Month: June 2011

Stolen from DPUD.

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Continue reading “Making your life better. Usually”

Infantry in Battle was one of the most influential publications regarding tactics published in the interwar period.

Sadly, my copy has gone AWOL. And I’m too damn cheap to buy another copy.

Anybody know a free e-book format version around?

Other free e-book suggestions are welcome as well.

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Texas Vets Told Not to Use ‘God’ During Services | Houston News – KTRH NewsRadio 740 Houston News, Weather, Traffic.

Kinda strikes me as an unconstitutional prior restraint upon speech on public land.

Mr. RFH, Roamy’s husband (and an honest-to-goodness rocket scientist himself) remarked on the abort motor for the Orion crew capsule in the last post.

Wonder what he thinks of the Hercules X-265 motor on the old Nike Sprint ABM platform.  650,000lbf, 0 to Mach 10 in 5 seconds, 100g of acceleration. THAT’S a motor…

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Spartan/Sprint was a two-layered anti-ballistic missile system to shield the US from a Soviet ICBM strike. It worked, and was actually deployed, but there were problems. One, the system was really expensive. Two, the US and the Soviets signed the ABM treaty which really curtailed the usefulness of ABM systems. And three, the use of nuclear warheads to destroy incoming nuclear warheads wasn’t all that popular an idea, and it had some real practical drawbacks, especially in terms of EMP.

PAKTIKA PATROL – U.S. Army soldiers pull security from the top of a mountain during operation Surak Basta III in Paktika province, Afghanistan, June 21, 2011. The soldiers are assigned 101st Airborne Division’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team. The operation’s mission was to infiltrate near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to stop enemy fighters from entering Afghanistan. U.S. Army courtesy photo

Via War News Updates.

In a significant reversal, the Marine Corps has begun using optics at entry-level training, and could do so on a permanent basis beginning next year.

The scopes will be used by recruits based at Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego beginning in July as part of a pilot program, said Col. Timothy Armstrong, head of Weapons Training Battalion based here. Two companies of new lieutenants here at The Basic School already have trained with them, and shown dramatic improvements in how they shoot, Marine officials said.

via Optics added for entry-level rifle training – Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq – Marine Corps Times.

I can just imagine the howls of protest from the traditionalists in the Marine Corps.

And while iron sights are far less prone to breakage than combat optics, the old rule of “train as you fight” makes sense here. Damn near every weapon in theater other than pistols has an optical sight on it. Might as well train troops from the start to use them.

I’m a lousy shot. My right eye is about 20/200 on a good day. And while glasses improve that somewhat, glasses also get fogged over, or have sweat and dust on them whenever I shoot. So anything beyond about 100m is just a blur to me when looked at through iron sights. Any real precision shooting is a great challenge for me.  Optics make it a lot easier to me to shoot reasonably well. Of course, the 10x ISU on a Bradley made things a LOT easier…

URR, you’re our resident Marine commentator. What say you?