Note: Our wounded service members need some help…see details on Valour-IT funding laptops with voice recognition software here.

Thanks for your considertaion of this great project!

Official CENTCOM video here…

I nominate this movie as the movie of the day.

Thank you, Viper pilots, for your finely honed air to ground delivery skills. I bet you had to confirm/repeat back 493 times that you had the right target….so thanks for your patience.

How ’bout these lyrics: “500 lbs once, 500 lbs twice…I bet that sure made him feel nice!”

Update: Maybe these lyrics: “500 lbs once, 500 lbs twice…so how about the rest of you guys playing nice?”

Also: Throughout the day, there have been hints of someone inside al-Z’s organization ratting him out. I can see a few possibilities that make this credible. ONe certainly could be he was getting too full of himself and from the inside, they weren’t able to have a coup, to let another rise up in his place. So, how do you do it? Like the stories of war from early times, act nice to your enemey and convey to them that you can help them get the “bad guy (of the day).” That leaves the way open for them to move up into the power vaccum.

Or….consider how successful the world has been in cutting off funding sources for the insurgents. Could a conversation have happened something like this:

Osama: “Hello, Zarq-man? It’s me from somewhere on the border of Pakistan.”

al-Zarqawri: “HEY! OBL! What’s happening?”

OBL: “Zarq, you know how we’ve been squeezed for funds lately, with those infidels stealing the money from our bank accounts, right?”

al-Z: “I sure do…you know it sucks when you get unexpected million dollar cuts in operation budget, when some banker gets all righteous.”

OBL: “You’re dead on…and to think I have to deal with all of al-Qaeda cuts, not just the regional ones you have to take…anyhow, I was thinking last night, then I had this dream, when I woke up, jerking around like an epilectic, and I realized I had a vision from Allah. He said since the Great Satan’s boys (and girls) are offering $25M for you, we could really rebound from our current budget crunch if they were to catch you. How’s this sounding to you so far?”

al-Z: “Let me get this straight: One of my boys rats me out, and the infidels catch me and send me to Club GITMO, and you pocket the reward money. Am I understanding this right?”

OBL: “Oh, yeah. Thant’s what I like about you, you catch on to complex issues quickly. So, how soon can we pull this off?”

al-Z: “Well, it sucks to be me right now. Had you considered you being the one turned in? They are offering more for you than me.”

OBL: “You’re been a good friend, but, to be honest, I’m a little concerned about the bad press you got us when you delivered those 17 heads to the hospital. That was really bad PR. I think you’re liking the butcher role too much.”

al-Z: “Yeah, I can see your point. Give me a few days to set up a safe house and a few innocent civilians to hang out with me. I figure you can get another bounce, and keep that Iranian slacker out of the news cycle for a little while, if they find dead babies in the rubble of my safe house.”

OBL: “Good man. And, think of the fact that you’ll get the 72 raisins before me. Heck, at the rate this war is going, you might want to get a head start on me soon.”

So there you have it, the Z Man was killed because of the budget shortages and over runs…a scary thought indeed, and to be realistic, maybe not too far off. I’m sure $25M will help the planning for a few months….

Get to Iowahawk for the post death Zarq Man AAR, and also another one at GM’ Corner!

Ships have “Breakaway” music and flags. These are used at the end of an alongside replenishment, when, as soon as all lines connecting the ships are cleared, the throttles are advanced and the replenished ship moves ahead of the one it replenished from, on the same course, at first. This is when the Officer of the Deck usually yells into the pilot house for the Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch (BMOW) to hold the 1MC (General Announcing system) mike to a cassette player (and I’m sure now a CD player), to play the music over the weather deck (topside) speakers. Simultaneously, the Signalmen “break” the breakaway flag on the side towards the other ship.

For all my 20 years in, this was done as a matter of routine. I began my career on a replenishment ship, so I saw many ship depart from alongside, and heard a variety of music played. For the most part, many ships had their theme music, and almost exclusively played that. A few ship were the song of the moment types, and would just play something appropriate.

