Night Falls

OAFS Photo

As another day at Chez Sarge slides into the record books I realize that I absolutely hate being alone. On the gripping hand, I'm very particular about who I hang out with. We must have something in common, some shared experience. My immediate family, wife and kids, and by extension the kids spouses and kids, fall into that category. We share much more than just DNA.

I also have a couple of friends who fall into that category, they are family to me without sharing a single strand of DNA. We went through things together which somehow bonded us. At least that's how I feel. Our monthly breakfasts together are precious to me, they're the only people I'm not related to that I don't mind getting up early for.

So being on my own? There are times that it's all right, like when the sun is shining and the birds are singing. In the still of the night, I abhor this solitary existence.

And one other thing, I miss my cats, they were great company. As to getting more cats?

I'm working on that. Sort of ...

Chant du Départ Screenshot

Juvat pointed this out to me in a comment yesterday, make no mistake, I look at the numbers every day. I might even believe them some of the time.

Having been doing this since March of 2012, fourteen years to save you from having to do the math, it's not a real big surprise that we've had that many "hits" on the blog. But I assure you, I don't for a minute think that those are all legitimate visits.

Here's a graph of the numbers over time ...

Chant du Départ Screenshot

As you can see, most of the hits have come over the past year and a half. I see no reason to see how the Chant has somehow become so popular. It's more likely that Blogger's algorithm for counting these numbers is faulty. It's settled down to more reasonable levels lately, as the graph for the last year shows ...

Chant du Départ Screenshot

There are a number of huge spikes since October of last year, I often wondered how 150,000 people could visit the blog in one day, yet the hits on the individual posts, even over the past week, don't amount to nearly that much. It's either spambots or Blogger is really bad at counting.

It's all the same to me. I know actual people read what we write here and I'm okay with just a few people a day visiting us. As long as they leave comments, even just one or two, then I can justify carrying on. Until that day when I either run out of material, which has to be things I WANT to write about as opposed to things I CAN write about (big difference between those two categories), or I just get tired of doing this every day. Nothing lasts forever.

Anyhoo, time marches on. As for me, I'm going to bed, have to bring Blue in early on Tuesday (today as you're reading this) for some recall thing. And you all know how much I love getting up early.

Sigh ...

House Update #3?

 Well, Campers,  a bit of an update on projects and events down here in the Lone Star State.

This was where my Brother's house was left off on our last update.  The "Guys" have been working pretty hard.

The roof is being sealed, siding support is being added.  Quite a bit of progress, there.  Although it may not look like it.

As I said. Quite a bit of progress.

On the other "in progress" project, the Horse Barn.   

As you can see the walls and roof are in.  The stall frames have been delivered, and are next for installation.  Doors and gates should be installed shortly thereafter.  Three remaining important projects still needed are Water, Electricity and Fencing.  Then we can free our horses from their current abode.  (Dusty dirt in their pen, they get to run free in a larger pasture, with grass, a couple of nights a week.  They're looking forward to wandering and grazing at their discretion.)

But....

No progress so far on our house.  The framers are still on my brother's house and will start on ours when finished.  Hopefully, soon.

The builder is still optimistic about a December completion.  We hope so.

Peace out y'all! 

The Last Days of Summer

OAFS Photo

Autumn has arrived, weather-wise. According to the calendar, not yet, but who cares? The air has a hint of cold in it, the sun shines differently, and the nights are in the 50s.

I love this time of year.

A friend of mine once called these days Septober, it rings true to me. We miss you Scott, you old badger you. 'Tis from him I first heard that phrase. Now he's gone, like so many others I have known over the years. Thinking of Doug, a colleague from the old job, gone too soon as well.

We lost a cherished dog this year, a dear friend lost her cherished cat. It all comes to an end one day.

But not yet, I pray.

I love the smell of fall, almost as much as that of spring. Those who know, know. Perhaps it's a northern thing, where the seasons are so well defined. I know that Okinawa experienced no such thing, having lived there for two and a half years. There it's either hot or it's raining, sometimes both. The winter has a chill, but nothing like that in the North.

Another season passes by, another approaches. I will enjoy them all, while I can.

Please, do the same.

It's all good.

Have a nice Sunday.

