TheList 7591

7591

Good Friday morning July 10 2026 . It was cloudy and cool when I got up and

headed out to the Oceanside VA but it has cleared up fast and is heating up

to 84 by 3

Warm Regards,

skip

This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)

Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here

to see the director’s corner for all 97 H-Grams

A bit of everything today but many of the pictures did not come through

This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:

July 10

1934 President Franklin D. Roosevelt travels to Cartagena, Columbia, by USS

Houston (CA 30). His visit was the first by a U.S. president to South

America.

1943 In Operation Husky, naval gunfire helps Allied troops land on Sicily,

Italy. It is the first extensive use of LST's and smaller landing craft to

deliver heavy equipment over the beach.

1945 USS Runner (SS 476) sinks the Japanese minesweeper (No.27) off Tado

Saki, Honshu.

1945 - 14 carriers from Third Fleet carriers begin air strikes on Japanese

Home Islands which end 15 August

1971 USS Ponce (AFSB 15) is commissioned. The final Austin-class amphibious

transport dock is named after a city in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

1993 USS Nebraska (SSBN 739) is commissioned at New London, Conn., the 14th

Ohio-class submarine.

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Today in History July 10

1520        The Spanish explorer Hernan Cortes is driven from

Tenochtitlan and retreats to Tlaxcala.

1609        The Catholic states in Germany set up a league under the

leadership of Maximilian of Bavaria.

1679        The British crown claims New Hampshire as a royal colony.

1776        The statue of King George III is pulled down in New York

City.

1778        In support of the American Revolution, Louis XVI declares

war on England.

1850        Millard Fillmore is sworn in as the 13th president of the

United States following the death of Zachary Taylor.

1890        Wyoming becomes the 44th state.

1893        Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performs the first successful

open-heart surgery, without the benefit of penicillin or blood transfusion.

1925        The trial of Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes opens, with

Clarence Darrow appearing for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the

prosecution.

1940        Germany begins the bombing of England.

1942        General Carl Spaatz becomes the head of the U.S. Air Force

in Europe.

1943        American and British forces complete their amphibious

landing of Sicily.

1945        U.S. carrier-based aircraft begin airstrikes against Japan

in preparation for invasion.

1951        Armistice talks between the United Nations and North Korea

begin at Kaesong.

1960        Belgium sends troops to the Congo to protect whites as the

Congolese Bloodbath begins, just 10 days after the former colony became

independent of Belgian rule.

1962        The satellite Telstar is launched from Cape Canaveral,

Florida, beaming live television from Europe to the United States.

1965        "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" becomes the Rolling Stones'

first No. 1 single in the USA.

1967        Singer Bobbie Gentry records "Ode to Billie Joe," which will

become a country music classic and win 4 Grammys.

1976        In Seveso, near Milan, Italy, an explosion in a chemical

factory covers the surrounding area with toxic dioxin. Time magazine has

ranked the Seveso incident No. 8 on its list of the 10 worst environmental

disasters.

1985        Coca-Cola Co. announces it will resume selling "old formula

Coke," following a public outcry and falling sales of its "new Coke."

1991        Boris Yeltsin is sworn in as the first elected president of

the Russian Federation, following the breakup of the USSR.

1993        Kenyan runner Yobes Ondieki becomes the first man to run

10,000 meters in less than 27 minutes.

1940 The Battle of Britain begins as the Luftwaffe attempts to destroy the

RAF in anticipation  of a German invasion  of England

1943 Allied forces commence the invasion of Sicily

1965 MiGs shot down as bombing of North Vietnam continues »

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .

July 10

Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear

Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage

http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner

and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered

History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the

date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all

content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.

An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO)

MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit

directly via https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/.

There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo—TFO

has over 1,000 individual case files).

.

Thanks to Micro

To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro

put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to

the crew of the aircraft. ……Skip

For Friday July 10 .

July 8: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=671

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July 10,

This Day in US Military History

1863 – Under Rear Admiral Dahlgren, ironclads U.S.S. Catskill, Commander

G.W. Rodgers; Montauk, Commander Fairfax; Nahant, Commander Downes; and

Weehawken, Commander Colhoun, bombarded Confederate defenses on Morris

Island, Charleston harbor, supporting and covering a landing by Army troops

under Brigadier General Quincy A. Gillmore. Close in support of the landing

was rendered by small boats, under Lieutenant Commander Francis M. Bunce,

armed with howitzers, from the blockading ships in Light House Inlet, The

early morning assault followed the plan outlined by General Gillmore a week

earlier in a letter to Rear Admiral Du Pont: “I cannot safely move without

assistance from the Navy. We must have that island or Sullivan’s Island as

preliminary to any combined military and naval attack on the interior

defenses of Charleston harbor. . . . I consider a naval force abreast of

Morris Island as indispensable to cover our advance upon the Island and

restrain the enemy’s gunboats and ironclads.”

1940 – The Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against

Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which will last three and a half

months, begins. After the occupation of France by Germany, Britain knew it

was only a matter of time before the Axis power turned its sights across the

Channel. And on July 10, 120 German bombers and fighters struck a British

shipping convoy in that very Channel, while 70 more bombers attacked

dockyard installations in South Wales. Although Britain had far fewer

fighters than the Germans-600 to 1,300-it had a few advantages, such as an

effective radar system, which made the prospects of a German sneak attack

unlikely. Britain also produced superior quality aircraft. Its Spitfires

could turn tighter than Germany’s ME109s, enabling it to better elude

pursuers; and its Hurricanes could carry 40mm cannon, and would shoot down,

with its American Browning machine guns, over 1,500 Luftwaffe aircraft. The

German single-engine fighters had a limited flight radius, and its bombers

lacked the bomb-load capacity necessary to unleash permanent devastation on

their targets. Britain also had the advantage of unified focus, while German

infighting caused missteps in timing; they also suffered from poor

intelligence. But in the opening days of battle, Britain was in immediate

need of two things: a collective stiff upper lip–and aluminum. A plea was

made by the government to turn in all available aluminum to the Ministry of

Aircraft Production. “We will turn your pots and pans into Spitfires and

Hurricanes,” the ministry declared. And they did.

1943 – Operation Husky: The Allied landings begin. Patton’s 7th Army lands

in the Gulf of Gela between Licata and Scoglitti. Assault elements of the

180th and 157th Infantry regiments, both part of the 45th Infantry Division

(AZ, CO, OK) storm ashore as part of the invasion of Sicily. They meet

little resistance and quickly move to secure the British right flank as it

moves north to take Messina, the island’s closest point to the Italian

mainland. This operation marked the first time any Allied force attacked an

Axis power on its home ground. The Italians soon overthrow their dictator,

Benito Mussolini and asked the Allies for peace. However, the Germans

quickly moved large numbers of troops into the country and fought the Allies

all the way back to the Alps, not surrendering until the end of the war on

May 8, 1945.

1945 – US Task Force 38 aircraft, 1022 in all, raid 70 air bases in the

Tokyo area, destroying 173 Japanese planes. Only light anti-aircraft fire is

encountered. This is the first time that elements of the US 3rd Fleet have

attacked Tokyo. Included in the task force carrying out the raids are the

aircraft carriers Lexington, Essex, Independence and San Jacinto, the

battleships Indiana, Massachusetts, South Dakota and Iowa, the cruisers

Chicago, San Juan, Springfield and Atlanta and 14 destroyers. Tokyo radio

refers to the “dark shadow of invasion” in mention of the raid.

1950 – At Taejon, Lieutenant Harold E. Morris demonstrated a T-6 trainer

aircraft to be better suited for the airborne controller mission than

liaison aircraft.

1950 – The first engagement between U.S. and North Korean tanks occurred

near Chonui. One enemy T-34 was destroyed while two outclassed U.S. M-24

Chafee light tanks were lost. Near Pyongtaek, the Air Force achieved its

greatest single-day destruction of enemy tanks and trucks during the war

1965 – U.S. planes continue heavy raids in South Vietnam and claim to have

killed 580 guerrillas. U.S. Phantom jets, escorting fighter-bombers in a

raid on the Yen Sen ammunition depot northwest of Hanoi, engaged North

Vietnamese MiG-17s. Capt. Thomas S. Roberts with his backseater Capt. Ronald

C. Anderson, and Capt. Kenneth E. Holcombe and his backseater Capt. Arthur

C. Clark shot down two MiG-17s with Sidewinder missiles. The action marked

the first U.S. Air Force air-to-air victories of the Vietnam War.

1967 – Outnumbered South Vietnamese troops repel an attack by two battalions

of the 141st North Vietnamese Regiment on a military camp five miles east of

An Loc, 60 miles north of Saigon. Communist forces captured a third of the

base camp before they were thrown back with the assistance of U.S. and South

Vietnamese air and artillery strikes. Farther to the north, U.S. forces

suffered heavy casualties in two separate battles in the Central Highlands.

In the first action, about 400 men of the 173rd Airborne Brigade came under

heavy fire from North Vietnamese machine guns and mortars during a sweep of

the Dak To area near Kontum. Twenty-six Americans were killed and 49 were

wounded. In the second area clash, 35 soldiers of the U.S. 4th Infantry

Division were killed and 31 were wounded in fighting.

The Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*PARLE, JOHN JOSEPH

Rank and organization: Ensign, U.S. Naval Reserve. Born: 26 May 1920, Omaha,

Nebr. Accredited to: Nebraska. Citation: For valor and courage above and

beyond the call of duty as Officer-in-Charge of Small Boats in the U.S.S.

