To All,
Good Monday morning March 20 2023.
I hope that you all had a great weekend. The rain is back for most of the week.
Regards,
Skip
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History March 20
1918 Ensign Stephen Potter is the first American to shoot down an enemy seaplane, a German plane off the German coast during World War I.
1924 Curtis D. Wilbur takes office as the 43rd Secretary of the Navy, where he gains his greatest achievements in enlarging and modernizing the fleet, and establishing a naval air force that would become an overwhelming force during World War II.
1942 Secretary of Navy James V. Forrestal places the newly-established construction battalions, later called Seabees, under the command of officers with the Civil Engineer Corps who are trained in the skills required for the performance of construction work.
1944 TBF and FM-2 aircraft from Composite Squadron (VC 6) onboard USS Block Island (CVE 21) sink German submarine U 1059 west-southwest of Dakar.
1945 Submarine USS Balao (SS 285) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks one troopship and three fishing vessels and damages another off the Yangtze estuary about 90 miles north-northwest of Shanghi.
1945 As Fast Carrier Task Force 58 planes bomb Kure and Kobe Harbors, Japanese aircraft single out the US Navy carriers for attack. USS Wasp (CV 18), USS Essex (CV 9), and USS Franklin (CV 13) are hit. After struck by a second bomb, Franklin suffers subsequent explosions on the flight and hangar decks. Heroic work by her crew, assisted by nearby ships, bring the fires and flooding under control. For their actions during this occasion, both Lt. Cmdr. Joseph T. OCallaghan and Lt.j.g. Donald A. Gary receive the Medal of Honor.
1969 While serving with Battery D, 2nd Battalion, 11th Marines, at Phu Loc 6 in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam, Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class David R. Ray is killed in action while providing medical aid to injured Marines during an enemy attack on his unit. Petty Officer Ray is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism in that action.
1994 USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) is commissioned at Long Beach, Calif., where then-Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton was the keynote speaker. The Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyer.
1999 - USS Porter (DDG 78) is commissioned at Port Canaveral, Fla. The guided-missile destroyer is the 28th of the Arleigh Burke-class and the fifth U.S. Navy ship to be named after Commodore David Porter and his son, Adm. David Dixon Porter.
Today in History March 20
1413 Henry IV of England is succeed by his son Henry V.
1739 In India, Nadir Shah of Persia occupies Delhi and takes possession of the Peacock throne.
1760 The Great Fire of Boston destroys 349 buildings.
1792 In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approves the use of the guillotine.
1815 Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris and begins his 100-day rule.
1841 Edgar Allan Poe's The Murders in the Rue Morgue, considered the first detective story, is published.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
1906 Army officers in Russia mutiny at Sevastopol.
1915 The French call off the Champagne offensive on the Western Front.
1918 The Bolsheviks of the Soviet Union ask for American aid to rebuild their army.
1922 President Warren G. Harding orders U.S. troops back from the Rhineland.
1932 The German dirigible, Graf Zepplin, makes the first flight to South America on regular schedule.
1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt names William O. Douglas to the Supreme Court.
1940 The British Royal Air Force conducts an all-night air raid on the Nazi airbase at Sylt, Germany.
1943 The Allies attack Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's forces on the Mareth Line in North Africa.
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson orders 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers.
1969 Senator Edward Kennedy calls on the United States to close all bases in Taiwan.
1976 Patty Hearst is convicted of armed robbery.
1982 U.S. scientists return from Antarctica with the first land mammal fossils found there.
1987 The United State approves AZT, a drug that is proven to slow the progress of AIDS.
1345 Black Death is created, allegedly »
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Skip… For The List for Monday, 20 March 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 20 March 1968… Rolling Thunder: Limited vs. Massive (to include mining of Haiphong)…
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 Al
Monday Morning Humor
I just realized that March brings March Madness, Daylight Saving time, and the Oscars.
I just realized that March brings March Madness, Daylight Saving time, and the Oscars.
No wonder we need to make jokes on the first of April.
If you want a sure thing in your men's NCAA tournament pool, you'll need to fill out the 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 brackets necessary to guarantee a winner. Just leave yourself plenty of time to finish them all: if you filled out one bracket every second it would take you 292 billion years to cover all the possibilities.
Hanging in the trophy chest at Syracuse University, there were basketball team photos from past school teams. A player in each photo held a basketball identifying the year – 72-73, 73-74, 74-75, etc..
One day, a freshman was looking curiously at the photos. Turning to a professor, he said, "Isn't it weird how every team lost by just one point?"
