Comments by "Kenneth Dean Miller" (@kennethdeanmiller7324) on "Drachinifel" channel.

  1. Yes, if you don't want to answer a certain question then just file it in the fireplace & use the excuse that you must have been low on kindling that particular day. However, answering such a question could actually be fun. Like "Um it may have escaped your notice but we are at war. And airplanes actually flying around to help protect peoples on the ground from enemies that are flying around is much more useful than said airplanes sitting around in a box. Does it really matter if it's the RAF using them instead of the Royal Navy? They were there & they were needed by our countrymen that is fighting the same enemies. It would have been carelessly ignorant to let these aircraft remain in boxes unused when there are pilots there capable of flying & defending their base. Idk, maybe just burning the damn letter WAS best. It's not easy to educate the ignorant & fight a war at the same time! I mean who would believe that the Royal Navy & the RAF are both fighting to achieve the same goal?
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  2.  @Damocles54  Miller time. I like that.
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  3. That was a pretty cool tidbit to digest on a Saturday morning on the way to get some breakfast & coffee. I had never really thought about Brazil as a country with a Navy nor did I have any idea they actually participated in WW2 either.
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  4. What a LEGEND of a ship. It's a shame that the Indefatigable launched in 1909 did not have such a legendary career.
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  5.  @pedrofelipefreitas2666  Yep, not only that, but also built enough planes for all of them & trained pilots to fly them & sailors & engineers to run the ships too. A logistical nightmare of a gigantic proportion!
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  6. "I can't do it cap'n, we got no power!!! I tried shovin' a weiner in the warp drive, but it didn't do a bit of good! By the by, would you hap'n to have a wee bit a mustard up on the brig???" "Analysis Mr Spock?" " It appears that Mr Snotty is about to eat a Weiner- without mustard!"
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  7.  @korbell1089  Yeah, most islands don't have a wake! But also when you are on a ship & it's moving sometimes it's not easy to tell if something else is moving.
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  8.  @Melody_Raventress  Well, photos or not, at least he didn't suffer from a large amount of health problems from being there. A TRUE BLESSING FOR SURE. Look at what happened to the crew of the Indianapolis for merely delivering the parts of the Hiroshima/ Nagasaki weapons.
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  9. Yes, I definitely agree that in a truly different world HMS Rodney, HMS Warspite & USS Enterprise(CV-6) should have been preserved as museum ships. HOWEVER, I read a little piece written by a sailor that wad aboard "the Grey Ghost" and he thought that having kids running around the deck laughing and eating ice cream & such would have been disrespectful to the sailors that fought & died on that deck. And he felt it was more appropriate for the "old girl" to go to the breakers so that other ships could sport the name of Enterprise IN HONOR of those sailors & the sailors that fought & lived as well!
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  10.  @88porpoise  "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition" I believe is the actual quote. However, it has been several or maybe about 30 years.
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  11. Very true BUT if they ever do make it a movie I hope & pray that they do it right! Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with just this. Drach gives enough detail for my imagination to fill in the blanks. And the order to "splice the main brace" whenever a German U-boat goes down is a very gallant send off to the sailor's that didn't make it. And allowing the U-boat survivors to partake in the tradition, since it was the U-boat that they had been on & one being allowed to play an accordion too in my opinion shows the contrast of the difference between the 🇬🇧 Brits treatment of POW's & the German treatment of POW's. I'm sure that things weren't as pleasant for POW's once they made it to shore but after being depth charged & barely escaping a sinking U-boat, I believe that kindness after such an action shows a better sense of humanity. And I personally like that about the British!!!
