To All
Good Saturday Morning July 15 2023.
A bit long today just pick and choose and there is no test at the end
Regards,
Skip
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This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
July 15
1862
While CSS Arkansas makes her way down the Yazoo River, she encounters the Union gunboats USS Carondelet, USS Tyler, and USS Queen of the West. In the ensuing battle, CSS Arkansas damages the first two vessels and makes her way into the Mississippi River, where she boldly fights through the Federal fleet to find refuge at the Confederate batteries at Vicksburg, Miss.
1896
USS Oregon (BB 3) is commissioned.
1942
USS Grunion (SS 216) sinks the Japanese submarine chasers (25 and 26) off Kiska, Aleutian Islands.
1942
USS Terror (CM 5), the first minelayer built as such, is commissioned. During World War II she participates in Operation Torch, the Battle for Iwo Jima, and the Okinawa Invasion, where she is struck by a kamikaze on May 1, 1945.
1943
TBF aircraft from (VC 29) from USS Santee (CVE 29) sinks German submarine (U 509) south of the Azores.
1943
PBY (VP 92) and British destroyer HMS Rochester and frigates HMS Mignonette and HMS Balsam sink German submarine (U 135) west of the Canary Islands. Previously, (U 135) sank 3 and damaged 1 Allied vessels, none from the United States.
2017
The guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) is commissioned in a ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. The ship honors Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John Finn, who received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the first attack by Japanese airplanes at Pearl Harbor.
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Today in History July 15
1099 Jerusalem falls to the Crusaders.
1410 Poles and Lithuanians defeat the Teutonic knights at Tannenberg, Prussia.
1685 The Duke of Monmouth is executed in Tower Hill in England.
1789 The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live without the authority of the government.
1806 Lieutenant Zebulon Pike begins his western expedition from Fort Belle Fontaine.
1813 Napoleon Bonaparte's representatives meet with the Allies in Prague to discuss peace terms.
1834 Lord Napier of England arrives at Macao, China, as the first chief superintendent of trade.
1863 Confederate raider Bill Anderson and his Bushwhackers attack Huntsville, Missouri, stealing $45,000 from the local bank.
1895 Ex-prime minister of Bulgaria, Stepfan Stambolov, is murdered by Macedonian rebels.
1901 Over 74,000 Pittsburgh steel workers go on strike.
1942 The first supply flight from India to China over the 'Hump' is flown.
1958 President Dwight Eisenhower sends 5,000 Marines to Lebanon to keep the peace.
1960 John F. Kennedy accepts the Democratic nomination for president.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post
Thanks to the Bear for burning up the ether as he tried to send these yesterday numerous times and before but my computer was not receiving them.
Skip… For The List for Saturday, 15 July 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 15 July 1968…
The Navy Cross… for "the last full measure."…
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
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Thanks to Micro
Do you feel like the frog that got put in luke warm water and slowly got heated up until it was to late to do anything…skip0
The Coup We Never Knew
Did someone or something seize control of the United States?
By: Victor Davis Hanson
What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?
Since when did borrowed money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?
When did clean-burning, cheap, and abundant natural gas become the equivalent of dirty coal? How did prized natural gas that had granted America's wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal?
Was it not against federal law to swarm the homes of Supreme Court justices, to picket and to intimidate their households in efforts to affect their rulings? How then, and with impunity, did bullies surround the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas—furious over a court decision on abortion? How could these mobs so easily throng our justices' homes, with placards declaring "Off with their d—s"?
Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? And on whose orders did the FBI contract private news organizations to censor stories it did not like and writers whom it feared?
How did we wake up one morning to new customs of impeaching a president over a phone call? Of the speaker of the House tearing up the State of the Union address on national television? Of barring congressional members from serving on their assigned congressional committees?
When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? Was it suddenly legal for one presidential candidate to hire a foreign ex-spy to subvert the campaign of her rival?
Was some state or federal law passed that allowed biological males to compete in female sports? Did Congress enact such a law? Did the Supreme Court guarantee that biological male students could shower in gym locker rooms with biological women? Were women ever asked to redefine the very sports they had championed?
When did the government pass a law depriving Americans of their freedom during a pandemic? In America can health officials simply cancel rental contracts or declare loan payments in suspension? How could it become illegal for mom-and-pop stores to sell flowers or shoes during a quarantine but not so for Walmart or Target?
Since when did the people decide that 70 percent of voters would not cast their ballots on Election Day? Was this revolutionary change the subject of a national debate, a heated congressional session, or the votes of dozens of state legislatures? No, of course not.
What happened to Election Night returns? Did the fact that Americans created more electronic ballots and computerized tallies make it take so much longer to tabulate the votes?
When did the nation abruptly decide that theft is not a crime, assault not a felony? How can thieves walk out with bags of stolen goods, without the wrath of angry shoppers, much less fear of the law?
Was there ever a national debate about the terrified flight from Afghanistan? Who planned it and why? And today, the current administration (Biden) is blaming former President Trump for that disaster!
What happened to the once-trusted FBI? Why almost overnight did its directors decide to mislead Congress, to deceive judges with concocted tales from fake dossiers and with doctored writs? Did Congress pass a law that our federal leaders in the FBI or CIA could lie under oath with impunity?
Who redefined our military and with whose consent? Who proclaimed that our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could call his Chinese Communist counterpart to warn him that America's president was supposedly unstable? Was it always true that retired generals routinely labeled their commander-in-chief as a near Nazi, a Mussolini, an adherent of the tools of Auschwitz?
Were Americans ever asked whether their universities could discriminate against their sons and daughters based on their race? How did it become physically dangerous to speak the truth on a campus? Whose idea was it to reboot racial segregation and bias as "theme houses," "safe spaces," and "diversity"? How did that happen in America?
How did a virus cancel the Constitution? Did the lockdowns rob us of our sanity? Or was it the woke hysteria that ignited our collective madness?
We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare of a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we neither knew about nor recognized.
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Thanks to Barrel
A Deadly Dilemma
At the height of the Vietnam War, the Khe Sanh battlefield turned the Marine Corps' most cherished virtue of Semper Fidelis into a liability.
By Michael Archer
August 2023
Naval History Magazine
FEATURED ARTICLE
On 8 July 1968, U.S. Marine Corps Major General Ray G. Davis met privately with Lieutenant Colonel Archie Van Winkle on isolated Hill 689, about two miles west of the recently abandoned Marine combat base at Khe Sanh. Their conversation beside a small dust-blown landing zone would be brief, largely because the hill was surrounded by hundreds of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) soldiers relentlessly trying to drive the Americans off. The two officers were keenly aware it would not be long before enemy mortar shells arrived.
