Vet 0369

U.S. Marines have been considered “heavy infantry” for a long time. Primarily because of the sizes of the units, rather than the weapons that they use. For example, here are the unit comparisons of a Marine Rifle Platoon to an Army Rifle Platoon; a Marine squad is three four man fireteams and a Squad Leader/Army squad is two four man teams and a Squad Leader. Both Marine and Army Rifle Platoons have three squads, a Platoon Sgt., Platoon Leader, and, I think still, a Radioman. That means that a Marine Platoon has 42 Marines, and an Army Platoon has 30 soldiers. Each Rifle Company has three Rifle Platoons, so effectively, the Marine Rifle Company has four Rifle Platoons(minus one Platoon Leader, one Platoon Sgt., and one Radioman). Weapons wise, Each Army Squad has an AT team, while all Marine MG, 60mm mortars and LIGHT antitank assault weapons are Company level. Marine AT weapons such as Javs are Battalion level, so Army Rifle Platoons have the edge in heavy weapons, but Marine Platoons effectively have an extra squad of infantry.

No surprise. I think probably “four out of five” commercial airplanes in the world are leased. Most from Boeing, Airbus, and GE Capital Leasing. Just like with land vehicles, you can have the “latest and greatest,” for less expense when you lease. It will be interesting to see how many of those Russian Commercial airplanes end up landing at non-Russian airports while declaring “an emergency” or a “hijacking!”

Russia asks for UN meeting on Ukrainian 'biological activities' -BBC
I suggest Ukraine come prepared with videos of their citizens taking a crap on Russian tanks.

Here’s some more food for thought. I, as a former U.S. Marine can no more play the Russian Campaign with the thought processes of a Russian than a former Russian military man can play the U.S. Campaign from a Western thought process. I freely admit this, so the outcomes of my missions as RA are irrevocably skewed by my training. I recognize and accept this inability, but I cannot change it.

Here’s some more food for thought. I, as a former U.S. Marine can no more play the Russian Campaign with the thought processes of a Russian than a former Russian military man can play the U.S. Campaign from a Western thought process. I freely admit this, so the outcomes of my missions as RA are irrevocably skewed by my training. I recognize and accept this inability, but I cannot change it.

Also, don’t forget that “General Mud” is impartial. If the UA counterattacked now, they’d face the same movement problems as the RA. UKR is remaining flexible by using infantry with AI weapons, while the RA seemed to be blindly following the prewar planning. That’s the difference between Western training of the new UA, and the Soviet training of the pre-2014 UA and current RA.

Here’s some more food for thought. I, as a former U.S. Marine can no more play the Russian Campaign with the thought processes of a Russian than a former Russian military man can play the U.S. Campaign from a Western thought process. I freely admit this, so the outcomes of my missions as RA are irrevocably skewed by my training. I recognize and accept this inability, but I cannot change it.

Here’s some more food for thought. I, as a former U.S. Marine can no more play the Russian Campaign with the thought processes of a Russian than a former Russian military man can play the U.S. Campaign from a Western thought process. I freely admit this, so the outcomes of my missions as RA are irrevocably skewed by my training. I recognize and accept this inability, but I cannot change it.

Also, don’t forget that “General Mud” is impartial. If the UA counterattacked now, they’d face the same movement problems as the RA. UKR is remaining flexible by using infantry with AI weapons, while the RA seemed to be blindly following the prewar planning. That’s the difference between Western training of the new UA, and the Soviet training of the pre-2014 UA and current RA.

Smoke grenades on turret going off probably.

This! The historic purpose of armor has been to support infantry by taking out hard points or distance fire locations. Infantry protect armor from AT weapons so the armor can provide their support.

Once, while my Reserve unit was deployed to Camp Lejune for it’s annual two week “Summer Camp,” we were in the Staff NCO club having a beer after a training day. A Navy Petty Officer in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) came in, chugged a beer, ate the glass, and somersaulted out the door. We all attributed his behavior to brain damage from holding his breath while defusing explosives.

Air-dropped cluster tractors.

This! There is ALWAYS in-fighting in the U.S. Department of Defense for increased funding. The Air Force tried, and almost succeeded in getting the Navy’s aircraft carriers scrapped in favor of more nuclear bombers after WWII. The thing that saved the carriers was N. Korea invading S. Korea. Carrier borne air power convinced Congress that scrapping them was a bad idea. The U.S. Army tried for years to separate the USMC from the Navy, and incorporate it into the Army in order to get it’s funding. They said that WWII showed the Army was just as capable of making amphibious landings as the Marines, and that was true.
Bottom line is that no matter what high-tech gear or nukes you use, it will always fall to the Grunt to go in and dig out the enemy, even if it means using sticks and rocks.

