To All,
Good Tuesday Morning April 18 2023
I hope that your week is off to a good start.
Regards,
Skip
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This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History
April 18
1848
U.S. Navy expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan, commanded by Lt. William F. Lynch, reaches the Dead Sea.
1906
U.S. Navy assists in relief operations during the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Sailors and Marines fight fires and ships carry the homeless and injured to Vallejo, where medical personnel established emergency facilities.
1942
The Doolittle Raid begins with 16 Army Air Force B-25 bombers launching earlier than expected from USS Hornet (CV 8), approximately 650 miles off Japan, after being spotted by enemy ships. It is the first attack by the U.S. of the Japanese mainland since Pearl Harbor. Most of the 16 B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attack the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya. Embarrassed, the Japanese revise plans and six weeks later attack the American carrier group near Midway sooner than expected.
1943
U.S. Army Air Force P-38s off Bougainville, using signals intelligence, shoot down plane carrying Imperial Japanese Navy Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet.
1945
USS Heerman (DD 532), USS McCord (DD 534), USS Mertz (DD 691), and USS Collett (DD 730), with assistance from destroyer USS Uhlmann (DD 687) and TBM Avenger aircraft (VT 47) from USS Bataan (CVL 29), sink the Japanese submarine I 56, 150 miles east of Okinawa.
1958
Lt. Cmdr. G.C. Watkins flying a Grumman F11F-1F Tiger at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for the second time in three days sets a world altitude record of 76,938 feet.
1988
During Operation Praying Mantis, Navy ships and Navy and Marine aircraft strike Iranian oil platforms, sink the Iranian frigate Sahand and smaller boats, and damage the frigate Sabalan in retaliation for when USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) hit an Iranian mine four days earlier.
2009
USS Stockdale (DDG 106) is commissioned at Naval Construction Battalion Center Port Hueneme, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is named after Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale.
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This Day in World History
April 18
310 St. Eusebius of Vercelli begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
1521 Martin Luther confronts the emperor Charles V, refusing to retract the views which led to his excommunication.
1676 Sudbury, Massachusetts is attacked by Indians.
1775 American revolutionaries Paul Revere and William Dawes ride though the towns of Massachusetts warning that "the British are coming."
1791 National Guardsmen prevent Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
1818 A regiment of Indians and blacks is defeated at the Battle of Suwannee, in Florida, ending the First Seminole War.
1834 William Lamb becomes prime minister of England.
1838 The Wilkes' expedition to the South Pole sets sail.
1847 U.S. forces defeat Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the Mexican-American War.
1853 The first train in Asia begins running from Bombay to Tanna.
1861 Colonel Robert E. Lee turns down an offer to command the Union armies.
1895 The First Sino-Japanese War ends.
1906 A massive earthquake hits San Francisco, measuring 8.25 on the Richter scale.
1923 Yankee Stadium opens with Babe Ruth hitting a three-run homer as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-1.
1937 Leon Trotsky calls for the overthrow of Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1942 James H. Doolittle bombs Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
1943 Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, is shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1946 The League of Nations dissolves.
1949 The Republic of Ireland withdraws from British Commonwealth.
1950 The first transatlantic jet passenger trip is completed.
1954 Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power in Egypt.
1978 The U.S. Senate approves the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1980 Zimbabwe's (Rhodesia) formal independence from Britain is proclaimed.
1983 A suicide bomber kills U.S. Marines at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon.
The April 18, 1983, United States embassy bombing was a suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans. The victims were mostly embassy and CIA staff members, but also included several U.S. soldiers and one U.S. Marine Security Guard. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission up to that time, and was considered the beginning of Islamist attacks on U.S. targets.
The attack came in the wake of an intervention in the Lebanese Civil War by the U.S. and other Western countries, which sought to restore order and central government authority.
The next bombing on 23 October was Horrific.
1906
On April 18, 1906, at 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close to 8.0 on the Richter scale strikes San Francisco, California, killing an estimated 3,000 people as it topples numerous buildings. The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.
San Francisco's brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and–because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping them–firestorms soon developed citywide. At 7 a.m., U.S. Army troops from Fort Mason reported to the Hall of Justice, and San Francisco Mayor E.E. Schmitz called for the enforcement of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and authorized soldiers to shoot to kill anyone found looting. Meanwhile, in the face of significant aftershocks, firefighters and U.S. troops fought desperately to control the ongoing fire, often dynamiting whole city blocks to create firewalls. On April 20, several thousands of refugees trapped by the massive fire were evacuated from the foot of Van Ness Avenue. The army would eventually house 20,000 refugees in more than 20 military-style tent camps across the city.
