Defense Articles

A woman is raped every 46 seconds in the United States. That means that you need to consider womens self defense skills to keep yourself safe.

To combat rape and increase your fighting chances, arm yourself with these essential strategies:

1. Recognize when you are being “tested” or “interviewed” and break away immediately. Predators often test a woman’s boundaries to gain proximity and size up her defenses. They test you to see how close they can get and then how much closer. Do not enable this progression. Take control and put an end to this as quickly as you can. In some cases, that may mean yelling and running away from an attacker. In other cases, it may mean establishing reasonable behavior from a coworker or another man you already know.

2. Good womens self defense dictates that you take the first opening you get when faced with an attacker. You may not get a second chance. Rape can abruptly escalate to a more violent, life-threatening attack. The instant your attacker fumbles with clothing, changes positions or shifts his weight, puts down a weapon, places his hands on your torso, or prepares to strike or use a weapon attack. Some rapists initially establish dominance or force women into harrowing positions. Instead of ineffectually struggling against brute strength, relaxing the body can help create explosive opportunity. Going limp often makes it easier to spring.

3. Attack vulnerable regions. To commit a rape, an offender’s face or groin will likely be in your strike zone at some point. Viciously attack whatever he sticks out. Womens self defense means you can use dirty tactics: bite, gouge, seize-and-squeeze, slam, pound and pummel. Use your hips and legs to get your attacker off of you. A woman’s legs are her strongest natural weapons but you may have to free them first. If an attacker is lying on or straddling your hips, plant a foot and heave or buck him off, or trap his lower leg and roll (to aid such displacement, simultaneously attack the face). Remember: your goal is to facilitate escape, not force him into submission.

4. Never allow yourself to be tied up or taken to a secondary crime scene such as forced into a vehicle or dragged behind a building. The statistics are grim. At a second, more isolated location, an assailant will have far more control over you.

5. Womens self defense experts say never give up. Another opening or stroke of luck may present itself. The body is more resilient than we think. Plenty of women have been cut or shot but live to tell the story.

Contemplating a method of protection is a very serious undertaking. If you are considering such a purchase you need to evaluate your options very carefully. When selecting a tool for self defense the first thing is to consider your own level of strength. For example, a tool that requires minimal strength such as a stun gun would be ideal for a small woman, whereas someone confident in their strength may be more drawn to items such as batons.

A baton is a very simple and effective tool. In the most generic form it is a blunt stick that is used for close contact defense. There are a wide variety of batons on the market that vary in length and offer different features. For example, an asp baton is a lightweight and conspicuous tool that can be comfortably carried. This added consideration for comfort allows citizens to carry an effective self defense tool without drawing attention to themselves.

The baton you choose should have an easy to grip, no slip handle so that it can be wielded effectively with agility. It is also important that the baton have a low profile appearance so it does not announce itself to the attacker. Finally, the baton should not have any sharp edges that could cut you, the assailant, or an innocent bystander. Your goal is to defend yourself long enough to get away to safety and a blunt baton will achieve this effectively without resorting to permanent damage.

One of the most important effects of any self defense tool is the deterrence effect. It has been said over and over again that criminals are cowards and they look for easy victims. A person who carries a self defense weapon walks with confidence because they know they are safe. In addition, the very site of a tool such as a baton will make the assailant think twice. Why would they attack you and risk injury to themselves when there are hundreds of unarmed victims? Arming yourself sends the message to assailants everywhere that you are not a victim.

When searching for a merchant that carries batons it is important that you seek one who is reputable and abides by national laws. A great place to look is at www.bljsselfdefense.com . This company offers a wide variety of items, including batons, and provides consumers with education on self defense. In addition to the online resources, BLJs Enterprises supplies its customers with personal attention to help ensure that they receive the self defense tool that is right for them.

Have you or a loved one ever been in a situation where you needed something very simple to solve a problem but it just wasn’t available?

Last summer I had an example that was burned into my mind forever. I live in southern Colorado at 4500 ft elevation in a city that gets 10 inches of rain a year. The climate is dry, dry, dry!!