Those looking on could not have known at the time that this brief encounter would mark a defining moment in Marine Corps history. These last few days in the 15-month-long battle for Khe Sanh were ushering out the controversial way Marines had been asked to fight the war, initiating a new, more mobile offensive strategy. Their meeting also was bringing to a head a macabre dilemma plaguing Marines—particularly at Khe Sanh.
In Paris, representatives from Hanoi and Washington D.C., who had begun talks two months earlier on how to end the war, also were keenly interested in Hill 689. The American negotiators were concerned that annihilation of this last outnumbered Marine battalion would give their adversary an early upper hand in the discussion.
Marines had first occupied the Khe Sanh plateau and airfield two years earlier, after unsuccessfully trying to convince U.S. Army General William Westmoreland, commander of all U.S. forces in Vietnam, that it was a bad idea. The rainy, socked-in weather and short supply lines for the enemy led the Marines to believe it was a trap—perhaps even a reenactment of the Viet Minh victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, which broke French control over Indochina. Westmoreland, however, hoped for just such a scenario, drawing enemy forces out into the open and using superior U.S. airpower to reduce them in numbers that would force Hanoi to the negotiating table.
Fierce Combat, Back-Channel Negotiations
In May 1967, NVA combat troops massed on hilltops a few miles to the west of the Khe Sanh Combat Base, preparing to overrun the installation and drive the Americans out of the mountains there. Marines immediately attacked and eventually occupied two hills, 861 and 881 South. The following month, a Marine battalion attempted to dislodge the NVA from Hill 689, suffering heavy losses before returning to the combat base. What would become known as the Hill Fights proved to be some of the deadliest combat of the war.
About the time Marines were fighting on Hill 689, President Lyndon B. Johnson privately reached out to Soviet Premier Alexi Kosygin to sound out North Vietnam's willingness to discuss a peace settlement in the war. The Soviet Union was a benefactor of North Vietnam in its struggle against the Americans, and so this gesture was recognized immediately as a lack of personal resolve on the part of the U.S. Commander-in-Chief and did not bode well for U.S. forces in the field.
In late January 1968, the NVA again moved against the Khe Sanh Combat Base, in numbers not seen before. Over the next 77 days, Marine positions were subjected to intense artillery, mortar, and rocket fire daily, as well as several sizable and costly infantry ground attacks. Khe Sanh had long been cut off from ground transportation, and only survived by the employment of inventive methods to reinforce and resupply the base and its outposts by air.
During the first four months, NVA forces around Khe Sanh were subjected to 100,000 tons of bombs (equivalent to the explosive power of five Hiroshima-sized nuclear weapons) and nearly 160,000 large-caliber artillery shells. The CIA estimated that enemy replacement troops arriving at the Khe Sanh battlefield averaged from 190 to 380 a day, meaning the total number of NVA soldiers engaged in the battle over that period could have been as high as 44,000.
In early April, U.S. Army and Marine forces arrived to break the siege. Despite thousands of enemy forces remaining in the general area, President Johnson declared U.S. victory at Khe Sanh, simultaneously announcing he would not run for reelection in November, a decision considered by many as a tacit admission of failed strategy in fighting the war.
Kelly Oaks
Continue Operations . . . Indefinitely
Marine and Army generals petitioned Westmoreland to abandon Khe Sanh immediately. He denied the request and ordered Americans to continue operations in the area indefinitely. In mid-April, Marines patrolling the northeast slope of Hill 689 came under fire from well-camouflaged NVA positions, taking heavy casualties. After hours of anxious fighting, the Marines were forced to move back off the hill, leaving more than 30 bodies that would not be recovered for a week. This tragedy was reminiscent of another encounter, just outside the base in February, when 19 dead Americans had been left behind and would not be recovered for over a month, the enemy using their exposed bodies as bait to draw out more Marines.
In May, four NVA regiments, assisted by heavy artillery, came within a mile of the combat base in an attempt to capture it before being stopped by a Marine reaction force. It was apparent to most U.S. military leaders that the situation at Khe Sanh remained as untenable as ever and General Westmoreland's plan to break the spirit of the North Vietnamese had failed.
Following his promotion to Army Chief of Staff in June, Westmoreland's replacement, General Creighton Abrams, called for the immediate destruction and evacuation of Khe Sanh. This would take several weeks, and so to keep the highly aggressive NVA at bay, Americans fought a series of costly battles in the surrounding hills.
Under cover of darkness on 5 July 1968, a U.S. truck convoy slowly crept east from Khe Sanh along a briefly reopened roadway with the last remains of the combat base and its inhabitants. Marine units on Hill 881 South and Hill 689 were supposed to have been helicoptered out days earlier; however, as the result of a well-conceived enemy ambush, eight American bodies remained just outside the defensive barbed wire on 689.
The situation worsened the following morning when a Marine platoon went to retrieve its dead. The enemy was waiting in well-concealed bunkers and spider holes around a "kill zone" where the bodies lay as bait. As Marines tried desperately to retrieve their fallen comrades, more were killed and wounded. By dusk they were forced to break contact, leaving behind several more dead Americans.
Korean War Medal of Honor recipients reunited: On Hill 689 at Khe Sanh, nearly 20 years after receiving the Medal of Honor for their actions at Chosin Reservoir, Archie Van Winkle (left) and Raymond G. Davis found themselves together anew—"in the midst of abandoning what would become another historically significant position. Again, surrounded and outnumbered by the enemy, they sought to save as many of their men as they could." Courtesy Of The Author; Insets: U.S. Marine Corps
Bodies Beyond the Perimeter
On 6 July, dismayed that this problem had prevented the last Marines from being flown out of Khe Sanh, the commander of the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, Lieutenant Colonel Archie Van Winkle, ordered the remainder of the battalion, including his headquarters unit, airlifted from Hill 558 to Hill 689 to deal personally with the dire situation. Last to arrive was a company from Hill 881 South, whose men had fought unsuccessfully that afternoon to recover the body of a Marine just outside the perimeter, from under yet another baited enemy ambush.
Van Winkle set up his new command post in a cave-like hole below the northeast rim of the hill. Due to unrelenting attrition since late May, his command was now a "battalion" in name only, closer in troop strength to about 500 men, rather than the customary 1,200.
