Thursday, September 30, 2021
This Ref is outta his mind! LOL!!!
Captain , Sidhu and Rahul Gandhi 😂🤣 pic.twitter.com/Z2945Rd7s9
— Superstar Raj 🇮🇳 (@NagpurKaRajini) September 30, 2021
Eat Like The Jacked Chef
Eat Like The Jacked Chef pic.twitter.com/ez0REwKpdm
— Men's Health Mag (@MensHealthMag) September 29, 2021
I know you're all saying WTF!
Personally I would have just shot it!
Legend 👍 pic.twitter.com/owZLpDLdLc
— CCTV_IDIOTS (@cctv_idiots) September 30, 2021
Smith & Wesson announced they are leaving Massachusetts....About damn time!
About damn time! Why a corporation would setup operations/remain in a state that is vehemently opposed to the product it sells is beyond me.Big news today as Smith & Wesson announced they are leaving Massachusetts. Smith & Wesson has been in Springfield, Massachusetts since 1852. They will be moving their Headquarters and major components to Maryville, Tennessee. #Tennessee #News #AlienGearHolsters #moving pic.twitter.com/sf52pK44Uy
— Alien Gear Holsters (@AlienGHolsters) September 30, 2021
UK Crime. He used covid regulations for...“Deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire.”
Read this entire thread. God bless. That woman's last few hours on earth were probably living hell. Its true. Evil does walk among us and will use ANYTHING to deceive.“She was just walking home” has been the rallying cry over the death of Sarah Everard.
— Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) September 29, 2021
But in court today the prosecution has said there are five better words that summarise what happened to Sarah:
“Deception, kidnap, rape, strangulation, fire.”@LBC
WATCH -- Covid-police in Sydney, Australia, pepper-sprayed a 12-yo and arrested a group of teenagers for not wearing a face mask after brawling with them first. 🚔⚠ pic.twitter.com/Od3W3zYZba
— Videokings 📹 (@videokings_tv) July 6, 2021
Covid is bad. The cure is worse. The damage being done to the Western world is incalcuable. It will take a generation to bounce back from the decisions that are being made today. We WILL see new laws to prevent the overreach that we're seeing from the elite on this issue.How Australia plans on beating COVID👇🏼
— Aaron Ginn (@aginnt) September 18, 2021
pic.twitter.com/sZMZN9ePti
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
If this is true and/or becomes law then I'm gonna get hammered...
This tax would kill me. I drive more than 13.5 a year and you can bet that costs will rise if they hit the trucking companies with this tax. Good God. Gas has risen along with everything else and to top it off, I'm looking at some mighty skippy store shelves (at least in my area). It's almost like they're trying to make me a city dweller! That ain't gonna happen but this will be brutal. They're gonna force me to vote not out of ideology but simply to save what little money I have!The average person drives 13,500 according to the DOT. $1,080 tax just to drive your car that you paid for with income that was taxed, paid sales tax on, were taxed for licensing fees and the fuel required to drive it was taxed. pic.twitter.com/f5b2Rw1yHk
— Break The Bell Podcast (@breakthebellpod) September 28, 2021
USNS Brunswick @ Exercise Noble Jaguar 2021
Wow. If only these things could put gear across a beach! Shipping is the achilles heel of this EABO concept. The Navy is all onboard with the concept but needs to shore up its battle fleet before allocating more resources to the gator navy.#Watch @USMC Marines embark the @MSCSealift USNS Brunswick during Exercise Noble Jaguar 2021 at Naha Port, Okinawa, Japan. #TogetherWeDeliver @USNavy @IIIMEF pic.twitter.com/Tm9Faqci1G
— USTRANSCOM (@US_TRANSCOM) September 29, 2021
Independence Class LCS as Hight Speed Transports?