There is a relatively well traveled road that goes under some railroad tracks less than 2 miles from my house-I travel it at least weekly myself. Several years ago the city finally put up some huge signs with flashing warning lights to warn drivers of flooding risks. The underpass is severe. In the space of 100yards it drops 30-45 feet to get under the tracks then comes up again-causing a huge gully that can collect water.

One warm sunny day last summer we had a severe weather warning followed by a torrential downpour. It was complete with tornadoes nearby, an awesome display of thunder and lightning-the kind of weather news outlets love. The biggest story was the underpass.

A woman in a red SUV tried to make it thru. She didn’t. Local channels and even national networks picked up on the story of the lady literally floating away, windows rolled up, trapped and sinking fast. The footage seemed to last forever but it was only moments with the SUV sinking more by the second.

If she didn’t get out she would drown for sure. Fortunately the fire department was able to get to her and save her life. It was terrifying just to watch.

The four in one Auto Emergency Tool was designed for exactly this type of situation. It has two sharp metal pins that when used as a hammer can break windows and two blades that can be used to cut a seatbelt. The unit also has a blinking red emergency light and a super bright flashlight. The unit snaps into place on its base which is attached to the floor carpet within reach of the driver’s seat.

It is the most versatile auto emergency tool in the market place today. It is inexpensive and easy to install-making it a must have for your car.

Chances are very good that you are reading this because in some way an incident like this has touched your life or you want to be proactive and protect yourself, family, home, or business. That is the first step.

Rest easy, America, even when you contemplate the abbreviated flight of North Korea’s errant but someday, they hope, long-range Taepodong 2 missile – a name that, should the nation ever decide to enter the capitalist hustings, doesn’t sound like a very promising appellation for a new car.

In the wake of the miscalculated launch of seven missiles by North Korea, including a Taepodong 2, President Bush told reporter Larry Wing in an exclusive interview, “We’ve got a missile defense system that will defend our country. We don’t just shoot down the enemy missile. We guide it back to where it came from. So anybody who launches a missile at the United States of America better clear out, because soon it’ll be on the way back at them, point first.”

The revelation of the innovative missile defense system stunned Mr. Wing. “I thought we were still trying to perfect the star wars system initiated by President Reagan, where, if we’re lucky, we can at least shoot down an enemy missile. But guide it back to the launching pad? This is the first time I’ve heard of it.”

“Well, Larry, as you know, I’m the President, and as such I get to hear about things like this even before a fine and flattering reporter like you does.”

“I’ll say,” Larry Wing commented. “Mind if I ask how it works?”

“I don’t have a clue,” Bush said, “but the military has assured me that we’ve got the capability.”

“When was work on this new missile defense launched?” Mr. Wing queried.

“Actually, I get all the credit,” Bush said.

“How’s that?” Mr. Wing asked, startled. “I didn’t know you’re a missile defense kind of guy.”

“I’m not, technically speaking. But I was spending so much money in Iraq one of our more reflective missile techs got to thinking, why just blow a missile up in the middle of the air and waste all that explosive power. Think of the money we’d save if we could just turn the payload around and send it back at the enemy. Once he had the idea, I understand he was able to devise the joystick program to guide it in less than five minutes.”

“Really? And how reliable is this new system?”

“All I can tell you is, developing missiles is not the way for anymore counties to go. They’re wasting their time and, in light of our new missile defense, they’re actually, in you think about it, indirectly aiming their missiles smack dab at themselves. Now, that’s what I call a deterrent.”

“I’ll say,” Mr. Wing replied. “I wonder how North Korea and Iran will respond to this news?”

“I think they’ll take notice,” he said. “And anything that makes America safer is something I’m for, especially when it also saves on the cost of TNT or enriched uranium. The only more economical thing I can think of would be to guide the missile to one of our air force bases for a soft landing, so we could just point it back at the enemy for future use. If one of our technical boys figures out a way, I’ll get credit for that idea, too, because right now is the first time I thought of it. And you’re my witness, right?”

“Yes, sir,” Larry agreed. “Wow, with an innovative president like you in the Oval Office, I sleep a lot better at night.”

“Thank you. Frankly, I’m awake all night. But I do spend a good deal of time sleeping during the day.”

With that, his eyes glazed over and then dropped shut.

“Mr. President?” Wing asked. “Oh, Mr. President?”

