November 2011 - Argghhh!

Boq

A couple of days ago, an email popped up... John- Big fan of the site, thought you might appreciate this photo taken last week onboard USCGC DALLAS (WHEC 716) one of the LAST ships around to have ever fired her main gun in anger. Vietnam veteran she'll be decommissioned this march after her last JIATF patrol. The emailer was Commander Carlson, XO of Dallas, and a man of discerning taste in his internet reading. And he was right. Nice gun ***! Click that turret for a larger version! The following...

If you are on Facebook, look up "Duke the Funeral Horse" for an amazing set of entries on the return of Staff Sergeant Cowdrey. The picture above reminded me of a song - more specifically, the end of the song "Free and Green" by David Kincaid, which was written about the Irish soldiers during the Civil War (though it is not contemporaneous to the war, but was written far more recently): Well, we took his body home And the drums and pipes did drone And pulled a fine black casket...

Specifically the very first clue with the most recent clue. From this view, Og should start to feel some confidence in his instincts - which we will confirm with the second pic... and at the same time, answer Og's question from yesterday... "Is it a firearm?"

Boq

Okay, time to give all y'all a respite from nail-bitery.It's the Mi-17 pilot's-view mirror of his slingload. In this case, *my" view of the slingload. One of the advantages of the Mi-17's collective friction system is that it immobilizes the collective when it's engaged, thus allowing the pilot (me) to remove one hand and snap a pic. Which is what I didn't do (I may be nuts, but I'm not suicidal) , because the other pilot was flying at the time and my hands were otherwise...

Dave, over at the Thunder Run, has a Christmas bleg that won't cost you a dim e. For our Viet Vet helo-drivers, this is one that can probably be quickly resolved via your networks. Bill? V29, Baby-san, et.al.?