7590
Good Thursday morning July 9 2026 . It was cloudy and cool when I got up but
it is clearing fast and heating up. The weather guessers are saying that it
is clear sunny but they never look out the window It is supposed to hit 85
around 3 today and be clear and sunny.
Warm Regards,
skip
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here
to see the director's corner for all 91 H-Grams
July 9
1846 During the Mexican-American War, Cmdr. John B. Montgomery and his
detachment of Marines and sailors from the sloop-of-war USS Portsmouth raise
the U.S. flag over (Yerba Buena) San Francisco, Calif.
1943 PBY (VP 94) sinks German submarine (U 590) at the mouth of the Amazon
River, Brazil.
1944 The organized Japanese resistance ceases on Saipan, Mariana Islands.
1950 During the Korean War, Cmdr. Michael J. L. Luosey assumes command of
the Navy of the Republic of Korea. He subsequently serves as its Deputy
Commander until June 1, 1952.
1960 USS Wasp (CVS 18) departs Guantanamo Bay to support the United Nations
effort to calm the newly independent Congo.
1960 USS Thresher (SSN 593) is launched at Portsmouth, N.H.
1994 USS Rhode Island (SSBN 740) is commissioned at Groton, Conn. The
Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine.
1
994 USS Dextrous (MCM 13), an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship, is
commissioned at Ingleside, Texas, which includes former Sailors from the
original Dextrous (AM 341).
1994 USS Port Royal (CG 73) is commissioned at Savannah, Ga. The
guided-missile cruiser is the 27th and last ship of the Ticonderoga-class
cruisers. Named after American Revolutionary and Civil War battles at Port
Royal Sound, S.C.
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This Day in World History July 9
118 Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, makes his entry into the city.
455 Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, becomes Emperor of
the West.
1553 Maurice of Saxony is mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany,
while defeating Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.
1609 Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of worship.
1755 General Edward Braddock is killed by French and Indian troops.
1789 In Versailles, the French National Assembly declares itself the
Constituent Assembly and begins to prepare a French constitution.
1790 The Swedish navy captures one third of the Russian fleet at the
Battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
1850 U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies in office at the age of 65. He is
succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
1861 Confederate cavalry led by John Morgan captures Tompkinsville,
Kentucky.
1900 The Commonwealth of Australia is established by an act of British
Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.
1942 Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the attic above her
father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
1943 American and British forces make an amphibious landing on Sicily.
1971 The United States turns over complete responsibility of the
Demilitarized Zone to South Vietnamese units.
1877 Wimbledon Tournament begins
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
July 9
Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear
Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage
http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner
and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered
History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the
date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all
content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.
An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO)
MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit
directly via https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/.
There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo-TFO
has over 1,000 individual case files).
.
Thanks to Micro
To remind folks that6these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro
put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to
the crew of the aircraft. ..Skip
For Thursday July 9 . .
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From the archives
To All,
When I saw this email come in this morning I was excited. When I was growing
up on USAF and a couple Army bases all across the country the idea of flying
one of those planes was always my dream. When I read "God is My Co Pilot" I
knew I wanted to be a Fighter pilot. His descriptions of flying and fighting
air and ground targets was exciting to say the least. I read all his other
books over the years including his story of walking most of the Great Wall
of China when he was 76.
One of the missions that he described in the book was catching a large group
of Japanese soldiers marching down a road that had been cut through a
mountain that had steep sides. He waited until they were in the middle and
started his gunnery runs. It had been raining and the soldiers could not
climb up the sides to escape so he hit them head on first and then came
back the other way and did that back and forth until he ran out of ammo and
there were not many left moving.
Strangly enough the fighter Squadron that can trace its roots to the Flying
Tigers is now at Vandenberg AFB and there is a beautiful P-40 outside
painted in the Flying Tiger paint scheme including the Shark's teeth...skip
Flying Tigers and Robert Lee Scott
Thanks to Todd S. ...
The story of Robert Lee Scott, the P-40 pilot who waged a one-man war
against Imperial Japan and became AVG commander when the unit became the
23rd Fighter Group
By William Cobb
Jul 6 2022
Using a special gift by AVG leader Chennault, a P-40E, serial number
41-1456, otherwise known as "Old Exterminator," Robert Lee Scott waged a
one-man war against Imperial Japanese forces.
Flying Tigers: From AVG to 23rd Fighter Group.
On Jul. 4, 1942, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), which had achieved
worldwide fame as the "Flying Tigers"officially ceased to be. Instead, the
newest Fighter Group in the US Army Air Force (USAAF) was established, with
a small cadre of AVG pilots providing a core for the unit while it stood up
as a combat unit. The vast majority of AVG pilots had already left,
including Greg Hallenbeck/Boyington. Others had stuck things out till their
year long contracts had expired. A few agreed to remain to help the new unit
gain the benefit of their hard-won experience. They had retreated from
Burma, seeing that corner of the British Empire fall, yet remaining intact
as a unit despite the inevitable losses they had taken.
