Things I Did Not Know: After their defeat and loss at Copenhagen in 1807, the Danes responded by planting 90,000 oak trees toward the Navyโs rebirth. The Danish Nature Agency, successor to the royal forester, informed the Defense Ministry in 2007 that their trees were ready.
An A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft is shown parked on the flight line during a winter storm at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, on Jan. 12, 2024.ย
(๐ธ/U.S. Air National Guard Photo by Tech. Sgt. Drew Schumann)
Todayโs OSINT: Three F-117s arriving at
@DuluthAirport
this afternoon. They taxied right over to the 148th Fighter Wingโs installation on the NE side of the field.
She would clear the Superior, Wisconsin harbor entrance at 2:30PM on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. It would be the last harbor she would ever know...
She was, and will always remain, the true love of my life. For over 45 years we built a life together. Our 50th wedding anniversary was on the horizon. I am truly lost, alone and afraid. RIP
@palpitationhelp
Surprise pop-in on the flight deck between recoveriesโฆand I bump into the Navyโs version of a battlefield reenlistment. Sailor thanked his late grandfather for bringing his family to the US from Haiti and changing his life.
This is America and
#ThisIsTheWay
.
50 years ago today, on Friday, September 28, 1973, 50+ young men, entered the large gym at the US Naval Officer Candidate School in their dress white uniforms and were administered the Oath of Office as Ensigns in the United States Navy.
It was quite a ride!
@BarkAndLaugh
@historyinmemes
And heโs indirectly honored in the long-running animated TV series โFuturama,โ where his putative descendant, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, is a main character.
One year ago this morning, I awoke after about 3 hours sleep to the darkest day of my life. My One True Love had slipped away from me, in my arms, suddenly, unexpectedly a few hours before. To those here who reached out then & over this past year: Thank you.
The more times I watch โDie Hard,โ the more Harry Ellis reminds me of every single MBA who thought off-shoring vital US/North American manufacturing, mining & other vital material production was the Best Idea Ever.
A recent Tweet got me to thinking about the art of being a flight engineer on the big pistons and early multi engine jets. Clockwise from the โ๏ธ is the Martin JRM Mars, the Douglas DC-8, Boeing KC-97 and the Mother of them All, the might B-36. JRM & B-36 needed 2 FEs!
@hungrychipmunk
Let me add to the chorus of thanks for posting this. Every time we recount these personal stories, we are in fact fulfilling the mitzvah to remember them and โthat their memory forever be for a blessing.โ (And thanks to those who posted the stories of their children, too)
For my Navy friends: ENSโs have no fun, because training & few funds. LTโs have time, money & have *lots* of fun. LCDRโs worry about just how fun the LTโs are having. CDRโs worry about hearing about the โfunโ the LTโs had. CAPTโs reminisce about how much fun they had as LTโs. BT
Ever notice how defense contractors seem to advertise in DC subway stops near major government institutions? I spent five weeks in the subway system to learn more. A thread ๐งต:
My beloved, my light, my true Center of Lift & Gravity
@palpitationhelp
was celebrated & laid to rest this past Friday. As a proud US Army veteran, Honors were well & properly rendered, Taps played, & she shared a family toast with her favorite Scotch whisky. RIP, my Love.
Iโve been informed that posting pics of oneโs old flight jackets are a โtrendโ the past week or so, so hereโre a couple of mine. Some will recognize the patch jacket as being Jurassic in origin & has an anomaly. My leather jacket was my โsmoothโ jacket.
So apparently lighting up government building in blue and yellow is the new hashtag โWe Really Careโ signal. Right now, pallets of ATGMโs and MANPADS would work better
The Soviet ะญะจ 6/45 Walking Excavator is like a living piece of post-apocalyptic artwork. The rust, the mismatched curtains, even the fact it's decades old and built in a country which no longer exists.
Write all the leadership books you want. *This* sums it all up succinctly and clearly. Every JO needs to be following his feed &
@FarvaPrice
feed. This are precious nuggets.
