The List 5637 TGB

Good Friday Morning March 5 .

We had a great Bubba breakfast this morning with about 38 folks attending.

Great to see so many all looking healthy.

Regards,

Skip

March 5

1942—The "Seabees" name and insignia are officially authorized. Rear Adm. Ben Moreell personally furnishes them with their official motto: Construimus, Batuimus -- "We Build, We Fight."

1943—Auxiliary aircraft carrier USS Bogue (ACV 9) begins the first anti-submarine operations by an escort carrier in the Atlantic as the nucleus of the pioneer American anti-submarine hunter-killer group.

1945—USS Sea Robin (SS 407) sinks three Japanese gunboats and USS Bashaw (SS 241) sinks two Japanese tankers.

1960—USS Newport News (CA-148) and personnel from Port Lyautey complete emergency relief operations at Agadir, Morocco after Feb. 29 earthquake.

2005—USS Nitze (DDG 94) is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is named after former Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze, who was in attendance for the ship's launching and christening in April 2004, but died before the commissioning ceremony.

Thanks to CHINFO

Executive Summary:

• Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a memo to DoD employees outlining his top priorities, which include COVID-19 and China.

• Multiple outlets reported on INDOPACOM ADM Davidson's comments at a think tank event about Guam missile defense and his priorities for FY21-22.

• Military.com reported the COVID vaccine may be widely available for military families in April.

March 5

1624		Class-based legislation is passed in the colony of Virginia, exempting the upper class from punishment by whipping.
1766		Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans.
1793		Austrian troops crush the French and recapture Liege.
1821		James Monroe becomes the first president to be inaugurated on March 5, only because the 4th was a Sunday.
1905		Russians begin to retreat from Mukden in Manchuria, China.
1912		The Italians become the first to use dirigibles for military purposes, using them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.
1918		The Soviets move the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.
1928		Hitler's National Socialists win the majority vote in Bavaria.
1933		Newly inaugurated President Franklin D. Roosevelt halts the trading of gold and declares a bank holiday.
1933		Hitler and Nationalist allies win the Reichstag majority. It will be the last free election in Germany until after World War II.
1943		In desperation due to war losses, fifteen and sixteen year olds are called up for military service in the German army.
1946		In Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill tells a crowd that "an iron curtain has descended on the Continent [of Europe]."
1956		The U.S. Supreme Court affirms the ban on segregation in public schools in Brown vs. Board of Education.
1969		Gustav Heinemann is elected West German President.
1976		Britain gives up on the Ulster talks and decides to retain rule in Northern Ireland indefinitely.
1984		The U.S. Supreme Court rules that cities have the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.

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ROLLING THUNDER

Thanks to the Bear

My apologies for not getting these out earlier. Here are the 3 missing days including today's

LOOKING BACK 55-YEARS to the Vietnam Air War—5 March 1966 From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com "Before Rolling Thunder: Steel Tiger and Barrel Roll"

http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/operation-rolling-thunder-5-march-1966/

LOOKING BACK 55-YEARS to the Vietnam Air War—4 March 1966 From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com "A FAC Silver Star Story"

http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/rolling-thunder-4-march-1966/

LOOKING BACK 55-YEARS to the Vietnam Air War—3 March 1966 From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com...

"A Bad Day at Yankee Station"

Vietnam Air Losses( this will always be available for a ready reference)

Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.

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This Day in Aviation History" brought to you by the Daedalians Airpower Blog Update. To subscribe to this weekly email, go to https://daedalians.org/airpower-blog/

March 1, 1935

The Army Air Corps activated its General Headquarters Air Force (GHQ) at Langley Field, Virginia. This was an independent strike force under Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, which reported directly to the Army chief of staff instead of a ground commander. It proved a seminal step toward the refinement of strategic air power, and the creation of an independent air force. Andrews, Daedalian Founder Member #2129, was a lieutenant general when he was killed in an airplane accident during an inspection tour in 1943. He is the namesake of Joint Base Andrews, formerly Andrews AFB, in Maryland.