By April 23, most fires were extinguished, and authorities commenced the task of rebuilding the devastated metropolis. It was estimated that some 3,000 people died as a result of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and the devastating fires it inflicted upon the city. Almost 30,000 buildings were destroyed, including most of the city's homes and nearly all the central business district.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post
Skip… For The List for Tuesday, 18 April 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 18 April 1968… Operations in the Panhandle from "To Hanoi and Back" by Wayne Thompson
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
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If you did not have to memorize it when you were in school Here it is. I only remember the first verse. The rest of the brain cells have deteriorated over the last many years.
Paul Revere's Ride
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
________________________________________
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,-- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up and to arm."
Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore, Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and spar Across the moon like a prison bar, And a huge black hulk, that was magnified By its own reflection in the tide.
Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street Wanders and watches, with eager ears, Till in the silence around him he hears The muster of men at the barrack door, The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, And the measured tread of the grenadiers, Marching down to their boats on the shore.
Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church, By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, To the belfry chamber overhead, And startled the pigeons from their perch On the sombre rafters, that round him made Masses and moving shapes of shade,-- By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, To the highest window in the wall, Where he paused to listen and look down A moment on the roofs of the town And the moonlight flowing over all.
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, In their night encampment on the hill, Wrapped in silence so deep and still That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread, The watchful night-wind, as it went Creeping along from tent to tent, And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread Of the lonely belfry and the dead; For suddenly all his thoughts are bent On a shadowy something far away, Where the river widens to meet the bay,-- A line of black that bends and floats On the rising tide like a bridge of boats.
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near, Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, And turned and tightened his saddle girth; But mostly he watched with eager search The belfry tower of the Old North Church, As it rose above the graves on the hill, Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight A second lamp in the belfry burns.
A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet; That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, The fate of a nation was riding that night; And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep, And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep, Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; And under the alders that skirt its edge, Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge, Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down.
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare, Gaze at him with a spectral glare, As if they already stood aghast At the bloody work they would look upon.
It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees, And felt the breath of the morning breeze Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall, Who that day would be lying dead, Pierced by a British musket ball.
You know the rest. In the books you have read How the British Regulars fired and fled,--- How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again Under the trees at the turn of the road, And only pausing to fire and load.
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm,--- A cry of defiance, and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, In the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere.
And now thanks to Charles to bust your bubble here is some more info on the ride CASHIN'S COMMENTS THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013 [AN ENCORE PRESENTATION] On this day in 1775, there occurred one of the best known yet most misunderstood events in American history. Thanks to Longfellow's famous poem, popularly but mistakenly called, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,"
nearly every schoolchild has heard of "that famous day and year."
But most of the image of the poem, while stirring, is not correct. Revere was not a volunteer. He didn't ride alone. He never finished the ride and he didn't hang any lanterns in the Old North Church.
Actually, Revere's heritage was French. He was Appollos Rivoire before a name change. Revere was a patriot, of course. He was one of the "Indians" at the Boston Tea Party. He had been active in many pre-revolutionary groups. But that night he was serving as a paid messenger, a role he had often before served. (He actually submitted a bill for his famous ride.) Historians also believe the ride started at a time earlier than midnight.
The lanterns signaling "one if by land and two if by sea" were actually set by church sexton, Robert Newman. The signal meant the British regulars were setting out to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams (two higher profile patriots) at Lexington and then to seize a stash of revolutionary arms and gunpowder at Concord.
Revere and a co-rider William Dawes rented horses and set out on their ride. They made it to Lexington, warning Adams and Hancock. They were joined by Dr. Samuel Prescott. On the way to Concord, Dawes and Revere were arrested. (Speeding?) Prescott, however got through and so the patriots were ready the next day to fire "the shot heard round the world."
And sources say that Revere didn't shout, "The British are coming!" Rather it is believed he called out - "Awake! The Regulars are out!" (How riveting.)
And finally despite thousands of barroom bets that Revere's horse was "Brown Betty", no one knows the name of the horse. (Not even the Boston Historical Society - it was rented after all!)
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Thanks to Mugs
Commentary
How the nation's Corps of Marines has lost its way
By Maj. Gen. James Livingston (retired) and Col. Jay Vargas (retired)
Monday April 10
Force Design 2030 and Talent Management 2030 will change how Marines fight and how they see themselves, two retired Marine leaders say. (Cpl. Kyle Jia/Marine Corps)
The United States Marine Corps is facing irreparable damage from two well intended but ill-conceived concept documents.
One already has devastated its offensive spirit and capabilities. The other is destined to erode the ethos and undermine the special identity of its Marines.
