Steeljaw Scribe

23 October: The U.S. ended all tactical air sorties into NVN above the 20th parallel and brought to a close Linebacker I operations. This gesture of good will in terminating the bombing in NVN above the 20th parallel was designed to help promote the peace negotiations being held in Paris. During May through [...]

Checking in from the SJS-family’s TAD site this weekend (and yes, we still are in the pre-internet age back at the homeport, still awaiting the service visit by the provider…), where the lead Scriblet is tying the matrimonial knot (and once again, the weather-guessers appear to be winning as we contemplate low ceilings and fits [...]

As Hurricane Bill sits off the coast today, dumping copious amounts of rain on the SJS homestead (such as it is at the moment), we pause to consider a community of aviators and scientists whose mission brings them face to face with The Beast, under conditions normally sane aviators strive to avoid.  [...]

20 July 1969

102:42:08 Duke: Roger. Copy. (Pause) Eagle, Houston. You’re Go for landing. Over.
102:42:13 Armstrong (on-board): Okay. 3000 at 70.
102:42:17 Aldrin: Roger. Understand. Go for landing. 3000 feet.
102:42:19 Duke: Copy.
102:42:19 Aldrin: Program Alarm. (Pause) 1201
102:42:24 Armstrong: 1201. (Pause) (On-board) Okay, 2000 at 50.
102:42:25 Duke: Roger. 1201 alarm. (Pause) We’re Go. Same type. We’re Go.
102:42:31 [...]

Tomorrow we will have our Independence Day post up and in the busy comings goings of a three-day weekend, we encourage one and all to pause and ponder those words — mere words in some folks’ opinion; that our forefathers penned in Philadelphia that hot summer of 1776.  Men had already died in the cause [...]

(which might also serve as a cautionary tale to those who decry ‘future warists’ – SJS)

…Investments in blood and treasure:
Jan. 1927: 8 officers and 81 enlisted men of VO-1M, led by Maj. Ross Rowell, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua with six DH’s. Amidst the anarchy of the civil and banditry, the U.S. Marines held the railroad. [...]

Lots going on right now – between events in North Asia, a one family attempt to stimulate the local construction economy and completing the first round of writing/editing for the BMD chapter for the book project there hasn’t been a lot of time to post.  Still, there are a couple of irons in the fire, [...]

The “Flying Prostitute” it was called – the design, radical for the time, featured wings so short in span that there appeared to be “no visible means of support,” hence the moniker.  Later, as inexperienced crews were dropping more and more of them into the waters of Tampa Bay, it earned another – “widow maker.”  [...]

Vikings.  Hawkeyes.  CODs.  Prowlers.  Whales (when they were still around)…

Cats and dogs we were called.  Didn’t go fast (‘cept down hill).  Didn’t do afterburner flybys.  Boss and Handler generaly tolerated ‘em, barely, unless they went stiff wing in the wires, then all hell was unleashed.  Usually got the back-end pick of the Ready Rooms (“Viking [...]