Monthly Archives: March 2017

Luz azul de vida: Rescate!

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Did you know that in the most remote parts of the U.S.-Mexico border region in Arizona, there are 34 solar-powered beacons with blinking blue lights visible for 10 miles at night. The have a red button on the pole whose only call goes to CBP-Border Patrol.

And they save lives.

From CBP:

Agents at the Ajo Border Patrol Station received notification that a rescue beacon was activated at about 4:00 a.m. Saturday, and they sent an agent to investigate. Approximately 30 minutes later, the agent reported finding one uninjured adult male at the rescue beacon.

The man claimed to have crossed the border illegally as part of a larger group, but was abandoned and got lost when he was unable to keep up with the rest of the group members.

More on the devices, also known as “Panic Poles”

The beacons range from 22 to 30 feet tall (to be seen from a distance), and are powered through externally-mounted solar panels. They are intended to be placed on open, flat terrain. [6] Each pole has a box mounted with a red button which sends out a radio signal to the U.S. Border Patrol. On the top of the pole is a high-visibility light, which blinks every 10 seconds, as well as triangular pieces of polished stainless steel that reflect sunlight during the day. Placards on the beacons contain messages in Spanish, Mandarin and English such as: “You are in danger of dying if you do not summon for help,” and “If you need help, push red button. U.S. Border Patrol will arrive in one hour. Do not leave this location.” The placards also contain a picture symbolizing a person in distress pushing the button.

The beacons also provide benefits to non-immigrants such as lost hikers, local residents, and tourists.

Fort Walton Beach’s carronade

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The FWB carronade buried by the Walton Guards as it appears today (Photo: Chris Eger)

The interesting story of how the ‘Fort’ came to Fort Walton Beach Florida in the American Civil War.

Florida is unique in the south and is often referred to as the most northern of southern states. It is also said that the further north you go in Florida, the further south you get. This is perhaps the truest in the far western Florida panhandle. A little known Confederate force, comprised of local volunteers, fought a few minor battles near what is now Destin/Fort Walton Beach.

Florida in the Civil War

Florida succeeded from the United States on 10 January 1861 and within a month joined the Confederacy. Florida was very sparsely populated in 1861 and its population was thought to be just 140,000 of whom more than 60,000 were slaves. From this population base, the state mustered 16,000 local men to serve in 11 infantry regiments and 2 of cavalry from the Sunshine State. All told, Florida units made up just fewer than 2 percent of the Confederate Army.

One of these units, who later became Company D of the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment, was the Walton Guard. They were organized and mustered into Confederate service for 12 months at Chattahoochee Florida on 5 April 1861.

The Walton Guard and the Indian Mound

Formed from volunteers of Walton and Santa Rosa Counties near Euchee Anna Florida in March 1861, the Walton Guard was a scratch force. Armed with few regular weapons and no artillery they formed a defensive line near what is today downtown Fort Walton Beach.

The Fort Walton Mound, a thousand-year-old Indian burial site, was chosen as the fortification for the unit. The mound was a truncated pyramid made of sand, dirt, and shells 223 feet long, 17 feet high and 178 feet wide. The local Native Americans had used the site as the center of their village up until the 16th century when they became extinct. It was here that the Walton Guard chose to watch over the narrows of Santa Rosa Sound and Choctawhatchee Bay.

The Walton Guards stood their ground for a year, watching over nearby Union-held Fort Pickens and getting into a few light rifle skirmishes with Union gunboats in the area. Finally, regulars from Fort Pickens decided to scatter the Confederate force and in March 1862, a unit of the 1st US Artillery moved from the fort to within cannon range of Camp Walton. On the early morning of April Fool’s Day 1862, Union forces bombarded the Walton Guards on their Indian Mount and oyster shell fortification. Withdrawing from the battlefield Confederate forces fell back down the peninsula and only returned to their post once the Union artillery returned to Fort Pickens.

The Lost Cannon of the Walton Guard

Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, upon finding out of the skirmish, sent small naval cannon to Camp Walton to give the local Confederates some more firepower. The 18-pounder carronade sent over from Pensacola of the type of short naval cannons used on early frigates before the Civil War. They were smoothbore pieces that could be fired comparatively rapidly for ordnance of that era.

