I will be in Indiana at NOAC, and this is on my scheduler thingie. I am unsure if I will be able to post anything. So I decided to post a couple of my favorite video's that I happen to run across on "Youtube"
This video I ran across back in 2013 and I really liked the precision, they did damm good....for squids. I did something like this in North Georgia college and I understand the precision and discipline necessary for such things. It still is on my bucket list to go to a national TATTOO or the international TATTOO at Edinburgh, the holy grail of TATTOO's I talked about TATTOO 's back in 2014....Has it been that long...and it was interesting reading what I wrote about the petulant boy king back in 2014, LOL
I don't talk about it much but I was in the Intel side and I hear the same old "cliche's" "Military Intelligence is an "oxymoron", and we would catch hell from the other branches for any mistakes we have made in the past, and yes we have made mistakes but we don't get credit, the first one was Joe Rochefort and the crypo people in Pearl in April and May that tuned Admiral Nimitz to the planning of the Japanese offensive at Midway and Feint at Dutch Harbor. If we were not forewarned we would have been caught between both forces and quite possibly annihilated and Pearl Harbor would have been threatened and the West Coast would have been wide open for an invasion, and we would have had to sue for peace and Japan would have kept the Pacific as a Japanese Lake and we would have been humiliated and the possibility of us assisting the Russians and British would have been threatened. Yes Intel gets it wrong like the Tet Offensive but we got it right and most people never know of what we did.
The North African campaigns of the Second World War are remembered
for their tank battles, vast deserts, and colorful commanders. One of
the most critical factors in those campaigns was military intelligence.
Stalking Supplies
The intelligence war, in which the British faced the Germans and
Italians, was all about supplies. By decoding Axis signals, the British
menaced enemy shipping bringing their supplies to North Africa while
keeping their own safe. It gave them an edge despite longer supply
lines.
It was built upon several layers of intelligence. Signals
intelligence played the largest part. Some of it came from decoding
local radio chatter. The decryption of the high-level Enigma code, a
closely guarded secret, also fed into the decisions of top commanders.
Radio Failings
The Germans were also listening in on British radio signals. It was
the undoing of some of the earliest British offensives. Pushed by
Churchill into attacking before they were ready, the British advanced
against Rommel and the Germans. Listening in on the signals between
British tanks, the Germans discovered their opponents had almost no
grasp of communications security. They found out about British plans and
used the information to gain victory.
Rommel Gets Tricky
When he went on the offensive, Rommel turned the issue of signals
intelligence around. By putting out false radio signals, he deceived the
British about the location of a convoy of tanks. It allowed him to gain
the element of surprise.
It was a case in which the British could have known better but failed to connect the dots of different intelligence sources.
By Bundesarchiv – CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Black CodeJanuary 1942 saw one of the Axis powers greatest
intelligence coups. The Italians stole a copy of the Black Code, used by
the US Military Attaché in Cairo to communicate with Washington. For
six months, the Germans and Italians listened in on everything the
Attaché transmitted including a flood of British information as they
kept their Allies up to speed on the African war.
It was not until July that the Allies realized what was happening and this source dried up.
Winning on Intelligence, Struggling on the Ground
Despite these setbacks, the Allies usually had the upper hand in the
intelligence war. They had better cryptographers and the information
gained from Enigma was used selectively, so they benefited from this
source without giving away that they had it.
However, they struggled to turn it into victories on the ground.
Rommel was a skilled commander, and it took time for the war to turn
against him. As well, British leaders often lacked the experience and
knowledge to use the intelligence they had effectively.
Venezia
The Gazala offensive which began at the end of May 1942 showed that
the British were starting to get a handle on their intelligence. Through
intercepted signals and the interrogation of a prisoner, they learned
the outline of Rommel’s planned offensive. Then an Enigma intercept gave
them the code word for the launch of the attack – Venezia.
They knew the attack was coming 24 hours in advance. Rommel’s planned breakthrough came to a bloody and exhausted halt.
