Good Saturday Morning 4 December.
I hope that you all have a great weekend..
Regards,
Skip
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This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History
December 4
1918—President Woodrow Wilson sails aboard the transport George Washington for the Paris Peace Conference.
1943—TBF aircraft from USS Lexington (CV 16), USS Independence (CVL 22), and USS Yorktown (CV 10) attack Kwajalein Atoll and sink the Japanese vessels Asakaze Maru, Tateyama Maru, Takunan Maru, and Mikuni Maru.
1944—USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks Japanese destroyer Kishinami and damages a merchant ship in the South China Sea. Flasher is the only U.S. submarine to sink more than 100,000 tons of enemy shipping in World War II.
1950—While serving with VF-32 from USS Leyte (CV 32) during the Korean War, Lt. j.g. Thomas J. Hudner crash-lands his plane near the Chosin reservoir in an effort to rescue Ensign Jesse L. Brown, another VF-32 pilot whose plane had been shot down. Hudner is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions.
1965—Gemini 7 is launched. The mission's command pilot is Air Force Maj. Frank F. Borman and the pilot is Lt. Cmdr. James A. Lovell. This flight consists of 206 orbits at an altitude of 327 km and lasts 13 days and 18 hours.
1998—USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) is commissioned at Philadelphia, PA. The ship is named in honor of the late Marine Corps Colonel Donald G. Cook, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam while held as prisoner for three years by the Viet Cong.
Today in History
December 4
771 |
| With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne becomes sole ruler of the Frankish Empire. |
1861 |
| The U.S. Senate, voting 36 to 0, expels Senator John C. Brekinridge of Kentucky because of his joining the Confederate Army. |
1861 |
| Queen Victoria of Britain forbids the export of gunpowder, firearms and all materials for their production. |
1862 |
| Winchester, Va., falls into Union hands, resulting in the capture of 145 Southern soldiers. |
1863 |
| Seven solid days of bombardment ends at Charleston, S.C. The Union fires some 1,307 rounds. |
1872 |
| The U.S. brigantine Marie Celeste is found adrift and deserted with its cargo intact, in the Atlantic Ocean between the Azores and Portugal. |
1900 |
| The French National Assembly, successor to the States-General, rejects Nationalist General Mercier's proposal to plan an invasion of England. |
1914 |
| The first Seaplane Unit formed by the German Navy officially comes into existence and begins operations from Zeebrugge, Belgium. |
1918 |
| France cancels trade treaties in order to compete in the postwar economic battles. |
1941 |
| Operation Taifun (Typhoon), which was launched by the German armies on October 2, 1941, as a prelude to taking Moscow, is halted because of freezing temperatures and lack of serviceable aircraft. |
1942 |
| U.S. planes make the first raids on Naples, Italy. |
1947 |
| Tennessee William's play A Streetcar Named Desire premieres on Broadway starring Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. |
1950 |
| The University of Tennessee defies court rulings by rejecting five Negro applicants. |
1952 |
| The Grumman XS2F-1 makes its first flight. |
1959 |
| Peking pardons Pu Yi, ex-emperor of China and of the Japanese puppet-state of Manchukuo. |
1981 |
| President Ronald Reagan broadens the power of the CIA by allowing spying in the United States. |
1985 |
| Robert McFarland resigns as National Security Advisor. Admiral John Poindexter is named to succeed. |
1991 |
| The last American hostages held in Lebanon are released. |
1992 |
| US Pres. George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 troops to Somalia during the Somali Civil War. |
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … For The List for Saturday, 4 December 2021… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 4 December 1966… My last word on "Marigold"… "too many chefs in the kitchen"…
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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Thanks to Admiral Lair for forwarding this to us and Admiral Cox for these now 66 H-Grams that have contained a treasure of Naval history and have covered engagements and activities large and small. They can also be found at the NHHC web site at https://www.history.navy.mil/
I have attached the individual attachments of this H-Gram to this list.
Regards,
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H-Gram 066R - Pearl Harbor 80th Anniversary
From: Director of Naval History
To: Senior Navy Leadership
This H-gram covers the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor and is a significantly updated and revised version of my H-gram 001 in 2016. It also includes some history of the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Overview
80th Anniversary of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor – 7 December 1941
"At Dawn We Slept" was the title of one of the most influential books about the disastrous Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941, "a date which will live in infamy" as President Franklin Roosevelt called it in his declaration of war speech. However, I respectfully disagree with the premise of the title, as it gives the impression that the U.S. Navy was laying around the beach drinking Mai Tai's and was totally unprepared for the outbreak of war. The reality is somewhat different.
