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Were You A Survivalist?

Saturday, September 10th, 2016

Back in the 80s there were Survivalists and unfortunately, they got a bit of a bad name in the popular press, even being portrayed as villians in more than a few selections of fiction because of their fixation on nuclear conflict and the use of weapons.

The new millennium dawned and with it a new moniker; Prepper. Preppers come in many flavors, including pacifists who work toward sustainable food sources. While Preppers are often looked at as kooks in media, but there’s nothing wrong with being able to rely upon yourself, if even only for a few weeks.

Here are a couple of magazine advertisements aimed at Survivalists.

Posted in History | 23 Comments »

Anyone Use Wooden Barracks?

Thursday, September 8th, 2016

Over the course of my career, I used the old wooden-style barracks as both barracks as well as work space. For example, there were numerous occasions where they were used for exercises and as transient billeting. When 3rd Group first reactivated in 1990, we used the Old Division Area barracks on Bragg as our unit buildings until the compound on New Smoke Bomb Hill was completed.

What about you?

Posted in As Seen On Facebook, History | 66 Comments »

Maneuver Conference Theme

Thursday, September 1st, 2016

This is pretty significant.

Posted in History | 16 Comments »

Welcome to the Layer Cake

Thursday, August 25th, 2016

This is how NATO planned to hold back the Soviet horde circa 1980s. Dubbed the “Layer Cake” defense, it relied upon full NATO commitment with the Americans doing some heavy lifting in the Central Army Group which expected to see the heaviest Warsaw Pact thrusts. You’ll also notice the lack of a French commitment.

Tags: NATO
Posted in History | 48 Comments »

TR On Sacrifice

Wednesday, August 24th, 2016

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

Theodore Roosevelt
President, Soldier, Naturalist, Adventurer
From a speech in Des Moines, Iowa
November 4th, 1910

Tags: Theodore Roosevelt
Posted in History | 9 Comments »

Early TEMPEST Phone From NSA Museum

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

This large, rotary phone was a prototype for a TEMPESTed telephone. TEMPEST is a cover name that is now used throughout the government and industry to refer to frequency emanations leaking from electronic devices as they are used. Even back in World War II, the U.S. Army was warned about a teletype mixer that emitted signals each time the machine stepped. The signals could be intercepted 100 or more feet away revealing the plaintext message.

This early prototype TEMPESTed telephone was mounted on a plaque and presented to Lowell Frazer in 1985, presumably upon his retirement. Frazer was a communications security mathematician whose leadership spurred government and industry interaction in the development of TEMPEST equipment. He also ensured that TEMPEST concerns were part of the cryptographic evaluation process.

To learn a little about TEMPEST history, read “TEMPEST: A Signal Problem”.

Tags: NSA
Posted in Comms, History | 5 Comments »