[1 of 17]

Happy post-Super Bowl Monday!

It's February 8th, and we're TWO WEEKS away from Dragon's Lair Episode 3.

Dragon's Lair is about uplifting, embracing, and empowering Soldier innovations
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So here's what is coming up on this feed today (all times Eastern).

10AM: Video 1 or 2 highlighting the notification of Episode 3 Innovators

1PM: Video 2 of 2 highlighting the notification of Episode 3 Innovators

3PM: 🚨SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT🚨about Episode 3!!!
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The @USArmy has a long history of Soldier-driven innovation changing the way we operate, think, and organize for combat.

Soldiers have ideas! We just need to find and free those ideas trapped inside formations and buried under Army bureaucracy.
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Cut through the red tape!

Plow through bureaucracy!

Let the animals spirits of the free idea soar!

THAT is the principle behind Dragon's Lair.
[5 of 17]

Every day between now and Monday, February 22nd, we're telling another story of Soldier-led ideas that have changed the Army.

Today, we're going back to a dark period for the Army and the Nation: the Vietnam War.

But to tell this story, we have to go back further.
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After the Korean War, the Army was looking for a weapon that could help knock back the kind of massive Chinese attacks that devastated American formations in Korea.

These were human-wave assaults that relied on speed and mass more than maneuver and surprise.
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The Army was looking for something small and powerful, an antipersonnel weapon that could be emplaced in the defense.

The idea: the M18 Claymore mine.

The Army developed this device in the mid-1950s and improved on the idea in the early 1960s.
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The claymore mine was exactly what the Army was looking for to protect units in dug-in defenses.

It was light (3 and 1/2 pounds).

It was small and easily concealed from approaching enemy forces.

And it had a decent casualty area: out to fifty meters.
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But most importantly, it can be aimed to cover a specific area. This is most useful in the kinds of defenses in depth we established in the Korean War, where you'd want overlapping kill zones.
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The claymore mine was introduced into combat in Vietnam with the buildup of troops there in 1965.

It was used strictly in the defense.
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As President LBJ escalated American involvement in Vietnam, American factories starting churning out claymore mines like Apple makes iPhones today.

We were sending tens of thousands to Vietnam every month in 1966.
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Then, in 1967, a Private 1st Class named Jeremy Haskew, 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne, who'd served 4 months as an infantryman in Vietnam, had an idea: let's use the claymore mine in the OFFENSE.
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Jeremy realized the mine offered a significant advantage in the offense: it could open an ambush with a massive, instant kill zone without disclosing the location of the attacking force.
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Jeremy went to his company commander, Captain Alex Linn, and practically begged him: let's get the claymore out of these fixed defensive positions and use it with ingenuity!
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Alex bought into the idea and by 1968 the 101st Airborne was using the claymore mine in the offensive to great effect.

By mind-1969, all infantry units were emplaced claymore mines in the offensive, allowing advantages of speed, surprise, and firepower over the NVA.
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One PFC's ingenuity changed the way we conducted ambushes and raids in that war.

Jeremy's idea seems pretty simple....but sometimes it's the simplest ideas that are overlooked by the command.

That's what Dragon's Lair is about.
[END]

What are the next ideas that will change the Army? We'll find out on February 22nd.

But first, check back here at 3PM Eastern for a special announcement!!!📣

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More from @18airbornecorps

9 Feb
[1 of 10]

Today, Tues, Feb 9th, is Day 6 of our series of stories on Soldier innovations that have had a strategic impact on the Army.

Today we're going back to the Vietnam War.

We often think of the Vietnam War as an infantry fight supported by naval strikes & aerial bombing. Image
[2 of 10]

That's partly true but artillery was critical to the way the Americans fought in Vietnam, particularly from 1965 to 1970. Image
[3 of 10]

Because of the large areas that required protection and the enemy's surprise tactics of ambush, raid, and attack by fire, artillery units were required to respond almost instantly to calls for defensive fire.

Without rapid arty in defense, units were at grave risk. Image
Read 10 tweets
7 Feb
[1 of 25]

It's #SuperBowl Sunday! More importantly, today is Day 4 of our daily series on Soldier-driven innovations which have changed the American way of war.
[2 of 25]

Ideas developed by American Soldiers - when endorsed by senior leaders - can alter the way our Army runs.

This series proves that point.
[3 of 25]

So every day, until Monday, February 22nd, the start of episode 3 of Dragon’s Lair, we’re going to tell another story about a Soldier innovation that has had a strategic impact.
Read 25 tweets
6 Feb
Dragon's Lair is back!

Episode 3 coming up on Monday, February 22nd.

Dragon's Lair is about embracing Soldier innovations trapped inside Army bureaucracy.

There is a long history of Soldier-driven innovations changing the way the @USArmy operates.

[1 of 17]
[2 of 17]

Every day until February 22nd, we're telling another story of
an innovator who changed the Army.

Today's innovator: Lieutenant Edwin Sibert.

#ArtilleryTwitter knows that name.

Who is Edwin and what did he do? Let's go back 90 years.
[3 of 17]

As you know, WWI introduced a key innovation of modern industrialized warfare:indirect firepower.

Artillery during the Great War had a limited ability to influence ground maneuver, largely due to archaic communication b/w guns and between the guns and the infantry.
Read 17 tweets
5 Feb
[1 of 12]

On Monday, February 22nd, we launch episode 3 of Dragon's Lair, a program whereby Soldiers present their ideas to a panel of experts for a prize.

The winning idea will be implemented across the Corps.
[2 of 12]

The basic concept underpinning Dragon's Lair is this: Soldier-driven innovations, if supported by the command, can revolutionize the Army.

Don't believe that's true? You're wrong. History proves your wrong.
[3 of 12]

While MODERNIZATION historically starts at the top of the Army (makes sense, given the long-term funding it necessitates), INNOVATION often starts with Soldiers.

Out of necessity, Soldiers find ways to solve problems they observe. Those solutions change the Army.
Read 12 tweets
3 Feb
[1 of 7] MACARTHUR VS RIDGWAY: TALE OF THE TAPE

So it looks like Matthew Ridgway is MUCH more popular than MacArthur.

These two men have a MAJOR difference in leadership style.
[2 of 7]

Of course, Ridgway replaced MacArthur in Korea and turned the war in favor of the UN side after MacArthur's stunning mistakes.
[3 of 7]

Interesting, both men were moved out of position by a sitting President (Ike in Ridgway's case).

Their major difference: Ridgway was a Soldier's commander, a "lead from the front" kind of guy who was respected by his men.

That's not the case with MacArthur.
Read 7 tweets
1 Feb
[1 of 4]

Let's start #BlackHistoryMonth with the story of William Carney.

While some 3,500 Americans have earned the Medal of Honor, only 90 are black. Of those 90, William was the first.
[2 of 4]

Born a slave, William was part of Union charge on Fort Wagner during the Civil War in July, 1863, with the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry Regiment [depicted in the 1989 Denzel Washington film "Glory."].
[3 of 4]

During that siege, William saw the regimental color guard fall, hit by a Confederate bullet. William scrambled to catch the falling flag.

Wounded several times, William refused to let the regimental colors (the American flag) touch the ground or fall into enemy hands.
Read 4 tweets

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