Good Saturday Morning September 11
I will never forget the first 911. I was in my office and someone came running in to say a plane flew into one of the Twin Towers. I remembered reading about an army Air force B-25 that had flown in to the Empire State building in the 40s. But did not think with all electronics and RADAR in this day it had to be on purpose.
So a few minutes later someone said they had got the big TV on in our conference room and it was live so I went to look and as I entered the room I saw the second plane hit and knew that the world had changed. The List had been running Since February of 2000 and soon had lots of information to get out.
Regards
Skip
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History
September 11
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1814—During the Battle of Lake Champlain, Commodore Thomas Macdonough anchors his
ships in a position that the British squadron attacks head on, using only a few guns at a time. The British squadron is defeated, ending the final invasion of the British in the northern states. USS Lake Champlain (CG 57), a guided missile cruiser, is named after the famous battle.
1942—Pharmacist's Mate First Class Wheeler B. Lipes performs an emergency appendectomy on Seaman 1st Class Darrell D. Rector on board USS Seadragon (SS 194) on patrol in the South China Sea.
1943—During the Salerno, Italy operations, USS Savannah (CL 42) is hit by a German guided bomb. The explosion kills nearly 200 of her crew, but she remains under her own power to return to the U.S. for repairs.
1944—USS Albacore (SS 218) torpedoes and sinks the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser (Cha 165) off Kyushu, Japan, while USS Finback (SS 230) sinks Japanese army cargo ship, Hassho Maru, and merchant cargo ship, No. 2, Hakuun Maru, north of Chichi Jima. Also on this date, USS Pargo (SS 264) sinks Japanese auxiliary netlayer, Hinoki Maru, in Java Sea.
1982—USS Michigan (SSGN 727) is commissioned at Groton, CT. The second Ohio-class nuclear-powered guided missile submarine, it is the third Navy vessel to honor the State of Michigan.
2001—American Airlines Flight 77 is hijacked by terrorists and hits the Pentagon, causing 184 fatalities. Specific to DON, the fatalities are: 33 military personnel, six civilians, and three contractors. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 hit the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, New York City. United Airlines Flight 93 goes down in Shanksville, PA, after passengers engage the hijackers.
2010—USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) is christened and launched and now operated by the Military Sealift Command. The dry cargo/ammunition ship provides ammunition, food, repair parts, stores and small quantities of fuel for the U.S. Marine Corps. The ship is named for Capt. Washington Chambers, a pioneer in US naval aviation.
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Today in History
September 11 | ||
1297 | Scots under William Wallace defeat the English at Stirling Bridge. | |
1695 | Imperial troops under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Turks at the Battle of Zenta. | |
1709 | John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, wins the bloodiest battle of the 18th century at great cost, against the French at Malplaquet. | |
1740 | The first mention of an African American doctor or dentist in the colonies is made in the Pennsylvania Gazette. | |
1777 | General George Washington and his troops are defeated by the British under General Sir William Howe at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania. | |
1786 | The Convention of Annapolis opens with the aim of revising the Articles of Confederation. | |
1802 | Piedmont, Italy, is annexed by France. | |
1814 | U.S. forces led by Thomas Macdonough route the British fleet on Lake Champlain. | |
1847 | Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" is first performed in a saloon in Pittsburgh. | |
1850 | Soprano opera singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," makes her American debut at New York's Castle Garden Theater. | |
1864 | A 10-day truce is declared between generals William Sherman and John Hood so civilians may leave Atlanta, Georgia. | |
1857 | Indians incited by Mormon John D. Lee kill 120 California-bound settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. | |
1904 | The battleship Connecticut, launched in New York, introduces a new era in naval construction. | |
1916 | The "Star Spangled Banner" is sung at the beginning of a baseball game for the first time in Cooperstown, New York. | |
1944 | American troops enter Luxembourg. | |
1962 | Thurgood Marshall is appointed a judge of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. | |
1965 | The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) arrives in South Vietnam and is stationed at An Khe. | |
1974 | Haile Selassie I is deposed from the Ethiopian throne. | |
2001 | In an unprecedented, highly coordinated attack, terrorists hijack four U.S. passenger airliners, flying two into the World Trade Center towers in New York and one into the Pentagon, killing thousands. The fourth airliner, headed toward Washington likely to strike the White House or Capitol, is crashed just over 100 miles away in Pennsylvania after passengers storm the cockpit and overtake the hijackers. | |
2005 | Israel completes its unilateral disengagement of all Israeli civilians and military from the Gaza Strip. | |
2007 | Russia detonates a nano-bomb; dubbed the "Father of All Bombs," it is the largest non-nuclear weapon developed to date. | |
2012 | US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, is attacked and burned down; 4 Americans are killed including the US ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens. | |
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Attack on America
At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767–United Airlines Flight 175–appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.
