Picture of the day

bearhunter said:
When I was 4 years old, I lived in a small mining town, just above Princeton BC, called Copper Mountain. It's a huge open pit mine now.

This was in the early fifties and you had to see the overt racism/religious conflicts to believe it. Almost as bad as the Middle East and almost as nonsensical.

The mine was in desperate need of miners. They arranged for a group of "Displaced JEWS" from Latvia and Poland that were living in "temporary" internment camps in France since just after the end of WWII. After being released from the Concentration Camps they did their absolute best to get away from the Soviets, who weren't especially pleasant with them either.

They came into Copper Mountain on the Company Busses, along with their families. There weren't any Hassidic sects. That was a stipulation made by the mine owners. Still, it was like stepping back in time. They dressed in styles from 30 years in the past. Their clothes were worn but clean. The men hadn't shaved in what appeared to be a long time. None of them spoke English. Language wasn't a problem. The mines were used to dealing with it.

The hue and cry was not pleasant.

Still, they were given a special section of the bunkhouses as their own.

My first visual memory was their EYES. They were FLAT. No fear or emotion of any sort. They were just TIRED. Not BEATEN, just TIRED.

After a few months that started to change. The women bought new, stylish dresses and put on a little weight. The men always wore suits when they weren't working. No ties. They even polished the leather on their work boots every day.

They started speaking broken English but mostly German and Russian/Polish. EVERY single one of them carried a concealed weapon. Everything from knives to small pistols. The only place they didn't carry was when at work.

After about six months their EYES CHANGED. They started to show HOPE. They no longer looked desperate and confused. You see, they had proven themselves to be excellent miners. They usually made bonus every payday.

They played instruments, danced, died, married, had kids. They were ALIVE again.

The mine shut down a few years later. Everyone moved on. I never saw any of them again. They went to other mines, other jobs but with bright, intelligent EYES that no longer showed the horrors they had been subjected to.

Can you say PTSD???? They all suffered from it and mostly in silence. The thing is, they were a tight community and they helped each other out. They also helped out some of the miners that were suffering from undiagnosed PTSD.

Many of the Muslims/refugees/immigrants coming into Canada have issues that will need to be dealt with. I personally don't believe the vetting is stringent enough but there will never be any guarantees.

Yeah, wrong place for this but the pics brought back the old memories, along with Purple's comment.

They didn't speak of the horrors. Later another survivor I met explained that it was forbidden in some communities because it often brought out the depression that was always lurking under the surface. PTSD is seldom cured. The sufferers just learn to live with it while finding their inner strength.

TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting.
 
Convair XB-46
convair-xb46-jet-powered-medium-bomber-united-states.jpg
 
For the enthusiast of US aircraft;

A Complete History of U.S. Combat Aircraft Fly-Off Competitions, Winners, Losers, and What Might Have Been.

By Erik Simonsen, Specialty Press, 2016
 
grelmar said:
Pretty bird... Torpedo with wings...

View attachment 206671

View attachment 206672
Click to expand...

That is a lovely sleek thing, ain't it? Like the spiritual ancestor of the B-26. An aerial supermodel.

Meanwhile, sitting demurely far from the dance floor, the plump girls are ignored...

343887main_EC69-2358_full.jpg


IIRC, Steve Austin rolled one of those into a ball and the government spent six million dollars putting him back together again. Most of that money was spent on that badass red tracksuit.

[youtube]bGO57y4td-c[/youtube]
 
Dark Alley Dan said:
That is a lovely sleek thing, ain't it? Like the spiritual ancestor of the B-26. An aerial supermodel.

Meanwhile, sitting demurely far from the dance floor, the plump girls are ignored...

343887main_EC69-2358_full.jpg


IIRC, Steve Austin rolled one of those into a ball and the government spent six million dollars putting him back together again. Most of that money was spent on that badass red tracksuit.

[youtube]bGO57y4td-c[/youtube]
Click to expand...

Back in the era of "Hold my beer" school of test piloting.

