Wednesday, August 12, 2026

TheList 7623

7623

Good Wednesday morning August  12, 2026 ... My son got home late yesterday after flying to Texas from Germany and then home to Idaho and is now home with his girls. We are thankful and overjoyed that he is home safe and will get the medical care he will need.

It is supposed to start clearing around 8 and heating up again this morning to 86 around 3 and then dropping off to 75 at sunset.

Thanks to many of you for the good wishes you have sent it was much appreciated.
Regards,
Skip

Thanks to Billy. Our condolences to “Lightning” Pete Phelps for his loss
OK, it isn’t quite the 12th, but we leave early t’morrow heading to Alpine, CA (just a bit east of San Diego).  We are going to shoulder our pal, Pete Phelps (we mentioned Pat’s having recently ‘Gone West’).

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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 100 H-Grams  (99 is still in work)

This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
August 12

1898 USS Mohican and USS Philadelphia (C 4) crew members take part in official ceremonies marking the assumption of sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States.

1918 The Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels approves the acceptance of women in the Marine Corps. The following day, Aug. 13, Opha M. Johnson becomes the first woman Marine.

1942 USS Cleveland (CL 55) demonstrates the effectiveness of radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying three drones with proximity bursts fired by her five inch guns.

1944 USS Pompon (SS 267) and USS Puffer (SS 268) attack Japanese convoys and damage and sink Japanese destroyers.

1957 The first test of the Automatic Carrier Landing System is completed by Lt. Cmdr. Don Walker when he lands a F3D Skyknight on board USS Antietam (CV 36).

1988 USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) is commissioned at New York City. The cruiser is the third ship named after naval battle in a New York lake where Commodore Thomas McDonough defeated a larger and more heavily armed British squadron Sept. 11, 1814.

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Today in World History August 12

0030 Cleopatra VII, Queen of Egypt, commits suicide.

1099 At the Battle of Ascalon 1,000 Crusaders, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, route an Egyptian relief column heading for Jerusalem, which had already fallen to the Crusaders.

1687 At the Battle of Mohacs, Hungary, Charles of Lorraine defeats the Turks.

1762 The British capture Cuba from Spain after a two month siege.

1791 Black slaves on the island of Santo Domingo rise up against their white masters.

1812 British commander the Duke of Wellington occupies Madrid, Spain, forcing out Joseph Bonaparte.

1863 Confederate raider William Quantrill leads a massacre of 150 men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

1864 After a week of heavy raiding, the Confederate cruiser Tallahassee claims six Union ships captured.

1896 Gold is discovered near Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada. After word reaches the United States in June of 1897, thousands of Americans head to the Klondike to seek their fortunes.

1898 The Spanish American War officially ends after three months and 22 days of hostilities.

1908 Henry Ford's first Model T rolls off the assembly line.

1922 The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. is dedicated as a memorial.

1935 President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Social Security Bill.

1941 French Marshal Henri Philippe Petain announces full French collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1961 The erection of the Berlin Wall begins, preventing access between East and West Germany.

1969 American installations at Quan-Loi, Vietnam, come under Viet Cong attack.

1972 As U.S. troops leave Vietnam, B-52's make their largest strike of the war.

1977 Steven Biko, leader of the black consciousness movement in South Africa, is arrested.

1977 Space shuttle Enterprise makes its first free flight and landing.

1978 Tel al-Zaatar massacre at Palestinian refugee camp during Lebanese Civil War.

1979 Massive book burnings by press censors begin in Iran.

1981 Computer giant IBM introduces its first personal computer.

1985 Highest in-flight death toll as 520 die when  Japan Airlines Flight 123  crashes into Mount Takamagahara.

1992 The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is concluded between the United States, Canada and Mexico, creating the world's wealthiest trade bloc.

2000 Russian Navy submarine K-141 Kursk explodes and sinks with all hands during military exercises in the Barents Sea.

2005 An LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) sniper mortally wounds Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, at the minister's home.

2012 Summer Olympics come to a close in London

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. 81 years ago In August of 1942 The battle for Guadalcanal was in full swing. With Admiral Cox and his H-Grams and some inputs from  Ed Beakley’s  Remembered Sky after the H-gram  this is a start to look back to how the US Navy’s Aircraft Carrier became what it is today.
Guadalcanal H-grams
H-Gram 009 provides an overview of the Battle of Guadalcanal and the first major night surface action, the Battle of Savo Island. The U.S. Marine Corps landings on Guadalcanal on 7 August 1942 caught the Japanese completely by surprise, with minimal resistance on Guadalcanal itself and only spirited but short resistance on islands near Tulagi (across what would become known as “Ironbottom Sound”) from Guadalcanal. The Marines captured the unfinished airfield on Guadalcanal, which would be subsequently finished and named Henderson Field and then would become the objective of the fierce and bloody battles ashore, at sea, and in the air.
During the course of the Guadalcanal campaign, the U.S. would lose two aircraft carriers (Wasp and Hornet—CV-8), five U.S. (and one Australian) heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, 15 destroyers, and numerous other smaller vessels—plus extensive damage to many more ships. The U.S. Navy and Marines would lose about 400 aircraft during the course of the campaign. At sea, the Japanese navy actually lost somewhat fewer personnel than the United States—about 3,800 men—but more than 7,000 Japanese army troops would go down with sunken troop transports, and more than 20,000 would be lost on the island itself. The Imperial Japanese Navy would lose two battleships and a light carrier, plus two heavy cruisers and multiple destroyers. It was the loss of the two battleships that actually caused the Japanese navy to stop feeding ships into the meat grinder off Guadalcanal, in the end limiting their efforts to inadequate attempts by destroyers (the “Tokyo Express”) to resupply Japanese troops on the island. Ultimately, the Japanese executed one of the most successful deception operations of the war when they evacuated their last surviving troops from Guadalcanal in February 1943.
Although the U.S. landing caught the Japanese navy by surprise, it reacted swiftly with characteristic aggressiveness, first with land-based air attacks on 7 and 8 August, and then a night surface action on 8–9 August. This first naval action would be known as the Battle of Savo Island, and would be the worst defeat at sea suffered by the U.S. Navy in history. In what should have been an evenly matched battle between a Japanese force of five heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and a destroyer against an Allied force of four U.S. heavy cruisers, one Australian heavy cruiser, and six U.S. destroyers, the Japanese achieved tactical surprise and the result was a debacle. The heavy cruisers Astoria (CA-34), Quincy (CA-39), Vincennes (CA-44), and HMAS Canberra were sunk, with only minimal damage to the Japanese (993 U.S. and 84 Australian sailors, and 58 Japanese sailors were killed). Fortunately, the Japanese commander chose not to attack into the vulnerable U.S. troop transports and supply ships that were sitting ducks still in the act of off-loading. H-Gram 009 contains an overview of the Battle of Savo Island, and attachment H-009-1 “Defeat at Savo Island” has full detail of this disaster, termed by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest J. King as “the blackest day of the war,” most of which was kept secret from the American public during the war due to wartime censorship.

Following the defeat at Savo Island, U.S. surface forces quickly vacated the waters near Guadalcanal, followed a day later by the transports. The three supporting U.S. aircraft carriers had also moved further away due to concern for air and submarine attack. It was during this period that the myth that the U.S. Navy “abandoned” the Marines of Guadalcanal took root, when in fact the Navy was running supplies into Guadalcanal at night on four fast destroyer-transports, three of which would be lost in the process, losing more men than the Marines lost in the famous Battle of Bloody Ridge (12–14 September 1942). H-Gram 010 provides an overview of the challenges of supplying the Marines on Guadalcanal (so much so that it became known to those on the island as Operation Shoestring rather than the formal name, Operation Watchtower). This includes the sacrifice of TRANSDIV 12, plus the major Japanese navy offensive push that resulted in the carrier versus carrier action known as the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, as well as actions by Japanese submarines south of Guadalcanal.
H-Gram 010’s attachment H-010-1 “Operation Shoestring” provides additional detail on the logistics issues at Guadalcanal, as well as on the valiant fight of the destroyer-transports Gregory (APD-3) and Little (APD-4) against a much superior force of Japanese destroyers; both APD skippers were lost in the battle with their ships, as was the TRANSDIV 12 commander, Hugh Hadley. (The destroyer named in honor of Hadley—DD-774—would be heavily damaged by kamikazes at Okinawa on 10 May 1945, but in the process shoot down more than 23 Japanese aircraft, the all-time record for a single ship in a single day’s engagement.)

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
August 12
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
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..August 12
From last year
From Vietnam Air Losses site for “for 12 August    . A daring POW escape with tragic results and a ban on future escape attempts

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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Thanks to Interesting Facts
This one is personal. After my operation five years ago I developed the hiccups and there was nothing they could do to stop them for over three days. I was thinking of my father who once had them for over a month during a trip to Europe. Finally a nurse came in with a small pill and said try this one that she had received from a doctor. It worked and I wrote down the name. During a subsequent stay I developed them again and I told them to get some more for me. This was an entirely different crew and they had no idea about the medicine. Finally I had to sign a paper before I could take one because no one on the staff had any experience with it and they did not know about side effects.  it worked again
The longest case of hiccups was 68 years.

