Vale, CPT Mariner

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Rosemary Mariner in the 1990s when she was commanding officer of red-star-insignia’d ‘Flashbacks” of VAQ-34, the last Skywarrior and EA-7L electronic aggressor squadron in the Navy.  

Texas-born Rosemary Bryant Mariner (nee Conaster) grew up in San Diego fascinated with aviation, graduating from Purdue in 1972– at age 19– with a degree in Aviation Technology, picking up both flight engineer and pilot ratings before she signed on with the Navy the next year when she became one of the first eight women to enter Naval Aviation training at NAS Pensacola.

She went on to be being assigned to fly the rather pedestrian S-2 Tracker with the “Blue Tails” of VC-2 before she checked out on both the A-4C Skyhawk and A-7E Corsair, going on to become the first woman to fly a front-line tactical aircraft in U.S. service when she joined the fleet in 1975 and later contributed to studies on the ability of female pilots to withstand G-tolerances.

When placed in command of the “Flashbacks” of Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron 34 (VAQ-34)– an EW squadron flying the classic ERA-3B Whale and the rarely-encountered EA-7L Corsair in 1990– she was the first American female military aviator (in any branch) to lead an operational air squadron, which she did in Desert Shield/Storm. In all, she racked up 24 years of service with over 3,500 hours in 15 different aircraft types.

After she retired she was a scholar in residence and lecturer at UT for over a decade.

She recently passed away at age 65, in the fifth year of her battle with ovarian cancer.

Update: To honor Mariner, the U.S. Navy will conduct the first ever all-female flyover this Saturday, Feb. 2 in Maynardville, TN

All of the aviators participating in the flyover are from squadrons based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana and will be flying F/A-18E/F “Super Hornets.”

The participants are:

Stacy Uttecht, Commanding Officer, Strike Fighter Squadron Thirty-Two (VFA-32)
Leslie Mintz, Executive Officer, VFA-213
Cmdr. Paige Bloc, VFA-32
Cmdr. Danielle Thiriot, VFA-106
Cmdr. Jennifer Hesling, NAS Oceana
Christy Talisse, VFA-211
Amanda Lee, VFA-81
Emily Rixey, Strike Fighter Weapons School Atlantic

Old warships die, but their pieces live on

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With the recent decision by the Navy to dispose of the ex-USS Charles F. Adams (DDG-2) rather than donate it for preservation, the calls went out for other military museum ships to come get what they could carry for use in their on-going efforts. You see, when you visit a museum ship, you are bound to see, touch and tread upon relics from dozens of other historic vessels.

Case in point:

The USS New Jersey battleship museum in Camden “brought back two tripods for .50cal guns, electronics parts, and flooring for the CIC restoration, tools, and equipment to fill in empty racks on the ship, and a bore sight for the 5″ gun, among other odds and ends.”

Fall River, Mass’s USS Joseph P. Kennedy Jr (DD 850) museum, a vessel that shares much with the Adams, made extensive use of the offering:

For use in JPKs restoration, we acquired another torpedo dolly for the ASROC/Torpedo magazine, the ASROC deck guides for the ASROC loader crane, thermometers, valve wheels, and misc engineering parts, casualty power cable, three DC Chart holders for our repair lockers, blackout curtains, key internal parts for our DRT table in CIC, SONAR and ASROC system test sets, dozens of information and safety placards, CPO locker handles, glass globes for the ASROC magazine, a cleaning gear locker, and much more.

To preserve the history of DDG-2, we acquired both her throttle wheels from her After Engine Room, both sides of her Engine Order Telegraph in the Pilot House, information placards from her 5”54 gun systems stamped DDG-2, and some navigation instruments all marked USS Charles F Adams. These items will be saved for use in our future renovated Admiral Burke National Destroyer Memorial and Museum.

In short, Adams will endure.

DDG-2 Charles F Adams, in the Atlantic, 16 November 1978. USN 1173510

Monsoor joins the fleet (if only she could shoot)

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On the 75th anniversary of the January 1944 launch of USS Missouri (BB 63), the USN commissioned the second (of 3) Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyers on Saturday. Named for Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, the second Navy SEAL to receive the Medal of Honor in the Global War on Terror, she carries a fine name and is a beautiful ship of some 16,000 tons and 610-feet in length– the same size as a the biggest pre-dreadnought-era battleship of the 1900s, since we are talking battleships.

Of note, she is larger than any American cruiser commissioned after USS Long Beach became active in 1961.