The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.
As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.
Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.
Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane–United Flight 93–was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger–Todd Beamer–was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."
The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.
At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear
LOOKING BACK 55-YEARS to the Vietnam Air War— …For The List for Saturday, 11 September 2021, the 20th anniversary of 9/11… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 11 September 1966… On this 20th anniversary of 9/11, words from the 15th anniversary…
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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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 11, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
11 September
1920: Three airships flew in a formation flight under radio direction at Langley Field. (24)
1941: At Baltimore, the Glenn L. Martin Company displayed a 70-ton, 4-engine flying boat with a 200-foot wing spread, said to be the largest in the world. (24)
1944: Eighth Air Force began the last "shuttle raid" as 139 aircraft attacked an arms factory at Chemnitz, Germany, and flew on to bases in Russia. (4)
1948: FEAF SUPPORT FOR THE BERLIN AIRLIFT. FEAF received orders to send an air echelon with 36 C-54 aircraft and a skeleton group headquarters to USAFE on indefinite duty. FEAF sent the 317 TCG (Heavy) with the 22 TCS, 39 TCS, and 41st TCS (Heavy). The group's temporary transfer, coupled with the loss of 24 MATS C-54s from the theater to Germany for the airlift and a shipping strike on the West Coast, caused severe supply shortages throughout the Pacific.
1953: A Sidewinder N-7 (AIM-9) air-to-air missile made its first successful interception, sending a Grumman F6F-5K Hellcat drone down in flames at China Lake. (12) (20)
1955: Richard T. Whitcomb from NACA's Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory announced the area rule concept for airplane design. The supersonic Grumman F11F and Convair F-102 used this 1953 concept to reduce drag. (8: Sep 90)
1964: The Air Force decided to retire two Atlas squadrons and 105 liquid-fueled missiles made obsolete by the Minuteman and Polaris. (5) (16)
1968: The Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories at Hanscom AFB launched the largest research balloon, a 28.7-million-cubic-foot polyethylene sphere, to 158,000 feet from White Sands Missile Range. The balloon carried instruments for atmospheric measurements near strato-pause, and the flight ended near Needles, Calif., after 18 hours. This balloon broke two previous size records: 13.5 millioncubic-feet for a polyethylene balloon and 26-million-cubic-feet held by five fiber-reinforced Mylar balloons flown in 1966 and 1967. (5) (16)
1970: President Nixon ordered Federal guards to fly on US overseas flights to end air piracy. Shotgun rides began one day later with 100 Treasury agents.
