To All,
Good Thursday morning February 2, 2023.
I hope to see many of you at the Bubba Breakfast tomorrow. It should be clear and cool in the morning . perfect flight jacket weather.
Just a note. The world news from Military Periscope is going to be off line for a while. The new owners are changing the format and it might not be a daily any more. I may have to search for a replacement.
Regards,
Skip
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History
February 2
1848—The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican-American War and establishes the boundaries between the two republics.
1862—Capt. David G. Farragut, commander of his flagship, the screw sloop of war Hartford, departs Hampton Roads for Ship Island, MS, where Farragut takes command of the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron in preparation for the assault on New Orleans.
1938—While piloting a PBY-2 aircraft in a tactical exercise off California, Lt. Carlton B. Hutchins collides with another VP-11 PBY-2. Remaining at his badly damaged plane's controls, Hutchins courageously allows members of his crew to parachute to safety, but is killed in the plane's subsequent crash. For his "extraordinary heroism," he is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
1942—USS Seadragon (SS 194) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tamagawa Maru.
1943—A Japanese destroyer is damaged, and later scuttled, by a mine laid by U.S. Navy light minelayers off Cape Esperance.
1944—Destroyer USS Walker (DD 517) sinks Japanese submarine RO 39, 10 miles east of Wotje, Marshall Islands
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This Day in History
2 February
0962 Otto I invades Italy and is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1032 Conrad II claims the throne of France.
1494 Columbus begins the practice of using Indians as slaves.
1571 All eight members of a Jesuit mission in Virginia are murdered by Indians who pretended to be their friends.
1626 Charles I is crowned King of England. Fierce internal struggles between the monarchy and Parliament characterized 17th century English politics.
1848 The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo formally ends the Mexican War.
1865 Confederate raider William Quantrill and his bushwackers rob citizens, burn a railroad depot and steal horses from Midway, Kentucky.
1870 The press agencies Havas, Reuter and Wolff sign an agreement whereby between them they can cover the whole world.
1876 The National Baseball League is founded with eight teams.
1900 Six cities, Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Chicago and St. Louis agree to form baseball's American League.
1901 Mexican government troops are badly beaten by Yaqui Indians.
1916 U.S. Senate votes independence for Philippines, effective in 1921.
1921 Airmail service opens between New York and San Francisco. Airmail's First Day.
1934 Alfred Rosenberg is made philosophical chief of the Nazi Party.
1939 Hungary breaks relations with the Soviet Union.
1943 Last of the German strongholds at Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army.
1944 The Germans stop an Allied attack at Anzio, Italy.
1945 Some 1,200 Royal Air Force planes blast Wiesbaden and Karlsruhe.
1948 The United States and Italy sign a pact of friendship, commerce and navigation.
1959 Arlington and Norfolk, Va., peacefully desegregate public schools.
1960 The U.S. Senate approves 23rd Amendment calling for a ban on the poll tax.
1972 The Winter Olympics begin in Sapporo, Japan.
1978 U.S. Jewish leaders bar a meeting with Egypt's Anwar Sadat.
1987 Largest steel strike in American history, in progress since August, ends.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Skip For The List for Thursday, 2 February 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 2 February 1968… LBJ quotes Thomas Paine:"These are the times that try men's souls…"…
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.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
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Thanks to Carl
("The big club, and you ain't in it"! Carlin, "the dean of counterculture comedians", really was far ahead of his time! He died in 2008.)
George Carlin - The big club
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKUaqFzZLxU
A few comments:
He is absolutely 100 percent correct. He perfectly described the American system in 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
"It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it." G. Carlin
Carlin was seriously so ahead of his time. Its not until now people are actually waking up.
My GOD we need him now
Born a comedian, died a prophet.
