A Final Toast

B-25J and Texans taxi out April 20th, 2013 for Doolittle fly-by. Destin, FL

This weekend up at the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, three of the four surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered for one final somber and sad mission.  Robert Hite, the other surviving Raider, was too ill to attend this gathering.  So Ed Saylor, Richard Cole - Doolittle's co-pilot, and David Thatcher gathered at the museum to break open the 1896 bottle of cognac to salute their departed comrades.  Why 1898?  That was the year Jimmy Doolittle was born.  With this solemn action, another chapter of valour closes.

I was so fortunate to see Saylor, Cole, and Thatcher at the 71st Reunion earlier this year.  To shake their hands and say thank you.  Thank you again Raiders for lifting American spirits when it seemed the future was so bleak.

Previous posts:
Army Pilots Man Your Planes!
A Good Shepherd
60+ Years
Doolittle Flyby
Florida Nose Art

Despicable Thuggery

This inscription is found as part of the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C.

"Earned our undying gratitude,"  I wish the current President of the United States and members of the Democrat Party could comprehend such words and honor them.

Instead today we saw a great injustice attempt to be perpetrated upon some of the rapidly vanishing cadre of WWII veterans.  69 years after many stormed the beaches of Omaha, Sword, Juno, Gold, and Utah and others stormed ashore at another place called Inchon some of those went to see the WWII Memorial as part of an effort called Honor Flight.

Veterans from Iowa and Mississippi went to the memorial today to find a very strange sight.  The normally open memorial was barricaded.  The excuse being it was closed due to the government shutdown.  These veterans showed they still had courage even though many are now confined to wheelchairs.  While Rep. Steve King and others launched a diversionary attack that distracted the unpaid Park Police, the veterans breached the barricades to see the memorial dedicated to their sacrifice and valor before they to finally joined their compatriots among G_d's Battalions.

I squarely blame the Democrats for this cheap and tawdry attempt to punish those who risked all to defend this country.  To attempt to score cheap political points by disrespecting these veterans' service.  To be respected, one must earn respect.  Today all the Democrats have earned is an even greater amount of contempt.

President Harry Truman is best know for a few turns of phrase.  But one that applies in this case comes from a citizen.  "Give'em Hell Harry!"  Lets give the Democrats Hell over this.

Doolittle Flyby

 

One of the SNJs was painted as a utility plane assigned to VC-10 in Cuba.

 The Doolittle Raider Goblets and bottle of cognac.

 Doing the heavy lifting here...

 The very polished B-25J Panchito

Boston Marathon

Words can not adequately express the grief and the soul wrenching hurt such events create.  All I can think of are the people who's lives have been shattered with the loss of loved ones or loss of limb.  All because some coward had to strike at innocent people for a sick and twisted cause.

To work through this I have created a simple slideshow.  I am not sure if what I did is any good.  But I wanted to show how the marathon was before the dreadful explosions and some may disagree with some images.  But I felt this was how to do it.  There are no high value special tansitions or fades, just a timeline progression.

Here is the version that runs under VLC and Windows Media Player.  Its a 5MB .wmv file.

The music I chose is composed by Yoko Kanno for the Ghost In The Shell movie Solid State Society.  The song is called Aramaki's Theme.

Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong poses in front of X-15 #1.  He was one of the test pilots who flew the X-15 to the edge of space.

Today we mark a sad day for the world.  Neil Alden Armstrong has passed away.  Many remember him because of a few words he said on July 20th, 1969.  "One small step for man, one giant leap for Mankind."  He was the first person to set foot on the Moon, so something was required.

How did Armstrong get where he was?  Start in Ohio where he was born and a mother who made sure her children would learn and be happy.  By the time Neil was in the 1st grade he had already read 90 books.  He skipped 2nd grade because he was reading on a 5th grade level.  In high school science and math were two of his passions.  He would tutor others in both areas.  He was an Eagle Scout.  He received his private pilot's license before his driver's license.  Starting at age seven he was working odd jobs like mowing grass.  To pay for his flight lessons, he worked as a mechanic at the airport.  During the Korean War he flew 78 combat missions off the deck of USS Essex.  On one mission a cable strung across a North Korean valley sheared part of a wing off, he nursed the plane back over friendly lines before bailing out.  After Korea he went to Purdue to earn his degree.  Then it was off to Edwards AFB and being a test pilot where he flew the X-15.  He spent seven years at Edwards.  He and his wife Janet restored an old ranger's cabin in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains to raise their three children.  This idyllic life was broken when his daughter Karen died of a brain tumor.  Next project for Armstrong was the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar project, a reusable space plane the USAF want to launch from Titan boosters.  Neil was accepted for astronaut training in 1962 and in 1963 the X-20 was cancelled.

