5333 private links
Before the likes of the cancel culture rewrite the history of the Vietnam War, it is important to remember that US and South Vietnamese forces won virtually every major battle during the war, including the 1968 Tet Offensive, which wiped out the Viet Cong as an effective fighting force, but which the pro-Communist Walter Cronkite (and others) spun as a “strategic American defeat” to American television audiences. An excellent discussion of how Tet was falsely spun by the North Vietnamese Communists and their sycophants in the American media and anti-war movement (which was possibly the most successful information operation in history) can be found here entitled “Tet Declassified.” That Communist info op convinced Americans that the war was lost, which led to the “Vietnamization” of the war effort, to the Paris Peace Accords, to the American withdrawal from Vietnam, and ultimately to Operation Frequent Wind.
Why was the war lost? A tragedy of bad decisions and strategic errors. That the US evolved ridiculous Rules of Engagement but no mission success criteria doomed the American effort to failure. Body counts, aircraft sorties and bombs dropped, artillery rounds fired, etc. The US “counterinsurgency strategy” was completely wrong, given the overwhelming military superiority of the US versus the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong. And LBJ’s management of the war effort from the Oval Office severely constrained commanders in the field. Allowing unfettered access by the American news media to unit-level operations was a strategic mistake, which led to the likes of Cronkite falsely spinning the reality on the ground to Americans watching the “television war.”
By 1971 or 1972, the war was essentially won in South Vietnam, and after the Christmas bombing of Hanoi in December of 1972, North Vietnam’s will to continue had been broken. However, it was the Democrat majority in the US Congress who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and who deliberately forfeited the war after all US forces were withdrawn for US political reasons, as well as suspended military aid to the South Vietnamese. That latter perfidious act was the coup de grâce. Funny how nobody mentions that these days as the DC Democrats push their Communist agenda down our throats. Some things never change. //
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/tet-offensive-halted
https://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-terrible-truth-about-walter-cronkite/
several Chinese companies use network numbering systems that resemble the U.S. military’s IP addresses in their internal systems, Madory said. By announcing the address space through Global Resource Systems, that could cause some of that information to be routed to systems controlled by the U.S. military.
Recall that strategic competition is largely about generating disruption. Broadly speaking, disruption typically happens in two ways. At one end is innovation, which military leadership has been endlessly calling for. This is reflected in the surge of research and development funding to explore promising new technology that takes many years to mature and manifest (if ever). At the other end is adaption, where users of equipment find new ways to use combinations of what is available. Where the former is slow, bureaucratic, and well-funded, the latter is exactly the opposite. //
Adaption, not innovation, is the compelling variable in rapidly linking emergent strategies with deliberate strategies in strategic competition. Operators live in a world where the hope of innovation is not an option — we go to war with what we have. We adapt by embracing industriousness, ingenuity, and creativity to generate advantages on the battlefield and in the sky — we call this being tactical. Applying this mentality strategically would get the Air Force off the beaten path to find more rapid and disruptive ways to economically compete. Stop thinking about the F-15EX as a fighter and start viewing it as an adaptable platform. //
Though the F-15 airframe was designed to be solely an air superiority fighter, it has been used to shoot down satellites, fly to 100,000 feet, manually pilot rocket-powered precision bombs onto targets before GPS, employ stealth cruise missiles, shoot over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles, simultaneously employ multiple 5,000 lb. bunker busters, and fly 800 miles per hour just 100 feet above the ground, at night, in the weather — on autopilot. It’s even been turned into a thrust vectoring Mach 2 NASA flight test vehicle capable of taking off at just 42 mph and landing on less than 1,700 feet of runway. None of these uses were a product of the F-15’s original capabilities. Rather, they came from adaption, which was in turn built off knowledge gained from hundreds of thousands of flight hours and decades of flight science research with a platform with enabling attributes. //
Finally, for perspective on adaption, look at the venerable B-52 Stratofortress. When it entered service in 1952, no one could have imagined a bomber would be used to shoot nuclear cruise missiles, deliver stand-off precision-guided naval mines, put satellites into orbit, launch a Mach 9 hypersonic vehicle, or serve as a flight test bed for NASA. Thanks to its sheer mass and rugged design, it can accommodate the size, weight, and power considerations of emerging technology and will remain relevant for 100 years of operations — stealth not required. If you think this sounds a lot like F-15EX, you’re right. //
Updating a common phrase that originated from an airpower zealot a century ago: Flexibility, agility, and versatility are the key to airpower.
