Grok summarizes the debate on X.
.@SecDef @PeteHegseth on doing PT with the troops: "When I can get down, do pushups and deadlifts with the troops, and just hear from them — What's working? What isn't? How do you see your mission set? — I love that." pic.twitter.com/UAt4NZLiPP
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 11, 2025
Posts
68 comments:
It's really no different than Hillary Clinton landing under fire in Bosnia.
Maybe he just wanted to show off his new tattoos ...
My son is an ODA leader in another SF group. My wife and I spoke with him yesterday while he is deployed (encrypted app for that). He and his team are thrilled with Hegseth and the new administration because they believe that their assignments will be much more meaningful and respected, as well as not being wasted on the trivial crap that Austin et al. were pushing.
Fort Bragg is back being Ft Bragg!
https://x.com/DeptofDefense/status/1889119616200302676
Corrupt left: Hoping for more war and more money laundering.
What a change from Lloyd Austin. Competence and esprit de corps.
Jupiter - that was a complete fabrication.
Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley wouldn't last 5 minutes. Prove me wrong.
There's a debate? Does anyone think Hegseth was "wrong" to do this?
Now SecDef Hegseth needs to launch a program to keep the A-10 flying. For some reason, known only to God, the AF wants to retire it by 2030. It’s the Infantryman’s best friend. All the guys I served with want to keep it.
I will not imagine Tulsi Gabbard PTing in shorts and a tank-top during site visits.
I will not imagine Tulsi Gabbard PTing in shorts and a tank-top during site visits.
I will not imagine Tulsi Gabbard PTing in shorts and a tank-top during site visits.
Doofus Austin could barely climb stairs. Milley looks more like doughnut than a general. This is a good change.
The left hasn't found a judge to issue an injunction to keep him from doing that?
I will not imagine Tulsi Gabbard PTing in shorts and a tank-top during site visits.
Hahahaha....you beat me to it.
- Krumhorn
btw- Fox news is actual news these days.
The corrupt democrat party outlets - SUCK.
I think Jupiter knows, Peachy!
Good for us. However, he is not the first. Mark Esper, SecDef in the first Trump administration also did this:
https://x.com/EsperDoD/status/1220353348722970625
Now SecDef Hegseth needs to launch a program to keep the A-10 flying. For some reason, known only to God, the AF wants to retire it by 2030. It’s the Infantryman’s best friend. All the guys I served with want to keep it
True dat! The AF loves itself some 'fast movers' - the faster, the better. Where's the glamour and elan associated with blowing up shit on the ground, up-close-and-personal? Very few "Aces" celebrated for taking out five trucks or tanks or gun positions.
Not just an AF thing, though. Army Pride sometimes says, "We don't need no steenking Air Force help." See Gen Tommy Franks' belief that Apaches could do it all (the article at the link isn't the half of that fuck-up).
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2003/apr/22/20030422-095945-3289r/
The A-10 is the ideal platform for survivable, close air support of soldiers and civilians on the ground.
In the USAAF fighter pilots could claim aircraft destroyed on the ground as kills. What ground attack lacked in glamor, it made up in danger.
@Gilbert Pinfold: This is why we voted for Trump. Most important reason. Thank you for posting. You made my day.
Big Warthog fan here. I think there's a movement to refurbish keep as many as possible, even though that means pilots who have to fly by stick. But it would be better if a company (attention Harry Bolz!) could tool up and make a new production run of them. New lighter materials for the chassis and remake the body with laminated Kevlar -- would be awesome. Grumman merged with Northrop but they could handle it.
~ Gordon Pasha said...
Fort Bragg is back being Ft Bragg!
But that's just half the story! It's not Ft. Braxton Bragg, it's now Ft. Roland L Bragg. Roland Bragg was a WWII Paratrooper who was awarded the Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry. Try and change it now you Democrat fucks! Bravo Pete!
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
“Big Warthog fan here. I think there's a movement to refurbish keep as many as possible, even though that means pilots who have to fly by stick.”
I guess flying by stick must be the pilot version of being able to write cursive.
As a kid, I wanted to be an A-10 pilot when I grew up. Once I started wearing glasses that scuttled that idea.
WWII general at the front with his troops - Gen. Maurice Rose. Spearheaders (Third Armored Division) were devoted to him. My dad was one of them.
Maurice Rose was one of a few American generals KIA in WWII, and Jewish.