Armstrong's first mission in space almost became his last.  Him and David Scott were launched in Gemini 8 in 1966.  Gemini 8 set a first when it docked with an Agena target, first in space docking.  And then all hell broke loose when an attitude control thruster started mis-firing.  The capsule spun and bucked like a thing possessed.  Only by shutting down the main RCS and then using the re-entry thrusters was Armstrong able to bring Gemini 8 under control.  Armstrong and Scott then executed a pin-point emergency splash down next to the recovery ship.

Gemini 8's nose can be seen in lower left corner.  Center of picture is the Agena target Armstrong and Scott will dock with.

For the Apollo missions, crews were assembled early on.  For Apollo 8, Aldrin and Armstrong were part of the back up crew with Fred Haise. 

Back-up crew for Apollo 8 suit up for egress training. Armstrong and Aldrin.

Apollo 8 was famous for many things.  Launched at Christmas time 1968.  First spacecraft to orbit another planetary body.  And of course for reading a passage from Genesis.  One less known first, LM pilot William Anders was the first man born in Hong Kong to orbit the Moon.  Frank Borman would later run Eastern Airlines.  While James Lovell would command Apollo 13 and lead his crew through a harrowing time when their Service Module was crippled by an explosion.

And then it came time to pick the crew for Apollo 11.  Armstrong and Aldrin were teamed with Collins.  Whether 11 would be the first landing mission depended upon the success of Apollos 9 and 10.  Apollo 9 would test in Earth orbit everything needed for a lunar landing including separating the LM from the CM, have the LM fire its rockets, and rendezvous with the CM.  Then splashing down.  This was a real make or break for the while program because Grumman had been battling so many issues with the LM.  But it came through and the stage was set for Apollo 10.  Apollo 10 should be called the most frustrating mission.  Apollo 10's Command Module was named Charlie Brown while the Lunar Module was named Snoopy. would go the Moon, orbit, two men would climb into the LM, fire the descent stage, and descend within 50,000ft of the lunar service.  Then they would detach the descent stage and fire the ascent motor to rendezvous Snoopy with Charlie Brown.  Reason why 50,000ft was selected is because the engine on the Service Module was powerful enough to to rescue them as low as 50,000ft.  Apollo 10 was a success in every way and the go ahead was given to make Apollo 11 the landing mission.

On July 20th, 1969 millions of people were treated to a grainy black&white image in prime-time coming from the surface of the Moon.  And they saw a gray suited figure set against a perfectly black sky and white lunar surface put his foot down.  And make history as the first human being to set foot on another planet.

Neil Armstrong[shadow in foreground] snaps a picture of Eagle on the surface of the Moon.

Thank yo sir for being such a good person and a trailblazer.  God speed and fair winds.

Flags

Today in the United States of America is recognized as Flag Day.  A flag is used to rally forces, to be able to tell your mob from the other guy's mob in the midst of carnage and confusion.  Children to this day play a game called Capture the Flag, adults also play the same game while armed with paint-ball guns.

When larger and larger groups of people coalesced into nations, naturally some symbol was selected as the flag for that nation.  The American flag was birthed during our revolt from British tyranny.  Each color represents a specific theme while each white star in the corner represents a state in the Union.  For the average soldier sucking down lungfuls of sand in Iraq or freezing in Afghanistan that flag really represents his battle buddies beside him along with the friends and family back home.  The flag is a touchstone.

So while I am pondering all that the US flag represents, across the Atlantic I wonder if our British cousins have the same appreciation of their flag and history.  Thirty years ago, the Union Jack was run up over Government House in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands signaling the end of Argentinian occupation.  Three civilians and 255 members of Her Majesty's military paid the ultimate price for that victory.  So to mark this historic day, the flag of the Falklands is flying over No. 10 Downing Street.

If Argentina decided to follow through on its current demands for the islands, that bit of flag waving would be all Britain could do.  The Royal Navy is a shadow of its former self.  The carriers who helped retake the Falklands 30 years ago are no more, HMS Hermes now serves as an Indian carrier while HMS Invincible last year was sold for scrap.  In fact there is no carrier in active service with the Royal Navy and the Fleet Air Arm has not flown a Harrier in over year, the Harriers are either gate guards or scrap.  The RAF and its small fleet of Typhoon fighters would also be incapable of affecting an Argentine invasion.

