To All,
Good Tuesday Morning May 9 2023.
I hope you all had a great weekend.
Regards,
Skip
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History May 9
1860
While off the Isle of Pines (now named Isla de la Juventud) near the south coast of Cuba, the screw gunboat Wyandotte captures the slaver William, which carries 570 Africans.
1926
Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd and Chief Aviation Pilot Floyd Bennett report reaching the North Pole in their heavier-than-air-flight aircraft. Both receive the Medal of Honor for this event.
1942
USS Wasp (CV 7) launches 47 RAF Spitfires, British carrier Eagle accompanies Wasp and launches 17 additional Spitfires.
1945
German submarine U 249 surrenders to PB4Y-1 Liberator from (FAW 7) off the Scilly Islands, England, becoming the first to do so after hostilities ceased in Europe.
1992
USS Ashland (LSD 48) is commissioned in New Orleans, La. Following the ceremony, the dock landing ship sails for its homeport at Little Creek, Va.
2017
A South Korean fishing vessel collides with the port side, amid ship of USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) while the guided-missile cruiser is conducting routine operations in international waters. No one is injured in the incident.
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Today in World History May 9
1502 Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his final trip to the New World.
1754 The first newspaper cartoon in America appears.
1813 U.S. troops under William Henry Harrison take Fort Meigs from British and Canadian troops.
1864 Union General John Sedgwick is shot and killed by a Confederate sharpshooter during fighting at Spotsylvania. His last words are: "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--"
1859 Threatened by the advancing French army, the Austrian army retreats across the River Sesia in Italy.
1915 German and French forces fight the Battle of Artois.
1926 Explorers Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first flight over the North Pole.
1936 Fascist Italy captures the city of Addis Abba, Ethiopia and annexes the country.
1941 The German submarine U-110 is captured at sea along with its Enigma machine by the Royal Navy.
1946 King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy abdicates his throne and is replaced by Umberto I.
1962 A laser beam is successfully bounced off the moon for the first time.
1974 The House Judiciary Committee begins formal hearings on Nixon impeachment.
On May 9, 1960, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the world's first commercially produced birth-control pill—Enovid-10, made by the G.D. Searle Company of Chicago, Illinois.
Development of "the pill," as it became popularly known, was initially commissioned by birth-control pioneer Margaret Sanger and funded by heiress Katherine McCormick. Sanger, who opened the first birth-control clinic in the United States in 1916, hoped to encourage the development of a more practical and effective alternative to contraceptives that were in use at the time.
In the early 1950s, Gregory Pincus, a biochemist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology, and John Rock, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School, began work on a birth-control pill. Clinical tests of the pill, which used synthetic progesterone and estrogen to repress ovulation in women, were initiated in 1954. On May 9, 1960, the FDA approved the pill, granting greater reproductive freedom to American women.
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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, 9 May 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 9 May 1968… A history lesson for May 2023…
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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I remember flying low levels around there over the years watching the progress.
In 1968, an American bought the old London Bridge and moved it to Arizona.
If you want to see the 19th-century version of London Bridge, don't travel to London — or even England, for that matter. Instead, head to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where a U.S. businessman by the name of Robert McCulloch moved the bridge after buying it in 1968. That the landmark structure was even for sale was the result of English officials realizing the bridge was sinking, albeit at the relatively slow pace of one inch every eight years. And so, after a tenure of some 130 years — a bit shabby, when you consider that its medieval predecessor stood for more than 600 — that iteration of London Bridge was put on the market after London city councilor Ivan Luckin convinced his colleagues that he could persuade someone in America to buy it.
He was right, of course, and it made sense that McCulloch would be the one to purchase it. An eccentric industrialist who once attributed his success to "booze and broads," McCulloch jumped at the opportunity to bring a piece of history to a patch of land he was hoping to turn into a haven for tourists. Buying the bridge for the princely sum of $2.46 million was the easy part — it was disassembling and moving it, granite brick by granite brick, that turned out to be a logistical nightmare. Three years and another $7 million later, London Bridge settled in its (apparently) final resting place on October 10, 1971. Today, it's one of Arizona's top attractions.
