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Military Pics / Photos
- Thread starter Doc
- Start date
I one hundred percent agree! Female veterans have been ignored for way too long. I've been working around here to get them together by themselves so they can develop comraderies among themselves. Nobody knows women veterans as well as other women veterans.
Don't forget the MOJO and Balut!
World War II Heroes:
1945, The USS Missouri crew perched wherever they could to watch the Japanese surrender.
Many of the sailors that day missed the proceedings because they were manning antiaircraft batteries in case there was a final kamikaze attack.
USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) was engulfed in flames on January 14, 1969, when a Zuni rocket on the flight deck accidentally exploded, triggering a series of explosions, massive fires, and thick smoke that engulfed the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, k!lling 28 crew members, injuring hundreds more, and causing serious damage to the deck and aircraft before the fire was finally extinguished by intensive damage control efforts.
3/2/1991 Six ships of Battle Force Zulu (Task Force 154) steam in formation after the cease-fire that ended Operation Desert Storm. At left, from top, are the
guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55),
the aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV-41) and
USS Ranger (CV-61) and
the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60).
At right are the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71),
top, and the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66)
guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG-55),
the aircraft carriers USS Midway (CV-41) and
USS Ranger (CV-61) and
the guided missile cruiser USS Normandy (CG-60).
At right are the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71),
top, and the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66)
A kitty!
Japanese Soldiers Were Terrified When They Found U.S. Marines Used Machine Guns as Sniper Rifles
On the morning of June 22nd, 1944, at 6:47 a.m., Corporal Jack McKver crouched behind his Browning M2 heavy machine gun on a coral ridge overlooking the Japanese-held highlands of Saipan, watching enemy snipers move through tree cover 1,600 yd away, a distance his fellow Marines believed was completely safe from American small arms fire.
At 26 years old, he was a Iowa farm boy turned heavy weapons specialist with zero confirmed long range kills, facing an enemy that had 11 sniper teams hidden throughout the volcanic ridges. Snipers who had taken 19 marine lives in just the past 48 hours from positions they thought were untouchable.
His commanding officer had positioned the 84-lb M2 for area suppression, and the other platoon leaders assumed it would spray bursts at distant tree lines like every other machine gun in the Pacific. When McKver had first trained on the Browning back at Camp Pendleton, the instructor told him it was designed to stop trucks and planes, not pick off individual soldiers hiding in jungle canopy.
The manual said effective range was 1,800 yd for vehicles, but everyone knew machine guns were for laying down covering fire in wide arcs, not precise shooting. His crew loaded belt after belt of 50 caliber rounds, each cartridge designed to punch through armor plating, while Japanese observers on distant ridges marked marine positions through their scopes, believing themselves invisible at ranges where no rifle could reach them.
They had held these same elevated bunkers for weeks, watching American forces advance below like insects, completely confident that 1,600 yardds of jungle covered terrain made them untouchable by any thing smaller than artillery. The enemy snipers moved with casual arrogance, standing briefly in cave mouths, shifting between trees, even lighting cigarettes in broad daylight because every military manual in the world said machine guns couldn't hit individual targets at that distance.
Then McKver did something no one expected. He stopped firing in bursts and started aiming like a rifleman. The morning heat on Saipan felt like breathing through wet canvas and Corporal Jack McKver wiped sweat from his eyes as he adjusted the traverse mechanism on his Browning M2. The machine gun sat mounted on its M3 tripod behind a wall of sandbags and coral chunks.
Its barrel pointed toward the ridgeel line 1600 yd to the northwest where Japanese snipers had been picking off Marines for 3 days straight. McKver had been manning this position since dawn, watching muzzle flashes wink from cave mouths and tree branches on the distant slope, knowing his crew was supposed to spray suppressive fire across the entire hillside whenever the enemy opened up. That was doctrine.
That was what machine gunners did in the Pacific. lay down sheets of lead to keep enemy heads down while riflemen maneuvered. But McKver had been studying those flashes through his field glasses, and he was starting to think doctrine might be wrong. Sergeant Thomas Harding crawled up beside the gun imp placement, dragging a fresh belt of 50 caliber ammunition.
"Still quiet over there," he muttered, settling into his position as assistant gunner. "Think they're sleeping in?" McKver kept his eye pressed to the optical sight they had juryrigged to the gun's receiver. The site was nothing fancy, a four-power scope salvaged from a damaged sniper rifle, but it gave him a clear view of the Japanese positions.
On the morning of June 22nd, 1944, at 6:47 a.m., Corporal Jack McKver crouched behind his Browning M2 heavy machine gun on a coral ridge overlooking the Japanese-held highlands of Saipan, watching enemy snipers move through tree cover 1,600 yd away, a distance his fellow Marines believed was completely safe from American small arms fire.
At 26 years old, he was a Iowa farm boy turned heavy weapons specialist with zero confirmed long range kills, facing an enemy that had 11 sniper teams hidden throughout the volcanic ridges. Snipers who had taken 19 marine lives in just the past 48 hours from positions they thought were untouchable.
His commanding officer had positioned the 84-lb M2 for area suppression, and the other platoon leaders assumed it would spray bursts at distant tree lines like every other machine gun in the Pacific. When McKver had first trained on the Browning back at Camp Pendleton, the instructor told him it was designed to stop trucks and planes, not pick off individual soldiers hiding in jungle canopy.
The manual said effective range was 1,800 yd for vehicles, but everyone knew machine guns were for laying down covering fire in wide arcs, not precise shooting. His crew loaded belt after belt of 50 caliber rounds, each cartridge designed to punch through armor plating, while Japanese observers on distant ridges marked marine positions through their scopes, believing themselves invisible at ranges where no rifle could reach them.
They had held these same elevated bunkers for weeks, watching American forces advance below like insects, completely confident that 1,600 yardds of jungle covered terrain made them untouchable by any thing smaller than artillery. The enemy snipers moved with casual arrogance, standing briefly in cave mouths, shifting between trees, even lighting cigarettes in broad daylight because every military manual in the world said machine guns couldn't hit individual targets at that distance.
Then McKver did something no one expected. He stopped firing in bursts and started aiming like a rifleman. The morning heat on Saipan felt like breathing through wet canvas and Corporal Jack McKver wiped sweat from his eyes as he adjusted the traverse mechanism on his Browning M2. The machine gun sat mounted on its M3 tripod behind a wall of sandbags and coral chunks.
Its barrel pointed toward the ridgeel line 1600 yd to the northwest where Japanese snipers had been picking off Marines for 3 days straight. McKver had been manning this position since dawn, watching muzzle flashes wink from cave mouths and tree branches on the distant slope, knowing his crew was supposed to spray suppressive fire across the entire hillside whenever the enemy opened up. That was doctrine.
That was what machine gunners did in the Pacific. lay down sheets of lead to keep enemy heads down while riflemen maneuvered. But McKver had been studying those flashes through his field glasses, and he was starting to think doctrine might be wrong. Sergeant Thomas Harding crawled up beside the gun imp placement, dragging a fresh belt of 50 caliber ammunition.
"Still quiet over there," he muttered, settling into his position as assistant gunner. "Think they're sleeping in?" McKver kept his eye pressed to the optical sight they had juryrigged to the gun's receiver. The site was nothing fancy, a four-power scope salvaged from a damaged sniper rifle, but it gave him a clear view of the Japanese positions.
If I may;
Great story.
Great story.