via Marine Corps Times...
The other thing that gives me concern is that he's spent so much time in SOCOM.
Having said all that he does have an Infantry background and that is nothing but good in my opinion. Did you realize that over the past 4 years the top 3 Marines and many of those surrounding them came from the wing?
This is a much needed rebalancing.
Hagel has fucked alot of things up but this has his fingerprints all over it...he was grunt, he respects other grunts and even though he's as liberal as a 2 dollar hooker on bourbon street he also...just maybe...wants to see the Marine Corps return to its glory.
Sidenote: In some swings around the internet I believe the one video that made people sit up and say what is going on with the Marine Corps is that of the Marines singing "frozen"....that's the one that made people say what the fuck.
A Marine two-star has been tapped to receive a third star and serve as the next top adviser to the commandant, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday.Of concern is a whole bunch of staff work in the latter part of his career but I guess that is to be expected.
Maj. Gen. James Laster was nominated to become director of Marine Corps Staff, based at the Pentagon in Washington. Pending congressional approval, Laster will serve as the top assistant and adviser to Gen. Joseph Dunford, who has been nominated to become the 36th commandant of the Marine Corps.
The other thing that gives me concern is that he's spent so much time in SOCOM.
Having said all that he does have an Infantry background and that is nothing but good in my opinion. Did you realize that over the past 4 years the top 3 Marines and many of those surrounding them came from the wing?
This is a much needed rebalancing.
Hagel has fucked alot of things up but this has his fingerprints all over it...he was grunt, he respects other grunts and even though he's as liberal as a 2 dollar hooker on bourbon street he also...just maybe...wants to see the Marine Corps return to its glory.
Sidenote: In some swings around the internet I believe the one video that made people sit up and say what is going on with the Marine Corps is that of the Marines singing "frozen"....that's the one that made people say what the fuck.
You may be on to something, but IMHO the odds are against it, in terms of what they are planning to do.
ReplyDeleteFollow the money -- the big money is on air systems. First the F-35 with its "god's eye view" -- notice they never talk CAS -- at 3,000+ feet will call in the precision munitions and then the fantastic Osprey will delver the troops. They will never get their feet wet, nor ever see a beach, the thinking goes.
That's why the MC has been dragging its feet on landing craft. It wasn't (all) stupidity or inefficiency. It was by design.
I'd say that in a couple months, if it hasn't happened already, Hagel will call Dunford up the the fifth floor, E-ring, and have a little chat over cigars and coffee. Joe, this is the way it is. This will be your new, modernized Marine Corps.
The only little tsetse fly in that ointment is the Faulty-35, so Job One for us is to help it go.
Incidentally, on June 24 the Pentagon (Naval Air Systems Command) awarded a contract to Lockheed for $75,980,553, for the purchase of 252 helmet mounted display systems in support of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, particularly the F-35B scheduled for initial operational capability in a year. That's $301,000 per helmet, which doesn't work by the way.
According to the most recent test report, Lockheed Martin managed to fix problems with jitter in the display, but these fixes introduced instability or “swimming” of the projected symbology. Also, night vision acuity was unacceptable and light leaks into the helmet required pilots to fine tune the symbology brightness, adding to their workload, the report said.
Seventy-five million bucks for faulty helmets to be worn in faulty airplanes. You could purchase three A-10s for that.