There are some videos on YouTube about Father Capodanno, but I have not been able to watch any of them yet, and I don’t want to put them up without watching them first. So here’s a couple of things I thought were odd or diverting.
Many of my readers are probably familiar with the idea of ASMR videos. I wasn’t aware that there was such a thing as ASMR gun cleaning videos.
(I have another reason for posting this video. But I’ll go into that at some point in the future.)
Bonus: More hot metal! “Modern Steel Making”, from the United States Steel Corporation in glorious Technicolor!
I feel like I’m in a transition between Memorial Day observance and getting back to (what passes for) normal.
So here’s some military aviation videos that I think are interesting. First off, this is apparently a promo film for Northrop’s YB-49, aka “the Flying Wing”.
Bonus video #1: “Instrument Flight”. In the T-38-A Talon.
I’ve always been fond of the T-38. If I had the money and ability to fly jets, I’d love to own and fly my own T-38. (Wikipedia says there are seven privately owned ones in the US.)
Bonus video #2, just because I’m feeling extra geeky: a training film about the F-111’s terrain following radar.
In honor of Memorial Day: “To Save a Soldier”. This is an ABC News documentary from 1966, narrated by Henry Fonda, and following a wounded soldier through the military medical system: from Vietnam to his homecoming.
Father Capodanno was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1958. He did missionary work in Taiwan and Hong Kong. But he felt a stronger calling.
So he enlisted, went through Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1965. He served with the United States Navy Chaplain Corps, and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Later he was transferred to the 1st Medical Battalion, 1st Marine Division to finish out his first tour. He took six months of leave, and then re-enlisted and was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. Shortly after that, he was reassigned to the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.
When his second tour of duty was up, he begged his superiors for an extension. That extension was denied: he was supposed to go home in November of 1967.
Father Capodanno was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions.
The Catholic Church is considering the case to canonize Father Capodanno as a saint. As I understand it, he has been named “Servant of God”, which is the first step in the process, but I can’t tell if there’s been any progress on this since 2013.
I thought I’d go back to the early days, starting with the 1950s.
From 1953, and the Bell System, “The Transistor”, an early documentary about the transistor and its anticipated impact on society. (Remember, this was six years after the transistor was invented.)
Wrist radios! Portable televisions! Computers that can fit into “a good sized room”! The future!
Bonus video #1: “Genesis of the Transistor”. Also from the Bell System, but from 1965 this time: the origins and development of the device.
Bonus video #2: “The Incredible Machine”. Electronic circuit design, digital drawing with a pen, computer animation, computer music composition, speech synthesis…none of this stuff is extraordinary today. But it was in 1968.
Of possible amusement value to some folks: this features a very young Dan Rather.
Bonus video: this is a little shorter, if you’re pressed for time on this Saturday. It also fits in thematically with Lawrence’s Battleswarm post today.
From the Department of the Navy and the US National Archives: “To the Shores of Iwo Jima”.
Here’s something I haven’t done before. Remember the days of auto stunt shows? Guys jumping over cars? Demolition derbies?
“So You Want Thrills!” No, that’s the name of the movie, not a statement of fact. Featuring Jimmy Lynch and his Death Dodgers. And what do the Death Dodgers drive? If you said “Dodge cars”, take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square.
That one is from 1948. Our bonus video is from the early 1980s, and alsp features Chrysler/Dodge cars: “The Hell Driver Formula”.
That’s something I wish I could have seen when I was younger. Unfortunately, there really weren’t any tracks in the Houston area where a team could do this kind of driving. They did do a stunt show/demolition derby in the Astrodome when I was young, and I remember going to that at least once: the high point for me was the guy who sealed himself in a coffin and blew himself up. There was also a car jump involved, as I recall, but (odd as it may seem) space in the Astrodome didn’t allow for a truly epic long car jump.
(They were doing these shows in the Astrodome at least up until 1985: a Wikipedia search reminded me that Karel Soucek, a “Canadian daredevil” who went over Niagra Falls in a barrel, was killed during one of those shows.)
Oh, what the hell, one more: “Paul Riddell’s Imperial Hell Drivers”. I think this is from Canada, eh? Oh, wait, I’m sorry: I checked Wikipedia, and it is actually from a show in Quebec. Apologies to both the Canadians and the Québécois in my audience.
