Why would you defend something that is evil?: John Lovell

Somehow I missed this earlier this week, but I going to leave it right here for later consideration.

Readiness

 The US Military readiness ebbs and flows, like any other organization.  Based on the leadership culture, it flows from the generals and admirals to the privates and seamen.

I was in Jimmy Carter's army.  The leadership climate sucked. Carter wasn't concerned with military strength, and the leadership climate from the top amplified that fact.  Small unit leaders did what they could, but when you don't have fuel to run tanks, or enough ammunition to conduct training, it's hard to keep any unit trained.  Lack of purpose erodes readiness just as surely as a raging stream erodes it's banks.

The Heritage Foundation gives an annual assessment of military strength.  This year's assessment isn't pretty.  It seems that readiness under Biden is starting to look like readiness under Carter.  It sucks.

The article is behind a paywall, but you can download the full report from the Heritage Foundation.

The Last Salute: Three Volleys

Why indeed do we give three volleys at military funerals?  I admit I am ignorant on the subect, but I know it has been practice since I began attending military funerals.

The Master Chief trys to shed some light on the subect.

Thanks, Master Chief.

Eagles on the Runway

 A group of F-15 Eagles on a runway at Keflavik AFB, Iceland.

U.S. Air Force F-15C/D Eagles assigned to the 493rd Expeditionary Fighter Squadron conduct routine operations in support of NATO air policing at Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, Oct. 26, 2020. Aircrews rely on the critical judgement of Air Battle Managers at the Control and Reporting Center to ensure their missions are conducted as safely as possible. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Matthew Plew)

I had a buddy, an Air Force vet that I shared an office with, years ago.  He told me that they transferred him to Keflavik and told him that he'd love it.  There was a woman behind every tree.  He got off the airplane and looked around; no trees.

Will The B-52 Outlast the B-1?

 Strategy Page takes a look at why the B-52 may last to see a century of service.

It seems that there is still a place for a big bomber tat can carry a lot of weight.

If you are interested in gravity bombs, this is worth the read.

The Water Buffalo

Also known as the M149 Tailer, Water, 400 gallon, was used to distribute potable water to troops in the field.  It is one of the few pieces of equipment that survived my entire military career, from 1073 to 1998. It was there when I was in basic, and it was there when I retired.  IT may still be around, and I've head rumors of something called the M149A2, which had a stainless steel tank.

At any rate, I saw this pic today on Facebook.

M149 Trailer, Water

That one is a blast from my past, done in the old woodland camo pattern so beloved of troops until the Desert War, where we started painting everything some variant of tan.

But, yeah, I've drank out of those.  Thousands of gallons.

UPDATE** Yeah, that's a typo, above, but I keep telling you guys that I'm two days older than dirt.  I was a road-guard for the Three Wise Men, and pulled KP at the Last Supper.

Veteran's Day

I am not a hero.  I'm a soldier. 

I have known heroes and was privileged to walk beside some very heroic people.  To a man, they were always a bit surprised that people called them heroes.

I simply served the best way I knew how, based on the training and experience of my mentors.  Many of them didn't realize what mentoring meant, had never heard the word.  They were my superiors, and insisted on a rigid code of behavior and a firm reliance on discipline.   They didn't like me much, or at least never showed it, but they were always fair about what they expected of me because they expected the same things of themselves and the other people that they supervised.   We stood in the same mud and breathed the same dust.  They were there with the rest of us.

I had good duty, and crappy duty, but the duty I remember best was the duty that was the crappiest.  It was there I was the happiest.  In the field with other soldiers, doing soldier-stuff.  The absolute joy in a hot cup of bad coffee after a cold, wet, night.  The honor and privilege of commanding American soldiers.  When you tell a soldier to do something dangerous, and he looks you in the eye, says, "Yes, sir.", then picks up his rifle and walks off, trusting that you know what you are doing.

I'm not a hero, but I had the privilege of commanding heroes.

Honor and Privilege

I went to a funeral yesterday.  A Vietnam-era veteran who my wife knew.  I went not for him, I hand never met him, but for Belle, and his family, to show respect to a veteran who had served honorably.

There was an honor guard, provided by a local veterans organization.  They fired a salute and folded a flag, presenting it to his survivors.  He wasn't currently married and had no children, so his sister took possession of the flag.  I wore my Cav hat, out of respect After the ceremony, I thanked the honor guard for their service.  They told me it was an honor and a a privilege to serve deceased veterans, to show the last measure of respect to veterans.

One thing I found interesting during the sad, somber event, was the rifles that they sued to honor the dead.  They used Garands.

Veterans die, just like everyone else.  It's comforting to know that veteran organizations exist to provide that last measure of respect.  They provide pride and dignity to what otherwise might only be a sad and somber event.    If you ever see these guys at a funeral, go over and thank them.  They provide an invaluable service.

Warthogs At The Trough

A great photo from Strategy Page:

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, UNITED STATES08.27.2019 - A KC-135R assigned to the Utah Air National Guard's 151st Air Refueling Wing conducts air refueling operations with A-10s assigned to the 23rd Fighter Group, Moody Air Force base, Georgia. The A-10s received fuel during their cross-country flight enroute to Nellis Air Force base, Nevada. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. John Winn)

This aircraft, more than any other, is the one that soldiers love to see  loitering.  The other fast-movers may have their place, but there is nothing quite as comforting as Warthogs overhead.

Osprey Rappel

Rappelling is a technique  of vertically traversing a distance by using rope.  Below, a Marine departs an Osprey using this technique.

AUG 19, 2019 A U.S. Marine with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion rappels out of an MV-22 Osprey during helicopter rope suspension technique training at the parade deck on Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan

I learned to rappel in the '70s when I was playing with the Air Cavalry.  I've never departed an Osprey, but I have departed from Huey's using this technique.  It's a very cool way to get out of an aircraft when for some reason, the aircraft can't actually land.

