On This day in Aviation History: Da Nang Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Associated Press, United States Marine Corps, George C. Herring, America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975, (4th Edition; New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002) Da Nang, for those assigned there not long after 1965, was not so exotic, despite its exotic-sounding…
On This Day in Aviation History: The Caterpillar Club and Lindbergh Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Wikipedia.com/Goodfellows Historical Foundation Caterpillar Club From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia downloaded from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_Club on March 5, 2025. A pin from a parachute company, possibly Switlik or Standard Parachute. This style is common in catalogs and auctions of military memorabilia. …
On This Day in Space and Aviation History in 1966: Venera 3 Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Wikipedia, History.com Landing (even crash-landing) on another planet and as early as pre-internet and pre-desk top computers and cell phones? How did we do it? It seems implausible but we, in fact, did it! According to History.com and…
Sucker Holes Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: NASA, Avgeekery.com I have memory of a terrifying moment during my flight training at NAS Pensacola flying the T-28 Trojan back in the late 1970’s. I may be embellishing the terror I seem to remember, but not too much. Flying solo in a big, radial engine aircraft. I…
February 20, 1942 Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Navy Times, Military History , Generative AI, National Archives Sometimes it’s difficult to determine who…or what…was first. While it might seem simple, it can depend on defining what the word “first” means and how that word is applied. For instance: In an article published on August…
Philippine Mars Final Flight Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: Business Insider by Lauren Frias, US Navy, Coulson Aviation Note below, copied in its entirety from Business Insider by Lauren Frias, the historic final flight of one of the world’s largest aircraft and one with a storied history. Business Insider by Lauren Frias Feb 18, 2025…
Out of an Abundance of Caution Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, NASA “Out of an abundance of caution…”. How many times have you heard (so-called) leaders use this excuse for being risk averse? What did an abundance of caution ever get us other than lost opportunities? Of course, this is just my opinion (for…
A January 28th “Three-fer” Contributor: Barry Fetzer Sources: History.com, Boom Supersonic, Wikipedia, Associated Press I might be accused, yesterday, of “being asleep at the switch”. Guilty as charged. Three aviation history events happened yesterday in 1964, 1986, and in 2025. Instead of publishing a “three-fer” aviation history vignette yesterday, I flapped my trap and published…