This Is What Google Wanted To Commemorate Today?

Today marks the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny, and what does Google do? Instead of putting up an image to honor the sacrifices made and the triumph of good over evil, they honor Tetris? Tetris? It's a game for heaven's sake. The world owes a debt of honor to the brave men who stormed ashore at Normandy and parachuted in to roll the Nazi conquest of Europe. This is what they came up with for today?



This is what they chose to honor?

For shame.

65 Years Later - Operation Overlord Still Shapes World Events

On this day 65 years ago, the Allies opened a Western front against Nazi Germany. set the United States on a course with destiny as the defender of freedom. It wasn't guaranteed, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had written two versions of a statement on what happened this fateful day 63 years ago - one if the landings succeeded and another if the landings failed. The version for if the landings failed read:

Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.

"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.

"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.

"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.



That's the view that many young men saw as they waded ashore under murderous German gunfire. For many, it was the last thing they saw. For the survivors, it was just the first step of many such steps into freeing Western Europe from the murderous grip of the Germans.

63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:

A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”

The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.

The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.

While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.

The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.

In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.

The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:


d-day

Eisenhower's speech as it was delivered.

Today, President Barack Obama, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and other national leaders will pay their respects to the bravery of the US, Canadian, British, and Free French forces that came ashore to liberate the European continent from Nazi tyranny. In addition to paying his respects to those forces, Obama also used the opportunity to criticize another odious regime of today - North Korea.

Also present will be one of the last living members of the only African-American batallion to come ashore in the invasion, Cpl. William G. Dabney, who was a member of the 320th Antiaircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, whose job was to come ashore and then unfurl helium balloons to prevent Nazi planes from strafing the beachhead.

Meanwhile, in its coverage of the D-Day events MSNBC couldn't help but take a swipe at President Bush, claiming that Obama and Sarkozy have improved relations between France and the US, which ignores the fact that Sarkozy was pro-American and overcame the anti-American sentiment that swept Europe after the Iraq invasion (and who wasn't alone as the Italians also elected a pro-American leader). Facts are a stubborn thing, and it was a fact that it took the stubborn determination of those forces on D-Day to liberate the continent and to show that the Americans carried the mantle of freedom and liberty wherever they went.

That's true, even to this day, despite what MSNBC may claim. Liberating 50 million people from the yoke of tyranny in Iraq and Afghanistan was not the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing.

UPDATE:
Ed Morissey has a post commemorating D-Day, and includes video of President Reagan's speech on the 40th anniversary. I will add President Obama's speech when it is available.

The Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the One

How is it that President Bush could visit Normandy and the public was allowed uninterrupted access to the landing beaches and Colleville-Sur-Mer on the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landings, and now we're learning that the State Department is putting in a request to keep the cemetery off limit to the public when President Obama visits next month for the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The 65th Anniversary of D-Day is fast approaching. Barack Obama will attend the events on June 6th as George Bush did in 2004 for the sixtieth memorial service. Here is the rub, as of now Obama’s State Department has asked (read demanded) the French government not allow tour guide services to operate that day. It is a big day for Normandy tourism. Yet, the king will not allow those not connected with government to enjoy the day. Obama is very important you know. This is an unprecedented request. I hope the French come to their senses and deny it.

Compare that with 2004. Security was tight as President Bush and other world leaders were in attendance, but the event was still open to all. A friend relayed the story of waiting in line to use a port-a-potty (a French port-a-potty no doubt, yuck, believe me.) She looks to her left and who he is in the next line waiting patiently? President Bush. Sure he had Secret Service nearby, but he waited like everyone else.

Contrast that with Team Obama not even allowing regular people near Colleville-Sur-Mer that day. A shame indeed. Especially as the last of our WW II vets are expiring.

That last part is key. This event is not about Obama, but about those veterans who survived their encounter with history at Normandy and helped secure the liberation of Europe from the hands of the Nazis. Obama is supposed to be honoring those who made it off the beach, and all those who didn't.

