Any fliers?

On 25 May 2004 16:38:10 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

I have never yet read a war novel that gives you the real freeling of having
been there. Not one.If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic fluid,
then it ain't real.


Arthur Kramer

Gotta say that Catch-22 rang a lot of bells with me. And, if you want
cordite and hydraulics, The War Lover, by John Hersey, is a good one.
And, despite his politics (although Art will find himself in Mailer's
corner), The Naked and the Dead is pretty compelling.

There are a lot of good war novels. The problem is there is also an
overwhelming preponderence of drek.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...



I have never yet read a war novel that gives you the real freeling of
having
been there. Not one.If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic
fluid,
then it ain't real.


The Cruel Sea was widely admired by those who served in
the battle of the atlantic, but then the author was one of them.

Keith

Subject: Any fliers?
From: Ed Rasimus
Date: 5/25/04 10:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

On 25 May 2004 16:38:10 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

I have never yet read a war novel that gives you the real freeling of having
been there. Not one.If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic fluid,
then it ain't real.


Arthur Kramer

Gotta say that Catch-22 rang a lot of bells with me. And, if you want
cordite and hydraulics, The War Lover, by John Hersey, is a good one.
And, despite his politics (although Art will find himself in Mailer's
corner), The Naked and the Dead is pretty compelling.

There are a lot of good war novels. The problem is there is also an
overwhelming preponderence of drek.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8


I tried to be tactful as is my wont. But I just mentioned cordite and
hydraulic fluid to protect the sensibilities of the squeamish. Actually the
most overwhelming stench when you climb into a war weary WW II bomber is that
of urine and vomit. But I agree Catch 22. I "listened" while Joe wrote it.
For further details go to my website and read " The Birth of the Catches.It is
an eyewitness report on how Catch 22 was born.




Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Subject: Any fliers?
From: "Keith Willshaw"
Date: 5/25/04 10:47 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:


"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...



I have never yet read a war novel that gives you the real freeling of
having
been there. Not one.If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic
fluid,
then it ain't real.


The Cruel Sea was widely admired by those who served in
the battle of the atlantic, but then the author was one of them.

Keith


I actually have a medal and ribbon for the Battle of the Atlantic. For me it
wasn't much of a battle. I crossed on the Queen Mary At one point it was
reported that we were being tracked by a submarine and that old queen really
flew. But we made it into the Furth of Forth ok.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

O.K. Art, fess up- you were Kilroy, too, weren't you?

Steve Swartz

"ArtKramr" wrote in message
...
Subject: Any fliers?
From: Ed Rasimus
Date: 5/25/04 10:25 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

On 25 May 2004 16:38:10 GMT, (ArtKramr) wrote:

I have never yet read a war novel that gives you the real freeling of
having
been there. Not one.If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic
fluid,
then it ain't real.


Arthur Kramer

Gotta say that Catch-22 rang a lot of bells with me. And, if you want
cordite and hydraulics, The War Lover, by John Hersey, is a good one.
And, despite his politics (although Art will find himself in Mailer's
corner), The Naked and the Dead is pretty compelling.

There are a lot of good war novels. The problem is there is also an
overwhelming preponderence of drek.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8


I tried to be tactful as is my wont. But I just mentioned cordite and
hydraulic fluid to protect the sensibilities of the squeamish. Actually
the
most overwhelming stench when you climb into a war weary WW II bomber is
that
of urine and vomit. But I agree Catch 22. I "listened" while Joe wrote
it.
For further details go to my website and read " The Birth of the
Catches.It is
an eyewitness report on how Catch 22 was born.




Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Subject: Any fliers?
From: "Leslie Swartz"
Date: 5/25/04 1:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

O.K. Art, fess up- you were Kilroy, too, weren't you?

Steve Swartz

Aaaaargh ! Ya got me.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

On Mon, 24 May 2004 00:56:14 -0400, "John Keeney"
wrote:

Heck with him. Take me for that ride and I'll come to which ever
base is most convent to you.

In the true spirit of aviation, all I can say is...back of the queue! ;-)

I'm sure there's room for both of us though. Hell, I'll wing-walk if
neccessary!


--
Steve.

If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic fluid,
then it ain't real.

If I send you my maintenance manual, can you tell me what airplane and theater
it is from?
VL

Subject: Any fliers?
From: (MLenoch)
Date: 5/25/04 4:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

If the pages don't smell of cordite and hydraulic fluid,
then it ain't real.

If I send you my maintenance manual, can you tell me what airplane and
theater
it is from?
VL


Whaaaaaa ?


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

Once upon a time when the aircraft community of which I was a member was
transitioning to a new aircraft...

On the armament control panel of the new jet, there was a toggle switch for
fuse selection. Depending on the type of ordnance, the procedure was to
select the appropriate weapon station and then select the appropriate fuse
arming option which was indicated by two tumblers under a little window on
the panel above ones left knee (looks similar to a mechanical odometer in
older cars). Successive movements of the toggle took you through the
options for that particular station and weapon. One fine spring day whilst
at the range with a flight of four dropping Mk76 practice bombs (25 lb blue
death) on the 500' bull, one of my wingmen couldn't seem to get a bomb off
the jet. "...I've tried A... I've tried B... I've tried C...etc" Finally,
I came up and asked, "have you selected a fusing option?" Wingman responds
in churly tones -- "...of course I have..." -- to which this wiley dinosaur
asked, "What does the option window say?"

Wingman responds -- SA and FE. Pregnant silence.................

.........broken by said dinosaur -- "any domestic beer will be fine. Make
sure it's about 2 degrees above frozen and don't forget to invite every
officer and designated wife and/or concubine"

A good time was had by all. Twenty years later, the story is still told at
the bar.




"Joe Osman" wrote in message
...
"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 24 May 2004 15:42:26 -0400, "R Haskin"
wrote:


"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
.. .

I'd love to see the Talon with the new layout. Video alone, instead
of
16mm film in 50 foot cans, would be a great teaching aid.

You're welcome any time you make it to southern Georgia or north
Florida.
I'm sure that something could be arranged that would make it worth your
while. Unfortunately besides the jets and the bar (and the occasional
co-ed
from Valdsota State University), there's not a whole hell of a lot else
to
do down here!

I believe that there will be another 479th reunion this October,
though.

Well, if you guys at Moody did as good of a job of recruiting
operational types to be River Rats as they do at See-My-Johnson, you
could get a whole flock of Rats. SJAFB does a mini-reunion and air
show every year that's pretty whiz-bang. They've got almost 30 of the
Mud Hen drivers signed up, and as those folks get reassigned, we begin
to get active duty Rats at a lot of places.

If you page through the Doofer book (I don't recall if the call-sign
legend page was still intact), I'm "OFP"--which could mean "Old
Fighter Pilot" or "Old Fat Pilot".

This particular entry I'm thinking of is funny because it recalls that
famous list of "stupid pilot" maintenance writeups. I believe that in
this
particular writeup an IP notes that you wrote up in the 781s an IFF
that
was, as they say, "O-F-F."

You'll have to show me that one. You can back-channel me a photo of
the page and I'll confess if it's true.




Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

When I was learning how to fix IFF interrogators in the USMC, they told us
the tale of the pilot whose IFF was inoperative and who, after all the
switch positions that were considered relevant had been checked, asked
about
the proper position for the "ON-IFF" switch. He, of course, had placed it
in
the "IFF" position.

Joe




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