Category: Some Red Hot Gospel there!
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So true!
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The inside of a CH47D Chinook helicopter on fire is the very embodiment of chaos.
Photo: Public domain
You’ll never really know until you get there. We imagine how we might perform when we’re finally facing that really bright light, but we can’t ever be sure. The fine line between selfless valor and rank cowardice is often a diaphanous, ethereal thing. CW4 Ron Bender, however, was the real deal — a true American hero.
The CH-47D Chinook helicopter was flying from Fort Hood, Texas, back to Fort Sill, Okla., with a load of soldiers on board. It was a routine mission, one I have flown myself many times. A tripped chip detector latch on the Number 2 (right-hand) engine transmission was the first indication something was amiss.
A Chinook sports five transmissions and three hydraulic systems. There is a transmission for each rotor system, another for each engine, and a combining transmission to mix everything together. The chip detector consists of a pair of magnetized electrodes across which flows the circulating transmission fluid. If enough ferrous material builds up on the electrodes, the latch trips to inform the flight engineer the transmission requires urgent inspection.
Helicopters being helicopters, the crew found a handy field and set down. The two crewmembers pulled the chip detector, cleaned it off and reinstalled it. They ran up the aircraft and all was well. In accordance with regulations, they could fly the aircraft legally, but they’d need to take a more detailed look once they got home. As they approached the nearby small town of Chico, Texas, at their cruising altitude, the engine transmission disintegrated.
The CH47D Chinook is an amazingly complex aircraft. There’s quite a lot to go wrong in such a complicated machine. Photo: Public domain
Something Truly Horrible
The affected engine ingested the pulverized transmission and exploded. Turbine wheels spinning at astronomical speeds broke loose and scythed through the aft end of the aircraft, severing hydraulic and fuel lines along the way. The combination of atomized hydraulic fluid and several thousand pounds of jet fuel created a fearsome blaze. The whole rear end of the aircraft was now on fire.
The airflow in a Chinook is from the tail to the nose. This curious phenomenon is the result of Bernoulli’s Effect and the aerodynamic design of the machine. That means smoke and fumes originating anywhere in the aircraft end up in the cockpit. In short order, the accumulated passengers could no longer breathe. Being human, they unfastened and moved toward the front of the aircraft in search of breathable air and a part of the aircraft not on fire.
The First Sergeant for the Chinook unit was along for the ride. He was fit and an impressive specimen. Realizing nothing good could come from having a dozen or so terrified people crammed up into the cockpit while the pilots struggled to maintain control of the burning aircraft, he posted himself in the small passageway leading to the pilots’ station. The 1SG locked his arms on the sides of the passage and was promptly pushed over onto his back. He ended up on the floor with his head on the center console. From this vantage, he had a clear view of both pilots.
The aircraft was in an emergency descent and on fire, yet he reported that the pilots were calm and professional throughout, maneuvering the aircraft to avoid nearby populated areas. The cockpit filled with thick, acrid smoke as the aircraft neared the ground. At that point, everybody on board was a passenger. The massive aircraft slammed into the ground at an estimated 130 knots. That’s roughly 150 miles per hour.
The aircraft bounced up and sideways and then rolled. The cockpit broke free at the forward transmission, spewing gyrating helicopter components liberally across the countryside. The 1SG was unceremoniously ejected at some point, remaining inexplicably intact as he flew through the disintegrating aircraft parts. In one of those quirky little miracles, the man landed on his hands and knees and bounced his head against the ground hard enough to crack the visor cover on his helmet. He was otherwise unhurt.
The Pilot-in-Command, CW4 Bender, was also ejected from the aircraft. The First Sergeant and a few locals reached the dying man still strapped in his seat. His last words were, “Did I miss the little town?” If ever you wondered what a true hero looked like, that was it.
With all that energy bound up within those moving parts, helicopter crashes are seldom pretty. Photo: DoD
Denouement
Eighteen souls were onboard tail number 86-01643 that fateful afternoon outside of Chico, Texas. Ten of them perished. The post-crash accident investigation fully exonerated the flight crew. In the face of literally unimaginable horror, they all performed magnificently.
Many folks expire peacefully in some facility someplace. Others meet eternity in a more chaotic fashion. On February 25, 1988, CW4 Ron Bender and his crew gave their lives to save a small Texas town. I am simply in awe of such men as these.
Opinion
New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- The U.S. is the only truly free Constitutional Republic in existence. That is how the framers of the U.S. Constitution designed our Government.
Our Federal Government is the only one on Earth that exists solely to serve the interests of the American people. It has no other purpose. The Federal Government is answerable to and subordinate to the people. The American people are supreme sovereign over the Government. Once the people’s servants fail to recognize and acknowledge these aforesaid facts and then forsake the interests of the people, the Government has descended into Tyranny.
The American people have no lawful duty to suffer Tyranny.
The Nation was founded on one singular precept, set forth in the Declaration of Independence. It is that our people are a free people and are ever to remain so, and as sole sovereign over their Government and each to him or herself, masters of their own fate, and the final arbiters and deciders of the Nation’s destiny.
