'Great Power War'

choi

Helene Cooper, 美国军队如何为与中国的 '大国战争' 做准备. 纽约时报中文网, Oct 30, 2024
https://cn.nytimes.com/usa/20241030/us-military-army-china/dual/

, which is translated from

Helene Cooper, New Vehicles, Face Paint and a 1,200-Foot Fall; US Army prepares for a potential showdown with a rival superpower: China. New York Times, Oct 31, 2024, at page A6-7.

Note:
(a)
(i) This is a long article with numerous big photos, spanning two pages in print together.
(ii) There is no new information about the private in the past forty eight hours.

(b) "pull your reserve"

parachuting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parachuting
("Parachuting and skydiving * * * In the US and in most of the western world, skydivers are required to wear two parachutes. The reserve parachute must be periodically inspected and repacked (whether used or not) by a certified parachute rigger (in the US, an FAA certificated parachute rigger every 180 days). Many skydivers use an automatic activation device (AAD) that opens the reserve parachute at a predetermined altitude if it detects that the skydiver is still in free fall. Depending on the country, AADs are often mandatory for new jumpers, and/or required for all jumpers regardless of their experience level. Some skydivers wear a visual altimeter, and some use audible altimeters fitted to their helmets. * * * Reserve parachutes are packed and deployed differently; they are also designed more conservatively and built and tested to more exacting standards so they are more reliable than main parachute")

(c) "During World War II, when the island was called Formosa and was occupied by Japan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with Operation Causeway, an invasion plan that would give the United States a base closer to Japan from which to attack. Gen. Douglas MacArthur opposed invading Taiwan as too risky; it meant crossing a contested sea to fight on complex terrain against a well-defended army. * * * Joint Base Lewis-McChord [Joint, by US Army and Air Force] near Tacoma, Wash., a separation the Army refers to as 'the tyranny of distance.' * * * Docked in Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army vessel Maj Gen Robert Smalls will be critical to getting all the apparatuses of the Army into the Pacific theater. * * * Private Partida disappeared from view beneath a berm as he hit the ground."
(i) leapfrogging (strategy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging_(strategy)
("also known as island hopping"/ section 1 History, section 1.2 Rationale and use: "While MacArthur claimed to have invented the strategy[, it was incorrect; still] MacArthur was the first Allied theater commander to practice this during the Allied offensive in the Pacific Theater [whether another general had practiced it before or elsewhere; this Wiki page does not say]")
(ii) Operation Causeway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Causeway
(MacArthur "pushed for the invasion of Luzon in the Philippines and argued for bypassing Formosa.")
(iii)
(A) Battle of Luzon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Luzon
(Jan 9, 1945 – Aug 15, 1945)
(B) Battle of Okinawa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Okinaw
(Apr 1- June 22, 1945)
(iv) The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th ... stralia%27s_History
(was a 1977 book published in Australia; "Although [the book author Geoffrey] Blainey is widely credited with coining the term in his 1966 work, the term appeared five years previously in the geographic research of William Bunge. Bunge uses the term in quotation marks, indicating that the phrase may have had earlier usage")
(v) USS Robert Smalls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Robert_Smalls
("is a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser * * * Commissioned in 1989 * * * In March 2023, she was renamed for Robert Smalls, a former slave [later in 1873, promoted to major general of South Carolina militia] who freed himself and others by commandeering a Confederate transport ship")
(vi) berm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berm
View photo only.