Raw Intel

I just finished with Xenophon's Anabasis on audio. Wow ... just wow. Almost 2,400 years old and its lessons on leadership are timeless. There is really nothing new under the sun. This book is a perfect example of the critical importance of a classical education. We wouldn't have to learn the hard way if we realized the truth that has been there from the dawn of history ... not to mention the lessons of 20 years ago ... move the decimal place two spots over. Here is just one bit. Rely upon this then, all you who are here assembled, now is your great opportunity. The soldiers outside have their eyes fixed upon you; if they think that you are faint-hearted, they will turn …

There is no greater partner for the US Navy than the Royal Navy. I wish they had more units, but more often than not, they will sail with us into harm’s way. Great to see this. The Portsmouth-based warship came under sustained missile and drone attacks in the Red Sea over a six-month period from December 2023 until June last year as she strove to protect merchant shipping and allied warships targeted at random by Houthi rebels in Yemen. In response, her Sea Viper missile system and 30mm gun destroyed a string of drones, even one ballistic missile. For their actions, HMS Diamond has been awarded a Meritorious Unit Commendation by the US Navy. Her Commanding Officer during …

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-w7RCTtz6GZo/VTosMd1sraI/AAAAAAAAJio/81yRbuPXaXg/s1600/SumnerRenderLaffey.jpg So, how was your command tour? Think you accomplished a lot? Benchmarks? Yes, we have benchmarks. Made a commander on November 1, he was the commanding officer of USS Laffey during the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The ship was struck by an 8-inch shell, which did not explode. Laffey broke up an attack by German E-boats on June 12 and bombarded Cherbourg on June 25. Becton was awarded a second Silver Star for his actions in June. Transferred back to the Pacific Theater, he received his third Silver Star for his handling of Laffey in support of the landing of the…

Ordinary men often find themselves in extraordinary times, become extraordinary, and then return to ordinary. That does not prevent us from remembering them. On the eve of the Second World War if you found yourself in Birmingham, England you may have found yourself in the company of a middle aged optician Edward John Hicks and his wife Ethel. Perhaps their 19-yr old daughter Barbara or 15-yr old Pamela, born a few years after what they would call "The Great War," might make an appearance. They lived in a simple duplex at 46 Brompton Road. That one on the right. You wouldn't know that your neighborhood optometrist who makes your glasses was also this man.Say hello to Lie…

The rest of your fleet has left you behind. The enemy is everywhere. You have little defensive or offensive weapons - and you are painfully slow - but you have your ship and your Sailors and your mission, which at this point, is simply to survive. What do you do? Well ... never underestimate a Dutchman; The ship was based at Surabaya in the Netherlands East Indies when Japan invaded in 1941. Following the Allied defeats at the Battles of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait in late March 1942, all Allied ships were ordered to withdraw to Australia. Abraham Crijnssen was meant to sail with three other warships, but found herself proceeding alone. To escape detection by Japan…

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9GgO7_AJaPY/Uz6Ta8stBsI/AAAAAAAAIF0/BmY1-pVg-Qo/s1600/DentonwithA6.jpgWhen you honor a great man's passing, use the time to measure yourself against the man at his best. If in his shoes, what would you have done? How would history and the man in the mirror evaluate your actions? It is a little more than eight years since one of the greats passed. Jeremiah Denton, the Vietnam War POW who has died at age 89, uttered one of the great statements of defiance in American history. In 1965, he was shot down in his A-6 during a bombing run over North Vietnam. He became a captive for more than seven years and endured an unimaginable regime of torture, hu…

So, what did you do after high school? How long have you had to wait for your full story to be understood? I offer to you Teddy Sheean; On December 1, 1942, Sheean was a gunner’s mate on the corvette HMAS Armidale, when it came under attack during an operation near Japanese-occupied Timor, now the country of Timor-Leste across the Timor Sea from the Australian city of Darwin. ... ...Japanese warplanes swooped in on the Armidale. The Australian corvette was hit by two torpedoes launched by the Japanese planes and quickly began to sink, according to the AWM. An order was given to abandon ship. “Sheean was wounded and, rather than abandon ship, he strapped himself to his Oer…

One of my evergreen arguments is over the use of, “kids” to describe those who serve. I’m sorry, 18, 19, and even 25-year-old men and women are just that, men and women. We all put our lives in their hands every day, I find the paternalistic “kid” a bit insulting and can cause some to expect less of them. Perhaps it is just me being pedantic, it probably is. “Kids” is better than “boy” and “girl,” I suspect—but maybe it isn’t just me, maybe it is just “us.” We don’t expect much from our young men and women as a society compared to what was expected just a few generations ago. Adult college graduates—especially the young men—still living at home. They have the car, clothe…

I grew up with the Apollo Program and some of my earliest memories were watching astronauts during the lunar landings. You could see the Saturn V launches from my backyard. Just as I was getting old enough to really enjoy it, it all stopped. The 1970s. The worst people for the worst reasons killed the space program as it became part of the national malaise of the 1970s, the core of which was defined by the period from the last person on the moon in 1972 through the fall of Saigon three years later, and bookended by the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-80. For those who received the promise of 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as to what the future in space would be never fulfil…

Captain Lindsey S. McCarthy, USN giving a hot wash-up to the crew after USS Newport News (CA-148) and USS Lynde McCormick (DDG-8) engage shore batteries in North Vietnam 19 December 1967. Interesting this if you go to the YouTube page, comments from crew members and their families in the years since 2013 since I first posted it. http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QKrxdM53SkM:OICxYQQy4NA:gIN9vFwOqvQ http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QKrxdM53SkM:OICxYQQy4NA:-BTjWOF_DHI http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/blogspot/FAFV?i=QKrxdM53SkM:…