March 2, 1906

Scientist Robert H. Goddard, jotting down thoughts in his notebook, speculates that atomic energy might one day power spaceships during interplanetary flight.

March 3, 1911

With Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois, Daedalian Founder Member #321, navigating a course and Philip O. Parmelee, Daedalian Founder Member #12889, at the controls, the Wright "Type B" set an official U.S. cross-country record from Laredo to Eagle Pass, Texas. It flew the 106 miles in 2 hours, 10 minutes.

March 4, 1911

The first funds appropriated for naval aviation provided $25,000 to the Bureau of Navigation for "experimental" work in the development of aviation for naval purposes.

March 5, 1913

Army Field Order No. 1 officially organized Headquarters 1st Aero Squadron (Provisional) in a field near Texas City, Texas. It was the first U.S. unit created to conduct aircraft operations.

March 6, 1945

Ens. Jane Kendeigh became the first Navy flight nurse to serve in a combat zone when she reached Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands. The aircraft on which she arrived took Japanese mortar fire during its landing.

March 7, 1916

During an exhibition flight at Mobile, Alabama, a wind gust struck the hydroaeroplane AH-10 at an altitude of 75 feet, causing it to crash into the schooner Melba, at anchor in the Mobile River. The pilot, Lt. Edward O. McDonnell, Daedalian Founder Member #7927, survived because the vessel's rigging checked his fall. AH-10 was demolished and Melba sustained damage to her rigging and stays, but the plane was subsequently rebuilt. McDonnell, who retired as a vice admiral, was a Medal of Honor recipient. Learn more about him HERE.

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Thanks to Denny

: Kamala Harris Background, by Geoffrey B. Higginbotham, Retired Major General, USMC

Kamala Harris Background

Here's why Obama (the real power behind the scenes) wanted her as vice president -- Biden won't be in the office 1 year before she takes over.

Here is a timely editorial that exposes the hidden background of Kamala Harris from the Combat Veterans for Congress Political Action Committee that is posted here with the permission of the author. CVFC PAC supports the election of US military combat veterans to the US Senate and House of Representatives. The editorial begins:

Kamala Harris' father was an avowed Marxist professor in the Economics Department at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Both of Harris' parents were active in the Berkeley based Afro- American Association; Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were the heroes of the Afro-American Association.

The group's leader, Donald Warden (aka Khalid al-Mansour), mentored two young Afro-American Association members, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale; they created the Maoist inspired Black Panther Party which gained strong support from Communist China; the Black Panther Party served as the model for the creation of the Black Lives Matter Marxist organization Khalid al-Mansour subsequently went on to arrange to finance and facilitated for Barack Hussein Obama to be accepted as a student to matriculate at Harvard Law School.

Following her graduation from college, Harris returned to California and subsequently became the mistress of the 60-year-old married Speaker of the California Assembly, Willie Brown, Jr. Brown's political campaigns were supported and funded by Dr. Carlton Goodlett, the owner of The Sun Reporter, and several other pro-Communist newspapers. Brown was elected as Mayor of San Francisco, and strongly endorsed Harris' Marxist political philosophy; he guided Harris's political rise in California politics, leading to her election as California's Attorney General. Willie Brown, Jr. was a well-known long-time Communist sympathizer. Willie Brown, Jr. was initially elected to public office with the substantial help of the Communist Party USA. Today, Willie Brown is widely regarded as one of the Chinese Communist Party's best friends in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While serving as San Francisco District Attorney, Kamala Harris mentored a young San Francisco Radical Maoist activist, Lateefah Simon, who was a member of the STORM Revolutionary Movement; Simon currently chairs the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board. Simon has always been close friends with the founder of Black Lives Matter Marxist Domestic Terrorists, Alicia Garza, as well as STORM member and avowed Communist, Van Jones. Harris has been openly and aggressively supporting Black Lives Matter Marxists; Kamala Harris is still closely associated with Maoist Lateefah Simon and Marxist Alicia Garza.

