TheList 5750

The List 5750     TGB

 

Good Friday Morning 18 June

I hope that you all have a great weekend

I Hope that you all have a happy Father's day with your families;

Thanks again to all of you that sent best wishes for my return from the hospital a year ago. Unfortunately the next hospital stay would prove to be much worse and long lasting.

Regards

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Today in Naval History

June 18

1812 The United States declares war on Great Britain for impressment of Sailors and interference with commerce.

1814 The sloop of war Wasp, commanded by Johnston Blakely, captures and scuttles the British merchant brig Pallas in the eastern Atlantic.

1875 The side-wheel steamer, USS Saranac, wrecks in Seymour Narrows, off Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

1944 - USS Bullhead (SS 332) sinks Japanese auxiliary sailing vessel (No. 58) Sakura Maru in Sunda Strait, off Merak. Also on this date, USS Dentuda (SS 335) sinks Japanese guardboats Reiko Maru and Heiwa Maru in East China Sea west of Tokara Gunto.
1957 Adm. Arleigh A. Burke, Chief of Naval Operations, approves the ship characteristics of the Fleet Ballistic Missile submarine.

1983 USS Florida (SSGN 728) is commissioned at Electric Boat Division, Groton, Conn. The Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, is the first submarine to be named after the 27th state, but the sixth vessel in the Navy.

 

 

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This Day in World History

June 18

 

0362 Emperor Julian issues an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria.

 

1155 German-born Frederick I, Barbarossa, is crowned emperor of Rome.

 

1579 Sir Francis Drake claims San Francisco Bay for England.

 

1667 The Dutch fleet sails up the Thames River and threatens London.

 

1775 The British take Bunker Hill outside of Boston, after a costly battle.

 

1778 British troops evacuate Philadelphia.

 

1799 Napoleon Bonaparte incorporates Italy into his empire.

 

1812 The War of 1812 begins when the United States declares war against Great Britain.

 

1815 At the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington.

 

1848 Austrian General Alfred Windisch-Gratz crushes a Czech uprising in Prague.

 

1854 The Red Turban revolt breaks out in Guangdong, China.

 

1856 The Republican Party opens its first national convention in Philadelphia.

 

1861 President Abraham Lincoln witnesses Dr. Thaddeus Lowe demonstrate the use of a hot-air balloon.

 

1863 On the way to Gettysburg, Union and Confederate forces skirmish at Point of Rocks, Maryland.

 

1863 After repeated acts of insubordination, General Ulysses S. Grant relieves General John McClernand during the Siege of Vicksburg.

 

1864 At Petersburg, Union General Ulysses S. Grant realizes the town can no longer be taken by assault and settles into a siege.

 

1872 George M. Hoover begins selling whiskey in Dodge City, Kansas--a town which had previously been "dry."

 

1873 Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote for president.

 

1876 General George Crook's command is attacked and bested on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse.

 

1912 The German Zeppelin SZ 111 burns in its hangar in Friedrichshafen.

 

1913 U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.

 

1917 The Russian Duma meets in secret session in Petrograd and votes for an immediate Russian offensive against the German Army.

 

1918 Allied forces on the Western Front begin their largest counterattack yet against the German army.

 

1924 The Fascist militia marches into Rome.

 

1926 Spain threatens to quit the League of Nations if Germany is allowed to join.

 

1928 Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane.

 

1930 The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill becomes law, placing the highest tariff on imports to the United States.

 

1931 British authorities in China arrest Indochinese Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

 

1932 The U.S. Senate defeats the Bonus Bill as 10,000 veterans mass around the Capitol.

 

1936 Mobster Charles 'Lucky' Luciano is found guilty on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution.

 

1940 The Soviet Union occupies Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

 

1942 The U.S. Navy commissions its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.

 

1942 Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.

 

1944 French troops land on the island of Elba in the Mediterranean.

 

1944 The U.S. First Army breaks through the German lines on the Cotentin Peninsula and cuts off the German-held port of Cherbourg.

 

1945 Organized Japanese resistance ends on the island of Mindanao.

 

1950 Surgeon Richard Lawler performs the first kidney transplant operation in Chicago.

 

1951 General Vo Nguyen Giap ends his Red River Campaign against the French in Indochina.

 

1953 Soviet tanks fight thousands of Berlin workers rioting against the East German government.

 

1953 South Korean President Syngman Rhee releases Korean non-repatriate POWs against the will of the United Nations.

 

1959 A Federal Court annuls the Arkansas law allowing school closings to prevent integration.

 

1963 The U.S. Supreme Court bans the required reading of the Lord's prayer and Bible in public schools.

 

1965 27 B-52s hit Viet Cong outposts, but lose two planes in South Vietnam.

 

1966 Samuel Nabrit becomes the first African American to serve on the Atomic Energy Commission.

 

1970 North Vietnamese troops cut the last operating rail line in Cambodia.

 

1972 Five men are arrested for burglarizing Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.

 

1979 President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev sign the Salt II pact to limit nuclear arms.

 

1983 Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

 

1994 Millions of Americans watch former football player O.J. Simpson--facing murder charges--drive his Ford Bronco through Los Angeles, followed by police.

