@semperannoying / semperannoying.tumblr.com
While we are just starting to see Russian aircraft flying over US territory again like during the cold war, the two super powers have been confronting each other all over Syria.
Here we can see a US convoy being blocked by the Russians. This lead to a US MaxxPro vehicle attempting to overtake the Russians and instead experienced blown radiator.
June 1988, the 160th SOAG received a short-notice directive to recover a Russian made Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter from a remote location in Chad.
At midnight on June 11, 1988, two MH-47s flew 490 miles at night without outside navigational aids to the target location, the Ouadi Doum airfield in northern Chad.
The first Chinook landed and configured the Mi-24, while the second hovered overhead and sling loaded it for return to Ndjamena.
A surprise sandstorm slowed the return trip, but less than 67 hours after the arrival of the C-5 in Chad, the ground crew had the Mi-24 and Chinooks aboard and ready for return to the U.S.
Operation Mount Hope demonstrated incredible teamwork by aviation, ground, and support personnel. Their efforts resulted in the unit’s ability to strike deep and accomplish the mission.
Getting some real Cold War vibes here.
The first sets of caskets removed from two C-17s are placed during an Honorable Carry Ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, August 1. 55 boxes have been returned to the United States from North Korea. The remains will be accessioned to the DPAA laboratory for identification. (U.S. Air Force photos by Staff Sgt. Mikaley Kline)
"They Came In Peace"
Today is the 31st anniversary of the Beirut Embassy bombing in 1983. 220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 Soldiers were killed.
The Beirut Barracks Bombings (October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon) occurred during the Lebanese Civil War when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen. An obscure group calling itself 'Islamic Jihad' claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Suicide bombers detonated each of the truck bombs. In the attack on the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team - BLT 1/8), the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors, and three soldiers, making this incident the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since World War II's Battle of Iwo Jima, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II. Another 128 Americans were wounded in the blast. Thirteen later died of their injuries, and they are numbered among the total number who died. An elderly Lebanese man, a custodian/vendor who was known to work and sleep in his concession stand next to the building, was also killed in the first blast. The explosives used were later estimated to be equivalent to as much as 9,525 kg (21,000 pounds) of TNT.
In the attack on the French barracks, the nine-story 'Drakkar' building, 58 paratroopers from the 1st Parachute Chasseur Regimentwere killed and 15 injured by a second truck bomb. This attack occurred just minutes after the attack on the American Marines. It was France's single worst military loss since the end of the Algerian War. The wife and four children of a Lebanese janitor at the French building were also killed, and more than twenty other Lebanese civilians were injured.
These attacks eventually led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed since the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
MIL Mi-24 - Миль Ми-24, NATO reporting name: Hind)
A large helicopter gunship and attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for eight passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and operated since 1972 by the Soviet Air Force, its successors, and more than 30 other nations.
In NATO circles, the export versions, Mi-25 and Mi-35, are denoted with a letter suffix as "Hind D" and "Hind E" respectively. Soviet pilots called the Mi-24 the "flying tank", or летающий танк (letayushchiy tank). More common unofficial nicknames were "Crocodile" (Крокодил or Krokodil) due to the helicopter's camouflage scheme and "Glass" (Стакан or Stakan) because of the flat glass plates which surround the cockpit of the Mi-24.
I - The nine classic princples as explained and demonstrated by Clausewitz definitely apply in this type of conflict. One principle should be added and that would be the principle of cultural understanding or familiarization.
II - Operations should be guided by good intelligence now, as opposed to refined intelligence, for example, two hours from now.
III - Fully understand the form of warfare in a Vietnam type of conflict -- call it counterinsurgency, or whatever term is being used to characterize the so-called meeting engagement. Go within the training base, and develop doctrine at all levels which supports this form of combat.
IV - When contact with an enemy unit is either present or expected, the commander must always hold a unit close in hand and in reserve to commit upon hostile contact. This reinforcement capability is absolutely critical in guerrilla warfare.
V - A commander may talk all day and most of the night on the subject of preventative maintenance in the field. However, it simply is not well done on the battlefield as there are far too many distractions, interruptions and poor facilities. As a result of my experience, I believe the best procedure is periodic withdrawal of armored nits to a safe rear area where higher-echelon maintenance personnel can provide valid assistance. Although those who oppose that procedure would contest it all the way, I found that armored vehicle availability, especially tanks, increased in the long term.
Children check out the firepower during Armed Forces Day activities. Washington, D.C., 1976.
East German soldier Conrad Schumann jumping over the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction, at the time a barbed wire fence, as he defects to West Germany.
August 15, 1961.
“A US Marine with a field radio relays the direction of aircraft approaching the Crow Valley Electronic Warfare Tactical Range to the operator of an FIM-92 Stinger missile launcher during Exercise COPE THUNDER ‘84-7.”
