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Posted on 07/19/2005 10:25:45 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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At the outset of World War II, innovative plans were laid to send some talented fliers to the front lines.  A dental surgeon from Irwin, Pa., is credited with the idea of using bats as bombers. And a behavioral psychologist, also a Pennsylvanian, showed how pigeons could guide bombs directly to surface targets. The two projects were not related, and the two men never met. Dr. Lytle S. Adams was vacationing in the Southwest on December 7, 1941, when he heard the shocking news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams immediately headed home. He had just visited Carlsbad Caverns, N.M. -- believed to house the world's largest bat colony -- where he had been fascinated by the bats that emerged nightly to feed on insects. Thinking about that impressive colony, the dentist asked himself: "Couldn't those millions of bats be fitted with incendiary bombs and dropped from planes? What could be more devastating than such a firebomb attack?" he recalled in a 1948 interview. He stopped by Carlsbad on his way home and captured some Mexican free-tail bats, the most common species in North America. The free-tails, also known as guano bats, are small brown mammals capable of catching more than 1,000 mosquitoes or gnats in a night. Weighing about 9 grams, the free-tails can carry an external load more than twice their own weight.  Back home, Adams looked up everything he could find about the tiny mammals and discovered that although bats are frequently vilified by the public, they are not usually dangerous to humans. They aren't blind, don't get tangled up in one's hair and don't attack people. Although generally considered evil in Europe, they symbolize prosperity and happiness in China. The Navajo Indians believe them to be intermediaries between men and the gods. They range in size from the bumblebee bat of Thailand, which weighs less than a penny, to the mastiff bat, North America's largest flying mammal with a 22-inch wingspread, and the giant flying fox bat with a 6-foot wingspan, found primarily in Indonesia. Adams became convinced that bats could be used as bombers. On January 12, 1942, he sent a letter to the White House proposing that the government investigate this possibility. His suggestion was considered, along with hundreds of others from well-meaning citizens with war-winning ideas, but his was one of the few that reached the desk of the commander in chief. President Franklin D. Roosevelt forwarded a memo to Colonel William J. Donovan, then coordinator of information, with a cryptic notation: "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into." In fact, Adams had already made a name for himself as an inventor. In the 1920s and '30s he launched a 15-year campaign to perfect an airmail pickup system.  William J. Donovan Donovan sent the proposal to the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) of the National Inventors Council. After reviewing Adams' idea, a memorandum titled "Use of Bats as Vectors of Incendiary Bombs" was sent to the committee on April 16, 1942, by Donald R. Griffin, a special-research assistant. He described the proposal as using "very large numbers of bats, each carrying a small incendiary time bomb. The bats would be released at night from airplanes, preferably at high altitudes and the incendiaries would be timed to ignite after the bats had descended to low altitudes and taken shelter for the day. Since bats often roost in buildings, they could be released over settled areas with a good expectation that a large percentage would be roosting in buildings or other inflammable installations…when the incendiary material was ignited." Griffin summarized his memo by saying that, although "this proposal seems bizarre and visionary at first glance…extensive experience with experimental biology convinces the writer that if executed competently it would have every chance of success." He recommended an investigation "with all possible speed, accuracy and efficiency" by the U.S. Army Air Forces. Bomb development was passed on to the Army Chemical Warfare Service.  Adams and a team of naturalists were immediately authorized to find bats for experimentation. The team visited a number of likely sites in Texas and New Mexico where the bats could be found in large quantities -- mostly in caves, but also under bridges, in barns and in large piles of rubbish. "We visited a thousand caves and three thousand mines," Adams said. "Speed was so imperative that we generally drove all day and night, when we weren't exploring caves. We slept in the cars, taking turns at driving. One car in our search team covered 350,000 miles." The team first investigated the mastiff bat, which they determined could carry a 1-pound stick of dynamite. But there was not a sufficient number of that variety available. The more common bat was the mule-eared or pallid species, which could carry 3 ounces. However, the naturalists concluded that the species was not sufficiently hardy for the work that needed to be done. They finally settled on the Mexican free-tail bat for the project. Although it weighed only one-third of an ounce, experiments showed that it could fly fairly well with a payload of 15 to 18 grams. The Army's Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., was to design an incendiary bomb weighing no more than 18 grams. The largest colony of free-tails found during the search was an estimated 20 to 30 million that lived in the limestone Ney and Bracken caves near Bandera, in southwest Texas. At Ney Cave, U.S. Army Captain Wiley W. Carr reported that "five hours' time is required for these animals to leave the cave while flying out in a dense stream fifteen feet in diameter and so closely packed they can barely fly."
