The video below is a highlight reel of US gun camera footage recently declassified and made available through the Romano Archives. The quality is pretty darn good and better than most that we've seen over the years. More stunning WWII footage can be seen at their homepage or on their Youtube channel, UnknownWW2InColor.

My, how the ROE has changed over the years!

So Who Is / Was Jeremiah Weed?

"A Hard Man to Know" - by Bob Greene

THIS is the story of how I went looking for a hero. I will tell you now that it has a sad ending.

Everywhere I have turned in the past few months, I have bumped into the name "Jeremiah Weed." Jeremiah Weed is a new brand of bourbon; it's a hundred proof, and it's manufactured by Heublein, - and it's being advertised in a lot of big magazines.

THE ADS are about Jeremiah Weed, the man. The first ad I noticed featured a vintage photograph of an 1890s dancehall girl, who was identified as "Kate Kincaid."

The text of the ad quoted Miss Kincaid as saying: "Jeremiah Weed? They say he was a real loner.. I know better."

Just in case I missed the point, the other copy in the advertisement told me that "Jeremiah was a lot of things. Loner was not one of them. He was a magnet for women. And the attraction was mutual."

SO Jeremiah was kind of a stud. Great. The next ad I saw him informed me that he had a sense of humor, too.

The picture in this ad was of Sean Sweeney, a railroad boss, Mr. Sweeney was saying: "We were stopped dead... 'cause Weed had traded all the railroad ties for two dozen oysters and a French piano."

All right! Jeremiah was a sly prankster. But just when I was thinking he might be too much of a gadabout. I learned about his more somber side.

This was in the third ad, which featured a picture of an old prospector named Pappy McCoy. Pappy said: "Jeremiah and me was surveying together for two months. He never said a word. That's what I call good company."

I WAS getting intrigued. Whoever this Jeremiah Weed was, I wanted to know more about him. Not only had they named a bourbon after him, but apparently he was one of the finest characters ever to come out out of the turn-of-the-century America.

Romantic, funny, taciturn ... in an age when we can't seem to find heroes. Jeremiah Weed was a guy I felt like knowing.

So I decided to do some research on Jeremiah and find out what made him tick. That's when I got the unhappy news.

"Uh ... Jeremiah never existed," said the liquor executive at Heublein.

"We made him up out of whole cloth," said the chairman of the board of Heubleins's advertising agency.

IT TURNS out that not only does Jeremiah Weed sound too good to be true. He is too good to be true.

"We wanted to create an image to associate with this new brand," said David Boyle, brand manager for Jeremiah Weed at Heublein. "We wanted something to compete with Wild Turkey and Yukon Jack and the rest.

We decided to build the image around a person. And since we didn't have any real person in mind, we decided to make up a Jeremiah Weed."

SO RATHER than stress the taste of the liquor, Heublein determined that it would romanticize this fellow Jeremiah Weed. The company wanted the young male drinkers to identify with Jeremiah.

When the drinkers thought of Jeremiah Weed, Boyle said, they were supposed to conger up certain feelings. "Ruggedness... maverick ... potent."

Heublein wasn't worried about whether a credible job of building up this fictional character was possible.

So Jeremiah Weed was born. I said that, in the ads, I have never seen Weed's face or heard him quoted directly.

"And you never will," Coleman said. "Our research showed that we didn't have to show Weed in order for people to identify with him. All we had to do was put the right words in other people's lips."

BESIDES, Coleman said, it would be virtually impossible to come up with a picture or drawing of Weed.

"I don't know who he is."

Below is a video shot on July 16,1969 during the launch of Apollo 11. It was filmed in 16mm format at 500 frames per second, stretching 30 secs. of film into 8 mins. of slow-mo awesomeness. (A shortened 2:45 version is below} Sadly, the Rocketdyne F-1 engines were retired after the Apollo program, but remain the most powerful rocket engine ever developed by the US. Each F-1 engine had more thrust than all 3 of the Space Shuttle's engines combined -- and the Saturn V rocket had five of them!