The behind-the-scenes machinations of various commands to take over the AVG
is beyond the scope of this account, suffice to say it was a strategic
matter discussed at the highest levels of US Military command. In many ways
the AVG was embarrassment to the Military. Ostensibly Civilian, yet with
higher pay than the military, the AVG had managed to achieve some of the
only combat Victories scored by US Flying forces. Now that the war was only
6 months old, they remained an anomaly, a unit of Civilians in a War fought
by a nation mobilizing its resources and people to fight around the world.
The sooner they were inducted as a regular unit, the better.
Unfortunately, this pragmatic command view from Washington failed to take
into account realities on the ground, where Major General Clayton Bissell
and Brigadier General Claire Chennault clashed over control over a unit
which at peak strength prewar never numbered more than a single Pursuit
Group. Regarded prewar as a Maverick who refused to toe the Air Force's
Party Line that Bombing was the wave of the future, the hierarchy of the Air
Force was now able to impose its will and induct the AVG into its
organization. Unfortunately, General Bissell managed to alienate the pilots
in his new command to such an extent by threatening to draft them upon their
return home, that the vast majority left in disgust.
Finding a commander for the new unit posed a bit of a problem as well.
Facing a worldwide War, Colonels with fighter and combat experience weren't
exactly common in the USAAF. Fortunately warrior ethos of the old Air Corps
managed to solve the problem, thanks to an adventurous spirit who managed to
finagle his way overseas by claiming 1100 hours of Flying Fortress flight
time when reality the man had naught but some jump seat time while riding in
one. Stuck in instructor duty overseeing the expansion of the vast USAAF
training pipeline, West Pointer Robert Lee Scott had volunteered for a
secret Mission, Project Aquila, covered in an earlier post back in April.
Stuck in India after the Doolittle raid had rendered the raid impossible due
to the loss of its Chinese bases, Scott had flown a series of transport
missions during the evacuation of Burma, and had been left a rather special
gift by AVG leader Chennault, a P-40E, serial number 41-1456, otherwise
known as "Old Exterminator" (featured in the Turntable by Hangar B below).
Using that machine, he waged a one-man war against Imperial Japanese forces,
flying multiple sorties per day, and even repainting its spinner different
colors on each sortie to convince his adversary they were facing more
aircraft than his single P-40.
There is some controversy as to the exact serial and side number of the
aircraft as Scott was reputed to have switched data plates, and AVG aircraft
had their tail numbers painted out. Scott apparently scored 4 victories in
41-1456, before taking the guns into the P-40E which would become known as
White 7. Originally his side number was White 10, but as Scott himself
related below to an individual on a message thread about the aircraft;
"According to Scott, none of the P-40s he flew in China had tail number on
them. Chennault ordered them painted over in an attempt to deceive Japanese
intelligence as to the number of aircraft the CATF/14th AF had on strength.
The reason for the number change from 10 to 7 was more for self-preservation
than anything else. According to Gen Scott the first couple of times he flew
with number "10" on a mission, he would be returning and radio the tower
"One Zero (10) approaching from the northwest ten miles out". Next thing he
knew there were two or three P-40s coming up at him. He decided pretty quick
he needed to change his fuselage number.
By waging his one-man war against Imperial Japan, Scott gained invaluable
combat experience, and was taught the Tactics Chennault instilled in his men
by other AVG fliers such as RT. Smith and "Tex" Hill.
This combat experience and the fact that he was a West Point graduate gave
Scott the perfect pedigree to take over the AVG when it became the 23rd
Fighter Group, USAAF. As he had seen combat action, he was one of "the
boys," while his status as a regular Army West Pointer made his command
acceptable to the Army's ever present "Ring Knocker" fraternity of West
Point Alumni. Thus Robert Lee Scott would come to take over a legendary
unit, and lead it through even more action in the months to come, at a time
when Chennault and his China Air Task Force waged a kind of airborne
guerilla war from its bases deep in the Chinese hinterland.
Robert Lee Scott would go on to score 13 victories while in command of the
AVG, and though criticized by segments of the O-club set for his "arrogance"
he would return to the fighting after dictating "God is My Copilot," his
best-selling memoirs of his experience. Postwar, he would be the first
American to fly a jet across Africa, and eventually retired as a Brigadier
General. The Air Force, for all its bureaucratic nature, does seem to have a
way of promoting its most heroic Aviators to the rank of Brigadier General,
as attested to by the careers of Scott, Robin Olds, Chuck Yeager, and Air
Force Vietnam Ace Steve Ritchie, all of whom retired at One Star Rank.
Scott's wanderlust wouldn't cease after retirement, indeed in the early 80s
he managed to be one of the few human beings to WALK much of the length of
the Great Wall of China. He would also fly in an F-16 as a 76-year-old, and
later in a B-1 in the 1990s. Living till 2006 and age 97, Scott remains an
Air Force Legend, whose flying career spanned the Golden Age of flight into
the Jet Era.