Cheese
One of the best Allied assets was a double agent known as Cheese. An
Italian Jew in Egypt, he became a British agent feeding the Italians
false information. After being recalled by the Italians, he was replaced
by a “friend” who was, in reality, a British signalman. His apparently
useful messages to Italian intelligence were soon being passed straight
to Rommel, letting the British feed him all manner of false information.
Taking Prisoners
Prisoners of war were a vital source of information. As the British
went on the offensive in 1942, this source became indispensable. They
swept up Germans and Italians left behind in retreats, gaining a greater
understanding of Axis formations and plans.
Trickery at Alamein
One of the best acts of deception came at Alamein in October
-November 1942. The Germans had already been tricked about fictional
troops and misdirected about where British forces were, but this could
have been undermined if aerial reconnaissance did not match the false
intel.
The British built a water pipeline south. Its direction and the time
taken to erect it indicated a significant attack was coming in November
in the south.
Meanwhile, the real preparations were underway further north. When the attack came, it sent Rommel reeling.
Torch
The planning for Operation Torch, in which the Americans joined the
war, showed the limits of Allied learning. Those commanders who had
already fought in the desert war understood what intelligence could do
in modern warfare. The new American and British officers coming in for
the expanded operation did not. New intelligence officers, although well
educated, lacked vital practical experience. Commanders did not know
how to use intelligence.
The campaign could have gotten off to a better start, but it was
still a success. The business of learning intelligence techniques began
all over again.
Radio Silence
One of Rommel’s last intelligence coups came at the Battle of
Kasserine Pass, his first substantial fight against the Americans.
There, he avoided transmitting orders over the radio. The Allies were
left in the dark.
The American troops were caught by surprise, bringing Rommel success
on the ground. However, the Allies had the strategic advantage, and the
end was in sight.
Patton and the End
George S. Patton in 1945
General George S. Patton was one of the African arena’s last converts
to the value of intelligence. After coming to grief in an ill-planned
attack in March 1943, he realized how intercepted signals could help
him. Unfortunately, he then talked about it on an open radio channel,
leading the Germans to change their code.
Right to the end of the campaign, intelligence proved vital, telling
the Allies where Hitler was sending his ill-fated reinforcements. Never
before had the behind-the-scenes war of intelligence been so central to a
military campaign. It was a sign of things to come. Source: Ralph Bennett (1999), Behind the Battle: Intelligence in the War with Germany 1939-1945.
I saw this when I was in the service...certain things are not written of but are lore that is passed down from the crusty old bastards to the new boots. Before I present the following traditions...there are many that I didn't present..I do have some words for what happened to Paris a couple of days ago. My prayers go to France after this....France said that they were the United States right after 9-11 when we were attacked by islamist. This is sad and ironic that this attack happened right "Dear Leader" said that ISIS is contained......He still couldn't say the words "islamic terrorist"..
To him the biggest threat is "climate Change"...the stuff that only seems to affect the western based societies. All the others seem to get the pass.....This seems to be the only thing he cares about....
This is Obama/the Democrat's religion..."Global Warming, Global cooling...er....ahh Climate change...To me the "Greens" are the new "Reds" I call them "Watermelons"..same tired collectivist crap wrapped in a new green packaging since the communist/collectivist/Marxist red packaging seems dated.
My heart goes out to the French, they still supported us in Afghanistan, and from everything that I read...the French troops over there are very good. Now to solve the problems with the muslim over there is to basically stop the invasion immigration encouraged by the Germans trying to commit nationalistic suicide..
..to me it is the ultimate act of penance for WWII. I honestly believe that that is the goal in Merkel's heart to erase Germany from the map and hand the people and land over to the muslims. I am of the mindset that we need to leave the middle east to their own devices and let them self destruct.....and prevent their entry to the civilized lands since their belief structure isn't compatible with it.
The U.S. military
is awash in regulations, laws, and
official traditions. How troops march and salute, what uniform to wear
to what event, or what you are supposed to say when greeting a superior
are all examples of “on-the-books” behaviors expected of service
members.
And then there are the “off-the-books” traditions.
