67 years ago?


Radial's Growl, Inline's Purr, Jet's Suck !

The wife and I are honeymooning in Japan! We plan on seeing Tokyo, Osaka area, Hiroshima and my old navy base Yokosuka. I'll post pictures at some point.

I have been to Nagasaki and Pearl Harbor so this Hiroshima visit will round out my Pacific Theater "beginning and end" tour of history. I think Svetlana (my wife) is more excited than me-she's always wanted to see Japan and especially Tokyo. For her Hiroshima is also a must see due to the history. I hope to see Volgograd in about 2 years with her as well as other Russian cities. The Motherland Calls Monument is amazing and very emotional to see according to her.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls

But only a few remember the highest scoring-(40)-American ace on this day.


It's only a hobby..it's only a hobby..it's -

Although complete coincidence (at least consciously) I just re-read "Flight of the Enola Gay" by Tibbets. I was lucky enough to buy it from him at an air show in Columbus in the 80s. Ferebee and VanKirk were there too, so all 3 signed it!

If you don't have this book, it's actually a biography of Tibbets, from childhood through his days at Executive Jet in Columbus in the late 70s. It covers his leadership in bombardment in Europe in'42/'43, as well as his bombing experiences in N. Africa before being selected for the B-29/atomic mission program (to avoid a court martial!) He also explains how he became skeet shooting buddies with Gen. George S. Patton!

The experiences in forming, training, and then commanding the 509th for the A-bomb missions is fully covered, as are the first Bikini tests. He also expounds on the consequences to him and the crew, all of the falsehoods about "guilt" associated with them, and the fallacies many use now to try to say why we didn't need to use the bomb. All this is straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, so you can't get a better perspective! I highly recommend it!

the use of the A-bomb was TOTALLY JUSTIFIED. That said however, those who participate in such monumental historical events are often the last ones to have any true overall perspective on the consequences, necessity of or even the correctness of their actions. Note I didn't say that the participants don't have a valuable perspective and necessary input to the conversation. I'm only pointing out that "objectivity" is not part of their contribution no matter how they might try to have it. The issue is definitely "debatable", I just think that the "apologists" are essentially WRONG. JMHO, LL

So a friend says: "cheer up things could be worse; so I cheered up and sure as hell Things Got Worse!

So I always have a connection to the event.

Member Barney Builders Anonymous

that was lost over Laos as a Misty FAC pilot was born today in 1944. He only made it 3 days past his 25th birthday in 1969..

I always have two reasons to remember the 6th and 9th of August...

Cheers,
Dave