As an addition to this one. I was overwhelmed by one of the list readers
back on 19 April 2026. Brockton Wagner sent me the Book God is my Copilot
It was an original hard back dated 1943 so it is as old as I am and in
perfect condition.
It is in an honored place in my office. Reading it again brought back a lot
of memories.
Thank you again Brockton
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. Thanks to Interesting Facts
Bananas are slightly radioactive.
Mentions of radioactivity can send the mind in a dramatic direction, but
many ordinary items are technically radioactive - including the humble
banana. Radioactivity occurs when elements decay, and for bananas, this
radioactivity comes from a potassium isotope called K-40. Although it makes
up only 0.012% of the atoms found in potassium, K-40 can spontaneously
decay, which releases beta and gamma radiation. That amount of radiation is
harmless in one banana, but a truckload of bananas has been known to fool
radiation detectors designed to sniff out nuclear weapons. In fact, bananas
are so well known for their radioactive properties that there's even an
informal radiation measurement named the Banana Equivalent Dose, or BED.
So does this mean bananas are unhealthy? Well. no. The human body always
stores roughly 16 mg of K-40, which technically makes humans 280 times more
radioactive than your average banana. Although bananas do introduce more of
this radioactive isotope, the body keeps potassium in balance (or
homeostasis), and your metabolism excretes any excess potassium. Oh, and in
case you were wondering, a person would have to eat many millions of bananas
in one sitting to get a lethal dose (at which point you'd likely have lots
of other problems). So go ahead and eat that banana cream pie - you can
leave the Geiger counter at home.
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Thanks to History Facts
During WWI, Americans called sauerkraut "liberty cabbage."
U.S. HISTORY
Americans have a long tradition of rebranding any foods that bear the name
of a rival nation during times of conflict. When France refused to support
the United States' war in Iraq in 2003, for example, the cafeteria menus in
three congressional office buildings in Washington, D.C., changed the name
of French fries - which, by some accounts, were actually invented in Belgium
- to "freedom fries," and French toast became "freedom toast."
The U.S. pulled a similar move while at war with Germany during World War I:
Sauerkraut's German origins led Americans to rename the condiment "liberty
cabbage." Other foods that we think of as classically American yet bear the
names of German cities were also affected. The word "hamburger" comes from
Hamburg, Germany, so during the Great War it was rechristened "liberty
steak." The seemingly all-American hot dog, meanwhile, was called a
"frankfurter" at the time, and as the connection to Frankfurt, Germany,
couldn't stand, it was rebranded "liberty sausage." (The term "hot dog" is
also sneakily of German origin, as it comes from "dachshunds," aka "little
dogs.") And speaking of dogs, in 1917, the American Kennel Club changed the
official name of German shepherds to "shepherd dog," and in England the
breed was renamed "Alsatian."
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.
. From the Archives and a great Naval Aviator
Thanks to Admiral Dunn
re: The Strike Fighter Time Management Problem - War on the Rocks
Recognizing that I am indeed an Old F--t, I take exception to the idea that
air combat trained Naval Aviators cannot learn air-to-surface and vice
versa. As an old attack pilot, and one who came to air-to-air late in life,
I realize and acknowledge that air-to-air will take more training, but since
the air-to-ground is rather simple that's okay. The hardest part of being an
attack pilot is identifying the target and having the guts to roll in and
persist in the run despite flak and SAMs flashing by. The target doesn't bob
and weave and jink all over the place and come out of the sun as must be
expected in air-to-air.
Air-to-ground is relatively simple. My evidence is a squadron mate of mine
from long ago at Fallon. Not noted for his airmanship, he managed to score
six bullseyes with six bombs on a Fallon target, then returned to the field
and landed on a taxiway! So much for excellence in air-to-ground. He would
have been "Meat on the table" as a fighter.
Like my friend with the six bullseyes targets for attack pilots are
generally certain and known beforehand, "Targets" for fighter plots may come
from anywhere...not only out of the sun but at six o'clock, four o'clock and
twelve: high and low too.
Anyhow, so much for pontification from an old f***. The answer to time
management for strike-fighter pilots is to be the best fighter pilot you can
be, catch up on air-to-ground when you have time. That goes for people
building the training curricula too.
Time for my nap....
Bob Dunn
P.S. You can leave your silk scarf at home and still be a great fighter
pilot.
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. Thanks to Capt. Billy and Dr.lRich
SR-71 interesting facts .
It is hard to get pictures in the List unless I have the URL.
Thanks to Billy ...
Perhaps Steve Johnson at the controls of this KC-135 he flew out of Pease
AFB sometime back...
SR-71 Blackbird crew members have said that they sometimes came down looking
for a tanker, not so much because they were running out of gas but because
their gas was getting too hot.
CLICK HERE to buy unique SR-71 Blackbird merchandise for your HABU
collection.
My Dad, Colonel Richard "Butch" Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance
Systems Officer (RSO), wrote in his unpublished book "The Very First" that
when they were getting low on gas in the SR-71, Blackbird crew members
pressure suits started to get little warm up. By contrast bringing on new
fuel cooled them down. Aboard the SR-71 the fuel was used as a heat sink.
