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| Tactical Military and Law-Enforcement Training Please do not post operational details of current or past missions that could compromise the people on the ground right now. This is not a forum for the discussion of current doctrine, but for the exchange of training ideas that will give US soldier |
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12-15-2007, 10:11 PM
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#2 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Jan 2004
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Yup, they are. There are some guys from my last unit that were veterans of Persian Gulf I, Kosovo, Bosnia, Panama, and Vietnam. I met a Navy Chief who was called back into service from World War II during the Persian Gulf war in order to teach the new generation how to fire the guns aboard the battleship Wisconsin. In Vietnam, the guys who had served in World War II, Korea, and were then serving in Vietnam were known affectionately as Three-War vets.
Their knowledge and experience was invaluable, and is as appreciated now as it was then. |
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01-10-2008, 06:06 PM
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#4 (permalink) |
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I served with the Aussies on two of my deployments, both in Korea. I got to hear all about their efforts in Vietnam, as well as in Korea. More interesting were their efforts in the local bars. Anyone ever succumbed to the Soju Shuffle?
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01-15-2008, 11:30 AM
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#7 (permalink) |
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Moderate Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Yeah, that is a little nuts. I mean, I totally understand why they had to use that stuff - it was cheaper than anything else available and it did the job even in the thick jungle where shrapnel and concussion were not as effective - but I'm glad to see the precision guided munitions of today replacing mass casualty weapons like napalm.
Still, it's not "carpet bombing" as the title of the video suggests. Carpet bombing is when a flight of bombers carpets an entire area with bombs. This was a low-level bombing run, probably from a jet fighter or attack aircraft like the F-4. In a time before guided bombs, this was a precision strike against a specific target. It was precision because it was done at such a low level (less chance of missing) and it was done wiuth relatively few bombs. A high altitude carpet bombing run would have released dozens if not hundreds of bombs, and it would not have been nearly as well contained to the single buildings that were hit by this pilot. |
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01-15-2008, 12:42 PM
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#9 (permalink) |
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Moderate Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 8,165
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Yeah, I've seen the actual B-52 carpet bombing runs. I was referring to the title listed over the napalm video. It erroneously says "carpet bombing."
I agree, though. A flight of B-52's dropping hundreds of tons of ordnance on your head is a horrifying thought. Just horrifying. You're talking about devastation spread impartially over whole square kilometers. That's wholesale killing, for sure. It's also one of the most effective psychological tools in warfare. It has almost no place in the kind of wars we're fighting today since there's no central governing body that can negotiate on behalf of the populace. However, in a war like World War II or even Vietnam (to a much lesser degree), wiping out civilians, towns, industrial centers and infrastructure in huge numbers like that has a definite effect. Tactics like that will bring many leaders to the table even faster than definitive military victories against enemy units would. Of course, that assumes the leaders have some level of care or compassion for their people and their future, though. That's clearly not the case in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it would clearly not be a factor in Iran, either. |
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