Saw a woman in Walmart who had March Madness teeth this morning. She was down to her final 4!!!
The wife phoned me and said, "You better come to the hospital. My mother hasn't got long to live!"
I replied, "But it's March Madness! All the basketball games are important!"
She said, "Record it and watch it later."
You should have seen her face when I turned up at the hospital with the camcorder and the tripod…
Celebrating Pi Day isn't as fun as watching basketball. I once watched a month full of march madness. From behind the arc I saw a three point won four.... won five games.
Quotes from March Madness legends…
John Wooden (UCLA 1948-1975):
• "Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character."
• "A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."
• "I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent."
• "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."
• "It's not how big you are, it's how big you play."
Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski (Duke 1980-present):
• "Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing."
• "A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play."
• "Leadership is an ever-evolving position."
• "I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears."
• "Imagination has a great deal to do with winning."
Dean Smith (UNC 1961-1997):
• "What to do with a mistake – recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it."
• "A lion never roars after a kill."
• "The most important thing in good leadership is truly caring. The best leaders in any profession care about the people they lead, and the people who are being led know when the caring is genuine and when it's faked or not there at all."
• "Good people are happy when something good happens to someone else."
• "A leader's job is to develop committed followers. Bad leaders destroy their followers' sense of commitment."
More quotes…
• "If you think small things don't matter, think of the last game you lost by one point."--Anonymous
• "I try to do the right thing at the right time. They may just be little things, but usually they make the difference between winning and losing."--Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• "Commitment separates those who live their dreams from those who live their lives regretting the opportunities they have squandered"--Bill Russell
• "Don't worry about being cool. Worry about being the best"--Jeff Van Gundy
• "Winning is like deodorant-- when it comes up, a lot of things no longer stink."--Doc Rivers
• "Success doesn't stop when you get there"--Michael Jordan
• "They say that nobody is perfect. Then they tell you practice makes perfect. I wish they'd make up their minds."--Wilt Chamberlain
• "It is far better to shoot an airball than to not shoot at all for fear of missing."--Tony Alfonso
• "Not only is there more to life than basketball, there's a lot more to basketball than basketball."--Phil Jackson
• "There are really only two plays: Romeo and Juliet and put the darn ball in the basket."--Abe Lemons
• "If you give shooters the right to shoot, you must give them the right to miss"--Kevin Eastman
• "Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better"--Pat Riley
• "The only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not."--Charles Barkley
• "The key is not the 'will to win'… everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important"--Bob Knight
Best of luck to your teams…and may my teams beat them,
Al
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Thanks to Brett
Thearly Bird top 5
"Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me alone!" – Ken Hagemann
Top 5
Wars in Iraq and Syria cost half a million lives, nearly $3T: report
(Military Times) The U.S. military is about to surpass 20 years since invading Iraq, a war that has cost more than 550,000 lives, and nearly $1.8 trillion, according to a report released Wednesday.
Higher cancer rates found in military pilots, ground crews
(The Associated Press) In a new study the Pentagon has found alarmingly higher rates of cancer among aviators than in the U.S. general population, and has further reviews planned.
Slovakia to transfer 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine, after Poland gives four
(Defense News) Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger has announced his country will deliver 13 out-of-commission Mikoyan MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine as part of Bratislava's support to the nation's struggle against the Russian invasion.
North Korea launches missile into sea amid US-South Korea drills
(The Associated Press) The launch was North Korea's third round of weapons tests since the U.S. and South Korean militaries began joint military drills last week.
Get the score, skip the tape: This fitness score waives body fat test
(Army Times) It's official, the Army issued a directive Thursday that exempts soldiers who score a 540 or higher on the Army Combat Fitness Test from body fat assessment.
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Interesting Fact
Edgar Allan Poe wrote only one finished novel.
In 1838, Edgar Allan Poe temporarily departed from the usual brevity of his short stories and completed his first novel — The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. It was also his last novel. Now considered the beginnings of the science fiction and detective genres, Poe's works are best known for macabre plots that consistently feature the supernatural, and Arthur Gordon Pym is no different. Written five years before Poe published some of his most popular works — including "The Masque of the Red Death," "The Pit and the Pendulum," and "The Tell-Tale Heart" — Poe's only novel was set at sea, recounting the adventures of a New Englander named Arthur Gordon Pym who stows away on a ship. Upon leaving land, Pym suffers a series of misadventures, including shipwreck, mutiny, and cannibalism.
