Category: Guardians Of Freedom

Stories of courage and heroism; acknowledgment of the debt we owe

A real no-shitter of an AAR

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STRONG message follows.

Some of you Afghan Veterans out there are hurting, trying to make sense of what this all means. Including some of my peers, who are not immune to the feel bads coming out of this clusterfuck. So allow me to give you a different perspective, one that will perhaps sooth the pain a bit. I shoot straight, and this isn’t all sunshine and roses. There is going to be some Grim Dark up front. But it does have a silver lining, hear me out.

Was this a foolish mission to start with? Yes. The only way to decisively win in Afghanistan was full scale genocide, which we knew from about 2003 forward. We don’t have the stomach for that, and that is probably a good thing.

Nah, not so much. All’s we ever had to do—ever SHOULD have done—is hew closely to LeMay’s Maxim, a man who very much knew whereof he spoke when it came to waging war: If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting.

Did we lose? Yeah, goddamn right we lost. Let’s just get that out of the way now, like ripping off a band aid. Do not get out the “ We were winning when I left” hats and slap a Ghan flag on them. Face the facts, and then act. If the goal 20 years ago was to remove the Taliban, and now the Taliban is back 100% in control without even requiring a name change, then the objective was not met.

Is it your fault? No. The failure here, while stunning, rests on the political class and the Generals. So like I said, the political class. Who, exactly, do you think lost this war? You, out slogging the mountains, and mowing down Taliban fighters with a machine gun, and surviving on fish sticks and MRE crackers at the firebase, and winning EVERY tactical level engagement for 20 years? Or the spineless General who didn’t hear a gun shot despite 9 tours, who was the architect of the grand strategy, and spent his time quite literally getting his dick sucked by his biographer in his office at Bagram instead of trying to win?

We can safely say at this point that the real goal in Afghanistan was a transfer of wealth from the tax payers to the MIC ( Military Industrial Complex) and the politicians they bought with the profits. $88 billion dollars ( for the ANA alone) is a staggering figure. For that much money, you could have paid half of Afghanistan to kill the other half. You could have paid China or India or even Pakistan to do it for you. That money was wasted, and we all knew that well over a decade ago.

Afghanistan should never have been anything except a punitive expedition. We should have left in 2004, 2006, 2007, or ten minutes after Osama Bin Laden died. Any one of those would have been a leave with honor type situation. Instead, we opted to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and look like incompetent boobs to the entire planet. I should say, our Generals and Politicians opted for that. Almost like that was the goal………

The idea of spending 2.2 trillion dollars to “export our way of life” to cavemen is retarded, and anyone with an ounce of sense knows that. I often said that giving the Ghans a Jeffersonian Democracy was a fool’s errand, since we could barely keep one functioning ourselves. Post Nov 4th, 2020, we know that “barely functioning” wasn’t true either. The idea of the US Government fighting corruption is laughable in our own country. So no shit we laundered 2.2 trillion into bribes and fake projects, what did you think was going to happen?

How many Company Grade Officers were relieved of command or run up on charges over 20 years? A lot. Hundreds, if not thousands. How many Generals faced the same fate, or resigned in disgrace over their incompetence? None. Stan McCrystal resigned for saying not nice things about Obumer to a Rolling Stone reporter, but that doesn’t count. In fact, perhaps it is telling that General JSOC himself was played in such a manner. If ole Stanley is too much of a fucking idiot not to effectively give his enemy kryptonite and ask him nice not to use it, what does that say about the rest of the Officer Caste? For that matter, how many children did the CEO of Ratheyon or Boeing or Lockheed Martin lose to the meat grinder?

Yeah, it hurts. I feel you. We all lost friends. Had our brothers return home mangled and broken. Was it worth it? No. But those are sunk costs, so we might as well look at what we gained from the experience.

He goes on to list a few of those silver-lining items before laying down some 24-karat-gold, capital-t Truth:

We lost this war the minute Code Pink was taken seriously. The minute Bradly Manning and Bo Berghdale weren’t hung. The first time we charged one of our warfighters with murder or using excessive force. The first time we denied a element in contact air support. Our people, 49% of them at least, are weak and stupid. The great sifting has just begun, and it will get worse. That is the price you pay for allowing weakness to take root in your society.

All of us, I promise, will be needed once again. And soon. And not in some Bureaucrat, Blue Blood , Skull and Bones created debacle on the edge of the Empire. I mean needed as in needed like the Spartans at Thermopylae. The weakness on display right now by the Government of the United States will not go unnoticed by the world at large. We can expect now to be poked in the chest, because we have shown that we will take it.

Seems to me it ain’t really the rest of the world that we need to be concerning ourselves with now. As I keep saying, the war has been brought home to us, right to our very doorsteps. The primary threat to American liberty, American prosperity and security, and Americans themselves, no longer comes from enemies abroad. As in the classic old horror-movie line: The calls are coming from inside the house.

(Via WRSA)

6

Departures

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I’m gonna have to postpone my examination of the TSM piece mentioned below, having unexpectedly run across another one at WRSA that led me to…well, first, we have this obit and remembrance for a legendary Naval aviator:

We wake to the sad news that Snort (Capt Dale Snodgrass, USN-RET, callsign “Snort”—M) died in a crash yesterday. I was honored to interview him in 2000, but it wasn’t our first encounter.

In 1985, I was there in the crowd as a teenager when he awed us all in the Tomcat at the Pratt & Whitney airshow in East Hartford. I have chills this morning thinking of the chills I had then, watching the Tomcat in formation with the other Grumman cats, and I do believe it was a missing man formation.

RIP, Snort. Thank you for taking the phone call from a young writer with no credentials, but who was thrilled beyond words to interview the legend.

I imagine so. Follows, a repost of his 2010 interview with CAPT Snodgrass, which runs below one of the most famed photos of Tomcat derring-do ever captured, which I cannot possibly resist running here.

You can practically hear those jet-jock sized Big Brass Ones all a-clank just looking at that pic. On to the interview.

If you’ve researched information on the F-14, it is pretty likely that the name Dale Snodgrass has appeared somewhere in what you’ve read. “Snort” is virtual legend in the Tomcat community, and with more than 4,800 hours in the F-14, he is the most experienced Tomcat pilot in the world. Over a 26-year career in Naval Aviation, he had moved from being the first student pilot to trap an F-14 on a carrier to commanding the US Navy’s entire fleet of Tomcats as the Commander of Fighter Wing Atlantic. Now retired, Snort is on the airshow circuit, flying a wide range of aircraft, from the F4U and P-51 to the F-86, MiG-15, and MiG-17.

The accolades for Snort’s flying are long and distinguished…twelve operational Fighter Squadron/Wing tours, including command of Fighter Squadron 33 during Desert Storm, the Navy’s “Fighter Pilot of the Year” in 1985, Grumman Aerospace’s “Topcat of the Year” for 1986, a US Navy Tomcat Flight Demonstration Pilot from 1985-1997, and numerous decorations for combat and peacetime flight.

This is all good stuff, well worth reading in full if you’re any kind of military-aviation guy at all. But then we get to the part that stopped me COLD and made my eyes bug out comically.

What was your most tense moment in the 26 years?

From a combat perspective, it was when I had a flameout over Iraq while executing a last ditch surface-to-air missile defense. I was leading a night Fighter Sweep in support of an A-6 strike on a power plant on the north side of Baghdad.

As I said, the story of Snodgrass’ close encounter with an Iraqi SAM, which caused a flameout that in turn brought on a 15k-foot altitude drop, leading to an attempted air-start of the dead engine whilst flying through the middle of a thick triple-A barrage, is all good, gripping stuff for sure. But what slammed me betwixt the orbs was the part I bolded in the last line. Because see, I happen to know a little something myself about that A-6 strike he mentioned. In order to explain it, though, we’re going to need to make a little side-trip here, to another obit from 2015.