He should not stand in the way of all those who want to honor the men who made the supreme sacrifice during Operation Overlord to liberate Europe. I hope that this turns out to be an inaccurate report, but if it isn't, it is yet another bone-headed and tone deaf move on Obama's part, and

In To The Breach: D-Day 64 Years Later

June 6, 1944 - a day that changed the course of the war in Europe, and set the United States on a course with destiny as the defender of freedom. It wasn't guaranteed, and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had written two versions of a statement on what happened this fateful day 63 years ago - one if the landings succeeded and another if the landings failed. The version for if the landings failed read:

Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.

"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.

"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.

"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.



That's the view that many young men saw as they waded ashore under murderous German gunfire. For many, it was the last thing they saw. For the survivors, it was just the first step of many such steps into freeing Western Europe from the murderous grip of the Germans.

63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:

A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”

The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.

The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.

While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.

The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.

In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.

The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:


d-day

Eisenhower's speech as it was delivered.

Slublog posting at Ace in 2007 had a good posting on the events of D-Day, including a link to the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan (very violent). As violent as that scene was, the reality was so many times worse. Dave in Texas also had a very thoughtful posting.

Also, recall last year's spoof of how the modern media would cover the invasion had it occurred today:

HT - Wretchard.

It's instructive and enlightening.

The Longest Day

In to the breach:

63 years ago, elements of the American, British and Canadian forces landed in France, opening up the Western Front against Nazi Germany. It was D-Day for Operation Overlord - the invasion to liberate Europe from the Nazis:

A great invasion force stood off the Normandy coast of France as dawn broke on 6 June 1944: 9 battleships, 23 cruisers, 104 destroyers, and 71 large landing craft of various descriptions as well as troop transports, mine sweepers, and merchantmen—in all, nearly 5,000 ships of every type, the largest armada ever assembled. The naval bombardment that began at 0550 that morning detonated large minefields along the shoreline and destroyed a number of the enemy’s defensive positions. To one correspondent, reporting from the deck of the cruiser HMS Hillary, it sounded like “the rhythmic beating of a gigantic drum” all along the coast. In the hours following the bombardment, more than 100,000 fighting men swept ashore to begin one of the epic assaults of history, a “mighty endeavor,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it to the American people, “to preserve … our civilization and to set free a suffering humanity.”

The attack had been long in coming. From the moment British forces had been forced to withdraw from France in 1940 in the face of an overwhelming German onslaught, planners had plotted a return to the Continent. Only in that way would the Allies be able to confront the enemy’s power on the ground, liberate northwestern Europe, and put an end to the Nazi regime.

The outcome of the landings was in doubt until the beachheads were able to be established and reinforcements could be landed.

While the landings at Sword, Juno, Utah, and Gold beaches were largely successful, Omaha Beach nearly became a fiasco of monumental proportions that could threaten the landings at the other beaches. The Sherman DD tanks were launched too far out in the choppy waters and 27 of the 32 tanks sank, leaving the infantry without the needed support. German forces were able to pin the troops that did make it ashore in a killing field that turned the ocean red.

The military briefly considered shifting assets from Omaha Beach to Utah in order to exploit the landing there, but the survivors at Omaha managed to open up pathways to behind the German lines, where they could be attacked, cut off and destroyed by follow up attacks.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had written two versions of a statement on what happened this fateful day 63 years ago - one if the landings succeeded and another if the landings failed. The version for if the landings failed read:

Our landings have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops.

"My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available.

"The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do.

"If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone."

Thankfully for all involved, Eisenhower would never have to give that version.

In the hours and days after the landings, tens of thousands of Allied troops would come ashore and link up with the remnants of the Airborne units that landed inland to help prevent reinforcements from heading to the beaches. Those units suffered serious casualties for several reasons including being dropped immediately on top of St. Mere Egliese, flooded fields, and were dispersed over such a wide area that it made it difficult to link up the individual Airborne units.

The following is a special video that includes footage recreating the events of the fateful hours of D-Day:


d-day

UPDATE:
Eisenhower's speech as it was delivered.

