Military Ring Info

This is a personal war story of an event which happened to me when I was a Fire Support Officer in the US Army. This is the kind of story that all of our military ring customers have to tell and goes into the fond memories file.

Back in the day when our armored task force was training at the National Training Center in California we were tasked to conduct a defensive operation. We were expecting the enemy to attack through a certain area which he did. We had set up a screening force whose only job was to fire a few shots at him to slow him down and then skedaddle back to the area where we wanted to fight him.

This worked fine except for the fact that one of my Fire Support Teams decided that he didn’t want to break off contact and run. That was all well and noble but the problem was that when he was killed in his one man fight (he did actually cause some enemy casualties) the maneuver team which he was attached to lost all of their artillery support.  We needed him to stay alive so that he could continue to call in artillery and air strikes and do more damage that way.

I wanted to chew off a piece of his rear end but I never did. Every time I thought of the bravery of his actions I couldn’t do it. http://www.militaryringexpress.com

When I think about the time that I spent in the military the thing that I miss the most was the teamwork. There is such a feeling of satisfaction that a military leader gets when his troops work together to pull off an operation.

Each man has a specific job to do and each job contributes to the mission. If one of them fails the fate of the others will be in jeopardy. Thats the way that military teamwork goes. All of our military ring customers know how to operate as a team.

Sometimes a custom military ring customer will wind up with a group of individuals that he or she has never seen before but each one will know their individual job. they will instantly meld together and perform as a team because they are used to operating as a team.

If I consider all of the things that I miss from my time in the military the teamwork will have to top the list. Military teamwork, (as all of my military ring customers know) can’t be duplicated in the civilian world.

The Russian prime minister has announced their plans to produce a new long range stealth bomber.  This will be the Russians first stealth bomber and its second stealth airplane. Production of the actual bomber will probably begin in 2025-2030. 

Now my military ring customers in my humble opinion the fact that Russia is just getting to the point of producing stealth technology shows how much they have suffered from the collapse of their economy. This is a far cry from the days of the cold war that I remember. When the Soviets and the US were involved in the arms race they would almost immediately acquire and duplicate US technology but obviously times are tough for them.

The new strategic bomber that they will have is designed to replace their TU-95 andTU-160 bombers.

I think that we can safely say that the cold war years that us older warriors remember are long gone. No more two super powers attempting to match each other tit for tat. You younger military ring customers who may not have been around during those days but our training doctrine was much different than it is today. Our strategy was to fight outnumbered and win because the WARSAW pact countries outnumbered us in every category of equipment and personnel. During those days we knew that in the event of a war with Russia we would probably have to use battlefield nukes.

Our government will issue new stamps which will honor four of the Navies greatest heroes. The sailors to be honored are; Arleigh A Burke, John McCloy, Doris Miller, and William S Sims.

These men all distinguished themselves by exemplary service to our country and are worthy of mention here.

Arleigh Burke was a decorated warrior who served three terms as the Chief of Naval Operations which is the highest rank that can be held in the Navy.

John McCloy was one of the very few men to be awarded two medals of honor. he was also awarded the Navy Cross for valor. In one of his medal of honor incidents he was cited for deliberately putting his ship in the line of enemy fire so that the enemy could be located.

Doris Miller was the mess attendant who distinguished himself during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He manned a 50cal machinegun during the attack and engaged Japanese aircraft. The significant thing here is that he had never been trained to operate the 50cal. He also rescued many wounded sailors who were otherwise trapped aboard his vessel.

The last hero is William S Sims. He served as the commander of Naval forces in Europe during WWII. He is credited with the transformation of our Navy into the modern fighting force that it is.

The postage stamp is one mechanism used to honor our countries heroes. If you served in the navy the Navy ring is another way for individual sailors to commemorate their time in service.

I know that everyone of you have probably heard the tune taps played maybe at a military funeral or at the end of the day. I have done a post on this wonderful piece before, but today I was reading a story about a bugler who wants it to become a national tune of remembrance and I totally agree. I remember this song from my days of doing funeral details in the military and it never failed to touch a place in my heart when it was played. All of you military ring customers have heard it I’m sure. A good bugler knew how to work taps for all that it was worth.

This song was adopted from a tune called “Extinguish Lights” during the Civil War, and has been used by our military ever since. It has been adapted and improved upon over the years and our military is not the only military that uses it.

The notes really carry the meaning of this tune well. I will stop whatever I am doing to listen and to recite the words in my mind. I really got to hear it a lot because I did a lot of funerals in my day. Sometimes family members of the deceased would be fine all during the service but would breakdown when taps were played.  It is such a beautiful, touching piece of music. 

