Al Peffley

Operation Nimrod (Sea Transport of about 160,000 Allied Ground Forces to the designated French beaches) and Operation Overlord (combined Allied invasion attack strategy) would not have been successful to crush the Nazi hold on Europe without the French Resistance actions to weaken the cement structures of the Third Reich defense force bunkers and the unsustainable, forced dispersion of Nazi war assets and depleted warfighter personnel. Allied air power delivered special forces paratroopers and lethal bombs from Allied air bases across the Channel. This form of Napoleanic warfare was never successful in the Pacfic Theater. The Germans were tricked by the Allies into thinking that the first invasion would occur further north than at fixed Nazi fortifications around Normandy. The Nazis underestimated the commitment of the Allied Forces against their oppresive takeover attempts of all of Europe, North Africa, and Russia. The British didn't forget or repeat their strategic mistakes at Dunkirk. International Banks funded all sides in WWII. Many people died in the large scale, internaetional wars processes. The root cause of any global war or a seeded, "color revolution" civil war is rarely ever addressed (or corrected.) Sun Tzu - The Art of War.

Bill Engelhardt

Summertime....simpler times.....

Bill Engelhardt

Legend Gone

Brian Wilson... 82

Al Peffley

Here is a great article I found on Brian Wilson [enjoy]:

https://nypost.com/2025/06/11/entertainment/inside-beach-boys-founder-brian-wilsons-reclusive-life-before-his-death-at-82/

Bill Engelhardt

For many of us (of a certain age), we remember there was rarely a time starting in summer 1962 (below) and through the '60s, when there wasn't a Beach Boys record on the Top 50 playlist. 

Al Peffley

That photo of Brian Wilson sitting on the chair and smiling looks a lot like Bob Mayfield (RIP) to me... Meant as a compliment. I think Bob lived a happier life.

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY, GUYS!

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

To all you guys, Best of Father's Day to Y'all!!

Bill Engelhardt

Al Peffley

Read the story on "Tom Peterson" in the Northwest and Portland, Oregon history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Peterson

Being a native of Olympia and then Burien, I was not exposed to this theatric retailer on Seattle-based mass media TV, that I can remember... He sounds like he was a real character to experience on TV! Older Denizens of Portlandia would surely remember him. We have shopped a lot at Janszen Beach over the years (since 2003 when we prepared to escape Puyallup for lower property taxes in Cowlitz County.) I am sure that Tom's company could not compete when Best Buy and Fry's began to expand their electronics retail sales operations in Oregon. It was a sad day for us when Fry's closed in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Tom Peterson's  "Wake Up! Happy" Alarm Clock Promotional Item - [TP Wrist Watch sold separtely].

Al Peffley

The Iranian nuclear materials production facility is deep under ground near Tehran. It cannot survive a direct MOAB Attack. The Russians have evacuated their advisors. Hamas , the Houthies, and Hezbolah have all announced that they are no longer attacking US  and EU ships in the region. The true Persians have the opportunity to oust their radical Shiite invaders. Something big is about to happen in Iran. The Persians are the true culture of Iran, and they are about to be liberated from the radical Islam trouble makers they invited into their once free country.  Iran has been attacking its Muslim neighbors through its mercinary Shia warrior organizations. The Sunni Muslims are their competitors, not their allies. How do the young Persians feel about all of these unsettling homeland events?:  https://www.wnd.com/2025/06/are-iranian-people-against-israels-attack/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=are-iranian-people-against-israels-attack

The free world's "storm" is now upon the Shia trouble makers. The WEF'S [DS] Khazarian Banking Cabal is losing its grip on the Ukraine and the USA. Do not be afraid. Please Pray for the true Iranian Persians and final redemption from their decades of Shia Islam's monarchial-communism rule and cultural captivity! They opened their borders up to the Islam invaders and then lost their conservative, Sunni muslim nation to the far left  (and very corrupt) Shia radicals. The last Persian Shah of Iran died in exile in Egypt in 1980. His son is still alive. Here is an interesting article about the Shah's granddaughter:

https://www.nysun.com/article/this-will-be-written-in-history-books-granddaughter-of-irans-last-shah-marries-jewish-american-businessman

Virginia Wolfe (Scheffer)

Al, good historical facts about the current situations in the world right now.  Kinda scary, however, I still have faith in the good old USA!  Hopefully, they will make the right decisions.

