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Does Your Blog's Mouth Need a Scrubbing?

May 11th, 2009 by xformed

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Stop the Flt 93 (Murdoch) Memorial: Saudi authorities contradict U.S. Park Service: mihrabs do NOT have to point exactly at Mecca

May 9th, 2009 by xformed

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A Muslim consultant told the Park Service in 2006 that the Crescent of Embrace memorial to Flight 93 cannot be seen as a mihrab (the Mecca-direction indicator around which every mosque is built), because the giant Islamic-shaped crescent does not point exactly at Mecca:

Mihrab orientation is either correct or not. It cannot be off by some degrees.

Saudi religious authorities recently had to address this question when observers noted that some 200 mosques in Mecca itself do not point directly at the Kaaba (the “Sacred Mosque” that all Muslims are supposed to face for prayer). Meccans who worried that their prayers might not count were assured by the Islamic Affairs Ministry that “it does not affect the prayers.”

The necessity for such a rule is obvious. Throughout most of Islam’s 1400 year history, Muslims who were any significant distance from Mecca had no accurate way to determine the direction to Mecca. Thus it became established religious principle that what matters is intent. It is the mind of the believer that needs to face directly towards the Kaaba, and directly towards God. This principle applies in Mecca the same as anywhere else.

All the great mosques of the ancient world point well away from Mecca

Older mosques often point 10, 20, 30 or more degrees away from Mecca. The most famous mihrab in the world, the mihrab of the Great Mosque in Cordoba Spain, points more than 45° off of Mecca:


The Cordoba mihrab points south, while Mecca is east-southeast of Spain.

In contrast, the Crescent of Embrace points a mere 1.8° north of Mecca, ± 0.1°, which is highly accurate by Islamic standards.

The Muslim consultant who lied to the Park Service was a classmate of architect Paul Murdoch

Who told the Park Service that a mihrab has to point exactly at Mecca to be legitimate? It was Nasser Rabbat, a professor of Islamic architecture at MIT and an expert in the history of mosque design. No one knows better than Professor Rabbat that mihrab orientation does NOT have to be exact.

There is only one reason why Rabbat would lie to the Park Service about such a basic fact. He recognizes that the giant Mecca-oriented crescent at the heart of the Flight 93 memorial IS a legitimate mihrab, and he wants this al Qaeda sympathizing plot to succeed.

A look at Rabbat’s background shows that he was a classmate of Crescent of Embrace architect Paul Murdoch, both getting masters degrees in architecture from UCLA in 1984 Jezebel’s Kiss release and both doing their masters work on Middle Easter subjects. (Murdoch wrote a “masters project” titled: “A museum for Haifa, Israel.” Rabbat wrote a master thesis on house design in Cairo and Damascus.)

This prior connection between Murdoch and Rabbat raises the possibility that Murdoch himself was able to orchestrate the Park Service investigation into warnings about his own design. By the same token, having the two classmates both show up in the Flight 93 memorial raises the possibility that Rabbat was Murdoch’s source of expertise on how to incorporate the full complement of typical mosque features into his Crescent design. (For the dozen typical mosque features, see Crescent of Embrace, chapter 5.)

The Crescent of Embrace also includes an exact Mecca-orientation

While exact orientation on Mecca is not a traditional requirement, modern mosque designers do generally employ now-available techniques for orienting their mihrabs more precisely on Mecca than was previously possible. Murdoch satisfies this modern norm (and provides hidden proof of intent) by including a true thematically-defined crescent that does point exactly at Mecca.

Murdoch’s thematic explanation for his crescent design is that the circle was broken on 9/11 by the path of Flight 93. The terrorist-piloted airplane smashes our peaceful circle, turning it into a giant Islamic-shaped crescent (that just happens to point to Mecca). The terrorist-memorializing implications of this theme are hardly less overt than the Islamic symbol shapes themselves. Nothing particularly subtle here folks.

The symbolic breaking of the circle occurs at the upper crescent tip, where the fifty-foot tall, thousand-foot long Entry Portal Wall is parted by the Entry Portal Walkway, which follows the flight path through the wall:

The section of wall to the right of the walkway in this image is symbolically “broken off” by the flight path. Remove this symbolically broken off part, and the remaining crescent structure points EXACTLY at Mecca, ± 0.1°:


What symbolically remains standing in the wake of 9/11: a giant Islamic-shaped crescent pointing EXACTLY at Mecca.