How Do Americans Exert Their Sovereignty Over A Government That Has Raised The Specter Of Tyranny?
That the American people are lord and master over the Government, this is to be understood as resting not only in the limited and demarcated powers of Government but, more fundamentally, in the unalienable, illimitable, eternal, and unalterable natural law rights bestowed on man, not by Government or by other men, but by the Divine Creator, and thereupon codified in the Nation’s Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights is an integral and essential part of the U.S. Constitution.
By voicing dissent against the encroachment of Tyranny, and through the firearms they bear to thwart its inception and to prevent its entrenchment, the American people have the means not only to stave off Tyranny but both the right and the duty to do so, else they merit the Tyranny they allow to exist by their active or passive failure to resist it.
None of this can be reasonably doubted. Yet, somehow, somewhere through the passing years, decades, and centuries, these paramount truisms became eroded, and, for many citizens, they became lost to memory.
The forces that crush entire populations and nations, utilizing, in recent years, advances in both psychological conditioning and communication technology, have induced veritable amnesia in the masses of all countries, dulling their mental acuity and deadening their will and spirit. This has done much to dampen the resolve of populations of much of the European Union as well as of the populations of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
And the same insidious weakness has now infected the American psyche, brought about by similar, incessant brainwashing programs, introduced into our Country by the same forces that have crushed western Europe and the British Commonwealth Nations. And they have thence directed their toxins against Americans, lessening their resolve, fostering self-doubt, confusion, and outright fear of the very Government that was created to serve them.
This Federal Government has betrayed the American people; misused the powers entrusted to it—has turned those powers upon the American people. It has unlawfully brought those powers to bear on its own masters. In so doing the Government has usurped authority that rests not in Government and never did—authority that rests solely in the American people, and always has.
Through their many agents, the forces that crush people and nations have gained ascendancy in Government here and have bent much of the private sector to their will. In the process, they have gained substantial control over the thoughts and conduct of a broad swath of Americans.
Many Americans have become compliant, empty vessels, unable to escape from the incessant drone of hypnotic messaging, emanating throughout the Country. The messaging has infected all communication resources: smartphones, airwaves, and reading material—insinuating itself firmly into the minds of Americans, seeping poison into one’s reasoning faculties and into the darkest recesses of one’s emotions, where rests one’s fears and feelings of hopelessness.
Wherever they may be, the American public has become an oft unwilling, captive audience to the constant dissemination of noxious propaganda.
Yet many Americans have resisted indoctrination. Through inner strength of will, they are either immune to or have become inured to this indoctrination. They have effectively walled off the horrific effects of mass psychological indoctrination that have plagued so many others.
Something For Americans To Ponder When They Go To The Polls In November
As the Midterm elections loom, the Obstructors and Destructors of our Nation have shown no disinclination of easing up on their agenda to corral and control the thoughts and conduct of the American people. On the contrary, they are “doubling down” their efforts.
They intend to bring to fruition a global neo-feudalist State. To accomplish that feat requires them to maintain, as a necessary condition, firm control of Congress and the Executive Branch of Government.
How did we Americans get to this place where our foes have taken over control of our government, of our press, of social media, and of wealthy, powerful corporate and financial conglomerates?
The slow ossification of the thinking processes of Americans and the slow erosion of Americans’ natural law rights and liberties took time—commencing one hundred years ago—perhaps earlier. But it has rapidly moved ahead only since the turn of the 21st Century, made possible through major advances in communication and the consolidation and control over much of the Federal Government and our Nation’s myriad institutions.
In their discourse, the Destroyers of our Nation and their toadies endlessly go on about “Democracy,” but rarely do they mention the words, ‘freedom,’ ‘constitution’ and ‘republic.’ And they never mention the phrase ‘Free Constitutional Republic” in one breath.
That phrase—‘Free Constitutional Republic’—is an apt descriptor of our form of Government, and our Free Constitutional Republic has served us well since its founding. Because of it, we have become, in the space of fewer than two hundred years, the most powerful, successful, and wealthiest Nation on Earth—the envy of all other nations, where previous generations came legally to live the “American dream.”
But the forces that crush people and nations are many, and they are powerful, wealthy, and ruthless. They are jealous of both the power of our Country, the resilience of its people, the strength of our natural law rights, and our belief in the Divine Creator—ultimate sovereign over people and government. These forces intend to rend us from these beliefs and crush us.
These wreckers of our Nation intend to plunder our Nation’s mineral resources and, in the interim, make those resources unavailable to the American people. Have you seen the price of gas? And as they have taken control over the Federal Government’s military, police, intelligence, and judicial apparatuses, they have turned those engines of Government against the American people, as Americans are now beginning to learn.
And what these wreckers of our Nation find either unsuitable to or antithetical to their needs, wants, and objectives, they have marked them as Detritus and have consigned those items—both tangible and intangible—to the Trash Heap.
