Countdown to Kickoff II: The Final 24 Days

[kingofnerf]

Len Dawson

 

[kingofnerf]

Joe Morrison's teammate, Frank Gifford.

 

[kingofnerf]

George Blanda

 

[kingofnerf]

Ken Stabler

 

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Jim Plunkett

Had his Patriots jersey as a kid and wore it whenever I played in a neighborhood football game.

 

[kingofnerf]

Australian CA-16 Wirraway

The CAC Wirraway was a training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) during 1939 – 1946 and based on the design of the North American Aviation NA-16 trainer. Over 750 were built and the name is derived from an aboriginal word for ‘Challenge’. During World War II it was operated by the RAAF as an advanced training aircraft but also saw front line service in New Guinea as a fighter-bomber during 1942-43. 

https://www.navy.gov.au/aircraft/cac-ca-16-wirraway

 

[kingofnerf]

Caproni Ca.16 aircraft.

The Caproni Ca.16 was a single-engine monoplane designed and built by Caproni in the early 1910s.

Design
The Caproni Ca.16 was a single-engine, two seat monoplane with a modern configuration, with elica traente. It was derived from the Ca.15, in turn based on the structure – initially derived from that of Blériot XI – that Gianni Caproni had introduced for the first time aboard his airplanes to starting with Ca.8, after the experiments carried out with the series of biplanes from the Ca.1 to the Ca.6Aeroplani Caproni – Gianni Caproni ideatore e costruttore di ali italiane.

The Ca.16 was realized in 1912. It presented the two separated and spaced places, as on the Ca.14 (while on Ca.15 they were very close and accessible through a single opening at the top of fuselage). On Ca.16 it was possible for the first pilot to arm or disengage the commands of the second pilot (or passenger).

Closed-circuit records

The operational history of Caproni Ca.16 is largely linked to the figure of the pilot Russian Chariton Nikanorovič Slavorossov. He had presented himself to Vizzola Ticino, where at that time the workshops of Caproni and Faccanoni were located, in January 1913, to buy a propeller for his Blériot. Caproni already knew the skills of this pilot, who had seen flying to Vienna in 1912. He offered him a pilot test place, which Slavorossov accepted. On 24 January, on board a Ca.16, he beat the world record on a closed circuit of 5 km with passenger, covering 200 km in 1 h 56 '30'' and 250 km in 2 h 24' 30''.

The Milan-Rome raid

On 23 February 1913, with the intention (colored in tones patriotic, or even nationalistic) to give an impulse to the Italian aeronautic industry, the vice president of the Italian aviation company Luigi Origoni and the general secretary of the Italian Touring Club and collaborator of the La Gazzetta dello Sport Arturo Mercanti decided to give away a prize for the first flight from Milan to Rome made with an Italian aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.16

 

[Swayin]

Another legend: the General dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. Began production in 1976 and is still in production today; the plane below, "Swamp Fox," is from the SCANG.

 

[kingofnerf]

USS Lexington, CV-16.

Construction and commissioning

The ship was laid down as Cabot on 15 July 1941 by Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. In May 1942, USS Lexington (CV-2), which had been built in the same shipyard two decades earlier, was sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June, workers at the shipyard submitted a request to Navy Secretary Frank Knox to change the name of a carrier currently under construction there to Lexington. Knox agreed to the proposal and Cabot was renamed as the fifth USS Lexington on 16 June 1942.

Service history

Lexington was commissioned in February 1943 and saw extensive service through the Pacific War. For much of her service, she acted as the flagship for Admiral Marc Mitscher, and led the Fast Carrier Task Force through their battles across the Pacific. She was the recipient of 11 battle stars and the Presidential Unit Citation. Following the war, Lexington was decommissioned, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier (CVA). Later, she was reclassified as an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, in Pensacola, Florida, as a training carrier (CVT).

Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, with an active service life longer than any other Essex-class ship. Following her decommissioning, she was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 2003, Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark. Though her surviving sister ships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining fleet carrier in the world.

World War II

After a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean, Lexington sailed via the Panama Canal to join the Pacific fleet.

One of the carrier's first casualties was 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. During the ship's initial voyage (to the Caribbean) in 1943, Kinnick and other naval fliers were conducting training flights off her deck. The Grumman F4F Wildcat flown by Kinnick developed a serious oil leak while airborne and was unable to return to the Lexington, crashing into the sea four miles from the ship. Neither Kinnick nor his plane were ever recovered. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-16)

Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. (July 9, 1918 – June 2, 1943) was a student and a college football player at the University of Iowa. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a United States Navy aviator in World War II. Kinnick was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951, and the University of Iowa renamed its football stadium Kinnick Stadium in his honor in 1972.