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  12.  @spencerdawkins  That is hilarious. I got one for you that is even crazier. I'm homelessin the DC Area. During Covid I paid a lady $25 a night to sleep on her couch. Last Thanksgiving her son became homeless and so I was out he was in & this other friend said I could stay with him. His name was Harry & I hadn't known him very long. Well he was schizophrenic and would not let me sleep. Wanted to talk all night. So by Christmas I couldn't take it anymore & left. Well he had a dog, a little pit bull named Daisy. And he had one of those hands free leashes that go around your waist. I had told him that it was dangerous but didn't realize how dangerous. He was getting off the Metro here in VA,, coming back from DC & idk I guess he was looking at his phone & not paying attention. He got off the train but the dog stopped to smell something. They closed the doors & Daisy is still on the train, worst of all the door is closed on the leash, the leash is around his waist and the train drags him the whole length of the platform & he hits his head at the end of the platform. But the leash breaks then. But he dies from the head wounds. But Daisy, the dog was ok. Well I didn't find out about it til a couple of days later, even though when it happened I was getting on a bus at that station when it happened & saw the police & ambulance show up. And it was all on the news. I'm homeless & don't get to see the news. Sorry such a long story but... but a couple of weeks after this happened I have this dream. I rarely ever remember my dreams but I woke up right after this one & that was how I remembered it. OK, Roadrunner & Willy E Coyote! Daisy is the Roadrunner looking out the window of the train, Harry is Willy Coyote standing on the platform. Daisy says BEEP, BEEP & the train takes off. Harry looks down at the leash, makes one of those "Oh, shit" faces & is gone. I told a friend about the dream. She accused me of making it up. And I'm like "why would I?" Idk. Crazy? Right? And just to let ya know I'm NOT making this up. GOOGLE "Death at Dunn Loring Metro" it happened in February.
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  13. Wow. Now that is history coming to life!! Cheers!!!
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  14. Q & A : I would VERY MUCH enjoy seeing footage of ships battling huge storms. Now we have seen a bit of the Halsey typhoons. But I'd like to see some storms from the North Sea. I mean USS Washington lost an Admiral in a small storm outside of Scapa Flow. I always forget his name too. Admiral Lee's immediate predecessor & I often wonder how well Washington would have done had that Admiral survived & Admiral Lee not been aboard at the "Big Night Battle of Guadal Canal." Idk, I personally believe that it was "divine intervention" and that it saved the lives of numerous US sailors. Admiral Lee was imho one of the smartest Admirals the US had as far as knowing his battleships. Like him turning down a possible night battle cuz of lack of training. Yes, we missed out on what may have been a spectacular victory. But with the lack if training it also could have been a spectacular defeat as well. And I totally appreciate Lee not wanting to risk his men's lives when they had not trained for such a thing. And the chance of losing lives in "friendly" fire incidents is very much more possible in a night battle. Sorry, but anyway, yes big ships in BIG STORMS!! Smaller ships in BIG STORMS. I think the reason in what is known as "the Bermuda Triangle" that there are places where the water is VERY DEEP & then not so deep. And when a ship is in a storm & runs across one of the more shallow spots that the waves grow considerably much bigger than the previous waves & that is why numerous ships have been lost there.
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  15. But firing a Double Charge had to be with a fairly new gun. One that had already been in use & showed signs of wear it was NOT SAFE to use the "double charge". And depending upon what your target is you were probably better off going with a 20lb charge or maybe 25lb to be on the safe side. I had a friend in high school that had found a "home made" gun that his father had made. It was basically a pipe with a nut screwed onto the back of it with a small hole drilled into it for a fuse. And a handle carved out of wood which was taped to the "barel". He had it over at my house and was using black powder & small steel marbles for ammo. After he shot it a few times, I lost interest unfortunately he didn't. He ran out of black powder and decided to open up a shot gun shell & use the powder from it. I told him not to that it wasn't safe to do that. I was right but LUCKILY for him it didn't blow up in his face. BUT the wooden handle broke propelling the top of it right back at his right eye. Luckily he didn't lose the eye either but the pipe had made a cut all the way around his eye and his eye did have some internal bleeding that ended up leaving him with a blind spot in his eye where some blood remained. With today's technology he has probably had it fixed. But also when it happened he hit himself underneath his chin with the wooden stock that was left in his hand. And that required about 8 stitches. Plus idk how many around his eye. Moral of the story, Don't keep shooting a gun that you are not confident about it firing correctly. Not a lesson you want to learn the hard way. Btw, they do still make muzzle loading rifles. And a lot of places here in the USA, depending on the state regulations allowing big game hunting, there are regular hunting seasons & it's extended both fore & aft for bow season & muzzle loaders. My step-dad Billy got a huge 8 point white tail buck in Georgia with his bow. And talking about a lucky shot, he thought he missed until he saw the blood trail. Right thru his jugular vein. He had it mounted and you could see where the arrow went