tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post3666333632893464118..comments2023-11-10T04:17:00.492-05:00Comments on View From The Porch: A whole new meaning to "Human Resources".Tamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07285540310465422476noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-73930352643876249712010-05-21T09:02:37.369-04:002010-05-21T09:02:37.369-04:00Supposedly, Johnson of Canada, the world's cha...Supposedly, Johnson of Canada, the world's champion doper, kicked out several times for massive chemical usage, has been getting injections of slow twitch muscle fiber in his legs so that he can run sprints and middle distance.<br /><br />But the thought to consider is that doping is risky, and it only gives a small increase in performance. Enough to make the difference between 1st place and 3rd place perhaps, but not enough to turn a sprinter into a marathon runner. Or, God help us, an Ultra-Runner.<br /><br />Those people scare me. Running 24 hours straight, night and day over mountain paths. One lady I know somewhat has beaten 140 miles in a day. She's bedridden for 5 days after a race, and it takes a month for her body to rid itself of the necrotic tissue that died in her calves during the race.<br /><br />Did I mention she's hot? Also with a nice guy husband who is the size of a mountain :-( Amazing sport, in a masochistic sort of way. Again, restricted, as far as I can see, to obvious Alpines, pretty much the way basketball centers are mostly west African unless they're so tall they just walk up to the basket.<br /><br />Daughter number one was telling me about a book she'd read lately on the in depth genetic study big school college coaches invest in potential recruits, and how specialized the requirements are for various team positions in football and basketball.<br /><br />When the coach looks at the mandatory biopsies, IQ and DNA tests, he sees not only what the applicant is doing, but how much more development he is capable of achieving.<br /><br />A basketball guard needs more intelligence and more stamina, a center needs height and/or jumping ability, and American football teams are so job specialized that daughter commented "It's like they were breeding horses".<br /><br />My thought is that I prefer the Patriot League, where everyone has to first be an honor student to compete in sports. Hiring mercenaries to represent a school means nothing to me.<br /><br />Where is the school spirit in saying "Our hired thugs beat your hired thugs, and next year we'll outspend you again, to make the same thing happen"?<br /><br />How come baseball has minor leagues, but football and basketball get funded by the taxpayer or parent of any kid who goes to college? <br /><br />Say your kid had a chance to be accepted at Harvard, Cal Tech, MIT, or Stanford. Would you send him to Ol' Miss because they have a great football team? Or UCONN because they are such a great party school (my brother will be pissed at that one. UConn/UHart rivalry in the family).<br /><br />In the mean time, the borg generation spends more time on the couch in electronic nirvana, being entertained while their bodies rot.<br /><br />I look at the elete kids, skiing, sailing, horseback riding, swimming and kicking a soccer ball from the age of 3, developing real world relationships and personal bonds.<br /><br />And I look at the lumpen proletariat, anesthetised by one artificial media or another. Developing a caste system happens in any culture that lasts long enough. But do the cattle have to look so dazed and complacent?Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-19704938644104072492010-05-20T18:09:05.904-04:002010-05-20T18:09:05.904-04:00Depends on the specific discipline - Biathaletes c...Depends on the specific discipline - Biathaletes could benefit from various "performance enhancers"; and I suspect that if it became important enough you could find ways to lower your pulse rate and your twitch muscles.<br /><br />The important thing is that the shooting sports are, by and large, minor. If they became important, we'd see dopingIan Argenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03704336044732061128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-1956600912746768882010-05-20T16:39:30.935-04:002010-05-20T16:39:30.935-04:00@Ed Foster
Don't forget doctors. They matter ...@Ed Foster<br /><br />Don't forget doctors. They matter nowadays. Just consider BALCO. Those guys had performance enhancing stuff that was unique, thus it went undetected for a long time. <br /><br />Also, Lance Armstrong being a testicle-free man is entitled to hormone injections. I doubt they've been giving him the least amounts necessary for him to look like a man, not like an eunuch. <br /><br />In due time, it'll become clear every top athlete in performance sports has been taking legal or illegal pharmaceuticals...<br />Probably the only sport where there is no doping are various shooting disciplines.Außenseiternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-81265193896865560112010-05-20T11:41:09.632-04:002010-05-20T11:41:09.632-04:00As for the "Spinnaker Gene", we have to ...As for the "Spinnaker Gene", we have to consider that, in objective terms, there is no such thing as a "white" race.<br /><br />I had a textbook back in college that was written in the politically insensative early '60's. They detailed the extensive tests the U.S. military did on physical differences between ethnicities, with the specific strong and weak points of each. Massive diffences, consistent date.<br /><br />Lavalle University up in Quebec also did similar studies back in the early '90's, which were written up in Runner's World just before the '94 Olympics.