Christmas Eve Fireworks Show

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Somewhere off the DPRK on this day in 1950…

USS Missouri (BB-63) Forward turret fires a 16-inch shell at enemy forces attacking Hungnam, North Korea, during a night bombardment in December 1950 LSMR NH 96811

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 96811

USS Missouri (BB-63): Forward turret fires a 16-inch shell at enemy forces attacking Hungnam, North Korea, during a night bombardment in December 1950. In the background, LSMRs are firing rockets, with both ends of the trajectory visible. This is a composite image, made with two negatives taken only a few minutes apart. The photograph is dated 28 December 1950 but was probably taken on 23-24 December.

Joyeux Noël, guys

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“French soldiers chatting around a fire lit inside a damaged church near Saint-Mihiel, France, near Christmas, 1916.”

That Holiday Spirit

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USS Mount Whitney (LCC/JCC 20) dressed for the season:

The Blue Ridge-class amphibious command ship has been in the fleet since 1971– making her one of the oldest vessels on the Navy List and, indeed, older than just about everyone who walks her decks. She is 6th Fleet flagship forward-deployed to Gaeta, Italy, and the afloat command platform for STRIKFORNATO.

Meanwhile, in Scandanavia, the Royal Swedish Air Force’s Norrbottens Flygflottilj F 21 just conducted their annual “Julgransflygning” (Christmas tree flight) across the country– putting their JAS39 Gripens in formation in an ode to the O’ Tannenbaum.

Photos by Jesper Sundström/Försvarsmakten.

So Space Force is Now a Thing

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From DOD: “President Donald J. Trump signed into law legislation creating the first new armed service since 1947 — the U.S. Space Force.”

The establishment memo from SECDEF Esper, which specifically mentions China and Russia:

The legislation, the $738B NDAA, also funds 3.1 percent DOD pay raises, new aircraft (20 more F-35s), ship construction (lots of DDGs, SSNs, and carrier dollars), more tanks (that the Army doesn’t want) and armored vehicles (that they do), provides $70.6 billion for overseas contingency operations, and more while raising the minimum age to 21 for buying ciggies (which is sure to rile up the E-1 to E-4 crowd).

The new force, just 16,000 strong for now, will be largely carved off from the Air Force. USAF Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, the current commander of USSPACECOM, will direct the effort. The president named Raymond the chief of Space Operations, and the general will be a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Space is the world’s newest warfighting domain,” Trump said at a speech Saturday at Andrews AFB. “Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. We’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, and very shortly, we’ll be leading by a lot.”

All of this is a good time to recall a 12 May 1962 speech that Gen. Douglas MacArthur delivered to the cadets at West Point on the occasion of his receiving the Sylvanus Thayer Award:

We deal now, not with things of this world alone, but with the illimitable distances and as yet unfathomed mysteries of the universe. We are reaching out for a new and boundless frontier. We speak in strange terms of harnessing the cosmic energy, of making winds and tides work for us, of creating unheard of synthetic materials to supplement or even replace our old standard basics; to purify seawater for our drink; of mining ocean floors for new fields of wealth and food; of disease preventatives to expand life into the hundred of years; of controlling the weather for a more equitable distribution of heat and cold, of rain and shine; of spaceships to the moon; of the primary target in war, no longer limited to the armed forces of an enemy, but instead to include his civil populations; of ultimate conflict between a united human race and the sinister forces of some other planetary galaxy; of such dreams and fantasies as to make life the most exciting of all times.

Maybe old Dugout Doug could read the tea leaves.

Remembering CG1363, 55 years on

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Near Strawberry Rock in Trinidad, California is the wreckage of an HH52 Seaguard with a sad story tied to it.

CG 1363, an HH-52 Seaguard helicopter that crashed in a severe storm during a rescue operation Dec. 22, 1964.

On Dec. 22, 1964, the helicopter crew was dispatched to Humboldt Bay, where roads were closed from flood damage, to assist with evacuations. At 2:48 p.m., the helicopter arrived in the Humboldt Bay area where Hansen, a local resident, volunteered to join the crew to help spot flood survivors and to help orient the crew to local landmarks. The helicopter crew, along with Hansen, began evacuating people from rooftops and flood areas, ultimately saving 10 lives.

At 6:03 p.m., weather conditions worsened and the Arcata Airport Flight Service Station (FSS) received a radio call from the helicopter, which was trying to land with three rescued people aboard in low visibility and high winds. Approximately eight minutes before the radio call the airport had lost power, disabling the radio navigation beacon that was necessary to navigate to the airport.