1972: US aircraft destroyed the Long Bien Bridge over the Red River in downtown Hanoi. This event involved one of the most spectacular uses of precision-guided weapons in the war. (16) (26)
1981: The Air Staff decided to add ALCMs to the B-52H. Before, only G-models were scheduled to receive ALCMs. (12)
2001: ATTACK ON AMERICA/Operation NOBLE EAGLE. Arab terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners. They crashed two aircraft into the 110-story, twin tower World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., killing more than 3,000 people. Passengers in the fourth aircraft rushed the hijackers, and it crashed in a Pennsylvania field rather than another high-value target. The FAA grounded all airliners in the US for several days. President George W. Bush initiated a war on terrorism and homeland-defense efforts with combat air patrols within the US under the NOBLE EAGLE operation. (21) The ANG scrambled F-15s from Otis ANGB, Mass., and F-16s from Langley AFB to intercept hijacked commercial airliners bound for the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, respectively, but arrived too late to thwart the terrorist attacks. (32) Shortly after the airliner attacks, NORAD initiated combat air patrols with USAF fighters over more than 30 American cities, while Navy fighters flew sorties off the Atlantic coast near New York. Within a few hours, 34 ANG fighter units had generated aircraft to fly combat missions, and in the first 24 hours, 15 units accomplished 179 fighter missions. In addition, 18 ANG tanker wings had generated 78 aircraft to support the fighters. (32)
2002: Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. In the year after the terrorist attacks on American soil, AMC aircraft flew 4,864 airlift missions to deliver 223,487 passengers and 304,801 short tons of cargo in support of this operation. C-17s and C-5s flew 48 percent and 30 percent of the missions, respectively. Additionally, KC-135s accomplished 2,760 air refueling missions and KC-10s another 176 missions in the one-year period. (22)
2004: Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM. Since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on America, AMC completed 34,030 missions in support the two combat operations. AMC's organic and contracted commercial aircraft moved a total of 1,771,632 troops and 1,059,498 short tons of cargo, while KC-10 and KC-135 tankers performed 11,111 air refueling missions to refuel 15,396 aircraft. The three-year airlift into Afghanistan was the third largest airlift in history, with Operation VITTLES (Berlin Airlift) in 1948-1949 ranking first and Operations DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM (Gulf War) in 1990-1991 ranking second. (22)
2005: CONTINUING SUPPORT TO THE WAR ON TERRORISM. During the four years since the 2001 attack, AMC flew 53,530 missions. By mid-September 2005, AMC's organic aircraft and contracted commercial aircraft had moved 3,055,336 troops and 1,487,884 short tons of cargo. In late 2005, the support to Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM surpassed the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War airlift effort to become history's second largest airlift, following the 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift. (22)
2007: Since 11 September 2001, the Air Mobility Command had completed 363,483 sorties to support Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM. By mid-September 2007, the command's organic aircraft and contracted commercial aircraft had moved 5,854,158 troops and 2,551,432 short tons of cargo. Also, by September 2007, airlift operations to support the two operations constituted history's largest airlift in terms of total cargo transported. They surpassed the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949 and Operation DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM of 1990-1991. The command's KC-10 and KC-135 tankers also performed 16,941 air refueling sorties to refuel more than 27,300 receiver aircraft. Since 11 September 2001, the command had transferred 1.1 billion gallons of fuel on its air refueling sorties around the world. (22)
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This Day in U S Military History
1814 – During the Battle of Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, a newly built U.S. fleet under Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough destroys a British squadron, forcing the British to abandon their siege of the U.S. fort at Plattsburg and retreat to Canada on foot. The American victory saved New York from possible invasion and helped lead to the conclusion of peace negotiations between Britain and the United States in Ghent, Belgium. The War of 1812 began on June 18, 1812, when the United States declared war on Britain. The war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seamen into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier. A faction of Congress known as the "War Hawks" had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial gains for the United States. In the months after President James Madison proclaimed the state of war to be in effect, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were decisively unsuccessful. In 1814, with Napoleon Bonaparte's French empire collapsing, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers. In September 1814, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough's American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg, New York. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812. By the terms of the agreement, all conquered territory was to be returned, and a commission would be established to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada. British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. The American public heard of Jackson's victory and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic.
1918 – US troops landed in Russia to fight the Bolsheviks.
1918 – Often called the "war of the machines," World War I marked the beginning of a new kind of warfare, fought with steel and shrapnel. Automotive manufacturers led the way in this new technology of war, producing engines for planes, building tanks, and manufacturing military vehicles. Packard was at the forefront of these efforts, being among the first American companies to completely cease civilian car production. Packard had already been the largest producer of trucks for the Allies, but the company began devoting all of its facilities to war production on this day, just a few months before the end of the war. Even after Packard resumed production of civilian vehicles, its wartime engines appeared in a number of vehicles, from racing cars and boats to British tanks in the next world war.
1919 – US marines invaded Honduras (again).
2001 – At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767–United Airlines Flight 175–appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack. The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles. As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner. Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 4,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and 23 policemen who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe. Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane–United Flight 93–was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger–Todd Beamer–was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye." The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard. At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
JAMES, JOHN
Rank and organization: Corporal, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Upper Wichita, Tex., 9-11 September 1874. Entered service at: ——. Birth: England. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action.
