To All,
Good Friday morning October 6, 2023
Great Bubba Breakfast this morning and had 3 Marine F-35 drivers join us.
Regards
Skip
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Today in Naval and Marine Corps History thanks to NHHC
October 6
1884 - Department of the Navy establishes the Naval War College at Newport, RI (General Order 325).
1940 - Fourth group of 8 U.S. destroyers involved in Destroyers for Bases Deal are turned over to British authorities at Halifax, Canada.
1943 - In night Battle of Vella Lavella, 3 U.S. destroyers attack 9 Japanese destroyers to stop evacuation of Japanese troops from Vella Lavella., Solomon Islands
1958 - USS Seawolf (SSN-575) completes record submerged run of 60 days, logging over 13,700 nautical miles.
1962 - Commissioning of USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25), first nuclear-powered destroyer
1987 - Destruction of 3 Iranian small boats
1997: NASA astronaut Cmdr. Wendy B. Lawrence returns from mission STS-86 Atlantis, the seventh mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. The mission began Sept. 25, 1997.
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This Day in World History October 6
1014 The Byzantine Emperor Basil earns the title "Slayer of Bulgers" after he orders the blinding of 15,000 Bulgerian troops.
1536 William Tyndale, the English translator of the New Testament, is strangled and burned at the stake for heresy at Vilvorde, France.
1696 Savoy Germany withdraws from the Grand Alliance.
1788 The Polish Diet decides to hold a four year session.
1801 Napoleon Bonaparte imposes a new constitution on Holland.
1847 Charlotte Bronte's novel Jane Eyre is published in London.
1866 The Reno brothers--Frank, John, Simeon and William--commit the country's first train robbery near Seymore, Indiana netting $10,000.
1927 The first "talkie," The Jazz Singer, opens with popular entertainer Al Jolson singing and dancing in black-face. By 1930, silent movies were a thing of the past.
1941 German troops renew their offensive against Moscow.
1965 Patricia Harris takes post as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, becoming the first African American U.S. ambassador.
1966 Hanoi insists the United States must end its bombings before peace talks can begin.
1969 Special Forces Captain John McCarthy is released from Fort Leavenworth Penitentiary, pending consideration of his appeal to murder charges.
1973 Israel is taken by surprise when Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, beginning the Yom Kippur War.
1981 Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is assassinated in Cairo by Islamic fundamentalists. He is succeeded by Vice President Hosni Mubarak.
1987 Fiji becomes a republic independent of the British Commonwealth.
1995 Astronomers discover 51 Pegasi is the second star known to have a planet orbiting it.
2000 Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic and Argentina's vice-president Carlos Alvarez both resign from their respective offices.
2007 Explorer and author Jason Lewis becomes the first person to complete a human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Skip… For The List for Friday, 6 October 2023…
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 6 October 1968… A letter from an MIA wife that reflects the anguish of those who wait (Including the LGEN, USAF on whose WWII story was told in "Twelve O'clock High" and portrayed by Gregory Peck)…
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for Friday October 6
October 6: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=834
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 Mike good article with info and pictures
Navy F-16 Recovered After Running Off Runway
https://www.yahoo.com/news/navy-f-16-recovered-running-162735643.html
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Thanks to Glenn and Bruce
Survey reveals Midway's wreckage
Very cool and probably will disprove lots of speculation! But in today's world of fake news ruling who knows🙄
Amazing work,
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Thanks to Bill
Donor on wheels
Don't blink...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MurqxHzNXyw&t=806s
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Thanks to Mike K
Another Event For The YGBSM Files
So…..it's not just old aviators that get "excited" when they hear military aircraft overhead…..
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
Napoleon's grandnephew created the forerunner of the FBI.
A grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother Jérôme, Charles Bonaparte lacked his famous relative's ambition for world domination yet displayed a talent for visionary authority that might have impressed the Little Corporal. In the late 19th century, Charles Bonaparte, then a lawyer from Baltimore, came into the orbit of fast-rising New York politician Theodore Roosevelt through their shared interest in civil service reform. Bonaparte later became President Roosevelt's secretary of the Navy and then attorney general, a position that thrust "Charlie the Crook Chaser" into the spotlight as a face of the administration's trust-busting efforts.