<br /><br />Put simply, take every good runner in the world, tell him to run as fast as he can, as far as he can, and at 50 meters and 100 meters, the winners will always be of west African ancestry. <br /><br />At 200, it will still be the west African, with someone from Scandinavia, north Germany, or the Slavic/Balt countries gaining on him.<br /><br />At 400 to 800, it's the northern European all the way, with the west African fading rapidy. At the mile, it's probably going to be a Celtic/Alpine type, of an Iberian, the two great stamina phenotypes in Europe.<br /><br />From the 5,000 meter to the 26 plus miles of the marathon, it will usually be a Nilotic (east African) of Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali, or Somali hybrid from the mountains of Kenya.<br /><br />The east Africans have as high an incidence of slow twitch muscle fiber as Alpines or Iberians, but are smaller men carrying much smaller torsos. An enourmous advantage.<br /><br />People from north west Africa are also great distance runners (Berbers from Algeria and Morocco especially), and have the advantage of the massive tendons and ligaments they share with the Europeans. This gives them a real advantage in cross country running.<br /><br />Beyond the marathon distance, it's Alpine types or Iberians entirely. The disadvantage of lugging the long heavy torso is increasingly offset by the lighter, more flexible bones and the stronger tendons of the western European.<br /><br />If you want upper body strength in any serious percentile of the population, you are stuck with Europeans and west Africans. <br /><br />So, who's the best group of athletes? For jumping and sprinting, west Africans, hands down. 5 to 25 miles, east Africans.<br /><br />Beyond that distance or in the Tour De France, it's an R1b haplotype from France, Spain, three fourths of the British Isles, or the 20% to 25% of northern Europeans who share the same phenotype.<br /><br />Lance Armstrong is an ethnic Scot, as is Paula Newby-Fraser, arguably the greatest female athlete of all time. Neither of them is worth doo-doo in a basketball game.<br /><br />Argueably, the types from around the Baltic are probably the best all-around athletes. They can't sprint as well as the west african, but they can beat him past a quarter mile. They can't run up hills as long as the Swiss/Bavarian/Irish/Portuguese type, but they can kick his butt for the first three quarters of a mile.<br /><br />Jackie Joyner-Kirsee, an amazing lady and one of my personal heroes, refused to believe she couldn't win at marathon, a sport she admired above all else.<br /><br />She beat herself into a near crippled state for more than a year, and never broke 2 hours and fourty minutes. <br /><br />Different sports, different people. Apples and oranges.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-88795621302667074762010-05-20T11:38:40.510-04:002010-05-20T11:38:40.510-04:00Tam, he's not learning a trade for use on the ...Tam, he's not learning a trade for use on the outside, he's (nowadays mostly she's) doing unskilled work for fair pay, great benefits, and an early pension.<br /><br />We're both right on the combat arms enlistment thing. Middle and upper middleclass, but from cracker, cowboy, and cop areas of the country.<br /><br />Most big city cops here in the north-east make 80k a year, and the cliche about the cop married to the schoolteacher or nurse got that way by being true a whole bunch.<br /><br />A few years ago, son number 2 was going to school in Manhattan, and wandered down to Times Square with some other Columbia types. They wandered by the military enlistment center and walked in for a chat.<br /><br />Cormac, being a conservative gun bug and scion of you-know-who, seemed quite knowledgeable, and the recruiter told him all about himself. <br /><br />He said "Your father was in the service, right?" To which Corm answered "Yes, he was a Marine".<br /><br />He then said "And at least one of your grandfathers was in the service, right?" To which Corm replied "Both of them. One was a career Navy Chief, and the other was a Major with Patton".<br /><br />The recruiter then went on to say that lots of folks looked, but it was the people from a family tradition that made up the bulk of his recruits, and they were the ones most likely to do well in the service.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-90146632628694290922010-05-20T10:33:36.396-04:002010-05-20T10:33:36.396-04:00I was positing a combined arms division already in...I was positing a combined arms division already in place north and east of the city. <br /><br />The Russians were able to get beans and bullets into Stalingrad, and the Germans couldn't. Ultimately, it was a battle of logistics.<br /><br />The Bronx would go quickly, as it's on the mainland, and there are so many cleared areas (already burned out and converted to open spaces in the house to house fighting we called Fort Apache).<br /><br />If the hypothetical badguys had a decent base on Long Island, Queens and Brooklyn could be broken up into cleared lanes along the Island highways, which, poor design, run next to all the big parks, allowing the baddies rally points.<br /><br />There would be plenty of strongpoints to be bypassed and isolated, but the place is an island, and whever controls the water eventually wins.<br /><br />Staten Island might be interesting, because it's essentially a large suburban area with lots of swamps and a fair amount of forest on the Jersey side. Also, it's only seperated from Jersey by a glorified stream, and there's lots of swamp and cover on both sides of it.