Monday Music "Gimme All of your Lovin" by ZZ Top

I remembered when this video showed up on MTV, I don't know what I liked more, the car or the girls...Remember I was 16.  Now I would take the car :).  The video was really neat and ZZ Top was a bit different than a lot of the music that was playing on MTV.  This was the 2nd British Invasion, but ZZ Top was distinctly American.

"Gimme All Your Lovin'" is a song by ZZ Top from their 1983 album Eliminator. It was released as the album's first single in 1983.
Initially unsuccessful in the UK upon its August 1983 release, in the wake of the band's American success (the single reached No. 37 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart), it was promptly re-released, and reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. It ties with the band's 1992 cover of Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas" as their highest-charting single in the UK. The song was produced by band manager Bill Ham, and recorded and mixed by Terry Manning.

Eliminator is the eighth studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top. It was released on March 23, 1983, by Warner Bros. Records. Recorded in Tennessee during 1982, the album was produced by the band's manager Bill Ham and peaked at the top of the charts in many countries. "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Got Me Under Pressure", "Sharp Dressed Man", "TV Dinners" and "Legs" were released as singles. A Diamond certified album, Eliminator is ZZ Top's most commercially successful release, with sales of over 10 million copies in the United States alone.
The band wanted to expand on the synthesizer sound of their 1981 album El Loco. Influenced by new wave, Eliminator′s tracks were recorded with a combination of the synthesizer, drum machine and sequencer. The album used music videos as successful promotional tools — the videos for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Legs" all received regular rotation on MTV and helped the band gain popularity with a new younger teenage fan base. A customized 1933 Ford coupe, depicted on the album cover, could be seen in the videos. Following Eliminator′s release, ZZ Top embarked on a worldwide concert tour.
Often considered ZZ Top's most popular release, the record was ranked at number 398 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was listed at number 39 in The 100 Greatest Albums of the 80s.

Directed by Tim Newman, the video features ZZ Top playing at a gas station, along with actor/model Peter Tramm playing a young gas station mechanic, and introduces classic ZZ elements such as the red "ZZ Eliminator Car," the "ZZ Keychain" and the "Three ZZ Girls" as heroines. It is the first of a ZZ Top music video series. Tramm returned in their later music video for "Sharp Dressed Man".

Happy Fathers Day!!

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads that go the extra mile for their kids and do what is necessary to raise the future generations with the timeless values that have been proven for generations.

Here is a pic of my Dad;  He was trying to feed my phone to his bird "Indy"

       Through him I learned stubbornness, drive, ambition, Love of Country, Duty and Honor.

     He has done well, both of his kids have done well and succeeded in life, stable family, good jobs and careers.  Not all people can say that. 

 My Dad gave me a "Trump" mug for Fathers Day,  I was really touched by the thought behind it.  I put it next to the mug I bought last week that I talked about in Yesterdays post.

Some musings after the cruise...

I tried to post this yesterday morning, but my internet was down, Old NFO understands my pain...
   I was taking a break from studying and decided to do a post that I wanted to do earlier in the week....but work and sleep and doing stuff with the kid were more important than blogging....I know..

.Well anyway we were coming back from the cruise and we were going through Savannah and I saw the billboard for this place...

I tried to "google" for the billboard using both "Black Rifle Coffee" and "9-line" and somehow google slid in antigun stuff into my search....go figure...well anyway the kid was driving and I said, "I want to go there". and we did.  I got a coffee....of course  while I was walking around looking at the stuff, the smell of strong coffee permeated the atmosphere...and I was thinking.."Wow a starbucks for people like me".  I was walking around and my son commented "I bet that Mack would love this place", and I replied "yeah he would...". 

I picked up some SWAG for my toolbox and GunSafe,    I picked up a mug

This was on the back of it...:)

It was a good trip and when I got home, there was a package for me that I ordered...

It was the first hat that I saw that was "Desert Storm" related that I actually liked.  It was a bit pricey at $35 and the proceeds go toward the Gulf War museum that is being planned.  I took it to work, and I will wear it when I do my "Honor Guard" stuff at work.

And Yes the 9 line sticker looked good on the truck.

A backstory on an Iconic pic from the First Gulf War.

 Sorry about the lack of postings, we came back from vacation and I immediately ran into my heavy work schedule and was unable to post.

I ran across this story on my Facebook feed.  I remembered the picture after I returned from Desert Storm.  I thought it was an iconic pic from that time and this is the backstory on it.

This March 29, 1991, file photo shows Matt Miller cutting a solitary figure on the South Jetties, waving Old Glory as the USS Saratoga enters the St. Johns River before swinging into Mayport Naval Station. (Dennis Hamilton Jr./The Florida Times-Union via AP, File)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As Matt Miller settled under a walkover to the beach at Mayport Naval Station, he apologized to the folded American flag he had carried with him to get to this resting place. It was a cold, misty March night, and he would need to use it as a blanket. Just until first light, just until he could carry out his mission.

