I wanted to go to the range last week and shoot the Henry and one of my revolvers, I took my son with me and we went to the High speed range near my house AM-CHAR and I was told that since I am not a police/first responder/retired military I can't shoot there, I guess my being a veteran didn't matter. It really irritated me. especially since they let me shoot there in the past, so the refusal kinda smarted, Oh well.
High Speed Range located in my Hometown
Nothing like pissing away 3/4 of your market. They are a private business and they can serve who they want...
Macks Place of Employment below...
Macks place of employment
Well anyway my son wanted to visit Mack at his place of employment. I like visiting Mack, besides being a good friend, he is a character and a half.
Well after harassing Mack for a few minutes...well because I am that kind of guy we got our lane assignments after filling the required paperwork..
I laid out the rifles and pistols...
The Garand, the Shield, the Henry .357( yes the brass is good, that is a trick of the light) the Enfield 303 and my "console gun" the S&W SIGMA. and gun socks laying all over the place.
I also laid out some ammo....That is the last of my Blazer....Good Riddance...Not as bad as Tula but ok to plink with, I wouldn't bet the farm on it..if you know what I mean..
We started shooting the Henry....The Henry is .357/38, but let me tell you...it don't like .38 Special, the case length.
We Started with the Henry but like I said, it don't like .38 Special, but that is all I brought, but luckily Mack came to the rescue with a "found" box of .357 Fiocci that was half full. The Henry ran through the .357 flawlessly....Thanks Mack, and I am so glad that I had sent the Henry back to the factory to be repaired several months ago.
I then set up the Garand, I brought 1 box of Monarch 150 grain 30-06 ammo for the Garand..
I only had one box, so I fired up one clip and my son fired up the other clip. This is the first time he fired the Garand, The rifle fired flawlessly also, I still am tickled that my Garand works well, especially after the misadventures of my first Garand, you can follow the link for my adventures with the rifle type.
I then brought up the 303 Enfield, It is one of my old rifles that I bought back in the mid 90's for $80 from an outfit called "Roses" a store in Griffin. My son commented about the strange sight that the Enfield had, but the rifle is noted for accuracy and if Tommy could raise hell with the Hun in WWI with it, and mess with "Jerry" and the "bloody Nips" in WWII, the rifle is not a slouch. I have blogged in the past about the Enfield including mine.
We then brought up the Pistols...I immediately removed the "Go to the Mattresses "ammo so it wouldn't get fired by "accident".
Like I said, I laid out the ammo to shoot the Sigma and the Shield, both are .40 S&W
We started shooting the pistols..
and shooting the pistols, I brought quite a bit of .40 S&W to shoot. And of course Blazer performed as expected.....
Bad primers and failures to feed or cycle...happened with the blazer ammo several times...the Remington fired good, no hangups, hic-cups or funny stuff.
It was a good time and of course I am appreciative of Mack and his place of employment for giving us a nice shooting experience in a laid back atmosphere.
On a different note, I won a prize at work last week, it was "AMT" day on Thursday at my place of employment. "AMT" day celebrates the birthday of Charles Taylor, the mechanic that worked on the Wright Flyer for the Wright Brothers. Well at my employer, they go big with vendors, food and other things. I didn't attend this year because I spent all day Wednesday doing "Honor Guard" stuff and did want to spend another "Off day" at work.
Well anyway I won a prize..
Stinger HL Headlight...Very nice :) and totally unexpected.
I remembered reading a book called "The Skunk Works" and the F117 fighter and the phrase Kelly Johnson or Ben Rich used when it came to the United States Air Force fascination with missiles. he commented..."If the missiles did as advertised, they would be called "hittles" not Missles". This prompted the development of the Stealth fighter.
The United States Military had this fascination with Missiles hoping to find the single thing that would shoot down the enemy plane and make it easier than dog fighting. Unfortunately it took Vietnam before they really started dog fighting and not super reliance on technology.
The United States military does not like to talk about
the Battle of Palmdale. It is undoubtedly one of the most embarrassing
American military defeats in history – and it happened right over U.S.
soil.
Although not a single soul was lost, over 1,000 acres of American
land was destroyed, the military was left embarrassed, and several
Americans nearly perished in their own homes and vehicles.
All of this from a single enemy who could not even shoot back. This
formidable foe was never defeated, or even damaged, by the American
military.