Al Peffley

Virginia,

Note what President Trump said about "God" at the end of his bombing of the iranian enrichment plants facilities announcement speech. Be not concerned or fearful. God is in the details.  But God - America is "His Eagle"...

The USMC has a special song for this time (replace the King of Syria with the Ayatollah of Iran in the referenced scripture):

"These are the times of Elisha -- Oorah!"

Kings 2 6:19-23

Bill Engelhardt

1966-- Summer road trip. After 15 miles, daughter second from right will be first to exclaim that sibling is "touching me!" And within an hour, the first of six variations of "Are we there yet?"   

Linda Pompeo (Worden)

You forgot  "She's looking at me!".  

Cool looking car.....and kids.

As the song goes...."Those were the days my friend"-----and I wish they would never have ended.  It was a much more carefree time in life.

Al Peffley

Great photo, Marine!

All girls??

I have several dear friends at Willamette Cemetary who would disagree about the 1966 "Carefree" time comment on your photo, Bill... Vietnam was a military operations and political disaster for the world and cultures on both sides of the conflict in 1966 (and ever since then.) Your family photo depicts the many reasons we served all American families in 1966 and now. 

BTW - Cute kids... NOT ONE OF THEM IS HOLDING A CELL PHONE - LOL

Bill Engelhardt

Golden Oldie -- Class of '67

Al Peffley

Love Pontiacs. When buying a new convertable car was less than one's typical annual salary, and a petrolium gas car wasn't "evil"... Credit Union loans were tough to come by for a single guy coming home from a military flight crew school with no kids and a short work history. That car and its first generation, Camaro cousin became the GT dream of many a young person in the late 60's. Did you buy that car, Bill?

Picture below is our 1969 HP350 COPO Camaro Coupe project car found, minus its blown racing engine, on a car trailer at a swap meet at the Puyallup Fair Grounds in 1998. Fortunately, it was not "tubbed" for wider rear tires; it is a very rare GT car.

Bill Engelhardt

Jackie Robinson postcard to his son --  March 1954

Bill Engelhardt

July 4, 1963

Al Peffley

Happy 4th of July, y'all!

Bill Engelhardt

July 5, 1946 -- French engineer Louis Reard introduced the modern bikini, modeled by Micheline Bernardini. Reard named his design after the Bikini Atoll, where the U.S conducted post-war tests of the atomic bomb.  Reard's creation was initially considered scandalous and indecent by many, but the world was a better place.  

Al Peffley

The end of World War II. Eye Candy for old men, Bill?  That 1967 Pontiac Firebird you showed reportedly sold for over $49K at a fairly recent auction!

When women were not men. Maybe Reard was inspired by nose art painted on U.S. bombers that liberated France? We lost a lot of heroic bomber crews over France...

Ken Becker

To promote the bikini, inventor Louis Reard made a "land yacht" based on a 1937 Packard and followed the 1948 Tour de France using the yacht's rear deck as a stage for modeling the bikini.

Bill Engelhardt

By any measure, Ken, a true visionary. 

Al Peffley

Reard was an Automotive Engineer that inherited a lingerie business from his mother. Reard took Jacques Heim's bathing suit idea and made it more revealing for midriff skin tanning. Heim introduced his version in May, 1946, and Reard introduced his string bikini in July, and then patented it almost immediately to protect his modified bathing suit product idea. Reard was better at marketing to sun tanning women than Heim. Reard's "model" was a strip club dancer in Paris.