Meme Scholar with Madness (PhD)

[EndtheMadnessNow]

When CDR Richard O'Kane of USS Tang (SS-306) learned that the officers' wardroom on the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) was getting an ice cream maker, he nabbed the machine and had it installed on his sub to boost the crew's morale. Happy National Ice Cream Day!


Sunk by own torpedo off China in the Taiwan Strait, 25 October 1944. Commander Richard O'Kane received the Medal of Honor for her last two engagements of 23-24 October 1944.

One of the 78 men lost (O'Kane was one of the 9 survivors) was Rubin MacNiel Raiford, who at age 15, may have been the youngest American person in the military to lose his life in combat. As is tradition for US submarines lost at sea, Tang was not decommissioned and officially remains on "Eternal Patrol". O'Kane was the highest scoring submarine commander of World War II, sinking 31 ships.

The USS Tang had a brief appearance in the 2023 film Godzilla Minus One in the form of the photo of the damage, used to portray the USS Redfish (SS-395) where instead of being sunk by its own torpedo, it was sunk by Godzilla.


This is CDR Joseph "Jumpin' Joe" Clifton enjoying some well-earned ice cream in the cockpit of his F6F Hellcat on USS Saratoga after a successful raid in 1944. In the U.S. Navy, ice cream became known as "gedunk" in the 1930s because the characters in the popular comic strip "Harold Teen" were regularly shown eating "gedunk sundaes" at a soda fountain. Today, gedunk refers to all junk food as well as the shop where it can be purchased on a ship.


I was a gedunk horde master on long deployments selling candy bars & gum for $20 each bar or stick of gum because the ship's store would often run dry. When we finally pulled into a port I would have plenty of cash for beer & other entertainment.

The curious origin of the Navy’s term for ice cream & other Jabberwocky Terms


On a U.S. Navy ship during WWII, two officers were trying to pull rank to cut in line for ice cream when someone barked at them to wait their turn. As the officers looked to see who had dared to rebuke them, they spotted Admiral William "Bull" Halsey waiting in line with the rest of the sailors.


The US Navy's Raging Bull
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC9Vns6AUoU


July 21, 1959: NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" initiative. Savannah enroute to the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle.




July 21, 1972: the premiere of Deliverance.




For the first time in history, a pair of U.S. Air Force B-52H Strategic Bombers flew over Finland today while being escorted by Finnish F/A-18s, as a show of force against Russia. Finnish F/A-18s and Romanian F-16s escorted the B-52s in Romanian airspace. The bombers flew to Romania via Finland.




The TIME cover at left was published on July 21; the one at right was published digitally June 28, the day after the first presidential debate. Coverage of these events is included in the Aug. 5, 2024, print issue of TIME.




Elon's AI fashion show video premiere...


https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1815187468691316946


Vote The Flying Saucer Ticket!


Gabriel Green, a photographer turned prominent UFO contactee & publisher in the 1950s, ran for President of the United States as a write-in candidate in 1960 & 1972.

"The Space People’s Choice!"