 

 

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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear

LOOKING BACK 55-YEARS to the Vietnam Air War— …  For The List for Friday, 18 June 2021… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻…

 

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…

From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 18 June 1966… "They Were Our Fathers"…

 

https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/rolling-thunder-remembered-18-june-1966-fathers/

 

 

This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip

 

Vietnam Air Losses

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

 

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This Day in U S Military History…….June 18

 

1944 – On Saipan, elements of the US 5th Amphibious Corps continue to make progress. The 4th Marine Division reaches the west side of the island at Magicienne Bay. This advance divides the Japanese garrison. Elements of the 27th Division capture Aslito airfield. Japanese air strikes sink 1 American destroyer and 2 tankers as well as damaging the escort carrier Fanshaw Bay. Most of the American air and naval support has withdrawn to meet the approaching Japanese fleet.

 

1945 – On instructions from Emperor Hirohito, Prime Minister Suzuki tells the Japanese Supreme Council that it is the intention of Hirohito to seek peace with the Allies as soon as possible.

1945 – On Okinawa, the remnants of the Japanese 32nd Army continue to offer determined resistance to attacks of the US 3rd Amphibious Corps and the US 24th Corps. Lt. General Simon Bolivar Buckner, commanding US 10th Army, is killed by Japanese artillery fire while he is on a visit to the front line, inspecting troops of the US 8th Marine Division. He is temporarily replaced by General Geiger, commanding the US 3rd Amphibious Corps. ( Buckner Bay on the east side of the Island is named for him)

The battle for Okinawa is in its 78th of 82 days and the fighting remains brutal.

1945 – On Luzon, elements of the US 37th Division, supported by an armored column, advance in the Caygayan valley, capturing Ilagan airfield and crossing the Ilagan River. On Mindanao, organized Japanese resistance comes to an end. Forces of the Japanese 35th Army have been cut off and dependent on roots and tree bark for food for some time now. Nonetheless, some small units of Japanese continue to resist.

1945 – Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower received a tumultuous welcome in Washington, where he addressed a joint session of Congress. Eisenhower went on to meet Pres. Harry Truman and the 2 men established a warm relationship that later soured. In 2001 Steve Neal authored "Harry and Ike: The Relationship That Remade the Postwar World."

 

1953 – U.S. Air Force Captains Lonnie R. Moore and Ralph S. Parr ( Parr was a WWII ace and also flew iin Vietnam) of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing became the 33rd and 34th aces of the war. Their F-86s were named "Billie/Margie" and "Barb/Vent De Mort.

 

1965 – For the first time, 28 B-52s fly-bomb a Viet Cong concentration in a heavily forested area of Binh Duong Province northwest of Saigon. Such flights, under the aegis of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), became known as Operation Arc Light. The B-52s that took part in the Arc Light missions had been deployed to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and more bombers were later deployed to bases in Okinawa and U-Tapao, Thailand. In addition to supporting ground tactical operations, B-52s were used to interdict enemy supply lines in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, and later to strike targets in North Vietnam. Releasing their bombs from 30,000 feet, the B-52s could neither be seen nor heard from the ground as they inflicted awesome damage. B-52s were instrumental in breaking up enemy concentrations besieging Khe Sanh in 1968 and An Loc in 1972. Between June 1965 and August 1973, 126,615 B-52 sorties were flown over Southeast Asia. During those operations, the Air Force lost 29 B-52s: 17 from hostile fire over North Vietnam and 12 from operational causes.

 

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

 

CLARK, JAMES G.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 88th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 18 June 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germantown, Pa. Date of issue: 30 April 1892. Citation: Distinguished bravery in action; was severely wounded.

LEONARD, EDWIN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company I, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: Near Petersburg, Va., 18 June 1864. Entered service at: Agawan, Mass. Birth: Agawan, Mass. Date of issue: 16 August 1894. Citation: Voluntarily exposed himself to the fire of a Union brigade to stop their firing on the Union skirmish line.

LUDWIG, CARL
Rank and organization: Private, 34th New York Battery. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 18 June 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: France. Date of issue: 30 July 1896. Citation: As gunner of his piece, inflicted singly a great loss upon the enemy and distinguished himself in the removal of the piece while under a heavy fire.

MOSTOLLER, JOHN W.
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 54th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Lynchburg, Va., 18 June 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Somerset County, Pa. Date of issue: 27 December 1894. Citation: Voluntarily led a charge on a Confederate battery (the officers of the company being disabled) and compelled its hasty removal.

 

 

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Thanks to Ted

 

The War of 1812 : All it wants is a little respect

Time to recognize lasting consequences of a 'weird little episode'?

·  

 

By Patrick HrubyThe Washington Times  

 

The Revolutionary War has its own national holiday. World War II has spawned countless books and movies. The Civil War boasts costumed re-enactors and a signature chess set.

And the War of 1812? It has re-enactors, too. The country can't get enough of them. The country of Canada, that is. "The demand for them right now is so great that it's actually driving up the price," said John Stagg, a University of Virginia history professor and author of "The War of 1812: Conflict for a Continent." "They may even have to resort to the desperate tactic of importing a few from the United States.

"The situation is different in Canada. They take the war very seriously in a way that Americans don't."