Legendary Army Ranger, trainer, and gun guy Chuck Taylor passed away a few weeks ago. I wasn’t aware of this until Bayou Renaissance Man posted a nice tribute to Mr. Taylor on his blog, which I encourage you to go read.
Theodore “Ted” Keith passed away last September. I was not aware of this until it was posted on one of the forums for Smith and Wesson collectors.
Ted Keith was the son, and last surviving child of, the legendary gun guy Elmer Keith, about whom I have written in the past and certainly will in the future.
Ted Keith was a special guest at the 2012 S&WCA meeting in Boise. I didn’t get as much of a chance to talk to him as I would have liked (his time was pretty booked), but I have one outstanding memory of him: I was standing in the Boise Cabela’s with a bunch of other S&WCA folks looking at the Elmer Keith Museum (which, at the time, was located in the Boise Cabela’s). Ted was going around introducing himself to everyone there: he walked up to me, stuck out his hand, and said “Hi, I’m Ted Keith.”
Pan Am was founded in 1927. By an obscure mathematical property known as addition, this would mean that 1977 was their 50th anniversary.
So they decided to do something special. Pan Am flew a 747-SP1, the “Clipper New Horizons” around the world from San Francisco…
…over the North and South Pole. The flight took 54 hours, 7 minutes, and 12 seconds.
Here’s a Pan Am promo film/documentary about the flight.
Bonus video #1: would you like to watch a reasonably attractive blonde in a Boeing promo film for the 747? Then “Assignment 747” is for you!
Bonus video #2: If you want something with a little bit more substance, “The New Era: Flight Testing the 747 Superjet”. Personally, I think I’d watch this one before I watched the one with the blonde, but that’s just the kind of hairball I am.
Would you believe the Central Intelligence Agency has a YouTube channel? Probably.
Would you believe the (even more secretive) National Reconnaissance Office has one? Maybe.
A couple of short ones today, and a longer one:
“Development of CORONA, The World’s First Reconnaissance Satellite”. This is on the CIA’s channel, but was apparently prepared by the NRO. I’ve touched on CORONA before, but this is a more recent, better quality, and declassified look.
Bonus video #1: From the NRO itself: “The Last Bucket Catch”, about the film retrieval from CORONA. As you may recall from the previous CORONA video, they were basically snatching containers of undeveloped film out of the air.
Bonus video #2: Because we all love it, “Angels in Paradise: The Development of the U-2 at Area 51”. From the CIA in 1960: according to the YouTube notes, “This video was made for family members of the people working on the Angel reconnaissance plane to explain the workers’ long absences from home.”
There are times when I just can’t believe this stuff is out there…
Annie Glenn. The phrase “love story for the ages” is over-used, in my opinion. But it fits here. She and John Glenn were childhood playmates, and were married for 73 years.
I don’t want to burn off all of my military content before Memorial Day. But as it turns out, I’ve got a couple of things in reserve.
So here’s something we hope you’ll really like: “Floating Fortress”, from 1952. A slice of life onboard the USS New Jersey during the Korean War. Nice video of the big guns being loaded and fired.
Bonus video #1: As you may know, Bob, the battleship New Jersey is currently a museum ship in Camden. As you may have guessed, the museum is closed for the moment…
…so the good folks there put a virtual tour of the New Jersey up on YouTube.
Bonus video #2: “The American Dreadnaught” from 1968, which covers the de-mothballing and recommissioning of the New Jersey during Vietnam.
I’m being lazy today, I admit: I had an eye doctor appointment this afternoon, didn’t have time to get this done before my appointment, and my right eye is still kind of messed up. But I didn’t want to miss a day.
So, please to enjoy: “Action at Dog Island”, a 1972 film about drug interdiction from…the Royal Navy?
She was married twice: to John Y. Brown Jr., former Governor of Kentucky, and Robert Evans.
Captain Jenn Casey, Royal Canadian Air Force. She was a public affairs officer with the Snowbirds demonstration team: the plane she was in crashed during a demo in Kamloops yesterday. The pilot, Captain Richard MacDougall, ejected but suffered serious injuries.