Kamala Harris's sister Maya Harris was a student activist at Stanford University. She was closely associated with Steve Phillips, one of the leading Marxist-Leninists on campus and a long-time affiliate with the League of Revolutionary Struggle, a pro-Chinese Communist group. Phillips came out of the Left, and in college, he studied Marx, Mao, and Lenin, and maintained close associations with fellow Communists. Phillips married into the multi-billion dollar Sandler family of the Golden West Savings and Loan fortune. He funded many leftist political campaigns, and the voter registration drives in the Southern and South Western states in order to help his friend, Barack Hussein Obama, defeat Hillary Clinton. Phillips has been a major financial sponsor for Kamala Harris's political campaigns for various California elective offices.

Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff works for the law firm DLA Piper, which "boasts nearly 30 years of experience in Communist China with over 140 lawyers dedicated to its 'Communist China Investment Services' branch. He was just appointed to Professor at Yale to school future lawyers in the fine points of Communism. When she was elected to the US Senate, Kamala Harris appointed a Pro-Communist Senate Chief of Staff, Karine Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre was active with the New York-based Haiti Support Network. The organization worked closely with the pro-Communist China/Communist North Korea Workers World Party and supported Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the far-left Communist former president of Haiti and the radical Lavalas movement.

Fortunately for Harris, but potentially disastrous for the Republic, elected officeholders are not subject to the security clearance process. If the FBI did a Background Investigation on Kamala Harris, she never would have passed, because of her 40-year close ties with Marxists, Communists, Maoists, and Communist China. Harris would never have been approved for acceptance to any of the 5 Military Service Academies, been appointed to a US Government Sub-Cabinet position, or would have been approved to fill a sensitive position for a high-security defense contractor. Yet, since Joe Biden was elected, Harris could be a heartbeat away from being President.

The US constitutional Republic is being threatened by the People's Republic of Communist China (PPC) externally, and by of their very active espionage operations within the United States. The People's Republic of Communist China (PPC), with 1.4 billion people, is governed by the 90 million-member Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which has been working with Russia to destroy the US Constitutional Republic for over 70 years.

The CCP operates a massive global intelligence network through its Ministry of State Security. The CCP operates a vast intelligence network in the U.S as well. It is made up, not merely of intelligence operatives working for the Ministry of State Security, but it is also made up of a myriad of business and industry officials, Chinese scholar associations, and 370,000 Chinese students currently attending American universities. It also operates the Confucius Institute indoctrination and intelligence gathering centers in the US on 67 University campuses and in seventeen K-12 Public School Districts. The Confucius Centers are staffed by Communist Chinese intelligence operatives. Refer to this.

Kamala Harris is now involved with the Biden Family Business and is supporting Joe Biden, who has worked closely with Communist China for 12 years. Joe's son, Hunter Biden, is the point of contact for developing the off-shore Biden Family Businesses in Ukraine, Russia, Communist China, Iraq, Iran, etc. Hunter was provided with a $5 million non-recourse loan for the Biden Family Business to form a partnership with the PPC; that loan was subsequently forgiven by Communist China for one dollar.

Hunter Biden was given $1.5 billion for the Biden Family Business, to strategically purchase interests in companies in the US Military Industrial Complex, whose technologies would enhance and improve Communist China's defense industry. Hunter Biden was also instructed to try to take control of US companies involved in sourcing rare earth minerals in the United States. Hunter also received $3.5 Million from the wife of the Mayor of Moscow for some carefully hidden reason.

The Peoples Republic of Communist China has a military of two million men, including the world's largest Navy. The United States does not have enough ships and munitions to defeat China's Navy, absent the use of nuclear weapons. There is a famous book, Unrestricted Warfare, written in 1999 by two People's Liberation Army colonels. It argues that war between the PRC and the U.S. is inevitable and that when it occurs China must be prepared to use whatever means are necessary to achieve victory Refer to this.

If the American voters read the background information (in Trevor Loudon's article) on Kamala Harris, they would never support her election as Vice President of the United States. Joe Biden is suffering from the early onset of dementia and will continue to decline in cerebral awareness; he will never be able to fill out a four-year term of office. Since Biden was elected, the Socialists, Marxists, and Communists who control Kamala Harris are planning to enact provisions of the 25th Amendment, in order to remove Joe Biden from office, so Harris can become the first Communist President of the United States.

