[Vwdiesel] Smoking Gun again --- ( finding the smoking gun )

[H . Hagar.]

Hagar sez :    Finding the  SMOKING   GUN   is no slam dunk no apple pie  at times it is a
PITA .

11 - 11 - 11 - 1918   ?    now  11 - 11 - 11 - 2005  ----are we a lot smarter NOW
  ---than then ?   -------IMHO   diddle squat.
Hagar von OZ   (ham talk) the warier    NATO     Navy --Army-Airforce    ----Would I Hagar
like to be toe to toe nose to nose  eyeball to eyeball with    George W Bush   today
 11  - 11 ..  11--2005  ?    bet your butts.   Would George like it ? --tell me .  First
thing I would ask ?  ---George did you apply to go to NAM ?----Could you have gone
  --with all the pull you got ? --the answers would be interesting IMHO.
No I Hagar did NOT go to NAM  ---I moved my delicate body to the GREAT white
rth.   ---And for good reasons.   . The NAM wall ?   is a Wall of Shame IMHO.   ----first
class young Amerikan boys wasted for CRAP---stupidity.  ---Insanity of Mankind.
Can I Hagar stare down a guy like BUSH ?   ---  look me up   Class of
-H ---USAF   --then let me know.

Some guys here  doubt that I was fighting the Germans 1940 --to --1945 --Like  --Randy
Tyler  --I was not OLD enough ? ---Bet your butt I was --and a  Cell Leader.
So your Rabbit smokes ?  ---Let me tell you NO Rabbit smoked more than Bunny Bondo  --when
I got her ---  05  Mar 2003    ---with 251827.7  km on clock    ( 500.00 $  Kanadian no
tax)   today  ?   NO VW Rabbit 1984 Turbo  smokes less than   Bunny Bondo ---with about
260 000 km on clock.   ----NO SMOKE  --nothing , regardless  of driving style .--- and
superb performance---???   you bet your butts.
She is regulated by the GOVERNOR   so to get lots  of POWER  ? ---you need oodles of
RPM. -------?    yes that is it --- THE VW DIESEL   is a HIGH SPEED diesel.

I just listened to Bush ---11 -11 -11 - 2005 ---   Hitler ? and Bush ?  no likeness an the
way they talk,?  -------ask me. --Yes here in Hagars Lair ?   many  Sattelite
programs ---are coming in loud and clear.
I Hagar have a saying " STUPID " ? right   ?    Hitler yes .  Stalin yes ---the Pope
yes --Bush --yes ---King of England ? --yes..   Peter Pace  US   Marines  ?   IDIOT class
a one.   ---Bush likes him ? take a look.

Pace admits to a bad decision  in NAM ----his judgement is NO GOOD:  Hitler  sorroundedd
himself with cronies ---and so today is BUSH.
Bush was what we  USAF guys called a  Week End Wonder ---National Guard ---but not full
time USAF,
I am wrong ?   ---tell me . I am all ears. -----
THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI:
The Real Story by CAPT Paul N. Gray, USN, Ret,
USNA '41, former CO of VF-54.

Recently, some friends saw the movie "The Bridges at Toko-ri" on late
night TV. After seeing it, they said, "You planned and led the raid. Why
don't you tell us what really happened?" Here goes.

I hope Mr. James Michener will forgive the actual version of the raid.
His fictionalized account certainly makes more exciting reading.

On 12 December 1951 when the raid took place, Air Group 5 was attached
to Essex, the flag ship for Task Force 77. We were flying daily strikes
against the North Koreans and Chinese. God! It was cold. The main job
was to interdict the flow of supplies coming south from Russia and
China. The rules of engagement imposed by political forces in Washington
wuld not allow us to bomb the bridges across the Yalu River where the
supplies could easily have been stopped. We
had to wait until they were dispersed and hidden in North Korea and then
try to stop them.

The Air Group consisted of two jet fighter squadrons flying Banshees and
Grumman Panthers plus two prop attack squadrons flying Corsairs and
Skyraiders. To provide a base for the squadrons, Essex was stationed 100
miles off the East Coast of Korea during that bitter Winter of 1951 and
1952.

I was CO of VF-54, the Skyraider squadron. VF-54 started with 24 pilots.
Seven were killed during the cruise. The reason 30 percent of our pilots
were shot down and lost was due to our mission. The targets were usually
heavily defended railroad bridges. In addition, we were frequently
called in to make low-level runs with rockets and napalm to provide
close support for the troops.

Due to the nature of the targets assigned, the attack squadrons seldom not come back
without some damage from AA or ground fire.

The single-engine plane we flew could carry the same bomb load that a
B-17 carried in WWII; and after flying the 100 miles from the carrier,
we could stay on station for 4 hours and strafe, drop napalm, fire
rockets or drop bombs. The Skyraider was the right plane for this war.

On a gray December morning, I was called to the flag bridge. Admiral
"Black Jack" Perry, the Carrier Division Commander, told me they had a
classified request from UN headquarters to bomb some critical bridges in
the central area of the North Korean peninsula. The bridges were a
dispersion point for many of the supplies coming down from the North and
were vital to the flow of most of the essential supplies. The Admiral
asked me to take a look at the targets and see what we could do about
taking them out. As I left, the staff intelligence officer haned me the
pre-strike photos, the coordinates of the target and said to get on with
it. He didn't mention that the bridges were defended by 56
radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns.