Reggie Parks Carpenter, 51, Captain, United States Navy, died from sudden cardiac arrest in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on February 3, 2015. Captain Carpenter, from Cherryville, North Carolina, graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications. He was commissioned an officer in the Navy via the Aviation Officer Candidate School, and received his aviator “Wings of Gold” in 1987. Captain Carpenter, also known as “Regbo” to fellow aviators, bravely served in the defense of the United States for 29 years.

He flew tactical missions in three jet aircraft, in four operational squadrons, and over six aircraft carrier-based deployments, including one as an exchange pilot with the French Navy.

A graduate of the U.S. Naval War College with a Masters in National Security and Strategic Studies, the personal highlight of Captain Carpenter’s career was his tour as commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron EIGHTY THREE (VFA-83), an F/A-18C Hornet squadron at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, VA. His final tours of duty, which he also enjoyed immensely, were in military diplomacy. He served as Naval Attaché to France, from 2007 to 2011, and to Argentina, from 2012 to 2015.

Captain Carpenter was a highly decorated naval aviator who earned many awards and medals during his career, including the Distinguished Flying Cross. A devoted, loving husband and father, he was also a kind, passionate man with quick wit and boundless zest for life. Captain Carpenter is survived by his wife, Suzanne, and daughters, Avery and Caroline; mother, Barbara Cannon; sister, Kelly Stewart; brother-in-law, Bob Stewart; and many loving friends and colleagues from all over the world.

A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, 2015, at Vienna Presbyterian Church, 124 Park St. NE, Vienna, VA. Interment with full military honors will take place at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 24, 2015, at Arlington National Cemetery.

You CF Lifers might begin to see where all this is going, I bet. For the shavetails, nuggets, and noobs, this oughta help clear things up.

The CF community suffered a serious loss yesterday, although most of you might not know about it. My “cousin”, Captain Reggie Carpenter, USN, died suddenly in Buenos Aires, where he was serving as naval attache, capping off a distinguished three-decade career as a naval aviator and diplomat.

He wasn’t really my cousin; he was actually my first cousin’s cousin, but his family and mine had been tightly intertwined for our whole lives; our fathers, uncles, and other kinfolk were all close friends from childhood, and the subsequent generations have all retained a sort of extended-family relationship ever since.

Those of you who have been around these parts a good while may remember him as “Regbo,” his flyboy call sign, or simply as “Cuz.” He did a fair bit of writing for the site back in its early years under those handles; he preferred the anonymity of them, for obvious reasons.

Y’all also might remember a post I did years ago from NAS Oceana, where the band had gone to play Reggie’s change of command party at the O-club there. He was taking over Rampager squadron, VFA 83, after having served as XO of the Sunliners. We didn’t get paid for the gig, or at least not in money; we got paid with twenty minutes apiece in the F/A-18 simulators instead. Which just made it one of the most richly remunerative shows I ever did. Hell, just hanging out at the O-club, meeting and hearing the sea stories of these “casual American heroes” as Reg called them, was payment aplenty.

He was a damned fine pilot, flying the A6 Intruder in the first sorties of the first Gulf War, then F14s, then Super Etendards off the Foch for a year as part of the officer-exchange program with the French. He graduated to the Hornet after that, and stayed in ’em for the remainder of his career. He was invited to join the Blue Angels and even toured with them awhile while he considered the offer; he eventually decided against it, and went to the War College instead. Back in his college days he got one of the highest scores ever on the Navy’s Pilot Aptitude test, and just moved on ever upwards from there.

Reg had a heart attack either on his way to or shortly after arriving at work yesterday morning in Buenos Aires (the family is still waiting for details on that); he’d just returned from an African safari with his beloved family. He was due to retire next spring; in fact, the last conversation I had with him was shortly before he left for the Africa trip. He asked if I wanted to attend his retirement party, and I assured him I did. We were talking about maybe having the band play for the festivities, in fact, and I was looking forward to seeing him again. He was 52, which is way too damned young to lose a guy like him. Hard to believe he’s gone so quick. He’ll be missed by all who knew him.

Rest easy, Reg, until we meet on the other side to pick some guitar and talk fighters and politics again. Your whole family was extremely proud of you, as well they might be, and your friends were glad and grateful to know you. Much love to you and your family, brother.

That, of course, is part of the obit I wrote for Reg right here at CF, which includes a photo of him leaning nonchalantly against his own personal F/A-18 that I took at NAS-JAX during a post-gig visit we paid him there once.

So here’s the payoff: that aforementioned A-6 strike over Baghdad on opening night of Desert Storm? Well, guess who else was out there along with Snort Snodgrass? Yep, you got it: none other than one Reggie “Regbo” Carpenter, that’s who.

Reg later sent a somewhat illicit cockpit video home to his (also my) Uncle Gene from that eventful night, along with a letter detailing a harrowing misadventure when his Intruder was struck by lightning (!!!) on the way back to the carrier, knocking out every electronic gee-gaw and instrument save for the gyrocompass. After being asked by the Midway’s comm shack if he wanted to attempt a trap on the carrier deck—sans all instruments and lights, at night, in a storm, no less—Reg opted for what’s known as “the better part of valor” and diverted to the airbase at Riyadh instead, where he landed his damaged aircraft without further trouble.

And that concludes tonight’s amazing tale of serendipitous coinkydink. You really just never know what you’re going to run across out there on the Innarnuts, do ya?

Men like Reg and Snodgrass are a breed apart for sure—capable men, courageous men, dauntless men, men without an ounce of give-up in ’em. Men whose vocabulary assuredly does NOT include discouraging words like “can’t” or “impossible.” As I so often say around here, we need all of such men we can get, and will never have enough of them. RIP, CAPT Snodgrass, and farewell. You too, Reggie.

3

Sink, sank, sunk

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Tell me the one about “the most powerful military in the WORLD” again, Daddy. That one’s my favorite.

The other day, WRSA linked to a recent great read by Cdr Salamander, who’s probably known to Pentagon brassholes as Cdr. Cassandra, on just exactly how f**ked up the US Navy has gotten.

Before you head over to RTWT (which you should do), hydrate.

Because you’re either going to cry a river, or be vinegar-pissing mad, either of which is going to take a full tank.

He ain’t just whistling Dixie about that, either; the post opens with a jawdropping pic featuring what looks to me like a rusted-all-to-fuck-and-gone superstructure/bridge from a USN destroyer or perhaps heavy cruiser, just before the breakers turn the poor neglected thing into razor blades…and a CIWS* mount with its gun-muzzles rusted also! I swear to you, I can think of five or six former sailors and Marines in my personal circle of family and close friends who would jump at the chance to come out of retirement and deal out some old-school NCO justice to everyone responsible for such a shameful dereliction of duty.

TL;DR:

The Navy sucks ass right now, because going back to 2009 (perspicacious readers may note a specific change of administration that correlates with that timespan), all flag- and general-rank promotions were run through a filter of pre-woke communist civilian and military zampolits. Only ass-kissing toadies need apply. The current can’t-sail-can’t-shoot-can’t fly-can’t-fight genderfluid diversity Navy is how that plan worked out.

GIGO.

In short, when the only admirals the Squids promote are ass-kissing back-stabbing four-star fuck-ups, the entire Navy takes it in the neck. And. It. HAS.

You can’t even blame this on the blue-haired transgender enlisted, because the fault was letting them up the gangplank in the first place; everything else is just gravity working, plus time, and salt water. Both literal, and metaphorical.

There’s a simple cure, in about three parts. Sadly, Cdr Salmander’s once-wonderful comments seem to have gone away (we can guess why), so we offer our cure here.

Follows, Aesop’s simple three-step solution for unfucking the Navy—all of which identify and address the underlying issues correctly, would almost certainly work a treat, and which therefore have absolutely zero chance of being implemented. In sum:

Do that, and you’ll have the ass-kicking world-beating US Navy last seen about 1990, if not 1945, by Christmas. 

Re-enlistment will hit 100%, and we’ll have the fleet we paid for. And certain countries thinking they’re the New Big Dog will be in for a rude awakening.

