WASHINGTON — Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II.
The ship, with 1,195 personnel aboard, delivered enriched uranium and other parts of the atomic bomb ‘‘Little Boy” that was later dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.
Four days after delivering its top secret cargo, the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Of nearly 900 men who went into the Philippine Sea, just 316 survived before being rescued nearly five days later. The death toll of 879 was the largest single disaster at sea in U.S. Navy history. Continue reading “”
The identities of the seven presumed dead U.S. Marines and one Sailor were identified early Monday, along with an eighth U.S. Marine who died on the scene following an amphibious assault vehicle accident on Thursday.
The eight missing service members’ identities are as follows:
Pfc. Bryan J. Baltierra, 18, of Corona, California, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Lance Cpl. Marco A. Barranco, 21, of Montebello, California, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Pfc. Evan A. Bath, 19, of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
U.S. Navy Hospitalman Christopher Gnem, 22, of Stockton, California, a hospital corpsman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Pfc. Jack Ryan Ostrovsky, 21, of Bend, Oregon, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Cpl. Wesley A. Rodd, 23, of Harris, Texas, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Lance Cpl. Chase D. Sweetwood, 19, of Portland, Oregon, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
Cpl. Cesar A. Villanueva, 21, of Riverside, California, a rifleman with Bravo Company, BLT 1/4, 15th MEU.
The ninth service member — who died on the scene and was the first reported casualty — was identified as
Lance Cpl. Guillermo S. Perez, 20, of New Braunfels, Texas. He was a rifleman with Bravo Company, Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/4, 15th MEU. Continue reading “”
One U.S. Marine has died and eight more remain unaccounted for after an accident involving an Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV) off the coast of California Thursday.
“1 Marine has died, 8 service members remain missing and 2 were injured after an AAV mishap July 30 off the coast of Southern California. All are assigned to the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15th MEU). Search and rescue efforts are still underway with support from the Navy and Coast Guard,” the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) confirmed the incident in a Tweet Friday.
The Pentagon on Wednesday laid out a plan to shift nearly 12,000 service members out of Germany after President Donald Trump repeatedly said the country was “delinquent” on defense spending.
Top defense leaders said the plan, which would bring 6,400 service members home and reposition nearly 5,600 to other countries in Europe, is part of the Pentagon’s broader effort to redistribute U.S. forces across the world to better compete with new threats from Russia and China. The move will leave 24,000 troops in Germany, where the United States has stationed a significant number of forces since the end of the Cold War.
The Marines are about to get their hands on an impressive bit of hardware: A wearable robotic exoskeleton that gives users super strength. The company delivering the unit, a defense-focused subsidiary of Sarcos Robotics developed the exoskeleton for industrial uses, including in energy and construction.
Still, in many ways, this is a return to roots for Sarcos. In 2000, the company was part of a storied class of DARPA grant recipients working on powered exoskeletons for defense purposes. In many ways, the XO, which conserves energy by remaining passive when not actuated, is the fulfillment of that research.
Another exoskeleton maker, Ekso Bionics, came out of the same DARPA grant.
According to Sarcos, the U.S. Marine Corps will test applications for its Guardian XO Alpha, which was first unveiled earlier this year at CES 2020, where it was named “Top Emerging Technology” by Digital Trends,“Best Robot” byPCMag.com, “The Best Ideas and Products of CES” by VentureBeat, and was recognized by WIRED Magazine as being one of the smartest technologies on the show floor. Although the suit may bring to mind nightmares of battlefield cyborgs, the more immediate applications will be in the realm of logistics, where heavy lifting is often necessary. Continue reading “”
I was wondering when these would come out. Back in the day, I had the opportunity to work on a the 3rd COSCOM commander’s GO M9 pistol when his driver came by our shop in Wiesbaden with the replacement grooved slide and large head hammer pin ‘solution’ to the slides breaking.
We tried, but we never could figure out a way to keep it.
