To All,
Good Saturday morning September 2, 2023
I hope that your long weekend is off to a good start
.Regards,
Skip
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History Thanks to NHHC
September 2
1777 The frigate, USS Raleigh, commanded by Thomas Thompson, captures the British brig, HMS Nancy, while en route to France to purchase military stores.
1918 U.S. Navy ships and crews assist earthquake victims of Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan.
1864 During the Civil War, the 8-gun paddle-wheeler, USS Naiad, engages a Confederate battery at Rowes Landing, La., and silences it.
1940 As the Battle of Britain intensifies, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull agrees to the transfer 50 warships to the Royal Navy. In exchange, the U.S. is granted land in various British possessions for the establishment of naval or air bases, on ninety-nine-year rent-free leases.
1944 USS Finback (SS 230) rescues Lt. j.g. George H.W. Bush, who is shot down while attacking Chi Chi Jima. During this time, Lt. j.g. Bush serves with Torpedo Squadron Fifty One (VT 51) based on board USS San Jacinto (CVL 30). Lt. j.g. Bush later becomes the 41st President of the United States.
1945 More than two weeks after accepting the Allies terms, Japan formally surrenders, marking the end of World War II. The ceremonies, less than half an hour long, take place on board the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63), anchored with other United States and British ships in Tokyo Bay.
1989 USS Sentry (MCM 3) is commissioned. The Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship is the second to bear that name. USS Sentry moves to its new homeport of Ingleside, Texas, on Aug. 25, 1992.
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Today in Wotld History September 2
1666 The Great Fire of London, which devastates the city, begins.
1789 The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander Hamilton, is created in New York City.
1792 Verdun, France, surrenders to the Prussian Army.
1798 The Maltese people revolt against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to take refuge in the citadel of Valletta in Malta.
1870 Napoleon III capitulates to the Prussians at Sedan, France.
1885 In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers are killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.
1898 Sir Herbert Kitchener leads the British to victory over the Mahdists at Omdurman and takes Khartoum.
1910 Alice Stebbins Wells is admitted to the Los Angeles Police Force as the first woman police officer to receive an appointment based on a civil service exam.
1915 Austro-German armies take Grodno, Poland.
1944 Troops of the U.S. First Army enter Belgium.
1945 Vietnam declares its independence and Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims himself its first president.
1945 Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II
1956 Tennessee National Guardsmen halt rioters protesting the admission of 12 African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace calls state troopers to Tuskegee High School to prevent integration.
1963 The US gets its first half-hour TV weeknight national news broadcast when CBS Evening News expands from 15 to 30 minutes.
1970 NASA cancels two planned missions to the moon.
1975 Joseph W. Hatcher of Tallahassee, Florida, becomes the state's first African-American supreme court justice since Reconstruction.
1992 The US and Russia agree to a joint venture to build a space station.
1996 The Philippine government and Muslim rebels sign a pact, formally ending a 26-year long insurgency.
1998 Jean Paul Akayesu, former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, found guilty of nine counts of genocide by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Skip… For The List for Saturday, 2 September 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 2 September 1968…
A look ahead to the end of the 44-month Rolling Thunder Campaign…
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for Saturday, Sep[tember 2
September 2nd: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2991
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 Johnny
Sad day Sept 1 Jimmy Buffett died
I had a chat with him one time standing in a security line in New Orleans….I had seen him a few months prior in Aspen at a theater for the world premier of "On Golden Pond". He and John Denver were doing a charity auction before the show. The auction lasted until about 10pm and they were passing out free champagne during the auction. One of the items up for bid was a dinner for 8 at John Denver's house….or could have been Jimmy's house, I don't remember which. Teelie was bidding like crazy on it and then both of them decided that they would be there and would play some songs, then the bidding really started getting high to over 5 figures. I had some trouble getting Teelie to sit down and stop bidding…I think it went for over $15,000. Now I kinda wish we had bought it, but $15,000 was a LOT of money then for sure.
