Good Friday morning September 289, 2023
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Regards
Skip
I received this from Shadow last night when I got home from teaching
T'was a long night… and a painful week.
Leaving my grandson's football game last Friday night… We were rear ended by some jerk driving between 95-100 MPH. Worse we're were on the longest bridge over the river! Can't believe we didn't go over the side! Spent four days in the hospital, Wendy's left leg is fractured in two places. I feel like someone has worked me over with a baseball bat! Only recourse from here is to let the lawyers work it out and heal the best way I can. Luckily, plenty of eye witnesses. I was on cruise control, doing 65… he claimed he was only doing 65? Me thinks he is a liar.
BTW… the TV sitting on the dash was mounted on the overhead behind the two front seats. Was a wild ride!
We wish Shadow and Wendy a full recovery and I am sure that a note from you will help in that regard
Roy Stafford stafford44@icloud.com
Regards,
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Today in Naval and Marine Corps History Thanks to NHHC
September 29
1829 The brig-sloop USS Hornet is driven from her anchorage off Tampico, Mexico by a gale. She is never seen again and her crew of 140 is lost.
1854 The sloop-of-war USS Albany departs Aspinwall, Columbia (now Colon, Panama) for New York with a crew of 193. She is never seen again.
1906 USS Connecticut (BB 18) is commissioned. During World War I, USS Connecticut is employed as a training ship off the United States East Coast and in the Chesapeake Bay. In the first half of 1919, she serves as a transport, making four trans-Atlantic voyages to bring home veterans from France.
1944 USS Narwhal (SS 167) evacuates 81 allied prisoners of war from Lanboyan Point, Sindangan Bay, Mindanao, Philippines. They had survived the Sept. 7 sinking of Japanese POW transport Shinyo Maru.
1946 Lockheed P2V Neptune, Truculent Turtle, departs Perth, Australia on a long distance non-stop, non-refueling flight to the mainland United States that ends on Oct. 1 at Columbus, Ohio. The flight breaks the world record for distance without fueling at 11,235.6 miles over 55 hours and 17 minutes.
1959 USS Kearsarge (CVS 33), with Helicopter Squadron 6 and other 7th Fleet units, begin six days of disaster relief to Nagoya, Japan, after Typhoon Vera.
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Today in History September 29
1197 Emperor Henry VI dies in Messina, Sicily.
1399 Richard II of England is deposed. His cousin, Henry of Lancaster, declares himself king under the name Henry IV.
1493 Christopher Columbus leaves Cadiz, Spain, on his second voyage to the new world.
1513 Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean.
1789 Congress votes to create a U.S. army.
1833 A civil war breaks out in Spain between Carlists, who believe Don Carlos deserves the throne, and supporters of Queen Isabella.
1850 Mormon leader Brigham Young is named the first governor of the Utah Territory.
1864 Union troops capture the Confederate Fort Harrison, outside Petersburg, Virginia.
1879 Dissatisfied Ute Indians kill Agent Nathan Meeker and nine others in the "Meeker Massacre."
1932 A five-day work week is established for General Motors workers.
1939 Germany and the Soviet Union reach an agreement on the division of Poland.
1941 30,000 Jews are gunned down in Kiev when Heinrich Himmler sends four strike squads to exterminate Soviet Jewish civilians and other "undesirables."
1943 Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf is published in the United States.
1950 Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev repeatedly disrupts a UN General Assembly meeting with his violent outbursts over intervention in the Belgian Congo, US U2 spy planes, and arms control.
1960 General Douglas MacArthur officially returns Seoul, South Korea, to President Syngman Rhee.
1962 Canada launches its first satellite, Alouette 1.
1962 The popular Argentinian comic strip Mafalda beings publication, in the weekly Primera Plana; focusing on a six-year-old girl (Mafalda) and her friends, it has been called the Argentinian Peanuts.
1966 Chevrolet introduces the Camaro, which will become an iconic car.
1971 Oman joins the Arab League.
1979 John Paul II becomes the first pope ever to visit Ireland.
1990 The YF-22, later named F-22 Raptor, flies for the first time.
1992 Brazilian President Fernando Collor de Mello impeached for corruptions; he was the youngest president in the nation's history, taking office at age 40 in 1990.