I would ask if anyone knows how many refineries Russia has. Sure, they are a major oil exporter, but how much do they actually refine for internal use?

All the gas turbines, aviation, industrial, marine, etc., that I know of, run on JP-4 or JP-5 (kerosene or paraffin in Europe) or natural gas. The old Soviet reciprocating vehicles such tended to burn a fuel that was only one or two refinement stages above tar.
 

Probably won’t become a “term,” but I worked with a Soviet Immigrant in the 1990s who was a T-34 driver. He told me that they had a sadistic tank commander, who would kick him in the head to indicate a change of direction instead of tapping. One night while the commander had gotten drunk and passed out in a hut, they backed the tank up against the hut and filled it with carbon monoxide. The crew later pulled the tank away and reported the commander had died in his sleep.

Hey Dan, absolutely no problem! I was wrong to assume that you, like probably 95% of the U.S. population don’t know the history of the region. I, like most males my age, am a military veteran, and grew up in the “50s” doing “duck and cover” drills in school at least once a week, so that probably taints my thought processes. I believe that knowing the history of a region helps to prevent “misunderstandings” and “miscalculations.” That whole region is a quagmire of “they did this to us 500 years ago, so our rage is justified.” My Brother-in-law is first generation U.S. citizen of Lithuanian parents. His, and my sisters last name is Zilinsky. If you did a DNA test of the people in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, and the Baltic States, you would probably find that they would have common DNA.

Unfortunately, I have to say that some one actually reading the text in question surprises me. When I worked for the U.S. Government, I used to write rules and regulations that had to be published in the “Federal Register.” That meant they had to pass constitutional muster, ac conversely, we had to be pretty familiar with the U.S. Constitution. What stuns me is all the people who state, “this, that, and that other thing violates my constitutional rights!” The most surprising were the Politicians, media, and talking heads out of Hollywood. You’d think that before they opened their mouths, they’d actually READ the Constitution, and not just the Preamble. My 73-year old Sister is taking an online class on the Constitution (I guess our arguments regarding certain “rights” as actually being in text in the  Constitution, and some that actually aren’t, actually triggered her to want to understand it, and we both went through school when Civics were part of the curriculum. If you don’t know what Civics Classes were, you are probably younger than 60.
Any how everyone, make sure you’ve actually read the pertinent documents before making comments that can embarrass you.
 

LOL! It is a little bit more complicated...
Kyiv - History | Britannica

Unfortunately, I have to say that some one actually reading the text in question surprises me. When I worked for the U.S. Government, I used to write rules and regulations that had to be published in the “Federal Register.” That meant they had to pass constitutional muster, ac conversely, we had to be pretty familiar with the U.S. Constitution. What stuns me is all the people who state, “this, that, and that other thing violates my constitutional rights!” The most surprising were the Politicians, media, and talking heads out of Hollywood. You’d think that before they opened their mouths, they’d actually READ the Constitution, and not just the Preamble. My 73-year old Sister is taking an online class on the Constitution (I guess our arguments regarding certain “rights” as actually being in text in the  Constitution, and some that actually aren’t, actually triggered her to want to understand it, and we both went through school when Civics were part of the curriculum. If you don’t know what Civics Classes were, you are probably younger than 60.
Any how everyone, make sure you’ve actually read the pertinent documents before making comments that can embarrass you.
 

There are no “peasants” in Ukraine.

The German anti-tank units in Market Garden weren’t using “just panzerfausts and panzershreks. They also had AT guns situated at specific cloak points along the roads. It’s really difficult ti protect your armor’s flanks when you can’t run your infantry far enough out on the flanks without overexposing them. I taught my regular opponent a very valuable lesson about using infantry to secure the flanks of your armor advance by wiping all his Soviet AT teams with infantry clearing buildings in a CM1 mission called “The Library.” He has never forgotten, and that was about 20-years ago.

Personally, I consider that “preparation” vs. “panic.” When you live in a forest in the Pacific North West, packing a “go bag” in case of a forest fire is preparation, if you live in the desert, it’s panic.

In reality, the Soviets didn’t back down on anything. John F. Kennedy made an agreement to deactivate the obsolete Hercules ballistic missiles sited in Turkey before the U.S. were intending to do so. So, the Cuban missile Crisis served it’s purpose for the Soviets.