"So You Been Laid Off...5 things to do Right away"

 

  I got this from "Art of Manliness, I will Interject in blue my experiences to add to the Author.  I will add this part, When I got hired at AAP"Atlanta Assembly Plant" I was told that unless I screw up, this will be the last job I will ever will have until I retire, well 11+ years later I was walking out the door for the last time.  It was the 2nd time I was laid off, the first time was in 1992, I was working at "Kawneer" as a Door fabricator, I was single, so I scrambled and found another job. Pizza delivery.  the 2nd time I got laid off, was Ford Motor Company, I was married and had a 3 year old son and the search was more desperate because this was during the "Great Recession" and I was fortunate that my present employer hired me after I was searching for a job/career since February 2006 and I got hired 2nd quarter 2007.  I worked various Pizza jobs holding the wolf at bay during this time.  I don't hate "Ford Motor Company"for what transpired, they were in a bad situation.

    This is inside my Ford "Toolbox", that I have in my garage now, you can chase the link that shows the transformation.

   The Article Follows

I'm in my late thirties and have been laid off twice in my working years. This is not an unusual experience, especially in the post-COVID era, which some have termed a time of “forever layoffs.” Nearly half of all working adults have been laid off at some point in their career and most working employees are worried about layoffs on a regular basis.

The first time it happened to me was in 2012 when the small marketing agency that I’d been with for only a year went belly up. I was young, didn’t have many responsibilities in life just yet, and the job hunt went quite well; I secured a new gig within a handful of weeks. The second time I was laid off was in 2024, as part of a larger set of cuts at a billion-dollar tech company I had been with for about three years. Twelve years after my first layoff, not only was the economy wildly different, but I had a family, three young kids, and a mortgage to worry about. It took almost a year of ups, downs, and freelance projects to get back into comfortable employment. Those two instances ended up being pretty different experiences, and yet a similar set of tactics helped me get through both times.  

There will inevitably be a flood of anxiety after you’ve been laid off. But once your heart rate has calmed down and you’re able to move beyond panic mode, do these five things to get yourself in a good position to survive and move forward.  

Nail Down Your Financial and Insurance Logistics  

As hard as it can be in those first days after being let go, you need to start thinking right away about your finances and health insurance. It can be hard to do so without catastrophizing, but it’s important to think clearly and strategically about how you and your family will weather the financial unpredictability of the coming weeks and months.

Insurance

First, consider your insurance situation. Be sure that you have information from HR about when your benefits lapse — it can be immediate, but sometimes it’s a few weeks or even months down the road.

If you’re carrying the household’s insurance and have the option to move to a spouse’s insurance plan, definitely go that route, even if it’s not for the long-term. Having coverage is better than not having coverage.

If that’s not an option, COBRA is a federal government program that allows you to receive the same exact insurance you had with your former employer, for a period of 18-36 months after being let go. The major difference is that you’ll have to pay the entire cost of the premiums. If you’re in a field with good benefits, it may be exorbitantly expensive to pay out of pocket. In that case, your state’s insurance marketplace is where to look next. It can be confusing if you’ve never dealt with it before; your former employer’s HR department may be able to help you find a broker to help with that process. Don’t hesitate to ask them these types of questions.  

Finances

You also have to think realistically about your budget. How much do you have in your bank account? How much severance are you receiving, if any? How much do you have in emergency savings or other accessible accounts (that is, stocks or other investments that don’t have withdrawal penalties, rather than retirement accounts)? Make sure you know exactly how long you can make it without your income.

After Ford, I lived below my means and carried little or no credit card debt, and paid cash for my cars or if I got a note, paid them off real early in case I got laid off.

Next, apply for government unemployment benefits. Each state has their own online portal (and set of rules). You’ll be entitled to a percentage of your previous wages (typically 50%) for an entire year. It’s a hassle, and there are a lot of forms, including weekly online check-ins about your job search, but there’s no reason to not take advantage of unemployment checks. After all, your taxes have been paying into that fund for as long as you’ve been working!

Reach Out and Start Networking

Time to share some harsh truth: In today’s job market, it’s nearly impossible to just apply for a job that you found online and get invited to a screening interview, let alone make it all the way through the lengthy multi-interview + work test process that pervades modern job hunting. In the vast majority of cases, networking will get you farther than scrolling job listings online. It bears repeating: while networking does not necessarily have the same immediate ROI as applying for random jobs, it will net you greater returns in the long run.

