39 Replies to “Last Deployment”

  1. Would love to see a load of Warthogs deploying from these against those Iranian speed boats.

    1. Warthog damn near useless against high speed boats. Will make a lot of noise but will mostly miss. Homing version of Puff the Magic Dragon mounted on the gunwales. That’ll do it.

      1. Warthogs are far from slow and can maneuver like a cat hunting a bird.

        (Puff the Magic) was an old prop driven cargo plane.

  2. I’m sure it looked impressive in its prime.

    You’d never know that the only enemy Uncle Sugar was ever more than a match for was his own people (ask any Southerner).

    Russian boys did all the hard work of defeating Hitler. The Americans showed up only when Germany was already bleeding to death.

    And, of course, the US national anthem recalls the day when Washington was burned to the ground by none other than the CANADIANS, for pity’s sake.

    1. “Russian boys did all the hard work of defeating Hitler. The Americans showed up only when Germany was already bleeding to death.”

      Those same Russian boys who made the deal with Adolf to each take half of Poland? The same Russian boys who sat back and let the US grind down Japan – and then rushed to the aid of the victor after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

      1. Yes, exactly those SOVIETS, that also enslaved half of Europe for 50 years. And genocided millons. Those SOVIETS.

        1. I don’t accept the distinction between Soviets and russians. Soviets did not speak Soviet, they weren’t aliens teleported from another dimension. Soviet Union was russian empire under new management. Same whore different makeup.

          2. No, not really. It is being used to falsely differentiate between Soviet Union (as some collection of equal partners all victim of a foreign player) with russia (just on their own, blameless, starting from scratch). None confuses Nazi Germany with not Germany or a part of Germany. I am not saying you did any of it, but it is a common false russophile narrative.

      2. “… take half of Poland …”

        … and all of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and chunks of Finland and Romania while their best friend Hitler was conquering Western Europe? All while they were feeding him and supplying with raw materials to sustain his ambitions?

      3. Stalin’s Soviet Russia? Late 30s – early 40s Germany?

        Left on Left violence?

        Never Interrupt your Enemy while they are Making a Mistake?

        Life is never simple white hat/black hats. There are no real heroes and villains, more ‘Your Side’ and ‘Everyone Else’.

      4. You don’t want to say that to the guys, the few that still are alive that landed on the beaches and were gunned down, Americans, Brits and Canadians. I have listened and read more than enough foolishness about who did or did not win “the war”. With out the US input Russia was going nowhere, the French, Brits and others were going no where. It is stupid in the extreme to say the US was not a lynchpin in the winning of the war.

    4. “Russian boys did all the hard work of defeating Hitler. The Americans showed up only when Germany was already bleeding to death.”

      Operation Citadel: started on 5 July 1943 it could have succeeded but then something happened that made Hitler halt the reserves German field commanders were demanding. What was that? Operation Husky.

      And it wasn’t just russian boys who did the hard work, the casualties on eastern front were disproportionally higher for units comprised of primarily ethnic minorities… an old Tsarist tactic.

    5. Actually it was the British bombardment of Baltimore (from ships not Canadians), shortly after the burning of Washington by Canadian and British forces.
      The Americans did all the heavy lifting in the Pacific theatre of WW2.They also provided ships, military materiel, food and support to the Allies against the war against Germany and its allies; before they got involved after December 1941.
      My father did convoy duty during that war. He had immense respect for the Americans. Perhaps you should too. Anyway have a good night.

      Crack open a book mate.

    6. “Russian boys did all the hard work of defeating Hitler. The Americans showed up only when Germany was already bleeding to death.

      In 1939, the Wehrmacht and Stavka divvied up Poland, and Stavka laid military claim to portions of Finland.
      In 1940, Britain alone kept the Wehrmacht at bay, while Russia acts as Germany’s quartermaster.
      Sargeant FallRain and Colonel Winter were allies the Nyet nyets relied upon until the Wehrmacht juggernaut ran out of everything needed to keep advancing on Moscow in 1941.
      In 1942, Wehrmacht overreach exacerbated supply problems in southern Russia, ultimately leading to disaster at Volgagrad.
      In 1943, Wehrmacht confidence was shattered by their failed summer efforts to take and hold a small town on the steppes.
      In 1944, Wehrmacht material supply was at it’s peak, but allied bombing kept train schedules kaput in Germany, and Romanian oil underground..
      In 1945, the Seelow Heights kept Stavka at bay until Hungary collapsed, and western powers were slowed to a crawl by Wehrmacht POW’s .
      Also in 1945, the world’s most famous German nutter retired permanently from public life
      The thousand year Reich was a fever dream only ever exceeded, in the 21st century, by Al Gore’s Inconvenient bullshit.

      1. I cannot wait for the Boomers to finally die off and take their crippling fixation on viewing all geopolitical struggles through the blinkered lens of Anglo-American WWII propaganda with them.

        1. What will that leave behind? The blinkered lens of leftist propaganda that the United States is the only evil that existed in the world? Good luck with that.

