#OTD 1944, Aviation Machinist Mate (Gunner) 2nd Class Loyce Deen was killed when his Avenger from USS Essex was hit by anti-aircraft fire from a Japanese cruiser. In perhaps the only occurrence in U.S. Navy history, Deen was buried at sea in the plane in which he gave his life. pic.twitter.com/ziLxU0JaWf
— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) November 5, 2021
A buddy of mine turned me onto this instagram page and I'm glad he did. A little motivation always helps refocus especially when you're starting to drag...keeps the "no fucks to give" away...
 |
| If you have to fight, fight like the third monkey queuing on the ramp to Noah's Ark. And boy, it’s about to fucking rain… Fuck average. Nothing is given. Everything is earned. |
 |
| Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Moderation is for cowards. It’s not about doing your best over here, it’s about doing better than your best. There are no absolute standards on a mission. Objectives are never fixed & are always dynamic. Intel is never 100%. Mission unknowns & injects will be there to fuck you up. If you’re an individual that always goes for the minimum standards only, just go through the motion cos it's a long day or simply refuse to improve yourself just because you can run a 9 min 2.4 and think that it’s good enough, then guess who is gonna fuck their team. Overconfidence leads to ineffective teams. Ineffective teams leads to mission failure. Fuck the minimum standards. Hold yourself & your team to break self imposed limitations. Extraordinary missions calls for extraordinary individuals. |
 |
| Achieving Apex Marines with 3/2 conducted a MCCRE on Camp Lejeune. A MCCRE is an exercise designed to formally evaluate a unit’s combat readiness and if successful, the unit will achieve apex status and is deemed ready for global deployment. |
 |
| The first flight of the newest Mi-171A3 helicopter took place. This marked the beginning of flight tests of the machine, the main purpose of which is to perform offshore operations and maintain offshore drilling platforms. Several of the largest enterprises of the Russian Helicopters holding are involved in the production of the helicopter. Thus, the cargo floor and blades are manufactured at the Kazan Helicopter Plant, the pilot's cabin and other parts of the fuselage are made of composites at the Far East enterprise AAK "Progress", and the final assembly takes place at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant. Such cooperation became possible due to the fact that the design of the helicopter was initially carried out in digital form. |
Well done RAF!An RAF Typhoon has shot down a drone over Syria, which posed a risk to a coalition base, using an ASRAAM air-air missile. pic.twitter.com/IDW2EwTY8y
— RAF View (@RAFView) December 16, 2021
Looks like we're seeing where the manpower savings will come from.NEW: Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger has decided the service will no longer use the Amphibious Assault Vehicle during scheduled deployments or to train in the water during military exercises, a Marine Corps spokesman said today. https://t.co/y6yxTfWaiU (by @JustinSKatz)
— Breaking Defense (@BreakingDefense) December 15, 2021
Do you remember the world’s very first nuclear meltdown? That time the US President, an expert in nuclear physics, heroically lowered himself into the reactor and saved Ottawa, Canada’s capital?
— Jeff Lundeen (@LundeenOttawa) December 15, 2021
Sounds like schlocky action movie, but it actually happened! pic.twitter.com/LtAQYC79QZ
This is huge! I never knew! I don't recall anyone ever talking about this. Was it classified and is just making it into the wild now?
via Stars and Stripes
The general said there are two arguments for countering China. The first calls for a “standoff” with China, where the two countries – armed with precision-strike and long-range missiles – keep each other at bay for fear of conflict. The other argues the U.S. should place its forces within a contested area to challenge Chinese operations.
Berger said the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
“I'm convinced that you need both -- you need a whole defense in depth,” he said. “The standoff alone plays right into [China’s] threat strategy.”
To advance his strategy, Berger released a document Dec. 1 outlining his plan for using “stand-in forces” as the Marine Corps continues to adjust its focus from counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations to addressing near-peer adversaries such as China and Russia.
Berger said the strategy was born out of discussions regarding how the “conventional force -- not strategic, not nuclear … [is] going to deter a peer adversary or a near-peer adversary.”
&
The idea is to disrupt an adversary’s plans by sending “small but lethal, low signature, mobile and relatively simple-to-maintain” forces from the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard into contentious regions such as the South China Sea, Berger wrote in a Dec. 1 report on the strategy.
The small forces can then conduct better reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance “below the threshold of violence” in contested areas, according to the report.
“This allows [the stand-in force] to assist in identifying and countering malign behavior, and if armed conflict does erupt, the joint force can attack effectively first and prevent the enemy from doing so,” the report said.
A couple of things.
* The Commandant has never explained how they STOP "malign behavior without sparking armed conflict. Additionally he hasn't explained how penny packets of Marines can do more than serve as targeting practice if fighting were to erupt.
* I have been monitoring discussions in the US Navy about an overtaxed force finally saying enough is enough. Simply put, forward presence is wearing out what should be a fabulous naval force.
I wonder if we're about to repeat history with the Soviet Union with regard to China? By that I mean we're going to load up on nuclear weapons, develop new strategic weapons which will lead to proxy fights all over the globe (in other words a continuation of the last 50 years).
Meanwhile the Navy/Marine Corps debate the future (I also suspect that the Lightweight Amphibious Warship procurement is straining the Commandant's vision/arguments for his concept...think about it like this...the USMC has demanded the MLP, the SecDef demanded the LCS and in some ways the USMC demanded the DDG1000 for firesupport and all of them are essentially lemons) of this new strategy.
The Marine Corps as an institution MUST rid itself of this paranoia about its relevancy and its future.
It is a self destructive problem and one that is damaging to the force.
For such a storied force, the Marine Corps suffers from a confidence problem.
Laboratory leak now the most likely origin of Covid. Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) engineering bat coronaviruses. https://t.co/4GsMfFXmsO
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 15, 2021
China Navy Expeditionary Battle Group
— 彩云香江 (@louischeung_hk) December 15, 2021
(Images via wb/小西造车) pic.twitter.com/jRujxm5sy5
 |
| Our Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment and soldiers with the @jgsdf_pr execute urban operations training during #ResoluteDragon21 on Ojojihara Proving Grounds, Japan. 2/7 is forward deployed in the Indo-Pacific in support of 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division as part of the Unit Deployment Program. (@marines 📸 by Sgt. Mario A. Ramirez) |