I have no idea where the Muse has gotten to, perhaps traveling in Korea with The Missus Herself, perhaps she tires of this old man. I seem to have no stories left. Maybe I just need to relax and see if they come back. If not, well, it was a good run. I don't think I'm done yet, but only time will tell.

Say What?

Source

I received the following email on Friday, from Blogger. Okay, so it might be legit, and it might not be ...

Hi OldAFSarge,

We are performing some routine maintenance to our service and as a result will need to remove a small percentage of videos on the platform. We have identified that 1 videos you own will be deleted as a result. These videos usually appear in blogs as non-playable still image screenshots.

For your reference, here is a sample of screenshots of those videos:

What you need to do: We encourage you to visit Google Takeout and download an archive of your Blogger data to save a copy. You must do so within the next 30 days before it is deleted permanently from Blogger.

To download your videos via Takeout,

Go to Google Takeout.

Sign in with your Google Account used for Blogger.

Ensure "Blogger" is selected.

Scroll to the bottom and click "Next step".

Choose "Send download link via email".

Click "Create export".

When you receive the email, follow the link to "Manage Google Takeout request", and download and save the ZIP file. Your videos should be in the Blogger/Albums folder.

If you want to keep playing these videos on your blog, please re-add them following Add images & videos to your blog.

Best,

The Blogger Team

Google LLC 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

---

You received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Blogger account.

Thing is, I've never inserted any flash videos into a post. At least not to my certain knowledge. Maybe someone else did (Tuna? juvat? Beans?) but I highly doubt it. If so, then oh well, it's on a old post anyway.

I'm getting more and more annoyed with software. Back in the day I knew folks who really knew what they were doing, they followed a plan, they had a goal to achieve, and were paid to make that goal.

Google seems to be a bunch of intelligent, but essentially lacking in common sense folks who seem to hack away at shit that ain't broken, in order to "fix it."

While in NATO, a German colleague and I came up with a database system to collect data on the reliability of the aircraft computer operators and the way they loaded software into the onboard computers. Think magnetic tape, as archaic as that sounds.

My whole job for a while was entering data into a computer that no one ever looked at. So Johannes and I (he was the German in this story) talked to the folks who would be the most interested in this data and discovered what they were looking for.

So we created a system which allowed us to mine the data to discover trends which could possibly be corrected. Entering data into the system was cumbersome, but the database was really simple to perform ad hoc queries on.

In short, we created a system that people could actually rely on and use.

Then a new fellow came along and decided that the whole point of the system was how to get data into the system, not get it back out. So he made it very data entry clerk friendly, and nearly impossible to do ad hoc queries on in order to get the data back out again in such a way as to spot trends and possible problems.

Completely useless.

Software people, you gotta love 'em, they never met a problem they couldn't make worse.

Maybe I'm just too old for this shit ...

Sigh.

And to top it off, one of my mini-splits is pissing water. At least the nights are cool now.

As Buck used to say, It's always somethin' ...

Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. MOH

 

 

 I caught sight of this hero on a Texas A&M website that showed pictures of the 9 former cadets who had received the Medal of Honor.  However, he was only at A&M for a year when his Lutheran Uncles convinced him to transfer to TCU.  But, once an Aggie always an Aggie (at least that's what my kids have told me!) After Graduation, he joined the Army Air Corps and went through the Cadet Pilot training program finally getting his wings. That stoked my curiosity as Carswell AFB has been around for a very long time.  So...Here we go. 

 

Source

 

 

 After getting commissioned and his Pilot Wings, he progressed through the ranks prior to Pearl Harbor when he had reached the rank of Major.

Source

He was assigned to B-24 J model which had an onboard targeting radar.  Assigned to the Pacific, he and his crew would attack Japanese convoys at very low level in the hundreds of feet above the sea instead of the usual 20K feet.  Having dropped a bomb or two in my day, I understand the reason.  The  closer you are to the target, the more accurate you get.  Dropping bombs from 20K feet is difficult to be accurate.  Doing so from 500' is much more accurate.  

But...

It's also easier for the enemy as well as the importance of avoiding flying debris from the explosion.

