Inbox Roundup 24: Army Hazing, Defending Israel by Air, Turtle Tanks, Balancing Body Army and more.

This week we have:
Hazing rituals in the US Armed Forces 0:28
Why Israel’s Airspace be Defended but not Ukraine’s? 5:31
The Efficacy of Turtle Tanks 6:23
How NATO would fight against an entrenched enemy? 8:36
How does the US prevent rogue nuclear attacks? 10:26
Why doesn’t body armor cover more? 12:11

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Ryan McBeth Productions LLC
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[RyanMcBethProgramming]

This week we have:
Hazing rituals in the US Armed Forces 0:28
Why Israel’s Airspace be Defended but not Ukraine’s? 5:31
The Efficacy of Turtle Tanks 6:23
How NATO would fight against an entrenched enemy? 8:36
How does the US prevent rogue nuclear attacks? 10:26
Why doesn’t body armor cover more? 12:11

For uncensored video, check out my substack at:

Like my shirts? Get your own at:

Want a personalized greeting:

Watch all of my long form videos:

Twitter:
@ryanmcbeth
Instagram:
@therealryanmcbeth
BlueSky
@ryanmcbeth
Reddit:
/r/ryanmcbeth

Join the conversation:

Want to send me something?
Ryan McBeth Productions LLC
8705 Colesville Rd.
Suite 249
Silver Spring, MD 20910
USA

[mikerichardson]

As a corporal gunner on an M2 Bradley, I sent my newbie driver down to the motor pool with a hammer and a piece of chalk. His job (as you mentioned) was to tap on the Bradley armor and put an X on the soft spots. You can image my surprise when I went down there and found a good dozen X's on the side armor. He wasn't kidding either, he felt those spots were soft. Heck, maybe he was right.

[oldtruckswork]

I was in the Navy at the transition from the old crossing the line to the newer, kinder and gentler crossing the line ceremony. My first Westpac in 91 was the older crossing the line. The Shellbacks made shillelaghs from pieces of fire hose that were used to 'encourage' us Pollywogs to crawl faster. They made us crawl through trash and garbage, pay homage to King Neptune's court and other 'challenges'. It was all in good fun. There were some bruises involved here and there, but EVERYONE participated and we all talked excitedly about it. One important note: EVERYONE participated. Officers were treated no differently (and unliked officers were treated more harshly) than any enlisted and crawled with everyone else. By 1994, that had all changed. We still had a crossing the line ceremony, but it was MUCH less strenuous. No beauty pageant, no King Neptune's baby, no Wog revolt etc. They sprayed some water around and people crawled through ventilation ducting brought up to deck for that purpose and stuff, but the day was a shadow of its former self. Should it have changed? I'm not sure. I will say that to an uninitiated outsider who's never been at sea on a warship for months, Wog day (even today) seems odd. The Wog day of old seems barbaric from a 2024 standard. What I can say is that no one was (seriously) injured back in the day. We all laughed about it and generally felt closer as a crew after the fact. In the end that was the point. Was sliding down a deck covered in week old kitchen scraps better than just being sprayed by a fire hose? I don't know. I just know that it felt different after it changed. Most people also have a hard time comprehending what its like being at sea for months at a time or what its like to fight a fire at sea or go inside a reactor compartment of a nuclear reactor. Wog day wasn't nearly the most difficult or stressful thing I did in the Navy and it (as odd as it may sound to some of you) the harsher version may have been a little better.

[DriveCarToBar]

To you new guys, I'm going to let you in on some E4 mafia tricks early.
If you get a runaround task like can of squlech, inflight canopy repair, track pad inflation tool, etc. This means you now get to take an hour off and go disappear somewhere. All you have to do is come back and let your sgt. laugh at you. Meanwhile, you were catching a quick nap or eating a 2nd lunch.

[fighterman]

Sending Privates for:
-Pre-mixed camouflage paint for vehicles.
-Blank adaptor for a cannon
-Flight line
A few things I may have heard about...

