#Naval Helicopter Historical Society

[nelc]

<strong>US Army tilt wing helicopter NHHS Photo <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/">by SDASM Archives</a></strong> <br /><i>Via Flickr:</i> <br />Title: US Army tilt wing helicopter NHHS Photo

Catalog #: 13_000005 NHHS #: None Subject: US Army tilt wing helicopter Format: BW Glossy Photo Type: NHHS Photo Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive

[usnatarchives]

Petty Officer Second Class David S. Ferriero with shipmate and fellow Corpsman Jim Maloney in Subic Bay, PI, 1970. Photo courtesy of the Archivist of the United States.

The Archivist holds his dog tag from the Vietnam War. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

The brave Archivist literally went out on a ledge for this memorable photo op by Brendan Smialowski for the NYT.

Beverly, Massachusetts, birthplace of the American Navy (Courtesy Beverly Historical Society).

Ken Yuszkus for the Salem News

HAPPY NAVY DAY!*

In celebration of Navy Day, we honor our #1 Navy vet, Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. As Archivist, he’s spoken openly and proudly of his military service, created the National Archives’ first-ever Vietnam exhibit, and continues to campaign for recognition of his hometown of Beverly, MA, as the rightful birthplace of the US Navy. To the Archivist and all other veterans, we say thank you and are forever grateful for your service.  

The Archivist served in Vietnam on the hospital ship USS Sanctuary and told Washington Post reporter Mike Ruane what his work entailed:

At night, after Navy corpsman David Ferriero finished his clerical duties aboard the hospital ship off Vietnam, he would volunteer to help triage the wounded being helicoptered from the battlefield...Some had been shot. Others were missing limbs. Some needed treatment right away. Others were dead when they arrived.

The Archivist credits such experience for his calm when dealing with frantic Archives employees:

When people come to me with a problem, thinking the sky is falling, my first question is always, “Is there a life at stake here?” That is a perspective I got from working in triage in Vietnam (from Historynet interview).

The Archivist explained why a Vietnam War exhibit was important to him, to the National Archives, and to the country: 

Ferriero said he wanted the institution to mount a Vietnam exhibit in part because so many of the war's issues remain sensitive and unresolved. In a long career that took him to big jobs at major universities and libraries, ``no one--no one--wanted to talk about it,'' he said. `No one asked me any questions,'' he said. ``No one acknowledged it.... Never was it the topic of   conversation.''

[The Archives has] incredible material in the records — photographs and all of the military records, the unit records. We have a lot of stuff...And for me it was important to tell the story from both sides. WPost interview.

More online:

AOTUS blog: Remembering Vietnam Exhibit Entered into Congressional Record

AOTUS blog: Hometown Rivalries Debate the Birthplace of the U.S. Navy

Washington Post feature: At National Archives, the boss, a Vietnam vet, orders up an exhibit on the war

Historynet interview : David Ferriero, Vietnam Vet Who Is Now Our National Archivist

New York Times feature: Collector in Chief Hoards Nation’s Irreplaceable Stuff

Salem News: National archivist keeps the birthplace controversy alive.

Naval and Marine Records at the National Archives

Remembering Vietnam: Online Exhibit

Three cheers for the US Navy!

Gif from here.

*This post is by Miriam Kleiman of the Public Affairs office, who apologizes for the delay and blames the pandemic for her temporal perception loss.

[kny111]

Apocalyptic novelist Max Brooks is something of an expert on planning for pandemics and other disasters. The author, whose books include World War Z, Germ Warfare and the forthcoming Devolution, has toured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has reviewed government response plans related to various emergency situations — all in the course of research.

"We have a network in place that we as taxpayers have been funding to get us ready for something just like this," Brooks says of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, he adds, "we have been disastrously slow and disorganized from Day 1."

Brooks says the notion that the U.S. government was blindsided by the pandemic is "an onion of layered lies."

"What could have happened when this virus exploded — even when Wuhan was locked down — is we could have put the word out," he says. "The government could have put the word out to ramp up emergency supplies to get them ready and then have an information strategy in place."

Instead, Brooks says, President Trump was slow to acknowledge the virus as a real threat. And thus far, the president has resisted using the Defense Production Act to force private companies to manufacture masks, gloves and other essential supplies in the fight against the coronavirus. Many government task forces that plan for disasters have yet to be activated in this crisis.

White House Not Using Defense Powers To Boost Medical Supplies

"One of the biggest problems we're facing now is panic. You see it in the stock market. You see it in panic buying," he says. "All of this panic could have been prevented. ... If the president had been working since January to get the organs of government ready for this, we as citizens could have been calmed down knowing that the people that we trust to protect us are doing that."

Interview highlights

On the task forces that plan for situations like this

Max Brooks has researched disaster preparedness for his novels and has lectured on the subject at the U.S. Naval War College. He has also been a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His new book, Devolution, will be published May 2020. Michelle Kholos/Penguin Random House

I can tell you that the federal government has multiple layers of disaster preparedness who are always training, always planning, always preparing, regardless of how much their budget gets cut. I have toured the CDC, and I've seen all their plans. I have witnessed what was called a "vibrant response." This is the homeland nuclear attack scenario, which was a coordination of FEMA, the Army, the National Guard, state and local officials, all working together in a massive war game to prepare us for a nuke. I have also witnessed what was called a "hurricane rehearsal of concept drill," where not only did the same players come in, but also bringing in our allies from Canada and Mexico. So I have seen that we have countless dedicated professionals who think about this constantly and they're ready to go. And they have not been activated.