No one likes hiccups. Luckily, these involuntary spasmodic interruptions usually last only a few minutes. On rare occasions, hiccups persist for a few days, and even more rarely still they persist for longer than a month (in which case they can be considered “intractable”). Then there’s the strange case of Charles Osborne, who was afflicted with a continuous case of hiccups for 68 years — recognized by Guinness World Records as the longest case of hiccups in history. Osborne’s story began with an accident on June 13, 1922, in which he accidentally slipped and fell. His doctor later said he popped a blood vessel in his brain the size of a pin, and theorized that Osborne must have damaged the incredibly small area of the brain that controls and inhibits hiccups.
Osborne’s diaphragm spasmed 20 to 40 times a minute, on average, during his waking hours — meaning he hiccuped roughly 430 million times throughout his life. To cope with this never-before-seen disorder, Osborne learned breathing techniques that effectively masked his constant hiccuping. Later in life, Osborne appeared in magazines and on late-night television shows to talk about his ailment. In 1978, Osborne told the Associated Press that he’d “give everything I got in the world if I could get rid of them.” Although he traveled the world in search of a cure — even offering $10,000 to anyone who could find one — the best he could do was cope with the affliction. Finally, in 1990, his diaphragm suddenly ended its 68-year-long spasmodic episode on its own. Sadly, Osborne died less than a year later, but he was at least able to experience the final days of his life sans hiccups.

By the way after reading this last year Dr.Rich . came right back with a note that said Thorazine which was correct. …skip

A friend of mine was in the hospital recently and mentioned that he could not get rid of the hiccups and I told him to tell them about Thorazine and he did and they gave it to him and it worked…skip

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  From the archives
. Thanks to History Facts
Michelangelo’s David was censored by Queen Victoria.

ARTS & CULTURE
T he statue of David is among Michelangelo’s greatest masterpieces, but the sculpture isn’t without detractors. One such critic was none other than Queen Victoria, who reigned over England from 1837 until 1901, centuries after the original David was sculpted in 1504. In 1857, a plaster replica of the David was shipped to Great Britain as a gift to Victoria from Leopold II, the grand duke of Tuscany. While the queen accepted the diplomatic gesture with grace, she was, according to some anecdotal reports, left aghast by the statue’s blatant nudity. The work was sent to be displayed at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, where curators crafted a plaster fig leaf to obscure the reproductive organ that some found offensive. This leaf was attached with the help of “strategically placed hooks” that allowed it to be lowered in place in anticipation of any visits from female members of the royal family, as the statue otherwise remained uncensored. The leaf — a replica of which can still be found in the museum’s collection — was last used during the first half of the 20th century, leaving the replica of David fully nude as Michelangelo initially intended.

However, even the original David statue endured years of unceremonious censorship. Upon its unveiling in Florence in 1504, the sculpture was covered with a garland made of 28 copper leaves to cover its nakedness, and the garland remained around David’s waist until at least the mid-16th century. Concurrently, around the year 1541, the Vatican implemented a “Fig Leaf Campaign” to censor nudity in art that it deemed offensive. At first, the Catholic Church sought to cover up the naked figures in Michelangelo’s painting “The Last Judgment,” as well as similar works. Thankfully, many of these once-censored works of art have since been restored to their original condition.

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Thanksto|RGS
Airbus A350-1000 ULR makes round trip Toulouse, France to Melbourne, Australia -- over 24 hours in the air on the return trip !!

Extending the horizon: Inside the A350-1000ULR’s longest development flight
28 July 2026

Make sure to watch the video in the photo group at the bottom -- low pass and wing wave before final approach

And how about the little 737 Max 8 -- non-stop from Seattle to Madrid on a delivery flight -- 4900 NM, 10+ hours:

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Thanks to Dr. Rich
WWII air-dropped, acoustic homing torpedos,...... which sank 37 German U-boats, used an off-the shelf GE 7.5 HP washing machine motor !!

Thanks to Ed ...

"Propulsion: 7.5 hp (5.57 kW) off-the-shelf General Electric Washing Machine electric motor driving a single propeller, powered by a 48 volt lead acid battery."

Mark 24 mine

The Mark 24 mine (also known as FIDO or Fido) is an air-dropped anti-submarine (ASW) acoustic torpedo developed by the United States during World War II; it was called a mine to conceal its capabilities. The torpedo entered service with the Allies in March 1943 and was used by the United States Navy (USN) until 1948. Approximately 4,000 were produced. Of the 340 deployed during the war, 204 were fired, sinking 37 and damaging 18 Axis submarines.
...

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Thanks to RGS
Thanks to Ed R. ...

Amazing story -- outrageous treason, and bumbling investigation… Pentagon and DoJ refused to prosecute, so Germany had to try him for major US Army espionage ring .

The Ice Cold Spy Who Sold Out America
n 1990, a German court made a finding that sent shockwaves through the Western intelligence community. If the Cold War had turned hot, NATO would have been forced to choose between capitulation and launching nuclear weapons on German soil. The man responsible was not a senior official, a diplomat, or a career intelligence officer. He was a U.S. Army sergeant from Ohio named Clyde Conrad. For thirteen years, Conrad walked into one of the most sensitive offices in NATO's European command and sold its most secret war plans to the other side. By the time investigators found him, the damage was done. A German judge would describe him as standing at the top of the worldwide list of all known spies. This is the full story of Clyde Conrad — his recruitment by a Hungarian-American mole inside his own unit, the thirteen-year operation that followed, the decade-long hunt to find him, and the undercover sting that finally brought him down.
Clyde Lee Conrad
Clyde Lee Conrad (1948 – January 8, 1998) was a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who, from 1974 until his arrest on August 23, 1988, sold top secret classified information to the People's Republic of Hungary, including top secret NATO war plans. He was convicted of espionage and high treason in a German court in 1990, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
...
much more:

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Thanks to  Brett and VDH
. Commentary
Revisionists Get It Wrong: Why the Atomic Bombings Ended WWII
Victor Davis Hanson
August 11, 2025
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Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson
Victor Davis Hanson, a senior contributor for The Daily Signal, is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and host of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show." His website, The Blade of Perseus, features columns, lectures, and exclusive content for subscribers. Contact him at authorvdh@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. 
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. This is the 80th anniversary of the Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, bombings—with nuclear weapons, atomic bomb—on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And this past week we’ve seen more of the usual revisionism that either the dropping of the atomic bombs were barbaric, criminal, had no effect, were unnecessary, and/or a bad mark on the history of the United States’ activity in World War II.
It’s part of a larger revisionist attempt in this generation. Winston Churchill—under these revisionists—is a terrorist. Adolf Hitler didn’t really mean to start World War II. He could have sued for peace, had the British not been so stubborn. The war really wasn’t worth the cost and lives and destruction entailed in defeating the Axis powers.
Nevertheless, though, there’s nothing more wrongheaded than looking at Nagasaki and Hiroshima as preventable or unnecessary. Let me just go through three points.
No. 1, why didn’t they drop it, as suggested, in Tokyo Bay? Drop it—the bomb—as a test. There were a variety of reasons.
Robert Oppenheimer was the head of the program to develop the bomb, at least the scientific element of it. And he organized a task force. And he suggested that they not use a test. And there were reasons why. They only had the uranium Hiroshima bomb and the plutonium Nagasaki bomb available. They might have had one in a few weeks. They might have had two or three more in months. But the point is, they didn’t know if it was necessarily going to work.
The uranium bomb had never been tested. It was very dangerous to trigger it. They weren’t even sure that it could not go off accidentally. The point is, they were afraid since the uranium bomb had never been tested. The plutonium bomb had only been tested on July 16, a little earlier. But it was never dropped from a bomber. They didn’t know what were the atmospherics or what would be the effect, or if it was even feasible to drop it from a B-29. They had practiced, but they weren’t sure.
So, in other words, they were afraid if they dropped the bomb and it didn’t work or it didn’t go off with a blast capacity they anticipated, the Japanese would sort of slough it off and say, “Is this all you have?” And then they wouldn’t have had other bombs to remind them that they should surrender under duress.
More importantly, it was very dangerous to fly from Tinian, the Mariana’s base of the B-29 bombers that were alone capable of handling this 10,000-pound monstrosity among American aircraft, to fly 1,600 miles into the Japanese mainland to drop the bomb and then fly back. The B-29s had lost 400 planes because of the weather, fighters, flak, and the sheer distances, navigation.
And more importantly, they felt that if they announced the test in advance and it didn’t work, of course, the Japanese would even be more emboldened. They weren’t even sure that a test, if it did work, would affect them. And that was proven correct. After the Nagasaki’s second bomb, there was a coup, attempted coup, to try to force the Japanese government not to settle.
There were other reasons as well that we should look at this decision in a favorable light. The other was, did it save lives? It did. And it did in a variety of ways.
Of all the belligerents in World War II, the Japanese army, military, government—whatever term we use—killed more civilians and soldiers versus the amount of soldiers and civilians that lost than any other belligerent. More than the Russians. More than the Germans. In other words, it was a deadly killing machine that averaged 10,000 deaths a day at its hands. How else could you stop it?
No. 2, they had just fought six weeks earlier at Okinawa. That was the bloodiest battle of the entire Pacific War—50,000 American casualties, 12,000 dead. The period—the last 12 months, from 1944 in August to August of 1945—was the deadliest period in the American-Pacific War.
In other words, the people at the time thought things were getting worse, as far as American casualties, not better. After they looked at Okinawa and the horrific conditions and taking the Philippines, they estimated a million or more Americans would be killed in taking Japan by a land invasion.
No. 3, There’s another macabre fact to this. Okinawa was just 700 miles to 800 miles from the Japanese mainland targets. Not 1,600 like the Marianas. Once it was captured, Curtis LeMay wanted to bring in 2,000 new B-29s, on order, to augment the 2,000 that they might have had soon on the Marianas. And remember, the European Theater was over. There were plans to bring in B-17s and B-24 four-engine bombers that were idle. The British wanted to chip in and bring hundreds of Lancaster heavy bombers.
What I’m getting at, had they not dropped the bomb, the fire raids would’ve continued, but not three or four times a week, every single day, from Okinawa. And not with 1,000-2,000 heavy bombers, but with an envisioned 5,000-6,000. That led Curtis LeMay to say, “The bomb wasn’t necessary. We could have burned Japan to the ground and forced its surrender.” Much more people would’ve died had that entailed.
And so, what did the bomb do? It stopped this Japanese war machine from killing people. It stopped a horrendous battle on the mainland of Japan, where the Japanese were waiting for an American invasion with 3.5 million soldiers and 6,000 kamikaze planes. These were the equivalent of or much more lethal than the V-1 buzz bomb rockets that the Germans used. The human mind is a very sophisticated computer and when put in a zero with a 500- or 1,000-pound bomb, it was an unstoppable cruise missile of sorts. And they had over 3,000 of them ready to hit the American fleet.
Add it all up and there was only bad and worse choices. We chose the bad choice that entailed 150,000 to 200,000 deaths from the actual shock and blast to the after effects. But the other alternative—of letting this Japanese killing machine continue to murder Chinese, Asians, Pacific Islanders, British Commonwealthers, and Americans, or invading the mainland, or continuing the fire raids—paled in comparison.

