It’s Monday, December 15th, 2014…but before we begin, courtesy of Balls Cotton, an intriguing bit of history which clearly demonstrates with the powers-that-be, even when it comes to crowning heroes, it’s not about the truth, but the narrative:
Memphis Belle vs. Hot Stuff: How history came to celebrate the wrong WWII airplane
If you’ve seen the 1990 film “Memphis Belle,” you know the story of the B-17 and her trusty crew, the first heavy bomber of World War II to complete 25 missions and return home. It’s a stirring tale and the movie included an all-star cast. Only problem is, it isn’t true.
Memphis Belle was not the first to complete the required number of missions. In fact, she may have been the third. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Professor William Waldock, an accident investigator and “aviation archaeologist,” has studied the history and explained why that myth has persisted Wednesday night at ERAU’s Davis Learning Center as part of the school’s Aviation History series.
Once an aircrew wrapped up 25 missions, the War Department, predecessor to the Department of Defense, would bring the bomber home and have the plane and crew do a nationwide promotional tour to sell war bonds to fund the war effort, Waldock said. But Memphis Belle was beaten to the punch by another B-17, six days earlier. It was named “Hell’s Angels,” Waldock said, and “there was a little bit of concern about promoting ‘Hell’s Angels’ and trying to promote war bonds with it.”
That airplane is listed in some publications as the first to complete 25 missions. “But that’s not right, either,” Waldock said. The very first was a B-24 named “Hot Stuff,” he said.
“Hot Stuff flew her 25th mission on the 7th of February, 1943. It’s well-documented. That was three-and-a-half months before Memphis Belle,” he said. “So how come we haven’t heard of her? Why isn’t she in the movies? Why isn’t the crew the famous folks?” The answer, Waldock said, is because the B-24 crashed and was destroyed, and this is where the story takes a strange turn.
Hot Stuff was set to return to the U.S. on May 3, 1943. But first, the plane was set for an “inspection tour” of Iceland with a VIP aboard: Lt. Gen. Frank Andrews, the commander of all U.S. forces in the European Theatre. Andrews, an experienced, instrument-rated pilot, bumped the normal co-pilot off the plane and flew in his place. Also aboard were Andrews’ staff and four clergymen, who bumped five other crewmen.
“There are plenty of anecdotal sources that say the real purpose of General Andrews’ travel was that he was going back to Washington, D.C., to be blessed by Congress and the president, awarded his fourth star, and formally named Supreme Allied Commander in Europe,” Waldock said. But he didn’t make it. The plane skipped a scheduled stop at which the crew would have learned the weather at their destination in Iceland was miserable, with zero visibility. And the aircraft’s radio was apparently not working.
Because the B-24’s commander was a captain and the co-pilot was a three-star general, it’s likely that Andrews was making the decisions, Waldock said. The plane made it to their destination airfield, but couldn’t land, and headed for another airfield. It, too, was socked in, so Andrews decided to turn back to the original field. The plane climbed to 900 feet, and, slightly off course, Hot Stuff crashed into a 1,100-foot mountain. Fourteen of the 15 people aboard were killed.
U.S. officials, hoping to divert attention from the crash and death of a high-ranking military official, decided to promote Memphis Belle as the first airplane to complete 25 missions and sent the crew on the promotional tour, Waldock said. After Andrews’ death, Dwight D. Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander, and went on to become president. In 1948, the base for the president’s airplane was named after Andrews.
And the rest, as they say, is history; or at least, history as the powers-that-be wanted it recorded!
Oh, speaking of the powers-that-be’s political narrative outweighing the immutable value of all-important truth, why is it when a Black thug…
…kills an unarmed Black man, in cold blood…
…these three race-baiting shysters…
…are nowhere to be found?!? Okay, the question was rhetorical.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
First up, the great Victor Davis Hanson details who really drives the engine of American productivity:
“…In such a depressing American landscape, why is the United States doing pretty well? Put simply, millions of quiet, determined Americans get up every morning and tune out the incompetence and corruption of their government. They simply ignore destructive fads of popular culture. They have no time for the demagoguery of their politicians and the divisive rhetoric of social activists. Instead, these quiet Americans simply go to work, pursue their own talents, excel at what they do, and seek to take care of their families.
…America is not saved by our elected officials, bureaucrats, celebrities and partisan activists. Instead, just a few million hardworking Americans in key areas — a natural meritocracy of all races, classes and backgrounds — ignore the daily hype and chaos, remain innovative and productive, and dazzle the world.
The silent few of a forgotten America have given the entire country an astonishing standard of living that is quite inexplicable.”
Truth be known, it’s been that way…
…from the very birth of the Republic!
So why oh why is the party supposed to be championing those footing The Obamao’s bills continuing to fund Liberalism’s myriad failures?!? Keith Koffler offers one theory:
“…Now, when did Obama start worrying about government shutdowns and the economy? I’ll tell you what he’s worried about. He’s worried about his Hawaii Christmas vacation.