Who was this foe, and why did the United States military so thoroughly fail to defeat it?
The Cold War arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union
requires little introduction: the two superpowers of the world
constantly wanted to ensure they had a military advantage over the other
in the case of conflict.
One element of this race was the development of guided air-to-air missiles in the 1950s.
437th
Fighter-Interceptor Squadron Northrop F-89D-70-NO Scorpion 53-2679
1956. Stationed at Oxnard AFB, California. At Nellis AFB, California.
The United States seemingly won this race, with the Air Force and
Navy introducing missiles on their fighters in 1956, a year before the
Soviets. However, these missiles needed extensive testing and were
severely flawed.
By 1956, in the late stages of testing, live fire tests became
necessary. These were conducted against remote-controlled planes
(“drones”), including the Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat.
Although the Hellcats were well-regarded during World War 2, they
were obsolete by 1956, and this made them great practice targets.
On August 16, 1956, one of the Hellcat drones was launched from Naval
Air Station Point Mugu in California. It was painted bright red to make
it an easier target for the Navy which was to take it down with their
new air-to-air missiles.
F6F Hellcat
However, the drone had other plans. The Hellcat broke from its course
early in the mission. Instead of heading over the ocean, it took a turn
towards Los Angeles and continued to climb in altitude.
For some reason, the drone was no longer responding to its controls.
In response, the Air Force scrambled two fighters to take it down using
unguided air-to-air rockets.
The relative strength of forces seemed firmly in the Air Force’s
favor. The Air Force selected two Northrop F-89 Scorpions from nearby
Oxnard Air Base for the task. The Scorpions were early jet-powered
fighters – more than a match for a propeller plane.
Between them, the Scorpions had 208 rockets. On the other side stood an unarmed, unmanned, bright red, outdated drone.
U.S.
Air Force Northrop F-89D-45-NO Scorpion interceptors of the 59th
Fighter-Interceptor Squadrons, Goose Bay AB, Labrador (Canada), in the
1950s. 52-1959 in the foreground, now in storage at Edwards AFB,
California
Although the Scorpions’ rockets were not guided, they made use of a brand new computerized fire control system.
The Air Force obviously did not want to shoot down the drone over a
populated area, so they waited for it to pass over Los Angeles. It
continued to turn until it approached the sparsely populated Antelope
Valley, at which point the Scorpions engaged.
Or at least they tried to. It turned out that the new fire control
system was not all it was cracked up to be, and the rockets failed even
to fire. However, the fighters were able to revert to a manual control
mode not using the computerized system.
Unfortunately, the planes’ gun sights had been removed due to their
supposed obsoleteness after the computerized system was added. In
addition, the rockets in question, the MK 4 “Mighty Mouse,” were
notoriously inaccurate.
Mighty Mouse Missile at Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Virginia USA
When the drone continued turning, back towards Los Angeles, the
pilots knew they needed to act quickly. With 208 rockets, the odds still
seemed in their favor. They each launched a volley of 42 rockets,
several of which connected.
However, the rockets only glanced against the drone’s fuselage, failing to detonate.
With 124 remaining rockets, the fighters made another pass, and each launched 32 rockets. This time none even made contact.
With only 60 rockets remaining, the pilots decided to recalibrate
their intervalometer, hoping to increase the effectiveness of their
rockets. This would be their last chance to take down the drone as they
were running out of fuel as well as ammunition.
F-89D firing Mighty Mouse Rockets
The pilots made one final pass, each launching their remaining 30
rockets as the drone approached the city of Palmdale. The last of the
Scorpions’ 208 rockets again failed to make contact… at least, with the
drone.
As the pilots returned to base, it became clear that their rockets
had made contact, just not with the drone. Although the Mk. 4 rockets,
if they missed their target, were supposed to disarm as their speed
decreased, something went wrong with this system.
Grumman F6F-5K drone
The vast majority, possibly as many as 193, of the rockets detonated.
These rockets caused several major fires and nearly caused several
fatalities. Although the area around the battle was sparsely populated,
the destruction was widespread.
The first fire was around Castaic and destroyed 150 acres. Another
rocket fell near Placerita Canyon, where it set a number of oil sumps on
fire. That fire nearly reached the Bermite Powder explosives plant, but
fortunately was contained around 300 feet away.
