The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Cactus Air Force - Guadalcanal - Feb. 4th, 2003

http://www.military.com/Content/MoreContent?file=PRcactus ^ | Don Hollway

[Jen]

Thanks for telling about your Navy and Army service, Brownie. I'm pleased to get to meet you. I served in the Air Force as a public affairs specialist, and later as a PA officer.

[Jen]

Your presence here is a 'present' to us all! ;-)

[GailA]

Dad had joined the military about two months before WWII began. He was one of the two men who raise the US flag when they re-took Correigdor. Fate of Corregidor Flag

Hubby's uncle Ralph was a member of the original team of Merrill's Marauders.

[fatima]

AntiJen,A truck bump into me last week.I took our van for an estimate tonight and guess what I found,his license plate wedged into the frame of our van.He left a souvenir,women are the best drivers in the world AntiJen.

[Jen]

Hi everyone! I'm in AL with my mom and my allotted 10 minutes of FReeping are up! hahahahaha I may be able to sneak back in later... (I don't like being on a FR 'diet'!)

[Jen]

I agree. I'm an excellent driver. hehehe

[fatima]

AntiJen,It's nice to be the best and humble too.I have the man's license plate ,I am going to frame it.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks, GailA. That was a tough jump into Corregidor.

I thank your dad and you Husband's Uncle for their service.

[Victoria Delsoul]

U.S. Marines rest in the field on Guadalcanal, circa August-December 1942. Most of these Marines are armed with M1903 bolt-action rifles and carry M1905 bayonets and USMC 1941 type packs. Two men high on the hill at right wear mortar vests and one in center has a World War I type grenade vest. The Marine seated at far right has a Browning Automatic Rifle.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Victoria, Look at how young those Marines are.

[SpookBrat]

Good evening Victoria.

[Victoria Delsoul]

About the same age you were when you went to Vietnam.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Spooky! Sorry I missed your post a few minutes ago.

How are you?

[PhilDragoo]

Captain Marin E. Carl was shot down early in September 1942 and was listed as missing in action for five days. His journey back to Cactus was an adventure many pilots had to face during the war in the Pacific. Captain Carl gave the following account of that incident:

Bullets began flying all over the place. The cockpit filled up with smoke blinding me. I never did get a look at what was on my tail before I bailed out.

The parachute opened at 10,000 feet and I floated down off Near Island a few miles off the coast of Guadalcanal, about 30 miles from home. I was dunked into the ocean 400 yards off the island and started to swim to shore. I got within hailing distance of the beach but the current prevented me from landing.

I was just about to give up when a native boy paddled out in a canoe, grabbed me, and hauled me aboard more dead than alive.

After being taken ashore, the native gave Captain Carl a drink of Coconut milk and then brought the aviator from the island to a native village on Guadalcanal where he was fed and housed for the night.

The natives agreed to take me to headquarters the next morning. Before we got out of the village, a Japanese party began heading for it. I went into the Jungle and hid. Early the next morning we started home. Two native police and a large group of native villagers accompanied me. On the way home I found a deserted radio shack and spent four hours trying to get it going.

We went a short way further when we encountered large groups of natives fleeing in our direction. They told us there were 2,000 Japanese between us and the U.S. headquarters and that it was impossible to get through them.

Captain Carl was taken to the hut of an educated native who had studied medicine. The man had a small launch and agreed to take the young pilot up the coast to headquarters.

We planned to leave at three-thirty that day, but the engine wouldn’t start. I was a former aeronautical engineer so I spent the rest of the day taking it apart and finally got it running. We left at dawn and had no trouble arriving.

Captain Carl’s first question when he arrived was “What’s Smitty’s score?” He grimaced when he was told that Major John L. Smith, his closest competitor, had shot down a total of 16 planes and pulled ahead of Captain Carl during the five days that he was missing. “Ground him for five days, General,” Captain Carl said to Brigadier General Roy S. Geiger, commander of the 1st MAW. “That will give me a chance to catch up.”

~~~

In his first television interview in some time, Saddam Hussein said he was "shocked, shocked" that he was accused of harboring al Qaeda.

I posit he will be even more shocked by Colin Powell's Ginsu knife sales pitch tomorrow,

. . .and fatally shocked by a BLU-113 with his DNA programmed into its GPS guidance system.

. . .the penalty for producing a disgruntled ex-chief bodyguard.

Godspeed swift victory and safe return to the finest fighting force on earth.

God Bless Our Troops, Our Veterans and their families.

Saddam-free in '03

[SAMWolf]

HI Spooky!

[SAMWolf]

Evening PhilDragoo.

In his first television interview in some time, Saddam Hussein said he was "shocked, shocked" that he was accused of harboring al Qaeda.

"Round up the usual suspects."

[SAMWolf]

Yeah, but you don't think of that then.

[SpookBrat]

I came to chat, but I'm going to bed. :( Sorry to keep missing you guys. My head hurts. Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite.

[The Real Deal]

Gee Gail, you've really out done yourself today. Thank you.

[GailA]

I was trolling for 9-11 graphic and came across this supurb one and just KNEW it belonged on FRFoxhole.