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Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
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Oct 19 • 2 tweets • 2 min read
Shot. Chaser.

(Credit for this goes to @donacha1dh and @9coacheswaiting)
Col. John T. Wilder, Army of the United States, looks for the Confederate members of his mounted brigade of Indiana and Illinois soldiers (colorized, 1863)

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Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 14
This is fairly on par for the US military. At the beginning of US entry into WWI, the War Dept forbade any publication of AEF doings beyond highly controlled press releases. This became a problem when in APR '18, the Germans were able to prove that AEF sources were lying
A German raid on a US unit netted 183 prisoners and the Germans pulled back before a counterattack could be launched. US press releases admitted the unit had been pushed back but said they counterattacked and defeated the Germans, with minor losses
The Germans then published the photo of the 183 Americans and also dropped it over US lines

By not acting in the information space, the War Department and Pershing had lost a major public affairs battle that overshadowed the heroic resistance the 102 IN put up at Seicheprey
Read 6 tweets
Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 12
Single complex (requiring multiple breaches) obstacle belt composed of solely anti-vehicular obstacles, with some defensive positions for infantry and a few vics. Not *good* defensive positions, mind you. When your enemy is making a mistake, don't stop them
Ok, some people are making fun of this as a "fixed" fortification system. These defenses are not fixed. There's no bunkers etc

This is a pretty standard defensive position, really. You'd want to combine anti-personnel and anti-vehicular obstacles into defensive belts
Lots of people saying that dragon's teeth don't stop invaders. Correct. They don't. They make them slow down to maneuver around them or remove them, thus disrupting their formation, forcing vehicles to expose flanks, etc

Which brings us to the first obstacle effect: disrupt.
Read 10 tweets
Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 10
Ok, let's take a gander at equality (that's what woke means to the people that use it) and readiness, because the two are inextricably linked

Historically, equality gives us a more ready military, one that can draw on all of the nation's potential in time of war

Racism doesn't
Let's look at a historical case study, shall we? Yes, i am always going to go back to what I know: gin and history. In this case, we'll go with history

And we'll look at the draft in WWII, because it's that cool war we won which is why we brought the uniforms back, right?
So it's Sept 1940 and Congress has just passed the first ever peacetime draft, in anticipation of possibly entering this world war thing that was going down

The Selective Service and Training Act said there would be no discrimination along racial lines concerning the draft
Read 17 tweets
Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 10
The Army is going to be political. It always has been, as it is governed by politics and war is a political action.

We need to keep the Army non-partisan.

But if issues like women or minorities in the Army are now seen as partisan, we have a major problem.
Also, this statement absolutely does not reinforce the "People first" slogan that the Army has been trying out

In fairness, I guess we never stopped to ask "which people?"

Historically, who gets to serve in the Army has been a fraught question
Who gets to serve is also a political question. Lincoln opened the Army to Black troops in 1863 and Truman integrated the Army in 1948. Ford opened service academies to women. Clinton established DADT and Obama repealed it.

Politics plays a massive role in Army service
Read 7 tweets
Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 5
Deep in the Library of Congress collection of WT Sherman's letters

Willy T has terrible handwriting

His brother John's is worse

WS Hancock comes in third

Daniel Butterfield has a nearly impenetrable signature
Amazing stuff in Sherman's letters from the heads of military districts in the south. Gen. Alfred Terry writes in June and July, wondering when Georgia will be ready for self-governance but admits violence only stopped when the Army returned in 1869
In words that would sound familiar to anyone who spent time doing COIN in GWOT, he writes to Sherman for advice on whether to pass a military law mandating equal representation of races on juries, or whether he should leave it to the state legislature
Read 9 tweets
Angry Staff Officer Profile picture
Oct 5
"why do we have a recruiting problem?" asks the same Army that finds something wrong with a senior officer speaking up in defense of fellow soldiers and Army Values

Like, I *love* the idea of the Army - what it's meant to be, what it could be. But, damn, the reality is... rough.
Diversity & inclusion make us stronger. Our history as an Army has shown that, time & time again. Racism & misogyny make us less effective, weaker, and less ready - in addition to putting us on a crash course with our purported values

But it seems like there's always opposition
That opposition harms our readiness & should be countered from the very highest levels of the DOD

Silence only creates a space for rumors to operate, for others to spin their own narrative, & for internal dissension to thrive

That's what public information officers are FOR
Read 4 tweets

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