The only time you can have too much fuel...

Saw a post on Instapundit earlier in the week that linked to this article about how much useable gas was in the tank when the low fuel warning came on.  That gave me a chuckle  because, you see....

So, There I was......... *

In the middle of New Mexico, having left Holloman AFB about a half hour before, and now looking at an emergency fuel situation.

No, Sarge.  I'm not recycling old posts (yet).

This was in the last few weeks of the Presidency of the second person to be impeached, but not convicted, while serving as President.  (How's that for a "what if?" post, ah well, I digress into wishful thinking.)

I've been retired for a year or so, and the Juvat family (extended, more to follow) is visiting the paternal side of the clan for Christmas. Said side of the clan resided in Las Vegas where my Dad was the construction engineer for Summa Corp.  (That would be the holding company for H. Hughes hotels and other buildings in the vicinity of the strip.)

Since it has been quite a while since I had spent much time in the Western United States (my Son at the time was 14 and had last traveled out west at 3.  My Daughter at the time was 8, you can do the math), we decided to drive.  An additional impetus to drive was provided by our Rotary Exchange Student.  Let's call him Helmut.  Helmut was 17 at the time and was a native of Rostock Germany.

As can be seen Rostock is in the Eastern portion of Germany, and since he had been born in 1983, that would have meant he'd spent his formative years in the German Democratic Republic.  Let's just say his personality was "interesting."

Since Helmut had been living with us for the fall semester, we'd shown him around the general vicinity, but hadn't been able to get out and about to see the West.  That was additional encouragement to drive rather than fly.

So, off we go!

It's not my car, it's Mrs. Juvat's car!
Source

This is my car!
Source

Rather than take boring old I-10, we've decided we'd visit places we'd visited/lived, so the first night was spent in Big Spring.  Big Spring was where I spent grades 5-12 and was the former home to Webb AFB.  I hadn't been back since HS Graduation and the saying "you can't go home again..." sure was true.  Base closing was hard on the town and the oil boom hadn't taken hold yet.  I've heard it's doing better lately, Fracking doncha' know.

The next morning we depart before sunrise and head towards Alamogordo via TX 176 through Andrews Texas.  Unfortunately, we're not making very good time as it is VERY foggy, as in, 15mph is going too fast, foggy.  We're a few miles outside of Andrews and the plan is being revised.  Soon as we get to Andrews, we're going to find a place to eat and stay there until after daybreak when the fog lifts.  That plan has been reformulated by yours truly as the family is all asleep in the car. I'm inching along, when I notice I'm passing a stop sign.  Hit the brakes and stop, which doesn't take much as slow as I was going.  As I come to a stop, an 18 wheeler comes roaring through the intersection.  Hadn't seen so much as a glow from his headlights until he was in front of me.

Rattled me a bit, it did.

The family slept through it.

Get into Andrews, and see a Ronnie Mac's, so stop and execute the delay plan.

A couple of hours pass, and the fog breaks and we're back on the road through Carlsbad, Artesia and Cloudcroft.  The intention now is to see our old home, grab some lunch, stop by the base and get gas.

As we're heading down the west side of the mountains into the Tularosa Basin, my daughter becomes a tad nauseous.  Finding a pullout in the winding highway, we pull over so she can get a bit of fresh air.  Checking her out, we find she's running, what to our hands, feels like a fairly high fever.

So, it's back in the car and we're headed for the ER at the Base Hospital.

Arrive on Base and at the hospital in short order.  Fortunately, the ER is not overly crowded so we get seen relatively quickly, although the whole iteration takes a couple of hours.

The diagnosis is ear infection, antibiotics are prescribed and we're back in the car.

Out the front gate and turn right just in time to see a fourship of Eagles take off and fly over.  Helmut asks what they were, so I regale him with tales of derring-do as we head west on US 70 towards Las Cruces.

We've passed White Sands National Monument and are on the Missile range when I hear a Ding from the dashboard of the car.

Source

Nuts! (or some other phrase to express irritation at how one got oneself into a situation!)

We're about 15 miles west of the Base, but there's no place to turn around, and I don't want to go 4 wheeling in the sand in the median.  It's about 35 miles to Las Cruces and part of that is up a steep pass.

I take the throttles out of afterburner and cozy up behind an 18 wheeler and draft off him.  (I figure if it works for a race car, why wouldn't it work for a minivan?).  I stay with him until he starts up the pass.  