Force Design 2030 and Talent Management 2030 will change how Marines fight and how they see themselves. They will dim the pride that once characterized the Marine Corps in the eyes of the American people. They will erode confidence inside and outside the Corps that United States Marines can locate, close with and destroy the enemy today and in the future.
Marines always have seen themselves as different: America's shock troops, with one foot on land and the other foot at sea. Marines pride themselves on being the most ready when the nation is least ready; the country's premier 9-1-1 force, ready to deploy anywhere, anytime, fight any foe and win.
The American people always have seen their Marines as something special – young and energetic, characterized by selfless service, raw courage and dependability.
A refrain often heard on graduation day at the recruit depots is, "I sent you a boy (or girl), you sent me back a man (or woman)."
The national security establishment has seen the nation's Corps of Marines as ready and eager to fight; just over the horizon but always close enough to show American resolve or respond quickly to any situation, anywhere before it gets out of hand.
During a developing crisis or contingency, the question frequently asked by decision-makers is, "Where are the aircraft carriers and where are the Marines?"
They know Marines can be depended upon to fight and win if called upon.
This trilogy of converging perspectives and expectations has shaped the ethos of America's Marines, from Tripoli to Afghanistan and on every battlefield, in every skirmish, and during every humanitarian assistance and disaster relief response in between.
Generation after generation of Americans have grown accustomed to the familiar headline, "The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand."
But ethos is fragile.
Unlike force structure and equipment, which can be rebuilt if lost, ethos, once extinguished, is gone forever.
Ethos is a state of mind that allows Marines to boast with pride, "The difficult we do right away, the impossible takes a little longer."
President Ronald Reagan honored all Marines and the special place they hold in America's conscience when he said: "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem."
Unfortunately, future Marines will have that problem unless the course presently charted is reversed.
The Marine Corps is being significantly weakened by unwise cuts in its force structure and equipment and reductions in Navy amphibious and maritime prepositioning ships; divestments that undermine its congressionally mandated responsibilities as a combined arms force-in-readiness. And, by personnel management approaches that erode esprit, teamwork and identity.
Consider the following:
• The elimination of all armor, scout sniper platoons in infantry battalions, and bridging coupled with drastic cuts in infantry, cannon artillery, assault amphibious vehicles, aviation, military police, assault beaching and combat service support have crippled Marine Corps capabilities to respond to global crises and contingences across the spectrum of conflict.
These capabilities were sacrificed on the "divest to invest" altar for future, experimental weapons that will only duplicate what other services already have in sufficient numbers.
The Marine air-ground task force, historically the first to arrive on scene with the combat power and sustainment to persist and win "in every clime and place," is being emasculated to self-fund an essentially one-dimensional coastal defense force.
• The gutting of the maritime prepositioning force and the dramatic reductions in amphibious ships and their readiness to deploy have significantly and adversely impacted Marine Corps forward presence and crisis response.
• The focus away from infantry, youth and shared experiences are destroying the values that make Marines different.
"Every Marine a rifleman" is at best an empty slogan, as infantry skills are devalued to make way for computer and other technical skills.
An older force is seen as preferable to a younger, more adventurous force.
To be blunt, Unites States Marines increasingly are irrelevant to the National Command Authority and to the combatant commanders. It seems the Army's 18th Airborne Corps has replaced Marines as the nation's premier 9-1-1 force.
The American people fail to understand why Marines train, look and talk more like the other services. Some Marines may no longer see themselves as a breed apart.
The damage is not irreversible, providing future commandants begin the process to build back essential warfighting capabilities and restore an ethos that values the infantry, an offensive spirit, and combined arms.
Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James Livingston (retired) is a career infantry officer. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor while serving as the commanding officer, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines during the Battle of Dai Do in Vietnam.
Marine Corps Col. Jay Vargas (retired) is a career infantry officer. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor while serving as the commanding officer, Company G, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines during the Battle of Dai Do in Vietnam.
Col Vargas lives in Poway and for many years he had breakfast at the same café that my friend Mac and I did. He was a very quiet man who was always involved with events around Poway and the surrounding area.
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
The Apollo 11 astronauts had to fill out a customs form for their lunar samples.
After spending eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds in space — with 21 of those hours spent on the moon — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down 920 miles southwest of Hawaii. The three NASA astronauts had achieved the seemingly impossible on a mission that was the very definition of "otherworldly." But once back on Earth, they were back in the clutches of human bureaucracy — because after they landed, the Apollo 11 heroes had to fill out a U.S. Customs form.