LST 375 during the amphibious assault on the island of Sicily, 9-10 July

1943. Realizing that a detonation of explosives would prematurely disclose

to the enemy the assault about to be carried out, and with full knowledge of

the peril involved, Ens. Parle unhesitatingly risked his life to extinguish

a smoke pot accidentally ignited in a boat carrying charges of high

explosives, detonating fuses and ammunition. Undaunted by fire and blinding

smoke, he entered the craft, quickly snuffed out a burning fuse, and after

failing in his desperate efforts to extinguish the fire pot, finally seized

it with both hands and threw it over the side. Although he succumbed a week

later from smoke and fumes inhaled, Ens. Parle’s heroic self-sacrifice

prevented grave damage to the ship and personnel and insured the security of

a vital mission. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.

*SCHOONOVER, DAN D.

Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company A, 13th Engineer Combat

Battalion, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Sokkogae, Korea, 8 to

10 July 1953. Entered service at: Boise, Idaho. Born: 8 October 1933, Boise,

Idaho. G.O. No.: 5, 14 January 1955. Citation: Cpl. Schoonover,

distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above

and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He was in charge of

an engineer demolition squad attached to an infantry company which was

committed to dislodge the enemy from a vital hill. Realizing that the heavy

fighting and intense enemy fire made it impossible to carry out his mission,

he voluntarily employed his unit as a rifle squad and, forging up the steep

barren slope, participated in the assault on hostile positions. When an

artillery round exploded on the roof of an enemy bunker, he courageously ran

forward and leaped into the position, killing 1 hostile infantryman and

taking another prisoner. Later in the action, when friendly forces were

pinned down by vicious fire from another enemy bunker, he dashed through the

hail of fire, hurled grenades in the nearest aperture, then ran to the

doorway and emptied his pistol, killing the remainder of the enemy. His

brave action neutralized the position and enabled friendly troops to

continue their advance to the crest of the hill. When the enemy

counterattacked he constantly exposed himself to the heavy bombardment to

direct the fire of his men and to call in an effective artillery barrage on

hostile forces. Although the company was relieved early the following

morning, he voluntarily remained in the area, manned a machine gun for

several hours, and subsequently joined another assault on enemy

emplacements. When last seen he was operating an automatic rifle with

devastating effect until mortally wounded by artillery fire. Cpl.

Schoonover’s heroic leadership during 2 days of heavy fighting, superb

personal bravery, and willing self-sacrifice inspired his comrades and saved

many lives, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the honored

traditions of the military service

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 10, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT

ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE

INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

10 July

1910: Walter Brookins became the first American aviator to reach one mile in

altitude, when he flew a Wright Biplane to 6,259 feet at Atlantic City, N.

J. He set an FAI altitude record and won the Atlantic City Aero Club prize

of $5,000. (9)

1911: Lt Frank P. Lahm won the National Balloon Race by traveling 772.5

kilometers from Kansas City, Mo., to La Paz, Ind. (24)

1935: Bell Aircraft company founded.

1938: Through 14 July, Howard Hughes and his four-man crew started an

around-the-world flight from New York. They stopped their Lockheed Model 14

Super Electra passenger aircraft in Paris, Moscow, Omsk, Yakutak, Fairbanks,

Minneapolis, and returned to New York. They covered the 14,791 miles in 3

days 19 hours 8 minutes. (9) (24)

1943: Allied airborne troops landed at Gela and Syracuse, Sicily, in the

first large-scale airborne operation attempted by the allies in World War

II. (24)

1945: The last aircraft carrier action of World War II began with attacks

against targets in the Japanese home islands. (24)

1950: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force started using T-6 trainers for the forward

air control mission, because the liaison aircraft were too slow to evade

enemy fire. When an enemy convoy stopped at a bombed-out bridge near

Pyongtaek, F-80s, B-26s, and F-82s attacked and claimed the destruction of

117 trucks, 38 tanks, and 7 halftracks. (28) A joint USAF and Royal Canadian

Air Force conference agreed to erect the Pinetree radar network on Canadian

soil. (24)

1951: KOREAN WAR. A flight of F-80s reported a long N. Korean Army convoy of

trucks and tanks halted by a demolished bridge. Fifth Air Force diverted

every available aircraft to attack with bombs, rockets, and gunfire,

resulting in the destruction of over 150 vehicles, a third of them tanks.

(28)

1952: KOREAN WAR. Beginning this date, over the next three weeks the 315th

Air Division airlifted the 474th Fighter-Bomber Wing from Misawa AB, Japan,

to Kunsan AB, S. Korea, the largest unit movement by air to date. (28)

1959: The first Red Richard unit relocation began. This program withdrew

atomic-capable USAFE units from France. (4)

1961: The Air Force conducted a test to see how far a pilot could fly using

radar navigation under simulated combat conditions. For this test, an F-105D

flew a 1,520-mile nonstop blind flight at altitudes between 500 and 1,000

feet. (24)

1962: NASA used a Delta rocket booster to launch Telestar I, the world’s

first experimental commercial communications satellite (AT&T). (24) 1965:

Two 45 TFS aircrews, flying McDonnell-Douglas F-4C Phantom IIs from Ubon

RTAFB, used Sidewinder missiles to shoot down two MiG-17s some 75 miles

northwest of Hanoi. These were the first enemy jets shot down in air-to-air

combat over North Vietnam. (17)

1966: William R. Berry flew his Raven S50R balloon to an FAI altitude record

of 18,980 feet for subclass AX-7 balloon (1,600 to 2,200 cubic meters) at

Livermore, Calif. (9)

1968: The DoD stopped the Navy’s F-111B development program, following a

budget reduction.

1971: The Aeronautical Systems Division announced a decision to proceed with

the full-scale development of the Subsonic Cruise Armed Decoy (SCAD)

missile.

1979: Exercise GLOBAL SHIELD. During this annual exercise, SAC launched two

Minuteman III ICBMs from Vandenberg AFB. One mission, Glory Trip 40GM, was

the last Phase I Minuteman III flight test. (1)

1980: Exercise PROUD PHANTOM. Through 3 October, 12 F-4Es flew from Moody

AFB to Cairo to participate in the exercise. It was the USAF’s first

tactical deployment to Egypt. (16) (26)

1998: Col Teresa M. “Marné” Peterson became the first active duty woman to

command an operational flying wing when she assumed leadership of the 14 FTW

at Columbus AFB, Miss.

2002: A C-5 from the 436 AW left Dover AFB for Kabul, Afghanistan, with

13,115 pounds of school supplies collected by children from 58 American

schools. (22) The USAF lost a second Global Hawk (AV-4) in a combat zone. An

engine component failed, causing further internal damage to the engine, and

the UAV was destroyed while making an emergency landing in Pakistan. (3)

Through 11 July, the 210th Rescue Squadron (Alaska ANG), using an HC-130

tanker and an HH-60 helicopter, rescued a seriously-ill Filipino sailor from

his ship 1,000 miles at sea and delivered him to a hospital at Kodiak. The

mission lasted about 26 hours. (32)

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Seen this before but it'll never be old.

Thanks to Wigs

This story is confirmed in Elmer Bendiner's book, The Fall of Fortresses.

*Sometimes, it's not really just luck.*

Elmer Bendiner was a navigator in a B-17 during WW II. He tells this story

of a World War II bombing run over Kassel, Germany , and the unexpected

result of a direct hit on their gas tanks. "Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was

barraged by flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on

this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.

Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a 20 millimeter shell piercing the

fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me

it was not quite that simple. "On the morning following the raid, Bohn had

gone down to ask our crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable

luck.

The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but 11 had been found in

the gas tanks. 11 unexploded shells where only one was sufficient to blast

us out of the sky. It was as if the sea had been parted for us. A

near-miracle, I thought.

Even after 35 years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken, especially after

I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

"He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused.

The armorers told him that Intelligence had picked them up. They could not

say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought out the answer. "Apparently

when the armorers opened each of those shells, they found no explosive

charge. They were as clean as a whistle and just as harmless.

Empty? Not all of them! One contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On

it was a scrawl in Czech. The Intelligence people scoured our base for a man

who could read Czech. Eventually they found one to decipher the note. It set

us marveling.

Translated, the note read:

*"This is all we can do for you now... "

Using Jewish slave labor was never a good idea."

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Thanks to Fred  Fun story BUT pictures DO NOT COME THROUGH ANY MORE  SKIP

Eagles at work

This came from a gentleman who runs a 2,000-acre corn farm up around Barron,

WI, not far from Oshkosh. He used to fly F-4Es and F-16s for the Guard and

participated in the first Gulf War.

His story:

I went out to plant corn for a bit, to finish a field before tomorrow

morning and witnessed 'The Great Battle'. A golden eagle -- big, with about

a six-foot wingspan - flew right in front of the tractor. It was being

chased by three crows that were continually dive bombing it and pecking at

it. The crows do this because the eagles rob their nests when they find

them.

At any rate, the eagle banked hard right in one evasive maneuver, then

landed in the field about 100 feet from the tractor. This eagle stood about

3 feet tall. The crows all landed too and took up positions around the eagle

at 120 degrees apart, but kept their distance at about 20 feet from the big

bird. The eagle would take a couple steps towards one of the crows and

they'd hop backwards and forward to keep their distance. Then the

reinforcement showed up. I happened to spot the eagle's mate hurtling down

out of the sky at what appeared to be approximately Mach 1.5. Just before

impact, the eagle on the ground took flight, (obviously a coordinated

tactic; probably pre-briefed) and the three crows that were watching the

grounded eagle also took flight -- thinking they were going to get in some

more pecking on the big bird.

