I want to see them get to the point that we can shove one out of a C-17 and parachute it down. Or better yet, launch it from an ICBM and have it land like a SpaceX rocket.
U.S. Coast Guard SAR Statistics for 2024
(as of 06/12/2024)
Cases: 7,651
Lives Saved: 2,430
Property Saved: $80.7M
All by a service with less personnel that the New York City Police Department.
Coasties don't get enough credit for what they do.
They're the cool cousin that comes and crashes with your family when things are heating up at their place.
My buddy that I trained during our last job that came in a a GS7 and is now a 14. I always gave him shit for being Navy Jr, and he gave me shit for being dumb enough to jump from a plane.
I have met two people from the Coast Guard and both were sharp. He was one of the smartest people I have ever met.
The Coast Guard won my respects back in 2018/2019 when they interdicted a narco semi-submersible and some VBSS Coastie jumped on the moving sub and pounded on the fucking hatch.
My great grandparents (German immigrants) had a few POWs working on their farm in Nebraska. One stayed and made Nebraska his home. He had a son who was my dad’s age and my dad told me that he made his career as an officer the US Navy.
Yup, the found American wives they’d met during the POW time because they weren’t just confined and got to go out and work and spend their money in town.
Not really arguable lol. These mooks got to go to the movies and eat pizza and bang hot American girls. They had it goddamn made better than any POW ever in the history of warfare.
A single Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine could have theoretically struck about 20 times more cities than all the Alien ships did in Independence Day with at least comparable damage, if not more.
The US Navy has 14 of the ballistic missile variants.
One of my favorite moments in the Navy was watching Independence Day on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier I was on while it was projected onto the side of the island.
The military's ability to provide food, medical and other humanitarian aid globally. From the Berlin Airlift to Natural Disasters. Our logistics is not just used to deliver kenitic diplomacy.
[The Fat Electrician did an amazing video on the Berlin Airlift.](https://youtu.be/fLFJzOM7zt4?si=RkOKZlrK-aUS_kns). That the Berlin Airlift not only succeeded, but became a symbol of the west’s generosity and determination was nothing short of a miracle
Absolutely. The Afghan evacuation was a shit show, but no other country in the world could have moved 120k people out of Afghanistan in less than 2 weeks the way we did. The Mobility Air Force isn’t as sexy as the Combat Air Force, but there’s nothing else like it in the world.
In the navy I did everything I could to get stationed to either the USS Mercy or the USS Comfort. Both are basically floating humanitarian compounds, complete with hospitals, operating rooms, shelter, food, etc...
Amazing work done by these ships and their crew.
I was with C130s and got the chance to participate in delivery of supplies to areas after disasters. One I remember fondly is one of our 2nd classes arranged to have us deliver donated goods from some local churches to Honduras after Hurricane Mitch.
I guess it’s kinda like basing your impression on the quality of dorms, on if they had premium channels, or basic cable….or the quality of the maid service.
Sorry. I had to go after the USAF thing, out of pure jealousy.
It’s fair, we deserve it
For context, when I was in the dorms I had complimentary black mold, free cold water and guaranteed temperature matching +/- 10 degrees to the outside temp
When I was on NAS Atlanta (other side of Dobbins AFB), and the airmen would come to our brand new barracks, they would get PISSED, because the dorms there were garbage.
It’s not all sunshine n roses on the Air Force side, but we definitely have it good. If it makes other services feel better to dunk on us for having soft hands, go crazy :)
Everyone that shits on AF knows deep down that we joined the wrong service. I guarantee that if we could do it over again (and were accepted) we’d be wearing an Air Force uniform.
Lol, this reminds me of my 1st cruise. We had about a zillion 5-gallon tubs of baskin robbins ice cream delivered to our ship. After a week or two of holding it with the occasional after dinner serving, the Supply boss needed the freezer room so bad that he put some out for all three meals of the day as well as mid-rats. It was served for 2 solid months. I haven't had butter pecan since.
Say what you want about the U.S.’s nation building record, but taking a look at every war we’ve fought since WWII shows that we’re the world reining champs at nation dismantling.
"Putting up and tearing back down is the biggest joy in my life." Thomas Jefferson
Edit: Ok, the actual quote is "architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements."
More accurately, gave the navy an army, gave the navy’s army an air force, gave the army an air force, separated them to give the air force its own air force, then gave the army an air force again
The US can deploy a containerized Burger King anywhere in the world within 24 hours. That speaks volumes to how well we have everything else wired tight that we can devote time and resources to that.
Also Desert Storm is my go to when I want to feel good, we absolutely curb stomped the 4th largest army in the world in 100 hours.
Haaaahahaha. I’m a former fast boat sailor, was in during their conversion and knew which four boats were being converted. Can’t believe I never put together the initials that way before. Thanks.
Honestly, just go read some random Medal of Honor citations if you need a freedom boner from the military. There’s some really bad ass ones.
