If you want to get really depressed, ask someone under 20 who Winston Churchill was and what made him famous.
It is important that we never forget, and that we teach our kids history. (Save a few old history books for soon academia will blame the USA for starting WW2)
God bless & Thank You to everyone who perished, survived, & fought on Dec 7th especially today.
21
Nearly 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 almost all of those who were there are either dead or in their very late 90’s now. The Japs awoke a sleeping tiger that we had to annihilate 4 years later when we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thanks to all the brave men and women who served in the military in the War in the Pacific including 3 of my Uncles and thanks to Harry Truman for ordering the atomic bombing of Japan to end the war. And special thanks to God that Henry Wallace, FDR’s previous VP had been forced out of office before FDR died, he was a communist sympathizer who may not have ended the war the same way. As an aside the first time I was in Pearl Harbor in 1973 a friend and I from my squadron were talking about what had happened there on 12-7-41 and it was only 32 years removed form the attack and all who had been there were only in their late 40’s or early 50’s then. It gave us a fresh perspective on what happened there and the sacrifices of all who fought the war in the Pacific. The carrier pier at Pearl harbor is directly across from Ford Island where the attack occurred and the USS Arizona Memorial was less than a quarter mile away from us. Thanks to the greatest generation, my fathers generation for everything you did to win the war, it will forever be appreciated by me.
11
…many years ago, on a visit to the USAF Museum in Dayton (which I highly recommend) to show my son the sort of plane his grandfather navigated to Korea and all over the Pac Rim, we of course had to spend a lot of time in the WWII wing. These were some of the baddest planes ever, and I’m a bit of a buff, so I rhapsodized about the exploits of the Doolittle Raiders to him, how these big bombers (an example of which is there) flew off the deck of a pitching carrier they weren’t designed for, knowing they did not have enough fuel, to bring our curses home to Tokyo quickly to repay the outrage of Pearl Harbor, he suddenly thanked me for this and many other times I held forth with him on the epic that was WWII. Pleased but puzzled, I asked what inspired that, to which he told me “They didn’t teach us anything about World War Two in school”.
I was floored, but found out that, yes, other that briefly touching on America’s “racist and evil” nuking of Japan, they needed the time to talk about Africa and Islam, and its tough to spin America as the BAD guy in WWII. This was a major contributor to yanking him out of the public school, but that’s neither here nor there.
The point is, as Kcir says above, that our Communist betters will NOT “teach the children well”, so it is VERY much OUR responsibility to see that OUR children learn the TRUTH.
Because they won’t learn it from Liberal, who only want to destroy, delete, revise, and make the sacrifice of our grandfathers into nothing as they extol the glories of the very evils they fought.
No state, no city, no school board will keep the flame.
It’s on US.
…so as we see what may be our last Pearl Harbor Day as free men, take them time to teach, to explain, to get the facts out before the world tries to impart The Big Lie to your children and grandchildren. Do NOT forget that this showed us just how evil an ideology can make men, or how great and free men could rise to that challenge to preserve freedom and end tyranny literally around the world, where for a breif, shining moment, we saw just what a moral and united America could TRULY do in the face of evil.
It’s on US to keep the flame.
It’s on YOU to teach the children well.
…and say a prayer today for those who serve our Military today, who sail the seas for us, command the skies for us, and guard many of America’s interests in highly dangerous places with little real compensation for their time or even any promise that some Democrat won’t sacrifice them for cheap political points at any time.
We must remember Pearl Harbor.
…not just for the Valor of those who went before,
…but for the fact that it most CERTAINLY can happen AGAIN, but with better weapons this time…
“Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:”
Psalm 144:1
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
…for it is inevitable that they shall be needed in their time, which may be soon and very soon..
“A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
Ecclesiastes 3:8
…so on this day of remembrance, remember those who even now man the pickets in our stead, protecting even the reprobates who fling curses at their backs and steal their votes even as they cower behind their protective arms…
12
…Lord, we ask that you hold Your hand over those who protect Your children. Grant them the strength of Your arms, the wisdom of Your servant Solomon, the protection of Your legions of angels as they go forth to be all that stands between the light of this Nation and the Godless darkness of Communism.
5
Guard them even as they guard us, and guide them through the minefields of politics that they may fulfill their Oaths to You and to Country and not the bidding of vain and evil men. Protect them and their loved ones as they protect us and ours, and show us Your glory through them as you lead them to victory over past and present evil. Give them victory over enemies foreign and domestic, and over satan himself, and we ask a welcome in Our Father’s House for all warriors who fulfill their oath valiantly, whether they come to You in war or in peace, dying in combat or in bed after many years of service, for those who complete their service in righteousness have also served Your purposes for this Nation.
