The temp hit 111 today and all work outside quit hours ago. . If you are sheltering in place here is some history and tidbits that I did not put in this morning's 5438.
REGARDS,
Skip
Thanks to Roger one of Mud's Marines
Subject: History of naval aviation training traditions | Hill Goodspeed
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This Day in U S Military History
5 September
1863 – United States Foreign Minister to Great Britain, Charles Francis Adams, sends an angry letter to the British government warning that war between the two nations may erupt if it allows two powerful ironclad ships, designed to help the Confederates break the Union naval blockade, to set sail. In the early stages of the war, the British toyed with the idea of recognizing the Confederacy. But Southern hopes of such support were dashed by the end of 1862, when President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation converted the war from one of reunification to a war to abolish slavery. British politicians would be hard pressed to explain to the British people why they were forming an alliance with a slave-holding nation. But in 1863 another thorn appeared in the side of Anglo-American relations. Throughout the war, Confederate agents in England acquired ships from British shipyards that were later used in the Confederate navy. This seemed to be in violation of Britain's own Neutrality Act of 1819, which forbade the building, equipping, or arming of warships to be used against any nation with which the British were at peace. During the American Civil War, the British argued that selling ships to the Confederates was not a violation of the law so long as they were not armed. So the Confederacy simply purchased the ships and then took them to another port before adding the armament. Confederate agent James Bulloch contracted the Laird Shipbuilding Company to construct two ironclads with large iron spikes attached to their prows in order to ram wooden Union blockade ships. In the summer of 1863, Union spies delivered the details of their construction to Adams, who then sent a series of angry and threatening letters warning the British of the consequences of allowing the ships to sail. On September 5, Adams concluded a letter to British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell with the words: "It would be superfluous in me to point out to your Lordship that this is war." Adams became a hero in the United States, but the British government had already made the decision to hold the ships in England. A major foreign crisis was averted, and any glimmer of Confederate hope for British recognition vanished.
1877 – Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted by a U.S. soldier after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. A year earlier, Crazy Horse was among the Sioux leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer's Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana Territory. The battle, in which 265 members of the Seventh Cavalry, including Custer, were killed, was the worst defeat of the U.S. Army in its long history of warfare with the Native Americans. After the victory at Little Bighorn, U.S. Army forces led by Colonel Nelson Miles pursued Crazy Horse and his followers. His tribe suffered from cold and starvation, and on May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse surrendered to General George Crook at the Red Cloud Indian Agency in Nebraska. He was sent to Fort Robinson, where he was killed in a scuffle with soldiers who were trying to imprison him in a cell.
1905 – The Russo-Japanese War comes to an end as representatives of the two nations sign the Treaty of Portsmouth in New Hampshire. Russia, defeated in the war, agreed to cede to Japan the island of Sakhalin and Russian port and rail rights in Manchuria. On February 8, 1904, following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launched a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated. During the subsequent Russo-Japanese War, Japan won a series of decisive victories over the Russians, who underestimated the military potential of its non-Western opponent. In January 1905, the strategic naval base of Port Arthur fell to Japanese naval forces under Admiral Heihachiro Togo; in March, Russian troops were defeated at Shenyang, China, by Japanese Field Marshal Iwao Oyama; and in May, the Russian Baltic fleet under Admiral Zinovi Rozhdestvenski was destroyed by Togo near the Tsushima Islands. These three major defeats convinced Russia that further resistance against Japan's imperial designs for East Asia was hopeless, and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt mediated a peace treaty at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in August 1905. (He was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this achievement.) Japan emerged from the conflict as the first modern non-Western world power and set its sights on greater imperial expansion. The Russian military's disastrous performance in the war was one of the immediate causes of the Russian Revolution of 1905.
1975 – In Sacramento, California, an assassination attempt against President Gerald Ford is foiled when a Secret Service agent wrests a semi-automatic .45-caliber pistol from Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, a follower of incarcerated cult leader Charles Manson. Fromme was pointing the loaded gun at the president when the Secret Service agent grabbed it. Seventeen days later, Ford escaped injury in another assassination attempt when 45-year-old Sara Jane Moore fired a revolver at him. Moore, a leftist radical who once served as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, had a history of mental illness. She was arrested at the scene, convicted, and sentenced to life. In trial, Fromme pleaded not guilty to the "attempted assassination of a president" charge, arguing that although her gun contained bullets it had not been cocked, and therefore she had not actually intended to shoot the president. She was convicted, sentenced to life in prison, and sent to the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution in West Virginia. Fromme remained a dedicated disciple of Charles Manson and in December 1987 escaped from the Alderson Prison after she heard that Manson, also imprisoned, had cancer. After 40 hours roaming the rugged West Virginia hills, she was caught on Christmas Day, about two miles from the prison. Five years were added to her life sentence for the escape.
