Remembering Frank Waterhouse

Following is a portion of an oral history I took several years ago regarding my uncle Frank Waterhouse's service in the 1948 War for Israeli Independence. This portion, unrelated to the Israeli war, is about Frank's flights out of Tibenham (a/k/a Tivetshall) near Norwich in Norfolk, England in 1944. Tivetshall was home to the United States Eighth Air Force 445th Bombardment Group (Heavy). The quotations are Frank's. -- Constant Weader

Frank flew four or five missions before D-Day, bombing inside of France. On D-Day, Frank’s crew took off at 2 a.m. in a formation of 36 B-24s. Frank and the pilot, named Beckham, thought they were following the lead element. But “when the sun came up, we didn’t see anybody; we couldn’t find our group. We had been following a light, but the light was some other group. It’s a wonder a whole mess of people didn’t run into each other that night. We unloaded our bombs after daylight close behind the lines.” Frank was 19 years old on D-Day.

“In later missions, we went to Munich, and to Ulm, which we bombed three days in a row. On one mission, we started to go to Berlin, but the weather was bad. One time we hit an oil storage facility – there was smoke and fire up to our altitude.”

Despite the months of training in the States, it seems the Army Air Force shorted the pilots on some pretty basic training – like how to land the planes they were to fly into combat. Frank said, “In Boise, they had allowed me to try one landing, which I did with an instructor who had ultimate control of the plane. I really couldn’t tell who landed that plane – he or I. That was my only landing before I got to England. In England, I did some test runs of the B-24 so I could get some landings in. I made maybe four or five landings on tests.”

Groups who had arrived before Frank’s had a requirement of 25 missions. The famous Memphis Belle (a B-17) flew with Frank’s group on one mission: “she hadn’t got her 25 by then.” As American forces “broke the Germans’ back” and their air defenses “weren’t as severe, they extended the tours to 30 missions. But the German ack-ack had radar, and when we would make evasive maneuvers the ack-ack would start.”

The formation of 36 planes had four “elements,” with one flying above, one below to the left, one below to the right and one behind. “When you’re in the lower left element the pilot couldn’t see the lead, so it was up to the co-pilot to fly the plane and the pilot would relieve me temporarily. I didn’t have to worry about being cold because I was sweating so much.

“But it was cold. We wore heated gloves and heated boots. We called our seats coffin seats; they were shaped like a coffin top facing forward so we could see where to fly. They protected us underneath and behind, but we wore flak suits on our chests and helmets like ground soldiers to protect us from German ack-ack. One day we were flying a mission near Paris and I thought I’d been hit. I shouted to Beckham, ‘I think I’ve been hit.’ But I hadn’t been hit at all. A heated glove had shorted out.

“The German ack-ack would follow us. Unless you were the lead ship, they didn’t use a navigator, so our navigator became the lead bombardier. The others would drop their bombs when he dropped his. On a mission to Hamburg, the ack-ack was coming within two feet of the nose and I couldn’t tell what was going on in the rear. I called to Finley, a bombardier, who was a Texan, ‘Are you okay, Finley?’ He didn’t answer, and I kept calling. Finally I heard, ‘Shut up, Waterhouse.’ Finley was okay.

“I don’t think our plane was ever actually hit.

“After awhile, they upped the tours to 35 missions. Toward the end of my tour, the rest of the crew went home except Johnson, who was the navigator, and me. I flew with another crew and a pilot named Bruland. He was shot down after I left, but I later found him listed as a member of the Second Air Division, so he made it. In formation, we led the lower left element. Flying the lead in a lower element was called ‘flying with your head up.’ On my military record there’s a little blurb that says, ‘Element lead on 20 missions.’"

The Commentariat -- May 26, 2014

Internal links, obsolete video & related text removed.

E. J. Dionne on the history of Memorial Day. "As we honor our war dead, let us pause to consider how we are discharging our obligations to their legacy."

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday for an unannounced visit to mark ­Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months of America's longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year."

Constant Weader: On this particular Memorial Day, I specially honor two veterans who died recently:

     My husband, Aldo Scaglione, who was a partisano -- an Italian citizen who fought on the side of the Allies. Since he was fighting his own government, Aldo was in danger all through the period of his service and had a least one close call. He & his fellow partisani liberated several villages near the end of the war; he said they were lucky the Germans were sick of fighting, as the partisani, armed with their crummy American rifles, were no match for German soldiers.