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Thanks to Carl,
I remember her well from her many movies
Gina Lollobrigida: In Seniors, a Broken Hip is Often Fatal
Dr Gabe Mirkin January 30, 2023
Gina Lollobrigida was an Italian actress who was called the most beautiful woman in the world in the 1950s and 60s. She was nominated for three Golden Globe awards and won one in 1961. She received a variety of other international awards, but she was perhaps best known for the incredible number of famous leading men who starred with her in movies, on television and in public appearances, including:
• In Trapeze with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame with Anthony Quinn
• In Crossed Swords with Errol Flynn
• Humphrey Bogart, who said that she "made Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple"
• Vittorio Gassman
• In Come September with Rock Hudson and Bobby Darin
• In Go Naked in the World with Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Franciosa
• Frank Sinatra in Never So Few
• In Solomon and Sheba with Tyrone Power, who died from a heart attack during filming and was replaced by Yul Brynner
• Yves Montand and Marcello Mastroianni in The Law
• Sean Connery in Woman of Straw
• Rock Hudson in Strange Bedfellows
• Alec Guinness in Hotel Paradiso
• Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford, and Telly Savalas in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
• Bob Hope in The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell
• David Niven in King, Queen, Knave
On January 16, 2023, she died of heart failure at age 95, after suffering a broken hip and several years of dementia.
Early Years and Career
Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida was born near Rome in 1927. After World War II, she began modelling, came in third in a Miss Italy contest in 1947, and started getting bit parts in movies.
In 1950, Howard Hughes began to pursue her with movie contract offers. He sent her a ticket to come to America without her husband. When she arrived, she was met at the airport by Hughes' divorce lawyers. He booked her in a luxury hotel, gave her a private secretary and chauffeur and proposed marriage. The screen test turned out to be a scene about the end of a marriage. She stayed for three months and saw him daily, and he made all sorts of offers. The press followed them everywhere they went, so they had to eat at cheap restaurants or in the back of his car. She said he was "very tall and very interesting and much more interesting than my husband." He repeatedly proposed marriage and gave her a seven-year contract to star in his movies. She said that she signed it "because I wanted to go home." Hughes' lawyers continued to make marriage offers and even came to the Algerian desert where she was making a film.
A look back at the life and films of Gina Lollobrigida - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVSWE1xV9nU
Photography and Politics
Her movie career faded in the 1960s and she became involved with photography, sculpture and politics. As a photographer, she took pictures of Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, David Cassidy, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald, and the German national football team. When she went to meet President Juan Peron in Argentina, 60,000 people greeted her at the airport. In 1974 she managed to obtain an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and spent 12 days photographing him.
She ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the European Parliament and for the Italian Senate. While still married to someone else, she had an affair with heart transplant surgeon Christian Barnard. She said that Prince Rainier of Monaco "would make passes at me in front of his wife, Grace Kelly, in their home . . . "obviously, I said no!"
In 1985, she was nominated as an officer of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her achievements in photography and sculpture. She was awarded the French Legion d'honneur by François Mitterrand. In 1999, she was nominated as a Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In 2018, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She Never Found True Love
In 1949 at age 22, she married Slovenian doctor Milko Škofič and he quit practicing medicine to become her manager. They had a son, Milko Škofič, Jr. in 1957 and in 1971, they divorced. In 2006 at age 79, she announced her engagement to Spaniard Javier Rigau y Rafols, who was 34 years younger, but she quickly ended the engagement. Newspapers reported that Rafols conscripted an imposter to pretend that she was Lollobrigida and married her in a civil ceremony that was recorded as a marriage between Rafols and Lollobrigida. Lollobrigida said that she discovered her marriage by chance when she found documents on the internet. She sued but Rigau produced witnesses that Lollobrigida had agreed to marry him by proxy using a power of attorney. Even though she lost that court case, the marriage was annulled in 2019 with the consent of Pope Francis who issued a declaration of nullity.
Gina Lollobrigida, legend of Italian cinema, dead at 95 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1iyQ42NfI4
High Death Rate After Hip Fractures
Lollobrigida's last years were riddled with legal battles, psychiatric treatments and serious medical problems. She had gone into heart failure several times and in 2017, at age 90, she was hospitalized for heart failure. On December 10th, 2022, she fell and broke her femur, the long bone of the upper leg at her hip, which required surgery that took an hour and 15 minutes. She died on January 16, 2023, apparently of heart failure.
