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Old 08-11-2022, 03:37 PM
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chico20854 chico20854 is offline
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August 6, 1997

Nothing official today!

Marine Corps squadron VMA-134 at MC Air Station El Toro, California, the A-4 Skyhawk readiness squadron, responsible for training pilots to fly the aged attack aircraft, begins transitioning to the AV-8B Harrier, as the A-4 force in action (exclusively over Iran and from naval shore stations along the Gulf of Mexico) dwindles, largely eliminating the need for new pilots.

1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

The onslaught against the North Korean bastion in Pyongyang continues as South Korean troops bring towed 105mm and 155mm howitzers onto the heights, firing them direct-fire into holdout's identified firing positions. The few tanks remaining to the second- and third-line divisions are withdrawn, transferred to units facing the Soviets and the remnants of the NKPA to the north.

In the mountains of central North Korea, American and South Korean attack helicopters and fighter-bombers try to slow the Soviet advance through the mountains; attack helicotpers try to pick off command vehicles and selectively target vehicles to block narrow mountain roads prior to the fighter-bombers' arrival to blanket the resultant halted column with cluster bombs, napalm and rockets.

SACEUR receives fervent pleas from his subordinate Corps commanders for a relaxation of the political constraints on the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. He is not in favor, knowing that his subordiante commanders, if let off the proverbial leash, would almost immediately launch a major escalation, each desiring to fire dozens of weapons to either thoroughly decimate their opponents or turn the ground in front of their positions into an irradiated wasteland impassible by Soviet troops. SACEUR fears that such a development will result in a proportionate response by his Soviet counterpart, or possibly an escalation, stranding his troops hundreds of miles from "home" territory. He offers additional release of chemical munitions to their control to partially offset his denial of their request.

US Marines enter Palermo while the greatly reduced Aosta Brigade batters itself to pieces against the American and Canadian paratroopers who had been digging in to Messina for days. En route, the Italian brigade is under constant air attack by USMC and Spanish Harrier and USMC Cobra aircraft. The North Coastal Road becomes a highway of death.

The Soviet 42nd Corps moves west out of the city of Kars in eastern Turkey after a pause of several days to resupply. The 42nd MRD heads southwest, overrunning the scattered outpost line thrown up by the Turkish Third Army.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran tries to maintain a coherent, organized withdrawal. Light mechanized units (the 14th ACR and 9th ID) try to maintain a screen for the lighter units and support formations to withdraw behind. In this effort the support of Allied airpower is essential, since the LAVs and TOW missile vehicles of the light forces can be easily overwhelmed by the superior armor of the Soviet tank and motor-rifle divisions; the American ground units become masters of calling in artillery fire and air strikes and guiding attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB on advancing Soviet units.

5th Fleet command institutes local convoying of tankers carrying crude oil to Allied nations. The Salem battlegroup is stripped of escorts (the cruiser is docked in Bandar Abbas), augmented by frigates from the Belleau Wood amphibious group to escort the tankers to a point 350 nm south of the mouth of the Gulf, where the convoys disperse and the laden vessels proceed independently, each on their own seperate course to their destination under the long-range protection of patrol aircraft from shore bases and the carrier Independence.
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I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end...
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