Admit I was a little concerned about this one. Most of your past patrolling has been defensive, this one was more offensive in nature. Though it did not seem like there was much chance of running into prepared defenses.
I see, you must be in that forest SW of ——, the kind you guys like so much.
Is a national park, I think. Lot of Russians north of here.
You might have heard “someone” blew Nordstream 1 and Nordstream 2 last night. In the Baltic. Picked up by seismic sensors, est. 100 kg TNT equivalent.
Really? No, have not heard. Who would do that? Only thing I can think of is the Russians, trying to play the edges per winter in Europe.
Yeah, there’s a lot of natural gas bubbling up to the surface near Danish territorial waters. Germany, Sweden, Denmark convinced it was sabotage.
Are the Yooks across the [redacted name of river] in force?
They are across, but not sure how strong the position is right now. I think the focus is Lyman, Our job was to screen the attempt to split their forces to the east of there. Have not heard yet how well that worked. Well, is ongoing right now.
Lyman is reportedly surrounded on three sides, with the fourth side interdicted by shelling.
I should find out here at some point. About Lyman, I mean.
Some people arguing it’s a reason to invoke Article 5. Also a lot of worries about the Russians breaking out the nonstrategic nukes. Rumors they’re distributing iodine and NBC gear but don’t think I trust that yet.
Lot of talk here about possible tactical nukes. Wouldn’t that be an ironic kick if I got offed by a nuke?
Wear sunscreen.
Yep.
I think people just see Putin doing desperate things, like the partial mobilization, and think he might reach for nukes. He keeps ringing that bell in his speeches but there’s no change in their posture. US apparently stepping up monitoring, though.
Well, the way the Russian system works, I have no doubt they could bring a few into play without monitoring catching it, unless they want them too.
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but the Pentagon says that western tanks are “on the table”.
Wish they were in the mud here.
What is the system, briefly?
Well, they have designated storage areas for them, but they also have staging areas that serve multiple purposes, and are technically capable of storage. I have never known anyone who felt like we had a handle on how many small warheads might be stored at these areas on the QT. No, if we have some high-level HUMINT, then that might do the trick.
Russians will do things with nukes per transport and handling that is not how it is done in the west. That is their history.
The Russians certainly apply Maskirova techniques to hiding their nukes.
Dinner, back in a bit.
later.
Just good ol fashioned fish sticks and Japanese rice, and a salad.
Sounds good to me.
I remember us talking about modern recon, and I made an off-the-cuff statement without explaining it. Recon does still exist, but now, except for highly-specialized units like DELTA and so on, battlefield recon has been melded tightly into platoons and squads (sniper) in brigade combat teams. The leg Army never really cared much for the separate publicity. Right now, one of the best operators is the Air Force Special Reconnaissance units.
Our latest motto here is “stay pissed-off, boys.”
Did Chris get his patches made?
Not yet, but I know he found somebody to do it. I will try to get an extra for you.
Steady stream of war relics on eBay. Last night I briefly considered buying a side skirt off a T-72.
Lol! If you were over here with money when this things ends, might be able to buy the T-72 itself.
Ship it home filled with -74Ms and Grachs.
I had my own tank buying adventure in Canada once, think I went on about that on twitter some years ago.
Pentagon already preparing yet another $1 billion military aid package.
No! Leopard 1s?
T-34.
I had everything arranged, price, transport back to NM, wide load permits, and then the thief at the army surplus store decided to jack the price up. Deal fell through.
How much did he want? Did it run?
It ran, but demiled. Original price was 10K, then he jumped to 15K. I was gonna set it in the front yard and just sit in the turret and drink rum and track passing cars with the main gun.
Ha ha, was it the one with the 76 or 85mm gun?
76
That would be worth a lot more now, I think.
I am sure it would be. I should have just paid it.
I got may data bill today, mostly inflated from using SBD burst mode….Jesus…. I wasn’t using it, then started to just to be safe. About a dime per kb.
Does that include Twitter use?