LTC Lee Archer, the first and only Tuskegee airman to become an ace, passed away this week at the age of 90. In 1942 Archer was assigned to the 302nd Fighter Squadron in Italy flying the P-39. The unit later converted to P-51's and Archer was credited with downing five German aircraft, including 3 Me-109's on one sortie in October 1944. The highly decorated fighter pilot (including the DFC and 18 Air Medals)  retired from the USAF in 1970 and was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush in 2007. The 302nd Squadron "Red Tails" is still active, flying F-22's at Elmendorf AFB, AK.

Why do  shit-hot guys  like LTC Archer never seem to be featured in Black History Month exposés?         [Full Obituary]

Moon hoax conspiracists point to the "waving" US flag on the moon as proof positive that the Apollo landings were faked. Ignoring the fact that the flag was bracketed by aluminum framing beneath the stitching - and the law of inertia - filmmaker Bart Sibrel has it all figured out. Sibrel, a numbskull conspiracist (and recipient of the Buzz Aldrin knuckle sandwich) claims, "The wind was probably caused by intense air-conditioning used to cool the astronauts in their lightened, uncirculated space suits." Yeah.

So who made the US flag that Armstrong and Aldrin planted forty years ago today? No one can say for sure and it is still a contested issue. Delores Black, a seamstress from Wisconsin, claims she made the flag for NASA and has her signature on the inseam to prove it - a pretty safe boast unlikely to ever be confirmed. In his book "All We Did Was Fly to the Moon", Dick Lattimer claims that the 3'x5' flags were purchased off the shelf at a local Sears store and modified. Fearing another "Tang" situation, NASA chose to keep the source quiet. [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWghCdIqedA 400x300]

Twenty four hours after launch, Apollo 11 was hurtling along nicely toward the moon at a cool 24,545 mph, or roughly Mach 409 give or take a few Ernsts. That's a little slower than the 24,791 mph its predecessor Apollo 10 hit on its way back from the moon - still a record for a manned vehicle according to Guinness. But while all eyes focused on Apollo, there was a little publicized wildcard entry into the space race - Russia's Luna 15.

Resembling something created in a "Junkyard Wars" episode, the USSR launched the unmanned Luna 15 three days before Apollo 11 in hopes of upstaging the US. They planned on landing the probe on the lunar surface, collecting soil samples, and racing back to Earth before Apollo splashdown. The crew  of Apollo 11 was briefed daily on the progress of Luna 15, and it was being closely followed by NASA and tracking stations in the UK. It entered lunar orbit on July 17, 1969, and was still in orbit three days later as Armstrong took his first steps. While the astronauts prepared to leave the moon on July 21st, Luna 15 finally began its descent and attempted to land -- only to end up as a smoking hole on the lunar surface.

Below is a fake video of Luna 15 orbiting above the Eagle lander and then crashing. I include it only to demonstrate the idiocy of the film makers. Since when do parachutes inflate without an atmosphere?

Apollo 11 lifts of from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, FL. Still the most powerful machine ever built, the huge Saturn 5 rocket generated close to 8 million lbs. of thrust as the crew set off on an 8-day mission to the moon. Below is the actual news broadcast of the event. Seems like it was only yesterday...

 [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNryrsT7OI 400x300]

 I was only 3 when JFK was shot so I can't tell you what I was doing the second it was announced, but I can tell you exactly where I was when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. As we approach the 40th anniversary of man's first step on another world, I thought I'd throw out a few little known pieces of trivia from the Apollo program over the next few weeks that may have slipped from your memory.

Apollo 7

Apollo 7 resurrected the moon race from the ashes of the Apollo 1 disaster, and  was the first Apollo mission commanded by one of the Original 7 astronauts, Wally Schirra. The Original 7 were the rock stars of the astronaut corps and weren't afraid to call a spade a spade with the higher-ups.  A veteran of Mercury and Gemini  with 295 hours in space, Schirra was a mission-oriented ex-fighter pilot with a MiG-15 kill to his credit in Korea, and had little patience for the lab coats.  By the time the 11-day mission was over, NASA would have the final say in this American hero's career.