I mean 30mph isn't going to do me much good.  

I come over the top of the pass and out of the Missile Range expecting that there might be a gas station close by.

Luck ain't bein' a Lady today!

But I'm headed down hill, and every mile I go is one less I'll have to walk.  

The tension in the van was palpable, as in cut with a knife, palpable.

I then see a sign for a gas station, 5 miles ahead.  I can see it! (It's New Mexico, I could have seen it if it had been 20 miles away.)

Just 5 more miles, Lord, just 5 more miles.

Finally, I turn on the blinker, cross the highway and pull into the lot as the car dies and I coast to a stop at the pump.

Everyone piles out of the car and heads into the convenience store for entertainment and resuscitation.  I pump 24.5 gallons of gas into the car.  As I'm finishing up, Helmut comes over and says "You know, Mr. Juvat, in Chermany, we plan our trips better!"

I ask him if he'd like to get a closer, more in depth, experience of the Western United States by walking the remainder of the way.


*SJC  (and the remainder of the title quote is....when you're on fire!)

History at the Movies

The defence of Rorke's Drift 1879 by Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville (Source)

As many of you know I consider myself to be something of an amateur military historian. When movies are made of historical battles or wars I am always keen to go see them. In the past few days a blogger I have a great deal of respect for (Robert J. Avrech) published his list of what he considers the ten greatest movies of all time, head on over to Seraphic Secret to peruse his list, I'll wait here.

What did you think? I thought it was an excellent list. Of his top ten, I've only seen five, now I have a list of five movies I need to see. The five I've missed are:

• Ride With the Devil, 1999
• Come and See, 1985
• The Winter War, 1989
• Duck You Sucker, 1971 (I had the opportunity to see this but skipped it based on the title. Go figure.)
• The Lighthorsemen, 1985

One of the films he has on his list, Zulu, is a favorite. I remember watching it on a Saturday afternoon, it was on television and wasn't badly cut up as TV tends to do these days. I don't recall the commercials being that onerous either. I do remember trying to do the Zulu chanting and banging of spears on shields in the high school cafeteria with some of my mates. (The tables substituted for shields, hands pounding in place of spears.) Yes, we did get yelled at. I recall one teacher asking me, "Do you take pills for that?" Why no, no I didn't. Poor fellow would probably get sued these days. Back then there was a bit more give and take.

At any rate, Zulu was, and remains an all time favorite of mine. On Saturday I stumbled across a YouTube channel called History Buffs, which you might guess would attract my attention. The first one of his programs I watched was, as you might have already guessed, the one on the film Zulu. Here it is...

Not only does Nick Hodges (the guy who makes these) talk about the film, but he also points out the actual history behind the events portrayed on screen and some of the historical inaccuracies contained in the film.

This was the first one of these he made and it was published in 2015. There are quite a few more. Seems I've found something else to watch in my "spare" time. Let me know what you think. I thought this one was excellent. I see he also has an episode on the movie Waterloo, yeah, I'm going to watch that one next.

See you Tuesday.

Moon Rise

It was darker out than this photo leads one to believe. Time of this shot was around 1915 local.

For some reason I was excited about the full moon on Friday night. I don't really know why, in my life there have been over 750 full moons. Not that I've seen all of them, clouds and such have obscured more than one full moon, and there were times that I just wasn't paying attention. Probably when I was very little or when I was a teenager. (Now that I think of it, my cognitive skills during both of those periods of my life were very similar.)

At any rate, I was excited about it, and watched the moon come up with something of the awe I had for things "out there" as I did when I was a kid. Though I was pretty young, I do remember Sputnik, one of my earliest memories. Also my paternal grandmother's cat was named Sputnik. He came along a year or so after Sputnik (the satellite), though that event was still a big deal. Everyone was terrified that the Soviets were far ahead of us in rocket, therefore, missile technology. Hard to get worked up too much about current events these days when as a youth we faced the imminent threat of mushroom clouds rising over our cities.

To the right of the moon is a siren, used to warn us of storms. Also nuclear attacks, I'm sure. When I was a kid, my hometown sounded that siren everyday, to mark the noon hour (I think) and to make sure that it actually worked.

