Category Archives: History

Veterans Day 2011

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Joe Clark

When you’re a kid, you really have no idea about the meaning behind Veteran’s Day. It is just another of those days in November, except that on the 11th, the old guys who were soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines get … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life in General, Personal | Tagged Afghanistan veterans, Air Force, Army, Coast Guard veterans, friends, iraqi war veterans, Korean War veterans, Marines, memories, military service, Navy, Vietnam veterans, World War II veterans | 5 Comments

Truly, I am not dead, no matter what they say…

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Joe Clark

I have been busy. For you loyal readers, trust me when I say, I am cataloging ideas for when I am free from this work in which I am now engaged–work which is keeping me from the blog. Should I tell you … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General | Tagged airplanes, Charles Lindbergh, Florida, flying, professional pilots | 3 Comments

The Éole

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Joe Clark

Today, 121 years ago, Frenchman Clement Ader’s steam-powered airplane flew for the first time. Yes, you are correct in your math if you said that was 13 years before the Wrights flew. And yes, it was a steam-powered airplane. Ader … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Life in General | Tagged a steam-powered airplane, airplanes, aviation history, barnstormers, Brothers George and William Besler, clean emissions, flying, Frenchman Clement Ader, internal combustion engine, Lead-based fossil fuels, open cockpit biplanes, the Besler Steam Airplane, the Doble Steam Motors Company, The Éole, the First World War, the Travel Air 2000, the Wrights, very quiet operation, William Besler | Comments Off

Doing It the Old Fashioned Way

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Joe Clark

Well, I guess I have graduated from the School of Geekdom at the University of Hardknocks. Following this past week’s computer emergency, with the help of some friends, a couple of manuals, and the Internet, I was able to teach myself … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flight Instructing, Flying, History, Life in General | Tagged a mean old cantankerous flight instructor, a sense of collective history, Alexander Graham Bell, am locomotive engineers, ancient sailors, Apple, black and white prints, Captain Ross, commercial electricity, computer emergency, computers, dependent on technology, digital cameras, Doing It the Old Fashioned Way, English, Ernest K. Gann, Fate Is The Hunter, French, Garmins, history, Johannes Gutenberg, Kill Devil Hill, manual typewriters, measured by column inches, mentors, MicroSoft, Nicola Tesla, proportion wheels, re-loading various software, rocket science, sailed across the Atlantic, School of Geekdom, smart phones, Spaniards, storytelling, the ancient Polynesians, the DC-3, the light bulb, the New World, the printing press, the telephone, the University of Hardknocks, the Wrights, Thomas Edison, Tom-Toms, Trimbles, Vikings, World War II, “the old-fashioned way” | 5 Comments

A Very Hard Week

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Joe Clark

The past few days have been hard for America. Particularly for our heroes. On Saturday, August 6, 2011, 38 men died in the crash of an Army Reserve CH-47 Chinook helicopter that went down in Afghanistan. Members of the Olathe, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Life in General | Tagged A Very Hard Week, Afghanistan, August 6 2011, best friends, boyfriends, brothers, CH-47 Chinook, church members, combat operations, fathers, football players, friends, Kabul, loved ones, Olathe KS, Seal Team Six, sharing their grief, soccer teammates, sons, surfers, the Army Reserve, uncles | Comments Off

The Seventieth Reunion

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Joe Clark

My friend, Mike, is a very interesting fellow. He is an aviation aficionado of the highest standing. He is also a very funny guy whose wife must absolutely be the greatest understanding wife of all time. Sometimes, I wonder how … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History | Tagged an aviation aficionado, an understanding wife, B-25 Mitchell bombers, David J. Thatcher, Dayton OH, drink a very solemn toast to their comrades, Edward J. Saylor, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jack Hudson, planning their seventieth reunion, Richard E. Cole, Robert L. Hite, the "Whirling Dervish", The Doolittle Goblets, the Doolittle Raiders, the Hennessey Company, the National Museum of the Air Force, The Seventieth Reunion, the USS Hornet, the “Ruptured Duck”, the “TNT”, Thomas C. Griffin | 1 Comment

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Joe Clark

Another of the great writer-flyers from World War II was a Frenchman by the name of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Unlike the youthful Bert Stiles profiled yesterday, Saint-Exupéry was relatively older—especially for serving as a combat pilot. Saint-Exupéry is the author … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History, Life in General, Reading, Writing | Tagged a silver identity bracelet, airline companies, an airmail pilot, André Prévot, Antoine Saint-Exupéry, author, combat operations, dehydration, F-5B reconnaissance aircraft, finding his place as a wordsmith, Flight to Arras, gathering intelligence, hallucinations, L'Aviateur or The Aviator, Marseille, navigator, Night flight, pioneering flights, Riou Island, the fastest flying time from Paris to Saigon, the Free French Forces, The Little Prince, Wind Sand and Stars, World War II | Comments Off

Bert Stiles

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Joe Clark

Yesterday I wrote about the bomber bases in England, left crumbling today 66 years after the end of World War II. Mentioned in the blog, was the loss of talent resulting from the deaths of many. Specifically, I said I … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History, Writing | Tagged 505th Fighter Squadron, a feature writer, a writer ahead of his time, B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bassingbourn England, Bert Stiles, captured, dogfight, Estes Park, exceptional writing, flying the B-17 into combat, Hanover Germany, Hitler’s war effort, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51D, P-51s, Serenade to the Big Bird, Tar Heel, the 91st Bomb Group, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, The Saturday Evening Post, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, W.W. Norton & Co., World War II, World War II bases, wounded | Comments Off

I Woke in England

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Joe Clark

I woke this morning at 0530 and could not sleep any longer. I did not wish to disturb my wife, so I got up and started working. When I looked at the computer, I had forgotten to close Google Earth. … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, History | Tagged B-17 and B-24 heavy bombers, Bert Stiles, captured, Google Earth, Hitler’s war effort, I Woke in England, killed in action, missing, P-28s, P-47s, P-51s, The Eighth Air Force, the Royal Air Force, US Army Air Corps, V-1 buzz bombs, V-2 rockets, World War II bases, wounded | Comments Off

102 Years Ago Today

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Joe Clark

A little after four o’clock in the morning this day 102 years ago, 30 year-old Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, an engineer and early French aviator, was nursing a badly burned foot. He and two other early pilots, Hubert Latham and … Continue reading →

Posted in Aviation, Aviation History, Flying, History | Tagged 102 Years Ago Today, a 25-horsepower Anzani engine, a very rough landing, Blériot #VIII, Blériot #XI, Blériot-Aéronautique Aéronautique, Calais France, Charles de Lambert, crossing of the English Channel, Dover England, Hubert Latham, Louis Charles Joseph Blériot, Société Pour Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD), Société pour les Appareils Deperdussin, the airplane would never fly again, the Daily Mail, the Musee des Arts et Metiers | 1 Comment

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Category Archives: History

Veterans Day 2011

Truly, I am not dead, no matter what they say…

The Éole

Doing It the Old Fashioned Way

The Seventieth Reunion

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Bert Stiles

I Woke in England

102 Years Ago Today

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