To All,
Good Sunday morning February 26 2023.
The rain stopped early this morning.
Yesterday I got the pump in the pool and got it stopped about a half inch from the top and let it go down to two inches. It is supposed to start again late tonight and go for the next three days. My tree man came I got three of my trees trimmed down There were still many leaves on the trees so that will save me a lot of work. Now the weeds will get my attention.
Regards,
Skip
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History February. 26
1944—Sue Sophia Dauser, Superintendent of the Navy's Nurse Corps, is the first woman in the Navy to receive rank of captain.
1945—TBMs (VC 82) from USS Anzio (CVE 57) sink two Japanese submarines: I 368, 35 miles west of Iwo Jima, and RO 43, 50 miles west-northwest of Iwo Jima.
1945—USS Finnegan (DE 307) sinks Japanese submarine I 370, 120 miles south of Iwo Jima.
1991—During Operation Desert Storm, A-6E aircraft of VA-155 from USS Ranger (CVA 61) and Marine aircraft bomb Iraqi troops fleeing Kuwait City to Basra.
1991 - A Marine recon unit was the first U.S. force to enter Kuwait City and retake the American Embassy. 48 hours later, Kuwait was liberated and a ceasefire was declared, effectively ending the war.
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Today in World History February 26
0364 On the death of Jovian, a conference at Nicaea chooses Valentinan, an army officer who was born in the central European region of Pannania, to succeed him in Asia Minor.
1154 William the Bad succeeds his father, Roger the II, in Sicily.
1790 As a result of the Revolution, France is divided into 83 departments.
1815 Napoleon and 1,200 of his men leave Elba to start the 100-day re-conquest of France.
1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.
1871 France and Prussia sign a preliminary peace treaty at Versailles.
1901 Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu are publicly executed in Peking.
1914 Russian aviator Igor Sikorsky carries 17 passengers in a twin engine plane in St. Petersburg.
1916 General Henri Philippe Petain takes command of the French forces at Verdun.
1917 President Wilson publicly asks congress for the power to arm merchant ships.
1924 U.S. steel industry finds claims an eight-hour day increases efficiency and employee relations.
1933 Ground is broken for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
1936 Japanese military troops march into Tokyo to conduct a coup and assassinate political leaders.
1941 British take the Somali capital in East Africa.
1943 U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators pound German docks and U-boat lairs at Wilhelmshaven.
1945 Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.
1951 The 22nd Amendment is added to the Constitution limiting the Presidency to two terms.
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson signs a tax bill with $11.5 billion in cuts.
1965 Norman Butler is arrested for the murder of Malcom X.
1968 Thirty-two African nations agree to boycott the Olympics because of the presence of South Africa.
1970 Five Marines are arrested on charges of murdering 11 South Vietnamese women and children.
1972 Soviets recover Luna 20 with a cargo of moon rocks.
1973 A publisher and 10 reporters are subpoenaed to testify on Watergate.
1990 Daniel Ortega, communist president of Nicaragua, suffers a shocking election defeat at the hands of Violeta Chamorro.
1993 A bomb rocks the World Trade Center in New York City. Five people are killed and hundreds suffer from smoke inhalation.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
… For The List for Sunday, 26 February 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 26 February 1968… "There comes a time when a man must stand."
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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Flying with birds Thanks to Mud
I think y'all will enjoy seeing this. I once inadvertently did something like this flying into Stuttgart, AR to go duck hunting, but it was not fun. ATIS had warned all aircraft in the area about ducks in the area. I came out of a cloud and found myself in the middle of a flock and somehow missed them all.
Flying With Birds
https://biggeekdad.com/2019/02/flying-with-birds/
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From the archives. There are some good follow on videos
Thanks to CAP
Landing a Plane in the Middle of the Jungle - YouTube OK now this one is dicey!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYAbBp7vRio&feature=emb_rel_end
Stay on for the next one. Pitching deck landings on an aircraft carrier
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Thanks to David
Harry & Bess
Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.
