To All,
Good Tuesday morning September 22. Partly cloudy and 77 this morning here in paradise with a high expected today of 80 and a low this evening of 62.
Have a great week
Regards
Skip
HAGD
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The Day That Changed WWII | Battle of Britain 1940 | 13 Hours that Saved Britain | Full Documentary
The Day That Changed WWII | Battle of Britain 1940 | 13 Hours that Saved Britain | Full Documentary
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The Battle of the Coral Sea | FULL DOCUMENTARY
The Battle of the Coral Sea | FULL DOCUMENTARY
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Hitting a Moving Target for World War 2 Bomber Gunners (1944 - Restored)
Hitting a Moving Target for World War 2 Bomber Gunners (1944 - Restored)
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U.S. NAVY DIVE BOMBER PILOT WORLD WAR II TRAINING FILM 84312
U.S. NAVY DIVE BOMBER PILOT WORLD WAR II TRAINING FILM 84312
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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 92 H-Grams
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History
September 22
1861 Commodore William W. McKean assumes command of the Gulf Blockading Squadron.
1863 During the Civil War, USS De Soto, commanded by Capt. W. M. Walker, recaptures the Army tug Leviathan in the Gulf of Mexico, some 40 miles off shore. She had been captured by the Confederates earlier in the day.
1944 USS Yukon (AF 9) is hit in her starboard side by a torpedo fired by German submarine U-979, about 43 miles west of Reykjavik, Iceland. Damaged, she steams at three knots until her SOS is responded to by tugs from Reykjavik.
1952 During the Korean War, enemy guns fire on Sosari. HMS Cardigan Bay (PF) and USS Bradford (DD 545) provide direct counter battery fire, silencing the guns.
1959 USS Patrick Henry (SSBN 599) is launched. In 1982, her ballistic missile tubes are disabled, and she is reclassified as an attack submarine.
1979 USNS Catawba (T-ATF 168) is christened and launched at Marinette marine Corp, Marinette, Wisc. The fleet ocean tug, provides towing, diving and standby submarine rescue services to the Navys numbered fleet commanders.
1989 After Hurricane Hugo, Sailors and Marines provide assistance to Charleston, S.C. through Oct. 10.
1990 USNS Kanawha (T-AO 196) is christened and launched at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Penn. The Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet replenishment oiler provides underway replenishment of fuel, fleet cargo and stores to the Navy through the Military Sealift Command.
2012 USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) is commissioned in Galveston, Texas. The littoral combat ship is the first US Navy warship to be named after the fifth largest city in Texas.
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This day in World History
September 22
1656 The General Provincial Court in session at Patuxent, Maryland, impanels the first all-woman jury in the Colonies to hear evidence against Judith Catchpole, who is accused of murdering her child. The jury acquits her after hearing her defense of never having been pregnant.
1711 The Tuscarora Indian War begins with a massacre of settlers in North Carolina, following white encroachment that included the enslaving of Indian children.
1776 American Captain Nathan Hale is hanged as a spy by the British in New York City; his last words are reputed to have been, "I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country."
1789 Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov drive the Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the Rymnik River, upsetting the Turkish invasion of Russia.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation calling for all slaves within the rebel states to be freed on January 1, a political move that helps keep the British from intervening on the side of the South.
1864 Union General Philip Sheridan defeats Confederate General Jubal Early's troops at the Battle of Fisher's Hill in Virginia.
1869 The Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team, arrive in San Francisco after a rollicking, barnstorming tour of the West.
1893 Bicycle makers Charles and Frank Duryea show off the first American automobile produced for sale to the public by taking it on a maiden run through the streets of Springfield, Massachusetts.
1906 Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia leave 21 people dead.
1914 The German cruiser Emden shells Madras, India, destroying 346,000 gallons of fuel and killing only five civilians.
1915 Xavier University, the first African-American Catholic college, opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1918 General Allenby leads the British army against the Turks, taking Haifa and Nazareth, Palestine.
1919 President Woodrow Wilson abandons his national tour to support the League of Nations when he suffers a case of nervous exhaustion.
1929 Communist and Nazi factions clash in Berlin.
1945 President Harry Truman accepts U.S. Secretary of War Stimson's recommendation to designate the war World War II.
1947 A Douglas C-54 Skymaster makes the first automatic pilot flight over the Atlantic.
1961 President John Kennedy signs a congressional act establishing the Peace Corps.
1969 Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants becomes the first baseball player since Babe Ruth to hit 600 home runs.
1970 President Richard M. Nixon signs a bill giving the District of Columbia representation in the U.S. Congress.
1975 Sara Jane Moore attempts to assassinate US President Gerald Ford, the second attempt on his life in less than three weeks.
1980 The Iran-Iraq War begins as Iraq invades Iran; lasting until August 1988, it was the longest conventional war of the 20th century.
1991 Huntington Library makes the Dead Sea Scrolls available to the public for the first time.
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
September 22
Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for “for 22 September
Date: 22 September 1966
Aircraft type: A-1H Skyraider
Serial Number: 135239
Military Unit: VA-176
Service: USN
Home Base: USS Intrepid
Name(s):
Lt Charles Allen Knochel (KIA)
Two Skyraiders came under intense anti-aircraft fire as they were about to recross the North Vietnamese coast at Mu Ron Ma on completion of an armed reconnaissance mission. Lt Knochel’s aircraft (call sign Papoose 401) was hit in the starboard wing, which caught fire and which in turn detonated some of the cannon ammunition in the wing. Lt Knochel abandoned the aircraft over the sea but hit the water hard as his parachute swung wildly. He was not seen to move while in the water and when an Albatross landed some 12 minutes later Lt Knochel had disappeared under the waves, probably having been knocked unconscious during the entry into the water.
22-Sep: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=817
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady’s work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . The site works, find anyone you knew in “search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
By: Kipp Hanley
.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
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From the archives
Thanks to Dr. Rich…
... NON POLITICAL TRUTHS
And on the 8th day, God created seniors. Most seniors never get enough exercise. In His wisdom, God decreed that seniors become forgetful so they would have to search for their eyeglasses, keys, and other things, thus doing more walking. And God looked down and saw that it was good.
Then God saw there was another need. In His wisdom He made seniors lose coordination so they would drop things, requiring them to bend, reach, and stretch more. And God looked down and saw that it was good.
Then God considered the function of bladders and decided seniors would have additional calls of nature, requiring more trips to the bathroom, thus providing more exercise. God looked down and saw that it was good.