Currently enjoying its bicentennial — What, you haven't pre-ordered the Postal Service's forthcoming commemorative stamp? — the War of 1812 occupies a musty, forgotten junk drawer in America's collective cultural consciousness, stuffed somewhere between the liberation of Grenada and the time Will Smith punched that extraterrestrial fighter pilot in the face.

No memorial on the Mall.

No memorial, buy-one, get-one-free mattress sales.

The only war in the history of the United States referred to by its year.

The only war in the history of the United States in which — yes, really — Canada won.

A three-year, continent-spanning conflict against the British Empire that gave us Dolley Madison (the heroic first lady, not the snack cakes), the Capitol rotunda (built after a humiliating defeat, but still), the Kentucky Rifle (overrated, according to historians), the 1959 song "The Battle of New Orleans" (less accurate than a Kentucky Rifle, according to historians) and the "Star-Spangled Banner" (ironically sung to the tune of an old English drinking song — whatever), and yet is lucky to receive more than a few throwaway paragraphs in the average American history textbook.

"I think it's more like two sentences," said Stephen Budiansky, author of "Perilous Fight: America's Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815."

"The War of 1812 has gotten no respect over the years."

Dissed and dismissed

Don Hickey concurs. The nation's pre-eminent War of 1812 historian, he began a lifelong love affair with the topic as a University of Illinois student in the late 1960s, writing his senior honors thesis on New England's opposition to the conflict.

(Fun fact: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island refused to lend their state militias to the federal war effort, and a number of New England congressmen who voted for the war were subsequently booted from office. In other words, the War of 1812 was unpopular before it even started.)

"It turned out to be a real academic backwater, along with the entire early national period," said Mr. Hickey, a history professor at Wayne State University in Detroit and the author of "The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict, Bicentennial Edition.""It was tough to find a university job."

Most schools at the time, Mr. Hickey said, carried Revolutionary War and Civil War experts on staff, and perhaps an Andrew Jackson scholar as well.

However, few academics paid the War of 1812 much mind. No less a historian than Richard Hofstadter best summed up the prevailing sentiment by describing the conflict as "ludicrous and unnecessary," the climax of an "age of slack and derivative culture, of fumbling and small-minded statecraft" and "terrible parochial wrangling."

"War of 1812 historians are in a bit of a ghetto," Mr. Stagg said. "When Theodore Roosevelt wrote a history of the war, he wrote a naval history. He basically said he wasn't going to study the land campaigns because they were so ludicrous."

For nearly a decade, Congress has entertained the notion of creating an official War of 1812 bicentennial commission; time and again, the same body of lawmakers that regularly honors things like craft beer and the University of Texas swimming and diving team has said thanks, but no thanks.

Don't imagine their constituents care: A recent poll by a Canadian research firm found that 36 percent of Americans could not name a significant outcome to the war.

"There's an American tendency to think the war was some sort of joke, pathetic and not significant," Mr. Stagg said. "There are a lot of memorials to the War of 1812, but they're all local, not national."

What about the District's memorial to James Madison, president and commander in chief during the war?

"It's inside the Library of Congress," Mr. Stagg said. "A lot of people don't even know it's there. And, of course, it talks about [Madison] as a bookish man learning to write the Constitution. It doesn't talk about the War of 1812."

Win, lose, draw?

Why the antipathy? Start with the nature of the conflict. Fed up with British bullying and conscripting of American sailors and a Royal Navy-imposed embargo of trade with France — an offshoot of Europe's Napoleonic Wars — Congress voted to declare war on Britain in June of 1812.

The vote itself was bitterly divided, and came a few days after the British had decided to lift their embargo, the whole reason for the war in the first place.

"The causes of the war don't resonate with modern readers," Mr. Hickey said. "Nobody today goes to war over maritime rights."

The American battle plan was simple — and in retrospect, bizarre: conquer British-controlled Canada, then press for nautical concessions. The United States enjoyed a 15-1 population advantage over its northern neighbor. Brimming with confidence, Thomas Jefferson predicted that victory was a "mere matter of marching."

Oops.

Poorly trained and badly led, the American army was not greeted as liberators. It was embarrassed. By Canada. In epic, Homeric struggles like the Battle of Beaver Creek. (Never heard of it? That's because you're not Canadian.)

Case in point: In the Battle of Detroit, General William Hull was tricked into surrendering his 2,000-militiamen force to a smaller group of British Canadians and Native Americans without firing a single shot, thereby losing the entire Michigan territory.

"I would put that in my personal top 10 most humiliating defeats for the American Army," Mr. Budiansky said. "There was a lot of truly incompetent generalship and institutional problems handicapping the army. Terrible logistics. No overall command structure. Militias refusing to serve outside U.S. territory."

Following a failed invasion of Canada from New York, feuding American generals Peter Buell Porter and Alexander Smyth actually engaged in a duel — of which historian John R. Elting later quipped, "unfortunately, both missed."

Perhaps America's most memorable defeat came in August of 1814, when 4,000 Royal Marines marched into Washington and set the nation's capital ablaze, famously forcing Dolley Madison to save George Washington's portrait from a burning White House.

Perfect pyrotechnic fodder for a Michael Bay movie, right?