2008 Dow Jones Industrial Average plummets 777.68 points in the wake of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual bankruptcies, the largest single-day point loss in Wall Street history.
2009 An 8.1 earthquake causes a tidal wave that claims 189 lives in Samoa, American Samoa, and Tonga.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Skip… For The List for Friday, 29 September 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 29 September 1968…
Cicero with a timeless quote for your next letter to your Senators…
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for Friday September 29
September 29th: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=3024
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
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend last week and I forgot to forward. The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
AUGUST 15, 2022
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
The human brain runs on less power than a 60-watt lightbulb.
Some 500 million years ago, an ancient fish-like creature produced at least one offspring with a curious mutation — twice the number of genes. These excess genes began developing in new directions, eventually creating more and more complex brains. Some 150 million years later, human ancestors roamed the land, and their brains continued to grow in complexity. About 2.5 million years ago, hominid brains started growing especially large, although scientists aren't exactly sure what led to that sudden burst. Yet after millions of years of evolutionary experimentation, the human brain is a biological wonder many times more efficient than any artificial equivalent — in fact, it's even more efficient than a 60-watt lightbulb.
Take, for example, IBM's Watson, the supercomputer that famously bested Jeopardy! champions on daytime television in 2011. Watson uses around 85,000 watts to electronically outfox a human. Meanwhile, its biological competitors' brains run at around 20 watts. It's true that when compared to the rest of the human body, the brain is a greedy customer, requiring about 20% of our energy use. It uses two-thirds of that energy to send signals along its neurons, and the rest for cell-health "housekeeping." But when it comes to everything our brains do for us — and how efficient they are overall — that seems like energy well-spent.
The idea that humans only use 10% of their brain is completely false.
The "we only use 10% of our brain" myth is one of Hollywood's favorite premises. Found in films such as Phenomenon (1996), Limitless (2011), and Lucy (2014), the general idea is that the human brain is an organ of almost limitless potential. If people could only access all of their brain, rather than just the usual 10%, humanity could become a race of superbeings — or so the theory goes. The idea is great for selling popcorn, but not so great when it comes to scientific reality. For one, evolution makes it highly unlikely that a species would evolve with an organ that requires so much energy and is then only used at 10% of its capacity. Sections of the human brain specialize in certain tasks, so while it's possible for only part of the brain to be activated, the whole brain is still very much in use. In fact, scientists have yet to discover any part of the human brain that does nothing.
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From the list archives a bit of humor
One of my favorites
Flying the F-8 all over the west and southwest in the 60s and 70s there were a lot of places to go and things and people to see. From the Grand canyon to the mountains and the river from Hoover Dam to Yuma waving at the folks in their inner tubes it was great fun. In those days when you went out at night from NAS Miramar it was all black below you. There was one small bit of light in Mira Mesa, one in Poway and a few in Escondido. Old Hiway 395 was the way to go north from San Diego and the only place to pass was when you went through Escondido and then it was only two lanes all the way north to go skiing. Passing cars was exciting. skip
Thanks to Chuck
Great aviation story
Byrum Teekel, a 90 year old insurance man, who once flew a twin Piper around the WORLD with a co-pilot friend who had been a Navy test pilot in the early days of jets told the funniest aviation story I'd heard in a long time.
When the Navy first began test flights with jets, they were flying out of Carswell because the Chance-Vought plant was there in Ft Worth. Gen. LeMay found out about it and had a stroke worrying that if "any of those Navy pukes" crashed a plane at Carswell, they might not be able to get the bombers off to start WWIII – so he kicked them out. The Navy still wanted a long runway near Ft Worth and the C-V factory, and they settled on Ardmore, OK.
Teek's buddy and his wingman became famous in the small OK town and couldn't buy a beer at any of the local taverns. After their test flights every day, they'd do some bonus acrobatics for the locals, who loved seeing and hearing the jets fly. One day the mayor called the test pilots and asked if they could do a flyover for a local parade. Seems that Gene Autry, a native of Ardmore, had a circus at the time and he always did a parade in his home town and a few shows en route to Madison Square Garden. The Navy test pilots were asked to do a flyover for the big parade down the main street that preceded the circus performances.
The Navy dudes went downtown and measured the width of the street, then called the mayor and asked if he wanted afterburners as well. The mayor said, "hell yes – we want the whole show".