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Thanks to Carl
I have read the book and had the story in the List before but it still is entertaining.
Fullbore Friday - CDR Salamander: Cliff Judkins
(This amazing event was in Ron Knott's book 'SUPERSONIC COWBOYS' with Cliff Judkins' story of "I Fell 15,000 Feet and Lived"!. Click on link to read this incredible survival story!)
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2022/05/fullbore-friday.html
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https:geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: The Russian Mystery
By George Friedman
May 9, 2023
There are too many unknowns to count in the Ukraine war. From the upcoming spring offensive to covert U.S. intelligence operations, mysteries abound. But perhaps none is more important than the question surrounding the Russian Ministry of Defense, its general staff, the Wagner Group and President Vladimir Putin's place among them. This system of relationships has become even more complicated now that Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, has interfered and promised to replace Wagner in Bakhmut.
Moscow enlisted Wagner when it was unable to decisively defeat Ukrainian forces on its own. Wagner is a private military force, technically under contract with part of the Russian government. The mercenaries it employs are commanded not by the army but by a civilian. They number some 25,000 to 30,000 – slightly smaller than Russia's conventional armed forces but not dramatically so – and occupy about 30 kilometers (19 miles) of the multiple thousand-kilometer-long frontlines. And yet Wagner is the only contingent of Russian forces that regularly advances on areas controlled by Ukraine.
Using private militaries is hardly a new phenomenon, and Wagner has operated in the Middle East and Africa for years. But what it is doing in Ukraine is unique. Not only is it waging its own war, but it is also currently leading the battle in Bakhmut.
The mystery surrounding its relationship with the Russian military is evidenced by a statement made last week by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who said that "military bureaucrats" had deprived his forces of artillery and ammunition, and that he is therefore withdrawing them from the area and handing Bakhmut over to Russian conventional armed forces.
The battle of Bakhmut has never gone well, but at this point, with the forces that have already been lost in the fight, victory is less strategic than political. For the Russians, losing or abandoning the battle would send the wrong signal to the enemy and its population. But the regular Russian army was not able to impose its will on Bakhmut and in general has not been able to break Ukrainian forces. Introducing Wagner there served several purposes. It increased the size of the force that could be deployed, and it brought in a ruthless force with plausible deniability.
In that sense, cutting off artillery and other ammunition makes absolutely no sense. (There is a hint of confirmation from Moscow that it did, but Ukrainian military reports suggest artillery fire hasn't let up.) Even if Russia believed cutting off Wagner made military sense, allowing the leader to sound off like this doesn't. Militaries and their political masters disagree all the time, but a rift this visible is rare.
The mystery, then, is two-fold. Why would the general staff want to cripple Wagner? And why would it do it so publicly? There were financial and technical steps that could have prevented it from happening. For it to have come this far, a malfunction must have occurred at either the senior staff or the ministry level.
If it is deliberate, what could it mean? It could be meant to stop a coup that Wagner might have planned, but a drone might have done a better job. It could be a plan by elements in the government aligned with Wagner to try to demonstrate that the Ukraine war is being lost, or at least not won, by the Russian command. If the view was held that the senior command and the ministers are losing the war, then advertising their irrationality through Wagner would make sense, potentially adding to any movement to remove them. If Putin felt that the current command was failing, but that too many senior officers supported it for it to be removed, this memo from Wagner would be an excellent tool to make the point. (That is, unless the point is to show that Putin has lost control of the situation.)
For now, this is all academic, if still important. The Kremlin appears to have given in to Prigozhin's demands, and it seems as though Wagner will stay in Bakhmut. Moreover, Gen. Sergey Surovikin, whom Prigozhin described as the only capable general in the Russian army, has been appointed to liaise between Russia and the mercenaries.
But no matter how this plays out, the war is a fundamentally political problem. It has not gone as expected, and no effective alliance has emerged to change that fact. In this situation, one must either mount a massive offensive, the government and Wagner working side by side, or prepare for a negotiation as favorable as possible – one that absolves the emerging leadership of any wrongdoing.
