Random News and Notes 25 September

We kick off this edition of RNN at the Pentagon where SecDef Hegseth has just ended the Defense Advisory Committee for Women in the Services (DACOWITS). The committee was spun up in the immediate aftermath of WWII by then SecDef George Marshall. The intent was to ease the integration, retention and treatment of females in the post war military.

Like most well intentioned ideas, this one went awry. It turned onto a snakepit of feminist theory and social experimentation. That committee is why we got the first female graduate of Ranger School. The 61 day course took her more than 8 months to complete. She was recycled after dropping on request at least twice. As a grad of that school, I can tell you with 100000000% certainty if any males DOR they are done and do not ever get another chance at the school.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. Hopefully, it sticks this time.

It’s probably a good thing I am not a consular official for the US in Paraguay.

I’m not even a soccer fan . . .

Something really cool happened at the White House yesterday. The Marine Silent Drill Team was performing outside on the South Lawn right next to one of the flags as part of an event for Cabinet members and senior staff.

The President saw them, watched until they finished and then invited them inside the White House to the Oval Office. While there he gave them Presidential Challenge Coins.

Those Marines just made a core memory. And, they’ll never pay for another beer for the rest of their lives.

There is a bit of international news to report. Several Scandinavian airports have been forced to close over the last few days. The closures are due to drone incursions. The Copenhagen and Aalborg airports in Denmark and the Oslo airport in Sweden were affected. The Danes seem to think it is a planned disruption by a “state actor”.

That means one country: Russia.

. . . Astrol 1 sailed through the Öresund Strait on Monday and made several irregular maneuvers.
• The tanker Pushpa, sailing under the flag of Benin and sanctioned for transporting Russian oil is another vessel considered as suspicious. It was monitored for 4 hours by a German NATO ship.
• The Norwegian cargo ship Oslo Carrier 3 was 7 km from Kastrup Airport while the drones were being pursued. Several Russian-speaking people are among the crew and the ship’s owner also has offices in Kaliningrad.

These incursions are a continuation of Russian hybrid conflict that includes the damaging of undersea cables and other ocean bottom structures.