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Posted on 03/26/2003 5:35:35 AM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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of the Marine Corps' Amphibious Warfare School Quantico, Virginia 15 March 1985 Thirty-five years ago, I was sitting where you are sitting today. I was a member of what was then called the "Amphibious Warfare School, Junior Course." The student body was made up of first lieutenants, captains, and majors. The Amphibious Warfare School, Senior Course, corresponds to today's Command and Staff College and had lieutentant colonels as students.  Brig. Gen. Edwin A. Simmons On graduation I was ordered to the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune. So were a good number of my classmates. I was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines; and as a major, was given command of Weapons Company. The battalion had just come back from the Mediterranean and we were still unpacking expeditionary boxes when, on 25 June, the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel. In short order we moved west on a troop train to Camp Pendleton where we became the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines, with about ten days to build from our half-strength peacetime tables of organization to war-time strength, before sailing from San Diego. Our regimental commander was Colonel "Chesty" Puller. We landed at Inchon on 15 September and that was the first we saw of the 5th Marines which had come up from the Pusan Perimeter. We did not see the 7th Marines until we reached Seoul. We were successful at Inchon and Seoul - and that success I think can be attributed to the quality of leadership at all levels. From the division commander, Major General Oliver P. Smith, on down, virtually every officer and non-commissioned officer was a World War II veteran. In my company I had corporals who could do a platoon sergeant's job and do it well, and in fact were so soon doing. The Reserves that filled up our ranks at Camp Pendleton were outstanding - indistinguishable from the Regulars. Also, a great advantage we had was that a remarkable number of the officer's knew each other well even though the Division had come together on the battlefield. A large proportion of the captains and majors had just graduated, as I, from the Junior Course.  I don't know what you have in your syllabus now, but in those days we spent a good deal of time with the fundamentals of tactics and techniques, with many, many map exercises, command post exercises, and field exercises. We knew the school solution and we were ready to apply it. In an infantry battalion of that time there were three rifle companies - we would soon learn that we needed four rifle companies - a weapons company, and a headquarters and service company. In my weapons company I had a heavy machine gun platoon - the heavy machine gun of the day was the water-cooled .30 caliber Browning, a superb weapon - an 81mm mortar platoon, and an anti-tank-assault platoon. The anti-tank platoon had 3.5-inch rocket launchers - which we just gotten to replace our 2.36-inch launchers - flame throwers, and demolitions. As Weapons Company commander I was also the battalion's Supporting Arms Coordinator. I am a believer in weapons companies and I am a believer in organic supporting arms coordinators. You have heard the broad outlines of the battle. Now I will tell you how it was at the company and battalion level, at least how it was at my company, and my battalion level. Here I want to say, and those of you who have been in combat already know this, that every man has his own war, his own battle. I am speaking today not as a historian but as a participant. A historian can be objective. A participant cannot; he can only be subjective. I will tell you of the battle from my own narrow perspective.  We had landed, as I have said, at Inchon on 15 September. In the advance on Seoul, the 5th Marines were on the left and the 1st Marines on the right. The 5th Marines took Kimpo Airfield on the 17th and crossed the Han River northwest of Seoul on the 20th. They would have three days of hard fighting taking the high ground immediately northwest of Seoul. Meanwhile, the 7th Marines had unloaded at Inchon the afternoon of the 21st and reached Kimpo that evening. The 1st Marines crossed the river on the 24th and the next day, 25 September, both the 1st and 5th regiments went into the city itself. The 7th Marines, in reserve, crossed the river and took up a position behind the 5th Marines. General Almond, the X Corps commander, who on 21 September took personal command of the operations ashore, ordered the U.S. Army's 32d Infantry Regiment, followed by the 17th ROK Regiment, also to cross the Han on 25 September and occupy "South Mountain" to the east of Seoul. The North Korean commander, Major General Wol Ki Chan, had chosen to ignore the occupation of South Mountain and concentrated his forces first on the high ground northwest of Seoul and then on the defense of the city itself. For this he had about 10,000 troops. At the battalion and company level we were only dimly aware of these developments. Our attack began at 0700 on the 25th. RCT-1, with the 2d KMC Battalion attached, was given a zone of action about a mile wide going right through the center of the city to the high ground to the northeast. The 2d KMC Battalion was to mop up behind us and then revert to its own regimental control. The 5th Marines were to come into the city on our left from the northwest and the 7th Marines, committed to combat for the first time, were to the north and left of the 5th Marines.  The mission assigned the 3d Battalion, 1st Marines, was to advance along the axis of Ma Po Boulevard to seize Duksoo Palace, taking the railroad station en route. To give you an analogy: this was rather like crossing the Anacostia River and moving up Pennsylvania Avenue to capture the Captitol, taking Union Station along the way. And we had to do this in one day. General Almond wanted the city secured by 26 September. We had heavy going all day. George and How Companies were in the assault, with George on the left and on Ma Po Boulevard itself. Item Company was in reserve. As Weapons Company Commander and Supporting Arms Coordinator I had a most frustrating day as we were operating under a very restrictive fire plan. Damage to the city and civilian casualties were to be held to a minimum; hence, we could not get artillery support, except for directly observed targets and we could not get close air support at all. Our Corsairs had done a superb job from Inchon to Seoul, but air was ruled out of the picture once we got into the city itself.  