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Hunter Aesthetic || Anonymous 

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The right way to use the blackout tag. 300 blackout.

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Tom Hardy gun post

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Sergeant Major Billy Waugh (Ret.)

-Served in 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Unit in Korea

-Green Beret from 1954 to 1972

-1965-Battle of Bong Son. Ambushed by an estimated 4,000 enemy while with his civil defense group. Receives severe wounds to head and legs to the extent he was thought dead by the enemy. Returns to Vietnam by the end of 1966 Earned a Silver Star and 6th Purple Heart for actions 

-Participates in first ever combat HALO jump

-Becomes CIA contractor in 1977. Does secret stuff. Tracks down Carlos the Jackal and Osama bin Laden.

-2001- At the age of 72, participates in Operation Enduring Freedom with CIA and 5th Special Forces Group.  Aided in uniting Northern Alliance against Taliban and Al Qaeda

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Rave

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The Battle That Won World War II For America: Midway  4 June through & June 1942.

    Early 1942 was a grim time for America’s military.  In the Philipines, General Douglas MacArthur’s forces fought in vain to hold on to the archipelago before retreating to Corregidor and, ultimately were defeated, forcing MacArthur to flee to Australia.  Across the South Pacific, the Japanese scored victory after victory; Hong Kong, Singapore, French Indochina.

   By late spring of 1942, the Japanese had doubled their empire and consolidated a strong perimeter around their new found bases.  Only the valiant exploits of the 1st AVG (The famous Flying Tigers) were able to fend off the conquering foe.  In April, General Jimmy Doolittle’s Raiders mounted a seaborne attack on the main Japanese islands but it was a moral victory at best.

    By May, the tide began to take a turn as, at the Coral Sea, the American aircraft carriers forced a draw, keeping a Japanese invasion force from cutting off Australia.

By the end of May, US Navy codebreakers had partially broken some of the Japanese Naval codes and deciphered their newest target; The outermost island in the Hawaiian chain.  The twin atoll known as Midway.  CINPAC chief Admiral Chester Nimitz decided to lay a trap and took a huge gamble; draw out the enemy and destroy the invasion fleet in hopes of scoring a much-needed victory.

   It was, at best, a long shot but Nimitz decided to take the risk.  His best commander, Admiral William “Bull” Halsey, was hospitalised with a severe skin inflammation, so he reached to an unlikely source. Admiral Raymond Spruance, a man who’s experience was in cruisers, not carrier operations.  To say it was a long shot was an understatement. As a hedge, Nimitz installed Frank Jack Fletcher as overall Task Force commander.

    Designated Task Force 16, it consisted of three aircraft carriers, all that were available.  If Nimitz was wrong, he stood the chance of losing or prolonging the war.  Thus, by the end of May, Task Force 16, comprising the USS Hornet CV-8, USS Yorktown CV-5, and USS Enterprise CV-6, Spruance’s flagship, put to sea, destination Midway.

    Meanwhile, IJN Fleet Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor knew his fleet had, although scoring a great victory in December 1941, had failed to sink or disable a single American carrier.  If Japan was to prevail, Yamamoto knew, it must deal a fatal blow and soon.  Yamamoto, of all the Japanese admirals, knew the potential for America’s great industrial power.  As a naval attache’ in Washington in the 1920s, he had seen first-hand the might America was capable of.  Truly, this was a battle of giants for sea supremacy.

    Yamamoto sent his four Pearl Harbor veterans’ Hiryu, Akagi, Soryu, and Kagi under the command of his best Admiral, Chuichi Nagumo, a brilliant but hesitant man, to lead the invasion force bent on taking Midway.  If Midway fell, Japnese long range floatplane bombers were in easy reach of Hawaii.  Truly, for both sides, the stakes were high.  Both forces were roughly equal with the Japanese holding the advantage in numbers; four to three. The Americans held to advantage in knowing the time and place of the invasion.  Stalemate.

    The following few days both forces stumbled through scattered rainstorms and fog, searching for the enemy.  Nagumo became even more cautious as the search went on.  As the planned invasion was about to start, Nagumo received a report from one of his scout planes; American carriers!  At once, Nagumo decided to postpone his second attack on Midway and rearm his planes with torpedoes suitable for sinking ships.

  When no enemy aircraft appeared, Nagumo once again changed his mind and ordered his planes rearmed with bombs.  It proved to be a fatal mistake. While rearming, an American PBY patrol bomber broke through the cloud cover and found the Japanese task force.  On Enterprise, Spruance must have been cautiously optimistic.  His ancient TBD Devastator torpedo bombers from VT-6 were soon on their way to the attack, as was VT-8 from Hornet.  The attack was close to a total disaster.  The old bombers fell easy prey to the defending Japanese Zeroes.  In the end, only one man, Ensign George Gay, survived the attack.

   By pure luck, this allowed SBD Dauntless dive bombers from Enterprise to arrive overhead while the fighter cover was destroying the Devastators.  With no top cover, the SBDs, led by Lt. Commander Wade McCluskey, came in above the fray and within minutes, two Japanese carriers were aflame, followed shortly by another.  In mere minutes the attackers had lost Akagi, Kaga, and finally  Soryu.  Only Hiryu managed an escape.  It was to be unfortunate for gallant Yorktown.

       Hiryu wasted no time in retaliating.  Her bombers found Yorktown and quickly blew holes in her flight deck and succeeding in snuffing out her boilers.  Yorktown was soon dead in the water.  Repair efforts we able to get her underway when the second wave from Hiryu arrived.  Seeing the carrier moving, they assumed it was another undamaged ship and fell on her viciously.

    Despite valiant efforts from repair crews, USS Yorktown CV-5 slid under the waves the next day.  Marshalling his remaining squadrons, Spruance, with Fletcher abandoning his command aboard Yorktown, assumed overall command and sent out his remaining bombers for Hiryu.  They soon spotted Hiryu and fell on her with a vengeance.  Hiryu was soon ablaze from stem to stern and left derelict as attempts to take her under tow failed.  It was the last dying gasp of what the Japanese had hoped to be a great victory.

   In summary, the Battle of Midway owed as much to luck as anything else.  The Americans have gambled and won.  It was Japan’s last major naval offensive of the Pacific War. From June 1942 until final victory, not one Japanese offensive at sea succeeded.  Luck?  Yes.  But as any military tactician will tell you they will take luck anytime.

    Thus it was, seventy-five years ago this month, that the fate of the Japanese Empire was sealed.  While the war drug on for three more painful years, the die had been cast.  In this spirit, we must remember the heroes of Midway and the desperate battle fought there that fateful June 1942.

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“God of our fathers, who by land and sea have ever led us to victory, please continue your inspiring guidance in this the greatest of all conflicts. Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me of my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my responsibility to my fellow soldiers. Grant to our armed forces that disciplined valor and mutual confidence which insures success in war. Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived. If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please, oh Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind. Give us the victory, Lord.” - General George Patton

Kyle J. Milliken (SEAL)

BUD/S Class 245, DEVGRU Never Forget, 05/05/17 KIA, Somali Long Live The Brotherhood

Navy SEAL Foundation

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clocking out of work

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Faster than Dominoes 🍻 . @patrioticapparel for patriots // by Patriots 🇺🇸 (at San Antonio, Texas)