Hip fractures are the most serious consequence of falling in older people with osteoporosis, and 87-96 percent of hip fracture patients are 65 years of age or older (Sci Rep, Dec 10, 2019). Death risk after hip fractures at any age is three times that of the general population (BMC Musculoskeletal Disord, May 20, 2011;12:105), and the death rate from hip fractures increases significantly as people age (J. Intern. Med. 2017;281(3):300–310). The death rate three months after a hip fracture was 25 percent in older people living in care facilities (Scientific Reports, Oct 12, 2021;11:20266). This frightening increase in death rate from hip fractures in older people may be caused by clots that travel from the fracture to the lungs (Cochrane Database Syst Rev, Oct 21, 2002;2002(4):CD000305), increased risk for infections after a fracture (BMJ, 2005;331:1374-10), or heart failure in people with weak bones (J Bone Miner Res, 2003;18:2231-2237). Older people with weak bones are at the highest risk to also have also a weak heart (European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, 2017;21:4386-4390). Immobility can lead to pneumonia which can be fatal in older people due to a weaker immune system.
Lessons from Gina Lollobrigida's Death
Since aging weakens bones, older people's bones are at increased risk for breaking with even the slightest fall. Everyone loses muscles as they age, so they become weaker and lose coordination. The person with the weakest muscles also is the one most likely to have the weakest bones and weakest heart and be at highest risk for dementia. So with aging, the person who exercises the least has the weakest muscles, strength, coordination, heart, brain, and bones, and is at the highest risk for:
• falling and breaking bones
• becoming demented
• going into heart failure and
• dying from heart failure
Gina Lollobrigida
July 4, 1927 – January 16, 2023
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Thanks to Mugs
I Used to be a Normal Person
I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person, but I was born white, into a two-parent household which now, whether I like it or not, makes me privileged, a racist, and responsible for slavery.
I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist because I plan, budget, and support myself.
I went to Grammar School and have always held a job. But I now find out that I am not here because I earned it, but because I was "advantaged".
I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobic.
I am not a Muslim, which now labels me as an infidel.
I am older than 70, making me a useless dinosaur who doesn't understand Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.
I think, and I reason, and I doubt most of what the 'mainstream' media tells me, which makes me a Right-wing conspiracy nut.
I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive culture, making me a xenophobe.
I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair reward according to each individual's merits, which today makes me anti-social.
I believe our system guarantees freedom of effort not freedom of outcome or subsidies, which apparently must make me a borderline sociopath.
I believe in the defense and protection of my nation for and by all citizens, now making me a militant.
I am proud of our flag, what it stands for, and the many who died to let it fly, so I stand during our National Anthem - so I must be a radical.
Funny - it all took place over the last decade, most of it in the last three years!
If all this nonsense wasn't enough to deal with, now I don't even know which toilet to use... and these days I gotta go more frequently!
GOD BLESS ALL OF US NORMAL PEOPLE!!!
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Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: Rethinking Islamophobia
Prejudice against Muslims is nothing new.
By: Hilal Khashan
February 2, 2023
In recent years, there have been several incidents of Europeans depicting the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons or burning the Quran in acts that many have described as Islamophobic. Just last month, a far-right politician set fire to a copy of Islam's holy book in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Some Westerners believe these acts are covered by freedom of expression laws, but Muslims regard them as sacrilegious acts against their most revered religious symbols. Indeed, Muslims, who comprise about a quarter of the world's population and constitute a majority in 56 countries stretching from West Africa to Southeast Asia, see burning the Quran as a direct personal offense.
They also view these incidents as a manifestation of the historical rivalry between Christianity and Islam, which, since Sept. 11, 2001, many observers have referred to as Islamophobia. But this concept misrepresents centuries of bitter conflict and domination, and masks hate as fear. Muslim scholars posit that the origin of the problem is attributable to the rise of Islamic societies and scholarship that challenged European supremacy in a number of critical spheres. They emphasize that enmity toward Islam better describes the negative perceptions of Muslims than Islamophobia, which presents the issue in terms of subjective opinions, not deep-seated hostility.