     My uncle, Frank Waterhouse, who flew 35 missions over France in 1944, including a flight on June 5 several flights before D-Day & a bombing mission on D-Day. Frank became a SAC test pilot after WWII & was also a helicopter pilot who (for a short time) held the world speed record for helicopters, a record he set while crossing the Amazon, ca. 1946.

     Please feel free to share your own remembrances.

Adam Gopnik of the New Yorker: "Christopher [Martinez] died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the N.R.A. That's true. That the killer in question was in the grip of a mad, woman-hating ideology, or that he was also capable of stabbing someone to death with a knife, are peripheral issues to the central one of a gun culture that has struck the Martinez family and ruined their lives. (The shooter, Elliot Rodger, had three semi-automatic handguns that, according to the Los Angeles Times, he'd purchased legally.)... It would be nice if the President, who knows all this perfectly well, put aside his conciliatory manner and his search for consensus and just said it. Speak up, Mr. President! Speak plainly. Just say, 'Last night, I heard Chris's dad. He's right.'" ...

... Philip Rucker & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "... signs of Rodger's troubles, which grew increasingly frequent in recent months, failed to trigger decisive action from his mental-health providers, his roommates, his longtime friends or sheriff's deputies, who had three separate encounters with him over the past 10 months." ...

... Amanda Hess of Slate: "Rodger's language is familiar to anyone who's spent time exploring the Pick-Up Artist or Men's Rights Activist communities.... Rodger was also allegedly a member of PUAHate.com, a website for men who feel they've been tricked by the Pick-Up Artist pyramid scheme, which takes men's money and promises to teach them how to have sex with women.... It is disturbing, if not surprising, that [these groups] are using these murders to reinforce their hatred of women and 'Beta' men, and to cement their own status at the top of the pyramid." ...

... Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "A website popular with the online Pick-up Artist community responded to Elliott Rodger's murderous Santa Barbara rampage, saying it could have been avoided if Rodger had 'game,' like they profess to possess, before concluding that 'more people will die' unless society provides men with more 'sexual options.'" ...

... Katie McDonough of Salon: "... this anger -- this toxic male entitlement -- isn't contained to random comment boards or the YouTube videos of disturbed young men. It's on full view elsewhere in our culture. Earlier this week, a writer for the New York Post quoted a member of a men's rights group as the sole source in a report on Jill Abramson's ouster at the New York Times.... These views about women and violence are replicated in our criminal justice system. They filter into our media. This is what makes Rodger's misogynistic vitriol so terrifying -- the fact that in many ways it's utterly banal."

Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under the Affordable Care Act."

Benjamin Weiser & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "A prominent hacker set to be sentenced in federal court this week for breaking into numerous computer systems worldwide has provided a trove of information to the authorities, allowing them to disrupt at least 300 cyberattacks on targets that included the United States military, Congress, the federal courts, NASA and private companies, according to a newly filed government court document. The hacker, Hector Xavier Monsegur, also helped the authorities dismantle a particularly aggressive cell of the hacking collective Anonymous, leading to the arrest of eight of its members in Europe and the United States.... The court document was prepared by prosecutors who are asking a judge, Loretta A. Preska, for leniency for Mr. Monsegur because of his 'extraordinary cooperation.'"

Paul Krugman: "... on the core issue of providing jobs for people who really should be working, at this point old Europe is beating us hands down despite social benefits and regulations that, according to free-market ideologues, should be hugely job-destroying.... The truth is that European-style welfare states have proved more resilient, more successful at job creation, than is allowed for in America's prevailing economic philosophy."

Joshua Schneyer, et al., of Reuters: "Efforts to stop oil trains are a new battle front for several major environmental groups that have campaigned to block the Keystone XL pipeline from bringing crude south from Canada's oil sands. With Keystone in limbo, U.S.-bound rail shipments of Canadian oil have risen 20-fold since 2011, the U.S. Congressional Research Service estimated."

South Carolina Slavery News. David Wren of the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Sun News: "Reginald Wayne Miller, the president of Cathedral Bible College, was arrested Thursday on accusations that he forces foreign students at his school to work long hours for low wages and then threatens to revoke their student visas if they complain or fail to comply with his demands." Via David of Crooks & Liars.

Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "The CIA's top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama's surprise visit with U.S. troops. The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual.... The Post is withholding the name of the CIA officer at the request of Obama administration officials...."

David Herszenhorn & Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "The disruption of presidential balloting by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine justifies tougher American sanctions against the Kremlin, said Senator Kelly Ayotte, who along with other Republicans has sharply criticized the Obama administration's response to Russia's actions in Ukraine."