The first crow being targeted by the diving eagle never stood a snowball's

chance in hell. There was a mid-air explosion of black feathers, and that

crow was done.

The diving eagle then banked hard left in what had to be a 9G climbing turn,

using the energy it had accumulated in the dive, and hit crow #2 less than

two seconds later. Another crow dead! 

The grounded eagle, which was now airborne and had an altitude advantage on

the remaining crow that was streaking eastward in full burner, made a short

dive, then banked hard right when the escaping crow tried to evade the hit.

It didn't work - crow #3 bit the dust at about 20 feet AGL. This aerial

battle was better than any air show I've been to, including the War Birds

show at Oshkosh. The two eagles ripped the crows apart, and ate them on the

ground; and, as I got closer and closer working my way across the field, I

passed within 20 feet of one of them as it ate its catch. It stopped and

looked at me as I went by, and you could see in the look of that bird that

it knew who's Boss of the Sky. What a beautiful bird!

I loved it. Not only did they kill their enemy, they ate them. One of the

best Fighter Pilot stories I've seen in a long time.

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Thanks to Carl

(Go to read the whole thing for many neat pics and the complete story!)

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2021/07/fullbore-friday_9.html

Friday, July 09, 2021

Fullbore Friday

  As the D-Day invasion was ongoing, the German Navy sortied what they could

to try to drive the allies back across the channel. The most feared were the

French based U-boats.

Please read the whole thing, but here is a nice summary of one of the

under-told stories of WWII, Coastal Command.

One night. One crew. Two U-boats.

Fullbore.

“G-George” droned on through the night. Men drank coffee from thermos

flasks, kept the chatter to a minimum, scanned the endless sea and began to

feel the numbing weariness set in that came with these long over-water

patrols. But adrenalin shot through their bloodstreams like amphetamine just

after 2 a.m. when Foster announced on the intercom that he had a solid

return on his radar 12 miles dead ahead in the vicinity of Ushant Island

(Ouessant). It was too early to tell whether it was a French fishing smack

or the conning tower of a U-boat. Moore corrected his course slightly to

port to put the target in the path of the moon reflecting on the water.

Three miles out the conning tower of a submarine was made out in the

moonlight.

Coastal Command anti-submarine crews were trained to attack the moment a

U-boat was detected and without deliberation. An undamaged Type VIIC U-boat,

with a well-trained crew could crash dive beneath the surface in 30 seconds.

Time was of the essence, as was complete surprise.

Immediately, Moore instructed Foster to switch off the radar in case the

submarine had detection equipment, and then began to drop lower and lower,

adjusting his course to keep the enemy up-moon until he was at 50 feet above

the calm surface. McDowall, the navigator, took his position at the bomb

sight. Moore ordered the four big bomb doors opened and as they slid upwards

and outboard on their rollers, he could hear the hydraulic pumps working and

sense the difference in the airflow note down the sides of his warhorse.

Approaching the U-boat, which they calculated was making 10–12 knots in a

westerly direction, they selected 6 depth charges from their quiver,

attacking due south and 90 degrees to the path of the U-boat on her

starboard side. Moore chose to leave the powerful 22 million-candela Leigh

Light off to further keep their whereabouts secret. As they screamed in for

the attack, the spare navigator, Pilot Officer Alec Gibb, DFC sprayed the

conning tower with heavy machine gun fire (some 150 rounds according to the

after action report) from his position in the nose. Moore and Gibb later

stated they could see as many as 8 submariners scrambling from the tower to

get to the deck guns. There was some anti-aircraft return fire, but it was

too little and too late. They had caught them completely by surprise.

As they roared over the submarine at 190 mph, six depth charges, set 55 feet

apart, were falling from “G-George’s” bomb bay, having been released by

McDowall whose accuracy this night would be perfect. Three fell on either

side of the submarine in a textbook straddling attack just ahead of the

conning tower. A flame-float, designed to ignite when it hit the water was

also dropped to identify the position of the submarine at the moment of

attack. The rear gunner Flight Sergeant I. Webb watched in fascination as

the detonations exploded white in the moonlight and appeared to lift the

700-ton submarine out of the water.

By the time they had climbed, swung around and were homing on the beacon of

the flame float at the position of the attack, there was nothing left of the

U-boat save for some floating wreckage and the oily slick of diesel fuel. A

Type VIIC U-boat had disappeared and ceased to exist in a matter of seconds,

the depth charges having done their job breaching the pressure hull and

sending one of Karl Dönitz’ hunters to the bottom with all hands. One can

only imagine the last minutes of terror for the more than 50 men aboard.

Sadly, when this submarine sank, there was no one who could identify which

U-boat it was. Postwar accounting pointed to U-629, commanded by

Oberleutnant zur See Hans–Helmut Bugs on its 11th war patrol. She had just

slipped out of her pen at Brest the day before. Still, other researchers

disclaim the U-629 identification, pointing instead to U-441, commanded by

Kapitänleutnant Klaus Hartmann on its ninth and final war patrol. It is not

my goal to be definitive as to the identity of the fifty or so men killed

that night, that best being left to experts in the field. Knowing would

bring the story to a satisfying close, but it will not lessen the tragedy or

the courage of the U-boat men who died that night.

Moore settled his crew down after the last pass over the wreckage, and

ordered a course correction to take them back on their patrol. At 0231, just

twenty minutes after the first radar contact was made, “G-George” sent a

message to command that they had sunk a U-boat. The men were charged with

electricity, but they had a job to do and hours before they could return

home to St Eval.

Just a few minutes later at 0240 hrs, as they settled down at 700 feet ASL,

Foster reported another radar contact 10 degrees off the starboard nose,

this time just 6 miles ahead. Moore, with information from Foster, began to

home in on the target, and at 2.5 miles range and 75 degrees to starboard,

they sighted the conning tower of another U-boat on a northwesterly course

running at an estimated eight knots on the surface. This time Moore needed

to circle to port and come in on a course that would allow them to attack up

the moon path.

Bringing the big Liberator down to 50 feet once again, Moore approached the

U-boat at 110 degrees to its starboard side with plenty of time to set up

another perfect attack at 190 mph. The remaining six Torpex depth charges

were released at 55-foot intervals as well as a flame float. Again, Gibb,

the spare navigator in the nose, was firing his machine gun at the conning

tower, which answered this time with flak and tracer fire. As they roared

overhead, the rear gunner Webb saw four depth charges strike the water to

the starboard side of the U-boat and two on the her port side—another

textbook straddling attack. Massive flumes of exploding water were seen

rising on either side of the submarine, ten feet aft of the conning tower

and totally obscuring the target.

Returning to the position of the flame float, Moore, Gibb and Ketcheson saw

the U-boat in the bright moonlight, with a heavy list to starboard. As they

approached, the bow rose steeply out of the water to an angle of about 80

degrees. The boat slid back into the sea “amid a large amount of confused

water” according to the 224 Squadron ORB.

Moore circled in fascination and, coming around again, he turned on the

powerful Leigh Light slung beneath his starboard wing outboard of engine No.

4. The blinding blue-white beam illuminated three yellow dinghies crowded

with men floating on an oily surface strewn with bits of wreckage. One can

imagine how exposed the survivors must have felt caught in the white light

of the Leigh with a heavily armed Liberator thundering down its beam toward

them. They passed overhead without further molesting the surviving crew,

switched off the Leigh Light and left the German sailors floating in the

moonlight.

The submarine was U-373, another Type VIIC boat commanded by Kapitänleutnant

Detlef von Lehsten on its 11th war patrol. It had just slipped out of Brest

after a six-month repair following a similar attack by a Coastal Command

Wellington and Liberator in January. We know for certain that this was U-373

because all but four members of the crew survived to be picked up the next

day by French fishing vessels and returned to Brest. Von Lehsten was one of

the survivors.

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Thanks to Pete

Skip-

            This morning's List mentioned a sub kill by VP-94 on this date:

1943—PBY (VP 94) sinks German submarine (U 590) at the mouth of the Amazon

River, Brazil.

<image001.jpg>

Attached are some BDA photos, taken from the step of 94-P-10, my dad's PBY,

if you are interested. I've got the official action summary as well!

            My father was flying copilot in 94-P-10 (PBY-5A) that morning

with his best friend (Ltjg Frank Hare) in the left seat (their lineal

numbers were 1 # apart, and most crews alternated left & right seats on the

long patrols). My dad spotted a sub on the surface, after another PBY (Ltjg

Auslander 94-P-1) radioed that they had seen another 60 miles away. When

Frank Hare rolled into the surfaced sub, their PBY was lit up by 50 cal fire

from the sub. Apparently, the Germans were losing too many subs to the PBY's

in the clear blue waters off Brazil, so they changed their tactics and

decided to fight it out on the surface with the slow PBY's.

            The first shots killed Frank Hare immediately, wounded my father

in the left leg, and seriously wounded the port blister gunner. My dad was

able to pull out, circle the sub and re-attack it, dropping 2 depth charges

which apparently crippled the sub, because it didn't dive again. They

remained circling overhead, radioing for backup; both sides licking their

wounds. Until later, when Auslander arrived in 94-P-1 and finished off the

sub.

