Virdea

By the way
 
Archduke Ferdinand did not wear his vest on the day he was shot.  It did not work because it was not on his person.
 
The narrator of that TV show wears Command Sergeant Major rank.

With only 5 strong maneuver brigades, Germany has in essence checked out of NATO and tacitly accepted a US nuclear umbrella.  
 
France and Germany about twenty years back signed that white paper that assured each of mutual home defense.  At the time NATO planned for Germany to provide for 15 brigades out front - the core of the European footprint.  The US it was believed would have another 15 brigades in Europe, and smaller NATO allies would undertake an individual brigade or team up to do combined brigades.  France was out of this picture but it was assumed they would provide crucial strategic reserves.
 
The problem with the Franco German plan is they both planned to take advantage of it to reduce forces.  15 Brigades?  Germany saw a chance and said, well France can provide the 10, and we will provide the 5.  Money saved (and so much for strategic reserve).  To make things look good we will do a combined brigade on the cheap with wheels.
 
France also said the same thing.  NATO wants 15 brigades in the shop window?  Well Germany can do the 10 and we will do the 5, and yeah, we can throw some effort into the wheeled brigade - the French army is nothing but filled with wheels.  Although back in NATO informally they like to be independent.
 
So they ended up with 10 brigades and no strategic reserve.  As for the idea that the US would put 15 brigades in the window - they went south with the US believing Europe could handle its own policing while they concentrated on the WOT.  The 170th and 172nd went home and no more US heavy brigades.
 
That leaves Poland (9 heavy brigades), the Czechs (2 heavy brigades), the Slovaks (2 heavy brigades), Belgium (1 brigade), Hungary (2 brigades), Romania (6 brigades, plus some strong leg units) and Bulgaria (2 brigades) guarding the front door.  Poland is a scary customer and very able.  The Czechs and Slovaks could be good but there are indications that they are having issues.  Romania is surprisingly good.  However all of these countries are in need of modernization.
 
A group of friends and I have been agitated for congress to donate about 2000 M1 Abrams to Poland and Romania.  About 210 A10 and 250 F16 are also boneyard ready for return to service.  
 
As for Germany and France - that ship has sailed.  They won't ever again have a heavy land army sufficient to counterbalance Russia, and both plan on initial use of nuclear weapons to occur on first invasion, thus allowing them to feel justified in their draw down.

It is impossible to quarterback a police shooting without all of the data.  I know - I have done forensic analysis on 31 use of incidents in the past two decades and am a graduate of the SC police academy and 5 years of street work (part-time, but I was a full deputy).
 
On the one hand I agree with people who say police should be held to higher standards.  On the other hand - they usually are.  On the other other hand - some of the most egregious cases of police violence went unpunished.  Look up the real incident that lead to the creation of the TV show the Shield and the movie Traffic and tell me that police violence is not sometimes swept under the rug.
 
Police violence in the US won't be solved anytime soon because it is a double edged problem that requires two fixes.  The questions go hand in hand, but you cannot voice them in the same sentence to the same group without being called a name and shutting the conversation down.  The two questions are pretty easy to state.  #1 There are very very few cases of police shooting people who were not committing a criminal act followed by an aggressive posturing.  How do we teach people not to commit crimes and then charge police?  The second issue is similar.  Ambush of police is up across the board and across the United States.  If you are a cop and you are going to get killed in a crime, it will be when you are ambushed.  The current shoot / no shoot criteria is based on being right about the actions of a person you are facing 100% of the time or being quite possibly dead, so US police moved the shoot / no shoot line over - but then more people get killed.  How do we reduce ambushes allowing police to reset their shoot / no shoot point.
 
And a technological question.  Where is the ranged non-lethal weapon that will allow me to successfully deal with a 260 pound irate charging male before he enters by shoot envelope.  I was in a fight with such a man for nearly five minutes as he tried to get my gun, and you never know fear until you realize that your next mistake is your last and your wife and cats will never see you again.

I just last year ended a useless argument over the importance of logistic with a gentleman from Chicago who claimed that he taught "major strategy courses to Army people."
 
He made the following claim:  
 
1.  The word logistics is never used in Roman writing.
2.  Honor Harrington series demonstrates that logistics is not as important as good generalship.
3.  The Draka series demonstrates that even South Africa could be a world power if it ignored logistics and hired good generals.
4.  "You don't need logistics if your army looses the battle"
 
I claimed he had accidentally inserted a Twinkie in his rectum and its decay had ruined all chance of his evolution into a thinking being.

Actually Americans in WW2 were exemplary in their conduct even against the Japanese.  I do not here mean faultless, but the average American group was still trying to take prisoners even after they found out it was worthless in the Islands campaign.  
 