For my first deployment, our ship would be accompanied by USS CONYNGHAM (DDG-17), and ADAMS Class guided missile destroyer, with 2 5″/54 Mk 42 guns, and a MK 13 Missile launcher, loaded with SM-1(MR) weapons. That class of DDGs are impressive to watch slicing through the water, with a narrow beam and an elevated bow that gracefully sweeps upwards. They were the picture of the front line guided missile “tin cans” from the 50s and 60s.

CONYNGHAM had a great crew and a CO that made them do it right and fast. From the outside, professionalism oozed out of everything they did. Their ship handling was smart and they were on time and on target. Their breakaway flag white background, with a large green shamrock. Their theme music was the Star Wars title track. When they completed an UNREP (Underway Replenishment), the crew would stand at attention until they cleared our side, then they would move like aggravated ants to prepare the ship for the next evolution. The horsepower generated by their four 1200 PSI boilers and twin shafts could get them up to speed quickly and on their way to their next evolution. Being a “shoe” on a “fat ship,” I longer to be a destroyerman, so I would watch, as much as my duties would allow the destroyers that had come alongside. I was always impressed with the seamanship of the CONYNGHAM’s crew. Departing with the Star Wars music playing impressed me every time.

Later the USS SPRUANCE (DD-963) was added to our battle force. She was a few years old now, but because she was the first of the class, she was the proof of concept for the 29 (and later 30) hulls like her to follow in her footsteps. In any case, assigned to our battle group, she would be making her maiden overseas deployment. Unlike previous destroyers, she was powered by 4 GE LM-2500 Marine Gas Turbines. 20,000 horsepower each, with two shafts, and throttles were usually controlled directly by the watchstanders on the bridge.

SRPUANCE’s theme song was, you guessed it, Star Wars. Their breakaway flag was a large yellow background, with large block red letters saying “BEWARE JET BLAST.” this mimicked the warning seen painted on the island of an aircraft carrier.

One day, the SPRUANCE was alongside before CONYNGHAM. At the completion of refueling, lines cleared, the music came on, the flag was broken, the turbine whine ramped up in seconds and she seemed shoot ahead of us. The CONYNGHAM followed her into station alongside us on the same side. Somehow, it was never the same for me to watch the proud, but aging DDG, play Star Wars and display her flag, as she steamed out ahead of us. No matter how professional, the SPRUANCE had her hands down on performance.

Years later, I was driving one, and the thrill is quite excellent.

I found these words in the comments section of the “D-Day Rembered” on Little Green Footballs. They are worth posting:

Tomorrow, the sun will rise, as it does every morning but tomorrow it will be June Sixth, the sixty second anniversary of D-Day.
Right now, on this very minute sixty two years ago, tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen took one last look at loved ones, dashed off a last letter and otherwise did whatever they could to calm their nerves. They had boarded their ships or were boarding. The largest armada ever assembled sailed out to determine the fate of the world.

Eisenhower made the decision to go and the world would never be same again.

Sixty six hundred allied troops would not be alive in 24 hours. Thousands more would be injured. In the cold industrialized mechanized planning that was D-Day, half of the soldiers were there so their bodies would offer shelter, weapons and ammo to the survivors.

By late morning tomorrow, when you are having that second cup of coffee, sixty two years ago Omaha beach was a gory bloodbath, our soldiers were being slaughtered to the point that Gen. Omar Bradley was not sure the invasion had worked.

How safe and easy are our lives. We owe so much to this, the most magnificent army in history, a generation of brave men who stormed ashore because they believed in something greater and something better, the very lives that we lead today.

They followed orders and charged into a hopeless situation without question. Sheer mass was the only armor they had. As I have for the past couple of years, I write to honor their memory and perhaps say one new thing that might help others appreciate and remember.

D-Day was a triumph of planning and production but it is mostly a triumph of the spirit of the nation that calls itself the United States of America. It was an expression of a nation’s will, its character and its future as the greatest power on earth.

