Thach Weave

Thach Weave PDF Author: Steve Ewing
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251264X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Get Book

Book Description
This biography completes a trilogy on the three Navy fighter pilots--Jimmie Thach, Butch O'Hare, and Jimmy Flatley--who developed sweeping changes in aerial combat tactics during World War II. While O'Hare and Flatley were instrumental in making the "weave" a success, Thach was its theoretical innovator, and his use of the tactic in combat at Midway documented its practical application. This portrait of the famous pilot provides a memorable account of how Thach, convinced that his Wildcat was no match for Japan's formidable Zero, found a way to give his squadron a fighting chance. Using matchsticks on his kitchen table, he devised a solution that came to be called the Thach Weave. But as Steve Ewing is quick to point out, this was not Thach's sole contribution to the Navy. Throughout his forty-year career, Thach provided answers to multiple challenges facing the Navy, and his ideas were implemented service wide. A highly decorated ace, Thach was an early test pilot, a creative task force operations officer in the last year of World War II, and an outstanding carrier commander in the Korean War. During the Cold War, he contributed to advances in antisubmarine warfare. This biography shows him to be a charismatic leader interested in everyone around him, regardless of rank or status. His dry sense of humor and constant smile attracted people from all walks of life, and he was a popular figure in Hollywood. Thach remains a hero among naval aviators, his most famous combat tactic still used by today's pilots.

Thach Weave

Thach Weave PDF Author: Steve Ewing
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 161251264X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Get Book

Book Description
This biography completes a trilogy on the three Navy fighter pilots--Jimmie Thach, Butch O'Hare, and Jimmy Flatley--who developed sweeping changes in aerial combat tactics during World War II. While O'Hare and Flatley were instrumental in making the "weave" a success, Thach was its theoretical innovator, and his use of the tactic in combat at Midway documented its practical application. This portrait of the famous pilot provides a memorable account of how Thach, convinced that his Wildcat was no match for Japan's formidable Zero, found a way to give his squadron a fighting chance. Using matchsticks on his kitchen table, he devised a solution that came to be called the Thach Weave. But as Steve Ewing is quick to point out, this was not Thach's sole contribution to the Navy. Throughout his forty-year career, Thach provided answers to multiple challenges facing the Navy, and his ideas were implemented service wide. A highly decorated ace, Thach was an early test pilot, a creative task force operations officer in the last year of World War II, and an outstanding carrier commander in the Korean War. During the Cold War, he contributed to advances in antisubmarine warfare. This biography shows him to be a charismatic leader interested in everyone around him, regardless of rank or status. His dry sense of humor and constant smile attracted people from all walks of life, and he was a popular figure in Hollywood. Thach remains a hero among naval aviators, his most famous combat tactic still used by today's pilots.

Naval Aviation News

Naval Aviation News PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Get Book

Book Description


Pacific Air

Pacific Air PDF Author: David Sears
Publisher: Da Capo Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 0306819481
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

Get Book

Book Description
Offers an account of the U.S. airmen's roles in the air battles that took place over the Pacific Ocean during World War II.

Arkansas Biography

Arkansas Biography PDF Author: Nancy A. Williams
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 9781557285881
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

Get Book

Book Description
"The information condensed into this single reference volume will be valuable to general readers of all ages, libraries, museums, and scholars."--BOOK JACKET.

Seven at Santa Cruz

Seven at Santa Cruz PDF Author: Ted Edwards
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1682472884
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book

Book Description
This riveting biography details how Stanley "Swede" Vejtasa became a World War II naval hero. During the Battle of the Coral Sea, Swede flew an SBD Dauntless dive-bomber and helped sink Shoho, the first aircraft carrier lost by Japan in World War II. The next day, in that same Dauntless, he took off from USS Yorktown and out-flew and out-gunned three Japanese Zeros, making him the only dive bomber pilot to be awarded Navy Crosses for both bombing and aerial combat. Months later, the day before the Battle of Santa Cruz, Swede was flying an F4F Wildcat fighter off USS Enterprise and had no recourse but to follow orders he knew to be insane. He and his squadron mates flew their predictably empty search legs and beyond, only to discover upon their return to Point Option in the dark, that Enterprise was nowhere to be found. Incredibly, Swede located the oil slick he had noticed seeping from Enterprise during a morning combat air patrol and was able to track it back to the carrier. After their harrowing return, during the Battle of Santa Cruz, the fate of Enterprise, and by extension Guadalcanal, lay in the hands of that same Swede Vejtasa. He responded by single-handedly downing an unprecedented two Japanese dive bombers and five torpedo bombers attacking the carrier. Skipper Jimmy Flatley recognized that in all likelihood, Swede had saved Enterprise from destruction, and he recommended Swede for the Medal of Honor.

Why Can't I

Why Can't I PDF Author: John Barry III
Publisher: Archway Publishing
ISBN: 1480895601
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Get Book

Book Description
For almost 100 years photos, journals, newspaper clippings, Naval records and love letters waited quietly to tell the story of how a Depression-era Southern boy with nothing but talent and ambition rose to become a Navy fighter pilot and hero in WWII. John Barry, Jr, born in poverty in coastal Carolina, lived with his siblings and parents in fish shacks and often had to scrounge through garbage to find food. He and his brothers and sisters were sent to an orphanage after his mother died and father couldn’t find work. His athletic talent and personality earned him a college education and officer’s training as a Navy pilot. He found love and married a hometown girl shortly before he was deployed. His personal journal entries told the story of the heat and exhaustion of life aboard the carriers, the loss of good friends in dogfights and bad landings, and the real horrors of the war. In stark contrast, his letters home were filled with descriptions of the beauty of the Pacific Islands, the friendships made aboard ship, his desire for home, as well as advice for his pregnant wife. This stunning example of a war-time love story is filled with battle action, and is a personal look into the life and love of a man whose mantra was “Why Can’t I.” It is a journey of discovery into a different and more innocent time. Here are his times. This is his story.