The following night, hundreds of NVA soldiers approached. Lead members called out to the Marines in English, mimicking wounded Marines and corpsmen who had found their way back. The ruse allowed them to approach within several yards before bursting through the barbed wire and flowing to the right and left down the Marine trench lines. The attackers quickly overwhelmed Marine fighting holes and bunkers, but their effort to take the crest of the hilltop and the battalion command post stalled. The Americans counterattacked and reclaimed all their positions.
This was the situation on 8 July 1968, when Major General Ray Davis flew to Hill 689 to speak privately with Lieutenant Colonel Van Winkle, the most pressing topic being what to do about all the bodies now outside the perimeter. Captain Richard Camp, there as part of General Davis' staff, would later say:
I remember the look on the faces of the troops. They had tried, unsuccessfully, to bring the bodies back, and each time they were ambushed by the NVA, who had "staked" out the remains. I could tell that the Marines did not want to go back out there again. It was painful to watch.
After Davis departed, Van Winkle returned to his command post, telling his operations officer, Captain James P. McHenry: "Mac, he's not going to tell me that we have to get those bodies, but he is not going to let us leave until we do."
Khe Sanh historian Ray W. Stubbe later wrote that dead and wounded Americans were left behind repeatedly at Khe Sanh because the Marines could not easily adapt to the "atrocious battlefield environment, yet refused to abandon their fallen without a fight. Time and time again tradition and loyalty overcame reason or objectivity."
At Khe Sanh, the NVA used dead and dying Americans as deftly as any weapon in their arsenal. Once in such traps, Marines became victims of their stylized methods of fighting and reacted the way the enemy knew they would when struggling to retrieve a lost buddy, with emotion and bravado, effectively turning the Corps' most cherished virtue of Semper Fidelis into its deadliest vulnerability.
Brotherhood of Mutual Trust
In the waning days of the struggle, Leathernecks of the 3d Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment salute their fallen comrades during memorial services at Khe Sanh. U.S. Marine Corps
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common for brief truces to occur at the end of battles, allowing opposing sides to gather their dead. But by World War II this courtesy no longer existed, and the abandoned remains of an adversary were frequently left unburied, or interred in mass graves, often more for hygienic than humanitarian reasons.
In December 1950, NATO forces had made a desolate departure from the Chosin Reservoir in North Korea where, enduring sub-zero temperatures, they were quickly becoming encircled by more than 120,000 troops from the People's Republic of China. First Marine Division Commander Major General O. P. Smith ordered the Marine dead transported out along with the wounded, slowly working their way south through rough mountainous terrain and a gauntlet of Chinese ground and artillery attacks until they reached safety at the port of Hungnam. Of the more than 2,500 U.S. and United Nations soldiers involved in that battle, only 1,050 survived.
It may have been this test of will and loyalty, under the most grueling circumstances, that established a "tradition," and a de facto policy, of never leaving another behind—dead or alive. Whatever the advent of that doctrine, it was understood by every Marine going to Vietnam that they would not be left there, a commitment that bound them together in a brotherhood of mutual trust. While encouraging this notion to foster esprit de corps, the Marine Corps had no official policy, largely because such guidelines were unnecessary before so many of these agonizing tactical situations arose at Khe Sanh.
Colonel Frederic Knight, a Marine battalion commander in 1968, later wrote that the Third Marine Division commander, Major General Rathvon Tompkins, General Davis' immediate predecessor, had a policy of recovering bodies as part of "the deep tradition of the Marine Corps taking care of each other, dead or alive."
This policy of bringing back all KIAs, Knight said, created problems for commanders who often "wanted to disengage to reduce casualties and seek a more advantageous tactical situation, but under that stricture, could not." Knight later advocated a policy of "weighing our traditions . . . against the utilitarian principle of the greatest good for the greatest number, and actions taken accordingly." General Davis seemly supported his predecessor's policy, and so Van Winkle and his officers set about devising a scheme to recover their dead Marines.
The final plan unfolded on the moonless night of 9 July. A "box of steel" would be created around the bodies using coordinated fire from machine guns, mortars, and close-air support bombers, while two-person "body snatcher" teams, well camouflaged, faces smeared with black paint, and carrying a single body bag, moved into that box to recover a designated corpse. The mission was over in 30 minutes and all but two of the dead were found and recovered. This time, no one was killed in the effort, and the last Americans departed the hill on the afternoon of 12 July 1968.
True to Their Code
The grim meeting between Davis and Van Winkle was remarkable in other respects. Both men had fought in the South Pacific during World War II—Van Winkle in a Marine aviation squadron and Davis fighting on Guadalcanal, and later receiving the Navy Cross and Purple Heart for his actions on Peleliu.
During the Korean War, both men had been with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, during the aforementioned fighting at the Chosin Reservoir. Then-Lieutenant Colonel Davis and Staff Sergeant Van Winkle would each earn the Medal of Honor, just a few weeks apart; both, at great personal peril to themselves, rescuing Marines trapped by the enemy. Van Winkle would spend several months recovering from wounds.
Richard Camp, who commanded a rifle company at Khe Sanh during the siege, recalled the same steady nerves Davis and Van Winkle still possessed 18 years after their heroics in North Korea. Camp and Captain Jim Jones, who recently had led a rifle company during a critical battle just a few weeks before on Fox Trot Ridge, about six miles east of Hill 689, were watching the two "old-timers" meet when an outgoing artillery round just barely cleared the ridgeline:
The sound sent Jim and me scrambling for the nearest shell hole. A minute later we looked up as the two Medal of Honor recipients stood looking down at us, kind of shaking their heads. They hadn't even blinked an eye . . . needless to say, Jim and I were embarrassed.
Over the coming months, General Davis would oversee innovative tactical changes for his Marines that resulted in some battlefield successes, as in the case of Operation Dewey Canyon II against the NVA in the heavily fortified A Shau Valley. Camp would recall: "He had a superb tactical ability—probably the finest division commander the Corps has ever had—I was fortunate enough to have seen him remotivate an entire Division so that it became a winning team."
However, after Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, and as the peace talks continued, Marine combat ground forces were systematically withdrawn from Vietnam. In May 1971, the First Battalion, First Marine Regiment, which had also been the last out of Khe Sanh, would now be the last out of South Vietnam.
Davis and Van Winkle, whose valor at the Chosin Reservoir significantly maximized the number of Marines and corpsmen who would survive, found themselves nearly 20 years later face-to-face on a hilltop in Vietnam in the midst of abandoning what would become another historically significant position. Again, surrounded and outnumbered by the enemy, they sought to save as many of their men as they could, while honoring the unwritten code to bring their fallen brothers back to their families.