Everything about the SR-71 was complex yet incredibly engineered, so they
have to find a way for the Blackbird to deal with the enormous amount of
heat generated by its high-speed flight.
'Flying at over Mach 3 is thermal problem. Everything is too hot, including
any air you slow down to interact with the vehicle. You are trying to make
the vehicle (and the pilots inside) survive for hours in a pizza oven, while
they are getting cozy with two 500 million BTU/hour flamethrowers,' Iain
McClatchie, an aviation and turbine engine expert, says on Quora.
'When you look at a graph like this, your first impression might be that the
vehicle is this glowing hot thing slicing through the icy -52 C air at
80,000 feet. So naturally, you think of the air as cooling the airplane
down.
'Not so much. The air has to change to the vehicle's speed to touch the
vehicle, and that requires work. That work heats the air. At Mach 3.2, the
stagnation temperature of the air is 740 F, which is hotter than every
(labelled) point on the above graph! (The nacelles around the engine
afterburners, unlabelled, are in fact hotter than the air around them.)
'I know, it seems unbelievable.
'Basically, the shocks from the airplane heat the air around it, but the
vehicle itself cools the air in contact with it down. Once the airplane
passes by, all that disturbed air tumbles to a stop, leaving a path of hot
air through the upper atmosphere.
'So back to life in the pizza oven. The basic solution is (a) leave most of
the airframe hot and make it out of stuff like titanium and stainless steel
that are strong when hot, and (b) start with a large amount of cold fuel,
and then dump heat from critical areas into the fuel before burning it. When
decoupling from an aerial tanker, half the SR-71's weight was fuel.
'A special type of kerosene fuel, JP-7, was developed for the SR-71 to be
good as a heat sink. It boils away at 285 C at 1 atmosphere pressure, which
is the upper end of the kerosene range. When the plane tanked up at 30,000
feet, the kerosene might start below 0 C. At speed, it would be used to cool
the avionics and cockpit, and by the time it arrived at the engine it would
get up to 177 C. It was then used as hydraulic fluid for the various engine
actuators, primarily the variable geometry nozzle. By the time it got to the
fuel injectors it had gotten up to 316 C (but wasn't boiling because it was
at several atmospheres of pressure). At cruise the burner cans were at 330
kPa (about 3.3x the pressure at sea level), so the fuel still didn't boil as
it left the nozzles but the droplets would have evaporated very quickly.'
McClatchie continues;
'JP-7 is mostly a mix of hydrocarbons centered around C12H26 (dodecane). The
graph above shows the vapor pressure of dodecane as a function of reciprocal
absolute temperature. That makes it a bit hard to read. 0.0024, for
instance, is 417 Kelvin which is 143 Celsius. Liquids start to boil when
their vapor pressure is greater than the ambient pressure. I've labelled the
boiling point of dodecane at 2900 Pa, which is the absolute pressure at
80,000 feet, and 13000 Pa, which is the minimum absolute pressure in the
SR-71 fuel tanks. Note that the dodecane component of JP-7 starts to boil at
162 C at sea level. quite a bit less than the advertised 285 C which is
actually when the stuff boils away completely.
'The flash point of JP-7 is 60 C. The fuel was held in tanks whose walls
were formed of the skin of the vehicle. Since fuel vapor against the top
skin of the vehicle would be well over 60 C during cruise, if air was
allowed in any ignition source in the tank would cause a deflagration and
destruction of the vehicle. Instead, nitrogen gas from a 260-liter liquid
nitrogen dewar was used to pressurize the tanks. This would have mostly been
an issue during descent, when the ambient pressure rose and extra gas was
needed to fill the tank ullage space.
'But nitrogen gas fill was not enough. The fuel was heated in the tank by
the bottom surface of the vehicle, just as water in a pot is heated by the
flame on a stove. In this case the fluid was over a meter deep in the tank
and consequently took longer than a pot does to boil. At ambient cruise
pressure the fuel would have begun to simmer in the tanks at 116 C. By
pressurizing the tank to 10 kPa over ambient, the tolerable tank temperature
rose by 33 C. This temperature limit put a time limit on how long the SR-71
could stay at cruise before it began to lose fuel to boiling.
'The fuel pumps in the tanks raised the fuel pressure so that boiling was no
longer a problem once in the fuel system. The limit of how much heat could
be absorbed by the fuel was rather set by it's coking temperature - the
temperature at which the fuel begins to deposit varnish on the interior of
whatever plumbing it is in. I don't have a specific number on JP-7, but it
must be higher than 316 C. There was another experimental hydrocarbon blend
developed, called JP-900, which resists coking up to 482 C. This was
intended for a higher speed vehicle that was never built.
'They were not able to get the wind tunnel behavior to match the actual
behavior of the airplane. Kelly Johnson speculated that this was because
during cruise, the fuel sitting against the lower skin of the fuselage and
inner wing kept that portion of the airframe cooler than the upper skin.
