What are you reading?

[ab187]

Currently reading "Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey" by Michael Collins of Apollo 11. He does a great job of vividly describing his experience as a test pilot and working his way up to and through the Gemini and Apollo programs. I highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Astronauts-Michael-Collins/dp/0374531943

 

[Randy Daytona]

This just popped up in Foreign Policy Magazine; Ivan is reading "The Foundation of Geopolitics" by Alexander Dugin. Think of it as Russia's version of Manifest Destiny based upon the theories of Mackinder and Haushofer. As Sun-Tzu said, study your opponent... or us old guys just like to read. Unfortunately, Amazon does not yet have the book in English. However the FP article was based upon Black Wind, White Snow The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism by Charles Clover, the former Moscow bureau chief for the Financial Times. Looks interesting - if anybody has read either one, a review would be appreciated - plan on Clover's book being next but still reading Lawrence in Arabia - I think Brett will finish it ahead of me....

"The Foundations of Geopolitics" sold out in four editions, and continues to be assigned as a textbook at the General Staff Academy and other military universities in Russia. “There has probably not been another book published in Russia during the post-communist period which has exerted a comparable influence on Russian military, police, and statist foreign policy elites,” writes historian John Dunlop, a Hoover Institution specialist on the Russian right.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/27...m-manifest-destiny-putin/?wp_login_redirect=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Wind-White-Snow-Nationalism/dp/0300120702

 

[Recovering LSO]

Pretty good book so far. Author draws upon A LOT of original source documents, diaries, meeting notes, etc. Fairly balanced look from multiple sides of the "relationship." Not a short or quick read by any stretch, but so far so good.

 

[hooflys]

Postwar by Tony Judt is proving a solid read. Maybe a good fit between Max Hastings' Inferno and RLSO's latest rec.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Seeing as today is October 25th.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Seeing as today is October 25th.

View attachment 16396

One of the 2 biggest "what ifs" - at least to me - of Japanese tactical decisions in the war. What if Kurita's Center Force had pressed home the attack? 4 Battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers could not break through a screen of destroyers and destroyer escorts? (Had a talk with my uncle a few months ago about his service on a DE - fascinating to listen to)

One of the interesting parts of the battle.

Heavy cruiser Suzuya, which had also engaged the carriers, received fatal damage from the air, ironically without suffering any direct hits. Early in the battle Suzuya was attacked by ten Avengers from Taffy 3. One of the TBMs, armed with a HE bomb, near-missed close astern to port, carrying away one of Suzuya's propellers, reducing her maximum speed to 20 knots. At 10:50, she was attacked by 30 more carrier aircraft. Another near-miss by a bomb, this time starboard amidships, set off the Long Lance torpedoes loaded in one of her starboard tube mounts. The fires started by this explosion soon propagated to other torpedoes nearby and beyond, the subsequent explosions damaging one of the boilers and the starboard engine rooms. Abandon Ship was ordered at 11:50; none too soon, as the fires set off the remaining torpedoes and her main magazines just ten minutes later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte_Gulf#Battle_off_Samar_.2825_October.29

 

[Pags]

Long lance torpedoes were very effective ship killers; both of US ships and of IJN ships due to battle damage as described above.

Leyte Gulf is such a disaster of a naval battle and there's so many fascinating twists and turns. It SHOULD have been an overwhelming crushing of the IJN but USN tried numerous times to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The Center Force should have been sunk by air attack in the Sibuyan Sea. Or if not there then as they exited San Bernardino strait by TF 34. Halsey should have recalled McCain's TG earlier.

 

[danpass]

Who had that book which outlined there is no such thing as an 'ideal' body?

Perhaps it was an Air Force study.

It dealt with the flaw of creating the perfect cockpit that would suit 'every' pilot without needing any adjustment.


.

 

[squorch2]

Who had that book which outlined there is no such thing as an 'ideal' body?

Perhaps it was an Air Force study.

It dealt with the flaw of creating the perfect cockpit that would suit 'every' pilot without needing any adjustment.


.

99% Invisible did an episode on it: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/on-average/

 

[Recovering LSO]

Who had that book which outlined there is no such thing as an 'ideal' body?

Perhaps it was an Air Force study.

It dealt with the flaw of creating the perfect cockpit that would suit 'every' pilot without needing any adjustment.


.

https://www.thestar.com/news/insigh...ir-force-discovered-the-flaw-of-averages.html

I think it was Hair Warrior that posted it.

 

[danpass]

Anyone have a lead to a comprehensive chones history book? Perhaps even with a 51% bend toward military history?

Something that might even cover the last 10 years?

Same for Russia please lol.


Thanks

.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Anyone have a lead to a comprehensive chones history book? Perhaps even with a 51% bend toward military history?

Something that might even cover the last 10 years?

Same for Russia please lol.


Thanks

.

Was that supposed to say Chinese?

 

[danpass]

Damn weird samsung autocorrect lol

Yep, Chinese.

 

[Recovering LSO]

Dead Wake, The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson. I'm about 100 pages into it so far and it's really good.



An interesting factoid: Elbert Hubbard, the guy who wrote A Message to Garcia, died when the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat.

From Wikipedia:

In a letter to Elbert Hubbard II dated March 12, 1916, Ernest C. Cowper, a survivor of this event, wrote:

"I cannot say specifically where your father and Mrs. Hubbard were when the torpedoes hit, but I can tell you just what happened after that. They emerged from their room, which was on the port side of the vessel, and came on to the boat-deck.

Neither appeared perturbed in the least. Your father and Mrs. Hubbard linked arms—the fashion in which they always walked the deck—and stood apparently wondering what to do. I passed him with a baby which I was taking to a lifeboat when he said, 'Well, Jack, they have got us. They are a damn sight worse than I ever thought they were.'

They did not move very far away from where they originally stood. As I moved to the other side of the ship, in preparation for a jump when the right moment came, I called to him, 'What are you going to do?' and he just shook his head, while Mrs. Hubbard smiled and said, 'There does not seem to be anything to do.'

The expression seemed to produce action on the part of your father, for then he did one of the most dramatic things I ever saw done. He simply turned with Mrs. Hubbard and entered a room on the top deck, the door of which was open, and closed it behind him.

It was apparent that his idea was that they should die together, and not risk being parted on going into the water."

So much for initiative

 

[Recovering LSO]

Cross post from Presidential Election thread:

I read this a few years ago. It was really interesting to go back and read the nitty, gritty, and often ugly details. I was but a wide-eyed ENS trying to get through primary, and didn't pay much attention beyond the headlines. Absentee (eh hem, military) ballots can become quite the political hot potato and it was interesting to read that, at varying times during the recount debacle, each candidate wanted them disallowed (in Florida).