The Lonesome Crowded West fine-tunes forms that were introduced on Long Drive. "Teeth Like God's Shoeshine" and the sprawling "Trucker's Atlas" draw the erratic thrust of "Breakthrough" into sleeker, more commanding arcs. "Lounge (Closing Time)" is a less novelty-based, more structurally balanced version of "Lounge". And "Shit Luck" is even more potent than"Tundra/Desert", with two-note power chords growling up and down the neck in breakneck syncopation with wailing string bends. The record also refines some new looks that would soon be developed, such as the scratchy rural funk jam of "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child" and tender, ringing ballads such as "Heart Cooks Brain" and the gentle confessional "Trailer Trash".
The USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship commissioned in the United State Navy in 1916. She went through an extensive modernization in 1929, with new deck armor, boilers, turbines, guns and fire-control. During the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, a bomb may have detonated a powder magazine at the midships gun turret and the battleship exploded violently and sank, with the loss of 1,177 officers and crewmen. The U.S. made a formal declaration of war against Japan the following day. Germany and Italy then declared war on the United States, which the U.S. reciprocated on Dec. 11.
we were dead before the ship even sank rar
Aerial photograph from 2500 feet altitude, looking southward, showing the U.S. Fleet moored in the harbor on 3 May 1940. This was soon after the conclusion of Fleet Problem XXI and four days before word was received that the Fleet was to be retained in Hawaiian waters. There are eight battleships and the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) tied up by Ford Island, in the center of the harbor. Two more battleships and many cruisers, destroyers and other Navy ships also present, most of them moored in groups in East Loch, in the foreground. A few of the destroyers are wearing experimental dark camouflage paint. In the distance, center, is Hickam Army Air Field. The Pearl Harbor entrance channel is in the right distance.
Vertical aerial photograph from 17,200 feet altitude, looking directly down on East Loch and on the Fleet Air Base on Ford Island. Taken on 3 May 1940, after the conclusion of Fleet Problem XXI, and just prior to the 7 May receipt of word that the Fleet was to be retained in Hawaiian waters. There are eight battleships and the carrier Yorktown (CV-5) tied up along the island's southeastern side (toward the top), with two more battleships alongside 1010 dock at top right center. Two light cruisers and two destroyers are among the ships moored along Ford Island's northwestern side. Seventeen other cruisers and over thirty destroyers are also visible, mainly in East Loch. At the seaplane base, at the southern (top right) tip of Ford Island, are at least 38 PBY patrol planes.
Tugs move USS MISSOURI (BB 63) to her berth at Ford Island (background). This berth is roughly where the battleships MARYLAND (BB 46) and OKLAHOMA (BB 37) were moored on 7 December 1941. The 184 foot-long USS ARIZONA Memorial in the foreground spans the mid-portion of the sunken battleship USS ARIZONA (BB 39).
Aviation Structural Mechanic 2nd Class Jennifer Usenick, assigned to the Golden Eagles of Patrol Squadron (VP) 9, reads the list of fallen military members following colors aboard the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 2014. The memorial marks the resting place of more than 1,000 Sailors and Marines who were killed aboard the battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: The South Vietnamese population had ample reason to fear the Vietnamese Communists. The Communist conduct throughout the course of the war had been violent and unforgiving. For example when the city of Hue was taken over by the North Vietnamese, several thousand people on a long blacklist were rounded up, schoolteachers, government civil servants, people who were known anti-Communists, and they were executed, in some cases even buried alive, so panic was but a millimeter away.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: It was every man for himself. So you saw the World Airways flights being mobbed by South Vietnamese soldiers. You saw ships with thousands of refugees, including lots of soldiers. You saw out of control panic. Basically any boats, trucks, airplanes or anything going south were besieged by people wanting to get onboard.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: I kept a map every day on the progress of the North Vietnamese onslaught. By the 5th of April, the North Vietnamese had 15, even 16 divisions heading in the direction of Saigon. They were bringing SA-2 missiles down to provide anti-aircraft cover for their forces. There were people who were saying, "Look, we've gotta do some heavy, heavy planning here because depending on how this goes and it doesn't look good now, we may all have to evacuate. And Ambassador Martin wouldn't tolerate or countenance such thought. That was defeatism. That was poisonous to the prospects of the people we're here to help. But people could see what was going on. And they started leaving, especially the Americans.
