To All,
Good Tuesday Morning May 16 2023.
Yesterday's celebrations for Wigs went very well and thanks to all of you who attended. It was a gathering of many of the guys I looked up to when I was flying.
Last night I woke up and the other eye is now matching its brother. Trying to see and type is a real challenge this morning. Please excuse any/manyh of my mistakes.
Regards,
Skip
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History May 16
1811 The frigate President, commanded by John Rodgers, exchanges several shots with HMS Little Belt during the night. Each captain claims the other fired first, increasing tensions between the two countries prior to the War of 1812.
1820 The frigate Congress becomes the first U.S. warship to visit China when she visits Guanhzhou (now Canton).
1919 Three Curtiss NC seaplanes leave from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, Canada for the first trans-atlantic flight. Only NC 4 makes the flight successfully reaching the Azores on May 17.
1943 USS MacKenzie (DD 614) sinks the German submarine (U 182) west of Madeira. Before being sunk, (U 182) sinks five Allied merchant vessels, including the American steam merchant Richard D. Spaight on March 10, 1943.
1944 USS Franks (DD 554), USS Haggard (DD 555) and USS Johnston (DD 557) sink the Japanese submarine (I 176), 150 miles north of Cape Alexander, Solomon Islands, forcing Japanese to shift the position of their subs in the New-Guinea-Carolines area.
1965 The first US naval gunfire support in Vietnam is performed by USS Henry W. Tucker (DD-875) as she fires upon the Viet Cong coastal concentrations southeast of Saigon.
1992 Military Sealift Commands USNS Tippecanoe (T-AO 199) is christened and launched at New Orleans, La.
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Today in World History May 16
1770 Marie Antoinette marries future King Louis XVI of France.
1863 At the Battle of Champion's Hill, Union General Ulysess S. Grant repulses the Confederates, driving them into Vicksburg.
1868 President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during Senate impeachment, by one vote, cast by Edmund G. Ross.
1879 The Treaty of Gandamak between Russia and England sets up the Afghan state.
1920 Joan of Arc is canonized in Rome.
1928 The first Academy Awards are held in Hollywood.
1943 A specially trained and equipped Royal Air Force squadron destroys two river dams in Germany.
1951 Chinese Communist Forces launch second phase of the Chinese Spring Offensive in the Korean War and gain up to 20 miles of territory.
1960 A Big Four summit in Paris collapses because of the American U-2 spy plane affair.
1963 After 22 Earth orbits, Gordon Cooper returns to Earth, ending the last mission of Project Mercury
1968
Navy Corpsman receives Medal of Honor for action »
1929
On May 16, 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its first awards, at a dinner party for around 250 people held in the Blossom Room of the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.
The brainchild of Louis B. Mayer, head of the powerful MGM film studio, the Academy was organized in May 1927 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and improvement of the film industry. Its first president and the host of the May 1929 ceremony was the actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Unlike today, the winners of the first Oscars—as the coveted gold-plated statuettes later became known—were announced before the awards ceremony itself.
At the time of the first Oscar ceremony, sound had just been introduced into film. The Warner Bros. movie The Jazz Singer—one of the first "talkies"—was not allowed to compete for Best Picture because the Academy decided it was unfair to let movies with sound compete with silent films. The first official Best Picture winner was Wings, directed by William Wellman. The most expensive movie of its time, with a budget of $2 million, the movie told the story of two World War I pilots who fall for the same woman. Another film, F.W. Murnau's epic Sunrise, was considered a dual winner for the best film of the year. German actor Emil Jannings won the Best Actor honor for his roles in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh, while 22-year-old Janet Gaynor was the only female winner. After receiving three out of the five Best Actress nods, she won for all three roles, in Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise.
A special honorary award was presented to Charlie Chaplin. Originally a nominee for Best Actor, Best Writer and Best Comedy Director for The Circus, Chaplin was removed from these categories so he could receive the special award, a change that some attributed to his unpopularity in Hollywood. It was the last Oscar the Hollywood maverick would receive until another honorary award in 1971.
The Academy officially began using the nickname Oscar for its awards in 1939; a popular but unconfirmed story about the source of the name holds that Academy executive director Margaret Herrick remarked that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar. Since 1942, the results of the secret ballot voting have been announced during the live-broadcast Academy Awards ceremony using the sealed-envelope system. The suspense—not to mention the red-carpet arrival of nominees and other stars wearing their most beautiful or outrageous evening wear—continues to draw international attention to the film industry's biggest night of the year.
1940 Roosevelt asks congress for 900 Million to finance the construction of 50,000 airplanes a year
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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, 16 May 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 16 May 1968 The new game: find and kill trucks, drop bridges, and rule the skies of the panhandle…
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.
Skip… for your all-read board… in prep for a letter from "Flag Officers 4 America" that I anticipate will be made public this week… Bear
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/05/lew-rockwell/the-woke-plot/
http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/
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Thanks to Clyde
'It was a battle': Navy vet Everett Alvarez says belief in America got him through 8½ years as POW in Vietnam
On Mon, May 15, 2023 at 16:13 Tom wrote:
Last week the commemoration of the end of the Vietnam War was held on the National Mall in Washington, DC. It gained little fanfare in the MSM. Here is a story of the second longest held POW. In an age when almost every entertainer and celebrity is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal or the Medal of Freedom, the award for Cdr Alverez is still being considered. When asked about the status of those medals, he responded. "What's the status on that?" he asked with a smile.
