Highly recommend reading the book about this:
In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805073663/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_oOXuDbYA71H0K
He's made the same flawed argument for years. He even wrote a 2014 book on the topic.
BLUF: his premise is flawed and he doesn't understand the theory and practice of airpower.
His argument follows from a false premise: air forces became independent because airpower alone could create decisive strategic effects, winning wars without ground or naval forces.
Giulio Douhet (1896-1930) made this argument a century ago but it was always a minority view. The Strategic Air Command (SAC) came close to being a strong proponent, but they equated "strategic" with "nuclear" and limited their arguments to Cold War nuclear strategy. It was never shared in the tactical and air defense communities.
He argues having independent air forces prevents effective coordination of ground and air forces, but I'm sure anyone with experience coordinating close air support (CAS), or working in the relevant cells of an Air & Space Operations Center (AOC) would disagree.
The Goldwater–Nichols Act of 1986 transferred operational planning from the individual services to joint commands, addressing this over three decades ago. I served in Iraq from 2008-2009, helping in part to coordinate airpower with multi-service (and multi-national) special operations forces. All services seamlessly worked side-by-side.
There are some good cultural reasons for retaining separate air forces. I will never be tasked with leading a squad of Airmen to take a hill from the enemy. My job supporting airpower is different, the professional expectations are different. The mindset for fighting a tactical ground battle with the enemy is different from ensuring that aircraft and aircrew are mission ready.
There are other arguments. These are just the first that come to mind.
Awesome book I found from Reddit was Spearhead.
I read most of the books listed in this thread and this one flew under the radar and is really good. All about tank warfare in the Wester European Front of WW2 from an American and German gunner perspective. Both of whom were in the Battle of Cologne and the two gunners faced each other in a Pershing and Panther tank and their dual was actually filmed by Andy Rooney.
in Harm’s Way. It’s about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Pretty good read.
If you haven't read this mans autobiography, you're fucking wrong.
https://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Pilot-Memoirs-Legendary-Robin/dp/0312569513
https://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Pilot-Memoirs-Legendary-Robin/dp/0312569513/
A book. Although Robin Olds was a larger than life character that earned some fame. I'm sure History Channel covered him in one of their docs back when they used to do that.
Read about "Operation Bolo" on Wikipedia, that was Olds' doing.
I remember read about that. It was a British Apache team in Afghanistan. They went in and rescued 2 marines or Para that got left behind after a fire fight. I believe it was this one : Ed Macy Apache.
Apache: Inside the Cockpit of the World's Most Deadly Fighting Machine https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802144780/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YS19S3T1MR12Y5JJ6ZAY
> Honestly, you could make a couple of songs at least out of the whole event. There’s just so many incredible things that happened.
Oh yeah. The sinking itself, the secrecy of the mission and the lack of communication between Navy personnel that led to the delays in the men being rescued, the railroading of the ship’s captain in the wake of the incident…
Went & bought the book, thanks so much for the recommendation! I have read another couple of books about the overall incident as well that were very good:
Both great books that I highly recommend. The authors of the second actually used the first as source material and gave the author a shoutout in the acknowledgments.
If anyone is interested in the backstory you can search the movie Black Hawk Down.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265086/
Or read the book
Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War https://www.amazon.com/dp/080214473X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_NCQ6B50ZYRHAR1NJ0CC0
There is a FANTASTIC book about the fate of the USS Indianapolis and its men. It's a fast read, and I cannot believe they haven't made a movie out of it yet.
In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton
https://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors-ebook/dp/B00823ZRPA
Dennis R. Jenkins' 'History of the Space Shuttle' is a great book and has exactly what you're looking for including page after page of drawings and details of the different concepts:
I would love to hear the guys write a song about this as well. There have been at least a couple of really good books written about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Harms-Way-Indianapolis-Extraordinary-Survivors-ebook/dp/B00823ZRPA
https://www.amazon.com/Indianapolis-Disaster-Fifty-Year-Exonerate-Innocent-ebook/dp/B078MFB5BH
If they needed source material, those would be the books I'd recommend.
