Rod Phares @PharesRod

Joined August 2014

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

32 minutes ago

@Addicted2DirtPR Congrats to Gina!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 hours ago

@CraigMintz09 Throw the guy under the prison . What a waste of time and money for zero results. They all suck.

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@FrankBr05713205 My father was a coin -op "mechanic* for decades, I have 11 of his machines in storage right now, trying to find time to sell them. I used to watch him work on and service them, fascinating mechanical and electrical machines.

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

3 days ago

@Addicted2DirtPR Ohhh, it's getting crowded at the top! Anyone can win this, still a few weeks to go!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

7 days ago

@chromedude1 @UP_Steam I'm not a photographer at all, this is the best I could do last time #844 came through:

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

a week ago

@chromedude1 @UP_Steam When I was a kid, one grandma lived next to the UP tracks, the other one lived right next to the Santa Fe line. I have watched a "few" trains!😄

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

a week ago

@chromedude1 It's a monster. I'm lucky that a main UP line runs right through here, I've had the good fortune to witness all 3 of the @UP_Steam locomotives over the years.

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

a week ago

@chromedude1 Doubt if Amazon will have one in stock, but I hope you find one and get it hooked up!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

2 weeks ago

@Addicted2DirtPR Thanks Rich, you're the man! Have a great weekend, hope you get out to the races!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

2 weeks ago

@Addicted2DirtPR Sorry 'bout that, just kept slipping my mind! Won't happen again, I gotta stay in the top 10 somehow!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

3 weeks ago

@thequeenofrust Door knobs and handles

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

3 weeks ago

@Addicted2DirtPR Congrats Jim!

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

3 weeks ago

Heard the sad news that Court Grandstaff passed away over the weekend. Back in the heyday of NCRA 410 series, he always had beautiful, fast cars and the team, car and truck & trailer always looked professional.

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Untold War Stories @UntoldWarFacts

4 weeks ago

This is real gun camera footage from a P-51 Mustang, chasing a German Bf 109 down to the treetops until it goes down in flames. The American pilot flying it, Lt John Kirla, shot down five enemy planes in a single day, becoming an ace in one mission. This footage captures one of his victories over a Bf 109. This is his story.. From Trainee to the Yoxford Boys John Kirla was not a born fighter ace. He was an ordinary young American who had come up through flight training in Texas, graduating at the start of 1944. He learned his trade on trainers, moved up to fighters, and got just 15 hours in the P-51 Mustang before being sent to England as a replacement pilot. He joined the 362nd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group, a unit based at Leiston that was already becoming a legend. The 357th was the first group in the Eighth Air Force fully equipped with the Mustang, and it would go on to produce more aces than any other fighter group in the Eighth, including Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson. Kirla was the newest pilot in a squadron already filled with experienced aces. His job was to escort American bombers deep into Germany and protect them from the Luftwaffe. On November 27 1944, he got the day that would define him. Five Victories in One Mission That morning the 357th ran headlong into a massive swarm of German fighters trying to get at the bombers. Kirla's flight dropped their fuel tanks and dived straight into the middle of it. Almost immediately, the fight became a swirling, low-level brawl of Mustangs, Messerschmitts, and Focke-Wulfs twisting across the sky. Kirla picked out his first target and opened fire, and from that moment he did not stop hunting. In his own account, he spotted a Bf 109 that was attacking an American bomber. He went after it, closed to just 30 yards, and when the German threw his fighter into a tight barrel roll straight down toward the ground, Kirla stayed glued to his tail and, in his words, clobbered him all over until he went down. An Ace in a Day He kept finding more. Again and again through that wild, sprawling fight, Kirla latched onto an enemy aircraft and did not let go. At one point he watched a German fighter shoot down one of his fellow Mustang pilots right in front of him, and closed in for revenge. As he described it afterward, he opened fire, saw pieces start to fly off the enemy aircraft, and watched it fall out of the sky like a leaf drifting to the ground. Rather than breaking away and climbing back to safety, Kirla chased his targets down low, following them almost to the ground, the fighters weaving over villages and treetops until the enemy aircraft finally went down. By the time the fight was over, John Kirla had shot down five German aircraft in a single mission. He had become an ace in a day, one of the relatively few American fighter pilots to achieve that in a single mission. The Mustang That Changed the Air War The Mustang was the aircraft that made days like Kirla's possible. The P-51 combined long range, high speed, and deadly firepower, and it could follow the bombers all the way to their targets and fight the German fighters on equal or better terms. By the end of the war, P-51 groups had claimed close to 5,000 enemy aircraft shot down, about half of all American air-to-air kills in the European theater. Kirla's own group, the 357th, became the top-scoring Mustang group in the Eighth Air Force. Flying one of the finest escort fighters of the war, men like Kirla helped turn the tide of the air war over Germany. The gun-camera film rolling every time he pressed the trigger captured it all, including the footage you are watching. John Kirla's Legacy John Kirla flew on to the end of his combat tour and finished the war as a double ace, credited with 11 and a half enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage in the skies over Europe. He had gone from a trainee with a handful of hours in a Mustang to one of the deadliest fighter pilots in one of the deadliest fighter groups of the war, in the span of a single year. The footage of his Mustang chasing a Bf 109 down to the trees is only a few seconds long. But behind those few seconds is a young American who climbed into a fighter, dove into a swarm of the enemy, and shot down five of them before the day was out. This was the story of John Kirla. I post a story like this every single day. Most people never see them. Follow so you don't miss the next one.

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 weeks ago

@UntoldWarFacts My grandfather was on the USS Bennion when it was hot by a kamikaze, he sent pieces of it home to his sons. Sadly, I couldn't find those shards of Japanese aluminum when we cleaned out his house after he passed.

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 weeks ago

@ChrisKot1970 Have a great Independence Day #250 ! 🇺🇲 🎆

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 weeks ago

@thequeenofrust In my front yard in rural Kansas. Happy Independence Day #250!🇺🇲

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 weeks ago

@chromedude1 Have a great Independence Day with friends and family Eric! 🇺🇲

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Rod Phares @PharesRod

4 weeks ago

Ok, I understand some need the "food stamps" to get by, but if we're headed to the checkout at the same time, you've got a cart piled full ($283 at dollar general) and I've got a bag of cat food and a gallon of water, would it kill ya to let me go first?