11/11/2023

 

So far as I know it has never been established for certain that "My Buddy" was about a fellow Dougboy who didn't make it home -- so far as I can tell neither Gus Kahn (lyricist) nor Walter Donaldson (music) served overseas, if at all, but that is the general assumption.

Lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Jay Gorney did serve in WW the First. Harburg was a commie, but what are ya gonna do?

And for Pete's sake, if you see Mike Royko don't tell him I worked in VeteransDay. 

Memorial Day II

 

Law and Liberty on Memorial Day: Remembering the American Character at War

Memorial Day

In Memorium

 

Then and Now

 Just found this, which I saved in 1999 shortly before my retirement, and has been taking up room on my hard drive ever since.

The Military: 1945 vs 1999

•  1945 - NCOs had a typewriter on their desks for doing daily reports.
• 1999 - everyone has an Internet access computer, and they wonder why no work is getting done.

 

• 1945 - we painted pictures of girls on airplanes to remind us of home.
• 1999 - they put the real thing in the cockpit.

 

•  1945 - your girlfriend was at home praying you would return alive.
• 1999 - she is in the same trench praying your condom worked.

• 1945 - if you got drunk off duty your buddies would take you back to the barracks to sleep it off.
• 1999 - if you get drunk they slap you in rehab and ruin your career.

 

• 1945 - you were taught to aim at your enemy and shoot him.
• 1999 - you spray 500 bullets into the brush, don't hit anything, and retreat because you're out of ammo.

 

• 1945 - canteens were made of steel, and you could heat coffee or hot chocolate in them.
• 1999 - canteens are made of plastic, you can't heat anything in them, and they always taste like plastic.

 

• 1945 - officers were professional soldiers first and they commanded respect.
• 1999 - officers are politicians first and beg not to be given a wedgie.

 

• 1945 - they collected enemy intelligence and analyzed it.
• 1999 - they collect your pee and analyze it.

 

• 1945 - if you didn't act right, the Sergeant Major put you in the brig until you straightened up.
• 1999 - if you don't act right, they start a paper trail that follows you forever.

 

• 1945 - medals were awarded to heroes who saved lives at the risk of their own.
• 1999 - medals are awarded to people who work at headquarters.

 

• 1945 - you slept in barracks like a soldier.
• 1999 - you sleep in a dormitory like a college kid.

 

• 1945 - you ate in a mess hall, which was free, and you could have all the food you wanted.
• 1999 - you eat in a dining facility, every slice of bread or pad of butter costs, and you better not take too much.

 

• 1945 - we defeated powerful countries like Germany and Japan.
• 1999 - we come up short against Iraq and Yugoslavia.

 

• 1945 - if you wanted to relax, you went to the rec center, played pool, smoked and drank beer.
• 1999 - you go to the community center, and you can play pool.

 

• 1945 - if you wanted beer and conversation you went to the NCO or Officers' Club.
• 1999 - the beer will cost you $2.75, membership is forced, and someone is watching how much you drink.

 

• 1945 - the Exchange had bargains for soldiers who didn't make much money.
• 1999 - you can get better and cheaper merchandise at Walmart.

 

• 1945 - we could recognize the enemy by their Nazi helmets.
• 1999 - we are wearing the Nazi helmets.

 

• 1945 - we called the enemy names like "Krauts" and "Japs" because we didn't like them.
• 1999 - we call the enemy the "opposing force" or "aggressor" because we don't want to offend them.

 

• 1945 - victory was declared when the enemy was defeated and all his things were broken.
• 1999 - victory is declared when the enemy says he is sorry.

 

• 1945 - a commander would put his butt on the line to protect his people.
• 1999 - a commander will put his people on the line to protect his butt.

 

• 1945 - wars were planned and run by generals with lots of important victories.
• 1999 - wars are planned by politicians with lots of equivocating.

 

• 1945 - we were fighting for freedom, and the country was committed to winning.
• 1999 - we don't know what we're fighting for, and the government is committed to social programs (used to be called 'socialism').

 

• 1945 - all you could think about was getting out and becoming a civilian again.
• 1999 - all you can think about is getting out and becoming a civilian again.