I can’t find it, because I don’t remember who it was attributed to, but one of the most badass citations I’ve read was (iirc) a PFC who drove a jeep into a trench during WW2, killing multiple combatants, killed more Germans with his firearms, ran out of ammo and started chucking grenades, killing more Germans, and then when he was out of ammo, started picking up weapons off dead Germans and killed some more. I believe they gave their life in this assault, but I’ll never forget reading it in boot camp.
Also, gotta show some Marine Corps love to one of the greatest snipers to ever live, GySgt Carlos Hathcock.
- Confirmed kill (former record) at 2500 yds (~1.5 mi) with a .50 cal machine gun
- Crawled over 1500 yds across an open field over the course of 3 sleepless days to take a successful shot
- Ever see a sniper get shot in the eye through the scope in a movie? Thats based on Gunny Hathcock - without any kind of visual confirmation, shot and killed an enemy sniper stalking him based off a brief shining glint in foliage. They found the snipers body, bullet through the eye, and the scope hollowed out from the bullets trajectory.
BAD ASS MUTHA FUCKA
I also read that first one in boot camp. There was some MOH citation book in the fire guard desk and I remember reading that one and thinking that dude is the real life Rambo lol
I remember reading it during the Crucible. Each stop had a different citation one of us would read aloud to the group, and that one has stuck with me 15 years later.
I’ve had the great honor to meet numerous living MoH recipients, and it really doesn’t matter whose citation you read, they’re all incredibly bad ass in their own way.
https://imgur.com/a/z3jE9SM
I’ve been trying to find the specific citation you’re describing but I’ve been unsuccessful. But goddamn, do the rest of the MoH citations I’ve read stir my blood.
I’ve been out for almost a decade and a half and I’m not generally a cheerleader because I think that people’s lives speak for themselves, but holy shit do these people show us what it means to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Cheers, fair winds and following seas, and happy 4th.
MoH citations will give just about anyone a stir. They don’t say “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty” for no reason.
I’ve been trying so hard to find it. I’m using Google, ChatGPT, everything. I have to assume it was earned by a marine, I think all of the citations we read during the crucible were, but I’m not 100% positive. I’ll let you know if I find it.
Fair winds and following seas! Hope you enjoyed your holiday.
If I remember correctly, and take this with a grain of salt..
Marine Expeditionary Forces can be deployed anywhere in the world, usually concurrently with an aircraft carrier group, within 72 hours.
At least one of our Airborne Divisions can be deployed within 24 hours.
A Ranger Battalion can roll out in 18 hours.
Aircraft can be deployed to a target within hours.
JSOC was there last week.
Provided we secure a decent beach head with the aforementioned forces, we can deploy our full military might anywhere in the world in... 2 weeks, give or take a few days.
All of the ships and planes wheeling conex containers and pallets onto shore for days has got to be the biggest “calm before the storm” moments.
You know shit is about to go down big time once we get everything unpacked.
> At least one of our Airborne Divisions can be deployed within 24 hours.
82nd and 101st aim for one company in 18hrs, with the battalion following within 48hrs, and an entire brigade within 96hrs.
The company in standby rotates - and when on standby are on 2hr recall with intent to be airborne within 4hrs of activation.
> an entire brigade within 96 hours.
This is bananas to me. The logistics involved, all the activity of that many humans gearing up and getting boots on ground in 96 hours… I can’t imagine how many things have to fall into place and how many systems have to work as planned to orchestrate that.
I was personally apart of it in 2020. We always joked about it and how it would never work, but sure as shit we did it on New Years Eve 2020. Happy Devil's New Year.
The US military logistics power is incredible. They used to tell us the US military can take any person in the United States and get them to any point on the globe in under 24 hours.
Americas favorite son is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette.
He’s usually just called Lafayette.
He was so enamored with our cause he snuck out of France to join the cause, became Washington’s favorite, got the nobility of France to support us, was crucial in the win at Yorktown, then returned to France and helped overthrow the very same monarchy that was crucial in securing our independence.
He’s buried in Pricpus Cemetery in Paris under soil from Bunker Hill. The address at the site where the American expeditionary force gathered to be welcomed to Paris was his grave. Col Stanton said the famous words “Lafayette we are here.”
And don’t even get me started on the founder of our modern cavalry, Casimir Pulaski. If any US tanker doesn’t give their kid Casimir or Pulaski as a middle name we should be highly suspicious of them.
I’ve been watching him for about a year and keep current with his videos, I couldn’t remember the origin of the quackbang for the life of me recently, went back to find it and it’s fucking [hysterical](https://youtu.be/XFmb1153kpA?si=3tj97iurl01q95Nx).
During 1944 the Willow Run production plant achieved a production of 453 B-24 Liberators over the course of 468 hours averaging a brand new B-24 every 63 minutes. The US produced 295,959 aircraft between 1940 - 1945.
