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  • #31
    You have to admit that Sparks has a special gift that seemingly no other possesses. The ability to unite all of WAB under a common opinion

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    • #32
      Originally posted by Gun Grape View Post
      Mike Sparks is an Army Officer:Dancing-Banana:
      I read he was a NCO. Is that fiction too?
      To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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      • #33
        I have heard him refered to as NCO, LT, and Captain. The first few times I read about him I assumed that he never was in the army at all, though that seems to have been wrong.

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        • #34
          Apparently he was a NCO (cpl) in USMC and 2ndLt in the Army reserves, or something like that. Here's a non-credible source.

          Lieutenant Mike Sparks USMC
          To be Truly ignorant, Man requires an Education - Plato

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          • #35
            So the marines and army share the blame for this?

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            • #36
              Originally posted by JAD_333 View Post
              Apparently he was a NCO (cpl) in USMC and 2ndLt in the Army reserves, or something like that. Here's a non-credible source.

              Lieutenant Mike Sparks USMC

              So the Army was stupid enough to commission him but the USMC saw fit to publish him......repeatedly. Wow.

              To see Bill Lind and Sparks in the same table of contents....in a reputable journal. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

              Gee, Gunny. Letterhead and everything. ".....deserve some merit...."


              I got your Dancing Banana right here!
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

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              • #37
                Originally posted by JAD_333 View Post
                Apparently he was a NCO (cpl) in USMC and 2ndLt in the Army reserves, or something like that. Here's a non-credible source.

                Lieutenant Mike Sparks USMC
                USMC Reserve while he was going to college. After he had been kicked off active duty. Non drilling reservist.

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
                  So the Army was stupid enough to commission him but the USMC saw fit to publish him......repeatedly. Wow.

                  To see Bill Lind and Sparks in the same table of contents....in a reputable journal. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.

                  Gee, Gunny. Letterhead and everything. ".....deserve some merit...."


                  I got your Dancing Banana right here!
                  OK the Corps admitted he knew how to tie a knot. And let him have a few paragraphs at the bottom of a page.

                  not like Armor Magazine

                  A Crisis of Confidence in Armor?

                  http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../2sparks98.pdf


                  Improving light force firepower with HMMWV mounted recoilless rifles

                  http://www.benning.army.mil/armor/ar...ber1995web.pdf

                  M113s Maximize Mechanized infantry mobility and firepower in contingency ops.

                  http://www.benning.army.mil/armor/ar...ary1995web.pdf

                  Cannot find his letter but reference where he was published in Army logistian magazine

                  http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues...GNOTESMJ99.htm

                  Support Versus Sustain

                  I can't tell you how refreshing it was to pick up your November-December issue at the British Army School of Logistics and read Mike Sparks' letter, "Sustainment, not Support Units." It seems ironic that our two armies are so diverse in some respects and yet so similar in others.

                  The Royal Logistic Corps has only been formed just over 5 years, but since its inception the motto has been, "We Sustain." While we too have followed the idea of service "support" units, with our sustainment motto (which we inherited from the Army Catering Corps), we hopefully maintain our focus on the vital lifeblood, which is army logistics.

                  Mr. Sparks is accurate in his assertion that "support" appears to be very much a second-fiddle concept, implying that logisticians rely in some way on the combat arms, whereas "sustainment" implies an indivisible umbilical cord between the two. Because we have learned to embrace "mission command" as an essential tenet of the maneuverist approach to warfighting, army logisticians can feel comfortable at all levels in using in the mission statement "in order to sustain X Brigade or Division."

                  The stated aim of the Royal Logistic Corps is "to sustain the soldier in peace and war," and it is a sound concept which we should endorse on both sides of the Atlantic.

                  CPT Matthew Dietz, RLC, North Yorkshire, England
                  Also has articles/letters in Infantry Mag, Special Warfare mag




                  Armor, Infantry, Logistics. Seems you two share a common background.

                  I think thats worth :Dancing-Banana::Dancing-Banana::Dancing-Banana:

                  (and to think I was going to harass Yeller when I logged on. This is way more fun)
                  Last edited by Gun Grape; 03 Jul 12,, 05:11.

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                  • #39
                    SIGH!!!:slap:

                    Gunny, you have been in the sun too long.

                    1. Armor magazine was considered on par with comic books well through the 1990s. It reflected the armor community struggling to find relevance post-Cold War. Infantry was not much better and he only got a few letters in there....no published articles.

                    2. Being second sourced in a letter hardly constitutes published...I looked up the article the good Brit was mentioning...unfortunatley no public access but the good captain missed the tenor of the article in which people like Sparks were being outed as charlatans.

                    3. Again, a by line next to Bill Lind!?!?

                    You and your bananas can go back to trolling Yeller.
                    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
                    Mark Twain

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                    • #40
                      watching groundpounders try their best to disassociate themselves with Mike Sparks...:pop: as much as i hate the AF motto, "Above All", i think it fits here...
                      There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

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                      • #41
                        I'm having fun watching AMERICAN groundpounders. No matter by the GS and the Maj dukes it out, Sparky is still an American.

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                        • #42
                          :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop: :pop:

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                          • #43
                            So I take it Mike Sparks is the YellowFever of the military world?

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                            • #44
                              Originally posted by Tarek Morgen View Post
                              So the marines and army share the blame for this?
                              :grump: AR & GG

                              :pop: <== Chogy

                              :pop: <== Jimmy

                              :pari: <== OOE
                              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                              • #45
                                Yeah, but the Colonel is always ~~~~> :pari: <~~~~ so that doesn't count.....

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