181207-N-LN093-1056 SAN DIEGO (Dec. 7, 2018) The guided-missile destroyer Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001) transits the San Diego Bay. The future USS Michael Monsoor is the second ship in the Zumwalt-class of guided-missile destroyers and will undergo a combat availability and test period. The ship is scheduled to be commissioned into the Navy Jan. 26, 2019, in Coronado, Calif. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jasen Moreno-Garcia/Released)

Sadly, her showcase big guns, a pair of stealthy BAE 155 mm/62 (6.1″) Mark 51 Advanced Gun System (AGS) mounts, which were supposed to be capable of firing 10 rounds per minute at ranges of up to 83 nautical miles, are inoperable because the Navy does not have any ammo for them– and isn’t planning on buying any in the foreseeable future. The R&D cost of their unique shells, which was supposed to be amortized across a planned 32-ships, skyrocketed when the program was whittled down to just a trio of hulls (6 mounts), leaving the rounds too expensive to buy, and the AGS cannot fire standard 155mm rounds, which ironically is one of the most common in the world.

At around $1M per round, the 155mm shells for the AGS were too expensive and the Navy only bought 90 of them for testing. Each Zumwalt is supposed to carry a warload of 920

This leaves these giant ships armed with 80 deep Mk 54 VLS cells that are capable of fielding the Tomahawk, Standard 2s, and the Evolved SeaSparrow Missile, which is less punch than any other DDG in U.S. service, although with half the complement (147 souls) when compared to a much cheaper Arleigh Burke-class destroyer due to extensive automation.

A third Zumwalt, USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002), is set to deliver to 2020.

I’ll admit: Mossberg’s new pistol has some interesting features

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Sure, everyone and their mother is now making a subcompact, single-stack, 9mm polymer-framed striker-fired handgun, but Mossberg’s new MC1sc pistol has all that and a little extra. Like it has clear magazines (that interchange with G43 sticks) and a super-easy take-down system that does not require you to pull the trigger– which is always a bonus! Plus they offer it with an optional cross-bolt manual safety, which is sure to be a hit with the guys that are into that sort of thing.

Front and rear slide serrations, flat-profile trigger, an optional manual safety, 6/7+1 9mm capacity, 19-ounces, 6.45″ x 4.25″ x 1.06″ dimensions = The MC1sc has a lot going on

The gun was the buzz of SHOT Show last week and everyone was lined up at Mossy’s booth to lay hands on it.

More in my column at Guns.com.

If offered a chance to see beautiful Mali, think twice and bring kevlar

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Mission des Nations Unies au Mali (MINUSMA) suffered the loss of 10 Chadian peacekeepers and another 25 wounded in an attack at a United Nations base near Aguelhoc, a village in northern Mali over the weekend. This, coupled at attack that killed two Sri Lankin peacekeepers and injured six when their convoy hit an IED near Douentza in the Mopti region, brings to a total of 189 blue helmets that have lost their lives to action in Mali since the UN mission began in 2013, leaving it one of the most dangerous in the organization’s history.

The attack at Aguelhoc was, by all accounts, a classic defensive operation that involved the Chadians standing their ground for hours against determined insurgents attempting to snuff them out. According to MINUSMA Force Commander Lt. Gen. Dennis Gyllensporre, Swedish Army, the defenders fought “for hours” until the attackers broke off the engagement and retired.

Gyllensporre, in the beret, inspecting the damage (Photos: UN)

That’s an RPG hit for sure

Note the UN-marked technical gun truck with an AAA gun in the bed. Keep in mind the French-trained Chadians were involved in the Mad Max-style Toyota Wars in the 1980s against Libya

The Chadians of the Forces Armées Tchadiennes have lost at least 57 men alone in the country. This video, from 2017, highlights a patrol by a Chadian unit in Mali.

“Many of my friends have died here in Mali. We lived together, ate together. Unfortunately, they lost their lives here,” says Chief Sergeant Mahamat Tahir Moussa Abdoulaye.

The UN has posted vacancies for the mission

Combat Gallery Sunday: Inside the dugout edition

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Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, photographers and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: Inside the dugout

The below, from the LOC, are all sketched by Howard Brodie, who voluntarily left his sweet gig as a sports artist for the San Francisco Chronicle to draw for Yank magazine as an Army combat artist in WWII and got close enough to his subjects (he volunteered as a medic when needed) to receive a bronze star.