through. He had it scored & it scored really high on the "Pope & Young" scale for a typical white tail. It's longest tines were 14". But not enough to be a record. He was good enough for eating though. Billy also had a muzzle loader too but he said for hunting it was quicker to grab another arrow than reload a muzzle loader. Plus if you missed it might not scare the deer away. A muzzle loader would most certainly scare the deer away. But if you hit it they pack a lot of punch. He's the one that taught me how to lead a target when it's running. You can't shoot where it is, you have to shoot where it's going to be. In South Alabama they would let dogs run the deer & go to wherever there might be a clearing they would have to cross. He said the first deer he ever got was like that. The deer was at full speed so he had to shoot with a big lead. But he said he actually saw the buck shot going thru the air to meet the deer. And it basically rolled a couple of times after it got hit. After he married my Mom he went squirrel hunting with my 22 semi-auto behind the house where we were living & ended up shooting a little "button buck" in the head 3 times. He came home saying "I got one & it's got horns about ya long" while holding up his thumb. We were like "a squirrel with horns? What do you mean?" He said "No a deer. And I need help to carry it home. Now come on." That was my introduction to deer hunting & deer meat. And he was damn good at cooking deer meat too. Billy McCormick was his name. I loved & trusted him more than my own Mom & Dad. My Mom was lucky to have him!!! He died at 49 years old. Didn't even make 50. If there really is a heaven I know he will be there. The house him & my Mom lived in from 1991 until they both passed away, Billy in 2005 & Mom in 2011, Billy & I built that house. I mixed mortar in a bathtub & he laid the block. A 16' x 32' basement & 2x that for the footings. Laid the floor & framed the walls. My brother helped me do some of the ceiling joyces but that was about all he did. I remember Billy cut down 2 pine trees & nailed 2x4's to them to make them into a ladder. Made it a lot easier getting the shingles on the roof & doing the block for the fireplace. Sorry for writing so much. Sometimes I just get inspired and text what I'm thinking about. But bigger guns scare me more than make me curious. I liked shooting a 22 rifle. They are fun to shoot. I once knew a guy that could hit a marble in the air after you had thrown it with a 22. His name was Huey King. Best marksman besides Billy that I ever knew. Oh & btw, I'd never heard of the "Half Charge Myth." And I'd never knew about a bunch of our US officials getting killed by a gun blowing up like that. And the President only surviving cause he was down below. I guess that is why they don't let our President be around stuff like that & the Vice President & Secretary of State & all our top officials can't all be together in the same place at the same time. Wow. Seems like something they would teach us in our History Classes in school but I don't remember it being taught. That is one I would have remembered. Idk, maybe I was absent that day. But I never heard about MOST OF WW2 in school either. The bombing of Pearl Harbor & the atomic weapons used on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. And then D-Day & Russia & the Allies rush to get to Berlin. History is NOT taught well in Elementary schools or high schools here in the US. I guess that's why we have college students protesting in favor of Palestinians when Palestine never really existed in the modern age. And I doubt anyone alive can say they were born in Palestine cuz it's been Israel for so long now. And it was formed because the surviving Polish needed a country. Cuz the Allies didn't want to go to war with "the Soviet Union. And when we started helping Russia that should have been agreed upon first, that Poland goes back to being Poland after the war.
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  16. Yeah, I was thinking,(yes, I know, a very dangerous thing to do at times) but I was thinking that one of those M Class submarines with the 12" gun may have done well in the waters off of Guadal Canal. Considering that the Mark 14 torpedoes were having such troubles, as long as the sub could avoid friendly fire incidents it may have been quite an asset in Iron Bottom Sound! Since the sub would be difficult to spot in the dark, & that was when the Japanese came calling. They could basically let 2 subs set up, each one guarding a different direction of Savo Island & make sure none of the US ships come in that direction. Then any ship they draw a bead on they can blow it out of the water!!
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  17. Thanks for those. Very well done.
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  18. Yeah, since Drach had both authors on his channel for the 80th Anniversary of Midway & it was about 3 hours long, more than likely it should be really good. I haven't read it yet myself, but I do believe Parshal has done an extensive amount of research on the Japanese during WW2 and knows a large amount of what they did & why they did it. And considering the language barrier that is a tremendous amount of information to research and study. But I believe him & his co-author to be very diligent in their work ethic & even though it may give a contradictory account of "what went wrong for the Japanese at Midway" I believe their info to be the true account of the sinking of the first 3 carriers during that battle. Furthermore, Parshal is also a very respected historian when it comes to the Naval Battles of WW2 in the Pacific Theatre. So if you have the time & opportunity to read any of his books, I'm fairly certain that you will not be disappointed. And Drach has had him as a guest on his channel more than once. And I would think that given the opportunity & a specific topic he could also be a future guest as well.
