Kev – Page 8 – kevgillett.net

Retired infantry officer. Conservative by nature and politics; Happily married and father and grandfather of eight. Loves V8 powered Range Rovers, Golden Retrievers, good books and technology and think there should be open season on Greenies. Born in the mid forties and overdue for servicing but most parts still work.

Time to attack

Posted on Friday, 3 Jun 16 by Kev

For God’s sake Turnbull, attack! Even the cartoonist Bleak knows it is needed.

Politics

The long march home

Posted on Thursday, 2 Jun 16 by Kev

During the big wars of the last century Australian soldiers killed in action were interred in war cemeteries overseas. The cost of repatriating 100,000 plus killed in WW1 and WW2 would have been prohibitive so the government policy remained as interment overseas. The soldiers were buried with their mates close to where they fell. During the Vietnam War when soldiers started being killed this protocol was still in place and soldiers were interred in War Cemetrys in SEA, notably Terendak, Malaysia. In May 1968 everything changed. A National Serviceman, Private Noack, was killed and when his father was told he would be interred overseas he demanded he be brought back home. The Government complied but over the course of the war 32 soldiers were interred at Terendak Malaysia and one, Warrant Officer Conway, the first Aussie killed in Vietnam, was interred at Kranji, Singapore. Up until 1966 Next of Kin were told they would even have to pay 500 Pounds to have their sons repatriated. An uncaring and unfeeling attitude by a government having trouble catching up with the times. After this date all of our mates killed were repatriated. As a Infantry Sgt in 7RAR in Holsworthy NSW I led many a Burial Party for diggers of our sister Battalion, 5RAR. Bring them Home became a movement started by Jim Bourke who, against all odds, managed to locate all our MIAs and bring them home. Developing from that various RSLs including the Northern Territory branch and other veteran organizations started agitating for the repatriation of those guys buried at Terendak and Kranji. It has finally happened. One of those coming home is Private Norman George Allen, a member of my Battalion, 7RAR, who was Killed in Action on 10 November, 1967 Welcome home Norm. A full list of those coming home can be read here

Defence, General Musings, Vietnam

Go back to the UK, you cow

Posted on Wednesday, 1 Jun 16 by Kev

Roz Ward needs exposing before he does too much damage to our kids. If you haven’t heard of him then start taking notice, particularly if you a parent. This weird bloke, because bloke is what he was born, is responsible for a programme in the Victorian education system that is supposedly designed to prevent bullying. It is nothing of the sort, it is designed to normalize that which isn’t normal. In Roz’s own words;

“… Safe Schools Coalition is about supporting gender and sexual diversity. Not about celebrating diversity. Not about stopping bullying. “About gender and sexual diversity. About same-sex attractive. About being transgender. About being lesbian, gay, bisexual – say the words – transgender, intersex. Not just ‘Be nice to everyone. Everyone’s great’.”

There is nothing wrong with being gay, bisexual or a transgender but there is a lot wrong with primary school kids being fed misinformation that asks them to imagine they are what they are not. To think gender fluidity, whatever that might mean, or to indulge in homosexual role playing. And;

I was the person who set up Safe Schools … in Victoria … To smooth the operation of capitalism the ruling class has benefited, and continues to benefit, from oppressing our bodies, our relationships, sexuality and gender identities alongside sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

From the US College of Pediatricians,

The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.

From Latrobe Uni website

The schools make a commitment to challenging homophobia, to challenging trans phobia and to thinking beyond heterosexuality as the norm.

Hetrosexuality isn’t the norm? Is he trying to say most people are homosexual, or transgenders…ridiculous. Pushing a Marxist agenda he went further and expressed disappointment that the Australian flag flying over Parliament, along with the rainbow rag, should have been the Red Communist Flag. Another Roz Ward initiative;

The Gender Fairy is a simple story about two children feeling the relief of being heard: Of two children who are taking their first joyful steps toward living as their true selves. It is an educational resource for all children and adults to understand what it might feel like to be a transgender child. For children aged four and up, The Gender Fairy is designed to be read aloud in the classroom, or at home. It includes notes for parents and teachers to aid discussion and learning, completed in collaboration with Roz Ward (La Trobe University).

