ColonelRETJohn: Personal Notes

Air National Guard Generals say the quiet part out loud: We are out of Fighter Aircraft

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 22:44:37 GMT

Air National Guard Generals just penned an historic letter in which they articulated a simple message.

“The United States Air Force is the oldest, the smallest, and the least ready in its 78-year history,”

Simply put - they want the Air Force to buy at least 100 fighters a year in addition to bombers, tankers, helicopters, etc.

For perspective, please see the pages below the Air National Guard Generals story from the 1961 Air Force Blue Book.

This wonderful historical book showed the U.S. Air Force at the pinnacle of post World War II strength with over 20,000 aircraft in service with approximately 4,000 new aircraft bought every year.

For comparison here is how the Air Force looked in Fiscal Year 2025, the final budget year of the Autopen.

Are you ready for this? Are you ready to puke?

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) had a total aircraft inventory of 4,903 airframes, representing an unprecedented low for the service. To prioritize modernization, the Air Force planned to buy 91 new aircraft while divesting (retiring) 250 older platforms in FY 2025.

The Autopen was retiring far more aircraft than were being brought into service. In other words, the Air Force was shrinking.

The Air Force purchased a total of 91 aircraft in FY 2025, which included:

F-35A Lightning II: 42 fighters

F-15EX Eagle II: 18 fighters

MH-139 Grey Wolf: 8 helicopters

T-7A Red Hawk: 7 training jets

KC-46A Pegasus: 15 tankers

What the Air Guard Generals were communicating in their letter was the broken nature of Air Force Structure. In the heydays of the Post World War II Cold War there were true-isms in Air Force Force Structure.

A Fighter Squadron had 18-25 aircraft.

A Fighter Wing had 54 - 75 aircraft.

Now many of these Air Guard Generals have “Fighter Wings” with only 15-20 aircraft.

In the old days, that would be called a Squadron.

Yes this is the age of drones and autonomy, but crewed aircraft still play a major part.

The Generals want production of fighters to go from 60 to 100 a year.

We are America, we can do this.

Here is what the Air Force Squadron and Wing structure used to look like, and they were pretty disciplined about it.

Thank God for General LeMay!

The heady days of 1961.

A time when Men were Men, Women were Women, and Children knew the difference.

In addition the U.S. Air Force had the most massive Force for Peace the world had ever seen.

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The root cause of Iran's behavior - cash from oil sales to China

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 23:26:47 GMT

Iran has attacked and killed Americans on a large scale since the three headed monster of the IRGC, Mullahs, and the “civilian presidency” took over in 1979. The leadership of Iran simply hated America and survived by oil sales to Europe and Asia.

Over the past 20 years though, the situation has changed with China becoming the Colonial Overseer of Iran, Iran carrying out regional and worldwide terrorist activities as an extension of the Chinese strategy to displace the U.S., and China becoming the largest consumer of Iranian energy.

China consumes sanctioned oil and gas, carried on sanctions ships, and the West (not just the U.S.) were doing nothing about it.

President Trump has crushed that model of virtue signal sanctioning followed by do-nothingness and failure to enforce the sanctions.

The Iranians and Chinese were laughing at the West.

They are not laughing anymore.

That cheap, sanctioned energy from Iran has now become a strategic vulnerability for China and they are becoming panicans over the matter.

No energy to China, no funds to the Iranian three headed monster, game over for the Iranian regime, a crisis for China.

The same model of actually enforcing sanctions can be used on the other ½ of China’s energy imports of sanctioned, under market price energy coming over the Arctic from Russia to China.

Are prices for gas up in the U.S.? For the time being - but still far below the Biden Harris highs during the Autopen era. Prices will fall significantly as the Iranian-Chinese situation is resolved.

Always follow the money and the energy flows - they explain the causal factors for everything.