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  19. I had never known about Nevada having 3 of it's guns replaced from the salvaged turret 3 on Arizona. Arizona's revenge so to speak. If it weren't for the Arizona's main magazine explosion the amount of dead sailors after the Pearl Harbor attack would have probably been 500-700. But with around 1500 being killed aboard the Arizona the rage of the United States would boil like a cauldron set on the flame for too long. The Japanese had taken a stick and poked the sleeping Bear. And the bear awoke with a rage seldom seen in this world. Peace
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  20. When I was 9-10 years old, living in South Alabama, about once a month my stepdad, Billy, would buy a bunch of ammo for all our guns & we would go somewhere out in the woods & target practice. Now I could hit any stationary target with my 22. And something flying through the air with my 12 gauge. But one time our neighbor, a man by the name of Huey King, went with us. He had a bucket of large marbles that were a bit smaller than a golf ball. And if you threw one up in the air for him he would hit it with a 22 rifle. I actually saw him hit the same marble 3x in the same flight, each time knocking it further into the air.
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  21. "Captain Manley Powers"? That's a "You best stay out of that man's way" kinda name.
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  22. @John, Ya know, I'm 55 years old & constantly pay attention to this channel. I've never been in the military much less the Navy. I've never even been out at sea on a fishing boat either. But I have never given it a second thought that Drach is from the UK & not the US. In my opinion it doesn't matter, it's almost like being racist to think about it like that. He has a passion for warships and the history surrounding those warships. Lately I've noticed a lot of sites trying to copy what he is doing. And although it shows how successful he is with what he is doing, it has also irritated me that these people can't just find their own way, and that they have yo copy someone that is already successful. There is a saying "Without love in a dream it will never come true." Drachs video's are very well written. They are done with intelligence and he has a good story telling voice. I've listened to him tell about the naval battle of Samar as though he was a fan of Captain Evans. And anyone who knows that story, how could they not be. One of my favorite stories is "The Lord of the Rings" & I've never cared that it was written by a Brit. It just doesn't matter. The statement just urched me is all cuz he's an intelligent human being, nationality shouldn't matter. Maybe because he is a "Brit" it does make it a little more difficult to research vessels from the US & countries not named England but evidently it doesn't seem to stop him. I would say he's a gem, but idk, maybe a Pearl is a better description.
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  23. You know, I was just thinking, if the Japanese had actually known that the USA had barges in the Pacific specifically for making ice cream we may have gotten a lot of Japanese ships coming to surrender as long as they got ice cream every day until war ended.
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  24. Ya know, in honor & remembrance of "Admiral Whats his face", when Drach visits a museum ship he should loft a cheap pair of binoculars into the sea on camera for all to see.
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  25. Thanks, Drach! This is another one of those stories that may not have been a large part of the war but it was a very heroic effort, & it was a case of taking less to accomplish more. In my opinion, the training of these men & their extremely high physical fitness made them very dangerous without weapons & even more deadly depending upon the weapons at hand. It is stories like these, that we rarely hear about during the war. And I'm very proud to hear of stories like this & I am very proud of you for bringing these stories to the general public. Or at least your viewers! But thank you once again. It is sad that most were caught & killed by the Japanese! Even though such things happen in war but it doesn't mean that their deeds were not brave & heroic! Thanks again, Drach! Ps, I also enjoy the engineering aspects as well. For the ship to last so long on that new engine is also amazing! Things are so cheaply made nowadays that such quality should be recognized!
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  26. ELVIS PRESLEY WAS A MAN THAT DID AWESOME THINGS LIKE THAT!!! I once heard that he was buying a car in Montgomery, AL & a lady was complaining that the car they sold her was a lemon & was constantly having problems. Elvis bought her another car & used "the lemon" as a trade in. And, of course, the car dealer did it cuz he knew he didn't want to lose Elvis as a customer!!! And at the time, if Elvis had said anything bad about that dealership they would have came close to bankruptcy for sure. But thanks for that, I had no idea Elvis was the one that got things started for the Arizona Memorial. Funny thing is I was singing one of his songs today. A guy had a dog in a pickup truck and it was baying like hound dogs do. And so I started singing "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" When I was a child Elvis was HUGE! I rarely hear anything of his nowadays. Sad cuz he had a lot of good music. Back when people actually played instruments & created music. All the ghetto rap nowadays rarely has any real music.