'It was a battle': Navy vet Everett Alvarez says belief in America got him through 8½ years as POW in Vietnam | Stars and Stripes
'It was a battle': Navy vet Everett Alvarez says belief in America got him through 8½ years as POW in Vietnam
By
DOUG G. WARE
STARS AND STRIPES • May 11, 2023
Retired Navy pilot Everett Alvarez Jr. talks Wednesday, May 10, 2023, about his time as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. Alvarez was the first fighter pilot shot down during the conflict. (Ken-Yon Hardy/Stars and Stripes)
ROCKVILLE, Md. — The passage of almost 60 years has done nothing to dim former Navy fighter pilot Everett Alvarez Jr.'s memories of the night that he was shot down in the South China Sea and began what would be the second-longest period of captivity for an American service member in the Vietnam War.
At 85 years old, Alvarez still vividly remembers his Douglas A4 Skyhawk filling with smoke and coming apart as he had just a few seconds to make a series of life-or-death choices.
"I was really low. I knew I had to get out right there," he said Wednesday in an interview at his suburban Washington, D.C., home. "I was trying to get altitude, I was trying to get out to the sea [away from the North Vietnamese coastline], I was trying to maintain control, but I couldn't do it."
Then a lieutenant junior grade, Alvarez made one final radio transmission to his wingmen from the USS Constellation before he hit the ejector seat and bailed out into the stormy darkness on Aug. 5, 1964 — only three days after the Gulf of Tonkin incident that triggered America's full-scale entry into the war.
"I'll see you guys later," he told them.
Alvarez would ultimately spend 8½ years as a prisoner of war — much of it in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton."
He was the first American to be shot down over North Vietnam and the first to be taken prisoner there. This week, he's also among many veterans who are being honored with a "Welcome Home" celebration on the National Mall by the Vietnam War Commemoration to remember the 50th anniversary of the end of U.S. involvement in the conflict.
Only Floyd James Thompson, an Army Special Forces officer advising the South Vietnamese, was imprisoned longer. He was captured in South Vietnam on March 26, 1964 — more than five months before the Gulf of Tonkin incident — and held for nearly 10 years. He died in 2002.
Alvarez said it's a miracle that he ejected and made it to the ground alive. Just another second or two in either direction, he said, would have brought certain death.
"I timed it pretty well," he said, then revising that assessment. "I didn't time it pretty well. God timed it pretty well. I figured someone is watching over me."
Even after ending up in the gulf, still alive, Alvarez said he was then immediately met by gunfire from armed fishermen on the water.
"[They] told me to put my hands up in the air, which I did," he said. "And they got me, quickly."
About a week later, Alvarez found himself in Hoa Lo Prison — now infamously known as the "Hanoi Hilton," a large complex built by colonialists to house political prisoners when the region was known as French Indochina.
"I could hear the clanking of the big gate that opened up into the prison as we drove in. I was still blindfolded and they led me into a room where that was my first living quarters. … It was a barren room, a little table, about a 10 feet by 12 [feet] room. They had a metal frame with a slat, a board, which would be the bed."
Given nothing but a straw mat and a pillow, which was just a straw bundle, and a mosquito net, Alvarez began serving what would turn out to be more than 3,100 days of continuous captivity by the North Vietnamese.
Former POW Everett Alvarez Jr. reads a copy of Stars and Stripes as he relaxes in the hospital after his release from the Hanoi Hilton in 1973. (Defense Department)
During those days, Alvarez said he was often moved over to different parts of the prison complex, and sometimes he was moved away from the complex and into the forest. At times he had roommates, and other times he didn't. Sometimes his captors could be benevolent, and other times they were just violent.
"I told them as little as I could," he said. "They quizzed me for six weeks to learn everything they could."
Late in 1965, his captors moved Alvarez and other captured Americans to a group of small huts somewhere outside Hanoi — a period that the naval aviator called the "second phase of his POW life." After several weeks, they were sent back to Hanoi and cycled through locations the POWs called "the zoo" and "the briar patch."
At one point in 1966, the North Vietnamese marched Alvarez and several other captive Americans through the streets of Hanoi, then the capital of North Vietnam. Alvarez said "the Hanoi march" began what might have been the most hostile period of his detention, one that would last for three years.
"Things were starting to turn rough by then. After the march, things really got rough," he said. "They would punish us. They would torture us for propaganda.
"About three years of constant punishment, torture, different things, they weren't having success converting us to their ideology, and so they really went after us for propaganda purposes — statements, letters, tapes."
The tough treatment of Alvarez and the other POWs continued through the next few years, especially after an escape attempt. That treatment included malnourishment, which gave Alvarez dysentery and reduced him to a little more than 100 pounds.
During his time in captivity, Alvarez said there were so many unknowns that he basically had no choice but to hang on to the few morsels of motivation he could muster — thoughts of home, trust in his faith and confidence in his country.
"It was a battle. You have got to hang on to your values, you have got to hang on to your ideals, you have got to hang on to, you know, you're a member of a team, a group. Everybody was in this thing to keep resisting," he said.
It was about that time that Alvarez received what was perhaps his worst injury, and one that still causes him trouble today. One of the guards flew into a rage and swung the butt of his rifle into the left side of Alvarez's face.
"To this day, that's why I have difficulty. It dislocated my jaw," he said, also noting he sustained a variety of other injuries that required surgeries on both arms and his back.
