TheList 7619

7619

Good Saturday morning August  8, 2026 ... It is clearing up now .and heating

up again this morning to 88 by 1 and then staying there until 4 before it

starts dropping off from there.

I wish you all a great weekend/.

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)

The high point for breakfast Yesterday for me was  meeting  Admiral Denny

Wisely in person. I read his book Green Ink many years ago.

August 8

1860 Screw frigate USS San Jacinto, commanded by Capt. William M. Armstrong,

captures the American slaver Storm King with 619 slaves on board, off the

Congo River. A prize crew from the steam frigate sailed the captured slaver

to Monrovia and turned 616 freed Negroes over to the United States agent

there before proceeding to Norfolk with the prize.

1861 During the Civil War, the frigate USS Santee commanded by Capt. Eagle

captured the schooner C.P. Knapp in the Gulf of Mexico.

1863 During the Civil War, the screw steam gunboat, USS Sagamore, commanded

by Lt. Cmdr. English, seizes British sloop, HMS Clara Louisa, off Indian

River, Fla. Later the same day, Lt. Cmdr. English captures British

schooners, HMS Southern Rights and HMS Shot, and Confederate schooner, CSS

Ann, off Gilberts Bar.

1924 USS Shenandoah (ZR 1) secures herself to the mooring mast on USS Patoka

(AO 9), making the first use of the mooring mast erected on shipboard to

facilitate airship operations with the fleet.

1933 Commander, Aircraft Battle Force, requests the authority to use

variable-pitch propellers during forthcoming exercises on six Boeing F4B-4s

of VF 3 based on board USS Langley (CV 1) and on one (F4B 4) of (VF 1) on

board USS Saratoga (CV 3).

1942 USS Narwhal (SS 167) sinks Japanese crab boat, Bifuku Maru, southeast

of Sharia Saki while USS S-38 (SS 143) sinks Japanese transport, Meiyo Maru,

at the southern entrance of St. George Channel, between New Britain and New

Ireland. Also on this date, USS Silversides (SS 236) attacks a Japanese

convoy emerging from Kobe Harbor and sinks freighter Nikkei Maru in Kii

Strait.

1987 USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43) is commissioned at Lockheed Shipyard,

Seattle, Wash. The Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship is named for Fort

McHenry in Baltimore, Md., the fort for which its 1814 defense inspired

Francis Scott Key to write the lyrics for the Star Spangled Banner.

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Today in World History August 8

1306    King Wenceslas of Poland is murdered.

1570    Charles IX of France signs the Treaty of St. Germain, ending the

third war of religion and giving religious freedom to the Huguenots.

1636    The invading armies of Spain, Austria and Bavaria are stopped at the

village of St.-Jean-de-Losne, only 50 miles from France.

1648    Ibrahim, the sultan of Istanbul, is thrown into prison, then

assassinated.

1786    Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard become the first men

to climb Mont Blanc in France.

1844    Brigham Young is chosen to head the Mormon Church, succeeding Joseph

Smith.

1863    Confederate President Jefferson Davis refuses General Robert E.

Lee's resignation.

1876    Thomas Edison patents the mimeograph.

1899    The first household refrigerating machine is patented.

1925    The first national congress of the Ku Klux Klan opens.

1937    The Japanese Army occupies Beijing.

1940    The German Luftwaffe attacks Great Britain for the first time,

beginning the Battle of Britain.

1942    U.S. Marines capture the Japanese airstrip on Guadalcanal.

1944    U.S. forces complete the capture of the Marianas Islands.

1945    The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

1950    U.S. troops repel the first North Korean attempt to overrun them at

the Battle of Naktong Bulge, which continued for 10 days.

1963    England's "Great Train Robbery;" 2.6 million pounds ($7.3 million)

is stolen

1974    President Richard Nixon resigns from the presidency as a result of

the Watergate scandal.

1978    Pioneer-Venus 2 is launched to probe the atmosphere of Venus.

1979    Iraq's president Saddam Hussein executes 22 political opponents.

1983    Brigadier General Efrain Rios Montt is deposed as president of

Guatemala in the country's second military coup in 17 months.

1988    Angola, Cuba and South Africa sign a cease-fire treaty in the border

war that began in 1966.

1989    NASA Space Shuttle Columbia begins its eighth flight, NASA's 30th

shuttle mission.

1990    Iraq annexes the state of Kuwait as its 19th province, six days

after Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait.

2000    The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley is raised to surface, 136

years after it sank following its successful attack on USS Housatonic in the

outer harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.

2007    An EF2 tornado hits Brooklyn, New York, the first in that borough

since 1889.

2008    Georgia invades South Ossetia, touching off a five-day war between

Georgia and Russia.

.

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .

August 8

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 8.

8-Aug:  https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=737 

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/ )

https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2022-news-

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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So that we do not forget who was in charge when this happened

Thanks to Shadow

I’m sitting here watching the families of those lost in the withdrawal from

Kabul testify…with tears in my eyes! Turn it on… watch it… never forget it!

Shadow

This is a national tragedy from the top down. Absolutely unforgivable

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From the Archives

Those who are not interested in the dialogue that follows, will enjoy the

link at the bottom showing the history of the aircraft.

Make sure and watch the video after you read the story of the flight’s

captain.  This is an interesting story. It shows how it was first proven

possible using radio control models.

Be sure to watch the video at the end

A quick "trip report" from the pilot of the 747 that flew the shuttle back

to Florida after the Hubble repair flight. A humorous and interesting inside

look at what it's like to fly two aircraft at once.  (I have decided to

adopt one of "Triple Nickel's" phrases : "That was too close for MY

laundry!")

Well, it's been 48 hours since I landed the 747 with the shuttle Atlantis on

top and I am still buzzing from the experience. I have to say that my whole

mind, body and soul went into the professional mode just before engine start

in Mississippi, and stayed there, where it all needed to be, until well

after the flight.  Iin fact, I am not sure if it is all back to normal as I

type this email. The experience was surreal. Seeing that "thing" on top of

an already overly huge aircraft boggles my mind. The whole mission from

takeoff to engine shutdown was unlike anything I had ever done. It was like

a dream -- someone else's dream.

We took off from Columbus Air Force Base on their 12,000-foot runway, of

which I used 11,999 feet to get the wheels off the ground. We were at 3,500

feet left to go of the runway, throttles full power, nose wheels still

hugging the ground, the copilot calling out decision speeds, the weight of

Atlantis now screaming through my fingers clinched tightly on the controls,

tires heating up to their near maximum temperature from the speed and the

weight, and not yet at rotation speed, the speed at which I would be pulling

on the controls to get the nose to rise. I just could not wait, and I mean I

COULD NOT WAIT, and started pulling early. If I had waited until rotation

speed, we would not have rotated enough to get airborne by the end of the

runway. So I pulled on the controls early and started our rotation to the

takeoff attitude. The wheels finally lifted off as we passed over the stripe

marking the end of the runway and my next hurdle (physically) was a line of

trees 1,000 feet off the departure end of runway 16. All I knew was we were

flying and so I directed the gear to be retracted and the flaps to be moved

from flaps 20 to flaps 10 as I pulled even harder on the controls. I must

say, those trees were beginning to look a lot like those brushes in the

drive through car washes so I pulled even harder yet! I think I saw a bird

just fold it's wings and fall out of a tree as if to say "Oh just take me".

Okay, we cleared the trees, duh, but it was way too close for my laundry.

As we started to actually climb, at only 100 feet per minute, I smelled

something that reminded me of touring the Heineken Brewery in Europe. I said

"is that a skunk I smell?" and the veterans of shuttle carrying looked at me

and smiled and said "Tires"! I said "TIRES? . . . OURS? . . ." They smiled

and shook their heads as if to call their captain an amateur.  Okay, at that

point I was. The tires were so hot you could smell them in the cockpit. My

mind could not get over, from this point on, that this was something I had

never experienced.  Where's your mom when you REALLY need her?

The flight down to Florida was an eternity. We cruised at 250 knots

indicated, giving us about 315 knots of ground speed at 15,000' The miles

didn't click by like I am use to them clicking by in a fighter jet at mach

.94. We were burning fuel at a rate of 40,000 pounds per hour or 130 pounds

per mile, or one gallon every length of the fuselage. The vibration in the

cockpit was mild, compared to down below and to the rear of the fuselage

where it reminded me of that football game I had as a child where you turned

it on and the players vibrated around the board. I felt like if I had

plastic clips on my boots I could have vibrated to any spot in the fuselage

I wanted to go without moving my legs . . . and the noise was deafening. The

747 flies with its nose 5 degrees up in the air to stay level, and when you

bank, it feels like the shuttle is trying to say "hey, let's roll completely

over on our back" . . . not a good thing I kept telling myself. So I limited

my bank angle to 15 degrees and even though a 180 degree course change took

a full zip code to complete, it was the safe way to turn this monster.