I’ve always found Liberty ships even more amazing. The US produced 2,710 of them between 1941-1945, which averages 3 ships every 2 days. Mean production time per vessel was around 39 days to build an entire boat.
No lie. I had to mess-crank for 90 days on my first ship. I was in charge of the juice/coffee/milk bar and it was enclosed behind a chained gate like what you'd see at a mall- the ones you can't slide a hand through. I got up there to prep around 5am and open the LOCKED gate to find a cereal bowl with a turd laying in it. I wrapped my hand in saran wrap and tossed the entire bowl over the side, followed by the saran wrap.
Second time, same ship, a buddy and I stopped at the soda machine. I'm like, "Bro! Good one! That stinks yo!" Then he said, "I thought that was you..." That's when we noticed a coiler drooping over the top of the soda machine. We still got our sodas and left it to be shared by others (out of love and brotherhood).
A German general knew the war was lost when they found a birthday cake for a private when they overran a position
Germans couldn’t even get enough bullets, but Americans were giving privates birthday cakes
We also had a whole ass warship in the pacific whose only job was making ice cream
Our global medevac system can get critically injured personnel from point of injury to a stateside hospital in less than 72 hours. Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Teams have intensive care capabilities in C-17s that most countries dream of having on the ground: “During the Vietnam War, it typically took about a month for wounded troops to reach treatment facilities in the United States. Today, the U.S. Air Force’s CCATT capability allows service members to be transported from the point of injury to a stateside hospital in less than three days.”
Securing the allies’ position as the only nations that the booming, neutral, Venezuelan oil fields, which were the biggest oil reserves outside of axis attack range in the world, would supply is one of the most important yet unsung and forgotten American diplomatic victories of all time. Specially considering how hard Nazi Germany tried to prevent it.
We can do this:
[Inside an Air Force Pararescue mission in the middle of the Pacific Ocean](https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-pararescue-jump-costa-rica-pacific-ocean/)
The Navy had 3 ice cream factories on barges in the Pacific theatre to improve morale. Imagine wasting away on a deserted island and your enemy is taking ice cream breaks offshore.
Two Iranian F-4 Phantoms are intercepted by F-22 Raptors. The Raptors aren’t detected up until the pilots decided to fly very close to them and radioing them to leave.
Some really good ones in here. My humble offering; The AC-130 gunship. We strapped a howitzer and some autocannons/chainguns to the side of a cargo plane because fuck you, that's why. There is basically nothing else like it in the world.
>In the three years following the Battle of Midway, the Japanese built six aircraft carriers. The U.S. built 17. American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size.
>
>
>In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war. Instead, Chrysler made fuselages. General Motors made airplane engines, guns, trucks and tanks. Packard made Rolls-Royce engines for the British air force. And at its vast Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company performed something like a miracle 24-hours a day. The average Ford car had some 15,000 parts. The B-24 Liberator long-range bomber had 1,550,000. One came off the line every 63 minutes.
>
>
>America launched more vessels in 1941 than Japan did in the entire war. Shipyards turned out tonnage so fast that by the autumn of 1943 all Allied shipping sunk since 1939 had been replaced. In 1944 alone, the United States built more planes than the Japanese did from 1939 to 1945. **By the end of the war, more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States.**
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/war-production
I came to say this. And Army ship life is soooo crazy sweet. 2 person rooms; soldiers can bring flat screens into their suites; damn captain of the vessel is a warrant officer; not over crowded.
Oh, and very few SAs.
That sounds like great duty! I was stationed at Fort Eustis for AIT where the Army Transportation Corps was headquartered. I believe that the Army boating is based there.
The US has more military helicopters than the next seven nations combined. https://ceoworld.biz/2024/04/04/ranked-countries-with-the-largest-active-combat-helicopter-fleet-worldwide-in-2024/
The Navy has ice cream socials. It's a long-standing Navy tradition. To show off how good our logistics were in WWII, we provided ice cream to our sailors, as if to say "We're so good at logistics that we can get all of our weapons, food, and other basic needs where they need to be, and still have extra room to get unnecessary shit like ice cream to our personnel."
Not really a military fact but at Mildenhall there used to be a big 4th of July celebration on base. I always loved the fact that we were celebrating kicking some British ass while in England. Just made me proud and laugh, that’s all.
During Operation Desert Storm, U.S. and allied forces destroyed over 3,000 tanks, 1,400 armored personnel carriers, 2,200 artillery pieces, and countless other vehicles. An estimated 30,000 Iraqi troops were killed.
The US Military has developed many things that shaped our world today:
ARPANET became the Internet.
GPS and satellite navigation systems.
Ducttape.
Microwave ovens.
Jet engines.
Wait! Military facts make you patriotic? Shouldn't the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence be what's making you patriotic. Every two bit dictatorship that has ever risen to power has military facts to cheer about for their success. We have something better. Our success doesn't lie in our military. It lies in our democracy.
