.mil HAck suggests that the lessons of 1949-1951 Korea have been COMPLETELY forgotten

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[Hey Despots, this would have fit REALLY WELL into a strictly .mil archive if'n y'all'd had one...]

I'm only going to set a few snips here because these folks have copyrighted their work, and, while there IS a Fair Use exemption for snippage and quotes, posting the whole enchilada might NOT be viewed well. And besides these guys, regardless their age are in MUCH better shape than I am and they have EACH forgotten WAY more about the art of redress than I have or will ever learn.
The articles, in their entirety can be viewed (and I might add OUGHT to be viewed by EVERYONE at:
SFTT
they are all from the "Defending America News Letter at that site.
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HACK’s Target For The Week:
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Here We Go Again!
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Ed.: Hack correctly reminds of the lessons of Korea. Fehrenbach’s "This Kind of War" is well worth the read!
****************************
By David Hackworth
Playing cat-and-mouse off the coast of China is bad news. These high-risk missions aren't about gaining intelligence; they're about twisting a tiger's tail -- and it's doubtful if anything of military value will come from our high-profile snooping. But for sure the missions will ratchet up our new Cold War, not to mention the profits of the weapon peddlers.
At least this time around our Air Force RC-135 recon planes won't be 50 years old like our now-stripped-and-searched Navy surveillance bird. And for Round Two, our aircraft will be protected by F-15 fighters -- backed up by even more sharp teeth.
Expect the Chinese to react. They said stay away, and if history is any indicator, they mean what they say.
On Oct. 1, 1950, during the early months of the Korean War, Mao Tse-tung said, "The Chinese people will not tolerate foreign aggression and will not stand aside if the imperialists (read USA) wantonly invade the territory of their neighbor."
Mao also said that if our forces continued to roar up the North Korean peninsula while chewing up what was left of Kim Il Sung's mob, he'd have a "severe shock" for Douglas MacArthur's Army.
An arrogant MacArthur and an out-of-touch Washington wrote off Mao's warnings, concluding, "The Chinese would not dare to intervene."
Except that's exactly what they dared to do when hundreds of thousands of tennis-shoe-clad soldiers padded across the Yalu River in 20-degrees-below weather and kicked our frozen superpower butt.
The assessment of Gen. Walton Walker, MacArthur's Army commander when China entered the fray, says it all: "We should not assume the Chinese are committed in force; after all, a lot of Mexicans live in Texas."
The primitive Red Army clobbered our modern forces in spite of seas full of our ships, skies full of our aircraft, our mass artillery and more than 1,000 tanks. The score in January 1951, six weeks after they put muscle to their threat: Chinese 100, Yanks 0.
End snip. Go read the rest for the FULL cautionary tale. And remember just WHO is writing this article. this is the guy who quite LITERALLY rewrote the battle handbook while he was fighting in Korea, and actually WROTE the battle handbook for Viet Nam (not to say the Brass FOLLOWED his book but...) IIRC he was involved in salvaging what could be salvaged out of the failed Desert One Hostage Rescue in Iran and had some handles in the making of Delta Force but I MIGHT be confusing him with another guy...


ARTICLE 1
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An Inside Look At The China Rescue Mission
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Ed.: An interesting look at the rescue operation through the eyes of a pilot who participated in the mission. Although we only have room for excerpts, it gives you an appreciation for the professionalism and the teamwork of those that made the Continental Airlines mission a success. What’s truly American and patriotic about this story is that the men and women involved were quiet professionals who did their duty as a team and as if on a routine passenger mission. A great effort and success!
****************************
By Captain Guy Greider, Continental Airlines


Yup, a teaser, go read the full article at the site.

Here is a less than fawning assessment of the Chinese Plane incident. I prefer the assessment at www.sierratimes.com from CMDR DON, but here is the other side:

ARTICLE 4
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Good Job, But No Heroics
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Ed.: A fair assessment of the recent incident.
***************************
By Jerry Burns, retired Navy Topgun Instructor
I am a former naval officer and aviator who retired in 1999. While in the service, I accumulated over 3000 flight hours in the P-3 and more than 2000 hours in the F-14 fighter. I flew combat missions in both Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. I also was a Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor, trained at the Navy Fighter Weapons School commonly known as TOPGUN. I share this information, not to brag about my military career, but to give you a sense of my experience base.
I have been listening with great interest, to the debate over the issues involved in the Chinese detention of our service members after a Chinese fighter rammed their EP-3E intelligence gathering aircraft. There is absolutely no question that the Chinese military was responsible for this incident. And, there is absolutely no question that, after this incident occurred, the most important issue was to get our people home.
I must take exception however, with the assertion that the actions of this crew were "heroic." After the impact, the pilot of the EP-3E momentarily lost control of his aircraft but was able to regain it and safely land the plane. In short, if the plane was controllable enough to land, it was controllable enough to fly and should have been flown to a friendly airfield. Even if, as has been reported, the crew was able to complete the "emergency destruction" checklist prior to landing, the hardware that they gave to a potential future adversary will provide the Chinese a tremendous technological leap forward for their military machine.



The rest of the letter is just as edifying (not necessarily good but certainly edifying). AND there are some REAL interesting links to other sites. Milo

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Answers

Very interesting read, milo. thanks for putting it up.

One line there caught my eye, In short, if the plane was controllable enough to land, it was controllable enough to fly and should have been flown to a friendly airfield.

The author seems to have forgotten that there was an armed escort directing the plane to land on that island. Any attempt to land elsewhere or leave the area may have resulted in being shot down. Being shot down makes the plane even harder to fly...

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001


Thanks for the info, Milo. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on over on the far side of the Pacific. BTW, haven't seen a Horse Clans reference in years and years. Those books still around or have they been relegated to the remainder table of history? Also BTW, I notice you have a particular writing style that reminds me of a regular poster on other boards I frequent. You're not a high-mileage kinda guy, are you, in the after-sundown set?

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001

Cash, we know who Milo is--after we deleted his posts and he contacted us! We didn't know who you were until we tracked down your ISP and found only one name on the address list with that IP! When we see an unfamiliar handle it makes us think the password's been handed around and then we wonder who will end up with it.

Again, please, y'all, don't use strange handles unless you give us a warning, privately via e-mail if you like--it's likely to get your post deleted.

-- Anonymous, April 25, 2001


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