The List 6402 TGB

To All,

Good Friday morning March 17 2023.

I hope that you all have a great weekend.

Regards,

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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History March 17

1898

John Holland's submarine, Holland IV, performs the first successful diving and surfacing tests off Staten Island, N.Y.

1944

USS Block Island (CVE 21) torpedo bomber aircraft from Composite Squadron (VC 6), along with USS Corry (DD 463) and USS Bronstein (DE 189), sink German submarine U 801 west of Cape Verdes.

1945

USS Sealion (SS 315) sinks Bangkok-bound Thai oiler Samui off Trengganu coast, while USS Spot (SS 413) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks army cargo vessel Nanking Maru off Yushiyama Island and damages cargo Ikomasan Maru, beached off Matsu Island.

1958

The Naval Research Laboratory satellite Vanguard 1 is launched into orbit to test the capabilities of a three-stage launch vehicle and effects of the environment on a satellite and its systems in Earths orbit.

1959

USS Skate (SSN-578) becomes the first submarine to surface at the North Pole, traveling 3,000 miles in and under Arctic ice for more than a month.

1962

USS Raleigh (LPD-1), the Navy's first amphibious transport dock, is launched at New York Naval shipyard.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

On March 17, 461 A.D., Saint Patrick, Christian missionary, bishop and apostle of Ireland, dies at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland. Today he is honored with the annual holiday of St. Patrick's Day Much of what is known about Patrick's legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years. Born in Great Britain, probably in Scotland, to a well-to-do Christian family of Roman citizenship, Patrick was captured and enslaved at age 16 by Irish marauders. For the next six years, he worked as a herder in Ireland, turning to a deepening religious faith for comfort. Following the counsel of a voice he heard in a dream one night, he escaped and found passage on a ship to Britain, where he was eventually reunited with his family.

March 17

According to the Confessio, in Britain Patrick had another dream, in which an individual named Victoricus gave him a letter, entitled "The Voice of the Irish." As he read it, Patrick seemed to hear the voices of Irishmen pleading him to return to their country and walk among them once more. After studying for the priesthood, Patrick was ordained a bishop. He arrived in Ireland in 433 and began preaching the Gospel, converting many thousands of Irish and building churches around the country. After 40 years of living in poverty, teaching, traveling and working tirelessly, Patrick died on March 17, 461 in Saul, where he had built his first church.

1766 Britain repeals the Stamp Act.

1776 British forces evacuate from Boston to Nova Scotia.

1799 Napoleon Bonaparte and his army reach Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d'Acra, only to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town.

1868 The first postage stamp canceling machine patent is issued.

1884 John Joseph Montgomery makes the first glider flight in Otay, Calif.

1886 Twenty African Americans are killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi.

1891 The British steamer Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar.

1905 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, marries Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York.

1910 The Camp Fire Girls are founded in Lake Sebago, Maine.

1914 Russia increases the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000.

1924 Four Douglas army aircraft leave Los Angeles for an around the world flight.

1930 Mob boss Al Capone is released from jail.

1942 The Nazis begin deporting Jews to the Belsen camp.

1944 The U.S. Eighth Air Force bombs Vienna.

1959 The 14th Dalai Lama flees Tibet and goes to India.

1961 The United States increases military aid and technicians to Laos.

1962 The Soviet Union asks the United States to pull out of South Vietnam.

1966 A U.S. submarine locates a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean.

1970 The Army charges 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case.

1972 Nixon asks Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation.

1973 Twenty are killed in Cambodia when a bomb goes off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol.

1973 First POWs are released from the "Hanoi Hilton" in Hanoi, North Vietnam.

1985 President Ronald Reagan agrees to a joint study with Canada on acid rain.

1992 White South Africans approve constitutional reforms giving legal equality to blacks.

Today was a sad day for Naval Aviation with the loss of one of our comrades - Hoser -Had left the bonds of Earth.

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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…

Skip… For The List for Friday, 17 March 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…

From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 17 March 1968… The most concentrated bombing campaign in history…

https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/rolling-thunder-remembered-742-khesanh-through-heavy-clouds/

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 Boysie ... and Dr. Rich

Aging

"If you want to know how old a woman is, ask her sister-in-law." - Edgar Howe

"Old age comes at a bad time." – San Banducci

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." - Jennifer Yane

"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard, there is nothing you can do about it." - Golda Meir

"The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. - Mark Twain

"I'm at that age where my back goes out more than I do." - Phyllis Diller

"Nice to be here? At my age, it's nice to be anywhere." – George Burns

"First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down." - Leo Rosenberg