After D-Day, the US would be the greatest power the world had ever seen. The American nation had shown that it was capable of doing anything, including the impossible, of fighting for the ideals of freedom against any odds and against any enemy. And winning. After D-Day, some might question America but D-Day was not just an event it was transformative to the nation itself the springboard to today.

Any nation that wishes to supplant the US from its global peak will have to commit deeds of greatness that will enable that nation to transcend the nation that risked everything for freedom and gave the world a vision of freedom and equality that I hope shines forever.

One night I had a wonderful dream. A bugle blew in heaven and an endless troop of soldiers marched to the gates themselves and presented arms and saluted; the honor guard of heaven were the allied soldiers of June 6, 1944.

No other place of honor is good enough for what they did.
So I ask you to take a moment and think about the day that gave birth to the modern world and remember the brave men who made it possible.

Thank you, BabbaZee, for the reminder.

Over at The Cool Blue Blog there is a first person story of the days leading up to and on the invasion day aboard the Navy’s oldest battleship.

Omaha Beach and the USS ARKANSAS. It’s a good read…

Note: Our wounded service members need some help…see details on Valour-IT funding laptops with voice recognition software here.

Thanks for your considertaion of this great project!

See D-Day Remembered on Black Five for more stories commemorating this day in history.

Part I,Part II and Part III of the Adventures of Jim, Sr

Jim Helinger, Sr, USAAF

I can’t say this post is full of D-Day info, for Jim Helinger, Sr, Glider Pilot, USAAF, doesn’t talk about combat much. He says there are plenty of other things to talk about, and he is right. I choose to take a few words to highlight Jim’s service in this battle , as well as the others.

CG-4A WACO Glider Info

The links at the top of the post take you to the story Jim told to me over dinner last year. He was one of those men in the gliders on D-Day, being towed over the English Channel in order to get supplies and troops on the ground, and then return to fly again. As a part of the 442nd Troop Carrying Group, he hauled some of the 82nd Airborne Division into battle on this day, 62 years ago.

Jim also had other duties beside flying. He was tasked to determine airworthiness of the gliders on the ground. He said he guessed he always made a good guess. Ever wonder how they got the glider pilots back? How about you find a glider that looks sound after it’s landing, tell the surviving pilots to get in and strap in, you set up a pair of goal posts, stretch a line between them, attach a tow line (nylon) to the line across, then shoot a flare for the orbiting C-47 to see. That signals the C-47 to come do a low altitude pass, dangling an arresting hook like arrangement, that snagged the glider back into the air and ultimately home.

Jim in the pilot’s seat – taken by his co-pilot

He also flew at least 40 other combat glider missions, and ended up doing a little defensive work on the ground at the Battle of the Bulge. Jim said not all the pilots took the ride home from D-Day. Besides being pilots, they also had to dismount and fight with the troops until the area was secure. He siad a few of the pilots fought on the ground all the way to Germany, and at the end of the war, they finally met back up with their units.

The glider crews don’t get a lot of pages of print, nor combat artwork, for the most part. The C-47, and a fine airplane it is, gets the lion’s share of the credit for hauling lots and lots of paratroopers, as it did. It also hauled the WACO and HORSA gliders, too. JIm said they mostly only saw the C-47 pilots when they were briefing for a mission, but they pretty much stayed apart during normal working routine. The glider pilots were at least qualified as Co-Pilots in the C-47, in case they needed extra hands.

A glider pilots view of the tow plane

D-Day was a phenomenal efforts, and many parts and pieces went into making the battle plan function. Jim Helinger, Sr, was one of those men who did his part that day.

Thanks to BlackFive for the D-Day Blogburst!

Quite an amazing story about two bombers that collided enroute their return from Germany and landed together in France….The last remaining crewmember, Capt Rojohn just passed away.

