US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Lethe

Lethe

Captain
zyklon said:
The author of this
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
as well as the upcoming book
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
from which it was excerpted, Seth Harp, Esq. can at times get a little too cynical about the volume of organized crime prevailing through the branches of the DoD.

Unsurprisingly, Seth was a criminal prosecutor in Texas prior to turning to investigative journalism.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1949933398069272897

OTOH, broadly speaking, Seth is not "making shit up:" there is indeed a not insignificant amount of criminality within the ranks of the US military, even if it is generally speaking more petty and opportunistic than organized or conspiratorial. However, who wants to read about sketchy NCOs
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
?!

TBF, the US military is a reflection of broader American society: just as crime is unavoidably abundant in any American municipality of over a hundred thousand souls — let alone a city of a million — it's only natural that crime, including of the organized variety, would be found within
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

While some of you may find it easy — or easier than usual — to dismiss the US military wholesale after reading his new book or even just this excerpt, I encourage y'all to receive Seth's writing as a study into a lesser known, yet fascinating, if not inevitable facet of military society.

Archived copy:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
Click to expand...

Lethe said:
I enjoyed Seth Harp's appearances on the War Nerd podcast:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
(May 2022) and
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
(March 2023). I recall them touching on Seth's previous reporting including on Special Forces culture in at least one of those episodes. Not sure if either episode is available without subscription at those links, but I believe they can be found elsewhere too.
Click to expand...

Just noting that Seth Harp has made another guest appearance on the
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
to promote the above mentioned book. The direct link to the episode is
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

Listening to the catalogue of US special forces bodies in this episode reminds me that one of the most striking things about the United States is the sheer profusion of law enforcement, intelligence and military bodies. There are so many fiefdoms, each with its own lord, each jealously guarding its privileges against encroachment by others. One could argue that the United States is a very large country and that this multiplicity is simply a function of scale, but I'm not at all convinced by that explanation, and I suspect there are much richer explanations to be found.
 
G

gpt

Junior Member
Registered Member
Frederik_Chopin said:
"One key goal for Golden Dome is to shoot targets down during their “boost phase,” the slow and predictable climb through the Earth's atmosphere of a missile. Rather, it seeks to field space-based interceptors that can more quickly intercept incoming missiles."
Click to expand...

New tech and cheaper space lift will open up space-based missile defence options but the hardest part is actually solved (data transport layer via a pLEO network). The real question is can all the subcontractors do this affordably. Golden Dome is a meshed network of tracking, data management and decision making, and only then the 'shooter layer', which is currently believe to be satellites carrying missiles and directed energy payloads.

One interesting consequence of Golden Dome is the end of the Outer Space Treaty as we know it which will give other countries some new ideas of their own. There are criticisms within the Senate Armed Services Committee about this: : does the US really want to play this game during a time when its undergoing its own modernization? The opportunity cost is huge and they need to go about this very carefully imo. There is a video of Senator Mark Kelly questioning SecDef about the feasibility.
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
I

ismellcopium

Junior Member
Registered Member
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
The operators were forever playing pranks on the Cover Girls, packing their desks with plastic explosives, for example, or coming down from the team bays with savage war dogs straining against their leashes to frighten the women who were afraid of dogs. “It was not a professional environment,” said Williams, and Licea agreed. “Having worked in corporate America prior to going to the unit,” Licea said, “this stuff would never fly. You’d be fired.”

Fat people on the support staff were relentlessly mocked. A soldier of Asian descent was called a “chink” to his face. The boozing in the team bays inevitably degenerated into obstreperous roughhousing. “That’s it, we’re not fucking drinking anymore,” a sergeant major would bellow in frustration. “You guys are out of control.” But the dry spells never lasted long. “It was like they were trying to herd cattle,” said Williams, “or take care of a bunch of children.”

The operators who came down to Williams’ office for paperwork purposes routinely propositioned her for sex. “The comments were just ridiculous,” she said. “Don’t you think your job would be better,” one man said, boldly looking her right in the eyes, “if you were under the desk sucking my dick?” Others massaged her shoulders, took big whiffs of her hair, made comments about the size of her breasts or drunkenly proposed marriage. A besotted sergeant major often seen walking around with a beer in one hand and a tomahawk in the other once punctuated his declarations of affection by hurling his ax into the wall.
Click to expand...
Typical Dothraki Ameriatic horde vibes.
One day over lunch in the dining facility, seated across the table from the commander of the intelligence squadron, Williams raised the possibility of deploying with the unit overseas, as support staff often do, and which would have been a boon to her professionally. Her boss’s reaction caught her completely off guard. He started laughing hysterically, hitting the table with his hands. “You’re not hired to be deployed with the operators,” he told her once he’d regained his composure. “You were hired for your assets,” he said, making a hefting gesture at chest level, “and if they want you to deploy with them, it’s because they all want to fucking run a train on you.”
Click to expand...
The Japanese used foreign women as comfort women for their army, the Americans use their own.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top