In the U.S. Navy, “shock trials” involve taking a warship to sea and conducting drills to see how well she might absorb the stress of combat. The Navy has lately experienced institutional shock trials: bribery scandals, collisions and sundry other public-relations nightmares. This week in San Diego the USS Bonhomme Richard, a $750 million amphibious assault ship, caught fire and burned for days. Earlier this year, Capt. Brett Crozier was relieved of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after writing a letter saying he needed to move his sailors off the aircraft carrier to arrest an outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
High-profile mishaps and unwanted publicity point to an overarching problem: For several years the Navy has been forced to do too much with too little, a debate that deserves wider attention. The Navy also seems to be suffering from a cultural dysfunction in the chain of command. To repair it, the Navy will need to reinvent its process for refining leaders and perhaps even the service’s broader mission. What’s at stake is the quality of American military talent that fights the next war—an eventuality that seems less far-fetched amid the tense mood of a global pandemic.
The 2017 crashes in the Western Pacific involving the USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald still loom large in the Navy. An investigation revealed that Pacific fleet ships were going to sea with too little training and that crews weren’t skilled in the basics of sea navigation. Also implicated was the Navy’s “can do” culture—the propensity of naval officers to try to get the job done no matter the cost.
As I write this, the USS Bonhomme Richard — a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship — burns at Pier 2, Naval Station San Diego. Scores of Navy and civilian firefighters have fought the blaze for over 72 hours and it is difficult to tell from afar how much progress is being made.
One thing is clear: The ship will likely be, at best, out of action for years or, at worst, stricken from Navy rolls. In either case, there will be considerable impact to ongoing naval operations, force development efforts, and naval integration initiatives. While navalists tend to judge navies by the number of ships that comprise them, the plain truth is that not all ships are created equal. The loss of some ships is much worse than others. That is what Americans are watching happen before their eyes. Confidence in the Navy is shaken.
What? Speak louder, I can’t hear for the ringing in my ears.
Actually, this is a good deal. The more suppressors are ‘main streamed’ in the military, the more people will want them when they leave the service, and the more they will hate them being restricted under the NFA.
Marine grunts in close combat formations will start receiving suppressors for their small arms at the end of this year, Task & Purpose has learned.
Marine Corps Systems Command on Thursday announced its intent to award a single-source contract to Knight’s Armament Company for 5.56 small arms suppressors for use on the Corps’ arsenal of M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles, M4 carbines, and M4A1 Close Quarter Battle Weapons.
In an email to Task & Purpose, MARCORSYSCOM confirmed that the Corps plans on fielding those suppressors to close combat units starting in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. [that starts this October 1 ed.]
“Our intent is to posture our Marines with capability now in order to improve the lethality of our Marine Corps Close Combat Forces,” MARCORSYSCOM spokesman Many Pacheco said.
Amphibious assault ship one of the few in U.S. fleet that can launch F-35 operations
WASHINGTON—The fire aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard showed no sign of abating Monday, raising fears that one of the few U.S. Navy ships that can operate like a mini aircraft carrier is damaged beyond repair.
The Navy is “doing everything we can do” to save the ship, Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of the Navy’s Expeditionary Strike Group 3, said at a press conference in San Diego on Monday, a day after the fire broke out. But he said the vessel’s mast had collapsed and that there was “burn damage all the way through the skin of the ship.”
Navy officials said it could be days before the fire is contained, and pictures and video Monday captured plumes of smoke billowing from the ship into San Diego’s sunny skies. Some local officials encouraged residents to stay inside, amid fears about the effect of the fire on air quality around the San Diego area.
The ship, named for the French translation of Benjamin Franklin’s nom de plume “Poor Richard,” is among a handful of amphibious assault ships reconfigured to enable the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to take off from its deck. That capability allows it to be used for offensive air operations. It conducted its first missions with F-35s aboard in 2018.
Several sailors were being treated for a variety of injuries after a fire broke out on a ship at the U.S. Naval base in San Diego, according to the San Diego
“You are losing one of the few platforms that you could use to fill in for a carrier in the Middle East when our attention is focused on the Pacific,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
An Army National Guard soldier marked a new milestone in the U.S. military Thursday by graduating from the grueling Special Forces Qualification Course (Q Course) to become the first woman to join Special Forces
U.S. Army Special Operations Command would not identify the soldier, but confirmed that she graduated from the 53-week course in a ceremony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, according to a USASOC release.
The deployment of three 100,000-ton US Navy aircraft carriers to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in years has drawn swift reaction from China, with state-sponsored media saying Beijing will not back down to defend its interests in the region.
The USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Theodore Roosevelt are both patrolling in the western Pacific, while the USS Nimitz is in the east, according to US Navy press releases. With each vessel containing more than 60 aircraft, it represents the biggest deployment of US aircraft carriers in the Pacific since 2017 — when tensions with North Korea over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program were at their peak.