Airliners and even a flight of two F-16s deviated from their flight plans to

catch a glimpse of us along the way. We dodged what was in reality very few

clouds and storms, despite what everyone thought, and arrived in Florida

with 51,000 pounds of fuel . . . too much to land with. We can't land

heavier than 600,000 pounds total weight and so we had to do something with

that fuel. I had an idea . . . let's fly low and slow and show this beast

off to all the taxpayers in Florida lucky enough to be outside on that

Tuesday afternoon. So at Ormond Beach we let down to 1,000 feet above the

ground/water and flew just east of the beach out over the water. Then, once

we reached the NASA airspace of the Kennedy Space Center, we cut over to the

Banana/Indian Rivers and flew down the middle of them to show the people of

Titusville, Port St. Johns, and Melbourne just what a 747 with a shuttle on

it looked like. We stayed at 1,000 feet and since we were dragging our flaps

at "flaps 5", our speed was down to around 190 to 210 knots. We could see

traffic stopping in the middle of roads to take a look. We heard later that

a little league baseball game stoped to look and everyone cheered as we

became their 7th inning stretch. Oh say can you see...

After reaching Vero Beach, we turned north to follow the coast line back up

to the shuttle landing facility (SLF). There was not one person laying on

the beach . . . they were all standing and waving!" What a sight" I thought

. . . and figured they were thinking the same thing.  All this time I was

bugging the engineers, all three of them, to re-compute our fuel and tell me

when it was time to land.

They kept saying "Not yet triple, keep showing this thing off" which was not

a bad thing to be doing. However, all this time the thought that the

landing, the muscling of this 600,000 pound beast, was getting closer and

closer to my reality. I was pumped up! We got back to the SLF and were still

10,000 pounds too heavy to land so I said I was going to do a low approach

over the SLF going the opposite direction of landing traffic that day.  So

at 300 feet, we flew down the runway, rocking our wings like a whale rolling

on its side to say "hello" to the people looking on! One turn out of traffic

and back to the runway to land . . . still 3,000 pounds over gross weight

limit. But the engineers agreed that if the landing were smooth, there would

be no problem.  "Oh, thanks guys, a little extra pressure is just what I

needed!"

So, we landed at 603,000 pounds, and very smoothly if I have to say so

myself. The landing was so totally controlled and on speed, that it was fun.

There were a few surprises that I dealt with, like the 747 falls like a rock

with the orbiter on it if you pull the throttles off at the "normal" point

in a landing, and secondly, if you thought you could hold the nose off the

ground after the mains touch down, think again . . . IT IS COMING DOWN!  So

I "flew it down" to the ground and saved what I have seen in videos of a

nose slap after landing. Bob's video supports this!

Then I turned on my phone after coming to a full stop only to find 50

bazillion emails and phone messages from all of you who were so super to be

watching and cheering us on! What a treat, I can't thank y'all enough.  For

those who watched, you wondered why we sat there so long. Well, the shuttle

had very hazardous chemicals on board and we had to be "sniffed" to

determine if any had leaked or were leaking. They checked for

Monomethylhydrazine (N2H4 for Charlie Hudson) and nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).

Even though we were "clean", it took way too long for them to tow us in to

the mate-demate area. Sorry for those who stuck it out and even waited until

we exited the jet.

I am sure I will wake up in the middle of the night here soon, screaming and

standing straight up dripping wet with sweat from the realization of what

had happened. It was a thrill of a lifetime. Again, I want to thank everyone

for your interest and support. It felt good to bring Atlantis home in one

piece after she had worked so hard getting to the Hubble Space Telescope and

back.

And a video, in case you haven't seen the shuttle carrier aircraft:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcI1e4KiDv0

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Thanks to Dr. Rich

On Aug 6, 2023, at 11:31, DD Wolfe wrote to Dick Rutan:

Click on screenshot for Amazon site … or HERE

Dear Sir;

If I may: "your next 5 minutes"........

I just finished your excellent book. You are one of those guys that I wanted

to be like when I was a kid growing up on a diary farm in “no-where" Ohio.

There have been many mentors sent my way over the years. With their help, a

solid 2.0 GPA and 2 years of college I ended up slopping in to an F-100 Air

Guard slot in the Ohio Guard at age 20. 2 of my F-100 IP's in the Tucson ANG

in 1975 were Don Sheppard and Ted Powell, as you know both Mistys. Those

guys were "Av- Gods" to me as were many more of the Nam Vet IPs there.

Our first 5 rides in the Hun were in the backseat and Powell was my IP. Ride

1 I'm strapped in the back: "Lt Air Training Command", sleeves down, gloves

on, mask on and both visors down. Powell came up the ladder, looked at me

with disgust and gave the "hit the air" signal to the mechanic. He proceeded

to complete the start standing outside on the ladder and climbed in

following air and elect disconnect. Connected to the intercom he said,"

Wolfe, you look like an idiot back there, these things can blow up during

start ya know."

"Really ? Should I stand outside with you during start on the next ride

Sir?" Powell replied; " No, I'm just letting you know these things blow up

during start and you look like an idiot." I knew he was jerking my chain and

frankly, I loved it. The Tucson ANG in those days was Fighter Pilot Hun

Heaven!

Eventually the mentors led me to United Airlines in 1978. In 1981 I was

furloughed from UA and got a job working for Beech during the Starship

years. We ( the Beech employees) were at the NBAA Convention in Dallas when

Linden Blue showed the video of the Starship coming in from space and flying

a low level over Lake Powell (you?). Man was that cool ! Following the video

we were escorted out to see the real Starship. HOLY CRAP that plane was

beautiful ! The Cheyenne 4  parked next to it looked ancient.

Back at UA and in the sunset of my career I ended up flying the B-747 demo

in the Fleet Week airshow for 5 years. I was the "line stiff" representing

the 12,000 UA pilots. Why was I selected? Line check airman qualified in

both seats and "Hun Driver".  The other 2 pilots were from the UA flight

test section; USN test pilot George Silverman and USAF test pilot Joe "Sack"

Sobczak.

A couple of years ago I was at Oshkosh with Joe and you joined us for

dinner. That's when I found out about your book.

Your book spoke to me on many levels Dick, from overcoming an occasional "

not wanting to be there" in fighters to being involved with those self

serving schmucks with zero integrity. I have no tolerance for those

people.Your chapter about running for Congress speaks volumes about a very

serious problem in our country- Politics. I was once a Republican but I no

longer recognize the party and have become an "independent". Again, honesty,

integrity on both sides of the aisle. WTF?

Dick, thank you for your service to our nation and thank you for everything

you and Burt have done for aviation and space. It's amazing that you flew

the Voyager all the way around the world and that Burt's space ship beat the

altitude record of the Gov-Funded X-15 !

I'm planning to attend the next SSS reunion. If you're there, I'll buy ya a

beer.

"Your 6 is Clear Sir......Shoot Shoot Shoot "

Wolfman  out

Don Wolfe, Auburn CA

===========================================================

One of the Most memorable events in my life.

That day at Luke AFB 1966 when that Blue Crew Van pulled up and dropped me

off in front of an F 100D all by myself and were going to let me fly it solo

for the very first time.

Then riding one on fire from over north VN trying to make it feet wet.

Dick RUTAN

Ltc USAF (Retired)

Fellow Aviator

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Thanks to Dr.Rich

Colonel McPhail

Thanks to Mike R.

For your pilot buddies. My friends uncle…

Friends, my dad’s little brother was honored at last weekend’s Osh Kosh Air

Show.

They believe he is the last Corsair pilot from World  War 2.  He will be 102

in October.  He flew 241 missions in WW2 and Korea.  Here is an interview if

you are interested. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-GaK4oryNA

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Thanks to Dick

Geopolitics

Russia and Germany’s new war

Russia is the obvious suspect for the explosive drone discovered at a German

airport between two Ukrainian transport aircraft and before it could blow

up.

There was no claim of responsibility for the drone that was carrying a

fist-sized ball of explosives, probably Semtex, that was found at Leipzig

airport on Tuesday, but Germany’s interior minister called it a ‘hybrid

threat’—a description that puts it in that zone that falls short of outright

warfare, something Russia and Germany know about only too well.

It was a warning that hybrid warfare could easily cross that line into a

bigger confrontation, but it can cause very significant destruction even if

it does not. And drones offer a cheap new technology to facilitate it.

German federal prosecutors called it a “serious attack.”

Neither Germany nor Russia might want to enter a full-blown war right now,

but they are already essentially at war in Ukraine. It would be naïve for

Germany to believe that it could fight the war only via Ukraine as a proxy

and without being touched itself.

Leipzig airport is a logistics and military hub. It is home to NATO's

Strategic Airlift International Solution, which is constantly flying

equipment to forces on the bloc’s eastern flank. It is also a support hub

for Ukraine, as was made obvious by the presence of the Ukrainian aircraft.

A sophisticated incendiary device caught fire there in 2024.

Ukraine was the top recipient of German weapons in the first half of this

year. Exports amounted to $2.5 billion during that period alone and were

styled as support for Ukraine’s defense against what Berlin calls Russia’s

“illegal war of aggression.”

Since the war began, Germany has sent tanks and other armored vehicles,

artillery and ammunition, Patriot air defense systems with missiles, air

defense systems, rocket launchers, drones and drone defense systems, radio

systems and much, much more.

It drew the line at long-range Taurus missiles, which could be used to

attack deep inside Russia itself, saying recently that Ukraine had shown it

now had the same capabilities so did not need them. Perhaps it thought this

would give it some protection.