Remember their names

Remember their names:

David L. Espinoza, 20, Texas, Lance Corporal, USMC

Nicole L. Gee, 23, California, Sergeant, USMC

Darin T. Hoover, 31, Utah, Staff Sergeant, USMC

Ryan C. Knauss, 23, Tennessee, Staff Sergeant, US Army

Hunter Lopez, 22, California, Corporal, USMC

Dylan R. Merola, 20, California, Lance Corporal, USMC

Rylee J. McCollum, 20, Wyoming, Lance Corporal, USMC

Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, California, Lance corporal, USMC

Daegan W. Page, 23, Nebraska, Corporal, USMC

Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, Massachusetts, Sergeant, USMC

Humberto A. Sanchez, Indiana, Corporal, USMC

Jared M. Schmitz, 20, Missouri, Lance Corporal, USMC

Maxton W. Soviak, 22, Ohio, Hospital Corpsman, US Navy

Memorial Day

Many readers will remember when Memorial Day was always observed on May 30th, and depending on where they are from, may recall it being called Decoration Day.

Disputes abound as to where it started, when the first observance was, and what date it was observed. The first well-documented observance was as a proclamation by the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of veterans of the Union military of the American Civil War. It is said that May 30th was selected because no major battles occurred on that date.

Memorial Day, as many of my fellow veterans are wont to remind people, is the day we remember those who didn't come back, or who are now gone. This seems fitting to me. 

Taps

Fr @VictoriaYeage11 It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.

— Chuck Yeager (@GenChuckYeager) December 8, 2020

Merry Christmas

Hoping you enjoy the day with loved ones.  Please think of those who can't.

Breakfast, and then I'm off to work.

a date which will live in infamy

75 Years Ago...

The Great Crusade began.

D-Day By the Numbers, By the Men | VodkaPundit

I want you to imagine picking up every resident of a medium-sized city, everything they'll need to eat and drink and rest for a few days, any vehicles they might need, gasoline, of course, plus lots of guns and ammo -- did I mention this was a hunting trip? -- and then moving them all in a few short hours a distance of anywhere from 30 to 125 miles or so.

Now imagine you have to move all those people and all that stuff partly by air, but mostly across heavy seas in foul weather.

Under enemy fire.

I should also mention that if you messed up any of the big details, a lot of your people are going to die, and then you're going to have to figure out how to move them all back without getting too many more of them killed.

Memorial Day 2019

From the Small Wars Journal: 

Nameless, Ageless, But Forever

by Keith Nightingale

SWJ Blog Post | May 10, 2017 - 6:09pm

Family Values

Keith Nighingale

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

This is a picture of God’s messengers on earth. It is an image of brothers born from a different womb but of the same mother-products of sights, sounds and experiences they absorb so the remainder of us do not. They have nobility that only shared sacrifice and pursuit of a cause greater than themselves can bestow grace.

They are nameless and ageless but they are forever. They made us what we are and they will determine what we will be. Their dress has changed over time as have their tools. But these are cosmetic compared to the common inner core that carries them into their tasks, bonds them forever and insures their collective and individual success for generations.

Unlike most similar apparitions assigned to many other Nation’s, these are unique. They carry a message of light to lands lost in darkness. Their demeanor and innate sense of goodness, generosity and grace effects the minds and wishes of the people’s within their range of influence and creates a lasting memory that a thousand years of bad history cannot erase.

They carry a sword but also a larger instrument of compassion-they carry themselves. In their simple world, one always leads to another. Complexity is for others not so directly engaged.

They may only vaguely understand the larger issues that brought them to a distant dismal place but that is not important. What is important is that they represent a hope and aspiration probably never-before experienced. Their image engenders a way of life and imagined ideals that are the residue of their momentary presence.

The uniform, the flag and the honest personalities pass a message no amount of media can generate. They are us and what we stand for.

The land they may take is small, not much larger than each of them but permanent in nature as what they stood for and their successors stand for now and as we all stand for the future.

Look at this image. It is us and it is good. The greatest of gifts has no price other than that which is willingly offered.

 

“I Am An Adverb!”

So, there I was. 1980. Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, California. Basic Korean Course. (For “listeners”, AKA "geeks"; they had a separate course at the time for interrogators, AKA “rubber hosers.”)

Now, the recruiters had taken one look at my test scores and decided I should take the Defense Language Aptitude Battery, or DLAB. I had not done so well in Spanish classes in school, but they insisted, so I went ahead.

