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wwii

Army trench coat found in France tracked back to World War II vet in Hawaii

History
Courtesy photo.

Albert Nakama remembers the Vosges Mountains and how cold it was in late 1944 when his unit, L Company of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, reached northeastern France in World War II.

The Kaneohe man was part of the mostly Japanese American force, many from Hawaii, that set out to prove their loyalty to America in blood and sweat fighting entrenched German forces in Europe.

"It was winter time," Nakama, now 96, said. "The Vosges Mountains was really cold. You know, like the Pali coming from Honolulu … lot of wooded area. That's the kind of place the Vosges Mountains was."

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the greatest generation

His father died in a WWII cargo ship explosion. Now a former CIA officer, he claims the Navy covered up the real cause

History
(Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

VENICE — Packed with 600 tons of ammo and explosives, the USS Serpens died in a flash beneath a full moon at 11:18 p.m. on Jan. 29, 1945.

The blast was so violent it rained shrapnel and debris on the island of Guadalcanal a mile away, killed a soldier onshore, knocked everyone standing within that radius off their feet, and flung one sailor into another vessel moored 650 yards away. That ship, the USS YP 514, had its bow and crow's nest demolished, and counted 14 injuries as "missiles" and "screeching shells" continued to explode and turn night into day.

Witnesses said the calamity generated an 8-foot tidal wave, and that the ground shock rippled five miles out. Some said the sky drizzled oil for up to two hours. When bystanders regained their senses, the 100-ton barge that had been transferring bombs onto the Serpens had vanished, and all that was left of the 441-foot cargo ship was its sinking bow, keel up.

Miraculously, two sailors who had been asleep in a forward hold survived. Few other bodies were recovered intact. When the counting was done, 193 Coast Guard crewmen, who had been manning the Navy ship, were gone — along with 56 Army stevedores and an onboard civilian doctor. It was, in short, the most catastrophic single-event loss of life in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Four years later, in what Arlington National Cemetery describes as "the largest group burial" ever hosted, the remains of the 250 casualties from that disaster were retrieved from Guadalcanal, placed in 52 flag-draped coffins, and laid to rest in 28 graves.

According to the Navy, which conducted the investigation, the Serpens blew up during the accidental mishandling of bombs, torpedoes and depth charges. But the son of a crew member isn't buying it.

After pressing Florida politicians and pursuing government records with Freedom of Information Act requests, Robert Breen of Venice has discovered curious gaps in the Serpens' obituary. And at 76, the retired Central Intelligence Agency senior finance officer and certified fraud investigator wonders if he's onto one of the last coverups of World War II.

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sky high

64 years ago, the vaunted U-2 spy plane's first flight happened totally by accident

History

On August 1, 1955, a prototype of the U-2 spy plane sprinted down a runway at Groom Lake in Nevada, and its massive wings quickly lifted it into the sky.

That wasn't exactly how it was supposed to go. It was meant to be a high-speed taxi test, but the prototype's highly efficient wings pulled it into the air unexpectedly. The plane's first official flight happened three days later.

Lockheed Martin footage captured the moment the venerable Dragon Lady started its 64-year career.

VIDEO: The U-2 Spy Plane's First Flight www.youtube.com

The U-2 was developed in secrecy by Lockheed in the early 1950s to meet the U.S. government's need to surveil the Soviet Union and other areas from a height enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft systems couldn't reach.

Renowned engineer Kelly Johnson led the project at Lockheed's advanced development lab, Skunk Works.

"Johnson's take was all right, I need to get as high as I can to overfly enemy defenses, and how do I do that? Well I put big wings on there; big wings means higher. I cut weight; cutting weight means higher, and then let me just strap a big engine on there, and that's it," U-2 pilot Maj. Matt "Top" Nauman said at an Air Force event in New York City in May.

One thing Johnson ditched was wing-mounted landing gear. On takeoff, temporary wheels called "pogos" fall away from the wings.

Master Sgt. Justin Pierce, 9th Maintenance Squadron superintendent, preforms preflight checks on a U-2 at Beale Air Force Base in California, April 16, 2018(U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Tristan D. Viglianco)

"So [Johnson] basically took a glider with parts and pieces from other Lockheed aircraft and strapped an engine to it and delivered it before the anticipated delivery date and under budget," Nauman said.

The plane Johnson and Lockheed produced was well suited for flight — as the Groom Lake test showed, it didn't take much to get it off the ground.

"The pilot was out there taxing around, and [during] a high-speed taxi — we're talking about 30ish miles an hour — the plane actually lifted off on its own, completely unexpected," Nauman said.