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From the List archives
From: James Rotramel <mrvark@me.com>
To:
Date: May 7, 2020 at 1:36 PM
Subject: Fwd: Heckuva flying story!!
Begin forwarded message:
From: acmodeler
His Parachute Got Stuck on the Plane's Wheel and He Was Suspended in Midair with Little Chance of Survival—Then Another Plane Came to His Rescue
Almost 80 years after it unfolded in the sky over San Diego, a nearly impossible rescue mission remains one of the most daring feats in aeronautical history.
Courtesy Rick Lawrence (portrait), Shutterstock (4), archive.org (government document)
It began like any other May morning in California. The sky was blue, the sun hot. A slight breeze riffled the glistening waters of San Diego Bay. At the naval airbase on North Island, all was calm.
At 9:45 a.m., Walter Osipoff, a sandy-haired 23-year-old Marine second lieutenant from Akron, Ohio, boarded a DC-2 transport for a routine parachute jump. Lt. Bill Lowrey, a 34-year-old Navy test pilot from New Orleans, was already putting his observation plane through its paces. And John McCants, a husky 41-year-old aviation chief machinist's mate from Jordan, Montana, was checking out the aircraft that he was scheduled to fly later. Before the sun was high in the noonday sky, these three men would be linked forever in one of history's most spectacular midair rescues.
Osipoff was a seasoned parachutist, a former collegiate wrestling and gymnastics star. He had joined the National Guard and then the Marines in 1938. He had already made more than 20 jumps by May 15, 1941.
That morning, his DC-2 took off and headed for Kearney Mesa, where Osipoff would supervise practice jumps by 12 of his men. Three separate canvas cylinders, containing ammunition and rifles, were also to be parachuted overboard as part of the exercise.
Nine of the men had already jumped when Osipoff, standing a few inches from the plane's door, started to toss out the last cargo container. Somehow the automatic-release cord of his backpack parachute became looped over the cylinder, and his chute was suddenly ripped open. He tried to grab hold of the quickly billowing silk, but the next thing he knew he had been jerked from the plane—sucked out with such force that the impact of his body ripped a 2.5-foot gash in the DC-2's aluminum fuselage.
Instead of flowing free, Osipoff's open parachute now wrapped itself around the plane's tail wheel. The chute's chest strap and one leg strap had broken; only the second leg strap was still holding—and it had slipped down to Osipoff's ankle. One by one, 24 of the 28 lines between his precariously attached harness and the parachute snapped. He was now hanging some 12 feet below and 15 feet behind the tail of the plane. Four parachute shroud lines twisted around his left leg were all that kept him from being pitched to the earth.
Dangling there upside down, Osipoff had enough presence of mind to not try to release his emergency parachute. With the plane pulling him one way and the emergency chute pulling him another, he realized that he would be torn in half. Conscious all the while, he knew that he was hanging by one leg, spinning and bouncing—and he was aware that his ribs hurt. He did not know then that two ribs and three vertebrae had been fractured.
Inside the plane, the DC-2 crew struggled to pull Osipoff to safety, but they could not reach him. The aircraft was starting to run low on fuel, but an emergency landing with Osipoff dragging behind would certainly smash him to death. And pilot Harold Johnson had no radio contact with the ground.
To attract attention below, Johnson eased the transport down to 300 feet and started circling North Island. A few people at the base noticed the plane coming by every few minutes, but they assumed that it was towing some sort of target.
Meanwhile, Bill Lowrey had landed his plane and was walking toward his office when he glanced upward. He and John McCants, who was working nearby, saw at the same time the figure dangling from the plane. As the DC-2 circled once again, Lowrey yelled to McCants, "There's a man hanging on that line. Do you suppose we can get him?" McCants answered grimly, "We can try."
Lowrey shouted to his mechanics to get his plane ready for takeoff. It was an SOC-1, a two-seat, open-cockpit observation plane, less than 27 feet long. Recalled Lowrey afterward, "I didn't even know how much fuel it had." Turning to McCants, he said, "Let's go!"
