ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)

[Wilson Gray]

A peculiarity of the old Soviet Armed Forces was that all arms of the
military had only one purpose: to make sure that the Red Army could
never be defeated on land. The traditional purpose of the infantry is
to "take and hold ground." The entire Soviet military, including the
Strategic Rocket Forces, was geared to support that end. Compare this
unity of purpose to the way that the U.S. military is run and it
becomes clear that, for all practical purposes, there was really only
one arm to the Soviet Armed Forces: the Red Army.

Back in the day, some U.S. military strategists were freaked out by
this and wanted to reshape the American military to mirror it, so that
its sole purpose would be to ensure that the Red Army could never
accomplish its ends.

As you know, that idea not only didn't fly, but it also didn't even get
off the ground. The old War Office was replaced by the Department of
Defense, the Air Force, with accompanying bureaucracy, was spun out of
the Army, and the Marine Corps has continued to be the ground arm of
the sea arm.

-Wilson

On Jul 28, 2005, at 1:27 AM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: ADS-L Digest - 24 Jul 2005 to 25 Jul 2005 (#2005-207)
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> --------
>
>> In Soviet days, there was only the Red Army, to
>> which the Military Air Forces and the Military Maritime Fleet were
>> subordinate.
>
> Were there not also "Strategic Rocket Forces"?  I thought they were
> not =
> subordinate to the Red Army.
>