That's cool as heck NOW much less all those years ago. What a rarity. I see the name Beeman's mentioned. I have one of their air pistols (recent mfg), wonder if it's the same family. here's more on the Girandoni
Whiskey, cigars and ice cream every day!
I bring that air gun up in the second amendment argument that when it was written they could never imagine the guns we have now.
Flush the terrorist toilet once again.
Jamal al-Badawi, the Yemeni al-Qaeda operative accused of organizing the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, has been killed in a U.S. airstrike. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and more than 40 others were injured in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack, in which al-Qaeda suicide bombers pulled up to the refueling destroyer in an explosives-laden boat and blasted a hole in its hull.
Badawi was sentenced to death by a Yemeni court in 2004, then had his sentence reduced to 15 years in prison. He made two successful jailbreaks in 2003 and 2006; after he surrendered in 2007, authorities in Yemen secretly made a deal to allow him to remain free in exchange for aiding in the search and capture of other al-Qaeda operatives.
News of the deal put a strain on relations between Yemen and the United States, where Badawi had been indicted by a federal grand jury on murder and terrorism charges and the State Department had offered a $5 million bounty for his capture.
Much respect to this man.
Remains identified as those of sailor credited with saving 15 lives at Pearl Harbor
By LEADA GORE | Alabama Media Group, Birmingham | Stars and Stripes Published: January 9, 2019
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Tribune News Service) — DNA testing has identified the remains of an Alabama sailor killed at Pearl Harbor. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Arnold Austin of Warrior was accounted for in September 2018, 77 years after his death on board the USS Oklahoma.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Austin was the Chief Warrant Officer on board the Oklahoma, moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits and quickly capsized. Austin, who had enlisted in the Navy in 1920 at the age of 15, was trapped with others on the ship but found a porthole beneath the water that provided an escape.
He is credited with assisting 15 sailors in escaping the Oklahoma, though he himself failed to get out. Austin died alongside 428 of his fellow crewmen. He was 36-years-old.
Austin was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross in recognition for actions that were in "keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.” “He gallantly gave his life for his country,” the commendation said. The USS Austin, an escort destroyer, is named in his honor.
Austin’s remains were among those transported to Halawa and Nu’uana cemeteries during the war. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of the U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries in an effort to confirm their identities. Only 35 of the men who died on board the Oklahoma were able to be identified at the time. The remaining 45 were buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii. In 1949, Austin and the remaining sailors who could not be identified were listed as non-recoverable.
In 2015, the Pentagon restarted efforts to identify the sailors from the USS Oklahoma and began exhuming their remains. Austin’s remains were later identified by scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System using mitochondrial DNA, dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.
More than 400,000 Americans were killed during World War II; 72,751 remain unaccounted for through 26,000 are considered to be possibly recoverable. Austin’s name is listed on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
The CitationThe President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Chief Carpenter John Arnold Austin (NSN: 75565), United States Navy, for exceptional courage, presence of mind, and devotion to duty and disregard for his personal safety while serving on board the Battleship U.S.S. OKLAHOMA (BB-37), during the Japanese attack on the United States Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. When the U.S.S. OKLAHOMA capsized, Chief Carpenter Austin and a number of the crew were entrapped in one of the ship's compartments. By his efforts, a porthole which was under water was located and he assisted fifteen of the crew to escape. The conduct of Chief Carpenter Austin throughout this action reflects great credit upon himself, and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country
Appears to be the only image on the web. I did find a promotion timeline:
As compensation for his hard work, I vote he not only gets a livable pension but is offered the opportunity to bitch slap Trump on national television.
"We have to be out of the shelter by 8 a.m. I'm not going to just sit around,” he said. “I have diabetes and cancer and this work helps me physically. So here I am.”
Mother nature abhors military bases, it seems.
Along with the a good swath of North Florida and Southwest Georgia, Northern Cali and Southern Oregon, etc, etc, etc.
Convenient. All of it.