From the 100th Bomber Group achives, here’s the story:

LT GLENN ROJOHN; PIGGY BACK LANDING AFTER THE 31 DEC 1944 HAMBURG MISSION. COLLISION WITH LT MacNAB WHILE BOTH WERE ATTEMPTING TO FILL THE SLOT IN THE FORMATION CAUSED BY THE LOSS OF LT WEBSTER. ACCOUNT GIVEN IN “CENTURY BOMBER” FOLLOWS: AT 1244 HOURS AND AFTER LEAVING THE ENEMY COAST, NAVIGATOR DANNY SHAFFER, WHO FLEW WITH THOMAS HUGHES, NOTED IN HIS LOG: “TWO 17’S HOOKED TOGETHER, 43-31987, PILOTED BY GLENN ROJOHN, HAVING CLOSED UP INTO THE SPACE LEFT BY THE LOSS OF LT WEBSTER. UNFORTUNATELY B-17 43-38457, PILOTED BY WILLIAM MacNAB, HAD RISEN SLOWLY FROM BELOW TO FILL THE SAME POSITION..” ANOTHER PILOT, ETHAN PORTER, WHO IS LISTED AS HAVING NO KNOWN ADDRESS BY THE VA(1992), IMMEDIATELY SHOUTED A WARNING VIA RADIO, THE TWO FORTRESSES COLLIDED AND LOCKED TOGETHER, CONTINUED FLYING PIGGY-BACK OVER THE SEA.’

FINDING THE ELEVATORS AND AILERONS STILL WORKING, ROJOHN AND HIS CO-PILOT WILLIAM LEEK, ‘CUT THEIR ENGINES, AND BY USING THE ENGINES OF THE LOWER AIRCRAFT, THREE OF WHICH WERE STILL RUNNING, SLOWLY TURNED THE TWO AIRCRAFT TOWARD LAND. FOUR OF THE CREW BAILED OUT ON ORDERS AND ROJOHN DESCENDED TO RECROSS THE ENEMY COAST AT 10,000 FEET. ON LANDING NEAR WILHELMSHAVEN THE TOP SHIP (43-31987) SLID OFF MacNAB’S 43-38457 WHICH EXPLODED. BARELY HURT ROJOHN AND LEEK WALKED AWAY FROM THE WRECKAGE OF 43-31987 AND INTO CAPTIVITY. AS FOR THE MEN WHO BAILED OUT, THE ROG EDWARD NEUHAUS CAME DOWN ON AN ISLAND; TTE ORVILLE ELKIN CAME DOWN IN THE WATER TEN MILES OFF SHORE AND WAS DRAGGED TO THE SHORE BY HIS CHUTE. REPLACEMENTS NAVIGATOR ROBERT WASHINGTON AND GUNNER JAMES SHRILEY LANDED ON THE COAST. ALL SURVIVORS WERE TAKEN PRISONER. NOTHING WAS FOUND OF BTG JOSEPH RUSSO AND WG FRANCIS CHASE.

I received this interesting story via email, and it is reported as thruthful by Truth or Fiction website:

Read the rest of this entry »

May 22nd, 1968 – USS SCORPION (SSN-589) was lost at sea, off the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean, with a loss of all hands.

The submariner community knows all too well, regardless of the nationality of those who have put to sea in undersea craft, from the TURTLE and the HUNLEY to the USS THRESHER (SSN-593) and the USS SCORPION (SSN-589), know that an accident at sea more than likely does not bless them with any survivors.

A former Army officer and business consultant, Jack Yoest, posted a personal story about his connection to the family of one of the men who never came home, QMCS Frank Patsy Mazzuchi.

Thanks to Mudville Gazette for the Open Post.

Last year I came across an article about a group of women who are an institution, and like their mostly hidden existance: The Arlington Ladies.

Here is my post, copied from the archives, as my Memorial Day tribute to those who serve in a quiet, but special way:

The American Spectator of May 2005. A “random” pick up from the magazine rack. Memorial Day approaching. Page 12 – Humbleness defined. I know nothing is coincidental. The article is “The Arlington Ladies – American Voluteerism at Its Most Moving.”

