The Aerodrome: Air Force One.

The Aerodrome: Air Force One.: 

Air Force One.

Air Force One has been in the news a lot recently, and it  started before the Qatari proposal to give the United States, or Donald Trump (it isn't clear which) a luxury outfitted Boeing 747.

Technically "Air Force One" is a call sign, and merely denotes an airplane the Chief Executive is a passenger in.  If a President rode in an Air Force Cessna, that would be Air Force One.  But everyone knows that it refers to one of two Boeing VC-25s, militarized 747s, that are designated for the Presidents use.

RD-2

Interestingly, the first aircraft designated for Presidential use was a Navy airplane, an amphibious Douglas Dolphin RD-2 that was luxury outfitted for use by President Roosevelt.  It was used from 1933 to 1939, and obviously not for transglobal flight.  The President didn't really do extensive travel until World War Two.

Roosevelt's once used VC-54C.

In spite of concerns over commercial aviation being used to carry the President during the war, it was in fact used and it wasn 't until 1945 that a new designated Presidential aircraft was acquired, that being a  Secret Service reconfigured a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (VC-54C) which was named the Sacred Cow.  It contained a sleeping area, radiotelephone, and retractable battery-powered elevator to lift Roosevelt in his wheelchair. It's only use by Roosevelt was to fly the then dying President to Yalta.  Truman used it thereafter, but it was replaced by military DC-6 (VC-118) thereafter.

Truman's VC-118.

President Eisenhower, who of course knew planes well, to Lockheed C-121 Constellations, Columbine II and Columbine III. The Constellation was a very popular airplane at the time, and Douglas MacArthur also had one, that one spending many years after its service at the Natrona County International Airport on an abandoned runway.

Columbine II was the first Presidential aircraft to receive the designation Air Force One.

At the end of Eisenhower's Presidency Boeing 707s came in, in part because the Soviets were using a jet to transport their Premier.  707s remained through the Nixon era, giving good service in this role.

747s, as VC-25s, entered specialized manufacture for use as Air Force One during Reagan's administration, although the first one would enter service after that.  They've been used ever since.

These aren't normal 747s.  They are packed with communications and electronic warfare equipment in order to have combat survivability.  

Replacing the current two aircraft that are used as Air Force One is a topic that the Air Force started looking at quite a few years ago.  The 747 variant which the VC-25 isn't made anymore.  Production of 747s stopped in 2023 in favor of more modern aircraft.  Still, the airframe remains useful in this role, and after the Air Force started to look into options, updating a 747-8 appeared to be the best option.  Only Boeing was interested in the project anyway, and it will take a massive financial loss to do it.  

The aircraft that are being retrofitted for this role was built, originally, as a commercial airliner. The projected is a massive one, and the delivery date will be in 2027.

What the new Air Force Ones will look like.

Enter Qatar.

Qatar has offered to give the US (I guess) a luxury Boeing 747-8 for use as Air Force One until the other 747-8s are complete.  But here's the thing.  Boeing has been working on the complicated task fo converting the two existing 747-8s for this use for several years. After all, it's basically a combat aircraft.  All accepting the plane would do is give Boeing a third one to convert, which wouldn't be ready for years.

Trump is being childish about this, as he is about a lot of things.  He doesn't seem to grasp the nature of the aircraft, and likely a lot of other people don't as well.  In his case, this is inexcusable.  It's a combat airplane.

Frankly, it's a Cold War combat airplane.

Which gets to this.

The 747 was a big massive airliner in an era in which it was the queen of the sky. That era is over and airlines have moved on to more modern aircraft.  The world in which Ronald Reagan ordered 747s is gone as well.  It's still useful to have an aircraft that can be used in a global thermonuclear war, which is what it is, but that's not going to happen and it makes no sense to use it to go on weekend golfing trips to Florida.

But that's what Trump tends to use it for.

