The Distinction Between Theory and Practice Writ Large

CDR Salamander pointed this video out, so full credit to him, but it's too important not to put up here, too:

LTG McMasters expresses a large amount of hard-won knowledge. Falling in love with theory instead of dealing with reality is a path to ruination.

For a further look at this, you might want to listen to our Midrats show about the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan: Listen to "Episode 607: The NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan - Hopes & Lessons" on Spreaker.

Department of Old Ideas Revisited: Airship Aircraft - er- Drone Carriers?

Seems like every now and then the "airship" (read as "blimp" or "dirigible") idea gets dusted off and someone proposes a great new use for them - as reported in this Aviation Week article proposing their use as "drone carriers" - Airship Carriers Could Extend Smaller UAS Capabilities :

The capability of small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) continues to increase, as payloads become even smaller yet more powerful. But these aircraft have one disadvantage—range. “With the ranges we are looking at in the Pacific Theater, how do we get our small UAS to the fight?” asked DARPA Deputy Director Steve Walker at a recent conference in Washington.

DARPA’s answer is its Gremlins program, which seeks to develop a means of using existing large aircraft, transports or bombers, to launch and recover swarms of small UAS that would then cooperate to perform missions in contested airspace.

Another concept, presented by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and ArcXeon at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aviation 2016 conference in Washington in June, is the AirStation, an airship that acts as an airborne carrier for UAS. In addition to military missions, the developers say the concept could support commercial package delivery operations.

I've blogged about the "Gremlin" program before at Gremlins? Really? Retrievable and Reuseable UAVs to Add to Air Mission Packages

The comments to the article are very much worth reading.

The above-referenced conference presentation, "Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) “AirStation” - Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Carrier Concept," is here.

I think we've seen this movie before:


Some ideas just never seem to get old - planes carrying planes:

Pacific War Prep? Howland, Baker and Jarvis Islands Before WWII

Now a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuge

Howland was discovered soon after 1800 AD during the whaling era. Artifacts found indicate that there may have been early Polynesian visitation. Howland was claimed for the United States under the Guano Act of 1856 by Alfred G. Benson and Charles H. Judd in 1857. A total of 85,000 to 100,000 tons of guano was removed from Howland. After guano mining had stopped, there was not a lot of visitation until 1935 during the Colonizing Era, when military personnel and Kamehameha Schools graduates were stationed on Howland Island, Baker Island, and Jarvis Island to colonize them so the United States could maintain control and establish them as territories. In 1937, a runway was built and prepped for Amelia Earhart so she could use Howland Island as a refueling station on her quest to circumnavigate the globe. Unfortunately, she and navigator Fred J. Noonan never made it. They were last seen July 1, 1937 when they took off from New Guinea.

The colonization project continued until January 1942 after the Japanese attacked Pearl

Harbor and several American territories, including Howland, Baker, and Jarvis. On December 8, 1941 Howland was bombed and 2 colonists were killed. Attacks also took place on December 10th and then on January 5th and 24th, 1942. Colonists on Howland and Baker Islands were not rescued until January 31, 1942 and the last colonists were not evacuated from Jarvis and Enderbury until February 9, 1942. The project and the group of young men that were assigned to these expeditions became known as the Hui Panala’au.

Howland Island was named a National Wildlife Refuge in 1974. Before then there were only a few research expeditions between the conclusion of WWII and then. In 2000, US Fish and Wildlife Service began conducting studies on board NOAA vessels. In 2002 they were scheduled to occur every 2 years.

More here:

A Japanese air attack on December 8, 1941 by 14 twin-engined Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" bombers of Chitose Kōkūtai, from Kwajalein islands, killed two of the Kamehameha School colonists: Richard "Dicky" Kanani Whaley, and Joseph Kealoha Keliʻhananui. The raid came one day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and damaged the three airstrips of Kamakaiwi Field. Two days later a Japanese submarine shelled what was left of the colony's few buildings into ruins.[18] A single bomber returned twice during the following weeks and dropped more bombs on the rubble of tiny Itascatown. The two survivors were finally evacuated by the USS Helm a U.S. Navy destroyer on January 31, 1942. Howland was occupied by a battalion of the United States Marine Corps in September 1943 and known as Howland Naval Air Station until May 1944.