By Shawn Macomber Published 5/27/2005 12:09:54 AM THE STORY OF THE ARLINGTON LADIES stretches back to a day in 1948 when Air Force Chief of Staff General Hoyt Vandenberg happened upon the funeral of an airman at Arlington. What he saw disturbed him: There wasn’t a soul at the service, save the chaplain and the Honor Guard members conducting it.”
At the link above, you can read the article. Here’s the short version: Beginning in 1948, the wife of Air Force Chief of Staff, General Hoyt Vanderberg, Gladys, began attending funerals of the fallen at Arlington National Cemetary so no one would not have someone at their funeral, and, even if they did, the Arlington Ladies would be there to support the family as necessary. In 1972, the Army Arlington Ladies “stood up.” In 1985, the Navy began it’s “watch.” The Marines will always have a representative from the Commandant’s Office at every Marine funeral at Arlington. Compassion comes to mind. The women who have done this seek no recognition in these forums. They are there for the fallen, not for us. It is but one more example of the bond of the military family so many of us have been a part of, or are still. It is a read fitting for such a weekend, to show how the spouses of our military have honored our dead.

This year, The American Specator presents another fine article, quoting Ben Stein as he spoke to families who have lost service members.

A bad day for me is when I get stuck in traffic or have a toothache or notice that I have gained weight or my teenage son is surly.

A bad day for you is realizing that the only man or woman you have ever loved is gone for this lifetime.

There are more fine words in this article. Read and consider the message for us all in it.

Update: Greyhawk published some last letters home from those who aren’t with us. Iwth that post are also links to contirbute to the family members left behind.

Smash has a lengthy and excellent post about taking the Scouts to the National Cememtary at Ft Rosecrans in San Diego today. He had the opportunity to make a headstone into a living memory to a Scoutmaster while he was there.

H/T: Eagle1 from a MilBlogs post.

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for the opportunity to share such information with his readership.

While listening to Bill Bennet’s talk show enroute work this morning, he said this:

“You remain an alien to your culture if your history is denied.”

I believe he said that was said by someone named Kolkowski, but I might be mistaken.

It certainly rings true. Consider that fact the school boards all around the country are busy purging non-“PC” text books from use.

Consider how politicians and other public figures can stand before us in person and in the media and make blod faced lies about history, for the education system has long since ceased teaching history in favor of other subjects.

If you don’t have a clue as to what’s being talked about, then they can say anything. Thanks, NEA, for the dumbimg down of the American youth. ANd BTW, NEA members, don’t complain about the workload caused by standardized testing, which controls the flow of federal funds to you, for you willingly accepted less from the students, so as to not hurt their feelings, and now the tests are just a logical consequence of trying to hold you accountable for earning your paycheck now…

The MSM seems stuck on a diet of fear, which has the ability to cause readers to pay more attention, and therefore more attention is also paid to the advertizing. Once those things are connected, then the MSM can show the potential advertizers just how much more they can make, so they should pay for more/larger ads….

New Orleans. A Cat 5 storm headed in. People stranded and then isolated. Cries that the government didn’t protect them, feed them, or even care about them as bands of criminals roved about, doing what they do with impunity. I know, you know all that, because CNN/seeBS/NBC, etc told you all about the horrors.

Then, strangely enough, the stories of the bands of criminals is debunked, and reported, but in muted stories from the MSM.

So, if you’re interested in how much more wrong the media was, in their reporting of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina coming to the Gulf Coast, get a cup of coffe, find a comfortable chair and get ready to see the record set straight.

Lou Dolinar lays it out over at Real Clear Politics in the post Katrina: What the Media Missed.”

Maybe it’s more aptly titled: “Katrina: What They Wouldn’t Report for Fear of Losing Their Grip on Your Aversion to Fear.”

I hope you have taken (or will take) the time to read that the greatest rescue in history was affected by members of the regualrly belittled federal government, as well as hard working people locally, particularly the first responders. They deserve acknowledgement, yet I suspect that won’t happen in the open press, for someone might raise the question: “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”

H/T: Castle Argghhh!