Origins of the Problem
The long history of European hostility toward Islam began in the Middle Ages, when Europeans sought to establish their Christian identity in opposition to Islam and the East, spreading the notion that being European meant not being Muslim. Medieval European identity combined Christianity with proto-nationalism, influenced by a growing awareness of race and bias against people with darker skin tones.
The West's view of Islam today was born in a period in which Europe's relationship with Islam was filled with fear and anxiety. Europeans defined Islam narrowly, as a religion of violence and lust, focused on territorial conquest and promises of sensual pleasures in the afterlife. Europeans also saw certain practices in Muslim societies as inconsistent with Islamic teachings. On the one hand, they viewed the veil worn by Muslim women as an expression of secrecy, oppression and gender segregation. On the other hand, they saw it as a reflection of the tendency toward promiscuity, which needed to be kept hidden.
Europeans' collective consciousness regarding Islam is the product of cultural and military encounters over centuries. It goes back to the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711 and the Battle of Tours in modern-day France in 732, which ended Arab-Muslim ambitions in Western Europe. However, in the ninth century, Arabs established the Emirate of Sicily, which they ruled for two centuries and which ushered in the domination of Mediterranean trade by Arab merchants. During the Crusades, Genoese and Venetian merchants took over the business from Arabs. Europe's awakening was associated with Pope Urban II's call on Christians to go to war against Muslims to capture the Holy Land. He was dismayed by the defeat of the Byzantines at the hands of the Seljuks in the 1071 Battle of Manzikert in Anatolia but also encouraged by the Muslims' loss of Toledo to Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085.
Europeans began to fear Muslims after the Ottoman seizure of Constantinople in 1453 and their unsuccessful bid to capture Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg-Austrian Empire, in 1529 and 1683. The conquest of Constantinople is considered one of the most critical events in world history, especially the history of Europe and its relationship with Islam. European historians believe this event marked the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times. The perception of Islamic armies marching from the Ottoman Empire sparked panic in the Christian West and a sense of danger that was encouraged by European poets and intellectuals who instilled fear and hatred of Muslims among European societies.
Europe's royalty began preparing to take revenge on Muslims. After they mastered the use of tools invented by Muslim scientists, such as the compass and the astrolabe, studied Arab maps, and learned astronomy and oceanography, they set out to discover a short route to India, a turning point in the relationship between Muslims and Europeans. Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovered the Cape of Good Hope – the southern tip of South Africa – in 1498 with the help of renowned Arab navigator Ahmad bin Majid. He proclaimed: "Now we have surrounded the neck of Islam, and there is nothing left but to pull the rope, and it suffocates."
However, the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans did not have as devastating an effect on Europe as it would have had centuries prior because, by the 15th century, the economic balance had shifted in the West's favor, driven in part by the European discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. The defeat of the Ottomans in the 1571 Battle of Lepanto, followed by their defeat outside Vienna in 1683, transformed Europe into a dominant military power.
During the colonial era (1882-1960), Europeans organized their relationship with Eastern societies through a series of intellectual dichotomies. They viewed the people of the East as ignorant and poor, in contrast to rich and educated Westerners, and as dark and weak, compared to the strong and white people of the West.
The West took a vengeful stance toward Eastern and Muslim groups that deviated from this dichotomy by attempting to possess the instruments of Western power, such as military might and a developed economy. In the early 19th century, Ottoman control of Egypt became nominal, and its ruler, Muhammad Ali, launched an ambitious economic, cultural and military modernization plan with France's help. He also aspired to create an empire on the ruins of the faltering Ottoman Empire. In 1832, an Egyptian army led by his son Ibrahim defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Konya in Asia Minor. Seven years later, he defeated them again in the Battle of Nizip and decided to conquer Istanbul. The British and Austrians stopped his advance and forced Muhammad Ali to sign in 1840 the Convention of London, which ended his imperial ambitions. Were it not for this, Egypt could have risen to the ranks of world power.