MITCHELL, JOHN
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company I, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Upper Washita, Tex., 9-11 September 1874. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in engagement with Indians.
MORRIS, WILLIAM W.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Upper Washita, Tex., 9-11 September 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Stewart County, Tenn. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in engagement with Indians.
NEILON, FREDERICK S.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Upper Washita, Tex., 9-11 September 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action.
PENNSYL, JOSIAH
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company M, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Upper Washita, Tex., 11 September 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Frederick County, Md. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action.
SHARPLESS, EDWARD C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Upper Washita, Tex., 9-11 September 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Marion County, Ohio. Date of issue: 23 April 1875. Citation: While carrying dispatches was attacked by 125 hostile Indians, whom he (and a comrade) fought throughout the day.
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thanks to THE Bear
Great history and a great personal story from the Navy's awesome historian…Bear
http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Cox, Samuel J SES USN NHHC WASHINGTON DC (USA)"
Date: September 10, 2021 at 4:38:37 AM MDT
To: samuel.cox@navy.mil
Cc: Sam Cox <sjcox80@verizon.net>
Subject: Happy 100 Lieutenant Commander Louis A. Conter, USN (Ret.)
Fellow Flag Officers,
It is with great pleasure I inform you that U.S. Navy hero and USS ARIZONA survivor Lieutenant Commander Louis A. "Lou" Conter, U.S. Navy (Retired) will be 100 on 13 September 2021. Lou enlisted in 1939 and was a QM3 during the attack. After Pearl Harbor, he went to flight school and as an enlisted pilot flew 200 combat missions in "Black Cat" Catalina Flying Boats. He earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for his role in rescuing over 200 Australian Coast Watchers on New Guinea. He survived being shot down twice, once by the Japanese and once by a US Army Airforce fighter. He served as an Air Intelligence Officer on USS BON HOMME RICHARD's 1951 Korean War deployment, flying the AD Skyraider in 29 combat missions over North Korea before the Navy banned Intel Officers flying over enemy territory. He also established the US Navy's first Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) course and was instrumental in the development Navy's formal SERE School Program. Vice Admiral James Stockdale credited Lou with saving his life in Vietnam. Additional detail follows.
Born on 13 September 1921, Louis A. Conter enlisted in the U.S. Navy in November 1939. Following boot camp in San Diego, he reported to his first ship, battleship USS ARIZONA (BB-39) at Long Beach, California as an apprentice seaman. In March 1940, ARIZONA and the rest of the Battle Fleet were ordered to remain at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii following a major fleet exercise. Lou was a striker for the Quartermaster rate and was promoted to Quarter Master Third Class (QM3.) He was selected for the enlisted pilot training program and on 1 November 1941 received orders to return to the U.S. aboard SS LURLINE for flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. However, because ARIZONA was scheduled to return to Long Beach in December for an anti-aircraft weapons upgrade, Captain Van Valkenburgh (Commanding Officer USS ARIZONA) directed him to remain aboard ARIZONA for the transit back to save the Navy money. Lou was the helmsman when ARIZONA entered Pearl Harbor on 5 December 1941 following fleet battle training.
On the morning of 7 December, Lou had just reported to the Quarterdeck for duty as Quartermaster of the Watch when the first Japanese planes rolled in. As Captain Van Valkenburgh passed the Quarterdeck, he directed one QM2 to follow him to the bridge and he directed Lou to remain behind and secure the Quarterdeck. This was the difference between living and dying. Lou was on his way to the bridge when the fourth bomb to hit ARIZONA resulted in a catastrophic powder magazine explosion, that killed or mortally wounded 1,177 men (1,102 were never recovered.) Of those crewmen aboard the ship at the time, only 96 survived the explosion, (about 239 other crewmen were ashore.) During the attack, Lou rescued men from the flames, assisted in fighting fires and in evacuating the wounded. After the attack, he was assigned duty as a diver to go into the sunken ship to retrieve dead bodies until it was deemed too dangerous to continue that work.
