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1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 16 – Guadalcanal – Battle of the Eastern Solomons (1/3)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 16 (1/3) Thus begins the day of 23 August, 1942 – Battle of the Eastern Solomons [24–25 August 1942] At breakfast Fletcher read a special Cincpac Ultra message advising that the “Orange striking force” of two Shokaku-class carriers, two fast battleships, and four heavy cruisers was now “indicated” to be “in or near Truk area,” and thus not nearer to Cactus than one thousand miles. “In Truk-Rabaul area” was “Cinc Second Fleet” with “possibly” two fast battleships and “definitely” four heavy cruisers. This valuable intelligence, however, failed to answer the prime question of when the assault [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 15 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; Cactus (4/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 15 (4/4) “…the only place on Earth where you could stand up to your knees in mud and still get dust in your eyes.” Marion Carl First Marine Ace by Roy Grinnell. Capt. Marion Carl over Henderson Field – the first Marine Ace of WWII, finishing with 18.5 kills. Awarded the Navy Cross. Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Ernest King pushed hard in Washington for operations in the Pacific – Navy ops. The victory at Midway gave him the leverage he needed in the Europe first Washington D.C. comings and goings. King directed [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 14 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; CV Withdrawal (3/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 14 (3/4) “It is true, Marines will take a pounding until their own air gets established (about ten days or so), but they can dig in, hole up, and wait. Extra losses are a localized operation. This is balanced against a potential National tragedy. Loss of our fleet or one or more of these carriers is a real, worldwide tragedy.” Colonel Melvin J. Maas, USMC TF-61 Staff TF-61 at Guadalcanal: three of the for carriers in the Pacific in August 1942 – Wasp, Saratoga, and Enterprise. In a series on carrier operations at the beginning of [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 13 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; Problems (2/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 13 (2/4) It was one thing to defend Midway operating in open ocean; being closely tied to the geography of the island and surrounding waters to provide air support was a whole other thing. With intelligence far inferior to that during Midway, staying in one general area exposed the carriers to submarine, land and sea based attack. There was much to be learned – at the expense of all participants. First Day’s Air Support -Problems Lieutenant Commander Wallace M. Beakley, Commander Wasp Air Group (CWAG), debrief of operations over Tulagi on the bridge wing of the USS Wasp (CV-7), [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 12 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; First Day Overview (1/4)
RS Note: With the close of Chapter 2 of the Testimony of Pilot series, this posts continues with the 1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier series picking up with the story of the initial attack on Guadalcanal 7-8 August, 1942. Given the long break here is the link to Part #9 the Guadalcanal Introduction: http://rememberedsky.com/?p=2201 Blown Slick Series #13 Part 12 (1/4) First Day’s Air Support – Overview An hour before dawn on 7 August, Dog Day, Fletcher’s three TF-61 carriers (with Noyes, CTG-61.1, in tactical command) closed Point Victor, thirty miles west of Guadalcanal. … TF-61 was ready to begin the first Allied [...]
Testimony of Pilot (13): Chapter Two – Final Reflection on “harnessing the sky”
Testimony of Pilot# 13 This second chapter takes its characterization as “harnessing the sky.” Remembering the sky trajectories from Kill Devil Hill to Paris to the Battles of Britain and Midway, to transcontinental airlines and to the edge of the atmosphere and eventually the Moon provide superb “this is no s…t” stories of so many great men and women. They were not only brave risk takers and great “sticks” but extraordinary engineers using aircraft as their data sources and computers in a continual effort to stretch the envelop of flight. Here to complete Chapter Two ARE reflections on three of the greatest with most significant impact on [...]
Testimony of Pilot (12): So, Where Does the Sky End?
Testimony of Pilot# 12 The whole history of the space program is part of moving on and making life better for people on Earth. I want to carry on their work on through the Shuttle, the Station, and the space exploration initiative. I think that’s the way I see it now, and that’s the way I will continue to feel, throughout this flight and, and even afterwards. Eileen Collins Space Shuttle Endeavor comes to Los Angeles to retire to museum life. James Tiberius Kirk, Where Are You? Update and Re-post of Rememberedsky’s fourth offering on 21 September 2012 Ask any pilot, [...]
