What became of the 100,000 Americans who fled to the USSR during the Great Depression?
Corpses. The fate of the early immigrants to the USSR is well documented, thanks to the obsession of the Finnish Lutheran Church on bookkeeping. Some 15,000 American and…
Why do helicopter pilots prefer landing beside a road rather than on it during emergencies, and what factors do they consider in that decision?
I can tell you why from experience. I am a retired, high-time helicopter pilot that from 1986 to 1990 was lead pilot for Life Flight in Boise, Idaho….
How often are US Navy submarine crews allowed to shower while at sea?
While I was in (79 to 01), we would shower once a day or so (unless the evaporator was broken, then showers were secured). However we took “submarine…
After proving that a C-130 can land and take off from an aircraft carrier, why was it never done again?
I knew the pilot who flew that C-130, Jim Flatley. He was CAG in my first airing onboard USS Independence. He was frequently asked about that effort. The…
Do pilots know what absolutely every single button and switch in the cockpit does?
As an airline captain with tens of thousands of hours, I’m going to take a bit of a contrarian stance here. Of course we know what all of…
What did us F4 phantom pilots think of Rolls-Royce powered versions used by their UK counterparts?
Mixed feelings. The British engine was chosen primarily because of politics. They wanted to support their own jet industry, which is understandable. They also wanted higher thrust to…
Were the Japanese surprised when the Americans did not invade strongly held islands but simply bypassed them and cut off their supply routes?
It was a measure of the Japanese strategic military ignorance, that they never understood how stupid their “Fortress Pacific”, strategy was. The Japanese surveyed and deployed their armed…
The reason troops don’t load 30 rounds in 30-round magazines
The U.S. military’s basic rifleman combat loadout is 210 rounds of 5.56x45mm NATO ammo carried in seven 30-round magazines. However, if you actually inspect those magazines, you may find that…
Are U.S. soldiers required to keep track of their empty magazines in combat, or do they just drop them on the ground like in movies and video games?
When I went through basic, some 20 some odd years ago, we actually had a guy in our platoon ask the DI this exact question. His response was…
I read somewhere if a telephone pole was dropped from a satellite in space it would be equivalent to a nuclear bomb going off when it hit the ground. Is this true or false?
False. Something like this was actually on the drawing board, it was called “rods from god”. It was basically just a bunch of tungsten poles dropped from a…