Military Customers Research Articles

People and identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554

Preface Map of Ostrogothic Italy List of rulers Introduction: studying the barbarians in late antiquity 1. Ethnicity, ethnography and community in the fifth and sixth centuries 2. The Ravenna government and ethnographic identity: from civitas to bellicositas 3. Individual reactions to ideology. I: names, language and profession 4. Complementary and competing ideals of community: Italy and the Roman empire 5. Individual reactions to ideology. II: soldiers, civilians and political allegiance 6. Catholic communities and Christian empire 7. Individual reactions to ideology. III: Catholics and Arians 8. The origin of the Goths and Balkan military culture Conclusion Appendix 1: the inquiry into Gundila's property Appendix 2: the Germanic culture construct Appendix 3: archaeological and toponymic research on Ostrogothic Italy Appendix 4: dress, hairstyle and military customs Prosopographical appendix: a prosopography of the Goths in Italy, 489-554.

An update on the UK electric gun research programme

The aim of this paper is to provide an update on the UK electric gun research programme, concentrating on work carried out since the last EML Symposium in 1994. The paper covers work being carried out by the DRA into electro-thermal (ET) and electromagnetic (EM) guns. Both of these programmes are focused on developing an understanding of the technologies and demonstrating their potential to the MOD military customers.

Advanced avionics for military needs

The military customer of today is faced with escalating costs and inadequate reliability and availability of avionic systems. The evolution of increasingly sophisticated electronics has offered the military unimaginable increases in processing power and functional capability. Consequently, avionics is now a major driver in air vehicle design, accounting for around 40% of the acquisition cost of a modern combat aircraft. However, in addition to higher acquisition costs the life-cycle costs and logistics support problems of avionic systems have also increased. Reductions in technology cost, weight and volume have been far outweighed by the hunger of the military customer for increased numbers of complex operational functions.

Saluting in Social Context

The article examines the stylistic variations of the military custom of saluting, which both reflects the military hierarchy and provides a medium for the expression of individuals' attitudes toward the system. Specific examples, conventions, and categories of saluting are presented, drawn from the author's previous experience as a United States Army officer, with reference to official guidelines and discussions with other military personnel. Common instances of individual manipulation of the standard rules for saluting are considered signs of structural ambiguity and of overlapping-and sometimes contradictory-systems of military power, values, and authority. Based on evidence of a complex interplay of social definitions in a relatively closed and regimented system, the author warns against using rigid or deterministic models of the relationship between individual action and social structure.

How <i>The Civil War Dictionary</i> Came into Being

HOW THE CIVIL WAR DICTIONARY CAME INTO BEING Mark M. Boatner III When the head of the Chicago Civil War Round Table phoned about my giving talks to her group and the Milwaukee CWRT, we pulled a subject out of the air: "How The Civil War Dictionary Came Into Being ."1 As soon as this started appearing in the monthly newsletter, which included the complete speakers' schedule for the 1986-87 season, I had misgivings. These increased with each successive issue of thenewsletter. My talk was scheduled as the last of the season for each group, so I had months of leisure to repent an act made in haste. Who really cared how I wrote the book? My subject would keep them away in droves, I suspected. It was not reassuring when the woman who got us into this situation phoned to say that the MilwaukeeCWRT had canceled out. Did I mind? Again taken by surprise, I did not think fast enough to suggest that the Chicago CWRT drop out also. At the eleventh hour, however, reassuring events occurred. Several people wrote to say they were looking forward to the meeting in Chicago . Then the editor of this quarterly asked me to consider making an article out of the talk. "You may recall recent articles in Civil War History on Battles and Leaders and the genesis of the Official Records," his note said. That is heady company! After much organizational turbulence within the David McKay Company , a new president assured me that he intended to go ahead with the long-delayed plans to issue an extensively updated new sixteenth printing. Meanwhile, the competition I had been expecting for thirty years had finally appeared in the form of the Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedh of the Civil War.2 That seemingly uninspired topic suddenly appeared to be a good one. It had become even timely. 1 Mark M. Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1969) 2 Patricia Faust, ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1986). Civil War History, Vol. XXXIV, No. 3, © 1988 by The Kent State University Press 198civil war history The Civil War Dictionary (CWD) might well be titled "What ever happened to J. D. Cox?" The book idea came to me soon after I started teaching military history at West Point in 1956. Like most new instructors , I was only a lesson ahead of the students. One day a cadet asked that question. In the Antietam campaign, starting at South Mountain, where he succeeded Jesse L. Reno as corps commander, Cox was a star. His name was not mentioned again during the course. Other instructors frequently got similar "good questions." All we could do was to say we'd find the answer before the class met again. It occurred to me that if instructors wrote a memo-for-record whenever they dug up an answer, these could be posted in loose-leaf books that in due course would make a valuable work of reference. Despite a negative reaction from fellow instructors, I presented the idea officially, in writing. More than the expected disapproval, I got an admonishment evocative of a famous "second endorsement." When a subordinate persisted in resubmitting a third request in writing for a furlough Nathan Bedford Forrest allegedly scribbled on it, "I have tole you twict goddammit No!"3 No-longer-wanted property in the Old Army, including horses and mules, was stamped or branded "I. C," meaning "Inspected and Condemned ." I believed the government had a refusal option on my book because the idea had come to me "in line of duty." Now that my creature bore an official "I. C," it was mine alone. I had three misgivings. First, whether I could hack it, if readers will forgive the pun. Second, whether others were ahead of me. Third, whether the growing public enthusiasm for our Civil War would be sustained long enough to make my labor worthwhile. My Military Customs and Traditions was being published about this time by David McKay.4 When I went to New York and casually sprang the idea for the Civil War book on Kennett L. Rawson, president of this famous old company, he hit...