Whatever the international legalities of sabotage attacks on weapons

transport and supply chains in other countries, they are a longstanding part

of warfare.

Germany does show some understanding of the dangers. Even more than other

European countries, it has been putting effort into rearmament: aiming to

build the strongest conventional army in Europe (again), with expanded

recruitment and a drive to make more weapons and ammunition.

What could have been a drone disaster at Leipzig airport is another wake-up

call. There is no guarantee a country can remain only half-involved in a

war.

What Else We’re Tracking Today

   

    What U.S. weapons shortages mean

Exact stockpiles are classified, meaning it's hard to know exactly how many

missiles remain ready for U.S. troops to use, and where they're stored or

deployed. But five types of offensive and defensive missiles have been

identified as running low because of the U.S. strikes on Iran, and Iran's

persistent targeting of U.S. bases and allies across the Middle East.

   

    NATO scrambles jets repeatedly

NATO has said its fighter jets were scrambled more than twice as often in

July as during the same period last year along the alliance's eastern flank.

The alliance said that Russian military aircraft "repeatedly flew close to

NATO airspace without a flight plan and transponder signal.”

A Visual Story

Shifting allegiances

As the Middle East continues to reel from nearly three years of crisis since

the outbreak of the war in Gaza and six months of open conflict between the

United States and Iran, the region's geopolitical map is shifting. While

much of the change taking place is rooted in trends that have existed for

years, ongoing turmoil has only accelerated the emergence of three fluid yet

increasingly substantial blocs aligned with Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia,

each vying to shape the future of the Middle East.

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Click to watch/read

. vintageaviationnews.com

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Thanks to Bill

America’s first 'top secret' Medal of Honor went to a Japanese-American

fighting in Korea James Elphick, We Are The Mighty Hiroshi Miyamura

Wikimedia Commons Hiroshi Miyamura was born to Japanese immigrants in

Gallup, New Mexico, in 1925. This made him Nisei — Japanese for

“second-generation.”

At the outbreak of World War II, Miyamura witnessed many of his fellow Nisei

being shipped off to internment camps. Gallup, however, was not located

within the relocation zone, and even if it was, the townspeople were ready

to stand up for their Japanese neighbors.

Safe from the internment camps, Miyamura enlisted in the US Army

volunteering to serve with the famed Nisei 100th Battalion, 442ndRegimental

Combat Team. Unfortunately for Miyamura, by the time he reached Europe to

join the unit, Germany had surrendered.

He returned home, stayed in the Army Reserve, and married a fellow Nisei

woman who had been interned in Arizona.

Miyamura looked like he might pass his time in obscurity until North Korea

charged across the 38th Parallel on June 25, 1950.

Recalled to active service, Miyamura joined the 3rd Infantry Division’s 7th

Infantry Regiment in Japan as it prepared to join the combat on the Korean

peninsula.

Landing on Korea’s east coast, Miyamura and the rest of the 3rd Infantry

Division stormed into North Korea before being driven back by the Chinese

intervention.

The 7th Infantry Regiment helped cover the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir

and was the last unit to leave Hungnam on December 24, 1950.

Miyamura and his comrades were then placed on the defensive line around the

38th Parallel where they actively repelled numerous Chinese Offensives.

The war then became a bloody stalemate with each side battling across

hilltops trying to gain an advantage.

One such hilltop, located at Taejon-ni along a defensive position known as

the Kansas Line, was occupied by Miyamura and the rest of Company H, 2nd

Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment. 2

A map of China’s offensives in the Korean Peninsula. Wikimedia Commons After

dark on April 24, 951, Miyamura quietly awakened his men – a trip flare had

gone off in the valley below their position. In the faint light of the

flare, the Americans could make out large masses of Communist troops

advancing on their position.

The Chinese 29th Division smashed into the entire 7th Infantry Regiment. The

hardest hit was the 2nd Battalion holding the right flank. By 2:30 the next

morning, they were surrounded by the Chinese.

Miyamura, leading a machine-gun squad, ordered his men to open fire. As the

American guns roared to life, the Chinese fell in droves. But still they

kept coming.

After two hours of relentless fighting, Miyamura’s machine-guns were down to

less than 200 rounds of ammunition. He gave the order to fix bayonets and

prepared to repulse the next wave of Chinese attackers.

When that attack came, Miyamura jumped from his position and savagely

attacked the enemy. He blasted off eight rounds from his M-1 Garand before

dispatching more Chinese with his bayonet.

He then returned to his position to give first aid to the wounded. When he

realized they could no longer hold, he ordered his squad to retreat while he

gave covering fire.

He shot off the last of the machine-gun ammunition and rendered the gun

inoperable before pouring another eight rounds into the advancing Communist.

Machine-gunners. Wikimedia Commons According to Miyamura’s Medal of Honor

citation, he then “bayoneted his way through infiltrated enemy soldiers”

until he reached a second position and once again took up the defense.

During his withdrawal, Miyamura was wounded by a grenade thrown by a dying

Chinese soldier.

The attacks grew fiercer against the second position. Elsewhere along the

line, the rest of the battalion had been ordered to begin a withdrawal south

to a more tenable position. Miyamura, realizing their position was in danger

of being overrun, ordered the remaining men to fall back as well while he

covered their retreat. 3

Miyamura was last seen by friendly forces fighting ferociously against

overwhelming odds. It is estimated he killed a further 50 Chinese before he

ran out of ammunition and his position was overrun.

Exhausted and depleted from blood loss, Miyamura and numerous other men from

the 7th Infantry Regiment were captured by the Communists.

Despite his heroic efforts, Miyamura’s ordeal was far from over.

After being captured, the men were marched North for internment camps.

Miyamura set out carrying his friend and fellow squad leader, Joe Annello,

who had been more severely wounded.

Others who fell out of the march were shot or bayoneted. At gun point, the

Chinese forced Miyamura to drop his friend. Miyamura initially refused but

Annello convinced him. They said goodbye and Miyamura marched on.

He would spend over two years as a prisoner of war at Camp 1 in Changson.

Men of the 1st Marine Division capture Chinese Communists during fighting on

the central Korean front, Hoengsong. Wikimedia Commons While he was there,

the decision was made to award him the Medal of Honor for his actions on the

night of April 24 and 25.

However, due to his staunch defense and the large numbers of enemy he

killed, it was decided to keep his award classified until he could be

repatriated for fear of retaliation by his captors.

Finally, on August 20, 1953 Miyamura was released from captivity as part of

Operation Big Switch. When he arrived at Allied lines, he was taken aside

and informed that he had been promoted to Sergeant and also that he had

received the Medal of Honor.

Miyamura returned to Gallup after the war and settled down.

Then, in 1954, over a year after the war ended, a man walked into Miyamura’s

work – it was his old friend Joe Annello. Both had been sure that the other

had died in captivity until Annello read Miyamura’s story and traveled all

the way to New Mexico to see if it was true.

Miyamura is still in Gallup, in the same house he bought all the way back in

1954.

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 8, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT

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

INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

8 August

1903: The Langley gasoline engine model plane was successfully launched from

a catapult on a houseboat; however, the flight did not last very long and

the vehicle was uncontrollable. For this reason, the Wrights received credit

for the first sustained, controllable flight. (24)

1908: At Camp d'Auvours, France, Orville Wright broke French records for

duration, distance, and altitude. (8)

1910: A civilian mechanic, Oliver G. Simmons, and Cpl Glen Madole built and

installed the first tricycle landing gear on the Army Wright plane. (4) (24)

1913: Lt Harold Geiger (US Army) flew a military airplane for the first time

in Hawaii at the Fort Kamehameha Aviation School. He flew a Curtiss E

two-seater, Signal Corps No. 8, over Pearl Harbor. (21)

1933: The Navy accepted the variable-pitch propeller. (24)

1945: At NACA’s Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, scientists

published an article suggesting that it may possible to fly an aircraft with

an atomic engine and brick-sized fuel source around the world nonstop

several times. (8: Aug 90)

1946: The Convair XB-36 Peacemaker flew its first flight. The "Peacemaker"

was a strategic bomber that was built by Convair and operated by the USAF

from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 is the largest mass-produced piston-engine

aircraft ever built. It had the widest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever

built, at 230 feet. The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any

of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal from an internal bomb bay without

aircraft modifications. With a range of 10,000 miles and a maximum payload

of 87,200 lb., the B-36 was capable of intercontinental flight without

refueling.

We had these beasts at Loring AFB just a bit from the Canadian border and

they made a sound that was awesome. You could hear it when the aircraft was

just a dot in the sky above you. With 6 turning and 4 burning it was

something to behold…Skip

1947: A. L. Berger of Wright Field received the Thurman H. Bane Award for

1947 for work in developing new types of high temperature ceramic coatings

for use in aircraft engines. (24)

1950: KOREAN WAR. Advancing N. Korean forces caused the 18 FBG to evacuate

Taegu to Ashiya. The 307 BG, newly based in Okinawa, flew its first mission.