And we all know what those items are:
- The Nation’s Constitution;
- The Idea and Fact of the Sovereignty of the American People over Government
- The Nation’s Natural Law Rights, Codified in the Nation’s Bill of Rights;
- The Dismantling of the Nation’s Institutions, History, Heritage, and Culture;
- The Destruction of the Nation’s Emblems and Symbols, and Arts and Artifacts;
- The Erasing of the Nation’s Ethos, Ethics, and Christian Morality;
- The Erosion of the Importance of the Family in American Society;
- Transitioning Americans away from Reliance on Self to Dependency on Government;
- Promoting the Precepts of Collectivism; Denigrating the Precepts of Individualism;
- Infusing Americans with a Conformist Mindset;
- Acclimating Americans to Conditions of Poverty and Minimal Expectations; and
- Dissolution of Concepts such as ‘Nation-State,’ ‘Citizen,’ and ‘Patriotism.’
Our Republic is hanging on by a thread. Strength of Will and Dint of Arms is what we have left. May we hold fast to both in these trying, dangerous times!
About The Arbalest Quarrel:
Arbalest Group created `The Arbalest Quarrel’ website for a special purpose. That purpose is to educate the American public about recent Federal and State firearms control legislation. No other website, to our knowledge, provides as deep an analysis or as thorough an analysis. Arbalest Group offers this information free.
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Wisdom!
Behold the target of the bigot in modern American society.
There is little tolerance on the political Left for white male gun owners.
Tolerance is the new holy gospel in America. Bigotry is the unforgivable sin of the Information Age. It doesn’t matter what good you might have otherwise accomplished, in the 21st century, if you can be painted as intolerant, you are an irredeemable reprobate.
Given the purported pervasive prevalence of bigotry in our society, I propose that we explore the holy dicta of tolerance as they relate to the traditionally conservative American gun owner. This stuff is important. Microaggressions can evolve into macroaggressions. If we tolerate bigotry, then we begin flirting with fascism. The next thing you know some yahoo will be trying to clone Hitler from a tooth fragment. Literally, nobody wants that.
Start With The Basics
Bigotry is formally defined as “intolerance of those who hold different opinions from oneself.” In the modern age, bigotry is the manifestation of innate animosity toward an individual or people group based upon their unwillingness or inability to conform to the bigot’s expected norms of philosophy, worldview, or behavior. Now, how might we recognize bigotry when confronted by it?
For starters, the offending behavior that drives the bigot must be harmless. I think we can all agree that a little innate disdain for Nazi death camp guards or serial murderers is both warranted and healthy. However, if the target of the bigot’s ire causes no discernible harm, then we must question the underlying motivations. Is the bigot driven by the furtherance of the public good, or is he actually trying to impose his will unfairly upon others? Such imposition reeks of rank imperialism and is obviously a throwback to a darker, more misogynistic and institutionally oppressive age.
The Landscape
Crime rates have been demonstrably falling since the 1970s, whilst rates of private gun ownership have been skyrocketing. Cherry-picking statistics and fixation on isolated tragedy can indeed drive a false narrative. However, statistically speaking, the reality is that America has become steadily safer as we have become ever better armed. It is simply that egregious examples of violence are now pumped into our pockets via our phones where, in decades past, we lacked this capacity.
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, America saw a drastic rise in concealed carry. In 2017, there were 17,251,354 concealed carry permit holders in the United States. In a nation with a population of 328 million, that is roughly one in twelve adult Americans. Considering half of the 50 states also now allow some form of permitless carry the absolute number of Americans wandering about armed in public staggers the imagination.
In 1980, the rate of overall property crime in America was 5,400 incidents per 100,000 people. Today, the number is less than half that. These same trends hold true for burglary, larceny, auto theft, and murder. The media will not tell you that because a demonstrably safer world doesn’t earn clicks.
The Very Definition Of Bigotry
With the assistance of biased and complicit media, Leftists control the presidency as well as both houses of Congress. Among their published legislative priorities is the re-enactment of an assault weapons ban, a ban on standard-capacity magazines, and sweeping restrictions on gun ownership. All this is in the face of demonstrable reductions in crime rates since the 1980s.
Thirty-two percent of American adults admit to owning at least one firearm. It follows that 68% of American adults are, therefore, not gun owners. That makes gun owners in America a statistically significant minority. Of those 66,921,246 gun owners, at least 66,910,242 are not criminals. Why then should there be such abject animosity directed toward this one people group by those who do not share their worldview? Is that not the textbook definition of bigotry?
Ruminations
I once heard a CEO pontificate that the only thing she would not tolerate was intolerance. I came to appreciate later that what she actually meant was that the only thing she would not tolerate was anyone who did not conform to her standard of normality. Tolerance is a one-way street in America. You can sleep with road kill and be considered some sort of protected minority. However, in certain circles, if you admit to being a white hetero gun-owning Christian, you are viewed as some kind of malevolent leper. Ask me how I know this.
So the next time someone gives you a hard time about gun ownership, just politely state that you choose not to associate with bigots and move on. The oppression of law-abiding gun owners is the practical manifestation of institutional bigotry. Perhaps as a persecuted minority we could get some kind of special license plates or something. I’m not holding my breath.
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