Steeljaw Scribe

Notes and commentary on things present, reflections on a career in naval aviation and serendipitous items as strike me at the moment…

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Flightdeck Friday: USMC WWII MIA Return Edition

December 26th, 2008 1 Comment

The Official press release:
Marine Pilot Missing In Action From WWII Is Identified
The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors
He is Maj. Marion R. [...]

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December 7th, 1941

December 7th, 2008 No Comments

As veterans of this epic action ever more rapidly dwindle and recede into history’s mists, we ask a question - does this date become a mere cipher on the calendar?  We pose this question in part as we see September 11th being reduced to an optional head nod and thence continue business as necessary.  The [...]

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90 Years Ago - November 11, 1918

November 11th, 2008 1 Comment

At the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month…the guns fell silent along what was known then as the Western Front as the Allies and Germany observed the agreement to end this “War to End All Wars.”  While fighting continued sporadically elsewhere, in what were fast becoming the former empires of Russia [...]

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Flightdeck Friday: MIA Edition - Missing WWII Airman Returns Home

October 31st, 2008 4 Comments

The ‘MIA Returned’  series of posts has sort of grown on its own accord and as such, has become one of our favorties.  For new readers, whenever the remains of American servicemen are recovered and positively identified through a complex and rigorous DNA process, the DoD’s POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) issues a short announcement of that fact, [...]

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Eight Years Ago Today

October 12th, 2008 No Comments

…another chapter in the Long War against terror is written:

The toll:
* Seventeen American Sailors dead:
Hull Maintenance Technician Second Class Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21, of Mechanicsville, Va.
Electronics Technician Chief Petty Officer Richard Costelow, 35, of Morrisville, Pa.
Mess Management Specialist Seaman Lakeina Monique Francis, 19, of Woodleaf, N.C.
Information Systems Technician Timothy Lee Gauna, 21, of Rice, Texas
Signalman [...]

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Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn: 11 Dec 1918 - 4 Aug 2008

August 4th, 2008 1 Comment

Just a few noteworthy quote:

- I have spent all my life under a Communist regime, and I will tell you that a society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed. But a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either.
- It is not because [...]

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Once to Every Man And Nation: Memorial Day Observed

May 24th, 2008 3 Comments

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 [...]

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