So if you find, as you age, you are getting up and down a lot more times, remember it's God's will. It is all in your best interest even though you mutter under your breath.
Nine Important Facts to Remember as We Grow Older:
#9 Death is the number 1 killer in the world.
#8 Life is sexually transmitted.
#7 Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
#6 Men have two motivations: hunger and sex, and they can't tell them…apart. If you see a gleam in his eyes, make him a sandwich.
#5 Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks, months, maybe they won't bother you for years.
#4 Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.
#3 All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.
#2 In the 60's, people took LSD to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.
#1 Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers. What you do today may be a burning issue tomorrow.
That is why you always have ice cream for desert
Please share this wisdom with others; I would do it now but I need to go to the bathroom.
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Thanks to YP
I found this while cleaning out files
Sundowner Memories--
A Conversation
Remember, the old friend said, putting down his coffee cup, they wouldn't let us
hit the SAM sites while they were being built. When they started shooting down
our airplanes, we could hit them.
Yessir. I remember. Then it was a hairy ass scramble to try and find them. Lost
lots of airplanes.
They launched four of us, four F-8's under a 600 foot overcast. He was speaking
of his fleet squadron, the Sundowners of VF-111. He named names I didn't
know, which didn't include another ensign with that bunch then that became a
friend later. I looked down, and we were going 600 knots! How the hell are you
going to find a SAM site that low and going 600 knots?
I didn't know. We were doing the same thing in Scoots substantially slower.
Anyway, he continued, the guy I was flying wing on got hit. The call was just
that, and he said the cockpit was lit up like a Christmas tree. In those days, if
both flight hydraulic systems were hit and bled pressure, which was usual, the
slab unit horizontal tails would slam fail to the full dive position. It occurred right
quickly. That's what happened. A 600 knot negative G pushover from 600 feet
didn't take long.
I'da given anything if I knew then to tell him to get on his back. Get on your
back! He would have gone up, probably ejected. He'd a been a POW, but he'd
probably have made it. We learned about this later, but going into combat, why
didn't they tell us before?
Don't know.
Ida given anything to tell him to get on his back.
Crazy Horse knew about it a little later on, I said. He got hit, rolled on his back,
and at the top of the negative g loop, punched out. He tole me that.
Knowing stuff like that certainly would have been better if it got passed around
sooner.
We both talked about the later fix where a lock lever could be pulled back and
latched before all the pressure bled off, trapping the UHT's nose up, and the
utility system could power the rudder. Made things better.
Not waiting for SAM sites to become active would have been better, too.
But we knew about them all the time.
The Best and the Brightest had a plan, we hoped.
How little did we know.
YP
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
The Color of Your Bread Tag Has an Important Meaning
Ever wonder why the tags used to seal loaves of bread come in different colors? Far from arbitrary, the color-coded system indicates which day of the week the bread was baked. The color system is even alphabetical: Monday is blue, Tuesday is green, Thursday is red, Friday is white, and Saturday is yellow. (Traditionally, bread wasn’t delivered on Wednesday or Sunday.)
Because bread rarely remains on the shelf for more than a few days, this system is more for internal use among employees than it is for customers looking to get the freshest sourdough possible. But if you favor a local bakery and get to know their system, you could either snag the best deals or the fluffiest dinner rolls in town.
Philadelphia Cream Cheese Isn’t Actually From Philadelphia
The City of Brotherly Love has clear-cut claims on many food origins — cheesesteaks, stromboli, and even root beer. But one thing’s for sure: Despite the name, Philadelphia Cream Cheese is definitely not from Philly. The iconic dairy brand secured its misleading name (and gold-standard status) thanks to a marketing ploy that’s been working for more than 150 years … and it’s all because of Pennsylvania’s reputation for impeccable dairy. Small Pennsylvania dairies of the 18th and early 19th centuries were known for using full-fat milk and cream to make rich cheeses — in contrast to New York dairies, which mostly used skim milk — and because the perishables couldn’t be easily transported, they gained a reputation as expensive luxury foods.
So when upstate New York entrepreneur William Lawrence began making his skim milk and (for richness) lard-based cream cheese in the 1870s, he needed a name that would entice customers and convey quality despite it being made in Chester, New York, and not Philadelphia. Together with cheese broker and marketing mastermind Alvah Reynolds, Lawrence’s cheese was branded under the Philadelphia name in 1880, which boosted sales and promoted its popularity with home cooks well into the early 1900s.
The First Smartphone Debuted in 1992
On January 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone to the world. Since then, Apple’s pricey slab of glass stuffed with technology has become more or less synonymous with the word “smartphone” (sorry, Android fans). But smartphones predate the iPhone by more than a decade. To pinpoint the smartphone’s true birthdate, look back to November 23, 1992, and the introduction of IBM’s Simon at a trade show in Las Vegas. Today, IBM is best known for supercomputers, IT solutions, and enterprise software, but in the ’80s and early ’90s the company was a leader in consumer electronics — a position it hoped to solidify with Simon.
Simon was a smartphone in every sense of the word. It was completely wireless and had a digital assistant, touchscreen, built-in programs (calculator, to-do list, calendar, sketch pad, and more), and third-party apps, something even the original iPhone didn’t have. The idea was so ahead of its time, there wasn’t even a word for it yet — “smartphone” wasn’t coined for another three years. Instead, its full name when it debuted to the larger public in 1993 was the Simon Personal Communicator, or IBM Simon for short. But there’s a reason there isn’t a Simon in everyone’s pocket today. For one thing, the phone had only one hour of battery life. Once it died, it was just a $900 brick (technology had a long way to go before smartphones became pocket-sized; Simon was 8 inches long by 2.5 inches wide). Cell networks were still in their infancy, so reception was spotty at best, which is why the Simon came with a port for plugging into standard phone jacks. In the mid-aughts, increases in carrier capacity and the shrinking of electronic components created the perfect conditions for the smartphones of today. Unfortunately for Simon, it was too late.
Before Erasers, People Used Bread To Rub Out Pencil Marks
The very first pencils arrived around the dawn of the 17th century, after graphite (the real name for the mineral that forms a pencil’s “lead”) was discovered in England’s Lake District. But the eraser didn’t show up until the 1770s, at the tail end of the Enlightenment. So what filled the roughly 170-year-long gap? Look no further than the bread on your table. Back in the day, artists, scientists, government officials, and anyone else prone to making mistakes would wad up a small piece of bread and moisten it ever so slightly. The resulting ball of dough erased pencil marks on paper almost as well as those pink creations found on the end of No. 2 pencils today.
