Guest Papers: Catch-Up Edition

October has been a very busy month for me so I'm adding a few papers here to catch up on this feature.  The first two were from a trip to Columbus at the beginning of the month.  The third one was our local daily from last weekend.

A/V: Wright-Patt Says Farewell to a Giant Partner

Attendees viewing the C-5A ‘City of Fairborn’ prior to the start of the ceremony.  The 445th Airlift Wing flew the Lockheed Martin aircraft for nearly six years out from the southwest Ohio base.

On a near perfect autumn afternoon, approximately 100 people came to say goodbye to a familiar friend of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base community for over the past six years.  Last Friday, the base’s 445th Airlift Wing held a farewell ceremony for the C-5A Galaxy transport aircraft, the largest in the US Air Force’s fleet.  Wing commander Colonel Stephen D. Goeman hosted the event at Hangar 4016 near the base flightline and tail number 00047—dubbed ‘The City of Fairborn’—served as the backdrop for the event.

Interview: Jeff Stahler

Columbus Dispatch editorial cartoonist Jeff Stahler addressing 

the Columbus College of Art & Design audience

Sometimes opportunities just sort of jump up into your lap and this past Saturday happened to be one of those times.  I was attending the Columbus College of Art& Design’s annual Family Day and Homecoming weekend and it was during this event’s kickoff meeting that I found myself in the presence of a widely recognized journalist of the editorial cartooning variety.  Jeff Stahler, a CCAD alumni, was serving as moderator of a panel of recent graduates describing their lives after leaving the school.  An award winning cartoonist, Stahler draws regular panels for the ColumbusDispatch and a worldwide audience through Universal uClick (he also produces a daily freestyle panel called “Moderately Confused” for that same syndicator).  

Al Qaeda Propagandist Killed During US Drone Strike

Samir Khan, in Charlotte, NC in 2008 (courtesy Associated Press)

As someone who works in an intelligence-related profession, I have been trained not to talk about such subjects in a public forum.  When I first heard about the recent news concerning the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Islamic cleric who reportedly motivated militant Muslims to commit acts of terrorism against the United States, I had mixed feelings.  While the mission was a success (via the current campaign of using unmanned technology to undertake tasks considered extremely hazardous for humans), not bringing al-Awlaki to court to demonstrate America's adherence to the rule of law will make him a martyr in the eyes of his followers and does damage to our nation's image on the world stage.  This would be a good topic for an opinion piece pitting civil liberties against national security and I am not ready to post my personal positions here just yet.

Guest Paper: Air Force Times

Front (and second front) pages of the publication

As an Air Force retiree (and a current worker on the local military base), I sometimes pick up a copy of the Air Force Times, a weekly periodical geared exclusively towards that service and its members.  Published by the Gannett Government Media Corporation, the journal is one of company’s 12 military/defense-centric journals that focus on news and information generated within or applicable to those specific audiences.  Copies are available for purchase in various base outlets as well as the adjoining town’s lone newsstand that carries it for the convenience of its high population of former Air Force members.  Its continued appeal current and potential readers is that it caters to the entire Air Force community (active duty, guard/reserve, and retired members) and can follow them over a decades-long career right up through their ‘golden years’.  

A/V: "Occupy Wall Street" Movement Comes to Dayton

About two dozen boisterous protestors turned out for the anti-Wall Street rally

Two weeks and one day into the New York City protests against corporate greed in America, many cities across the country have begun to hold their own rallies in support of their efforts.  In the shadow of the Key Bank building in downtown Dayton, approximately 25 protesters took to the street this morning to let their voices be heard on this initiative to passing vehicles and pedestrians near Courthouse Square.