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Post by pat perry on Feb 21, 2014 2:05:30 GMT 9
Thanks for the birthday wishes guys! This day in Aviation History February 20th I am humbled to share with 5 real heroes: 1966 Jimmy Stewart 1962 John Glenn 1944 WALTER E. TRUEMPER MOH 1944 ARCHIBALD MATHIES MOH 1942 EDWARD HENRY O’HARE MOH Check them out - these wonderful men and their flying machines. www.thisdayinaviation.com/Pat P.
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Post by Gene on Feb 21, 2014 6:34:03 GMT 9
I knew jimmie stewart was an a.f. guy but I didn't realize the extent of his military background. loved him in strategic air command... and happy birthday... gene
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Jim Scanlon (deceased)
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Feb 21, 2014 8:43:09 GMT 9
I knew jimmie stewart was an a.f. guy but I didn't realize the extent of his military background. loved him in strategic air command... and happy birthday... gene This is a 7:38 min. video of Stewart speaking about his WW2 experience, as well as the shooting of a newsreel spot.
If you have not read the book about his war record, you really need to.
It is a great read.
Here is the Amazon link for the book: Jimmy Stewart: Bomber Pilot, by Starr Smith.
www.amazon.com/Jimmy-Stewart-Bomber-Starr-Smith/dp/0760328242
You won't regret reading it.
Jim Too
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Post by pat perry on Feb 22, 2014 3:18:25 GMT 9
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Post by Jim on Feb 22, 2014 9:55:48 GMT 9
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Post by pat perry on Feb 22, 2014 12:13:22 GMT 9
Hmmm... The URL I used was to one of Erv's old pages with lineage at top and pictures on bottom. Now it goes to MOWs new lineage pages and links off to the photo album for that tail number. Slick! Pat P.
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Post by Jim on Feb 22, 2014 12:33:38 GMT 9
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Post by MOW on Feb 23, 2014 6:54:43 GMT 9
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Post by pat perry on Mar 7, 2014 2:30:51 GMT 9
Let's not forget that a SR-71 is faster than a Chevy... www.thisdayinaviation.com/6-march-1990/Excerpt: 6 March 1990: On its final flight, Lieutenant Colonel Raymond E. (“Ed”) Yeilding and Lieutenant Colonel Joseph T. (“J.T.”) Vida established four National Aeronautic Association speed records with this Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, U.S. Air Force serial number 61-7972. Departing Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, Yeilding and Vida headed offshore to refuel from a Boeing KC-135Q Stratotanker so that the Blackbird’s fuel tanks would be full before beginning their speed run. 972 entered the “west gate”, a radar reference point, over Oxnard, on the southern California coast, then headed east to Washington Dulles International Airport at Washington, D.C. The transcontinental flight, a distance of 2,404.05 statute miles (3,868.94 kilometers), took 1 hour, 7 minutes, 53.69 seconds, for an average of 2,124.51 miles per hour (3,419.07 kilometers per hour). 61-7972 is on display at the Steven V. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Pat P.
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Mar 7, 2014 12:44:02 GMT 9
That "Last Flight" ended up not being the "Last Flight" for the Blackbird, as they were brought back in to service at Beale.
When the last one left Beale it broke another cross country speed record.
I sometimes wonder if they are all really "retired", as the actual number built has never been verified.
Maybe, just maybe, in some corner of Groom Lake, Nevada (Area 51), there are a couple of hangers, housing a beautiful Black Flying Machine, which only departs at night.
Or, maybe, just maybe, like some of the other Flying Machines at Groom Lake, it is just a part of a clandestine group, one that no one talks about, and few ever see.
There are people every day, scouting out the area around the base, with their expensive cameras and tele-photo lenses, hoping to get a shot of Aurora, or something.
At any rate, I sure would like to see the Blackbird flying again.
Jim Too
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Post by pat perry on Mar 8, 2014 13:20:54 GMT 9
Now this little number would prove to be slightly faster than a Mustang which wouldn't be introduced until 1964 by Lee Iacocca who joined FoMoCo in 1946... which by the way is the birth range of the Baby Boomers,,, 1946 to 1964. Sounds like the 7 degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon. Pat P. www.thisdayinaviation.com/7-march-1961/Excerpt: 7 March 1961: Launched over Silver Lake, a dry lake bed near the California/Nevada border, at 10:28:33.0 a.m., Pacific Standard Time, test pilot Major Robert M. White, U.S. Air Force, flew the number two North American Aviation X-15 hypersonic research rocketplane, 56-6671, to Mach 4.43 (2,905 miles per hour/4,675 kilometers per hour) and 77,450 feet (23,607 meters), becoming the first pilot to exceed Mach 4.