Another thing that kept him and the other American POWs going during those dark years in captivity, he said, was communicating with each other. Sometimes they scribbled messages for each other on the bottom of their dishes, and other times they spoke to each other via a finger-tapped communication code.
Going home, finally
The constant interrogations and punishments for Americans at the prison would go on for a couple more years before Alvarez finally began to see some light at the end of the tunnel for him and the others at Hoa Lo.
President Richard Nixon famously increased bombing in North Vietnam in 1972, which included the Hanoi area toward the end of that year. They are often referred to as the "Christmas bombings" and one of the goals of that strategy was to push North Vietnam to the bargaining table.
Scholars and historians have debated for decades how successful Nixon's strategy was, but Alvarez said when he heard the intensity of the American bombs exploding around him, he knew that the end of the war was in sight. He also knew something was afoot because the POWs' living conditions began to improve, which is a common bargaining strategy often seen at the end of modern conflicts.
"We knew [North Vietnam] couldn't last long," Alvarez said of the relentless U.S. bombing in the latter part of 1972. A couple of weeks later in January 1973, Alvarez said he and the other American prisoners were told they were finally getting released.
"They said, 'You will be going home soon,' " he said.
On Jan. 27, 1973, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords and officials on both sides began planning for the release of the POWs.
"We were anxious to go," Alvarez said.
Escorted by their guards to a nearby landing strip on Feb. 12, Alvarez and dozens of other American POWs stood on the tarmac and watched as their plane — a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter — swooped in to pick them up and take them to a U.S. base in the Philippines. Alvarez was the first one called to board the plane.
"What I remember the most is the plane started up and we were taxiing, and we got to the end of the runway … we lifted off and everybody let out a big cheer," he said. "And we toasted each other with a little Coke or soft drink that we had and said, 'We made it.' "
Upon arrival in the Philippines, Alvarez was the second one off the plane — after the senior-ranking officer of the group — and he was told he'd have an opportunity to say a few words to the waiting crowd and a row of television cameras.
"I have to tell you, I was just amazed at the crowd and the attention," Alvarez said, noting he'd heard about the rising anti-war movement in the U.S.
"I came down the ramp and I had no idea what I was going to say. But there's [an] admiral … at the bottom of the steps. I gave him a salute and I said, 'Lt. j.g. Alvarez reporting back, sir.' "
That moment was captured by a photographer and displayed on the front page of the Feb. 14, 1973, edition of Stars and Stripes.
After his return and recuperation in 1973, Alvarez went on to several different enterprises. He retired from the Navy in 1980 and subsequently served a few political appointments for President Ronald Reagan for the remainder of the decade, including deputy director of the Peace Corps and deputy administrator with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He became a lifetime member of the Board of Fellows at Santa Clara University in California — his alma mater — and founded the information technology consulting firm Alvarez LLC about 20 years ago. The firm is still active in federal government information technology — and Alvarez is still chief executive. His son Marc is president of the company.
Alvarez has also written two books about his experiences in Vietnam, received numerous medals from his time in the Navy and might soon receive the Congressional Gold Medal, which lawmakers are now considering.
"What's the status on that?" he asked with a smile.
As he now prepares to be honored at the Welcome Home Celebration in Washington this weekend, the proud American grandson of immigrants from Mexico points to several things that have allowed him to be successful in serving his country and realizing the American Dream.
"Everything I've done, I've just had a lot of support. I think I've been successful in most things I've tried to do. I've graduated in electrical engineering from a college. I became a Navy pilot. I was a political appointee. I got into the business world," Alvarez said. "I was nothing special. I'm just one of the guys that had to do what we had to do. And that's how we did it, one day at a time. I had a lot of discussions — a lot of conversation with the man upstairs. That's what worked for me."
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Thanks to Brertt
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https:geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: Shifts in the Western Pacific
By: George Friedman
May 16, 2023
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited Washington last week, where he signed what is essentially a collective defense agreement. In doing so, he sealed their bilateral relationship just a few weeks after signing another agreement that allows the U.S. to station troops and aircraft at bases in the Philippines. The alliance creates a serious problem for China, whose fundamental interest is having unfettered access to the Pacific Ocean and thus unencumbered global trade.
At roughly the same time, Taiwan and Japan held a meeting to plan the coordination of forces in the event China attacks Taiwan. That Beijing immediately condemned the meeting emphasized its significance. The fall of Taiwan would be a serious threat to Japan's access to the Pacific and possibly a threat to the Japanese mainland. These threats may be far-fetched, but a Chinese occupation of Taiwan graduates them from non-existent to at least theoretical.
Japan has been in the process of expanding its military for some time, and obviously a joint Japanese-Taiwanese force would necessarily include the United States. There are also indications that South Korea would participate.
The new map of the Western Pacific thus puts China in a very different position. An invasion of the Chinese mainland by any new coalition is still impossible given the size and sophistication of Chinese land forces. But China's difficulties in securing guaranteed access to the Pacific and its regional waters have soared. The ability of Japan and Taiwan to intercept Chinese naval movements, combined with the United States' and Australia's ability to block Chinese movement to the south, is a problem for Beijing. The obvious vulnerability of the coalition is that it has shown its hand and undoubtedly has not fully completed its defenses. China could preemptively strike any one of the coalition partners in theory, but the narrowness of the waterways makes the risk of defeat high.