Testimony of Pilot (11): Cockpits – Situational Awareness in the the Arena
Testimony of Pilot# 11 An airplane is just a bunch of sticks and wires and cloth, a tool for learning about the sky and about what kind of person I am, when I fly. An airplane stands for freedom, for joy, for the power to understand, and to demonstrate that understanding. Those things aren’t destructible. Nothing by Chance, Richard Bach SPAD XIII cockpit (c. 1918) as flown by Eddie Rickenbacker in the 94th AERO Squadron and the F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter “glass” cockpit (2018) Once I determined to make Trap’s story of the F4U Corsair development and test the [...]
Testimony of Pilot (10): Eileen Collins – Return to Flight
Testimony of Pilot# 10 In 1990, Eileen Collins was only the second woman to graduate as a test pilot and be selected as a NASA astronaut. She became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission during the Discovery’s rendezvous with Mir space station in 1995 and became the first female commander of a US spacecraft on Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93. Her fourth and final mission was to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) as commander of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-114 which heralded the “return to flight” of the Space Shuttle after the Columbia disaster. Discovery launched on [...]
Testimony of Pilot (9): Bob Hoover – the Best There Ever Was
Testimony of Pilot #9 the greatest pilot I ever saw.- Chuck Yeager Hoover’s “the finest acrobatic pilot we’ve seen in our lifetime” -Astronaut Wally Schirra greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived – Jimmy Doolittle Diversity of experience over their careers is certainly a characteristic of the aviators featured in this second offering of “harnessing the sky” stories within the testimony series. Bob Hoover taught himself aerobatics as a teenager, as a fighter pilot shot down a FW-190, served as a prisoner of war with aviators from various countries/services, escaped and stole a German fighter, as an Air Corps test pilot, among [...]
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1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 16 – Guadalcanal – Battle of the Eastern Solomons (1/3)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 16 (1/3) Thus begins the day of 23 August, 1942 – Battle of the Eastern Solomons [24–25 August 1942] At breakfast Fletcher read a special Cincpac Ultra message advising that the “Orange striking force” of two Shokaku-class carriers, two fast battleships, and four heavy cruisers was now “indicated” to be “in or near Truk area,” and thus not nearer to Cactus than one thousand miles. “In Truk-Rabaul area” was “Cinc Second Fleet” with “possibly” two fast battleships and “definitely” four heavy cruisers. This valuable intelligence, however, failed to answer the prime question of when the assault [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 15 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; Cactus (4/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 15 (4/4) “…the only place on Earth where you could stand up to your knees in mud and still get dust in your eyes.” Marion Carl First Marine Ace by Roy Grinnell. Capt. Marion Carl over Henderson Field – the first Marine Ace of WWII, finishing with 18.5 kills. Awarded the Navy Cross. Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Ernest King pushed hard in Washington for operations in the Pacific – Navy ops. The victory at Midway gave him the leverage he needed in the Europe first Washington D.C. comings and goings. King directed [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 14 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; CV Withdrawal (3/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 14 (3/4) “It is true, Marines will take a pounding until their own air gets established (about ten days or so), but they can dig in, hole up, and wait. Extra losses are a localized operation. This is balanced against a potential National tragedy. Loss of our fleet or one or more of these carriers is a real, worldwide tragedy.” Colonel Melvin J. Maas, USMC TF-61 Staff TF-61 at Guadalcanal: three of the for carriers in the Pacific in August 1942 – Wasp, Saratoga, and Enterprise. In a series on carrier operations at the beginning of [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 13 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; Problems (2/4)
Blown Slick Series #13 Part 13 (2/4) It was one thing to defend Midway operating in open ocean; being closely tied to the geography of the island and surrounding waters to provide air support was a whole other thing. With intelligence far inferior to that during Midway, staying in one general area exposed the carriers to submarine, land and sea based attack. There was much to be learned – at the expense of all participants. First Day’s Air Support -Problems Lieutenant Commander Wallace M. Beakley, Commander Wasp Air Group (CWAG), debrief of operations over Tulagi on the bridge wing of the USS Wasp (CV-7), [...]
