Vet 0369
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Posts posted by Vet 0369
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3 hours ago, akd said:
Another Russian mine-roller tank working and dying (warning, more flaming Russians at a distance):
Thank you for the warning!
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4 hours ago, akd said:
Russian MT-LB tries to drive through a Ukrainian roadblock:
I’m sorry, but that was f’king disgusting! There’s no reason for showing vids of soldiers burning to death! When we show those, we become desensitized to them still being human beings.
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10 hours ago, kluge said:
Additionally an underwater explosion will generate a bubble as it pushes water outwards. The bubble eventually collapses, and as it does so the water that takes up the space no longer supports the ship. In certain scenarios where a ship is heavy enough and there is a large enough bubble, the ship will bend as the bubble collapses. This is referred to as "breaking the back" of a ship. The impact of this is somewhat mythologized and often gets blown out of proportion, but is nonetheless noteworthy because at the end of the day it's extra stress on a ship that wouldn't be produced with an above water explosion.
This is exactly how the ARA General Belgrano (Argentine Cruiser) was sunk by the HMS Conquerer (UK Submarine) during the Falklands (Malvinas) war. The Conquerer detonated a torpedo under the keel of the General Belgrano and broke its back. There were more than 1300 sailors on the Cruiser when she sank.
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On 10/11/2023 at 4:05 PM, Haiduk said:
So, "veterans" laughed at this and told, this is usual practice for all brigades in much or less degrees, just conditions of war forced us to act by a rule of US Marines, where each marine in first order is rifleman, anf only then has own speciality.
This “Old Marine” Agrees 100%! It works for us!
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2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
Most people are ignorant of history, even their own. It isn't a Western thing. History is also distorted to suit the politics and culture of the present. That also isn't a Western thing, as evidenced recently by book bannings and overtly politically established teaching standards in the US amply demonstrates.
So if you want to scream hypocrisy, that's fine. But just remember it applies to your country/culture as much as it does everybody else's.
As an American who does not fall into the category of thinking "history is boring", I can say that it is commonly understood that the West "said one thing and did another" when it came to punishing Nazis for their crimes. Whether it be using Nazi science and technology solidly connected to warcrimes and genocide, creating the myth of "good Nazi" to excuse working with war criminals, or understanding the role of the Catholic Church in providing escape routes for the worst of the worst of the Nazis... the information is out there for anybody who cares to look at it.
That said, you are wrong that West views the Red Army as "liberators". The entire Cold War was spent vilifying the Red Army specifically and the Soviet Union generally. Only the hard right and hard left whackos push back on that narrative, mostly by factually flawed "whataboutisms" and false equivocation of real events. The closer someone in the West lives to the old Soviet sphere, the stronger the roots of disinformation. However, what you are talking about is mostly a phenomena of the areas administered by the Soviet Union (internal and external), which makes sense since the last thing the Soviet Union would teach is "the Red Army was monstrous".
A correct and academic view of the war clearly shows that the Nazi regime raised and recruited a large number of non-German units primarily for maintaining order within its borders of the Reich through terror, murder, rape, plunder, and the whole list of horrible things Humans do to one another. Ukrainians were also recruited explicitly for roles in the Final Solution, in particular camp guards. Eventually those units were incorporated into the Waffen SS and the interplay between guards, "police", and soldiers was blurred even more. The same was true for the Germanic SS units, especially the Totenkopf Division.
So, bottom line, is that not all Ukrainians who were part of the Waffen SS committed the worst sort of war crimes, but the units themselves did. Therefore, they should not be celebrated as freedom fighters, but instead correctly labeled instruments of terror. Even the cooks and the clerks had their role to play in those crimes, just as the cooks and clerks in the Russian army today do.
Steve
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!”
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1 hour ago, dan/california said:
Well, in many ways Prig was smarter than most of them. Yet they were all on the same plane.
Yes, they were. The question is “did they have brain waves or were their hearts stilling beating when the the plane took off?”
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4 hours ago, Lethaface said:
Use your second amendment
Perhaps you meant to say “First Amendment,” that guarantees the rights to free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association instead of the “ Second Amendment,” that guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has defined “arms” as any item that can be used for self defense.
