Guardians Of Freedom

There you go again

Posted on March 28, 2023March 28, 2023 by Mike

You keep using words like “most powerful,” “strongest,” “most lethal in the world,” &c to describe the bled-white and hollowed-out Woke military. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

An Army of None?

Suppose they gave a war and nobody came? The United States is gearing up for a possible war with China, but it faces a serious recruitment problem. The nation’s youth can’t meet basic standards.

Earlier this year, the Council for a Strong America reported that 77 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service. About 44 percent of young Americans can’t serve for multiple reasons. More than 20 percent are simply too fat.

The Council didn’t have any good ideas. It discussed the benefits of the SNAP food program and suggested that policymakers “promote healthy eating, increased access to fresh and nutritious foods, and physical activity for children.” A country whose citizens are too stupid to feed themselves without the government both paying for it and telling them what to eat has problems.

Today, the American military relies heavily on the middle class, especially from the South. Sixty-four percent of recruits come from neighborhoods where households make between $41,692 and $87,850. Just 17 percent come from neighborhoods that are better off than that. A roughly equivalent share come from poorer neighborhoods. The South is overrepresented, producing more than 40 percent of all recruits. New England and the West Coast are underrepresented. South Carolina is the most overrepresented; DC (if we count it) is the least.

The military may go further down market. The Congressional Budget Office is considering ways to cut healthcare costs. One option was to “means-test VA’s Disability Compensation for Veterans With Higher Income,” which would save an estimated $253 billion over 10 years. On an annual basis, this would save less than the amount the United States has already spent on the war in Ukraine: about $32 billion. A cut in disability payments would also remove an incentive for the middle class to serve.

Tradition is probably more important. The military no longer celebrates the white Southern military spirit, despite the continued overrepresentation of Southerners. During the 2020 racial revolution, Democrats and cowardly Republicans defied President Donald Trump and required that all bases named for Confederates get new names. “We’re the party of Lincoln, the party of emancipation, we’re not the party of Jim Crow,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE). “We should be on the right side of this issue.” Nine names would go, including Robert E. Lee, A.P. Hill, and George Pickett.

Black Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin praised the Naming Commission’s efforts to “remove from U.S. military facilities all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederacy,” instead choosing names that “echo with honor, patriotism, and history” and will “inspire generations of Service members to defend our democracy and our constitution.” Those turn out to be names of insignificant non-whites.

One exception is Fort Bragg, named for General Braxton Bragg, which will become Fort Liberty. The name change will cost more than six million dollars. Officials say this bland name “conveys the aspiration of all who serve.” Fort Bragg is also renaming all the streets named after Confederates. No doubt this will cure the base’s problems: 31 fatal drug overdoses from 2017 to 2021, 41 suicides in 2020 and 2021, and 11 soldiers murdered or charged with murder from mid-2020 to September 2022.

The Army had a recruitment target of 60,000 last year but it missed it by 15,000. The Army wants more than 500,000 active-duty soldiers, but may have fewer than 450,000 next year. The Air Force is expected to miss its target; the Navy missed its target for officers. Only the Marine Corps made its quota.

I suspect “wokeness” hurts recruitment, but the collapse into drugs, crime, and obesity may have more to do with it. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) denied that an obsession with diversity hurts recruitment. “Diversity and inclusion strengthens our military,” he said. “By every measure, America’s military is more lethal and ready than it has ever been. It is also more diverse and inclusive than ever before. This is not a coincidence.” What’s his evidence for this?

The Army’s head of marketing said the real problem is that the service isn’t “relevant” to most Americans. I wonder why not.

Yeah, me too. Why, it’s downright baffling, is what it is. A puzzler, a real head-scratcher for sure and certain.

Why are recruitment numbers in the toilet? Because hardworking, athletic, intelligent warriors who pursue excellence in their lives want nothing to do with a woke, anti-American, politically correct nut-job factory invested in a Marxist worldview and promoting an overtly anti-Christian, anti-conservative, anti-white agenda. That answer is so obvious that just as with every other important issue of the day — “green” energy-induced inflation, central bank money-printing, government censorship, open borders, warrantless surveillance, surging crime, global war — normal people know what’s going on, while only America’s leaders choose to play dumb (although, in their defense, many aren’t playing).

What makes a superior warrior? An individual willing to rise every day and push his body and mind to the limits. Someone who is capable of taking an absolute beating yet unafraid to get back up and continue the fight. A person who is constantly working to get stronger, be tougher, think more clearly, and achieve tomorrow what could not be achieved today. A warrior works all the time because when he is not working, someone else is, and when those two meet on a battlefield, only one will walk away.

That is not the mindset of today’s woke armed services. Whining, psychobabble, coddling, and grievance-conditioning do not create a superior fighting force. “Safe spaces,” fear of “triggering” words, and fixation on personal pronouns make minds weak. Blaming mental and physical shortcomings on others will always result in future mission failure. Rewarding ineptitude while disregarding merit in the name of “diversity” will ensure a diverse collection of dead bodies when hostile forces strike. No person in harm’s way gives a fig what color skin encases the person fighting to his back; no person in harm’s way has the time to worry about another American warrior’s “social justice” virtue. When it is do or die, skillful excellence alone purchases life, one minute at a time. There is no such thing as a “woke warrior” because they do not survive.

In other words, when waters get rough, the warriors best suited for survival, resistance, and victory are tireless fighters with their heads on straight who are calm under pressure, emotionally resilient, and spiritually robust. That describes a lot of liberty-loving, conservative, religiously devout, family-oriented, patriotic, and proud Americans. It does not tend to include people so confused about their own identities that they aren’t even sure how to describe their biological sex. It does not describe Americans who despise their country’s illustrious history, believe its people to be inherently racist, and insist its foundations rest not on freedom but rather slavery. It does not include self-centered egoists too obsessed with personal pronouns to reflect upon a higher calling or personal sacrifice. It does not include people who would rather fight so-called “global warming,” “systemic privilege,” or “hate speech” than foreign armies intending mortal harm.

Those who find themselves offended easily and who cannot distinguish between language and violence have no place on a battlefield. They are, at best, a nuisance keeping real warfighters from doing their jobs and, at worst, a fifth column assisting the enemy in doing its job — which is to kill and subdue Americans. Woke is a joke, but it is also deadly.

Oh, it’s a joke right enough, but it ain’t no laughing matter. My oft-repeated advice: if you’re in, get the fuck out as quick as you can—any way you can contrive to do so, up to and including just going AWOL, if that’s what it takes. If you’re considering going in, for any reason other than to have your dick chopped off at taxpayer expense, just…well, just don’t, that’s all.

Today’s Woke military isn’t anyplace any sensible, old-school-patriotic warrior-type wants to be. Let the PC pussyfarts, the knob-polishing Blue Falcons and REMFs like “General” Milley, and the hard-charging political hustlers have it. Get the hell away from them all most ricky-tick, as far away as you can possibly get yourself. There’s trouble up the road, and you do NOT want to find yourself caught up in it with some dick-chopping, fatbodied Private Pyle in line of march directly behind your happy ass—loaded rifle in his poorly-trained dick-skinners, muzzle-sweeping you every step of the way, as you all trundle off to yet another war not worth fighting, at the behest of civilian “leadership” not worth defending.

The most disgusting story of the year

Posted on March 11, 2023March 12, 2023 by Mike

Incredible. Unbelievable. Sickening. Horrifying. Yet somehow, like so many other dismal contemporary tales of unnecessary catastrophe, totally unsurprising.