FSS instruments indicated that the helicopter was northwest of the airport. The controller continued to radio the pilot steering directions to help him land.

The pilot reported that he was at 1,000 feet and asked if that altitude would clear all obstructions along his path to the airport. The FSS controller replied that 1,000 feet might be inadequate due to high terrain just east of his bearing. A citizen living 12 miles north of the airport along the coast reported seeing a helicopter about one mile offshore and heading south. FSS attempted to relay the report to the pilot but could not regain communications.  Repeated calls to the helicopter were met with silence.

Three days after losing contact with the crew of CG 1363, a U.S. Navy helicopter from the USS Bennington located the crash and directed ground search parties to the site. The helicopter had crashed on a slope at 1,130 feet of elevation nine miles north of the Arcata Airport near a landmark today known as Strawberry Rock. Located with the wreckage were seven dead; the three crewmen, Hansen, two women and an infant girl.

Wreckage of CG 1363, an HH-52 Seaguard helicopter that crashed during a severe storm while conducting a rescue operation Dec. 22, 1964, as seen this week. (USCG photo)

Each year Sector Humboldt Bay honors the lost crew. USCG LCDR Donald Prince, from New Jersey; Royal Canadian Navy Sub-Lt. Allen Leonard Alltree; and USCG Petty Officer 2nd Class James A. Nininger, Jr., from Virginia, a Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco-based helicopter crew, as well as Bud Hansen, a citizen volunteer are remembered in an annual ceremony.

The Sector maintains a memorial at the installation, including some of the skin from the airframe of CG 1363.

A tin can full of Sparrows, for the first time, 48 years ago today

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The 4th (and last as of 2019) ship named in honor of Midshipman John Trippe, who at the ripe old age of 19 fought so bravely against the Barbary pirates that he earned the praise of Congress and a gold sword, the Knox-class destroyer escort USS Trippe (DE-1075) was built in New Orleans and commissioned 19 September 1970.

The fine steam-powered escort was soon updated just months after joining the fleet by picking up the then-new Basic Point Defense Missile System, an 8-cell launcher for the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile, which was soon retrofitted to most of her class. She was the first destroyer-type ship to be fitted with this system for fleet deployment (USS Bradley, DE-1041, was fitted with an experimental version in 1967 but it was removed before she sailed for Vietnam)

Underway off Newport, Rhode Island, 22 December 1971. Note the Basic Point Defense Missile System (BPDMS) launcher on her after deck, and the related fire control director atop her helicopter hangar. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Catalog #: K-92059

USS Trippe (DE-1075) Underway after being fitted with an enlarged helicopter hangar and flight deck. Note the Sea Sparrow BPDMS launcher on her stern. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. Catalog #: USN 1160984

Trippe was soon deployed off Vietnam with her new missile package and, reclassified as a fast frigate (FF-1075) in 1975, continued to serve until she was decommissioned on 30 July 1992, just before her 22nd birthday, a victim of post-Cold War budget cuts. Transferred to the Hellenic Navy the same month, she served the Greeks for another decade and was only disposed of after a major fire gutted her interior in 2003.

As for Sea Sparrow, it has been increasingly replaced with the VLS-capable Evolved Sea Sparrow missile in recent years but continues to serve in a much more updated version than what Trippe sailed with nearly 50 years ago.

180125-N-NB544-073 PHILIPPINE SEA (Jan. 25, 2018) Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael Sypien, from Arlington, Texas, stands by for medical coverage during a NATO Sea Sparrow missile upload aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kyle Carlstrom/Released)

A tough time in the snow, 80 years ago

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Finnish soldiers belonging to the “Company of Death.” Summa, 20 December 1939 during the Winter War with the Soviet Union.

The covers are Great War-era Austro-German M16/17/18 stahlhelme, some 80,000 of which were bought surplus for pfennigs on the mark in the 1920s.

The Finns later received as military aide large quantities (estimated 40,000) of updated German M35/40 helmets as well as smaller amounts of Czech M34s, Italian M33s, and Hungarian M38s during the Continuation War against the Soviets, a period during which most of the preceding were outright martial allies.

Finnish soldiers loading a heavy mortar, possibly a 120mm Krh/40, 7 July 1944, near Vyborg. Their headgear consists of Italian, German and Czechoslovakian helmets, also, note the very well-worn uniforms.

The Finns liked the German design so much that, in 1955, they ordered another 50,000 M40 type helmets from East Germany to equip their forces. These consist of both new-made and refurbished M35/40/42 models and carry the post-war M55 designation to set them apart.

