[FedCom] Civil Air Patrol Tightens OpSecurityRadioCommsInformation

[Grant Hopper]

So much for private communication....  And so much for careful reading.

I'm a frequent reader and I am pretty consistently (but fortunately not
constantly) disappointed in some 'members' of this list taking offense at a
person sharing his or her opinion about the state of affairs.  I constantly
see angry words and veiled (or not so veiled) threats slung at those who
share their own thoughts.  Another funny thing is how some people are fine
with sharing their own opinion, until someone else's opinion doesn't fit
with theirs and then it's all slings and arrows.  Last time I checked, the
1st amendment still protected such opinion-sharing.

I read Larry's opinion/comment to speak to government agencies and the
budgets they control, not the individual participants in MARS, SHARES etc.
>From my involvement in local and state government, I have to say that I see
the exact thing(s) that Larry is referring to.  The feds have created a
gravy train attitude at the state and local level, PARTICULARLY within
emergency management.  I have seen some of the most 'creative' grant writing
in my whole life in the last two years.  My favorite example was a grant
proposal (awarded) that took a 15 minute a week job (that an govt. employee
did) and turned it into a separate 40 hour a week job, grant funded, and
gave it to a good old boy without any sort of job
announcement/interviews/hiring process.   The job still takes 15 minutes a
week and it mostly gets done, and the GOB wanders the office with a cup of
coffee.  Government pork and corruption at it's best.  To give credit where
credit is due, I have seen some agencies do an absolutely incredible job
with the new resources too.

In an attempt to defend against the inevitable arrows, I'll add that I'm a
card carrying republican type and even I am disappointed in what I'm seeing
out of our federal government.  It seems like something along the lines of a
nostalgia bug has infected Washington DC and we're seeing late 60's and 70's
like behavior again.  Your own experiences may be different, but of what
I've seen, this is true.  If you don't like what I have said, keep it to
yourself (and don't waste bandwidth) as this is just MY opinion.

To close, I'll make these comments:  I suspect Larry knows more about the
First Amendment (and about the government's, at times, silly behavior) than
nearly anyone on this list and since he has a lot more to loose, I'm pretty
sure he knows he is staying back from the line.  Berate or threaten him (or
others) and you only make an @$$ of yourself.  Save us all the pain of
watching that by writing your email to get the anger out of your system and
then promptly delete the message without sending.  I do this myself, it
works and it satisfies because I realize that I don't debase myself by
sending an email full of anger and threats that even if carried out would
ever change a thing.  When I send an angry or threatening message, I realize
I have lost.

G Hopper

> Thought I'd send this privately and give you a chance
> to retract your statement before saying anything in a
> public forum. I certainly hope that your statement
> wasn't published in Monitoring Times.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fedcom-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:fedcom-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Denny B
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:59 AM
> To: Larry Van Horn, N5FPW; Discussion of Federal Government
> Communications
> Subject: Re: [FedCom] Civil Air Patrol Tightens
> OpSecurityRadioCommsInformation
>
>
> > This is thanks to all those who have jumped on the
> > DHS gravy train (ie CAP
> > MARS SHARES et al).
>
> What exactly are we getting, Larry? As far as I know,
> we still furnish our own equipment for MARS and
> SHARES. Also each of the branches of MARS has only one
> person in  charge and in the case of Air Force MARS,
> that is only a part time position.
>
> Occasionally, we do get equipment from the Defense
> Reutilization program, but with the new narrowband
> requirements, that is far and few between.
>
> Thought I'd send this privately and give you a chance
> to retract your statement before saying anything in a
> public forum. I certainly hope that your statement
> wasn't published in Monitoring Times.
>
> Also I forwarded your email to Civil Air Patrol for
> their comments. I will let them speak for themselves,
> but your statements about them are unfounded in other
> areas.
>
> Denny Beringer
> K9KRO/AFA3LT
> USAF MARS Region 3
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>