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Contrast the look of the early Vietnam-era “A-Team” in 1965, in the below period recruiting poster, to what it looks like now in a modern recreation.
The 12-man ODA from 1963-1970 had a commander (O-3), an XO (Lieutenant), an Operations Sergeant (E-8), a Heavy Weapons Leader (E-7), an Intelligence Sergeant (E-7), a Light Weapons Leader (E-7), a Medical Specialist (E-7), and Radio Operator Supervisor (E-7), an Assistant Medical Specialist (E-6) and Demolitions Sergeant (E-6), and a Chief Radio Operator (E-5) and Combat Demolition Specialist (E-5).
Today you have a detachment commander (18A), detachment warrant/XO (180A), Ops SGT (18Z), Intel SGT (18F), two Weapons SGTs (18B), two Engineer/Demo SGTs (18C), two Medical SGTs (18G), and two Commo SGTs (18E).
Via the Cape Cod National Seashore although, as the wreckage seems totally absent of marine growth, I am taking it with a grain of sand:
Last week, a man-made object washed up on Marconi Beach. It appeared to have been in the ocean for some time, and staff worked together to get it off the beach before it was swept away by the incoming storm.
Photo: NPS/Hohman
Park historian Bill Burke examined the object and determined that it was in fact the fuselage of an RCAT (Remote Control Aerial Target).
Photo: NPS Archives
RCATs were drone planes used for target practice for anti-aircraft training off Marconi at a former United States military training camp (Camp Wellfleet) during the 1940s and 50s.
Aircraft equipped with an RCAT would take off from a now-defunct runway located in the woods of Wellfleet. The RCAT would then be rocket-launched off the aircraft at 0 to 60 mph within the first 30 feet, and then controlled remotely from the bluff.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the U.S. Army fielded an impressive array of “disappearing” guns along the American seacoast and few remain. In all, the Army would order some 75 “super heavy” 12-inch disappearing guns, 128 slightly smaller 10-inch guns on similar mounts, 64 8-inch disappearing guns, and the most common type: 152 assorted 6-inch models.
Of the Army’s mixed bag of 419 disappearing guns in various sizes, just four survive in the U.S. today still mounted on disappearing carriages. Two 10-inch guns are currently located at Battery Worth at Fort Casey on Whidbey Island, Washington, and a pair of remaining 6-inch “sister” guns are installed at two locations 2,200 miles apart– one at Battery Chamberlin on the Presidio in San Francisco and the other at Battery Cooper on Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida.
I recently visited with the latter and delved into its strange history.
I present to you, a 6-inch rapid-fire rifled gun, Model of 1905, Serial No. 30, on Disappearing Carriage, Model of 1903, located at Battery Cooper near Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island in West Florida, just a few miles off Pensacola Beach. Once common, it is one of just two still in existence in the country in its original format.
From a shot received by the Signal Corps in April 1919– some 105 years ago this month.
Official caption: “Squad in Heavy Marching Order with overcoat and an extra blanket. Classification Camp, American Embarkation Center. Le Mans, Sarthe, France.” Note the high ratio of sergeants, meaning the group is a “model squad” likely formed for demonstration.
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-52560 by Sgt. F. Jones, S.C.. NARA NAID: 86710325
The above shows the penultimate American fighting man in the Great War, complete with M1910 pattern “10 pocket” belt and suspenders, gas mask bag, and M1917 “American Enfield” rifles.
And how about a great shot of the side profile, showing the pack, E-tool, extra boots, and canteen, with blanket and greatcoat tied stowed– some 70 pounds of gear when ammo, iron rations, and water are added. This one was taken in Southhampton in September 1918.
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-29562 by SFC Chas. D. Donnelly, S.C.. NARA NAID: 55218431
Kicked off on 6 April 1924 when four pairs of U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics, using modified War Department-owned Navy Douglas DT torpedo bombers, departed West from Seattle’s Sand Point Aerodrome, some 27,550 miles and 175 days (363 flying hours) later, two planes flew back in from the East on 28 September 1924, having made 74 stops in 22 different countries– the latter high number both for publicity as well as refuel/repair.