On why these task forces haven't been activated yet

There is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

This all has to come from the federal government. This is why we have big government. Politically, you can argue about the role of big government in everyday society, but this is not every day. This is an emergency. The entire reason that we have these networks is when the bells start ringing — and they have not been activated. I don't know. I'm not sitting in the White House. I don't know whether the president is being lied to, whether he is holding onto a political ideology. I honestly don't know. But there is no excuse not to mobilize the full forces of the federal government right now and to centralize the response.

On how the Defense Production Act works when mobilized properly

What is supposed to happen is the federal government has to activate the Defense Production Act immediately. Now, what Defense Production Act does is it allows the federal government to step in and aggressively force the private sector to produce what we need. And what is so critical in this is timing. Because you can't simply build factories from scratch; what you can do is identify a supply chain in order to make it work.

Novelist Max Brooks On Doomsday, Dyslexia And Growing Up With Hollywood Parents

For example, if New York needs rubber gloves, New York cannot simply build rubber glove factories overnight. However, there might be a rubber glove factory in Ohio that could produce it, but they might not have the latex. So therefore, the Defense Production Act allows the federal government to go to the condom factory in Missouri and say, "Listen, you have barrels of latex we need. We are requisitioning those. We are giving them to the rubber glove factory in Ohio. And then we are transporting the finished rubber gloves to New York." That's how it is supposed to work.

On how Trump warns about nationalizing private industry — but that's not how it works

President Trump is spinning some sort of tale about, I don't know, the federal government — black helicopters coming in and taking over factories. That's not how it works at all. What happens is the federal government has the network to identify where the production chain is and how to help the private sector work through this, because the private sector doesn't know.

And as an example, I have a World War II rifle made by the Smith Corona typewriter company. Smith Corona worked with the federal government to then partner up with the Winchester company, to then share resources and to share tools and talent to then produce the rifles that we needed. That's how it works. It's not some sort of KGB coming in and taking over everything. It is guidance and streamlining. And only the federal government has the experience to know how to do that.

On what the U.S. military would do in a pandemic

I can tell you that the military has a vast transportation network here in the United States that is ready to go. We don't have to put truck drivers or private individuals at risk, because the military is already trained to do this. And I've watched them do this. The military spent years working out the legal framework of how to transport goods from one place to another around this country, because it's not like Afghanistan, where the army builds a road and then they own the road. The army has had to go through a tremendous amount of training and adaptation to work within state and local governments to make sure everything is done legally and safe without infringing on our rights. And they have done this. The Army's logistics corps can deliver anything that we need anywhere in this country within a matter of hours or days.

When it comes to sheer massive might, getting stuff done, getting stuff produced and getting stuff moved from Point A to Point B, there is no greater organ in the world than the United States military. We did it in World War II. We've done it all over the world. We can do this now. This is the thing the military is good at, and we need to let them do that.

On how the pandemic is revealing flaws in our social structure

I think there are massive gaps in our systems that are being exposed right now, which, by the way, this is not news to the experts. Anybody who works in these fields could have told you years ago that we were vulnerable to this. It's going to rip through our prisons. It's going to rip through our homeless population. God willing, it doesn't rip through our nursing homes. But what no one is talking about, what terrifies me, what keeps me up at night are the secondary casualties that will occur because of hospital overflow. What I mean is we're only talking about now how many people are going to die if the coronavirus really rips through our country. What is not being talked about enough or what needs to be talked about are the people who are still going to die of cancer, of accidents, of other diseases, because they simply can't get into the hospitals because the hospitals are choked with coronavirus patients.

On how we share some of the blame for this mismanagement as voters in a democracy

In China, every single death will be laid directly at the feet of the Chinese Communist Party. They have all the power; therefore, they take all the responsibility. When we look back at this, we — all of us individual citizens — are going to have to take a measure of personal responsibility, because we are the government. If we don't like our leaders, we shouldn't have put them there. And as much as we would love to blame this historically incompetent captain of our ship of state, we have allowed the ship to rust underneath us. It's not just President Trump's fault that institutions like the CDC have been defunded for years. It's not just President Trump's fault that we have allowed anti-vaxxers to spread misinformation throughout this country. It's not just President Trump's fault that we are continuing to build a society in support of a tech world that is based on comfort and not on resilience. We as voters and we as taxpayers must accept our share of the blame.

There is a massive amount of blame that will be laid at the feet of Donald Trump and his enablers. And when this is all over, when the dead are buried and the sick are healed, there will be a reckoning. But there were systemic issues way before Donald Trump. When Donald Trump was a carnival barker on a reality show, we as a people, as a nation, were dismantling the systems that were put in place to keep us safe. And we need to look at that damage, because the one thing we don't want to do is assume that when Donald Trump goes away, that the problems will go with him.

On the difference between panic and preparation

Panic never helps. Panic implies that you lose your mind, and that in a war — even a war against a microscopic enemy — gives aid and comfort to the enemy. When you panic, you don't think rationally, and in times of crisis, rational thought is the greatest weapon you could possibly have. So preparing, No. 1, means clearing your mind and thinking about what you have to do. It means making a list of what you need to buy, prioritizing what needs to come first, thinking about how you're going to take care of the people around you. That is preparing. Panicking is freaking out and getting in a fistfight in the grocery store over bottled water when you don't even need the water, when the tap is already running. That's panic.