This caused the vehicle to bow from the differential temperature expansion,
which would have made the wings slightly anhedral and would have made the
vehicle unstable in roll.'
McClatchie concludes;
This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com -
CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 "Skunkworks"
'Heating of the fuel while in the tanks caused yet another problem. As I
said earlier, the engines can take the fuel at a maximum temperature of 177
C. So as the fuel in the tanks heats up, it's ability to absorb heat on the
way to the engine decreases. Flight crews have said that they sometimes came
down looking for a tanker, not so much because they were running out of gas
but because their gas was getting too hot.
'Using fuel as a heat sink is common in fast jets. The Concorde did it, the
F-15, F-16, F-18, F-22, and F-35 do it, and probably all other supersonic
aircraft.'
Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield's
daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer)
Facebook Pages Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for
awesome Blackbird's photos and stories.
After reading THAT.let's take a break and enjoy the beauty of flight and the
airplanes by which we share the sky and "touch the face of God": (Dave)
Finally, here's a great picture and story submitted by another Eye Candy
recipient, and former A-4 Maintenance Plane Captain in the U.S. Marines:
The classic lines of the B-707, especially with wheels/flaps up, are hard to
beat..all the more at 400mph at 50 feet!
Blue Skies & Tailwinds..
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Thanks to American Facts
. From Spielberg To King: Who Are Hollywood's "Powers That Be"?
If you have ever wondered who decides who wins an Oscar or why a certain
movie had a sequel, you are not alone. Hollywood is filled with big fish who
make billion-dollar decisions every day. Some of the names in this list you
will know for sure, some will sound familiar, perhaps from the end credits
of some film, and some you have probably never heard of. But they are all
big Hollywood players who can shift tides, shape cultural trends, and make
stars (or break them).
Kathleen Kennedy
Kathleen Kennedy has been a part of many of the greatest movies of the last
35 years. She's been involved with almost every Steven Spielberg movie since
Raiders of the Lost Ark, but also Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Sixth
Sense, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, to name a few. Also, she is
the president of Lucasfilm following its sale to Disney.
Reed Hastings
Netflix's co-founder Reed Hastings is a big name in the entertainment
business, helping distribute some of the world's most-viewed television
shows over the last years.
With a background in technology and software, Hastings capitalised on the
changing media consumption behaviors and created something that took the
media business by storm.
Bob Iger
Quite probably the most influential person in Hollywood, Bob Iger presides
over the industry's largest and most influential entertainment business, the
Disney brand. Add 21st Century Fox, Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and a few
other things, and you have a modern-day media empire.
Kevin Feige
Arguably the most successful film producer of all time, Kevin Feige has
championed the superhero cinematic universe that has swept over Hollywood in
the last decades, whether you like it or not.
Dana Walden
Dana Walden was a key figure in Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox TV,
which she built into a powerhouse over two decades. She is also in charge of
ABC Studios, ABC Entertainment, Freeform, and Hulu.
Oprah Winfrey
A true household name, Oprah Winfrey is one of America's most trusted stars.
She also writes bestsellers, has her own cable network (OWN), and is
involved in infinite ventures in the entertainment landscape.
J.J. Abrams
The name behind some of the biggest blockbusters of the last 30 years, J.J.
Abrams, is one of the most sought-after directors and producers in all of
Hollywood. He is responsible for movies like Armageddon, several Mission:
Impossible installments, and a couple of Star Wars films, to name a few.
Shonda Rhimes
As the creator and showrunner of Grey's Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal,
Private Practice, How to Get Away with Murder, and many other series, Shonda
Rhimes has been a strong presence in Hollywood since the early 2000s and has
been featured multiple times in the Times 100 Most Influential People on the
World list.
Steven Spielberg
Probably the person most of us would expect to be on this list, Steven
Spielberg has shaped America and the world's pop culture with some of the
most successful and influential films ever made. His presence has been a
force to be reckoned with and a strong influence in Hollywood since the
mid-1970s.
James Cameron
The man behind blockbusters like Titanic, Terminator, and Avatar, among many
others, has kept himself busy diving to the deepest point in the ocean,
creating documentaries, series, producing, directing, writing, and more for
a few decades now and his work is embedded in pop culture, in a similar way
to Spielberg and our next entry.
Stephen King
The man responsible for some of the biggest film classics, not just in the
horror genre but in many others as well, didn't even intend to go into the
movie business in the first place.
As one of America's more successful contemporary writers, Stephen King has
created stories that started as bestsellers and eventually found their way
into Hollywood. From Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Shining, to Shawshank
Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me, and countless others, his stories
are the basis for some of the biggest blockbusters that Hollywood has ever
seen.
.
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Thanks to Mud
Here's a film clip that I think you will find interesting. I'm just old
enough to remember Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, and Lord Haw Haw. People were
talking about them during the war years.
S/F,
- Mud
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Worth the repeat .I fact I watched the movie again the other day and still
enjoyed it.
