XBradTC

Badly.

As GEN Eisenhower stood on the beaches of Normandy, he was joined by his son John, recently graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point. Observing the streams of hundreds upon hundreds of trucks being disgorged bumper to bumper over the assault beaches, 2nd Lieutenant Eisenhower mentioned “If you didn’t have air superiority, you’d never get away with stacking those trucks so closely together.

Eisenhower the elder turned and replies “If we didn’t have air superiority, we wouldn’t be here at all.”

Air superiority is, after all, the ultimate high ground. And while air power alone cannot win a war, it can impose frightening punishment on those foolish enough to present a tempting target.

https://twitter.com/SecAF23/status/748853998359158784

More here.

WASHINGTON (AFNS) —
The Air Force introduced the first of 21 fully built HH-60G Pave Hawk Operational Loss Replacement (OLR) helicopters June 28 at a ceremony in Huntsville, Alabama.

The HH-60G is used to conduct combat search and rescue operations. The OLR program will restore the service’s HH-60G fleet to its authorized size, replacing aircraft lost in nearly 15 years of deployed combat operations since 9/11.

The Air Force acquired 21 UH-60Ls and added a comprehensive kit of modifications and additional equipment to convert them into HH-60Gs. The service ensured the baseline helicopters they received from the Army were well-maintained, structurally sound aircraft with no systemic maintenance problems.

via www.af.mil

Finally, the Air Force does something smart.

The HH-60G fleet is very old, and very tired.

Now, the UH-60L fleet is used (the current production model has been the UH-60M for some years now) but not nearly as old as the original G fleet.

The smart thing for the Air Force to do would be to simply expand this buy, and acquire more UH-60Ls, and replace their ancient UH-1N fleet. The Army would be more than willing to transfer used UH-60Ls while buying new UH-60Ms.

But of course, that makes too much sense.

The whistles blew, and Tommy went over the top. The British Fourth Army, comprised mostly of “Pals Battalions” and Kitchener’s New Army Men, launched what had been intended to be a supporting attack for the decisive French offensive.

But because French divisions had bled away in the defense of Verdun, the supporting British attack had instead become the main effort. And rather than being a decisive offensive, the attack was now limited to easing German pressure on the Russians.

The Battle of the Somme would last for 141 days.

On the first day alone, the British Army suffered 57, 470 casualties, including an astonishing 19,240 dead.

Exeter July 1st 2016.
‘19240 Shrouds of the Somme.
Opens 07.30.’ The exact time 100 yrs. ago the Battle commenced – the number represents how many died in the first few hours of the Battle.

It’s 26 pages long, but if you just skim the footnotes, it’s a quick read.

My editorial guidance for the co-authors here has always been the same- 1. No nudity; 2. Do not advocate for the armed overthrow of the US government.

Those rules apply to you to, gentle reader. But having said that, I would like to hear your thoughts on the possibility, and ways and means. And if not a coup by the military, is there another segment of the government that might be capable of such a thing?

Via Military Times:

Any day now the Pentagon is expected to unveil new rules for transgender troops, ending the longstanding policy that deems them medically unfit for military service.

Many service members and advocates are eager to see the new policy’s details and how the Defense Department plans to tackle an array of potentially thorny issues as it’s rolled out across the force. Here are five key items to watch for:

Not mentioned- how any of this will in any way increase readiness or improve unit cohesion or performance.

The Ash Carter era of Defense has been one of profound social engineering with little thought to the actual impact on the capabilities of the armed services. Instead, it has mostly consisted of the worst sorts of virtue signaling to fringe constituencies of the Democratic party for political purposes.

Seriously, the DoD is spending scads of money to erase “man” from various job titles in the Navy and Marine Corps.

We’re eventually going to get into a fight with a near peer power, and get our asses kicked because we’re worried about diversity and inclusion, and they’re worried about how to kill us.

Via the Marine Corps Times:

Spain-based Marines trying to respond to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, were delayed for three hours as U.S. government officials debated whether they should wear their uniforms and carry weapons, according to Tuesday’s report from the House Benghazi Committee.

The platoon commander of a fleet anti-terrorism security team, which can be dispatched to embassies and consulates in times of crises, told the committee that his Marines changed into and out of their uniforms four times on the plane before taking off for Libya, the report states.

Here’s kind of a radical thought- Marines are lawful combatants of a uniformed service, and that there was a question at all whether they should be dispatched in uniform, and armed with their weapons is an indictment of the State Department’s fundamental inability to grasp reality.

By the way, Patrick Kennedy is one of those names that keeps cropping up in disasters.

Could the FAST team have reached Benghazi in time to influence the outcome of events there?  I don’t know. But how on earth was there any question about how they should be dressed and armed. They’re Marines, not Rent-A-Cops.