Do it not, and we may as well de-fund the Navy, and to save further time and effort, just send everyone in the U.S. free copies of Rosetta Stone Mandarin and Cantonese.

Some may think I’m too harsh on the sister service. On the contrary, a functional Navy is vital for US interests. Speaking as a former Marine, for naval gunfire support and amphibious transport, just for openers. Let alone the basic missions of carrier force projection, maintaining freedom of the seas by the surface fleet, and control of the shipping lanes and nuclear deterrence by the Silent Service.

We currently – and going back a decade and more – have a Navy full of Squids and Shitbirds. Starting at the E-ring in the Pentagon. Those at the bottom of the totem pole are that way precisely because of those at the top, whether by active sabotage, foolish encouragement, spineless apathy, or malign neglect and dereliction of duty. Period. Complicity should become a hanging-from-the-yardarm offense.

We need, and deserve, a Navy of sailors. History teaches harsh lessons to nations who fail to provide for their own defense, and we’re dangerously close to the shoals of learning that lesson, in a Pearl Harbor sort of way. Hoping it doesn’t happen is not a good plan.

Rather more drastic measures, just shy of actual guillotines, are needed. In haste.

Oh, I dunno now, let’s not be too hasty about ruling things out here. Myself, I’m very interested in your guillotine idea, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Like I said, good, practical ideas all, with less than the proverbial snowballs chance of ever seeing the light of day in the Navy as currently constituted. What we have here is an endless Swamp circle-jerk: the necessary reform and rejuvenation of the Navy will require that its misbegotten, politicized, and self-serving higher-officer class be reformed first. That, in turn, can’t happen unless and until the civilian “leadership” is also reformed, top to bottom. And that means removing and replacing the sleazy, corrupt DC ProPol class which is ultimately responsible for the decline and decrepitude of not only the US military but the whole damned country…which reform, thanks to their accumulation of near-limitless power, can now be accomplished in but a single, radical, and distasteful way.

Link to CDR Salamander’s post, which you should also read, here, and to the report itself here.

*Close-In Weapons System, an either missile- or gun-based perimeter defense system in use on just about all of the larger USN ship classes to defend against enemy missile and/or aircraft attack. The one in Aesop’s pic looks to be the Phalanx, which is built around the venerable, trusty old Vulcan B61 20mm autocannon—a tried-and-true workhorse of a Gatling gun that was originally developed for the USAF in 1959, mounted in a multiplicity of aircraft ranging from the F4 Phantom, to the F111 Aardvark, to the F16 and -18, to the stupidly-abandoned F22 Raptor

With rust in the fucking barrels. Lord help us all.

See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya

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Unexpectedly, inadvertently, and for the first and only time in his entire useless existence, senile alleged “President” Grampy Fingerbang has done the right thing.

Good Riddance, Afghanistan
merican forces are finally departing Afghanistan. While Donald Trump had promised to end the inconclusive war there, he eventually gave in to the pleas of the defense and intelligence community and continued the war. Other than a few dozen more dead Americans, and a few more hundreds of billions of dollars up in smoke, it’s not clear what these additional years of effort achieved. Now Joe Biden has finally acknowledged the political and military reality: if we haven’t lost, we certainly are not winning or making any progress.

One of the most remarkable things about the last few weeks is how utterly brittle the Afghan security forces and government have turned out to be. After billions of dollars spent on training, equipment, and support, the Afghan National Army is abandoning large bases, along with state-of-the-art guns, optics, and military equipment. These are now in the hands of the Taliban. For all the talk of our Afghan partners and their heroic national commitment to democracy, none of it turned out to be worth much when the training wheels were taken away.

It is not even clear if the American-supported Afghan government will last as long as the Soviet supported regime, which held on for three years after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

While it is clearly time to leave, it is worth thinking for a moment about why the entire Afghanistan mission, particularly after 2002, was a fool’s errand.

The mission became distorted over time. After 9/11, Americans wanted revenge. That mission was a simple one: punish the Taliban, destroy al-Qaeda, and capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Within a month of the attacks, our troops were in the field.

The campaign featured a novel operational approach. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted to show the military that it needed to learn to do more with less. His concept of “transformation” limited troop numbers, a feature of what was called the “Revolution in Military Affairs.” This theory proposed that the combined effects of high-speed communications, sophisticated sensors, and precision air power, would succeed where the traditional military’s risk-averse, heavy footprint would fail.

At first it seemed Rumsfeld and the revolutionaries were right. Very quickly, the Taliban melted away under pressure from American special forces, the Afghan Northern Alliance, and a fusillade of precision guided bombs in the months after 9/11.

But the first hint of trouble appeared soon thereafter. In the Battle of Tora Bora and later in Operation Anaconda, the Army’s lack of artillery (on Rusmfeld’s order) and the lack of sufficient blocking troops allowed the lion’s share of al-Qaeda, including Bin Laden, to slip away and obtain refuge in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas. He wouldn’t be killed for another decade.

Unable to use our forces in our nominal ally’s territory, the United States and NATO emphasized the secondary aspects of the mission. They got to work on “nation building.” Political and military leaders defended this approach as enlightened realism, because al-Qaeda flourished at the extremes, in either weak states or politically repressive ones. Developing governing institutions and security forces, while expanding human rights to women and minorities, would create enduring stability and reverse the conditions in which al-Qaeda previously thrived.

This was an ambitious strategy, made twice as hard by the artificially low levels of troops. It became even more challenging after the start of the Iraq venture, which put Afghanistan on the backburner until the 2009 surge. Afghanistan is a famously violent and tribal place, where disparate tribes only unite under the banner of Islam to expel foreign invaders. The American concepts of democracy and liberalism were a message that worked at cross purposes to our efforts to obtain legitimacy and security. After all, these changes slowed down the decision-making of the Afghan government, while also alienating many Afghans, Taliban or not.

The biggest mistake we made in Afghanistan was presuming we had to turn the Middle East into an American-style democracy in order to have peace. We presumed we had to rectify the root causes in order to maintain national security. The same scenario played out in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. In all of these cases, our efforts did not increase our security or enhance stability, and sometimes made things worse.

More limited and realistic options were available, including the old fashioned punitive raid. Wrecking a place sends a message too, a message of deterrence. Because we viewed it as our duty to lift up the Afghans—strange people with whom we have no historical or other connections—and because no one wanted to admit the flawed foundations of the war, we ended up there for 20 years, long after most of al-Qaeda had decamped for Pakistan.

Even accepting the strategic premise, it’s not clear that anything we did enhanced stability or reduced international terrorism. Afghanistan has been in a state of civil war since our arrival. ISIS also materialized in the meantime. Al-Qaeda is still around. And attacks within the United States by immigrants and home-grown Islamic terrorists have continued the entire time.

By trying to do too much, we accomplished too little. The U.S. military is perfectly capable of bombing, killing, and capturing people. But, even with the help of its second army of contractors and do-gooder NGOs, the United States is not particularly good at nation building. We are no longer the America of the Marshall Plan, and the people of Afghanistan are not the same as Germans, Japanese, or even Iraqis for that matter.

To turn disorder into order is a difficult thing. Democracy is probably not the best tool for doing it. Historically, liberal democracy is normally an end stage form of government, not a foundational one. Moreover, our entire approach does little to account for the strict Islam of the Afghan people and their pre-Islamic tribalism. This comprehensive religion, coupled with this cultural inheritance, is not fertile soil for a democracy, let alone a liberal one.

Leaving Afghanistan does not diminish the bravery of our soldiers, the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks, or the need to avenge those deaths and remain vigilant against terror threats.

But we are neither avenging nor remaining vigilant in Afghanistan today. Since 2002 or so, we have been going in circles against a local resistance to our presence. Any temporary gains soon evaporate, as we lack sufficient troops to hold what we have cleared, and the Afghan security forces are woefully inadequate to consolidate the gains. The overall connection of any of this activity to U.S. security is minimal.