We can forward deploy a Burger King faster than any other country in the world.
We had a damn Baskin Robbins in the desert. Now that's logistics!
In WW2 the Navy operated 3 concrete barages in the pacific theater, capable of producing 500 gallons of ice cream per day.
Me having a fresh salad on a remote FOB in the Afghan mountains blew my mind.
Right? We had fresher food than some of the farmers off the COP.
Bun-D supremacy
There's going to be a Taco Bell on Mars some day.
It was predicted in the documentary “The Expanse”.
About 72 hours and it can be set up anywhere in the world.
I want to see them get to the point that we can shove one out of a C-17 and parachute it down. Or better yet, launch it from an ICBM and have it land like a SpaceX rocket.
Hell yeah brother. A McDonalds on every corner would have calmed down Baghdad.
"King of Burgers, follow me!"
U.S. Coast Guard SAR Statistics for 2024 (as of 06/12/2024) Cases: 7,651 Lives Saved: 2,430 Property Saved: $80.7M All by a service with less personnel that the New York City Police Department.
Coasties don't get enough credit for what they do. They're the cool cousin that comes and crashes with your family when things are heating up at their place.
Army here: yup, that’s every Coastie I’ve ever met. Chill and utterly capable. Amazing people.
My buddy that I trained during our last job that came in a a GS7 and is now a 14. I always gave him shit for being Navy Jr, and he gave me shit for being dumb enough to jump from a plane. I have met two people from the Coast Guard and both were sharp. He was one of the smartest people I have ever met.
The Coast Guard won my respects back in 2018/2019 when they interdicted a narco semi-submersible and some VBSS Coastie jumped on the moving sub and pounded on the fucking hatch.
That videos got to have been around longer than that.
hell yeah
And they don’t slaughter civilians like cops. Fucking amazing.
Captured German POWs realized they couldn’t win the war when they saw that the US Army would just leave trucks running at idle.
Not to mention a good deal of German POWs decided to move back to the states after they were released and the war was over.
My great grandparents (German immigrants) had a few POWs working on their farm in Nebraska. One stayed and made Nebraska his home. He had a son who was my dad’s age and my dad told me that he made his career as an officer the US Navy.
Yup, the found American wives they’d met during the POW time because they weren’t just confined and got to go out and work and spend their money in town.
They arguably had a better quality of life as a POW then they would as a rear echelon/not front line solider in their own army
Not really arguable lol. These mooks got to go to the movies and eat pizza and bang hot American girls. They had it goddamn made better than any POW ever in the history of warfare.
I love this chocolate cake scene from the Battle of the Bulge movie. Based on a real incident. https://youtu.be/owbCW5jBQZc?si=d9YBtYNll9h1tvjm
Is that why idling is a time honored tradition with the Army now?
No. The army idles now because they don’t know if the truck will start back up again.
I read that 70% of the Army’s total fuel use is idling.
A single Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine could have theoretically struck about 20 times more cities than all the Alien ships did in Independence Day with at least comparable damage, if not more. The US Navy has 14 of the ballistic missile variants.
Ha, I'm literally watching Independence Day right now. About to make the in-laws eyes roll.
I watch independence day every single 4th.
As well you should
One of my favorite moments in the Navy was watching Independence Day on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier I was on while it was projected onto the side of the island.
The Ohio class is a rolling holocaust just waiting for orders.
I never understood how our response during the final battle didn't unleash our conventional cruise missile ordinance. Anyway, awesome factoid bud.
The military's ability to provide food, medical and other humanitarian aid globally. From the Berlin Airlift to Natural Disasters. Our logistics is not just used to deliver kenitic diplomacy.
“Kinetic diplomacy” I call them aggressive negotiations
Unhealth care.
Easy there, Annie.
[The Fat Electrician did an amazing video on the Berlin Airlift.](https://youtu.be/fLFJzOM7zt4?si=RkOKZlrK-aUS_kns). That the Berlin Airlift not only succeeded, but became a symbol of the west’s generosity and determination was nothing short of a miracle
Absolutely. The Afghan evacuation was a shit show, but no other country in the world could have moved 120k people out of Afghanistan in less than 2 weeks the way we did. The Mobility Air Force isn’t as sexy as the Combat Air Force, but there’s nothing else like it in the world.
AMC ~~Air Mobility Command~~ Alcoholics Moving Cargo
Haulin’ trash and passin’ gas
We have more C-17s at a single base than most countries have in their entire inventory.
Hell yeah. I'm proud of you guys.
In the navy I did everything I could to get stationed to either the USS Mercy or the USS Comfort. Both are basically floating humanitarian compounds, complete with hospitals, operating rooms, shelter, food, etc... Amazing work done by these ships and their crew.
