The List 5330 TGB
To All
Good Sunday afternoon. I have escaped the Weed Whacker since the sun came out and the temps went up.
Regards,
Skip
A few bits a pieces thanks to a bunch of you.
Thanks to Dutch and Bear for some light reading
... This is a 630 page collection of posts by a guy who has his head screwed on right and tight.... take time to read the first seven pages... lots of love... Old Navy
http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ww2010.weblog.htm#e200517
Web Log - Generational Dynamics
President Donald Trump, in a joint White House celebration with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced a new Mideast peace plan. I've seen how this works too many times. International politicians pressure the United States president to come up with a peace plan, saying that there will never be peace in the Mideast without White ...
www.generationaldynamics.com
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thanks to Shadow
From FBI Mike... Shadow
Begin forwarded message:
WERE THERE NO FBI AGENTS WILLING TO UNEARTH TREASON?
[OPINION] KEN PITTMAN May
I say this with great respect
for the institution that the Federal Bureau of
Investigations has been while under legitimate
leadership.
I say this as a friend to four members of the
FBI or retired from the FBI, ATF, or DEA, each one who I
also respect greatly.
I am underwhelmed at the sense of duty and of
patriotism that appears to have been abandoned during the
Russian collusion investigation, targeting the Trump
campaign.
Quite frankly, where are your spines, ladies and
gentlemen? Quite a few of you have had to have determined
on your own that the warrants, wiretaps, and surveillance
were bogus and unconstitutional before the books were
closed. In fact, if anyone assisted Russia in meddling
with the 2016 elections, it might have been the very same
FBI.
I am convinced that the FBI director of the time,
James Comey, intentionally deceived the FISC Court with
bogus warrant applications and omitted information in
order to get his desired result.
Comey and others in the FBI relied solely on the
Steele Dossier while simultaneously knowing that it was
not credible; most relevant parts proven to be bogus and
had no place as an article of evidence. Even Christopher
Steele refused to testify under oath as to its contents.
For those who intentionally and knowingly reinforced
the illegal ploy, I eagerly await the news of your
prosecutions, but for those who didn't know right away
but eventually did, know that you've disgraced yourselves
and the Bureau by not stepping forward and defending
justice.
You have left the nation divided, confused, and
created a vacuum of confidence in the Bureau. How dare
you? How could you allow a plot like this to continue
without going to the press, to the president-elect, or
alerted the nation in some credible way?
The Bureau has provided evidence for prosecutors who
have sent many to prison for failing to act based on fear
or loyalties to the guilty party, resulting in crime. Can
you possibly justify cowering to the orchestrators of
usurping treason and still proudly hold your badges?
It is an ugly age of politics in Washington. There
can be no denying this. It appears clear to me that
President Obama's administration abused powers that pale
what Nixon did with regards to Watergate. Nixon's
offenses compared to this would be like driving your car
five MPH over the speed limit on the freeway.
No matter how you may align yourself in politics, we
all share a process by which our leaders are chosen. We
have all lamented over losing here or there. We all know
in our soul that abusing power or abusing rights to
reverse or alter the outcome should be met with
devastating consequences.
Just a reminder: the FBI's motto is "Fidelity,
Bravery, Integrity."
Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on
1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9
a.m. to noon. Contact him at
ken.pittman@townsquaremedia.com. The opinions expressed
in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Mike C
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Thanks to Super
Saved from times gone past! I salute my fellow Aviator Veterans!
From: Capt Jerry Coffee, USN (ret) a Vietnam POW
One night during a bombing raid on Hanoi, I peeked out of my cell and watched a flight of four F-105s during their bombing run. As they pulled up, it was obvious that lead was badly hit. Trailing smoke, he broke from the formation and I watched the damaged bird until it disappeared from sight. I presumed the worst.
As I lay there in my cell reflecting on the image, I composed a toast to the unfortunate pilot and all the others who had gone before him.