Anyway, back to the security line…I told him he was such a natural and so good with the audience that he should take over Johnny Carson's job (the rumor was out that Johnny was retiring. Jimmy came back with "I just spent 6 weeks in Tahiti recording an album, what the heck would I want to take Johnny's job for?" I certainly had to agree with that. He was on the way to Mobile to see his mom.
Johnny=
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Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945.
The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.
After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.
Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration "with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler." The council obeyed Hirohito's acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States.
Early on August 12, the United States answered that "the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." After two days of debate about what this statement implied, Emperor Hirohito brushed the nuances in the text aside and declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a text accepting surrender.
In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender.
HISTORY Vault: World War II
Stream World War II series and specials commercial-free in HISTORY Vault.
President Truman appointed MacArthur to head the Allied occupation of Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the site of Japan's formal surrender, Truman chose the USS Missouri, a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific and was named after Truman's native state. MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive.
On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.
Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past." Nine more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.
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Thanks to Tom
View the Latest Edition of "This Week @NASA" (published Aug. 25, 2023)
Folks –
Short synopsis this week – just overwhelmed with stuff going on but I DO PROMIES to bring all that is news:
Cosmic ring found by the Webb telescope – stunning pix! PROOF POSITIVE this universe has been and will be for a long time – it keeps reinventing itself! Dead star go to black holes which have dark energy and on and on and on….we won't see the exciting conclusion!!
Psyche – looking at asteroids to fins HOW in the dickens junk came together to form planets – still no real useful theory. And why are the "giant" planets all gas balls NOT rock piles?? We think we are SO SMART! (we are NOT!!)
ASASSIN.14i – COOL NAME! A star gobbled up by a black hole! I wish I could understand the physics of this, but seems it is ALL new and progress in work…fascinating!
Lastly for all you telescope nerds, ANOTHER one is planned (Still don't have a Hubble replacement!) – the Nancy Roman Telescope. Hang tight till May 2027! Yes, to design, build test, package, launch a complicated thing lie this, yup, 5-10 years! I've done shuttle payloads (Shuttle –RIP!!! ) that too 2,3 years back in the 80's. More complicated today by far – just look at cell phone evolution from the mid 1990's !!
ENJOY! and remember to delete this email, just hit delete – to remove your name, just droop me a line………TOM
OUTSIDE READING:
Starship static firing:
Jams Webb Telescope:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VBS83-bPcQE
Flying cars??? OUCH! Accidents galore!!
NO, global warming is not true – it's THE SUN!!!
AGENCYWIDE MESSAGE TO ALL NASA EMPLOYEES
Points of Contact: Rebecca Sirmons, rebecca.h.sirmons@nasa.gov, and Andre Valentine, andre.valentine-1@nasa.gov, Office of Communications, NASA Headquarters
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
View the Latest Edition of "This Week @NASA" (published Aug. 25, 2023)
View the latest "This Week @NASA," produced by NASA Television, for features on agency news and activities. Stories in this program include:
• Webb Observes Ring Nebula in Unprecedented Detail
• Video Series Highlights Psyche Mission Team
• A Giant Black Hole Destroys a Massive Star
• Integrating the Roman Space Telescope's Nervous System
To watch this episode, click on the image below:
Watch the Video
To access this edition of "This Week @NASA," you may also visit:
This notice is being sent agencywide to all employees by NASA INC in the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters.
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info on that pump that makes you work, play and exist
11 Fascinating Facts About the Human Heart Infographic
11 Fascinating Facts About the Human Heart Infographic
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Your heart is the center of your cardiovascular system. It is responsible for pumping blood through your body, carrying nutrients in and taking waste out. Having good cardiovascular health is an important factor of optimal wellness.
Sadly, many people do not pay enough attention to their cardiovascular system. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), one in 10 adult Americans has poor cardiovascular health. This is often caused by a nutritionally-deficient processed food diet, a sedentary lifestyle, and chronic stress.