The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.
When he retired from office in 1952 his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.
After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.
Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Political offices are now for sale.
Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!"
I say dig him up and clone him!
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Tet……..Thanks to Shadow who was there as a Marine on the ground before and after
On Feb 25, 2023, at 8:35 AM, roy stafford <rwstafford1@comcast.net> wrote:
Bear…
I think I'd told you this before… one of the most amazing shocks to me… was that it was a shock that MacV in Saigon was taken by surprise? These were the guys running the big show… that had all the input from various sources, all the intel… and supposedly professionals… and it seemed as if they were either in denial or totally brain dead.
Us little guys with boots on the ground weren't surprised at all; in fact the only surprise for us was they took their time before they struck. From the spring of '66… the war went through a radical change for those of us on the ground. No longer were we confronted with local militia (VC) with small cadres of NVA support… instead we found ourselves engaging directly with hard core NVA regulars… front line Army personnel, not locals sympathetic to the cause. I first noticed it when in the Spring of '66 we engaged in Operation Golden Fleece in the Mo Duc region just north of Hue. Ostensibly the Operation was to protect the rice harvest and help in a rural relocation program. We did a sweep from the south end of the District to about ten miles north… I spent most of the month on a mountain top OP with Mike Company from 3/4 to observe and patrol until we came down and joined the rest of the battalion. As the battalion swept north, contact with the bad guys increased. And unlike Starlight and other major Operations up to that time… the contact was mostly with uniformed NVA troops.
At the northern terminus of the operation… we set up a battalion base camp. From there we sent out daily patrols and at night, ambushes. Direct contact was sporadic, with the exception of an almost nightly mortar barrage from the enemy. Not a fun experience. To add insult to injury, our engineers set up a water purification plant to ease the pressure of having to have potable water flown in by helicopter daily to support the battalion, The result was we became almost non-combat efficient… as almost the entire battalion came down with dysentery! I mean, through the screen door, explosive, dysentery! Talk about miserable!
The decision was made to pull the battalion out of the field except for one company… Delta Company which was to relocate out by HWY 1 until a relief battalion arrived to replace us. Mike Swenning and I were attached to them as the F.O./FAC team. By now we were back to being supplied by helo with water. From our new location, we continued to send out daily patrols and LP's and ambushes at night. Even though we were now a much smaller force… they continued to hammer us with a nightly mortar barrage. And then things went up a few notches. One of our small patrols calls in and says they have spotted at least a battalion sized force of NVA force right where our former battalion CP had been and were traveling toward our present position. The patrol leader had declined contact and had his men lay down and wait for orders, since they were so out manned.
We quickly put together a supporting force and moved out to engage… truth of the matter was once we saw how many they were (looked like ants from a disturbed ant pile), we were still outnumbered and decided to hold back and bring in artillery and air strikes rather than directly engage. I mean this is in the spring of '66 and the NVA was already moving in broad daylight with battalion sized units! So how was MAC-V surprised that over a year later, that the NVA didn't have sufficient forces to launch an attack on Hue? It was obvious to us with boots on the ground that the war was entering a new phase! From then on we weren't just engaging small units of VC, but in fact engaging the professional Army of North Vietnam. It always amazed me, snuffy that I was… why those brilliant minds in Washington and the Pentagon couldn't see the fallacy of not pursuing the NVA across whatever national borders they retreated to… when they had no such restrictions or limits. The old, fight a war with one hand tied behind your back insanity.
Now we scattered that NVA Battalion that afternoon… but we paid dearly for it that night as they hammered us with a long mortar barrage… injuring and killing some of our small unit. The next day, I had a close call when on patrol, when an NVA sniper shot my radio antenna in half about 3 inches above my head! Luckily, our point man spotted the SOB and we were able to take him out. Why me?… Simple answer… because I had the radio. We were told early on… primary target for their snipers were radio men (who could call in supporting arms… artillery, mortars and air strikes)... then anyone carrying a side arm, instead of a rifle… indicative of leaders and Corpsmen.