Others blogging the 63rd anniversary of the D-Day landings: Hot Air, Charles at LGF, Pajamas Media, Paleo Lithics.

UPDATE:
Slublog posting at Ace has a good posting on the events of D-Day, including a link to the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan (very violent). As violent as that scene was, the reality was so many times worse. Dave in Texas also has a very thoughtful posting.

UPDATE:
It is somewhat fitting that the Fighting I - the USS Intrepid was pushed out of dry dock and headed to a berth at Staten Island's Homeport today.

Anthony Lorenzo looked out at the freshly-painted USS Intrepid docked at a Staten Island pier this morning and was transported to 1961.

"I'm thinking about when I was 19 years old, carefree," said the 65-year-old Staten Island resident who served on the Intrepid from 1961 to 1963. "It brings back the youth in you."

Lorenzo was one of dozens of former Intrepid crew members who welcomed the aircraft carrier to Staten Island from Bayonne, where it had undergone a $5 million facelift, at a ceremony planned to coincide with the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, when Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy.

They talked of old times and admired the new paint on the 41,000-ton ship.

"She finished her drydock extreme makeover," said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

The Intrepid hosted a ceremony marking the D-Day landings. The ship had been undergoing repairs, painting, and will now be fitted with new exhibits. The ship will be towed back to Manhattan and reopened on Veterans Day 2008.

UPDATE 6/7/2007:
This is simply brilliant - it's exactly how the media would cover the invasion had it occurred today:

HT - Wretchard.

USS Intrepid Renovations Continuing

Here's a sneak peak into the renovations the ship is undergoing while in drydock.

Out of Water Body Experience

The USS Intrepid, which has been a fixture on the Manhattan waterfront as a sea, air, and space museum, will be going into dry dock later today. This is the first time in nearly 40 years that the ship has been out of water and it will get a much deserved cleaning and painting.

The war veteran turned floating military museum was to be placed Tuesday in dry dock, where it will be perched on 212 custom-made pine blocks while crews scrape and power-wash its salt and weather corroded keel, then paint it the traditional battleship gray.

It took a complex engineering feat just to have the blocks milled to mimic each dent and scar in the keel from years of wartime service, including repeated Japanese kamikaze and torpedo attacks, said Intrepid Foundation President Bill White.

"This has been such an exciting project to see Intrepid go through such an overhaul to honor our heroes," White said in an interview with The Associated Press.

On Tuesday, the aircraft carrier was to be untied from its slip at Bayonne Military Ocean Terminal and towed to an adjacent dry dock by the same six high-powered tugs boats that wiggled it free of mud where it got stuck four months ago.

The tugs will pull the 41,000-ton Intrepid into the graving dock, a concrete bathtub-like encasement about the size of three American football fields. The ship will be winched into place and then lowered onto the blocks.

The encasement's rear door will be shut and sealed, and the water will be pumped out. More than 6,500 gallons (24,600 liters) of paint — enough for about 400 large houses — will be used to cover the ship from bow to stern.

The Intrepid's dry dock experience is being assisted by a purchase from e-Bay. The Intrepid foundation purchased detailed plans from the company that had acquired records of a shipyard that last worked on the Intrepid 38 years ago. That information was crucial to designing the wooden blocks on which the ship will rest while the maintenance and painting is done.

Web cameras (camera 2) are detailing the work that is taking place both on the ship and at the Manhattan pier (camera 1), which is being completely rebuilt.

USS Ling Needs New Home

Malcolm A. Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, The Record's parent company, has asked that the World War II submarine be moved from his River Street property. The tract, which the newspaper company leases to the New Jersey Naval Museum for $1 a year, is across the parking lot from The Record.

Last year, NJMG moved its manufacturing operations from its Hackensack headquarters to its Rockaway Township plant, leaving a large portion of the company's building vacant. Borg said the building is no longer suitable for office space, so he is in discussions to sell or develop the company's property, about 25 acres off River Street.