The weapons’ primary handicap was that it had a short-range (1-2 miles) and a low elevation. This meant that a Union ship would have to anchor nearly right in front of it to be in danger from it. With the inability to properly defend the mound and their enlistments coming up the Walton Guards evacuated the site in the summer of 1862. They spiked and buried their cannon in the mound so that it could not be used if captured and withdrew to the north.

The carronade as it appears today on a timber display

The Walton Guards joined the rest of the 1st Florida Infantry under Colonel James Patton Anderson. They fought with Stovall’s Brigade, Breckinridge’s Division, D. H. Hill’s Corps, Army of Tennessee at the battles of Chickamauga and Murfreesboro. The remnants of the Walton Guard surrendered and were paroled in North Carolina May 1865.

Their cannon was recovered during archeological excavations of the Indian Mound and today is mounted next to the mound on US 98 in Fort Walton Beach.

It has been a standard site in the area for generations.

Main Street. Fort Walton Beach.1968. Photo courtesy of The Nwfdn Librarian cannon

Just when you thought the Red Sea was a nice place again

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On Saturday 25th March the Italian Navy Maestrale class frigate, ITS Espero, joined the EU Naval Force off the coast of Somalia. Odds are, they are going to need it, and a few minesweepers.

Saudi Naval forces along the Hodeida coast have found and cleared a number of Houthi-placed sea mines.

From Al Arabiya:

Saudi and Yemeni naval engineers cleared Iranian-made mines which Houthi militias planted along the coast of the Hodeida area.

Mines were swept by the water currents to the sea so the coalition forces had to look for them and remove them to protect fishermen and oil tankers in international waters.

Few days ago, a mine blew up killing a number of fishermen and injuring others.

The largest number of mines was planted along the coasts in north and south Hodeida with technical help from Iranian and Hezbollah experts who entered Yemen for this particular task, according to the Yemeni legitimate army.

Meanwhile, it’s apparently open season on Somali refugees encountered at sea, with 42 reportedly killed off the Yemeni coast near Hodeida in a helicopter-borne attack. Word on the street is that the chopper came from allies of the recognized Yemeni government (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all reportedly used AH-64s in the conflict), while other sources pin it on the Houthi who are lacking in helicopter gunships.

And, to further amp up regional tensions for mariners, Somali pirates recently returned from retirement due to bad fishing grounds have reportedly hijacked a dhow in the vicinity of Eyl, a city in northern Somalia that was once a hub for maritime piracy. Local authorities suggest that they may intend to use the small vessel for hijacking a merchant ship further offshore.

And the beat goes on…

Clean those cans!

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When you cut a “stuck” suppressor in half, you shouldn’t be able to read the solid carbon build up layers like the rings on a tree. Yikes.

Carrollton, Texas’ TPM Outfitters took to social media with a cautionary tale of what not to do when it comes to firearm suppressor maintenance.

TPM specializes in Heckler and Koch products and they were recently sent some demo factory HK MP5SDs– you know, the neat little room broom that comes integrally suppressed– that were having some issues. The problem was two-fold: that the suppressors were “stuck” to the gun and couldn’t be removed and that they just weren’t working anymore.

Turns out there was a reason for that.

“They obviously did not try to take off the suppressors and were seized to the barrels, this is why it is so critical that the suppressors come off every 250-500 rounds to clean the barrel and ports of built up carbon,” notes TPM. “The suppressors were solid carbon all the way to the end cap inside.”

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Robert Gibb

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Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Robert Gibb

Robert Gibb was as Scottish as they came, born in Laurieston, near Falkirk 28 October 1845, and educated in Edinburgh. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy and exhibited his first of more than 140 works there in 1867. It should come as no surprise that he was one of the great chroniclers of Highlanders in the field.

His first stab at the military genre came with Comrades in 1878, depicting men of the 42nd Highlanders (The Black Watch) in the Crimea.

The original version of this work was painted by Gibb in 1878 and is currently unlocated. The painting became iconic. While reading a life of Napoleon, the artist made a sketch of the retreat from Moscow. The dominant group of three figures in the foreground was then isolated and adapted to form an independent composition depicting a young soldier whispering his dying message to a comrade who seeks to comfort him in the snowy wastes of the Crimean winter. Photo credit: The Black Watch Castle & Museum

The Thin Red Line, oil on canvas, by Robert Gibb, 1881, showing the stand of a handful of the 93rd (Sutherland Highlanders) Regiment of Foot at the Battle of Balaclava stopping 2,500 massed Russian cavalry. Currently on display at the National War Museum of Scotland, the venue notes “The Thin Red Line is one of the best known of all Scottish historical paintings and is the classic representation of Highland military heroism as an icon of Scotland.”

