To All,
Good Thursday morning October 26, 2023
The painters came and will be back this morning to complete the job
A BIT LONG TODAY BUT READ THE ARTICLE "It came down to 1 Marine"
As it mentions this is the turning point in the Pacific war. Also Brown Bear's salute to Norm.
Regards
Skip
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Today in Naval and Marine Corps History thanks to NHHC
October 26
1921 - In first successful test, a compressed air, turntable catapult, launches an N-9 seaplane.
1922 - LCDR Godfrey deC. Chevalier makes first landing aboard a carrier (USS Langley) while underway off Cape Henry, Virginia.
1942 - Battle of the Santa Cruz Island. USS Hornet (CV-8) was lost and USS Enterprise (CV-6) was badly damaged during the battle.
1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carrier and USAAF aircraft attacks on the retreating Japanese ships. U.S. forces sink many Japanese ships including 4 carriers, 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, and 9 destroyers, for a total of 26 capital ships. Afterwards Japanese fleet ceases to exist as an organized fighting fleet.
1944 - Special Task Air Group One makes last attack in month long demonstration of TDR drone missile against Japanese shipping and islands in the Pacific. Of 46 missiles fired, 29 reached their target areas.
1950 - U.S. Amphibious Force Seventh Fleet lands 1st Marine Division at Wonsan, Korea
1963 - USS Andrew Jackson (SSBN-619) launches first Polaris A-3 missile from a submerged submarine, off Cape Canaveral, Florida.
American Minute for October 26th:
On OCTOBER 26, 1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts reorganized their defenses with one-third of their regiments being "Minutemen," ready to fight at a minute's notice. These citizen soldiers drilled on the parade ground, many times led by a deacon or pastor, then went to church for exhortation and prayer. The Provincial Congress charged:
"You...are placed by Providence in the post of honor, because it is the post of danger...The eyes not only of North America and the whole British Empire, but of all Europe, are upon you. Let us be, therefore, altogether solicitous that no disorderly behavior, nothing unbecoming our character as Americans, as citizens and Christians, be justly chargeable to us." The Provincial Congress issued a Resolution to Massachusetts Bay, 1774:
"Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual...Continue steadfast, and with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us." Boston patriot Josiah Quincy stated: "Under God, we are determined that wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die free men."
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Today in World History October 26
1774 The first Continental Congress, which protested British measures and called for civil disobedience, concludes in Philadelphia.
1795 When General Paul Barras resigns his commission as head of France's Army of the Interior to become head of the Directory, his second-in-command becomes the army's commander—Napoleon Bonaparte.
1825 The first boat on the Erie Canal leaves Buffalo, N.Y.
1881 Three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday have a shootout with the Clantons and McLaurys at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.
1905 Norway signs a treaty of separation with Sweden. Norway chooses Prince Charles of Denmark as the new king; he becomes King Haakon VII.
1918 Germany's supreme commander, General Erich Ludendorff, resigns, protesting the terms to which the German Government has agreed in negotiating the armistice. This sets the stage for his later support for Hitler and the Nazis, who claim that Germany did not lose the war on the battlefield but were "stabbed in the back" by politicians.
1942 Japanese attack Guadalcanal, sinking two U.S. carriers.
1942 U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Hornet is sunk in the Battle of Santa Cruz Island, in the South Pacific.
1950 A reconnaissance platoon for a South Korean division reaches the Yalu River. They are the only elements of the U.N. force to reach the river before the Chinese offensive pushes the whole army down into South Korea.
1955 The Village Voice is first published, backed in part by Norman Mailer.
1955 Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself Premier of South Vietnam.
1957 The Russian government announces that Marshal Georgi Zhukov, the nation's most prominent military hero, has been relieved of his duties as Minister of Defense. Khrushchev accused Zhukov as promoting his own "cult of personality" and saw him as a threat to his own popularity.
1958 The first New York - Paris transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by Pan Am, while the first New York - London transatlantic jet passenger service is inaugurated by BOAC.
