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“That lady ain’t no lady, sir. She’s my rifle squad leader!”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta left a nice little parting gift, depending on where you stand on the rights of military women. Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey will lift the ban on women serving in combat. A fully “gender-integrated force by 2016” will potentially be completed in the U.S.armed forces, according to the independent Defense Department newspaper “Stars and Stripes” in their online edition today.

The Associated Press reported that Panetta’s action expanded an initiative last year in which nearly 15,000, practically all of them Army, combat positions were opened to women. An additional 230,000 positions in Army and Marine infantry units may open under the Defense Secretary’s proposal.

Including women in front-line combat has long been a hot-button issue steeped in lawsuits and rhetoric worthy of antebellum debates. Many supporters of women’s rights have looked to the history of the inclusion of female soldiers in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) — the state military — as a model. And while Israel is the only nation in the world to compel both men and women to military service, the record of women combatants has had a mixed record there over the years.

A landmark 1995 Israeli Supreme Court decision allowed women to qualify for combat pilot positions but it as well paved the path for women to serve in all IDF combat slots. The “Military Service Law” was amended, adding:

“The right of women to serve in any role in the IDF is equal to the right of men.

Women comprise a third of all IDF soldiers. They serve in significant numbers in all units and make for an astounding 70 percent of service in the Caracal combat battalion. It is the only co-ed combat unit in the IDF. Meet this tough little cookie from the Caracal.

Having women in combat units will pose challenges just as it has in Israel, and how it likewise challenged old, salty chiefs and young sailors alike when the gender integration began on U.S. ships almost 35 years ago. In the really old days, it was considered bad luck to have women on ships. Today, women have met and tackled the last frontier, submarines.

There will be problems in combat: let’s get the big “P” (pregnancy) out of the way first; feminine hygiene; red light-green light issues; touching; sensitivity. You don’t have to start reading all those magazines like Gunny Sgt. Highway in “Heartbreak Ridge.” But if you have somehow learned some common sense, or can learn it, you are already halfway there.

Just a personal word now. The world’s not coming to the end. I have seen women do jobs of more than one man and do it in an outstanding manner. A woman may turn and run in the heat of battle. Men might do the same. We are different in temperament and in physiology but we fight the same enemy and do so for the same person, our foxhole buddy. This may be one of the best steps taken in the history of the U.S. I may be wrong. But I don’t think so.

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Destruction marks new paths in the SE Texas retail wars

Sometimes you have to admire destruction. Certainly not the kind meant for harm such as a terrorist act or actions by combatants. Take a look at the below photo that I took today, for example:

The wrecking ball makes its early strikes on the old Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas. A new H-E-B grocery store will be built here. Foto x damn x eight feet deep
The wrecking ball makes a strike on the former Baptist Hospital in Beaumont.

This could easily pass for a hole from a cruise missile at a site of hostilities such as Syria.

But alas, this a demolition job taking place at the old Baptist Hospital of Southeast Texas, located on the corner of Eleventh and College streets in Beaumont. What many call an eyesore now since the hospital moved its site down College to the east is being torn down to build a large H-E-B grocery store. When the new store is built the company will shut down its two smaller stores, one a couple of blocks south on Eleventh and another in North Beaumont on Lucas Drive, according to the Beaumont Enterprise.

Though I wouldn’t call this demolition job a beauty the destruction does help one appreciate what it takes to build a relatively large building. I say relatively, it being (for now) a six-story building. The pictured building was completed in the late 1940s or early 1950s. I would imagine it took quite a few folks to build it with likely much more difficulty than it would to construct a similar building today.

The story about the new store says that company officials indicated it will be slightly more than half the size of the H-E-B Plus located on the more affluent West End of Beaumont in the midst of the “Shopping District.”  The “Plus” is a pretty big grocery outlet and anchors a small strip shopping center. Company information indicates that the large store itself is about 124,000 square feet so perhaps the new store might end up at 75,000 square feet mas o menos. Plus many of its larger stores have areas for other retail outlets for lease so who knows how large a shopping center will be developed?

