Military Affairs & History

[dodint]

Neat.



Every week for the next 6 years, this youtube channel will cover the events of the second world war in real time.

This first episode: September 1, 1939

[shafnutz05]

That is awesome! Thank you for sharing. I rarely subscribe to YT channels but I'll be following this eagerly.

[tifosi77]

So we're finally watching the Ken Burns Civil War documentary. Three episodes in, the overwhelming impression is that George McLellan was a monumental dope.

Since my main interest involves aviation, I know precious little about military activity pre-WWI. Hit me with recommendations for Civil War reading. (I feel like I may have asked this once before, and didn't follow up on it.)

[dodint]

The standard is very likely Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson.

Despite living and working at a Civil War fort for a while my interest was always Founding Era America so if you want Revolution War recs I have a list of those.

[Freddy Rumsen]

So we're finally watching the Ken Burns Civil War documentary. Three episodes in, the overwhelming impression is that George McLellan was a monumental dope.

Since my main interest involves aviation, I know precious little about military activity pre-WWI. Hit me with recommendations for Civil War reading. (I feel like I may have asked this once before, and didn't follow up on it.)

Shelby Foote's 3-Volume work is required reading, as is James Robertson's monumental bio of Stonewall.

[dodint]

Foner's 'Reconstruction' is also a good start. Or end, really.

[tifosi77]

Shelby Foote's 3-Volume work is required reading, as is James Robertson's monumental bio of Stonewall.

Is Foote the southern historian who is interviewed a lot in the Burns thing? I like that guy, he has a great way of telling the story.

[Freddy Rumsen]

He is. He's also a pretty good novelist so the book is great prose.

[tifosi77]

So we have two more episodes to go, but we just watched the one last night that has Lee's surrender and the setup for the Lincoln assassination. I forget if it was that episode or the one before, but Foote observed that the Union "fought with one arm tied behind its back", and if there were one or two more major defeats early on, they would've come out with full force. Does he expand on that in his books? Because the distinct impression I get from the Burns documentary is that if there were one or two more major defeats early on, that would've been the end of things.

To that point, I'm kinda surprised I don't need a passport to visit NOLA. The early battle history of the conflict was basically "Union generals were useless at armying".

Lee: 52,000 troops
[Random Union general, 1861-1864]: 950,000 troops "Dear Mr President, I cannot hope to press the battle unless you send me 7 million more soldiers."

[Freddy Rumsen]

Well those of us with Southern blood like to play this up a bit, but there is a lot of truth that all the good officers in the United States Army were from the South (for a lot of cultural reasons concerning going into the military) and it just worked out that the vast majority of them went in the Confederate Army.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Having read Jefferson Davis's defense of himself in his work "The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy" I'm convinced more than ever that what kept the South from actually winning the war on the battlefield was the fact they were especially inept in at administration in Richmond. You give the Confederacy competent leadership in actual government and things turn out differently.

[tifosi77]

That and the lack of international recognition did them in. The United States was in no place to win the Revolution until France showed up, and no number of Lees or Stuarts or Jacksons can overcome that.

[Shyster]

The same view is found in Bevin Alexander's book How the South Could Have Won the Civil War: The Fatal Errors That Led to Confederate Defeat. I read it a number of years ago. Alexander is clearly a big fan of Stonewall Jackson, and Jackson apparently advocated for a "scorched earth" campaign against the Union of the type that Sherman would conduct in Georgia and Sheridan would conduct in the Shenandoah Valley. According to the author, Davis and Lee refused to employ such tactics and insisted on more "straight up" fighting, which the Confederacy was not really in a position to do.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Jackson would have burned Chambersburg to the ground.

There is a lot of truth to the old adage, according to James MacPherson, that the South was fighting a 18th Century war in a conflict that was a 20th Century precursor.

[shafnutz05]

Excellent posts in here tonight. Yes, Jefferson Davis was an incredibly inept man. It didn't help that he appointed a succession of poor Secretaries of War.

