To All
Good Friday Morning August 11 2023.
I hope that you all enjoy a great weekend
Regards,
Skip
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This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
August 11
1861 USS Penguin, commanded by Cmdr. John L. Livingston, engages blockade-runner Louisa during the Civil War. The blockade-runner hits a sandbar near Cape Fear, N.C., and sinks
1877 Prof. Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory discovers the first of two satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, using the largest refractor of the time, a USNO 26-inch (66-cm) telescope.
1898 During the Spanish-American War, USS Cushing (TB 1), USS Gwin (TB 16), and USS McKee (TB 18) captured and burned the Spanish schooner Jover Genard at Carendas, Cuba.
1943 Aircraft from Composite Squadron One (VC 1) based onboard USS Card (CVE 11) sinks German submarine, (U 525), about 376 miles west-southwest of Corvo Island, Azores.
1960 USNS Haiti Victory (T-AK 238), using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recover Discoverer 13 satellite capsule in the Pacific Ocean, the first recovery of a U.S. satellite from orbit.
2001 USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306) is christened and launched at New Orleans, La. The Bob Hope-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ship is part of Military Sealift Commands prepositioning program that serves as dry cargo surge sealift carriers.
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Today in World History: August 11
0991 Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and defeat the Saxons at Maldon.
1492 Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
1792 A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
1856 A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.
1904 German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
1906 In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
1908 Britain's King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
1912 Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of internal dissent.
1916 The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
1929 Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
1941 Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
1942 The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world's first aircraft carriers.
1944 German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the historic city.
1965 A small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black youths sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
1972 The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.
1975 US vetoes admission of North and South Vietnam to UN.
1978 Funeral of Pope Paul VI.
1984 Carl Lewis wins four Olympic gold medals, tying the record Jesse Owens set in 1936.
1988 Al Qaeda formed at a meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
1989 Voyager 2 discovers two partial rings around Neptune.
1990 Troops from Egypt and Morocco arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the international operation to prevent Iraq from invading.
1999 A tornado in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, kills one person.
2003 NATO assumes command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, its first major operation outside Europe.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Thanks to THE BEAR
Subject: ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED… 8 AUGUST
Skip… For The List for Friday, 11 August 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 11 August 1968…
"Dubious distinction": #1 of 58 nailed by an SA-2 in Rolling Thunder…
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 Carl
Budweiser tents practically empty at crowded Sturgis Motorcycle Rally: Videos
Those who flocked to Sturgis, South Dakota, for the annual motorcycle rally this year steered clear of the Budweiser tents, video evidence suggests.
The 83rd annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is currently in full swing, with tens of thousands of bikers and other enthusiasts from all over the world gathering to show off their ride, honor members of the U.S. military, and otherwise enjoy a slice of good, old-fashioned, gas-powered Americana
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Thanks to Newell and Brett
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
We need an American Leo Amery to stand up.
by Victor Davis Hanson
Britain slept in the 1930s as an inevitable war with Hitler loomed. A lonely Winston Churchill had only a few courageous partners to oppose the appeasement and incompetence of his conservative colleague Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
One of the most stalwart truth-tellers was a now little remembered politico and public servant, Leo Amery, a polymath and conservative member of Parliament. Yet in two iconic moments of outrage against the Chamberlain government's temporizing, Amery galvanized Britain and helped end the government's disastrous policies.
In the hours after Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, there was real doubt whether Chamberlain would honor its treaty and declare war on Germany. A Labour Party member, surrogate Arthur Greenwood, got up in the House of Commons to announce that he would be speaking for Labour on behalf of his ill party-leader, Clement Attlee.
Immediately Amery interrupted, shouting out, "Speak for England, Arthur!"
He was met with overwhelming applause, and soon public acclamation. After all, Amery was a political voice in the wilderness warning that neither his own party nor opposition Labour was speaking or acting for the real interest of the British people.
Amery, a shocked Greenwood, and others had finally had enough of the partisan nonsense, and demanded the nation unite against Nazi Germany.
