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The Solomons Campaign: Status of the United States Fleet and Plans After Midway

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…

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The Solomons Campaign: Geographical and Political Background

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.   Further to the south-east lie the New Hebrides.   The islands, primarily volcanic in origin with outer coral barriers,…

Published!

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…

Independence Day

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…

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Flightdeck Friday (Independence Day Edition): B-17F Flight Log

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…

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A CMC (Command Master Chief) Passes – And A Battlegroup Responds

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…

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USAF Releases FY2010 Force Structure Plans

In a nutshell: Nuclear Deterrence mission: “Back-to-basics”, increase by 2,000 number of nuclear support personel, add a 4th B-52 sqdn TACAIR: Accelerate retirement of 254 F-15, F-16 and A-10 a/c, validate remaining service life of residual legacy TACAIR a/c Space: Field new satellites including the Global Positioning Satellite Block IIF, Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF),…

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Flightdeck Friday: Planning, Building and Training for the Future

(which might also serve as a cautionary tale to those who decry ‘future warists’ – SJS) …Investments in blood and treasure: Jan. 1927: 8 officers and 81 enlisted men of VO-1M, led by Maj. Ross Rowell, arrived at Corinto, Nicaragua with six DH’s. Amidst the anarchy of the civil and banditry, the U.S. Marines held…