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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Warren F. Smith wrote:

> Just a question here...
> Why didn't we wait til we had P-51's or Corsairs or Avengers?
>
>
> TVO wrote:
>
> "flying helpless P-26's against Japanese Zeroes"
>  
tvoivozhd---wrong question.. We didn't have anything else in WWII, 
Philippines---the Jap Air Force attacked the Philippine bases, nothing 
but P-26's to send up against them, even though it turned out to be 
suicide.

On carriers we started out with F4's.  Not a good match for Zeroes, but 
did a fair job because our pilot's were better trained.  Our kill-ratio 
went up sharply when F-6's arrived in short order--something like loss 
of 300 F-6's against 6000 Zero losses.  The Navy initially turned down 
Corsairs---poor pilot landing visibility outweighed  all else on 
pitching, plunging, rolling flight deck.  Black Sheep Squadron rescued 
them and restored Corsair credibility late in the war, though they 
remained largely a Marine specialty.

No relationship to Iraq.  We had plenty of body armor, armored 
Humvees---could have shipped them from German bases, or simply sent in 
what troops we had with body armor and armored Humvees, held back 
unarmed troops until armor arrived---unarmed troops are of little use in 
battle, why deliberately kill them ?

Body armor is not a high-tech thing---anyone can make uniforms with big 
pockets.  Any half-ass metalworking shop can make body armor plates to 
drop or sew in the pockets.  We have enough depleted uranium to cover 
the earth three feet deep.
If the P-51 could go from concept to flight in 120 days, so can 
easier-to-make body armor.  Hell, Kaiser Shipyards cut the Liberty-Ship 
building cycle down to four days and a few hours when they wanted to.  
Do you think a few plates of body armor are such a herculean task they 
could not be made in four days?  Na-a-ah, no sense of urgency from the 
Safe-In-A-Soft-Bed guy