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The United Kingdom grovels for help to secure its own border

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 22:37:42 GMT

Admiral Jackie Fisher (Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher) and Winston Churchill are spinning somewhere as the Royal Navy is incapable of generating any mission capable ships to secure UK territorial waters from encroachment by Ghost Fleet ships and Russian naval vessels.

This is what happens with Socialist/Communist inspired government that creates a patently unaffordable social welfare system and scrapes the cadaver of their once mighty military to fund the insanity.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Mayor Mamdani East) cannot secure Britain’s oil supply from the Middle East, drags his feet on reopening oil drilling in the North Sea), and has a Defence Secretary who is clueless.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey faced severe criticism in March 2026 after struggling to confirm the number of operational frigates and destroyers in the Royal Navy during an LBC radio interview. He stated there were 17, while critics pointed to a lower number of active vessels, prompting accusations of complacency and bringing into question the fleet’s readiness.

It does not matter if the number is 10, 17, or 50, the Royal Navy does not exist anymore.

This is what happens when socialists take over a country. History is wiped, the nation forgets who they are and their past accomplishments, and they open up government run grocery stores that have barren shelves. In addition, they are incapable of securing their borders.

It is intentional.

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Largest American Ship Orders since World War II

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:16:40 GMT

A nation is not a nation unless:

They secure their border
They build things
They build things that build things
They have a merchant fleet and maritime sector in accordance with their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), i.e. their economy

The last one is the lagging canary in the coal mine that tells the true economic health of a country.

For 50 years, the United States has had the largest economy in the world, yet had the smallest merchant fleet and maritime sector in the world.

There is one reason for this: The lie and allure of Globalism where “someone else” will do a foundational activity (because it is cheaper and helps juice the quarterly financial reports).

This has led to a puny American merchant fleet (80 Jones Act ships) and a huge foreign armada of 10,000 plus merchant vessels that are often in very poor condition, run by shadowy business interests, and crewed under horrible human trafficking circumstances.

Jerry Hendrix, retired Navy Captain, Academic, and overseer of the President’s Maritime Action Plan has helped turn this ship around with the largest order of ships since World War II.

Now it is time to keep the momentum going, onward and upward.

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Cutting losses, the Navy retires a Nuclear Attack Submarine to focus on future production

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 22:31:11 GMT

Over 10 years since last sailing, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan made the wise decision to retire the U.S.S. Boise, a Los Angeles Class Nuclear Attack Submarine.

“To date, the Navy has spent approximately $800 million on Boise’s overhaul, which is still only 22 percent complete, the service separately told Semafor. The total estimated cost to complete the overhaul had risen to $3 billion, according to Fox News.

“At some point, you just cut your losses and move on,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan also told Fox News in an interview ahead of today’s announcement. “The Boise represents 65% of the cost of a new Virginia class submarine, yet it only delivers 20% of the remaining service life.” “

Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle added,

“After a rigorous, data-driven analysis, we’ve made the tough but necessary decision to inactivate the USS Boise,” Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, the service’s top officer, said in a statement. “This strategic move allows us to reallocate America’s highly-skilled workforce to our highest priorities: delivering new Virginia and Columbia class submarines and improving the readiness of the current fleet. We owe it to our Sailors and the nation to make these tough calls to build a more capable and ready Navy.”

There simply is no other explanation for this black hole of money that failed to upgrade and generate the U.S.S. Boise for service other than ineffective leadership distracted for years by woke culture.

The national security imperative is to expand the U.S. Navy and the saga of the U.S.S. Boise had become a distraction. This was a big disappointment in program management, hopefully those responsible will be called out and held responsible during investigations. The proper decision was made to stop spending money on this train wreck and focus on new production and faster refits for the U.S. Navy’s Silent Service.

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The hollowing out of California

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:08:49 GMT

Perpetual Blue Government enabled by election malfeasance has taken the California miracle and destroyed it.

Crime, departure of jobs, and Minneapolis like fraud through Hospice scams have caused the loss of 54,000 Citizens between 2024 and 2025.

The California we knew when we were growing up is gone. What has Blue Government delivered?

