Nicholas Moran | |
---|---|
Nickname(s) | "The Chieftain" |
Born | 1975 (age 48–49) California, United States |
Service/ | United States Army |
Years of service | 2000–present |
Rank | Lieutenant colonel |
Commands held | 1st Armored Division Main Command Post – Operational Detachment |
Awards | Bronze Star Medal Meritorious Service Medal Valorous Unit Award Meritorious Unit Commendation |
Alma mater | University College Dublin |
Nicholas Theodore Moran (born 1975) is an American author, historian, and U.S. Army officer.
Moran is Irish on his father's side and Greek on his mother's. [1] He was born in California and attended University College Dublin from 1992 to 1996. [2]
Moran joined the Irish Army Reserve in September 1997 and the US Army National Guard in November 2000. [3] He was deployed in Iraq between 2004 and 2005 as a tank platoon leader (for which he received a Valorous Unit Award), and Afghanistan between 2009 and 2010 (for which he received a Meritorious Unit Commendation). [4] He also received a Bronze Star Medal and Meritorious Service Medal. [5]
Since August 2011, Moran has been the Director of Militaria Relations for Wargaming America, [6] described by him as a "liaison between the company and the wonderful world of the military." [4]
Since September 2011, Moran has run the YouTube channel The Chieftain, which focuses on "long-form, in-depth videos, with a priority on getting inside vehicles to gain the 'human factors' evaluation of things from the end user's perspective as well as other materials sourced from archives." [7] [8]
Moran has advocated for the support of Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War since February 2022. [9]
Moran has previously been commander of the 1st Armored Division Main Command Post – Operational Detachment (he is currently serving as a staff officer [10] ) and an armor officer on M1 Abrams tanks and M3 Bradleys. [11]
Moran holds US citizenship. He was previously a dual citizen of Ireland and the US, [1] but renounced foreign citizenship in 2002 when he was commissioned as a United States Army officer. [12]
The M1 Abrams is a third-generation American main battle tank designed by Chrysler Defense and named for General Creighton Abrams. Conceived for modern armored ground warfare and now one of the heaviest tanks in service at nearly 68 short tons, it introduced several modern technologies to United States armored forces, including a multifuel turbine engine, sophisticated Chobham composite armor, a computer fire control system, separate ammunition storage in a blowout compartment, and NBC protection for crew safety. Initial models of the M1 were armed with a 105 mm M68 gun, while later variants feature a license-produced Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44 designated M256.
The M4 Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4, was the most widely used medium tank by the United States and Western Allies in World War II. The M4 Sherman proved to be reliable, relatively cheap to produce, and available in great numbers. It was also the basis of several other armored fighting vehicles including self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers, and armored recovery vehicles. Tens of thousands were distributed through the Lend-Lease program to the British Commonwealth and Soviet Union. The tank was named by the British after the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman.
The 1st Armored Division, nicknamed "Old Ironsides", is a combined arms division of the United States Army. The division is part of III Armored Corps and operates out of Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. It was the first armored division of the United States' Army to see battle in World War II. Since World War II, the division has been involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Persian Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan, and several other operations. The division has also received numerous awards and recognition.
The IS tanks were a series of heavy tanks developed as a successor to the KV-series by the Soviet Union during World War II. The IS acronym is the anglicized initialism of Joseph Stalin. The heavy tanks were designed as a response to the capture of a German Tiger I in 1943. They were mainly designed as breakthrough tanks, firing a heavy high-explosive shell that was useful against entrenchments and bunkers. The IS-2 went into service in April 1944 and was used as a spearhead by the Red Army in the final stage of the Battle of Berlin. The IS-3 served on the Chinese-Soviet border, the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring and on both sides of the Six-Day War. The series eventually culminated in the T-10 heavy tank.
A chieftain is a tribal chief or village head.
The FGM-148 Javelin, or Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M), is an American-made man-portable anti-tank system in service since 1996, and continuously upgraded. It replaced the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service. Its fire-and-forget design features automatic infrared guidance, allowing the user to seek cover immediately after launch, in contrast to wire-guided systems, like the system used by the Dragon, which require a user to guide the weapon throughout the engagement. The Javelin's high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead can defeat modern tanks by top-down attack, hitting them from above, where their armor is thinnest, and is also useful against fortifications in a direct attack flight.