"It wasn't the entire city in flames," Mr. Budiansky said. "The British thought in the classic mold of superpowers dealing with much smaller adversaries that all they needed to do was stage a show of force. So they only burned public buildings — the White House, the Capitol, the State and Treasury departments. Some of the most serious damage was to the Navy Yard."

Those dastardly Redcoats!

"Actually, the Navy Yard was set on fire by evacuating Americans to keep supplies and almost-completed warships from falling into British hands," Mr. Budiansky said.

Ineffective on land, America's military proved surprisingly adept at sea, frustrating and humiliating the much larger Royal Navy. Ultimately, the two sides reached a peace accord in which neither nation made concessions and territorial boundaries returned to their pre-war state.

Though the accord was signed Christmas Eve of 1814, word of the peace treaty didn't reach the United States until after the Battle of New Orleans in early 1815 — an Andrew Jackson-led rout of the British that stands as America's greatest victory in the war.

"The conventional wisdom is that the war ended in a draw, because it was a draw on the battlefield," Mr. Hickey said. "But if you look at policy objectives, the United States didn't force the British to make maritime concessions, while the British achieved their objective of keeping Canada.

"One of the [anti-war] Federalists predicted that America would spend $180 million, have 30,000 casualties and not achieve its objectives. We actually spent $158 million, lost about 20,000 people and didn't achieve our objectives. I would call it ill-advised."

No matter. Over time, Mr. Hickey says, Americans became happy with the War of 1812 because they thought they won. Canadians were happier because they knew they won.

And the British? Happiest of all — because they forgot the whole thing.

"The British were preoccupied with Napoleon, and the Canadians can live with the fact that they owe their survival to the Americans messing up monumentally," Mr. Stagg said. "For the Americans, the war was rather embarrassing."

Shifting attitudes?

Not always. In the years following the war, books, plays and paintings celebrated the conflict, seen by Americans as both an honorable stand against British harassment and a consolidation of the Revolutionary War's gains.

American naval captains — the successful ones, anyway — even became household names.

"If you were a boy in the 1820s, this is what you grew up with," Mr. Budiansky said. "There were ceramic plates of naval heroes like Stephen Decatur and Isaac Hull."

Mr. Budiansky laughed.

"Many of those plates were made in England. They were never one to shy away from cashing in on a potential market."

Battlefield glories — real and imagined — also influenced politics. According to Mr. Stagg, the war helped propel both Mr. Jackson and William Henry Harrison to the presidency, the latter man running on a slogan, "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," that referred to an 1811 battle in the Indiana territory that presaged the War of 1812.

In Kentucky alone, Mr. Stagg said, the war produced three governors, three lieutenant governors and four United States senators — not to mention future Vice President Richard Johnson.

"It was common to use your war record as part of your claim to office," Mr. Stagg said. "Johnson supposedly killed Shawnee leader Tecumseh in 1813. He never claimed that himself, but someone did, and he never denied it. He dined out politically on that for the rest of his career."

The trauma and scale of the subsequent Civil War changed attitudes, transforming the War of 1812 into a historical afterthought. However, an ongoing bicentennial has dragged the conflict at least partially back into public consciousness.

New York lawmakers have appropriated money for commemorative events. The Canadian government is spending an estimated $30 million on the same. As part of a larger, $12 million-plus public relations push, the U.S. Navy is parading the USS Constitution and other ships through Boston, New York, Baltimore, New Orleans and Norfolk.

In Maryland — where cars have War of 1812 license plates and Gov. Martin O'Malley has participated in re-enactments — the state is holding a three-year celebration, which kicked off with a June ceremony at Baltimore's Fort McHenry that featured recorded messages from President Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"I must admit, when I visited the White House earlier this year, I was a bit embarrassed that my ancestors had managed to burn the place down 200 years ago," Mr. Cameron joked during his message.

Beyond "The Star-Spangled Banner" — composed by Francis Scott Key during the Battle of Baltimore — the War of 1812 resulted in Jacksonian democracy, a long-term Anglo-American alliance, the birth of Canadian national identity, America's emergence as a naval power and a crushing defeat of Native Americans that paved the way for Manifest Destiny.

It's time, Mr. Stagg believes, the much-maligned conflict got a little more respect.

"Because it seemed to have no clear, decisive winner, people assume it has no decisive consequences," he said. "I think that bit is wrong. It shaped the remainder of 19th-century American history. We should look at is as such, rather than saying it's this weird little episode we can't explain or understand."