I truly believe that achieving optimal heart health is not difficult, as long as you follow a healthy diet and lifestyle.*
The Structure of the Human Heart
Your heart works as a "pump" to keep your blood moving inside of you, delivering nutrients and oxygen to all areas of your body while carrying away waste products and carbon dioxide. When your heart muscle contracts or "beats," it pushes blood through your heart and all over your body.
There are three layers that make up your heart:
• Pericardium – the thin outer protective sack
• Myocardium – composed of specialized cells that make up the thick muscular wall
• Endocardium – the thin inner lining of the heart
Inside your heart are four chambers: two on the left side and two on the right. The two small upper chambers are called the atria, and the two larger lower chambers are called the ventricles. The left and right side of your heart are divided by the septum, a muscular wall.
The human heart has four valves. The ones on the right side of your heart are called the tricuspid valve and the pulmonary valve, while the ones on the left are the mitral valve and the aortic valve. These valves act as gates that open and close, ensuring that your blood travels in one direction through your heart.
The heart gets its blood supply from the coronary arteries, which branch off from the aorta, the main artery. The coronary arteries spread across the outside of the myocardium and provide it with blood.
Although the two sides of your heart are separated, they still work together. The right side receives dark, de-oxygenated blood that has already circulated around your body. This blood is then pumped to your lungs, where it receives a fresh supply of oxygen and turns bright red again.
Try These Natural Heart-Healthy Strategies
When your heart and/or other parts of your cardiovascular system, such as your blood vessels, are not properly cared for, they will fail to function properly, which may lead to certain health issues.*
But the good news is you can maintain normal cardiovascular function by eating a healthy diet and exercising correctly. Here are some of my top recommendations:
• Consume a well-balanced diet. Choose whole, organic foods rich in vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, like l-arginine. Some heart-friendly foods you can eat include:
o Olive oil
o Coconuts and coconut oil
o Organic raw dairy products and eggs
o Avocados
o Raw nuts and seeds
o Organic grass-fed meats
It is best to eat a good portion of your foods raw. Also, be sure to severely limit or eliminate grains and sugar, which are mostly found in processed foods, from your diet.
• Get plenty of high-quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil.
• Drink plenty of fresh, pure water every day.
• Optimize your vitamin D levels through appropriate sun exposure. Many studies have proven the numerous benefits of vitamin D. However, you must first know what your current vitamin D level is. The optimal range is between 50-70 ng/ml, but if you have less-than-optimal heart health, I would recommend 70-100 ng/ml.
• Get enough exercise. It improves not only your blood circulation, but your overall health as well. However, I do not advise doing prolonged, strenuous cardio such as marathon running, as it puts too much strain on your heart. Instead, opt for short-burst, high-intensity exercises like Peak Fitness, which also optimize your human growth hormone (HGH) production.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Get plenty of high-quality, restorative sleep.
• Manage your stress.
• Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
Read This Infographic to Learn More Fascinating Human Heart Facts
To learn more about how the human heart works, I suggest you read my infographic 11 Fascinating Facts About the Human Heart. You will discover amazing trivia about the human heart...
Check out this infographic, and always be mindful of your cardiovascular health. Share this information with your loved ones so that they, too, can keep their heart health in check.
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From the archives
Thanks to Carl
http://www.legion.org/convention/217026/%E2%80%98almost-doomed-get-go%E2%80%99
'Almost doomed from the get-go'
By Steve B. Brooks - August 28, 2013
Michael Durant, decorated U.S. Army pilot, told attendees to the Legion's 95th National Convention in Houston his personal account of the incident chronicled in "Black Hawk Down." (Photo by Eldon Lindsay)
It's said hindsight is 20-20, and in Michael Durant's case, it's also very analytical. The U.S. Army pilot – made famous worldwide when he became an 11-day prisoner of war in Somalia in 1993 – looks back on the U.S. mission to capture a Somali warlord and end a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of Somalis were killed by starvation, and has no trouble pointing out critical flaws that led to the deaths of 18 U.S. servicemembers.