"We are looking at various options including building a new building on this property or either perhaps selling or leasing the rest of the property," Borg, who is honorary chairman of the museum, said Tuesday. "If the Ling were to leave, that would clear a couple of acres of land, so there are a lot of possibilities as to what could happen to this piece of property."

Figuring out where to move the 2,500-ton submarine and related artifacts is proving difficult for members of the Submarine Memorial Association, the non-profit group that runs the museum.

Some propose that the Ling be moved to Camden where it can join the USS New Jersey museum. I have two other suggestions that might be suitable.

1) Find another location in Northern New Jersey that would be suitable and close enough to its present location. The Meadowlands and the Xanadu project might be one such possibility. Putting the Ling in the Meadowlands would definitely increase its visibility and access to the submarine, which received one battle star during World War II.

2) See about partnering with the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum. The Intrepid is currently undergoing renovations and will reopen to the public in 2008. The pier where the Intrepid was berthed is being rebuilt, and the museum already has another submarine in its collection, though it is of more recent vintage - the USS Growler, which patrolled during the 1950s and early 1960s. The Ling was launched during World War II and has been restored to that condition.

65 Years Later: The Day That Lives In Infamy

December 7, 1941. Sixty five years ago the harsh reality of war came crashing down on the American outpost of Pearl Harbor in Oahu Hawaii. It became known as the day that will live in infamy. Japanese fighters and bombers swept down on Pearl Harbor hoping to destroy the US Navy fleet as it sat at anchor and cripple our ability to stop the Japanese advances in the Asian/Pacific theater. The numbers of survivors from Pearl Harbor are dwindling and this may be the last year that the survivors reunite at Pearl Harbor to remember their comrades who lost their lives that bright and sunny Sunday morning all those years ago and ushered in a global war on a scale and scope no one ever imagined.



Michelle Malkin honors those who were there. Rick Moran revisits the debate over intel and its current day equivalents. Rand Simberg goes one step further and hits the mark.

Here's my post from last year.

UPDATE:
The New York Times has a fascinating look at its archives and news reports that were censored because they could reveal too much information to our enemies. They've opened up their archives to stories that were not run during the war because they could have provided key details to our enemies.

Here's new insight on what the US Navy was doing to rebuild the Navy after Pearl Harbor. For example, here's the massive undertaking to salvage the USS Nevada and the USS California. The USS Olkahoma posed difficult challenges.

Now, only if our media outlets, including the NYT realized that leaks of classified information about programs designed to protect the nation from another terrorist attack during our current war realized that their actions could be just as disasterous, would our nation be more secure against the threats posed by those terrorist groups and their state sponsors including Syria and Iran.

Oh, and it was the censors that kept the stories from running during war. FDR - anti-civil libertarian.

UPDATE:
A video remembrance of the events of the day:


Technorati: Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

Intrepid Attempt Take Two

Tugboats will attempt to pull the USS Intrepid from its mooring at Pier 86 on Tuesday at high tide. Engineers have dredged additional material from the stern so that they will hopefully free the ship so that it can make the trip to dry dock for repairs.

The next attempt to move the Intrepid, which has housed a military museum on the West Side of Manhattan since 1982, is scheduled to begin between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., during high tide, Bill White, the president of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, said yesterday.

The five-mile voyage to a dry dock in Bayonne, N.J., will take several hours, but it will not be accompanied by the pomp and ceremony that were arranged for the first attempt on Nov. 6, he said.

This time, there will be no great fanfare.

Technorati: intrepid, uss intrepid, concorde, nyc, bayonne.

Intrepid Gets Helping Hand

The USS Intrepid, which continues to be stuck in the mud at its location in Manhattan (Pier 86) despite the efforts of several tugboats, will get help from the United States Navy.

Under the new agreement, which was hammered out after four days of talks between Intrepid officials and the Pentagon, the Navy will give salvage support to try to free the vessel. That support will fall within guidelines of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit issued to the museum for dredging.

But it's not yet known when the operation will be finished and the carrier towed to Bayonne, New Jersey.

"The Intrepid Museum is thankful to the Navy and to the Army Corps of Engineers for the great help they are providing to this effort," Arnold Fisher, the museum chairman, said in a statement.

