Military
Unofficial Insignia of the 509th Operations Group
Info from wikipedia:
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 11, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Aliens, Military
Miss Bombsight
In 1944, U.S. airmen selected Kathleen O'Malley as "the girl we'd most like to see in our bombsight."Being in the bombsight doesn't sound like a good thing.
Kathleen O'Malley's IMDB page. Her earliest credited role was in 1926 when she was thirteen months old. Her final one was in 1998. That's quite a career.
More info: wikipedia
Santa Rosa Press Democrat - Nov 24, 1944
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 17, 2024 -
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Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Military, 1940s, Weapons
The Radioactive Pup of Bikini Atoll
Operation Crossroads page at Wikipedia.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 30, 2024 -
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Category: Military, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, Dogs, 1940s, South Pacific
The Avrocar Military Flying Saucer
If only this project had succeeded, we'd all have Jetson-style flying saucers today!Here is the Wikipedia page.
But I do think the version patented by one C. P. Lent right around the same time has a classier shape.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Jan 25, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Flight, Military, Technology, Patents, 1950s
Accidentally dropped into shark-infested water
However, this nearly ended in disaster recently when Bigeard, nearing 60, was inadvertently dropped into a shark infested sea while visiting troops in Madagascar. He broke an arm and was saved only when his faithful staff threw themselves into the seas after him.
More info about Marcel Bigeard: wikipedia
The book referenced in the clipping below is viewable on archive.org.
London Daily Telegraph - Nov 9, 1977
Marcel Bigeard. Image source: zone militaire
Posted By: Alex - Thu Oct 12, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Accidents, Military, 1970s
Portable Asbestos Cottage
Source: A. Leonard Summers, Asbestos and the Asbestos Industry - the world's most wonderful mineral (1931).
Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 21, 2023 -
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Category: Architecture, Military, Firefighting, Arson, Wildfires, Infernos and Other Conflagrations
Naked women lure soldiers to death
1970: A strange "military-psychoerotic" stratagem was reported from Cambodia.Apparently there was less concern about the soldiers succumbing to the lure of the women, and more fear that the naked women would render useless the Buddhist talismans that (so the soldiers believed) made them bulletproof.
Sydney Morning Herald - Sep 6, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 06, 2023 -
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Category: Military, War, Nudism and Nudists, 1970s
“Lucky” Fluckey: The Only Submarine Commander Ever to Blow Up a Train
So long as submersible vessels are in the news...His Wikipedia page.
In one of the more unusual incidents in the war, Fluckey sent a landing party ashore to set demolition charges on a coastal railway line, destroying a 16-car train.[4] This was the sole landing by U.S. military forces on the Japanese home islands during World War II. Fluckey ordered that this landing party be composed of crewmen from every division on his submarine. "He chose an eight-man team with no married men to blow up the train," Captain Max Duncan said, who served as Torpedo Officer on the Barb during this time. "He also wanted former Boy Scouts because he thought they could find their way back. They were paddling back to the ship when the train blew up."[5] The selected crewmen were Paul Saunders, William Hatfield, Francis Sever, Lawrence Newland, Edward Klinglesmith, James Richard, John Markuson, and William Walker. Hatfield wired the explosive charge, using a microswitch under the rails to trigger the explosion.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 24, 2023 -
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Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Military, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, War, 1940s, Asia
The Fake Village That Hid a Giant Wartime Plant
See the whole story here, with many more pictures.
Posted By: Paul - Tue Feb 28, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Military, Camouflage, Counterintelligence, Diversions, Chaff and Fakeouts, Industry, Factories and Manufacturing, 1940s
Assault with a chocolate cream pie
1974: Seabee Leon L. Louie explained that the reason he hit his commanding officer in the face with a chocolate cream pie was to boost the morale of his battalion. However, the Navy failed to see the humor in what he had done and court-martialed him.Comedian Soupy Sales testified in Louie's defense, arguing that hitting someone in the face with a cream pie is comedy, not assault. Nevertheless, a jury of five officers found Louie guilty, though they gave him the lighter sentence of demotion, restriction to base, and a fine — rather than a dishonorable discharge.
Muncie Evening Press - Nov 26, 1974
Redding Record-Searchlight - Dec 6, 1974
Tampa Bay Times - Dec 7, 1974
Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 19, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: Military, Misbehavior, Rebellion, Acting-out and General Naughtiness, 1970s, Pranks
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