We were pulled back two days later and replaced by another company from a different battalion. The second day, they were on a patrol and got ambushed by NVA snipers and lost seven men when caught in the open… all hit from the shoulders up! Within a month… Operation Hastings kicked off up on the DMZ and was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Three Marine Battalions against a Division of NVA. No more hit and run engagements… this was dug in… head on warfare. The only thing that carried the day was we outgunned them with supporting arms with artillery and air strikes… but within a couple of months that advantage was lost too.
Now while the boots on the ground were encountering larger NVA units and more frequent contact… the brilliant minds in Washington and the Pentagon were toying with bombing suspensions up north and putting Marines in I-Corps in big defensive enclaves near the DMZ, like Khe Sanh, Con Thien, Gio Linh... While leaving a virtual vacuum south of there, from Dong Ha to Hue! Incredible mistake!
One of the things that always amazed me was how little our leaders were aware of about how to fight a guerrilla war? Especially when American's had perfected guerrilla warfare tactics as far back as our own Revolutionary War through the likes of Francis Marion (The Swamp Fox) and later in WW II led by an American Army Engineer, who escaped Corregidor, and set up a small guerrilla army with natives and some Americans's that kept an entire Japanese Division occupied in the Philippines for the duration of the war until the American's returned. That guy was a man named Wendell Fertig. Fertig and Marion should have been required reading by all military leaders. Allowing the enemy safe haven across borders, without pursuit, was pure insanity as far as I'm concerned. You could drop a million bombs on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and only disrupt things for a matter of minutes or hours… yet a Regiment of Marines or Army could have halted the supply line in its' tracks… and forced the enemy to either retreat or have to move its' supply lines farther away from South Vietnam. That supply line should have been attacked by troops… not bombs! What a waste of time, effort and lives. Not to mention the wasteful expense of national resources.
My last comments on Tet and leadership… all of us who served in those times would rail at the stupidity and arrogance of our civilian leaders and politicians; like McNamara, Johnson and others. But I became an iconoclast and saved as much contempt for our military leadership as I did the civilians.
Who among us on the tip of the spear never questioned the logic, tactics and prosecution of the war? I'd say virtually none of us! All of us questioned the tactics and targeting coming out of the White House and Pentagon. WTF are they thinking? You'd fly by prime targets to hit secondary and tertiary targets all the time. As the war evolved and the air defenses by the enemy increased… the danger for the aircrews was almost as great on these lesser targets, than they would have been on primary targets... that would have put a hurt on their ability to prosecute the war down south. The only way to win a war is to force the enemy to submit! And they will never submit if you don't strike at the heart of the beast. If the home team isn't suffering… the home team are winning. Now from actual experience, I know that "Body Counts" were a fraud… we will never know the truth of how many died on either side. But I'll also say that I'd be willing to bet… that more North Vietnamese died fighting in South Vietnam... than in all the 10 years of bombing of North Vietnam… and I'm including civilians and military casualties in that count up north. Think about that.
So where were our military leaders in all this? The Joint Chief's… the Various Chiefs of Staff, CNO, Commandant of the Marine Corps? My two years break in service to get a piece of paper to do what I already knew I could do… was more educational than just in an academic experience… I could see the changes in our country from a different perspective than from our closed society in the military… there was huge changes going on within our country. Between a decided shift in our national media, academia and the Left… there were huge shifts in the population at large. Even supporters of the war were wondering… "What the hell are we doing over there". And for good reason… for those of us over there found ourselves wondering the same thing? In a series of notes to some of my Grunt Buds years ago… I railed at the fact, that during the whole war… not one Flag Officer of our military ever resigned in protest… not at the validity of the war… but at the timid prosecution of the war! Not one stood up to civilian leadership and said, "Yo Basta! I can't be a party to this, either fight the damn war to win it... or get the hell out"! And I cited some rare occasions where strong military leadership did such courageous acts in the past. If just one of those "Perfumed Princes" as Verdi called them back then… had resigned on the Pentagon steps and said, "We cannot win this war in the manner our civilian government is forcing us to do"… Perhaps the national debate would have shifted from the validity of the war... as questioned by the left… instead to the prosecution of the war as dictated by civilian leadership and a fealty military leadership. Fact… No profiles in courage in that group! I read a quote one time about a ballsy young attack pilot during a Alpha strike brief, who stood up and said, "Hey Boss… what's the game here? Are we just playing for a draw or are we gonna try to win this thing"? I'm beginning to think that question could be said about every war and military action this nation has been in since WW II. What are we doing here?