Prejudice Persists
Muslims and Arabs had a remarkably positive impact on European society, having translated and enriched Greek philosophy and sciences. In the Dark Ages, Muslim Spain and the Emirate of Sicily were the most important centers for transmitting science and civilizational production to Europe. Cordoba was the capital of Muslim Spain and the most modern and prestigious city in Europe. Its libraries contained about 400,000 books, while the libraries of European monasteries and churches carried no more than several hundred.
But the historical contributions of Arabs and Muslims were consistently denied in European literature and art. Nineteenth-century Orientalism came to complete what the Church began by seeking to produce a series of dubious ideas about the authenticity of Islamic culture and its contributions to the world.
During the Renaissance, the West sought to control Islam, not understand it. Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, viewed Islam as a violent movement serving Christ's enemies, who could not convert to Christianity because they were closed to reason. These misperceptions became only more ingrained in European institutions as colonial rulers sought ways to control the Islamic peoples.
Author Henry de Castries said in his book on Islam in 1896 that European thought in the Middle Ages was full of hatred against Muslims, which was entrenched not only in the minds of ordinary people but also among the elite. When British Gen. Edmund Allenby entered Jerusalem in December 1917, he said, "Only today have the Crusades ended." In 1920, French Gen. Henri Gouraud entered Damascus. He headed to the tomb of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, who defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin in 1187 and recaptured the city of Jerusalem, saying: "Here we are, O Salah al-Din." Religious reformer and theologian Hans Kung noted there could be no peace between peoples without peace between religions.
Even more recently, many Western public figures have displayed misconceptions about Islam and prejudice toward Muslims. In November 2001, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said: "Islam is the religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him, while Christianity is the faith in which God sends his son to die for you." This statement contradicts the fact that Islam forbids its followers from killing themselves in war. Those who carry out suicide missions are actually violating Islamic teachings. Former President George W. Bush described the war on terror as a crusade, a reference to the eight religious expeditions waged by Christian Europe against Muslims between 1095 and 1291. In 2005, former Congressman Tom Tancredo suggested bombing Mecca and Medina, which house Islam's holiest sites, to deter terrorists.
American popular culture also displayed prejudice against Muslims and Jews in the 18th and 19th centuries, seeing them as disbelievers in Christ, backward and unreliable. After World War II, however, the wave of anti-Semitism in the U.S. subsided as Americans began to view Jews as Westerners. Muslims, meanwhile, were still perceived as enemies of the West.
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This Day in U S Military History
February 2
1812– Staking a tenuous claim to the riches of the Far West, Russians establish Fort Ross on the coast north of San Francisco. As a growing empire with a long Pacific coastline, Russia was in many ways well positioned to play a leading role in the settlement and development of the West. The Russians had begun their expansion into the North American continent in 1741 with a massive scientific expedition to Alaska. Returning with news of abundant sea otters, the explorers inspired Russian investment in the Alaskan fur trade and some permanent settlement. By the early 19th century, the semi-governmental Russian-American Company was actively competing with British and American fur-trading interests as far south as the shores of Spanish-controlled California. Russia's Alaskan colonists found it difficult to produce their own food because of the short growing season of the far north. Officials of the Russian-American Company reasoned that a permanent settlement along the more temperate shores of California could serve both as a source of food and a base for exploiting the abundant sea otters in the region. To that end, a large party of Russians and Aleuts sailed for California where they established Fort Ross (short for Russia) on the coast north of San Francisco. Fort Ross, though, proved unable to fulfill either of its expected functions for very long. By the 1820s, the once plentiful sea otters in the region had been hunted almost to extinction. Likewise, the colonists' attempts at farming proved disappointing, because the cool foggy summers along the coast made it difficult to grow the desired fruits and grains. Potatoes thrived, but they could be grown just as easily in Alaska. At the same time, the Russians were increasingly coming into conflict with the Mexicans and the growing numbers of Americans settling in the region. Disappointed with the commercial potential of the Fort Ross settlement and realizing they had no realistic chance of making a political claim for the region, the Russians decided to sell out. After making unsuccessful attempts to interest both the British and Mexicans in the fort, the Russians finally found a buyer in John Sutter. An American emigrant to California, Sutter bought Fort Ross in 1841 with an unsecured note for $30,000 that he never paid. He cannibalized the fort to provide supplies for his colony in the Sacramento Valley where, seven years later, a chance discovery ignited the California Gold Rush
1887 – People began gathering at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa., to witness the groundhog's search for its shadow.