The idea comes as the Navy looks for ways to employ the Littoral Combat Ships – which are now entering the fleet in high numbers – and the Marine Corps pursues a Light Amphibious Warship to shuttle Marines around the island chains. The Navy has struggled with the LCS mission packages – envisioned as a way to swap three different types of mission sets within the ship. But the service has only deployed an LCS with a version of the surface warfare mission package, as developing and fielding the anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasure packages has been delayed.“The LCS – the mission is not completely clear. And so I think the Navy is looking at this as a way to provide an additional mission for the LCS to do,” Hudson Institute senior fellow Bryan Clark, a former submariner who previously worked on the chief of naval operations staff, told USNI News.“It would help the Navy get more value out of the LCS and make those deployments more impactful,” Clark added. “And then it would help them on the financial side because it would give them a way to mitigate that the LAW may be slow in coming or may not ever come at all.”
I like this idea. I once pushed for this idea (but not as part of the EABO concept...I pushed it as part of my Reinforced MEU concept).
But make no mistake about it. It's suboptimal. It could even be called less than a half measure.
Which leads back to this whole thing.
We still don't see how the LAW and LPD/LHA/LHD would co-exist. The Navy can't grow crews on trees.
Which leads to the real canary in the coal mine.
It's obvious that the Navy has bigger fish to fry than getting the Marines the LAW. It's obviously more concerned with its surface, subsurface and air fleet than it is with pushing for a new ship for the Marines.
Now I ask you all.
If the LAW doesn't come online then how do you make the EABO a thing? If the Independence Class LCS is the ride for Marines in the Littorals then how does it offload HIMARS/NEMISIS?
Kinda patting myself on the back. If you recall I stated that the LAW would be the shatterpoint for this thing. I doubted that the Navy would saddle up to pay for another ship that the Marines had "figure out how to use" and it looks like the time might be now.
The Marines moved before the Navy while at the same time trying to tie itself to its hip.
We've been burned by doing this before and it looks like it might be happening again.
Ain't interservice politics grand?
Tornado in Germany?
NOW - Several injured after rare tornado hits #Kiel in Germany on Wednesday evening. Major deployment of police and fire department.pic.twitter.com/6lR8bWpESf
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 29, 2021
P-38 Lightning Concepts...
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning could have been a very different looking aeroplane! These are some conceptual models considered in 1937, when the project was still in discussion. Certainly some 'blue sky thinking' evident in the mind of designers “Kelly” Johnson and Hall Hibbard! pic.twitter.com/RYo5A1S7E9
— Trev Clark's Obscure Aviation History Page . 🚁 (@clark_aviation) September 28, 2021
Marine Rotational Force - Darwin conduct a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System Rapid Infiltration (HIRAIN) @ Exercise Loobye at Bradshaw Field Training Area, Australia
All Domain Reconnaissance Detachment boat team & Coast Guardsmen assigned to the Advanced Interdiction Team, Task Force 55 conduct maritime navigation training aboard a rigid inflatable boat.
To the PAO 11th MEU. Pick a lane. Either they're Recon or Force Recon. I refuse to play this "All Domain" renaming bullshit that you're pushing. YOU ARE THE ONLY MEU going down that lane. Did you make that up or is that the new designation????
 |
| 210920-M-ON629-1375 ARABIAN GULF (Sept. 20, 2021) Marines assigned to the All Domain Reconnaissance Detachment boat team, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), and Coast Guardsmen assigned to the Advanced Interdiction Team, Task Force 55 conduct maritime navigation training aboard a rigid inflatable boat. The training was conducted to share U.S. Central Command-specific techniques, sustain proficiency, and enable interoperability in support of Task Force 51/5 maritime security operations. The 11th MEU is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of naval operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the Western Indian Ocean and three strategic choke points. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Seth Rosenberg/Released) |
US Army, US Navy & Japanese Self Defense Ground Force @ Exercise Rikuen
@USArmy and @Japan_GSDF service members project JGSDF MCVs as part of exercise Rikuen which strengthened interoperability between the @USNavy, U.S. Army and Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces. #TogetherWeDeliver @INDOPACOM @USARPAC @hqSDDC @FORSCOM pic.twitter.com/5YwGSz7rjG
— USTRANSCOM (@US_TRANSCOM) September 28, 2021
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Question. The generals give advice, the civilians make the decisions. If that's true then can we say Biden lost the Afghanistan war?
