Private William Henry Christman

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Some 160 years ago this week, all that was mortal of Private William Henry Christman, late of Pocono Lake, Pennsylvania and a recent enlistee with the 67th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, was buried in what was then part of Arlington House, the seized former state of Col. Robert Edward Lee (USMA 1829)– a regular who had resigned his commission and had cast his lot with the Confederacy, and wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis.

Christman, a 20-year-old farmer, enlisted in March 1864 but just two months later succumbed to rubella in a Washington, D.C. hospital on 11 May 1864, being buried in Arlington two days later, soon joined by service members who were wounded in the Wilderness and never made it back to their unit.

Today, Pvt. Christman is in Section 27, Grave 19 at Arlington National Cemetery, and the estate, purchased for $26,000 in back taxes by the federal government on 11 January 1864, is the final home of some 400,000 men and women who have been laid to rest in the cemetery’s rolling hills.

Arlington held a commemoration of Pvt. Christman’s burial, as well as the fallen from The Wilderness, this week.

Tiger Stripe Redux

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Spotted in the PI recently, 1st Group guys are channeling a very 1969 Southeast Asia vibe with Tiger Stripe pattern cammies to include boonie hats and full-color patches. I think it is a great look for a peacetime training deployment, especially because Apocalypse Now was filmed in the Philippines and the obvious Vietnam-era tie-in to the pattern in that region.

A U.S. Army Green Beret from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) overlooks movement on an objective alongside a service member with the Philippine National Police Special Action Force the, during Balikatan 24 in Rizal, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2024. BK 24 is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation built over decades of shared experiences. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Asa Bingham)

U.S. Army Green Berets from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) meet with service members from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Special Operations Command with 5th Scout Ranger Company, 5th Scout Ranger Battalion, 1st Scout Ranger Regiment-1st Light Reaction Company, 1st Light Reaction Battalion, Light Reaction Regiment, and the Philippine National Police Special Action Force to discuss training in Rizal, Palawan, Philippines, during Balikatan 24, April 27, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Asa Bingham) (Portions of this image have been blurred for security reasons.)

A U.S. Army Green Beret from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) conducts an after-action review with service members from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Special Operations Command during Balikatan 24 in Rizal, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Asa Bingham) (Portions of this image have been blurred for security reasons.)

A U.S. Army Green Beret from 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) practices military movement techniques alongside service members from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Special Operations Command 5th Scout Ranger Company, 5th Scout Ranger Battalion, 1st Scout Ranger Regiment during Balikatan 24 in Rizal, Palawan, Philippines, April 27, 2024.  (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Asa Bingham) (Portions of this image have been blurred for security reasons.)

For reference, check out this below shot of an ERDL-clad SGT Curtis E. Hester firing his M-16 rifle, while Tiger-striped SGT Billy H. Faulks calls for air support, Co D, 151st (Ranger) Inf., Vietnam, 1969.

For those curious about Tiger Stripe and its effectiveness, check the below.

Eagle, South!

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America’s tall ship, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle (WIX 327), broke out canvas to depart Fort Trumbull in New London, on Saturday to begin the training vessel’s annual three-month summer cruise. Some 88 years young, she is carrying her fifth, recently installed, figurehead on her bow, in addition to a working cargo of mids.

For those not already aware, Eagle, a trophy ship from WWII, is a majestic 295-foot, three-masted barque used as a training vessel for future officers of the USCG and NOAA and is simultaneously the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.

Eagle’s 2024 full summer schedule includes port visits to:

  • May 25 – May 28: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
  • June 4 – June 7: Cartagena, Colombia
  • June 14 – June 17: San Juan, Puerto Rico
  • June 24 – June 27: Bridgetown, Barbados
  • July 7 – July 10: Hamiliton, Bermuda
  • July 18 – July 21: Halifax, Nova Scotia
  • July 26 – July 29: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
  • Aug. 2 – August 5: Rockland, Maine
  • Aug. 9 – August 12: Boston, Massachusetts

Eagle is scheduled to return to New London on Aug. 16.