That raises an entire series of other questions, many of which have little to do with aircraft, but some of which do.  It's notable that other Presidents have used lighter aircraft for more mundane trips.  In November 1999, President Bill Clinton flew from Ankara, Turkey, to Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station outside Izmit, Turkey, aboard a marked C-20C.  In 2000, President Clinton flew to Pakistan aboard an unmarked Gulfstream III.  In 2003, President George W. Bush flew in the co-pilot seat of a Sea Control Squadron Thirty-Five (VS-35) S-3B Viking from Naval Air Station North Island, California to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with that latter obviously being an exception. Barack Obama used a Gulfstream C-37 variant on a personal trip in 2009.

Trump can use something else than a 747 for what he uses Air Force One for in almost every single instance.

Indeed, the entire topic brings up a lot of things about the risks of having an airplane like this, a luxury airliner inside, which is really a combat aircraft.  It makes it easy to forget what it really is, and it makes a President feel like an Emperor, which he is not.

Thursday, May 15, 1975. The Raid on Koh Tang.

A Marine Corps raid on Koh Tang island took back the Mayaguez, which they found deserted, while a Navy air raid destroyed the now Khmer Rouge run Cambodian navy.  

Eighteen Marines were killed in combat and an additional 23 in a helicopter crash in the raid.  Khmer forces were much larger than anticipated and resistance heavy.  The helicopter passengers were not fully accounted for when the withdrawal occurred and it was later determined that three of the Marines (Joseph N. Hargrove, Gary L. Hall, and Danny G. Marshall) a shall) and two Navy medics (Bernard Guase and Ronald Manning) may have been alive when they were left behind on the island.

Sailing under a white flag, a Cambodian vessel brought thirty Americans to the destroyer USS Wilson.

It is really this date, and not the one that was declared several days earlier, that should be regarded as the end of the Vietnam War Era, as this was really the last combat in the US's involvement in the Indochinese War, of which the Vietnam War was part.  It interesting came to an end somewhat in the way in which it had started in earnest, with Marines being deployed over a ship, as they would be because of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 14, 1975. Hmong evacuation.

Labels: 1940s, 1947, 1950s, 1956, 1970s, 1973, 1975, 2020s, 2025, Hmong People, House Committee on Un-American Affairs, Immigration, Laos, Laotian Civil War, Movies, Personalities, The written word

Tuesday, May 13, 1975. Breakthrough at Long Tieng.

Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops broke through the defense lines of the Hmong army headquartered in Long Tieng, Laos, "the most secret place on earth."   From that location, the Hmong has opposed the Pathet Lao and NVA.

Jerry Daniels of the CIA organized an air evacuation of Vang Pao and about 2,000 Hmong, mostly soldiers and their families to Thailand.

Daniels is an interesting character who stayed on in Thailand after the conclusion of the Indochinese wars.  He was claimed to to have died in 1982 due to asphyxiation from a water heater gas leak, but his casket was sealed with instructions not to open it.  After his funeral in Montana, which was widely attended by Hmong refugees, various members of the Hmong community have claimed to have seen him in Indochina or the US.

Last edition:

Monday, May 12, 1975. The Mayaguez taken.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, boats and ships, Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, The Mayaguez Incident

Sunday, April 29, 1945. Dachau.

U.S. troops liberated Dachau.  In outrage over what they discovered, some SS Guards were executed along with the camp commandant.

Hitler married Eva Braun, his long time mistress.

Braun had been in a relationship with Hitler for a long time.  She was a photographer by picked up trade and relatively young when she met Hitler.  She had already attempted suicide twice in her relationship with the dictator by this point in time.

Braun's family survived the war.  Her mother Franziska, died aged 91 in January 1976.  Her father, Fritz, died in 1964. Her sister Gretl, left a widow by the execution of Fegelein, gave birth to a daughte on May 5 1945 and later married Kurt Beringhoff, a businessman.  She died in 1987.  Braun's elder sister was not part of the Hitler inner cricle and Ilse died in 1979.

Hitler's German Shepard Blondi was given cyanide capsules as a test of their lethality and died.

Germans signed the terms of surrender in Italy and Austria which provided that the fighting would end on May 2.  This effected the surrender of 1,000,000 Axis troops.

