Polka Dot Warriors

War weary, unarmed and looking like rodeo clowns, the assembly ships of the United States Army's 8th Air Force were some of the strangest looking aircraft of the war. Follow this link to learn more:

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/477/language/en-CA/Polka-Dot-Warriors.aspx

Strategic Bomber Decline


Doesn’t matter if you are Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine, Navy or Civilian  – YOU should appreciate the ‘message’ contained in this video.  A wake-up call of sorts IMHO!!!
 
Don’t be distracted by the link’s theme as the video will display some vital statistics about the state of our bomber force, strategic locations and the threat of a growing Chinese capability.  Combined with what Russia already possesses we should be concerned.  SAC is no more and the world has changed quite a lot, but still the danger is alive and well.  The statistics mentioned should awaken a sleeping giant.  Will it?  Not with the current leadership it won’t. 
 
The video shows the unrefueled range of bombers and fighters.  The video would have been more complete with a mention of our aerial refueling capability (KC-135 and KC-10 with a new KC-46 in development) and how it extends the range to almost unlimited.

                             

And now, time for some Chinese poetry



This is a real Chinese poem from Yuen Ren Chao.

Transcript (traditional Chinese):
《施氏食獅史》
石室詩士施氏，嗜獅，誓食十獅。
氏時時適市視獅。
十時，適十獅適市。
是時，適施氏適市。
氏視是十獅，恃矢勢，使是十獅逝世。
氏拾是十獅屍，適石室。
石室濕，氏使侍拭石室。
石室拭，氏始試食是十獅。
食時，始識是十獅屍，實十石獅屍。
試釋是事。

Phonetically spelled:
« Shī Shì shí shī shǐ »
Shíshì shīshì Shī Shì, shì shī, shì shí shí shī.
Shì shíshí shì shì shì shī.
Shí shí, shì shí shī shì shì.
Shì shí, shì Shī Shì shì shì.
Shì shì shì shí shī, shì shǐ shì, shǐ shì shí shī shìshì.
Shì shí shì shí shī shī, shì shíshì.
Shíshì shī, Shì shǐ shì shì shíshì.
Shíshì shì, Shì shǐ shì shí shì shí shī.
Shí shí, shǐ shí shì shí shī, shí shí shí shī shī.
Shì shì shì shì.

Translation:
« Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den »
In a stone den was a poet called Shi, who was a lion addict, and had resolved to eat ten lions.
He often went to the market to look for lions.
At ten o'clock, ten lions had just arrived at the market.
At that time, Shi had just arrived at the market.
He saw those ten lions, and using his trusty arrows, caused the ten lions to die.
He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den.
The stone den was damp. He asked his servants to wipe it.
After the stone den was wiped, he tried to eat those ten lions.
When he ate, he realized that these ten lions were in fact ten stone lion corpses.
Try to explain this matter.