Balloons.

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Man in a basket. 

Observation balloons used extensively by all combatants during the Great War [WW1], a tethered balloon raised aloft hanging from which is a basket with a manned observer. This was a common sight near the front lines during that conflict.

"Observation balloons are balloons that are employed as aerial platforms for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Their use . . . reaching their zenith during World War I"

Make no mistake about it, this was very dangerous duty, either to be an occupant of the basket, the observer slung from underneath the inflated and carried aloft balloon, or that enemy pilot approaching and desiring a shoot-down that target so tempting but nonetheless heavily defended.

"Because of their importance as observation platforms, balloons were heavily defended by anti-aircraft guns and patrolling fighter aircraft. Attacking a balloon was a risky venture, but some pilots relished the challenge."

Balloons inflated with highly explosive and flammable hydrogen. Tracer rounds from an attacking aircraft able to set alight the balloon with disastrous consequences.

Man in the basket, the observer being able to parachute to ground if and when an enemy attack successful, the balloon burst and dropping from the sky. Attacking enemy combat aircraft subjected to massed and dedicated AAA [anti-aircraft-artillery] fire, withering and intense. DANGEROUS DUTY FOR ALL PARTIES AND THE HAZARD NEVER MINIMAL!!

From an altitude of 2,000 feet  [600 meters] the line-of-sight [LOS] of the observer on a good day at least sixty miles [100 kilometers].

From the era of the Great War a view as might have been seen 

from a balloon. Those rectangles are farm fields.

Tethered balloons under some circumstances still an option for the military and security apparatus of a quasi-military nature. NOW sans basket but with high-definition telephoto television lenses, day/night infra-red capability, and MUCH MORE, helium and not hydrogen the gas of choice now!!

coolbert.

LEMV.

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NOTHING like this has been seen in at least eighty years ever since the time of Billy Mitchell? A military blimp of extraordinary size, ready for deployment to the combat zone, a throw-back to a time of yesteryear, AND as they say, amazing! NOT itty-bitty but BIG!

The LEMV [Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle] an aerial vehicle designated for reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, surveillance, extended loiter time and endurance - - "hang time" if you will!

"Army Readies Its Mammoth Spy Blimp for First Flight"

"TAMPA, Florida . . . Northrop Grumman has finally penciled in the first flight of the giant surveillance airship it’s building for the U.S. Army. The Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle — a football-field-size, helium-filled robot blimp fitted with sensors and data-links — should take to the air over Lakehurst, New Jersey, the first or second week of June [2012]"

Optional use of the LEMV touted as a supply airship, a cargo carrier!!

"The LEMV can do more than hover and spy. It’s also a potentially useful cargo carrier. The current model can carry 20 tons of supplies. A scaled-up version could carry hundreds of tons — and at a fraction of the cost of fixed-wing airplanes."

The U.S. Army at one noted for having MORE AIRCRAFT THAN THE AIR FORCE AND MORE BOATS THAN THE NAVY!! At least that was the case up until the mid 1960's. NOT sure of what the case is now.

And does the 3,000 foot [1,000 meters] rule apply to the LEMV? Army "aircraft" only able to operate BELOW 3,000 feet [1,000 meters] the remainder of the airspace reserved for the air force. The 3,000 foot rule still applies?

Air ships traditionally very subject to the weather, turbulence, buffeting, inclement conditions, etc. So will be LEMV?

coolbert.

Commando?

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From the Voice of America [VOA] only today a headline that startles:

"US Denies Sending Commandos to Spy on North Korea"

"U.S. military officials are rejecting a report suggesting that U.S. military commandos have been parachuting into North Korea to gather intelligence on Pyongyang's underground military installations."

"The Diplomat, a Tokyo-based political journal, on Monday carried a report alleging that a senior U.S. special operations commander revealed the supposed commando program at a conference in Florida last week."

"The Diplomat [says] that both U.S. and South Korean commandos were taking part in the reconnaissance mission"

American and South Korean commandos BOTH it is alleged.

My instantaneous reaction to this headline was: "let it not be so!!"

Parachutists engaging in intelligence gathering missions of this sort during the Cold War were quite common for a period of time and were found to be almost 100 % uniformly unsuccessful!! Agents nabbed almost at leisure by the communist adversary with the loss of life stupendous!!

That intelligence as sparse as gleaned with hindsight found to be for the most part disinformation those parachute agents captured and forced to engage in a "playback operation"!!

Operating in such a manner [parachutists] against a totalitarian dictatorial government as harsh and as cruel as the North Korean very difficult if not impossible. Far less gained that the losses are worth!!

coolbert.

Military Slaves.

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From the Daniel Pipes web site we have some extracts of an article originally posted by Dr. Pipes as of 2000. The military slave and the apparantely "unique phenomenon" of such an institution in the Islamic world. Thanks to Dr. Pipes in all instances. The level of scholarship is indeed that of scholarship.

"Military Slaves: A Uniquely Muslim Phenomenon"

I think most students of military hisotry are familiar with the Janissary of the Ottoman Empire or the Mamelukes of the various Egyptian Islamic dynasties. Military soldiers professionals their entire adult lives, having been raised from an early age to be military men, owned by the ruler, and beholden only to same.

Children having been enslaved [Christian in the case of the Janissary and Circassian in the case of the Mameluke] knowing no other life than that of the soldier and as described a tradition and "phenomenon" perhaps UNIQUE to the Islamic world?

"Even a cursory glance at the history of Muslim peoples reveals the extraordinary role played by men of slave origins in the armed forces. They served both as soldiers and as officers, then often acquired preeminent roles in administration, politics, and all aspects of public affairs."

A tradition and "phenomenon" last for a period of a thousand years [1,000] and hardly confined to the Ottoman or Egyptian Islamic empires.

"In History"

"For a full millennium, from the early ninth century until the early nineteenth century, Muslims regularly and deliberately employed slaves as soldiers. This occurred through nearly the whole of the Muslim world, from Central Africa to Central Asia, from Spain to Bengal, and perhaps beyond. Few dynasties within this longtime-span and broad area had no military slaves."

The status of the military slave much enhanced beyond that of the "ordinary slave"! The military slave not subject to the endless toil of the domestic or field slave, that military slave having a role in society and opportunities not available to the "ordinary slave".

"Far from being lowly domestics or servile laborers, they enjoy the respect and the power of soldiers. Although slaves, they are part of the ruling elite; they bear arms, have access to the ruler, fill important positions, and enjoy the amenities of wealth and power. Indeed, they enjoy many advantages which most free men cannot attain and, as a result, their slave status carries with it no stigma. On the contrary, it becomes a badge of distinction; slavery, in an extraordinary reversal, gives access to power and social superiority which free birth might deny. Far from considering it a humiliation, free men covet this status and slaves jealously guard it. None of this, of course, holds true for ordinary slaves."

That carrying of arms ["bearing arms"] it should be recognized as normally only a "right" as conferred to free men, not to slaves. PRIVILEGES AND ADVANTAGES AVAILABLE TO THE MILITARY SLAVE EVEN INDEED THAT "MOST FREE MEN CANNOT ATTAIN"!!

It should be noted that the Mameluke prowess in battle according to all accounts was awesome, the Mongol defeat at Ain Jalut the high water mark of Mongol conquest no one other than those military slaves of the Egyptian able to vanquish the Mongol in a similar manner.

During the American Civil War it was SUGGESTED by both Robert E. Lee and Patrick Cleburne that enslaved blacks be armed and enlisted into the forces of the Confederacy. Suggestions rejected without discussion or comment.

coolbert.

Shinmiyangyo.

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Before there was the Korean War there was the Korean War.

More correctly called the Korean Expedition [1871]. Called by the Koreans Shinmiyangyo.