Fighting nasty colds during the mission,  Schirra and his crew started gulping Actifed tablets which ran down their patience and their tact in dealing with the shoe clerks on the ground.  As NASA loaded them up with superfluous additions to the flight plan and publicity stunt TV broadcasts (Apollo 7 was the first to beam down live TV to earth), communications became heated. Reporters the world over noticed the tone of the exchanges between Schirra and Houston, and began to write about the "snappishnish" of the astronauts. Head of  the astronaut corps Deke Slayton was called in to admonish Schirra in this curt exchange:

"I told him that the whole world was following this flight and that he and his crew were not coming across well," Slayton said. "I told him he was trained to do a job and that he'd better get busy doing it." And?

 "And he told me to go to hell."  None of the Apollo 7 crew ever flew into space again - remember that next time you feel like flipping off your boss.

Apollo 8

"Earthrise over the moon" is one of the most famous photos to come out of the space program and gave us the first high-resolution, full color look at our world as viewed from lunar orbit. LEM pilot Bill Anders snapped the photo on Christmas Eve 1968, followed shortly thereafter by Commander Frank Borman's reading from the Book of Genesis as live video was beamed back to Earth. Pretty heavy stuff.

Stuff that was apparently too heavy for Madalyn Murray O'Hair - founder of the American Atheists - to accept. She filed a lawsuit against NASA for 1st Amendment violations, claiming that as government employees, astronauts should not be allowed to mention anything to do with religion while carrying out their duties. The suit was thrown out by the US Supreme Court, citing lack of jurisdiction.

Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, the U.S. Marine Corps' most decorated pilot ever, passed away recently at age 89. Reusser flew 253 combat missions spanning WWII, Korea and Vietnam, earning 59 medals including 2 Navy Crosses, 2 Legion of Merits and 4 Purple hearts.

His earned his first Cross in 1945. As the Pacific war drew to a close, he stripped down his F-4-U Corsair in order to get up to altitude to intercept a Japanese observation plane flying over Okinawa. When his guns froze at altitude, he rejoined on the target and used his propeller to slice the tail off the aircraft - hey, a kill's a kill right? He joined the famed Black Sheep squadron during the Korean War and earned another Cross during a low-level attack on a tank farm in Inchon. After suffering significant BDA, he RTB'd for repairs and refueling, then returned to Inchon to give the Commies a bigger piece of him - this time taking out a fuel storage facility in the midst of significant AAA. He flew choppers during Vietnam, where he suffered 3rd degree burns over 1/3 of his body after being shot down for the 5th time. Talk about balls!

You would think this hero's obituary would mean more to this country than that pedophile MJ...RIP Colonel.

The recent coup in Honduras had been brewing for quite a while. As President Manuel Zelaya approached the end of his term, he sought a public referendum to amend the constitution to allow multiple terms and pave the way for even more socialist reforms in the country. The problem was that Zelaya - a big fan of that rude, chubby little bastard Chavez - dismissed a ruling from his own supreme court that declared such referenda illegal under the Honduran constitution. Bingo, presto - you're outta there! Military coups in Central America are nothing new - hell, Chiquita Banana's parent company United Fruit orchestrated a CIA-backed coup in Guatemala back in 1954 - so why should we care?

Honduras is a poor nation that is stuck in the third-world rut. In its favor are some of the best cigars, coffee, scuba diving and beaches anywhere - along with some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet.  Hoping to even the huge economic divide between classes, they foolishly elected a socialist president in 2006 who (like Chavez), wanted to become a dictator for life by changing the constitution for his own benefit. Sound familiar?

The military did what I hope our own military would do someday if this country reaches the point of putting one man above our laws and Constitution - they marched in, arrested the guy, and then handed power back over to the congress. This is not your father's Latin American coup by any stretch - if anything, it's a prime example of how a military should act in a democracy when despots seek to abridge the law.

Chavez has threatened military action to restore Zelaya to his burgeoning throne, and since he's spent billions buying Russian arms the last few years, it probably wouldn't take long for Venezuela to beat the snot out of the Honduran military. That of course would set a really bad precedent and do away with what's left of the Monroe Doctrine should Obama fail to act. The Monroe Doctrine was invoked to keep European powers out of our back yard - powers precisely like Russia who through proxy would have a foothold in the one country in which I'm seriously considering retiring!