The Finns used their stahlhelme until as late as the 1970s in various reserve units and kept them in arsenal storage until the end of the Cold War, just in case. They are readily available on the surplus market–especially the M55s– for about $50 smackers, skeletons not included.

John Browning’s Swan Song

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As a guy who has a few FN/Browning Hi-Powers, ranging from a circa 1943 Pistole 640b to a downright wonky circa 2005 SFS, I had fun examining a wide range of BHPs recently.

Browning’s original 1923 concept, as patented in 1927.

This rare late 1940s-produced Hi-Power is a very early model featuring the “dimple” on the right side of the slide to help with take down for maintenance and the “thumbprint” style internal extractor. Marked “LGK OO”: Landes Gendarmerie Kommando für Oberösterreich (Provincial Gendarmerie Command for Upper Austria), it is a former Austrian police-issue handgun.

This circa-1969 commercial Browning Hi-Power still features the original wooden grips that the model first entered production with but shows the updated external extractor. Also gone is the slide/frame dimple.

More detail in my column at Guns.com.

Hermes gets no bidders

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View looking aft down HMS HERMES’ flight deck as she sails from Portsmouth for the South Atlantic. Five Sea Harriers of No 800 Squadron Fleet Air Arm are visible on the crowded flight deck in front of a mass of Sea Kings. At the time of sailing, the crew had not had time to organize the stowing of aircraft or supplies. IWM (FKD 674)

As we have talked about previously, the WWII vintage Centaur-class fleet carrier HMS Hermes (61/R12) spent 28 years in the Royal Navy– including as flagship of the Falklands task force– then went on to give the Indian Navy another 31 years of hard service as INS Viraat (R22) before she was retired in 2017.

As far as I can tell, she was the longest-serving aircraft carrier under any flag, surpassing USS Lexington (CV-16/AVT-16) which clocked in for 48 years in a row– although the last couple of decades of that were as a training ship out of Pensacola– and USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which was a hard charger for 51 years.

While the Indians had tossed around the idea of making Viraat a museum in Mumbai, no cash could be spared and she went to the auction block this week– with no bidders.

She is expected to be relisted, and maybe the Indian government will allow groups outside of the country to place a bid, a prospect that could see her return back home to the UK where veterans groups aim to preserve her there.

We’ll keep you updated.

Swiss Cold War Tigers Going Home

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Armed F-5A prototype, rough field trials

First flown in 1959, the Northrop F-5 became a popular “budget” air-superiority fighter in the Cold War, especially in its later F-5E Tiger variant. Essentially an upgrade of the T-38 Talon able to carry ordnance and mix it up, over 2,200 F-5s of all types were produced by the 1980s, going on to serve over 30 countries as diverse as the Mexican Air Force, the Republic of Vietnam Air Force and the Royal Libyan Air Force.

Starting in 1978, the Swiss Air Force bought 110 late-model F-5E/F Tigers to augment their locally made F+W Emmen Mirage IIIs and replace their older Hawker Hunter aircraft (and a few downright obsolete De Havilland Venoms), becoming the country’s primary fighter until license-produced F-18s were ordered from Emmen in 1996.

With the F-5 out of production since 1987, the numbers of Tigers hidden away in Swiss mountainside caverns dwindled until the type was phased out of front line operations by 2018.

Although a dozen or so airframes are still retained by the country’s version of the Thunderbirds, the Patrouille Suisse, and four birds have transferred to museums, Fighter Wings 11 and 14 out of Payerne still have 23 combat-ready F-5s in storage.

And it looks like those latter aircraft are headed back across the pond as 22 of the vintage planes will be bought by the Pentagon for $39.7 million to be used by the Navy’s aggressor squadrons.

An F-5E Tiger II aircraft assigned to the Saints of Fighter Squadron Composite (VFC) 13 taxis at Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West’s Boca Chica Field. NAS Key West is a state-of-the-art training facility for air-to-air combat fighter aircraft of all military services. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Brian Morales/ Released)

The Swiss are reportedly happy to see them go:

“If the Americans want to take over the scrap iron, they should do it,” Beat Flach, a Green Liberal lawmaker, told SonntagsZeitung, which reported on the planned sale on Sunday. “It’s better than having the Tigers rot in a parking lot.”

Of course, other than the U.S. Navy’s OPFOR units, the largest F-5 operator in the world is the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, which has about 60 Tigers leftover from the Shah’s era and a few homebrewed Saeqeh and Azarakhsh fighters derived from the F-5’s design.

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