They are the unwritten rules: traditions that go back way before the
books were printed. These activities — especially the ones involving
hazing — are often frowned upon, but still continue to happen, usually
without any official recognition.
Here are eight examples.
1. Fighter pilots (or members of flight crew) get hosed down after their final flight.
The “fighter pilot mafia” is definitely a thing in
the Air Force and Navy, which is the nickname for the pilot sub-culture
within each service. Soon after aviators get to a new unit they will go
through an unofficial ceremony of receiving their callsigns, and they usually are not very flattering.
On the flip side is the final flight. Much like a
football coach gets a giant cooler of Gatorade dumped over their head at
the end of a game, pilots sometimes will get hosed down with water by
their comrades. In some cases, they’ll be doused with champagne.
In the case of Maj. Vecchione (shown above), his peers also threw string cheese, flour, and mayonnaise on him. Personally, I would’ve thrown in some ketchup and mustard, but hell, I wasn’t there.
2. At a military wedding with a sword detail, the wife gets a sword-tap to her booty to “welcome her” to the family.
Nothing like a little tradition that allows some
dude to tap your brand new wife on the butt. When a service member wants
to go through the pageantry of having a “military wedding” — wearing
their uniform at the altar and bringing along a sword detail — they can
expect that at the end of it all, some random dude will be sexually
harassing his wife for the sake of tradition.
It goes like this: On the way out right after the
ceremony, the couple passes over an arch of swords on both sides. They
go through, kiss, go through, kiss, then they get to the last one. Once
they reach the final two and pass, one of the detail will lower their
sword, tap the bride, and say “welcome to the Army [or Marine Corps,
etc]!”
Here’s the Navy version:
3. When a Navy ship crosses the equator, sailors
perform the “crossing the line” ceremony, which frankly, involves a lot
of really weird stuff.
The Crossing the Line ceremony goes far back to the days of wooden ships and Old NFO's youth. According to this Navy public affairs story, sailors were put through this hazing ritual designed to test whether they could endure their first time out at sea.
These days, sailors crossing the line for the first
time — called Pollywogs or Wogs for short — can expect an initiation
into the club of those who have done it before, referred to as
Shellbacks. During the two-day event, the “Court of Neptune” inducts the
Wogs into “the mysteries of the deep” with activities like having men
dress up as women, drink stuff like a wonderful mix of hot sauce and
aftershave, or make them crawl on their hands and knees in deference to
King Neptune. I swear I’m not making any of this up.
In the modern military that is decidedly against
hazing rituals, the events have toned down quite a bit. In 1972 a sailor
may have expected to be kissing the “Royal Baby’s belly button,” which again, is totally a real thing.
Nowadays however, there’s much less of that sort of
thing, and the Navy stresses that it’s all completely voluntary (ask any
sailor, however, and they’ll probably tell you it’s “voluntary” with
big air quotes).
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
4. Before going on deployment, Marine infantrymen who have never deployed need to shave their heads.
Don’t ask me where this unwritten rule came from or
why — other than to distinguish who the total boots in the platoon were —
but Marine grunts who have never done a deployment are often told to
shave their heads before they move out.
Again, this is one of those “voluntary” you-don’t-have-to-do-this-if-you-don’t-want-to
kind of things, . I am told that such things are "voluntary"......Interestingly enough, those that don't play along were put on plenty of cleanup details and other not-so-fun jobs as a
result.
5. When achieving the next rank or earning
parachute wings or other insignia, a service member may get
“blood-pinned,” though it’s rare these days.
Soldiers who get through five successful jumps at
Airborne School in the past could expect to get “blood wings,” but that
practice has died down in recent years as the public has learned of it. After a superior pinned their wings on, a soldier would get their new badge slammed into their chest, which often draws blood.
This kind of thing is frowned upon — and prohibited
under military regulations — but it still sometimes happens. In some
cases, it’s considered a rite of passage and kind of an honor. I
personally endured pinning ceremonies that I volunteered for when I
picked up the rank of specialist or Sp/4 as it was called back then.
Volunteer or not, it’s a ritual which the brass has endured plenty of bad press over, so they tend to discipline anyone involved whenever it happens.