(28)

1952: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force fighters flew 285 close air support

sorties, the highest daily total for the month. At night B-26s flew three

voice broadcast sorties totaling almost four hours over enemy-held positions

near the east coast. (28)

1955: Over Edwards AFB, the X-1A rocket research plane exploded on its B-29

carrier and was jettisoned to destruction. NACA pilot Joe Walker escaped

safely. (3) (8: Aug 90)

1961: The USAF launched the Atlas F from Cape Canaveral for the first time.

It was designed to store liquid fuels for a long time and for a short

countdown. It was the only Atlas model put in hardened underground silo

lift-launchers. (6) (24) Operation SWIFT STRIKE. This joint USAF-Army

exercise at Fort Bragg began when USAF airplanes dropped 7,500 paratroops of

the 82d Airborne Division into the area. (16)

1962: In tests to reveal the relationship of speed, altitude, and angle of

attack to aerodynamic heating of an aircraft’s exterior surfaces, the X-15

No. 2 reached nearly 900° F while flying at about 90,000 feet and about

2,900 MPH. Major Robert A. Rushworth flew the aircraft. (24)

1967: McGuire AFB received the last C-141 Starlifter, the “Garden State

Starlifter,” to be delivered to a MAC base from Lockheed. (18)

1969: The C-131A Samaritan flew its last domestic aeromedical evacuation

mission. Samaritans flew nearly 437,000 accident-free flying hours to

airlift some 400,000 patients during their 14-year history in domestic

service. (18)

1972: An over-the-horizon radar system radar system, capable of detecting

missiles as they penetrate the ionosphere, came under the operational

command of ADC. This system had sites in both the Pacific and European

areas.

1975: Five AFRES and ANG C-130s flew 104 sorties through 15 August to drop

1,400 tons of fire retardant on fires in southern California. (21)

1984: The first USAFE C-23 Sherpas entered USAF service in the European

Distribution System. (16)

1990: Operation DESERT SHIELD. The first USAF transport, a C-141, arrived in

Dhahran. The aircraft had a reserve aircrew. (16) (26)

1998: Boeing-Rocketdyne and Air Force Research Laboratory personnel

conducted the first successful test burn of the RS-68 rocket engine at

Edwards AFB. It was the first new large liquid-fuel rocket motor developed

in the US in 25 years. (3)

2007: Air Force officials in Washington DC signed a production contract with

Lockheed Martin to add 60 F-22 Raptors to the Air Force inventory by

December 2011. The multiyear contract for the fifth-generation fighters

saved the Air Force $411 million as compared to a traditional annual

procurement program of three separate, single-year contracts for 20

aircraft. (AFNEWS, “Air Force Signs Multiyear Contract for F-22,” 8 Aug

2007.) Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne certified the synthetic

Fischer-Tropsch fuel blend for the B-52H Stratofortress in a ceremony at

Edwards AFB, Calif. (AFNEWS, “SECAF Certifies Synthetic Fuel Blends for

B-52H,” 8 Aug 2007.) Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, welcomed its first F-22 Raptor.

Its arrival made Elmendorf the second operational base in the Air Force and

the first base in Pacific Air Forces to receive the new air superiority

fighter. At Elmendorf, the F-22s joined the 3rd Wing and the Air Force

Reserve Command's 477th Fighter Group. The 477th Fighter Group became the

first Air Force Reserve unit to operate and maintain the F-22. (AFNEWS,

“Elmendorf Welcomes F-22 Raptor,” 8 Aug 2007.) .

.

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This Day in Military History

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 7, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT

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

INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

7 August

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TheList 7618

7618

Good Friday morning August  7, 2026 ... It is clearing up now ( almost 11)

.and heating up again this morning to 90 by 2 and then start dropping off

from there.

Bubba Breakfast was great this morning with a good turnout of around 25

attending.

.

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 6

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Today in World History August 6

.

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .

August 6

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 7.

7-Aug:  https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=727 

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/ )

https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2022-news-

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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August 7

1782 The Badge of Military Merit, now known as the Purple Heart, is

established by Gen. George Washington.

1899 Five officers and 121 enlisted Marines commanded by Maj. Allen C.

Kelton, USMC, land at Agana, Guam, from USS Yosemite, as a garrison for the

naval station which is later established.

1918 Naval Weapons Station Yorktown is established as the Naval Mine Depot

when President Woodrow Wilson signs proclamation.

1942 During the Guadalcanal Campaign, the armada led by Rear Adm. Richmond

K. Turner lands Marines on Guadalcanal and seizes a nearly-complete airfield

at Guadalcanal's Lunga Point in the first U.S. land offensive of World War

II. To the north, Tulagi Island, and a few miles to the east, Tanambogo and

Gavutu Islands, Marines also land and fight bitter battles, concluding a few

days after. Nonetheless, the campaigns final outcome is in doubt for nearly

four months and is not certain until the Japanese evacuate their surviving

troops at Guadalcanal on Feb. 8, 1943.

1943 TBF and F4F (VC 1) from USS Card (CVE 11) sink the German submarine (U

117) west of the Azores.

1972 Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr. issues Z-Gram 116,

which enables Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women in the US Navy.

1990 Operation Desert Shield is ordered by President George H.W. Bush.

Desert Shield is the largest overseas deployment since Vietnam, to protect

Saudi Arabia after Iraqi's invasion of Kuwait.

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Today in World History August 7

1782    General George Washington authorizes the award of the Purple Heart

for soldiers wounded in combat.

1864    Union troops capture part of Confederate General Jubal Early's army

at Moorefield, West Virginia.

1888    Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia receives a patent for the

revolving door.

1906    In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three

African Americans which becomes known as "The Lyerly Murders."

1916    Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia.

1922    The Irish Republican Army cuts the cable link between the United

States and Europe at Waterville landing station.

1934    In Washington, the U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the government

can neither confiscate nor ban James Joyce's novel Ulysses.

1936    The United States declares non-intervention in the Spanish Civil

War.

1942    The U.S. 1st Marine Division under General A. A. Vandegrift lands on

the islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon islands. This is the

first American amphibious landing of the war.

1944    German forces launch a major counter attack against U.S. forces near

Mortain, France.

1964    Congress overwhelmingly passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution,

allowing the president to use unlimited military force to prevent attacks on

U.S. forces.

1966    The United States loses seven planes over North Vietnam, the most in

the war up to this point.

1971    Apollo 15 returns to Earth. The mission to the moon had marked the

first use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

1973    A U.S. plane accidentally bombs a Cambodian village, killing 400

civilians.

1976    The US Viking 2 spacecraft goes into orbit around Mars.

1981    The Washington (D.C.) Star ceases publication after 128 years.

1984    Japan defeats the United States to win the Olympic Gold in baseball.

1987    Presidents of five Central American nations sign a peace accord in

Guatemala.

1990    Operation Desert Shield begins as US troops deploy to Saudi Arabia

to discourage Iraq's Saddam Hussein from invading that country as he had

Kuwait.

2007    Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks Hank Aaron's record

with his 756th home run. Bonds' accomplishments were clouded by allegations

of illegal steroid use and lying to a grand jury.

Today is National Purple Heart day!

Purple Heart Ceremony at Mount Vernon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdBG2QNFbg

Did you know George Washington created the first United States military

award, originally known as the military badge of merit, now known as the

Purple Heart? We meet with Col. Gordon Sumner to learn more about the legacy

of the Purple Heart award, and about the ceremony held at Mount Vernon on

Purple Heart day every year.

History: Today is August 7th, on this date back in 1782 George Washington

creates the Purple Heart

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AAF air support at Guadalcanal

Thanks to Boris and Barrtett who wrote “I knew several Cactus AF survivors

of all branches.  The AAFers said that a P-400 was a P-40 with a Zero behind

it.  (Optimized for low-medium altitude hence the CAS employment.”)

General Head Sir, Have to be careful here as a Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club alumni

giving accolades to the Air Force but given the CAS aspects of the book and

your 325 A-1 missions in Vietnam, thought you might appreciate an Air Corps

story on the anniversary of Operation Watchtower - the Marines landing on

Guadalcanal.

The attached amplifies the picture of the Bell P-400 Airacobra CAS mission

in support of Marines under LtCol "Red Mike"  Edson at Bloody Ridge, and is

an excerpt from 1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 15 –

Guadalcanal, From the Start, A New and Different Context; Cactus (4/4)

Click below for story

http://rememberedsky.com/?p=2287

The flight lead Capt. Thompson would receive a Navy Cross and his wingmen

Silver Stars.

V/R

Boris

1942- The Year of the Aircraft Carrier; Part 15 – Guadalcanal, From the

Start, A New and Different Context; Cactus (4/4)

(Excerpt)

Commander in Chief, United States Fleet (COMINCH) and Chief of Naval

Operations (CNO) Ernest King pushed hard in Washington for operations in the

Pacific – Navy ops.  The victory at Midway gave him the leverage he needed

in the Europe first Washington D.C. comings and goings. King directed

Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean

Areas, Chester Nimitz to move out and thus began the push to move to the

offensive by invading  Guadalcanal. The number of ships would grow close to

ninety, vastly more than say the Wake Island or Doolittle events. As noted

previously it combined land, sea and air combat capability as never before.

Watchtower was indeed a recognized gamble, and yet, the planning was

seriously short of consideration of that complexity and what situations

might evolve, not the least of this would be the lack of early land based

air.