But the Pres did not stir.

So Mr. Wing turned to the camera and said, “I guess that’s it, folks. I can interview anyone, but even I have a tough time when my guest conks out.”

The Defense Department announced that our ever-vigilant military managed to intercept and shoot down a seagull over the Pacific. To assure a successful outcome, Dick Cheney was invited to observe the launch of the interceptor missile, as long as he brought along his quail gun to act as a backup to the missile.

The seagull reportedly crashed into the sea, and there are so far no reports from whales or other sea creatures of the shredded bird or debris from the intercepting missile crashing onto their unsuspecting backs.

The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency admitted that shooting down a seagull isn’t quite as accomplished or reassuring as blasting a dummy missile in flight, but it cautioned that the gull intercept was only intended as an exercise of an improved ground-based interceptor system.

The $85 million effort was primarily designed to collect data about flying feathers, rather than to shoot down an actual missile.

The test firing is the first one to involve a live target since interceptor rockets failed to leave their silos during tests in 2004 and 2005, designed to startle an overabundant population of pigeons.

The nascent system is designed to protect the US against a limited attack by a variety of flying objects.

Earlier in the week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that he wanted to have a full-scale test “where we actually put all the pieces together. That just hasn’t happened.”

He might more exactly have stated, “where we blow all the pieces apart.”

Ornithologists were on hand to protest and, when the seagull exploded into a feather fan, they dropped their binoculars and let out a sigh that frightened into flight a pelican that was dozing on a proximate post.

Got Travelocity? Expedia? The next welcome addition to the cornucopia of online travel sites is now available–the Defense Travel System.

No more lengthy travel claim process! Shorter paper trail! With the new and improved online system, travelers on government orders can make travel arrangements right from the desktop. And aside from making commercial air, hotel and car rentals reservations, travel requests can be sent for approval and provide a printed voucher for settling the travel claim once the comfy TAD trip is complete.

The fully web enabled system will save the Department of Defense money, and enable a much more speedy way of handling travel, down to the lowest levels.

The catch? Although travelers won’t need to complete travel requests, they will create their own travel documents as long as they have been issued a Public Key Infrastructure Certificate. The certificate allows them to sign the request with an electronic signature. Once the document is signed, it will automatically route to an authorizing official, who will process it to the Defense Finance and Accounting Services office for payment. If travelers don’t have a PKI certificate, designated staff with PKI credentials can enter the request for them.

A veteran U.S. Air Force acquisition officer is the new project director of the Defense Travel System Project Office.

Lt. Col. Larry Schaefer assumed command July 12 in a ceremony at the Crystal City, Va., project office.

Schaefer assumes command at a critical benchmark time for the Defense Travel System–a test at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D, is going exceedingly well.

“People just don’t realize what a major event (the testing) is,” said Lawrence Lanzillotta, Principal Deputy and Deputy Undersecretary of Defense of Management Reform. “This is a major milestone.”

Lanzillotta said no major obstacles remain to the successful fielding of the system.

“It will be tested and it will be operational,” said Lanzillotta.

Schaefer comes to the program director’s office from his last assignment at the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

“I look forward to leading this team in the successful implementation ,” said Schaefer. “We will make the vision of the Defense Travel System a reality.”

Both Schaefer and Lanzillotta praised the work of Col. Pam Arias, the outgoing project director.

“She raised the Defense Travel System flag a little higher today because of her efforts,” sand Lanzillotta.

Arias is returning to the location of her last assignment, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to assume a new acquisition assignment.

The veteran Air Force acquisition officer arrived last summer at a difficult time for the Defense Travel System. A test at a Missouri Air Force base had gone poorly and been halted.

“The fact it is fixed in a year is a tribute to all of you,” said Arias, gesturing to her staff.

A test on Monday exceeded expectations, said Arias.

“This is a ground-breaking system,” said Arias. “It is laying the path for all the systems that will come behind it.”

Defense Travel System will economize the costs of support to service members but maintain quality performance, she said.

The Defense Travel System, being developed by prime contractor TRW, Inc., is designed to fully digitize the approval, arrangements and payments for the temporary travel of Department of Defense service members.

