Good Monday Morning September 7, 2020.
Have a great day
Regards,
Skip
Today in Naval History September 7
During the American Revolution, the British supply ship Unity is taken by the Continental schooner, Hannah, paid for by Army Gen. George Washington. It is the first prize taken by a Continental vessel.
1776
David Bushnell's submarine Turtle is used by Sgt. Erza Lee to attack HMS Eagle in New York Harbor. Lees efforts to attach a "torpedo" to the ship's hull are frustrated by copper-sheathing, marine growth, perhaps merely a hard spot in the hull, which prevents the drill from boring into the ship bottom and it drifts away.
1797
USS Constellation, the second of the original six frigates, is launched. Notable service includes the battles between the French frigate, LInsurgente and Vengeance, during the Quasi-War with France; participation in the Barbary Wars where she helps capture the Algerian frigate, Mashuda in 1815; and service in the West Indies Squadron against piracy and slavery.
1825
The frigate USS Brandywine receives the Marquis de Lafayette on board for return to France after his year-long tour of the United States. The name honors the battle where the Marquis was wounded while serving with the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
1945
The Japanese surrender the Ryukyu Islands area at the U.S. Tenth Army Headquarters on Okinawa.
2013
USS Minnesota (SSN 783) is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk is the 10th of the Virginia-class submarines and the third Navy vessel to be named after the state of Minnesota.
No CHINFO today
Today in History: September 7
1571 At the Battle of Lepanto in the Mediterranean Sea, the Christian galley fleet destroys the Turkish galley fleet.
1630 The town of Trimountaine in Massachusetts is renamed Boston. It became the state capital.
1701 England, Austria, and the Netherlands form an Alliance against France.
1778 Shawnee Indians attack and lay siege to Boonesborough, Kentucky.
1812 On the road to Moscow, Napoleon wins a costly victory over the Russians at Borodino.
1813 The earliest known printed reference to the United States by the nickname "Uncle Sam" occurs in the Troy Post.
1864 Union General Phil Sheridan's troops skirmish with the Confederates under Jubal Early outside Winchester, Virginia.
1876 The James-Younger gang botches an attempt to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota.
1888 An incubator is used for the first time on a premature infant.
1892 The first heavyweight-title boxing match fought with gloves under Marquis of Queensbury rules ends when James J. Corbett knocks out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round.
1912 French aviator Roland Garros sets an altitude record of 13,200 feet.
1916 The U.S. Congress passes the Workman's Compensation Act.
1940 blitz against London begins during the Battle of Britain.
1942 The Red Army pushes back the German line northwest of Stalingrad.
1953 Nikita Krushchev elected first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1954 Integration of public schools begins in Washington D.C. and Maryland.
1965 Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio.
1970 Jockey Bill Shoemaker earns 6,033rd win, breaking Johnny Longden's record for most lifetime wins; Shoemaker's record would stand for 29 years.
1977 Panama and US sign Torrijos-Carter Treaties to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the US to Panama at the end of the 20th century.
1978 Secret police agent Francesco Gullino assassinates Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London by firing a ricin pellet from a specially designed umbrella.
1979 ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programing Network, debuts.
1986 Desmond Tutu becomes first black leader of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of South Africa).
1988 Pilot and cosmonaut Abdul Ahad Mohmand, the first Afghan to travel to outer space, returns to earth after 9 days aboard the Soviet space station Mir.
2004 Hurricane Ivan damages 90% of buildings on the island of Grenada; 39 die in the Category 5 storm.
2008 US Government assumes conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's two largest mortgage financing companies, during the subprime mortgage crisis.