On New Year's Eve 1968, Captain Tom Storey and I were in the Stardust section of Hoa Lo (wa-low) Prison. I whispered the toast under the door to Tom. Tom was enthralled, and despite the risk of terrible punishment, insisted that I repeat it several more times until he had it committed to memory. He then promised me that when the time came, and they were again free men, he would give the toast at the first dining-in he attended. [For you civilians, a
dining-in is a dreary formal affair with drinks, dinner, and forced joviality and comradeship where officers get to dress up like the head waiters in "The Merry Widow" -- that's the American version; I've heard that the Brits, who created the damn things, have a rollicking good time.
Tom's first assignment following release in 1973 was to the U.S. Air Force Academy. During that same year the Academy hosted the Annual Conference of General Officers and Those Associated Dining In. ... The jovial clinking of glasses accompanied all the traditional speeches and toasts.
Then it was Tom's turn. Remembering his promise so many years earlier, he proposed Jerry's "One More Roll." When he was finished there was total silence.
We toast our hearty comrades
Who have fallen from the skies,
And were gently caught by God's own hands
To be with him on high,
To dwell among the soaring clouds
They have known so well before,
From victory roll to tail chase
At heavens very door.
And as we fly among them there,
We're sure to hear their plea:
Take care, my friend,
Watch your six,
And do one more roll for me.
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Thanks to Tom….no tanks for me
Interesting piece on "invincible" stuff….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxJW4z9A9XA
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Thanks to Mugs
Flying In The Coronavirus Sky—A Freight Pilot's Perspective
by James Ivy
Nothing but silence.
I watch the N1 fluctuate between 89.1 and 89.2. The fuel flow indicates 5700 lbs an hour per engine. All is well. All within the airplane seems normal. And yet, the silence is unnerving—almost unbelievable—as we approach a longitude of 30 West.
I am flying across the North Atlantic in a Boeing 767-300 aircraft today. I'm a 767 captain with an international freight company and have flown to six of the seven continents, experienced the cold Siberian winters and the heat and humidity of the Congo from the flight deck of the Boeing 747 and 767. Yet today is a completely new experience.
The desert down there is awfully quiet—but so are the skies right now.
Today, there is no global terrorist threat or war keeping airplanes out of the sky. The threat is a microscopic organism, silent but still deadly as it spreads around the world. On the ground, people's lives have been disrupted, in ways small and large. But from 33,000 feet, the silence gives the feeling of a much more dramatic shift: like a Twilight Zone episode, in which everyone below me has disappeared.
Normally even with the use of CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communication, a two-way text based digital communication system between pilots and controllers) and ACARS it can be a struggle to check in on HF when making the transition from Gander, in Canada, to Shanwick, in Ireland. This is normally the busiest oceanic airspace in the world, with about 1,500 flights a day. But today, I hear nothing but an eerie silence.
At the same time, there are other, more tangible, signs that the world below me has changed.
The North Atlantic Tracks, usually referred to as NAT Tracks, are a series of routes that change daily for the vast amount of traffic typically crossing the Atlantic. But today, and every day now that I fly, the routes are changing in different ways.
On this trip, for example, we are flying to Germany, where I will spend the next week flying between Europe and the Mideast. We have 30 hours of rest in Germany before heading to Dubai's Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC), in the UAE.
We take off and, after flying across Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, we head toward Egyptian airspace, en route to Dubai. A lot of countries require you to make contact before entering their airspace, and Egypt happens to be one of them. Normally, those calls aren't any big thing. But in this eerie, locked-down world, nothing is routine.
Before crossing into Egypt, you really want to make contact with ATC.
As we get close, the first officer is monitoring com one while I start trying to call Cairo Control. Despite the lack of traffic on the frequency, and repeated calls, I can't seem to get a response from Cairo. Finally, just as we enter Egyptian airspace, I make contact. It's a sign of what's to come.