On the day of the parade, with elephants, horses, giraffes, zebras and all manner of circus animals parading down Main Street, the two Navy jets cranked it up and made a low level, full AB pass down the street at VERY low level. When they pulled up to come around and make a second pass, they observed complete chaos down below with animals in flight and handlers pursuing them down every street in the downtown. The jet jocks decided to call off the second pass and RTB. On landing, a ground crewman came running up to the lead pilot and told him the major was on the phone and it was urgent. The flight lead didn't want to take the call but figured he had to. When he got on the line, the mayor shouted, "You SOBs broke every goddam window in downtown Ardmore, Oklahoma with that low-level pass." The pilot replied that the company would pay for fixing the windows, but what about all the animals – had they been rounded up? The mayor replied, "well some of them are still running, but don't worry about the windows. It was worth it to make sure that jerk Gene Autry won't bring that f______ circus to town and make us sit thru that awful parade again. Nobody likes him anyhow."
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Moe Berg
On December 18, 1944, a 42-year-old man masquerading as a Swiss physics student settled his 6-foot-1 frame into a chair in a Zurich lecture hall.
Instead of simply listening to the brilliant insights offered by the physicist at the podium, the man was trying to understand enough of the scientist's native German to identify key words-words that could change, or perhaps even destroy, the world. All the while, he was hoping the gun tucked into his jacket pocket wouldn't fall out, as it had during his trip across the Atlantic.
The audience member was no ordinary student. In fact, he wasn't a student at all. He was a retired baseball player named Morris "Moe" Berg, and the American government wanted him to assassinate a man dubbed "the most dangerous possible German in the field" of physics: Werner Heisenberg, director of the Nazi nuclear program.
An average-at-best catcher who played well past his prime, Berg joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, in 1943.
Nicknamed the "brainiest man in baseball" due to his knack for languages and quick wit, he found himself behind enemy lines five years after he hung up his cleats for the last time. A polymath who loved the press but was reluctant to discuss his personal life, he was a man of contradictions who crossed paths with many of the leading figures of the day, from Babe Ruth to Franklin D. Roosevelt to J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Berg played for five professional teams, mainly as a catcher. New York Public Library Moe Berg, baseball catcher Born on March 2, 1902, in Harlem, New York, Berg was the youngest child of Bernard Berg, a Jewish Ukrainian immigrant, and his wife, Rose Berg. A self-made pharmacist with his own shop, Bernard, who moved his family to Newark, New Jersey, in 1906, was a firm believer in the American dream. He expected all three of his children to take full advantage of educational opportunities and pursue respectable careers. Two heeded their father's wishes, becoming a doctor and a teacher. But baseball and espionage weren't on Bernard's list of preapproved professions, and he refused to attend any of his son's games throughout his career.
Berg was the most intellectually gifted of the three siblings. A precocious youth, he asked his mother to send him to school at age 3. After graduating from high school in 1918, Berg studied modern languages at Princeton University--, where he was one of the few Jewish students in the class of 1923. He claimed varying degrees of proficiency in at least six languages, including German, French, Japanese and Spanish, but his true passion was baseball.
"From the first, baseball made [Berg] very happy," writes biographer Nicholas Dawidoff in The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg.
"He would spend a generous share of his life inside ballparks. He felt comfortable, truly at ease, on the field or in the stands."
Some of you may remember that I had an article about Moe in the list many years ago. He went to Japan in the 30s to play baseball with an American team. He did play but he also brought back a lot of pictures of the Tokyo area that were later used for targeting I will look in the archives to see if I can find it. skip
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: The Appeal (and Perils) of Crime Crackdowns in Latin America, Part 1
The success of El Salvador's counter-crime state of emergency in reducing the country's homicide rate will be hard to replicate, despite the efforts of nearby countries.
By: GPF Futures
Sept 28, 2023
Soldiers conduct a patrol on July 22, 2023, in the Salvadorean municipality of Colon.
(MARVIN RECINOS/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series that looks at El Salvador's fight against crime and why it's been so successful, as well as the implications and risks of other Latin American countries exploring similar strategies.
