Identify the Captioned Aircraft (above)
H/T PaulM
Remember the USS Pueblo and USS Liberty
One was attacked by our enemy, North Korea, and the other was attacked by our ally, Israel.
Unarmed, Banner Class environmental research ships attached to the Naval Security Group, and its parent, the National Security Agency.
Identify the SPG
Bullet Points:
** No amount of evidence will persuade an idiot – Mark Twain.
** Axions – Quantum mechanics explains these ultra-light particles as “fuzzy” because they exhibit wave-like behavior. It turns out their wavelengths can be bigger than entire galaxies. Apparently, that fuzziness plays a role in smoothing out the Universe by influencing the formation and distribution of dark matter. If that’s true, then it goes a long way toward explaining why the matter in the cosmos is more evenly spread out. It implies that axions play a part in the distribution of matter in the cosmos.
** The Swamp doesn’t want RFKjr (NY Post). They certainly don’t want to see Pedo Joe in a debate.
** The submersible, the Titan, was more than halfway into what should have been a two-and-a-half-hour dive to the ruins of the Titanic when it lost contact with a chartered research ship on Sunday morning. Leaders in the submersible craft industry had warned for years of possible “catastrophic” problems with the craft’s design and worried that the Titan had not followed standard certification procedures.
Identify the Aircraft
Identify the SPG:
Jagdpanzer IV
Identify the Aircraft:
Fairey Barracuda
Yes, Sd.Kfz. 162. I wonder why they made it, when the STGIII was so successful, less expensive, etc. General Gudarian wondered the same thing.
Yes, a Barracuda
They made it because they could make Mark IV chassis and had a surplus of them.
Cheaper and easier and quicker to make casement assault guns than turreted ones. And the Jagd IV could carry a heavier 75mm gun than the standard Panzer IV.
It looks positively roomy.
Albert Speer had reasons for doing what he did, and you outlined them. The Germans were being German and Hitler continually put his thumb on the scale.
The top aircraft is a Fairey Albacore. Oddly enough, it was introduced as the replacement for the Swordfish torpedo bomber, but the latter proved more successful in service, so its replacement was retired before the end of WW2. The Swordfish soldiered on until after the war.
Exactly!
“The submersible, the Titan…”
Ship of fools, or just attention whores?
Oddly, there is a novel written before the sinking of the Titanic called ‘The Wreck of the Titan’.
I was speaking with Navy people about it. Old NFO is acquainted with SOSUS.
Axions, oh no, another rabbit hole I will get to crawl into. Maybe it will help me make sense of the whole string theory/dark matter, quarks etc ’cause I sure don’t understand it now.
Mark Twain was prescient. Had a conversation with a very smart lady who I have known for years. She still thinks Dr. Fauci just about walks on water. It is odd because in most other subjects she is very logical and evidence based.
The Titan submersible. The passengers willingly got on it after signing waivers so as adults they are pretty much responsible for the results of their actions. It is a very unfortunate accident but that sort of thing will happen when people have the ability to make their own choices. Would I have gotten on the submersible; heck no, no way on God’s green earth.
USS Pueblo- All honor to the crew but why didn’t the leaders at the time back the ship up. Couldn’t aircraft get there in time? And after the fact we should have been much, much more forceful.
In fairness to the Liberty attack, Israel wasn’t really anyone’s ally in 1967, they were more like a blind man with a knife crammed into a phone booth with 15 other people who wanted to kill them, and 5 they weren’t sure about.
-Kle.
The US showed great restraint for the murder of US Service members in not launching a retaliatory raid on Haifa. It was an unarmed US Navy ship in international waters, broadcasting and flying the largest American flag they had. Ariel Sharon (then a general) was behind the alleged need to attack and silence the Liberty because of what they were collecting.
I am not anti-Israel. I have friends serving at the Institute and in Shin Bet. One semi-retired Katza is a close personal friend of many years. BUT the unprovoked attack on the Liberty was crossing the line.
Ariel Sharon also gave Caza away.
Wonder what historians/reseaarchers will find 100 years from now, wonder how Sharon will go down in the overall story of the Middle East
I’m not a Sharon fan. I’m not Israeli. Maybe I’d feel different if I lived there. I tend to be on the militant side of things because I don’t like people to screw with me so maybe I’d like him? But I hate a bully, so likely not.
My favorite Israeli soldier was Yigael Yadin (RIP). He was the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Deputy Prime Minister from 1977 to 1981, an archeologist and in his own right, a philosopher. He died in 1984, which may seem like a long time ago to some. I bought his books.
I’m not an Israeli either, nor a Zionist; I just don’t don’t want to see Israel incorporated into Ummah Wāhidah, as I understand the term, an Israel without a buffer zone, fence, or DMZ (a number of European nations have already begun the process of incorporation, much, I think, to their dismay)
I know a few Israelis who think Sharon was the greatest thing since dry-roasted nuts; I also know a few who would, were he alive today, like to dry roast his ….
Personally, I see him as an egotistical fool as he arrived, unaware, into his dotage.
I don’t give Israel a total pass on the Liberty, just a partial one. Were they dicks? Totally.
OTOH, we are quite often dicks, too.
Plus, living in Israels situation (even now, much less then) can make one a little cray-cray.
-Kle.
