What Could of Been....

[+Dave 2,322]

Many of you know who Saburo Sakai is. But did you know this?

 

Sakai came very close to changing history in a very major way in April 1942. By then, the Tainan Wing was based at Lae on the northern coast of New Guinea, and was engaged in gaining air superiority over the Allied forces at Port Moresby, prior to the coming Japanese invasion. Among their opponents were the recently-arrived B-26 Marauders of the 22nd Bomb Group, which made several unescorted low level daylight raids on Lae, during which the Japanese exacted high losses on the unit.

 

During one of these attacks, Sakai attacked a B-26 named "The Harrying Hare," damaging it severely and nearly shooting it down. Riding as a passenger in "The Harrying Hare" was a terrified American congressman who had obtained a commission as a Lieutenant Commander and was touring the war zone to obtain some publicity for himself for later use in his re-election campaign that fall. The congressman was Lyndon Baines Johnson, later 36th President of the United States. On his return from the mission, Douglas MacArthur pinned a Silver Star on him (in hopes he would go home and vote in Congress to provide the supplies the general needed). Forever after, to the discomfort of people who knew what the Silver Star was supposed to represent, Johnson would brag about his “heroism” that day and portray himself to the electorate as a “decorated war hero.” One wonders how later history would have been different had Sakai had the good luck to shoot down "The Harrying Hare" that day.

 

Badly wounded and blinded in one eye from his encounter with the dive bombers over Guadalcanal on August 7, 1942, Sakai performed one of the great feats of aviation, flying his shot-up Zero 600 miles over open ocean, unable to see out of his one good eye due to blood flowing from a bad head wound, all the way back to Rabaul. He was sent back to Japan to recover, and did not enter combat again for another two years; this likely contributed to his surviving the war, since almost all the men he had served with in the Tainan Wing would die in the Solomons Campaign and Rabaul campaigns, the graveyard of the Imperial Navy's air force.

[eraser_tr 29]

Indeed, Kennedy wouldn't have been assassinated, no Vietnam. But then look at it this way, we wouldn't have the great vietnam era music. And you never know what might have happened instead, with an alternate timeline, we might have gone to war with the soviets and wiped life off the face of the earth entirely in a nuclear holocaust.

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

I dunno, it may have had a good outcome for us here. "Pig Iron Bob" (Former Prime Minister Bob Menzes) wouldn't have stayed in power for so long. In 1965 (or whenever) he wouldn't have made the infamous "All the way with LBJ" speech. He would have been turfed out of office sooner, we would have distanced ourselves from Mother England sooner, hell, we might have been a republic today!

 

Yeah... a lot of that would have worked out nicely... Damn imperial Japnese pilots who didn't shoot straight!

[TX3RN0BILL 3]

I read in the "Aces of the Pacific" manual that George Bush Senior was a pilot of a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber, and that he had to bail out too... Shot down by AAA... but not killed... I wondered what had happened if he'd been sent to Davy Jones's locker... Since the incident was before the existence of George W. Bush...

[+Typhoid 231]

I read in the "Aces of the Pacific" manual that George Bush Senior was a pilot of a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber, and that he had to bail out too... Shot down by AAA... but not killed... I wondered what had happened if he'd been sent to Davy Jones's locker... Since the incident was before the existence of George W. Bush...

 

yea, we might have been stuck with a disreputable, no acount, draft-dodging governor from Arkansas.................

[TX3RN0BILL 3]

yea, we might have been stuck with a disreputable, no acount, draft-dodging governor from Arkansas.................

 

Even better, there very well may not have been a 9/11!!!

[eraser_tr 29]

yea, we might have been stuck with a disreputable, no acount, draft-dodging governor from Arkansas.................

 

But certainly without a disreputable, no account, draft-dodging governor from Texas. And I'm absolutely convinced 9/11 would not have occured had anyone else (McCain most likely) been president

 

Why the Clinton hate? Life was good, the future looked good, and the whole world didn't hate us. No rampant paranoia. He was criticised about oil being $26 a barrel. We had a constitution still, I didn't have to worry about some NSA lackey reading every word I wrote and hearing everything I said over the phone. And legitimate elections.

 

All that compared to a blow job. I'd rather see a good job being done and the guy be a sexual scumbag than a self appointed saint with the intellect and maturity of a five year old spoiled rich kid.

[+Typhoid 231]

But certainly without a disreputable, no account, draft-dodging governor from Texas. And I'm absolutely convinced 9/11 would not have occured had anyone else (McCain most likely) been president

 

Why the Clinton hate? Life was good, the future looked good, and the whole world didn't hate us. No rampant paranoia. He was criticised about oil being $26 a barrel. We had a constitution still, I didn't have to worry about some NSA lackey reading every word I wrote and hearing everything I said over the phone. And legitimate elections.

 

All that compared to a blow job. I'd rather see a good job being done and the guy be a sexual scumbag than a self appointed saint with the intellect and maturity of a five year old spoiled rich kid.

 

a response will clearly put me over the line for going political here. To put it very mildly, I disagree with every point you've tried to make. In my estimation - that description of both regimes is simply deranged.

 

a couple of comments though;

 

flying F-102 interceptors for NORAD and volunteering for a Vietnam deployment with the unit hardly qualifies as draft dodging and is far cry from the Clinton letter of how he "despised the military". (a sentiment we were content to return)

 

"I didn't have to worry about some NSA lackey reading every word I wrote and hearing everything I said over the phone." how quickly the left forgets about the Clinton era programs using NSA computers to eavesdrop and the targetting of political opponents with IRS audits. Do you remember a thousand FBI files of political opponents found in Hillary's files? The same Hillary now running for President?

