Woz is making dinner reservations. Please let us know who is coming to dinner. Update Jan 10, 2023. My secretary is old and error-prone, so if I missed your email please let us know.
S/F
Det 4, Headquarters 4th Marine Division - Chicago Marines
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Who is Coming as of June 21, 2022
Byron Hill is handling the Golf arrangements. Given that you are all Marines I understand that you will be golfing 45 holes each day after morning PT at Zero Dark Thirty. Contact Byron at: Byron Hill <byron_hill@comcast.net>.
Shades of Green is proud to take full advantage of our scenic location nestled between two world-class PGA golf courses. It’s perfect for golf enthusiasts, novices, juniors, and the whole family. Of course, we have special military discounts on tee times, equipment, and clinics to make it even more fun to hit the links. The natural Florida woodlands provide a stunning backdrop to some of America’s premier resort courses. All Military personnel will receive a standard 15% discount off of the standard pricing of tee times. https://www.shadesofgreen.org/experiences/activities/golf
The list below is who has let us know if they are coming so far as of June 21, 2022.
Kindly let us know one way or the other to make sure I have your current email. If I don't hear from you I will have to send out the search parties.
Name Who is Coming
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday, Marines! Semper Fi
10 November 2022
A MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS
70 years ago, Army Major General Frank E. Lowe was quoted as saying, "The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines. Lord, how they could fight." That testimonial rings as true now as it did then, and will remain so tomorrow. As we celebrate the 247th anniversary of our Corps' founding, we reflect on nearly two and a half centuries of exceptional prowess, while also taking objective stock of where we are today and how we will prepare for future battlefields. Our birthday provides us a chance to focus on the one thing common to our success in the past, present, and future: the individual Marine. Victories are not won because of technology or equipment, but because of our Marines.
Since 1775, Marines have fought courageously and tenaciously in every conflict our country has faced. Through the Revolution, the Spanish-American War, World Wars in Europe and the Pacific, conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, and operations in the Middle East, Marines consistently earned a reputation as the world's elite fighting force. We inherit and take pride in this reputation, evolved over time by Marines acquitting themselves with honor and distinction on every battlefield in every clime and place. Battlefields change, and Marines have always adapted to the environment and the changing character of war - but the reason we fight and win is immutable. It's the individual warfighters, and their love for each other, that makes our Corps as formidable a force today as it has been for the past 247 years. It's our ethos and our unapologetic resolve to be the most capable and lethal fighting force that sets us apart from the rest.
Current events around the world remind us that peace is not guaranteed. While we are justifiably proud of our past and pay tribute to the remarkable warfighters who came before us, we understand that the stories of yesterday cannot secure our freedom tomorrow. We must be ready to respond when our Nation calls. It falls on Marines who are in uniform today to write the next chapter of our Corps. The solemn responsibility of maintaining our illustrious warfighting legacy rests upon your shoulders. I know that you are up to that task. The battlefields of tomorrow are uncertain. The future characteristics of warfare are uncertain. But one thing is certain - wherever Marines are called, they will fight and win - today, tomorrow, and into the future.
Happy 247th Birthday, Marines!
Semper Fidelis
David H. Berger
General, U.S. Marine Corps
Commandant of the Marine Corps
Click to view the Video https://www.cmc.marines.mil/Birthday/
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
They Can Still Shave Your Head And Bring You Back
RETIRED NAVY AND MARINE CORPS - BECOMING “UNRETIRED:” RECALL TO ACTIVE DUTY
You can be recalled to active duty anytime the service wants you. For this reason, military officials often refer to military retirement/retainer pay as “reduced pay for reduced services.”
Department of Defense (DOD) Directive 1352.1 places retirees into one of three categories, with Category I the most likely to be recalled during times of war, national emergency, or “needs of the service”:
Category I: Nondisabled military retirees under age 60 who have been retired less than five years.
Category II: Nondisabled military retirees under age 60 who have been retired five years or more.
Category III: Military retirees, age 60 or older, and those retired for disability.
Military retired members of any age can be recalled to active duty to face court-martial charges. However, that this does not happen very often. In most cases, the military allows the civilian justice system to process military retirees who engage in misconduct.
_______
Many of the retired Marines I know would be glad to go back on active duty if the country needed us. Although if the country needs us at our advanced age we and our country are in deep doo doo.
Semper Fi
Saturday, August 20, 2022
C-130
C-130 Hercules
My first ride on a C-130 was in 1967. We loaded our big trucks and HAWK missiles in Yuma, Arizona, and flew 15 minutes to El Centro, California, just to practice loading and unloading our equipment on the aircraft.
I flew them a number of times in Vietnam and to Okinawa, and the head was just as shown, with no curtain, open to view. A nice Vietnamese lady used the facility, looking back at us and laughing and flirting.
Our Marine C-130 Squadron, VMGR-234, was located at the Glenview Naval Air Station north of Chicago. We would load our radio jeeps and fly around the country, setting up communication shots and working with other units. We flew to Boston, New Orlean, Florida, 29 Palms, Wisconsin, LA, and San Francisco for long weekends.
