Picture of the day

US Marine Colonel Francis Fenton
Conducting the funeral of his son Private First Class Mike Fenton, near Shuri, Okinawa, May 1945.
Father and son met once during the fighting when their paths crossed at a partially destroyed Okinawan farmhouse. After exchanging news the two family members returned to their work.
They would never talk again. On May 7, 1945, while beating back a Japanese counterattack the younger Fenton, 19, was killed. When his father received the bitter news, he traveled to the site of his son's death and knelt down to pray over the flag-draped body. Upon arising, Colonel Fenton stared at the bodies of other Marine dead and said: 'Those poor souls. They didn't have their fathers here'


242212531-10226293111178474-3121999339890344869-n.jpg
 
One of Canadian aviation success stories was the DHC Chipmunk, a sweet, trim little postwar creation that many people have fond associations with. Built in Canada, used by the RAF as a trainer for a very long time, sold to Portugal as well as others. One market DH tried to crack was Australia, but they were having none of it. Instead they went with a domestic product, the CAC Winjeel:

Winjeel_1.jpg


Some aerobatic capability:

CAC-Winjeel-Trainer.jpg


Easy maintenance:

CAC%20CA-25%20Winjeel%20A85-443%20VH-NTJ%20Avalon%202007%2001%20GraemeMolineux.jpg


Plenty of space for two friends plus a load of Fosters, a barbie, and a cooler fulla prawns:

Those cowlings would be a “Fitter’s” delight.
 
US Marine Colonel Francis Fenton
Conducting the funeral of his son Private First Class Mike Fenton, near Shuri, Okinawa, May 1945.
Father and son met once during the fighting when their paths crossed at a partially destroyed Okinawan farmhouse. After exchanging news the two family members returned to their work.
They would never talk again. On May 7, 1945, while beating back a Japanese counterattack the younger Fenton, 19, was killed. When his father received the bitter news, he traveled to the site of his son's death and knelt down to pray over the flag-draped body. Upon arising, Colonel Fenton stared at the bodies of other Marine dead and said: 'Those poor souls. They didn't have their fathers here'


242212531-10226293111178474-3121999339890344869-n.jpg

If it weren’t for the uniforms you’d almost think that was WWI with the all the mud.
 
One should not have to pull the engine to change the oil filter.

Still, could be worse...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/cSeoQ4_BX39FRxO_hekrw0UFte31omqk-HrfS4txhuXj_eqZJ9peueyGOjAvARMMqiWSPXMUFFZ4dRWT35IJuM2hT1OoHg

Somewhere in the depths of that engine hole is a 10mm socket. It is Karl Heinz's very last one. Replacements are in Belarus somewhere, four weeks away. He can touch it, just a little, with the very tip of his middle finger. In twelve seconds, he will touch it just enough to bump it off the ledge it's on and it will fall an additional 4 inches into a place accessible only by removal of most to the ass of the vehicle.

Karl Heinz will swear, in Russian, German, and a language created by himself consisting mostly of enraged noises. People up to three hundred meters away will stop and take notice.
 
Last edited:
If it weren’t for the uniforms you’d almost think that was WWI with the all the mud.

Or Op Backstop in the former Yugoslavia during Op Harmony... now that was professional grade mud. We couldn't have retreated if ordered to, that mud was of one step a minute consistency.
 
One should not have to pull the engine to change the oil filter.

Still, could be worse...

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/cSeoQ4_BX39FRxO_hekrw0UFte31omqk-HrfS4txhuXj_eqZJ9peueyGOjAvARMMqiWSPXMUFFZ4dRWT35IJuM2hT1OoHg

Somewhere in the depths of that engine hole is a 10mm socket. It is Karl Heinz's very last one. Replacements are in Belarus somewhere, four weeks away. He can touch it, just a little, with the very tip of his middle finger. In twelve seconds, he will touch it just enough to bump it off the ledge it's on and it will fall an additional 4 inches into a place accessible only by removal of most to the ass of the vehicle.

Karl Heinz will swear, in Russian, German, and a language created by himself consisting mostly of enraged noises. People up to three hundred meters away will stop and take notice.

This where a magnet on a rod might help. I find magnets useful for many things. I have one that holds a steel fire door open against the automatic door closer, so I don't have to open the gun room door every time I go in.
 
Given the progressive gutting of the CAF during the 90's by the Chretien government, one thing 9/11 and Canada's participation in Afghanistan did, was to put a stop to the erosion of capacity of our forces, and a forced a lot of re-equipping and modernization. The news footage of CAF ground pounders strolling across the desert in green CADPAT, brought the message to the masses of just how woefully poorly equipped our forces had become.

New tanks, new LAV's, drones, improvement programs on the rifles, the list goes on... Land force got brought into the 21st century, the Government kicking and screaming about it the whole way. Training doctrine also got a complete rethink.

Generals always fight the last war. At least this way, the CAF won't be trying to fight with 80's equipment in the coming years, if (well, when... war is so unavoidably entwined with history) we have to send the kids off again.

Not the exact quote, but; "Armies are always accused of preparing for the last war, while the country fails to prepare for any war."
 
Not the exact quote, but; "Armies are always accused of preparing for the last war, while the country fails to prepare for any war."

Drachinfel devoted nearly 45 minutes to the subject of the US Navy's attempts to preserve some kind of fleet, after every war from the Revolution on down, even if just in storage. It wasn't until after WWII that Congress finally played along and realized "Hey, scuppering the fleet after every war maybe isn't a good idea." It only took nearly 200 years of constantly being proven wrong for the American political establishment to finally gain some semblance of a clue. Given the political culture in Canada, I'm not hopeful of them ever having a rational thought, no matter how often they get proven wrong.

 
Back
Top Bottom