More complaints from MCT, about crappy rifles that get jammed. Then after getting thru MCT, my son does 2 mos of guard duty at Camp Pen because they aren’t ready for him at MOS. Why do they make it 2 days on, 2 days off, with no sleep? Why not schedule even 12 hrs on and off, would be better, then at least you can sleep. WHY isn’t the whole 1st 6 mos scheduled better?? Then the Marines pay for my son’s ticket to go to Artillery school. He says Ft. Sill is decent for the Army, the Marines have crappy old buildings. He gets there, and he is literally put in a closet to sleep in last night, then this am they say we can’t put you in a school for a month, so contact your recruiter, try to get RA, buy a ticket and go home for a month.

Billions are paid on defense spending, and this is the best the US Govt can do for our Marines that are sacrificing for our country?

It is the story of the raising of the ships sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. 

I knew some of informaiton about this effort but did not realize the conditions under which those Navy - and some civilian contract - divers worked:  zero visibility, the huge amonut of debris inside the ships, the dead bodies, and the oil.  He does recount one instance where they entered one compartment, I think on the USS West Virginia, where they found the bodies of two sailors who had been keeping a log.  The date of the last entry is 23 Dec which meant those two fellows had survived for some sixteen days.  He also touches on some of the lighter moments of that time - I did not know that prohibition had been imposed on the islands.  This is a personal memoir of Raymer and was a very good read.

On 1/11/11 The National Veterans Art Museum (NVAM) announced its ABOVE and BEYOND Campaign. Named after the famed 10 X 40 foot installation piece entitled ABOVE and BEYOND - this memorial is comprised of more than 58,000 imprinted dog tags representing each of the service men and women who died in the Viet Nam War.

It is the only permanent Viet Nam War memorial other than “The Wall” in Washington, D.C., to list all those killed in action. It is located in and owned by the NVAM. We encourage you to visit this one of a kind museum and help us preserve it for future generations.

We are excited to be moving in 2012 to a larger faculty in Chicago. A donation to The Above and Campaign will help us move, protect and preserve this memorial as well as more than 2,000 works of art in the museum’s permanent collection.

Won’t you please sponsor a dog tag in the ABOVE and BEYOND memorial at just $10 each? You can dedicate your sponsorship to honor and in memory of a veteran or loved one. To sponsor dog tags please visit http://www.nvam.org or you can send a check to NVAM - Above and Campaign, 1801 S. Indiana Ave., 3rd floor, Chicago, IL 60616.

Published: April 18, 2012 (Issue # 1704)

ALEXEI DRUZHININ /

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visits the Moscow Planetarium, where he chaired a meeting on a new Russian launchpad.

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia will spend about $1 billion this year to build a new space launch pad in the far east that should ease the Russian space program’s reliance on neighbor Kazakhstan.

Putin told government officials in televised remarks the first rocket launch from the estimated $10 billion-Vostochny cosmodrome is set to be conducted by 2015, and in 2018 it should launch a first manned mission.

Putin said Russia will continue to use the Soviet-built Baikonur launch pad it leases from Kazakhstan, but added that a new launch facility of its own is needed to secure the national space program’s independence.

“Only the existence of several space launch pads would guarantee Russia a full independence in space activities,” Putin said.

Russia also has the Plesetsk launch pad in the north used mostly for launches of military satellites.

Vostochny, where construction began last year, is located outside the town of Uglegorsk in the far eastern Amur region.

Putin said the new facility will include more than 40 apartment buildings for personnel and the necessary infrastructure to make it a “comfortable, modern town.”

“We won’t repeat the past when they were saving money on people,” he said. “It will create a stimulus for the developme