Wikipedia

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/John Francis Jackson/archive1

< Wikipedia:Featured article candidates
The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by GrahamColm 10:05, 21 April 2012 [1].

John Francis Jackson

edit

John Francis Jackson (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

Toolbox
Nominator(s): Ian Rose (talk) 17:39, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Back to our regularly scheduled program of RAAF officers, I present "Old John" Jackson, so nicknamed because at 34 he was considered almost ancient by fighter-pilot standards. He achieved notability not just as an ace but as the commanding officer of No. 75 Squadron in the Battle of Port Moresby in 1942. He probably didn't even have to take this assignment, he just wanted to defend Australia when things were looking particularly grim. He was also independently wealthy, yet there was still something of the country bumpkin about him -- witness his Crocodile Dundee moment in the Alexandria hotel... ;-) At Moresby he proved an inspiration to his inexperienced squadron, a warrior who, in the words of a journalist Osmar White, "had done more than conquer fear--he had killed it".

The article has been through GA and MilHist A-Class Reviews. I've also taken the liberty of listing this as a potential TFA for 28 April, the 70th anniversary of Jackson's death in combat, pending a successful (and relatively speedy) outcome here -- thanks in advance for your reviews! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 17:39, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, I've just remembered that Harry Chauvel is almost certainly going to be scheduled for TFA on 25 April (Anzac Day for the non-Australians), and we can hardly expect WP to run two Aussie military men within three days of each other, so that last point is kinda moot... ;-) Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 08:43, 29 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sources and images but no spotchecks. Nikkimaria (talk) 20:16, 28 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: In the 'Early career' section we have "That August, he joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Reserve, or Citizen Air Force." (Bolding mine). Is there any chance you can expand on what is meant by the word "or"? Was/is this a colloquial term, an alternate official name for the RAAF Reserve, what the RAAF Reserve was actually called back then, ... ??? I clicked the RAAF link and couldn't find any additional information. Cheers, Ben (talk) 02:52, 29 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

So far so good on prose per standard disclaimer, down to where I stopped, about two-thirds of the way, at John_Francis_Jackson#South West Pacific. I'd link to my edits, if I had made any. - Dank (push to talk) 14:46, 29 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments:

  • Did some copyediting; revert what you don't like.
  • "...squadron commander of World War II." Is that preposition an Australian English thing? It sounds odd to my Canadian ear - "during" would seem more appropriate - but it may be a dialectical thing.
  • "...before posting to the Middle East in November 1940." Similar here: in Canada, we'd treat him as the object, rather than the subject, of "to post", but I gather that's a regional thing as well?
  • "Jackson made two stafing passes..." Should this be "strafing"?

Subject to the above, support on all criteria except 1(c) (thorough and representative survey) and 2(c). Steve Smith (talk) 22:34, 31 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments – Purely nit-picks; this is a nice article.

  • Not sure if the full date of death needs to be repeated in the lead.
    • Fair enough.
  • Early career: "and also had interests in engineering and financial concerns." Minor, but the "also" is a bit of redundancy that can safely be removed without affecting the meaning.
    • Agreed.
  • South West Pacific: Period and space need to be removed before reference 40.
    • Thanks for spotting that one!
  • Remove the external link from the publisher of reference 5. Giants2008 (Talk) 01:23, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • Not too fussed either way here but I gathered the standard was to use an external link for the main page of an online source unless a WP article on the entity was available. Also if we drop the link for here I assume you'd be suggesting the same for citation 35? In any case, tks for review! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 02:40, 2 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support with nitpicks. Nikkimaria (talk) 22:53, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support: reviewed this at ACR and think it has only gotten better since then. I have the following comments for the review:

  • I made a couple of minor MOS tweaks. Please check that you agree;
    • They look good, tks.
  • "and a four-minute reel of 16mm footage..." I think there should be a non-breaking space between "16" and "mm" here;
    • I think you're right...
  • I spot checked the Australian Dictionary of Biography source and it seemed fine - it supports what is being said in the article and there wasn't any close paraphrasing that I could see;
  • I also looked at Gillison. "After playing dead beside his crashed plane to discourage the Japanese fighters from machine-gunning him, he made his way through jungle for over a week to..." Reading this, I didn't quit get the picture that he actually ditched in the sea and had to swim ashore. Perhaps it could be tweaked slightly?
    • Heh, now you've confused me -- I don't actually mention Jackson ditching in the water at that point although, for the record, Gillison says he did on p.545. Or were you meaning to say that I should mention that he ditched and swam ashore?
  • random Google searches didn't reveal any copyright violations of internet sources. Good work as usual. Cheers, AustralianRupert (talk) 23:17, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]


The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/John_Francis_Jackson/archive1&oldid=1076191661"