Marine Sniper: I Was Denied Permission to Take Out Kabul Airport Suicide Bomber

After many long months without oversight or accountability for President Joe Biden’s disastrous and deadly withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the House of Representatives’ Republican majority is finally doing what the preceding Democrat majority never did: hearing from those whose lives were forever changed on the front lines of the chaos in Afghanistan at the end of two decades of U.S. involvement.

Tyler Vargas-Andrews, a sergeant in the United States Marines, was in Kabul as the Biden administration’s haphazard withdrawal took place. He was at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) watching the chaos unfold, and he was one of the hundreds of individual wounded when a suicide bomber attacked one of the airport’s gates where hundreds of individuals were waiting to be screened for evacuation.

In an emotional opening statement to the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Vargas-Andrews told his story, one that the Biden administration never highlighted and Democrats in Congress apparently didn’t want on the record.

On August 26, 2021, Vargas-Andrews was in position at HKIA when he noticed suspicious individuals outside the gate to the airport as thousands of people were attempting to flee Afghanistan as it fell to the Taliban, fearful for the future and what retribution anyone who’d helped American forces over the previous twenty years would face.

“I requested engagement authority when my team leader was ready on the M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System,” Vargas-Andrews said, testifying in his personal capacity. “The response: leadership did not have the engagement authority for us — do not engage.”

Vargas-Andrews said he requested that his battalion commander “come to the tower to see what we did. While we waited for him, psychological operations individuals came to our tower immediately and confirmed the suspect met the suicide bomber description,” Vargas-Andrews recounted. When the battalion commander “eventually arrived,” he was presented with the evidence and photos of two men, one who met the description of a suicide bomber. “Pointedly, we asked him for engagement authority and permission — we asked him if we could shoot,” Vargas-Andrews told lawmakers. “Our battalion commander said, and I quote, ‘I don’t know.’”

“Myself and my team leader asked very harshly, ‘Well, who does? Because this is your responsibility, sir,” Vargas-Andrews explained. “He again replied he did not know but would find out. We received no update and never got our answer.”

“Eventually the individual disappeared,” Vargas-Andrews continued. “To this day, we believe he was the suicide bomber. We made everyone on the ground aware,” he said. “Operations had briefly halted but then started again. Plain and simple, we were ignored. Our expertise was disregarded — no one was held accountable for our safety.”

And so 13 Marines then got blowed up real good, thanks to this Blue Falcon, who I assume is a Light Colonel, since that would be the usual rank for a commanding officer of a battalion. Poor SGT Vargas-Andrews was gravely wounded his own self due to this contemptible Buddy Fucker Bird’s shucking, jiving, dithering, and diving away from his own responsibility:

“A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me, and my body was catastrophically wounded with 100-150 ball bearings now in it,” Vargas-Andrews explained. “Almost immediately, we started taking fire from the neighborhood and I saw how injured I was, with my right arm completed shredded and unusable. I saw my lower abdomen soaked in blood. I crawled backward roughly seven feet because I thought I was still in harm’s way,” he recalled. “My body was overwhelmed from the trauma of the blast — my abdomen had been ripped open. Every inch of my exposed body except for my face took ball bearings and shrapnel,” Vargas-Andrews continued.

“I tried to get up but could not. Laying there for a few minutes I started to lose consciousness,” Vargas-Andrews remembered. That’s when he said he heard his team leader “screaming my name as he ran to me. His voice calling to me kept me awake,” he added. “When he got to me, he dragged me to safety and immediately started triaging me, tying tourniquets on my limbs and doing anything he could to stop the bleeding and start plugging wounds with the help of the other Marines,” Vargas-Andrews said. “I was awake through most of it — screaming, moaning, and cursing.”

Well, hey, Sarge, wouldn’t you say it was all worth it, if it helped to avoid offending or antagonizing our Taliban Partners In Peace in any way? After all, your CinC *spit* and the rest of his illegitimate, incompetent, and traitorous ruling junta certainly seem to think so.

Apologies to the good sergeant for my sarcasm just now, which I admit might have been in poor taste given his injuries and his betrayal at the hands of blithering idiots both military and cake-eating civilian.

Free advice, not just for SGT Vargas-Andrews but for any decent, intelligent individual still in the armed services, of whatever branch: you deserve far better than you’re ever gonna get from Amerika v2.0’s fundamentally transformed, über-PC military—most especially its politicized officer corps, from about the level of Major on up. So just get out as quick as you can, however you can. Let the dick-chopping freaks, fatbodies, and other sundry degenerates fucking have it.

Lobbing a doo-doo bomb at the Gooks

Posted on March 9, 2023March 10, 2023 by Mike

Okay, this one’s just too hilarious not to put up here.

It’s True! A toilet was used as an aerial bomb during the Vietnam War

On November 4, 1965, some Vietnamese came across a very strange object that looked as if it had been dropped from the sky. Was it a bomb? Well, it had tail fins and a nose like a bomb. But it was white, and shaped like – a toilet?

It was a toilet in fact. It had been dropped by a VA-25 A-1 Skyraider on a mission to the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. It had come from Dixie Station, an aircraft carrier base in the South China Sea. The plane’s pilot was CDR Clarence ‘Bill’ Stoddard.

As Stoddard approached his target, he began preparations for attack. He read the ordnance (list of weapons the aircraft carried) to Forward Air Control. At the end of the list, he read ‘and one codenamed Operation Sani-flush.’ What was Stoddard talking about?

The story of the toilet drop was told by Captain Clint Johnson, the pilot of another VA-25 A-1 Skyraider. The toilet was a damaged one that was going to be thrown overboard anyway. But some plane captains decided to rescue it, dress it up to look like a bomb, and drop it in commemoration of the 6 million pounds of ordnance that had been dropped by the U.S. Air Force. The Air Control team said it made a whistling sound as it came down, and that it had almost struck the plane as it came off. A film was made of the drop using a video camera mounted on the wing.

Just as the toilet was being shot off, Johnson said,’ we got a 1MC message from the bridge, “What the hell was on 572’s right wing?” There were a lot of jokes with air intelligence about germ warfare. I wish that we had saved the movie film.’

I can’t believe nobody at the storied Strike Fighter Squadron 25 (Fist of the Fleet) DID; it would speak very poorly indeed of all involved if they didn’t. But knowing Navy combat aviators as I do, and I do, I’d be willing to bet that CDR Stoddard at least might’ve glommed a copy for himself, which is probably still floating around (ahem) out there somewhere—making it the absolutely coolest family heirloom in all human history. I certainly hope that’s the case, anyway.

Before you ask, yes, there are pictures, and They. Are. Good.

DooDooBomb

Too, too perfect.

All this talk of the Able Dog and pictures and such-like practically demands a re-link of this old post, wherein you’ll find pics of one of the greatest experiences of my entire life, to wit: actually piloting one. It was arranged for me by my late, lamented cuz CPT Reggie “Regbo” Carpenter, God rest him.

See, Reg had an older friend who just happened to be the proud owner of an A1D, an Able Dog enthusiast scheduled to be flying at an annual airshow up in Hickory that Reggie had been instrumental in founding and running.

Reg didn’t tell me so beforehand, but as it turned out setting up a free-of-charge ride in a Douglas Skyraider would be just the beginning for me that fine day, the sneaky bastid. Although that would certainly have been enough and to spare, I would’ve been more than satisfied with it.

