Apparently we are giving CDLs to third worlders now, but ask any Iraq veteran and they will tell you why this is a terrible idea.
These people not only can not operate vehicles like this even in the best of conditions, but their disregard for human life is mind boggling
We always talk about logistics. Logistics win wars. Got it.
But to keep the FOBs going, the US drove in hundreds of trucks every night up the MSRs (main supply routes) from Kuwait. They carried food and fuel, ice cream and Burger King.
Shepherded into 40 truck convoys and escorted by American gun trucks, they drove at night, slipping though the dark sand like an army of sand worms.
To solve this manpower need, the army recruited Third Country Nationals (TCNs) to pilot the semi trucks.
They came from India, Pakistan Bangladesh, Myanmar and wherever else labor was cheap. And we got what we paid for.
The TCNs were savages. And incompetent. When they weren’t high, they were half asleep. They crashed into everything they could.
Night after night I watched the convoys roll down Route Tampa, I would listen to the American commander call in his truck number, and notice they were short.
It got to the point we would write down how many passed and how many were lost
TCNs would run eachother off the road, or just crash, but they would never stop for eachother.
These people lived together in TCN tents on bases, and couldn’t be bothered not to leave their brethren alone in Iraq.
Day after day you would find rolled over and destroyed White Trucks along the MSR. Just left behind
Some times the landowner unit would dig the corpse of the driver out, strap it to the hood and drive back to base. Sometimes not. Sometimes no driver was found. Who knows. Inshallah
Occasionally, when the gun trucks did see something happen, it was ALWAYS the Americans fighting through the flames and twisted steel to rescue the driver.
Brave young Americans got burned, bled, and inhaled smoke to rescue people while their friends just watched.
It was so common, that losses to vehicle accidents FAR outpaced losses to enemy contact. But there were always more bodies to feed into the trucks.
I saw them die because they were cooking rice in their trucks.
I saw them die because they fell asleep
I saw them die because they were high
I saw them die because they tried to solve beefs by running eachother off the road, or just jockeying to by one spot ahead through the gate.
I saw them stab eachother over old world feuds.
I saw them fuck and rape eachother regularly
The long and the short of this story is these people, without civilization’s shaping effect, should not be on our roads let alone driving the most dangerous things out there
They do not view human life like we do. Seeing that Indian shrug after killing that family wasn’t a shock
I’ve seen it dozens of times. They stand indifferently as their friends burn to death, why do you think they will show you any remorse at all?
PS: Yes; I know there were US Army green truck convoys too, and there were American contractor convoys. Got it. They were good. Shut up 88Ms
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What if I told you the lesson from GWOT wasnt if V Shaped Hulls are useful against China, rather is it the ability to create an Operational Needs Statement process for units in the field to know if V Shaped Hulls are needed or not?
We talk about battles, glory gained against the enemy and great stories of overcoming dreadful odds, but more often than not it is the thankless, tedious mental work done before two armies meet on the field that decides who wins and who loses
Like on the march to Fredericksburg
1/ By the winter of 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac had known little but defeat. They had been beaten like a drum four times at the hands of the Army of Northern Virginia, and had escaped with a draw in September of 1862, despite knowing the entire Southern battle plan.
2/ Nevertheless, the draw at Antietam breathed new life into the Union Army, but the fact remained that after a year and half of war, they were still only 35 miles into the Confederacy. That November, Lincoln replaced the slow moving McClellan with Ambrose Burnside.
This is one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite war movies, and it is exactly why all those alpha, sigma, raw egg weirdos know nothing about women, war, or what makes a man a man
The men start the clip hardened. It is 1917, three years into the slaughterhouses of the trenches. The French Army is at its breaking point, they just had some of their own men executed for mutiny
They start jeering the German girl, she is an object and they are at their basest
But then she starts to sing. It is a German song called Der treue Husar (the faithful hussar), who learns his love is sick and dying and tries to make it back to her in time.
The French soldiers don’t understand the words, but a woman’s voice is a woman’s voice
Grab a beer, we are going to talk markets and people who put their finger on the scale of them. (And no, this isn’t a thread about the small hat people, so just stop)
Almost all of Salt Lake City’s housing woes can be told in the story of this one house.
Why does this house cost over $300,000? It is by all objective measures a shitbox in a not great neighborhood Well, we have this wonderful tool called Zillow to help us. zillow.com/homedetails/63…
But first, a little history. The American residential real estate market used to be pretty simple. I invest in my house, hoping the market goes up and when it is time to sell, I sell it for a profit. Homes were huge purchases. The biggest most people made.
Here is your guide to the “they march like bums” and the “we don’t need to march” debate.
The truth is somewhere in the middle, but neither side it wrong.
(Caveat: the side posting the North Koreans as an example are wrong. Clowns)
Caveat, I have had a drink or two.
1 For millennia, the ability of individual soldiers to march, turn, and act as one with their comrades is why the West became what it was. That is how wars were won. From Phalanxes to the triple line, tercios, hollow squares, and line volleys, the disciplen of the West dominated
2 the discipline and the order and the obedience became synonymous with success. The Roman Vegetius said
“Few men are born brave. Many become so through training and force of discipline.”
One of my favorite D Day stories is the HMS Rodney, who, while providing direct fire support at Gold Beach, slammed a 16 inch shell directly into a Panzer IV
Rodney had been damaged by am LCT, and had a 9 foot hole in her side, but refused to be left out of the fight
She knew the Germans had their big guns waiting for the Allies coming ashore. Despite water rushing into his ship, Rodney's Captain would be damned if Britain's sons went ashore without their big guns behind them
While the courage of the men in the small boats is without question, what amazes me most is the senior officers in the battleships who basically said "fuck it, we ball". Like USS Texas flooding its own damned torpedo room to bring its guns to bear and got the boys off Omaha