The pilots of the test programs of the 40s-60s had an innate willingness to take risks that would see them washed out of Fighter school, let alone make it into the modern hyper-cold and calculating world of test pilots. The difference can be seen in the results. Massive generational level changes in aircraft on a semi-annual basis back then. Now... Well, they're still flying fighters developed in the 70's and 80's. The B-52 was first flown in 1952, with no sign of retirement.
 
Could be worse. Imagine being the poor schmuck that had to take the Il40 up for the first time.

ERP60b045_04_Il_40.jpg


il40-3.jpg


(Please forgive grainy pictures. Comrade Photographer was doing what he could with what he had.)

The jet-propelled followup to the Il2. Early tests indicated the muzzle flash off the undernose cannons blinded the pilots and effluvia from the barrels made the engines flame out. So modifications were made...

UUv5S1I.jpg


Nothing if not brave, Ilyushin Design Bureau.
 
bearhunter said:
When I was 4 years old, I lived in a small mining town, just above Princeton BC, called Copper Mountain. It's a huge open pit mine now.

This was in the early fifties and you had to see the overt racism/religious conflicts to believe it. Almost as bad as the Middle East and almost as nonsensical.

The mine was in desperate need of miners. They arranged for a group of "Displaced JEWS" from Latvia and Poland that were living in "temporary" internment camps in France since just after the end of WWII. After being released from the Concentration Camps they did their absolute best to get away from the Soviets, who weren't especially pleasant with them either.

They came into Copper Mountain on the Company Busses, along with their families. There weren't any Hassidic sects. That was a stipulation made by the mine owners. Still, it was like stepping back in time. They dressed in styles from 30 years in the past. Their clothes were worn but clean. The men hadn't shaved in what appeared to be a long time. None of them spoke English. Language wasn't a problem. The mines were used to dealing with it.

The hue and cry was not pleasant.

Still, they were given a special section of the bunkhouses as their own.

My first visual memory was their EYES. They were FLAT. No fear or emotion of any sort. They were just TIRED. Not BEATEN, just TIRED.

After a few months that started to change. The women bought new, stylish dresses and put on a little weight. The men always wore suits when they weren't working. No ties. They even polished the leather on their work boots every day.

They started speaking broken English but mostly German and Russian/Polish. EVERY single one of them carried a concealed weapon. Everything from knives to small pistols. The only place they didn't carry was when at work.

After about six months their EYES CHANGED. They started to show HOPE. They no longer looked desperate and confused. You see, they had proven themselves to be excellent miners. They usually made bonus every payday.

They played instruments, danced, died, married, had kids. They were ALIVE again.

The mine shut down a few years later. Everyone moved on. I never saw any of them again. They went to other mines, other jobs but with bright, intelligent EYES that no longer showed the horrors they had been subjected to.

Can you say PTSD???? They all suffered from it and mostly in silence. The thing is, they were a tight community and they helped each other out. They also helped out some of the miners that were suffering from undiagnosed PTSD.

Many of the Muslims/refugees/immigrants coming into Canada have issues that will need to be dealt with. I personally don't believe the vetting is stringent enough but there will never be any guarantees.

Yeah, wrong place for this but the pics brought back the old memories, along with Purple's comment.

They didn't speak of the horrors. Later another survivor I met explained that it was forbidden in some communities because it often brought out the depression that was always lurking under the surface. PTSD is seldom cured. The sufferers just learn to live with it while finding their inner strength.

TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
Click to expand...

Good post. but PTSD is not an incurable affliction. Heard a psychologist recently complaining that several members of the military who served in Afghanistan and were having issues felt that PTSD was a life sentence. The majority a those affected by whatever circumstance CAN have a full life. Time doesn't heal all wounds but it certainly can scab them over pretty good.
 
grelmar said:
Back in the era of "Hold my beer" school of test piloting.