On the hill that day were junior officers who had been experiencing their first combat over the preceding year, like Jim Jones, later the 32nd Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Richard Camp who, after a distinguished career, would go on to become Deputy Director of History for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Also on Hill 689 that day was Lieutenant Ray Smith, who had led his company in a critical counterattack on the night of 7 July that helped break the NVA assault. Smith later would rise to the rank of major general, leading the First Marine Division into Baghdad in 2003. Witnesses to this dramatic moment between two legendary members of the "Greatest Generation," these three men would be prepared a few years later to shoulder the enormous challenges of leading the next generation of Marines into 21st century.
Sources:
Maj Mirza Munir Baig, USMC, Memorandum, 23 December 1968, Headquarters, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Thailand, Joint United States Military Advisory Group, Thailand, to Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, Historical Records Branch, G-3 Division.
Richard Camp, email to author, 7 March 2023.
Brig Gen Hoang Dan and Captain Hung Dat, Highway 9—Khe Sanh Offensive Campaign: Spring and Summer 1968 (Hanoi: Vietnam Institute of Military History, 1987).
First Marine Regiment Command Chronology, July 1968.
William Conrad Gibbons, The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War: Executive and Legislative Roles and Relationships, Part IV: July 1965–January 1968 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1995).
Hoang Ngoc Lung, The General Offensives of 1968–69 (McLean, VA: General Research Corporation, 1978).
James P. McHenry, The Last Battalion Out of Khe Sanh (unpublished memoir, 2013).
John Prados and Ray W. Stubbe, Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004).
Jack Shulimson, U.S. Marines in Vietnam: The Defining Year, 1968 (History & Museums Division, Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps Washington, DC, 1997).
Michael Sledge, Soldier Dead: How We Recover, Identify, Bury and Honor Our Military Fallen (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005).
Ray W. Stubbe, Battalion of Kings: A Tribute to Our Fallen Brothers Who Died Because of the Battlefield of Khe Sanh, Vietnam, 1st ed. (Wauwatosa, WI: Khe Sanh Veterans, 2005).
Ray W. Stubbe, B5-T8 in 48 QXD: The Secret Official History of the North Vietnamese Army of the Siege at Khe Sanh, Vietnam, Spring, 1968 (Wauwatosa, WI: Khe Sanh Veterans, 2006).
Ray Stubbe, letter to author, 6 August 2012.
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Thanks to InterestingFacts
25 of Our Most Interesting Geography Facts
The world is as full of wonders as it is wide, and we've rounded up some of our most astonishing geography facts to show you just how many wonders there are.
1 of 25
The Entire World Population Could Fit Inside Los Angeles
The world population grows larger every year, but we aren't exactly running out of physical space. In fact, all 7.8 billion of us could easily fit inside Los Angeles. Research has shown that you can fit about 10 people into a square meter, crowded-elevator style; Los Angeles is about 1.2 billion square meters, which means that if we all squeezed together, the city could theoretically fit around 12 billion people. However, we couldn't do much more than pose for a quick photo before going our separate ways, since there isn't enough space in L.A. for everyone to actually live in such close quarters.
2 of 25
Asia Is Bigger Than the Moon
The moon isn't as big as it looks. It's around 27% of the size of Earth and has 14.6 million square miles of surface area. Although this seems like a lot, it's significantly less than the total surface area of Asia, which is 17.2 million square miles — making Earth's biggest continent larger than the moon.
3 of 25
Yellowstone Is Actually a Giant Supervolcano
Hot spots and geysers represent just a fraction of the action beneath the surface at Yellowstone. The whole park is actually a supervolcano, although it's not supposed to erupt anytime soon. Yellowstone is actually quite safe. Its supervolcano is made up of two magma chambers; the first is no more than 15% molten, while the second is only 2% molten. According to Forbes, it's practically impossible for a supervolcano to erupt unless its magma chambers are at least 50% molten. So, rest easy — and don't forget to enjoy the view.
4 of 25
The World's Largest Waterfall Is Under the Ocean
Nestled between Greenland and Iceland is a body of water known as the Denmark Strait, and beneath its waves lies the world's largest waterfall. Known simply as the Denmark Strait cataract (a cataract is a type of powerful, flowing waterfall), it cascades 11,500 feet toward the seafloor. This incredible deluge — like other underwater cataracts — is actually a dramatic dance between warm and cold water. In the case of the Denmark Strait cataract, cold water from the Nordic Sea meets the much warmer water of the Irminger Sea southwest of Iceland. The cooler, denser water sinks beneath the lighter, warmer water, dropping more than 2 miles to the seafloor. The resulting waterfall completely dwarfs Venezuela's Angel Falls, the tallest terrestrial waterfall in the world, by more than 8,000 feet. The Denmark Strait cataract is also a staggering 100 miles wide, nearly 15 times wider than the widest terrestrial waterfall, the Khone Phapheng Falls in Laos, which is only 6.7 miles wide. By every single metric, this underwater avalanche towers over the competition — even though it never rises above sea level.
5 of 25
Istanbul, Turkey, Is Located in Both Europe and Asia
Istanbul (formerly known as Constantinople, and before that as Byzantium) isn't just the biggest city in Turkey. With 15.4 million people, it's the most populous city in all of Europe, and its location — between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean — has helped to make it one of the most famous cities in history, not to mention the capital of both the former Byzantine and Ottoman empires. (The capital of modern-day Turkey, incidentally, is the inland city of Ankara.)
In addition to its more than 2,500-year-old history and fascinating architecture (including the Hagia Sophia, built as a church in the sixth century CE), Istanbul is notable for being split between two continents, Europe and Asia, by a thin ribbon of water called the Bosporus. Around one-third of Istanbul's residents live in Asia — east of the Bosporus — while the rest live in Europe.
6 of 25
The Earth's Shape Is Constantly Changing
At a glance, the universe looks pretty well organized, with perfectly spherical planets orbiting in concentric circles around a glowing orb. But things are a lot more complicated in reality. For example, while our Earth looks like a sphere when viewed from space, it's actually an irregularly shaped ellipsoid (think a flattened sphere) because of the centrifugal force of its rotation. And its weirdness doesn't stop there: The precise shape of the Earth is also changing all the time.
