Military

Military and Civilians

So many on the right keep claiming that the military would never fire on American citizens if they were ordered to do so. WRSA comes up with a few examples of the military firing on American citizens. They left out an important one.

The Bonus Army.

Congress had long paid a bonus to troops who fought in times of war, to make up the difference between a soldier’s full time civilian job and his soldier’s pay. Coolidge tried to veto the bonus for the troops of World War 1, but his veto was overridden.

Under the law that was passed,  each veteran was to receive a dollar for each day of domestic service, up to a maximum of $500 (equivalent to $7,900 in 2021), and $1.25 for each day of overseas service, up to a maximum of $625 (equivalent to $9,900 in 2021). Deducted from this was $60, for the $60 they received upon discharge. Amounts of $50 or less were immediately paid. All other amounts were issued as Certificates of Service maturing in 20 years’ time, or 1945.

By 1932, many veterans had been out of work because of the depression, so about 17,000 of them camped out in two Hoovervilles that were located in Washington, DC. They went there with their families, hoping to be paid the bonus that they were owed in 1932 instead of 1945. The two groups numbered as many as 50,000 men, women, and children.

 The camps were tightly controlled and well cared for by the veterans, who laid out streets, built sanitation facilities, set up an internal police force and held daily parades. A vibrant community arose, including churches in tents, kitchens, a library, and even their own post office.

They were told that the only way that they would be paid what they were already owed was to accept work in the Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Hunt, Virginia.

Some accepted that and went to work, others did not. The veterans thought that by sitting there and refusing to leave, the government would eventually have to relent and pay them what they were owed. Instead, they were given an ultimatum: leave by May 22, or else.

Hoover ordered police to go in and clear them out on July 28, 1932. When some of the veterans refused to leave, one policeman drew his service revolver and shot two of them, both of whom were killed. General Douglas MacArthur then rolled in that afternoon with 1,000 armed troops of the 12th Infantry and 3rd Cavalry regiments, 800 policemen, and six tanks, all supported by machine guns.

Patton, who was in charge of the 3rd Cavalry, had this to say:

“If you must fire do a good job — a few casualties become martyrs, a large number an object lesson. . . . When a mob starts to move keep it on the run. . . . Use a bayonet to encourage its retreat. If they are running, a few good wounds in the buttocks will encourage them. If they resist, they must be killed.”

The infantry charge was made with fixed bayonets and suppported by the use of Adamsite (an arsenic based vomiting agent). Hoover ordered the assault stopped once the veterans had retreated across the river, but MacArthur chose to ignore the president and ordered a new attack, claiming that the Bonus March was an attempt to overthrow the US government. A veteran’s wife miscarried. When one 12-week-old infant died of respiratory complications caused by the chemical warfare attack, a government investigation reported he died of enteritis. In the end, a total of three civilians were killed, more than 1,000 were injured (some by gas, including an 8 year old boy left blind for life) and 2 police officers received injuries.

The negative publicity of the attack on its own veterans was believed to be one of the major factors in Hoover losing the 1932 election to FDR.

Not only were MacArthur and his troops willing to fire on and use chemical warfare agents against veterans and their families, in many cases the veterans who were being fired upon had served in the same units as the soldiers who were attacking them with bayonets. In the end, none of the veterans received a single cent of what they were owed, not in 1932, not in 1945, not ever.

Don’t make the mistake of believing for one single second that the military today would hesitate to kill you, if so ordered.

By Divemedic, ago

Concentration Camps

It has long been said that wealthy, elitist Democrats don’t care about illegal immigration because they don’t have illegal immigrants in their neighborhoods. Ron Desantis has proven that old saying to be correct by shipping some illegals to Martha’s Vineyard.

FDR put inconvenient non-whites into military guarded camps. Now the left has found another group of non-white people to put into camps. Less than 36 hours after arriving in Martha’s Vineyard, which declared itself to be a sanctuary location, the immigrants that arrived there were shipped off to a concentration camp to be guarded by 125 National Guard troops activated for that express purpose.

It isn’t that liberals don’t understand hypocrisy or cognitive dissonance, as Miguel argues. They fully understand it. The leftists have simply decided that they don’t have to follow the rules that they have set for others.

In the meantime, everyone on the left who supports this needs to be called a racist who supports putting Hispanics into concentration camps.

By Divemedic, ago

US Military Running Out of Money & Supplies

The US has sent about $49 billion in aid to the Ukraine so far in 2022. That is about $1.75 billion per week, or $1,100 for every man, woman, and child in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US Air Force has announced pay cuts to some airmen, citing lack of funds as the reason.