For me, I used Monster, any and all resources, my present employer actually called me because they were looking for a particular skillset and my resume had it.

In particular, it’s worth reaching out to your weak ties — those loose connections you made in college or through work or church. You aren’t quite friends with these folks, but know them well enough that reaching out in this scenario isn’t weird. Go creeping on LinkedIn to see where folks work; if a company seems interesting, there’s no harm in sending a message like:

“Hi there! I know it’s been a while since we’ve talked. I hope you’re doing well — I loved seeing that family picture on Facebook. I wanted to reach out and say hello because I was recently let go from my job of five years. I’m trying to get a feel for what the market is like and what’s out there and would really appreciate a 30-minute chat if you’re willing. If the timing isn’t right, no worries, but it’d be great to catch up a bit.”

If they agree to chat, don’t make it just about finding a job at their company; it really should be a broader focus on if they know of anyone or anything helpful. If you talk and something seems like a good fit, they’ll let you know. (After you talk, make sure to send a thank you note or message!)

Beyond those weak ties, also do some fresh networking both online and in your community. With a quick internet search, you’ll be able to find digital and IRL networks of folks in your industry. Again, the ROI is not always apparent, but genuine networking — with the goal of just getting to know people and getting your name and face out there — always has a way of paying off in the long run.  

P.S. This is a great reason to never burn bridges on your way out of any job.

Set Some “Working” Hours

In my observations, it seems that there are two types of responses to being out of work: either you can’t seem to get off the couch to do anything or you turn that anxiety into a kind of hyperactivity, spending every waking moment on the phone or computer. Both of those approaches have problems that can be remedied by doing your best to set daily “working” hours.

Don’t try to replicate a full work week; set aside 3-4 hours per day for networking, job hunting, building up your skills, and the like. The work of finding work is mentally taxing (and, let’s be honest, often defeating) in a way that a “real” job is not. There’s no psychological security at all; in fact, you’re mostly dealing with feelings of existential dread the whole time. As such, your willpower gets depleted rather quickly. After half a day or so, you’ll experience diminishing returns and it won’t be worth the additional mental energy to keep going. You can only scroll through so many job listings and write so many cover letters in a day before you start to feel your soul escaping your body.

Conduct Career Experiments

My initial response to being let go was, naturally enough, to apply for positions similar to what I just held. That makes total sense and should absolutely be your first plan of attack. Unless you have a sizeable financial cushion, it’s not a bad idea to do this even if you plan on changing careers — it may make for a nice fallback should that other route not work out as quickly as you hoped.

Within a few weeks, though, it was easy to blast through applying for the roles that most matched my resume. After that, I took the liberty of getting a little more creative and looking for roles that I wasn’t perfectly qualified for but suited my interests a bit more. Even though my career has been in online media and marketing, when I was laid off in 2024 I branched out and had a couple interviews outside my comfort zone, including with a small coffee roaster and a large airplane manufacturer. I even considered going back to school. I didn’t end up doing any of those things, but I thought long and hard about them and did learn a lot about what it would be like to jump industries, to start at the bottom of a workplace food chain, and the practicalities of starting fresh.

If you’ve ever thought of doing something different with your career, perhaps being let go is the spark you need to jumpstart that process. Don’t be afraid to look outside of what you know, especially if it’s an industry that’s been hit hard with layoffs (perhaps making it all that much harder to get a new job in that field).  

Do Your Best to Relax

One of the things that bothered me most — and which happened both of the times I was laid off — was hearing from folks about how I now had some time to sleep in, relax a bit, and enjoy “funemployment.” As if! There was no way I could sleep in or really even remotely enjoy myself while in the midst of desperately trying to find a way to replace that income as soon as possible. It’s very hard to relax when you’ve been laid off versus when you’ve left a job on your own terms, even if you’ve been lucky enough to receive severance pay.

That said, each time it’s happened to me, I forced myself to at least do some activities that would normally bring me joy — even if they didn’t immediately do so in the moment. For me, it was hiking/walking every day, reading, and doing some extra cooking/baking. While there’s a time and place for some true vegging out with Netflix, it’s best to shoot for a more active type of relaxation that comes from using your body and brain in a way that you get deeper fulfillment from. Regular exercise should especially be part of that routine. If you just lounge around on the couch all day, you can quickly fall into a pattern that’s hard to get out of.