I do think however we will get the typical cycle:
 
1. US gets brutalized by barbarians ISIS increasing stress on US soldiers.  ISIS brutality gets limited coverage in the world press
2. US soldiers will, acting without orders, torture someone and it will be caught on camera.
3. World Press will act with condemnation against horrible Americans who are nothing more than torture monkeys.
4. ISIS, with a free pass, will brutalize with only limited coverage of its acts.

ISIS POWs will (and should) have all of the rights of a prisoner under the various conventions.  Faced with barbarism the protectors of civilization cannot give up the high ground - the US never should have played loose with the WoT.
 
That said it is relatively easy to hold tribunals to assure that most of ISIS actors get some sort of punishment.  

Laughing aside, a true story.
 
When the Gewehr 98 first came out it was given a huge bayonet that actually embarrassed the German army, who immediately called for it to be replaced by something a bit more useful.  The reason was a simple mistake.  The G98 was shorter than the preceding rifles it replaced and the specification for rifle+bayonet length was not changed in contracts -- and no one questioned the absurdity of the bayonet being twice as long as that adopted in 1884 - until they saw the first test rifles with this pig sticker sticking out.  Then they immediately moved to change to a shorter bayonet (and eventually, and even shorter K version of the 98 rifle).
 
The British though saw this bayonet and the British press went nuts.  British manhood was under attack.  The Tuetons were building bigger battleships, but this was the law straw - a bigger bayonet could ruin the British empire in a fortnight.  A British lawmaker stated in parliament that "length matters when two men face each other on the field of honor, and I would not want to face another man who has five inches on me!"
 
Longer bayonets were designed for the Lee Enfield, and Britain went to war with a pig sticker that made the short Lee Enfield the envy of the world.  Only by then the Germans no longer had many long bayonets.  

To answer about FOIA.  I was the FOIA instructor for the USDOJ during 2000-2001 when the model was switched from the Clinton era "must reveal" to the Bush era "must conceal."  In the Clinton era a FOIA request was automatically granted unless it was scuttled by a 5 U.S.C. § 552((x) reason.  That meant a FOIA paperwork person had to release documents UNLESS they could describe why the documents must be retained.  In the Bush era the documents went to a must conceal model where the person who released the documents must do the leg work to show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the documents do not fit a 5 U.S.C. § 552((x) reason to deny.  This had two effects - increasing paperwork and lawsuits, and massively decreasing what was sent out.  
 
When I requested Vietnam era AARs and medical documents a number of years back I was initially given them (as a member of DOJ it was easy to file) and then refused just a few months apart based on 5 U.S.C. § 552((1) even though the documents were not classified.  The clerk after getting the Bush era memo put a halt to my document hunts for fear of ending up in jail, and the memo was sometimes accompanied by a "people at the top of government are watching you."  At the time the halls of government were being flooded by young people with new jobs in what was one of the greatest expansions of non-military people in peace time ever recorded, and these young people were very proud of their political appointments, held sometimes extraordinary power, and had next to no training for the tasks they were being set to.  
 
Before anyone starts an anti-Bush tirade, must conceal is not all that harsh, it is just that the documents that the government are willing to fight out in court increases.  I was eventually able to get the documents I wanted, it just took a filing in Federal court to get them.
 
Obama went to a mixed conceal and reveal - domestic is not more open than even Clinton, anything WOT and international political is fought tooth and nail even if it is a memo describing the PM of Sweden's desire for a copy of Angry Birds.  
 
As part of my research class I require every student to apply for and obtain a series of documents from the US Government and they have found great stuff.  One time we got the deck plans for the old CV Ticonderoga.  

I once said that the Axis' engineering looks like it was designed to impress easily excited amateurs and armchair historians. Only after I said it did I realize the truth of that joke.

How far the mighty have fallen.

Another angle is "What is Colt known best for?"..
 
Then note how many other companies make the same firearms.

Yes.  36,000 is precisely it.  Remember, if you want to count Frontline and compare with all in then you are making an apples and oranges comparison.  36,000 soldiers put 4-6 thousand infantry in the front.  Plus, the rebels are shaky.  Support for separatism is low to very low.  Loyalty to the leadership in these regions is limited.  To keep this thing running takes a considerable effort on the part of Russia.
 
As for no one having photographs of Russian units, this is 100% right.  This was true of Crimea also.  There just happened to be thousand upon thousands of young, military age men, whose photographs matched those serving in the Russian military, who happened to get great deals on new, off the shelf Russian equipment and vehicles with Russian tags on them, who all decided to vacation at the same time in military order.  
 
Look at the evidence.
 