I once stayed up to three in the morning to see a total lunar eclipse. It was cold as the grave sitting on the hillside behind the ancestral home, waiting for things to commence. The moon was full, the night was cloudless. Perfect conditions for an eclipse. Other than that cold thing. My telescope was ready and I was bundled up. No doubt my parents thought me somewhat insane. But space was all the rage when I was young. Alan Shepard, the first American to go into space did so when I was eight. The astronauts were my heroes growing up.

So yeah, I get a little excited about the moon, the stars, the planets, and all the other things that are "out there." Would I like to go into space myself? No, while I did think of that in my youth, I realized that being in outer space wasn't my thing. I was content to stay close to the ground. Even if close was 30,000 feet. That was high enough for me, thank you very much. But those who do go into space have my admiration.

The way the camera, sans flash, pulls in the available light makes the moon look as if it is burning, and not merely reflecting the sun's rays.

While waiting for moon rise, I was out and about with the camera. Taking random photos to pass the time. The beauty of digital is that you don't waste film, you can take as many pictures as you like. Also, it's there immediately. Don't like a shot? Erase it and try again. Or keep it and erase it later.

Waiting for the moon.

Chez Sarge in the gloaming.

The pond without flash...

...and with flash. (I'm still learning what this camera can do.)

One of The Missus Herself's many gardening projects. I believe these are called succulents, they are pretty cool plants. Yes, she has a few.

After glow in the west.

The moon, she rises. (No flash BTW.)

With the flash active, the night sky is shown as my eye perceived it. Dark, and somewhat forboding.

Another excellent day, a lazy, relaxing day. The feline staff was happy, nay, ecstatic, to have me home. For some reason they like me, the feeling is mutual.

Saturday I can't goof off, I have big plans. The Missus Herself has informed me that it's off to the barber with me, she can no longer abide my "mad scientist" look. Unlike some military retired folks, I don't feel the need to keep myself shorn as I did during my active duty days. It's shaggy I've become in my dotage. Why some days, I don't even shave!

It would make my old sergeant shudder it would.

I'd like to leave you with this flying video. Got it from Lex I did (via The Lexicans), he liked it, I like it. For some reason watching Swiss jets flying through the Alps is just cool. Most folks don't know just how warlike the Swiss can be, they were feared way back in the day. They're not all watchmakers and bankers, not by a long shot. (Yes, I know Buck, you'd rather there was jet noise, not music. Sorry old chum.)

The Calm Before...

Well, the past couple of evenings have been absolutely gorgeous. They've had that late summer / early fall kind of feel to them. You can still feel the sun's heat on your face, but on the back of your neck you can feel the breath of autumn.

Walking out of work into the sunlight I've just wanted to sit down and watch the world go by. The sky has been fantastic. Wednesday night there were storm clouds stacked from the western horizon all the way to the northeast. As I stood in bright sunshine, with white puffy clouds and startling blue skies to the south and east, the gathering darkness to the west and north, while beautiful, gave me pause.

Then I snapped out of it and said to Hell with worrying about politics, the chattering class, and all the other a-holes of the world. Right now, they are not touching me and mine, they are merely a rumble in the distance.

It's worth noting that for all the drama in the skies we had about ten minutes of rain. Sure, it was a downpour but it ended almost as quickly as it began. While we could use the rain, I didn't mind the sun coming back out, not at all.

Thursday, while less dramatic aloft, was truly awesome. (Yes, it may be because it marks the start of a three day weekend.) But truly, it was one of those days that you're glad to be alive. The sun is shining, the grass is (still) green, the birds are singing, and God is in His Heaven. Nothing has gone wrong, yet.

Talking to my work partner of the past few months has been interesting as of late, he is from the Bay State and is pretty much a life-long Democrat from a family of that ilk. (Don't get me wrong, I don't "hate" Democrats, there have been some good ones, I know, I know, just not lately, but don't confuse them with the progressive members of that clan.) At any rate he broke out in a sharp rant against the Democratic candidate for President today. He was amazed at how many people in Mass and Little Rhody still intended to vote for the rambling wreck in a pantsuit. I looked at it as a hopeful sign. Of course, he is an engineer who spent one hitch in the Navy and has worked his entire life. He doesn't like the idea of his old party handing out freebies to the ne'er-do-wells of the planet. Can't say I blame him.

