This Date in Naval Aviation History: Operation Vittles – Navy-style

27 October 1948.  Four months earlier, the Soviets began their blockade of Berlin in earnest.  All surface transportation into the part of the city occupied by the Western Allies (US, UK and France) was cut off and all supplies, food, fuel and the like was prevented from entering the city.  But the air approaches into…

This Date in Naval Aviation History – USS Hornet (CV 8) Commissioned

20 October 1941:  USS Hornet {CV 8} is put in commission at Norfolk, CAPT Marc Mitscher, USN commanding. Laid down 25 Sept 1939 and launched in 14 Dec 1940, the USS Hornet, seventh ship in the Navy to bear that name, was built by Newport News Shipbuilding at a cost of $32M.  At her launching,…

History Lessons

Let’s see: – Political leaders supporting rapid growth of new lending institutions issuing mortgages for municipal and residential construction? Check – Mortgages easier than ever to obtain with comensurate building boom? Check – Skyrocketing land values with exponential speculation? Check – Borrowers assuming more credit with deceasing ability to pay it off? Check – Appearance…

Is the F-35 the Next DDG-1000? – UPDATED

UPDATED 13 Oct 08 – see below the “More” line… – SJS No military service currently demonstrates that it has leaders that can create affordable procurement programs. Every service has, to some extent, mortgaged its future by failing to contain equipment costs, and by trading existing equipment and force elements for developing new system that…

Eight Years Ago Today

…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…

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Flightdeck Friday: Flight of the Truculent Turtle

Fifty-five hours and 18minutes.  11,236.6 nautical miles.  No GPS, no inertial nav, no fly-by-wire, no computers save the biologic ones and the whizwheels.  No movies, no SATCOM, no sleeper seats.  No in-flight refueling – no stops.  No digital weather radar.  Four aircrew, one nine-month old baby ‘roo and 8,592 gallons of AVGAS. Non-stop, Austalia to…

History’s Judgement

…and another book to add to the growing pile: In the Nightmare RONALD RADOSH We know that history holds many surprises. One does not expect to learn more about the secret history of the Gulag than we already know from both Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago and Anne Applebaum’s Gulag: A History. This feat, however, is…