U.G.Wilson | Military

A colleague sent this over to me today; amazing read! Log of Joel Punches who was a navigator on a B-17F Flying Fortress of the 385th Bomb Wing, 8th Air Force.

The log chronicles day-by-day events from 11/5/1943 through 2/21/1944. Started reading this and couldn't stop. Download PDF link at the bottom of this post. Here is an excerpt:

"Almost went over on its back at 1,000 ft. Tex & Lap got it level for a minute and rang the bell to abandon the ship. Tubby and five of the gunners bailed out of the waist. I got to the escape hatch in the nose, got on my hands & knees, and tried to dive out. Almost got out but my winter helmet caught on the side of the hatch. I climbed back in, screwed my nerves up again, took off my helmet, and dove again. This time my head and arms and shoulders got out but my backpack caught on the side of the hatch and I stuck. I climbed back in looking at the altimeter and since we were still at 900 ft. I tried once more. This time I hit my head on side of hatch & cut it, so I climbed back in & gave up."

Download: B17-Logbook.pdf (1.80 mb)

It sounds like something an industrious undergrad might do as a project for Hack a Day, but no. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, Iraqi insurgents are managing to intercept video from Predator drones. Cost of the the tech required to accomplish this? A $29.95 copy of SkyGrabber..

UAV's such as the Predator have been successful because of the valuable, real time intelligence they provide. If the enemy has access to the same data; it doesn't simply take away the advantage US forces have in a given encounter. It force multiplies the given opfor, pushing their abilities far past what they would have been, had the US had no aerial surveillance at all.

We might as well be handing them body armor, and guided missiles.

U.G.Wilson²⁴

and his idle ramblings...

B-17 Fortress Logbook

Hacking UAVs

About the Author...

Twitter

U.G.Wilson24