Quote:
Originally Posted by sic1701
In fiction it works wonderfully and the gestalt triumphs over all in their path, but in reality the blend would probably require a lot of time together as well as a strong leader to cut through the multiservice bullshit and turf wars.
I am reminded of something from Richard Marcinko's first "Rogue Warrior" book, where he discussed the formation of the U.S. Army's Delta Force; to paraphrase him, the powers-that-be thought Colonel Charlie Beckwith (the founder of Delta) was unduly influenced by the British SAS, and Marcinko thought Beckwith was unduly influenced by the Marx Brothers.
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Ahh, turf wars -- they sink so many otherwise good plans. Every has to have their piece of the pie. Happens even in police agencies and civilian businesses. It, in no small way, sank Eagle Claw (the attempted rescue of the Iranian Hostages in 1979). It's kept the US Army from having any armed fixed-wing aircraft, and therefore forced aircraft on the Air Force they didn't want and that the Army desperately needed (like the A-10), and forced them to turn helicopters into rotary-wing versions of armed fixed-wing aircraft.
As for Marcinko -- I've read his stuff, and I'm not impressed (with his fiction
and nonfiction). And Beckwith
was heavily influenced by the SAS -- they were the big kids on the block in the special ops field at the time. That's not wrong, and he blended Vietnam experience with SAS training. Marcinko's other comment -- that's just inter-service sniping.
Rant over.