He was awakened at 6 a.m. by the rumbling and rattling of a white pickup truck on the road nearby. Military police? No, just someone going by with fishing poles.

Miller refolded the flag, picked up the two pieces of his flagpole and resumed his mission, walking north up the beach. He was nervous: He didn't have permission for what he was about to do, and he feared someone would see him and stop him.

But no one did, so when he reached the big rocks that form the St. Johns River south jetty, he climbed up and started making his way east, into the Atlantic. About 200 yards (182 meters) out, he found the right spot to fulfill his mission: A huge boulder with a natural wide ledge on it. He settled down on the ledge and waited for the USS Saratoga to finally come home from war.

So he was ready several hours later when the aircraft carrier loomed into view, growing impossibly gigantic, a floating city whose thousands of residents manned the rails, with hands folded behind their backs.

Miller, on his ledge out in the ocean, stood as tall as he could. He thrust his right hand into the air as if in greeting, or triumph. In his left hand he held aloft his flagpole, and an east wind unfurled the American flag on it, stretching it out to its full length and width.

Snap.

In a helicopter flying just to the south, Florida Times-Union photographer Dennis Hamilton Jr. captured the moment with his camera. It was an iconic tableau: the Saratoga and its sailors at parade rest, two Coast Guard escorts, a seabird just in the frame, a wave peeling off the jetty toward the beach.

And there on the rocks, a single figure, waving the American flag.

The photo was taken March 20, 1991, and the Saratoga was coming back to its home port after almost eight months in the Persian Gulf during the first Iraq war.

In a Navy town, the Saratoga's homecoming was a big deal. At Mayport, 30,000 people waited to greet the crew and the newspaper had rented a helicopter so that Hamilton, a staff photographer, could get aerial shots of the carrier as it neared the jetties. As the helicopter followed the ship in, Hamilton saw the man with the flag on the rocks.

Can you go lower, he asked the pilot.

He could, and Hamilton got his shot. In those pre-digital days he couldn't immediately see what he had, but he figured this was going to be good.

"You see it through the lens and you think this looks like a good A1 photo, but you never know until you get back and run the print," said Hamilton, who left the paper in 2001. Indeed, the photo was worthy of A1, and ran across the entire front page. It was also turned into a popular poster.

The image has long outlasted that day's news cycle: When Miller meets someone with a connection to the Saratoga, they usually remember that photo. There are many in Jacksonville, still, who have that connection. After all, the aircraft carrier spent 37 years at Mayport, the only home port it knew, and thousands served aboard it at any one time, and many of them had families with them.

"They know the picture," Miller says. "They just don't know me."

 

Matt Miller poses with the nameplate of the USS Saratoga on May 29, 2019, while holding the flag he waved when the ship returned from the Persian Gulf in 1991. Times-Union photographer Dennis Hamilton took the iconic photo from a helicopter of Miller on the jetties waving the flag as the ship came into Mayport Naval Station. (Will Dickey/The Florida Times-Union via AP)

Miller is 60 now, and on a recent hot morning he drove to Mayport Naval Station, carrying that same flag with him. He wore a teal Jaguars Nick Foles number 7 jersey and a Saratoga cap given him by a Saratoga veteran after Miller told him he was that guy in the photo.

This time he didn't have to sneak onto the base: The Navy had readily agreed to allow him to visit the Saratoga's nameplate. At 16 feet (4.8 meters) long and 3 feet (0.91 meters) high, it is just about all of what remains of the carrier, which was decommissioned in 1994 and then scrapped.

Miller took the folded flag and touched it to each of the black letters that spelled out the ship's name. He paused in prayer, then broke into big smile.

Over and over, he said how amazed he was that this was happening, how humbled he was to be there.

And he told his story of that day 28 years ago: How he parked at an Atlantic Beach condominium at 3 a.m., how he left a palm frond on the beach to show him the way back, how he took the long walk by the ocean, fearing that he would be stopped, how he rested near the jetty, wrapped in the flag for warmth.

"I did ask the flag for forgiveness," he said.

He had not thought everything out: He'd brought a sandwich with him, but ate it too soon, and he forgot to carry water, so his thirst grew. And he stumbled over a few times on the slimy rocks of the jetty — quick violent falls.

He had not counted on his mission making the front page, had not figured that anyone other than the sailors on the carrier would see what he had done. But that photo clearly means a lot to Miller, who carries prints of it with him most places he goes. He gives them to Desert Storm veterans he encounters or to those who served on the Saratoga.