To my eternal delight, Regbo’s bud had me help out with the preflight walk-around when me, my cousin Mark, and my brother presented our giddy selves at the A1D’s assigned parking spot for our gratis check ride. I was then asked to fill out the preflight checklist form once I’d gotten myself strapped into the right seat.

Perhaps it was the pilot’s subtle way of making sure I knew at least something of what he’d soon have me doing, I dunno. If so, I wouldn’t blame him at all for his judicious exercise of caution. I was a complete stranger to this guy; whatever assurances Reg may have given him to the contrary, for all he knew, he was about to relinquish complete command and control of his cherished, expensive, and increasingly rare (3,180 built, fewer than 20 still airworthy) aircraft to a clueless noob who knew no more about flying a plane than most people do about the construction of a tokamak reactor.

Once we were wheels-up and level, he offered me the stick, whereupon I murmured a duly-stupefied “co-pilot’s airplane” through a grin so wide I nearly swallowed my own ears. After letting me ferociously toss that surprisingly-nimble pig all over the sky for a good twenty minutes or so, he pointed down to a house below (visible through the port cockpit window in one of the pics from the earlier CF post) and said, “See that house down there? That’s where my daughter and her husband live. Pilot’s airplane,” thereby assuming command of the trusty old warbird again.

From there, we racked back around to enter the landing pattern, which was crowded with a flight of three vintage Stearman biplanes in the queue ahead of us as we were coming out of the break onto final ourselves. A pic of them through the canopy:

Sflight

The pilot was having trouble spotting the Stearman flight and asked me if I had ‘em visually, which I did after a moment’s scan of the airspace ahead. I then acted as his eyes in the sky, literally, helping to walk him all the way to a gentle, trouble-free touchdown—the most deflating, depressing part of every flight, for every aviator.

Because that’s the sad, sad moment, see, when it hits you that the fun is truly over, until the next time you’re privileged to take to the air once more, and truly live again.

It was ALL a damnable lie

Posted on March 7, 2023March 7, 2023 by Mike

Yet another one, like FauxVid, that some of us have known all along was precisely that, and nothing more.

Secret Surveillance Video Dismantles January 6 Narrative
Clips aired during Tucker Carlson’s show on Monday night demonstrate how the January 6 select committee doctored surveillance video.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired the first set of previously-unseen surveillance video captured by Capitol police security cameras on January 6, 2021 that undermines several aspects of the reigning narrative about what happened that day.

Only “several”? I strongly suggest you take another look, Jules; it undermines the entire fucking thing, actually. Over, under, sideways, and down. Stem to stern, end to end, top to bottom, start to finish. No more, no less.

Capitol Police turned over to the FBI roughly 14,000 hours of video covering the hours of noon and 8:00 p.m. on January 6 but the full 24-hour reel has been in the hands of House Democrats for two years—reportedly the footage that Carlson’s team was authorized to view.

Carlson exposed falsehoods that bolster key animating aspects of January 6 including the movements of Jacob Chansley; the activity of still-uncharged agitator Ray Epps; the death of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick; alleged “reconnaissance tours” conducted by House Republicans the day before; the “escape” of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.); and the overall deceptiveness of the January 6 Select Committee. “Taken as a whole, the video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection,” Carlson explained. “In fact, it demolishes that claim. And that’s exactly why the Democratic Party and its allies in the media prevented you from seeing it.”

Don’t you dare miss a single word of this one, people. Anyone who does so will be derelict in his duty as a citizen, and will thereby forfeit all right to think of himself as either “informed” or “concerned,” that’s the long and the short of it.

I won’t say it’s shocking, because it isn’t, not by a long yard. What it is, is further confirmation—as if any were needed—that the so-called “American” federal government is now openly at war with not just its own people, but with every last principle this nation was originally founded upon. That really is all there is to it, no two ways about it.

Tucker Carlson—who some on Our Side contend is variously A) a phony; B) Controlled Opposition; C) even a witting sock-puppet being used by The Enemy for steam-valve purposes, which I think is just ridiculous—has done enough in his dogged pursuit of the truth here as to have earned a Medal of Honor for meritorious, above-and-beyond-the-call service to his country. Endless kudos to him for his determination and derring-do.

I know, I know, the Medal is a servicemember-only decoration, almost always awarded posthumously (actually, that isn’t so, I only just found out). But still.

Likewise for the esteemed and estimable Julie Kelly for her tireless work on this gargantuan, monstrous case. She’s stayed on J6 like the most stubborn bulldog, and the rabbit has now been well and truly caught. Bravo, woman. You and Tucker are both admirable examples of what real, true journalism is supposed to be all about, but almost never is nowadays.

Emetic update! As Ace notes, the US has used the military to overthrow foreign governments more than once for far, far less egregious offenses against their own subjects than what it has done, and continues to do, to the J6 “insurrectionists.” So vile, so indecent, so morally abhorrent has the Amerika v2.0 regime become it could literally induce projectile vomiting in any true patriot.

Show me something update! My GOD, the balls on these faux-obstreperous pusbuckets.

GOP Rep. Ralph Norman on Jan. 6 Fedsurrection: ‘Why Is Ray Epps Not Behind Bars?’

Because big-talking Vichy GOPe frauds like you refuse to PUT him there, that’s why. Do something other than run your fat yap about it or just shut the fuck up already, whydon’tcha. Miss Lindsay Graham, Mitch The Bitch, Paul Ryan, Jim Jordan, all the rest—a great many of us are sick unto death of the braggadocious, talk-a-great-fight routine, and have no desire whatsoever to hear any more of that twipe.

Hold me back, hold me back or I’ll kick his fookin’ ass!!

Yeah, right. Put up or shut up, fuckface.

Uplifting update! Trump weighs in, and It. Is. Good.

Trump Demands January 6th Prisoners Let Go, House Select Committee Prosecuted After Tucker Carlson Releases Bombshell Videos

Trump called the dramatic new evidence one of the ‘biggest scoops’ in American journalism.

“The New Surveillance Footage of the January 6th Events sheds an entirely different light on what actually happened,” he wrote on his Truth Social media platform. “LET THEM GO FREE, NOW!”

“A whole new, and completely opposite, picture has now been indelibly painted,” he contends. “The Unselect Committee LIED, and should be prosecuted for their actions.”

In another posting on Truth Social, the former President reiterated his call for those charged for their relatively mundane actions that day to be released.

“Let the January 6 prisoners go,” he wrote in an all-caps screed. “They were convicted, or are awaiting trial, based on a giant lie, a radical left con job.

Indubitably so, Mr President.

Here’s an idea: in light of the truth finally getting out despite the dead-level-best efforts of the D卐M☭CRATs to keep it swept safely and securely under the rug, howzabout sane people all immediately just stop referring to the events of J6 as a “riot,” an “insurrection,” “violent,” and/or “destructive.” I suggest that instead, we describe all further insistence on that kind of hysterical, dishonest hype as “baseless” and “unfounded,” there being absolutely “no evidence” that they were any such thing. Y’know, take a page from their own “baseless election theft accusations” playbook, as it were.

THAT oughta tach up all the right people well past the pulse-pounding, vessel-popping redline, no?

Hell, I can even see newsrooms across the country go totally chaotic in the wake of this, as thousands of “journalists” lapse into shrieking paroxysms of grief and rage at seeing their own tactic used against them—flopping about on the floor like landed fish en masse, gnashing their teeth to the gumline, tearing their hair out in great hanks, ripping each other to bloody meat-gobbets with their bare hands in an ungovernable frenzy.