Automation of Solder Joint Inspection Procedures Utilizing Laser Induced Infrared

In the rush to automate assembly flow in the fabrication and assembly of electronic equipment, great strides have been made in all areas with the exception of solder joint inspection and rework. This paper focuses on an attempt to automate, at least in part, the inspection of printed wiring assembly (PWA) solder joints. The use of laser and/or X-ray equipment is causing quite a stir in the industry due to the fact that there finally appears to be a technique that may allow for automation of one of the most labor intensive, inexact, and costly tasks in any PWA assembly operation--the visual inspection of solder joint quality. As the complexity of PWA's increase, the number and density of solder joints are increasing. This trend is resulting in decreased efficiency in the inspection process due to the shear number of joints to be inspected, operator fatigue, and the subjectivity of the entire inspection process. In areas where absolute quality is critical, such as military products, this declining inspection effectiveness is being compensated for by the incorporation of multiple inspection-rework loops. These techniques statistically should result in the identification of all defects on a given assembly. However, the impact of this multiple inspection process is one of total disruption to the assembly flow in an automated shop. Laser induced infrared (IR) inspection has been under investigation by Texas Instruments' Defense Systems and Electronics Group for the past several years. Our thrust has been aimed at the incorporation of this technique into the inspection of PWA's that are fabricated for military customers. Extensive efforts have been expended in the determination of the strengths and weaknesses of the technique in an attempt to augment the human element in the inspection process.

Reliability Management Programmes: A Military Customer's Overview

The techniques and procedures available to assist the customer in his quest for a reliable product are reviewed. The blending of these techniques and procedures into a cohesive and fully integrated programme spanning the equipment life cycle is discussed along with those characteristics that have a significant effect on the success or failure of such a programme.

The military customer's point of view

I have chosen to speak on what I would term the military customer's point of view. You may rightly fee] that a more appropriate audience for such a talk would be the SBAC, but the country, and indeed the world, only benefits from the original and imaginative ideas and the ingenuity of aeronautical scientists and engineers by the production of aircraft and the equipment associated with their operation. It occurred to me, therefore, that this lecture presented me with an admirable opportunity for setting out some personal—and I emphasise that word—views as a representative of the largest customer of the British Aerospace Industry.

The Scope of the Military Market

This article describes the major categories of the military market in the United States. Important changes in the composition of the military demand for goods and services are also indicated. These developments include the emergence of the Air Force as the largest military customer; increased emphasis on the procurement of new weapons; and the replacement of conventional weapons by missiles, jet aircraft and, in the forseeable future, space vehicles.

The Scope of the Military Market

This article describes the major categories of the military market in the United States. Important changes in the composition of the military demand for goods and services are also indicated. These developments include the emergence of the Air Force as the largest military customer; increased emphasis on the procurement of new weapons; and the replacement of conventional weapons by missiles, jet aircraft and, in the forseeable future, space vehicles.

Reviews of Books

Abstract Abstract Troopships of World War II. By Roland W. Charles. (Published and distributed by the Army Transportation Association of Washington, D.C.) $3.25. History of the Great War. Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1918. Vol. V. Edited by Brigadier-General Sir James Edmonds, C.B., C.M.G. (H.M. Stationery Office.) 30s. 0d. Military Customs. By Major T. J. Edwards, M.B.E., F.R.Hist.S. (Gale and Polden, Ltd.) 10s. 6d. The Good Soldier. By Field-Marshal Earl Wavell. (Macmillan & Co., Ltd.) 8s. 6d.

TRAINING OF WAVES FOR HOSPITALS

THE WAR is making tremendous demands on the Hospital Corps of the Navy. From these existing conditions there has grown a realization of the value of young women to replace the corpsmen. With such an objective WAVES of specified qualifications are daily being recruited for actual hospital duty within the continental limits of the United States, and are being trained as adequately as limited time allows. The following data represent the program which is being carried on at the Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. This program is just beginning, and therefore revisions may be found necessary from time to time. However, as the outline of courses has been made and presented by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, uniformity can be maintained throughout all schools which are to be organized. The usual Navy indoctrination period at Hunter College, Bronx, New York, prescribed for all WAVES, is first encountered by future corpswomen. After four to six weeks of classes and instruction in military courtesies, Navy customs, and drill, these young women are sent to one of several naval hospitals for specialized training. Procurement records are available to the educational officers at the hospital and give a general idea of each girl's background and abilities. Our experience with this new program thus far has shown that an effort is made by the procurement offices and by personal interviews in the recruit school to place girls in the departments towards which they are most strongly motivated. In this way the students are more eager to learn and, on the whole, a better trained group of women results. Classes for WAVES in Corpus Christi began April 19, 1943. A group of forty-five is being sent to us every four weeks. At the present time these girls attend classes four hours a day, have one hour of drill weekly, and at the end of the first week are assigned to two hours of ward duty daily. This makes correlation of theory and practice possible and helps prepare them a bit more thoroughly for full-time hospital duty. The following is an outline of the course (four weeks in length) as fixed by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. This course is not required for hospital apprentices designated as technicians.

Military Customs : Halt to bake bread; Enlistment of prisoners

Military Customs : Halt to bake bread; Enlistment of prisoners

Old Military Customs Still Extant

Old Military Customs Still Extant