Just to be clear, the first line regarding the “Militia” applies to the States and the “People” applies to the Citizens. The militia was comprised of the “People” (All males age 18 to 45), who were required to supply their own “arms” and ammunition.
That is of course, assuming you aren’t suggesting violence against said individual?
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2 hours ago, holoween said:
Also poles like to conveniently ignore this when discussion contributions.
But lets put this to rest. Polish military aid has been invaluable by being there early on and in quantity.
But polish rethoric quite often doesnt square with their actions especially if there is a chance to screw over germany.
Let’s get our equations and definitions set. “Political rhetoric” equals “Political BS.” Both terms apply to the principle of pandering to a chosen electorate for the sole purpose of Politicians (again, the roots of “politician” are two words, Greek for “many” and ticks that are bold sucking insects) to attain or retain a political office. While I’m sure there are, and have been, some who seek office for altruistic reasons, I can’t find any in the entire political world!
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7 hours ago, billbindc said:
Pelosi and McConnell ran/run a very tight ship. Not likeable people, to be sure, but they delivered tough votes routinely. McCarthy is simply not of that caliber and it's likely that aid to Ukraine suffers for it.
Congress will pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the Government running while the true negotiators get together to hammer out a new Budget in which BOTH parties lose some of what they want. Both extreme ends will kick and scream, and complain that it’s “the other party” that’s ruining the negotiations by stonewalling, but will be told behind the scenes that their party will not be the one to be blamed for the shutdown. I went through ALL the U.S.Government shutdowns from Clinton to the end of 2016, and I can tell you that they all shared the same pattern whether they were a Democrat or a Republican administration, especially those leading up to a General election.
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On 9/18/2023 at 10:43 PM, Battlefront.com said:
Yup, well aware of this. International Legion has had bad problems right from the start and it doesn't seem to have gotten any better as the war has worn on. I've at times been pretty critical of their conduct in this war. The latest allegations are pretty nasty. I hope this high profile incident finally gets the Ukrainian MoD to take action.
Sadly, murders happen even in Western armies in both war and peace times. There's been quite a few scandals in the US military over the years of service personnel murdering each other over sex, drugs, and/or money.
Steve
Not at all surprising as statistically, the percentage of “bad actors” (rape, murder, drug abuse, other types of abuse, etc., in the military, is basically the same as in the “general population” af the Nation.
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On 9/18/2023 at 3:11 PM, TheVulture said:
Curious article from Russian newspaper Kommersant about how Russian drone manufacturing is having problems because of Chinese restrictions on exports to Russia. Article is paywalled (and in Russian), but the free section auto-translated gives the outline.
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6223010
Absolutely looks like a subterfuge smoke screen to me (“Oh, no, we’re absolutely complying with the international restrictions. See how we are restricting the use of sensitive technologies!”) Wink,Wink, Nod, Nod.
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9 hours ago, Bearstronaut said:
I always look forward to reading a post by The_Capt. If you ever decided to write a book I would buy it in an instant. In regards to the whole "warrior" discussion, despite nearly a decade of service on active duty in the US Army I was never comfortable calling myself a warrior. I was an intel nerd and despite my knowing full well that my job was to facilitate the death of other people and that tactical SIGINT is quite dangerous to me warriors were the maneuver guys going around kicking in doors and shooting people in the face or blowing stuff up with tanks. I think this stems from my formative experience as a soldier in basic training. I went through POG basic at Fort Jackson, SC with a company full of intel, logistics, and maintenance trainees. My three platoon drill sergeants were all infantry NCOs with combat tours in Iraq or Afghanistan and they derisively referred to us as "warrior" throughout my three months in basic. That stuck with me and anytime someone since then has called me "warrior" I've kind of snickered in my head. Perhaps that would be different if I had ever seen combat but the closest I got to any real danger was two tours holding the line in South Korea.
Being much, much older, during my time in the military during both conscription and volunteer timeframes, the only “major” designations were Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman, and Coastguardsman. In the Marine Corps, we then sub classified by combat arm as Grunt (all Infantry and Artillery), Tankie (all Armor), and Winger (Air Wing). We never felt the need break it down any further because we were all Marines and every Marine, from the lowest Pvt and newest 2nd Lt are trained initially as Infantry.