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I'd heard just a tiny bit about this but I didn't know they could do any real damage. Bummer about the barracks.
Seems we're busier than ever, between the store and other things going on in our lives, we hardly get to spend any time at FR and the Foxhole. :-(
Busy is good sometimes though, just a lot going on right now that needs either my attention, Snippy's attention or both of us together. Feels like we're being pulled in at least 5 different directions at once. I may have to see if I can buy some extra hours each day. Got some you want to sell? I can offer top penny. ;-)
LOL! Morning coffee and a lube?
It's really amazing, some of the "Secret Weapons" that all the sides were looking into during the war. Some actually came about and worked, some lead to other inventions.
Alfa's gonna have ot sneak in some special coffee along with the grease gun.
Honestly, he's lucky!
She has a sense of humor!
Me, I'd get strung up for cracking jokes about 'cyborg knees' and 'six million dollar woman' while playing the theme.
I'd be toast, or worse.
So the coffee would be a peace offering on my part.
But considering some have a rather dark view on my coffee, they would think I was being horrible.
;-)
So, if I brought some of my coffee into a hosopital, how long do you think it would take for me to be detained and or ejected from the building?
];-)
They'd probably have the HazMat team out before you got through the front doors. :-)
LOL, probably!
End up getting told "Face down! On the ground! Hands on your head! Don't listen to me, listen to my partner! No, this is not RENO 911!"
(I always run across the jokers..)
The night shift might like it??? Or should I notify the local Haz-Mat team???
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Ahhh.. Gotta bring it in when the third shift is on.
Bribe them with extreme liquid "stay awake".
History Channel again presenting story of A-12/SR-71. Confirmed with former chief scientist of AF today it's no longer available.
Karl Rove has strapped a microphone to Chuck Schumer and released him into Senate Judiciary; children cry, women scream, men make rude remarks.
The bat bomb story was shown recently and a principal reported haphazard handling sabotaged tests and demonstrations.
Ultimately journalists with big "flash bulb" bombs woke up the bats who then burned down the barracks. Journalists, it is to laugh.
Some believe nile virus is a present of Carter's good buddy Castro in appreciation for past gifts of exploding cigars and depilatory sucker punches.
Ultimately the Japs were beat by creatures smaller than bats or pigeons, crammed into critical mass with high explosives, producing overpressures greater than those caused by a Barbara Boxer rant.
BAT slung under Consolidated PB4Y-2B Privateer
Good evening, Phil, LOL. You are so funny. That picture of Chuckie Schummer is hilarious. What a dope that guy is.
(((Hugs)))
First smart bomb--a great country or what.
It's been hot and dry here.
Meanwhile Iran's mullahs have the pedal to the metal to build nuclear bombs for a nuclear 911.
New York security alert for people with clenched fists, patting their clothing, wearing heavy cologne--
You can't make this stuff up: An alert in New York but the senior senator prepares more have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife questions--
Winds of War: these are the quiet times. . . .
Strange dude indeed. I study a little of Skinner in my Psych 101 class.
Good to see ya darlin'. :-)
Don't tell PE but you're doing a fine job with the F-O-G's while he's gone.
Hey radu!
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