand

2009-04-12T19:53:00.001-07:00

Abdullahi Lami just doesn't understand the classic paradigms of the world, cops and robbers, cowboys and indians and pirates versus the navy. Pirates go about and do their thing. We kill them. Plain and simple.

Good job to Montgomery County and the State Highway Adminstration

2009-03-26T12:26:00.001-07:00

I noticed this overgrown brush the other day while walking up Connecticut Avenue. Upon returning home I promptly informed the people at Montgomery County Pedestrian Safety. They forwarded my point to the local State Highway Administration's Fairland Maintenance Facility on 25 March. Today while driving by I noticed that the brush had been trimmed back. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me and I was driving, so was unable to take a photo of the great work. Good job and thank you to all involved! You are serving the public well.

Lazy M-NCPPC workers

2009-03-26T12:00:00.001-07:00

Here we see the old Exxon at 7340 Wisconsin Avenue. When walking by last week right after it had been shut down, one of my friends proposed that they were just doing a quick remodeling to drum up sales. Perhaps they are putting in more lucrative retail shops since it is Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda.

What is this you might ask? This was this morning, the 26th of March, on the Capital Crescent Trail. It appears that someone is ignoring the rules clearly posted at the beginning of the trail.

As the vehicle approached I saw that it belonged to the Maryland - National Capital Park and Planning Commission. See below.

As it turned out the gentlemen were proceeding the length of the trail in order to put in signs giving notice to trail users of upcoming maintenance. I wonder if such maintenance will be as accommodating to users as road maintenance is.

Almost by definition any entrance to the trail is accessible from just off the trail. Why then do these lads feel the need to damage the serenity of the trail with their truck. Reviewing Rule #5 I see no special exceptions for lazy workers who don't want to walk more than ten feet to install signs. Perhaps there is an exception for emergency service personnel responding to an emergency, but these guys don't fall under the catagory.

Google books not pushing free content enough

2009-03-25T12:43:00.001-07:00

You can read the series of emails between Tom - I guess google is too cool to bother with professional courtesies like surnames. I had asked why books by Steve Fairbrain are not fully available on google books when he died in 1938. In both the EU and the US regulators have determined that individuals
need their descendants to maintain intellectual monopoly over their
works for seventy years after their death in order to motivate people
to create works. Thus, since it is more than seventy years since his death, his works are automatically in the public domain.

It seems that in google's attempts to please copyright holders, whose claims that it's necessary to incentivize creation ring false, they have completely failed to consider this particular avenue for works entering into the public domain.

In case anyone wonders why I wanted to know about Steven Fairbrain's works it's due to recently rereading Mason Gross's How to Frame an Athletic Policy.

Bad photography and thoughts on today's bike ride

2009-03-25T11:52:00.001-07:00

I took a bike ride today on my old cruiser from Bethesda to Georgetown on the Capital Crescent Trail. I then meandered through downtown intending to go Mayor Fenty's new conference and bike ride on pedestrian safety but ended up not finding it and being late. I tried to find the address on my iPhone, but it wouldn't show me the attachments that had the info. I then saw some idiots on a tour via Segways and thought "what a bunch of idiots." I took some pictures but they are over exposed since I'm a crap photographer.

I then took some photos, which also turned out over exposed, of the magnificent American Bar Association building to demonstrate what riches are produced by a cartel. It is almost impossible to become a lawyer without forking over close to six figures to a ABA accredited law school. I looked a bit yesterday, and it seems two non-ABA accredited California law school graduates have successfully gained admission to the Massachusetts and Connecticut bars. In the Connecticut case the plaintiff dropped the ABA from the suit after their excess disclosure requests.

While pedaling up the long hill that is Massachusetts Avenue near the Naval Observatory, I saw some protesters outside the Iraqi embassy. Here is the one photo that is only a little bit over exposed of Iranian President Ahmadinejad meeting with Iraqi National Security Advisor Mouwafak al-Rubaie. The protesters were campaigning against the Iraqi government's increasingly close relations with Iran thus warning that Iraq is becoming a puppet state of Iran. They were particularly concerned with the recent planned take over of Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces. They are concerned that a Iraqi government aligned with Iran will not be good for the People's Mujahedin of Iran personnel in Camp Ashraf. They stated clearly their goals for the entire Middle East to be peaceful and democratic, neither of which seems to be the direction that Iran and Iraq are going. Nevertheless, I hope that Emmanuel Todd is right, in which case both countries will end up relatively normal within a few generations.