Try as I might, I’m just not seeing any downside here.

State of (perpetual un)readiness

Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Mike

PopMech takes a look at yet another disastrous multi-billion-dollar boondoggle from the once-mighty US military—a bigger one, probably, than even the F35 Turducken.

How the World’s Greatest Aircraft Carrier Became a $13 Billion Fiasco

Can the military save the USS Gerald R. Ford?

Wrong question. The real question is: should it?

The late 20th century was a time of supreme American confidence and rapid innovation. The Cold War was drawing to a close, the digital age was around the corner, and the Pentagon saw an opportunity to capitalize on peacetime and begin preparing for future conflict. With few diplomatic or military distractions, the United States ushered in a revolution in military technology.

Out of that boom period came ambitions for a new class of aircraft carrier headlined by the transformational USS Gerald R. Ford, a ship featuring an expanded flight deck, a boosted power plant, and support for almost two dozen emergent technologies. Expectations were high. The Ford’s nuclear reactor and propulsion system would triple the electrical power of the preceding Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. Its state-of-the-art weapons elevators would move 20,000 pounds of munitions at speeds of 150 feet per minute compared with the Nimitz‘s speed of 100 feet per minute. Its new launch-and-recovery system would be able to handle 270 planes in a single day. From bow to stern, the ship’s innovations—designed to save time, costs, and crew—would revolutionize the way the U.S. military built and used carriers. The Ford would be a symbol of American superiority, one that would project power to American adversaries for five decades of dependable service.

Well, they got the “transformational” bit right, anyway; the Ford definitely IS that. It’s just that it’s part of a decidedly wrong-way transformation: from a capable, powerful military—along with fighters that can’t fight; tanks that can’t tank; rifles more prone to jamming than a pimply, teenaged Stevie Vai wannabe at Sam Ash on a Saturday afternoon; and battalions of mincing, simpering dick-choppers who only signed up so they could get their bulbous naughty parts lopped off by an Army surgeon for free—into a hapless, bumbling, incompetent one.

“There was this thinking of, ‘We are so far ahead of everyone else that we can afford to take a strategic pause and take risks on our acquisition and try new and untested technology,’” says Eric Wertheim, a defense analyst and expert with the U.S. Naval Institute, of the nation’s mindset after the Cold War. “And there was this feeling that the rest of the world is at least 20 years behind us.”

But after two decades of development and delays, the audacity that conceived the Ford seemed to usher its doom. Expected to save the military $4 billion during its life span, the Ford has actually cost billions more than initial estimates. First expected to deploy in 2018, it has been projected to deploy as far out as 2024. When the ship reached the Navy after construction, it was already two years behind schedule, with work outstanding on thousands of items. In 2015, Sen. John McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Navy aviator, called packing all that tech onto the Ford “the original sin” that damaged the program.

Even the Navy’s top officer acknowledged the problems that have plagued the carrier. “We had 23 new technologies on [the USS Gerald R. Ford] which, quite frankly, increased the risk of delivery on time and cost right from the get-go,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday at a virtual talk before the Navy League’s 2021 Sea Air Space exposition. “And I think industry’s in full agreement with this: We really shouldn’t introduce more than maybe one or two new technologies on any complex platform like that, in order to keep risk at a manageable level.”

Meanwhile, naval advances by U.S. adversaries have added urgency to the Ford’s troubleshooting. The ship’s critics point to its expanding budget and timetable as evidence that the U.S. military should reconsider developing massive nuclear carriers as a foundational element of its naval program. Military advisor Norman Polmar points out that America’s most recent conflicts in the Middle East didn’t even use the Nimitz class to full capacity. “Look what we did in Iraq,” he says. “We launched [just] 20 or 30 strikes a day from a carrier that has 70 airplanes.” And Rep. Adam Smith, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, has questioned whether the Ford’s price tag justifies its utility. During a 2021 Brookings Institution discussion, Smith asked if there are other ways “to get unmanned systems closer to the fight that don’t cost $12 billion.”

All part and parcel of the truism that generals and admirals are always preparing to fight the last war, in this case WW2. Out of the myriad mistakes, flaws, and failures of the Ford, this one remains the most jaw-dropping to me.

One standout feature of the Ford—albeit a troublesome one—is its state-of-the-art Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG). Prior to Ford, American carriers used a hydraulic arresting system to slow and stop landing aircraft, but the AAG uses an electric engine and a water twister to accommodate a broader range of aircraft—including unmanned aerial vehicles. Engineering and manufacturing of the AAG began in 2005, with 2009 the targeted end date. But a 2016 Pentagon Inspector General report noted that developmental testing for the AAG would continue through 2018; the system still hadn’t proved capable or safe enough to test on the Ford. Between 2009 and 2012, the AAG’s power conditioning system failed across multiple tests, and both its inverter system and cable shock absorber required redesigns. The setbacks ballooned the AAG’s development cost from $143 million to more than $1 billion, according to a report from Sen. McCain’s office.

(Now-retired Navy captain Talbot) Manvel says he resisted AAG on the Ford as early as 1998, wanting to push it onto the subsequent ships in the class after its design had matured. He had his way until Rumsfeld stepped in with his transformational vision. “This was transformation run amok,” Manvel says.

That it surely was, sir. Which, once the temptation of it is yielded to, is what usually tends to happen.

It all makes for a depressing read for anyone who grew up believing that the American war machine was nigh-invincible, without Earthly peer or parallel amongst its adversary nation-states. That’s simply no longer the case, if it ever really was. Which, given certain harsh realities of life on this here planet, it almost certainly wasn’t.

Hilariouser and hilariouser

Posted on February 16, 2023February 16, 2023 by Mike

Spy balloons, schmy balloons.

The hot air of spy balloons

Originally, General Milley — who promised to warn Red China if we would sneak attack Beijing — and Biden tried to keep the balloon from the public.

They would have gotten away with it, if not for the meddling Billings Gazette publishing photos of the balloon snapped by that pesky Larry Mayer.

This weekend, it was like a shooting gallery as an embarrassed Pentagon fired 4 shots to take down 3 balloons. Top Guns, our pilots are not.

They fired their guns but the balloons kept a-comin.’ There wasn’t as many as there was a while ago.

One of targets was over Lake Huron, which is next to Michigan and its population of 178 people per square miles (24 times Montana’s density). As Woody Hayes once said in a quote I just made up, “Michiganders are expendable.”

Chairman Xi said the first balloon was his but not the other ones. Xi is right because “the call was coming from inside the house!”

These were our balloons. On August 2, 2019, Lisa Kaczke of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota, reported, “Pentagon launching drug surveillance balloons over Midwest.”

Ooooops. And then there’s this small revelation.

Bottlecap Balloon Brigade – an Illinois hobby group – claims its $13 weather balloon last pinged near Yukon on February 10 – hours before F-22 brought down UFO in SAME area with $400k missile

A mystery object shot down by U.S. fighter jets amid ongoing hysteria sparked by a Chinese spy balloon may have been a $12 inflatable launched by a hobby group in Illinois.

The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB) reported one of its balloons ‘missing in action’ around the same location – and at the time time – a U.S. Air Force jet downed an unidentified object near Alaska using a $400,000 Sidewinder missile.

NIBBB said its ‘K9YO’ balloon last reported its location shortly before 1am GMT on Saturday, February 11 (8pm EST on February 10), near the coast of southwest Alaska.