God keep them and love them, salve their wounds and ease their pains both spiritual and psychological, for they truly do keep the night at bay by Your help and grace, even at the ultimate price of their lives.
And we ask all this as you command in the mighty Name of Jesus,
Amen.
God Bless,
SNS
3
…sorry its a little choppy, was trying to figure out which part the spam filter didn’t like, and evidently you can’t post D E A R Lord any more for some reason…
6
We don’t have men such as those anymore.
7
“We don’t have men such as those anymore.”
Yes, we do.
Many are in the military right now; men and women who live by a code and rank patriotism and love of country as paramount.
Many walk around among us, some might even read this blog, simple folks who understand that freedom is not free and when circumstances dictate, will answer the call.
The history of this nation is replete with extra-ordinary examples of heroism and selflessness when our country, our very way of life is threatened.
Warriors are not born, they are made, forged in place out of the necessities of the times.
12
God Bless all of those who lived, and didn’t live, through the Attack.
My Dad was too young to be in that war, though he did serve in the Korean. He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why. Military people will always have my utmost respect. They are willing to put their lives on the line to keep the rest of us safe.
I cannot tell you how proud I am when one of my students says that he, or she, is going into the service.
Thank you!! All of you
7
Democrats believe there’s no problem in erasing these Americans sacrifices because they prefer the shadows of fraud and deceit. My brother William was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 and I will carry his memory to the grave but not theirs.
6
RogerF
“He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why.”
I have a couple good friends that are Vietnam Vets. Have you ever seen a 70 year old guy break down and cry over fireworks?
They don’t talk about it because they don’t want to remember the atrocities they witnessed and did themselves, in the name of Freedom.
Semper Fi
11
My dad was in Belgium and came back with PSTD (though they didn’t call it that). He witnessed much that he never talked about and after his death, we found out one of the stories. He had what we think was a Bronze Star medal (don’t know if it was THE Bronze Star or something like it) in his box of things he never took out.
The Army told my mom, after we contacted them about it, that he saved a co-pilot from a crashed plane. When he started to run back to the plane for the pilot, some other soldiers had to hold him back as the plane then exploded.
Dad never got over the fact that he couldn’t have saved the pilot.
Thank God that he is now free from that horror and at peace in Heaven.
Thank you to all who served and are serving. My heart belongs to you for my dad.
12
Cmn¢¢guy DECEMBER 7, 2020 AT 10:33 AM
“RogerF
“He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why.”
I have a couple good friends that are Vietnam Vets. Have you ever seen a 70 year old guy break down and cry over fireworks?
They don’t talk about it because they don’t want to remember the atrocities they witnessed and did themselves, in the name of Freedom.
Semper Fi”
…I had a Vietnam Vet who was literally trying to drink himself to death at a local bar as an unwilling passenger on my Squad once. Seems he’d been to the pub the moment they opened and had become increasingly unhappy and vocal about his intentions, so the establishment cut him off. This did not make him happy and he let them know, so they called the police to tell them they had this very unhappy sucidal man who was thretening to share his uphappiness with everyone in arm’s reach, and then the police decided to red tag him to the hospital instead of drag him to jail after being told by other customers this fellow had bad PTSD, which was followed by a Squad summons, which was followed by SNS on his night to be in the right hand seat and therefore the box guy.
We got there and the guy was, truth be told, pretty subdued, but kept trying to leave, which the cops mentioned more than once. Because this was an invoulentary commit, and also because you’d be surprised how quickly the placid can turn violent with mentals, it behooved me and my partner to strap the man down to the cot to transport him, but with some play in the cravats because all of the drinking meant it was pretty likely he’d puke, and it was a LOT better for him AND for me if I could just tip him on his side (away from ME) instead of jam a Laredal suction tip down his throat in the few seconds before he destroys his lungs with aspirated bile.