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Thanks to THE Bear -
ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED…Tale #23
September 6, 2020Bear Taylor
WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED…TALES OF THE BRAVE AND BOLD
COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE VIETNAM WAR (1961-1973) and honoring the heroic efforts of the Naval Aviators, Naval Flight Officers, and aircrewmen, who penetrated the most dangerous air defenses in the world to destroy military targets in the North Vietnam homeland in Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)…
GOOD MORNING. It is Monday, 7 September 2020, Labor Day, and Faithful Scribe has another story of guts and glory to share. In addition, a 90-page document that summarizes the second half of Operation ROLLING THUNDER is linked to this post for your LABOR DAY READING. But first, a few bits of history from the pages of American newspapers published 50 years ago this week (7-13 Sept 1970)…
TOP OF THE NEWS. NEW YORK… Trans International Airlines Flight 863, a DC-8, suffered engine fire and failure on takeoff and crashed killing the 11 in the crew, including seven stewardesses. The aircraft was en route to Washington to pick up 184 passengers for a leg to London… BAHRAIN. Palestinian guerrillas hijacked an airliner after takeoff from Bahrain– BOAC Flight 775 with a crew of 10 and 113 passengers to add to the 300 hostages already under held from three of the hijackings the previous week. The Palestinians subsequently released all but 39 Israeli citizens they called "prisoners of war."… DETROIT. Chevrolet introduced the Vega at 6,300 dealerships as the "New Little Car" at $2,091. The next day Ford introduced the Pinto to sell for $170 less. The first Pinto was sold to a schoolteacher named Pinto who resided in Pinto, Maryland… WASHINGTON. The Sky Marshall Program began on American airline flights after President Nixon announced that armed agents would be serving on flights in the United States to combat the "menace of air piracy."… BIRMINGHAM. The southern Cal Trojans trounced The Alabama Crimson Tide, 42-21, making it the first time Alabama, an all-white team, had hosted a racially integrated team at home. Bear Bryant set the game up with the concurrence of USC's John McKay to show Alabama fans that The Tide needed to recruit Black players to be competitive… WASHINGTON. A sparse 5,543 soccer crowd turned out to watch the North American Soccer League championship played at Catholic University in D.C. The Washington Darts defeated the Rochester Lancers, 3 to 1…
THE VIETNAM WAR. CAMBODIA. A Cambodian Army amphibious force of 1,500 men, acting without support from foreign troops, broke the siege of Kompong Thom after three months, driving out North Vietnamese and Kymer Rouge forces… LAOS. Operation Tailwind began as a three-day long covert U.S. Special Forces operation in Laos with 16 Green Berets and 140 Vietnamese Montagnards making an incursion from South Vietnam. The group encountered heavy resistance from the North Vietnamese Army and destroyed an enemy base camp before being extracted by U.S. helicopters that fired "tear gas"in order to keep the NVA neutralized. The secret mission went unreported until 1998 when CNN ran a story that said the gas used was sarin, and the target was American servicemen who had deserted. Two reporters and war correspondent Peter Arnett were fired and a retraction by CNN followed. The purpose of the mission was to create a diversion for a South Vietnamese offense against Viet Cong forces in South Vietnam… NYT: "What is Hanoi Planning After the Rains Stop?" Is a short article dated 20 September 1970 that is a great summary of what was going on in Southeast Asia 50 years ago this month. Read at…
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/212/2121801037.pdf
THE AIR WAR (7-13 September 1970)… Two fixed wing aircraft and one Marine pilot were lost in Southeast Asia 50 years ago this week. Both were A-4s from MAG-11 at Danang. One was a TA-4F that suffered a fuel system problem on a test hop followed by engine failure, an ejection and successful rescue. The other was an A-4E of VMA-311. Chris Hobson told the story this way: "On the night of 10/11 a flight of two Skyhawks was called to attack enemy troops who were occupying a ridgeline in the hills near A Shau Valley, 25 miles southwest of Hue and were fighting elements of the 101st Airborne Division. 1LT Bernard Herbert PLASSMEYER made one successful pass but as he came around for the second time his aircraft was hit by ground fire, burst into flames and crashed. It was thought that the pilot did not have time to eject before the aircraft crashed. 1LT PLASSMEYER had completed about 100 sorties since arriving in Vietnam in February 1970. The aircraft was the last of 28 skyhawks lost by VMA-311 during its many deployments to South Vietnam, 23 of these had been lost in enemy action, six of them during Viet Cong attacks on Chu Lai. The Squadron had flown a total of 54,625 combat sorties during the war and lost eight pilots killed due to enemy action or accidents…" https://www.vietnamairlosses.com
1LT PLASSMEYER was listed as MIA until reclassified as "killed in action, body not recovered" in 1976. A Joint Recovery team located the wreckage of his aircraft in 1991 but found no remains. The ejection seat was in the aircraft. His case is carried by DPAA as "active pursuit." Sixteen days after his loss his wife gave birth to a son. On this day our thoughts are with that courageous family who have carried this incomplete tragedy for fifty years…
https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/p/p097.htm
WHEN NAVAL AVIATION ROARED. Tale #23. The VA-94 "Mighty Shrikes" Versus the Phu Ly Railroad Yards on 1 June 1967…
Light Attack Squadron NINETY-FOUR and Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE embarked in USS HANCOCK (CVA-19) departed North Island on 5 January 1967 and returned on 22 July 1967 after completing four periods of combat and 102 days "on the line." The Air Wing lost nine aircraft in combat and seven in operational accidents. Nine aviators were left behind, but five returned in 1973 with the repatriation of our POWs.
