Fifth Avenue Forum

One of the myriad reasons why my 85-year old father-in-law is amaze is that he takes continuing education classes through UNLV every semester. This year he's taking one focusing on African American veterans in WWI. I thought that was a highly specific and narrow course of study, but a book about vets from a small city in central PA might usurp that. haha

One of the myriad reasons why my 85-year old father-in-law is amaze is that he takes continuing education classes through UNLV every semester. This year he's taking one focusing on African American veterans in WWI. I thought that was a highly specific and narrow course of study, but a book about vets from a small city in central PA might usurp that. haha

I was surprised... The book is over 600 pages. It's exceptionally well done, especially considering it was put together by a bunch of high school students.

KC-130J tanker from VMGR-352 "Raiders" (callsign RAIDER-50) had a mid-air with an F-35B from VMFA-121 "Green Knights" (callsign VOLT-93 [incorrectly transcribed as 'PULL-93' in the video]). Both aircraft were operating out of MCAS Miramar; the Knights are permanently forward deployed with MAG-12 to MCAS Iwakuni in Japan, and they've been there since -121 transitioned to the F-35 3 years ago, so not sure why they were stateside, or if they're part of a training Det or what.

Couple things stand out:

- As always when radio records of mishaps are shared, I am in awe of the calm and professionalism on both ends of the signal.

- With the way the Navy and Marines do midair refueling (probe and drogue), it seems likely the F-35 struck the Herc, rather than the other way around, and light and weather should not be factors (daytime CAVU), or there was a goof when the F-35 backed away from the drogue basket and caused the whole rig to detach; there was one local news report that indicated they clipped wings, I think that would be really hard to do given the conditions, but I do not put anything past a sufficiently determined Marine;

- The Marine aviator ejected from the F-35 safely and was recovered relatively uninjured, while the Herc pilot was treated for mild injuries - all Marines involved have returned to their respective commands;

- I looked up callsigns, and VMFA-121 usual handle is COMBAT, so I'm not sure what the deal is with that aircraft going with VOLT was all about;

- The Herc pilot was given a double minor for Too Much Man.

@dodint

The military history of the Outer Banks fascinates me. I never knew how many ships German U-Boats sunk in both world wars. And then this was last week, right before we got here.

https://www.obxtoday.com/top-stories/up ... ras-beach/

The U.S. Navy EOD unit placed the unexploded ordnance, described as a 100-pound aerial bomb from the World War II era, deep inside the beach near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Beach Access parking area. The detonation caused a concussion and sent up a plume of smoke around 12:30 p.m.

The Island Free Press reported Hatteras Island resident Michele Quidley was walking her dog near the Old Cape Hatteras Lighthouse site and Buxton Beach Day Use Area when her dog noticed an object high on the shoreline.

Yeah. I'm friends with the historian at Fort Macon and he wrote a book about this exact thing. He spent decades on it, and in it's printed out form between a foot and 18" tall. Unfortunately I don't think he's found a publisher for it yet.

Paul Branch, if you've every looked into Fort Macon stuff.

It wasn't written by Paul, but Operation Drumbeat is good book about submarines loitering off of the US East Coast as well.

I bought Operation Drumbeat at a bookstore in Manteo, way back in the day...I had no idea how close the U-boats got until I read that book.

The big takeaway for me with Operation Drumbeat was how the U-Boat captains just marveled at how little we gave a **** about darkening the coastal horizon. US seaboard cities just carried on like there wasn't a war going on at all and they could navigate very easily up and down the coast.

Sound familiar?

Yep. I think one of the U-boats filmed the NY skyline...and got away undetected (obviously).

TARGET THAT INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURE!

This is kinda neat. There's a civilian contractor company called ATAC that uses ex-military aircraft and retired military aviators to provide outsourced air combat training to the US military. They have a detachment based at NAS Pt Mugu, which is just a 30-minute drive up the coast from our house. They've been operating off the central coast a lot in the last couple weeks, and today there's a gaggle of them running practice intercepts with Navy jets out of Lemoore, or possibly CA-ANG from Fresno.

https://www.flightradar24.com/multiview ... 0,260308b4



(Each icon is a 2-ship, btw. It's just the Dash-1 that carries the flight's callsign that broadcasts unmasked ADS-B)

Probably one of the coolest things about living in Green Bank, WV was the fact the radio telescopes were used as bombing targets for both Navy pilots out of Oceana and Air Force guys out of Langley. You could lay down on top of a hill called "Ram's Horn" and the Navy guys especially would come in so low over the treetops you could read the words on the bottom of the fuselage and wings.

Hey, happy Veterans day to the FAF veterans!

@Freddy Rumsen @dodint @Kaiser (Happy Belated Birthday to the Marines as well)
@Dickie Dunn @shafnutz05

(Did I miss anyone? I think I missed some others.)

Thanks. By coincidence I was looking for some things the other day and found my trunk of military uniforms. Felt a bit militia-y opening something up which held that much digital cammo.

*old man moment*

All my camo is jungle, excepting the one pair of Desert Storm era camo uni I have.

My Dad(s) were Marines, I never got to experience the black boot polish era for myself. I am both jealous and relieved.

You could see your reflection in my jungle boots.

If you use windex and then mix it into the boot polish it looks amazing for about thirty minutes.

I got both. Thank christ they switched, my home-ec game wasn't good enough to polish and do ironing all the time.

My father-in-law relaxing on a street in Beirut in 1958.

Cool. Here's my grandpa around 1942

Thanks DG!

My father-in-law relaxing on a street in Beirut in 1958.

It is really sad what happened to Beirut during the latter part of the 20th century. Back in the 50s and 60s the moniker "Paris of the M.E." was not far off.

Awesome pics

FIL says his primary responsibility on that Beirut deployment was organizing raiding parties to steal supplies from Army units.

Cool. Here's my grandpa around 1942

Which one, the nerd in the back? I bet that's one dangerous mf.

Cool. Here's my grandpa around 1942

Which one, the nerd in the back? I bet that's one dangerous mf.

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