The presence of the carriers was first highlighted in an Associated Press report on Friday.
“Carriers and carrier strike groups writ large are phenomenal symbols of American naval power. I really am pretty fired up that we’ve got three of them at the moment,” Rear Adm. Stephen Koehler, director of operations at Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, told AP.
On Sunday, the Communist Party’s Global Times mouthpiece said the carriers could threaten troops in the disputed South China Sea.
The United States embassy said Wednesday that American special forces will assist Colombia’s security forces in counter-narcotics operations in war-torn areas prioritized in the peace process.
The so-called Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) will carry out joint missions in what President Ivan Duque calls “Future Zones,” regions historically abandoned by the state and controlled by the FARC until their demobilization in 2017.
Four of these five areas are also major coca growing regions where dissident FARC factions and other illegal armed groups maintain control over the drug trade with increased help of Mexican drug cartel emissaries.
The SFAB mission in Colombia is an opportunity to show our mutual commitment against drug trafficking and support for regional peace, respect for sovereignty and the lasting promise to defend shared ideals and values.
US Southern Command chief Admiral Craig Faller
The SFAB mission of “several months” will begin in June as part of a the “Enhanced Counter Narcotics Operations” carried out throughout the hemisphere “to reduce the flow of illicit drugs, degrade transnational criminal organizations, and increase interoperability with our partner nations and interagency partners,” the US Southern Command said in April.
US President Donald Trump announced these operations early last month as part of what Defense Secretary Mark Esper called a “whole-of-government approach to combating the flow of illicit drugs into the United States and protecting the American people from their scourge.”
The production and export of cocaine in Colombia “kills our farmers, destroys forests, wildlife and contaminates the rivers and seas,” the US embassy quoted Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo as saying.
The SFAB’s of more than 500 soldiers did not exist until 2018 and also meant to bolster US allies dubbed “weak states” by American military scholars.
Colombia, whose state has historically been considered weak, has been struggling to lower cocaine production, partially because its National Army has been bogged down by corruption.
EVERETT, Wash. — A suspected burglar was shot dead by a homeowner during an apparent break-in in Everett Thursday morning.
The homeowner called 911 just before 5 a.m. to report shooting someone inside his home along 126th Street Southeast, according to Aaron Snell with Everett Police. Officers arrived to find a critically wounded man in his 30s. Officers and medics attempted to revive the man, but he was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe the burglar broke into the home and went into a room containing guns. The homeowner, a man in his 70s, awoke to sounds in his home, confronted the intruder and shot him, Snell said.
“That’s probably what I’d do, too,” said Brad Miller, who lives nearby. “‘Cause I’m a firearms owner. If it happens, I’m ready to do the same thing.”………..
While in the skies above, pilots in modern military aircraft often have no shortage of weapons literally at their fingertips, but a pilot who finds himself on the ground behind enemy lines is worse than a bird with clipped wings. During the First and Second World Wars, the best a pilot could have in the way of a personal defense weapon or survival gun was a sidearm. Later, during the early stages of the Cold War, the United States Air Force relied on what were some rather odd survival weapons. Let’s take a look at the various survival rifles over the years, leading up to the GAU-5A.
Survival Guns Over the Years
M4 Survival Rifle
These included the M4 Survival Rifle, a .22 caliber bolt-action rifle that was developed by Harrington & Richardson from their commercial M265 sporting rifle. It featured a sheet metal frame with a telescoping wire buttstock. It was, simply put, “better than nothing,” but it was mainly intended as a survival gun to allow a downed aircrew to forage wild game for food rather than to deal with a hostile enemy.
Developed after World War II for downed aircrews, the M4 Survival Rifle was better than nothing. But it wouldn’t be a pilot’s first choice when facing an enemy soldier! (Photo: Creative Commons/Public Domain)
M6 Air Crew Survival Weapon
The M6 Air Crew Survival Weapon was another weapon that was developed by the Ithaca Gun Company and the Springfield Armory as rifle/shotgun designed for pilots who flew over the Arctic and other uninhabited areas. Again, it was more for foraging than defending, which prompted the Air Force to explore other options.