6. Some units have mustache-growing contests in
training or on deployment to see who can achieve the most
terrible-looking ‘stache.
The military regulations on facial hair offer little
in the way of good looking when it comes to shaves. Most men are not
allowed to grow beards (except for some special operators) and although
they are allowed, mustaches are generally frowned upon. Why they are
frowned upon usually comes down to how terrible they often look.
Photo: MCB Hawaii
Don’t expect any mustache greatness ala Rollie Fingers;
troops usually have to keep the mustache neatly trimmed within the
corners of their mouth. Those regulations give way to the terribleness
derived from the “CAX ‘stache,” which is what Marines refer to as the
weird-looking Hitler-like mustache they’ll grow out while training at 29
Palms.
These contests sometimes extend overseas, especially
when junior troops are away from the watchful eyes of their senior
enlisted leaders. But whenever the sergeant major is around, you might
want to police that moostache.
7. First-year West Point cadets have a giant pillow fight to blow off steam after the summer is over.
Before they become the gun-toting leaders of men
within the United States Army, first year cadets are beating the crap
out of each with pillows in the school’s main courtyard. The annual
event is organized by the students and has occurred since at least 1897,
according to The New York Times.
While it’s supposed to be a light-hearted event
featuring fluffy pillows filled with things that are, you know, soft,
some [blue falcon] cadets have decided to turn the event bloody in
recent years. One first-year cadet told The Times in September: “The
goal was to have fun, and it ended up some guys just chose to hurt
people.”
That quote came from a story that broke months ago
after the “fun” pillow fight ended with at least 30 cadets requiring
medical attention, 24 of which were concussion
8. Naval Academy midshipmen climb a lard-covered monument for a hat.
Around the same time that first-year West Point
cadets are beating each other and causing concussions, 1,000 screaming
Navy midshipmen are charging toward a 21-foot monument covered in lard
with a hat on top. The goal: Retrieve the first-year “plebe” hat and
replace it with an upperclassmen hat, a task which signifies their
transition to their next year at the Academy.
Beforehand, upperclassmen hook up the plebes with
about 200 pounds of greasy lard slapped on the sides of the Herndon
Monument, making their task a bit more difficult. They need to use
teamwork and dedication to climb their way to the top, which can take
anywhere from minutes to over four hours (Class of 1995 has the longest time 4 hours, 5 minutes).
According to the Academy’s website, the tradition is
that the first guy to make it to the top will likely rise to the rank
of admiral first. That is if he or she doesn’t get themselves fired first.
Eric
Kammeyer removes the “dixie cup” cap from the Herndon Monument, a
21-foot greased obelisk at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, in 1997.
Tradition holds that the plebe who replaces the cap with a midshipman’s
hat will be the first from his class to attain the rank of admiral.
(John Makely/Baltimore Sun)
I got this email from my Dad and it had a bunch of pics on what the Vietnamese did with the drop-able fuel tanks that our fighters dropped all over that countryside, I have heard of the local people making creative uses of the stuff that is discarded by U.S. Forces.
In case you were wondering what happened to
all those fuel tanks our aircraft jettisoned over Southeast Asia
……
I am working a lot of overtime during the summer push and sleep is an issue, so I am blogging light until the weekdays get here.
I read this posting from Old NFO and it talked about heroes and the lionization of the WWII generation. and somehow it gave a pass to the next generation that was my Dads generation. Here is a blurb:
What is a hero? My heroes are the young
men who faced the issues of war and possible death, and then weighed
those concerns against obligations to their country. Citizen-soldiers
who interrupted their personal and professional lives at their most
formative stage, in the timeless phrase of the Confederate Memorial in
Arlington National Cemetery, “not for fame of reward, not for place or
for rank, but in simple obedience to duty, as they understood it.” Who
suffered loneliness, disease, and wounds with an often-contagious élan.
And who deserve a far better place in history than that now offered them
by the so-called spokesmen of our so-called generation.
