Dingleberry posted:

Flying_Crab posted:

On second glance of actually clicking the image it looks like he took a phone picture from a briefing and blacked out some classification markings. I hope that’s from a drone or commercial imagery.

Flying_Crab posted:

On second glance of actually clicking the image it looks like he took a phone picture from a briefing and blacked out some classification markings. I hope that’s from a drone or commercial imagery.

evil_bunnY posted:

a commercial drone shooting this kind of quality would have long been dead and burning. There's an awful lot of people counting pixels right now.

drgitlin posted:

With that level of resolution? People are speculating that it’s 5cm.

You and I both know President Brainworms just shared the best-quality look at KH11 imagery so far.

drgitlin posted:

With that level of resolution? People are speculating that it’s 5cm.

You and I both know President Brainworms just shared the best-quality look at KH11 imagery so far.

drepimetheus posted:

That's an amazing post, Phil, thanks for sharing it. There's a lot to go through, I'm speechless. Thanks again.

Phil Moscowitz posted:

some pics of my granddad from when he was commissioned (1943) through the Korean War.

Phil Moscowitz posted:

here are some pics of my granddad

quote:

Prior to World War One, St. Patrick’s Day was recognized by many more people than it is today, especially those of Irish origin. On March 16, 1910, one of the midshipmen who was a first class man of Irish origin asked me if I would be interested in hoisting a large green flag over Bancroft Hall. Though I had no special interest in St. Patrick’s Day, the idea appealed to me as a calculated risk, so we turned out after taps and climbed out on the roof of Bancroft Hall, bent a big green cloth on the halyards and, after hoisting the green flag, cut the halyards. Next morning, when the Regiment of Midshipmen turned out for breakfast formation, the green flag caused much mirth. The next year, when I was a first classman, some of my classmates proposed a repeat performance and asked me to join them. I declined, saying that the “jimmie legs” (Master at Arms) will remember last year and will catch anyone who tries it. My prediction was accurate, for the three midshipmen involved were reported for (1) “Turned out after taps,” (2) “Being in an unauthorized part of Bancroft Hall.”

quote:

The class of 1911 at the US Naval Academy was the last to graduate as Past Midshipmen, for Congress passed a law in 1912 giving midshipmen the rank of Ensign on graduation.
After a graduation leave of one month, I was ordered to the USS Ohio, a battleship then at Provincetown, Massachusetts, and on reporting was assigned to the Junior Officers’ Mess, Junior Officer of the Watch, and Junior Broadside Battery Officer.
At this time the Navy still had its Wine Mess. The Captain, the Ward Room Officers and the Junior Officers each had their separate Wine Mess. The Wine Mess was permitted to have beer and wine, but not distilled spirits, except liqueurs. This was all done away with by Secretary of the Navy Daniels in 1914. Secretary Daniels’ Dry Order was very unpopular, but I think it added a lot to the efficiency of the the Navy and made life easier for most Commanding Officers. With a Wine Mess, the Mess Rooms were more popular when off watch, or when there was no work to be done. After dinner there was piano music, or cards, conversation, spinning of yarns and adventures concerning people, places, and ports--all of which was most interesting. After the Navy went dry the MEss Rooms were vacated immediately after meals. Those not on watch went to their state rooms and wrote letters, studied, or read. The Warrant Officers had no Wine Mess, but they could buy beer from the Junior Officers’ Mess. As they were all men of long naval service, their stories about the “Old Navy” were at all times worth listening to. The Wine Mess Treasurers of the Ward Room and the Junior Officers’ Messes had to submit to the Captain each month a statement showing the wine bills of every officer. At times, a new commission, engagement, or other special event, was the cause of bills higher than normal and this was so indicated.
The Captain of the Ohio was named W. W. Buchanan--a very fine gentleman and officer, who was a bachelor. Captain Buchanan was very temperate. However, when in port he would often have guests out to dinner, at which times wine was served. Once, when the USS Ohio was in the LEague Island Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he told his Steward that he wanted some Burgundy served with the dinner. Shortly after this the Filipino steward, who was absolutely honest, reported to him that there was no more Burgundy in the Captain’s Store Room. Captain Buchanan knew from the last monthly inventory that there should be several bottles of Burgundy in the Store Room and he could not imagine how the wine had been taken. The keys to the Store Room were kept in the Captain’s Cabin, which was guarded at all times by a Marine Sentry, and only the Steward had access to them. The Captain’s Store Room was on the Orlop Deck, which is the lowest deck on a ship. It was on the port side of a passageway which ran fore and aft and led to the Fore Hold. Across the passageway from the Storeroom was the Sail-maker’s Locker. The passageway and all compartments, including the watertight doors, were made of steel. Captain Buchanan called the Chief Master-at-Arms and told him to investigate. The Chief figured that perhaps the Captain’s Steward might be involved, so he checked to see how often and when he took inventory in the Wine Store Room. The Chief then went down to the Sail-maker’s Locker ahead of time and, unlocking the watertight door, he hid inside with all lights out and the door cracked. Soon the Steward appeared. Taking the key from his pocket, he unlocked the Yale lock on the Wine Store Room, hung the Yale lock on the pad-eye open, and put the key in his pocket. He then went into the Store Room and closed the door. The Chief did not move. A few minutes later, the Captain of the Fore Hold, a seaman, came softly down the passageway barefoot, on the way to the Fore-Hold hatch. With a brief pause, he took the open lock and replaced it with a similar lock which he had. When the Steward came out of the Wine Store Room he snapped the lock and returned to the Captain’s Cabin. That night the Chief Master-at-Arms, with his assistant, went quietly down to the Sail Locker and waited. About ten PM they heard the Wine Store Room lock open and, after a few minutes’ delay, out came the Captain of the Fore Hold with a sack full of Captain Buchanan’s wine. He then removed his lock from the door and replaced it with the proper lock, which he snapped. About this time the hand of the law descended upon him and he was led away to the Brig to await trial at the Captain’s Mast, or Court.

