MRE's.......Meals rejected by everyone...."

I am an Army veteran and I still have an interest in the service,  One thing I like are cartoons....There is a cartoon, that you can find in Army Times and other places.  The cartoon is "DBS" and this weeks cartoon asked about MRE's, and the worst one we ever had....

Well the first time I had MRE's was in Basic Training in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, we called it "Fort Lost in the wood"  or "Little Korea".  It was not a fun experience, I didn't really enjoy my time in the service until I got to Permanent Party which was where I went after all my training.  I spent a lot of time in the field while I was in Germany,  When we weren't on maneuvers, I spent time inside the 1K zone( The zone between East Germany West Germany and Czechoslovakia) There was a test I had to take to enter the zone under the auspices of 2nd ACR, to be border qualified.
    The following 2 photo's I took while doing a border tour.

 I was Border basic...My squad leader had a different exam as did the senior NCO's and Officers.  Well it was an eyeopening experience to see the "151" loaded with ammo and LAWS rockets.  We always made jokes that if the Soviets came through the Fulda Gap, we would be Speedbumps for"8th Guards Army". 

Well one of the things we got were 2 cases of MRE's.  When they first came out...they weren't that great, I used Tobasco Sauce to spice the dull selection along with Mrs. Dash.  The MRE I dreaded the most was the infamous "Ham and Chickenloaf", that pink glop was just vile.

  When we were in the field, we would try to make runs into town to pick up fresh food from the market to supplant our rations.  When they could, they would provide T rations that were opened up and brought to us in mermite containers.  The food was bland but filling.  Again my tobasco sauce and mrs dash would come to the rescue and Make bland food tasty...well better than before.  We also would trade with the German civilians for "real" food and they would take the MRE's.  
     When we got deployed to Saudi Arabia in Desert Shield in 1990 we ate MRE's for a long period of time, the rations had improved, one of my favorites believe it or not was the tuna and noodles and we had started getting M&M candies in the MRE's along with a little bottle of Tobasco sauce.  Between the cheese sauce and peanut butter we were pretty regular.
     Here is some information on MRE's
    
 

MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat)

MREs are the main operational food ration for the United States Armed Forces. You can check out the MRE History page for more a more in-depth history of how MREs came to be but the short version is that the c-rations and k-rations from World War II developed into the MCI (Meal, Combat, Individual) rations used in Korea and Vietnam. Then in 1980, the MRE was developed and became the primary ration for the US.

What is an MRE?

The MRE is a totally self-contained complete meal. One MRE = one meal. The packaging of an MRE is designed to withstand rough conditions and exposure to the elements. Inside each MRE bag is an entree and a variety of other food and drink items. MREs come packaged in cases with 12 MREs per case. There are currently 24 different "menus" or varieties of MREs. Menus 1-12 are packaged in a case designated Case A and menus 13-24 are packaged in Case B.

What's in an MRE?

You can find a listing of the exact components of each MRE on the MRE Menus page . The military makes a few changes to the menus every year so you will find a different menu listing for each year. In general, though, each MRE contains the following:

• Entree - the main course, such as Spaghetti or Beef Stew
• Side dish - rice, corn, fruit, or mashed potatoes, etc.
• Cracker or Bread
• Spread - peanut butter, jelly, or cheese spread
• Dessert - cookies or pound cakes
• Candy - M&Ms, Skittles, or Tootsie Rolls
• Beverages - Gatorade-like drink mixes, cocoa, dairy shakes, coffee, tea
• Hot sauce or seasoning - in some MREs
• Flameless Ration Heater - to heat up the entree
• Accessories - spoon, matches, creamer, sugar, salt, chewing gum, toilet paper, etc.

Each MRE provides an average of 1,250 calories (13% protein, 36% fat, and 51% carbohydrates) and 1/3 of the Military Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamins and minerals. A full day's worth of meals would consist of three MREs.
Here are some pictures of an MRE (2009 Menu #20) and its contents

MRE Bag and contents

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce Entrée

Chipotle Snack Bread and Cheese Spread

Baked Snack Crackers (Hot & Spicy Flavor) - Cheez-Its

Cherry Blueberry Cobbler

Spoon, Drink Mix, and Accessory Pack Contents

How do you eat an MRE?