The Battle of Collecchio ended in Allied victory.

SS Obergruppenführer Matthias Kleinheisterkamp committed suicide after being captured by Soviet troops.

Italian fascist Achille Starace was killed by Italian partisans.

The Allies began dropping food to the people of the Netherlands:

29 April 1945

Last edition:

Saturday, April 28, 1945. The fate of the fascists.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Berlin, Berlin Germany, boats and ships, Clara Petacci, Eva Braun, German SS, Italian partisans, Italy, Mussolini, Philippines, Red Army, World War Two

Tuesday, April 20, 1915. Conditions worsen at Van. US aircraft shot at for the first time.

Ottoman forces laid siege to Van as tension there grew worse.

German forces attacked Hill 60 after bombarding British defenses during the day.

A U.S. aircrew and aircraft came under fire for the very first time when Mexican forces fired on a Martin biplane flying aerial reconnaissance on the U.S. border.

The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad went into bankruptcy.

Last edition:

Monday, April 19, 1915. Failing to retake the high ground.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Alsace-Lorraine, Armenia, Battle of Hartmannswillerkopf, Defense of Van, French Army, German Army, Ottoman Empire, World War One

Movies in History Masters of the Air

Emblem of the "Bloody 100th"

I watched this when it first came out, started my review over a year ago, and failed to post and complete it.

Masters of the Air is the epic portrayal of "The Bloody 100th", the United States Army Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, during World War Two.  Produced by Tom Hanks, it joins Band of Brothers and The Pacific as a multi part mini series with ambitious aspirations.  If we add Hank's Saving Private Ryan and Greyhound, for which a sequel is now being filmed, it's part of an impressive body of work which has actually covered a large portion of American participation in World War Two to some degree. 

It doesn't disappoint.

Perhaps simply because Band of Brothers is so well done, and because The Pacific disappoints a bit, early reviews of this film are careful to praise it but to say it isn't as good as Band Of Brothers.  It is.  The topic is just different.

Taking the 100th from deployment to Europe and following individual airmen through the war, some into POW camps, others to their deaths, and others through to the end, it's a masterful portrayal of the air war over Europe.  An added element, although some what minor (understandably) is the inclusion of pilots from the 332nd Fighter Group, who were African American pilots.  While the inclusion of their story could have been awkward, it works in well and is tied together through POW sequences.

Relying extremely heavily on CGI, the film portrays massive air actions wonderfully, and more effectively than any movie since Twelve O'clock High (which has a prop reference in the final episode).  I would not say that its impossible to tell the flight scenes are CGI, but they are excellently done.

The film spares none of the horrors of the war.  Airmen are introduced and violently killed, just as occurred in the war.  Red Army soldiers, who appear in the last episode, simply shoot Germans attempting to surrender with their being no varnishing about it occurring.  One major character cheats on his wife during the film without seeming to have any remorse.  

Material details are excellent.  Historically, its' very well done.  The characters are for the most part real with probably only one slight fictionalization and a dramatized portrayal of the liberation of a POW camp which no doubt did not occur in the close combat fashion portrayed.

As a bonus, as discussed on the American Heritage Center's website, the story features two Wyomingites, both from this county.

Blog Mirror: Laying Telephone Wire by Air, 1945

 

Laying Telephone Wire by Air, 1945

Monday, April 7, 1975. A meeting in Thailand.

Cambodian Prime Minister Long Boret met with representatives of the Khmer Rouge in Thailand.

Wives of Air Force men stationed in Japan volunteered to assist in Operation Babylift.

Last edition:

Sunday, April 6, 1975. "Election".

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Communism, North Vietnam

Thursday, April 5, 1945. Rebellion of the Georgian Legion.

The Soviet Union renounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact of April 1941.

The Georgian Legion, a German foreign legion, rose up against the Germans on the Dutch island of Texel.  The battle would result in large-scale casualties incurred until the end of the war by both sides.

The uprising is regarded as heroic, but the late war uprising was naive.  It counted on an Allied landing which did not occur, and it presumed favorable post war treatment by the Allies.

