Marine Corps Birthday 2016

Marine Corps Birthday MacDill Air Force Base 

U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant General Joseph Osterman, deputy commander, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) cuts a cake at the 241st Marine Corps Birthday Cake Cutting Celebration on MacDill Air Force Base.

Formal commemoration of the birthday of the Marine Corps began on 10 November 1921. That particular date was chosen because on that day the Second Continental Congress resolved in 1775 to raise two battalions of Continental Marines.

Throughout the world on 10 November, U.S. Marines celebrate the birth of their Corps -- the most loyal, most feared, most revered, and most professional fighting force the world has ever known.

(Photos by Tom Gagnier)

 
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Very nice Marine Corps Birthday celebration at MacDill Air Force Base put on by CentCom and SoCom at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa today.  They had a cake cutting ceremony at 10:00 am on Nov 9 for all the Marines. The Commandant's message is read, then they bring out the cake.  

Centcom (US Central Command) centcom.mil is a principle fighting Command of the US. They are in charge of Central Asia - Iraq and Afghanistan and surrounding areas. So the best and the brightest are here. It is commanded by a 4 Star - usually an Army or Marine General.

SoCom Special Operations Command. This is the Command of all the special forces - the Navy Seals, Delta Force, Marines Raiders, etc  socom.mil/default.aspx 

So the two top war fighting commands in the US are in Tampa. All the Marines from the two commands were there. Looking good. The Marines now wear their blue trousers with red stripe and the khaki shirt for formal occasions - short of the full dress blues.

The cake cutting ceremony cuts the cake with a sword, and involves giving the youngest and oldest Marines there a piece of cake. The oldest Marine was a retired guy working for Centcom - he was born in 1957.  Made me feel a bit old.

Semper Fi

Craig Hullinger, Marine

Another Birthday Celebration, this time in Sarasota on Nov 10, 2016.  Above, from right to left: Ron and Linda Wozniak, Craig Hullinger, Byron and Janet Hill.

The crowd was a bit older in Sarasota.  Woz and Craig were among the oldest Marines at CentCom. We were among the younger at Sarasota.

The oldest Marine was on Iwo Jima and was 96 years old. The youngest was 19.

Semper Fi

A father and son team at the Sarastoa Birthday event.

B-52 History

1) The B-52's first flight was April 15, 1952 - over 63 years ago.


Wikipedia
2) The B-52 was designed to carry nuclear weapons during the Cold War, but it has only carried conventional ordnance in combat.


USAF
3) There were huge leaps in aviation happening when the B-52 was being designed, and it went through 6 major redesigns during the 5 year design period. The YB-52 pictured below was the second-to-last major redesign.


Wikipedia
4) A B-52A was used to carry the North American X-15. The X-15 achieved the record for fastest manned powered aircraft, with a speed of Mach 6.72.


Wikipedia
5) There have been 744 B-52s built, but currently there are only 85 in active service, with 9 in reserve.


USAF
6) The B-52 can carry up to 70,000 pounds of ordnance, or the equivalent of 30 fully-loaded Cessna 172s.


Wikipedia
7) Production ended in 1962, which means the youngest B-52 is 53 years old.


USAF
8) The jet has a unique ejection system; the lower deck crew eject downward.



9) The B-52 is expected to serve until the 2040s. That's over 90 years of service.


USAF
10) In 1964, a B-52 configured as a testbed to investigate structural failures flew through severe turbulence, shearing off its vertical stabilizer. The aircraft was able to continue flying, and landed safely.


Wikipedia
11) The navigator and radar navigator sit in the lower deck of the aircraft. These are the two seats that eject downward.


Wikipedia
12) To comply with the SALT II Treaty requirements, cruise missile-capable aircraft had to be identifiable by spy satellites. To comply, the B-52 "G" models were modified with a curved wing root fairing.


Wings Over The Rockies Museum
13) Early models had cabin temperature problems; the upper-deck would get hot, because it was heated by the sun, while the navigation crew would sit on the cold fuselage floor.


Wikipedia
14) In 1961, a B-52G broke up in midair over Goldsboro, NC. Two nuclear bombs on board were dropped in the process, but didn't detonate. After the bombs were recovered, the Air Force found that five of the six stages of the arming sequence had been completed.


Wikipedia
15) In 1972, B-52 tail-gunner Albert Moore shot down a MiG-21 over Vietnam. It was the last recorded bomber-gunner to shoot down an enemy aircraft.


Texas Aviation Online
16) After the Soviet Union fell in 1991, 365 B-52s were destroyed under the START treaty. The aircraft were stripped of usable parts, chopped into 5 pieces with a 13,000 pound steel blade, and sold for scrap at 12 cents per pound.


Media Span Online
17) During Operation Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40% of the weapons dropped from the air.


USAF
18) Currently, B-52s cost $70,000 per flight hour to operate. And while they might be ugly, they're still a pretty amazing and adaptable aircraft.