Strange Weapons: NKL-26 Aerosan

With colder weather approaching, I figured it appropriate to post a winter capable weird weapon.

The Soviet Union has winters that are considered some of the harshest in the world. Vast trackless tundra, sparse population, and a lack of all-weather roads conspire to make movement in the winter hazardous.

The aerosan is a simple design idea that actually worked. Take a sled, add a motor with a pusher type propeller and you have the aerosan. They are best suited to movement over frozen lakes and deep snow covering wide open fields. Maneuvering in built up areas or in forests, the aerosan loses a lot of it's mobility.

The Soviets designed several types of aerosan for various purposes. My personal fave is the armored NKL-26. It carried a crew of two, one driver/pilot and the gunner commander. The armor was thin, only 10mm on the front. Which would be hard pressed to stop armor piercing rounds out of a Finnish Mosin-Nagant rifle, but would stop shrapnel splinters. The sides were plywood. Weight being the biggest restriction. Too much armor and the small engine could not move the sled! The gunner could return fire with a DP-28 machine gun.

Still, the design was sound, and they were effective for reconnaissance work and to harass the enemy over long distances.

I can see these being used to hunt in Wisconsin and Minnestoa. The deer would die of fright!

Our Vintage Phone

There's no apps, no cool games, it is not portable. Dialing a number takes a minute, longer if you miss dial and have to start over.

It will work even if the power is out. As long as phone lines are up, it will work.

I bought this nice Westinghouse Electric Model 302 phone for a mere five dollars. The adapter to convert the old brass four prong into the currently used "modular" jack cost another 14 bucks.

It was all well worth it. Hearing that old phone ring is priceless.

Genug ist Genug!

Voodoo lady said something this weekend that has been ringing in my ears. She said "You know, if you worked out a couple hours a day, you could get to where you were a few years ago". I think I captured what she was saying.

I was under the illusion that I have been in good shape. I am not obese, or overtly overweight. However, I am thicker than I was just a few years ago. I transferred from a command that worked out as a group three times a week to a command that PTs barely at all.

The extra weight actually has crept up on me without me noticing. Looking at photos, and abusing some hapless scale. I think 20 pounds is not an unfair amount to drop.

So, I devised a plan. I will wake up early and get to work early enough to get in a decent workout (at least 1 1/2 hours). This I will do four days a week when I wear NWUs to work and not Khakis on Monday. Mondays I also get up pretty early at home and drive the 140 miles in to work.

Therefore, Tuesday to Friday. I WILL be in the gym. Goal, 20 pounds. Elliptical, weight machines, treadmill, stair climber.

Eating right and walking with the sparse PT my command does is simply not enough.

Fort Mifflin Review

After attending the Fort Mifflin reenactments in Philadelphia for the past few years, I have to say this one was the smallest turnout of reenactors and public I have seen yet.

Every event goes through cycles of big and small years. This year, scheduling the event on the same weekend as several other major events split the reenactor community amongst the events.
I was there with my German WWII unit, 10th Frundsberg. We had a unit turnout of around 10 people, not bad considering a huge unit event was two weeks ago in New York. Usually events placed close together will detract numbers from the smaller event. I got promoted and received my unit cuff title (making me a full member). It only took a year since I was qualified, but was worth the wait.

A new unit I had just joined, 1 REP, French Foreign Legion made their debut at the event. They had a very nice display and besides the hosts unit (9th Infantry Division, WWII US Army). They had the largest footprint in the parade ground. I found myself splitting my time between groups of friends. Not an easy feat to accomplish.

I felt kind of bad for any first timers there. Last year was larger by several orders of magnitude. I felt like I was not with either group. As evidenced by photographs I have already seen. Honestly, my mind was really elsewhere all weekend long.

I did not feel all that bad then having to leave early this year. I need to be well rested and ready for two job interviews Monday. Work and family before hobby, that is always a good axiom to go by.

Photos to be added when and if I get to it........

Rolling The Dice

Well, an anonymous suggestion has turned into several promising interviews for possible employment.

I will not go into details or anything like that. Employers now search for candidates online and as to not jinx myself.

If I have this kind of luck now, then offers should start happening. I maintain guarded optimism, and will maintain my mission of papering the metro DC area with my resume.

Listening To:
Archers Of Loaf "Underachievers March And Fight Song"
Biz Markie "Just A Friend"
John Lennon "Strange Days"

Strange Weapons: De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle

The problem of moving infantry formations over long distances and various obstacles like rivers has always been difficult to solve. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s various unusual types of transport for the individual soldier were developed to solve the age old question.

The HZ-1 Aerocycle was a fairly workable concept. The air vehicle could go up to 15 miles at speeds up to 65 MPH. It had a max altitude of 5,000 feet. An individual combat infantryman was supposedly able to climb aboard and fly this contraption with as little as 20 minutes of training.