One of the biggest shopping centers in the “Golden Triangle” (Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange) which was built before the area’s first mall, Parkdale Mall, was finished in 1973 is Gateway. It is only a couple of blocks north on Eleventh Street from where the new store will stand. Gateway seems to be holding its own with Beall’s and Conn’s still going strong, plus the remodeled Jason’s Deli, which is the site of the growing chain’s very first restaurant. But a few other stores have gone hither over the years at Gateway.

How successful the new H-E-B will turn out will be interesting to watch. It will have mostly inner city patrons although it not far from either of the city’s two largest hospitals, Memorial Hermann Baptist (which was the previous Baptist Hospital) and Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital (which was previously just St. Elizabeth Hospital.)

Oh, Gateway’s outlasted the Gaylynn Shopping Center, which was a little ways up North Eleventh Street. The Gaylynn pretty much was swallowed up by St. Elizabeth. The other big shopping center on the other end of the county, in Port Arthur, remains, after Central Mall came along although that older strip center is a shadow of its past. I still remember the TV jingle for the old shopping center still hanging in there on Twin City Highway:

“Come to Jeff-Jeff-Jefferson City, where there’s everything under the sun.”

Also, it shall be a rather instructive lesson in mid-20th century-to-early 21st century retailing how Gateway Shopping Center continues in the future along with perhaps a new retail center located around the new H-E-B. I’ll try to keep an eye on how long it takes to raze the old hospital should anyone care, or not!

 

 

 

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Inaugural address was worth wake up; Local native killed in Algerian attack

A text message from my friend Tere woke me up this federal holiday around 10:30. That was quite all right of course. I needed to get up. Plus I woke just in time to see Barry O’Bama, my black Irish president, get sworn in a second time. Just kidding on the “black Irish” thing. I consider it a compliment since I am part Irish plus, everyone knows the President was born in Kenya!

I missed the infamous yawn laid down by little Obama Sasha, but did get to see the bizarre hat worn by Mr. Justice Scalia. I’m not going to link to the story about Sasha’s yawn because I don’t think it’s a worthy story. A photo maybe, but not a story about an 11-year-old who yawns at her daddy’s speech. She’s 11 years old, for God’s sake! And since I won’t share a link concerning a yawn, I won’t link with Justice Scalia’s strange hat. You all can be adventurous enough to find either one on the Internet if you so desire.

All inauguration speeches don’t have to be inspiring. I wouldn’t say President Obama’s second inaugural speech was totally inspiring although he uttered some inspiring phrases and thoughts. His was more a “let’s get to work” speech like you’d hear in a State of the Union address. But that is more than all right and even sort of inspirational in it own way. Perhaps the most uplifting paragraph the President said was:

 “We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American, she is free, and she is equal not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

Those words are reminiscent of the great “I Have A Dream” speech given by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., on whose birthday American’s presidential welcoming party coincided. There was one big difference and that was “when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty,” and not “I have a dream that … “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” In other words, the first black President of the United States of America has gone beyond hopes for just the little black children and little white children and instead wishes all little children will have freedom and equality. That, in itself, is inspiring.

The President’s other lines which I felt were encouraging, instructional or both:

 “We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”

 “Our brave men and women in uniform tempered by the flames of battle are unmatched in skill and courage.”

  “America will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe. And we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad. For no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.”

And finally, Obama issues a call for those who feel their great gift to the union is to call others names is to get a civic life:

 ” … For now, decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”

Barack Obama, whose favorite sport is shooting hoops, basically sounded the call to opponents and supporters alike that he is here to help to the best of his ability. But to ensure our nation accomplishes its needs, the ball is in the people’s court.

State Dept.: County native killed in Algerian raid.

The U.S. State Department confirmed today that a Jefferson County native was among the three Americans killed in a siege by Islamic terrorists at a BP gas plant in Algeria.

Family members of Victor Lynn Lovelady 57, of Houston, were notified of the BP conctract worker’s death, said KFDM Channel 6 News Website. He is a native of Nederland in mid-Jefferson County.

