Words true today as they were then

“The best equipment and technology, in the hands of soft or spoiled men, can accomplish nothing at all. “
https://qcurtius.com/2023/12/30/what-you-need-is-strength-equal-to-theirs/#more-19231

A US Marine’s story of his survival in Korea

Reminds me of a story Lex narrated…

https://pjmedia.com/culture/catherinesalgado/2023/10/01/a-u-s-marines-story-of-archangel-michael-the-korean-war-and-a-miracle-n1731448

The young U.S. Marine believed Michael the Archangel had come to rescue him from the seven Communist soldiers who tried to kill him. To some modern skeptics it might sound ridiculous, but miracles do happen—and there seems no easy natural explanation for what occurred.

Another Great Road Trip – Victoria, British Columbia

If you do a quick search through the Lexican’s blog, you will see that I like to travel. And in addition to plane travel, Road Trips are right up there. I’d have to say when the opportunity arises I am like a house-bound dog who suddenly bolts out the front door when he sees it briefly open.

Actually, as a pure traveling experience, I would put road trips ahead of cross-country plane trips. Because for me, the journey is as fun as the destination. It’s the unexpected people and places along the way that add to the memories. From an interesting used book seller (with 100,000+ books) in rural Montana to an old Army buddy in Colorado Springs, they would not have been known but for a car drive.

For this drive, both the journey and the destination were exciting.

The Battle of Midway and the Mutiny that ensured victory

I have given the 3-part analysis by Montemayor before, and I give them again here.

But there is a postscript — the analysis of the critical air flights that ended up destroying the Japanese carrier fleet  Ward Carroll, a Top Gun, interviews the author of a deep analysis of those flights, including the MUTINY that made it possible…

Montemayor Part 1

Montemayor Part 2

Montemayor Part 3

Ward Carrol – Wrong direction

Mending the Line

I must admit, my fishing days ended when I was about 17. But during that time, a friend since childhood and I used to wake up at obscene hours, walk several miles to the Sacramento River levee and put lines into the water while sitting by a campfire. Most of the time we could catch carp, which my friend, an avid hunter and fisherman to this day, would refer as a “trash fish”. You hardly knew when you had caught one other than feeling them nibble on your hook.

Jason Redman – An Inspiration

Today I was driving and turned on SiriusXM to hear Megyn Kelly interview a remarkable individual. The interview was so riveting that even when my errand was done, I parked in the shade to hear the rest of it.

Jason is a former Navy SEAL with quite a story of resilience, and an ability to overcome many obstacles that would sink many of us.

Because of his small stature, people tried to discourage him, including a Navy recruiter, of even becoming a SEAL. A second recruiter sometime later encouraged him to tryout.

From the time of WW2, the attrition rate for SEAL candidates (and their predecessors the UDTs) – has been a near constant 75%. Of every 4 who start the class, 3 will have dropped out by graduation. Jason talks a bit about the infamous “Hell Week“, and how that forces so many to quit.

A Visit To Wendover Airfield

The Wendover Base Operations Building with restored Control Tower. Today a sleepy airport, 80 years ago a very busy place

I have always enjoyed seeing places of historical importance, with their evidence of importance hidden in plain sight. Virginia City, Nevada is such a place. To most of the visitors, it is simply an old western town whose shops now sell ice cream and T Shirts.

For those who know the history, it’s where Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. It’s a place that produced so much silver that it built San Francisco, and was the beginning of a few major corporations today.

The Wendover Airfield is another such place. My curiosity about it was built over some years. On a past cross country trip of some years ago, I stopped there and saw dozens of old wooden buildings whose condition reminded me of the Bodie State Historic Park, which is kept in “arrested decay”. And there was a huge hanger just to the east of the main facility. It looked a bit different from a typical hanger, as it has offices or workshops all along the sides.

Hidden in plain sight.

A Poem From Wendover Army Airfield

“WENDOVER FIELD”

We are the boys from Wendover Field,
Earning our meager pay
Guarding the folks with millions
For one sixty five a day.

Out in the wind swept desert.
Wendover is the spot,
Fighting the terrible dust storms
In the land that God forgot.

Out in the brush with rifles
Eating and drinking the dust
Doing the work of a chain gang
and to damn tired to cuss.

Out with the snakes and lizards
Heres where the boys get blue
Out in the wind swept desert
Two thousand miles from you.

No one cares if we are living
No one gives a damn
Back home we are soon forgotten
cause we are loaned to Uncle Sam.

All night the wind keeps howling
Its more than one can stand
Hell folks, we’re not convicts
We’re defenders of the land.

For the duration we must stand it
Many years of life we’ll miss
Don’t let the draft board get you
and for hell’s sake don’t enlist.

Out on this Utah desert
Its one helluva spot
Fighting in a terrific heat wave
In the land that God forgot.

But we are the men from the U.S.A.
and we’ll go without green grass
and some day we’ll catch Hitler
And shove Wendover up his —-.

We’re up at six each morning
Digging in the sand
No, we’re not convicts
We’re defenders of this land.

We spend our leisure hours writing to the gals
Hoping when we return again
They’re not married to our pals.

We have washed a million dishes
and have peeled as many spuds
We have our hands all blistered
From washing dirty duds.

All the inspections we have had
are worse than we can tell
and I hope its nice in heaven
For I know what its like in hell.

When this old life is over
and we work no more
We’ll do our final dress parade
On the Bright Golden Shore.

Then St. Peter will greet us
and suddenly he’ll yell
“Come in my boys from Wendover,
You’ve served your time in HELL.”

Getting More Complicated By Making It Simple

My old Samsung 40′ LCD TV, at 8-10 years old, finally gave up. And unlike the old days where you’d take it to a TV repair shop, or the really, really old days where a repairman would come to your house (I can still remember them swapping tubes in the living room), when these things give up, you might as well toss them.

Only its hard to find someone who wants an old non-functional 40′ LCD TV.

Anyway.

Since the price has plummeted on these (my old TV was close to $1000, and the new 40′ TVs are $200-$300, I elected for a 55″ Smart TV. Although looking at some of those TVs at BestBuy, some looked big enough that they were ready to eat your house. And this boxed “small” TV wouldn’t even fit in my car.

A delivery service delivered it this morning.

Bay Area Day Trips and the Computer History Museum

I recently made a visit was to the Computer History Museum in the heart of Silicon Valley, and learned some surprising facts about computers, going back to ancient Greece. What surprised me is that electronic computers didn’t suddenly appear in the 1940s with ENIAC, but had their germination in 1890 with the first widespread use of punch cards. And that was also the really beginning of IBM.

Learn about the origins of MP3 music files, and the song from ground zero – and many other things! Know how the term “counter” became applied to the kitchen?

Lots of pictures and more, and we are running out of room here. It’s over at Chicago Boyz.