SPOILER ALERT! The U.S. gold supply is saved because MI6 had an undercover agent, James Bond learn of the plot and seduces the leader of the female Flying Circus, Pussy Galore to forewarn the U.S. Army and CIA of the plot and they all play-dead when her planes fly over with non-lethal gas she exchanged.

The problem is in real life, real "terrarists" are not going to have a buxom blonde that a convenient undercover agent can seduce to the side of right & virtue to spoil nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) attacks.

combatreform.org/nbc.htm

Fleming had visited U.S. military bases constantly throughout his career and HE IS TRYING TO WARN US under the guise of a fanciful yarn that our military doesn't take alertness seriously.

"Everything I write has a precedent in truth"

--Commander Ian Fleming RNVR

You could say, "that would never happen!".

Think again; IT ALREADY HAS HAPPENED.

We used to have manned observation/attack plane "grasshoppers" that were easy to operate/maintain that could be armed to at least protect our forces from enemy light plane attacks. Fleming in Goldfinger reminds us of this by having a spotter plane follow the evil villain's train as he tries to make a get-away.

The U.S. Military are NOT 1st Responders

The sad truth is that the U.S. military (USMIL) are not 1st responders like firemen who are ready in an instant to jump into their boots/suits and slide down poles and drive away in firetrucks---but are actually 2nd responders. The USMIL wants war to be formally declared, to stop play time chasing men and booze, stop mowing lawns and painting rocks and get ready to go to war. It wants if it can, at least 30 days to retrain itself, too. You can take anyone off-the-street and make him a M16/M4 totting rifleman in under 30 days.

So why are the U.S. Army and marines so unready?

Reason #1 the Bureaucrats Fear the Troops

The main reason is that the USMIL is a BUREAUCRACY of petty asshole tyrants cracking-the-whip on juveniles they cannot trust--NOT a PROFESSION of mature, mission-oriented adults. The typical day in the USMC or non-elite unit Army is a waste of time BS to keep everyone sleep-deprived and bogged down in building and lawn care and petty paperwork that keeps those lethal things like bayonets and weapons locked up--lest they be turned on the asshole bureaucrats like Lee Ermey's sadistic Drill Instructor in "Full Metal Jacket". This is all explained in Dr. Norman Dixon's On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. In his chapter entitled, "Bullshit" (BS) he explains how time wasting details and chores that kept Soldiers busy and might reassure them that there is some kind of order amidst the chaos of battle have become ends unto themselves in the modern era. In the age of muskets standing shoulder-to-shoulder enabled volley fire to get firepower effects; today it would make a juicy target for a machine gun to mow everyone down in one burst of fire. Yet we persist in 19th century drill & ceremony BS saying it brings about "discipline" when really it creates fatally stupid robotic lemmings. Dixon explains the military attracts a certain weak individual who fears the uncertainty of life and embraces BS to alleviate his anxieties with a set routine, set procedures and set formulas for EVERYTHING. Invariably he wants his weapons and vehicles "tidy" by being parked in rows (you saw how well that worked at Pearl Harbor) and not used under lock & key lest someone go on a rampage and kill--HIM. By not carrying actual weapons and ammunition loads, it skews our Soldier's Load calculations, ruining our mobility and firepower:

combatreform.org/combatlight.htm

combatreform.org/combatjump.htm

combatreform.org/canteencover.htm

Dixon calls this "the sword must be sheathed". This explains why even UNARMED combat skills are not imparted to Soldiers/marines: the bureaucrats are afraid their juveniles will go into town and use them in a bar fight. If we had a PROFESSIONAL military built on adult trust and knowledge instead of a juvenile bureaucracy built on fear and distrust, we could have our weapons unsheathed and at the ready to repel surprise enemy attacks.

Reason #2: Civilians Fear the Military Taking Over the Country

American civilians keep the USMIL in a state of under-funding for things that really matter like having light tanks and ammunition--but will boast they support our military by building them more BARRACKS--that need floors to be polished and lawns to be mowed. The fear of a large standing Army is real and justified---moreover having one at a high state of Steven Seagal/Sylvester Stallone readiness is unthinkable to them, let alone be Daniel Craig, James Bond ready. The civilian leaders wrongly think that if the military is kept like a pet bulldog under lock & key it's somehow not going to bite its master--but if needed will pounce on the intruder at a drop of the leash. Sean Connery's Army Colonel in The Presidio eloquently states this dilemma. It doesn't work--as we have constantly seen that when wars come the USMIL is always not ready in the beginning; this applies even when we have time to get ready for them beforehand like for Iraq 2. The USMIL is still an unprofessional bureaucracy that cannot be undone at a drop-of-a-hat. So while we marched on Baghdad in an impromptu armored blitzkrieg, we were unready to take civil-military control of the place since we refuse to have a professional stability corps dedicated to that task out of fear that it would cut into the bureaucracy of jacks-of-all-trades, but-masters-of-none racket that shuffles in troops by the brigade for years at a time for maximum budget:

combatreform.org/johnpaulvann.htm

As long as we have an unprofessional USMIL composed of victims and tyrants in a bureaucracy it will be at best 2nd responders--and at worst fatally vulnerable to surprise enemy attack. This must change immediately before we have another 9/11.

I will outline the steps we must take to immediately fix fatal vulnerabilities on our USMIL bases/posts to heed Fleming's warning in Goldfinger.

Move 1: ALL USMIL Personnel Have Gas Masks/Suits in their Cars or Barracks

One of the technical errors in Goldfinger is that it shows that only a field protective masks AKA "gas mask" is all that you need to protect against nerve agent attack. FALSE. Nerve agents can go through the skin. You need a chemical protective over-garment (CPOG) AKA "protective suit", too. Most USMIL personnel at the end of the duty day want to get as far away from the dehumanizing bureaucracy as possible and drive in their personally owned vehicles (POVs) AKA "cars" to a house or apartment where they can unwind and be human again. If the terrs attack the local town like Goldinger the book proposes, THEY WILL DIE AND NOT MAKE IT TO THEIR DUTY STATION TO RESPOND. In order for them to be "2nd responders" ALL USMIL persons leaving post should have their gas mask and suit--the later in its sealed bag to retain freshness, protective properties--in their trunks ready to be donned so they can drive to their base/post and do their jobs like defending their installation from enemy attack/theft.

Now the bureaucrats will whine, "they will lose their gas masks and suits and we will not have them ready for war, so we must keep them under lock & key".

BULLSHIT. You are not going to make it to the "game" of war because a smart enemy isn't going to let you "suit up in the locker room". Stop being a petty tyrant asshole. Have Soldiers sign for their masks and suits. Make them responsible for them as adults--they might surprise you. And of course Congress could simply BUY THE USMIL A SECOND SET OF MASKS/SUITS FOR WAR STOCK to enable this. Just stop buying BS road-bound Stryker trucks--and the monies from that alone could fund all the masks and suits we need in the Army.

Soldiers living on post/base and without a car would have their masks/suits in their barracks room.

IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT: the instant readiness of ALL USMIL personnel to be able to don masks and suits and go to "MOPP 5" at any time whether on duty or not DENIES ANY POTENTIAL ENEMY OF THE GOLDFINGER SURPRISE ATTACK taking them out. Of course, living Soldiers need firing weapons to repel surprise attacks and at this point it's too much to be like the Swiss Army which is composed of its citizens having an assault rifle and ammo in their homes in MINUTEMAN readiness. However, most Soldiers own at least a private hand gun and should be smart enough to realize that if there has been a NBVC attack and they are off-post and have to don their mask/suit and drive in to "work" NOW IS THE TIME TO NOT BE SHY AND BRING THEIR HAND GUN ALONG, CURRENT BS regulations be damned. If someone has attacked the area around an USMIL base/post they are likely attacking the installation itself and will be confronted. No time on the way in to go to the unit, draw weapons and ammo.

Move 2: Charge-of-Quarters Quick Reaction Force (CQ-QRF)

One of the petty harassments that make USMIL life intolerable these days is the Charge-of-Quarters (CQ) duty that forces someone to be in uniform and man a telephone at the unit's BS building as if cell phones for unit recall have yet to be invented. If we are going to be a force-in-being--we damn well should be a force in READINESS, too. Every CQ shift should be ARMED and in full combat gear--helmet, body armor and load bearing vest with full magazine load. Each unit's CQ team of 2 men should be in contact with all the other unit's CQs on post/base and be ready to drive to an assembly area to form into a Quick Reaction Force (QRF). At least once a day after-hours, a CQ shift should be alerted at random and be formed into a CQ-QRF under the command of a competent officer and practice combating base/post attackers. Formal and high skill level war practice must be given to all CQ Soldiers to incentivize this duty from its current pseudo-harassment chore into a warrior thing.

Implied in this is that our current CIVILIAN security guards manning the gates of our posts/bases be given masks/suits and the war practice skills to employ them so they might be able to survive an enemy NBC attack enough to keep intruders out.

IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT: the ability to create QRFs from-scratch robs any potential enemies of being able to count on any local superiority they can generate with their numbers against our thin security screen. Our thin security screen provides early warning, gets everyone into a war footing and directs the QRF to contain and defeat the threat(s).

Move 3: Become a Profession

Now we delve into the basic unreadiness of the USMIL. What you see in Goldfinger the movie is 90% realistic: during the duty day Soldiers and marines are in uniform or PT gear wasting time marching around or acting like high school cross-country runners. Vehicles are parked absurdly in rows without weaponry and equipment loaded. I said only 90% accurate because in real-life the Soldiers and marines WOULD NOT HAVE THEIR WEAPONS ON THEM as depicted in the film because they are secretly play-acting and waiting to spring an ambush on Goldfinger and his Red Chinese helpers. This must all change.

EVERY DAY, EVERY Soldier should come to duty in FULL COMBAT EQUIPMENT to include weapons. Period. "From Here to Eternity" games must stop.

IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT: if the USMIL finally shapes up as it should have been all along, during the duty day every post/base would be filled with angry hornets ready to repel any enemy attack. The small airplane/UAV attack would meet an instant wall of lead from massed small arms fire, Pussy Galore and her gals would go down in flames--or crash land to be captured and "interrogated". The only thing required would be to hand out ammunition.

Move 4: Replace Buildings with BATTLEBOXes; All vehicles NBC Protected

Another little known aspect of NBC warfare is that trying to stop agents at the skin with protective clothing is really almost TOO LATE. Over time openings develop from sweat and the garments themselves lose their protective properties. The proper way is to STOP NBC AGENTS AT THE VEHICLE OR BUILDING and use protective clothing only as the last resort or when foot actions are needed.

ALL persons living on USMIL posts/bases should have a sealed room in their homes/barracks to withstand an enemy NBC attack. However, the buildings the USMIL's units use are unprotected BS that ruin military efficiency by their spit & polish care--and are not NBC protected.

ALL buildings must be replaced by ISO shipping container "BATTLEBOXes" that are NBC over-pressure protected.

combatreform.org/battleboxes.htm

EVERYTHING an USMIL owns/uses must fit into a BATTLEBOX. Every USMIL unit must be ready to deploy instantly with their BATTLEBOXes or get inside them to withstand NBC attack and don their masks/suits. Barracks and unit buildings must give way to daily BATTLEBOX use--the same things they would deploy and use in combat overseas. In this case, the "combat" has come to them via a terrorist NBC attack. The BATTLEBOX System facilitates weapons and ammo availability also:

combatreform.org/battleboxconcept.htm

BATTLEBOXes would insure regardless of where Soldiers are, they are NBC protected and with proper hardening and burrowing from enemy kinetic energy and high explosive threats, too:

combatreform.org/highexplosives.htm

One of the things the RUSSIANS realized right away is that NBC protection must start at the vehicle. Ironic isn't it that here are the Godless Russian communists who think people are feces caring more for their Soldiers with NBC over pressure capabilities and mechanized decontamination means while the allegedly "liberal" Western militaries have nothing of the kind and over-rely on individual clothing and masks.

The baseline vehicle for the U.S. Army must be a M113 Gavin light (under 20 tons) tank (tracked for x-country mobility away from roads/land mines & armored) with a NBC over-pressure system:

combatreform.org/m113combat.htm

The U.S. Army and marines have failed to stay current with modern warfare and are fatally behind with their foot-slogging troops in wheeled trucks and flimsy tents. We should have been fully mechanized long ago--it can be done in levels--light, medium and heavy tanks so vehicular mobility doesn't make us fat, lazy and unable to fight powerfully dismounted on foot when the situation/terrain require it.

combatreform.org/itmaneuversabattalion.htm

IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT: the USMIL's ground forces could fire & maneuver even in the face of enemy NBC attacks; BATTLEBOX and mechanized forces are mobile and can be dispersed to withstand all kinds of enemy attacks. USMIL forces in BATTLEBOXes can live anywhere be it on ships or mobile off-shore bases or discrete land Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) on land with minimal resupply demands and irritation to the locals.

combatreform.org/itstimetojointheMOB.htm

NOTES

1. Another sub-text plot that Goldfinger is a kind of father figure rival to the son Bond is well stated by John Cox in his excellent article; "James Bond and the Oedipus Complex: The Subtext of Goldfinger"

http://commanderbond.net/1369/below-the-surface-james-bond-and-the-oedipus-complex.html