Yup, undergunned against Tigers even Panzers, not stabilized, not compensated, crap optics and targetting in general, terrible ergonomics for aiming, weak armor, think traverse was even bad.
We could make them fast, but that's literally it. On the field it was fodder for a decent German column, or 88 emplacements. Against infantry it was fine, against enemy medium/heavies it was a jeep.
The gun was by far the worst, even the 76mm hv only helped, it needed something closer to the German Krup 88.
Source: https://www.amazon.ca/Want-Gun-Sherman-Tank-Scandal/dp/0764352504
> Except all the times the B-2 has been used in the Balkans and Middle East. Or the loiter capabilities of the B-1 and B-52.
A lot of good points in your response. I'll leave it at that -- but I will quibble with this. I'm not sure B-2s, B-1s and B-52s (well, maybe B-52s considering how long they've been flying) are the most cost-effective ways of delivering ordnance to the Middle East! There is a good book I would recommend that is critical of strategic bombing, which is a way for the USAF to differentiate itself as a distinct service branch but with many negative consequences for how the U.S. fights wars.
>Plus, I'd love for you to cite where a former general in a corporation has made a decision or sale of an item to the DOD that was completely extraneous or a disaster.
I'm thinking of Mattis sitting on the board of directors for Theranos, that terrible scam company. "Mattis also personally called a fellow general at Fort Detrick, where the Army conducts medical research, emails obtained by the Washington Post show. According to the SEC complaint, Holmes had discussions with multiple divisions of the DoD from 2011 to 2014, and eventually generated about $300,000 from three Pentagon contracts." Small beans but nevertheless...
While it may be not correct in regards of fasting and “inner voices”, there are some worthy reads about Apache pilots training. Those who qualify are able to perform 2 completely different actions at the same time, like reading 2 books with different eye on each, or using Apache “monocular” that aims a target with right eye while checking the controls with the left.
https://www.amazon.com/Apache-Inside-Cockpit-Fighting-Machine/dp/0802144780
Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology)
I read a lot of military history/biographies, which probably isn't your thing. With that said, here's the book I'm trying to finish:
https://www.amazon.com/Fighter-Pilot-Memoirs-Legendary-Robin/dp/0312569513
I've also been reading a random chapter from this:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Firing_Line.html?id=XMMfAAAAMAAJ
Read - Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut
Watch - Idiocracy or SLC Punk, just for something fun and stupid.
I'm currently reading the Memoirs of Robin Olds.
Not specifically interesting on the technical side, but a phenomenal read: Thunder Run
It describes how a US tank brigade captured Bagdad. It's much more than just an account of the battle.
Currently ~~reading~~ listening to Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds and it is awesome. Highly recommended.
I read his biography. I didn't like the man - he seemed like a bit of a jock, always being the best at sports, getting all the ladies, had a movie-star wife, had feelings of disgust when he saw the few weaker pilots in his squad crying...
But my god he was one hell of a pilot. Had a Mig on his tail in Mig-alley, and he just slammed on the rudder pedal and made his F4 do a kind of twirly-flip-loop to just suddenly end up on the Mig's tail - something he wasn't entirely sure would be possible and had never done before, but my god if it didn't seem like something right out of a James Bond movie.
To expand on this, Jenkins' book describes the artwork as follows:
>"The North American Phase B high cross-range design leaving the VAB for the trip to the launch pad at KSC. North American expected to use a service structure mounted on the Mobile Launch Platform."
And credits the picture as:
>Convair photo 112899B via the SDAM Collection
So try SDAM (a good, helpful bunch of people), as they have a lot of Convair stuff since Convair was headquartered in San Diego. Since it was also a North American joint project, Boeing may also have some info.
Another example would be Blackhawk Down.
On occasion, rules have more than one exception.
Are you getting all this? Are we ready to move on?