To All
Good Sunday Morning July 9, 2023.
I hope that your weekend is going well.
Our June gloom is still with us but it keeps thing cool in the morning. . The weather guessers say we may make it to 79 today.
Regards,
Skip
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
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.
1994 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.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in 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
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post
Skip… For The List for Sunday, 9 July 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 9 July 1968…
Remembering Vice Admiral Ed Martin, Warrior …
https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/rolling-thunder-remembered-9-july-1968-one-nation-or-two/
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War
. Listed by last name and has other info
https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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 over 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 time 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.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
From the Archives
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
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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
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.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thank 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 be 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….
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Barrel
THIS IS WELL DONE
https://www.youtubecom/embed/3c7GqpoM6wU
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Interesting Facts
Eggo waffles were originally called Froffles.
The brothers behind your favorite frozen waffles took a while to iron out the details of their signature product. Working in their parents' basement in San Jose, California, in the early 1930s, Frank, Anthony, and Sam Dorsa first whipped up their own brand of mayonnaise. Since the base ingredient of mayonnaise is egg yolks — and the brothers took pride in using "100% fresh ranch eggs" — they christened their fledgling company "Eggo." Despite launching the business during the Great Depression, Eggo mayonnaise sold like hotcakes, motivating the Dorsas to extend their product line. Soon, they were selling waffle batter — another egg-based product. To simplify shipping, they also whipped up a powdered mix that required only the addition of milk.
When the frozen food industry took off in the 1950s, the brothers wanted to take advantage of the rush to the freezer aisle. Frank Dorsa (a trained machinist) repurposed a carousel engine into a rotating device that could anchor a series of waffle irons, each cooking a breakfast treat that was flipped by a factory employee. The machine allowed Eggo to prepare thousands of freezer-bound waffles per hour. These debuted in grocery stores in 1953 under the name Froffles, a portmanteau of "frozen" and "waffles." Customers referred to them simply as "Eggos," and the Froffles moniker was dropped within two years. Now a Kellogg's-owned brand, Eggo serves up waffles as well as other frozen breakfast treats, with mayonnaise — and the name Froffles — but a distant memory.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 9, 2021 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)
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
Daily Memo: Chinese Minerals, Russian Mercenaries
Wagner fighters are reportedly relocating following the mutiny last month.
By: GPF Staff
July 7, 2023
U.S. concerns. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen expressed concern about China's newly announced export controls on two critical minerals used in technologies like semiconductors during a meeting with U.S. businesses in Beijing on Friday. She said the U.S. was still evaluating the impact of the measures, which will force companies in China that want to export the minerals to apply for licenses. In response, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Finance said Beijing still hoped to improve bilateral relations with the U.S. Yellen is set to meet with top Chinese officials and economists this weekend.
Wagner withdrawal? Several hundred mercenaries from Russia's private military Wagner Group have returned to Moscow from the Central African Republic, according to the Jeune Afrique magazine. It reported on Thursday that about 500-600 Wagner mercenaries had boarded planes to Moscow at the Bangui airport and that more flights were set to depart. Many have speculated that the Kremlin will transfer Wagner's operations to another group more loyal to Moscow, so this may not be the end of Russia's mercenary presence in Africa.
Russian economy. The number of Russian companies experiencing a labor shortage is the highest since 2013, according to a survey conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Economic Forecasting. Roughly half of the companies surveyed said they had a shortage of staff – the highest percentage since the organization began tracking this number. However, it appears that business conditions in Russia are improving from a rough period a year ago. According to the poll, 31.5 percent of companies said they weren't affected by sanctions, up from 18 percent last year. Forty percent of enterprises said they intended to launch investment projects in the next couple of years, compared to 26 percent in 2022.
Turkish taxes. The Turkish government raised a range of taxes on goods and services to help plug a growing hole in the budget. The value-added tax will jump from 18 percent to 20 percent, while processing fees and banking insurance tax for consumer credit will also increase. Motor vehicle taxes are also expected to rise. Opposition figures have criticized the changes, saying they will further reduce the public's purchasing power amid already high inflation.
Belarusian threat. The presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia sent a joint letter to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to warn of the rising threat posed by developments in Belarus. The three countries, which all share a border with Belarus, expressed concerns about the increasingly close relationship between Minsk and Moscow, which has used Belarusian territory to advance its war effort in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to attend a NATO summit set for next week in Vilnius.
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SkipsList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skipslist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skipslist/CACTjsm2pKrG-FA0c%2BP18wwSe01AL0tjNQ45VikA6AK4D5_Okzw%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.