Developed by the Air Material Command after World War II, the M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon was designed to fit into the standard USAF survival kit. It was issued to pilots flying over the Arctic and other uninhabited regions. (Photo: Creative Commons/Public Domain)
AR-5 and AR-7 Explorer
From that came the AR-5, a bolt action takedown rifle that was still chambered for the .22 Hornet cartridge, and that led to the ArmaLite AR-7 Explorer, a semi-automatic firearm in .22 Long Rifle caliber that was developed by Eugene Stoner. Introduced in 1959 it is still in use today as an aircrew as well as civilian survival gun. While a generally reliable firearm – so much so that it has been adopted around the world, including by the Israeli Air Force — the AR-7 was lacking in stopping power.
ArmaLite AR-5 is a lightweight bolt-action takedown rifle chambered for the .22 Hornet cartridge. The USAF adopted it as the MA-1 aircrew survival gun. (Photo: USAF)The AR-7 was designed by American firearms designer Eugene Stoner, who is most associated with the development of the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle that was adopted by the US military as the M16. The civilian AR-7’s intended markets today are backpackers and other recreational users as a takedown utility rifle. (Photo: Creative Commons/Public Domain)
GAU-5/A
Hence the Air Force turned to another of Stoner’s designs – namely the AR-15 platform that was adopted by the U.S. military as the M-16. The Air Force had been the first branch of the service to adopt the AR-15. They soon decided to adopt a carbine version with a 10.5-inch barrel and 4-inch flash hider. The Air Force, unlike the Army or Marines, had no naming convention for small arms and simply put the weapon in its aircraft gun category. Thus was born the GAU-5/A. It became the standard issue weapon for Security Police dog handlers and other specialized personnel. GA was meant to denote an automatic gun while U was for “unit” hence: “Gun, Automatic, Unit.”
Where it gets confusing is that the U.S. Army adopted a nearly identical version of the weapon, which Colt –then the sole maker of the CAR-15 line of military firearms – called the XM177E1. Both versions select fire with semi- and full-automatic fire modes and each was officially classified by Colt as submachine guns. This was despite the fact that these still were chambered in the .223 Remington cartridge rather than a pistol cartridge that is typically used in submachine guns
The original Air Force version of the CAR-15 Submachine Gun without the forward assist. (Photo: Springfield Armory/Public Domain)
GUU-5/P
The Air Force’s GAU-5 was updated as the GUU-5/P, which featured a longer 14.5-inch barrel with a 1-in-12 twist. Otherwise, the firearm kept the modular design that had made the CAR-15s popular with the military.
The GAU-5 was upgraded as the GUU-5P for use an anti-personnel weapon. (Photo: USAF/Public Domain)
Model 608 CAR-15 Survival Rifle
During the Vietnam War, the Air Force also developed the Model 608 CAR-15 Survival Rifle, which was meant for use by downed aircrews. This model, which resembled the Colt Commando, also featured a 10-inch barrel. Its modular design allowed it to be broken down into two subassemblies and stowed in a seat pack.
GAU-5A
In recent years the Air Force has again considered the benefits of a modular takedown weapon. This has included the GAU-5A. The new version is a modified M-4 carbine, the same type that is currently used by the U.S. Army and United States Marine Corps, as well as Air Force security personnel. This version is a modified “takedown”. It can break into two major pieces for storage within an aircraft that includes the ACES II ejection seat.
These new versions were designed by the Air Force Gunsmith Shop, which was first formed in 1958 to repair and refurbish small arms for the Air Force. The crafty Airmen at the Gunsmith Shop have made numerous modifications to the M4. One modification was replacing the standard 14.5-inch barrel with a 12.5-inch to reduce the overall length. This was done in part to ensure that it can fit in the aforementioned ejection seat. That is no ordinary barrel but rather the specialized Cry Havoc Tactical Quick Release Barrel (QRB) kit, which allows the gun to neatly break into two pieces.
The GAU-5A weighs just under seven pounds and can be put together in about 30 seconds. (Photo: USAF)
The weapon weighs less than seven pounds and can be put together in just about 30 seconds. That might still be more time than most pilots would like to spend on the ground in hostile territory. Still, it will give those flyers some much-appreciated firepower.
Unlike the original survival weapons that were primarily only good for foraging, the GAU-5A fires the high-velocity 5.56mm round. So it can take down large game. More importantly, it can take down any enemy soldier who finds a pilot with the unfortunate luck of being shot down.