Lou reported to Pensacola in January 1942 and completed flight training in November 1942 as a PBY-5 Catalina flying boat patrol bomber pilot. He reported to Patrol Squadron ELEVEN (VP-11) one of the first "Black Cat" squadrons, trained for night operations with planes painted entirely black with no markings. Deploying from Hawaii to Port Moresby, New Guinea and Western Australia, Lou would rack up 2,000 hours and 200 combat missions, mostly along the northern coast of New Guinea. In September 1943, his plane was hit by Japanese ground fire which set off the flares, forcing the burning plane to crash land in the water. He and the crew survived a day in the water fighting off sharks, before reaching the shore and hiding in the jungle until they were rescued by Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) men on a PT-boat.
Lou would be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (for valor) for a series of dangerous below-tree-top level flights along the Sepik River (the opening in the jungle canopy not much wider than the river) to covertly rescue Australian Coastwatchers who had been trapped by a surprise landing by a Japanese division. Five PBY crews would ultimately rescue 219 Australians without loss. In November 1943, he received a battlefield commission to ensign. In December 1943, while attempting to rescue the crew of a U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF) B-25 bomber, Lou's plane was shot down by one of the USAAF P-40 fighters performing RESCAP duty. Lou's nose gunner was killed, but the rest of the crew survived, and the B-25 crew was rescued.
After returning to the States, Lou was trained in the new F7F Tigercat twin engine carrier night fighter. The Tigercat had difficulty during carrier landing trials and Lou was reassigned to command the first U.S. Navy radio-controlled target drone unit (TDD 1.)
Released from active duty after the end of the war, Lou remained in the U.S. Naval Reserve. During periodic activations, he received training as an Air Intelligence Officer (AIO.) Upon the outbreak of the Korean War, he was recalled to active duty and received flight training in the AD Skyraider single engine attack bomber. He deployed to Korea as the Air Group AIO aboard USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CV-31) in May 1951. During this deployment, BON HOMME RICHARD lost 12 aircraft and seven pilots. Lou flew 29 combat missions in the Skyraider over North Korea until the Navy banned Intelligence Officers from flying over enemy territory. He then flew coastal missions in support of guerilla insertion and intelligence collection missions.
After the Korean War, Lou became the first USN officer to attend the U.S. Army Special Operations School at Fort Bragg. He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 February 1954. In 1955, Lou established the Navy's first Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape (SERE) course at Camp McCall near Fort Bragg. He was then instrumental in establishing formal Navy SERE Schools at Brunswick, Maine and North Island, San Diego, which subsequently moved to Camp Pendleton.
In 1958, in response to Congressional complaints about how tough the SERE school was, the Bureau of Personnel (Naval Aviation) sent Commander James Stockdale to go through the course and report back. Only Lou was informed of who he was and why he was there, and Stockdale went through the course treated the same as everyone else. Stockdale reported back that the course was the most demanding and challenging training he'd ever had, but also the best, and well worth it. After being released from North Vietnamese captivity in 1973, Captain Stockdale informed Lou that, "Without that training, I would have never lived through my seven and a half years in a POW camp."
Lou attended the U.S. Naval War College in 1958-59. During the late 1950's and 1960's, although still in the Naval Reserve, he was frequently activated to participate in sensitive clandestine intelligence collection and direct action missions, which he steadfastly refuses to discuss due to classification to this day. In unclassified assignments, in 1962 he was assigned to a special task force that recommended the establishment of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In 1963 he was part of a five-man team sent to Vietnam to conduct a comprehensive assessment; during a meeting with President Kennedy, the group advised that an escalation of the war was not in the best interest of the U.S. After establishing another SERE School in Hawaii, he retired as a lieutenant commander in December 1967 after 28 years of service. He then had a successful career in real estate development.
Lou Conter is one of only two living survivors who were assigned to USS ARIZONA on 7 December 1941. In December 2019, he was the speaker at the interment of Lauren Bruner's ashes aboard the ARIZONA, the last survivor to return to his shipmates. Lou has attended the memorial service at Pearl Harbor almost every year since 1991. Unable to go in 2020 due to Covid, he hopes to attend the 80th anniversary commemoration this year. At the age of 99, he wrote a book with authors Annete C. Hull and Warren R. Hull, "The Lou Conter Story: From USS ARIZONA Survivor to Unsung American Hero." Lou has devoted many years to ensuring that the memory of 2,403 Americans killed and 1,178 wounded during the attack on Pearl Harbor are note forgotten, and that the U.S. never be caught so unprepared again.