The drifting of tectonic plates form entirely new landmasses, and the Earth's crust is still rebounding from the last ice age 16,000 years ago. While these minute adjustments go mostly unseen, other shape-altering events — such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid strikes (RIP to our Cretaceous friends) — are hard to miss. But the Earth also changes shape by the hour. Every day (roughly), the Earth experiences two periods of high and low tide, where the gravitational effects of the moon and sun affect the movement of our oceans, and as a result, the shape of the planet, if only temporarily.
7 of 25
There Are Actually Four North Poles in the Arctic Circle
For many, the North Pole is associated with Santa Claus, flying reindeer, and toy-making elves. What most don't know is that there are actually four recognized North Poles. The Geographical North Pole (aka True North) is the northernmost point on the planet and where all of Earth's lines of longitude meet. The Magnetic North Pole is the spot at which the planet's lines of magnetic force all point vertically downward (and the point that attracts the needle of a compass). The Geomagnetic North Pole is the northern end of where the axis of the magnetosphere — the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth and extends into space — intersects the planet. Finally, the North Pole of Inaccessibility is the point in the Arctic Ocean that's farthest from any coastline.
8 of 25
Europe Has a Rainforest
The thought of a rainforest probably conjures up images of stunning flora and fauna found in the Amazon and other tropical locations. But if you travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, you will find Perućica, a rainforest and one of two remaining old-growth forests in Europe. The forest lies within Sutjeska National Park and remains protected. Nicknamed "the Lungs of Europe," Perućica is home to more than 170 species of trees and bushes, including beech, fir, spruce, and mountain maple, as well as more than 1,000 species of herbaceous plants. Visitors especially enjoy the panoramic views from Vidikovac, a lookout point for Skakavac Waterfall, which falls 246 feet into a forest-covered valley.
9 of 25
Australia Used To Be Called New Holland
Thailand used to be called Siam, Ethiopia was once known as Abyssinia, and Australia was initially christened New Holland when Dutch navigators encountered it in the 17th century. The land Down Under received its current English name courtesy of British explorer Matthew Flinders, the first to circumnavigate the continent, who made a hand-drawn map referring to it as Australia a year later in 1804. Britain formally adopted that name for the country in 1824, and by the end of the 1820s it was widely used.
10 of 25
There's Only One Place in the U.S. Where Four States Meet
Want to try being in four places at once? Then get yourself to the aptly named Four Corners Monument, which marks the intersection of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. It's the only place in America where so many states converge, which is especially impressive given that there are 65 spots where three states meet. The exact location of the quadripoint (the technical term for a place where four territories touch) was a matter of more debate than you might expect, with some surveyors arguing that it should have been about 2,000 feet to the west, thanks to changes in the technical reference systems used for various surveys. It wasn't until a 1925 Supreme Court case that the matter was officially settled.
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About 75% of the Earth's Volcanoes Are Located on the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire"
About 1,350 potentially active volcanoes dot the Earth today, and the lion's share of them can be found along a 25,000-mile-long horseshoe-shaped ribbon that borders the Pacific Ocean. This Circum-Pacific Belt, more commonly known as the "Ring of Fire," is home to some of the most volcanically active areas in the world, including Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Alaska, and parts of the contiguous United States. These volcanoes are largely formed at subduction zones, when denser tectonic plates slip underneath lighter plates. This subduction turns the Earth's dense mantle into magma, which eventually bubbles up as volcanoes.
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Only Three Countries in the World Are Entirely Surrounded by One Other Country
A country's borders can take many shapes and sizes, but only three countries in the world can be considered enclave nations. An enclave is territory of one state surrounded by territory of another, and enclave nations are those that exist wholly within another country's borders on all sides. In Europe, Italy surrounds two of these enclave nations — Vatican City, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, and San Marino, a microstate located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains. The world's other enclave nation is Lesotho, a country completely enclosed by South Africa, and which owes at least part of its long history of independent rule to its incredibly mountainous, hard-to-conquer terrain.
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Nepal Has One of the Most Unusual Time Zones in the World
Calculating time zones can be a maddening aspect of daily life. In the U.S. alone, 13 states straddle two time zones. Things get even stranger when considering Nepali Standard Time: The landlocked Asian country of Nepal uses a meridian that passes through Gaurishankar, a mountain in the Himalayas, to calculate its time zone. Being 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of UTC, Nepal is a rare 45-minute deviation, meaning that when it's noon in Greenwich, England (the basis for UTC), it's 5:45 p.m. in Nepal. The only other 45-minute deviations in the world are New Zealand's Chatham Islands and a tiny time zone in western Australia.
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Africa Is the Only Continent With Land in All Four Hemispheres
The hemispheres divide the world into four sections, with the equator separating the Northern and Southern hemispheres at zero degrees latitude and the prime meridian separating the Western and Eastern hemispheres at zero degrees longitude. Most continents fall within only a few of these invisible boundaries, but one has land in all four hemispheres: Africa. The equator passes through seven African nations (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Republic of Congo, São Tomé and Príncipe, Somalia, and Uganda), while the prime meridian crosses five (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, and Tongo). With 12 hemisphere-spanning countries and land at both the prime meridian and equator, Africa's spot on the map is unparalleled.
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The Westernmost and Easternmost Points of U.S. Territory Share the Same Name
The shape of the United States has changed over the centuries — including its farthest reaches east and west. Today, the lower 48 states stretch around 3,000 miles, but the true span of the United States has more than tripled thanks to some of the country's island acquisitions. In the east, the farthest point in the U.S. in relation to the mainland is Point Udall, located on the island of St. Croix in the Caribbean. Strangely, the farthest point to the west — on the remote Pacific island of Guam — is also called Point Udall. Although the namesakes honor two different men, they do honor the same family. Point Udall in St. Croix is named after Stewart Udall, who served as secretary of the interior for Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Guam's Point Udall is named for Stewart's brother, Morris, who served as a U.S. congressman from Arizona from 1961 to 1991.
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Glasgow, Montana, Is the Most Isolated Town in the Contiguous U.S.
The American West is known for its wide open spaces, but nowhere is quite as wide open as the area around Glasgow, Montana. Crunching some numbers back in 2018 in an effort to definitively define "the middle of nowhere," The Washington Post found that a whopping 98% of Americans in the contiguous U.S. live within an hour of some kind of urban center (that is, a metropolitan area with at least 75,000 people). But Glasgow, located in the northeast corner of the state, is an estimated 4.5 hours from the nearest urban center, making it the most isolated town (with a population of 1,000 or more) in the Lower 48.