Early Wednesday, Algerian time, heavily armed militants attacked the BP In Amenas gas operation almost 20 miles west of the Libyan border. Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said his country’s special forces regained control of the site and killed about 29 of the militants, according to Euronews.

The oil and gas drilling news Website Rigzone, has reported 85 people were killed as a result of the invasion and resulting raid. BP group chief Bob Dudley this was the first time such an incident has happened to one of their plants.

 “As a precautionary measure we are of course, reviewing security at our other locations and operations in the region and elsewhere around the world,” Dudley said. “There will undoubtedly be government investigations into the horrendous events of the past few days. And we will participate in them fully.”

On April 10, 2010, an explosion rocked the BP project on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 and injuring 16. The explosion and subsequent sinking of the rig led to the largest marine oil spill in history. BP had spent $16 billion by the end of 2011 in costs associated with the spill and rig incident, according to the company. Many other legal challenges and costs are anticipated.

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I second that a’ motion

My mind is out in space this afternoon, figuratively speaking of course. Where would I be if my mind was literally out in space and the rest of me was sitting in this chair while poking a keyboard ? That raises the question: How long would it take a thought to travel from the edge of space to near sea level?

I am pretty sure someone could answer that question or at least give it a shot. It seems like there are as many answers out there, perhaps even more, than there are questions. Here’s a question for you. How fast does the Earth move around the Sun? I had to find — on the Internet — an astrophysicist to answer this one.

“Earth’s average distance to the Sun is 150,000,000 km (93 million miles), therefore the distance it travels as it circles the Sun in one year is that radius x 2 x pi, or 942,000,000 million kilometers in a year of 24 hours/day x 365 1/4 = 8,766 hours so you divide to get 107,000 km/h or about 67,000 mph. You could also say the Earth moves around the Sun at 30 km/s. The Sun circles the center of our Galaxy at about 250 km/s. Our Galaxy is moving relative to the ‘average velocity of the universe at 600 km/second’ “– From “Ask the Astrophysicist, 1997.”

It certainly doesn’t feel as if we are traveling that fast. I bet if we felt that velocity, then even us Texans would talk fast.

Perhaps it is that I might make a couple of airline trips later this year that I ponder the many illusions one confronts when traveling in a physics-laden universe. I think in specific, why it seems one isn’t really going anywhere, or at least, isn’t going anywhere fast, while traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.

Oh, I’m not talking about takeoff or landing or making airborne turns or experiencing turbulence. I speak of the motionless feeling of flight itself. You can close your eyes and practically feel as if you are sitting in your favorite uncomfortable chair at home. Then, if it is daytime and not cloudy outside your little air cabin porthole, you peer downward some seven miles to terra firma and can tell the plane is moving somewhat. That is even though it doesn’t feel as if you are traveling 500 mph.

While you are looking at the ground to see what’s there or if you are trying to locate something you recognize, all of a sudden you see another airline in the distance and it is literally flying by. It’s flying by, as in “zoom,” it’s out of here!

It’s all just an illusion, you remind yourself. Such trickery doesn’t find limits in flight either.

I remember when my brother brought a motor boat home from Connecticut that he won playing poker with some Navy shipmates. We set “sail” out on Lake Sam Rayburn in East Texas, and when my brother cranked the outboard to full speed, it felt like we were “flying,” as in we felt like we were hauling ass! Yes, I know. It’s an odd idiom. But you know what I mean. We were maybe going 25 mph, but it seemed even faster out there on the lake.

Years later when I was in the Navy I joined my ship, a mid-1940s version destroyer, which was in a San Pedro, Calif., drydock having a new hull installed. It was only a month or so after I reported on board that the work was completed and we took the ship to water for the first time in several months for a “shakedown cruise”

It seemed to take forever to transit from the shipyards, under the Vincent Thomas Bridge and out past the breakwaters. Once on a bit more open water the captain ordered “All Ahead, Full” and the 30-year-old warship let its engines rip. I was standing out on the fantail watching the screws churn thousands of gallons of seawater effortlessly. I can recall the smile that came across my face as it did some of my new friends who were goofing off, getting sun and tasting the salty air spraying us all. I don’t know how fast we were going. I guess technically a warship’s speed is classified, but the Fletcher class destroyer as we were on was designed for almost 45 mph. Were we going that fast that day? Who cared, as long as little springs of water didn’t start popping out of the hull.

