Henry Rifle Forums

the passage below is but one teaser from a really interesting article found at this link : https://www.rockdalenewtoncitizen.com/n ... e9028.html ....


"On its third pass, one bomb fell from the bomb bay of the B-17, more or less to test the results. The bomb detonated right on target. With very little movement of the ice jam, the B-17 came in for two more bomb runs and eventually released its entire bomb load. The residents of Miles City stood motionless, not a word was spoken. Envisage being one of the residents as 250-pound bombs dropped by an American bomber whistled down to hopefully save your town, your property, your family’s entire future. Within seconds, a giant column of mud, chunks of ice, and waves of glacial water exploded skyward from the frozen Yellowstone River.

The ice jam broke apart amid the cheers of Miles City residents. The Yellowstone slowly receded; the town was saved. To show their appreciation, the townspeople paid for local motel rooms and treated the B-17 crew to a steak dinner. When the people awoke the next morning, the water levels of the Yellowstone had dropped more than 10 feet.

The B-17 departed that morning, but not without making a final pass over the town. From a height of 50 feet, the B-17 roared over the rooftops and the pilots rocked their wings as they flew back to their base in Rapid City."

Sweet... we have made some missions of mercy on overseas deployments. We delivered supplies to a cliff top Spanish castle on a med cruise... practice for our entire team, the ground guys for prepping supplies for the lift. Field refueling teams to refuel the aircraft, the CH46 and CH3 aircrews, and the ground coordination teams making everything work. The town had been moving supplies to the cliff top castle by donkey up a single track path for more than a year. They expected it to take at least another three. WE did the job in two days.

I took this picture during one of our lifts...


During the same cruise, on Liberty in Italy, the Chaplain's Assistant set up a two day job for us in an Italian Children's Ward at the local Hospital. To brighten the 15 foot high walls, we painted Cartoon Characters on the Walls six to eight feet tall. The kids loved them! We projected the scenes using an overhead from slides made by the ship's PR department. Roughed them in with pencil, Then spent the next two days painted them in vibrant colors. The Nuns supervised, and of course had to approved the pics. Nothing with violence. Even cartoon violence, and nothing that might offend. We hadn't brought anything like that. The Chaplain had approved in advance.

This was MY project:


and this was the volunteer group:



The Chaplain's Man is front and center. I am the only Marine in the group. My hair is a LOT longer than normal, orders of the MAG Commander. No one with a high and tight could leave the ship due to terrorist threats toward ALL military from ALL countries at the time. Grooming Standards had been very relaxed on the cruise... the Sergeant's Major from all the various commands were about to go into heart failure. Killed them to grown their hair out and let the mustache trimming go... Hah.

Here are a few more pics of the work we did. Another ship coming in behind us was asked to do another wing of the hospital since this went over so well.


My painting completed

Another well done work

Great story, Marine. Thanks for your artistic service to the children of Italy! Nice hair, BTW!