            My father never talked about this event in any detail; PTSD I

suppose. I found out about it mostly in some books and war histories, and

from some of his squadron mates.  I'm an F-8 guy; I can't imagine having

your best friend get blown away two feet away from you, and continuing the

mission for another 3 hours!

            Big day in my family! I was born 1 year later; probably

conceived during his R&R recuperation!

Pete Phelps

Litning

<image002.jpg>

Sub Kill report from 9 July 1943

The night of July 7-8, convoy TJ-1 was attacked in the Trinidad area, two

ships being sunk and others damaged. Planes were immediately despatched from

Belem to operate out of Amapa, taking over coverage of the convoys. On the

morning of 9 July several sightings were made at a distance, both by planes

and surface craft, indicating that the attack was being continued. BT-18 was

entering the area from the South at this time and is was necessary for five

planes in Belem and a limited number of pilots to give night and day

coverage and fly daylight sweeps. Lt. (jg) Stanley Ernest Auslander, USNR,

104 673, Lt(jg) John Milton Elliot, USNR, 113 067, Lt.(jg) Frank Joseph

McMackin Jr., USNR, 112 627, in 94-P-1, enroute to relieve on convoy

coverage, sighted the swirl of a submerging submarine just before noon and

advised the base that gambit tactics would be employed. At approximately

1230 Peter, 94-P-10 sweeping the area immediately east of TJ-1 sighted a

surfaced submarine about 60 miles distant from the swirl sighting. Just

after starting the first leg of the sweep at 1235 Peter, the co-pilot

sighted the U-boat 12 miles distant at 03-54 North, 49-52 West. The

submarine apparently did not see the plane until quite late for no attempt

to submerge was made. At a distance of more than a mile from the submarine,

orange flecks from the submarine's anti-aircraft fire were noticed, and

almost immediately thereafter an explosive shrapnel shell enterd the bow on

the port side exploding against the instrument panel, setting fire to the

Sperry oil, and causing billowing smoke and flame. The pilot, Lt. (jg) Frank

Fisher Hare, USNR, 112 640 was struck by shrapnel in the head, heart, and

body. The run was continued and the two starboard depth bombs released.

Interrogation of those of the crew who could see the drop of bombs indicated

that they landed close together, approximately 25 to 35 feet from the stern

of the submarine and about 45 degrees to starboard. There was no visible

indication of damage. The bow gunner fired his .30 calibre guns continuously

during the approach and the port blister ;.50 calibre gun was brought to

bear after the drop. About 20 to 30 minutes after the original attack, the

plane departed, the submarine being still surfaced. The evaluation of the

attack was "no damage." 94-P-1 and 107-B-5 investigated the area about 1300

Peter, but found no traces of the submarine.

The complement of the aircraft included:

Pilot Lt. (jg) Frank Fisher Hare, USNR, 112 640

Co-Pilot Lt (jg) Jean Price Phelps, USNR, 112 158

Navigator Lt.(jg) Michael Carl Argento, USNR, 112 141

Tower Lombardo, Joseph (n), AMM3c, 316 78 75, USN

Bow Eisaman, Clifford Emery, AMM3c, 652 10 02, USNR

Starboard

Blister Testen, Andrew Frank, AOM3c, 613 99 69, USNR

Port

Blister Brown, Thomas Russell, ARM3c, 268 81 22, USN

Radio Lack, James Thomas, ARM3c, 356 66 90, USN

(4)

Lt(jg) Hare was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the

Purple Heart. J Price Phelps was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart for

wounds sustained from the initial attack as well as for continuing the

attack and probably damaging the sub; causing it to remain on the surface

for Lt Auslander's later attack and kill. Meanwhile, 94-P-1 continued its

gambit and at 1424 Peter, a surfacing submarine was sighted about three

miles dead ahead, position 03-22 North, 48-38 West. The plane was flying at

3700 feet over a broken cloud base of .4 to .6 cumulus at 1700 feet and had

just passed through a fairly heavy cloud. The U-Boat was about 2 1/2 miles

distant. As the pilots could not see the submarine, the nose was pushed over

to bring it into view. Water was running from its decks and within a few

seconds it was fully surfaced, cruising at about 15 knots on 125 degrees

true. The pilot held the plane in a dive directly toward the submarine,

without changing course and threw on the bombing switch. Lt. (jg) McMackin

blew the warning horn and rushed to the waist compartment to take pictures

of the enemy underseas craft through the port blister. The throttles were

cut, but still the plane attained a speed of 200 knots indicated. At an

altitude of about 150 feet, Lt.(jg) Elliot released the depth bombs by

intervalometer spaced at 73 feet. The submarine was fully surfaced,

proceeding on course, and there was no evidence that the crew, three or four

of whom could be seen in the conning tower, were aware of the approach of

the plane. An easy turn to port was made after the plane was pulled out of

its dive and while the spray was still visible. When the water subsided no

trace of the submarine would be seen. All of the occupants of the waist

hatch were thrown into the bilges by the pull-up. The gunner had been firing

the .50 calibre and had sprayed the conning tower with 7 to 10 rounds. As he

fell, the gun was apparently elevated, so that one or two bullets went

through the starboard wing of the plane. No serious damage was done. While

circling, a greenish-brown slick was visible and in the center of it, two

swimming men, a large timber, several small articles and two boxes. A crew

member then reported seeing three additional men in the water and Lt.(jg)

Elliot spotted them on the next approach. Five were counted at this time,

but three apparently sank very quickly. A life raft was dropped, but drifted

away before the swimmers could reach it Four life jackets were dropped, two

inflated and two uninflated and the survivors appeared to get into the

inflated ones. Emergency rations were also dropped within reach. Four

minutes after the drop a large amount of oil started to rise two or three

hundred yards from the slick along the sub's track and observation showed

the slick continuing to grow in length and breadth to a size of half to a

mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. There was no forward motion to the

oil slick. The attack was assessed as "probably sunk." 94-P-1 was manned as

follows:

Pilot Lt.(jg) Stanley Ernest Auslander, USNR, 104 673

Co-Pilot Lt.(jg) John Milton Elliot, USNR, 113 067

Navigator Lt.(jg) Frank Joseph McMackin, Jr.,USNR, 112 627

Port Blister Denauw, Frank Joseph, AMM2c, 606 19 58, USNR

Starboard Blister Watson, John Harry, ARM2c, 406 77 87, USN

Radio Garren, Hoyt Edwin, ARM2c, 296 00 73, USN

Bow Smith, Elmer Bryant, AMM3c, 268 81 81, USN

Tower Mustone, Joseph James, Jr., AOM3c, 607 52 10, USNR

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TheList 7590

7590

Good Thursday morning July 9 2026 . It was cloudy and cool when I got up but

it is clearing fast and heating up.  The weather guessers are saying that it

is clear sunny but they never look out the window It is supposed to hit 85

around 3 today and be clear and sunny.

Warm Regards,

skip

This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)

Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here

to see the director's corner for all 91 H-Grams

July 9

1846 During the Mexican-American War, Cmdr. John B. Montgomery and his

detachment of Marines and sailors from the sloop-of-war USS Portsmouth raise

the U.S. flag over (Yerba Buena) San Francisco, Calif.

1943 PBY (VP 94) sinks German submarine (U 590) at the mouth of the Amazon

River, Brazil.

1944 The organized Japanese resistance ceases on Saipan, Mariana Islands.

1950 During the Korean War, Cmdr. Michael J. L. Luosey assumes command of

the Navy of the Republic of Korea. He subsequently serves as its Deputy

Commander until June 1, 1952.

1960 USS Wasp (CVS 18) departs Guantanamo Bay to support the United Nations

effort to calm the newly independent Congo.

1960 USS Thresher (SSN 593) is launched at Portsmouth, N.H.

1994 USS Rhode Island (SSBN 740) is commissioned at Groton, Conn. The

Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine.

1

994 USS Dextrous (MCM 13), an Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship, is

commissioned at Ingleside, Texas, which includes former Sailors from the

original Dextrous (AM 341).

1994 USS Port Royal (CG 73) is commissioned at Savannah, Ga. The

guided-missile cruiser is the 27th and last ship of the Ticonderoga-class

cruisers. Named after American Revolutionary and Civil War battles at Port

Royal Sound, S.C.

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This Day in World History July 9

118      Hadrian, Rome's new emperor, makes his entry into the city.

455      Avitus, the Roman military commander in Gaul, becomes Emperor of

the West.

1553    Maurice of Saxony is mortally wounded at Sievershausen, Germany,

while defeating Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach.

1609    Emperor Rudolf II grants Bohemia freedom of worship.

1755    General Edward Braddock is killed by French and Indian troops.

1789    In Versailles, the French National Assembly declares itself the

Constituent Assembly and begins to prepare a French constitution.

1790    The Swedish navy captures one third of the Russian fleet at the

Battle of Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.

1850    U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies in office at the age of 65. He is

succeeded by Millard Fillmore.

1861    Confederate cavalry led by John Morgan captures Tompkinsville,

Kentucky.

1900    The Commonwealth of Australia is established by an act of British

Parliament, uniting the separate colonies under a federal government.

1942    Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the attic above her

father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

1943    American and British forces make an amphibious landing on Sicily.

1971    The United States turns over complete responsibility of the

Demilitarized Zone to South Vietnamese units.

1877  Wimbledon Tournament begins

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .

July 9

Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear

Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage

http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner

and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered

History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the

date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all

content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.

An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO)

MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit

directly via https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/.

There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo-TFO

has over 1,000 individual case files).

