Posted on 01/07/2012 2:35:00 PM PST by Hojczyk
Spoke Jed Babbin re the Obama appearance at the Pentagon to announce the sharp troop reductions for all services, especially for the Marine Corps. POTUS Obama's speechifying is re-election palaver and not of interest.
POTUS claims he knows history.
History says that after wars, the US reduces the troop levels until the Devils come calling, and we are short hundred of thousands of troops the first months of a new crisis. Mobilization follows in catch-up fashion.
Jed Babbin and I told stories about the Marines in WW2 and Korea. Jed has a photo of his dad on Guadalcanal in 1942 with a rifle from 1903, because the US was not ready for war during its first major deployment after Pearl Harbor.
I spoke of Wes Fox, a decorated Marine veteran who joined in 1950 and found himself in Korea with an M-1. However he had not received sufficient infantry training, and when he tried to shoot several Chinese soldiers attacking his position, he shot well short of the mark and missed all of them.
Wes Fox (who retried from the Corps in 1993, a full colonel with the Medal of Honor for a firefight in Vietnam) had been rushed out to Korea (below, 1950 in the battle of Seoul) without adequate preparation. Harry
Truman had reduced the Marine Corps from 600,000 to 68,000, and the claw back against the North Koreans and Chinese required a lot of young
Marines to struggle and not make it through. Is this what POTUS means when he says he knows history?
It seems significant that the threat in the Pacific Rim in 2012 is that same as in 1950.
Does POTUS know that history, too?
This occurs every time a dem has to show he can get us out of the debt they have caused in the first place.
Then so poor republican slob has to come along and try to fix things.
This occurs every time a dem has to show he can get us out of the debt they have caused in the first place.
Then some poor republican slob has to come along and try to fix things.
The difference between being ready and not being ready is always paid for in the blood of our warriors.
1) He also “knows” about how terrible the USA has been to the rest of the world, advancing on the backs of those less fortunate countries. Anything he can do to at least put us on a more equal footing, or better yet to make us a little less equal, is his goal.
2) Beyond that, he knows but doesn't really care. It's not germane to his plans for the USA. His fundamental transformation doesn't include the USA being strong defensively nor does it include plans for the USA to be a leader in anything except kowtowing to the rest of the world.
This time it could be paid for with the blood of whole American cities.
I can add to that; During the Korean war while stationed in Germany I was doing a E-4’s job pulling down privates ( E-1 not even a E-2 pfc) pay because all the ratings were frozen.
In fact to reduce damage and maintain cost control every piece of equipment had its cost stenciled on it somewhere, including your duffle bag. That included tanks ,8”SPs, duce- n a halfs,and Jeeps. Most of the equipment was from the early 40’s and frequently breaking down.
When guys like Paul shoot their mouth off about the military I have a size 10+ I’d like to to stuff into it.
Wow.
In 1979, I commanded an artillery battery in the 2nd Marine Division. My howitzers had parts made in 1941. When we went on alert due to the Iran Hostage crisis, one other battery was basically stripped of all personnel to get us up to deployable strength.
Those were indeed the ‘bad old days’. Obama would have us there again.
Yep, I can tell similar stories about the 70’s under Carter.
Thanks for your service BTW.
The wun would have us down to muzzle loaders and maybe a special issue Willams Repeating Cannon the south used a few times. Special Ops would get the Williams and maybe hand cranked mini-gatlings that are environmentally friendly and help with upper body workouts.
I found this replica Williams at a reenactor event and learned a little about Civil War history that I never heard of. It isn’t much but here it is in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-3Fsjf1iwE&feature=colike
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