We had a pretty entertaining time going to the hospital, with the cop following behind because he was a) mental and b) tagged by him, with the guy testing the strength and limits of his bonds in between belching (no vomiting in the bus, thank God) and crying, but it was the weird little intervals where, after I’d foiled another escape attempt, he’d sometimes get completely clear-eyed, stare me right in the eyes to the back of my skull, and tell me ‘Don’t you understand? I want to DIE.”. Being an unschooled kid I didn’t really ‘get’ where he was coming from, but I knew where he wasn’t going TO, and that was out the back of the bus at 70 miles per hour, so in between arguing with the veterans hospital about accepting him (they were VERY grudging about ANY emergency admits, and we ALWAYS had to negotiate through the County for them to accept them before we got there or they’d just turn us away), I gave him platitudes and happytalk from my stock of “Placating the Mentals” library I’d built up because of the Democrats turning the insane out onto the streets, and trying to NOT be shaken by this PARTIUCLAR guy being so adament that his life in the military THEN still made him want to kill himself NOW.
Unfortunately he wasn’t that garrulous about his actual problem so I’ll never know what he saw or did that left him so traumatized, but I had no doubt it was real and he WOULD have jumped out if I let him. We delivered him to the VERY uncaring hospital where he did ultimately vomit on their clean linen closet because they didn’t want to be bothered with watching him, but that’s a part of the story I’ve told before so I’ll let it go there.
If nothing else though, this left we with no doubt that war is indeed hell.
Because I could see the flames of it in the back of his eyes, even many years later.
I don’t know what happened to that man, whatever it was, it wasn’t on my watch.
But one way or another, I pray he found peace.
And we should probably pray that for all vets, most especially including the ones here.
I’ve noticed they mostly don’t share their stories, I’ve seen snippets here and there, but never with a lot of detail.
That’s likely a good thing. Some things need to be left in the dark.
And thank God we have those men and women who can deal with them there, so we don’t ALL see those things HERE.
God Bless our vets, past, present, and future.
And may God preserve them and keep from them having to make some awful choices in the coming days.
To all those who served, Thank you and God Bless you.
SNS
2
You know, there is a bit of a nip in the air.
2
@SNS and Cmn¢¢guy
you have captured the sentiment. I would disagree with Cmn¢¢guy in that I don’t think that they want to forget about it, but they do not want any of us (in the younger generations) to have to go through what they did. this is a never-ending cycle.
I do not want it, but I recognize the inevitability.
2
@SNS – I have done ride-alongs with similar, but I was never a Paramedic, so I did not see everything. I was EMT on the ski patrol, so I did see many of the things that you did, but not as often. It is never a pretty sight. I give credit to those who do agree with spending their life dealing with the world and the people who chose with putting you in those positions.
God Bless, and thank you for what you have done.
1
RogerF
DECEMBER 7, 2020 AT 12:49 PM
…thanks and thank you for what you’ve done, but beyond being a medical first responder at my factory, all that’s been in my rear view for a LONG time, a decade was enough. I think I was blessed by it more than I blessed others since it helped me save my son’s life not long ago, but its not about me anyway, I just use my life stories because no one else’s are mine to tell, and I’ve met some TRULY brave people along the way, many of them vets.
…by way of illustration, one of the AirCare helicopter I worked with loaded from the rear, and it was usually loaded “hot”, meaning they would be in a hurry to get to the hospital and would not,therefore, turn the rotors OFF. When you’re loading a guy by lining the gurney up with the back door by the tail boom, you may miss little things like whirling tail rotors. This is why the pilot would disembark and stand by the red line near the tail, for the purpose of being our Catcher in the Rye and steering the butts of the foolish children pushing the patient to the load doors away from the tail rotor, which they are not looking at.
This prevents considerable mess.
The pilots at the time were mostly ex-Vietnam too, so they were pretty philosophical about the risk.
I once asked one of them what he’d do if someone turned too fast and pushed against him too hard.
He said, “Die”.
And he was not kidding.
Evidently, it was something he’d made his peace with long ago…
…also, one more fun fact about the AirCare pilot I mentioned…
…he told us he liked it when we COULDN’T set up an LZ for him, because he could then go to the nearest grocery store and land there.
The reason he liked this, he said, he enjoyed watching the downdraft from the main rotor sending the shopping carts every which where, which he had to do in order to land. Folks would scatter pretty quick when this violently churning and incredibly noisy Juggernaut of Vishnu would descend from the heavens towards them in a massive downdraft and terrific clatter, so the crowd problem in this case was pretty self-limiting.
Military helicopter pilots are brave and bold and creative, real problem solvers.
They are also crazy, God bless ’em.
…doesn’t have a lot to do with Pearl Harbor, I know, but since Vietnam came up, I couldn’t resist…
If you want to get really depressed, ask someone under 20 who Winston Churchill was and what made him famous.