True to its name, the MRE is "ready to eat" and everything can be consumed without cooking or heating (but the beverages are much better when water is added to the drink mixes). While the entrees and sides are fine to eat cold, they usually taste much better when heated up with the included Flameless Ration Heater or by boiling in water.

How long do MREs last?

Officially, MREs are designed to have a shelf life of three years when stored at 80 degree F. These times can be lengthened or shortened depending on their storage temperatures. Higher temperatures = shorter MRE lifespans. I've tried many MREs that were 10 or 15 years old and with the exception of a few parts that had darkened in color over time, they still tasted fine.
Please see this page for more information on MRE Shelf Life.

Where can I buy MREs?

The U.S. Government does not allow the manufacturers of military MREs to sell them to the general public. Please see the page on Buying MREs and also the page on Civilian MREs for a commercial alternative to military MREs.

Official Military MRE Page

This is the link to the official military page on MREs:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/programs/mre/mreabt.asp

RANGE!!!

I hope everybody had a good thanksgiving, All I did was watch football  (Yay go Cowboys, I am a Falcon fan and I will not discuss this year....I quit watching the games, too depressing.) and avoid politics...I didn't want the negative Obama waves to interfere with the happiness of the holiday spending it with family.  Speaking of Obama, nothing like telling his myrmidons and other sycophants to discuss healthcare and how good Obamacare is for the country, Yeah wreck the festive holiday with family discussing that train-wreck.   Well in the interest of health, it is a possibility of causing soo much indigestion that they will not overeat and overload the health system.....perhaps that is the plan after all?

A while back, I had upgraded my AR-pattern rifle, the story is here.  Well I finally had time to go to the range, My son and I had to run some errands before we could go to the range.  I was excited to see how well the modifications went and my son was really pushing to go to the range so today was a good excuse to go.   I also took my Mosin Nagant to exercise it also.  A good friend had given me some 7.62X54R to shoot for him since he needed the brass to make his 45-70 loads for his rifle.  Buying Nagant ammo is a lot cheaper than buying the brass for the 45-70.

And since I am a good friend, I will dislocate and relocate my shoulder for him every time I fire.

 Here we are getting ready to shoot for the first time, I have been looking forward to this since I started the modifications.  Its is all academic until little(Well it is a .22 caliber round)holes start appearing on the paper and plot the progress.

   The first time I fired, it was at the 15 yard line, the target shuttle was having issues so that is as far as it would go.  Since the range was really crowded I was happy to get a lane without having to wait.  There were a lot of new shooters in there and that did make me glad, for there is more people in the sport and more guns out there will make it harder for the democrat,liberal,nannystate assclowns anti-gunners to use the apparatus of the state to seize firearms. 
     I turned on the vortex sight,( I should have taken a pic through the sight with my camera but I didn't do it...perhaps next time.)  and sighted it in on the right hand upper target.  My first 5 shots were grouped close together but they were southwest of the target, at the 7:oclock location.

     My second group was closer to the center but still a bit low and to the right of my target.  I made some more adjustments and brought it closer to the centerpoint.  My third groupings were pretty much spot on so I was pleased.  My son also had an opportunity to shoot my AR, I took the .22LR adaptor out and reinstalled the regular bolt carrier group and fired some regular ammo through it then let him shoot some rounds through it.

He commented that it does shoot differently with regular ammo vs the .22 LR.   I agreed but the cost of the regular ammo is still much more expensive than the .22LR so the adaptor I use is well worth the money.

He also fired his old bolt action Marlin, who shot great as usual, his semi auto 22LR with the scope was more finicky with ammo.  I am considering sending it off to get it looked at.  it shouldn't have the feeding issues that it has.
     All in all it was a good day to go to the range, I got my *EBR sighted in and it shot great!
    I wanted again to tell AM thanks for the advice and it was real good advice and I am very happy with the mods to my rifle.