Bad spot on Capital Crescent Trail

2009-03-24T13:42:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures I took today of where the Capital Crescent Trail crosses the intersection of Bethesda Avenue and Woodmont Avenue. The situation is unsatisfactory for pedestrians and cyclists using the Capital Crescent Trail. There is no clear way to get from one side to the other. Would it be that difficult to set up another light system so that for some moments trail users have a green light while all motorists have red lights? There only lacks a will.

NNMC BRAC Bicycle Considerations

2009-03-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

I think that I would love being a retired person who just sites around, hangs out, and writes about trying to set the world straight on my blog. Being on spring break and I'm on my third blog post of the day. And I don't even know if more than a few friends have read my blog.

I have looked at both the Montgomery County BRAC site and the Navy NNMC BRAC site
and can find almost nothing to suggest that anyone has even seriously
considered the benefits of increased bicycle facilities.

I contacted the BRAC email to inquire about what planning or lack there of have been done for bicycles with regards to the increase of 2500 workers and potentially 500,000 patients. Being the simpleton I am, I tend to think that some people taking bicycles could help improve the traffic situation for everybody while also lower health care costs through increased fitness. I got a response from Mr. Jeff Miller, to whom then responded. Ms. Juvonnie Kinchen-Schneider, the BRAC PAO, then contacted me.

You can see the email chain here , but not the reponse from Ms. Kinchen-Schneider since she labeled it For Official Use Only and possible protected from disclosure under the FOIA. I have an email drafted to ask her permission to release it, but am waiting a day to send it in case I am being too hasty and imprudent.

There is a meeting of the State Highway Administration on 2 April at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School from 1730-1930 regarding the proposed changes to intersections.

More on poor navy recruiting.

2009-03-24T12:48:00.001-07:00

More on poor navy recruiting although this happened a while ago. I became a fan of US Navy health care on facebook. I was quickly contacted by the Admin [sic] Ms. Srbinovich. I inquired about how the Navy came to be on facebook. After two back and forths I quickly realized that this was the advertising agencies decision and had little to do with actual naval officers or sailors. She told me that I would be contacted by Navy Recruiting Command, which has not happened in the last four months. The entire conversation can be viewed here.

In general I am interested in the military's attempts to be more networked and less top-down controlling and thought the facebook thing a good idea. As part of my philosophy I also think that the Navy should do its own recruiting vice hiring some marketing hack. There is no shortage of us in the Navy who would gladly be better representatives.

For example, when transferring to my last command I had wanted to do Navy Recruiting District New York, but was told it wasn't available for me. As it turned out it was available, but understandably the detailer (that's the guy who assigned you your jobs.) would rather put me in a submarine officer specific billet that he had to fill. A former Direct Input Limited Duty Officer single white female with no sea-time who was from Georgia was assigned the job. She choose to live in Navy housing in Hempstead when she had an officer a block from Ground Zero. Without having any ill feelings towards the woman, she is not the type of person who can actually motivate people to join the Navy.

As it turns out we spent almost $400,000 of taxpayer money on this garbage and it doesn't even offer a representative who has actually been in the Navy. Why not instead of throwing away millions of dollars in tax payer dollars so that ass-hat marketing people can sell the Navy, just let those of us who believe in it to sell it?

Is this guy actually a JO?

2009-03-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

I saw this advertisement on the back of The Bent, which is the magazine of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society of which I am member. Is this guy actually a junior officer in the submarine force? I'm inclined to think yes since I know Lieutenant Chris Carter who appears in a video about how great the submarine force is. (Please note that although I'm very satisfied to no longer be in the submarine force, I intend no sarcasm when mentioned how great it is.)

I am a strong supporter of the submarine force recruiting more minorities to help make it better reflect the actual diversity of the United States. I often thought about the subject while teaching Navy ROTC in New York City when I lived in Harlem and then Fort Greene, Brooklyn. It does bring up the point of how nearly every submarine or nuclear specific advertisement, almost always shows a minority submarine officer to show how diverse we are. I then am curious what percentage of minority submarine officers have ended up in an advertisement.

