Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

[OldDan1943]

Greetings,
Mr. cj. I don't think Mr. SV is referring to the "classic" two trains problem but more of the manner by which the problem is presented. I suspect something like this:

No wonder I flunked 'new math', sets etc

I went the US Navy Nuclear Power School in the days of paper, pencil and a slide rules. The final exam consisted of designing a reactor containment vessel plus a multitude of questions. I succeeded. Then, the oral exam.... I got a 3.0.
Boy was I happy. As I recall, I maybe finished in the upper 1/3 of those graduating but, I did pass.
(doing a happy dance.)

 

[Shrew]

I'm posting this today to both get this thread back on track and because (ironically) today is Appomattox Day, which marked the end of the US Civil War. Most people couldn't even tell you the significance of Appomattox or what it even is.

Nobody celebrates either April 19th (The start of the American Revolution) or September 3rd (The end of the American Revolution). July 4th is when the Declaration of Independence was signed, however it didn't arrive in King George III's hands until August 1776, when he responded by activating troops. The revolution didn't actually start until the following April.

This is the natural course of history. Most people have forgotten that Veterans Day honors the armistice of WWI.

Right, wrong or indifferent, time fades the memory of history. WWII will eventually be nothing more than another chapter in your great grand children's history books. The key political players will look no different than King George III, King Louis IV, Ganges Kahn, or Napoleon.

That is simply how history works.

 

[SteveK]

RTF you have it right. A quick internet search this video.

 

[catalinajack]

Yup. What total a total bullshit way to teach arithmetic. Apologies to SV if he was referring to something different than what I had thought.

Greetings,
Mr. cj. I don't think Mr. SV is referring to the "classic" two trains problem but more of the manner by which the problem is presented. I suspect something like this:

 

[ScottC]

I think the archivist at the Memorial would at least like to talk to you about it. Hopefully this is up to date, if Scott is no longer there ask for his replacement, or the Chief of History Services there:

Hi Alaskaflyer,

I thought I'd let you know that I've been in communication with Scott Pawlowski at the National Park Service/Arizona Memorial. They are very interested in having the diary and some related papers. I will be shipping them to Honolulu shortly.


Thanks for the great tip!

 

[Alaskaflyer]

Excellent, glad you connected.

 

[Marco Flamingo]

I thought I'd let you know that I've been in communication with Scott Pawlowski at the National Park Service/Arizona Memorial. They are very interested in having the diary and some related papers. I will be shipping them to Honolulu shortly.

I'll mention this to my neighbor. Several days after Pearl Harbor, where his father was stationed, service men showed up at his house and told his mother that his father had died in the bombing. My neighbor still has the telegraph that came several days later apologizing and saying that Dad turned up uninjured. Must have been a tough week. The telegraph sits in an old photo album.

Mementos like these lose a little of their importance to a great great grandson who never met the people who lived through the incident. At that point, it may be of more value donated to the general public.

On another note, my father was a civil engineer. He was amazingly fast with math in his head. He told me that he used the system outlined above for numbers bigger than three digits. Always seem slower to me, but then I didn't practice. Instead of calling it "bullshit," I think the proper response is "I never learned it."

 

[AlaskaProf]

My uncle was a student at U. of Hawaii, Manoa on the fateful day. Monday he went to the Army recruiter, wanting to "kill some Japs". Sent to flight school, he flew P-47s in the European Theater.


Uncle Bob was shot down twice, once by German ground fire in Normandy and once by Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity."

 

[KnotYet]

My uncle was a student at U. of Hawaii, Manoa on the fateful day. Monday he went to the Army recruiter, wanting to "kill some Japs". Sent to flight school, he flew P-47s in the European Theater.


Uncle Bob was shot down twice, once by German ground fire in Normandy and once by Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity."

Friendly fire?

 

[AlaskaProf]

Sort of...

Uncle Bob was stationed at Hickam Field in '52. The movie company wanted to interview anyone who had been there in'41. Turns out that Bob was the only one.

Late in the movie, two "Japanese" T-6s strafe Schofield Barracks. One is improbably blasted by Burt Lancaster and his handheld M-1919 and descends behind the trees, trailing smoke, piloted by Major Robert Butler USAF. (uncredited, unfortunately)

 

[KnotYet]

Sort of...

Uncle Bob was stationed at Hickam Field in '52. The movie company wanted to interview anyone who had been there in'41. Turns out that Bob was the only one.

Late in the movie, two "Japanese" T-6s strafe Schofield Barracks. One is improbably blasted by Burt Lancaster and his handheld M-1919 and descends behind the trees, trailing smoke, piloted by Major Robert Butler USAF. (uncredited, unfortunately)

That is a cool story!