Here the rifle is at home waiting her turn at the cleaning table.

          *EBR=EVIL BLACK RIFLE

New additions to my Blogroll and another "hitler loses his Dr to OBAMACARE video" video"

I have added a few new people to my blogroll, I have the "Golden Geese News" and "Conservative Wife".  Both are good blogs with a lot of information.    Go check them out:)

    I also ran across another "Hitler loses his Dr to Obamacare video"

    

"PEACE IN OUR TIME....."

In a few short years Obama has either through design or pure incompetence has managed to alienate 2 major allies of the United States...One is Britain who until recently was our number 1 ally, we have had a special relationship that started from Winston Churchill through President Bush.  But Obama has manage to upset that, by his insults and actions have angered and dismayed the British.  The end results was that Britain would not back our play to bomb the Syrians.  Britain who until now would have done whatever we have asked because we had that kind of relationship.  I am hopeful that the next President will try to rebuild the friendship,  and it will take time for the scars to heal.   Now he has done the same thing with the Israeli's whom already had doubts about the will of the United States with Obama at the helm.   John "Flipper" Kerry at the behest of President Obama opened a dialogue with the Iranians to make a deal with them.  President Obama is hoping for a major foreign policy splash like when Richard Nixon went to China in the early 70's and split the Sino-Soviet alliance.   The same Iranians that is a religious theocracy with the mad mullah's in charge.  They believe in the 12th Iman which would signify the power of Islam to unify the world under the banner of Mohammed.  Iran has been at war with us since 1979 when they seized our embassy precipitated the Hostage Crisis and for 444 days they held our people until Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President in 1981.  Since that time Iran has been involved on the opposite sides of the United States, We supported Saddam Hussein in his war against the Iranians by providing him with equipment and intelligence to be used against the Iranians.  The phrase the enemy of my enemy is my friend comes to mind.  It is Ironic that a few years later, we would attack the Iraqi's to force them to leave Kuwait.   We also had a brief war with the Iranians during Operation "Earnest Will" when we reflagged Kuwaiti tankers after Iran was throwing mines and silkworm missiles at the tankers in an attempt to close the Persian Gulf to the West. 
     During our recent trip to the sandbox, a lot of the fighters and insurgents against the United States were Iranians, their Revolutionary Guards would train, equip, supply the IED's used and even quite a few suicide bombers came from their ranks.  Iran wants to be come the main player in the middle east.  They along with the Russians are the biggest supporters of the Syrian government.  This is a big concern to Israel, is the influence of the Iranians on Syria.  There is a belief that once Israel bombs the Iranian reactors, the Iranians will use their relationship with the Syrians to have them attack Israel across the Golan Heights and spreading the internal conflict of Syria into Israel.  Israel already have little faith in the United States to help them if they are attacked.  After President Obama and his cabal of amateurs took the reins of foreign policy it has been one lurch after another with various train-wrecks along the way.  Israel believes that they will be alone, the only western based republic in the middle east is in danger of being wiped out.  Many believe that if Iran gets a nuke, they will use it against Israel, knowing that the United States would be paralyzed by indecision to retaliate or defend the Israeli's  against the attacks by Iran.
    

    President Obama sends John * flipper* Kerry to work an agreement with the Iranians, you know the same John Kerry that threw his country under the bus during the winter soldier hearings in 1971 where he stated that all American Soldiers were killers and rapists of the Vietnamese.   We call him *Flipper* because he supported the war in Iraq...then he changed his mind because it was politically expedient to be against it.

