What is located on the bottom floor of an aircraft carrier?
I served aboard USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CVN72) as a machist mate a-gang. The lower and lowest decks are where the machinery spaces are. Additonally, there are fuel tanks…
Why is ‘double tapping’ by military personnel banned/illegal?
In Vietnam, as a tank driver, I remember some action near the Cambodian border in an area we called The Elephant Ear because on a map, it resembled…
What happened to all the “flak” shot at planes during war? Did it drop harmlessly to earth? Have there been any recorded fatalities?
As usual, Mythbusters to the rescue. They didn’t really test this but rather an adjacent conundrum of whether a bullet fired high up in the air might be…
Was selling Alaska to the USA a mistake by Russia?
Back in 1867, Russia had two choices with Alaska. World in 1857, ten years before the purchase, Alaska is a Russian territory Most Russian centers of population and…
From a geographical perspective, why is it said that Iran’s natural terrain is difficult to conquer?
From Alexander the Great to the Arab Empire, from the Mongol cavalry to the Ottoman army, and then to the Anglo-Russian rivalry in modern times and the encirclement…
Were the SR-71 Blackbird ever overflown over North Korea with reaction of the air defenses?
In 1981, North Korea made an attempt to attack an S-71 using a Soviet S-75 Dvina missile. This is a missile that was in use since 1957 and…
Why haven’t turboprop planes been completely replaced by jet aircraft?
Here in Portland, when I flew out of PDX to anywhere on the West Coast I used to fly in one of these: This is a Bombadier Q400…
Do US Navy aircraft carriers really get slowed down by needing to refuel their escort ships all the time, or is that just a misconception?
The US navy has at sea relenishment. A carrier group has available supply ships and tankers. While at sea supplies and fuel are transferred. The ships will slow…
Why do salvage divers want steel from WW II vessels?
It’s not so much they want steel from before WWII, but they want steel that was produced prior to the detonation of nuclear weapons. Because of the many…
How did Luftwaffe pilots view the B-17 Flying Fortress?
German pilots began to discover that attacking a group of B-17 bombers was not like a regular air battle. It was not about fancy flying and clever tricks….