<br /><br />And, the people who live on Staten Island are a lot different than average New Yorker. Manhattan's population would surrender en masse (aussi instante), and march obediently off to internment camps in New Rochelle, which would be a blessing to the defenders.<br /><br />The Rockaways would fight, because that's where the cops and firemen live. But that would be one of the strongpoints to be isolated on the island. Give them a chance to dig in, and I bet they would hold until the last rat was eaten (lots of family in the NYPD, I know those boys and girls).<br /><br />But most of them would never reach the fighting in Manhattan, and half the ones who tried would never make in. I think most of the NYPD would die in Brooklyn and Queens. <br /><br />What makes you think the badguys would come from Europe or Canada? If President Barry Bumbles wins reelection they might be from Iowa and Mississippi.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-73653000483057395172010-05-19T19:22:29.332-04:002010-05-19T19:22:29.332-04:00"Even today, how much resistance could the Ne..."Even today, how much resistance could the New York City Police Department give against a combined arms division coming in from the Bronx and Long Island, with amphibious landings behind them in Brooklyn and Battery Park?"<br /><br />Depends on how much time you give the cops to muster in from their homes in the boroughs or NJ.<br /><br />More importantly, how bad does the Red Force want the bridges and port facilities intact, and how are the boys in blue resupplying?<br /><br />It's been said, only half in jest, that the NYPD could give the Canadian military a stiff fight. But as anyone who's read WWII history ought to know, it's basically impossible to take an urban area by storm in the face of motivated and supplied defenders (cf the Eastern Front and Stalingrad in particular, and note that they don't have to be either *well*-motivated or -supplied, just adequately).<br /><br />It'd be an interesting wargame, to be sure. But as long as the NYPD can get a mimimal amount of antitank and antiair support (such as might be available to any national guard unit) and beans, bullets, and replacements; I'd stack them up against that combined-arms division (who, incidentally, has a nightmare of a logistical tail their own selves - either from europe or down the coast from Canada)Ian Argenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03704336044732061128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-33464794329358564102010-05-18T23:46:34.393-04:002010-05-18T23:46:34.393-04:00Tam -- Well, my anecdotal hearsay agrees with you....Tam -- Well, my anecdotal hearsay agrees with you. A significantly high percentage of guys I knew in Combat Arms were "paladins" at heart, no matter how much they publicly denied it. Meanwhile, the purely technical MOSs had a significant majority of guys who were (originally, at least) where they were to gain valuable job skills, with college as a strong second.<br /><br /><br />Which is why to this day, I advise kids asking me about the service who just want to do one enlistment and go civilian to look for the MOS's with the highest REenlistment bonuses and figure out which of them they can see doing as a suburban civilian. (Yeah, special operations, intel, translators, and such usually have good bonuses, but high-paying civilian employment opportunities are severely skewed towards DoD work.)<br /><br />Ed -- I actually preferred little guys as machinegunners, and corn fed types for ammo bitches. I noticed the little guys tended to be more thrifty in ammo useage (which is logically backwards you would think), and less likely to do something Rambo stupid, like trying to lead an assault with a GPMG. Of course, they're bringing a new GPMG online -- hopefully they'll get it into widespread use in "line" units as the primary dismounted GPMG.<br /><br />The Mk48 is an M249 SAW upsized to handle 7.62 (you can swap back to 5.56mm by swapping feedtray, bolt, and barrel; but I don't see that happening outside Secret Squirrel outfits). The bloody thing only weighs about 18 pounds empty, and can hold it's own in accuracy against an M240 as a bipod gun. Lower rate of fire probably helps. . . <br /><br />I have doubts as to whether or not it's as durable as an M240 (especially in high volume support roles), but the weight savings makes it attractive, despite any shorter service life issues. For vehicular use (or any role where tripod or pintle use is expected to be the primary mission), I suspect the M240 will stick around a good long while.<br /><br />The sooner they get the White gas system abortion of the M60 into the scrapheap of history, the better. I loved me some Pig (even knowing it's faults) when I was in, but only Marines and snake eaters were using the M240 as a ground gun then. (Of course, many of our NATO allies had been using the FN MAG58 about as long as we had been using the M60. . . but for all practical purposes, the M240 was something for coax guns and the loader on the Abrams.)<br /><br />Aussenseiter -- Well, I just read where the US Army is reverting to the traditional emphasis on ruck marches and muscles, vice marathon runners, in PT training. We'll see if they actually fix the APFT (the Army Physical Fitness Test) to suit. People forget the ONLY reason the APFT was designed with the 2 minutes of push ups, 2 minutes of sit ups, and 2-mile run in running shoes and track suits, was because they thought it was a faster way to check military fitness. But if it doesn't actually correlate to the rigors of combat, it's ineffective and a waste of time.Geodkythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328915597574377444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-65791973296008168192010-05-18T03:39:54.722-04:002010-05-18T03:39:54.722-04:00@Geodkyt..