...and offer thanks to the members of our Greatest Generation for having the balls to charge up the beaches of Normandy in the face of brutal German resistance.  Well done fellas...

The Doc Morris pharmacy in Germany has a new condom advertising campaign featuring three of the most notorious scoundrels from history -  as spermazoids. The Chinese already have their panties in a twist over these ads,  and Al Jazeera probably won't be far behind. Clever!

Steve Davies has put together a well-researched history of the 4477th Red Eagles from early concept to final operations in the late 1980's. This book is a fantastic read and runs through the evolution of the USAF and USN Aggressors, the early "HAVE" programs, and offers some great insight  into how all those black 'compartmentalized' programs are put together and made operational. It also gives an insider's view into the politics and personalities that ran TAC during this era, including some real dicks like Creech, Kempf, Dugan and Russ, who eventually shut the whole CONSTANT PEG operation down.

We all knew the Red Eagles existed and while some of us were lucky enough to fly against them, I'd be willing to bet there's also a few Dooferbook members who have logged some MiG time in their careers. Don't be afraid to chime in on one of the coolest things to come out of 'Area 51'!

24 Mar - 20 Jun 1999, Operation ALLIED FORCE / NOBLE ANVIL.  To prevent the forced eviction and genocide of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo, NATO launched this operation against Yugoslavia.  It was exclusively an air campaign and NATO's first combat operation against a sovereign nation.  The U.S. named its part of the Operation NOBLE ANVIL.  Additionally, the USAF used the B-2 for the first time in combat, while F-15 pilots shot down two MiG-29s on the first day of combat.  

(Left) An F-16CJ assigned to the 23rd Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, taxis for takeoff while deployed to Aviano Air Base, Italy.

20 Mar 1944; On the day after Operation STRANGLE began, Mount Vesuvius erupted and buried the Pompeii airdrome, the base of the 340th Bomb Group conducting operations against German forces.  Lava cinders destroyed or damaged some 88 B-25s in one of the worst single losses of aircraft in the war.

19 Mar 1944; Operation STRANGLE begins.  In the European theater of World War II, Allied progress north through Italy was blocked by a concentration of German defenses called the Gustav Line.  To reach Rome, the Allies tried to go around these defenses with an amphibious landing at Anzio, but this attack was also blocked.  The Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (MAAF) drafted a plan calling for thousands of aircraft to attack every enemy rail route and starve the German army of supplies.  Operation STRANGLE differed from earlier air campaigns as the MAAF simultaneously targeted whole systems of bridges, yards, tunnels, and even open stretches of track (photo below).  The Germans worked hard to repair the damage and tried using trucks to keep supplies moving, but their transport system capacity was reduced from 80,000 to 4,000 tons per day delivered to the front.  However, with a lack of Allied progress on the ground, the static battlefield permitted the Germans to maintain their forces in central Italy by strict rationing, foraging for food, and moving supplies and reinforcements after dark.  When rested and refitted Allied armies assaulted the Gustav Line on May 12th, they enjoyed the support of Allied air forces striking both the front and rear enemy areas.  American and British ground forces finally breached the Gustav Line and forced the Germans to retreat.  On the evening of June 4, 1944, American patrols entered Rome.

One of the best quotes from this video.  Nuff said....

http://www.warriorsthefilm.com/Movie.html

17 Mar 1961; Northrop delivered the first T-38 Talon jet trainer to ATC at Randolph AFB.  Since its introduction, it is estimated that some 50,000 military pilots have trained on this aircraft.  The USAF remains one of the few armed forces using dedicated supersonic final trainers.  Upgrades and modifications should extend the T-38 service life to 2020.

15 March 1916.  The 1st Aero Squadron (AS) became the first U.S. aviation unit to engage in field operations.  Equipped with eight Curtis JN-3 aircraft, the 1st AS arrived at Columbus, New Mexico to join Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing's punitive expedition against Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.  The following day, Capt Townsend F. Dodd, pilot, and Capt Benjamin D. Foulois, observer and unit commander, flew over Mexico in the first American military reconnaissance flight over foreign territory.