I think right now we have to be so careful about who we listen to, because panic can spread much faster than a virus. And I think in addition to social distancing, we have to practice good fact hygiene. What I mean is we have to be careful what we listen to, what we take in — just as if it were a virus. And we have to be careful also what we put back out, as if we were spreading the virus. So we cannot pass along rumors. We cannot pass along misinformation. We must be critically careful not to scare people into doing irrational and dangerous things. So we need to listen to experts, the CDC, Dr. Fauci [director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases], the World Health Organization, our local public health officials. These are the front-line soldiers that are doing everything to keep us safe and are literally putting their lives on the line. These are the people we need to listen to. What we cannot listen to is random facts on the Internet supposedly, things that people are passing along to us, conspiracy theories. And I'm very sorry to say this, but I think that everything our president says at this point must be fact-checked.

[epochxp]

Aerial Wargaming Part 3, The Miniatures!

Maidstone Wargames Society 

I didn’t think I was going to do a part 3 to this series. But here we are. For those wishing to game out aerial wargaming in miniature, you have a bit to choose from. I won’t be doing the larger scales (1/100 and larger) because, at that point, you’re building models. 

In the smaller scales, they have a lot going for them. First off, you can put a lot on the table, especially at 1/600, but even at 1/300.  Look at this combat box of B-17s, right?

There’s a lot out there, and I hope we can scratch the surface and show you some things to get you interested in one of the fun aspects of the hobby!

1/600

1/600 scale B-24 and FW-190 | Tumbling Dice website 

There are two main manufacturers of 1/600 scale aircraft, Tumbling Dice, who has been producing models for years, to very high quality, and affordable at that. I really like their discounted sets that allow you to cheaply build both sides of a given engagement. The discount packs cover everything, from WW I Barrage Balloons to aircraft for the Falklands and the Gulf War. If you want to simulate a conflict, they have the means to do so. And at $20.00 a pack (not including shipping) for anywhere between 32 to 48 aircraft, it’s not a bad deal. Postage isn’t too bad, being a flat rate of $5.56, plus 10% of the order value. You can also order the aircraft individually, at 4 to 6 aircraft a pack. Again, you get a lot for a little, and the sculpting quality is top-notch. There are even $20.00 Squadron packs for B-17s, B-24s, Lancasters, and B-29s, 18 for everything except the B-29s, where it’s only nine aircraft a pack, but for those bomber swarms of World War II? It’s not a bad deal either. They also have rules and flight bases for sale as well. All in all, not too shabby. And, their naval and land ranges make nice target markers for games as well.

Another entry into the 1/600 field is Pico Armor, whose detail is downright incredible. A bunch of us have been marveling at it for the armor, but the aircraft is nice as well. Here’s a side-by-side of two F-4s from Tumbling Dice and Pico Armor.

The Pico Armor (right) and the Tumbling Dice (left) |  SexTwentyEight Blog 

I can recommend the review of both lines at the sixtwentyeight blog, and Pico’s offerings are superior to the long-standing offerings of Tumbling Dice. 

French Nieuport 17 by Pico Armor | Pico Armor Site 

Pico’s sculpts are clean, and you get six to eight aircraft in a pack for $4.25, and Pico Armor is the importer for the Oddzial Osmy (08) line of miniatures sculpted in Poland. I must say, having ordered some of their 15mm line, I was impressed with the quality of the figures if a bit concerned about the hardness of the metal. It does make working with the figures a touch difficult, but as you can see, not overly so.

Decals are a bit tough to come by in this scale, sadly. Dom’s Decals, who were the go-to for 1/600, has gone away. The best plan going forward is Flight Deck Decals, which has more than a few choices in 1/600 scale for you to choose from! (They also do 1/300)

1/285 and 1/300

1/300 B-24 painted up for the Ploesti Raid, model by Raiden/I-94 Enterprises | A Gamer’s Tales Blog 

There’s a lot to offer in 1/285-1/300 scale aircraft in both plastic and metal. We’ll just be calling it 1/300 collectively for now, and we won’t be hitting EVERYTHING, but I want to, at the very least, cover the big producers and some interesting places to look as well.

First up, we have I-94 Enterprises. They bought the Raiden line of aircraft miniatures and are redoing the molds. And may I say, as someone who owns a lot of their aircraft, I am impressed with the quality of the sculpts. 

Some early war USN SBDs and Wildcats by Raiden Miniatures. | Chris Geisert

Raiden’s line covers both World War II and modern conflicts. Sorry, no World War I, but I-94 has the old Goblintooth line, which does cover World War I. I can’t speak for those planes, but the rest of the line is just stunning in the quality of the aircraft. Planes typically run $3.00 each, and you can get Battle Sets for Check Your Six for around $100, which is a bit pricy sounding but consider you get 20 or so aircraft, flight stands, and decals. Not a bad deal if you ask me. I-94 also does a nice line of decals of which I can attest to, as I am a repeat customer. 

The next entry into the 1/300 field is MSD Games. 

B-10 Martin bomber | MSD Games

MSD has been around for a while and markets their aircraft line under the “Luftwaffe 1946” label, which in addition to historical aircraft, you can find all the Wunderwaffen that never left German or Japanese drawing boards towards the end of the war and do some nice “what-if games.” They even have a set of rules to cover it, as well as various historical periods for World War I and World War II. 