Despite the fact that Poe had experienced some previous literary success, his novel was received harshly. That was in part because of the political quagmire of American slavery; at the time the novel was published, the abolition movement was gaining momentum, and scenes in Arthur Gordon Pym seemed to reflect then-bubbling social tensions. Many literary critics interpreted the story and its symbols, including a clash between white sailors and Black islanders, as a political statement about the evils of slavery; others dismissed Poe's novel for its depictions of violence. Some readers, believing the book was based on a true story, were upset to find it was fiction, and declared it a hoax. Given its poor reception, Poe returned to the short story format and wrote off his own novel, calling it a "very silly book."
But not everyone considered Poe's book a flop. Literary historians believe it was likely read by author Herman Melville, and may have served as inspiration for Melville's book Moby-Dick (published in 1851). Over time, reviews of Arthur Gordon Pym softened, and in 1897, author Jules Vern wrote a two-volume sequel called An Antarctic Mystery, continuing on with Poe's supernatural story nearly 60 years after it first went to press.
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This story is from the List archives and is worth your time to read about this exceptional aviator.
Thanks to Clyde
The Battle of A-Shau-50 Years ago
In the NW corner of South Vietnam, in the Thua-Thien Province lies a narrow valley known as the A-Shau. Running North-South for 25 miles, it's a mile wide bottom land covered in elephant grass and flanked by deeply forested mountains rising to as much as 5,500 ft. Bisected with a hard crusted dirt road with A-Luoi to the North and the A-Shau SF camp to the South, this valley was the scene of some of the hardest combat between US and NVA throughout the Vietnam war and was one of the strategic focal points of the war Because of its importance to the North Vietnamese the A Shau became a major battle ground from the earliest days of the American involvement in South Vietnam. The US Special Forces had established their camp in 1964 at the lower end of the A Shau Valley in Vietnam. It was some two miles from Laos and was a constant problem for the North Vietnamese. From this camp, the Green Berets could observe and impede traffic on the Ho Chi Minh Trail on the other side of the border. They were also astride the infiltration route toward Hue and Da Nang.
Being in a very remote corner of the Central Highlands, the SF camp was extraordinarily reliant on airpower.
Material to build the camp had been flown in by Air Force C-123s. Everything, including food and ammunition, came by air. The camp consisted of some barracks buildings, a triangular fort, and an airstrip made of pierced steel planking. The fort had a mortar bunker at each corner. The walls consisted of steel plate and sandbags.
The airstrip was east of the camp, just outside the barbed wire perimeter. The valley lay beyond the range of US artillery, so its only real defense was air support. At this point in the valley, the area around the camp was six miles long and a little more than a mile wide. Hills rose up on both sides, ascending 1,500 feet above the valley floor. The mountain valleys were often hidden by clouds and low-lying fog. The valley was called the tube by the pilots who had to fly there.
March 9th, 1966
In February 1966, the North Vietnamese Army decided to put the camp out of business and moved a fresh regiment down the trail to join the 325th NVA Division, which was already operating in the vicinity of Hue.
On March 5, two NVA defectors walked into the camp at A Shau and warned that an attack was coming on March 11 or 12. They said the 325th Division was about seven kilometers east of the valley. US aircraft promptly struck that location.
On March 7, Air Force C-123s brought in reinforcements, increasing the strength of the camp to 17 Green Berets and 368 South Vietnamese irregulars and Chinese Nung mercenaries.
The attack came sooner than expected. About 2 a.m. on March 9, enemy bombardment began, emanating from the surrounding hills. Mortars, artillery, and rocket-propelled grenades pounded the camp, killing two Americans and wounding 30. The barrage set the buildings and the supply dump afire. The artillery barrage stopped at dawn. Some 2,000 NVA regulars were situated to take the fort unless air support drove them away. Until the clouds lifted they were hanging as low as 200 feet in places air strikes were not feasible.
The NVA force prepared to rush the fort, but visibility was improving. At 11:20 a.m., with the cloud ceiling at 400 feet, an Air Force AC-47 gunship got through the clouds and flew up the valley at treetop level, strafing the attackers.
On the gunship second pass, it was hit hard by ground fire. The right engine was torn from its mounts. Seconds later, the other engine was knocked out, too. The bullet-riddled AC-47 crash-landed on a mountain slope, five miles farther up the valley.