These folks in the different colored jerseys work on the most dangerous 4.5
acres in the world. I have seen more than a few lose their lives or be
seriously injured up there while I was up there with them flying. In Fact I
almost ate my plane captain in an F-8 one day. He was taking me through my
control series and had completed the port side and was running to the right
side when I heard a noise right underneath me and immediately shut down the
engine as I saw people running toward the nose of my F-8. Finally they
hauled him out and showed me he was ok. Fortunately he was a strong young
man and as the engine sucked him up he was able to grab both sides of the
intake and the engine sucked his helmet and some other gear off him which is
what I heard. By shutting the engine off He was able to hang on long enough
while others came and grabbed him. Another time during the same kind of
evolution the plane captain was going from my left to right again and did
not show up but people ran towards me and another plane captain took over
the signals as they carried my original plane captain away. When I got back
to the ship I went down to medical and they were still working on stitching
up his face. He had misjudged his distance to a sidewinder missile and the
blades did a job on him. The whole flight deck evolution is like a
choreographed Ballet from the time you walk on the deck and proceed to your
aircraft until you are shot off the front end...skip
Thanks to Dutch,
Writer gets this correct -
The most important 'Top Gun: Maverick' moment nearly every moviegoer missed
There's an all-important scene in 'Top Gun: Maverick' that escaped my notice
till I saw the movie a second time
"When you visit the USS Midway in San Diego Harbor and are on the flight
deck looking toward the Island all these are painted on the Island for all
to see....Skip"
By Alvin Townley | Fox News
"Top Gun: Maverick" has worldwide ticket sales that have already crossed the
$1 billion mark. If I'm an indicator, theaters sold many of those tickets to
repeat customers.
If I hadn't seen the film a second time, however, I would have missed its
most important and revealing five seconds.
During my first watching, the scene entirely escaped notice. Producers had
sandwiched it between mission-centered drama and supremely distracting
high-G maneuvers. But in my second screening, I caught it.
'TOP GUN 3'? MILES TELLER SAYS HE'S TALKING TO TOM CRUISE ABOUT IT The scene
occurs just before Tom Cruise's character Maverick leads three other F/A-18
Super Hornets on the film's climatic mission. It breaks into two segments,
one lasting about 1.5 seconds and the second roughly 4 seconds.
To me, these are the most meaningful seconds of the film.
The initial second-and-a-half shows the hangar deck of the USS Theodore
Roosevelt. From behind, we see Maverick and Rooster who'll fly the
single-seat F/A-18s on the impending mission. We also see Payback and
Phoenix who'll be flying with rear-seat flight officers Bob and Fanboy.
The film's six stars are standing in front of row after row of aviation
personnel. These rows of men and women, dressed in shirts of varied colors,
look like a rainbow. Without them, nobody's getting a jet into the air.
'TOP GUN: MAVERICK' STAR MILES TELLER REVEALS TOM CRUISE'S REACTION AFTER
DISCOVERING JET FUEL IN HIS BLOOD They are the indispensable and unsung team
members who have maintained and prepared the aircraft that will fly the
mission.
Those wearing purple shirts have fueled up the jets; red shirts have armed
them.
Green shirts have maintained the engines and readied the catapults and
arresting cables.
Blue shirts will run the ship's massive elevators, unchain the aircraft, and
clear the chocks.
Yellow shirts will lock the aircraft into the catapults and send the
aviators and their backseat flight officers rocketing off the deck.
Each brown shirt serves as a plane captain; most are under the age of 22,
yet shoulder responsibility for ensuring their $70-million jet is ready.
Often, their names are painted on the aircraft just like the pilot's.
Aviators will generally concede that the plane captain owns the aircraft;
the pilot just borrows it.
Everyone loves the sunglasses-wearing figures in flight suits; they're just
the tip of a long spear, however. Each man and woman aboard Theodore
Roosevelt makes it possible for these aviators to drop ordinance on a target
and accomplish the ship's collective mission of advancing national security.
The film's six stars are standing in front of row after row of aviation
personnel. These rows of men and women, dressed in shirts of varied colors,
look like a rainbow. Without them, nobody's getting a jet into the air.
I learned this lesson aboard four deployed aircraft carriers and at bases
like North Island, California; Pensacola, Florida, and Bahrain while
researching my book "Fly Navy."
Yet, the passing of time and the sizzle of the new film's leading actors
nearly made me forget that naval aviation includes far more than the men and
women in the cockpits.
'TOP GUN' SEQUEL A WELCOME TRIP TO THE DANGER ZONE: REVIEW The second part
of the overlooked scene comes several moments later. We see Cyclone, the
three-star admiral in charge of the mission, address the assemblage in the
hangar deck.
"This is what you've all been training for," he says dramatically. Charged
and inspired, everyone then leaves to execute his or her precise role.
Initially, I thought Cyclone was just speaking to the six officers about to
climb into the cockpits.
He wasn't.
Cyclone was addressing everybody on the carrier, especially those working
the flight deck. They'd trained relentlessly for their specific duties, and
success that day required them to shine as brightly as the aviators and
flight officers. It was their mission, too.