With the success of El Salvador's counter-crime state of emergency in decreasing the country's homicide rate to its lowest in history, similar measures have become attractive throughout Latin America, though extensive implementation would likely see only limited success, instead creating operational, safety and reputational risks for the region. In March 2022, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele imposed a state of emergency to combat violent crime, with a focus on the country's two largest criminal groups, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18. A massive crackdown on organized crime under the state of emergency led to a dramatic drop in the country's homicide rate, making it one of the safest countries in the region. Seeing El Salvador's success, in November 2022, Honduran President Xiomara Castro implemented a similar (albeit significantly less extensive) state of emergency to combat violent crime and extortion. Elsewhere in the region, elected officials and political candidates have called for the implementation of security tactics utilized by the Bukele administration, including mass incarceration, military presence in policing forces and targeted neighborhood-specific operations against cartel activity.
• In 2015, El Salvador's homicide rate peaked at 103 homicides per 100,000 people, making it among the most deadly countries in the world. Over the following years, violence gradually decreased to levels on par with regional neighbors, before stabilizing in 2021 at 17.58 homicides per 100,000 people. In 2022, following the implementation of the state of emergency, that rate fell by more than 50% to 7.8 homicides per 100,000 people. Although the reliability of Salvadoran government crime statistics is unclear, interviews of residents of formerly high-crime neighborhoods have confirmed this improvement.
• In Colombia, Diego Molano and Jaime Arizabaleta — candidates for the mayors of Bogota and Cali, respectively (though Arizabaleta has since withdrawn) — have proposed building prisons inspired by those that El Salvador has constructed in recent years if they win the regional elections on Oct. 29.
• In Ecuador, businessman Jan Topic (who lost in the first round of the country's election on Aug. 20) promised to carry out a ''Bukele-style'' crackdown in addition to the construction of more prisons.
• In Guatemala, Sandra Torres — the leader of the country's second-largest party, National Unity of Hope, and runner-up in the August presidential election — has also promised to emulate Bukele's security strategy, calling for the militarization of prisons.
• In Peru, following a surge in crime, Lima Mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga of the right-wing Popular Renewal party called for the implementation of Bukele-style measures as well, and for tanks to patrol the streets of the capital.
Continuing violence in Honduras nearly a year into the country's crime crackdown demonstrates that success is not guaranteed. Honduras' state of emergency shares many qualities with El Salvador's crackdown, including the regular deployment of additional police officers and army forces to high crime areas, the imposition of lockdowns and curfews, and limitations on citizens' constitutional rights. However, ten months into its implementation, Honduras' crackdown has done little to decrease crime risks. Some operations have successfully decreased violence in specific neighborhoods, and anecdotal reports indicate residents of some high-crime areas do feel safer, but nationwide crime levels remain elevated and in some ways have escalated. For example, violence in Honduran prisons has worsened significantly, with repeated massacres and riots. This limited success indicates challenges to replicating El Salvador's successful state of emergency elsewhere in the region.
• In April, prisoners at the National Penitentiary in Tamara, Honduras, temporarily seized control of the facility, leading authorities to give control of the prisons to the military.
• Honduras has been the most violent country in Central America since El Salvador's homicide rate fell below it in 2019. Homicides in the country dropped to 35.8 per 100,000 people in 2022 from 41.7 per 100,000 people in 2021.
Understanding El Salvador's Success
A key component of El Salvador's war on crime was the severity of the state of emergency, which suspended due process in the legal system. A significant, long-standing hurdle to combating organized crime throughout Latin America is the prevalence of police and government corruption. Corrupt practices among police officers, military members, and local and federal government officials enable criminal groups to entrench themselves in communities, evade capture, and expand criminal enterprises. This is the result of limited policy safeguards preventing corruption, low pay for government positions, and regular bribery and/or threats against officials. These risks have long been present in El Salvador, with the Bukele administration itself allegedly engaged in negotiations with the country's gangs prior to implementing the state of emergency. Continuing allegations of government corruption call into question how El Salvador has managed to overcome this challenge. One compelling explanation is that ''mano dura'' (iron-fisted) measures under the state of emergency have left little room for criminal groups to maneuver. Mass arrests and the abandonment of due process in the legal system may mean that members of Barrio 18 and MS-13 have not had the opportunity to bribe or threaten officials. Military deployment to high-crime areas has also overcome local alliances between police officers and gang members. Honduran police reported arresting 4,033 people between December 2022 and May 2023, with 81% ultimately released due to a lack of evidence; meanwhile, in El Salvador, over 70,000 people have been arrested, with only 6,000 people released. Approximately 2% of the country's adult population is currently in prison, many of whom human rights groups allege are innocent. Corruption in El Salvador persists, but the lack of due process and decreased opportunities for gangs to threaten or bribe police officers have overcome constraints from official corruption on counter-crime operations.
• Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index gives El Salvador a low score of 33 out of 100 (in which a score of 100 indicates low levels of corruption). Meanwhile, Honduras has a score of 23, Ecuador has a score of 36, and Colombia has a score of 39.
• In a recent example of the scale of El Salvador's localized gang crackdowns, on Aug. 1, authorities sent 7,000 soldiers and 1,000 police officers to the rural Cabanas province in response to a shooting attack that wounded two officers.
This level of implementation of counter-crime measures has only been possible because of Bukele's high popularity and minimal policy limitations. Since Bukele took office in 2019, his approval rating has never dropped below 80%, typically staying between 85% and 92%, which is rare for a Latin American leader. This level of support has given him the leeway to take controversial steps to combat organized crime, as a less popular political figure would have to consider how their political opponents may criticize such actions. But while Salvadoran opposition parties and human rights activists have criticized the state of emergency, mass public approval for the crackdown limits political risks to Bukele. Relatedly, Bukele's New Ideas party retains a significant majority in the Legislative Assembly, and his administration has stacked the judicial system with friendly judges, effectively eliminating the potential for legal challenges to the state of emergency. In comparison, Honduran President Xiomara Castro's Libre party has only 50 out of 128 seats in the country's National Congress, recently preventing her government from gaining congressional approval for a new attorney general. Other governments in the region face similar restrictions on how states of emergency can be implemented, limiting their ability to impose measures similar to those in El Salvador.
Finally, El Salvador's high population density benefits counter-crime operations, potentially making the state of emergency unreplicable in other countries in the region. El Salvador has a population density of 307 people per square kilometer, making it the most densely populated country in Latin America (excluding the Caribbean). The next most densely populated country is Guatemala, with a population density of 129 per square kilometer. El Salvador's population density has historically fueled crime, with the country's crowded, impoverished neighborhoods providing bases for Barrio 18 and MS-13 operations. But this population density has also aided counter-crime efforts over the last year, as deployments to high-crime areas include a significantly larger number of residents (and therefore criminals) than an operation in a similarly sized area in neighboring Honduras. Such operations create significant safety risks for residents and disrupt daily life in affected neighborhoods for days, but still enable authorities to arrest targeted criminal cells. In addition, many countries in Latin America have vast, underpopulated regions where criminal groups can operate with lower risks of disruption by security forces. For example, Colombia's Amazon basin regions have long provided space for guerilla groups to evade authorities. Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Brazil face similar challenges. Therefore, even if such countries were institutionally and politically able to implement a state of emergency to the same degree as El Salvador, they may struggle to achieve the same level of success.
• Honduras has a population density of 95 people per square kilometer. Mexico's population density is 66 people per square kilometer, while Colombia's is 47 people per square kilometer.
Up next: The Appeal (and Perils) of Crime Crackdowns in Latin America, Part 2
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Cool Finds
Teenager Helps Uncover 34-Million-Year-Old Whale Skull in Alabama Working with one of her teachers, the 16-year-old student found the fossil, which may represent a new species, on her family's property
Carlyn Kranking
Assistant Editor, Science and Innovation
August 31, 2023
a student in a white lab coat and safety goggles holds a pen-like instrument to a fossil protruding from rock Sixteen-year-old Lindsey Stallworth cleans the whale skull in the lab at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science. ASMS What started out as a trip to look for shark teeth ended with a shocking discovery, when a 16-year-old student and her teacher unearthed a 34-million-year-old whale skull in Alabama.
Digging on her family's property in the state's Monroe County, Lindsey Stallworth and Andrew Gentry noticed small bone fragments. They followed these fossils uphill, where they found even larger bones. At first, the pair didn't know what they were looking at. It took several days to reveal just part of a lower jaw. Then, when they uncovered one of the creature's large teeth, they realized they'd stumbled upon the prehistoric skull of a whale, which measures about four to five feet long.