Not only that, but it turns out that the US military doesn’t have enough artillery shells, rockets, and missiles. It turns out that we have given the Ukraine 800,000 shells for 155mm artillery pieces and another 108,000 shells for 105mm cannons. Nearly a million shells given away, and we don’t have enough as it is.

That isn’t smart.

By Divemedic, ago

Dumber Army Follows Orders

The ASVAB is a test that is given to potential military enlistees. Many career counselors consider it to be one of the best occupational aptitude tests ever written. The test evaluates those taking it in various categories like Arithmetic, Assembling Objects, Auto & Shop, Electronics, Science, Mechanical Comprehension, and Language skills. Each branch of the military has a minimum score that a potential recruit must score in order to enlist. The Army’s minimum score is the lowest of all military branches at a 31.

There are too many potential Army enlistees who either can’t score a 31 or meet the basic physical requirements. So the Army has decided to begin offering remedial classes. This is a reflection on the general lowering of the quality of our Armed Forces. The left is only concerned with political reliability, and is busy cashiering everyone who shows even a remote rightward leaning.

So they are purging the military and staffing it with uneducated morons who are out of shape, have psychological problems, and will simply follow whatever orders they are given. That may include wiping out a small town that refuses to remain locked down or refuses to stop bitterly clinging to their guns, their Bibles, and their Constitution.

By Divemedic, ago

Missing Machine Gun

The US Army is missing an M240B machine gun. It belongs to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, Kansas.

To me, there are two possibilities here:

  • It was in California. One of the local troops from Fort Irwin just made themselves some extra cash, and a Mexican cartel has itself some additional firepower.
  • There is a patriot somewhere who is waiting for some IRS or FBI agents to come calling. Maybe there are some soldiers who saw an opportunity to increase their own firepower. God help them if anyone rats them out.
By Divemedic, ago

Looking for Votes

The Biden administration is looking to start a fight with Russia? Perhaps. The Carrier Strike Group centered around the USS George HW Bush just entered the Mediterranean Sea, accompanied by her escort ships. In addition, there are two guided missile submarines in theater.

The Truman strike group remains in the Med, so this isn’t a normal carrier handoff.

Is our government insane? Are they seriously picking a fight with Russia using the depleted, paper tiger of a military we have? WTF.

By Divemedic, ago

Rotting Carcass

We keep hearing from the left how our Ar-15s are no use against an Army that has tanks, aircraft, and artillery. I won’t even bother finding a link to any of those claims. We have all heard them before. But what if all of those toys don’t have any people to run them?

The Army is supposed to be able to engage in Corps level engagements by 2035. The problem with that is our Army is having trouble meeting recruiting goals, and will likely have fewer than 450,000 personnel by October 2023 (pdf alert). That means our Army has only 31 active duty brigades, and those will be understrength. To even reach THAT number of brigades, the Army has had to strip personnel from other locations to the point where readiness has been affected. To put this in perspective, the troops who put ashore on D-Day as a part of Operation Overlord numbered about 160,000 troops. That would be roughly half of our entire Army today. Army planners think that the only way they can maintain 31 brigades is to cut them from 3 battalions per brigade down to 2. Paper tiger, indeed.

So what, you say. We can just bring in the reserves to get our staffing up to snuff, right? Nope. The Army has had so many issues finding officers to command reserve units that they have had to engage in some creative personnel management.

Over a five-year period, 110 command positions could not be filled because the Army Reserve lacked willing commanders. The shortage of willing commanders has become so acute in the Army Reserve that O5 command is no longer an opt-in board to be considered for command, but opt-out board, meaning that lieutenant colonels and majors who are up for promotion who do not wish to command must proactively go into the system and state that they do not wish to be considered for command.

This is creating havoc with morale and retention, which is making the problem even worse.

Army Reserve soldiers have seen commanders who are clearly in their position not because they were highly qualified or competitive, but solely because they put their names on the list, and that is not a good place to be as an organization.

That makes for an Army that won’t be able to put down an uprising of kindergarteners, much less repel an invasion. Reading this would you say that allowing women, fags, and trannies to serve has made our military better, or worse?

The only good thing here is knowing that it will be difficult to slaughter armed citizens when there are no warfighters left. We appear to be back in the days of Jimmy Carter’s hollow military. Sure, some units will be staffed with capable and willing soldiers, but those are far less likely to be gunning down civilians than the woke units that make up the majority of the force.