Any deal with the Iranians would be bad for us and Israel.  I have no faith in those political hacks to do the right thing.  It is politically expedient and that is all that it matters to the Obama White-house.  I can't understand why most people of Jewish faith still blindly support President Obama and his policies, even though they are a detriment to Israel who is the only Western based country in the middle east and is our staunchest friend in the region.  There is another country that is very unhappy with the arrangement and that is Saudi Arabia, they are mostly Sunni with a Shia minority.    
In a way, this marks a deeper shift in relations with Saudi Arabia than with Israel. Saudi Arabia has been under British and later American protection since its creation after World War I. Under the leadership of the Sauds, it became a critical player in the global system for a single reason: It was a massive producer of oil. It was also the protector of Mecca and Medina, two Muslim holy cities, giving the Saudis an added influence in the Islamic world on top of their extraordinary wealth.
It was in British and American interests to protect Saudi Arabia from its enemies, most of which were part of the Muslim world. The United States protected the Saudis from radical Arab socialists who threatened to overthrow the monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula. It later protected Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein after he invaded Kuwait. But it also protected Saudi Arabia from Iran.
Absent the United States in the Persian Gulf, Iran would have been the most powerful regional military power. In addition, the Saudis have a substantial Shiite minority concentrated in the country's oil-rich east. The Iranians, also Shia, had a potential affinity with them, and thereby the power to cause unrest in Saudi Arabia. Until this agreement with Iran, the United States had an unhedged commitment to protect Saudi Arabia from the Iranians. Given the recent deal, and potential follow-on deals, this commitment becomes increasingly hedged. The problem from the Saudi point of view is that while there was a wide ideological gulf between the United States and Iran, there was little in the way of substantial issues separating Washington from Tehran.With the exception of the nuclear program.

Monday Music "Trouble" by Lindsey Buckingham

Well it looks like I will post a "Monday Music" .....*Drumroll please........* on Monday!  Yay go me!!!   I got off work a bit early and I still need to wind down a bit before I go to sleep and blogging to me is therapeutic.
   Well I decided to go with Lindsey Buckingham,  It is a song from his solo album, he is one of the singers/songwriters/musician from Fleet-wood Mac.   As I have stated many times, I am a big fan of Fleet-wood Mac, I first heard of them in Germany in 1977 when I was 11  years old and I would catch them on late at night on AFN radio in Frankfurt and Wolfman Jack was the DJ,   They would play all the "superbands from the 70's" and I would rock out until I fell asleep.  I for many years thought that Wolfman Jack  was a DJ for AFN radio.  I found out many years later that his show was syndicated.  I remember this song while I was first entering High school....I had lost track of the song for many years until I happen to hear it on XM Sirius on my favorite channel..." The 80's on 8".  The first time I heard it, it was instant recognition.   The song is an easy listening song..  The name of the song is "trouble"....and it is what the Obama administration is having right now between Obunglercare and the bending over and getting screwed by the Iranians because they sent Flipper over to negotiate and Flipper is good about caving in and throwing his country under the bus.  He had much practice kinda like Jane Fonda,   But I digress.

    
"Trouble" is a song by Lindsey Buckingham. It was the biggest hit off the album Law and Order, which was released in 1981. It was also Buckingham's first hit as a solo artist.
"Trouble" was the only song on the album that Buckingham didn't play bass or drums on; his Fleetwood Mac bandmate Mick Fleetwood was brought in to do the drums. Things didn't work out very well in the recording session, and a taped loop of the drum track, about four-seconds long, was used over and over for the song. The song is sung in a light falsetto.
The single would become a #9 hit in the US in early 1982. It topped the charts in Australia for 3 weeks.
In the UK, it was released on the Mercury Records label. It entered the UK singles charts on 16 January 1983, rising to a high of number 31, and it remained in the chart for 7 weeks.
The distinctive music video for "Trouble" features a multi-instrumental "big-band" of male musicians (six as guitarists, besides Buckingham, and six as drummers, including Mick Fleetwood). Walter Egan also appears in the music video as the second guitarist from the front. The video also includes Bob Welch, Dwight Twilley, Jimmy Iovine, and Andy Ward (the drummer from Camel).
The song appears in the film Just One of the Guys during the blind date

"Coffeecare" an easy explaination for "Affordable Care Act" or "Obamacare"

I ran across this video on youtube.  and it used an interesting analogy to explain "obamacare" also known as the "Affordable Care Act".  Which in truth is anything but.   The video is pretty good and worth a look.