During the four year duration of the Civil War, you saw a progression from 18th Century marching warfare to Early 20th Century trench warfare. Especially at the Siege of Petersburg towards the end of the war (which was also where the Gatling Gun was introduced).

I highly recommend Confederates in the Attic. It is a fascinating read exploring both Civil War history and the modern obsession with it.

[tifosi77]

Turning things to a more modern bent.

I went to the California Capital Airshow in Sacramento last weekend. Saw an F-35 in person for the first time. It flew. I guess that's a start.

[Freddy Rumsen]

Marine Corps confirming that an F-35B has crashed in South Carolina

https://twitter.com/HopeSeck/status/1045724936466255872

[shafnutz05]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/milita ... ther-f-16/

Yikes.

A Belgian Air Component F-16 fighter was destroyed and a second plane severely damaged after two maintainers accidentally triggered another jet’s Gatling gun. Two other Belgian Air Force personnel on the ground were treated for injuries.

The incident took place at Florennes Air Base in the afternoon of October 11. Two maintainers working on Belgian Air Force F-16AM fighter jet accidentally fired the plane’s M61 20-millimeter, six barreled Gatling gun. The 20-millimeter cannon rounds struck another F-16AM sitting nearby that was fueled up and prepared for flight. The resulting fire and explosion completely destroyed the fighter. A second fighter parked nearby suffered light damage.

[tifosi77]

You know what's neat about that, Shaf? This is the second time in just a few months that a European fighter jet has had an accidental discharge of live ordinance. A Spanish Eurofighter whoopsiedoodled an AMRAAM over Estonia in August, barely 30 miles from the Russian border.

I'm keeping an eye on this story, because there are a number of WTFs at play. What were they doing servicing an aircraft with live ammo in the drum? There's supposed to be a mechanism that safes the cannon when the landing gear is down (which can be overridden), and a backup circuit that flips when weight is actually on the landing gear (which supposedly cannot be overridden). Why were the doing work that could result in an accidental discharge on the flightline? I mean, so many layers of "look what you did".

[shafnutz05]

Back in my Coast Guard days (around 2004-05), a video went viral in military circles. It was a group of Air Force guys at I believe Kunsan making a funny video extolling the miracle that is Gold Bond powder, completely with catchy song and everything. The production value was impressive for some guys on a base in 2004. It was funny as hell at the time, but I recall it created a shtstorm...I heard something about the guys getting Article 15'ed. If you google "Air Force Gold Bond video", there is a fair amount of military/internet folklore about it.

Anyways, I have had the damn song in my head for 13 years, but the video had been completely scrubbed from the Internet...the Air Force continuously got it deleted from every known source on the Internet (lame). Today, I finally found it. Feels good man This brings me back.

For anyone curious:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/r992bokp4 ... Powder.wmv

[DigitalGypsy66]

The Marine Corps. announced this week that two pilots have been banned from flying amid an investigation that they flew a phallic-shaped pattern in Southern California last month.

Maj. Josef Patterson, a Marine spokesman for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, said Tuesday that any discipline for the two aviators will be determined after the investigation, according to ABC News. He also said the pilots will provide support from the ground while they are banned from flying.

“The Marines and Sailors of 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing will perform at the highest levels expected of professional warfighters, and uphold our core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Patterson said in a statement, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Images reportedly showing the flying pattern were posted to Twitter late last month by an aviation enthusiast using flight-tracking software, ABC reported.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... 0BsrBDVoH4

https://twitter.com/AircraftSpots/statu ... 4842875904

[tifosi77]

That happened with a Navy crew out of Whidbey Island a year or so ago.



Difference is the Navy guys were from a fleet squadron. VMFAT-101 is a training squadron.

[dodint]

The Rag?

[tifosi77]

They don't call them RAGs anymore, but yes. They're the Marines' FRS for new Hornet drivers. They use the T-34 Turbo Mentor to hone flying skills without tying up a jet asset.

[dodint]

They may not formally call them Rags anymore but I'd bet you a plate of Skyline the nomenclature is still in use.