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From the archives
. Thanks to Dr.Rich
Dick Rutan's Celebration of LIfe .. video by Bill Whittle ... 🫡🇺🇸‼️
Caution damp keyboard may develop, and a lot of pride in your chest … It was a VERY memorable day celebrating Dick’s amazing life.

No limits on distribution. Do send it to your list.
Burt


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. Thanks to Interesting Facts
The Most Tornado-Prone States
Tornadoes can strike almost anywhere in the United States, but some states are hit far more frequently than others. Understanding where tornadoes are most common can help prepare residents and inform safety measures. Here's a look at the states with the highest tornado activity.

1. Texas: The Tornado Leader
Texas stands out as the state with the most tornadoes annually. Averaging 151 tornadoes each year, Texas is the undisputed leader in tornado activity. The state's vast size and diverse weather patterns contribute to this high frequency, making it a focal point for storm chasers and meteorologists alike.

2. Kansas: Heart of Tornado Alley
Kansas comes in second, with an average of 91 tornadoes per year. Situated in the heart of Tornado Alley, Kansas experiences frequent severe storms, particularly in the spring and early summer. The flat terrain and meeting of cool and warm air masses create ideal conditions for tornado formation.

3. Oklahoma: A Close Contender
Oklahoma averages 68 tornadoes annually, placing it third on the list. Known for its severe weather, Oklahoma's residents are no strangers to tornado warnings and drills. The state's central location in Tornado Alley means it often experiences some of the most powerful and destructive tornadoes.

4. Florida: Tornadoes in the Sunshine State
Florida might be famous for its hurricanes, but it also sees a significant number of tornadoes, averaging 60 per year. Unlike the central plains, Florida's tornadoes are often associated with tropical storms and hurricanes, which can spawn multiple tornadoes as they move inland.

5. Nebraska: Consistent Tornado Activity
Nebraska rounds out the top five, with an average of 55 tornadoes each year. Much like Kansas and Oklahoma, Nebraska's position within Tornado Alley means it frequently experiences severe weather conditions conducive to tornado formation.

Other Notable Mentions: Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, and Alabama
These four other states also see a high number of tornadoes annually. Illinois averages 54 tornadoes, Iowa 52, while both Mississippi and Alabama average 50 tornadoes each year. These states, particularly Mississippi and Alabama, are part of a region known as Dixie Alley, which has seen increasing tornado activity in recent years.

Tornado Season and Frequency
The U.S. averages 1,333 tornadoes annually, with more than half occurring between April and June. Tornado season can vary by region, with the Great Plains experiencing peak activity in the spring, while Dixie Alley sees more tornadoes in the late fall and winter.

Understanding where tornadoes are most common helps communities prepare and stay safe. From Texas to Nebraska, these states are on the frontline of tornado activity, making it crucial for residents to be aware and ready for severe weather strikes.

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This Day in U S Military History
12 August
1898 – The brief and one-sided Spanish-American War comes to an end when Spain formally agrees to a peace protocol on U.S. terms: the cession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Manila in the Philippines to the United States pending a final peace treaty. The Spanish-American War had its origins in the rebellion against Spanish rule that began in Cuba in 1895. The repressive measures that Spain took to suppress the guerrilla war, such as herding Cuba’s rural population into disease-ridden garrison towns, were graphically portrayed in U.S. newspapers and enflamed public opinion. In January 1898, violence in Havana led U.S. authorities to order the battleship USS Maine to the city’s port to protect American citizens. On February 15, a massive explosion of unknown origin sank the Maine in the Havana harbor, killing 260 of the 400 American crewmembers aboard. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March, without much evidence, that the ship was blown up by a mine but did not directly place the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible, and called for a declaration of war. In April, the U.S. Congress prepared for war, adopting joint congressional resolutions demanding a Spanish withdrawal from Cuba and authorizing President William McKinley to use force. On April 23, President McKinley asked for 125,000 volunteers to fight against Spain. The next day, Spain issued a declaration of war. The United States declared war on April 25. On May 1, the U.S. Asiatic Squadron under Commodore George Dewey destroyed the Spanish Pacific fleet at Manila Bay in the first battle of the Spanish-American War. Dewey’s decisive victory cleared the way for the U.S. occupation of Manila in August and the eventual transfer of the Philippines from Spanish to American control. On the other side of the world, a Spanish fleet docked in Cuba’s Santiago harbor in May after racing across the Atlantic from Spain. A superior U.S. naval force arrived soon after and blockaded the harbor entrance. In June, the U.S. Army Fifth Corps landed in Cuba with the aim of marching to Santiago and launching a coordinated land and sea assault on the Spanish stronghold. Included among the U.S. ground troops were the Theodore Roosevelt-led “Rough Riders,” a collection of Western cowboys and Eastern blue bloods officially known as the First U.S. Voluntary Cavalry. On July 1, the Americans won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the next day they began a siege of Santiago. On July 3, the Spanish fleet was destroyed off Santiago by U.S. warships under Admiral William Sampson, and on July 17 the Spanish surrendered the city–and thus Cuba–to the Americans. In Puerto Rico, Spanish forces likewise crumbled in the face of superior U.S. forces, and on August 12 an armistice was signed between Spain and the United States. On December 10, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the Spanish-American War. The once-proud Spanish empire was virtually dissolved, and the United States gained its first overseas empire. Puerto Rico and Guam were ceded to the United States, the Philippines were bought for $20 million, and Cuba became a U.S. protectorate. Philippine insurgents who fought against Spanish rule during the war immediately turned their guns against the new occupiers, and 10 times more U.S. troops died suppressing the Philippines than in defeating Spain.

1918 – SECNAV approves acceptance of women as yeoman (F) in U.S. Navy.

1918 – The Secretary of the Navy authorized the enlistment of women into the Marine Corps Reserve.

1941 – The House passes an extension of the draft period from one year to thirty months (and a similar increase for service in the National Guard) after considerable debate. The bill is passed by one vote (203-202) in the House, so it would be incorrect to suggest that American political opinion is strongly in favor of a more aggressive international policy at this point.

1941 – Churchill and Roosevelt conclude their meeting at Placentia Bay. It is agreed to send strong warnings to the Japanese and it is understood the America will almost certainly enter the war if Japan attacks British or Dutch possessions in the East Indies or Malaysia. A message is also sent to Stalin, proposing a meeting in Moscow. The conference is most remembered for the agreement later called the Atlantic Charter. This is a statement of principles governing the policies of Britain and the USA and states that all countries have the right to hold free elections and to be free from foreign pressure. The conference also gives British and American staffs an opportunity to get to know each other and to work together.

1942 – Strong American forces are landed on Espiritu Santu to build a supply base for the Guadalcanal campaign.

1942 – USS Cleveland (CL-55) demonstrates effectiveness of radio-proximity fuze (VT-fuze) against aircraft by successfully destroying 3 drones with proximity bursts fired by her five inch guns.

1944 – The first PLUTO (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) becomes operational carrying fuel from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg.

1944 – The US 15th Corps (part of US 3rd Army) captures Alencon and advances to the outskirts of Argentan where the German 116th Panzer Division is located.

1944 – Italian based American bombers attack the Bordeaux-Merignac airfield and then fly on to Britain.

1944 – Elements of US 5th Army complete the capture of Florence.

1944 – LT Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USNR, the older brother of John F. Kennedy, was killed with his co-pilot in a mid-air explosion after taking off from England in a PB4Y from Special Attack Unit One (SAU-1). Following manual takeoff, they were supposed to parachute out over the English Channel while the radio-controlled explosive filled drone proceeded to attack a German V-2 missile-launching site. Possible causes include faulty wiring or FM signals from a nearby transmitter.

1945 – Over Japan, B-29 Superfortress bombers continue attacks on targets.

1945 – The battleship USS Pennsylvania is damaged by an attack from a Japanese torpedo bomber off the island of Okinawa. Meanwhile, A Japanese submarine sinks the American destroyer Thomas F. Nickel and the landing craft Oak Hill.