ON THE MORNING OF 1 JUNE 1967, LCDR Ken JURGENSEN of VA-94 planned, briefed and led a twenty-two plane coordinated attack on the Phu Ly, North Vietnam railyard located 27 miles south of Hanoi. This strategic target was a transportation choke point at the intersection of two major rivers and two highways. The railyard was a principal staging area located on the railway linking Hanoi and Nam Dinh, which is the only railline linking Hanoi with Thanh Hoa and points to the south. The target consisted of more than 100 boxcars on four rail sidings.
DEFENSES. The railyard and rolling stock was defended by four active 37mm, two 57mm and one 87mm anti-aircraft batteries and four automatic weapon sites. The target and route to and from the JCS target site was also within the lethal envelope of five surface-to-air missile sites, two of which had been active the day before the Hancock strike on Phu Ly on 1 June. North Vietnamese MiGs were five minutes away at airfields to the north and northeast of the target and were active over Hanoi.
THE STRIKE. LCDR JURGENSEN utilized a strike force of fourteen A-4s (Cs and Es) bombers, each armed with six MK-82s, and eight F-8 Crusaders armed with rockets and CBU-24s as Flak Suppressors and MiG CAP for this strike. The strike was executed as planned and briefed by LCDR JURGENSEN.
The strike group rendezvoused over the ship and navigated in good weather to the coastin point 20 miles southeast of the target. The formation continued northwest to a point five miles southeast of Phu Ly, where the formation split into two groups. LCDR JURGENSEN led his 7 A4s and 4 F8s to the northeast of Phu Ly while his second group altered course to the south of the railyard. The F-8 flak suppressors broke on call of the flight leader to attack the several enemy flak sites that had already engaged the strike group with both barrage and tracking antiaircrtaft fire of all sizes. Both bomber divisions followed the momentary suppression of the flak to attack their prebriefed railyard sidings and rolling stock as briefed. The attack was made almost simultaneously from two directions. This tactic was effective in dividing the enemy defensive fire at the risk of a midair collision by attacking aircraft as they crossed the railyard and recovered from their respective dive bombing attacks. The tactic was successful on this strike with all aircraft delivering their ordnance on target and successfully clearing the heavily defended area with no battle damage to the 22 participating aircraft. All aircraft retired from the target area to the southeast for a routine return to the carrier. MiGs were airborne during the attack but remained north of Hanoi. SAM activity was limited to intermittent radar activation. No SAMs were launched at the JURGENSEN strike group on this strike.
Bomb damage was recorded as twenty boxcars destroyed, ten damaged, and several major cuts to both siding and main line tracks. Three support buildings were damaged or destroyed and left burning. No secondary explosions were noted.
BITS OF RIBBON. LCDR JURGENSEN, who planned, briefed and led the highly successful strike was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross. COMMANDER Robert Ernest FERGUSON, Commander, Attack Carrier Air Wing FIVE, was awarded a "Silver Star in lieu of the Sixteenth Air Medal for his heroic achievement as Strike Coordinator and leader of the F-8 fighters on the mission. Ooohrah…
(Faithful Scribe's source for this tale of distinguished flying is personal notes from awards records held by CINCPACFLT until 1985 at the Navy Annex in Suitland, Maryland. Where are those eight cartons of records now?…anybody's guess. Copies of a few hundred of the several thousands of these detailed documents have been preserved and are held in my cave in Ogden. Perhaps another thousand are archived in the Rear Admiral Jeremy Taylor collection at the Texas Tech Vietnam Archive in Lubbock, Texas.)
