TITLE: " The Seven Year Airplane " This is not a very catchy title, but some days you just have to take what comes.
"... F-35 ..." There will be three versions produced: One for the Air Force, one for the Navy and one for the Marines and the Brits. Here is how the Pentagon's web page describes the program:
"The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program, formerly the Joint Advanced
Strike Technology (JAST) Program, is the Department of Defense's focal point for defining affordable next
generation strike aircraft weapon systems for the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and our allies. The focus of
the program is affordability -- reducing the development cost, production cost, and cost of ownership of
the JSF family of aircraft. The program is accomplishing this by facilitating the Services' development
of fully validated, affordable operational requirements, and lowering risk by investing in and
demonstrating key leveraging technologies and operational concepts prior to the start of Engineering
and Manufacturing Development (E&MD) of the JSF in 2001."
It will take seven years just to translate that paragraph into English.
"... Liberty Ship ..." There are a number of web pages devoted to the history of these vessels. This is a pretty good Liberty Ship page.
Real life Rosies
"... Seven Years War ..." Was also known as the French and Indian Wars and lasted nine years.
Go figure. Here's a Seven Years War web page
to remind yourself of what you didn't pay attention to in high school history class.
"... Kaiser. Permanente. ..." Here is the link to the Kaiser Permanente web page which describes the history of the health plan.
Mullings' Catchy Caption of the Day:
President Bush demonstrates his is discomfort with the progress of the war.