Naval service
Kinnick left law school after one year and enlisted in the Naval Air Reserve. After completing a speaking tour of Iowa communities and visiting his parents in Omaha, he reported for induction three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He wrote, "There is no reason in the world why we shouldn't fight for the preservation of a chance to live freely, no reason why we shouldn't suffer to uphold that which we want to endure. May God give me the courage to do my duty and not falter." Later, he added, "Every man whom I've admired in history has willingly and courageously served in his country's armed forces in times of danger. It is not only a duty but an honor to follow their example the best I know how. May God give me the courage and ability to so conduct myself in every situation that my country, my family, and my friends will be proud of me."

Kinnick was able to return to Iowa one last time in 1942. He visited Adel and saw his father one final time. He then went to Iowa City and watched Iowa's football game against Washington University from the press box. When the Iowa crowd heard of his presence, they began a loud "We want Kinnick!" chant until he leaned out of the press box with an appreciative wave.

Kinnick was training to be a fighter pilot. "The task which lies ahead is adventure as well as duty," Nile wrote in his final letter to his parents before deploying with the USS Lexington in late May 1943, "and I am anxious to get at it. I feel better in mind and body than I have for ten years and am quite certain I can meet the foe confident and unafraid. 'I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.' Truly, we have shared to the full life, love, and laughter. Comforted in the knowledge that your thought and prayer go with us every minute, and sure that your faith and courage will never falter, no matter the outcome, I bid you au revoir."

Death
On June 2, 1943, Ensign Kinnick was on a routine training flight from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, which was off the coast of Venezuela in the Gulf of Paria. Kinnick had been flying for over an hour when his Grumman F4F Wildcat developed an oil leak so serious that he could neither reach land nor the Lexington, whose flight deck was in any case crowded with planes preparing for launch. Kinnick followed standard military procedure and executed an emergency landing in the water, but died in the process. Rescue boats arrived on the scene a mere eight minutes later, but they found only an oil slick. His body was never recovered. Nile Kinnick was the first Heisman Trophy winner to die; he was a month and seven days away from his 25th birthday.

Iowa sportscaster Tait Cummins said, "Kinnick proved one thing, that college athletics could be beautiful. Everything that can be said that is good about college athletics he was. He didn't represent it ... he was it."

In a letter to Kinnick's parents, Kinnick's lieutenant commander, Paul Buie, wrote, "Having lost all oil the engine, without lubrication, failed, forcing Nile to land in the water." Kinnick's squadron mate, Bill Reiter, also confirmed that the oil leak was so bad that Kinnick was forced to land four miles before he could reach the Lexington. This varies slightly from the often-repeated legend that Kinnick could have made it back to the ship but instead chose to land in the water to spare the ship's crew from danger. While Kinnick gave his life for his country, the decision to land his plane in the water was standard military procedure, and a landing on the Lexington, given his situation, was an impossibility, not a deliberately bypassed option.

There is also some uncertainty about exactly how Kinnick died. Reiter was the only person who claimed to have seen Kinnick clear of the plane and motionless in the water. Reiter died three months later.

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

USS Lexington Museum

On 26 November 1991 the US Navy turned the Lexington over to the City of Corpus Christi. On 15 June 1992, the ship was donated as a museum and now operates as the "USS Lexington Museum on the Bay" at 2914 North Shoreline Boulevard, Corpus Christi, Texas. A MEGAtheater (similar to IMAX) was added in the forward aircraft elevator space. Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. The ship is carefully maintained, and areas of the ship previously off-limits are becoming open to the public every few years. One of the most recent examples is the catapult room.

The ship's World War II-era gun battery is also being partially restored using guns salvaged from scrapped ships. Most notable among these are 5"/38 DP gun turrets saved from the scrapping of the heavy cruiser Des Moines. They have been mounted in the approximate locations where similar mounts once existed as part of the ship's original World War II-era fit.

The National Naval Aviation Museum, at Naval Air Station Pensacola, has a small carrier deck mock-up, whose flight deck is constructed from deck boards salvaged from Lexington.