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  27. That is the great thing about this channel. Drach doesn't mind being schooled in the comments! And those that read the comments get to learn more than what Drach has been able to include in the video. And your point about the language barrier is very insightful as well. I'm sure that there is a lot of history that is unknown simply because of the lack of translations.
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  28. I just love how at the end of this Drydock you mention how you want to try to limit each "Drydock" to 35-40 mins long. And considering I have already listened to numerous "Drydocks" that exceed 6 hours, those that are 35-40 mins seem as though they are over in a flash. Plus sometimes I get distracted & have to rewind back to where the distraction occurred so that I know I haven't missed anything.
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  29. I'm only guessing but National Archives maybe. Or try to get in contact with Navy Records during WW2. Ànd/ or if your Dad was a Marine then USMC Records.
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  30. In the very first ten minutes you are talking about "what if" the Japanese took Midway & Pearl Harbor? Well in that case the Doolittle Raid could have been MUCH MUCH BIGGER cuz there would have been little threat around the Japanese Islands. And then most of the ships trying to protect the Hawaii islands and Midway will be pulled back to the home islands. But the thing was that the Japanese didn't have enough troops to take Hawaii cuz most troops they had were busy taking & holding more lucrative holdings such as the Dutch oil fields. Plus still trying to kill as many Chinese as possible.
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  31. I've never been inside a boiler. But I've been inside a rock bin of an asphalt plant to help spot weld a quick patch where a hole had been worn. And considering it was 90°+ outside & the rock in the bin had been 300° I'd have to say it was HOT INSIDE. And we had to wear masks so we could breathe & goggles to keep all the dust out of our eyes. The whole ordeal took maybe 5-10 mins but every minute seemed like ten!
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  32. OmG!!! I don't think that I could manage to listen to Drach & Co for 5+ hours every week! Don't get me wrong, I do ENJOY kicking back and listening to a NEW 5+ hour Drydock, but even IF Drach could manage to answer & record 5+ hours a week, there is a thing known as too much of a good thing! I'd get burnt out listening to that much Drach, and I'm sure Drach would get burnt out trying to answer & record 5+ hours a week of Drydock too! The fact that he is able to research & study many different aspects of Naval warfare is what makes his channel so interesting. He is able to show us how Naval warfare went from boarding actions to canon broadsides, & then iron clads to Dreadnoughts & Fast Battleships to Aircraft carriers. And then aircraft carriers go from having old biplanes to the best prop driven monoplanes to jet aircraft. And the 5+ hours of Drydock once a month with a regular weekly Drydock of a little more than an hour, is sustainable for Drach to accomplish while bringing us all the other content that keeps the channel fresh with new & appropriate content!!
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  33. Also tends to remind me of seeing Blue Oyster Cult... "OH no, there goes Tokyo go go Godzilla!" They did about a 30 minute version of the song. I had a couple of ladies talk my brother & I into going. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did.
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  34. No wonder the Japanese couldn't take Guadal Canal. A couple of divisions of Marines with 200 cases of beer? OMG!!! THE FRICKIN JAPANESE DIDN'T STAND A CHANCE!!! All the Sarge had to say was, "They heard we had beer, and they're after the beer." Let's face it, you try to take beer away from a bunch of Marines you are going to get one helluva fight.
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  35. A few years after I graduated my school was condemned & torn down and another new school built somewhere else. Since I had moved out of state, I have no idea what is there now. And hadn't really thought of it until now. I never went to any reunions, to busy with life to think about it.
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  36. What I like about this ship is getting to actually see a sailing vessel that wasn't made to be a war ship but made for hauling goods from one place to another. And even though it does have cannons to protect the ship against pirates, it still has plenty of room for cargo as well. But also the fact that it does actually sail is really cool as well. And the way the steering wheel is positioned an opposing ship can't snipe off the operator of the steering wheel.
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  37. ​@bkjeong4302 I hear your argument but I think your wrong too. During WW2 the Battleship was NOT obsolete. When placed with a carrier group for each to provide mutual support it was a very important part of the group. Tell me, if the Yamato had came upon Halsey's Task force right about the time the typhoon hit, exactly what would they have done? It's a typhoon, the winds are too high to have aircraft aloft. And during bad weather &/or cloud covers & such those big guns ranging out to 25 miles was the best protection those task forces had during bad weather. So NO THEY WERE NOT OBSOLETE WHEN THEY WERE BUILT. And to be very honest about it, I get the impression that most the people that make such claims are rather ignorant to the whole concept of naval warfare. And are rather ignorant about most of WW2 as well.
