The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Women's Air Raid Defense (1941-1945) - Mar. 9th, 2005

Aviation History Magazine | May 2002 | Ron Gilliam

[Professional Engineer]

It seems `eagle nebula` sent a bunch of freep mails to all the TX freepers. Anywhere from 5 to 7 copies of the same thing, asking for legal help for a "friend" of his.

[snippy_about_it]

Wow. Sounds frantic.

Anyway, I liked your quick wit response to your wife. We've sure got a funny bunch here. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

I think I'll sleep tonight

Oh sure, you'll be able to sleep but I'll be up all night wanting to know what this is all about!

I may resign myself to thinking it has something to do with the times and the China/Japan/Mongolia thing. Maybe the poor Mongolians didn't know what to do, attacked from all sides. LOL. Who knows.

I am hoping Iris7 has a better clue too or Phil. I need sleep. ;-)

[w_over_w]

Okay sweets . . . we'll see what they say and I have another contact. Goodnight.

[SAMWolf]

We've been having summer weather for about a week. Everything is blooming right now.

[SAMWolf]

Ok. Maybe he just made it popular?

[SAMWolf]

I love math, physics, geometry, locating and analyzing those vectors, arcs etc sounds like playtime to me.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! My worst subjects. I did better at History and Geography. :-)

[PhilDragoo]

DJ MacWAAC working turntable at Aukland rave

SCR-270

Experimental "Susan Hayward"-type Radar

SCR-270

1907 Indiana enacts the nation’s 1st involuntary sterilization law based on eugenics.
Intended "to prevent procreation of confirmed criminals, idiots, imbeciles, and rapists."

That would be this guy:

[Iris7]

During WWII there were a very, very many places for a good woman. Bletchley Park was mostly women. Lots of radio operators were women. Firing long range guns in those days used ten place log tables, maybe twenty, I forget. Rotation of the Earth was a real factor, depended on latitude and direction of fire, natch.

Nowadays the Air Force will take a good person with a math degree in a second. Gobs of operational analysis going on. War is going into space right quick. Got to think in terms of delta V and orbit change. Going to get rough. ICBM interception, separating spoofers from decoys from warheads.

Never, ever, enough good people. A "ready, willing, and able" is always welcome.

[Iris7]

Well, google failed me on this one. "When in worry or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." Sounds and meter come from a Germanic language, through Middle English, not Latin nor Semitic, and old Greek is Greek to me. Maybe from the Eurasian steppe or even farther back. Most of our swear words come from Germanic languages.

I became convinced that salty language in the Navy style has endured for millennia. The true swab who can't speak the language would have as his first spoken word "Sh__" and his second "moth__ ______". The third is "Aye Aye, Sir."

[SAMWolf]

Morning Phil Dragoo

DJ MacWAAC working turntable at Aukland rave

Experimental "Susan Hayward"-type Radar

That would be this guy:

You're on a roll Tonight!! A definate RadarSpankenTruppen candidate!

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[alfa6]

I heard of the Aviators Rule courtesy of Heinlein as well, only it had to do with a story from one of the compilations that were published towards the end of his carrer.

IIRC he was standing radio watch on a carrier, early 30s during a fleet exercise when a flight of planes could not find home. Apparently the flight leader was following the Avaitors Rule in order to get a bearing home.

I suspect that this is one of those hoary old sayings whose origin will probably never be pinned down.

BTW ol RAH was a Kansas City native mostly. Born in Butler Mo and moved to KC at an early age, graduated from Central High School around 1921 and then went to Annaplois.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Wneighbor]

Never, ever, enough good people. A "ready, willing, and able" is always welcome.

hehehe... I checked after 9-11, they don't want me now.... when I was of an age, I was raising kids. Now the kids are grown and I'd be perfect for one of those mathmatically related jobs but ~sigh~ ya know, they think I'm too old!

(and i gots another birthday in 12 days)

[snippy_about_it]

The true swab who can't speak the language would have as his first spoken word "Sh__" and his second "moth__ ______". The third is "Aye Aye, Sir."

You know my mother was Navy and she always said I had the mouth of a sailor. LOL.

[snippy_about_it]

Susan Hayward Radar. LOL.

[snippy_about_it]

Hey, I've got another one of those birthdays in 9 days.

[Colonel_Flagg]

Good morning, Foxhole!

Thanks for the read this morning - how you manage to keep coming up with such interesting subjects is a wonder to me. I appreciate the welcome break I get each day!

Hope you're off to a great start today!

[Iris7]

I read that story. The aviators were reading "the back of the loop", and so traveled at right angles to the loop bearing to see if the loop angle closed to port or stargboard (left of right hand side). Turned out they were too far away to get back by dark as I recall. No VHF radio direction finding, only MF, so they couldn't find the ship after dark unless they saw the searchlights.

As I recall these were float planes because they put down in the water. Don't recall Navy amphibs used on carriers about 1934, maybe Alpha6 knows.

[Iris7]

Yeah, they won't look at me either. They just want the young, dumb, enthusiastic, and obedient. Got a bunch of young officers who don't want a subordinate old enough to be their father.

Perhaps their fear is justified. Out come a batch of orders, the usual sort of stuff, and the old buck sargent takes the young captain, colonel, whatever aside and tells him, "Sir, you don't want to do that."

The young officer knows that the old boy knows what he is saying, so he has to say to the troops either "I just now figured out my orders are full of (stuff), forget about them", or he can tell the old sargent "Did I hear you say that you want to be a private?" to which the old boy will answer, "No Sir, I just don't want to kill the lads for no reason."

The young officer tells the old timer, "Get lost, PRIVATE." The old timer responds, "With all due respect, Sir, I demand a Court Martial."

See?