Leaders need to be into the morale building business. Itโs not as much about time off and cookies, although theyโre super helpful. Itโs about making people feel valued & part of something greater than themselves. Leaders literally control this power. And it produces results.
1st Oct 1959
English Electric test pilot Johnny W.C. Squier, flying prototype Lightning T.4, suffers structural failure, ejected M1.7, first UK pilot to eject supersonic. he landed in Irish Sea, and made his way ashore by himself after 28 hours in a dinghy.
@cdrsalamander
@johnkonrad
And a reminder that a vast portion of the US Navyโs Pacific assets all berth behind this bridge, completed in 1969, almost 55 years ago.
When my late wife was a US Army doctor & then later a VA physician, she saw enough skin cancer among former flyers that she started me getting checked annually. I've had some "precancerous" stuff removed.
Red Sea update
๐บ๐ธUSS Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike group now in the Gulf of Aden, well placed, should the White House decide to launch strikes on Houthis in Yemen.
US also considering an organised coalition of naval forces to escort commercial shipping through the Red Sea
JUST IN: In a series of photos released by
@MoNDefense
, a fighter jet pilotโs military patch drew some amusement as it showed a Taiwanese black bear holding a national flag and punching Winnie the Pooh โ a character some drew comparisons to Xi Jinping. 1/
It's
#WhaleWatcherWednesday
! I'm just going to cover a couple of features of the Skywarrior today & why things were the way they were designed. But first, a final discussion of why the Bomber Whales had need to access the bomb bay in flight. 1/n of today's ๐งต
On duty, assigned to Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Fallon, at the Pentagon. I was off-site that morning, unlike other of my friends and shipmates.
@pptsapper
@Mr_Thomps_0
You've been gone far too long from my timeline, sir. Nice to see you back. Thank you for this. Lee apologists all gloss over his staffโs and his own monumental errors. The Union benefited from his mistake, and thousands of lives ended or we're inalterably changed.
Well, this is interesting. Implies the old Soviet habit patterns of bribery & corruption in their equivalent of Recruiting Command, stayed alive & well. How they intend to replace the system will be worth noting.
Update: Corruption crackdown continues.
President Zelenskyy has announced plans to dismiss all military commissars.
Those are the Ukrainian military officials in charge of the recruiting and mobilization.
Details in the video.
@CcibChris
Harry positioned himself, with a lot of pre-planning & several passes, to frame the Skyhawk in the famous view. The A-4 flew over the hole, not through. Harryโs son has done a lot of work in curating his late dadโs immense collection of photos. I was lucky to have met Harry.
I am, by nature, hopeful & positive in my life approach. I hope that in the past 48 hours every single USN ship CO has summoned their XO/DCA/CMC to their cabin & said โWe have all hands firefighting training to do, starting today. All. Hands.โ
SecDef Austin has again extended the deployment of carrier USS GERALD R FORD CVN78 with Carrier Air Wing 8 and cruiser NORMANDY CG60. They've been out since mid-May, 227 days and counting.
Welcome to Whale Watcher Wednesday! A highly Irregular-But-Maybe-Weekly tribute to one of the most overlooked, yet incredibly long-lived and versatile aircraft to serve the US Navy, the Douglas A3D/A-3 Skywarrior. 1/n
The F-4E Phantom photographed during a major in-flight emergency - the aircraft's wingtips folded whilst in flight ๐ถ Thanks to F-4's exceptional handling qualities, this particular aircraft was recovered to land safely.
#avgeeks
#aviation
#USAF
#Phantom
#OTD
: 62 years ago, company pilot Robert Smyth made the maiden flight of the
#Grumman
A-6 Intruder, at Calverton, NY (April 19, 1960). Dubbed the โDrumstickโ, the A-6 served as Navy & USMC's leading attack/strike aircraft for almost three decades.
#avgeeks
#aviation
#history
@MCCCANM
No one wants to walk down this path. No one. But, it is the path we are set upon, and we each have to walk it in our own way. Walk it with her together, hand-in-hand. Having lost my One True abruptly, we only had plans. You will always have Paris. Cherish each second.