Rabbat knew about this too, since the original report that Rabbat was commenting on detailed both the slightly inexact Mecca-orientation of the full Crescent of Embrace, and the exact-Mecca-orientation that results when the symbolically broken-off parts are removed. Same for the Park Service. As the original recipient of Alec Rawls‘ report, the Park Service knew about both orientations. They also knew, because it was also in the original report, that a mihrab does NOT have to point exactly at Mecca. Yet they still publicly touted Rabbat’s claim that the crescent can’t be seen as a mihrab because it doesn’t point exactly at Mecca. A veritable web of self-conscious lies by Rabbat AND the Park Service.

The design is called a broken circle now, but the circle is still broken in the same place as before (where the flight path crosses the upper crescent tip). The unbroken part of the circle, what is symbolically left standing in the wake of 9/11, remains completely unchanged. It is still a giant-Islamic shaped crescent, still pointing exactly at Mecca.

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Conviction, Courage and Devotion – 64 Years Ago

May 5th, 2009 by xformed

On this day in 1945, on the island of Okinawa, a young man saved his comrades o nthe battle frield…and had never carried a weapon.

Details here buy Alice in Wonderland : Cpl Desmond T. Doss, USA, CMOH Awardee, one of my personal heroes.

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RIP – 1LT Jim Helinger, US Army Air Corps

May 4th, 2009 by xformed

James Helinger, Sr passed away this morning at 11AM, peacefully at home.

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James Helinger, Sr Official Military Photograph

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Feb 22, 1924 – May 4, 2009

I met him by accident, but grew by my association with him over the last 4 years.  He was a character, proud of the moniker of “Damn Glider Pilot.”  He loved General George S. Patton, his friends, and the things he did as Special Services Officer at the Munich Air Base during the Occupation period.  He tried to enter the service on Dec 8th, 1941, but was told he had to be 18 to fly.  He waited until Feb 22nd, 1942 to get in line at the Post Office in Louisville, KY to begin his service to the nation in a time of war.  He wanted to fly, and at that time, gliders weren’t even part of the picture.  He loaned me some of his books.  After reading one (ther are actually very few written), I called to say how lucky I was to have gotten to know him.  Airborne Glider operations had a about a 60%+ fatality rate for pilots.

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He spoke, for the Glider’s Pilot’s Association

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, telling the technical points of flying gliders into harm’s way, but rarely mentioned combat, but certainly he knew things I never will.  We spent  many evenings, Mondays in particular, at a local pub, where the special was Fish and Chips.  He told and retold the story of being handed a newspaper cone on the streets of England, and how he enjoyed that new experience.  Other nights, he indulged in his habit of some fried chicken, something not on his diet, but he still thought he could have some, because he had earned it.  He and I could talk of common things the military life imparts upon one’s life, the fun, the not so fun, and the really unintelligible Army (Navy? way of doing things., and also of business and life in general.  Some things, despite our age difference of 30 years, were the same for us, in our own times.

Later, he brought a bit of London to the Tampa Bay area, buying double decker buses and using them for his advertising business.  He could buy one a year, and he did for several.  I understand they were regularly full for the trips between St Petersburg and the Tampa Bay Bucs games.  During our time together, we went to Sun’n’Fun a few years ago and he stood by the Steermans and Vultees and told me of what it was like to take them, particularly the “Vibrator” up for his flights.  That year, we also had dinner with the Stinson owners who flew in for the event.  He got quite a thrill out of meeting those people and sharing about his escapades in the old days.

He had a big heart and was always ready with a joke.  At his 85th birthday, just recently, the crowd was large and you could tell he had known many of them for a very long time.  I was blessed to have helped get some of his recollections out to the world in this blog.  I was also fortunate to have had some of his pictures to scan in.  Here are some of them:

Jim Helinger, Sr in front of a C-47
Glider pilots were also rated as co-pilots in the C-47s.

Jim Helinger, Sr flying a CG-4 Waco Glider
Jim “at the office” in a CG-4 Waco glider. Lots of plywood and steel tubing, and canvas.

Jim Helinger with his L-5 Stinson Spotter Plane

Jim with his L-5 Stinson Spotter plane. This may have been to one he flew under the Eiffel Tower, with the not yet famous actress Denise Darcell in the front seat. I failed to find out definitely.