I remember my Dad coming home from his second tour and I was 7 years old in 1972. The war was winding down. I also remember my Dad watching the news intently on April 30 1975 when South Vietnam fell to the communist North. I remember the disdain that he was treated in the 70's when he did wear his uniform off post by certain people. I contrast that with the way we were treated in the first Gulf War when it was like some great crusade to free Kuwait. I am happy that the American Public with few exceptions treat the GI's better and don't blame them if they do not agree with the war. The Vietnam veterans were treated like crap from the peers of their generation and the same people that stayed in college and hid behind deferments and protested against the war and supported the Communist North and the Viet Cong. Now they are professors and am poisoning the new generation of young people in college. Now you don't go to college to get an education, you go to college to get indoctrinated in groupthink. Again I say, go follow the Link and read the article.
I and the wife went to a movie last night with some friends...she wanted to see "Olympus has fallen". I was kinda surprised since this is a serious shootemup movie. My impression was that it was a good movie and a human side to the movie about redemption and such movies do appeal to me. Watching the troops being shot up, even though it was a movie was a bit difficult. It bothered me since the scenario depicted in the movie is plausible, that is what made it more realistic...and disturbing.
There was one movie that I had a real hard time seeing for many years after the event was "Black Hawk Down." And there were several reasons for this. One is that they wore the same equipment and weapons like I did when I was in the Gulf. second is that my brother was there with 10th mountain at the time. 3rd is that it could have been me there if situation was a little different.
I was reading one of the U.K's newspapers since I tend to get a different perspective than the Obama kissing lamestream media here in the states and I saw this. My being a history nut really got a kick out of these. When I was in Germany especially on maneuvers in the forest, when I was in the First Infantry Division(The Big Red One) I almost imagined my being with a company of WWII GI's looking for krauts. Over there history has a longer span than here in America.
The Ghosts of World War II: The photographs found at flea markets superimposed on to modern street scenes
Images depict almost transparent soldiers racing through our streets as they look today
Fascinating series shows contrast between wartorn cities in the 1930s and 1940s and pleasant neighbourhoods now.
This haunting collection of images shows what it would look like if the ghosts of World War II returned to our streets. The remarkable pictures overlay modern scenes from France with atmospheric photographs taken in the same place during the war. Historical expert Jo Teeuwisse, from Amsterdam, began the project after finding 300 old negatives at a flea market in her home city depicting familiar places in a very different context.
Dangerous crossing: Soldiers race up Avenue de
Paris in Cherbourg in 1944, speeding past the rubble and over modern-day
road markings
Fear and fighting: The original image from 1944, before it was laid over a photo taken from the exact same spot today
Startling contrast: Dutch historian Jo Teeuwisse
finds pictures from archives and then researches their background,
before taking a picture in the same place now and elegantly interweaving
them
Vivid reality: The past and the present collide
as touches of colour appear on this emotive shot on rue Armand Levéel in
the French city of Cherbourg
She researched the background to each
of the most interesting finds and created a beautiful series of
pictures by super-imposing the old pictures on top of new ones.
Now she has rediscovered
photographs of soldiers at war in France and across Europe and put
together further sets of evocative and emotional designs. Miss Teeuwisse believes that making war scenes familiar by linking them to somewhere we recognise heightens their impact. 'I knew what happened there, but knowing the exact spot of some detail will etch it into your visual memory,' she said.
From dark times to blue skies: German prisoners of war are marched through the north-western French city by American soldiers
Marching on: Allied soldiers are seen on the
move past shops from then and now in these fascinating pictures of
France from the Left Behind series
Changing environment: German soldiers
surrendering beside the modern terraced houses of the Rue des Fossés
Plissons in Domfront, Orne
Honouring the dead: Village behind the front
lines in Normandy celebrate Bastille Day for the first time in over four
years at a memorial that still stands today
Her work goes much further than the visual, too. The website of her organisation, Historical Consultancy, reads: 'For years we have been researching
daily life before and during the Second World war, not just gathering
information but also interviewing eye witnesses and recreating certain
aspects of history to gain a unique insight into that era.' The
organisation works with authors, film and TV companies, museums,
schools, documentary makers, designers, theatre productions and many
more. It has helped
individuals trying to find out more about their family history, carrying
out close research into any events from between 1900 and 1950.
