THE NATIONAL SECURITY IMPACT OF MUELLER’S INVESTIGATION.

FINLAND PONDERS GROWLER: Finland has received U.S. government approval to buy the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G “Growler” EW (electronic warfare) aircraft. Finland is the second nation to receive a Pentagon “OK” to buy the advanced electronic warfare aircraft. Why? From the post: “Finland has made it clear that it needs some world-class aerial EW to deal with the Russian threat.” Fallout from the Crimea invasion and annexation continues.

AIRBORNE OPERATION, CENTRAL EUROPE: Paratroopers from the 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade drop from a C-17 Globemaster III transport. They’ll land in Slovenia’s Cerklje Drop Zone. They are participating in Exercise Eagle Sokol. Photo was taken March 22, 2019. Great shot of a C-17.

PTSD IN THE CIVIL WAR: Dr. A. A. Nofi reviews Heavy Laden: Union Veterans, Psychological Illness, and Suicide, by Larry M. Logue and Peter Blanck.

Veterans of the Civil War were perhaps the first to draw attention to the possible psychological consequences of combat. At the time, veterans with psychological problems, including criminality, alcoholism and addiction, violent behavior, and suicide were attributed to “nervous trouble”, “nostalgia”, “soldier’s heart”, and other vaguely defined conditions which are now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The review is brief but informative. Dr. Nofi adds that the book is “an important read for students of veterans affairs…” Historical context is always valuable,

SNOW DUST-OFF: Another photo snapped during winter exercises in Alaska. And winter it is. Paratroopers with 1st Squadron, 40th Cavalry Regiment (Airborne), 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division huddle over a mock casualty as a UH-60 helicopter lands. Photo taken Feb. 20, 2019.

BUSH IN DRY DOCK: The port side anchor of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) is lowered into a dry dock for maintenance.

POTENTIAL VERSUS PROVEN THREATS: China claims the DF-26C IRBM has a maneuverable warhead capable of sinking U.S. warships at sea. It’s ostensibly a carrier killer ballistic missile. But so far China has never tested the missile against a “static or moving target at sea”:

Such a test could easily be arranged, using a large (carrier size) retired tanker or container ship, moving and maneuvering under remote control in a designated (to keep any ships and aircraft out of harm’s way) portion of the ocean. Other nations could use their photo satellites to observe. Either the DF-26C maneuverable warhead hits the target or it doesn’t.

As the article says, the U.S. Navy has to take seriously the potential threat the missile poses.

AIR-DELIVERED BIG GUNS: Two U.S. Army Chinook helicopters deliver M777 155 mm howitzers in an exercise held at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany.

WHY IS THE USMC CONDUCTING LIVE FIRE EXERCISES IN LATVIA?: Russia’s Crimea invasion imperiled 21st century peace.

RELATED: Chapter Four of Cocktails from Hell.

ROCKET FIRE IN LATVIA: A USMC HIMARS rocket launcher conducts live fire training in Latvia’s Adazi Training Area.

FUELING THE FRENCH: A USAF KC-10 refuels a French Rafale strike fighter. The photo was taken March 14, 2019. The caption says the aircraft are participating in Operation Inherent Resolve, which counters the Islamic State. The caption doesn’t tell us where the refueling took place. Possibly in air space over Iraq, Turkey or Jordan, or over the Mediterranean Sea.

LONG TERM IMPACT: Russia’s Crimea invasion, five years on.

YEMEN: Faction fatigue and food warfare.

Very Related: Cocktails from Hell, Chapter 5: Iran Exploits Yemen’s Nest of Wars.

FEEDING HOGS OVER KANSAS: Refueled A-10s fly beneath a KC-135 tanker. Down below is a snow covered Kansas — the photo was taken March 6.

DICK DALE, KING OF THE SURF GUITAR: Rock legend Dick Dale has died at age 81.

The Daily Telegraph comments on Dale’s influence:

Dick Dale, who has died aged 81, was the progenitor of what become known in the 1960s as “surf music”, a sub-genre of pop whose most famous exponents were the Beach Boys; he belatedly achieved wider recognition when Quentin Tarantino used his track Misirlou as the opening theme to one of the key films of the 1990s, Pulp Fiction.

Although mainstream success did not come to him until late in his career, it could be argued that Dale did more than many better-known guitarists to shape the direction of rock music. His influence lay not so much in what he liked to play, which never gained more than local popularity in his youth, as in the style of his attack.

The style of his attack — indeed. In his tune “Third Stone from the Sun,” Jimi Hendrix said “You’ll never hear surf music again.” Thing is, that’s an inside joke. Dale’s style influenced Hendrix and Hendrix’s style of attack.

But surf music? As the BBC report says, it has Greek folk music roots and influences. Cultural appropriation scream the Social Justice Warriors!!! Hey, SJWs, there are only 12 notes in the tempered scale. Temper down — learn sumthin’.

Via the BBC:

“When I got that feeling from surfing,” he [Dale] told the writer Barney Hoskyns, “the white water coming over my head was the high notes going dikidikidiki, and then the dungundungun on the bottom was the waves, and I started double-picking faster and faster, like a locomotive, to feel the power of the waves.”

Cool. Greek and Eastern European music morphs into Southern California surf rock.

Only in America.

UPDATE: Dick Dale plays Pipeline then ad libs. Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughn play Pipeline. If you’re a Baby Boomer and suffer from tinnitus, check this out. Dale, Leo Fender and James B. Lansing challenged your ears.

UPDATE UPDATE: Just discovered this. August 4, 2017.

HORNETS OVER CALIFORNIA AND A WASP IN MAINE: A two-fer. The F/A-18Es were aloft on March 12, 2019. Why? To have their picture taken. (Hey, pilots need flight hours.) The USS Wasp photo dates from 1942. The carrier was anchored in Casco Bay, Maine. A the caption notes, you can see SB2U and F4F aircraft on its flight deck.

POLAND BUYS HIMARS: Well, the U.S. Marines and U.S. Army like the system. Plus F-35s can spot targets for HIMARS’ GPS-guided rockets. The goal is conventional deterrence of Russian neo-imperialists who seek to recover the RUBK. For more details, see Chapter Four of Cocktails from Hell.

BUFF FROM ABOVE: A B-52 refuels off the English coast – March 14, 2019. The KC-135 Stratotanker that refueled the bomber is based at RAF Mildenhall, England.

ZUMWALT DEPARTS: The guided-missile destroyer USS Zumwalt departs San Diego, March 8, 2019.

SUPPRESSING ENEMY AIR DEFENSES ON THE CHEAP: Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles.

RAPTOR LINE-UP: F-22 Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing prepare to takeoff from Langley AFB, Virginia.

PROWLERS UP CLOSE: Two U.S. Marine Corps EA-6B Prowlers fly off the North Carolina coast. Photo taken February 28, 2019.

SANCTIONS AND NEW MILITARY TECHNOLOGY THREATEN NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR THREAT: My latest Creators Syndicate column.

HOT SUBCONTINENT CORNER: India between China and Pakistan. A StrategyPage podcast.

SANCTIONS AND NEW MILITARY TECHNOLOGY THREATEN NORTH KOREA’S NUCLEAR THREAT