© Copyright 2012 The Washington Times, LLC.

comment:

The United States won the War of 1812. In the early 19th century
the British were claiming the entire West Coast of North America, including
Alta California and Baja California.
In order to press these claims, they needed to prevent the U.S. from expanding
westwards into the Louisiana Purchase. The British planned to gain control
of the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to New Orleans.
The British were defeated on the Great Lakes and at the Battle of New Orleans.
Some historians try to make the case that the U.S. was attempting to seize
Canadian territory, and thus, as no Canadian land was lost to the U.S.,
it was a Canadian victory.
However, the U.S. never made any claims on any part of Canada. The
issue was the westward expansion of the United States into territory which
had been considered to be Spanish and French colonies. After the War
of 1812, the U.S. expanded westward to the Pacific.
Sincerely,
John Lepant Brighton CO

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for June 18

FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR June 18

THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

 

 

18 June

 

1861: Thaddeus S. C. Lowe telegraphed the first message from a balloon to a ground station. In the White House, President Lincoln received Lowe's telegraphic report. (4)

 

1916: The Germans shot down H. Clyde Balsley of the Lafayette Escadrille near Verdun, France. Balsley was the first American aviator to be shot down in World War I. He survived. Hit in the pelvis, he made it through a crash landing and endured several operations, but never returned to the air. (4)

 

1934: Boeing initiated company-funded design work on the Model 299, the B-17 prototype. (20)

 

1957: SAC placed the KC-135 Stratotanker into service. (12)

 

1959: Six US Navy enlisted men began an 8-day experiment in a dummy spaceship at the Air Crew Equipment Laboratory, Naval Air Materiel Center, Philadelphia Naval Base. (18)

 

1962: The USAF's Aerospace Research Pilot School, the first for operational personnel, began a 7-month course at Edwards AFB with seven Air Force officers and one USN officer. (16) (24) A RAF crew launched the last combat training Thor missile, the 22d, at Vandenberg AFB. (6)

 

1963: A SAC crew launched the first Minuteman missile under simulated combat conditions. (12)

 

1964: General Dynamics delivered the first RB/WB-57F (a Canberra B-57 modified with extremely long wings) to the Air Weather Service for its aerial sampling mission. (18)

 

1965: The Titan III-C, the first liquid-fuel spacecraft lifted by solid-fuel rockets, completed its maiden flight. (12) The 1st Air Commando Squadron, 34th Tactical Group, Bien Hoa AB received the Presidential Unit Citation. This was the first unit so honored since the Korean War. FIRST ARC LIGHT MISSION. From Andersen AFB, the 320 BMW and 7 BMW dispatched 28 B-52Fs to hit a Viet Cong jungle stronghold near Saigon. This was the first use of B-52s in Vietnam, and the first time B-52s dropped bombs in combat. The operation used 30 KC-135s to provide refueling support. (1) (16) (18)

 

1966: The USAF finished a year of B-52 strikes against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. The bombers flew more than 350 conventional missions to drop more than 70,000 tons of bombs on selected targets. (16)

 

1968: In three years of Vietnam operations, SAC's B-52 accomplished more than 25,000 sorties to deliver more than 630,000 tons of conventional bombs. (16)

 

1974: At Edward666s AFB, Lt Col James G. Rider became the first USAF pilot to fly the YF-17. (3)

 

1981: The F-117A Nighthawk, the first stealth combat aircraft in the world, flew for the first time at the Tonopah Test Range, Nev. Hal Farley flew the aircraft. (21)

 

1983: KEY EVENT--FIRST US WOMAN IN SPACE. Dr. Salley K. Ride became the first US woman in space on the second Challenger and seventh Space Shuttle mission. On 24 June, the craft returned to earth. (3)

 

1996: The 35 FW at Misawa AB, Japan, once again became a "Wild Weasel" unit in a brief formal ceremony. The 35th began its training in the radar detection and suppression mission at George AFB, Calif., in July 1973 with F-105s, later F-4Cs and F-4Gs. In Operation DESERT STORM, the wing's 24 F-4Gs flew more than 1,180 combat sorties in the Arabian Gulf, suppressing enemy air defenses, with no losses incurred. The 35 FW activated at Misawa on 1 October 1994 to operate 36 F-16CJ aircraft. (AFNEWS)

 

1999: Two 159 FW (Louisiana ANG) F-15As deployed to NAS Keflavik, Iceland, for a NATO exercise intercepted Russian TU-95 Bear bombers in the Icelandic Military Air Defense Identification Zone in a long range probe not seen since the Cold War's end. Two more 159th Eagles, launched from Keflavick, escorted the bombers out of the area. (32)

 

2001: At McGuire AFB, SMSgt Jere Garvin, a 2 AREFS flight engineer, reached 10,000 flying hours. His 24-year career included flying time in C-130s, C-141s, the E-3 Sentry, and KC-10 Extender in over 2,400 sorties. On this date, Garvin was the only active-duty flight engineer to reach that milestone. (AFNEWS Article 0947, 13 July 2001)

 

2003: The USAF released a roadmap to retire 133 KC-135E Stratotankers and assign 100 KC-767A tankers to be leased. Under the plan, Fairchild AFB would become the first active-duty base to receive the new KC-767As in FY2006. By 2010, several Air Reserve Component units would also convert from E-model to R-model KC-135s to the KC-767A. (22) Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. AMC released Civil Reserve Air Fleet carriers from supporting this operation. From 8 February to 2 June 2003, the 11 CRAF carriers flew 1,625 missions to airlift 254,100 troops to the Middle East and other destinations. (22)

 