With the gunship gone, the airborne command post diverted two A-1Es from the 1st ACSq at Pleiku, callsign Hobos, and sent them to the aid of the SF camp at A Shau. Leading the A-1E flight was Air Force Maj. Bernard F. Fisher, a 39-year-old fighter pilot from Kuna, Idaho. Fisher had flown jet aircraft in Air Defense Command before coming to Vietnam, and, when he buckled into the propeller-driven A-1E, he still wore his helmet with the silhouette of an F-104 painted on the side.
Known as the SPAD, the single-engine A-1E Skyraider was undeniably an old airplane, but it was well-suited to a number of missions. It was adapted from the Douglas AD-5 dive fighter-bomber that the Navy had flown in Korea. It mounted four 20 mm machine guns and carried a wide assortment of ordnance. Cruising speed was 240 mph, but it had exceptional endurance and could stay airborne for six to eight hours. It could fly for long periods of time at low altitude, making it ideal for close air support. And the A-1Es had two seats, side by side.
Diverted to A Shau after the gunship crashed on March 9, Fisher and his wingman, Bruce Wallace, found the mountains blanketed by clouds. Upon arrival, Fisher began probing to find the canyon in which the camp lay.
On his third attempt, he emerged from the overcast and barely missed colliding with a helicopter that had just come from A Shau with wounded aboard. The helicopter pilot directed Fisher toward a saddle in the mountains, where he found an opening in the clouds about five miles northwest of the camp. He and Wallace went through the hole and flew down the valley at very low level. The enemy AAA was intense.
A C-130 airborne command post told Fisher to destroy the AC-47 before the NVA captured it's weapons. Fisher assigned that task to Wallace who dropped six bombs on the wreckage and obliterated it while Fisher went to the direct assistance of the fort. For the next several hours, Fisher and Wallace collected arriving aircraft above the clouds and led them down into the valley. Fisher guided a CH-3C helicopter that came to evacuate the badly wounded. He also led A-1Es in a strike to break up a force that was massing to attack the fort.
Fisher went up again to bring down two Air Force C-123s. The mountains were tight on all sides, and forward visibility was less than half a mile. They began taking fire seven miles north of the camp. Fisher suppressed the ground fire as the transports air-dropped supplies for the fort from an altitude of 50 feet. Low on fuel, Fisher went through the clouds one more time to help a forward air controller lead two B-57 bombers down the valley. In all, Fisher spent about two hours under the clouds. He made an emergency landing at Da Nang, 20 minutes away, with almost no fuel left in his tank.
Allied aircraft flew 29 sorties in support of the fort on March 9. Of these, the Air Force flew 17, the Marine Corps 10, and the South Vietnamese Air Force two.
Maj Fisher would be awarded the Silver Star for his role as on-scene commander on March 9, and Wallace would receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. However, Fisher had not yet seen the last of the A Shau Valley.
March 10th 1966
On March 10, the attack resumed at 2 a.m. The NVA shelled the camp relentlessly, and, shortly before 4 a.m., it launched an assault on the southern side. Before daylight, the attack broke through the barbed wire perimeter and breached the south wall. The defenders were pushed into the northern part of the fort, and the NVA dug in between the airstrip and the camp.
Two C-123s and an AC-47 dropped flares throughout the night. Radar bombing of enemy positions by Marine Corps A-4s began just after 5 a.m. Fire support was continuous from Air Force and Marine aircraft. About 11 a.m., the defenders reported that they could hold out for no more than another hour and that airdrops to resupply them with ammunition should stop, since they could not retrieve the bundles.
Bernie Fisher and his wingman that day, Capt. Francisco Paco Vazquez, were en route to provide air support to Army forces near Kontum when they got an emergency radio call to divert to A Shau. Fishers call sign was Hobo 51, and Vazquez was Hobo 52.
By 11:15, Hobo flight had joined numerous other aircraft that were stacked and circling at 8,000 feet and higher above the valley. They had not yet gone to the aid of the camp because of the danger of running into mountain peaks hidden by the cloud cover.
One of the other A-1 flights in the stack was led by Maj. Dafford W. Jump Myers from the 602nd Fighter Squadron at Qui Nhon. Myers was Surf 41, and his wingman, Capt. Hubert King, was Surf 42. Myers was an old friend. Fisher had known him back in Air Defense Command. He had been nicknamed Jump when he was a soda jerk in high school. Myers was a hard-bitten chain-smoker who once made his living running a billiard parlor.
Myers suggested that there might be an opening to the west. Fisher went to see, found a hole, and called on Myers and King to follow him and Vazquez into the valley. Fisher told the other A-1 flight to stay in orbit above the clouds. There was not enough room in the valley for six airplanes to operate, so Capt. Jon T. Luke Lucas (Hobo 27) and Capt. Dennis B. Hague (Hobo 28) continued to circle.
