Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWII. Show all posts

Sunday, July 5, 2015

" It is dangerous to be right, when government is wrong"....Voltaire

We can trip through the directory of US government agencies and we would be hard put to find one (1) of them not recently embroiled in a public fiasco, loss of confidence, rotting from the head downward, now the butt of public late night jokes.
        IRS unanswered questions, loose problems still blowing in the wind. Benghazi, 4 Americans deserted and killed? " Oh, that was two years ago, DUDE."  Arrogance from our current government.
        Obamacare now passes an activist Supreme court as doctors bail out over the country, burned out under the avalanche of paperwork justification (I lost mine), and increased premiums for millions, as "Healthcare" experts chest beat in DC about how they got the job done. 
        Billions overpaid to illegal aliens (oops, sorry, how did THAT happen??), some states now issue drivers licenses to illegals so they can now vote (California). Hence, their new official title is no longer " Undocumented Immigrants."
        It is now Undocumented Democrats.
        During the two years leading up to WWII, there was a sizable group of Americans called the Bunde comprised of German Americans. They held loyalty meetings regularly here in the states carrying American Flags, and wearing Nazi arm bands. They supported Adolph Hitler, and  petitioned our Government to stay out of WWII
        They were steadfast in their support of Hitler and NO amount of persuasion could change them: the German American Bunde. Think about it. I see the very same thing in American fringe thinking again. 
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Saturday, June 27, 2015

THE NO SPIN ZONE --PART 2 (for the worst?)

Back in my neighborhood in the 50s, we all watched Rev Billy Graham on TV and advise presidents on matters of national conscientiousness.
      Today, close personal advisers of this nature are Brooklyn pastors in hock to the Federal government for back taxes in excess of $5 million and he gets to eat dinner at the White House on us 82 times this year alone.
      Our country launched a major police action in Korea to attempt to save hundreds of thousands of its citizens from slaughter at the hands of crazy killer soldiers of the Communist Party. We invested our best in money, war materiel and American lives that President Eisenhower finally brought to a halt - peacefully and with honor.
      Today, ISIS slaughters Christians by the truckloads in Muslim lands without so much as a head ache from us, and from the White House? We get no word...nothing.
       A maniacal group of crazed killers called Boko Haram captures 300 young girls in Nigeria and hauls them off to somewhere and the only word from the White House we get is, " I'm really torn about those girls." And a barrage of hash-tag videos on line. That was it. Big rescue effort for 300 pre teen age and young teen age school girls.
     tTwo months ago, 200 of them were recaptured by the Nigerian military who finally found them. Most of the youngsters (all girls) were raped and/or pregnant. PREGNANT. At 11, 12 and 13, can you  imagine the barbarity? These are the guys who de=capitate people.
      During the WWII a small boat load of Nazi spies landed on the south coast of America. Very quickly they were captured, tried and executed. All of America was fine tuned in the capture.
      Today, news reports indicate that just below the American/Mexican border near Arizona, they have discovered an ISIS training camp.
      Have you heard ANYTHING from NBC? The White House?
      Things have changed in this country. It is time for another change. Soon, In my opinion, I hope.
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Monday, May 11, 2015

B-17s in England, WW II



As a docent in a B-17g bomber museum here in Tucson I had the privilege of speaking and making friends with old air crews of B-17s from the war who visited the museum. The 390th bomb group had acquired the airplane and tricked it out to exact specifications of the war-time bird in the ETO. It was perfect.  In my extended time there, I came to know every square inch of the aircraft, from the cockpit instrumentation to the tail guns. 
     The fascination for me was the interaction with the guests. Air crew members covered the gambit from tail gunners to pilots and everyone in between.  I worked with pilots and ball turret gunners, who were of course, pretty small guys. Surprised as I was to learn they weren't all shooting down there. They spent a lot of time, taking pictures of older bombing sites to assess damage.
                                                                                                  


Shooting for him was done mostly approaching the target, over and coming out of the target. The res of the time, he joked, was in intensive prayer.
      A full Colonel was on the staff, nearly 90 at the time. He had 3 airplanes shot out from under him, and he completed 32 missions. On one, he brought his 17 back with over 520 bullet holes in it. None of the crew had a scratch, no one was wounded, a minor miracle, said the flight surgeon. This same pilot flew another airplane back with 3 of the 4 engines out - feathered. Luckily, the one working was an inboard #2, the source of cabin heat inside the airplane. On that flight, he just made the end of the runway of Col Jimmy Stewart's air base. He didn't get to meet him, he was asleep.
     In about that same time frame, one pilot told me, Clark Gable was flying side gunner and Andy Rooney was strapped into the navigation department of another B17 on the Schweinfurt mission.
     There was a tail gunner from Montana who wandered in one day, one of the largest men I ever met. A farmer, he wore those Levi overalls. He looked like he just climbed down off of a Massey Ferguson. Clarence was at the back end of the B-17 fiddling with the twin .50 caliber machine guns, moving them back and forth. I found out he lied about his age and enlisted at 16. He was huge, easily fooling the enlistment people. He volunteered for air duty, got into the 17, and how he squeezed into the tail section is beyond me. He fooled his pilot for year, downing 6 German ME 109s. When he turned the legal age of 18, they found out about him, came to him and said, " we don't know what to do with you, arrest you, send you home, or promote you for your six kills," his CO said.
    "I'd like to stay, " Clarence told him. So, he did and went on to down another 13 enemy planes by the end of the war.
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