To the extent that anyone in the Navy in Hawaii was asleep the morning of 7 December, it was a sleep of exhaustion from months of intensive exercises and preparations for a war that everyone in a position of senior leadership knew was imminent, particularly the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband Kimmel. The story of Pearl Harbor as it is now usually told in popular culture, that the U.S. was not expecting to be attacked, has led to a sense of complacency today; the sense that we could never be so stupid or unaware as we were back then.
The reality is that the story of Pearl Harbor actually represents the razor thin line between defeat and victory against a highly capable adversary. It is a story of incredibly intense effort to get ready by some very smart people, with decisions that were made with great deliberation and purpose, some of which proved incorrect, but were not due to complacency. It is a story of an incredible effort to be ready, that was heartbreakingly close to success, but that still failed. And it should also be noted that virtually every carrier strike in WWII, U.S., Japanese and British, achieved tactical surprise, as did the multiple exercise carrier strikes conducted on Pearl Harbor in the inter-war years.
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz would write years after the war, "I have been correctly quoted in saying that it was God's divine will that Kimmel did not have his fleet at sea to intercept the Japanese Carrier Task Force that attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941." Nimitz went on to explain that had the Fleet been at sea, it would have suffered catastrophic losses to the superior Japanese carrier force, with ships sunk in deep water with the loss of far more of their crew. "As bad as our losses were…they could have been devastating worse," Nimitz wrote. As it was, only two of the eight battleships present never fought again (USS ARIZONA (BB-39) and USS OKLAHOMA (BB-37.) Of the other six, WEST VIRGINIA (BB-48,) CALIFORNIA (BB-44) and beached NEVADA (BB-36) were all raised, modernized and rejoined the war. The relatively minor damage to PENNSYLVANIA (BB-38,) TENNESSE (BB-43,) and MARYLAND (BB-46) was quickly repaired. With the exception of obsolete target battleship UTAH (AG-16,) all other ships were repaired and returned to service. Had these ships been sunk in deep water, the death toll would have been vastly higher.
Admiral Kimmel's fundamental dilemma was whether to keep the Fleet at sea with no air cover, or bring the Fleet in port with what was known to be inadequate air cover. Both carriers (LEXINGTON (CV-2) and ENTERPRISE (CV-6) were away on nationally-directed missions to take fighters, stripped from Pearl Harbor's inadequate defenses, to Midway and Wake Island. Based on Intelligence, Kimmel correctly assessed that the Fleet faced an imminent major submarine threat, and was well aware of the possibility of air attack (there were about a dozen major air attack drills between March and November 1941.) Admiral Nimitz, at least, believed that Kimmel made the correct decision.
Unfortunately, the "communication" piece of the command, control and communication (C3) architecture on Oahu (which had worked reasonably well in multiple exercises) in both the Navy and Army, failed the test of wartime operations on 7 December 1941. Kimmel would take the fall for the disaster, while many others equally or more responsible in Washington survived the massive CYA operation afterwards. The real person responsible for the defeat at Pearl Harbor was Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku and his really good plan (albeit not perfect.)
(Please see attachment H001.1 (2021) for more info related to U.S. Navy preparations for war.)
Readiness. The ship whose duty it was to be on alert that morning, was on alert, and performed her duty in an extraordinarily effective and efficient manner. The elderly USS WARD (DD-139) sank a Japanese midget submarine (launched from probably mother submarine I-20) attempting to gain access to the harbor a little over an hour before the air raid commenced (but 45 minutes after the Japanese strike had already launched.) In doing so, the USS WARD fired the first shot of the battle, the first U.S. shot of WWII in the Pacific, and with her second shot achieved the first kill. Unfortunately in the high-stakes "telephone tag" that followed, precious warning time was lost, although in actuality it was already too late to have made much of a difference.
