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From a piece in the Daily Beast.

The U.S. Air Force’s A-10 is an ugly, low-flying, slow-moving beast of an aircraft known affectionately by the troops as the Warthog. But even as the flying tank gets ready to shred ISIS terrorists to pieces over Iraq and Syria with its massive 30mm cannon—firing depleted uranium shells the size of a Coke bottle—it hides a dark secret: an unrepentant Nazi fighter pilot helped to develop the ungainly warplane.

Engineer Pierre Sprey, a former Pentagon procurement official who helped design the A-10, confirmed to The Daily Beast that none other than legendary Luftwaffe Colonel Hans-Ulrich Rudel was consulted to develop the Warthog.

Aaaaaaaaaaand I’mma stop you right there.

First, by the time Rudel was called in, the plane was being readied for full scale production. You know, that sort of thing that happens after the plane has been developed? How do we know this? Because the very next line in the article tells us so:

“While we were readying the airplane and gun for full scale production, the 30mm gun program manager, Col. Robert Dilger, invited Rudel to lead a symposium in DC attended by several hundred engineers, analysts, tacticians and intel types on all aspects of CAS [close air support] operations in combat,” Sprey told the Daily Beast.

Second… Sprey is not an engineer. His background is in statistics. He’s been riding the coattails of the legendary “Fighter Mafia” for close to forty years now. What he hasn’t been doing is drawing a paycheck to design airplanes. In fact, his real moneymaker these days is royalties from a choir that was sampled by Kanye West.

U.S. soldiers in Hawaii will soon test Rocky Brands’ newest jungle boot, a model that company officials say is more comfortable and provides better protection against booby traps.

Students in the Army’s jungle school will begin wearing Rocky’s Enhanced Jungle Boot in January, said Mark Dean, Rocky’s vice president for commercial military.

It’s the latest test for the Army, which is hoping to select a new jungle boot as it increases its presence in the Pacific. At present, soldiers wear “hot weather” Army combat boots in jungle environments, boots that were phased in to replace Vietnam-era jungle footwear. Officials believe that hot-weather boots breathe better than other Army boots but do not dry or drain as quickly as they require.

via Soldiers to test new jungle boot with booby trap protections | Army Times | armytimes.com.

Can’t we just bring back the old green (and very cheap) jungle boot?

I often encounter senior officers and NCOs who express disappointment in Army brigade commanders who perform poorly while in command and in positions shortly after brigade command. The disappointing behaviors that they describe usually include:

1) Inability to build and employ an executive, multi-function team or build informal alliances beyond their own organization.

2) Misapplication of tactical and direct-leadership solutions to executive, interagency, and strategic problems.

3) Poor interpersonal skills (perhaps merely a variation of #2).

4) Inability to adapt to strategic ambiguity and non-linear organizations.

via Some thoughts on how to improve the selection of brigade commanders.

I like linking Best Defense because I know it drives Esli crazy. But I also try to only link guest columnists.

The author has some interesting ideas on how to improve the selection process.

As noted, today the selection board basically gets a look at the officers file and photo, and judges from that.

As a contrast, when a young Specialist is trying to get promoted to Sergeant, he has to appear, physically, before a board of his battalion’s First Sergeants and Command Sergeant Major.

One issue I’ve had for some time with the Army promotion system is that it is focused on fairness. What’s wrong with that? Well, that means that it is NOT focused on finding the best leaders.  I’m not sure how a large bureaucracy can do that, and certainly the Army should be as fair as possible. I’m open to suggestion.

239 years. Not bad.

Cuts currently planned to the U.S. Army may pose problems as it takes a leading role in security crises emerging around the world, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said the service’s top officer.

Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said he is “starting to worry about our end strength,” a reference to the number of soldiers in the service. The Pentagon said in February that it would cut the Army to between 440,000 and 450,000 troops, its smallest size since before World War II. But “the world is changing in front of us” since those statements were made, Odierno said.

“We have to have a national security debate, because there is too much going on around the world,” he said.

via Top general: U.S. needs to rethink how much it cuts the Army – The Washington Post.

Seriously, this whole article could have been written in 1974, just change the names and places.

100 years ago today, the humble collier USS Jupiter became the first US Navy ship to transit the then new Panama Canal.

Jupiter at Mare Island Navy Yard

The Jupiter would later be converted into the Navy’s first aircraft carrier, and renamed Langly (CV-1). Still later, she would serve as a seaplane tender. She was lost to Japanese attack on February 27, 1942.