I want you to visualize Ma Po Boulevard. It was a wide avenue. Seoul, of course, was a much less modern city than it is now. Ma Po Boulevard was a solidly built up street, mostly two and three story structures of stucco or masonry construction, and occasional more impressive buildings - churches, hospitals, and so on - often enclosed with a walled compound. The street itself was interrupted by repeated echelons of barricades. These barricades were made for the most part of large rice straw bags filled with earth. Other reports to the contrary, you didn't blow up these barricades or push them aside. They were much too heavy and inert for that. We had to contend with them in place. Not all of them were defended. Those that were defended had long-barreled Soviet-made anti-tank guns - 45mm if my memory serves me - heavy water-cooled Maxim machine guns - the equivalent of our Brownings - and rather awkward looking anti-tank rifles. There were also plenty of small arms fire and sniping from all sides. You have heard that we went through the interior walls of the buildings. Perhaps there was some of that but I saw none of it. The house-to-house fighting was chiefly a matter of grenades, M-1 rifles, and BAR automatic fire. We had the intermittent support of tanks. The battle tank was the M-26 Pershing and our tankers had received them just before the Inchon landing. The tanks were at their best when they were being used as an assault gun. They were in direct support of us rather than attached; therefore, they came and went pretty much as they pleased. Back at the Junior Course we had frequently argued the respective merits of supporting arms assigned - that is, organic - or attached. This was particularly true when our battalion was operating more-or-less independently which was a good part of the time.  By the middle of the afternoon the situation was about as follows: George Company had reached what the company commander thought was Duksoo Palace, but could not get across a small bridge to get to it. How Company had reached a railroad station but the company commander was having a hard time convincing anyone he was there because the map would indicate that the railroad station was to the right of George Company and he was insisting that he was in front of George Company and that George was calling down artillery fire on him. Our battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Ridge, sent me forward to see if I could straighten things out. I found the George Company commander in a highly agitated state. I also found that he was very wrong in his map reading. he was about a mile short of Duksoo Palace. What was in front of him was something else. We later found out that it was a girl's school. I said "Let's make one more try to get across the bridge." I couldn't get him an artillery preparation, but I promised to give him the best I had with my 81mm mortars which were close behind George Company. We drenched the other side of the bridge with a couple hundred 81 mortar shells, but the attack failed. George Company commander was nearly distraught. He said, "Take my bars, I've had it." All of this was reported to Colonel Ridge who ordered me to stay with George Company and to organize the defense for the night. I put a road block across the boulevard on our side of the bridge, manning it with two rifle squads, a heavy machine gun section, a rocket squad, and a 75mm recoilless rifle section from the regimental Antitank Company. Our attached engineers put in a field of anti-tank mines on the bridge itself. There was a section of tanks with us and I asked them to stay, but they said they had to go back to re-arm and re-fuel and they would see us in the morning.  There was a sizable hill to the left rear of the road block with a house on it. George Company set up its command post in the cellar of the house. I established the battalion observation post - that is to say, my radio operator, my runner, and myself immediately in front of the house. Behind me was a set of steps that led down into the cellar. Item Company was on the high ground on the right of the battalion sector and How Company, which had become disorganized during the day, was to fill in the center of our position. The battalion CP was about a half mile to the rear in a brick-walled compound. My communications consisted of the normal radio nets - we were then using the SCR-300 - and wire from the OP back to the battalion switchboard and also direct lines from the OP to the 81mm mortar battery position which was about 150 yards to the rear of the road block.
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This was originally written about Firefighters, and I rewrote it to reflect soldiers this time.
The Creation of the Soldier
When the Lord was creating Soldiers, he was into his sixth day of overtime
when an Angel appeared and said, "Your doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said "Have you read the specification on this person?
Soldiers have to be able to go for hours fighting or tending to a
person that the usual every day person would never touch, all the while putting
in the back of their mind the circumstances.
They have to be able to move at a moments notice and not think twice of what
they are about to do, no matter what danger.
They have to be in top physical condition at all times, running on half-eaten MRE's,
and very little sleep.
They must have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands...no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems, " said the Lord,
"it's the three pairs of eyes a Soldier has to have."
That's on the standard model? " asked the angel.
The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through the smoke and haze where they and
their fellow Soldiers should fight the enemy next. Another pair here in the
side of the head to see their fellow Soldiers and keep them safe.
And a third pair of eyes in the front so that they can look for the the wounded
caught in the fight that may need their help."
"Lord" said the angel, touching his sleeve, " Rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't, said the Lord, "I already have a model that can carry a 100 pounds of gear
for miles on end, or a fellow soldier to safety from a battle area, and can feed a
family of five on a Military service paycheck."
