Hiester Richard Hornberger Jr., better known by his pen name, Richard Hooker, was born in New Jerseay. A physician who practiced in Maine, he's remembered for his novel M*A*S*H which was based on his experiences as an Army doctor during the Korean War.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Matthew, Chapter 24.
Only the dead have seen the end of the war.
George Santayana
January 1, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
This major war is now in its third calendar year.
Hamas Israeli War
The Prime Minister of Israel has stated that this campaign will carry on for many months.
An Israeli airstrike killed 35 in Gaza.
The U.S. Navy sunk three Houthi boats attempting to attack a merchant vessel.
Venezuela v Guyana border dispute.
Venezuela is conducting a joint arms exercise in response to the Royal Navy dispatching a ship to Guyana.
January 2, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
A change in Norwegian law allows Norwegian arms manufacturers to sell arms directly to Ukraine.
How much of a defense industry Norway has, of course, is another matter.
January 3, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
An Israeli airstrike sent Saleh Arouri to the next world, where he will have to make an account for his actions. An Islamic radical his entire life, he was the founder of Hamas' military wing.
He went to his end in Beirut.
From ISW:
Israeli forces are transitioning to the third phase of their operations in the northern Gaza Strip, which will very likely enable Hamas to reconstitute itself militarily. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it withdrew five brigades from the northern Gaza Strip on December 31. This reduction in forces is part of what the IDF has described as its third phase in the strip, which also involves ending major combat operations, releasing reservists, transitioning to “targeted raids,” and establishing a security buffer zone within the Gaza Strip.
January 4, 2024
US/Mexico Border Crisis
The Justice Department has sued Texas on over a new law that would allow Texas police to arrest illegal immigrants on the basis of their illegality.
My prediction is that this suit will likely fail.
Hamas Israeli War
Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that launching a full-scale war on Lebanon Islamist targets would be "very costly," and that the assassination of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut would not go unpunished.
Sort of in the D'uh category.
Cont:
Islamic State v. Iran
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a bombing attack that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran. The attack occured during a memorial procession for Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani. The Sunni group regards Shiites, which most Iranians are, with Iran being a Shiite theocracy, as apostates.
January 5, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Putin signed a decree signed speeding up citizenship for foreigners enlisting in the Russian army.
Somalian Civil War
From ISW:
Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with the de facto independent Somaliland Republic, a breakaway region of Somalia, to lease a naval port that will give it Red Sea access in exchange for formally recognizing Somaliland.
January 7, 2024
The Korean Conflict
North Korea issued one of its threatening proclamations through Communist princess Kim Yo Jong.
These are moronic, as without China, and North Korea cannot really depend on China, South Korea would be eliminated as an entity in the event of war.
South Korea may soon not be able to fill its conscript levies due to a declining population.
Russo Ukrainian War
Japan's foreign minister visited Ukraine.
Russia seems to have resumed its strategy of attempting localized offensives that degrade its own forces.
The Ukrainians have been conducting a drone offensive against targets in Crimea.
January 9, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
News reports hold that Russia has deployed 35,000 men of the Russian National Guard, some equipped with World War Two vintage rifles, to occupied regions of Ukraine as security forces.
January 10, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
Anthony Blinken has indicated the US rejects the concept of resettling the Gazan Levantines from that area even though, of course, its an untenable ghetto.
Iran v. The West
Iranian backed Houthis launched 50 drones at shipping today, all of which were shot down by the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy.
Iran is using the current Hamas Israeli War as a pretext to try to advance its interest in the region.
January 11, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
The US and UK hit targets with missiles inside of Yemen, from which Houthi drone strikes have been coming. A Houthi spokesman actually complained about it.
January 12, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The State of Texas, using the Texas National Guard, has seized Shelby Park in Eagle Pass in order to prevent Federal authorities from processing migrants.
January 13, 2024
Hamas Israeli War.
The US struck Houthi targets again yesterday.
Turkey v. Kurds
Turkish air raids struck Kurdish militant targets in Metina, Hakurk, Gara and Qandil in northern Iraq. This was in retaliation for a Kurdish attack on a Turkish base in Iraq.
January 16, 2024
Iran v Everyone
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched missile attacks in Syria and in Iraq’s Kurdistan region yesterday.
Korean Conflict
The North Korean Communist Clown state announced it is no longer pursuing reconciliation with South Korea, which actually dovetails nicely with general younger South Korean desires.