Remember Pearl Harbor.
Very respectfully,
Sam
Samuel J. Cox (SES)
RADM, USN (Ret)
Director of Naval History
Curator for the Navy
Director Naval History and Heritage Command
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Well said! Thank you for putting into words the way I feel. My prayer is that Good will win over evil.
On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 1:35 PM Michael Hanrahan <mghanrahan1945@gmail.com> wrote:
Our nation is at a crossroads. Our traditional values are under attack. This may sound corny, but I view it as a battle between good and evil. Our large cities are defined by their leadership, and it is painfully obvious which are doing well and which are declining rapidly. The leadership values are the difference. Those who criticize our nation need to remember that this is the only nation defending justice and freedom. Those of us who believe in our nation's values do not loot and burn, we do not trash city streets and deface public buildings. We do not topple statues. We have earned respect, and we have never demanded it. The coming years will see great change in our country. That change can be for the good, or for the bad. We need to speak out.
On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 11:59 AM Ed Riley <edriley@aol.com> wrote:
Hatch,
Bless you for "remembering". You are an American Hero, and I thank God for other Americans like you. I am at Hook, surrounded by others like you who hold up our country proudly - usually quietly - believing that our country is the best place in the world to live and raise our children and grandchildren. I understand why we are the "quiet ones", who do our duty without the requirement for praise. We risk our lives daily doing jobs that 99% of our country would not do. We are part of the quiet 1% who stand the watch keeping our country free.
Maybe the time has come to be "not so quiet" and defend our nation as the discussions continue as to what our country is and will be. I tend to speak up a bit more than others in defense of what I see as our freedoms being eroded and while I occasionally take heat for speaking up - I think it is important. Thank you for sharing this important video - which is important for all of us to remember.
I have not forgotten.
Ed
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Thanks to Dutch
The world's biggest plant to capture CO2 from the air just opened in Iceland
The Orca, an installation built by Climeworks, will capture 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year — and serve as a blueprint for similar technology.
Listen to article
4 min
The Orca aims to capture 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. (Climeworks)
By
September 8, 2021 at 5:21 p.m. EDT
556
A major new facility to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere started operating in Iceland on Wednesday, a boost to an emerging technology that experts say could eventually play an important role in reducing the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.
The carbon capturing plant, perched on a barren lava plateau in southwest Iceland, is the biggest of its kind, its builder says, increasing global capacity for the technology by more than 40 percent. Many climate experts say that efforts to suck carbon dioxide out of the air will be key to making the world carbon neutral in the coming decades.
By 2050, humanity will need to pull nearly a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year through direct air capture technology to achieve carbon neutral goals, according to International Energy Agency recommendations from earlier this year. The plant in Iceland will be able to capture 4,000 metric tons annually — just a tiny fraction of what will be necessary, but one that Climeworks, the company that built it, says can grow rapidly as efficiency improves and costs decrease.
"This is a market that does not yet exist, but a market that urgently needs to be built," said Christoph Gebald, a corkscrew-haired Swiss engineer who co-founded and co-directs Climeworks. "This plant that we have here is really the blueprint to further scale up and really industrialize."
For now, the Icelandic installation, which is called Orca — phonetically the same as the Icelandic word for "energy" — is an unlikely global savior. Human-sized fans are built into a series of boxes that are the size of standard 40-foot shipping containers. They sip carbon dioxide out of the air, catching it in spongelike filters. The filters are blasted with heat, about the same temperature needed to boil water, freeing the gas. Then it is mixed with water and pumped deep into underground basalt caverns, where over time it cools down and turns into dark-gray stone.
It is a straightforward chemical reaction: taking the carbon dioxide that is causing global warming out of the air and tucking it away where it can do little harm.
Pumping CO2 into the ground is just one way to dispose of it. It can also go to other uses, as well. Energy companies can mix the carbon dioxide with hydrogen to make fuel. Farmers can feed their plants with it. Soda manufacturers can use it to fizz their drinks — something a Swiss customer of Climeworks did a few years ago when there was a carbonation shortage.
At the moment, the costs are high: about $600 to $800 per metric ton of carbon dioxide, Gebald said, far from the levels around $100 to $150 per ton that are necessary to turn a profit without the help of any government subsidies. The costs reflect both the hand-hewn nature of the technology — Climeworks' installations are mostly built by hand for now, not through automation — and also the large amounts of energy needed to power the CO2 capture process.
