Clarence Sasser MOH

 

 

Another Texas A&M Medal of Honor Recipient 

Source

 

This is an interesting story of a hero for a lot (and I DO mean a LOT!) of reasons. 

Specialist 5th Class Sasser was an Army Medic assigned to the Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division,Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 60th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. 

Man, I'm glad I didn't have to report that assignment on my OER. Talk about writer's cramp!  

On with the show, juvat!  Aye, Sarge.

January 10, 1968, he was assigned to a combat unit which was patrolling on a reconnaissance mission along the Mekong River. They came under fire as soon as the helicopters started landing.  Sasser was hit in the leg.  Other soldiers also required medical treatment so he crawled over to them.  While crawling back and forth, he was wounded by shell fragments.  Disregarding the injuries, he continued crawling to other wounded soldiers and dragging them back to safety, or what was more likely defined as a "safer" location.  I doubt it was "Safe!".  Anyhow, this went on for almost 20 hours and he and the unit were not evacuated until the next day.

Fortunately, he recovered from his wounds and received the Medal of Honor from President Nixon. 

 

Source

 After his medical discharge, he attended Texas A&M studying Chemistry. He did not graduate but received an Honorary Degree in 2014.  

While being interviewed by the Library of Congress, he said "There's no way I could have, in my mind, not went to see about someone when they hollered medic. Repayment of the adulation these guys heaped on you demanded that you go."^[ 

He also provided a 4 year, $100,000 scholarship to one Veteran each year.   

He passed away in 2024 at age 76.  

Rest in Peace, Warrior! 

 

Medal of Honor Citation to SP5 Clarence Sesser

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Specialist 5th Class Sasser distinguished himself while assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion. He was serving as a medical aidman with Company A, 3rd Battalion, on a reconnaissance in force operation. His company was making an air assault when suddenly it was taken under heavy small arms, recoilless rifle, machinegun and rocket fire from well fortified enemy positions on three sides of the landing zone. During the first few minutes, over 30 casualties were sustained. Without hesitation, Specialist 5th Class Sasser ran across an open rice paddy through a hail of fire to assist the wounded. After helping one man to safety, he was painfully wounded in the left shoulder by fragments of an exploding rocket. Refusing medical attention, he ran through a barrage of rocket and automatic weapons fire to aid casualties of the initial attack and, after giving them urgently needed treatment, continued to search for other wounded. Despite two additional wounds immobilizing his legs, he dragged himself through the mud toward another soldier 100 meters away. Although in agonizing pain and faint from loss of blood, Specialist 5th Class Sasser reached the man, treated him, and proceeded on to encourage another group of soldiers to crawl 200 meters to relative safety. There he attended their wounds for five hours until they were evacuated. Specialist 5th Class Sasser's extraordinary heroism is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army. 

 

Sources

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Sasser 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chenango,_Texas 

https://stories.tamu.edu/stories/9-medal-of-honor-recipients-remembered-for-bravery-and-exemplifying-aggie-core-values/ 

Wet 'n' Wild

OAFS Photo

It was a wet day, a windy day, a chilly day, in short, a fall day in New England. A nor'easter is slowly coming up the coast bringing high winds, heavy rain, and lots of high waves along the coast. A very good day to hunker down and hope it all slides on by without causing any damage.

Oh, one more thing the storm brings: lots and lots of hype. The Naviguesser texted The Nuke and me from California late Friday night, worried from all the reports he'd seen in the media.

As far as I know Jim Cantore hasn't touched down in New England yet, though he might have for all I watch the lamestream media.

Weather on the telly and the internet is about one thing and one thing only, ratings. If they can get you to watch what they're getting all worked up about, more ad revenue for them.

I miss the days when they'd just give you a forecast and tell you what's actually going on. Instead they name storms now and hype them to high heaven.

Yes, weather can be nasty, but get a grip people, what will happen will happen. If nobody is evacuating the coast, then STFU. I've seen less hype with actual hurricanes. Perhaps because the Atlantic hasn't seen any of those this year, they media have to hype this nor'easter up. I dunno and I don't much care.

Source

The arrow pointing to the blue dot above, yup, Chez Sarge is in the midst of all that as I write this. This is going to be a slow mover, might not clear out until Monday. I can't tell you how nice it is to be retired and not have to go out into that mess. I do feel for those who will have to go to work on Monday.

The bridges haven't been closed yet (which they will do if the wind speed gets high enough, especially for big, slab sided trucks) but I'll you, it can get sporty on the Mount Hope bridge (which was part of my daily commute for over 25 years). Here's video from five years ago ...

