"I would like to believe, with some, that combined action was the best thing we did... ...In my experience, combined action was merely one more untenable article of faith. The truth, I suspect, is that where it seemed to work, combined action wasn't really needed, and where it was, combined action could never work."
Major Edward Palm
...In the Atlantic, Marines had trained Army forces for seaborne landings prior to the North African campaign in 1942, and then made landings during the same. Marines trained Army forces for the Sicilian-Italian landings in 1943. Marine Corps amphibious experts were on Ike’s staff. And most Normandy-bound Army units were in fact instructed by Marines prior to the 1944 invasion.The article is fascinating and filled in a chapter of Marine Corps history that I always wondered about but got few satisfying answers.
So why didn’t U.S. Marines storm the French coast with their Army counterparts?
First, the Marine Corps was then–as it has always been–much smaller than the Army. During World War II, the Corps swelled to a force comprising six divisions, whereas the Army expanded to 89 divisions. The Corps’ resources were stretched thin, and much of its efforts were focused on the fighting in the Pacific.
Second, a deep-seeded rivalry between the Army and Marines was in full bloom: Its origins stretching back to World War I; the defining period of the modern Marine Corps.Following the 1918 Battle of Belleau Wood (France), in which Marines played a leading role, newspapers in the U.S. credited much of the success of the American Expeditionary Force to the Marines. This occurred at the expense of deserving Army units even when referring to actions in which Marines did not participate.In one instance, a number of newspapers covering the fighting at the Marne River bridges at Chateau-Thierry (a few days prior to the Battle of Belleau Wood) published headlines that read “Germans stopped at Chateau-Thierry with help of God and a few Marines.” The headlines contributed to the Corps’ already legendary reputation, and the Army was justifiably incensed. The Germans in fact had been stopped at Chateau-Thierry by the U.S. Army’s 7th machinegun battalion.
Army leaders–including Generals George C. Marshall, Eisenhower, and Omar N. Bradley–were determined not to be upstaged by Marines, again. Thus, when America entered World War II in late 1941, the Marine Corps was deliberately excluded from large-scale participation in the European theater. And when the largest amphibious operation in history was launched, it was for all intents and purposes an Army show...
Ah...sweet interservice rivalry. It makes us all step a bit quicker, be a bit better and work just a bit harder.Patton said, “The quicker we clean up this g**damned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the g**damned Marines get all of the credit.”
The veteran F-16 operational tester and Weapons School grad shared some of his impressions the F-35. The jet is powerful, stable and easy to fly.
"One of the things this aircraft usually takes hit on is the handling because it's not an F-22," Kloos says. "An F-22 is unique in its ability to maneuver and we'll never be that."
But compared to other aircraft, a combat-configured F-35 probably edges out other existing designs carrying a similar load-out. "When I'm downrange in Badguyland that's the configuration I need to have confidence in maneuvering, and that's where I think the F-35 starts to edge out an aircraft like the F-16," Kloos says.
A combat-configured F-16 is encumbered with weapons, external fuel tanks, and electronic countermeasures pods that sap the jet's performance. "You put all that on, I'll take the F-35 as far as handling characteristic and performance, that's not to mention the tactical capabilities and advancements in stealth," he says. "It's of course way beyond what the F-16 has currently."
The F-35's acceleration is "very comparable" to a Block 50 F-16. "Again, if you cleaned off an F-16 and wanted to turn and maintain Gs and [turn] rates, then I think a clean F-16 would certainly outperform a loaded F-35," Kloos says. "But if you compared them at combat loadings, the F-35 I think would probably outperform it."
So when the F-22 oxygen system flaws led Panetta to step in, there were whispers in defense circles that the F-35 might be prone to spawning the same pilot wooziness.
Lockheed Martin responded to DOTMIL after multiple requests for comment, sounding a confident tone.
"They are different systems," Lockheed spokesman Michael Rein says. "The F-35 and F-22 have common aircraft oxygen system suppliers but the systems are very different...The two systems each utilize a similar approach and architecture, but they are packaged and implemented differently.
"The F-35 program continuously monitors issues present in other aircraft assessing applicability to our current design," Rein says. "The program has leveraged the lessons learned from F-22 development to enhance the F-35 across all subsystems, including the Onboard Oxygen Generating System."
The Concurrency Bogeyman is not going to disappear until people who use it get called out for their lies, so 'good on' Bucci and the Heritage foundation!Three different blogs...all come to the same conclusion. And if all that isn't enough, the testing program is rolling full speed ahead...
Awww. The Usual F-35 Hatin' Suspects seem to have shown up at the Heritage site with their usual quiver full of lies, half-truths, and distortions. How quaint. They range from ignorant to stupid-but they're quaint. Around here people say 'Bless their hearts' when we see that kind of lunacy.
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| NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND, PATUXENT RIVER, Md. – Cmdr. Eric Buus brings F-35C Joint Strike Fighter test aircraft CF-3 in for a landing at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., May 29. The flight was the 300th flight for the F-35’s carrier variants and evaluated improvements in flight control laws for carrier approaches. The F-35C carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter is distinct from the F-35A and F-35B variants with its larger wing surfaces and reinforced landing gear to withstand catapult launches and deck landing impacts associated with the demanding aircraft carrier environment. The F-35C is undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River prior to delivery to the fleet. |
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| Afghanistan (June 2, 2004) � U.S. Marines assigned to Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) wait for the word to move toward a mountain from which Taliban snipers are engaging the lead elements of their convoy. The Marines were near the village of Siah Chub Kalay, while participating in Operation Asbury Park. The intense fighting between the Marines and Taliban lasted for eight days and more than 80 Taliban fighters were killed while eight Marines were wounded in the most intense clashes during their deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). U.S. Navy photo by USMC Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks (RELEASED) |
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| Afghanistan (June 2, 2004) � U.S. Marines assigned to Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) wait for the word to move toward a mountain from which Taliban snipers are engaging the lead elements of their convoy. The Marines were near the village of Siah Chub Kalay, while participating in Operation Asbury Park. The intense fighting between the Marines and Taliban lasted for eight days and more than 80 Taliban fighters were killed while eight Marines were wounded in the most intense clashes during their deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). U.S. Navy photo by USMC Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks (RELEASED) |
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| Afghanistan (June 2, 2004) � U.S. Marines assigned to Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn., 6th Marines, the ground combat element of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) wait for the word to move toward a mountain from which Taliban snipers are engaging the lead elements of their convoy. The Marines were near the village of Siah Chub Kalay, while participating in Operation Asbury Park. The intense fighting between the Marines and Taliban lasted for eight days and more than 80 Taliban fighters were killed while eight Marines were wounded in the most intense clashes during their deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). U.S. Navy photo by USMC Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks (RELEASED) |
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| ) move toward a mountain from which Taliban snipers are engaging the lead elements of their convoy. The Marines were near the village of Siah Chub Kalay, while participating in Operation Asbury Park. The intense fighting between the Marines and Taliban lasted for eight days and more than 80 Taliban fighters were killed while eight Marines were wounded in the most intense clashes during their deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). U.S. Navy photo by USMC Gunnery Sgt. Keith A. Milks (RELEASED) |