Later on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared an ‘unidentified object’ was downed over Canada’s Yukon territory, several hundred miles from K9YO’s last known location.

Modeling shared by NIBBB shows its balloon was headed in the direction of Yukon before it vanished – and opens up the possibility it was one of the suspicious objects down by the U.S. military.

Hey, fret not, people—Jao Bai-Deng’s crack team of “experts” is ON. THE. JOB—defending US airspace and protecting the American people from mysterious alien incursions!

Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children disgrace themselves

Posted on February 3, 2023February 3, 2023 by Mike

As goes the rest of the FUSA military, so go the Marines.

Hi @USMC. My dad will be 100 yrs old on 2/24. A Marine during WWII. 5 assault landings. We’d love it if a uniformed Marine came for a visit – say “HI” to him. Few WWII Marines are left alive. Sent a message thru the Marine Corp portal.
They blew me off.
Thanks pic.twitter.com/V273AE648O

— Jim Thompson (@JimmySportToons)

February 2, 2023

Disgusting. But it’s probably just as well, I suppose; if today’s Marine Corps had deigned this vet worthy of a visit from one of their own, they’d have undoubtedly sent along a Jarhead in his prettiest black cocktail dress and spiked heels, in full make-up. If Mr Thompson’s poor dad didn’t stroke out right away from the sheer horror of it, being confronted by what Wokester pissants have done to his beloved Corps would have put him on a rage-high that would last for the rest of his days. I’m with Billy:

In TOTAL there were only 589,852 MARINES to serve in WW2.

16 Million Americans served in uniform

Only a little over 500k were Marines

That means this gentleman is one of a very few surviving Devil Dogs Left

Shame on the Marines for blowing this guy off.

Fucking the local Jarheads -should- have a fucking parade for him…

WTF ever happened to “Semper Fidelis?”

Always Faithful my ass.

Indeed. I repeat: Disgusting. Disgraceful. Reprehensible. And truly, truly sad.

My sincere apologies as a Heritage America to you, Mr Thompson, sir. May you have a happy 100th birthday anyway, despite this unconscionable PC insult to your bravery, your legacy, and your personal honor. Always remember, though: Illegitimi non carborundum. Otherwise, they win. And that, they must never, EVER be permitted to do.

In praise of Pat Buchanan

Posted on January 28, 2023January 28, 2023 by Mike

As Barry Goldwater’s ill-fated 1964 campaign’s slogan had it: In your heart, you know he’s right.

America First: A Tribute to Pat Buchanan

Last Friday, Buchanan announced he is retiring the political column he has written since the days of Barry Goldwater. It is the final end of a public political career that has spanned a half century of decline in the country Buchanan loved so much and fought so hard to save. And if Buchanan can’t boast that he actually did save the country, he at least has the satisfaction of seeing ideas that once made him an outcast from his own party rise to become the dominant worldview within it. Without Buchanan, there would be no Trump. For that matter, without Buchanan, there would be no Revolver.

Of all the people who might be deemed a forerunner of Donald Trump and his political revolution, Pat Buchanan has by far the most worthy claim.

Consider this article from 2015, published just as Trump’s presidential campaign was taking off:

Mr. Trump revels in controversy. But as he assails illegal immigration as an “invasion” and refers to Mexicans en masse as “Jose,” his critics are accusing him of taking controversy a step too far. They say Mr. Trump is speaking in code, using xenophobic images like those or anti-Semitic references to excite bigots without alienating mainstream voters.

[Trump frequently offers] direct and sometimes harsh mockery of foreigners, using his derision to cultivate support for his immigration and trade policies. “I’ll build that security fence, and we’ll close it, and we’ll say, ‘Listen Jose, you’re not coming in this time!’ ” he shouted to applause from an almost entirely white audience at a rally in Waterloo, Iowa three weeks ago.

Okay, you probably already guessed the twist: That’s not Trump at all, but a write-up of Buchanan’s presidential campaign twenty-six years ago. All that’s missing is the promise to make Mexico pay for the fence. Buchanan didn’t just share Trump’s views, but his talent for colorful language that drove the regime berserk; a quarter-century before “Crooked Hillary,” China’s Deng Xiaoping was a “chain-smoking Communist dwarf.”

Donald Trump won the presidency by appealing to the Silent Majority, but Buchanan is the one who literally coined the term working as a speechwriter for Richard Nixon. And throughout his career, Buchanan tried his best to speak for that quiet mass of beleaguered American humanity.

Put up a fence, send illegals home, America-first trade policy, an end to foreign interventionism, no more wokeness: It was all there, 20 years ahead of Trump. But tragically, the message went unheeded. Buchanan was the intellectual son of accountant, not a billionaire real estate tycoon with three decades’ experience as a TV star. Buchanan had the ideas, but Trump had the money, the star power, the meme magic. Buchanan’s 1992 campaign was the last credible primary challenge to an incumbent president, but nothing more. His 1996 campaign might have worked against a more divided field, but against an establishment firmly united around Bob Dole, Buchanan won just four states and 20% of the primary vote.

But Buchanan never deviated or retooled his message just for the sake of popularity. Instead, he willingly endured more than a decade as the Republican Party’s Cassandra.

In the end, all of Buchanan’s warnings came true: Middle America became a hollowed-out, deindustrialized area wracked with blight and drug overdoses. America’s foreign adventures wasted trillions and achieved nothing. The tidal wave of foreign immigration resulted not in rainbow-like harmony but endless struggles between different identity groups. And all of this culminated in crushing defeat for the Bush-era Republican party that embraced all of these trends. It would only return to the White House in 2016 behind a candidate who finally did what Buchanan had begged the party to do a quarter-century before: Actually reach out to middle America and seek the support of America’s Silent Majority.

“My friends, these people are our people,” Buchanan said in 1992. “They don’t read Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they come from the same schoolyards and the same playgrounds and towns as we come from. They share our beliefs and convictions, our hopes and our dreams. They are the conservatives of the heart. They are our people. And we need to reconnect with them. We need to let them know we know how bad they’re hurting. They don’t expect miracles of us, but they need to know we care.”

Sadly, it took twenty-four years for the GOP to field a candidate who did.

Yep—dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way, and to this day they struggle desperately to smite him, and make damned sure he stays smote for the duration. Just as any debased, corrupted system or organization always will do, to any nonconformist, visionary outlaw who dares stand athwart them and their nefarious ambitions.

Threatens the tyrant

Posted on January 17, 2023January 17, 2023 by Mike

The usual blather from a gun-grabbing blowhard.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has blasted the more than six dozen sheriff’s offices across the state for vowing to defy a new gun control law.

“This is political grandstanding at its worst. The assault weapons ban is the law of Illinois,” the governor’s office told Fox News on Monday. “The General Assembly passed the bill and the Governor signed it into law to protect children in schools, worshippers at church, and families at parades from the fear of sudden mass murder.”

The state Senate passed the Protect Illinois Communities Act last week, which bans assault weapons 2A-protected semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity standard-capacity magazines from being sold or manufactured in the state.

Edited by me, for purposes of veracity.

At least 74 sheriff’s offices have publicly stated their opposition to the law, calling it unconstitutional.

80 at last count, out of a possible hundred and two counties in Illinois. Which adds up to an overwhelming majority in anybody’s book. Gee, Gov Prickzter, think maybe the problem here might not lie with these stalwart sheriffs, who are standing up straight and tall in resistance to mendacious authority, but with this soggy sop you’re tossing to the fear-stricken and factually-challenged in your sorry state?