Departure of the Movie Industry.
Deep Shrinkage of the Aerospace Industrial Base. There has been some growth in the Space Economy - but the roaring heydays of the 1950s-1990s are long gone.
Incompetent City, County, and State Government that allowed the 2024 Palisades and Eaton Wildfires that destroyed over 1,000,000 acres and almost 13,000 homes with very few rebuilt.
Rampant Homelessness caused by the Homeless Industrial Complex. Almost half a billion dollars is being spent which provides a very nice standard of living for drug addicts and plenty left over for skimming and money laundering.
Crime is up. The headlines say crime is down, but it is still much higher than pre-Covid days. Soft on crime, Defund the Police, Soros influencers are manipulating the crime statistics downward by dropping or downgrading charges.
Money laundering of Federal entitlement money through Hospice fraud. LA fraud is dwarfing what has been found out in Minneapolis.

The good news is that public sentiment may be set to overwhelm the Blue Election machine in California.

The midterms are coming in November including the Governorship. Because of the California Legislatures efforts to lock in Democrats by establishing a Jungle System, two Republicans are leading.

The two are:

Trump endorsed Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator and Fox News host, also has 14 percent support, with a smaller share of direct supporters and a larger share of supporters leaning toward voting for him.

Chad Bianco, the Republican sheriff of Riverside County, has 14 percent support from likely voters, including voters leaning toward his candidacy.

If the election fraud can be held at bay, a Republican may return to the governorship in California.

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Taiwan's Abigail Spanberger

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 23:01:49 GMT

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the KMT who led the 1949 flotilla to Taiwan to establish a new Chinese Government is spinning in his grave right now.

The current Party Leader of the KMT Cheng Li-wun visited China to pay her respects and signal her support for unification with China.

Cheng is a Taiwan version of Virginia’s craven Governor who pretended to be a centress to win the election, and then when she took office Spanberger revealed her dark, communist/totalitarian viewpoints.

Why in the world would the President of Taiwan, William Lai, allow this trip by Cheng to Beijing? Taiwan is now a Democratic Republic, and as of now Cheng has not necessarily committed a crime.

Why would Cheng travel to Beijing?

Because she and the KMT have become utterly corrupt and think they can work out a deal with China to be the leaders of Taiwan if they unify with the Mainland.

Why is China so interested in taking over Taiwan?

There are several reasons, but access to the world’s leading chip maker of TSMC in Taiwan, where most of the world’s most advanced chips come from, is now the driving reason they need to subdue and conquer the 24 million dual language (Mandarin/English) people of Taiwan in short order.

For historical clarification, Taiwan was never a part of the mainland and when Chiang Kai-shek and his Navy landed in their U.S. Surplus LSTs, they essentially invaded and took over Taiwan.

Most on Taiwan realize what happened to Hong Kong with the Chinese surreptitious take over of the Hong Kong Police and then the Hong Kong Legislative Council - enabled by Spanberger wannabees focused on their post unification position.

Taiwanese are not enamored by their Abigail Spanberger of Taiwan, except for those who think they will win favor by money and positions from the Chinese Communist Party.

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Swalwell has finally hit his Waterloo

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:03:55 GMT

Of all the potential nominees for being the most amoral person (meaning they do not know what morals are) in Congress, one of the front runners is certainly Eric Swalwell (CA-14).

Eric is running for Governor in California and because of the Jungle Primary system set up by Deep Blue California, he is in the rear view mirror of the two leaders who are both Republicans.

From Fartgate (you have got to watch this clip) to fake weightlifting Swalwell raised the bar on cringeworthy behavior that reeked of inauthenticity. Fartgate was an opportunity for Swalwell to own his own authenticity, yet he sprinted away from his authenticity.

Now Eric is apologizing to his wife, Brittany Watts, for past “mistakes in judgment” while strongly denying sexual assault allegations made against him. Swalwell has been accused of sexual assault by a former staffer.