Later posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website in honor of the flight's 40th anniversary in 2009, the straight-laced form belies the very unearthly information written on the page. Flight number? Apollo 11. Layover? Moon. Cargo? Moon rock and moon dust samples. Anything that could lead to the spread of disease? TBD. NASA has confirmed that the form is authentic, though one spokesperson described it as "a little joke" played on the astronauts upon their return. Today, astronauts still go through customs on their way to and from the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield described passing through customs in Kazakhstan — after glimpsing the entire world through a small window only hours before — as "a funny but necessary detail of returning to Earth."
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
Daily Memo: The Logic of American Strategy and War
By: George Friedman
April 18, 2023
In recent weeks I have focused on the social and economic evolution of the United States. Obviously, we also need to discuss U.S. strategic policy. Domestic policy tends to be more dynamic than strategic policy, which follows from more persistent things like imperatives. The United States is secure from an attack on land. Neither Canada nor Mexico has the ability to wage or interest in waging a land war against the United States. Therefore, the fundamental threat to American national security must come from the sea. Still, American strategy has within it a logic. It lacks the cyclical logic of domestic politics but is shaped by the necessities imposed by place and enemies.
America's entry into World War I was triggered by a German attack on U.S. shipping. In World War II, Washington's key motive was the same. If Germany cut off lines of supply between the U.S. and Britain, it could isolate Britain and attack it at will. Having secured the Atlantic and a base of operations in Britain, Germany could threaten the East Coast. In the Pacific, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, if fought sensibly, could have secured sea lanes from Hawaii to the West Coast and possibly enabled Japan to impose its will there. Even the Cold War was primarily naval. Germany was indeed the line of contact with the Soviet Union, but the vital supply lines ran from the U.S. to Europe, and NATO could be crippled by cutting off those supplies. Toward that end, the Russians deployed submarines and supersonic anti-ship systems.
The Germans (twice), the Soviets and the Japanese each saw the defense of their nations as rooted in maritime war against the United States. The German failure permitted D-Day to take place, the Soviet failure made a Soviet ground offensive in Europe impossible, and the Japanese failure led to Hiroshima and the U.S. occupation of Japan. In each case, the ability of the U.S. to maintain lines of supply and block enemy attacks was the key to the defense of the United States and its economy, and in each case, American strategy was built on deterrence. In the event that U.S. security was not entirely at risk at sea, Washington created barriers to block enemy powers from moving assets toward Atlantic or Pacific ports. It was understood that the immediate threat might be trivial compared to the long-term threat. Therefore, it was essential to engage Germany as early as possible – to contain the long-term threat while it still entailed combating ground forces and before the sea threat had fully materialized. This was also critical in the Pacific against Japan. It should be noted that in Vietnam, where the U.S. had no land-sea strategy, matters ended badly.
In Ukraine, there is an element of this strategy. Russia, if it were to defeat Ukraine, would be at NATO's border and could attack westward. The U.S. is practicing a strategy of preemption at a relatively low cost in terms of U.S. casualties to prevent the very unlikely move of Russia to the Atlantic coast. Maritime action is used to drive back land forces. This was the strategy used against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and it is now being used against Russian forces in Ukraine. In this use of sea power, there is significant indirectness designed to impose an element of risk on ground forces deep in their own territory. It is a strategy normally too subtle to easily see.
Therefore, U.S. naval strategy in Ukraine is designed primarily to block waterways that could facilitate Russian movement – namely the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. It is not the heart of the broader U.S. strategy.
It is with respect to China that this strategy is being most seriously tested. The primary strategy of the U.S. must be to maintain control of the Pacific and maintain lines of supply to allies to prevent an opening for China. The heart of the strategy is to apply varying pressures on China so that it is forced to balance and rebalance its forces. As an example, China's seizing Taiwan is not possible given the time needed for a task force to reach the Taiwan coast, during which it would be open to attack by the United States. This limits the ultimate Chinese threat to the U.S. coasts. Naval warfare (and here I include naval air power, as has been normal since World War II) combines two strategies, one limiting Chinese movement at sea and the other opening the possibility of threatening the Chinese homeland.
The Chinese constantly threaten Taiwan, but until now they have never acted because of the likely intervention of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. has a far inferior ground force – primarily to be transported by naval power, which would be a challenge – to pose a threat to a Chinese invasion. It is naval power that prevents Chinese action. There is a logic between the United States and China, a logic of geography, technology and fear that is in its way consistent and ties us in an internal cycle that naval war generates.
Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan wrote the book on this strategy more than a century ago. It is a strategy that is still in place, replete with subtle interaction with land power. When U.S. military action was unsuccessful, as in Vietnam, it failed either because the terrain was not susceptible to naval power or because naval power was not used. However, as I have tried to show, U.S. warfighting strategy, particularly on the strategic level, has never changed. China is constrained by that power, Russia is blocked from effective use of waters on its periphery, and other hostile powers seek to avoid U.S. naval power, whereas the U.S. uses it as a central force.
