Wow

This lady dodged a bullet, well sort of.

WTF?

OK, this is crazy.  We need to cut this crap out.  Training service members from Canada or the UK is fine.  We ought not be training any soldiers from any Middle Eastern country other than Israel.  Same goes for most of the rest of the world.

F-117

Even though they are officially retired, apparently several F-117s are still flying , being used as aggressor aircraft out at Nellis.  Story here.

Chinese trainer

I am not even sure I was aware this aircraft existed.

War robots

Not really.  More like robot donkeys.  Story here.  While technology can’t solve every problem, a well-equipped (and well-trained) fighting force will beat even a numerically superior enemy.

Movie review: Unknown Soldier (2017)

Previously I viewed Winter War, a Finnish film that told the story of the Winter war between Finland and the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1940.  I followed that film up with another film from Terry’s Movie Vault; Unknown Soldier.  This movie follows a Finnish machine gun company thru the Continuation War, which is what the Finns call the War Between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941-1944.  The book is based on a novel of the same name that is considered THE novel of this period in Finnish history.  This is the 3rd film based on the novel to be made in Finland.  When it was made in 2017, it was the most expensive film ever made in Finland.

The money spent shows.  The film has wonderful sets, and the cinematography of the beautiful Finnish countryside is dramatic and wonderful.  The uniforms and props are very detailed and appear to be period correct.  The fact that the film had a big budget (at least big for a Finnish film) shows in the film.  Its look is indistinguishable from any Hollywood release.

Unknown Soldier

While I don’t want to give away the entire plot, the film basically follow this

machine gun company from the start of the Continuation War in 1941 thru their recapture of the land lost in the 1939-40 war and then into the Soviet Union proper and their capture of a Soviet city.  Then the unit digs in, WWI style and spends 2 years holding their ground and beating off Soviet probes.  Finally the Soviets, having gotten the Germans in hand, devote resources to the Finnish front and go on to recapture the territory lost in 1941.  With the Soviet assault, we get to see a T-34/85 and a couple of T-34/76s used in the film and they appeared to be authentic.

The film is well acted with the members of the machine gun company consisting of archetypes; the grizzled veteran, the idealistic young officer, the comedian, and so on.  The characters will be instantly recognizable to any viewer who has seen US war films.  The film is in Finnish and has only subtitles.  There isn’t a dubbed version.  While subtitles don’t both me, they do both some viewers and it can become tiresome reading them over the films entire 3 hour length.  Finally, there are some moments in the movie where you can tell that there is something that is referred to is culturally significant and would be easily understood by a Finnish moviegoer, but is lost on one who doesn’t have the Finnish cultural background.

It is a long movie, but worth watching, especially for the cinematography, scenery and Finnish army equipment details.  4 out of 5 stars.

Germany gives up

Apparently Germany has given up the idea of even having a functioning military. Report here.  I know that many of these non-ready assets are actually functional in an emergency (being “down” because of a non-essential system failure) but Germany has been free-riding in NATO forever in order to prop up its welfare state and now seems to have given up altogether.  While I am on record that Russia is in many respects a paper tiger, that doesn’t mean that a country the size and importance of Germany shouldn’t have a functioning military.

More UFO stuff

OK, I really don’t want this website to turn into a poor man’s MUFON website.  However, much is being written lately about UFOs, particularly as it relates to military encounters.  This article speculates as to why the public might not be told all that is known by the government.

Latin American Aviation

I just happened to stumble across this website while looking for something on the internet.  Amazing what is out there that none of us know about.  Really interesting stuff.  Well worth some of your time.

Good

News here. As it should be. Fair winds and following seas.