This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Blue Skies

  • Funeral for Mus2c Francis E. Dick (Lost at Pearl Harbor)

    Last September, DPAA announced that it had accounted for Mus2c Francis E. Dick, crewmember of the USS Oklahoma who had been lost at Pearl Harbor.

    Per DPAA, Mus2c Dick will be buried later this week – on Wednesday, 13 February 2019, to be precise – in Vancouver, Washington (state). Regrettably, DPAA does not seem to have posted the location for his funeral.

    If any TAH readers have the precise location for the funeral, please post it in comments below. And if any readers are in that area and have the time, here’s an opportunity to give someone lost at Pearl Harbor a proper final send-off.

  • ‘Captain Dan’ Strikes Again

    gary sinise Gary Sinise Flew 1,000 Children of Fallen Soldiers to Disney World for Christmas
    By: Justin Caruso

    “Each one of these children who are going on these airplanes have lost a parent in military services—either combat related or illness or unfortunately suicide sometimes,” The Gary Sinise Foundation founder said. “We wanna take care of these kids and make sure they know we don’t forget.”

    The families took 15 planes and stayed at Disney for five days, The Epoch Times reports.

    Anna Carrera @AnnaWTHR
    What a sendoff for families as they board the Snowball Express! @INDairport -> Chicago -> Orlando for a special holiday trip in honor of their loved ones who died while serving our country. @GarySiniseFound @GarySinise @DoubleGee18 @WTHRcom #WTHRSunrise
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    8:35 AM – Dec 8, 2018
    68 people are talking about this

    The Forrest Gump actor said in a social media post, “We Remember. Each flag representing the fallen hero of over 600 families attending GarySiniseFound 2018 Snowball Express event at WaltDisneyWorld Thank you to these Gold Star families, our amazing volunteers and all who supported our event.”

    CPT Dan FlagsWe Remember.
    @GarySiniseFound 2018 Snowball Express event at @WaltDisneyWorld
    Thank you to these Gold Star families, our amazing volunteers and all who supported our event.
    8,172
    4:03 PM – Dec 12, 2018
    1,791 people are talking about this

    “Thank you so much @AmericanAir for the amazing support you give to those who serve and @GarySiniseFound . A tremendous spirit of volunteerism and giving back to our special Snowball families of the fallen. It’s been a great year. More to come in 2019. We Remember,” he said.

    The 63-year-old actor has been a strong supporter of U.S. servicemen and women throughout his career. Last year, he visited Americans stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Christmas.

    “Thank you to these brave men and women for your service to our country,” he said in a social media post.

    I was going to write something here to sort of wrap it up, but the only thing I could come up with is, “Thank you, Gary.” That and it got a bit dusty in here.
    Read the entire article here at Breitbart News

  • The Fallacy of Relying on Computer Modeling

    weather computer

    By- Russ Vaughn

    For those of you who are tempted to believe the latest government report predicting dire consequences for the world in the next eighty to one hundred years due to anthropogenic global warming, a regular contributor over at American Thinker, Dr. Brian C. Joondeph, provides this food for thought.

    The climate assessment is based on computer models, attempting to predict events 50 to 100 years in the future. Recall the spaghetti line plots predicting hurricane tracks, each line based on a computer model, dozens of such lines sending the hurricane north, south, straight ahead, or harmlessly out to sea. If computer modeling were easy and accurate, only one line would be needed, reflecting the model that correctly predicts the hurricane track. And these predictions are for a week into the future, not a century.

    When you consider that each one of those variously colored lines represents a short-term prediction by an individual computer, usually a week or less, and more importantly, only one is likely to be the most closely correct, it should make you think twice about placing any faith in computer models projecting out decades into the future.

    And yet half this country seems willing to gut the American economy to come into compliance with the behavioral, cultural changes the Democrats have deemed necessary to avoid the calamity of global warming predicted by nothing more than these computer models. What’s even more alarming is that these same foolish Democrats believe they have the best models for this nation’s economic development. But most scary of all is that they want us to entrust the support and future development of our armed forces, to entrust them with America’s very existence as the world’s leading economy and military power.

    This old skeptic can’t help but believe the Democrats economic and defense models most likely look very much like those multi-colored hurricane projections.

    Note- Russ dislikes fanfare. I dislike not giving credit where credit is due, but I’ll make accommodations. Especially for Russ. AW1Ed

  • An “Unclaimed” Veteran’s Funeral

    In a nursing home in Ashland City on 4 November 2018, Leo Stokely died at age 69.

    Someone in a nursing home dying is not terribly uncommon. Given his age, neither is the fact that Stokely was a USMC veteran who’d done a tour in Vietnam.

    As a veteran Stokely was set to receive a military funeral, to be held on 9 November. Unfortunately, Stokely’s remains were unclaimed. None of his family members could be located.

    Enter the Cheatam County Veteran’s Service Office, and Bob Counter.

    Counter posted about the unfortunate turn of events on the organization’s Facebook page in an attempt to locate any of Stokely’s surviving family. In that, he was unsuccessful.

    However, Counter’s Facebook post went viral. And when Stokely’s funeral was held on a cold, rainy Friday . . . he had a proper send-off. Literally hundreds of individuals showed up to pay their respects to a man they didn’t know.

    Fox News has an article with a few more details. It’s short, and IMO worth a read.

    Thanks, Mr. Counter. Yeah, you were just “doing your job”. Thanks anyway.