The M3 Lee, officially Medium Tank, M3, was an American medium tank used during World War II. The turret was produced in two forms, one for US needs and one modified to British requirements to place the radio next to the commander. In British Commonwealth service, the tank was called by two names: tanks employing US-pattern turrets were called "Lee", named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee, while those with British-pattern turrets were known as "Grant", named after Union general Ulysses S. Grant.
The M72 LAW is a portable one-shot 66 mm (2.6 in) unguided anti-tank weapon. The solid rocket propulsion unit was developed in the newly-formed Rohm and Haas research laboratory at Redstone Arsenal in 1959, and the full system was designed by Paul V. Choate, Charles B. Weeks, Frank A. Spinale, et al. at the Hesse-Eastern Division of Norris Thermador. American production of the weapon began by Hesse-Eastern in 1963, and was terminated by 1983; currently it is produced by Nammo Raufoss AS in Norway and their subsidiary, Nammo Defense Systems in Arizona.
The M8 light armored car is a 6×6 armored car produced by the Ford Motor Company during World War II. It was used from 1943 by United States and British forces in Europe and the Pacific until the end of the war. The vehicle was widely exported and as of 2006 still remained in service with some countries.
The PTRD-41 is an anti-tank rifle that was produced and used from early 1941 by the Soviet Red Army during World War II. It is a single-shot weapon which fires the 14.5×114 mm round, which was able to penetrate German tanks such as the Panzer III and early models of the Panzer IV. Although unable to penetrate the frontal armor of late-war German tanks, it could penetrate their thinner side armor at close ranges as well as thinly armored self-propelled guns and half-tracks.
The IS-4, also known as the Object 701, was a Soviet heavy tank that started development in 1943 and began production in 1946. Derived from the IS-2 and part of the IS tank family, the IS-4 featured a longer hull and increased armor. With the IS-3 already in production, as well as the decreased need for tanks and sluggish mobility, many were sent to the Russian Far East with some eventually becoming pillboxes along the Chinese border in the 1960s. Fewer than 250 were produced.
Improvised vehicle armour is a form of vehicle armour consisting of protective materials added to a vehicle such as a car, truck, or tank in an irregular and extemporized fashion using available materials. Typically, improvised armour is added in the field and it was not originally part of the design, an official up-armour kit, nor centrally planned and distributed. Improvised armour is used to protect occupants from small arms, crew-served weapons, artillery fire, and mines. Improvised additions have included metal plate, scrap metal, sandbags, concrete, wood, and, since at least the 2000s, Kevlar. These materials vary widely in their ballistic protection.
Pat Proctor is a Kansas State Representative, representing the 41st House District. He was first elected in November 2020.
Nicholas Stephen Hordij Krawciw was a United States Army Major General who served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War, and served as commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division from 1987 to 1989.
Wargaming Group Limited is a global video game company headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus. The group operates across more than 16 offices and development studios globally. Initially focused on turn-based strategy and real-time strategy games, Wargaming switched to developing free-to-play online action games in 2009, including the military-themed team-based game World of Tanks, and later World of Warships,World of Warships Legends, World of Warplanes, World of Tanks Blitz, and World of Warships Blitz.
The M21 Mortar Motor Carriage (MMC) was a self-propelled artillery mount on a half-track chassis used by the United States Army during World War II. It was equipped with an 81 mm M1 mortar and an air-cooled M2 Browning machine gun. It was produced by the White Motor Company in 1944. Only 110 examples were produced.
Tanks have been utilized in Iran both within the military and within several conflicts with their usage and origin after World War II; the Cold War; and the modern era. This includes British designs imported after World War II, and American and imported Soviet tanks and those from China as well.
MBT is a board wargame published by Avalon Hill in 1989 that simulates hypothetical World War Three tank combat between NATO and Warsaw Pact forces in Western Europe. A second edition was published by GMT Games in 2016.
A battalion tactical group, abbreviated as BTG, is a combined-arms manoeuvre unit deployed by the Russian Army that is kept at a high level of readiness. A BTG typically comprises a battalion of two to four companies reinforced with air-defence, artillery, engineering, and logistical support units, formed from a garrisoned army brigade. A tank company and rocket artillery typically reinforce such groupings. BTGs formed the mainstay of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine from 2013 to 2015, particularly in the war in Donbas.
The Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) is a U.S. Army program to procure a combat vehicle that is capable of providing mobile, protected, direct fire offensive capability. The projected vehicle has been designated the M10 Booker, and will according to description essentially serve the role of an assault gun. The program is part of the Next Generation Combat Vehicle program.