It’s likely going to be hard to truly relax and let yourself recharge, but at least go through the motions. Some of it will stick and you’ll at least build up a good routine of caring for your mind and body while without work.

The job market and the process of finding work after a layoff is unpredictable. I simply cannot say that it will all work out in a timely manner. But if you follow these steps, you’ll at least have a better setup for success than you would have otherwise. Best of luck out there!

"The Mask is slipping"...The Left is trying to destroy America.

 

  

 Yes I saw this on Farcebook yesterday while I was working, I had taken a "Microbreak"  Yes I know it was a Holiday, and Yes Aviation is a 24 hour gig, if the public is flying, we are working.  It pays ok, LOL.   The cartoon are compliments of "Townhall.com"

Dear America,

I'm tired of people pretending this is about ICE. Or Renee. Or George Floyd. Or whatever slogan happens to be trending this week. It never is. The cause is interchangeable. The outrage is rented. The script is the same recycled, bullshit. Every single time Republicans take control, the left goes hunting, not for justice, not for solutions, but for a spark. Any spark. A name, a video clip, a headline they can weaponize. Because the goal isn’t reform. It’s disruption. It’s chaos. It’s punishment. Punishment for daring to vote wrong.

They don’t want to persuade you. They want to exhaust you.

They don’t want debate. They want submission. They don’t want peace. They want you miserable enough to cave. So they torch cities, block highways, harass neighbors, scream at diners, target cops, demonize Ice agents, and then stand back and call it “righteous anger.” And if you dare question it? You’re the villain. You’re the problem. You “lack compassion.” It's funny how compassion always seems to involve other people paying the price.

George Floyd wasn’t about Black lives. If it were, they wouldn’t have burned Black neighborhoods to the ground and moved on the second the cameras left. MeToo wasn’t about protecting women. If it were, it wouldn’t have been selectively enforced based on party affiliation. ICE isn’t about immigrants. If it were, they wouldn’t cheer criminals over law-abiding citizens. These are props. Shields. Human meat suits for a political tantrum.

The real objective is hostage-taking. Make daily life so hostile, so unstable, so miserable that normal Americans think, Maybe it’s not worth voting Republican anymore. That’s the strategy. It’s not subtle. It never has been.

I would like to think people are catching on. We’re tired of the fake grief. Tired of the selective morality. Tired of being told to shut up, sit down, and accept disorder as virtue. This country doesn’t belong to the loudest mob or the angriest activists. It belongs to the people who work, raise families, follow the law, and still believe elections matter.

You don’t get to burn the house down every time you lose and then lecture the rest of us about democracy. We see you now.

And the mask is gone. Glenn Reib

Austin Roberts "Rocky"

I figured I would change up the Disco stuff

 I had this song on my "Ronco " Records and I remembered playing this song in the mid 70's and it was upbeat yet sad.  I haven't heard the song for many years until it popped up on my Sirius XM on the "Casey Kasem Top 40 Show Flashback" but I recalled some of the lyrics and figured I would give them a try. 

"Rocky" is a 1975 song written by Jay Stevens (aka Woody P. Snow) and performed by Dickey Lee. On the country chart, "Rocky" was Lee's most successful single, and his only number one. It spent fourteen weeks on the chart, including one week at number one.

In a paradoxically upbeat melody in a major key, Rocky, the title protagonist, tells the tragic story of his young wife in first person. He first recalls the day four years earlier where, as an 18-year-old college student, he met his wife-to-be (unnamed in the song) and recalls how well they hit it off. She accepts Rocky's marriage proposal, and they spend the next several months fixing up an old house to make their home. The two soon learn they are expecting their first child, a girl.

Although the family has its usual problems, the happy memories outweigh the bad. One example is a particularly rambunctious first birthday party for the couple's daughter. With things going well and the family settling in on a content life, Rocky soon gets devastating news: his wife has been diagnosed with an apparently inoperable illness — the specific illness is unidentified in the song — and that she has only a short time to live.