At Soledad Canyon, an additional 350 acres went up in smoke, and
several smaller fires added to the destruction. All-in-all, over 1,000
acres were destroyed by the fire.
F-89D loaded with rockets. 114th Fighter Interceptor Group, headquartered at Sioux Falls, in 1958.
A number of the rockets hit houses, nearly causing several
fatalities. One piece of shrapnel flew through a woman’s window, bounced
off her roof, and eventually smashed into a kitchen cabinet, where it
came to rest.
Another house was hit with several fragments, which sliced through
the garage and living-room, nearly hitting the woman who lived there.
Another rocket detonated right in front of a man and his mother who
were driving along the road, destroying the front of the vehicle.
Miraculously, neither was seriously injured.
Finally, a rocket scored a direct hit on another truck, totally destroying it. Fortunately, its occupants had just gotten out.
Scorpion in Fresno California July 1957, with front of rocket pods exposed
The drone itself caused only minor damage when it finally ran out of
fuel and crashed. Although within sight of the Palmdale Airport, it
crashed near an unpaved road, destroying several power lines in the
process.
Its remains were eventually recovered in 1997, although it largely disintegrated upon impact.
One thousand acres of land was consumed by fires that took two days and 500 firefighters to extinguish.
Although there were no fatalities, the incident was certainly
embarrassing for the U.S. military. Not only had they accidentally
inflicted significant damage on American soil and failed to shoot down
their target but also many of the brand-new technologies they had
developed had proven faulty.
The
fact that the remote controls for the Hellcat stopped working in the
first place was unfortunate, but the Scorpions’ computer failure was
another concern altogether. All of this technology, created to keep
ahead in the Cold War arms race, had utterly failed.
However, the United States government learned from these failures.
Fire control systems continued to advance, guided air-to-air missile
technology became more practicable, and eventually, fail-safes were
added to unmanned vehicles.
It would be nearly impossible for another “Battle of Palmdale” to
happen today, as modern drones are equipped with fail-safes that will
either return them to base if they are not destroyed quickly or cause
them to self-destruct at a high altitude.
This post is scheduled for Sunday afternoon on the Scheduler thingie. I will not have a Monday Music like I normally do. To me it would be inappropriate because it is Memorial Day.
I'm going to explain "Memorial day" compared to the other holidays that involve the Military.
Armed Forces Day honors those that are serving now.
Veterans Day honors those of us that are no longer serving but still around to thank us for our service.
Memorial Day honors those of us that died in service to our country or those of us that have died since.
To me Memorial day is a somber Holiday, It gets worse the older I get because I attribute it to "survivors guilt". We miss our comrades that will never grow old and one day we will join them. Like I said, I attribute this to "survivors guilt" or basically why me and not them, why do I grow older and they don't. What made me special that I lived and they didn't. This goes through my mind and I just leave it to the guy upstairs because I figure that he still has plans for me.
I do what is called "Honor Guard" missions with my employer, where we greet all remains coming off the airplane with a flag line and a prayer. I am honored to do that. We had 4 of those missions last Wednesday and it made for a long day in the heat. I didn't mind the heat because of what we were doing.
I don't begrudge the people using the Memorial Day as an excuse for a vacation or the "Start of Summer". At least they say the words "Memorial Day" in their conversations.
There is a phrase I saw in the Movie "Gardens of Stone" that came out in 1987, and we started using it because it resonated with us. Here is the trailer of the movie "Gardens of Stone". I really like the movie partly it ties in with my Dads experiences because he was a member of the "Old Guard", although for him it was 1963-1964 for him. He had told me that the things that the "Old Guard" did was accurately portrayed.
I hoist a glass of whatever beverage I drink on Memorial Day and say "Here's to us ...and those like us.....Damm few of us left." I honor my friends that got killed during war and my friends that died after war from accidents, disease or suicide.
I have blogged before about Helmets and "Lucky Talismans" and helmets in general. I remembered when I first got my helmet at my first dury station in Germany I immediately stuck my "LPS" bottle in the band around the helmet like I remembered seeing all the GI's doing during Vietnam.
My squad leader told me "You can't do that crap any more". So I had to take it out. Oh well...
The Vietnam War tested the United States in new and horrid ways.