Behind the scenes, the attorney general fumed at the lack of an established investigative team within the Department of Justice, which often led to the borrowing of spare Secret Service agents from the Treasury Department for investigating cases that involved federal law. Congressional leaders also frowned on what they felt was becoming an overreach of the executive branch, and in May 1908, Congress passed a bill that halted the DOJ's ability to commandeer Secret Service personnel. Seizing the opportunity, Bonaparte culled together a "special agent force" of 31 detectives, and on July 26, 1908, he issued an order that directed DOJ attorneys to refer investigative matters to his chief examiner, Stanley Finch.
Bonaparte's oversight of this unit was short-lived, as he exited the federal government at the end of the Roosevelt administration in March 1909. Nevertheless, his special agent force remained in place under new Attorney General George Wickersham, who began referring to the group as the Bureau of Investigation. By 1935, the now-renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation was firmly embedded as a U.S. law-enforcement institution under Director J. Edgar Hoover, another authoritarian presence who surely would have piqued the interest of the former French emperor.
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Thanks to Mike
World Series Pitch - 20 Years Ago
If You Need A Patriotic Booster...
Most people are not aware that a Secret Service special agent dressed
as an umpire the night President Bush threw out the first pitch during
the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Great story!!! I'm
surprised that none of the newspaper guys ever picked up on the
"stranger" in the umpire's uniform.
Remember this was just after 9/11...This is our country
at one of its best moments. If you don't do anything else today,
just watch this . . . It's great and will make you proud to be an
American!!!
http://www.youtube.com/embed/bxR1tZ08FcI?rel=0
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From the archives
Thanks to Glenn
The 1st gulf air war---unfathomable
I cannot imagine the level of planning, training,
pre-positioning of assets that went into this.
this video is astonishing in its detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRgfBXn6Mg
Glenn
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Thanks to Rattler
Rattler
Dogfighting MiGs in Vietnam with the F-8 - Interview with Navy Cross Recipient Phil Vampatella - YouTube
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From the archives
THANKS TO Dr Rich
Thanks to Todd ...
Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester drove a humvee in a mounted column as it was ambushed by over 50 Iraqi insurgents. She stopped the vehicle and directed her gunner to return fire as bullets and RPGs rained down. Hester got out and fired M203 grenades into the enemy position, then attacked forward with her squad leader. They moved over the berm into the irrigation ditches of an orchard where the ambush originated. Hester worked with her squad leader to clear the ditches, personally eliminating 3 enemy at close quarters. Their assault into the teeth of the ambush disrupted the enemy's momentum and played a key role in stopping the attack.
For her initiative and heroic actions, Hester was awarded the Silver Star. She became the first woman to receive the award since WWII. She continued her service in the National Guard, deploying to Afghanistan for 18 months, and to the Virgin Islands in 2017 in the wake of Hurricane Maria. In civilian life, Hester serves as a police officer in her home state of Tennessee.
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Thanks to Gary
The TRUE STORY behind the Blue Angels' F7U Cutlass featuring Edward "Whitey" Feightner | Podcast
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New EV battery factory requires so much energy a coal power plant will be expanded, delayed closure by years
October 01, 2023
A new electric vehicle battery factory in Kansas will require so much energy that a coal plant slated for closure will now remain open, plus it will be expanded.
Panasonic is building a $4 billion EV battery factory in De Soto, Kansas. The upcoming lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility is expected to start mass production of EV batteries by the end of March 2025.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/electric-vehicle-battery-factory-coal-plant-kansas?utm_source=theblaze-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__PM 2023-10-01&utm_term=ACTIVE LIST - TheBlaze Daily PM
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This Day in U S Military History
October 6
1884 – Department of the Navy establishes the Naval War College at Newport, RI. Secretary of the Navy William E. Chandler signed General Order 325, which began by simply stating: "A college is hereby established for an advanced course of professional study for naval officers, to be known as the Naval War College." The order went on to assign "the principal building on Coaster's Harbor Island, Newport, R.I."—the Newport Asylum for the Poor, built in 1820—to its use and "Commodore Stephen B. Luce . . . to duty as president of the college." Such were the humble beginnings of what is now the oldest continuing institution of its kind in the world.
1924 – Marines from the gunboat Asheville landed in Shanghai and withdrew on October 24th. Landings by Marines continued at ports Shanghai, Tientsin, and Chinwangtao from forces of the Asiatic Fleet of ships stationed in those waters until the arrival of the 4th Marine regiment in 1927 for permanent shore based duty.