Lowrey and McCants had never flown together before, but the two men seemed to take it for granted that they were going to attempt the impossible. "There was only one decision to be made," Lowrey later said quietly, "and that was to go get him. How, we didn't know. We had no time to plan." Courtesy National Archives (Photo No. 127-N-522950)
Lt. Col. John J. Capolino, a Philadelphia artist, painted this scene of Osipoff's rescue in the 1940s. It belongs to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.
Nor was there time to get through to their commanding officer and request permission for the flight. Lowrey simply told the tower, "Give me a green light. I'm taking off." At the last moment, a Marine ran out to the plane with a hunting knife—for cutting Osipoff loose—and dumped it in McCants's lap.
As the SOC-1 roared aloft, all activity around San Diego seemed to stop. Civilians crowded rooftops, children stopped playing at recess, and the men of North Island strained their eyes upward. With murmured prayers and pounding hearts, the watchers agonized through every move in the impossible mission.
Within minutes, Lowrey and McCants were under the transport, flying at 300 feet. They made five approaches, but the air proved too bumpy to try for a rescue. Since radio communication between the two planes was impossible, Lowrey hand-signaled Johnson to head out over the Pacific, where the air would be smoother, and they climbed to 3,000 feet. Johnson held his plane on a straight course and reduced speed to that of the smaller plane—100 miles an hour.
Lowrey flew back and away from Osipoff, but level with him. McCants, who was in the open seat in back of Lowrey, saw that Osipoff was hanging by one foot and that blood was dripping from his helmet. Lowrey edged the plane closer with such precision that his maneuvers jibed with the swings of Osipoff's inert body. His timing had to be exact so that Osipoff did not smash into the SOC-1's propeller.
Finally, Lowrey slipped his upper left wing under Osipoff's shroud lines, and McCants, standing upright in the rear cockpit—with the plane still going 100 miles an hour 3,000 feet above the sea—lunged for Osipoff. He grabbed him at the waist, and Osipoff flung his arms around McCants's shoulders in a death grip.
McCants pulled Osipoff into the plane, but since it was only a two-seater, the next problem was where to put him. As Lowrey eased the SOC-1 forward to get some slack in the chute lines, McCants managed to stretch Osipoff's body across the top of the fuselage, with Osipoff's head in his lap.
Because McCants was using both hands to hold Osipoff in a vise, there was no way for him to cut the cords that still attached Osipoff to the DC-2. Lowrey then nosed his plane inch by inch closer to the transport and, with incredible precision, used his propeller to cut the shroud lines. After hanging for 33 minutes between life and death, Osipoff was finally free.
Lowrey had flown so close to the transport that he'd nicked a 12-inch gash in its tail. But now the parachute, abruptly detached along with the shroud lines, drifted downward and wrapped itself around Lowrey's rudder. That meant that Lowrey had to fly the SOC-1 without being able to control it properly and with most of Osipoff's body still on the outside. Yet, five minutes later, Lowrey somehow managed to touch down at North Island, and the little plane rolled to a stop. Osipoff finally lost consciousness—but not before he heard sailors applauding the landing.
Later on, after lunch, Lowrey and McCants went back to their usual duties. Three weeks later, both men were flown to Washington, DC, where Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox awarded them the Distinguished Flying Cross for executing "one of the most brilliant and daring rescues in naval history."
Osipoff spent the next six months in the hospital. The following January, completely recovered and newly promoted to first lieutenant, he went back to parachute jumping. The morning he was to make his first jump after the accident, he was cool and laconic, as usual. His friends, though, were nervous. One after another, they went up to reassure him. Each volunteered to jump first so he could follow.
Osipoff grinned and shook his head. "The hell with that!" he said as he fastened his parachute. "I know damn well I'm going to make it." And he did.
This article first appeared in the May 1975 edition of Reader's Digest.
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Thanks to Brett
Korea, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Russia/Ukraine, India/Pakistan, Russia, Afghanistan/Pakistan,
STRATFOR
Syria: Arab League Restores Damascus to its Seat
What Happened: The Arab League voted to readmit Syria to the league after a 12-year suspension, AP reported on May 7. The league said it would work with Syria to solve the refugee crisis, terrorism and drug smuggling, as well as push for a political transition that would help end U.S.-led sanctions against Syria.