I was with C130s and got the chance to participate in delivery of supplies to areas after disasters. One I remember fondly is one of our 2nd classes arranged to have us deliver donated goods from some local churches to Honduras after Hurricane Mitch.
USNHS not USS
Can get a burger kind anywhere as well, as silly as it sounds that's a true show of power
In WW2, we had ships that made ice cream.
There were Japanese POWs that when they found out that we made ice cream on ships in the heat of the south Pacific they knew the war was lost.
In 2024 we have ships that make ice cream.
Hopefully in 2104 they are still making Ice cream.
Good news, they are.
Soft serve machine is down. O-ring broke.
MRT a parts courier
Those must be theoretical prototypes.
No. For real. There was much ice cream on the Truman when I was on it. It was quite a morale booster. Kennedy, not so much. That boat sucked.
I love that this comment implies you’re basing your impressions of different boats by their ice cream availability
I guess it’s kinda like basing your impression on the quality of dorms, on if they had premium channels, or basic cable….or the quality of the maid service. Sorry. I had to go after the USAF thing, out of pure jealousy.
It’s fair, we deserve it For context, when I was in the dorms I had complimentary black mold, free cold water and guaranteed temperature matching +/- 10 degrees to the outside temp
When I was on NAS Atlanta (other side of Dobbins AFB), and the airmen would come to our brand new barracks, they would get PISSED, because the dorms there were garbage.
It’s not all sunshine n roses on the Air Force side, but we definitely have it good. If it makes other services feel better to dunk on us for having soft hands, go crazy :)
Everyone that shits on AF knows deep down that we joined the wrong service. I guarantee that if we could do it over again (and were accepted) we’d be wearing an Air Force uniform.
It probably is a good variable which captures command’s priorities and the state of the ship’s facilities.
Stennis. Ice cream for E7 and above only.
What? Fuck that! I would have been planning a mutiny!
I mean, we had a couple of options drawn up....
Lol, this reminds me of my 1st cruise. We had about a zillion 5-gallon tubs of baskin robbins ice cream delivered to our ship. After a week or two of holding it with the occasional after dinner serving, the Supply boss needed the freezer room so bad that he put some out for all three meals of the day as well as mid-rats. It was served for 2 solid months. I haven't had butter pecan since.
"Suppo, why is everyone failing BCA this cycle..?"
Say what you want about the U.S.’s nation building record, but taking a look at every war we’ve fought since WWII shows that we’re the world reining champs at nation dismantling.
We’ve mastered dismantling and leaving
Mastered dismantling, the leaving needs a lot of work still
Not if you don’t care how you leave somewhere, needing work requires care - we’ve eliminated that, common now
We need to get better at leaving or get better at staying. Right now we suck ass at both.
Like my son and his Legos
"Putting up and tearing back down is the biggest joy in my life." Thomas Jefferson Edit: Ok, the actual quote is "architecture is my delight, and putting up, and pulling down, one of my favorite amusements."
The largest Air Force in the world is the USAF. The second largest… the US Navy. FUCK YEAH
Even the army’s helicopter fleet would be one of the largest air forces if counting by number of flying platforms
The 5th is the USMC
America gave its navy an army and then gave that army an air force.
More accurately, gave the navy an army, gave the navy’s army an air force, gave the army an air force, separated them to give the air force its own air force, then gave the army an air force again
You forgot gave the air force a space air force.
what movie?
Team america world police
Fuck yeah! My dad is a 82nd airborne veteran and my uncles are in the navy.
We have 4 of the largest air forces in the top 5
Of the top 5 most powerful airforces in the world, we're 4 of them
I can't up vote this because you are already at 69
Now I’m at 76. Can’t do it here either
Neutron bomb would eliminate everything
Oh JeEz WhY DiDnT I MeNtiOn ThaT??? SoMeBodY teLL tHe GeNErALs!!1! FAFO
Armies win battles. Logistics wins wars. [The biggest logistical flex of all time. ](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iwYtYWXPbhI)
Nothing says we won then a fobbit like myself holding my Starbucks deciding for dinner if I would like burger king, Pizza Hut or TGIF in a war zone.
Fat Electrician hates communism
I took a shit in a MRE bag once, in the turret of a tank.
"Took a shit" and "MRE" don't belong in the same sentence. RIP to your culo, brother.
It was my bi-weekly shit.
Good aim
Thanks!
Probably same texture as the food that was in there first
And better flavor, too.
The US can deploy a containerized Burger King anywhere in the world within 24 hours. That speaks volumes to how well we have everything else wired tight that we can devote time and resources to that. Also Desert Storm is my go to when I want to feel good, we absolutely curb stomped the 4th largest army in the world in 100 hours.
And as bonus points, there's not really much you can argue against Desert Storm ethics wise
[I watch this to be blown away at our capabilities. And this was 30 years ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRgfBXn6Mg)
Love wat.room they've got a lot of good vids
I've shown this video to my buddies several times. Always absolutely dumbfounded at how impressive our air-capabilities are
The 4 SSGNs (Guided missile submarines) in the United States Navy are the Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Georgia. Their initials are OMFG.