“Part of my duties that I accepted upon being sworn into office was to protect the rights provided to all of us, in the Constitution,” Edwards County Sheriff Darby Boewe said on Facebook. “One of those rights enumerated is the right of the people to KEEP and BEAR ARMS provided under the 2nd Amendment. The right to keep and bear arms for defense of life, liberty and property is regarded as an inalienable right by the people.”

The Illinois Sheriff’s Association stated last week that they have opposed the bill since its inception.

“We, as a representative of chief law enforcement officials throughout Illinois, are very concerned and disturbed by the ongoing and escalating violence throughout our State and Country,” they said. “We are always supportive of new tools, techniques and laws that assist us in preventing and holding accountable those that wage efforts of harm and violence on others. However, this new law does not do that.”

As statistics and studies have confirmed, over and again.

Pritzker’s office continues to maintain that law enforcement in the state doesn’t have the right to “pick and choose which laws they support.”

Perhaps so, and then again perhaps not. What they DO have is a clear and specific duty to refuse to enforce patently unlawful and contra-Constitutional edicts such as this one, you multi-chinned fascist slob. These good men and true are upholding their oaths of office; you’re violating yours. If this nation is to survive qua nation for very much longer, it will require a whole lot fewer of YOU and a whole lot more of THEM to see to it that it does.

Next time grubby, greasy Gov Prickzter is consoling himself with a few dozen fully-loaded triple-decker fatburgers in the privacy of the Governor’s Mansion, I hope he chokes to death on ’em.

Southern gentleman

Posted on January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 by Mike

His hallowed name will resonate deeply in the hearts and minds of every proudly unreconstructed Southron forever and ever.

Robert E. Lee, in full Robert Edward Lee, (born January 19, 1807, Stratford Hall, Westmoreland county, Virginia, U.S.—died October 12, 1870, Lexington, Virginia), U.S. Army officer (1829–61), Confederate general (1861–65), college president (1865–70), and central figure in contending memory traditions of the American Civil War.

Robert Edward Lee was the son of Henry (“Light-horse Harry”) Lee and Ann Hill Carter Lee. His father had been a hero of the American Revolution and governor of Virginia, and uncles and other relatives had signed the Declaration of Independence, served in Congress, and otherwise achieved notable reputations. When Lee was age six, his father moved to the West Indies and never returned, leaving the family in financially straightened circumstances.

Lee entered the United States Military Academy in 1825 and graduated second in the class of 1829. Fellow cadets referred to him as the “Marble Model”—a nickname that reflected envy as well as admiration. Just under six feet (1.8 metres) tall, with black hair and brown eyes, Lee cut a striking figure. High class ranking entitled him to enter the Engineer Corps as a second lieutenant on July 1, 1829.

More than a decade and half passed before Lee saw a battlefield. Promotions to first lieutenant (September 21, 1836) and to captain (July 7, 1838) punctuated his peacetime engineering service. In June 1831 Lee married Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the only daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the grandson of Martha Washington. The couple would share a 39-year marriage that produced four daughters and three sons. Lee took seriously the ties to George Washington, whom he sought to emulate throughout his life.

On May 13, 1846, the United States declared war on Mexico. Between March and September 1847, Lee served on the staff of Winfield Scott during a campaign that ended with the capture of Mexico City. Lee impressed superiors throughout these operations and won brevet promotions to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel.

As sectional stresses related to the institution of slavery mounted in the 1850s, Lee held the superintendency of the United States Military Academy (1852–55) and later served as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Cavalry in Texas. In 1859 he was in Washington, D.C., when the abolitionist John Brown mounted his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Summoned to the War Department on October 17, Lee proceeded to Harpers Ferry with a detachment of Marines and the next morning orchestrated the capture of Brown, whom he described as an “enemy of the Country.”

Which, y’know, he in fact was, in light of the deadly and disastrous conflagration Brown’s murderous fanaticism helped to touch off.

Ever since Lee’s illustrious, entirely admirable conduct of himself as the CSA’s foremost general, he has been held up as a role model for young Southern boys, a pluperfect exemplar of what every Southern man should always strive to be. This is only meet and just, a well-earned plaudit for a true paragon among men. For me, the great Robert E Lee will always be a hero, plain and simple. Shitlib Yankees inclined to disparage him ought to pay careful heed to the righteous words of Merle Haggard.

PREACH it, brother.

“What happens when you land on the wrong aircraft carrier?”

Posted on January 13, 2023January 13, 2023 by Mike

Hilarity ensues.

When there used to be more than one carrier in a task group, if an aircraft landed accidentally on the wrong ship, some fun was had before sending him “home”.

Imagine doing this today.

The flight deck crew would be sent immediately to undergo 100 hours of mandatory sensitivity training, so as to be sure Peter “Wrongway” Peachfuzz’s hurt feeeeeelings were properly assuaged, of course. But none of these all-in-good-fun hijinks would be possible today, sad to say. For one thing, it would require a sense of humor, which is a rara avis indeed in these parlous times.

I purely love what they did to this F2 Banshee.

Strikethrough — *Must be Chair Farce—heh*

The “Down Bird” Phantom is good too.

FYI, it’s an aircraft from USS Constellation, see, that mistakenly set down on the deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard, whose crew-assigned nickname (all USN ships have one, which is voted on by the crew from a list of candidates which have been pre-approved by their CO) is the Bonnie Dick. Lots more rib-tickling photos at the link, going all the way back to an old F4U that got itself declared a “POW” owing to its poor pilot having shit the bed, so to speak, in similarly spectacular fashion.

Ignore illegal orders

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Mike

In Illinois, of all places.

Some Illinois Sheriffs Say Departments Will Not Comply With Assault Weapon Registration Requirements

As potential legal fights percolate over Illinois’ new assault weapons ban, law enforcement officials in several counties have said that their departments will not enforce provisions of the bill that require existing weapons to be registered with the State Police.

Their arguments center around their stance that the bill, which makes it illegal for Illinois residents to purchase, transfer or manufacture assault weapons and extended magazines, violates the Second Amendment.

McHenry County Sheriff Robb Tadelman was one of numerous law enforcement officials throughout the state who shared messages on social media in the aftermath of the bill’s passage.

“Neither myself nor my office will be checking to ensure that lawful gun owners register their weapons with the state, nor will we be arresting or housing law abiding individuals that have been charged solely with non-compliance with this act,” he said.

Many of those law enforcement officials shared identical messages, including Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey, Sheriff Jack Harlan in Boone County and Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana.

In a statement, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office called the messages “political grandstanding at its worst,” and said that sheriffs and departments that refuse to enforce the ban are “in violation of their oath of office.”

Au contraire, you rat-bastard prick; YOU are. Heartfelt kudos to these fine fellows; clearly, they understand their oath of office, the US Constitution, and their solemn and sacred duty to uphold it a damned sight better than their shitlib Goobernor ever will, or could.

(Via Divemedic)

The past is prologue

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Mike

The imminent fall of the rusty, rickety, ramshackle New Roman Empire.

Every. Single. Thing. about out Centralized DotGov and its DotMil is Bullshit.

Recruiting is Down, if not entirely nonexistent these days. The Imperial Untied Staatz is going to go the way of Ancient Rome at this rate…what’s next? Offering citizenship to all these Mexicans crossing the border IF they do a stint in the Imperial DotMil? Currently the status of an Illegal:

Can an illegal immigrant serve in the US military?