A punitive military expedition on the part of the American naval Asiatic Squadron, the result of verbal misunderstandings on the part of both warring parties, an abortive action not resulting in any decisive conclusion.

"The United States expedition to Korea, the Shinmiyangyo, or simply the Korean Expedition, in 1871, was the first American military action in Korea."

"on June 1, 1871, a punitive expedition was launched ten days later after the commanding American admiral failed to receive an official apology from the Koreans. The isolationist nature of the Joseon Dynasty government and the assertiveness of the Americans led to a misunderstanding between the two parties that changed a diplomatic expedition into an armed conflict."

This was too the last time [?] widespread use was made of NAVAL INFANTRY? Sailors going ashore carrying small arms and fighting as infantrymen. That American on-shore contingent the preponderant number of which was sailors [a mix of sailors and marines]!

Comments:

* That large number of decorations for valor [Medal of Honor] for one minor engagement would not have been the case today. At the moment [1871], the only medal for valor in combat as issued by the American military was the MoH. Today the standards for awarding the MoH have changed dramatically.

"Nine sailors and six Marines were awarded the Medal of Honor, the first for actions in a foreign conflict."

* The American naval officer in most senior command it should be noted possessing extraordinary powers to conduct diplomacy and even initiate hostilities at his discretion. This was a prerogative of naval officers of the period, not having the rapid means of communication as is the case today.

* Only several years [1866] prior to the American Expeditionary Force engaging in combat with the Koreans, the French also had done the same, in a similar manner, but with even less productive results. Korea at the time was referred to as the "Hermit Kingdom" due to the extreme and deliberate isolation as imposed by the local rulers. [sounds just like today at least for North Korea, doesn't it?]

Punitive military expeditions to redress a grievance legitimate or otherwise used to be quite fashionable but nowadays and for some time has given way to diplomacy and so much the better for it I would think. These type of events make for lurid and overblown reading in the history books and make for bad feelings that quite often last for a long time.

coolbert.

NCW.

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From that previous AGS blog entry:

"Even more important is that the AGS is linked [as are other weapons on the DDG] to a net-centric capacity. An input from a variety of sources all simultaneously to provide targeting info very accurate"

The DDG-1000 destroyer having a primary [?] mission of naval gunfire and missile fire [tactical Tomahawk] directed against inland targets, DDG highly dependent on net-centric warfare [NCW], one ship able to shoot more accurately faster and with greater lethality against those targets that will hurt than enemy the most. Greater efficiency and optimal use of resources.

"hit em' as hard as you can, as fast as you can, where it hurts them the most, and when they ain't looking!!"

Within the military context NCW allowing for a minimum of shooters to do the most damage the quickest and most efficient way!

That mass of sensors at all echelon levels the data can be accessed for targeting.

"Net-centric: (Also spelled "netcentric"): Participating as a part of a continuously-evolving, complex community of people, devices, information and services interconnected by a communications network to achieve optimal benefit of resources and better synchronization of events and their consequences."

Military planners adopting and advocating the NCW concept using the Wal-Mart net-centric business model as the paradigm to be adopted. "Just-in-time" delivery of products to stores when needed and ONLY when needed. Efficiency and productivity greatly enhanced!

"Their [military planners] model was Wal-Mart. Here was a sprawling, bureaucratic monster of an organization . . . that still managed to automatically order a new light bulb every time it sold one. Warehouses were networked, but so were individual cash registers. So were the guys who sold Wal-Mart the bulbs."

"this technology to facilitate 'just in time' delivery of products, thereby eliminating the need for large warehouses.  An example of this is how Wal-Mart operates business:  each Wal-Mart store is networked together, and each night, the sales figures from all stores are sent to headquarters.  Wal-Mart has prearranged contracts with the vendors of the items they sell that allow them visibility into this data, as well as an arrangement to automatically initiate shipment of items directly to stores when a particular item’s stock (that the vendor produces) has become depleted."

NCW consisting of those entities that have access to and at the same time providing input and feedback to the network. Entities categorized as sensors, decision makers and shooters.

Sensors allowing the battlefield to be "seen" and consisting of but not limited to:

* Reconnaissance satellites.
* U-2 "spy" aircraft.
* Drones [including organic to the DDG] at all existing echelons.
* SLAR-MTI [side-looking-airborne-radar/moving-target-indicator].
* UGS [unattended ground sensors].
* ANGLICO.

"the military advantage gained by integrated, networked and inter networked information flow. Specifically, NCW (Network Centric Warfare) is a new approach to how we might conduct future warfare that consists of networking the war fighting enterprise – shooters, decision makers, and sensors . . . Its purpose is to 'achieve shared awareness, increased speed of command, higher tempo of operations, greater lethality, increased survivability, and a degree of self-synchronization.”

All the data from the sensors tied together with a vast and redundant communications network highly reliant upon space satellites. A continuous process of download/upload occurring between sensors, decision makers and shooters.

This stuff is not easy to understand or is it? You almost need to be an Information Technology [IT] professional to grasp? Or am I wrong?

And the complications for existing hardware are vast? Different types of computers in use, all having different speeds, different operating systems, different programs and operating within that network of computers the uplink/downlink speeds all varying? This stuff is complex but not within mental reach. These various images accompanying this particular blog entry are illustrative and explanatory? I have tried.

NCW is not on the future, NCW is NOW!

coolbert.

Cristero.

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"a pharmacist, a priest and two ranch hands"

Well, I do find this to be interesting.

Thanks to the web site NewsMax, the famous actor Andy Garcia starring in a new movie the focus of which is the Cristero War.

"Andy Garcia's New Movie Echoes Current Church Vs Government Battle"

"The Cristero War, also known as the Cristiada, took place between 1926 and 1929, pitting Mexican forces with support from the Mexican government against the Catholic Church. The country’s government at the time sought to eradicate 'superstition' and 'fanaticism' in Mexico by desecrating religious objects, persecuting clergy, and writing anti-clerical laws."

The Cristero War, Those Mexican insurgents the major commanders of which were a pharmacist, a priest, and two ranch hands. Amateurs in opposition to the professionals and having a marked degree of success. Insurgents whose staying-power and determination went way beyond any reasonable expectations. A peace between the warring factions finally being brokered by the American ambassador to Mexico [an action for which one normally wins the Nobel Peace Prize].

Normally portraying religion in a favorable light and highlighting the determination of religious believers devoted to their cause is not something Hollywood does easily. So this is all a surprise?

The Cristero War as originally covered in the media of the day by the fascist sympathizer Leon De Grelle. That Cristero War to this day commemorated by the Mexican vaqueros, a long-ride honoring all  that died memories lasting a long time in some parts of the world.

coolbert.

NECC.

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Thanks to StrategyPage we have the story of the NECC.

An anachronism enjoying a comeback? Something the U.S. Navy has not used in over one hundred [100] years now again institutionalized and in vogue:


"The USNs Neo-Marines"

Naval Infantry! Understood to be NOT marines. Sailors trained to go ashore and fight as soldiers, carrying small arms and using infantry tactics, in the old fashioned way as was once common but has not been the case for a long time!

"May 21, 2012: The U.S. Navy has decided what to do with its 'brown water navy', including three Riverine Squadrons, now that they have no overseas assignment [last assignment was in Iraq]. The coastal and river force sailors are going to be divided between bases on the U.S. east and west coasts. There they will assist with coastal and river patrol duties. The riverine force contains 2,500 active duty and 2,000 reserve sailors."

This is NECC!

"The navy officially established its 'Naval Expeditionary Combat Command' (NECC) in 2005. This organization eventually reached a peak size of 40,000 sailors, all of whom were trained to work, and fight, on land."

