Archive for December 26th, 2020

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 270

Saturday, December 26th, 2020

364 shopping days until Christmas!

Seriously, do you ever feel like the days are just an oncoming freight train, constantly bearing down on us?

(I am obligated, of course, to point out that, as all people of goodwill know, the Christmas season actually runs through January 6th, and anyone who nags you about leaving your lights and decorations up is a Philistine and not a serious person.)

This is an odd one that didn’t pop up at random: someone on The Drive linked to it in the comments section. I have to apologize that it isn’t in English and doesn’t have subtitles, but I think there’s enough interesting imagery in this to overcome that.

According to the commenter, “Wehrhafte Schweiz / La Suisse vigilante / La Svizzera vigilante” is a 1960s Swiss military propaganda film, originally shot in Cinerama. I think this is a surprisingly good transfer: you might want to watch it on the ‘Tube in full screen mode. You might also want to fast forward past the opening, which is kind of trippy, but (again) does not have English subtitles.

English translation of the YouTube description from Google Translate:

The official doctrine is communicated after a lengthy prologue, which allows different positions on national defense to be heard. A large-scale, combined combat exercise demonstrates the interaction of various branches of weapon.

‘

Bonus: Since that was kind of short (especially if you skip over the tripping beginning), here’s something I didn’t know about previously: Wilson Combat has a YouTube channel.

What makes this interesting is that, starting in October, they started a new series: “Critical Mas(s)” with Massad Ayoob.

I’ve been thinking about my friends in the Austin Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association, how much I miss them, and how much I miss the CPA classes (which have been suspended due to the Chinese rabies). So I thought I’d highlight this first one, since it is relevant both to current events and to stuff we discuss in CPA: “Police Use of Deadly Force: Reasonable or Necessary?”

Posted in Cops, Guns, History, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 26, 2020.

Saturday, December 26th, 2020

Col. Robert Thacker (USAF – ret.) passed away a few weeks ago, though his death was not confirmed until recently. He was 102.

You may remember Lieutenant (at the time) Thacker from this story, which took place on December 7, 1941:

His plane was among a flight of newly built B-17s arriving from California en route to the Philippines. As he began his descent to the Army Air Corps’ Hickam Field, at first unaware of anything amiss, he was astonished to see bombers and fighters roaming the skies and black smoke rising from the American base and adjoining military installations.
One of the fighters shot out the front landing gear of his Flying Fortress as he approached the runway. But he careened to a landing and led his crew to a swamp alongside the runway to escape the inferno.

You might also remember him for this:

In February 1947, about 18 months after Japan surrendered, he was back at Hickam Field, this time to make aviation history. Now a lieutenant colonel, he piloted a North American Aviation P-82 fighter plane on the first nonstop flight from Hawaii to New York City in what remains the longest nonstop flight, 5,051 miles, ever made by a propeller-driven fighter, according to the National Museum of the United States Air Force, near Dayton, Ohio.

…

Early in the Cold War, the P-82 was viewed by the Pentagon as a potential escort in the event bombers like the B-29 were called upon to attack the Soviet Union. The pioneering test flight by Colonel Thacker and his co-pilot, Lt. John Ard, provided evidence that the fighter could carry out such a mission.
During the 14½-hour flight from Hickam, a mechanical glitch prevented the plane from jettisoning three empty fuel tanks, and the P-82 fought drag from the unwanted weight and strong headwinds. By the time it touched down, it had only enough fuel left for another 30 minutes of flight.

…

He flew World War II bombing missions out of New Guinea, Italy and England. He later joined the nation’s leading test pilots in experimental flights over California’s high desert at Muroc Army Air Field in California, later renamed Edwards Air Force Base.
In addition to flying B-17 Flying Fortresses in World War II, Colonel Thacker piloted Superfortresses in the Korean War and high-altitude missions in the Vietnam War.

…

Mr. Thacker retired from the Air Force as a full colonel in 1970. His awards included two Silver Stars and three Distinguished Flying Crosses.

George Blake is burning in Hell.

Like the Cambridge-educated moles Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, Mr. Blake became a dedicated Marxist, disillusioned with the West, and a high British intelligence officer while secretly working for the Soviets. His clandestine life had lasted less than a decade, but cost the lives of many agents and destroyed vital British and American operations in Europe.
Unlike the Cambridge clique, who defected when the authorities closed in, Mr. Blake was caught in 1961, tried secretly and sentenced to 42 years in prison. Five years later, with inside and outside help, he escaped from the Wormwood Scrubs prison in London and fled to Moscow. He left behind a wife, three children and an uproar over his getaway, the tatters of a case that encapsulated the intrigues of a perilous nuclear age, with flash points in Korea and Germany, where Blake served.

…

In 1955, he was sent to Berlin to recruit Soviet officers as double agents. Instead he began passing British and American secrets to the Soviets, including the identities of some 400 spies and details of many Western espionage operations, among them two of the most productive intelligence sources of the Cold War: tunnels in Berlin and Vienna that were used to tap K.G.B. and Soviet military telephones.
Mr. Blake’s double life was exposed in 1961 by a Polish intelligence defector, Michael Goleniewski. Tried in closed court, he was given three consecutive 14-year terms. But in 1966, with outside help from three men he had met in prison, he escaped with a rope ladder thrown over the wall. A waiting car sped him to a hide-out, and he was smuggled out of the country and fled to Moscow.

Posted in History, Obits, Planes | Comments Closed