In an ironic twist of fate, the Commanding Officer of WARD on 7 December 1941, Lieutenant William Outerbridge, would later have the sad task, as Commanding Officer of USS O'BRIEN (DD-725,) of scuttling with gunfire the crippled WARD (hit by a kamikaze) in Ormoc Bay, Philippines on 7 December 1944. (Please see attachment H001.2 (2021) for more on the USS WARD, the warning process and the Japanese midget sub operations.)
Valor. Although Pearl Harbor was a devastating tactical defeat resulting in 2,335 U.S. military and 68 U.S. civilian deaths, the vast majority of U.S. Sailors responded immediately and in many cases with extraordinary acts of bravery, many of which were unrecorded due to the deaths of so many witnesses. Even so, Navy personnel were awarded 15 Medals of Honor (ten posthumous,) 51 Navy Crosses, and four Navy-Marine Corps Medals; the most Medals of Honor for bravery under fire for a one-day action in U.S. naval history.
Medal of Honor recipients included; Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd and Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh, killed at their post on the bridge of USS ARIZONA (BB-39) when she exploded; Captain Mervyn Bennion, skipper of the battleship USS WEST VIRGINIA (BB-48), who attempted to continue to fight his ship even after being mortally wounded by shrapnel; Commander Cassin Young, skipper of the repair ship USS VESTAL (AR-4) moored alongside the ARIZONA, blown clear off the bridge of his ship into the water, nevertheless climbed back on board and got his sinking ship underway and beached it so it would not be an obstruction.
Other Medals of Honor included Chief Warrant Officer (Boatswain) Edwin Hill of the USS NEVADA (BB-36), the only battleship to get underway during the attack, crossed to the mooring pier, cast off the lines, swam back to the NEVADA and got on board, and was leading actions on the forecastle in preparation to beach the ship, which had attracted numerous Japanese dive bombers, when he was killed by strafing and bomb explosions.
Among the Navy Crosses was Ensign Joe Taussig, Jr. (son of Commander, and later VADM, Joe Taussig of WWI "We are ready now" fame) who continued to direct the NEVADA's anti-air defenses even with a leg-amputating wound. Another Navy Cross was awarded to Mess Attendant Second Class Doris Miller, for aiding the dying Captain Bennion on WEST VIRGINIA under fire, before manning a .50 cal machine gun, on which he had not been trained, and assisting in downing possibly one or more Japanese aircraft. Miller was the first African-American Sailor to receive the Navy Cross, and of note, Miller's actual battle station, in the ammunition handling room for the port-side 5-inch guns, was destroyed by one of the first torpedoes to hit WEST VIRGINIA, which is why he ended up on the bridge. (See attachment H001.3 (2021) for more of valor at Pearl Harbor. See attachment H001.4 for more on Doris Miller.)
50th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Naval Historical Center
Naval History and Heritage Command was established as an Echelon II Navy Command in 2008, however parts of the Command date all the way to 1800 with the establishment of the Navy Department Library, by order of President John Adams, which is still part of the command today. Over the centuries the Navy's history enterprise has gone through multiple incarnations, sometimes within the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, sometimes part of the OPNAV staff, and for long periods of time under the Chief of Naval Intelligence. A significant development in the evolution of NHHC was the establishment of the Naval Historical Center (NHC) 50 years ago on 1 December 1971 under Vice Admiral Hooper. NHC formed the nucleus of the much broader capability of NHHC today. For more on the evolution of NHHC and a better sense of our mission today, please see attachment H066.1.
Very respectfully,
Sam
Samuel J. Cox (SES)
RADM, USN (Ret)
Director of Naval History
Curator for the Navy
Director Naval History and Heritage Command
202-433-2210 (work) 571-213-9392 (govt cell)
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Thanks to Mike
A TUTORIAL ON BATTERIES! A MUST READ. Excellent info most people don't know !!
If you are thinking that our future lies in battery-powered everything, read this. There is a downside to it all.
It is said, 'There are no solutions that do not cause new problems". So it is with batteries.
When I saw the title of this lecture, especially with the picture of the scantily clad model, I couldn't resist attending. The packed auditorium was abuzz with questions about the address; nobody seemed to know what to expect. The only hint was a large aluminum block sitting on a sturdy table on the stage..