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Mar 8, 2014 13:43:43 GMT 9
Now this little number would prove to be slightly faster than a Mustang which wouldn't be introduced until 1964 by Lee Iacocca who joined FoMoCo in 1946... which by the way is the birth range of the Baby Boomers,,, 1946 to 1964. Sounds like the 7 degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon. Pat P. www.thisdayinaviation.com/7-march-1961/Excerpt: A couple of thoughts when I read the article this morning:
One: How tiny the X-15 and most of the other test rocket ships are. They had to be small to fit under the wings or in the modified bomb bays of the launch aircraft.
The pilots had very little room, and like the X-1, no canopy to lift, but a rather small door to get in and out, making a bail out very iffy.
Two: Speed records are fine, I guess, for experimental flying devices, but.
My thinking is, if it can't take off of a runway, then it isn't really an airplane, and any records it sets should be in a special classification, which they are.
However, those little rockets went fast, really fast, and would make a Vreyon look slow.
Jim Too
Edit question: How come when I type in one way, the post is not the same as the way I typed it? Words moved out of place in to different lines?
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Mar 11, 2014 1:04:44 GMT 9
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 12, 2014 8:32:06 GMT 9
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Post by Jim on Apr 12, 2014 9:40:45 GMT 9
It only took 34 years to get the AF Cross upgraded to MOH!!!!!!! For coordinating the successful rescues, caring for the wounded and sacrificing his life while aggressively defending his comrades, William H. Pitsenbarger received the Air Force Cross on June 30, 1966. After review, the original award was upgraded, and on Dec. 8, 2000, the Medal of Honor was presented to his family in a ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Museum. Airman Pitsenbarger is the 59th Medal of Honor recipient, and sixth enlisted recipient, from the Air Force and its predecessor organizations. www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1126
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 12, 2014 12:43:44 GMT 9
It only took 34 years to get the AF Cross upgraded to MOH!!!!!!! For coordinating the successful rescues, caring for the wounded and sacrificing his life while aggressively defending his comrades, William H. Pitsenbarger received the Air Force Cross on June 30, 1966. After review, the original award was upgraded, and on Dec. 8, 2000, the Medal of Honor was presented to his family in a ceremony at the U.S. Air Force Museum. Airman Pitsenbarger is the 59th Medal of Honor recipient, and sixth enlisted recipient, from the Air Force and its predecessor organizations. www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1126 Have to wonder why those who determine who gets what medal seldom award top tier medals to enlisted, but are quick to award them to officer air crews, even to those not seeing combat.
I know a number of the awards have been upgraded in recent years, including those men recently upgraded, mainly because of their race or religion.
The medals should not be given any rank, race, colour, religion or other criteria totermine who gets what.
They should be based solely on the action that took place.
I know there have been some excesses, as in the War of Northern Aggression, when men were awarded the MOH for capturing flags, or other things that may not have deserved the top medal, but that is no excuse for the way they were held back in Korea and Nam.
What Pitsenbarger and the others did, who were eventually awarded the MOH, should have been grounds for being awarded the MOH right away, not many years later.
Seems to me, at least in Nam, that medals became political things, rather than what the medals stand for.
When they were handing out Bronze Stars to expedite truck drivers, and the crew chiefs, wire wizards and cannon cockers were being ignored, makes no sense to me.
I guess wearing Patent Leather Brogans was more important than getting the birds in the air, loaded and all systems working.
Don't know what is going on recently, but suspect much the same.
Pity.
Jim Too
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Post by Mark O on Apr 12, 2014 22:46:21 GMT 9
It was always that way when I was in Jim Too, and nothing has changed except perhaps MORE political correctness. I always wondered why a PFC (E-3) Intel Analyst in my company during Desert Storm was awarded a Bronze Star, and most of us got an Army Commendation Medal at best.
Oh yea, maybe it was because that PFC was a cute, little blond female?
