Picture of the day

Dark Alley Dan said:
The original Badd Ass Motherfeckers:

emlznpurqb801.jpg


Representatives from the Harlem Hellfighters, 1918.
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US WW1 Black combat troops were attached to the French Arms Corps and were commanded by French officers.
 
Ganderite said:
Especially if it started because you were outside, standing on a pontoon, turning the hand crank to get it started because the battery was dead....
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400 Squadron. Winter SAR, Matagami, wheel ski DHC-3, -10 C, I'm the guy on the step of the starboard landing gear strut helping to turn the crank on the flywheel, and getting awful tired before the bugger caught on the 6th try.
Somebody left the aft equipment bay light on all night.
Nobody confessed to it.
 
Bubba Yugga said:
400 Squadron. Winter SAR, Matagami, wheel ski DHC-3, -10 C, I'm the guy on the step of the starboard landing gear strut helping to turn the crank on the flywheel, and getting awful tired before the bugger caught on the 6th try.
Somebody left the aft equipment bay light on all night.
Nobody confessed to it.
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Yes! The engine has a special sound as it starts, and you feel especially happy if you started it the way God intended - by hand.
 
grelmar said:
Speaking of aircraft remains...

View attachment 141910

And if you have a strong stomach, you can read up on what the Egyptians ended up doing with it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/03/aviation-historians-express-anger-lost-world-war-two-fighter/

Not mentioned in the article, but even more tragic, is the saga of the remains of the pilot (Flight Sergeant Dennis Copping). Some bones were found nearby, but for whatever reason, nobody bothered to examine them closely, or take a sample for DNA analyses, and now those bones have either been reclaimed by the desert, or by ghoulish souvenir hunters. Either way, they've vanished.

If you google around a bit, there's quite the saga about the wreckage, which was discovered in 2012. Although nothing about what happened after the wreck's discovery will instill faith in humanity. Colossal indifference and incompetence from the British government and MoD, shading dealings with a broker that managed to get a Spitfire to use as a trade for the wreckage, then the brokerage, and the Spitfire, vanished into the ether, the Egyptians being intransigent and doing a truly awful "restoration" on the aircraft... And so-on and so-forth, thus is the way of humanity nowadays.
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Yikes.....same vein as what happened to the 'Lady Be Good'. At least its intact and can be properly restored at some point in the future.
 
Ganderite said:
No picture. ??
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Saw it on an Argentine gov't site. There are more composite like pics of mia & kia Falklands combattants out there. A lot of these pics are not done as well as this one. This gives them the appearance of a standard dummy with the face glued on. Grisly yet somehow fitting. It looks like the pic may have started out as a squadron or unit pic & was modified.:0

The other crewman got out & lived. Word is that the one ejection seat was damaged by the strike condemning the unlucky crewman. Remains found 1986. Dna identified 2008."Mess with the best. . ."
 
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The Navy always struck me as among the hardest ways to serve.

Army? Under orders, sure, but you're largely self-directed. Huckering down or running off is always an option. Seek cover? You can do that. Show initiative? You can do that, too. Reckon I'll wait here for a minute or two, maybe evaluate what's going on? Sure, unless the Corporal tells you otherwise.

Air Force? See above, but running off is much faster and can happen in three dimensions.

But Navy? The Captain makes a decision. "Let's mount a suicidal charge against a superior foe". Meanwhile, down in the boiler room, the stokers run goon spoons until they're told to stop, or the water comes up past the doors of the firebox, or they die, either suddenly and horribly or over a period of some time, trapped in a metal box. There's no running off or huckering down, and it seems a great opportunity to have things happen to you rather than making things happen yourself.

Tough bloody gig, that. Tougher than me, to be sure.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
The Navy always struck me as among the hardest ways to serve.

Army? Under orders, sure, but you're largely self-directed. Huckering down or running off is always an option. Seek cover? You can do that. Show initiative? You can do that, too. Reckon I'll wait here for a minute or two, maybe evaluate what's going on? Sure, unless the Corporal tells you otherwise.

Air Force? See above, but running off is much faster and can happen in three dimensions.

But Navy? The Captain makes a decision. "Let's mount a suicidal charge against a superior foe". Meanwhile, down in the boiler room, the stokers run goon spoons until they're told to stop, or the water comes up past the doors of the firebox, or they die, either suddenly and horribly or over a period of some time, trapped in a metal box. There's no running off or huckering down, and it seems a great opportunity to have things happen to you rather than making things happen yourself.

Tough bloody gig, that. Tougher than me, to be sure.
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Probably the only thing worse would be Navy service in a sub. Usually no survivors.
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
The Navy always struck me as among the hardest ways to serve.

Army? Under orders, sure, but you're largely self-directed. Huckering down or running off is always an option. Seek cover? You can do that. Show initiative? You can do that, too. Reckon I'll wait here for a minute or two, maybe evaluate what's going on? Sure, unless the Corporal tells you otherwise.

Air Force? See above, but running off is much faster and can happen in three dimensions.

But Navy? The Captain makes a decision. "Let's mount a suicidal charge against a superior foe". Meanwhile, down in the boiler room, the stokers run goon spoons until they're told to stop, or the water comes up past the doors of the firebox, or they die, either suddenly and horribly or over a period of some time, trapped in a metal box. There's no running off or huckering down, and it seems a great opportunity to have things happen to you rather than making things happen yourself.

Tough bloody gig, that. Tougher than me, to be sure.
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All true but at least you are reasonably comfortable in the mean time not like those poor marines on Guadalcanal etc etc. Although it is interesting to note that a whole lot more sailors died at Guadalcanal than marines so maybe.....
 
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