There is no Japanese defeat in the Solomons without the defense of Henderson

Field and the combat flying of the Cactus Air Force.

... Living conditions on Guadalcanal were some of the most difficult ever

faced by Marine aviation. Pilots and mechanics lived in mud-floored tents in

a flooded coconut plantation called “Mosquito Grove.” Most contracted

tropical diseases such as malaria, dysentery, dengue fever, or fungal

infections.

The misery was accompanied by mortal danger. The airfield was bombed nearly

every day around noon by 20 to 40 Mitsubishi G4M “Betty” bombers flying at

20,000 feet (6,100 m) in a perfect “Vee formation” escorted by fighter

planes.  It was frequently shelled as well, by Japanese artillery in the day

and Japanese warships at night. (The worst night of bombardment was on 13–14

October 1942, when two Japanese battleships fired more than 700 heavy shells

into the airfield, providing cover for the Japanese Navy’s landing of Marine

and army reinforcements further west on Guadalcanal.) ... As the battle for

Guadalcanal continued, USMC and AAF aircraft losses mounted. On 10

September, only eleven F4Fs, twenty-two SBD dive-bombers, and three P-400s

were available for the next crucial CAS mission  on 14 September during the

defense of Bloody Ridge.

... Only two thousand yards to the south of Henderson Field lay Bloody Ridge

where Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson’s 1st Raider Battalion had

established a last line of defense against an expected Japanese attack out

of the jungles to the south. What Edson’s battalion did not know was that a

Japanese brigade over 2,000 strong was preparing to attack on the night of

13 September.  The Japanese attackers mounted two major assaults before

midnight. Edson’s Battalion bent but did not break, falling back a few yards

at a time into successive positions along the ridge toward the airfield. If

the Japanese could break the thin Marine line, the airfield would be theirs

for the taking.

Before sunup on 14 September, an officer from the 1st Raider Battalion met

with the commander of the 67th FS, Captain  Thompson. Using a crude map, he

described the precarious situation and requested a CAS mission at first

light. Thompson agreed and had his flight of three P-400s at the end of the

runway just before sunup. As dawn began to break, Thompson’s flight

departed.

Bloody Ridge was located almost within the aircraft traffic pattern around

the airfield and Thompson kept the Marine position in view as his aircraft

lifted off the ground and began a slight turn to the south. Maintaining

altitude just above the trees, Thompson led his flight below the level of

Bloody Ridge and pointed at the suspected Japanese assembly area. When the

area came into view, Thompson spotted large groups of Japanese soldiers

massing for an attack and he immediately began to fire.

After two passes, Thompson’s and another aircraft, piloted by Lieutenant B.

W. Brown, were critically damaged by small arms fire and had to make

emergency landings back at the airfield while the third P-400, piloted by

Lieutenant B. E. Davis, continued to strafe until out of ammunition.

The Japanese attack was repulsed by the iron defense of the 1 st Raider

Battalion, but Thompson’s CAS mission had thrown the final weight that broke

the Japanese assault. Later that afternoon, Vandegrift visited Thompson,

Davis, and Brown saying, “You’ll never read it in the papers, but that three

P-400 mission of yours saved Guadalcanal.”

For their part in this decisive battle, Thompson was awarded the Navy Cross

and his wingmen, Lieutenants Davis and Brown, received the Silver Star.

The Battle of Bloody Ridge is a story of almost unimaginable valor,

perseverance and sacrifice on the part of the Marine defenders of Henderson

Field. But the story would be incomplete without a concluding chapter

dedicated to the Thompson-led ground support mission. Its contribution is

perhaps best defined by the desperate circumstances of the moment and

measured by its impact on the tactical and strategic situation. For while

Henderson Field would be the target of future Japanese assaults, in the

aftermath of Bloody Ridge it remained—and would continue to remain—in

American hands.

.

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. Thanks to Interesting Facts

7 Amazing Facts About Mount Everest

For mountaineers looking to climb the world’s most challenging peaks,

Everest is the top prize. At 29,032 feet, Everest is the highest mountain in

the world in terms of elevation and the crown jewel of the Himalayas.

(Overall, the region is home to nine of the 10 highest peaks in the world,

with the exception being K2 in the Karakoram range.) Although its height is

its most touted feature, Mount Everest is the subject of many incredible

facts — some of which stretch 50 million years into the past.

Mount Everest Has Many Names

Beginning in 1802, the Great Trigonometrical Survey was a massive

undertaking to painstakingly survey the entire Indian subcontinent (then a

colony of Britain). British surveyor George Everest served as the Surveyor

General of India for 13 years (1830 to 1843) before retiring and returning

to Britain.

In 1865, a mountain previously named “Gamma,” “peak b,” and finally “Peak

VX” received a new name that finally stuck — Mount Everest. Everest’s name

was put forward in 1856 by his successor, Andrew Scott Waugh, in honor of

his friend and mentor. However, the traditional Tibetan name of the mountain

is Chomolungma, which means “Goddess Mother of the World.” The Sanskrit name

is Sagarmatha, or “Peak of Heaven.”

Sir George Everest, military engineer, 1854-1866.

Although George Everest dedicated his life to surveying the Indian

subcontinent, he never traveled to Nepal, and likely never saw the famous

peak that now bears his name. His closest connection with the mountain was

through his protégé Andrew Scott Waugh, who made the first scientific

observations of the mountain and announced its height at 8,840 meters

(29,002 feet) in 1856. This height surpassed Kangchenjunga, a nearby

mountain then considered the world’s highest peak. Although K2 came close to

knocking it out of the top spot, no other mountain has ever surpassed

Everest’s impressive stature.

Everest Started Forming 50 Million Years Ago

About 50 million years ago, only 5 or 6 million years after the cataclysmic

end of the dinosaurs, the Indian subcontinent — traveling some 15

centimeters per year — closed an ancient sea named Tethys and collided with

the Eurasian continent. As the two tectonic plates buckled, they formed a

dramatic uplift that created Everest along with the rest of the Himalayan

mountain chain. Additionally, Everest’s location near the Tropic of Cancer

means that mountain glaciers (ice masses that carve away most mountains) are

relatively small on Everest, which is part of why it remains so impressively

massive to this day.

Everest Grows 4 Millimeters Per Year

Everest is already the highest peak above sea level, and it’s still growing.

The ancient collision that formed the mountain many millions of years ago is

still ongoing, as India continues to advance northward about 2 inches per

year. In fact, in 10 million years, India will plow into Tibet by more than

100 miles, effectively erasing the country of Nepal. Through all this

tectonic drama, Everest will continue climbing an additional 4 millimeters,

or roughly 0.16 inches, per year.

Mount Everest Is the World’s Highest Mountain — But Not the Tallest

Everything’s relative when it comes to measuring the tallest mountain in the

world. Going off of a mountain’s number of feet above sea level is what

gives Everest the crown, but there are other contenders for the globe’s

tallest peak. The most obvious one is Mauna Kea, a shield volcano in Hawaii

that is the tallest mountain in the world when measured from base to peak.

In total, Mauna Kea is about 33,000 feet — roughly 4,000 feet taller than

Everest.

Another contender is Mount Chimborazo. At 20,564 feet above sea level, this

mountain in Ecuador doesn’t even come close to Everest’s height. However,

when measuring from the center of the Earth, Mount Chimborazo gets a big

boost by being located near the equator. Because the planet bulges at its

middle due to the centrifugal forces produced by its rotation, Mount

Chimborazo is actually around 6,800 feet taller than Everest.

Jumping Spiders Are the Only Permanent Residents on Everest

The high altitude of Everest makes it difficult for life to thrive on its

slopes — difficult but not impossible. The Himalayan jumping spider is the

only known permanent resident on Mount Everest, making it one of the

highest-living species on Earth. This impressive feat is even honored in its

scientific name, Euophrys omnisuperstes, which means “standing above

everything.” Because the spider needs to feed on other insects, it likely

feasts on flies and other bugs blown up from lower altitudes, as part of

what’s known as an Aeolian Biome.

Sherpas Have Evolved To Be Everest-Summiting Pros

The Sherpa people are a tribe native to Nepal, Tibet, and the Himalayan

region, and are often guides for foreign adventurers looking to reach the

top of Everest and other Himalayan peaks. Scientists have studied the

biology of these Native people and discovered that Sherpas have evolved over

thousands of years to be excellent climbers in high altitudes.

Climbing Everest’s peak involves a variety of challenges, but one of the

deadliest is hypoxia and altitude sicknesses known as HAPE (high altitude

pulmonary edema) or HACE (high altitude cerebral edema) — all results of the

body’s inability to function properly in low-oxygen environments. With the

first known Sherpas living in the region some 30,000 years ago, this tribal

group’s mitochondria are much more efficient at using oxygen when it’s

scarce compared to “lowlanders.” This amazing ability is why Sherpas hold

many mountaineering records, including the most ascents of Everest by a

single person (26).

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. Thanks to History Facts

Thirty-nine baseball Hall of Famers served in World War II.

They don’t call it the Greatest Generation for nothing. Of the hundreds of

ballplayers who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame,

39 belong to an extra-special class: those who served in the military during

World War II. That list includes such all-time greats as Yogi Berra (Navy),

Ted Williams (Marines), Jackie Robinson (Army), and Joe DiMaggio (Army), all

of whom put up some of the most impressive numbers in baseball history

despite losing several years of their careers while on active duty.

Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier when he joined the

Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, did so after attaining the rank of second

lieutenant as part of the 761st “Black Panthers” Tank Battalion — a

segregated unit whose motto was “Come Out Fighting.” Like baseball, the

military did not officially desegregate until after the war.

Anyone who’s seen A League of Their Own knows that World War II led to

another massive change in the sport: the creation of women’s leagues, most

notably the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Active in the

Midwest between 1943 and 1954, the league consisted of 15 teams whose

players were themselves inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.

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From the archives

. Thanks to Interesting Facts

Never drive without it

That belt plus the air bag ( 26 years old) let me walk away with no injury

except sadness when I totaled my 96 Impala  SS a couple years ago but I did

receive enough 27K to buy a new car…..skip

Volvo gave away its seat belt patent to save lives.

Few people in history are credited with saving millions of lives, but one

person who did so worked for Volvo. Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin’s

improvement on the three-point seat belt has helped drivers (and passengers)

safely reach their destination for more than six decades.

Seat belts are a standard feature in today’s cars and trucks, but it hasn’t

always been that way. In the 1950s and ’60s, car manufacturers weren’t

required to include safety belts in vehicles. When they were built in, the

earliest seat belts were simple two-point restraints that secured across the

waist (aka lap belts). While a step in the right direction, lap belts had

some downsides — they didn’t protect the upper body during a collision and

could even cause injuries during high-speed crashes. A three-point design

was created in 1951 by Americans Roger W. Griswold and Hugh DeHaven, but it

never took off, likely because it was uncomfortable.

Recognizing these issues, Swedish carmaker Volvo hired Bohlin (a former

aviation engineer who helped create pilot ejection seats) as the company’s

safety engineer, and tasked him with a redesign. Bohlin’s creation — a more

comfortable V-shaped belt that stays in position across both the chest and

hips — was drafted in under a year, and is the style used in cars today.

Volvo quickly added the belts to its cars in 1959, before the inventor even

secured a patent. But when he did, Bohlin and Volvo didn’t look to profit

off the safety feature. Instead, they released the design publicly, urging

all car manufacturers to add the upgraded belts. After years of

presentations and crash test dummy demos, Volvo eventually made headway —

the evidence of which is found in our cars today and credited with saving

lives around the world.

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From the archives

.thanks to Nice News

. Any baby’s first steps are a special milestone — but this tot has a

particularly good story to share with future friends. At a Las Vegas Aces

game earlier this week, the WNBA team hosted a “baby crawling race” on the

court. One of the participants decided to ditch the crawling and get to the

finish line a faster way, by taking her very first steps. “Was not expecting

that,” her dad said. Watch the video.

Click up here   

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This Day in U S Military History…….6 August

1782 – At his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington,

the commander in chief of the Continental Army, creates the “Badge for

Military Merit,” a decoration consisting of a purple, heart-shaped piece of

silk, edged with a narrow binding of silver, with the word Merit stitched

across the face in silver. The badge was to be presented to soldiers for

“any singularly meritorious action” and permitted its wearer to pass guards

and sentinels without challenge. The honoree’s name and regiment were also

to be inscribed in a “Book of Merit.” Washington’s “Purple Heart” was

awarded to only three known soldiers during the Revolutionary War: Elijah

Churchill, William Brown, and Daniel Bissell, Jr. The “Book of Merit” was

lost, and the decoration was largely forgotten until 1927, when General

Charles P. Summerall, the U.S. Army chief of staff, sent an unsuccessful

draft bill to Congress to “revive the Badge of Military Merit.” In 1931,

Summerall’s successor, General Douglas MacArthur, took up the cause, hoping

to reinstate the medal in time for the bicentennial of George Washington’s

birth. On February 22, 1932, Washington’s 200th birthday, the U.S. War

Department announced the creation of the “Order of the Purple Heart.” In

addition to aspects of Washington’s original design, the new Purple Heart

also displays a bust of Washington and his coat of arms. The Order of the

Purple Heart, the oldest American military decoration for military merit, is

awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces who have been killed or wounded

in action against an enemy. It is also awarded to soldiers who have suffered

maltreatment as prisoners of war.

1794 – In the summer of 1794, irate farmers in the Monoghaela Valley of

Pennsylvania rose up against the federal tax on liquor and stills. During

the so-called Whiskey Rebellion, the farmers extracted their revenge by

torching tax collector’s homes, as well as “tarring and feathering revenue

officers.” The government moved quickly to quell the rebellion: President

Washington called in 12,900 Federal troops from to surrounding states to

forcefully usher the farmers back to their homes.

1942 – The U.S. 1st Marine Division begins Operation Watchtower, the first

U.S. offensive of the war, by landing on Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon

Islands. On July 6, 1942, the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Island and

began constructing an airfield there. Operation Watchtower was the codename

for the U.S. plan to invade Guadalcanal and the surrounding islands. During

the attack, American troops landed on five islands within the Solomon chain.

Although the invasion came as a complete surprise to the Japanese (bad

weather had grounded their scouting aircraft), the landings on Florida,

Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tananbogo met much initial opposition from the Japanese

defenders. But the Americans who landed on Guadalcanal met little

resistance-at least at first. More than 11,000 Marines had landed, and 24

hours had passed, before the Japanese manning the garrison there knew of the

attack. The U.S. forces quickly took their main objective, the airfield, and

the outnumbered Japanese troops retreated, but not for long. Reinforcements

were brought in, and fierce hand-to-hand jungle fighting ensued. “I have

never heard or read of this kind of fighting,” wrote one American major

general on the scene. “These people refuse to surrender.” The Americans were

at a particular disadvantage, being assaulted from both the sea and air. But

the U.S. Navy was able to reinforce its troops to a greater extent, and by

February 1943, the Japanese had retreated on secret orders of their emperor

(so secret, the Americans did not even know it had taken place until they

began happening upon abandoned positions, empty boats, and discarded

supplies). In total, the Japanese had lost more than 25,000 men, compared

with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. Each side lost 24 warships. The first

Medal of Honor given to a Marine was awarded to Sgt. John Basilone for his

fighting during Operation Watchtower. According to the recommendation for

his medal, he “contributed materially to the defeat and virtually the

annihilation of a Japanese regiment.”

1942 – Landings at Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands commenced.

This first Allied invasion in the Pacific proved to be a critical battle.

Coast Guard manned transports, including the USS Hunter Liggett,

participated in the invasion. Many of the landing craft were crewed by Coast

Guardsmen. A Coast Guard officer, LCDR Dwight H. Dexter, and 25 Coast

Guardsmen went ashore from the Liggett with their landing craft to set up a

naval operating base on Lunga Point. Signalman 1/c Douglas Munro, later

killed at Guadalcanal, was a member of Dexter’s command. The Liggett rescued

686 survivors of the Navy cruisers USS Vincennes, Astoria, and Quincy and

the Australian cruiser HMAS Canberra that had been sunk in the Battle of

Savo Island on the night of 9 August 1942.

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BENDER, STANLEY

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company E, 7th Infantry,

3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near La Lande, France, 17 August 1944.

Entered service at: Chicago, 111. Born: 31 October 1909, Carlisle, W. Va.

G.O. No.: 7, 1 February 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and

intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 17 August

1944, near La Lande, France, he climbed on top of a knocked-out tank, in the

face of withering machinegun fire which had halted the advance of his

company, in an effort to locate the source of this fire. Although bullets

ricocheted off the turret at his feet, he nevertheless remained standing

upright in full view of the enemy for over 2 minutes. Locating the enemy

machineguns on a knoll 200 yards away, he ordered 2 squads to cover him and

led his men down an irrigation ditch, running a gauntlet of intense

machinegun fire, which completely blanketed 50 yards of his advance and

wounded 4 of his men. While the Germans hurled hand grenades at the ditch,

he stood his ground until his squad caught up with him, then advanced alone,

in a wide flanking approach, to the rear of the knoll. He walked

deliberately a distance of 40 yards, without cover, in full view of the

Germans and under a hail of both enemy and friendly fire, to the first

machinegun and knocked it out with a single short burst. Then he made his

way through the strong point, despite bursting hand grenades, toward the

second machinegun, 25 yards distant, whose 2-man crew swung the machinegun

around and fired two bursts at him, but he walked calmly through the fire

and, reaching the edge of the emplacement, dispatched the crew. Signaling

his men to rush the rifle pits, he then walked 35 yards further to kill an

enemy rifleman and returned to lead his squad in the destruction of the 8

remaining Germans in the strong point. His audacity so inspired the

remainder of the assault company that the men charged out of their

positions, shouting and yelling, to overpower the enemy roadblock and sweep

into town, knocking out 2 antitank guns, killing 37 Germans and capturing 26

others. He had sparked and led the assault company in an attack which

overwhelmed the enemy, destroying a roadblock, taking a town, seizing intact

3 bridges over the Maravenne River, and capturing commanding terrain which

dominated the area.