"This organization contains sailors trained and equipped for land operations the navy believes it should be involved in. Some of these are still on the water, like riverine operations (small gunboats and troop carriers to control rivers and coastal waters against irregulars) and naval infantry to defend navy land bases in hostile territory."

Sailors trained to engage in ground combat if and when the need arises. A flexible military force able to respond to a variety of threats. Conceivably able to expand rapidly, those active duty and reserve folks at cadre level trained to assume command positions and roles beyond what is necessary in peacetime.

Once again, naval infantry and NOT marines. Please do not confuse!

coolbert.

Peace Prize?

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From the StrategyPage web site devoted to the archived "On Point" articles of Colonel Austin Bay we have this item:

"What Kind of Action in the World Justifies a Nobel Peace Prize?"

Colonel Bay in response to the decision of the Nobel committee to award the Peace Prize to President Obama, an action that in some circles raised a lot of eyebrows.

Colonel Bay too NOT EVEN REALLY ANSWERING HIS OWN QUESTION!

That Nobel Peace Prize as originally envisioned and awarded NOT something given away easily on whim AND NOT WITHOUT ACTION!

The Peace Prize as awarded from the inception to persons or entities that have facilitated a peace settlement to two warring parties, adversaries already in conflict, WAR!

Persons or entities using their "good offices" or role as a mediator, arbitrator or facilitator to broker a peace and a cessation of hostilities such as was the case with the Treaty of Portsmouth that brought a conclusion to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905! President Theodore Roosevelt at that exact moment the man of the hour.

"Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his back channel efforts before and during the peace negotiations, even though he never came to Portsmouth."

Again, the prize "originally envisioned and awarded" for facilitating an END to hostilities that already existed. NOTHING MORE than that.

Even not spot on the money with this particular entry from the archive, Colonel Bay is an outstanding observer of all things military and an excellent writer to boot. I highly suggest bookmarking the "On Point" archive and checking for updates from time to time.

coolbert.

Flag Officers.

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"Nothing is so good for the morale of the troops as occasionally to see a dead general". - - Bill Slim.

Thanks to the wiki.answers web site we have a list of American flag officers [generals and admirals both] killed during the Vietnam War, in-country, ground, air, and sea, the list MUCH MORE EXTENSIVE THAN WHAT I HAD REALIZED!! HIGH RANKING OFFICERS WILLING TO TAKE RISKS AND IN THOSE CASES NOTED, KILLED-IN-ACTION [KIA] AS A RESULT OF ENEMY FIRE, THAT ADVERSARY SHOOTING AT THEM!!

"Vietnam War casualties-US Generals/Admirals"

US Army:

1. GEN Keith L. Ware (Sep '68)  KIA.

2. GEN John A. B. Dillard (May '70)  KIA.

3. GEN William R. Bond (Apr '70)  KIA.

4. GEN George W. Casey (Jul '70)

5. GEN A. J. F. Moody (Mar '67)

6. GEN C. Edward Adams Jr. (May '70)

7. GEN Charles J. Girard (Jan '70)

8. GEN Richard J. Tallman (Jul '72)  KIA.

US Air Force:

9. GEN William J. Crumm (Jul '67)

10. GEN Robert F. Worley (Jul '68)  KIA.

11. GEN Edward B. Burdett (Nov '67)  KIA.

US Marine Corps:

12. GEN Bruno Hockmuth (Nov '67)

US Navy:

13. ADM Rembrandt C. Robinson (May '72)

Comments:

* LOTS of helicopter crashes or shoot-downs!

* The various European powers during the Great War [WW1] NOT allowing general officers to EVEN approach the front, much less participate in combat. The thought being that a general officer represented an investment in time, money, and having important education and experience such a person not expendable. This of course post-war [WW1] creating a lot of animosity and even during the war toward the ruling elites.

* Less than half a dozen American ground force commanders of flag rank lost during the Second World War [WW2], Simon Bolivar Buckner, killed by a stray Japanese artillery round being the most prominent.

* Since the end of the Second Indo-China conflict, to include Grenada, First and Second Gulf War, and the war in Afghan, NO American flag officers have been killed in combat or died while in the war zone? What does that say if anything?

* That comment of Bill Slim right on the money too? The lower ranking troops seeing a general officer risking his life and even from time to time dying on the battlefield a morale booster?

coolbert.

Freeman Field.

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From a prior blog entry:

"My understanding is that there was/is a facility located in the USA [Indiana] where there are miles-long trenches containing the remains of American WW2 war planes cut into segments and buried"

And here we have the answer as to that location thanks to Bob N.

Freeman Field, Seymour Indiana, USA!!

But NOT miles-long trenches [kilometers long]. NO!

Devoted readers to the blog, please forgive me, I have not engaged in a deliberate deception, merely a gross exaggeration made in error and corrected by myself.

Freeman Army Airfield!

"Freeman Army Airfield is an inactive United States Army Air Force base. It is located 2.6 miles (4.2 km) south-southwest of Seymour, Indiana."

Freeman Army Airfield in the aftermath of the war a facility used for the evaluation and testing of captured Axis aircraft, predominantly of the German variety. War planes experimental and otherwise as might be found in the Luft46 web site.

This was the Foreign Aircraft Evaluation Center.

"Freeman was re-activated by ATSC as the Foreign Aircraft Evaluation Center for the Air Force . . . captured German and Italian aircraft were collected by "Operation Lusty". These aircraft were shipped to the United States for evaluation. Freeman was selected due to its inviability and large amount of empty space which could be used to store these aircraft and perform evaluation flights . . . Nowhere in the United States would there be such large numbers of foreign aircraft, many of which were rare and incredible advanced for their time"

Indeed, some of those one-of-a-kind captured German combat aircraft "destroyed or buried", examples of which NO LONGER EXIST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD PERIOD!

"Some which were left at the field were destroyed or buried. Examples of aircraft that have no record of leaving Freeman Field are a Dornier Do 335 experimental interceptor; a Heinkel He 219 radar-equipped night fighter; an Arado Ar 234 twin-engined jet bomber, two Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptors, two Focke-Wulf Fw 190 interceptors and a Junkers Ju 88 two-engine multi-role aircraft."

Even now, the "hunt" proceeds those avid aviation enthusiasts searching for the "goldmine"!

"Several groups are engaged in locating and recovering any aviation artifacts from the aircraft which were destroyed and buried in 1946. The groups are currently in communication with former base personnel, local eyewitnesses, and historians in order to get a comprehensive picture of where the burial pits are located and what items were put in them."

Searchers having success to a degree:

"Luftwaffe Aircraft Parts Found at Freeman Field" by Lou Thole

"In late 1997, a large quantity of Luftwaffe aircraft parts and other equipment was unearthed at Freeman Field, in Seymour, Indiana. This discovery came after several years of research and exploratory digging. The story of the finding of the World War II German aircraft parts is an interesting one that helps answer many of the rumors about the field's activities at the end of the war."

Indiana Jones is needed in Indiana!!

coolbert.

AGS.

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One hundred years ago the scientific, engineering, manufacturing and technological advancement of a nation could be measured to some degree of certainty by the size of the large-bore naval guns as were the main armaments of battleships.:

Guns as mounted on battleships of the period 12 inch [300 mm] bore or larger the rule, the greater the bore size [diameter of the barrel at the muzzle], the length of the barrel in calibers [ratio of the barrel length to bore diameter], the range, accuracy, rapidity of fire, size and lethality of round fired an indication of "scientific, engineering, manufacturing and technological" know-how!

A NATION USING THEIR OWN RESOURCES TO DEVELOP, DESIGN, MANUFACTURE SUCH BIG BORE NAVAL GUNS SAID TO BE "ADVANCED"! Respected world powers of the time able to do so!

A battleship able to fire a larger and more lethal round further, more accurately, more faster obviously at an advantage over an adversary.