The sad truth that is so evident in today's world… is our Flag Community has become so politicized now… that they are all virtually politicians in uniform. We're in a world of hurt!
As the old saying goes… "People who ignore history are condemned to repeat it"!
Rant Over… Shadow
Thanks to the Bear
Shadow…
In the process of grinding out the 1000 posts in my "daily journal" that highlighted the air war over North Vietnam —Rolling Thunder Remembered— I scanned or read every page of every New York Times newspaper covering 16 March 1966 through December 1968. The staff librarians at the Weber County Public Library in Roy, Utah, and I became fast friends as they provided a continuous stream of NYT microfilm for my three six-hour research sessions every week for 32-months. (I also made friends with the countless homeless folks—including a few vets—that hang out during daylight hours in our public libraries before being shuttled to our homeless shelters for the night.)
I had my own carrel and microfilm machine for the duration of the project. I milked the NYT for every word they published about the war—both north and south of the DMZ— and what was related to the war at home and around the world. It was great fun.
It is too bad somebody in one of the dozens of military/national intelligence agencies didn't read the NYT every day during the war, as I did five years later. That person would have positively concluded, as you and I have, that the Tet Offensive was afoot as early as September 1967. There was absolutely no excuse for American surprise as the North Vietnamese opened their Tet Offensive in January 1968. The failure of our intelligence agencies in this instance directly contributed to the fiasco and defeat that followed. Tragically, these same national intelligence agencies have sustained their spotty performance right up to today—55 years almost to the day after their Tet 1968 fumble…
Your rant from top to bottom echoes my thoughts, as usual… Damn, you are a wise man… 😊… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/
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Thanks to Jiim
Skip,
Good summary of the Indo-Pacific challenge.
>>
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Thanks to Barrett
Skip, I thought the bubbas might enjoy this insight from Bio Baranek about the fabled Jolly Roger scene in The Final Countdown:
https://theaviationgeekclub.com/f-14-pilots-unreleased-notes-on-filming-the-final-countdown/
F-14 Pilot's Unreleased Notes on Filming "The Final Countdown" - The Aviation Geek Club One of the F-14 pilots who flew in The Final Countdown shares his personal notes on the movie that introduced the Tomcat to Hollywood. "Splash the Zeros!"
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This Day in U S Military History….26 February
1846 – Frontiersman-turned-showman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was born in Scott County, Iowa. His family moved to Kansas in 1854, and after the death of his father three years later he set out to earn the family living, working for supply trains and a freighting company. In 1859 he went to the Colorado gold fields, and in 1860 he rode briefly for the Pony Express. His adventures on the Western frontier as an army scout and later as a buffalo hunter for railroad construction camps on the Great Plains were the basis for the stories later told about him. Ned Buntline in 1872 persuaded him to appear on the stage, and, except for a brief period of scouting against the Sioux in 1876, he was from that time connected with show business. In 1883 he organized Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, and he toured with it throughout the United States and Europe for many years. Wyoming granted him a stock ranch, on which the town of Cody was laid out. He died in Denver and was buried on Lookout Mt. near Golden, Colo. The exploits attributed to him in the dime novels of Buntline and Prentice Ingraham are only slightly more imaginative than his own autobiography published in 1920.