The idea of a consistent domestic model is more difficult to grasp than that of a consistent military strategy. But the latter has a persistent reality of geography and a persistent solution of naval power aligned with technology and strategy. Even when the connection between naval power and a war deep on land seems to make that strategy pointless, there is constant pressure for the enemy to go to sea. The Soviet Union was forced to enter the North Atlantic as was Germany in spite of their focus on land operations. It is vital to understand the naval dimension of all American wars.
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 18
1775 – In Massachusetts, British troops march out of Boston on a mission to confiscate the Patriot arsenal at Concord and to capture Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock, known to be hiding at Lexington. As the British departed, Boston Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes set out on horseback from the city to warn Adams and Hancock and rouse the Patriot minutemen. By 1775, tensions between the American colonies and the British government approached the breaking point, especially in Massachusetts, where Patriot leaders formed a shadow revolutionary government and trained militias to prepare for armed conflict with the British troops occupying Boston. In the spring of 1775, General Thomas Gage, the British governor of Massachusetts, received instructions from England to seize all stores of weapons and gunpowder accessible to the American insurgents. On April 18, he ordered British troops to march against Concord and Lexington. The Boston Patriots had been preparing for such a British military action for some time, and upon learning of the British plan Revere and Dawes set off across the Massachusetts countryside. Taking separate routes in case one of them were captured, Dawes left Boston by the Boston Neck peninsula, and Revere crossed the Charles River to Charlestown by boat. As the two couriers made their way, Patriots in Charlestown waited for a signal from Boston informing them of the British troop movement. As previously agreed, one lantern would be hung in the steeple of Boston's Old North Church, the highest point in the city, if the British were marching out of the city by Boston Neck, and two if they were crossing the Charles River to Cambridge. Two lanterns were hung, and the armed Patriots set out for Lexington and Concord accordingly. Along the way, Revere and Dawes roused hundreds of minutemen, who armed themselves and set out to oppose the British. Revere arrived in Lexington shortly before Dawes, but together they warned Adams and Hancock and then set out for Concord. Along the way, they were joined by Samuel Prescott, a young Patriot who had been riding home after visiting a friend. Early in the morning of April 19, a British patrol captured Revere, and Dawes lost his horse, forcing him to walk back to Lexington on foot. However, Prescott escaped and rode on to Concord to warn the Patriots there. After being roughly questioned for an hour or two, Revere was released when the patrol heard minutemen alarm guns being fired on their approach to Lexington. Around 5 a.m., 700 British troops under Major John Pitcairn arrived at the town to find a 77-man-strong colonial militia under Captain John Parker waiting for them on Lexington's common green. Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.
1806 – Putatively hoping to locate sailors who had deserted the Royal Navy, the British began to impress American merchant ships. Though the deserters often took refuge on American vessels, the British often simply seized any sailors–deserters or no–who failed to prove their American citizenship. So, on this day in 1806, Congress fired back at England by passing the Nicholson Act (nee the Non-Importation Act), legislation which effectively shut the door on the importation of numerous British goods to America. The legislation blocked the trade of brass, tin, textiles and other items that could either be produced in the States or imported from other countries. The Nicholson Act took effect in December of 1806; but, a mere month later, President Thomas Jefferson lifted the trade blockade in hopes of speeding treaty negotiations with Britain. U.S. Minister James Monroe brokered a deal with Britain, albeit one that did little to spare America's commercial ships. In 1808, the government reinstated the Nicholson Act, though it did little to prevent America and England from sailing into another war.
1847 – U.S. forces defeated the Mexicans at Cerro Gordo in one of the bloodiest battle of the war. On 12 April, Lieutenant Pierre G. T. Beauregard, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, had determined that possession of Atalaya Hill would enable the Mexican position to be turned, and on 15 April, Captain Robert E. Lee discovered a path around the Mexican left to the hill. General David E. Twiggs' division took the hill on 17 April, advancing up the slopes to El Telegrafo. Santa Anna reinforced El Telegrafo with Brigadier General Ciriaco Vasquez's 2d Light, 4th, and 11th Infantry. Captain Edward J. Steptoe set up his battery on Atalaya Hill and Major James C. Burnham set up a howitzer across the river. At 7:00 am on 18 April, Twiggs directed William S. Harney's brigade to move against the front of El Telegrafo while Bennett C. Riley attacked from the rear. The combination easily took the hill, killing General Vasquez, and Captain John B. Magruder turned the Mexican guns on the retreating Mexicans. Simultaneously, James Shields' brigade attacked the Mexican camp and took possession of the Jalapa road. Once they realized they were surrounded, the Mexican commanders on the three hills surrendered and by 10:00 am, the remaining Mexican forces fled. General Santa Anna, caught off guard by the Fourth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry, was compelled to ride off without his artificial leg, which was captured by U.S. forces and is still on display at the Illinois State Military Museum, in Springfield, Illinois.