Arrested officers.

African American members of the 477th Bombardment Group attempted to integrate an all-white officers' club at Freeman Field, Indiana, resulting in the predictable scuffles and arrests although the ultimate punishment was minor.

Gen. MacArthur was appointed control of all Army forces in the Pacific and Adm. Nimitz all naval forces.  The move was made in anticipation of the Invasion of Japan.

Japanese Prime Minister Kuniaki Koiso (小磯 國昭), frustrated in his attempts to be involved in military decisions, resigned.

The U-242 sank in St. George's Channel after hitting a mine.

Last edition

Wednesday, April 4, 1945. The Third Army liberates the Ohrdruf Subcamp.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, Battle of Buchhof, Battle of Kassel, British Army, Buchenwald, Canadian Army, Conentration Camps, Okinawa, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Tuesday, March 25, 1975. A murdered king and evacuations.

King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was shot and killed by his nephew, Prince Faisal bin Musaid.

The motivation for the murder by the US educated prince has never been determined.

The Tin-Ngai Campaign ended with NVA/VC forces in full control of Quảng Tin and Quảng Ngai Provinces.  Da Nang as the only major city in I Corps still held by the South Vietnamese and it was effectively surrounded.

The U.S Air Force organized an airlift to evacuate 10,000 people a day from Da Nang,

Hué's remaining defenders were evacuated by sea.

All of the events above I can recall, particularly the events surrounding the disaster at Da Nang.

The day prior, the ARVN had successfully held an NVA armored attack back at Chơn Thành Camp, destroying 7 T-54s with antitank rockets, recoilless rifles and RVNAF airstrikes. 

Linda Ronstadt released her cover of the Everly Brothers' 1960 song "When Will I Be Loved".

Last edition:

Monday, March 24, 1975. Huế falls to the NVA.

Labels: actors and actresses, Beavers, boxing, Campaign 275, Canada, Huế Vietnam, South Vietnam, Sports, Vietnam, Vietnam War

Amongst the USAID work stopped by the Trump administration is . . .

the cleanup of agent orange at the former US air base, Bien Hoa, outside of Saigon.  They also stopped payments for work already completed.

The South Vietnamese didn't ask for us to abandon them to their fate, and they didn't ask for us to leave a chemical disaster.

This is wrong.

Sunday, March 18, 1945 Landings in the Philippines, the largest air attack on Berlin.

"First wave U.S. troops from the Americal Division's 3rd Battalion, 132nd Infantry during the landing on Talisay beach, Cebu. Alligator LVTs are visible rolling up in the background. View facing south, Signal Corps photograph SC 204236."

The Battle of the Visayas began in the Philippines, commencing with amphibious landings. The campaign would continue until the end of the war.

Japan closed its schools in Tokyo and ordered everyone over the age of six to report for war work.

The largest Allied bombing raid on Berlin during World War Two took place.  1,329 Allied bombers and 700 fighters were countered by the Luftwaffe using the new Me 262s and air-to-air rockets. 

The U.S. Eighth Air Force lost six Mustangs and 13 bombers while the Luftwaffe only lost two planes.  3,000 tons of bombs were dropped on the city.

The US 3d Army took Bingen and Bad Kreuznach.

The Battle of Kolberg ended in Soviet and Red Polish victory.

The Battle of the Ligurian Sea was fought between British and German naval forces in the Gulf of Genoa.

The U-866 was sunk by the U.S. Navy.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 17, 1945. The Ludendorff Bridge collapse.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Eastern Front, German Kriegsmarine, World War Two

Friday, March 9, 1945. Firebombing Japan (Operation Meetinghouse). Japanese end French rule in Indochina (Operation Bright Moon)

 

The US Army Air Force conducted a 48 hour fire bombing raid of Tokyo.  Sixteen square miles of the city's interior were destroyed and between 80,000 and 130,000 civilians killed.  One million were rendered homeless.

Similar raids on Nagoya, Osaka and Kobe also took place.

The U.S. 1st Army took Bonn and Godesburgh

The Japanese launched Operation Bright Moon, 明号作戦, the attack on the French military and government in Indochina.  