I’ve got 4 year old grand kids and I’m quite happy to leave them play with dolls and Leggo. Sure as hell won’t be reading them The Gender Fairy, whether it be during their first joyful steps or any time later. More reading; The Quadrant has a fairly detailed expose of Ward and his Marxism and LGBTI ideology.

The founder and coordinator of the Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA) is an avowed Marxist who lives in a fantasy world where communism supports free love and LGBTI lifestyles. The ascension of Roz Ward (left) to the position of sexuality commissar for Australian schools is therefore an unforgivable indictment of federal and state governments

After Roz Ward’s quip about running up the old commo flag he resigned from his post on the LGBTI Taskforce Education Reference Committee. That’s it – just that committee. I want him removed from the education system totally and barred for getting any closer than 100 metres to any educational institution. Not much chance of that though with the Victorian Premier Andrews labeling all who complain about the progamme as bigots. From Miranda Devine

Yet Andrews has not retreated from his dictate that Safe Schools be compulsory in Victorian schools. Nor has he apologised for labelling as “bigots” critics of the program, which includes homosexual role play and gender fluidity training for children. “I get my advice on policy from the experts, not from bigots,” he said two weeks ago when boasting Victoria would not accept federal amendments to Safe Schools, which removed advice to bind breasts and tuck away penises, deleted links to gay sex shops and allowed parental input.

I fear we have lost the battle, the Marxist/Left Wing march through our institutions is virtually complete. Coming to a school near you – do you know that teachers aren’t already brain washing your kids? Poor fellow, my country.

Gender Politics

David Morrison still loopy

Posted on Wednesday, 1 Jun 16 by Kev

Australian of the Year and former Army chief David Morrison says the term “guys” should no longer be used in workplaces. This man never ceases to amaze me with his disconnect with the world as we know it. Apparently we can’t call a mob of girls “girls” either.

Exclusive language, gender-based language or inappropriate language, has as much a deleterious or disadvantaged effect as something where you’re saying something blatantly inappropriate to another human being,” General Morrison told ABC News Breakfast. The #WordsAtWork campaign video depicts a group of women rolling their eyes at being called “girls” by a male colleague.

He aims to crack down on language which excludes minority groups. What minority groups? Guys or girls covers all the groups. There are only two if we are talking about gender. It doesn’t matter what your sexual proclivities are; it doesn’t matter how you identify, the vast majority of humans are born male or female. Yes, there hermaphrodites, babies born with Congenital adrenal hypoplasia, Gonadal dysgenesis or Androgen insensitivity syndrome but seriously how often will someone have occasion to address a group of these poor people in the workplace? If this very unlikely chance come your way I’m sure everyone would be talking about how to address them and one simply takes heed of context. But in the workplace I think we can assume everyone is either male or female and thus could be addresses by any generic term that doesn’t offend. If you are offended by being referred to as a girl or guy then better you seek employment at a University where these matters are deemed important. In the real world they don’t count, which, thinking about it, describes David Morrison

