History, Politics And Current Affairs

While we wait for 106 to be posted, and, following that, for Jan to go under the knife, let's open the floor for general discussion on TLW. There was a similar thread over on Yuckpoo on this, so why not open a similar one here? First off would be areas where there's active ground combat, meaning battalion-level and above. That would be the following: Norway, Finland, Denmark (Zealand, Bornholm), West Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Libya, Golan Heights, Kuwait, South Korea, Japan (Hokkaido). One locale where combat has ceased: Panama (the attempt by Venezuelan forces to block the canal and the Rangers and 82nd Airborne stopped them).

Did Panama actually finish? The last I remember was the Rangers landing and taking sizable casualties. Personally, I want to see some of the US Seventh Army in CENTAG, but that may be a bit much to hope for for awhile.

Panama got wrapped up; Buffs and Bones then paid a visit to El Presidente in Caracas to teach him a lesson via CALCM and JASSM on his airfields, and mining his naval bases. This was quite a few chapters ago.

One other thing that came up on the Yuckpoo thread: female aces. There are two all-female ace teams in CVW-5, and a female RIO as part of another team. It's quite likely that the USAF and RAF have female aces in Europe, but haven't gotten around to publiczing them yet. The first two female aces are Navy, which no doubt vexes the AF Chief of Staff, since interservice rivalry is fierce, and he's probably hounding the PAOs in USAFE and PACAF to see if any AF women have made ace yet.

Panama was indeed wrapped up off screen, as it were. Some of the Rangers and airborne troops had to remain in place until relieved by 193rd Inf Bde and the 53rd Inf Bde. The regular brigade lost its airborne battalion, which went to create the 173rd Airborne Brigade as part of the SETAF, when the US withdrew from Panama. The brigade them became a lower readiness formation based in Florida, but retained the canal defence mission.



3 ACR and 1 AD did feature a while back and 1st Cav will appear in the near future.

1st Cav is with III Corps, along with 2nd Armored, 3rd ACR and 5th Mech.

Sorry, should have said that 11 ACR featured a while back.

Another thing that came up on Yuckpoo was the media in wartime. Given that this is the big one, WW III, the broadcast networks here in the States would be having news during the day, but keeping up their normal schedules in the evening. And a lot of sports on the weekends. You can bet that networks like ESPN and ESPN2, Fox Sports, etc. would have a big increase in viewers due to people wanting to escape from war news.

In West Germany I would expect the TV and radio stations to pretty much ditch their schedule and make it as the situation allows, given that for now the front is coming ever closer to all of the viewers homes.

They'd have to have something in between all the news and civil defense announcements.

Really pedantic nit - but its 11th ACR in the US Army, not 11 ACR like it would be in the British Army. Adding "the" before the number is optional.

On the subject of ESPN - I wonder what they'll show? It's late April so the NFL draft is done, college football doesn't start for three months and it really early in the MLB season. The NBA, NHL and NASCAR are niche sports of varying sizes. I guess there's hope for a good golf tournament.

Not just MLB, but there's always good Minor-League baseball, college baseball, and softball, and the IRL also. Since it's late April, it's almost time for the Month of May, which is the buildup to the Indy 500. Don't know if TPTB would ask NASCAR to shorten its schedule, but does anyone want to piss off all the NASCAR fans who'd like to have an escape from wartime by going to a race or watching one on TV? You can also bet that ESPN Classic would also be digging out some of the greatest games to show as well (NFL and College ball, baseball, etc.).

Some TLW events are no doubt worthy of movies in the postwar period. BAGHDAD THUNDER is one, along with a story that's yet to be posted on this board, Last Flight From Berlin. A movie about the Battle of Berlin in general would also be on tap.

"On the subject of ESPN - I wonder what they'll show? It's late April so the NFL draft is done, college football doesn't start for three months and it really early in the MLB season. The NBA, NHL and NASCAR are niche sports of varying sizes. I guess there's hope for a good golf tournament."

Here we have 1 ESPN channel, HD or otherwise. It shows three classes of programs.

1 American football etc. Good.

2 Utter crap like cheer leaders contests and "competitive ironing". As I said, crap.

3 Endless self promos. Which lead to "time constraints" truncations of their coverage of sports events. This is beyond crap.

Thanks whoever for Foxsports 1, 2 and 3.

Jonathan

Which would, knowing German telly as it is today be on the public-law broadcasters: Documentaries, morale-raising films from the last time, carefully vetted of course, and the usual game shows, along with my all-time favourite Warfilms from the 60s.

On the private stations it would be sending their usual shoite because they are too stupid to realize that no one wants to see it.

I'm thinking children's programming would also be prominent, and probably religious programs (at least in those countries with a state denomination).

I'd love to see more college baseball (I'm from Omaha - the home of the College World Series), but there is neither an infrastructure to cover it nor really much of an audience outside of a few geographic locations (like mine). You make a really good point about ESPN Classic. I wonder what pregame/race festivities would look like during a full-blown WW3 - I expect that there would be more flags, more military presence (good for recruiting), etc.

General Hackett suggested Westerns, where Good tends to triumph over Evil, would be a popular choice amongst broadcasters. I think a lot of channels would keep up their output of Soap Operas in an attempt to provide some sort of escapism for the viewer.

Star Trek! Star Wars!

Edit: Seriously, these two would raise morale.

Well so long as it was TOS and the early NG, rather than some of the later DS9 and Voyager stuff when the Fedies are sometimes portrayed as being less than moral. Star Wars with its fight against an 'Evil Empire' would be perfect though.

Yes, but it created some needed tension on DS9. I loved the whole Dominion War arc. But I think any shows or movies that played up family, country, patriotism, etc. would be pushed. Unless we have a lot of divisive elements at work, CNN has always been a bit 'red' for US stations. That was Turner's doing. What else can we talk about here? There's so much...

It did improve DS9 quite a bit, I think the producers finally realised that it was getting a bit flat. I wonder if ST would be, frankly, as socialist in TLW as it has become lately? For example some time between the end of TOS and the beginning of DS9 the Federation abolished a monetary economy.
If the Communist bloc is still our potential enemy would that be a popular move? After all it might seem to suggest that liberal capitalism would lose out to socialism in the future.