Through The Looking Glass

 

1. I’m guessing Gerald Ford, first row second from the right?

   Posted by Mr Plow       01/02/2007  at  02:32 PM  



2. You got it in one try, Mr. Plow! Congrats!

   Jerry Ford is kinda hard to miss. He looked pretty much the same in the face in this picture as he did thirty years later - just less hair.

   Posted by The Skipper       01/02/2007  at  02:51 PM  



3. I concur Mr. Plow.  A bit of research tells me that he won his bronze stars fighting an aviation gas fire in the bowels of the Monterey.  Lets see fire, smoke, confined spaces, ammo cooking off, burned bodies of friends and shipmates, yeah, I think he earned his medals. The amazing part is that it took 60 years for us to pay attention to it.
   

   Posted by Dr. Jeff       01/02/2007  at  03:10 PM  



4. I’ve got to add a bit.  My father was also on a carrier in the Pacific.  They were hit by Kamikazes (the official record says 2) at the battle of Leyte Gulf.  When dad and his shipmates got together I listened a lot.  A burning WW II aircraft carrier is pretty close to hell on earth and the men who saved their ships under those circumstances all committed extraordinary acts of bravery.  Dad and his Navy buddies never talked about being brave, they only talked about the friends they lost and heroism that they witnessed in others.  Look up the record of Oscar Sirkus (Sirkis sp?), Helmsman of the Suwanee and the Captain of the Suwanee for an example.
   ...and my father, yes he earned some medals for his actions, privately he always said the reason he stayed on the ship was that jumping off the flight deck into the ocean scared him more than the fire.  Since he was staying on the ship, he had to do something, and so it went.

   Posted by Dr. Jeff       01/02/2007  at  03:30 PM  



5. Dr. Jeff, funny how a bit of being scared to do one thing puts you into position to do another, especially when that seems to us listeners to be the far more scary thing to do!

   Posted by Rickvid in Seattle       01/02/2007  at  05:36 PM  



6. Yeah, 2nd from the right on the first row.  He really didn’t change much in looks over the years.

   The first I heard about his WW2 heroics was after his death.  The man was the soul of modesty.  He could’ve been a professional football player—he was that good.  He never desired to “upgrade” out of the House of Representatives to the Senate. 

   Imagine some of the current batch of politicos.  They would’ve never let us forget that they were decorated vets (anybody come to mind?).  Guess we didn’t really appreciate him during his life.

   Posted by MAJ Mike       01/02/2007  at  06:39 PM  



7. Dates are not right, but:

   1st row, 2nd from left = George W Bush.
   1st row, 3rd from left = Richard M Nixon.

   anybody?

   Posted by Fine Old Cannibal       01/02/2007  at  09:19 PM  



8. Class of 43?  The answer is “none of the above”.
   They’re all over 80 years old. 

   Posted by Officer Pupp       01/02/2007  at  11:31 PM  



9. This one was too easy!  Gerald R. Ford led firefighting crews to the hanger deck when
   60’ waves slammed aircraft into one another, starting a massive fire.  There were two
   options, abandon ship, or bring the fires under control.  To have abandoned ship would
   have doomed the crew.  He and his men saved the ship.  Gerald Ford was a genuine hero.
   During WWII, all states were red states.  When I try to explain the high moral and high
   re-enlistment rates in the current conflict to my liberal friends, I have to conclude
   by saying that it is a “red state thing, you could not possibly understand!”

   Posted by Leonard Jones       01/03/2007  at  12:16 AM  



10. Borrowed from The War Room:

    

    Posted by Rat Patrol       01/04/2007  at  01:54 PM  

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