But in 1770, English chemist Joseph Priestly (best known for discovering oxygen) wrote about “a substance excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the marks of a black lead pencil.” This substance, then known as caoutchouc, was so perfect for “rubbing” out pencil marks that it soon became known simply as “rubber.” Even today, people in the U.K. still refer to erasers as “rubbers.” (The name “lead-eater” never quite caught on.)
Canned Food Was Invented Before the Can Opener
On January 5, 1858, Ezra J. Warner of Connecticut invented the can opener. The device was a long time coming: Frenchman Nicolas Appert had developed the canning process in the early 1800s in response to a 12,000-franc prize the French government offered to anyone who could come up with a practical method of preserving food for Napoleon’s army. Appert devised a process for sterilizing food by half-cooking it, storing it in glass bottles, and immersing the bottles in boiling water, and he claimed the award in 1810. Later the same year, Englishman Peter Durand received the first patent for preserving food in actual tin cans — which is to say, canned food predates the can opener by nearly half a century.
Though he didn’t initially know why his method of storing food in glass jars and heating them worked, years of experimentation led Appert to rightly conclude that “the absolute deprivation from contact with the exterior air” and “application of the heat in the water-bath” were key. He later switched to working with cans himself. Before Warner’s invention, cans were opened with a hammer and chisel — a far more time-consuming approach than the gadgets we’re used to. Warner’s tool (employed by soldiers during the Civil War) wasn’t a perfect replacement, however: It used a series of blades to puncture and then saw off the top of a can, leaving a dangerously jagged edge. As for the hand-crank can opener most commonly used today, that wasn’t invented until 1925.
How many of you still have a P-38?....Skip I still have one on one of my Key rings
The Stick Has Been Inducted Into the National Toy Hall of Fame
From teddy bears to train sets, classic playthings of youth often conjure memories of a gleaming toy store, holidays, or birthdays. So curators at the Strong National Museum of Play branched out when they added the stick to their collection of all-time beloved toys. Among the most versatile amusements, sticks have inspired central equipment in several sports, including baseball, hockey, lacrosse, fencing, cricket, fishing, and pool. Humble twigs are also ready-made for fetch, slingshots, toasting marshmallows, and boundless make-believe.
Located in Rochester, New York — about 70 miles northeast of Fisher-Price’s headquarters — the Strong acquired the fledgling National Toy Hall of Fame in 2002. (It was previously located in the Gilbert House Children’s Museum in Salem, Oregon.) To date, 74 toys have been inducted, including Crayola Crayons, Duncan Yo-Yos, and bicycles. The stick was added in 2008, three years after another quintessential source of cheap childhood delight: the cardboard box.
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5 Fascinating Facts From Behind the Iron Curtain
KHRUSHCHEV & HOXHA, 1961
In the wake of World War II, new ideological borders were drawn across the European continent. Vast cultural and economic differences formed a deep divide between the democratic nations of Western Europe and the communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its allies in the East. Throughout the Cold War era, these two distinct factions were separated by a symbolic boundary that cut through the continent, known as the Iron Curtain. The term “Iron Curtain” was first used in reference to the Cold War in 1946; nations that were considered “behind” the Iron Curtain were those under Soviet and communist influence, as those regimes maintained a firm grasp on power. As time progressed, cracks formed in the Iron Curtain as former communist nations embraced democracy, ultimately leading to the political reunification of Europe. But for as long as it existed, the Iron Curtain served as a philosophical barrier between two vastly different worlds. Here are five fascinating facts from behind the Iron Curtain.
The Term “Iron Curtain” Was Popularized by Winston Churchill
Long before the term “Iron Curtain” was coined in reference to the Cold War, the words referred to a fireproof safety mechanism that separated the audience from the stage in theatrical productions. In 1945, author Alexander Campbell borrowed the term in his book It’s Your Empire to describe censorship related to World War II-era Japanese conquests. “Iron Curtain” was first used in the context of communist Europe during a speech by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on March 5, 1946. Appearing with President Harry Truman at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Churchill stated, “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.” Churchill sought to warn the audience of the threat posed by the Soviet Union, and the term “Iron Curtain” resonated, remaining popular for decades after. Around the same time as Churchill’s speech, another great wordsmith used the phrase “Cold War” for the first time — author George Orwell in his 1945 essay “You and the Atom Bomb.” Two years later, Truman adviser Bernard Baruch formally coined the term “Cold War” to describe the cooling relationship between the United States and Soviet Union.
Poland Was the First Eastern Bloc Country to Hold Democratic Elections
For decades, communist regimes maintained uninterrupted power over the many nations of the Eastern Bloc, a group of communist states largely located in Central and Eastern Europe and parts of Asia. Dictators ruled with an iron fist thanks to the lack of fair and free elections within the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and the other countries that fell behind the Iron Curtain. That trend continued until 1989, when Poland held its first democratic elections since the Cold War began. Tadeusz Mazowiecki emerged as Eastern Europe’s first noncommunist leader in decades, representing a pro-labor party known as Solidarity. Mazowiecki embraced Western ideology such as a free-market economy, and though he was replaced as prime minister two years later, the election remains a historic event. Other former communist nations soon followed Poland’s lead; Czechoslovakia and Hungary both held their first fair multiparty elections in 1990. Not long after, the Iron Curtain disintegrated as the Soviet Union collapsed.
Albania Escaped Soviet Control and Aligned Itself With China
Albania may be firmly located in Europe, but during the Cold War it found an unlikely anti-Soviet ally in China. Beginning in 1949, Albania aligned itself with the Soviet Union, which was then still ruled by Joseph Stalin. But after Stalin’s death in 1953, Soviet-Albanian relations began to strain, as Albanian leader Enver Hoxha was much less fond of incoming Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s ideology, which rubbed Hoxha and the Albanian people the wrong way and eventually led to the formal termination of Soviet-Albanian relations in 1961. Around the same time, the U.S.S.R. and China had a falling-out of their own, as Chinese leader Mao Zedong also decried the Soviet Union’s revisionism. Given their similar pro-Stalin views, Albania and China found unlikely allies in one another, with China informally providing support to the tiny Balkan country. These strange bedfellows remained on the same page until Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, forcing Albania to reevaluate the relationship. The allyship between Albania and China came to an end in 1978.
