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Tanker Boots
Reader Samuel Suggs in the previous post about 120mm ammunition has a sharp eye:
This is an off topic and possibly stupid question but: why does the soldier in second photo have buckles on his boots?
One of the things about the Army that I liked was that for a “uniform” service, there was considerable scope for individuality. From the way one wore their patrol cap, the how they bloused their trousers into their boots, there was a surprising array of styles and techniques. From the outside, to civilians, troops look mostly indistinguishable. But as an insider, you could tell a lot about a troop by his sense of style.
And then there are those traditions among the various arms and services. Perhaps best known is the Cavalry’s attachment to Stetsons and spurs. There was also the famous “jump boots” which, by the time I was in, was authorized, and indeed pretty much expected of every troop to have pair for ceremonial use.
But tankers too have their own institution- the tanker boot. For many years, armor crewmen have had either tacit or explicit permission to wear boots using straps and buckles in lieu of the more traditional laces.
Back when the Army wore black leather boots.
Current tan rough side out version.
As far as I know, their adoption by armor crewman has never been universal (after all, the Army will issue lace up boots, but tanker boots came out of your own pocket).
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Dawlish Chronicles : One Submarine, Two Flags and Two Heroes
Two spectacular cases of submarines penetrating enemy anchorages are well known to naval-history enthusiasts. The first was when the Royal Navy’s E14, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Edward Boyle VC, surfaced in the Golden Horn, in the heart of Istanbul, in May 1915. This followed penetration of the heavily-mined Dardanelles, and was part of a successful campaign against Turkish shipping. The second instance was when Germany’s U-47, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Gunter Prien, found her way through the defences of the Royal Navy’s protected anchorage at Scapa Flow in 1939 and sank the battleship Royal Oak at anchor there.
via Dawlish Chronicles : One Submarine, Two Flags and Two Heroes.
Read on and find out the connection to my all time favorite movie.
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120 MM ammo
We’ve mentioned before, in the very early days of the blog, the difference between HEAT rounds and Sabot. The M256 120mm main gun of the M1A2 Abrams tank uses semi-combustible ammunition.
Here’s a cutaway image of a HEAT round.
And here’s the base stubs left after firing, taken from inside the turret of an M1.
You need a couple of inches of length on the stub in order to provide a good seal at the breechblock of the gun.
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Bring The HEAT Podcast
OK, I got the (most of) the technology figgered out. And a quick call with Spill actually generated some real content.
You can stream it here.
Or you can download the mp3 here.
(Right click and chose “Save Link As”)
If there’s sufficient interest, we’ll look at iTunes and Stitcher as well.
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Help a buddy out.
You folks mostly know how conservative I am, with some libertarian leanings.
Friend of the blog Michelle Ray (on Twitter as @GaltsGirl ) is a staunch ideological ally. She’s also a nice lady. And Obamacare has caused her to lose her previously sufficient health care coverage. And now faced with the need for gall bladder surgery, she’s turned to GoFundMe as a way to help pay for it.
In addition to being a fund to help me finally get the gallbladder surgery I need, this is also a bit of an experiment in peer-to-peer lending.
I have suffered gallstones since 2000, but in the last year, my attacks have become more frequent. If you’ve never had a gallstone, let me assure you that giving birth to four kids was less painful.
I have every intention of PAYING BACK donors.
My options are these:Have surgery and ditch the bill. – I f you know me, you know that isn’t happening.
Continue to save until I can afford surgery. This will mean at least one more year, assuming no other emergency expenses.
Or, try this.
Donors *WILL* be paid back (please add email to comments so I can reach you! ) as quickly as possible.
If you aren’t interested in being paid back, I have friends willing to donate goods and services in thanks to you.
If you cannot donate, thank you for reading and your prayers are greatly appreciated.
Please consider helping her out.
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Snort’s Famous Fly-by: The Rest of the Story
One of the more iconic pictures of the mighty Grumman F-14 Tomcat is of CDR Dale “Snort” Snodgrass making a knife edge pass along the port side of the USS America in 1988.
Here’s the story of the man who took the photo ABE3 Sean Dunn. Be sure to visit the page, as he has a lot more pictures.
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We Can’t Always Count On Smart Bombs: CSBA « Breaking Defense – Defense industry news, analysis and commentary
Washington’s gotten used to war on easy mode. Policymakers may debate the strategic value of air campaigns in places like Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, but they assume the smart bombs will hit their targets. One bomb, one target, one boom.
That assumption is no longer safe, says a new study from the influential Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. (CSBA gave us a copy in advance). Countermeasures are growing more sophisticated and more common. Advanced anti-aircraft missiles can snipe a single smart bomb out of the sky, let alone the US aircraft carrying it. Jammers can scramble radar and GPS. Lasers and high-powered microwaves are becoming practical weapons against incoming missiles. So the smart bomb won’t always get through.
Worse, as the odds of any single weapon hitting go down, the number of weapons required to assure a hit goes up exponentially, say CSBA authors Mark Gunzinger and Bryan Clark. If the enemy can’t stop your weapons, you need to send just one to have 95 percent confidence of hitting any given target. But if the enemy can stop a significant fraction of your smart bombs, say 20 percent, you need to send two to achieve that same 95 percent confidence. If your weapons have only a 50-50 chance, you need to send five. Against a major adversary, like Iran or (in the nightmare scenario) China, we might run out of weapons well before we run out of targets.
Of course, Tom Clancy was writing about this in 1994’s Debt of Honor. And it has been a real issue for some time now.
Of course, in any air campaign against a near peer, the first step wil be to disintegrate any integrated air defenses. Once that has been done, the odds of any given weapon being successful go right back up.
And while a shortage of smart weapons in any conflict is a real issue, don’t forget that it is a two way sword. The enemy can’t afford to shoot down every single HARM or JSOW or MALD thrown its way.
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Happy Birthday, George Orwell
Somewhat belatedly. Born Eric Arthur Blair, in India, on June 25th, 1903.
It is hardly the man’s fault that his seminal work, written as a chilling dystopian warning regarding the destruction of liberty, has become an instruction manual for the far-Left “Liberal” Secular-Progressive Statists who now hold the levers of power in our once-great Republic.
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.”
“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.”
“They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening.”
If you refuse to agree that 2 + 2 = 5, you are racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-child, and probably watch Fox News.
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Check out @charlescwcooke’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/charlescwcooke/status/614107873186942976?s=09
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Council considers ban on backing into driveways | News – Home
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. –
Soon you might be breaking the law if you back your car into your own driveway.
As part of the effort to get rid of abandoned cars contributing to blight, some City Council members are looking at how license plates are displayed while vehicles are parked in front of homes.
A proposal being considered says that if inspectors can’t see a vehicle’s tag from the road, the owner could be cited. That means vehicles wouldn’t be allowed to be covered up in a driveway, either.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said homeowner Dave Bryant, who said he always backs into his driveway. “The main reason I do it is people parallel park on the side of the street, so if you are backing out, you can’t see traffic coming.”
via Council considers ban on backing into driveways | News – Home.
One way or another the leviathan state will criminalize you.
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