War Fighters?
The first casualties were…..
US Central Command initially said three soldiers died in the attack, but officials confirmed on Monday the death toll had doubled, after one person succumbed to injuries and two more bodies were found in the rubble.
Those killed were Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert M Marzan, 54, Maj Jeffrey R O’Brien, 45, Capt Cody Khork, 35, Sgt Noah Tietjens, 42, Sgt Nicole Amor, 39, and Sgt Declan Coady, 20, who was posthumously promoted from specialist.
Only one was young, so the age of a typical front line soldier. The rest were the age of middle management - which is what they were. They were all part of the US Army Sustainment Command whose mission is to make sure that units are provided with fuel, ammunition and all the necessary items for war.
Rather that looking like berserkers, they looked like managers of a large Home Depot. And that is a good thing.
A Berserker (a warrior from Norse lore)
Pete Hegseth has been talking up an imagined warrior spirit, emphasizing lethality and firing anyone who does not look or talk the part (hence his purging of women and minorities among others) but the US Army never won by élan but by having more than enough, and delivered to the front lines on time.
A few victims of Hegseth’s purge.
The future of warfare looks like it will be fought with guided bombs, drones and managed by men and women sitting at desks with their laptops opened - while they receive input from one set of drones, and assign another set of drones to do the killing.
Of course we will also need real soldiers to go in and face other real soldiers with guns and bullets but even they will likely be prompted by observers (humans and drones) to inform them of threats and to guide them to where to do their killing.
During WW2, the US pioneered the use of FM radios in the field. The Germans used AM which was staticky. Not only were the radios better but the US had many more of them. Tank commanders were better informed about where the enemy was allowing our smaller and lighter Sherman (but faster) to defeat the heavier (and slower) Panzer, also aided by artillery who were directed by forward observers with the same radios.
Patton’s rush across France was of course a masterpiece of how to use armor, but his movement would have been impossible without the food, ammunition and fuel delivery by the trucks of the Red Ball Express (largely driven by African American drivers who white officers deemed not suitable for combat).
Sadly Hegseth care little about any of this. He should for the future security of our once great nation depends on more than angry white men with large biceps.
……………………………………..
A few tidbits to consider.
Two leaders of code breaking teams were Alan Turing (Great Britain) and Joseph Rochefort (US Navy).
Turing was a brilliant mathematician and a pioneer of what became the field of computing. His team worked on the German codes. Rochefort was an engineer and cryptanalyst who also knew Japanese. Both used teams of crossword players and other oddballs (some accounts say that Rochefort used jazz musicians as well). Turing developed a machine to decode texts that had been coded by the enigma machine. He was prosecuted after the war for homosexual acts and committed suicide. Rochefort was considered the most unmilitary officer in his command by Admiral King and never won the promotions or honors his work deserved.
Leslie Groves (with Robert Oppenheimer)
Groves was a brilliant engineer. Also arrogant. But we needed his skills and his driving force to manage the Manhattan project.