You go girl
Well, damn. But hey, EXCELLENT name to add to the collection. “Yeah I’m loaded with hellfire and brimstone. You?”
Yeah, codenames are cooler than contractions.
Hellfire is a lot cooler than AGM-114.
Also the fact that we’ve been using an anti-tank missile to kill what is basically infantry is kind of strange. I guess it cuts down on collateral damage when you’re firing it into a building, but it always struck me as kind of odd.
We’re also really good at doing that, too, which is taking a thing, but making a million variants of it to fit different roles. There are anti-tank, anti-personnel, and … well, everything. Hell, just read it, they do everything.
At least someone at DoD was smart enough to have a low-cost alternative developed for those situations when you don’t need an antitank capability. They took an old unguided 70mm rocket and put a laser seeker on it. It has the very charming name APKWS.
So, criminal indictments for the commanders of those two destroyers involved in collisions, along with indictments for some other personnel. Plus, an early retirement for another senior officer. Regardless of the outcomes of the courts martial, it seems pretty clear the intent is to send pretty big shockwaves through the fleet. Whether that will be accompanied by actual changes is the key thing, of course.
Interesting.
If the issue was primarily laxity in command or misaligned priorities, jailing a couple of commanders could address it. If the problem is a serious lack of time and resources for needed training, then this will have little effect. But this may be part of a larger set of changes. I would hope so.
Either way, not the senior service’s finest moment.
There was an episode of This American Life a few weeks ago that talked about how lack of proper sleep in the Navy contributed to those collisions.
It’s the second half of that episode, if I remember right. The first half is interesting too, about Air Force airmen causing an explosion at a nuclear missile silo.
Nice to see I’m not the only one who is linking This American Life often these days. And lately they have been very timely, and poignant. Three Miles (a rerelease of one from a few years ago) was particularly sobering.
Is the US Navy called “The Senior Service”? I thought that was just a Royal Navy thing.
Surely the revolutionary army predated the navy? Or at best they were contemporaneous?
Sorta?
The Continental Congress voted to take over funding of the existing “New England Army” in April of 1775, which was made up of state-funded regiments. It also authorized new regiments to be created that would be “Colonial” forces rather than seconded state-funded forces, and the first of those was not actually commissioned until June of 1776 when Congress authorized an overall commander - some guy named “George”.
The Navy was created by Congress in October of 1775. Like the army, it kind of took over existing maritime operations that several of the states had been running, especially Rhode Island.
But it’s worth noting that the Continental Army was disbanded pretty much immediately after the war while the US Navy has been in continuous operation since 1775.
Yeah a standing army wasn’t a thing until the mid-20th century. A standing Navy is something that even the Founding Fathers assumed would exist. You can’t draft warships at a moment’s notice.
And warships were not considered a threat to a democratic government like a standing army.
Pretty much. Warships have stuff to do in peace time as well. Protecting trade routes and the like.
Not to mention shaking down countries who owe your bankers money.
Quite. But again, the concerns of the Founders were for their liberty. The liberty of (brown skinned) others, well, not so much.
Still, by 18th century standards, the founding of the USA was pretty radical all in all.
Early on, I don’t think our Navy was really up for shaking down anyone. Until Tripoli, I think everyone figured we were kind of a joke in terms of Naval power.