Centerfield

I live for open threads.

It's April 6th. I live in the Dallas area. It might snow tomorrow. I blame global warming.

I'm going home tonight to rig up what will likely be a futile attempt to protect my poor vegetable garden. After that, I'm going to drink beer and watch Key Largo. :-)

Ooooo, I like that movie.

Very cold here in NYC with a little snow not sticking. Yep, global warming. I'm going to cuddle up with my better half and watch The Good Shepard. Anyone notice the last two South Parks? Gees a Snuke to Peter rabbit. Tommy Thompson joins the fray as Obama matches Clinton's war chest. Mets looking okay.....Yankess doing better than Giuliani in the NY press.

I'm sure everyone noticed our handing back an Iranian BEFORE the Brits were freed. I sense alot going on with the media sleeping as usual. I wonder what new story they will hatch. Anyone predict the story line for next week?

Tully,
Since you are a decent historian and handy with guns, perhaps you can comment on this. First, how were rifles a factor in Custer's defeat? After Viet Nam and some negative reviews about the M16, does this new situation sound old?

Happy Tartan Day!

We're not partcularly Scottish by ethnicity, but we like Scottish
music and country dancing. We went to a shindig at the TX Capitol.

And then out to see some cool WWII planes (a B17, a B24, and a B25).

Speaking of global warming, this just in. Yes, it smacks of some politics and I await the full report. Seems China, Saudi Arabia and the US questioned the "consensus".

Last Sunday there was a Scottish run around Central Park. I had to run wide of the pack. No one seemed to be drinking scotch!!

Wings of Freedom looks cool. Did you take a flight?
I promised some friends I would join them in sky diving this summer.

Anyone hear from Bobby lately?

Bobby's doing OK as of last week but is very very busy, for reasons that should be obvious.

The M16 and incarnations have been accused of various problems throughout their service life. It's a pretty decent assault rifle, but it is close to a forty-year old design and the state of the art has not held still. The story sounds old mostly because I remember the gripes from the original intro. I know nothing about the M4 mod. If you want an assault rifle that will work despite massive abuse and poor care, get an AK-47. Which is a fifty-year-old-plus design....

Sounds to me like the specops folks want the newest and shiniest goodies, which is normal and understandable. And that the military doesn't want to spend a lot of money on non-standardized high-cost equipment that is NOT parts-interchangable with their current stock of millions of M16 variants, which is also normal and understandable.

The biggest factors in Custer's defeat were that the Indians were as well armed as Custer's troops, there were a HELL of a lot more of them than Custer's troops, and Custer was a LOUSY tactician and a bullheaded fool with an ego somewhat larger than Alaska. Ego may lead one to attempt the seemingly impossible, but it's a poor substitute for actually having enough force in the first place and not using what you have stupidly.

Tully,
Wasn't it true that the Indians bought repeating rifles from white arms traders while the government refused to field any rifle they did not hold the patent on? Didn't the government hide this fact for years after Custer was defeated by better weapons (and better tactics)? Repeating rifles v bolt action doesn't seem a fair battle. Sorry if I got this historical fact wrong. When I visited miltary blogs where soldiers talk about today's rifles, they rave a bit about the HK v US alternatives. Again, this debate reminded me of the Custer-falling-to-repeaters version I mentioned above. The ego part I had read about.

Yes, it is obvious why Bobby hasn't been around. I was just wondering if he's okay. Thanks for the update.

P.S. I hope you follow up on the global warming report with an analysis here. You can tell more visitors here (v SF) would probably support the summary which is quite confusing when you read it closely. If you squint, it looks quite alarming, yes?

Happy Easter everyone.........

Some of the Indians had repeaters, but most did not. Some had only knives and bows. The 7th had revolvers and single-shot Springfields. But Custer's company got caught in a depression that did not allow direct fire on the advancing Indian forces but did allow long-distance arrow barrages, they were outnumbered at least three to one and probably more, and Custer had declined the offer of a Gatling company because he thought they would just slow him down. Heh. If he lacked firepower, it was his own fault.

Reno and Benteen were lucky to salvage their own forces. Custer thought they were taking on a force of a few hundred braves with their force of 600. The real number may have been 2000 or more. Custer not only declined the Gatlings, he declined two additional cavalry companies as being excessive and unnecessary. He ignored his own scouts when they reported back the size of the forces he faced, and then split and separated his own forces to execute a game plan designed for a much smaller enemy. Onward, ho, to glory! Double heh.

Custer was a glory hound and a brave one, but an incompetent commander who charged in recklessly despite the odds--and that was not something that developed just then, it was a hallmark of his entire service career. He was a disaster waiting to happen.