Fisher, Vazquez, Myers, and King flew down the valley in trail formation. It was too tight to go in side by side. The cloud ceiling in the valley was at 800 feet better than the previous day, but the visibility also helped the enemy gunners, who were shooting down on the aircraft from the 1,500-foot hillsides.
SURF 41 is Down
The defenders had fallen back into a bunker at the northwest corner of the fort. The NVA was making a ground attack, so the A-1s flew three strafing runs, which killed between 300 and 500 of the attackers.
On the first run, Kings aircraft was hit in the cockpit canopy, shattering the plexiglass. He had to break off and go to the nearest base, which was Da Nang. On the second pass, Myers airplane was hit by shells of a heavy caliber. His engine conked out and the cockpit filled with smoke. At 400 feet, he was too low to use a parachute.
"I've been hit and hit hard", Myers radioed.
You're on fire and burning clear back past your tail, Fisher replied.
Rog, Myers said. Ill have to put her down on the strip.
Myers cockpit was filled with smoke. He couldn't see, so Fisher talked him down. At the same time, Fisher laid down suppressive fire in front of Myers and gave battle instructions to the other aircraft.
Myers was going too fast to land on the short runway, so he would have to belly slide in. He jettisoned his bombs and retracted his landing gear, but his attempt to release the center line fuel tank failed. The fuel tank exploded on contact with ground. Surf 41 skidded about 800 feet, trailing fire, then veered off the runway on the west side and exploded. Incredibly, Myers survived. Fisher saw him clamber out of the airplane and run to a ditch between the airstrip and the fort, where he was screened by a clump of weeds.
Fisher called in Hague and Lucas. Hague: It was like flying inside Yankee Stadium with the people in the bleachers firing at you with machine guns, Hague said.
Vazquez, meanwhile, was operating with a dead radio.
The A-1s put down saturated fire, driving back the NVA troops who were trying to get to Myers. The Green Berets later said the attack wiped out a company of the North Vietnamese and took pressure off the fort.
The Rescue
As the A-1Es continued their strikes, Fisher called for a rescue helicopter. Ten minutes later, the command post said the helicopter was at least 20 minutes out. Fisher figured that this was probably a guess. Anyway, it wouldn't be much longer before the NVA closed in on Myers and killed him.
Fisher thought about going to get Myers. The runway looked short. He called the command post and asked the length. It was 3,500 feet, he was told. That would be long enough.
Even in the best of conditions, however, it was almost suicidal to land an aircraft as large and slow as the A-1E while exposed to direct enemy fire, Fisher said in his 2004 book, Beyond the Call of Duty. A helicopter crew can fire their weapons from the side doors to hold the enemy at bay while executing a rescue, but Id be defenseless while sitting on the ground.
It made no logical sense, but I felt a strong impression that I should do this. Jump was one of the family one of the fellows we flew with and I couldn't stand by and watch him get murdered without at least trying to rescue him.
The odds of coming out again were not good. He would be landing in a crossfire from 20 anti-aircraft gun positions that lined the valley. The enemy also had hundreds of automatic weapons. The runway was a major hazard. The pierced steel planking was slick, and shards of it torn by the mortars and bombs were sticking up and could rip airplane tires to shreds. The runway was cratered and littered with shell casings, pieces of Myers aircraft, barrels, pieces of tin and metal, and other debris.
Fisher counted on the other A-1s to provide him fire support. He approached the airstrip from the north, which would give him the advantage of landing into the wind, helping him to slow down. Unfortunately, the wind was also blowing thick smoke from fires ignited by the bombs and napalm in his direction, obscuring his vision. When he broke out of the smoke, he saw that he was over the runway but too far along it to stop the airplane in the distance remaining. As he passed by at low level, he caught a glimpse of Myers.
He powered up, holding the aircraft a few feet above the ground to avoid ground fire, made an S-turn, and approached the runway from the opposite direction of his first attempt.
The other three A-1s continued to strafe to cover Fisher as he went in. Vazquez went Winchester (out of ammo) on the first pass. After three more passes, the others ran out of ammunition, too.
"I'm Winchester", Hague declared.
So am I, said Lucas. Lets keep making passes, though. Maybe they dont know it.
Fisher touched down at the very end of the field, stood on the brakes, and skidded down the runway. His brakes began fading from heat at 2,000 feet.