Our feckless, thoroughly politicized general-officer corps turned the Graveyard of Empires into the Playground of the Ruling Class, their own private test-bed for weapons systems, surveillance technology, and tactical doctrine. The experiments and aimless fiddle-fucking around cost too many good soldiers their lives, shattering morale and unit cohesion without producing anything of notable use. American troops trained to kick ass and take names were forced to bleed and die under preposterous ROEs that put them at severe hazard while granting every advantage to a savage and deadly foe.

From early on, it became all too clear that Afghanistan was to be an open-ended campaign in which victory would remain undefined, unpursued, and beyond reach, the ultimate outcome a foregone conclusion. The Playground should have been shut down years ago. The hapless Biden deserves no credit for it whatsoever, but I’m glad to see this unholy mess finally grinding to a halt, however ignoble and humiliating a one it might be. The FUSA—its “leaders,” its subjects, and its military—bears a moral obligation to not even dream of launching another war of any kind or magnitude until the multifarious issues raised by its Afghanistan dumpster fire have been properly addressed.

3

Dawn of the Jet Age

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Col Bunny gives us a steer to something truly great, for anybody who is as fervent a pursuit/fighter/intercepter aircraft junkie as I am.

A Fighter Pilot’s Airplane

Ooooh, I like where this is going.

On December 18, 1950, an F-86 Sabrejet in its first combat over Korea shot clown a Russian-built MiG-15. The North American jet which, at the time, held the official world speed record of 670.951 miles an hour, was the best air-superiority fighter possessed by the free world during that period.

We can certainly be thankful that we had this machine in our inventory, for we would have fared rather badly trying to fight MiG-15s with F-51s, F-80s, and F-84s.

However, by way of contrast, today’s F-104 Starfighter (this piece is from 1960; more on the Starfighter anon—M) is the only airplane in history that has simultaneously held all three official world’s records—speed, altitude, and rate of climb. We have, in other words, come some distance since the day of the Sabre. I will here attempt to analyze the aircraft concerned from a fighter pilot’s viewpoint.

Much has been written and said in comparing the performance capabilities of the F-86 and the MiG-15. Certainly most fighter pilots felt that the MiG was a higher-performance airplane above 30,000 feet. Only in the latter stages of the Korean War, when we received the F-86F, could we raise this altitude factor to 35,000 feet.

However, this increase in ceiling was offset by the fact that when we did receive the F model, most of our initial contacts with the MiG were above 40,000 feet. To say the least, it was both highly impressive and yet extremely depressing to see a MiG pilot loop his aircraft at 51,000 when we could barely stay in the air at that altitude. I am certainly not trying to downgrade the fighting qualities of the F-86; it had many advantages over the MiG—in fire control, range, diving ability, and ruggedness—all of them vitally important in the business of shooting down airplanes.

It must have; by the admittedly disputed numbers, Saber pilots shot down 200 of them, possibly quite a lot more.

The Sabre was certainly a credit to its designers and manufacturers, but the fact remains, the MiG could outperform the F-86 at any altitude, except in a dive, and was a better fighting machine at the higher altitudes. The answer, of course, to our huge success over the MiG lay in the aggressiveness, discipline, training, and leadership of the USAF fighter pilot. We’ve all heard the phrase “guts will take the place of skill” in fighter combat. This is true. Nevertheless, superior aircraft performance can take the place of both. If you can fly higher and faster than your opponent and want to get the job done badly enough, then you’re going to win.

The original fire-control system of the F-86 was one of our greatest deficiencies. We had a World War II gunsight and World War II guns. Hitting a MiG at angles off of more than fifteen degrees and range of 1,300 feet was nearly impossible with the short firing time available in high-speed jet combat. Our primary advantage was the high rate of fire of the .50-caliber gun, even though the destructive power of our ammunition could not compare, projectile for projectile, with the 37-mm and 23-mm cannon shell of the enemy.

The later acquisition of the radar gunsight in the F-86 was probably the greatest single improvement of the airplane during the Korean War. Expert gunners such as Lt. Col. Vermont Garrison and Maj. Manuel J. Fernandez could hit a MiG at 3,000 feet and high angles off with the radar gunsight, and the shooting problem was also considerably lessened for the more inexperienced pilot.

If I remember correctly, and I may not, the F86-D variant was the first with the big, honking radome in the nose that said gunsight worked in concert with. More on that anon, too.

As in the ease of Spitfires during the Battle of Britain, F86s were fighting against heavy odds in Korea. Approximately 800 MiGs were based in Manchuria and China. The Soviet Union had supplied China with more sweptwing fighters than the United States had even produced. It was common to encounter 150 or more MiG-15s twice a day against no more than thirty-two Sabres. The 4th Fighter Wing, with a World War II record of 1,016½ enemy aircraft destroyed, had fought steadily rising odds, eventually reaching as high as ten to one. When the 51st Fighter Wing converted to the F-86, these odds dropped to seven to one.

I’ve always considered the Saber to be one of the most gorgeous fighters ever made…right up to the D variant, which was butt-ugly because of that radome. No surprise, since both were designed and built by the same company responsible for my eternal favorite, the P51 Mustang: North American. And since this is where the purty pitchers come in and I don’t want to drag down page-load times for those of you who, incomprehensibly and inexcusably, have no interest in these matters, I’ll do y’all the courtesy of tucking the rest below the fold.

Continue reading “Dawn of the Jet Age” →

1

MONSTER ON THE LOOSE

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Further deets on soon-to-be-legendary Belgian NCO Jürgen Conings.

Facebook has shut down a page gathering support for Jürgen Conings, the heavily armed extremist soldier who has been on the run for more than a week in Belgium.

The “Als 1 achter Jürgen”, or “all as 1 behind Jürgen”, page was taken down by the social media platform on Tuesday after receiving the support of some 50,000 people in less than a week.

“We removed this group because it violated our policy regarding dangerous individuals and organisations,” said a Facebook spokesman.

The Belgian authorities are worried about the level of support for Corporal Conings, after three marches and vigils over the last four days for the anti-lockdown, far-right elite soldier.

Vice-Admiral Michel Hofman, Belgium’s commander-in-chief, has written to all his country’s military warning there is no room for ideologies “fundamentally contrary to the values that we defend and the oath we have taken”.

“I regret that Conings is portrayed by some as a victim, resistance fighter or hero. He certainly is not,” he said.

Speak for yourself, pal. He certainly is to me. And quite a few others as well, looks like.

Conings is on the run armed with a handgun and an FN P90 sub-machinegun, used by special forces for close defensive combat and designed to pierce bullet-proof armour.

During his flight last week, he abandoned four anti-tank rocket launchers in his car, which is thought to have been booby trapped with hand grenades.

Note ye well that Conings has been uniformly described as “heavily armed” in all of the few reports The Power has deigned to allow so far. Clearly, the Gatekeepers haven’t the slightest idea of what a P90 is.

FNP90-shorty.jpeg

Cute little bugger, ain’t she? That long, skinny rectangle laying front-to-rear up top is the magazine, in case you aren’t familiar with this unique little subgun. I had the pleasure of shooting one when they first came out over here, brought to the Knob Creek Shoot by a FN rep. It was pretty neat, definitely. But it noway nohow qualifies as “heavily armed” if this is all Conings is carrying. Which, given what we already know about Enemedia’s integrity and competence, I kinda doubt. Neat as it is, any sniper would know better than to go out a-hunting packing only that little bit of heat along. Why, it would be like launching an insurrection in the very heart of Mordor On The Potomac and forgetting to bring any guns.

More glad tidings; bear in mind, though, that all this stuff is a cpl-three weeks old.

“The judicial investigation shows that the man has prepared all this,” explains Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld). “He has been preparing for his action for days, and it turns out that he was effectively close to a target on Monday evening and stayed there for more than two hours,” it said. Several reliable sources confirm to VTM Nieuws that Jürgen Conings was seen that evening at the house of virologist Marc Van Ranst.

“Days.” Uh huh.

Investigation into Conings’ car, which was found Tuesday in the forest in Dilsen-Stokkem, has revealed a “suspicious mechanism”, the prosecution said. “We are still awaiting the technical report from the DOVO service on its possible elaboration,” he says. “The car was booby-tramped, with war ammunition on board, with the intention of making victims,” says Van Quickenborne. “This is indeed a very dangerous man.”