While I am not overly thrilled with the Republican candidate, I'll hold my nose and push that button come November. The Libertarian candidates lost me a few weeks back. For a while I thought I was on to something with those two. Sigh, it sucks to be wrong. But I fess up, the whole hooray for Johnson and Weld thing was a mistake. So yup, lesser of two evils time. I get tired of the anti-Trumpers and I ask "so if not him, who?" Lots of mutterings about the "sweet meteor of death" and such. All I can say is, "Really. Look into the eyes of your kids and tell them that."

I ain't ready to quit. Not now, not ever. Someone has to keep things running, it sure as Hell ain't anybody in politics, that's for sure.

So for now, I'll kick back, watch summer fade into fall, have a beer and stay alert. No, I ain't gonna run off into the hills, I'm not running from anything. What will be, will be. (Hey, wasn't there an old timey song about that? Que sera, sera.)

Full moon tonight, wasn't quite full Thursday night. Oh yeah, it's starting to get down in the 50s at night now. Good sleeping weather as we used to say.

That's enough for now, I don't wish to be accused of BWI. I came close but...

It's just too pretty out to get wound up.

Time to crack a cold one and listen to some old time rock. With all the crap going on today, well, the '60s seemed worse. Least that's what I remember. YMMV

Knights and Swifts

Russian Knights and Swifts formation (Source)

The Russians have two aerial demonstration teams, the Knights (Витязи), who fly the Su-27, and the Swifts (Стрижи), who fly the MiG-29. Sometimes the two teams will fly together, picture the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels in one big formation. (I'm not sure if we've ever done that.) The Knights and Swifts flew together for the May 9th Victory Day parade in Moscow this year (2016 if you're reading this sometime in the future).

The following video is one of those 360-degree videos. Click and hold the left mouse button and then move the mouse, you control the viewing angle. (Yes, I love these videos.) This was filmed during a joint practice session for that parade mentioned above. There are both cockpit and ground views, which I found interesting. (During the ground portions, look for the guy looking oddly at the camera with the blurry hand, he's actually holding the camera on what is apparently a long "selfie" stick of some kind.)

The airborne portion is from a camera attached to the pilot's glare shield, just forward and to the left of the combining glass. Makes for an interesting perspective.

I once got to see a MiG-29 live and in person in Germany. After the fall of the DDR, the Luftwaffe inherited a wing of those Russian designed birds and I happened to see one at Geilenkirchen taxiing out for take-off. Of course, I stuck around for the "show." Quite honestly, I thought the beast looked ugly and ungainly on the ground. Once she got in the air though, she was something to see. Nimble and deadly looking.

Enjoy! (Наслаждайтесь!)

Why yes I am tired and devoid of ideas for a post. How did you know?

Television

(Main Source)

I used to watch a lot of television. It was a way to unwind at the end of a long day. When I was a kid, we'd come home from school, do our homework, then Dad would come home from work. We'd all sit down to eat supper, we'd usually hear how Dad's day went at work. That bit was always humorous, unless Dad was pissed about something, rare but it usually involved somebody at his workplace doing something "stupid" which he then had to fix. And no, the apple did not fall far from the tree.

After everyone was done eating, when my brothers and I were a little older, we'd sometimes talk about current events, or something which was going on at school, or something which Mom was involved with. This happened at the supper table, after the dishes had been cleared and Mom and Dad were having their coffee. After these discussions, we'd retire to the living room to watch television. All four channels, in glorious black and white. Sometime in high school, I think, we got a color set. But still only four channels: ABC, CBS, NBC (all out of Boston), and a PBS station, which I think was actually out of Vermont. Might have been New Hampshire.

But television was only on the menu if our homework was done. Rules were rules. But we did watch it as a family. Dad controlled the "remote" ("Son, switch it to NBC. No, go back to CBS...") and we usually watched what he wanted to watch. Old school with Dad getting to choose but the system worked. Wasn't all that much to choose from anyway.

We followed pretty much the same protocol when I got married, we had kids, and all the progeny were still living at home. Depending on where we lived, we either had about the same number of channels when I was a kid (but with one major caveat) or we had more channels, depending on whether or not The Missus Herself and I decided that we could afford cable TV. Which for our two major Stateside assignments was a "yes, we can afford that". Those two assignments being Colorado and Nebraska, all of about eight years. The rest of the time was spent in foreign lands.

In Korea we had one channel in English and I think three (maybe four) in, duh, Korean. The sole English channel was AFKN, the Armed Forces Korea Network, which showed a lot of reruns but did show sports live. The sporting events were at odd hours, Korea being 13 hours ahead of Eastern time. (Think Super Bowl at 7 AM, IIRC. As that was 7 AM on a Monday, we usually watched it at work. There's a story there, I think. POCIR.)