1986 – Pan Am Flight 73, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, was hijacked while on the ground at Karachi, Pakistan, by four armed Palestinian men of the Abu Nidal Organization. The aircraft, with 360 passengers on board, had just arrived from Sahar International Airport in Mumbai, India, and was preparing to depart Jinnah International Airport in Karachi for Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany, ultimately continuing on to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, United States. The motivation for the hijacking was to attack the Israeli defense ministry, using the aircraft as a missile, but the crew escaped while the hijackers were seizing the aircraft, making that impossible. The four hijackers were dressed as Karachi airport security guards and were armed with assault rifles, pistols, grenades, and plastic explosive belts. At about 06:00 a.m. local time, the hijackers drove a van that had been modified to look like an airport security vehicle through a security checkpoint up to one of the boarding stairways to Pan Am Flight 73. The hijackers stormed up the stairways into the plane, fired shots from an automatic weapon, and seized control of the aircraft. Flight attendants were able to alert the cockpit crew using intercom, allowing the pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer to flee through an overhead hatch in the cockpit. Flight attendants were ordered to collect the passports of all passengers. The flight attendants complied with this request,but during the collection of the passports, one stewardess, Neerja Bhanot, the senior flight purser, believed passengers with American passports would be singled out by the hijackers. She proceeded to hide some of the American passports under a seat, and dumped the rest down a trash chute. Twenty of the passengers were killed during the hijacking, of which 12 were from India and the rest were from United States, Pakistan and Mexico. All the hijackers were arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan. However, the sentences were later commuted to life in prison against the wishes of India and the United States. Hijacker Zayd Hassan Abd al-Latif Safarini was captured by US authorities after his release from prison in Pakistan. He is serving his 160 year sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Anotehr, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, was reported killed in a drone strike on January 9, 2010 in Pakistan. His death was never confirmed and he remains on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists and Rewards for Justice lists.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
MERLI, GINO J.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Sars la Bruyere, Belgium, 4-5 September 1944. Entered service at: Peckville, Pa. Birth: Scranton, Pa. G.O. No.: 64, 4 August 1945. Citation: He was serving as a machine gunner in the vicinity of Sars la Bruyere, Belgium, on the night of 4-5 1944, when his company was attacked by a superior German force Its position was overrun and he was surrounded when our troops were driven back by overwhelming numbers and firepower. Disregarding the fury of the enemy fire concentrated on him he maintained his position, covering the withdrawal of our riflemen and breaking the force of the enemy pressure. His assistant machine gunner was killed and the position captured; the other 8 members of the section were forced to surrender. Pfc. Merli slumped down beside the dead assistant gunner and feigned death. No sooner had the enemy group withdrawn then he was up and firing in all directions. Once more his position was taken and the captors found 2 apparently lifeless bodies. Throughout the night Pfc. Merli stayed at his weapon. By daybreak the enemy had suffered heavy losses, and as our troops launched an assault, asked for a truce. Our negotiating party, who accepted the German surrender, found Pfc. Merli still at his gun. On the battlefield lay 52 enemy dead, 19 of whom were directly in front of the gun. Pfc. Merli's gallantry and courage, and the losses and confusion that he caused the enemy, contributed materially to our victory .
*BENFOLD, EDWARD C.
Rank and organization: Hospital Corpsman Third Class, U.S. Navy, attached to a company in the 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Korea, 5 September 1952. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Born: 15 January 1931, Staten Island, N.Y. Citation: For gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving in operations against enemy aggressor forces. When his company was subjected to heavy artillery and mortar barrages, followed by a determined assault during the hours of darkness by an enemy force estimated at battalion strength, HC3c. Benfold resolutely moved from position to position in the face of intense hostile fire, treating the wounded and lending words of encouragement. Leaving the protection of his sheltered position to treat the wounded when the platoon area in which he was working was attacked from both the front and rear, he moved forward to an exposed ridge line where he observed 2 marines in a large crater. As he approached the 2 men to determine their condition, an enemy soldier threw 2 grenades into the crater while 2 other enemy charged the position. Picking up a grenade in each hand, HC3c Benfold leaped out of the crater and hurled himself against the on-rushing hostile soldiers, pushing the grenades against their chests and killing both the attackers. Mortally wounded while carrying out this heroic act, HC3c. Benfold, by his great personal valor and resolute spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of almost certain death, was directly responsible for saving the lives of his 2 comrades. His exceptional courage reflects the highest credit upon himself and enhances the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for others.