Work got in the way, this past year, for traveling to Ohio for the Reunion with Jim and his wife.  We had discussed it, but, I let some of real life interfere.  This year, in October, the Reunion, most likely the last one that will be held (they voted to stick it out one more year in the 2008 meeting), will be in New Orleans.  I had already mentally committed to not let anything stop me from being his escort this year.  Jim and I discussed it a few weeks back at dinner.

I have his stories he shared posted around the blog.  Here’s an easy way to get to them

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.  Read of a young man, who survived to come back,  have a family, grow a business, raise two guide dogs, become my friend and tell me some tall, or maybe not so, tales of a time before my time.

Update 5/6/2009: Jim’s Obituary Twelve and Holding ipod in the St Pete Times.

Category: Public Service | 1 Comment »

You Ask: What is WolframAlpha?

May 3rd, 2009 by xformed

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Veterans Writing Workshops

May 2nd, 2009 by xformed

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Thanks to some professional writers who want to lend a hand.

The Writers Guild of America, East Foundation thinks this is important.  I concur.

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To the people within the WGAEF who conceived this project, and brought it to fruition, and the Board of the Guild, thank you.

The next workshop is planned for the San Antonio, TX area, with the help of the Wounded Warrior Project to find thosse vets interested.

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And, some people we should say thank you to, if we get the opportunity:

Mentors include: Neena Beber, Andrew Bergman, Jessica Blank, Rick Dresser, Matthew Eck, Peter Hedges, Erik Jensen , Ryan Kelly, Chris Kyle, Richard LaGravenese, John Markus, Marsha Norman, Mark St. Germain, David Tucker, Michael Weller, Michael Winship, Chris Albers, Tom Fontana, Lulie Haddad and Jim V. Hart

H/T: @millblogging via Twitter

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So You Want to Be a Navy SEAL?

April 30th, 2009 by xformed

Begin your training in your backyard!

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Get ready and take aim, from the comfort of your lounge chair or the cool water of the pool itself. Hit the floating target to test your accuracy and rack up the highest points.

It doesn’t come with a high priced P-3 Orion toilet seat price tag, either! Great for all ages, and…if you don’t want to be a SEAL, but are planning to go on a cruise, this is just the ticket to become part of the ship’s self defense force.

For those looking for the fast track to the Navy’s pecial Warfare Community, aftr you master shooting the target in the pool, then take it out and put it n the lake and fire away from your ski boat, to be familiar with the dynamics of two moving points in the equation.

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And the Survey Says…

April 29th, 2009 by xformed


< (Click the pic for the details)

It’s been a bit of a haul, and it’s definitely been the result of a large community helping to send traffic my way.

Fitting the hit came from Edinburgh, Scotland, and from the really, really large website, gCaptain’s blog Touch the Top of the World psp Highlander . Got my “SWO sweater” from there, thanks to the HC-6 Helo Det OIC buying some Royal Navy ones, made from real wool, from the RN guys at the base in Roysyth, while on the trip to the North Atlantic for Silver Jubilee.

The price was a huge $14…and only a few of us too the OIC up on it, and when he got stateside a few weeks later, and sold them to his squadron mates for $50.

Stil have the non-USN SWO Sweater in the closet. Never had the velcro patch for the nametag, but, I had mine before the USN decided the SWOs could have something special, which they then took away and made them Navy wide. I wore it many a cold night on the bridge watches, and in CICs on several ships as well, since the equipment had to stay chilled in there…to heck with human comfort! And then there was the time the MCPON decided we had to wear your collar tips out because an SA complained to him about how the tips in irritated his neck….

So, here I am at at least a significant milestone for to show for doing this across three blogging platforms and over 1200 posts.

I’m grateful for all the incoming links and thankful for all the wonderful people I’ve come to know in real life and virtually.

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Navy Investigations – On the Web via FOIA

April 27th, 2009 by xformed

This is an incredible list of Navy JAGMAN investigations

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A Date with Destiny – Part VIII

April 24th, 2009 by xformed

21 years ago, the USS BONEFISH (SS-582), while operating to simulate a Soviet diesel submarine, experienced a fire in the battery well.  The fire spread quickly, resulting in the surfacing and abandoning, while at sea, the boat.  The prior post in this series discuss the lead to, and operations on that day, to rescue the crew at sea.