Why did Swalwell not lose his security clearance after the Fang Fang episode of last decade?

Only because the Deep State protected him.

Fang Fang did not target Swalwell for his looks, having Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Labs in CA-14 was a key starting point.

In approximately 2014 I was in Silicon Valley at a social event and when Fang Fang came in, she immediately spied my boss and myself and she came straight for us. I had no idea who she was at the time, but within seconds it was obvious she was a psycho.

No wonder she and Swalwell hit it off.

Swalwell is now the latest sacrifice to the vestiges of the “Me Too/Wokism” movement. Eric is really upset by this.

He’s on fire, he just does not realize he is tied to a stake and being doused with gasoline by mob behavior of his own making.

When Nancy Pelosi says his behavior is inexcusable, that is the thumbs down from the High Priestess of the Deep State.

What does Swalwell do next?

Stand in line with MTG to fight for the Adam Kinzinger Chair at CNN.

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Leaker from Ft. Bragg arrested

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:00:30 GMT

Looks like we have another Reality Winner.

That’s the real name of the NSA, Trump Hating Dirtbag, who went to prison for leaking Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information because she hated President Trump during the first term. The fawning NPR story seems to brush that motive aside.

Now we have another leaker - a Courtney Williams who was part of Special Operations Command.

Courtney’s name appeared in a book and article last year which detailed her experience while she was working at Fort Bragg, the headquarters of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Courtney was employed as mission support specialist for a Special Military Unit (SMU).

What does a “Mission Support Specialist” do? A wide variety of things to support the mission.

Some articles say she was with Delta Force which is the informal, layperson name for some sub-units of JSOC - Delta Force is not the name normally by those within that community.

There’s some articles describing her as a heroic whistle blower. From the computer files referenced, it looked more like she was helping the writer of the book.

Instead of handing files to a writer, if Courtney had an issue with something she felt was illegal, immoral, or unethical she should have first tried her chain of command.

If that did not work, she should have gone to the JSOC or SOCOM Inspector General.

She could have also gone to her member of Congress or Senator.

Handing voluminous computer files to a book writer is not the way to handle things and deserves punishment.

Courtney will receive a fair trial of her peers, and just may end up doing a long tour -if so, hopefully longer than Reality Winner.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old Georgia seat (GA-14) stays Republican

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:39:51 GMT

Clay Fuller decisively won GA-14 despite immense focus, pressure, and funding from his opponent.

Yes, he has to run again this November, but this win was important to maintain the thin R margin in Congress.

Despite TDS with MTG and Tucker, Dems are in polling trouble

“CNN’s Harry Enten, in a recent analysis of polling data, found Democrats’ have a net favorability of five points. And that’s well below what their rating was in previous midterm elections when a Republican was in the White House: eight points in 2018 and 11 points in 2006.

“Democrats are – just simply put – running behind their previous benchmarks, and they’d need to be running well ahead of them if they want to take back the United States Senate,” he noted.”

In other news, through the power of AI, Chuck Norris shows his martial arts skills on globalists who needed butt kicking.

I could watch this film about a million times and not get tired of it.

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Washington State tries something proven not to work

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 20:13:52 GMT

Once an aging White Liberal has determined it is best for society to drive off a cliff, there’s little that can be done to stop their fatalistic virtue signaling.

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson has signed into law a new tax of 9.9% on those making more than $1 million a year. Washington has not really had an income tax and this new tax is a capital gains tax on the income above $1 million.

Sounds nice - right? Make the rich pay to provide the revenue for social services?

What could possibly go wrong?

Everything.

This ideology never works. Washington, which is ruled by Seattle and King County, has become a train wreck of overspending, sanctuary/open border cultists, and societal collapse.

The typical refrain from the aging white hipster: “It is not that bad” after driving through the boarded up storefronts of Seattle.

Everyone who is productive and can create wealth through business activity will either leave or find ways to protect their wealth.

This is the Michigan/Massachusetts/New York/New Jersey/California/Illinois model - and it has not worked.