There's speculation on why this was announced, but in reality, any reunion between the countries at this point makes the ongoing Communist monarchy in North Korean irrelevant in every fashion so quickly, it isn't funny.
January 17, 2024
Hamas Israeli War/Iran v Everyone
The US is placing the Houthi's back on the terrorist list.
Iran v. Everyone
Iran conducted missile strikes on a Sunni militia site in Pakistan.
January 18, 2024
Hamas Israeli War/Iran v Everyone
The US conducted a fourth round of strikes on the Houthis.
Pakistan v. Baloch militants.
Pakistan conducted strikes inside Iran against Baloch militants.
January 20, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The Estonian state will not extend the residence permit of the head of the Estonian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia) of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Yevgeniy, whose civil name is Valeri Reshetnikov, because his activities are a security threat to Estonia
Estonian government.
Cont:
The Middle East
Somebody (probably Israel) hit Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures inside of Syria. In turn, US sites in Iraq were hit.by Iranian backed militia's.
Iran is the common thread here.
January 21, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a two state solution for Gaza.
This is widely seen as a terrible thing to have done, but frankly, Gaza isn't viable as an isolated political unit and always has depended on economic support from the outside to get by. Geographically, it should be part of Israel or Egypt, and that's a simple economic and topographic fact. It shouldn't be part of another state.
For that matter, a Palestinian state makes little to no sense. It would be minute.
Those are the rough, real facts to deal with. Levantines that live within the borders of what had been pre-1948 Palestine either have to live within Israel, realistically, or be relocated in some instances to an Arab state that could host them, none of which are willing to do it.
Russo Ukrainian War
President Zylenskyy expressed concerns about remarks made by Donald Trump regarding securing peace.
Concern is warranted given Trump's admiration for dictators and his increasingly erratic if not demented behavior.
January 22, 2024
China v. Taiwan
Recent statements by GOP candidate Donald Trump have risen concerns that his commitment to Taiwan, which has been a GOP hallmark, is low.
FWIW, Trump raised Taiwanese semiconductor production as something the US should have done something about, seemingly failing to grasp that if it falls to China, we're in a world of semiconductor hurt.
On one of the weekend shows, it was recently revealed that Trump has a gigantic exaggerated fear of nuclear war. He also clearly has a thing for strongmen.
January 23, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
Numerous nations are lining up against Israel and demanding a Palestinian state be part of a peace package, even though such a state, if within the boundaries of the former Palestinian mandate, would not be economically viable.
Saudi Arabia, with a large landmass and a labor deficit, has stated it will not normalize relations with Israel unless a Palestinian state is created.
British and American forces hit Houthi ones again.
Russo Ukrainian War
Ukraine conducted successful drone strikes against targets in Leningrad and Tula oblasts.
Boarder Crisis
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Federal agents to remove razor wire on the Texas/Mexico border, but it is merely a ruling on a temporary injunction, so the actual ruling, in terms of the issues, means next to nothing whatsoever.
January 24, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
Due to political infighting, the US is out of funding for Ukraine and the pipeline is therefore shut.
January 25, 2024
Hamas Israeli War
Israel proposed a two-month pause in fighting in exchange for Hamas releasing over several phases the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip. The first phase would have Hamas return women, men over 60 years old, and hostages in critical medical condition. Israeli media reported that the "next phases" would include the release of female IDF soldiers, civilian males under the age of 60, Israeli male soldiers, and the bodies of hostages. An anonymous Israeli official told an Israeli journalist that the proposal includes redeploying the IDF out of main population centers in the Gaza Strip to allow Palestinian civilians to return to these areas. The official added that this proposal does not include the release of all 6,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
This would be a major concession from Israel, but it doesn't seem to have generated much news.
Russo Ukrainian War
A Russian Il-76 military transporting Ukrainian POWs for an exchange crashed in Yablonovo, Belgorod Oblast. The Russians have accused Ukraine of shooting it down.
Patriarch Krill urged the Russian government to extend the draft deferment for fathers, now set at fathers with four children, down to father's with three, out of concern for the declining Russian population.
Slovakia, whose current government is close to Putin, pleadged support for the integrity of Ukraine's internationally recognized borders.
Middle East
Houthi's attempted to attack U.S. Navy escorts with ballistic missiles unsuccessfully.
