Etta James Dead

   I was a little boy when I first heard 
Etta James. My brother used to have an
auto garage and always had a radio playing
in the background..with rhythm & blues
coming from WRR radio. The Drifters, the
Dells, Otis Redding, and Mary Wells could
all be heard. That is where I heard Miss 
Etta sing 'At Last' for the first time. She was
still a teenager when she recorded the song
that would become her signature. My personal
favorite was 'All I Could Do Was Cry' and my
brother loved 'Dance With Me Henry.' Etta 
had problems in her life, no doubt. She battled
drugs, alcohol, and men most of her career.
She and Harvey Fuqua of the Moonglows made
a few duets together and they were a hot item
away from the recording studio also. Later Etta
was diagnosed with leukemia and she battled
it too....but today Miss Etta lost the battle and
died at the age of 73.
   Ironically, one of Etta's good friends, Johnny
Otis, also died today. Johnny O was a white boy
that grew up in a black neighborhood and always
had an infinity for the black sound. Using the 
basement of his father's grocery story, Johnny O
recorded such talents as Big Momma Thornton, 
Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, Esther Phillips,
Little Willie John, and Big Joe Turner. He took the
recordings to promoters and brought attention to
his talented friends. Johnny Otis also recorded music
of his own, and 'Hand Jive' was a number one song.
His version of 'Harlem Nocturn' is still one of my

favorites..

Foreigner Still Rockin'

      I have been a fan of the rock group
'Foreigner' since they came on the scene in
1976. The original group was a mixture of 
American and British musicians with Lou Graham
out front singing all the hits.. You remember them
as well as I do.. 'Cold As Ice'.. 'Feels Like the 
First Time'...'Double Vision'... 'Jukebox Hero'...
'Waiting For a Girl Like You'... 'I Want to Know
What Love Is'..'Hot Blooded'.... and my personal
favorite, 'Urgent.'   The group has undergone
some changes over the years and some fans
have a grudge since Lou is no longer the lead
singer,...BUT what hasn't changed in the past
35 years??  The group is now made up of original
founder Mike Jones on guitar and keyboards...Kelly
Hansen does the singing... Tom Gimbel plays 
guitar and a mean saxaphone...Jeff Pilson is the
rhythm and bass guitarist...Michael Bluestein
on the keyboards..and Mark Schulman keeps the
beat on the drums..  I think they are good as ever,..
but don't take my word for it... I have always 
loved 'Foreigner.'   Check out this video from 
just six months ago....



http://youtu.be/ouaXX9Kx_gw

M41 Walker Bulldog Tank

   World War II was decided by the immense
production capabilities of the United States. The
continental U.S. was never under attack and her
plants and factories ran twenty-four hours a day
turning out tanks, trucks, planes, and weapons.
Every tank the Germans produced was superior 
to the M4 Sherman tank provided by Detroit to 
the armies of the United States and Britain... BUT
they were produced in such quantities they 
overwhelmed the Germans. 
   The M4 Sherman was replaced in the late 1940's
by the Chaffee tank and it was not much better. Around 1950 plans were accepted for a new battle 
tank and the result was the M41 Walker Bulldog (seen here). The tank was named after General Walton Walker, who was killed in a jeep accident in Korea in 1950. It featured a 105 millimer main cannon and a top mounted thirty caliber machine gun. Weighing in 
at forty tons it was listed as a medium tank. The
Walker tank entered service in 1953 and saw duty in
Korea and Vietnam. By 1972 it began to show its age
and over 200 of the Walkers were left in Vietnam
when the U.S. pulled out. All of the Walker Tanks 
in the United States were remodeled and up dated
into what became the M48 Patton Tank. The chassis
of the Walker tank also became the platform for the
mobile artillery unit 'Sheridan.' Some of the Sheridan

units still serve the U.S. Army today.

Not A Tank.... A Tank Destroyer

      This is my latest model....It is a German
World War II Sturmgeschutz Sdkfz.167..  It was the
forerunner of todays mechanized artillery. It was NOT
classified as a tank since it does not have a rotating 
turret. The 75 millimeter high velocity main gun could
only change elevation and all panning sideways was

accomplished by moving the left or right tracks. Since they did not have a turret it was easier to build. The top half of the 'Stug' was built on the chassis of the Mark III German tank. The word 'Sturmgeschutz' translates to 'assault gun'. Over ten thousand of these vehicles were built by the Germans because of their success in the early years of the war. They are said to have destroyed over 20,000 enemy vehicles (mostly Russian T-34 tanks on the Eastern Front). The Sturmgeschutz had a crew of four men and usually was among the leading edge of all Panzer attacks.
   My model is painted to resemble the vehicles used in the Ardennes Offensive, more commonly referred to
as The Battle of the Bulge. The Germans painted their
tanks and trucks to blend in with the snow storm of
December 1944. Infantrymen cut holes in the middle
of sheets and wore them to make themselves more
difficult to stand out in the snow.