Since Biden was elected because Biden would not be up to it, Kamala Harris would lead the effort to appoint very dangerous anti-American Leftist, Communist, Socialists, and Marxists to fill highly sensitive positions in the Washington Deep State Bureaucracy. She would fill all appointive positions in the US Intelligence Agencies, in the Department of Homeland Security, in the Department of Defense, in The Justice Department, the Department of State, the FBI, the CIA, most cabinet positions, the National Security Council, and in the White House Staff.

American voters must alert their fellow Americans that Kamala Harris is a very serious National Security threat to the very survival of the US Constitutional Republic; she has been a fellow traveler of Marxists, Communists, Maoists, Socialists, Progressives, and Chinese Communists for over 35 years. President Trump had much more background information on Kamala Harris than we presented here, and he was correct when he accused Kamala Harris of being a Communist subverter.

Geoffrey B. Higginbotham

Major General, USMC (Ret.)

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SINKEX USS AMERICA

Thanks to Jack

CV-66

Thanks, Robert -- finally had an opportunity to view this impressive video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnt3UZvx3N0

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Thanks to this Day in American History

1770

March 05

The Boston Massacre

· On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of American colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins taunting the British soldiers guarding the building. The protesters, who called themselves Patriots, were protesting the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament that lacked American representation.

British Captain Thomas Preston, the commanding officer at the Customs House, ordered his men to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside the building. The colonists responded by throwing snowballs and other objects at the British regulars, and Private Hugh Montgomery was hit, leading him to discharge his rifle at the crowd. The other soldiers began firing a moment later, and when the smoke cleared, five colonists were dead or dying—Crispus Attucks, Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell—and three more were injured. Although it is unclear whether Crispus Attucks, an African American, was the first to fall as is commonly believed, the deaths of the five men are regarded by some historians as the first fatalities in the American Revolutionary War.

The British soldiers were put on trial, and patriots John Adams and Josiah Quincy agreed to defend the soldiers in a show of support of the colonial justice system. When the trial ended in December 1770, two British soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter and had their thumbs branded with an "M" for murder as punishment.

The Sons of Liberty, a Patriot group formed in 1765 to oppose the Stamp Act, advertised the "Boston Massacre" as a battle for American liberty and just cause for the removal of British troops from Boston. Patriot Paul Revere made a provocative engraving of the incident, depicting the British soldiers lining up like an organized army to suppress an idealized representation of the colonist uprising. Copies of the engraving were distributed throughout the colonies and helped reinforce negative American sentiments about British rule.

In April 1775, the American Revolution began when British troops from Boston skirmished with American militiamen at the battles of Lexington and Concord. The British troops were under orders to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington and to confiscate the Patriot arsenal at Concord. Neither missions were accomplished because of Paul Revere and William Dawes, who rode ahead of the British, warning Adams and Hancock and rousing the Patriot minutemen.

Eleven months later, in March 1776, British forces had to evacuate Boston following American General George Washington's successful placement of fortifications and cannons on Dorchester Heights. This bloodless liberation of Boston brought an end to the hated eight-year British occupation of the city. For the victory, General Washington, commander of the Continental Army, was presented with the first medal ever awarded by the Continental Congress. It would be more than five years before the Revolutionary War came to an end with British General Charles Cornwallis' surrender to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.

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This Day in U S Military History

March 5

1836 – Samuel Colt manufactured the 1st pistol, a 34-caliber "Texas" model. Samuel Colt patented a revolver mechanism that led to the widespread use of the revolver. According to Samuel Colt, he came up with the idea for the revolver while at sea, inspired by the capstan, which had a ratchet and pawl mechanism on it, a version of which was used in his guns to rotate the cylinder. Revolvers proliferated largely due to Colt's ability as a salesman. But his influence spread in other ways as well; the build quality of his company's guns became famous, and its armories in America and England trained several seminal generations of toolmakers and other machinists, who had great influence in other manufacturing efforts of the next half century.