Britain, hours later, declared war on Germany, the first major power to do so.
On a second iconic occasion, May 7, 1940, Amery voiced even stronger views — again, widely held by the public, but rarely voiced by the timid political class. The inept Chamberlain government had just lost a winnable Norway campaign to Germany.
Amery responded with a blistering attack on the incompetence of the conservative Chamberlain administration by quoting Oliver Cromwell's hallmark 1687 order to the Long Parliament:
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."
Three days after Amery's speech and the invasion of France, an ill Chamberlain and most of his advisors resigned. Churchill became Prime Minister.
The rest is history.
We need a voice like Amery's. Like Britain from 1939 to 1940, America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it. Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies both inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function Covid virus that killed a million Americans.
President Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years. In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions. Following Biden's humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon's WOKE agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement. The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable. They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that President Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator. Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but un-WOKE Pentagon. Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.
Somewhere out there an American Leo Amery is growing infuriated over what is being done to America. And if he finally stands up like Amery to call out our bankrupt political class, the American people will echo his famous order to this disastrous government:
"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.
In the name of God, go."
– The following is quoted from Hillsdale College's Churchill Project by Bradley Tolppanen, who is Professor of Library Services, History Librarian and head of Circulation Services at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author of a definitive study, Churchill In North America, 1929.
"Amery's greatest moment came in the famous Norway Debate on 7-8 May 1940. The debate on the disastrous attempt to forestall Hitler's invasion of Norway quickly became a debate on the future of Chamberlain. Amery spoke on the first day, an annihilating attack on Chamberlain which astonished members. The criticism was made all the worse because Amery represented Birmingham, Chamberlain's home town.
Knowing he was no orator, Amery assiduously prepared his speech. Condemning Chamberlain's government, he called for a coalition to fight the war, as in World War I. "We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all. We cannot go on as we are," he declared. "There must be a change."
Although reluctant to be "drawn into a discussion on personalities," Amery said Britain needed "vision, daring, swiftness and consistency of decision."
Then, facing the government front bench, he administered the fatal blow:
I have quoted certain words of Oliver Cromwell. I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."
Amery sat amidst the uproar. "I knew I had done what I meant to do," he later reflected. "I had driven the nail home." In the vote after the Norway Debate, Amery was among forty-two Conservatives who voted against the government, fatally wounding Chamberlain who resigned on May 10th. Winston Churchill thus became Prime Minister."
End Quote.
(Leo Amery, a height-challenged man, often spoke at length in Parliament. It was said, with a chuckle, that if Amery had been a half foot taller and his speeches a half hour shorter, he would have become Prime Minister.)
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Thanks to Mike
We had the longest rainy season in many years over the last 10 months
One Weather Guessers Idea for winter - Lots of "Ifs" and "Maybeys'"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqFwo4g_X7g
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Thanks to Brett
The madness continues
From: William Fraser Sent: Friday, August 11, 2023 8:33 AM
To: Brett Dula >
Subject: Arlington National Cemetery Wants to Know What You Think About Removing Its Confederate Memorial
Sir ,
I thought that I would share this one with you - not sure if the word is getting out. I have sent it to a number of my contacts and know that they were not aware but are now and logging on to comment. Time for our voices to be heard.
Hope that all is well and that you are staying cool with all this heat
VR Will
Begin forwarded message:
From: William Fraser <willfraser3@me.com>
Subject: Arlington National Cemetery Wants to Know What You Think About Removing Its Confederate Memorial
Date: August 11, 2023 at 8:24:34 AM CDT
The removal of this monument is an example of mass if not orchestrated emotional and hysterical over reach. Recall that Southern soldiers were granted amnesty at The War's conclusion. There is no need to disrupt the peace and tranquility of the final resting place of their mortal remains.
Also keep in mind that German Solders are interred in a section of the cemetery in Normandy. Should they not be removed following this "logic"?
Over to you if you care to respond to the survey at the end of this string.
-------- Original Message --------
I just filled out my comment attached to an earlier email. I graduated from VMI in '66 with a degree in history.