    

Friday rants....and other things......and Windows 8 sucks

This is my second attempt to post this rant....after the &^^%$%^&& computer downstairs digested it into 1 and zero's and spit out nothing usable....kinda like the Obama Whitehouse.

The New York Post has a startling report, which could point to yet another scandal brewing for this administration.
Take yourself back to the months right before the 2012 presidential election. In September 2012, the unemployment rate magically dropped from 8.1% to 7.8%. It certainly raised a lot of eye brows, especially since the report included an increase in new jobs we hadn't seen in quite some time.
As it turns out, those numbers may have been fabricated. A reliable source says that the numbers were knowingly manipulated by an employee who faked results of the household survey, which is used by the Census Bureau to tabulate the unemployment rate.
The employee caught faking the results claims that he was told to make up the information by higher-ups at the Census Bureau.
If this report is true, it calls into question the integrity of an entire system that relies on these numbers for our economic outlook and business decisions that effect us all. It would also highlight the desperate measures some will take just to get their guy elected.

 

 I remember back in 2009 when Rahn"Never let a crisis go to waste" Emanual stated that they would be watching and monitoring the census very closely.  I was concerned because I could see Obama and crew "padding" the census in certain areas to increase the democratic congresscritter count in the house.  I had forgotten that the Census also is part of the unemployment numbers that come from the bureau of labor statistics that is a key economic indicator for the economy.  Funny how there was a jump right before the elections.

     I also saw where Harry Reid pushed through the "Nuclear Option" to stop the minority party from interfering with his and the presidents agenda.  This is why the founders did not want "democracy"   we are a constitutional republic....In a democracy it is pure majority rule or rule of the mob.  Using an analogy, it is 3 wolves and 1 sheep voting on dinner.  What is the backdrop is that the D.C. court of appeals has jurisdiction over the rules that are pushed through by the Obama Administration and this is the court that is used to challenge them.  Right now the makeup of the court is 4 liberals and 4 conservatives.  Obama wants to stack the court to permanently change the ideology of the court to rubberstamp his policies.  FDR tried the same thing in 1937 when his "2nd New Deal" was being challenged in court.  Obama knows that he will need a willing congress and a willing court system to continue his plans to "fundamentally change America"

     Today is the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination and the rumors still abound from it was a CIA hit, to a mob hit, to a hit organized by the KGB.  The 2nd shooter and the "Grassy Knoll" theories abound.   This is what is believed by many people, is that John F Kennedy was killed by this person Lee Harvey Oswald a  self professed Marxist.  What has happened since that the left has somehow managed to link Oswald to the conservative movement.  Saying that the people in the south hated John Kennedy and that Oswald was the first one to get a shot off at the President.   How they were able to link Marxism to the conservative movement is quite a stretch.  With the indoctrination in the schools over several generations it is being done.

I also have heard where the President is trying to push the individual mandate off until after the election....More political chicanery.  Obama needs the house and senate to be totally democrat along with the courts to push through and rubber-stamp the rest of his agenda that he wants to implement before his term of office expires.  Remember the Presidency was always about him and his legacy that he wants to leave.  I have seen where the various talking heads have started calling it " the affordable care act" rather than "Obamacare"  They are trying to distance the Chicago Messiah from his signature legislation because it is soo damaging to the image that they have built up over the past 5 years.  More people are getting their cancellation letters or letters from the insurance companies telling them that they have insurance but under a different plan that is "ACA compliant".  Which has raised their cost significantly.  Not the $2500 saving that was promised by the President during the election season.   The premise of Obamacare is that it needs a lot of young healthy workers feeding in cash to support the system to provide the coverage that the older not so healthy people and the formerly uninsured have to have.  This is basically in a nutshell a vast income redistribution system and the pisser is that the young overwhelmingly supported Obama and they got screwed.....unless they can hide on their parents insurance until age 26.

