Saturday Is Old Radio Day: "Scrubbing the Back Porch" Fibber McGee and Molly (1935)

Friday Film: "The Seven Sailors" (1968)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 24 July - 21 August 2024

U.S. Navy Office of Naval ... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day - "The People of Sissora" CBS Radio Mystery Theater (1977)

Friday Films: "How to Judge Authorities" (1948) and "Critical Thinking: Making Sure of Facts" (1971)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 17 July - 14 August 2024

U.S. Navy Office of Naval ... by lawofsea

Saturday Is Old Radio Day- Our Miss Brooks "Cat Burglars" (1955)

Something on the lighter side.

Friday Film: "Submarine Salvage" - Some Russians might want to see this.

U.S. Navy operates two rescue and salvage ship through the Military Seaflift Command - see here, capable of doing 14 knots which means going somewhere across the Pacific takes a few days. One ARS is based in Pearl Harbor, the other on the East Coast. Both ships are nearly 40 years old.

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Dragnet "Auto Burglaries - Myra, the Redhead" (1949)

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 10 July - 7 August 2024

U.S. Navy Office of Naval ... by lawofsea

U.S. Navy Office of Naval Intelligence Worldwide Threat to Shipping (WTS) Report, 3 - 31 July 2024

U.S. Navy Office of Naval ... by lawofsea

Friday Film: "Greyhounds of the Sea" Navy Destroyer History (1966)

Saturday Is Old Radio Day: Burns and Allen "Gracie Runs for President" (repeat from 2016)

From the more or less innocent days of 1940, when some candidates were more fun than others, here are a couple of hours of comedy genius which I think I have in the right order:

As noted here:

During the election year of 1940, Gracie represented the fictitious Surprise Party and advocated nonsense as part of her platform. The "campaign" was successful enough for Gracie to actually receive write-in votes on election day.

"Advocating nonsense" as part of a political party platform?

I guess things haven't really changed all that much in 76 84 years.

Friday Film: "Day 957" War Loan Movie

Remember the USS Forrestal Disaster 57 Years Ago

USS Forrestal Disaster

On 29 July 1967, Forrestal (CVA-59) experienced a severe fire while operating on Yankee

Station off Vietnam that killed 134 Sailors and aviators, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft. This was (and remains) the second worst loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II. The disaster resulted in a very long list of lessons learned (many of which were “lessons forgotten” from carrier conflagrations during World War II), which transformed the U.S. Navy’s approach to firefighting, damage control, and ordnance handling in the decades since. In recent years, articles have appeared on the internet that are extremely inaccurate and generally intend to unfairly tarnish the reputation of Senator John S. McCain III, who survived the fire.

At 1050, Forrestal commenced early launch of two KA-3B tankers, an EA-1, and an E-2A in preparation for an 1100 launch of a 24-plane Alpha Strike, the second of the day. At that time, a VF-11 F-4B (No. 110,) was spotted on the extreme starboard quarter of the flight deck. As the pilot of F-4B 110 shifted from external to internal power, multiple electrical malfunctions ignited one of the four 5-inch Mk-32 Zuni unguided rockets in a pod on external stores station 2 (port inboard station), which fired across the flight deck and struck VF-46 A-4E No. 405, piloted by LCDR Fred White, rupturing its fuel tank, igniting the fuel, and initiating the fire. Although the board of investigation reached the opinion that the Zuni rocket hit 405, there is some ambiguity in eyewitness accounts as to whether the rocket hit 405 or the plane next to it, 416, piloted by Lieutenant Commander John McCain. The rocket itself actually impacted the ocean beyond both aircraft. Regardless, shrapnel ripped into both aircraft, and both were immediately sprayed by fuel; a pool of fuel ignited between and under the two aircraft. Both pilots initially escaped from the flames around their aircraft.

The impact of the Zuni rocket dislodged at least one, probably two, 1,000-pound AN-M65A1 bombs, which fell into the flames. The outdated AN-M65s were being used because of an acute shortage of Mark 83 general-purpose 1,000-pound bombs resulting from the intense Navy bombing campaign in North Vietnam, which expended bombs faster than they could be produced. The AN-M65 bombs had been brought aboard the day before, were over a decade old, in very poor condition, considered an extreme safety hazard by the commanding officer of Forrestal, Captain John Beling, and, according to the ship’s ordnance officer, were an imminent danger to the ship and should be jettisoned overboard. Doing so, however, would have necessitated scrubbing that day’s combat mission over North Vietnam, so Captain Beling reluctantly accepted the risk.

While those old bombs did not cause the initiating event, they certainly exacerbated what followed. Of the many lessons learned from this horrendous fire, one point needs to be repeated: Old munitions can be very dangerous. Firefighting training and skill are vital for every sailor to master.

An excellent book on the fire is Sailors to the End.

And, in case you don't understand what the truth has always been, none of what happened was John McCain's responsibility.