The second landing attempt was successful although violent braking and rudder action was not always successful in avoiding debris on the battle-torn runway, Lt. Gen. Joseph H. Moore, 2nd Air Division commander, said in nominating Fisher for the Medal of Honor. Major Fisher utilized all his flying skill to miss mortar craters, shell casings, and pieces of the A-1E which now littered the runway as a result of the fuel tank explosion.
Also, Fisher had been told wrong about the length of the runway. It was 2,500 feet, not 3,500. It was too short for an A-1 under any circumstances. He overran the runway onto some grass and crossed a small embankment, which slowed him down a little. As he swung the aircraft around, he slid into a fuel storage area. His wings passed over the tops of some 55-gallon drums, although he hit several of them with the tail of the airplane.
Fisher taxied 1,800 feet back along the runway in full view of the enemy. He saw Myers waving his arms as he passed by. It took Fisher about 100 feet to stop. He couldn't see Myers, who was running behind the airplane, off to the right side, with bullets following him along. Myers later said it was the fastest dash an old man of 46 ever made. Fisher expected Myers to climb into the cockpit momentarily. When he didn't, Fisher figured Myers must have been hit. He unbuckled and set the brake to go looking for him.
As Fisher climbed out on the right side of the airplane, he saw two little red beady eyes trying to crawl up the back of the wing. It was Myers, his clothes burned and muddy and his eyes reddened by smoke.
Fisher had left the engine running fairly fast, ready for a quick getaway, and the airflow from the big four-bladed propeller was blowing Myers back as he tried to reach the cockpit. Fisher cut power to idle, risking a stall. As bullets continued to strike the aircraft, he pulled Myers into the cockpit head first.
Myers first words were: You dumb son of a bitch, now neither of us will get out of here. He drank some water from Fishers canteen and asked for a cigarette. Fisher did not have any.
As Fisher pulled Myers aboard, Lucas who had taken a severe hit in his hydraulic system led Hague and Vazquez in a dry pass over the camp. The three Spads went hurtling by at low level. It was enough to hold the NVA back momentarily.
Turning his aircraft around, Major Fisher saw that he had less than two-thirds of an already too short airstrip ahead of him, Moore said in the Medal of Honor write-up. Calling on all his skill, he applied power and worked his way through wreckage and debris, gaining enough speed to lift off at the overrun. Flying just above the ground at insufficient airspeed to climb, he gradually built up speed, still under intense hostile fire, and began a climb into the 800-foot overcast above the valley.
According to one report, the defenders in the fort cheered as Fishers A-1 roared down the strip and rose into the air.
Fisher and Myers flew to Pleiku, where the medics met them at the flight line. Myers was not badly hurt, although he was singed and covered in soot and smelled awful, according to Fisher.
Myers wanted to buy Fisher a years worth of whiskey, but Fisher didn't even drink coffee. Instead, Myers gave him a Nikon camera engraved, A Shau, March 10, 1966.
Fishers airplane had 19 holes in it. There were 23 in Vazquezs.
In all, 201 air strikes were flown in support of the fort on March 10. Of these, 103 were by the Marine Corps, 67 by the Air Force, 19 by the Navy, and 12 by the South Vietnamese Air Force. Including Myers A-1E and the gunship, six Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft were shot down in the effort.
The Medal Of Honor
Fisher was awarded the Medal of Honor, the first airman in the Vietnam War to receive it. It was presented by President Johnson at the White House, Jan. 19, 1967. His wife, Realla, and their five sons were present for the ceremony.
The aircraft Fisher flew in the A Shau Valley later crashed and burned at Pleiku as it was returning from a mission. However, it was recovered and restored. In 1967, it was flown by none other than Jump Myers from California to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, where it can be seen today.
Col Bernie Fisher passed away on 16 Aug 2014.
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Thanks to Chucker
This is the only Oath I have ever needed. And I still live by it.
"I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. "
Chucker
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This Day in U S Military History
March 20
1916 – Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1917 – Gideon Sundback, Swedish-born engineer, patented an all-purpose zipper while working for the Automatic Hook and Eye Co. of Hoboken, New Jersey. The zipper name was coined by B.F. Goodrich in 1923, who used it to fasten rubber galoshes.
1918 – The Bolsheviks asked for American aid to rebuild their army.
1922 – The 11,500-ton Langley was commissioned into the U.S. Navy as America's first aircraft carrier. Langley was not regarded as a beautiful ship. Her flight deck was 533 feet long and 64 feet wide with an open-sided hanger deck, inspiring the nickname "the Old Covered Wagon." Under the leadership of Commander Kenneth Whiting, Langley served as a base for reconnaissance aircraft and a laboratory to develop new procedures for launching and recovering planes, such as the use of cross-deck arresting wires to brake incoming aircraft.