P.S. on Custer Out gunned?

Got it. I posted the above just before your reply appeared. Same commercial? Others put quite a spin on the Springfields. The reason Custer had only Springfields? I suppose attacking on horseback along with Winchesters didn't matter as much as arrows and depression. You made a case for arrows!

Actually, smart arrows would be a cool tool. Gas plus movable fins. Kind of Rambo, but smarter. Shots around corners. Now there's a new action figure played by.....an American Indian!

Not sure that the Gatlings would have corrected the mistakes that appear characteristic of Custer's career. Properly deployed, they proabably made Winchesters unnecessary as well as the calvary. Duly noted. Thanks.

Arrows are extremely effective when you can't get a direct line-of-sight, but know where the enemy is and can get in range. Being used to rifles we think of them as one-on-one sniping-type weapons today, but in history they're more barrage weapons. Like mortars.

Can any of you history buffs recommend a couple of military history works? I recently finished A Bright Shining Lie. I have The Best and the Brightest on my bookshelf waiting but wouldn't mind a special ops or weapons book before I jump back into Vietnam.

Key Largo was just as good as I remembered and I have three other Bogart-Bacall flicks to look forward to as the better half got me a box set of Bogart-Bacall DVDs.

Tonight, Blades of Glory is on tap I think.

Currently drinking Ardbeg 10 year and if you like Islay malts, this is a good one. Very smoky and peaty, it pretty much demands to be sampled in the winter I've decided. Which is excellent for today since it's 36 degrees outside.

If you want to save your plants make a tent of plastic sheeting or any other material such as a sheet. Or take some large plastic garbage cans and put them over the plant beds.

Build some tealight heaters and place them in the tent.

What you do is take a rock or some rocks and place a couple of tealight candles on them. Then invert a large flower pot and place it over the candles, making sure you have some air flow. This gives you get a large surface area from which heat radiates.
All you need to do is warm things up a few degrees. The pot prevents any contact with flammable material. I used a couple of bricks to hold things up and then put the flower pot on top.

A variation is to put some spacers on top of said pot and put another pot on top.
This creates a nice amount of convection flow for air.

REI has those 8 hour candles and they work nicely.

I have an outdoor faucet that's on a post and when there's a long freeze the pipe breaks.
This year I put a plastic garbage can over it with a heater as described. No broken pipe.

Won't work here, Marcus. I live in the plains. Average wind speed is over 12 mph. By the time you finish getting past that with plastic sheeting, framing, and ground anchors, you've built an actual greenhouse--one that will still shred in a good blow. Hopefully the flames would blow out before the inevitable gust-collapse set the sheeting on fire....

LOL, my sister tried something like that one winter on the Cape where gusts did ignite the plastic. What a melted mess......

Max: unfortunately, I didn't feel rich enough to put up the few hundreds to ride. They charge $10/adult (less for kids) to crawl over the planes. Which is pretty cool, really. Leave your backback in the car, because the crawlspaces by the bombs are tight. There were some little boys there, too, quivering with excitement. And some people who'd been involved with flying in machines like the ones on the field.

Oh, and Churchill grumbled that the rates of fire from longbowmen weren't exceeded until the invention of the machine gun (well, really the Colt), saying it made you wonder why British armies ever went from arrows to muskets. The answer, of course, is the much shorter training regimen. But the Indians spent plenty of time training. The Plains Indians had a real kind of military superiority over Americans until Mr. Colt. Texans still love Colt.

Though, US cavalry carried 7-shooters, so that mismatch shouldn't've been so bad. I think we have to look at Custer's stupidity here. He lost the most men of any officer of comparable rank in the Civil War.

Scotch: I'm a Churchill binger. I got that bit from his History of the English Speaking People. Right now I'm working on his 6-volume WWII history. But his histories are utterly vast 4-6-volume things. Do make sure you like his style before buying an entire series. And stay away from his books about Victorian-era events. He hadn't learned how to write well yet. Only the bits about trains are remotely digestible(!). Downside: your luggage WILL get noticeably heavier.

And don't get the two different Winston Churchills confused! The American novelist and artist of that period is NOT the British PM and history-writer!

The two met and corresponded, BTW. And the American served as a state legislator for a time. But Sir Winston the Prime Minister only ever wrote one novel in his life, and the American only ever wrote one non-fiction book.

About the only way to read Sir Winston is to binge. Otherwise you end up going back and re-reading just to catch up.

Jon,
You're right, though I might have charged it anway. Think of the fun $500 would cover in Negril. I guess the low passenger capacity and insurance drives the flight price up on those bombers.