Israel's F-15 "Baz" fleet is specially modified and appears to fly with an eclectic mix of air-to-air weaponry while patrolling the homeland. //
The story of Israel's F-15A-D Eagles is a very different one than that of their American counterparts. Early on, the IAF adapted their most capable air superiority fighter into a long-range strike platform. Since then, the service has continued to morph the Baz fleet into something that's all its own. Today, these are truly multi-role aircraft and they are treated as prizes by the IAF even many decades after the type first entered service. You can read all about the Baz fleet's fascinating past in this previous feature of mine. In fact, the IAF continues to get second-hand, well-used examples from the United States and carefully rebuilds them and deeply upgrades them into indispensable national assets, some of which get loaded with the best networking capabilities the force has to offer.
https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-amazing-saga-of-how-israel-turned-its-f-15s-into-mu-1701606283
USS Michael Murphy strutted into San Diego Bay in style flying the biggest American Flag we have ever seen on a U.S. Navy surface combatant.
Tom Cotton Creates Inspiring Message Explaining Why the Flag Is Backward on Military Uniforms
By Brandon Morse | Feb 26, 2021 3:30 PM ET
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool
If you’ve ever wondered why the American flag patch is backward on military uniforms, then Sen. Tom Cotton has the explanation, and once you hear it, its symbolism will inspire you.
As Cotton explained during his CPAC speech, the reason the patch is backward has everything to do with what the flag looks like to our military while it’s charging forward.
“It goes back to the days of cavalry charges,” said Cotton. “When our soldiers would charge into battle the flag would fly in the wind and if you’re on the right side of the formation (and the flag is worn on the right shoulder) it would appear backwards.”
“So our soldiers wear that flag backwards on their uniform still today to remind everyone that our army always advances, it never retreats,” said Cotton.
”And I think that’s a pretty good lesson for us today,” said Cotton. “When America is under assault and conservatives are under attack we will never retreat. We will never surrender, and we will always defend and protect the United States of America.”
Benny
@bennyjohnson
MILITARY SOURCE IN DC:
“For the last week my battalion has been sleeping on the floor in the Senate cafeteria. Today the Senate kicked us out & moved us to a cold parking garage.
5000 soldiers.
1 power outlet.
One bathroom.
This is how Joe Biden’s America treats solders.”
@politico
Thousands of National Guardsmen were forced to vacate congressional grounds today and are now taking their rest breaks outside and in nearby parking garages, after two weeks of sleepless nights protecting the nation’s capital
https://politico.com/news/2021/01/2
Ben Domenech
@bdomenech
So did the powers that be really just use the national guard as a photo op show of strength only to shove them out onto parking garage concrete on a 38 degree night?
8:16 PM · Jan 21, 2021
The 1998 movie “Saving Private Ryan” is one of the all-time great war movies. While much of the movie is a fictional account, the premise behind Capt. Miller’s mission is based on a true story. That is the story of the Niland brothers — Edward, Preston, Robert, and Frederick — from Tonawanda, New York.
The two middle brothers inspiring the “Private Ryan” film, Preston and Robert, had enlisted prior to the beginning of the War. After America entered the war the oldest, Edward, and youngest, Frederick, known as Fritz to his friends, joined up in November 1942. //
When the War Department received word of the tragedy orders were dispatched to return Fritz Niland to the United States. That task fell to the regimental Chaplin, Father Francis Sampson. Sampson located Fritz, who had been searching for his brother in the 82nd and began to paperwork to send him home.
Returning to the United States in 1944, Fritz served for the remainder of the war as an MP in New York.
The mysterious sixth-generation plane came to life in just one year. This breakthrough tech helps explain how. //
- The Air Force has created an “e-Series” designation for digitally designed aircraft.
- The Air Force's secret new fighter jet, which it designed, built, and flew in just one year, is the second e-Plane, following the eT-7A Red Hawk.
- The sixth-generation e-Plane is adopting Formula 1-style practices.
Dr. Will Roper is the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.
Our clunky, Cold War-era process of defense procurement is in need of a major refresh. While it still produces world-leading military systems, its escalating timelines and cost are unsustainable byproducts. The stark contrast with commercial industry warns the U.S. military may have peaked, unless we find a better way—soon.
Right on cue, then, here comes digital engineering, a new commercial technology that’s lending a legitimate art form to military weapons-buying with revolutionary, even stylish results. (Yes, we just used “art form” and “weapons-buying” in the same sentence.)
Two of the historic SR-71 Blackbird hangars that once lined Beale Air Force's Base's main apron are still standing today.
The National Academies report links high-power microwaves to impacts on people through the Frey effect. The human head acts as a receiving antenna for microwaves in the low gigahertz frequency range. Pulses of microwaves in these frequencies can cause people to hear sounds, which is one of the symptoms reported by the affected U.S. personnel. Other symptoms Havana syndrome sufferers have reported include headaches, nausea, hearing loss, lightheadedness and cognitive issues.