1944 – The 4th Marine Division, as part of the first assault on islands controlled by the Japanese before the start of World War II, captured Namur and eight other islands in the Kwajalein Atoll. Almost all of the 3700 Japanese defenders on these islands have been killed. American casualties number 740 killed and wounded. Japanese forces on Kwajalein continue to resist.
1945 – American USAAF B-24 and B-29 bombers raid Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings later in the month. They drop a daily average of 450 tons of bombs over the course of 15 days (6800 tons).
1962 – The first U.S. Air Force plane is lost in South Vietnam. The C-123 aircraft crashed while spraying defoliant on a Viet Cong ambush site. The aircraft was part of Operation Ranch Hand, a technological area-denial technique designed to expose the roads and trails used by the Viet Cong. U.S. personnel dumped an estimated 19 million gallons of defoliating herbicides over 10-20 percent of Vietnam and parts of Laos from 1962 to 1971. Agent Orange–so named from the color of its metal containers–was the most frequently used. The operation succeeded in killing vegetation but not in stopping the Viet Cong. The use of these agents was controversial, both during and after the war, because of questions about long-term ecological impacts and the effect on humans who handled or were sprayed by the chemicals. Beginning in the late 1970s, Vietnam veterans began to cite the herbicides, especially Agent Orange, as the cause of health problems ranging from skin rashes to cancer and birth defects in their children. Similar problems, including an abnormally high incidence of miscarriages and congenital malformations, have been reported among the Vietnamese people who lived in the areas where the defoliate agents were used.
1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time. The General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. Over 4,500 aircraft have been built since production was approved. Although no longer being purchased by the U.S. Air Force, improved versions are still being built for export customers. The Fighting Falcon has key features including a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, a seat reclined 30 degrees to reduce the effect of G-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system helps to make it a nimble aircraft. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and 11 locations for mounting weapons and other mission equipment. The F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", but "Viper" is commonly used by its pilots, due to a perceived resemblance to a viper snake as well as the Battlestar Galactica Colonial Viper starfighter. In addition to active duty U.S. Air Force, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air National Guard units, the aircraft is also used by the USAF aerial demonstration team, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, and as an adversary/aggressor aircraft by the United States Navy. The F-16 has also been procured to serve in the air forces of 25 other nations.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
JEWETT, ERASTUS W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company A, 9th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Newport Barracks, N.C., 2 February 1864. Entered service at: St. Albans, Vt. Birth: St. Albans, Vt. Date of issue: 8 September 1891. Citation: By long and persistent resistance and burning the bridges kept a superior force of the enemy at a distance and thus covered the retreat of the garrison.
LIVINGSTON, JOSIAH O.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, and Adjutant, 9th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Newport Barracks, N.C., 2 February 1864. Entered service at: Marshfield, Vt. Birth: Walden, Vt. Date of issue: 8 September 1891. Citation: When, after desperate res1stance, the small garrison had been driven back to the river by a vastly superior force, this officer, while a small force held back the enemy, personally fired the railroad bridge, and, although wounded himself, ass1sted a wounded officer over the burning structure.
PECK, THEODORE S.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company H, 9th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Newport Barracks, N.C., 2 February 1864. Entered service at: Burlington, Vt. Birth: Burlington, Vt. Date of issue: 8 September 1891. Citation: By long and persistent resistance and burning the bridges, kept a superior force of the enemy at bay and covered the retreat of the garrison.
