Fullbore Friday

Last week we lost the last half of one of the great teams of WWII; a local boy and father of USAF Special Operations. If what they did took place in Europe, they would have had a movie made out of it. As it took place in the Burma theater - well - at least we can cover it here.

John R. Alison, a World War II fighter pilot who helped lead a daring and unprecedented Allied air invasion of Burma, has died, a son said Wednesday.

The retired Air Force major general and former Northrop Corp. executive died of natural causes Monday at his home in Washington, John R. Alison III said.

Alison's wartime achievements included seven victories, six in the air, qualifying him as an ace, according to the Air Force Association, an independent organization in Arlington, Va., that promotes public understanding of aerospace power.

What did he do?

Operation THURSDAY began on March 5, 1944, when the first C-47 launched from India towing two overloaded gliders filled with Wingate's troops, equipment, and supplies. A total of 26 transports towing gliders comprised the first wave. The gliders, carrying from 1,000 to 2,000 pounds of excess weight, strained the C-47 tow planes and ropes and caused significant problems. With eight of the first wave of C-47s each losing a glider, Colonel Cochran decided to limit one glider to each remaining transport. This decision allowed the air commandos to successfully deliver Wingate's initial and succeeding forces to the jungle clearings over 200 miles behind Japanese lines in Burma.

During the first day the strip, designated "Broadway," was improved so transport, glider, and liaison aircraft could land safely. They brought supplies, equipment and reinforcements, and evacuated the injured. A second strip, opened by glider assault, relieved congestion at Broadway. Airlift inserted almost 10,000 men, well over 1,000 mules, and approximately 250 tons of supplies. Casualties from the high-risk, untested concept, including missing, were less than 150, and for the first time in military history aircraft evacuated all killed, wounded, and sick from behind enemy lines.

The air commandos also protected the British ground forces by harassing the Japanese. This harassment, conducted by P-51s and B-25s equipped with a 75mm cannon in the nose and 12 .50 caliber machine guns, included bombing bridges, strafing and bombing parked aircraft, air-to-air combat, and destroying the communications, transportation, and military infrastructure.

Wait, who is that Cochran character? Funny you should ask.

See that guy to the left - that was then Lt. Col. Philip Cochran, USAAC. He passed away in 1979. He was - wrap this around your head PCO pipeline guys and gals - 1st USAAF Air Commando Group Co-Commander with Alison. Co-Commander. I guess if Hap Arnold tells you, you work it out.

See him and his men in action below. Remember - he was only 34 in 1944. Alison was 32.

Remember that next time you dismiss the capabilities and opinion of your senior LTs and junior LCDR.

Ponder a lot.



One more bit about Cochran - talk about character.

Cochran was the inspiration behind characters in the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon by Milton Caniff.
...
Cochran dated actress Betty White in the early 1960s after being introduced by Jack Paar. White declined his marriage proposal; later dating Cochran and her future husband Allen Ludden simultaneously, until her romance with Ludden became serious.

Hat tip GOH. First posted June 2011.

---

UPDATE: Our friend LCDR B.J. Armstrong sent along a reminder that if you are interested in this, you need to read William Y'Blood's Air Commandos Against Japan by USNI Press. He reviewed it a few years ago at The Journal of Military History.

A Swedish Whisper

What can the Swedes tell us about the dangers of another BRAC?

I'm telling the story over at USNIBlog. 

Come by and see.

APN-6 and Shooting Up the Horse

I almost didn't post on this note from the Air Boss by Megan Eckstein, as it was just very inside baseball. For at least the members of the Front Porch, you always impress me with your knowledge base, so I think we're OK.

Good people in tough jobs have to make hard decisions. You can push a lot of things to the right. As Adam Smith once said,

“...there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.”

...there is also a great deal of ruin in a military. You can ignore things in the short term and hope you have the ability to fix them at some point down the road - or hope someone else can. Sure, you know you are doing harm, but you need what you need what you need now and the future just has to take care of itself.

Without much more commentary, here is the bit in Megan article about VADM Shoemaker that stuck with me,

“We’re trying to be smart and efficient in how we apply the legacy readiness dollars versus the new platform readiness dollars,” he said.

“And it’s an ongoing discussion and a tradeoff, but the key piece is applying those lessons to ensure that our most capable forces are ready.”

One major lesson learned likely to be followed going forward is acknowledging the importance of the APN-6 budget line – the aircraft procurement line item that supports “initial outfitting for spares, and it also covers the stock on our shelves on our carriers, our amphibs and also at our shore bases,” Shoemaker said during his panel presentation.

That line item was funded at about 90 percent of the requirement in the early 2000s, about 85 percent just before sequestration hit, around 75 percent since the sequester, and only 71 percent this fiscal year.