1954 – After a force of 60,000 Viet Minh with heavy artillery had surrounded 16,000 French troops, news of Dien Bien Phu's impending fall reaches Washington. French General Henri Navarre had positioned his forces 200 miles behind enemy lines in a remote area adjacent to the Laotian border. He hoped to draw the communists into a set-piece battle in which he supposed superior French firepower would prevail. He underestimated the enemy. Viet Minh General Vo Nguyen Giap entrenched artillery in the surrounding mountains and massed five divisions around the French positions. The battle, which far exceeded the size and scope of anything to date in the war between the French and the Viet Minh, began with a massive Viet Minh artillery barrage and was followed by an infantry assault. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and other members of the Eisenhower administration were stunned at the turn of events and discussions were held to decide on a course of action. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Arthur Radford proposed the use of nuclear strikes against the Viet Minh. Other options included massive conventional air strikes, paratrooper drops, and the mining of Haiphong Harbor. In the end, President Eisenhower decided that the situation was too far gone and ordered no action to be taken to aid the French. Fierce fighting continued at Dien Bien Phu until May 7, 1954, when the Viet Minh overran the last French positions. The shock at the fall of Dien Bien Phu led France, already plagued by public opposition to the war, to agree to grant independence to Vietnam at the Geneva Conference in 1954.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*VILLEGAS, YSMAEL R.
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company F, 127th Infantry, 32d Infantry Division. Place and date: Villa Verde Trail, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 20 March 1945. Entered service at: Casa Blanca, Calif. Birth: Casa Blanca, Calif. G.O. No.: 89, 19 October 1945. Citation: He was a squad leader when his unit, in a forward position, clashed with an enemy strongly entrenched in connected caves and foxholes on commanding ground. He moved boldly from man to man, in the face of bursting grenades and demolition charges, through heavy machinegun and rifle fire, to bolster the spirit of his comrades. Inspired by his gallantry, his men pressed forward to the crest of the hill. Numerous enemy riflemen, refusing to flee, continued firing from their foxholes. S/Sgt. Villegas, with complete disregard for his own safety and the bullets which kicked up the dirt at his feet, charged an enemy position, and, firing at point-blank range killed the Japanese in a foxhole. He rushed a second foxhole while bullets missed him by inches, and killed 1 more of the enemy. In rapid succession he charged a third, a fourth, a fifth foxhole, each time destroying the enemy within. The fire against him increased in intensity, but he pressed onward to attack a sixth position. As he neared his goal, he was hit and killed by enemy fire. Through his heroism and indomitable fighting spirit, S/Sgt. Villegas, at the cost of his life, inspired his men to a determined attack in which they swept the enemy from the field.
HAGEMEISTER, CHARLES CHRIS
Rank and organization: Specialist Fifth Class (then Sp4c.) U .S. Army, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). Place and date: Binh Dinh Province, Republic of Vietnam, 20 March 1967. Entered service at: Lincoln, Nebr. Born: 21 August 1946, Lincoln, Nebr. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While conducting combat operations against a hostile force, Sp5c. Hagemeister's platoon suddenly came under heavy attack from 3 sides by an enemy force occupying well concealed, fortified positions and supported by machine guns and mortars. Seeing 2 of his comrades seriously wounded in the initial action, Sp5c. Hagemeister unhesitatingly and with total disregard for his safety, raced through the deadly hail of enemy fire to provide them medical aid. Upon learning that the platoon leader and several other soldiers also had been wounded, Sp5c. Hagemeister continued to brave the withering enemy fire and crawled forward to render lifesaving treatment and to offer words of encouragement. Attempting to evacuate the seriously wounded soldiers, Sp5c. Hagemeister was taken under fire at close range by an enemy sniper. Realizing that the lives of his fellow soldiers depended on his actions, Sp5c. Hagemeister seized a rifle from a fallen comrade, killed the sniper, 3 other enemy soldiers who were attempting to encircle his position and silenced an enemy machine gun that covered the area with deadly fire. Unable to remove the wounded to a less exposed location and aware of the enemy's efforts to isolate his unit, he dashed through the fusillade of fire to secure help from a nearby platoon. Returning with help, he placed men in positions to cover his advance as he moved to evacuate the wounded forward of his location. These efforts successfully completed, he then moved to the other flank and evacuated additional wounded men despite the fact that his every move drew fire from the enemy. Sp5c. Hagemeister's repeated heroic and selfless actions at the risk of his life saved the lives of many of his comrades and inspired their actions in repelling the enemy assault. Sp5c. Hagemeister's indomitable courage was in the highest traditions of the U.S. Armed Forces and reflect great credit upon himself.