There is evidence that China understands the severity of the situation. President Xi Jinping recently moved Zhao Lijian – an official who came to embody China's aggressive and confrontational wolf warrior diplomacy – from a spokesman role to head of the Foreign Ministry's Boundary and Ocean Affairs Department. This will herald a significant, if not radical, shift in Chinese foreign policy. Indeed, the Taiwan News outlet recently reported that top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi outlined new policies for Taiwan, saying that the old ones must be reconsidered.
Our view is that though China's systemic internal problems make it weaker than its military and economic stature suggest, it's still a major power that can, under the right circumstances, assert power far from its shores. But these are not the right circumstances. The geography of the Asia-Pacific is changing to Beijing's detriment. China has made gestures toward a policy shift. It remains to be seen whether China's internal politics allow it to be this flexible.
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This day in American Military History
May 16
1960 – In the wake of the Soviet downing of an American U-2 spy plane on May 1, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev lashes out at the United States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Paris summit meeting between the two heads of state. Khrushchev's outburst angered Eisenhower and doomed any chances for successful talks or negotiations at the summit. On May 1, 1960, the Soviets shot down a CIA spy plane and captured the pilot, Gary Francis Powers. The United States issued public denials that the aircraft was being used for espionage, claiming instead that it was merely a weather plane that had veered off course. The Soviets thereupon triumphantly produced Powers, large pieces of wreckage from the plane, and Powers' admission that he was working for the CIA. The incident was a public relations fiasco for Eisenhower, who was forced to admit that the plane had indeed been spying on Russia. Tensions from the incident were still high when Eisenhower and Khrushchev arrived in Paris to begin a summit meeting on May 16. Khrushchev wasted no time in tearing into the United States, declaring that Eisenhower would not be welcome in Russia during his scheduled visit to the Soviet Union in June. He condemned the "inadmissible, provocative actions" of the United States in sending the spy plane over the Soviet Union, and demanded that Eisenhower ban future flights and punish those responsible for this "deliberate violation of the Soviet Union." When Eisenhower agreed only to a "suspension" of the spy plane flights, Khrushchev left the meeting in a huff. According to U.S. officials, the president was "furious" at Khrushchev for his public dressing-down of the United States. The summit meeting officially adjourned the next day with no further meetings between Khrushchev and Eisenhower. Eisenhower's planned trip to Moscow in June was scrapped. The collapse of the May 1960 summit meeting was a crushing blow to those in the Soviet Union and the United States who believed that a period of "peaceful coexistence" between the two superpowers was on the horizon. During the previous few years, both Eisenhower and Khrushchev had publicly indicated their desire for an easing of Cold War tensions, but the spy plane incident put an end to such talk, at least for the time being.
1963 – After 22 Earth orbits Gordon Cooper returned to Earth in Friendship Seven, ending Project Mercury.
1964 – Governor Nelson Rockefeller accepts President Johnson's offer to brief all Republican candidates for the presidency; afterwards, he agrees with a questioner that Americans are not getting the full story of the situation. Senator Barry Goldwater openly charges that US pilots have died because of obsolescent planes.
1965 – First US gunfire support in Vietnam by USS Tucker.
1965 – What is described by the United States government as "an accidental explosion of a bomb on one aircraft which spread to others" at the Bien Hoa air base leaves 27 U.S. servicemen and 4 South Vietnamese dead and some 95 Americans injured. More than 40 U.S. and South Vietnamese planes, including 10 B-57s, were destroyed.
1969 – 23rd Infantry and 101st Airborne Divisions conduct Operation Lamar Plain southwest of Tamky in Quangtin Province through 13 August.
1972 – A series of air strikes over five days destroys all of North Vietnam's pumping stations in the southern panhandle, thereby cutting North Vietnam's main fuel line to South Vietnam. These strikes were part of Operation Linebacker, an air offensive against North Vietnam that had been ordered by President Richard Nixon in early April in response to a massive communist offensive launched on March 30.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day
*MULLER, JOSEPH E.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company B, 305th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Ishimmi, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 15-16 May 1945. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Holyoke, Mass. G.O. No.: 71, 17 July 1946. Citation: He displayed conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. When his platoon was stopped by deadly fire from a strongly defended ridge, he directed men to points where they could cover his attack. Then through the vicious machinegun and automatic fire, crawling forward alone, he suddenly jumped up, hurled his grenades, charged the enemy, and drove them into the open where his squad shot them down. Seeing enemy survivors about to man a machinegun, He fired his rifle at point-blank range, hurled himself upon them, and killed the remaining 4. Before dawn the next day, the enemy counterattacked fiercely to retake the position. Sgt. Muller crawled forward through the flying bullets and explosives, then leaping to his feet, hurling grenades and firing his rifle, he charged the Japs and routed them. As he moved into his foxhole shared with 2 other men, a lone enemy, who had been feigning death, threw a grenade. Quickly seeing the danger to his companions, Sgt. Muller threw himself over it and smothered the blast with his body. Heroically sacrificing his life to save his comrades, he upheld the highest traditions of the military service.
BALLARD, DONALD E.