Top Gun

Top Gun PDF Author: Dwight Jon Zimmerman
Publisher: Motorbooks
ISBN: 0760363552
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

Get Book

Book Description
Fly with the best in Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority—the definitive, highly illustrated, in-depth look at the Navy's famous fighter unit, including its history, technology, and culture. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority begins with a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of the blockbuster film that helped America shake off the trauma of the Vietnam War and once again take pride in its military. The book then launches into the even more incredible story of why and how such men consistently capture the imagination of children, adults, pilots, and audiences around the world. Chapters spotlight pivotal military movies and television shows that presaged the movie Top Gun, including edge-of-the-seat vignettes and anecdotes of pilots and their lifestyles, the origin of the Navy’s fighter pilot program and its rigorous training, and how it inspired the Air Force’s counterpart, Red Flag. Other chapters highlight what it takes to be a pilot in other branches of the armed forces, and takes a look back in time at the most notorious (and feared) pilots of World War I and World War II from all around the globe. Fast forward to the jet age, when the first aces flew hair-raising missions over Korea and Vietnam, and learn how past and contemporary aerial dogfighting really works. The book also reveals the many technological advances that transformed aerial combat from the dangerous, unsynchronized machine guns that bounced bullets off propellers in World War I to today, where air-to-air missiles are launched by pilots who have no visual contact with an adversary, and finally illustrates how drones are adding a new dimension to the meaning of Top Gun. Finish with an in-depth look at Naval Station Fallon, one of the most modern and renowned American naval stations, located outside Fallon, Nevada. Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority concludes with a look at Top Gun 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest action movies of all time and the one that made Tom Cruise a worldwide superstar. Featuring over 200 photos, new interviews and stories from aces, engineers, commanders, and more, and written by best-selling author and president of the Military Writers Society of America, Dwight Zimmerman, Top Gun: 50 Years of Naval Air Superiority is the must-have guide to the fastest, deadliest, most storied aerial combat squadron the world has ever known.

Admirals of the World

Admirals of the World PDF Author: William Stewart
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786438096
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Get Book

Book Description
This work provides biographies of more than 500 men and women who have served as admiral, vice admiral, or rear admiral. While officers from the U.S., British, French and Japanese navies make up the bulk of the work, officers from 22 countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, and Spain, are also included. The main criterion for inclusion is that each person must have actively served in the rank of at least rear admiral, but not necessarily in enemy action. This effectively rules out people who were granted the rank on retirement, as a courtesy title or posthumously. The book also includes lists of admirals organized by nationality and by year of birth.

F4F Wildcat

F4F Wildcat PDF Author: Edward M. Young
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472854837
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 150

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the role of the Grumman F4F Wildcat, the US Navy's standard carrier fighter at the start of the Pacific War, and its clashes against the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Force's Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen. The US Navy went to war in December 1941 with the tubby Wildcat, the first of Grumman's famed 'cats', as its principal carrier fighter. Ruggedly built and well armed, the F4F's performance was inferior to the Japanese Zero-sen, yet in the carrier battles of 1942 between the US Navy and the IJN the Wildcat pilots more than held their own against some of the finest naval aviators in the world. Many of the Wildcat pilots that saw action in the South Pacific comprised what respected naval historian John Lundstrom has called the 'First Team' – the small group of highly trained prewar pilots who manned the bulk of the US Navy's carrier fighter squadrons. Illustrated with specially commissioned artwork, including armament views and ribbon diagrams, the book examines the carrier battles that took place in August and October in the South Pacific around the first American offensive of the war – the amphibious assault on the island of Guadalcanal, and the actions of the Wildcat in combat with IJN carrier aircraft. The key combat actions are described and accompanied with rare and original photographs and diagrams, as are the training and tactics that contributed to the Wildcat's success.

Walt's People -

Walt's People - PDF Author: Didier Ghez
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1450087477
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 541

Get Book

Book Description
The Walt's People series, edited by Didier Ghez, is a collection of the best interviews ever conducted with Disney artists. Contributors to the series include noted Disney experts Robin Allan, Paul F. Anderson, Mike Barrier, Albert Becattini, John Canemaker, John Culhane, Pete Docter, Christopher Finch, J.B. Kaufman, Jim Korkis, Christian Renaut, Linda Rosenkrantz, Dave Smith, and Charles Solomon. Walt's People - Volume 9 features in-depth interviews with Ken Anderson, Art Babbitt, Jack Bradbury and Mary Jim Carp, Paul Carlson, Les Clark, Jack Cutting, Jack Ferges, Bob Foster, Joe and Jennie Grant, Victor Haboush, Thurston Harper, Fred Joerger, Ollie Johnston, Bob Jones, Margaret Kerry, Burny Mattinson, Frank McSavage, Bill Melendez, Ken O’Connor, Walt Peregoy, Thor Putman, Fanny Rabin about Art Babbitt, Art Scott, Tom Sito, Julie Svendsen, and Berny Wolf. It contains hundreds of new stories about the Studio and its artists and should delight even the most serious historians and enthusiasts. Walt's People is a notable new source of historical treasures and should give new energy to the world of Disney research! This book is neither authorized, sponsored nor endorsed by the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries. It is an unofficial and unauthorized book. The mention of names and places associated with the Walt Disney Company and its businesses are not intended to infringe on any existing copyrights or trademarks of the Walt Disney Company, but are used in context for educational purposes. The opinions and statements expressed in these interviews are solely the opinions and perspectives of the authors and the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and policy of the Walt Disney Company and its businesses.