The Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho, hosted three SCCA autocross events this year, and for an encore hosted an Inaugural Drift Car event.
Work began on the evening of 04OCT2024, establishing the area of the parking lot that would be used. Formula Drift-Rudy Hansen, Apex Idaho, Pocatello Car Club, and a host of others, helped make the inaugural smoke show possible.
The cleanest that part of the parking lot has been in decades!
They were still prepping the parking lot the next morning.
Waiting in the wings, 05OCT2024:
Plenty of seating, at a safe distance.
Warming up (teasing) the spectators who were straggling in:
Too bad they didn’t drift this patriotic van.
The pros show you how:
It’s amazing how cars sliding around light poles can hold people’s attention for several hours. One more time:
While they were busy trying to setup the parking lot for the inaugural Southeast Idaho drift car event, during the evening of 04OCT2024, a handful of cars were sneaking into the Pine Ridge Mall (in Chubbuck, Idaho):
Don’t be a Public Nuisance:
The event was organized by the Pocatello Car Club, with the help of a hell-of-a-lot of sponsors.
Cold War: Approximately 1947 (due to U.S. President Harry Truman’s Truman Doctrine) to 1991 (Operation Desert Storm, collapse of Soviet Union).
Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star, developed at the end of World War Two.
In June 1950, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (north) invaded the Republic of Korea (south) in an attempt to unite the country (something that had been promised at the end of World War Two). The recently created United Nations essentially declared war and created the United Nations Command, invading Korea in September 1950. The United Nations Command still operates in South Korea, today.
Date and location not given, very likely to be Kimpo Air Base, 1950.
The F-80 had up to six Browning M3 .50 caliber (12.7mm x 99mm) machine guns.
General Purpose (GP) bombs.
I edited this silent USAF film (by H. E. Reid) showing the re-arming/re-fueling of F-80s on Kimpo, Korea, 19DEC1950:
In August 2024, the Ohio Army National Guard deployed a unit of engineers to the Borovac Training Area in Serbia.
According to the Serbian Ministry of Defense, engineers with the Serbian Armed Forces (SAF) trained with the Ohio Guard unit in such things as removing obstacles, constructing shelters, and building and maintaining roads.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense tasked the State of Ohio with the job of mentoring the SAF, under the State Partnership Program.
In 2021, the Ohio Army National Guard issued this 15-year-anniversary video report:
The ZU (Зенитная Установка/Zenitnaya Ustanovka-antiaircraft installation)-23-2 is a Soviet-Cold War era twin gunned towed Air Defense Artillery (ADA) system using 23mm-by-152mm rounds.
The ZU-23-2 is also known as 2A13.
The ZU-23-2 was developed in the late 1950s from a prototype known as ZU-14. It entered service with the Soviet Union in 1960, and is still in production in Russia (upgraded to launch missiles and be remotely controlled), including licensed production in several former Warsaw Pact countries which are now part of NATO. Even Israel has helped Viet Nam develop its own version of the ZU-23-2, known as the 23-2M.
Sometime during the Cold War, a Yugoslavian(?) ZU-23-2.
Interestingly, during the Cold War most books about Soviet weaponry, published in the NATO West, never mention the ZU-23-2. Yet, today the ZU-23-2 is being used by at least 74 countries, by both ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’. It has also been mounted on all sorts of military and silly-vilian (civilian) vehicles.
U.S. Marines check-out a captured ZU-23-2 on the island of Grenada, 28OCT1983. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate Second Class David Wujcik.
Iraqi ZU-23-2 during the early years of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Iranian ZU-23-2 during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).
Operation Praying Mantis; the U.S. attacks the Iranian navy during the Iran-Iraq War. U.S. marines check-out a ZU-23-2 on a captured Iranian offshore oil rig, 18APR1988. USMC photo by Corporal John Hyp.
Afghan ZIL-131 truck with ZU-23-2, under tow on Kandahar Airport, 17JAN2002. USMC photo by Captain Charles G. Grow.
Iraqi MTLB armed with ZU-23-2. USMC photo by Lance Corporal Jennifer A. Krusen, 11APR2003.
Iran loves the ZU-23-2 so much that in 2010 an eight barreled radar guided version (ZU-23-8?) entered production, it’s called the Mesbah-1.
In 2013, NATO-Greece modified their Soviet era BMP-1s by mounting ZU-23-2s on them.
November 2016, U.S. Army video (by Sergeant Jacob Holmes) of Ukrainian troops training with their ZU-23-2:
August 2017, U.S. Army promotional video (by Sergeant Anthony Jones) explaining the Ukrainian ZU-23-2:
On the left is a NATO-Romanian ground mount (towed) Oerlikon GDF 35mm guns, on the right is a NATO-Polish truck mounted ZU-23-2. U.S. Army photo by Gary Loten-Beckford, 06DEC2017.
NATO-Bulgarian ZIL-131 with ZU-23-2, during U.S. Army sponsored wargame Shabla 19. USA photo by Sergeant Thomas Mort, 12JUN2019.
Interestingly, during the false flag ‘Arab Spring’ rebellions that swept across North Africa and the Middle East, rebel/extremist groups were magically supplied with Toyotas equipped with ZU-23-2s. This photo (supposed taken in 2021) shows the new Libyan National Army with brand new ZU-23-2 equipped Toyotas.
Russian armored Ural ‘Tornado’ truck armed with ZU-23-2 (2A13) somewhere in the battle for Ukraine, April 2022.
In August 2022, the Houthis paraded their ZU-23-2 armed Toyotas in Sanaa, Yemen.
Russian remote controlled ZU-23-2 (2A13), June 2023. Photo via Russian Union of Mechanical Engineers.
Moldovan troops pose with their ZU-23-2, 13SEP2023. North Carolina Army National Guard photo by Staff Sergeant Brendan Stephens.
NATO video from March 2024, showing NATO-Poland’s upgraded ZUR-23-2, which can also launch anti-aircraft missiles:
1956 Chevy 3100 pickup, calls Inkom home. The 3100 model is part of the Task Force series of pickup trucks. Hydramatic is a type of automatic transmission.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
1969 Ford Mustang fastback, now living in Pocatello. Even though the ’69-’70 Mustangs are structurally different from their predecessors, they are still considered ‘first generation’ Mustangs.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
This 1965 Ford Falcon Futura, lives in Pocatello. It is significant that this car was a fundraiser for a veteran’s memorial building, for you see that the ‘father’ of the Ford Falcon was none other than Robert McNamara, the man who would be responsible for managing the U.S. military occupation of Viet Nam, under the Johnson Administration.
The Second Annual Bannock County Veterans Memorial Building car show, in Pocatello, Idaho, 31AUG2024.
Early Halloween, Trunk or Treat