Moving moment: Servicemen rest beside signs
pointing the way to a hospital and a church, with more old-fashioned
script just visible behind
Echoes of history: The tarmacked road of Saint Marcouf, Manche, was once piled high with debris
Dramatic past: Men in uniform file out of La
Madeleine à Sainte Marie du Mont, in Manche, close to the beaches of
Normandy where the D-Day invasion took place
Horrific sight: A dead German soldier lies
sprawled in the street with smooth patches showing through where the
area has been restored today
Miss
Teeuwisse says she began the project as a research tool, but now
continues it mostly because of her 'passion for history and fascination
with the subject.' A selection of her photos created across Europe, from Rotterdam to Utrecht to Sicily are available to view on herFlickrsite and onFacebook. The emotional photos juxtapose wartorn paths piled high with rubble with newly painted signposts and tarmacked roads. Pretty houses and fashionable shops have been built where the dead once lay and German soldiers clashed with Allied troops. In these poignant shots, however, we have a tiny window into that world.
Historical colour: A sign reading Todt
Organisation - a Third Reich civil and military engineering group in
Germany - is pictured over a pretty orange and pink house
New world: An American flag speaks of Allied progress in this engrossing image from the streets of France
I wonder how many of these parts and chips have a backdoor weakness that could be exploited by a hostile power....like the Peoples Republic of China......or some proxy.
Counterfeit Chinese Parts Slipping …
Counterfeit electronic parts from China are "flooding" into critical
U.S. military systems, including special operations helicopters and surveillance planes, and are putting the nation's troops at risk, according to a new U.S. Senate committee report.
A year-long investigation conducted by the Senate Armed Services Committee found more than one million suspected counterfeit parts made their way into the Department of Defense's supply chain and were bound for use by "critical" military systems,
according to the 70-plus-page document released Monday. In addition to
Navy helicopters and surveillance planes, the parts were slated to be
put into the Air Force's newest cargo planes.
"The failure of a single electronic part can leave a soldier, sailor,
airman, or Marine vulnerable at the worst possible time," the report
says. "Unfortunately, a flood of counterfeit electronic parts has made
it a lot harder to prevent that from happening."
Chinese companies were identified as the "primary source" of the
counterfeit goods and the Chinese government was criticized for its
alleged disinterest in cracking down on counterfeiting there. The report
said that Chinese companies take discarded electronic parts from all
over the world, remove any identifying marks, wash and refurbish them,
and then resell them as brand-new – a practice that poses a "significant
risk" to the performance of U.S. military systems.
But the committee also pointed a finger at the Pentagon and U.S.-based
defense contractors that rely on "hundreds of unvetted independent
distributors."
According to the document, the investigation "revealed failures by
defense contractors and [the Department of Defense] to report
counterfeit parts and gaps in DoD's knowledge of the scope and impact of
such parts on defense systems."
"Our committee's report makes it abundantly clear that vulnerabilities
throughout the defense supply chain allow counterfeit electronic parts
to infiltrate critical U.S. military systems, risking our security and
the lives of the men and women who protect it," said Senate Armed
Services Committee ranking member Sen. John McCain (R.-Arizona). "As
directed by last year's Defense Authorization bill, the Department of
Defense and its contractors must attack this problem more aggressively,
particularly since counterfeiters are becoming better at shielding their
dangerous fakes from detection."
A spokesperson for the Department of Defense did not immediately respond
to requests for comment on this report, but another spokesperson told CNN the Pentagon was aware of the report and officials "looked forward to reviewing it."
"The Department takes very seriously the issue about counterfeit parts,"
Col. Melinda Morgan said. "We are working aggressively to address this
issue..."
Months after the Senate committee launched its investigation, the Pentagon said in November it was moving
to protect against counterfeit parts by modifying policies and
improving its internal process as well as working more closely with
private companies in the industry.
Then, Defense spokesperson George Little noted that "there has been no
loss of life or catastrophic mission failure as a result of these parts
entering the supply chain."