           The problem is that once they leave their parents basement and their insurance policies, the future looks bleak for the younger people.  Their job prospects are not near as good as the older generation, and they have a lot of debt and unfunded liabilities that they will have to deal with.  I am afraid for the country that my son will inherit.  Several generations of politicians have spent money the country didn't have to fund their reelection campaigns  by promising the "Gimme Generation "because it is all about them keeping the power that they have accumulated over 20 years of  "public service"   Makes you wonder how Pelosi and Reid and many others happen to be millionaires despite only having a $175,000 yearly salary.     Now the young will pay the price for their lack of vision because they were too wrapped in "Hope and Change".  to see past the snake oil salesman that was peddling the latest and greatest in socialism.

     This rant has been building up for several days and I finally got it on the computer.....Hopefully. I can post it.  

How I feel about Windows 8.......@##$%^%%$#**&%

I spent 2 hours working on a rant and when I was wrapping it up, something happened to the rant.  I was on the laptop downstairs that uses windows 8 which I consider it a tool of the antichrist.  I am far more comfortable with XP and I like it.  XP is stable...and XP don't eat my postings.....unlike Windows 8.

This comic is stuck on the side of my dinosaur desktop that runs my VERY stable XP.  Microsoft decided to change  XP to vista...which sucked pond water.....to Windows 7 which sucked a different version of pond water....and now Windows 8 which sits on the right hand of the devil itself.   I will try to post the rant later.....after I calm down......

100 years of Naval Aviation *edit*

I am going to take a break...for a minute of all the Obungler scandals that are perking up like crabgrass and talk about something that I am fascinated with...Aviation...and in this case...Naval Aviation.  This article is for all the Naval aviation types like Old NFO and many others like the First President Bush who flew off carriers in WWII and got shot down in combat.   I remembered that he was castigated in the press for being a wimp or pansy.  Senior did a lot of things I wasn't crazy about but I never questioned his bravery or integrity.  He has seen the elephant and his mannerism reflected that.   I am an Army Veteran but I always have had a fascination with ships and airplanes.   I have visited 1 aircraft carrier...the U.S.S.  Yorktown for my sons scout trips.

I have flight benefits and I have taken my son to several museums, including The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C.   That was a great trip

I also took him to a favorite museum, that is the Naval Aviation Museum down in Pensacola and that one was a blast, from seeing where the Blue Angels hang at,  to seeing all the warplanes in their glory.  There also is a restaurant that is a duplicate of the Cubi point Bar Cafe with the plaques that showed all the deployments from all the aviation units from Vietnam to Desert Storm.

That trip is very worth the effort and the car rental was $27 dollars for the day for a Ford Focus.     We also stopped at Fort Barracas, which was one of the forts protecting Pensacola. from seaborn attack.   Advances in artillery and rocketry and aviation made the fort obsolete.

100 Years Ago, January, in San Francisco , when Eugene Ely invented naval aviation.

One hundred years is a very long time. Yet in the hierarchy of modern marvels, the ability to recover and launch aircraft from the deck of a moving ship stands out as one of our signature accomplishments. Which just goes to show you: Some tricks never grow old.

Naval aviation was invented one hundred years ago, on January 18, 1911, when a 24 year-old barnstormer pilot named Eugene B. Ely completed the world's first successful landing on a ship. It happened in San Francisco Bay , aboard the cruiser USS Pennsylvania, which had a temporary 133-foot wooden landing strip built above her afterdeck and gun turret as part of the experiment.

Ely accomplished his feat just eight years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight at Kitty Hawk . His aircraft was rudimentary: a Curtiss Model D "Pusher" biplane, equipped with a 60 hp V-8 engine that gave the aircraft a 50 mph airspeed. To get a sense of how simple it was, behold a contemporary replica of Ely's 1911 Curtiss Pusher that was built to celebrate this 100th anniversary:

But back then, innovation was afoot. Ely's Curtis Pusher had been fitted with a clever new invention called a tailhook. The idea was to quickly halt the aircraft after landing by using the tailhook to catch one or two of 22 rope lines -- each propped up a foot above the deck and weighted by 50-pound sandbags tied to each end -- strung three feet apart along the Pennsylvania 'S temporary flight deck.

