The Day After - Surviving after a Nuclear attack

I was reminded about this movie from a post over at War is Boring. According to that post, this is the movie that scared President Reagan into getting a treaty to reduce most of the intermediate range Nuclear weapons.

Wikipedia has a decent page about the movie: The Day After

In my case, watching that movie as a young teenager, it scared the H**L out of me. You have to remember this. I was getting ready for High School. My school district still held "Tornado and Attack Drills" My family's house was about 4 miles from McDonnell-Douglas world headquarters. Scott Air Force Base, home of the Military Airlift Command was less than 40 miles away.There were Anti-Ballistic Missile bases ringing the St. Louis Metro Area.  And just about 3 weeks before this movie was on tv, there had been a story about a problem at one of the missile sites.  The Missiles that were supposed to protect my home didn't pass some inspection.

So combine all that together, and The Day After scared me.

So when I was 17, with my parent permission, I joined the Army Reserves.

Not to be infantry or a tanker or for combat.  I signed up to be a Medic.  To help people.  To try to save lives.

Because the idea of the aftermath of an attack or a war terrified me.

So in 1985, when I was 17, I went to basic training.

Ever since then, I have been interested in Preparedness.  Or as some would say, Survivalism.

And for that, according to the government, I am a threat to the country.  Because I want to prepare to protect/defend and provide for my family's safety and well being.

I would ask them to watch that same movie through the eyes of a 15 year old.  Who all his life up to that point had the idea that there could be a nuclear war, and where he lived was a target.  His school ran Duck and Cover drills, disguised as Tornado Drills, at least once a month.  I remember when President Reagan had been shot.  How my teachers were cracking jokes about how it was too bad he had survived.

And I looked around.  And decided I HAD to do something.

So when I was 17, I got my parents to sign off on my joining the Reserves.

Nowadays, I look around and I see a lot of the same warning signs I saw back in the 80's as that young impressionable young man that I was.  And I am scared.

Scared for my children.

Scared for my family.

Scared for all of my neighbors and my country.

The same country that considers me to be a threat.

You tell me.

Who is the threat?

Me, who wants to prepare to protect his family from privation?

Or the government who thinks that I am a threat?

Does America need the Air Force anymore?

"The United States military is all about redundancy; in addition to two armies, it also fields two navies — the Navy and the Coast Guard — and five or six air forces, depending on how you count the aerial arms of the various branches.

The real problem isn’t that the Army is marginally more or less useful that it was 10 years ago, but rather that the institutions that were designed in 1947, when the Army and Air Force split, are insufficiently flexible to negotiate the modern security landscape.

The fault for this lies not primarily with the Army, but with the United States Air Force, an institution built on the optimistic vision that ordnance delivered from the air could, cheaply and cleanly, bring about a peaceful, American-dominated world."

Read that.  It is a very interesting premise.  Then take into consideration the C-27 Program. It started off as an US Army program, and was going rather well in the development.  UNTIL The Air Force stuck it's nose in.  They took over the program and quickly canceled it.

Why?  You ask.

Simple the US Air Force will do WHATEVER it can to keep the US Army Subordinate to itself.  It comes from being the step child of the Army originally.  It is an institutional fear of the Army being able to do it's job without the help of the US Air Force.

What the Air Force has forgotten in it vendetta against it's parent, is that the AIR FORCE is actually the subordinate service.  Yes it has a use as strategic air strikes, however it has forgotten that it is the tactical situation on the ground that defines the combat envelope.

The ground pounders who kick in doors take an objective and hold it against all comers.

Those are the guys who the Air Force should be catering to.

Not their multi-billion dollars airfleet of planes that go too fast to provide proper ground support or transportation.

That is one of the reasons for the C-27.  To allow the Army to have the means to effect tactical resupply and movement of troops.  And what did the Air Force do?  They felt threatened, came in took over the program and killed just so it wouldn't affect their budget, so they could buy MORE big dollar airplanes that are for the Strategic battle and not the Tactical battle.

Look at how the Air Force has been trying to retire the A-10.  The ground troops LOVE the A-10.  It can get right down in the dirt and deliver hell on earth to the enemy.  It can take tremendous amounts of damage and abuse and still keep flying.  During the second gulf war there was an A-10 that lost a good chunk of it's wing in addition to other major damage and still flew back to base.

And the Air Force wants to replace it with the F-35 which the Pentagon has serious doubts about and have considered canceling it several times.

It can't fly as slow as an A-10, it can't fly as far as an A-10, it doesn't carry as much ammo or weapons as an A-10, and it costs several times as much as an A-10.

And the Air Force wants to get rid of the A-10.

You tell me, is the Air Force Bi-Polar or what?

So seriously.

Does America still need an Air Force, when it could be folded back into the Army where it would be properly subordinated to the needs of the ground pounders?

Let's look at the Drone War.

The army has it's own drones.  Who controls those drones?  Usually an enlisted man or woman who loves to play video games.

In the Air Force?  ONLY Commissioned Pilots act as Drone operators.

Can you see the disconnect?

I looked for the story about how Air Force Drone "Pilots" couldn't land their drones and had to set them down on automatic, whereas the Army drone operators just went and landed theirs but I couldn't find any documentation to back it up.  So I'll just leave it as an amusing anecdote.

But the entire MINDSET is actually true between the two services.

Remember the "Drone Operator Medal" hoopla?

That wasn't Leon Panetta speaking through his buttcheeks.  That was desk bound Air Force weenines who saw Army and Marine Ground Pounders and pilots receiving Bronze and Silver Stars and they wanted in on the medal action to pad their chances for promotion.

I'm not saying drone pilots/operator don't need some form of recognition, but trying to make that award above ACTUAL medals of valor, was solely for the Air Force REMF's who fly a desk.  So they could go downstairs hop in the chair and operate, oh I'm sorry "Fly" a drone for a while and then submit their paperwork for a medal to hang on their dress uniform.

Sorry Charlie.  You may be good but you ain't THAT good.

SO after reading all the drivel I wrote up above plus looking at a link or two, I ask you.

Does the United States still NEED the US Air Force?  Or should it be folded back into the US Army.