Representatives for the Chinese government at its embassy in Washington,
D.C., and consulate in New York, New York did not immediately respond
to request for comment on this report.
I still have both my steel pot, the one that was out just before the new "fritz" kevlar helmet came out. How there has been 2 redesigns since then. I wonder if they are actually doing something to reduce the casualties or they just trying to reinvent the wheel.
The Marine Corps and Army have tapped Ceradyne Inc., to make the first of the new Enhanced Combat Helmets, ending a five-year search for a brain bucket capable of stopping rifle rounds.
The Marines and Army have given the green light to Ceradyne to build 8,600 ECHs, which will be split between the services. Fielding won’t begin until after the services approve the ECH for full-rate production, a decision scheduled for May, according to a recent press release.
The ECH is a protective helmet consisting of a ballistic protective shell, pad suspension system and four-point chinstrap/nape strap retention system. This helmet fully exploits the latest lightweight material technology, Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene materials, to provide increased small arms protection above what is currently provided by the Marine Corps Lightweight Helmet (LWH) and the Army Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH). This material provides a higher degree of ballistic protection than Kevlar and Twaron, fibers used in both the LWH and ACH. It also provides enhanced protection against fragments.
In 2007, the Army and Marine Corps began looking into how to make current helmets stronger without increasing weight. Both could withstand a direct hit from a 9mm pistol round and some bomb fragments, but senior officials in both services wanted improved protection against rifle shots.
The contract award comes after the Ceradyne ECH suffered failures in the First Article Test process early last year. I guess we’ll have to trust that the problems were resolved. The Marines are expected to receive 38,500 helmets, while the Army will buy a total of 200,000 helmets. The Navy is expected to procure 6,700 helmets as well.
I have noticed that there is a disconnect between the populace and the military, this is a dangerous position. In the past the Military would draw their support from the populace, the military would draw their sons and daughters from this group. But it has changed, we have a populace that is insulated from the decisions that are made by the politicians regarding the military. We have people that don't know what it is like to serve and they were raised to be self centered and it is all about them( the OWS crowd). To serve used to be a badge of honor from those that have done their time and got out. Now we have people that look at us like we are something that they stepped on with their shoes. I am seeing now what happened to the post 9-11 military as the same as what happened to the military after Vietnam. The veterans are despised and insulted. We are creating a new generation of people that have no positive feelings for the Military and the Veterans that have served. Once a military loses the connection with the American people, the danger of tyranny is possible. In the past to have the military go up against the American people was remote at best. Now we are having a military that is developing a "bunker mentality" or the "US vs Them". It will be easier for the military to turn on its civilian leadership or worse the American People. This is what the founding fathers feared about having a large standing Military. With this new defence act signed by Obungler, giving the United States Military rights to operate on American soil against the same citizens that we in the Military swore an oath to protect will cause great problems for the military and the society at large.
I still espouse the "Starship Trooper" theory from Robert Heinlein, that only a citizen can vote, and only way to be a citizen is to have served. If a person is willing to put the safety of his/her country before him/herself, that person will do what is in the best interest of the country, not in the best interest of themselves.
A Veteran is a person that wrote a blank check to the United States for payment including life if necessary. There is Honor in that.
From a General:
Thank you to the 0.45% I remember the day I found out I got into West Point.
My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.
That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead.
I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years.
In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years.
Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
These are unbelievable statistics.
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military.
Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand.
Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand.
They don't understand suffering.
They don't understand sacrifice.
They don't understand that bad people exist.
They look at you like you're a machine – like something is wrong with you. *
*You are the misguided one – not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, with your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up.
You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.*
I used to do stuff like this when I was in military college. We were good, but these sailers were on a whole other level. We used to throw around the demilled 03 Springfields and they were bleached to get that pretty color, the flipside was that when one got dropped.....well splitville city. It has been over 25 years and I still like to see the discipline of those teams. Fills me with pride for our military
This is the U.S Army Drill team, the "Old Guard" the same soldiers also guard the tomb of the unknown soldier.