“So that’s year on year we’ve kind of been funding less of the requirement, and not surprisingly, not unexpectedly, full mission capable aircraft have come down from 55 percent – we try to work in a band between 50 and 60 (percent) – to less than 30 percent today. That connection’s not hard to make,” he said.

Shoemaker said aviation readiness has been on a steady decline but right now is at its “most acute” since sequestration went into effect and across-the-board cuts were imposed in 2013.

This is more serious than it looks. This is why the balance of any "new" money we borrow from our grandchildren to plus-up the military will just get soaked up like drops of water on a dry kitchen sponge.

We've been shooting up the horse for awhile.

It is what it is.

Keeping an Eye on the Long Game: Part LXVIII

We need to get moving towards the 350+ Navy sooner more than later - and we need new designs for the new reality of war at sea.

1. Range.
2. ASUW.
3. Number and diversity of ASW tools and weapons from search, location, tracking, and especially attack. Without going in to too many details on this net, the last part especially. The professional malpractice, blindness and complacent arrogance there is gobsmacking.

Right now we have decks full of light strike-fighters (F-18 E/F are better than A-D but still), DDG designed in the Cold War (though greatly modified and as history has looped back to blue water, still very useful even if most don't have ASUW capabilities beyond their 5" gun), and the smaller part of our fleet consists of two Tiffany price, China-doll robust, "exquisitely designed" LCS that still can't address the threats from the Clinton Administration that helped spawn it.

The only thing that seems to be going well is our submarine force.

The CO of the Chinese aircraft carrier Captain Liu Zhe, PLAN had an interesting article out that in a very Chinese way, points where they are going;

Throughout history, the development of great power is closely related to the ocean. Some people say, "stronger than the world who will be better than the sea, the decline in the world who will be weaker than the sea."

Today, in the process of realizing the dream of China, in the process of building a strong ocean, the development of "all the way along the way", not only the wealth of the sea, friends from all corners of the globe, and security threats are mainly from the sea. The more turbulent changes in the undercurrent, the more the need for military Yong Li tide wave. As the President suggested, as a soldier, must be brave to assume the historical responsibility of our generation of soldiers.

Although the Chinese soldiers do not produce grain, but the production of security; not create wealth, but to defend the peaceful environment of peace and comfort. The party and the people to us this aircraft carrier, is the national strength of the cohesion, is a symbol of national will, is the national security barrier, it is a strong backing of world peace. The Liaoning ship forged into a war can win the battle of the aircraft carrier, we are duty-bound
...
Not far from the future, our pace will be bigger, go farther, Liaoning ship will ride in the broader ocean, J-15 fighters will fly in the more distant blue sky. We will continue to forge ahead in the forefront of the construction of the Navy transformation, fighting in the national interests of the new frontier, adhere to the first line in the maintenance of world peace. We firmly believe that the farther away from the territorial sea, the more secure the motherland will be behind, the world peace will be more of a guarantee.

You can't say we weren't warned. Remember this as well - China increased their military budget 7% last year.

H/t SJS

Fullbore Friday

She doesn't care.

This scenario isn't IAW the CONOPS.

She doesn't care.

This ship will never be part of a major feet engagement on the high seas.

She doesn't care.

This ship is designed for a single mission.

She doesn't care.

War never cares.

War called on the crew of the sloop of war HMAS YARRA (U77) in March of 1942, and the YARRA and her crew did what needed to be done.

On 27 February orders were given to clear all remaining British auxiliary craft from Batavia (now Jakarta). About midnight Yarra and the Indian sloop HMIS Jumna sailed escorting a convoy to Tjilatjap. Arriving off Tjilatjap at 11 am on 2 March, the ships were warned not to enter harbour. The Yarra was ordered to take the convoy, which consisted of the depot ship Anking, the tanker Francol and the motor minesweeper MMS 51, to Fremantle while the Jumna sailed for Colombo. No time was to be lost, as powerful Japanese forces were known to be operating in the waters south of Java.

Steaming steadily south east at an average speed of 8.5 knots, the Yarra and her convoy made steady progress during the night of 2-3 March. Except for a faintly discerned shadowing aircraft sighted in the evening, there was no sign of the enemy. On the morning of the third two lifeboats were sighted. From these, Yarra picked up a number of exhausted survivors of the Dutch merchant ship Parigi, sunk by the Japanese two days earlier.

At 6.30 am on 4 March, as the sun rose the lookout in Yarra sighted the unmistakable topmasts of a Japanese heavy cruiser squadron to the north-east. The squadron consisted of Atago, Takao and Maya, each armed with ten 8-inch guns, and two destroyers. Immediately Lieutenant Commander Rankin made a sighting report, ordered the ships of convoy to scatter and, placing his ship between them and the enemy, laid smoke and prepared to engage. Yarra was outgunned and out-ranged, and the enemy ships were faster. Against such odds her task was hopeless, yet she kept fighting even as her convoy was overwhelmed and sunk, ship by ship.