Some corn varieties that arose on the Caribbean island of Antigua defend themselves with chemical attacks that leave insect gut linings in tatters.

When armyworm caterpillars make the mistake of chewing on some of this corn, they don’t grow well, reaching only half the weight of counterparts that consume less gut-wrenching corn, says Dawn S. Luthe of Mississippi State University. Now, she and her colleagues propose at least one reason why.

Corn plants under attack quickly accumulate a cysteine protease–a protein-slicing enzyme–surrounding the location where the caterpillars are chewing. In an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report microscope observations of the sorry state of the innards of insects that had digested enzyme-laced corn tissue.

“That’s pretty novel,” comments Clarence Ryan of Washington State University in Pullman, another specialist in built-in plant weaponry. Although chemical defenses are common in the plant world, Ryan says he hadn’t heard of an enzyme of this particular class being deployed that way.

Luthe explains that the toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), now widely engineered into commercial crops, also attack insect guts. But Bt toxins do their damage differently. She says that the new enzyme doesn’t knock out insects fast enough to substitute for Bt toxins. However, she speculates that combining the protease with other defenses could make a pesticide to which it would be hard for insects to develop resistance.

Corn breeders have long known about the caterpillar-stunting power of the Antigua lineages. These plants don’t express the enzyme in their kernels. A coauthor of the new paper, W. Paul Williams of a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory at Mississippi State, has used the corn in traditional, nontransgenic corn-breeding projects.

To see what causes the stunting, Luthe, Williams, and their colleagues studied the chemicals released by the Antigua corn varieties when caterpillars start chewing on them. Other corn-defense chemicals typically show up in 8 hours, but the cysteine protease surges in about an hour and remains at high concentrations for at least a week.

They identified the gene that encodes this enzyme and inserted it into another corn variety. They grew masses of the transgenic corn tissue, called callus, which they then fed to armyworm caterpillars. Under a scanning electron microscope, the guts of caterpillars that ate enzyme-enhanced callus had many little rips. Innards of caterpillars that ate nontransgenic callus looked smooth.

Another scientist who studies plants defenses, Gary Felton of Pennsylvania State University in State College, calls the work “an elegant demonstration of this new mechanism.”

Men who get circumcised reduce their risk of acquiring HIV, the AIDS virus, by more than half, a clinical trial in South Africa shows.

Many previous studies have suggested such a benefit from male circumcision (SN: 4/3/04, p. 212). But this trial and two ongoing trials in Uganda and Kenya are the first ones to investigate the procedure’s effect on HIV risk to men. It did so by randomly assigning some men and not others to be circumcised, says physician Bertran Auvert of INSERM, the French national research agency, in Saint-Maurice.

Auvert and an international team of researchers recruited 3,274 uncircumcised heterosexual men, ages 18 to 24, from an area near Johannesburg.

All wanted to be circumcised and agreed to get the operation either at the start or at the end of the planned 21-month study. After the volunteers were randomly divided, physicians circumcised half the men and instructed them to abstain from sex for 6 weeks to allow full healing. Men in both groups were counseled on safe sex practices and checked for HIV infection three times during the study.

After 18 months, an oversight panel of scientists halted the project because the data were clear–49 of the uncircumcised men but only 20 of those who were circumcised had acquired HIV. The researchers report the findings in the November PLoS Medicine.

“There can no longer be a shadow of doubt that male circumcision gives a man major protection against HIV infection,” says physiologist Roger V. Short of the University of Melbourne in Carlton, Australia, who wasn’t involved in the South African study.

Auvert says that although circumcision reduced HIV risk by 60 percent, some men might mistakenly interpret this benefit as full protection. The circumcised men in the trial reported having sex 18 percent more often than the uncircumcised men did. The reason for the difference is unclear, he says.

Shortly after circumcision, men are at high risk of contracting the disease from sex partners because of the surgical wounds. But Auvert notes there was no jump in HIV infections among recently circumcised men in this study.

Uncircumcised men have soft foreskin around the head of the penis containing many cells that are easily infected by HIV, according to epidemiologist Robert C. Bailey of the University of Illinois at Chicago. These cells, called Langerhans’ cells, “tend to be close to the surface,” he says. Once infected, he adds, “they carry the virus deeper,” to the immune system T cells that HIV most commonly infects.