*HUTCHINS, CARLTON BARMORE
Rank and organization: Lieutenant, U.S. Navy. Place and date: Off California Coast, 2 February 1938. Born: 12 September 1904, Albany, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. Citation: For extraordinary heroism as the pilot of the U.S. Navy Seaplane PBY-2 No. 0463 (11-P-3) while engaged in tactical exercises with the U.S. Fleet on 2 February 1938. Although his plane was badly damaged, Lt. Hutchins remained at the controls endeavoring to bring the damaged plane to a safe landing and to afford an opportunity for his crew to escape by parachutes. His cool, calculated conduct contributed principally to the saving of the lives of all who survived. His conduct on this occasion was above and beyond the call of duty.
*DYESS, AQUILLA JAMES
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 11 January 1909, Augusta, Ga. Appointed from: Georgia. 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, 24th Marines (Rein), 4th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces during the assault on Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, 1 and 2 February 1944. Undaunted by severe fire from automatic Japanese weapons, Lt. Col. Dyess launched a powerful final attack on the second day of the assault, unhesitatingly posting himself between the opposing lines to point out objectives and avenues of approach and personally leading the advancing troops. Alert, and determined to quicken the pace of the offensive against increased enemy fire, he was constantly at the head of advance units, inspiring his men to push forward until the Japanese had been driven back to a small center of resistance and victory assured. While standing on the parapet of an antitank trench directing a group of infantry in a flanking attack against the last enemy position, Lt. Col. Dyess was killed by a burst of enemy machinegun fire. His daring and forceful leadership and his valiant fighting spirit in the face of terrific opposition were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
*KNIGHT, JACK L.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 124th Cavalry Regiment, Mars Task Force. Place and date: Near LoiKang, Burma, 2 February 1945. Entered service at: Weatherford, Tex. Birth: Garner, Tex. G.O. No.: 44, 6 June 1945. Citation: He led his cavalry troop against heavy concentrations of enemy mortar, artillery, and small arms fire. After taking the troop's objective and while making preparations for a defense, he discovered a nest of Japanese pillboxes and foxholes to the right front. Preceding his men by at least 10 feet, he immediately led an attack Single-handedly he knocked out 2 enemy pillboxes and killed the occupants of several foxholes. While attempting to knock out a third pillbox, he was struck and blinded by an enemy grenade. Although unable to see, he rallied his platoon and continued forward in the assault on the remaining pillboxes. Before the task was completed he fell mortally wounded. 1st Lt. Knight's gallantry and intrepidity were responsible for the successful elimination of most of the Jap positions and served as an inspiration to officers and men of his troop.
SORENSON, RICHARD KEITH
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 4th Marine Division. Place and date: Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll Marshall Islands, 1 -2 February 1944. Entered service at: Minnesota. Born: 28 August 1924, Anoka, Minn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with an assault battalion attached to the 4th Marine Division during the battle of Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, on 1-2 February 1944. Putting up a brave defense against a particularly violent counterattack by the enemy during invasion operations, Pvt. Sorenson and 5 other marines occupying a shellhole were endangered by a Japanese grenade thrown into their midst. Unhesitatingly, and with complete disregard for his own safety, Pvt. Sorenson hurled himself upon the deadly weapon, heroically taking the full impact of the explosion. As a result of his gallant action, he was severely wounded, but the lives of his comrades were saved. His great personal valor and exceptional spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of almost certain death were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
*MAXAM, LARRY LEONARD
