It looks cool.

But it’s just a target.

USS Jackson (LCS-6)

 

The Chariot

A Royal Navy Chariot manned torpedo in Scottish waters, March 1944. It was inspired by the operations of Italian naval commandos, in particular the raid on 19 December 1941 by members of the Decima Flottiglia MAS who rode “Maiali” human torpedoes into the port of Alexandria, putting two battleships out of commission.

 

My Favorite P-51 Name

 

U.S. bombers fly over Ploiești, Romania, following a raid on August 1, 1943. Of the 16 cameramen accompanying this mission, the one who took this photo was the only one to survive.

 

From the Era of Fast Battleships

 

It’s just cool

It’s the largest known hexagon in the Solar System.

 

 

 

Parting Shot – Look Riverrider, she’s camouflaged!

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41 COMMENTS

  1. The cow pic reminded me of an Italian restaurant just outside Wilkesboro, NC. The cows in the surrounding pasture would be fed the excess spaghetti. Diners at the end of the day, when it was starting to get dark, could see cows with red dripping from their mouths surrounding the building.

  2. Tom Hanks should do a mini-series on the US bomber crews like he did with Band of Brothers and The Pacific. I read somewhere a while back that he’s doing it, but nothing more since. Battle wagons may be obsolete, but they are still fascinating. P-51’s were a thing of beauty. Once they upgraded the engine it was the king of the skies.

    • Ever since the revelation that Tom Hanks and the Missus were frequent guests at Epstein’s Island and that they transferred their citizenship to Greek (Hellenic Republic) to avoid the flash from disclosure by the now dead Epstein and the still living Giz, he has not been high on my list of humans. I know, different strokes and all. Maybe he and Rita went there to help children read or for some humanitarian cause, but they’d need to release all of the video tapes, and that won’t happen.

      • “the still living Giz”

        We’ll see about that. Apparently Ghizz has been placed on suicide watch despite a psychologist recently having evaluated her and concluding that she is not suicidal.

        I’m not very concerned for GM’s life, but I am disgusted and enraged by the in-your-face, “go ahead, I dare you” nature of Jeffrey Epstein’s death.

  3. Battleship- While form should follow function, history proves it doesn’t have to look like a 3rd graders soap carving or a bored high school notebook sketch…but it floats.

    I would say any woman who tries to look like a man either hates herself, is seeking attention, or is mentally ill…or all three.

    I like the ballcap in the last pic…nothing like a good hat to round our the ensemble, the perfect accessory.

    • Everybody has different tastes. I post some of these for Riverrider, hoping to hit the nail on the head.

  5. Some years back I knew a gentleman who flew B17s over Germany. He stayed in the Air Force until around 1970 when he retired as full bird colonel. During that time he flew various aircraft both propeller and jet. I once asked him what his favorite was. Without hesitation he said, “The P51.”

    • P-51s are a lot like Ferraris. If you own one privately, they come with skilled labor. But when I see them flying at air shows, it makes me wish that I’d gone into medicine, investment banking or had become a movie star because it takes that sort of money.

      • Medicine is not the way to maximize your possible net worth. Medicine is the highly conservative strategy wherein you will be (unless you screw up or make weird decisions) virtually guaranteed to be in the top 10%, but you won’t make it to the top 1% unless you invent/patent something or go into industry as a top-level executive with beaucoup stock options. Me, I made weird choices.

        On other stuff:
        1. I like the idea of Frank’s cows. (and it’s a MOOOOOt testament. Be sure to try the veal and tip the waitresses generously.)

        2. What camo? All I see is two shiny scope clips. Not very tactical.

        3. Not all skinny girls need sammiches. The Pretty Korean girl is 5’6″ and 120#. Taking her and her friend hiking, I discovered that 19 years, 4 months and 5 days offsets sex differences. Up was no problem, but the steep descent did my legs in while the girls were just bopping along (PKG is a skier, Debbie an ardent cyclist — I wuz set up I tells yuh. It wuz a put-up job!). It probably did not help that I was carrying all our water, first aid stuff, etc, but that is a thin excuse. Humiliating reality check for the old man when gurrrls are waiting for YOU to catch up. Sigh. Come to think of it, The Swedish Disaster (5’9″, 119 lbs) had strong legs too. Grew up riding horses as a hick country girl, then 20+ km/day of cycling (commuting) in Copenhagen for over a decade.