As long as the power stays up, I'll be happy. I've done that "Welcome to the 18th Century" crap in the past and I'd just as soon avoid that.

So we shall see.

Keep your powder dry (tough to do in this storm).

Hunkering down in New England, it's what we do at times.

Ciao!

Simple Things

OAFS Photo

So the Sunday after my knee gave out, The Missus Herself went off to church, after making sure I was reasonably comfortable and somewhat mobile. The knee was still pretty sore, pretty uncooperative, so I was okay with staying home.

When she came back from church, she had those flowers in the opening photo. Seems one of the ladies at the church thought I'd appreciate the gesture of getting flowers.

Surprisingly enough, I did appreciate it, far more than I ever expected.

As you can see, they were very pretty flowers, and since the lady had put them in a simple green bottle it kinda made it even more special. Nothing fancy, just an old green bottle and some lovely flowers.

Who says a guy can't appreciate getting flowers? First time for me, I liked it.

A lot.

Big day on Thursday. Trash day, got my lawn mowed, an order of socks, vitamins, and coffee arrived on the doorstep, a real banner day. As I get older I'm starting to appreciate the little things.

If you'd told me when I was a kid that someday I'd get excited over getting new socks, I would've thought you were crazy. But here we are.

Might not be living large, but I'm living comfortably.

Supposed to be a nor'easter rolling in this weekend. Oh boy, good thing I have those new books in case the power goes out.

Now where did I leave those candles?*

* Just kidding, I know exactly where they are, and the thing we use to light them.

Major William Leaverette

 

Source **

 

Ok, folks, this post is a little bit different than most of my post lately.  If you look closely at the picture above, you'll see something missing.  Very good eyes if you notice no Medal of Honor ribbon on him.  Nope, his highest medal was the Distinguished Service Cross.  I'll add to this comment a bit later in the post.

Source

 

 

In any case, Major Leaverette was flying P-38's in the Mediterranean Theater in WWII.  His mission on this day was to provide Air Cover for a Convoy sailing near Rhodes Greece.  He had taken off with 9 airplanes, but two had engine problems and returned to base.  He arrived overhead the convoy about noon and noticed that a formation of 25 Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers were approaching.  The convoy had already been attacked before their arrival and there were some damaged ships.  

Major Leaverette split his formation sending 4 of the aircraft to maintain air cover for the convoy while he attacked the bomber formation;.

In the space of  15 minutes of combat, Major Leaverette shot down 7 Stukas with a probable 8th.  This site has an excellent set of drawings showing the flow of the battle.  The picture below is just one of many.

Yes, Beans, I've spent a lot of time on that site. 

Source

 

In any case, he got to paint several Nazi flags on the nose of his Lightning.  Yes, Beans, he got an additional kill a couple of days later. 

 

A kill's a Kill!

Source

 For the mission detailed above,  he received the Distinguished Service Cross.  In his career, he also received a Distinguished Flying Cross with one oak leave cluster and an Air Medal with 19 oak leaf clusters.  Interestingly, another pilot shortly afterward had a very similar mission with similar victories and received the Medal of Honor, more to follow on that one.

I thought that interesting. 

Peace out all y'all! 

** This guy was a REAL fighter pilot.  How do I know.  Look at his "official' photograph, look at the marks on the side of his mouth.  Those are Oxygen Mask marks.  He went to take his official photograph almost immediately after flying a mission wearing his Oxygen mask. Gotta' love him!

juvat 

Sources:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Leverette

https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-22923/ 

https://grokipedia.com/page/william_l_leverette 

https://warhistory.org/article/william-leverette 

Excellent air to air diagram:  https://www.ww2wrecks.com/portfolio/dogfight-over-the-aegean-the-leverette-report-illustrated-p-38-lightnings-against-ju-87-stukas-on-9-october-1943/ 

Picture  URL https://acceptance.historynet.com/slaughter-of-the-stukas-ace-in-a-day-p-38-pilot/standing by P-38 

https://www.valka.czattachments/35946/2693339_9eb8a548f708f3ce1af26cbbdc562e10.jpg 

8 victories https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/PKgAAOSwvNhoCREx/s-l400.jpg 

 

Kryptonite and Other Things

OAFS Photo

"You're going to turn into an English muffin if that's all you eat!"

Wise words from a friend of mine ...