On the night of October 26, 1944, he and his crew are flying single ship and find a Japanese convoy.  They attack and after the pass, elect to make a second pass.  Generally not a good idea to re-attack an alerted target.  His second attack is successful in hitting the target, but the target also was successful in hitting his bomber.  As he left the target area, he bomber had lost 2 engines and a third one was running rough. The hydraulic system was damaged, making the aircraft difficult to control, and a fuel tank was ruptured and venting fuel.  They were able to get out of the fight and over land where he directed the crew to bail out.  Unfortunately, the bombardier's parachute was destroyed in the battle.  Additionally, his Co-Pilot was injured also.  Major Carswell decided to try to bring the plane back to home base.  As they got over the island, they tried to fly over the mountains, but the plane didn't have enough power to get over them.  The three were killed on impact.

War IS hell! 

Before this mission, he had also been recommended for a  Distinguished Flying Cross.  This was approved before the accident/shootdown occurred.  Hence both citation are listed below.

Citation for Major Horace S. Carswell Jr.  Medal of Honor

He piloted a B-24 bomber in a one-plane strike against a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea on the night of 26 October 1944. Taking the enemy force of 12 ships escorted by at least two destroyers by surprise, he made one bombing run at 600 feet, scoring a near miss on one warship and escaping without drawing fire. He circled and, fully realizing that the convoy was thoroughly alerted and would meet his next attack with a barrage of anitaircraft fire, began a second low-level run which culminated in two direct hits on a large tanker. A hail of steel from Japanese guns riddled the bomber, knocking out two engines, damaging a third, crippling the hydraulic system, puncturing one gasoline tank, ripping uncounted holes in the aircraft, and wounding the copilot; but by a magnificent display of flying skill, Maj. Carswell controlled the plane's plunge toward the sea and carefully forced it into a halting climb in the direction of the China shore. On reaching land, where it would have been possible to abandon the staggering bomber, one of the crew discovered that his parachute had been ripped by flak and rendered useless; the pilot, hoping to cross mountainous terrain and reach a base, continued onward until the third engine failed. He ordered the crew to bail out while he struggled to maintain altitude, and, refusing to save himself, chose to remain with his comrade and attempt a crash landing. He died when the plane struck a mountainside and burned. With consummate gallantry and intrepidity, Maj. Carswell gave his life in a supreme effort to save all members of his crew. His sacrifice, far beyond that required of him, was in keeping with the traditional bravery of America's war heroes.
 

Distinguished Flying Cross Citation

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Major (Air Corps) Horace Seaver Carswell, Jr., United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a B-24 Heavy Bomber in the 374th Bombardment Squadron, 308th Bombardment Group (H), Fourteenth Air Force, while participating in a bombing mission on 16 October 1944, against enemy Japanese surface vessels in the South China Sea. During a sea-sweep mission along the China Coast, a task force of six Japanese naval vessels was located by means of radio equipment. A destroyer and a cruiser were singled out for attack. During four runs over the target at an altitude of 400 feet and under intense fire from the supporting vessels, both were sunk. The plane was not struck and returned to the mainland with less than one hour's supply of gas. The exceptional courage, gallantry, cool judgment and skill demonstrated by Major Carswell in attacking such a large naval task force with his lone plane in the face of almost certain destruction, reflect great credit upon himself, the Army Air Forces and the Army of the United States.

 Peace out Y'all!

 Sources

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_S._Carswell_Jr. 

https://texoso66.com/2019/11/21/major-horace-s-carswell/ 

https://corps.tamu.edu/medal-of-honor-recipients/ 

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/carswell-horace-s-jr 

Fun and Games

A close up of my character, one Mifune Toshiro.
(Yup, named after the actor.)
Screenshot

The name of the game is Sengoku Dynasty, some folks like it, some don't. I'm in the former category. Or perhaps I should create a new category "people who are addicted to it." That's a little more accurate in my case.

Here's what the Steam website says about the game:

Build a life, cultivate your community and start a dynasty in a region once devastated by famine and war. Play solo or in co-op multiplayer and explore a beautiful open world. Gather resources, craft, hunt and build, then automate your village production to survive and grow.

Become a great leader either through combat or by building your economy. Experience the beauty of nature and take part in ancient rituals to uncover the mysteries of the divine. Sengoku Dynasty offers an immersive insight to life in medieval Japan: Choose your path as a Leader, Craftsman, Warrior, or Monk and embark on an epic journey.

