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BillyGoatHill

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by BillyGoatHill

  1. Nice hard hit ball, but just not carrying to right that well.
  2. Ha! even the pitcher talking about our guys hitting his fastball..
  3. Sitting on those first fast balls now.... Let's Go!!
  4. Swinging at 3-0 when control is an issue.....yep., we'll take it.
  5. Somebody finally said something to Kennedy about his stance...
  6. To them, IT IS rocket surgery. If you go to the Gambool thread, you'll find me as a frequent enough poster on the poker board. Not too many places open after midnight and if hungry, it's pretty much the local Whataburger for food at 2 or 3am after leaving the card rooms. Drive thru only and you wouldn't believe how many times they have left out or I've had to ask for napkins...! NO fucking napkins in a To Go order?? I drive off and remind myself there is a reason they are working at Whataburger at 2AM on a Tuesday night...
  7. Typical funky left hander with bit of old school wind-up. Big drop from his fastball to breaking ball. He's hittable, (though aggy didnt really touch him on Monday night) but we need a win tonight.
  8. Thanks for the heads up. If written by Alex, that has to be good. The other two on that cover, The Longest Winter and The Bedford Boys are must reads also.
  9. It's definitely top shelf 😃 Both in taste and cost.
  10. Yep. Ever since Bobo left.
  11. This group of paratroopers was a special demolition section assigned to to the 101st. Inspired by part Choctaw Indian Sgt. Jake McNiece, they cut their hair into Mohawks prior to the jump with the accompanying warpaint. 13 of them made up the section and they did not really care for, or adhere to the most rigid military standards as mentioned by the haircuts and warpaint. This 'filthy thirteen" would be the basis for the book and movie "The Dirty Dozen" . Unfortunately , due to the dangers involved with their mission besides being paratroopers, half of them would be killed, wounded, or captured during the Normandy Campaign. After Market-Garden (Bridge Too Far) and hoping to avoid the possibility of making another combat jump ( half of the unit were casualties here also), McNiece along with most of the survivors, joined the Pathfinder Units. Instead of this keeping them out of combat, resupply was paramount for the encircled troops of Bastogne and McNiece and those that remained with him were tasked with jumping into Bastogne and directing the follow up resupply drops for the 101st. The success of the resupply drops and this Pathfinder unit using their Eureka beacons would be used for the 17th Airborne's jump in Wesel, Germany (Operation Varsity). McNiece was an observer on this operation and completed his 4th Combat Jump of the war. A rarity for any paratrooper during WWII and even today. CSB(?)/ My Airborne unit that I served in (USAF) traces it's lineage directly back to the Pathfinder units of Normandy, and more particularly with Jake McNiece and his Pathfinders of Bastogne and Operation Varsity. Link below has much more on Jake and his fellow bad asses... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filthy_Thirteen
  12. Japan invaded the Aleutians during the same time that the Battle of Midway was starting. Most likely done to get a foothold in the Northern Pacific , plus actual US soil, but really to divert US forces from Japan's main goal of capturing and fortifying MIdway into a stronghold in the Pacific to be a nuisance and threat to Pearl Harbor. It also kept us from launching an attack against Japan from the Aleutians themselves. Terrible living and fighting conditions for both sides with the "island hopping" tactics and lessons learned for later battles of the Pacific. Probably the best thing to come out of that campaign is the capturing of a very intact Japanese Zero that had been crash landed onto one of the islands. The lane was transported back to the mainland where it was gone through, studied , and flown by American pilots. What was learned from it would be later put to great use in defeating it and its pilots in the skies over the Pacific in the remaining battles of the war.
  13. I've seen the clips and pictures many times but not this particular video. Very cool. Thanks for sharing 🤘
  14. Yep. A German bomber went off course during a night raid in August 1940 accidentally dropping its bombs on London. Though targets at that time between England and Germany had been only military (Germany did bomb civilians and cities in Poland) , Churchill thought it done on purpose and retaliated the following night with a raid on Berlin. Damage to both cities was slight but now the gloves were off and cities (especially in England) were the main focus of bombing raids. Later on during the blitz, Germany and Goerring's Luftwaffe had the British RAF on the ropes as their airfields, radar installations , and most importantly the aircrews were being saturated with losses. But Hitler changed their tactics for 6 weeks to bomb the British population (cities) into submission. This 6 weeks gave the Royal Air Force time to regroup and win the Battle of Britain. Operation Sea Lion ( the invasion of Britain) was put on permanent hold due to a lack of control of the skies over England.
  15. This was then and still is today, one of the main points in Ranger school or really any other infantry or small unit tactics. EVERYONE learns to be in charge and complete the objective. During Ranger school, Cadre will come up to the lowest private in a squad during an evolution/patrol and tell them, "Your squad leader has just been killed/wounded, you are now in charge, complete the objective". Excellent book. Recommended to ALL to know the sacrifice of not only that day, but ALL of WWII. Unofficially recognized in the Airborne community as LGOPS (little groups of paratroopers). The misplacement of the drops and the scattering of the Airborne (plus the dummies/Ruperts with explosives) made the Germans think they were either dealing with a much larger assault force or a feint depending on what they ran up against. The British actually switched to night raids because their appalling losses conducting daylight raids prior to us getting into the European theater. They tried to convince our leadership to do the same and attack at night, but you are correct, we insisted on the accuracy of the Norden bomb (which really was proven later to not be that accurate) and to do the same during daylight. Our crew losses during 1943 and early 1944 were so high that we almost relented and switched to nighttime bombing only. Only US airplane production, losses to Germany's fuel oil (losses in Russia) and the development of long range fighter escorts, P47s and P51s, with the 51 not being suitable until the British experimented with it and put their Rolls Royce engine, the same as the Spitfire's, led to great success.
  16. So I guess we can all cancel those rooms at the College Station Travel Lodge…[emoji2371][emoji23]
  17. Arky has competition….🫣[emoji23][emoji23] I got it ? [emoji2371]
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