Just some things to ponder on this Flag Day.

Update - added a few more links.

Brilliance Shot With Luck

Seventy years ago history of the Pacific War was changed.  Afterwards Japan would find its ill-gotten gains stripped away during one brutal battle after another until Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Approximately 1025 on June 4, 1942 32 Dauntless dive bombers of VB-6 and VS-6 found themselves over the First Air Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy.  Also arriving over the same carriers were 17 Dauntless aircraft of VB-3 lead by Lt. Cmdr Max Leslie.  And there were no A6M-2 Zero fighters to oppose them, the valiant and almost futile sacrifice of VT-6, VT-8, VT-8 Det., and VT-3 had seen to that.

So a perfect storm of retribution fell upon the attackers of Pearl Harbor.  When the men of all three dive bomber squadrons pulled up from their dives, they witnessed three carriers in flames.

The butcher's bill had some charges still to add.  The surviving Japanese carrier Hiryu would launch two strikes at the American fleet.  Both times they struck USS Yorktown, finally crippling her and forcing Capt. Buckmaster to order abandon ship.  Just as this was happening Lt. Samuel Adams of VS-5 found Hiryu.

As Hiryu struggled to gather enough planes and pilots to strike at what they thought was just one remaining American carrier, Spruance's dive bombers arrived overhead in the dusk.  Survivors of VB-6, VS-6, VB-3, and VS-5 plunged down in their steep dives.  Soon Hiryu was wreathed in flames and rocked by explosions like Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu.

Lt. Samuel Adams would die on 5 June, 1942 while trying to sink the IJN destroyer Tanikaze.  Amazingly the destroyer escaped without damage.  Japan would soon lose the heavy cruiser Mikuma due to attacks by Enterprise and Hornet air groups; the cruiser had earlier collided with it's sister ship Mogami while trying to evade the US Navy sub Tambor.  Even the surviving TBD Devestators would attack since there were no enemy fighters to defend the hapless cruisers, they still failed to score any hits.

The final casualty of the Battle of Midway would be USS Yorktown herself as IJN sub I-168 slipped through the destroyer screen.  Four torpedoes were fired at the wounded carrier.  Two struck the carrier while a third broke in two the destroyer Hammann.  Yorktown would finally sink the next day, 7 June 1942.  Thus ending a battle that could have easily gone the other way if not for extraordinary actions by men of the United States Navy.

Previous posts on the Battle of Midway:
Moments of Decision
Marine Aviation
A Sea Story?
Midway to Victory
Midway in Color

New web-site to check out:
The Battle of Midway Roundtable.

Recent articles on the battle
Rochefort's Hypo
Victory at Sea

Midway In Color

In response to a channel showing the movie Midway starring Henry Fonda and Charlton Heston, here is actual footage of the battle.  Next week will mark the 70th anniversary of that climatic battle that in the words of Walter Lord in Incredible Victory, "Midway showed that every once in a while 'what must be' need not be at all. Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory."



One of the things Admiral Nimitz did during his buildup of defenders for Midway Island was send the director John Ford to document the battle.  One of the voice-overs you hear is Henry Fonda.  The historians and model builders will spot things like the two-tone green B-17Es with white paint covering the previous red dot in the center of the insignia.  Also about the 6:30 mark when the camera goes crazy, that was when John Ford was hit by enemy shrapnel during the attack.  Of Red Parks Marine fighters, they were slaughtered.  The Vindicators and Dauntlesses would score hits against the Japanese but at a fearful cost, one of the casualties being Lofton Henderson - the airfield at Guadalcanal would be named after him.  The 4 B-26 Marauders would try to torpedo the Japanese, only two got back.  To add to the tragedy suffered by VT-8 off USS Hornet, of the six TBF-1 Avengers of VT-8 Detached assigned to Midway only one made it back to Midway with two survivors and one dead aboard.



To honor and commemorate the sacrifice suffered by VT-8, John Ford made this second film focused solely on the men who followed Waldron off USS Hornet that fateful morning, steered precisely to where Nagumo's First Air Fleet was, drove the attack home without fighter cover, and paid the horrific price of 29 out of 30 being killed, all 15 planes lost, and no hits scored.  The color footage of the men posing before two TBD-1 Devestators is priceless and sobering.  One TBD has the precise and straight demarcation a freshly painted plane should have.  The other TBD has a wavy demarcation that sees the blue grey upper surface color wrap around the leading edge of wing and over-paints the under-surface color of light gray - this plane was probably repainted aboard ship.  And to truly top off the uniqueness of this footage, the three Devestators shown taking off was taken after Hornet and Enterprise set sail for Point Luck - the TBDs all have twin .30 cal machine guns that John Waldron had scrounged off the Dauntless squadrons in an attempt to make his lumbering planes more surviveable.