All attempts at habitation were abandoned after 1944. Colonization projects on the other four islands were also disrupted by the war and ended at this time.[19] No aircraft is known to have ever landed there, although anchorages nearby could be used by float planes and flying boats during World War II. For example, on July 10, 1944, a U.S. Navy Martin PBM-3-D Mariner flying boat (BuNo 48199), piloted by William Hines, had an engine fire and made a forced landing in the ocean offshore of Howland. Hines beached the aircraft and although it burned, the crew escaped unharmed, was rescued by the USCGC Balsam (the same ship that later took Unit 92 to Gardner Island), transferred to a sub chaser and taken to Canton Island.[20]

Interesting film about the experience of the "colonists":Film history:

On March 20, 1935, six young Kamehameha Schools graduates sailed from Honolulu Harbor aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Itasca for destinations unknown. Carefully recruited for their physical and mental fitness, they believed they would be collecting specimens for Bishop Museum.

Instead, they found themselves on remote desert islands in the middle of the Pacific, living for months at a time in total isolation. The ability of these young Hawaiian men, as "Americans," to survive would eventually enable President Roosevelt to claim jurisdiction over the islands of Jarvis, Baker, and Howland.

"Under A Jarvis Moon" was screened at Marks Garage to a standing-room only crowd in early January. It was later shown at the Atherton Halau Bishop Museum to more than 300 people.

A tribute to her grandfather George, Noelle Kahanu's discovery in the archives of the Bishop Museum of a story long forgotten is renewed in this film.

Things to Read and Listen To

Private maritime security companies: Lt. Kurt Albaugh's discussion of how private companies fill a need in counter-piracy with some more discussion at LCDR Claude Berube's “The Evolution of Privateers to PCASPs”

A little naval history about a "disruptive thinker" in a series by LCDR B. J. Armstrong: A Junior Officer and a Discovery", The Gritty Truth of Junior Leader Innovation and Expertise, Voice, Grit and Listening . . . a Look at the Possible.

A little discussion of "disruptive thinkers" on the latest Midrats episode Episode 127: Disruption, Disfunction & Leadership. Which may or may not play into a discussion of a military "generation gap" at Jeannette Haynie's "The Military Generation Gap (or 'What's Wrong with These Fools?"), with reading the comments highly recommended because there is a real discussion there, which, after all is one of the goals of the USNI.

Missing from all this is some of the chat room discussion from the Midrat's show linked above, which included suggestions that some (all?) of the older generation of military leaders retire or otherwise get out of the way to make room for the new. Such suggestions are, as you might guess, usually made by the younger crowd. I might have even made the same suggestions when I was a young ensign . . .

About a zillion years ago, when I was somewhat younger myself, there was this Bob Dylan song that also raised a similar argument, The Times They Are A-Changin':

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’

Change "mothers and fathers" to "generals and admirals" and, well, there is an anthem there for someone to seize on.

I would note, however, before the crowd runs amok and demands gray haired heads on pikes, that Halsey, Nimitz, Mitscher, Spruance, Eisenhower, MacArthur, King, Leahy, Patton, and Marshall were all in their 50's or older in 1941 when the U.S. got into WWII. Omar Bradley was "only" 48 when at the start of U.S. involvement.

So, yeah, there is always going to be a "generation gap" but the seems to me that the key is not to toss off the old just because of some arbitrary age thing.

UPDATE: Oh, got caught in something else and forgot to mention that you should be looking over at Information Dissemination for a slew of great guest posts put there as part of ID's 5th anniversary - all great reads.

Monday Reading

Fred Fry has Maritime Monday 101 up at gCaptain with a look at Saga Forest Carriers and lots more for the nautically inclined.

Xformed has Monday Maritime Matters 36 up with a look at Admiral Paul Foster and the ship that bore his name.

The science of washboard roads

Up in the area where we vacation, a couple of dirt roads form part of the boundaries of the property. Last time we were there, I commented on the "washboard road" and we had some discussion about what makes the washboarding appear. Now, a couple of scientists have a theory, which can be found at Road Bumps: Why dirt roads develop a washboard surface.

Cool.

Elvis's Memory

I must confess I was not an Elvis fan in my youth and still remain an Elvis agnostic, amusing myself by wondering who will start the "First Church of Elvis" (Elvis Heals!), but Spook86 does a nice job in making me want to revisit some of the early music in his piece Last Train to Memphis.