The Hero of Asiana Flight 214

Yesterday (Saturday, July 6, 2013) saw what could have been a true civil aviation disaster: the crash of Asiana Airlines flight 214 from Shanghai, China to San Francisco, California, via Seoul, South Korea. There were 307 passengers and crew aboard the aircraft. 305 are alive today to tell the harrowing tale of the final moments of flight and their miraculous survival.

Two sadly perished. They were Chinese teenagers Wang Linjia and Ye Mengyuan, both just sixteen years old. The two young women were coming to the United States for summer camp, on what (I'm assuming) was their first visit to our country. If either of their families ever happen upon this post, I hope they accept my sincere sympathies. As many as 182 others were injured in the crash, some severely.

Known details and evidence available to this point points to pilot error as the cause of the accident. In fairness to the aircrew, the investigation is just beginning and they might be absolved. I'm not an expert, just a layman aviation fan. There was a hero yesterday, but it wasn't a human.

TFH 7/6: LCDR Bruce A. Van Voorhis, USN

Bruce Avery Van Voorhis was born on January 29, 1908 in Aberdeen, Washington and spent his childhood years in Nevada. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in 1925, and graduated with the class of 1929. His first assignment was to the USS Mississippi (BB-41), but he only spent about one year with the battleship before reporting to Naval Air Station Pensacola for training as a Naval Aviator.

After earning his "Wings of Gold" on September 3, 1931, Van Voorhis flew a variety of carrier-based and other aircraft, and served aboard and flew off off the USS Saratoga (CV-3), USS Ranger (CV-4), USS Yorktown (CV-5), and USS Enterprise (CV-6) before the United States entered World War II.

TFH 6/16: The Most Decorated Single Aircrew of World War II

Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress, serial number 41-2666 and possibly named "Lucy" at one time, was originally assigned at delivery to the 435th Bombardment Squadron of the 19th Bombardment Group. The bomber was known as a "hard luck" plane. A mission it flew in November 1942 resulted in the accidental deployment of one of the life rafts aboard, destroying the radio aerial and wrapping itself around the horizontal stabilizers. By early 1943, 41-2666 had such a reputation for being shot up that it was abandoned as a parts hulk at the airfield at Port Moresby, New Guinea.

Jay Zeamer, Jr. was born on July 25, 1918 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve while still a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1940. Zeamer was discharged, accepted into the United States Army Air Corps (forerunner of the United States Army Air Forces and the United States Air Force) as an aviation cadet, and recommissioned after completing pilot training in March 1941. Zeamer flew combat missions in the Pacific during 1942 in Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers. He was transferred to the 43rd Bombardment Group (Heavy) in November 1942 and assigned to group headquarters.

Zeamer began flying missions on B-17s as a fill-in pilot on other crews, but didn't have a plane or a crew of his own...until someone told him where he could find a plane.

Bridges Too Far

Anybody who drives - I'm guessing most of the people reading this - is probably receptive to the meme of "our nation's infrastructure is crumbling". Yet, though billions of dollars are spent annually between all levels of government as soon as one thing gets fixed or improved, another starts falling apart. What's the real story of America's infrastructure? Frankly it's us, the taxpayers, getting screwed.

A couple of weeks ago, a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by Jon Schmitz, "Pennsylvania bridges better, but still need work", caught my eye. The article mentions how in the last three years the number of "structurally deficient" bridges in Pennsylvania has dropped by 1,100. Before you breathe easy, that still leaves about 4,500 in the Commonwealth that need some TLC ("structurally deficient...does not mean they are unsafe but that they are showing signs of deterioration that, if unaddressed, could lead to weight limits or closings").

Later in the article, Mr. Schmitz points out that one of the most important bridges in the Pittsburgh area is on the needy list:

One of the biggest bridges on the deficient list, the Liberty Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh, is in need of rehabilitation that will cost an estimated $40 million to $60 million, he said. Final design of the project is expected to begin this year but construction funding is not yet available. More than 16,500 vehicles use the bridge on an average day. 

The bridge superstructure is marred with patches of rust and there are areas of corrosion and deterioration in the steel, but Mr. [Dan] Cessna said the span is safe. It is currently undergoing an in-depth inspection. 

The best-case scenario has rehabilitation starting in 2015 if funding becomes available. The department will make interim repairs as necessary until then, Mr. Cessna said.

