Free Republic

A Near-Run Victory at Midway Walter Lord and Gordon Prange considered Midway an incredible, miraculous victory. For Mitsuo Fuchida and Masatake Okumiya, the battle doomed Japan. The calculated risks Chester Nimitz took required assembling all possible resources, and still left him with a three to one disadvantage in ships. To appreciate further this tenuous condition note the fate of four Army B-26 medium bombers rushed to Midway. Captain James Collins led the aircraft in torpedo attacks. The pilots had never seen or practiced with aerial torpedoes. They would now only practice takeoffs and landings. Those early B-26’s earned a reputation...

Angel Vazquez, 38, of Kissimmee, Florida, vividly remembers the moment last June when he first thought he was having a heart attack. He was working from home that day—his mom was there to take care of his daughters—when suddenly he started to feel terrible. “I started to sweat profusely, I had trouble breathing, my heart was pounding, and I felt like I was about to faint,” he tells Runner’s World. “I didn’t want to freak anyone out, but I just had a gut feeling. My dad had two heart attacks and my uncle had a few as well.” So he...

Jen Hummel, 35, has always been a runner. After spending her high school years running cross country, she kept it up recreationally, balancing training runs and races with taking care of her two young children. “For me, it’s the best exercise and gives me time to think,” she says. But in early December, she started to experience pain and discomfort almost immediately after she’d start running. “I had pain going down my arms and in my chest. It would come up in my chin,” she explained. “I’ve always been someone who can push myself, but after I’d get up to...

MOSCOW - A Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in the Barents Sea on Saturday morning as it was being towed to a scrapyard, killing at least two of the 10 sailors on board, the Defense Ministry said. The two nuclear reactors of the 40-year-old K-159 was shut down at the time of the sinking at about 4 a.m. about 3 1/2 miles northwest of Kildin Island, said the Navy's deputy chief, Adm. Viktor Kravchenko. No weapons were aboard. Rescue ships of the Northern Fleet reached the accident site within an hour in heavy rain. One sailor was rescued, the bodies of...

class=pr>Press Release Source: Los Angeles Times Marine Corps' "Widow-Maker": Harrier Attack JetFriday December 13, 10:00 am ET Beginning Dec. 15, Four-Part Series Looks at Most Dangerous U.S. Military Airplane Flying Today LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2002--On Sunday, Dec. 15, the Los Angeles Times will launch a major four-part series, "The Vertical Vision," chronicling the troubled history of the most dangerous airplane flying in the U.S. military today -- the Marine Corps' Harrier attack jet. Known among some Marine aviators as "The Widow-Maker," the Harrier was originally produced by the British to perform short and vertical takeoffs and landings from remote...