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To: Carry_Okie

The Army has traditionally had the tasking of coastal defense of the country and in the modern era they operated the anti-aircraft missiles along with artillery.

Trivia bit-———The B17 got the moniker of Flying Fortress in the 1930s when the Army Air Corps was trying to pry funding out of Congress. They sold the program as a defensive extension of the Coast Artillery and not as an offensive weapon for foreign war. Attack an enemy fleet when it was further out to sea.

The name had nothing to do with the plane’s machine guns since the early Forts hardly had any.


35 posted on 12/17/2014 9:22:56 PM PST by Rockpile
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To: Rockpile
The Army has traditionally had the tasking of coastal defense of the country and in the modern era they operated the anti-aircraft missiles along with artillery.

That's a little too "traditional" for my taste given that the USAF has the task of managing air space for ICBMs and aircraft.

They sold the program as a defensive extension of the Coast Artillery and not as an offensive weapon for foreign war.

In the valley below me is a road that was paved in 1919 with 5" of heavily reinforced concrete on the excuse that the Army would use it for transporting artillery to the coast, which they did once a year. It was pure pork.

36 posted on 12/17/2014 9:29:10 PM PST by Carry_Okie (Those who profess noblesse oblige regress to droit du seigneur.)
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To: Rockpile

I grew up and lived near a Nike Site in my neighborhood. IIRC, they were run by the Army.


38 posted on 12/17/2014 10:44:10 PM PST by Nowhere Man (Mom I miss you! (8-20-1938 to 11-18-2013) Cancer sucks)
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