But virtue signalers do not care.

Rick Steves should know better, he is the PBS created maven of retirement travel for aging white liberals. He cheers the idea.

Facts do not matter to these folks - it is all about feeling good about themselves.

It is the thought that counts, not results. This is why Obama received a Nobel Prize for what he intended to do, not actually accomplishing something.

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Iranian Terrorist's Niece and Grandniece arrested in Los Angeles

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:46:43 GMT

Nothing makes sense about this story.

The niece and grand-niece of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Major Gen. Qasem Soleimani were arrested by ICE on Friday night after their lawful U.S. permanent resident status was terminated.

Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, were arrested by and had their green cards revoke…

"WE GOT HIM!"

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:30:52 GMT

Move as fast as possible from the crash site, travel by night, move to the high ground.

The Colonel made 70 miles in a short time. Amazing

Everyone and everything swarmed to recover the Colonel.

The Special Operations Task Force and the whole Iran Campaign pivoted toward ensuring a downed American would be recovered.

An amazing operation to ensure no Ameri…

He is risen!

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 09:10:42 GMT

Christ is a risen Savior. Three days after being placed in the tomb, the tomb was found empty.

“I Serve a Risen Savior” (often titled “He Lives!”) was written and composed by Alfred H. Ackley (1887–1960) in 1933. A Presbyterian minister, Ackley wrote the hymn in response to a young man who asked why he should worship a “dead Jew”.

The question troubled A…

A victory for common sense: Olympics will have biological men compete in biological men's events, biological women will complete in biological women's events

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 23:01:38 GMT

The Mad Cow contagion that had been affecting rational thought appears to be subsiding.

The IOC has now made it clear on their policy.

Men cannot pretend to be Women to satisfy their narcissism and beat up Women in Olympic Competitive Sports.

This is common sense and now children do not have to ask their parents why a Man is pretending to be a Woman in a …

New York Times suddenly discovers truth on ActBlue and others who launder political money

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 21:55:15 GMT

There is the Entitlements Industrial Complex and now the New York Times is validating what was intuitively obvious, there has been a corollary activity.

There is an enormous Non-Profit Industrial Complex which launders money for election malfeasance. Let’s call this the NGO Industrial Complex to make things simple.

The burst of New York Times (NYT) stori…

More and more fraud scandals in Minnesota

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 22:37:41 GMT

Eisenhower warned of the “Military Industrial Complex”.

There was great wisdom in Eisenhower’s observation as shortly, Vietnam showed the collusion of LBJ, Defense Contractors, and Generals and Admirals who were rewarded for perpetuating and expanding a conflict, not solving it.

What Eisenhower did not foresee was the “Entitlements Industrial Complex”, …

Prosecutor in Charlie Kirk Assassination debunks the Defense claims of bullet not matching

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 22:16:44 GMT

I do not believe I’ve ever cited a TMZ article, but the wording and explanation from the Prosecuting Attorney in a TMZ article is important to understand.

“The attorney prosecuting Tyler Robinson in the case concerning Charlie Kirk’s killing tells TMZ the bullet matching test results were inconclusive ... but that doesn’t remove Tyler from suspicion.

Atto…

Doers versus Takers

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 22:46:39 GMT

The mental health Cavalcade known as “No Kings” represents the Takers who want to use Government to take away things from fellow citizens through a Big Government controlled society.

The Doers on the other hand, build things. They create families, work at jobs trying to build careers, and they have a positive vision of a strong, vibrant, and healthy A…

Protecting Big Airplanes on the ground

ColonelRETJohn Mills — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 22:17:14 GMT

Well, we just lost a high value, large aircraft on the ground. It is unclear if any Air Force personnel were killed or wounded, the reporting is still coming in on this event.

The loss was one of our aging, E-3G AWACs aircraft. AWACs stands for Airborne Warning and Control aircraft - often now referred to as AEW&C, Airborne Early Warning and Control (t…