It's not my policy, mind you. Thou...@Geodkyt..<br /><br />It's not my policy, mind you. Though, your suggestion is pretty good, most modern men can't even walk twenty klicks unloaded without stopping and moaning(based on my experience with guys I know. Not me, I've been made to walk up and down the hills lot ever since I could.)<br /><br />I'm an outsider, and the most connection I'll have with the US military was playing their white-washed no-gore game(for abouta week, before I found they could'nt even keep the cheaters out). <br /><br /><br />@Ed Foster<br />Methinks you put too much emphasis on ethnic. Mind you, four decades ago, even among runners, the level of competitivness wasn't so high as to make ethnic origin a factor. <br />I doubt that special forces demand current olympic level endurance. Sure, they need fitness, but not the level of fitness only one guy in ten thousand can achieve.Außenseiternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-26243599078935023402010-05-17T22:29:47.073-04:002010-05-17T22:29:47.073-04:00"Add in upper body strength, and you're l..."<i>Add in upper body strength, and you're left with the same peoples who completely dominate triathlons and bicycle racing.</i>"<br /><br />I'd not wager my lunch on it. Those are the same people that completely dominate 12-meter yachting, too, and there's no special "spinnaker" gene.<br /><br />Regarding "crackers, cops, and cowboys", I have seen studies that point out that combat arms in the Army, and specifically elite light infantry outfits, tend to be disproportionately middle- and upper-middle-class; kids who join for adventure or family tradition, as opposed to an inner city kid who wants three hots and a cot while he gets paid to learn a trade that may be useful on the outside.Tamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07285540310465422476noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-12148948731976499862010-05-17T21:11:40.735-04:002010-05-17T21:11:40.735-04:00Hey Geodkyt, why is it the littlest shit in the sq...Hey Geodkyt, why is it the littlest shit in the squad always gets the M-60? I think that got to be a cliche by being true most of the time. Since he's second in line to get shot, right after the radioman, maybe they figured he might get missed more if he was little?<br /><br />I don't want to get tangled in an ethnic discussion, but slow twitch muscle (the stamina stuff) is only found in great amounts among certain peoples. <br /><br />Add in upper body strength, and you're left with the same peoples who completely dominate triathlons and bicycle racing. <br /><br />Kind of explains the ethnic mix(or lack of it) in Special Forces, Recon, just about anybody who has to tump a ruck serious distance over rough ground. And Holy S--t, the rucks I see nowadays are WAY bigger than what we had to carry. <br /><br />Back in '68, a full 782 loadout was a bit less than 90 pounds. A friend of mine got back from Afganistan a few montha ago, and I almost choked on my Guinness when I saw pictures of what those kids were hauling up the Himalayas. <br /><br />God bless them. Those are some truely hard men.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-80247275478629318372010-05-17T16:41:56.467-04:002010-05-17T16:41:56.467-04:00Aussenseiter,
You know what works even better tha...Aussenseiter,<br /><br />You know what works <i>even better</i> than BMI charts and measuring tapes? (The ONLY guy I ever heard of who got the hospital tests was a 5'5" National Guard platoon sergeant who was a mountain climber -- that brick could run the 2 mile PT test ANaerobically, practically. Looked like a bow legged troll, but he made good time. When the brigade commander realized this was the guy getting photos of himself with the division flag on tops of various tall places, a phone call was made, and to doctors were invoked.)<br /><br />Let them do the Expert Infantry Badge ruck march. If they finish on time, they are fit. Period.<br /><br />As the Army is NOW only admitting, 2 mile runs have a lot less to do with modern combat than long heavy marches and weight lifting. I knew a LOT of "PT Studs" who could NOT hump a ruck -- they were just skinny little runners, with little to no upper body strength and NO serious endurance. (Not that that's true of all skinny little twigs -- had one hillbilly who with a seriou slack of good teeth. When we went to JRTC, his ruck, webbing, and weapon weighed nearly as much as he did. He did not flake out, but he was pretty happy to get "killed" a week into the exercise, so he could pass his M60 off to someone huskier and head to the Dead Tent.)