Yes, but no problem, Twitter takes little data unless you send pics and vids. And those have to be small to work in burst.
I guess bingeing funny pet videos on YouTube is going to have to wait. Are you guys on tap for another job soon?
My guess is we will be back out tonight. But, things are moving pretty fast, so will have to see.
It is a wonder this comm setup works at all, I am going through so many servers and bursting and VPN’ing. Last time I was on, my IP was in Iran. But VPN and sat phone is a recipe for slow data.
How do you use Twitter? Do you use your phone and the Iridium to send data?
Yes. The sat phone is my data port. I tie into it with the regular phone. Goes through the Iridium gateway and a sat/VPN. A long message I try to pre-type on the phone or tablet, then just burst it out. But, too long and it gets truncated. Obviously one byte in ASCII is one letter, and spaces and punctuation also count.
Oh, one thing I keep forgetting to ask. Are you slamming Tylenol on a nightly basis? I keep thinking about your level of physical activity, it would tax someone 30 years younger than you.
I never take pain meds, have not had any for years – voluntarily anyway. Don’t think I have had a Tylenol in like 30 years.
I am actually in pretty decent shape. My knees give me problems after a long day, and lower back gets stiff. My feet, being flat, hate heavy loads.
That may be the most remarkable thing you’ve told me so far.
People who drink should never take Tylenol. I don’t have any medical problems, and take no regular drugs for anything. I seem to have a very high tolerance for pain. I got it from my old man.
I got a full head of hair from my old man, that seemed like a pretty good deal until I read what you got.
My old man had a full head of hair the day he died. Mine fell out many years ago.
Have you heard of a Russian foxhole digging munition? Looks like a mine?
I have not. The US worked on one back in the 70s, but it was using an auger and a TNT block. Guess the Russians, maybe having to deal more with frozen ground, led in that field.
It seems…optimistic for something that doesn’t penetrate the ground with an auger.
I am going by memory, but think you had to use a man-portable auger, drill a hole maybe 3 feet dept, put two TNT blocks spaced on primacord, then blow the thing. No good for folks on the QT.
The whole thing is likely a parable for how much humans hate to dig.
I think they found that the auger would not work in frozen ground. I may be wrong here, but I think the 82nd Airborne was the source of the tech request. I am sure I got this from reading some document in the past. If it goes “bang,” then I may well have read it.
I am going to search for it tomorrow, will probably find it on DTIC somewhere.
Yep. A lot of that stuff was sponsored from (Fort) Leonard Wood, and the Corps of Engineers. A lot of kinetic shit, even nukes, had the Corps involved, think it was called “waterways” or something like that.
I am gonna amble around and see if anybody knows anything, then get some sleep.
Yep, you’re right: https://erdc-library.erdc.dren.mil/jspui/bitstream/11681/11009/1/MP-SL-81-15.pdf
Oky doky, going to look at the moons of Jupiter. Have a good one.
Good viewing. Later.
Chris is already snoring next door. No holes here, just found a high place that is reasonably dry, and put down some ponchos. He is still in full battle gear with his rifle laying on him. Is fairly dark in here and warm, maybe in the 60s. The guys on the better side of the tracks have a large hole covered in tree trunks and plastic. They have a two burner stove for heat and cooking. It seems to be a popular place.
Three Yooks live in there and they must have been here for a bit because it is well equipped. Or, they are superb scroungers. I am betting on the latter. I was pretty good at that in Vietnam. We stole everything from food to weapons. My best take was an old Starlight scope from the 9th (Infantry Division). But, it was a beast, and we traded it back to them for some M72s.
I have always prided myself on being able to grab some sleep in almost any situation…just a few minutes here and there. But Chris is a master at it. One of the guys told me they saw him leaning against a tree and sleeping while an artillery barrage was going on overhead. I asked him about and he said, “well, it wasn’t aimed at us, so why not?” But, he will also sleep forever unless someone wakes him up, usually me. He does not like being woken up.
Ukraine Volunteer Transcripts 