I have more than a few MSD models, and they run about the same price as Raiden, or $3.00 for most planes, with exceptions for larger aircraft. The sculpting is a bit less crisp than Raiden, but you can get two aircraft in one pack. Even if they aren’t any cheaper, you do have to remember to buy fewer packs. And, they have some of the lesser-known World War II air forces covered better, such as France and the Netherlands.

The store has its own decal line, called Blue Sky Decals, which I haven’t tried yet, but I will at some point, and probably what may be one of the largest remaining stock of Dom’s Decals to be found. Be advised; it’s not much. 

Another line to be found in the UK is Scotia/Grendel’s Collectair Line. 

FW-200 Condor, Model by Scotia Grendel | DakkaDakka Forum

Scotia-Grendel is a massive line. It covers, well, everything. And it’s widely available here in the US (through I-94) and the UK, with costs comparable to Raiden and MSD. I have only seen the aircraft in pictures, but the sculpting is comparable to MSD. I can’t say too much more about it than that as I don’t own any myself.

Another option, though limited, is plastic. Trumpeter has a line of 1/350 scale aircraft carriers and, well, makes packs of planes to go with them. 

F/A-18 Hornet kit from Trumpeter | HobbyLinc 

I happen to have a pack of A-6s and A-7s and two assembled SU-27s. I’m eager to get more, but the darn things are rarer than hen’s teeth, even if they are only $9.99 for six aircraft, which makes them a really cheap option for anyone’s air force. 

Finally, there’s 3-D Printing. A fellow by the name of Captain Ahab gives out a number of STL files for a number of aircraft in 6mm at Wargaming 3D. They’re sized in 15mm, but you can easily resize them with most slicing programs. I haven’t printed any out yet, but I think the models would look great in resin! What makes it great is you get planes like the PBY-4 Privateer, or the SB2C Helldiver, neither of which is a very easy-to-find aircraft in 1/300! 

F-100 Super Saber | Wargaming 3D

I didn’t get to all the models today, but I got to more than a few. The main thing is to see this as a starting point. If you want to do the miniatures end of air wargaming, these are the places to begin. A little more research can find even more aircraft, but they might be pricier as they weren’t intended to be much more to denote airstrikes for a micro-armor game. That said, they still might surprise you, especially if you’re looking for helicopters.

As always, Good gaming, everyone!

--

At Epoch Xperience, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch Xperience’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[sinrau]

When historians of the future look back on Donald Trump ’s presidency, they may well mark June 1st, 2020 as “a date that will live in infamy”.

That phrase was etched into the nation’s collective consciousness nearly eight decades ago by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he addressed Congress in the wake of Japan’s December 7, 1941 sneak attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

By attacking the US fleet, Japan made clear that the geopolitical tensions which had strained its relationship with the United States during the preceding decade had reached breaking point. And if anyone in either country thought the smoking hulks and dead American servicemen strewn about Pearl Harbor were open to interpretation, the formal declaration of war signed that day made Tokyo’s intentions clear: America was now Japan’s enemy, and Japan and its allies were bent on America’s destruction.

Like December 7, 1941, Americans will remember the first day of June 2020 as the date of a sneak attack against their countrymen, but while that 78-year-old atrocity was perpetrated by a foreign government, this one came from within.

That afternoon, as hundreds of Americans protested peacefully outside the gates of the mansion that has been home to Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, its current occupant was plotting.

That man, Donald Trump, was incensed by media reports which revealed how he’d reacted to the appearance of a few hundred demonstrators outside the White House gates on Friday.

They came from all over the Washington, DC area to protest the police brutality and systematic inequality symbolised by the late George Floyd, a Minneapolis, Minnesota man killed by police officers just one week ago.

As they massed outside the “people’s house,” they chanted Floyd’s last words, uttered as he gasped for breath as a white police officer’s knee pressed on his neck: “I can’t breathe”.

And how did Donald Trump react? He retreated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the Second World War-era bunker installed under the White House’s East Wing to protect FDR against a potential Luftwaffe bomber attack. Later expanded and hardened to protect presidents against nuclear explosions, it’s where then-Vice President Dick Cheney took refuge in 2001, as hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Center and smashed a hole in the Pentagon.

Though he initially praised Secret Service officers for exhibiting restraint against the “professionally managed so-called ‘protesters’ at the White House,” administration officials said Trump later became upset at how the news of his retreat to the White House bunker made him look weak. And so he responded with what he thinks of as strength.

As he prepared to deliver remarks in the White House Rose Garden just three days later, a phalanx of shield-bearing federal police, joined by line after line of officers on horseback, suddenly opened fire on those peaceful protesters, clearing them from Lafayette Park with tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and other “less than lethal” munitions.

Not even members of the press were safe, as one Australian broadcasting crew found out when an officer began shoving and striking a videographer with a shield.

The reason for the sneak attack? After Trump finished his Rose Garden speech, in which he threatened to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem” of mass protesters unless the nation’s governors use National Guard forces to “dominate the streets,” he wanted to be photographed as he walked across the street to a historic church, Saint John’s Episcopal, which had been the scene of unrest the previous night.

Trump holds up bible outside Washington church

And with the smell of tear gas still hanging in the air, Trump stood outside the empty building, known as the “Church of Presidents,” and held up an upside-down bible for the cameras.

Earlier that day, Trump had hosted governors on a conference call, during which he scolded them for being “weak” by allowing the demonstrations to persist. And as night fell, helicopters with US Army markings flew low over protesters, using their rotor wash to drive them away while shattering glass and snapping tree limbs in the process.