As a civilian in the world of naval aviation, I found something
extraordinary and surprising, and the film gives you a glimpse thereof if
you're quick enough to catch it.
I discovered a shipboard team of unsurpassed ability and sense of mission. I
witnessed an operation that strengthens our country by protecting it from
enemies. And I saw how that operation also manufactures the citizens America
herself needs to thrive.
On the flight deck, individuals from every conceivable background work
together in a hot and dangerous crucible that forges ability, character, and
duty. The entire enterprise of naval aviation makes America stronger. It
serves as an example and reminder of how leadership and shared purpose can
transform organizations and individuals, in uniform and not. It makes me
proud.
So, when you watch "Top Gun: Maverick" again - and let's be honest, you will
- remember the stars aren't just the people with call signs. Take a moment
to realize you're watching heroes work together, a navy and a country at its
best.
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This Day in U S Military History...July 9
1755 - General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Indian
troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which
was on its way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen.
Braddock's troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to
accept Washington's advice on frontier style fighting. British Gen'l.
Braddock gave his bloody sash to George Washington at Fort Necessity just
before he died on Jul 13.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George
Washington's troops in New York.
1795 - James Swan paid off the $2,024,899 US national debt.
1941 - Crackerjack British cryptologists break the secret code used by the
German army to direct ground-to-air operations on the Eastern front. British
experts had already broken many of the Enigma codes for the Western front.
Enigma was the Germans' most sophisticated coding machine, necessary to
secretly transmitting information. The Enigma machine, invented in 1919 by
Hugo Koch, a Dutchman, looked like a typewriter and was originally employed
for business purposes. The Germany army adapted the machine for wartime use
and considered its encoding system unbreakable. They were wrong. The Brits
had broken their first Enigma code as early as the German invasion of Poland
and had intercepted virtually every message sent through the occupation of
Holland and France. Britain nicknamed the intercepted messages Ultra. Now,
with the German invasion of Russia, the Allies needed to be able to
intercept coded messages transmitted on this second, Eastern, front. The
first breakthrough occurred on July 9, regarding German ground-air
operations, but various keys would continue to be broken by the Brits over
the next year, each conveying information of higher secrecy and priority
than the next. (For example, a series of decoded messages nicknamed "Weasel"
proved extremely important in anticipating German anti-aircraft and antitank
strategies against the Allies.) These decoded messages were regularly passed
to the Soviet High Command regarding German troop movements and planned
offensives, and back to London regarding the mass murder of Russian
prisoners and Jewish concentration camp victims.
1943 - Operation Husky: The invasion of Sicily begins. The landing force is
concentrated around Malta. There are 1200 transports and 2000 landing craft
which will land elements of 8 divisions. In the evening, there are airborne
landings by the US 82nd Airborne Division and British units which cause
disruption in the Axis defenses, although they do not manage to seize their
objectives. The Italian 6th Army (General Guzzoni) is responsible for the
defense of Sicily. There are a total of about 240,000 troops (a quarter of
which are Germans).
1944 - On Saipan, US forces reach Point Marpi and the last organized
Japanese resistance is overcome. An estimated 27,000 Japanese have been
killed and 1780 are prisoners, both figures include civilians. US forces
have lost 3400 killed and 13,000 wounded.
1966 - The Soviet Union sends a note to the U.S. embassy in Moscow charging
that the air strikes on the port of Haiphong endangered four Soviet ships
that were in the harbor. The United States rejected the Soviet protest on
July 23, claiming, "Great care had been taken to assure the safety of
shipping in Haiphong." The Soviets sent a second note in August charging
that bullets had hit a Russian ship during a raid on August 2, but the claim
was rejected by the U.S. embassy on August 5. The Soviets complained on a
number of occasions during the war, particularly when the bombing raids
threatened to inhibit their ability to resupply the North Vietnamese.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
DAVIS, GEORGE E.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company D, 10th Vermont Infantry.
Place and date: At Monocacy, Md., 9 July 1864. Entered service at:
Burlington, Vt. Birth: Dunstable, Mass. Date of issue: 27 May 1892.
Citation: While in command of a small force, held the approaches to the 2
bridges against repeated assaults of superior numbers, thereby materially
delaying Early's advance on Washington.
HAND, ALLEXANDER
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Delaware.
Accredited to: Delaware. G.O. No.: 11 , 3 April 1 863. Citation: Served on
board the U.S.S. Ceres in the fight near Hamilton, Roanoke River, 9 July
1862. Fired on by the enemy with small arms, Hand courageously returned the
raking enemy fire and was spoken of for "good conduct and cool bravery under
enemy fire," by the commanding officer.
KELLEY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Second Class Fireman, U.S. Navy. Birth: Ireland.
Accredited to: Ireland. G.O. No.: 11, 3 April 1863. Citation: Served as
second-class fireman on board the U.S.S. Ceres in the fight near Hamilton,
Roanoke River, 9 July 1862. When his ship was fired on by the enemy with
small arms, Kelley returned the raking fire, courageously carrying out his
duties through the engagement and was spoken of for "good conduct and cool
bravery under enemy fires," by the commanding officer.