1957 – In first test of Automatic Carrier Landing System, LCDR Don Walker is landed on USS Antietam.

1958 – USS Nautilus (SSN-571) arrives Portland, England completing first submerged under ice cruise from Pacific to Atlantic Oceans.

1959 – The 1st ship firing of a Polaris missile was from Observation Island.

1960 – USAF Major Robert M White takes X-15 to 41,600 m.

1969 – Viet Cong forces launch a new offensive with attacks on 150 cities, towns, and bases, including Da Nang and Hue. The heaviest attacks were aimed at the area adjacent to the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon; an estimated 2,000 Communists attacked Tay Ninh, Quan Loi, Loc Ninh, and An Loc. Further north, North Vietnamese commandos fought their way into the U.S. First Marine Division headquarters in Da Nang. They were eventually driven out by the Marines, who killed 40 Communist soldiers, sustaining five killed and 23 wounded in the process.

1972 – As the last U.S. ground troops left Vietnam, B-52’s made their largest strike of the war.

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*WORLEY, KENNETH L.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Bo Ban, Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 12 August 1968. Entered service at: Fresno, Calif. Born: 27 April 1948, Farmington, N. Mex. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Company L, 3d Battalion, in action against enemy forces. After establishing a night ambush position in a house in the Bo Ban, Hamlet of Quang Nam Province, security was set up and the remainder of the patrol members retired until their respective watch. During the early morning hours the marines were abruptly awakened by the platoon leader’s warning that “grenades” had landed in the house. Fully realizing the inevitable result of his actions, L/Cpl. Worley, in a valiant act of heroism, instantly threw himself upon the grenade nearest him and his comrades, absorbing with his body, the full and tremendous force of the explosion. Through his extraordinary initiative and inspiring valor in the face of almost certain death, he saved his comrades from serious injury and possible loss of life although 5 of his fellow marines incurred minor wounds as the other grenades exploded. L/Cpl. Worley’s gallant actions upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

ALVARADO, LEONARD L.
Rank and Organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army. Place and Date: Phuoc Long Province, Vietnam, August 12, 1969. Born: February 13, 1947, Bakersfield, CA. Entered Service At: Bakersfield, CA. G.O. Number: .Date of Issue: 03/18/2014. Accredited To: . Citation: Alvarado distinguished himself on Aug. 12, 1969, while serving as a rifleman during a mission to relieve a sister platoon, in Phuoc Long Province, Vietnam. Alvarado was killed in action after disrupting an enemy raid and saving the lives of several comrades, leaving behind his wife and young daughter.

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This Day in Aviation History” brought to you by the Daedalians Airpower Blog Update. To subscribe to this weekly email, go to https://daedalians.org/airpower-blog/.
Aug. 11, 1921
The practical development of carrier arresting gear began when pilot Lt. Alfred M. Pride, Daedalian Founder Member #13030, taxied an Aeromarine plane onto a dummy deck and engaged arresting wires at NAS Hampton Roads, Virginia. These tests resulted in the development of arresting gear for Langley (CV 1) that consisted essentially of athwartship wires attached to weights along with fore and aft wires.

Aug. 12, 1944
Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., USNR, of VPB-110, temporarily assigned to Special Air Unit 1, and Lt. Wilford J. Willy participated in a mission in a PB4Y-1 Liberator, BuNo 32271, against a German V-1 flying bomb launching site in German-occupied France. The weight of the Liberator, which carried 21,170-pounds of high explosives, precluded take off by remote control, so Kennedy and Willy voluntarily made the takeoff from Winfarthing (Fersfield), England. The men remained with the drone to ensure the assumption of control by two “mother” planes — one used as insurance against potential equipment failure in the primary — and were then to bail out over England. At 1820, the Liberator suddenly exploded killing Kennedy and Willy. No cause was ever determined. The two each received the Navy Cross posthumously and the destroyer Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (DD 850) was named in his honor.

Aug. 13, 1918
During a patrol from NAS Dunkirk, France, pilot Ens. Julian F. Carson sighted a surfaced U-boat. The Germans challenged the plane and opened fire with their deck gun, hitting the aircraft in several places with fragments. Carson returned fire and bombed the submarine as it attempted to submerge, which drove the boat back to the surface at a sharp angle. The U-boat stayed there briefly and then slid stern first underwater. The French credited Carson with sinking the craft and awarded him the Croix de Guerre. Carson was Daedalian Founder Member #5848.

Aug. 14, 1912
Sgt. Vernon Burge received rating as the U.S. Army's first enlisted pilot on Aug. 14, 1912. He spent 10 years in the enlisted corps before receiving his commission in World War I, and then served the next 25 years as an officer. Burge, Daedalian Founder Member #345, retired as a colonel. He died at the age of 82 in 1971. He is buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. A bronze sculpture of Burge, honoring all enlisted pilots, is on display at Gunter Annex, Alabama, adjacent to the U.S. Air Force Enlisted Heritage Hall.

Aug. 15, 1949
Lt. Gen. Harold L. George, wartime Chief of Air Transport Command and then vice president and general manager of Hughes Aircraft Company, received the Air Force Association Award for his contribution to American airpower. General George was one of the original 35 Daedalian Charter Members, Founder Member #8, and the first national commander, serving from 1934-36.

Aug. 16, 1909
Acting Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer disapproved a request by the Bureau of Equipment for authority to advertise for the construction of “two heavier than air flying machines,” with the comment: “The Department does not consider that the development of an aeroplane has progressed sufficiently at this time for use in the Navy.”

Aug. 17, 1946
First Sgt. Lawrence Lambert became the first person in the U.S. to be ejected from an aircraft by ejection seat, in a P-61 flying at 302 MPH and 7,800 feet, over Patterson Field in Dayton, Ohio. Lambert, assigned to the Air Material Command Parachute Branch, was an 11-year veteran of the Air Corps. He had made 58 parachute jumps before the test. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 12,  FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

12 August
1908: Lts Frank P. Lahm, Bejamin D. Foulois,, and Thomas E. Selfridge began the first, official American airship tests at Fort Myer. (24) (See 28 August)

1918: Civilian pilots began flying airmail for the Post Office Department. (5)

1930: Capt Frank Hawks broke his previous round-trip transcontinental record of 27 June 1929 by 9 hours 33 minutes for a flight from New York to Los Angeles and back. He reached Los Angeles in 12 hours 25 minutes 3 seconds and returned to New York in 14 hours 50 minutes. (9)

1941: Capt Homer Boushey, Jr., flew an Ercoupe civilian airplane on the first successful rocket- assisted takeoff at Wright Field. (21) (24)

1945: From bases in China, Fourteenth Air Force attacked troops and convoys in Changsha corridor, China. (5)

1950: KOREAN WAR. USN Task Force 77 moved up Korea’s west coast to attack interdiction targets in N. Korea, leaving all close air support and interdiction strikes in S. Korea to FEAF. More than forty B-29s attacked the Rashin port in northeast Korea, near the Soviet border. (28)

1957: With Lt Cmdr James M. Pruitt (USN) as the pilot, a Douglas A3D twin-jet Skywarrior flew from Hawaii to California. It covered the 2,438 miles in 4 hours 12 minutes to set a record for the eastward flight.

1960: Echo I, a passive communications satellite, placed in orbit. Maj Robert M. White flew the X-15 to a new FAI record of 136,500 feet to break Capt Iven Kincheloe’s 1956 record of 126,200 feet in the X-2. (9) (24)

1961: The USS Abraham Lincoln set a record for underwater launchings by firing six Polaris missiles in one day. (16) (24)

1962: After two years in orbit, the Echo I satellite established that inflatable structures could function in space for long periods. In its 9,000 orbits, the aluminized mylar plastic balloon covered 277,257,677.67 miles while supporting some 150 communications experiments. (24)

1971: 2Lt Robert Stratton weighed 1,520 pounds for 45 seconds to establish a record for sustained high-G endurance. He set the record in a USAF School of Aerospace Medicine study.

1972: Lt Col Wendell Shawler became the first USAF pilot to fly the F-15. (3) At Indianola, Ind., Wilma Piccard flew 17.6 miles in a Piccard S-10 balloon to set a FAI distance record for subclass A-1 balloons (under 250 cubic meters). (9)

1977: The Space Shuttle Enterprise, a test vehicle designed to operate in the atmosphere, completed its first launch, descent, and landing from the back of a 747 at 22,800 feet above Edwards AFB. NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center conducted the test program. (21)

1985: Through 15 October, a 436 MAW C-5A Galaxy delivered 35 tons of equipment, including three helicopters, to assist over 2 million flood- and famine-stricken victims in Western Sudan. The helicopters distributed grain to famine victims that were cut off from road and rail transportation. (16)

1987: Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and the Associate Administrator for the Office of Exploration in NASA, released a study on long range goals for the US space effort. It recommended four endeavors: using space to study Earth, exploring the solar system, setting up an outpost on the moon, and making a manned expedition to Mars.