When the crowd settled down, a scholarly-looking man walked out and put his hand on the shiny block, "Good evening," he said, "I am here to introduce NMC532-X," and he patted the block, "we call him NM for short," and the man smiled proudly. "NM is a typical electric vehicle (EV) car battery in every way except one; we programmed him to send signals of the internal movements of his electrons when charging, discharging, and in several other conditions. We wanted to know what it feels like to be a battery. We don't know how it happened, but NM began to talk after we downloaded the program.
Despite this ability, we put him in a car for a year and then asked him if he'd like to do presentations about batteries. He readily agreed on the condition he could say whatever he wanted. We thought that was fine, and so, without further ado, I'll turn the floor over to NM," the man turned and walked off the stage.
"Good evening," NM said. He had a slightly affected accent, and when he spoke, he lit up in different colors. "That cheeky woman on the marquee was my idea," he said. "Were she not there, along with 'naked' in the title, I'd likely be speaking to an empty auditorium! I also had them add 'shocking' because it's a favorite word amongst us batteries." He flashed a light blue color as he laughed.
"Sorry," NM giggled then continued, "three days ago, at the start of my last lecture, three people walked out. I suppose they were disappointed there would be no dancing girls. But here is what I noticed about them. One was wearing a battery-powered hearing aid, one tapped on his battery-powered cell phone as he left, and a third got into his car, which would not start without a battery. So I'd like you to think about your day for a moment; how many batteries do you rely on?"
He paused for a full minute which gave us time to count our batteries. Then he went on, "Now, it is not elementary to ask, 'what is a battery?' I think Tesla said it best when they called us Energy Storage Systems. That's important. We do not make electricity – we store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. So to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid. Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, n'est-ce pas?"
He flashed blue again. "Einstein's formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy to move a five thousand pound gasoline-driven automobile a mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car."
He lit up red when he said that, and I sensed he was smiling. Then he continued in blue and orange. "Mr. Elkay introduced me as NMC532. If I were the battery from your computer mouse, Elkay would introduce me as double-A, if from your cell phone as CR2032, and so on. We batteries all have the same name depending on our design. By the way, the 'X' in my name stands for 'experimental.'
There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use. The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.
Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials, usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium.
The United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year, and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.
All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight or two from an old ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the battery's metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries longer to end up in the landfill.
In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is, ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to recycle batteries like me or care to dispose of single-use ones properly.
But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three technologies share what we call environmentally destructive embedded costs."
NM got redder as he spoke. "Everything manufactured has two costs associated with it, embedded costs and operating costs. I will explain embedded costs using a can of baked beans as my subject.
In this scenario, baked beans are on sale, so you jump in your car and head for the grocery store. Sure enough, there they are on the shelf for $1.75 a can. As you head to the checkout, you begin to think about the embedded costs in the can of beans.
The first cost is the diesel fuel the farmer used to plow the field, till the ground, harvest the beans, and transport them to the food processor. Not only is his diesel fuel an embedded cost, so are the costs to build the tractors, combines, and trucks. In addition, the farmer might use a nitrogen fertilizer made from natural gas.
Next is the energy costs of cooking the beans, heating the building, transporting the workers, and paying for the vast amounts of electricity used to run the plant. The steel can holding the beans is also an embedded cost. Making the steel can requires mining taconite, shipping it by boat, extracting the iron, placing it in a coal-fired blast furnace, and adding carbon. Then it's back on another truck to take the beans to the grocery store. Finally, add in the cost of the gasoline for your car.
But wait - can you guess one of the highest but rarely acknowledged embedded costs?" NM said, then gave us about thirty seconds to make our guesses. Then he flashed his lights and said, "It's the depreciation on the 5000 pound car you used to transport one pound of canned beans!"
NM took on a golden glow, and I thought he might have winked. He said, "But that can of beans is nothing compared to me! I am hundreds of times more complicated. My embedded costs not only come in the form of energy use; they come as environmental destruction, pollution, disease, child labor, and the inability to be recycled."
He paused, "I weigh one thousand pounds, and as you see, I am about the size of a travel trunk." NM's lights showed he was serious. "I contain twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside me are 6,831 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each auto battery like me, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust for just - one - battery."
He let that one sink in, then added, "I mentioned disease and child labor a moment ago. Here's why. Sixty-eight percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car?"
NM's red and orange light made it look like he was on fire. "Finally," he said, "I'd like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the ultimate in being 'green,' but it is not! This construction project is creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why...
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.
Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades. Sadly, both solar arrays and windmills kill birds, bats, sea life, and migratory insects.
NM lights dimmed, and he quietly said, "There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. I predict EVs and windmills will be abandoned once the embedded environmental costs of making and replacing them become apparent. I'm trying to do my part with these lectures.
Thank you for your attention, good night, and good luck." NM's lights went out, and he was quiet, like a regular battery.
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aThis Day in U S Military History
1619 – America's 1st Thanksgiving Day was held in Virginia when thirty-eight colonists arrive at Berkeley Hundred, Virginia. The group's charter proclaims that the day "be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God."
1674 – Father Marquette built the 1st dwelling at what is now Chicago. Father Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary, established Michigan's earliest European settlements at Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace in 1668 and 1671. He lived among the Great Lakes Indians from 1666 to his death in 1675. During these nine years, Father Marquette mastered several native languages and helped Louis Jolliet map the Mississippi River.
1783 – Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in NYC. Nine days after the last British soldiers left American soil and truly ended the Revolution, George Washington invited the officers of the Continental Army to join him in the Long Room of Fraunces Tavern so he could say farewell. The best known account of this emotional leave-taking comes from the Memoirs of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, written in 1830 and now in the collection of Fraunces Tavern Museum. As Tallmadge recalled, "The time now drew near when General Washington intended to leave this part of the country for his beloved retreat at Mt. Vernon. On Tuesday the 4th of December it was made known to the officers then in New York that General Washington intended to commence his journey on that day. At 12 o'clock the officers repaired to Fraunces Tavern in Pearl Street where General Washington had appointed to meet them and to take his final leave of them. We had been assembled but a few moments when his excellency entered the room. His emotions were too strong to be concealed which seemed to be reciprocated by every officer present. After partaking of a slight refreshment in almost breathless silence the General filled his glass with wine and turning to the officers said, 'With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.' After the officers had taken a glass of wine General Washington said 'I cannot come to each of you but shall feel obliged if each of you will come and take me by the hand.' General Knox being nearest to him turned to the Commander-in-chief who, suffused in tears, was incapable of utterance but grasped his hand when they embraced each other in silence. In the same affectionate manner every officer in the room marched up and parted with his general in chief. Such a scene of sorrow and weeping I had never before witnessed and fondly hope I may never be called to witness again." The officers escorted Washington from the tavern to the Whitehall wharf, where he boarded a barge that took him to Paulus Hook, (now Jersey City) New Jersey. Washington continued to Annapolis, where the Continental Congress was meeting, and resigned his commission. Washington's popularity was great at the end of the Revolution and he had been urged to seize control of the government and establish a military regime. Instead, he publicly bid farewell to his troops at Fraunces Tavern and resigned as commander-in-chief at Annapolis, thus ensuring that the new United States government would not be a military dictatorship. Washington returned to Mount Vernon, believing that December 1783 marked the end of his public life. Little did he realize that he would return to New York six years later to be sworn in as the nation's first president.
1942 – Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends. Carlson's patrol, also known as The Long Patrol or Carlson's long patrol, was an operation by the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion under the command of Evans Carlson during the Guadalcanal Campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army beginning 6 November 1942. In the operation, the 2nd Raiders attacked forces under the command of Toshinari Shōji, which were escaping from an attempted encirclement in the Koli Point area on Guadalcanal and attempting to rejoin other Japanese army units on the opposite side of the U.S. Lunga perimeter. In a series of small unit engagements over 29 days, the 2nd Raiders killed almost 500 Japanese soldiers while suffering only 16 killed, although many were afflicted by disease. The raiders also captured a Japanese field gun that was delivering harassing fire on Henderson Field, the Allied airfield at Lunga Point on Guadalcanal.
1966 – A Viet Cong unit penetrates the 13-mile defense perimeter around Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport and shells the field for over four hours. South Vietnamese and U.S. security guards finally drove off the attackers, killing 18 of them in the process. One U.S. RF-101 reconnaissance jet was badly damaged in the attack. The guerrillas returned that same night and resumed the attack, but security guards again repelled them, killing 11 more Viet Cong during the second battle.