US/Mexico Border
An attempt in Congress to get a bill passed to address the border is stalled with Donald Trump now entering the picture, opposing it, something that is hard not to be quite skeptical about.
This will messs up aid to Ukraine as well.
January 27, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
US/Mexico Border
Also:
Governor Gordon Supports Texas’ Right to Secure its Border
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Governor Gordon has issued a statement in support of border security Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to defend and protect itself in the face of the crisis at the southern border.
“I remain committed to a secure border, and to supporting states struggling with the ongoing security crisis along our southern border. That’s why Wyoming has offered resources and committed them to this effort, most recently responding to Governor Greg Abbott's Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) request for law enforcement officers. I recognize the importance of secure borders and the vulnerabilities that a lack of resolve to securing those borders has brought to our country.
Secure borders prevent criminals and deadly drugs like fentanyl from entering our country and making their way to Wyoming. Wyoming stands in solidarity with Governor Abbott and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy to secure the border and protect American citizens. We are all border states now.”
Governor Gordon was also one of 25 Governors who signed a joint statement in support of Texas Governor Abbott and Texas’ constitutional right to self-defense.
Middle East
The Houthi's hit and set on faire an oil tanker.
China v The West
China’s intelligence agency has warned the Chinese to beware of “exotic beauties” who they fear are opserating as honey traps.
Intersingly, honey traps were a favorite Communist tactic for gathering intelligence.
Hamas Israeli War
Numerous Western countries have suspended contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, after it was learned that twelve of its members particpated in the Hamas attacks on Israel.
January 28, 2024
Picking up where we left off yesterday:
Hamas Israeli War
Numerous Western countries have suspended contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, after it was learned that twelve of its members particpated in the Hamas attacks on Israel.
The agency's head warns that UNRWA is collapsing given that nine countries have withdrawn from it and famine looms.
This is a tragedy, but it also tells us something about the UN and th total lack of viability of the Palestinian Authority's territorial regions, although of course a war is on.
Clearly, something needs to be done. That something, requires new oversight, and some hard decisions that nobody wants to make.
January 29, 2024
The Middle East
Three American troops were killed and more injured by an Iranian backed militia drone strike on a US base in Jordan. The base is near the border with Jordan.
I was unaware we had any bases in Jordan.
January 31, 2024
Russo Ukrainian War
The Russians have launched an offensive in the Kharkiv-Luhansk Oblast
Last Prior Edition:
Congress overrode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act.
The Constitutionality of the act, which as been questioned, has never been tested by the Supreme Court. So far, however, Congress and the President have generally complied with it, not wanting to test it, even though early on President's would note that they felt it to be unconstitutional. This is discussed further with a link here:
Nixon addressed the nation on "The Energy Emergency".
Cape Krusenstern Archaeological District - Designated November 7, 1973
The HMHS Newfoundland, a hospital ship, was hit by a German glide bomb in the Mediterranean, while the HMS Uganda was hit by a guided German bomb.
The new German areal munition technology was taking quite a toll.
The Newfoundland had to be scuttled. The Uganda was heavily damaged, but returned to service in 1944 as a Canadian ship. She'd see service again during the Korean War as the HMCS Quebec.
The US began to distribute residents of the Tule Lake Relocation Center, which was being converted to a maximum security detention center for Nisei regarded as a significant threat.
Hitler told his aid Karl Wolff that he wanted Pope Pius XII deported to Germany. On the same day, German emissary to the Vatican Ernst von Weiszacker delivered Hitler's assurances to the Vatican that its sovereignty would be respected.
German counterattacks at Salerno came within one mile of the beaches before being stopped by naval gunfire. Units from the 82nd Airborne were parachuted in as reinforcements.
In Greece, the Italian Acqui Division resisted German efforts to disarm it.
American actor David Bacon was murdered in Santa Monica. Surviving a knifing long enough to attempt to drive off, he was found barely alive in his car, wearing only a swimsuit. He left a pregnant wife. Twenty-nine years old at the time, the mystery has never been solved.
The Navy, supported by the Royal Canadian Air Force, landed elements of 7th Infantry Division on Attu in order to retake the Japanese occupied island. The resulting battle was the only land battle on American territory during World War Two and the only battle between the US and Japan in the Arctic.
Fighting would cover two weeks with the Japanese putting up a stout defense. The Japanese Navy formed a task force to relieve the island but the Allies took it before it cold depart Tokyo Bay. Knowing that they would not be relieved, the Japanese forces went down on May 29 in a banzai charge. Of the entire Japanese garrison of over 2,800 men, only 28 survived.
