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Forums10
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Jul 28th, 2025
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,837 Likes: 1455 |
They were the greatest generation. My friend Carl served aboard the USS Gambier Bay, in the battle off Samaar. That ship was the single US flattop sunk by gunfire during the war, after the Japanese got their 18” guns trained on her. Carl didn’t talk much about the war, he told me he spent 4 years sunburned, mostly because he was trained as an aircraft mechanic, but, during a tour fewer aircraft made it back to the ship, and they chewed up a lot of 38 gunners, so, he was moved into the net and spent most of the war hanging under the flight deck, manning a gun mount. He said he knew he could tread water for two days, he did it after the ship was sunk, but, didn’t know if he could do three days. He said when the 18” rounds passed through the ship, it looked like a Chevy Suburban had gone through it. He referred to the CVE designation for jeep carriers as meaning “ Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable”. He wasn’t smiling when he said it. He lived to be 97, my family ended up being his family at the holidays. Carl never married, and had no heirs when he died. I often wonder if the war put him on that trajectory. I think he would have been a great father. He was a great friend. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gambier_BayBest, Ted
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10 members like this:
graybeardtmm3, Jolly Bill, PhysDoc, John Roberts, craigd, Parabola |
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Joined: Oct 2019
Posts: 625 Likes: 340
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Oct 2019
Posts: 625 Likes: 340 |
… and may they never be forgotten.
Speude Bradeos
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1 member likes this:
Parabola |
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Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,609 Likes: 505
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 3,609 Likes: 505 |
84 years ago. Amazing. I once was a substitute history teacher at a Junior High School in Northern Virginia. I generally just had one class, gave the students a list of topics I'd be willing to discuss, told them to put away pencils. Once one kid asked, "How old are you!" I answered, "I was born 2 days after D-Day." Blank looks. Finally one kid snapped his fingers and said, "World War II right?" Same no doubt can be said of this day.
By the way I often used 07 December 1941 as an example of the problems we have in analysing intelligence information these days (Information is raw reports - intelligence is finished analysis). . .80 years after the National Security Act of 1947 created an organization for central all-source analysis to make sure that day never happened again, layers of bureaucracy, agency infighting and legal restrictions have once again hampered real-time research.
Do you wonder in the present climate, what might happen if a Fishing boat shows up at an Oahu harbor saying he's seen 4 carriers north of the Island on Dec 6, 1941? The raw report would be killed - questions would be asked about his competence, sourcing, does he know what a carrier looks like, who were the captains, what is their mission. ."nothing confirms this" - need more info - "he was drunk". . . and the analysts would never get the raw report.
The savior of this human tangle, entirely created for bureaucratic reasons and some utter post 9/11 silliness is going to be AI....artificial intelligence. And people not using it now are a light year behind. And that's not just in analysis but in everything including gun repair and automobile mechanics.
Last edited by Argo44; 12/07/25 08:43 PM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,837 Likes: 1455
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,837 Likes: 1455 |
I ‘kinda doubt the guy in the fishing boat is needed, today. Remember, if you will, Soviet Alpha class liquid metal reactor subs could be accurately tracked by US satellites.
AI wasn’t there, then. I can’t imagine where the technology is, today.
Best,
Ted
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Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,665 Likes: 1102
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2012
Posts: 3,665 Likes: 1102 |
My mother-in-law was born on December 7th, 1941.
I have a hard time balancing those two facts sometimes.
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,832 Likes: 696
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 11,832 Likes: 696 |
My mother-in-law was born on December 7th, 1941.
I have a hard time balancing those two facts sometimes. That the funniest post I've seen here in quite some time Lloyd.
Voting for anti-gun Democrats is dumber than giving treats to a dog that shits on a Persian Rug
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 6,568 Likes: 164
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 6,568 Likes: 164 |
I would have guessed that my EX- mother-in-law was born on the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It would have fit right in with her volatile and incendiary personality. 😄
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,532 Likes: 85
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 2,532 Likes: 85 |
… my family ended up being his family at the holidays.
Carl never married, and had no heirs when he died. I often wonder if the war put him on that trajectory. I think he would have been a great father. He was a great friend.
Best,
Ted Ever cross your mind to ask? Bit of an outlier considering there’s something like 76 million boomers. ____________________________________ Generation Jones
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,837 Likes: 1455
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 10,837 Likes: 1455 |
… my family ended up being his family at the holidays.
Carl never married, and had no heirs when he died. I often wonder if the war put him on that trajectory. I think he would have been a great father. He was a great friend.
Best,
Ted Ever cross your mind to ask? Bit of an outlier considering there’s something like 76 million boomers. ____________________________________ Generation Jones 7000 of them will die today. Same thing tomorrow. It did not occur to me to ask. There was a woman that Carl had started school (kindergarten) with, who he had known most of 100 years. He told me they were just friends, and he would visit her at an assisted living facility in North East Minneapolis about every other month. That ended when she entered memory care. Neither of them had any family left at that point. Growing old is the punishment for having lived. Best, Ted _____________________________________________________________________________________________ I just want to die with my boots on.
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