In Germany we also had the Armed Forces Network (AFN), which broadcast reruns and sporting events in English. There were also a couple of Dutch and at least one Belgian channel that broadcast very recent American TV shows in English, with subtitles of course. The Dutch and the Belgians liked their shows in the original languages. I once watched a very interesting show about a rescue squad in what appeared to be South Africa. Involved helicopters and such and was very exciting. Even though the show seemed to be in Dutch, it also had Dutch subtitles. Which I thought odd until I mentioned the show to a Dutch colleague who said, "South African show, right?"

"Right," I agreed, that's when it dawned on me, "The show is in Afrikaans, right?"

Well, indeed it was and Afrikaans (apparently) is different enough from Dutch that they have subtitles. They sounded awfully close to me, but I don't speak Dutch, I simply enjoy reading the subtitles.

They are, indeed different, here's an example:

Dutch - Kent u het verschil zien?Afrikaans - Het jy die verskil sien?

Close, but no cigar. (Incidentally, in English the phrase is "Do you see the difference?" - I'm a clever bugger ain't I?)

Yes, I am invariably attracted to subtitles even if I don't speak the language. It's odd really, might be my affinity for languages.

Now Germany and Japan are different beasts altogether when it comes to subtitles. (I have to admit my experience with Japanese TV is very limited, a couple of hours in the day room on Okinawa watching a John Wayne movie dubbed in Japanese. Why John Wayne's voice over was a very squeaky, high pitched speaker was somewhat disconcerting. Though hysterical in the extreme to a bunch of GIs who had consumed perhaps one beer too many.)

German television back in the '90s did show some fairly new American TV shows, but they were all dubbed in German. The older Germans liked that, the younger Germans did not. Back then the older Germans called the shots. These days I wonder if the shows are all dubbed in Arabic?

Anyhoo...

Some years back I grew tired of the ever increasing number of commercials on TV. A "30 minute" show had perhaps 20 minutes of actual show, the rest was commercials. It got to the point where I hardly ever watched TV, when I did it was only three or four shows (NCIS was one, though when Ziva left, so did I. Sorry Gibbs.)

Three years back I sat down on a Sunday to watch the Patriots season opener. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the temperature was a comfortable 70-ish and I was all set for a day of football.

Phil Simms started yapping about something, I turned the volume off, gazed out the window and asked myself, why am I sitting inside on this glorious day listening to this idiot?

I haven't watched much football since then. With recent events in the NFL, I'll be surprised if I watch any football this season. No, I don't think Roger Goodell is Satan, but I do think they have each other on speed dial. No, it's not because of "deflategate," which here in New England we call "Roger Goodell is a giant flaming a-hole." Or something to that effect.

Now players are doing stupid things on the sidelines and it goes on and on.

Western Civilization has fallen. We're all waiting to see what replaces it.

No, I don't watch commercial TV anymore. Give me my Netflix and I'm content.

Remember the old saying "hundreds of channels and there's nothing on TV"? While that was kind of true back in the day, it almost goes without saying now. Watch the news? Why? Which network do I want lying to me? How about none of the above.

Sigh, I liked it better when I was a kid. Even if it was only four channels...

Tales of the Sea Service - Birmingham and Princeton

USS Birmingham comes alongside the burning USS Princeton. (Source)

Loyal reader Shazzam left an interesting comment the other day on my post about the ocean...

Now what kind of amateur historian would I be if I didn't follow that story up with a post about the light cruiser USS Birmingham?

Birmingham, 21 January 1945, following a period of repairs and alterations at Mare Island. (Source)

Now I vaguely remembered the story of the light carrier USS Princeton, how she was hit and then later blew up while Birmingham lay alongside providing assistance. Having a reader whose father-in-law was on the Birmingham made me want to dig deeper. (Small world really, when you stop to think about it, the ties that bind us all together are many and not always noticeable.)

October 24 (1944) dawned with broken clouds and occasional squalls, but there was good visibility, allowing continuing airstrikes in support of land operations on the island of Leyte. The day began before sunrise, with general quarters sounded for all the ships in Task Force 38.