Moses Ezekiel is a world famous sculptor and also a VMI graduate. The push to remove statues and the like is nothing more than an attempt to obscure or eradicate history. It makes no sense to me, but these attempts have no merit.
______ORIGINAL MESSAGE_______
Arlington National Cemetery Wants to Know What You Think About Removing Its Confederate Memorial
10 Aug 2023 By Blake Stilwell
In 1900, Congress authorized the internment of Confederate veterans in Arlington National Cemetery. 14 years later, a monument was erected there. (U.S. Army)
In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson unveiled the Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. Created by Confederate veteran Moses Jacob Ezekiel, the 32-foot-tall monument features a large bronze statue of a woman holding a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, representing "the South," atop a granite base.
On that base is the Biblical verse," And they shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks." It also features images from both mythology and those of Southern soldiers and civilians. These include a Black slave woman holding a white soldier's baby, along with a life-size image of an enslaved man following his owner off to war, among others.
"The elaborately designed monument offers a nostalgic, mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery," according to the Arlington National Cemetery website.
In 2021, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included a provision for the creation of the Naming Commission, which directs the defense secretary to "remove all names, symbols, displays, monuments and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate States of America ... or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense."
As part of that provision, Arlington National Cemetery is preparing to remove the Confederate Memorial, which sits at the center of the cemetery's Confederate section. For the next 30 days, the cemetery is soliciting comments from the public as a part of that process. https://anmc-confederatememorialpubliccomments.com/
One of 32 different figures on Arlington National Cemetery's Confederate Monument. (Creative Commons User Tim1965)
Arlington National Cemetery was established during the Civil War, on the land confiscated from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and where (what used to be) his home still sits today. Just more than a month after Lee joined the rebellion, Union troops cleared rebel soldiers from the land and mansion as Lee and his wife fled.
As the Civil War raged on, the U.S. Soldiers' Cemetery and Alexandria, Virginia's Cemetery began to fill up, so Congress released funds to establish a new national cemetery. It just so happened that Lee's land was the perfect place for it, and the first burials at Arlington National Cemetery began in 1864.
Since then, it has been customary to establish a new section of the cemetery for the dead from a particular war. By 1877, Reconstruction had ended and U.S. troops were withdrawn from the South. By 1898, the Spanish-American War had resparked a feeling of unity among both the North and South.
President William McKinley revised the U.S. government's policy on maintaining Confederate grave sites, and he approved a petition asking for a Confederate section in the national cemetery. Congress passed a law allowing for Confederate graves scattered in Arlington to be dug up and reinterred in the new section.
The Confederate grave markers have pointed tops, unlike the rounded tops elsewhere in the cemetery. They are also not buried in orderly rows like the other sections. Instead, they are arranged in a ring around the Confederate Monument at the center of Stonewall Jackson Circle. Planning and fundraising for the memorial at the center began in 1904, and permission to build it was granted in 1906.
Now, after standing for more than a century in its position, the Confederate Memorial is set to be removed. Arlington National Cemetery is seeking comments from the public on its congressionally mandated relocation.
Though lawsuits to prevent its relocation are ongoing, the cemetery is already planning for that relocation, but is inviting the public to provide feedback on "alternatives that will avoid, minimize or mitigate adverse effects of the monument's removal."
"The removal of the Confederate Memorial must be conducted in a manner that ensures the safety of the people who work at and visit ANC and that protects surrounding graves and monuments," the removal page on Arlington National Cemetery's website says. "The entire process, including disposition, must occur according to applicable laws, policies, and regulations."
To submit a comment to Arlington National Cemetery's Confederate Memorial Removal Environmental Impact Statement, visit the website and fill out the electronic form by 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 2, 2023.
https://anmc-confederatememorialpubliccomments.com/
-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Facebook, Twitter, or on LinkedIn.
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From the archives
Thanks to Dick
From my friend, Bob
Subject: Fwd: How WWII ended with a Battle between Sailing Ships
For those of us who THOUGHT we knew our Naval history, a new one!
