If you have a few minutes watch this episode concerning the Yungas Road in Bolivia....I was on this road back in the '90s.
All I can say is holy crap!
As I like to tell people about the adventure, it is not the fact that you were going to die, but how you were going to die....Bouncing off the side of the mountain, drowning in the river far far below.....The morbid conversation helped mask the shear terror of travelling this road!
All in the name of "protecting" the environment. Well, that is if you if you read between the lines of a recent news report from the Dailypress.com the Sierra Club opposes the expansion of a section of US-460 between Suffolk and Petersburg.
By expanding the roadway, jobs will be created in the form of construction, jobs will be created in the form of Hampton Roads having a more robust and inviting transportation network making its harbors and ports more commercially friendly, by expanding US 460 more people would be able to get out of Hampton Roads if and when an evacuation is required. Expanding US-460 would speed up traffic coming and going to the region as an alternate from I-64.
So, you can pollute the environment as you sit in traffic on the weekends on I-64 now and in the future, or you can help the environment by quickly getting to your destination. Who knows, an expanded US -460 might even save your life.
The last few days there has been an increase in truck traffic here in the "View".
Now there is nothing particularity special about these trucks, the standard flat bed semi-tractor trailer rig.
What is special is the cargo these trucks are hauling. These trucks are hauling the unsung hero of the military logistics at its finest!
Floating causeway pieces!
Colonels speak tactics where Generals Speak logistics! Nothing happens until something moves and it is only fitting that the CJCS has emplaced an Army General (Keen) who by the way is a high speed low drag individual, in charge of the relief operation in Haiti. De ja vue Katrina/Rita with "angry" Honore! Where are the Navy Admirals or the Air Force Generals maybe they are busy speaking tactics?
Back to the floating causeway pieces, Port au Prince harbor as we all know is crappy and the big ships that have all the good recovery gear cannot pull up to the pier to off load their precious life saving and life giving cargo of cranes, bull dozers, water purification equipment, bulk food stuffs medical gear etc. So these floating piers will be shipped down to Haiti and will be in place in a few days. Helicopters can only do so much, landing craft can only do so much, floating causeways are the answer! Yes, we learned this little lesson this back during the invasion of Normandy!
Which by the way brings me back to the point of the post... The military is designed, manned, equipped and trained to kill and break things. These floating causeways are designed to bring ashore tanks, armored personnel carriers, ammunition trucks, bomb transport vehicles, fuel and heavily armed men who are trained to kill people and break things! Hoooa to the Transportation Corps!
So for all you tree huggers, liberal quacks and people who believe that spending money on the military is a waste of time remember Haiti, Katrina, Puerto Rico, and places in the Pacific hit by the tsunami, and other places hit by disasters, natural or otherwise it is real easy to be against the military when they are doing their JOB killing, breaking and securing in our nations interest. However, when they show up on the door step of what used to be your home offering a free ride out of hell you really should think about your values, beliefs and ideology and tell them to fuck off! After all what good is the military?
General Keens Badges.. We don't need no stinking badges. Double tabbed.. He needs to lift up his breast pocket flap to display all of his hoooa badges!
SF, Ranger, Combat Scuba, Pathfinder, CIB, EIB, Master Parachutist! I did not see Humanitarian or Philanthropist badges however he should get those as well! Time Magazine should make the troops under his command people of the year!
If you have a few minutes watch this episode concerning the Yungas Road in Bolivia....I was on this road back in the '90s. 