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company D, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3d Marine Division (Rein), FMF. place and date: Cam Lo District, Quang Tri province, Republic of Vietnam, 2 February 1968. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 9 January 1948, Glendale, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a fire team leader with Company D. The Cam Lo District Headquarters came under extremely heavy rocket, artillery, mortar, and recoilless rifle fire from a numerically superior enemy force, destroying a portion of the defensive perimeter. Cpl. Maxam, observing the enemy massing for an assault into the compound across the remaining defensive wire, instructed his assistant fire team leader to take charge of the fire team, and unhesitatingly proceeded to the weakened section of the perimeter. Completely exposed to the concentrated enemy fire, he sustained multiple fragmentation wounds from exploding grenades as he ran to an abandoned machine gun position. Reaching the emplacement, he grasped the machine gun and commenced to deliver effective fire on the advancing enemy. As the enemy directed maximum firepower against the determined marine, Cpl. Maxam's position received a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade, knocking him backwards and inflicting severe fragmentation wounds to his face and right eye. Although momentarily stunned and in intense pain, Cpl. Maxam courageously resumed his firing position and subsequently was struck again by small-arms fire. With resolute determination, he gallantly continued to deliver intense machine gun fire, causing the enemy to retreat through the defensive wire to positions of cover. In a desperate attempt to silence his weapon, the North Vietnamese threw hand grenades and directed recoilless rifle fire against him inflicting 2 additional wounds. Too weak to reload his machine gun, Cpl. Maxam fell to a prone position and valiantly continued to deliver effective fire with his rifle. After 11/2 hours, during which he was hit repeatedly by fragments from exploding grenades and concentrated small-arms fire, he succumbed to his wounds, having successfully defended nearly half of the perimeter single-handedly. Cpl. Maxam's aggressive fighting spirit, inspiring valor and selfless devotion to duty reflected great credit upon himself and the Marine Corps and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for February 2, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
2 February
1911: The Moisant International Aviators, a company formed to give aerial demonstrations, opened an exhibition at San Antonio, Tex. Flying Bleriot airplanes, they cooperated with Brig Gen Ralph W. Hoyt, the Fort Sam Houston commander in Texas, and Lt Benjamin D. Foulois on problems of reconnaissance, anti-aircraft fire, and bombardment. (24)
1925: President Calvin Coolidge signed the Kelly Act to authorize contracts to move mail by air. It represented the first legislative action to create an US airline industry. (24)
1944: Operation FRANTIC. Stalin approved US use of Soviet bases for "shuttle raids" against Germany. The operation allowed bombers based in the west to attack German targets beyond the point of safe return and then recover in the Soviet Union. To support those operations, ATC aircraft flew round-trip missions between Tehran, Iran, to bases near Kiev, Ukraine. (4)
1960: In a 2,000-mile flight test, a Titan I's second stage successfully separated and ignited. (24)
1962: FIRST USAF LOSS IN VIETNAM/Operation RANCH HAND. The first USAF aircraft loss in South Vietnam occurred when a C-123 crashed while spraying defoliant on a Viet Cong ambush site. The crew of three died. (17)
1965: The USAF announced that Minuteman IIs could be launched by radio signal from an airborne command post. (8: Feb 90)
1966: Nick Piantanida set an unofficial manned balloon altitude record of 123,000 feet at Sioux Falls, S. Dak. (5)
1968: TAC received its first O-2A for training. (16)
1971: The USAF launched NATO's second communications satellite, NATO-B. A Thor-Delta booster carried it into a 22,000-mile-high synchronus orbit over the Atlantic Ocean. (16)
1974: The General Dynamics YF-16 fighter prototype made its first official full-scale flight at Edwards AFB; it attained 400 MPH and 30,000 feet in altitude. (3) (12)
1976: The USAF awarded contract to General Electric and Hughes Aircraft for DSCS III R&D. (12) Grumman Aerospace Company received a $6.88 million contract to develop an operational Satellite Attack Warning System. (12)
1977: General Electric received a contract to build and test a qualification model satellite and two flight model satellites for the DSCS III program. (12)
1983: F-16 pilot training began at Luke AFB. (16) (26)
1993: USAF aircraft began aeromedical evacuation flights to move noncombatant victims of the Bosnian war to the US for reconstructive surgery. (16) (26)
1996: With KC-10 and KC-135 refueling support, a C-17 left Travis AFB on a nonstop 14.5-hour flight to Tuzla AB, Bosnia, to deliver 40 tons of fence posts to mark mine fields in the Balkans. The KC-10 support came from the 305 AMW at McGuire AFB, N. J., while the 100th Air Refueling Wing (AREFW) Tanker Task Force at RAF Mildenhall, UK, and the 101 AREFW at Bangor ANGB, Maine, provided the KC-135 support. (18)
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