        4. @LindaG: Chuck Schumer would probably tell you he is not white. Whites have privileges, you see, and he is an oppressed, highly vulnerable minority.

        • You need to devise some sort of vitamin that can be advertised on Fox News. There are a number of bloggers who would whore themselves in sincere testimonials to the effectiveness of a bottle of Mikeatol – 80 proof – will pick you up, give you a personality at long last and turn your life around.

          • Mike – democrat and communist politicians are allowed to be white because they’re so incredibly woke. Racism is applied to enemies of the deep state.

        • There is a story behind that. I recall reading that Nicole Kidman bought Tom Cruise a P-51 for his birthday and at the time their relationship was struggling. Soon if not just days after that, he dumped her. But he kept the P-51.

          Hollywood people are a very strange lot and I don’t pretend to be able to get along with them. I haven’t had that much interaction with them but what little I have had never encouraged me to have more. The Johnny Depp/Amber Heard thing underscores what I always knew.

          However, getting to the point, if somebody bought me a P-51, I’d likely keep them around unless they were continually dropping turds in bed. I’d go for separate beds.

  6. nice. i wish i could get my wife to wear a bikini when we shoot….word is nato is mobilizing 300k troops to counter russia. i see why, since putin has his hands full in ukraine. he must be seriously endangering their hegemony. i predicted we’d be at war by july 4th. putins nuclear football carrier was found shot to death in his apartment this weekend. hmmmm. tis a deadly game these idiots are playing at. putin don’t play.

      • RR, tell your wife it’d be realist training, because you’d be under stress and distracted. Maybe that’ll work?

        NATO is boosting the rapid reaction force for obvious reasons – because it costs a bunch of money, and that money will raise budgets and provide opportunities to skim graft. They are the almost the only reasons Europe does anything. And America, for that matter.

        -Kle.

        • The Russians are recruiting heavily in Chechnya, North Ossetia, etc. for troops to replace the 50,000+/- losses they’ve suffered in Ukraine. They pay $2,000/mo which is big money in Grozny. It’s been reported that they promised that much but that the money never landed back home with mama. US is using that as a pretext for sending another armored brigade to Poland, and troops to Lithuania.

          Any assassination in Russia can be blamed on USGOV because elected officials have been speaking openly about their desire that we engage in that sort of activity.

    • If she’s at all familiar with hot brass flying around, it’d be best not to make that a serious suggestion 🙂

  7. agreeing with Frank, hot brass would be an issue. Girl has got good trigger discipline though.

    Battleships: Don’t know enough to say whether they are obsolete or not. They sure are cool though. Put a reactor in one and make it an arsenal ship for cruise missiles as well as having those wonderful 16 inch guns.

  8. They hate white males. They hate rich white men. They hate old rich white men. Yet who’s in office and who is leader of the senate?

    Too bad battleships couldn’t be updated enough. They were cool.

      • When the hypersonic anti-ship missiles become a reality submarines will be the king until a way to deal with really really fast missiles is developed & deployed. Going to be tough times for aircraft carriers too…

        I just looked it up, hypersonic is “faster than a speeding bullet”, almost twice as fast! 3500 mph vs 1800 mph, sounds like a job for a powerful laser….

  10. From 1981 – 1989, I worked in Grumman Aerospace, and my mentor was Ed Pearson, a camera man on the Polesti raids. He flew out of Italy, and I recall the base was located in Foggia. I remember visiting his house where he had many original photos of the Polesti raids.

    He was shot down twice. Once into the Adriatic, where a German hospital ship helped them while in the water, and radioed their coordinates to the Allies, and another time over enemy lines within northern Italy. He was a great guy, with many stories, and grew up in Astoria, Queens NY. RIP

    • Whenever I’m on Long Island, I go by the old Grumman plant and visit the A-6 and Tomcat on-a-stick. Always a melancholy thing, the Free World used to be built there, back when there was one.

      -Kle.

  11. What we need are AIP boats… SUPER quiet… And good riddance to the Little Crappy Ships! Yeah, I hope that girl doesn’t actually TRY to shoot in that outfit! Sigh…

    • Could be worse, the brass should just bounce off. Not many “case traps” in that outfit,
      and it’s better if they don’t get stuck inside your clothes.

      -Kle.

  12. Holsteins with baked on manure stains, bring back fond memories of my youth. When we would show our cows at various cattle shoes and fairs, lemon fresh Joy dishwashing soap was the only thing that would remove those nasty marks.

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