It’s a flying manoeuvre known as a “show of force,” but one pilot I spoke to — an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran — said it’s a technique they learn for use against enemy insurgents overseas, not Americans protesting on the streets of Washington.

Dr Bandy Lee, a Yale University Medical School psychiatrist who studies violence, said the militaristic attack on protesters and the press — which occurred on Trump’s orders — reflected how he feels about most Americans.

“He probably views most of the American people as his enemy now, because of all the criticism, because of his falling polls, and because of the result of his own mishandling of the pandemic increasingly pressing in,” she said. “It’s not a reality he can easily subvert with his own fantasy thinking.”

Lee said the increasingly violent response on the part of police as they’ve put down protests across the country is the result of officers taking their cues from Trump.

“We have a president who is making violence symbolically acceptable … by anticipating that once the looting starts, the shooting will start, by labeling protesters as thugs, and by threatening vicious dogs and ominous weapons if protestors ever came close,” she explained. “These are all trigger signals for police brutality, and it would be actually be surprising if it didn’t happen.”

Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer who now works as a police detective in Georgia, said he did not want to directly blame Trump for the actions taken against journalists by police officers across the country, but told me the president “certainly bears responsibility for it” because his rhetoric “doesn’t help”.

“I don’t know if I blame Trump for this, but he’s certainly not stepping up to the occasion,” he added.

But Skinner did take issue with the view, popular in some police circles, that Trump has “taken the shackles” off law enforcement by rolling back Obama-era reforms.

Asked whether Trump’s rhetoric has given police permission to be more violent than they might have been otherwise, Skinner replied: “Yes.”

“Is it a silent dog whistle? I don’t want to get into all that, but I believe that anyone in a position of leadership needs to not just not tolerate that stuff but actually be affirmative, to speak out against excesses,” he said. “But he’s not speaking out against excesses, he’s objecting to the reaction to the excesses.”

Skinner posited that some of the wanton violence against protesters and the press can be attributed to a mentality among police that they are soldiers in a “war on crime”.

“They’re not wearing a uniform … so they have to be on the other side — everything stems from that,” he said. “Obviously the riots are a failure in society, but the reaction that we have all these military tools and that we want to use them? It’s funny that our response to people complaining about overwhelming force is to use overwhelming force. That’s bats**t crazy.”

Skinner maintained that Trump still bears some responsibility because his word carries weight with law enforcement: “He’s the President of the United States, and so millions and millions of people are going to listen to that, and certainly some people who are in the police department are going to listen to that. It’s irresponsible and it’s a dereliction of duty.”

Dr Peter Moskos, an ex-Baltimore City police officer who chairs the department of law, police science, and criminal justice administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said some of the police reaction to the protests and officers’ affinity for the president is a reflection of a solidly blue-collar, conservative culture which pervades law enforcement, but said Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened the bad actors among them.

“In a way, Trump is their id, and he does normalize bad behavior,” Moskos said. “Before, they might have had to keep things quiet because they knew they weren’t supposed to say certain things because they’d get in trouble, but now they don’t give a s**t.”

“Speech — bad speech and hate speech — has consequences. That’s become a much easier argument for me to make since Trump has become president,” he added. “Of course it influences some people, but it doesn’t have to influence all of them. That’s what makes it dangerous.”

I asked police, veterans and a former CIA agent what they think of Trump’s response to the protests. Even they are horrified #web #website #copied #to read# #highlight #link #news #read

[forktruck65-blog]

Abandoned Navy Hangar Prepares For Final Battle

The Mustin Field Seaplane Hangar opened in 1943 and was designed by German structural engineer Anton Tedesco, the father of thin-shell concrete construction in America. | Photo: Michael Bixler

If you have ever taken Kitty Hawk Avenue at the Navy Yard all the way to its end chances are you’ve encountered what remains of Mustin Field. Today the Naval village that once surrounded the military aircraft factory is nothing but gates and wind-swept earth. The network of manufacturing buildings dating back to WWI has been dissolved. The abandoned Naval barracks and officer’s swimming pool are all gone too. The runway, which once saw thousands of war planes take first flight during WWII, is now a graveyard of dead rail lines, cracked asphalt, and packed dirt. But there is one structure left and it emerges from the barren expanse like the sun-bleached vertebrate of a tremendous sea creature from the Mesozoic Era. Building 653, better know as the Mustin Field Seaplane Hangar, cuts through the empty landscape like a mammoth drill bit with its undulating concrete dome. Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PhilaPort) is currently conducting environmental studies on the proposed demolition of the 302-foot long hangar, built in 1943 and designed by groundbreaking structural engineer Anton Tedesko, the father of thin-shell concrete construction in America.

The old hangar is considered a contributing structure within the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Historic District and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. PhilaPort and PennDOT are in the initial stages of conducting a cultural resources evaluation of the building with consultation from the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office. The Navy Yard is abundant with Georgian Revival mansions, stately former officer’s quarters, and adaptable industrial gems most brilliantly displayed by Urban Outfitter’s 2010 transformation of a block of late 19th century machine shops into a contemporary corporate campus. But nothing is left of Mustin Field save for Tedesco’s Seaplane Hangar and an adjacent electric substation. Clearing the area for a potential Amazon HQ bid win may be a slick, timely assumption, but officials maintain that the area is being prepped for more imported car parking coming in from Hyundai and Kia. One PhilaPort employee remarked that a team of excavators would be no match for the burly concrete coil and that it would take dynamite, lots of dynamite, to put the building down.