This modern AGS [Advanced Gun System] as it is the MOST advanced naval gun in the world [and the largest also to my knowledge] surely is an indication of continued American naval technological supremacy?

As installed on the DDG class of destroyer that naval has extraordinary range and extreme accuracy when firing those terminal guided [precision] guided munitions. Also able to fire conventional and improved munitions, albeit of the 155 mm [6 inch] variety, far smaller than the guns as found on a conventional battleship from that era of 100 years ago now.

Features of the AGS that indicate high technology and engineering expertise to include:

* Water-cooled barrel.
* Retractable barrel.
* Automation.

[those 155 mm improved munitions would include some sort of COFRAM round or similar? Deliver bomblets on the target each and every bomblet when detonating giving forth a spew of lethal fragments]

AGS can also be employed against other naval surface targets that are a threat to the DDG or other nearby American naval vessels? An armor piercing and guided round is available for sinking an enemy ship in the old-fashioned manner?

Even more important is that the AGS is linked [as are other weapons on the DDG] to a net-centric capacity. An input from a variety of sources all simultaneously to provide targeting info very accurate allowing for destruction of a target with a MINIMUM of rounds fired, registration and ranging almost non-existent!! ONE round fired, ONE hit, ONE target destroyed!!

Data net-centric from a variety of inputs to include: [but not limited to]

* GPS.
* Satellites.
* Drones.
* Unattended Ground Sensors. [UGS]
* SLAR-MTI.
* ANGLICO. [friendlies on the ground]

Some will suggest that a six inch [155 mm] naval gun is even then way too small, the guns of the period 100 years ago twice as large AT A MINIMUM but also consider that the role of naval warfare as we understand it has also radically changed, the COST too of one warship as the DDG class so expensive that few if almost NO other nation in the world other than the U.S. even contemplates such a weapon.

War at sea today is NOT the same as it was in the time Dewey, Fisher, and Jellico!

coolbert.

Sounders.

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Once again in the Chicago Tribune we have a story that has been covered before. The wild pig gone berserk and a menace and nuisance in several states. Herds of pigs [a herd of pigs is called a sounder] proliferating in abundance and number and causing widespread and ever increasing mayhem, destruction to crops and native vegetative matter in a massive way, almost overwhelming in nature.

"GPS, copters deploy in war against crop-eating pigs"

And hunted with can only be called quasi-military methods.

WAR!!

Quasi-military methods NOW to include:

* The use of GPS for sounder location.
* The use of night vision devices.
* The use of helicopters [air assault].

From the Tribune article only today:

"Oklahoma just called the GPS-equipped Judas pigs, which leader hunters to their unsuspecting friends. Texans started gunning down wild hogs from helicopters last year. South Carolina legislators have drafted a bill [kill] that allows hunting with night-vision devices."

This very topic has been the subject of various previous blog entries.

Wild pigs, a cross of feral hog [escaped and now wild domestic pigs] and imported European wild boar breeding in extraordinary numbers, a threat to crops and the environment, the proliferation of which is a threat growing and cannot be contained, almost "guerrilla-like" insidious and uncontainable!

"They tear down even more than they eat, and they eat plenty"

Animals big, ugly, dangerous, wily, and having a degree of animal smarts not a whole lot less than a dog or cat!

Be very careful when hunting these critters. They can and will come at you to KILL YOU and have a marked capacity for being able to do so!!

The "hunt" for the wild pigs does constitute very realistic training for soldiers? A sport that benefits the society as a whole and has that element of danger that ordinary military training just does not provide. You can "wet your pants" literally when after these creatures.

Teams of soldiers from units such as special forces, rangers, Marines, paratroopers, SEAL, etc., using archaic weaponry [bow and arrow, crossbow, spears, black powders rifles, etc.] hunting the wild pigs perhaps is the ULTIMATE in military training only second to actual combat itself? I would think so. That ELEMENT OF DANGER PRESENT AS IT NORMALLY IS NOT!

Definitely too there is precedent for such military maneuvers! From the StrategyPage CIC web site of Al Nofi:

"In December of 1959 a detail of Army Special Forces personnel conducted a mission on Ishigaki Shima, a Japanese island, in support of operations to wipe out an infestation of wild boar."

This was U.S. Army Special Forces [Green Berets] from the battalion forward located on Okinawa a mission "in support of", hunting the wild boar with M1 .30 caliber carbines? Might have well been the case. The wild pig infestation problem is not confined to the United States.

European knights of yore, the nobility of the Middle Ages too the favorite sport and practice for war of which was hunting the wild boar from horseback using lance, the pig sticker, the meat of the beast a favored delicacy and those heads from game taken adorning the walls of the castle as trophies demonstrable of martial prowess.

Good hunting, good luck, and BEWARE!

coolbert.

Major General.

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More Joseph Kony stuff.

Caesar the Major General has been captured.

Caesar, an acolyte and confidant of Joseph Kony, Caesar a self styled strategist and possessing the grandiose title of major general has been finally run to ground and captured.

Caesar not displaying any fight whatsoever, found and taken prisoner with an AK, a measly eight rounds of ammo, his wife, child and a helper in tow. A poor catch overall and not what had been hoped for.

"Top Joseph Kony crony Caesar Achellam captured in ambush"

"Uganda has captured one of the top rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), bringing it a step closer to catching Joseph Kony, the LRA leader accused of war crimes, the military said yesterday."

"Caesar Achellam, a major-general in Kony's outfit of about 200 fighters, had been captured in an ambush on Saturday . . . They said Achellam had been armed with just an AK-47 rifle and eight rounds of ammunition. He was being held with his wife, a young daughter and a helper."

Those interrogating Caesar keep your wits about you at all times. Caesar to save his skin will be willing to talk and probably will give away a lot of info THE VERACITY OF WHATEVER INTELLIGENCE THEREBY GAINED TO BE SUSPECT AND DOUBTFUL UNLESS VERIFIED AND MOST DECIDEDLY SO!!

To what extent Caesar represents a "doomed" source in the manner as would have been understood by Sun Tzu is unclear. My intuition is that this capture was too easy, Joseph even perhaps deliberately sacrificing a major player in his organization in an attempt to fool those in pursuit. Joseph is full of skulduggery, take my word for it.

coolbert.

Firefly.

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That word Firefly during the Second Indo-China war having three meanings, depending on the context understood correctly.

Two instances [# 1 and # 2] of the word Firefly easily understandable the third [# 3] not so much so?

1. Firefly a drone aircraft in the developmental process for long-range missions during the Vietnam War.

"The Ryan AQM-91A  was a developmental drone developed during the Vietnam War to perform long-range reconnaissance, especially into China."

"US intelligence thus needed a long-range drone with a high degree of survivability . . . the new design was designated the 'Model 154 / AQM-91A Firefly'".

Successful operational missions ZERO but the concept sound.






2. Firefly missions a flight of three helicopters, operating at night, one of which was equipped with a very powerful searchlight allowing for the illumination of targets in total darkness. Hunters/killers from the air. [thanks to the article by Tompkins from the Top Tigers & Mustangs web site.]

"Firefly missions were conducted at night with no lights except for the one helicopter that had a powerful spot light attached to it.  The helicopter with the light would fly at about 500 ft. Another helicopter or gunship would fly at 1000 and a third at 200 [ft.].  The Helicopter flying at 200 ft. was a gunship equipped with miniguns and rockets.  The aircraft at 1000ft was equipped with a .50 cal machine gun.

Targets illuminated by the spot light [searchlight?] from one chopper the other two obliterating the enemy with combined fire!