Every year, every one of us was required to pass tests on Combat andInfantry knowledge. If you failed the tests, you didn’t qualify for promotions. I don’t know if it is still used, but every Sgt. and above was evaluated on a “Fitness Report,” which is the same one used to evaluate Officers. The most important question was “How willing would you be to serve with this Marine in combat?”
Humans like to sub-classify others into groups so they can feel superior to those not in their sub group. Marines don’t need to do that because we’re ALL MARINES FIRST AND FOREMOST!
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On 9/10/2023 at 11:20 PM, kevinkin said:
Interesting thought. I don't think the USA will ever elect a high level military commander to POTUS in my life time. And once they get to that high military level, the Senate and Congress are, well, sort of a lower level position. It's because those in the US military that rise to high ranks are: educated, experienced in communication and can cut through the BS and are overall pretty nice leaders. They want the US to give them a mission and leave them alone. What is most American want - to be left alone in the private lives. That's why I respect Kirby. Non-elected, but a straight shooter. He his loyal to his Boss and will support the Constitution to his death. He is an Admiral and gets it. I think he is the glue that hold the US admin and exec branch together. I am just giving kuddos to Kirby; an adult in the room.
Hmm,I don’t know how old you are, but the first political campaign I remember was for a Presidential election. The auditorium in my school was a balloting site. The winner of that election was Dwight D. Eisenhower, a retired five-star General, who was the Supreme Commander of the European Theater of Operations during WW II. Coincidentally, he was also the one who began our involvement in French Indochina/Vietnam.
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On 9/10/2023 at 10:57 PM, chuckdyke said:
Mmmm Iraq, Afghanistan and we shut up about Vietnam, the most powerful army in the world runs short of decisive victories. Storming Norman was the last successful general against Russian Supplied arms. Once the US taxpayers thinks it is too expensive they vote in a Commander in Chief who will withdraw just to be elected.
The issue with all the “conflicts” (not wars, as only Congress is authorized to declare war) was not the fault of the military Commanders, Units, and Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen, it was the conditions and restrictions put on them by the politicians. I remember a very disgusting order the Marines were given after the Mai Lai massacre. When they were on combat patrols, they weren’t allowed to load a magazine into or load their weapons until they received fire from the enemy. You can be assured that they “lock and loaded” as soon as they were out of sight of their command tent.
For historical reference, the command “lock and load” comes from flintlock muskets where you would pull your “lock” back to half-cock, tear open the paper powder cartridge with your teeth, prime your pan with some powder, then “load” by pouring the remaining powder down the barrel, and ramming the ball that was still tied in the paper down to your breach plug. And remember to never go off “half-cocked” and hope you don’t have a “flash in the pan” while you’re standing “ramrod straight.”
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50 minutes ago, Haiduk said:
Almost each who lives in village can do this ) In Ukraine each rural homested has own small or large market garden, even families, who are farmers except own fields carry on own market garden or even several. In late USSR homesteads could have from 0,15 to 0,6 ha (0,37 - 1,48 acres) of land. This was enough to supply usual family at least with own vegetables (most popular on our market gadens are potato, tomatoes, cucumbers and onion). Also homesteads, having bigger allotments often have own chickens, ducks, rabbits, pigs, sometime a cow. Many those, who live in cities have own old parents in villages, and help them to grow vegetables, which then they can eat and these own vegetables are 100 % eco-natural. Also many citizens buy dachas, which also have small piece of land (0.05-0.07 ha), but often some free space all the same are diverted under beds of vegetables.
Yes, this is survival experience of two wars and especailly Holodomor, which hands over from generation to generation. In last years many young people become to forgot from where they get food, thinking it appears in magical way in supermarkets, many people told "its enough to work hard for this potato, when we can buy it in any time in any place". But Russian invasion again showed that own market garden and "house in the village" is always actual thing.