1946 – In one of the most famous orations of the Cold War period, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemns the Soviet Union's policies in Europe and declares, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent." Churchill's speech is considered one of the opening volleys announcing the beginning of the Cold War. Churchill, who had been defeated for re-election as prime minister in 1945, was invited to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri where he gave this speech. President Harry S. Truman joined Churchill on the platform and listened intently to his speech. Churchill began by praising the United States, which he declared stood "at the pinnacle of world power." It soon became clear that a primary purpose of his talk was to argue for an even closer "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain-the great powers of the "English-speaking world"-in organizing and policing the postwar world. In particular, he warned against the expansionistic policies of the Soviet Union. In addition to the "iron curtain" that had descended across Eastern Europe, Churchill spoke of "communist fifth columns" that were operating throughout western and southern Europe. Drawing parallels with the disastrous appeasement of Hitler prior to World War II, Churchill advised that in dealing with the Soviets there was "nothing which they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for military weakness." Truman and many other U.S. officials warmly received the speech. Already they had decided that the Soviet Union was bent on expansion and only a tough stance would deter the Russians. Churchill's "iron curtain" phrase immediately entered the official vocabulary of the Cold War. U.S. officials were less enthusiastic about Churchill's call for a "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain. While they viewed the English as valuable allies in the Cold War, they were also well aware that Britain's power was on the wane and had no intention of being used as pawns to help support the crumbling British empire. In the Soviet Union, Russian leader Joseph Stalin denounced the speech as "war mongering," and referred to Churchill's comments about the "English-speaking world" as imperialist "racism." The British, Americans, and Russians-allies against Hitler less than a year before the speech-were drawing the battle lines of the Cold War.

1947 – The 7th Marine Regiment disbanded at Camp Pendleton following their return from China. Personnel and equipment were transferred to the 3rd Marine Brigade..( Did you know that the Marines Landed in China during WWII Read The Pacific by Ambrose)

1953 – Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union since 1924, dies in Moscow. Like his right-wing counterpart, Hitler, who was born in Austria, Joseph Stalin was not a native of the country he ruled with an iron fist. Isoeb Dzhugashvili was born in 1889 in Georgia, then part of the old Russian empire. The son of a drunk who beat him mercilessly and a pious washerwoman mother, Stalin learned Russian, which he spoke with a heavy accent all his life, in an Orthodox Church-run school. While studying to be a priest at Tiflis Theological Seminary, he began secretly reading Karl Marx and other left-wing revolutionary thinkers. The "official" communist story is that he was expelled from the seminary for this intellectual rebellion; in reality, it may have been because of poor health. In 1900, Stalin became active in revolutionary political activism, taking part in labor demonstrations and strikes. Stalin joined the more militant wing of the Marxist Social Democratic movement, the Bolsheviks, and became a student of its leader, Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Stalin was arrested seven times between 1902 and 1913, and subjected to prison and exile. Stalin's first big break came in 1912, when Lenin, in exile in Switzerland, named him to serve on the first Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party-now a separate entity from the Social Democrats. The following year, Stalin (finally dropping Dzugashvili and taking the new name Stalin, from the Russian word for "steel") published a signal article on the role of Marxism in the destiny of Russia. In 1917, escaping from an exile in Siberia, he linked up with Lenin and his coup against the middle-class democratic government that had supplanted the czar's rule. Stalin continued to move up the party ladder, from commissar for nationalities to secretary general of the Central Committee-a role that would provide the center of his dictatorial takeover and control of the party and the new USSR. In fact, upon Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin began the consolidation of his power base, conducting show trials to purge enemies and rivals, even having Leon Trotsky assassinated during his exile in Mexico. Stalin also abandoned Lenin's New Economic Policy, which would have meant some decentralization of industry. Stalin demanded-and got-absolute state control of the economy, as well as greater swaths of Soviet life, until his totalitarian grip on the new Russian empire was absolute. The outbreak of World War II saw Stalin attempt an alliance with Adolf Hitler for purely self-interested reasons, and despite the political fallout of a communist signing an alliance with a fascist, they signed a nonaggression pact that allowed each dictator free reign in their respective spheres of influence. Stalin then proceeded to annex parts of Poland, Romania, and Finland, and occupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. In May 1941, he made himself chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; he was now the official head of the government and no longer merely head of the party. One month later, Germany invaded the USSR, making significant early inroads. As German troops approached, Stalin remained in the capital, directing a scorched-earth defensive policy and exercising personal control over the strategies of the Red Army. As the war progressed, Stalin sat in on the major Allied conferences, including those in Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945). His iron will and deft political skills enabled him to play the loyal ally while never abandoning his vision of an expanded postwar Soviet Empire. In fact, after Germany's surrender in April 1945, Stalin oversaw the continued occupation and domination of much of Eastern Europe, despite "promises" of free elections in those countries. Stalin did not mellow with age; he prosecuted a reign of terror, purges, executions, exiles to the Gulag Archipelago (a system of forced-labor camps in the frozen north), and persecution in the postwar USSR, suppressing all dissent and anything that smacked of foreign, especially Western European, influence. To the great relief of many, he died of a massive heart attack on March 5, 1953. He is remembered to this day as the man who helped save his nation from Nazi domination-and as the mass murderer of the century, having overseen the deaths of between 8 million and 10 million of his own people.