We make our way through Egyptian airspace and head toward Saudi Arabian airspace and Jeddah control. ATC hands us off from Jeddah center to Bahrain center only about 40 minutes out from DWC, and when I check in with Bahrain, the controller requests our CON number.
We are a augmented crew of one captain and three first officers, and none of us have ever heard of a CON number. We are now fast approaching DWC—an incredibly high workload period of the flight—and we are searching madly to find this number in the 100 pages of paperwork that makes up our flight plan. Bahrain tells us this is something new the UAE has just started requesting. I use the satcom to call dispatch. Even they are unsure what the CON number is, but after a brief conference call, a number is provided to us. We still have no idea what a CON number is, but evidently the number we give them works, because we are cleared into UAE airspace.
As we approach DWC on short final, I look down and see rows upon rows of idle, parked heavy jets lining the taxiways and ramps. The majority of Emirates A380s and 777s are nose to tail, covering most of the concrete at the airport. We are the only aircraft on final and as we land on runway 30 the tower instructs us to exit at V6, the last high speed taxiway. Tower switches us over to ground and, once again, there is nothing but silence. DWC is one of the busiest airports in the Mideast, and it's the middle of the afternoon, and we are the only aircraft moving at the airport. Just like the silence in the air, the utter stillness on the ground has the eerie feel of something out of the Twilight Zone.
Life soon appears, however. A requirement for entry to the UAE is a health check. This is a new requirement that a lot of countries have started since the pandemic has begun. The vans soon show up to transport us to the health center for our mandatory health check. This involves completing several pages of paperwork, and then a temperature check and a nasal Covid-19 test. Next we are taken to a security screening and immigration. The time, from opening the aircraft door to our arrival at the hotel door, is four hours.
All those airplanes aren't waiting to take off, they're parked.
The next morning, we taxi out between the rows of parked aircraft amid the same surreal silence and stillness, as if we are the only active aircraft and crew left in the world. Our next destination is Kuwait International Airport (KWI), and after the challenges of yesterday, we are hoping for a relatively smooth day of flying today. But in this new normal, nothing is going smoothly.
As we enter Kuwait airspace and begin the STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) for KWI, Kuwait ATC asks for our destination. We confirm our destination as KWI. Kuwait Control informs us that KWI is closed to incoming flights, takes us off the arrival, and gives us vectors away from the city. It's only a two hour flight from Dubai, and we've been following our filed flight plan—which includes landing permits for KWI. We relay the landing permits again to the Kuwait controllers, who tell us to stand by. After couple more vectors and a descent to 12,000 feet, I call ATC again, and I'm told again to stand by.
In the 767, when the calculated fuel burn to the destination and alternate drops below our reserve fuel level, we get an "Insufficient Fuel" message on the FMS. It's one of those messages you never like to see. As the Insufficient Fuel message appears on the FMS, I query KWI ATC once again. And once again, the only answer is, "Stand by." Most captains tend to add a bit more fuel to the minimum reserve fuel level for a bit of comfort, but I'm fast approaching the edge of my comfort zone. Once again, we pass our landing permit numbers to ATC, and I tell them that if we don't get vectors towards the airport, I will be declaring a fuel emergency and will be coming in to land. Once again, their only response is, "Stand by."
In some parts of the world, approaching fuel minimums for one airport wouldn't make me overly concerned, because there would be countless other airports we would have access to. In the Mideast, however, that's not the case. I'm pretty sure Iran would not be happy with us dropping in for a bit of fuel unannounced. Fortunately, I don't have to find out. ATC finally gives us vectors and we are cleared to land. While the Kuwait airport does not have as many jets parked around the airport as Dubai—perhaps because Dubai is such an international hub—there's still a significant number of empty, idle airplanes lining the taxiways and ramps.
After a relatively quick turn, we head back to Germany. The only other aircraft I hear on frequency during the seven-hour return flight is one lonely FedEx freighter.