It is important that we never forget, and that we teach our kids history. (Save a few old history books for soon academia will blame the USA for starting WW2)
God bless & Thank You to everyone who perished, survived, & fought on Dec 7th especially today.
Nearly 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 almost all of those who were there are either dead or in their very late 90’s now. The Japs awoke a sleeping tiger that we had to annihilate 4 years later when we nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thanks to all the brave men and women who served in the military in the War in the Pacific including 3 of my Uncles and thanks to Harry Truman for ordering the atomic bombing of Japan to end the war. And special thanks to God that Henry Wallace, FDR’s previous VP had been forced out of office before FDR died, he was a communist sympathizer who may not have ended the war the same way. As an aside the first time I was in Pearl Harbor in 1973 a friend and I from my squadron were talking about what had happened there on 12-7-41 and it was only 32 years removed form the attack and all who had been there were only in their late 40’s or early 50’s then. It gave us a fresh perspective on what happened there and the sacrifices of all who fought the war in the Pacific. The carrier pier at Pearl harbor is directly across from Ford Island where the attack occurred and the USS Arizona Memorial was less than a quarter mile away from us. Thanks to the greatest generation, my fathers generation for everything you did to win the war, it will forever be appreciated by me.
…many years ago, on a visit to the USAF Museum in Dayton (which I highly recommend) to show my son the sort of plane his grandfather navigated to Korea and all over the Pac Rim, we of course had to spend a lot of time in the WWII wing. These were some of the baddest planes ever, and I’m a bit of a buff, so I rhapsodized about the exploits of the Doolittle Raiders to him, how these big bombers (an example of which is there) flew off the deck of a pitching carrier they weren’t designed for, knowing they did not have enough fuel, to bring our curses home to Tokyo quickly to repay the outrage of Pearl Harbor, he suddenly thanked me for this and many other times I held forth with him on the epic that was WWII. Pleased but puzzled, I asked what inspired that, to which he told me “They didn’t teach us anything about World War Two in school”.
I was floored, but found out that, yes, other that briefly touching on America’s “racist and evil” nuking of Japan, they needed the time to talk about Africa and Islam, and its tough to spin America as the BAD guy in WWII. This was a major contributor to yanking him out of the public school, but that’s neither here nor there.
The point is, as Kcir says above, that our Communist betters will NOT “teach the children well”, so it is VERY much OUR responsibility to see that OUR children learn the TRUTH.
Because they won’t learn it from Liberal, who only want to destroy, delete, revise, and make the sacrifice of our grandfathers into nothing as they extol the glories of the very evils they fought.
No state, no city, no school board will keep the flame.
It’s on US.
…so as we see what may be our last Pearl Harbor Day as free men, take them time to teach, to explain, to get the facts out before the world tries to impart The Big Lie to your children and grandchildren. Do NOT forget that this showed us just how evil an ideology can make men, or how great and free men could rise to that challenge to preserve freedom and end tyranny literally around the world, where for a breif, shining moment, we saw just what a moral and united America could TRULY do in the face of evil.
It’s on US to keep the flame.
It’s on YOU to teach the children well.
…and say a prayer today for those who serve our Military today, who sail the seas for us, command the skies for us, and guard many of America’s interests in highly dangerous places with little real compensation for their time or even any promise that some Democrat won’t sacrifice them for cheap political points at any time.
We must remember Pearl Harbor.
…not just for the Valor of those who went before,
…but for the fact that it most CERTAINLY can happen AGAIN, but with better weapons this time…
“Blessed be the Lord my strength which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:”
Psalm 144:1
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
…for it is inevitable that they shall be needed in their time, which may be soon and very soon..
“A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”
Ecclesiastes 3:8
…so on this day of remembrance, remember those who even now man the pickets in our stead, protecting even the reprobates who fling curses at their backs and steal their votes even as they cower behind their protective arms…
…Lord, we ask that you hold Your hand over those who protect Your children. Grant them the strength of Your arms, the wisdom of Your servant Solomon, the protection of Your legions of angels as they go forth to be all that stands between the light of this Nation and the Godless darkness of Communism.
