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Motivating the (Old) NavyBy lex, on September 3rd, 2010
15 comments to Motivating the (Old) Navy |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
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I think the Safety Officer just had a heart attack.
ROFLMAO! Oh yeah…
Reminds of some of Grandpa Pettibone’s more illustrious foils. Somehow they got photo documentation that time.
more please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dR3h2HdnBQ&feature=player_embedded#!
And remember – Round Engines Don’t Whine.
There is a movie called “The Bridges of Toko-Ri” based on a book by James Michener. The movie follows the book fairly well except for the hollywood romance stuff. Michener wrote about Korean War Navy attack pilots and squadron life aboard ship. The famous line is “where do we get such men?”…. One scene shows the airplanes tied down on the deck and crews of maintenance people running the engines in order to do close maneuvering near the dock to push the boat towards the intended spot using propwash as the source of energy. The skipper complains. The squadron Michener wrote about happens to be the unit Neil Armstrong flew with in Korea. I had heard about the movie and read some background about Armstrong in his biography “First Man” (highly recommend) and then ordered the movie on-line. Mickey Rooney is a helo air guard pilot and adds comic releif to an otherwise dramatic interpretation of what ground attack was in Korea in a Panther Jet. i am not sure the director and producers go it quite right as the book references anti-aircraft fire a lot more dense and deadly than the movie depicts.
If you liked the movie The Bridges at Toko Ri, you’ll enjoy reading the recently published book “Such Mean as These” by David Sears. It came out in May 2010. Michener wrote “The Bridges at Toko Ri” as a short story to be published in Life magazine. Michener got the material for the story by being “embeddded” if you will on several aircraft carriers off the Korean coast in 1950 and 1951.
Sears is a military historian. He took Michener’s notes made during those “embeds” along with squadron histories and interviews of officers and enlisted men still alive from those days and wrote a fascinating book. He’s got the dates of each carrier’s service in Korea, the squadrons, lists of fatalities etc for each squadron.
Sears talks about the operational/tactical problems the Corsairs/Skyraiders/Panthers faced–including heavy anti-aircraft fire. There’s a good bit about the helos flying off the USS Rochester.
The Navy’s first black navial aviator Jesse Brown died on a hillside in Korea; his Corsair had crashed. The fuselage buckled and pinned his legs in the cockpit. Another Corsair crashlanded alongside the wreckage and that pilot and the helo crew tried to get him out–with no luck. The next day his squadronmates went in and napalmed the hillside.
There was a reserve pilot named Brubaker–not a lawyer from Denver, but rather an accountant. I believe he survived the war and went home.
The movie shows the Mickey Rooney character as dying on the ground in Korea. In fact the helo pilot that Rooney’s character was based on was shot down–but captured and spent time in a POW camp.
Such Mean As These is a great book–and well worth reading.
That’ll be one for the library. Thanks, Mike!
Oops–edit that. Shoulda used Lex’s preview feature.
The title is “Such MEN As These”. Sorry bout that.
Label this OT and not particularly motivating: E-4, below barred from standing armed watch.
One: It seems to me the E-5 and above won’t do much better, having ‘taught’ the junior Sailors. Two: That’s why Marines are put aboard ship.
Sounds like people need more range time. And how the heck do you shoot yourself when you draw? Someone didn’t keep the booger hook off the bang switch. Again, more range time. And maybe some runs on IDPA or SASS stages to learn better handling and weapon control.
I’m sure that Marines are not grinning or making colorful comments about this topic.
Ron, I wasn’t trying to be colorful..I was stating one of the Four Rules in a way that it will really stick in peoples heads. It always gets a chuckle when I say “Keep your finger off of the trigger until on target and ready to fire…or….Keep yer booger hooks off the bang switch, dagnabbit!” And years later, when I meet people at the range, they can quote – and follow – that part of it.
Nor was I kidding about running them through IDPA or SASS type stages. The range masters at those are usually eagle-eyed for safety violations. For a while I was using a full flap leather military style holster and always told the RM/RO “I will reach across with my left hand to hold the flap up..like this..when I draw.” And they all thanked me and said that if I hadn’t told them, they would have stopped me as I reached, thinking I would be holding the holster, not just the flap, and therefore earned a match disqual for sweeping my hand as I drew.
The only – ONLY – way to come close to perfection in gun safety is lots of practice and coaching. And even then there will be incidents, most caused by negligence. A very few by accident.
Brings to mind picking up the new CO and bringing him to the ship in BASREC. New CO asks about the 50 cal weapon and asks what are the gunner’s orders. “Sir, not to fire that thing in here for any reason at all.”
Kind of pointless really.
Speaking of reciprocating engines, I can’t help myself but offering this example on a carrier:
Aircraft: NHRA BK-TF-1
Crew: 1
Length: 25′
Weight: 2025lbs
Wing area: 1500 sq-in
HP: 9000+
Range: 1/4 mi
Range (max): 1001 ft
Top Speed: 336mph
Time to altitude: 4.4 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqPo93Zhdw0
Ten or twenty more of these and the Navy could almost make up for helping Top Gun to be filmed.
– Max