January 27, 1945. Seven hours out of Saipan, the B-29s of the 499th Bomb Group make a right turn and begin opening their bomb bay doors, heading east for the Nakajima Aircraft Factory on the west edge of Tokyo. Toryu and Tojo fighters rise to meet them. On the B-29 Superfortress “V Square 27,” … [Read more...]
Strange Attractor
Every day is Spring, while we’re young. None can refuse, time flies so fast! Too dear to lose, an’ too sweet to last! ―"While We’re Young,” featured in Barry’s Hollywood Bowl … [Read more...]
An American Motif: The Steam Locomotive in the Collective Imagination
Like the giant reptiles, the great steam locomotives no longer roam the earth. Those massive hulks of sooty iron, cluttered with snarls of piping and valves, were the consummation of crude mechanical power. Though technology, like evolution, has since turned from quantitative to more … [Read more...]
The Real Revolution
This appeared in Gentry and Gentry South Bay, February 2008. The recent celebration of Fairchild’s 50th anniversary commemorated not just the founding of a company but an epochal turning point in human evolution. 1957 was in many ways the first year of our time. The launch of Sputnik put … [Read more...]
The Greatest Generation
“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans, born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.” —John F. … [Read more...]