1953 – Good weather permitted Fifth Air Force to complete 700 sorties. Sixteen F-84 ThunderJets attacked in northeastern Korea an industrial area at Chongjin, just sixty-three miles from the Siberian border, destroying buildings and two rail and two road bridges, damaging seven rail cars, and inflicting several rail and road cuts. Fighter-bombers flying ground support missions reported damage or destruction to fifty-six bunkers and gun positions, fourteen personnel shelters, and ten supply stacks.

1979 – Voyager I's closest approach to Jupiter (172,000 miles). Voyager 1 is a 722-kilogram (1,592 lb) space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System. Operating for 37 years, 1 month and 12 days as of October 17, 2014, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 129.18 AU (1.933×1010 km) (approximately 12 billion miles) from Earth as of September 2014, it is the farthest spacecraft from Earth.

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BOURY, RICHARD Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 1st West Virginia Cavalry. Place and date: At Charlottesville, Va., 5 March 1865. Entered service at: Wirt Courthouse, W. Va. Birth: Monroe County, Ohio. Date of issue: 26 March 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.

FRANKS, WILLIAM J. Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1830, Chatham County, N.C. Entered service at: Duvalls Bluff, Ark. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Served on board the U.S.S. Marmora off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864. Embarking from the Marmora with a 12-pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Franks landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

LAFFEY, BARTLETT Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1841, Ireland. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation. Off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864, embarking from the Marmora with a 12-pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Laffey landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer, contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

STODDARD, JAMES Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1838, North Carolina. Accredited to: North Carolina. G.O. No.: 32, 16 April 1864. Citation: Off Yazoo City, Miss., 5 March 1864. Embarking from the Marmora with a 12_pound howitzer mounted on a field carriage, Stoddard landed with the gun and crew in the midst of heated battle and, bravely standing by his gun despite enemy rifle fire which cut the gun carriage and rammer, contributed to the turning back of the enemy during the fierce engagement.