It's an interesting balance of building up your village, populating it, providing jobs for your villagers, and keeping them happy. What keeps them happy? Well, food, drink, a roof over their heads, warmth, nice clothes, and health care. Yeah, that too. It's not like you have to buy them insurance or anything, but there are ways to gather herbs and mushrooms to make medicine, which keeps them happy.

Early on, when I was still learning the system, I tried to do a lot myself. Had my own farm fields, went hunting a lot, but never really had time to explore the world or really improve my villages, and the lives of the people who lived in them.

In one early game, when I had no clue what I was doing, the villages started deserting the village, em masse. Once I figured out what I was doing wrong, things got better. The people in this game will vote with their feet if you piss them off!

"Me" in front of one of the village workplaces, a hunting station.
(Yes, it's winter ...)
Screenshot

Now you start off wearing rags and working with stone tools, which you can make with sticks and rocks, which are laying around the world waiting for you to pick them up. I was getting my ass kicked until I got to the point where I could make very high quality steel. Then you can produce samurai armor and really excellent weapons.

There are bad guys in the game, if you set "raids" to "Off" they pretty much leave you alone. Which if you're into building your world (which I am), those raids are mostly a pain in the ass. You can have villagers work as "security guards" but they're like mall cops. In the first raid I experienced, I saw all of my "security" run away. I had to fight the raiders off all by my lonesome.

"Me" preparing to attack some "deserters."
Screenshot

There are seven types of bad guys in the game: samurai (who are very tough), ashigaru¹ (also tough), ronin², deserters (who are best described as ill-disciplined ashigaru), looters, bandits, and pirates. The last three aren't that tough and usually have very crappy weapons. Defeating any of these guys provides your character with loot and experience.

There are non-player characters (NPCs) in the game who will sell you stuff and give you "quests" to achieve. This is when I discovered another benefit of high quality steel, it is expensive and merchants are willing to buy it off you. Once you're rocking your inner capitalist things start to go very well. Didn't grow enough rice? You can buy it!

One drawback to capitalism in this game is that everything is done by "season," you know, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Winter is when nothing grows so you better have ample stocks on hand to keep your villagers happy.

Some people online have described this as a "boring survival game" and to some it probably is. I like the idea of finding the right balance between producing my own goods and buying what I need via having a healthy steel "industry." (It's all rather abstract in the game, you build something like a furnace, feed it raw materials and you extract steel. A lot of things are like that in the game.)

Hunting is interesting, there is also a spiritual aspect to the game. Think old time Japanese gods and kami³ - the people need it (and will walk if they don't get it!)

Oh yes, hunting. There are cranes, rabbits, boars, deer, foxes, wolves, and bears in the game for you to hunt and gather resources from. Meat to eat, from the cranes you get feathers as well (which you need to make arrows), and fur. Fur is important as you can use it to make leather and to make seed bags for your farmers. Beware of the bears and the boars and the wolves, they fight back!

It can get complicated but once you have a system, things start to run smoothly. Right now my people are happy, most of the major bad guy groups have been defeated, and now I can concentrate on making my villages "pretty." Paved roads, fancy tile roofs, fancy stone foundations and other tidbits.

"Me" standing on the main street of my latest village.
Screenshot

You can have up to six villages and 200 villagers depending on the "dynasty" level you reach, 19 being the highest from what I understand. I'm at 17. My character even has a wife now (don't tell The Missus Herself) and we have a child of unknown gender at this time, the game didn't tell me. All it told me is that it had to be educated at the monastery to which I had to bring certain things every season, ya know, to finance the kid's education.

Anyhoo, the damned game is addictive and I'm pretty immersed in it, which gives me something to do while I'm icing the knee. Now if I can only break the addiction when The Missus Herself returns from Korea. (BTW, all my villages have Korean names, even though it's set in Japan. Some of them are names of places I lived in Korea, others use the Korean name of something nearby.)

So yeah, gotta run, we ran out of rice seed and I need to rustle some up before spring.

Otherwise my villagers will walk out on me!

それでは、また！⁴

¹ Ashigaru (足軽) were professional or conscripted foot soldiers who formed the backbone of feudal Japanese armies.

² Ronin were masterless samurai in feudal Japan.

³ In Japanese, kami (神) most commonly translates to a god, deity, spirit, or sacred force, especially within Shinto, Japan's indigenous spiritual tradition.