The sweeping started on Thursday afternoon after a display of power by the police and the army, which were numerous. About 400 Belgian troops were deployed, 150 of which from Defense and 250 from the police. The various police services and army units searched a perimeter of no less than 20 kilometers in circumference. Meter per meter. Foreign troops were also massively present in Limburg, in addition to Belgian units of DOVO and special forces.

The suspect Jürgen Conings (46) is a professional soldier from Dilsen-Stokkem who is active in the barracks of Leopoldsburg and earlier in that of Peutie. He was already on the radar of OCAD as a far right, in the category “potentially violent extremist”. The military intelligence service ADIV would also have been aware of his sympathies. Conings also received a disciplinary sentence from the defense for his right-wing extremist ideology. In the meantime, the public prosecutor’s office has also issued an investigation report.

The professional soldier’s curriculum vitae shows that he is a sniper with years of combat experience in a war zone. He was there on missions in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. The man is a welder by training and also works in the army repair department. As a member of the pre-deployment training cell in Leopoldsburg, he prepares soldiers for a foreign assignment. In that capacity, he also had access to the ammunition depot.

A source at Defense sums it up: “He’s one of those people you don’t want to be an enemy.”

And yet your government, in its impervious arrogance, did exactly that anyway.

Another thing I’m enjoying is how, in addition to insisting that he NOT be regarded as a hero—which, I repeat, I damned sure do—is the branding of Conings as a “terrorist” instead. Guess all those Lefty EUroweenies forgot about their own favored-when-convenient view that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” eh?

Tonight’s Tune Damage is pretty much a no-brainer, I think.



1

Real-world application of a properly-aligned sense of duty

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What it looks like.

Now, onto one piece of news that I got that’s fallen by the wayside as of late. Jürgen Conings in Belgium. Now, if you haven’t heard about him, let me getcha up to speed. Jürgen Conings is a Career Corporal Belgian Special Forces type. 30 years IRL Wartime shooter experience. Sniper, all around badass. About 5 weeks ago, the whole “We’re locking you down for COVID again” was announced for Belgium AGAIN, well, he didn’t take too kindly to that and was like “The fuck you are you bullshitin’ motherfuckers!” at which point he went down, drew a metric fuckton of ‘goodies’ from the Arms room, as well as live ammo, and left a note on his bunk saying “I’m not locked in with you, you’re locked in here with me!” and left a target list of people who he was planning on perforating.

That was 5 weeks ago.

Now, I’m still friends with a former wife of one of my best friends. She’s a German Cutie who married my home boy back in the day, and after the divorce, she and I stayed friends cos he was in the wrong and a dick. She remarried a German Airborne GSG-9 type. Seems that this part hasn’t got much play but there’s a missing squad of German Troops that is running around loose too.

The word I got is that the Belgians have problems with their troops being willing to go after their now-wanted former comrade in arms. A natural position IMO. So, when it started being apparent that the Politicos were starting to feel like lunch meat and getting a might nervous about the rumbling among the troops and even high-higher, they called the EU. That’s the European Union assholes in Brussels. According to the word I got, the Belgies, well, they sorta-kinda agree about the new lockdown, and think the politicos ARE playing fuck-fuck games. So the politicos no longer trust their own troops. So they went to the EU, who went to NATO, who pulled a Squad of German Shooters to hunt this guy down. Much like the Brits did in the colonies… don’t want to go after ‘your own’? Bring in the Hessians. Kraut mercs pretty much. That made everyone happy.

Until the German Squad disappeared.

No one knows what happened. The main fear is they went rogue as well.

The KSK, (that’s the actual German SF kids) The ‘Kommando Spezialkräfte’ is run through supposedly with ‘right wing politics’ and been under a lot of investigations for Nazi bullshit. They’ve been getting fucked with unmercifully by their own politicians, to the point now that this squad vanished?

So it’s either out of a movie, and Belgian dude took out these guys like Rambo took out the sheriffs department in the first movie 

OR

The German KSK squaddies rolled out into the woods, found dude, yelled “Was ist Los Kameraden? We brought the beer!” and are now planning to do dreadful and evil things to the politicians all around.

Any bets it’s option #2?
That’s my take.  Keep fucking around, you’ll find out.

HARD

Go get ’em, brothers, and Godspeed to you all.

I gotta tell ya, folks: if this turns out to be at all accurate—and I pray that it is—it’s beyond doubt the most momentous and heartening news to come down the pike in living memory. If the world is ever to be brought back from the precipice of total disaster to which our political “leaders” have dragged us and put back to rights again, this is exactly how it starts.

5

Life in a Red Army

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Any patriotic American interested in a career in the US military damned well better reconsider. Any patriotic American already in should get the hell out, by any conceivable means.

EXCLUSIVE: Biden’s Military Puts West Point Cadets in Solitary Confinement If They Refuse COVID Vaccine
Military cadets at West Point Academy who refuse to take one of the controversial COVID vaccines are being put in solitary confinement, with more stringent restrictions than those who tested positive for the virus.

At West Point Military Academy, a number of cadets are currently rebelling against the push from the Biden administration and military higher-ups to take one of the controversial COVID-19 vaccines. 700 cadets who initially refused the vaccine were brought together into a meeting room, and were briefed as to the benefits of the vaccine. The number of cadets has now dwindled significantly after allegations of daily pressure by “senior officials” at the school, and rumors of reductions of leave. Some cadets relented and received the vaccine, while many left West Point due to the pressure.

Those who still refuse to take the vaccine are forced to wear masks everywhere, marking them out from everybody else who is vaccinated. A number of parents of those holdouts have now organized legal counsel on behalf of their children, with CDMedia reporting that they are “banding together to fight this perceived criminal behavior by those in power over their children.

An anonymous whistleblower, whose identity National File is protecting, gave a breakdown of the current restrictions that West Point cadets who refuse to take the COVID vaccine have to face. For those cadets returning for summer programs, they will have their two week leave shortened to one, as they have to spend 7 days in a quarantine that amounts to serious solitary confinement. The cadets are locked up for 23 hours each day in one room, and are only allowed out for one hour to walk or run outside.

Infuriating, intolerable, and probably a violation of the Geneva Convention (or Nuremberg Code, as Liberty Daily has it; more on that later, perhaps—M). Not that anybody in our rogue Occupation Government would give a damn about that last, of course. I’ll put the most troubling aspect in bold:

West Point allegedly plans to round up all the cadets who are refusing the vaccine and transfer them into all one company or platoon based on how many they’re are. At the time of writing, around 50 cadets have not backed down. The whistleblower said this would likely be better for them, as they would not be around other troops who derogatorily shout at them, calling them “anti-vaxxers,” and instead would be with those who stand with them. “They’re being treated like criminals,” the whistleblower added. “They’re trying to protect other people’s rights and their rights are being compromised.”

Absolutely disgusting. But with this the writing is on the wall, not just for those unjustly-persecuted cadets but for all of us. I repeat: any remaining Heritage American soldier better get out NOW. Don’t wait until they come for you as well, as they are surely going to; at that point it’s already too late, and your fate is out of your hands. Leave the disintegrating USSA to “defend” itself with the feeble, ineffectual, PC-approved army of unqualified and poorly-trained defectives, weaklings, and sissy-Marys it seems to prefer, and so richly deserves. America’s real warriors will soon have far more important battles to fight anyhow.

2

The bitterest Memorial Day

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For Memorial Day, retired USMC LTC Max Morton memorializes the lost Republic, and the warriors our new oligarchy has betrayed.

When I talk about members of the military who I served with, I purposely use the term warrior. Despite the social deconstruction du jour, the purpose of the military is to conduct war. Clausewitz famously stated, “war is the continuation of politics by other means,” and that other means is fighting and killing the enemy. If you think sending your military to war to do anything other than kill your enemy is acceptable, realistic, or moral, you are a dangerous fool who has no understanding or regard for the myriad disturbing consequences of half-assed armed conflict. So nouveau U.S. Army commercials and Navy wokeism comedy aside, the purpose of the military is to kill the enemy, and the people who do that killing are warriors.

