Author Topic: Rolling Thunder  (Read 42776 times)

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Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #700: September 17, 2019, 02:54:27 PM »
don't worry, McClellan wouldn't be able to use them even if he found them. Enjoy Harper's Ferry.

One of the things I mentioned in an annual review about an associate was "he has the slows".     Picked that up reading about Lincoln's feelings on McClellan.


Online HalfSmokes

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #702: September 25, 2019, 07:06:22 PM »
I remember a few years ago the stories surrounding the WWI vets dying off, I guess time marches on, but it’s strange to think of WWII vets as disappearing

Offline imref

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #703: September 25, 2019, 09:48:40 PM »
I remember a few years ago the stories surrounding the WWI vets dying off, I guess time marches on, but it’s strange to think of WWII vets as disappearing

We just lost our last one in my American Legion Post.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #704: September 25, 2019, 11:37:34 PM »
I was talking about this with my dad earlier this year...his teachers in high school had been at the Somme or Ypres, which seems like distant history now. 
One guy had been a sniper, he could describe in detail every German he had shot back in 1917.  He taught my dad how to bait hooks that would never miss.   

Offline DCFan

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #705: September 26, 2019, 05:33:04 AM »
It must've been about 20 years ago I was reading about the remaining number of civil war widows who were still getting VA benefits.  It was back in the 1920's a number of civil war vets who would've been in their 80's were marrying 20 year olds who then got survivor benefits when their geezer husbands passed on.  Talk about odd - people in my lifetime who had a connection to the civil war.  :old:

Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #706: September 26, 2019, 12:33:06 PM »
It must've been about 20 years ago I was reading about the remaining number of civil war widows who were still getting VA benefits.  It was back in the 1920's a number of civil war vets who would've been in their 80's were marrying 20 year olds who then got survivor benefits when their geezer husbands passed on.  Talk about odd - people in my lifetime who had a connection to the civil war.  :old:

IIRC I remember the last Civil War vet passing in the 1960s.     :shrug:

I googled it  ...  1950s.    Damn I'm old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson

Online varoadking

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #707: September 26, 2019, 12:35:14 PM »
IIRC I remember the last Civil War vet passing in the 1960s.     :shrug:

I googled it  ...  1950s.    Damn I'm old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Woolson

Your first cousin?

Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #708: September 26, 2019, 12:36:19 PM »

Online varoadking

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #709: September 26, 2019, 12:38:46 PM »
No relation.

He was a drummer boy...so maybe 14 when he was in?  Times sure have changed...

Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #710: September 26, 2019, 12:40:07 PM »
He was a drummer boy...so maybe 14 when he was in?  Times sure have changed...

There was a relative (few limbs away) who was a bugler for Grant.    I have an article from a newspaper in NY state about him.   I'll have to find that article and see what his story was.

EDIT:   Found the article.    He was supposedly with Grant at Appomattox "76 years ago".    So I'm guessing he died circa 1941.   He was around 18 in 1865.    He was supposedly the last living witness to the actual surrender.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #711: September 26, 2019, 02:04:07 PM »
My dad used to talk about seeing Civil War vets in open-top cars at the parade (Armistice Day? Memorial Day?) back in his birthplace during the 1920s.  He said that was the furthest back memory he had, but I think he botched it a little. He said his Mom was pregnant with her second son and went into labor right there (2 months early), but there was only 2 years difference between him and his brother, so I wonder if he's conflating some stories.  I think it might have been his 2d brother, who was 5 years younger than him.

Offline blue911

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #712: September 26, 2019, 10:32:10 PM »

Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #713: September 26, 2019, 10:37:16 PM »
His son

You're killin' me blue.     :lol:


PS   Wander by the Loft pre-game on Saturday.    I'll buy ya a beer.

Offline blue911

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #714: September 27, 2019, 05:49:32 PM »
You're killin' me blue.     :lol:


PS   Wander by the Loft pre-game on Saturday.    I'll buy ya a beer.

I’m watching the Maryland Ironman tomorrow. Thanks for the offer :cheers:


Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #715: September 27, 2019, 07:20:47 PM »
I’m watching the Maryland Ironman tomorrow. Thanks for the offer :cheers:


did he make it out of Endgame?

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #716: October 02, 2019, 12:55:35 PM »
Well, this sucks...one less Flying Fortress.  Seems there are deaths/injuries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/10/02/multiple-injuries-reported-after-vintage-plane-crashes-bradley-international-airport/

It was this plane:

B-17G
44-83575
Nine-O-Nine
B-17G "Nine O Nine" of the Collings Foundation   Collings Foundation   Airworthy
N93012
Painted as 42-31909   Stow   
MA



Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #718: October 02, 2019, 03:25:21 PM »
One of those planes was near here offering rides earlier this summer...could have been that one, there are only a handful that are still considered to be airworthy. 

Not the most comforting thought, but B-52s on active duty are almost as old  :?  Sure they've been overhauled a bunch of times, but that's a lot of flying time on an ancient fuselage. 

[edit: I'd still take a B-17 in a heartbeat over a 737MAX]

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #719: October 02, 2019, 05:17:03 PM »
you wonder if 3-D printing will ever get affordable enough that replacement parts can be made and more of these recovered.  The USS Constitution has something like one original timber it has been overhauled so many times.

Offline Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #720: October 02, 2019, 05:39:28 PM »
It should be renamed the USS Michael Jackson. 
The USS Constitution has something like one original timber it has been overhauled so many times.

Online varoadking

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #721: October 02, 2019, 05:51:42 PM »
It should be renamed the USS Michael Jackson.

 :hysterical:

Offline mitlen

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #722: November 02, 2019, 07:14:47 PM »
Walked from the Pentagon subway after the Nats' parade toward my niece's house in S. Arlington.     Decided to stop at the AF Memorial.    While there, there were 30 or 40 vets with the Honor Flight organization.    From all over the US and many were in DC for the first time.    Nice way to close the day.

BTW  ...   The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial is closed until May, 2020.

Online varoadking

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #723: November 02, 2019, 07:16:32 PM »
Walked from the Pentagon subway after the Nats' parade toward my niece's house in S. Arlington.     Decided to stop at the AF Memorial.    While there, there were 30 or 40 vets with the Honor Flight organization.    From all over the US and many were in DC for the first time.    Nice way to close the day.

 :thumbs:

Offline imref

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Re: Rolling Thunder
« Reply #724: November 03, 2019, 08:16:06 AM »
Walked from the Pentagon subway after the Nats' parade toward my niece's house in S. Arlington.     Decided to stop at the AF Memorial.    While there, there were 30 or 40 vets with the Honor Flight organization.    From all over the US and many were in DC for the first time.    Nice way to close the day.

BTW  ...   The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial is closed until May, 2020.

Very cool. We’ve taken Scouts to greet arriving Honor Flight Vets at Dulles many times. Always a moving experience.