 

"And legitimate elections." they were. Or perhaps you are referring to the recent stolen vote in the House by the Democrats?

 

"And I'm absolutely convinced 9/11 would not have occured had anyone else (McCain most likely) been president"

 

no president could have prevented that. Read the 9/11 Commission report. the attack was planned and trained for years in advance, during the Clinton years, and kept under wraps because of the Clinton prohibition against sharing of intelligence data between the CIA and the FBI.

 

"Why the Clinton hate?" because he was and is a despicable piece of gutter-trash who talked a good game and lied about everything and everybody. He was and is a master political manipulator without morals, concience or integrity who literally sold our country's security for Chinese political campaign contributions. He was impeached for the wrong reasons - he should have been impeached over his political corruption and jailed for life after being shot for treason (selling ICBM technology to China for the afor mentioned political contributions). And now - his wife's latest scandals are tied up in, yet again, Chinese political campaign contributions.

 

Why the Bush Hatred? because that is the propaganda you've been fed?

 

On this issue, we will never agree and will have to agree to disagree and focus on flight sims..........

 

[eraser_tr 29]

No, because I see his blunders happening as they unfold.

 

You'd probably be singing a different tune had you lost practically all your income, with taxes and all other expenses trippling when his oh so great tax cuts came around. And you've had to see the video of him sitting there with a dumb look on his face after Andy Card told him we were under attack.

[+Typhoid 231]

No, because I see his blunders happening as they unfold.

 

You'd probably be singing a different tune had you lost practically all your income, with taxes and all other expenses trippling when his oh so great tax cuts came around. And you've had to see the video of him sitting there with a dumb look on his face after Andy Card told him we were under attack.

 

"had you lost practically all your income, (since I was one of the one million that Clinton threw out of the military, that might be considered a contributing factor of my continued disgust) with taxes and all other expenses trippling when his oh so great tax cuts came around." why would anyone loose their income if tax rate cuts happened? Or are you one of those who have fallen for the idiotic piece of lying propaganda that tax rate cuts actually cause a loss of revenue and the government owes me a living handout?

 

"and all other expenses trippling" I don't recall inflation hitting those kinds of numbers. Pure sophistry. Of course, if you referring to gas prices - do you have any idea of what drives gas prices? (thought not......)

 

"And you've had to see the video of him sitting there with a dumb look on his face after Andy Card told him we were under attack." are you suggesting that he should have been running out to "take command" from the military professionals who were trying to deal with an attack we had not forseen? What do you suggest he should have done that he or those charged with the responsibilities did not do?

Edited September 5, 2007 by Typhoid

[+Dave 2,322]

Well eraser, Clinton takes credit for Reagan's work in the 80's. Remember how Reagan said it would take time for the economy to right itself? It did in the 90's based on his work with the economy. Slick Willy didn't do a thing. I used to be a Bush fan but he has gotten wrong advice on this Iraq thing and now good military men and women are paying for it. But I will say this, Bush was in the military and Clinton was not.....period. Today is my 16 year mark in the USAF and we are a shell of what we used to be because Clinton cut us to shreds. The US military is a shell of what it was before Clinton tore it to bits. I will give one thing to Bush, he is not a world yes man like Clinton was. Had Clinton taken out Osama when he had the intel there would of never been 9/11. Clinton rolled over after the first WTC bombing, he rolled over after Kobar Towers. Oh and his little tomahawk attack in Afghanistan, didn't do crap. He did just enough to give people what they wanted. So before you start riding the Clinton horse, carrying his banner, you better check again. He didn't do a damn thing but got his pee pee sucked by an intern and got impeached for it.

[+JSF_Aggie 1,291]

And you've had to see the video of him sitting there with a dumb look on his face after Andy Card told him we were under attack.

 

What exactly is the correct immediate response to being informed about something of that magnitude?

[+NeverEnough 78]

And the real irony of it all is that the most ethically challenged of the "buy one, get one free" duo, is running for President! Bubba was probably the most gifted politician of the latter part of the 20th century, but he was a train wreck of a human being. All those seriously twisted land deals were drafted by the Rose Law Firm, and Hillary originated all the legal contracts. Bubba would just tell everyone exactly what they wanted to hear, and dazzle them with his personality. Hillary has always been the truly pathological party.

[Longestpants 1]

How many head wounds did Saburo Sakai have?! I remember an episode of Dogfights where he got shot through the head, I think it was something about Guadalcanal. Did anyone else see that one?

[+Typhoid 231]

How many head wounds did Saburo Sakai have?! I remember an episode of Dogfights where he got shot through the head, I think it was something about Guadalcanal. Did anyone else see that one?

 

don't know about that but I remember reading about the fight in "Samarai". I don't recall all the details but I think his head wounds were the canopy fragments.

[TX3RN0BILL 3]

USAFMTL, I think you're being harsh and a little bit out of context. Any other president of the US would have been under the same pressure to drastically reduce military spending because the Cold War was over and there simply was no justification in the 90s to keep spending on a military focused on fighting a Cold War. Wether that decision was correct or not remains to be seen (thanks to Putin's Russia, the world's history books may very well watch with disdain the reduction of the armed forces, even if the peace period between cold wars would only be like 20-25 years) - but back then, everybody was happy that the US won, and started to see that other areas could do well with money being given to a military ready to fight a war that actually didn't happen, so I don't think blaming Clinton for it is fair, if Bush had been in the hot seat, it would have been his signatures on the same pieces of paper...

[Silverbolt 104]

The Discovery channel dont has one show about sakai life?

i saw this few months ago

[+Dave 2,322]

Well anyway this one got off topic big time......so lets this one go.