We also used the C-130 as an air control agency, with an air control van placed in the aircraft. It was very effective during an attack. And the C-130 could be used as a gun platform firing a 105 mm howitzer and other weapons.
I took a hop from Glenview to Hawaii in 1982. One way it took two days because of high winds, the other time it made it nonstop. 13 hours, I think, a long time to spend in a loud aircraft.
When the Gulf War broke out our Commanding Officer took a 130 and went to the west coast, then Hawaii, Japan, and then Thailand, carrying cargo all the way. He took along my friend and Squadron mate. He was going to take me as well, but then got nervous about two Colonels on a boondoggle to war.After he got to Thailand he said, hey, we are halfway around the world, so they kept going west. They got to Saudi Arabia just as the war was breaking out, so they hauled equipment around for the next week. My friend called me up at 2 am to tell me he was at the war, and I was not. He spent 96 flight hours in the airplane and slept in a hammock.
The facilities are a bit primitive
Beth and I took a C-130 from Ramstein, Germany to Siganella, Sicily. Beth told me she needed to use the washroom, and I was a bit concerned, but they had the nice curtain erected for privacy.
The pilot was taking his wife and young daughter to Sicily. She thought it would be the beach and sun, but it was cold. The pilot and I went into town to get rental cars. His license was a week out of date, so we took his family around for that night and the next day.The C-130 is slow so it is not our favored plane for space A, but if nothing else is flying we take it.
Video:
More Info:
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/usmc/vmgr-234.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_C-130_Hercules
Putting out a anti missile flares
Beth and Craig flying Space Available
Thursday, August 18, 2022
C-130 Landing in Bagdad
Thanks to Byron Hill For Sharing
-------------------------------------
There I was at six thousand feet over central Iraq , two hundred eighty knots and we're dropping fast. It's a typical September evening in the Persian Gulf; hotter than a rectal thermometer and I'm sweating like a priest at a Cub Scout meeting. But that's neither here nor there.
The night is moonless over Baghdad tonight, and blacker than a Steven King novel. But it's 2006, folks, and I'm sporting the latest in night-combat technology - namely, hand-me-down night vision goggles (NVGs) thrown out by the fighter boys. Additionally, my 1962 Lockheed C-130E Hercules is equipped with an obsolete, yet, semi-effective missile warning system (MWS). The MWS conveniently makes a nice soothing tone in your headset just before the missile explodes into your airplane. Who says you can't polish a turd?
At any rate, the NVGs are illuminating Baghdad International Airport like the Las Vegas Strip during a Mike Tyson fight. These NVGs are the cat's ass. But I've digressed.
The preferred method of approach tonight is the random shallow. This tactical maneuver allows the pilot to ingress the landing zone in an unpredictable manner, thus exploiting the supposedly secured perimeter of the airfield in an attempt to avoid enemy surface-to-air-missiles and small arms fire. Personally, I wouldn't bet my pink ass on that theory but the approach is fun as hell and that's the real reason we fly it.
We get a visual on the runway at three miles out, drop down to one thousand feet above the ground, still maintaining two hundred eighty knots. Now the fun starts.
It's pilot appreciation time as I descend the mighty Herc to six hundred feet and smoothly, yet very deliberately, yank into a sixty degree left bank, turning the aircraft ninety degrees offset from runway heading. As soon as we roll out of the turn, I reverse turn to the right a full two hundred seventy degrees in order to roll out aligned with the runway.
Some aeronautical genius coined this maneuver the "Ninety/Two-Seventy." Chopping the power during the turn, I pull back on the yoke just to the point my nether regions start to sag, bleeding off energy in order to configure the pig for landing. "Flaps Fifty!, landing Gear Down!, Before Landing Checklist!"
I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat shitting on a sheet of ice. Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the Nags, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glance at my steely eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin forms on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am .... "Where do we find such fine young men?"
"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aim-point and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky. Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid, Baghdad air. The huge, one hundred thirty-thousand pound, lumbering whisper pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet. Let's see a Viper do that!
We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home.
Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army. Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?"
Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass it is. Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention, chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there, too.
But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this hole.
Hey copilot how's 'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist." God, I love this job!!!!
I look over at the copilot and he's shaking like a cat shitting on a sheet of ice. Looking further back at the navigator, and even through the Nags, I can clearly see the wet spot spreading around his crotch. Finally, I glance at my steely eyed flight engineer. His eyebrows rise in unison as a grin forms on his face. I can tell he's thinking the same thing I am .... "Where do we find such fine young men?"
"Flaps One Hundred!" I bark at the shaking cat. Now it's all aim-point and airspeed. Aviation 101, with the exception there are no lights, I'm on NVGs, it's Baghdad, and now tracers are starting to crisscross the black sky. Naturally, and not at all surprisingly, I grease the Goodyear's on brick-one of runway 33 left, bring the throttles to ground idle and then force the props to full reverse pitch. Tonight, the sound of freedom is my four Hamilton Standard propellers chewing through the thick, putrid, Baghdad air. The huge, one hundred thirty-thousand pound, lumbering whisper pig comes to a lurching stop in less than two thousand feet. Let's see a Viper do that!