To start the day, Princeton contributed 20 fighter planes to the air battle over Leyte Gulf. The first wave of 40 to 50 Japanese planes was intercepted and their attack broken up with many enemy losses. A second group of about 30 enemy aircraft quickly took to the air. Out of the two waves, Princeton’s planes alone shot down 34 enemy aircraft with a loss of only one. Pilots became aces in a matter of minutes. The planes returned to the carrier for refueling and arming in preparation for an airstrike against a Japanese force of four battleships, eight cruisers and 13 destroyers southeast of the island of Mindoro.

At 9:12 a.m., USS Essex reported a possible bandit plus a friendly aircraft about six miles away. No other unidentifieds were within a radius of 25 miles. At 9:38 a.m., a single Judy was sighted by Princeton’s lookouts, diving on their vessel from out of the low cloud cover ahead of the ship. The plane immediately came under fire from the forward 20mm and 40mm batteries, and the helm was put over to port in an evasion attempt. The Judy dropped two bombs. One missed Princeton and fell harmlessly into the sea. The other 550-pound bomb fell almost in the center of Princeton’s deck, causing jarring on the bridge and a dull thud in central station. Black smoke issued from the hole in the flight deck, the forward elevator and every access trunk to the hangar aft of the island. Ed Butler, a radarman, said, “I saw him [the Japanese pilot] high-tailing it away from our stern, trailing smoke.”

...

Structural damage was relatively minor, but a raging gasoline fire flared up in the wreckage of Mooney’s plane and spread rapidly to the other five planes parked there. The quantity of gasoline dumped onto the hangar deck from the severed gasoline main is unknown, but those six fully fueled planes had held more than 2,500 gallons of high-test aviation gasoline. The bomb had created a 5-foot indentation around the small 15-inch hole, which acted as a funnel for the gasoline spilling onto the hangar deck, directing it into the lower decks where the fire raged. Within seconds of the explosion there were fires on the third deck over the after engine room, on the second deck, and in the hangar. Billowing black smoke from burning gasoline poured from every opening in the lower decks.

Less than 10 minutes after the bomb was dropped, the firefighting sprinkler system was completely disabled. Within the same short timespan, the main engines lost almost all power, which first slowed Princeton, then brought her to a halt and turned her into a drifting, burning hulk. (Source)

The U.S. Navy light aircraft carrier USS Princeton (CVL-23) burning soon after she was hit by a Japanese bomb while operating off the Philippines on 24 October 1944. This view, taken from the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57) at about 1001 hrs., shows the large smoke column passing aft following a heavy explosion in the carrier's hangar deck. (Source)

Yokosuka D4Y3 Type 33 "Suisei". (Source)

Planes from TG 38.3 also launched attacks against enemy airfields and shipping in the north central Philippines, damaging a light cruiser and a destroyer and sinking a Japanese Army ore-carrier. These strikes provoked a counterattack by land-based Japanese aircraft from Clark and Nichols fields and many evaded friendly CAP owing to low cloud cover. At 0930 that morning, a single Yokosuka D4Y Judy carrier dive bomber swept down over Princeton (CVL-23). A single bomb dropped and hit the carrier between the elevators, penetrated into the hanger and exploded. Severe fires set off secondary explosions and forced her to drop out of formation. Birmingham, Reno (CL-96) and three destroyers also detached and stood by to render assistance.

Given the fires burning in Princeton, the destroyers made repeated attempts to go alongside and spray water on the flames. Heavy seas frustrated those moves, however, and Morrison (DD-560), Gatling (DD-671) and Irwin (DD-794) all took serious damage in collisions with the heaving carrier. For that reason, Birmingham moved alongside Princeton since she could better withstand any blows. Within a short period of time, the light cruiser sent 14 water hoses and 38 men from her damage control teams over to the carrier. This extra assistance helped extinguish one of the two major fires in the carrier.

That afternoon, however, Birmingham received word that several Japanese planes had broken through the CAP and, almost simultaneously, a destroyer reported a submarine contact at a mere 2,000 yards away. The warship quickly pulled in almost all her fire hoses and backed off to gain sea room for maneuvering. Shortly thereafter, one Japanese plane was sighted but did not close to attack. In addition, the sound contact was classified a false alarm. Given the great success in fighting the fire up to that point, Birmingham again closed to help the still burning Princeton.