Drawing shows two privates, John Minihan of Rockford, Illinois on the right, and Sal de George of Manhattan on the left, kneeling to operate a machine gun from their dugout during the American offensive on Mt. Austen during the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal. Their gun is the iconic M1917 Browning water-cooled sustained-fire GPMG

It is closely related to this one, which was not as fleshed out:

Sketch shows an enlisted man, John H. Minihan of Rockford, Illinois from the side. He kneels as he operates his machine gun from a dugout on the island of Guadalcanal during World War II.

Similarly, this sketch by Brodie is in the same vein, but is inside a fortress made of aluminum rather than jungle earth:

The drawing shows a World War II gunner wearing an oxygen mask as he stands before an open slot in a B-17 airplane firing his machine gun during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

Brodie later went back to war, with his pencils, and covered Korea, French Indochina, and Vietnam.

He died in 2010.

Thank you for your work, sir.

U.S. Army’s take on Stalingrad

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If you are curious on the CMH’s ideas about how Stalingrad unfolded and how the lessons learned there guides urban combat today, check out the new 40~ minute brief from the Army University Press in association with the Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, below. It cuts off abruptly and without covering the whole campaign, so I think there is another installment coming. Nonetheless, what is covered in interesting, although a skosh dry.

Insignia pop-quiz

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Super common in Gulfport and Port Hueneme, as well as anywhere the FMF is moving into new digs overseas, but less frequently encountered elsewhere, this insignia may stump some:

Give up?

It’s the Seabee Combat Warfare Specialist insignia, issued to qualified Naval Construction Force members since 1993.

It incorporates the old-school WWII Seabee “We build, we fight” motto of the sailor bee with a Tommy gun as well as an M1903 Springfield (one of the few times the Springer makes it to patches or insignia) and a cutlass. Interestingly, Seabees often carried all three weapons in WWII, using M1928 and M1 Thompsons, the 1903A3 and, on occasion, ship’s cutlasses (the latter as machetes). They were also the only ones to actually use a Sedgely glove gun in combat!

The more you know…

And yes, the ‘Bees do get a fair amount of field training at Camp Shelby, sucking in the mud.

(U.S. Navy photo 180820-N-ZI635-258 by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class George M. Bell/Released)

Want a (new) PAP, M70, Tokarev or Mauser bolt-action rifle? Prepare to get happy

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One of the coolest things I found at SHOT Show this week is when I visited with the guys at Zastava. The Serbian-based firearms giant has been a thing for 165+ years, producing cumulative millions of Mauser-Kokas, M24 Mausers, M48 “Yugo” Mausers, M59/66 SKSs, M70 AKs, you name it.

They have long been imported (Century Arms, et. al) and have found a following among Kalash fans for their PAP series semi-autos.

This guy…

Well, they have shaken off the bonds of working with second and third parties and have established a U.S.-based subsidiary to bring their guns right to the eager American masses.

And they look absolutely great.

Yes, that is a new-production M70A Yugo-style Tokarev in 9mm Para with a milled stainless frame

More in my column at Guns.com.

Patton! 34 years ago today

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An M60A3 main battle tank moves along a street in Langgöns, Hesse, West Germany, during Central Guardian Reforger ’85 with M151 MUTTs and M113 APCs in the background. The tank belongs to the 3rd Btl, 32nd Armored Regiment according to its hull numbers and likely came from the nearby U.S. Army Depot at Gießen, which had been occupied by Uncle since 1945. The date on the image is 24 January 1985.

DF-ST-85-13331 Photo by SSG Fernando Serna

The M60A3 was the Army’s 1970s answer to rumors of the advanced new Soviet T-72 tanks across the Fulda Gap before the M1 Abrams could be fielded. The up-armored Patton picked up another 54mm of armor on the turret face, new electronics and fire control systems (including a then-advanced analog ballistic computer and the early AN/VGS2 tank thermal sight), and a new Continental AVDS-1790-2C diesel to help carry all that around. Some 5,400 legacy M60A1/A2s were rebuilt to the standard and 4,320 new tanks built by 1983 when the line was closed. The Army National Guard continued to use them into the 1990s.

As for the 32nd Armor– the unit which Elvis famously served in during the 50s– they deactivated in 2000 after seeing action (riding M1 Abrams) with the 3rd Armored Division in Desert Storm. The unit’s lineage is today carried by the 1st Squadron (RSTA), 32nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st BCT, 101st Airborne (Air Assault).

The Gießen Depot was turned back over to the Germans slowly between 2007 and 2017.

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