Nah, couldn't have been that. (Could it?...)
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Post by LBer1568 on Apr 12, 2014 22:56:30 GMT 9
I was able to attend Pitsenbarger's MOH at the AF Museum back in 2000. He was originally awarded the AF Cross. He was the first enlisted man to receive it. The mess Hall in Kitty Hawk at WPAFB is named after Pitsenbarger. He is also featured in South East Asia area of museum. His uniform and other artifacts are on display there. The upgrading of his medal took quite a long time. His award was based upon service very early in Vietnam conflict... 1966. Later on John Levitow became the first enlisted AF member to receive the MOH. In 2000 Pitsenbarger's actions actually became the first action resulting in the MOH. President Obama upgraded a slew of service members to MOH recently. They were all minorities and may, or may not have deserved the award. Bill Clinton upgraded about 20 Afro Americans to MOH during his tour in WH. Lorin
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Post by Jim on Apr 13, 2014 0:55:38 GMT 9
I was able to attend Pitsenbarger's MOH at the AF Museum back in 2000. He was originally awarded the AF Cross. He was the first enlisted man to receive it. The mess Hall in Kitty Hawk at WPAFB is named after Pitsenbarger. He is also featured in South East Asia area of museum. His uniform and other artifacts are on display there. The upgrading of his medal took quite a long time. His award was based upon service very early in Vietnam conflict... 1966. Later on John Levitow became the first enlisted AF member to receive the MOH. In 2000 Pitsenbarger's actions actually became the first action resulting in the MOH. President Obama upgraded a slew of service members to MOH recently. They were all minorities and may, or may not have deserved the award. Bill Clinton upgraded about 20 Afro Americans to MOH during his tour in WH. Lorin Politics has never played a part in the awarding of the Medal of Honor, Any branch of service Cross, Silver or Bronze Stars. If you don't believe me, research LBJ's Silver Star on a recon mission WW2
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Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Apr 13, 2014 1:26:23 GMT 9
Politics has never played a part in the awarding of the Medal of Honor, Any branch of service Cross, Silver or Bronze Stars. If you don't believe me, research LBJ's Silver Star on a recon mission WW2 Several years ago, I went in to the lobby of the new building at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Republic of Texas ( www.pacificwarmuseum.org/ ), after visiting the Plaza of the Presidents. honoring those presidents who were in the Military during WW2.
I talked to the docent at the ticket desk about the hours and days they were open, as it was late after-noon, and we had been walking around Fredericksburg for several hours.
In our conversation, I asked why the museum chose to honor LBJ, by including his, unearned, Silver Star.
The man, in his 50s, looked at me, with a knowing smile and said that subject was taboo.
As the Johnson family had a lot to do with the funding of the new museum, I can understand why no one was to talk about his award.
The LBJ Ranch is a few miles East of Fredericksburg.
I thanked him, winked and left.
Tells you a lot, when the people at the Admiral Chester Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War, the original name, are not allowed to talk about LBJ's "medal".
The original museum is in the hotel that Nimitz' grandfather built in Fredericksburg, that resembles the prow of a ship, as he was a sailor.
It is an interesting museum and well-worth a trip to Fredericksburg.
A few years earlier, our daughter, who lived North of Austin, took us and my mother, an FDR Democrat, for the tour of the LBJ Ranch, West of Johnson City, Republic of Texas.
When we got to the Ranch Cemetary, the bus stopped and let us off to go look at the graves, including the one for LBJ.
My daughter took me aside, as we walked, and said: "Pop, I know what you are thinking (jumping the wall and spitting on his grave, yes, just spitting), and if you do, it will take less than 10 seconds and you will be on the ground with a pistol aimed at the back of your head. I had no intention of doing such a dastardly act, of course I didn't, so I took a closer look around and saw some things that indicated there was very high security, not fully hidden, around the burial ground.
So, I was nice and waved to them as we headed back to the bus.
Yes, a full-hand, palm toward them, wave.
If our daughter had not paid for the tour, I would not have gone on it.
I think most anyone who served in SEA, would feel the same way.
So, Jim, I think you are correct; Politics never plays a part in the awarding of Medals.
And, if anyone believes that, I have a very large Orange Bridge in San Francisco to sell you.
Jim Too
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