*KAWAMURA, TERRY TERUO
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, 173d Engineer Company, 173d Airborne Brigade, Republic of Vietnam. Place and date: Camp Radcliff, Republic of Vietnam, 20 March 1969. Entered service at: Oahu, Hawaii. Born. 10 December 1949, Wahiawa, Oahu, Hawaii. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Cpl. Kawamura distinguished himself by heroic action while serving as a member of the 173d Engineer Company. An enemy demolition team infiltrated the unit quarters area and opened fire with automatic weapons. Disregarding the intense fire, Cpl. Kawamura ran for his weapon. At that moment, a violent explosion tore a hole in the roof and stunned the occupants of the room. Cpl. Kawamura jumped to his feet, secured his weapon and, as he ran toward the door to return the enemy fire, he observed that another explosive charge had been thrown through the hole in the roof to the floor. He immediately realized that 2 stunned fellow soldiers were in great peril and shouted a warning. Although in a position to escape, Cpl. Kawamura unhesitatingly wheeled around and threw himself on the charge. In completely disregarding his safety, Cpl. Kawamura prevented serious injury or death to several members of his unit. The extraordinary courage and selflessness displayed by Cpl. Kawamura are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for March 20, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
20 March
1909: The Herring-Curtiss Company formed to build airplanes with a capital stock of $360,000. (24)
1918: The 28th Pursuit Squadron was attached by flights to various RAF squadrons on the British Front in France. (5)
1922: The Navy commissioned its first airplane carrier, the USS Langley (the Jupiter, a converted Collier, or coal ship), at Norfolk, Va. (24)
1932: The Boeing XP-26, prototype for the P-26 Peashooter, first flew. It was the first all-metal monoplane fighter purchased by the Army and the last pursuit plane with an open cockpit and fixed landing gear. (5) (21)
1942: The Douglas C-54 Skymaster entered military service. (18)
1952: KOREAN WAR. In the Sui-ho Reservoir area in Korea, MiG-15s attacked a USAF patrol. The F-86 pilots destroyed five MiGs and damaged approximately 13 others. (28)
1953: The ZP2N-1, a production model of the postwar "N" Class nonrigid airship (975,000 cubic feet), designed for midocean anti-submarine warfare, made its first flight. Twelve such airships were procured. (24)
1964: The 50th Minuteman launched from Cape Canaveral. (5)
1966: The 43 BMW at Davis-Monthan AFB received the first KC-135Q. It was an A model modified to carry the special fuel for the SR-71 Blackbird. (18)
1967: USAFE released nine bases in France to the Military Liquidation Section under Project Fast Relocations. (4)
1970: A Thor-Delta rocket carried a 535-pound NATO I military satellite, the first of two, into stationary orbit over the Atlantic from the Eastern Test Range. It contained X-band communications systems. (26)
1977: In the third and final flight of the materials screening vehicle program, an Athena D launched from Wallops Island with three reentry vehicles to gather data on nose tip materials and designs. (5)
1979: Boeing rolled out ALCM Flight Test Missile No. 1. (12)
1984: The 23 TFW at England AFB, La., received the 713th and last A-10 ordered by the USAF. (11)
1991: An Air Force F-15C flown by Capt. John Doneski on patrol over Iraq shoots down an Su-22 Fitter that is flying in violation of the cease-fire agreement with an AIM-9 near Tikrit. A second Su-22 then landed at Tikrit Air Base
2003: Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. Conventional US and coalition ground forces invaded Iraq. (32)
2006: The C-17 Globemaster III fleet surpassed its millionth flight hour during a mission to evacuate injured US troops from Iraq to Germany for medical treatment. Colonel William O. Hill, the 172 AW Commander (Mississippi ANG) from Allen C. Thompson ANGB at Jackson International Airport, flew C-17 (tail no. 03-3113) on the mission. (22)
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I Guess we considered ourselves a different breed of cat, right in the beginning. We flew through the air and the other people walked on the ground; it was as simple as that."
Gen Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz, First USAF Chief of Staff, 1947 First President of the Air Force Historical Foundation, 1953
(Carl Spaatz and the crew of the "Question Mark" that flew for 7 consecutive days above Pasadena, CA. in 1929)
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