Pete Monks

This whole thread by @mtmcgurk.bsky.social is worthy of a read, but this is a particularly valuable observation. If we go into LSCO in the Indo-Pacific we will quite likely be doing a lot of retrograde operations from the get-go - but how much do we train for that?

No cheating. Your last saved celebrity photo is your therapist. Who is it?

I don’t think anyone who isn’t a fan of Australian Rules football will get this, but I can’t think of anything MORE therapeutic than Cam Rayner winding up feral Collingwood supporters as Brisbane beats Collingwood.

He is somewhat opaque about some of the wider controversies surrounding the conflict, however. The tone did remind me a bit of South African accounts of fighting in Angola in the 1980s, which described tactical actions well but were incurious about some wider ethical implications. 3/3

With wide access to UAE participants, Knights describes UAE operational planning and tactical actions equally well, with interesting insights on UAE train, advise and assist activities with Yemeni partners. Overall, it is an informative work on a small part of a little-understood campaign. 2/3

The cover of the book “The Race for Mukalla” by Michael Knights. The cover features an Oshkosh MRAP armoured vehicle in a mountainous desert landscape.

For this week’s #histbookchat and #photofriday I was pleasantly surprised by my inexpensive purchase of “The Race for Mukalla”. I had expected some implausible SF heroics, but it is actually a well-researched (if slightly laudatory and one-sided) account of UAE operations in Yemen in 2015-16 1/3

The cartoon character Morty from “Rick and Morty” pointing and saying ‘You son of a bitch, I’m in’

I was amazed to read that early in the III MAF deployment (and not ‘first couple of weeks’, but for months on end) key leaders and staff held appointments in 2 or 3 very different HQs simultaneously (usually HQ III MAF and HQ 3 Mar Div)

There was a bit, both about good order and discipline in general against the backdrop of racial tension and drug use, and in response to breaches of LOAC by junior members.

Not in huge detail, but he does point out that this and other enabling functions were really hindered by the USMC of the 1960s not really envisioning enduring corps-like operations or their support requirements. He speaks very highly of the adaptability of the USN Naval Support Activity.

Morris (a Marine himself) rejects some USMC mythology about Vietnam and lays bare failures of organisation, culture, planning rigour and complacency that don’t sound entirely out of place in similar organisations a generation (or two?) later. Highly recommended reading for professional soldiers 3/3

He makes a compelling case that, despite individual tactical successes, the USMCs III MAF HQ in Vietnam failed to effectively implement a campaign that denied NVA freedom of action, destroyed the insurgents shadow government, or prepared ARVN counterparts to operate independently 2/3

The cover of the book “Corps Competency? III Marine Amphibious Force in Vietnam” by Michael F Morris. The cover is a colour photograph of USMC infantry and combat engineers sweeping a narrow jungle track in Vietnam for mines with a USMC M48 tank behind, while advancing to Khe Sanh in 1968.

For #histbookchat and #photofriday, I found ‘Corps Competency’ by Michael F Morris a compelling read. He is sceptical of the oft-held view that III MAF understood COIN better than MACV, and argues HQ III MAF was poorly designed and prepared to command at the operational level 1/3

Off the top of my head, David Hackworth’s “About Face” is a great non-Wehrmacht example of this type of military memoirs 4/4

4. I bravely spoke truth to power against my out of date leaders, but they wouldn’t listen (no independent record of this? Just trust me)

5. (Optional, but mandatory for the Wehrmacht) War crimes? It wasn’t me, I wasn’t there for them, well, not what you would really call war crimes, anyway… 3/4

1. In hindsight, I was awesome and much better than my peers (even if I have selective memories of what actually happened)

2. My mistakes were trivial and/or essential lessons on my path to greatness

3. My subordinates soon came to idolise my toughness, inspiring leadership and brilliance
2/4

A throwaway line about “the greatly exaggerated ‘Rape of Nanking’” and some very revisionist views about the start of the war in China made me think of the Wehrmacht memoirs parallel, but to be fair the formula for many military memoirs by junior to mid-level commanders is… 1/4

The cover of the book “Japanese Destroyer Captain: Pearl Harbour, Guadalcanal, Midway - The great naval battles as seen through Japanese eyes” by Tameichi Hara. The cover features a painting of a night naval battle in the Solomons Island campaign of WW2

For #histbookchat and #photofriday, I haven’t read many first-hand accounts of the Pacific War from the Japanese perspective.

It’s quite interesting but a bit reminiscent of certain WW2 Wehrmacht memoirs - the author’s tactical judgement was excellent, if only senior leadership had listened to him…

I’m heading out of Townsville early morning of the the 13th, so it will have to be beers in Brisbane at the end of the month

Will almost certainly miss you when you arrive, then.

When do you think you will make it out here now?

A hardcover copy of the book “North-West Frontier” by Arthur Stinson. The cover features a Victorian-era print of British soldiers on horseback looking across a valley with troops marching into the distance, with the Hindu Kush mountains on the horizon

For #histbookchat and #photofriday and this week - well, I haven’t *quite* got this place out of my system

“Yeah, war IS icky with terrible consequences, so all the more reason you don’t leave it to racist theocrats with no meaningful oversight”

Come on, in this scenario you can afford to buy some club a whole new stadium and shout their fans the night’s supply of Guinness in exchange for a couple of tickets.

I would also stack every governing body at every level of competition in Australian Rules football with people who hate Collingwood Football Club as much as I do.

I’d go to a lot of sporting events I never would otherwise.

Not just obvious things like the FA Cup final in a VIP box, either.

“The Pro Kabbadi League grand final is on in Hyderabad? Quick, fire up the Gulfstream and get us tickets in the cheap seats with locals who can tell us what’s going on”

Biden is our generation’s Neville Chamberlain.

Whatever his good intentions, other achievements or (not unreasonable) fears of the consequences of action, he completely misunderstood the nature of the threat and blithely assumed that things would automatically return to the status quo.

So sorry to hear that, Mark

A copy of the book “North-West Frontier” by Arthur Stinson. The cover is an old print (Victorian-era?) of British soldiers on horseback gazing at the Hindu Kush mountains in the distance

A Penguin Classics paperback edition of “On the Good Life” by Cicero

Got two on the go at the moment.

This could be an opening for us. We can market the experience of being an O-3 or O-4 in the Div FUOPS cell (“Where’s the FRAGO that the COFS needs to review?” “What font is THAT on that slide, you mutant??”) as a way to reconnect with your primal masculine force or some shit.

Which, frankly, sounds about right based on all the available evidence from both world wars and other conflicts.

…as well as the evidence of my personal experience of the Australian army and other armies at war about 100 years later 3/3