"To find one that's this complete is actually very rare," Gentry, a paleontologist and biology teacher at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science in Mobile, tells NBC 15's Andrea Ramey. "We're very excited by the fact that we got the majority of the skull out and that there is more of the skeleton left to uncover, which could give us the complete animal."
"It's really hard to comprehend something that's that many millions of years old, but it started to make more sense once we started getting the dirt away and saw what the skull might have looked like," Stallworth, a junior at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, tells the Washington Post's Timothy Bella.
Under a tent canopy, a man and a teenage girl squat and smile at the camera in front of the fossil, a white blob, with plaster on it Andrew Gentry and Lindsey Stallworth sit in front of a plastered slab of the fossil whale skull. Millions of years ago, most of what is now Alabama was covered by a shallow sea. Gargantuan creatures swam through these waters, including a sea turtle the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, aquatic reptiles called mosasaurs and snaggletoothed fish as large as great white sharks, wrote Jack Tamisiea for Hakai Magazine in 2021. As a result, Alabama is a prime region for finding fossils of sea creatures, however counter-intuitive that may seem when standing on the state's dry ground today.
The site where Stallworth and Gentry discovered the whale skull was on a swath of land owned by the teenager's family for timber. Growing up, Stallworth would collect fossilized shells and shark teeth on the property, but this experience brought a wider variety of fossils to her attention, she tells Dennis Pillion of AL.com, which first reported the story.
"I've been collecting fossils in Alabama for more than 30 years, and this was easily one of the best fossil sites I've seen anywhere in the state,"
Gentry tells WALA. Previously, he has discovered two new turtle species from fossils.
Given how old the whale skull is, experts say it, too, might represent an animal unknown to scientists.
"Once the whale is prepared and the bones are out of the rock and reassembled, there's a very good chance it's a new species," Jun Ebersole, director of collections at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham who was not involved with the find, tells the Washington Post.
The whale appears to be some smaller relative of Basilosaurus cetoides, a 60-foot-long, serpent-like whale that's the official state fossil of Alabama. A skeleton of this extinct creature went on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in 1910. Alternatively, the newfound remains could be related to the lesser-known whales of the genus Zygorhiza, which along with Basilosaurus is an official state fossil of Mississippi.
girl lies on a towel over dry, crumbly ground, looking for fossils Lindsey Stallworth works on excavating a fossil in the field. ASMS Next summer, Stallworth and Gentry plan to continue excavating the rest of the whale skeleton, which, if intact, could measure about 15 to 20 feet long. Until then, the pair will work on cleaning, preserving and studying the skull, which is now housed in a lab at the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science.
Through a research fellowship program at the school, Stallworth plans to continue this work with the skull for the rest of her junior and senior years of high school. She's currently putting in about two hours of lab time each day, per the Washington Post.
"I was really overwhelmed, but at the same time, I was just full with excitement," Stallworth tells NBC 15. "As a high schooler, I didn't think I'd get to do any of this stuff
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This Day in U S Military History
29 SEPTEMBER
Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel, Patron Saint of Soldiers, marines, Military Police, Aviation, and Airborne: The name Michael signifies "Who is like to God?" and was the war cry of the good angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers. Holy Scripture describes St. Michael as "one of the chief princes," and leader of the forces of heaven in their triumph over the powers of hell. He has been especially honored and invoked as patron and protector by the Church from the time of the Apostles. Although he is always called "the Archangel," the Greek Fathers and many others place him over all the angels – as Prince of the Seraphim.
1789 – The U.S. War Department established a regular U.S. army with a strength of several hundred men.
1918 – At the Battle of St. Quentin Canal, Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I. The Allied assault involved British, Australian and American forces in the spearhead attack and as a single combined force against the German Siegfried Stellung of the Hindenburg Line. Under the command of Australian general Sir John Monash, the assault achieved all its objectives, resulting in the first full breach of the Hindenburg Line, in the face of heavy German resistance and, in concert with other attacks of the Great Offensive along the length of the line convinced the German high command that the writing was on the wall regarding any hope of German victory.
1918 – Lt. Frank Luke Jr. against orders destroyed 3 German balloons and downed 2 pursuing fighters in a final flight of vengeance for the loss of his wingman Lt. Joseph Wehner. Luke received a posthumous medal of honor.