During siege of Kyiv in March, there was too few vegetables in city supermarkets, but villagers and farmers were coming to Kyiv on own cars on single free road and traded own vegetables to citizens. Of course, their food costed in 1.5 and sometine in 2 times more, than in supermarkets, but we could buy almost everything ecxept exotic %)
Here in the U.S. the small gardens are called “Victory Gardens.” They are quite popular all over the country.
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2 hours ago, Twisk said:
Contextually I think it points out Russia's continued imperial existence as opposed to the U.S.'s federal one. In the U.S. someone from Florida and Washington are equal and the civilian population has internalized that. You couldn't run a war by only drafting Florida men. Politically it would be a non starter.
It would also be illegal in the U.S. The Legislature and Executive Branches cannot create any law or regulation that would create “two classes of Citizens.” If you want to have a Draft, it must apply to everyone equally, and don’t get started on why Women don’t have to register for Selective Service.
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3 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
What we rarely see these days is something like what apparently is happening in Andriivka (south of Bakhmut) right now. Apparently 3rd Assault Brigade is doing a simultaneous pincer attack on the village from north and south. This is likely at least 2 reinforced companies operating at the same time towards a singular objective. This caught my attention because it's one of the few that I've seen recently, but it is the sort of thing that I thought would be routine when this counter offensive started.
Steve
This maneuver in the USMC is called a “dual” or “double envelopment,” where you have a base of fire with two maneuver elements (generally at Company strength).It is used at the Battalion level and higher only. A Company and below will use a “single envelopment” with a base of fire and one maneuver element (Platoon or smaller). This is because coordinating two maneuver elements and the base of fire is much, much, much more complicated and difficult than a “single envelopment.”
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9 hours ago, L0ckAndL0ad said:
The question that is bothering me is that, if we're going to be cut off from all sides here, how would 1.5-2 million civilians would be supplied here with food?
I would hope that those who are paying attention to the situation and not the propaganda, would begin to stockpile non perishable food stuffs and water instead of the vodka that those in denial might be stockpiling.
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12 minutes ago, LongLeftFlank said:
Two-thirds of Ukrainian soldiers die from blood loss.... ‘You have to drag a person with your hands approximately three to five kilometres. You can’t drive there even in armoured vehicles because of the heavy shellings and mines.’
Medics, she says, try to avoid using the official first aid supplies issued to them, because of the admin that is involved.... Why should Ukraine ask for more medical equipment, when officially the shortage doesn’t really exist?
To allow for one medic for every 30 soldiers, Ukraine needs to train at least 15,000 combat medics.
All marines were trained in First Aid, and that was performed only after the fire fight or assault was completed. The Corpsmen basically worked on the wounded in a Triage manner. The standing rule of a grunt was that if you perform First Aid on someone, you used their med kit, not yours.
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9 hours ago, Splinty said:
The US Army and Marines still do bayonet training in basic and boot camp. But as was mentioned previously it's more about aggression and motivation than actually training to use them in combat. In any case a big knife always comes in handy.
LOL, there is a reason EVERY Marine wants a K-bar! In fact, I still have one, and I can still shave with it, sort of!
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10 hours ago, Centurian52 said:
Trenches have been used in every single war (that I can think of) since WW1, and many, many wars prior to WW1.
Edit: And bayonets were still considered an important weapon at least as late as WW2, and were still retained in many armies until very recently (still a potential backup weapon, and some armies still maintain that bayonet training is a useful way of instilling aggressiveness).
It's not so hard to see why bayonets were retained as late as WW2. Imagine you have assaulted an enemy trench or are storming a house and you find yourself in close contact with an enemy soldier. You have a bolt-action rifle, and have missed your first shot. Is it faster and less risky to work the bolt to chamber a fresh round or to thrust your rifle forward to stab the enemy with your bayonet? Stabbing is probably faster and safer in this situation.
It's harder to imagine why bayonets were retained for so long after WW2. If you are in the same situation, but you have a semi-automatic or assault rifle, then the faster and safer option is probably to just squeeze the trigger again. So you would think that semi-automatic rifles would have been the final nail in the coffin for bayonets. But, as has been pointed out, bayonets don't run out of ammo.