All of this is told in flashback, as in the final verse, his young wife has died. Rocky is now a widower and raising his daughter alone. He feels a sense of sadness every time he looks at his daughter, who strongly resembles her mother, and now doing the same things alone that he once did with his wife. However, he feels a sense of hope, with his wife looking down on him and the couple's daughter and reassures that his love for her will always remain safe.
Each of the first three verses — telling one of the chapters in the couple's life — ends with the woman having a sense of fear of the unknown, expressed through the refrain's statement, "Rocky, I've never...," followed by the appropriate follow-up ("been in love before," "had a baby before," "had to die before") and the unassured, "Don't know if I can do it." However, both he and she realize that the strength they have in each other can help them meet each challenge head on. At the end, Rocky says that "if the world would end, your love is safe with me." The fourth refrain has Rocky envisioning hearing his deceased wife reassure, "Rocky, you know that you've been alone before, you know that you can do it," and that in her own way, she can still advise him in his time of need.

35 years since the start of Desert Storm

 

    Today 35 years ago, Desert Shield became Desert Storm.  On 17th January Apache's snuck across the berm and wasted several Iraqi EW radar sites and opened the corridor for the masses of airplanes to strike targets all over Iraq.  The Navy fired Tomahawk Missiles from the Persian Gulf at the same time, this was the shock and awe of Desert Storm,  We had the entire Armed forces operating in concert.  I remember we felt like it was a "great Crusade" to liberate Kuwait.  We were in full MOPP4 and geared up in case the Iraqi's counterattacked.  Saddam Hussein had promised the "Mother of all Battles" and we went in fully expecting a lot of casualties.

                        We unleased Hell on the Iraqi Military on this day

 We had benefited from 10 years of development, new equipment,  good funding and training and more training. Our Morale was really high, and it showed. The Army had developed "Airland Battle" to disrupt the Soviet echelons especially in the 2nd and 3rd echelons, and the Iraqi's were trained like a Soviet Pattern Army,. The Navy and Air force had also benefited from good training, doctrine, equipment and excellent morale.  Gone was the days of the Post Vietnam Military, the hollow Army was gone, gone was the days of the Navy and Air force cannibalizing equipment to maintain readiness and make deployment goals, We had pride in ourselves and our country.   There was a fear that we didn't learn the lessons from Vietnam, according to the pundits.  Well we had a bunch of leaders that were in Vietnam and vowed that this first major deployment of the U.S Military since Vietnam wouldn't be the same way.  We would go all in or we wouldn't go.  And we succeeded.  The defeat of the Iraqi's was massive.  Saddam Hussain had the crappiest timing since the Argentinians tried to take the Falkland Islands from the British.  Had they waited 1 more year Britain wouldn't have the Navy or the forces to take the island back.  Well Saddam was the same way, before he rolled into Kuwait, there was rumblings of cutting us back since the Cold war was over and the huge Military wasn't needed anymore.  Had he waited a year or 2 we couldn't have mounted the force we did.  Funny how things work out. 


I don't normally make a big deal about my veteran service, I have met awesome people and done things that seen things and witnessed history in the making, and I would go back in time and do it all over again. But this is the day when the War started and it changed my life forever. I view everything in my life as "before the Storm" and "After the Storm". I honestly believe that it has made me a better person and more understanding the duties of a citizen of the Republic. This is to my fellow Veterans, don't matter the service or the time and to those that still walk the ramparts.

Boeing Warned of MD-11 Parts Failure Risk in 2011, NTSB Finds

Still images from airport security footage shows UPS Flight 2976's left engine separating and moving over the aircraft as the MD-11 rotates 

The part that failed and triggered the engine separation at the heart of last November’s fatal crash of a UPS MD-11 was flagged for inspections by Boeing in 2011, but the manufacturer concluded that a worst-case failure scenario would not “result in a safety of flight condition,” the NTSB said Jan. 14.

In a mid-investigation update, the board revealed that a February 2011 Boeing service letter targeted the part, a bearing race that is part of the MD-11 engine-to-pylon mounting assembly, for repetitive inspections. The service letter detailed four failures of the part, which is part of a spherical bearing assembly, on three different airplanes.

In each case, the collar-like bearing race suffered fatigue cracking and split along its circumference. “Specifically, each failure had initiated at the design recess groove on the interior surface of the bearing race,” the NTSB update said.

“According to the service letter, a review of the spherical bearing failure by Boeing determined it would not result in a safety-of-flight condition,” the NTSB said.

But investigators found the same failure pattern on the McDonnell-Douglas-designed UPS MD-11’s No. 1 (left) engine bearing race, the report revealed.