I see your new thread up top and it has always amazed me that in theory high density should be cheaper. I just finished renovating a 700 sq, ft. studio on 57th St. The owner could probably get $600,000 given the nice building. Holy crap. The average two-bedroom house in Westchester costs about the same. Real Estate value is higher in the city. That is one reason. In addition, the steel, mechanicals, labor, insurance, general repair costs, etc. are also higher in NYC than in suburbia. Were you talking straight material cost comparisons or why an apartment in the city is more than a nice house in suburbia?

I did a bit more reading and Tully is right as usual. Despite any difference in rifles, a smart general would never have allowed such a tactical failure to occur given the availability of gatlings. Hell, where was the “general” oversight? I sense an arrogance and disregard for the abilities of his adversary. The British had alot of respect for the Indians prowess. I'm curious. From WW1 to the present, what were the one or two greatest military blunders US generals made in tactics? I don't mean simply the greatest losses, just scenarios similar to Custer where the outcome should never have happened. (I'm adressing this to Tully as well)

Anyway, you guys have a good weeks start.

Tully,
On the thread at SF I linked to sciencegogo where one “Canuck” went at it with one “DA Morgan” elaborating on the smoking analogy. In fact, his numerous retorts reminded me of you. LOL In many ways, that thread of comments sums up the public debate at the moment. Canuck's question was never answered. Yes, "probabilites" and "concern" is not "proof".

Great way to start the week. For all the Iranian defenders out there in the West, just imagine the clock if Iran is DOING MORE production at the many secret facilities the West has not been allowed to inspect AND OTHER SITES ONLY SUSPECTED TO EXIST (there is a difference between the two). And what is the connection between, Brit sailors captured and realeased, Sadr calling on Iraqis to kill Americans, and this news above? Want to bet Democrats continue on the political attack and have little comment? Let's see what the world says by the end of the week. Estimates now say Iran would have enough material for a bomb in a year once their claims actually begin, but as I said, this does not take into account, secret programs, materials and foreign help.

I recall that A bright Shining Lie was a real eye-opening read. It was quite an account of blind hubris in leadership. I was especially taken by the idea that much of failure then could be attributed to the willful dismissal of the importance of the local culture. Especially on two counts...1)that Vietnam had a very long history of coming together nationalistically to beat back invading and occupying forces 2) the culture accepted corruption as a very normal part of the political culture...politics was about power. The Vietnamese didn't have the luxury of complaining and opposing (what we'd like to view as) dishonorable government. They had to go along to get along, knew that naive true believers in a new governmnet full of promise tended to get crushed when the next hammer fell, and so they were quite accepting of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Another interesting take from a somewhat different perspective is Frank Herbert's Soldier which I believe is out of print but WELL worth finding. Herbert's story? A decorated and celebrated Korean war vet (sent on glamor tours by the army for his heroism)who got educated and became an army officer. Herbert went to Vietnam and found that the quick rotations and high number of "ticket punchers" in the officer corps made mounting an effective fighting force very difficult. When he got his own group to command, he had to invent a new accounting category, "ass in the grass,' to distinguish guys classified as in combat from those who were actually fighting.

He was very successful as a commander, but was booted out of the army when he chose to pursue the exposure of war crimes, IIRC a village slaughter of some type.

I'm very interested to hear what other folks with more military knowledge think of Sheehan's and Herbert's books. I had little choice but to take them largely at face value aside from my normal grain of salt.

I'd be interested as well. Sheehan's book seemed incredibly well researched and documented. I went in with little understanding of the history of Vietnam and came out of it feeling like I could possibly carry on a conversation about it now.

I'll check out Soldier if I can get a copy somewhere. I know Harvest Books has out of prints a lot.

Herbert wrote the short story called "Committee of the Whole", I've often referenced here. I think it was only five or six pages long, but carried alot of weight. Your info is interesting. I have to check Wiki again. I think I know a SCI FI nut where I can get a copy of Soldier.

Our relationship with France had a bit of why we ended up in Viet Nam. The more I consider things, the more I think Eiesenhower played a bigger role than recognized in how history has turned out. Didn't he approve Iran's first reactor which can theoretically churn our plutonium?

Oops! My bad. Brain fart. Not Frank Herbert the sci-fi writer. It's Anthony Herbert. It's non-fiction [at least so the author claims :-) ]I got my copy of soldier from an amazon used book re-seller.

Looks like there is now a new edition back in print, but you can find the old edition used for $% plus shipping.

I originally read it as a library book. Word to the wise, if you do read it. You may find the beginning is a bit slow, covering childhood, early years, training, etc. Either stick with it or skip forward.