Alumni Sandstorm ~ 11/23/19
	YIPPIE! SKIPPIE!! It's College Football Saturday!!! 
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2 Bombers sent stuff:
Pete BEAULIEU ('62)
Bill SCOTT ('64)
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BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Roberta KIRKWOOD ('58)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Terry JONES ('64)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Gayle DAWSON ('65)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Chuck JERMAN ('66)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: John KENITZER ('71)
BOMBER BIRTHDAY Today: Karen Elaine MARSHALL ('82)

BOMBER ANNIVERSARY: Jim MEFFORD and Jeanette DUNCAN ('54)

	COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY (check local listings)
2OSU(10-0) v 8Penn St(9-1) 11(CST) FOX Ohio Sta 
16ND(8-2) v BostColl(5-5) 1:30(CST) NBC ND Sta
CSM*(6-0) v FresnoCity(4-1) 2(CST)- Playoffs
1LSU(10-0) v ARK(2-9) 6(CST) ESPN Death Valley 
WSU(5-5) v OR St(5-5) 8(CST) PACN Martin Sta 
UW(9-1) @ CO(4-6) 9(CST) ESPN Folsom Field 
20Boise St(9-1) @ UT St(6-4) 9:30(CST) CBSS Maverik Sta
	*CSM = College of San Mateo CA junior college where
	the editor's nephew is head football coach

BOMBER CALENDAR: Richland Bombers Calendar
    Click the event you want to know more about.
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>>From: Pete BEAULIEU ('62)

Re: belated Veterans' Day

What's this, two days in a row with nothing on this page but
Maren's sled-dog report?

The great risk hovers over Sandstorm-land that somebody will
fill the vacuum with military nostalgia. This time, less 
than two weeks after the Veteran's Day release of the new
"Midway," here it is, one of those drawn out Navy sea
stories...

Two details in the movie especially caught my eye... First,
the fine casting and scripting of Admiral Nimitz, commander
in chief of the Pacific fleet. Very capable in real life and
a true gentleman (not indicated is the fact that throughout
the entire war Nimitz wrote to his wife--every single day.)

Now, second, and without giving anything away, there's a
technical error in at least one scene.

Two planes take off from a carrier while the headwind for
airlift was actually too little to support the take-offs. The
first plane dips down to the waves but does manage to get
airborne. But not the second which drops off the port (left)
bow. The pilot of the first plane radios back, "turn to
starboard!" Wrong command! -by turning to starboard [right]
the ship's hull would slide forward and swing over the
ditched plane and the downed pilot-just as it then did in the
movie. Also, a second danger of then being sucked into the
ships propellers.

I mention this split-second detail because of how this exact
situation played out on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in
1969...

Yours truly (with one and a half stripes) was the Officer of
the Deck when we also lost a plane over the port [left] bow.
The four-stripe commanding officer was on the bridge. On the
right-side catapult the plane was not hooked up correctly.
Instead of breaking free for launch at maximum tension, the
connecting device pulled loose early and at an angle and 
the plane was sent diagonally to the left before dropping
mediately out of sight off the port [left] bow. And just as
the plane dropped overboard the pilot instinctively ejected,
up at a weird angle and out of view, from deck level only 60
feet over the water.

As in the movie, we went right full rudder (!), but in this
case the error was actually a good thing. The pilot came 
down post haste in his half-opened chute. Hit the water hard
enough to sustain a compressed disk, but was fished out 
by the helo plane-guard and later checked out for a full
recovery. As in the movie the plane was gone under the hull
of a fast-moving 40,000 ton ship, and went down in probably
10,000 feet of water.

Later, from the launch films it was confirmed that had we
slammed the rudder the correct direction (left instead of
right) the ship's superstructure would have pivoted directly
underneath the descending pilot. Would have gotten impaled
some 200 feet above the water and fried to a crisp in the
antennae and radar electronics. The maneuver in the book for
this one-in-a-million situation would have been correct, but
this time wrong. All this in a few seconds. Said the seasoned
captain to me about our incorrect rudder command: "sometimes
you just go with your gut."

-Pete BEAULIEU ('62) ~ Shoreline, WA
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>>From: Bill SCOTT ('64)

Re: Novel in progress

Gosh, it's been sparse in the Alumni Sandstorm the last few
days. I'll attempt to liven things up with my patented
Fearless Forecast for Feverish Fans! For my loyal fans among
you (and for those of you who aren't yet): here's an update
on my novel in progress. I'm currently at 108,000 words and
414 typed pages. When the draft is done, which I see at this
point as by the end of February, it should be well over 
500 typed pages and a minimum of 130,000 words. My old
photography teacher used to say, "If you can't make it
better, make it bigger." I hope to do both. I'm up to the
point in the story of WWII, the part I've looked forward to
the most since I began. My heroines are doing great things,
and it's getting exciting. I'll check in later when there's
more news.

-Bill SCOTT ('64)
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That's it for today. Please send more.
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