A more detailed look at her sked:

If you have a chance to visit her, you will not be disappointed.

Big Mark, Back and Better Than Ever

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The circa 1918 Mark VIII Heavy “Liberty” Tank was a rarity.

At some 37 tons, they were massive, designed to carry a pair of 57mm QF 6 pounders and up to five M1917 Browning water-cooled 30.06 machine guns, all clad in 16mm of steel armor plate, this hulking land battleship was powered by a modified V-12 Liberty aero engine (hence its moniker) that could make it crawl at a blistering 5 mph across broken terrain on its tracks.

Only 125 were produced of a planned 1,500 before the Great War ended, with 100 of those made in America at the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois from kits supplied by the British. Sent to armor training camps at Camp Meade, Maryland, and Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, they served through the 1920s in a series of test units and, placed in storage in 1932, were scrapped in 1940 to recycle their steel for more useful purposes.

U.S. Army M1917 Tank on a Mark VIII Liberty Tank No. 67981 at Camp Meade, 1921

Just two remain in the U.S.: a hull at the U.S. Army Armor & Cavalry Collection at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) and a second, which has spent most of its life at Aberdeen Proving Ground before it was shifted to Benning in 2014. That last example, which has undergone a much-needed three-year preservation cycle after being exposed to the elements its entire life, has finally returned “home” and was installed as a macro exhibit at the RIA museum late last month.

Dubbed simply, “Mark” it is now on (covered) display at the corner of Rodman and Gillespie Avenue, overlooking the Museum.

Q Approved: The 7.65 PPK Returns

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When the Walther PPK was introduced in 1931, billed as a smaller version of the company’s PP series meant for use by plain-clothed detectives (the PPK stands for Polizei Pistole Kriminal), it was in chambered in 7.65x17mm Browning Short, which we know over here on this side of the Atlantic as John Browning’s .32 ACP.
This was soon augmented with variants offered in .380 ACP and, by 2013, Walther discontinued the .32 version of both the PPK and PPK/S.

Some 31 years after the PPK was introduced, MI6 armorer Major Boothroyd, or Q, would famously issue CDR James Bond, RN, one in lieu of his .25 ACP Beretta, describing it as: “Walther PPK. 7.65mm with a delivery like a brick through a plate-glass window.”

Now, with improvements in bullet and propellant design leading to the resurgence of 9mm over .40 caliber, and .380 seen as the new 9mm, and .32 seen as the new .380, the stubby little round is much more popular these days.
And so, it should be no surprise that Walther is bringing the “old” caliber back for both the PPK and the PPK/S, in both stainless and black variants. All models have the classic Walther styling coupled with a hammer drop decocking safety, fixed sights, and a wave cut atop the slide to reduce glare.

The standard PPK, which is shorter at a pocketable 3.8 inches high, has a 7+1 shot capacity while the taller (4.3 inches high) PPK/S has an 8+1 capacity. All models share the same 3.3-inch barrel length and 6.1-inch overall length.

Happy Mother’s Day from Kwajalein

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Here we see a group of hardy USAAF men clustered in front of B-24J-1-CO Liberator Come Closer (S/N 42-72973) of the 38th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 30th Bomb Group, 7th Air Force, sending Mother’s Day wishes, likely in 1944, where it was stationed from March to August of that year.

For an, um, closer look at the Sad Sack nose art of Come Closer III check out this image of an ordnance crew prepping a bomb load on Kwajalein on 9 April 1944.

The USAAF Nose Art Project details about Come Closer:

Assigned to the crew of John A Runge, this Liberator flew numerous missions to the Japanese bases at Truk and later several missions softening up Iwo Jima prior to the Marines’ amphibious landing.

As noted by a page on Fold3, which lists Come Closer as completing 100 missions successfully:

The new “J” Models first appeared on the line at San Diego in August 1943. They would be equipped with a nose turret as well as other improvements on the D Models which are discontinued—Of the 51 aircraft in this 1st block of J Models, 35 of them were assigned to the newly forming 30th Bombardment Group, the 27th, 38th and 392nd Bomb Squadrons. Another 14 were sent to replace losses in the 11th B.G. which had already been deployed in Central & South Pacific areas. Those squadrons were the 26th, 42nd, 98th and 431st.