3. Firefly a concept. A divisional or brigade combat commander in his own personal helicopter hovering over the battlefield while units under his command actually engaged in combat. The combat commander in the manner of the leader on the black powder battlefield of yore able to see at almost a single glance the posture of his troops, the enemy and understood with some certainty how the battle is proceeding. Also able to issue commands at his discretion, yea or nay the actions of his subordinates and order assistance as he deems necessary. Micro-management without question!

Devoted readers to the blog have some insight into # 3. This was called Firefly that hovering over the battlefield and observing the combat action as done by the senior commander?

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Rationing.

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On this date seventy years ago!

Thanks to the Chicago Tribune almanac:

" In 1942 gasoline rationing went into effect in 17 states, limiting sales to three gallons a week for nonessential vehicles."

The United States in 1939 and all for the duration of the war [WW2] an OIL EXPORTING NATION, IN MARKED CONTRAST TO THE SITUATION AS EXISTS TODAY!!

All for the war effort, that privately owned family automobile rarely used during the war,  travel severely curtailed if not outright more or less ended.

And as has been mentioned but in a cursory manner, American culture and society as existing in 1947 markedly different as that culture and society that was present prior to the start of WW2!

And most epitomized by ownership of the private family automobile.

In 1939 only one in four American adult males able to own a car,.

By 1947 almost 100 % of adult American males able to own a car.

America in 1945 the ONLY nation on the planet having more food that it could eat, more oil than it could pump, more steel than was needed for building. That consumer society and overall prosperity on a mass basis the trend and THE EXPECTED NORM FROM 1945 ONWARDS!!

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BB-57

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From that previous blog entry, the RN HMS Dauntless made totally impotent for a matter of minutes, a fuse costing ten English pounds when blown the ship for that moment made a floating and inert non-functioning hulk.

The loss of all power during wartime while a vessel in actual combat and even during peace time maneuvers creating a situation that might very well be fatal for all.

A situation for which there is precedent.   

From the Second World War: Guadalcanal & Fourth Battle of Savo / Island!

Thanks to various sources in this instance, the American battleship South Dakota BB-57 while actually engaged in night combat losing for a period of three minutes all electrical power rendered for a brief but very dangerous period a floating steel hulk blind and more or less helpless!

And all BECAUSE OF HUMAN ERROR!

First from the wiki we have the bland pronouncements and verdict not so very judgmental:

"That night, an error in engine room switchboards left South Dakota powerless: without her radars, she no longer had a grasp on the complicated tactical situation. South Dakota, under fire from at least three ships, took 42 hits, causing considerable damage. Her radio communications failed, radar plot was demolished, three fire control radars were damaged, there was a fire in her foremast, and she had lost track of Washington."

Human error and violation of all known procedures, practices, protocols more correctly understood as:

"the South Dakota's Chief Engineer, contrary to established procedures, had tied down her circuit breakers, which had the effect that of putting the whole electrical system in series."

That engineer in a vain effort to isolate one problem created an even greater difficulty with almost calamitous results!!

"The concussion of 5-Inch hits [Japanese rounds hitting] and internal shocks of firing her own batteries overloaded the circuits and everything went out- radar, fire control stations, turret motors, ammo hoists and radio’s, leaving South Dakota blind."

ONLY the intercession at quick response of the USS Washington saving the South Dakota from oblivion and destruction!! So it would seem.

ALSO, from the previously classified C O N F I D E N T I A L report [as of 1942] it being realized that sailors when in combat having becoming so reliant on electronic apparatus for situational awareness that failure by loss of electrical power creates a very unhealthy  "psychological effect" combat personnel at the exact wrong moment becoming helpless, unable to respond to enemy threat!!

"The trust-and faith in the search radar equipment is amazing. After this ship lost both SG and SC equipment, the psychological effect on the officers and crew was most depressing. The absence of this gear gave all hands a feeling of being blindfolded."

As it was in 1942 so let us hope IT IS NOT NOW!!

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D Class.

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Thanks again to the English DailyMail on-line the British Royal Navy [RN] answer to the American DDG "Zumwalt" class destroyer - - the D Class destroyer Dauntless proven according to the headline to be NOT so dauntless!

"Not so Dauntless... Navy's £1 billion warship blacked out by a £10 fuse"


"Stranded and helpless" - - a "Daring" class vessel at that exact moment NOT so daring!

"Bristling with cutting-edge technology and carrying an awesome array of weaponry, the Royal Navy’s new destroyer HMS Dauntless is said to be one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful warships.
But the £1 billion vessel was left helpless and stranded – when a £10 fuse apparently blew.HMS Dauntless is the second ship of the Type 45 class of air defence destroyer built for the Royal Navy (also known as the Daring or 'D' class)."

Please forgive me but as only a person with a technology degree and NOT a naval architect this D class warship appears to be too top-heavy? I am wrong here? My intuition fails me that this ship DOES NOT look right?

The primary mission of the D class vessels is AIR DEFENSE? So it is stated:

"HMS Dauntless is the second ship of the Type 45 class of air defence destroyer built for the Royal Navy (also known as the Daring or 'D' class)."

Dauntless in contrast to the American DDG class destroyer NOT having a mission of striking targets far inland organic capacity limited in that regard [land attack]!

Dauntless nonetheless carrying "an awesome array of weaponry" to include:

* Anti-air missiles (Sea Viper) Sea Viper missile system. [Aster 15 & Aster 30]

* Anti-ship missiles. Sea Skua anti-ship missiles [heliborne] & RGM-84 Harpoon.

* A single 4.5 inch Mk 8 mod 1 gun. [114 mm]

* Anti-submarine torpedoes [heliborne].

Compared to the cost for one American DDG destroyer the English are getting a good value for their money? That is a billion POUNDS and not dollars apiece per warship, the DDG costing about $7 billion per copy!

That Daily Mail headline too alarms in a way that is misleading? During combat action in the Pacific during World War Two, the American battleship North Dakota lost ALL power an engineering officer having tied down all circuit breakers in a manner unwarranted, disaster nearly occurring! Mistakes such as the ten pound fuse easily remedied proper steps and measures immediately taken, solution found!

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Dennis Copping.

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From seventy years ago the RAF Kittyhawk combat aircraft of Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping long missing found! Having crash landed in the Egyptian Desert and covered [?] by sand all this time, the war bird now found, more or less in very good condition, intact to a degree seldom found after sustaining war time damage, suitable perhaps for restoration and resuming flight status at some time. The body of Dennis Copping NEVER found, the airman presumed dead, body-not-recovered [BNR]! Thanks to the English DailyMail on-line:

"Frozen in the sands of time: Eerie Second World War RAF fighter plane discovered in the Sahara... 70 years after it crashed in the desert"

"Pilot of the Kittyhawk P-40 was thought to have survived crash, but died trying to walk out of the desert"

"Aircraft was found almost perfectly preserved, unseen and untouched, after it came down in 1942"

"Historian describes find as 'an incredible time capsule' and 'the aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb'"

A fly-able P-40 restored and not a replica [replicas do exist?] very expensive, and doubling in value each and every year, so few even exist!

The conditions as found in the Sahara very conducive to preservation? NOT the extremes of moisture, mildew, rot, atmospherics and damage from critters as would be found in other locales? Such must be the case that numerous undiscovered and very well preserved examples of military hardware, aviation and otherwise, must just be out there, waiting to be found and restored!

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Lancer.

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This was a new one on me.

The P-43 fighter plane from the era of the Second World War [WW2]. An aircraft half-way in technological and engineering development between a Brewster Buffalo and the American P-47?

At each stage of development the decision to put into production having been delayed, the war bird found to be lacking when compared to foreign contemporary military aircraft. Almost but not quite!

"The Republic P-43 Lancer was a single-engine, all-metal, low-wing monoplane fighter aircraft built by Republic, first delivered to the United States Army Air Corps in 1940 . . . While no world-beater as a fighter, the P-43A had a very good high-altitude performance coupled with an effective oxygen system."