*KAUFMAN, LOREN R.
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Company G, 9th Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Near Yongsan, Korea, 4 and 5 September 1950. Entered service at: The Dalles, Oreg. Born: 27 July 1923, The Dalles, Oreg. G.O. No.: 61, 2 August 1951. Citation: Sfc. Kaufman distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. On the night of 4 September the company was in a defensive position on 2 adjoining hills. His platoon was occupying a strong point 2 miles away protecting the battalion flank. Early on 5 September the company was attacked by an enemy battalion and his platoon was ordered to reinforce the company. As his unit moved along a ridge it encountered a hostile encircling force. Sfc. Kaufman, running forward, bayoneted the lead scout and engaged the column in a rifle and grenade assault. His quick Vicious attack so surprised the enemy that they retreated in confusion. When his platoon joined the company he discovered that the enemy had taken commanding ground and pinned the company down in a draw. Without hesitation Sfc. Kaufman charged the enemy lines firing his rifle and throwing grenades. During the action, he bayoneted 2 enemy and seizing an unmanned machine gun, delivered deadly fire on the defenders. Following this encounter the company regrouped and resumed the attack. Leading the assault he reached the ridge, destroyed a hostile machine gun position, and routed the remaining enemy. Pursuing the hostile troops he bayoneted 2 more and then rushed a mortar position shooting the gunners. Remnants of the enemy fled to a village and Sfc. Kaufman led a patrol into the town, dispersed them, and burned the buildings. The dauntless courage and resolute intrepid leadership of Sfc. Kaufman were directly responsible for the success of his company in regaining its positions, reflecting distinct credit upon himself and upholding the esteemed traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 5, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
5 September
1923: Army bombing tests off Cape Hatteras, N.C., sank the condemned naval vessels New Jersey and Virginia by bombing.
1931: M. S. Boggs made the first solo blind landing using the Bureau of Air Commerce blind flying system.
1941: Nine B-17D Flying Fortresses began a mass transpacific flight from Hawaii to the Philippines. After flying through Midway, Wake, Port Moresby, and Darwin, Australia, the bombers landed at Clark Field, near Manila on 12 September. (21) (24)
1944: Capt William H. Allen of the 55th Fighter Group, Eighth Air Force, became an ace in one P-51 mission by scoring five aerial victories in just a few minutes. Flying with another ace, Capt William H. Lewis, Allen's flight encountered and shot down 16 German fighters. Between 3 and 11 September, the 55th shot down 106 enemy fighters to earn a Distinguished Unit Citation. (4)
1948: The Navy's Martin JRM Mars seaplane, the Caroline Mars, lifted 62,282 pounds, the heaviest payload to date, from Patuxent River to Cleveland, Ohio. (24)
1951: The USAF awarded a contract to Consolidated Vultee for the world's first atomic-powered plane. General Electric built the engine. (16)
1952: KOREAN WAR. In two daylight strikes, Far East Air Forces flew over 200 sorties against an ore and processing plant located northeast of Sinanju, damaging or destroying approximately 70 buildings and repair shops. (28)
1953: In a Piasecki YH-21 Workhorse, Capt Russell M. Dobyns set a 3-kilometer (1.86 miles) speed record of 146.743 MPH for helicopters at Dayton, Ohio.
1960: Lt Col T. H. Miller (USMC) piloted a McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II at 1,216.77 MPH over a 500-kilometer (310 miles) course to set a new world's record. (24)
1968: President Johnson ended the Advisory Committee on Supersonic Transport, which had been set up on 1 April 1964.
