Recent content by oldcrowcv63

This aircraft, based at Naval Air Reserve Station Squantum in Quincy Massachusetts. NAS Squantum was an early precursor to NAS South Weymouth's Shea Field. Many WW2 pilots were trained at NAS Squantum. Well known reserve officer CDR Jack Shea, served there before the war. Shea was lost on...

Any forum members who have professional military or civil aviation experience ever encounter ball lightning while in an aircraft? Most pilots and aircrew have witnessed St. Elmo's Fire at one time or another, but Ball lightning is quite rare. I'm curious to know if your aviation experience...

Of course, d-dog being among the, perhaps not so, "few" and worthy of his own :pilotsalute:. Not being shy about my own poorly informed state and perhaps for the benefit of others who may be similarly disadvantaged, I will ask, "what is a P-509?"

This last and about 15,000 other posts by SR6 makes me believe he is a resuscitated incarnation of Kelly Johnson, Don Berlin, or Ed Heinemann.... just come back to haunt wannabes. No disrespect meant to a few folks here who can draw on similar levels of experience, knowledge and...

Now the Ranger in early 1942: (from Wikipedia) Ranger had just returned from a Caribbean patrol on December 8, 1941 after the PH attack. She departed on 21 December, 1941, for a South Atlantic patrol perhaps awaiting port facilities to became available for a variety of wartime mods to be...

The film Malta Story can be seen on You tube:

Just thought I'd check to see what both Ranger & Wasp were up to after PH to Wasp's deployment to the South Pacific. Of course Wasp's history is perhaps a bit better known that Ranger's having been used twice as an aircraft ferry to launch Spitfires to reinforce the air defense of Malta...

Probably just cutting class with Charlie Brown.

Probably smokin' a joint behind the Gymnasium. o_O

There are so many unknowns, but I think the basic US strategy was sound and would have played out, even if two CVs were lost early, I expect the Coral Sea operation to happen along historical lines to maintain the vital line of comm with Australia. King and Nimitz were aligned on that strategy...

With the loss of two carriers.... Desperate times indeed. On the other hand.. Prior to Midway, the US did lose two carriers. One from a torpedo in January and one as a result of the Coral Sea Battle. But once again, in the Carrier battles of 1942, we find that they tend to be knock-down...

Yep that's where the numbers of fighters and time line came from. Thanks for noting which I should have done. Also, I think I accelerated the F6F time line. Not sure when land based F6F's might have appeared, but believe that Carrier based F6F's didn't arrive in SOPAC until August.

In this scenario starting at the Wake Rescue about December 20-25, the Yorktown is barely in the Pacific so citing its loss, presumably you meant at Midway some 6 months later seems premature. There are earlier considerations that might ultimately effect later events like Midway. I assumed the...

The complete film: Wing and a Prayer is on You tube: Is interesting to see a 1944 Hollywood depiction of the censored story of the Midway Battle. No doubt folks nearer my generation (born in the forties) will have seen it, but it might be a revelation for younger generation who may have...

It's unfortunate that accounts publicized immediately after ithe battle identified the USAAF B-17s as the vehicle by which the IJN carriers had been destroyed. One popular and reasonably well done 1944 film promoted the TBDs as the agent of destruction (Wing and a Prayer). It won an academy...