1965 – Hanoi publishes the text of a letter it has written to the Red Cross claiming that since there is no formal state of war, U.S. pilots shot down over the North will not receive the rights of prisoners of war (POWs) and will be treated as war criminals. The U.S. State Department protested, but this had no impact on the way the American POWs were treated and most suffered extreme torture and other maltreatment while in captivity. The first pilot captured by the North Vietnamese was Navy Lieutenant Everett Alvarez, who was shot down on August 5, 1964. The American POW held longest was Army Special Forces Captain Floyd James Thompson, who had been captured in the South on March 26, 1964. American POWs were held in 11 different prisons in North Vietnam and their treatment by the North Vietnamese was characterized by isolation, torture, and psychological abuse. The exact number of POWs held by the North Vietnamese during the war remains a debatable issue, but the POWs themselves have accounted for at least 766 verified captives at one point. Under the provisions of the Paris Peace Accords, the North Vietnamese released 565 American military and 26 civilian POWs in February and March 1973, but there were still more than 2,500 men listed as Missing in Action (MIA).
1995 – The United States Navy disbands Fighter Squadron 84 (VF-84), nicknamed the "Jolly Rogers". VF-84, Fighter Squadron 84 was an aviation unit of the United States Navy active from 1955 to 1995. The squadron was nicknamed the Jolly Rogers and was based at NAS Oceana. It took the number but not the lineage of a World War II squadron active in 1944–45, the "Wolf Gang", which was a new squadron formed around a nucleus of veterans of VF-17, the original "Jolly Rogers".
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day In all the months that I have been providing these MOH this day had the most by far 63 were awarded in wars from the Civil War, WWI, WWII and Iraq freedom
*LUKE, FRANK, JR. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 27th Aero Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, Air Service. Place and date: Near Murvaux, France, 29 September 1918. Entered service at: Phoenix, Ariz. Born: 19 May 1897, Phoenix, Ariz. G.O. No.: 59, W.D., 1919. Citation: After having previously destroyed a number of enemy aircraft within 17 days he voluntarily started on a patrol after German observation balloons. Though pursued by 8 German planes which were protecting the enemy balloon line, he unhesitatingly attacked and shot down in flames 3 German balloons, being himself under heavy fire from ground batteries and the hostile planes. Severely wounded, he descended to within 50 meters of the ground, and flying at this low altitude near the town of Murvaux opened fire upon enemy troops, killing 6 and wounding as many more. Forced to make a landing and surrounded on all sides by the enemy, who called upon him to surrender, he drew his automatic pistol and defended himself gallantly until he fell dead from a wound in the chest.
*MONSOOR, MICHAEL A.
Rank and organization: Master-At-Arms Second Class, SEAL Team 3, Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula,U.S. Navy. Place and Date: Ar Ramadi, Iraq, 29 September 2006. Entered Service at: Garden Grove, CA. Born: 5 April 1981, Long Beach, California. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner in SEAL Team 3, Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006. As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger. In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element's position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy's initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof. While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor's chest and landed in front of him. Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates. By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 29, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
29 September
1918: MEDAL OF HONOR. After destroying a number of enemy aircraft within 17 days, 2Lt Frank Luke of the 27th Aero Squadron volunteered to go on a patrol to shoot down German balloons. Despite an attack by enemy fighters, he shot down a balloon. Severely wounded, Luke dropped close to the ground, where ground fire brought him down. On the ground, the Germans asked him to surrender, but Luke drew a pistol and defended himself until the Germans killed him. He received the Medal of Honor posthumously. (4)
1945: PROJECT PAPER CLIP. Dr. Wernher von Braun and other rocket scientists from Germany arrived in the US. Shortly thereafter, they began translating documents from the Peenemunde Test Center. These engineers helped the US in its missile and space programs. (8: Sep 90)
1946: Through 1 October, Cmdr T. D. Davies, Cmdr E. P. Rankin, Cmdr W. S. Reid, and Lt Cmdr R. A. Tabeling flew the Truculent Turtle, a Lockheed P2V-1, to a nonstop flight record. The Navy crew flew 11,236 miles from Perth, Australia, to Columbus in 55 hours 15 minutes. This record remained intact until 1962 when a B-52 flight set a new record. (9) (24)
1950: Capt Richard V. Wheeler made a world-record parachute jump of 42,449 feet at Holloman AFB. (16) (26)
1952: KOREAN WAR. Fifth Air Force fighter-bombers flew against enemy bunkers and gun positions 207 close air support sorties, the highest figure this month and well above the daily average. (28)
1954: The F-101A Voodoo flew for the first time. McDonnell Aircraft Corporation test pilot Robert C. Little made the first flight of the first F-101A-1-MC Voodoo ( s/n 53-2418). During this flight, the new interceptor reached 0.9 Mach at 35,000 feet. The Voodoo's career as a fighter-bomber was brief, but the reconnaissance versions served for some time. Along with the US Air Force's Lockheed U-2 and US Navy's Vought RF-8 Crusaders, the RF-101 reconnaissance variant of the Voodoo was instrumental in locating imported intermediate range Soviet missiles during the Cuban Missile Crisis and saw extensive service during the Vietnam War.