The pilots of the test programs of the 40s-60s had an innate willingness to take risks that would see them washed out of Fighter school, let alone make it into the modern hyper-cold and calculating world of test pilots. The difference can be seen in the results. Massive generational level changes in aircraft on a semi-annual basis back then. Now... Well, they're still flying fighters developed in the 70's and 80's. The B-52 was first flown in 1952, with no sign of retirement.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these little birds were designed so the US intercontinental bombers could carry their own fighter defense force with them

Grizz
 
Mike Webb said:
Good post. but PTSD is not an incurable affliction. Heard a psychologist recently complaining that several members of the military who served in Afghanistan and were having issues felt that PTSD was a life sentence. The majority a those affected by whatever circumstance CAN have a full life. Time doesn't heal all wounds but it certainly can scab them over pretty good.
Click to expand...
there is an interesting netflix series called Berlin Babylon that incorporates the after effects of Battle Fatigue/ ‘shell shock’ suffered by WWI German veterans into its plot. It is a quite interesting component of the plot which also reflects some of the post war (WWI) issues in Germany
 
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The Royal Netherlands Navy Kortenaer class frigate HNLMS Piet Hein (F811), commissioned in 1981 and decommissioned in 1998, whereupon she was sold to the UAE Navy and recommissioned there as Al Emirat.

She served in the UAE Navy until 2008, and thereafter underwent a remarkable transformation, emerging in 2015 as the mega yacht Yaz (or Yas).

Piet-_Hein_Yaz.jpg


 
The hydrofoil HMCS Bras d'Or, Musée maritime du Québec, l'Islet, Canada
800px-HMCS_Bras_d%27Or_03.jpg



HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400) was a hydrofoil that served in the Canadian Forces from 1968 to 1971. During sea trials in 1969, the vessel exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph), making her the fastest unarmed warship in the world.
 
diopter said:
HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400) was a hydrofoil that served in the Canadian Forces from 1968 to 1971. During sea trials in 1969, the vessel exceeded 63 knots (117 km/h; 72 mph), making her the fastest unarmed warship in the world.
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A "warship" is, by traditional definition, armed. (Also, I think the Soviet KM 'Caspian Sea Monster' - more ship than plane (much like a hydrofoil in some respects) - would have held the speed title at the time.)
 
CV32 said:
A "warship" is, by traditional definition, armed. (Also, I think the Soviet KM 'Caspian Sea Monster' - more ship than plane (much like a hydrofoil in some respects) - would have held the speed title at the time.)
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Cottage Hill Bill said:
The Caspian Sea Monster was a ground effects craft, it flew, just not very high. The other models of ekranoplans carried anti ship missles. Smaller ones are in fairly wide spread use in Russia as river transportation.
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Cottage Hill Bill is correct.

Ekranoplans use the ground effect to "fly" at very low altitudes. When at speed, there is no part of the craft that is in direct contact with the surface of the water.

The Lun Class ekranoplan was quite the beast, with 6 dorsally mounted anti-ship missile launchers.

View attachment 207069

Classification is muddled by the early soviet projects (including the 60's era KM - a designation for experimental "ships"). They tied the projects in with the hydrofoil design bureaus, and labeled the test craft as experimental "fast ships" but this was a deliberate bit of misinformation for intelligence purposes. The Soviets assumed that a certain amount of their communication would be intercepted, so they were deliberately misleading in their naming conventions.


There's rumors floating around that they've re-opened research into the larger vessels. The Lun's were in service from the mid-80's through the end of the 90's.
 
Mike Webb said:
Good post. but PTSD is not an incurable affliction. Heard a psychologist recently complaining that several members of the military who served in Afghanistan and were having issues felt that PTSD was a life sentence. The majority a those affected by whatever circumstance CAN have a full life. Time doesn't heal all wounds but it certainly can scab them over pretty good.
Click to expand...


Scabbing over???? Is that like finding inner strength???? They didn't have any resources allocated to help them with their issues. Their Religion/Nationality may have had something to do with that. Times were much different 60+ years ago.

TURF THE LIBERALS IN 2019
 
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