Dan Cessna is the executive of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation District 11, comprising Allegheny, Beaver, and Lawrence counties. Everybody in Pittsburgh knows the Liberty Bridge, the tunnels that join the bridge to pass under Mount Washington, the lengthy traffic jams during rush hours on both, and what a complete pig's breakfast transportation around here would be if the bridge failed or had to be closed for safety reasons. $40-60 million seems like a bargain to keep the bridge safe and sound. But is it?

TFH 5/29: Hillary and Norgay

On April 10, 1802, the British began the Great Trigonometric Survey as part of the larger Survey of India. The surveyors thought it would take five years to complete their work. It wound up taking over sixty.

During 1847, Kangchenjunga was considered the highest peak in the world (now known to be the third highest). In November of that year, Andrew Waugh, British Surveyor General of India, and one of his colleagues, John Armstrong, viewed another peak over 140 miles past Kangchenjunga between Nepal and Tibet, both of which was closed to foreigners at the time. The two used theodolites to determine trigonometrically the height of the "new" peak. They were pretty sure that they had found the world's highest mountain, but needed closer observations to verify.

Two years later, Waugh dispatched surveyor James Nicolson to get closer. He took thirty measurements and sightings on the peak from distances ranging from 108 to 120 miles away. The mountain was then designated simply as "Peak XV".

Finally in 1856, after further measurements and mathematical corrections to account for Earth curvature, atmospheric distortion, and the like - much by an Indian surveyor named Radhanath Sikdar - Waugh announced that the world's tallest mountain had been identified with an altitude of 29,002 feet (8,840 meters).

The British tried to name peaks preserving their local, native names, but as Nepal and Tibet were closed to them, the peak's traditional name of Chomolungma remained unknown for years. Waugh chose to name the peak for his predecessor as Surveyor General: George Everest.

TFH 5/26: Private Joseph P. Martinez, USA

Just about everybody knows that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, thus embroiling the United States as an active combatant in World War II. Likewise, the Japanese occupation of American territories in the central and western Pacific is also well known. Many however, don't realize that part of what today is one of our fifty states was actually occupied by the Japanese in 1942: the Alaskan Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska.

In 1943, the United States counter-attacked to reclaim the two Aleutians. Beginning on May 11, 1943, elements of the United States Army's 7th Infantry Division began landing on Attu to drive the Japanese out. Serving with the 7th's 32nd Infantry Regiment was Private Joe P. Martinez.

Solving the Anthem Problem

During the last week, I popped into a Twitter conversation lamenting our National Anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. In the end, one of the folks in the thread said our anthem should be changed to America the Beautiful. About the only song worse as a choice would probably be This Land is Your Land.

However, there is a problem with our anthem. No it's not that The Star-Spangled Banner is difficult to sing, or that celebrity anthem singers before major events frequently mangle it. The problem is simply that we're singing the wrong words.

The American Horror Next Door

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I Am a Conservatarian, Volume I: The Basics

A few weeks ago, I was tossed a "Follow Friday" on Twitter by Kevin Boyd, a blogger, social media director of the great new blog site Pocket Full of Liberty, and on my short list of great Twitterverse friends I really have to meet in real life someday. Kevin graciously tagged me as "Mr. Conservatarian", and when I've gotten in a rant-ish kind of mood over on Twitter recently, I've been shooting out pearls of wisdom with the heading and hashtag "I am a #Conservatarian".

The whole concept of "Conservatarian" probably could use some explanation, and I'm all too happy to oblige. And yes, I'm rather pretentiously labeling this "Volume I", as this is a topic area that I can drop dozens of posts into, and hope to do so.

Sleepers wake? Part One of a Different Take on Benghazi

Inquiries and investigations into the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012 that left four Americans dead, including US Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, are picking up. Many are starting to ask about what I think is one of the key questions in the whole scandal, namely who was it that gave then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and others the talking points about the "YouTube" excuse; that it was the rather badly made anti-Muslim video that spurred on the whole attack and following debacle. Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post's "The Fact Checker" blog is on this angle, as is Ed Morrissey at Hot Air and in his new column for The Week.

Cover-ups rarely are spurred on by the events that directly precipitated the need to cover up, rather their genesis is to be found in keeping under wraps other things that an investigation will likely expose. This was true in both the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, and it's almost certainly true about the aftermath of Benghazi.

I'm a fan of both history and fiction dealing with espionage and international intrigue. You may have read my recent post on the 70th anniversary of Operation Mincemeat, which except for date checks and verifying some minor details, I wrote pretty much from memory. Perhaps I've read too much history and fiction in that genre, as the tack I'm taking here is a bit off the wall, but I think it's the only explanation that begins to fit all the facts. It's also going to take several posts to flesh out the whole story as I see it. So, here goes...