The idea of hundreds or thousands of troops crossing something like a wide river on these individual vehicles would have been a sight to see.

The idea of standing atop two counter rotating blades does no appeal to me personally. There was also problems with the blades meshing into each other and then shattering, leaving the hapless pilot to fall like a rock with the craft.

The project was eventually abandoned, troops would cross obstacles and cover distance in other more conventional ways.

Only one of these mini-copters is left at the Army museum at Fort Eustis.

Thoughts From Behind Eight Ball

The whole job search process is somewhat foreign to me. The last time I tried this was thirteen to fourteen years ago. Back then I put out about 100 resumes over a year or so and due to lack of job experience, got not even one positive response. This time around, I have put 100 times the effort into getting my name into the right people's hands. I feel the inexorable and unavoidable drumbeat of time. It goads me into keeping a steady strain on what I need to do. I have several hundred resumes out, signed on with three head-hunter firms, and am developing personal contacts for help.

I am starting to get some responses now, three weeks and change after my career warning light started flashing. I have plenty of time, nearly 6 months, to get things together. Everyone is positive with my extensive experience and the bachelors degree I got so so long ago that a job is forthcoming.

It is the only thing that I would consider a negative. Home awaits, where I am actually happy.
I will be able to see my daughter more often than I have been able to. I have a good career in the Naval Reserves waiting, chock full of benefits. My veterans status affords me extra consideration for the various posts that I have applied for.

The mental struggle is to avoid two conditions. One, panic. It will cause misjudgment. I have seen people in a similar position do desperate things. Two, inertia. I do not want to be a "deer in the headlights" waiting for the worst case scenario to play out. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, is it the end of my search, or another train???

I have now developed four separate battle plans, each one a response to the inability of it's predecessor to be carried out. Now that things are moving a little, I expect to be busy. Interviews, hiring conferences and the like. Within a few more weeks, I hope to be able to pick from several offers.

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Tom Petty got it damn right when he penned that lyric. Since getting the news that I am being "downsized" from the Navy along with sever hundred other Officers. I have been furiously potting out resumes to all manner of jobs. "Career transition" as they now call getting shit canned, sucks in every way shape and form.

It has been two and 1/2 weeks and nearly 200 resumes since getting the bad news. So far, nothing has moved in the right direction for me. I have extensive qualifications and experience. Thirteen long years of honorable military service in three "wars", Afghanistan 2006-7, Iraq 2008, and Counter Drug Operations in South America in 2001. I performed the functions of a logistics expert in the most austere and extreme of environments. Led troops in such places as Kabul Afghanistan and Port Au Prince Haiti. Does any of this count?

You would think with all that and a good work ethic. I should be good to go. I should have offers pouring in, right? I have not even gotten rejection letters. Perhaps my sense of panic is premature. i have no way of knowing.

I fear the now cliche labels "Homeless Vet" or "Jobless Veteran" are hanging over me like the sword of Damocles and the rope is starting to break. I feel the Atlas like pressure to wallpaper the DC area with my resume.

I do not want to end up like so many others. Perhaps we will see a repeat of the Bonus Army march on Washington in 1932. Will this administration use the military against us like they did then?

One advantage I have is a very supporting wife and great friends who are elping me find contacts and opportunities. It will work out. I just cannot see it yet.

Strange Weapons: Vought V-173

I decided that it is appropriate to cover an American made weird weapon. This one I was fascinated by when I was a kid. I can understand how it got mis-identified as a UFO often too.

The gearbox system was complicated (kind of like the V-22 Osprey years later). It is too bad the "flying pancake" had a top speed of a mere 138 Miles Per Hour (compared to contemporary 437 MPH of the P-51D Mustang and 398 MPH of the Messerschmidt BF-109), so use as a fighter or interceptor would need further development. Two later versions with design improvements were built. The XF-5U could achieve a max speed of 475 MPH and was to be armed with either 6 .50 calibre machine guns Or 4 20mm cannon and could carry two 1000 lb. bombs.

Sadly, only one example still survives. The lone example of this aircraft is in storage at the Smithsonian facility in Silver Hill, Maryland. Hopefully it will get restored and placed on display at one of the museums that dot the DC area.

Strange Weapons: Anotov A-40

This one is a personal fave of mine. It's a plane, its a tank, it's a flying tank! The idea was to have a glider-borne tank that did not need to be unloaded. Upon landing, the tank leaves the wings and tail behind.

Designed in 1942 the idea was to take a T-60 light tank, attach it behind a bomber or heavy transport and tow it to the battlefield for release. The crew of the tank would have to jump separately for safety. The tank went in without weapons or ammunition and only enough fuel to get it to the drop bundles containing more fuel ammo and weapons.

