USS Indiana

USS Indiana (Battleship No. 1) was the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time Authorized in 1890 and commissioned five years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indiana_(BB-1)



USS Indiana (BB-58), a South Dakota-class battleship, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the 19th state. Her keel was laid down on 20 November 1939 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 21 November 1941 sponsored by Mrs. Lewis C. Robbins, daughter of Indiana governor Henry F. Schricker, and commissioned on 30 April 1942, Captain Aaron Stanton Merrill in command.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indiana_(BB-58)

GUNS (Virtual State of the Union 2013)

For Sale

A very clean used eMachine computer that would be great as a second computer or surfing the net and email. Comes with Office 2010

CPU 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2650e
Memory 2GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics 128MB (shared) Nvidia Geforce 6150Se (integrated)
Hard drives 160GB 7,200rpm
Optical drive dual-layer DVD burner
Operating system Windows XP Pro
$199.00 Cash or PayPal
812-689-5960 jack@wb9otx.com

Outlook dot com

The new Microsoft mail service "Outlook" is off to a bad start, at least with me. I wasted 30 minutes trying to set up an account with no success. This is all I ever got when trying to make a new account.
"There's a temporary problem with the service. Please try again. If you continue to get this message, try again later".
I think I'll stick with Gmail but if you have some time to kill give it a try at 
http://outlook.com

Merrill's Marauders 1944 – World War II

Click to enlarge

The United States Army long-range penetration special operations unit known as Merrill's Marauders began a 1000-mile march over the Patkai region of the Himalayas and into the Burmese jungle behind Japanese lines.
National WWII Museum

Iwo Jima 19 February – 26 March 1945

The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945), or Operation Detachment, was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This month-long battle included some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II.
Read the full article 

Flight 811 -2-24-1989

United Airlines Flight 811 experienced a cargo door failure in flight on Friday, February 24, 1989, after its stopover at Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii. The resulting decompression blew out several rows of seats, resulting in the deaths of 9 passengers.
Read Report Air Disaster

Cut Government Cost

I'd like to be in charge and if I were I would start with the army because I was there. I was in a headquarters company (HQ HQ USATC) at Ft. Ord and the waste was everywhere. All in this company had a Class A pass in our pocket all the time. This is a pass that has unlimited travail. You could go anywhere as far from post as you liked, all that was required was you had to be back to do your assigned job. All or at least most were instructors and gave fifty minute classes to AIT troops. I and most others gave two classes a week, this means I worked 100 minutes a week. I and others could have performed other work when we were not giving our classes. I taught military explosives but I could have taught other classes such as mortar, field fortifications, anti-tank warfare & etc. As I said before we could travail away from post and we did on almost every week end. The mess hall cooked for 250 men every day even on weekends. Now on Saturday and Sunday only 25 or 30 was there to eat but the mess hall cooked for 250 (why) ? The food that was not eaten was put in the dumpster. This went on every week end as long as I was there and this was only one company on post. Another savings that I noticed was we drew way too much explosives for my class. I ask several times why? I was told this was what was allotted. If we drew less - we might not get what we needed next time and our allotment may be cut. Again NUTS !  At the end of the week we would pile it up down range all that we did not use and blow it up. (BOOM) Thousands of dollars wasted. Now I could go on and on about the waste but I think you get the idea. These examples were only the ones I knew about, but there must have been hundreds more and not only at Ft. Ord but posts all over the world. If a dumb private in this mans army can see how to save money why can't the fat cats see the big picture also.

Tips for flying

Commercial airplane flight is one of the most common forms of international travel. These are some tips for making your flights safer, more comfortable, and more enjoyable.
For a guide to the standard procedures, rules, and other basics of travelling by air (some of which have changed in recent years), see Fundamentals of flying.

The Barefoot Bandit

The Barefoot Bandit tells the riveting true story of Colton Harris-Moore, America’s 21st century outlaw. Born into a poor family marred by alcohol abuse, Colt had the local sheriff after him before the age of 10. Colt survived by breaking into homes to forage for food, and learned to evade the police by melting into the Pacific Northwest wilds. As a teenager, he escalated to stealing cars, boats and identities. An extensive manhunt finally caught Colt, but he escaped juvenile prison and fled to nearby Orcas Island, where he was assured his place alongside D. B. Cooper by stealing an airplane without ever having a formal flight lesson. And that was just the beginning.
Read More
Buy the book
A movie coming soon

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. As visible here, adults are not bald, but have a head of white feathers. Its name comes from an older meaning of the word, meaning "white headed".
Photograph: W. Lloyd MacKenzie
Read More

B-29 / P-51 Actual WWII Footage

Thirty six minutes.  But worth every minute if you are a WW II buff. This is spectacular live footage of the 3,000 mile round trip air assault upon the Japanese mainland, with 3 bomber wings and a host of P-51's.  This is the way to end a war. No matter what war footage you ever saw before, this is the real deal and will keep your undivided attention.  The P-51 & B29 footage is remarkable.  The strafing runs by the P-51 pilots were incredible. There are several “breaks” as the film canisters are changed, just wait for the count down.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheLastBomb1945 

