Author: Michael

Since the early 2010s, I have dragged my wife to just about every SR-71 Blackbird museum exhibit within driving distance, or sent my staff to take photos if they were close by, many of which are in this article. When you look at the Blackbird, it’s hard to think this Mach 3 marvel is anything less than perfect. But problems did happen, quite a bit. For example, on January 25, 1966. Edwards Air Force Base, California. Two men climbed into Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird tail number 64-17952 at 11:20 in the morning for a flight test that should have ended uneventfully.

It did not.

Fort Hood military police got into a shootout with civilians Saturday night, in an incident that left one person dead, the Army said on Sunday. At least two others were wounded during the fight at a recreation center next to the base, which is now under investigation. 
Fort Hood officials confirmed that multiple gunshots were fired shortly after 9 p.m. on May 23, after two military police officers from the base responded to a fight at the Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area. While trying to break up the crowd, gunfire broke out.

Four months after American special operations forces infiltrated Venezuelan airspace to raid its capital city, U.S. troops were once again flying over Caracas. This time, as part of an elaborate training exercise around the U.S. embassy.
Two Marine Corps MV-22 Ospreys flew over the capital of Venezuela on Saturday and landed outside the U.S. embassy as part of a “rapid response” drill, the U.S. embassy for Venezuela said in a social media post.

This video describes the military situation in

The Canadian Patrol Submarine Project, often referred to in shorthand as CPSP, is Ottawa’s attempt to replace the Royal Canadian Navy’s aged Victoria-class submarines with a significantly larger and much more capable submarine force. By Canadian standards, this project is significant. Ottawa would like up to 12 conventionally powered submarines capable of operating not only in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans but also in Canada’s far north, in Arctic waters. It is that last requirement that has exerted a significant influence on the CPSP project.

Throughout all three of his presidential campaigns, President Donald Trump promised to avoid the kind of wars that defined the post-9/11 era. He has long criticized the Iraq War and “forever wars,” arguing that Washington wasted trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives on failed nation-building projects overseas.

The $13 billion USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) cannot safely operate Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II fighters because the aircraft carrier’s flight deck was designed before the F-35C’s final heat specifications existed. The Pentagon calls it a synchronization gap. The Ford’s design was frozen on August 11, 2005, when the first steel was cut. The F-35C’s exhaust plume runs at 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit — hot enough to warp the carrier’s standard flight deck plating.

Summary and Key Points: The U.S. Navy is finalizing plans to buy the first Trump-class battleship in its 2027 budget — ensuring the new warship is purchased by 2028, before President Trump leaves office.

-Each Trump-class battleship will be armed with 128 Mk-41 Vertical Launch Systems firing SM-3, SM-6, and Tomahawk missiles, plus surface-fired hypersonic missiles, 600 kilowatt lasers, a 32-megajoule railgun, and deck-mounted 5-inch guns capable of firing precision-guided rounds.

-The class could grow to 15-25 ships if the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base can flex to meet demand. The U.

Summary and Key Points: An American SR-71 Blackbird lost one engine to an inlet unstart at 83,000 feet and Mach 3 during a reconnaissance mission over Vladivostok, the major Soviet port on the Pacific.

-The pilot immediately shut down the second engine to prevent catastrophic asymmetric thrust from tearing the aircraft apart — leaving the SR-71 in an uncontrolled descent with zero thrust over Soviet territory. The pilot and Reconnaissance Systems Officer refused to eject. They recovered the aircraft and diverted to South Korea for repairs.

Four in 10 Americans have no retirement savings — a slow-moving crisis that spans every generation. 57% of young workers aged 18 to 34 have no retirement plan, 42% of mid-career workers aged 34 to 54 have no retirement account, and 40% of older workers aged 55 to 65 still have nothing saved. 29% of current retirees report having no savings. Americans believe they need approximately $2.1 million to retire comfortably, but 62% have less than $150,000 saved and the average retirement account holds approximately $288,700.