Want to Hunt Down Some Taliban? There's an App for That

Nothing quite like American ingenuity. Especially when it comes to our men in the military.

His thoughts jostled him awake in the hot July night. He had dreamt up a solution to a problem he’d been wrestling with in his mind for months. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. He eventually rolled out of bed with a renewed sense of purpose, and called his wife, Katie, then his parents.

U.S. Army Capt. Jonathan J. Springer, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, had searched the Internet for a smart phone application that he could use on his deployment before leaving Fort Campbell, KY, in early May, but nothing was out there that suited his needs. He pondered the idea of inventing one of his own, but didn’t know how to do it or where to start.

“Since day one, I always believed that smart phones could be utilized by the U.S. military for combat purposes,” Springer recalled. “So, prior to this deployment, I began searching one of the online application stores for an app I could install on my phone that would assist me as the battalion fire support officer during our deployment here in eastern Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley.

“I remember specifically looking for a navigational-type application that would display the Military Grid Reference System, plot waypoints, give me a direction in Mils, etc.,” said Springer, a Fort Wayne, IN, native. “But sadly, though, I found nothing tailored to what I truly wanted or needed before getting on the bird to head to Afghanistan.”

“I remember waking up in the middle of the night and coming up with an idea for a smart phone application that I just needed to start developing,” said Springer. “It was weird how the whole thing happened – waking up to a dream about an idea and whatnot. Needless to say, after that moment, I decided to begin the process for the app’s development.”

After speaking to his family about the idea to invent his own app, he began working in his spare time doing research on what the project would entail.

“I started the process to legally form my own company and began trade marking my intellectual property,” he said. “After that process was complete, I bought a couple of books and tried to teach myself how to write Objective-C-based code, but that proved to be more of a time-consuming task than I wanted it to be.”

In August, he reached out to a company in Las Vegas for help and since then they have been working together nonstop to ensure his app would make it into the hands of the user before he redeploys back to Fort Campbell in the spring. So far, he said, everything is on track for that to happen — but not without a cost.

“The overall project has cost me about $26,000,” he admitted. “That includes forming my company, trademarking my IP, copyrights, creating a web site to market the app, and paying for the graphic design and the development of the application itself.”

To some, it may sound like a lot of money. But Springer said he just saw a problem and was determined to solve it, making it money well spent.

“Basically, the issue was the fact that these smart phones were being untapped by the Army and I was motivated and determined to change that, even if it cost me my own money out of pocket to do so,” he said.

Read the rest. Let's hope he makes some money off this project. And takes out a bunch of bad guys while he's at it.

Community Rallies To Save Deployed Soldier's Horse Farm

A little good news to go along with all of the bad news that assaults us each and every day.

This is the story of a National Guard soldier who, while deployed to Afghanistan, had his horse farm flooded during the recent flooding we experienced in Georgia. He was not the only one affected; former American woman's soccer team star Michelle Akers suffered the same fate. While I am glad to see the community ralied around this soldier, I would hope the same sense of giving extends to Ms. Akers.

Both of these individuals have represented their country admirably.

Defense Appropriations Versus the Warfighters

Much ado has been made lately about the defense appropriations bill winding it's way through Congress, H.R. 5658: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Bill Status, so I wanted to see just what the money for the military was going for. You know the money that actually winds up in the hands of the military and not those "special projects" the congress critters hold near and dear to their hearts.

Now being an old Army guy I decided to see how the Army money was being parsed out and I found something disturbing. In the Army you have training bases and you have bases which actually have the soldiers who make up the regular units and actually deploy. One base that is a combination of this Ft. Benning, GA, which is home to the U.S. Army Infantry School, and is home for the training of all Infantry soldiers from Basic to Infantry to Airborne to Ranger. It will soon be the home of the Armor branch, that is tanks. Additionally it is home to the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, which has done two rotations in Iraq.

I just bring up Ft. Benning because A) I am very familiar with it, and B) their entry on the funds appropriated seems to run counter to the thesis I am putting forth.

First here is the list from the bill of the funds asked for and where they are going with the bases housing the warfighters in red.

SEC. 2901. AUTHORIZED ARMY CONSTRUCTION AND LAND ACQUISITION PROJECTS.

(a) Inside the United States- Using amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorization of appropriations in subsection (c)(1), the Secretary of the Army may acquire real property and carry out military construction projects for the installations or locations inside the United States, and in the amounts, set forth in the following table:

Army: Inside the United States
-------------------------------------------------------------
State Installation or Location Amount
-------------------------------------------------------------
Alaska Fort Wainwright $17,000,000
California Fort Irwin $11,800,000
Colorado Fort Carson $8,400,000
Georgia Fort Benning $30,500,000
Fort Gordon $39,800,000
Hawaii Schofield Barracks $12,500,000
Kentucky Fort Campbell $9,900,000
Fort Knox $7,400,000
Missouri Fort Leonard Wood $50,000,000
North Carolina Fort Bragg $8,500,000
Oklahoma Fort Sill $9,000,000
South Carolina Fort Jackson $27,000,000
Texas Fort Bliss $17,300,000
Fort Hood $7,200,000
Fort Sam Houston $54,000,000
←→
Virginia Fort Eustis $50,000,000
Fort Lee $7,400,000

The forts receiving the lowest amount of dollars are those that actually house the forces which get deployed! The biggest post east of the Mississippi is not even on the list, Ft. Stewart, GA, home of the other two brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division that has also made 2 trips to Iraq.

The average amount for the war fighters is less then $10 million, once again the exception being Ft Benning.

Look at Ft. Bragg's paltry sum: $8,500,000. Is this the same Ft. Bragg that has recently come under so much criticism for the condition of it's barracks? The Ft. Bragg that is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and Army Special Forces Command?

How about Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division? $9,900,000
Another post not on the list, Ft. Drum, NY, home of the 10th Mountain Division, but I guess since they are spending all of their time in Afghanistan there is no need to give them any money. I wonder where the good senators from New York are to lobby for their base?

The total comes to just over $310 million for the bases to spend on improvements and construction projects. The warfighters portion of it - - $77 million.

Somebody up there on Capitol Hill needs to pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact and figure how to allocate the money more appropriately, or maybe somebody from across the river at the Pentagon can bother to go over there and explain to them the difference between the warfighters and the posts which have a real nifty golf course for the congress critters to visit.

Blast Near U.S. Base in Japan

This has just come over the wires, so it's developing.

A U.S. Army official confirmed a small explosion outside an American base south of Tokyo, but there were no reports of injuries or damage. An explosion was heard near the base late Monday, and police suspected an attempted attack on the base, Kyodo News agency reported.

The blast was in the area of the U.S. Army's Camp Zama, Kyodo said. The report did not say whether there were injuries or damage.

Police found parts of "launch pad" near the base, Kyodo said, and investigators suspected a "guerrilla attack."

Al Gore blames global warming, The Dixie Chicks blame George Bush, and The Pantsuit blames U.S. involvement in Iraq.

UPDATE: Al Qaeda in Japan?

Intelligence reports in Japan and Pakistan suggest al Qaeda has established a small but powerful presence in Japan, which leads some wondering whether or not today's events are the first attempt at an attack by al Qaeda in Japan.

Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News they have had several reports that Pakistani militant organizations working with al Qaeda had established networks in Japan as far back as 1999.