How World War II ended with a battle between sailing ships
The war was over. Japan had surrendered on August 15. There was no need for any more violence in the Pacific Ocean. But on August 21, a Japanese crew that did not yet know World War II was officially over launched an attack that would be the final battle of the war.
It was also the last battle between two ships under sail. And the last fight where an American crew would board another vessel, like in the early days of the American Navy.
This is the story of the last naval battle of World War II..
The American military had naval operations going on in China even before World War II. When the war broke out, that continued, hoping to disrupt Japanese operations in China and the surrounding seas. Navy Lieutenant Livingston Swentzel and Marine Lieutenant Stewart Pittman were in China for that very reason. Soon after Japan surrendered, they were on their way to Shanghai. They were in command of two Chinese junks, traditional sail-powered ships that between them were outfitted with more modern weapons: a 50 caliber and 30 caliber machine gun, two bazookas, multiple small arms and many, many grenades. Swentzel led one ship, Pittman commanded the other. The total crew wasn't big, seven Americans in all plus 20 Chinese guerillas who had been fighting the Japanese occupation.
The morning of August 21, they weren't expecting combat on their voyage. But they stumbled upon another junk, which suddenly turned and opened fire. It was a Japanese ship. The American and Chinese forces had twice the ships but the enemy junk was filled with 83 Japanese sailors, armed with six machine guns, 100 rifles, and most dangerously, a 75mm howitzer. That howitzer blasted to life, tearing apart the foremast of Swentzel's junk and also damaging its rudder. The battle was on.
In true naval tradition, Swentzel raised the American flag and he and Pittman's ships went on the counteroffensive. The American and Chinese forces unleashed their full arsenal, closing in on the Japanese-crewed ship. Swentzel's junk was damaged, but Pittman's was at full capacity and got up close and personal with the enemy.
The American and allied crews then started throwing their grenades at the Japanese vessel, using the explosives as cover to prepare a boarding party. Pittman and a few of his compatriots then leapt aboard the Japanese ship, guns at the ready. But it was already over. In 45 minutes the Chinese and American force had killed 44 Japanese sailors, wounded another 35 and captured the enemy ship. Their losses were much fewer: four Chinese sailors were killed, five were wounded and one American was wounded in the fight. In less than an hour, they had won the last naval battle of World War II. The Americans had ended the war with the brand new, destructive force of the atomic bomb, but the fighting ended in a throwback to naval warfare from the age of sails and cannons. Pittman's boarding party took the Chinese junk as a prize. The three ships then completed the voyage to Shanghai.
For their efforts, Swentzel was awarded the Navy Cross and Pittman a Silver Star.
That is how World War II finally ended. After the atomic bombs, after the unconditional surrender of Japan, three small ships ended the conflict with a boarding party.
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This Day in U S Military History 11 August
1945 – US Secretary of State, James Byrnes, replies to the Japanese offer to surrender with a refusal to make any compromise on the demand for unconditional surrender. His note states that the Allies envisage an unconditional surrender as one where the emperor will be "subject to" the supreme commander of the Allied powers and the form of government will be decided the "will of the Japanese people."
1950 – Maj Vivian Moses became the first casualty of Marine Air Group 33. He crash-landed his F-4U Corsair in a rice paddy after being hit with ground fire and was thrown from the cockpit. Knocked unconscious, Moses drowned minutes before an air rescue team could get to him.
1960 – USNS Longview, using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recovers a Discover satellite capsule after 17 orbits. This is first recovery of U.S. satellite from orbit.
