Training to fight

With the ever mounting treat of potential aggression from Russia, Lithuania is returning to conscription to increase their armed forces.

Polish soldiers

Tomasz Siemoniak, the Polish defense minister, has ruled out Poland following in that lead, but suggests instead of universal conscription, Poland could call up men with no military experience to take part in compulsory army training and develop local fighting units akin to the U.S. National Guard.

Recent legislation, signed by Ewa Kopacz, the Polish prime minister, is designed to improve the capabilities of its armed forces to counter concerns over Russia’s intentions in Central Europe.

Under previous draft rules, the armed forces could only call up personnel who had served in the military, but now any able-bodied male could be drafted in times of crisis or for specialist peacetime training deemed necessary.

Poland ended its draft in 2008 in favor of developing small but highly trained professional
armed service. But, since war broke out in neighboring Ukraine and relations with Russia — Poland’s historical foe and still a nation few Poles trust — plummeted, Poland has scrambled to strengthen its military.

Poland is engaged in a program to beef up its military capabilities. The country has embarked on a lavish defense spending spree to buy new heavy arms and equipment. 

As was reported here exactly 8 years ago the folks south of the border in the Czech Republic owe a little something to Poland. Maybe the day is close at hand for the pay-off.

The Czech Republic is planning on returning a little over a square mile of land to Poland, to solve a long standing territorial dispute. In the 1950s the Soviet Union ordered the Czechoslovak – Polish border to be straightened up so that it would be easier to patrol. 

Straight by Soviet standards?

Czechs initially made an offer of financial compensation to Poland, but Polish stubbornness rejected monetary compensation. The Czech government is now waiting for their Polish counterparts to examine the land being offered in the deal, although the exact location of the land has not been disclosed. (That in itself sounds like typical Soviet tactics)

Residents from the village of Bila Voda, are butting up a fuss. Although locals don't object in principle to returning land to Poland, they're unhappy with the scale of the proposed changes to their territory, and the methods of the Czech government in carrying out the transfer of land.

Formally, it's government land. But it's also the source of drinking water for Czech villagers. Some land, which the villagers had previously agreed to hand over was not in use, but areas which the government now wants to hand back are located close to settlements and are actively used by farmers, who have leased tracts of territory and in one case, even received a grant from the EU for land development.

Additionally, says Kocian, the building of housing developments is already underway in the village of Mikulovice, in Javornik the areas are used for sport and recreation, and sewage works and water supply are located in Vidnava, all of which will have to be compensated. 

The cost to demarcate the borders again, issue new maps, issue new land surveys and other odds and ends will be more expensive than if the Czechs would just purchase the small plot of land.

Maybe it's just the principle and not the practical that is most important. 

Damn those Soviets in the first place for causing this mess. If Poland were run by a madman like Putin... like the Crimean... take what you think is yours by brute force. Obama and the leaders of the western world just sit on their dupki.

76% of Ukrainians in Poland want to stay... Forever

Polskie Radio reports 76 % of Ukrainians who are living in Poland wish to stay there permanently. Just 15% of Ukrainians in Poland want to return home when their visas expire. About 39% are currently in the act of seeking ways to stay.

Nearly 375,000 Ukrainians applied to work in Poland in 2014, 155,000 more than the previous year. With the deteriorating economic situation in Ukraine and the war in the east, many Ukrainians are looking for some security.

Local Hero Enters Ohio Military Hall of Fame

Sgt. Alexander A. Drabik

World War II hero Sergeant Alexander A. Drabik will be inducted posthumously into the Ohio Military Hall of Fame for Valor on April 24, 2015 in the Ohio State House Atrium. 

Drabik was nominated by the Holland Springfield Spencer Township Historical Society (HSSHS), as he attended Dorr Street Elementary School and was a long-time Springfield Township resident. Honoring all who served their county is part of the Society’s on-going Veterans Project.

Drabik was the first soldier to cross the Remagen Bridge in Germany on March 7, 1945, which gave the Allies access to cross the Rhine River, then Germany’s largest defense barrier. He led 10 riflemen across the bridge, surprising the Germans that they forgot to blow up the bridge. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism.

Newspaper account of the heroic feat

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said the capture of the bridge shortened the war by six months possibly saved as many as 50,000 Allied lives. 

When Eisenhower became President of the United States, he invited Drabik and the 10 riflemen to the White House and told them he was forming the Society of the Remagen Bridgehead.

Before he was sent overseas, Drabik led a rescue a group of 120 men who were lost in the California brush during maneuvers.

Drabik received a tribute in the Congressional Record in 1993 and was a commander of the now-defunct Turanski-Van Glahn VFW Post 7372. There is an Ohio Historical Marker that was installed in 2011 located on Wolfinger Road where he was born .

Good time in Poland

Visitors to Poland generally have a good time and the time tourists spend in Poland will be much better from this day forward. It’s all due to Poland’s new optical atomic clock. Scientists say it will keep better time than all previous clocks.

Basic concept

The incredibly accurate clock is ticking away at the National Laboratory for Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (KL FAMO) in Poland. Actually, it’s not really ticking because this is an optical atomic clock. But, this one is so accurate that it would take billions of years to reach an error of one second. To put this in perspective, if you started this clock at the moment of the big bang, it would have lost only about one-tenth of a second by now. 

There won’t be a nightstand version of this clock anytime soon. It’s so big that this timepiece occupies four rooms at KL FAMO. The design of the clock shoots laser beams at suspended Strontium isotopes, which have an atomic half-life that is measured in billions of years. Optical atomic clocks are brand new technology, but they are so much more accurate than the traditional atomic clocks laboratories use for time-based experiments all over the world. 

Having a highly accurate way of tracking the passage of time that goes by quicker than the blink of an eye is of vital importance when testing aspects of general relativity and particle physics.

Now that’s something you can set your watch by.