“Hey, I have a great idea, let’s get into a steel tube and descend to 2.5 miles depth.”
Yeah, no thanks…I mean, what could possibly go wrong? (Murphy pretty much covered this.)
Guess they found out….radio comm’s are dead. I suspect so are the tourists otherwise I believe something would have been heard or indicated. If they are alive and get back to the surface they should start practicing serious risk management maneuvers every minute of every day.
The vehicle will AUTOMATICALLY dump ballast and surface if any of a number of things go wrong. It’s like a deadman’s switch. The ballast is held in place electronically. For example, if the batteries go dead, it surfaces. There are also distress buoys, etc. None of that happened.
Explosive decompression is the likely scenario.
If by some miracle, they survive, they should each buy a lottery ticket – their lucky day.
I think their lucky day came and went with their sanity when they got on that submersible.
Read where they did a test run at less than the proposed working dive level. So there was no way of knowing if it would actually take the pressure. Reminded of the saying that said something like “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is”. I think it telling that the man with the bucks and position didn’t want older, experienced folk working on the project – just new kids out of college.
Diving on a wreck is a disaster waiting to happen. Spending a quarter of million dollars to take the chance is insanity.
USS Pueblo
Landlubber question. Do the NORKs have her tied up in fresh water? How long will the hull remain sound without dry dock repairs?
It’s in salt water in Wanson Harbor…maybe the water is brackish where it’s moored. I have no idea. It’s an anti-American museum. President Trump should have pushed for its return. Maybe in his second term?
My question was prompted by reports over the years of museum ships and submarines needing extensive hull repairs. Recently, the battleship Texas.
And boy, there are a lot of idiots.
That last photo is a great shot!
You all be safe and God bless.
Hi Paul M, the sub was a plastic (composite) tube. Sad.
The Pueblo is now a museum in N Korea.
Memory is Israel government , pilots and sailors knew Liberty was US ship; flag size was not important. Cannot remember why attack went through / was ordered. I think something was leaked or declassified in Israel in early 2000’s? Sorry do not have references. It was in a war zone. Some instances I can think of where US made some questionable targeting decisions Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988 and bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. I am sure there are others.
I had heard metal somewhere, but nonetheless “composite” (carbon fiber??) is even less encouraging. Also heard some parts and pieces were gathered at Home Depot. There’s a reason why Martin Marietta doesn’t shop at HD for critical components.
The fact it didn’t rise on it’s own (LL’s expert detailing of such mechanisms) makes me agree with LindaG, might have happened at 6K depth for all we know. The sounds emanating from the deep are giving some hope, but how the heck do you cable up something from 12K deep, let alone hook it? Snowballs chance.
word is searchers have recorded banging sounds in the area. i would think they were frozen to death long ago if the “ship” was intact. their claims of remaining oxygen keep getting longer and longer. i’m betting implosion too. one article said they were using a playstation controller for the helm. now we’re spending millions to hunt for them.
Titan did make several previous successful trips. Mostly made of carbon fibre composite and titanium, with an alarmingly large viewport.
I don’t hold out much hope, and I agree that the people who dived aboard were crazy as well as brave (or morons). The head of the company was at the helm, I credit him with having the courage of his convictions, anyway. That kind of depth is not “on a lark” material, at our current tech level. It is really damn serious business down that deep. Mostly the realm of robots.
Seems like if it crushed, the USN would have heard and identified the sound already.
I would be happy for a miracle, but I’m not gonna stay up waiting.
-Kle.
If USN knows, it’s TS/SCI… and I think that they know.
Liberty was not merely “attacked” as if someone fired a shot at her by mistake. The ship and crew was hit with rocket fire and strafed by aircraft. Then a second wave of aircraft napalmed and strafed Liberty. This was followed by torpedo attack and direct fire from a ship. This multi-phase series of attacks which killed 34 and wounded an additional 171 spanned something like 90 minutes. Of course, it was all a tragic accident, because the smartest people in the Middle East, if not the world, are fallible humans like everyone else. Anyone who evilly mischaracterizes this prolonged series of multiple attacks as anything other than a run of sheer bad luck needs to be put in prison.
Yes, that’s how it happened. And the Liberty put out MAYDAY after MAYDAY.
LBJ was the one who called off the counter-strike.
In hindsight, it was the right call, but an exceptionally difficult call.
Oh, definitely. 100% intentional, I would never argue otherwise.
One of the strangest things about the attack is how ineffectual it was. Usually the Israelis are better at destroying things than that, it’s just weird. I mean, it was just a cargo ship, really. I have no idea how it survived.
-Kle.
Titan- CW over at Dailytimewaster linked a very good YouTube of a former submainer reviewing the vessel.
Then again, we could all have bought the farm (altho it’s only 8:15PM MST so there’s some time left on the clock): Today marks the 5 year anniversary of a doomsday prediction made by then-15-year-old climate change hoaxer Greta Thunberg.
Maybe I’ll stay up for another 3.75 hours + 1 minute to see if anything happens.
I’m still here, PaulM – snow and rain and all that.
If the world is going to end as these loons predict every half decade or so, then why all the panic measure to try to save it with wind and solar and getting rid of petrol cars, gas stoves, good flush toilets, etc?
You’d think it’d be time for a huge BBQ with live music, not oppressive miserable tactics.