According to Joe Baugher, Come Closer III survived the war, is currently owned by Paul Peters, and is under restoration to fly in Chino, California.

The Unrealized Promise of VTOL Fighters…

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Some 55 years ago, from 4-to-11 May 1969, the first “City-Centre to City-Centre” transoceanic jet flight in history was completed by an RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR1, XV741, from No.1(F) Squadron, conducting VTOL take-offs and landings from the water-soaked platforms in London and New York, with Squadron Leader Tom Lecky-Thompson at the controls.

As noted by the RAF:

It recorded the fastest time from [a disused coal yard near St Pancras Station in] London to the top of [a pier on the Hudson River near] the Empire State Building in Manhattan: 6 hours 11 minutes and 57.15 seconds. Refueled by a Victor tanker aircraft, this was completed for the Daily Mail-sponsored London – New York transatlantic air race.

The nonplussed Thompson, a Suez veteran who joined the RAF at 17, carried a sack lunch consisting of “a chicken leg and a bottled drink, possibly ginger beer, which I consumed halfway across.”

Meanwhile, XV741 is preserved at the Brooklands Museum, Surrey.

Did You Know That CZ’s Flagship Factory was Built to Make Machine Guns in the 1930s?

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I recently had the honor of visiting CZ’s historic European factory and found its roots ran back almost 90 years and its first product was for the Czech Air Force.

Located in Uhersky Brod, in today’s Czechia, the Czech Republic, CZ’s current factory opened on June 27, 1936. Constructed some 200 miles east of Strakonice, where Ceska Zbrojovka then had its main operations, the move came as part of an initiative to shift firearms production farther away from the tense border with Hitler’s Germany. 

Uhersky Brod, which today is just a few minutes’ drive from the foothills of the Carpathians and the border of Slovakia, in 1936 was well into the interior of Czechoslovakia. It was an old fortress town, a walled city, that dates to at least 1275. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

And it remains a beautiful town today. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Although one that has seen war, occupation, and resistance. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The new facility’s dispersed original layout, built near the town’s railway station, was even intentionally made to mimic residential and light industry buildings (i.e. garages and carpentry shops) from the air, arranged in line with city streets, complete with trees and greenspaces that you would expect in a small mountain town.

You can still get a feel for the old “Mainstreet CZK” layout of the factory when visiting CZ today

Part of the modern factory’s layout these days is a protected gun vault, which holds both CZ’s current production wares and some of their historic guns. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Sharp-eyed gun nerds will immediately spot the Sa vz. 58– the Czech Kalash that isn’t a Kalash– as well as the Sa 26 (vz. 48b/52) sub gun without which the UZI may never have been born, along with the Sa vz. 61 Skorpion machine pistol and the chromed out public duties vz. 52 rifle, but how about the machine gun at the top?

Oh yes. Meet the Letecky kulomet vzor 30, or “Aircraft machine gun Model 30,” chambered in 7.92x57mm (8mm Mauser).

This was the first gun CZ was set up to produce in Uhersky Brod, and it went on to arm just about everything in the 1930s Czech Air Force that had wings in at least three different variants. 

And, ironically, the Germans ended up with it in the end, with the Luftwaffe using them in both secondary ground defense and a light AAA role. 

More in my column at Guns.com.

Weekend Warriors

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How about this great shot of a stubby U.S. Naval Air Reserve North American FJ-1 Fury fighter, BuNo 120368 F-101 of the Naval Air Reserve Training Unit (NARTU) from Naval Air Station Oakland, May 1951. Note the large “Weekend Warrior” nose art.

U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.7237.023

The same jet– along with others assigned to Oakland with the same nose art– appeared in several images taken around the same time over the Bay Area, possibly taken for use in recruiting drives.