General Musings

Anzac Day 2016

Posted on Sunday, 24 Apr 16 by Kev

Albany, WA. Gillett’s have been defending the country since the 1890s when my Grandfather and his brother enlisted in the Forts at Albany. The nation was worried about the Russians as they were snooping around the continent so they built a fort at Albany overlooking King George Sound. In 1791 Captain George Vancouver claimed the Southern Part of Western Australia for the British Crown. As he explored the coastline, he discovered one of the world’s finest natural harbours and named it Princess Royal Harbour and King George Sound. During the 19th century, the loss of this strategic port to any enemy was identified as a potential threat to the security not only of Western Australia, but the whole of Australia. As a result all the Australian states agreed to to pay for the construction of a fort and the British Government would supply the guns. The Fort was opened in 1893 and was the first federal defence of Australia. There you go, the states can agree on something! The Princess Royal Fortress has two gun batteries dug into the hillside of Mount Adelaide -Fort Princess Royal ( 2 x 6 inch guns) and Fort Plantagenet ( 1 x 6 inch gun) . From 1893 to 1956 the guns of maintained their role as a deterrent and never fired a shot in anger. Pity! Both these guys served in the Boer War enlisting from Albany and both survived. They went on to serve in WW1 and one of them, my Great Uncle, in WW2. When the Anzac fleet left King George Sound in 1914 on board were two other Great Uncles, neither of whom survived their war. Both stayed in France My father, his brothers and my Mother’s brothers served during WW2 and Dad often came to the port of Albany when his RAN ships were escorting convoys or mine sweeping. One of my maternal uncles stayed at the River Kwai. In the early 60s I left to see the world, through the sites of a gun, as the wits of the day would have us believe. But circumstances had it that I would eventually serve in South Vietnam during my 25 years service. A mob of cousins also served in SE Asia in the RAN and Army and one even served in the RAAF. ( don’t know what happened there ) All of which s a bit of a load to carry tomorrow when I participate in the Anzac Day commemorations at Albany. Marching along Stirling Terrace with the ghosts of my fathers on my shoulders makes it all the more significant. I’ll go to the RSL later and maybe have a beer or two and remember my mates left behind in SE Asia and pause to toast my Fathers and their service and their mates they left behind. There were a lot. Thanks to them, in part, and men and women like them, we are free of the menace of Germans and Japanese and left to develop into a free nation. Other nations are glad they served as well – just talk to the French and Pacific Islanders about that. Because of their service, and many other reasons of course, Australia has developed into an amazing place to live. Thanks guys. I normally spend the day with my mates from 7RAR but for family reasons I’m in Albany, far away from the main stream commemorations. To all of you – have a good day and don’t forget to toast the boys we left behind. RIP

Defence

Ship Ahoy!

Posted on Tuesday, 22 Mar 16 by Kev

Albany WA. I’m over in the west looking after my Mother’s estate and learning all about probate and wills. In between I get some R & R and yesterday I signed on as crew on a tug. I didn’t do any work, just took pics and asked questions, but you can get away with that when your cousin is the Captain. Cousin Len started when Albany had a whaling station and spent his days hunting and killing whales working his way up the ranks. After whaling finished he moved to tugs and now skippers the Karoo, one of two tugs working the port of Albany.

The Karoo

No helm on modern tugs, just a joy stick. The bar above his wrist adjusts the revs and steering is by rotating the control. The two props rotate 360 degrees independently for maximum agility. Len’s other hand is on the port control. That’s left for you landlubbers. 2,500 horsepower on each engine making it marginally more powerful than my Rangie V8. And more thirsty. The engineer had spent 25 years in the navy so we had something in common. He took me through the engine room and explained the process. Two cat engines are connected to the propellers via a z -drive

which is a type of marine propulsion unit. Specifically, it is an azimuth thruster. The pod can rotate 360 degrees allowing for rapid changes in thrust direction and thus vessel direction. This eliminates the need for a conventional rudder and makes the tug very maneuverable. We sailed through Princess Royal Harbour out to King George Sound where the ships were anchored waiting their turn to be taken in. As an aside this is the harbour that the ANZAC fleet left from in 1914. (See map below)

One of four ships anchored overnight waiting for the tugs

The ship to be brought in weighed anchor and headed to the port under it’s own steam. The two tugs come about and match the speed of the ship fore and aft on the port side. The ship’s deckhand drops a line that is then connected to the tugs towing line on a huge winch that is marginally bigger than the one on my mate’s Nissan. In fact it’s bigger than the Nissan. That line is hauled in by the ships capstan and that line hauls up the large towing hawser.

The ship, Aurora Light, weighs in at 54,000 tonnes and is a woodchip carrier operating between Albany and Japan. The two tugs now take the weight and slow the ship down as she enters Princess Royal Harbour and the Port of Albany. The Captain of the ship controls the tugs as they bring the ship to a halt level with the dock but a hundred metres or so away. Then by one pushing and the other tugging, they turn the ship through 180 degrees and then nudge into the dock.

Map of Albany showing Princess Royal Harbour on the left and King George Sound on the right

3 hours of bloke bliss, 5,000 hp under my feet and a competent Captain maneuvering the tug like an extension of his hand. A good day.