Rank and organization: Hospital Corpsman Second Class, U.S. Navy, Company M, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines, 3d Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Tri Province, Republic of Vietnam, 16 May 1968. Entered service at: Kansas City, Mo. Born: 5 December 1945, Kansas City, Mo. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and beyond the call of duty while serving as a HC2c. with Company M, in connection with operations against enemy aggressor forces. During the afternoon hours, Company M was moving to join the remainder of the 3d Battalion in Quang Tri Province. After treating and evacuating 2 heat casualties, HC2c. Ballard was returning to his platoon from the evacuation landing zone when the company was ambushed by a North Vietnamese Army unit employing automatic weapons and mortars, and sustained numerous casualties. Observing a wounded marine, HC2c. Ballard unhesitatingly moved across the fire swept terrain to the injured man and swiftly rendered medical assistance to his comrade. HC2c. Ballard then directed 4 marines to carry the casualty to a position of relative safety. As the 4 men prepared to move the wounded marine, an enemy soldier suddenly left his concealed position and, after hurling a hand grenade which landed near the casualty, commenced firing upon the small group of men. Instantly shouting a warning to the marines, HC2c. Ballard fearlessly threw himself upon the lethal explosive device to protect his comrades from the deadly blast. When the grenade failed to detonate, he calmly arose from his dangerous position and resolutely continued his determined efforts in treating other marine casualties. HC2c. Ballard's heroic actions and selfless concern for the welfare of his companions served to inspire all who observed him and prevented possible injury or death to his fellow marines. His courage, daring initiative, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of extreme personal danger, sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
*ROARK, ANUND C.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. Place and date: Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, 16 May 1968. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 17 February 1948, Vallejo, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Roark distinguished himself by extraordinary gallantry while serving with Company C. Sgt. Roark was the point squad leader of a small force which had the mission of rescuing 11 men in a hilltop observation post under heavy attack by a company-size force, approximately 1,000 meters from the battalion perimeter. As lead elements of the relief force reached the besieged observation post, intense automatic weapons fire from enemy occupied bunkers halted their movement. Without hesitation, Sgt. Roark maneuvered his squad, repeatedly exposing himself to withering enemy fire to hurl grenades and direct the fire of his squad to gain fire superiority and cover the withdrawal of the outpost and evacuation of its casualties. Frustrated in their effort to overrun the position, the enemy swept the hilltop with small arms and volleys of grenades. Seeing a grenade land in the midst of his men, Sgt. Roark, with complete disregard for his safety, hurled himself upon the grenade, absorbing its blast with his body. Sgt. Roark's magnificent leadership and dauntless courage saved the lives of many of his comrades and were the inspiration for the successful relief of the outpost. His actions which culminated in the supreme sacrifice of his life were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect great credit on himself and the U.S. Army .
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS For May 16
FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR MAY 16
THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
1919: FIRST ATLANTIC CROSSING BY AIR. Lt Cmdr Albert C. "Puffy" Read and his five-man crew left Trepassy Bay, Newfoundland, in an NC-4. They arrived at the Azores on 17 May and at Lisbon, Portugal, on 27 May, thus completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by air. Two other flying boats failed to finish the trip. (9)
1940: President Roosevelt asked for the production of 50,000 planes a year. (12) (24)
1945: Fighter-bombers assaulted the Ipo Dam area, Luzon, with the largest mass employment of napalm in the Pacific War. (21) (24)
1947: Over New York, 101 B-29s "theoretically" dropped bombs in SAC's first maximum effort mission. (1) 1950: The USAF gained full responsibility for developing and operating the Joint Long Range Proving Ground Division. The Division had the status of a major air command.
1951: KOREAN WAR. In a maximum effort through 26 May, 315 AD cargo aircraft flew an average of over 1,000 tons of supplies daily from Japan to Korea to support UN ground forces seeking to halt the communist offensive. (28)
1952: KOREAN WAR. Through 17 May, in an emergency unit movement by air, the 315 AD dispatched C-119, C-54, and C-46 aircraft to transport 2,361 members of the 187th Regimental Combat Team and combat equipment, vehicles, and supplies from Japan to Pusan, Korea. The team quelled rioting POWs at Koje-do, where the UN Command had established a large POW compound. (28)
1958: Capt Eli L. Beeding, Jr. became the first man to absorb 83 "Gs" in a Daisy Track experiment. Over a 10-mile level course at Edwards AFB, Capt Walter W. Irwin flew a Lockheed F-104A Starfighter to a FAI speed record of 1,404.09 MPH. (9) The first F-101 Voodoo aircraft to reach Europe arrived at Phalsbourg AB, France. (4)
1958: Captain Walter Irwin sets a new absolute speed record piloting a Lockheed F-104A (#55-2969) Starfighter to an average speed of 1,404.012 miles per hour surpassing the previous F.A.I. record.
1964: SECDEF McNamara accelerated the phaseout of Atlas E and Titan I missiles. His directive advanced the retirement from FY1968 to FY1965. (6)
1968: MAC airlifted 88.5 tons of food and relief material to Ethiopia in response to a flood. (16) (26)
1978: Operation ZAIRE I/MACKAY TROPHY. Through 27 May, after Katangan rebels from Angola attacked Zaire's Shaba province, MAC used one C-5 and 42 C-141 missions to carry 931 tons of cargo and 124 passengers to support Belgian and French operations. During the C-5 mission, Lt Col Robert F. Schultz and his 436 MAW aircrew carried a 130,000-pound outsized load and earned the Mackay Trophy for overcoming fatigue, limited en route support, crippling mechanical problems, and adverse operational conditions in a hostile area. (21)
1980: General Dynamics launched the Tomahawk GLCM for the first time at the Utah Test and Training Range. (3)
1984: MAC C-141s flew 22 tons of medical supplies to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. (16)
1989: Operation BLADE JEWEL. Based on deteriorating relations between the US and Panama, President Bush ordered military dependents not residing on American bases to leave Panama. MAC evacuated 5,915 dependents, mainly on civil aircraft, to the US. (18)
2001: Operation FOCUS RELIEF. Through 24 May, in Operation FOCUS RELIEF II, five C-5 missions airlifted 201 US troops and 217 short tons of cargo from Fort Bragg and Ramstein AB to Ghana and Senegal, where they trained indigenous military personnel to support UN peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone. From August to October 2000, in Operation FOCUS RELIEF I, AMC flew American forces and equipment to Nigeria to help train Nigerian forces for a peacekeeping role in Sierra Leone. By late 2001, AMC flew another 4 C-5, 4 C-17, and 2 C-141 missions for peacekeeper training in Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria. Seven airlift sorties from 11 September through 2 October were flown as FOCUS RELIEF III missions. (22)
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Thanks to Shadow
Fred Turnbull... American Hero. Forgive all typos... I'm tired of typing took too long to wrote... but a great true story!
