Thursday, May 16, 2024
A Marine truck mechanic received the Meritorious Service Medal for saving the Defense Department more than $140 million through work he began as a teenage lance corporal. He's the 2nd corporal to earn one since 2008
While serving as the Marine Corps’ representative to Oshkosh Defense as it revised its technical manuals for the joint light tactical vehicle, Barbieri pointed out flaws in the manuals, including one issue that could lead to rollovers.
Barbieri’s engineering acumen would save more than 900,000 person-hours of maintenance production time and more than $140 million throughout the entire life cycle of the platform, the Corps calculated.
At 14, he started drag racing through the International Hot Rod Association. He learned how to check over his car before getting onto the track.
But most of his background in mechanical engineering was theoretical knowledge — about aspects of systems like wiring and resistance — he gleaned from reading technical manuals, he said.
Having skipped fourth grade, Barbieri graduated from high school in 2019 at only 16. He spent two semesters studying mechanical engineering, first at Palm Beach State College in Florida and second at the University of California at Berkeley, but he didn’t love it.
Then a Marine recruiter approached him at a career fair.
When Barbieri was about six months into working at the unit, he faced a problem that didn’t have an easy solution: how to replace hoses that ran from the vehicles’ engine bay to the back end.
It took him two weeks, but he figured it out, he said.
After that, his leaders tasked him with repairing more and more vehicles with thorny problems. Barbieri repaired more than 75 trucks, keeping the battalions’ readiness above 90%, according to the news release.
His leaders took notice.
“He could diagnose issues that most Marines couldn’t find and was able to make the repairs that civilian engineers from external organizations couldn’t,” said Master Sgt. Kenneth Byxbee Jr., Barbieri’s former motor transport maintenance chief, in the news release.
Later in 2021, while Barbieri was still a 19-year-old lance corporal, his command selected him to spend months working with Oshkosh’s tech writing team in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on the technical manuals for the joint light tactical vehicle.
“Anytime I would find something that felt like it was out of order or would mess with the flow of things, we’d write that down,” Barbieri said.
Based on those issues, Barbieri and the rest of the team would pile into a conference room and suggest changes to the technical manuals.
One day, Barbieri noticed a problem with a manual’s instructions for replacing the steering column. Installing the replacement part that way would have stopped the steering wheel from moving, he said.
“If that happened while you were in a turn or on a highway, that could cause a rollover,” he said.
Oshkosh was receptive to what he had to say and worked with him to change the instructions, Barbieri said.
On Friday, Barbieri received the Meritorious Service Medal, which is awarded to service members who distinguish themselves through “outstanding meritorious achievement or service.”
He is set to leave the Marine Corps in June. The next step is college at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, where he plans to study mechanical engineering. He hopes of becoming a tech writer, who writes manuals himself, he said.
Delaware’s vanity licence plate program is unconstitutional because it allows officials to discriminate against certain viewpoints when deciding whether to approve applications, a federal judge has ruled.
“This court agrees with the majority of courts on this issue,” wrote Williams, declaring that Delaware’s regulations permit viewpoint discrimination and are unconstitutionally overbroad and arbitrarily enforced.
wow... the nostalgia of matchbook cover art and the diligence of a collector, combined with a perfect display setting... amazing.
As you can tell, the art and variety is worth looking at, but Dave Rutan did an incredible job of putting together displays on topics like the trains and matting them so well!
from Don's magazine that evolved into a website, https://garagestylemagazine.com/classic-match/ where he finds terrific garages, and lots of cool things at auctions is this article on Dave's collection
https://www.atomicmatchstudio.store/ for Dave's business where you can get really cool stuff!
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
movie recommendation, go back to 1990 for the fun movie with a great cast, Tremors. Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Reba McEntire, Michael Gross (the dad in Family Ties) with some cool vehicles too
by the way, you'll recognize the little girl, she was the young girl in Jurassic Park (1993) and the guy with the general store, Victor Wong, was the instantly recognizable wizard from Big Trouble in Little China
Compliment of the day!
Thank You for all the great articles you put out daily.
Your blog is my second stop daily, I check the weather first to tell me what I will be doing today, then your blog, then off to work.
Thank You
Albert
Thank you Albert!
one of the guys at the 454th BG, 737 BS, San Giovanni air base, 1944-45 took a lot of photos of life on base, and they were put together in this video, watch at at least 1.5 speed
A couple of the B24s in this video are Vicious Vixen, Willie the Wolf, the Joker
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Dave W texted me these photos of his dad's B24, 454th BG, 739th BS, Hare Power ! His dad, Lewis Wienberg flew 62 missions as the navigator. Thank you Dave!
I don't have all the info, but the pilot's name was James A Formby
some of the crew's names,
navigator 1st lt Louis Weinberg,
and 1st Lt Winfield Llewellyn
and his dad kept some notes/diary, describing each flight, in order!
The above shows 2 runs at Ploesti
The pilot, James Formby, wrote a 70 page document on his WW2 experience, from learning of the bombing on Peral Harbor, to getting back to the US in April 1945, since they were crew on all the flights, the information is the same
IF there is any thing this WW2 cool that you've seen lately, share what that is and the link, in the comments!
I haven't seen anything this cool since George Rarey's diary! https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/02/i-had-not-known-p-47s-had-nose-art-too.html
Or the POWs that made a car magazine in the POW camp in Germany!
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dang it, you can't deny the Italians have such a great flair for design... look at these street vendor carts!
the site that hosted these isn't working, so I had to save them from the google search
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