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Las Vegas Is the Brightest City on Earth
About 80% of the world's population lives in a place lit up by artificial light at night. And according to NASA, nowhere do those lights shine brighter than in Las Vegas. A city that loves its neon signs and bright marquees, Las Vegas offers an around-the-clock dose of sensory overload — even New York City, "the city that never sleeps," and Paris, "the city of lights," can't match the over-the-top light show of Las Vegas when viewed from outer space. And in a city with so much artificial light, one manages to stand out: the Sky Beam atop the Luxor Hotel pyramid. It's powered by 39 ultra-bright xenon lamps (each 7,000 watts) and curved mirrors that collect their light and focus them into the world's strongest beam of light. Not only can it be seen from space, but the Sky Beam provides enough illumination to read a book from 10 miles out in space.
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The Chicago River Flows Backward
In the second half of the 19th century, Chicago was one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. But along with that population boom came unfortunate side effects, including waterborne diseases such as cholera and typhoid. The problem was in large part that the city's sewage flowed into the Chicago River, which in turn emptied into Lake Michigan — the source of the city's drinking water. So Chicago turned to engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough, designer of the city's sewer system, to solve the problem once and for all.
Chesbrough concluded that if the city's eponymous river could just flow away from Lake Michigan and empty into the waterways leading to the Mississippi, Chicago's water problems would be over. The subcontinental divide just west of Chicago is what caused the river to flow toward the lake, so if the city dug a ditch lower than both the lake and the river through the divide, gravity would take it from there. Workers began the laborious process of reversing the Chicago River in 1892, and after eight years of digging, Chicago blew up the last dam on January 2, 1900, reversing the river's flow. This ambitious plan ended up saving the city, securing its prosperous future into the 20th century and beyond.
19 of 25
The Position of the Arctic Circle Changes Every Year
The Arctic Circle is located at approximately 66.3 degrees north of the equator; however, its actual location changes slightly every year. This is due to the fluctuation of Earth's axial tilt, which is influenced by the orbit of the moon and the consequent tidal changes. The same axial tilt causes the different seasons that we experience on Earth. Currently, the circle is moving north at a rate of around 49 feet per year. In 2017, an art exhibit called Orbis et Globus was inaugurated on Iceland's Grimsey Island to monitor the circle's movements.
20 of 25
100 Lightning Bolts Strike Earth Every Second on Average
The Earth's atmosphere is filled with electricity. Every second, 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes hit the Earth. Considering that most lightning only takes place in clouds and never hits the ground, that makes Earth quite an electrifying place. Lightning happens because air in clouds acts as an insulator between positive and negative charges that exist within clouds and between clouds and the ground. When these opposite charges build up enough, the air can no longer insulate and breaks down — a phenomenon we experience as lightning. To add even more drama, lightning traveling at 200,000,000 mph superheats the surrounding air to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit — that's nearly five times hotter than the surface of the sun — but only for a fraction of a second. This intense heat causes air to expand and vibrate, creating thunder. But while lightning is indeed common, only one out of every 5,000 Americans will be struck by it during their lifetime.
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The Grand Canyon Isn't the Deepest Canyon in the U.S.
Given its name, it's a common misconception that the Grand Canyon is the deepest canyon in the United States. The Grand Canyon is very deep — 4,000 feet deep, in fact, with the deepest point reaching 6,000 feet. This gives it an average depth of about a mile. But Hells Canyon, running along the border of Oregon and Idaho, exceeds the depth of the Grand Canyon by plunging nearly 8,000 feet in some places.
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Only 19% of the Ocean's Floor Has Been Mapped in Detail
Despite covering most of the Earth, much of the ocean has yet to be explored — or even mapped. A 2014 seafloor map developed by an international team of researchers revealed every oceanic feature larger than about 3 miles across, which means we have a strong sense of underwater mountains, but smaller objects — like centuries-old shipwrecks — continue to elude us.
The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project hopes to survey the entire ocean floor in detail within the next nine years. As of 2020, they estimated that 19% of the seafloor had been mapped in detail. They're working quickly: When the project began in 2017, only 6% of the seafloor was mapped in detail. Yet they still have an area roughly twice the size of Mars to cover.
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The Earth's Surface Is "Recycled" Every 500 Million Years
Approximately every 27 days, humans replace their skin. The Earth undergoes a similar process — it just takes 500 million years. As tectonic plates ram into each other, creating what's called subduction zones (the Ring of Fire volcanic chain, for example, is a series of subduction zones bordering the Pacific Plate), the plates dip below lighter continental plates. The subducted rock is heated into magma and becomes future lava plumes forming new landmasses. Scientists used to believe that this process took nearly 2 billion years to complete, but new analysis of basaltic lava on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii proves that Earth recycles its "skin" in about a quarter of that time, or every 500 million years.
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In Nova Scotia, You Can Stand on the Corner of "This Street" and "That Street"
Drive down the highway in Nova Scotia, Canada, some 30 minutes northeast of Halifax, and you'll run into a trio of odd street names. Just down the street from the Porters Lake Community Center, at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into nearby Porters Lake, are This Street, That Street, and The Other Street, referencing the idiom "this, that, and the other." Strange as these street names may seem, the 3,200 or so residents of Porters Lake would find common ground with Americans in Culver, Oregon, who named two of their streets "This Way Lane" and "That Way Lane." (Meanwhile, in a somewhat similar vein, attendees of the Tennessee music festival Bonnaroo have to Abbott & Costello their way around What Stage, Which Stage, This Tent, That Tent, and The Other Tent.)
25 of 25
Mount Everest Is Still Growing
Standing 29,032 feet above sea level in between Nepal and Tibet, Mount Everest is the world's highest peak. It's also still growing. While there's a push-pull dynamic at work in its vertical expansion — plate tectonics push it further into the sky at the same time that erosion does the opposite — the mountain gets about 4 millimeters (0.16 inches) taller per year on average. That means it's actually growing at a slightly slower rate than many of its Himalayan counterparts, some of which are rising about 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) each year.