1945 – An ammunition dump on the Philippine island of Corregidor is blown up by a remnant of the Japanese garrison, causing more American casualties on the eve of U.S. victory there. In May 1942, Corregidor, a small rock island at the mouth of Manila Bay, remained one of the last Allied strongholds in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan. Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could not hold the invader off any longer. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese Gen. Masaharu Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops–he had already lost 800 men. He surrendered at midnight. All 11,500 surviving Allied troops were evacuated to a prison stockade in Manila. But the Americans returned to the Philippines in full strength in October 1944, beginning with the recapture of Leyte, the Philippines' central island. It took 67 days to subdue, with the loss of more than 55,000 Japanese soldiers during the two months of battle, and approximately another 25,000 mopping up pockets of resistance in early 1945. The U.S. forces lost about 3,500. Following the American victory of Leyte was the return of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the struggle for Luzon and the race for Manila, the Philippine capital. One week into the Allied battle for Luzon, U.S. airborne troops parachuted onto Corregidor to take out the Japanese garrison there, which was believed to be 1,000 strong, but was actually closer to 5,000. Fierce fighting resulted in the deaths of most of the Japanese soldiers, with the survivors left huddling in the Malinta Tunnel for safety. Ironically, the tunnel, 1,400 feet long and dug deep in the heart of Corregidor, had served as MacArthur's headquarters and a U.S. supply depot before the American defeat there. MacArthur feared the Japanese soldiers could sit there for months. The garrison had no such intention, though, and ignited a nearby ammunition dump–an act of defiance, and possibly of mass suicide. Most of the Japanese were killed in the explosion, along with 52 Americans. Those Japanese who survived the blast were forced out into the open and decimated by the Americans. Corregidor was officially in American hands by early March.
1949 – From Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, the Lucky Lady II, a B-50 Superfortress, takes off on the first nonstop round-the-world flight. Under the command of Captain James Gallagher, and featuring a crew of 14 men, the aircraft averaged 249 miles per hour on its 23,452-mile trek. The Lucky Lady II was refueled four times in the air by B-29 tanker planes and on March 2 returned to the United States after 94 hours in the air. In December 1986, Voyager, a lightweight propeller plane constructed mainly of plastic, landed at Edwards Air Force Base in Muroc, California, having completed the first global flight without refueling.
1968 – Allied troops who had recaptured the imperial capital of Hue from the North Vietnamese during the Tet Offensive discover the first mass graves in Hue. It was discovered that communist troops who had held the city for 25 days had massacred about 2,800 civilians whom they had identified as sympathizers with the government in Saigon. One authority estimated that communists might have killed as many as 5,700 people in Hue. The Tet Offensive had begun at dawn on the first day of the Tet holiday truce (January 30), when Viet Cong forces, supported by large numbers of North Vietnamese troops, launched the largest and best coordinated offensive of the war. During the attack, they drove into the center of South Vietnam's seven largest cities and attacked 30 provincial capitals ranging from the Delta to the DMZ. Among the cities taken during the first four days of the offensive were Hue, Dalat, Kontum, and Quang Tri; in the north, all five provincial capitals were overrun. At the same time, enemy forces shelled numerous allied airfields and bases. By February 10, the offensive was largely crushed, but resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.
1973 – First airborne mine sweep in a live minefield took place in the Haiphong, Vietnam ship channel by helicopters from Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron Twelve on board USS New Orleans.
1991 – A cease-fire was called by Pres. Bush after 100 hours of ground combat. Following the cease-fire a retreating Iraqi unit stumbled into the Gen. McCaffrey's 24th infantry division and some 400 Iraqis were reported killed. Army investigations concluded that the Iraqis started the Rumaylah battle.