I have always wanted to write a series of stories about some of the incredible people I have
met and known through aviation. Stories of ordinary men and women who found themselves in
extraordinary circumstances. This will be the first in a series of stories (I hope), and will be a
story that defies belief and logic… yet is 100% true. Probably none of you have ever heard of
this extraordinary individual. His story is one of courage, survival, tenacity and dedication to his
fellow man.
FRED TURNBULL
I first met Fred while in VMAT-102 at MCAS Yuma, Arizona. It was the Marine Corps's west
coast training squadron for the A-4 Skyhawk. Fred was the factory "Tech Rep" attached to the
Squadron and Group. He was the expert on the A-4. We shared an office in the Maintenance
Department, while I was awaiting my turn to start advanced training on all things A-4. Fred was
not really what I'd call an outgoing type personality, I'd describe him more as a serious, no
nonsense type. When Fred did talk though, people listened. I hadn't been there long when one
day, a Bubba I'd known in flight training dropped by to bid farewell as he'd completed the
program and was transferring to El Toro where he'd join one of the A-4 Squadrons in MAG-13.
In the course of the conversation, he mentioned he hoped to join VMA-214, the "Black Sheep",
Pappy Boyington's old squadron from WW II. For some reason, I noticed Fred was listening
and made a strange face when Boyington's name was mentioned.
As soon as my friend left, Fred blurted out… "You damn Marines think Boyington was a hero…
I knew the man personally and he is the most despicable human being I've ever known"! Now
most of my life I'd always deferred to and listened to older men tell stories of their past and
experiences. The fact that my young life revolved around living on Naval Air Stations, I had
more than a normal exposer to men who had served during the last "Good War". That being
WW II and their stories were fascinating to my young and curious mind. Immediately I sensed
that Fred had a story to tell and asked him to tell me about Boyington. Fred said, "It's a long
story, why don't you and the wife join us for dinner Friday night and I'll tell you the story about
Boyington".
We arrived and had a nice dinner and the ladies went out back to enjoy another beautiful
Arizona sunset and get to know each other… while Fred and I retired to his den. Honestly, I had
no idea what was coming, thought maybe a story of a short encounter, with a less than
pleasant outcome… but Fred's story was so much more than that… in fact one of the most
incredible accounts I've ever heard first person! It was a story so detailed and precise it defied
logic. He did not begin with Boyington, but how it came about that their lives crossed. BTW,
later I determined that Fred was one of only three men I've ever known that truly had a
"photographic memory"… which made the story even more impressive.
Fred started the story with the circumstances of how he came to know Gregory Boyington.
Turned out Fred was an F6F Hellcat pilot in WW II. He was shot down over the island of
Formosa during an attack on the Japanese airfield there. As he struggled to keep his airplane
flying, long enough to get over the water and have at least a chance of getting picked up… the
engine finally quit and Fred bailed out just off the shoreline. Unfortunately, the prevailing wind
blew him and his chute back into the surf near the beach. He was immediately pounced upon
by a Japanese patrol and they proceeded to use Fred for bayonet practice… stabbing Fred
multiple times. As he lost consciousness, they left Fred on the beach to die. What happened
next was what Fred called "Divine Intervention".
He has no idea how long he lay there before another patrol came by and found the bleeding
and dying Fred Turnbull laying on the beach. But in a quirk of fate, the Japanese Officer in
charge of this patrol, had been an exchange student in the U.S. prior to the war… and on top
of that, he had converted to Christianity! Instead of finishing Fred off, he ordered his men to
pick up Fred and carry him to an aid station. The young Lieutenant then ordered the doctors to
do everything they could to save Fred's life. Their efforts were successful and the young officer
would come by each day to check on Fred and act as an interpreter between the doctors and
Fred about his injuries and rehab. Miraculously, Fred recovered far quicker than anyone would
have believed. Then one day his life took another turn.
The young officer came by and sadly told Fred he was being moved the next day, to a POW
Camp on mainland Japan. With tears in his eyes he bid Fred farewell and wished him a long
life, if they were never to meet again. The next day, Fred and many other prisoners held on the
island were herded into the hold of a small ship. Ironically, Fred was in better shape than most
of the other prisoners, since the young Lieutenant had protected him from any abuse. As they
were put into the hold… there were no cots for sleeping and only some buckets for bodily
functions use. I don't remember how long the voyage took, but Fred said the first day at sea
was the most frightening. As they left the harbor to join a small convoy, the prisoners started
hearing the telltale sound of sonar pinging as an active sonar started pinging their ship. Well
aware of the presence of U.S. submarine's in the area… there was almost hysteria within the
hold. To think they'd all survived up to this point, only to be sunk by one of our own
submarines… was just too much to believe. Finally a resourceful POW, somehow found a piece
of metal and started tapping on the hull in mores code… "Don't shoot… POW's onboard"!