When I went through recruit training at Paris Island , NC, we practiced our bayonet skills with each other all the time, even when we weren’t actually involved in “formal” training. That was primarily because we had M-14 rifles with solid stocks. I don’t ever remember doing bayonet training with M-16s though because those stocks have recoil buffers and the stock could break with a good hard butt stroke to the head or the groin.
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22 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
I'm looking for an "Understatement" button to click on for your post and not finding it. Probably a good thing
The question was asked about what tricks are up the President's sleeve in the event that funding is cut for Ukraine. The answer has already been stated that there are SOME things that can be done, but like any work around it isn't as good as the straight forward way. There are political costs, at least, for overtly working around Congress. So, as said, there are some limited ways around Congress not funding something. The previous President, for example, took money out of the defense budget and used it to build some walls with Mexico. Amazingly this was not shot down by the Supreme Court, despite it being a brazen misappropriation of funds according to standard private and public sector accounting practices.
The bigger problem, though, is that the prediction is that the entire US government will be shut down. Not only won't Ukraine funding be a problem, but everything else that is even remotely tied to Federal spending will be affected. We've already had one government shutdown in my lifetime and it was not pretty.
Steve
Ok, having “worked on the inside,” and having a discussed or been a party to discussions on “creative” ways to obtain money fo “pet” projects, I can say with much certainty that virtually every Administration, Agency, Department, Division, Directorate, and office unit, including the Judicial and Legislative Branches of the Government has done, and continues to do the same, no matter which Party is in power.
Regarding the U.S. Federal shutdowns, there have been four. They were one under Clinton in 1995-1996, one under Obama in 2013, and two under Trump in 2018 and in 2019. I was personally involved in the shutdown in 2013. All four shutdowns occurred basically after almost all of the Moderates in the House and Senate had either retired from office or been voted out by the two groups of extremists. Before that time, the opposing parties actually negotiated their positions in “good faith.”
Fun fact, most Federal employees actually look forward to a shutdown (starting saving up in August for the bi-weekly income loss) because Congress has always passed a bill to pay everyone in arrears after the shutdown ends and there is a new budget. Basically extra vacation time for which they weren’t charged.
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10 minutes ago, Centurian52 said:
I wouldn't worry about that. That is, at the earliest, still 17 months away (a new President would take office in January 2025). It's basically a given that the war will go into 2024, but I'm still hopeful that the Russians will be beaten by 2025 (at the very least, they will be in even worse shape than they are right now). And considering that this is mostly a bipartisan issue, there is a fair to decent chance that a new president would still support aiding Ukraine anyway.
The most probable “danger” to the U.S. for Ukraine is that the Federal Budget ends at 23:59 on September 30, 2023. Without a new budget already in place, the Congress will have to pass a number of Continuing Resolutions for the Executive Branch Departments to continue to operate. In this current Congress of basically two extremist groups of Legislators and Senators, with few moderates left on either side, based on my own past experiences, no budget will be passed until at least the end of December.
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2 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:
I don't know how you define ethnicity in the USA.
Personally, I'm going by this definition:
Ethnicity
a large group of people with a shared culture, language, history, set of traditions, etc., or the fact of belonging to one of these groupshttps://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ethnicity
LOL, I can accept this definition, however ….. Since you mentioned U.S.A., the country of the United States of America is an outlier that might just throw that definition into the dust bin. The population of the USA is made up of many, many, many small “ethnic,” as defined by culture, language, religion, heritage, etc. populations. Collectively, this “population” is known as “American.” If ethnicity is defined simply by shared culture, heritage, religion, language, etc., then would the majority of Canadians, Bermuda, Bahamas, etc. be defined as Americans, while those countries with a Spanish or Brazilian culture and heritage (including the Quebec Quois (probably spelled wrong) in Canada not be classified as “Americans?” As it is, I believe the term American originally applied to any native or citizen of any country in North, Central, and South America because the “Old World Powers” wanted to separate them culturally from Europeans.
These terms are nothing more than labels that people apply to others to allow themselves to feel superior to the “subsets” in some way. That practice is more commonly known as RACISM. And yes, the Americans have engendered more than enough of that, but probably no more than any other existing country in the world.
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
Fixed that for you!