Fallen Warrior Returns Home

September 13th, 1944 saw the 8th Air Force launch a total of 1,015 B-17s and B-24s to attack vital targets in Germany.  They hit oil refineries, an air field, a marshaling yard, and targets of opportunity.  By the end of the day 15 heavy bombers had been lost in combat.  One of the B-17Gs lost carried Lt. Emil Wasilewski.  Only one man managed to bail out before the plane crashed.

Until 2007, a casket laid buried but empty at St. Casimir Cemetery.  This was the resting place for Lt. Emil Wasileski.  Then it all changed when the Army contacted his nephews for a DNA sample.  It turns out human remains had been uncovered in the former East Germany that might have belonged to fallen American airmen.  Using the DNA sample, it was confirmed that some of the remains belonged to Lt. Emil Wasileski.  This June he will be interred with full military honors and an overflight in Arlington National Cemetery.  And if further remains are ever found, their ashes will be sprinkled over the empty casket so Emil Wasileski can finally be home and rest with his parents.

Welcome home and G-d bless.

Post script - why you never laugh at the Tomb of the Unknown at Arlington.  It's called respect.

Memorial Day

Bury Us Upside Down - a review

March, 1968. Phu Cat AB, Republic of Vietnam.  Pilot holding the glass of champagne is Ed Risinger celebrating his last Misty FAC mission.  Holding the bottle is Brian Williams who would later be shot down with Howard Williams, Brian would be rescued while Howard would be killed.  Man with his hand on the stabilizer is Dick Rutan who would later co-pilot Voyager around the world unrefueled.

I have written previously on Bud Day and Misty FAC.  So why would I write another story?  Because I finally acquired a copy of Rick Newman and Don Shepperd's book on Misty called Bury Us Upside Down.

This book starts at a strange place, the belated funeral of Lt. Col. Howard Williams who had been listed as MIA and then declared KIA before any remains were finally found.  Then the book goes back in time to 1967.  Soon the reader is strapped into a F-100F Super Sabre and part of the secret Commando Sabre mission going into Route Pak One looking for the enemy.  Getting one's brain bucket rattled against a canopy side while clutching at a 35mm camera hoping something besides blurs will be on the film and then grunting as the Hun is wrenched through high speed jinks to dodge AAA.  And finally landing after over four hours in the cockpit and hitting a tanker at least two times to find your legs are rubber.  Then spending hours in a debrief followed by attitude readjustment at the Officers Club.  And next day finding yourself flying another mission.  Did I mention one of the authors, Shepperd, is a Misty alumni who as a two-star commanded all of the Air National Guard.

The authors cover much of the life and times of Misty from 1967 to official disbandment in 1970.  The reader's first glimpse of Misty is from a new Intel officer getting assigned to Misty after Bud Day has been shot down.  Almost nothing is recounted of the formative early days of Misty when they first tried to perform the mission with F-100Ds but Day realized the two-seat F model with a GIB was better suited.  Its almost as if it never happened. 

Soon though my annoyance with this omission vanishes as I am sucked in.  Incredible men doing incredible things is the simplest way to describe this book.  Even the intelligence officers assigned to Misty rose to the occasion, two Lieutenants writing travel orders for each other so they can catch a hop to Saigon to creatively acquire clear film from RF-101 film canisters.  Why did they need the clear film?  So they could create booklets full of maps covering all of Route Pak I, the clear film acted as laminate so the pilots could jot down instantly new targets with grease pencils which sped up debriefs and locating new dangers.  Or for more crazy daring do, Risinger's Raid has to be one of the greatest war stories to ever happen.  Ed Risinger had found a juicy target, a SAM, but there were no assets available to attack it. So he returned to Phu Cat.  Ed rounded up two more pilots, stole three ready F-100Ds, launched, and then attacked through clouds where the SAM had been.  Once he got back to base, him and his cohorts were grounded for thee days.  And then went back to flying, all of them.  There are also stories of their battle with the 37th's commander who got mad when Misty lost a F-100F or brought one home damaged, it seemed he cared more for his availability rates than getting a mission done.  We are granted a peek into the world of the flight surgeon at war.  And most importantly we are shown how the loss of a husband/father/son impacted the families, especially when they were declared MIA.  The cruel gamesmanship of the communist in Vietnam is exposed with frank brutality when describing the crash of Howard Williams' Super Sabre.  His death and the rescue of Brian Williams was duly noted as "1 man killed; 1 alive; they took him and he was lost."  Brian Williams would have been another pawn, tortured like Bud Day and possibly suffer the fate of Lance Sijan who was badly wounded upon ejection, tortured, and never received medical attention thus he was murdered in captivity.  There are many other stupendous stories in this book besides these.