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  38. Yeah, I was wondering that myself. It would seem that 2 super firing 13.5" turrets, one fore the other aft would have been a much better option. 8 gun broadside & only needing 8 guns to do so. Idk, the Brits, I guess, like to make things more complicated than they need to be. Seems to me the 4 twin layout would have weighed less & been less expensive to build even with 13.5" guns instead 12". But I guess that there was some reason they did what they did! But in the long run they would have done better with the super- firing layout fore & aft. The fact that the Treaty system made the USA 🇺🇸 on the same level as the Royal Navy & put the Japanese behind the eight ball at the same time is a major historical footnote. Although the Japanese felt slighted if they had embraced the fact that it was going to help their economy rather than feeling like it made them weaker than both then maybe they could have been content. But I guess that with Hitler wanting to rule the world & the Japanese already invading China & the US embargo of oil against Japan that the die was cast as soon as the Axis powers made their agreements. And Hitler really thought that Great Britain would sit by & do nothing while Germany went rampaging through Europe. And the Japanese figured that they would grab what they could while the English were distracted by Germany. And neither Germany nor Japan knew the power that the USA would rise up & become because of their shenanigans. Winston Churchill knew. That's why Churchill danced a jig on December 8,1941 when he heard the news of Pearl Harbor & made the statement "We can't lose now!!" But even with that said I don't think that he even realized how powerful the USA would become during the war. It's a shame that China & the USSR both decided on Communism instead of freedom. I hope we can live & let live for the future. But idk, seems to me that if there is another big war, what a huge blood bath it will be. Rivers of blood will pour considering we have billions in the world now. BTW, sorry for the trip down history lane, but we as humans forget how horrible war really is and some evil politicians come into power & starts a war wanting to Rule the World forgetting they will still die regardless. And probably sooner rather than later if there is a war. So, sorry for the reminder, I didn't intend to go there when I started writing. HAVE A GOOD DAY! ENJOY PEACE WHILE IT EXISTS IN THIS WORLD.
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  39. When I only have a few mins to spare this is one of my "go to" videos. One, I really love the fact that they had this idea & decided to try it. Two, the fact that it really worked is incredibly hilarious. And finally, three, Drach displays his art of writing and storytelling very very well. That is my story & I'm sticking to it.👍 🤟 ✌️ 👌
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  40. ​@kwad8 Yeah, I definitely agree with that! Cuz that's exactly what I was wondering. Like how many decks are there altogether & each level he talks about, yes, it would be a lot more clear if he showed a brief side shot schematic to show where that level is in the ship.
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  41. Some of the Admirals on both sides were overdue for their paid vacations. And so, after everyone had a good vacation...let the hostilities as well as the gunfire resume!!!! Very nice ship you have there, excuse me while we blow it to pieces, thank you very much!
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  42. You do realize that people have died by having too much hydration? And I stopped drinking alcohol in 2006 except that my wife and I shared a frozen margarita in 2007 after dinner on a particularly hot summer evening. Actually she didn't become my wife until October 2 following that frozen margarita. That being the last time I've had any alcohol. However, lately I've been considering having a shot of liquor before falling asleep to improve blood circulation. But so far I haven't decided to go that route yet. I originally quit drinking alcohol as a pact my wife & I made. It seemed when we drank alcohol we got into horrible arguments. After we quit drinking we may have mildly disagreed about something but never a heated argument. It improved our relationship immensely! The night that I had the idea for us to quit drinking, I had just gotten home from working & she had been drinking. And if I hadn't turned & looked when I did, she was about to hit me with an iron. I hadn't done anything to make her want to hurt me, she was just drunk & mad at me for some reason. So the next day I told her, "if you quit, I'll quit, & I think it will improve our relationship." Smartest deal I ever made! She died in 2015 but we had 12 really great years together. And even though she is gone I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not drinking. Actually, I see the way a lot of people act when they are drunk & it makes me proud I don't drink.
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  43. Idk, I've always been under the impression that ALL of the Japanese Carriers were very formidable opponents. No matter whether it was the carrier conversions or the purpose built carriers they were still to be feared & respected just as much as the original "Kido Butai!" And although the pilots on Kaga & Akagi may have had more experience but every carrier is dangerous until it is sunk or all their pilots are killed or injured.