Dozens of Facebook boss of photographs with GPS markings clearly showing soldiers standing on heavy equipment who were inside of the Ukraine.
Multiple news photographs of Russian tagged vehicles moving through clearly Ukrainian territory.
Breedlove, in his own bombastic way, leaking NATO documents on Russian deployments.
Thousands of photographs of young professional soldiers, many matched forensically to soldiers in Russian service.
Grad-K batteries in unit formation identified at Donetsk both by Rebel photography and NATO surveillance.
SA22 batteries moving into battery formation geolocated to the Ukraine
Russian radio chatter quoted by NATO and Swiss sources.
Russian engineers building a bridge near Luhansk who forgot to sterilize their uniforms.
Russian soldiers identified by name at checkpoints.  Several admitted their nationality and were new to the area.
A surge of burials of soldiers "killed" or "killed while deserting" and the establishment of a cremation facility for Russian soldiers accidentally killed "near the Ukraine".
 
I understand someone in Russia can't run around yelling at the tree-tops anything but the party line - a close friend of mine from my earlier life recently left Russia for Sweden and even there is won't to post on social media, and I do not blame growling at me or ill temper over this post, but my concerns are for the health of the Russian military, which I see as essential for maintaining peace.  I am not calling Russia names for what it is doing in the Ukraine - I literally do not understand why once they took the Crimea they need that slice of land, but I am worried that the Russian Army is being asked to do more than it can do in the region.

With the tightly controlled press in Russia information about the status of the military has always been difficult.  This has traditionally had the effect of making Russian line units vulnerable to brittleness, as was seen in their use in Chechnya.  
 
The new Russian deployments to the Ukraine though has been hard on the units supplying men.  The men transferred are not acknowledged, they leave suddenly, and more often than not, they come home to be buried without acknowledgement of their service to their country.  Some units like the 76th Guards are suffering Vietnam level attrition rates.  And the soldiers who die are often being denied death benefits and, are increasingly being cremated before they are returned.  Severely injured veterans are being sent to the far east where they are not receiving adequate treatment for their wounds.  Parents of soldiers have in recent months been beaten or harassed for asking after their loved ones and in some cases are receiving official letter stating their children have deserted.  
 
Currently the Ukrainian Army is gaining combat capacity.  Last year, Russia staved off total collapse of the rebel groups in the East only by a major ground effort and some of the weaknesses of Russian unit cohesion was seen, including looting and poor target discrimination.  The press likes to paint Russia like an all conquering boogie man beast, but as cases of alcoholism and petty crime grows around bases that host units whose soldiers are fighting in the Ukraine could we be seeing the start of a hollow army for the Russians?  This hollow army coming at a time when NATO is discussing a 25% growth in its force structure and a realignment toward defense to the East, and when some military forces such as Poland and Romania are making massive strides in readiness.  
 
The main reason this makes me nervous is a strong Russian army keeps the oligarchy's fingers away from nuclear options.  Without the checks and balances of western democracy or the rigid control structure of China, Russian deterrent forces are at their lowest lever of readiness in years.  Putin is not a military man or a diplomat, and he has the economic sense of a teenager.  Can he move to repair the slow rips in the Russian military before you have a tragic result (and here, I mean a base rioting in a way it makes western news media).

Yes.  36,000 is precisely it.  Remember, if you want to count Frontline and compare with all in then you are making an apples and oranges comparison.  36,000 soldiers put 4-6 thousand infantry in the front.  Plus, the rebels are shaky.  Support for separatism is low to very low.  Loyalty to the leadership in these regions is limited.  To keep this thing running takes a considerable effort on the part of Russia.
 
As for no one having photographs of Russian units, this is 100% right.  This was true of Crimea also.  There just happened to be thousand upon thousands of young, military age men, whose photographs matched those serving in the Russian military, who happened to get great deals on new, off the shelf Russian equipment and vehicles with Russian tags on them, who all decided to vacation at the same time in military order.  
 
Look at the evidence.
 
Dozens of Facebook boss of photographs with GPS markings clearly showing soldiers standing on heavy equipment who were inside of the Ukraine.
Multiple news photographs of Russian tagged vehicles moving through clearly Ukrainian territory.
Breedlove, in his own bombastic way, leaking NATO documents on Russian deployments.
Thousands of photographs of young professional soldiers, many matched forensically to soldiers in Russian service.
Grad-K batteries in unit formation identified at Donetsk both by Rebel photography and NATO surveillance.
SA22 batteries moving into battery formation geolocated to the Ukraine
Russian radio chatter quoted by NATO and Swiss sources.
Russian engineers building a bridge near Luhansk who forgot to sterilize their uniforms.
Russian soldiers identified by name at checkpoints.  Several admitted their nationality and were new to the area.
A surge of burials of soldiers "killed" or "killed while deserting" and the establishment of a cremation facility for Russian soldiers accidentally killed "near the Ukraine".
 