<br /><br />But, running was adopted as the One True Standard of Soldierly Fitness in the 1970s and early 1980s.Geodkythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09328915597574377444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-65639615988479436272010-05-17T09:20:19.763-04:002010-05-17T09:20:19.763-04:00I've heard kissing the doctor and telling him ...I've heard kissing the doctor and telling him what pretty eyes he has might also work. Oh, wait... That's how to get a job with the San Francisco P.D.<br /><br />My ancestry is straight Celtic,or Alpine to be anthropologic rather than linguistic. Like all Alpines, I have short legs and a very long torso.<br /><br />When I showed up in New Haven for my enlistment physical at age 19, I was 5 feet 11 inches, 148 pounds. My pants had a 29 inch inseam, roughly 5 inches shorter than average, meaning I had a torso 5 inches longer than average.<br /><br />As a serious runner, I often clocked 100 miles a week or more and was a walking skeleton, yet weighed 10/12 pounds more than my Norse or Anglo friends of similar skinniness and height. The torso is obviously the heaviest part of the body.<br /><br />After getting some serious upper body development courtesy of my Uncle Sam, the disparity increased dramatically. I once borrowed the truck of a friend, an English immigrant from the Isle of Wight. <br /><br />We were exactly the same height, but I looked in the mirror and saw only my adam's apple, and my feet couldn't reach the gas or brake pedals.<br /><br />I suspect there should be a sliding scale corrector for the torso/leg length ratio.<br /><br /> Also, West Africans have very dense bones, perhaps offset by their carrying less water in their body fat, perhaps not. I looked up the Selective Service figures, and Blacks of military age average 5 feet 8 inches and weigh 154 pounds, while "whites" (all other races combined) are 5 feet 9.5 inches and 174 pounds.<br /><br />Given the multi-ethnic nature of America, perhaps a study of different physiologies might render a series of ideals, perhaps hispanic/amerind, hispanic/carribean, several varieties of european, and north and south asia.<br /><br />A bureaucrat's wet dream. Or perhaps a simple pinch test for body fat content, if any of the silly stuff was needed at all.<br /><br />Or perhaps we should simply judge by performance. Terribly un-PC.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-67363512798344159162010-05-17T05:13:54.147-04:002010-05-17T05:13:54.147-04:00@Montie
I was laboring under the impression that ...@Montie<br /><br />I was laboring under the impression that the US Army is a rational organisation. <br /><br />Anyway, US Army regulation seems to be something called IAW AR 600-9 which has a BMI range table and some sort of tape test that measures neck and abdomen circumference and computes something that might approximate body fat percentage. Not really scientific, but probably quite just, as overweight males tend to have flab around their midsection. <br /><br /><br /><br />As to military experience, I told the draft board that I wouldn't want to be a part of any organisation that would have me and especially not one with such a record. <br />Health check-up revealed a bad case of bradycardia(I probably got it from cycling too much), flat feet and need for prescription glasses.<br /> So that's how I avoided being drafted. There are classier ways, such as making the psychiatrist believe one is insane, but I wasn't that ambitious..Außenseiternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-20133177368022855362010-05-17T00:11:55.411-04:002010-05-17T00:11:55.411-04:00Drang: We're very much in agreement. In 1812 w...Drang: We're very much in agreement. In 1812 we got our butts whipped every time we came out from behind a cotton bale (Jackson won New Orleans with massive artillery superiority). Look up the "Bladensburg Run".<br /><br />In the Mexican war, we only had to fight Mexicans, led by pathetic Santa Anna no less, so anybody would look good.<br /><br />Great people, the Mexicans, with cohones that drag on the ground. I'd rather have Mexican illegals for neighbors than limosine liberals. <br /><br />But century old Brown Besses with poor to no gunpowder made them pike armies sent out to be massacred, not soldiers.<br /><br />The fact that they almost won on several occasions had more to do with insane courage and massive numbers on their side than any professionalism. Virtually the only professionals they had were some of ther lancer units and the San Patricios artillery units that kicked hell out of Zachary Taylor at Monterrey and Buena Vista. The professionals always held and died, while the militia finally broke and melted away.<br /><br />In the Civil War we trained regulars by attrition, and they then reupped for some truely massive bonuses. The north had a professional army after the first year of the war, and it showed in essentially an unbroken string of Confederate defeats from then on. <br /><br />My Grandmother's Uncle was wounded at Fredricksberg as a teenager, serving with Meagher's Irish Brigade.