Bubba's Bar 'n' Grill

As the 2nd April rolls closer we are reminded that it is 30 years since the Argentineans invaded the Falkland Islands - and we amassed out little armada, (well at leat in those days we had two aircraft carriers, now we share one with the French) to go and reclaim them. A task which would have been made impossible / much more difficult without the help of the US, through diplomacy, but much more tangible air to air missles for the Harriers and (I think) some refuelling of vessels. My thanks to you. As opposed to the French who actually sold Exocet missiles after the fleet had sailed (fortunately which got seized, I think, in a Spanish port), but of course we know how devastating those missiles they already had were. A curse and pox on their Champagne and cheese!!

And so there are a few programmes coming on Brit TV to reflect on the conflict. British Royal Marine Commandos meeting their opponents, and RAF pilots meeting their opposite numbers - all friends now with respect for one another.......it is a shame the sabre rattling is starting again.

So I saw one programme this week about a Vulcan bomber raid from the Ascension Islands to bomb the runway of Port Stanley - some 8000 miles away, (and requiring something like 4 mid air refuels of the Vulcan).

The Vulcan (at the time) was stepping down from being the UK`s nuclear deterrent (the baton passed to the Royal Navy and Submarines). Having said that the programme listed (in typical mend and make do Brit military fashion), how the planes were technically obsolescent, the crews had to go back to basics to navigate, (allegedly without maps of the Southern Hemisphere, they used ones for the Northern Hemisphere and drew on them were the Falklands should be) - I kid you not, it was all planned on the back of fag packets.

Because the Vulcan needed refuelling, it set off from Ascension with a fleet of Victor tankers. At the first stage of refuelling, some of the Victors` refuelled the other Victors, and the Vulcan (by now the other Vulcan had returned to base as the cabin window was falling out and they could not maintain the cabin pressure and seal), and so on until there was one Victor left and the Vulcan, which had one last refuel before making its final approach and attack.

Unbelievably it made it onto target, more unbelievably it hit the target, and by more miracle and luck, it made it back to the first phase of refuelling for the return.

Quite a story.

Very sad. Just watched two people from the Falklands conflict, one from the Royal Marines Cammandos, and one from the Argentineans, meet each other and hug, and share some whisky found in the Argentinean lines 30years ago.......like they were best mates meeting. Both 21 when they were fighting, the guy from the commandos, on his 21st birthday, was fighting the Argentinean, who was just 21.

Then onto the grave of Colonel H "Herbert" Jones, commander of the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment (2 Para)........killed storming a gun emplacement, aged 33 (I think).

Hello, NWOBHM,

Posted is a pic of the nose art on a Boeing KC-135A I used to be a Crew Chief on. The tail was 63-8885. In my illustrious career I spent a temporary duty on RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall. Loved England. AND met a lot of wonderful folks there.

(03-20-2012 06:48 PM)Fireman Wrote: [ -> ]Hello, NWOBHM,

Posted is a pic of the nose art on a Boeing KC-135A I used to be a Crew Chief on. The tail was 63-8885. In my illustrious career I spent a temporary duty on RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall. Loved England. AND met a lot of wonderful folks there.

Hi Fireman - thanks a lot for this. I used to go and see the Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford - it used to be a great day out. I think I might have actually brought a patch with a picture of an F111 and it saying -"F111 Libyan Urban Renewal" or something like that. Mind you when I was in Israel you could buy T Shirts with "Isreali Army - UZI Does it!

NWoBHM has asked me to post another WWII reenactor story. Happy that he's back, I'm hoping to comply. There have not been any events so far this year for me, but I do have a left over story from last fall. And it stars tanks...and planes! I'm going to try and put it together with some pictures. I'm thinking of posting the story at this blog type site I set up and then posting the link to it here. Then it won't occupy so much space (and bandwidth) here on the forum, but still easily accessible to anyone who wants to read it. Similar to what CD is doing I think. I have already copied the earlier stories in this thread to this blog site to help keep them together. So hopefully I can get this new story together soon...stay tuned.

-Rey

Looking forward to it Rey..

As am l Rey.

NWoBHM, l go to a SAC museum a couple hrs from where l live and they have a Vulcan there. Its a very cool looking aircraft to say the least. It really is cool to see these older aircraft and be able to walk around and under them. They even have an early MiG-21 there as well as an SR-71 Blackbird. The SR IS THE ONLY AIRCRAFT THAT ISN`t able to be touched( understandably, of course).

(04-25-2012 02:58 PM)smoker guy Wrote: [ -> ]As am l Rey.

NWoBHM, l go to a SAC museum a couple hrs from where l live and they have a Vulcan there. Its a very cool looking aircraft to say the least. It really is cool to see these older aircraft and be able to walk around and under them. They even have an early MiG-21 there as well as an SR-71 Blackbird. The SR IS THE ONLY AIRCRAFT THAT ISN`t able to be touched( understandably, of course).

Hi SG,

Yes they are beautiful monster planes with the huge delta wing. We have one at Coventry (over to the East of us) and I took the girls to take a look at it. What was nice was they had some old air crew at the museum to talk about them.

What was sad / typical, the crew was five (from memory), but only the pilot and co - pilot had ejector seats, the rest of the crew, probably NCO`s, would have to perish in a crash - but such was the bond (apparently between pilot(s) and crew) that there was the agreement if it went down, they were going down together.

SG - come to Kansas. I can see to it that you're allowed to fondle an SR...

Well its time for another WWII story:



Sometimes when I go to these WWII reenactment events I don’t always know in advance what my role will be. Sometimes it’s exciting, such as when I’m in the French Resistance and participating in a skirmish. Other times, its a little more laid back, as I play a secondary role. This time I was asked to play the role of a refugee, bombed out of my home and wandering the countryside. But not just any refugee, a German one. This presented an interesting challenge, and I tried to imagine what a citizen of that country at that time of war would be thinking, what their attitude might be, and I tried to write the story from this viewpoint.

Once I was out of the way, my role in the developing battle around me was to wait in the back of a truck. Well, that in itself is not very exciting. Like I said, I often play a secondary role, as most reenactors play a combat soldier to get more into the action. But I wanted to take this opportunity, since I was in the middle of it from this unique vantage point, to describe one of our live battles unfolding. So come along with me back to 1944 as the Battle of Aachen is about to begin...

http://rambleswithrey.blogspot.com/2012/...achen.html


(This story is on a blog site this time, instead of here at the forum, but it’s not some popular blog, it’s just a place to park these stories. I want you all to know that everything there was originally content from this forum. These stories pretty much started here. The only readers over there are some family members and a few friends. The only other people that read these are you guys. )