The Intrepid was supposed to enter drydock last week to paint and repair the hull, and then begin a period of refurbishment that would open up additional space and areas for public usage.

Technorati: intrepid, uss intrepid, concorde, nyc, bayonne.

Intrepid's No Go

Try as they might, the USS Intrepid barely budged. It ended up being pulled about 20 feet before getting stuck in the mud, and musuem officials are going to have to scamble to figure out how to get the ship unstuck in order to begin the restoration and dry dock activities. Divers will be sent down to examine the riverbed and see if they can determine the problem.

The next opportunity for the high tide is December 8.

Technorati: intrepid, uss intrepid, concorde, nyc, bayonne.

Intrepid on the Move

Within the next few minutes, tugs will be pulling the USS Intrepid from its berth at Pier 86 into the Hudson River to begin a short trip down to a dry dock in Bayonne, NJ. It's getting some much needed refurbishment work done and should be reopened in time for Fleet Week 2008.

Here's a webcam where you can watch the activities. The tugs are expected to begin their tasks at 9:15AM EST to coincide with the highest tides. The Intrepid had been berthed at its pier for so long, it became encased in muck that had to be dredged away but it still needs more than a bit of assistance to get clear.

Official website is here.

UPDATE:
Stuck in the mud. The organizers of the move will have to regroup and figure out how to get the ship out of its current position. They had managed to move it what appears to be about 50-100 feet before it became stuck on the bottom again. They'll have to wait for the next high tide before trying again.

UPDATE:
It was the Intrepid's silent protest against moving out of the City, even for a short layover for a rehab and refit.

Technorati: intrepid, uss intrepid, concorde, nyc, bayonne.

Goodbye Big O

The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany was sunk by the US Navy in order to create a new coral reef. The Oriskany saw active duty in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The Oriskany was decommissioned in 1976 and now becomes the first ship sunk for reefing under a new Navy program to dispose of old warships.

Clouds of brown and gray smoke rose in the sky after more than 500 pounds of plastic explosives went off about 11:30 a.m. EDT. The ship took about 45 minutes to go down.

The Environmental Protection Agency in February approved the sinking of the ship with chemical toxins in electrical cables, insulation and paint still aboard. EPA officials said the toxins will slowly leach out over the estimated 100 years it will take the carrier to rust away and should pose no danger to marine life.

Local leaders hope the carrier reef will bring a long-awaited economic infusion from sport divers and fishermen. A 2004 Florida State University study estimated Escambia County would see $92 million a year in economic benefits from an artificial reef.

The Oriskany was one of the last of the Essex class carriers to be decommissioned in 1976 (the USS Lexington was decommissioned in 1991 and is now a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas). It was launched in October 1945, just after World War II came to a close.

See here for more information about the final resting place of the Oriskany and a history of the ship.

USS Iowa Gets Shot Down By San Francisco City Council

Are you kidding me? This historic member of the arsenal of democracy, which defended San Francisco and the rest of the country for 50 years, is being prevented from becoming a museum in San Francisco because the city council thinks this would be a good way to show its objection to the war in Iraq. Last month the San Francisco City Council had voted against the siting of the Iowa in San Francisco.

For starters, what the heck are they thinking? This historic ship, defended our aircraft carriers from kamikazi attacks, prepared landings for our Marines, and hit targets throughout the Pacific so that we could win the war.

In light of San Francisco's move, Stockton, CA, is offering space for the museum. Senator Feinstein is pushing a bill that would open up bidding to all California cities.

Good for Stockton.

Boo for San Francisco.

UPDATE:
Rereading my headline for this story made me realize that it would be kind of tough to shoot down a battleship. Torpedo? Definitely. Sink? Absolutely. Shoot down? Kind of tough to do for a ship that doesn't fly.

Then again, this is San Francisco's City Council we're talking about. They wouldn't know the difference.

UPDATE II:
The Donovan takes aim, fires, and drops 50 for effect on San Francisco.