Unsafe actions by the Montgomery County Police Department

2009-03-23T14:28:00.001-07:00

My wife and I went for lovely walk along the Capital Crescent Trail this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine and check out Kensington. We were rudely disturbed in our serenity by a police officer on a motorcycle. I enjoy my own Harley, and I support police officers in their work to keep us all safe. Further, I'm even glad to see the Montgomery Country Police Department patrolling the trail. However, is it truly necessary to do it on a Harley, a vehicle intended for the streets. According the the Capital Crescent Trail website, it is designated 'car-free, park-like setting." In general Maryland traffic laws consider motorcycles to be similar to cars in that they may not pass in a lane already having a car in it. I understand that if there is an emergency, the police might need to ride their Harleys on the Capital Crescent Trail, but in this case, with no sirens running, I doubt that to be the case. I also expect that any response by Montgomery County Police Department to be defensive in nature because that's generally how police operate when we the citizens questions them. I would be happy to be proved wrong.
I must contrast this with my experiences on Worth Way in West Sussex over Christmas break when I saw two police officers jogging, having left their car at the road, to look for a possible abducted child.

Joint Forces Quarterly hasn't even made it to Web 1.0

2009-03-22T16:42:00.001-07:00

Joint Forces Quarterly needs to create a website that reflects the modern use of the internet as something more than a medium of distribution of pdf files. Not only is a website of pdf files not user friendly and cumbersome to the potential reader, but it also fails to take advantage of any user interaction. Now of course some senior officers might respond by saying we don't want just anyone to be able to post on the JFQ website. If the Navy Exchange website can verify my identity to allow online ordering of uniforms, then I would hope that JFQ could as well.

I'm using firefox on OS X, not an unusual browser/operating system combination, and I see text placed atop images such that I have difficulty reading it.

College Sports

2009-03-20T11:25:00.001-07:00

Some of the most well known commentators on college sports wrote about the end of amateurism in American college sports in today's NY Times in March Money Madness. Bill Walton is disillusion in his idea that the ideals of the amateur remain alive in any way in today's NCAA basketball tournament.

Professor Dowling writes about the damage to the university, but his argument is premised on what the definition of the university is. He remains stuck to an archaic idea of what the university is. His reference to real colleges makes clear that a university concerns itself with "academic and intellectual values." Rutgers' own mission tends to support Professor Dowling's view point in that the state has not established providing spectator sports entertainment as part of the universities mission. It does refer to "performing public service in support of the
needs of the citizens of the state," but I doubt anyone would truly claim that spectator sports constitutes public service. But what if the state legislature revised the Rutgers Law of 1956 to state that providing the citizens of the state sports entertainment of a high level was part of the university's mission. This would likely not happen in New Jersey, but does anyone doubt that such a proposal would have overwhelming support in a state such as Texas or North Carolina?

Professor Dowling fails to realize that due to the unique manner in which universities came into being in 19th century America the definition of university has changed. I'll compare to the United Kingdom since that is the country I know best besides the United States. In late nineteenth century England, football clubs came about to provide the sports entertainment that people wanted, while the universities, which remained the purview to the small middle and upper classes, had nothing to do with professional sports. Hence, football is the British working class sport while rugby so much more up the class scale that Rugby Union officially remained amateur until 1995. In America in the late nineteen centuries states felt compelled to start universities that from their onset were far more open to all classes. Yes, there were and still are class distinctions to education in American, but it was and remains less than in the UK.

I wrote the above prior to rereading Mason Gross 's How to Frame an Athletic Policy available in The Selected Speeches of Mason Welch Gross, and must make sure that the reader knows that everything from this point onward has been influenced by this article.

I just conducted a quick google book search regarding the relationship between the state and the universities. There is enough information to write a book explaining how the different situation in the United States compared with the the United Kingdom brought us to our current paradigm despite culturally being a direct descendent of the United Kingdom. For now, I'll just say that when one examines the college football teams in America that don't suffer economic competition from NFL teams, they nearly all had long established traditions prior to any NFL competition for football entertainment. This, and the fact that unlike in the UK those the customers of sports entertainment had a positive relationship with the state universities, lead them to supply the economic demand of sport entertainment.

Which brings me back to one of my original intents of discussing my experience in the United Kingdom for the 1997-98 academic year at the University of Bristol. When I first learned of the fact that all sports were clubs - that varsity sports as Americans know them don't exist. - I was distraught at the fact that sports teams have to fund themselves. As I relearned today in reading Mason Gross, this is due to sports participation "will contribute to the educational development of the students." He also explains that spectators and coaches must know their role. Spectators are permitted to watch, but the team does not exist for them. Coaches are hired not to work towards "what his profession would consider success," but to develop young men physically and emotionally to be prepared for the ardors that life has in store for them.

