Air Power History

Handgrenade of the Month January 2018

The Impact of Trans-Oceanic Flight on Maritime Consciousness (in the US in particular)

Bonne Année Mes Amis

Consider these images:  pictures of sailors in GI-Joe style ACUs (army combat uniforms);  the Secretary of the Navy with sailors and Marines in Afghanistan (which last time I checked did not have a coastline).   Every other prospective recruit, including from officer accession programs, wanting to become a SEAL  (the chances being literally one in a million, or half million, for the average off the street person).   The standard Navy uniform looking

WHO REMEMBERS PROVIDE COMFORT?

John T. Kuehn

Well, me for one.   But let us review.   As the war known by the military characterization of DESERT STORM (January – March 1991) wound down the regrouped and reconstituted elements of Saddam’s defeated army and air forces began to wage an intense counterinsurgency against rebelling Shia rebels in the southern part of Iraq and Kurdish separatists in the north.  The Kurdish operations were part of an ongoing program of pacification, intimidation, and genocide that existed prior to the so-called First Gulf War and was more in the category of

December 2016 Handgrenade of the Month

A Short, Personal History of the Inefficacy of No-Fly Zones

Picking up where I veered off last month (into an esoteric discussion about what history is? when it comes to student sources and topics), I return to my original idea.  That is, an anecdotal reach into the recent past to discuss the issue of “no fly zones” (NFZs for you acronym crazy-folk out there) and by extension air power.

1. Dateline late January, 1991.Aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, stateroom of the Electronic Warfare Officer, Battle Force Yankee (CTF-155, commanded by Rear Admiral Riley Mixson)