1943 – In night Battle of Vella Lavella, 3 U.S. destroyers attack 9 Japanese destroyers to stop evacuation of Japanese troops from Vella Lavella, Solomon Islands. The Eighth Fleet assigned Rear Admiral Baron Matsuji Ijuin to this mission and gave him a force completely out of proportion to the 589 troops he was charged to rescue: a support group of six destroyers and two transport groups, one of three transport destroyers and the other of four subchasers and twenty barges. His destroyers departed Rabaul on the morning of the 6th while the barges sailed from Buin at 1653 that afternoon. The Japanese movement down the Slot was reported, but Admiral Wilkinson only had three destroyers available to intercept, Squadron 4 led by Captain Frank Walker. Admiral Wilkinson mustered these while he detached another group of three under Captain Harold Larson from convoy duty. The two squadrons were ordered to rendezvous off Marquana Bay, Vella Lavella Island. Walker's group sailing around the north side of the island while Larson's approached up the west coast from the south. Japanese aircraft detected Walker's approach at around 1940 and marked his progress with flares and floatlights. Ijuin split his support group into two divisions. With four ships he pushed ahead to the waters off Marquana Bay while Captain Hara, with Shigure and Samidare and the three transport destroyers, tarried to meet the barges coming up from Buin at 9 knots. Ijuin knew the Allies had wind of his approach and hoped to confuse them as to his size and dispositions. He was also hoping to set Hara up to make a surprise flank attack. At about 2200 Ijuin received a report from one of his aircraft that he was facing four cruisers and three destroyers, according to Hara's account of the battle. Morison has the report as one cruiser and four destroyers. Hara explains his old commander's conduct of this battle with this sighting report and the fact he was exhausted from sustained duty. The Japanese had come to respect radar controlled gunfire, particularly as delivered by the Brooklyn class light cruisers, "a cruiser packs ten times the firepower of a destroyer and Ijuin must have been thinking of this". Morison treats Ijuin sarcastically (he was a baron and the son of a prominent admiral during the Russo-Japanese War): "Was Ijuin following his habit of fleeing, even when lightly opposed?" At 2210 Ijuin ordered Hara to join him as quickly as possible. The three transport destroyers, Fumizuki, Matsukaze and Yunagi turned back, although the barges continued toward Horaniu. At 2229 Ijuin turned his four destroyers from a westerly heading to the northwest. At 2230 Isokaze reported the first visual sighting of the American force. Captain Walker, leading Selfridge, Chevalier and O'Bannon got radar readings on a Japanese force 10 miles north, northeast just after the Japanese made visual contact. This was apparently the retiring transport group. Larson's group, Ralph Talbot, Taylor and LaVallette were still some twenty miles south and Walker could not raise them on TBS. Although Wilkinson had advised him the Japanese force consisted of nine destroyers, Walker elected to pile in and engage rather than wait forty minutes for reinforcements. At 2235 Ijuin turned east and then southeast. The barges were steaming southwest about 20 miles from their destination. Hara's group was northwest of Ijuin, heading south. He could not see Ijuin's column so he requested that Isokaze hang a blue light on her stern. There was a quarter moon low in the sky and scattered mist and squalls made visibility uncertain. At 2240 Ijuin was heading south-southwest. Hara had closed to within five miles of Ijuin. At this same time Walker was shaping a course directly toward the Japanese. Their respective courses would take the Japanese across the American T. However, Ijuin, thinking to make a torpedo attack, miscalculated the distance. When he discovered the Americans were further off then he thought, he ordered a simultaneous turn 45 degrees to port at 2245. Three minutes later, his ships executed a 90 degree turn to port to a southeastly heading, all this to close range. The Americans were less than 12,000 yards away at this point and the range was closing rapidly at 1,300 yards a minute. In response to Ijuin's turn left, Walker turned his column right to the west. These complicated maneuvers erased Ijuin's initial advantage and in fact placed his four ships in a difficult position. They were sailing parallel in echelon with Akigumo furthest ahead and most distant from the Americans, followed by Isokaze, Kazagumo and finally Yugumo, only 3,300 yards from Selfridge. At 2255 as they passed, the three American destroyers launched 14 torpedoes. At 2256 they opened fire. When Walker commenced fire only Yugumo could reply as she was masking her comrades from the enemy. She turned toward the Americans at 2255 and had eight torpedoes in the water a minute after the Americans launched theirs. Her movement cleared Kazagumo's line of fire so she opened up with her guns shortly after. Ijuin swung his ships back into