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After World War II, the Air Force recognized the need for long ranged transports that could move outsized vehicles such as trucks and tanks.  After the abortive, but attractive, C-74 Globemaster, Douglas Aircraft came forth with the rather ugly, but highly effective C-124 Globemaster II. Entering service in 1950, “Old Shakey” would shudder and shake across the skies for the Air Force and the Guard and Reserves all through the Vietnam War, retiring in 1974. 448 were built.

Lessons learned from the C-124 and improvements in powerplant technology lead to the design of the first turboprop strategic airlifter, the C-133 Cargomaster. While it bears a great deal of resemblance to the C-130 Hercules, they are entirely separate developments. The Cargomaster was a much larger, longer ranged aircraft.

Intended as a replacement for the C-124, budget pressures, the large existing fleet of relatively new Globemaster IIs, and the prospect of larger jet powered transports being available soon meant that the C-133 would not be built in anything like the numbers of its predecessor. In fact, only 50 ever rolled off the assembly lines.

Still, while there weren’t many of them, they were highly useful, and in constant demand.  About half the fleet had modifications to permit them to transport various ballistic missiles from the factory to the missile fields, and they spent a lot of time doing just that. The fleet also spent a lot of time moving time-critical cargo to Vietnam, and returning wounded troops on the way back.

Entering service in 1957, the Cargomasters were originally designed for just a 10,000 hour service life. In the event, the demand for their services meant that the service life had to be extended to 19,000 hours.  Also, the C-133 was plagued by a series of accidents, with 9 lost in crashes, and one in a ground fire, a total of 20% of the fleet. As soon as the Lockheed C-5A became available, the C-133s were quickly retired.

Douglas Aircraft, apparently trying to gin up support for more sales, produced a short movie about the importance of airlift, and of course, it prominently features both the C-124, and the C-133. I especially enjoyed some of the airdrop scenes.

Distortion is to infect truth with a lie. People who distort use the Hegelian method of Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis. In English this is usally accomplished by pairing a fact with something that is not fact and then simplifying it adverbially or adjectivally to create a new ‘truth.’

One very popular example of this is “Dissent Is Patriotic.” Patriotism is the belief in one’s nation or country to such an extent that one supports the people who run the nation, its policies, actions, and the results of all of these. This is the Thesis. Dissent is the acting against a thing, be it a person, policy, actions or results. That is the antithesis. Synthesis is achieved by pairing the two opposing concepts with “Is.” A new ‘truth’ was created for the purpose of providing protection for a level of dissent that gave active aid and comfort to Islamic terrorists.

Another method of distortion is to replace facts but keeping the same label of truth. “Dissent is patriotic.” Is it? We’ve seen in the past 8 years that principled dissent by the Right has been criminalized. Dissent may be patriotic depending on who is facing jail time. As we saw during Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, dissent was defined broadly to include actively recruiting soldiers to ‘frag’ (assassinate) their officers, preventing trains carrying supplies from leaving factories for ports, and exceptionally odious programs to undermine the integrity of the election system. After January 2009, dissent was redefined so that any person who dissented was patriotic except for their inherent racism, homophobia, and so on so that the patriotism of the dissenter became a fouled, evil miasma that infected everyone who stands for the National Anthem.

Worth the read of every brilliant word.  Solid advice for Keydets and all who value honor and liberty.  Pay attention.  And arm up.  We are the enemies of those in power.  Plan accordingly.  (URR here.)

We’ve been struggling with some technical difficulties the last couple days, so that’s one reason why posting has been slim.

Here’s an interesting video about the USS Alabama, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of her commissioning.

And amazingly, given all the times I’ve been to Alabama, I’ve never managed to head south to tour her.

One pilot is dead following a military plane crash near the Sutter Butte mountain range in Sutter County. There is no word on the condition of the other pilot at this time.

The unidentified pilot died sometime after ejecting from the U-2 “Dragon Lady” reconnaissance plane, which sent a mayday call around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. The plane was seen going down in a flat spin minutes after the emergency call.

It is unclear how or when the pilot was killed.

via www.actionnewsnow.com

I'd heard reports of three parachutes (the airframe was reportedly the two seat trainer version) for two crew and a mission payload module. But looking at the video at the link, I only see one parachute, some white smoke, and barely notice the airframe falling to the ground.

Prayers for the loved ones of the deceased.

The crew survived.

Watch and see. This one goes down to the wire.