"This mission was, unfortunately, as you look at it now, almost doomed from the get-go," Durant told a packed hall of delegates to The American Legion National Convention on Aug. 27 in Houston. "You've got to be decisive, (and) you've got to act when the time is right. When we don't act when the time is right is when situations get out of control and become much more difficult to deal with."
Durant's story and that of the raid were chronicled in the "Black Hawk Down" book and movie – the latter, Durant said, was "accurate enough." But on the national convention floor, Durant gave a first-person account outside of the Hollywood lens.
U.S. forces landed in Mogadishu and within two weeks secured nearly one-third of the city, the port and airport facilities. "Unfortunately, we decided back here in the state that, after about six months, that that success needed to be built upon," Durant said. "We changed the scope of the mission, and that is where we start to get in trouble. The leadership decided we were going to get into nation building, and we all know – certainly after 10-plus years in Iraq and Afghanistan – the challenges involved in those types of missions. It's culture-changing, and cultures don't change in days. They don't change in weeks. They don't change in months. They often time takes generations for cultures to truly change."
"The leadership certainly has the authority and the latitude to do what they want to do, but at the end of the day, it's the sergeant major and the platoon leaders and the people at the point of the spear that have to turn it into reality. In this case, the tactical leadership decides the best way to start this process in motion is to disarm the city of Mogadishu. That is the right first step, but it's also a very difficult thing to take on. That is a very large city."
The decision eventually was made to go after warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid, the self-proclaimed president of Somalia. But Durant said it took 90 days to get that order, causing the U.S. to lose the element of surprise. "He went underground," Durant said of Aidid. "He never slept twice in the same place. It makes a guy who was fairly easy to track down and capture at the outset very, very difficult to track down and capture later on."
The long wait to attack allowed Aidid's forces to adapt to U.S. tactics. They began using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) – eventually shooting 125 during the Battle of Mogadishu, taking down five Black Hawks (three made it back to the U.S. airfield).
Another hurdle faced by the Americans was leadership's decision to start drawing down U.S. forces, Durant said. "So we went from a high of 28,000 U.S. troops to less than 1,500," he said. "Now 1,500 people is not a very large force to try to do all the things that this task force had assigned to it."
Also gone were all the AC-130 gunships, as well as all the tanks – "The things you want to be in if you're going to travel in a city where there's a threat present," Durant said. "It really, unfortunately, took away a large part of our probability of success."
The inability to use tanks particularly is upsetting to Durant, who said that the Somalis' growing use of RPGs made it simple common sense to bring tanks back. "We realized that those RPGs were a significant threat," he said. "What you've got to do when you see those changes occur on the battlefield is figure out, 'What do we need to do to counter that change in the situation?' What we would have typically done if we lose an aircraft – we've been doing it for 50 or 60 years – is send in a search-and-rescue bird, a recovery aircraft, to get that crew and those passengers out. But in this particular case, when you're in an urban environment... the likelihood of the threat being right there is very high. So sending in another helicopter to replace the first one is probably not a good idea.
"Our leadership recognized that and decided we needed to do something different. The conclusion was the right solution was to use a tank."
But that didn't fly with the leaders back home. "We sent the request for a tank up the chain of commander," Durant said. "As much as I hate to say it, that request – making it all the way to (Secretary of Defense Lee Aspin's) office – came all the way back down denied. It wasn't denied because we didn't have tanks. It was denied for political reasons. It was denied because we had begun to withdraw the force, and to put resources back in would send a bad message to the American people.
"I'm going to tell you – that is the unforgiveable sin. If you ask me was there was a lesson learned from Somalia – which should have been learned in Vietnam – it's all about resourcing the commanders on the ground. It is our obligation as American citizens, and certainly our leaders' obligation, to do everything in our power to make sure those resources our provided."
Durant said that prior to the mission, everyone involved on the ground felt comfortable enough they could execute the mission. And everything was going well during the Oct. 3 Operation Gothic Serpent until the first Black Hawk was shot down. Durant's MH60 Black Hawk – which already had dropped off 18 U.S. Army Rangers into the target area, went in to replace that helicopter; his also was shot down.