To date, the Air Force’s Gunsmith Shop has built and shipped out some 2,700 of the new weapons. The cost to develop the system was around $2.6 million. So the GAU-5A price tag is less than $1,000 or what a reasonably decent civilian AR-15 would cost.
You don’t have to use a gun to slug a thug.
And any car has all kinds of foot pounds of energy.
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — An active-duty soldier at Fort Leavenworth intervened in an active-shooter situation Wednesday morning on Centennial Bridge in Leavenworth, Kansas, and “saved countless lives,” according to police.
Leavenworth Police Chief Patrick Kitchens said they initially received a multiple shots fired call around 11 a.m. from the bridge and believed the case to be road rage. But after further investigation, police found it was an active shooter situation with a suspect randomly firing at vehicles passing by with a handgun and a semi-automatic rifle.
“This was an active shooter with multiple weapons on the bridge, firing at cars with no particular association,” Kitchens said.
At least seven bullets flew through the window of a Ford Taurus. Two other cars were shot. Investigators said a Fort Leavenworth soldier, who was in one of those vehicles, was wounded.
“There was an active-duty soldier assigned to Fort Leavenworth waiting in traffic behind the event who saw the event unfold and determined it was an active shooter,” Kitchens said. “The soldier intervened by striking the shooter with his vehicle, causing him to be critically injured, ending the encounter with the active shooter and likely saving countless lives.”
Kitchens said the suspected shooter is a Platte County, Missouri, resident.
“There doesn’t appear to be a target,” Kitchens said. “The person was simply, randomly firing at vehicles as they passed by.”
“Me and another patient just heard some sirens and I was like, ‘Wow. That’s awful close,'” said April Steinke, of Nextcare Urgent Care.
Steinke said she was impressed by the soldier’s quick thinking.
“That’s a hero to me,” she said.
Prior to the shooting, the Kansas Department of Transportation had closed one lane on the bridge for road work. Investigators are not sure yet what motivated the man to target random people. Detectives are looking into the shooter’s history.
Many people are focused on the solider who saved lives.
“I admire him. That was really nice thing that he did. Serves for his country every day,” Steinke said.
At last check, the victim shot was in serious condition. The suspected shooter, who was trapped under a car, was in serious condition. Authorities said both are stable and being treated at Kansas City hospitals.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracing the guns to see if they were purchased legally.
Nice of him to do that, but that’s not what caught my eye.
It’s the bronze on the right of the picture.
That’s a tribute to the WW2 Navajo ‘Code Talkers’ of the U.S. Marine Corps
The Japanese never broke that code.
Rock Island Auction Company will soon be taking bids for the 1911 Colt .45 automatic pistol, and other kit, carried by a decorated Marine combat photographer during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
Following the recent 75th anniversary of Iwo Jima — a brutal battle that stretched from February 19 to March 26, 1945 — the Rock Island, Illinois, auction house will hold its Premier Firearms Auction #79, featuring 2,500 lots of firearms and related items June 5-7.
One of the lots, number 1516, will feature items such as the sidearm, pistol belt rig and rare Iwo Jima battle map that belonged to Marine Sgt. Arthur J. Kiely Jr., who passed away in 2005, according to a recent news release from the auction company.
Kiely joined the Marine Corps in 1943 and served as a combat photographer, taking pictures under heavy enemy fire on island engagements such as Iwo, the release states.
Kiely’s Colt 1911 was originally shipped to the Marine Corps in 1917 and features “85% of its original blue finish showing a mixed brown and gray patina on the grip straps and trigger guard, bright edge wear, and mild spotting and handling marks overall,” according to the auction’s website.
The pistol’s refinished grips have some “dents and tool marks on the screws” and the “modified, refinished replacement trigger sticks a bit,” the website states.
This undated handout photo provided by Del Mar College, Texas, shows Adam Alsahli’s image for his student identification card. Alsahli, 20, is the suspect killed in an attack at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas
The suspect who was shot dead as he carried out Thursday’s ‘terrorism-related’ attack on a Texas naval air base has been identified by the FBI as a 20-year-old Syrian-born college student.
According to investigators, Adam Salim Alsahli opened fire at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in an attack that wounded one sailor, a member of the base security force, but no one other than the assailant was killed.
A group that monitors online activity of jihadists has since claimed that Alsahli voiced support for hardline Islamic clerics on social media prior to the thwarted attack.