1991: The F-15 STOL demonstrator made its last flight at Edwards AFB, validating the F-15’s Autonomous Landing Guidance System during a night landing at Edwards. (30)

1992: Operation PROVIDE TRANSITION. Through 7 October, C-130s helped Angola prepare for its first democratic elections by flying 8,805 demobilized soldiers home after 16 years of civil war and 265 tons of cargo on 326 sorties. (16) (18)

2005: From the Virginia ANG’s 192 FW, Lt Col Phillip Guy became the first pilot to complete F-22 initial qualification training, while TSgt Scott Browning and TSgt David Dehart became the ANG’s first F-22 maintainers. After completing training, Guy moved from Richmond IAP to Langley AFB, Va., to begin the wing’s integration with the 1 FW. (32)

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Tuesday, August 11, 2026

TheList 7622

7622

Good Tuesday morning August  11, 2026 ... It is clearing now and heating up
again this morning to 87 around 1 and then  dropping off to 78 at sunset.
Almost the same as yesterday
.We believe that our son is airborne and headed to the states. It has been
quite an ordeal for us and him.
Regards,
Skip

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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 100 H-Grams  (99 is still in work)

August 11
1861 USS Penguin, commanded by Cmdr. John L. Livingston, engages
blockade-runner Louisa during the Civil War. The blockade-runner hits a
sandbar near Cape Fear, N.C., and sinks
1877 Prof. Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory discovers the first of
two satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, using the largest refractor of
the time, a USNO 26-inch (66-cm) telescope.
1898 During the Spanish-American War, USS Cushing (TB 1), USS Gwin (TB 16),
and USS McKee (TB 18) captured and burned the Spanish schooner Jover Genard
at Carendas, Cuba.
1943 Aircraft from Composite Squadron One (VC 1) based onboard USS Card (CVE
11) sinks German submarine, (U 525), about 376 miles west-southwest of Corvo
Island, Azores.
1960 USNS Haiti Victory (T-AK 238), using Navy helicopters and frogmen,
recover Discoverer 13 satellite capsule in the Pacific Ocean, the first
recovery of a U.S. satellite from orbit.
2001 USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306) is christened and launched at New Orleans,
La. The Bob Hope-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ship is part of
Military Sealift Commands prepositioning program that serves as dry cargo
surge sealift carriers.

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Today in World History: August 11

0991 Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and defeat the
Saxons at Maldon.
1492 Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
1792 A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
1856 A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The
settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the
position of general in chief of the Union Army.
1904 German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near
Waterberg, South Africa.
1906 In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
1908 Britain's King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the
growth of the German navy.
1912 Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of
internal dissent.
1916 The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
1929 Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland
Indians.
1941 Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
1942 The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and
sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world's first aircraft carriers.
1944 German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the
historic city.
1965 A small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black
youths sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
1972 The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.
1975 US vetoes admission of North and South Vietnam to UN.
1978 Funeral of Pope Paul VI.
1984 Carl Lewis wins four Olympic gold medals, tying the record Jesse Owens
set in 1936.
1988 Al Qaeda formed at a meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
1989 Voyager 2 discovers two partial rings around Neptune.
1990 Troops from Egypt and Morocco arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the
international operation to prevent Iraq from invading.
1999 A tornado in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, kills one person.
2003 NATO assumes command of the international peacekeeping force in
Afghanistan, its first major operation outside Europe.

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
August 11
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
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..August 11

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/ )

articles/wall-of-faces-now-includes-photos-of-all-servicemembers-killed-in-t
he-vietnam-war/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TMNsend&
utm_content=Y84UVhi4Z1MAMHJh1eJHNA==+MD+AFHRM+1+Ret+L+NC
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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Thanks to Dr. Rich and Billy
Good Mornin’ — EYE CANDY con’t… 

Thanks to the contributions of William B “Bill” Scott noted author/test
pilot & all-round good guy.  His books are terrific reads.  Some are shown
below.  His book about “Earthquake” Titus is especially good.  Brigadier
General Robert F. “Earthquake” Titus is a fascinating history of one of
aviation’s greatest.  This coming December he’ll turn 98!  I’ve included a
mention of Chris Hobson’s book “Vietnam Air Losses” as well.

"Billy, I’ve scribbled a couple more books, since we were last in contact.
Cover images are attached, FYI.  Gen. Bob “Earthquake” Titus lives here in
COS, A “Reader’s Digest” version of his amazing career was featured this
week in Vintage Aviation News:"

Korea 1951 — Bob “Earthquake” Titus and his P-51 “Mustang”

"And per our telecon today:

* WESTERN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT 
Canadair CL-600 Challenger Flight Test Accident April 3, 1980

* Hangar Flying, -- RPM: Routine, Professionalism & Magic


Cheers,
Bill"

William B. Scott
EARTHQUAKE: Fighter Pilot | Test Pilot | Leader
Combat Contrails: Vietnam
The Permit
License to Kill: The Murder of Erik Scott
Video: "License to Kill"

SETP’s review in its “Cockpit” Journal:

Here’s a tremendous book by Chris Hobson published in 2001 in the UK.

Vietnam Air Losses


From Skip
The Vietnam Air losses book noted below has been put into a web site by Dave
Lovelady and is available below in the list every day along with a note on
an aircrew what was shot down on that day also available each day in the
List
The Bear’s Rolling Thunder and Commando Hunt are also available each day.
The access is printed in the List each day.
Both of these men have spent many months and years making this information
available to all at no cost
Regards,
skip


One can readily see from the extensive Bibliography the breadth and depth of
the research that has gone into the book. Still, a great deal is not known
about some of the events, and we are hoping that those that were there and
have first-hand accounts will share them with us. Those that we feel add to
the history will be added to the database, along with the original text.

With gratitude, it should be noted that Rear Admiral Jeremy "Bear" Taylor,
USN (Ret.), who has a magnificent website at Rolling Thunder Remembered,
suggested that Chris Hobson's book (Vietnam Air Losses, United States Air
Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia
1961-1973) was worthy of obtaining a copy.  He suggested a few sources for
tracking down used books. That search revealed that readers were being
"gouged." The used copies were selling for many times the original price, up
to as much as $896 through Amazon. The median price seemed to be at least
$100 above the original price.

The information in the book is a treasure, particularly for the descendants,
children and now grandchildren, of those that fought the air war. Sometimes,
family lore and legend simply don't do justice to the memory of loved ones,
nor are family members and friends able to fully appreciate the incredible
bravery evidenced many times every day as men did their duty. In addition,
unless one is a scholar of the war, willing to research and analyze without
preconceived bias, it is difficult to conclude what really happened in the
Vietnam War. Certainly, many history books and documentaries are inaccurate.
And, unfortunately, there has been so much misinformation about the people
that fought the war that often children and grandchildren won't ask veterans
to tell their stories. Those veterans are too often reticent to lead the
conversation, so the subject doesn't come up. But, if you get them at a
military unit reunion or at a VFW or American Legion hall, the memories
flood out. It's a shame that families may be the last to know.

Because such valuable information should not have to be paid for,
particularly exorbitant sums, nor diligently searched for around the world,
I contacted Chris and asked him if I could put the information online. He
not only readily agreed to the project, but he asked if he could update the
information. In the 18 years since publication, a great deal of additional
information has been revealed, most notably the identification of remains
through advances in DNA and the hard work of the search and excavation
teams.

Accordingly, the information on this site has been updated substantially by
Chris during 2019, and we hope to add more information as it comes
available.

This site is an attempt to make all the information in Vietnam Air Losses
available to a wide audience at no cost to them. It is most appropriate that
I include Chris's Introduction from the book:

The Vietnam War is far enough in the past to be considered history yet
recent enough to still have a deeply personal effect on millions of
Americans, whether they be veterans, relatives of the dead and missing, or
simply US citizens. There is a growing wealth of literature on the war,
especially in recent years as the pain of the war recedes and the
development of the Internet has given an added impetus to publishing.

As an aviation enthusiast and historian, the Vietnam War and its place in
the development of air power technology, tactics and doctrine has always
fascinated me.  Virtually every available aircraft type and every weapon in
the US arsenal, with the notable exception of nuclear weapons, was used
during the war. The variety of aircraft and the multitude of roles, tactics
and operations makes the Vietnam air war well worth studying. Yet perhaps
because of its very specific nature, fought over mountainous or jungle
terrain in a little known country against a shadowy enemy, the military
lessons of the air war are sometimes intangible and difficult to relate to
present day air power.  Hopefully, this book may, in some small way, make
the air war over Southeast Asia less intangible and may point the way to
further research to ensure that the lessons of the air war are not
forgotten.

In reporting the facts of the war I have tried to steer clear of the
politics of Vietnam, unless they have a direct effect on the air war. Being
neither an American nor a serviceman I do not feel qualified to comment on
the political issues or higher strategy involved nor is any such comment
necessary in a work of this nature. This history is about men, aircraft and
air operations.  The more strategic aspects of the war have already been
covered by many excellent authors in a host of publications.  I have culled
the information presented in this book from a variety of sources, both
official and unofficial.  Some of the sources disagree on minor points, and
certain information, such as that relating to many of the men listed as
missing in action, may be regarded as speculative.  However, I take full
responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies contained in the book.

I am very aware of the sensitivity of writing  about events that are so
recent and in particular about the people mentioned, the memory of whom is
still fresh in the minds of loved ones, friends and colleagues.  It is not
my intention to characterise or criticise any individual in any way and it
is certainly not my intention to cause pain to relatives and friends of the
deceased listed in these pages.

A number of people have assisted in the research and production of this
book.  My wife Alison has helped greatly by compiling the index of personnel
and by providing support when needed and my son Jonathan has helped with my
numerous IT and Internet-related queries and problems.  Sincere thanks are
also due to Robert Daley and Peter Bird for their assistance in providing
information on the C-130 Hercules and C-7 Caribou respectively. It is thanks
to dedicated men such as these that superb websites on a whole variety of
subjects are now available on the Internet.