Overall I was impressed with this book and the story it told.  It only fell down in two areas.  One has already been noted by having almost no documentation describing the early days of Commando Sabre under Bud Day.  The other is the amount of time describing the in-fighting in Washington D.C. which I considered excessive.  If that had been trimmed down then the authors would have had the space to cover the early missions of Commando Sabre.  Missions flown by Day, Fogelman, and McPeak.  Day would receive the Medal of Honor.  Fogelman and McPeak would pin stars on their shoulders and each rise to become Air Force Chief of Staff.

Libyan Thanks

Kudos to Powerline for this very sad tale.  There are cemeteries in Benghazi, Libya where the fallen soldiers and airmen of the British Commonwealth are buried.  According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission there are over 1,500 buried there.  They are sons, brothers, husbands, fathers from across the Empire - United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and even the Sudan Defense Force - all are buried here.  At least one Victoria Cross recipient is interred here.  All killed during World War II resisting Nazi aggression.  Even Italian war graves have also been attacked.  No word if the British war cemeteries at Tobruk or Knightsbridge have been attacked.

And now their resting places have been brutally attacked and defaced, over a hundred known so far.  The perpetrators?  The same people the RAF, USAF, and their NATO allies helped to liberate last year from the tyranny of now deceased despot Gaddafi.  They even filmed themselves toppling gravestones with Crosses and Stars of David while calling the deceased warriors dogs.  Even the Cross of Remembrance has been smashed as seen in the video that Powerline has.

The reaction from the United Kingdom government has been diplomatic and couched with the caveat that Islam does not condone destroying graves.  The Libyan transitional government has offered apologies.  The Australians are not as diplomatic, calling it a desecration and sickening though no word if any Australian graves were smashed.

I am sorry England, there are graves and then there are the graves of infidels.  All these men are infidels to their defilers and hence they do not belong in any land claimed by the faithful warriors of Islam. 

The Western nations need to tell the Libyans to clean up their mess.  To hold accountable to the fullest measure these criminals.  If little or no action is done to these vandals, then Libya should be allowed to slide back into the 7th Century they seem to desire.

Post script -  Talking about Libya and WWII always brings up the mystery of Lady Be Good, a B-24 Liberator that vanished with her crew during a bombing mission against Italy.  To this day the body of SSGT Vernon Moore has never been found, he is presumed lost in the vast southeastern desert sea that comprises the border between Libya and Egypt.  As for the plane's wreckage, it was last seen in 2001 in a Libyan police impound yard.

You guys were really the glimmer of hope

Today, accounting for the International Date Line, is the 70th Anniversary of the Christmas Battle over Rangoon. Here a few P-40B fighters of the 3rd Pursuit Sqn, Hell's Angels, of the American Volunteer Group along with RAF Buffalo fighters repeatedly tangled with waves of Japanese fighters and bombers bent on smashing Rangoon and its docks.

If the Japanese seized Rangoon, the Burma Road would be closed. With the Burma Road closed, the prospects of continued Allied resistance in China would be grim. The Burma Road was the lifeline for China's military and for the AVG. So Rangoon had to be held.

While the 1st Pursuit, Adam&Eve, and 2d Pursuit, Pandas, flew north to Kunming, Hell's Angels left Toungoo for Rangoon and fame. Their first skirmish with the Japanese happened on 23 Dec 1941. The tally for the Americans and British was six bombers and four fighters. They lost in return nine planes and seven pilots.

Then came Christmas Day over Rangoon. The Japanese threw two separate attacks. One against Rangoon and the other against Mingaladon airfield where British and American fighters were based. Rangoon received a three wave attack of Ki-21 Sally bombers and Ki-43 Oscar fighters. Mingaladon would be attacked by two waves of Ki-21 Sallys, Ki-27 Nate fighters, and Ki-30 Ann bombers.