.

Thanks to Micro

To remind folks that6these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro

put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to

the crew of the aircraft. ..Skip

For Thursday July 9 . .

July 8: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=671

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From the archives

To All,

When I saw this email come in this morning I was excited. When I was growing

up on USAF and a couple Army bases all across the country the idea of flying

one of those planes was always my dream. When I read "God is My Co Pilot" I

knew I wanted to be a Fighter pilot. His descriptions of flying and fighting

air and ground targets was exciting  to say the least. I read all his other

books over the years including his story of walking most of the Great Wall

of China when he was 76.

One of the missions that he described in the book was catching a large group

of Japanese soldiers marching down a road that had been cut through a

mountain that had steep sides. He waited until they were in the middle and

started his gunnery runs. It had been raining and the soldiers could not

climb up the sides to escape so he  hit them head on first and then came

back the other way and did that back and forth until he ran out of ammo and

there were not many left moving.

Strangly enough the fighter Squadron that can trace its roots to the Flying

Tigers is now at Vandenberg AFB  and there is a beautiful P-40 outside

painted in the Flying Tiger paint scheme including the Shark's teeth...skip

Flying Tigers and Robert Lee Scott

Thanks to Todd S. ...

The story of Robert Lee Scott, the P-40 pilot who waged a one-man war

against Imperial Japan and became AVG commander when the unit became the

23rd Fighter Group

By William Cobb

Jul 6 2022

Using a special gift by AVG leader Chennault, a P-40E, serial number

41-1456, otherwise known as "Old Exterminator," Robert Lee Scott waged a

one-man war against Imperial Japanese forces.

Flying Tigers: From AVG to 23rd Fighter Group.

On Jul. 4, 1942, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), which had achieved

worldwide fame as the "Flying Tigers"officially ceased to be. Instead, the

newest Fighter Group in the US Army Air Force (USAAF) was established, with

a small cadre of AVG pilots providing a core for the unit while it stood up

as a combat unit. The vast majority of AVG pilots had already left,

including Greg Hallenbeck/Boyington. Others had stuck things out till their

year long contracts had expired. A few agreed to remain to help the new unit

gain the benefit of their hard-won experience. They had retreated from

Burma, seeing that corner of the British Empire fall, yet remaining intact

as a unit despite the inevitable losses they had taken.

The behind-the-scenes machinations of various commands to take over the AVG

is beyond the scope of this account, suffice to say it was a strategic

matter discussed at the highest levels of US Military command. In many ways

the AVG was embarrassment to the Military. Ostensibly Civilian, yet with

higher pay than the military, the AVG had managed to achieve some of the

only combat Victories scored by US Flying forces. Now that the war was only

6 months old, they remained an anomaly, a unit of Civilians in a War fought

by a nation mobilizing its resources and people to fight around the world.

The sooner they were inducted as a regular unit, the better.

Unfortunately, this pragmatic command view from Washington failed to take

into account realities on the ground, where Major General Clayton Bissell

and Brigadier General Claire Chennault clashed over control over a unit

which at peak strength prewar never numbered more than a single Pursuit

Group. Regarded prewar as a Maverick who refused to toe the Air Force's

Party Line that Bombing was the wave of the future, the hierarchy of the Air

Force was now able to impose its will and induct the AVG into its

organization. Unfortunately, General Bissell managed to alienate the pilots

in his new command to such an extent by threatening to draft them upon their

return home, that the vast majority left in disgust.

Finding a commander for the new unit posed a bit of a problem as well.

Facing a worldwide War, Colonels with fighter and combat experience weren't

exactly common in the USAAF. Fortunately warrior ethos of the old Air Corps

managed to solve the problem, thanks to an adventurous spirit who managed to

finagle his way overseas by claiming 1100 hours of Flying Fortress flight

time when reality the man had naught but some jump seat time while riding in

one. Stuck in instructor duty overseeing the expansion of the vast USAAF

training pipeline, West Pointer Robert Lee Scott had volunteered for a

secret Mission, Project Aquila, covered in an earlier post back in April.

Stuck in India after the Doolittle raid had rendered the raid impossible due

to the loss of its Chinese bases, Scott had flown a series of transport

missions during the evacuation of Burma, and had been left a rather special

gift by AVG leader Chennault, a P-40E, serial number 41-1456, otherwise

known as "Old Exterminator" (featured in the Turntable by Hangar B below).

Using that machine, he waged a one-man war against Imperial Japanese forces,

flying multiple sorties per day, and even repainting its spinner different

colors on each sortie to convince his adversary they were facing more

aircraft than his single P-40.

There is some controversy as to the exact serial and side number of the

aircraft as Scott was reputed to have switched data plates, and AVG aircraft

had their tail numbers painted out. Scott apparently scored 4 victories in

41-1456, before taking the guns into the P-40E which would become known as

White 7. Originally his side number was White 10, but as Scott himself

related below to an individual on a message thread about the aircraft;

"According to Scott, none of the P-40s he flew in China had tail number on

them. Chennault ordered them painted over in an attempt to deceive Japanese

intelligence as to the number of aircraft the CATF/14th AF had on strength.

The reason for the number change from 10 to 7 was more for self-preservation

than anything else. According to Gen Scott the first couple of times he flew

with number "10" on a mission, he would be returning and radio the tower

"One Zero (10) approaching from the northwest ten miles out". Next thing he

knew there were two or three P-40s coming up at him. He decided pretty quick

he needed to change his fuselage number.

By waging his one-man war against Imperial Japan, Scott gained invaluable

combat experience, and was taught the Tactics Chennault instilled in his men

by other AVG fliers such as RT. Smith and "Tex" Hill.

This combat experience and the fact that he was a West Point graduate gave

Scott the perfect pedigree to take over the AVG when it became the 23rd

Fighter Group, USAAF. As he had seen combat action, he was one of "the

boys," while his status as a regular Army West Pointer made his command

acceptable to the Army's ever present "Ring Knocker" fraternity of West

Point Alumni. Thus Robert Lee Scott would come to take over a legendary

unit, and lead it through even more action in the months to come, at a time

when Chennault and his China Air Task Force waged a kind of airborne

guerilla war from its bases deep in the Chinese hinterland.

Robert Lee Scott would go on to score 13 victories while in command of the

AVG, and though criticized by segments of the O-club set for his "arrogance"

he would return to the fighting after dictating "God is My Copilot," his

best-selling memoirs of his experience. Postwar, he would be the first

American to fly a jet across Africa, and eventually retired as a Brigadier

General. The Air Force, for all its bureaucratic nature, does seem to have a

way of promoting its most heroic Aviators to the rank of Brigadier General,

as attested to by the careers of Scott, Robin Olds, Chuck Yeager, and Air

Force Vietnam Ace Steve Ritchie, all of whom retired at One Star Rank.

Scott's wanderlust wouldn't cease after retirement, indeed in the early 80s

he managed to be one of the few human beings to WALK much of the length of

the Great Wall of China. He would also fly in an F-16 as a 76-year-old, and

later in a B-1 in the 1990s. Living till 2006 and age 97, Scott remains an

Air Force Legend, whose flying career spanned the Golden Age of flight into

the Jet Era.

As an addition to this one. I was overwhelmed by one of the list readers

back on 19 April 2026. Brockton Wagner sent me the Book  God is my Copilot

It was an original hard back dated 1943  so it is as old as I am and in

perfect condition.

It is in an honored place in my office. Reading it again brought back a lot

of memories.

Thank you again Brockton

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. Thanks to Interesting Facts

Bananas are slightly radioactive.

Mentions of radioactivity can send the mind in a dramatic direction, but

many ordinary items are technically radioactive - including the humble

banana. Radioactivity occurs when elements decay, and for bananas, this

radioactivity comes from a potassium isotope called K-40. Although it makes

up only 0.012% of the atoms found in potassium, K-40 can spontaneously

decay, which releases beta and gamma radiation. That amount of radiation is

harmless in one banana, but a truckload of bananas has been known to fool

radiation detectors designed to sniff out nuclear weapons. In fact, bananas

are so well known for their radioactive properties that there's even an

informal radiation measurement named the Banana Equivalent Dose, or BED.

So does this mean bananas are unhealthy? Well. no. The human body always

stores roughly 16 mg of K-40, which technically makes humans 280 times more

radioactive than your average banana. Although bananas do introduce more of

this radioactive isotope, the body keeps potassium in balance (or

homeostasis), and your metabolism excretes any excess potassium. Oh, and in

case you were wondering, a person would have to eat many millions of bananas

in one sitting to get a lethal dose (at which point you'd likely have lots

of other problems). So go ahead and eat that banana cream pie - you can

leave the Geiger counter at home.

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Thanks to History Facts

During WWI, Americans called sauerkraut "liberty cabbage."

U.S. HISTORY

Americans have a long tradition of rebranding any foods that bear the name

of a rival nation during times of conflict. When France refused to support

the United States' war in Iraq in 2003, for example, the cafeteria menus in

three congressional office buildings in Washington, D.C., changed the name

of French fries - which, by some accounts, were actually invented in Belgium

- to "freedom fries," and French toast became "freedom toast." 

