Posted on 11/19/2018 10:11:57 AM PST by bkopto
“...remains of a Jap Zero on a mountain top...”
I know where there’s an old C-46 Commando down in a ravine on a hillside up near Pleiku. In 1967 it was still visible, probably isn’t by now. Lots of interesting stuff to see, looking down into the jungle.
Thank you, bkopto, for posting this clip.
I found a 3:28 minute clip of it just now and have sent it to prior military folks in my family and a few friends.
It’s breathtaking. Simply breathtaking.
“Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Thank you for posting this.
The Death of The Ball Turret Gunner
Randall Jarrell, 1945
The Jap Zero parts were near the top of Nui Chao Chinh not far from Xuan Loc. There was a relay station on top & I flew an Agent Orange mission in a Huey with dispersers out each door & a plastic tank inside. We circled the mountaintop at barely 20 kts; if the engine failed we were done for.
It was to defoliate the last fifty meters up to the mountaintop. Mentioned a monastery; it was halfway up NCC & was suspected VC. Came back a month later & the area we sprayed was completely barren not a leaf in sight.
It was then that I spotted the Zero stuff including the tail assembly; took some BW slides maybe I’ll have them computer enhanced for detail.
Nearer the coast was a C-123 that crashed in 1966.
I once saw a C-46 fuselage that someone made into a house, on a cinder block base set into a hillside.
No thanks. Your kind of enlightenment is part of what got us here in the first place.
Thank you, Sequoyah101,
...for your positive feedback.
It further confirms the uniqueness of our Founding Fathers in establishing a country that to this day allows the Freedom Of Speech.
Just think...they put into words the thought process which allows the country to grow and work through terrible mistakes and actions.
Those men knew they were not perfect and the country’s start itself was not perfect nor was it perfect at the time they set words to paper...
... yet they put into words the way for the peoples to improve this country and allow the growth of its peoples.
That said, it was, and still is, up to each individual to do the best they can as they strive to achieve their goals.
No country is perfect. None. Ancient, old, new, Anglo, Hispanic, Chinese, Greek, Native. None.
Our country, however, does allow for correction without the utter destruction of its baseline.
I value most of all the aspect of your words.
Freedom. Of. Speech.
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