1993 – A bomb explodes in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people died and 1,000 were injured by the powerful blast. The buildings themselves, once the world's tallest, were nearly toppled by the bomb; an underground restraining wall came precariously close to breaking and allowing the Hudson River to spill into the World Trade Center's support area. Hours after the explosion, an informant identified a group of Serbians in New York as the culprits. However, when the FBI conducted surveillance of the gang they found not terrorists but jewel thieves, putting an end to a major diamond-laundering operation. Fortunately, investigators at the bomb scene found a 300-pound section of a van frame that had been at the center of the blast. The van's vehicle identification number was still visible, leading detectives to the Ryder Rental Agency in Jersey City, New Jersey. Their records indicated that Mohammed Salameh had rented the van and reported it stolen on February 25. Salameh was already in the FBI's database as a potential terrorist, so agents knew that they had probably found their man. Salameh compounded his mistake by insisting that Ryder return his $400 deposit. When he returned to collect it, the FBI arrested him. A search of his home and records led to two other suspects. Meanwhile, the owner of a storage facility in Jersey City came forward to say that he had seen four men loading a Ryder van on February 25. When this storage space was checked, they found enough chemicals, including very unstable nitroglycerin, to make another massive bomb. Investigators also found videotapes with instructions on bomb making that led to the arrest of a fourth suspect. Other evidence showed that one of the terrorists had bought hydrogen tanks from AGL Welding Supply in New Jersey. In the wreckage under the World Trade Center, three tanks marked "AGL Welding" were found. In addition, the terrorists had sent a letter to the New York Times claiming responsibility for the blast. Portions of this letter were found on the hard drive of one of the suspect's computers. Finally, DNA analysis of saliva on the envelope matched that of the suspect. The wealth of evidence resulted in easy convictions, and each of the men was sentenced to 240 years in prison. Despite the fact that the terrorists did not succeed in destroying the World Trade Center, the bombing remains one of the worst acts of foreign terrorism on U.S. soil.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
JACOBSON, DOUGLAS THOMAS
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 3d Battalion, 23d Marines, 4th Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 26 February 1945. Entered service at: New York. Born: 25 November 1925, Rochester, N.Y. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 3d Battalion, 23d Marines, 4th Marine Division, in combat against enemy Japanese forces during the seizure of Iwo Jima in the Volcano Island, 26 February 1945. Promptly destroying a stubborn 20mm. antiaircraft gun and its crew after assuming the duties of a bazooka man who had been killed, Pfc. Jacobson waged a relentless battle as his unit fought desperately toward the summit of Hill 382 in an effort to penetrate the heart of Japanese cross-island defense. Employing his weapon with ready accuracy when his platoon was halted by overwhelming enemy fire on 26 February, he first destroyed 2 hostile machinegun positions, then attacked a large blockhouse, completely neutralizing the fortification before dispatching the 5-man crew of a second pillbox and exploding the installation with a terrific demolitions blast. Moving steadily forward, he wiped out an earth-covered rifle emplacement and, confronted by a cluster of similar emplacements which constituted the perimeter of enemy defenses in his assigned sector, fearlessly advanced, quickly reduced all 6 positions to a shambles, killed 10 of the enemy, and enabled our forces to occupy the strong point. Determined to widen the breach thus forced, he volunteered his services to an adjacent assault company, neutralized a pillbox holding up its advance, opened fire on a Japanese tank pouring a steady stream of bullets on 1 of our supporting tanks, and smashed the enemy tank's gun turret in a brief but furious action culminating in a single-handed assault against still another blockhouse and the subsequent neutralization of its firepower. By his dauntless skill and valor, Pfc. Jacobson destroyed a total of 16 enemy positions and annihilated approximately 75 Japanese, thereby contributing essentially to the success of his division's operations against this fanatically defended outpost of the Japanese Empire. His gallant conduct in the face of tremendous odds enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
WAHLEN, GEORGE EDWARD
Rank and organization: Pharmacist's Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy, serving with 2d Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division. Place and date: Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands group, 3 March 1945. Entered service at: Utah. Born: 8 August 1924, Ogden, Utah. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 2d Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima in the Volcano group on 3 March 1945. Painfully wounded in the bitter action on 26 February, Wahlen remained on the battlefield, advancing well forward of the frontlines to aid a wounded marine and carrying him back to safety despite a terrific concentration of fire. Tireless in his ministrations, he consistently disregarded all danger to attend his fighting comrades as they fell under the devastating rain of shrapnel and bullets, and rendered prompt assistance to various elements of his combat group as required. When an adjacent platoon suffered heavy casualties, he defied the continuous pounding of heavy mortars and deadly fire of enemy rifles to care for the wounded, working rapidly in an area swept by constant fire and treating 14 casualties before returning to his own platoon. Wounded again on 2 March, he gallantly refused evacuation, moving out with his company the following day in a furious assault across 600 yards of open terrain and repeatedly rendering medical aid while exposed to the blasting fury of powerful Japanese guns. Stouthearted and indomitable, he persevered in his determined efforts as his unit waged fierce battle and, unable to walk after sustaining a third agonizing wound, resolutely crawled 50 yards to administer first aid to still another fallen fighter. By his dauntless fortitude and valor, Wahlen served as a constant inspiration and contributed vitally to the high morale of his company during critical phases of this strategically important engagement. His heroic spirit of self-sacrifice in the face of overwhelming enemy fire upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
INGMAN, EINAR H., JR.
