4th of July, Lake Kathleen WA, 2011

Shot these tonight near where I live; a loud cacophony of light and visceral sound, from the thump of the mortars to the crack of the shell bursts, to the applause and cheers wafting across the lake.

This couple enjoyed the early portion of the show and then left; most of the rest of these photos are shot from the shoreline where they shared the show for a bit.



This family's show was literally overhead; their shells beat into me with each blast, and I could not back far enough away to actually get all of their shots in frame.



The next couple are on the eastern shore of the lake, looking down to the south:











The west side kept pretty busy too:

1/350th USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 Model Pt 1

My "gateway drug" into researching was plastic model building, which I have been doing as long as I can remember. I started as an "airplane guy," and while I have a collection that consists of mostly airplane kits, a good portion is (unsurprisingly) ships. I've been working on a Hasegawa 1/350th Gambier bay for about nine months, mostly not working on it due to weather and burn out. However, we had an exceptional weekend and I decided it was time to take it beyond just the antifouling on the hull. So yesterday and today I painted the black boot stripe, and today I started on the 5-P Pale Gray of the Measure 32 design 15A she was painted in at the time of her loss in 1944. Here she is with the boot top and below taped off and the 5-P painted on. Paints used so far are White Ensign for the Norfolk Anti-Fouling and 5-P Pale Gray, and Model Master's basic flat black for the boot topping.



This is part of a review for InternetModeler.com and as I'm not a fan of leaving tape on for a long time (particularly with a few issues I had with Tamiya primer recently) I should be hitting this fairly heavily in the next week or so, so stay tuned!

What do you think in?

I spent a good amount of time on the water as a kid, boating in the Puget Sound and further north into Canada. While mostly land-locked now, I miss a lot of the experience, and one such minor tradition is that of the ship's bell.

Obviously, carrying a bell around to ring as an IT consultant is out of the question; customers like a little quirk here and there but that would be rude, to say the least, during a meeting. But what do we have technology for, if not to satisfy our whimsy? Enter Ted Rathkopf's "Ship's Clock" app. I've got it running on my android HTC EVO, quiet hours set to 10PM - 8AM to keep it at least tolerable to the wife.

I found myself thinking at one point today, "one bell, it's 4:30" and wondering what sailors of yore thought. At a certain point a multi-lingual person is asked what language they think in; time is the same way. To a sailor only concerned with his watch, the concept of 4:30 isn't really important, but one bell, meaning a half hour into their watch, is more so. Ships bells were a different language for telling time.

USAT Mount McKinley Aground on Unimak island, 1942

Found this in today's trip to Seattle NARA. It's a Patrol Wing Four (VP-4) photograph of the USAT Mount McKinley aground on an Alaskan shore in 1942. The caption on the back of the photo is dated October 7th, 1942, but I've had troubles confirming the date and location.

She's reported as grounded on March 11th 1942 according to this page on the US Merchant Marine web site, but the US Coast Guard History for the cutter Haida states, "On March 10th she arrived at King Cove and went to the assistance of the Mount McKinley ashore 1-1/2 miles west of Scotch Cap."

I've been able to confirm it was on Unimak island, about a mile and a half west of Scotch Cap Lighthouse (roughly here). But this photo's date would seem to suggest that she started coming apart fairly quickly (not the missing stern), so either the date on that photo or the Patrol Wing 4 photo is incorrect.

Rendering honors

On the first of this month a British soldier was shot by a sniper in Helmand Province and instantly killed. What is particularly poignant about this story is that he was a dog handler, and his dog died a few hours later of a seizure.

Lance Cpl. Liam Tasker and Theo had recently set a record for the most weapons found by a team in Afghanistan, and it is clear that Theo gave his all to Corporal Tasker. There is talk, so it's said, that Theo is being considered for a Dickin Medal. The original spot I heard on the radio today had talked to a former US Marine Dog handler who commented that there is no US equivalent to the Dickin Medal; that the US Military considers the animals it uses equipment, and one doesn't award medals to equipment.

However, An animal can perform acts just as selfless and full of valor as humans, something machines really can't at this point. Some clearly go above and beyond. It seems a shame to deny them honor with something as simple as a medal and acknowledgment.

Theo and Lance Corporal Tasker, I thank you for your service to your country and against those that seek to indiscriminately harm others. You were shining examples of the best kind.

I owe y'all a post....

Things have been busy and progressing... I try and keep myself productive on things that feel like I'm adding something as opposed to just sitting on a couch watching TV. Sometimes blogging feels more like the later, but I need to remember that there is more to getting the word out than just monthly update pages.

Aside from a page I missed when scanning the original report and a caption I cut off, the BB-57 South Dakota battle of Guadalcanal damage report is not finished and ready for consumption. A damage report for CL-62 Birmingham in 1943 has been started but not finished quite yet... tracking for late March or April.

A new section I started on is US Navy WWII Carrier Air Groups organized by ship. This arose out of some work I've done for a book on the Essex class as well as the Dragon CVL model project. Currently it's being used as a format test of sorts for the Essex book, so it's far from full-fledged, but CV-9 Essex has her data for the entire war posted and CVL-22 Independence has all of 1943 posted. There will be lots of tweaks to these two ships before I settle down and start posting other ships, but in the interim if you have any feedback you're more than welcome to drop me a line.

I managed to make it down to the NARA branch in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. Like many trips this one ended with not much of what I had hoped to find, but much that was new and important. While I hesitate to consider R@L a damage report site, I find them fascinating for telling how dedicated the US Navy was at not only saving their ships from calamity, but also to learn from each one. So it'll take some work for me to balance out all of the new damage reports I spent about 4 to 4.5 of my five days there scanning in.

Navsource has already started receiving some of the photos I came across, so enjoyment for all!

Mare Island Battery Cart for Submarines, WWII

Came across these today at Seattle NARA and figured I'd pop them up here for the model builders who like dockside dioramas or those just generally interested in Mare Island Navy Yard. Below are photos of a portable charging station for submarines in WWII. The dimensions of the shed were given as a 8' by 24' trailer with the walls being 8' tall at the eaves and 9' at the peak.

Note that the windows on the two back walls are centered while the one closest to the door in the photo is not centered.