The U.S. pulled a similar move while at war with Germany during World War I:

Sauerkraut's German origins led Americans to rename the condiment "liberty

cabbage." Other foods that we think of as classically American yet bear the

names of German cities were also affected. The word "hamburger" comes from

Hamburg, Germany, so during the Great War it was rechristened "liberty

steak." The seemingly all-American hot dog, meanwhile, was called a

"frankfurter" at the time, and as the connection to Frankfurt, Germany,

couldn't stand, it was rebranded "liberty sausage." (The term "hot dog" is

also sneakily of German origin, as it comes from "dachshunds," aka "little

dogs.") And speaking of dogs, in 1917, the American Kennel Club changed the

official name of German shepherds to "shepherd dog," and in England the

breed was renamed "Alsatian."

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.

. From the Archives and a great Naval Aviator

Thanks to Admiral Dunn

re: The Strike Fighter Time Management Problem - War on the Rocks

Recognizing that I am indeed an Old F--t, I take exception to the idea that

air combat trained Naval Aviators cannot learn air-to-surface and vice

versa. As an old attack pilot, and one who came to air-to-air late in life,

I realize and acknowledge that air-to-air will take more training, but since

the air-to-ground is rather simple that's okay. The hardest part of being an

attack pilot is identifying the target and having the guts to roll in and

persist in the run despite flak and SAMs flashing by. The target doesn't bob

and weave and jink all over the place and come out of the sun as must be

expected in air-to-air.

Air-to-ground is relatively simple. My evidence is a squadron mate of mine

from long ago at Fallon. Not noted for his airmanship, he managed to score

six bullseyes with six bombs on a Fallon target, then returned to the field

and landed on a taxiway! So much for excellence in air-to-ground. He would

have been "Meat on the table" as a fighter.

Like my friend with the six bullseyes targets for attack pilots are

generally certain and known beforehand, "Targets" for fighter plots may come

from anywhere...not only out of the sun but at six o'clock, four o'clock and

twelve: high and low too.

Anyhow, so much for pontification from an old f***. The answer to time

management for strike-fighter pilots is to be the best fighter pilot you can

be, catch up on air-to-ground when you have time. That goes for people

building the training curricula too.

Time for my nap....

Bob Dunn

P.S. You can leave your silk scarf at home and still be a great fighter

pilot.

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. Thanks to Capt. Billy and Dr.lRich

SR-71 interesting facts .

It is hard to get pictures in the List unless I have the URL.

Thanks to Billy ...

Perhaps Steve Johnson at the controls of this KC-135 he flew out of Pease

AFB sometime back...

SR-71 Blackbird crew members have said that they sometimes came down looking

for a tanker, not so much because they were running out of gas but because

their gas was getting too hot.

CLICK HERE to buy unique SR-71 Blackbird merchandise for your HABU

collection.

My Dad, Colonel Richard "Butch" Sheffield, SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance

Systems Officer (RSO), wrote in his unpublished book "The Very First" that

when they were getting low on gas in the SR-71, Blackbird crew members

pressure suits started to get little warm up. By contrast bringing on new

fuel cooled them down. Aboard the SR-71 the fuel was used as a heat sink.

Everything about the SR-71 was complex yet incredibly engineered, so they

have to find a way for the Blackbird to deal with the enormous amount of

heat generated by its high-speed flight.

'Flying at over Mach 3 is thermal problem. Everything is too hot, including

any air you slow down to interact with the vehicle. You are trying to make

the vehicle (and the pilots inside) survive for hours in a pizza oven, while

they are getting cozy with two 500 million BTU/hour flamethrowers,' Iain

McClatchie, an aviation and turbine engine expert, says on Quora.

'When you look at a graph like this, your first impression might be that the

vehicle is this glowing hot thing slicing through the icy -52 C air at

80,000 feet. So naturally, you think of the air as cooling the airplane

down.

'Not so much. The air has to change to the vehicle's speed to touch the

vehicle, and that requires work. That work heats the air. At Mach 3.2, the

stagnation temperature of the air is 740 F, which is hotter than every

(labelled) point on the above graph! (The nacelles around the engine

afterburners, unlabelled, are in fact hotter than the air around them.)

'I know, it seems unbelievable.

'Basically, the shocks from the airplane heat the air around it, but the

vehicle itself cools the air in contact with it down. Once the airplane

passes by, all that disturbed air tumbles to a stop, leaving a path of hot

air through the upper atmosphere.

'So back to life in the pizza oven. The basic solution is (a) leave most of

the airframe hot and make it out of stuff like titanium and stainless steel

that are strong when hot, and (b) start with a large amount of cold fuel,

and then dump heat from critical areas into the fuel before burning it. When

decoupling from an aerial tanker, half the SR-71's weight was fuel.

'A special type of kerosene fuel, JP-7, was developed for the SR-71 to be

good as a heat sink. It boils away at 285 C at 1 atmosphere pressure, which

is the upper end of the kerosene range. When the plane tanked up at 30,000

feet, the kerosene might start below 0 C. At speed, it would be used to cool

the avionics and cockpit, and by the time it arrived at the engine it would

get up to 177 C. It was then used as hydraulic fluid for the various engine

actuators, primarily the variable geometry nozzle. By the time it got to the

fuel injectors it had gotten up to 316 C (but wasn't boiling because it was

at several atmospheres of pressure). At cruise the burner cans were at 330

kPa (about 3.3x the pressure at sea level), so the fuel still didn't boil as

it left the nozzles but the droplets would have evaporated very quickly.'

McClatchie continues;

'JP-7 is mostly a mix of hydrocarbons centered around C12H26 (dodecane). The

graph above shows the vapor pressure of dodecane as a function of reciprocal

absolute temperature. That makes it a bit hard to read. 0.0024, for

instance, is 417 Kelvin which is 143 Celsius. Liquids start to boil when

their vapor pressure is greater than the ambient pressure. I've labelled the

boiling point of dodecane at 2900 Pa, which is the absolute pressure at

80,000 feet, and 13000 Pa, which is the minimum absolute pressure in the

SR-71 fuel tanks. Note that the dodecane component of JP-7 starts to boil at

162 C at sea level. quite a bit less than the advertised 285 C which is

actually when the stuff boils away completely.

'The flash point of JP-7 is 60 C. The fuel was held in tanks whose walls

were formed of the skin of the vehicle. Since fuel vapor against the top

skin of the vehicle would be well over 60 C during cruise, if air was

allowed in any ignition source in the tank would cause a deflagration and

destruction of the vehicle. Instead, nitrogen gas from a 260-liter liquid

nitrogen dewar was used to pressurize the tanks. This would have mostly been

an issue during descent, when the ambient pressure rose and extra gas was

needed to fill the tank ullage space.

'But nitrogen gas fill was not enough. The fuel was heated in the tank by

the bottom surface of the vehicle, just as water in a pot is heated by the

flame on a stove. In this case the fluid was over a meter deep in the tank

and consequently took longer than a pot does to boil. At ambient cruise

pressure the fuel would have begun to simmer in the tanks at 116 C. By

pressurizing the tank to 10 kPa over ambient, the tolerable tank temperature

rose by 33 C. This temperature limit put a time limit on how long the SR-71

could stay at cruise before it began to lose fuel to boiling.

'The fuel pumps in the tanks raised the fuel pressure so that boiling was no

longer a problem once in the fuel system. The limit of how much heat could

be absorbed by the fuel was rather set by it's coking temperature - the

temperature at which the fuel begins to deposit varnish on the interior of

whatever plumbing it is in. I don't have a specific number on JP-7, but it

must be higher than 316 C. There was another experimental hydrocarbon blend

developed, called JP-900, which resists coking up to 482 C. This was

intended for a higher speed vehicle that was never built.

'They were not able to get the wind tunnel behavior to match the actual

behavior of the airplane. Kelly Johnson speculated that this was because

during cruise, the fuel sitting against the lower skin of the fuselage and

inner wing kept that portion of the airframe cooler than the upper skin.

This caused the vehicle to bow from the differential temperature expansion,

which would have made the wings slightly anhedral and would have made the

vehicle unstable in roll.'

McClatchie concludes;

This print is available in multiple sizes from AircraftProfilePrints.com -

CLICK HERE TO GET YOURS. SR-71A Blackbird 61-7972 "Skunkworks"

'Heating of the fuel while in the tanks caused yet another problem. As I

said earlier, the engines can take the fuel at a maximum temperature of 177

C. So as the fuel in the tanks heats up, it's ability to absorb heat on the

way to the engine decreases. Flight crews have said that they sometimes came

down looking for a tanker, not so much because they were running out of gas

but because their gas was getting too hot.

'Using fuel as a heat sink is common in fast jets. The Concorde did it, the

F-15, F-16, F-18, F-22, and F-35 do it, and probably all other supersonic

aircraft.'

Be sure to check out Linda Sheffield Miller (Col Richard (Butch) Sheffield's

daughter, Col. Sheffield was an SR-71 Reconnaissance Systems Officer)

Facebook Pages Habubrats SR-71 and Born into the Wilde Blue Yonder for

awesome Blackbird's photos and stories.

After reading THAT.let's take a break and enjoy the beauty of flight and the

airplanes by which we share the sky and "touch the face of God": (Dave)

Finally, here's a great picture and story submitted by another Eye Candy

recipient, and former A-4 Maintenance Plane Captain in the U.S. Marines:

The classic lines of the B-707, especially with wheels/flaps up, are hard to

beat..all the more at 400mph at 50 feet!

        Blue Skies & Tailwinds..

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Thanks to American Facts

. From Spielberg To King: Who Are Hollywood's "Powers That Be"?