In all my years of flying I've never experienced anything like this. Even after 9/11, the airlines returned to the sky more quickly, and in larger numbers. Before the pandemic, it was easy to complain about crowded frequencies and long wait times before takeoff. But to experience a complete absence of traffic, silent frequencies, unnerved controllers and health inspectors, and major international hubs looking more like the aircraft boneyards at Davis-Monthan AFB, is a sobering and surreal experience that puts all those old irritations in a whole new perspective.
Flying across Europe last week, I noticed more traffic in the skies. I hope that continues, and things are able to return to normal soon. Believe it or not, I actually miss trying to break in on HF to give a position report.
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Thanks to Dick
FYI
Subject: Fwd: Pulmonary Fibrosis in F-100 Pilots #14
Fellow F-100 Pilots,
My name is B.V. Johnson and along with some other F-100 pilots I am afflicted with a fatal lung disease called Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). This is a nasty disease that is usually fatal in 3 -5 years after one is diagnosed and there is currently no known cause or a medical cure for the condition.
THE VA AND DOD REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FACT THAT OUR IPF IS THE RESULT OF EXPOSURE TO CONTAMINATES DURING OUR MILITARY SERVICE!!!
ONE of the possible causes of IPF that fit our back ground is, "PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO OCCUPATIONAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATES OR DUSTS. Some civilian aircraft engines use MIL 7808 engine oil. One of the civilian warnings concerning MIL 7808 oil, states this"Oil gives off fumes that can cause injury to personnel. Use oil in a well ventilated area". A military Technical manual, TM 1-1500-204-23-3, gives this very same warning. The F-100 pilot Flight Manual T.O 1F-100D-1 contains no warnings for flight crews about MIL-L 7808 oil!!!! Most of us who have this disease have flown from 2,000 to 3200 hours in the F-100. An informal networking check of many friends that were military aviators found that a significant number of them are afflicted with IPF and MANY of them have already died as a result of this disease. We strongly believe that our IPF was caused by the exposure we had to the unfiltered toxic fumes of MIL-L-7808 Synthetic oil in our cockpits caused by the leaking bearings in the J-57 engine. We also strongly believe that many, if not all of the military aviators that we know of, and the many that we do not know of, were likewise affected by these unfiltered toxic oil fumes in the cockpit. The Pratt and Whitney J-57 was used in the USAF, F-100, the F-101 and RF-101, the F-102, the USN, F4D, F5D, F-8, and the A3-B. The J-57 without Afterburner was also used in the KC-135. The US Government purchased more than 21,000 J-57's for military use.
We URGENTLY need to have contact with any of you that:
Now have Pulmonary Fibrosis.
Know an aviator (USAF, USN, ANG, USAFR , USA or Coast Guard) that has it.
Think you may have it, and are awaiting a diagnosis.
Know of someone who had PF and died from it like our friend Al Bache.
Call Ron Williams at Cell 785-452-8899, Home 785-825-7645 or e-mail at mig29pilot@cox.net
Call B.V. Johnson at Cell 775-530-7237, Home 615-396-8458 or e-mail at bvjftrplt@comcast.net
PLEASE HELP US GATHER THE ABOVE INFORMATION TO CONVINCE THE DOD AND VA THAT THIS DISEASE IS SERVICE CONNECTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you,
BV
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Thanks to Carl…I remember having this in the List many years ago. My first dog was a Beagle
LM ✈️ has a fabulous "Lost & Found!" ?? system for small items left onboard ✅
This is almost unbelievable until you see it in action.
Leave it to the DUTCH!! Makes you want to leave something on the plane!!
CLICK ON THE LINK
https://www.youtube.com/embed/NK-T_t166TY?feature=player_embedded
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Thanks to Dr. Rich
Pretty amazing story ...
The Dark Secrets of a Hacking Hero
BY WIRED STAFF
This week, Andy Greenberg talks about his profile of hacker Marcus Hutchins, and we get an update on contact-tracing programs helping to slow the pandemic.