The Two Dollar Bill

There is a meme going around the Book of Face, lately.  A nostalgic meme.

Uh, yeah, I've used a $2 bill. 

Back in the late '70s I was stationed at a major Army installation in central Kentucky.  The Commanding General went to a local Chamber of Commerce meeting where the locals heartily bitched about the GIs who used local services.

The CG came back to the post and had a staff meeting to go over the complaints.  But, he wanted to demonstrate the economic power of the GIs in the local economy, so he directed that the paymaster put a single $2 bill in each pay envelope.  Direct deposit was an emerging technology, and a sizable number of soldiers were still getting paid by cash.

By early the next month, the local economy was awash in $2 currency.

That shut them up.

I Love The M3A1

I was issued one as a tanker and lways liked the darned thing.  Simple as a gun can get, it shot the .45 ACP and did just fin for short range work.



It's a fun little gun.  Lightweight, reliable, and effective.

Tracer Burn

Tracers are fun, and very useful from a military perspective.  But, they burn.

One of the big headaches with tracer burn was that, dropped into dry ground, they might ignite dry fuel laying on the ground.  Leave, twigs, etc.  And the unit conducting the firing was responsible for putting out the fire.  So, you'd have this cool live-fire going one and suddenly you'd be in fire fighter mode.

The tracer from the .50 BMG was notorious for this because it carried such a big tracer.  For some reason, tank-gun ammo, which carried a huge tracer, set a whole lot fewer fires than .50 BMG ammo.  Perhaps because when you're shooting the machine gun, you get so much more chances to start a fire.



Sometimes, it comes down a ong way from the range area.  As I recall, the tracer burnout on a .50 was 1600 meters.

Memorial Day

I'll be celebrating Memorial Day in my own way.  Nothing fancy, nothing flashy, just remembering.



Let's all remember why we celebrate Memorial Day.  It's not about us today, ti's about them.

That Venezuelan Military Video

I heard about it just this morning, and cannot testify as to the provenance, but it's a great meme, and it's priceless.



I'm trying to decide if the commentary is better than the video, or vice-versa.

However, there is a classic Stripes reference to this whole sorry debacle.



Exit question:  Does art imitate life, or the other way around?

Tracers at Night

This is why range fans and impact areas have to be so large.  As beautiful and compelling as this photo is, it gives some indication of what happens to bullets when they strike something.  And, sure as gravity still works, they are going to come down somewhere.

OINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, AK, UNITED STATES 03.04.2019 - Army Spcs. Dariel Barbosa, left, and Mitchell Bundy, assigned to Blackfoot Company, 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, U.S. Army Alaska, fire M249 light machine guns at night during live-fire training at Grezelka range, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, March 4, 2019. Utilizing the M249 light machine gun and M240L machine gun, the Spartan paratroopers honed their marksmanship skills by engaging multiple targets at varying distances. Barbosa and Bundy are natives of Fajardo, P.R. and Wilmington, N.C., respectively. (U.S. Air Force photo by Alejandro Peña)

Hat tip: Strategy Page

Remember When

This AP photo brings back memories.

A Kuwaiti helicopter herds Iraqi prisoners of war, arms in the air, across a stream in southeastern Kuwait, Monday, Feb. 25, 1991, as Operation Desert Storm continues. (AP PHOTO/STR)

Twenty-eight years ago, we ejected Iraqi forces from our ally, Kuwait.  Many Iraqi units fought bravely and tenaciously, but many others surrendered almost immediately because we had severely disrupted their command, control and logistics chain.  Some units hadn't eaten in days and had little in the way of food.  We had destroyed their will to fight and surrendered en mass.

As an old soldier, I hope those guys made it, and enjoyed a pleasant, productive, and peaceful life.

Hat Tip, PJMedia.

The Mothball Fleet

Interesting article over at Popular Mechanics.

The U.S. Navy won’t bring back decommissioned ships as a way to grow the fleet. The ships, decommissioned from the Navy after decades of service, are rusting away at a number of “mothball fleet” locations across the United States. Navy officials have concluded it would be too expensive to bring them back and they would offer too few capabilities to make them worthwhile.

Lots of interesting photos from the Philadelphia Naval Yard, and I don't doubt that these ships aren't cost-effective to use as warships.  They all seem to be floating, and there is a heeluva lot of steel in the water.  I wonder if they could be re-fitted for other uses?  Or, if they'll eventually be broken up for scrap?

Of course, I'm no sailor-man, but the photos were interesting.

Space Force

I see that President Trump has signed a declaration to form a Space Force.  Evidently it will be a sub-unit of the US Air Force.  Much like the Marine Corps is a part of the Navy.

I have not had a chance to think this through.  I hope that the Pentagon has.  It adds another Joint Chief and another undersecretary, plus I assume a bunch of worker bees.

I wonder what the uniform will look like?  Also, some wags are noting that there is no Air in Space,  so why should it be part of the Air Force?

Clearing The Way

Minefields a bitch.  They cost lives ad they slow down an advance.  Every sodier hates minefields, and the engineers are always searching for better ways to clear a gap through a minefield so that troops and equipment can cross safely.  Some of those methods include overpressure, a large explosion over the minefield to sympathetically detonate the mines buried.  It's quite impressive to see.

GRAFENWOEHR, GERMANY 01.23.2019 - U.S. Soldiers with the 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, detonate a mine clearing line charge fired from their M1 assault breacher vehicle at the Camp Aachen training area, Grafenwoehr, Germany, Jan. 23, 2019. 

More on line charges here.