Military Affairs & History

Postby **Shyster** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 2:43 pm

All I know is one of the Ford-class boats will revive the name Enterprise.

The third one, yes. They haven't named any more than the first three.

If you go to Google maps and zoom in on the Newport News shipyard, I believe the Enterprise and Ford are at adjacent piers—one coming and one going. It looks like eight square holes have been cut in the Big E's deck, which I presume are where the nuclear reactors have or will be removed.

Postby **tifosi77** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 2:54 pm

Drag your Google Earth map thing to the yard at Bremerton, WA.

Postby **BigMck** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 3:45 pm

http://planesoffame.org/index.php

We were at a local farmers market in the IE this past weekend, and buzzing overhead were some vintage planes. Posted near the cash register was the sign for Planes Of Fame, and their upcoming airshow, May 1 & 2.

I figured that I had to register over here to alert the resident military plane fanatic.

Tif, you may see us out there if you make that short hike. There are fresh egg farms, strawberry patches and places to purchase some locally grown vittles.

Postby **Shyster** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 3:50 pm

Drag your Google Earth map thing to the yard at Bremerton, WA.

I've done that a lot already.

I see the four retired carriers (the Constellation and Ranger aren't there any more), the Stennis undergoing maintenance, a couple of boomers (one in dry dock), and a whole bunch of what I think are attack subs waiting for their turn through the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program.

Postby **tifosi77** » Mon Apr 20, 2015 5:09 pm

http://planesoffame.org/index.php

We were at a local farmers market in the IE this past weekend, and buzzing overhead were some vintage planes. Posted near the cash register was the sign for Planes Of Fame, and their upcoming airshow, May 1 & 2.

I figured that I had to register over here to alert the resident military plane fanatic.

Tif, you may see us out there if you make that short hike. There are fresh egg farms, strawberry patches and places to purchase some locally grown vittles.

I've already got my tickets.

It's a fantastic event; they will routinely put 30-40 WWII-era aircraft in the sky. The last few years (before and after sequestration) the show has also had at least one active duty military demo, as well. Last year it was the F-22, this year they have the Raptor and the Canadian CF-18 demo team.

Stoked for the CF-18 team; they fly a slightly more aggressive demo than the Navy does. And every year, they paint their demo jets in a special livery, and this year it is a vintage WWII scheme to commemorate the Battle Of Britain.

Postby **Reveutopique** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 3:57 am

the article says some females passed the enlisted infantry training. being an infantry officer is more about tactics, composure, leadership, and charisma as a difference between them and the enlisted grunts than having more physical strength. I think a female candidate passing a lower standard test could be just as effective as any other, except for one huge problem.

it would be known that the standards were lowered for them, and on top of being female in that pool of Y chromosomes, it would take a hell of a lot for anyone to respect them after passing that way. the ridicule, whether face to face from other officers, or behind barracks doors from the enlisted, would be brutal and probably unstoppable unless they did something extraordinarily heroic.
No offense, but having witnessed the Basic School and done field work in mountain warfare and jungle warfare the bolded and underlined portion I quoted could not be further from the truth. An infantry officer better be twice as better as any of his enlisted men in combat arms and day-to-day life in the field.

As much as the SJW's would like it to be different simple biology prevents females from being effective, long-term frontline combat fighters.

Not to be too crude, but you imagine a female with female hygiene issues living through a month in the Ypres trenches or being pinned down on Tarawa without proper washing facilities?

At the end of the day all of these programs will just further serve to kill morale and make our armed services even more defective than they already are.
I wonder how women survived before tampons when they were traversing across continents with children strapped to their back, needing to protect themselves from the elements, predators, and illness.
Must have been a dodint.

Well, there is a reason why those same trails are full of the graves of women who died from infection and disease which are the result of the lack of preventive hygiene.

Men died as well. I think your point went over me. Please explain.

Postby **Algernon** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 6:26 am

I mean, idk

Modern warfare is different now... There is no trench fighting or any of that bullshit. It's not like you can look back and be like "haha f*xk no could women have taken iwo jima" because the truth is it doesn't really matter, women can be utilized in modern warfare

For those of you that watched generation kill, you really think women can't do that ****? Yeah they can

Besides I don't see what the deal is, if a conventional war does break out against a developed nation it's going to be nuclear winter anyway and a nuclear bomb doesn't really care if you're male or female

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 8:09 am

My experience in the USMC testifies to the foolhardiness of totally ignoring basic biological and muscular structure differences between men and women in the name of "progress" and what one may think things should be rather than what they are.

