Tuesday, July 01 2008 @ 08:01 AM CDT
Contributed by: Jesse
Views: 5
Went to the E-5 (Sergeant) Board today. I got recommended but it was pretty rough. It was like a garrison board, there were no situational questions just book stuff. I've got enough points so I should get promoted August 1st.
Sunday, May 25 2008 @ 09:08 AM CDT
Contributed by: Jesse
Views: 40
I've been in Iraq for a few weeks now, but this is the first time I've gotten my computer on the net so I figured I'd blog about it. We're living in a pretty nice place and the area doesn't have much insurgent activity although the surrounding areas do. Working on getting commercial satellite access with about 20 of the guys so we can get on the net from our rooms, but that'll probably be a few weeks out. I've got to figure out how to wire up a LAN first, and it's a pretty big space for plain old ethernet and a low budget. Wireless is too expensive at the distances involved, buying all those antennas adds up, so I may try a cantenna. Wired is looking like the biggest possibility right now, I'm not sure how it'll handle a single subnet with switches when most of the long links are 100m, so I may have to route and wind up with a couple of subnets. I'll give more details on the network layout later for those who are interested.
Tuesday, April 15 2008 @ 02:16 AM CDT
Contributed by: Jesse
Views: 50
I'm in Kuwait right now, waiting to go to Iraq. It's hot during the day but not scorching, and the nights are cool. We've been working really long hours and everybody wants to get to Iraq and stop messing around here. The internet access here is really slow but it's being uncharacteristically fast right now so I'm taking advantage of it.
The formula for calculating Kinetic Energy is 1/2m * v^2 where m is mass in kg and v is velocity in meters per second.
The M829A2 120mm APFSDS-T (armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot-tracer) round's penetrator weighs around 4.9kg and has a muzzle velocity of 1680m/s. That comes to about 6.9 megajoules.
The M829A3 has a heavier penetrator (the net doesn't know but I'll ask one of our Mike Golf's) and a muzzle velocity of 1555m/s. KE yet to be determined.
Lets see now -- KE (ft lbs) = (W * Vē) / 450436. That gives us (65,870 * 5480 * 5480) / 450436 which boils down to (hold on to your hats!) 4,391,500 foot pounds (that's right 4.3 MILLION ft lbs). Sectional Density = W (in pounds)/Dē. That gives us 9.41 / .6 * .6 which equals 8.4. (That's eight point four--and you thought your 220gr .30 cal bullet had high sectional density at .343 (that's "point" 343.) The newer M829A2 round throws a 10.85 pound , .8" dart at 5512 f/s. I'll leave it to you to figure out the details.
As an interesting side note, when fired at 55 degree elevation, it will travel 113,111 meters (123,630 yards or roughly 70 miles) and reach a height of 44,073 meters (48,171 yards or almost 27 miles). You are NOT safe if someone aims one of these at you. The accuracy of the dart is sub-MOA and the stated effective range is about 3000 meters (3270 yards). However, first round killing hits have been obtained out to about 6000 meters (6540 yards).
Sharp-eyed readers may note the 55 degree elevation for the maximum rage of this projectile. While spin stabilized cylindrical projectiles reach their maximum range in air at angles of between 25 and 35 degrees (45 degrees in a vacuum) the "dart is fin stabilized and not spun (the 120 mm gun is a smooth bore) and this gives it its maximum range at 55 degrees elevation--the fins keeping it point first through out its trajectory and providing some lift.
Just finished watching Cloverfield, probably the best movie I've seen in a long time. I thought the shaky cam would be really annoying, but it wasn't that bad actually (although on a big screen it would probably be vomit inducing). The characters were totally believable and most of the effects were perfectly done. I would have liked to see more of the Army, and you can't tell me a sabot round wouldn't put some hurt on that thing. I'm going to look up the amount of energy delivered by a 120mm APFSDS round now I think...
I'm typing this from Philip Lapple's Wife's Father's House in Hamburg, Germany. Hamburg is about 600km from Baumholder, and is a pretty interesting place so far. I forgot my camera, which I can't believe. Lapple and Natalie are staying at her grandmother's house and me and Tom (Block) are stayinig here. It was nice of him to let us stay here. Tom and I are watching stupid videos on the net in his kitchen right now, and my battery is runing low so I'm about to take off.
Update: Visited the Reeperbahn tonight, it was interesting but that's not really my thing. I've eaten so much this weekend it's ridiculous, most of the food has been really good though.
Monday, March 17 2008 @ 10:14 AM CDT
Contributed by: Jesse
Views: 115
Got a big surprise today, SPC John Yokeley showed up. He used to be in A 1-35 but PCSed a while back to Schofield Barracks. Apparently it sucks there even worse than here. He's on R&R leave right now and decided to come here instead of visiting home. He'll leave about the same time we do, in another 2-3 weeks.
Sunday, March 09 2008 @ 08:57 AM CDT
Contributed by: Jesse
Views: 133
Just watched an episode of Smash Lab, and I think it'll be my last. It's Mythbusters dimwitted cousin. The crew (with the possible exception of Chuck) says the most inane things and have no personality. With Mythbusters 1/3rd of the show is geekiness, 1/3rd is the crew, and the last 1/3rd you fast forward through with your Tivo. With Smash Lab it's about 1/5th geekiness and the rest fast forward. Mythbusters' endless recaps have always annoyed me, but that's what Tivo is for (that and commercials), but the content to noise ratio on Smash Lab just isn't worth it.
Stop doing pointless small experiments just to fill time, the thrill factor of a minor car crash has long since worn off. Show us the maths and get on with the real thing. Spend less time on the flat personalities and more time on the project build, the behind the scenes setup, and all the interesting technical details we want to see. Get rid of the narration and recaps. Stop being so safety conscious, we like seeing Tory get hurt on Mythbusters.
Haven't blogged in a while so I figured I'd post some things I've been doing.
Went rappelling the two weekends after leave near the autobahn. There was one really nice face I'd like to climb, but a guy told us it's off limits because 4 people died there, so we'll have to find some place else. Not like we have much time though since we'll be deploying soon.
Last night went to Poseidon's with some of the guys (Koval, Southard, Block, Howson, Wollaston, and one other I'm spacing out on). Four of us got the Marathon Plate which is for 4 and it had so much meat we couldn't eat it all.
Went over to Rick's tonight for some BBQ. Had a bunch of ribs and wings and chilled out for a while.
Heading back to Germany yet again, this time I probably won't be back for quite a while. I'm typing this from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport this time, I've got about 2 hours until my flight leaves. I had a pretty laid back trip this time, not going out that much or visiting too many people. One and a half trips to Meteor Crater and 3 days in Tucson with my Dad was about it.
On Thursday I went to Chiva Falls with my Dad, pictures will be up on Monday. It was pretty cool, it was flowing good but it would be interesting to see it with a lot of water.