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Thanks to Barrel
MOH 50 plus years later
http://www.1stdivisionrangers.org/uploads/1/0/9/9/109974575/cobra-extraction.pdf
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This Day in U S Military History…….July 15
1941 – Master spy Juan Pujol Garcia, nicknamed "Garbo," sends his first communique to Germany from Britain. The question was: Who was he spying for? Juan Garcia, a Spaniard, ran an elaborate multiethnic spy network that included a Dutch airline steward, a British censor for the Ministry of Information, a Cabinet office clerk, a U.S. soldier in England, and a Welshman sympathetic to fascism. All were engaged in gathering secret information on the British-Allied war effort, which was then transmitted back to Berlin. Garcia was in the pay of the Nazis. The Germans knew him as "Arabel," whereas the English knew him as Garbo. The English knew a lot more about him, in fact, than the Germans, as Garcia was a British double agent. None of Garcia's spies were real, and the disinformation he transmitted to Germany was fabricated-phony military "secrets" that the British wanted planted with the Germans to divert them from genuine military preparations and plans. Among the most effective of Garcia's deceptions took place in June 1944, when he managed to convince Hitler that the D-Day invasion of Normandy was just a "diversionary maneuver designed to draw off enemy reserves in order to make a decisive attack in another place"-playing right into the mindset of German intelligence, which had already suspected that this might be the case. (Of course, it wasn't.) Among the "agents" that Garcia employed in gathering this "intelligence" was Donny, leader of the World Aryan Order; Dick, an "Indian fanatic"; and Dorick, a civilian who lived at a North Sea port. All these men were inventions of Garcia's imagination, but they leant authenticity to his reports back to Berlin–so much so that Hitler, while visiting occupied France, awarded Garcia the Iron Cross for his service to the fatherland. That same year, 1944, Garcia received his true reward, the title of MBE-Member of the British Empire–for his service to the England and the Allied cause. This ingenious Spaniard had proved to be one of the Allies' most successful counterintelligence tools.
1942 – The first supply flight from India to China over the 'Hump' was flown to help China's war effort.
1943 – General Griswold replaces General Hester in command of operation in New Georgia. There is an air battle over Rendova in which the Americans lose 3 aircraft and claim to shoot down more than 40 Japanese planes.
1945 – American naval vessels bombard Muroran, the second biggest steel center in Japan, lying in Volcano Bay on the east side of the island of Hokkaido. Three battleships bombarded the Muroran and some 1000 carrier planes bombed the cities of Hakodati, Otaru, Abashiri, Kushiro, Asahigawa and Obihiro, all on Hokkaido.
1945 – American B-29 Superfortress bombers, based in the Marianna Islands, raided an oil refinery at Kudamatsu on Honshu Island while fighters and bombers from Okinawa attacked objectives on Kyushu and southern Honshu.
1950 – F-80s accounted for 85 percent of the enemy's losses to air attack. Far East Air Forces Commander, Lieutenant General George E. Stratemeyer, stated that he wouldn't trade the F-80 for all the F-47s and F-51s he could get. "It does a wonderful job in ground support and can take care of the top-side job if enemy jets appear."
1953 – U.S. Air Force Captain James Jabara, 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, qualified as the second and last "triple ace" of the war — 15 kills. He also was the second ranking jet ace of the war.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
MORRISON, JOHN G.
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Entered service at: Lansingburg, N.Y. Born: 3 November 1842, Ireland G.O. No.: 59, 22 June 1865. Citation: Serving as coxswain on board the U.S.S. Carondelet, Morrison was commended for meritorious conduct in general and especially for his heroic conduct and his inspiring example to the crew in the engagement with the rebel ram Arkansas, Yazoo River, 15 July 1862. When the Carondelet was badly cut up, several of her crew killed, many wounded and others almost suffocated from the effects of escaped steam, Morrison was the leader when boarders were called on deck, and the first to return to the guns and give the ram a broadside as she passed. His presence of mind in time of battle or trial is reported as always conspicuous and encouraging.
ROBINSON, THOMAS
Rank and organizarion: Captain of the Afterguard, U.S. Navy. Born: 17 May 1837, Norway. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 77, 1 August 1866. Citation: For heroic efforts to save from drowning Wellington Brocar, landsman, of the Tallapoosa, off New Orleans, 15 July 1866.
BUCHANAN, DAVID M.
Rank and organization: Apprentice, U.S. Navy. Born: 1862, Philadelphia, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 246, 22 July 1879. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Saratoga off Battery, New York Harbor, 15 July 1879. On the morning of this date, Robert Lee Robey, apprentice, fell overboard from the after part of the ship into the tide which was running strong ebb at the time and, not being an expert swimmer, was in danger of drowning. Instantly springing over the rail after him, Buchanan never hesitated for an instant to remove even a portion of his clothing. Both men were picked up by the ship's boat following this act of heroism.
HAYDEN, JOHN
Rank and organization: Apprentice, U.S. Navy. Born: 1863, Washington, D.C. Accredited to: Washington, D.C. G.O. No.: 246, 22 July 1879. Citation: On board the U.S. Training Ship Saratoga. On the morning of 15 July 1879, while the Saratoga was anchored off the Battery, in New York Harbor, R. L. Robey, apprentice, fell overboard. As the tide was running strong ebb, the man, not being an expert swimmer, was in danger of drowning. David M. Buchanan, apprentice, instantly, without removing any of his clothing, jumped after him. Stripping himself, Hayden stood coolly watching the 2 in the water, and when he thought his services were required, made a dive from the rail and came up alongside them and rendered assistance until all 3 were picked up by a boat from the ship.
HAYS, GEORGE PRICE
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army 10th Field Artillery, 3d Division. Place and date: Near Greves Farm, France, 14-15 July 1918. Entered service at: Okarche, Oklahoma. Born: 27 September 1892, China. G.O. No.: 34, W.D., 1919. Citation: At the very outset of the unprecedented artillery bombardment by the enemy, his line of communication was destroyed beyond repair. Despite the hazard attached to the mission of runner, he immediately set out to establish contact with the neighboring post of command and further establish liaison with 2 French batteries, visiting their position so frequently that he was mainly responsible for the accurate fire therefrom. While thus engaged, 7 horses were shot under him and he was severely wounded. His activity under most severe fire was an important factor in checking the advance of the enemy.