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This day in American Military History
1885 – For the second time in two years, the Apache chief Geronimo breaks out of an Arizona reservation, sparking panic among Arizona settlers. A famous medicine man and the leader of the Chiricahua Apache, Geronimo achieved national fame by being the last American Indian to surrender formally to the United States. For nearly 30 years, Geronimo and his followers resisted the attempts of Americans to take away their southwestern homeland and confine them to a reservation. He was a fearless warrior and a master of desert survival. The best officers of the U.S. Army found it nearly impossible to find Geronimo, much less decisively defeat him. In 1877, Geronimo was forced to move to the San Carlos, Arizola, reservation for the first time, but he was scarcely beaten. Instead, Geronimo treated the reservation as just one small part of the vast territory he still considered to belong to the Apache. Fed up with the strictures and corruption of the reservation, he and many other Apache broke out for the first time in 1881. For nearly two years, the Apache band raided the southwestern countryside despite the best efforts of the army to stop them. Finally, Geronimo wearied of the continual harassment of the U.S. Army and agreed to return to the reservation in 1884, much on his own terms. He did not stay long. Among the many rules imposed upon the Apache on the reservation was the prohibition of any liquor, including a weak beer they had traditionally brewed from corn. In early May 1885, Geronimo and a dozen other leaders deliberately staged a corn beer festival. Reasoning that the authorities would be unlikely to try to punish such a large group, they openly admitted the deed, expecting that it would lead to negotiations. Because of a communication mix-up, however, the army failed to respond. Geronimo and the others assumed the delay indicated the army was preparing some drastic punishment for their crime. Rather than remain exposed and vulnerable on the reservation, Geronimo fled with 42 men and 92 women and children. Quickly moving south, Geronimo raided settlements along the way for supplies. In one instance, he attacked a ranch owned by a man named Phillips, killing him, his wife, and his two children. Frightened settlers demanded swift military action, and General George Crook coordinated a combined Mexican and American manhunt for the Apache. Thousands of soldiers tracked the fugitives but Geronimo and his band split into small groups and remained elusive. Crook's failure to apprehend the Indians led to his eventual resignation. General Nelson Miles replaced him. Miles committed 5,000 troops to the campaign and even established 30 heliograph stations to improve communications. Still, Miles was also unable to find the elusive warrior. Informed that many of the reservation Apache, including his own family, had been taken to Florida, Geronimo apparently lost the will to fight. After a year and a half of running, Geronimo and his 38 remaining followers surrendered unconditionally to Miles on September 3, 1886. Relocated to Florida, Geronimo was imprisoned and kept from his family for two years. Finally, he was freed and moved with this family to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. He died of pneumonia at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909.
1943 – The Memphis Belle, one of a group of American bombers based in Britain, becomes the first B-17 to complete 25 missions over Europe. The Memphis Belle performed its 25th and last mission, in a bombing raid against Lorient, a German submarine base. But before returning back home to the United States, film footage was shot of Belle's crew receiving combat medals. This was but one part of a longer documentary on a day in the life of an American bomber, which included dramatic footage of a bomber being shot out of the sky, with most of its crew parachuting out, one by one. Another film sequence showed a bomber returning to base with its tail fin missing. What looked like damage inflicted by the enemy was, in fact, the result of a collision with another American bomber. The Memphis Belle documentary would not be released for another 11 months, as more footage was compiled to demonstrate the risks these pilots ran as they bombed "the enemy again and again and again-until he has had enough." The film's producer, Lieutenant Colonel William Wyler, was known for such non-military fare as The Letter, Wuthering Heights, and Jezebel.