"You spend 90 percent of your adult life hoping for a long rest and the last 10 percent trying to convince the Lord that you're actually not that tired." – Robert Brault

"Old people shouldn't eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get." – Robert Orben

"At my age, flowers scare me." - George Burns

"It's like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirit." – Elizabeth Lesser

"The years between 50 and 70 are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down." - T.S. Elliot

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don't care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all." - Ann Landers

"When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties, I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I'm labeled senile." – GB

"The important thing to remember is that I'm probably going to forget." - Unknown

"We don't grow older, we grow riper." - Pablo Picasso

"It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone." - Andy Rooney

"The older I get, the better I used to be." – Lee Trevino

"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me — they're cramming for their final exam."- George Carlin

"Everything slows down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips." - John Wagner

"Grandchildren don't make a man feel old, it's the knowledge that he's married to a grandmother that does." - J. Norman Collie

"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old." - Mark Twain

"You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks." - Joel Plaskett

"There's one advantage to being 102, there's no peer pressure." - Dennis Wolfberg

"There are three stages of man: he believes in Santa Claus, he does not believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus." - Bob Phillips

"Looking fifty is great — if you're sixty." - Joan Rivers

"At my age 'getting lucky' means walking into a room and remembering what I came in for." - Unknown

"Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." – Anonymous

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Thanks to Brett

Geopolitical Futures:

Keeping the future in focus

Daily Memo: Serbia Divided Over Russia Sanctions

The government in Belgrade has so far refused to join the Western sanctions regime.

By: GPF Staff

High price. Serbian Economy Minister Rade Basta on Monday called on his government to impose sanctions on Russia, saying Serbia has paid a "high price" for refusing to join the Western sanctions regime. In response, the Movement of Socialists party, a member of the governing coalition, demanded his resignation, and a spokesperson for Russia's Foreign Ministry said Belgrade is under pressure from Washington to introduce sanctions. Serbia is both a key ally of the Kremlin and an EU candidate state.

Georgia update. The leader of Georgia's ruling party Georgian Dream, which sponsored controversial legislation that sparked anti-government protests last week, accused U.S. nongovernmental organization Atlas Network of supporting the demonstrations. The legislation, which was withdrawn on Friday, would have required NGOs and media groups to register as foreign agents if they receive at least 20 percent of their funding from abroad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said events in Georgia resembled what happened in Ukraine in 2014 during the Maidan revolution. On Tuesday, supporters of Georgian Dream gathered for a pro-government march in Tbilisi, expressed their opposition to Western influence in the country and called on the government to hold a referendum on the draft law.

Talks in Berlin. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin. Earlier this month, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also visited Berlin, which is trying to broker a deal between the two countries on their dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Notably, Pashinyan suggested on Tuesday expanding the "Prague format" peace talks to include Germany and the United States as mediators. Azerbaijan is a key part of Europe's plans to diversify its energy supplies away from Russia.

Considering options. The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs said it plans to launch a prototype mechanism for businesses to make international payments by the end of March. The deputy chairman of Russia's Sberbank, meanwhile, said his bank is studying the use of blockchain technology, which he said could become increasingly relevant for Russian banking over the next year. Many Russian banks were cut off from the SWIFT payment system following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and even those that weren't have experienced delays or restrictions in cross-border transfers.

Drills. The Philippine Army and U.S. Army Pacific began on Monday their largest joint military exercises to date. About 3,000 soldiers are taking part in the annual drills, which will focus on the defense of the Philippine archipelago. Japan will be sending observers for the first time.

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Thanks to Interesting Facts

There are no snakes in Ireland.

For the estimated 30% of Americans with ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) — one of the world's most common phobias — Ireland may seem like heaven on Earth. That's because throughout its entire modern history, the Emerald Isle has been home to precisely zero snake species. Although one of the nation's most popular legends tells of St. Patrick driving serpents from the island in the fifth century CE, snakes haven't slithered along Ireland's soil since at least before the last ice age.

Ireland's geological history makes it perfectly inhospitable for snakes. During the last ice age, the northern latitudes of the British Isles were just too cold for ectotherms (animals dependent on the sun to warm their bodies), so these creatures migrated south. As the ice age receded, glaciers retreated to the poles, and water levels rose; the land bridge to Ireland became submerged around 8,500 years ago, whereas the land bridge to England stuck around for 2,000 more years, allowing snakes more time to migrate north as the planet warmed. This is why England has endemic snakes, while Ireland does not. (New Zealand and Iceland lack snakes for similar reasons.)