Keep in mind these were open-cockpit aircraft produced only two decades after the Wright Brothers first proved flying a powered heavier-than-air machine was even possible.
The four planes included the Seattle (No. 1)– Maj. Frederick L. Martin (Pilot and Flight Commander) and Staff Sgt. Alva L. Harvey (Mechanic), Chicago (No. 2)– Lt. Lowell H. Smith (Pilot, subsequent Flight Commander) and 1st Lt. Leslie P. Arnold (Mechanic), Boston (No. 3)– 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (Pilot) and Staff Sgt. Henry H. Ogden (Mechanic), and New Orleans (No. 4)– Lt. Erik H. Nelson (Pilot – Engineer) and Lt. John Harding Jr. (Chief Mechanic).
Seattle at Vancouver Barracks
Chicago. When crossing the open ocean, the DT-2s were fitted with floats
Boston at Vancouver Barracks
New Orleans at Vancouver Barracks
Airplanes New Orleans, Chicago, and Boston at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, March 1924 before the expedition’s launch in April. NH 884
Chicago and New Orleans finished the flight (both of which are preserved) with Smith, Arnold, Wade, Nelson, and Ogden winning the Mackay Trophy, and all fliers were authorized a medal of honor and a $10,000 bonus by Congress.
Chicago at NASM NASM-NASM2020-07130-000001
Seattle crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula in April while Boston was lost at sea near the Faroes in August, with both crews (eventually) recovered alive.
Navy supporting “Around the World Flyers” 1924. NH 883
USS Milwaukee (CL-5) At Ivigtut, Greenland, July 1924, awaiting the arrival of the U.S. Army around-the-world fliers. Donation of Mr. & Mrs. Don St. John, 1990. NH 96690
U.S. Army Around the World Flight, 1924 Three U.S. Army Air Corps flyers on board USS Richmond (CL-9), explaining their route to Sailors. Photographed at Hunters Bay, Orkney Islands, Scotland, circa mid-1924. The flyers are Lieutenants Arnold, Smith, and Wade. NH 880
4 April 1944. Official caption, “Sgt. John C. Clark…and S/Sgt. Ford M. Shaw…(left to right) clean their rifles in the Bivouac area alongside the East-West Trail, Bougainville. They are members of Co. E, 25th Combat Team, 93rd Division.”
Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-364565, National Archives Identifier: 530707
The two NCOs in the above image are members of the famed 25th Infantry Regiment.
One of the four “Buffalo Soldier” units formed in 1866– immediately after the end of the Civil War– they were the legacy of the proven service of the USCT during that conflict. In fact, the units initially were staffed almost exclusively with veterans of those 175 assorted wartime segregated regiments.
The 25th had sweltered in decades of service along the southern border, spearheaded Shafter’s V Corps during the march on Santiago in 1898 (and getting closer to the city than any U.S. unit in the process), fought in the Philippines in the 1900s, and garrisoned Hawaii during the Great War.
When WWII came, the 25th was folded into the reformed 93rd Infantry Division, which had earned the nickname “The Blue Helmets” during the First World War because they wore horizon blue-colored Adrian helmets while in detached service with the French. As such, the 25th joined the reactivated 368th and 369th (“The Harlem Hellfighters”) Infantry Rgts, which had both seen service on the Western Front.
After training at Camps Coxcomb and Clipper in California, they shipped out for the Pacific and arrived at Guadalcanal in January 1944. Originally relegated to service (labor) and security tasks, the 25th entered combat on 28 March assisting in attacks on the enemy perimeter at Bougainville then reconnoitered across the Laruma River on 2 April, the slandered fight for Hill 250 and in the Torokina River Valley from 7–12 April 1944. The 25th RCT operated against the Japanese along the Kuma and East-West Trails during May 1944.