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  44. Thank You Drach for yet another 6 hour Drydock. I'm not sure how long it took you to research all of that but thanks for doing that as well.
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  45. Yes Drach, I don't really want your head to swell up real big, but THIS is the kinda stuff about your channel that I enjoy. I mean, I understand that sometimes you have a guest come on & you ask them questions and you get to learn from them while we all learn from them. But I enjoy the stories so much more when you have done the research, written the story & tell it in your own words. Whether it is a story about battles that happened or one of your many naval engineering stories. Your writing and narrative is what keeps me listening. And sometimes if it's been a while I'll go back & listen to stuff over again just to refresh my memory about that subject & to see if I may have missed something from the previous viewing. Such a sad thing about Walker being out there sinking submarines and he loses his son who was lost aboard a submarine. What a sad story for him & his wife. For any parents, to lose a child must be one of the worst things that we as humans can endure. My wife miscarried twice & then was diagnosed with terminal COPD and passed away 5 years later. And that totally broke my ❤. I have a daughter from a previous relationship but haven't seen her in over 20 years. But I do believe she is alive & well. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a child. Even though he had grown to be an adult already it is a very sad affair when parents outlive their children. Which, in my eyes, is the very reason the USA didn't want to become involved with WW2! And then why there was such outrage at Pearl Harbor. It wasn't the fact that the Japanese sank & destroyed some of our Battleships, it was the fact that 1500+ sons would not be coming home & they sank our battleships in a sneaky attack without declaring war. We were going to make sure that they regretted ever attacking the United States of America!!!
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  46. Even if you you make it to the surface in the North Atlantic chances are you die from hypothermia in 20-30 minutes. If you make it to the surface in the warmth of the Pacific chances are you die from exposure, dehydration or shark attacks. There is a reason they call a life raft a "life raft." Cuz it's exactly that. Idk, just like pilots had life rafts in case they had to ditch in the ocean, I think all sailors should have had a small raft to go with their life jacket. Just think of all the lives that would have been saved? IF each individual sailor aboard the USS Indianapolis had had his own life raft rather than a life jacket many that died from shark attacks may have lived. It was said that somewhere in the vicinity of 900 sailors survived the sinking of the ship but in the end only 316 were finally pulled from the water. So maybe 25% of the entire crew survived. Once they were in the water about one out of three survived, so about 33%.
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  47. That is awesome. Congrats that your father made it home! My Great-Grandma(Mama Spann we called her) had 2 brothers that signed up to be pilots in WW2. I was never told any of the specifics except one was a pilot flying missions against Germany, & the other was flying ✈ in the Pacific against the Japanese. Both were considered KIA, & neither one ever had their bodies found &/or recovered. Although I'm not sure if that was the contributing factor or not, but "Mama Spann was very reclusive & whenever I tried to talk to her she would rarely ever respond & if she did it was mean & nasty! So, as you might imagine, I stopped trying to socialize with her unless she initiated the conversation, and as long as she wasn't saying something mean.
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  48. Yeah, speaking of the Edmund Fitzgerald I was surprised to hear you even get a question about the ill fated ship but I wasn't surprised that you tried to answer it. The whole story was very sad. And I don't think people realized at the time just how dangerous it still really is to be at sea or in the Great Lakes. And I personally believe that it still is just as dangerous today as it was when the Edmond Fitzgerald went down. I think they call them the November witches. But they are also Noreaster's, I think. Where these storms come thru going North east but then basically turn around and come back towards where they just came from. And they think that the storm is going to pass BUT it turns & comes right back. And crew men already exhausted have to deal with the same storm all over again.
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  49.  @VivyX2  Yeah, but imagine the U-boat Captain having to report that his U-boat was sunk by "HMS Pansy!" Not exactly a moral booster for the Kriegsmarine either!
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  50. ​@chrissouthgate4554 Yeah, especially when you're trying to have a ship carrying BIG guns & having enough armor to protect them against their own guns. However, Destroyers had, what's the saying? NONE OF THE ABOVE. Their only defense was being small so they were a little more difficult to hit & enough speed to run away. If they manage to launch a torpedo then if it's a much larger ship, then the ship becomes more concerned about dodging the torpedo than trying to blow them out of the water!
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