The angel circled the model of the Soldier very slowly, "Can it think?"
"You bet," said the Lord. "It can tell you the parts of a hundred different pieces
of equipment; and can recite many procedures in their sleep that are needed to
care for a wounded soldier until they are taken away by the medics.
And all the while they have to keep their wits about themselves.
This Soldier also must have phenomenal personal control.
They can deal with scenes full of pain, hurt, noise and smoke,
They can be laughing and joking one second and fierce and hard in the next.
And still they rarely get the recognition for a job well done from anybody, other than from fellow Soldiers."
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek of the Soldier.
"There's a leak", she pronounced. "Lord, it's a tear."
"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.
"It's a tear from bottled-up emotions for fallen comrades.
A tear for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the flag.
It's a tear for all the pain and suffering they have encountered.
And it's a tear for their commitment to defending our freedoms and
saving lives of their fellow man!"
"What a wonderful feature Lord, you're a genius" said the angel.
The Lord looked somber and said "I didn't put it there."
Rewritten in honor of our Troops 3/26/03
by David K. (aka Johnny Gage)
Project started in 1942 and it was supposed to be an improvement on the M4 medium. Thirteen models of the T20, T22, and T23 were developed with a variety of weapons, transmissions, and suspensions.
Development of the T25 and T26 were heavy tanks. Both had the T7 90 mm gun and used the Ford GAF engine. The T26 was given priority and a T26E1 was developed with a hydraulic torque converter with planetary reduction gearing. Was known as "torquematic" transmission. Torsion bar suspension and a cast turret was installed.
In early 1943 the Armored Command had felt that the war would be concluded with the M4 medium. This resulted in the improvements in crew safety and reliability of the M4. Armored Command also didn't want a heavy tank because of its size and weight.
Army Ground Forces however wanted 1,000 of the T26 and 1,000 of the lighter T25. The T26 was to have a 76 mm and the T25 a 75 mm gun. The Armored Command didn't want either of these vehicles but did want the 90 mm gun.
A T26E2 (later known as the M45) had a 105 mm howitzer mounted that could be interchanged with the 90 mm. The T26E3 had the 90 mm and Ordnance thought that this was the best compromise. Two emergency doors in hull. When traveling in non-combat area turret is turned to rear and gun is put in a traveling lock.
It was designated Limited Procurement in October 1944. Army Ground Forces wanted to delay the standardization until its battleworthiness was proven. The Secretary of War sent 20 vehicles to Europe in the Zebra Mission in January 1945. It was Standardized in May 1945.
Description
The suspension has individually sprung torsion bars, with bumper springs and double acting shock absorbers. A center guided track is used. The drive sprocket is located at the rear.
The commander, gunner, and loader have seats in the rotating turret. There is a hatch over the commander and a smaller hatch over the loader. The driver and assistant driver each have a hatch over them. There are 2 emergency doors in the floor of the hull.
The commander's hatch has a vision cupola with 6 laminated glass vision blocks. Periscopes are provided to all the crew.
The turret is reversed and the main gun locked in a traveling lock when traveling in non-combat areas.
Usage
The first combat occurred in February Was used by the 3rd and 9th Armored Divisions. Also saw action on Okinawa in May 1945.
The T-34 was a technologically innovative design which addressed the short-comings of the earlier BT series of wheel/track tank. The T-34 was developed during the 1936-37 period, the prototype was completed in early 1939, and in September 1940 T-34 was put into series production mounting a 76mm gun. The Model 1940, the first T-34 production variant, t was armed with the L-11 76.2 mm gun, which was considerably shorter than the subsequent F-34 76.2 mm main gun of the 1941 and later models. The mantlet was also round in contrast to the more square mantlets of later models. The tank's main advantage was its simple design which made it easy to mass produce and repair. The T-34 was also small and comparibaly light, while the tank's water-cooled diesel engine minimized the danger of fire and increased the tank's the radius of action. The design overcame the technological superiority of German forces during the Great Patriotic War. Built in Ukraine in the Kharkov Steam-Engine Factory (KhPZ), the German general von Runstedt called the T-34 the "best tank in the world" and von Kleist said it was the "finest in the world." The T-34 had a more powerful cannon than German tanks, a higher top speed (32 MPH versus 25 MPH), and superior sloped armor and superior welded construction. However, the German Tiger and Panther tanks outranged the T34's original 76mm gun, and subsequently a 85mm gun was mounted on a T-34 tank. The T-34/85 was a modification of the T-34 equipped with a more powerful armor and cannon. T-34/85 had a flatter turret which gave this already inovative tank design the look that all tanks adopted after the wars end. Although not equal to the German Panther and Tiger tanks, the huge numbers of T-34s more than compensated for their technological shortcomings.
Good to see you my friend.
<=== Click for larger pix
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- Staff Sgt. Darnell Breeden, a security forces dog handler, and military working dog Arny keep a vigilant eye on the C-17 Globemaster IIIs parked at a forward-deployed location. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Isaac G.L. Freeman)
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