The T-60 itself is a small tank. The main gun is 20mm with a 7.62mm coax machine gun. It carried a crew of two, driver and gunner/commander.

The British and Japanese also experimented with the concept of a glider tank during World War II, but projects were quickly abandoned.

I do not know why, but the Soviets have some of the strangest concepts. More to follow!!

BACKDATED POST: The Tank Farm, 21 August 2010

T-72

I found what I want for Christmas!

Soviet Comrade!

Engineer Tank based on T-55 chassis

PT-76

T-72

BTR-152

My first venture into East German reenacting was at, in my estimation, the best event to start this new impression off with. The Virginia Military Vehicle Museum in Nokesville Va. has an extensive collection of various military vehicles from World War One up to modern era.

The centerpieces, at least in the authors very humble opinion, are the East German and other Warsaw Pact vehicles. East German BTR-152 wheeled personnel carrier, Two T-55 tanks (one Czech and one East German), East German T-72 main battle tank, East German BMP-1 Armored personnel carrier, East German TK-55 engineer tank, Two Soviet T-34/85 tanks and many many others.

We set up next to a nice former NVA (East German Army) BMP-1. I was pretty enthralled, the last time I got to play around with BMP-1 and 2s was in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Udari Range Kuwait, Ex-Iraqi BMP-2 July 2006.

Ex East German BMP-1 August 2010

It was relatively humid and the sun ended up burning all exposed skin. I had a great time. Our next door neighbors was a group of Soviet Afghan War reenactors in front of the former NVA T-55. We had a lot of fun talking to the public and to each other. I had a blast watching the tanks drive around for the public and climbing around on the BMP-1.

BMP-1 Afghanistan February 2007

En El Frente!!

I just had to ham it up for the photo. We were mocking a well known train wreck of a reenactor who uses a megaphone as part of his "kit". They were actually used in Spain to insult the other side or to induce the enemy to defect. Marc reacts to close fascist gunfire as he loads a round in his rifle. Kelsey is still mowing down Franco's fascist dogs.
Marc ready to leap over the "barricade" and engage the unseen foe with his bayonet, Kelsey mows down the fascist pigs in droves while I am picking off the officers and NCOs one by one.....

Unfortunately, the alluring pull of overtime at work prevented Voodoo Lady from participating (such a capitalist!), and the event itself was small to say the least. We decided to scale back our "footprint" and not go through the fun of putting up a tent and camping overnight (which would mean more food, cooking items, etc.). Horses easily outnumbered the reenactors 5 to 1. The amount of horse dung all over the place out numbered the horses and everyone else 500 to 1! Note to the organizers, if you want more "living historians" find a spot with less crap for us to set up in!

The countryside in and around Fort Valley, Virginia was spectacular. The valley is fairly narrow, perhaps two miles across at the most. I was told the confederates kept it secret and the entrances to the valley hidden and thus Union forces had no idea it was there. The local Confederates used it as a safe lane of passage all through the war. The site itself was just outside the boundaries of the George Washington National Forest.

It was just the three of us this time from our little Spanish Civil War unit. Myself, Marc and Kelsey set up a little machine gun nest.

Sadly, there was no public there at all. Other than fellow reenactors and the staff of the event, it was mainly a good opportunity to set up the gear and try out the impression.

Fellow reenactors Chris and Natasha were there (doing a Russian Civil War impression).

Marc and I teamed up for the authenticity competition and took either 2nd or 3rd (results still pending) out of 12 that competed. Not bad for a first time for an impression.

Everyone got a nice sunburn out of it as well. I got to see where the holes are in the impression and display are and where we can improve. Looking forward to next time!

Strange Weapons: Lun-class ekranoplan

Forward Gun turret below missile tubes 1 and 2

They are classified as ships by the International Maritime Organization. They literally "fly" over the water at high speed, but at a very low altitude. Some call them "Ground Effect Vehicles", but they are NOT hovercrafts.

The Soviet designed ekranoplan is truly a unique vehicle. This particular version, The Lun class even more so. This massive beast is nearly 20 meters high and 74 meters long. It uses 8 turbofan engines to push itself up out of the water and fly just over the water at speeds up to 550 kilometers per hour. It took 15 crew to operate it and only one was built.

It was armed with 6 SS-N-22 anti ship missiles and two twin 23mm guns one facing forward under the first set of launchers and one facing aft for defense from behind. It was designed to speed into the targeted area and take on NATO warships. Another version being planned was to be used as a field hospital, but was never built.

Truly unique, the Lun is sitting in drydock rotting away. never used in combat, it is a truly weird weapon.