By Divemedic, ago

Paper Eagle

China is about to invade Taiwan. I know that Taiwan’s intelligence chief says it won’t happen this year, but hear me out. I would say it will happen before the end of October. Let’s look at why I think so:

Weather

The weather in that area of the world becomes too treacherous for an amphibious invasion from the end of October through the end of March. Once fall sets in, the water around Taiwan is too rough for an invasion force. That means putting things off until at least April. Why won’t they do that?

Preparations

China has mobilized large portions of the PLA, moving a large number of forces to the area, I think we are looking at an invasion within the next 90 days. No country mobilizes a large military force only to call it back.

Those air incursions into Taiwanese airspace haven’t just been saber rattling. Nor was the model of American carrier battlegroups they were using as target practice. These point to a country practicing for war. They are ready to fight and win. Our military is busy learning to put on drag shows and recognizing each other’s pronouns.

Every simulation run by the US military shows China defeating the US in detail. While China has carriers in the area, they won’t need them. The order of battle is impressive:

Military Situation Overwhelmingly Favors China:

The US carriers in the area are the USS Ronald Reagan with Carrier Airwing 5, which has less than 60 F/A-18E Super Hornets embarked. The USS Tripoli with its 20 embarked F-35B‘s is there, as is the USS America, but only carries aircraft for transporting its embarked marine battalion. Taiwan themselves have several hundred first line fighters, but the combined Taiwanese and American aircraft would quickly be overwhelmed by the sheer number of aircraft China has in the area (over 1,000).

There are some airbases on Okinawa (400 miles or so away) where there are a couple of squadrons of F-15s, F-35s, some AWACS, aerial tanker support, and there are a few strategic bombers there (I think B-1s). The rest of the US forces in Okinawa are marines, some spec ops people, support units, and some air defense units. I don’t know if Okinawa based units can get involved, since Japan would have a say and would not want to get drawn into the conflict. If these units DO get involved, expect Japan to get hit with some missile strikes, which would be HUGELY unpopular with the Japanese people, who overwhelmingly don’t want US forces there anyway.

The US is likely to put a dent in an invasion force, if they decide to intervene. A US submarine is likely lurking in the area, and China would lose some amphibious ships to it, that is almost a certainty. If the US becomes involved, there is a better than 50-50 chance that we would lose at least one of those carriers, and a near certainty that we will lose several ships. All of this means thousands of US casualties, perhaps 10,000 or more, within days of the onset of hostilities. Is the US ready for that?

In the end, there is only one possible outcome: Taiwan will fall. The only possible answer for the US would be to accept the loss of Taiwan, or go nuclear. Biden doesn’t have the stomach for nukes, and even if he DID use them, Taiwan will eventually be lost.

So what will happen?

Joe Biden has said that the US is committed to defending Taiwan. South Korea is fully expecting the US to honor that commitment. This puts him in a bind. If we refuse to defend Taiwan, the US looks weak, and we lose more influence in the region. If Biden tries to defend Taiwan then loses anyway, the US looks even weaker and loses influence worldwide. Then we also know that China owns Biden’s greedy, crooked ass.

The US has never been weaker, with a weak leader, weak economy, and a failing military. American political and military leadership is a joke.

In short, we have already lost. China knows it. The US military knows it. So does Foggy Bottom. I’m not sure Joe Biden knows it, but he is a senile old man. The only reason that China hasn’t invaded yet is that they don’t want to lose the US as a trading partner, but the US is quickly failing as an economic powerhouse and is no longer the profit center it once was.

For all of the above reasons, I think China invades Taiwan before Halloween. I think the US does nothing but whine and complain to the UN. I also think that this does severe damage to our influence in the Far East.

This is strangely reminiscent of Japan’s actions a century ago. Japan’s big failure then was that they didn’t have raw materials and depended on imports. China learned from that. They have access to all of the raw materials they need. We are looking at China becoming THE dominate world power for the foreseeable future.

The US, on the other hand, is staring at economic collapse and political instability. The peak of the American empire has come and gone.

EDITED TO ADD:

Okinawa also has a squadron of F-22 Raptors, but China has them outnumbered ten to one with their own advanced fighters. Even if the Raptor is a better airplane, quantity has a quality all its own.

By Divemedic, ago

This is why

When I first went into the military, one of the things I used to hear from the old timers were stories about how bad things were just a few years before. I heard about people using drugs right out in the open. I heard stories about how officers were afraid to enter certain areas of the ship without an escort. The post Vietnam military was a mess.

Now it’s worse. We have ships rusting away.

Want to know why? Shit like this:

If things kick off in Europe or Taiwan, our military is going to get its collective ass kicked.

By Divemedic, ago