Jazz Music Was Used as Propaganda by the West
Since its creation, jazz has represented the American identity, in part as a symbol of freedom of expression. That’s what made jazz music such a useful propaganda tool for the West to reach nations behind the Iron Curtain. Underground American radio transmissions brought jazz to residents of Eastern Bloc nations beginning in 1955 in an effort to appeal to those repressed societies. Programs such as Willis Conover’s Music USA: Jazz Hour earned cult followings within these pro-Soviet countries, as the U.S. sought to win the ideological war over its Eastern European rivals. The United States hoped that free-flowing jazz music could open the minds of citizens who were used to more formal operas and ballets, and in turn make those individuals more receptive to Western culture. Barriers were broken down even further in 1958 when jazz pianist Dave Brubeck traveled to Poland to perform a landmark concert series. These efforts extended into the Middle East, Asia, and Africa around the same time, as the U.S. spread its jazz music around the world.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall Was Partly Due to a Misinformed Spokesperson
On November 9, 1989, a gaffe uttered by East German spokesperson Günter Schabowski accelerated the fall of the Berlin Wall. After decades of difficult and dangerous travel between East and West Germany, East German officials sought to loosen restrictions while still maintaining control over the visa application process. However, Schabowski, a spokesperson for East Germany’s politbüro, misinterpreted the notes he was given at a press conference and claimed that travel between the two sides could begin without delay. Shortly after the televised slipup, massive crowds gathered at the Berlin Wall, though these groups of travelers initially were held back by guards who were given no specific instructions. Eventually, East Berliners outnumbered the guards to a significant degree, leaving officials no choice but to let people through. Every one of the checkpoints opened by midnight, as people from the East freely traveled into West Berlin for the first time since the wall was erected in 1961. The feeling of independence and celebration was palpable, as East Berliners climbed the wall, destroyed it with hammers, and reunited with their neighbors in West Berlin.
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Thanks to B rett
The 2020s and Its Historic Shift: Japan’s Evolution
By: George Friedman
In “The Next 100 Years,” I asserted that Japan was the third and least absurd nation that would begin to emerge as a major power in the 2020s. It was the least absurd because it had become the second largest economy in the world after World War II, behind only the United States, only to be overtaken by China in 2010 and by Germany more recently. Yet Japan was – by choice – a fairly weak military power.
The end of World War II introduced a fundamental change in Japanese culture. Japan entered its role in the conflict in 1931 when it invaded the Chinese region of Manchuria. By 1937, Japan expanded its presence in China and, in time, attacked other Asian nations. The reason for the attacks was economic. Japan lacked the natural resources needed to build a modern economy, so it had to import oil, steel and various other minerals from abroad. This put Japan in a vulnerable position: If any of the countries Tokyo patronized were conquered by another power or were otherwise unable to supply materials for any reason, the Japanese economy would be profoundly undermined. To Japanese leaders, wars of conquest were geopolitically essential, even if a third power like the United States intervened.
Apart from geopolitical interest, Japanese culture celebrated the warrior as the noblest of men, war as the noblest undertaking, and dying in a war as the noblest act. This was a case in which geopolitical imperatives and cultural norms aligned. Japan needed to guarantee the flow of natural resources, and the culture embraced war as leading to inevitable victory and moral virtue.
The United States' defeat of Japan had two effects on Japan. First, having lost the war, its economy and military crushed, Japan was left impoverished and powerless. Many countries have suffered this fate, of course, but in Japan, the defeat led to cultural devastation as well. Being beaten and occupied forced a radical transformation of the nation’s very nature. In an extraordinary shift, Japan reversed its values. It adopted a culture of pacifism. Whereas merchants had once ranked below the warrior, businessmen were now at the top of the pecking order. They saw the military as something that was morally repulsive. And with the hatred of war as a new moral principle, Japan could not become a significant power, even if it had wanted to.
But by 2009, when I published “The Next Hundred Years,” Japan had reluctantly begun to rebuild its military, albeit to an extremely limited extent, even when Washington demanded it rearm as West Germany had. Indeed, Tokyo did as little as the U.S. could tolerate, all while it grew to be an economic powerhouse through massive exports to the U.S. Some even referred to the damage this inflicted on the U.S. auto industry as “Japan’s revenge.”
In other words, Japan’s economy was humming, and there was a general consensus that its aversion to war and the deliberate dilapidation of its military meant that rearming and reemerging as a military power was impossible. My own view was that, regardless of cultural norms, Japan’s economic power could always be overcome by reality. The death of Mao in 1976 opened the door to China’s economic growth. In 1989, the Japanese economy entered a period of crisis, and by 2010, the Chinese economy had become larger than Japan’s. China had become Japan’s economic equal in size (if not in per capita income) and was rapidly developing a military force.
Tokyo modestly increased military spending, mostly because of U.S. pressure. My analysis at the time was that the culture would change again near the middle of the decade for two reasons. The first was that Japan would come to see the U.S. as having become much more cautious in its military obligations to other nations, and that Japan would feel increasingly vulnerable to Chinese economic and military power. The second reason was that the generation that had experienced the humiliations of World War II would have passed away, and the reflexive hatred of all things martial would do the same.
My theory then and now is that culture and ideology are both overridden by geopolitical reality. And the reality is that Chinese economic and military power will continue to rise, and as the U.S. reduces its appetite for foreign conflicts, Japan will have no option but to beef up its military. In fact, it’s already started. Already, it’s the 10th largest military in the world, and the government has said it will double the size of its military budget by 2027. (The announcement was met with little political or cultural resistance.)
Japan will not return to the pacifist culture it adopted in 1945. The growth of the Japanese defense system will be based on missiles, drones, satellites, advanced naval vessels and so on, backed by a rapidly growing defense industry. Given the evolution of U.S. foreign and military policy, Japan has no choice but to increase its military power; the geopolitical model of morality is that there is nothing worse than a country being rich and weak. Therefore, I feel comfortable that my predictions concerning Poland, Turkey and Japan are reasonably accurate, and that all three are emerging as major regional powers.
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This Day in U S Military History
September 22
Feast Day of St. Maurice, Patron Saint of Infantry: Maurice was an officer of the Theban Legion of Emperor Maximian Herculius’ army, which was composed of Christians from Upper Egypt. He and his fellow legionnaires refused to sacrifice to the gods as ordered by the Emperor to insure victory over rebelling Bagaudae. When they refused to obey repeated orders to do so and withdrew from the army encamped at Octodurum (Martigny) near Lake Geneva to Agaunum (St. Maurice-en-Valais), Maximian had the entire Legion of over six thousand men put to death. To the end they were encouraged in their constancy by Maurice and two fellow officers, Exuperius and Candidus. Also executed was Victor (October 10th), who refused to accept any of the belongings of the dead soldiers. In a follow-up action, other Christians put to death were Ursus and another Victor at Solothurin (September 30th); Alexander at Bergamo; Octavius, Innocent, Adventor, and Solutar at Turin; and Gereon (October 10th) at Cologne.