END NOTE #1. USAF PROJECT CHECO SOUTHEAST ASIA REPORT: Rolling Thunder, January 1967-November 1968. The following is the Epilogue of this formerly Secret document… Quote…
"In January 1969, reconnaissance sorties indicated that NVN was continuing a massive supply buildup. Transshipment points were enlarged, improved, and handled large quantities of supplies. Oceangoing vessels, including Free World ships, were now calling on the Port of Vinh to offload supplies. New POL storage areas with a capacity of 2,500,000 gallons were reported. Truck sightings, although down from Deccember 1968, still numbered 5,960. Waterborne Logistic Craft sightings increased from 2,191 in December to 2,844. Railroad 7, the only railroad in the panhandle, was almost completely operable.
"NVN had taken advantage of the bombing halt by moving additional fighter aircraft back from China and increasing training activities. Repairs had been completed at Vinh Airfield, south of the 20th parallel, and activity was noted that would enable the forward staging of jet aircraft there. SAM batteries increased from three to an estimated nine units; air defenses increased by more than 500 AAA guns; and an estimated 50 sets of radar equipment were added, including at least two new GCI sites, for a more effective early warning and air defense control system.
"NVN had returned to almost normal activity. The volume of supplies moving south had almost doubled. New major logistic centers had been established southward, and most importantly, increased use of shipping southward had freed land transportation assets for the movement of supplies into Laos. As a final comment, an excerpt from the PACOM Intelligence digest of 14 March 1969, is presented as a comprehensive treatment of the situation at the time.
'The North Vietnamese presently have complete freedom of movement south to the DMZ and west to the Laos border. Oceangoing vessels up to 2,600-ton capacity have been photographed at anchor off Vinh and Quang Khe. An estimated 2,500 tons of supplies per day came over the docks at Quang Khe in December. Bulk POL is being stockpiled in the Vinh area. Vinh Petroleum Product Storage Facilities (PPS) unserviceable and unused prior to November, has an estimated current capacity of 2,500 or more metric tons. POL is being stored in large, partially underground, tank sites all the way down to the DMZ. The enemy has constructed a pipeline that is now over 45 miles long and stretches from north of Vinh along Route 15 almost to the Laos border (MuGiaPass). Indications are the line is to be extended into Laos, and may be connected to the Vinh PPS at this time. Rail service is continuous to Vinh and shuttles all the way to the Route Package 1 border. Large storage areas and transshipment points have sprung up on Route 15 within 15 miles of the Laos border. Bridges that have not been used regularly since the bombing started are up and in use on LOCs leading to the DMZ. In short, the logistic machinery is now functioning without restraint at levels never reached at any time, even before the war.'……" UNQUOTE…
The entire document is available on line at the following two links and is most strongly recommended for perusal by Operation ROLLING THUNDER participants and Vietnam War buffs. Faithful Scribe guarantees you will learn something new from this 90 pages summarizing the second half of Operation ROLLING THUNDER… a must read…
I. https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/F0311/F031100140347a.pdf
II. https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/F0311/F031100140347b.pdf
NEXT POST. Tale #24. USS INTREPID's CVW-10 goes to Haiphong on 5 October 1967 to blow up the Ken Bai ferry landing…
LEST WE FORGET…. Bear
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Thanks to Micro
American Sports Are Letting Down America - Imprimis
This is a good read. Thought Provoking, I must say.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/american-sports-letting-america/
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Thanks to Dutch
China threat
hav elong considered China a far more serious threat than Russia - they are far from our friends as Biden would have us believe - Dutch
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/pentagon-chinese-air-force-fast-becoming-massive-threat
Pentagon: Chinese Air Force fast-becoming massive threat | Fox News Pentagon: Chinese Air Force fast-becoming massive threat The size of the People's Liberation Army Air Force is reported to include a total of 2,500 aircraft |
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Thanks to Dutch
Green Energy Isn't So Green
The often toxic waste produced by solar panels and wind turbines is piling up.
Douglas Andrews · Sep. 1, 2020
When you hear the term "green energy," what's the first word that pops into your head? Okay, the first word besides "fake," "faux," "false," "fraud," "fable," or "fascism," which are way too obvious. And besides "hockey stick hoax" or "polar bear hoax," which aren't single words. And besides "Goregasm" or "Solyndra," which are made-up words.
If "dirty" doesn't come to mind, it should. Because there's an ever-growing landfill of evidence that the so-called Green Revolution is also an extraordinarily toxic and wasteful one.