NNMC Post Office Hours

2009-03-17T16:48:00.001-07:00

Today I attempted to find the hours for the post office at NNMC online. The post office link on the NNMC website goes to www.usps.com. Not very helpful. I post the hours here in case anyone else is ever searching online.

Mon - Fri 0800-1600, closed for lunch break from 1330-1400

IED Kits for Estonia

2009-03-17T16:45:00.001-07:00

Many countries face different military circumstances the the United States and her large imperialist allies such a the UK and France. (Note I do not intend anything positive or negative by use of the word imperialists; merely that we have, and intend to keep, a military designed to operate throughout the world) Other modern countries, often smaller, merely want to stop or dissuade a much large neighbor from occupying their country. In the case of Estonia, Lativia, Lithuania and George the big neighbor is Russia.

The countries steadfastly support American endeavors with troops solely to gain a potential future supporter when they are next invaded by Russia. Georgia lost their war with Russia the moment when the Columbia educated Saakashvili decided he did not want to turn Georgia into another Chechnya. I don't blame him, but the only way to win a war is to be less willing to give up than your enemy. Russia is willing to turn Georgia into another Chechnya so Georgia needs to be more willing.

As part of such a plan Estonia, and any other country in their situation, should deploy, in a very public fashion, IED and MANPAD kits throughout the country. Make a big deal out of it so that every Russian soldier knows that Estonia will present them with a plethora of IEDs and MANPADs. These kits should be distributed via the Estonian Defence League such that no one person knows where more than a handful are. Thus, just like a ballistic missile submarine at sea, it would be impossible for anyone to located them all.

The kits should contain video cameras, satellite internet connections, explosively formed penetrators, laptops to connect the videos to the internet, instructions, and any other equipment deemed necessary for a IED. Most importantly there should be multiple differe types of kits along with different employment guidance to minimize the chances that in the event the Russians invade, a standard modus operandi would be deciphered by the Russians.

Two potential options to avoid having explosives distributed throughout the country would be to have all kits be locked with cipher lock. The combination which could be distributed electronically throughout the country nearly instantly in the event of hostilities breaking out. Secondly, no actually explosive could be included only plans and key ingredients to that when opened, untrained but capable citizens can easily manufacture explosives.

The MANPADs could be bought cheaply since instead of purchasing so many of the most recent version, many different versions of many different systems should be acquired. Thus, no enemy pilot will be able to assume a specific countermeasure will work.

Fractured Prune and Arlington Uniform Shop

2009-03-14T09:38:00.001-07:00

So this morning I went to the Fractured Prune in Rockville and the NEX Navy Uniform Shop in Arlington at the Navy Annex. I had to go to this uniform shop because my local uniform shop in Bethesda does not carry the Brooks Brothers Service Dress Blues. I had inquired with Brooks Brothers about getting them at the local Brooks Brothers location but was told that they are only sold via the NEX in order to verify rank.

The donuts at the Fractured Prune certainly constitute a taste bud
joyride. Although they are cake donuts, and I prefer dough donuts,
they we very moist and not too dense. The toppings were super sweat and flavorful. I had a blueberry hill and a french toast. It will be sad to see their quality go down as they expand. The Rockville location is the original so even now, the other franchised locations may have lower quality.

The Navy Annex has extreme security and is staffed by some of the nastiest rent-a-cops I've seen in over eight years of military service. One was so fat that he would have had trouble getting out of his chair. His boots were barely laced, likely due to some type of edema of the extremities. Both my wife and I had to show two forms of identity as if our military IDs by themselves might be suspect. After signing it we were told to wait for an escort. We waited for about ten minutes when two petty officers stationed at the Quantico Branch Medical Clinic came in for the uniform shop as well since the uniform shop in Quantico does not carry Navy items for the sailors there. They commented that the last time they had come the escort was unnecessary. All four of us waiting another ten minutes or so during which time another rent-a-cop came from the building, but only to accompany one of the fat ones in the guard shack on a tour. After a few more minutes the manager, whose name I later learned to be Michelle, of the uniform shop came to escort us. She commented that the policies regarding customer escort were haphazard and seemingly random.

Exterior of the Navy Annex. You can see the corner of my car there. We parked in some type of reserved spot, but were fine for over an hour on a weekend. I think the parking down one level of the hill, behind my back when taking the photo, is open.