Rank and organization: Sergeant (then Cpl.), U.S. Army, Company E, 17th Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Maltari, Korea, 26 February 1951. Entered service at: Tomahawk, Wis. Born: 6 October 1929, Milwaukee, Wis. G.O. No.: 68, 2 August 1951. Citation: Sgt. Ingman, a member of Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. The 2 leading squads of the assault platoon of his company, while attacking a strongly fortified ridge held by the enemy, were pinned down by withering fire and both squad leaders and several men were wounded. Cpl. Ingman assumed command, reorganized and combined the 2 squads, then moved from 1 position to another, designating fields of fire and giving advice and encouragement to the men. Locating an enemy machine gun position that was raking his men with devastating fire he charged it alone, threw a grenade into the position, and killed the remaining crew with rifle fire. Another enemy machine gun opened fire approximately 15 yards away and inflicted additional casualties to the group and stopped the attack. When Cpl. Ingman charged the second position he was hit by grenade fragments and a hail of fire which seriously wounded him about the face and neck and knocked him to the ground. With incredible courage and stamina, he arose instantly and, using only his rifle, killed the entire guncrew before falling unconscious from his wounds. As a result of the singular action by Cpl. Ingman the defense of the enemy was broken, his squad secured its objective, and more than 100 hostile troops abandoned their weapons and fled in disorganized retreat. Cpl. Ingman's indomitable courage, extraordinary heroism, and superb leadership reflect the highest credit on himself and are in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the infantry and the U.S. Army.
*YABES, MAXIMO
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Phu Hoa Dong, Republic of Vietnam, 26 February 1967. Entered service at: Eugene, Oreg. Born: 29 January 1932, Lodi, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. 1st Sgt. Yabes distinguished himself with Company A, which was providing security for a land clearing operation. Early in the morning the company suddenly came under intense automatic weapons and mortar fire followed by a battalion sized assault from 3 sides. Penetrating the defensive perimeter the enemy advanced on the company command post bunker. The command post received increasingly heavy fire and was in danger of being overwhelmed. When several enemy grenades landed within the command post, 1st Sgt. Yabes shouted a warning and used his body as a shield to protect others in the bunker. Although painfully wounded by numerous grenade fragments, and despite the vicious enemy fire on the bunker, he remained there to provide covering fire and enable the others in the command group to relocate. When the command group had reached a new position, 1st Sgt. Yabes moved through a withering hail of enemy fire to another bunker 50 meters away. There he secured a grenade launcher from a fallen comrade and fired point blank into the attacking Viet Cong stopping further penetration of the perimeter. Noting 2 wounded men helpless in the fire swept area, he moved them to a safer position where they could be given medical treatment. He resumed his accurate and effective fire killing several enemy soldiers and forcing others to withdraw from the vicinity of the command post. As the battle continued, he observed an enemy machinegun within the perimeter which threatened the whole position. On his own, he dashed across the exposed area, assaulted the machinegun, killed the crew, destroyed the weapon, and fell mortally wounded. 1st Sgt. Yabes' valiant and selfless actions saved the lives of many of his fellow soldiers and inspired his comrades to effectively repel the enemy assault. His indomitable fighting spirit, extraordinary courage and intrepidity at the cost of his life are in the highest military traditions and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for February 26, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