Guard them even as they guard us, and guide them through the minefields of politics that they may fulfill their Oaths to You and to Country and not the bidding of vain and evil men. Protect them and their loved ones as they protect us and ours, and show us Your glory through them as you lead them to victory over past and present evil. Give them victory over enemies foreign and domestic, and over satan himself, and we ask a welcome in Our Father’s House for all warriors who fulfill their oath valiantly, whether they come to You in war or in peace, dying in combat or in bed after many years of service, for those who complete their service in righteousness have also served Your purposes for this Nation.
God keep them and love them, salve their wounds and ease their pains both spiritual and psychological, for they truly do keep the night at bay by Your help and grace, even at the ultimate price of their lives.
And we ask all this as you command in the mighty Name of Jesus,
Amen.
God Bless,
SNS
…sorry its a little choppy, was trying to figure out which part the spam filter didn’t like, and evidently you can’t post D E A R Lord any more for some reason…
We don’t have men such as those anymore.
“We don’t have men such as those anymore.”
Yes, we do.
Many are in the military right now; men and women who live by a code and rank patriotism and love of country as paramount.
Many walk around among us, some might even read this blog, simple folks who understand that freedom is not free and when circumstances dictate, will answer the call.
The history of this nation is replete with extra-ordinary examples of heroism and selflessness when our country, our very way of life is threatened.
Warriors are not born, they are made, forged in place out of the necessities of the times.
God Bless all of those who lived, and didn’t live, through the Attack.
My Dad was too young to be in that war, though he did serve in the Korean. He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why. Military people will always have my utmost respect. They are willing to put their lives on the line to keep the rest of us safe.
I cannot tell you how proud I am when one of my students says that he, or she, is going into the service.
Thank you!! All of you
Democrats believe there’s no problem in erasing these Americans sacrifices because they prefer the shadows of fraud and deceit. My brother William was at Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 and I will carry his memory to the grave but not theirs.
RogerF
“He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why.”
I have a couple good friends that are Vietnam Vets. Have you ever seen a 70 year old guy break down and cry over fireworks?
They don’t talk about it because they don’t want to remember the atrocities they witnessed and did themselves, in the name of Freedom.
Semper Fi
My dad was in Belgium and came back with PSTD (though they didn’t call it that). He witnessed much that he never talked about and after his death, we found out one of the stories. He had what we think was a Bronze Star medal (don’t know if it was THE Bronze Star or something like it) in his box of things he never took out.
The Army told my mom, after we contacted them about it, that he saved a co-pilot from a crashed plane. When he started to run back to the plane for the pilot, some other soldiers had to hold him back as the plane then exploded.
Dad never got over the fact that he couldn’t have saved the pilot.
Thank God that he is now free from that horror and at peace in Heaven.
Thank you to all who served and are serving. My heart belongs to you for my dad.
Cmn¢¢guy DECEMBER 7, 2020 AT 10:33 AM
“RogerF
“He rarely talks about it, and I can understand why.”
I have a couple good friends that are Vietnam Vets. Have you ever seen a 70 year old guy break down and cry over fireworks?
They don’t talk about it because they don’t want to remember the atrocities they witnessed and did themselves, in the name of Freedom.
Semper Fi”
…I had a Vietnam Vet who was literally trying to drink himself to death at a local bar as an unwilling passenger on my Squad once. Seems he’d been to the pub the moment they opened and had become increasingly unhappy and vocal about his intentions, so the establishment cut him off. This did not make him happy and he let them know, so they called the police to tell them they had this very unhappy sucidal man who was thretening to share his uphappiness with everyone in arm’s reach, and then the police decided to red tag him to the hospital instead of drag him to jail after being told by other customers this fellow had bad PTSD, which was followed by a Squad summons, which was followed by SNS on his night to be in the right hand seat and therefore the box guy.
We got there and the guy was, truth be told, pretty subdued, but kept trying to leave, which the cops mentioned more than once. Because this was an invoulentary commit, and also because you’d be surprised how quickly the placid can turn violent with mentals, it behooved me and my partner to strap the man down to the cot to transport him, but with some play in the cravats because all of the drinking meant it was pretty likely he’d puke, and it was a LOT better for him AND for me if I could just tip him on his side (away from ME) instead of jam a Laredal suction tip down his throat in the few seconds before he destroys his lungs with aspirated bile.