I've always loved the A-10, but its time is coming to an end. I also love the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabre. They were great planes in their day, but no more. The A-10 has been improved over the years, but in essence, it's still a 1970s design. Six of them were lost in the 1991 Gulf War, and they're even more vulnerable today. The Air Force also has a serious pilot shortage. Put those highly skilled pilots in planes that are survivable, especially if we're thinking of a shooting war with an adversary with serious air defense capabilities.
The "close" in Close Air Support (CAS) refers to ordinance being dropped on targets near friendly forces. In the early days of CAS, that required flying the planes very near their targets. It's dangerous work and a lot of planes were shot down. Today, precision munitions can drop weapons very close to friendly troops without having to run such high risk of being shot down. A Small Diameter Bomb can be released from 30,000 feet 50 miles from the target and impact within meters of the aiming point. Over Iran and Afghanistan, a high percentage of all bombs dropped for CAS were from B-52s and B-1s.
Things change fast with troops in contact. Hard to notice from 30,000 feet and 50 miles away - IF you had the right info to start with. "Eyes-On" is a pretty neat concept when the enemy is meters away from friendlies. Close encounters will always expose combatants to losses. War is hell.
{option}{shift}{-} makes an em dash — Just sayin'
"Maurice Rose was one of a few American generals KIA in WWII, and Jewish."
And his getting killed could be considered dereliction of duty because he and several of the divisional staff were virtually "riding point" when they were attack by a scratch unit of Waffen-SS panzers and panzergrenadiers defending the Paderborn area. General Rose probably had no knowledge of the significance of to the SS (it was the location of Schloss Wewelsburg, Himmler's Vatican) and the likelihood of their vicious resistance to any intrusion -- all the more reason to keep the CO to the rear. As it developed, Rose's decision left the 3rd Armored Division in a state of chaos in the face the enemy. Had he managed to evade the Germans and escaped, Rose might have been fired or kicked upstairs by Bradley to a staff assignment at Twenty-first Army Group HQ. Heroics by field commanders are usually frowned upon.
That workout with the Green Berets leads me to wonder. Is Hegseth that ripped that he can keep up with the Army's most elite soldiers? Or has the greatly reduced fitness and strength requirements instituted to justify women in combat, degraded the statue of the Special Forces to the level of middle-aged yet conscientious Planet Fitness member?
Today, precision munitions can drop weapons very close to friendly troops without having to run such high risk of being shot down. A Small Diameter Bomb can be released from 30,000 feet 50 miles from the target and impact within meters of the aiming point. Over Iran and Afghanistan, a high percentage of all bombs dropped for CAS were from B-52s and B-1s.
That works great if you have air supremacy. B-52's can't hang around like kids tossing snowballs off a highway overpass if there are enemy fighters or SAMs. A-10's can't really, either, but at least they can defend themselves with Sidewinders and have a lot more armor for the pilot.
status
I'd like the keep the A-10 around just to hear it fly. It's so badass.
On a side note, it blows the Blogger isn't playing nice with the Brave browser. That and you can no longer reply to a comment. Or is it just me?
Being able to see the battlefield with the Mark 1 eyeball gives CAS pilot certain advantages.
Trump and Musk now in the Oval Office discussing the importance of the DOGE work. Musk is laying it down.
Musk is killin it!
It's a little wrong in that the training is about taking orders and team spirit and Defense Secretary is about strategy. One in some large number transitions from one to the other. Hey I'm just a grunt like you guys isn't the right message.
A Star Spangled Patriot!
We're lucky to have him leading the troops.
...That and you can no longer reply to a comment. Or is it just me?
Nope. I miss reply feature, too. Hard to 'discuss' a point of interest if comments on same are scattered all over, sometimes hours apart.
I think, maybe the Hostess sees 'reply' as 'hi-jacking' the thread. This is possibly verboten :-)
LEADERS LEAD FROM THE FRONT!!!! Excellent!
When did media news become a profit center?
Did you mean when did media news _became_ a profit center
Google loses track of verb conjugtion
Hey I'm just a grunt like you guys isn't the right message.
That isn’t the message. The message is “I was once a grunt like you guys and I know and appreciate what you do. Also, I can still do a bazillion pushups.”
Yeah--just one of the boys. And that's important, because it shows that he doesn't have pride striped underwear, and knows that there are just two genders. It's like most of the wokery in the Pentagon has been or will be flushed down the old porcelain bowl. I call this a good start.