26 February
1913: Chief Constructor of the Navy formally approved an action to provide the Navy with a wind tunnel at the Washington Navy Yard. (24)
1917: The Navy ordered Lt Alfred A. Cunningham to organize a Marine Aviation Company at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The Marines had five pilots at the time. (10)
1918: The 2d Balloon Company, US Army Signal Corps, became the first US Air Service unit to serve with American forces at the front. It arrived in the Toul Sector for assignment with I Corps and began operations on 5 March. (4) (24)
1940: The War Department created the ADC to integrate defenses of the US against air attack. The command, primarily a planning agency, opened its doors at Mitchel Field, Long Island, N. Y. On 15 March, Brig Gen James E. Chaney assumed command. (24)
1945: Lt Gen Millard F. Harmon, the commanding general of Army Air Forces in the Pacific area, lost at sea with his Chief of Staff, Brig Gen James R. Andersen, while flying over the Pacific. The USAF renamed North Guam AFB as Andersen AFB in March 1949 in General Andersen's honor. (24)
1949: MACKAY TROPHY. Through 2 March, from Carswell AFB Capt James Gallagher flew the 43 BG's B-50 Lucky Lady II (No. 46-010), on the first nonstop around-the-world flight. He flew 23,452 miles in 94 hours 1 minute, with four KB-29 air refuelings over the Azores, Arabia, the Philippines, and Hawaii. The aircrew received several awards: the first Mackay Trophy and Air Age Trophy (later renamed the Hoyt S. Vandenberg Trophy). (1) (9) (24)
1952: KOREAN WAR. 10 B-29 Superfortresses, using radar aiming methods, dropped one-hundred tons of bombs on the Sinhung-dong rail road bridge near Huichon in north central Korea, knocking out two spans. (28)
1954: The USAF awarded a contract to the Rocketdyne Division of North American Aviation to develop the MA-2 propulsion system for the Atlas. (6) 1955: When the controls of his F-100 Super Sabre jammed in a Mach 1.05 flight, North American test pilot George Smith ejected. He thus became the first person to survive an ejection at a supersonic speed. (21)
1960: A TM-61C Matador tactical missile launched from Pad 1 at Osan AB failed to destruct on command. An F-100D chase plane fired a Sidewinder missile to shoot it down. (17)
1966: The Apollo/Saturn AS-201 mission, the first unmanned spacecraft of the Apollo series, launched from the Eastern Test Range in a suborbital flight. It was the first launch of Saturn IB and Apollo spacecraft. (5)
1968: TAC's Air Force Special Air Warfare Center received the first OV-10A aircraft. (16)
1974: The A-10A prototype fired its GAU-8/A gun for the first time during an inflight test at Edwards AFB. (3)
1980: Exercise RIMPAC 80. PACAF hosted and participated in the first multinational exercise, RIMPAC 80, in Hawaiian waters. The exercise included Japanese forces. (16) (26)
1990: Martin Marietta delivered 116 Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pods to the Air Force. This raised the Air Force purchase to 561 navigation pods, 441 targeting pods, and 26 sets of support equipment since the first buy in 1985. (8: May 90)
2007: The 932d Airlift Wing at Scott AFB, Ill., received the first of three Boeing C-40C aircraft for its mission to transport senior military and government leaders to locations within the U. S. Previously, the wing used C-9C aircraft for that mission. The C-40C, like the C-40B, was a virtual "office in the sky" for senior military and government leaders. It was the military version of the Boeing 737-700 business jet and could accommodate 42 to 111 passengers. (Air Mobility Command Historical Highlights, 2007)
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