Heroic Life – A Quiet Passing

BySteeljawscribe 14 October 200728 March 2010

Noted Flying Tiger, former Naval Aviator, Army Air Corps and USAF Pilot, and combat ace Hill passed away this past Thursday at the age of 92. Lex has the full account here. A life filled with accomplishments in service to his country and to a people facing a vicious onslaught, he epitomized the American volunteer spirit that saw private citizens who sought to bring their talents and spirit to the fight against tyranny while their home country pondered what course to take. Truly the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ long before Hollywood dreamed up the phrase…

Rest easy as you join your valiant brethern

‘Tis evening on the moorland free,
The starlit wave is still:
Home is the sailor from the sea,
The hunter from the hill.

history lessons | Reflections

A Memorial Day Compendium – 2012 Edition

BySteeljawscribe 26 May 201221 May 2015

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we…

Air Warfare | history lessons | Navy

Midway 70 Years Later: Forces in Motion

BySteeljawscribe 1 June 2012

JAPAN – Citing Japanese victories in the Coral Sea and other battles, Radio Tokyo the previous day announces that “America and Britainâ€¦ have now been exterminated. The British and American fleets cannot appear on the oceans.” Around the world, forces were joined and movement was afoot in this truly global war. In Russia, the 2nd…

history lessons | Navy | Reflections

Pearl Harbor – 69 Years Later

BySteeljawscribe 6 December 2010

“AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR.Â THIS IS NOT A DRILL” Sixty-nine years ago those words ushered in a period of unbelievable agony, trial, effort and sacrifice.Â What was once before was forever changed afterward.Â Jack-booted thugs bent on their “Final Solution” strode cobblestone streets of the land distantly remembered as the forebear of a new nation,…

history lessons

Midway – 67 Years Later and Controversies Still Abound

BySteeljawscribe 8 March 2009

Background: In the course of writing for this blog I’ve had occasion to meet up with a number of folks who’ve “been there/done that” in a historical context.Â By default many have been from Vietnam, a few from Korea andsome of whom have been by proxy from WWII, but late last year I had the…

history lessons

Battle of Coral Sea: Day 2

BySteeljawscribe 8 May 200728 March 2010

Events of 8 May 1942 Before dawn on 8 May, both the Japanese and the American carriers sent out scouts to locate their opponents. These made contact a few hours later, by which time the Japanese already had their strike planes in the air. The U.S. carriers launched theirs’ soon after 9AM,…

history lessons

The New Maritime Strategy: Precedence of Strategic Concept and Resource Allocation

BySteeljawscribe 22 October 200719 October 2009

Quite a bit of back-and-forth over the new MS and lack of discussion over force structure/resource allocation. Not the first time this has been confronted though and the following paragraph, drawn from a 1954 article in Proceedings by Samuel P. Huntington may be particularly germane to the current discussion: "A second element of a military…

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