Sergeant Robert M. Patterson, USA

Robert Martin Patterson was born on April 16, 1948 in Durham, North Carolina. As a 20-year old Specialist 4th Class in the United States Army, he was posted with Troop B of the 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, fighting in Vietnam attached to the 101st Airborne Division.

Forty-five years ago today, May 6, 1968, Patterson was a fire team leader when his unit became pinned down by heavy fires from an enemy bunker complex while they were in the attack. Patterson charged the enemy positions, and was rewarded with both a promotion to Sergeant and the receipt of our Nation's highest honor for his courage.

Pig(ford)s at the trough

(Important blogger's note: the title of this post is in no means to be interpreted as disparaging or demeaning to Mr. Timothy Pigford, the original named lead plaintiff in the class action suit that led to this travesty.)

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

"With respect to the two words 'general welfare', I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."

Those two quotes are by James Madison, and on those topics, he'd be an authority as one of the principle authors of both the Constitution of the United States and the Federalist Papers written in support of the Constitution's ratification.

Last week, The New York Times came across a story of incredible fraud, waste, and graft coming out of the United States Department of Agriculture, generically known as "Pigford". Naturally, the Times was somewhat late to the game as the late Andrew Breitbart was on the story over two years before, and it has also been reported on by Breitbart.com writer Lee Stranahan, as well as numerous other new media sources.

Today is "Blog about Pigford Day", and rather than rehash all the details of the scandal in total, I'm choosing instead to comment on the root cause of how we got there. Naturally, it all comes back to the Constitution, and willful departure from the limited enumerated powers of our government.

TFH 5/1: Sergeant Maynard H. Smith, USAAF

Maynard Harrison Smith was born on May 19, 1911 in Caro, Michigan. He didn't have a particularly accomplished youth or early adulthood, choosing instead to live off his parents' prosperity, particularly after his father's passing. Smith married shortly before the United States entered World War II, but he abandoned his wife and infant child.

In 1942, the law caught up with him and he was given a choice: enlist or go to jail. He chose the former. Smith joined the United States Army Air Forces, progenitor of today's United States Air Force. After basic training, he volunteered for aerial gunnery school, somewhat selfishly because it meant faster promotion and more money. He was disgusted, at age 31, from having to take orders from soldiers and airmen years his junior.

Reportedly, Smith was pretty much always in trouble during training. Regardless, he made it through gunnery school, got promoted to Sergeant (all aerial gunners were ranked as non-commissioned officers), and was assigned to the 423rd Bombardment Squadron of the 306th Bombardment Group at RAF Thurleigh in England.

TFH 4/30: Major William Martin, RM goes to war

My regular readers know that I've told many stories here of men who gave their lives in battle to save others. Seventy years ago today on April 30, 1943, a man already dead went to war, and undoubtedly saved hundreds if not thousands of American and British soldiers from becoming casualties both in July and August 1943 and beyond.

Glyndwr Michael was born in Aberbargoed, Wales on January 4, 1909. His father, a coal miner, committed suicide in 1924. His mother died in 1940, leaving the Welshman alone, depressed or suffering from additional mental illness, and homeless. His corpse was discovered on January 24, 1943 in a London warehouse. Michael's death was caused by ingesting rat poison, and it's unknown whether he committed suicide or his death was an accident because he was scrounging for food.

Society often looks past the deaths of derelicts, of the unwanted. With no family surviving to claim his remains, Michael's body would become the centerpiece of the greatest wartime deception since the perhaps mythical Trojan Horse, and would ultimately be buried with military honors befitting a man killed in battle.

TFH 4/28: Private Nicholas Minue, USA

Nicholas Minue was born to ethnic Ukrainian parents in Sedden, Poland on March 13, 1905. He emigrated with his family to the United States, where they settled in Carteret, New Jersey. In 1926 at age 21, he volunteered and enlisted in the United States Army. Minue made the Army his home, and by 1942 with sixteen years of service held the rank of Sergeant. Then 37 years old, he requested assignment to any of the hundreds of combat units being assembled for war in either Europe or the Pacific. His request was denied, as he was thought to be too old or too senior.

Fighting for his adopted homeland, fighting for the liberation of his birth land from Nazi tyranny; no order saying "no" would keep Nicholas Minue from fulfilling the soldier's duty of going to war. He voluntarily gave up his rank, reverted to the status and pay of a mere Private, and went to combat with the 6th Armored Infantry Regiment of the 1st Armored Division.