Considered by many to be the most suitable fighter from
#Vietnam
, the F-8 Crusader blended a lithe design with a powerful engine. An effective armament of four 20 mm cannon and four AIM-9 Sidewinders completed the package.
#avgeeks
#aviation
#USNavy
#Classics
I continue to be shocked & appalled at the overwhelmingly polite, cordial &, above all, factual discussions on virtually all of the navalist, aviation & historical discourses I follow & occasionally participate in on this platform. Shocked, I tell you, shocked. ๐
The most legendary Christmas card in the history of US Naval Aviation: The TOPGUN Christmas card that, ahem, drew a bit of negative attention. The front of the card showed Santaโs sleigh inside a pipper, and asked โWhat Kind of Asshole Would Shoot Down Santaโ ๐
@sunnyright
As the parent of a thriving adult son who was Rxโs as a Type I Insulin-dependent diabetic 09/00, I canโt even begin to express how much this moves me. In โ01 met 1 of the surviving initial cadre of T1โs from their trials. 80โs & good health.
Every year, there comes a time when we hug & hold those who we prize most dearest in our hearts, bid them a tearful goodbye, and head home from
@EAA
#OSH23
Every day at sea, if I wasnโt on the flight schedule, I made it a point to try to find a moment to look out at this view or climb up to Vultureโs Row and just look out at it all.
I have now somehow become "That" Retired Navy Captain: I give the impression that I'm rich as hell, know everything and now have all afternoon to tell you about it. H/T to
@Hush_Kit
Today, December 17th, marks 120 years since the first manned powered flight. You know the oneโฆ
The Wrights saw the crucial importance of combining the disciplines of aerodynamics, propulsion, structures and stability & control. Without the latter, it wouldnโt have worked. 1/3
@DanKaszeta
How many recall that the Soviet-German cooperation actually went back to the Weimar years, when Germanyโs small โshadowโ military established training sites throughout western Soviet Union, to avoid the eyes of the former Allies?
This capability has been in development for some time but
@MalloyAero
T-600 heavy-lift UAS dropped a Sting Ray torpedo during trials at
#REPMUS23
in ๐ต๐นPortugal.
Not a subtitle for ASW helicopter but would give the RN another means of torpedo delivery at range given the absence
#OTD
in 1996, the Japanese destroyer Yugiri accidentally shot down a U.S. Navy A-6E Intruder with a Phalanx CIWS during a training exercise. The Intruder crew from VA-115 ejected and were recovered. It was the first foreign plane shot down by Japanese forces since 1945.
As we edge into the New Year here in North America, allow me to simply say โthank youโ to my friends here who have shown such incredible kindness and support over the past 13 months, which have been the darkest time in my life. Take a bow, and know you helped make a difference.
This P-51 was owned for a number of years after WW2 by Jimmy Stewart, who had others race it for him. He did fly it himself for at least 4 times, though. (Iโd love to know what, as multi-engine guy, he thought about that) Itโs been restored and flown now.
June 4, 1942. Three aircraft carriers, one aircraft, and history pivots... (Enterprise, Hornet, Yorktown; Phillipโs โDauntless Against A Rising Sun,โ a copy of which hangs in my home)
OK, shitโs just got real: CENTCOM had cancelled the Marine Corps Birthday Ball due to "Unforeseen operational commitments.โ I think the words they are looking for are
โWarning Order.โ ๐
@Sulliview
@rcallimachi
Holy cow, based on personal experiences in her region of expertise, sheโs one of the very few whose stories I feel I can consistently rely upon for accuracy and timeliness. Whatโs wrong with folks?
INCHES away from a TAIL STRIKE! Delta Air Lines Airbus A321 Reg: N306DN Flight DL2601 from Detroit (DTW) comes very close to a tail strike while landing on runway 24R at LAX. Captured on the Airline Videos Live broadcast on November 29th, 2022.
#aviation
#airplanes
#planespotting
@CavasShips
@RonWGRZ
Perhaps an LCS should be dragged up the Potomac and anchored in sight of the Pentagon as a constant reminder of government ineptitude