1554 – Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez, his health badly deteriorated from injuries and the toll of his strenuous travels, dies. He never found the fabled cities of gold that he had sought for decades. A quarter-century earlier Coronado had explored much of the southwestern United States, leading his force of 300 Spaniards and 800 Indians northward from Mexico in search of the Seven Cities of CÃbola that were rumored to have walls made of gold and treasure houses filled with priceless gems. Arriving in the region that today straddles the border between New Mexico and Arizona, Coronado did actually find CÃbola. But after winning a brief battle against the native defenders, Coronado discovered he had conquered only a modest Zuni village built with walls of adobe mud, not gold. Discouraged, Coronado considered abandoning his search. But while exploring the Rio Grande one of his lieutenants had acquired a slave, a man the Spaniards called “the Turk,” who boasted that in his homeland of Quivara, far to the northeast, Coronado could find all the treasures after which he lusted. Coronado set off in search of Quivara in the spring of 1541, eventually traveling across the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and up into Kansas. But when he finally made contact with the Quivara Indians, Coronado was once again disappointed to find that they were living in simple huts and had no more gold and silver than the Zunis. After strangling the Turk for having lied to him, Coronado gave up and returned to Mexico where he faced a government furious that he had not brought back the wealth he had promised. Coronado never again mounted another exploratory mission and died believing that he had been a shameful failure. But while he never found the golden cities he sought, Coronado did succeed in giving the Spanish and the rest of the world their first fairly accurate understanding of the inhabitants and geography of the southern half of the present United States.
1776 – In New York City, Nathan Hale, a Connecticut schoolteacher and captain in the Continental Army, is executed by the British for spying. A graduate of Yale University, Hale joined a Connecticut regiment in 1775 and served in the successful siege of British-occupied Boston. In the summer of 1776, he crossed behind British lines on Long Island in civilian clothes to spy on the British. While returning with the intelligence information, British soldiers captured Hale near the American lines and charged him with espionage. Taken to New York, he was hanged without trial the next day. Before being executed, legend holds that Hale said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” There is no historical record to prove that Hale actually made this statement, but if he did he may have been inspired by the lines in English author Joseph Addison’s 1713 play Cato: “What a pity it is/That we can die but once to serve our country.”
1862 – Motivated by his growing concern for the inhumanity of slavery as well as practical political concerns, President Abraham Lincoln changes the course of the war and American history by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Announced a week after the nominal Union victory at the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), this measure did not technically free any slaves, but it redefined the Union’s war aim from reunification to the abolition of slavery. The proclamation announced that all slaves in territory that was still in rebellion as of January 1,
1863, would be free. Lincoln used vacated congressional seats to determine the areas still in rebellion, as some parts of the South had already been recaptured and representatives returned to Congress under Union supervision. Since it freed slaves only in Rebel areas that were beyond Union occupation, the Emancipation Proclamation really freed no one. But the measure was still one of the most important acts in American history, as it meant slavery would end when those areas were recaptured. In addition, the proclamation effectively sabotaged Confederate attempts to secure recognition by foreign governments, especially Great Britain. When reunification was the goal of the North, foreigners could view the Confederates as freedom fighters being held against their will by the Union. But after the Emancipation Proclamation, the Southern cause was now viewed as the defense of slavery. The proclamation was a shrewd maneuver by Lincoln to brand the Confederate States as a slave nation and render foreign aid impossible. The measure was met by a good deal of opposition, because many Northerners were unwilling to fight for the freedom of blacks. But it spelled the death knell for slavery, and it had the effect on British opinion that Lincoln had desired. Antislavery Britain could no longer recognize the Confederacy, and Union sentiment swelled in Britain. With this measure, Lincoln effectively isolated the Confederacy and killed the institution that was the root of sectional differences.
2006 – The U.S. military officially retires the F-14 Tomcat having been supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E and F Super Hornets. The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is a fourth-generation, supersonic, twinjet, two-seat, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy’s Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program following the collapse of the F-111B project. The F-14 was the first of the American teen-series fighters, which were designed incorporating the experience of air combat against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War. The F-14 first flew in December 1970 and made its first deployment in 1974 with the U.S. Navy aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), replacing the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The F-14 served as the U.S. Navy’s primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor and tactical reconnaissance platform. In the 1990s, it added the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod system and began performing precision ground-attack missions. As of 2014, the F-14 was in service with only the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, having been exported to Iran in 1976, when the U.S. had amicable diplomatic relations with Iran.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
BLOCH, ORVILLE EMIL
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company E, 338th Infantry, 85th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Firenzuola, Italy, 22 September 1944. Entered service at: Streeter, N. Dak. Birth: Big Falls, Wis. G.O. No.: 9, 10 February 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. 1st Lt. Bloch undertook the task of wiping out 5 enemy machinegun nests that had held up the advance in that particular sector for 1 day. Gathering 3 volunteers from his platoon, the patrol snaked their way to a big rock, behind which a group of 3 buildings and 5 machinegun nests were located. Leaving the 3 men behind the rock, he attacked the first machinegun nest alone charging into furious automatic fire, kicking over the machinegun, and capturing the machinegun crew of 5. Pulling the pin from a grenade, he held it ready in his hand and dashed into the face of withering automatic fire toward this second enemy machinegun nest located at the corner of an adjacent building 15 yards distant. When within 20 feet of the machinegun he hurled the grenade, wounding the machinegunner, the other 2 members of the crew fleeing into a door of the house. Calling one of his volunteer group to accompany him, they advanced to the opposite end of the house, there contacting a machinegun crew of 5 running toward this house. 1st Lt Bloch and his men opened fire on the enemy crew, forcing them to abandon this machinegun and ammunition and flee into the same house. Without a moment’s hesitation, 1st Lt. Bloch, unassisted, rushed through the door into a hail of small-arms fire, firing his carbine from the hip, and captured the 7 occupants, wounding 3 of them. 1st Lt. Bloch with his men then proceeded to a third house where they discovered an abandoned enemy machinegun and detected another enemy machinegun nest at the next corner of the building. The crew of 6 spotted 1st Lt. Bloch the instant he saw them. Without a moment’s hesitation he dashed toward them. The enemy fired pistols wildly in his direction and vanished through a door of the house, 1st Lt. Bloch following them through the door, firing his carbine from the hip, wounding 2 of the enemy and capturing 6. Altogether 1st Lt. Bloch had single-handedly captured 19 prisoners, wounding 6 of them and eliminating a total of 5 enemy machinegun nests. His gallant and heroic actions saved his company many casualties and permitted them to continue the attack with new inspiration and vigor.