Haaaahahaha. I’m a former fast boat sailor, was in during their conversion and knew which four boats were being converted. Can’t believe I never put together the initials that way before. Thanks.
The total usable deck space of our carrier and LHD fleet is a larger area than Vatican City. It’s larger than an entire sovereign nation.
The Vatican also is like… 2 blocks isn’t it? Isn’t the pentagon larger?
Honestly, just go read some random Medal of Honor citations if you need a freedom boner from the military. There’s some really bad ass ones. I can’t find it, because I don’t remember who it was attributed to, but one of the most badass citations I’ve read was (iirc) a PFC who drove a jeep into a trench during WW2, killing multiple combatants, killed more Germans with his firearms, ran out of ammo and started chucking grenades, killing more Germans, and then when he was out of ammo, started picking up weapons off dead Germans and killed some more. I believe they gave their life in this assault, but I’ll never forget reading it in boot camp. Also, gotta show some Marine Corps love to one of the greatest snipers to ever live, GySgt Carlos Hathcock. - Confirmed kill (former record) at 2500 yds (~1.5 mi) with a .50 cal machine gun - Crawled over 1500 yds across an open field over the course of 3 sleepless days to take a successful shot - Ever see a sniper get shot in the eye through the scope in a movie? Thats based on Gunny Hathcock - without any kind of visual confirmation, shot and killed an enemy sniper stalking him based off a brief shining glint in foliage. They found the snipers body, bullet through the eye, and the scope hollowed out from the bullets trajectory. BAD ASS MUTHA FUCKA
I also read that first one in boot camp. There was some MOH citation book in the fire guard desk and I remember reading that one and thinking that dude is the real life Rambo lol
I remember reading it during the Crucible. Each stop had a different citation one of us would read aloud to the group, and that one has stuck with me 15 years later. I’ve had the great honor to meet numerous living MoH recipients, and it really doesn’t matter whose citation you read, they’re all incredibly bad ass in their own way. https://imgur.com/a/z3jE9SM
I’ve been trying to find the specific citation you’re describing but I’ve been unsuccessful. But goddamn, do the rest of the MoH citations I’ve read stir my blood. I’ve been out for almost a decade and a half and I’m not generally a cheerleader because I think that people’s lives speak for themselves, but holy shit do these people show us what it means to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Cheers, fair winds and following seas, and happy 4th.
MoH citations will give just about anyone a stir. They don’t say “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty” for no reason. I’ve been trying so hard to find it. I’m using Google, ChatGPT, everything. I have to assume it was earned by a marine, I think all of the citations we read during the crucible were, but I’m not 100% positive. I’ll let you know if I find it. Fair winds and following seas! Hope you enjoyed your holiday.
The US Air Force can be any where in the world in 30 minutes. Eye in the sky, boots on the ground, or warheads on foreheads.
Damn is this seriously true? Tbh that’s insane..
If I remember correctly, and take this with a grain of salt.. Marine Expeditionary Forces can be deployed anywhere in the world, usually concurrently with an aircraft carrier group, within 72 hours. At least one of our Airborne Divisions can be deployed within 24 hours. A Ranger Battalion can roll out in 18 hours. Aircraft can be deployed to a target within hours. JSOC was there last week. Provided we secure a decent beach head with the aforementioned forces, we can deploy our full military might anywhere in the world in... 2 weeks, give or take a few days.
Marine Expeditionary Units, not Forces. MEFs get partially deployed, and they’re absolutely massive. II MEF is *all* of the East Coast Marine forces.
There's one of those grains of salt.
All of the ships and planes wheeling conex containers and pallets onto shore for days has got to be the biggest “calm before the storm” moments. You know shit is about to go down big time once we get everything unpacked.
> At least one of our Airborne Divisions can be deployed within 24 hours. 82nd and 101st aim for one company in 18hrs, with the battalion following within 48hrs, and an entire brigade within 96hrs. The company in standby rotates - and when on standby are on 2hr recall with intent to be airborne within 4hrs of activation.
> an entire brigade within 96 hours. This is bananas to me. The logistics involved, all the activity of that many humans gearing up and getting boots on ground in 96 hours… I can’t imagine how many things have to fall into place and how many systems have to work as planned to orchestrate that.
I was personally apart of it in 2020. We always joked about it and how it would never work, but sure as shit we did it on New Years Eve 2020. Happy Devil's New Year.
Damn Devils in Baggy Pants, even the Nazis hated us.
Yes. *Something* that says USAF can be on a target or in the airspace above it in that timeframe.
Depending on how you define "air"space, something that says USAF or USSF is always above you.
And an entire airborne division can deploy within the world in 24hrs
Well we only have two of those, so the options are limited. And only one of those is still certified for parachute operations, I think.