Ordered along with the similarly jet-powered carrier-borne fighters– Vought XF6U-1 Pirate, McDonnell XFD-1 Phantom, and the McDonnell XF2D-1 Banshee– late in WWII for Operation Olympic/Coronet, the planned invasion of Japan set for May of 1946, the FJ-1 Fury utilized the anemic Allison J35-A-2 turbojet, good for 4,000 pounds of thrust, to lift its 15,000-pound frame.

Good for about 475 knots, it carried a six-pack of .50 cal Brownings clustered in its nose– the last U.S. Navy jet with a .50 caliber armament– with 1,500 rounds carried, and no weight allocation for underwing hardpoints.

Notably, the first operational Navy jet fighter squadron, VF-5A (renamed VF-51 in August 1948), was equipped with FJ-1s and made history in March 1948 with a series of workups on the straight-decked Essex-class carrier USS Boxer (CV-21). 

FJ-1 Fury of VF 5A flown by CDR Pete Aurand traps on the flight deck of the carrier Boxer (CV 21) in the first underway test on 17 March 1948.

USS Boxer CV-21 March 1948 off San Diego, First operational jet fighter squadron VF-5A’s FJ-1 Fury. LIFE Kodachrome.

USS Boxer CV-21 March 1948 off San Diego, First operational jet fighter squadron VF-5A’s FJ-1 Fury. LIFE Kodachrome.

USS Boxer CV-21 March 1948 off San Diego, First operational jet fighter squadron VF-5A’s FJ-1 Fury. LIFE Kodachrome.

VF-5A also made a bit of history by winning the Bendix Trophy in 1948, beating out Air Force F-80 Shooting Stars in the cross-country race.

CDR Pete Aurand’s FJ-1 Fury aircraft of Fighter Squadron (VF) 51 lined up for the Bendix Trophy Race at Long Beach, California, in 1948.

With its first flight in November 1946, and, with the new and much better performing F9F-2 Panther introduced by 1949, the Fury’s career was limited and, with just 30 production models delivered to the Navy, they transitioned to the USNR as a transition trainer for pilots moving from Hellcats and Corsairs into jets, before the type was retired in 1953, having just served seven years.

In that short period, at least nine of the 30 operational FJ-1s were written off after crackups, lost in accidents, or ditched at sea, taking at least five aviators with them. Not an enviable safety record. 

Of course, the Fury would make a much more successful return to service in its swept-wing FJ-2/-3/-4 format, which was the tailhook-carrying hot rod brother of the famed F-86 Sabre, but that is another story.

The ACVs have arrived

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U.S. Marines assigned to Alpha Company, BLT 1/5, 15th MEU, recently made history by launching the new Amphibious Combat Vehicles from the USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) to conduct a live-fire, waterborne gunnery range during Exercise Balikatan 24 at Oyster Bay, Philippines, on 4 May. A promised upgrade from the troublesome (and often extremely dangerous) AAVP-7A1, which was first entered service in 1972.

U.S. Marine Corps photos by Sgt. Patrick Katz, Cpl. Aidan Hekker, and Lance Cpl. Peyton Kahle:

A U.S. Marine Corps amphibious combat vehicle attached to Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, splashes off the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) during Exercise Balikatan 24 in Naval Detachment Oyster Bay, Palawan, Philippines, May 4, 2024. BK 24 is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation built over decades of shared

Amphibious combat vehicles attached to Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, drive in formation back to the amphibious landing dock USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) following a waterborne gunnery live-fire training during Exercise Balikatan 24 in Oyster Bay, Philippines, May 4, 2024.  

U.S. Marine Corps amphibious combat vehicles attached to Alpha Company, Battalion Landing Team 1/5, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, conduct an open water transit to return to the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) during Exercise Balikatan 24 in Naval Detachment Oyster Bay, Palawan, Philippines, May 4, 2024.  

As noted by the USMC PAO:

The waterborne operations and live-fire training marked the first employment of the ACV platform in the region, underscoring the United States Marine Corps’ commitment to modernizing the force in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

 

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