CHILDERS, ERNEST
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 45th Infantry Division. Place and date: At Oliveto, Italy, 22 September 1943. Entered service at: Tulsa, Okla. Birth: Broken Arrow, Okla. G.O. No.: 30, 8 April 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in action on 22 September 1943, at Oliveto, Italy. Although 2d Lt. Childers previously had just suffered a fractured instep he, with 8 enlisted men, advanced up a hill toward enemy machinegun nests. The group advanced to a rock wall overlooking a cornfield and 2d Lt. Childers ordered a base of fire laid across the field so that he could advance. When he was fired upon by 2 enemy snipers from a nearby house he killed both of them. He moved behind the machinegun nests and killed all occupants of the nearer one. He continued toward the second one and threw rocks into it. When the 2 occupants of the nest raised up, he shot 1. The other was killed by 1 of the 8 enlisted men. 2d Lt. Childers continued his advance toward a house farther up the hill, and single-handed, captured an enemy mortar observer. The exceptional leadership, initiative, calmness under fire, and conspicuous gallantry displayed by 2d Lt. Childers were an inspiration to his men.
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Seattle Times
September 17, 2013
After Long Wait, Seattle Man Gets Highest Military Honor
Seattle resident and former Army Capt. William Swenson is to receive, belatedly, the Medal of Honor, the nation?s top military award, for gallantry in Afghanistan in 2009. For reasons not entirely clear, the military lost his original nomination papers.
By Lesley Clark, McClatchy Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — President Obama next month will bestow the nation’s highest military award for gallantry to former Army Capt. William Swenson for valor he displayed during a six-hour battle in eastern Afghanistan in 2009.
Swenson, who lives in Seattle, will become the sixth living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.
He couldn’t be reached for comment Monday, but an Army release quoted him as saying, after receiving word directly from Obama: “It’s a monumental event for me, for my family and for my teammates. This day also means lot to those I served with.”
A White House official said that Swenson and his family will join Obama at the White House on Oct. 15 “to commemorate his example of selfless service.”
Swenson’s nomination had been stalled since at least last summer, prompting a California congressman in January to ask the Army and the Defense Department to explain the delay. Obama awarded then-Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer the Medal of Honor in September 2011 for heroism in the same battle for which Swenson was nominated.
Swenson is the first living Army officer nominated for the Medal of Honor in four decades. He resigned from the service in February 2011.
He was nominated for gallantry in the Sept. 8, 2009, battle of the Ganjgal Valley, one of the most extraordinary military confrontations of the post-9/11 wars, a six-hour clash that erupted when some 50 to 60 Taliban-led insurgents ambushed a contingent of Afghan troops, border police and U.S. trainers.
Five American and nine Afghan service personnel and an Afghan translator died; 24 Afghans and four Americans, including Swenson and Meyer, were wounded. In addition to the two Medal of Honor nominations, participants received a slew of other commendations. Moreover, two Army officers received reprimands for dereliction of duty for spurning calls by Swenson and others for artillery and air support.
According to a draft Army narrative obtained by McClatchy Newspapers, Swenson — an adviser to the Afghan Border Police — was cited for helping to extricate the force despite the lack of air or artillery support. He repeatedly drove back to the ambush site under heavy fire to recover Afghan and U.S. casualties. He was joined by Meyer, two other Marines and an Afghan translator in a final foray to retrieve the bodies of three Marines and a Navy corpsman.
Swenson was first nominated on Dec. 18, 2009. However, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, had to resubmit Swenson’s papers in July 2011 after they were “lost” in what the Army later claimed was a bureaucratic foul-up partly due to high staff turnover at U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, or USFOR-A, the American contingent in NATO’s International Security and Assistance Force.
A McClatchy investigation published Aug. 6, 2012, found that an internal U.S. military probe uncovered U.S. Army PowerPoint briefing slides showing that Swenson’s nomination was improperly downgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross after his papers arrived at USFOR-A headquarters in Kabul on May 19, 2010. That nomination then was sent for approval to U.S. Central Command, in Tampa, Fla., according to the slides.
Moreover, military investigators failed to find any trace of Swenson’s Medal of Honor packet — typically comprising a draft citation, a draft narrative and dozens of digitized documents supporting the nomination “or any other award” for Swenson — on any computers except for a tiny excerpt on a classified computer network.
The period in which the slides showed the downgrade taking place corresponded with the second month of now-retired Army Gen. David Petraeus’ stint as the commander of ISAF and USFOR-A. Petraeus, who resigned as CIA director on Nov. 9, told McClatchy in August that he had “no recollection of seeing this packet.”