The Japanese had tolerated ongoing French administration of Indochina up until this point, but by this point, the French government had gone from Vichy to Free French, and Japan was becoming concerned that the Allies would land with French consent in region.  The French were expecting the attack but were unablet o successfully repel it, with some French forces having to retreat to Nationalist China where they were not well received.

French Indochinese soldiers retreating to Nationalist China.  I have to sonder how man of these Vietnamese troops survived this trek, and of those who did, did they go on and fight in the French Indochinese War on the French side?

Troops of the Italian Social Republic committed the Salussola Massacre as the war in Italy increasingly devolved into a civil war which would carry on, in some ways, until the 1970s.

Benito Mussolini sent a priest to Switzerland to propose to a Vatican envoy that Italy and Germany join with the Allies to attack and defeat the Soviet Union.  The proposal met with the predictable response.

Congress passed the McCarran–Ferguson Act, exempting the insurance business from most federal regulation.

Last edition:

Thursday, March 8, 1945. Operation Sunrise

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Adolf Hitler, Army, Battle of Remagen, Operation Sunrise, U.S. Navy

Monday, February 26, 1945. Syria declares war. US coal curfew.

Syria declared war on the Axis powers.

Fighting ended on Corregidor.

The British Indian 17th Division took Tahlaing and the Thabuktong airfield.

A midnight curfew on bars, nightclubs and all other places of entertainment went into effect in the US in order to save coal.

USAAF Gen. Millard Fillmore Harmon Jr. and Brig. Gen. James Roy Andersen disappeared in an aircraft over the Pacific.

"With the gun crew riding on top, a tank destroyer chassis tows a huge Seventh Army 8-inch rifle through a French town, on the way to the front. 26 February, 1945. Monnenheim, France.  575th Field Artillery Battalion, 35th Field Artillery Group."

"Crosses are erected over Protestant and Catholic graves, the Star of David over those of the Jewish faith, in this U.S. military cemetery somewhere in the European Theater of Operations. 26 February, 1945. Foy, Belgium. Photographer: T/5 Billy Newhouse."

The USAAF bombs Berlin heavily.

Last edition:

Sunday, February 25, 1945. Smoke in the village.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Aircraft, Army, Canada, Germany, Radio, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Sunday, February 25, 1945. Smoke in the village.

"Clouds of black smoke pour from a German oil refinery in Wehrden, Germany, after an attack by American P-47 planes turned it into a roaring holocaust. 25 February, 1945. Ludeweiler, Germany,  101st Cavalry Reconnaissance Group.:

American forces captured Düren.

GI's  ponder graffitti in Belgium celebrating the Red Army.  February 25, 1945.

The Marines experience heavy losses on Iwo Jima.

Radio Canada International was launched.

Last edition:

Saturday, February 24, 1945.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Armor, Army, boats and ships, Egypt, Indian Army, Red Army, World War Two

Lex Anteinternet: DOD Employees to get the axe on Monday. CQ Brown ends up being first.

Lex Anteinternet: DOD Employees to get the axe on Monday.:   DoD Probationary Workforce Statement Feb. 21, 2025 As the Secretary announced yesterday, the Department of Defense is re-evaluating o...

It started with the Joint Chief of Staff CQ Brown. Rumor has it that his replacement, if he can condescend to take it, will be another Air Force general,   Dan “Razin” Caine, who has spent a lot of his career as a reservists.

If he really wants to raise cain, his first action should be to exclude the Space Farce from anything serious.

addendum:

Hegseth also fired Admiral Lisa Franchetti, head of the Navy.

Tuesday, February 20, 1945. Slow advance on Iwo Jima.

The Red Army's 1st Ukrainian Front and 1st Belorussian Front begin to threaten Berlin.

Nuremberg was bombed by the USAAF.

The US lands troops on Biri, Philippines.

Progress is slow on Iwo Jima.

Marines on Iwo Jima, February 20, 1945.