Only a small and very limited number [t can be suggested that these were prototypes and not full production models] of these P-43 ever put into production, missions as flown by the American Volunteer Group [AVG] China, success hardly achieved!

But flown by the famous American WW2 combat aviator and author Robert L. Scott. "GOD is My Co-pilot".

"In June 1942, Robert L. Scott Jr—an AVG pilot—photographed the peaks of Mt. Everest from 44,000 ft (13,000 m), attesting to the strengths of this aircraft."

I had thought the AVG flew ONLY the P-40 but this is not so! Scott writes quite well concerning the mission to Mt. Everest, the P-43 capable of high altitude performance that was superb, other features of the aircraft found to be lacking however.

Indeed, it can too be suggested that the P-47 is merely a modified and improved version of the P-43? Self-sealing tanks, improved armaments, armor, etc. That same design team when the decision made to NOT GO with the P-43 continued work on future developments from which came the P-47? [proposals, equations, descriptions, diagrams and mathematical justifications for the P-47 put together in a package by three days of intense work by a design team!]

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Von Trapp.

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The "Sound of Music" - - the untold story!

Baron von Trapp as played by the British actor Christopher Plummer in actuality during the First World War an outstanding and heroic even officer of the Austro-Hungarian navy a nobleman serving nobly in a losing cause, a submariner of repute and accomplished in combat.

From the Al Nofi StrategyPage CIC # 386:

"The k.u.k. Kriegsmarine Helps Create a Musical Legend"

The man named to be the first commander of the U-6 was Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp, the dashing 30-year-old scion of an old naval family.  Among the guests at the commissioning was the woman who had christened the U-6 the previous June, 20-year-old Fräulein Agathe Whitehead, the rather wealthy granddaughter of Robert Whitehead (who invented the 'automobile torpedo' and founded the Whitehead shipyards).  Agathe and Georg married shortly afterwards."

"During World War I, Baron von Trapp proved one of Austria-Hungary’s greatest naval heroes, completing 19 war patrols in various submarines, accounting for 11 merchant vessels sunk for a total of 45,669 tons, as well as a French armored cruiser and an Italian destroyer, not to mention at least one ship captured.  Meanwhile, the Baron and Agathe began a family, which numbered seven children by 1922, when Agathe died."

The first wife of Baron von Trapp the granddaughter of the man [Whitehead] generally credited with inventing the torpedo as we understand the weapon today. The Baron remarrying to the famous Maria, the family of singers eventually "attaining fame in America"!

"The Baron remarried in 1927, to Maria Augusta Kutschera, with whom he had three more children.  A decade later, the entire family fled Austria and the Nazi threat, settling in America and attaining fame as the 'Trapp Family Singers.'”

And for the rest of the story, according to the revisionist Mark Weber, Hollywood taking a lot of artistic license inventing a fable generally believed as true, embellished to a great extent but however not without foundation:

"What really happened?"

"According to the movie, the head of the von Trapp family decides to flee the country with his wife and children to avoid having to serve in the German navy. While it's true that Georg Ludwig von Trapp, who is played in the movie by Christopher Plummer, was a monarchist who was hostile to Hitler and National Socialism, he was never forced to choose between service in the German armed forces or emigration from the country."

"In the movie, the von Trapps flee Austria in secret, hiking over the mountains into Switzerland carrying their suitcases and musical instruments. In reality, they left the country by train, and they did so quite openly. And instead of going to Switzerland they traveled to Italy before ultimately settling in the United States. As daughter Maria said years later in an interview: 'We did tell people that we were going to America to sing. And we did not climb over mountains with all our heavy suitcases and instruments. We left by train, pretending nothing,'"

Personally, Mark Weber has made a much to-do about nothing? Baron von Trapp was indeed a war hero with a large family and opposed to Hitler [albeit a monarchist and not a democrat] but please, allow for the story-telling some allowance for "embellishment" and fiction, slight but not excessive!!

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Statues.

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Thanks once more from NewsFeed we have some info on the Chinese terra-cotta army as was found buried from over two thousand years ago, guarding the burial chamber of the Chin Emperor.

Some of those terra-cotta soldiers now on tour and display in America.

"5 Things You Didn’t Know About China’s Terra-Cotta Army"

"Relics from the legendary Chinese archaeological site are now on display in New York. Here's what you need to know."

Terra-cotta statues mass produced but still individualized?

"the Qin dynasty project held all the problems of production on a mass scale. Tens of thousands of individual human and animal statues were manufactured within a series of processes that began with the molding of solid legs."

"It was by constructing each of the hollow statues upon solid legs that the Ancient Chinese craftsemen solved the perplexing problem of how to make a statue free-standing. Hollow heads, arms and legs, made of coiled earth, were joined together with strips of clay and set upon the solid legs. After this rough model was assembled, a fine clay slip was added, and details such as eyes, mouth, nose and details of dress were carved into the clay while it was still pliable. Additional pieces such as ears, beard and armour were modeled separately and attached, after which the whole figure was fired at a high temperature."

My understanding has been that this divisional sized "army" of terra-cotta soldiers were NOT a standardized generic and stylized statue but each and everyone molded and sculpted to resemble a real live soldier each and every model different. Indeed these figures as represented probably the real body guard of the Chinese emperor, at least the facial aspects of each statue the features of a real live person, a soldier in the retinue of the palace guard, an INDIVIDUAL!!

ONLY a portion of the entire burial mound having been excavated, the actual tomb of the Chin Emperor yet to be found, more amazing stuff to follow I am sure.

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Spitfires.

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Here with the story thanks to NewsFeed of buried treasure both literally and figuratively so:


"Buried Treasure: World War II Spitfires to Be Unearthed in Burma"

"Paging Indiana Jones: a British farmer's 15-year quest to find a squadron of legendary fighter planes buried in a far-off land has finally paid off"

"Buried planes? It sounds odd, but in fact this was fairly common toward the end of the war"

Found! An entire squadron of British World War Two [WW2] Spitfire combat fighter planes found buried in Burma. Planes buried as was the customary and quite common disposal technique in the aftermath of the war.

These Spitfires from the era of WW2 IF AND WHEN possible to be restored to flying condition, NOT replica airplanes but the originals, each and everyone worth a fortune. ONLY a handful of such war planes of the various types and versions as used by the combatants of the period still in existence and in FLY-ABLE CONDITION. [some aircraft such as the famous Mosquito NOT ONE flying original in service period!]

Restored WW2 warplanes not only rare and expensive but in addition doubling in value each year!

Dismantling and burying a common disposal technique as previously stated. My understanding is that there was/is a facility located in the USA [Indiana] where there are miles-long trenches containing the remains of American WW2 war planes cut into segments and buried, right wing in one trench, left wing in another trench, tail assembly in yet another trench, etc. Aircraft of all types and varieties segmented and discarded, not of value to anyone at the time.

Indiana Jones indeed would be interested in Indiana!

coolbert.

Blacksmith.

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In some quarters this particular newly unveiled statue has raised hackles? Thanks to the BBC, coverage of a temporary exhibit in London, a statue dedicated to "Blacksmith". Genghis Khan!

"Genghis Khan sculpture unveiled at Marble Arch"

"The 16ft tall bronze statue will be at Marble Arch until September"

"A bronze sculpture of Mongolian warrior Genghis Khan has been unveiled at Marble Arch in central London."

"The 16ft tall (5m) statue captures the legendary leader wearing Mongolian armour on his steed."

ONLY temporary! Genghis that one man in the history of the world having the most living descendants! Sixteen million reputedly from all the wives and concubines. Genghis is reported with regard to happiness as having said:

"The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive them before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters."

