Piper Olivia Shaw-McConnell

The youngest Granddaughter of Casa de Sharon y Glenn.

Ain’t she pretty?

A Movie Worth Seeing

I decided I wanted to see a movie last night – finding one that doesn’t involve cartoon characters or car crashes is difficult these days – looked through Fandango and decided to try this movie.

I have always been impressed with Russell Crowe as an actor – one of the most versatile I have seen – portraying everything from a Depression-era boxer to an British Royal Navy Captain.

In this movie, his directorial debut, he plays an Australian farmer whose family has been decimated by  a WW1 battle that in the US is just a name and a date but to those of the ANZAC forces – Australia and New Zealand, Gallipoli  is part of the national consciousness.

With nothing left to live for in Australia, he goes there in search of the graves of his 3 sons. A year after the end of the First World War the Ottoman Empire has collapsed and Turkey is facing upheaval.

Cinematography, action and a good screenplay – it is all there.You have adventure, drama and romance.

With a plot for grown ups.

It is an independent film and in limited release, but if the The Water Diviner is in your town, it’s worth seeing.

A New Life For Twinkies and Ding Dongs

There probably aren’t too many blogs that will tell you about lightening-struck F/A-18s and then America’s legendary junk food – but here’s the story.

Just finished it in my Forbes Magazine about how 2 billionaires noted for rescuing sick companies (over 80 so far) and making them successful.

The amazing thing I got out of this article was that by modernizing the plants 500 people are doing what 9,000 did before.

Lightening Strikes 2 F/A 18 Pilots

Quite a read of 2 pilots in F/A-18s who were struck by lightening and their efforts to return…

H/T to OldAFSarge

Shooting Iwo Jima

Joe Rosenthal & AP

Just saw an interesting program on Netflix. Just about everyone has heard of Joe Rosenthal and his iconic B & W photo of the flag-raising on Mt Suribachi .

It got him a Pulitzer prize and world-wide fame.  Less known about that was that it was actually the 2nd flag to go up there. I read the book Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley some years ago, that gave an excellent account of both Iwo and the Rosenthal photo.

How many of you have heard of Bill Genaust?

Top Gear & Jeremy Clarkson

Photo Courtesy of the BBC

By now, those of you who have any gas [petrol] in your veins have heard about the firing of Jeremy Clarkson from the hit BBC series Top Gear.

You can’t punch your producer without having some kind of repercussion.

To tell you the truth, I hadn’t even heard of Top Gear until a couple of years ago. Being a luddite, I have never had cable or satellite TV.

Or more accurately, I didn’t want to spent $100-$150/month just to get 4-5 programs that I would want.

But I did learn about streaming, and when I saw 20 seasons of Top Gear on Netflix, I ripped through them in about 6 months.

Shayne Meder and the Team finished the MH-60

The Best Looking Helo Paint Scheme Ever.

The Scorpions CAG Bird is finished.

Shayne Meder with the Scorpions CO, CDR Bobby Brown. I do believe the Skipper is very happy with the results.

Flygirlpainter does her thing on a brand new 60 Romeo for HSM-49, The Scorpions

I thought The Lexicans would like to see this. Shayne is a friend of mine and she has a gift that allows her to do this amazing art work on these helicopters.

Among The Joshua Trees

Shayne Meder

Master Sergeant

United States Air Force

Retired

Damn this gal does some seriously awesome work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She is doing the HSM-49 MH-60R CAG Bird as she has done all of the Helo Squadron CAG Birds based at NAS North Island.

I asked her if I could blog the progress of this project and she said to take them from Flygirlpainter at Facebook and to go for it. I have done two at http://oldretiredpettyofficer.blogspot.com/ already. Then I realized that not everyone reads that blog, so I am saturation bombing on a less regular cycle here at ATJT………………….

Please enjoy, my friends!

Masking Off for all those colors

Lay out work

Detail Stuff

Business End

Official Squadron Patch

Masking the Pylon

She brought the Peeps!

Scorpion Red!

Stinger 100, Factory Fresh!

The Tease

The Nose

The Red Is On

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From theBrigade: USS Ronald Reagan visiting Pearl Harbor Memorial (25 HQ Photos)

Special Greetings to OldAFSarge and The WSO.
That day almost one year ago now, will always be so very, very special.

Among The Joshua Trees

As most of my followers know, I was fortunate to be able to spend a day on this Fine Ship last April 9(2014) with Christopher Goodrich and his Daughter, the WSO. It was, except for the marriage of my children and the birth of my grandchildren, The Best Day since I retired from the US Navy in September of 1993.

This is a somewhat solemn post as when we enter or leave Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Honors must be rendered with the Traditional Manning The Rail…………in Dress Uniform…………………….Attention To Port! Hand Salute………………………..Too!

In the old days we would exit on the opposite side of Ford Island and do the very same for The Utah.

Pride

Tradition

Service

A few samples follow………………………………

The USS Missouri and The USS Arizona Memorial. The two ships that represent the beginning and the ending of World War 2.

It has been a long time since…

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