Sea Duty Incentive Pay Sailor are being offered $9000 to return to sea.
What has happened to the world?
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Contracts were given to nine manufacturers to each provide four protypes
to be evaluated to replace armored HummVees for the Marines in Iraq. Thirty six MRAP, Mine resistant, Ambush Protected, vehicles are to be delivered by year-end. It seems Congress will be reluctant to fund this "support the troops" item.
Lets look at the Jeep.
The specification was issued 17July 1940 to 135 companies. Three companies responded and built seventy prototypes (not 4). The first company's prototypes arrived 22Sept (in 2 months !). That one failed ; the next two company's prototypes arrived in November (4 months, not 12 as for MRAP) and the first improved theirs and all three got orders for 1,500 with 8,600 delivered in 1941. {This was pre-War ; Americans were not being killed.) Names were Bantam, Quad (for 4-wheel drive), and Pygmy. The winner of the standardization order for WW2 was internally called the GP with G for Government and the P was a code for the wheelbase. GP immediately became "Jeep" and 350,000 they were used for everything all over the world in WW2.
Things can happen quickly when a need is obvious ; it is lawyers, accountants, and bureaucrats that slow things down. Then there will be Congressional demands based on jobs provided within their disticts, followed by hearings called by the losers about cost overruns, if not preceded by.
"Terrorist War" 2006
Battleship Blockade An article in Naval Institute suggests reactivaing
Iowa (BB-61) and Wisconsin (BB-64) for long term quarentine duty off Korea with a reduced manning of 800 sailors to free carriers while providing flagship and missile capabilities for the next decade, which might be necessary.
Sounds good to us.
G'bye Tom. Thanks. The F-14 Tomcat has officially retired after 36 years of service.
RFF Surge to Lebanon Wasp (LHD-1) departs Norfolk for Lebanon Aug 24
to support a Request for Forces (RFF) from European Command.. The Israeli invasion of
Lebanon started July 13. Marine Sea Stallions started evacuating people from the Embassy July 17. Nashville (LPD-13) expanded evacuation on Sept 19. Iwo Jima (LHD-7) accellerated things on July 20. If we assume that
mobilization for removal of citizens to Cyprus started a few days before all this, then almost six weeks were required for Wasp to sail. This brings back memories of
Wake Island where relief for 1,145 civilians sailed 9 days after Pearl Harbor. What has changed in 65 years?
Wounded/Killed Ratio. Media talk about the excessive number of wounded in Iraq by overlooking that
men are surviving wounds that would have killed in earlier wars. How to lie
with statistics? Just forget body armor and emergency evacuation to excellent
medical facilities. The point they are trying to make is that low deaths (for a war) do not show the total casualty rates. My prediction, death ratio will go back up when robots enter the picture. The repetitiously dangerous work will be done by remote control
Predators (drone aircraft) during the attack phase on Iraq were controlled from Virginia.
Unmanned convoys will deliver supplies with few human casualties from improvised munitions. This leaves the deadly one-on-one work that must be done by men. Total casualties and the wounded portion will go down. Great !. However, the killed ratio will go up -- to be reported by "concerned" media.
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