Boeing’s letter instructed operators to inspect the bearing as part of routine, repetitive pylon mount inspections, normally every 60 months. It also updated the MD-11 maintenance manual to reflect the new inspections. Boeing also recommended installing a different bearing that does not include a groove. But it does not caution against using an airworthy grooved bearing to replace an unserviceable one of the same design.

“Investigators are reviewing” what if any steps UPS took as well as “the correspondence history” between Boeing and the FAA leading up to the 2011 letter.

Boeing purchased McDonnell-Douglas in 1997 and assumed responsibility for the continued operational safety of the former manufacturer’s in-service fleet.

It is not clear if UPS integrated the checks into its maintenance program, NTSB said.

On Nov. 4, 2025, the UPS MD-11, operating as Flight 2976, had its No. 1 engine separate from the aircraft during its takeoff roll while departing on Louisville International Airport’s runway 17 Right. The severed engine passed over the MD-11’s left wing before the aircraft rotated.

Once airborne, the MD-11 could not climb beyond about 100 ft. above ground level. It crashed about 0.5 nm from the runway end, into an industrial area. All three crewmembers and 11 people on the ground were killed.

Boeing immediately urged operators to ground their MD-11s—a move the FAA mandated.

"Moscow Rules"

 

What prompted this one was driving into work and I noticed one of these on the side of the road, hidden under a bridge, 

Well I was moving about 78 in a 65 and I spotted him in the distance, so I turned off the cruise control and let others catch up to me, I was not in the fast lane and I didn't hit my brakes.   But I guess he was waiting for the people that really speed like the 85MPHers, and yes there are a lot of them and it also was cold like 32 degrees so it would have to be worth it for him to jump out there and pull someone over.  And no it was not a "GSP", they will pull you over for going 5 over, and they don't care. If you run, they will "PIT" your ride and you will go to jail anyway.  But I digress.  Well anyway, while I was driving down the interstate and I broke the view of the police car and I started thinking of ways to change my taillight combinations or what have you to make Identification more difficult in the dark, and I got to thinking about the "KGB" would trail people with vehicles and they would have switches that would change the light combination to throw off suspicion of the people they were tracking and I got to thinking about "Moscow Rules"......Man my minds bounces around a lot.....scary LOL.   SO that created the idea for this post.

  I had published these rules over in 2014 and 2021, so I "dusted" them off and put them out there again.  The Rules  were made for the CIA to keep their case officers alive in the most intense place to run "Counter-Intel" on the planet was Moscow, the KGB would vigorously prosecute and search for all foreign agents and especially for their own people that might betray "Da Rodina" and they were very aggressive.   Usually to flip someone it was called MICE, Money, Ideology, Coercion or Empathy.  Those 4 were or a combination of them would flip somebody into betrayal.    Man it don't take me long for me to drop back into spookspeak...jeez...man you think you forget after the cold war....and it all come back....and I am is just a airplane mechanic now...

I have had several references  made to "Moscow Rules" so I googled them and this is what I came up with.  It is a good rule of thumb kinda like my "Gibbs Rules" that I had posted years ago,  but reference because occasionally because it makes sense.  The Pictures are compliments of "Bing"  The Rules are compliments of Wikiuniversity

Whether fiction or fact, the Moscow Rules are often referenced and seldom printed. Said to have been developed by CIA for making sure their operatives were not sent like lambs to the slaughter to tough spots like Moscow, the Moscow Rules are an incredibly profound set of pragmatic guidelines for effective tradecraft. They are exceptionally difficult to find online in their entirety. Here, all 40 of the Moscow Rules are preserved. This page provides an opportunity to seminar students to elaborate upon and give examples of the rules in operation.

The Moscow Rules

Please use this Template for commentaries!

