Steeljaw Scribe

Task Force 17 - Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher in Yorktown
Task Group 17.5 Carrier Group - CAPT Elliott Buckmaster
USS Yorktown (CV-5) CAPT Buckmaster
CVG-5 - LCDR Oscar Pederson
VS-5 LT Wallace Clark Short, Jr. 19 (17) x SBD-3
VF-3 LCDR John Smith Thach 27 (25) x F4F-4
VB-3 LCDR Maxwell Franklin Leslie 18 (17) x SBD-3
VT-3 LCDR Lance [...]

EUROPE:
Britain launches its first 1000-plane bomber raid - the target: Cologne, Germany.
CHINA-BURMA-INDIA:
Myitkyina, Burma is again hit by B-17’s. Again no activity is observed and the attacks are discontinued. HQ 7th Bombardment Group transfers from Karachi to Dum-Dum, India.
ALASKA:
77th Bombardment Squadron (Medium), 28th Composite Group, based at Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, Territory [...]

Skippy  can provide a learned dissertation on the various forms of “Good-bye” one encounters in the Japanese language, but he will tell you that the one with a note of finality about it is “Sayonara.”

YOKOSUKA, Japan (May 28, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) departs Yokosuka, Japan for the final time [...]

Pacific Theater:
ALASKA (11th Air Force): A B-17 flies the first armed reconnaissance from the secretly constructed airfield at Unmak, Aleutian Islands over the Aleutian Chain, but finds no sign of the enemy. XI Fighter Command elements are not deployed at Unmak (P-40’s and P-38’s), Cold Bay (P-40’s), Kodiak (P-39’s), and Elmendorf Field [P-38's and [...]

At a cool (and covert) $2B, N-G’s Integrated Technology division has been funded to build a demonstrator which may be a twin-engine aircraft resembling an X-47B according to this AW&ST article released today  . There is some discussion that an extended range, unmanned bomber will follow based on knowledge gained from the secret-demonstrator, but [...]

It is perhaps fitting the day after Memorial Day that we learn of more former MIA’s whose remains have since been identified and returned to their loved ones. Hence, today’s story of some of crew of the AC-130A Spectre named ‘Prometheus’ - callsign Spectre 13… - SJS

Prometheus (c/s Spectre 13)
The official release:
Airmen MIA [...]

“The Inland Sea of Japan was still veiled in darkness when the anchorage at Hashirajima began to awaken. On board the aircraft carrier Akagi, white-clad crewmen, ghostly in the deep twilight on the forecastle, began raising the ship’s anchors. The clatter of the capstan was overlain with the bright sound of spraying [...]

Welcome to Marseilles!

SJS,
So since I last wrote you I was in Rhodes Greece. Since then about a week has elapsed and we have operated with the French Naval Air Force, being a flex deck for them to get some carrier quals in with their E-2’s and Rafales. A couple of the Rafales landed onboard [...]

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ‘twixt that darkness and that light.

—–

—–

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve [...]

Something a little different for Flightdeck Friday this Memorial day weekend. We are working on a project that if luck holds out, we should be able to post over the weekend, provided we don’t have to make an unbidden trip that lurks around the corner…if so, we’ll roll that project to the 4th of [...]