Why It Matters: With the reentry of Syria into the league, limited humanitarian and security-focused cooperation can take place, like more aid for earthquake damage and anti-drug smuggling operations. The United States is unlikely to lift sanctions on Syria anytime soon, however, which means deeper economic cooperation with the country will remain fraught. In the long term, some individual Gulf Arab businesses and entities with limited exposure to the West may try to do business and rebuild Syria, even if that triggers U.S. sanctions.
Background: Opposition to Syria's normalization remains strong in some Arab League member states, like Qatar, which continues to back rebel groups in the country's northwest. Syria's al Assad government remains deeply unlikely to concede power to the rebels it has largely defeated over the civil war, which has killed up to 610,000 people and displaced about half of the country's pre-war population.
Turkey: Attack on Opposition Rally May Portend Further Violence
What Happened: A rally held by Ekrem Imamoglu — a Turkish opposition politician, Istanbul mayor and vice presidential candidate — in the eastern city of Erzurum ended early when a large group of people began throwing stones at Imamoglu and other participants, injuring a dozen people, Bloomberg reported on May 7. Imamoglu's team alleges that the municipality unloaded public buses full of about 200 stone-throwing people at the rally location, some of whom flashed hand signs of the Grey Wolves, a Turkish nationalist group with links to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Why It Matters: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leads the Erzurum municipality, which means the government may have helped organize the attack to intimidate opposition voters and candidates, especially since local police did not disperse the disruptors until after Imamoglu's bus and entourage left the location. And if the Grey Wolves were actually involved, it may signal that the powerful MHP is joining the government's voter intimidation tactics, which would raise the security risk for opposition voters and civilian attendees of rallies and voting stations. The risks of such violence would rise if the results of Turkey's May 14 general do not favor the ruling AKP.
Background: Imamoglu promised immediately afterward to file legal complaints against Erzurum's police chief and governor, whom he claims did not intervene to stop the violence.
China, U.S.: Disagreements Over Taiwan to Preclude Repairs to U.S.-China Economic Ties
What Happened: Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns for the first time since Qin came to office in December 2022, Reuters reported on May 8. Qin asserted that better relations were dependent on the United States ceasing its support of "Taiwan independence" and stopping efforts to "suppress and contain China."
Why It Matters: Despite Qin's fiery rhetoric, the meeting may presage talks between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Qin or (eventually) a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. Still, these meetings would likely make little progress on limiting U.S.-China economic competition because Qin's precondition that the United States drop the Taiwan topic is incompatible with Washington's trend of deepening relations with Taiwan, even if via informal channels. In this environment, Beijing will persist in periodically cutting communication lines with Washington, and the steady erosion of U.S.-China economic ties looks unlikely to abate.
Background: U.S.-China channels of communication have degraded severely since August 2022, when then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
EU, Russia, China: EU May Sanction Chinese Companies Over Sales to Russia
What Happened: The European Commission proposed sanctions on seven Chinese companies accused of selling equipment to Russia that could be used in weapons deployed in Ukraine as part of the bloc's 11th sanctions package against Moscow, the Financial Times reported on May 7. However, member states would retain the last say on any decision to implement individual measures against companies or governments.
Why It Matters: While the European Union could approve the new sanctions mechanism over the coming weeks, opposition from some member states would likely impede the bloc's ability to implement measures against countries that could respond with retaliatory measures, such as China and Turkey. But if the bloc does add Chinese companies to its sanctions list, the move would likely increase tensions with Beijing and could trigger economic retaliation.
Background: Of the Chinese companies featured in the proposed sanctions list, 3HC Semiconductors and King-Pai Technology, based in mainland China, and Sinno Electronics and Sigma Technology, based in Hong Kong, are already under U.S. sanctions. Brussels has so far been wary of targeting Chinese companies with sanctions despite U.S. claims Beijing was providing weapons to Moscow. The commission is also proposing sanctions against Iranian companies supplying drones to Russia and widening the scope of export restrictions to Russia.