<br /><br />The Irish used to move to withih 200 to 300 yards of the Confederate lines, then kneel and get a last blessing from any priest who had survived the advance (all officers and priests were in the front rank), all while Confederate minie balls tore through their formation.<br /><br />It was considered rude to cry out when hit, and most of the dead were found with their teeth buried in doubled over musket slings.<br /><br />The survivors would then rush the Confederate line, firing their buckshot loaded .69 caliber smoothbores (never .58 caliber rifles) from the hip at 25 yards and rushing in screaming with their bayonets. <br /><br />Very macho. I admire their testosterone level, but if I had been in charge I would have courtmartialed their commander for such a sinful waste of gallant men. A French general said while watching the charge of the light brigade? "It is magnificent, but it is not war".<br /><br />The same great uncle walked up Kettle Hill with Teddy Roosevelt at the mis-named battle of San Juan Hill. The Spanish regulars took out 13 Americans for every man they lost up until the Americans poured into their trenches.<br /><br /> But they wouldn't have made it to the top without the skilled massed machine gun fire of Black Jack Pershing's Regular Army Gatling Gun crews.<br /><br /> Admittedly, it was also the Minnesota National Guard regiment Pershing had put behind his gunners to kill them if they ran, but firing black powder on a modern battlefield made them such an obvious target I wouldn't have blamed them if they had.<br /><br />The true militia unit disappeared with the National Guard act of 1905, and was replaced with essentially reserve units having peacetime obligations to the states.<br /><br />So I couldn't compare modern NG units to the rag tag militia of the 19th century.<br /><br />The early militia was basically the old fyrd, an extension of the English law system of Hue and Cry. It worked quite well as a substitute for a professional police force, but lacked the logistic and training depth to be more than a sacrificial stopgap in real combat.<br /><br />Even today, how much resistance could the New York City Police Department give against a combined arms division coming in from the Bronx and Long Island, with amphibious landings behind them in Brooklyn and Battery Park?<br /><br />Again. Today, except for vestigial units like the various non-federal state guards (I'm an NCO in the Rhode Island State Guard), the militia system is history.<br /><br />Perhaps because it wasn't scaleable to modern military capability, perhaps because Roosevelt remembered all the Democratic Governors who refused to send troops to fight the Spanish in 1898.<br /><br />Most likely both.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-1931166259408076432010-05-16T19:28:10.934-04:002010-05-16T19:28:10.934-04:00Ed R: Alexander Hamilton as Spawn of the Devil is...Ed R: Alexander Hamilton as Spawn of the Devil is a theme in El Neil Smith's books.<br /><br />ISTR from my own stints as First Sergeant that it was <i>possible</i> to say "Snuffy, you is over weight by the chart, but clearly is not, <i>fat</i>. Therefore, hie thee off to the horsepiddle where the sawbones will conduct divers tests and analyses on you to determine just how unfat you are."<br />Alas, it is expensive and time consuming to do so, and many do not know this. Also, there are, frankly, not all that many personnel to whom this applies.<br /><br />Disagree about "The Regular picking up the ball the militia dropped." <br />The troops trained by the Regulars, and frequently led by (some of) them, are to themselves Regulars. Very few regiments of Regulars fought in the War of 1812, Mexican American War, Civil War, Spanish American War, Philippine Insurrection, WWI, WWII...<br />What you had was a few Regular Regiments, a few State Regiments, and a bunch of units of "volunteers", who, through the Philippine Insurrection, were raised by states for a fixed term, but who tended to fight with more elan and enthusiasm than even the Regulars, and at least as much skill.<br />Just because most of the regiments in WWII were no longer raised by the states does not make them "Regulars." Also, note that, today, a National Guard Brigade in The Sandbox is pretty much indistinguishable from a Regular Army Brigade, from an operational effectiveness viewpoint.Dranghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08082177597135236652noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-16338125937809210892010-05-16T15:47:56.118-04:002010-05-16T15:47:56.118-04:00@Ed Foster:
One more thing:
In regards to those ...@Ed Foster:<br /><br />One more thing:<br /><br />In regards to those who have type O blood type being vulnerable to the Bubonic Plague:<br /><br />Many Type O Blood type people receive subtle damage to their immune systems from the civilized foods that contain Gluten (Wheat, Barley, Rye and Oats) which makes them prone to being more sickly and have a variety of immune system ailments.<br /><br />This understanding is gradually coming into focus since World War Two.<br /><br />http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=Celiac+Disease+Insights%3A+Clues+to+Solving+Autoimmunity%3A+Scientific+American&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=Celiac+Disease+Insights%3A+Clues+to+Solving+Autoimmunity%3A+Scientific+American&gs_rfai=&fp=2b36e1653bfbe4b4<br /><br />Perhaps they were susceptible to Bubonic Plague due to this slow poison of the Gluten Carbohydrate?<br /><br />food for thought...Cond0011https://www.blogger.com/profile/04576204654819543273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-56457725043553121242010-05-16T15:33:22.364-04:002010-05-16T15:33:22.364-04:00Ed Foster...
You have an amazing wealth of knowle...Ed Foster...<br /><br />You have an amazing wealth of knowledge. Thanks for all the input.<br /><br />... and I haven't forgot what you wrote at Brigid's website in February. You know... about the Normans, Vikings, Welsh and Irish. <br /><br />Very entertaining, cousin. This too, is going in the archive.<br /><br />-John CondonCond0011https://www.blogger.com/profile/04576204654819543273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-25765266046272122982010-05-16T14:59:30.104-04:002010-05-16T14:59:30.104-04:00AuBenseiter,
Just curious, since you have such a ...AuBenseiter,<br /><br />Just curious, since you have such a strong opinion about whether the military might make one lose muscle to conform to a fixed guideline for weight as expressed by Mister V and myself. Exactly how much military service time do you have?<br /><br />Now granted I can only speak from my experience in one branch, but 2 years as enlisted and 8 years as an officer in the Army infantry do give me some basis for what I had to say, at least as regards the Army.<br /><br />Unless you KNOW what you are talking about, how can you call bullshit? Unless bullshit is all that you are about.Montiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17926708261895308192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-34706856760716954942010-05-16T14:47:18.967-04:002010-05-16T14:47:18.967-04:00At the risk of reinforcing the liberal penchant of...At the risk of reinforcing the liberal penchant of hoping for some thing that cannot possibly be: I wish Robert Heinlein was king of America.monkeyfanhttp://www.youtube.com/user/stxrobstarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-37583572074626029332010-05-16T13:53:44.040-04:002010-05-16T13:53:44.040-04:00TJP: "Credentially" is expensive, and I ...TJP: "Credentially" is expensive, and I think largely counterproductive, but increasingly forced on us by a government filled with Lysenko devotees. <br /><br />If I could hire someone for a trainee job on the basis of an intelligence test, I wouldn't need to see a Mickey Mouse transcript from a lame Community College, showing the equivalent of a mediocre C+ from a good private High School.<br /><br />But I can't, because I.Q. tests, although demonstrably the most efficient predictor of ability, aren't P.C.<br /><br />With the transcript, at least I know he had the "stick-to-it-ivness" needed to sit through class for a couple of years and do his homework. Sad.Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-32671679600565949682010-05-16T13:32:49.373-04:002010-05-16T13:32:49.373-04:00AT: Very much in agreement with you. I threw the N...AT: Very much in agreement with you. I threw the National Service bit out as something I'd heard, and tried to shoot it down with the comment that "draftee armies suck".<br /><br /> Given infinite money and time, or desperation, it might be a good idea to train all citizens as military, the way Israel does. Then choose the regulars from those who found they liked the life. You would have some way of quantifying the people going into the regular units.<br /><br /> But it ain't gonna happen here. Just not possible with the amount of loonies we have to carry.<br /><br /> Pity. If everyone knew firsthand what the military was really about, there might not be as much anti-military hysteria.<br /><br /> "Things fall apart, the center can not hold, mere anarchy is loosed apon the world".<br /><br /> "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity".<br /><br /> Yeats knew what he was talking about in The Second Coming. He was writing about Communism and the death of traditional Western values, so by extension I suppose it would apply to our "Liberals" as well.