A Clear Mission Statement
There is nothing quite like a USMC Master Gunnery Sergeant. An E-9, but not a Sgt Major, with no place to go but sideways, a Master Guns can be ever so useful by bringing a capability to say what …...
View ArticleThe M40 106mm Recoilless Rifle in Syria
Craig wrote a couple posts on mounts for one of my favorite weapons, the M40 106mm Recoilless Rifle. One post on The Thing, and one of a Japanese vehicle of similar provenance. Entering service in the...
View Article2000th Apache?
The Dew Line does some math on exactly how many Boeing (initially Hughes, then McDonnell Douglas) AH-64 Apaches have been produced. Turns out maybe the they’re counting the number they’ve rebuilt too?...
View ArticleLeadership and Responsibility on the Longest Day
Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information...
View Article“Nobody”
…as in “nobody is listening to your telephone calls”. Nobody lives here: And here: Oh, about US Cyber Command, a headquarters whose mission, ostensibly, is to “…conduct full spectrum military...
View ArticleThe Disturbing Case of Master Sergeant Sommers
Back in 2010, when then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen outlined to Congress his unsolicited personal beliefs to be the moral guidepost for military service, a number of...
View ArticleFifty Years Ago, June 12th, 1963, First Vietnam Buddhist Immolates Self in...
The event was captured by Associated Press photographer Malcolm Browne. Buddhist Monks protested the religious persecution they were suffering at the hands of the Catholic government of Ngo Dinh Diem....
View ArticleThe War on Women
It is real. Bloody, savage, waged without remorse. Sandra Fluke would tell you that the “War on Women” consists of not receiving free birth control from a Roman Catholic institution of higher...
View ArticleJames Gandolfini, “Sopranos” Star and Maker of “Alive Day Memories” Dies at 51
We know him as Tony Soprano, the somewhat neurotic patriarch of the New Jersey crime family, whose own mother once put out a hit on him. James Gandolfini had been in a bunch of other films, his first...
View ArticleCOINage- Or Broncos and Mohawks, Oh my!
We’ve written a few times about the Air Force program to develop a Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (LAARA), primarily to arm nations such as Afghanistan and Iraq; allies that cannot afford,...
View ArticleFrederick Von Stuben’s NCO “Blue Book.”
You never know what you’re going to run into at the Pritzker Military Library. I’ve been a member now for just under a year and I’m usually there weekly doing research on something for the blog. Last...
View ArticleSoldiers learn pitfalls of bomb training – Fort Hood Herald: Across The Fort
Soldiers learn pitfalls of bomb training – Fort Hood Herald: Across The Fort. Hoohah! Lt. Col. Esli Pitts, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry...
View ArticleH. R. McMaster and AirSeaBattle
DrewM over at the mothership pointed out that MG H.R. McMaster has penned an Op-Ed in the New York Times. FORT BENNING, Ga. — “A GREAT deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need...
View ArticleGPS Hacking
Our military leadership at all levels seemingly has a very difficult time understanding the ramifications of intrusions into our critical information networks. What the nature of those intrusions...
View ArticleThe Strange Life and Death of the Imperial Russian Battleship Perseviet
As the 19th Century drew to a close, Imperial Russia embarked on a naval building program in a desperate attempt to match the growing naval might of her European neighbors. Regional rivalries with...
View ArticleCBS News Atlanta Can’t grasp that uniforms specifically tailored for women...
A new combat uniform with special consideration to the female body is now available at Fort Gordon, almost a month after the Army announced plans to open all units and military jobs to women by 2016....
View ArticleThe Future Vertical Lift Program is already making me cry.
Forbes has a pretty interesting look at one of the few bright spots in the American military aviation industry, helicopters, and sees clouds on the horizon in terms of procurement numbers. It is a...
View ArticleThe Concrete Battleship- Coast Artillery with a Pacific Twist
I’ve written several times about seacoast fortifications, primarily because of my interest in Fort Casey where I grew up. Most of the fortifications I’ve written about have been what are known as...
View ArticleVXX and the Hazards of Procurement
VXX reborn…. The original VXX program to replace the Presidential helicopter fleet became such a boondoggle, and object lesson on gold-plating and a failure to reign in requirements that a simple order...
View ArticleDepartment of Deference
Exhibit A: Considered pornographic and the cause of aberrant behavior among service men. Banned from the AAFES magazine racks. Exhibit B: An event which service members were encouraged to attend....
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