Like many in flyover country, I come from a family with a tradition of military service, some of us were the proverbial lifers and others single-hitch patriots, so the concept of service and sacrifice is ingrained into our psyche. For our family, having to give your life in service to your country was always a possibility. Within that context, Memorial Day, for me, has been not just a remembrance but an acknowledgement of the outcome associated with that risk…that is until this year.

When I look at America, the way it is today, I wonder if any of the killing and dying was worth it. America today is run by someone, we’re not really sure who, and every part of its culture and history is being deconstructed.

The Constitution is not even a speed bump to a new class of oligarchs and tyrants who are in the process of “reimagining” America as a giant Eveready battery to power their globalist business interests. Clearly half the country no longer believes in ideals like individual liberty, freedom, free speech, live-and-let-live, the Golden Rule, or tolerance.

What happened? If I could go back in time and talk to my dead friends and comrades who fell in service to America, what would they say? Would they still have volunteered? Would they still have put their lives on the line for this? Because this is pretty much nothing like the way of life I know they signed up to defend. This is an abomination. This is something I expect they would fight against.

It’s a near-certainty that, before very much longer, they will get their chance.

To paraphrase my colleague Angelo Codevilla, what’s happening now in America is not a perversion or aberration, it’s an assertion of power. What we are seeing is the transformation of America from a free and sovereign nation accountable to the citizens, to a vassal state coalition of oligarchs and rogue national security bureaucrats sympathetic to, if not outright supportive of, China’s global hegemony. Who is really on top in this relationship has yet to be determined. Is it the bureaucrats in service to the oligarchs, or is it the oligarchs backing a rogue bureaucracy? Either way, in the words of the late, great George Carlin, “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”

The current regime likes to talk about the domestic extremist danger to “our democracy.” What they really mean is that traditional Americans are a threat to their transformation of America away from a sovereign nation-state to some form of authoritarian oligarchy.

Too many Americans fail to understand the very real threat to their lives, liberty, and pursuit of happiness posed by a regime that holds this belief. Unfortunately, Americans seem to be waiting for a white knight or some divine miracle to roll back the regime’s ongoing transformation of America. The truth is, that old America, the one you grew up in, the one you think of as normal, doesn’t exist anymore. It’s gone, and it isn’t coming back.

Whether the current regime is backed by an oligarchy-supported deep state bureaucracy, or a deep state bureaucracy supported by China-sympathetic oligarchs, the clear and present danger to every traditional American is centered in Washington, D.C.

On this Memorial Day, I will be thinking of my friends and comrades who made the ultimate sacrifice, and I’m not afraid to say that some of those memories will be difficult. But I know that their beliefs and the way of life that motivated them to serve as warriors still exists. It exists in every defiant American who refuses to bend the knee to the tyrant. It exists in every American who still believes in liberty, freedom, and equal justice under law. It exists in those who yearn for the self-determination of a republic. I think that’s worth fighting for, and I think there are others out there across America who believe the same.

Then they will be forced to confront the cold, hard nut of the matter: that “fighting for it” does in fact mean fighting for it—as opposed to speechifying about it, politicking for it, or voting it back into existence. Reclaiming our liberty and restoring some facsimile of our former Republic can only be done the old-fashioned way, the same way the Founders created it. Those valiant, indomitable men proclaimed their willingness to hazard “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor” neither lightly nor unknowingly. They well knew what that pledge might bring down on their heads; when they pronounced themselves free and independent, they said exactly what they meant, and they meant exactly what they said. They signed the Declaration fully aware that the price of fulfillment for their mutual pledge was payable exclusively in blood, ruin, and death. They did it anyway. They risked all, sacrificed much, and won everything.

None but a purblind chucklehead could dare to dream that our Founders’ present-day heirs might secure such a lustrous prize for themselves at a discount rate. With every word of delusional drivel asserting the existence of a way to redeem their loss at only trifling physical expense, another entry is stamped into the “UNWORTHY” side of freedom’s ledger.

None of which in any way tarnishes the men for whom Memorial Day was established, of course. Lincoln probably said it best:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Beautiful words, which recent events have put a painful sting into. Our closer, from the incomparable Rudyard Kipling.

The Veterans
Written for the Gathering of Survivors the Indian Mutiny, Albert Hall, 1907

To-day, across our fathers’ graves,
The astonished years reveal
The remnant of that desperate host
Which cleansed our East with steel.

Hail and farewell! We greet you here,
With tears that none will scorn–
O Keepers of the House of old,
Or ever we were born!

One service more we dare to ask–
Pray for us, heroes, pray,
That when Fate lays on us our task
We do not shame the Day!

Amen.

It ain’t just here, it ain’t just us

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The other night, I said:

My own view, which shifts on the regular these days, is that if the current middling-temperature conflict ever DOES go full-on hot, the form it will most likely take will be sabotage, monkey-wrenchery, and shoot-and-scoot sniper activity, perhaps even scattered small-unit raids undertaken by people with the training and experience to pull it off.

And then this happened.

Hundreds of troops from Belgium, and beyond, have now thoroughly searched a vast area in the country where a fugitive soldier armed with highly dangerous weapons is believed to be hiding. However, no trace of him has been found.

A well-trained sniper from the Belgian army, Jurgen Conings, who has combat experience in several war zones including Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, disappeared on Monday. Having reportedly left life-threatening notes to several top officials, the 46-year-old man is believed to have taken several anti-tank missiles, a submachine gun and a handgun with an ability to pierce bulletproof vests from his unit’s ammunition depot. He himself is believed to be wearing the vest.

Conings is now a “terrorist suspect,” according to Belgian media. The federal prosecutor’s office has been investigating him for “attempted murder and illegal possession of weapons in a terrorist context,” the VRT broadcaster reported. Authorities also believe the suspect has not been “acting on impulse,” but is rather well-prepared. 

Throughout the week, some 400 Belgian troops, from both the army and the police, have been rigorously searching the Hoge Kempen National Park in the Belgian province of Limburg. Helicopters, armored cars and trucks were deployed for the manhunt, while hundreds searched the nature reserve meter by meter equipped with thermal cameras. Forces from Germany and the Netherlands have been mobilized, as the area where Conings is believed to be hiding borders these countries. Dutch special units are also on standby on their side of the border in case the man tries to cross.

A number of mosques in the Limburg province have closed, local media reported, due to the heavily armed man’s known far-right extremist views.

Note the bold. You will be seeing this material again.

Earlier, a car belonging to the suspect was found. The military man, who had also been training other soldiers for foreign missions, has reportedly booby-trapped his vehicle with four rocket launchers inside. A grenade with a set of wires linking it to the car’s doors are said to have been discovered. There have also been reports that Conings left his service medals on his parents’ grave, with sources suggesting he did it on Tuesday.

Looks like “rather well-prepared” might have understated the case a mite.

Conings’ girlfriend, Gwendy, is reported to be the one who alerted the authorities to her partner’s disappearance on Monday. She reportedly discovered several letters left behind, with local media quoting Conings as writing he “could no longer live in a society where politicians and virologists have taken everything away from us,” so he “would join the resistance and would not surrender.” 

If being enraged enough by the installation of de facto tyranny to take concrete steps against the “politicians and virologists” who did it—and they most certainly did do it—is now a “right-wing extremist” view, well hey, I’m a-okay with being considered a right-wing extremist mydamnedself.

Via NCR commenter Dov Sar.

1

Your feel-good story of the day

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“Hot Topic anarchists.” Gotta love that one.

After being outnumbered, Antifa failed to shut down the weekly right-wing flag event in Oregon City, which neighbors Portland except here law enforcement and the district attorney don’t tolerate rioting.