Anking, which was carrying many RAN personnel was sunk first. Overwhelmed by many hits she was despatched in ten minutes. By then Yarra was on fire and listing heavily to port but still shooting. MMS 51 was on fire and was put down shortly after by a hail of close range automatic gunfire from one of the cruisers. The Francol took more punishment and still remained afloat, finally succumbing at about 7.30. Yarra, shattered by numerous hits, was the last to go. Soon after 8.00 am, Rankin ordered that the ship be abandoned. Minutes later he was killed when an 8-inch salvo hit the bridge. Leading Seaman R. Taylor, manning the last remaining gun, kept on firing until he too was killed, and the Yarra's guns fell silent. Her end, which came after close-range shelling by the two Japanese destroyers, was witnessed by 34 survivors on two rafts. All, except the Dutch captain of Parigi, were naval ratings.

When Yarra sank, the Japanese made off to the north-east after picking up one boatload of survivors from Francol. A collection of boats, rafts and floats was left scattered over a wide area of sea. Towards evening, a passing Dutch vessel, Tawali, rescued 57 officers and men from Anking. However, in spite of frantic signals, she failed to sight two Carley floats, which held 14 men from MMS 51. For the next two and a half days they drifted about until picked up by the Dutch steamer Tjimanjoek on 7 March. Meanwhile Yarra's men, their numbers sadly reduced by wounds, exposure, and thirst, continued to drift helplessly. On 9 March 13 of the sloop's ratings were picked up by the Dutch submarine KlL. Of the complement of 151, 138 (including the captain and all officers) were killed in the action or died subsequently on the raft.

Hat tip John Perryman

Diversity Thursday

I'm not sure if Charmane or Clarence are related, but nonetheless, both of their jobs are prime candidates to put at the top of a short-list in any manpower efficiency review. Why can't Clarence send out his own emails? Why must Charmane just cut-n-past what is already in the attachment and claim as her own? 

The mind ponders in our latest edition of, "As the Rent-Seekers Turn."

I'm going to give you as little D&G as possible, as long time readers of DivThu don't need a primer on primary and secondary education performance differentials leading to skewed entering-cohort metrics. You don't need to hear again about the horror show of officially sanctioned and taxpayer subsidized discrimination based on self-described race and ethnicity as it is practiced by the DOD's branch of the diversity industry. You don't need me to toot my own horn about the warning I have last decade that the Orwellian "Unconscious Bias" cultists would get their nose in the tent. No, you're fully up to speed. 

Just sit back and enjoy, you're paying for it.

If anyone is new here, just get a fresh cup of coffee and click the "Diversity" tab to get up to speed.

BEHOLD!

TRANSMITTED ON BEHALF OF MR. CLARENCE A. JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Ladies/Gentlemen:

The Department of Defense, Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity (ODMEO), is pleased to announce the 2017 Federal Executive Webcast Series, at no cost to participants. Click here for video announcement/details: http://www.tvworldwide.net/Player?VID=Royal/161228_RoyalConsulting_FederalExecutiveWebcastSeries.mp4. Please see attachments for additional information, including the brochure for webcast topics and dates. Each session is one hour in length.

OVERVIEW:
ODMEO is partnering with AAFEA to offer the Federal Executive Webcast Series, developed to address pipeline and data trends that reveal a significant lag in women and minorities in general population of senior leaders. This training is intended to enable the development of a cadre of world-class senior civilian leaders with the enterprise-wide perspective and the critical skills needed to lead organizations.

CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION:
1) Department of Defense Civilian Employee at the Grades levels GS-14 and 15
2) Transitioning Active Duty or Reserve Military Personnel (within a year out window of exiting military service) at the rank of O-5/6 and E-8/9
3) Career Aspirations for advancement to GS-15 or Senior Executive Service Corps
4) 100% commitment to attend the 8 required webcasts sessions and all other requirements
5) Reading and examining related resources assigned
6) Willingness to serve as a mentor for subordinate grade personnel and ambassador for marketing DoD as a potential employer
7) Complete all on-line evaluations, surveys and follow-up writing assignments

Due date for applications: FEBRUARY 8, 2017 BY 5:00 PM. Online submissions only. Limit is 100 participants, so apply early! Please visit www.aafea.org for additional information.

Please give widest dissemination to help us get the word out. Thank you.

V/r,

Charmane S. Johnson
GS-15
Director, DoD Policy for Special Emphasis Programs
Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity
(703) 571-[redacted]

Fed Exec Webcast Brochure

H/t W.

What if I Made it Scratch and Sniff?

Do you find yourself totally confused and frustrated in your attempts to understand how we get the ships, submarines, aircraft, and ground forces we get?

Well, what if there were one pic that might be helpful in understanding it all?

I have it posted over at USNIBlog.

Come by and give it a peek.