Japan, South Korea: Rapprochement Continues Under Kishida and Yoon
What Happened: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol agreed to cooperate on securing supply chains, including semiconductors, and deepen military-to-military and parliament-to-parliament ties during Kishida's two-day visit to Seoul, Nikkei Asia reported on May 7. During his visit, Kishida said unprompted that his "heart aches" for the treatment of Koreans during Japan's 20th-century occupation of the peninsula.
Why It Matters: Yoon and Kishida are attempting to usher in a new chapter of bilateral relations by overcoming the controversial history of their two countries. Going forward, the two leaders' primary challenge in this regard will be to establish robust policies and mechanisms that will outlast their respective administrations and personal connection. In the meantime, stronger Japan-South Korea ties will bolster deterrence against Chinese and North Korean strategic aims in the region, as well as enhance supply chain resiliency for semiconductors and batteries.
Background: Kishida's visit to South Korea was the first by a Japanese prime minister in 12 years, during which normal diplomacy was stalled, and reciprocated Yoon's similar breakthrough visit to Tokyo, Japan, in March.
Uzbekistan: President Calls Snap Presidential Election for July 9
What Happened: Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced an early presidential election for July 9, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported on May 8.
Why It Matters: Mirziyoyev will be able to run for another two consecutive terms because the country's April 30 constitutional referendum effectively nullified his previous and current terms (as well as extended the presidential term from five to seven years). Therefore, Mirziyoyev will win the July 9 election handily, in theory giving the 65-year-old president an additional 14 years in office, meaning he would be 80 years old if he remains president through his second term ending in 2037. The snap presidential election following constitutional changes is very similar to actions in 2022 by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, suggesting that Mirziyoyev may be attempting to emulate Tokayev in order to engender domestic and international support. While Mirziyoyev may use the reelection as justification to speed the pace of economic reforms, significant political liberalization remains very unlikely under his rule.
Background: Mirziyoev said he was relinquishing the remaining three and a half years of his presidential term "on his own initiative" and that early election was necessary to maintain balance among "all branches of power" following the constitutional changes and because of the need to implement the constitutional changes effectively. On April 30, the Uzbek government claimed that 90% of voters approved a package of constitutional amendments in a national referendum that garnered an 85% turnout.
Nigeria: Presidential Election Tribunal Hearing Begins
What Happened: Nigeria's election tribunal is hearing opposition petitions against President-elect Bola Tinubu's victory in the February presidential election, Reuters reported on May 5.
Why It Matters: Legal challenges to Tinubu's presidency are likely to fail, as no appeals in past presidential elections have succeeded despite decades of electoral irregularities. This means Tinubu is very likely to take office on May 29, the scheduled inauguration day.
Background: Opposition candidates Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have alleged electoral fraud and levied court challenges against Tinubu's election. Obi and Abubakar want the judges to invalidate Tinubu's victory, while Tinubu wants the petition dismissed before he is set to take office on May 29.
Russia, Ukraine: Prominent Russian Nationalist Writer Severely Injured in Car Bombing
What Happened: A prominent Russian novelist and nationalist ideologue suffered severe injuries in a car bombing on May 7 in an apparent attempt to assassinate him near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, BBC reported the next day. Moscow immediately claimed it caught the perpetrator, saying he was recruited by Ukraine, but Kyiv denied involvement while several Russian partisan groups claimed responsibility for the attack.
Why It Matters: Regardless of who is ultimately responsible for the attack, the assassination attempt is indicative of the continued dangers that prominent war escalation advocates and nationalist firebrands in Russia will continue to face. The incident will also lead to increased calls inside Russia for Moscow to assassinate prominent Ukrainians.
Background: On April 2, influential Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in a bombing in central St. Petersburg, Russia. On Aug. 22, 2022, Daria Dugina, the daughter of one of Russia's most prominent fascist ideologues, was killed in an apparent attempt to assassinate her father that was later linked to Ukraine's intelligence services.
India, Pakistan: Accusatory Statements Suggest Thaw in Bilateral Relations Is Unlikely
What Happened: Foreign ministers from India and Pakistan traded accusations and reiterated long-standing grievances at separate press conferences following a Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in India's southwestern state of Goa, Reuters reported on May 5.
