International dateline question
 

A guy on another forum asked this:

"On the flight from Alaska to Vietnam there was chatter that we had missed Easter. Seems it was the day before on the east of the International Date Line and the day after when we arrived in Vietnam. So, no Easter for me in 1967. Is that possible, or did some clown on the flight make that up?"

Seem to me that when crossing the dateline, you either go forward, or backward, one day...but can't skip a full 24 hours day... Any Cliff Clavens here to fully explain?

I've crossed it 4 times. You can miss an entire day if you think about "I took off from Cali, Seattle, etc... on Day X, and I landed in Japan, Vietnam, China, etc... on day X+2." If you hit the IDL at 23:59:59, then yes, you'd essentially miss a whole day.

One year we left the west coast of the US (can't remember if it was Cali, WA, or AK that we flew out of that time) on Jan 3 and landed in Japan on Jan 5. My parents' anniversary was Jan 4, so they missed it. BUT, the pilot announced that it was midnight on Jan 4, and then 2-3 hours later, announced that we passed the IDL, so we changed to Jan 5. So my parents had a very short anniv while in the air.

Non-stop from San Fran to Tokyo is ~11 hours.

When we (family) crossed the IDL, we flew from Tampa, Florida to a small military base in northern Japan. I think most of our trips involved 3-6 stops en route. I was a kid so I don't remember all of the stops. We made the trip from FL to Japan twice and Japan to FL twice. I know we usually took off out of Tampa or maybe Orlando. I know that I've landed in St Louis, San Fran, Oakland (I think), Anchorage, Honolulu, Denver, Chicago, Atlanta and I think Tokyo. I think we might have also hit Atlanta, Dallas, and maybe Phoenix. Then we'd take a bus to a military base near Tokyo and catch a hop in the back of a military plane (C-130, I believe) from there to our final destination.

The military booked us on cheap flights that the airlines couldn't fill up, so they weren't concerned with how long the trip took or how many stops we had to make.

Many thanks, Steve...

Yes, it's a PITA "I've just set off in the plane and arrived yesterday."

We get it flying to Rarotonga.

International dateline question
 

My dad had three Thanksgivings. We did one a day early before he took off on a TDY mission, so we could have him with us. He left on the mission and when he landed, the base had Thanksgiving meals. He flew more and landed on Thanksgiving again, and once again, the Officers club had only Thanksgiving dinner. He was not unhappy to learn we did save him any leftovers.

So the opposite of your question. The same day happened again.

I was a young kid at the time and don’t remember where all he went. I just remember him often mentioning it at Thanksgiving time.

When I flew from Sydney to LA, we landed three hours earlier than we left, on the same day. So we traveled back in time.

Of all the military's TWAs (three word acronyms) TDY has always been a mystery. Four years with the Air Force and no one was able to explain it.

T - temporary
D- Duty
Y - ???

The two best explanations give to me were Temporary Duty Yonder (with tongue in cheek) and that they had to use the Y from "duty" to have a third letter to make up the TWA.

Any other explanations?

“Suppose that you didn’t make your Easter duty and it’s Pentecost Sunday, the last day, and you’re on a ship at sea. And the chaplain goes into a coma! But you wanted to receive. And then it’s Monday, too late… But then you cross the International Date Line! Would that then be a sin then, Father?”

― George Carlin

My father missed his birthday one year because he crossed it while traveling. He said he felt a year younger. I told him he didn't look it.

You definitely lose 24 hours when you cross going what we would think of as "west" but technically, you go from west (West Coast and Pacific is as west as it gets) to east (it is called the Far East) which is clockwise as viewed from the north pole.

All branches of the military just love acronyms, it it is a sure sign of a real long term service member that can use them all correctly and fluently. Once again I really wish I had a recording of my dad telling about a briefing for a lot of high ranking brass at PACAF (Pacific Air Forces) of the joint military general officers. Dad was a Lt. Col at the time, he said he had a few sentences that were almost all acronyms with just a few verbs and adjectives. He said that he was under a directive from his commanders to use just the acronyms when possible. He said the sentence was virtually impossible to diagram and really hard to follow for the younger officers.

They liked his briefing so much they offered him a full bird, and an a transfer to the Pentagon. He said no way, and retired with 24 years of service.

When I was on the USS Enterprise, CVA(N)65 there was shipwide cleanup or field day on Thursdays. Guess when we crossed the dateline....Thursdays so TWO days of cleanup! I have been to Tonga several times and stayed at the Dateline Hotel where they have a tile line right through the hotel denoting the dateline.

When on the USS Truxtun (CGN 35) we stopped at the dateline/equator and allowed a swim call and I jumped in. That helo deck on the stern sure looks a long ways up when you are treading water.
John

That's really cool.

The good news is that 99% of shark attacks occur near the coast.

Right, I think most ocean going naval vessels have the deck quite a way off the water. That would be a bit daunting, both the jumping in and then getting back out.

Would you not get the day back on the reverse flight?
Or do you keep going in the same direction and lose more time?

Yes, if you fly back going the opposite direction, you get the day back. That's why some of the folks mentioned arriving where they were going before they left. They flew counter-clockwise (as observed looking down on the N pole).

When I made the flights, the there and back flights were ~2.5 years apart.

"This ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons and two different hemispheres but also in two different centuries all at the same time."

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/01/ss-warrimoo-ship-that-missed-new-years.html

I don't know the answer to the OP question BUT...

On the boat ride from Mogadishu to Mombasa Kenya when were crossing the Equator, I had convinced a few guys to go on deck and look for the sign that said "Equator".

Not sure but they may have been the same guys we convinced to jump up and down on a 12 ton armored vehicle to test the shocks.

lol!

Yeah, you don't want to jump off the flight deck.

Like 100 feet to the water, the ship I was on.

Apparently, you want to hit feet first, mouth open, nose plugged with your ass cheeks clenched as tight as possible, you know, so the water stays out. I am also told that you would hit the water going 55 mph and the water will be about as soft as a sidewalk would be if you hit it wrong.

Yeah, I don't even like hitting the water off of a 3m high dive. I can't imagine 30m.

For 100', I'd want hiking boots and a cup. And I'm sure it would still suck.