He knew thousands would be at the base on that March day to greet the Saratoga, but he wanted his flag to be the one the sailors saw first. Several times he said he felt as if God was calling him to do it, to take the flag through the night to the jetty. "All glory goes to God," he said.

As for himself? Miller says he was just someone who was at the right time and the right place, doing the right thing.

Thoughts, Musings and a cruise :) with Casa De Garabaldi

I am out of the country on a cruise, I don't post stuff like this on Facebook, call me paranoid.  Only a few people know who I actually am in "Meatspace". I m using my "Baby Laptop" for this post.

   First off a musing,  Granted I am at sea, I have blogged many times about the Battle of Midway, One of two significant events during WWII
      To me it was a strategic battle of huge significance.  I even debated the great Tom Kratman on this subject,    He had posted a question, "Did the U.S. Navy have a strategic battle on par with the "Spanish Armada".  Many used the Battle of the Philippine sea  because of the number of ships involved.  I used the "Battle of Midway" as my argument, Sure the Battle of the Philippine Sea was much bigger, but strategically like the Spanish Armada the Battle of Midway determined the destiny of the battle of the Pacific.  My Argument was that after the loss of their 4 first line carriers and more so, the loss of their experienced aircrews, the Japanese never recovered.  We had some close calls and the War in the Pacific still swung in the balance especially during the fighting around Guadalcanal,  but the Japanese were on the defensive from that point on.  They had to respond to us, we had the initiative. Tom disagreed with my assertion that the U.S. Navy ever had a significant battle on par with the "Armada".  The War of 1812 was mentioned not by me and I disagreed with that one, sure the U.S Navy had some victories in the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy was too small to challenge the British Fleet.   Considering his chops as they were, that I was even able to debate Tom and not be called an "Idiot" to me was a victory. :)

     Also in 1944 Operation "Overlord" commenced to free Europe from the Germans,

General Dwight D. Eisenhower's Order of the Day encouraged Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen taking part in the D-day invasion. It was handed to Allied troops stepping onto their transports in early June 1944. As Commander of the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, Eisenhower provided hope for those about to liberate the European continent from Nazi tyranny.

Almost immediately after France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies planned a cross-Channel assault on the German occupying forces. At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt reaffirmed the plan, which was code-named Overlord. Although Churchill acceded begrudgingly to the operation, historians note that the British still harbored persistent doubts about whether Overlord would succeed.

The decision to mount the invasion was cemented at the Teheran Conference held in November and December 1943. Joseph Stalin, on his first trip outside the Soviet Union since 1912, pressed Roosevelt and Churchill for details about the plan, particularly the identity of the supreme commander of Overlord. Churchill and Roosevelt told Stalin that the invasion "would be possible" by August 1, 1944, but that no decision had yet been made to name a supreme commander. Stalin commented: "Then nothing will come of these operations. Who carries the moral and technical responsibility for this operation?" Churchill and Roosevelt acknowledged the need to name the commander without further delay. Shortly after the conference ended, Roosevelt appointed Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower to that position.

By May 1944, 2,876,000 Allied troops were amassed in southern England. While awaiting deployment orders, they prepared for the assault by practicing with live ammunition. The largest armada in history, made up of more than 4,000 American, British, and Canadian ships, lay in wait. More that 1,200 planes stood ready to deliver seasoned airborne troops behind enemy lines, to silence German ground resistance as best they could, and to dominate the skies of the impending battle theater.

Against a tense backdrop of uncertain weather forecasts, disagreements in strategy, and related timing dilemmas predicated on the need for optimal tidal conditions, Eisenhower decided before dawn on June 5 to proceed with Overlord. Later that same afternoon, he scribbled a note intended for release, accepting responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame should the effort to create a beachhead on the Normandy coast fail.

Much more polished is this printed Order of the Day for June 6, 1944, which Eisenhower began drafting in February. The order was distributed to the 175,000-member expeditionary force on the eve of the invasion.

     We Students of History and us who served or still serve, honor those from back then for the courage displayed to step off into the unknown.

     Well to my cruise...we left the city of JAX

   As we sailed, I saw a container ship being unloaded, I knew how they did it, but it still was fascinating to watch..

  Then we approached a bridge...

It got closer....

and closer............

And really Close.........

is it gonna "scratch"...?

Looks like we cleared......lol

As we neared the mouth of the Harbor, we had a seahawk buzz us...probably looking for "Free Range Boobies".   Hey I was a G.I. at one time, I know.....

Followed by the View of some of the big gray canoe's that the U.S. Navy is known for...

And a LHD-7 U.S.S Iwo Jima, the silhouette doesn't exactly match what I saw in "Wiki", the Big white then is covering the aft Antenna mount on the island.  I don't know if the ship is being in for maintenance, storage or overhaul.  Still it is a cool pic...

 And some humor.....with truth attached to it for us that work the aviation field.