  • Officials ID WWII veteran killed in vintage fighter crash during charity ride

    pecos billPecos Bill
    Loyd Brumfield, Breaking News producer

    A pilot and passenger, both WWII veterans, were killed when a vintage World War II airplane crashed into the parking lot of an apartment complex Saturday afternoon in Fredericksburg.

    The crash destroyed the P-51 Mustang plane and several cars, according to Austin television station KTBC.

    Cowden Ward, the pilot and owner of “Pecos Bill,” has offered hundreds of rides to veterans at annual reunions since 2013, National WWII Glider Pilot Association chairman Otto Lyons wrote in a statement.

    Ward, of Burnet, flew a B-17 in the war and started the Pecos Bill Freedom Flyers to take WWII veterans and Purple Heart recipients on flights, the foundation said in a Facebook post.

    “We hope that everyone will remember his infectious smile, his passion for flying our nation’s veterans, and above all remember him for the amazing pilot, friend and caring person he was,” the post said.

    The only saving grace in this tragedy is no one on the ground was injured. Fair winds and following seas, gentlemen. The entire article may be found at the Dallas News

    Thanks to GDContractor for the link.

     

  • Gore: ‘We Have a Global Emergency’

    old woodenhead

    OK, the actual title is, “Gore: Jet Stream ‘Getting Loopier and Wavier,’ So ‘We Have a Global Emergency’”

    Too easy. The only thing loopier and “wavier” which doesn’t mean what he thinks it means, is Gore himself and his ridiculous declarations about the weather.

    Gore was parroting this week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in which 91 authors and editors from 40 countries concluded there’s currently a 12-year window to make “far-reaching and unprecedented changes” to avert dramatic effects of global warming. Exactly who these authors and editors are, and what qualifications they posses, was left unsaid.

    Gore told PBS in an interview aired today that “the earmarks of this latest storm… are worth paying attention to.”

    “Hurricane Michael intensified as it reached the coast. And that’s something relatively new,” he said. “And the reason for it is, the ocean waters are much warmer than normal, so it’s not getting cold waters churned up to weaken the storm. It just keeps on getting stronger.”

    Its called the hurricane season for a reason- conditions are ripe for the formation of these super storms from June to November, just like every other year since the beginning of weather watching. The ocean waters have been warming all summer, and won’t start to cool for another month or so.

    “Even without hurricanes, we get these so-called rain bombs that just devastate the places where it falls,” he said. “…Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Harvey just stayed in place for days and days and days. That’s something new too.”

    Try again. Storms react to local conditions, and one stalling out is neither new nor unusual.

    “And it’s because we’re beginning to see the disruption of wind currents, along with ocean currents. And so the Northern Hemisphere jet stream that normally moves these storms out to the east is getting loopier and wavier and sometimes disorganized. So this is really serious stuff. We have a global emergency. And you use a phrase like that, and some people immediately say, OK, calm down, that it can’t be that bad. But it is.”

    What could possibly save us from this dire emergency?

    The IPCC report said that to keep warming at 1.5°C global net emissions of carbon dioxide would need to fall by 45 percent by 2030 and be “net zero” by 2050. Guterres said “billions of trees” must be planted and coal phased out by 2050.

    Carbon credits for sale, cheap! Wonder if anyone has thought through the effects of “net zero” emissions of a naturally occurring compound necessary for the survival of all the plant life on the planet?

    Yeah, me neither. This drivel is brought to us by PJ Media

  • Space crew survives plunge to Earth after Russian rocket fails

    russian launch

    October 11, 2018

    By Shamil Zhumatov

    BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan (Reuters) – The two-man U.S.-Russian crew of a Soyuz spacecraft en route to the International Space Station was forced to make a dramatic emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Thursday when their rocket failed in mid-air.

    U.S. astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely without harm and rescue crews who raced to locate them on the Kazakh steppe quickly linked up with them, NASA, the U.S. space agency, and Russia’s Roscosmos said.

    Seems the second stage engine failed to ignite upon first stage separation. The Soyuz capsule carrying the two men then separated from the malfunctioning rocket and made what NASA called a “steep ballistic descent” to Earth. The crew experienced loads of up to 7Gs on the descent.

    Russian recovery crews dispatched from Baikonur aboard helicopters reached Ovchinin and Hague by radio before arriving at the landing site and reported both crew members were in good shape. Photographs later were posted by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, showing both men relaxing in Dzhezkazgan, chatting with support personnel.

    It was not immediately known what might have gone wrong with the Soyuz FG booster, but Dmitri Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos, said a State Commission would investigate the mishap, adding in a tweet “the Soyuz MS emergency rescue system worked. The crew is saved.

    The failure is a setback for the Russian space program, and the latest in a string of mishaps. Time for SpaceX to step up to the next level, and provide manned missions to the ISS.

    The entire article may be viewed Here.

  • On This Day In The Navy, 1918

    sopwith camel

    LTJG David S. Ingalls, while on a test flight in a Sopwith Camel, sighted an enemy two-seat Rumpler over Nieuport. In company with another Camel he attacked and scored his fifth aerial victory in six weeks to become the U.S. Navy’s first (and only) WWI ace, with six total credited aerial victories.

    Flying the Sopwith Camel around Dunkirk, Ingalls began to chalk up victories. One of his final air to air victories was a result of an engine failure. Engine out and descending to a suitable field, his engine restarted, and he was able to regain flight. However, he was now behind enemy lines. As a result, he was able to attack the Germans from behind and destroyed a Fokker D.VII.

    The entire article can be viewed Here.

    Anyone who has owned an English motorcycle or sports car can empathize with Ingalls’ balky engine.