column and headed south, away from the action. All but Yugumo. She, being nearest to the Americans, was punished by the combined fire of eighteen 5″ guns. At least five hits left her drifting, without rudder control. But she obtained her revenge at 2301 when one of her torpedoes struck Chevalier and exploded her forward magazine, ripping off her bow all the way aft to her bridge. Two minutes latter, O'Bannon, charging through the smoke lingering from her gunnery, collided with Chevalier. The two ships were locked together until O'Bannon was able to back clear. She was fortunate that Ijuin had turned away, but the damage she sustained was enough to remove her from the action. At 2303, just as this was happening, one of the slower American torpedoes struck Yugumo and finished her off. She sank seven minutes later. While Yugumo was being picked off and Ijuin was tearing south, Shigure and Samidare continued on their southwesterly course past the Americans until 2259 when they turned sharply to the northwest. Hara was maneuvering for a good torpedo solution. He was approximately 11,000 yards west of Walker's lead ship when Selfridge, now a one ship task force, shifted fire to Shigure. The time was 2304. However, both Shigure and Samidare had already emptied their tubes in the direction of Selfridge some three minutes before just after they made their turn. As the Japanese torpedo men struggled to reload for a second attack, Selfridge's shells began straddling Shigure. At 2306.5, before Selfridge could damage her target, the battle effectively ended when one of the torpedoes fired six minutes before exploded against Selfridge's port side and left her dead in the water. Larson's group charging up from the south was still twenty minutes out. Shortly before 2313 aircraft advised Ijuin of this reinforcement. Believing he would be facing more cruisers, Ijuin turned his column away to the northwest. At 2317 his ships fired a parting torpedo salvo from 24 tubes at the two crippled American destroyers 16,000 yards to the northeast, but none found targets. Hara who had been sailing northwest since 2259 fell in behind Ijuin; they collected the destroyer transports which had been lingering off Shortlands and returned to Rabaul.
1949 – American-born Iva Toguri D'Aquino, convicted of being Japanese wartime broadcaster Tokyo Rose, was sentenced in San Francisco to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000. Iva Toguri was an American stranded in Japan at the outbreak of World War II. She was forced to broadcast propaganda to the Allied troops for Japan. In these radio programs, she taunted the troops and played music from home. She took the name Orphan Ann on the program, Zero Hour. "Tokyo Rose" is a myth: Iva Toguri, like other women who also broadcast Japanese propaganda to Allied troops, was never referred to as Rose or Tokyo Rose. It was a name given by the Allies to the various female Japanese broadcasters. But it has been used since the war primarily to refer to Iva Toguri D'Aquino. After the war, she was convicted of treason and imprisoned, released early for good behavior. She maintained her innocence, asserting that she had not said the words used to convict her, and that she had remained a loyal American. Though forced to broadcast to the troops, she claimed that she, with the help of American POWs assigned to the radio broadcasts, made herself and her words purposefully ridiculous. She had refused to give up her American citizenship, despite pressure and even punishment from the Japanese who forced her into the broadcasting role. In the 1970s a public campaign brought to light the testimony of the POWs who worked with her and supported her story. The testimony of the witnesses against her was questioned. Eventually she was pardoned by President Gerald Ford. After her imprisonment she returned to Chicago where her family owned a store. She continued to work at the store into her eighties.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
October 6
*BLECKLEY, ERWIN R. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 130th Field Artillery, observer 50th Aero Squadron, Air Service. Place and date. Near Binarville, France, 6 October 1918. Entered service at: Wichita, Kans. Birth: Wichita, Kans. G.O. No.: 56, W.D., 1922. Citation: 2d Lt. Bleckley, with his pilot, 1st Lt. Harold E. Goettler, Air Service, left the airdrome late in the afternoon on their second trip to drop supplies to a battalion of the 77th Division, which had been cut off by the enemy in the Argonne Forest. Having been subjected on the first trip to violent fire from the enemy, they attempted on the second trip to come still lower in order to get the packages even more precisely on the designated spot. In the course of his mission the plane was brought down by enemy rifle and machinegun fire from the ground, resulting in fatal wounds to 2d Lt. Bleckley, who died before he could be taken to a hospital. In attempting and performing this mission 2d Lt. Bleckley showed the highest possible contempt of personal danger, devotion to duty, courage, and valor.