Unprepared for guerilla tactics, dense jungles, and unwilling to
interpret their foes’ actions as anything other than the working of
Moscow’s efforts to expand Communism, the nation spent years in a
conflict with no seeming end in sight.
1st Lieutenant Thomas K. Holland, Troop D, 1st Squadron, 9th Cavalry, Vietnam. Date between 1966 and 1971
Conscripted troops were constantly cycled through the war to prepare a
generation for World War III, while politicians and commanders
continually failed to understand the lessons learned in America’s
previous guerilla campaigns.
For the troops on the ground, Vietnam was a humid hell filled with
enemies and a people barely considered human. Part of any soldier’s
equipment at the time included a helmet, called a steel pot by the
troops and officially known as the M-1 helmet.
U.S. soldiers in 1972 wearing M1 helmets
The soldiers of Vietnam, being products of a time when the nation’s
youth struggled to assert their individuality, started doodling on their
helmets to express themselves.
Such antics were not new, as handfuls of soldiers did something
similar during World War II. During Vietnam their work grew more
prominent and noticeable. It also garnered more attention as outrage
against the conflict, both among the troops and at home, increased.
LT
James F. Gregory, Platoon leader takes his men into a northern village,
Company B, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 501st Inf., 101st Airborne.
Division, Vietnam.
Such artwork drew media attention as early as June 18, 1965.
Appearing in an Associated Press article by Pulitzer Prize-winning
photographer Horst Faas, the photo caption noted Larry Wayne Chaffin of
the 173rd Airborne Brigade, sporting a simple line across the bridge of
his helmet: “WAR IS HELL.”
Vietnam Helmet “Born to Breed”.Simple calendars were a popular doodle, with soldiers jotting down
the months of their tour and then crossing them off as time passed and
they managed to live another thirty days. Such “short-timer” calendars
were common among conscripts as they waited out their tours of duty. Sergeant Gerald Laird firing a machine gun, Company A, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, Vietnam.
The media, latching on to the potential anti-war messages of such
art, made sure to showcase it as the conflict continued.
One photograph
from 1966 showed John Wayne signing a soldier’s helmet. Many photos
recorded phrases and remarks written on soldier’s helmets, ranging from
mottos such as “In God We Trust” to satirical musings like “Born to Kill Die.” Vietnam….A
Sky Trooper from the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) keeps track of
the time he has left on his ‘short time’ helmet, while participating in
Operation Pershing, near Bong Son.Not all such writings made it to the news. Years later on a web forum, one veteran told the story of his art:
“My personal helmet ‘graffiti’ was the moniker ‘Teenage Killer.’ As a
recruit in Marine boot camp, we were repeatedly told a story of Eleanor
Roosevelt reportedly telling someone she had found Marines to be
“over-sexed, under-paid, teenage killers.” SSGT Russell C. Fordham, D Trp., 1st Sqdn., 9th Cav., Vietnam.
“One night, outside Da Nang, after imbibing a bottle of ‘Panther
piss’, the phrase popped into my head and was promptly Magic-Markered
onto the side of my ‘piss-pot’. Vietnam Aircavalry soldier ,with stars and stripes “It was greeted with mixed reviews by the higher-ups and I was
‘asked’ to make myself scarce when photographers were in the area.
Sometime later, I was ordered to remove the ‘offensive’ phrase from my
helmet cover. This was accompanied by a new helmet cover. Troopers on patrol in Vietnam; radioing for communication.
“I ignored the order, and the new cover, and was given an Article 15.
With a grin, the 1st Sgt replaced my ‘salty’ with a new greenie.”
From what I can tell, this happened after Vietnam because the mural is based on the movie "Apocalypse Now" was made in 1979. I thought it was pretty cool art work.
Whether considered graffiti, artwork, or simply bored doodlings of
young men forced to be soldiers in a land far from home, a soldier’s
helmet was as much his life as his rifle.
Whether their writings veered toward the crude, satirical, devout, or
rambling, such works allowed them to express themselves as they fought a
conflict for motivations more than likely lost on a bunch of overgrown
kids stuck in the jungle. The
turkey that found its way by helicopter to the 9th Infantry Division
was destined for the nearby Bear Cat base camp. It was one of 57,000
sent in to provide as many as possible of the half-million Americans in
Vietnam with the traditional holiday feast. Note Radio in Helmet band.