When I walked out of the room I felt like my brains were running out of my ears.

There were multiple portions to the test. One checked for general knowledge of foreign languages; I recall one where the sentence said “le poisson est sur la table”, and you had to select the correct drawing, which variously featured a fish and a bottle of poison on, under, and beside a table.

Another section used English vocabulary, but made-up grammar. As I recall, it actually was similar to what I would be learning in Korean: “The boy went to the store” might be rendered “’Boy-ga’ ‘store-ay’ ‘go-ed’”; The “ga” suffix attached to “boy” indicates the subject of the sentence, and the “ay” suffix on “store” indicates his destination. The verb comes at the end of the sentence, and instead of using “went” you use “go” with a past tense indicator. Both the test and the Korean language were/are a lot more complicated than that. As I recall, by the end of that section of the test we were reading paragraphs and answering (trying to answer) questions about who did what to whom.

One Hundred Years

At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent.

Temporarily.

Conventional wisdom says that the "Buddy" the song is about was KIA on the Western Front.

Turned on the TV today and TMC was running the first part of the Veteran's Day (AKA Poppy Day, AKA Decoration Day) Marathon. Caught the end of Hell Below (1933), a World War One submarine drama I'd never heard of, then The Fighting 69th (1940), finished up (for now) with Sergeant York (1941).

Once in khaki suits

Gee, we looked swell!
Full of that Yankee-Doodle dee-dum!

Ten thousands boots

Went marching through Hell

And I was the kid with the drum!

I'm currently reading Thunder in the Argonne: A New History of America's Greatest Battle, a 21st Century US Army officer's analysis of the final campaign of the First World War. It's pretty good, although occasionally the 21st Century operational terminology -- jargon, if you will -- can be jarring.

Nevertheless, it's an excellent analysis of the performance under fire of the American Expeditionary Forces. I'm not sure how realistic it is to regret (a hundred years ago, or now) that the US military had no experience with conducting combat operations on that scale, since... well, the closest the US military had to having that level of expertise was 50+ years in the past, in the Civil War. Even if Pershing had listened to all the advice the French and British had offered, it would have been too much to expect command and staff at all levels to do so.

Anyway. Recommended.

This showed up in my Twitter feed today. Not bad. World War I Centenary: 100 Legacies of the Great War.

And in my in box:

• Echoes of Our Great War
• Remembering World War I

A Wikiwander

You'll probably spot a pattern here...

• Boeing B-52 Stratofortress - Wikipedia.
• Larson Air Force Base - Wikipedia
• Grant County International Airport - Wikipedia
• Alvin M. Johnston - Wikipedia. "Tex" Johnson is something of a folk hero in these parts.
• Curtis LeMay - Wikipedia, not so much...(Didn't know he was a ham. Apparently he logged Q's on operational flights! 😀)
• Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar - Wikipedia
• North American XB-70 Valkyrie - Wikipedia Not a Boeing. Oh, well.
• Avro Vulcan - Wikipedia (Yes, that thing in the James Bond movie was real...) (Also, I find it ironic that in the '80s there were nibbles of foreign sales to... Argentina!)
• So, I wonder if it's reportable if a nation in the "the nuclear club" starts painting it's bombers Anti-flash white?
• North American A-5 Vigilante - Wikipedia
• 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system - Wikipedia(So the "next available number" for a "C"-mission type is... 47?)

June 14th...

...is the US Army's Birthday.

Also Flag Day.

Photo ©2010 & 2018 Mrs. Drang & The Cluemeter.

I hear it's also President Trump's birthday, although TBH I don't generally celebrate the birthday of folks I don't know personally. (Note it, sure, but celebrate, no.)

Here are a few pics I just dug out of the archive:

Team Spirit, 1986:

Photo ©1986 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

My Motley Crew for Team Spirit 1986. 3 KATUSAs and two round eyes, on a mountain for two weeks. Part of why I laugh when I hear people speak nostalgically about MREs, or act like ramyun* is a gourmet delight...

Photo ©1986 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

I wish I could remember this guy's name, he was a Ground Surveillance Radar operator augmenting my team. Good guy, despite the (mostly) good-natured rivalry between the "Electronic Grunts" and us SIGINT Geeks.