Circumcision removes the foreskin. During healing after the procedure, the protein keratin toughens the skin of the penis, which reduces HIV penetration there, Bailey says.

If circumcision offers protection for young-adult men, then it would be at least as valuable–or even more so–if done earlier in life, says Bailey, who is leading the study in Kenya.

The new data support a policy of early circumcision, Short concurs. “The later in life a man is circumcised, the more likely he is to be already infected with HIV.”

September 11 put a spotlight on job prospects in the defense industry. Applications surged from network engineers and embedded systems programmers looking to bounce back from layoffs or contribute to the fight against terrorism.

What does it take to break into the industry? Do you need a security clearance to jump from dotcom to defense? Here’s our guide for anyone considering employment in this sector.

Understanding Security Clearances

Scan the job listings for defense-related jobs, and you’ll realize these positions often require security clearances. If you’ve got a clearance or had one in recent years, you’re ahead of the game. “The critical need is for people who have had clearances,” says David Tittle, president of Paul-Tittle Search Group, a search firm in the Washington, DC, area.

Receiving a clearance can take a few months to a year or longer. The factors involved include:

The number of government agencies involved. Whether it is a “secret” or a “top secret” clearance. The specifics of the individual’s background.

A lower-level clearance might entail a relatively simple background check, according to Phil Preston, senior vice president of staffing firm Comforce Corp. But work on weapons systems may require a “top secret” clearance. Such clearances take more time to obtain and also involve investigators delving into all areas of the individual’s life, interviews with neighbors and friends, and even a polygraph test. “They know more about you than you know yourself,” Preston says.

No Clearance?

Lack of clearance shouldn’t stop you from seeking a job in the defense industry. “People should not be discouraged who may not have had a security clearance,” says Michael Patrick, director of workforce recruitment and planning for Northrop Grumman Information Technology, where 60 percent of the positions require some form of clearance. The company plans to hire more than 4,000 individuals within the next year. “Managers tend to prefer a qualified person who already has the clearance,” says Patrick, “but people without the clearances certainly are not excluded.”

The company may hire you without a clearance, begin the clearance process and delay your start date. “We can extend offers and commit to a start date that is several months out,” says Patrick. “That’s a cost-effective way to do it.” Companies also hire the individual and have him work on another project until the clearance is processed.

“Be persistent and perhaps a little flexible,” Patrick suggests.

Process Is Paramount

Don’t expect anything close to the ad-hoc attitude toward project development you may have seen in other sectors. While the technologies may be the same, attention to process is key. The industry seeks disciplined, detail-oriented workers. “It helps if they’ve been on large, complex projects,” says Tittle.

“Once you’re in, the software development cycle is extremely process-oriented,” says Preston. Employers may seek individuals with expertise in concepts such as Capability Maturity Models (CMM), an area pioneered by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. For government-related contracts, the process is tracked at every stage, with careful accounting of how workers spend their time. “Renegade software developers don’t really adapt well,” says Preston. “The dotcommers tend not to be attracted to it and don’t have the outlook on the development process to make a successful transition.”

Caveats?

Disciplined workers thrive in the defense industry, but it’s not for everyone. If you’re seeking sudden riches and stock options, the defense industry probably isn’t the place for you.

Defense work doesn’t take place everywhere. Unless you’re in the Washington, DC, area, California, the Southwest or a few other regions, you’ll have trouble finding work.

Once you’re in the industry, be prepared to move — from company to company and city to city — as the contracts and companies change. “The vast majority of technologists that I see in the defense industry move on a fairly regular basis, like every three or four years,” Preston says.

Individuals with a military background may have an easier time finding work. However, foreign citizens may be excluded altogether as many defense jobs require US citizenship.

Leading-Edge Technology

Defense projects may take a while, but the technologies involved are often leading edge. Right now, interoperability is a central goal, with projects aimed at connecting information from disparate agencies, says Tittle. And weapons systems often lead technological development. “Technology is embedded everywhere, right into the ordnance that flies into the enemy building,” says Preston.

“The programs are truly fascinating and are directly related to protecting our national security,” notes Preston. “There’s just a feeling of pride when you’re part of those kinds of programs.”