You'd Probably Roll Your Eyes At My Vagueness
Roll them all you like, once again whose blog is it? Yes thanks, now sit down and pay attention whilst I pontificate.
Conrad is annoyingly unable to locate a film character going by the nickname of 'Tug', whom he thought might have been played by John Wayne in "They Were Expendable", except looking up the film's details, his character was nicknamed "Rusty". Where 'Tug' came from I cannot tell, but it does give me an excuse to bring in a picture for TWE. Art!
It's an excellent film, and I believe we've covered it here on the blog in the past. Montgomery had been in the South Canadian Navy during the Second Unpleasantness and he brings a sense of Things Experienced to his ro
ANYWAY enough about people. When the term 'tug' is used, people naturally assume that tis reference is to one of the unsung heroes of maritime life, the tug-boat. Art!
The mighty atom
These undercelebrated vessels are to be found in any port or harbour, doing the kind of close-in manoeuvering under power that other ships cannot manage. They will move other ships in or out of dock, re-position them, tow them if power issues intervene and generally act as the faithful retainers of the sea. No, they are not glamourous or enormous; yes, they are essential. Art!
Of course - obviously! - we are not going with the conventional marine tug-boat, because that's not how BOOJUM! rolls, since we are 50% mendacious and 55% perspicacious, we'll let you and the maths fight it out between you.
What you see above is another variety of tug, an airliner tug, which is used to tow or push large passenger aircraft around in a manner similar to a tug-boat. You cannot use jet engines in close proximity to people or buildings when taxiing, or wholesale destruction will result. Having to fund the reconstruction of an airport and settle out of court for thirty-seven dead passengers can seriously impact the bottom line. Art!
Say hello to probably the most famous airliner tug evah. Yes, this is the Armoured Personnel Carrier from "Aliens", which used the chassis of an airliner tug as it's underlying structure. The original is a Hunslett ATT77 and it was transformed into APC M577. Don't listen to the cruel cruel critics who maintain that it's bigger on the inside than the outside, every vehicle deserves to have a little TARDIS to it.
ANYWAY we finally arrive at today's core matter, which concerns a couple of aircraft tugs and a helicopter. Art!
There's a bit to unpack here. What you see are a couple of aircraft tugs pulling an helicopter up a ramp, and AS PER USUAL the Youtube commentator doesn't bother to include the Rudyard Kipling details. Conrad can affirm that this is taking place at a dockside, because the view pulls back in a few seconds to reveal - Art!
Conrad is guesstimating that this helicopter, rotor blades all folded back, is being loaded into a naval vessel, in a manner that Robert (splendid first name there mate!) Montgomery would most definitely not approve of. You see, those little airplane tugs are 99% rated for towing on LEVEL surfaces. This is why there are two of them here, because they are not designed, intended nor powered to tow uphill at an angle.
It all goes horribly wrong. Art!
The towing A-frame bar is also not intended for use at an angle and disengages halfway up the ramp.
Ooops.
Conrad is reasonably certain that's a Sea King helicopter, in the steely-grey livery of the South Canadian Marine Corps, whose proud descendants end up in APC M577 and which is priced at many millions of dollars. Art!
Nobody is apparently injured, and whilst the helicopter may have hit the ramp with a resounding BANG there are no explosions nor fires nor pieces of helicopter being scattered across the tarmac. These facts will no doubt be taken into consideration when the NCO responsible for this cluster-flip goes in front of his EXTREMELY angry OC. I have guesstimated that these are Marine Corps utilitarians based on the helicopter's colour scheme, Comment if you disagree.
Kind of tugs at yore heartstrings, doesn't it*?
Kitchen Kitsch Kommences
A couple of months ago Your Humble Scribe fell asleep during his cooking of an Ukrainian dish, and woke to find out that it had been comprehensively burned, scraped and binned. This is all my fault, and Prez Zed may wish to ladle rancour and dill herb upon me.
However! yes that word again there is an attempt at 'Zharkoe' today. Art!
It's an Ukrainian beef and potato stew, which has now been boxed up and will be served for dinner o'er the coming week.
"The War Illustrated Edition 199 2nd February 1945"
Just to let you know that this magazine's editors would always leave a fortnight's gap between publications, to ensure that The Opposition (solely the Teutons at this point in Europe) didn't derive anything useful from said pictures. Art!
Apologies for the miniscule background count, which we have reproduced in what looks like fleas on wallpaper. This is actually the Transport Command that the Allies used to drop supplies to their garrison at Bastogne. As mentioned previously, this air-bridge kept them a-smitingly, despite what was happening on the ground. This is what happens when you have Air Supremacy and immense logistical back-up.
Our Journey With Bernie
Which is to say, Mister Wrightson's latest FPG trading card opus as it was back in 1993. Art!
One considers that matey here needs a couple of fellow-flamethrowers to sustain any length of survivability, because small-arms fire is not going to manage t. R J MacReady are you paying attention! This looks great as The Final Stand Of Homo Sapiens, rather less so as Do You Have An AA Battery?
"Syrian" Is Going To Persist Awhile
Thanks to the erstwhile digging for literal remains of those that the Chinless Twod got rid of, beware remain. Beware, beware, beware. Art!
This is absolutely bonkers mass-conveyance drug creation, but Assad's regime made it's foundational economics from pushing drugs, and not in a good way. Let us count how many yearns they have gotten rid of apart from their Ruffian ones!
As Back Up
More bad news for Modern-day Mordor, as evinced by the BBC on their News website of all that's fit to be write. Art!
You do not often get footage of a sinking vessel being sinking as it sinks itself, but here Modern-day Mordor manages the same, as a single vessel becomes two. Not only does this happen as observed, but another Rosneft-Sink oil freighter sank in the Black Sea today. There must be something in the water, as they say .....
Finally -
Time to roll out the general fumes and fumaroles and otherwise volcanic vortices and vuvuzelas!
* "Yore" is internationally recognised as Poetic Licence.
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