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

Here I am, a year or so later at Ft. Ord, the 7th Infantry Division (Light) "Fight Light, Freeze at Night!"(I can pinpoint this as to date because I am wearing OD green "jungle fatigue" trousers, still authorized for field wear at the time. They got destroyed at the National Training Center soon after this.)

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

My buddy, Steve W. If you recognize him, have him drop me a line.

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

IIRC, Steve M. (on the left) and Dave J. (on the right.) No, that's not a duffel bag full of poagie bait, it's the 50+ pound direction finding antenna.

If The Steves and Dave look like drowned rats in these, it's because it was raining non-stop. We were supposed to be dropped in an airmobile insertion, move cross-country, and then get picked up. Somewhere in there, the skies opened up and the pick up got cancelled, and we spend a miserable night under poncho hooches. (Actually, IIRC, it was one big hooch and we pulled the Heinlein Starship Troopers thing where we huddled together...)

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

This is my ruck. There are many like it, but this one was mine. PRC77 radio with KY57 crypto device, a week's worth of batteries, MREs and water, poncho and poncho liner, and one change of socks.

≈125 pounds.

Tactical Hipsters can speak of their "woobie" like it's some sort of security blanket, but I spent too many nights freezing under one to get all misty-eyed.

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

Airmobile insertion, waiting for the bird to pull pitch...
 

Photo ©1987 & 2018 DW Drang & The Cluemeter.

All the pics (except the one at the top, taken by Mrs. Drang), were taken on film, before consumer-priced digital cameras were even science fiction. The ones from Ft Ord were taken with a Vivitar pocket 35mm, that just fits in a 20 round M16 magazine pouch. I'm pretty sure the ones from Korea were taken with a Nikon SLR, otherwise I couldn't have gotten that time-delay group pic. No idea what lens either camera had/has.





*Ramyen -- or "namyun" -- is Korean, Ramen is Japanese...

Flashbacks

So, this one has been sitting in "Drafts" for three years now. No idea where I was going with it. But someone was extolling the virtues of the M60 Machine Gun the other day, and I just happened to remember this, so...

 Flashbacks. Thanks to Tamara, I'm having them. Weaponsman's fault, mostly.

I once had an M60 machine gun that wouldn't fire. I lost track of all the way some genius had found to reassemble it with all the parts -- no "spares" left over -- most of them inserted incorrectly. The hammer was installed backwards and upside down, the gas cylinder was backwards, the trigger group pins were inserted backwards, and the leaf spring was on the wrong side and upside down...

If it had been Basic Training I'd've suspected a test of some sort.

My loathing for the M60 machine gun knows no bounds, since, in addition to the above incident, it has to be held together with baling wire. Well, they'll tell you you're the armorer is using baling wire to make sure that the person who is qualified on and issued it is not performing unauthorized maintenance... including cleaning the gas cylinder. Because it was allegedly simple to clean the gas cylinder, you can just (allegedly) roll it around in the dirt and it'll scour all the caked on carbon right off, but the odds (and risks) of re-inserting it backwards was considered to be too high so not only was it not operator maintenance, but the thing was supposed to be, you guessed it, wired shut.

Also, R.I.P. Weaponsman.

(Edited to add the point about the hammer.)

20 years, down the drain

And just like that, my Army career was rendered irrelevant.

Pacific Stars and Stripes: Moon and Kim Discuss Denuclearization at Historic Summit

BBC: North Korea's Kim Jong-un Pledges 'New History' With South Korea

The Times: Koreas Poised For ‘Great Transition in World History’

Voice of America: North, South Korean Leaders Hold Historic Meeting

Moon and Kim
Photo from The Small Wars Journal

Moon and Kim
Photo from The Small Wars Journal

Not really, of course.

Note, by the way, that Kim and Moon did not sign a peace treaty, which some of the reporting implied happened. It sounds like they agreed to look into it later this year.

No, what is so momentous is the fact that the heads of state met: Neither country has heretofore even acknowledged that the other existed legitimately. North Korea has always insisted on meeting with the USA alone, while the USA refuses to meet separately, and officially designates it "north Korea", with a small "n".

As I was explaining to a colleague in The Salt Mines,  I served for 20 years, 3 months, and 3 days, and almost 9 of those years were in the Republic of Korea. I spent a fair amount of time on, or within rifle-shot of, the Demilitarized Zone.