On the production floor inside the Seaplane Hangar some time between 1943 and 1945. | Images courtesy of PhilaPort

Structural engineers rarely get their due and are almost always eclipsed by the egos and acolytes of architects. August Komendant was a longtime collaborator of Louis Kahn and the go-to engineer for the Philadelphia School. His work in Philadelphia is best experienced at the Police Administration Building, built between 1959 and 1962 and designed by Geddes, Brecher, Qualls & Cunningham. Nicknamed “The Roundhouse,” the Brutalist masterpiece is one of the first buildings in the U.S. to use a precast concrete panel system, called Schokbeton, that completely integrated the building’s structural and mechanical systems. Komendant is often discussed in academic and architectural circles, but usually plays a small, backseat role when evaluating the importance of a building.

Anton Tedesco, the engineer that designed the Seaplane Hangar, was a defining figure in reinforced concrete innovation, yet his legacy remains largely unsung. Tedesco took his first job in Germany with Dyckerhoff & Widmann, the firm that pioneered thin-shell reinforced concrete construction, made famous for their work developing the Zeiss Dywidag System in the early 1920s for Carl Zeiss Company planetariums and their steel and concrete cupola domes. In the 1950s Buckmeister Fuller would retool the innovative system into his signature geodesic dome.

Tedesco revolutionized long-span roof construction when he brought his thin-shell concrete expertise to the United States in 1932. Over the next 18 years the structural engineer designed over 60 concrete shell roofing systems and structures for industrial and governmental projects. He worked as a consultant for the Air Force from 1955 to 1970 and even collaborated with Modernist architect I.M. Pei. Along with a bevy of airplane hangers across the country–North Island Seaplane Hangars in San Diego and Ellsworth AFB Pride Aircraft Hangar in South Dakota to name just a few–Tedesco designed the St. Louis International Airport Terminal, the Denver Coliseum, the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, Hersheypark Arena, and the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan that was demolished in 1997.

The Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society opened the doors to their new Ardmore rink, designed by Anton Tedesco, in 1938. | Photos: Michael Bixler

Tedesco also designed the Philadelphia Skating Club & Humane Society at 220 Holland Avenue in Ardmore. The club, founded in 1849 as The Skater’s Club of the City and County of Philadelphia, was the first skating club in America. The PSCHS cruised around frozen ponds, lakes, and rivers throughout the Philadelphia region. Activities centered around the Schuylkill River and they used a clubhouse in Fairmount Park as their headquarters. The club moved operations to the Philadelphia Ice Palace at 45th and Market in 1910. They opened the doors of their new rink on the Main Line in 1938 after buying land from Haverford College.

The Henry C. Mustin Naval Aircraft Factory ceased operations due to pressure from private manufacturers in 1945, just three years after the Seaplane Hangar opened. It was next used by the Navy as a aviation testing facility until 1963, then a gymnasium, then as a commissary store until the Navy Yard officially closed in 1995.

In 2009, director M. Night Shyamalan filmed the interior shots for his epic box office flop, The Last Airbender, underneath the sprawling, concrete dome.

The Seaplane Hangar was last used during the Philadelphia papal visit in 2015. According to a PhilaPort employee, Pope Francis was helicoptered into the Navy Yard next to the hangar where he was greeted by the Popemobile and a small army of FBI agents that had mobilized their security detail within.

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Step inside the cavernous concrete coil of the Mustin Field Seaplane Hangar. Photographs by Michael Bixler.

About the author

Michael Bixler is a writer, photographer, and managing editor of Hidden City Daily. He is a former arts and entertainment reporter with Mountain Xpress weekly in Asheville, North Carolina and a native of South Carolina. Bixler has a keen interest in adaptive reuse, underappreciated architecture, contemporary literature and art, and forward-thinking dialogue about people and place. Follow him on Instagram

Source: https://hiddencityphila.org/2018/09/abandoned-navy-hangar-prepares-for-final-battle/

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Alessio Patalano on Japan’s Growing Naval Power

The Diplomat’s Franz-Stefan Gady talks to Dr. Alessio Patalano, 1 of the world’s leading gurus on Japanese naval energy and the Japan Maritime Self Protection Drive (JMSDF). Dr. Patalano is a reader in War Research in the Division of War Reports at King’s College in London and director of the Asian Security & Warfare Exploration Team. He has printed greatly on Japanese naval historical past, technique, and contemporary maritime problems in East Asia. Notably, he is the author of the book Publish-war Japan as a Sea Electricity, in which he analyzes the imperial legacy and the role of Japan’s defeat in Environment War II in shaping today’s JMSDF.

In this interview with The Diplomat, Patalano talks about the future trajectory of Japanese naval energy, shifting procurement priorities in the JMSDF, and the altering strategic maritime landscape in Asia.

The Diplomat: What would make the JMSDF diverse from other regional navies?

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In 3 words: heritage, legacy, and working experience. The Japanese navy is exclusive in East Asia in that it is the only skilled naval firm with a record courting again to the 19th century. Then, the Imperial Japanese navy turned a symbol of traditions and modernity, the final gauge of the increase of Japan as a modern day state. These types of a heritage matters for the reason that it informs esprit de corps, it reminds associates of the business why their career issues, and it alerts to other folks the uncompromising criteria of professionalism. These types of a heritage life on in the JMSDF, from the grounds of the academy to the curricula of the staff members higher education from ship names to procedures on board.