Popular culture

In 1975 and 1987, Lexington, with the blessing and cooperation of the Navy, served as a filming location at sea. The films were the feature movie Midway and the TV miniseries War and Remembrance. In both cases, she was altered to the extent possible to resemble other vessels, Enterprise (for War and Remembrance) and Yorktown (for Midway) by adding antiaircraft cannons and operating World War II-vintage Navy aircraft. Lexington was also used (though tied up to her pier) for filming of the 2001 film Pearl Harbor, where she was altered to resemble a Japanese carrier, as well as Hornet.

In July 2007, the popular TV show Ghost Hunters filmed aboard the USS Lexington, looking for evidence of ghosts, and in December 2009, she was the subject of an episode of Ghost Lab, on the Discovery Channel.

In 2014, Pepsi used the ship to film a commercial in preparation for the 2015 Super Bowl. The commercial, titled "Operation Halftime," featured country-music singer, Blake Shelton, performing for veterans and their families.

Awards

The crew of Lexington received the Presidential Unit Citation for heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces, 11 battle stars for major engagements during World War II service, and other awards.

Sa-lute!

 

[Swayin]

USS Lexington, CV-16.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-16)

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



Sa-lute!

Ah, the Lady Lex. A classic.

 

[kingofnerf]

Ah, the Lady Lex. A classic.

Sunk on many different occasions according to Tokyo Rose.  The Blue Ghost.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

16th Air Force

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

 

[kingofnerf]

Mark Donohue

 

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[Blitzkrieg]

15th Air Force

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

 

[kingofnerf]

USS Randolph, CV-15.

World War II

Riding at anchor at Ulithi on 11 March, a Yokosuka P1Y1 "Frances" kamikaze hit Randolph on the starboard side aft just below the flight deck, killing 27 men (including four reported missing and five transferred to the hospital ship Relief where they died) and wounding 105 during Operation Tan No. 2.

The initial damage assessment by ship's captain Felix Baker, later confirmed by task force commander, Admiral Raymond Spruance, was that Randolph's damage was beyond the repair capabilities at Pearl Harbor and the ship would have to return to Navy facilities on the US west coast, effectively taking Randolph out of action for some five months, including the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. At this point Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Humphrey's, the Randolph’s catapult officer, was able to convince Baker and Spruance that repairs could be completed at sea utilizing the USS Jason (AR-8), a repair ship in the immediate vicinity.

What ensued became the most extensive repair - at sea - ever performed by the US Navy. Humphrey's first act was to move number six (forward) arresting-gear catapult engine aft to replace the destroyed number one engine. This returned Randolph, very quickly, to an operational status.

With Randolph able to launch and retrieve aircraft, and thus defend herself, repairs focused on the massive task, at the ship's stern, involving the replacement of structural steel components forming the hangar deck, aircraft elevator framework and flight deck support, all warped or destroyed by the fires ignited by the kamikaze hit. Some 29 tons of structural steel, including I-beams salvaged from a Japanese sugar mill on newly liberated Saipan, were utilized. An additional 7,500 board feet of lumber was required to repair Randolph’s flight deck.  

In the words of Cmdr. Charles Minter, assistant air officer on board Randolph, "That decision to remain in the forward area [for repairs] allowed us to complete the war in an operational status. I doubt anyone could estimate how long we would have been in the yard had we gone back to the States, and the loss of the Randolph at that particular time would have been crucial. Slingin' Sam (Lt. Cmdr. Samuel Humphreys) saved the day".

Working twenty four hours a day at sea off Ulithi, Randolph’s repairs, initiated after the fires from the 11 March kamikaze attack were extinguished, were completed by 1 April, the launch date of the Okinawa invasion. Randolph joined Task Force 58 on 7 April.

Post-War

Anti-submarine warfare

In the summer of 1962, Randolph again steamed to the Mediterranean. Returning to the western Atlantic as the Cuban Missile Crisis broke, she operated in the Caribbean from the end of October through November. On 27 October, Randolph and a group of eleven United States Navy destroyers entrapped a nuclear-armed Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba and started dropping practice depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. Allegedly, the captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, believing that a war might already have started, prepared to launch a retaliatory nuclear-tipped torpedo, but Second Captain Vasily Arkhipov persuaded the captain to surface to await orders from Moscow.

NASA – Mercury Project

In July 1961, Randolph sailed for operations in the Caribbean and served as the recovery ship after splashdown for astronaut Virgil Grissom on America's second manned space flight, a suborbital shot. In February 1962, Randolph was the primary recovery ship for astronaut John Glenn on his flight, the first American orbital voyage in space. After his historic three-orbit flight, he landed safely near the destroyer Noa from which he was transferred, by helicopter, to Randolph.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Randolph_(CV-15)