If you have ever wondered who decides who wins an Oscar or why a certain

movie had a sequel, you are not alone. Hollywood is filled with big fish who

make billion-dollar decisions every day. Some of the names in this list you

will know for sure, some will sound familiar, perhaps from the end credits

of some film, and some you have probably never heard of. But they are all

big Hollywood players who can shift tides, shape cultural trends, and make

stars (or break them).

Kathleen Kennedy

Kathleen Kennedy has been a part of many of the greatest movies of the last

35 years. She's been involved with almost every Steven Spielberg movie since

Raiders of the Lost Ark, but also Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Sixth

Sense, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, to name a few. Also, she is

the president of Lucasfilm following its sale to Disney.

Reed Hastings

Netflix's co-founder Reed Hastings is a big name in the entertainment

business, helping distribute some of the world's most-viewed television

shows over the last years.

With a background in technology and software, Hastings capitalised on the

changing media consumption behaviors and created something that took the

media business by storm.

Bob Iger

Quite probably the most influential person in Hollywood, Bob Iger presides

over the industry's largest and most influential entertainment business, the

Disney brand. Add 21st Century Fox, Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and a few

other things, and you have a modern-day media empire.

Kevin Feige

Arguably the most successful film producer of all time, Kevin Feige has

championed the superhero cinematic universe that has swept over Hollywood in

the last decades, whether you like it or not.

Dana Walden

Dana Walden was a key figure in Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox TV,

which she built into a powerhouse over two decades. She is also in charge of

ABC Studios, ABC Entertainment, Freeform, and Hulu.

Oprah Winfrey

A true household name, Oprah Winfrey is one of America's most trusted stars.

She also writes bestsellers, has her own cable network (OWN), and is

involved in infinite ventures in the entertainment landscape.

J.J. Abrams

The name behind some of the biggest blockbusters of the last 30 years, J.J.

Abrams, is one of the most sought-after directors and producers in all of

Hollywood. He is responsible for movies like Armageddon, several Mission:

Impossible installments, and a couple of Star Wars films, to name a few.

Shonda Rhimes

As the creator and showrunner of Grey's Anatomy, Bridgerton, Scandal,

Private Practice, How to Get Away with Murder, and many other series, Shonda

Rhimes has been a strong presence in Hollywood since the early 2000s and has

been featured multiple times in the Times 100 Most Influential People on the

World list.

Steven Spielberg

Probably the person most of us would expect to be on this list, Steven

Spielberg has shaped America and the world's pop culture with some of the

most successful and influential films ever made. His presence has been a

force to be reckoned with and a strong influence in Hollywood since the

mid-1970s.

James Cameron

The man behind blockbusters like Titanic, Terminator, and Avatar, among many

others, has kept himself busy diving to the deepest point in the ocean,

creating documentaries, series, producing, directing, writing, and more for

a few decades now and his work is embedded in pop culture, in a similar way

to Spielberg and our next entry.

Stephen King

The man responsible for some of the biggest film classics, not just in the

horror genre but in many others as well, didn't even intend to go into the

movie business in the first place.

As one of America's more successful contemporary writers, Stephen King has

created stories that started as bestsellers and eventually found their way

into Hollywood. From Carrie, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Shining, to Shawshank

Redemption, The Green Mile, Stand By Me, and countless others, his stories

are the basis for some of the biggest blockbusters that Hollywood has ever

seen.

.

.

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Thanks to Mud

    Here's a film clip that I think you will find interesting.  I'm just old

enough to remember Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, and Lord Haw Haw.  People were

talking about them during the war years.

S/F,

- Mud

https://youtu.be/HrT3rILfIzA

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Worth the repeat .I fact I watched the movie again the other day and still

enjoyed it.

These folks in the different colored jerseys work on the most dangerous 4.5

acres in the world. I have seen more than a few lose their lives or be

seriously injured up there while I was up there with them flying. In Fact I

almost ate my plane captain in an F-8 one day. He was taking me through my

control series and had completed the port side and was running to the right

side  when I heard a noise right underneath me and immediately shut down the

engine as I saw people running toward the nose of my F-8. Finally they

hauled him out and showed me he was ok. Fortunately he was a strong young

man and as the engine sucked him up he was able to grab both sides of the

intake and the engine sucked his helmet and some other gear off him which is

what I heard. By shutting the engine off He was able to hang on long enough

while others came and grabbed him. Another time during the same kind of

evolution the plane captain was going  from my left to right again and did

not show up but people ran towards me and another plane captain took over

the signals as they carried my original plane captain away. When I got back

to the ship I went down to medical and they were still working on stitching

up his face. He had misjudged his distance to a sidewinder missile and the

blades did a job on him.  The whole flight deck evolution is like a

choreographed Ballet from the time you walk on the deck and proceed to your

aircraft  until you are shot off the front end...skip

Thanks to Dutch,

Writer gets this correct -

The most important 'Top Gun: Maverick' moment nearly every moviegoer missed

There's an all-important scene in 'Top Gun: Maverick' that escaped my notice

till I saw the movie a second time

"When you visit the USS Midway in San Diego Harbor and are on the flight

deck looking toward the Island all these are painted on the Island for all

to see....Skip"

  By Alvin Townley | Fox News

"Top Gun: Maverick" has worldwide ticket sales that have already crossed the

$1 billion mark. If I'm an indicator, theaters sold many of those tickets to

repeat customers.

If I hadn't seen the film a second time, however, I would have missed its

most important and revealing five seconds.

During my first watching, the scene entirely escaped notice. Producers had

sandwiched it between mission-centered drama and supremely distracting

high-G maneuvers. But in my second screening, I caught it.

'TOP GUN 3'? MILES TELLER SAYS HE'S TALKING TO TOM CRUISE ABOUT IT The scene

occurs just before Tom Cruise's character Maverick leads three other F/A-18

Super Hornets on the film's climatic mission. It breaks into two segments,

one lasting about 1.5 seconds and the second roughly 4 seconds.

To me, these are the most meaningful seconds of the film.

The initial second-and-a-half shows the hangar deck of the USS Theodore

Roosevelt. From behind, we see Maverick and Rooster who'll fly the

single-seat F/A-18s on the impending mission. We also see Payback and

Phoenix who'll be flying with rear-seat flight officers Bob and Fanboy.

The film's six stars are standing in front of row after row of aviation

personnel. These rows of men and women, dressed in shirts of varied colors,

look like a rainbow. Without them, nobody's getting a jet into the air.

'TOP GUN: MAVERICK' STAR MILES TELLER REVEALS TOM CRUISE'S REACTION AFTER

DISCOVERING JET FUEL IN HIS BLOOD They are the indispensable and unsung team

members who have maintained and prepared the aircraft that will fly the

mission.

Those wearing purple shirts have fueled up the jets; red shirts have armed

them.

Green shirts have maintained the engines and readied the catapults and

arresting cables.

Blue shirts will run the ship's massive elevators, unchain the aircraft, and

clear the chocks.

Yellow shirts will lock the aircraft into the catapults and send the

aviators and their backseat flight officers rocketing off the deck.

Each brown shirt serves as a plane captain; most are under the age of 22,

yet shoulder responsibility for ensuring their $70-million jet is ready.

Often, their names are painted on the aircraft just like the pilot's.

Aviators will generally concede that the plane captain owns the aircraft;

the pilot just borrows it.

Everyone loves the sunglasses-wearing figures in flight suits; they're just

the tip of a long spear, however. Each man and woman aboard Theodore

Roosevelt makes it possible for these aviators to drop ordinance on a target

and accomplish the ship's collective mission of advancing national security.

The film's six stars are standing in front of row after row of aviation

personnel. These rows of men and women, dressed in shirts of varied colors,

look like a rainbow. Without them, nobody's getting a jet into the air.

I learned this lesson aboard four deployed aircraft carriers and at bases

like North Island, California; Pensacola, Florida, and Bahrain while

researching my book "Fly Navy."

Yet, the passing of time and the sizzle of the new film's leading actors

nearly made me forget that naval aviation includes far more than the men and

women in the cockpits. 

'TOP GUN' SEQUEL A WELCOME TRIP TO THE DANGER ZONE: REVIEW The second part

of the overlooked scene comes several moments later. We see Cyclone, the

three-star admiral in charge of the mission, address the assemblage in the

hangar deck.

"This is what you've all been training for," he says dramatically. Charged

and inspired, everyone then leaves to execute his or her precise role.

Initially, I thought Cyclone was just speaking to the six officers about to

climb into the cockpits.

He wasn't.

Cyclone was addressing everybody on the carrier, especially those working

the flight deck. They'd trained relentlessly for their specific duties, and

success that day required them to shine as brightly as the aviators and

flight officers. It was their mission, too.

As a civilian in the world of naval aviation, I found something

extraordinary and surprising, and the film gives you a glimpse thereof if

you're quick enough to catch it. 

I discovered a shipboard team of unsurpassed ability and sense of mission. I

witnessed an operation that strengthens our country by protecting it from

enemies. And I saw how that operation also manufactures the citizens America

herself needs to thrive.

On the flight deck, individuals from every conceivable background work

together in a hot and dangerous crucible that forges ability, character, and

duty. The entire enterprise of naval aviation makes America stronger. It

serves as an example and reminder of how leadership and shared purpose can

transform organizations and individuals, in uniform and not. It makes me

proud.

So, when you watch "Top Gun: Maverick" again - and let's be honest, you will

- remember the stars aren't just the people with call signs. Take a moment

to realize you're watching heroes work together, a navy and a country at its

best.