1942 – From the decks of the USS Hornet, Col. Doolittle leads 16 B-25 bombers for a raid on Tokyo. They launch from the maximum range, 650 miles from their target. Essentially unarmed to extend their flying range, the B-25's fly unmolested to Tokyo and drop their bombs, proceeding to China where they land at the very limits of their fuel. Although the bombing does minimal damage physically, the psychological impact is great. For the Americans, this raid symbolizes the first "strike back" at the Japanese and raises American morale substantially. The Japanese, buoyed by their constant success in the Pacific are now forced to contemplate the implications of the war if it is allowed to be carried to Japanese soil. This change in Japanese attitude will affect military decisions in such crucial battles as the battle of Midway and the Coral Sea. For the Americans, the raid signifies that the Japanese are not invulnerable and therefore can ultimately be defeated.
1943 – Traveling in a bomber, Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, was shot down by American P-38 fighters.
1943 – An aircraft carrying the Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Admiral Yamamoto, is shot down by P-38 Lighting fighters over Bougainville. Yamamoto is killed. This action is the result the interception of a coded Japanese message announcing a visit by Yamamoto. The Japanese fail to deduce that their codes are insecure.
1943 – A massive convoy of 100 transport aircraft leaves Sicily with supplies for the Axis forces. At least half the planes are shot down by Allied fighters.
1945 – Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire on the island of Ie Shima. After his death, President Harry S. Truman spoke of how Pyle "told the story of the American fighting man as the American fighting men wanted it told." He was buried in his hometown of Dana, Indiana, next to local soldiers who had fallen in battle. During World War II, journalist Ernie Pyle, America's most popular war correspondent, is killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific. Pyle, born in Dana, Indiana, first began writing a column for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain in 1935. Eventually syndicated to some 200 U.S. newspapers, Pyle's column, which related the lives and hopes of typical citizens, captured America's affection. In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, Pyle went overseas as a war correspondent. He covered the North Africa campaign, the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and on June 7, 1944, went ashore at Normandy the day after Allied forces landed. Pyle, who always wrote about the experiences of enlisted men rather than the battles they participated in, described the D-Day scene: "It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn't know they were in the water, for they were dead." The same year, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence and in 1945 traveled to the Pacific to cover the war against Japan.
1949 – The keel for the aircraft carrier USS United States is laid down at Newport News Drydock and Shipbuilding. However, construction is canceled five days later, this would be the last straw culminating in the Revolt of the Admirals.
1983 – The U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, is almost completely destroyed by a car-bomb explosion that kills 63 people, including the suicide bomber and 17 Americans. The terrorist attack was carried out in protest of the U.S. military presence in Lebanon. In 1975, a bloody civil war erupted in Lebanon, with Palestinian and leftist Muslim guerrillas battling militias of the Christian Phalange Party, the Maronite Christian community, and other groups. During the next few years, Syrian, Israeli, and United Nations interventions failed to resolve the factional fighting, and on August 20, 1982, a multinational force featuring U.S. Marines landed in Beirut to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. The Marines left Lebanese territory on September 10 but returned on September 29, following the massacre of Palestinian refugees by a Christian militia. The next day, the first U.S. Marine to die during the mission was killed while defusing a bomb, and on April 18, 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut was bombed. On October 23, Lebanese terrorists evaded security measures and drove a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. Fifty-eight French soldiers were killed almost simultaneously in a separate suicide terrorist attack. On February 7, 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced the end of U.S. participation in the peacekeeping force, and on February 26 the last U.S. Marines left Beirut.
1988 – The United States launches Operation Praying Mantis against Iranian naval forces in the largest naval battle since World War II. Operation Praying Mantis was an attack by U.S. naval forces within Iranian territorial waters in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq war and the subsequent damage to an American warship. On 14 April, the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts had struck a mine while deployed in the Persian Gulf as part of Operation Earnest Will, the 1987–88 convoy missions in which U.S. warships escorted reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers to protect them from Iranian attacks. The explosion blew a 25-foot (7.6-meter) hole in the Roberts's hull and nearly sank it. The crew saved their ship with no loss of life, and Roberts was towed to Dubai on 16 April. After the mining, U.S. Navy divers recovered other mines in the area. When the serial numbers were found to match those of mines seized along with the Iran Ajr the previous September, U.S. military officials planned a retaliatory operation against Iranian targets in the Persian Gulf. This battle was the largest of the five major U.S. surface engagements since the Second World War, which also include the Battle of Chumonchin Chan during the Korean War, the Gulf of Tonkin incident and the Battle of Dong Hoi during the Vietnam War, and the Action in the Gulf of Sidra in 1986. It also marked the U.S. Navy's first exchange of anti-ship missiles by ships.
