Military Subjects & War Stories (Incldg the Cold War)

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Report to Congress on the Replicator Initiative​

The following is the Aug. 20, 2024, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, DOD Replicator Initiative: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report​

Replicator, unveiled on August 28, 2023, is a Department of Defense (DOD) initiative, led by DOD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), to field thousands of uncrewed systems by August 2025. Replicator’s first line of effort (“Replicator 1”) is to field all-domain, attritable autonomous (ADA2) systems. Attritable systems are comparatively low-cost systems with which DOD tolerates a greater degree of risk of system loss. DOD officials state that future lines of effort may focus on other types of uncrewed systems. A key issue facing Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify DOD’s funding requests for Replicator, and whether Congress has adequate information about Replicator to assess its merits and conduct effective oversight of the initiative.

More:

 

US Navy's Military Sealift Command to Lay Up 17 Ships and Increase Their Labor Pool​

Aug 27, 2024 #navy #sealift #logistics

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - discusses the US Navy's Military Sealift Command to lay up 17 ships and use their crews to increase the labor pool and maintain their fleet of underway replenishment ships.


6:25

- Navy Could Sideline 17 Support Ships Due to Manpower Issues https://news.usni.org/2024/08/22/navy...
- Midrats: The Music Stopped at MSC, with Sal Mercogliano https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HZw...
 
www.highnorthnews.com

Nordic and US Army Generals Discuss Plans for Nordic Defense

Norwegian Army Military Academy, Oslo (High North News): Recently, the four Nordic Army Chiefs and the Commander of the US Army V Corps gathered to discuss the defense of the Cap of the North. "Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and US forces must be able to work together as seamlessly as...
www.highnorthnews.com www.highnorthnews.com
 

As a young Afghan interpreter, he helped a US officer. Then he needed help getting out​

One day in April, Ahmadullah Karimi nervously packed his family’s meager belongings into a handful of suitcases, knowing the next few hours would decide his fate.

Karimi, 31, was in Pakistan. He’d been holed up there with his wife and two kids for more than 2½ years, waiting.

When the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan ended on Aug. 30, 2021, he had stood outside Kabul’s airport, watching fellow Afghans so desperate to flee some of them clung to the outside of military planes as they lumbered into the air.

More:

www.usatoday.com

As a young Afghan interpreter, he helped a US officer. Then he needed help getting out

Three years after the withdrawal from Afghanistan ended America's longest war, hundreds of thousands who aided US troops remain at risk.
www.usatoday.com
 

Agile Acquisition Now: Lessons from Ukraine​

Since 2018, the Department of Defense has directed the armed forces to shift their strategic focus from counterinsurgency operations in the Middle East to preparing for a great power conflict in the Indo-Pacific, with China as the nation’s pacing threat. Recently, however, a bipartisan commission warned that the United States now faces—and is unprepared for—the grim prospect of war against great power rivals on multiple fronts, revealing critical shortcomings in overall U.S. military readiness and weaknesses in the nation’s industrial base.1

In an October 2023 article, Niall Ferguson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, warned, “If you find the terminology of World War III alarmist, as some people do, I would merely point out that the objective of Russia is to wipe Ukraine from the map, the objective of Iran and Hamas is to wipe Israel from the map, and the objective of China is to end Taiwan’s democracy and autonomy.”2

Given this backdrop, a reevaluation of the U.S. acquisition strategy emerges not as a choice, but as an imperative.

More:

 

Upcycling Nazi Germany - Postwar Civilian Re-Use of Military Kit​

In this fascinating video, we examine how desperate Germans in the immediate postwar period adapted weapons and military equipment into household items, such as kitchenware, creating some very clever 'upcycled' products.


8:01
 

Hitler's Private Library Hidden in America​

At two locations in the United States are hundreds of books from Hitler's personal libraries at his Alpine home, his Munich apartment and the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Very rarely examined by historians, many contain Hitler's hand-written annotations and opinions. How did these collections end up in the US and what kinds of books was Hitler reading? Subjects range from military histories to eroticism and the occult.


9:08
 

SS Officer Hunted for 50 Years​

Sep 2, 2024

The complete omnibus edition of my original 4-part story of SS-Captain Erich Priebke, who commanded the infamous 1944 Ardeatine Caves Massacre in Rome, and escaped justice, going on the run in South America for an astounding 50 years.


39:46
 
More a podcast, best to listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab. Very good description below the vid on youtube.

America in Danger: Senior US General Speaks Out​

Sep 6, 2024

America hasn't seen full scale war since World War II; but could America come together and mobilize if the threat to world order came to open warfare between superpowers.


