02-01-2019, 02:33 PM
At the risk of sounding like “Me Too!”, I can vouch for the accuracy of BOTH LR”s comments.
I spent 3-years in theater, with the second tour predominantly training Cambodian Air Force pilots. The supply chain in 1972 was deliberately choked to a level where even a fleet of about 30 T-28 fighter bombers (4ea Mk 82 500 lb per sortie) could not be supported for normal combat operations.
Contemporaneous news showed the South Vietnamese president complaining that they were being shipped only enough artillery ammunition to supply each tube with three rounds per day.
We left Vietnam because we chose not to win. That gauranteed the debacle we saw.
I then spent a few decades in weapons R&D with emphasis on definition and advocacy of new weapons.
Like the Army, Air Force was, in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, focused solely on the Fulda Gap and Soviet airfields and pretended the Vietnam experience did not exist. A person with my history and mindset about options an adversary can exerciselft me rather frustrated with the single focus on a peer competitor.
As ‘52 pointed out, being adept at ALL levels at conflict is critically important. Failing in small conflicts — economic, cultural, trade, gangs, and small insurgencies — only begets big wars.
I spent 3-years in theater, with the second tour predominantly training Cambodian Air Force pilots. The supply chain in 1972 was deliberately choked to a level where even a fleet of about 30 T-28 fighter bombers (4ea Mk 82 500 lb per sortie) could not be supported for normal combat operations.
Contemporaneous news showed the South Vietnamese president complaining that they were being shipped only enough artillery ammunition to supply each tube with three rounds per day.
We left Vietnam because we chose not to win. That gauranteed the debacle we saw.
I then spent a few decades in weapons R&D with emphasis on definition and advocacy of new weapons.
Like the Army, Air Force was, in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, focused solely on the Fulda Gap and Soviet airfields and pretended the Vietnam experience did not exist. A person with my history and mindset about options an adversary can exerciselft me rather frustrated with the single focus on a peer competitor.
As ‘52 pointed out, being adept at ALL levels at conflict is critically important. Failing in small conflicts — economic, cultural, trade, gangs, and small insurgencies — only begets big wars.
shootersnotes.com
"To those who have fought and almost died for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."
-- Author Unknown
"If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished!" -- Milton Berle
"To those who have fought and almost died for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know."
-- Author Unknown
"If at first you do succeed, try not to look astonished!" -- Milton Berle