Columnist Michael Shellenberger called our attention to green energy's dirty little secret in 2018 when he asked a simple question: "If solar panels are so clean, why do they produce so much toxic waste?"
Shellenberger cited a 2016 International Renewable Energy Agency estimate that there were approximately 275,000 tons of solar panel waste worldwide at that time — a figure the agency says could reach more than 85 million tons by 2050. He also cited research scientists at the German Stuttgart Institute for Photovoltaics who wrote, "Contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over a period of several months, for example by rainwater."
Clearly, then, crushing these millions of spent solar panels and dumping them into landfills isn't the answer. But what about — wait for it — recycling them? Well, as Shellenberger notes, the toxic chemicals within the panels can't be removed without breaking apart the entire module. And, as San Jose State environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney notes, "Approximately 90% of most [photovoltaic] modules are made up of glass. However, this glass often cannot be recycled as float glass due to impurities" such as plastics, lead, cadmium, and antimony.
Besides, writes Shellenberger, "Recycling costs more than the economic value of the materials recovered, which is why most solar panels end up in landfills." So we can scratch the recycling idea, too — except maybe in California, where fiscal realities have never once stopped an economically ruinous environmental policy from being enacted.
What's that, you say? All this isn't nearly as bad as nuclear waste? Uh, wrong. As the folks at Environmental Progress tell us, "Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants." Then there's the Chinese recycling official who says the solar panel disposal issue "will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment."
So we've got that going for us. Which is nice.
As for those gigantic wind turbines, they don't introduce all the toxins that spent solar panels do, but these view-wrecking, bird-killing Cuisinarts in the sky have their own disposal problems just the same.
Even NPR has come clean. "While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm," writes Christina Stella, "researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years, a figure that doesn't include newer, taller higher-capacity versions."
"There aren't many options to recycle or trash turbine blades," Stella continues, "and what options do exist are expensive, partly because the U.S. wind industry is so young. It's a waste problem that runs counter to what the industry is held up to be: a perfect solution for environmentalists looking to combat climate change, an attractive investment for companies such as Budweiser and Hormel Foods, and a job creator across the Midwest and Great Plains."
Worn-out windmill blades are typically 100 to 300 feet long, are made of a durable but otherwise useless combination of resin and fiberglass, have to be cut up before being hauled away on specialized vehicles, can't be crushed by most landfill machines, and take up an enormous amount of space that might otherwise be taken up by toxic solar panels.
Suffice it to say that we're long overdue for an intervention between the Left and its unhealthy obsession with "green" energy.
By the way: Ever seen what a hurricane can do to a solar farm?
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A couple of interesting articles Thanks to Richard
China Documentry
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The forgotten history of Pitcairn Island
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there are time during her routine you hold your breath. outstanding routine. she deserved the 10
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Snake vs Snake
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 7, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
7 September
1911: Lt Theodore G. Ellyson (USN) demonstrated a shipboard wire launching of the Curtiss seaplane. His plane took off from a wire cable stretched across a platform on shore, representing a ship's deck, and then alighted on the water at Lake Keuka. (24)
1917: A winged foul anchor became the official insignia for Navy aviators. It was nearly the same as the device used today.
1918: Several planes carried 18 enlisted men from Chanute Field to Champaign, Ill., to make the first demonstration of troop transport by air in the US. (18) (24)
1933: Lt Cmdr H. E. Holland led six Consolidated P2Y-1 flying boats on a 25 hour 19 minute nonstop flight from Norfolk to Coco Solo, Panama Canal, to set a 2,059-mile record for formation flying. (24)
1938: Seventeen Navy planes completed a mass flight from San Diego to Hawaii, covering the 2,570 miles in 17 hours 21 minutes. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. The 22 BG employed 24 B-29s against the iron works at Chongjin in north-east N. Korea. (28)
1956: MACKAY TROPHY. At Edwards AFB, Capt Iven C. Kincheloe set an altitude record for manned flight by flying the Bell X-2 rocket-powered aircraft to 126,000 feet. He later received the Mackay Trophy for this flight. (3) (9)
1968: Max Conrad set a closed circuit record in a twin-engine Piper Aztec, flying 4,968 miles over a 621-mile triangle between St. Louis, Des Moines, and Kansas City, eight times in 37 hours 50 minutes.
