Thursday, May 19, 2016

Distractions

During my short stay in the U.S. Army I was a proud member of the 2nd Armored Division. As a former tanker, I was appalled to come across this story.

In NATO tank competition, U.S. comes up short
Six NATO countries squared off last week in the Strong Europe Tank Challenge, a two-day competition that pitted some of the alliance’s best tank crews against each another in a series of events centered on armored warfare.

The challenge, which concluded Thursday and was held in Grafenwoehr, Germany, was the first of its kind there since 1991. The competition was designed to foster “military partnership” while showcasing the ability of NATO countries to work together...

Germany took top honors in the competition, followed by Denmark and Poland in second place and third place respectively.

The challenge featured seven tank platoons in total. Denmark, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Poland all competed with one platoon, while the United States sent two. Each platoon included four tanks manned by four men. Germany took the gold in its Leopard 2A6 tanks, while the U.S. Army in the M1A2 Abrams didn’t place. (emphasis added)
Holy Crap! We didn't even beat the damn Polaks!?!

FWIW, my heritage is Polish. I love Polish jokes. For example:
Why don't Polish women use vibrators?

They chip their teeth...
Anyway, the bottom line is that the U.S. military is being castrated. Forget about who pees where. This is ... well, words fail me...

Can you say "Distraction...?"


4 comments:

Bigus Macus said...

Since the month after the Berlin Wall came down, any concern about armor units and their training has been not on a "back burner" but made largely absent from the kitchen.

I find it very good news that we even bothered to enter into the competition. The armor brass may have decided though that this was the best way to publically showcase just how deplorable our tank training has become. This type of negative recognition may ultimately prove useful. Maybe.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Readiness taking a back seat to "social justice".

Randy said...

disheartening to say the least

CenTexTim said...

Tim - good point, although I think the current and possibly (but-please-dear-God-not) future administration couldn't care less about such things.

WSF - I wonder if there were any women in those tank crews.

Randy - that it is.

JC - I'm sure the Ukrainians wish they had been as well prepared when the Russkies rolled into the Crimea.