2005: TALISMAN SABER 2005. Through 21 June, six C-17 Globemaster IIIs from McChord AFB and Charleston AFB supported an international exercise. The participants included more than 6,000 Australian and 10,000 US service members from the USAF, Army, Navy, and Marines. The Globemaster IIIs flew from Elmendorf AFB on 18 June and flew 7,000-plus miles across the Pacific Ocean to northeastern Australia in one of the C-17's longest direct-delivery airdrops yet. Each C-17 received two air refuelings, the first near Alaska and the second near Hawaii. American and Australian armed forces practiced a "forced entry operation" in the exercise, and the C-17s airdropped troops and supplies at night. (22)

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World News for 18 June thanks to Military Periscope

 

 

USA—GPS III Satellite Launched Successfully Space News | 06/18/2021 U.S. Space Force has successfully placed another new GPS satellite into orbit, reports Space News. On Thursday, GPS III Space Vehicle 5 built by Lockheed Martin was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. The launch was the first time that a national security space launch mission used a previously flown first stage. The booster, B1062 was used on the Nov. 5, 2020, launch of GPS III Space Vehicle 4. The first stage was successfully recovered after the launch. The used booster saved the government $64.5 million, according to the Space Force. SpaceX is expected to continue to fly previously flown boosters in national security missions going forward. The satellite will undergo around two weeks of on-orbit testing and checkout once it reaches 12,500 miles (20,120 km) above the earth's surface with its liquid apogee engine, noted C4ISRNet. It is expected to enter operational service within a few months. The satellite is the fifth GPS III satellite launched and the 24th enabled to transmit the M-code secure anti-jamming GPS precision navigation and timing (PNT) signal for military use. SpaceX is under contract to launch GPS III Space Vehicle 6 next year. 

 

USA—House Votes To Repeal 2002 Iraq War Powers Legislation Cbs News | 06/18/2021 The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to repeal the 2002 authorization for use of military force (AUMF) in Iraq, reports CBS News. On Thursday, the House voted 268 to 161 to repeal the measure, with 49 Republicans joining Democrats in support. One Democrat voted against the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has pledged to hold a vote in the Senate on repealing the AUMF this year. The repeal is also supported by the White House. A similar bill in the Senate is sponsored by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and supported by Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and four other Republican senators. The 2002 AUMF has lost its vital purpose, with the Iraq war having ended over 10 years ago, Schumer said as cited by NPR News. Eliminating the AUMF would prevent future administrations from using it as an excuse for military action, according to Schumer, who cited the Trump administration's use of the law to justify its January 2020 strike to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq. Proponents of the repeal hope it will serve as an initial step to repeal the 2001 AUMF which authorized the invasion of Afghanistan and has since been used to justify military operations around the world. 

 

USA—Navy Awards Design Contracts For Light Amphib Program USNI News | 06/18/2021 The U.S. Navy has issued concept design contracts to five companies for its Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) program, reports USNI News. The concept studies contracts were awarded to Fincantieri, Austal USA, VT Halter Marine, Bollinger and TAI Engineers, a Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman said. The contracts include a follow-on option for preliminary design. The concept study/preliminary design contract covers "engineering analyses, tradeoff studies and development of engineering and design documentation defining concept studies/preliminary designs." The contracts have a combined value of less than $7.5 million. The LAW program seeks to develop a medium-sized landing ship for distributed maneuver and logistics operations by the newly established Marine Littoral Regiment, including distributed maritime operations, littoral operations in contested environments and expeditionary advanced base operations. Earlier this year, 10 to 11 teams were believed to have been participating in the competition. The Navy said at the time that it planned to downselect to three teams for full design work before choosing one firm to build the first ship in late fiscal 2022. The Navy now expects to award the construction contract in fiscal 2023. The service plans to acquire between 28 and 30 LAWs. 

 

USA—Technical Issues Push Back Red Hawk Trainer Production Decision Air Force Magazine | 06/18/2021 Technical and supplier issues have forced the Air Force to delay the planned full-rate production decision for its new trainer jet, reports Air Force magazine. The full-rate production decision for the T-7A Red Hawk program has slipped from 2022 to 2023. Accordingly, the Air Force reduced its fiscal 2022 budget request for the program from a projected $206.4 million to $188.9 million. The delay was caused by several issues, including supplier-side critical parts shortages; initial design delays; and the discovery of "aircraft wing rock," which means the T-7A can be unstable in the roll axis when flying at high angles of attack. Boeing expects to roll out the first production Red Hawk in early 2022, with the first airworthy T-7A to be handed over to the Air Force in 2023. The first squadron would become operational in 2024. With a planned delivery rate of five jets per month, the fleet would reach full operational capability in 2034. The Air Force plans to acquire a total of 351 T-7As. 

 

Burma—Detained American Journalist Appears In Court Voice Of America News | 06/18/2021 An American journalist detained in Burma last month has appeared in court for the first time to face charges of fomenting dissent against the military government, reports the Voice of America News. On Thursday, Danny Fenster, the managing editor of the Frontier Myanmar website, appeared at the special court in the Yangon's Insein Prison, Frontier Myanmar said in a statement. Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was attempting to board a flight out of the country, reported CNN. He had not been seen in the 24 days prior to his court appearance. He is charged with violating section 505-A of Burma's penal code, which makes it a crime to publish or circulate comments that cause fear, spread fake news or incite government employees. The crime, which is punishable by up to three years in prison, has been used to charge dozens of journalists in Burma following the military coup in February. The U.S. has demanded Burma release Fenster and accused the government of refusing to grant him consular access as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. A second American journalist, Nathan Maung, was released on June 14 after being arrested in March on similar charges. 