Saving the Colours; the Guards at Inkerman (1895 – Naval and Military Club, London)

Alma: Forward the 42nd. This 1888 oil on canvas by Scottish artist, Robert Gibb (1845–1932), depicts the Battle of Alma, in Sebastopol, Crimea on the 20th September 1854. Black Watch, in full review order, are advancing towards enemy guns on heights above, with Field Marshal Sir Colin Campbell (later Lord Clyde) shown giving the historic order from which the painting is titled. In left foreground are two Russians, and in distance stretch of sea with fleet in action. The painting was gifted to Glasgow Museums collection by Lord Woolavington in 1923. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Besides the Crimea, he also portrayed the Scots at Waterloo.

Closing the Gates at Hougoumont, 1815. Men of the Coldstream Guards and the Scots Guards are shown forcing shut the gates of the chateau of Hougoumont against French attack, with Lieutenant-Colonel James MacDonell forcing back the gate to the left. The moment of crisis shown in the painting came when around 30 French soldiers forced the north gate and entered into the chateau grounds. Before others could follow, the gates were forced shut again, and the French soldiers still inside were killed. Wellington himself had said the success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at the chateau. Photo credit: National Museums Scotland

Late in his life, he also painted the Highlanders in the Great War.

He produced Backs to the Wall at age 84. In this painting, the artist shows a line of khaki-clad Scottish troops standing defiantly at the critical moment, bayonets fixed– with the specters of fallen comrades behind them.

The work was inspired by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig’s famous Special Order of the Day at the time of the Great German Offensive of April 1918.

There is no other course open to us but to fight it out.  Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement.  With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end.  The safety of our homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.

Backs to the Wall, 1918, painted 1929 oil on canvas. Gift from W. J. Webster, 1931 to the Angus Council Museums.

Gibb held the office of King’s painter and limner for Scotland for 25 years and was Keeper of the National Gallery of Scotland from 1895 until 1907.  The artist died at his home in Edinburgh in 1932, and he was given a full military funeral with an honor guard provided by the Black Watch.

Many of his works are on display across the UK and are available online.

Thank you for your work, sir.

The mighty five-ship Kiwi battle force

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Here we see the full Royal New Zealand Navy Task Group back in the day off Hauraki Gulf, sometime in the early to 1990s, with four aging but well-maintained steam-powered frigates clustered around the fleet’s new oiler. Note the three airborne Wasp helicopters.


The ships are the HMNZS Canterbury (F421), HMNZS Southland (F104)— formerly HMS Dido, HMNZS Endeavour (A11), HMNZS Waikato (F55), and HMNZS Wellington (F69)— formerly HMS Bacchante.

The four frigates are Leander-class vessels, which proved the backbone of the RN and Commonwealth fleets in the Cold War. Waikato and Canterbury were purpose-built Batch 3 Leanders to replace WWII-era NZ ships such as the old light cruiser Royalist. Notably, these two Kiwi frigates relieved British ships of the Persian Gulf Armilla Patrol during the 1982 Falklands conflict, freeing British ships for deployment.

This latter fact led to the RN transferring HMS Dido and HMS Bacchante to New Zealand in 1983 as payback.

All four of these frigates were retired post-Cold War, replaced two-for-one by a pair of more modern ANZAC-class ships of a modified German MEKO 200 design (although they had been offered two FFG-7s shorthulls of 15–17 years age for a song.) The two Australian-built frigates arrived between 1997-99 and the New Zealand navy has stuck to a two-frigate force since then.

Ex- HMNZS Wellington (F69) prior to sinking as an artificial reef, Nov 2005

*HMS Dido/HMNZS Southland was decommissioned 1995 and scrapped at Goa.
*HMNZS Waikato was decommissioned in 1998 and sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of Tutukaka.
*HMS Bacchante/HMNZS Wellington was decommissioned 1999 and sunk in Wellington Harbour as a reef in 2005.
*HMNZS Canterbury decommissioned 2005 and was herself reefed in 2007.

