As I’ve noted elsewhere – one of the great things about running a blog are the contacts you make from around the world about the darnedest things. Some few years back I put up a post in the MIA section about the return of 2ndLt Ray Packard, a rookie P-38 pilot thrown into a battle…
As we move deeper into the Centennial celebrations focused on US Naval Aviation, there are those amongst us who think it consists primarily of blue airplanes from WWII flying form with Hornets in throwback blue…and miss a whole other part of our heritage, that provided by the USCG. Aviators from the USCG have been flying…
While Midway was not the combat debut of the B-26 Marauder (that was left to B-26’s of the 22nd Bombardment Group launching attacks against Rabaul two months earlier), Midway was nonetheless the most auspicious of the Marauder’s early actions. Originating from a 1939 Army Air Corps specification for a twin-engined medium bomber (Circular Proposal 39-640),…
Update: See also “What do I know, I was 19 years old and saw the whole thing backwards?” (h/t Boris the SLUF driver) On this, the 69th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, the Battle of Midway Roundtable has re-posted the full post-battle letter by CDR Stanhope Ring – Hornet’s CAG. Often called the “Lost…