1956: The 405th Fighter-Bomber Wing at Langley AFB received TAC's first F-100D.
1961: SAC declared the first Atlas E unit, the 567 SMS at Fairchild AFB, operational. (6) SAC issued a requirement to develop an ultra high frequency emergency rocket communications system (ERCS). (6)
1962: Canada became a satellite designer and builder, joining the US and USSR in that capability, when NASA launched its Alouette on a ThorAgena booster from Vandenberg AFB into a polar orbit. (24)
1964: LTV's XC-142A vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft made its first short-takeoff flight at Dallas, Tex. The first of 36 Minuteman II test launches occurred at Cape Kennedy. In this flight, the missile successfully delivered its payload nearly 5,000 miles downrange on target. The final Minuteman I launched from the Eastern Coast Range. In launches at Cape Kennedy, there were 38 successes, eight partial successes, and eight failures, while from Vandenberg there were 60 successes, four partials, and two failures.
1965: Aviatrix Jerrie Mock broke the speed record for conventional single-engine aircraft over a 500-kilometer course. She set an average speed of 203.858 MPH on her flight, which lasted 1 hour 31 minutes 27 seconds. A Czechoslovakian pilot, Lubos Stastny, set the former record of 178 MPH in 1956. SAC retired the first B-52 (B-model number 52-8711) it received to the Aerospace Museum at Offutt AFB. It had been assigned 22d BMW at March. (1)
1968: Launched one year earlier from Christchurch, New Zealand, a 10-foot diameter plastic balloon named GHOST (Global Horizontal Sounding Technique) broke all balloon flight duration records.
1969: At Edwards AFB, the first C-7A Caribou arrived for testing. (3)
1971: SAC retired its last B-52C (No. 53-402) from the 22d Bomb Wing at March AFB to the DavisMonthan AFB storage area. (1)
1974: At Edwards AFB, the F-5F completed its first flight. (3)
1988: MANNED SPACE PROGRAM RESUMES. The Space Shuttle Discovery launched to end the long stand-down of the space program after the Challenger disaster. (20)
1990: Lockheed pilot Dave Ferguson flew the YF-22A for the first time above Edwards AFB. (20)
1999: At Edwards AFB, an AFFTC team began test sorties of the LITENING II precision targeting pod to equip ANG and Reserve F-16s with a precision strike capability against sea and landbased targets. (3)
2001: The US used its Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska to launch satellites for the first time. Previously, the US launched its spacecraft from launch complexes in Florida or California. (21)
2002: Global Hawk AV-3 landed at Edwards after a 23.8 hour flight Southwest Asia, where it flew 15 missions for Operation Enduring Freedom. This completed the Global Hawk system's first combat deployment. (3)
2004: AFFTC at Edwards AFB supported the flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne. The spacecraft flew to a 337,000 feet as the first of two flights above 100 kilometers to win a $10 million X-Prize. AFFTC provided radar tracking, weather service, a ground station, and a communications loop. (3)
2005: A C-17 dropped a dummy air-launched rocket booster from 6,000 feet over the Edwards AFB Precision Impact Range Area. The AirLaunch Quick-Reach Booster was a full-scale mockup for DARPA's Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program competition. At some 67 feet long and 50,000 pounds, it was the largest object ever dropped from a C-17, and nearly the heaviest. (3)
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