*PEASE, HARL, JR. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army Air Corps, Heavy Bombardment

Squadron. Place and date: Near Rabaul, New Britain, 6-7 August 1942. Entered

service at: Plymouth, N.H. Birth: Plymouth, N.H. G.O. No.: 59, 4 November

1942. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond

the call of duty in action with the enemy on 6-7 August 1942. When 1 engine

of the bombardment airplane of which he was pilot failed during a bombing

mission over New Guinea, Capt. Pease was forced to return to a base in

Australia. Knowing that all available airplanes of his group were to

participate the next day in an attack on an enemy-held airdrome near Rabaul,

New Britain, although he was not scheduled to take part in this mission,

Capt. Pease selected the most serviceable airplane at this base and prepared

it for combat, knowing that it had been found and declared unserviceable for

combat missions. With the members of his combat crew, who volunteered to

accompany him, he rejoined his squadron at Port Moresby, New Guinea, at 1

a.m. on 7 August, after having flown almost continuously since early the

preceding morning. With only 3 hours’ rest, he took off with his squadron

for the attack. Throughout the long flight to Rabaul, New Britain, he

managed by skillful flying of his unserviceable airplane to maintain his

position in the group. When the formation was intercepted by about 30 enemy

fighter airplanes before reaching the target, Capt. Pease, on the wing which

bore the brunt of the hostile attack, by gallant action and the accurate

shooting by his crew, succeeded in destroying several Zeros before dropping

his bombs on the hostile base as planned, this in spite of continuous enemy

attacks. The fight with the enemy pursuit lasted 25 minutes until the group

dived into cloud cover. After leaving the target, Capt. Pease’s aircraft

fell behind the balance of the group due to unknown difficulties as a result

of the combat, and was unable to reach this cover before the enemy pursuit

succeeded in igniting 1 of his bomb bay tanks. He was seen to drop the

flaming tank. It is believed that Capt. Pease’s airplane and crew were

subsequently shot down in flames, as they did not return to their base. In

voluntarily performing this mission Capt. Pease contributed materially to

the success of the group, and displayed high devotion to duty, valor, and

complete contempt for personal danger. His undaunted bravery has been a

great inspiration to the officers and men of his unit.

*CARTER, BRUCE W.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company H, 2d

Battalion, 3d Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Quang

Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 7 August 1969. Entered service at:

Jacksonville, Fla. Born: 7 May 1950, Schenectady, N.Y. Citation: For

conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and

beyond the call of duty while serving as grenadier with Company H in

connection with combat operations against the enemy. Pfc. Carter’s unit was

maneuvering against the enemy during Operation Idaho Canyon and came under a

heavy volume of fire from a numerically superior hostile force. The lead

element soon became separated from the main body of the squad by a brush

fire. Pfc. Carter and his fellow marines were pinned down by vicious

crossfire when, with complete disregard for his safety, he stood in full

view of the North Vietnamese Army soldiers to deliver a devastating volume

of fire at their positions. The accuracy and aggressiveness of his attack

caused several enemy casualties and forced the remainder of the soldiers to

retreat from the immediate area. Shouting directions to the marines around

him, Pfc. Carter then commenced leading them from the path of the rapidly

approaching brush fire when he observed a hostile grenade land between him

and his companions. Fully aware of the probable consequences of his action

but determined to protect the men following him, he unhesitatingly threw

himself over the grenade, absorbing the full effects of its detonation with

his body. Pfc. Carter’s indomitable courage, inspiring initiative, and

selfless devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps

and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his

country .

*HAGEN, LOREN D.

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Infantry, U.S. Army

Training Advisory Group. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 7 August 1971.

Entered service at: Fargo, N. Dak. Born: 25 February 1946, Fargo, N. Dak.

Citation: 1st Lt. Hagen distinguished himself in action while serving as the

team leader of a small reconnaissance team operating deep within enemy-held

territory. At approximately 0630 hours on the morning of 7 August 1971 the

small team came under a fierce assault by a superior-sized enemy force using

heavy small arms, automatic weapons, mortar, and rocket fire. 1st Lt. Hagen

immediately began returning small-arms fire upon the attackers and

successfully led this team in repelling the first enemy onslaught. He then

quickly deployed his men into more strategic defense locations before the

enemy struck again in an attempt to overrun and annihilate the beleaguered

team’s members. 1st Lt. Hagen repeatedly exposed himself to- the enemy fire

directed at him as he constantly moved about the team’s perimeter, directing

fire, rallying the members, and resupplying the team with ammunition, while

courageously returning small arms and hand grenade fire in a valorous

attempt to repel the advancing enemy force. The courageous actions and

expert leadership abilities of 1st Lt. Hagen were a great source of

inspiration and instilled confidence in the team members. After observing an

enemy rocket make a direct hit on and destroy 1 of the team’s bunkers, 1st

Lt. Hagen moved toward the wrecked bunker in search for team members despite

the fact that the enemy force now controlled the bunker area. With total

disregard for his own personal safety, he crawled through the enemy fire

while returning small-arms fire upon the enemy force. Undaunted by the enemy

rockets and grenades impacting all around him, 1st Lt. Hagen desperately

advanced upon the destroyed bunker until he was fatally wounded by enemy

small arms and automatic weapons fire. With complete disregard for his

personal safety, 1st Lt. Hagen’s courageous gallantry, extraordinary

heroism, and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of

his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military

service and reflect great credit upon him and the U.S. Army.

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Thanks to interesting facts

Some honey can be hallucinogenic.

The U.S. has more than 300 types of honey, but there’s one you won’t find on

store shelves: mad honey. Upon visual inspection, mad honey offers up a clue

that it’s a bit different. Created when bees feast almost exclusively on

nectar and pollen from flowering rhododendron bushes, the natural sweetener

often has a reddish hue. It also has a slightly bitter taste, though another

unusual characteristic that appears shortly after consumption is what gives

mad honey its name: It causes hallucinations.

Honeybees are not native to the U.S.

IT'S A FACT

The U.S. is home to around 4,000 types of bees, though the species we rely

on for pollination and honey production isn’t native to the continent.

English colonists likely brought the first honeybees to Virginia in 1622.

Mad honey is a rarity, found mostly among high-altitude honeycombs in the

mountains of Turkey and Nepal. Harvesting it can be dangerous — Himalayan

giant honeybees tend to create hives among cliffs and rugged outcrops — and

consumption can be, too. Pollen and nectar from several species of

rhododendrons in these areas contain grayanotoxins, a poison that helps the

plants ward off hungry herbivores. While small doses of grayanotoxins can

cause euphoria and lightheadedness in humans, larger doses can cause

hallucinations, vomiting, temporary paralysis, and even death. 

Those sometimes-disastrous reactions haven’t stopped humans from seeking out

the sticky substance, though. Some practitioners of folk medicine have long

believed that small doses of the toxin-laced honey can be beneficial for

human healing. Microdoses of mad honey have been used to treat high blood

pressure, diabetes, and arthritis — don’t try this at home — but researchers

are unsure how beneficial the stuff is for anyone other than its original

creators (bees).

Numbers Don't Lie

Year singer Van Morrison released his fifth album, “Tupelo Honey”

1971

Pounds of pollen collected by the average bee colony each year

125

Size (in inches) of Himalayan giant honeybee workers, the world’s largest

honeybee species

1.2

Approximate height (in meters) of England’s largest rhododendron bush, “Big

Rhodey”

30

MORE INTERESTING READS

Cats can make more than 250 different facial expressions.

______ is the top honey-producing U.S. state.

North Dakota is the top honey-producing U.S. state.

Mad honey has been used to slow advancing armies.

While today the word “honeytrap” brings to mind Cold War espionage and spy

films, at one time in history, honey actually was used to bait and subdue

enemy armies. The first known incident is preserved in writings by Xenophon

of Athens, a military commander, historian, and student of the philosopher

Socrates. According to Xenophon’s account, a Greek army he commanded in 401

BCE unknowingly consumed mad honey in northeast Turkey, becoming disoriented

for days before the effects wore off. In 65 BCE, Mithridates VI of Pontus

had combs containing mad honey purposely planted in the path of Roman

soldiers to disable their defenses in battle. Even American soldiers have

accidentally dined on tainted honey; according to Civil War lore, Union

troops marching through the Appalachian mountains reportedly consumed mad

honey, possibly made from local rhodies or mountain laurel plants, but with

effects that were just as dizzying and disorienting.

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This Day in Military History

The Final Flight of Extortion 17

It was the deadliest helicopter crash in the history of U.S. special

operations. Why did it happen?

A few minutes past 2 a.m. on August 6, 2011, at a dusty forward operating

base 40 miles south of Kabul, Afghanistan, the rotors of two U.S. Army

CH-47D Chinooks began to turn. Operating with no lights save for the faint

green glow of night vision goggles and cockpit instrument panels, the two

helicopters, call signs Extortion 17 (“one-seven”) and Extortion 16, lifted

into the darkness and accelerated toward a destination less than 20 miles

west.

Extortion 17 and its 38 occupants would not return. A Taliban fighter shot

the helicopter out of the sky with a rocket-propelled grenade and all aboard

were killed—the single greatest loss of American life in the Afghan war.