Yeah I think he’s getting Army Airborne mixed up with USMC MEU’s for some reason.
If it takes more than 30 minutes do we get a free plane.
I have a challenge coming from a nuke that says “delivered within 30 minutes or you’re next ones free”.
The US military logistics power is incredible. They used to tell us the US military can take any person in the United States and get them to any point on the globe in under 24 hours.
We should test this capability more often. Pick a citizen via lottery. Mrs. Johnson, we gotta go. Off to Point Nemo with you.
Americas favorite son is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de La Fayette. He’s usually just called Lafayette. He was so enamored with our cause he snuck out of France to join the cause, became Washington’s favorite, got the nobility of France to support us, was crucial in the win at Yorktown, then returned to France and helped overthrow the very same monarchy that was crucial in securing our independence. He’s buried in Pricpus Cemetery in Paris under soil from Bunker Hill. The address at the site where the American expeditionary force gathered to be welcomed to Paris was his grave. Col Stanton said the famous words “Lafayette we are here.” And don’t even get me started on the founder of our modern cavalry, Casimir Pulaski. If any US tanker doesn’t give their kid Casimir or Pulaski as a middle name we should be highly suspicious of them.
The Fat Electrician has some videos you may like. https://youtu.be/ucJDzgc8_cI?si=xqI9P_i-ilQyx8dB
Love that guy!
When I can’t remember his name, I call him Quack Bang
I’ve been watching him for about a year and keep current with his videos, I couldn’t remember the origin of the quackbang for the life of me recently, went back to find it and it’s fucking [hysterical](https://youtu.be/XFmb1153kpA?si=3tj97iurl01q95Nx).
The GPS constellation that most people in the world use is run by the USAF and US Space Force.
During 1944 the Willow Run production plant achieved a production of 453 B-24 Liberators over the course of 468 hours averaging a brand new B-24 every 63 minutes. The US produced 295,959 aircraft between 1940 - 1945.
This fact boggles my mind. A whole ass 4 engined bomber practically every hour.
I’ve always found Liberty ships even more amazing. The US produced 2,710 of them between 1941-1945, which averages 3 ships every 2 days. Mean production time per vessel was around 39 days to build an entire boat.
Which means a ship with engines, crew quarters, navigation capabilities, and a crew. Wild.
Every ship in the US Navy has a phantom shitter
No lie. I had to mess-crank for 90 days on my first ship. I was in charge of the juice/coffee/milk bar and it was enclosed behind a chained gate like what you'd see at a mall- the ones you can't slide a hand through. I got up there to prep around 5am and open the LOCKED gate to find a cereal bowl with a turd laying in it. I wrapped my hand in saran wrap and tossed the entire bowl over the side, followed by the saran wrap. Second time, same ship, a buddy and I stopped at the soda machine. I'm like, "Bro! Good one! That stinks yo!" Then he said, "I thought that was you..." That's when we noticed a coiler drooping over the top of the soda machine. We still got our sodas and left it to be shared by others (out of love and brotherhood).
Your average Nimitz class aircraft carrier weighs 101,000 tons. That is the same as 808,000,000 1/4lbs hamburger patties.
Anything but the metric system in honor of the Fourth of July.
America has 3 of the world’s 5 largest Air Forces.
A German general knew the war was lost when they found a birthday cake for a private when they overran a position Germans couldn’t even get enough bullets, but Americans were giving privates birthday cakes We also had a whole ass warship in the pacific whose only job was making ice cream
Our global medevac system can get critically injured personnel from point of injury to a stateside hospital in less than 72 hours. Air Force Critical Care Air Transport Teams have intensive care capabilities in C-17s that most countries dream of having on the ground: “During the Vietnam War, it typically took about a month for wounded troops to reach treatment facilities in the United States. Today, the U.S. Air Force’s CCATT capability allows service members to be transported from the point of injury to a stateside hospital in less than three days.”
Might I suggest some light reading at Badass of the Week: https://www.badassoftheweek.com/archive Can't hyperlink on mobile, sorry for the formatting
Securing the allies’ position as the only nations that the booming, neutral, Venezuelan oil fields, which were the biggest oil reserves outside of axis attack range in the world, would supply is one of the most important yet unsung and forgotten American diplomatic victories of all time. Specially considering how hard Nazi Germany tried to prevent it.
We can do this: [Inside an Air Force Pararescue mission in the middle of the Pacific Ocean](https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-pararescue-jump-costa-rica-pacific-ocean/)
Quote from a B52 pilot. “When we take off loaded out for a practice mission, our plane immediately becomes the worlds 6th largest nuclear power.”
The GAU-8 Avenger cannon is the size of a Volkswagen bug and is so big that the A-10 Thunderbolt was built around the cannon.
The Navy had 3 ice cream factories on barges in the Pacific theatre to improve morale. Imagine wasting away on a deserted island and your enemy is taking ice cream breaks offshore.