Reflections on the Tsarnaev manhunt, one week after

On April 18, Americans residing around the city of Boston were alerted by their neighbors that an imminent threat to their safety was in their midst. Throughout the night, they were warned about the danger to their property and their families.

As April 19 dawned, those Bostonians who were willing, along with many others from surrounding communities, armed themselves and took to the streets and fields in defense of their homes, communities, and fellow citizens...

...wait, WHAT?

TFH 4/24: Sergeant William L. Nelson, USA

William Lloyd Nelson was born on February 22, 1918 in Dover, Delaware. He was drafted into the United States Army in January, 1941 before the United States' entry into World War II. By 1943, he was a Sergeant with the 9th Infantry Division's 60th Infantry Regiment and was a mortar section leader.

On March 23, 1943, the US II Corps, Lieutenant General George S. Patton commanding, launched their final assault in Tunisia to force the last Nazis in North Africa to surrender or be annihilated. The next day, 70 years ago exactly, Sergeant Nelson risked everything and gave his life to the cause of liberty to see that the fires of his section's mortars would fall catastrophically on enemy forces. He was posthumously decorated with the Medal of Honor.

TFH 4/9: Private Robert D. Booker, USA

The United States Army's 34th Infantry Division was the first division deployed to Europe for World War II, departing New York for Ireland in January, 1942. They saw their first action in North Africa beginning in November, 1942. The "Red Bull" division, as they were known, also fought throughout the Italian campaign.

At some point in its history, the 34th division gained the motto, "Attack, attack, attack!" Perhaps they got their motto from the events of seventy years ago this day when Private Robert D. Booker, a 22 year-old machine gunner from Callaway, Nebraska with the division's 133rd Infantry Regiment, charged forward alone over open ground to silence enemy machine guns and mortars and earned his Nation's highest honor.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013

The debt the free peoples of Europe owe to [the United States], generous with its bounty, willing to share its strength, seeking to protect the week, is incalculable. We thank and salute you! ...

We do not aim at domination, at hegemony, in any part of the world. Even against those who oppose and who would destroy our ideas, we plot no aggression. Of course, we are ready to fight the battle of ideas with all the vigour at our command, but we do not try to impose our system on others. We do not believe that force should be the final arbiter in human affairs. We threaten no-one. Indeed, the Alliance has given a solemn assurance to the world—none of our weapons will be used except in response to attack...

Distinguished Members of Congress, our two countries have a common heritage as well as a common language. It is no mere figure of speech to say that many of your most enduring traditions—representative government, habeas corpus, trial by jury, a system of constitutional checks and balances—stem from our own small islands. But they are as much your lawful inheritance as ours. You did not borrow these traditions—you took them with you, because they were already your own.

Human progress is not automatic. Civilisation has its ebbs and flows, but if we look at the history of the last five hundred years, whether in the field of art, science, technology, religious tolerance or in the practise of politics, the conscious inspiration of it all has been the belief and practise of freedom under law; freedom disciplined by morality, under the law perceived to be just.

 -- Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to a joint session of the United States Congress, February 20, 1985.

Thank you, madam, for your service to humanity's quest for freedom and liberty. The world in which my children are being raised is better for your iron presence having been such a stalwart feature of much of my growing up. As with the Lion who came before you at Downing Street, you will be greatly missed for the rest of days.

Defeat—I do not recognise the meaning of the word!

-- during the Falklands crisis, 1982

TFH 4/7: First Lieutenant James E. Swett, USMCR

James Elms Swett was born in Seattle, Washington on June 15, 1920. He grew up in San Mateo, California. Before his enlistment in the United States Naval Reserve on August 26, 1941, Swett had already obtained a civilian pilot's license and was placed into training as a Naval Aviator.

When he completed primary flight instruction in early 1942, his Nation was at war and he was given the option to stay with the Navy or instead accept a commission with the Marine Corps. Swett chose the latter, and became a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. After completing his full training as a Grumman F4F Wildcat pilot and earning his Wings of Gold as a Naval Aviator, he joined Marine Fighting Squadron 221 (VMF-221) in the Solomon Islands.

Seventy years ago today - April 7, 1943 - then-First Lieutenant Swett flew his very first combat mission. He led a section of Marine fighters against a large Japanese bomber force. The Marine flyers were outnumbered, but following Swett's leadership they pressed their attacks. Swett's Wildcat was severely damaged by both enemy and friendly fire during the battle, and he personally destroyed at least five, possibly seven, enemy aircraft. His incredible heroism was recognized with the Medal of Honor.