1983: MACKAY TROPHY. Capt Robert J. Goodman and his KC-135 crewmembers (Capt Michael R. Clover, 1Lt Karol R. Wojcikoski and SSgt Douglas D. Simmons) from Loring AFB, Maine, refueled a group of F-4Es crossing the North Atlantic. When an F-4 lost power in an engine and diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, 500 miles away, Goodman took up escort duty. Later, the F-4 pilot shut down that engine and reduced power in the other, which forced him to lose altitude, airspeed, and jettison his centerline tank. Through four, interrupted refuelings and extreme peril as the fighter dropped to 2,000 feet, the KC-135 towed or escorted the fighter to Gander. For this meritorious flight, Goodman and his crew received the Mackay Trophy. (1) (18)
1986: A C-141 Starlifter from United States Air Forces in Europe flew Americans injured during a hijacking at Karachi Airport, Pakistan, to Frankfurt, Germany, for medical treatment. (16) (26)
1984: The Discovery Space Shuttle completed its first flight with a landing at Edwards AFB, Calif. (3)
1996: HURRICANE FRAN. C-130s from the 145th Airlift Wing airlifted engineers, security police, generators, mobile kitchens, and showers to the Raleigh and Wilmington, N. C. (26)
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Thanks to R Hudson
Mass focus weapon and the Thanh Hoa bridge
Having mentioned in the previous email the Thanh Hoa bridge earlier here is an exert from the Air Force Magazine (August /2011) on another one of the many untold stories in 'nam. The weapon they dreamed up will have you scratching your head and uttering Granpaw Pettibone's famous expression.."Jumpin' Jehosophat"
I know it's a long read but between the pathetic results and the cost in lives somehow you'l want to know how it will end.
Indestructible?
The combination of rugged structure and a powerful integrated air defense made it obvious a new and far more powerful weapon was needed. "The apparent invincibility of the bridge; its cost in men, aircraft, and ordnance; its potential strategic importance; its symbolic value to the North Vietnamese—all served as an incentive for US aviators to find different techniques to destroy it," according to USAF's monograph, "The Tale of Two Bridges and the Battle for the Skies Over North Vietnam." The personnel of the Air Force Armament Laboratory at Eglin AFB, Fla., worked hard to develop a solution. A new "mass-focus" weapon weighing about 5,000 pounds was produced. Shaped like a huge pancake, eight feet in diameter and about 30 inches thick, it was designed to focus the force of its explosion along its axis—in both directions. Much too large to be dropped by a fighter, and with unpredictable ballistic qualities, it was intended to be dropped by parachute into the Song Ma. Planning called for it to float down the river to the Dragon's Jaw. There the metal structure of the bridge would set off magnetic detonators and explode the bomb. A task force was set up at Eglin's Tactical Air Warfare Center.
Established in 1963, the TAWC was designed to develop instruments and tactics of armament, night operations, combat support, and command and control. The task force opted to use the versatile Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport and two crews from the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron at Sewart AFB, Tenn. There were two crews: one led by Maj. Richard T. Remers and the second by MajThomas F. Case. An array of specialists and technicians were deployed to examine how to drop the weapon, what parachutes to use, and how to ensure the weapon would navigate the river, subject as it was to its depth and current. After intense training, the C-130s and their crews arrived at Da Nang Air Base in South Vietnam on May 15, 1966. Ten of the large mass-focus weapons were available, enough for two missions in what would become known as Operation Carolina Moon. The operation depended on careful planning, skilful flying, and brave crews. Remers' crew was slated to make the first drop, entering North Vietnam at night and maintaining an altitude of no more than 500 feet.
A flight of two McDonnell F-4 Phantoms was scheduled for a diversionary attack on a highway 10 miles north of the bridge, just before the C-130 would drop its weapons. A Douglas EB-66 Destroyer provided electronic countermeasures protection. Both aircraft commanders were confident the Hercules was strong enough to make the mission, but each had different ideas on crew safety. Intelligence revealed the North Vietnamese had greatly increased their anti-aircraft artillery capability at the bridge with the addition of five new AAA sites.
Weighing this, Remers felt that if the C-130 were too badly damaged, he should climb to altitude and bail the crew out. He decided that his crew would wear parachutes rather than flak jackets. Case felt differently, believing that at low altitudes, the crew would be better off wearing flak jackets. In the end, these decisions mattered little.
Just after midnight on May 30, Remers took off from Da Nang, flying just 100 feet over the water of the South China Sea until hitting his entry point on the coast of North Vietnam. In less than an hour he was "feet dry," heading up the Song Ma, under the guidance of two navigators, Capt. Norman G. Clanton and 1st Lt. William R. Edmondson. Two release points had been preselected, one two miles from the bridge, and one a single mile away. Remers climbed to 400 feet, flying at 150 mph. The approach was without incident and he elected to use the second drop point. Just before the drop, the enemy opened up with heavy automatic weapons and anti-aircraft guns. Five of the mass-focus weapons were dropped, and Remers picked up speed as he dove back toward a 100-foot altitude and reversed his route to exit for an uneventful flight back to Da Nang. Reconnaissance flights the following morning showed that the bridge still stood, and there was no evidence of the bombs.