The 1st Aero Squadron enabled Pershing to locate and communicate with his widely dispersed, fast-moving columns and carried dispatches between Pershing's main and advanced bases.  The squadron also scouted for hostile forces and threats to Pershing's lines of communications.  These efforts were made in some of the worst weather and poorest conditions imaginable, and by the end of April all eight of the 1st AS airplanes had been destroyed.

7 Mar 1955.  The USAF formed the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron to perform a unique mission.  During the Korean War, long-range reconnaissance aircraft proved to be highly vulnerable to enemy fighters.  In a determined effort to gather intelligence during the Cold War, the 91st used B-36 bombers as mother-ships to carry, launch and recover F-84F reconnaissance aircraft.  F-84 pilots boarded their aircraft through the modified B-36 bomb bay.  Known as the Fighter-Conveyance (FICON) system, this perilous procedure led to many near-fatal accidents until the U-2 and other measures made the program obsolete. 

 20 Feb 1944 BIG WEEK, Through 25 February, Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces began Big Week air raids on German aircraft production.  The planners intended to lure the Luftwaffe into decisive battle, achieve air superiority and then proceed with the invasion of Europe.  Although damage to the German aircraft industry was only moderate, the newly arrived P-51 escorts decimated the pilot ranks of the heavy, twin-engined German fighters.  These fighter escorts lowered US bomber losses from 30 to six percent and won air superiority over Europe for the rest of the war.

24 Jan 1953, Two USAF pilots of the 51st FIW, Captains Dolphin D. Overton III and Harold E. Fischer, Jr., achieved ace status.  In addition, Captain Overton (photo) set a record for becoming a jet ace in the shortest time (four days). 

Overton did not receive credit for two other kills because they occurred in Chinese airspace - a violation of the Rules Of Engagement which banned combat sorties across the Yalu River into China except in the case of "hot pursuit."  Captain Overton was the first F-86 pilot to be caught unauthorized over the Yalu.  He was grounded, sent home and threatened with a general court martial to compel him to resign from the Air Force.  When ground crews learned what had happened they threatened to mutiny and no other pilots were punished.  Captain Overton's awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross and four Air Medals.  Obviously, he was in "hot pursuit!"

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Fleming (then 1st Lt.) distinguished himself as the Aircraft Commander of a UH-1F transport helicopter. Capt. Fleming went to the aid of a 6-man Special Forces long range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that 1 helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Capt. Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Capt. Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Capt. Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Capt. Fleming's profound concern for his fellow men, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

Al Gore - aka "ManBearPig"- has been busy rewriting world history. Gore argues that Mayan civilization became a victim of its own environmental excesses and destroyed itself.

Below is an except from his daily blog :

 "New study suggests the Mayan civilization might have collapsed due to environmental disasters"

Let's point a few things about the Mayans that Gore obviously doesn't get. First off, the Mayans are quite alive (and have been since the days of Cortez), although with smallpox, syphillus and other epidemics, one could argue that they haven't always been well. Yes, their pre-Colombian ways changed as they were assimilated into Western civilization, but the Mayans are still cranking out crummy tapestries, rope hammocks and mystical reproductions of their ancient calendars. They peddle these things in new age 'wisdom' shops around the world and sell kick-ass dope to beach-goers who visit the Yucatan.

So what was this great environmental disaster? Gore cites the following from environmental archaeologist Kitty Emery of the Florida Museum of Natural History:

[Their] ecosystems were destroyed by mismanagement or were transformed by global climatic shifts, the depletion of agricultural and wild foods eventually contributed to the failure of the Maya sociopolitical system."

The Yucatan is an immensely fertile region that will grow anything (ref. beach-goers above). Spanish colonial settlement in the Yucatan in the wake of Cortez was huge, and while the New Worlders in Mexico faced many obstacles, food isn't mentioned as one of them. In gardening terms, the Yucatan is Zone 11, Jamestown Zone 7 and Plymouth is barely Zone 6. All sorts of shit will grow in Zone 11 as evidenced by the lush jungle that covers the bulk of the region. But none of this seems to matter with Gore.