1970 – A force of 10,000 South Vietnamese troops, supported by 200 U.S. advisers, aircraft and logistical elements, attack into what was known as the "Parrot's Beak," the area of Cambodia that projects into South Vietnam above the Mekong Delta. The South Vietnamese reached the town of Takeo in a 20-mile thrust. This action was part of the ongoing operation ordered by President Richard Nixon in April. U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched a limited "incursion" into Cambodia that included 13 major ground operations to clear North Vietnamese sanctuaries 20 miles inside the Cambodian border in both the "Parrot's Beak" and the densely vegetated "Fishhook" area (across the border from South Vietnam, 70 miles from Saigon). Some 50,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and 30,000 U.S. troops were involved, making it the largest operation of the war since Operation Junction City in 1967. In the United States, news of the incursion set off a wave of antiwar demonstrations, including one at Kent State University that resulted in the killing of four students by Army National Guard troops. Another protest at Jackson State in Mississippi resulted in the shooting of two students when police opened fire on a women's dormitory. The incursion also angered many in Congress who felt that Nixon was illegally widening the scope of the war; this resulted in a series of congressional resolutions and legislative initiatives that would severely limit the executive power of the president.
1972 – Preceded by five B-52 strikes, which reportedly killed 300 North Vietnamese to the south, South Vietnamese forces arrive by helicopter to within two miles of An Loc in continuing efforts to relieve this besieged city. It had been surrounded by three North Vietnamese divisions since early April. The North Vietnamese had been holding An Loc under siege for almost three months while they made repeated attempts to take the city. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, including 2,300 dead or missing, but with the aid of U.S. advisors and American airpower, they managed to hold An Loc against vastly superior odds until the siege was finally lifted on June 18.
2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef. USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34) – nicknamed Mighty O, and occasionally referred to as the O-boat – was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed only after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Oriskany. The history of Oriskany differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Originally designed as a "long-hulled" Essex-class ship (considered by some authorities to be a separate class, the Ticonderoga class) her construction was suspended in 1947. She eventually was commissioned in 1950 after conversion to an updated design called SCB-27 ("27-Charlie"), which became the template for modernization of 14 other Essex-class ships. Oriskany was the final Essex-class ship completed. She operated primarily in the Pacific into the 1970s, earning two battle stars for service in the Korean War, and five for service in the Vietnam War. In 1966 one of the worst shipboard fires since World War II broke out on Oriskany when a magnesium flare was accidentally ignited; forty-four men died in the fire. Oriskany's post-service history also differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Decommissioned in 1976, she was sold for scrap in 1995, but was repossessed in 1997 because nothing was being done (lack of progress). In 2004 it was decided to sink her as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. After much environmental review and remediation to remove toxic substances, she was carefully sunk, settling in an upright position at a depth accessible to recreational divers. As of 2008, Oriskany is "the largest vessel ever sunk to make a reef". Oriskany is mentioned in the 1986 film Top Gun as the ship from which the main character's father had flown during the Vietnam War. She has been featured in films such as Men of the Fighting Lady and The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and What Dreams May Come (1998).
See the prayer below from Brown Bear for the dive team who traveled to the Mighty O boat Yesterday
Thanks to THE Bear -
For your info.... Bear
Begin forwarded message:
Our Almighty Father, who art in heaven, "whose arm doth bind the restless wave", please guard and guide Master Diver Susan Snapp and her courageous team as they descend into the dark and dangerous depths of Your mighty ocean off Pensacola, Florida, on 16 May, in this Your year of 2020.
The team's selfless, dedicated, and heroic mission is to honor and pay tribute to the 46 brave Americans who sacrificed their own lives battling a horrific explosion and fire while fighting to save those of their shipmates and the United States Ship Oriskany.
Please dear God, embrace them in Your mighty arms as they offer their very lives to honor our departed heroes. Just as you sent your Angel Gabriel to guide so many of us safely through the flak-filled skies over North Vietnam, please send him now to show Susan and her Band of Patriots the way down into the depths. They bear with them the heavy burden of a ship's bell, engraved with the names of our fallen - but never forgotten - wingmen, shipmates, friends, husbands, fathers, sons, brothers . . . heroes all!