The crew survived the crash, and two Delta Force snipers – Gary Gordon and Randy Shughart – saw movement at the crash site and a mob of Aidid's forces heading toward the crash and asked three times for permission to be dropped at the site to provide protection for the crew. They were finally granted permission and were able to hold off the overwhelming force for nearly a half hour before being killed, along with the rest of Durant's crew. Gordon and Shughart both would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Durant – who suffered a broken back and leg during the crash – was captured and held hostage for 11 days by hostile forces. His image as a POW appeared in media outlets around the world; the Somalis also would force him to make a video that appeared in 127 countries.
"Captivity is a very, very difficult and challenging thing for any American and any of our allies," Durant said. "We are victimized, quite frankly, by these people who are very angry. They are very anti-U.S. by this point. They broke my cheekbone, my nose, my eye socket. They shot me the next day in captivity. They were threatening me all night."
Durant had gone through survival school and credited it with helping him survive the ordeal. The United States would end up sending former U.S Ambassador to Somalia Robert Oakley, who Durant said had already had earned credibility with the Somalis. Durant said that Oakley was very matter-of-fact with the Somalis. "When he went in and met with them, he said, 'You have two choices: You can let him go within 48 hours, or not. If you choose not to, we will figure out where he is eventually, and when we do we're coming with everything we got," Durant said.
After being freed, Durant worked his way through recovery and resumed flying with the 160th SOAR, retiring in 2001 with more than 3,700 flight hours. He now serves as president of Pinnacle Solutions Inc., a simulation and training company in Huntsville, Ala. During his Army career, he earned the Purple Heart, Bronze Star with Valor device, Distinguished Service Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster.
"It got through it all... because the military takes care of our own," Durant said. "We've gotten so good at that, and I think it's a big part of why we have no issues whatsoever filling the ranks of an all-volunteer force. We can never deviate from taking care of our own."
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This Day in U S Military History
September 2
1863 – Dahlgren, flying his flag in U.S.S. Weehawken, took the ironclads against Fort Sumter late at night following an intensive, day-long bombardment by Army artillery. Moving to within 500 yards of the Fort, the ships cannonaded it for 5 hours, "demolishing," as Brigadier General Ripley, CSA, reported, "nearly the whole of the eastern scarp . . . ." Confederates returned a heavy fire from Fort Moultrie, scoring over 70 hits on the ironclads. One shot struck Weehawken's turret, driving a piece of iron into the leg of Captain Oscar C. Badger, severely wounding him. Noting that he was the third Flag Captain he had lost in 2 months, Dahlgren wrote: "I shall feel greatly the loss of Captain Badger's services at this time." The Admiral broke off the attack as the flood tide set in, "which," Dahlgren said, had he remained, "would have exposed the monitors unnecessarily.
1945 – Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945. The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more. After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki. Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration "with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler." The council obeyed Hirohito's acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States. Early on August 12, the United States answered that "the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." After two days of debate about what this statement implied, Emperor Hirohito brushed the nuances in the text aside and declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a text accepting surrender. In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender. President Truman appointed MacArthur to head the Allied occupation of Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the site of Japan's formal surrender, Truman chose the USS Missouri, a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific and was named after Truman's native state. MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive. On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature. Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed on behalf of the United Nations, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out the blood and carnage of the past." Ten more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.