 

China—Hong Kong Police Crack Down On Apple Daily Newspaper National Public Radio | 06/18/2021 Hong Kong police have raided one of the city's independent media outlets, arresting several executives and freezing its accounts under the controversial national security law, reports NPR News. On Thursday, five Apple Daily executives were arrested, including chief editor Ryan Law; the CEO of the newspaper's publisher, Cheung Kim-hung; the publisher's chief operating officer, Chan Puiman; and two other editors. The arrests were made because the newspaper published dozens of articles calling on foreign agencies to impose sanctions on China or the Hong Kong government, said an officer with the special body that prosecutes cases under national security law imposed by Beijing last year. The assets of three companies affiliated with the Apple Daily as well as those of its publishers were also frozen, and trading of its stock was suspended. The newspaper's headquarters was declared a crime scene following the raid, and police officers confiscated electronic devices, including mobile phones, computers and laptops, reported CNN. 

 

China—U.S. Pressure Blocks Firms From Undersea Communications Cable Project Reuters | 06/18/2021 A World Bank-led project to lay undersea communication cables in the Pacific has been torpedoed after the U.S. expressed security concerns about Chinese firms bidding for the work, reports Reuters. HMN Technologies, formerly Huawei Marine Networks, which is majority-owned by Hengton Optic-Electronic Co., submitted a bid for the US$72.6 million East Micronesia Cable System project that was 20 percent lower than offers from Alcatel Submarine Networks, a division of Finland's Nokia, and Japan's NEC, said unnamed sources. The World Bank project is intended to improve communications between the island nations of Nauru, Kiribati and the Federated States of Micronesia through the construction of underwater data links with greater data capacity than satellites. There were also plans to link it with a sensitive cable leading to Guam, a U.S. territory. The U.S. objected to awarding the contract to the HMN-led team, citing security concerns. HMN Tech was in a strong position to win the bid, one source said. Due to U.S. pressure and the lack of a tangible way to remove HMN Tech as a bidder, all three bids were deemed non-compliant to prevent the award, according to the source. The World Bank said it concluded the process without an award due to "non-responsiveness to the requirements of the bidding documents." The organization said it was working with the respective governments on next steps for the project. Such projects should be held in a non-discriminatory environment that allows companies from all countries to bid, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said after the decision. Chinese firms maintain an "excellent record," in cybersecurity, said the spokesperson. Washington says that Chinese firms pose a security threat because they are required to cooperate with Beijing's security and intelligence services. China has rejected such claims.

 

South Korea—Hackers Target S. Korean Nuclear Think Tank Yonhap | 06/18/2021 A South Korean lawmaker says that North Korean hackers gained access to the computer network of a state-run nuclear think tank last month, reports the Yonhap news agency (Seoul). Ha Tae Keung of the opposition People Power Party said in a social media post on Friday that the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) had been attacked by the North Korean Kimsuky hacking group, reported Reuters. The think tank's networks were breached on May 13 and one of the 13 internet addresses involved in the attack was linked to Kimsuky, according to an analysis by the Seoul-based IssueMakersLab cybersecurity firm. On Friday, the South Korean Science Ministry confirmed that it was investigating the attack. The KAERI network was breached multiple times between May 14 and May 31, a ministry official said. The intrusion was reportedly discovered on May 31. Additional security measures, including halting the institute's virtual private network and blocking the attacker's internet protocol address, had been taken, the ministry said. The incident could pose a serious security risk if certain core information was obtained by North Korea, Ha said. The KAERI works on developing nuclear technology. 

 

Kiribati—New Patrol Boat Handed Over Austal | 06/18/2021 Kiribati has received its first Guardian-class patrol boat donated by Australia as part of Canberra's Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement Project, reports Austal, the shipbuilder. On Friday, the Teanoai II was delivered by Austal to the Australian Dept. of Defense and then gifted to the Republic of Kiribati. The delivery was originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but was pushed back by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Teanoai II will replace the previous patrol boat, Tenaoi, a Pacific-class vessel that entered Kiribati service in 1994, in Kiribati police force service. She is the 11th Guardian-class patrol boat built by Austal. The shipbuilder remains on track to complete all 21 Guardian-class vessels for the Pacific Patrol Boat Replacement project by the end of 2023, Austal officials said. The contract for all 21 vessels is valued at more than Aus$335 million (US$254.1 million). Twelve Pacific nations will receive patrol boats under the program, including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Micronesia, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and East Timor. 

 

Brazil—New Frigates To Get Sea Ceptor Air Defense Systems MBDA Missile Systems | 06/18/2021 MBDA has received a contract to equip Brazil's new Tamandare-class frigates with an air defense system. The deal, the value of which was not disclosed, covers the installation of the Sea Ceptor surface-to-air missile system on the frigates, said a company release on Thursday. The Sea Ceptor is a weapon-control system that with the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) provides comprehensive self-defense and local area air-defense capabilities. The system will enable the Tamandare-class frigates to protect themselves, other ships and fixed infrastructure against a full range of threats while at sea or in port and in complex operational scenarios. Brazil initially selected the Sea Ceptor to equip the Tamandare class in November 2014. 