One of those other strange sensations on water, but even in the air or on the ground is how one feels after concluding a journey. In a car after a long ride, you might go to bed that night feeling like you are still riding. Or perhaps you feel “bouncy” after a long flight.

The sensation I found even more bizarre was docking in port after encountering heavy weather. I learned pretty fast how to walk down a passageway during big waves, thus gaining my “sea legs.” It came to be second nature, so it wasn’t a total surprise when I walked with sea legs off the brow and on down the pier for a ways.

Your body, nature, the land, sea, physics all seem to converge at times to play a little joke upon the unsuspecting. I adapted like a duck in water when I rode the Pacific on a 390-foot, 2,400-ton tin can. It took a bit longer not to tighten-up when the bumps began while flying the friendly skies. But it took only one ride that day at the carnival when my Daddy and I made the idiot decision to ride the gravity-defying Tilt O’ Whirl.

Life’s a trip, isn’t it?

 

 

 

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American comes to SE Texas: Will its new paint job & updated eagle follow?

Commercial air service returns to our local airport next month when American Eagle begins flights between Jack Brooks Regional Airport (BPT) and Dallas-Fort Worth International (DFW). Whether this will bring American’s “new look” or its oldest, I suppose we shall have to wait and see.

American has just unveiled its new look with a new logo. Perhaps it is because the airline has taken a new order of Boeing 777-300ERs for delivery so they figured it might be a good time to repaint its old fleet as well. As the airline’s chief commercial officer explains:

AMERICAN AIRLINES NEW LOOK
“Just drop me off at that next mountain top, Cap’n!” A new paint job and logo for American Airlines. Could there be new fares to match?

“Our new logo and livery are designed to reflect the passion for progress and the soaring spirit, which is uniquely American,” said Virasb Vahidi, American’s CCO. “Our core colors — red, white and blue — have been updated to reflect a more vibrant and welcoming spirit. The new tail, with stripes flying proudly, is a bold reflection of American’s origin and name. And our new flight symbol, an updated eagle, incorporates the many icons that people have come to associate with American, including the ‘A’ and the star.”

There is nothing like an updated eagle to get your motors running. Just ask the Philadelphia Eagles and the wonders the updated eagles have done the team in recent years.

But seriously it is nice that we are finally getting an airline to our little airport even if one has to fly to D-FW first, no matter where they are going. It would have been nice to have an airline that flies to Hobby or G.H.W. Bush in Houston, a 20-30-minute flight from Brooks. Continental, under the guise of Colgan Air, did that. But Colgan quit the friendly skies as part of its parent firm’s, Pinnacle Airlines, restructuring plan.

I am not sure but I would think the public relations folks for the Jack Brooks airport, owned by Jefferson County, Texas, did not write this little factoid in BPT’s Wikipedia page:

“Jack Brooks Regional Airport has the distinction of being the only destination that Southwest Airlines has ended scheduled daily service to (1980), and has never returned.”

Ouch. And I don’t know if that is a fact, Jack. I don’t know why anyone would lie about such a matter. Then again, in Wikipedia, anything’s possible.

One attraction of the new airline is that with the initial flights, at least, it doesn’t seem as if they’ll clean out the old bank account. Since I don’t talk regularly to American, or any other airline for that matter, I have no idea what they are up to with what seem to be reasonable fares (certain March and April round-trip, no extras, flight from Beaumont to El Paso via Dallas, for $223 plus tax (and check bags, and seating INSIDE the plane rather than on the wing … ) Check it out yourself if you are interested. Surely there’s a catch. After all you have to find someway to pay for a new paint job and an updated eagle. Of course, with my bank account at the present time, a bag of Munchos would wipe me out.