XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Monday Morning Linkage

So, a little birdie passed along this quiz of great commanders of history. I did pretty  well on the Civil War and World War II stuff (and more recent stuff, of course) but wow, do I suck at ancient history. No, I’m not telling you my score. —– Most armies, if you desert in wartime,…

So, a little birdie passed along this quiz of great commanders of history. I did pretty  well on the Civil War and World War II stuff (and more recent stuff, of course) but wow, do I suck at ancient history.

No, I’m not telling you my score.

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Most armies, if you desert in wartime, you get lined up against a wall and shot. Ours? Not so much. This dirtbag faces a max of five years, and likely will get less than that.

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The Army is starting to look at future helicopter programs. I have to say, using a two-ship technology demonstrator to neck down to one production program of record isn’t exactly giving me a warm fuzzy. Since that was the methodology that brought us the F-35 JSF program.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with using competing technology demonstrators. The problem came when the program treated a technology demonstrator as a prototype for an actual combat aircraft. Neither JSF demonstrator was fundamentally incapable of being developed. Both teams should have been invited to compete for the actual JSF contract. But necking down at the technology demonstrator phase, intended to spare the expense of developing two fighters, left the government with only one design, in effect, a monopoly. And we’ve seen how well that worked out.

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US Navy bound and determined to prove that you don’t need ships to have a navy.

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NTP

th

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TAH has a bunch of stuff on phony soldiers. What I find even more depressing is when a former soldier, one with a perfectly respectable career, feels the need to puff up his credentials. Keith Keeton has a pretty reasonable collection of the usual awards and accomplishments.

So why is he lying his ass off?

I think the bravest thing I ever did in the Army was to take the last donut when the 1SG was reaching for it.

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  1. SFC Dunlap (Ret.) 173RVN

    Both this soldier (if she deserves to be so addressed), and her piece of s _ _ t husband are hereby qualified for my new forced sterilization program. For the Army side I saw the handwriting on the wall when enlistee’s who were discipline issue soldiers were BCD’d, or General Discharged out of the Army instead of being made to finish their enlistment as permanent s _ _ t detail team member. Soldier’s in the old days had to go to an entity known as CTF (Correctional Training Facility) which instead of being in the stockade were, well, trained and rehabilitated (hopefully). Gender parity may be served as well as overall discipline & order perhaps if this soldier were tied to a post and given the Slovak (as in Eddie), treatment. While the Slovak case MAY have had some inconsistencies, this soldiers case is clear cut. This crap REALLY chaps my hide!!! It gets me more because I served my time (plus a year as a Airborne Infantryman in RVN) and I have a step-brother who after signing up with the Navy (in the 60’s) when he found out as an corpsman he was going to be assigned to the Marines in Viet-Nam went underground in a commune in Tennessee and came out under the Carter Pardon. In later years this “O2 thief” tried to convince me that an airliner did not hit the Pentagon on 911. Oh yeah this really gets my blood boiling. Oh yeah biggest irony is that my step dad, a member of the Greatest Generation having served on an LST during WWII as a LT. advised his son the whole way. Sorry gentlemen, and thank-you….I needed to do that.

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  2. Steve

    But if they decommission a ship, they can always recommission it if needed, right? Save money this year, bring it back when the cash is available?

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  3. xbradtc

    Our Navy’s recent history says no.

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  4. themavf14d

    NTP is a PZL.23 Karaś

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  5. Casey Tompkins

    Sergeant, did the CTF exist back when conscription was still in practice? One needs stronger forms of enforcement when dealing with involuntary soldiers. As for “problem soldiers” today, why should the Army waste time, money, and resources keeping them around? Fire ’em, and good riddance. Charge back all bonuses or other extra bennies extended as offer of employment.

    With respect to Slovik, the schmuck didn’t do anything that literally thousands others did during WW2, and he had the honesty to turn himself in, and tell command that he wasn’t going to fight any more. The only reason they executed him was “pour encourage les autres.”

    Slovik was, in fact, the only soldier to be executed for desertion by the Army since the Civil War. It is self-evidently not part of our military culture.

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  6. Quartermaster

    If you can think of something more recent, then correct me.

    I don’t think anything like that has been done since several DEs were repurposed as DERs back in the 60s. Wright, and old CVE was turned into an amphib command ship, but was long gone by the time I went in. A couple of the DERs were still around.

    I can’t think of anything else that was decommed, then brought back later.

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  7. Quartermaster

    I scored 51 of 100. If I could spell, I would have gotten an 82. My bad.

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  8. xbradtc

    Wright was originally a CVL, not a CVE.

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  9. roamingfirehydrant

    I scored 45, and I am not ashamed of that.

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  10. scottthebadger

    I got 34, because of spelling.

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  11. ultimaratioregis

    And missed some easy ones. Stirling Bridge, not Stamford Bridge. Pulaski, not Kosciuszco. And Saladin.

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