Mark Jansen

Retired Naval Aviator | Proud husband, father, brother, son | Iowa Hawkeye Grad | “Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."

[Pete Blackburn @PeteBlackburn]

25 year anniversary of the greatest Cup raise ever

[J&L Historical @Jason_R_Burt]

From the muddy fields of Normandy to the pages of history, Dick Winters didn’t just lead Easy Company — he distilled a lifetime of command into 10 timeless principles.

🧵 Dick Winters’ 10 Principles of leadership

[This Day in Chicago Sports @ChiSportsDay]

𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟎

The Blackhawks beat the Flyers 4-3 in OT to win the Stanley Cup!

[Just Another Year Chicago: Blackhawks @JAYChi_Hawks]

13 years ago TODAY: One of the loudest moments in United Center history.

Game 5, overtime vs LA for a chance to go to the finals.

Patrick Kane flies down the right wing, buries the one-timer for the hat-trick, and hits the iconic heart-breaker celly. 💔

[Dovi Safier @safier]

“It was one of the most monumentally unselfish things one group of people did for another.”

-#DDay veteran Andy Rooney on the young 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇬🇧 soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy 82 years ago.

Required watching for every young person today!

[LTC Larry Brock for Texas, Candidate for HD-106 @LarryBrockJr]

I always think of this photo on D-Day.

[John Rich🇺🇸 @johnrich]

82 years ago today, over 10,000 Americans were either killed, wounded or missing after the D-Day invasion. They are the shoulders we stand upon. Their sacrifice is why we STAND UP for our Flag. I dedicate this song to them today. Here's "The Man."

[John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre]

Out of 16.4 million Americans who served in WWII, only about 40,000 are still alive.

They’re dying at a rate of ~100 per day.

These are the heroes who saved the world from tyranny.

Find one. Thank one. Listen to their stories.

While you still can.

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

One of the greatest speeches of the late 20th century, given on the 40th anniversary of one of the most spectacular days in human history.

[Joe Moore Award @JoeMooreAward]

Kirk Ferentz is still out there coaching the fine details like it’s 1999, and that’s why the standard never slips.

@HawkeyeFootball #IowaFootball #Hawkeyes #KirkFerentz #OffensiveLine #JoeMooreAward

[Voices of WW2 @VoicesofWW2]

84 years ago today, a pilot running out of fuel made a decision that won the Pacific War. Most Americans have never heard his name.

June 4, 1942. Six months after Pearl Harbor, Japan's navy is undefeated. Four of the carriers that burned Pearl, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, are steaming toward Midway to finish off the US Pacific Fleet.

At 7:52 AM, Wade McClusky launches from USS Enterprise leading 32 Dauntless dive bombers. Here's the detail nobody mentions: McClusky is a fighter pilot. He'd been given the air group weeks earlier and had barely flown a dive bomber in combat. Now he's leading every SBD the Enterprise has at the most important target in the Pacific.

9:20 AM. He arrives at the intercept point where the Japanese fleet is supposed to be.

Empty ocean. Nothing for miles.

The Japanese had turned. Nobody knew where. And now McClusky owns the worst math problem in naval aviation: his fuel is bleeding away, and every minute he keeps searching, he condemns more of his own pilots to ditch in open water where nobody will find them.

Doctrine is clear. Turn back.

McClusky keeps going. He works a search pattern, squeezing miles out of dying fuel tanks.

9:55 AM. Far below, a single Japanese destroyer is cutting a white scar across the ocean at flank speed. It's the Arashi, racing to rejoin the fleet after depth-charging the American submarine Nautilus. Think about that. A failed sub attack is about to give away the entire Japanese navy.

McClusky reads the wake like an arrow and follows it.

10:02 AM. The horizon fills with the entire Japanese strike force. Four carriers, their decks crammed with planes being refueled and rearmed. Fuel lines snaking everywhere. Bombs stacked in the open.

And here's the miracle: the sky above them is empty. Minutes earlier, American torpedo squadrons had attacked at sea level and been annihilated. Torpedo 8 lost all 15 planes. One survivor, Ensign George Gay, watched what came next while hiding under his seat cushion in the water. Those doomed pilots dragged every Japanese fighter down to the waves. The door upstairs was wide open.

10:22 AM. McClusky pushes over from 14,500 feet. Both squadrons follow him down onto Kaga. It's actually a mistake, doctrine said split the targets, but Lt. Dick Best catches it mid-dive, pulls out with two wingmen, and goes after Akagi alone. His single bomb pierces the flight deck into the packed hangar. It's enough.

By 10:28, Kaga, Akagi, and Soryu, the third hit simultaneously by Yorktown's bombers, are floating infernos. Six minutes. Three carriers that attacked Pearl Harbor, gone. Hiryu follows them to the bottom that evening.

The cost of McClusky's gamble was real. Many Enterprise bombers never made it home, some shot down, others swallowed by the sea when their tanks ran dry. McClusky himself was jumped by two Zeros on the way out, took five bullets through his shoulder, and still flew his shot-up Dauntless back to the Enterprise.

Admiral Nimitz said McClusky's decision "decided the fate of our carrier task force and our forces at Midway." Japan never won another major battle.

One borrowed pilot. One destroyer's wake. One choice to keep flying when every gauge said go home.

[The Iceman @the_iceman64]

90% of the soldiers on the first boats to hit the beach didn't live to see the end of the day. Look at those faces. Some of them never made it to 18.

Never forget that they paid the ultimate price for our freedom. We live our lives the way we do because of them.

[alex kershaw @kershaw_alex]

Goodbye to England. Many of the 73,000 US troops who will see action on D-Day, just 48 hours away, are now being ferried to troopships. Photo by the great Robert Capa. @WWIIMemorial

[Johnny Midnight ⚡️ @its_The_Dr]

Real Heroes!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[jacob @jtimsuggs]

Huge fan of this Star Wars commercial from 2008 where Darth Vader uses The Force to cheat at golf in order to win bets between him and his friends.

[Danny Deraney @DannyDeraney]

41 years ago today, this man ordered a Bloody Mary, a steak sandwich and....
a steak sandwich.

Then proceeded to charge it to the Underhills.

[NHLMuse @NHL_Muse]

Feels like a good day to bring this back

[Matthew Modine @MatthewModine]

For anyone who’s ever faced a personal challenge, it doesn’t get much better than the 'Six Minutes' speech in VISION QUEST. This scene wasn’t in the 1979 novel by Terry Davis. Elmo's monologue was written specifically for the film by screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan (THE LAST DETAIL, TAPS). Actor J. C. Quinn absolutely knocks it out of the park here.

If you’d like to support the @FMJDiary project, you can bid on an original poster below. I signed and inscribed it with Elmo’s iconic line: “It ain't the six minutes... it's what happens in that six minutes.”

https://t.co/XnTfgkePdE

[Mr. Potato Head ⚡️ @MrPotatoHeadUSA]

Sentinels of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier perform a precise rifle inspection during the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery.

[Jerry Thornton @jerrythornton]

Imagine this 19 year old kid hitting the beach and wading through the hell on Earth that was Iwo Jima, not knowing if he'd live another second. But he's made it to 2026 and his nation's 250th. And still a badass.