*HIBBS, ROBERT JOHN Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company B, 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date: Don Dien Lo Ke, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1966. Entered service at: Des Moines, Iowa. Born: 21 April 1943, Omaha, Nebr. G.O. No.: 8, 24 February 1967. Citations: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. 2d Lt. Hibbs was in command of a 15-man ambush patrol of the 2d Battalion, when his unit observed a company of Viet Cong advancing along the road toward the 2d Battalion's position. Informing his command post by radio of the impending attack, he prepared his men for the oncoming Viet Cong, emplaced 2 mines in their path and, when the insurgents were within 20 feet of the patrol's position, he fired the 2 antipersonnel mines, wounding or killing half of the enemy company. Then, to cover the withdrawal of his patrol, he threw hand grenades, stepped onto the open road, and opened fire on the remainder of the Viet Cong force of approximately 50 men. Having rejoined his men, he was leading them toward the battalion perimeter when the patrol encountered the rear elements of another Viet Cong company deployed to attack the battalion. With the advantage of surprise, he directed a charge against the Viet Cong, which carried the patrol through the insurgent force, completely disrupting its attack. Learning that a wounded patrol member was wandering in the area between the 2 opposing forces and although moments from safety and wounded in the leg himself, he and a sergeant went back to the battlefield to recover the stricken man. After they maneuvered through the withering fire of 2 Viet Cong machine guns, the sergeant grabbed the dazed soldier and dragged him back toward the friendly lines while 2d Lt. Hibbs remained behind to provide covering fire. Armed with only an M-16 rifle and a pistol, but determined to destroy the enemy positions, he then charged the 2 machine gun emplacements and was struck down. Before succumbing to his mortal wounds, he destroyed the starlight telescopic sight attached to his rifle to prevent its capture and use by the Viet Cong. 2d Lt. Hibb's profound concern for his fellow soldiers, and his intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

*JENKINS, ROBERT H., JR. Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Fire Support Base Argonne, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1969. Entered service at: Jacksonville, Fla. Born: 1 June 1948, Interlachen, Fla. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a machine gunner with Company C, 3d Reconnaissance Battalion, in connection with operations against enemy forces. Early in the morning Pfc. Jenkins' 12-man reconnaissance team was occupying a defensive position at Fire Support Base Argonne south of the Demilitarized Zone. Suddenly, the marines were assaulted by a North Vietnamese Army platoon employing mortars, automatic weapons, and hand grenades. Reacting instantly, Pfc. Jenkins and another marine quickly moved into a 2-man fighting emplacement, and as they boldly delivered accurate machine gun fire against the enemy, a North Vietnamese soldier threw a hand grenade into the friendly emplacement. Fully realizing the inevitable results of his actions, Pfc. Jenkins quickly seized his comrade, and pushing the man to the ground, he leaped on top of the marine to shield him from the explosion. Absorbing the full impact of the detonation, Pfc. Jenkins was seriously injured and subsequently succumbed to his wounds. His courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty saved a fellow marine from serious injury or possible death and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*JOHNSON, RALPH H. Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division (Rein), FMF. Place and date: Near the Quan Duc Valley, Republic of Vietnam, 5 March 1968. Entered service at: Oakland, Calif. Born: 11 January 1949, Charleston, S.C. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a reconnaissance scout with Company A, in action against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces. In the early morning hours during Operation ROCK, Pfc. Johnson was a member of a 15-man reconnaissance patrol manning an observation post on Hill 146 overlooking the Quan Duc Valley deep in enemy controlled territory. They were attacked by a platoon-size hostile force employing automatic weapons, satchel charges and hand grenades. Suddenly, a hand grenade landed in the 3-man fighting hole occupied by Pfc. Johnson and 2 fellow marines. Realizing the inherent danger to his 2 comrades, he shouted a warning and unhesitatingly hurled himself upon the explosive device. When the grenade exploded, Pfc. Johnson absorbed the tremendous impact of the blast and was killed instantly. His prompt and heroic act saved the life of 1 marine at the cost of his life and undoubtedly prevented the enemy from penetrating his sector of the patrol's perimeter. Pfc. Johnson's courage, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty were in keeping with 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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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for March 5, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

5 March

1913: Army Field Order No. 1 officially organized Headquarters 1st Aero Squadron (Provisional) in a field near Texas City, Tex. It was the first unit created to conduct aircraft operations. (4) (24)

1923: An auxiliary jettisonable belly tank, fitted on an MB-3A's bomb rack at Selfridge Field, boosted the aircraft's flying radius to about 400 miles. (24)

1939: Norman Rintoul and Victor Yesulantes used a Stinson Reliant, equipped with a trailing hook, to demonstrate a nonstop airmail system. They picked a mailsack off a pole at Coatesville, Pa. (8)

