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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: WarrenSmith AT PalmettoBuilders.net, homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Era of unease.
  • Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 19:57:57 -0700

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







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