When the skies had cleared of enemy planes and the total was tallied, the results were spectacular. The Hell's Angels had managed to shoot down 23 enemy aircraft without a single loss of their own.  The defense of Rangoon would rage for ten grueling weeks.  Men and planes of the 1st and 2d from Kunming would join the battle to defend Rangoon.  The British would rush in Hurricane fighters to bolster the defenses.  The British managed to shoot down 74 planes with a further 33 probables while losing 22 Buffaloes and Hurricanes.  The Americans would down 217 planes with another 43 probables while losing only 16 P-40s.  In that time over Rangoon, the world came to know and admire the AVG.

"The six or eight months you fellas operated in the beginning of the war, there wasn't much good news for us. We, nor the British or anyone else were able to beat the Japanese in those early months of the war. You guys were really the glimmer of hope because you were the only ones getting results. That meant an awful lot back here." - General Hap Arnold to Kenneth Jernstedt, 3rd Squadron Hell's Angels in 1944.

November 11th

Twenty four years after the guns fell silent across the fields of France, the sounds of battle reverberated again in France and in fact across the whole world. Vichy French forces in North Africa signed an armistice with the invading American and British forces. While Hitler ordered the invasion of Vichy France itself.

On November 8, 1942 allied forces went ashore in North Africa as part of Operation Torch. At first Vichy French forces resisted the invasion. At one point American forces had to storm a fortress right out of a French Foreign Legion film to clear the way to seize an airfield. On D-Day + 4 USS Joseph Hewes [AP-50] was anchored off shore and acting as a hospital ship since its 1,200 soldiers were now ashore. Then that night, a lookout yelled out 'Torpedo in the water!' and before anything could be done the weapon struck. In 17 minutes the ship had gone down, taking 100 crew with it. But every wounded soldier was evacuated safely.

General von Paulus in southern Russia was still moving on Stalingrad. The 6th Army was making another attempt to secure the city and protect the flanks of the German forces driving into the Caucus region to seize Soviet oil fields for the Third Reich. Soviet forces inside Stalingrad grimly hold on resisting the fascist invaders in vicious house to house fighting.

November 11, 1942 found the US Navy offshore of a stinking ugly island that four months prior almost no one had heard of. The place was Guadalcanal and ashore Marines were engaged in hand to hand fighting with Japanese soldiers hell bent on dieing for their Emperor. Far to the north at Rabaul the Japanese were assembling a massive naval task force, their mission is to wipe out the Marines who are tenaciously holding onto Henderson Field. This climatic battle will happen on November 13, 1942.

Even the Indian Ocean had some action on this day in 1942. Two Japanese commerce raiders pounced on the minesweeper Bengal and its charge the tanker Ondina. In the ensuing engagement Bengal managed to sink the vastly better armed Hokoku Maru and drive the Aikoku Maru off.

Meanwhile off the shores of Brazil a recently refitted warship was back at sea spoiling for some payback. The ship is the Omaha class light cruiser USS Marblehead, sole surviving cruiser of ABDA Afloat after a heroic trip back to the United States. In helping to defend Java and Free Dutch allies, she was struck by three armor-piercing bombs but stayed afloat. The ship would see action off Normandie as part of Operation Overlord and would earn two Battle Stars during the war.

Links.
USS Marblehead story.
USS Fletcher war diary.
USS Joseph Hewes survivor.
Timeline for November 11, 1942.

August 12, 1943

Events that happened on August 12th, 1943.

US Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers struck the Japanese Kurile Islands. Of the nine plane strike force, two failed to return.

Naval bombardment and air strikes continued to be carried out against Japanese occupied Kiska Island, Alaska Territory. On August 15th, the island would be invaded by American forces.

Meanwhile in Washington DC on August 12, 1943, crowds gathered for a film. At the Warner's Earle Theater Irving Berlin's movie This Is The Army premiered.

S/SGT Grigori, tail gunner aboard B-17F-90BO 42-30142 of the 384th BG(H), was awarded the Silver Star for the 12 August, 1943 mission flown against a synthetic petroleum refinery at Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Enemy fighters had blasted the tailgunner position of this Flying Fortress fifteen minutes before the formation had even reached the target. S/SGT Gregori, though gravely wounded and without heat to his suit, stayed at his post manning the machine guns and protecting his crewmates until the guns themselves were disabled. The co-pilot attempted to administer morphine to Grigori but the syrettes had frozen in the frigid air at 26,000ft. First aid though was rendered to staunch the flow of blood from the multiple wounds and to keep Grigori warm by using blankets. S/SGT Grigori survived this mission. On a follow-on mission, 1st Lt Hausenfluck and 2d Lt MacKenzie, pilot and co-pilot, were killed on 17 August, 1943. Their plane, after repair, was transferred to the 388th BG(H).