The White House noted Swenson’s military decorations include: Bronze Star Medal with Two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart, Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal with One Campaign Star, Iraq Campaign Medal with Two Campaign Stars, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Combat Infantryman Badge, Ranger Tab and Parachutist Badge.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 22, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
22 September
1943: Due to heavy losses in daylight raids, Eighth Air Force B-17s flew in a night raid on Germany with the RAF for the first time. (21)
1944: The last shuttle mission between UK and Soviet Union, with return through Italy, ended when 84 B-17s and 51 P-51s returned to the UK. (4)
1947: A USAF C-54 flew 2,400 miles from Stephenville, Newfoundland, to London on the first transatlantic robot-controlled flight. (24)
1949: Convair's T-29 Flying Schoolroom made its first flight. It provided navigator training at 14 stations. (12)
1950: Operation FOX ABLE FOUR. Col David C. Schilling completed the first nonstop flight of the Atlantic by jet when he landed his Republic F-84E Thunderjet at Limestone AFB. He flew 3,300 miles from England in 10 hours 1 minute. His wingman, Lt Col William Ritchie, bailed out over Newfoundland and was rescued. This operation tested probe and drogue refueling from a B-29 as a method to increase the range of fighters. (18) (21) KOREAN WAR. With N. Korean resistance crumbling all along the Pusan perimeter, Lt George W. Nelson, a T-6 Mosquito pilot, dropped a note to 200 enemy troops near Kunsan demanding their surrender. They moved to a designated hill and were captured by nearby UN ground troops. B-29s dropped flares over rail lines, allowing B-26s to attack enemy trains at night. (28)
1980: Exercise BUSY PRAIRIE. 1980: Earlier in the year, SAC formed a Strategic Projection Force (SPF) with B-52H, KC-135, U-2, SR-71, RC-135, EC-135, and E-3A aircraft for the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. Through 25 September, SAC used the SPF for the first time in an exercise. To prepare the SPF units for this mission, SAC initiated a no-notice exercise in late September 1980. In the exercise, Minot deployed its B-52Hs to a forward operating base at Whiteman AFB and forward operations were simulated at Grand Forks AFB. Mobility teams were quick to establish a “bare bones” support base at Whiteman. Support crews subsequently launched sixty-eight sorties in three nights. The objective was to attack three simulated airfields on the Red Flag range near Nellis AFB, Nev. The crews used low-altitude penetration to bomb targets while under simulated attack by various ground threats and aggressor aircraft. (Image of BP II)
1986: Two C-5s carried a record of 174,185 pounds of cargo to the Philippines. (16)
1987: A F-14 of Navy VF-74, based on the USS Saratoga, accidentally shot down an USAF RF-4C from the 26 TRW at Zweibrucken AB, Germany, during NATO exercise Display Determination over the Mediterranean. The Navy believed this was the first time that a Navy jet had shot down a friendly aircraft.
1993: The first B-2 (#80329), called ACC-1 and later Spirit of Missouri, made its first flight from Palmdale. (15)
2005: From Vandenberg AFB, a Minotaur rocket carried a 920-pound DARPA military research satellite into a year long orbit to gather information about the Earth’s environment in low orbit. The Minotaur rocket was made from decommissioned first and second stages of a Minuteman II missile. (AFNEWS Article, “Research Rocket Lights Up Sky,” 23 September 2005)
Night launches at Vandenberg were very exciting. They were not done very often and when one blew up it was spectacular….Skip
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Last week I received a copy of a new book on CAG Stockdale from his second oldest son, Sid. The book is a personal bio/memoir written by CAG himself, and estimated to have been written sometime between 1999 and 2002 - before the full progression of CAG's Alzheimer set in and his death in 2005. It was nearly lost forever, but Sid found it on his dad's old computer hard-drive around 2010 or so and stashed it away. He then forgot about it until 2022 when the Stockdale Center contacted him with some questions about CAG's early ship assignments. That's when it was recognized that the memoir/bio was of historical significance and it was turned into a book.
Sid and I struck up a friendship when I worked for the Padres and I would have CAG's widow, Sybil, out for some of the Padres Military Sunday games each season in the owner's suite - while she was still able to attend games. She loved baseball. Sid would sometimes accompany her for a game. Sid now lives in Utah and we have kept in touch over the years.
Back to the book, it's simply titled CAG, because that is what the Admiral was known as and called by the POWs in prison and even after our return. It was a title of honor and respect, which he appreciated. I found the book fascinating and informative - almost like actually '"listening" to CAG tell his story in person. It's a great addition for any library of books and articles on the Vietnam POW experience. I highly recommend it.
The book is now available on Amazon - just type in CAG Stockdale Book
Fingers
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MY TURN IN THE BARREL
Before I get into it… I had two emails last night, one from Dan McMahon and another
from Don Cuneo. Dan tells me that it was the 7 th Marines that sent the relief company and he is correct… I wasn’t sure. He also told a great anecdote that I will share with everyone later… I think it says a lot about the men of Delta.
Cuneo sent a note in response to a personal email about Hartley and my thoughts about Blackjack’s decisions… Don wrote me his thoughts and included what I think is a very insightful and eloquent statement… that kinda sums it up for all of us… I paraphrase, “I find it difficult to blame any individual for what happened… none of us knew what to do”. I couldn’t agree more… none of us did know what to do… Those of us in the lower ranks and at the company level were mostly reactive to the situations presented to us…
Shit would happen and we reacted to it…
But I have some real heartache… that I haven’t yet gotten over… for over thirty years
about the higher ranks… Because at some level… Someone… was supposed to know
what to do! When I get to the end of this thing, I will share with you the thoughts of Col.
John Verdi (one of my fellow Marine Corps Aviator friends), which I think goes right to
the heart of the issue of… blame… I think you’ll find it most interesting.
The next day… After Delta and Bravo returned… The Battalion Base Camp took on an
eerie quietness and calm… Not a lot of activity… and those moving about seemed to do
so quietly and stoically. I guess in today’s terminology… everyone was decompressing. I
think a lot of us were in some deep thought about the whole thing… this had been a
real… “No Shit”… ass kicking thing. A true life and death situation… where good men
died… and others… had to reach deep within themselves to summon the courage to
Survive.
It took the collective efforts of many… Beginning with the young Marines on the
ground… as well as the often heroic efforts of others… like the helicopter crews that flew into the teeth of intense ground fire… to kick out water, ammunition and medicines… to keep the effort alive and stave off what some thought would be the inevitable… the eventual, annihilation of Bravo and Delta. Those young men on the ground were heroes… But there was a team… backing them up… and doing everything they could to help.
Those in the effort had no thoughts or motivation of politics or patriotism or self-
aggrandizement… There was no invoking of some greater call… It was the very simple
and real manifestation of our code… Semper Fidelis (always faithful)… especially to our
own fellow Marines and Corpsmen, that motivated them to do what they did. I was… and I am today… proud of everyone who took part.
2 There seemed to be an awful lot of reflections going on out there that day… a lot of quiet conversations… and none of the brash and vociferous celebrations, I find so revolting in modern athletics… and pseudo military movies like Top Gun... This was deep stuff. Along about noon we had a storm come up and wet the area down. It was one of those storms that dropped the temperature a few degrees… and made one feel cold over there… even though it was still above 80. In the afternoon, after it let up, people starting coming out of their two man tents and got together in small groups to continue their quiet talks. I had walked over to the CP tent area, on the south side of the hill. A new Corpsman had just been dropped off by helo and was going to be sent out to Bravo or Delta to replace one of the Corpsmen who had been killed or wounded in the ambush. Everything about the guy was brand new… His own self to begin with (an FNG)… then his Unit One, his boots, his utilities, his helmet… everything… new and bright and shiny green. He obviously had just arrived in country… He was as pale as a corpse.