The 7th Infantry Division was committed to the war in the Pacific for the balance of World War Two, and would have occupation duty in Japan and Korea after the war. It was stationed in Japan when the Korean War broke out. During the Korean War, the then under strength division took on an international character, incorporating very large numbers of South Korean troops, as well as Columbian and Ethiopian solders.
Secretary of the Navy publically stated that "Possession of Sicily by the Allies would obviously be a tremendous asset" leading to fears that he'd blow the success of Operation Mincemeat. Instead, it convinced the Germans that he was trying a "smoke screen".
The following agreements were signed on this day in Paris, between the warring parties in Vietnam.
"Protocol Concerning the Cease-Fire in South Vietnam and the Joint Military Commission"
"Protocol Concerning the Return of Captured Military Personnel and Foreign Civilians and the Captured and Detained Vietnamese Civilian Personnel"
"Protocol Concerning the International Commission of Control and Supervision "
"Protocol Concerning the Removal, Permanent Deactivation, or Destruction of Mines in the Territorial Waters, Ports, Harbors, and Waterways of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam"
The agreements paved the way for the United States to exit Vietnam under the fiction that "peace with honor" had been brought to South Vietnam. In reality, the fighting never fully stopped and the Nixon Administration expected South Vietnam to fall. The South was pressured into signing the agreement.
By this point in the war, the US had largely withdrawn its combat troops from Vietnam. The final ones would be withdrawn in March, by which time it was obvious that the war was continuing on. As a practical matter, disciplinary problems in the US military were, by that point, so severe, that the Army was close to becoming incapable of engaging in combat operations. To this extent, the North Vietnamese had truly defeated the US in the ground war, although US air cover remained potent up until the ceasefire took place.
On this day, U.S. Army Col. William Nolde was killed by Communist artillery fire. He is generally regarded as the last American combat casualty of the Vietnam War, although Marines Charles McMahon and Darwin Lee Judge were killed by a North Vietnamese rocket attack on April 29, 1975, just before Saigon fell. The distinction, if there is one, is that Nolde was assigned to a combat command.
Nolde had been a Korean War conscript, and stayed in the Army thereafter, becoming an officer. His first tour of duty was in 1965.
Nolde had been a professor of military science at Central Michigan University before being conscripted, so he had the somewhat peculiar experience of being a university professor on military matters before being an enlisted man in the Korean War, and an officer in the Vietnam War. A scholarship at Central Michigan was established in his memory.
The Battle of Battle of Cửa Việt took place one day prior to the Vietnam War supposed cease fire coming into effect as the ARVN and South Vietnamese Marines, supported by US air cover, attempted to retake the port of Cửa Việt in Quang Tri Province. The battle spilled on over to January 31 before it concluded.
Late war efforts such as this were also common to the Korean War.
The effort was unsuccessful.
The battle was also telling. The effort relied upon US air cover, in this instance supplied by the Navy and Air Force.
The peace was supposed to take effect immediately, but never really did.
The Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation went into effect.
Screen legend Edward G. Robinson, who is principally remembered for playing tough guys in the movies of the 30s and 40s, died at age 79.
Robinson was born Menashe Goldenberg in Bucharest to a Jewish Romanian family in 1893. The family moved to the United States in 1904. He joined the U.S. Navy in World War One, and served stateside. He was already acting before the war, although he'd originally planned on being a lawyer. He acted up into 1972.
Today in World War II History—October 21, 1942: Maj. Gen. Mark Clark lands by submarine at Cherchel, Algeria, for a clandestine meeting with the Vichy French in preparation for the upcoming Allied invasion.
YB-29s.
Today in World War II History—September 21, 1942: British and Indian troops launch assault into the Arakan Peninsula in Burma. First test flight of Boeing XB-29 Superfortress heavy bomber, Seattle, WA.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The B-29 was one of the great aircraft of the Second World War and was also, during the war, one that was downright dangerous to fly due to its frequent engine failures and fires. It's loss rate early on in China, from which many were flown, was appalling. Nonetheless, they were an advance that could be regarded as generational.