1965 – What should have been a routine traffic stop in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles developed into one of the worst racial riots in American history. Tensions between the African American community and city law enforcement erupted into war-like acts as snipers and arsonists attacked the police and fire department personal sent to quell the disturbance. In one of the largest deployments of aid to civil authority in American history up to that time, 12,758 California Guardsmen, drawn from two divisions (7,560 men from the 40th Armored and 5,198 from the 49th Infantry), were put on the streets to help restore order and protect people and property. Air Guard units from California and Arizona flew a total of 18 C-97 and five C-119 transport aircraft to airlift the 49th Division's men from Northern California to the LA area. While a number of Guardsmen returned sniper fire, it remains unclear if any civilians were killed by the Guard. After six days and nights of terror the city's streets were restored to peace, but at a very high cost; 34 dead (no Guardsmen), more than 1,000 injured (including several Guardsmen), 4,000 arrested and over 1,000 buildings destroyed. Government and civic leaders, including some in the black community, praised the Guardsmen for their courage, devotion to duty and fair treatment of citizens regardless of race. Four Guardsmen were award the California Military Cross for bravery.
1967 – For the first time, U.S. pilots are authorized to bomb road and rail links in the Hanoi-Haiphong area, formerly on the prohibited target list. This permitted U.S. aircraft to bomb targets within 25 miles of the Chinese border and to engage other targets with rockets and cannon within 10 miles of the border. The original restrictions had been imposed because of Johnson's fear of a confrontation with China and a possible expansion of the war.
1972 – The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States. The unit had been guarding the U.S. air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500 advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This number did not include the sailors of the Seventh Fleet on station in the South China Sea or the air force personnel in Thailand and Guam.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*WHEAT, ROY M.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 11 August 1967. Entered service a*: Jackson, Miss. Born: 24 July 1947, Moselle, Miss. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. L/Cpl. Wheat and 2 other marines were assigned the mission of providing security for a Navy construction battalion crane and crew operating along Liberty Road in the vicinity of the Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province. After the marines had set up security positions in a tree line adjacent to the work site, L/Cpl. Wheat reconnoitered the area to the rear of their location for the possible presence of guerrillas. He then returned to within 10 feet of the friendly position, and here unintentionally triggered a well concealed, bounding type, antipersonnel mine. Immediately, a hissing sound was heard which was identified by the 3 marines as that of a burning time fuse. Shouting a warning to his comrades, L/Cpl. Wheat in a valiant act of heroism hurled himself upon the mine, absorbing the tremendous impact of the explosion with his body. The inspirational personal heroism and extraordinary valor of his unselfish action saved his fellow marines from certain injury and possible death, reflected great credit upon himself, and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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From Alvin York's Action to a Pillar of Purple Fire by W. Thomas Smith Jr.
08/10/
This Week in American Military History:
Aug. 8, 1918: Cpl. (future Sgt.) Alvin York captures "the whole damned German Army" – actually 132 German soldiers – in an action for which he will receive the Medal of Honor.
Aug. 9, 1945: The second – and thus far, last – atomic bomb used in war is dropped over the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
The bomb, code-named Fat Man, detonates approximately 1,840 feet above Nagasaki between the city's two Mitsubishi plants.
New York Times science writer William L. Laurence, an observer flying on the mission, will write:
"A tremendous blast wave struck our ship and made it tremble from nose to tail. This was followed by four more blasts in rapid succession, each resounding like the boom of cannon fire hitting our plane from all directions.
"Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings.
Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, 10,000 feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed."
Aug. 12, 1898: Hostilities are suspended between the United States and Spain with the signing of an armistice all but ending the war (which will formally end within the year).
Spain basically caves, relinquishing "all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba." Puerto Rico and other Spanish-held islands in the West Indies are ceded to the U.S.
Manila will fall to American forces the next day.
Aug. 14, 1942: U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Elza E. Shahan, flying a P-38 Lightning, scores the first American aerial victory in the European theater of operations when he finishes off a previously damaged German Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor near Iceland.
(The 21st-century F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter is the namesake of the famous World War II-era P-38.)
Aug. 14, 1945: Nearly 47 years to the day after Spain hoists the white flag to American forces, Japan surrenders unconditionally to the same.