This book was inspired, at least in part, by one of the men mentioned in the
text, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Eugene Johnson. I knew Harry Johnson when he
was a USAF exchange officer at the Royal Air Force Staff College in the late
1970s. His experience as a Wild Weasel electronic warfare officer made him a
valuable asset as a military instructor but his experience as a prisoner of
war made him something even more special.  This book is dedicated to the
dignity, bravery and sacrifice of the thousands of men like Harry Johnson
who fought the war in the skies over Southeast Asia.

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Thanks to Nice News

Daily Edition • August 11, 2026       

    Tomorrow is going to be a pretty special day, at least for those
with an interest in the cosmos. In areas with low light pollution, nighttime
views of Venus and the Milky Way up ahead are going to be some of the best
of the entire year, and that’s on top of the peak of the Perseid meteor
shower — expected to be particularly dazzling in the moonless sky. The
biggest event is earlier in the day, though, when a total solar eclipse will
be visible in eastern Greenland, western Iceland, and northern Spain. A
partial eclipse will touch other areas of Europe and the Americas: Get all
the deets.
Must Reads
________________________________________
•    After years of captivating wildlife lovers far and wide, Big Bear
bald eagle Jackie sadly died yesterday

•    Do you happen to own a Horrockses dress?

Health
________________________________________
Yes, Your Brain Can Change After Just 1 Week of Meditation: Study
Ekaterina Goncharova—Moment/Getty Images

It’s not often we get results in seven days of doing something. But that’s
not the case when it comes to meditation, according to researchers. In a
first-of-its-kind comprehensive study published last year, scientists
examined the impact of a weeklong intensive retreat involving about 33 hours
of guided meditation and group healing.

The researchers collected blood samples from the 20 healthy adult
participants and examined their brains with MRI scans before and after the
retreat. They found that afterward, the blood samples indicated a “more
flexible and adaptable” metabolism and brain activity became less pronounced
in regions associated with internal mental chatter. The brain also seemed to
show increased neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to change and
form new neural connections.

“This isn’t about just stress relief or relaxation,” study co-author Hemal
Patel said in a statement, noting the brain changes following meditation
were similar to ones associated with psychedelic experiences. “This is about
fundamentally changing how the brain engages with reality and quantifying
these changes biologically.”

If you’re inspired, read about Staff Editor Rebekah Brandes’ experience
meditating every day for eight weeks — or get your own practice started with
a mini meditation (it’s just 1 minute!).
Together With Honeycomb
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Humanity
________________________________________
Teen Founder Is Sending Surprise Care Packages to 50 People in All 50 States
This Summer
Courtesy of Sue Laurent

Barb’s an early riser, Shayla’s a social butterfly, Kevin’s thoughtful, and
all three have big smiles on their faces — or, we should say, on their pots.
The trio of characters are among the seven adorable stuffed plants that are
featured in The ILY Company’s Bloomie Boxes, and they’ve been surprising
unsuspecting strangers across the country this summer.

Founded by 18-year-old Emily Laurent, The ILY Company offers emotional
support gifts geared toward teens and young adults, and 10% of its proceeds
go to the mental health nonprofit Active Minds. To celebrate the United
States’ 250th birthday last month, Emily and her mom, Sue Laurent, who helps
run the company, kicked off a “50 States in 50 Days” campaign.

Each day, the pair spins a virtual wheel with the remaining states and then
chooses a local recipient at random from a list of addresses provided by the
U.S. Postal Service. Sue and Emily are sharing videos of the process on
Instagram, where users can also enter to win a bonus Bloomie Box by
commenting “positivity” on the posts. The campaign runs until Aug. 22, and
at the time of writing, 11 states had yet to be selected.

“We wanted to spread the most positivity we could this summer and we’ve
gotten messages from people who told us they really needed it, which is the
best part of all,” Emily tells Nice News. Sue adds: “You never know who can
use a little surprise in their day!”
Environment
________________________________________
Tiny but Mighty Find: New-to-Science Ice Age Toad Discovered in LA
Artwork by Arturo Dávalos

Say hello to Spea labreae! The tiny spadefoot toad is a newly discovered
species of ice age amphibian recently found in a collection at the La Brea
Tar Pits in Los Angeles. It’s the first extinct amphibian found in the city
and only the second-known ice age amphibian discovered in North America (the
first was a tree frog from Florida). And while it’s small in size, it could
have an outsized impact on our understanding of the climate at the end of
the last ice age.

The toad was spotted by happenstance when researcher Alberto Cruz was
reviewing understudied collections of amphibians and reptiles as a
postdoctoral fellow at the museum. At first, he thought the specimen had
been injured or sick, but upon further research, he realized it was a new
species entirely.

“I reviewed and reviewed a lot of specimens until I was convinced. I
thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a new species,’” Cruz said in a press release
on the findings, which were made two years ago but published in a journal
just last week. The museum explained that amphibians offer a particularly
useful peek into the past because they don’t typically travel far during
their lifetimes and are sensitive to environmental change, making them
helpful proxies for understanding climate cycles and improving future
climate models.

The find is also worth celebrating because amphibians don’t often make it
into fossil records due to their fragile skeletons. “It’s a great example of
how we’re still finding new things at La Brea Tar Pits, even after a century
of ongoing excavation and research,” added Emily Lindsey, a curator at the
iconic site. “There’s definitely more to come.”

In Other News
________________________________________
1.    Homelessness is down across Utah, marking the state’s first
year-over-year decrease since 2019 (read more)

2.    Solar power was the leading source of energy in Portugal last month,
supplying 19% of all electricity consumed (read more)

3.    Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride made 10 3-pointers on Sunday,
breaking the WNBA single-game record (read more)

4.    A 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck loaded with clay jars was found off
the coast of Sicily (read more)

5.    Captivating drone footage shows a shark chasing a school of fish off
the coast of New York (read more)

________________________________________
When Barley met Louie

After Barley the golden retriever had to go on seizure medication, her
family noticed her personality seemed to shift — she “lost her spunk,”
explained mom Tori Cannarelli. That was until a duck named Louie entered the
picture. The unlikely duo formed an oh-so-heartwarming friendship, bringing
Barley’s “goldenness” back.

Chris Coduto/Getty Images
Hezly Rivera is officially a back-to-back national champ! The Olympic gold
medalist made a major comeback at the 2026 U.S. Gymnastics Championships in
Phoenix to win her second straight all-around gymnastics title, rising from
fourth to first place from Saturday to Sunday.
“You can do anything, but not everything.”

– DAVID ALLEN
 
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
Humans are the only animals with true chins.
Animals & Nature
2m read
by Darren Orf
Original photo by Thorsten Schmitt/ Shutterstock


Humans have a few biological advantages compared to other species. The most
obvious is our big brains, which have empowered us to become the dominant
species on Earth. But another feature that is often overlooked is our chins
— a trait unique to humans. Yes, we’re the only animals on Earth with true
chins. You might be thinking, “Wait a minute, I give my cat chin scratches
all the time,” or “Surely chimpanzees, our closest animal cousin, sport some
kind of chimp chin,” but the answer is nope and nope (respectively). When
you’re scratching the “chin” of your feline companion, what you’re really
doing is scratching the mandible, i.e., the lower part of the jaw — not the
chin, which is the bony part that juts out at the bottom of your face.
Elephants and manatees also have chin-like protrusions in their lower jaws,
but they don’t quite qualify as true chins.


William Shakespeare originated the phrase “take it on the chin.”
IT'S A FIB

William Shakespeare is the progenitor of some 1,700 words, but the phrase
“take it on the chin” originates from the world of boxing, a sport where the
phrase essentially describes the entire profession.

The mystery of why no other animal has a real chin gets even more
interesting because past human species, such as Homo erectus and Homo
neanderthalensis, didn’t have chins either — instead, their faces simply
ended in a flat plane. So why did evolution find the need for human chins?
Scientists aren’t exactly sure. The most prominent theory is that chins help
humans chew, but scientists from Duke University and the University of
Florida found that chins aren’t actually much help there; they technically
make chewing more difficult, as they reinforce the wrong part of the face
for aiding mastication. Chins also don’t help much with human speech, which
is another theory that’s been suggested, and researchers say it’s unlikely
they’re a mere product of sexual selection or a protection against violence,
such as punching. Some scientists think the chin might be a spandrel, a
byproduct of other evolutionary changes that on its own serves no real
purpose — basically, a happy accident. We may never truly know exactly why
humans have these extra bony bits on the ends of our faces, but keep your
chin up. After all, you’re the only species that can.