If heritage issues to determine the soul of a navy, legacy is what ensures that professional standards evolve to keep on being pertinent. The significant fight history of the Imperial navy made available the JMSDF invaluable uncooked components around the many years to critique assumptions, concepts, and the specifications for success. From a profound appreciation of ASW missions, to the purpose of sea-lanes defense in Japanese technique as they came to be understood early in the publish-1945 period, the legacy of the Imperial navy ensured that the JMSDF could master from earlier blunders and successes to fashion its possess specialist specifications.

This previous observation sales opportunities to the issue of expertise. In the business enterprise of naval warfare, overcome is not a recurrent prevalence. Navies have to master via the examine of their possess past knowledge and from that of other individuals. The JMSDF has a distinctive edge in that it has – given that its establishment – been a really close partner of the U.S. Navy. This marriage has available an unmatched prospect to refine skills, build capabilities, and advance doctrine. These a few functions are exclusive to the JMSDF and collectively make this organization stand out professionally in this location – and certainly outside of its confines.

U.S. President Donald Trump frequented one of Japan’s premier warships very last week, the Izumo-class helicopter provider, JS Kaga. In accordance to Japan’s new defense programs outlined in the Countrywide Defense Method Guidelines (NDPG), which set out Japan Self Protection Drive (JSDF) capacity targets more than a interval of about 10 several years, the two Izumo-course flattops will be converted into entire-fledged aircraft carriers capable of launching the F-35B stealth fighter. This has led to protests in Japan and amid Japan’s regional neighbors like China. Why is the conversion politically controversial? Also, what impact will it have on the service’s doctrine? Will we see a change absent from anti-submarine warfare (ASW) functions to extended-selection Japanese naval air electric power and extensive-assortment strike functions?

The procurement of protection capabilities is a lot more typically than not controversial, in Japan as much as any place else. In Japan, self-imposed constraints unfolding from the government’s interpretations of the structure – specially the material of Report 9 – have contributed to established anticipations around what abilities should and need to not be inside the attain of the nationwide protection posture. Aircraft carriers are controversial since of their prospective use in the projection of electric power ashore – as a result of strike missions. This relates to the controversy around the Izumo-class conversion. Having said that, the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MoD) has often designed distinct that ‘tactical’ carriers – carriers with an operating fixed wing air component – were not outside the remit of the structure. The conversion falls in these parameters in that a converted Izumo-course would probably function far more to supply fleet air defense and air help than in a strike ashore configuration. In the East Asian battle area, land based air protection devices are nicely made and sophisticated, producing the notion of an Izumo-provider configuration ideal for very long-vary strike much less than convincing. The conversion does not counsel a shift away from ASW missions, which continue to be central – collectively with mine and submarine functions — to Japanese strategy in the Northeast Asian sector.

Provided the JMSDF’s relative limited monetary means, do you imagine it was a error to commit dollars and assets in two big surface combatants that evidently will not suffice for an efficient carrier fleet? In addition, what are exactly the operational targets of the new provider drive in your impression?

This is perhaps the far more controversial factor of the announcement. The JMSDF has been predominantly configured for ASW functions on the substantial seas, on the foundation of pretty substantial readiness degrees. 4 flotillas manufactured up of a collection of lesser activity groups – a tactical configuration additional adaptable and apt to satisfy the expanded operational tempo – had been the centerpieces of the fleet. The helicopter destroyers like the Hyuga and Izumo classes were to be the beating hearts of the flotillas. With the announcement, this doctrinal build will inevitably modify nevertheless aspects of how the modify will be executed continue to be restricted, with consequent problems in completely knowing the trade-offs.

However, as the JMSDF widens its set of missions (which now contain also the have to have to keep a practical expeditionary/amphibious capability) and expands the quantity of shut associates (notably which includes these days the Australian and British navies) this financial commitment could really very well present an possibility. Budgetary constraints are not just a JMSDF issue. All significant countries have them, which is why 1 must not be much too quick in judging whether the expense is a miscalculation. In the Japanese circumstance, the conversion will need robust function in screening new concepts of operations and doctrine to establish the move’s really worth. Nonetheless, within just this context there is an chance for Japan to enhance the effects of these capabilities by investing in more powerful and nearer partnerships with other medium-sized powers like the U.K. and Australia. What a JMSDF provider may possibly not do by itself, it may possibly pretty nicely be able to do it as portion of a partnership undertaking.

The JMSDF remains renowned for its ASW warfare capabilities specially its reducing-edge fleet of diesel-electric powered submarines crewed by some of the best submariners in the planet. Can you make clear how the company obtained this level of excellence and no matter whether it will be capable to sustain its outstanding efficacy amid incremental price range boosts and shifting spending priorities? 

The JMSDF tale is a person of motivation to triumph, sheer grit, and – as I pointed out earlier – of proximity with the U.S. Navy. There is a serious issue in the literature on post-war Japanese security, which is designed on the idea that Japan was the reluctant, totally free driving, junior military services consumer of the United States. This sort of a notion has solid a cloud around the much more important place that a confined rearmament was observed by the JMSDF as an possibility. Because the bank loan of the initially submarine in 1955 (USS Mingo, renamed JDS Kuroshio) to the participation of RIMPAC in the 1980s, the JMSDF treasured the opportunity to operate with the U.S. Navy and made the professionalism to make the most of the romance. These are sound foundations suggesting that protecting professionalism and abilities is not an problem. Whichever the priorities are, one can rest certain the JMSDF will solution the issue with the utmost professionalism and an capability to discover remedies. The concern is not owning a lot more funds and less priorities. The dilemma is having people capable of coming up with appropriate answers to the specified queries. The JMSDF’s greatest asset is – like for any navy – proficient people today.

