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Something John in Philly reminded me of the other day.
Good stuff from BITD...
Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon - I grew up reading those comic strips. Good times.Caniff became increasingly concerned by the contemporary Second Sino-Japanese War, but he was prevented by his syndicate from identifying the Japanese directly. Caniff referred to them as "the invaders", and they soon became an integral part of the storyline.After America's entry into World War II, Terry joined the United States Army Air Forces. The series then became almost exclusively about World War II with much action centering on a US Army base in China. This change of tone is considered the end of the strip's prime, although it remained highly acclaimed. Terry gained a new mentor in flying instructor Colonel "Flip" Corkin, a character based on the real-life Colonel Philip "Flip" Cochran of the 1st Air Commando Group. Comic relief was provided by fellow flyer Hotshot Charlie. Pat, Connie and Big Stoop still made occasional guest appearances as marine commandos, while the Dragon Lady and her pirates became Chinese guerrillas fighting the Japanese.One of the highlights of this period was the October 17, 1943, Sunday page, "The Pilot's Creed": Corkin gives the recently commissioned Terry a speech on his responsibilities as a fighter pilot, including the need to consider all those who have contributed to the development of his plane, respect his support crew, spare a thought for those killed in the fighting and respect military bureaucracy which, for better or for worse, has kept the American army going for over 150 years. In an unusual honor, the episode was read aloud in the U.S. Congress and added to the Congressional Record.The intensely patriotic Caniff, who donated design and illustration work to the military, created a free variant of Terry and the Pirates for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Originally starring the beautiful adventuress Burma, it was racier than the regular strip, and complaints caused Caniff to rename it Male Call to avoid confusion. Male Call was discontinued in 1946. (Source)
I learned to read with "Terry and the Pirates", "Buzz Sawyer", and "Gasoline Alley" prior to starting first grade at age 5 in 1946. Old Guns (that might qualify a "Very Old")
ReplyDeleteI used to read all of those at my grandparents' house in their Sunday paper. Fond memories.
DeleteThis reminded me of a meme seen earlier, that showed a mechanic working on an engine while the plane was in the air.
ReplyDeleteThe wording was "Without mechanics, pilots are just pedestrians with sunglasses and cool jackets."
Frank
Heh, I've seen that too!
DeleteI read Terry and the Pirates as well. Also read Bill Mauldin's Up Front many times - the dogface's view of the war, a bit of a different perspective than That of the fly boys.
ReplyDeleteBill Mauldin is an old favorite.
DeleteGee, back then there were shoe-clerks trying to screw a man out of a decent day's work? Whodathunk. (Referring to not being able to directly address the pending Japanese threat and then not being able to make a racier version with, sorry to use the term, babes with guns.)
ReplyDeleteAs to the reference to "The Hump," I met a transport pilot who said flying in the Berlin Airlift was much easier than flying in the China-Burma-India theater. Apparently between long distances, wicked winds and nose-bleeding altitudes and pestilence of all sorts, the CBI was an unfun and downright dangerous place. I guess being on the arse-end of the supply chain in a forgotten theater surrounded by hostiles in the middle of a malarial swamp and flying through freezing temperatures while spiking a fever from said malaria, well, still better than Washington DC. By a smidge.
Did not grow up reading Terry. I grew up reading "Pogo" which was an interesting introduction to society. Read it one year, something makes sense, read it the following year brought new enlightenment, repeat and repeat.
It was nice when comics tackled real issues and were able to get the message across without beating the reader with a dead horse.
As to 'but he was prevented by his syndicate from identifying the Japanese directly.' Hmm. Funny that both 'Flash Gordon' and 'Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century' identified the next threat as coming from East Asia and not from Europe. Very interesting. And Robert Heinlein's "Sixth Column" also identified a building Sino-Japanese threat. Hmmmm... Makes one wonder, no?
No wondering here, I know whence the threat issues.
DeleteTo emphasize the point that flying the Hump was no fun, I remember a story written by a P-51 pilot. He was cold, tired, hungry when he spotted a ME-109, one mile, opposite direction. Both aircraft make a wary turn into the other then broke off. So here are two hot shot pilots flying hot aircraft and they did not engage. Conditions have to be down right shitty for that.
DeleteRick
Maybe not a 109 over the Hump. Zero? Tony? (Kawasaki Hien on that last. Kinda Me-109 looking.)
DeleteThe Germans did angle for control of French Indochina during WWII. So it's possible.
DeleteAnother surprising fact out of the CBI was a U.S. Army General did have command over a Soviet battalion including Soviet aircraft. I forget the name of the General. He was operating in Burma.
Rick
Heh, probably so the French couldn't have it. But the Japanese had control.
DeleteAs to Burma, all sorts of weird stuff going on in Burma during the war. Wouldn't surprise me!
I have every episode of "Steve Canyon" on DVD, all remastered and in pristine viewing condition.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was but a wee sprout, I broke my little tail getting the grades up on one of my subjects because Dad bribed me with a "Steve Canyon" helmet from Remco.
I went from a "C" to an "A" to earn my helmet.
My brother The Olde Vermonter and I both received Steve Canyon helmets one Christmas.
DeleteA most excellent bribe!
I still remember the little "kazoo" insert in the oxygen mask to distort your voice when you had the mask snapped on.
DeleteRunning around the back yard with my Steve Canyon helmet on, "flying" an F-102 model I'd built with my own hands, is a very fond childhood memory.
And I kept the grades up because "Men Into Space" had just come on TV, and Remco had a "Col. McCauley" Astronaut helmet on the shelves, my next goal to work for.....
Right, I had forgotten about that insert. So it sounded like you were speaking over the radio.
DeleteCool!
