Our Islands in the Storm: Carriers as the new phalanxes.

National Review Online ^ | December 13, 2002 | Victor Davis Hanson

[xsysmgr]

Nobody but Hanson could (or would) draw reasonable parallels with an ancient Greek phalanx and a modern aircraft carrier.

[null and void]

ping!

[happygrl]

Victor Davis Hanson BUMP!

[Cicero]

As usual, beautifully done. We might add that not only were the members of the phalanx free men, but at least in early days they bought and owned their armor and weapons. It was a true citizen's army.

[Mat_Helm]

"152 HORNET BALL 4500 COUPLED" "TADPOLE IS CENTERED"

[Ranger]

ping

[Hoplite]

A fine Friday evening read.
Thanks for the ping.

[Long Cut]

Thanks for the ping, Null. This article is outstanding!

All the more so since, come next fall or thereabouts, I will be reporting aboard the USS JOHN F. KENNEDY (CV-67) for duty.

Yesterday, I drove past her at her berth at Naval Station Mayport, here in Jacksonville, Florida. Just SEEING a ship that large is stunning. And she's not even considered a "supercarrier", being a conventionally-powered (versus a nuclear-powered) craft.

I once read that the only man-made machine in the world more deadly than an aircraft carrier was an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine. I said,"So what? We own both...".

[Long Cut]

"Our universities might do better to mothball Ethnic Studies and send the entire freshman class to the Kennedy for a semester."

One thing's for certain: their eyes would be SNAPPED open to the real world.

Believe me, a tour of duty in ANY armed force, prior to college, is of incalculable value to the person, especially in these times. I would have no problem encouraging a child of mine to do so.

[Long Cut]

BUMP! for my next command!

[Soaring Feather]

Hey Long Cut, good to hear from you!

Be safe!
Say hello to Mrs. Long Cut from all of us.
Are you taking good care of the car?

Stop around again we you are free and can get the fleet of planes out! Love that desert scotter! LOL

[null and void]

You're in Jacksonville? Of all the places my dad was stationed I liked Jacksonville best! (Maybe going through puberty there had something to do with it).

Are the people still as friendly and open as they were way back when in the late sixties, I wonder? I still miss it. If there were any wafer fab jobs there I'd be there!

[null and void]

Will keep that in mind when my son is old enough, in 9 years. Assuming any of us are still alive...

[Long Cut]

Ahhh, don't worry, we will be, even if slightly hung over from the victory party. Trust me, we NEVER lose.

And as far as your son goes, people with some prior military service as Enlisteds who go to college afterwards have a MUCH easier time of it, and tent to get MUCH better grades than those who did not.

First, they can get a whole bunch of credits just for the military training and schools they have gone to, eliminating the need to take those classes over, and secondly, their time-management and study habits blow away those of the kids who did NOT first serve. Saves money in the short AND long run.

Trust me, I went to college BEFORE joining up...I'd have reversed that in a heartbeat if I'd known then what I know now.

[Al B.]

FYI -- and hats off to the men and women who man these carriers and also to the folks in your hometown who build these great ships.

[Plutarch]

At Stanford University...silly theme houses exist with names like...Ujama...as students are segregated by race in a balkanized and separatist landscape.

Hey, I spent a quarter in "Ujama" (its actually spelled Ujamaa). Only half the residents are African-American. It was like a carrier flight deck in one way--- it was loud!

And what does Ujuama mean? Collectivism!!

The concept of Ujamaa is an African form of collectivism in living. Explicitly, "Ujamaa" means collective economics and is from the Swahili word "Jamaa", meaning family. Only through Ujamaa - family - do we find the oneness with others like us that is necessary for us to grow to our full individual potentials. Only through Ujamaa - collectivism - will we find the strength to overcome. And only through Jamaa - family - can we find expression for our ideas, culture, and uniqueness that will endure beyond our brief passage in life.

[A Longer Name]

Here is another view:

What the battleship was in 1941, the aircraft carrier is now: a big, proud, expensive...sitting duck.Aircraft carriers came out of WW II looking powerful, but that was before microchips. Now, when an enemy tanker can fire 60 self-guiding cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away, no carrier will survive its first real battle.</>

[A Longer Name]

italians </i> go away

[Poohbah]

What the battleship was in 1941, the aircraft carrier is now: a big, proud, expensive...sitting duck.Aircraft carriers came out of WW II looking powerful, but that was before microchips. Now, when an enemy tanker can fire 60 self-guiding cruise missiles from hundreds of miles away, no carrier will survive its first real battle.

This assumes that the enemy tanker can detect the target reliably.

There's only one nation that can do over-the-horizon targeting on a consistent basis.

And that nation is the United States of America.

[r9etb]

But the phalanx was more than a singularly deadly infantry unit or a psychological weapon of terror. Its dense columns also reflected the solidarity of free men, who willingly donned heavy armor under the Mediterranean sun, crowded with one another in cumbersome rows, marched in unison — and defined courage as following orders, advancing on command and in rank, and protecting one's comrade on the left.

Since when were Spartans "free men?" Able warriors, certainly. Brave, without doubt. But Spartans were about as free as the Kaiser's boys.

And as for "protecting one's comrade on the left, the reality was apparently rather different. In phalanx formation, the shield was held in the left hand. Each soldier in the line would naturally crowd right-ward to gain protection from the shield next to him, so the entire phalanx would tend to drift to the right as it advanced. According to Jon Bridgeman at the University of Washington, Greek generals had to account for this drift when they set up their formations. Guess wrong, and the advancing phalanx would miss its adversary! (Or, worse, end up with an exposed flank.)