Forever associated with Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the plane became the world's first nuclear bomber, a status it retained for a while post-war. By the Korean War, however, they were beginning to show their vulnerabilities in the new jet and rocket age. The B-36 resulted in them being reclassified as a medium bomber, an odd thought, and the B-29 was retired in 1960, and overall long run for a bomber of that period. A late variant, the B-29D, which was reclassified as the B-50, continued on in limited use until 1963. Ironically, a version copied by the Soviet Union from an example that landed on their territory during the war, the TU-4, remained in active service slightly longer and also saw service with the Red Chinese, meaning that for a time the airplane equipped both sides in the Cold War.
Legendary fighter pilot Robert "Robin" Olds, Jr., son of an Army Air Corps officer of the same name, was born this day in Hawaii.
He became a triple ace, scoring kills in World War Two, Korea and Vietnam, and retired as a Brigadier General in 1973. His father had been a Major General.
Olds was a larger than life character in every way. He was married for many years to starlet Ella Raines, although their marriage eventually ended in divorce and he remarried (he still came in at half the total number of marriages than his father). His penchant for drinking likely kept him from rising higher in the Air Force than he did. He served on the Steamboat Springs Planning Commission in retirement.
He died in 2007 at age 84.
Okay, we just went on and on about the history of the U.S. service rifle and the adoption of the XM8.
Aren't we going to say anything about the new XM250 Automatic Rifle?
Well, the first thing we'll say is that it isn't an "automatic rifle". The Army doesn't have an "automatic rifle"
It's a light machinegun.
Okay, other than being super snarky, what's up with that comment, and the XM250.
Infantry squads, prior to 1917, were formed by lining men in a company up and counting them out into groups of eight men per squad. Each squad would have a corporal in charge of it and consist of eight men, including the commanding corporal. The corporal, in terms of authority, and in reality, was equivalent to a sergeant in the Army post 1921. I.e., the corporal was equivalent to a modern sergeant in the Army. He was, we'd note, a true Non-Commissioned Officer. This basic organization continued on through 1921, when thing were much reorganized. But the basic structure of the Rifle Company itself was about to change dramatically, in part due to advancements in small arms which were impacting the nearly universal identify of the infantryman as a rifleman.
Automatic weapons were coming into service, but how to use and issue them wasn't clear at first. The U.S. Army first encountered them in the Spanish American War, which coincidentally overlapped with the Boer War, which is where the British Army first encountered and used them. The US adopted its first machinegun in 1895. The 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, which fought as dismounted cavalry in Cuba during the Spanish American War, used them in support of their assault of Kettle Hill, although theirs were privately purchased by unit supporters who had donated them to the unit. The Spanish American and Boer Wars proved their utility however, and various models came after that. They were, however, not assigned out at the squad level, but were retained in a separate company and assigned out by higher headquarters as needed. There was, in other words, no organic automatic weapon at the company level, and certainly not at the squad level.
There also weren't a lot of them. Running up to World War One, the Army issued new tables of organization for National Guard units, anticipating large formations such as divisions. Even at that point, however, there were no automatic weapons at the company level at all. The infantry regiment table provided for a Machine Gun Company, which had a grand total of four automatic rifles.
Just four.
Most men in a Rifle Company were riflemen. Automatic weapons were issued to special sections. Most of the infantry, therefore that served along the border with Mexico during the Punitive Expection, just prior to the Great War, was leg infantry, carrying M1903 Springfield rifles, and of generally low rank. They didn't have much to do with machineguns.
At that time, an infantry company had about 100 men, commanded by a captain who had a very small staff. The entire company, for that matter, had an economy of staff. Most of the men were privates, almost all of which were riflemen, and most of whose direct authority figure, if you will, was a corporal. There were few sergeants in the company, and those who were there were pretty powerful men, in context. There were some men around with special skills as well, such as buglers, farriers, and cooks. Cooks were a specialty and the cook was an NCO himself, showing how important he was. Even infantry had a small number of horses for officers and potentially for messengers, which is why there were farriers. And automatic weapons had started to show up, but not as weapons assigned to the company itself, and not in large numbers.
Running up to the war, however, the Army started to make massive changes in organization in order to contemplate largescale warfare in France. Those changes went down to the squad level. By the time the US committed to the Great War, an infantry platoon was composed of four sections comprised of grenadiers (hand grenades), rifle grenadiers, riflemen, and automatic riflemen. This organization is confusing to those familiar with later developments, as it resembled the later squad, on a much larger organizational scale. The basic organization was as follows:
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