"As we move towards solving the climate crisis, we need to remember the consequences to civilizations that refused to take environmental concerns seriously."

This last line is utterly ridiculous and testifies to the wanton disregard of the historical record by revisionists like Gore. Usually these people take the other end of the debate and put the whole blame on Colombus for the decline of the New World indians. So which is it?

Nazi leader Hitler really did have only one ball

Hitler really did have only one ball, according to claims by a German army medic who saved the Führer's life during the First World War.

By Alastair Jamieson Last Updated: 1:03PM GMT 19 Nov 2008

Although it was known Hitler suffered a groin injury in the Somme, evidence that he was 'monorchic' - the medical word for the condition - has evaded historians Photo: PA

The Nazi leader lost a testicle during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the doctor claimed.

The medical condition, for which there has never been conclusive proof, was mocked in the Second World War ditty which begins: "Hitler has only got one ball, the other is in the Albert Hall."

The disclosure is made in a document noting a conversation in the 1960s between German war doctor Johan Jambor and his priest, Franciszek Pawlar, according to The Sun. The priest's document has come to light 23 years after Jambor's death.

Although it was known Hitler suffered a groin injury in the Somme, evidence that he was 'monorchic' - the medical word for the condition - has evaded historians.

Blassius Hanczuch, a friend of Jambor, said the doctor later blamed himself for saving Hitler's life. He said: "In 1916 they had their hardest fight in the Battle of the Somme. For several hours, Johan and his friends picked up injured soldiers. He remembers Hitler. They called him the 'Screamer'. He was very noisy. Hitler was screaming 'help, help'.

"His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Will I be able to have children?'."

The popular song emerged in 1939 and is thought to have been written by a publicist for the British Council, which was tasked with helping build propaganda that would damage the Nazis.

The commonly-recalled version is an adaption of the original, which ran: "Göring has only got one ball, Hitler's [are] so very small, Himmler's so very similar, And Goebbels has no balls at all."

9 Nov 1967, MEDAL OF HONOR. Ejecting from his F-4C Phantom over North Vietnam, Capt. Lance P. Sijan successfully evaded capture for more than six weeks. Enemy forces captured him, but the severely weakened and injured Sijan managed to escape. After his recapture and torture, he contracted pneumonia and died. He received the Medal of Honor posthumously. http://www.afa.org/magazine/valor/1286valor.asp.

3 November 1944, Japanese balloons with bombs attached were first launched, hoping the jet stream would carry them eastward across the Pacific to the United States. The Japanese launched some 9,000 balloon bombs against the U.S. during the war. The bombs were meant to start forest fires, produce chaos and divert manpower from the war effort in the U.S. They were also a reprisal for the Doolittle raid on Tokyo. The hydrogenfilled balloons were 33 feet in diameter and carried ballast and hydrogen release mechanisms to maintain altitude across the North Pacific. They were armed with incendiary and anti-personnel bombs. Only about 300 were ever observed in North America (http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/forensic_geology/Japanese%20vengeance%20bombs%20of%20World%20War%202_files/image007.jpg). The easternmost balloon reached the Detroit suburbs. Analysts estimate that as many as 1,000 may have actually made it to land. Fighters in the U.S. intercepted about 20 of the balloons. The only fatal attack occurred in Oregon when a pastor's wife and six children were killed as the children pulled on the balloon. The U.S. strategy was to keep the Japanese from knowing of the balloon bombs' effectiveness. The press cooperated by not publishing any balloon bomb incidents. As a result, the Japanese only learned of one bomb reaching Wyoming and failing to explode, so they stopped the launches after less than six months. After the war, the press blackout was lifted and the public was warned about the potential danger of finding unexploded bombs. The last balloon with a still-lethal payload was discovered in 1955, and balloon remnants have been found as late as 1992. On March 10, 1945, one of the last balloons descended near the Manhattan Project's Hanford Site in south-central Washington. The balloon caused a short circuit in the power lines to the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power almost immediately. The Hanford Site was the world's first plutonium production facility, and it provided materials for the Trinity test and the Nagasaki weapon.

A little RAF history.