1969 – President Ho Chi Minh of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam dies of a heart attack in Hanoi. North Vietnamese officials announced his death the next day. Ho Chi Minh had been the heart and soul of Vietnamese communism since the earliest days of the movement. Born in 1890, he was the son of a Vietnamese government official who resigned in protest against French domination of his country. He was educated in Hue and as a young man worked as a cook on a French steamship, travelling to the United States, Africa, and then Europe, where he took work in London and Paris. In 1920, having accepted Marxist Leninism because of its anticolonial stance, he changed his name to Nguyen Ai Quoc ("Nguyen the Patriot") and helped found the French Communist Party. He traveled to Moscow in 1923 for study and training. In 1924, he went to Canton, China, to meet with Phan Boi Chau, one of the leading Vietnamese nationalists of the era. While in China, Ho played the leading role in the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1929. Ho spent most of the next 10 years writing and organizing, all while outside Vietnam. When the Japanese invaded Vietnam at the beginning of World War II, he changed his name to Ho Chi Minh ("Ho, the Bringer of Light") and moved his revolutionary group to the caves of Pac Bo in northern Vietnam. There, in May 1941, he organized the Viet Minh, a nationalist and communist organization created to mobilize the people. During the war, Ho and the Viet Minh entered into a loose alliance with the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), helping to rescue downed American pilots. In 1945, when the Japanese surrendered, the Viet Minh seized power and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as president. However, the French, wanting to reimpose colonial rule, refused to grant independence to the Vietnamese. In late 1946, war broke out between the Viet Minh and the French. It lasted for eight bloody years, ending finally with the Viet Minh defeating the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The subsequent Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into North and South Vietnam. Ho devoted his efforts to constructing a communist society in North Vietnam. In the early 1960s, a new war broke out in the South, where communist-led guerrillas mounted an insurgency against the U.S.-supported regime in Saigon. When the United States intervened militarily, Ho directed his forces in a protracted war against the Americans. During this period, Ho continued to provide inspirational leadership to his people, but as his health deteriorated, he increasingly assumed a more ceremonial role as policy was shaped by others. Still, he was the embodiment of the revolution and remained a communist icon after his death in 1969.
1972 – Phuc Yen, 10 miles north of Hanoi, and one of the largest air bases in North Vietnam, is smashed by U.S. fighter-bombers. During the attack, a MiG was shot down, bringing the total to 47 enemy aircraft shot down since the beginning of the North Vietnamese offensive. At this point in the war, 18 U.S. planes had been shot down by MiGs.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
HERRON, LEANDER
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 3d U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near Fort Dodge, Kans., 2 September 1868. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Bucks County, Pa. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While detailed as mail courier from the fort, voluntarily went to the assistance of a party of 4 enlisted men, who were attacked by about 50 Indians at some distance from the fort and remained with them until the party was relieved.
LEE, DANIEL W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Troop A, 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. Place and date: Montreval, France, 2 September 1944. Entered service at: Alma, Ga. Born: 23 June 1919, Alma, Ga. G.O. No.: 14, 4 February 1946. Citation: 1st Lt. (then 2d Lt. ) Daniel W. Lee was leader of Headquarters Platoon, Troop A, 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, at Montreval, France, on 2 September 1944, when the Germans mounted a strong counterattack, isolating the town and engaging its outnumbered defenders in a pitched battle. After the fight had raged for hours and our forces had withstood heavy shelling and armor-supported infantry attacks, 2d Lt. Lee organized a patrol to knock out mortars which were inflicting heavy casualties on the beleaguered reconnaissance troops. He led the small group to the edge of the town, sweeping enemy riflemen out of position on a ridge from which he observed 7 Germans manning 2 large mortars near an armored half-track about 100 yards down the reverse slope. Armed with a rifle and grenades, he left his men on the high ground and crawled to within 30 yards of the mortars, where the enemy discovered him and unleashed machine-pistol fire which shattered his right thigh. Scorning retreat, bleeding and suffering intense pain, he dragged himself relentlessly forward He killed 5 of the enemy with rifle fire and the others fled before he reached their position. Fired on by an armored car, he took cover behind the German half-track and there found a panzerfaust with which to neutralize this threat. Despite his wounds, he inched his way toward the car through withering machinegun fire, maneuvering into range, and blasted the vehicle with a round from the rocket launcher, forcing it to withdraw. Having cleared the slope of hostile troops, he struggle back to his men, where he collapsed from pain and loss of blood. 