Matterhorn is a great read
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What are you reading?
- Thread starter Recovering LSO
- Start date
Another summer reading list/compilation From The Green Notebook.
Resurrecting this thread to put a plug in for More Than a Uniform which I feel should be required reading for all Naval Officers. It is the story of one of the very first WAVES and her journey through being one of the first female officers in the Navy. Amazing and it puts in to perspective with what the first women in the Navy dealt, from not being taken seriously to having to build entire programs and careers from scratch. I wish more, and especially people from task force uniform, would read this book.
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Gents,
Reading this book, One Bullet Away by Nathaniel "Nat" Fick, I found out that officers of MOS 0302 in USMC may have some arrogance to aviation matters. Is that, thus, true that no officer grunts, once achieved 0302, can later change their MOS to 75xx? In the Navy, as I see, roughly a quarter of 1110s after their tour on a carrier, are tending to enter 13xx world by applying to elementary flying, and to see the Navy officer who is wearing his Wings in up breast position over the humble SWO badge is not unheard of (wonder is it possible to see otherwise just once). Can the 0302 Marine officer change his mind in favor of 75xx and how could it be appreciated by his Grunt brethren?
Again, from this book I know that Marine infantry guys believe in their field artillery rather than Marine Air, as guns can hit the targets when CAS airplanes cannot - say, during the sand storm. But sand storms are quite rare events in a few kinds of landscape, so is that wise to generally prefer gunnery practice over the proper Air?
And the last - US Marines are not so few but very proud, no doubts. And they laugh at Navy, while they are Naval service, too. Here in Russia, the ethos of Army Airborne Infantry (so-called "blue berets") is most coinciding with the US Marine Semper Fi one ("if you'd survive blue berets' training cource, then you'll survive your own death" - media is supporting this image for a long time: if you want to see the Russian variant of John Rambo, or Russian analogue of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, or alike, you will inevitably see the Blue Beret dude, active or retired. "If our blue berets are peacekeepers, then peace is normal state of the Hell" ), but they never divide themselves from Army as a whole and are quite kindly in respect of airlift units of Air Force, who have the task to provide them with platforms for airdrops. Why US Marines behave so brutally, being depending from Navy so deeply?
Thanks.
Reading this book, One Bullet Away by Nathaniel "Nat" Fick, I found out that officers of MOS 0302 in USMC may have some arrogance to aviation matters. Is that, thus, true that no officer grunts, once achieved 0302, can later change their MOS to 75xx? In the Navy, as I see, roughly a quarter of 1110s after their tour on a carrier, are tending to enter 13xx world by applying to elementary flying, and to see the Navy officer who is wearing his Wings in up breast position over the humble SWO badge is not unheard of (wonder is it possible to see otherwise just once). Can the 0302 Marine officer change his mind in favor of 75xx and how could it be appreciated by his Grunt brethren?
Again, from this book I know that Marine infantry guys believe in their field artillery rather than Marine Air, as guns can hit the targets when CAS airplanes cannot - say, during the sand storm. But sand storms are quite rare events in a few kinds of landscape, so is that wise to generally prefer gunnery practice over the proper Air?
And the last - US Marines are not so few but very proud, no doubts. And they laugh at Navy, while they are Naval service, too. Here in Russia, the ethos of Army Airborne Infantry (so-called "blue berets") is most coinciding with the US Marine Semper Fi one ("if you'd survive blue berets' training cource, then you'll survive your own death" - media is supporting this image for a long time: if you want to see the Russian variant of John Rambo, or Russian analogue of Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, or alike, you will inevitably see the Blue Beret dude, active or retired. "If our blue berets are peacekeepers, then peace is normal state of the Hell" ), but they never divide themselves from Army as a whole and are quite kindly in respect of airlift units of Air Force, who have the task to provide them with platforms for airdrops. Why US Marines behave so brutally, being depending from Navy so deeply?
Thanks.
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Why did he prefer artillery? Artillery is available more often and is often more responsive. It's also just one guys opinion, and these days a dust storm will have the same impact on artillery as on fixed wing CAS.
Can 0302's transition to pilots? Yes, but there are only a few spots a year and they are allocated to all ground MOS's, so it's not very common but also not unheard of.
Why are grunts assholes? Making fun of the Navy might be the oldest Marine tradition. Infantry may be the best example of Marine Corps pride, warranted or not.
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Ok, thanks a lot. Maybe you are right, that gunnery love is just a personal opinion. Though, he was quite derisive about A-10 and F-15E performance, presumably making fun from USAF, too.
I should say, if average Russian military officer will dig into US Navy/USMC personnel practice, he will envy, period. Here if you're grunt once - you will be grunt, no matter what you do want. Pilot will be pilot, WSO will be WSO till retirement. What boots you took on at the age 17, so be it - no other boots exist. You cannot change your MOS/designator actually. There are special cases, but they just confirm general rules.
Well, thanks again. By the way, Fick had quit as a Marine Captain, became "reluctant warrior", according to his words, when he understood that whatever he does, he cannot defend his Marines on the field - someone will inevitably shot at and die. Quite unusual feelings for grunt officer, isn't it?
Acknowledging that there's a good chance some of his marines will be wounded or killed no matter what he does seems pretty realistic
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Yes but it made him get out of Corps. Seems to be pretty emotional reaction for true grunt, though. But maybe he was right - given his good classics degree and commissioning in USMC via OCS, it can be taken as proper example of citizen-soldier's behavior. It happens from time to time when an officer is playing grunt but is not grunt within, at least for what I know about grunts generally.
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
A good read with a few nice expository passages about equipment and aircraft, along with some interesting personal narrative.
Nice book indeed. The first confirmed success of USN carrier-borne torpedo-bombers armed with torpedoes in almost two years from the Friday, 13th Nov 1942 - a single hit in IJNS Hiyo. In this book Mr. Tillman stated that this was a sequence of the poor quality of Mk13 torpedo and resulting untrusting in that weapon - that is why in this Turkey Shoot Battle just about two dozens of Avengers had carried torpedoes as a main weapon only. In more recent books about Midway I have read that it was rather unproper choice of the height and speed of the drop of this topredo - too low and slow, at the margin of the Douglas TBD Devastator's abilities (100 ft, 80 knots). Grumman TBF Avenger was much more powerful aircraft and the answer to Mk13 problems was to drop it being higher and faster. But the fixation on the torpedo itself prevented USN ATUs from experimenting with drop profiles. At least, it seems to be fair.
Max the Mad Russian
Hands off Ukraine! Feet too
Well, I was wrong. Truk raids in Feb 1944 had marked several Mk13s hit Japanese DDs and AKAs - three to five. Generally, hitting the sleek destroyer as sea with torpedo of max speed 33.6 knots took enormous skills as well as luck. Sometimes, erraneous torpedo was able to find its home by itself, as have been shown in this report of VT-10 squadron (attached) - the same beginning of 1944; thus, it is reasonably to suspest that half a year later, off Philippines, it was the drop approach greatly improved rather than torpedoes themselves.
Mk13s torps were a disaster earl yin the war (as were Mk14s). Once the Mk13s were improved, they became a successful weapon system. Engineering improvements to the Mk13 resulted in an increase of "hot, straight, normal runs" from 31% to 100%. Drop envelopes were also opened to allow drops from much higher altitudes and speeds. Check the link below for more Mk13 nerdery:
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTUS_WWII.php