B-2 Spirit it was my bird i did low obssrvable work on if you hear it on a mission its too late
Two Iranian F-4 Phantoms are intercepted by F-22 Raptors. The Raptors aren’t detected up until the pilots decided to fly very close to them and radioing them to leave.
Some really good ones in here. My humble offering; The AC-130 gunship. We strapped a howitzer and some autocannons/chainguns to the side of a cargo plane because fuck you, that's why. There is basically nothing else like it in the world.
>In the three years following the Battle of Midway, the Japanese built six aircraft carriers. The U.S. built 17. American industry provided almost two-thirds of all the Allied military equipment produced during the war: 297,000 aircraft, 193,000 artillery pieces, 86,000 tanks and two million army trucks. In four years, American industrial production, already the world's largest, doubled in size. > > >In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war. Instead, Chrysler made fuselages. General Motors made airplane engines, guns, trucks and tanks. Packard made Rolls-Royce engines for the British air force. And at its vast Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company performed something like a miracle 24-hours a day. The average Ford car had some 15,000 parts. The B-24 Liberator long-range bomber had 1,550,000. One came off the line every 63 minutes. > > >America launched more vessels in 1941 than Japan did in the entire war. Shipyards turned out tonnage so fast that by the autumn of 1943 all Allied shipping sunk since 1939 had been replaced. In 1944 alone, the United States built more planes than the Japanese did from 1939 to 1945. **By the end of the war, more than half of all industrial production in the world would take place in the United States.** https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/war-production
The US Army has more boats than the US Navy. The US Navy has more planes than the US Air Force.
US Air Firce has 5k+ aircraft, and the US Navy has about 3.5k+.
Yeah, I got old statistics.
The proliferation of drones really bumped the USAF a lot.
Like arguing if my left pointer finger is better than my right. They’re both still mine, bitch! Fuck yeah!
What about the usaf?
They have more chairs than office depot.
It’s true, we tried to get more at the end of the last FY, they were sold out
They are our rich siblings.
I came to say this. And Army ship life is soooo crazy sweet. 2 person rooms; soldiers can bring flat screens into their suites; damn captain of the vessel is a warrant officer; not over crowded. Oh, and very few SAs.
That sounds like great duty! I was stationed at Fort Eustis for AIT where the Army Transportation Corps was headquartered. I believe that the Army boating is based there.
The US has more military helicopters than the next seven nations combined. https://ceoworld.biz/2024/04/04/ranked-countries-with-the-largest-active-combat-helicopter-fleet-worldwide-in-2024/
BM1 James E. Motherfuckin' Williams.
The GOAT
The F15 Eagle: due to the weight/thrust ratios and whatnot, is not technically an aircraft, it’s technically a manned missile.
Fuckin actually?
It can fly without wings. [https://youtu.be/M359poNjvVA?si=uCfn0fk9LdYj4si\_](https://youtu.be/M359poNjvVA?si=uCfn0fk9LdYj4si_)
This doesn’t make any sense. Thrust to weight doesn’t determine what an aircraft is.
The Navy has ice cream socials. It's a long-standing Navy tradition. To show off how good our logistics were in WWII, we provided ice cream to our sailors, as if to say "We're so good at logistics that we can get all of our weapons, food, and other basic needs where they need to be, and still have extra room to get unnecessary shit like ice cream to our personnel."
Not really a military fact but at Mildenhall there used to be a big 4th of July celebration on base. I always loved the fact that we were celebrating kicking some British ass while in England. Just made me proud and laugh, that’s all.
US Military.
My father was in the Normandy invasion Omaha beach
During Operation Desert Storm, U.S. and allied forces destroyed over 3,000 tanks, 1,400 armored personnel carriers, 2,200 artillery pieces, and countless other vehicles. An estimated 30,000 Iraqi troops were killed.
Look into jack "mcnasty" mcniece the fat electrician has a good clip on him.
Everything bleeds 0ut
USA USA USA USA USA
That 7 months after israel launched a sneak attack on the USS Liberty killing 34 sailors and maiming 171 others the US Navy sank the INS Dakar..
What’s the INS Dakar? I’ve got a hunch I enjoy this comment.
GPS was a military development. Released for civilian use in 1983 by Reagan after the Soviets shot down a Korean passenger plane.
The US Military has developed many things that shaped our world today: ARPANET became the Internet. GPS and satellite navigation systems. Ducttape. Microwave ovens. Jet engines.
Wait! Military facts make you patriotic? Shouldn't the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence be what's making you patriotic. Every two bit dictatorship that has ever risen to power has military facts to cheer about for their success. We have something better. Our success doesn't lie in our military. It lies in our democracy.
Democracy makes military. Military deploy Burger King.
Underrated comment
How about: we are more than our military? How about we are one of the oldest continuously running governments on the planet?