However, this doesn't mean you won't run into any snakes in Ireland. While the island has no endemic snake species, it isn't illegal to have one as a pet (like it is in Hawaii) — in fact, pet snakes were seen as a status symbol in Ireland during the 1990s. With many people setting their pet snakes free during the economic recession around 2008, it's possible a few populations of snakes are slithering about, though not nearly in large enough numbers to threaten Ireland's ecosystem or its residents.

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Rome was the first city to reach 1 million inhabitants.

Today, Tokyo is the world's largest city by population, with more than 37 million residents, but long before the Japanese metropolis took that honor, there was another record-holder: Rome. The ancient city was the world's largest back in 133 BCE, when it became the first city to reach 1 million inhabitants.

Everyday life in ancient Rome was largely dictated by wealth: Affluent residents lived in finely decorated townhouses (and often had countryside estates for trips out of the city), while lower-income citizens resided in apartment-like buildings called insulae. But all social classes enjoyed the perks of living in a major city, including fresh water piped in from aqueducts, and the availability of markets, entertainment, and even food stalls that served quick meals. Rome's population eventually declined as the Roman Empire fell, yet no city would surpass its record population for millennia — that is, until London became the world's largest city, with 1 million people in 1800 and growing to more than 6 million people by 1810.

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Another from Boysie and Dr. Rich

Bargains

An 84-year-old man is having a drink in Harpoon Harry's. Suddenly a gorgeous girl enters and sits down a few seats away. The girl is so attractive that he just can't take his eyes off her.

After a short while, the girl notices him staring, and approaches him.

Before the man has time to apologize, the girl looks him deep in the eyes and says to him in a sultry tone: "I'll do anything you'd like. Anything you can imagine in your wildest dreams, it doesn't matter how extreme or unusual it is, I'm game. I want $100, and there's another condition."'

Completely stunned by the sudden turn of events, the man asks her what her condition is.

"You have to tell me what you want me to do in just three words."

The man takes a moment to consider the offer from the beautiful woman. He whips out his wallet and puts $100 dollars into her hand... He then looks her square in the eyes, and says slowly and clearly: "Paint my house."

Our needs change as we get older, and we tend to look for bargains.

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Thanks to Dr. Rich………

Star-Telegram Article (03/12) -- B-32 Dominator

I lived in Grand Prairie, TX during most of WW2, up from my Grandparent's farm in Penelope, TX, after my brother, Bill, was born. The sky was always FULL of aircraft from Hensley Field and Mustangs from the North American plant, and our back yard fence was the border to NAS Grand Prairie, which was a primary training base, and occasionally one of their Yellow Peril Stearmans would end up nose down in a neighbor's yard.

I was vaguely aware of the B-32, wasn't aware that it actually made its way to Japan.

I thankee!

Most advanced bomber of WW II made in Fort Worth

The B-32 production line at the Consolidated Vultee plant in Fort Worth is pictured in 1945.

BY RICHARD SELCER

World War II produced three legendary heavy bombers, the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, and the B-29 Superfortress. Each was manufactured in the thousands to bomb Germany and Japan into submission.

Then there was the B-32 Dominator, which took to the skies in the last year of the war.

Like the B-24, it was manufactured at the Consolidated Vultee plant in Fort Worth, known officially as Air Force Plant No. 4. Fort Worth workers built 2,743 B-24s but only 124 B-32s before production was shut down in October 1945.

If the war had continued, the B-32 would have become the workhorse of the Army Air Force (AAF). It was more technologically advanced than either the B-17 or B-24 and not prone to engine fires like the B-29, wrongly called "the most advanced bomber of World War II." That title rightly belongs to the B-32 with its four, 2,200-hp engines, pressurized crew cabin, seven remote-controlled guns, and the ability to carry a heavier bomb load than any of the others. It was also the first production aircraft to have reversible-pitch propellers, which allowed it to land on short runways.

Readers of the Star-Telegram learned on Aug. 12, 1944, that Air Force Plant No. 4 would be the manufacturing home for the B-32. The newspaper described it as a "superbomber that would blast the heart of Japan." It was intended to replace the B-24 and complement the B-29.

For most of the next 12 months the plane went through rigorous testing, one completed aircraft at a time. The "bugs" were still being worked out even as the aircraft flew its first missions in the Pacific theater.

TESTED AT FORT WORTH ARMY AIRFIELD

Consolidated's B-32s were tested next door at the Fort Worth Army Air Field. It was the first new aircraft to be tested by the AAF Training Command in World War II. The training crews were combat veterans with a thousand or more hours in B-24s. Each plane required eight crew members. With the war in Europe over, the War Department permitted the Star-Telegram to reveal details of the new bomber. With details of the size, bomb load, and air speed of the plane, the newspaper indulged in a little bragging about the superiority of Consolidated's B-32 over Boeing's B-29.