Drugsdb.com

Drugsdb.com is a drug information database where you'll find answers to frequently asked questions on the most commonly-prescribed drugs and medications in the world. This includes information about the uses of the drug, suggested dosages, common and serious drug side effects, contraindications, adverse interactions and more.
Drugsdb.com

Happy Valentine's Day

Especially to a Gal named Betty Jean

Ruth Lyons - Paul Dixon

Ruth Lyons

Ruth Lyons, (born Ruth Evelyn Reeves October 4, 1905, died November 7, 1988) was a pioneer radio and television broadcaster in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is said Ruth Lyons accidentally invented the daytime TV talk show.  Ruth built a TV empire
Read more


The Paul Dixon Show is an American television variety program originating in Cincinnati on WLWT Television beginning in 1955 and ending in January 1975, one month after Dixon's death in December 1974. The show began as a 30-minute series expanding to 90 minutes in the 1960s, but the other stations along the Avco Network in nearby Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis only ran 60 minutes of the show. Pre-recorded episodes were sold to other markets throughout the Midwest.

Paul Dixon Show Cast

The show was originally co-hosted by Bonnie Lou and Marian Spelman, who was later replaced with Colleen Sharp. The house band, originally called The Bel-Aires, was led by pianist Bruce Brownfield.
Read More


See YouTube videos
Ruth Lyons
Paul Dixon

International Space Station

See the International Space Station from your house?
http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
If you are an Amateur (Ham) radio operator you could talk to the astronauts on board.
If you are not but have a radio scanner you can hear them. Just listen on 145.800 & or 145.825 FM mode.  You can get further information at:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/
I have made contact with the ISS and received their QSL card.
See a larger photos at:

QSL Front
QSL Back

Patty Hearst - kidnapped Feb.4, 1974

The 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from the Berkeley, California apartment, which she shared with her fiancé Steven Weed, by a left-wing urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army. When the attempt to swap Hearst for jailed SLA members failed, the SLA demanded that the captive's family distribute $70 worth of food to every needy Californian – an operation that would cost an estimated $400 million. In response, Hearst's father arranged the immediate donation of $6 million worth of food to the poor of the Bay Area. After the distribution of food, the SLA refused to release Hearst because they deemed the food to have been of poor quality. (In a subsequent tape recording released to the press, Hearst commented that her father could have done better.) On April 3, 1974, Hearst announced on an audiotape that she had joined the SLA and assumed the name "Tania" (inspired by the nom de guerre of Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, Che Guevara's comrade). For this reason, she is often referred to as a victim of Stockholm Syndrome. On April 15, 1974, she was photographed wielding an M1 carbine while robbing the Sunset District branch of the Hibernia Bank.
I was en-root to Cinci in a UPS package car when ordered to stop at Cleves, then ordered to open the back doors with shotguns pointed at me by cops. After seeing the truck was empty, I asked, what are you looking for? One cop replied, "Patty Hearst ".

The Day the Music Died - Feb 3rd, 1959

Buddy Holly

Ritchie Valens

The Day the Music Died, dubbed so by Don McLean's song "American Pie", was an aviation accident that occurred on February 3, 1959, near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, and the pilot Roger Peterson. After terminating his partnership with The Crickets, Buddy Holly assembled a new band consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, to play on the Winter Dance Party tour.




The tour also featured rising artist Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper Richardson, who were promoting their own recordings as well. The tour was to cover 24 Midwestern cities in three weeks.
Read the full story

The Big Bopper

Groundhog Day - Feb 2

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end. If it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

Challenger Explodes 1/28th/86

January 28th, 1986 at 11:39am EDT - The Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes on its 10th flight during mission STS-51-L. The explosion occurred 73 seconds after liftoff and was actually the result of rapid deceleration and not combustion of fuel.

CNN was the only national news station to broadcast the mission live, so thus what you are witnessing on this video is the only coverage of the disaster as it happened when it did. Approximately 17% of Americans witnessed the launch live, while 85% of Americans heard of the news within 1 hour of the event. According to a study, only 2 other times in history up to that point had news of an event disseminated so fast - the first being the announcement of JFK's assassination in 1963, the second being news spread among students at Kent State regarding the news of FDR's death in 1945. It has been estimated at the time that nearly 48% of 9-13 year olds witnessed the event in their classrooms, as McAuliffe was in the spotlight.

The 25th Space Shuttle mission altered the history of manned space exploration and represented the first loss of an American crew during a space mission (Apollo 1 was during a training exercise).

Christa McAuliffe was slated to be the first teacher in space for the Teacher in Space Program. As her maximum altitude was ~65,000ft (12.31 miles), she never made it to space. That title was given to Barbara Morgan of STS-118 aboard the shuttle Endeavour in August 2007, 22 and a half years after the Challenger Disaster. Morgan served as McAuliffe's backup during STS-51-L. As Morgan is now part of the Educator in Space Program, she will be credited as the first "educator" in space, to distinguish her from McAuliffe.

Aboard Challenger during STS-51-L:

Francis "Dick" Scobee (Commander)

Michael Smith (Pilot)

Judith Resnik (Mission Specialist)

Ellison Onizuka (Mission Specialist)

Ronald McNair (Mission Specialist)

Gregory Jarvis (Payload Specialist)

Sharon Christa McAuliffe (Payload Specialist - Teacher in Space)

from: youtube.com