Very honorable mention is this blog. Guy recovers from flea markets photographs. Amongst that trove were WWII ETO pictures of aircraft like B-17s, P-47s, P-51s, P-61s. Enjoy.

Death of Heroes

December 10, 1941 was a momentous day for Colin P. Kelly. On that day he piloted a B-17C Flying Fortress in an attack off the Philippines to repel the invading Japanese. He stayed at the controls of his damaged plane as the rest of his crew parachuted to safety. The bomber exploded before Kelly could escape. In early reporting, Colin Kelly was credited with sinking the Japanese battleship Haruna. Colin Kelly became a hero. Later investigation revleaed IJN Haruna had not been sunk at Kelly's hands, but Kelly's heroism of staying with his mortally stricken plane so his men could live can not be diminished.

In 2004 in the dusty dry foreign land called Afghanistan, another American hero was killed. Pat Tillman, like great players in WWII, turned in his Cardinal's jersey and helmet for a different uniform in 2002. He became a US Army Ranger which took him to a distant country. And it was there that Tillman had his appointment with death. At first, like in WWII, the reports stated Tillman had been killed in action against the Taliban. Then it emerged he suffered a fate like Butch O'Hare, killed in combat due to friendly fire. Even this truth does not detract from the courage and selflessness of Pat Tillman, he turned his back on what many think of as being important to answer his country's call. And he paid the ultimate price for holding those beliefs.

Now we have the story of another American hero who has died in a foreign land. Jamie Zapata was working with fellow ICE agent Victor Avila in war ravaged Mexico. Then one night they were hit in an ambush. Zapata was killed while Avila lived. The tragedy of this hero's death is the lack of information on how he died. The Departmeent of Justice is refusing to tell Zapata's family all the details for fear of compromising some unnamed investigation. Come now, Zapata's family deserves to know the truth.

Holder Sticks Foot in Mouth, Again

For such a smart and nuanced administration that is supposed to really know how to build alliances, they can be incredibly stupid. The latest gaffe comes from the head of the Department of Justice, Eric Holder in Senate testimony on Wednesday. In his testimony, Holder invoked a new and novel concept to justify the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He said it was in the name of 'national self-defense.' And then he elaborated on this concept with a historical comparison.

"It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field. We did so, for instance, with regard to Yamamoto in World War Two, when he was shot down in an airplane."

Historical back-story. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was the Imperial Japanese Navy CinC who masterminded the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that disabled the US Navy's Pacific Fleet. This attack allowed the IJN almost uncontested mastery of the vast Pacific for six months until the Battle of Midway. In the early part of April 1943, JN-25 intercepts revealed that Yamamoto would be doing an inspection. There was enough information to give an almost precise timetable of his flight schedule. Admiral Chester Nimitz, PACFLT, authorized an attempt to shoot Yamamoto down. Or the order came down from on high. So on April 18, 1943 - one year anniversary of the Doolittle Raid - 18 P-38 Lightnings took off from Guadalcanal, flew at low levels over open ocean, and arrived at their intercept point. As they arrived two G4M Betty bombers escorted by six A6M Zeros fighters were spotted. In the ensuing dogfight, both Betty bombers were shot down and Yamamoto was killed along with most of his staff.

Eric Holder really screwed the pooch on this analogy. Yamamoto was a serving military officer of a recognized country that was signatory to the Geneva Conventions. Osama bin Laden was not an officer in any recognized military and belonged to no recognized country.

Both men were legal targets under the rules of war, but for different reasons. Yamamoto because he was a member of the military and it was lawful to kill him on the field of combat. Osama bin Laden was a guerrilla fighter operating outside the rules of war in no uniform, hence he was not protected in any way by the Geneva Conventions and subject to summary execution when captured. A very big distinction that people in Japan are aware of and has provoked a bit of ire because Eric Holder has compared one of Japan's greatest warriors to a terrorist.

For someone who is supposed to be so smart, Eric Holder is making some really boneheaded statements. He could have justified the killing of Osama bin Laden under the Geneva Conventions without dragging in the wholly innocent and much respected Isoroku Yamamato.