A number of T-6s in 'drag' were made up for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' also and then got
hired for 'Pearl Harbor'. On that film one of the owner-pilots miscalculated while
making a low pass, hit an antenna tower and lost a wing at about 75 feet up!
He was very lucky and amazingly uninjured. I'm willing to bet that T-6 flew again, too.

 

[AlaskaProf]

That is a cool story!

A number of T-6s in 'drag' were made up for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!'

Yeah, they used to turn up on Trade-a-Plane periodically, at a price within my reach, but then good sense would prevail... A friend, the late Randy Sohn, one of the few FAA warbird examiners, opined that the T6/SNJ was not to be trifled with. "Learning to fly a P-51 was good preparation for the T-6."


The ones in From Here to Eternity, were unmodified; someone just slapped a couple red disks on the USAF silver airframes. "Cut...okay that's a wrap, wash off the airplanes."

 

[Alaskaflyer]

"Learning to fly a P-51 was good preparation for the T-6."

Lol. This is the second time in my I’ve heard that.

 

[AlaskaProf]

A number of T-6s in 'drag' were made up for 'Tora! Tora! Tora!' also and then got
hired for 'Pearl Harbor'. ....I'm willing to bet that T-6 flew again, too.

A couple show up in a pretty good time travel flick with the strange title: The Final Countdown.

Some good air-to-air film when the two A6Ms go 2v2 with a pair of F-14s. Of course, in a real gunfight, the Zeros would have the advantage, so the Tomcats smoke them with Sidewinders.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. AP. "...the Zeros would have the advantage..." Sarcasm or a maneuverability (more agile) advantage?

 

[AlaskaProf]

Greetings,
Mr. AP. "...the Zeros would have the advantage..." Sarcasm or a maneuverability (more agile) advantage?

M aneuverability. The Tomcat was something of a truck, even in it's heyday. All the Zero would have to do would be to keep turning inside until he gets a stern shot with his 20 mm cannons. The Japanese Navy's air arm had been fighting in China for four years by December 6. These professionals wouldn't need more than a moment to know how to fight this new foe. Gotta think the Sidewinder would be a surprise though.

The "battle" scene is on YouTube; I did go watch it after writing the above for the first time in 30 years or more. The first Zero gets gunned from behind after a couple passes. Movie magic; a real pro would never let himself be caught flying straight and level once he knows he's in hostile space.

 

[AlaskaProf]

The F-14, like the F-4 before it was designed to be a fleet protection asset, flying CAP and holding the Bad Guys away from the task force with "stand off" weapons like the Phoenix and Sparrow, while using the short range Sidewinder for self-defense. McD couldn't imagine the need for a gun in the age of rocketry.

It was only after fleet pilots found themselves " taking knives to a gunfight" with MIG 17s and 21s over North Vietnam that a external gun pod was developed for the Phantom. Not until the E-model was a true gun installed.

As the Tomcat evolved, as a fleet protection asset, no one thought it would do the sort of attack missions which had fallen to he Phantom by default, but no one was ever going to design another fighter without a gun.

 

[catalinajack]

Well, it seemed so to me but my ignorance has been demonstrated in the past. I should have a more open mind.

I'll mention this to my neighbor. Several days after Pearl Harbor, where his father was stationed, service men showed up at his house and told his mother that his father had died in the bombing. My neighbor still has the telegraph that came several days later apologizing and saying that Dad turned up uninjured. Must have been a tough week. The telegraph sits in an old photo album.

Mementos like these lose a little of their importance to a great great grandson who never met the people who lived through the incident. At that point, it may be of more value donated to the general public.

On another note, my father was a civil engineer. He was amazingly fast with math in his head. He told me that he used the system outlined above for numbers bigger than three digits. Always seem slower to me, but then I didn't practice. Instead of calling it "bullshit," I think the proper response is "I never learned it."

 

[catalinajack]

I wonder how Burt hung onto to that hot gun barrel. Asbestos skin?

My uncle was a student at U. of Hawaii, Manoa on the fateful day. Monday he went to the Army recruiter, wanting to "kill some Japs". Sent to flight school, he flew P-47s in the European Theater.


Uncle Bob was shot down twice, once by German ground fire in Normandy and once by Burt Lancaster in "From Here to Eternity."

 

[OldDan1943]

Finally the WW1 troops got a memorial. I doubt it as glorious as the WW2 and Vietnam memorial but the have one now.
Without a memorial, memorial, memories fades quickly.

 

[AlaskaProf]

I wonder how Burt hung onto to that hot gun barrel. Asbestos skin?

Good point. If you look closely, he has something wrapped on the barrel; looks like a pocket handkerchief. It wouldn't help for long. They probably got the scene done in one take.