Travel

Green sparks indeed

Posted on Sunday, 14 Feb 16 by Kev

Green Sparks Flying says Queensland’s Sunday Mail reporter Steven Wardill and sub heads the article Alternative energy revolution hits Queensland. OK, you got my attention.

A large scale solar and wind revolution has been sparked in Queensland with 17 proposed projects capable of powering more than a million homes.

Sounds impressive!

Valued at more than $2.4 billion the new Queensland based investments would halt the the exporting of green energy jobs to southern states. Premier Annastacia Palasczuk said the government’s policies were helping to attract investment, create jobs and combat climate change.

So far, so good.

Combined, the projects would deliver 1000 megawatts of baseload power.

Oops Solar an wind can’t deliver baseload power for very obvious reasons and the $2.4 billion costs of the project are going to cost $10.8 billion worth of subsidies to reach the target. Oh, and the 17 projects are not going to happen at all, at least not in the near future.

And the government will have to attract significantly more investment as well as provide financial support to meet the 50% target to prevent significantly pushing up power prices.

Just in case you thought the article might still have some legitimacy the energy Minister Mark Bailey closes:

While Queensland led the world in household solar installations, the state was behind it’s southern counterparts.

Which to me says we don’t lead the world at all, our southern counterparts do. Do people really read and understand what these left wing Green idiots are on about. An Alternative energy revolution isn’t going to hit Queensland any time soon If your hanging in there for a Telsa storage battery then start saving. At the moment Australians gearing to add battery-stored solar energy to grid power can buy Elon Musk’s long-awaited Tesla Powerwall system from today. You’ll pay $15000 or more for a full system. Yeah…right. I’ll check my piggy bank.

Green Insanity

Assange drums up support through UN

Posted on Friday, 5 Feb 16 by Kev

assange Julian Assange illegally detained, says UN panel. So do all his left wing, anti US and useful idiot supporters.

Big deal as he isn’t detained at all. Other than the rape allegations in Sweden he needs to be brought to book over treason and given 20 to life for the damage he’s done to the West’s fight against terrorism.

Assange’s legal team has argued that the favourable ruling means the Swedish prosecutors — who have yet to charge Assange with any crime, but want to question him over a rape allegation — should revoke the arrest warrant and he could walk free.

It doesn’t mean that at all. He should answer the charges.

But any such move may take time. The UN Human Rights spokesman Christophe Peschoux told Associated Press the application of the group’s decisions were rarely immediate and could take months to be applied. Countries can appeal the finding to the working group.

They can also ignore it. He is not actually detained as he chooses to hide away in an embassy like a cur. Thus the whole exercise is just to give Assange some oxygen as he fights his real problem – being arrested and extradited to the US to face charges of publishing confidential documents. Come on you bastard, if your so sweet and innocent, step out on the street and face your accusers.

Crime, War on Terror

Loose cannon Lambie

Posted on Friday, 5 Feb 16 by Kev

Jackie Lambie is attacking the Army for it’s alleged dealings with an SASR Trooper Evan Donaldson and gives General Morrison AOTY a serve and a warning. “I’m coning after you”, she says. By now you would be aware that I’m not a fan of Morrison but he is at least educated and intelligent. Lambie is neither and if she’s backing a case then there is a fair chance she has not done her homework and is simply doing it to attack the Army. She takes up the case of Trooper Donaldson

After becoming the victim of brutal sexual and other assaults, Evan was seriously injured during a secret training exercise run by the Defence Intelligence Organisation inside Australian territory, involving techniques outlawed under the international convention governing the use of torture. During the resistance to interrogation exercise, Evan was bashed, bound, bagged, blindfolded, stripped naked, placed in stress positions, deprived of sleep and food for 96 hours and during that time he was sexually assaulted and left bleeding—and we will not go into where

