Pretty much, yeah, but the point I think is that a Navy was essential for commerce, which was the foundation of the Republic in many ways. And commerce ultimately meant not only securing our ships, but making sure others couldn’t horn in on the action.
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwc8.htm
I guess in the past the draft (as well as volunteers trying to avoid the draft) would absorb most of the pointy objects. The Navy never had a draft, however.
Generally, before WWII we only had conscription during wartime, including the Civil War. After WWII, though, there was a continuous draft in place in various forms through 1973. That was the only time in our history I think that we had a peacetime draft (other than the period between the 1940 inception of the draft and Pearl Harbor). Conscription, shall we say, was never a popular thing among Americans. Hell, there were even draft dodgers for “the Good War” in the forties. Seems no matter what the cause, most folks simply don’t want to be shuffled off to be cannon fodder.
Operation Desert Storm kicked off the day before a high school friend turned 18 and I remember his parents seriously discussing sending him to Mexico or Canada if a draft were instituted.
Heh. Your friend and I are of a similar age. My mom and I had the same exact conversation, and I politely suggested she take a chill.
Um… yeah…
Well, this was pretty much inevitable I suppose. The more you connect, the more people see those connections and what’s transmitted over them. I suppose it is somewhat surprising no one figured out that uploading this sort of data would pose a security risk, but with social media connectivity exploding, it’s probably hard to keep up. Especially when, in all likelihood, the OpSec folks are working under somewhat dated paradigms.
Often, the people in charge of policy at higher levels, or even at the base level, are older and higher ranking than much of the primary population of the facility. The younger service personnel are no different than young people outside the service in that they are hyper-connected to social media and personal tech, and often will be using stuff that the hierarchy above them has no clue about.
In Iraq, some soldiers posted some pictures of Apaches sitting on a flight line. The pictures included GPS coordinates, cause that’s what phones add.
Shortly afterward, mortar attack blew up the Apaches.
At the little military museum here by the National Guard base, a museum run by a veterans group I think, they have static displays out front, you know, tanks and artillery and stuff. You can take pics, but you can’t face your camera towards the base itself. I guess in Iraq they had less security awareness than the Vermont National Guard!
Really. How the fuck does the military allow soldiers in the field to use Fitbits?
I honestly don’t think anyone has really thought about this stuff until now. Strava is making their data visible and public which makes the threat tangible for the first time.
Back when I was in, one of the issues was hardware registration. We used a ton of Zip Drives to store sensitive/classified info at this office I worked at in Berlin. It was no big deal until someone at Iomega put the warranty data together and started sniffing around for sales. “Hey we noticed you guys buy a whole bunch of our product. Can we talk about setting up some special rates? What are you using them for?” Stuff like that. Whoops!
I’d tell you but I’d have to kill you. :)
True enough, but your anecdote shows that, yeah, folks should have been thinking about this stuff. It’s not about the tech, but the stuff around the tech. Someone whose job was OpSec should have figured out that hardware registrations go somewhere, and that together they form a data set that might be problematic.
My experience across the board with security types was that they were very good at looking at the stuff they had decided was worth looking at, but not so good at deciding what went into that category.
In a case that ranks as the worst corruption scandal in Navy history, the Justice Department has charged 15 officers and one enlisted sailor who served on the Blue Ridge with taking bribes from or lying about their ties to Leonard Glenn Francis, a Singapore-based tycoon who held lucrative contracts to service Navy ships and submarines in Asian ports.
Between 2006 and 2013, Francis doled out illicit gifts, hosted epicurean feasts and sponsored sex parties for Blue Ridge personnel on at least 45 occasions, according to federal court records and Navy documents obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act.
Officers from the Blue Ridge consumed or pocketed about $1 million in gourmet meals, liquor, cash, vacations, airline tickets, tailored suits, Cuban cigars, luxury watches, cases of beef, designer handbags, antique furniture and concert tickets — and reveled in the attention of an armada of prostitutes, records show.
Wow! What a story. I wonder if the 7th Fleet’s subsequent regimen of too-heavy duties was intended as punishment for years of living the high life, intended to push the Navy back on to the right course? Or had the corruption, wine and women led to even more lax behavior on the bridges of these ships?
Your military is as degenerate as Washington, riddled with corrupt people in it purely for self-gain. The death of an empire continues.
Interesting how the corruption of the military and the oligarchization of the economy mirror the death of the Soviet empire too.
You really have such keen insight into these matters /s.
We’re watching the obliteration of the American Middle Class in real time over in the other threads, you are lead by an imbecile who was voted in by morons and this is the latest in stories about corruption in the armed services from top to bottom.
From where I’m sitting its not looking good for our yank cousins, you are falling so fast you will catch us up soon.
Sure, and Jeremy Corbyn will make a fine PM in 5 years, when the next general election can be called in the UK.
There’s at least a 50/50 chance the government will lose a vote of no-confidence before the year is out.