The Mongol tribesmen and those rulers in those generations following Genghis conquering and in many cases destroying irrevocably so societies many time more populace, many times much more so wealthier possessing technology much more advanced the societal development of which at a much more so higher level! MUCH MORE SO!

The Caliphate of Baghdad at the time of destruction by those Mongol forces under Hulagu the MOST ADVANCED AND POWERFUL SOCIETY ON THE PLANET!! Destroyed, again, irrevocably, the population of that area of the world [now Iraq] not recovering for a period of seven hundred years!!

It should also be noted that it was said of Mongol rule: "a maiden could walk naked from one end of the Empire to the other with a pot of gold on her head and do so unmolested!!"


Fancy that!

coolbert.

Retreat!

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Once more from the National Geographic Internet web site we have an extract concerning the military sketch artist from the time of the American Civil War. The sketch and observations as published in the English press, the American Federal forces in the aftermath of the First Battle of Bull Run in pell-mell retreat to the rear, disorganized and without thought, panic stricken troops fleeing in object defeat and shamefully so NO LONGER UNDER COMMAND OF THEIR OFFICERS, UNIT COHESION HAVING TOTALLY DISINTEGRATRED!!

“The stampede from Bull Run—From a sketch by Our Special Artist.”

Source: Frank Vizetelly, Illustrated London News, August 17, 1861

“'The Stampede From Bull Run,' along with this blunt description: 'At half-past five the Federal troops were in full retreat, pursued at different points by the black horse cavalry of Virginia. Retreat is a weak term to use when speaking of this disgraceful rout … The terror-stricken soldiers threw away their arms and accoutrements, herding along like a panic-stricken flock of sheep, with no order whatever in their flight … Wounded men were crushed under the wheels of the heavy, lumbering chariots that dashed down the road at full speed. Light buggies, containing members of Congress, were overturned or dashed to pieces in the horrible confusion of the panic.'” - - Frank Vizetelly.

Retreat, a movement to the rear [retrograde operation] best understood in terms of ORGANIZED [good] or DISORGANIZED [bad]! The Union army at First Bull Run retreating in an disorganized manner, including that contingent of Fire Zouaves, those personnel thought to be least likely to crack and break under pressure!

The U.S. Army recognizing three forms of retrograde operations, retreat, movement to the rear:

1. Delaying. 2. Retirement. 3.. Withdrawal.

Must be undestood to be NOT merely superfluous jargon but conveying a specific situation on the ground:

* In contact with the enemy, a fighting retreat to the rear.
* Moving to the rear while attempting to break contact with the enemy.
* Moving to the rear and having broken contact with the enemy.

Organzed GOOD, disorganized BAD! For the case of the Union forces at First Bull Run BAD!!

coolbert.

Sketcher.

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"The world came to understand the Civil War through the eyes of battlefield artists. Living alongside the troops, combat illustrators risked death, injury, and disease to convey the blow-by-blow of battle with pencil and pen, charcoal, and crayon. Their work, sketched in the direst of circumstances, shows terrible violence but also moments of surprising grace."

From the Internet web site and the May 2012 edition of the of the National Geographic magazine we have the story of the military sketch artist. Thanks to the text from Mr. Harry Katz:

"Civil War Battlefield Art"

Indeed, cameras of that period being what they were, the photographer such as Matthew Brady was confined to images of the "posed picture", the portrait, or the a depiction of warfare in the aftermath of a battle! Action photography NOT possible!

That void of visual reporting that the public desired satisfied by the artistry of the military sketch artist. Persons of immense talent doing yeoman work in furtherance of reportage. Sketch artists representations of American Civil War combat in a manner as it actually occurred and in a manner not possible for other media as they existed at the time.

These sketch artists referred to as specials a most fitting designation, well deserved!

See also this prior blog entry of mine dealing with the military sketch artist, a venerable trade and still in practice today!

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Alligator.

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Thanks to Ynet we have latest dope on the Israeli nuclear capable [?] submarine forces. Four [three on current operational patrol status, the fourth one or two more years before also patrol capable] Dolphin submarines now in the arsenal, two more to follow. German made submarines diesel/electric with presumably some sort of air-independent-propulsion [AIP] and made to certain Israeli task tailored instructions and specifications.

"Israel gets 4th German submarine"

"Advanced submarine handed over to Israel in festive ceremony; new sub is IDF's most expensive weapon. Defense Minister Barak: Vessel will greatly boost army's capabilities"

"Fourth Dolphin submarine starts long journey to Israel . . . the handover of a fourth submarine to Israel's Navy."

"The Tanin ('alligator' in Hebrew) is considered one of the world's most advanced submarines and is the IDF's most expensive. The vessel is expected to reach Israel only in 2013 and dock at the Haifa Port."

"A fifth submarine is currently under construction and will arrive in Israel in 2014. Recently, the German government approved the sale of a sixth submarine, which is expected to arrive in Israel by 2017"

That MOST EXPENSIVE WEAPON IN THE ISRAELI ARSENAL, A $ HALF BILLION PER COPY!

Too, again, carrying, perhaps nuclear weapons, cruise missiles with atomic warheads? This is unclear, given the Israeli ambiguity and announced intention NOT TO BE THE FIRST TO INTRODUCE ATOMIC WEAPONRY INTO THE MIDDLE EAST! So it is said.

Once more thanks to Ynet more articles - - that Israeli submarine force an elite force maintaining a very low profile! At least until NOW!

1. "Doomsday weapon: Israel’s submarines"

"Rare glimpse into Israel’s doomsday weapon – the submarine fleet"

2. "IDF submarine fleet bans dual citizenship"


"Candidates for prestigious unit now required to renounce foreign citizenship; officer: 'This is absurd'"

3. "Israel inks another Dolphin deal"

"Israel, Germany finalize sale of sixth Dolphin-class submarine for $530 million"


"Germany will fund a third of the vessel's cost."


Built in Germany, one-third [1/3] of the cost as borne by the German, these Dolphin class subs if indeed carrying cruise missiles with an atomic warhead further indication that Israel has: "the second or third most powerful military on the planet [Van Creveld]"!

German politicians since the time of Adenauer willing and able to finance Israeli war munitions purchases, primarily done sub rosa, without fanfare and little if any publicity. Armaments direct from German factories of all varieties all preferred for use by Tzahal, the Israeli military.

coolbert.

George.

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Thanks to this obituary in the LA Times from the tip as found originally in the Chicago Tribune we have the story of the American OSS officer in command of the WW2 mission Halyard:

"George Vujnovich dies at 96; leader of daring World War II rescue"

"In 'Operation Halyard,' George Vujnovich guided a team of agents to airlift more than 500 airmen from a makeshift runway carved on a mountaintop in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia."

George an American born OSS officer of Serb ancestry orchestrating the repatriation of downed American airmen during WW2.

An OSS effort greatly aided and abetted by the Chetnik partisan forces of Mihailovich. The Chetniks in the aftermath of the war deemed as "collaborationist", Mihailovich executed after a kangaroo court trial courtesy of the communist leader Tito. Many less senior Chetniks also meeting a grisly and undeserved fate of death!

Indeed the Chetniks portrayed by communist fellow travelers as "collaborationist" and unwilling to fight the German ooccupier.

Such a portrayal ALL A LIE! Halyard, the rescue operation further evidence of such distortions and downright deceitful lies regrettably believed at the time [1945] and to an extent EVEN NOW!

Belatedly so thank you George, Draza [Mahailovich] and all those other Chetniks loyal to the allied fliers and helpful in a way that was not reciprocated post-war!

coolbert.

Jamming.

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 Thanks to the Voice of American and the tip from DEC we have this maddening headline. If true a grave and very malevolently evil violation of international law and ALL protocols regarding international air travel and transport.