Undocumented immigrants are generally barred from serving in the military, though occasionally (especially in times of military need) an undocumented person might be allowed to join the armed forces in spite of this rule.

Military Membership – Curran, Berger & Kludt

Search for: Can an illegal immigrant serve in the US military?

So, key words: especially in times of military need
I’d say that that time is rapidly approaching
Seeings that ‘Heritage ‘Murican’ i.e. Southern boys and Midwesterners who typically form the backbone of the US DotMil across the board are, for the most part actively avoiding the Imperial Legion due to The Pozz and all it’s indoctrination. Recruiters can’t and haven’t made their markers. Last time things were this bad was back in 2006 when the Iraq shitshow was entering year two point five…

That’s when we heard about literal retarded kids, autistic kids and downs syndrome kids being recruited just to fill in the numbers… I actually met one of those kids who was, no joke a Learning Disabled country boy from Alabama who was a functional (or non functional?) illiterate. He literally couldn’t read. I helped him quite a bit, as I had MomUnit send me some learn-to-read books and I worked with him to get him to a 2nd grade level. He was a fast learner, and a hell of a Combat soldier, but should he have been recruited?

Oh Hells Noes
The Roman Empires fall was directly due to the fact that “Heritage Romans” were no longer serving in the Legion. They started recruiting from the ‘provinces’ and that led to the eventual dissolution of the Empire, as instead of Roman, the Legion was a diverse mishmash of “others”
Sounds familiar donitnow Aye?

All too, my brother. All too. Lots of things do nowadays, way too many of ’em for comfort.

Hell in Winter

Posted on December 30, 2022December 30, 2022 by Mike

All hail the Battered Bastards of Bastogne.

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in Europe. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and Luxembourg. It overlapped with the Alsace Offensive and subsequently the Colmar Pocket, another series of battles launched by the Germans in support of the Ardennes thrust.

The primary military objectives were to deny further use of the Belgian port of Antwerp to the Allies and to split the Allied lines, which potentially could have allowed the Germans to encircle and destroy the four Allied forces. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who since December 1941 had assumed direct command of the German army, believed that achieving these objectives would compel the Western Allies to accept a peace treaty in the Axis powers‘ favor. By this time, it was palpable to virtually the entire German leadership including Hitler himself that they had no realistic hope of repelling the imminent Soviet invasion of Germany unless the Wehrmacht was able to concentrate the entirety of its remaining forces on the Eastern Front, which in turn obviously required that hostilities on the Western and Italian Fronts be terminated. The Battle of the Bulge remains among the most important battles of the war, as it marked the last major offensive attempted by the Axis Powers on the Western front. After their defeat, Germany would retreat for the remainder of the war.

The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces bore the brunt of the attack. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies’ superior air forces. Fierce American resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, and in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This congestion, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops.

The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant, being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944. Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. On 26 December the lead element of Patton’s U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south, ending the siege. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were out of men and equipment, and the survivors retreated to the Siegfried Line.

The Germans’ initial attack involved 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles (AFVs). These were reinforced a couple of weeks later, bringing the offensive’s total strength to around 450,000 troops, and 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. The battle severely depleted Germany’s armored forces, which remained largely unreplaced throughout the remainder of the war. German Luftwaffe personnel, and later also Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement) also sustained heavy losses.

From among the Americans’ peak strength of 610,000 troops, there were 89,000 casualties, including about 19,000 killed. The “Bulge” was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.

Number one being Normandy earlier in that same year, as one might expect, and number two being the Meuse/Argonne offensive towards the end of the War To End All Wars, in late 1918.

The thing that I’ve always found striking about this pivotal moment in the history of not just the US and/or Germany, but of Western Civ itself, is the photos of the dauntless American GIs who fought in it. Look at them: these aren’t boys here, they’re men. In comparison to today’s simpering, overly-feminized boy-men, these men have been there and done that, and it’s written all over their war-weary faces.

This is not merely a matter of chronological age, understand—the average age of an enlisted US infantryman in WW2 was only 22. An old but evergreen Austin Bay post might help to explain some of the differences between then and now.

Captain and medical doctor James E. Kreisle’s Dec. 6, 1944 letter, posted from Clervaux, Luxembourg, begins with a chest thump: “Dear Mum, Dad and Peg: I’ve just returned to my outfit after a leave which allowed me two days in Paris.”

Leave? Impossible, Captain. Fall 1944’s cold, wet weather and illness kept Army doctors busy, especially surgeons in “separate” units like Kreisle’s 14th Cavalry Group. Then luck struck. The young Texan viewed his Paris trip as a wartime idyll. He hit a nightclub, the Lido. He managed “Christmas shopping”; perfume for Mum and Peg “six dishes” for the family in Austin.

Forty-eight Parisian hours compensated for the “chilly” to and fro in a deuce and a half that bounced him through Belgium and France, and then returned him to the 14th Cav, the Allied covering force in the Western front’s quiet sector, the Ardennes Forest.

Lean, white-haired Kreisle introduced himself to me in 1996, in an Austin, Texas, barbershop. He said he enjoyed my books. I might appreciate his WW2 letters. “I was in the 14th Cav,” he said. “You know where we were Dec. 16 (1944)?” Yes … Losheim Gap. He said: “I survived The Bulge.”

“Of course, it wasn’t really quiet,” Kreisle told me, after I read his letters and his tragic account of the Battle of the Bulge: “we thought we were close to winning the war. 14th Cav, in the Losheim Gap, scattered from Vielsalm (Belgium) to Germany (border). …We had the 106th Infantry Division on a flank — very green. On the German side, Sixth SS Panzer Army was assembling. We didn’t know it. Until December 16th.” Bulge “was a psychological about-face.”

The defense of Bastogne made the 101st Airborne the world’s most famous division. Bastogne was the Alamo as a victory. However, critical battles erupted throughout the “bulge” Hitler’s gamble carved in allied lines. Some of the most critical occurred Dec.16 and 17 as elements of 14th Cav, 99th ID, 2nd ID, 7th Armored Division and the ill-fated 106th ID delayed Panzers for five minutes here, 10 there. The 28th ID soldiers made a stand at Clervaux, surrendering after a Panzer broached the castle walls. Troop A, 14th Cav engaged 1st SS Panzer at Honsfeld. Panzers, Kreisle wrote, “immune to our light weapons, rolled right into the village and leveled their guns at the command post, which had apparently been pointed out by civilians.”

Jim Kreisle’s Bulge was escaping under fire in an ambulance. “One sensed an atmosphere of suppressed panic,” he wrote. He commanded a surgeon’s retreat over forest trails, west from Herresbach — through snow, mud and sporadic artillery fire. His medics directed wounded men tasked with carrying more severely wounded men “in this gloomy place.”

Dec. 24: clear weather, U.S. aircraft strike German columns. Dec. 27: As remnants of two 14th Cav troops counter-attack, Kreisle writes, “Dear Folks … the German tide has been fairly well stemmed.” Dec. 28: After 13 days of continual action, his ambulance and aid men are relieved.

“I’m glad you liked the memoir,” Kreisle told me. “The battle was … confusion. The setback really stunned us.” His letter home of Dec. 15, “the day before,” thanked relatives for sending him tamales and chili, food so “reminiscent of Texas.” His favorite Bulge history: Robert Merrimam’s “Dark December.” Dr. Kreisle died in 2002. God bless him, and the brave soldiers of his generation.