Milley was not the only top U.S. military commander who foresaw that America’s Afghan allies could not survive without American forces on the ground. Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., the head of U.S. Central Command, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he had recommended last fall that the military keep 4,500 troops in the country.“I also have a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces, and eventually the Afghan government,” McKenzie said.On Nov. 9, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper recommended to Trump that the U.S. military maintain between 2,500 and 4,500 troops in Afghanistan until conditions on the ground permitted further reductions, Milley said.But Trump fired Esper that very day and deliberations about the troop withdrawal became chaotic. Milley publicly revealed on Tuesday that he received an “unclassified, signed order” on Nov. 11 to pull all American forces out of Afghanistan by Jan. 15.“After further discussions regarding the risks associated with such a withdrawal, the order was rescinded,” Milley said.Ultimately, Trump ordered the military to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 2,500, plus enablers, he said. By the time Biden took office, about 3,500 U.S. troops were in the country, roughly 1,000 more than the Pentagon admitted at the time.Biden initially refused to commit to the withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan by the May 1 deadline agreed to by the Trump administration, but in April the president announced that he would end the U.S. military’s nearly 20-year presence in Afghanistan.Tuesday’s hearing featured a tortured debate about whether military commanders had recommended that Biden keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, which ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked Biden about during an April interview.“No, they didn’t,” Biden said at the time. “It was split. That wasn’t true. That wasn’t true.”
1. Answer the question in the title.
2. Knowing what we know now, would it have made sense to remain or was getting out of Afghanistan worth it no matter what.
3. Can anyone answer what the strategic implications of this loss are?
4. Can anyone answer why our mission evolved into nation building instead of simply crushing terrorists?
5. Can it be said that the idea of cultural change brought on by conquest CANNOT be accomplished by Western forces in the modern era...which means nation building is beyond our capabilities?
H-010-4: Samuel B. Roberts via Naval History & Heritage Command
On 27 September 1942, three companies (A, B, and D) of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines were landed by ten Higgins landing craft at a point west of the U.S. Marine forward lines on Guadalcanal that was supposed to be behind Japanese lines (1st Battalion, 7th Marines was under the command of the legendary Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller). The landing party itself was under the command of the battalion executive officer, Major Otho Rogers. The hastily conceived and planned operation was a debacle, as the Marines, without adequate pre-attack intelligence and hampered by tidal conditions, actually landed in the midst of a heavily fortified and dug-in Japanese position and quickly became pinned down. A Japanese air attack drove the USS Monssen (DD-436) , which been providing gunfire support, further out to sea to maneuver. The landing beach was out of range to be supported by other elements of 1st Battalion and the 7th Marines engaged with Japanese forces along the Mantanikau River to the east. Major Rogers was killed almost immediately by a Japanese mortar round, and the Marines’ radio was destroyed (some accounts say the Marines failed to bring a radio ashore, but I find it being destroyed to be more plausible). Sixty Marines were killed and over 100 were wounded in the battle, one of the bloodiest for the Marines in the entire Guadalcanal campaign. The greatly outnumbered landing party had to resort to tying white T-shirts together to spell out “help.” The signal was spotted and reported by a Marine SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Lieutenant Colonel Puller personally boarded the Monssen, which led nine Higgins landing craft back to the beach to extract the Marines.
While Monssen provided gunfire support (after the Japanese air strike departed) that cleared a way for the trapped Marines to reach the beach, the landing craft were met by intense Japanese fire. One of the landing craft, with U.S. Naval Reserve coxswain Samuel B. Roberts embarked, acted as a diversion to draw enemy fire as other landing craft extracted the Marines. Roberts had previously volunteered to provide a diversion if one became necessary. However, exactly what happened remains unclear. According to Navy reports and his award citation, Roberts was mortally wounded at the very end of the operation and died while being airlifted out, and was subsequently awarded a posthumous Navy Cross. However, according to U.S. Coast Guard records, Roberts was accompanied by Coast Guard Petty Officer Raymond J. Evans. (After Rear Admiral Turner had withdrawn Navy surface forces from the close proximity of Guadalcanal after the disastrous U.S. Navy defeat at the Battle of Savo Island, about two dozen Navy and Coast Guard Sailors, including Roberts and Evans, had volunteered to stay behind and operate several Higgins landing craft to move supplies along the Marine’s beachhead on Guadalcanal.)