Budget fights have mucked up a couple of his trips, forcing him to leave late and even one year return midway through and probably miss some golf. (Don’t worry, he went all the way back to Hawaii to finish the vacation, at taxpayer’s expense.) But during the seventh year of his presidency, when he’s already imagining himself spending his afternoons watching soap operas, this is just not gonna happen.
You think I’m kidding? Let me tell you the other half of this equation: Boehner likes his golf too. Members of Congress hate to be in Washington during Christmas. They need five weeks offaround holiday time, just like average Americans.
Koffler concludes with the crux of the matter:
“…And Republicans will miss a chance to have a showdown with Obama over his amnesty fiat at the moment he is weakest – tired, sick of it, and hoping to get away to palm trees and paradise on earth.
Oh, and instead of waiting until January to pass this monstrosity, when Republicans will be in charge of both the House and the Senate, America gets a full year of funding prescribed in part by the Senate’s vanquished Democrats.“
And with only one more year to recover from the MSM’s inevitably negative coverage before the 2016 election!
C’mon, John; the Dims are so desperate Kathleen Sebelius has been reduced to suggesting they can rescue ObamaScare through rebranding! Meanwhile, what do most Americans remember about the last government shutdown?
Seriously, the $1.1 trillion, 1,700+ page Cromnibus gives the most lawless leader in American history complete funding for all but one of the federal government’s twelve bloated bureaucracies for the remainder of the fiscal year – without any congressional restrictions on (i) Moochie’s increasingly unpopular school lunch program; (ii) ObamaScare; and (iii) the EPA’s overreaching environmental regulations. Even worse, Cromnibus not only doesn’t limit The Obamao’s unconstitutional amnesty for illegals, it provides him an additional $2.5 billion in funds to facilitate it!
Perhaps most egregiously, Speaker Boner put this bitch-slap to the face of the American voter on the floor of the House with only 48 hours for members to read all 1,700+ pages. If it feels like you’ve seen this movie before…
…you have!
As James Taranto reports, this Washington-manufactured melodrama even has the Republican equivalent of Bart Stupidak:
“Rep. Marlin Stutzman is claiming he was duped by his own GOP leaders. The Indiana Republican said he voted Thursday on a rule advancing the $1.1 trillion government funding bill after leadership told him they planned to yank the massive measure and replace it with a more palatable short-term funding bill.
Stutzman’s vote proved crucial to the 1,600-page bill’s final passage late Thursday night, given that the procedural rule vote passed 214-212, just a one-vote margin. If Stutzman and outgoing Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.) had not switched their vote on the rule to “yes,” the entire package, known as the “cromnibus,” would have been defeated.“
Color us more than a little…
…as Stutzman’s babe-in-the-woods naivete is an eerie reprise of Stupak’s willful ignorance regarding The Dear Misleader’s false promise to redact the abortion requirements of The Unaffordable Care Act. Or perhaps more accurately, Senator Olympia Snowe voting for cloture on what became ObamaScare, then voting against the actual act, which amounted to closing the door well after the horse was out of the barn.
Here’s the juice: Stutzman is either an idiot or covering his own ass. On the other hand, Boehner has no balls, no sense and no business serving as Speaker of the House…at least as a Republican.
We’re no fan of Sean Hannity, but he’s dead-on balls accurate with this assessment of a the limp-dick Boner:
And while the Republican leadership is busy squandering the fruits of the 2014 landslide election in the House, over in the Senate, PJMedia‘s Roger Simon details…
“…And, while we’re pointing out the obvious hypocrisy, nothing could be more obviously hypocritical than the Obama administration that putatively abhors torture employing drones that simply murder enemy combatants and often a host of innocent people who happen to be nearby into the bargain. Wouldn’t you rather be waterboarded? Nobody dies being waterboarded. In fact, it’s designed so you won’t.
But still I put this all down to the usual liberal roundelay with Dianne Feinstein competing against many of her ilk for “Moral Narcissist in Chief,” until I heard an outraged Dennis Miller on the radio Wednesday. He was treating this report as if it was the end of our country as we know it — and he had a point. His reason: who would join the CIA now knowing your own government doesn’t have your back? And we need the CIA more than ever in the covert struggle against the likes of ISIS, Iran, al Qaeda, North Korea, China and Russia. Indeed we do and indeed just who would want to join our intelligence agencies, knowing they could be so easily sabotaged by people they thought were supporting, not to mention employing, them?
Feinstein herself seemed a little worried about what she had wrought, fighting a defensive battle with Brennan on Twitter even as the DCIA was speaking. One of her several tweets was unconsciously telling. She wrote: “CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, DOD, NGA, State Dept, DHS and many other agencies help keep us safe. Torture does not. #ReadtheReport.”
Note that the CIA, those purveyors of supposed torture, are in first place in her tweet. No, Dianne, you can’t have it both ways. If you want the mantle of “Moral Narcissist in Chief,” you must urge the dismantling of the CIA. You’re doing a good job discouraging recruits. Just go whole hog.