*GOETTLER, HAROLD ERNEST (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, pilot, U.S. Army Air Corps, 50th Aero Squadron, Air Service. Place and date: Near Binarville, France, 6 October 1918. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 21 July 1890, Chicago, Ill. G.O. No.: 56, W.D., 1922. Citation: 1st. Lt. Goettler, with his observer, 2d Lt. Erwin R. Bleckley, 130th Field Artillery, left the airdrome late in the afternoon on their second trip to drop supplies to a battalion of the 77th Division which had been cut off by the enemy in the Argonne Forest. Having been subjected on the first trip to violent fire from the enemy, they attempted on the second trip to come still lower in order to get the packages even more precisely on the designated spot. In the course of this mission the plane was brought down by enemy rifle and machinegun fire from the ground, resulting in the instant death of 1st. Lt. Goettler. In attempting and performing this mission 1st. Lt. Goettler showed the highest possible contempt of personal danger, devotion to duty, courage and valor.
PECK, ARCHIE A.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company A, 307th Infantry, 77th Division. Place and date: In the Argonne Forest, France, 6 October 1918. Entered service at: Hornell, N.Y. Birth: Tyrone, N.Y. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919. Citation: While engaged with 2 other soldiers on patrol duty, he and his comrades were subjected to the direct fire of an enemy machinegun, at which time both his companions were wounded. Returning to his company, he obtained another soldier to accompany him to assist in bringing in the wounded men. His assistant was killed in the exploit, but he continued on, twice returning safely bringing in both men, being under terrific machinegun fire during the entire Journey.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 6, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
6 October
1912: Lt John H. Towers (USN), flying the Curtiss A-2, took off from the water at Annapolis on 6- hour, 10-minute, 35-second flight that set a new US endurance record for planes of any type. (24)
1913: Capt Charles DeForest Chandler and Lt Thomas DeWitt Milling, who qualified with Lt Henry H. Arnold as Military Aviators on 5 July 1912, received their badges. There were only two badges struck at that time. (24)
1918: MEDALS OF HONOR. Near Binarivelle, France, 1Lt Harold E. Goettler with the 50th Aero Squadron and 2Lt Erwin P. Bleckley (Kansas National Guard), flying as an observer, tried to drop supplies to a surrounded US Army battalion in the Argonne Forest (the famous lost battalion). They flew as low as possible to deliver the supplies more precisely, but enemy ground fire brought their plane down. Lt Goettler died instantly. Both men received the Medal of Honor. (4) (21)
1923: Lt Al J. Williams (USN) flew a Curtiss Racer (R2C-1) at St Louis to world records of 243.8 MPH for 100 kilometers and 243.7 MPH for 200 kilometers. (24)
1928: Goodrich Zeppelin Corporation received Navy contracts for two 6,500,000 cubic-foot rigid airships, ZRS-4 and ZRS-5 that became the USS Akron and USS Macon. (24)
1945: Norway and the US signed a civil air transport pact that gave each nation the right to transit and nontraffic stops. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. FEAF dispatched 18 B-29s to attack an enemy arsenal at Kan-ni, N. Korea, while issuing a new interdiction plan to cancel attacks on bridges south of Pyongyang and Wonsan. The USAF took control of Kimpo Airfield from the USMC. (28)
1955: The DoD awarded a contract to the Glenn L. Martin Company, as primary contractor, to build a rocket for launching an earth satellite. General Electric Company subcontracted to build the rocket motor. (24)
1959: From Vandenberg AFB, an RAF crew completed the first combat training launch of a Thor IRBM successfully. (6)
1961: In a hardened, 165-foot deep ICBM silo near Denver, the 724 SMS of Lowry AFB received the Air Force's first Titan I missile. This silo was the first of its kind. (6)
1966: Lockheed-Georgia Company engineers, Dr. W. C. J. Garrard, George K. Williams, and William W. Williams, received the Wright Brothers Medal for the Society of Automotive Engineers for their report on soft- and rough-field landing gear.