1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 12 – Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; First Day Overview (1/4)
RS Note: With the close of Chapter 2 of the Testimony of Pilot series, this posts continues with the 1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier series picking up with the story of the initial attack on Guadalcanal 7-8 August, 1942. Given the long break here is the link to Part #9 the Guadalcanal Introduction: http://rememberedsky.com/?p=2201 Blown Slick Series #13 Part 12 (1/4) First Day’s Air Support – Overview An hour before dawn on 7 August, Dog Day, Fletcher’s three TF-61 carriers (with Noyes, CTG-61.1, in tactical command) closed Point Victor, thirty miles west of Guadalcanal. … TF-61 was ready to begin the first Allied [...]
Testimony of Pilot (13): Chapter Two – Final Reflection on “harnessing the sky”
Testimony of Pilot# 13 This second chapter takes its characterization as “harnessing the sky.” Remembering the sky trajectories from Kill Devil Hill to Paris to the Battles of Britain and Midway, to transcontinental airlines and to the edge of the atmosphere and eventually the Moon provide superb “this is no s…t” stories of so many great men and women. They were not only brave risk takers and great “sticks” but extraordinary engineers using aircraft as their data sources and computers in a continual effort to stretch the envelop of flight. Here to complete Chapter Two ARE reflections on three of the greatest with most significant impact on [...]
Testimony of Pilot (12): So, Where Does the Sky End?
Testimony of Pilot# 12 The whole history of the space program is part of moving on and making life better for people on Earth. I want to carry on their work on through the Shuttle, the Station, and the space exploration initiative. I think that’s the way I see it now, and that’s the way I will continue to feel, throughout this flight and, and even afterwards. Eileen Collins Space Shuttle Endeavor comes to Los Angeles to retire to museum life. James Tiberius Kirk, Where Are You? Update and Re-post of Rememberedsky’s fourth offering on 21 September 2012 Ask any pilot, [...]
Testimony of Pilot (11): Cockpits – Situational Awareness in the the Arena
Testimony of Pilot# 11 An airplane is just a bunch of sticks and wires and cloth, a tool for learning about the sky and about what kind of person I am, when I fly. An airplane stands for freedom, for joy, for the power to understand, and to demonstrate that understanding. Those things aren’t destructible. Nothing by Chance, Richard Bach SPAD XIII cockpit (c. 1918) as flown by Eddie Rickenbacker in the 94th AERO Squadron and the F-35 Lightning Joint Strike Fighter “glass” cockpit (2018) Once I determined to make Trap’s story of the F4U Corsair development and test the [...]
Testimony of Pilot (10): Eileen Collins – Return to Flight
Testimony of Pilot# 10 In 1990, Eileen Collins was only the second woman to graduate as a test pilot and be selected as a NASA astronaut. She became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle mission during the Discovery’s rendezvous with Mir space station in 1995 and became the first female commander of a US spacecraft on Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93. Her fourth and final mission was to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) as commander of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-114 which heralded the “return to flight” of the Space Shuttle after the Columbia disaster. Discovery launched on [...]
Testimony of Pilot (9): Bob Hoover – the Best There Ever Was
Testimony of Pilot #9 the greatest pilot I ever saw.- Chuck Yeager Hoover’s “the finest acrobatic pilot we’ve seen in our lifetime” -Astronaut Wally Schirra greatest stick-and-rudder man who ever lived – Jimmy Doolittle Diversity of experience over their careers is certainly a characteristic of the aviators featured in this second offering of “harnessing the sky” stories within the testimony series. Bob Hoover taught himself aerobatics as a teenager, as a fighter pilot shot down a FW-190, served as a prisoner of war with aviators from various countries/services, escaped and stole a German fighter, as an Air Corps test pilot, among [...]