ADDENDUM, LET’S REVIEW: Looking around the world today, Libya (under control somewhat while Khadafy was alive) is an unholy mess; with no real end in site to negotiations, Iran is continuing to develop nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles while expanding its influence into Yemen and maintaining strength in Syria and Lebanon and cementing its alliances with North Korea and Venezuela (among others); putative NATO member Turkey is becoming more Islamist by the day under the rule of Obama’s pal Erdogan; ISIS continues to control large portions Syria and Iraq and may secretly be in cahoots with Turkey; Russia has moved into Ukraine and has everyone from Moldova to Finland nervous; China controls more of the Pacific every day, our Japanese and South Korean friends worried if they can trust us anymore; Europe is a weak sister with an increasing Islamic population they don’t police and that runs rampant in their own ever-growing neighborhoods, the influence of Sharia law expanding over that continent and hardly anyone doing anything about it; and America, under Obama, has turned into the “pitiful, helpless giant” that it was accused of being during Vietnam, but really wasn’t (until now)…. And with all that, my senior senator Dianne Feinstein is worried the CIA has become a little brutal??? What an unbelievable, self-righteous idiot!
“Idiot”? Most definitely. “Unbelievable”? Only if one assumes, like some still do about The Dear Misleader, that her ultimate aims are in the best interest of the United States and the Constitution she’s sworn to protect and defend. Which is an assumption we simply won’t make about any Dimocrat, particularly the present party leadership.
As to the general public’s reaction to Feinstein’s rehash of facts some four or five years old, it’s generally in line with how Balls Cotton and we feel:
Moving to the Follow-Up segment, several very interesting facts on the Garner case from Bryan Fischer writing at the AFA‘s The Stand:
“Eric Garner, a 43 year-old father of six, is dead. This is a tragedy, regardless of the circumstances. We rightly mourn with his wife and children. They will never see their husband and father again, and that should break everyone’s heart.
When we witness a gut-rending tragedy like this, we want to know who is responsible. Who is to blame for depriving this family of its husband and father? As the facts emerge, it becomes increasingly clear that, as tragic as this situation is, in the end the culpability for Eric Garner’s death rests with Eric Garner.
To put it as simply as possible, if Mr. Garner had not broken the law and then resisted arrest, he would be alive today.
While protesters are trying to make this about race, it must be noted that the police showed up in response to complaints from black business owners. The arrest was ordered by a black officer, and the arrest itself was supervised by a black officer, a female sergeant. A crackdown on the sale of illegal, untaxed cigarettes – called “loosies” since they are sold in singles rather than in packs – had been ordered just days before Garner’s arrest by the highest ranking black police officer in the NYPD, Philip Banks.
So a black officer ordered the crackdown, black business owners called for the arrest, a black officer ordered the arrest, and a black officer supervised the arrest itself. It’s also worth noting that the 23-member grand jury which refused to indict the arresting officer included nine non-white members. Ask yourself how many of those facts you have heard from any member of the race-obsessed, low-information media…”
Let alone our race-obsessed President and Attorney General?!?
Turning now from the NYPD to the NYFD, yet another example of political correctness run utterly and uncontrollably amok:
And THEN get a job with the NYFD!
“…Out of FNDY’s 10,500 firefighters, just 44 are women. Only 57 percent of females pass the physical test, compared to 95 percent of males. The physical test involves, among other things, moving a tire six to eight feet and climbing up a ladder wearing an oxygen tank with a small amount of oxygen…”
Welcome to the Age of “Your Life Isn’t as Important as the Orthodoxy of Political Correctness”. After all, it’s not like firefighters ever have to hoof it up multiple flights of stairs sporting their full turn-out gear!
Ooh…never mind! Trust us; you heard it here first: the standards for our combat forces in general, and the Special Ops community in particular, aren’t far behind.
Then there’s this interesting aspect of the UVA rape charade from Townhall.com‘s Cortney O’Brien:
When the facts don’t fit our preconceived narrative, we just make sh*t up!
“Shattered Glass, a film starring Hayden Christensen, recounts the journalism career of Stephen Glass. Adored by colleagues for his creativity and ambition, the New Republic writer seemed to have a promising future. Unfortunately, much of that originality he brought to each editorial meeting, was a lie. He had fabricated dozens of articles. As a result, he was promptly fired and thereafter scorned by the Fourth Estate.
Then, we have Sabrina Rubin Erdely of Rolling Stone…What do these two cases of botched journalism have in common? Well, it seems birds of a fabricated feather flock together. You see, Erdely worked under Glass when she contributed to the UPenn newspaper. In a case of sheer irony, Glass once disciplined Erdely out for submitting a story she had made up, according to The Federalist…”
On the Lighter Side…
Finally, a gift which would cause anyone with any sense of humor seated next to an infant on an airplane to grin and bear it:
Magoo
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