AFP: "In swiftly punishing Thailand's military for seizing power, the United States is looking beyond short-term interests as it braces for prolonged strife in its oldest Asian ally. Within hours after the army took control of Thailand on Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the coup as having "no justification" and urged the quick restoration of democracy and press freedom. The United States suspended $3.5 million in defense assistance, or about a third of its total aid to Thailand, and canceled ongoing military exercises with the kingdom -- a vital US ally for decades, including in the Vietnam War."

Senate Race

Scott Kaufman of the Raw Story: "Ben Sasse, who is widely expected to to win the seat being vacated by Sen. Mike Johanns in November..., believes that the 'government cannot force citizens to violate their religious beliefs under any circumstances' [and] authored a dissertation while at Yale documenting the number of times the government did just that -- and how the unintended consequences of doing so were key to mainstreaming conservative politics."

News Ledes

Fox 40 California: "A man opened fire on three women early Saturday after the women refused to have sex with him and his friends, according to the Stockton Police."

Washington Post: "A top Nigerian military official said Monday that the government knows the whereabouts of several hundred kidnapped girls but cannot reveal their location and cannot use force to rescue them, according to the Web site of the Ogun state television service."

Guardian: "The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said that Sunday's presidential elections in Ukraine sent a 'clear message' that the country's people want to 'live in a united, democratic and peaceful Ukraine anchored in European institutions'."

Washington Post: "Ukrainian billionaire Petro Poroshenko prepared to take over as Ukraine's leader Monday, vowing to end hostilities in the east with Moscow's cooperation, as pro-Russian separatists fought gun battles with Ukrainian forces at Donetsk's international airport." ...

     ... Reuters Update: "Ukraine launched air strikes and a paratrooper assault against pro-Russian rebels who seized an airport on Monday, even as its newly elected leader vowed to reassert control in the east and refused to negotiate with 'terrorists'." ...

     ... New York Times Update: "The new Ukrainian government struck the separatists in this eastern province with a major military offensive on Monday, battling them over an important provincial airport in ground fighting that lasted for hours. The rebels were left scattered and shaken, just one day after a successful national election they had tried to disrupt."

The Commentariat -- May 25, 2014

Internal links removed.

Tim Noah of NBC News: "... there's no reason to believe veterans' wait times to see a VA doctor exceed, on average and to any significant degree, non-veterans' wait times to see a private-sector doctor. Inadequate access to health care is a VA problem. But it's a national problem, too."

Two Salon columnist, Andrew O'Hehir here & Elias Isquith here, take Glenn Greenwald's side against Michael Kinsley & George Packer who critique Greenwald's book (and personality).

Has Cake, Eats It, Too. AP: "Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization but said he opposes any further attempts to address the policy now.... 'I would have supported having gay Scoutmasters, but at the same time, I fully accept the decision that was democratically arrived at by 1,500 volunteers from across the entire country.'"

Jodi Rudoren of the New York Times: "Pope Francis called 'urgently' on Saturday for a 'peaceful solution' to the Syrian crisis and a 'just solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as he started a three-day sojourn through the Holy Land at a time of regional turmoil and tension."

Eric Lach of TPM: "The creationist Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky. plans to unveil a new attraction this weekend: a world-class Allosaurus skeleton. But unlike other museums, where dinosaur skeletons are used to 'indoctrinate our kids with belief in evolution,' according to the institution, the Creation Museum's skeleton will serve as 'a testament to the truths found in God's Word.'" Via Steve Benen.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Pope Francis inserted himself directly into the collapsed Middle East peace process on Sunday, issuing an invitation to host the Israeli and Palestinian presidents for a prayer summit at his apartment in the Vatican, in an overture that has again underscored the broad ambitions of his papacy."

New York Times: "With their country caught in a fierce tug-of-war between Russia and the West over a new security order, Ukrainians elected Petro O. Poroshenko as president on Sunday, turning to a pro-European billionaire to lead them out of six months of wrenching turmoil, including a continuing separatist insurrection in the east."

Los Angeles Times: "Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department officials Sunday identified the first three victims of the Isla Vista rampage, each found fatally stabbed Friday night inside an apartment not far from the UC Santa Barbara campus. Now, all the attacker's victims have been identified, and they were all UCSB students." The Times currently has several related stories on its front page.

AFP: "Afghan President Hamid Karzai was offered a meeting with President Barack Obama at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul but declined, a US official said Sunday."