At 1522, just as the light cruiser was moving back alongside the carrier, flames touched off Princeton's after magazines. The cataclysmic explosion blew off the carrier's stern and much of the after part of the flight deck. Steel fragments, wooden planking and all manner of debris raked Birmingham from stem to stern. Over half of the light cruiser's crew became casualties since virtually everyone on the starboard side was killed or wounded. The blast killed 233 men and seriously wounded 211, with another 215 suffering minor wounds.

Birmingham's deck literally ran with blood and her surviving crew threw sand on the deck to provide a firm footing amidst the carnage as in the days of the age of sail. They then extinguished several fires burning topside and began to care for the hundreds of wounded as the light cruiser limped east out of the battle zone. In the meantime, continuing efforts by the other warships to save Princeton failed and Reno and Irwin eventually scuttled the burning aircraft carrier with torpedoes. (Source)

The U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-62), at left, and a destroyer pull away from the light aircraft carrier USS Princeton (CVL-23) following the big explosion that destroyed the carrier's stern at about 1523 hrs, on 24 October 1944. This blast killed over two hundred men aboard Birmingham, which was alongside Princeton fighting fires. Note the light smoke over Birmingham's midships and stern areas. Princeton's stern, and a good deal of her after superstructure, has been blown off. (Source)

USS Princeton CVL-23. (Source)

USS Birmingham had a storied career, she was a Cleveland-class light cruiser named for the city of Birmingham, Alabama. Nicknamed the "Steel City", she was laid down at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Newport News, Virginia on 17 February 1941 and launched on 20 March 1942 by Mrs. Cooper Green, wife of the president of the Birmingham City Commission. She was commissioned on 29 January 1943, Captain John Wilkes in command. (Source)

Assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, Birmingham provided gunfire support for Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, in July of 1943. Later in that year she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was part of the fast carrier task force screen.

...she took part in the raids on Tarawa (18 September 1943) and Wake Island (5–6 October). At the Solomons, she took part in the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay (8–9 November), along with her sister ships Cleveland, Columbia, Montpelier, and Denver. This was the first major action by the new Cleveland-class light cruisers that were entering the fleet. Birmingham's gunners shot down at least four enemy Japanese aircraft. During the daytime, Japanese planes hit Birmingham with two bombs and a torpedo. The ship's casualties included two killed and 34 wounded. The hits kept her out of the night surface battle with the Imperial Japanese Navy fleet that followed. Birmingham retired to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs which lasted until 18 February 1944, when she rejoined the Pacific Fleet.

Assigned to Task Force 57 (TF 57), she took part in the battle of Saipan (14 June – 4 August); the Battle of the Philippine Sea (19–20 June); battle of Tinian (20 July – 1 August); battle of Guam (21 July); and Philippine Islands raids (9–24 September). She then served with TF 38 during the Okinawa raid (10 October), northern Luzon and Formosa raids (15 October and 18–19 October), and the Battle of Leyte Gulf (24 October). During the latter, she suffered great topside damage from explosions on board the aircraft carrier Princeton while courageously attempting to aid that stricken vessel. 239 men died, 408 were wounded, and the bodies of four were never recovered. Birmingham retired to Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs which lasted from November 1944 to January 1

Rejoining the Pacific Fleet, the cruiser supported the battle of Iwo Jima (4–5 March 1945) and battle of Okinawa (25 March – 5 May). On 4 May, after fighting off three attacks, she was damaged for a third time when a Japanese kamikaze plane hit her forward. The resulting explosion killed 47, with 4 missing and 81 wounded. Returning to Pearl Harbor, she underwent repairs from 28 May to 1 August.

Birmingham rejoined the 5th Fleet at Okinawa on 26 August, and then in November steamed to Brisbane, Australia. She returned to San Francisco on 22 March 1946 and was taken out of commission and placed in reserve there on 2 January 1947. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1959 and scrapped at Long Beach, California. (Source)

She was a fighter, maintaining the proud traditions of the United States Navy while creating her own legacy as a warship. The men who served on her can be justifiably proud of their service. Sadly, many of those surviving veterans have passed on to join their shipmates who fell in World War II. I don't know if we'll see their like again.

USS Birmingham (CL-62) was awarded eight battle stars for her World War II service.

Here is the story of one of her valiant crew. He carried a name familiar to me though we are not related. We sometimes forget that the men (and now women) lost in war are real people, with family, friends, and loved ones, they are not just names on a memorial somewhere.

Lest we forget...