1. Assume nothing. Commentary
2. Technology will always let you down. Commentary
3. Murphy is right. Commentary
4. Never go against your gut. Commentary
5. Always listen to your gut; it is your operational antennae. Commentary
6. Everyone is potentially under opposition control. Commentary
7. Don’t look back; you are never completely alone. Use your gut. Commentary
8. Go with the flow; use the terrain. Commentary
9. Take the natural break of traffic. Commentary
10. Maintain a natural pace. Commentary
11. Establish a distinctive and dynamic profile and pattern. Commentary
12. Stay consistent over time. Commentary
13. Vary your pattern and stay within your profile. Commentary
14. Be non threatening: keep them relaxed; mesmerize! Commentary
15. Lull them into a sense of complacency. Commentary
16. Know the opposition and their terrain intimately. Commentary
17. Build in opportunity but use it sparingly. Commentary
18. Don’t harass the opposition. Commentary
19. Make sure they can anticipate your destination. Commentary
20. Pick the time and place for action. Commentary
21. Any operation can be aborted; if it feels wrong, then it is wrong. Commentary
22. Keep your options open. Commentary
23. If your gut says to act, overwhelm their senses. Commentary
24. Use misdirection, illusion, and deception. Commentary
25. Hide small operative motions in larger non threatening motions. Commentary
26. Float like a butterfly; sting like bee. Commentary
27. When free, In Obscura, immediately change direction and leave the area. Commentary
28. Break your trail and blend into the local scene. Commentary
29. Execute a surveillance detection run designed to draw them out over time. Commentary
30. Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence; three times is an enemy action. Commentary
31. Avoid static lookouts; stay away from chokepoints where they can reacquire you. Commentary
32. Select a meeting site so you can overlook the scene. Commentary
33. Keep any asset separated from you by time and distance until it is time. Commentary
34. If the asset has surveillance, then the operation has gone bad. Commentary
35. Only approach the site when you are sure it is clean. Commentary
36. After the meeting or act is done, “close the loop” at a logical cover destination. Commentary
37. Be aware of surveillance’s time tolerance so they aren’t forced to raise an alert. Commentary
38. If an alert is issued, they must pay a price and so must you. Commentary
39. Let them believe they lost you; act innocent. Commentary
40. There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.Commentary

The Famous Bayonet Charge of the Korean War.

 

I was BS'ing with one of my friends at work and talking Army stuff and the difference of training from his time and mine, he is much younger and got towhere  we were talking about the bayonet and we don't even know if they even teach the "Spirit of the Bayonet" is "KILL, KILL, KILL" at that what it was in basic, LOL.  Too bloodthirsty, I suppose.

 When I was in basic training and the drill sergeants talked to us about bayonet fighting and how to use it, they talked about the Korean War when a couple of American Army platoons routed a large group of Chinese off a hill with just the bayonet.  They told us that the Chinese had circulated a piece around their army that the Americans were afraid of the bayonet and hand to hand combat.  Colonel Millett was attacked in 1951 and rather than bunker in, he and his men fixed bayonets and totally routed the Chinese.  The Drill sergeants also told us that we need to know how to use the bayonet, because if we run out of ammo, we will need to know how to fight with the bayonet to survive or if we die, to at least take a couple more with us.  So we trained and trained with the bayonet.  We were the first cycle of trainees in the 80's to get the bayonet training after it was removed in the 70's due to congressional and public pressure.  We always had the bayonet on our rifles, they had the scabbards on them, but they were fixed.

  We got used to the weight and got pretty good with the bayonet, from block and parry to high, medium and low strike or the ever popular buttstock smash.

 Even now once and a while I will affix a bayonet on my rifle and go through the motions.   I honestly believe some people will get real careful if they have to worry about somebody sticking them with a bayonet and swishing things around.
     Well anyway it took a bit of time for me to find the story about that the famous bayonet charge was that the Drill Sergeants were referring to, and here it is.

The grizzled-looking redhead, complete with a handlebar mustache, charged with his men. Their enemy did not stand a chance as they had very sophisticated weapons – the bayonet.
Lewis Lee Millett Sr. was born on December 15, 1920, in Mechanic Falls, Maine. His grandfather had served in the American Civil War, while an uncle had fought with the 101^st Field Artillery Regiment of the Massachusetts Army National Guard during WWI. Millett joined the Massachusetts National Guard in 1938 while he was still in High School, enlisting in his uncle’s regiment.
The following year, Germany invaded Poland, ushering in WWII. By 1940 Millett was in gunnery school with the US Army Air Corps. In 1941, frustrated by America’s reluctance to enter the war and eager to fight, he deserted. He and a friend hitchhiked across the border and joined the Canadian Army. They assigned him to the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery where the training was quite unlike any he had in the US

“The Canadian infantry was always doing bayonet training,” he later recalled. “Stabbing straw-filled dummies, parry, thrust, shouting. It made an impression on me.”
Sent to Britain Millett underwent commando training. He was also trained as an anti-aircraft radar operator and was stationed in London during the Blitz – the German carpet bombing of British cities between September 1940 and May 1941.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, America entered the war. No longer stimulated by radar work, Millett went to the US Embassy in London and rejoined the US Army. He became an anti-tank gunner with the 27^th Armored Field Artillery Regiment, 1^st Armored Division.