2001 – US negotiators said China agreed to discuss the return of the US spy plane following a day of unproductive talks. Beijing and Washington staked out opposing positions on who was to blame for the incident.
2003 – Burt Rutan, aircraft designer, unveiled SpaceShipOne, a rocket-powered spacecraft. He hoped to win the $10 million 1996 X Prize, offered for the 1st private launch of 3-people to an altitude of 62.5 miles twice in 2 weeks.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
DALY, MICHAEL J.
Rank and organization: Captain (then Lieutenant), U.S. Army, Company A, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Nuremberg, Germany, 18 April 1945. Entered service at: Southport, Conn. Born: 15 September 1924, New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 77, 10 September 1945. Citation: Early in the morning of 18 April 1945, he led his company through the shell-battered, sniper-infested wreckage of Nuremberg, Germany. When bl1stering machinegun fire caught his unit in an exposed position, he ordered his men to take cover, dashed forward alone, and, as bullets whined about him, shot the 3-man guncrew with his carbine. Continuing the advance at the head of his company, he located an enemy patrol armed with rocket launchers which threatened friendly armor. He again went forward alone, secured a vantage point and opened fire on the Germans. Immediately he became the target for concentrated machine pistol and rocket fire, which blasted the rubble about him. Calmly, he continued to shoot at the patrol until he had killed all 6 enemy infantrymen. Continuing boldly far in front of his company, he entered a park, where as his men advanced, a German machinegun opened up on them without warning. With his carbine, he killed the gunner; and then, from a completely exposed position, he directed machinegun fire on the remainder of the crew until all were dead. In a final duel, he wiped out a third machinegun emplacement with rifle fire at a range of 10 yards. By fearlessly engaging in 4 single-handed fire fights with a desperate, powerfully armed enemy, Lt. Daly, voluntarily taking all major risks himself and protecting his men at every opportunity, killed 15 Germans, silenced 3 enemy machineguns and wiped out an entire enemy patrol. His heroism during the lone bitter struggle with fanatical enemy forces was an inspiration to the valiant Americans who took Nuremberg.
*MERRELL, JOSEPH F.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company I, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Lohe, Germany, 18 April 1945. Entered service at: Staten Island, N.Y. Birth: Staten Island, N.Y. G.O. No.: 21, 26 February 1946. Citation: He made a gallant, 1-man attack against vastly superior enemy forces near Lohe, Germany. His unit, attempting a quick conquest of hostile hill positions that would open the route to Nuremberg before the enemy could organize his defense of that city, was pinned down by brutal fire from rifles, machine pistols, and 2 heavy machineguns. Entirely on his own initiative, Pvt. Merrell began a single-handed assault. He ran 100 yards through concentrated fire, barely escaping death at each stride, and at pointblank range engaged 4 German machine pistolmen with his rifle, killing all of them while their bullets ripped his uniform. As he started forward again, his rifle was smashed by a sniper's bullet, leaving him armed only with 3 grenades. But he did not hesitate. He zigzagged 200 yards through a hail of bullets to within 10 yards of the first machinegun, where he hurled 2 grenades and then rushed the position ready to fight with his bare hands if necessary. In the emplacement he seized a Luger pistol and killed what Germans had survived the grenade blast. Rearmed, he crawled toward the second machinegun located 30 yards away, killing 4 Germans in camouflaged foxholes on the way, but himself receiving a critical wound in the abdomen. And yet he went on, staggering, bleeding, disregarding bullets which tore through the folds of his clothing and glanced off his helmet. He threw his last grenade into the machinegun nest and stumbled on to wipe out the crew. He had completed this self-appointed task when a machine pistol burst killed him instantly. In his spectacular 1-man attack Pvt. Merrell killed 6 Germans in the first machinegun emplacement, 7 in the next, and an additional 10 infantrymen who were astride his path to the weapons which would have decimated his unit had he not assumed the burden of the assault and stormed the enemy positions with utter fearlessness, intrepidity of the highest order, and a willingness to sacrifice his own life so that his comrades could go on to victory.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for April 18, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
