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Hero Worship II

Until the movie Rush came out, I'd sort of forgotten how closely I followed the mid-70's Hunt-Lauda auto racing rivalry, why it was so fascinating to me at the time, and why I was such an adamant Lauda fan.

I was a middle-school age kid at the time, so let me put this in middle-school terms. In my world, James Hunt would have been the starting quarterback of the football team, always with the most beautiful cheerleader on his arm; a guy just spilling over with charm and charisma and physical grace. Have you ever been in an awkward situation, and only 15 minutes too late do you realize what would have been the perfect response if only you'd thought of it? James Hunt was the guy who said that perfect response in the moment. In short, he just loved being James Hunt and it showed in everything he did.

I never was that guy, and especially not in middle school. I was mentally smart, but also awfully nerdish. I often knew the right answer, but stated it in a way that people misunderstood. I was awkward in social situations, and the more people were around, the worse it was. I was deathly afraid of saying the wrong thing, and for that reason, often did. Niki Lauda was a hero for kids like me.

The contrast in styles was what made this rivalry so fascinating. Lauda was the one who went to bed early, and got up at sunrise on the day of the race to walk the track; cataloging every bump, every oil spot, every subtle contour of every hill and every corner. He had a deep understanding of his machinery, how it worked, and how to tune and tweak it for the best performance under any conditions (he later wrote the definitive textbook on this subject). Hunt was the naturally gifted, athletic, instinctive driver who, when asked by television interviewer Stirling Moss how he was able to win with an ill-balanced car, replied "Big Balls."

Guess who is who?

Just as Niki Lauda was my favorite driver, my favorite track was the Nurburgring. They've since rebuilt the 'Ring, using only a portion of the original circuit. The original 'Ring was almost 13 miles (most road courses are 2-4 miles) of twisting, undulating raceway snaking its tortured way past ruined castles, up and down through the forested mountains of the Eifel region in Germany. It was probably the most difficult course in the history of racing. It was said that a driver could only master the 'Ring for one day. Jackie Stewart called it "The Green Hell."

The 'Ring - just a little part of it, actually

 In addition to all the fairy-tale beauty, epic scale, and monumental challenge, there was also some serious history to the place. One of the first books I remember reading in my grade school library, Tazio Nuvolari and his Alfa-Romeo, told the story of a diminutive Italian David who went up against the Hitler-sponsored Goliaths of Mercedes and Auto-Union and won the 1935 German Grand Prix. That's a story that will need another blog post all to itself.

In 1976, Niki Lauda and James Hunt were in a heated battle for the Formula One world championship. Lauda held a narrow lead, and if the 'Ring was anyone's track, it was Lauda's. Even today, his track record stands - the only driver ever to lap the full course in under 7 minutes. So there was good reason to think that the German Grand Prix could be the race where Lauda would win and lock up the championship for the second year in a row.

Conditions that day were far from ideal. The 'Ring always presented major safety hazards, particularly because the landscape and sheer size of the track defied efforts to have adequate safety crew coverage and response times. Adding to the hazards on that particular day was the weather. It had rained heavily, and was still raining in some places. Parts of the track were wet and other parts were dry, complicating the decision of what kind of tires to run.

Lauda, who had been elected by the other drivers as the drivers' safety representative, called a meeting and proposed cancelling the race for safety reasons. This proposal was narrowly voted down, and the drivers - including Lauda - lined up to race.

Not sure if this is a race day picture or not, but this is 1976 and it is Niki Lauda fully airborne at the 'Ring.

I can't do justice to the race - if you're interested, check out the movie - but (spoiler alert!) Lauda was nearly killed in a crash. Just as Lauda had feared, the delayed safety crew response time was key: he spent what must have been a hellish 100 seconds in the middle of a flaming mass of racing fuel. In addition to extensive external burn injuries, his lungs were severely damaged and initially he was not expected to survive. Amazingly, he returned to race again a few weeks later.