Bashed, bound, bagged, blindfolded, stripped naked, placed in stress positions, deprived of sleep and food for 96 hours. Yep. Code of Conduct course…standard treatment. In 1968 I was at posted to the Intelligence Centre when it was located at Woodside, SA and acted as staff on what were then called Code of Conduct courses. NCOs and Officers were given a taste of what Communists would do if they captured them. Students were bashed, bound, bagged, blindfolded, stripped naked, placed in stress positions, deprived of sleep and food (in my experience they were fed bead and water) for 96 hours (once again, in my experience 72 hours) Tough, but we were at war and war is tough. There was no sexual assault and I wonder exactly what Evan experienced that would have him claim assault. If you strip a man naked and put him in a 4 foot cubed cell (can’t lie down…can’t stand up)with rough gravel on the floor and regularly throw cold water over him (in winter, in Woodside) then in today’s society I guess that would be sexual assault. It wasn’t then and isn’t now but people’s perceptions do change. If, on the other hand, he was actually sexually assaulted then people do need to be brought to trial. My point here is that Lambie is a loose cannon with some military experience. Diggers are going to her with complaints because they know, being a loose cannon, she will fight for them without to much legal thought and absolutely no consideration of unintended circumstances.

A bit of background on Jacqui Lambie

She is a senator, a Palmer puppet, mother of two illegitimate children, on a disability pension for ten years, a drug and alcohol abuser, has an abusive father who assaulted a policeman, has a son who has been up before the same magistrate a dozen times (brags his mum), suffered depression.

Her father, Tom Lambie, has been married three times – the third marriage is over. He lives in a caravan. The magistrate (the same magistrate who dealt with her sons indiscretions) gave Tom Lambie a 12-month good behaviour bond for the assault on the policeman. Having a relative as a senator can do that?

Lambie achieved the rank of corporal while in the army but was charged and reduced in rank after assaulting a fellow soldier. During a field exercise July 1997 she suffered injuries that resulted in severe back pain. One day away from her first operational deployment to East Timor, in trying on a flak jacket it was found that she couldn’t bear the weight of the jacket: goodbye East Timor: hello discharge on medical grounds, and claim for a military disability allowance. The Department of Veterans Affairs deemed she was a malinger – and despite engaging a private observer to record her performing various household duties (without her being aware?) they eventually had to accept her claim.

Bogan tough, not necessarily a bad thing but she definitely has an anti military sense about her and this would make her believe anything negative about the system. I’m still thinking Loose Cannon, but let’s see how it pans out.

Defence

More on Morrison, AOTY

Posted on Thursday, 4 Feb 16 by Kev

“Hi Rob, bad news from my front again as I’m back in hospital.”

It was the beginning of a text message I’d received the night before. ‘Hospital’ is where this man had been a number of times since 2013, with mental health issues. This time, though, it’s a ‘hospital hospital’. “Cut through my wrist but I’m still here,” it continues. “I’m currently listening to a guy who thinks he is God. All good.” The ‘PTSD wing’ of a military hospital is a colourful place. He is a former high-ranking officer in the Australian Army.

Former army chief, Morrison, made a name for himself surfing a tidal wave of support for a brutally eloquent speech castigating men in the army who demean women.
“The standard you walk past is the standard you accept,” he famously scowled through words written for him by someone else. It made him famous. He became an enigma, the enfant terrible of the Australian Defence Force. He spoke at a United Nations conference alongside Angelina Jolie. He became a champion of feminism, the darling of those who swooned at the narrative of the feminist general and now he is our Australian of the Year. Some republicans even suggest he would make an ideal president of Australia, one day.

Brave military men left to fight in the dark. An article by Miranda Devind

ON the night of Australia Day, last Tuesday, a former lieutenant colonel we will call “Ken” sat in front of his TV and watched in despair as his old Chief of Army, David Morrison, was awarded the honour of Australian of the Year.
Ken drank too much that night and then he tried to kill himself. It was his second suicide attempt since Morrison stripped him of his command, destroyed his career, and publicly shamed him by incorrectly identifying him as a member of the so-called Jedi Council “sex ring”.

Loyalty is supposed to be a two-way street.

Former army chief David Morrison is charging up to $15,000 for speaking engagements as Australian of the Year, up to three times more than his predecessor Rosie Batty asked for each appearance.

PS – Morrison calls himself a Veteran. He joined the Army in 1979 and was commissioned into the RA Inf. He must have worked very hard to avoid exposure to the ICB over those 36 years. ICB, no, white ribbon apparently makes up for it.

Defence, Politics

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