One year I was Watch NCO at Field Station Korea; this was under Bush 41, when Mrs. Drang and I were still newlyweds, and de-nuclearization talks on The Peninsula were proceeding well enough that every installation in the republic of Korea was required to make plans for how to deal with commie inspectors.

At a facility that was a wholly-owned subsidiary, so to speak, of the National Security Agency (which was still commonly referred to as "No Such Agency" at the start of my career) you might assume this resulted in some angst.

You would be correct, but it might surprise you that the Secret Squirrel contingent just read the instructions, and made plans accordingly. (Collection operations would be suspended, equipment turned of, and contents of filing cabinets and the like would be covered with kraft paper. IIRC, things would filed so that the kraft paper could be pulled back to reveal files, but they would be set up in such a manner that nothing could be learned of the contents of files by so doing. They would not have the right to inspect read the files, just do a quick scan with the Mark I Eyeball, and wave a Geiger Counter over it, if they wanted.)

(This was the first use I saw of an Access Card scanner; some genius covered those boxes with kraft paper...)

No, the person who really got all spun up was the NCOIC of the Information Technology Section. (Whatever we called it back on 1990.)

Mind you, that doesn't mean we were all impressed, those of us who had already invested a significant amount of time and effort into the "Korean Mission" fully expected the whole thing to come to naught, which it did.

So.

My standard answer regarding peace on the Korean Peninsula remains "I'll believe it when I see it", but I must admit, for the first time since 1980 I do feel some hope.

Interesting, re: Syria Strikes

The Aviationist » Everything We Know (And No One Has Said So Far) About The First Waves Of Air Strikes On Syria.

Basically, a rundown on the aerial order of battle, assembled from Open Sources (AKA OSINT, Open Source Intelligence.)

Don't read the comments, unless you feel an urge to do verbal battle with Putin's minions.

Also: The Aviationist » Russia Claims 71 Out Of 105 Cruise Missiles Downed In Yesteday’s Air Strikes. None Were Shot Down According to The US.

In which, note the following sentence:

If Syrian air defense units were ineffective in stopping U.S. cruise missiles, and most information now points to that outcome (actually, it looks like the Syrians fired their missiles after the last missile had hit), this represents a significant blow to the Assad regime and to Russia’s ability to assist in an effective air defense in the region.

(Emphasis added.)

An Improvement

Back in 2011, in The Clue Meter: QOTD, Army Birthday Edition, I noted that the Army was doing away with the Green Service Dress uniform altogether and simply using the Dress Blues as the Service as well as Dress uniform.

Other than that, at gthe time my only comment was "No Comment."

Over the ensuing years, however, I have come to think that was a real mistake, almost as bad as letting everyone wear a black beret. Since I somehow made it through a 20 year career without feeling compelled to purchase a set of Dress Blues -- I had two occasions in all that time where it would have been the preferred uniform, and one of those was a formal dinner with Mrs. Drang's employer! -- it took me a few years if seeing soldiers wearing them out and about to realize just how goofy they looked as a service, rather than dress, uniform.

So Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey  has announced that the Army is going back...

...to Pinks and Greens!

Well, sort of. For one thing, "pinks and greens" were worn by officers only, these will be the same for all ranks.

Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey stands with Soldier models wearing the proposed Pink & Green daily service uniform at the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania December 9, 2017. (US Army photo by Ron Lee)
DVIDS

Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley stands with Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey prior to walking out onto the field for the beginning of the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania December 9, 2017. Standing with them in front of the games color guard were Soldier models who along with the SMA are wearing the proposed Pink & Green daily service uniform. (U.S. Army photo by Ron Lee)
DVIDS

"Here, SFC Johnson shows us the Class B Shirt. I’m very impressed by the work the uniform’s designers have done to research historical uniform items and adapt the styles to reflect modern tastes and materials."
Original caption to photo at AUSA - Prototype Pinks and Greens - Soldier Systems Daily

That last photo was taken at the AUSA convention in October; the first two at the Army-Navy Game in December. (GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY! Which they did... for once.)

You will note that by December they had added a belt to the tunic. Much sharper.

I also note that the SMA is rockin' a 50 Mission Crush on his cap, something else that was strictly an officer "thing", and an aviator-only thing, at that.