1975: Through 3 November, following the Angolan civil war, USAF-managed civil aircraft flew 31,597 refugees to Portugal. Altogether, international airlift moved over 204,000 refugees. (18)
1979: President Carter selected the horizontal multiple protective shelter basing mode for the M-X missile (Peacekeeper). (6)
1988: The F-15 STOL demonstrator made its first flight at St. Louis. (30)
1995: Two 436 AW C-5s from Dover AFB airlifted gas turbine generators from Ramstein AB to Incirlik AB to provide electrical power for Kurdish refugees living in northern Iraq. (18)
1997: F-22 Chief Test Pilot Paul Metz flew the Lockheed Martin-Boeing F-22 Raptor for the USAF for the first time from Dobbins ARB over Marietta and north Georgia. The aircraft reached 15,000 feet in altitude in three minutes, where Metz then tested its handling characteristics and engine performance. (http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1997/news_release_970907.html
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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
CRUMP, JERRY K.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company L, 7th Infantry Regiment, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Chorwon, Korea, 6 and 7 September 1951. Entered service at: Forest City, N.C. Born: 18 February 1933, Charlotte, N.C. G.O. No.: 68, 11 July 1952. Citation. Cpl. Crump, a member of Company L, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. During the night a numerically superior hostile force launched an assault against his platoon on Hill 284, overrunning friendly positions and swarming into the sector. Cpl. Crump repeatedly exposed himself to deliver effective fire into the ranks of the assailants, inflicting numerous casualties. Observing 2 enemy soldiers endeavoring to capture a friendly machine gun, he charged and killed both with his bayonet, regaining control of the weapon. Returning to his position, now occupied by 4 of his wounded comrades, he continued his accurate fire into enemy troops surrounding his emplacement. When a hostile soldier hurled a grenade into the position, Cpl. Crump immediately flung himself over the missile, absorbing the blast with his body and saving his comrades from death or serious injury. His aggressive actions had so inspired his comrades that a spirited counterattack drove the enemy from the perimeter. Cpl. Crump's heroic devotion to duty, indomitable fighting spirit, and willingness to sacrifice himself to save his comrades reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry and the U.S. Army.
*KANELL, BILLIE G.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company I, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Pyongyang, Korea, 7 September 1951. Entered service at: Poplar Bluff, Mo. Born: 26 June 1931, Poplar Bluff, Mo. G.O. No.: 57, 13 June 1952. Citation: Pvt. Kanell, a member of Company I, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. A numerically superior hostile force had launched a fanatical assault against friendly positions, supported by mortar and artillery fire, when Pvt. Kanell stood in his emplacement exposed to enemy observation and action and delivered accurate fire into the ranks of the assailants. An enemy grenade was hurled into his emplacement and Pvt. Kanell threw himself upon the grenade, absorbing the blast with his body to protect 2 of his comrades from serious injury and possible death. A few seconds later another grenade was thrown into the emplacement and, although seriously wounded by the first missile, he summoned his waning strength to roll toward the second grenade and used his body as a shield to again protect his comrades. He was mortally wounded as a result of his heroic actions. His indomitable courage, sustained fortitude against overwhelming odds, and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit upon himself, the infantry, and the U.S. Army.
*PORTER, DONN F.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company G, 14th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Mundung-ni Korea, 7 September 1952. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Born: 1 March 1931, Sewickley, Pa. G.O. No.: 64, 18 August 1953. Citation: Sgt. Porter, a member of Company G, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Advancing under cover of intense mortar and artillery fire, 2 hostile platoons attacked a combat outpost commanded by Sgt. Porter, destroyed communications, and killed 2 of his 3-man crew. Gallantly maintaining his position, he poured deadly accurate fire into the ranks of the enemy, killing 15 and dispersing the remainder. After falling back under a hail of fire, the determined foe reorganized and stormed forward in an attempt to overrun the outpost. Without hesitation, Sgt. Porter jumped from his position with bayonet fixed and, meeting the onslaught and in close combat, killed 6 hostile soldiers and routed the attack. While returning to the outpost, he was killed by an artillery burst, but his courageous actions forced the enemy to break off the engagement and thwarted a surprise attack on the main line of resistance. Sgt. Porter's incredible display of valor, gallant self-sacrifice, and consummate devotion to duty reflect the highest credit upon himself and uphold the noble traditions of the military service.
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