Lt Ray Everts, Jr, USN

In this post, I’d like to ensure the story of LT Ray Everts, USN, is highlighted.  It appears that LT Everts, made a decision that cost him his life, but made sure the conditions he and his shipmates were facing, was not compounded by a collision with one of the two ships using them as a training target.  Last year, a former crew member, FT2(SS) Bill Baker, on the BONEFISH had found the posts by accident, and left this comment, with more details, specifically about LT Everts, and also about other details of the conditions of the equipment, and what it was like to be in that fire.  He ends with some well deserved some BZs for his shipmates, all of this not reported elsewhere:

—————————-

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Update 4/24/09 PM: Some other commenters at Bubblehead’s blog add more detail the post’s comments.

Update 4/25/09:  Hayball’s comments on the US Naval Institute blog shed more light on who Lt Everts was, and a more detailed role he played in this story.

—————————

Bill Baker FT2(SS) said:
April 15th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

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Funny, I was looking for something else and came across this.

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I have read Richard’s recollection of it many times. I will give you some of my remembrances:

I was on watch as messenger of the watch at the time of the accident (we didn’t run a full time FTOW -Fire Control Technician of the Watch because it was the old Mk101 system).

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When the call came out “Fire in Berthing, Fire on Third Street”, I sounded the general alarm. I then got out an EAB for me and one for the officer of the Deck (Lt. Ray Everts). The OOD disregarded the EAB to take the ship to PD. If anyone has ever been on a scope with an EAB on, you know that you can’t really do a good search. I believe he disregarded it because of the Carr and Kennedy being in the area, he wanted to get to PD quickly but more importantly, safely. While the boat was on the way to PD, I heard what can only be described as the sound you hear when you throw an old wet decomposing log on a fire. That crackling sound. At that point, smoke entered the control room. I have never believed in smoke as a living thing, but the smoke looked like a hand closing around Lt. Everts. At that point, things are a bit fuzzy. Things I do remember are my EAB getting filled with warm smoke (which I later found out was the dirt, oil, dust from the MSA filters installed in the system burning off). The entire ship went black and literally, you could not see your hand in front of your face.
The next thing I remember was a couple of hands raking down my arm and someone wheezing “Help, I can’t breathe”. I didn’t know who it was but found the persons head, took my own EAB off and put it on his face. Immediately his hands flew to the facemask and I realized he didn’t want to give it back. I forcibly took it back, took 3 breaths and gave it back to him and told him we were going to buddy breath while I secure another mask. When he had the mask, I got out another one. We buddy breathed till I got the mask setup. During all this, the CO came into control and stated “XO, it’s not worth it. Abandon ship”. I know that the word went out on the 1MC. I later heard that people aft of the engine room door didn’t hear the word.