[paddington]

my friend had a Spy vs Spy book with all the comics up to that point. We used to look at it for so many hours, though i cant remember a single sketch any more, it's been so many years.

[Gupeck]

I crossed the line in 86. I found the ships garbage the the shellbacks where hiding. I threw it overboard with another wog. Somehow the shellbacks found out it was me and the other guy. Needless to say I was designated a "special case". I was tied down to the forecastle hatch cover and was beat on for the entire day. A hero to some a special case to others.

[TheWildBuckOutdoors]

In Bulgaria as conscripts every time we did something wrong on the drills we were told to go to Captain Nemo and tell him what we did. Captain Nemo was a huge stone statue of a sailor near the officer's building... Fun times.

[HenryThree]

This is why I love this channel, who would have guessed that the primary constraining factor for body armor is the ability to carry water?

[GuntherRommel]

I was just a reservist, but when my regiment did the run-around for newbies, they sent you all over the building/installation so you would have to find everything, but there was no impetus for speed. It was a lot more... fatherly, than a haze. You felt welcomed, not insulted.

[PopPhyzzle]

Perun did a great video on turtle tanks. In general, the mounted structures on these tanks present no evidence to suggest they actually protect the tanks from drones. They're purely allowed by commanding officers for the placebo effect of peace of mind to the tank crew. There are some explosives that would lose armor piercing ability by detonating further away from the tank, but those generally aren't put on drones.

[Colyde]

When I was in A school in the Navy we tell the new peeps from Bootcamp they need to take their mattress to the Quarter Deck to get it checked by the OOD for Water tight integrity.

[zshot]

The moment I was able to call myself a Shellback was one of the best memories of my time in the USN.

[Craeshen]

runarounds is something tradesmen and other professions do as well. Left Handed crescent wrench, Key to the V door, the hose stretcher, a bucket of steam.

[josephpadula]

I was the newest officer Lt Jg on the ship when we crossed the line carrying 500 marines on our Amphib.
All other officers were shellback from the trip out .
I got special treatment from our green brothers .

I got Pneumonia from the fun and doctor put me in my room to recover .

I got up the next day to use the head and Xo saw me and put Me back on duty without medical input .
XI was a Mustang and though a had a chance of dying from the disease there was a guaranty I would be dead from crossing the XO!

I support the old system however !

[tonygryboski]

Best runaround prank: I was in AF in an F-15 maintenance squadron and we had a couple of guys that needed to get got. One day a C-130 showed up at the end of the ramp. The guys that needed to get got came in for second shift and one of the sergeants pulled them aside and pointed out the C-130. Sarge told them both radios were out and they needed to be fixed for a 6 AM launch, but the problem was the aircraft had not been upgraded to solid state electronics and the radios still ran on tubes. He said he could fix it but he needed to gather parts and they needed to help. The most important parts the needed were the tubes. Supply had said they were somewhere on the base but could tell them where, so it was their task to go the the different units on base and see if the Fallopian Tubes. They were routed all over the base with each place calling ahead to the next place to let this know beavis and butthead were coming, . The last destination was not informed they were coming and the supply sergent was extremely pregnant. Suffice it to say she failed to see the humor in the situation.

[RFMaster]

A can of “rotor wash”, a box of TR double E’s or a “box of grid squares”.

[greghenrikson]

Dehydration and overheating are the biggest problems with full medieval harness as well. If we wanted to do that for modern soldiers, we'd have to issue each of them a squire ;-)

[kekistanimememan]

3:18 as a machinist apprentice I can state that runarounds are not are not just a military thing.
List of things I’ve been told to fetch in my first year.
Stripey paint /zebra paint.
Bucket of sparks.
Long weight. (If you ask for this one stores will acknowledge you then disappear for a good hour at least)
Aluminium magnet.
Probably others but I can’t think of any right now.

[babomberman]

I had someone come to me for a box of grid squares. You should have seen the look of pride on their face when they brought their squad leader the box of cut up maps. And the look of sadness on the squad leaders face when he had to put the maps back together by the end of the day. Little things in life good times were had by all.