World War II is over.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 11 August, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
11 August
1906: Mrs. C. J. S. Miller became the first woman in the US to fly as an airship passenger. Her husband, Major Miller of Franklin, Pa., owned the 40-horsepower 22,500-cubic-foot airship. (24)
1910: Armstrong Drexel, an American, flew a Bleriot airplane to a FAI altitude record of 6,605 feet at Lanark, Scotland. (9)
1944: Eighth Air Force sent 956 heavy bombers, escorted by 578 fighters, to attack transportation facilities and military targets in eastern France. (4)
1950: KOREAN WAR. C-119 Flying Boxcars began airlifting trucks from Tachikawa AB to Taegu. (28
1950: Air Force detachable fuselage transport XC-120, built by Fairchild, completed its maiden flight. The Fairchild XC-120 Packplane was an American experimental modular aircraft first flown in 1950. It was developed from the company's C-119 Flying Boxcar and was unique in the unconventional use of removable cargo pods that were attached below the fuselage, instead of possessing an internal cargo compartment.
1954: The Air Force issued a requirement for the Atlas ICBM. (6)
1960: Navy frogmen recovered a 300-pound capsule ejected by Discoverer XIII. This marked the first recovery of an object ejected by an orbiting satellite. When the capsule came down outside the designated area, the planned aerial retrieval had to be abandoned. (16) (24)
1961: Aerojet-General Corporation fired an Aerobee rocket in a test basin at Azuza, Calif. This test included the first successful underwater launching of a liquid-fueled rocket. (24)
1962: The 1608th Transport Wing at Charleston AFB received the first C-130E Hercules for the MATS. (18)
1972: Northrop's Hank Chouteau flew F-5E international fighter on its first flight. This flight marked the beginning of Northrop's development, test, and evaluation program. (3)
1972: Northrop F-5E Tiger II flew for the first time. This upgrade included more powerful engines, larger fuel capacity, greater wing area and improved leading-edge extensions for better turn rates, optional air-to-air refueling, and improved avionics including air-to-air radar. Primarily used by American allies, it remained in US service to support training exercises. It has served in a wide array of roles, being able to perform both air and ground attack duties; the type was used extensively in the Vietnam War. A total of 1,400 Tiger IIs were built before production ended in 1987.
1977: Testing at Luke AFB revealed that the Missile-X buried trench basing mode could not withstand explosive pressures. This led the USAF to switch to a hybrid trench-basing concept. (6)
1978: In the Double Eagle II balloon, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman completed the first balloon crossing of the Atlantic. They flew 3,100 miles from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France. (21)
1993: Through 15 August, three C-5s from the 436 AW airlifted 190 tons of bridge components from England to Nepal after a flood washed out bridges there. (16)
1994: GLOBAL ENTERPRISE. Through 14 August, in an ACC power-projection exercise, two Rockwell B-1Bs from Ellsworth AFB, S. Dak., flew to Europe, across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and around the Arabian Peninsula to land at a staging base in Southwest Asia. After a crew change, the B-1s then flew back to Ellsworth through Japan and over the Aleutians. The 37.3 hours for the total flight and 24 hours for the first leg were the longest flights to date by the B-1B. (20)
2003: A C-9A Nightingale (No. 68-10959) assigned to the 375 AW at Scott AFB performed the last scheduled C-9 aeromedical evacuation mission. The aircraft airlifted one litter patient, a few space-available travelers, and several soldiers wounded in Iraq to their home stations in the US in a 5.6-hour mission. (22)
2004: AFFTC conducted the final evaluation sortie on a new F-16 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) targeting system at Edwards AFB. The testers used a South Carolina ANG Block 50 F-16 to expedite the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) improvement. (3)
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Thanks to Brett
Looks like China has some problems
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
Daily Memo: Benchmarking China
Thoughts in and around geopolitics.
By: George Friedman
Aug 11, 2023
For some time, China has been regarded as an economic miracle, a country whose rise would in due course put it atop the global economy. The justification for this expectation rested on the rate of growth China has enjoyed since Deng Xiaoping took over the chairmanship of the Chinese Communist Party and called on the Chinese people to enrich themselves. This marked the end of Maoism and ushered in an economic surge. It was and had to be what some call a dead cat bounce. If you throw down a dead cat hard enough, it will bounce. China is, of course, far from a dead cat, but in 1978 when Deng took over, it seemed like the economy was quite dead, if not a cat. China's surge over the next decades was simply the economy's response to being released along with the marginalization of Marxism-Leninism.