18 April
1910: Walter Brookins, a Wright pilot, made night flights at Montgomery. (24)
1911: At the Wright School in Dayton, Lt John Rodgers (USN) soloed. He thus became Naval Aviator No. 2. (24)
1942: KEY EVENT--MEDAL OF HONOR. From the carrier USS Hornet, located 668 miles off Tokyo, Lt Col James H. Doolittle led 16 B-25s in the first raid on Japan. The range of the mission caused the raiders to crash land in China. The attack caused little damage; however, the mission raised U.S. morale and reversed a trend of Japanese victories. Doolittle later received the Medal of Honor for leading the mission. (18) (24)
1943: 1Lt Rex T. Barber and Capt Thomas G. Lanphier, Jr., two P-38 pilots from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, intercepted and shot down two Mitsubishi "Betty" bombers near Bougainville. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, died in the aerial attack. (20)
1950: The Air Force announced that it would buy 1,250 aircraft for $1.2 billion from FY1950 funds, including $302 million for 82 Boeing B-47B Stratojets. (8: Apr 90)
1951: KOREAN WAR. H-5 helicopters from the 3 ARS evacuated 20 critically wounded U.S. soldiers from front line aid stations to the nearest field hospital. Five of the ten sorties encountered enemy fire. (28) An Aerobee research rocket launched from Holloman AFB, N. Mex., with a monkey onboard in a space biology experiment. It was the first primate in space. (16) (24) (26)
1958: Lt Cmdr George C. Watkins (USN) flew a Grumman F11-1F at Edwards AFB to a world altitude record of 76,932 feet. (9)
1962: A MATS C-135B set weight-speed records for payloads of 11,023, 22,046, 33,069, 44,092, 55,115, and 66,138 pounds, flying over a 770-kilometer (1,240 miles) closed course at 615.59 MPH. (24) At Lowry AFB, SAC accepted nine missiles for the first Titan I squadron, the 724 SMS. These were the first operational missiles in hardened underground silos. (6) A Turkish combat crew successfully launched a Jupiter IRBM from Cape Canaveral on their first attempt. (6)
1963: Northrop's X-21A Laminar Flow Control test aircraft made its first flight from Hawthorne to Edwards AFB. (3)
1975: Following SECDEF James R. Schlesinger's July 1974 orders to transfer 128 KC-135s to the Air Reserve Forces, SAC transferred the first KC-135 (No. 57-1507) from the 301 AREFS to the 160 AREFG. Both units operated at Rickenbacker AFB, Ohio. The transfer heralded reserve and guard support for SAC alert operations. (1)
1983: Moslem fanatics conducted a suicide attack against the American Embassy in Beruit, Lebanon. units and aircraft were sent to assist. (4)
1986: A Titan 34D booster with a classified satellite on board exploded after liftoff at Vandenberg AFB. This accident, and the 28 January 1986 Space Shuttle disaster, marked a serious setback in the US space program and deployment of satellites. (26)
1988: Through 19 April, tankers refueled US Navy aircraft attacking Iranian offshore oil platforms and warships in the Persian Gulf. The Reagan Administration initiated the two-day campaign as a measured military response to Iran's provocative mining of international waters. Earlier on 14 April, 10 sailors were injured when a US Navy frigate hit an underwater mine. (18)
1991: In a launch from Vandenberg AFB, the Martin-Marietta and Boeing MGM-134A Small ICBM completed its first test in a 4,000-mile flight to the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific. (16) (26)
1992: C-141 Starlifters began airlifting humanitarian relief supplies to Sarajevo, the captial of the new Bosnia-Herzegovina Republic. (16)
1996: C-17 Globemaster III aircraft airlifted tow MH-52J Pave Low special operations helicopters from Sierra Leone, Africa, to England, thus saving time, refuelings, and fuel. (26)
1997: Through 8 August, Grand Forks AFB opened its doors to 3,500 homeless flood victims after a heavy melt of winter snow broke through dikes in North Dakota's Red River Valley. By the time the emergency ended in early August, Air Mobility Command had flown 13 missions to Grand Forks to airlift 146 tons of cargo and 143 passengers to support the flood relief operation. (22)
2002: The MC2A-X, an experimental electronic communications and command and control aircraft, made its first flight at Hanscom AFB. The UAV received the name "Paul Revere" to commemorate Revere's famous ride 227 years ago. (21)
2003: A B-2A successfully released a guided EGBU-28 for the first time at the Utah Test and Training Range. The weapon scored a direct hit on the target. (3)
2005: Under SECDEF for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Michael W. Wynne, approved the full rate production capability of the F/A-22. (Aimpoints, "F/A-22 Raptor approved for full production," 27 April 2005)
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