Another Nise
*OTANI, KAZUO
Staff Sergeant Kazuo Otani distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 15 July 1944, near Pieve Di S. Luce, Italy. Advancing to attack a hill objective, Staff Sergeant Otani's platoon became pinned down in a wheat field by concentrated fire from enemy machine gun and sniper positions. Realizing the danger confronting his platoon, Staff Sergeant Otani left his cover and shot and killed a sniper who was firing with deadly effect upon the platoon. Followed by a steady stream of machine gun bullets, Staff Sergeant Otani then dashed across the open wheat field toward the foot of a cliff, and directed his men to crawl to the cover of the cliff. When the movement of the platoon drew heavy enemy fire, he dashed along the cliff toward the left flank, exposing himself to enemy fire. By attracting the attention of the enemy, he enabled the men closest to the cliff to reach cover. Organizing these men to guard against possible enemy counterattack, Staff Sergeant Otani again made his way across the open field, shouting instructions to the stranded men while continuing to draw enemy fire. Reaching the rear of the platoon position, he took partial cover in a shallow ditch and directed covering fire for the men who had begun to move forward. At this point, one of his men became seriously wounded. Ordering his men to remain under cover, Staff Sergeant Otani crawled to the wounded soldier who was lying on open ground in full view of the enemy. Dragging the wounded soldier to a shallow ditch, Staff Sergeant Otani proceeded to render first aid treatment, but was mortally wounded by machine gun fire. Staff Sergeant Otani's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 15, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
15 July
1920: KEY EVENT. Capt St. Clair Street led a flight of four DH-4s from Mitchel Field, New York, to Nome, Alaska, and back to Mitchel Field, covering 8,690 miles in 110 flying hours. (U.S. Air Service, "To Nome and Back," Clifford A. Tinker, Vol 3, No. 5) 1925: Dr. A. Hamilton Rice's Expedition, with Lt Walter Hinton piloting the Curtiss Seagull plane, returned from the Amazon after discovering the headwaters of the Amazon River. Rice's expedition was the first to use a plane for exploring. (24)
1933: Through 22 July, Wiley Post completed the first solo global flight in a Lockheed Vega, the "Winnie Mae." He flew the 15,596 miles in 7 days 18 hours 49 minutes at an average speed of 134.5 MPH. (9) (20)
1950: KOREAN WAR. The 51 FS (Provisional) at Taegu flew the first F-51 Mustang combat missions in Korea. Fifth Air Force assigned the "Mosquito" call signs to airborne controllers in T-6 aircraft. This name later became the aircraft's identifier. (28)
1952: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers flew approximately 175 sorties against the Sungho-ri cement plant and a nearby locomotive repair facility. (28)
1954: The first jet-powered transport built in the US, the Boeing 707, the prototype for the KC-135 Stratotanker and the commercial Stratoliner, underwent flight testing near Seattle. (16) (24)
1958: Operation BLUE BAT. After the Iraqi government fell, tensions increased in Lebanon. This strain led Lebanon's President to seek US security assistance. TAC dispatched its Composite Air Strike Force BRAVO to the Middle East in 12 hours. By the 8 September end of the crisis, MATS aircraft had moved 5,500 passengers and 5,500 tons of cargo in 314 missions to support the strike force. (2) (24) 1961: The 341 SMW activated at Malmstrom AFB as SAC's first silo-based Minuteman wing. (1) (6)
1965: The Air Force awarded the first Minuteman III R&D contract to Boeing. (6)
1968: Commercial air service between the US and USSR began when an Ilyushin-62 aircraft of the Soviet flag carrier Aeroflot left Moscow. The aircraft landed at Kennedy IAP on 16 July after a 13-hour, 17-minute flight via Montreal. Pan American World Airways, the US flag carrier, flew two Boeing 707s from New York on 16 July to Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport via Copenhagen.
1970: Deputy SECDEF David Packard approved the Subsonic Cruise Aircraft Decoy (SCAD) for development. (6)
1973: LAST SEA COMBAT MISSION/VIETNAM SUMMARY. All US bombing in Cambodia ended after eight years of conventional operations in SEA. An A-7D from 354 TFW flew the last combat mission in SEA. Altogether, the USAF flew 5.25 million sorties over South Vietnam, North Vietnam, northern and southern Laos, and Cambodia. The USAF lost 2,251 planes—1,737 to hostile action and 514 for operational reasons—at a cost of $3,129,948,000. During the Vietnam War, tactical or intratheater airlift carried 7 million tons of passengers and cargo between 1962-1973. The Air Force Reserve made valuable contributions to strategic airlift operation. By October 1972, reserve aircrews had made 1,294 trips to Vietnam, delivering 30,434 tons of cargo and 3,600 personnel. Between 1964 and mid-August 1973, air rescue operations in Southeast Asia saved 3,883 lives. And from 9 June 1964 through 15 August 1973, KC-135s flew 194,687 sorties to supply 8,964 million pounds of fuel during 813,878 refuelings. They also routinely airlifted people, equipment, and aircraft parts between the US, forward bases, and bases in the Far East and Southeast Asia. (16) (26)
1975: Apollo XVIII. Astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald "Deke" Slayton launched from Cape Canaveral to meet up with the Soyuz 19 cosmonauts. Mr. Slayton, at 51, became the oldest man to fly in space. He was also one of the original seven astronauts. This Apollo mission, when it ended on 24 July, was the last US manned space mission until the first space shuttle launch in 1981. (8: Jul 90)
1976: Mather AFB started interservice navigator training for Navy and Marine personnel. (16) (26)
1981: The first TR-1, a high-altitude tactical reconnaissance aircraft rolled out at Lockheed's plant in Palmdale. (12)
1982: SAC launched its 1,500 missile from Vandenberg AFB. (16) (26)
1985: Exercise READEX 85-2. Two B-52s from the 42 BMW simulated Harpoon launches as part of this US Atlantic Command exercise. The event marked the first Full Operational Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) of the Harpoon anti-ship missile. (16) (26)
1998: Raytheon Aircraft Company's first T-6A Texan II aircraft, or the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS), successfully completed its initial flight at Wichita, Kan. To meet Air Force and Navy primary aircraft training needs, the DoD decided to buy 740 T-6A aircraft, along with the accompanying JPATS Ground Based Training System. (AFNEWS Article 981039, 17 Jul 98)
2000: Whiteman AFB received the final B-2A from Northrop Grumman. It was the first test vehicle (AV-1 or Tail No. 82-1066), named Fatal Beauty. With its assignment to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, the aircraft received a new name, Spirit of America. (21)
2002: The first production C-17 (P-86), fitted with the Block 13 software upgrade, arrived at McChord AFB. The Block 13 upgrade included a state-of-the-art Terrain Awareness Warning System (TAWS) and improved Station Keeping Equipment (SKE). The TAWS featured a terrain map to help aircrews detect and avoid terrain, while the upgraded SKE had a multi-functional display that enabled 18 aircraft to fly in formation within 10 nautical miles and up to 100 aircraft to fly in formation within 100 nautical miles. The new SKEs also allowed C-17 aircrews to perform formation airdrops in nearly all types of weather. (22)
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