The message conveyed to the troops by the previous administration was: "You are a bunch of religious fanatics and white supremacists, all too many of you have testicles, and we will not hesitate to throw your worthless lives away to paper over a rough spot in the news cycle." This is an improvement.
Nice running buddy!
https://x.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1889280813709025643/photo/1
Male sex, masculine gender, and a natural discernment of their complement in the female sex and feminine gender, and a transgender spectrum of Diverse... diverse classes and stability. A well-conceived improvement over evolutionary creationism brayed by mortal gods and goddesses in the progressive liberal sects.
"Is Hegseth that ripped that he can keep up with the Army's most elite soldiers?" Just because he's young and the new DefSec doesn't mean he has to be in that kind of condition. I would hope he's budgeting his time differently. Everybody knows that he's making a statement on his type of leadership - and everybody knows that part of this statement is the photo op. And no reasonable person is expecting him to go through the full-sweat workout as a photo op.
Sorry: Can't delete to correct the italics. No trash can.
All you have to do is this. See?
I am also a fan of the A-10. As for this above: New lighter materials for the chassis and remake the body with laminated Kevlar -- would be awesome. Grumman merged with Northrop but they could handle it. I imagine doing this with the P-51, with a NASA designed propeller.
However, for close in air support, the Ukrainians are showing the rest of the word the future. Massive numbers of cheap drones.
Being on a battlefield with hundreds or thousands of cheap drones is going to be very dangerous. Autonomous drones with body recognition that swoop down on any body within a defined geographic zone- so a nogo zone for your own troops. Unless a verry good IFF system can be designed. Problem with that- the other side's drones seeing the IFF signal coming from a body- and they go after anyone with a radio signal, since that sides soldiers are EM silent- no electronics emissions at all...
Drone and anti-drone warfare is the future. Cheap and deadly.
("this" means type in a 'close italics code' or two)
"I think, maybe the Hostess sees 'reply' as 'hi-jacking' the thread. This is possibly verboten"
She had a whole post about the virtues of chronological order. I think it's an improvement, because if I come back to a thread an hour later, I don't want to have to go to the top in order to see the replies. Now if you want to reply, just indicate what you're replying to, like NKP @3:39pm.
Don't tell me you are for responsible defense spending if you want to keep the A-10 in service because it sounds cool.
The Prof has 'splained her position on the Reply issue, and while I can take it either way it's her call and I can adapt.
Per Quaestor's comment on Maurice Rose. It's entirely possible that he might have been kicked upstairs had he survived that fatal encounter, given that Bradley was not shy about sacking or removing underlings.
OTOH, I don't think he had much to say about Courtney Hodges's hurried bugout from Spa at the beginning of the Bulge battle, leaving parts of his HQ behind.
Bradley probably didn't want to call too much attention to his own mistakes in the Ardennes.
But it's all speculation and whatifferry.
Aggie said...
Sorry: Can't delete to correct the italics. No trash can.
2/11/25, 5:51 PM
Use Chrome browser for Althouse, delete function works.
The future of warfare is hypersonic, Terminator, Sino-Fauci pandemic, grooming, feminism, and Planned Parenthood progress.
mindnumbrobot said...
"I'd like the keep the A-10 around just to hear it fly. It's so badass."
Just to hear the sound of the gun.
To the Airforce it's a shit plane. But to the guys on the ground it's a flying autocannon.
"The best weapon is the one you have right now"
At least we know where *this* Secretary of Defense is.
Rusty said...
mindnumbrobot said...
"I'd like the keep the A-10 around just to hear it fly. It's so badass."
Just to hear the sound of the gun.
To the Airforce it's a shit plane. But to the guys on the ground it's a flying autocannon.
"The best weapon is the one you have right now"
Hate to break your heart but every upgrade to the A-10 is to make the cannon irrelevant. It is planned to be used to launch the same stand-off weapons as the F-16 and F-35. If the A-10 gets close enough to fire the 30MM, it is close enough to be shot down by air defenses.
Hegseth believes morale and recruitment are the keys to reverse a decline in US military strength, first above procurement and "systems."
No wonder official Washington doesn't approve of Hegseth's appointment.
The a10 needs to become a robot AI airplane. A winged minister of mindless death to enemies. Paint it black with the red highlights and stars and little rescue arrows. But all you would rescue is a box of nvidia chips.
Josephbleau said...
“The a10 needs to become a robot AI airplane.”
So Wingblade from Transformers.
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