According to Evans’s account, after Roberts and Evans initially dropped the Marines off and the other nine landing craft headed back to U.S. lines, Roberts and Evans remained close to the beach in the event any wounded Marines needed evacuation. Neither appreciated the range of Japanese machine guns from the beach and their boat came under fire. Evans returned fire while Roberts maneuvered the boat, attempting to draw fire as it became apparent that the Marines did need to be withdrawn. It was at this time that Roberts was hit in the head and throat by a burst of machine-gun fire. Evans took the damaged boat back to Lunga Point with the mortally wounded Roberts, but when the Marine’s distress signal was reported, he took another boat back to the landing beach with U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Douglas Munro, who, according to Coast Guard records, led the rescue effort while repeatedly maneuvering his boat to shield others. Munro was hit by a bullet and killed while trying to tow the last landing craft that had grounded on the beach. His last words were, “Did they get off?” They did. Munro was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the only Coast Guardsman to ever this award. At this point, there is no way of knowing which version is the most accurate. What is not in dispute is that in either version, Roberts voluntarily placed himself in a position of extreme danger and gave his life in support of brother Marines ashore.
(Based on my personal discussions with Captain Paul X. Rinn, Commanding Officer of USS Samuel B. Roberts [FFG-58]; on the book No Higher Honor: Saving the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf by Bradley Peniston (especially for researching the U.S. Coast Guard version;) on Captain James Bloom’s, research; and the book Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle by Richard B. Frank, which it is pretty definitive.)
Here
We've forgotten Guadalcanal. The Navy will abandon forces on the beach if its necessary to save the surface fleet.
THIS IS THE REASON why the Marine Corps developed the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF).
If you forget the lessons of the past you're bound to repeat them. Don't get me wrong. Individual Soldiers, Sailors and Coast Guardsmen will make heroic efforts to get Marines off that future beach, just like Coxswain Roberts did, the problem is they'll be unsupported and left on that same long limb.
French Army Armored Engagement Assistance Group on exercise...
[Groupement d’aide à l’engagement blindé] Renseigner, surveiller, neutraliser… Sur le terrain, elle concourt à acquérir la supériorité tactique. Zoom sur cette nouvelle capacité 👊 de la @7e_brig_blindee !
— Armée de Terre (@armeedeterre) September 28, 2021
Tous les détails avec #TerreMag 📰 https://t.co/xwU91el548#PrépaOps pic.twitter.com/EURNYDAKZG
UH-1Y Venom with HMH-169, participated in a forward refueling point for refueling at Landing Zone Dodo, Okinawa
A UH-1Y Venom with HMH-169, participated in a forward refueling point for refueling at Landing Zone Dodo, Okinawa. Energy Company, CLR-3, @3rdMLG, conducted a low transmission signature FRP in order to maintain proficiency in a forward-deployed distributed environment. pic.twitter.com/IWJwlCDnwb
— 1st MAW Marines (@1stMAW_Marines) September 28, 2021
Poland's 18th Mechanized Division Gen. Tadeusz Buk conducts river crossings...
Razem z rozwojem #18DZ powiększamy bazę szkoleniową we wschodniej 🇵🇱.
— 18 Dywizja Zmechanizowana (@Zelazna_Dywizja) September 28, 2021
Obiekt szkoleniowy w Nowogrodzie z odcinkiem rzeki #Narew wrócił we władanie Wojska Polskiego i został przywrócony do szkolenia pododdziałów, głównie z pokonywania przeszkody wodnej. pic.twitter.com/WpcVSJTlmt
Zadane wykonane, #Narew pokonana 🦾🌊#JEDYNApancerna #ŻelaznaDywizja
— 1. Warszawska Brygada Pancerna (@1WBPanc) September 28, 2021
- -@MON_GOV_PL @Zelazna_Dywizja @Polska_Zbrojna pic.twitter.com/5V0IYrzOQ9