Shermans disembarking from LST at Anzio.

Millett served in Tunisia in North Africa where he became a hero when his group came under fire, and a half-track truck filled with ammunition burst into flames. He jumped into the vehicle and drove it away from Allied soldiers then leaped off before it exploded. He was awarded the Silver Star – the third highest military decoration.
He later shot down a German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter plane with a half-track mounted machine gun. Millett, by then a sergeant, took part in the Allied invasion of Italy and saw combat at the Battle of Anzio (January – June 1944) that led to the capture of Rome.
While he was serving in Italy, the Army found out about his desertion. Despite Millett’s achievements, heroism, and medals, the army did not take kindly to deserters. He was court martialed, convicted, ordered to pay a fine of $52 ($810 in 2017 values), and denied leave.
Just a few weeks later he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant and given a battlefield commission. Fortunately, he survived the war and returned home to a hero’s welcome. Millett then went to college. In June 1950 while in his third year, the Korean War broke out and he was called up.
By 1951 Millett was in Korea as a captain and commander of Company E, 2^nd Battalion, 27^th Infantry Regiment.
On February 7, his company was in the province of Chungchongbuk-Do, South Korea near the village of Soam-ni. Their goal was the top of Hill 180 where today the Osan Air Base is located.

In the ferocious fighting of early 1951, Millett recalled reading a document that said the Chinese believed American soldiers dreaded hand-to-hand combat, and were fearful of “cold steel

“We’ll see about that, you sons of bitches,” he muttered. At a feature called Hill 180, under grenade and rifle fire, he led two platoons in a bayonet charge up the hill.

“I always had my men fix bayonets,” he said. “I never forgot the Canadian training. We didn’t do much bayonet drill in those days, but I gotta say, those Chinese didn’t know what hit them when we charged.”
Captain Millett ordered his men to attach their bayonets and attack. He shouted encouragement to his men throughout the hand to hand fight. When they reached the top, they stormed the enemy position despite heavy fire.
Millett was in the lead when they charged an anti-tank rifle crew. The gunner did not stand a chance as Millett’s bayonet dove into his stomach. Another enemy soldier reached for a machine pistol just as Millett’s blade sliced through his throat. The third was another matter. In his hands was a cocked and loaded submachine gun which he aimed at the crazy redhead making a beeline toward him.
Millett’s face matched the color of his red handlebar mustache as he screamed and hurtled toward the enemy soldier who stood frozen with shock – possibly wondering what a Viking was doing so far from home. Millett’s bayonet claimed its third victim.
“The bayonet went into his forehead,” Millett later said. “With the adrenaline flowing you’re strong as a bull. It was like going into a watermelon.”
The battle continued, and although Millett sustained grenade fragments to his leg, he refused to be evacuated. They routed the Chinese and secured the hill.
“I never forgot the Canadian training,” he proudly said. “We didn’t do much bayonet drill in those days, but I gotta say, those Chinese didn’t know what hit them when we charged.”
He was right. In the aftermath of their attack, some 50 enemy soldiers lay dead – 20 from bayonets. Military historian, Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, described it as “the most complete bayonet charge by American troops since Cold Harbor” – which happened during the American Civil War in 1864.

SLA Marshall

Millett led the way and routed the Chinese. His Medal of Honor citation reads: “His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.”

In the Vietnam war, Millett was involved in a clandestine intelligence program aimed at subverting and killing Viet Cong in the countryside. He retired in 1973 when he felt the U.S. was abandoning South Vietnam.
He once told an interviewer: “I believe deeply in freedom. I’ve fought in three wars, and volunteered for all of them . . . I believe as a free man it is your duty to help those under the attack of tyranny. It’s as simple as that.”
Lewis Millett, old soldier, died on Nov. 14, age 89:

Millett’s impressive military awards include the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, two Legions of Merit, three Bronze Star Medals, four Purple Hearts, and three Air Medals. In 1973 he retired from the military as a colonel.