tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post2274190666684445517..comments2024-03-28T12:29:39.157-07:00Comments on Graphic Firing Table: The Army I Knew: Grenada 3, or, Into the WildFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-40539004121817351662013-11-14T16:29:05.039-07:002013-11-14T16:29:05.039-07:00I'm lucky that my parents saved that little le...I'm lucky that my parents saved that little letter, Lisa; it's the "unfiltered" version, free of whatever mental edits I have made to what I did and what happened to me during that time.<br /><br />And IMO there's been a LOT of "filtering" about this ridiculous little adventure. As you'll see in the next installments, as tiny as this expedition was a hell of a lot went wrong, and most of that out of pure ignorance and inexperience. Some of it was just plain "fucked-up shit that happens when you give young people automatic weapons and powerful machinery" but a great deal was because we simply had no idea what we were doing and did some of it very, very badly indeed.<br /><br />And, of course, being war, other people died because of that.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-89165486404316928212013-11-14T15:15:57.860-07:002013-11-14T15:15:57.860-07:00I shall be awaiting the next installment.
I liked...I shall be awaiting the next installment.<br /><br />I liked how you shifted the speaking persona, and handed it off to your younger self. I enjoy a protagonist who can recall the thoughts at the time, as opposed to simple recollections from present p.o.v. Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-51963370096315476632013-11-12T09:55:32.458-07:002013-11-12T09:55:32.458-07:00I think there are two main reasons; first, the mut...I think there are two main reasons; first, the mutability of the U.S. Army and, second, the mismatch between the state and federal military systems.<br /><br />First you had the U.S. Army in peacetime (including pretty much every war between 1781 and 1945 except for the U.S. Civil War and the world wars) and the army the was created for those big wars.<br /><br />The "peacetime" U.S. Army - the actual "U.S. Army" or USA - was too small to have a regional recruiting base for the various permanent regiments. So recruits went to whichever unit needed a draft, and there never was a hard connection between, say, the 3rd U.S. Infantry and any particular geographical location.<br /><br />Which isn't to say that those units didn't develop a sort of character; the officers generally stayed with their units (at least until WW2, where the huge expansion needed to build the Army meant that the was little or no effort expended to keep anyone in any particular unit) until they reached flag rank and most of the long-service NCOs were promoted within their regiment. But that was the leaders; there was no real sense of place amongst the troops. So calling a U.S. (federal) unit by a place name would have been kinda silly.<br /><br />But you had a second organization; the "Army of the United States" that was created for the big wars. That army took in the state Guard units which DID have regional or local affiliations, so my old FA unit in the Oregon Guard might have been officially the 2nd Battalion of the 218th Field Artillery but we thought of ourselves as the "Portland Light Artillery", the lineal descendants of the old Oregon militia cannon battery formed in 1866 (http://oregonredlegs.com/about-us/about/).<br /><br />But the AUSA was an ad-hoc, temporary organization AND one that, like the nucleus USA, tended to create the newly-raised formations (as opposed to the state Guard units) from drafts taken from all over the U.S. So, again, no point in trying to give these units a local character.<br /><br />That said, many of the permanent federal units tended to develop their own character apart from their unit numbers. The 27th U.S. Infantry, for example, will always be "The Wolfhounds" and has its own regimental traditions and insignia. My old units in the 82nd included the 505th Infantry "Panthers" and the 325th Infantry, "Falcons" and we all had our special days - for example the 505th, like many U.S. Airborne units, often has a "dining-in" for the 6th of June where we remember the guys of Company F from our 2nd Battalion that were dropped right in the town square and fought it out with the German garrison there...<br /><br />Anyway, a long way to answer the question with "We sorta DO have regimental traditions, just not those associated with a region or locality as is the British and Commonwealth standard"... FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-4100279443803925272013-11-11T19:21:17.959-07:002013-11-11T19:21:17.959-07:00I've never figured out why Americans use regim...I've never figured out why Americans use regimental numbers rather than names.<br /><br />If you are going to die for something, wouldn't it be better to die for the First Portland Regiment than the 1/234?Aelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10788190394672505925noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-55167756069644715242013-11-11T09:45:32.298-07:002013-11-11T09:45:32.298-07:00Brainfart. The light armor unit was then flagged ...Brainfart. The light armor unit was then flagged 4/68th Armored. They were the last battalion-size unit to field the M551 Sheridan light tank (tho I think the 101st might have had Sheridans in their 1/17th CAV about the same time...)<br /><br />They didn't deploy to Grenada and soon afterwards were reflagged as 3/73rd, God knoweth why.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-8113052696828225042013-11-11T09:39:06.276-07:002013-11-11T09:39:06.276-07:00That's the orderly room of the outfit I went t...That's the orderly room of the outfit I went to the Sinai with, 2/325, and yeah, those were some pretty fuckin' ugly buildings. Built in the late Fifties or early Sixties, I think and already showing their age by the early Eighties.<br /><br />Mind you, it hadn't been long before that that the Division had been up in what was in my time the CLACC area, the Forties "temporary" housing in what was by my time called "old Division" area on the north end of post. Parts of the 82nd - notably our light armored battalion, 3/73rd AR - were still up there. So these things were a treat compared to those old open-bay-partitioned-off-with-paper-thin-plywood-walls buildings...FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-79837651548001888312013-11-11T07:55:25.787-07:002013-11-11T07:55:25.787-07:00Agreed. That old butt-ugly stuff.Agreed. That old butt-ugly stuff.Barry DeCiccohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04735814736387033844noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-87417575408064671492013-11-10T19:26:28.638-07:002013-11-10T19:26:28.638-07:00I do love that army decor.
That desk and door r...I do love that army decor.<br /> <br />That desk and door reminds me of my misspent youth.Aelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10788190394672505925noreply@blogger.com