⁴ See you later, in Japanese of course - Soredewa, mata!

Leon Johnson Medal of Honor

 

 

 

Ok, this one is difficult for me, I'm of two minds here.  First, Colonel Johnson (rank at the time)  was awarded the Medal of Honor for the B-24 Raid on the Ploesti Oil Refinery.  He was one of the five Medals awarded in the attack.*  

He was one of only two of the recipients who survived the mission.  He was in the lead aircraft as the mission began. As  we've read on other reports of the medals awarded, the majority were awarded to crews who were towards the end of the attack as were the 3 Medal of Honor awarded posthumously. There were also 56 Distinguished Flying Cross's awarded on the mission. Air medals were awarded to ALL crew members on the mission. 

But, he was there, not sitting at a desk in London "commanding" the mission." Got to give him credit for that.

So, on with the story. 

 

 Photo after Col Johnson was awarded the Medal of Honor.

 Operation Tidal Wave was the mission code name for an attack on the Axis Petroleum Refinery in Ploiesti Romania.  177 B-24 Bombers were committed to the attack.  53 of them and 500 crew members were lost.

101 Civilians were killed in the attack and 238 injured. A tidbit I didn't know was that one of the bombers that was shot down crashed into a women's prison and killed about half of the total civilian casualties.

 The attack temporarily eliminated about 46 percent of Ploesti’s annual production, but all the damaged refineries were back in full production within three months, making the attack fairly ineffective. 

5 Medals of Honor were awarded, 3 of which were posthumous. Leon Johnson was one of the Survivors, John Kane was the other.

 The mission was flown at ultra-low altitudes to enhance surprise.  One of the lessons learned (and relearned many, many times again) is that large formations of aircraft at low altitude are unlikely to surprise the folks in the target area nor the people along that route.

 

Source

 Suffice it to say, this mission was a failure.

But....This is the official picture of General Johnson as the 4 star commander of Strategic Air Command.  I'll leave it at that. 

Source

 

 

 Citation for the award of the Medal of Honor to Col Leon Johnson

For conspicuous gallantry in action and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty on 1 August 1943. Col. Johnson, as commanding officer of a heavy bombardment group, led the formation of the aircraft of his organization constituting the fourth element of the mass low-level bombing attack of the 9th U.S. Air Force against the vitally important enemy target of the Ploesti oil refineries. While proceeding to the target on this 2,400-mile flight, his element became separated from the leading elements of the mass formation in maintaining the formation of the unit while avoiding dangerous cumulous cloud conditions encountered over mountainous territory. Though temporarily lost, he reestablished contact with the third element and continued on the mission with this reduced force to the prearranged point of attack, where it was discovered that the target assigned to Col. Johnson's group had been attacked and damaged by a preceding element. Though having lost the element of surprise upon which the safety and success of such a daring form of mission in heavy bombardment aircraft so strongly depended, Col. Johnson elected to carry out his planned low-level attack despite the thoroughly alerted defenses, the destructive antiaircraft fire, enemy fighter airplanes, the imminent danger of exploding delayed action bombs from the previous element, of oil fires and explosions, and of intense smoke obscuring the target. By his gallant courage, brilliant leadership, and superior flying skill, Col. Johnson so led his formation as to destroy totally the important refining plants and installations which were the object of his mission. Col. Johnson's personal contribution to the success of this historic raid, and the conspicuous gallantry in action, and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty demonstrated by him on this occasion constitute such deeds of valor and distinguished service as have during our Nation's history formed the finest traditions of our Armed Forces. 

 My heartburn with this one is two words in his Citation. Those would be "destroy totally".  History indicates that to be untrue.  The refinery was up and producing petroleum at pre-attack levels in 3 months.

* For those wondering, these are the 5 Medal of Honor recipients for their actions on this mission, Lt Col Addison Baker (posthumous), Maj John Jerstad (posthumous), Lt Lloyd Hughes (posthumous), Col Leon Johnson, and Col John Kane.

 

Sources 

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_W._Johnson

https://www.maxwell.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/ 

https://warhistory.org/article/the-ploesti-raid

https://www.realclearhistory.com/2021/08/02/1st_ploesti_raid_bold_but_ineffective_787621.html