I lost track of Lt. Everts at this time. I know from other accounts that he went to the bridge (without an EAB), tried to open the bridge hatch, but couldn’t. It was known on-board that the dogs were misaligned, but Lt. Everts came from our sister ship Barbel (SS-580) and was already qualified the ship. Squadron also knew that the hatches were messed up but when the TM1 who transferred to squadron tried to do hatch inspections and they started failing, he was ordered to stop. The inspections were later nowhere to be found. Anyway, I saw Lt. Everts on the deck nearby. I grabbed him, got out another EAB and put it on him. I will never forget the next events. I had Lt. Everts head in my lap and I was sitting cross legged. Lt. Ellsworth had gotten the hatch open and the smoke was starting to clear. Lt. Everts proceeded to go into convulsions from smoke inhalation and looked me directly in the eyes. Just thinking it caused a picture of it in my mind that was as vivid as the day it happened. I heard someone calling for people by station to leave. I distinctly heard helmsman, planesman, etc. What I never heard was messenger. The control room got deathly quiet. I called out “is anyone there” and got no response. I did it again, and then lifted the mask thinking people couldn’t hear me because I had the EAB on. Again, I heard nothing. Lt. Everts breathing became very shallow and he was unresponsive. I looked down at him and thought to myself, I can stay here and die with him, or I can get out. I chose the latter. I stood up, and then did the stupidest thing in my entire life. I took the mask off and then attempted to get it free of my belt. In my panic, I ended up pulling my entire belt off. While attempting to locate the bridge trunk, I found the chart table next to the DRT table had come down blocking the ladder. I climbed over it and got about half way up the trunk when I heard my wife’s voice “they aren’t going to do anything about that boat till it kills someone”. My response was always “I’m not going to leave you a rich widow”. I then made it to the upper level and told someone up there I was the last man alive out of control. Funny thing was, Tony Silvia was behind me coming out of the hatch and he had the connection of an EAB in his hand. Tony was in distress. On the other end was Bob Bordelon. Shawn Glappa dropped down to the nav level and was attempting to push Bob up. I had hold of his “poopy suit” at the collar. None of the three of us was able to pull Bob up. Bob was not a big guy, but our strength was just sapped. I can still hear the sound of his body tumbling down the trunk.
Tony was taken off from the fairwater planes by helo. I ended up on the aft deck just past the sail. When the boat would go down in the wave, it would lift us up and when the boat would come back up, we would scramble back to the center and attempt to hold onto the safety track and each other.
When it was my turn to go, I go up, went to the side of the sail and threw my new sneakers into the water. When the lifeboat got close and the boat was up and going down, I jumped on top of the raft and pulled myself inside. The next 2 hours were some of the worst in my life. I was seasick and the only place I could throw up was to unzip my poopy suit and throw up into it. I was by a hatch but couldn’t lean out. I remember just wanting to close my eyes and sleep. TMC Blackburn grabbed my hand and told me I could close my eyes, but I had to occasionally squeeze his hand to let him know I was still alive. I appreciated that. After a while, a diver came to the hatch and we were taken out one by one to a helicopter. I remember when I was in the water with the guy holding me, telling me what was going to happen, I threw up on him [ed: I suspect this was the wet crewman from the HSL-44 helo, AW Brian Hendrix]. To his credit, he just washed it off and kept going. He later ended up on the Kennedy on a makeshift bed next to me. He had rescued about twice the number of people he was supposed to.
From the helo, I was deposited on the Carr and I remember a gung ho corpsman (he had just finished a tour with the marines) [ed: HMC(SW) Mentzer – a superior HMC!] came up to me. All I wanted was to get horizontal. They took my clothes and gave me a dry poopy suit and I lay down. I got an IV and then transferred me to the Kennedy. When the chopper started to take off, the door was open, I was strapped into a stretcher and the stretcher moved. I grabbed the post holding the seats and held on for dear life.

While aboard the Kennedy, they had a fire. I remember having trouble getting to sleep (couldn’t breathe well and throat was sore). On the CCTV was a Captains mast when the fire alarm went off. No one moved. I questioned what I was to do and they told me to go to bed, the fire department will take care of it.

The next day, we go on a helo and were taken to the hospital. En-route, I was allowed to put on a harness and look out the open door. It was cool.

Once at the hospital, they did triage and it was determined that I had pretty extensive smoke inhalation. I ended up on oxygen and albuteral. I was finally able to get in touch with my wife and family. Maybe another time I will tell you what she went through during all this. Suffice it to say, squadron was very unprepared for something like this to happen.

I was discharged a few days later and went home.

There were some definite heroes that day:
Lt. Everts – For getting the ship safely to PD and the surface.
Tony Silvia – For trying to save Bob Bordelons life.
??? Ledbetter – For jumping in and getting the life rafts to the boat when they were dropped off.
Rescue swimmers – For going above and beyond.
Jim Yates – For telling squadron about the hatches -though they shut him down on this.

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TMC ??? – Who tried like hell to get squadron to allow the hatches to be inspected.
Lt. Ellsworth – For getting up there and getting the hatch open.

If you haven’t read that entire comment thread, then you’re missing some other first person info, too.

Jim Chapman loaned me the December 1988 Approach magazine, which his parents had saved all these years, so I could scan two articles, one by the SH-3 Helo pilot, CDR Waickwicz (later ADM), and the other by Jim. Click on the cover picture below to get to the .pdf of those pages from Approach.

Well done, LT Ray Everts.  Rest in peace.

Other shipmates of the BONEFISH crew who were lost 4/24/2009 were:

YN3(SS) Marshall Lindgren, USN and RM1(SS) Robert W. Bordelon, Jr, USN

If anyone has any info regarding this disaster, particularly on the salvage operations, please leave a comment and let me know how to contact you.

Category: Public Service | 7 Comments »

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