The last time I was on my own for a spell I ate a lot of English muffins. For breakfast with butter and jelly, sometimes peanut butter and jelly. For variety I used different types of jelly. (For the record I avoid jam, many jams have seeds, seeds are something I cannot abide. Well, I can abide it, my colon cannot.)

For supper I'd do an English muffin sandwich, sometimes two. A toasted muffin with meat and cheese and mayo. For variety, I'd change up the meat and often the cheese. (Though I'm mighty partial to cheddar, so it was only the type of cheddar that would vary. And that was between New York and Vermont cheddar, haven't gotten around to Wisconsin cheddar yet. Damnit I wish the Badger was still around to advise me on that cheese choice.)

My friend then hit me with that phrase above. So yeah, I had to change things up, I don't eat nearly as many English muffins as I did before. So I didn't turn into an English muffin after all. My friend saved me from that fate!

In the local supermarket not too long ago I saw those things depicted above.

Apple fritters? Yup, big fan. Used to get them in the fall at my old gig, Matt made them well. When I saw these in the store, I thought, "Well, why not, if they suck I won't buy anymore."

Well, they did not suck. Thing is though, way too much sugar. So I've had to dial that back a bit. Right now breakfast (unless it's with Liz and Tom) is a bagel and a cup of joe. That's it.

They call 'em apple fritters, I call 'em Sarge's Kryptonite.

Speaking of breakfast ...

Tuesday was the "up at the crack of dawn, eat breakfast, drink coffee, shower, then take Blue in to the dealership for some recall work" adventure. I had envisioned myself being stuck at the dealership for most of the day waiting as they won't deliver me off-island (too far) and everyone I know was either working or in Korea. Or living in another state ...

Turns out though that it only took about four hours and the dealership was kind enough to cart me across the street to Barnes and Noble. (Convenient of them to put a store near my dealership, innit?) Where I spent the morning perusing literature and having more coffee, there's a Starbucks inside the store, nice. (No whinging about Starbucks coffee, yes it's expensive and many of you don't like the taste. Personally I do, kinda reminds me of how they drink coffee in Germany, strong and kinda burnt.)

I was home shortly after noon which was much better than I expected. So I did a lot of whinging all for naught. Sigh ...

But I did pick up two good books by James Holland on the campaign in Italy during World War II ...

Source

Yes, there are two more he wrote, one in Sicily and one in northern Italy near the end of the campaign, those weren't in stock so ...

"Hi, Amazon?"

So all in all, a pretty decent day.

Pssstt, don't tell The Missus Herself that I bought more books. Thanks ...

Frederick W. Castle MOH

 Ok, a bit sorry. I got a bit wrapped up in things of the here and now and not WWII history. So...This is a bit short.

Talk about fast promotion.  Took me 20 years to go from 2Lt to LtCol.  Look at how it went in WWII.
 

Pinning on BG rank 

In June 1942, he was a Captain, in November, 1944 he was promoted to Brigadier General. World War tends to accelerate promotions.

 

 

On Christmas Ever 1944, he was co-piloting the Lead Bomber. 
 

 

 Unfortunately...

 

In addition to the Medal of honor, his other decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Air Medals and the Purple Heart. 

 Medal of Honor Citation

CITATION:

         “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 487th Bombardment Group (H), 4th Bombardment Wing, Eighth Air Force.

Brigadier General Castle was air commander and leader of more than 2,000 heavy bombers in a strike against German airfields on 24 December 1944. En route to the target, the failure of one engine forced him to relinquish his place at the head of the formation. In order not to endanger friendly troops on the ground below, he refused to jettison his bombs to gain speed and maneuverability. His lagging, unescorted aircraft became the target of numerous enemy fighters which ripped the left wing with cannon shells, set the oxygen system afire, and wounded two members of the crew. Repeated attacks started fires in two engines, leaving the Flying Fortress in imminent danger of exploding. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the bail-out order was given. Without regard for his personal safety he gallantly remained alone at the controls to afford all other crewmembers an opportunity to escape. Still another attack exploded gasoline tanks in the right wing, and the bomber plunged earthward, carrying General Castle to his death. His intrepidity and willing sacrifice of his life to save members of the crew were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.”

/s/ HARRY S. TRUMAN

 

 

 Sources

 https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/24-december-1944/

https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/frederick-w-castle 

https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/people_details.php?PeopleID=27166  good quote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Walker_Castle  

https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108537/brigadier-general-frederick-w-castle/ 

https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/24-december-1944/ 

 

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 ...)
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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."
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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.
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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!