I had moved here from an older wooden building in "old Curundu" that had EIGHT units on two stories.  These older buildings had a tin roof, and no glass, privacy coming from a hurricane shutter behind screening.  The old wooden house had no insulation, and the exterior wall was simply the one by four covering of the building.  It had a door between the "living room" and the bedroom, and a bathroom came only with a "can" and a shower (no tub).  Strangely, the kitchen had two stoves that were separated by a curtain from your neighbor's, and, in the living room, there was a small refrigerator.

Before this, there was the fifth floor of Building 519, that was used as a BOQ for officers as they waited to make the list to be eligible ... for the single BOQ on Fort Clayton that was a modern affair.  I never went into that building, but think I would have, for privacy's sake, preferred the wooden Curundu to that.  519 was so bad that a CPT Brewer and two other lieutenants came to me and with two more officers, we formed the FORT CLAYTON BILLETING COUNCIL to look for better quarters that came closer to meeting regulations.  CPT Brewer had read the regulations and apparently had gotten the attention of the higher ups - I understand it was some retired CWO that had created a thiefdom for himself years before that had saved money by putting officers into 519 until they "went on the economy" and saved the US Army countless dollars.  It was only a couple of days after we drafted our by-laws and mission that we were being shown "available" housing at Ft Amador, 15th Naval District, and Cocoli, housing which was far away from our jobs at Fort Clayton.  It took only two, maybe three weeks before we were out of that place in old Curundu, and told that better lodgings were being prepared. 

USS WISCONSIN (BB-64)
Often I use model ships as an aid in perspective. This drawing of the USS WISCONSIN was made from the Revell-Monogram 1/350th scale model of an "Iowa-class" battleship. I chose to name the drawing, and number it as the USS WISCONSIN because when I was making the drawing, PBS ran a special on her retirement. (I had built this nearly three foot long model of the ship as such an aid in making a drawing for a set on DESERT STORM in 1991.) The USS Wisconsin was the last of the IOWA class battleships to be retired from the navy.  Her sisters, the USS IOWA BB-61, USS NEW JERSEY BB-62, and USS MISSOURI BB-64, were Admiral Halsey's FAST battleships.  Their many 5-inch 38's guarded the fast carriers that decimated the Imperial Japanese navy the last two years of WWII.  These 885 foot long monsters were built to slip through the Panama Canal and were the last battleships built.  The construction of the USS KENTUCKY was halted and the hull kept its bow being used to replace the bow of a sister in the 1950's before being scrapped. They participated in the Korean War and sailed on through the Suez Crisis and the 1958 Beirut Crisis.  The USS New Jersey was recommissioned in 1968 and sent to Vietnam where her 16-inch guns were found to be perfect for eliminating the N. Vietnamese shore batteries that harassed U.S. destroyers working off the coast of Vietnam near the DMZ. In less than six months though, the USS New Jersey was again sent to mothballs until President Reagan's rebuilding of the US Navy in the 1980's. Few people realize that 70% of the earth's population lives in the range of a 16-inch naval rifle from one of these behemoths and that one battleship can, in the course of a day, put more ordinance on target than five aircraft carriers.

101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION (C-47)
"The Plan Meets Reality" makes clear Murphy's First law of combat: "The first casualty of any battle is the PLAN."  In this case, on crossing the French coast line, the airborne troops on the night of 5,6 June 1944, encountered a fog bank.  The pilots became disoriented, scattered, and for the most part, lost.  They broke formations, some gained altitude, some descended.  The result was chaos so great that the Germans had their share of problems as well; there was no pattern.  They found it nearly impossible to ascertain any objective the Allies had in mind.   For some time, it simply looked like a diversion, because it was understood in the German command that the real invasion would take place at the Pas de Calais.  The doubt caused delay and habituation in notifying higher headquarters, and when the truth was realized, it was too late to organize an effective defense.  In the long run, the airborne units succeeded in their mission, but not in the manner planned.

Ink drawing done for the U.S. POWER SQUADRON
The two planes are, Eugene Ely's Curtiss Pusher, and a Burgess Dunne Hydroplane. Ely was the first pilot to take off from a ship, the USS BIRMINGHAM in Nov. 1907. A couple of months later, he landed on the USS PENNSYLVANIA and then took off. The USS NORTH CAROLINA, renamed the USS CHARLOTTE was the first ship to catapult an airplane into flight, but she and her sisters were used during WWI as seaplane tenders.

From top to bottom - left: USS CHATTANOOGA, USS GEORGIA, USS BIRMINGHAM, USS ASHEVILLE, USS ATLANTA
From top to bottom - right:   USS MONTGOMERY, USS ALABAMA, USS NORTH CAROLINA, USS TENNESSEE, and USS NASHVILLE.
(Editor's note-Mr. Kirbo sent me a very large copy that shows the planes and ships in greater detail, but it would have been a long download (1.2 megs)for many users.  However, if you wish to see this copy, click here: broadband copy )

USS TENNESSEE (ACR-7)
USS TENNESSEE,Armored Cruiser was launched in 1907 and later renamed USS MEMPHIS to make way for the construction of the battleship USS TENNESSEE. The USS MEMPHIS was swamped and washed ashore by a tsunami in the Dominican Republic in August 1915.

USS TENNESSEE (BB-43) 
This ship was launched in 1920 and was the sister ship of the USS CALIFORNIA. Both ships were in Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.  The USS CALIFORNIA was sunk and the USS TENNESSEE, which was inboard of the USS MARYLAND and ahead of the USS ARIZONA, found herself pinned against her quay. A few days later, the USS MARYLAND was refloated and the USS TENNESSEE sailed for San Francisco. Her actual service started with retaking the Aleutian Islands and defending Alaska, after which she ws sent to Bremerton for a modernization.  TENNESSEE acquired the name Ridge Runner and served with Admiral Oldendorf's "Old Battleships" under General MacArthur in the East Indies and Philippines.  The USS TENNESSEE was one of the key ships in the Philippines in the Battle of Surigao Strait and shared credit in sinking the IJN YAMISHIRO with the destroyer, USS KILLEN.  As with most of her contemporaries, the USS TENNESSEE was retired immediately after the war and scrapped.

USS NORTH CAROLINA (BB-52/55)
Armored Cruiser (AOC-12) Pennsylvania class. The USS NORTH CAROLINA is shown here as she appeared as station ship at the new Navy flight school at Pensacola, FL about 1914.  In 1916, when the Navy started naming battleships after states and cruisers after cities, her name was changed to USS CHARLOTTE.  She served through WWI as a seaplane carrier, and was quickly retired thereafter as coal fired ships became more expensive and inconvenient to operate as compared to oil fired ships. The airplanes shown here are Curtiss Seaplanes on ship and flying, a Burgess Dunne Hydroplane.  The navy at this time preferred flying boats since the problems of landing aboard ship had not been solved. Flying boats could land alongside a ship on the high seas by landing on the slick inside a turn when the made a turn.  From there the plane would taxi up beside the ship to catch on a mat and then be hooked by the ship's huge cranes and lifted aboard.  Seaplanes and observation aircraft were recovered to cruisers, battleships and seaplane tenders as long as they were used, ending in the 1970's with the Martin P5-M's retirement from service after Vietnam.