Stuart Herrington, Army Captain: People like myself and others took the bull by the horns and organized an evacuation. In my case, that meant friends of mine who were senior officers in the South Vietnamese military. As the North Vietnamese came closer and closer to Saigon, these people were dead men walking.
Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State: When President Ford went before the congress, he had two major concerns. The first was to save as many people as we could. He cared for the human beings involved; they were not just pawns that once they had lost their military power were abandoned. The second was the honor of America -- that we would not be seen at the final agony of South Vietnam as having stabbed it in the back.
Hugh Doyle, Chief Engineer, USS Kirk: I think there were a total of 50 ships that were there. I mean, it wasn't just us; it was a whole bunch of ships. We were standing by for the evacuation of Americans.
The first option was you would take commercial ships right up the Saigon River to couple blocks from the embassy. You would load whoever you wanted to bring out on these ships, and you'd be done with it. The second option was, you know, United and Continental and Flying Tiger airlines were still using Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base at the time, and you could've brought anybody you wanted out by commercial aviation. The third option was military fixed-wing aviation, the C5As, the C-141s, which carry a lotta people. You could have brought them out of Tan Son Nhut on those.
Richard Armitage, Special Forces Advisor: I got into Vietnam late on the 24th of April, 1975. Saigon was full of rumor, of false stories. Whether we were gonna have a last attempt to draw a line across the country at Saigon and the south would remain a free republic. All of these things, and it was all churning all around. The fighting was close to Saigon but hadn't shown up in the streets of Saigon. I served as a naval officer and three and a half tours in Vietnam. Two of those years as a Special Forces advisor with a 20-boat river division, all Vietnamese. I could tell jokes and hear jokes in Vietnamese, and once you start off like that, you eventually end up being able to dream in Vietnamese.
Frank Snepp, CIA Analyst: He had also, for the past few days, prevented us from burning classified documents for fear that it would panic the South Vietnamese. So, that morning of the 29th, we had thousands of pages of classified documents we had failed to destroy beforehand.
Richard Armitage, Special Forces Advisor: That morning fear and desperation were the order of the day. But I had a job to do, and it was an important job to do, I thought, to deny the enemy the South Vietnamese Naval ships.
Kiem Do, Captain, South Vietnamese Navy (in Vietnamese, subtitled): Mr. Armitage called and said, "Captain Kiem! We have to leave today." Some of ships were in disrepair. Our plan was to get them running even if they had only one working engine.
Hugh Doyle, Chief Engineer, USS Kirk (archival audio): None of them had ever landed on a ship before, they were Vietnamese air force. Everybody had a gun, we took the guns away from them. And about five minutes later, another one came in and landed. And uh, we pushed his airplane over the side. That was the second one, I helped pushed that one over too. Then the third plane came in. It landed also. We pushed it over the side. So meanwhile we've thrown three helicopters in the water so far. This is incredible. I know you probably don't believe any of this, but it's all true.
Hugh Doyle, Chief Engineer, USS Kirk (archival audio): We went out and picked him up -- he was none the worse for wear, he was a little bit wet, only one unfortunate thing is he had some small bars of gold which was all his worldly possessions that were in his shirt pocket and it sank. So he lost everything. He didn't own a thing but his underwear when he finally came aboard the ship. He was a tremendous pilot. The guy was just so cool and calm. We've so far taken a total of 17 helicopters. We ended up with 157 people aboard this ship.
Steve Hasty, Marine Consulate Guard: As we came out into the South China Sea, it got dark and every now and then I would fire off a couple of flares, just in hopes that, you know, maybe there is a ship out there. Nothing. And then we saw a faint light on the horizon, and as we got a little bit closer, we could see that they were the lights of a ship's rigging. So, we said what the heck? So we made for it. We came up alongside and somebody shouted, "Get rid of your weapons. Nobody comes aboard with weapons." So I yelled, "We're Marines and we're coming aboard with our weapons." Well, as it turned out, the guys yelling down were Marines. 2ff7e9595c
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