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This Day in U S Military History...July 9

1755 - General Edward Braddock was mortally wounded when French and Indian

troops ambushed his force of British regulars and colonial militia, which

was on its way to attack France's Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh). Gen.

Braddock's troops were decimated at Fort Duquesne, where he refused to

accept Washington's advice on frontier style fighting. British Gen'l.

Braddock gave his bloody sash to George Washington at Fort Necessity just

before he died on Jul 13.

1776 - The Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Gen. George

Washington's troops in New York.

1795 - James Swan paid off the $2,024,899 US national debt.

1941 - Crackerjack British cryptologists break the secret code used by the

German army to direct ground-to-air operations on the Eastern front. British

experts had already broken many of the Enigma codes for the Western front.

Enigma was the Germans' most sophisticated coding machine, necessary to

secretly transmitting information. The Enigma machine, invented in 1919 by

Hugo Koch, a Dutchman, looked like a typewriter and was originally employed

for business purposes. The Germany army adapted the machine for wartime use

and considered its encoding system unbreakable. They were wrong. The Brits

had broken their first Enigma code as early as the German invasion of Poland

and had intercepted virtually every message sent through the occupation of

Holland and France. Britain nicknamed the intercepted messages Ultra. Now,

with the German invasion of Russia, the Allies needed to be able to

intercept coded messages transmitted on this second, Eastern, front. The

first breakthrough occurred on July 9, regarding German ground-air

operations, but various keys would continue to be broken by the Brits over

the next year, each conveying information of higher secrecy and priority

than the next. (For example, a series of decoded messages nicknamed "Weasel"

proved extremely important in anticipating German anti-aircraft and antitank

strategies against the Allies.) These decoded messages were regularly passed

to the Soviet High Command regarding German troop movements and planned

offensives, and back to London regarding the mass murder of Russian

prisoners and Jewish concentration camp victims.

1943 - Operation Husky: The invasion of Sicily begins. The landing force is

concentrated around Malta. There are 1200 transports and 2000 landing craft

which will land elements of 8 divisions. In the evening, there are airborne

landings by the US 82nd Airborne Division and British units which cause

disruption in the Axis defenses, although they do not manage to seize their

objectives. The Italian 6th Army (General Guzzoni) is responsible for the

defense of Sicily. There are a total of about 240,000 troops (a quarter of

which are Germans).

1944 - On Saipan, US forces reach Point Marpi and the last organized

Japanese resistance is overcome. An estimated 27,000 Japanese have been

killed and 1780 are prisoners, both figures include civilians. US forces

have lost 3400 killed and 13,000 wounded.

1966 - The Soviet Union sends a note to the U.S. embassy in Moscow charging

that the air strikes on the port of Haiphong endangered four Soviet ships

that were in the harbor. The United States rejected the Soviet protest on

July 23, claiming, "Great care had been taken to assure the safety of

shipping in Haiphong." The Soviets sent a second note in August charging

that bullets had hit a Russian ship during a raid on August 2, but the claim

was rejected by the U.S. embassy on August 5. The Soviets complained on a

number of occasions during the war, particularly when the bombing raids

threatened to inhibit their ability to resupply the North Vietnamese.

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

DAVIS, GEORGE E.

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company D, 10th Vermont Infantry.

Place and date: At Monocacy, Md., 9 July 1864. Entered service at:

Burlington, Vt. Birth: Dunstable, Mass. Date of issue: 27 May 1892.

Citation: While in command of a small force, held the approaches to the 2

bridges against repeated assaults of superior numbers, thereby materially

delaying Early's advance on Washington.

HAND, ALLEXANDER

Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 1836, Delaware.

Accredited to: Delaware. G.O. No.: 11 , 3 April 1 863. Citation: Served on

board the U.S.S. Ceres in the fight near Hamilton, Roanoke River, 9 July

1862. Fired on by the enemy with small arms, Hand courageously returned the

raking enemy fire and was spoken of for "good conduct and cool bravery under

enemy fire," by the commanding officer.

KELLEY, JOHN

Rank and organization: Second Class Fireman, U.S. Navy. Birth: Ireland.

Accredited to: Ireland. G.O. No.: 11, 3 April 1863. Citation: Served as

second-class fireman on board the U.S.S. Ceres in the fight near Hamilton,

Roanoke River, 9 July 1862. When his ship was fired on by the enemy with

small arms, Kelley returned the raking fire, courageously carrying out his

duties through the engagement and was spoken of for "good conduct and cool

bravery under enemy fires," by the commanding officer.

SCOTT, ALEXANDER

Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 10th Vermont Infantry. Place and

date: At Monocacy, Md., 9 July 1864. Entered service at: Winooski, Vt.

Birth: Canada. Date of issue: 28 September 1897. Citation: Under a very

heavy fire of the enemy saved the national flag of his regiment from

capture.

BELL, JAMEJ

Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and

date: At Big Horn, Mont., 9 July 1875. Entered service at:--. Birth:

Ireland. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches to

Gen. Crook at the imminent risk of his life.

EVANS, WILLIAM

Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and

date: At Big Horn, Mont., 9 July 1876. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo.

Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches

to Brig. Gen. Crook through a country occupied by Sioux.

STEWART, BENJAMIN F.

Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 7th U.S. Infantry. Place and

date: At Big Horn River, Mont., 9 July 1876. Entered service at: --. Birth:

Norfolk, Va. Date of issue: 2 December 1876. Citation: Carried dispatches to

Gen. Crook at imminent risk of his life.

LUCY, JOHN

Rank and organization: Second Class Boy, U.S. Navy. Born: 1859, New York,

N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 214, 27 July 1876. Citation:

Displayed heroic conduct while serving on board the U.S. Training Ship

Minnesota on the occasion of the burning of Castle Garden at New York, 9

July 1876.

*PUCKET, DONALD D. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 98th ,

Bombardment Group. Place and date: Ploesti Raid, Rumania, 9 July 1944.

Entered service at: Boulder, Colo. Birth: Longmont, Colo. G.O. No.: 48, 23

June 1945. Citation: He took part in a highly effective attack against vital

oil installation in Ploesti, Rumania, on 9 July 1944. Just after "bombs

away," the plane received heavy and direct hits from antiaircraft fire. One

crewmember was instantly killed and 6 others severely wounded. The airplane

was badly damaged, 2 were knocked out, the control cables cut, the oxygen

system on fire, and the bomb bay flooded with gas and hydraulic fluid.

Regaining control of his crippled plane, 1st Lt. Pucket turned its direction

over to the copilot. He calmed the crew, administered first aid, and

surveyed the damage. Finding the bomb bay doors jammed, he used the hand

crank to open them to allow the gas to escape. He jettisoned all guns and

equipment but the plane continued to lose altitude rapidly. Realizing that

it would be impossible to reach friendly territory he ordered the crew to

abandon ship. Three of the crew, uncontrollable from fright or shock, would

not leave. 1st Lt. Pucket urged the others to jump. Ignoring their

entreaties to follow, he refused to abandon the 3 hysterical men and was

last seen fighting to regain control of the plane. A few moments later the

flaming bomber crashed on a mountainside. 1st Lt. Pucket, unhesitatingly and

with supreme sacrifice, gave his life in his courageous attempt to save the

lives of 3 others.

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 9, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT

ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE

INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

9 July

1942: Seven P-38s arrived in the UK after flying across the North Atlantic

with stops in Greenland and Iceland. This was the first time single-seat US

aircraft flew this route. (4)

1943: The invasion of Sicily began with the first major Allied airborne

assault using gliders and paratroops.

1944: MEDAL OF HONOR. During an attack on Ploesti oil refineries, Lt Donald

D. Pucket's B-24 received heavy and direct hits. He turned over controls of

his bomber to the copilot to administer first aid and survey the damage.

Although he jettisoned all the guns and equipment possible, the plane

continued to lose altitude. Pucket ordered his crew to abandon ship, but

three men refused. Therefore, he tried to control the plane. A few moments

later, the flaming bomber crashed on a mountainside. For his courage and

supreme sacrifice, Pucket received the Medal of Honor. (4) P-38 pilots of

the 475 FG escorted B-24s to the Vogelkop area of New Guinea to test cruise

control concepts. Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in the New Guinea area

earlier in the month to teach cruise control techniques to the pilots. This

8-hour- and-15-minute test mission was the longest Fifth Air Force fighter

mission to date. (17)

1950: KOREAN WAR. Forward air controllers used L-5G and L-17 liaison

airplanes to direct the first F-80 strikes to support ground forces. (28)

1958: The Air Force's Thor-Able reentry vehicle, in its first test at ICBM

range and velocity, carried a mouse 6,000 miles over the Atlantic from Cape

Canaveral to the Ascension Islands. (16) (24)

1959: The last C-45 aircraft were phased out of TAC. (11)

1965: FIRST FLIGHT: The XC-142 Tiltwing V/STOL transport flew from the

Ling-Temco-Vought plant in Dallas to Edwards AFB. (3)

1966: A General Dynamics crew took the F-111A for the first time to its Mach

2.5 design speed (about 1,800 MPH) in a test flight at Fort Worth. (16) (26)

1979: Voyager 2 neared the planet Jupiter and started sending photos back to

earth. (21)

2001: British test pilot Simon Hargreaves flew the Lockheed Martin X-35B

through an in-flight conversion from the conventional to the STOVL mode and

back before accelerating to Mach 1.08. This was the first time one of the

two JSF demonstrator types had made a conversion and flown supersonically on

the same flight. (3)

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