1983 – Aircraft from USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) and USS Independence (CV-62) launch strike against anti-aircraft positions in Lebanon that fired on U.S. aircraft. Two U.S. Navy planes shot down. This is a retaliatory measure for the bombing of the Beirut Marine Barracks in October.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
4 December
DAVIS, RAYMOND G.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps commanding officer, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Vicinity Hagaru-ri, Korea, 1 through 4 December 1950. Entered service at: Atlanta, Ga. Born: 13 January 1915, Fitzgerald, Ga. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, in action against enemy aggressor forces. Although keenly aware that the operation involved breaking through a surrounding enemy and advancing 8 miles along primitive icy trails in the bitter cold with every passage disputed by a savage and determined foe, Lt. Col. Davis boldly led his battalion into the attack in a daring attempt to relieve a beleaguered rifle company and to seize, hold, and defend a vital mountain pass controlling the only route available for 2 marine regiments in danger of being cut off by numerically superior hostile forces during their re-deployment to the port of Hungnam. When the battalion immediately encountered strong opposition from entrenched enemy forces commanding high ground in the path of the advance, he promptly spearheaded his unit in a fierce attack up the steep, ice-covered slopes in the face of withering fire and, personally leading the assault groups in a hand-to-hand encounter, drove the hostile troops from their positions, rested his men, and reconnoitered the area under enemy fire to determine the best route for continuing the mission. Always in the thick of the fighting Lt. Col. Davis led his battalion over 3 successive ridges in the deep snow in continuous attacks against the enemy and, constantly inspiring and encouraging his men throughout the night, brought his unit to a point within 1,500 yards of the surrounded rifle company by daybreak. Although knocked to the ground when a shell fragment struck his helmet and 2 bullets pierced his clothing, he arose and fought his way forward at the head of his men until he reached the isolated marines. On the following morning, he bravely led his battalion in securing the vital mountain pass from a strongly entrenched and numerically superior hostile force, carrying all his wounded with him, including 22 litter cases and numerous ambulatory patients. Despite repeated savage and heavy assaults by the enemy, he stubbornly held the vital terrain until the 2 regiments of the division had deployed through the pass and, on the morning of 4 December, led his battalion into Hagaru-ri intact. By his superb leadership, outstanding courage, and brilliant tactical ability, Lt. Col. Davis was directly instrumental in saving the beleaguered rifle company from complete annihilation and enabled the 2 marine regiments to escape possible destruction. His valiant devotion to duty and unyielding fighting spirit in the face of almost insurmountable odds enhance and sustain the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
HUDNER, THOMAS JEROME, JR.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant (J.G.) U.S. Navy, pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, attached to U.S.S. Leyte. Place and date: Chosin Reservoir area of Korea, 4 December 1950. Entered service at: Fall River, Mass. Born: 31 August 1924, Fall River, Mass. Citation. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a pilot in Fighter Squadron 32, while attempting to rescue a squadron mate whose plane struck by antiaircraft fire and trailing smoke, was forced down behind enemy lines. Quickly maneuvering to circle the downed pilot and protect him from enemy troops infesting the area, Lt. (J.G.) Hudner risked his life to save the injured flier who was trapped alive in the burning wreckage. Fully aware of the extreme danger in landing on the rough mountainous terrain and the scant hope of escape or survival in subzero temperature, he put his plane down skillfully in a deliberate wheels-up landing in the presence of enemy troops. With his bare hands, he packed the fuselage with snow to keep the flames away from the pilot and struggled to pull him free. Unsuccessful in this, he returned to his crashed aircraft and radioed other airborne planes, requesting that a helicopter be dispatched with an ax and fire extinguisher. He then remained on the spot despite the continuing danger from enemy action and, with the assistance of the rescue pilot, renewed a desperate but unavailing battle against time, cold, and flames. Lt. (J.G.) Hudner's exceptionally valiant action and selfless devotion to a shipmate sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
McGINNIS, ROSS ANDREW