We exit the runway to a welcoming committee of government issued Army grunts. It's time to download their beans and bullets and letters from their sweethearts, look for war booty, and of course, urinate on Saddam's home.
Walking down the crew entry steps with my lowest-bidder, Beretta 92F, 9 millimeter strapped smartly to my side, look around and thank God, not Allah, I'm an American and I'm on the winning team. Then I thank God I'm not in the Army. Knowing once again I've cheated death, I ask myself, "What in the hell am I doing in this mess?"
Is it Duty, Honor, and Country? You bet your ass it is. Or could it possibly be for the glory, the swag, and not to mention, chicks dig the Air Medal. There's probably some truth there, too.
But now is not the time to derive the complexities of the superior, cerebral properties of the human portion of the aviator-man-machine model. It is however, time to get out of this hole.
Hey copilot how's 'bout the 'Before Starting Engines Checklist." God, I love this job!!!!
The video below is different than the C-130 approach written above, but very impressive.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
As a 2nd Lieutenant he was in the Mexican War. He served with and knew all the men who would become the principal officers of both sides of the Civil War. He was involved in a great deal of fighting. Marines will be interested to find out that he was at Chapultepec with Marine Lt Semmes and later at the Halls of Montezumas.
He led the Union Army in the Civil War and finally brought that brutal war to a conclusion, fighting against many of his comrades from The Mexican War.
He writes simply and clearly, and with understated humor. Click the link below to read the free books.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4367/4367-h/4367-h.htm
Send your comments that I will include in this blog to craighullinger@gmail.com
Semper Fi
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
In 1847, with the conflict still raging, Secretary of State James Buchanan suggested that President James K. Polk send an emissary to Mexico to assist in bringing the war to a close. Agreeing, Polk chose Chief Clerk of the State Department Nicholas Trist and dispatched him south to join General Winfield Scott's army near Veracruz. Initially disliked by Scott, who resented Trist's presence, the emissary soon earned the general's trust and the two became close friends. With the army driving inland towards Mexico City and the enemy in retreat, Trist received orders from Washington, DC to negotiate for the acquisition of California and New Mexico to the 32nd Parallel as well as Baja California.
Following Scott's capture of Mexico City in September 1847, the Mexicans appointed three commissioners, Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto, and Miguel Atristain, to meet with Trist to discuss peace terms. Commencing talks, Trist's situation was complicated in October when he was recalled by Polk who was unhappy with the representative's inability to conclude a treaty earlier. Believing that the president did not fully understand the situation in Mexico, Trist elected to ignore the recall order and wrote a 65-page response to Polk outlining his reasons for doing so. Continuing to meet with the Mexican delegation, final terms were agreed to in early 1848.
The war officially ended on February 2, 1848, with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty ceded to the United States the land that now comprises the states of California, Utah, and Nevada, as well as parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. In exchange for this land, the United States paid Mexico $15,000,000, less than half the amount offered by Washington prior to the conflict. Mexico also forfeited all rights to Texas and the border was permanently established at the Rio Grande. Trist also agreed that the United States would assume $3.25 million in debt owed by the Mexican government to American citizens as well as would work to curtail Apache and Comanche raids into northern Mexico. In an effort to avoid later conflicts, the treaty also stipulated that future disagreements between the two countries would be settled through compulsory arbitration.
Sent north, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was delivered to the US Senate for ratification. After extensive debate and some alterations, the Senate approved it on March 10. In the course of the debate, an attempt to insert the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned enslavement in the newly-acquired territories, failed 38-15 along sectional lines. The treaty received ratification from the Mexican government on May 19. With Mexican acceptance of the treaty, American troops began departing the country. The American victory confirmed most citizens’ belief in Manifest Destiny and the nation’s expansion westward. In 1854, the United States concluded the Gadsden Purchase which added territory in Arizona and New Mexico and reconciled several border issues that had arisen from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Casualties
Like most wars in the 19th century, more soldiers died from disease than from wounds received in battle. In the course of the war, 1,773 Americans were killed in action as opposed to 13,271 dead from sickness. A total of 4,152 were wounded in the conflict. Mexican casualty reports are incomplete, but it estimated that approximately 25,000 were killed or wounded between 1846-1848.
Legacy of the War
The Mexican War in many ways may be directly connected to the Civil War. Arguments over the expansion of enslavement into the newly acquired lands further heightened sectional tensions and forced new states to be added through compromise. In addition, the battlefields of Mexico served as a practical learning ground for those officers who would play prominent roles in the upcoming conflict. Leaders such as Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Braxton Bragg, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside, George G. Meade, and James Longstreet all saw service with either Taylor or Scott’s armies. The experiences these leaders gained in Mexico helped to shape their decisions in the Civil War.
Short history of The Mexican War
http://www.thomaslegion.net/themexicanwar.html
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)