Numbers Don't Lie
Numbers Don't Lie
Average strength (in pounds per square inch) of the human bite
162
Duration (in seconds) of the world’s longest chin stand (1:44:25)
6,265
Years ago the human chin began to form in our ancestors
80,000
Chromosome number containing genetic marker rs11684042, which may indicate
the presence of a cleft chin
2

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Thanks to Dick
From my friend, Bob
Subject: Fwd: How WWII ended with a Battle between Sailing Ships
For those of us who THOUGHT we knew our Naval history, a new one!
How World War II ended with a battle between sailing ships
The war was over. Japan had surrendered on August 15. There was no need for
any more violence in the Pacific Ocean. But on August 21, a Japanese crew
that did not yet know World War II was officially over launched an attack
that would be the final battle of the war.
It was also the last battle between two ships under sail. And the last fight
where an American crew would board another vessel, like in the early days of
the American Navy.
This is the story of the last naval battle of World War II..
The American military had naval operations going on in China even before
World War II. When the war broke out, that continued, hoping to disrupt
Japanese operations in China and the surrounding seas. Navy Lieutenant
Livingston Swentzel and Marine Lieutenant Stewart Pittman were in China for
that very reason. Soon after Japan surrendered, they were on their way to
Shanghai. They were in command of two Chinese junks, traditional
sail-powered ships that between them were outfitted with more modern
weapons: a 50 caliber and 30 caliber machine gun, two bazookas, multiple
small arms and many, many grenades. Swentzel led one ship, Pittman commanded
the other. The total crew wasn’t big, seven Americans in all plus 20 Chinese
guerillas who had been fighting the Japanese occupation.
The morning of August 21, they weren’t expecting combat on their voyage. But
they stumbled upon another junk, which suddenly turned and opened fire. It
was a Japanese ship. The American and Chinese forces had twice the ships but
the enemy junk was filled with 83 Japanese sailors, armed with six machine
guns, 100 rifles, and most dangerously, a 75mm howitzer.  That howitzer
blasted to life, tearing apart the foremast of Swentzel’s junk and also
damaging its rudder. The battle was on.
In true naval tradition, Swentzel raised the American flag and he and
Pittman’s ships went on the counteroffensive. The American and Chinese
forces unleashed their full arsenal, closing in on the Japanese-crewed ship.
Swentzel’s junk was damaged, but Pittman’s was at full capacity and got up
close and personal with the enemy.
The American and allied crews then started throwing their grenades at the
Japanese vessel, using the explosives as cover to prepare a boarding party.
Pittman and a few of his compatriots then leapt aboard the Japanese ship,
guns at the ready. But it was already over. In 45 minutes the Chinese and
American force had killed 44 Japanese sailors, wounded another 35 and
captured the enemy ship. Their losses were much fewer: four Chinese sailors
were killed, five were wounded and one American was wounded in the fight. In
less than an hour, they had won the last naval battle of World War II. The
Americans had ended the war with the brand new, destructive force of the
atomic bomb, but the fighting ended in a throwback to naval warfare from the
age of sails and cannons. Pittman’s boarding party took the Chinese junk as
a prize. The three ships then completed the voyage to Shanghai.
For their efforts, Swentzel was awarded the Navy Cross and Pittman a Silver
Star.
That is how World War II finally ended. After the atomic bombs, after the
unconditional surrender of Japan, three small ships ended the conflict with
a boarding party.

Thanks to Burt ... and Dr. Rich
Steven Wright Quotes
The Quotes of Steven Wright:
1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8 - If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.
9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend, ..... But she left me before we met.
12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark?
13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked
something.
15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 - Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
19 - I intend to live forever ... So far, so good.
20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your
horn louder."
24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name
25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the
bread.
29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is
research.
30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on
it.
33 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film.
34 - If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
35 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights
work?

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From the archives

Thanks to John…This is one I never heard before…..skip
Skip,
Pretty interesting. I didn’t know that the B-29 that dropped the second
atomic weapon diverted to Okinawa.
John

olittle-nagasaki-atomic-bombing.html=


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Thanks to Interesting Facts

7 of History’s Strangest Coincidences

In their 1989 paper “Methods for Studying Coincidences,” math professors
Persi Diaconis and Frederick Mosteller defined a coincidence as a
“surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, with
no apparent causal connection.”

It’s an apt definition, but it doesn’t quite do justice to those
coincidences that tie together people and places in a way that almost makes
you wonder whether something supernatural is going on. Here are seven such
coincidences — some of historical significance, others just downright
mind-blowing — that have rational people questioning the odds of just how
things could have unfolded that way.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Both Died on the 50th Anniversary of
Independence Day
Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson seemingly shared some kind
of cosmic connection. After striking up a friendship at the 1775 Continental
Congress, they teamed up to draft the Declaration of Independence,
concurrently served in Europe as American diplomats, and became the second
and third U.S. Presidents, respectively, before partisan fighting drove them
apart. But they reignited a regular correspondence in their golden years
through the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration
on July 4, 1826. That day, as he lay on his deathbed, Adams reportedly
delivered his final words, “Thomas Jefferson survives,” not realizing his
old friend and former rival had passed away a few hours earlier.

John Wilkes Booth’s Brother Saved the Life of Abraham Lincoln’s Son
It may seem off-kilter to conflate the names Booth and Lincoln for a story
with a happy ending, but that’s what happened during a near-disaster at a
crowded New Jersey train platform around late 1863. Then a student at
Harvard, Robert Todd Lincoln found himself pressed against a train that
suddenly lurched forward and spun him onto the tracks before a
quick-reacting good samaritan hauled him to safety. Lincoln immediately
recognized his savior as the famous actor Edwin Booth, though it took a
congratulatory letter from a mutual friend for Booth to realize that he had
rescued President Abraham Lincoln’s oldest son. Regardless, any goodwill
between the two families soon vanished when Booth’s pro-Confederate younger
brother, John Wilkes Booth, fatally ambushed the President in April 1865.

Mark Twain Entered and Exited the World With Halley’s Comet
Two weeks after Halley’s Comet passed its November 1835 perihelion — the
point of orbit closest to the sun — a boy named Samuel Langhorne Clemens was
born in Florida, Missouri. Clemens went on to worldwide fame as Mark Twain,
but there was no slowing the passage of time, and in 1909, the
septuagenarian author told his biographer that he expected an astronomical
bookending to his days. “It will be the greatest disappointment of my life
if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet,” he revealed. “The Almighty has said,
no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in
together, they must go out together.'” The Almighty must have listened, and
on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley’s Comet again reached its
perihelion, Twain died from a heart attack at age 74.

The Car That Brought About WWI Also Predicted Its End
It was the event that triggered World War I, yet also seemingly carried a
harbinger for when peace would return to the land. On June 28, 1914,
Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were shot at
point-blank range by Bosnian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip as they rode
through Sarajevo in their touring car. While onlookers converged on the
dying royals and their assassin, no one could have grasped the significance
of the car’s license plate, which read AIII 118. Read another way, with the
I’s switched to 1’s and slight changes in spacing applied, and you have
11/11/18 — the date of Armistice Day, which formally ended the Great War.

Wilmer McLean Hosted the First Major Battle and Formal Conclusion of the
Civil War
Northern Virginia plantation owner Wilmer McLean was happy to cede his
grounds to pro-slavery Confederates for what became the First Battle of Bull
Run in July 1861. However, he was tired of the destruction by the time his
plantation was again used for the follow-up battle in August 1862, and he
moved his family south to the isolated village of Appomattox Court House the
following year. Turns out he didn’t get quite far enough away from the
action, as an aide to General Robert E. Lee requested the use of McLean’s
new residence for a surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in April
1865.

Two Versions of “Dennis the Menace” Surfaced on the Same Day
On March 12, 1951, “Dennis the Menace” appeared for the first time in the
British weekly comic magazine The Beano. That same day, “Dennis the Menace”
debuted in 16 American newspapers. Was it the same character arriving in
different countries by way of an international distribution deal? Nope. The
British Dennis, drawn by David Law, was dark-haired, scowling, and known to
deliberately stir up trouble; American Dennis, from the hand of Hank
Ketcham, was blonde, friendly, and more likely to foul things up through
good intentions turned sour. It was reported that neither artist initially
was aware of the other’s work, and apparently, neither cared about any sort
of copyright infringement, as both the British and American Dennis went on
to long, successful runs in their respective countries.

The “Jim Twins” Led Remarkably Similar Lives
Finally, there’s the case of James Springer and James Lewis, identical twins
who went their separate ways as infants through adoption yet went on to live
eerily similar lives before reuniting at age 39. Each grew up with a brother
named Larry, had a pet dog named Toy, went into law enforcement, and named
his first-born son James Allan (with slightly different spellings). And even
if you chalk some of those matches up to genetic disposition, it doesn’t
quite explain how each twin somehow married a woman named Linda before
following with a second wife named Betty, or how both settled on the same
vacation spot at a small beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, more than 1,000
miles away from where they were separately reared in Ohio.

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Thanks to YP and Shadow
Wot a privilege to know and associate with!
Y’all musta been a pair.
YP
From Shadow
Dear Black,
You write better than I do! On top of that, I could never come close to your
incredible Naval Aviation experiences. You were the man! A man’s man.. a
woman’s dream. I knew you were a handsome SOB…. But one day I was talking to
a female salesperson when you walked by and out into the hangar. When the
door closed, she sighed and said…o “Every time I see that man, I can feel it
in my bra”! No wonder the waitress at McGuire’s came back to “card” you
before delivering your beer! She just wanted a closer look. I think you’re
probably the only 0-6 to get carded by any bartender or waitress to make
sure you were 21! And then there were the ladies at Base Ops at Tinker. When
“Spock” called me to inquire as to your whereabouts… I told him I’d talked
to you that morning at Hill AFB and you were on your way to NAS Memphis, via
Tinker for fuel… you might catch him there. A half hour later, Spock calls
back and says, “You’re not gonna believe this one. I called Base Ops at
Tinker and a woman answered the phone. I told her I was looking for a Marine
Colonel, flying a Navy F-18. He may be in a green or blue flight suit”. The
women replies… “We have an F-18 out there, but that was no Colonel flying
it, that is about the best looking young Lieutenant I ever saw… every woman
in the office is going Ga-Ga over him”! Spock said, “That’s him”!
There is so much more… Damn we had a ball at Black Shadow! Love you Black,
best years of my life with you at my side!
Shadow

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Thanks to Micro
Ronald Reagan pushing back hard. 