That same evening, the Admiral invited the four squadron commanders to
his cabin for dinner. James Michener was there. After dinner, the
Admiral asked each squadron commander to describe his experiences in
flying over North Korea. By this time, all of us were hardened veterans
of the war and had some hairy stories to tell about life in the fast
lane over North Korea.

When it came my time, I described how we bombed the railways and strafed
anything else that moved. I described how we had planned for the next
day's strike against some vital railway bridges near a village named
Toko-ri (The actual village was named Majonne). That the preparations
had been done with extra care because the pre-strike pictures showed the
bridges were surrounded by 56 anti-aircraft guns andwe knew this strike
was not going to be a walk in the park.

All of the pilots scheduled for the raid participated in the planning. A
close study of the aerial photos confirmed the 56 guns. Eleven radar
sites controlled the guns. They were mainly 37 MM with some five inch
heavies. All were positioned to concentrate on the path we would have to
fly to hit the bridges. This was a World War II air defense system but
still very dangerous.
How were we going to silence those batteries long enough to destroy the
bridges? The bridges supported railway tracks about three feet wide. To
achieve the needed accuracy, we would have to use glide bombing runs. A
glide bombing run is longer and slower than a dive bombing run, and we
would be sitting ducks for the AA batteries. We had to get the guns
before we bombed the bridges.

There were four strategies discussed to take out the radar sites. One
was to fly in on the deck and strafe the guns and radars. This ws
discarded because the area was too mountainous. The second was to fly in
on the deck and fire rockets into the gun sites. Discarded because the
rockets didn't have enough killing power. The third was to come in at a
high altitude and drop conventional bombs on the targets. This is what
we would normally do, but it was discarded in favor of an insidious
modification. The one we thought would work the best was to come in high
and drop bombs fused to explode over the gun and radar sites. To do
this, we decided to take 12 planes; 8 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs. Each
plane would carry a 2000 pound bomb with a proximity fuse set to
detonate about 50 to 100 feet in the air. We hoped the shrapnel from
these huge, ugly bombs going off in mid air would be devastating to the
exposed gunners and radar operators.

The flight plan was to fly in at 15,000 feet until over the target area
and make a vertical dive bombing run dropping the proximity-fused bombs
on te guns and radars. Each pilot had a specific complex to hit. As we
approached the target we started to pick up some flak, but it was high
and behind us. At the initial point, we separated and rolled into the
dive. Now the flak really became heavy. I rolled in first; and after I
released my bomb, I pulled out south of the target area and waited for
the rest to join up. One of the Corsairs reported that he had been hit
on the way down and had to pull out before dropping his bomb. Three
other planes suffered minor flak damage but nothing serious.

After the join up, I detached from the group and flew over the area to
see if there was anything still firing. Sure enough there was heavy 37
MM fire from one site, I got out of there in a hurry and called in the
reserve Skyraider still circling at 15,000 to hit the remaining gun
site. His 2000 pound bomb exploded right over the target and suddenly
things became very quiet. The shrapnel from those 2000 lbs. bombs ust
have been deadly for the crews serving the guns and radars. We never saw
another 37 MM burst from any of the 56 guns.

>From that moment on, it was just another day at the office. Only
sporadic machine gun and small arms fire was encountered. We made
repeated glide bombing runs and completely destroyed all the bridges. We
even brought gun camera pictures back to prove the bridges were destroyed.

After a final check of the target area, we joined up, inspected our
wingmen for damage and headed home. Mr. Michener plus most of the ship's
crew watched from Vulture's Row as Dog Fannin, the landing signal
officer, brought us back aboard. With all the pilots returning to the
ship safe and on time, the Admiral was seen to be dancing with joy on
the flag Bridge.

>From that moment on, the Admiral had a soft spot in his heart for the
attack pilots. I think his fatherly regard for us had a bearing on what
happened in port after the raid on Toko-ri. Th raid on Toko-ri was
exciting; but in our minds, it was dwarfed by the incident that occurred
at the end of this tour on the line. The operation was officially named
OPERATION PINWHEEL. The pilots called it OPERATION PINHEAD.

The third tour had been particularly savage for VF-54. Five of our
pilots had been shot down. Three not recovered. I had been shot down for
the third time. The mechanics and ordnancemen had worked back-breaking
hours under medieval conditions to keep the planes flying, and finally
we were headed for Yokosuka for ten days of desperately needed R & R.

As we steamed up the coast of Japan, the Air Group Commander, CDR Marsh
Beebe, called CDR Trum, the CO of the Corsair squadron, and me to his
office. He told us that the prop squadrons would participate in an
exercise dreamed up by the commanding officer of the ship. It had been
named OPERATION PINWHEEL.

The Corsairs and Skyraiders were to be tied down on the port side of he
flight deck; and upon signal from the bridge, all engines were to be
turned up to full power to assist the tugs in pulling the ship along
side the dock.

CDR Trum and I both said to Beebe, "You realize that those engines are
vital to the survival of all the attack pilots. We fly those single
engine planes 300 to 400 miles from
---well you can finish the rest----

11 - 11 - 11 -  2005 ---and I Hagar know nothing ?   ---Well let me tell you --if you see
the white crosses as far as the eye can see  --in Northern Germany   --the way I saw
them----realizing that every cross was someone's brother Son ..Father  or uncle ? ---if
that THAT does not make you cry---nothing will --my GOD what a waste.
I am blessed  --I killed no one  --and I did not get killed.---Thank you LORD.

Hagar.