"GPS on Airline Flights Out of South Korea Jammed"

"South Korean officials say more than 250 airline flights into and out of the country have experienced GPS signal jamming over the past few days."

"The transport ministry in Seoul says the interference began last Saturday and has affected flights out of the capital's two main airports. It said the affected planes have relied on alternate navigation systems, and that none of the flights was in danger."

"Similar jamming in the past has been traced to North Korea."

This is a deliberate interference with a public transportation vehicle [airplane] during international flights the result of which can result in death! NOT merely a nuisance but can be understood under some circumstances as AN ACT OF WAR not to be tolerated!!

That main corridor for air traffic in/out of Seoul I would have to think VERY CLOSE to the DMZ the North Korean if responsible egregiously causing difficulties that might even result in border violations, a fly-over inadvertent used as a pretext for further hostile actions against civilian air traffic!!

This is serious business and just plain downright EVIL!! Heightened and unwarranted tensions were no such measures are needed or desired. Young'Un stop and do so at once!!

coolbert.

Raiders!

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On three recent occasions American navy SEAL's demonstrating a combat expertise and skill at ranger/commando/special operations missions of the most daring and difficult variety, feats of military prowess perhaps without parallel!

 1. From 2009:

"Navy Kills 3 Pirates, Rescues Ship Captain off Somalia's Coast"

"Kidnapped Captain Freed, Pirates Killed"

"Navy snipers on the fantail of a destroyer shot and killed three Somali pirates in a lifeboat and rescued an American sea captain in a surprise nighttime assault on Easter Sunday, ending a five-day standoff."

SEAL's parachuting from a fixed-wing long-range aircraft into mid-ocean, taken aboard the USS Bainbridge, engaging with sniper rifles Somali pirates and hostage takers, killing three, capturing one, American merchant marine captain safely rescued. Mission accomplished!

2. From only 2012 recently:

"U.S. special forces rescue Somalia aid workers"

"U.S. Special Forces parachuted overnight into Somalia from fixed-wing planes, then advanced on foot to a compound holding two kidnapped international aid workers and freed them"

"The nine gunmen holding the hostages -- were killed, the officials"

The nighttime combat parachute jump, the forced march, the raid on the compound and subsequent gun battle with Somali kidnappers, hostages rescued! Mission accomplished!

3. And of course from one year ago now:

"Obama Announces Killing of Osama bin Laden"

"WASHINGTON —President Obama announced late Sunday that Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, was killed in a firefight during an operation he ordered Sunday inside Pakistan, ending a 10-year manhunt for the world’s most wanted terrorist."

Mission accomplished!! And most gratifyingly so too!

Their reputation preceding them, the American naval ranger/command/special operations SEAL's without qualification ranking among the BEST of all time. Raiders the missions of which historically have only about a fifty percent [50 %] success rate under the most ideal of circumstances the SEAL's seem to accomplish with what appears to be almost casual indifference, NONETHELESS markedly outstanding.

They do themselves proud!!

coolbert.

Latrines & Tarawa.

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 From the Sail Billabong web site we have these items:

 Those American marines during the Second World War [WW2] assaulting the Japanese island stronghold  fortress of Tarawa atoll [Betio island] KNOWING ALMOST PRECISELY THE NUMBER OF ADVERSARIES!

 Aerial photo reconnaissance able to determine with precision the number of latrines as present on the island, Japanese doctrine as to hygienic facilities, number of latrines per troop strength known with exactness. 

"Intelligence had estimated between 2,500 and 3,100 Japanese forces. Interestingly enough these calculations were derived from the number of latrines (toilets) the Japanese had built (the latrines were multi-holed wooden 'buildings' built over the water and clearly visible on aerial photographs). Even more interesting was that the estimated number was remarkable accurate! (The Japanese forces consisted of 2,619 combat troops. However, in addition there were 2,217 labor forces [impressed Koreans])"

 Disposal of human waste in a safe and hygienic manner, excrement, vital to maintaining, especially in the tropics, the health of those present, disease from overcrowding and unsanitary conditions a greater threat and producing more casualties than mortal combat itself!!

Shit, kak, govno, merde, scheisse!

 That Battle of Tarawa intense in the extreme, seventy-two hours of hell on earth, casualties beyond almost measure, of those Japanese defending the island only seventeen taken alive, CAPTIVES SHELL-SHOCKED AND IN SUCH A STUPOR THEY WERE UNABLE TO FURTHER RESIST!!

 [Korean forced [?] laborers also killed in large numbers but willing to surrender if the opportunity made available!!]

 "Only 17 Japanese prisoners (along with 129 Koreans) were captured, another 4,690 estimated dead" [that is total dead, Japanese and Koreans combined!!]

This comment by the Japanese commander of Tarawa NOT so necessarily boastful but considered within the context as envisioned by the Shibasaki:

"Rear Admiral Shibasaki told his troops that the Americans could not take Tarawa with a million men in a hundred years."

Shibasaki making the assumption that Tarawa NOT ONLY defended by organic forces ashore but by a cordon of Japanese naval vessels and aviation assets shore and carrier based both!! Those Japanese defenders at Tarawa NOT alone but having considerable outside forces acting in concert - - the American attacker having to run a gauntlet even prior to arriving on the scene at Betio!!

coolbert.

Economy.

This is coolbert:

From ONLY TODAY this item discussed on the radio talk show airways.

American commercial aviation once again in the cross-hairs of those surviving remnants of Al Qaeda. Terrorists suicide bombers with explosive devices surgically implanted into their bodies escaping all known means of detection able to bring down and airliner with immense and total loss of life. So it is thought this is the intention of Al Qaeda as a means of demonstrating staying-power sans the supreme leader [OBL].

MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, A DISLOCATION AND "CRASHING DOWN" OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY THE GOAL!

AS IT WAS IN THOSE DAYS IMMEDIATELY AFTER 9/11, AS IT IS NOW!!

 "Osama Bin Laden Wanted 9/11 Follow-Up to Doom Economy, Terrorist Says"

"A convicted terrorist said that shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Osama bin Laden told him that the next attack would strike a fatal blow to the American economy."

"In a video testimony played in a New York court Monday, Saajid Badat, who was convicted in London of a December 2001 plot to blow up a U.S.-bound flight with a bomb in his shoes, recounted his meeting with the al Qaeda leader just after the 9/11 attacks."

"'he [bin Laden]  said the American economy is like a chain,' . . . 'If you break one -- one link of the chain, the whole economy will be brought down. So after [the] Sept. 11 attacks, this operation will ruin the aviation industry and in turn the whole economy will come down.'"

It can be reasonably inferred to that in the months prior to 9/11 and the attacks on WTC and the Pentagon MORE THAN A FEW FOLKS KNOW THAT A CALAMITY WAS GOING TO OCCUR, BUT THAT A "CRASH" OF THE AMERICAN STOCK MARKET WAS INEVITABLE!!

Bob Brinker the radio talk show investment guru heard weekends recalling how several months prior to 9/11 receiving a phone call from a person [speaking English with a foreign accent] describing how there was going to be "something big" happen in the next few months that would be fatal for the American stock market.

Stocks in the aviation, travel, hotel, and tourist industry all to decline precipitously in value AND IT KNOWN FOR A FACT THAT ACCOUNTS ESTABLISHED BEFORE 9/11 SELLING "SHORT" STOCKS IN THOSE SECTORS REAPING IMMENSE PROFITS FOR THE HOLDERS, THOSE OWNERS OF THE ACCOUNTS NEVER CLAIMING THEIR MONEY!!

[too many questions would be asked!!]

OBL not entirely wrong about his assumption but not entirely correct either, the American economy too resilient and robust, able to respond to changing conditions in an effective and comparatively fast and quick manner!! This IS SO!

coolbert.