Ferrari's treatment of Lauda in the aftermath of the crash caused an irreparable breach between team and driver. He spent the next couple of seasons driving for a thoroughly outclassed Brabbham team, then retired from racing - temporarily, as it turned out - he returned to F1 in 1982 and narrowly beat out teammate Alain Prost to win his third world championship.

As of this writing, Lauda is alive and well, serving as manager for the currently dominating Mercedes F1 team.

Contemporary Lauda. He declined any number of reconstructive/cosmetic surgeries, so there are still plenty of signs of his time in the fire.

As a hero, Lauda is not without his flaws. He has a lifelong reputation for rubbing people the wrong way, even - or especially - when he's right and they're wrong. He was never the most charismatic person in the world, and extensive burns did little to enhance his physical presence. But I'll always admire Lauda for his skill, his relentless work ethic, his extraordinary perseverance in adversity, and his commitment to the truth, even when the truth isn't popular.

OK, this is going to make everyone mad

Here's my take on Ferguson and the subsequent police controversies. If you're sensitive to racial justice issues, it will probably make you mad. If you lean conservative and think we pay too much attention to race and not enough to law and order, it will probably make you mad.

Here goes anyway:

1. I think African Americans have some legitimate grievances about the way they're treated by the criminal justice system in the US. Study after study has shown that African Americans are more likely to be arrested and more likely to be convicted for the same offenses. And once convicted, they get more severe sentences for the same offenses. There is no credible data to contradict this. African Americans have ample reason to be upset.

2. The Brown-Wilson case is not a good example, or a good test case, of those grievances. The most inflammatory accusations against Wilson, such as he shot Brown in the back, are contradicted by autopsy evidence. Other inflammatory accusations, such as Brown was trying to surrender, appear to be more based on second hand rumor than first hand eye witness accounts. As far as I've seen, nobody testified under oath that Brown was trying to surrender.

3. Anyone, of any race, who reaches into a police officer's car, no matter what the race of that officer,  punches the officer, and tries to take his or her gun, is very likely to be shot. I can't really argue with this.The forensic evidence does support Wilson's account in this regard.

4. It's emotional and inflammatory, but ultimately pointless, to count the number of bullets fired in a police shooting. To paraphrase Tam Keel, there's no such thing as a situation that justifies shooting someone just a little bit. If the situation justifies lethal force, it justifies continued use of lethal force until the threat is definitively stopped. I have a fair amount of experience shooting human-sized animals, watching their behavior after being shot, then opening up their bodies to assess the nature of their wounds. Even after receiving a lethal gunshot wound, enough oxygen remains in the system for 10 to 15 seconds of intentional action. In the context of a lethal attack, 10 to 15 seconds is an eternity. I once shot a deer that proceeded to jump a 6 foot fence and run 200 yards before falling over. When I opened that deer's chest cavity, the heart was completely destroyed - all four chambers wide open. So I have no difficulty imagining a violent attacker being shot 10 or 15 times before they're stopped.

5. It's emotional and inflammatory, but ultimately pointless, to emphasize the fact that Brown was not armed with a firearm. A punch thrown by a 290 pound man is an attack that is likely to result in grievous bodily harm - which justifies the use of lethal force. If that man is trying to take a gun away from you, it's a potentially lethal attack. Again: punch a cop, try to take his/her gun away, receive lethal force in response.

6. The grievances of African Americans are systemic and institutional, not the direct result of anything Wilson did. We do need change, but putting Wilson in prison because of what he symbolizes is precisely the same lynch mob mentality we'd like to eradicate. 

7. The NYPD cops who turned their backs on DiBlasio did no favors to their own case. This is not professional behavior. I am not aware of any job, anywhere, that you get to make a big public display of disrespect to your boss, and still be employed the next morning. If there are any other examples, they have to be union jobs. Conservatives who cheered this childish display, think about this: you're cheering the same kind of entitled, accountable-to-nobody union attitudes that you usually profess to deplore.

Hero Worship: John C. Waldron

I've always admired this guy. I first learned about him in Walter Lord's Incredible Victory; an account of the Battle of Midway.