2d Lt. Lee's outstanding gallantry, willing risk of life, and extreme tenacity of purpose in coming to grips with the enemy, although suffering from grievous wounds, set an example of bravery and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 2, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
2 September
1910: The first American woman pilot, Blanche Scott, soloed in a Curtiss Pusher over the Lake Keuka Field of the Curtiss Company at Hammondsport, N. Y. (20) (24)
1916: FIRST PLANE-TO-PLANE RADIO TRANSMISSIONFlying at North Island in San Diego, Calif., Lt William A. Robertson and Cpl Albert D. Smith sent radiotelegraphic messages from their plane nearly 2 miles to Lt Herbert A. Dargue and Capt Clarence C. Culver in a second plane. (4) (24)
1933: Lt Cmdr Thomas G. W. Settle and Lt Charles H. Kendall set a 51-hour duration record for balloons in the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race at Chicago, Ill. Their record spanned several subclasses: A-7 (1,600 to 2,200 cubic meters), A-8 (2,200 to 3,000 cubic meters), and A-9 (3,000 to 4,000 cubic meters). (9) 1938: Through 6 September, Merrill Phoenix and Howard Allen flew a Piper Cub from Syracuse, N.Y., to a world light plane endurance record of 106 hours 2 minutes. (24)
1940: The US agreed to trade 50 old destroyers to Great Britain for use against the German U-boats. In return, the US received rights to air and naval bases at eight strategic points in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas. (21) (24)
1945: Japan formally surrendered to the US on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. This marked V-J Day and the end of World War II. (17)
1953: In a Piasecki H-21 Workhorse at Dayton, Ohio., Capt Russell M. Dobyns set a 22,110-foot altitude record of for helicopters. (24) Using an F-86D Sabre, Brig Gen Stanley Holtoner set a 690.118 MPH world speed record on a 100-kilometer, or 62-mile, closed course at Vandalia, Ohio. (24) Capt Harold E. Collins set a 707.876 MPH speed record in an F-86D Sabre over a 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) straight course at Vandalia, Ohio. (24)
1956: At the National Aircraft Show, Oklahoma City, Okla., an Army H-13 helicopter set an endurance record of 57 hours 40 minutes in the air. (24)
1960: The Strategic Air Command declared the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron and its Atlas D missiles operational. This made the 564th the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile squadron in the command. (6)
1966: Exercise BAR FROST. USAF, Army, and Marine Corps units from the US participated in this joint combined exercise with British and Norwegian forces in Norway. The US Strike Command's forces traveled to Norway aboard Tactical Air Command and Military Airlift Command aircraft. (16)
1969: The Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory used its Lunar Laser Observatory to bounce a laser signal off a retroflector placed on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts.
1977: First class of women pilots graduated at Williams AFB, Ariz. Five of the 10 new pilots were assigned to the Military Airlift Command. (16) (18)
1980: The Air Weather Service established a detachment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex., to advise space shuttle personnel of environmental issues and provide meteorological support for orbital test flights. (26)
1982: After an 11.4-hour nonstop flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., a B-1B prototype landed at Farnborough, England, for static display. This was the aircraft's first landing at a site other than Edwards. (3)
1984: Through 3 September, air rescue units in Korea saved 148 people from flood waters. (16)
1996: Operation DESERT STRIKE. Through 3 September, 1 KC-10 from McGuire AFB, N. J., and 8 KC-10s from Travis AFB, Calif., joined 14 KC-135s from Fairchild AFB, Wash., in refueling missions to support a US bombing raid on selected military targets in Iraq. The tankers made four critical refuelings to enable two 2d Bomb Wing B-52s to travel 13,683 miles roundtrip from Barksdale AFB, La., on a 34-hour nonstop mission. Additionally, a Travis C-5 airlifted some 75 personnel and support equipment from the US to Guam to support the operation. (18)
2005: HURRICANE KATRINA. Air National Guard airlifters flew 389 sorties to transport 4,409 passengers and 1,605 tons of cargo in one day supporting hurricane relief efforts. (32)
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