‘Splosive Bolts

By lex, on April 23rd, 2011

Still actuating on naval command-at-sea pins:

TRAP

By lex, on March 23rd, 2011

The US Marines embarked aboard an amphibious ready group us a “rapid response planning process”, or R2P2 to prepare for each of the 22 roles and missions that a Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) is expected to be able to accomplish. They can go from warning order to execution using a cookbook process shaped by real-time intel in three hours. Watching the unit leaders go through a confirmation brief with the MEU commander prior to execution is an amazingly detailed experience – the first time.

TALES FROM MY YOUTH: The Adventure of the Green Iguana

When I arrived at Wurtsmith AFB on December 8, 1978, I remember expecting a crack bomber unit embodying steely-eyed discipline, Spanish Inquisition-level devotion to regulations, and a certain sunglasses-silk-scarf-and-grin panache that would indeed tell you that you were an elite, entrusted with the Nation’s Survival In It’s Darkest Hour.

SERE

 By lex, on July 27th, 2010

Meet ARM 1/c Oliver Rasmussen, native of Wisconsin, who lived off the land in Hokkaido, Japan after his plane crashed during an air strike:

Back to the future

Posted by Lex, on March 22nd, 2008

Air Force wants to see coal fuel take off  **

Disaster

Posted August 8th, 2007 by lex

 

I’ve been around long enough to understand that you take what you read in major media with at least a grain of salt, especially if it concerns the military, and most especially if a defense lawyer is a source for the story. But if this tale is even 10% true, you have to wonder who’s driving the bus over in bus driver land.

Operation Neptune

By lex, on June 6th, 2009

Sixty-five years after the fact, I still wonder how they did it.

156,000 US and allied forces crossed the English channel to face 380,000 battle hardened, well-entrenched Axis soldiers that had industriously used two years of relative calm to build reinforced concrete bunkers and overlapping fields of fire. By the end of the day, over 6,000 US servicemen would fall, nearly 1500 of whom would never rise again. And there would be much more hard fighting left to come before the landing force would breakout from the  Normandy beachhead.

The Armorer has much more, including this letter from a grateful French liaison officer serving alongside the 82nd in Afghanistan. The French government has not forgotten either – John “Harry” Kellers returns to France to be recognized as a Chevalier in the Légion d’honneur. His first trip there was as an 18-year old sailor serving a gun on an amphibious landing craft.

Naval forces * played their role both on the on the beaches as well as offshore, according to German Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt:**

The enemy had deployed very strong Naval forces off the shores of the bridgehead. These can be used as quickly mobile, constantly available artillery, at points where they are necessary as defence against our attacks or as support for enemy attacks. During the day their fire is skillfully directed by . . . plane observers, and by advanced ground fire spotters. Because of the high rapid-fire capacity of Naval guns they play an important part in the battle within their range. The movement of tanks by day, in open country, within the range of these naval guns is hardly possible.

The liberation of France started when each, individual man on those landing craft as the ramp came down – each paratroop in his transport when the light turned green – made the individual decision to step off with the only life he had and face the fire.

How did they do it?

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