Mark J. Denger of the California Center for Military History has written a tidy biography of Eugene Ely which narrates the historic day: On the morning of January 18, 1911, Eugene Ely, in a Curtiss pusher biplane specially equipped with arresting hooks on its axle, took off from Selfridge Field (Tanforan Racetrack, in San Bruno, Calif.) and headed for the San Francisco Bay. After about 10 minutes flying North toward Goat Island (now Yerba Buena), Eugene spotted his target through the gray haze – the PENNSYLVANIA .

Ely's plane was first sighted one-half mile from the PENNSYLVANIA's bridge at an altitude of 1,500 feet, cruising at a speed of approximately 60 mph. Now ten miles out from Tanforan, he circled the several vessels of the Pacific Fleet at anchor in San Francisco Bay . The aeroplane dipped to 400 feet as it passed directly over the MARYLAND and, still dropping, flew over the WEST VIRGINIA 'S bow at an height of only 100 feet. With a crosswind of almost 15 knots, he flew past the cruiser and then banked some 500 yards from the PENNSYLVANIA 'S starboard quarter to set up his landing approach. Ely now headed straight for the ship, cutting his engine when he was only 75 feet from the fantail, and allowed the wind to glide the aircraft onto the landing deck. At a speed of 40 mph Ely landed on the centerline of the PENNSYLVANIA 'S deck at 11:01 a.m.

The forward momentum of his plane was quickly retarded by the ropes stretched between the large movable bags of sand that had been placed along the entire length of the runway. As the plane landed, the hooks on the undercarriage caught the ropes exactly as planned, which brought the plane to a complete stop.

Once on board the PENNSYLVANIA, sheer pandemonium brook loose as Ely was greeted with a bombardment of cheers, boat horns and whistles, both aboard the PENNSYLVANIA and from the surrounding vessels.

Ely was immediately greeted by his wife, Mabel, who greeted him with an enthusiastic "I knew you could do it," and then by Captain Pond, Commanding Officer of the PENNSYLVANIA . Then it was time for interviews and a few photographs for the reporters.

Everything had gone exactly as planned. Pond called it "the most important landing of a bird since the dove flew back to Noah's ark." Pond would later report, "Nothing damaged, and not a bolt or brace startled, and Ely the coolest man on board." (NOTE: Safety first! Check out Ely's inner-tube life preserver!)

After completing several interviews, Ely was escorted to the Captain's cabin where he and his wife were the honored guests at an officers lunch. While they dined, the landing platform was cleared and the plane turned around in preparation for takeoff. Then the Elys, Pond and the others posed for photographs. 57 minutes later, he made a perfect take-off from the platform, returning to Selfridge Field at the Tanforan racetrack where another tremendous ovation awaited him.

Both the landing and take off were witnessed by several distinguished members of both U.S. Army and Navy, as well as state military officials. Ely had successfully demonstrated the possibility of the aircraft carrier.

Indeed. The US Navy's first aircraft carrier, the USS Langley, was commissioned in 1922, eleven years later. But Ely didn't live to witness the milestone; he died just a few months after his historic flight, on October 11, 1911, when he was thrown from his aircraft during a crash at an air show. But 100 years ago, he merged the power of naval warships and aviation in ways that remain cutting-edge, even today.

On October 19, 1911, while flying at an exhibition in Macon, Georgia, his plane was late pulling out of a dive and crashed. Ely jumped clear of the wrecked aircraft, but his neck was broken, and he died a few minutes later Spectators picked the wreckage clean looking for souvenirs, including Ely's gloves, tie and cap. On what would have been his twenty-fifth birthday, his body was returned to his birthplace for burial.
On February 16, 1933, Congress awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross posthumously to Ely, "for extraordinary achievement as a pioneer civilian aviator and for his significant contribution to the development of aviation in the United States Navy." An exhibit of retired naval aircraft at Naval Air Station Norfolk in Virginia bears Ely's name, and a granite historical marker in Newport News, Virginia, overlooks the waters where Ely made his historic flight in 1910 and recalls his contribution to military aviation, naval in particular.