We had a pretty entertaining time going to the hospital, with the cop following behind because he was a) mental and b) tagged by him, with the guy testing the strength and limits of his bonds in between belching (no vomiting in the bus, thank God) and crying, but it was the weird little intervals where, after I’d foiled another escape attempt, he’d sometimes get completely clear-eyed, stare me right in the eyes to the back of my skull, and tell me ‘Don’t you understand? I want to DIE.”. Being an unschooled kid I didn’t really ‘get’ where he was coming from, but I knew where he wasn’t going TO, and that was out the back of the bus at 70 miles per hour, so in between arguing with the veterans hospital about accepting him (they were VERY grudging about ANY emergency admits, and we ALWAYS had to negotiate through the County for them to accept them before we got there or they’d just turn us away), I gave him platitudes and happytalk from my stock of “Placating the Mentals” library I’d built up because of the Democrats turning the insane out onto the streets, and trying to NOT be shaken by this PARTIUCLAR guy being so adament that his life in the military THEN still made him want to kill himself NOW.
Unfortunately he wasn’t that garrulous about his actual problem so I’ll never know what he saw or did that left him so traumatized, but I had no doubt it was real and he WOULD have jumped out if I let him. We delivered him to the VERY uncaring hospital where he did ultimately vomit on their clean linen closet because they didn’t want to be bothered with watching him, but that’s a part of the story I’ve told before so I’ll let it go there.
If nothing else though, this left we with no doubt that war is indeed hell.
Because I could see the flames of it in the back of his eyes, even many years later.
I don’t know what happened to that man, whatever it was, it wasn’t on my watch.
But one way or another, I pray he found peace.
And we should probably pray that for all vets, most especially including the ones here.
I’ve noticed they mostly don’t share their stories, I’ve seen snippets here and there, but never with a lot of detail.
That’s likely a good thing. Some things need to be left in the dark.
And thank God we have those men and women who can deal with them there, so we don’t ALL see those things HERE.
God Bless our vets, past, present, and future.
And may God preserve them and keep from them having to make some awful choices in the coming days.
To all those who served, Thank you and God Bless you.
SNS
You know, there is a bit of a nip in the air.
@SNS and Cmn¢¢guy
you have captured the sentiment. I would disagree with Cmn¢¢guy in that I don’t think that they want to forget about it, but they do not want any of us (in the younger generations) to have to go through what they did. this is a never-ending cycle.
I do not want it, but I recognize the inevitability.
@SNS – I have done ride-alongs with similar, but I was never a Paramedic, so I did not see everything. I was EMT on the ski patrol, so I did see many of the things that you did, but not as often. It is never a pretty sight. I give credit to those who do agree with spending their life dealing with the world and the people who chose with putting you in those positions.
God Bless, and thank you for what you have done.
RogerF
DECEMBER 7, 2020 AT 12:49 PM
…thanks and thank you for what you’ve done, but beyond being a medical first responder at my factory, all that’s been in my rear view for a LONG time, a decade was enough. I think I was blessed by it more than I blessed others since it helped me save my son’s life not long ago, but its not about me anyway, I just use my life stories because no one else’s are mine to tell, and I’ve met some TRULY brave people along the way, many of them vets.
…by way of illustration, one of the AirCare helicopter I worked with loaded from the rear, and it was usually loaded “hot”, meaning they would be in a hurry to get to the hospital and would not,therefore, turn the rotors OFF. When you’re loading a guy by lining the gurney up with the back door by the tail boom, you may miss little things like whirling tail rotors. This is why the pilot would disembark and stand by the red line near the tail, for the purpose of being our Catcher in the Rye and steering the butts of the foolish children pushing the patient to the load doors away from the tail rotor, which they are not looking at.
This prevents considerable mess.
The pilots at the time were mostly ex-Vietnam too, so they were pretty philosophical about the risk.
I once asked one of them what he’d do if someone turned too fast and pushed against him too hard.
He said, “Die”.
And he was not kidding.
Evidently, it was something he’d made his peace with long ago…
…also, one more fun fact about the AirCare pilot I mentioned…
…he told us he liked it when we COULDN’T set up an LZ for him, because he could then go to the nearest grocery store and land there.
The reason he liked this, he said, he enjoyed watching the downdraft from the main rotor sending the shopping carts every which where, which he had to do in order to land. Folks would scatter pretty quick when this violently churning and incredibly noisy Juggernaut of Vishnu would descend from the heavens towards them in a massive downdraft and terrific clatter, so the crowd problem in this case was pretty self-limiting.
Military helicopter pilots are brave and bold and creative, real problem solvers.
They are also crazy, God bless ’em.
…doesn’t have a lot to do with Pearl Harbor, I know, but since Vietnam came up, I couldn’t resist…
i like this optimum article