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The newly-released movie Midway has generated some interest and a 150-post Freeper thread yesterday: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3793171/postsIn the video below a professor at the US Navy War College hits key info helping an viewer who choses to see this great movie. A key one that I'd read long ago but had not fully embraced: US damage control was considerably better than that of Japan. When Japanese pilots hit the USS Yorktown, they returned to their carriers joyous, "We have sunk a US carrier..!" Yet inside of an hour or so US damage control had bent Heaven & Earth to save her; the...

Japan launched a twenty-seven-thousand ton “destroyer” (the Izumo, DDH 183) on August 6th that looks exactly like an aircraft carrier. Actually it looks like an LPH (Landing Platform Helicopter) an amphibious ship type that first appeared in the 1950s. LPHs had no (or relatively few) landing craft but did carry a thousand or more troops who were moved ashore using the dozen or more helicopters carried. The first American LPH (the USS Iwo Jima) was an eighteen-thousand-four-hundred ton ship that entered service in 1961, and carried two-thousand troops and twenty-five helicopters. Until Izumo showed up, several nations operated LPHs, and...

A Near-Run Victory at Midway Walter Lord and Gordon Prange considered Midway an incredible, miraculous victory. For Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, the battle doomed Japan. The calculated risks Chester Nimitz took required assembling all possible resources, and still left him with a three to one disadvantage in ships. To appreciate further this tenuous condition note the fate of four Army B-26 medium bombers rushed to Midway. Captain James Collins led the aircraft in torpedo attacks. The pilots had never seen or practiced with aerial torpedoes. They would now only practice takeoffs and landings. Those early B-26’s earned a reputation...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. 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...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. 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...

TOKYO, Jan. 16 - Like many Japanese businessmen these days, but particularly as co-chairman of the 21st Century Committee for Japan-China Friendship, Yotaro Kobayashi is worried about the state of affairs between Asia's two most powerful nations. On one hand, since the committee was formed in October 2003 under an agreement between the countries, Mr. Kobayashi, 71, who is also chairman of Fuji Xerox, has watched political relations fall to their lowest point in years. On the other hand, economic ties have continued to deepen, and China's rise has kept buoying up the Japanese economy. "Japan Inc.," the voguish term...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. 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...