Saturday, September 24, 2011
A book that you must read...
Lesson From the Past
If you can, find one of the Chosin Few. Let him transform a 60-year-old story into knowledge of trial, fear, endurance, and triumph that makes the Chosin Reservoir breakout one of the Corps’ proudest moments. Do it today.Review by:LtCol Mike Parkyn, USMC(Ret)
But if you can’t, read Give Me Tomorrow by Patrick K. O’Donnell. Written largely from interviews with the Marines of George Company, 3d Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1), Give Me Tomorrow recounts their participation in the Inchon landings, the urban combat in Seoul, and in GEN Douglas MacArthur’s ill-fated attempt to wrest the entirety of Korea from Communist control in 1950.
O’Donnell first encountered the George Company veterans when he returned from Iraq with Lima Company, 3/1, where Lima Company had participated in the battle for Fallujah in 2004. As a combat correspondent, O’Donnell recorded his experiences with Lima Company in what would become We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder With the Marines Who Took Fallujah (Da Capo Press, 2007). While witnessing Lima Company’s homecoming at Camp Pendleton, O’Donnell was befriended by George Company Marines, who watched the Fallujah veterans return home with the guidon carried by George Company at Chosin. In a dialogue that began at Camp Pendleton, George Company’s Marines shared their story with O’Donnell over the course of the next 5 years.
Most of my growing library of Chosin books are either first-person accounts, such as Joseph R. Owen’s Colder Than Hell (Naval Institute Press, 2000), or third-person accounts like Martin Russ’ Breakout (Penguin, 2000), which broadly samples the experiences of soldiers, Marines, and Communist Chinese forces who participated in the battles. O’Donnell’s work bridges the two extremes by telling the story of one rifle company, focusing on the company’s formation at Camp Pendleton, its combat experiences at Inchon and Seoul, and its part in the 1st MarDiv’s legendary struggle against the Chinese in November and December 1950.
By giving voice solely to the Marines of George Company, O’Donnell acquaints the reader with a relatively small number of men—some who were veterans of World War II island campaigns and others from the Marine Corps Reserves who had not been trained at recruit depots—allowing the reader to follow them vicariously as they relive their experiences from 1950. The subjective nature of Give Me Tomorrow’s primary source material is also its most exceptional strength, and through it we learn what these men most loved and feared. We know what sustained them through a modern Thermopylae, and we know what haunts them 60 years later.
Don’t be surprised if you are unable to learn about the Chosin Reservoir breakout from a veteran. Even if you meet one, he may—like an uncle of mine—gloss over the horrors, only to laud the bravery of his brother Marines. In either event, Give Me Tomorrow is a fitting tribute to these Marines and an excellent addition to your bookshelf.
PACCOM CO bets on F-35 or F/A-18 for Japan...
via Reuters...
All that add up to Willard probably being right. Welcome aboard the F-35 program Japan!
(Reuters) - The head of U.S. military forces in Asia and the Pacific predicted Friday that Japan's choice of a new multibillion-dollar fighter fleet would reflect plans to stay "very complementary" with U.S. air forces.Lets see...a rising China...no European capability or forces in the area...two of its major allies operate the F-18 and will soon operate the F-35...and despite the thoughts by some that the F-18 is inadequate, most know the truth--its a very effective fighter.
Proposals are due in Tokyo on Monday from the three rivals for Japan's so-called F-X deal -- Boeing Co (BA.N) and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) of the United States and Europe's Eurofighter GmbH consortium, made up of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.Japan is expected to buy 42 planes, a deal experts say could be worth $6 billion to $8 billion, including spares, pilot training and related gear.U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Willard, head of the Hawaii-based, U.S. Pacific Command, stopped short of predicting that Tokyo would pick Boeing's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet or Lockheed's radar-evading F-35 Lightning II over the Eurofighter Typhoon.But he said Japanese defense forces "understand the importance of remaining interoperable with the United States, their ally that is home based in Japan or being hosted in Japan, as well as U.S. forces that are deployed in the region.""And I think have confidence that the decision that they make on this next fighter will reflect that," he added in an interview with Reuters.Pressed to say whether the Americans would best the Europeans, Willard replied: "No, I wouldn't go that far."But he said he was confident that Japanese commanders will make sure that whichever plane they buy "remains interoperable and very complementary to our capabilities."
All that add up to Willard probably being right. Welcome aboard the F-35 program Japan!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Mountain Warfare Training
Jacked up road march...
I never heard of so many heat casualties in one training evolution. Wonder what was going on?
FORT BRAGG, N.C. --- Dozens of Soldiers at North Carolina's Fort Bragg suffered heat-related problems after participating in an early morning march.Base spokesman Ben Abel said Friday that 37 Soldiers required medical treatment. Of those, 13 were taken to Womack Army Medical Center.One Soldier remains in the hospital's intensive care unit.About 60 Soldiers from various units at the sprawling Army base in the southeastern area of the state set out at about 5:30 a.m. for a road march in full combat gear as part of final training to receive their expert field medical badge.Doesn't seem like it was crazy hot...I wonder what the pace was and the type of Soldiers involved (their MOS...if these were grunts then something weird is going on).Temperatures were in the 70s but with a light rain and humidity as high as 95 percent.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Recon gets into the breeze...
Reconnaissance Marines with the 11th MEU watch their fellow service members parachute from a CH-46E on Camp Pendleton |
Reconnaissance Marines with the 11th MEU prepare their gear before they jump out of a CH-46E on Camp Pendleton |
Reconnaissance Marines with the 11th MEU jump out of a CH-46E on Camp Pendleton Sept. 22 |
24th MEU trains at Army base Fort Pickett
Photos by Sgt. Richard Blumenstein
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