Helmets were something personal for each solder, and especially in Vietnam the Helmet art became famous.
I remembered being mesmerized by the Movie "Cleopatra", the sheer pageantry was really unmatched. Back then Movie houses made elaborate sets rather then CGI and it really seemed "More real" than the later movies. This scene from the movie "Cleopatra" showed what I am referring to..
I will be showing more clips from the movie "Cleopatra" throughout this blog post.
The battle of Actium, which took place off of the west coast of
Greece on September 2, 31 BC, is widely regarded as the decisive moment
at which the Roman Republic fell and the Roman Empire rose in its place
following the assassination of Julius Caesar.
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
Octavian, the adopted son and great-nephew of Caesar, faced off
against the combined forces of Egypt, led by Cleopatra and Mark Antony
who had been a close friend of the late Caesar.
Antony had once been second in command to the emperor. When he
discovered a plot against his friend, he was unable to warn Caesar in
time and had no choice but to flee Rome. He returned after the coup to
try and preserve his friend’s legacy from posthumous attacks by the very
men who had conspired to end his life.
A baroque painting of the battle of Actium by Laureys Castro, 1672.National Maritime Museum, UK
Upon learning that Caesar had bequeathed the throne to Octavian,
however, Antony contested the younger man’s inheritance. What followed
was a decade of ill-fated military campaigns designed to unseat the
rightful heir of the deceased dictator.
The forces of Antony and Octavian first clashed the year after
Caesar’s passing. Although Antony was soundly beaten, Octavian
nevertheless included him and another rival in a power-sharing agreement
that divided the Roman empire among them.
Antony and Cleopatra (1883) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema depicting Antony’s meeting with Cleopatra in 41 BC.In the years that followed, Antony was busy. He defeated the
assassins who had dispatched Caesar and later struck up a romance with
Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, who had also been Caesar’s lover.
Neroccio De’ Landi and Workshop, The Battle of Actium (circa 1475–1480)
Despite unease among the Romans about Antony and Cleopatra
provocatively flaunting their children as royal heirs, the triumvirate
ruled steadily for a decade before a series of events led Antony and
Octavian to war once again.
A Roman bust of the consul and triumvir Mark Antony, Vatican MuseumsOwing to a failed rebellion some time earlier, Antony had been forced
to marry Octavian’s sister. When he divorced her in 32 BC, Octavian
declared war on Cleopatra – a wise political move which allowed him to
cast his war as one fought against foreigners, rather than his fellow
Romans.
A year later, having driven Antony’s forces from the Greek mainland,
Octavian’s fleet of 500 ships and 70,000 infantry faced off against
Antony and Cleopatra’s combined 400 ships and 80,000 infantry.
Battle of Actium
At first, the battle was uncertain, but upon Cleopatra’s unexpected
retreat, Octavian captured much of the opposing fleet and pursued his
enemy through the gates of Alexandria.
Battle of Actium(Cleopatra 1963)
Naval historians have studied the battle extensively, curious about
the effect that Octavian’s smaller ships might have played in ensuring
their decisive victory over the comparatively larger ships which made up
Antony and Cleopatra’s fleet.
Now, a recent archaeological discovery has helped to shed light on
exactly how much of an advantage this gave the Roman commander.
Battle of ActiumUpon the excavation of Octavian’s monument to the Roman victory
(built alongside an entire city devoted to Rome’s success), it was
discovered that Octavian took a large number of trophies from the enemy
fleet.
The assertion of historians that the larger, less maneuverable fleet
was at a significant disadvantage gained some credibility with the
discovery that Octavian took as trophies 35 bronze rams from the
captured fleet of 350 ships.
The Battle of Actium from a set of The Story of Antony and Cleopatra
The underwater battering rams, designed to break down harbor
defenses, were considerably larger than any that had been previously
found.
Peeter Sion – Defeat of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at Actium
Although only remnants of the rams themselves were discovered in the
excavated ruin (it is assumed that later generations or invading forces
stole them and melted them down for bronze), the size of the niches they
were placed in led historians to estimate that Antony and Cleopatra
sailed in ships as large as 40 meters long.
The ending was that Anthony fled to join with Cleopatra with Octavian in hot pursuit.
Anthony took his own life via sword rather than be paraded through Rome in chains...
Cleopatra took her own life via adder rather than be paraded through Rome as a trophy