1944: Operation THURSDAY. Through 11 March, allied aircraft and gliders airlifted Brig Gen Orde C. Wingate's Special Force with 9,000 personnel and 1,400 mules and horses from India at night to a location 200 miles behind enemy lines in Burma. (21)

1952: KOREAN WAR. While jet fighters stilled enemy antiaircraft fire, an USAF helicopter lowered a hoist sling and rescued a downed US Navy pilot in the vicinity of Yongyon, Korea. (28)

1957: The USAF issued initial operational capability directives to place 40 Atlas and 40 Titan I ICBMs on alert between March 1959 and March 1961 and 60 IRBMs on alert between July 1959 and July 1960. (6)

1962: MACKAY TROPHY. Capt Robert G. Sowers and crew flew a 43 BMW B-58 Hustler to three FAI records in a round-trip flight from Los Angeles to New York: round-trip speed of 1,044.46 MPH in 4 hours 41 minutes 15 seconds; Los Angeles to New York in 2 hours 59 seconds at 1,214.65 MPH; and New York to Los Angeles in 2 hours 15 minutes 50 seconds at 1,081.8 MPH. Sowers and his crew received the Mackay Trophy for this flight. (1) (9) (21)

1964: At Grand Forks AFB, workers began building Minuteman II operational facilities. (6)

1965: The F-111 made its first supersonic flight at Fort Worth. (6) At Vandenberg AFB, SAC launched its last Titan I. (6)

1971: The ADC started a realignment of its operational elements, moving from a concept of a broad defense of the Continental U. S. (CONUS) to a perimeter defense along America's northern border and its east and west coasts. This move affected 19 bases in 13 states and transferred all remaining ADC F-101s to the ANG. (16)

1975: Students flew the last navigator-training sortie in a T-29 at Mather AFB, Calif. (16)

1976: An AFSC aircrew, flying a B-52G, launched the first ALCM at White Sands Missile Range. (6)

1985: Through 9 March, airlift crews flew 123 tons of food and medicine as part of four famine relief missions to Sudan, Niger, and Mali. (16)

1986: MACKAY TROPHY. From the 68 AREFG, Capt Marc C. Felman and his KC-10 Extender crew provided emergency refueling to a KC-10 and three A-4s Skyhawks over the Atlantic Ocean when a crippled plane on the runway at Santa Maria AB, Portugal, prevented a landing. The KC-10 and A-4s did not have enough fuel to divert to another base. Learning of their plight while on the ground at Santa Maria, Captain Felman stopped the refueling of his KC-10, left two crewmen behind in Base Operations, did not pay for his fuel or get a flight clearance, and did not align his inertial navigation system before taking off in near zero-zero weather to intersect and save a crippled Marine A-4M. He received the Mackay Trophy for the flight. (16) Under the 1986 McCollum Amendment, the USAF began airlifting Afghan patients and refugees from Pakistan to the US. (26)

1988: Operation ELECTION DISTRICT. Through May 1989, C-5s, C-130s, and a C-141 airlifted a UN Transition Advisory Group and its cargo to Namibia. Altogether, the airlift moved 854 passengers and 1,023 tons of cargo. The operation supported UN peace objectives to withdraw Cuban troops from Angola, pullout South African forces from Namibia, and give independence to Namibia. (18)

1995: Under the START agreement, the first Russian weapons inspectors arrived at Malmstrom AFB to monitor the dismantling of LGM-30F Minuteman IIs. (16) (26)

1996: A C-141 from Charleston AFB flew nonstop to Tel Aviv, Israel, with 2,800 pounds of highly sophisticated explosive-detection devices after four terrorist suicide-bombings in two weeks. A KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100 AREFW at Mildenhall refueled the C-141 en route. (18)

2001: The Space Shuttle landed at Cape Canaveral AFS for the first time. NASA's modified 747 carried the Columbia there from Palmdale, Calif. (AFNEWS Article 0313, 7 Mar 2001)

2002: An AFFTC test aircrew from Edwards AFB dropped the first Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) from an F-15E. The WCMD, a tail kit for conventional bombs, achieved accuracy by automatically compensating for the effects of wind, launch transients, and ballistic errors. (3)

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