The second mission was laid on for 1 a.m. on May 31. Case asked that Edmondson join his crew for the mission, feeling that his experience from the first mission might be invaluable. The same precautionary measures—diversion attacks and electronic countermeasures support—were supplied. Finally, Success Case's C-130 departed Da Nang at 1 a.m. May 31 as planned, but nothing more was ever heard from it. One of the diversionary F-4 crews saw AAA fire and a big explosion near the bridge at about the scheduled drop time. The other F-4 was shot down, presumably killing 1st Lt. Ned R. Herrold and Lt. Col. Dayton W. Ragland, who had spent two years as a prisoner of war in Korea. It was Ragland's 98th mission in Vietnam, nearly time for him to return home. The next morning's reconnaissance mission revealed no damage to the bridge or any evidence of survivors. An extensive search was conducted, but nothing that could be positively identified as belonging to either Case's C-130 or Ragland's F-4 was found. Much later, the interrogation of a captured North Vietnamese sailor revealed that while four of the five mines from Remers' mission had exploded, they had not damaged the bridge. With this tragic finale, Operation Carolina Moon concluded and its remaining personnel returned to the United States.
Their experiment had not been successful, and many years passed before the remains of several of the missing Carolina Moon crew members were recovered. In 1986, the remains of Case, 1st Lt. Armon D. Shingledecker, 1st Lt. Harold J. Zook, and A1C Elroy E. Harworth were returned to the United States for burial with honors. In 1998, the remains of A1C Phillip J. Stickney were returned. The other Carolina Moon C-130 crew members, Edmondson, Capt. Emmett R. McDonald, and SSgt. Bobby J. Alberton are still listed as missing in action, with a presumptive finding of death. The two F-4 crew members shot down while flying the diversionary strike, Herrold and Ragland, are also listed as MIA, presumed dead.
Naval aircraft resumed the attacks and continued to go after the bridge until 1968, when the United States halted bombing strikes against North Vietnam. A wide range of aircraft launched different types of weapons—including the AGM-62 Walleye precision guided missile—with no significant effect. But when Operation Linebacker commenced in 1972, both the Navy and Air Force were better equipped. Great progress had been made in the field of precision guided munitions, and these revolutionary weapons would ultimately bring down the Dragon's Jaw. Air Force F-4 Phantoms from the 8th TFW used Paveway laser guided and TV guided bombs to attack the bridge on April 27, 1972. A section of the western .
The Thanh Hoa Bridge's western end was knocked into the Song Ma in April 1972. In May, 2,000-pound and 3,000-pound laser guided bombs blasted it off an abutment. A C-130 such as this one, taking off from a dirt strip in South Vietnam, was lost with all crew members in an attempt to deliver "mass-focus" bombs against the formidable bridge. end of the bridge was displaced and knocked into the Song Ma. A follow-up attack on May 13 saw 14 Phantoms dropping 2,000-pound and 3,000-pound LGBs. They knocked the Dragon's Jaw off an abutment and took the bridge out of action, although follow-on strikes were needed, as the North Vietnamese immediately went to work on repairing the bridge.
Final success occurred on Oct. 6, when four Vought A-7s from the carrier America attacked. Two were carrying the improved version of the Walleye, while two brought standard Mk 84 general purpose bombs. They struck the center piling and broke the structure in half. At long last, after seven years, 871 sorties, tremendous expenditure in lives, 11 lost aircraft, and a bewildering array of expended munitions, the Dragon's Jaw was finally broken.
If you would like to read the full story from Air Force Magazine August 2011 below is the URL
https://www.airforcemag.com/PDF/MagazineArchive/Documents/2011/August%202011/0811jaw.pdf
And citing Gramps has forced me to dig out one of my most prized possessions..a 112 page publication called "The Best of Gramps"...replete with endless stories of things that just had Gramps jumping up and down. If Naval Aviation News would do a reprint they would sell like hotcakes.I can't find a date but Wes McDonald was chairman of the board at that time...there are probably stories in there of some of you on the distro list...fortunately Gramps made it a point to sanitize the stories to protect the highly unlikely innocent.
Bill
Aircraft that shot themselves down
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