1969: B-57s DEPART SOUTHEAST ASIA. With the inactivation of the 8th Tactical Bombing Squadron, its B-57s light bombers were ferried to the US for storage. The first aircraft left Phan Rang, South Vietnam, today. (17)
1975: PROJECT COIN: Through 2 December, C-130s delivered 7,597 tons of critical supplies and over 2 million gallons of petroleum products to Alaska at Point Barrow, Lonely, Okiktok, and Barter Island. Contract aircraft flew another 453.8 tons of oversize steel pipe from Elmendorf to Lonely and 2,981.5 tons of supplies from Lonely and Point Barrow. (18)
1983: The 42 BMW at Loring AFB reached a limited operational capability with B-52Gs and the AGM-84 Harpoon anti-shipping missile. The first flight tests with the Harpoon took place on 15-28 March on the Pacific Missile Test Range. (1)
1999: At Grand Forks AFB, contractors imploded the first of 450 Minuteman III ICBM silos to be destroyed under the START I. (21)
2004: The Navy version of the Global Hawk, designated N-1, flew for the first time. The Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration vehicle made a four-hour sortie from its production facility in Palmdale to the AFFTC at Edwards AFB. (3)
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: Thoughts on the American Interest
Thoughts in and around geopolitics.
By: George Friedman
October 6, 2023
Recently, I wrote an article on the Ukraine war titled "The War Is Over, but No One Knows How to Stop Fighting." There were substantial reader comments and a strong minority who argued that given my thinking, it was time to withdraw U.S. funding for weapons for Ukraine. I normally answer emails individually, but I found this viewpoint important and in error, so I thought I would write a broader piece.
The war is at a standstill rather than a Russian victory precisely because of weapons and money provided by the United States. Remove that aid and Russia, a much better-endowed country, would likely sweep over the Ukrainians. The gridlock that exists would collapse. That would lead to a much greater problem. If Ukraine fell to Russia, Russia would then be on the borderline of NATO countries (the Baltic states, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania). Russian President Vladimir Putin once said the fall of the Soviet Union was a geopolitical disaster. I am certain he included in that the fact that Russian troops were no longer stationed in central Germany, where a generation of U.S. troops faced off with them through many cold winters. Putin understood the importance of strategic depth in defending Russia, and this was lost when the Soviet Union fell and Ukraine became an independent country. His attack on Ukraine was intended to rebalance it.
But the reality would be that the United States, its allies and Russia would again face each other, both sides on a hair trigger, in a dangerous confrontation. Each nation has its own national interest. Russia's is to surge west through Ukraine, and the United States' is to stop it. Perhaps a Russian victory would not have such dire consequences, but Americans have learned – or should have learned – to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. That would seem an expensive frame of mind to some, but it has been ignored in the past, resulting in much sorrow.
In May 1940, Germany invaded France. The British had been asking for American military aid. There was a strong movement, built around groups like America First, that did not want the United States to be engaged in wars that were "none of its business." President Franklin D. Roosevelt slipped some aid to Britain but not the kind of massive military assistance or troops that might have blocked Germany. Many Americans saw this as a foreign war of little importance to the United States.
Hitler declared war on the United States several days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There are different numbers given for how many Americans died in the European theater of operations in World War II. (Estimates range from about 200,000 to 400,000, but the numbers are not morally significant.) This was the expensive route. Engaging earlier in the war would have both been prudent and saved lives, as defense is less costly than offense.
The most important lesson of this is that an American decision not to go to war does not necessarily prevent war. In spite of the U.S. unwillingness to make war on Germany, Japan and Germany coordinated Pearl Harbor and Germany's initiation of war on the United States. The idea that making war is an option for the United States is an illusion. Wars are very often initiated by the enemy.
This was a reality that the America First people missed. They combined their position on war with an opposition to the construction of weapons that could be seen as hostile. And they were opposed to defense spending, which forced the U.S. into a massive spending spree when the war began.
Can the U.S. avoid a major war in Ukraine? Yes, if the Russians don't attack further westward. Otherwise, the options are war or giving them a free hand.
Where should the United States act on the worst case? As far into Ukraine as possible, keeping Russia as far from the western border as possible.
Should the United States fight its own war or fund the Ukrainian military? The answer to that is obvious. The war has to be fought, but better with weapons and money than American troops.
However the U.S. fights it, the Russians must achieve strategic depth. How much may be negotiable if the Ukrainians – with American help – maintain the burden of independence, which they are. We can give money, or face a more dangerous Russia and give lives. I vote money.
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