All I will say as a Brit is that Frank Hampson, who drew 'Dan Dare, Pilot of the future' must have drawn fairly heavily on Terry for his inspiration.
ReplyDeleteRetired
I looked up Dan Dare, he and Terry must have been cousins! The resemblance is striking.
DeleteMilton Caniff's contribution to my dad's bomb group--
ReplyDeletehttp://www.447bg.com/42-97976.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krhi5qPld9Q
I would have picked different music. I seem to recall that the family of pilot Lt. Bates had a website up about Miss Lace, but I can't find it now.
"Bit o' Lace" - very nice. (The music for aircraft videos is often awkward and ill-suited to the topic, so yeah, I agree.)
DeleteThat mindset was the way I was raised. It was the way it was while flying, and we knew who those were that didn't feel that way. It was the way my section was at CincPac, but then we were deploying to warfighter headquarters.
ReplyDeleteIt most decidedly was not that way at the Pentagon, under Slick Willy and "We the President" (I actually heard her say that in a meeting). Somehow most of the guys that we'd ID'd as not feeling that way had made it to the Pentagon also. Never been so glad to leave a place as there.
One of the families that lives within a mile (next door neighbor?) has twin 16 YO boys, one of whom is interested in flying. His dad asked if I'd talk to him about it. I may use this cartoon.
Awesome. I figured that none of this was new to you and yours.
DeleteThe *spit* Washington Post *spit-spit* stopped carrying Steve Canyon after one particularly patriotic Sunday strip at the height of Operation Rolling Thunder. WaPo's hatred of America is nothing new.
ReplyDeleteThose unpatriotic bastards have not been in my good graces since Vietnam.
DeleteTraitors, all of 'em.
I spent two years on Forrestal and for the entire tour I was assigned to Number One Auxiliary Machinery Room. My space made twenty five percent of the ship's electricity, and a bit less than half of the distilled water.
ReplyDeleteI thought about describing what happened while I was on watch as an "epiphany" moment, but that would stretch the truth a bit much even for a sea story.
I'll describe what happened as a maturity event.
I was on watch, the 1MC had just announced some wonderful airdale thing, and I was grousing about the lack of recognition for the ship's company.
But then I really started thinking and I realized that my purpose in the Navy wasn't to be getting an all expenses paid cruise though the Med, and I didn't need somebody to pat me on the back and say, "Bravo Zulu." In that instant I took a step forward in the process of growing up and realized that my existence on Forrestal was to keep the lights on and my shipmates existence in the Engineering Department aboard Forrestal was to make that large mass of metal move through the water so that the United States could project force, or the threat of force, or to help in times of trouble or disaster. And if it was to be force, that force would be done by aircraft and pilots and crew.
If I didn't do my job, and the rest of my ship's company shipmates didn't do their jobs, we all failed.
It was a sobering moment and at the end of thinking through the ramifications, I was a better sailor.
Mr. Caniff expressed it in the "Pilots Creed" far more eloquently than I could have.
Another great post.
Thanks John.
DeleteYou expressed it well.
My middle brother served on the Forestall Just previous to her deployment whereon she was nicknamed Forrestfire. He never quite got over the "survivor's guilt" syndrome. Old Guns.
DeleteI didn't know that. I used to work with a guy who was on Forrestal, after she got her nickname.
DeleteGreat comment John. While I was an Airedale, it took some time for me to appreciate all the others making my job happen- not so much the maintainers, but the folks on the ship making steam, making food, doing the laundry, etc. Thanks for what you did.
DeleteTuna. Thank you and you are welcome.
DeleteAnonymous. I know that we live in a rationale and scientific world, but on the Forrestal every odd sound was attributed to those who were no longer with us, and during the long dark hours of the cold iron watch I believed things that weren't exactly scientific. We bitterly resented our the Forrestfire and USS Zippo nicknamesbecause we took firefighting more seriously than any ship and every time you looked at the brass plaque you knew the risks and the human cost.
This is a photo of the Forrestal's memorial plaque in the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.
https://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/exhibits/uss-forrestal-cv-59-fire/
Tuna - Amen.
DeleteJohn - Yup, not a great nickname. I've heard worse.
Delete(Don McCollor)...All shipboard jobs are important. From Adm. Daniel Galley's "Clear The Decks" (1951)…"It takes a different kind of guts to stick to your post [keeping propulsion and power going] down in the bowels of the ship when choking fumes pour down the "ventilators"; when you can hear and feel the heavy explosions tearing the ship apart above you; when you've got to hang on to keep from sliding down the slanting floor plates as her period of roll gets ominously longer. Down there, you haven't got a chance if she rolls over"...
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteIf anyone is familiar with David Brin's "Old is beautiful", there is a beautiful fragment where, due to plot reasons main character has visions, and speaks to , Orville Wright, colonel Doolitlle and Chuck Yeager. Chuck Yeager mentions that he has been standing on shoulders of giants... And so are all pilots today.
ReplyDeleteTruth right there in just about all fields of human endeavor.
DeleteIf you find yourself driving down I-70 in Colorado try pulling off at Idaho Springs which built a statue to Steve Canyon and named the little canyon Steve. I pull over now every time I go by to have a look and eat in Idaho Springs.
ReplyDeleteGood to know!
DeleteThough I'm not sure if I'll ever make it out that way again.
That feeling of being one of countless individual and individually vital cogs in the works of the mission we were executing, and the visceral knowledge that you were standing on the shoulders of giants. Some of those giants still walked among us and kept us (for the most part) from thinking we were special.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why it really was an adventure and not just a job.
That's what I miss the most, the feeling of being a part of something bigger than myself. Walking with giants at times, seeing the machine in action, knowing you helped, even if in a small way.
DeleteAh, to be young again and know what I know now. (And this time have a damned camera at hand!)