Those killed ranked among the world’s most highly trained and experienced

commandos, including 15 men from Gold Squadron of the Naval Special Warfare

Development Group, popularly called SEAL Team 6. Just three months earlier,

members of a counterpart SEAL Team 6 squadron successfully raided a compound

in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Osama bin Laden. In light of that raid’s

success, the shootdown of Extortion 17 incited a flurry of conspiracy

theories: The Taliban were tipped off; it was a trap; it was retribution for

the killing. No evidence has emerged to support any of these claims.

Instead, two rigorous U. S. military investigations followed every moment of

the mission to determine what went wrong on Extortion 17’s final flight.

So we do not forget the worst day for the Seals

Extortion 17

August 6, 2023 marks 12 years since Extortion 17. On this day 12 years ago,

30 American military servicemen and a U.S. military dog were killed when a

CH-47 Chinook helicopter–call sign Extortion 17–was shot down in

Afghanistan.

This remains the greatest single loss of life to Naval Special Warfare since

the Afghan War started in 2001. The Museum Executive Team worked with these

men. We continue our work at the Museum so that their service and sacrifice

will never be forgotten.

Please take a moment and pause to honor and remember these heroes.

The following sailors assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare

unit were killed:

•.. Lieutenant Commander (SEAL) Jonas B. Kelsall, 32, of Shreveport,

Louisiana

•.. Special Warfare Operator Master Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Louis J.

Langlais, 44, of Santa Barbara, California

•.. Special Warfare Operator Senior Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Thomas A.

Ratzlaff, 34, of Green Forest, Arkansas

•.. Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer

(Expeditionary Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Kraig M. Vickers 36,

of Kokomo, Hawaii

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Brian R. Bill, 31,

of Stamford, Connecticut

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) John W. Faas, 31, of

Minneapolis, Minnesota

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Kevin A. Houston,

35, of West Hyannisport, Massachusetts

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Matthew D. Mason,

37, of Kansas City, Missouri

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Stephen M. Mills,

35, of Fort Worth, Texas

•.. Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician Chief Petty Officer(Expeditionary

Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist/Diver) Nicholas H. Null, 30, of

Washington, West Virginia

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Robert J. Reeves,

32, of Shreveport, Louisiana

•.. Special Warfare Operator Chief Petty Officer (SEAL) Heath M. Robinson,

34, of Detroit, Michigan

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL) Darrik C.

Benson, 28, of Angwin, California

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Parachutist)

Christopher G. Campbell, 36, of Jacksonville, North Carolina

•.. Information Systems Technician Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary

Warfare Specialist/Freefall Parachutist) Jared W. Day, 28, of Taylorsville,

Utah

•.. Master-at-Arms Petty Officer 1st Class (Expeditionary Warfare

Specialist) John Douangdara, 26, of South Sioux City, Nebraska

•.. Cryptologist Technician(Collection)Petty Officer 1st Class(Expeditionary

Warfare Specialist) Michael J. Strange, 25, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL/Enlisted Surface

Warfare Specialist) Jon T. Tumilson, 35, of Rockford, Iowa

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Aaron C. Vaughn,

30, of Stuart, Florida

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Jason R. Workman,

32, of Blanding, Utah

The following sailors assigned to a West Coast-based Naval Special Warfare

unit were killed:

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 1st Class (SEAL)Jesse D. Pittman,

27, of Ukiah, California

•.. Special Warfare Operator Petty Officer 2nd Class (SEAL)Nicholas P.

Spehar, 24, of Saint Paul, Minnesota

The soldiers killed were:

•.. Chief Warrant Officer David R. Carter, 47, of Centennial, Colo. He was

assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support

Aviation Battalion), Aurora, Colorado

•.. Chief Warrant Officer Bryan J. Nichols, 31, of Hays, Kan. He was

assigned to the 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment(General Support

Aviation Battalion), New Century, Kansas

•.. Staff Sgt. Patrick D. Hamburger, 30, of Lincoln, Neb. He was assigned to

the 2nd Battalion, 135th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation

Battalion), Grand Island, Nebraska

* Sergeant Hamburger was posthumously promoted to Staff Sergeant

•.. Sgt. Alexander J. Bennett, 24, of Tacoma, Wash. He was assigned to the

7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion),

New Century, Kansas

•.. Spc. Spencer C. Duncan, 21, of Olathe, Kan. He was assigned to the 7th

Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment (General Support Aviation Battalion), New

Century, Kansas

The airmen killed were:

•.. Tech. Sgt. John W. Brown, 33, of Tallahassee, Florida

•.. Staff Sgt. Andrew W. Harvell, 26, of Long Beach, California

•.. Tech. Sgt. Daniel L. Zerbe, 28, of York, Pennsylvania

All three airmen were assigned to the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, Pope

Field, North Carolina.

Seven Afghan National Army commandos and one Afghan civilian interpreter

were also killed in the crash.

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 7, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT

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

INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

7 August

1916: The Wright Company and the Glenn L. Martin Company merged into the

Wright Martin Aircraft Corporation. (24)

1944: Carrier Division 11, with carriers Saratoga and Ranger, commissioned

specifically for night operations. (24)

1947: Through 10 August, Capt William P. Odom broke his earlier 15 April

1947 around-the-world record. He flew the Reynolds Bombshell 19,645 miles

and landed in Chicago after 73 hours 5 minutes 11 seconds to shave nearly 5

hours off his previous record. (9) (24)

1950: KOREAN WAR. The 98 BG flew its first mission shortly after 20 of its

B-29s landed at Yokota AB. (28)

1951: A Navy Viking rocket built by the Glenn L. Martin Company set an

altitude record for singlestage rockets, climbing 135 miles and reaching a

speed of 4,100 MPH, at White Sands. (24) Bill Bridgeman flew the Navy’s

Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket to a 1,238-MPH speed record. (9)

1952: KOREAN WAR. Through 8 August, Capt Clifford D. Jolley, 335th

Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, destroyed three additional MiGs in two days to

become the eighteenth ace of the war. (28)

1954: The School of Aviation Medicine had received the first piece of

experimental equipment ever built to study living conditions in space. It

was a sealed cabin that simulated the interior of a spaceship. (16) (24)

1956: The first F-100Cs with an inflight refueling capability became

operational at Foster AFB, Tex.

1959: Two F-100F aircraft made the first flight by jet fighter aircraft over

the North Pole. (16) (24) The Explorer VI, NASA’s “paddlewheel” satellite,

launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral by a Thor-Able III. It transmitted

the first television pictures from space. In addition, Maj Robert C. Mathis

used the satellite to relay the first intercontinental voice message. He

later became the VCSAF. (20) (21)

1963: Benjamin Greene set a new distance record for single-place gliders for

a 457.97-mile flight from Marfa, Tex., to Boise City, Okl.

1965: First Minuteman II missile emplaced in a 447 SMS silo at Grand Forks

AFB. (6) (12)

1975: Two C-141s flew from Ramstein AB to Bucharest with disaster relief

supplies after extensive flooding of the Danube River and its tributaries.

(16) (26)

1976: The Viking 2 spacecraft entered orbit around Mars. (8: Sep 90) 1980:

HURRICANE ALLEN. Through 12 August, 3 MAC missions (1 C-5 and 2 C-141s) and

one ANG C-130 mission airlifted 107 people and 61 tons of supplies to Haiti

and St Lucia from the US and Howard AFB. The hurricane killed 57 and left

hundreds homeless. (18)

1982: At Sheppard AFB, ATC ended the German Air Force undergraduate pilot

training program. (16)

1984: The HH-60D helicopter flew its first rescue mission to save a young

couple that had been stranded above 10,000 feet in the high Sierras

overnight. (3) Operation INTENSE LOOK. Through 2 October, MAC supported the

deployment of US minesweeping assets to the Red Sea to help Egypt and Saudi

Arabia determine the cause of mysterious explosions that damaged ships

plying the Red Sea. MAC flew 27 C-5, 14 C-141, and 3 C-130 sorties to move

983 passengers and 1,324 tons of cargo. (18)

1990: Operation DESERT SHIELD. As a response to Iraq’s 2 August invasion of

Kuwait, the US military initiated deployment actions to protect Saudi Arabia

from Iraqi aggression and to liberate Kuwait. The 71 TFS deployed 24 F-15C

Eagles on a 15-hour, 8,000-mile, non-stop flight from Langley AFB to

Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, with 12 inflight refuelings. (16) (26)

1995: A B-52H bomber from the 2 BW at Barksdale AFB employed

precision-guided munitions in a training mission for the first time. (16)

1998: Scaled Composite’s D-2 technology demonstrator UAV made its first

flight after a two-year hiatus. The twin-tail propeller D-2 was a testbed

vehicle for NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology

(ERAST) program. (3)

2003: In an Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System (ACAS) test, as two

AFFTC F-16s repeatedly approached each other in flight. The Auto ACAS

activated every time to separate them without pilot input. (3)

2007: The 75th Fighter Squadron Commander, Lt Col Sam Milam, flew the first

A-10C Thunderbolt II to its new home at Moody AFB, Ga. It was the first of

50 upgraded A-10Cs to move to Moody under base realignment plans. The base

finished the move in early 2008 as the A-10s were converted from A-10A to

A-10C models. (AFNEWS, “First Improved Thunderbolt Arrives at Moody,” 8 Aug

2007.)

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