The John Batchelor Show

Friday 27 April 2018

Air Date: 
April 27, 2018

Photo: 
 
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block A: Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea, by David Sears.  Jesse Brown and Thomas Hudner – Hudner, the first Black aviator in the US Navy, is awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for an exceptional feat.   . . .
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block B:  Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea, by David Sears.  US Naval aviators. Jim Holloway: during de-mobe after WWII, he kept the officer cadre of the Navy, which maintained most of the officers who later were commissioned in WWII.  Essex-class carriers.  Pilots then had to fly off decks not adapted to jet aircraft. The Panther: Navy’s first, major operational jet aircraft, straight-wing and short-leg (couldn't hold much fuel). Air support from near the Korean peninsula. Sky Raider for close air support; big; could stay over a combat site for a long time.  Banshee: straight-wing jet aircraft, more capable than the F9 Panther. Bonhomme Richard.   . . .
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block C:   Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea, by David Sears.  In September 1951, Neil Armstrong is flying – into a flak burst. Then hits a “clothesline” – steel cable running across valleys to intercept any craft flying low. John Glenn also flew.  James Michener was a reporter there; he spent time both on the ground and on the USS Valley Forge and the USS Essex. (His book on WWII had become the enormously famous South Pacific.)    . . .  Enemy trains hidden in tunnels; aviators flew at stall speed to skip bombs into tunnels! Under heavy fire, flying toward the side of a mountain.
The RAF on the Ruhr Valley Dam. In Korea, Communists controlled floodgates.  . . .   On Princeton, US had Mark 17 aerial torpedoes.  Torpedo runs over a lake and blow up a dam.  Six hit the floodgate target and all 16 planes get back to Princeton
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 1, Block D:  Such Men as These: The Story of the Navy Pilots Who Flew the Deadly Skies over Korea, by David Sears.   Harry Ettinger from the Valley Forge crashes, is captured and beaten heavily, becomes a prisoner.  . . .  recall Manchurian Candidate from the 1950s.  Duane Thoren, helo pilot. Anti-Communist guerrillas in Korea in 1951; they come in to rescue Ettinger, who did not do what he was supposed to. Finally reached the helo, jumped in, caused overweight, helo was broken. Naylor Foote and Ettinger re re-captured by North Koreans.  . . .  See also: Bridges at Toko-Ri.
 
Hour Two
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block A:  Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World,  by Evan Thomas.   Dwight David Eisenhower, born in Abilene, Kansas.  . . .  a fab poker player; won too much from his army  buddies and was gaining a bad reputation so had to switch to bridge . Also excellent at bridge – but always stayed a superb bluffer. The Dulles brothers: John Foster (who acted as the Manichaean against the forces of darkness; and Allen Dulles, later DCI).

Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block B:  Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World,  by Evan Thomas.  McCarthy was a drunk and a fool, but very, very powerful.  Ike: “I don’t want to get in a pissing match with a skunk.” Ike was a master of the hidden hand of govt.  A year later, “McCarthyism is McCarthy-as-ism.”  Then, Office of Net Assessment: what wd happen in a nuclear exchange?  Two scorpions in a bottle.    
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block C:   Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World,  by Evan Thomas.  Suez Crisis.  The U2: Bissell, special asst to  Allen Dulles, is devious & lies to the president. Arleigh Burke.  Sputnik.  The Gaither Commission.  The RAND Corporation, incl Herman Kahn. Incirlik AFB. The Davey Crockett (1958).
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 2, Block D:  Ike's Bluff: President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World,  by Evan Thomas.
 
Hour Three
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 3, Block A: 
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 3, Block B: 
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 3, Block C: 
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 3, Block D:  
 
Hour Four
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 4, Block A: 
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 4, Block B: 
Friday 27 April 2018 / Hour 4, Block C:
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