Dear Father, just as You have on their previous dedicated missions, return Susan and her Patriots safely from the depths into the glorious sunlight of Your earth. Please bestow unto them the knowledge that all true and loyal Americans respect and greatly admire them for the skill and bravery they so freely demonstrate during this dangerous and very appreciated mission.
In Thy glorious name we pray for the success and safety of this heroic team.
Amen.
Very Respectfully Submitted,
Richard Schaffert aka Brown Bear
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
AY, JAMES
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a squad leader serving with the Second Battalion, Twenty-Second Marines, Sixth Marine Division, in sustained combat operations against Japanese forces on Okinawa, Ryukya Islands from 14 to 17 May 1945. On the first day, Corporal Day rallied his squad and the remnants of another unit and led them to a critical position forward of the front lines of Sugar Loaf Hill. Soon thereafter, they came under an intense mortar and artillery barrage that was quickly followed by a ferocious ground attack by some forty Japanese soldiers. Despite the loss of one-half of his men, Corporal Day remained at the forefront, shouting encouragement, hurling hand grenades, and directing deadly fire, thereby repelling the determined enemy. Reinforced by six men, he led his squad in repelling three fierce night attacks but suffered five additional Marines killed and one wounded, whom he assisted to safety. Upon hearing nearby calls for corpsman assistance, Corporal Day braved heavy enemy fire to escort four seriously wounded Marines, one at a time, to safety. Corporal Day then manned a light machine gun, assisted by a wounded Marine, and halted another night attack. In the ferocious action, his machine gun was destroyed, and he suffered multiple white phosphorous and fragmentation wounds. He reorganized his defensive position in time to halt a fifth enemy attack with devastating small arms fire. On three separated occasions, Japanese soldiers closed to within a few feet of his foxhole, but were killed by Corporal Day. During the second day, the enemy conducted numerous unsuccessful swarming attacks against his exposed position. When the attacks momentarily subsided, over 70 enemy dead were counted around his position. On the third day, a wounded and exhausted Corporal Day repulsed the enemy's final attack, killing a dozen enemy soldiers at close range. Having yielded no ground and with more than 100 enemy dead around his position, Corporal Day preserved the lives of his fellow Marines and made a significant contribution to the success of the Okinawa campaign. By his extraordinary heroism, repeated acts of valor, and quintessential battlefield leadership, Corporal Day inspired the efforts of his outnumbered Marines to defeat a much larger enemy force, reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
*BURKE, ROBERT C.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company 1, 3d Battalion, 27th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Southern Quang Nam Province Republic of Vietnam, 17 May 1968. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 7 November 1949, Monticello, Ill. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty for service as a machine gunner with Company 1. While on Operation ALLEN BROOK, Company 1 was approaching a dry river bed with a heavily wooded treeline that borders the hamlet of Le Nam (1), when they suddenly came under intense mortar, rocket propelled grenades, automatic weapons and small-arms fire from a large, well concealed enemy force which halted the company's advance and wounded several marines. Realizing that key points of resistance had to be eliminated to allow the units to advance and casualties to be evacuated, Pfc. Burke, without hesitation, seized his machine gun and launched a series of 1-man assaults against the fortified emplacements. As he aggressively maneuvered to the edge of the steep river bank, he delivered accurate suppressive fire upon several enemy bunkers, which enabled his comrades to advance and move the wounded marines to positions of relative safety. As he continued his combative actions, he located an opposing automatic weapons emplacement and poured intense fire into the position, killing 3 North Vietnamese soldiers as they attempted to flee. Pfc. Burke then fearlessly moved from one position to another, quelling the hostile fire until his weapon malfunctioned. Obtaining a casualty's rifle and hand grenades, he advanced further into the midst of the enemy fire in an assault against another pocket of resistance, killing 2 more of the enemy. Observing that a fellow marine had cleared his malfunctioning machine gun he grasped his weapon and moved into a dangerously exposed area and saturated the hostile treeline until he fell mortally wounded. Pfc. Burke'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.
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