A most hearty “amen” to that. We shan’t see their like again, and must remain eternally grateful that we ever did at all. I’ve said it many times: if we had to rely on the contemporary generation to fight off another Hitler today, we’d best be learning to sing Deutschland Über Alles in the original German toot fucking sweet.

Fairchild-Republic A10 Thunderbolt II: the plane that wouldn’t die

Posted on December 10, 2022December 10, 2022 by Mike

The plane the Chair Farce couldn’t kill off, more like (via Ed Driscoll).

A-10 Warthog: The 50 Year Old Plane That Just Won’t Die

Despite being nearly fifty years old, how does the U.S. A-10 Warthog continue to survive various efforts to cancel it each time it’s in budget-cut danger? An airplane that is as ugly as its name, the A-10 can bring the heat to the air-to-ground battle. Its many critics have to admit that this thing is just awesome at close-air-support. Designed as a “tank plinker” during the Cold War, the Warthog showed extreme prowess during Operation Desert Storm while destroying all kinds of Iraqi weapons systems.

How Many Lives Does the Warthog Have?

But the Air Force has wanted to eliminate the A-10 for more than 20 years. It is considered too slow and ponderous after decades in service. And despite its achievements in the air-to-ground fight, opponents believed the money used on upkeep and maintenance could be better spent on more modern aircraft.

Enter the Biden Administration and the U.S. Senate

Then politics entered the picture. First, the Biden Administration said no more Warthogs and proposed to retire dozens of them.

Because of course he did. It’s a US military aircraft that works extremely well, enheartening beleaguered American ground-pounders and striking abject terror into the hearts of America’s enemies every time it comes howling in low on another deadly strafing run with that enormous GAU 8 cannon; for a shitheel like Traitor Joe, what’s to like?

Be sure to watch the whole vid; it’s eight minutes-plus of pure, unadulterated glory, that’s what. Oh, and I DID mention that the GAU 8 Gatling-cannon is enormous, didn’t I? Why yes, I believe I did at that.

You aviation buffs will doubtless be aware that the A10 platform was actually designed and built around the GAU 8 Avenger rotary gun, resulting in one of the most successful combinations in military-aviation history. The A10 came into being as the replacement for the venerable Douglas A1 Skyraider, a warbird I was lucky enough to get some stick time in at an airshow years ago:

AoA — *Cranking the Able Dog hard a-port*

Bankage — *Note the AoA indicator, at top center*

The USAF, despite the A10’s matchless record of battlefield success, doesn’t see CAS as its role, greatly preferring the old-school glamor of aerial dogfighting, strategic bombing, and standoff-range missile engagements instead. Hence its longstanding dislike of the A10, dubbed by its opponents in Iraq as “the Devil’s Cross.” They feared the A10, and were right to do so; its other ordnance aside, the GAU 8’s stout 30mm depleted-uranium rounds ripped many a pinned-down Republican Guardsman into Kibbles ‘N’ Bits over the course of both Iraq conflicts, without its pilots’ ever breaking much of a sweat.

Ahh, but is the A10 durable? Don’t even go there.

Air Force Pilot Landed Damaged A-10 Using Only ‘Cranks and Cables’

DAVIS-MONTHAN AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) — Maj. Kim Campbell, an A-10 Thunderbolt II pilot here, shared her story with Women’s History Month luncheon guests about a mission in which her A-10 was hit by enemy fire over Baghdad.

While deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, then Captain Campbell and her flight lead were flying over downtown Baghdad during a close air support mission April 7, 2003.

“We were originally tasked to target some Iraqi tanks and vehicles in the city that were acting as a command post, but on the way to the target area we received a call from the ground forward air controller or FAC, saying they were taking fire and needed immediate assistance.”

The FAC ultimately turned out to be a member of the captain’s squadron. Once over the target area, they descended below the clouds to positively identify the friendly troops and the enemy’s location.

“We could see the Iraqi troops firing RPGs, or rocket propelled grenades, into our guys,” she said. “It was definitely a high threat situation, but within minutes my flight lead was employing his 30 mm Gatling gun on the enemy location.”

The two-ship formation of A-10s then made several passes over the enemy location, employing 30 mm bullets and high explosive rockets.

“Yes, there was risk involved, but these guys on the ground needed our help,” Major Campbell said. “It’s what any A-10 attack pilot would do in response to a troops-in-contact situation. That’s our job; to bring fire down on the enemy when our Army and Marine brothers and sisters request our assistance.”

After her last rocket pass, the captain was maneuvering off target when she felt and heard a large explosion at the back of the aircraft.

“There was no question in my mind,” she said. “I knew I had been hit by enemy fire.”

Yes, there are pictures, all of which serve to confirm the doughty MAJ Campbell as a true master of understatement. Mind, hers is but one of many stories of ragged, chewed-up, shot-to-hell-and-gone A10s nonetheless bringing their pilots home safely.

It may very well be true that the battle-proven A10 Warthog’s moment in the sun has at last flitted on by, and that it should therefore be mothballed with all the honors and respect it has so richly earned over its storied career. That’s an argument I’ll gladly leave to others to make. Whatever the case may be, the A10’s retirement will stand as a marker of something sad and depressing: one of the last reminders of America’s faded glory, its atrophied military muscle, and its bygone ability to engineer and produce war matériel of unparalleled quality, toughness, and worth.

The A10 Thunderbolt II is quite simply the very best CAS aircraft ever built, by anybody. The F35 Turducken as its replacement? Yeah, right.

Update! Just remembered another personal A10 experience I had all but forgotten about, involving the now-defunct Myrtle Beach AFB.

The Myrtle Beach base used the A-10 Warthog jet, and Pat McCullough of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission said the Air Force considered the jet “limited to a low-threat environment”, while the Army believed it was “a very powerful close-air support asset.” The Air Force chose to phase out the A-10, which led to the base’s closing, but the Army wanted the A-10 to continue flying; the decision to keep the A-10 came after the decision to close had been made.

The base closed 31 March 1993.

Now, when I was a kid we always took our summer vacation down at MYB every year, where the fam would often sit on the beach watching those A10 squadrons practicing attack-weave patterns low and slow out over the water, not terribly far from our ocean-front perches. Being but a callow stripling, I just assumed those Warthogs were lowly training jets, not really worthy of a whole lot in the way of notice. It was not until years later that it finally hit me that what I was witnessing was in fact one of the most badass warplanes ever built, swooping and diving around amongst the seagulls no more than a couple hundred yards away from where I sat.

Ahh, youth.

Hot brass update! Another personal A10 memory, this one from Big Country.

No bullshit, I was actually showered with fucking 30mm brass from a close air support mission in Iraq back in the day. Thank Christ I was wearing a helmet bro…Them fucking brass shells are a fucking heavy motherfucker when they’re falling from the sky.

Heh. Yeah, I imagine so. Just the same, I bet you were glad of ’em at the time, though.

CF Search

Login, RSS, &c

CF Archives

Categories

2A/Mostly Guns

Alt-American

Big Dogs

Essayists

Mil

Nuttin’ But News

Odds Bodkins

Overseas/Non-US

Portals

Pure Bloggery

REAL Journalism

Substack Scalawags

The Funny Pages

Comments policy

CF Glossary

Subscribe to CF!

Shameless begging

Correspondence

Allied territory

Notable Quotes

RSS feed

.