Official caption 1 May 1944. “Cautiously advancing through the jungle, while on patrol in Japanese territory off the Numa-Numa Trail, this member of the 93rd Infantry Division is among the first Negro foot soldiers to go into action in the South Pacific theater.” 111-SC-189381-S
The 93rd would receive campaign credits for the Northern Solomons, Bismarck Archipelago, and New Guinea, ending the war fighting on Morotai, and had the honor of capturing Col. Kisou Ouichi, the highest-ranking Japanese prisoner of war in the Pacific prior to the Empire’s surrender– bagged by a patrol from the 25th Infantry Regiment on 2 August 1945.
The Blue Helmets chalked up 175 days in combat in WWII and, after occupation duty in the Philippines, left for home on 17 January 1946.
Part of the famed 101st Airborne Division recently became the first unit issued with the new Next Generation Squad Weapon system.
A March 28 social media post from the PEO Soldier office detailed that the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, a unit of the Fort Campbell-based 101st, received the NGSW, marking a key milestone for the program that intends to replace the 5.56 NATO M4 Carbine and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon with a new family of weapons chambered in 6.8mm.
The new guns will be used in an upcoming New Equipment Training, an in-depth, train-the-trainer course, set for this month. From there, the systems and training will fan out across the brigade.
Elements of the 101st had been previously involved in an extensive series of more than 100 tests spanning over 25,000 hours and 1.5 million rounds of ammo with the platform.
An infantryman with the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment (Strike Force), 2nd Brigade (Strike), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), executes chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense (CBRN defense) day qualification with the Next Generation Squad Weapon-Rifle and Fire Control while operationally testing at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. (Photo Credit: Mark Scovell, Visual Information Specialist, U.S. Army Operational Test Command)
The program includes SIG Sauer’s XM-7 rifle, which will fill the role currently held by the M4 series, the SIG XM250 light machine gun slated to replace the M249, and the Vortex-produced M157 Fire Control optics system used on both platforms. SIG also supplies suppressors for the platforms. Of note, the XM-7 is based on SIG’s MCX Spear series.
Next up for NGSW is to equip a National Guard armored brigade in May.
This Springfield Armory M1 is over at the CMP’s In-House Auctions page, where they put rares up for grabs:
As noted by CMP:
This rifle has not been test-fired or otherwise worked by CMP. This rifle has been wrapped and packed in grease for storage. When and where this rifle was prepped for storage is unknown. This rifle is sold AS IS and will require cleaning and assessment before being fired.
For what it’s worth, the serial number range, 563895, puts production in the darkest days of WWII for the U.S., March 1942, so the likelihood that this gun got wrapped and never issued in the next four years of war is slim. Odds are (and this is just my opinion) it was reworked sometime post-war and has been in storage ever since.
Still, it’s nice to see stuff like this is still out there. If you are curious, the current bid is over $3K.
The Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony, Via the U.S. House of Representatives:
Three surviving members of the Ghost Army, the top-secret WWII units that used creative deception to fool the enemy, will join House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and other Congressional leaders at a special ceremony on March 21 at the Capitol to honor the Ghost Army with the Congressional Gold Medal.
Speaker Johnson and Senate Republican Leader McConnell will be joined at the ceremony by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with the original sponsors of the legislation that passed in 2022 authorizing the award, Congress’s highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements by individuals or institutions. They are Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), and former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT).
There are just seven surviving members of the Ghost Army, three of whom will attend the ceremony: ·
Bernard Bluestein, Hoffman Estates, IL. Bernie is a 100-year-old veteran of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops. He served in the visual deception unit, the 603rd Camouflage Engineers. He joined the unit from the Cleveland Institute of Art and returned after the war for a long and successful career in industrial design. He has been a sculptor for the last 30 years.
John Christman, Leesburg, NJ. John served as a demolition specialist for the 406th. After the war, he worked in a lumber mill and the NJ Department of Corrections. He is an active baker who, at age 99, still bakes bread for his family holiday and birthday celebrations.
Seymour Nussenbaum, Monroe Township, NJ. Also 100, Seymore came to the Ghost Army from Pratt Institute and served in the 603rd, where he was friends with Bernie. Seymour helped to make the counterfeit patches used by the unit in Special Effects. He graduated from Pratt and went on to a long career in package design. He has been an avid stamp collector his entire life.