At the top of the hill, we had erected a RR-292 antenna, for long-range radio
communications. Two of our Comm. Center guys… Dempsy and Lapinski had pitched a
hooch near it. They and three other guys had decided to heat up some hot chocolate to
take the edge off the chill we were all feeling from the storm. After warming it up, they were standing near the base of the antenna and talking… When an NVA fired a recoilless round right at them… I assume using the antenna as an aiming
stake, because the round hit right in front of them… and all five were hit by the one
round.
The fire had come from northeast of the base camp. I assume from the hills in that
direction. As soon as the round hit, there were immediate shouts of “Incoming,
incoming”… Followed by cries of “Corpsman! Corpsman!” I looked down at the replacement and said, “Hey man, they need you… You gotta go”. Just then a second round went off and he began literally shaking… He looked up at me and said, “I can’t… I’ve got kids”. It was the first time I’d actually seen anyone freeze in such a situation… I’d seen people hesitate… but nothing like this. After the previous four
days, I reacted angrily… I looked down at him and said something like, “You
chickenshit, motherfucker”… grabbed his Unit One and took off over the hill.
As I came over the top of the hill I could just see them splayed out on the ground by the
antenna… when a round went off right in front of me… I had been running and the
concussion knocked me off my feet, when I hit the ground the breath went out of me. It
took me a second or two to get moving again. When I got to them, all of them had been
hit from the buttocks down. Three below the knees… Dempsey a little higher up and
Lapinski had his right butt cheek, opened up like a rump roast. I’ve thought about this and believe Ski and Dempsey must have been the farthest from the round when it hit… Being a point fire weapon, most of the shrapnel travels forward
3
and up from point of impact. Since no one was hit any higher than their ass… The round
must have hit right in front of them, real close.
I was trying to figure out what to do… when the shooter helped me make up my mind,
real quick… Another round went right over our heads about five feet. I saw a hole and
started dragging them to it as quick as I could. Six men won’t fit in a two-man hole… but
four did… Ski and I were lying alongside. All of them were complaining about the pain. I
tore open the Unit One and gave each a shot of morphine. Ski was particularly hurting
and kept trying to roll over… I told him he couldn’t, that dirt would get in the wound. He
then asked me how bad he was hit…
I leaned over him and looked at his wound… His butt had been opened up like someone had taken a scalpel to it… A lot of blood from the initial hit and the usual capillary action associated with his heart beat… It was ugly, but certainly didn’t look fatal. I told Ski he was going to be all right. Then the shooter reminds us he’s still there, with another round.
One of the guys in the hole says, “Jesus, he’s still shooting at us”!
I had run out of morphine and ideas when of all people, the SgtMaj comes running over
the hill and throws another Unit One to me just as another round went off. I knew we had no choice… If we stayed there any longer this asshole might find the range again and nail us for good. I grabbed Lapinski and said we have to get out of here… I threw him over my shoulder and walked/ran over the hill. I dropped him off at the CP tent and went back for the others. Dempsey was next and was able to skip on one leg as I held up his other side. When I got him out of the hole, this little Mexican guy comes rushing up and says he’ll get one of the others. He drug him off in a different direction… By the time I came back the third time, he and someone else had removed the last two from harm’s way.
Thank God… I was spent. I turned and went back to Lapinski.
Ski was still very agitated… I started to try and put a Field Compress on him when Father O’Massey comes sliding up to us, like Pete Rose going into second. He takes one look at Ski… Pulls out this cloth that he hung over his neck and shoulders… takes out the Good Book… and starts giving Lapinski… “Last Rites”.
I wish I had a video of what happened next… Lapinski had been flat on his stomach…
He raises up on his elbows and looks over his shoulder at Father O’Massey… “What are you doing”? Father O’Massy says, “I’m giving you Last Rites my son”. Lapinski twists around and looks at me and says, almost hysterically, “You told me I was going to be all right”! I looked at him and said, “You are Ski… He does this for everybody… It’s just a precaution”. He turns back around to Fatter O’Massey and screams… “Get the fuck away from me Father… I don’t need that… Stafford says I’m going to be all right”!
Father O’Massey reared back as if in shock… cocks his head and looks at Ski and says,
“Fuck you Lapinski… I’m going to someone who appreciates me”. With that he gave me
a wink and left.
4
Over the years, I’ve often thought that one L/Cpl Lapinski… showed more faith in my
judgment… than any other man… I’ve ever known.
It was almost dark when we called for a medevac… Besides the five, we had other
wounded as well. We moved them on the east side of the hill to wait for the helos. I told
them they were on the way. Someone had brought a radio to the LZ. I could just make out the rotating beacon on the helos, I told the guys I could see them coming and it wouldn’t be long before they arrived… when we heard a “Save A Plane” issued over the radio. Save A Plane was a warning for low flying aircraft and helicopters that a fire mission was under way and not to fly into the zone of fire… I expected the helicopters to turn around or orbit… but they kept on coming. As they got between us and Cam Lo, someone shouted out, “There they are”. Everyone turned to look… Ski is on a stretcher on his belly… he props himself up… just in time to see the lead helicopter take a direct hit from an artillery round. It just disintegrated! A ball of fire… and a million golden sparkles… falling like a slow rain… it was completely burnt up before it hit the ground. (Every time I see those golden sparkle fireworks on the 4 th of July, I’m reminded of it… Looked exactly like that.)
Lapinski, like the rest of us was stunned… He dropped back down and muttered, “Now
I’ll never get out of this fucking place”. He then reaches for me and said, “Oh, God, I’m
sorry I said that”. He had just realized that at least 3 or 4 men had died… trying to save
him and the others.
Eventually we got helos in and we loaded Lapinski first, followed by the others… As we
were putting Dempsey on board he grabbed me and told me that he had $500 dollars in
MPC in his trousers… (I’d ripped them up checking his wounds when we were at the
hole) He asked me to find them and get it and send it to him wherever he was going to
be... I told him, “Sure, no problem”.
The next morning I found his trousers… There was no money in them… Someone either had stolen it… or he had been mistaken… Regardless… I’ve often wondered if Dempsey still thinks I owe him $500 dollars?
Neither Lapinski or Dempsey ever returned to the Battalion… So I assume their wounds
required stateside treatment… I hope they’ve had good lives.
I’ll have more on this tomorrow and how badly I feel about what I did to the Corpsman, I
was an asshole.
More tomorrow… Shadow
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