Postby **dodint** » Tue Apr 21, 2015 11:02 am

We talked about it a while ago in the silly 'thanking veterans' discussion that somehow keeps happening, but the only time I ever had the notion of "They've never served so maybe they should shut the **** up" is when congress is trying to apply some politically correct stance to the military when the vast majority of them have never served a day.

Postby **Kaiser** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:48 am

My experience in the USMC testifies to the foolhardiness of totally ignoring basic biological and muscular structure differences between men and women in the name of "progress" and what one may think things should be rather than what they are.

Are you just going to leave your "experience" as a foreboding mystery for us to accept or are you going to offer an example

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 9:58 am

My experience in the USMC testifies to the foolhardiness of totally ignoring basic biological and muscular structure differences between men and women in the name of "progress" and what one may think things should be rather than what they are.
Are you just going to leave your "experience" as a foreboding mystery for us to accept or are you going to offer an example

One example from Jungle Warfare training in Okinawa. We had a squad of 8 Marines, 6 male and 2 female. (I was not in combat arms, so that is how females were in our squad for training). One of the exercises in that training had us take a 15 mile hump in about 100 degree jungle heat with about 80 lbs of gear, including a .30 cal machine gun, with its accouterments. The platoon commander made one of the females carry the .30 cal. By mile 6 I was carrying the .30 cal. By mile 10 both females had to be evacuated due to exhaustion

.

Now imagine this scenario under fire or under the constant threat of engagement.

Postby **Kaiser** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:55 am

Well if they were also non combat, they don't really have any bearing on a female who is actually trying to be infantry. Any RadBn male who signed up for the college money could equally crap his pants or be too small to carry a machine gun.

Postby **tifosi77** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:00 am

Yeah, I didn't serve but I've heard plenty of stories about dudes embarrassing themselves on a march.

That said, I still can't get the grenade thing out of my head.

Postby **tifosi77** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:02 pm

This is going to make dodint's head explode.......... the Marines are developing a midget AT-AT.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:33 pm

Awesome

Postby **dodint** » Wed Apr 22, 2015 11:06 pm

Source of the post This is going to make dodint's head explode.......... the Marines are developing a midget AT-AT.

I prefer their rolling robot that swims.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 1:31 am

Huh, not the slightest bit gummed up because the Corps is developing something based on Star Wars tech?

Postby **dodint** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:49 pm

I legit didn't get the reference. I really haven't seen the movies. In fact, I read it as "Ack-Ack". Sorry.

Not sorry.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:50 pm

Postby **Shyster** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 6:58 pm

This is going to make dodint's head explode.......... the Marines are developing a midget AT-AT.

I wonder how many actual mules you could buy with the cost of one of those robo-mules. I mean, sure, a real mule is probably more vulnerable to small-arms fire, but if you could buy a thousand of them for the cost of one robot, it strikes me that bringing back the "mule skinner" role might make more sense.

A Google search reveals that the US Army deactivated its last two operational mule units at Ft. Carson, Colorado, on February 15, 1957. Mules were used in Korea and were used by the 10th Mountain Division fighting in Italy in WWII.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:00 pm

My Great-Grandfather was a mule skinner in WWI.

He was from eastern Colorado and they just assumed he knew how to take care of mules.

He didn't.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 7:53 pm

I know this is a real military thread and all, but can we talk about how unfeasible it is to have a huge tank on elevated legs? It's just vulnerable to anything happening to it on the battlefield. It's supposed to be a troop transport, fine, but you lose hydraulics and the thing can't "squat" down to deploy troops. So then the hapless stormtroopers have to fast rope down, which isn't optimal. I wish they'd thought about these things first.

The AT-AT is the coolest vehicle in the trilogy, btw.

Postby **dodint** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:04 pm

Source of the post This is going to make dodint's head explode

Now I'm there.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 8:06 pm

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:48 pm

Watching a documentary on Netflix called "World War I From Above"

simply epic in scale. Highly Recommend.