[Milsurplus] My Latest Project ART-13/B AM Transmitter

[Mike Hanz]

On 5/29/2012 5:18 PM, Mike Hanz wrote:
> There is an outstanding book called "Aircraft Carrier" by J Bryan III 
> , about his life on the Yorktown during the war. 

I was moved by my faint recollection to purchase yet another copy of 
this book, the others having been given away in years past to people who 
I valued or considered appreciative of the content.  I was again blown 
away by Bryan's astounding gift of describing the most mundane of 
activities in terms that made the larger experience alive for me.  
Here's the clip on the 5"-38 guns (my additions in brackets):

"February 12 [1945], at sea...

"In the afternoon, the gunnery department worked out on a sleeve towed 
by a TBM.  My God, how I hated those 5-inch guns!  If I had the choice 
of standing on the bridge of a battleship during a 16-inch broadside, or 
on a carrier's bridge while the 5-inchers were firing, I'd take the 
16-inchers every time.  Their concussion is tremendous, but it builds 
up.  It's like being hit by a slow truck wrapped in sofa cushions.  The 
5-inchers, damn them, hit you like a plank.  They're especially rough 
when you're on flag bridge.  There, when Number 2 mount trains abeam, 
the muzzles are only 25 feet away, and the blast jolts your teeth 
loose.  You don't mind it so much when they're firing at an enemy plane; 
your excitement and anxiety insulate you.  But when it's nothing but 
target practice, your attention wraps itself right around the gun 
barrels, and you feel every concussion to its utmost erg.  I'll never 
get used to them.  Like Petruchio's horse [from *The Taming of the 
Shrew*], I'm simply "past cure of the fives.""

There are enough references to comms on the TBS and other normal flight 
operations to make your nose bleed - all described in an easy going but 
highly articulate and often humorous manner.  For those who are tired of 
"just the fact's, ma'am" histories, Bryan makes the day to day details 
really spring out at you. If you can find a copy of this pocket book, 
it's well worth the price.

73,
Mike  KC4TOS