Some FbF are so good ... you have to bring them back every few years. After a couple of week's FbF on other subjects, let's catch up with the Battle Off Samar. This time the USS HEERMANN (DD-532). HEERMANN screened transports and landing ships safely to the beaches of Leyte and then joined Rear Admiral Thomas L. Sprague's Escort Carrier Task Group 77.4 which was made up of three escort carrier task units, known as the three "Taffies" because of their radio call signs: "Taffy 1", "Taffy 2", and "Taffy 3". Destroyers HOEL and JOHNSTON joined her in screening Rear Admiral Clifton A. F. Sprague's unit, "Taffy 3" which also included his flagship FANSHAW BAY (CVE-70) and thre…

Resupply through thousands of miles of hostile waters to your forces well inside the enemy's aircraft reach and a day's sail or two from their home bases. Your navy intends to bring and keep the fight in to the enemy's backyard, stay there, and defeat them at sea in order to give your nation dominance in their enemy's backyard. One force has well over a century of dominance in all the world's oceans. A superb tradition of training and combat excellence in these exact waters. They have fewer, but larger ships ... but as well trained as their crews are, they are also under the stress of constant threat and being far away from home waters. The other force also has a traditi…

Though the Americans are now in the fight, still on every front; desperation. At every morning brief, more ships sunk. The enemy surrounds you as you starve. Your ships and aircraft sit idle for lack of fuel and parts. Through waves of attacks, a relief convoy comes ... and you wait. Do they know your desperation? Will they make it? What can be done? Well, in comes the US merchant marine professional, Captain Dudley Mason - the master of the tanker SS OHIO - and his crew and convoy. For the details, let's look at the citation for his George Cross and the award to two of his crew, Frederick August Larsen, Jr., Junior Third Officer and Francis A. Dales, Deck Cadet-Mi…

Great news via Matt White at T&P. A Marine who single-handedly destroyed a major bridge in Vietnam, swinging hand-over-hand across its steel girders to plant explosive charges even as an enemy tank fired at him, now appears set to receive the Medal of Honor. Marine Capt. John Ripley’s three-hour, one-man assault on the Dong Ha Bridge in April 1972 has long been a hallowed story in the Marine Corps. Fellow Marines, friends, and advocates have pushed for decades to see the Navy Cross he was awarded for the battle upgraded to a Medal of Honor. Those efforts appear to be nearing success, after the Senate approved special legislation that cleared the way for the award to b…

The last two FbFs, we’ve looked at some of our favorite stories about auxiliary cruisers and armed merchantmen, and I almost added a third this week, but then I saw that it was just 15 months or so ago that I posted the story about the Komoran and HMAS Sydney—so that is too soon for a repeat. However, I recently heard a side story about that last battle that had missed my scan before. It may seem an unusual story for FbF, which is usually a story of incredible ships, crews, or individuals—but it still rings true. I offer for your consideration Able Seaman Thomas Welsby Clark, Royal Australian Navy. Every navy is full of such men. Clark was born in Brisbane on 28 January …

Every few years I repost this little bit from 2005. It has been a half decade. It is time again, with some slight improvements. In a culture where more often than not, all your neighbors are really just transients - they move in and out every few years, chasing whatever opportunity or ambition pulls them next. Their families are scattered hither and yon; few really related to anyone. I've wondered for a while what impact the reality of the rolling, self-imposed Internally Displaced Persons has had on our nation - perhaps causing us to miss something. Is it a net gain, or a net loss? Well, perhaps I’m projecting; I have always thought I was missing something. Sure, p…

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kcH8VE_NEvU/U__5GZlYeuI/AAAAAAAAImQ/bUmQEYfEGI4/s320/horba1.jpgWhen do you accept defeat? When do you allow your morale to be beaten down? Think you have an excuse to complain about things in your military career that are beyond your control? Really? Years ago Pawel sent me a link to one of the many unsung (at least in the Anglosphere) heroes from Poland who fought on the Western front. I've always had a soft spot for their story, but we've discussed them here mostly in their ground component support. Simply an amazing story of so many who fought for their nation only see it liberated from one occupier to be handed to another. Those who survive…

It is 1944 near Cagny in northern France. You are leading a section of two 33-ton M4 Sherman tanks when, all of a sudden, you find yourself facing a Panther, a Tiger I, an old Mark IV — and one70-ton King Tiger. What does an army lieutenant do? Become a naval officer. From the excellent War History Online; Gorman found himself at the top of a ridge, looking down at a field in which the German tanks were gathered. Only 900 feet (274 meters) of open ground stood between him and the feared Königstiger. He knew that if he didn’t act immediately, his two Sherman tanks would likely be taken out. This was when he decided to put a naval tactic to good use. By then, the Germ…

A beloved retired coach passed last month; ...Greenup County resident Ernie West, has died. ... West was a football coach at Wurtland (KY) for some time From the, "you never know what that old man has seen" school .... Attention to citation: Pfc. West distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He voluntarily accompanied a contingent to locate and destroy a reported enemy outpost. Nearing the objective, the patrol was ambushed and suffered numerous casualties. Observing his wounded leader lying in an exposed position, Pfc. West ordered the troops to withdraw, then braved intense fire to reach …

As with all conflicts, just a few days in to the Second Russo-Ukraine War you have stories that start to break out in to the public. Some seem like rumor, urban legends, propaganda, or just embellishments of real stories or hopeful desires. Two have come up over the last few days. One that seems closer to the urban legend and hopeful desires area is the heroic fighter pilot, "The Ghost of Kyiv," putting up an amazing fight against all odds in his plucky MiG-29. The second seems to be from the same area but with time we have found is actually a true story. 13 Ukrainian border guards were stationed in an isolated, barren and what would appear to be generally ignorable islan…