The 332d AEW is currently on duty in Balad Iraq where the unit is given the charge of maintaining air superoirity over the skies of Iraq.

The present unit is the descendant of the 332d fighter wing which was established in Tuskegee Alabama in 1942 and was composed of the Army’s first black pilots. The original  name for the unit was the “Red Tailed Angels.” The first aircraft that this unit flew were the P-40 Warhawk. They were later transitioned to the P-47 Thunderbolts, and finally to the P-51 Mustang which gave them the ability to fly longer range missions.

The current unit was activated in 1998 as the 332d Air Expeditionary Group and eventually ended up in Balad. The unit’s organic equipment is much different now than when it was first activated.

The 332nd now consists of F-16 fighters, A-10 ground support aircraft, C103 transport aircraft, HH-60 Pave Hawk Helicopters for search and rescue missions, and MQ-1 Predators to conduct tactical surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Air Force ring customers honor the original Tuskegee Airmen with their motto…”Tuskegee Airmen…The Legend Continues…”

“Fire for Effect” is a Field Artillery term which the Forward Observer uses to let the Field Artillery Fire Direction Center know that the last rounds in an adjustment have landed close enough to the target to do some damage and volley fire needs to be employed to have the desired effects.

This term is hardly used now because of the advent of new technology which takes away the neccessity of the observer’s radio calls for artillery. Nowadays he will use a laser rangefinder to get the location and range to the target and to send this information back to the Fire Direction Center.

Back in the old days before the laser rangefinder the Forward Observer had to determine this information himself. Human error in locating the target was a big factor as all of you Field Artillery ring customers know. Artillery had to be adjusted onto the target. The forward observer would spot individual rounds and when he saw that they were close enough to the target to do some damage he would give a final correction and add “Fire for Effect.” To his radio transmission. This would alert the custom military ring customers firing the artillery to use all of the howitzers at once. Doing so would pepper the taret with artillery rounds and cause great damage.

The acronym MRE is short for meal ready to eat. I can remember them being affectionately called meals refused by Ethiopans, the pun being that they were so bad that even starving people wouldn’t want them. To be honest, they really weren’t all that bad. Some of them were actually OK. The cheese and crackers were two of my favorites. When I was in Korea we would mix most of the ingredients with ramien noodles which almost always turned out to be a good meal.

 Every army ring customer who has been to the field has had the pleasure of enjoying MRE’s. I also enjoyed the dried friut.

The MRE has changed considerably since I have been in service with the attempt being to make them more palatable and diverse for soldiers of diverse backgrounds. The MRE is a fairly dense caloric ration when the entire meal is consumed but the average soldier has the tendency to pick over the meal and throw away the entrees that he or she doesn’t like.

The shortened definition for a refugee is a person who has been displaced from his or her country by warfare or persecution. The refugee seeks to leave that country for safety and attempts to cross over into a place where they will be protected from harm.

Refugees are a by product of every war and their presence has so much of an effect on the conduct of the war that they must be accounted for in war planning. Normally other countries will step up to the plate and assimilate them into their own culture but this takes time. The refugee will stay in a refugge camp until such a time as they are either repatriated to another or reassimilated into their own.

The refugee camp should give some personal protection, along with food, maybe some clothing, and rudimentery medical assistance. http://www.militaryringexpress.com

Most of us know about the air drop but this post will drop some knowledge on those of you who don’t know.

The air drop was a technique developed by the US Army and Air Force during WWII. The reason was to resupply friendly troops who were cut off from supply lines and couldn’t be resupplied any oter way. I think it was the solution to getting supplies to our cut off paratroopers who were running low on everything while they were behind enemy lines. The first air drops involved just pushing supplies attached to a parachute out of an airplane.

The air drop has evolved into 3 types which depend on the tactical situation and the type of materials being resupplied.

The first is the low velocity air drop. In this one several parachutes may be used for one item. the object is for the item to land with minimal force. This method may be used to drop sensitive equipment. It is used to drop items that need to be protected.

The high velocity air drop is used for items which are more durable. The dropped item will hit with more force but it won’t be damaged.

The LAPES, or low altitude parachute ejection system is another type of air drop. When this technique is used the aircraft comes very low and the item to be dropped is pushed out of the back. It is packed with materials which allow it to skid over the ground before it finallly comes to a complete stop.

The last and seldom used method is the free fall. When the free fall is used the item is thrown out of the aircraft with no parachute at all. This is most commonly used with propaganda leaflets. Our military ring customers who are infantry are especially knowledgeable of the air drop. Our paratrooper ring customers are more proficient with air drop procedures.