Doolittle Raid April 17, 1942 - 1,000 Miles From Tokyo

On schedule on April 17, TF16 refueled the two aircraft carriers and four cruisers. The Captain of USS Enterprise after action report (April 23):

1. "Fueling of the heavy vessels was undertaken April 17 when about 1000 miles east of Tokyo and was barely completed when the wind increased to gale force (wind south, 35 knots; sea rough, visibility 1 - 2 miles). At 1439 (L) the 2 CV, 3 CA and 1 CL proceeded independent of accompanying DD's [destroyers] and AO#s [fleet oilers] on a westerly course, averaging approximately 20 knots."

Public Piety

Yet again in a nearby county a group of citizens who proclaim themselves to be Christians are protesting to be allowed to pray at government meetings, invoking the name of Jesus.

Perhaps they have not heard, read or understood the words of Jesus himself concerning acts of public piety, as recorded in the synoptic gospels. Here, from the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6, verses 1 to 34:

[New International Version 1984]

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Giving to the Needy

1“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 

Prayer

5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.^a’
 

14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

Fasting

16“When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 

Treasures in Heaven

19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. 

Do Not Worry

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^b?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

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April 16, 1942 - Task Force 16 At Sea

Task Force 16, USS Enterprise (CV-6), USS Hornet (CV-8), four cruisers, eight destroyers and the fleet oilers Sabine and Cimarron: west of the international dateline. Course 265, speed 16 knots, Tokyo bound.

"Except when bad weather prevented, continuous inner and intermediate air patrols were maintained during daylight and dawn and dusk search flights were conducted daily to 200 miles, 60° on each bow." - VADM W.F. Halsey action report dated 23 April, 1942.

A speed of 16 knots left little extra for the oilers, whose maximum speed was 18 knots. (Personal note - both oilers were still in service in the late 1960's; I refueled from Cimarron many times).

The plan was to refuel the carriers and cruisers on April 17 and detach them for a quick dash to arrive at the launch point at about 1600 (4:00 pm).

The carriers search radars and the aircraft searches weren't the only detection measures. In a hideaway aboard USS Enterprise, Communications Technicians with special radio receivers searched for Japanese radio communications.

European Economy Update

I haven't written lately about Europe. The news isn't good. While the European Central Bank has recently taken useful measures to ease the crisis, the political leadership is doing the opposite - seeking more austerity.

Are there no wise leaders in Europe? Apparently not.

If debt is the problem, it doesn't help people repay that debt when unemployment rises. In Spain, unemployment is close to 25% - for young people, it is 50%. By the way, before the economic crisis, Spain's budget surplus was greater than Germany's. The problem has been private, not public debt.

The whole problem in Europe, it has become clear, is caused by fixed exchange rate (inherent consequence of the Euro) and intellectual rigidity. The continent could easily descend into a new recession/depression. Economist Nouriel Roubini explains:

"The trouble is that the eurozone has an austerity strategy but no growth strategy. And, without that, all it has is a recession strategy that makes austerity and reform self-defeating, because, if output continues to contract, deficit and debt ratios will continue to rise to unsustainable levels. Moreover, the social and political backlash eventually will become overwhelming."

The US could easily avoid a similar fate by a robust fiscal stimulus, except one of our major political parties has effectively halted any effort by the administration to improve the economy. The only thing we have going for us is the Fed and its monetary measures, including quantitative easing. So far it seems to be working, but much too slowly.

Greg Mankiw Endorses Democratic Policies (Maybe)

Economist Brad DeLong provides the following quote from economist Greg Mankiw:

Greg Mankiw: Economic View: If the government’s job is merely to provide services, like roads, schools and courts, competition among governmental producers may be… good…. But if government’s job is also to remedy many of life’s inequities, you may want a stronger centralized government, unchecked by competition. These are two fundamentally different visions. The next election, and to some degree every election, is about which one voters find more compelling.

A long discussion ensues on DeLong's blog. One of the most pointed comments:

Derelict said...

It's pretty clear that conservatives view government's essential role as collecting taxes from the middle and lower classes and funneling those proceeds into the pockets of the wealthy. As the record of the last 30-odd years amply demonstrates, providing for the commonweal in terms of infrastructure, social services, or even actual functioning military hardware and support is NOT part of the equation.

When Reagan said "government IS the problem," most of the people in today's GOP were impressionable youngsters who took that quite literally. Today, their motivating philosophy is to destroy the government of the United States. We used to call people like that the enemy; today, they're just Republicans.

 April 15, 2012 at 06:41 AM

Tornado In Woodward: Deja Vu All Over Again

Tonight's news broadcast showed scenes from last night's deadly tornado in Woodward, Oklahoma. No one has seen such destruction, the announcer explained.

Actually, I remember an even bigger tornado that hit Woodward. It was the 9th of April, 1947, just before my tenth birthday. We lived in Midwest City, Oklahoma, just across the highway from Tinker Air Force Base. The next day, the Daily Oklahoman was filled with photographs of the damage. At least 107 lives were lost in Woodward that night, and it looked like the town had been wiped off the map.

The 1947 tornado, rated as F5, killed 69 people in Texas before entering Oklahoma. It was almost two miles wide and stayed on the ground for a distance of 100 miles. It remains the most deadly tornado ever to strike Oklahoma.

Woodward came back after the 1947 twister, and it will do so again.

And in time a new generation will forget it ever happened.

Titanic: Plus ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose

A century ago tonight, Royal Mail Ship Titanic struck an iceberg four days into her maiden crossing at 11:40 in the evening. She sank two and a half hours later, taking 1500 souls, including some of the world's wealthiest men, with her.

"Unsinkable ship sinks," the headlines declared.

To be fair, neither the engineers who designed her nor the builders who built her claimed that Titanic was unsinkable. That claim was the work of marketers and writers of advertising copy, who were no more dedicated to truth a century ago than they are today.

But the engineers were guilty of overoptimism about the number of lifeboats needed and the likelihood of rescue in event of a collision or sinking. The captain was guilty of proceeding at too high a speed even after small icebergs had been sighted.

Building a ship,operating it at sea and planning a voyage are always efforts at identifying and counteracting hazards of navigation. Such hazards are more easily identified after a disaster than before.

Planning ahead is an art. In my day, the navy had a word for the process of thinking through what to do in advance of the event: "forehandedness."  It's one of my favorite words.

In our own time, we have seen the loss of Challenger, Columbia, the French Concorde, and countless airliners. All were thought to be safe until the unthinkable happened. The Greeks had a word for the phenomenon of human overreach: hubris.

It is still with us.

Oriental Boat Show

Looks like a good weekend for the Oriental Boat Show. In addition to local boaters, the harbor has also filled up with cruising sailors headed north in the annual migration.

We even have a few shrimp boats in the harbor. Soon we should be back to normal.