United States Army. Citation. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:Private First Class Ross A. McGinnis distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an M2 .50-caliber Machine Gunner, 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, in connection with combat operations against an armed enemy in Adhamiyah, Northeast Baghdad, Iraq, on 4 December 2006.That afternoon his platoon was conducting combat control operations in an effort to reduce and control sectarian violence in the area. While Private McGinnis was manning the M2 .50-caliber Machine Gun, a fragmentation grenade thrown by an insurgent fell through the gunner's hatch into the vehicle. Reacting quickly, he yelled "grenade," allowing all four members of his crew to prepare for the grenade's blast. Then, rather than leaping from the gunner's hatch to safety, Private McGinnis made the courageous decision to protect his crew. In a selfless act of bravery, in which he was mortally wounded, Private McGinnis covered the live grenade, pinning it between his body and the vehicle and absorbing most of the explosion. Private McGinnis' gallant action directly saved four men from certain serious injury or death. Private First Class McGinnis' extraordinary heroism and selflessness at the cost of his own life, above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 4 December, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
4 December
1918: Through 22 December, Maj Albert D. Smith led four Curtiss JN-4s on the Army's first transcontinental trip from San Diego, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla. Smith's plane was the only one to complete the trip. (9) (20)
1942: Ninth Air Force sent 24 B-24s to attack ships at the Naples docks in the first US Army Air Forces air strike against mainland Italy in World War II. (4)
1945: A Transworld Airlines Lockheed Constellation set a 12-hour, 57-minute record in its first flight from Washington DC to Paris, France. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. MiG-15s shot down one of the three USAF RB-45 Tornado reconnaissance aircraft in the theater. This event was the first successful jet bomber interception in airpower history. (28)
1957: The USAF announced that BOMARC missile sites would be built at Dow AFB, Maine, Otis AFB, Mass., Suffolk AFB, N. Y., and McGuire AFB, N. J. (24)
1959: The National Air and Space Administration tested the Mercury capsule's escape system by sending a Rhesus monkey from Wallops Island, Va., on a 55-mile, 13-minute flight into space and returning it alive. (24)
1961: The USAF launched a Blue Scout rocket from Point Arguello, Calif., to 27,600 miles in altitude to measure low-energy protons emitted by the sun. (24)
1965: GEMINI VI and VII. Through 18 December, Frank Borman (USAF) and James A. Lovell, Jr. (US Navy) orbited earth on a 330-hour, 35-minute flight. Launched from Cape Kennedy, Fla., the astronauts set records for longest space flight, longest flight for a two-man vehicle, most orbits (206), most time in space, and greatest distance on one flight (5,129,000 miles). The hookup with Gemini VI astronauts Walter Schirra, Jr. (US Navy) and Thomas P. Stafford (USAF) gave us the first US space rendezvous and the first space-to-space voice communications, making it one of the most successful missions to date. Gemini VI returned on 16 December to end its 26-hour, 1-minute flight. (7) (9)
1972: The last EB-66 Destroyer left USAFE for Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. (16)
1975: Vandenberg AFB, Calif., launched the last Titan II in support of ballistic missile defense tests. (6)
1979: Lockheed-Georgia delivered the first stretched C-141B from Marietta to the Military Airlift Command's 443d Military Airlift Wing at Altus AFB, Okla. This program lengthened all 270 C-141As by 23.3 feet and modified them for air refueling. (2) (12)
1986: The Air Force Council approved the Tactical Air Command's suggestion to expand the A-10 Thunderbolt II's role from close air support missions to forward air control functions. (16)
1989: The Navy successfully launched the fourth Trident II (D5) test missile from the USS Tennessee off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Fla. (8: Feb 90)
1996: An F-16 Fighting Falcon soared into history above Hill AFB, Utah, by logging its five millionth hour of flying time. To commemorate the event, the 388th Fighter Wing (the first wing to get the F-16) flew an aerial performance flight. Captain Kurt Gallegos of the West Coast F-16 Demonstration Team flew the Falcon. (AFNEWS Article 961255, 11 Dec 96) Major Mike Brill, a 419th Fighter Wing pilot, also received an award at that ceremony for having more F-16 hours (3,700) than any pilot in the world. (AFNEWS Article 961256, 11 Dec 96) 1998: Through 15 December, astronauts on the Space Shuttle Endeavour completed the first International Space Station assembly mission. They attached the Unity, the first US module, to the Russia's Zarya module. The crew also launched MightySat I, a USAF experiment to evaluate composite materials, advanced solar cells, and other technology. (21)
2000: At Edwards AFB, Calif., the Boeing X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator successfully completed low-speed approach aircraft carrier variant tests, one of three main goals for the JSF flight test program. (AFNEWS Article 001795, 5 Dec 00)
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