Losing Control of the Message

What happened in the middle of the night US time was clockwork precision. A display of daring, courage, and mastery of the military arts. Everything went perfectly and in under an hour, American forces were gone leaving only one crashed helicopter in their wake but no wounded soldiers. The action was something to rival Son Tay in planning, training, and execution. Unlike Son Tay, the target for Sunday had not moved so the mission became a great success.

Alas the same cannot be said for the actions inside Washington D.C. At first it was portrayed as fearless and gutsy leadership by President Obama. Then from the White House itself emerges a picture of the President sitting against a wall hunched over while the likes of Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, and Joe Biden are shown being fully engaged in watching the take-down. Then there is Brennan who said a woman was used as a human shield in the attack and killed, but now it seems she was not used as a shield.

The greatest mystery about the take-down now swirls around Osama bin Laden's death. Did the National Command Authority, Obama, order Osama to be killed? It seems the answer is yes, the order was to kill and not capture; but now there is walk back and equivocation on this matter. There is also confusion on was Osama unarmed when killed, reaching for a weapon, or actually did fire shots? All three actions have now been reported. Killing an unarmed man can have serious consequences for the assault team if their names ever leaked, there will be warrants issued for their arrest like that US Army tank crew that is still wanted in Spain in the accidental death of a Spanish reporter during the taking of Baghdad in 2003. And killing an unarmed man plays into the hands of Socialists and radical Islamicists around the globe, even now one of Osama's daughters is saying her father was captured alive and then shot by US forces.

The final exhibit of how this administration has lost control of the message is the fight over photographs. This administration does not want to release pictures of the body of Osama bin Laden because they do not want to inflame the Islamic world or act like the winning football team spiking a ball in the end zone. Meanwhile Reuters has published pictures of the compound and all of its gory aftermath, showing bodies and blood. Why am I reminded of the adage - 'Won the battle, but lost the war.' It is shaping up that way.

By Their Actions Pt 2

Thursday, President Obama will visit the Ground Zero site in New York City. Apparently it will be his speech on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Which means there is a very good chance, he will turn it into a re-election speech and his version of 'Mission Accomplished.'

Here is the post I did the last time Obama visited Ground Zero. As Sen. McCain carefully bent his badly injured body to reverently place that yellow rose, Obama did an underhand toss of a red rose. Lets hope President Obama is not so crass this time.

George W Bush was invited to be with President Obama tommorow, but Bush politely declined. Though he does plan to be at Ground Zero on Sept 11, 2011 to mark the 10th anniversary of that evil atrocity. I wonder if he will need another bullhorn?

Ineptitude, Courage, and Libya

Only the United States under President Obama would formulate strategic US foreign policy guided by fears of hurting feelings. At least that is the impression Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Tuesday in testimony before Congress when she said - "We feel we that we did this in a prudent and effective manner, and we did it in a way that did not raise the alarm bells around the region and the world that we were about to invade for oil... But the last thing we wanted was to start off with military assets, when we effectively got our people out. Yeah, the seas were high. The seas were high for the other evacuators as well."

This follows questions many have had in regards to President Obama's very hands off approach to Libya in comparison to US ally Egypt. If we are to believe Clinton's remarks, its more of the 'We are not Bush' foreign policy playbook. In this case the old No Blood For Oil meme. If this is true, then Hosni Mubarak could have stayed in power by claiming to find oil. Words like simplistic, stupid, and suicidal pop to mind.

And it is a slightly different excuse than the previous one trotted out by the Obama administration. That the soft policy with Libya was due to concerns for the safety of American citizens in Libya. Which upon closer examination falls apart since there were far more American citizens, including tourists, in Egypt yet Obama did all he could to actively kick Mubarak out while the Egyptian populace rioted. It could be argued from these statements that Obama would let Libya hold Americans hostage, something not seen since Desert Shield/Desert Storm when Saddam Hussein took many foreign nationals hostage and placed them at critical locations to ward off coalition air strikes. Or perhaps Obama does truly want to replace James Earl Carter in the annals of ineptitude and start another 444 days of shame? I do not think Obama really wants that, but his weak actions are leading to it.

Meanwhile in the deserts of Libya, brave men are doing the hard thing. British Special Air Service, who got their start in WWII in the Libyan desert battling Rommel's Afrika Corps, have managed to evacuate more than 150 civilians to Malta aboard two Hercules transports. And Germany says it has evacuated 132 civilians via military airlift from the Libyan desert. Where are the American Wings of Eagles? Being clipped by a Democratic administration that seeks to curry favor instead of commanding respect it seems.