By now everyone has heard about the defense cuts leaked by Secretary of Defense Hagel’s staff to the New York Times. To summarize, the Air Force is again offering up the much hated (by the Air Force establishment) A10 as its offering. The Navy will cut back on the number of unsatisfactory and lightly armed …
The winter Olympics don’t particularly inspire me to think of similarities to the Infantry. Sure the desire to win is there, there is the shooting in the biathlon and plenty of sports requiring high levels of physical fitness and endurance. We really don’t train many troops to ski these days unlike WWII where we had …
Ft. Hood tore down the building where Nidal Hasan, an ex-Army officer and psychiatrist killed 14 and wounded 30 in 2009 while shouting “Allahu Akbar”. Nidal used an FN Five Seven pistol to gun down unarmed soldiers in the former Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Hasan fired 214 rounds and at least two soldiers and one …
Doing some research on the post Vietnam decision to go to one airborne division I came across this fascinating article by Charles S. Bloodworth. I thought readers here would be interested. It features some relatively unknown history about the development of the air assault badge and the Army’s transitioning of the 101st from an airborne …
Below is an essay written by Nick Palmisciano co-owner/ founder of Ranger Up. A friend (YP) forwarded it to me and it inspired me, caused me to reflect, do a little research and repost it with some of my thoughts. It has been incorrectly attributed to Gen. David Petraeus, General Norman Schwarzkopf and even “A …
Essay by Yankee Papa (all rights reserved) In June of 1866 700 men of the 18th Infantry Regiment were marching out of Fort Laramie heading up the new “Bozeman Trail…” This would save hundreds of miles from the old route to the mines in Montana. The weather was splendid and the troops were marching towards …
The Outpost by Jake Tapper is a must read for the student of war, the doctrine of counterinsurgency, those wishing to understand Afghanistan and why ultimately success has been elusive. It is also the sad and ultimately tragic tale of Combat Outpost (COP) Keating from when it was first established in 2006 to the final …
My Buddy passed today. Bradley was eleven years old Chow-Akita mix I adopted from the post pound as a puppy. A “Chakita”, if you will and it always caused me an internal chuckle when folks “recognized” the breed. He was a ball of fur that plowed along despite any obstacle either bowling them over or …
The government reversed itself and reported a UH60 Blackhawk helicopter was shot down by the Taliban in Afghanistan Dec. 17 2013. Six soldiers were killed five from the 1st Infantry Div. and one from the 2nd Cav Regiment. Initial reports were conflicted about enemy fire in the area but initially claimed enemy fired did not …
The Washington Post did a story on former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. This story and the memoir will be causing news for weeks. The most important and damning excerpts from the story are that the President in regards to Afghanistan “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. …
There has been a rash of stories about the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS). You can see some of the excitement here, hereand here and the military itself including SOCOM’s Admiral McCraven along with DoD are trying to fan the flames . The suit is supposed to provide ballistic/shock/fire protection, increased situational awareness, potential …
We have much to be thankful for and want to single out those deployed from home this coming holiday. I pray you are all home safe and soon. I’d like to wish all of our readers a very special holiday and a Merry Christmas (no offense meant to those that don’t celebrate Christmas). Shivering at …
The A-10 is the only US plane ever developed specifically to attack ground targets. It has a distinguished history and is probably the most beloved fixed wing aircraft among the last several decades worth of grunts. I was privileged to watch it do CAS firsthand two decades ago in Iraq. MUCH has been written of …
A scandal brewing at the Air Force Academy has come full circle. It features pathetic decision making, a lack of moral courage, leadership by coercion, abandoning of one’s troops, then silence, deny and counter accuse. When the furor didn’t die down the leadership decided to take charge of what they weren’t aware of before, investigate …
Essay by Yankee Papa (all rights reserved) Someone asks you, “Why would anyone want an “assault rifle…?” The hysteria over “assault rifles” has swept a large segment of the population. A senseless tragedy has been used by a hostile Administration as a propaganda “Reichstag Fire…” The constant drumbeat plays on the worst fears of those …