Waldron was the commanding officer of Torpedo Squadron 8. He was, apparently, one of those hard-driving sons-of-guns that are paradoxically beloved by the young men they drive so hard. Waldron taught his boys to fly from the decks of aircraft carriers and launch torpedoes at enemy warships. In early June 1942, as Task Force 16 sailed to engage the numerically superior and until-then-undefeated Japanese First Air Fleet, Waldron was still relentlessly training his men, reviewing tactical situations and running them around the flight deck, much to the bemusement of the pilots of Hornet's more relaxed air squadrons.

Torpedo 8 sailed one day too soon to upgrade to the new, and far superior Grumman TBF Avenger. Instead, they'd go into battle against the most accomplished carrier air force in the world flying the obsolete TBD Devastator. In addition to an aircraft that was too short-ranged and too slow, Waldron knew that his men were armed with seriously defective torpedoes. They'd be flying low and slow and straight; sitting ducks for Japan's elite Zero aces and antiaircraft gunners, hoping for a chance to fire a weapon that was more likely than not to malfunction.



This portrait of Waldron, taken on the way out to Midway, bears close study. I particularly like how Waldron is armed with his GI 1911 and two spare magazines, and a knife. If his torpedo doesn't work, he'll sink the Japanese flagship with .45 ACP. If need be, he's ready to jump in the water and engage the shipwrecked Yammamoto in a knife fight. I also like the tie. He's ready to fight to the death, but he wants you to know he's a professional.

Early in the morning on 4 June 1942, all of Hornet's aircraft were launched at the Japanese fleet. Just before takeoff, Waldron got in a near-violent argument with Stan Ring, Hornet's air group commander. Waldron wanted some of Hornet's fighter planes to fly low, with Torpedo 8, to provide defensive cover for his boys against the Zeros. Ring refused. Based on the air reconaissance report locating the Japanese carriers, and the knowledge that they'd have to recover planes from their air strike on Midway Island, Waldron had correctly predicted a Japanese course change. He argued for an attack course that would meet the Japanese at this rendevous. Ring insisted on flying in the opposite direction.

Once airborne, Waldron taunted Ring over the radio: "I'm going to attack the Japanese fleet, Stan. Where are you going?" Waldron led Torpedo 8 toward the Japanese fleet. Ring flew all Hornet's other aircraft off to nowhere. Many ran out of gas and ditched in the sea; some made it to Midway island. None got in to the fight.

Waldron got into the fight. He led his squadron straight to the Japanese carriers. One by one, his planes were picked off by Japanese defending fighter planes. Only one pilot survived: Ensign George Gay. When Gay last saw Waldron, he was standing up in the cockpit of his burning aircraft, trying to get out.

Eventually Gay was shot down, too. He credits Waldron for his survival: among all the other things Waldron relentlessly trained them for, he'd drilled his pilots on how to evade capture and survive in the water. Other US aviators fished from the water were tortured and killed by the Japanese. Gay was rescued by a US flying boat the next day.

Gay was the only Torpedo 8 pilot to successfully launch a torpedo at a Japanese ship that day, and the torpedo was a dud, just as Waldron had feared. Nevertheless, Waldron's attack was decisive. He'd located the Japanese fleet, and by flying low and slow and straight as required for torpedo launching, he'd drawn all the Japanese fighters down to wave top level.

When Enterprise's and Yorktown's dive bombers arrived, they found the skies clear and the Japanese fleet undefended. The Zeros had gone low and slow to stop Torpedo 8's attack, and they couldn't gain speed and altitude in time to engage the dive bombers.

All the Japanese carriers that participated in the Midway strike were sunk that day. It was a turning point in the war. Until then, the Japanese Navy seemed invincible and the First Air Fleet was the premier carrier-based air force in the world. Losing their four most powerful aircraft carriers was a catastrophe for the Japanese, but worse was the loss of their elite cadre of naval aviators. Most of the best Japanese pilots - the same men who'd shocked the world with their attack on Pearl Harbor - were sitting in their planes, waiting to take off, when the American bombs started to fall among them. Americans who faced Japanese replacement pilots after Midway said they just weren't the same elite force they had been before.