Antifa groups circulated a flyer online last week calling for comrades to counter protest the weekly flag waving event near Clackamas Community College. “Oregon City is allowing fascists to continue and grow their weekly flag wave, if we don’t put a stop to it, they will command more control!” the flyer urged. Clackamas Community College canceled classes in light of Antifa’s anticipated presence.

Friday, the day of the dueling protest, things seemed anti-climatic as Antifa only managed small numbers and gathered at a shopping center near the college campus then quickly left. Portland-based Antifa accounts on Twitter expressed outrage that not enough appeared to shut down the conservative rally.

Police were on scene Friday to keep the opposing groups separate, but there were no reports of any violence breaking out. “The people you call Antifa,” one of the right-wing protesters told KOIN 6 News, “they have no idea what Portland is. They watched Portlandia and came here. They’re hipsters wearing all black. Hot Topic anarchists,” the 42-year-old said to the local news outlet.

In all, at least 250 conservative demonstrators, some armed, protested at the planned event that seemed to occur without incident despite the hype.

That’s because some were armed, and as Heinlein knew, an armed society is a polite society.

Truly, embarrassingly pathetic

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One of these things is NOT like the other.


Now just you go ahead and try to tell me that, should we ever be so foolish as to get ourselves into a military dustup with the Russkies—of any scale, scope, or intensity imaginable—we aren’t well, truly, and completely fucked. Those tough, all-business Russian soldiers would go through Cpl Fluffybutt, her two mommies, and each and every gender-puzzled dainty in their circle of acquaintance like shit through a goose, and never break a sweat doing it.

Don’t even bother asking if it gets worse, either. You already know it does.

Nearly Half of Female Soldiers Still Failing New Army Fitness Test, While Males Pass Easily
More than seven months after the official launch of the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT, nearly half of female soldiers are still falling short, with enlisted women struggling the most, Military.com has learned. The data again raises questions about whether the Army’s attempt to create a fitter force is creating more barriers to success for women.

Internal Army figures from April show 44% of women failed the ACFT, compared to 7% of men since Oct. 1. “Female soldiers continue to lag male soldier scores in all events,” according to a United States Army Forces Command briefing obtained by Military.com.

The pass rate for women is up 12% from last year, yet enlisted women continue to struggle the most, with a 53% fail rate. Female officers have only a 23% fail rate, but that’s still significantly higher than the fail rate for men, enlisted or officer.

“The ACFT — as part of the Army’s overall physical readiness program — continues to evolve, reduce injuries and empower Soldiers to perform basic Soldier tasks,” a FORSCOM spokesman told Military.com in a statement Monday.

Oh, how I do love that “evolve” folderol. You’re “evolving” all right—from a military Force To Be Reckoned With into…well, into something entirely else.

“Reduce injuries” is a good one too, I think. As if “reducing injuries” ought to be an item of much importance in a program whose core mission used to be training American youth in the killing of people and the breaking of things. All this, mind, from some REMF PR flack in the employ of a once-respected, nay feared, war machine whose flinty-eyed, hardcase DIs used to swear by the maxim that “the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat.” Guess that one’s gone by the wayside and forgotten now, as so many other needful things have. Hell, Higher would probably toss any NCO overheard uttering the phrase straight into USDB Leavenworth these days, or cashier him outright for Crimes Against Diversity Which Is Our Strength Amen.

What a sad, pitiful joke we’ve become.

New Model Army

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Hypothesis: The “world’s lone superpower” is neither super nor powerful. Discuss.

As Conservatives are Aggressively Purged From the Military, Transgenders Join in Overwhelming Numbers
In what is being hailed as a victory for diversity and progress by Democrats, transgenders are now shockingly overrepresented in the Armed Forces.

A study from the National LGBTQ Task Force has shown that transgenders are two times as likely to join the Armed Forces as their counterparts who do not suffer from gender dysphoria. One reason might be the free genital mutilation surgeries offered by the woke military.

The National LGBTQ Task Force is taking their findings and demanding for more taxpayer-funded giveaways and privileges for transgenders.

“The Defense Department must allow transgender people to serve openly,” said Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the organization.
 
“It’s wrong that these brave men and women — who sacrifice so much through their service to our nation — should have to fight for their rights both as active military and then as veterans,” Nipper added.

The study showed that transgenders participating in the study blamed discrimination for their inability to hold a job. This is being used by lobbyist groups like the National LGBTQ Task Force to demand more handouts.

This is happening while conservatives and patriots are being expelled from the military for exercising their 1st Amendment rights.

Any true conservative or patriot should have gotten out on their own initiative by now, by hook or by crook. Evidence of which way the wind is blowing abounds, for anyone with eyes to see.

Honor thy forefathers

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CA gets a letter from a reader.

I recently set my wheels on the road for a trip through the Communist North East.

I wanted to see some of these things while travel was still possible and before the Vaxstappo begins asking for your papers to allow you to travel between states.

One of these stops was in Boston.  Specifically, to see the North Bridge and the Isaac Davis statue.

Sometimes you just get the feeling of how small you are in the moment.

The visit to the North Bridge was one of those moments for me.

I can readily imagine so. If you’ve forgotten the details about Davis and his moment in our glorious history—it shames me to admit I had—here’s a refresher course.

Isaac Davis (February 23, 1745 – April 19, 1775) was a gunsmith and a militia officer who commanded a company of Minutemen from Acton, Massachusetts, during the first battle of the American Revolutionary War. In the months leading up to the Revolution, Davis set unusually high standards for his company in terms of equipment, training, and preparedness. His company was selected to lead the advance on the British Regulars during the Battle of Concord because his men were entirely outfitted with bayonets. During the American advance on the British at the Old North Bridge, Davis was among the first killed and was the first American officer to die in the Revolution.

Faulty memory notwithstanding, you’ll likely be familiar with Daniel French’s The Minute Man statue; it’s an iconic memorial, a rendition of which also serves as the National Guard logo as well as being featured on the Massachussetts quarter. The story of Davis and the unfortunate part he played in the Battle of Concord is always worth revisiting.

In November 1774, Acton formed a company of Minutemen, and Davis was elected captain. He was determined that his company be as well-equipped as the British soldiers. Most provincial Minuteman companies, unlike professional soldiers, were not equipped with bayonets for use in close combat and they typically re-loaded using powder horns, a slow method more suited to hunting than to battle. Davis employed his skills as a gunsmith to outfit nearly every man in his company with a bayonet and saw that his men were supplied with cartridge boxes, allowing his company to re-load as quickly as the British. Finally, Davis emphasized marksmanship, training his company on an improvised shooting range behind his house. These high standards in terms of equipment and training made the Acton company one of the best prepared in Massachusetts.

According to tradition, Davis was a superstitious man who believed he had seen numerous omens that indicated that he would die if forced into battle. In 1851, Rev. James Woodbury, Acton’s representative to the Massachusetts General Court, delivered a speech about Davis to the House of Representatives. During this speech, Woodbury described an incident that allegedly took place a few days before the Battle of Concord in which Davis and his family returned home to find an owl perched on Davis’s musket. According to Woodbury, “It was an ill omen, a bad sign. The sober conclusion was that the first time that Davis went into battle, he would lose his life.”

On the night of April 18, 1775, Gage dispatched approximately 800 British Regulars under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith. The Sons of Liberty in Boston were convinced that the British troops would also attempt to capture the provincial leaders, John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were in Lexington, Massachusetts. Messengers Paul Revere and William Dawes therefore rode again on the night of April 18 to warn Hancock and Adams that the soldiers were marching from Boston. In Lexington, the British force encountered resistance from the Lexington militia, and a skirmish ensued on Lexington Green; eight provincials were killed, and one British soldier was wounded.Following the action on Lexington Green, the British marched on to Concord.

Word of the British movement reached Acton just before dawn on April 19, most likely delivered by Dr. Samuel Prescott, a resident of Concord and one of the Sons of Liberty. As the alarm spread, the Acton Minutemen began to gather at Davis’s home. While waiting for others to arrive, the men made paper cartridges and some powdered their hair with flour so as to appear more like gentlemen when they met the British in battle. As the Minutemen prepared, Davis’s wife noticed that he seemed especially somber and said very little. As some of his men joked about getting shot at by a British soldier, Davis rebuked them, reminding them that some of them would soon be killed.