quote:

In January, 1912, the Atlantic Fleet was based at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the few planes which the NAvy owned were based ashore. In those days the pilots would only fly between sunrise and seven AM. They said that “after seven AM, the air was too full of holes.” With PAst Midshipman O. M. Read, we would row the dinghy over to the Air Base every morning and hopefully wait for a “hop,” which was decided by rank and by weight. After many fruitless trips, I at last went up in one of the five or more seaplanes that comprised the Naval Air Force. Our pilot was Ensign Herbster, USNA 1908. We taxied about half the length of Guantanamo Bay before we could take off. The plane had a sixty horse power motor and was a Wright biplane of the pusher type. The engine was aft of the pilot. There were two propellers driven by chains and sprockets, like a bicycle. I sat on the lower wing, held on to the struts, and let my feet dangle in the breeze.

quote:

When the Atlantic Fleet based at Newport, RI, in the summer, the battleships spent the week at sea and would come into port for the weekend. There were lots of parties and dances ashore and lots of pretty girls, and occasionally dinner parties on board ship. On these occasions, having a wine mess added much to the pleasure of a dinner party. The Junior Officers of the USS Ohio decided to give a dinner party to return some of their social obligations. On that evening they wore white mess jackets with shoulder marks, dress shirts, black ties and blue broadcloth trousers with a stripe of gold lace down each leg. Only flag officers had gasoline boats in those days, so when the quartermaster reported that the steamer with guests was returning to the ship, one of the ensigns ran down the accommodation ladder to help the chaperon, who was quite robust, out of the boat. There was a strong tide running and the coxswain was having a hard time bringing his boat alongside. As the Ensign held out his hand to the chaperon, the boat forged ahead. Thereupon, the Ensign said, “Give me your hand, Mrs. ----” and, turning to the coxswain, said “give her a kick astern,” meaning the boat of course, but the chaperon thought he was referring to her and if looks could have killed, the Ensign would have dropped dead.

Trebuchet King posted:

I missed one of the excerpts I'd marked for sharing:

quote:

Duty Stations

1907 - 1911 U.S. Naval Academy, Midshipman
1911 - 1913 U.S.S. Ohio, Watch Officer
1913 - 1914 U.S.S. Petrel, Watch Officer
1914 - 1919 U.S.S. Florida, 1st Lieutenant
1919 - 1919 U.S.S. Savannah, Executive Officer
1919 - 1921 U.S. Naval Academy, Instructor
1921 - 1922 U.S.S. Harding, Captain
1922 - 1922 U.S.S. Simpson, Executive
1922 - 1923 U.S.S. King, Executive
1923 - 1924 U.S.S. Goff, Captain
1924 - 1926 Torpedo Station, Newport, RI, Proof Officer
1926 - 1929 U.S.S. La Valette, Captain
1929 - 1931 Proving Ground, Dahlgren, VA, Executive
1931 - 1933 U.S.S. Texas, Gunnery Officer
1933 - 1935 Torpedo Station, Newport, RI, Torpedo & Executive Officer
1935 - 1936 Naval War College, Newport, RI
1936 - 1938 U.S.S. Arkansas, Executive Officer
1938 - 1940 Naval Operations, Washington, DC
1940 - 1942 U.S.S. Raleigh, Commanding Officer
1942 - 1945 Torpedo Station, Alexandria, VA, Commanding Officer
1945 - 1946 Philippine Sea Frontier, Staff
1946 - 1947 6th Naval District, Naval Ammunition Depot

Phil Moscowitz posted:

New ship to take to Japan. PCE-886, an escort ship.

Trebuchet King posted:

Let me provide a bit of context just with regards to how much raw material I've got before I crash for the night:


I've got up to the USS Florida heading to Norfolk to prepare for overseas deployment in 1917 typed up; I'm near the end of of the 25th of 69 (nice) mimeographed pages. Well, photocopies of the mimeographs. Those are still in a binder at the Navy Department Library at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC. Most of the text is double-spaced; when he quotes things, like the very dry uniform history stuff or extracts from the USS Florida's Log (which is what's next in my transcriptions) he single-spaces. Dunno how long this is going to take, but once I've got a digital version typed up then comes proofreading and annotations/footnotes to provide modern names for places he mentions and that kind of thing.

EBB posted:

Your timeline is intriguing so I had to go looking things up. So his ship gets damaged at Pearl Harbor during the initial attack, and he doesn't get another ship command for the rest of the war? There has to be some details I'm missing.

Trebuchet King posted:

Once I get home I can skip ahead to see if he says anything in that regard, but I know after as many years as I’ve been living on a boat I miss things like bathtubs.

quote:

All American citizens were informed that a large movie theatre on the waterfront would be their place of refuge. On the 13th of September the fire started and the entire city of Smyrna was soon ablaze. We took all the refugees who claimed to be Americans on the U.S.S. Simpson - 168 men, women and children. I had never seen so much misery in my life before - hysterical, frantic, weeping women and children. When we left Smyrna that night the entire city was on fire and I could hear weeping all over the ship. Crossing the Aegean enroute to Athens, I took navigational bearings on the glow in the sky seventy miles off. We disembarked the refugees at Piraeus, the sea port of Athens, and waited until the next day when the U.S. freighter Winona came in with more refugees. We then returned to Smyrna - now called Izmir.