Apropos that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the landing on the Moon, the latest US visitor and (hopefully) precursor to our return via the Constellation program, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the location in Mare Tranquilis that was the site of Apollo 11’s landing (click on image to enlarge): Note the object…
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)…
This week marks the first of our Guest Bloggers for the Solomons Campaign blog project. The author is no stranger to this or several other milblogs – he is AT1(AW) Charles H. Berlemann, Jr. Hailing from the VAQ community, Charles is a student of naval history, particularly, naval aviation history and we have kept a…
Like a broken strand of pearls, the Solomon Islands form an open and extended chain from the Santa Cruz Islands in the south-east to the larger islands of Bougainville and New Britain in the west. Â Further to the south-east lie the New Hebrides. Â The islands, primarily volcanic in origin with outer coral barriers,…
No, not us. Hopefully by the first of the year after peer review is done… Tommy Thomason has a second volume hitting the streets this month: (hey Tommy, about the cover — with all the great “A” aircraft around, why a Hornet on the cover? Why not an A-4, A-1 or A-6? – SJS) Yes…
Breathes there a soul so dead that these words don’t send a chill through the spine? When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to…
Tomorrow we will have our Independence Day post up and in the busy comings goings of a three-day weekend, we encourage one and all to pause and ponder those words — mere words in some folks’ opinion; that our forefathers penned in Philadelphia that hot summer of 1776. Men had already died in the cause…
June 5th: ” 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…
Any of us who have spent a fair amount of time at sea become acquainted with the full cycle of life — from the births at home to the passings at sea. For those of us in aviation, that environment afforded more opportunities for the latter, sometimes, unfortunately, exceptionally so. My first encounter was when…
Setting the stage for the Solomon Islands Campaign project which kicks off next month…and what better way than with the classic, Victory at Sea:
