Broadside
Excellently written, Allan, and something good to remember as we approach the 4th of July. Thank you for providing it, and keep up the good work.
Great post!!!!!!! OCM raises an intriguing point about having a single branch that does everything. The only problem would then be that the naysayers would say the Commander-In-Chief would have TOO much control over the military...remember, we’re never right…
A point not really touched on until the end - too many of these armchair admirals never put on either the green or the blue suit and got dirty. Guess I ain’t in charge, but I’d love to hear somebody like Rummy, just once on camera, give the critics a high-ho merry Fuck You.
P.S. And the reason we have multiple forces? ‘Cause drivin a tank, driving a boat and driving an airplane ain’t the same. You think a plumber can perform arterial surgery? Think drivin’ an F-15 is the same as piloting a missle cruiser? think about it…
What Frank said.
The military knows what it’s doing. When was the last time any of us non-doctors saw surgery performed and tried to tell the doc that he was doing it wrong?
I just hope that our military continues to learn and improve, and prove these jackasses wrong every time they open their damn
shit-fwench cheese-eating pie-holes.The Canadians integrated all of the branches of their Armed Forces into one Defense Establishment about 25 years ago. Sure did them a lot of good. Other than a common uniform and rank structure, I haven’t seen much accomplished—someone with some experience with The Great White North please enlighten me. When they make a defense mistake they can still rely upon the US to cover their ass. Who will cover ours when we guess wrong?
We need different branches of service because the Earth is divided up into different spheres. The Army wouldn’t be very good at anti-submarine warfare and the Air Force Force doesn’t do a good job of taking and holding real estate. The Navy sucks at desert operations. Each force has a special expertise and a special mission.
Yes, the missions sometimes overlap. That’s why we have force integration and the concept of joint operations. Improvement is needed in common communications and common weapons systems wherever possible.
The Armchair Critics who have never even been through Basic Training still pontificate about the efforts of men and women who are better than them.
They really piss me off! Time for a Stoli and Tonic with extra lime!
Posted by MAJ Mike
07/01/2005 at 03:59 PM
I sure hope this is published somewhere. You know what disgusts me… Whenever some news person interviews a soldier, the soldier, whether a PFC or a General, is alwasy so deferential and disciplined - even to the point of saying ‘Sir’ to the reporter. It kills me.
As for watching Rumsfeld and the generals get reamed by the likes of Ted Kennedy and his ilk, I can almost not bear it. As T said, I’d give anything for Rumsfeld to fire back with some maniacal invective. Ooooh..... yahooo.... Alas, it would never happen - those military guys have too much discipline. Too bad our media doesn’t.
Good post, Captain.
Oh, one added point. I think the military should take over our public school system.
Posted by Phoenix
07/01/2005 at 05:50 PM
First a “hear, hear” to the chief that wrote the article.
Yep, our Canadian friends combined their forces and now have an eighteen ship “Navy” 12 frigates, 4 destroyers and two, count ‘em, two oilers. They also have four very used submarines that they bought from the Brits. One was nearly lost due to a fire on the way home after acqisition. The other three are not at all dependable. After all the Brits mothballed them for very good reasons.
I’m not bashing Canadians. Considering what they have to work with, they have done an exemplary job of helping us in the GWoT. They made half the stop and searches in the gulf and off the horn of Africa. If anyone was overextended, it was the Canadian maritime forces. Indeed they couldn’t fulfill many of their other obligations to NATO and such because of it.
I had to explain to a (Canadian) moonbat that having 12 frigates meant that you could only have four on a particular mission station. For every ship on station there is one in transit and one in preparation and training for the mission. I’ll bet some form of this 1/3 rule applies to the other services too. Even at that it can’t be maintained for a great length of time without serious force deterioration.
There’s no sensible reason for combining our forces into one. Separate career paths would still have to be maintained. I doubt, for example, that an Air force Colonel would be much on seamanship should he be given an aircraft carrier to command.
These people come up through their own command chain, gaining their experiences in their own branch of service, and while many executive type command and leadership skills would be the same there are different specialty skills and weapons knowledge required of each branch.
Even if the same aircraft type was used by more than one service there are still functional differences. Navy aircraft require heavier duty landing gear due to the stresses of carrier landings and launching. Air Force planes would also have their own unique requirements, I’m sure.
That’s just for starters. Don’t even start thinking about combining service branches. It’s a political ‘feel good’ game. It won’t do much good beyond saving a few bucks on uniforms and would cause enormous harm to our defenses.
My 24 year old daughter is corresponding with Marines all over the world {hey, BOTH parents are former Jarheads, who’d you EXPECT she’d want to talk with?}
Below is a response to her from a young Marine in the South Pacific - please note the 2nd from last paragraph .........................
~~~~~~
Not too much of that here, but I hear the part about hangin out on the beach. It’s not hard to visit every beach on an island when you’re only, at most, 20 miles away from it. Yeah, i’ve had enough of a structured day, so I don’t plan my time off. I’m more of a do what i want when i feel like it type person myself. I have a nice long weekend, so life is already good. Don’t have to work today or monday. I didn’t see that pic of saddam, but i remember dec.13th 2003 quite well (day he was captured). I appreciate your concern for us, and if you were to ask all of the guys in Iraq and Afgahinstan what they worry about most nowadays, I will be the first to tell you that public support is at or near the top of it. Anyway, I hope you have a good weekend and i’ll look forward to talkin to ya later.
Posted by Diamond Mair
07/01/2005 at 06:32 PM
Diamond Mair,
I hope that you let your daughter’s Marine friends know that a LOT of us are supporting them and their mission around the world. They don’t need any effusive praise, just the simple truth. Let them know that we are aware of the agenda of most of the MSM and we’re calling bullshit on them. They worst are paying the price big time for pushing their agenda and ignoring the truth. Circulation and ratings are falling to new lows while “fair and balanced” is gaining ratings.
Many, if not most of us, are getting our news elsewhere these days. There’s a bunch of good sources of good news on the web and we’re finding them and sharing them with each other.
Tell them about the ProtestWarriors and their counter demonstrations of the moonbats and commies and the “Thank the Troops” demonstrations outside of the bases here.
Let ‘em know that we’ve got their backs.
[There, an old sailor got through that without one Marine joke or comment.]
"The worst” not “They worst”
PIMF PIMF PIMF PIMF PIMF PIMF PIMF.
Diamond,
I second everything that Stin said. Please pass on all good thoughts if you can.
Except for his PIMF PIMF’s. :}
Posted by Phoenix
07/01/2005 at 11:05 PM
But Preview Is My Friend, really.
Skipper, your post rings very true on this side of the pond too. My father was fairly senior in the Ministry of Defence and he would agree. He rose to Commodore before he retired. StinKerr’s description of the operational limitations in a navy are also true. I’d like to swap navy stories with you mate, over a beer or two.
There’s also the question of forces morale when considering merging all branches into a Canadian-type conglomeration. I know that it took a severe knock when the Canucks merged. British forces have the tradition of inter-service rugby and soccer games. Wouldn’t want that to be lost.
07/02/2005 at 08:13 PM
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