Why It Matters: This was the first time Pakistan sent its first foreign minister to India since 2011, which some observers speculated might portend efforts to pursue a relative thaw in bilateral relations. However, the accusatory statements by both countries' foreign ministers, in addition to the reported absence of bilateral talks between India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the meeting, suggest near-term prospects for such a thaw remain low. Pakistan's participation in the meeting was likely predominantly motivated by its desire to bolster relations and cooperation with regional countries.
Background: Pakistan's foreign minister blamed India and its decision to revoke the predominantly Muslim union territory of Kashmir's special autonomous status in 2019 for the two countries' frosty relations, prompting India's foreign minister to imply that Pakistan supported militancy in Kashmir. India-Pakistan relations continue to be strained, though tensions between the two countries have been limited in recent years by a sustained cease-fire since February 2021, Pakistan's varying domestic crises and India's focus on economic growth.
Russia: Prigozhin Claims Resources to Stay in Bakhmut, Surovikin Now Liaison
What Happened: The head of Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said he had been promised as much ammunition and weaponry as needed to continue the fight for Ukraine's city of Bakhmut, an apparent reversal of his May 5 threat to leave the city on May 10, The New York Times reported on May 7. Progozhin also claimed that Russian Gen. Sergey Surovikin had been appointed as the Wagner Group's effective liaison with the military, as he would make "all decisions" regarding Wagner's operations in Ukraine.
Why It Matters: The incident creates a potentially dangerous precedent for the Russian military's high command, as it could incentivize Prigozhin to continue publicly criticizing Russia's military leaders in order to receive greater resources. Surovikin's alleged role as a liaison is likely informal, and General Staff of the Russian armed forces Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will continue to economize resources given to Wagner. The Wagner Group may see its role in Russia's Ukraine war effort diminish somewhat in the coming months, but the group will likely remain active in Ukraine despite the continuation of similar incidents and high tensions between Prigozhin and the Defense Ministry.
Background: On May 5, Prigozhin escalated his feud with Shoigu and Gerasimov, releasing a series of videos blaming them for ammunition shortages and the subsequent deaths of Wagner soldiers.
Afghanistan, Pakistan: Afghan Taliban, Pakistan Seek to Boost Trade, Improve Relations
What Happened: The Afghan Taliban and Pakistan agreed on May 7 to cooperate on issues of mutual concern, including by increasing trade and reducing tensions along their border, AP reported the next day. Pakistan's military also claimed the two sides discussed the "formalization of bilateral security mechanisms for improvement in the current security environment."
Why It Matters: Improved relations between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan would enhance regional stability. However, the Afghan Taliban's long-standing ties with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, which Pakistan considers a terrorist organization, will likely continue to limit the Taliban's willingness to meaningfully counter the group and respond to Pakistan's security concerns, which will constrain the evolving Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship. Additionally, Afghan Taliban fighters generally remain undisciplined, suggesting potential orders from Afghan Taliban leadership intended to limit border clashes between the group's fighters and Pakistani troops are unlikely to prevent further occasional flare-ups.
Background: The reported agreement comes amid heightened tensions between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan largely driven by sporadic border clashes and continued attacks in Pakistan by the TTP, which is based in eastern Afghanistan.
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This Day in U S Military History May 9
1941 – The German submarine U-110 was captured at sea by the Royal Navy, revealing considerable Enigma material. Enigma was the German machine used to encrypt messages during World War II.
1942 – USS Icarus, CG, sank the U-352 off Charleston and took 33 prisoners, the first German prisoners taken in combat by any US force in World War II.
1942 – 64 Spitfires are successfully delivered to Malta by naval forces including the USS Wasp and the HMS Eagle. This time, the planes are quickly refueled and rearmed and there is no destruction on the ground as with the previous delivery. The USS Wasp returns to service in the United States after this operation.
