Similar Posts

Flightdeck Friday – MIA Edition: WWII Navy Aircrew Returns Home
|

Flightdeck Friday – MIA Edition: WWII Navy Aircrew Returns Home

BySteeljawscribe

Last year, a small group of us spent the better part of the summer and fall writing on the Solomons Campaign.  That drawnout slugfest in the southwest Pacific receives little notice beyond Guadalcanal and some discussions regarding Santa Cruz.  The purpose of that exercise (here and over at USNI’s blog) was to surface the larger…

| | | |

Midway 74 Years Later and the Dauntless on My Desk

BySteeljawscribe

In every battle there is a moment when the combatants, and the world, seem to catch their breath. It is a fleeting moment, lost in the blink of an eye. But in that same blink, everything changes. Such moments are borne of desperation, of courage, of plain dumb luck. But they are pivotal —  for…

Flightdeck Friday: TFX — A Time for Turkeys (Pt II)

BySteeljawscribe

“Senator, there isn’t enough power in all of Christendom to make that airplane what we want” VADM Tom Connolly testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee (1968)   In Part I we explored some of the politics (and politicking) behind the TFX – the program to provide the Air Force and Navy with a common…

|

Flightdeck Friday – 100 Years of Naval Aviation and the USCG

BySteeljawscribe

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…

Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part III)
| | | |

Project CADILLAC: The Beginning of AEW in the US Navy (Part III)

BySteeljawscribe

1050L 24 Oct 1944. USS St. Lo (CVE-63) is under heavy air attack. After successfully fending off the superior surface force of VADM Takeo Kurita’s Center Force, “Taffy 3” is now defending against a surprise air attack that has lasted some 40 minutes already. One of the features of this attack is the use of…