The future of the United States depends on our ability to meet the military challenges coming from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran in this turbulent 21st century.
According to The Heritage Foundation’s recently published 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength, the U.S. military is only marginally able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.
The different adaptations of the B-70 included recon planes, tankers, transports, and even motherships to launch hypersonic vehicles and spacecraft. //
The Air Force's supersonic B-70 Valkyrie bomber, designed and built by North American Aviation, already holds a place of great prominence in discussions about advanced military aircraft that never made it into service and what might have happened if they did. //
Air Force Material Command's (AFMC) History Office released the document, titled NAA B-70 Valkyrie Variants: A Future That Never Was..., on Nov. 23, 2020. This office regularly publishes works that provide a more in-depth look at past advanced aviation developments and other historical topics.
Piloted by team pilot Maj. Josh “Cabo” Gunderson, the Raptor streaks into the air and performs some of the team’s signature moves:
The government’s case for dismissal of MIDN Standage’s lawsuit rests almost solely on “unlimited discretion” and exhaustion of administrative remedies. As MIDN Standage’s attorney Jeff McFadden pointed out, the government completely failed to rebut any of the facts supporting the First Amendment claim and focused almost entirely on why the case should not be heard. The judge focused at length on the exhaustion issue and said she needed more time to analyze the issue further.
. It is USNA leadership that has willfully ignored the President’s cease-and-desist order on critical race theory training (CRT) in the federal government and in fact has arbitrarily exploited the racial division that CRT creates to separate MIDN Standage from the Navy via the APCS adjudication sham. //
This is the very definition of a sham legal process – and this is exactly what MIDN Standage was forced to endure. MIDN Standage, with the Sword of Damocles figuratively hanging over his head, was required to organize and conduct his own defense while USNA leadership was supported by a full staff including multiple JAG officers. And now the government has an Assistant United States Attorney representing them at the district court!
At Saturday’s Temple game, the team was not on the field for the playing of the national anthem (the rest of the Brigade was in the stands). When they did come out afterward, the team knelt before an American flag before getting ready for the kickoff. It might be standard operating practice for footballers at civilian schools to execute the “Kaepernick Kneel” while dissing the flag as the virtue-signaling price of entry into the NFL these days, but the Navy football team, all of whom are ostensibly in training to serve their country as naval officers? In my opinion, that’s a REAL “honor violation” that should result in separation. And it turns out that the team hasn’t been on the field for the national anthem for any of the prior three games, either.
The “Cancel Culture” is not only destroying America’s cultural history and institutions; it is destroying the lives of people, too. The Marxist Black Lives Matter seeks to demolish 250 years of American exceptionalism by exploiting white guilt for the sins of their fathers and pressing for destructive institutional changes throughout America. Their demand “defund the police” is but one example of their insane sloganeering. They are also hard at work institutionalizing the implementation of Marxist “critical race theory” training in all federal agencies, including the US military.
Of particular personal interest to me has been learning about and exposing efforts at the US Naval Academy to implement “critical race theory” precepts throughout the Brigade of Midshipmen, as I previously detailed in this article by quoting directly from an internal email to staff sent by the USNA superintendent himself, VADM Sean Buck, USN, just days after the Office of Manpower and Budgeting signed out a memorandum directing all federal agencies to end critical race theory training.
As despicable as that email was, I was unprepared to learn that the wrath of the USNA cancel culture – which includes USNA leadership – has targeted a first-class midshipman (a senior, for you civilians) for termination for making comments from his Twitter account that were alleged to be racist,
The Boeing E-6 Mercury is used by the Government of the United States to pass on instructions to its fleet of nuclear-powered submarines patrolling around the world. //
As a part of Operation Looking Glass, which is today called “Airborne Command Post” (ABNCP) – the aircraft are used to provide instructions to America’s nuclear forces should ground-based operations or command centers be destroyed or inoperable.
The United States Navy has a fleet of 16 E-6s and has typically at least one of them in the air at all times. It is also not uncommon to see two or three in the air at the same time. However, what was strange this time was that they had their transponders turned on to let people know they were out there rather than wanting to remain dark.
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster wants you to know he has not written the book you probably wanted to read — and he says it right up front.
"This is not the book that most people wanted me to write ... a tell-all about my experience in the White House to confirm their opinions of Donald Trump," the author warns in his preface.
That might have been "lucrative," he says, but it would not be "useful or satisfactory for most readers."
McMaster, who served as national security adviser to President Trump from March 2017 to April 2018, has instead written a book that he hopes "might help transcend the vitriol of partisan political discourse and help readers understand better the most significant challenges to security, freedom and prosperity."