The newspaper's unnamed source also shared a little secret. "It is hinted that the B-32 is due for a special and destructive role in the Pacific war." In retrospect, it is clear that this is a thinly veiled reference to the atomic bomb, which was not dropped by a B-32 but by a B-29 on Aug. 6, 1945. Anyone familiar with the Manhattan Project at the time could have read between the lines of the newspaper story that the "secret may lie in the design of its [extra-large] bomb bays." The first atomic bomb, dubbed "Fat Boy" was too large for either a B-17 or B-24 to carry.

The public got its first look at the plane on Air Forces Day, Aug. 1, 1945. The Army Air Field opened its gates for the 38th anniversary celebration of the AAF, showing off several current bomber and fighter aircraft on the ground plus flyovers by the B-32. The 10,000 visitors to the event even got a chance to get a "close-up view" of a B-32 parked on the tarmac near a battle-scarred B-24.

Visitors to the air show had no way of knowing that even as they admired the latest addition to the nation's bomber fleet that it was already in action in the Pacific. Reporters had gotten the first sneak preview of the B-32 on May 11 but were sworn to secrecy. Three of Consolidated's "sky giants" saw their first action on May 29, flying from Clark Field in the Philippines against undefended targets. One had to return to base because of mechanical problems, but the other two dropped 1,000-lb. bombs on a small, Japanese supply center on the island of Luzon. They flew without escort fighters because the Japanese air force had been driven from the skies over the Philippines.

The mission over Luzon was the first "operational test" of the plane. The commander of the U.S. Fifth Air Force, Philippines, pronounced it a "topnotch weapon."

The first B-32s in combat were designated the 386th Bomb Squadron. They continued their shakedown flights over lightly defended targets on Luzon, Formosa, and the China coast. Correspondents, including the Star-Telegram's Charles Boatner, were allowed to go along, with the understanding that they would report only human-interest stories, not mission details. Those stories included interviewing Texans among the flight crews. Two crewmen, Johnnie Thacker and George Davis, were Fort Worth residents.

In the next three weeks, newspapers reported the highest praise among military brass for the B-32. Consolidated's official newsletter, "The Eagle," quoted a veteran pilot of B-24s saying, "It's just a dream ship for a heavy bomber." The bombers carried out their first 12 missions without a loss. (The newspapers did not report what kind of opposition, if any, they met over their targets.)

Consolidated workers got into the spirit by taking up a collection of over $1,000 to send to crew members of the first B-32 squadron. This story was reported just one day after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9 by a B-29. The war was just three weeks from being over.

FLIGHTS OVER JAPAN

On Aug. 17, 10 Japanese fighters attacked a flight of B-32s flying a reconnaissance mission over Tokyo. In a brief round of aerial combat, the bombers shot down eight of the attacking fighters. All the bombers returned safely to their Okinawa base. One crew member, Sgt. Anthony Marchione, was killed in the action, the last American to die in air combat in World War II. One of the pilots on that flight was Lt. Joseph Elliott, well known to Fort Worthers because he played tackle on TCU's 1940 football team before enlisting.

B-32s were on their first bombing mission over the Japanese mainland when they learned that peace negotiations were underway. They came back to base without dropping their bomb load, so by the time the Japanese surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945, no B-32 had flown an actual bombing mission over Japan. This is not to say they had not suffered losses. Two were lost in non-combat accidents on Aug. 28, killing 15 of 26 crewmen on board. B-32 crews did distinguish themselves, winning two campaign ribbons and five battle stars in less than a month in the war zone. The 386th stood down on Aug. 30, ending B-32 combat operations.

Demobilization at the end of the war came swiftly. The War Department canceled contracts, and production stopped on the Fort Worth assembly line. Before the end of September, most of the final production aircraft were being flown to a storage facility at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. From there, most were sent to demolition facilities to be turned into scrap. The same fate awaited all the B-32s returning from the Pacific theater. The last surviving plane was destroyed in 1949 while the Air Force continued to fly its stablemate, the B-29, into the 1950s.

As for Air Force Plant No. 4, after the war it became known simply by its abbreviated name, Convair. The company's next contribution to the American bomber fleet came during the Cold War with the B-36 Peacemaker, the largest bomber ever built. While vintage examples of Convair's B-24 and B-36 exist today, the B-32 survives only in pictures.

What was once Air Force Plant No. 4 is known today as Lockheed Martin.

Author-historian Richard Selcer is a Fort Worth native and proud graduate of Paschal High and TCU.

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