Rubber Ducky, you and I agree about something again! Of course, in my model the Marines and Coast Guard would lose their independence too.

I know. Pigs fly. Hunter and RD agree. Who'd a thunk it?

Dunno about the USCG. Maybe.

USMC go away? Only if one can be convinced that the culture would carry over. Frankly, I'd rather see the US Army absorbed into the Marine Corps (though this also would be a bit scary) than the reverse.

FWIW, I'd also give sealift to the Army.

And create a new high-tech force for strategic deterrence, space, and cyberwarfare.

Your move...

This being the birthday of our proud Corps, I'll say that I'd rather see the US Army as a source for Park Rangers before I'd want it absorbed into the USMC.

Walt

What you got against Park Rangers?

...so up to you what you do with them. I think we can have service branches with the same culutre they used to have, just less overhead as it relates to personnel admin, logistics, and acquisitions.

Army and AF rejoin.
Navy, Marines, Coast Guard join.
Everyone keeps their dress uniforms and traditions, but we all distill back down to one - maybe two - camouflage uniforms. 9Since that is a constant subject here in BD land)
Much money is saved.

We'll go crazy and call it a USDF (Defense Force) and we'll make a game attempt at actually following that notion.

Huzzah, Hooah, etc.

Happy Birthday Marine Corps. I love you like a brother, don't hate the playa, hate the game.

Nice to hear a bit of common sense.

Thanks!

There's...

Space asset operations, management, and acquisition (with NRO), as you describe;

Space launch, range operations, and launch vehicle acquisition;

Cyber-warfare;

Special Ops and SAR;

Strategic deterrence, the useless second and third legs of the strategic triad (TRIDENT can reliably cover 100% of the targets required);

The CAS crowd and others who would actually support troops on the ground, this tiny tribe relegated to a corner of the hangar and ordered to never speak in public;

The fighter mafia: they run it all, bias the outfit towards ever-fancier air-superiority aircraft (with no known opponent), and relentlessly move the defense spending up along the Augustine Curve;

The corporate Air Force, managing all and sleeping around with every aerospace vendor on the planet;

And - finally -

The Strategic Bombing priesthood, acolytes of Douhet and his deeply flawed, never-proven thesis that aerial bombardment short-circuits the need for ground combat and wins 100% of all wars effortlessly.

The US Air Force is a dog's breakfast of missions, but hugely thankful for Douhet, who gives it all the gloss of theory and a deity to worship in the dark moments when someone asks what the hell the Air Force does.

The ball bearing factories and refineries kept producing, even with snow falling through the holes in the roof. Synthetic fuels were brought on line. Slave labor replaced lost workers. And the Russians pushed from the East, the rest of the Allies from the West, with victory coming from ground combat and the physical conquest of territory. Yes we (Brits and Yanks both, do not forget) beat the crap out of the Third Reich from the air, but it took boots on the ground to win.

To your point directly, it was as an arm of the US Army that this air victory was achieved. One finds many historical reasons that we then decided to calve off the US Air Force as a separate military Service; few are valid today.

Of course I am ready to defend the USAAC. Everything done by the 8th AF prior to 1/1/44 was prelude. The ball bearings raids in 1943 alarmed the Germans but did not cripple any segment of the war economy. On the other hand, the Germans began stripping all other fronts of fighter units to fight the USAAC even when the strike force consisted of less than 100 B-17’s ready for day to day operations.

The raids on Germany that the USAAC made between July and October, 1943 were like Pickett’s Charge every day. But they still went. They went even though the 8th AF leadership was indifferent to the need for long range escorts. After the 8th Bomber Command CO and 8th Fighter Command CO were relieved towards the end of 1943, things started to improve at once.

Operation ARGUMENT, attacks on German aircraft and engine factories, which began early in 1944, with a much larger force than was available in 1943, didn’t wreck that segment of the German economy either. But it did begin to attrit the GAF and did that decisively. The Germans had to fight. As we know, by 6/6/44, the Germans day fighter force had been badly damaged –and- forced to withdraw from France. This makes a big contrast with the RAF’s RODEO operations during 1941-42 over France, which the GAF largely ignored unless they had favorable tactical advantage. In fact, during these operations the GAF inflicted losses on the RAF of 4-1.

Against the USAAC, things didn’t go so hot.

The USAAC deprived the GAF of 2,000 aircraft in March, ‘44 and 2,000 more in April ’44. Recall that even though the USAAC had more fighters than the GAF, they had to cycle into action along the route of the bombers. The GAF could and did often have more fighters proximate to the bombers than the USAAC did. Yet the USAAC wrecked the German fighter force in just a couple of months. This even though the longer ranged P-51’s and P-38’s were a minority of the available USAAC fighters. That shows a very great triumph of American arms.

Also early in 1944, Spaatz began the Oil Plan. In two -days, May 28 and May 30, 1944, the 8th AF rededuced production of synthetic oil products by 50%.

April’s delivery of POL products to the GAF of 175K tons of aviation fuel was reduced by September to less than 1,000 tons. Delivery of POL to the German Army suffered a similar reduction. I think this makes a clear case for the bombing of Germany to be the greatest feat of American arms.

Walt

Actually, the strategic bombing of Japan probably was more decisively important than the joint RAF/USAAF bombing campaign against Germany. If you are looking for the key factor in the defeat of Germany think Red Army.

German arms production rose throughout the war until the late autumn of 1944. The post-war Strategic Bombing Survey discovered that the failure of either air force to settle on a decisive industry as they dispersed their efforts allowed the Germans to revamp and disperse their industry. By the time the bombing campaign began to generate decisive results the Russians were entering East Prussia and the Brits and American’s approaching the Rhine.

And most devastating of all, the losses inflicted on Japanese shipping and naval assets by the US submarine force. If you look in the Strategic Bombing Survey at the tables showing decline in imported war-essentail commodities and the sea-transport capacity needed to get them to the Home Islands, you'll sea that Japan was essentially strangled and out of business by April 1945. That was all the submarine force, BTW suffering a greater casualty rate than any other branch of service. What limited submarine success in the last days of the war was the utter lack of targets; they were all on the bottom.

Of course I thought about Japan.

But you didn't have:

1. An active and technologically advanced enemy fighter force which was simply crushed when our fighters were often outnumbered.

2. You didn't have Pickett's Charge ever day for a period of 6 months.

3. You didn't have often outstanding precision bombing done from 5 miles high while wearing electric blankets disguised as long underwear.

The gal for whom the 'Memphis Belle' was named flew in that A/C on some of the bond tours. She couldn't believe it flew at all, let alone over Germany. The guys that did all that accomplish a fantastic feat of arms.

The Marine Corps birthday is an odd day for me to going on -this- rant!

Blame Tom.

Walt