From: buckley@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (BUCKLEY  CHARLES RAY)
Newsgroups: alt.war
Subject: Re: Convoys (was Re: Bush's position on Bosnia)
Date: 20 Aug 92 09:15:50 GMT
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder

[lots of stuff deleted - The last two messages are so long that you might as
well dig them out and read them cause I just ain't a gonna keep hitting :d
all day]

Well you already picked out one of the things that I was going to post - the
fact that under the scheme I outlined , the convoys would not be needed. In
fact, sending the trucks individually would decrease the threat of an attack
by a large margin.

Secondly, you have already convinced me that using gunships would be an
expensive undertaking. They have a lower survivability than fixed wing
aircraft.

I do not like the idea of folllowing a set pattern for deploying a convoy.
I remember when I was stationed in England. I was a weather specialist.
Part of my job was to help prepare briefings for the SR-71. One day, our
offices were being painted. The painter at one point asked us if he could
take pictures of its takeoff. There was nothing in our conversation to
indicate when or even if there was a launch that date. We asked him what made
him think there was a launch that day. He told us that he had seen the Q model
tankers take off earlier. He then told us what the prelaunch requirements were
for the SR-71. He also told us when, based on the tankers takeoff, the SR-71 
take off as well as its probable route. 

I agree that the situation in Kuwait is going to keep the support down from
what I envisioned. But only one of the light infantry divisions were tasked
to support the first Persian Gulf War. There are 3 (?) other divisions that
are available (unless Mexico invades :-) (please no political tangents here.
This is just my dig at the US Army for keeping posts in places that are no
longer strategically significant [like Colorado Springs]).

I also do not think that cav. would be of much use in Yugoslavia. I would not
take the Serbs (or anyone else) that long to figure out that the guns only 
reach a certain height.

As an aside: One of the interesting features of the formation of the USAF is
that the USAF would provide weather support for Army aviation. So AF personnel
are assigned to Army units with aviation assets. Quite often the Army units
would have a requirement that always looked ridiculous. One such requirement is
that no physical training would be permitted under certain conditions - such as
a temperature in the hundreds. This is sensible, but the sight of AF personnel
going out onto the training pad with thermometers to measure the temperature
of the asphalt always struck me as funny. I was lucky as my time with the
arny was spent with the 3rd ACR down in Ft. Bliss. They didn't require us to
do that sort of thing.

Charles Buckley

sorry about the short post. I'm just not myself today.

P.S. 10-12 divisions total would be sufficient. I have seen statistics which
claim that there is now a 10-1 ratio of support to combat troops. 10 divisions
would still be enough to cover the road. I do not have FM 71-1 but if I recall
correctly, a divsional defence would occupy miles of a front as well as a depth
of several miles. Splash this across a road and that raod becomes interior to
you defences.
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