Miraculously, shortly after the tapping started… the pinging stopped.
When they landed in Japan, they were taken to a POW work camp… and things took a turn for
the worse. The Camp Commander was a brutal authoritarian. Beatings and abuse were
commonplace. Rations were limited and foul. Many became bedridden due to dysentery and
other ailments. The Camp Commander then pronounced if they did not get up to work… then
they would not be allowed to eat. Fred said the food was almost inedible to begin with… but at
least it was enough to keep them alive. Realizing that those bedridden were gonna die if they
didn't get some nourishment… some of the healthier men started secreting morsels of food in
the cheeks like a chipmunk and would go back and take it from their mouth to give to those
bed bound. The situation was desperate.
The POW's had a meeting amongst themselves to try to find some way to survive. Desperate
men in desperate circumstances were nothing, if not resourceful. Unlike the strict security in
German POW Camps in WW II… security in POW Camps in mainland Japan were somewhat
lax… after all, where would an escapee go? First they had no idea where they were and the
chances of an Anglo on an island inhabited by strictly orientals going unnoticed was virtually
impossible… they'd stick out like a sore thumb! And if caught, it was instant death. The
Japanese knew that as well as the POW's, hence security was lax. But the prisoners also
became aware as they were marched off to their work details… the Camp was surrounded by
small Japanese farms. This knowledge led to a scheme where volunteers would attempt to
escape at night, go out in the fields and steal vegetables and what ever edibles they could find,
then sneak back into the camp and share their bounty with their fellow prisoners. Those who
volunteered knew if caught, they would immediately been killed. Fred was one of those
volunteers. As the war continued, things got worse and these suicide missions helped keep
them alive.
Then there was a day when… the first and only POW celebrity arrived at the Camp. One
Gregory "Pappy" Boyington! When Boyington was shot down or crashed near Rabaul… the
stateside papers made a big deal of it! He was a former Flying Tiger and notorious Marine
Fighter pilot. Such was his notoriety that even the Japanese treated him with some small
reverence. Instead of being assigned to work details involving hard labor… Boyington was
assigned to work in the Japanese Officer's kitchen… where he worked with a pleasant mamasan
to help prepare food for the officer's mess. It didn't go unnoticed by his fellow POW's that
all of a sudden, within a short time… Gregory Boyington may have been the only POW in the
sordid history of Japanese POW camps… THAT GAINED WEIGHT! The rest of the camp was
starving to death… and Boyington is gaining weight!
In light of the obvious… the camp leaders approached Boyington. They pointed out they
observed Boyington go to the kitchen each day and watched him return. At no time was he
accosted or searched by the guards. They then appealed to him to smuggle out some food to
shared with his fellow POW's. Boyington flat out refused! No way… he had a good deal and he
knew it… and was not about to risk it by helping others… basically told the them to go fly a
kite! He wouldn't do it.
Suffice it to say… Boyington became the epitome of the "King Rat" to his fellow POW's. While
others were risking their lives to sneak out at night and steal food from the farms… Boyington
refused to offer any assistance to his fellow POW's. Fred said at one point some of the POW's
suggested they take him out… but they were overruled. Instead they shunned him. Boyington
eventually returned as a national hero when released, while his fellow POW's seethed with
anger. But that isn't the end of the story… I'll get to that later.
When the POW's were released… all were sent stateside as soon as possible, save one. Fred
Turnbull was left behind because of his extraordinary memory. I think I mentioned, Fred was
one of only three human beings I've ever known that had a photographic memory. He had been
selected by his fellow POW's to be the repository of every detail of every POW who had
perished in the camp and the circumstances of their death. Every night he would have to recite
their names, when they died and how they died… was it sickness, malnutrition or as a result of
beatings or torture. Fred Turnbull would become a star witness at the War Crimes Trials.
He sat down for weeks with prosecutors and lawyers sharing his knowledge… his recall and
memory amazed them all! And then one day… something happened that was both incredible
and after the fact humorous… bordering on the amazing.
One day two Agents from Naval Intelligence showed up and demanded to speak to Fred. Now
his interactions with the prosecutors and lawyers up to this point had largely been congenial
and friendly… theses two guys were a deferent breed… All business and accusatory.
They told Fred there was a traitor in their midst… and they demanded Fred tell them who it
was! Fred told them he didn't know what the hell they were talking about? They insisted he did,
Fred said it was a lie! They finally confronted him with the fact that Navy Intelligence had
determined that someone in the camp had disclosed the specifics and details of Grumman's
latest fighter, the F7F Tigercat to the Japanese! And they were determined to find out who it
was and they were gonna prosecute them. When they mentioned the F7F… Fred was
gobsmacked! For he immediately knew what they were referring to… but he also had doubts
that they would believe what had happened. It was a tale of truth… that was truly stranger than
fiction. Fred smiled when he told me about it and said his first comments to them was
basically… "Y'all ain't gonna believe this shit"!
There came a time, toward the end of the war… when the Camp Commander, who was a
sadist… started calling in late shoot downs for interrogation. The theory was that since they
were the newest POW's, they would have knowledge the older shoot downs wouldn't have.
