More on Ospreys . . .

summer patriot, winter soldier is the latest member of STORMBRINGER's INNER SANCTUM. He writes:

friends:

if you are a bit of a bug on the marines, and some of the very singular aviation equipment of the marines, e.g., the harrier, the osprey, then you will really enjoy the article "v-22 osprey" at stormbringer blog.

lots & lots of very interesting articles there. a good person to have on one's 6, this sean linnane.

this is a fine blog.

john jay @ 08.01.2009

p.s. in my little corner of the world, we have a lot of the osprey, a rather small knit fish eagle. they specialize in aerial dives into the water, talons first, wings bent back at the most improbable angle, in order to penetrate the water. a "kerplunk," (nothing especially graceful about it), a little wait, and they emerge from the water in a flurry of spray and wings, and then they fly off with a fair sized fish grasped quite securely in their talons: never have seen one drop a fish. i have seen the dive sequence 5 or 6 times, successfully done.

they have a wonderful whistle, quite different than the squawk of most eagles. (the bald might have been called the raucous eagle.) they are usually seen in mating pairs, the female slightly larger. the pairs will fight for territory against other pairs, the most dominant birds soaring to quite a distance over the weaker ones, and into the sun. the lesser birds usually fly away, not wanting to be subject to those talons diving silently from above, behind, and out of the sun.

classic fight pilot stuff, that.



Sean Linnane says: I did a couple of tours in the Multinational Force & Observers, Sinai; there were a pair of these magnificent birds at Herb's Beach . . . just a grenade toss from Sharm El Sheik:



Back in the eighties the beach was run by Herb, who came on the first rotation to the Sinai in 1982 and never left. He was one of the original Special Forces. Killed captors and escaped in Korea, killed captors and escaped in Vietnam. He was my mentor. He used to show us stuff like how to press 10-penny nails into a 4X4 with the palm of his hand. They named this unique beach and the gym after him.