Davis formed up his company and ordered them to march at about 7 a.m. According to his wife and other witnesses, shortly after stepping off, Davis ordered his company to halt, then returned to his front door to tell his wife, “Take good care of the children.” Soon after crossing into Concord, the Acton company passed the farm of Colonel James Barrett who commanded the provincial troops in Concord that morning. A small detachment of British soldiers were searching Barrett’s farm for supplies, and Davis considered attacking them. His orders, however, were to muster with the rest of the provincial militia and Minutemen near the Old North Bridge by the Concord River. He then diverted his company off the road, avoiding the British at Barrett’s farm and marching past a tavern belonging to a Widow Brown. A boy named Charles Handley, who lived at Widow Brown’s Tavern, saw Davis’s company pass the tavern. He recalled many years later that a fifer and drummer played a song called “The White Cockade”, a reference to the white ribbon worn on their bonnets by Scots revolutionaries during The ’45. Tradition persists that this was Davis’s favorite marching song, but there is little evidence to support this notion. There is also a tradition that the Acton musicians played the White Cockade later when Davis’s company led the advance on the British at the Old North Bridge, although this too is not supported by primary source accounts.

Davis’s company reached the area of the Old North Bridge at approximately 9 a.m. Several other companies of militia and Minutemen, consisting of about 500 men from Concord, Lincoln, and Bedford, had already gathered on a small hill overlooking the bridge. Approximately 100 British Regulars occupied the bridge. Shortly after Davis arrived, Barrett called a council of the officers present to determine whether or not to attack the Regulars at the bridge. In Concord, the majority of the British force was searching for supplies, but they found little. When they decided to burn some wooden gun carriages they discovered, the provincials near the Old North Bridge saw the smoke and thought the British were burning the town. Barrett then made the decision to attack the soldiers holding the bridge.

Davis’s company had taken their designated position at the left of the provincial line. This would have placed the Acton company in the rear of the attack when the line advanced. The company in the lead would have been Captain David Brown’s company from Concord. When Barrett asked Brown if he would lead the attack, Brown responded that he would rather not. Knowing that Davis’s company was well equipped with bayonets and cartridge boxes, Barrett asked Davis if his company would lead the advance. Several slight variations of Davis’s response have been recorded. His response is most often given as, “I have not a man that is afraid to go.” Following Barrett’s orders, Davis then moved his company to the right of the line. Around 10:30, the provincials faced to the right and advanced on the Old North Bridge in a column of two men abreast. At the head of the column was Davis, Major John Buttrick of Concord, and Lt. Col. John Robinson of Westford. Barrett remained behind on the hill, cautioning his men as they marched by him not to fire first. The British at the bridge, watching the provincials approach, were surprised to see, as one soldier later said, that they “advanced with the greatest regularity”.

When the provincials were within about 75 yards of the bridge, the Regulars fired a few warning shots. Luther Blanchard, the fifer from Acton, was hit and wounded by one of these warning shots. The British then fired a disorganized volley. Isaac Davis was shot through the heart. Private Abner Hosmer of Acton was also killed in this volley. Seeing these casualties, Buttrick commanded, “Fire, fellow soldiers, for God’s sake fire!” and the provincials returned fire, causing the British to immediately retreat back to Concord.

By God, if that doesn’t make your heart beat faster and the hair on back of your neck stand straight up…well, you just ain’t anything I’ll ever acknowledge as an American, that’s all.

The story of Isaac Davis, Concord, and the American Revolution should serve as an inspiration to every red-blooded American. The tragedy of our age is that, rather than being a fundamental part of the public-school curriculum, I doubt you could find much more than a handful of grade-schoolers in the entire country who ever heard a single word of it. It’s no less than a national disgrace.

The opening stanza of Emerson’s Concord Hymn is engraved on The Minute Man‘s plinth:

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.

Stirring words, a worthy salute to commemorate valiant men and the resounding victory for all mankind bought for us by their brave sacrifice. Alas, Emerson’s third stanza is probably more apt for their less-noble heirs:

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set today a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

May God grant that the Founders’ descendants may redeem those great deeds and reclaim their priceless inheritance before all is said and done.

French redemption

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Vive la résistance!

A group of active French military personnel has published a new open letter to the country’s president Emmanuel Macron, warning him of a “civil war” brewing in the country after all the “concessions” he’s made to Islamism.

The letter, published in the conservative Valeurs Actuelles magazine late on Sunday, strikes a similar tone to the message published by the same outlet last month. Unlike the previous one, which was signed by 25 retired generals and active-duty soldiers, the new letter is anonymous and is open for signing by the general public. As of noon on Monday, it had attracted over 100,000 signatures.

The authors of the letter have described themselves as active-duty French soldiers, belonging to the younger generation of the military that saw actual combat over the past years.

An excerpt from this latest…well, call it a warning order:

Our seniors are fighters who deserve to be respected. These are for example the old soldiers whose honor you have trampled on in recent weeks. It is these thousands of servants of France, signatories of a platform of common sense, soldiers who gave their best years to defend our freedom, obeying your orders, to wage your wars or to implement your budget restrictions. , which you soiled while the people of France supported them.

These people who fought against all the enemies of France, you have treated them as factious when their only fault is to love their country and to mourn its visible downfall.

Under these conditions, it is up to us, who have recently entered the career, to enter the arena simply to have the honor of telling the truth.

We are what the newspapers have called “the fire generation”. Men and women, active soldiers, of all armies and of all ranks, of all sensibilities, we love our country. These are our only claims to fame. And if we cannot, by law, express ourselves with our face uncovered, it is just as impossible for us to be silent.

Afghanistan, Mali, the Central African Republic or elsewhere, a number of us have experienced enemy fire. Some have left comrades there. They offered their skin to destroy the Islamism to which you are making concessions on our soil.

Almost all of us have known Operation Sentinel. We saw with our own eyes the abandoned suburbs, the accommodation with delinquency. We have undergone the attempts to instrumentalize several religious communities, for whom France means nothing – nothing but an object of sarcasm, contempt or even hatred.

We marched on July 14th. And this benevolent and diverse crowd, which acclaimed us because we are the emanation of it, we were asked to beware of it for months, by forbidding us to circulate in uniform, by making us potential victims, on a soil that we are nevertheless capable of defending.

Cowardice, deceit, perversion: such is not our vision of the hierarchy. On the contrary, the army is, par excellence, the place where we speak truthfully to each other because we commit our lives. It is this confidence in the military institution that we call for.

Yes, if a civil war breaks out, the army will maintain order on its own soil, because it will be asked to. It is even the definition of civil war. No one can want such a terrible situation, our elders no more than us, but yes, again, civil war is brewing in France and you know it perfectly well.

Strong words indeed, and entirely righteous ones. As of this morning the letter had been co-signed by more than 229,000 valiant Frenchmen, bless them.

Also attached to the WRSA post from whence this came is Buppert’s timely reminder to not underestimate the courage or ability of the French soldiery, and he ain’t wrong about that. Back in the days when Cousin Regbo was posting here regularly, I was in the habit myself of making sport of Gallic military derring-do. Reggie—a career USN fighter jock who spent a year flying the Dassault Super Étendard off the French carrier Foch as an exchange officer—upbraided me on the regular about my ill-informed disdain, insisting that the sailors and flyboys he had served with on the Foch were among the toughest and most ferocious warriors he knew of anywhere on Earth.

Then again, though, Reg wound up marrying not one but two (2) French femmes before all was said and done, so he might’ve been just a wee mite biased in favor of the Frogs generally. Whatever the case, kudos and a toss of the ol’ beret to the French soldiery for daring to step up and speak truth to Power at last. Their caution about interjecting themselves in their country’s political affairs is both becoming and proper, and speaks quite well of their professionalism and patriotism. We must all hope and pray that they haven’t waited until it was too late.

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