So, what's so compelling about Waldron? I can't put my finger on any one thing, but there are a couple of things I can pin down.

First, he loved, and was loved by, the men he led. He worked them hard and trained them hard and had high expectations, but always with their well being in mind. As Hornet was preparing to ship out to Midway, Waldron was arguing with a quartermaster at Pearl Harbor. The TBDs were supplied with a single rear-facing machine gun for defense, but Waldron found out that some twin mount guns had been prepared for another aircraft type. If he had to lead his men to battle against overwhelming odds, he wanted to give them every advantage he possibly could. When Torpedo 8 took off on the morning of June 4, 1942, every plane was fitted with twin mounted defensive guns. Survivors of Torpedo 8 - Gay, and those who didn't ship out on Hornet for the Midway battle - spoke and wrote about Waldron as if they were all brothers and Waldron was their beloved father.

Second, he went out and did his duty against what he knew were impossible odds. I think he knew he wasn't coming back. The chances of Torpedo 8 actually hitting any major Japanese ship with a torpedo that day were exceedingly remote, and Waldron knew it. Knowing what he knew, it would have been hard to imagine what possible use his attack - his sacrifice - would be. So why did he go? He could have followed his orders, and followed Stan Ring, out into the empty sea and landed at Midway. Torpedo 8 would have been re-equipped with TBFs, and Waldron would have fought the Japanese somewhere else, against far better odds. He couldn't possibly have known that his seemingly futile attack would be the key to victory at Midway, and the turning point in the Pacific war. I think he just knew in his bones that attacking the Japanese was the right thing to do, and he believed that if he did the right thing, it would somehow turn out right. There's really no other word for that than faith. Do the right thing, even when it seems costly and futile, and do it with faith that good will come of it.

I'm not sure I want my son to be a warrior, and I sure don't want him to have to sacrifice his life in battle like Waldron did. But if he has Waldron's faith in doing the right thing, I'll be mighty pleased.

Will we ever hear the rest of this story?

So the bomb squad in Philly found a microwave with something in it, that they thought was an explosive, so they delayed and then rerouted the Philly Marathon. Turns out apparently it wasn't an explosive at all.

Now I'm wondering whether this is another ludicrous Security Theater of the Absurd Over-Reaction - like the time they shut down an airport and stopped flights all over the country because some foreign gentleman crossed a rope to kiss his wife - or possibly a hoax (stuff a microwave with something that looks like a bomb, just to freak out the Security People?), or possibly just a very, very incompetent terrorist cell ("Ismail, if this is plastique explosive that we're eating, what in Allah's name did you do with the tapioca pudding?!?!")

Here's my analysis key:
If we never hear another word about this story, it's more Security Theater of the Absurd.
If some thirteen year old gets charged with some crime that is utterly disproportionate to what actually happened, then it was a hoax.

Mainstream Media "Study" of TEA Party Racism

Surprise, surprise. Newsweek has conclusive proof that the TEA Party is all about racism. The last time this came up, it was Congresscritter Andre Carson's apparently groundless accusations that the N-word was shouted at him by TEA Party types.

Now Newsweek has scientific proof that TEA Partiers are just a bunch of racists. Or, at least, what passes for "scientific proof" among the mainstream media.

The completely neutral, rigorously scientific, no-agenda-here University of Washington Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race & Sexuality surveyed TEA Partiers and found all kinds of evidence for a new construct they just made up, concluding that TEA Partiers are 25% more "racially resentful" than people who are opposed to the TEA Party.

Newsweek, needless to say, relished these results - hammering the "racially resentful" angle. But I wonder about some of the questions in the survey, and also some of the findings that weren't reported on.

For example, "blacks should work their way up without special favors." If you agree with this statement, you're racially resentful, at least according to these researchers. But is this really a racist belief? What would be the opposite, non-racist belief? "Blacks need special favors to work their way up, because they can't do it on their own merits?"

This article is presented as evidence that the Tea Party has an unacknowledged agenda. That may be, but I don't think they're the only ones with an unacknowledged agenda.

Grammar Nazi with a Sense of Humor

Now, that is kind of cute right there.