22 February 2008

Our military in the news

It's been a busy couple of days, and the separate branches have all been up to different things.

Things got real stupid in Belgrade, but apparently someone forgot that U.S. embassies are guarded by U.S. Marines.

One charred body -- a male protester -- was found in the U.S. Embassy compound, embassy spokesman in Belgrade William Wanlund said.

The only Americans at the embassy during the violence were Marines, who are all said to be accounted for.

We especially approve of the part where all the Marines are accounted for. Good stuff.

Meanwhile, our faboulous Navy is destroying stuff in space.
The video showed the three-stage SM-3 missile launching from the USS Lake Erie at 10:26 p.m. EST Wednesday northwest of Hawaii, and of the missile's small "kill vehicle" — a non-explosive device at the tip — maneuvering into the path of the satellite and colliding spectacularly.

Cartwright said the satellite and the kill vehicle collided at a combined speed of 22,000 mph about 130 miles above Earth's surface, and that the collision was confirmed at a space operations center at 10:50 p.m. EST.

Color me impressed. The Navy - if they're not killing pirates, they shooting things out of orbit.

It looks like the Army got the short end of the stick: U.S. senators forced to make emergency landing in Afghanistan
Oh, the Senators were fine. But get this - someone had to convoy out, pick them up, and take them back to Bagram.
The military helicopter [was] carrying Democratic Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware and John Kerry of Massachusetts, and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska

I would have been absolutely thrilled to be roused out of a warm, snuggly cot to roll out and drive through a combat zone to pick that crew up, let me tell you. We don't actually know it was the Army, but it seems a pretty safe guess.

No word on what the other two branches were up to. We can assume the Coasties were saving people and shooting up drug runners and all their usual sort of thing. But I get a little more nervous when we don't hear from the Air Force. Are they all hiding out on midwestern bases, fondling their nuclear bombs and reminiscing about the Cold War?