 

Israel—New Round Of Strikes Follows More Incendiary Balloon Attacks Agence France-Presse | 06/18/2021 Israeli military jets struck militant targets in the Gaza Strip overnight after another round of incendiary balloons was launched from the enclave, reports Agence France-Presse. On Thursday night and into Friday morning, the Israel Defense Forces attacked military compounds in Gaza City and Khan Younis in southern Gaza and a Hamas rocket launch site, the military said. There were no casualties in the strikes, reported CNN. Militants opened fire toward Israeli territory with heavy machine guns following the strikes. The airstrikes came after militants in Gaza launched incendiary balloons for a third day on Thursday. The balloons are intended to start fires on farmland and bush in the area around Gaza. Israel also conducted airstrikes on Wednesday night after the first two days of balloon bomb launches. 

 

Israel—IDF Halts Controversial Home-Mapping Operations In W. Bank Times of Israel | 06/18/2021 The Israeli military says it will stop its controversial practice of conducting nighttime reconnaissance missions in Palestinian homes, reports the Times of Israel. On Tuesday night, the Israel Defense Force said it would no longer employ "structure-mapping" activities in the West Bank except in unusual circumstances. Future house-mapping operations will require permission from senior Israeli commanders in response to a concrete security-operational need, officials said. The house-mapping operations involved Israeli soldiers entering Palestinian homes in the West Bank with little warning at night to collect information on the building and its residents. The IDF claimed the practice was an important intelligence-gathering method. Rights groups criticized the operations as arbitrary. The IDF has declined to make public how locations were chosen for house-mapping operations, claiming the reasons were classified. The halt to home-mapping operations will not affect nighttime arrests of Palestinians suspected of security offenses. 

 

Afghanistan—Taliban Nears Full Control Of Uruzgan Province Australian Broadcasting Corporation | 06/18/2021 Afghan government forces have lost control of almost all of the central Uruzgan province, reports the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Taliban fighters currently control five of the six districts in the province, with the final district, the provincial capital of Tarin Kot, considered contested. The district is under significant Taliban pressure and could fall under insurgent control, experts said. The government and Taliban have both claimed to have inflicted heavy casualties during the fighting. If the district fell, it would be the first provincial capital seized by the Taliban and make Uruzgan the first province to come fully under Taliban control. On Tuesday, the Taliban claimed to have seized control of the administration center, police headquarters, defensive checkpoints and other installations in the Khas Uruzgan district. 

 

Iraq—ISIS Attacks Line Importing Energy From Iran Mehr News Agency | 06/18/2021 Islamic State insurgents have destroyed a power transmission line in Iraq's Diyala province that imports energy from Iran, reports Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency. On Wednesday afternoon, the insurgents blew up two towers located near the Baqubah, north of Baghdad, said a member of the paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces. The blast severely damaged both towers cutting power to one-third of Diyala province. The transmission line is one of four between Iran and Iraq and transfers about 400 MW of the 1,200 MW of power imported from Iran. 

 

Zambia—Founding President Kenneth Kaunda Dies This Day | 06/18/2021 The first president of Zambia following its independence from the U.K. has died, reports This Day (Lagos). On Thursday, Kenneth Kaunda died at the Maina Soko military hospital in Lusaka. He was admitted to the hospital on June 14 to be treated for pneumonia. Kaunda was a key figure in the independence movement in what was then Northern Rhodesia, becoming president after independence in 1964. He served in the post for 27 years. He is most remembered for his role as an anti-colonial fighter and for standing up to the then-white, minority-ruled South Africa, noted Agence France-Presse. Kaunda also launched a personal crusade against AIDs in 1986 following the death of his son Masuzyo from the disease. His presidency ended in 1991, when he agreed to hold the first multiparty elections in Zambia in 23 years. He lost to his long-time foe, trade unionist Frederick Chiluba, over perceptions that he had mismanaged the economy and been in office too long. Authorities declared 21-day period of mourning following his death. 

 

Rwanda—Government Seeks Life-Sentence For Paul Rusesabagina On Terrorism Charges Xinhua | 06/18/2021 Rwandan prosecutors are seeking a maximum sentence for Paul Rusesabagina, who became famous for saving hundreds during the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s, for alleged crimes linked to terrorism, reports Xinhua, China's state-run news agency. On Wednesday, prosecutors asked the Rwandan High Court Special Chamber for International and Cross-Border Crimes in Kigali to issue the maximum sentence, up to life in prison, citing Rusesabagina's failure to plead guilty. Rusesabagina faces nine charges, including forming an illegal armed group, financing terror activities, murder as an act of terror, kidnap as an act of terror and arson as an act of terror, among others. The charges stem from a series of attacks against Rwandan civilians in the southwestern Nyaruguru and Nyamagabe districts in 2018 and 2019 that have been blamed on Rusesabagina. He is among 20 people accused of the crimes, including National Liberation Front rebel group commander and spokesperson Callixte Nsabimana. Nsabimana confessed and collaborated with the court, leading prosecutors to request a reduced 25-year sentence for crimes linked to terrorism.