Military History

The Great Carrier Reef NYT Video

Today, it's the Navy SEALs founder, a few days back a legend of the US Marine Corps Soon, they'll all be gone, including my uncle. Never forget what these men gave !! Brute Krulak : http://blog.usni.org/?p=627 and http://blog.usni.org/?p=580 Roy Boehm : http://blog.usni.org/?p=692 and http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsne...ubdate=1/3/2009

Guardian Story Declassified British Cabinet Papers on the state of UK defences in 1978. Prime Minister Callaghan was not happy. (Would make a fascinating Harpoon scenario too).

Find Army Times article here. Sherman with major role at Bastogne found Staff report Posted : Monday Dec 29, 2008 7:12:48 EST Army historians have identified a World War II-era tank on display at Rose Barracks, Vilseck, Germany as being the first tank to enter American lines 64 years ago in relief of besieged 101st Airborne Division soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge. Called the “Cobra King,” the M4 Sherman tank was used by the 4th Armored Division’s C Company, 37th Tank Battalion to break the German encirclement of U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium on Dec. 26, 1944. Army historians from U.S. Army Europe and the Patton Museum at Fort Knox, Ky., us…

What was the naval aviation predecessor in the role of the EA-6B Prowler? A carrier launched EW aircraft that would accompany/support a strike over Vietnam? Thanks

militaryhistoryonline.com/vietnam/airpower/wildweasel The Wild Weasels "Daredevils of the skies" by Mike Nastasi Introduction During the early days of the Vietnam War, the United States Air Force had almost full autonomy over the skies of Vietnam. However, once the Soviet Union and China began arming the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), with advanced Surface to Air missile (SAM) systems, the U.S. domination of the skies was abrubtly challenged. To deal with the new SAM threat, the U.S. Air Force decided to dedicate men and machine exclusively to the SAM's. Thus a new breed of aviator and aircraft were born, the "Wild Weasels." The purpose of the "Weasels" …

Route Pack 6 By Walter J. Boyne Air Force Magazine Nov 1999 It was the most dangerous of the "Route Packages," taking airmen into the deadly defenses around Hanoi. In every war, there is a place that comes to symbolize its most ferocious moments. For airmen in the Vietnam War, it was Route Pack 6, taking the battle to the heart of Hanoi-"going downtown." A relatively small band of US pilots fought a long and valiant war under conditions that rarely made sense to them. Handicapped by onerous-foolish might be the better term-rules of engagement, they nonetheless flew into battle every day, delivering bombs on the most well-defended targets in history. Many brave…

From Air Force Magazine, July 2007 A top airpower analyst looks back at the greatest air war that never was. How the West Would Have Won By Christopher J. Bowie Driving through Germany these days, one frequently encounters abandoned runways surrounded by huge, camouflaged, and “hardened” aircraft shelters. Their concrete walls and heavy sliding doors typically are painted a dark green, matching the colors of the surrounding countryside. Future generations may well wonder how and why these relics came to be scattered across Europe. What was their purpose? The answer is that, in the 1980s, those massive shelters housed and protected thousands of sleek fight…

Rest In Peace.

Old missile sites hold Cold War mystique By Jeff Martin - USA Today Posted : Thursday Dec 4, 2008 6:43:24 EST Merle Paaverud was raised on a farm near a nuclear missile site outside Finley, N.D. He remembers how missile sites in the area were “shrouded in mystery.” “Here we were farming around them, raising kids and going to school, and we were sitting in one of the most powerful areas in the world as far as nuclear weapons,” Paaverud, 59, says. “We never really knew what was going on, but it was life and death, part of the chess game that was going on in the world.” Today, Paaverud is the director of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Next…

They're free to download too. :)

The Silent Hunter (please check out my other stuff)

Friends, When I'm not playing Harpoon, I play GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System). In fact, I write for Steve Jackson Games on a freelance basis. I am thinking of writing some articles about vehicles that adventurers might use. It is not difficult to find web sites that provide basic statistics for military vehicles such as range, weight, the weapons carried, etc. But that only tells you so much. And other factors are not so easily quantified. Here is my question... I'm looking for sources that can provide information on more qualitative aspects of vehicles, like their overall maneuverability (how easy are they to drive, keep stable, etc.)…

From the Navy News, posted on military.com: October 02, 2008 Navy News|by MC1 Cynthia Clark PEARL HARBOR - Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC), Rear Adm. Douglas McAneny announced today that a sunken vessel off the coast of the Aleutian Islands is in fact the World War II submarine USS Grunion (SS 216). "I am honored to announce that, with records and information provided by the Abele family and assistance from the Naval Historical Center, USS Grunion has been located," said McAneny. "We are very grateful to the family of Grunion's Commanding Officer Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele for providing the underwater video footage and pictures that all…

From Air Force Magazine, October 2008 issue The Stuka Terror By Rebecca Grant Germany’s shrieking Ju 87 dive bomber lingered in the mind as a truly dreaded air weapon. Simultaneously, like some birds of prey, they fall upon their victim and release their load of bombs upon the target. ... Everything becomes blended together; along with the howling sirens of the Stukas in their dives, the bombs whistle and crack and burst." The time was May 1940. The diarist was one Sergeant Pruemers who, as part of Germany’s 1st Panzer Division, was at that moment buttoned down and waiting to strike westward across the Meuse River and into the heart of France. The G…

Ahoy, there! Intrepid gets 'green light' to return Thursday By Bill Hutchinson DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, October 2nd 2008, 12:45 AM Buffed and bolstered, a refurbished Intrepid is ready to end its two-year hiatus Thursday and retake its proud position on Manhattan's West Side. With a fresh coat of battleship gray paint and a brass band playing on its flight deck, the legendary World War II aircraft carrier is set to be towed up the Hudson this morning in a splashy return to Pier 86. "Right now, it's a green light," Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, said Wednesday night, cautiously eying the weather reports. He w…

Academic article on the "window of vulnerability"- aka the perceived ICBM gap in the early 1980s. Thoughts?

For any of you guys who'd like to refight Gettysburg and change some of the decisions made there, here's a chance to try your luck: http://images.military.com/Resources/Games...mp;ESRC=navy.nl Buddha

Newsday.com An F-14 Tomcat's final trip - to Bethpage by road BY JAMES BERNSTEIN james.bernstein@newsday.com June 2, 2008 If you happened to be out and about in Farmingdale or Bethpage in the wee hours of the morning May 6 and saw a Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jet on the roadway, you do not need an eye exam, and you were not hallucinating. The plane was being towed from the Airpower Museum at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale to the Northrop Grumman Corp. plant in Bethpage, where it is now on permanent display outside the main gates on Grumman Road West. The trip took about three hours, according to Barbara Nilsen, president of the Grumman Club,…

May we never forget.