The growth was remarkable but not unprecedented. Similar stories occurred in the United States and Japan. This is a cycle I have written about before, but it is relevant to understanding China today. In 1890, the United States was 25 years removed from the Civil War. During that period, economic and financial instability reigned. The U.S. could manufacture, but the domestic market was limited, so the U.S. was forced to look abroad. Its exports surged until, in the early 1900s, the United States was manufacturing nearly half of all manufactured goods in the world. These exports built American industry, which benefited as well from World War I. This went on until the 1920s when the war had ended and Europe's ability to afford imported goods slumped. The U.S. faced the reality all countries that export face: It was hostage to the ability of its customers to buy. This led to the Great Depression, and recovery did not come until World War II ended and domestic demand resumed.
Japan went through a similar cycle. Its economy devastated by war, Japan began its recovery around 1950. It too was built on combining manufacturing skills and exports, starting with minor products. ("Made in Japan" tended to indicate low quality.) Its prime market was the United States. Over time, the quality and competitiveness of Japan's exports surged. Japanese automobiles badly hurt the American auto industry beginning in the 1970s. In the U.S., political and economic resistance to Japanese imports swelled. The backlash, along with a banking system in Japan that lacked controls, created the Lost Decade, which forced a new model on Japan after a 40-year boom – about the same length of time as America's boom decades earlier. I have no idea why 40 years is the number, but it seems to be.
China's economic miracle began around 1980 following the Cultural Revolution, which was as brutal as any war. In need of reconstruction, China followed the American and Japanese models of relying on exports, first based on price and later on technical sophistication. China's gross domestic product exploded, and it became the second-largest economy in the world. But there was a flaw in thinking of it that way, as its per capita GDP ranked 76th in the world. Because of its vast population, China can be relatively unproductive and still generate amazing numbers. This made China's rise different from those of the U.S. and Japan, where the growth of GDP reflected efficient productivity.
Still, China grew until hitting a limit on rates of return on capital in the real estate industry and, of course, COVID-19. But this week, China reached another benchmark: deflation. We all hate inflation (except when we try to sell our house). But deflation reduces the value of all products, and it means the nominal value of assets and income falls while debts stay the same. This affects one's ability to leverage a business, particularly real estate, which is a form of saving in China. Instead of banking their money, Chinese buy apartments and houses. Under deflation, the value of their property declines while their debt holds steady. It is not odd, therefore, that another major Chinese real estate company appears to be staggering. Deflation in China is not yet significant, but it is setting expectations as to what is going to come. Exports are falling in the face of a global downturn, which, as we have seen, really hits exporters. The single most striking number is that unemployment among Chinese 16-24-year-olds is at 22 percent. This is an explosive part of the population to be without a job and underscores the stagnation of business activity.
Another point is that while the local governments in China's interior have less than half the debt, they are the regions most likely to default. China's interior is vast and poor, and when Mao wanted to overthrow the government, he went to the interior on the Long March to raise an army from among the people who lived there. They have benefited the least from the boom, and bitterness from this region is the most dangerous to Beijing. How Chinese debt is distributed matters a great deal. The U.S. had its civil war before an economic surge, and Japan had World War II. China too had a civil war, but it is not clear that it settled fundamental political matters.
The bad news in China's economy goes on and on, and the U.S. is piling on by blocking its access to technology and investment. The direction China is heading resembles Japan and the U.S. but without the stable base and resources they had. It is possible that this is simply a cyclical event, but the political foundation in China is very different. Plus, we are at the strange 40-year point, which suggests that China will be a force in the future but that this current surge is ending.
The Philippines rudely rejected this week a Chinese demand to withdraw from a contested atoll in the South China Sea. Philippine rudeness is a decent measure of China's decline.
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