  4. Knew a guy who served aboard the Kittyhawk, he said when they left the aircraft behind in San Diego to go do sea trials that’s when he was really amazed that such a big boat could go that fast and then crank over in sharp turns.

  5. ” … propellers have been removed and are sitting at the rear end of the flight deck.. ”

    Jeez. Could be in the same battlegroup as Canada’s submarines.

    1. Remember when Harper had made a deal with France on the two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships that where going to Russia?
      Just like his old man screwing the forces Blackie got rid of those too.
      Now they sit in Egypt…

  6. My dad and brother and I rented a sailboat and spent an afternoon sailing around the bay in San Diego many years ago. The US Constitution was preparing to sail on it’s last voyage around to the east coast to be scrapped. You have no idea how big these ships are until you look up from sea level. Easily 10 stories high. It’s no wonder they have a complement of 4500 men.
    We couldn’t get very close. Two helicopters hovering constantly to keep small fry like us away from the prize. Very neat experience.

  8. Actually it was the British bombardment of Baltimore (from ships not Canadians), shortly after the burning of Washington by Canadian and British forces.
    The Americans did all the heavy lifting in the Pacific theatre of WW2.They also provided ships, military materiel, food and support to the Allies against the war against Germany and its allies; before they got involved after December 1941.
    My father did convoy duty during that war. He had immense respect for the Americans. Perhaps you should too. Anyway have a good night.

    Crack open a book mate.

  9. Actually it was the British bombardment of Baltimore (from ships not Canadians), shortly after the burning of Washington by Canadian and British forces.
    The Americans did all the heavy lifting in the Pacific theatre of WW2.They also provided ships, military materiel, food and support to the Allies for the war against Germany and its allies; before they got involved after December 1941.
    My father did convoy duty during that war. He had immense respect for the Americans. Perhaps you should too. Anyway have a good night.

    Crack open a book mate.

    1. I spent the first 56 years of my life in Baltimore, and they take the SSB almost as seriously as crabs, National Boh, and Wild Bill Hagy. I have a scar on the back of my head from that time I fell off of a cannon at Ft McHenry., and Hagy once advised me to “shake it easy.” Both true stories.

  10. I was on a ship performing Plane Guard duties about a mile or so aft and to starboard of the Kitty Hawk one night in March of 1984 when the Kitty Hawk became an anti-submarine warfare vessel. Interesting night for us and especially all the crew on the Victor Class K-314 submarine that was moseying along at 90 degrees to the line of travel of the Kitty Hawk – a good hard thump as 80k tons of aircraft carrier whacked it, rolled it, and spun it around to float away down the port side of the carrier (which was moving at a pretty high rate of speed). The tip of that submarine’s propeller, pried out of the side of the Kitty Hawk, was mounted in a plaque onboard the carrier for several years as a memento of the encounter. Sometimes I miss the Cold War…

      1. That’s the one. I was a crew member onboard USS Long Beach watching the show while we were plane guarding air ops. We hung around watching the Russians (Soviets at the time) break out spotlights and welding gear and start hammering and burning on the stern of that boat, all the while refusing any assistance. We moved on after about a half-hour or so. When we pulled into Subic Bay shortly after there were T-shirts already silk screened with pictures and memes about the Kitty Hawk hitting the Russian boat.

  11. There was no other nation on earth that could produce a B17 every half hour around the clock for years. That alongside so many tens of thousands of other types of aircraft, ships, vehicles, and about 70 aircraft carriers. Another interesting bit was 2000 steam locomotives produced to send to England to wait for after the invasion to operate on German railways. Those locomotives were shipped three at a time on some of the 2700 liberty ships the US built to fill the urgent demand for transport. No other nation on earth could have achieved what America did.

    1. Yes, it’s a good thing WWII just so happened to come along exactly when it did and supercharge the moribund American economy. Nothing to see here, as usual…

      1. Anti Americanism seems to be your default position, Default.

        Yes, it’s a good thing that a moribund America has been around since the 20th century each time the Europeans talked themselves into conflict in WWI, WWII, the Cold War. Hopefully they won’t be needed in Ukraine. Yes, the United States has its faults but European history is overflowing with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and it’s 19th century contribution, socialism and its fast track bastard child, communism.

        Perhaps if you studied history from a balanced perspective instead of political pseudoscience and illiberal arts you might be a bit more gracious about American contributions.

      2. Are you really this dumb?
        The (moribund) econ was caused by the the FDR and his dem-o-rats.

  12. The sad part of naval is that the units are so big you can’t really keep them for nostalgia once you have finished with them.

    Part of me looks at this ship and thinks this is an important historical artefact. It needs to be maintained so future generation can study the how/why/where of its construction and operation.

    The other part of me thinks pragmatically and asks where you are going to keep it and who is going to maintain it for the next 100 years.

    Sigh.

    Never worked professionally on Naval Platforms. I guess I should be happy people agree that tanks and aircraft are creatures to be preserved. Sure some are preserved with more dignity than others. There is a retired Leopard 1 bravely guarding a toilet block relatively near to my physical being. Not exactly inside in a controlled environment and maintained in a running condition, but at least wasn’t cut up for strap. I guess.

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