SCOTT, ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 10th Vermont Infantry. Place and
date: At Monocacy, Md., 9 July 1864. Entered service at: Winooski, Vt.
Birth: Canada. Date of issue: 28 September 1897. Citation: Under a very
heavy fire of the enemy saved the national flag of his regiment from
capture.
BELL, JAMEJ
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and
date: At Big Horn, Mont., 9 July 1875. Entered service at:--. Birth:
Ireland. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches to
Gen. Crook at the imminent risk of his life.
EVANS, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and
date: At Big Horn, Mont., 9 July 1876. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo.
Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches
to Brig. Gen. Crook through a country occupied by Sioux.
STEWART, BENJAMIN F.
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and
date: At Big Horn River, Mont., 9 July 1876. Entered service at: --. Birth:
Norfolk, Va. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches to
Gen. Crook at imminent risk of his life.
LUCY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Second Class Boy, U.S. Navy. Born: 1859, New York,
N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 214, 27 July 1876. Citation:
Displayed heroic conduct while serving on board the U.S. Training Ship
Minnesota on the occasion of the burning of Castle Garden at New York, 9
July 1876.
*PUCKET, DONALD D. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 98th ,
Bombardment Group. Place and date: Ploesti Raid, Rumania, 9 July 1944.
Entered service at: Boulder, Colo. Birth: Longmont, Colo. G.O. No.: 48, 23
June 1945. Citation: He took part in a highly effective attack against vital
oil installation in Ploesti, Rumania, on 9 July 1944. Just after "bombs
away," the plane received heavy and direct hits from antiaircraft fire. One
crewmember was instantly killed and 6 others severely wounded. The airplane
was badly damaged, 2 were knocked out, the control cables cut, the oxygen
system on fire, and the bomb bay flooded with gas and hydraulic fluid.
Regaining control of his crippled plane, 1st Lt. Pucket turned its direction
over to the copilot. He calmed the crew, administered first aid, and
surveyed the damage. Finding the bomb bay doors jammed, he used the hand
crank to open them to allow the gas to escape. He jettisoned all guns and
equipment but the plane continued to lose altitude rapidly. Realizing that
it would be impossible to reach friendly territory he ordered the crew to
abandon ship. Three of the crew, uncontrollable from fright or shock, would
not leave. 1st Lt. Pucket urged the others to jump. Ignoring their
entreaties to follow, he refused to abandon the 3 hysterical men and was
last seen fighting to regain control of the plane. A few moments later the
flaming bomber crashed on a mountainside. 1st Lt. Pucket, unhesitatingly and
with supreme sacrifice, gave his life in his courageous attempt to save the
lives of 3 others.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 9, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE
INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
9 July
1942: Seven P-38s arrived in the UK after flying across the North Atlantic
with stops in Greenland and Iceland. This was the first time single-seat US
aircraft flew this route. (4)
1943: The invasion of Sicily began with the first major Allied airborne
assault using gliders and paratroops.
1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. During an attack on Ploesti oil refineries, Lt Donald
D. Pucket's B-24 received heavy and direct hits. He turned over controls of
his bomber to the copilot to administer first aid and survey the damage.
Although he jettisoned all the guns and equipment possible, the plane
continued to lose altitude. Pucket ordered his crew to abandon ship, but
three men refused. Therefore, he tried to control the plane. A few moments
later, the flaming bomber crashed on a mountainside. For his courage and
supreme sacrifice, Pucket received the Medal of Honor. (4) P-38 pilots of
the 475 FG escorted B-24s to the Vogelkop area of New Guinea to test cruise
control concepts. Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in the New Guinea area
earlier in the month to teach cruise control techniques to the pilots. This
8-hour- and-15-minute test mission was the longest Fifth Air Force fighter
mission to date. (17)
1950: KOREAN WAR. Forward air controllers used L-5G and L-17 liaison
airplanes to direct the first F-80 strikes to support ground forces. (28)
1958: The Air Force's Thor-Able reentry vehicle, in its first test at ICBM
range and velocity, carried a mouse 6,000 miles over the Atlantic from Cape
Canaveral to the Ascension Islands. (16) (24)
1959: The last C-45 aircraft were phased out of TAC. (11)
1965: FIRST FLIGHT: The XC-142 Tiltwing V/STOL transport flew from the
Ling-Temco-Vought plant in Dallas to Edwards AFB. (3)
1966: A General Dynamics crew took the F-111A for the first time to its Mach
2.5 design speed (about 1,800 MPH) in a test flight at Fort Worth. (16) (26)
1979: Voyager 2 neared the planet Jupiter and started sending photos back to
earth. (21)
2001: British test pilot Simon Hargreaves flew the Lockheed Martin X-35B
through an in-flight conversion from the conventional to the STOVL mode and
back before accelerating to Mach 1.08. This was the first time one of the
two JSF demonstrator types had made a conversion and flown supersonically on
the same flight. (3)
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