Last edition:

Sunday, February 18, 1945. Off of Iwo Jima.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Army, German Wehrmacht, Iwo Jima, Personalities, Prisoners of War, Red Army, U.S. Navy, World War Two

A serious question.

Serious question. 

Why hasn't Elon Musk and his Doget***s wiped out the Space Farce?  It's mission was fully covered by the USAF and an its creation creates some needless redundancy?  So what if its Trump's silly ass creation?

Wednesday, February 14, 1945. A great President and a great king, meet.

President Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud on the USS Quincy.

Memorandum of Conversation Between the King of Saudi Arabia (Abdul Aziz Al Saud) and President Roosevelt, February 14, 1945, Aboard the U.S.S. “Quincy” 

February 14, 1945

I

The President asked His Majesty for his advice regarding the problem of Jewish refugees driven from their homes in Europe.6 His Majesty replied that in his opinion the Jews should return to live in the lands from which they were driven. The Jews whose homes were completely destroyed and who have no chance of livelihood in their homelands should be given living space in the Axis countries which oppressed them. The President remarked that Poland might be considered a case in point. The Germans appear to have killed three million Polish Jews, by which count there should be space in Poland for the resettlement of many homeless Jews.

His “Majesty then expounded the case of the Arabs and their legitimate rights in their lands and stated that the Arabs and the Jews could never cooperate, neither in Palestine,7 nor in any other country. His Majesty called attention to the increasing threat to the existence of the Arabs and the crisis which has resulted from continued Jewish immigration and the purchase of land by the Jews. His Majesty further stated that the Arabs would choose to die rather than yield their lands to the Jews.

His Majesty stated that the hope of the Arabs is based upon the word of honor of the Allies and upon the well-known love of justice of the United States, and upon the expectation that the United States will support them.

The President replied that he wished to assure His Majesty that he would do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs and would make no move hostile to the Arab people. He reminded His Majesty [Page 3]that it is impossible to prevent speeches and resolutions in Congress or in the press which may be made on any subject. His reassurance concerned his own future policy as Chief Executive of the United States Government.

His Majesty thanked the President for his statement and mentioned the proposal to send an Arab mission to America and England to expound the case of the Arabs and Palestine. The President stated that he thought this was a very good idea because he thought many people in America and England are misinformed. His Majesty said that such a mission to inform the people was useful, but more important to him was what the President had just told him concerning his own policy toward the Arab people.

II

His Majesty stated that the problem of Syria and the Lebanon8 was of deep concern to him and he asked the President what would be the attitude of the United States Government in the event that France should continue to press intolerable demands upon Syria and the Lebanon. The President replied that the French Government had given him in writing their guarantee of the independence of Syria and the Lebanon and that he could at any time write to the French Government to insist that they honor their word. In the event that the French should thwart the independence of Syria and the Lebanon, the United States Government would give to Syria and the Lebanon all possible support short of the use of force.

III

The President spoke of his great interest in farming, stating that he himself was a farmer. He emphasized the need for developing water resources, to increase the land under cultivation as well as to turn the wheels which do the country’s work. He expressed special interest in irrigation, tree planting and water power which he hoped would be developed after the war in many countries, including the Arab lands. Stating that he liked Arabs, he reminded His Majesty that to increase land under cultivation would decrease the desert and provide living for a larger population of Arabs. His Majesty thanked the President for promoting agriculture so vigorously, but said that he himself could not engage with any enthusiasm in the development of his country’s agriculture and public works if this prosperity would be inherited by the Jews.

The raid on Dresden concluded with a nighttime raid by the RAF.

The USAAF bombed Prague.  The raid killed 701 people, destroyed houses and historical sites, in a country that was a victim of Nazi oppression. This was attributed to a navigational error.

The Red Army liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp.

The U-989 was sunk by the Royal Navy.

Last edition:

Tuesday, February 13, 1945. Dresden.

Labels: 1940s, 1945, Allied Air Campaigns, Battle of Manila, Manila Philippines, Nazi Germany, Philippines, Royal Air Force, Siege of Budapest, The bombing of Dresden, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, War Crimes, Weapons