Other surviving members include James “Tom” Anderson (Dover, DE); George Dramis (Raleigh, NC); William Nall (Dunnellon, FL); and John Smith (Woodland, MI).
Many family members and relatives of the Ghost Army veterans, living and deceased, will also attend the ceremony, along with officers from the U.S. Army PSYOP forces. It will culminate a nearly 10-year effort by members and volunteers of the Ghost Army Legacy Project to win recognition for the little-known Army units that played a unique but unheralded part in the Allied victory of WWII and included such notable members as Bill Blass, Art Kane, and Ellsworth Kelly.
The ceremony will also be the first time the Gold Medal, designed and produced by the U.S. Treasury Department, will be unveiled. The ceremony is part of a two-day celebration for the veterans and their families that includes an awards dinner with featured speaker Maj. Gen. Paul Stanton, Commanding General, U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Eisenhower, and a screening of a 2013 documentary that recounts the daring exploits of the units during World War II.
Ghost Army Insignia circa 1944.
The existence of the Ghost Army was top secret for more than 50 years until it was declassified in 1996. That’s when the public first learned of the creative, daring techniques the Ghost Army employed to fool and distract the enemy about the strength and location of American troops, including the use of inflatable tanks, sound effects, radio trickery, and impersonation. The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops staged more than 20 deception operations, often dangerously close to the front, in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.
This “traveling road show of deception,” of only 1,100 troops appearing to be more than 20,000, is credited with saving an estimated 30,000 American lives.
U.S. Army analyst Mark Kronman stated, “Rarely, if ever, has there been a group of such a few men which had so great an influence on the outcome of a major military campaign.”
A sister unit, the 3133rd Signal Company Special, carried out two deceptions along the Gothic Line in Italy in April 1945. The unit was joined by a platoon from the 101st Royal Engineers, a British unit equipped with dummy rubber tanks.
“What made the Ghost Army special was not just their extraordinary courage, but their creativity,” said Rep. Ann Kuster (D-NH), the House sponsor of the bill authorizing the Gold Medal. “Their story reminds us that listening to unconventional ideas, like using visual and sound deception, can help us solve existential challenges like defeating tyranny.”
Official caption: “A bullet-marked Hotchkiss gun of the American Army, at Malolos, Philippians, circa 1899.”
New York, N.Y. : Strohmeyer & Wyman, Publishers, 1899. LOC LC-DIG-stereo-1s48423 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-80482 (b&w film copy neg.) https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48423
Note the blue-uniformed U.S. Volunteers in the background.
The photo should be taken into account with this one, “Malolos, Philippines: Advancing on Malols – taking a Hotchkiss gun over a bridge destroyed by insurgents,” 1899. https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/stereo.1s48355
The light 5-barreled 37mm Gatling style gun weighed only 1,045 pounds and could fire an 18.51-ounce shell out to 4,700 yards when at a 30-degree maximum elevation. All up, in its heavy configuration with an armored shield with carriage and limber, 300 shells, and all needed accessories, the weight was 4,510 pounds.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
Hotchkiss 37mm Revolving Cannon, 1st Battalion California Heavy Artillery, P.I.
As noted by the U.S. Army Artillery Museum at Fort Sill, which has one on display:
In 1879, Captain Edmund Rice took a Hotchkiss Cannon on the campaign on the Western Frontier; the first time a revolving cannon was taken into the field. The Army Hotchkiss Revolving Cannons were little used until the Philippine Insurrection (1899 – 1902) where they served admirably, mounted on field carriages, trains, and riverboats, and in fixed positions. The Hotchkiss would prove to be excessive in the waste of ammunition. By 1908, it was replaced by a conventional single-barreled cannon.
The Mechanix of Auto, Aviation, Military...pert near anything I feel relates to mechanical things, places, events or whatever I happen to like. Even non-mechanical artsy-fartsy stuff.
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