Inside the uniform shop Michelle took fantastic care of me and fit the uniform. I commend her for her customer service. I was surprised to see that they sold the tiara for women in mess dress as I had looked online and wondered wear one could purchase it. It costs $203 and is made by Vanguard. Michelle commented that she has had one ensign in recent memory purchase it and that if anyone tries to purchase it, she will discourage them. I disagree with her but it's alway heartening when a sales person discourages the customer from purchasing something. It tells you that they have the customer's best interest in mind. After fitting the uniform she also offered to bring it to the Bethesda uniform shop so that I don't have to travel back there and go through such wretched security.

She also told me that she could order a boat cloak at over $700. I don't recall the manufacturer, and she didn't have one on had to show the quality. I got mine off ebay for about $300. It's very old, but in very good condition. The Marine Shop in Quantico also sells one at $600. I once inquired and was told it would take about six months for delivery. I also read once on a discussion board a post by someone who went and looked at theirs in the showroom. He said the quality was crap and not worth $600.

The also had these not doubt expensive emergency escape masks throughout the building, including the guard shack where no individual could get more than five meters from an exit. Good job to the DOD for playing right into Osama Bin Laden's hands. How many millions have been spent on these masks for not one gas attack. We are gladly obliging in his plan to bankrupt our country. You may think that what's the big deal about a few emergency escape masks, but when you add up all the ridiculous security measures sine 9-11 the costs are astronomical.

The Navy's poor public relations

2009-03-06T19:44:00.001-08:00

So here we see a great example of why the Navy has serious trouble recruiting minorities and making the entire Navy - I'm talking about the enlisted and officer corps here - reflect the diversity of America. The above photo is of the standard poster found in all NEX barber shops regarding grooming standards presented to remind sailors and officers of the standards when getting one's hair cut. Cut off at the top are the two males, one officer and one enlisted. Here the officer is clearly non-white while the sailor is likely white. Now look at the ten females, five officers (1, 2, 4, 5, 6 numbered left to right top row then bottom row) and four enlisted (6 - 10). Number 3's rank is indeterminable as she could be an officer or chief. 80% of the female officers appear to be white and 100% of the female enlisted appear to be minority.

NNMC Customer Advocacy website lacks modern functionality

2009-01-22T10:37:00.001-08:00

On several occasions I have spoken, for both good and bad, with representatives of the Customer Advocacy Program at the National Naval Medical Center. Today I decided to email them about how wretched the CAT scan appointment line is. So I went to the NNMC website for the CAP. They have phone numbers on their website, but no email. I guess the contractor who built the website didn't know about the mailto html tag. I then called the number and got the email which I typed into the to: field of my new fangled program called an email client. I then wrote an email about how much the people at the CAT scan office suck. The email is customerserviceca@med.navy.mil.

Intellectual Property needs to go.

2008-12-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

I've recently looked at two book covering intellectual property, Against Intellectual Monopoly and The Public Domain. There is no common benefit to granting intellectual property rights to authors or inventors. The James Madison and his compatriots erred when the granted the power to grant patents and copyrights to Congress. The prevailing idea that individuals need the protection of IP in order to have an incentive to create is not proven by the historical record. According to A Farewell to Alms very few of the inventors of the key textile machinery that formed the basis of industrialization made any money from their inventions. Inventors invent because it's in the psychology to do it. Think about the students who go to medical school or law school to make lots of money. How many people go into engineering to get rich. They may expect a decent salary, but they aren't looking to get rich. Elimination of IP would force entrenched businesses that rely on it to make money to change their business plans to more along the lines of a company like Red Hat because their potential competitors will have much lower barriers to enter the market.

The efficient Federal government

2008-11-30T17:45:00.001-08:00

My wife and I received five separate pieces of paper in individual envelopes so that the USCIS could tell us that her application for permanent residency had been received and that she had an appointment given to her for biometrics. I'm always happy to see tax dollars hard at work, not just duplicating effort, but quintupling it.

Fanwood Police Departments shows us why New Jersey municipalities have such financial difficulties.

2008-11-30T17:30:00.001-08:00

So I went home this weekend for Thanksgiving. While Elizabeth and I were out walking Sebastian's dog Hun, I showed her where we used to go sledding as children behind the municipal complex. We walked by two SUVs, a Ford Explorer and a Ford Expedition, owned by the Fanwood Police Department.

Fanwood is a small one square mile town with no place more than a few hundred meters from a single road. Other than the powerlines shown below I doubt there is any place one could even drive off-road.

Perhaps if the Fanwood Police Department considered the operating costs of such vehicles like the rest of us do, they'd be able to spend a few less tax dollars.