1945 – On Luzon, forces of the US 145th Infantry Regiment, an element of US 11th Corps, captures Mount Binicayan and patrols into the Guagua area. On Mindanao, the US 24th Division continues to defend its bridgehead over the Talomo river against Japanese counterattacks but fails to build a bridge. The US 31st Division breaks off its attacks in the Colgan woods to allow air and artillery strikes on the Japanese positions.
1945 – On Okinawa, the US 1st Marine Division captures Height 60 after eliminating Japanese positions on Nan Hill. The US 77th Division continues attacks on Japanese strong points north of Shuri. The Kochi Crest area has been secured by American forces.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day COUGHLIN, JOHN Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, 10th New Hampshire Infantry. Place and date: At Swifts Creek, Va., 9 May 1864. Entered service at: Manchester, N.H. Birth: Vermont. Date •S issue: 31 August 1893. Citation: During a sudden night attack upon Burnham's Brigade, resulting in much confusion, this officer, without waiting for orders, led his regiment forward and interposed a line of battle between the advancing enemy and Hunt's Battery, repulsing the attack and saving the guns.
FERRIER, DANIEL T.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 2d Indiana Cavalry. Place and date: At Varnells Station, Ga., 9 May 1864. Entered service at: Delphi, Ind. Birth:——. Date of issue: 30 March 1898. Citation: While his regiment was retreating, voluntarily gave up his horse to his brigade commander who had been unhorsed and was in danger of capture, thereby enabling him to rejoin and rally the disorganized troops. Sgt. Ferrier himself was captured and confined in Confederate prisons, from which he escaped and, after great hardship, rejoined the Union lines.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for May 9, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
9 May
1932: Capt Albert F. Hegenberger (Army Air Corps) made the first blind solo flight using instruments, with no check pilot, at Dayton. He later received the Collier Trophy. (11) (24)
1937: Henry T. Merrill and John S. Lambe flew a Lockheed Electra monoplane from New York to London in 20 hours 29 minutes 45 seconds to set a FAI record for the transatlantic flight. (9)
1944: Eighth Air Force B-17s and B-24s bombed French airfields to begin an offensive a month before the Normandy invasion that would prevent the German Air Force from recovering before D-Day. (4)
1949: The Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor, a jet-rocket interceptor, successfully completed its first flight at Muroc Field. (20) (24)
1951: KOREAN WAR. In one of the largest counter air efforts so far, Fifth Air Force and 1st Marine Air Wing fighter-bombers flew over 300 sorties against Sinuiju Airfield in extreme northwestern Korea. (28)
1961: The 379 BMW at Wurtsmith AFB, Mich., received SAC's first B-52H (number 60-001). (1)
1963: Missile Defense Alarm System 7 (MIDAS 7) is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on an Atlas-Agena B booster. After a series of failures, this system operated for six weeks and succeeded in detecting nine ICBM launches from space, the first time this had been accomplished. (Courtesy NASM, on display Udvar-Hazy Center)
1969: Exercise EXOTIC DANCER II. More than 150 AFRES aircraft from 25 units participated in this exercise in Puerto Rico. The exercise involved more than 349 missions, carrying 1,224 tons of cargo, and an airlift of 1,267 people. (16)
1978: McDonnell Douglas delivered the 5,000th F-4 Phantom built to the Air Force.
1979: Through 23 May, SAC's first B-52 contingency mission to an overseas forward operating base since Vietnam occurred, when three B-52s from Dyess AFB deployed to RAF Upper Heyford, UK, for Exercises Flintlock and Dawn Patrol. (1)
1983: The first all-female USAF transatlantic flight occurred on May 9, 1983, when an 18th Military Airlift Squadron crew flew a C-141B Starlifter from McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, to Rhein-Main Air Base, Germany. The aircrew included: Capt Guiliana Sangiorgio, Aircraft Commander; Capt Barbara Akin, first pilot; 1 Lt Terri Ollinger, copilot; TSgt Donna Wertz; Instructor Flight Engineer; SSgt Denise Meunier, Flight Engineer; Sgt Mary Eiche, Loadmaster; and A1C Bernadette Botti, Loadmaster.
2001: The AFFTC at Edwards AFB completed qualification testing on the HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter's new satellite communications system, the AN/ARC-210. (3)
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