Can you listing some of the recognized deficiencies and weaknesses of the JMSDF?

This is a tough issue to respond to for the reason that deficiencies and weaknesses are, to an extent, the consequence of particular circumstances. In the scenario of the JMSDF, I would say that manpower – meant as a steady recruitment of personnel – stays a weak point. This is not a issue of name, because – generally talking – specially in the aftermath of the 3/11 disaster, the track record of the armed forces has been continually favourable. In addition, surveys of the Japanese public would counsel that there is a developing comprehending of the importance of nationwide protection. Getting explained so, the Japanese society remains a Western, made culture and as a consequence, the JMSDF suffers from recruitment complications, which are quite identical to these of navies in other elements of the entire world, specifically in Western Europe. Participating with creating career management programs that are attractive to youthful generations is a challenge that in Japan more than any place else need to be offered sizeable focus.

What do you see as the JMSDF’s most important obstacle in the in the vicinity of- and extended-term long run? 

Underneath the Abe administration, the single most significant adjust in Japanese foreign and security policy has been the reintegration of the peacetime employs of military services energy inside the applications of statecraft. The JMSDF has been both a driving force in this alter (from the counter-piracy mission to the extensive portfolio of navy engagements) and a recipient of better political appreciation and awareness. This has widened the vary of missions it performs all-around the Japanese archipelago and past the confines of Northeast Asia and amplified the operational tempo. The largest challenge in the around term will problem the ability to adapt to these new situations in a way that it does not influence general performance and abilities – a properly recognised difficulty in other navies in the same way engaged. In the long expression, the major challenge is to be ready to proceed to consolidate the JMSDF’s intercontinental profile, and to create current partnerships in strategies that will enable cooperation to be upgraded to ‘integration.’ In the lengthy-phrase, a robust JMSDF will have to be a player able of easily functioning from Aden and Bahrain to Yokosuka, using management when required – in constabulary, humanitarian, and armed forces missions. This remains a politically controversial part and something that will need ongoing political management to become actuality.

While the JMSDF’s spending plan has found modest but continuous increases each year, the Japan Coastline Guard (JCG) has proportionally observed major financial boosts in modern many years. Is this mainly because JCG alternatively than the JMSDF is generally using the direct in deterring Chinese so-termed grey zone coercion tries in the East China Sea? What are the recent naval ability dynamics in the East China Sea?

The JCG is Japan’s primary law-enforcement agency. As these kinds of, it has a frontline purpose in handling constabulary matters, this sort of as the checking of intrusions as properly as the perform of unlawful activities in Japanese territorial waters. The functions having put in the East China Sea given that 2012 have highlighted the require for a higher – numerically speaking – existence in the drinking water of the JCG. Curiously, whereas the Chinese Coast Guard is upgrading abilities by increasing quantities and getting to be more ‘militarized,’ the JCG has upgraded capabilities by expanding numbers and enhancing its law-enforcement capabilities. This implies intent to hold the management of territorial problems as a law-enforcement subject, if doable at all. Nevertheless, the JMSDF – and the JSDF in standard – are also aspect of the Japanese reaction to safety troubles to offshore islands, all over again suggesting that if issues ended up to be escalated in phrases of capabilities deployed, the Japanese would be completely ready to carry in military electricity ample to the job. This is occurring on the history of considerably strengthening bilateral ties among China and Japan, with new maritime and air interaction mechanisms agreed – and hopes for enhanced crisis management capabilities offered. No matter if this sort of mechanisms will be absolutely applied stays to be seen and this is the actual indicator of genuine development in the dynamics at sea.

 The JSDF remains prone to interservice rivalry and however suffers from a lack of interservice cooperation. What is the relation of the JMDF with the other two companies, the Ground Self Defense Force (GSDF) and Air Self Defense Drive (ASDF)? Who is now profitable the bureaucratic struggle? Has the rivalry impacted operational effectiveness? For example, the GSDF stoop up a new amphibious assault brigade for the protection of Japanese islands flanking the East China Sea, but there have been experiences that the two products and services have a tricky time cooperating.

Given that the mid-2000s, the Japanese have been implementing a range of structural reforms, by upgrading the position of the Joint Team Workplace and the Ministry of Defense, and by introducing new plan-earning and final decision-getting abilities like the Nationwide Security Council. Equally, the 3 products and services have been through important variations – each internally and in terms of operational perform. These are intricate improvements that happened primarily at the same time, although the operational tempo was significantly expanding way too. Presented the instances, I am not absolutely sure I would concur that interservice rivalry has produced a bureaucratic battle that is impacting operational efficiency. This kind of battles exist in most democratic nations around the world, and one particular can only evaluate how the Japanese fare in relation to the missions they are supposed to execute relatively than some artificial regular. Typically talking, the standing up of the amphibious regiment is a excellent example of this. Early moves to build it were favored by senior management in the JMSDF and JGSDF that required it to come about. And that is exactly what transpired. Reporting from routines with the U.S. Navy and USMC would counsel that the Japanese had been equipped to make exceptional progress in comparatively minimal time. Nowadays, leadership in the JMSDF and JGSDF has also other priorities and this could affect how the amphibious ingredient proceeds to evolve. But this tends to make the JSDF human, alternatively than ineffective.

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