The 12,300-ton Endeavour, a commercial design from South Korea commissioned 8 April 1988, is still active and is a common sight during RIMPAC exercises. She deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping taskforce twice.  She is the last of the vessels in the image above still afloat.

Some 1972 vintage crossdraw action

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I have often talked about the use of cross draw holsters (see here and here) and they had a special place in 20th-century law enforcement use, especially when it came to female officers.

Female officers for generations were instructed to carry in this method as it assisted in retention while it forces the butt of the gun into the body and it was incorrectly thought the female body shape (hips) worked against drawing from the strong side.

March is Women’s History Month, and in honor of that, here is a 1972 image via the Miami-Dade Police Department Archives of deputies Pam Stevens, Lucette Fortier, and Madeline Pearson–  the first women promoted to the rank of Sergeant at the Dade County Sheriffs Department.

White Sniper: Simo Hayha’ by Tapio Saarelainen

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During the 1939-40 Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union, a hunter and farmer by trade by the name of Simo Hayha returned to his reserve unit and picked up 542 confirmed kills with iron sights.

While versions of Hayha’s story is well known in the West, the 192 pages of Tapio Saarelainen’s White Sniper goes past the second and third-hand accounts and brings you, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.

It should be noted that Saarelainen is a career military officer who spent two decades training precision marksmen for the Finnish Army and even helped write that Scandinavian country’s manual for snipers. Besides this obvious resume to prepare him to write the work on Hayha, the author also met and interviewed the Winter War hero dozens of times over a five year period.

That’s a good part of what makes White Sniper such an interesting read is that it is drawn largely from first-hand accounts from a man who has been referred to as the deadliest sniper in history, but also from those who lived next to, fought alongside with, and knew the man personally. As such, it sheds insight on the man not known in the West. Such as the fact that he used his own personal Finnish-made Mosin M/28-30 rifle that he had paid for with his own funds. That his outnumbered fellow Finns, fighting alongside him in the frozen Kollaa region during that harsh winter, called him “Taika-ampuja” which translates roughly as the “Magic Shooter.” That he took almost as many moose and foxes in his life as he did Russians. That he was unassuming in later life, spending most of his time calling on old friends in his yellow VW Bettle.

More of my review here.

To check out Saarelainen’s book on Amazon here.

Navy blaster

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Official caption: ROTA, Spain (March 5, 2017) Ship’s Serviceman 3rd Class Samantha Rivera stands topside rover watch aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) while the ship is pier side at Naval Station Rota, Spain. Porter is forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Ford Williams/Released)

It’s good to see that SH3 Rivera’s M4 is rocking an angled foregrip and a detachable LMT L8A A2 rear sight assembly. Always nice when “commercial off the shelf” works to the advantage.

Good TD as well.

Horse soldiers never die

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A division of the Blues and Royals sabre squadron, part of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (All photos via MoD)

The British Army’s Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) traces its lineage back to the 1660s– to King Charles II’s Life Guards and the Earl of Oxford’s Blues — and its horse-mounted unit, after the reforms of 1992, now consists of one 75-member sabre squadron plus a mounted band from each regiment of the Household Cavalry (the red tunic wearing Life Guards and the black tunic wearing Blues and Royals), each with their distinctive cuirass and plumed “Albert” helmet.

Life Guards in red, Blues and Royals in Black

Based at their Hyde Park Barracks, they are on “public duty” which consists of ceremonial operations around London and the royal estates to include state visits, Investitures, the opening of Parliment, etc. The standard unit is a 25-man mounted division, though this can be halved. All told, the force, with their H/HS complete with staff, vets, saddlers and farriers, amounts to about 350 officers, NCOs and troopers.


Last week they had their annual inspection by Major General Ben Bathurst, the General Officer Commanding the Army in London and the Queen’s Household Troops, but this one was different:

“For the first time in recent memory, the Regiment were joined by their cavalry cousins from the Swedish Livgardet and Danish Gardehusarregiment. The Swedish Life Guards and Danish Guard Hussar Regiment each fielded an officer and senior non-commissioned officer, dressed in their equivalent ceremonial uniforms, to ride in the parade.”

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