I understand someone in Russia can't run around yelling at the tree-tops anything but the party line - a close friend of mine from my earlier life recently left Russia for Sweden and even there is won't to post on social media, and I do not blame growling at me or ill temper over this post, but my concerns are for the health of the Russian military, which I see as essential for maintaining peace.  I am not calling Russia names for what it is doing in the Ukraine - I literally do not understand why once they took the Crimea they need that slice of land, but I am worried that the Russian Army is being asked to do more than it can do in the region.

My wife solved the issue of named guns.  They are all George.  

If you do not lend your car to anyone here, and avoid introducing them to any female relatives below the age of 65, this forum is a great place to hangout.  Welcome.

Think about Neil Gardner.  He engages the Columbine shooters at 60 meters when they had long arms - shooting out his ammo supply but staying in the line of fire for several minutes.  Today he is called a coward (for not charging Kliebold to gain a better tactical position) a baby killer (because in his first interviews he said he was shooting to kill Kliebold and people objected that a high school student would be subject to kill shots) an untrained shooter (for failing to shoot the weapon from Kliebold's hands) and so forth.
 
In my book the guy engaged two heavily armed shooters at 60 meters and bought a minute or two for kids to get out of the school is a hero.  But he is a cop so no version of what he did was considered good.

Think about Neil Gardner.  He engages the Columbine shooters at 60 meters when they had long arms - shooting out his ammo supply but staying in the line of fire for several minutes.  Today he is called a coward (for not charging Kliebold to gain a better tactical position) a baby killer (because in his first interviews he said he was shooting to kill Kliebold and people objected that a high school student would be subject to kill shots) an untrained shooter (for failing to shoot the weapon from Kliebold's hands) and so forth.
 
In my book the guy engaged two heavily armed shooters at 60 meters and bought a minute or two for kids to get out of the school is a hero.  But he is a cop so no version of what he did was considered good.

*Jelly intensifies*
 
I really need to hop on the road and drive there sometime. Not the first time I've heard of this tale before, yet I still find it hard to believe you can walk away with such a deal...
Ignorance truely is bliss sometimes.
...
So, breaking my lurker status, here's a collection of thompsons and rifles (no idea on exact models, they all came in the same crate and are currently residing as displays at a local museum as a "free" storage place). People from WoTLabs might be familiar with these pictures:
 
edit:
Hell, how do you get spoilers working?

God damn, I knew I wouldn't like that answer. PA used to be a great place for C&R. My dad found this old beautiful Ithaca pump for like $30, and I'm an idiot who passed on a surplus M1 carbine in pristine condition for $200. You could still buy Enfields for <$100 here until a few years ago, too. The prices have been getting in line with the rest of the country recently, with stuff I've seen at gun stores for the past ten years suddenly going up a few hundred for no real reason. It's why I'm getting intense over getting a MAS 49 and a Garand before they get more expensive than I'm willing to pay.
 
These are weird dudes, for sure. I was able to snag all kinds of cool Russian stuff from "patriotic" dealers who are probably now kicking themselves for practically throwing Mosins and SKSes at people for super low prices. The one guy in our town I bought the Enfield from is infuriating, as he's one of those dudes that bought up loads and loads of surplus in the '90s and is sitting on a stockpile of interesting C&R that he's putting forth no effort to maintain. He just sits at his computer and brags about all of his stuff and refuses to sell it, as some wonderful old guns look more and more like shit every year. He once showed me just a huge footlocker full of Springfield 1903 barrels still in cosmoline that he won't sell until the prices rocket.

My students do studies of the rare gun industry - hoarding right now accounts for half the uptick in prices last decade.  

It was on the end of a line of AK47s.  The pawn shop dealt in guns that it sold to the local gangs - mostly to the girlfriends of gang members since the actual gangers could not buy guns.  The Model 8 was from an estate sale - the dealer picked it up as part of the sale and could not unload it.  He tried to even get the gangers to take it as part of his 3-1 sales deal - buy three AKs and get the Model 8 at 100 bucks.  
 
I saw it with a 325 price tag.  I had to get some power tools and offered him 25 bucks for the rifle.  Sold.  I ran the serial on NCIC and confirmed I was its second owner, and that it was not stolen.
 
To this day I chuckle over those chrome plated and pink AK47s with 50 rd mags and 100 rd drums with price tags at 2 grand each, and I walked out with a piece of history for the cost of a Mcdonalds meal. 
 
Yakima WA, you have to love it.

I seem to recall you mentioning earlier that you got it at a disreputable pawn shop in the Yak.
 
"We Fence Everything And Pass the Savings On to YOU!"

Don't ruin this for me.

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