Aviation Art…

Posted on by March 24, 2016

8

The group first activated in August 1942 as the 325th Fighter Group at Mitchel Field, New York. After training, the group moved to North Africa in 1943, where it flew combat missions with the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, earning a Distinguished Unit Citation for actions over Sardinia for engaging a superior force of enemy aircraft and destroying more than half of them. The group was withdrawn from combat in the fall of 1943 and re-equipped with the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. After moving to Italy, the group re-entered combat, earning a second Distinguished Unit Citation in January 1944. The group continued in combat until VE Day, returning to the United States in the fall for inactivation.

If you had or knew anyone in the 325th, HERE is a link to their organizational webpage.

The lineage still exists, as this unit flys today as the 325th Operations Group out of Tyndall Field in Florida, flying the F-22.

Happy Easter!!!

Posted on by March 24, 2016

He is risen!

The Formula of the Council of Nicaea

In A.D. 325, the Council of Nicaea set the date of Easter as the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the vernal (spring) equinox. In practice, that means that Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls on or after March 21. Easter can occur as early as March 22 and as late as April 25, depending on when the paschal full moon falls.

The other confusing fact is that Eastern Orthodox faiths use the Julian calendar, which calculates differently from the Gregorian calendar we use here in the States, so today is Easter ‘here’, while Easter doesn’t occur until April 3rd…

sunrise_religion_faith

And if you’re going Easter egg hunting…

easter_egg_hunt

Remember these times, because when you get old, you can hide your OWN Easter eggs… Sigh…

It’s that time of year…

Posted on by March 25, 2016

Playing under the ice…

Did this a couple of times, but from the air side. It’s frikkin COLD up there this time of year!!!

-40 to -60 ambient, -160 or lower at altitude… Note the ‘guard’ with the rifle. Polar bears DO consider us ‘crunchy’ lunch…

And a short on Thule…

at the 3:30 mark, one can see some of the original barracks built in 1953, that are still heated and in use!

Bizarro land…

Posted on by March 24, 2016

It’s enough to make one’s head spin…

We’ve all ‘known’, from various leaks over the years that detainees released from Gitmo have gone back to the battlefield…

Detainee transfers from the Guantánamo Bay prison have resulted in the deaths of Americans, a Defense Department official said Wednesday.

“What I can tell you is, unfortunately, there have been Americans that have died because of Gitmo detainees,” Paul Lewis, the Pentagon’s special envoy for Guantánamo closure, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Full article HERE. But ‘someone’ from the administration ‘leaked’ that it was really somebody released by Bush! So 7 years in, the administration is STILL blaming Bush, and still going forward to close Gitmo.

In other news, the Prez is vacationing and sightseeing in Argentina, and apparently using the baby AF1 to get to Bariloche for a little chocolate and tour (one wonders if they’ll give him a tour of the old Nazis homes). That is more important than coming back to address the issues that have jumped up since the Brussels attacks, and the administration is apparently STILL refusing to call it radical islam… WTF does it take? A damn attack on the White House???

And Slow Joe gave a speech today countering the “Biden Rule” for SCOTUS appointees, saying-

In a speech at Georgetown Law School, Vice President Joe Biden called the so-called Biden Rule “frankly ridiculous” and argued that Senate Republicans’ decision not to confirm a new justice to the Supreme Court is an “abdication” of their solemn constitutional duty.

Video HERE.

And he said it with a straight face!!! Can we say hypocrisy???

I’m gonna stop now before I need to duct tape the brain to keep it in my head…

Y’all have a Good Friday, and a great weekend, depending on your deity of choice.

TBT…

Posted on by March 23, 2016

Twenty-five years ago this week, we lost twenty-seven shipmates in a two plane crash off San Diego during routine training. I knew most of them personally.

VP50 memorial

HERE is a link to the memorial held this week. Their bodies and the airplanes were never recovered, becoming another deep water memorial to those who died.

Good folks all. Rest In Peace Shipmates. Your compatriots sons and daughters have assumed the watch…

Hand Salute!

Ready, two.

Here we go again…

Posted on by March 20, 2016

The usual suspects have started the continued the rant against *.* Puppies already…

K. Paulk put up the SP4 reading list/recommendations at MGC, with the entire list HERE.

Predictably, the POS (nee SJWs) went bat nuts, pressuring authors to deny the list, beg their name be removed, etc…

But THIS, best of Critics list seems to be fine with them…

Can somebody ‘splain that to me? Please???

Remember, nominations close on the 31st of March for the Hugos.

Some things…

Posted on by March 20, 2016

Just don’t change…

BO’s in Cuba, apparently with a rather large entourage, including the entire family (wonder if they brought the dog too?), and the human rights protesters ‘thought’ maybe things would be different yesterday…

Not so much…

Members of the group, known as the Ladies in White, are used to the routine. They march each Sunday after Mass at a church in a suburb of Havana called Miramar and usually get arrested and detained for hours or days.

Full article and video HERE.

On the gun control front, Hildabeast is all in now…

She’s endorsed the gun control measures sought in vain by Obama after the Sandy Hook massacre, including universal background checks; and she’s slammed Bernie Sanders for supporting legislation passed in 2005 giving firearms manufacturers protection from some lawsuits.

Interestingly, this is from a Colorado paper! HERE!!!

She’s jumping up and down on that third rail of gun control, I guess she figures she has nothing to lose, since everybody pretty much knows that’s her true position anyway.

Meanwhile, the WAPO has an oped from one of the families in the suit against Bushmaster, slamming Bernie… HERE. Hildabeast must be chuckling in her soup over this one…

Aviation Art…

Posted on by March 6, 2016

7

It gives a nice, icy mood, perfect for December 1944, when Dahl flew his “Blaue13” on bomber intercept missions with JG 300.

By the way, the clouds at the top of the image remind me of layers of cirrus, formed by dissipating aircraft contrails. I am not sure if it was intentional, but it’s a nice hint to their creators: the hordes of allied heavy bombers Walter Dahl and his Schwarm is hunting for.

Insert and additional info-

7a

Gah…

Posted on by March 18, 2016

Oh my achin’ (insert multiple body parts here)…

Remember those days when we could work all day and not give it a second thought?

Me neither…

Half pallet of sod here… And my neighbor’s daughter took pity on me and came over to help me get it out. I didn’t turn her down either!!!

grass down

Various other locations took the other half pallet. Including unknown asshat that didn’t make the corner sometime last week… Sigh…grass fill

All done! The goal was to get it down before the rain came…

grass done

Only problem is, no rain… Dammit! So now I’ve gotta water.

600mg Ibuprofen will have gone down the hatch by the time you read this just so I can get mobile this morning…