7:00
 

Spy Ship Crewman & Navy Diver: The USS Banner & Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, 1967-1970​

Sep 1, 2024

Before serving as captain of an LCM-8 boat in the Mekong Delta, Richard Kirshen worked aboard the spy ship USS Banner (AGER-1) and in Cam Ranh Bay as a Navy diver. In this excerpt from a longer discussion, he shares memories of the Banner and diving work. See the discussion of his time in the Mekong Delta: • Boat Captain in the Mekong Delta: Sai... Posted as part of the War & Life Project: / @listentoothers


16:25
 

Vietnam War: Another Day at the O'Club​

Sep 3, 2024

Raven Karl Polifka tells stories regarding the Udorn Thani Royal Thai Air Force Base Officer Club, and this video geatures a story about Angel Pilato, the Officer Club manager and the first female U.S. Air Force Club manager in Southeast Asia. She wrote a wonderful book, which I have, called Angels Truck Stop filled with stories from the Udorn O'Club and other important Air Force stories from Udorn at that time.


19:36

www.angelstruckstop.com

Angel's Truck Stop: A Memoir

www.angelstruckstop.com www.angelstruckstop.com
 

Hitler's American Ranch?​

Sep 12, 2024
Did Adolf Hitler own a huge cattle ranch in Colorado? Sounds like nonsense, but many people still believe that he did. Find out the truth of this intriguing story here...


8:18
 

The Nuclear Wannabes: How Sweden, Brazil and Argentina Pursued the Bomb​

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on examining the nuclear weapons programs of Sweden, Argentina and Brazil. We look at what motivated the programs as well as what influenced their decisions to stop.


29:07
 
warroom.armywarcollege.edu

LUCY IN THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: ON THE INEVITABILITY OF KILLER MACHINES

During the Cold War, U.S. leaders assured the public that a "human in the loop" would always control the use of nuclear weapons. This aimed to alleviate public fears of a cold, calculating machine triggering a full-blown nuclear war with Russia. However, the landscape has changed. Could a modern...
warroom.armywarcollege.edu warroom.armywarcollege.edu
 
en.wikipedia.org

Operation Gold - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Operation Gold: A Tale of Cold War Betrayal in Berlin​

In 1954, Berlin was divided, having become the epicenter of the ideological battleground in the Cold War. The city was ruled more by spies and secrets than the tanks and troops lining its streets.
Just a year earlier, in August 1953, the Soviets had detonated their first hydrogen bomb in their own rapidly advancing Atomic Project. The West was concerned about what else they might be planning and felt that they had to act before it was too late.
But in order to act, they needed to know what was going on behind the Iron Curtain. It was within this tense atmosphere that the CIA and MI6 conceived a bold plan.# They would dig a tunnel from the American sector of Berlin, beneath the world’s most heavily guarded border, and tap into Soviet-East German communication lines on the other side.
Codenamed Operation Gold, the Berlin Tunnel was to be the world’s longest and most high-tech spy tunnel. The operation was, however, doomed from the get-go, being compromised by a senior British MI6 officer who had turned traitor.


14:40
 

Last Luftwaffe Mission - June 1945!​

Sep 23, 2024

In June 1945, six weeks AFTER the German surrender, the last official Luftwaffe operation was mounted! Here is the largely unknown account of that extraordinary last mission by the wartime German Air Force.


10:34
 

How does the Air Force confront the China problem? | Defense News Weekly Full Episode 9.21.24​

Sep 21, 2024

Top Air and Space Force commanders convene at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference to talk about how they plan to advance posture and weapons to confront China.


23:42
 

Sole US Navy Oiler - USNS Big Horn - in the Middle East Damaged | September 23, 2024​

Sep 24, 2024 #navy #oiler #logisitcs

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - discusses the damage to the US Navy's Military Sealift Command oiler USNS Big Horn due to a grounding or allision in the Gulf of Oman on September 23, 2024, and how this highlights the vulnerability of US Navy logistics for its forward deployed carrier strike and amphibious groups.


19:32

00:00 Big Horn Grounding
04:22 US Navy Logistics Shortfall
11:00 World War Two Historical Examples - Neches and Neosho
- gCaptain Forum: USNS Big Horn Grounding https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/usns-big...
- dear_ comsc on Instagram / dear_comsc
- Oiler USNS Big Horn Damaged off the Coast Of Oman, No Fuel Leak Detectedhttps://news.usni.org/2024/09/24/oile...
- Navy Ships: Turning Over Auxiliary Ship Operations to the Military Sealift Command Could Save Millionshttps://www.gao.gov/products/nsiad-97...
 
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