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This Day in U S Military History  11 August
1945 – US Secretary of State, James Byrnes, replies to the Japanese offer to
surrender with a refusal to make any compromise on the demand for
unconditional surrender. His note states that the Allies envisage an
unconditional surrender as one where the emperor will be “subject to” the
supreme commander of the Allied powers and the form of government will be
decided the “will of the Japanese people.”
1950 – Maj Vivian Moses became the first casualty of Marine Air Group 33. He
crash-landed his F-4U Corsair in a rice paddy after being hit with ground
fire and was thrown from the cockpit. Knocked unconscious, Moses drowned
minutes before an air rescue team could get to him.
1960 – USNS Longview, using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recovers a
Discover satellite capsule after 17 orbits. This is first recovery of U.S.
satellite from orbit.
1965 – What should have been a routine traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles developed into one of the worst
racial riots in American history. Tensions between the African American
community and city law enforcement erupted into war-like acts as snipers and
arsonists attacked the police and fire department personal sent to quell the
disturbance. In one of the largest deployments of aid to civil authority in
American history up to that time, 12,758 California Guardsmen, drawn from
two divisions (7,560 men from the 40th Armored and 5,198 from the 49th
Infantry), were put on the streets to help restore order and protect people
and property. Air Guard units from California and Arizona flew a total of 18
C-97 and five C-119 transport aircraft to airlift the 49th Division’s men
from Northern California to the LA area. While a number of Guardsmen
returned sniper fire, it remains unclear if any civilians were killed by the
Guard. After six days and nights of terror the city’s streets were restored
to peace, but at a very high cost; 34 dead (no Guardsmen), more than 1,000
injured (including several Guardsmen), 4,000 arrested and over 1,000
buildings destroyed. Government and civic leaders, including some in the
black community, praised the Guardsmen for their courage, devotion to duty
and fair treatment of citizens regardless of race. Four Guardsmen were award
the California Military Cross for bravery.
1967 – For the first time, U.S. pilots are authorized to bomb road and rail
links in the Hanoi-Haiphong area, formerly on the prohibited target list.
This permitted U.S. aircraft to bomb targets within 25 miles of the Chinese
border and to engage other targets with rockets and cannon within 10 miles
of the border. The original restrictions had been imposed because of
Johnson’s fear of a confrontation with China and a possible expansion of the
war.
1972 – The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third
Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States. The unit
had been guarding the U.S. air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500
advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This number did not
include the sailors of the Seventh Fleet on station in the South China Sea
or the air force personnel in Thailand and Guam.

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*WHEAT, ROY M.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company K, 3d
Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of
Vietnam, 11 August 1967. Entered service a*: Jackson, Miss. Born: 24 July
1947, Moselle, Miss. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at
the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. L/Cpl. Wheat and 2
other marines were assigned the mission of providing security for a Navy
construction battalion crane and crew operating along Liberty Road in the
vicinity of the Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province. After the marines had
set up security positions in a tree line adjacent to the work site, L/Cpl.
Wheat reconnoitered the area to the rear of their location for the possible
presence of guerrillas. He then returned to within 10 feet of the friendly
position, and here unintentionally triggered a well concealed, bounding
type, antipersonnel mine. Immediately, a hissing sound was heard which was
identified by the 3 marines as that of a burning time fuse. Shouting a
warning to his comrades, L/Cpl. Wheat in a valiant act of heroism hurled
himself upon the mine, absorbing the tremendous impact of the explosion with
his body. The inspirational personal heroism and extraordinary valor of his
unselfish action saved his fellow marines from certain injury and possible
death, reflected great credit upon himself, and upheld the highest
traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave
his life for his country.

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From Alvin York’s Action to a Pillar of Purple Fire by  W. Thomas Smith Jr.
08/10/
This Week in American Military History:
Aug. 8, 1918:  Cpl. (future Sgt.) Alvin York captures "the whole damned
German Army" – actually 132 German soldiers – in an action for which he will
receive the Medal of Honor.
Aug. 9, 1945:  The second – and thus far, last – atomic bomb used in war is
dropped over the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
The bomb, code-named Fat Man, detonates approximately 1,840 feet above
Nagasaki between the city’s two Mitsubishi plants.
New York Times science writer William L. Laurence, an observer flying on the
mission, will write:
“A tremendous blast wave struck our ship and made it tremble from nose to
tail. This was followed by four more blasts in rapid succession, each
resounding like the boom of cannon fire hitting our plane from all
directions.
“Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though
from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings.
Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, 10,000 feet high, shooting
skyward with enormous speed.”
Aug. 12, 1898:  Hostilities are suspended between the United States and
Spain with the signing of an armistice all but ending the war (which will
formally end within the year).
Spain basically caves, relinquishing “all claim of sovereignty over and
title to Cuba.” Puerto Rico and other Spanish-held islands in the West
Indies are ceded to the U.S.
Manila will fall to American forces the next day.
Aug. 14, 1942:  U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Elza E. Shahan, flying a P-38
Lightning, scores the first American aerial victory in the European theater
of operations when he finishes off a previously damaged German Focke-Wulf FW
200 Condor near Iceland.
(The 21st-century F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter is the namesake of
the famous World War II-era P-38.)
Aug. 14, 1945:  Nearly 47 years to the day after Spain hoists the white flag
to American forces, Japan surrenders unconditionally to the same.
World War II is over.

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 11 August, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE
INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
11 August
1906: Mrs. C. J. S. Miller became the first woman in the US to fly as an
airship passenger. Her husband, Major Miller of Franklin, Pa., owned the
40-horsepower 22,500-cubic-foot airship. (24)
1910: Armstrong Drexel, an American, flew a Bleriot airplane to a FAI
altitude record of 6,605 feet at Lanark, Scotland. (9)
1944: Eighth Air Force sent 956 heavy bombers, escorted by 578 fighters, to
attack transportation facilities and military targets in eastern France. (4)

1950: KOREAN WAR. C-119 Flying Boxcars began airlifting trucks from
Tachikawa AB to Taegu. (28
1950: Air Force detachable fuselage transport XC-120, built by Fairchild,
completed its maiden flight. The Fairchild XC-120 Packplane was an American
experimental modular aircraft first flown in 1950. It was developed from the
company's C-119 Flying Boxcar and was unique in the unconventional use of
removable cargo pods that were attached below the fuselage, instead of
possessing an internal cargo compartment.
1954: The Air Force issued a requirement for the Atlas ICBM. (6)
1960: Navy frogmen recovered a 300-pound capsule ejected by Discoverer XIII.
This marked the first recovery of an object ejected by an orbiting
satellite. When the capsule came down outside the designated area, the
planned aerial retrieval had to be abandoned. (16) (24)
1961: Aerojet-General Corporation fired an Aerobee rocket in a test basin at
Azuza, Calif. This test included the first successful underwater launching
of a liquid-fueled rocket. (24)
1962: The 1608th Transport Wing at Charleston AFB received the first C-130E
Hercules for the MATS. (18)
1972: Northrop’s Hank Chouteau flew F-5E international fighter on its first
flight. This flight marked the beginning of Northrop’s development, test,
and evaluation program. (3)
1972: Northrop F-5E Tiger II flew for the first time. This upgrade included
more powerful engines, larger fuel capacity, greater wing area and improved
leading-edge extensions for better turn rates, optional air-to-air
refueling, and improved avionics including air-to-air radar. Primarily used
by American allies, it remained in US service to support training exercises.
It has served in a wide array of roles, being able to perform both air and
ground attack duties; the type was used extensively in the Vietnam War. A
total of 1,400 Tiger IIs were built before production ended in 1987.
1977: Testing at Luke AFB revealed that the Missile-X buried trench basing
mode could not withstand explosive pressures. This led the USAF to switch to
a hybrid trench-basing concept. (6)
1978: In the Double Eagle II balloon, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry
Newman completed the first balloon crossing of the Atlantic. They flew 3,100
miles from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France. (21)
1993: Through 15 August, three C-5s from the 436 AW airlifted 190 tons of
bridge components from England to Nepal after a flood washed out bridges
there. (16)
1994: GLOBAL ENTERPRISE. Through 14 August, in an ACC power-projection
exercise, two Rockwell B-1Bs from Ellsworth AFB, S. Dak., flew to Europe,
across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and around the Arabian Peninsula
to land at a staging base in Southwest Asia. After a crew change, the B-1s
then flew back to Ellsworth through Japan and over the Aleutians. The 37.3
hours for the total flight and 24 hours for the first leg were the longest
flights to date by the B-1B. (20)
2003: A C-9A Nightingale (No. 68-10959) assigned to the 375 AW at Scott AFB
performed the last scheduled C-9 aeromedical evacuation mission. The
aircraft airlifted one litter patient, a few space-available travelers, and
several soldiers wounded in Iraq to their home stations in the US in a
5.6-hour mission. (22)
2004: AFFTC conducted the final evaluation sortie on a new F-16 High-Speed
Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) targeting system at Edwards AFB. The testers
used a South Carolina ANG Block 50 F-16 to expedite the Suppression of Enemy
Air Defenses (SEAD) improvement. (3)

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