The “Family Jewels”

Read the other 703 pages here.

Read the other 703 pages here.
“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 water as the…
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)…
12 October 2000 . . . . . . When another chapter in the Long War against terror was written in the blood of the free: 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,…
KIDO BUTAI First Carrier Striking Force VADM Nagumo Chuichi Chief of Staff: RADM Kusaka Ryunosuke Carrier Division 1 – VADM Nagumo Akagi (flagship) – Captain Aoki Taijiro, commanding 18 x A6M2 carrier fighters (aka Zero) 18 x D3A1 carrier bombers (aka Val) 18 x B5N2 carrier attack aircraft (aka Kate) 6 x A6M2 fighters (6th…
One of the all time great things about writing a blog is the mail one gets offline – some genuinely interesting stuff comes our way that we may have missed out on in the comings and goings of a standard day. The Flightdeck Fridays in particular generate more than their fair share of folks sharing…
On this Date (3 Oct): Sixty-two years ago: As the initial attempt to establish an earth satellite program, the Bureau of Aeronautics established a committee to evaluate the feasibility of space rocketry. This would lead to the Vanguard project. Forty-five years ago: Sigma 7, Commander Walter M. Schirra pilot was launched into orbit by a…