They Commander and his henchmen then demanded they tell all they knew about the F7F built
by Grumman. They concentrated on Navy and Marine pilots since it was a naval aircraft. The
problem for the POW's was they knew nothing about it… none had ever heard of it. Having no
luck at first, the Japanese resorted to beatings and torture trying to get the information. Some
of the men were injured grievously! They finally had a meeting and decided they needed to
come up with a story they could spin that was so preposterous, so outrageous… it couldn't
possible be a real airplane; but if everyone started singing the same song, maybe the Japanese
would buy it and stop the beatings and torture.
Here's what they came up with… It was a twin engine Navy, carrier based fighter (Who ever
heard of something like that). The engines were late model Pratt & Whitney 2800's like used by
the single engine F4U Corsair and F6F Grumman Hellcat. It was also unique in that it didn't
have conventional tailwheel landing gear… but it had tricycle landing gear like the P-38 (none
of them thought they'd buy that, but they did). In the end, their fantasy, preposterous and
mythical airplane… ended up being an almost twin of the real airplane! Go figure?
The Agents found Fred's story hard to believe… and sent word stateside to ask some of the
senior POW's if it were true? When it was confirmed… the Navy dropped the case of a
suspected traitor.
As our friendship grew, we discovered Fred and I both shared a dear friend… one Harry Gann
who was the Director of Information for McDonnell/Douglas. Harry would come down and visit,
take pictures and hang out with us. One day, Harry called us and said he'd snagged some
ramp passes for the up coming Reno Air Races and wondered if Fred and I would like to go?
Fred and I talked it over and thought it would be fun… I took a week's leave and Fred took
some time off and we drove up to Reno and met Harry there.
The fire first day we're walking the ramp, when bigger than all life… there sits Gregory "Pappy"
Boyington… sitting by the fence behind a table, hawking his book, "Baa, Baa, Blacksheep"! I
spotted him first and nudged Harry and nodded my head toward Boyington. Almost at the
same time, we see Fred looking in the same direction and he too spotted Boyington! OMG…
what's he gone do? Fred turns and starts walking directly toward Boyington. Later I found out
we both had the same thought… "This could get ugly".
Fred walks directly up in front of Boyington with Harry and I on his heals. He stops, Boyington
looks up and see's Fred and mutter's out, "Long time no see Fred". Are says nothing at first
and then bucked up and says, "Greg… all these people think you're a hero… but I know the
truth… you're the most despicable, rotten, son of a bitch I've ever known… go to hell"!
Boyington never said a word… he got up from the table and went through an opening in the
fence and got into a small motor home and never came out again as long as Fred was there.
Right then, I knew everything Fred had ever told me about him was true.
Now there's two post scripts to my story about Fred… the first was Harry Gann's retirement.
Harry had flown with the blue Angels many times and for over a decade the hand out
lithographs they gave out at air shows were reproductions of Harry Gann photos of the team in
flight, with signatures of the current team pilots around the edges. Sure all of you who follow
Naval Aviation have seen them. Harry was invited to the Blues final air show that season in
Pensacola as the guest of honor in appreciation of all he'd done for the team over the years.
Harry called me and asked that I attend the show and the after party at Trader's where the
Team would recognize him. He also mentioned that Fred would be there as the official
representative from McDonnell/Douglas.
I traveled to Pensacola and we all stayed at the Grand Hotel in downtown Pensacola. The Air
Show and after party made for a long day. As we arrived back at the hotel, we were all beat.
We headed up to our rooms. I checked in with the wife for messages and hung up and was just
undressing to get in bed when my hotel phone rang. It was Fred… he anxiously said, "Get
yourself down here at the bar… Harry is already here". I went. "Gee Fred, I'm beat". He said,
"Get down here that's an order… your scotch is already on the bar… I'm buying"! What he
hay… I got re-dressed and took the elevator down. As I walk in the bar, Fred stands up and
hands me my scotch and says, "Gents a toast… my life is complete… I outlived the son of a
bitch"! He then points at the TV behind the bar and I see the written crawl at the bottom of the
screen, it said: "WW II Marine Hero, Gregory "Pappy' Boyington dies"! Harry and I looked at
each other and din't know what to say? In the end, we didn't have to… Fred said it for us…
"He was a rotten, no good son of a bitch… good riddance"! With that he downed his drink and
headed for the elevator. We watched him go… didn't say anything to each other and slowly
walked through the lobby behind, long enough to let him go up alone. We had breakfast the
next morning and said our goodbyes… it was the last time I would see Fred… but to the end of
the story.
Corky Meyer was a dear friend, a childhood idol and frequent visitor to Black Shadow Aviation.
Corky was a world famous Test Pilot for Grumman aircraft from WW II to the late sixties. He
was up at the hangar one day and was looking to my factory model airplane collection. He
noticed I had a factory model of the F7F and mentioned he's lost his somewhere along the line.
I immediately made a mental note of that and knew as soon as his birthday came along the
model would no longer be mine. And then I said… "Corky, wanna hear a hell of an F7F story"?
And then proceeded to tell him about Fred Turnbull's story about the F7F when released form
POW camp. Corky was so impressed, he said it was a hell of a story and wondered if Fred was
still alive? I said, "I know he is… I talked to him not long ago… Let's call him". Fred answered
the phone and I told him Corky was with me and wanted to verify his story about the mythical
F7F. For the next half hour… we got to listen to these two legends commiserate with each
other and Corky tells Fred he's writing a book and would Fred mind if he mentioned it in his
book. Fred said, "Absolutely… crazy as it sounds, it's all true"!
Where do we get men like this?
Shadow
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