Rolls Royce Merlin by Packard

[boscoe99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=GYcKdK7hmEo

[pstephens46]

Maybe all motors need a pre-oiler.

[panasonic]

We had one of those in my Aircraft Maintenance school. It was not on a test stand so we could not run it and were not allowed to touch it. We had some small piston engines on test stands and PT6 turbo prop engine on a test stand as well.

I had the chance to crawl through the Lancaster he refers to when it was on a cross Canada tour many years ago. It was very loud when standing next it and all engines running.

My great uncle was a tail gunner on the "Lank" as he called it with the RAF. He survived the war but would say very little about it. He would talk about the airplane itself but nothing more...whatever happened to him over there affected him greatly. He was a very nice man.

[99yam40]

Dad pulled the big guns around during WWII,
he did not talk about much over there either.
He said they moved the guns a night ,
only had a small red light to follow on the unit in front of them.
Once at new location they would drop the guns and move/drive the vehicles to somewhere else, because the Germans would shell the gun locations once the figured out where they were.

He did say he volunteered once to help clear some Germans out of a patch of woods, his buddy got shot in the head right next to him.
he never volunteered again.
he made them pick the people to help from then on

[boscoe99]

WW II was back in the day when men were made of iron. Four years of hell. Maybe worse.

Today a guy does a six month tour of some third world country and demands to be known as a "hero". Wants lifetime support in the form of cash benefits. Medical care for ailments that had nothing to do with his time in service.

I am too old now to understand it.

[boscoe99]

Man how I love being down wind of anything burning Jet A or AvGas. Love the feel of hot exhaust gasses surrounding me.

[boscoe99]

We had one of those in my Aircraft Maintenance school. It was not on a test stand so we could not run it and were not allowed to touch it. We had some small piston engines on test stands and PT6 turbo prop engine on a test stand as well.

I had the chance to crawl through the Lancaster he refers to when it was on a cross Canada tour many years ago. It was very loud when standing next it and all engines running.

My great uncle was a tail gunner on the "Lank" as he called it with the RAF. He survived the war but would say very little about it. He would talk about the airplane itself but nothing more...whatever happened to him over there affected him greatly. He was a very nice man.

Leno surely waxed eloquent about you Canucks. Rightfully so.

I got a ride in a B-17 one time out of Peachtree airport here in Georgia. It was loud. It was small. It was slow. But damn it was fun. Imagine a slow flying airplane crossing the English channel, taking hours to get to the bomb site, dropping a few bombs, most of which might miss the target or not explode, then fly back home taking hours to do it. If you made it home.

Do it over and over again a few million times and the war is won. Wars are won not by dying for one's country but rather by making the other bastards die for their country.

Said airplane caught fire in flight about a year later and landed in a corn field. All got out safely but the plane burned to the ground. Made me reflect on my time in it when there was nothing but pine trees underneath us. An in flight fire then would not have fared so well.

[rodbolt17]

Boscoe. ease up on some of us that are vets.
nope I was not a hero.
I was disabled by an experimental vaccination that the USN still wont own up to.run up to the Persian gulf war.
took 13 yrs after my retirement to track it down.
but unlike some who liike to mock us that did something. what was yor rate and rating?
I still live by the code.
ship
shipmate
self.
eat that
when you see that chick, Cortez, tell her she is still an idiot.
Beacham T A FC2 USN R.

[boscoe99]

I am not disparaging of those that have actually been harmed by their time in the service. They are owed whatever it takes.

My comments are directed to those that simply served their time at some US base, maybe an office worker for 18 months, who are now getting old and infirm, with all of the ailments that naturally come with aging, and who are demanding some cash from the USG for said ailments. They know who they are.

Land, JB PH2/AC USN

[walleye1]

I think any one that serves the armed forces and goes to another land are heros. My son went through training [school] at cherry point
when 911 happened, USMC made him into an MP to help guard the base. He was in air wing working on harrier jets, he did one tour in
afghanistan and three tours in iraq, I tried to join they told me to stay home.

[rodbolt17]

there are no unimportant positions in the US military.
someone has to buy,track and log everything from Beans and Bullets and JP-5 to socks and blankets.
someone has to do spares. and sometimes you have to leave a wife and child behind for a period of time.
Capt Morgan,DDG-51 was a great capt. commander Lippold was a nav officer.
later when Lippold was the CO on the USS Cole when it got hit and should have sank the training idiocy we did on the Burke and Lippold did on the Cole paid off.
those guys are HEROS and never fired a shot.
Destroyer mans motto.
save your ship.
save your shipmate.
save yourself.
it is embarrassing to have people thank me for my service.
most anyone can.
I figure the US taxpayer spent a rack on me for basic electronics,fire Control A and fire control C schools.
couple that with many 1 and 2 week test equipment classes,50 cal op and maint,magazine sprinkler and ships self defense force courses I did a bunch.
joined aug of 88,was promoted to E-5 july 4th 1991 and the USS Arliegh Burkes commissioning ceromoney in Norfolk VA. got my first E-5 paycheck july 15th.

If you ever start losing faith in our current crop of young adults, vist a military base and notice how young most look.

[zenoahphobic]

It's probably much the same with Australians. Most from WW2 didn't talk about it, Afghanistan, Iraq etc several tours for the enlisted, and as far as age, there is a famous song "I was only 19" that referred to the Vietnam war. Nowadays women are recruited as equals and are side by side on active duty.

[panasonic]

I think any one that serves the armed forces and goes to another land are heros. My son went through training [school] at cherry point
when 911 happened, USMC made him into an MP to help guard the base. He was in air wing working on harrier jets, he did one tour in
afghanistan and three tours in iraq, I tried to join they told me to stay home.

Your son did his part to keep us safe, I thank him. I hope he got through it OK and has no lasting affects from it.

Does he still work on jets?

[panasonic]

It's probably much the same with Australians. Most from WW2 didn't talk about it, Afghanistan, Iraq etc several tours for the enlisted, and as far as age, there is a famous song "I was only 19" that referred to the Vietnam war. Nowadays women are recruited as equals and are side by side on active duty.

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda

Love that song.

[walleye1]

He is a state cop in Mane. His favorite part of Iraq was pissing on the floor of saddam husseins mansion.