Fifth Avenue Forum

On the flip side, Iwo Jima was a fairly insignificant battle from a strategic standpoint. I think we covered that already though.

Didn't capturing Iwo put the home islands within range of long-haul bombers for the first time? Or did it give the USAAC a legit divert field for the first time? I forget how that shook out.

Bombers, yes, but they couldn't conduct missions without the needed escorts.

I think only a handful of missions were ever actually flown from Iwo Jima.

The tough lessons learned from Iwo Jima, IMO, may have contributed to the decision to use nukes as opposed to invading the Japanese mainland. The Americans realized just how fanatical the Japanese were in willing to die for the cause, no matter how hopeless. If they had thoughts in early '45 about an amphibious invasion of the Japanese mainland, Iwo Jima went a long way to them saying "F that".

I'd posit that Okinawa also contributed to that mindset. JFC was Okinawa ugly.

I'd posit that Okinawa also contributed to that mindset. JFC was Okinawa ugly.

Oh yeah...Okinawa made Iwo Jima look like a picnic by comparison.

Peleliu was also a useless battle, as they intended to capture it because of the large airfield there. By the time it was pacified, the war had moved too far north for that airfield to be of use. No sortie ever flew from Peleliu.

Iwo Jima was used as a P-51/escort base, and also an emergency landing zone for crippled bombers who couldn’t make it back to Guam, Tinian, or the other bomber bases scattered around the SW pacific.

I recently ran across this guy's YouTube channel. The detail he puts into the battles is amazing. I can't wait for part 2 of the Midway one. Here's the Coral Sea:

I'd posit that Okinawa also contributed to that mindset. JFC was Okinawa ugly.

One of the most bizarre (in a good way) conversations I've ever had was with a WWII vet of Okinawa while I was getting a coke from the snack shack at Camp Gonsalves. He was there with some veterans group and he was telling me about what the area looked like when he was there 50 years before.

I recently ran across this guy's YouTube channel. The detail he puts into the battles is amazing. I can't wait for part 2 of the Midway one. Here's the Coral Sea:

This is awesome. Thanks.

His YT channel is pretty good. He only has a small handful of videos, but they're all nicely done.

on sale for 1.99 today

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IHZY2R2/re ... llinsus-20

That book seems to end right at the perfect time for them.

The few SEALs I've met in my life have been.... I don't know how to describe it...... but it's like, even if they didn't have the Trident on their chest, you'd still know what they were. They possess an air of 'otherness' that's hard to pin down.

It's a shame to hear that, up and down, the Teams seem to be riddled with MK I Mod 0 a-holes. Maybe that's a natural outcome given the foregoing.

Going through some things at my Grandma's house and found a neat picture of my grandaddy in Korea during the war, probably in 1952. My grandma tells me he adopted a local boy who helped him with chores, etc...

Hah.

My Dad went to Korea, made a local boy, did not adopt him.

We were talking about the Doolittle Raid not too long ago with the passing of Dick Cole, and I completely missed that they discovered the wreck of the USS Hornet in February, 17,500 feet below the surface of the Pacific. It was Paul Allen's research team:

https://news.usni.org/2019/02/12/uss-hornet-found

I think I shared this at one point or another, but this is one of my favorite historical videos. Veterans of the Battle of Gettysburg reuniting for one last time on the 75th anniversary of the battle in 1938. Incredible to see these guys on video.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/y ... o-crosses/

Some dipshit Lt. Decided to impress his boss by ruining the troops' personal memorials.

Semper P

https://taskandpurpose.com/coast-guard-narco-sub-video

This article was from last year, but holy crap. These are some incredible photos. I would love to visit these WWI battlefields. It's wild that WWI was a full half century *after* the American Civil War, to which we seem so inextricably tied.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/ ... -i/561353/

US kicks Turkey out of F-35 fighter jet programme
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/07/ ... 23465.html

If the intent was to rebuke Turkey, then the US should have required them to buy more of those flying turd buckets.

How do you even say 'Thundershit' in Turkish?

Got interested in looking up some family history and I was reminded that at least one of my grandfathers and one of my grandmothers served in WW2

Internet doesn't give me a ton of information but are there any resources I could look into to give me some more information about their time serving?