The Orca installation was built in Iceland both because the tiny island nation has ample supplies of climate-friendly geothermal energy as well as just the right underground geology to make it easy to capture carbon.
"If people hear those numbers for the first time they might think, 'Oh wow, that's expensive,' but it's always a question of what you compare it to," Gebald said. The state of California subsidizes electric cars around $450 to $500 per ton of carbon emissions saved over the course of a vehicle's expected life, for example, he said.
Longer term, Gebald thinks prices can get cheaper — by 2030, he said they expect prices around $200 to $300 per ton. By the late 2030s, he thinks it will be half that — about the price where it will be a competitive method of reducing global emissions.
"That's really the main problem, whether you can make it cheap enough. And there's reason to believe that it could be possible," said Stephen Pacala, the director of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University. If the technology were to cost $100 per metric ton of carbon dioxide and the aviation industry paid to offset the emissions from its aviation fuel, it would increase the cost of fuel by about $1 a gallon, well within the range of seasonal price fluctuations, Pacala said.
The new technology "could be a big deal. It could be a really big business," he said.
World leaders see a promising new possibility, too.
"This is indeed an important step in the race to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, which is necessary to manage the climate crisis," Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said Wednesday at the ceremony marking the opening of the Orca plant. "This almost sounds like a science fiction story, but we do have other examples in our history of amazing advances in technology."
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: Biden and Xi Talk, Nord Stream 2 Completed
The two leaders hadn't spoken since February.
By GPF Staff
September 10, 2021
Biden-Xi call. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first phone call since February. Biden's aims were reportedly pretty modest: to get Chinese officials to stop stonewalling their U.S. counterparts. China has many reasons to be pessimistic about the direction of relations with the United States. But the two powers still have abundant mutual interests, and the paths of least resistance on both sides point toward a dangerous escalation of tensions.
Pipeline finished. Russia's Gazprom said Friday it had completed construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will deliver Russian natural gas to European markets. The controversial project, which has been heavily criticized by the United States and Ukraine, will not become operational until the end of the year.
Chinese drills. China is conducting yet another set of island-seizure drills in the South China Sea. Two areas have been cordoned off from shipping traffic for live-fire exercises, according to China's Maritime Safety Administration. Chinese state media also said another amphibious landing exercise was held Wednesday.
South Asia tour. The head of U.S. intelligence, William Burns, met Thursday with Pakistan's army chief and head of intelligence in Islamabad. Ahead of his trip to Pakistan, Burns visited New Delhi to meet with India's national security adviser.
Friend or foe? China is lobbying Australia to support Beijing's apparent bid to join the revived Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is the same China that's squeezing Australia on trade on dozens of fronts in retaliation for Australian criticism of Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and participation in various multilateral initiatives, like the Quad, that can be interpreted as anti-Chinese.
Hacking investigation. Germany's chief prosecutor launched an investigation into recent cyberattacks targeting German politicians. Berlin suspects Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, is behind the attacks. Earlier this week, Germany accused Russia of trying to influence upcoming federal elections.
No budging on the budget. Eight northern and eastern members of the European Union jointly released a policy paper making clear that they would not agree to loosen EU fiscal rules – which countries like France, Italy and Spain have been campaigning for to help them cope with the economic fallout of the pandemic. The document was released ahead of a summit of EU finance ministers that began Friday and will run until Saturday.
Libyan diplomacy. Turkey's defense and foreign ministers met with the head of the Tripoli-based advisory body the High Council of State. Discussions centered on Libyan elections scheduled for December. Meanwhile, Libya's prime minister visited Tunisia to meet with President Kais Saied. Talks focused on border security and counterterrorism.
Integration. During a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, an integration project between Russia and Belarus, the two countries signed deals for 28 projects, including a single oil market and harmonized tax and customs laws. Russia also agreed to maintain current gas prices for Belarus until 2022 and provide Minsk with loans worth up to $640 million.
Threats. Sudan threatened to close Eritrea's embassy in Khartoum, accusing it of engaging in espionage and illegal activities along with the Ethiopian embassy.
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