<br /><br /> "And what rough beast, it's time come at last, Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?".Ed Fosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-21921538621395810822010-05-16T13:26:16.880-04:002010-05-16T13:26:16.880-04:00This is quite the interesting side discussion. Ed,...This is quite the interesting side discussion. Ed, a point regarding this:<br /><br /><i>"From Saratoga to the Battle of the Bulge, the Indian wars to Iraq, it's the Continental, the Regular, who's picked up the ball the militiaman has dropped."</i><br /><br />The militiamen dropped the ball during the Revolution when they got a whoopin' by the Red Coats on Long Island, and when they just plain couldn't take the abuse thereafter. Old Wooden Teeth had his hands full either trying to reenlist or punish the rowdy masses.<br /><br />A militia should be inclusive, and made up of the fat, the slow and the dull--but those who have just enough of a desire to defend. Consequently, they're useless for the job of going to foreign lands and killing people--and probably not helpful outside of their local area. When only five percent of the populace has the wherewithal to do military service, it's nature's way of telling us that there's an upper limit on the number of qualified humans produced by a civilization.<br /><br />This really isn't different in any other endeavor. The nation as a whole is sold on the fraud that expensive education can create the exceptional from a stock of apathetic dullards. And since, "Hey, everyone needs a job, right?", and people show up at institutions of higher learning with big wads of cash, economic forces make it so engineering students are forced to take Poetry 201 and Transsexual Studies along with their technical classes. Show me any discipline, and I can demonstrate how it is stuffed with charlatans and people who are doing it because they heard the money was good.<br /><br />It's is an enormous problem for the competent: they are unable to spark a passion for the job in their cow-orkers, so they must necessarily correct all the sloppiness and mistakes of the people who just don't care, so that they aren't branded with the failure that will eventually happen. That's a serious problem on a battlefield.TJPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-77453568155156158562010-05-16T10:41:33.336-04:002010-05-16T10:41:33.336-04:00Back on topic, the comedy gold that is Shalikashvi...Back on topic, the comedy gold that is Shalikashvili-<br /><br />Aren't portly cannon fodder better? They have that fat reserve for when the supply chain takes a break. <br /><br />And shot absorption increases with lard carapace coverage. Think of it as gel Kevlar.staghoundshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05976667812875074135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15907727.post-21927987812074053542010-05-16T09:43:44.064-04:002010-05-16T09:43:44.064-04:00"Don't take it personally..."
It do..."Don't take it personally..."<br /><br />It doesn't get any more personal than concern for the who's and how's of defending this nation, my friend.<br /><br />"I don't see where your criticism is coming from, about a system more or less in place for some 230 years or more."<br /><br />That's because there wasn't any...the concern is for the next millennium and how those wars will be fought, and the criticism is for the stupidity of top-down controls that were the point of Tam's post and their harbinger of future horrors. Yesterday at Red Lobster wifey and I were seated next to an old couple who were celebrating the lady's birthday. When their server asked about the gent's veteran's cap he was told that the fellow had entered the Navy in '42 at age 18. Because of his perfect hearing, he was assigned to sonar on a sub-hunter. His ship was sunk by a mine in '44 and he swam for two hours before being plucked up by another ship; he has tried but been unable to track down or make contact with or even find out the fate of any of his shipmates. Now, maybe he's no Ernie Pyle, but he was a necessary cog in a machine of men -and a generation- who saved the world, and I shook his hand and told him so as they left.<br /><br />But we can't win wars anymore by raining troops on beaches or steaming flotillas to surprise points of attack. Future (and current) conflicts are about training and technology that is difficult to master in short stints and far too expensive to provide just to see it walk away after a few years. Ed's idea for mandatory service as prerequisite for suffrage is way wrong of course, but the prospect for a long and rewarding career will ensure quality over quantity.<br /><br />He has it right that the dedicated and highly skilled officers turning out from the academies are the keys to our military securing our survival. But encouraging rank and file loyalty and dedication through the promotion of military service as a long-term career and not just a means to an end is the lock that those keys will turn.<br /><br />ATAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com