Protect and Serve...

Today's title is the motto of police departments pretty much everywhere. And even though each branch of the military has its own tagline - "Be all that you can be;" "The few, The proud, The Marines;" etc. - I feel like "Protect and Serve" pretty much sums it up regardless.

The Philadelphia Daily News spotlights one of NJ's finest and his rather excellent sense of smell. Monroe Township officer Thomas Lucasiewicz was on patrol when he thought he detected the smell of marijuana. He followed his nose to a smoking chimney, called for back-up and uncovered the biggest marijuana-growing operation in New Jersey history. A ring of six homes contained over $10 million of cannabis growing indoors under artificial lights.

Going by the number of puns in the article, I'm sure Officer Lucasiewicz has since endured his fair share of jokes. Lance Corporal Katrina Hodge is no stranger to the British media's humor as well. Nicknamed Combat Barbie, Hodge has served in the British army for six years while competing in the Miss England pageant. According to CBS News, Hodge is one of only 10 women in her unit to be posted in Iraq, where she detained and disarmed a suspected militant with her bare hands. Her latest opponent is decidedly less formidable. With the backing of the pageant organizers, Hodge has succeeded in having the swimwear portion of the contest replaced by an athletic challenge.

Lately there has been a push to replace well-traveled fruits and veggies with their locally grown and organic, if possible, counterparts. Apparently this extends, in some measure, to the Indian army. Yahoo! News reported on development of a new non-toxic weapon against terrorism - spiciness. After field tests, the Indian military has decided to debut its ghost chili grenade. Made from The Guinness Book of World Records' world's spiciest chili, the grenades are supposed to smoke out militants from their hiding places by means of pungency.

Lastly, I found a quirky story/blog post from The Washington Post on how US military mission names are chosen. I suppose this came about after the recent release of the name of the end of the Iraq War - Operation New Dawn. Christian Davenport's post shows that thought does go into it, beyond "What sounds really, really cool?" Well, most of the time.