"And they thought, 'OK, hang on, let's go back and make sure we're approaching this test phase the right way.' And they found the thing just wants to get off the ground."

Same name, new-ish plane

An Air Force U-2 Dragon Lady flies a training mission(U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Rose Reynolds)

Throughout its career, the U-2 has been reengineered and redesigned.

The plane that took off at Groom Lake was a U-2A. The next version was the U-2C, which had a new engine; a U-2C on display at the National Air and Space Museum flew the first operational mission over the Soviet Union on July 4, 1956.

The U-2G and U-2H, outfitted for carrier operations, came in the early 1960s. The U-2R, which was 40% larger than the original and had wing pods to carry more sensors and fuel, arrived in 1967.

The last U-2R arrived in 1989, and most of the planes in use now were built in the mid-1980s.

Since 1994 the US has spent $1.7 billion to modernize the U-2's airframe and sensors. After the GE F118-101 engine was added in the late 1990s, all U-2s were re-designated as U-2S, the current variant.

US Air Force Maj. Sean Gallagher greets his ground support crew before a U-2 mission, at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, November 24, 2010(U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Eric Harris)

The Air Force now has about 30 single-seat U-2 for missions and four of the two-seat TU-2 trainers. Those planes have a variety of pilot-friendly features, but one aspect remains a challenge.

"It's extremely difficult to land," Nauman said.

"You could YouTube videos of bad U-2 landings all day and see interview sorties that look a little bit sketchy," he said, referring to a part of the pilot-interview process where candidates have to fly the U-2, adding that the landings were done safely.

Despite its grace in flight, getting to earth is an ungainly process that takes a team effort.

Another qualified U-2 pilot in a high-performance chase car — Mustangs, Camaros, Pontiacs, and even a Tesla — meets the aircraft as it lands.

A U-2 pilot drives a chase car behind U-2 during a low-flight touch and go at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, March 15, 2019.)(U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Gracie I. Lee

"As the airplane's coming in over the runway, this vehicle's chasing behind it with a radio, and [the driver is] actually talking the pilot down a little bit, just to help him out ... 'Hey, raise your left wing, raise your right wing, you're about 10 feet, you're about 8 feet, you're about 2 feet, hold it there at 2 feet,'" U-2 pilot Maj. Travis "Lefty" Patterson, said at the same event.

As the plane "approaches a stall and it's able to land, you have that experienced set of eyes in the car watching the airplane, because all [the pilot] can see is right off the front," Patterson said.

The absence of wing landing gear means that once it's slows enough, the plane leans to one side and a wingtip comes to rest on the ground.

"The lifespan of the U-2, the airframe, [is beyond] 2040 to 2050 ... because we spend so little time in a high-stress regime," Patterson added. "Once it gets to altitude it's smooth and quiet and it's very, very nice on the airplane. The only tough part is the landing."

Read more from Business Insider:

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the greatest generation

This Army master sergeant is the last living witness to Nazi Germany's surrender

History
(Photo illustration by Task & Purpose)

East Aurora, New York native and World War II veteran Luciano "Louis" C. Graziano is believed to be the last living eyewitness to the formal surrender of Germany at the "Little Red Schoolhouse" in Reims, France.

Of that monumental moment in history on May 7, 1945, Graziano says that at the time he did not realize the gravity of it.

"I just took it as it came. I was 22. I didn't think too much about anything. I just did what I had to do," the now 96-year-old Army veteran said.

But as the years flew by, he came to understand the significance.

"I was honored to be in that room," Graziano wrote in his recently published book, A Patriot's Memoirs of World War II - Through My Eyes, Heart and Soul.

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hiroshima

Here's why the pilot of Enola Gay had no regrets about dropping the first atom bomb

History
(U.S. Air Force/Associated Press/Photo illustration by Task & Purpose)

Early in the morning of August 6, 1945, a U.S. Air Force B29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off from the its base in Tinian, near Guam, and headed for the city of Hiroshima in southern Japan.

It was carrying a 9,700 top-secret bomb named Little Boy. Its pilot was Col. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., who led a crew of 12 men on a mission that would change the history of the world.

The plane had been named by Tibbets after his mother.

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confederate monuments

Confederate president's name stripped from iron archway at Fort Monroe

news
(Flickr/Sarah Stierch)

The Fort Monroe Authority on Friday removed the letters that spelled "Jefferson Davis Memorial Park" from an iron archway that honored the one-time Confederate president imprisoned at the former Army post.

The removal came after a lengthy review process to determine the arch's place at Fort Monroe following Gov. Ralph Northam's call in April to have the entire 50-foot structure dismantled.

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