1967 Mohammad Reza Pahlavi crowns himself Emperor of Iran and his wife Farah as empress.
1970 Gary Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury first appears.
1979 The President of South Korea, Park Chung-hee, asssinated by Kim Jae-kyu, head of the country's Central intelligence Agency; Choi Kyu-ha is named acting president.
1994 Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty.
2001 The USA PATRIOT Act signed into law by Pres. George W. Bush, greatly expanding intelligence and legal agencies' ability to utilize wiretaps, records searches and surveillance.
2002 Russian Spetsnaz storm the Moscow Theatre, where Chechen terrorists had taken the audience and performers hostage three days earlier; 50 terrorists and 150 hostages die in the assault.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
Skip… For The List for Thursday, 26 October 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 26 October 1968… Remembering the Oriskany Fire and Clodfelter's wrap up comments on Rolling Thunder
Thanks to Micro
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to the crew of the aircraft. ……Skip
From Vietnam Air Losses site for Thursday October 26
October 26: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=867
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
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
7 Mysterious Hidden Treasures
Few are immune to the lure of a hidden treasure, its location well-protected by natural fortifications and/or the obscure clues of an old map or legend. The intrigue has spawned an array of popular novels, such as Robert Louis Stevenson's 1880s Treasure Island, and movies including 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, but there are also a few real-life stories of secret valuables and the explorers who sought them. Here are seven of history's most famous treasures — some real and others possibly pure fantasy — that have kept fortune-seekers on the hunt for years.
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The Copper Scroll Treasures
Discovered in the mid-20th century, the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls represented the archaeological find of a lifetime, yet one of them points to hidden riches of even greater value. The lone manuscript written on a copper scroll, officially designated "3Q15," reveals that around 160 tons of gold and silver are buried in 63 spots throughout modern-day Israel. Unfortunately, some of the wording in the ancient Hebrew text is a mystery to contemporary scholars, while other passages describe vague locations that are nearly impossible to pinpoint. It's been speculated that the valuables have already been dug up by later generations of Jews or the Knights Templar (see below), though the more tantalizing possibility exists that the billions of dollars worth of gold and silver remain up for grabs.
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The Knights Templar Treasure
The Knights Templar, founded as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, wasn't so poor in its heyday, as it loaded up its coffers through the spoils of war, donations of royal benefactors, and oversight of an extensive banking network. Unsurprisingly, the medieval military order's wealth and influence drew the scrutiny of other powerful figures, and in 1307, King Phillip IV of France set about disbanding the order and claiming its riches. Although many of its members were arrested and executed, the Knights Templar allegedly smuggled their valuables out of Paris via hay carts or vessels. As such, its artifacts could be almost anywhere in the world, although a few collectors in recent years have pieced together what looks to be an impressive assemblage of Templar keepsakes, including a sword, libation cup, helmet, and obsidian chalice.
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The Lost City of Paititi
If the idea of secret caves and boats overflowing with gold tickles your fancy, then how about an entire city? Legend points to one such place in the Peruvian Andes, rumored to be a refuge for the Incas who escaped Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Expeditions have been trying to find Paititi for decades, but the biggest obstacle is its alleged location, in the midst of dense Amazonian growth, treacherous cliffs, and unwelcoming native tribes. In recent years, French explorer Thierry Jamin has followed clues toward an unusual "square mountain" in the Megantoni National Sanctuary of southeastern Peru, though time will tell whether this locale holds the secret city he and legions of predecessors have sought.
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The Honjo Masamune
While some treasures consist of sparkling gems, others, like the creations of 13th-century Japanese swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune, are one-of-kind works of craftsmanship. Masamune forged one particularly potent blade that took on the name of an early wielder, Honjo Shigenaga, and passed through generations of the Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled Japan into the 19th century. However, shortly after the Honjo Masamune was named a National Treasure in 1939, the loss of World War II led to an order for the Japanese to turn over their swords, including the Tokugawas' 700-year-old katana, to American occupiers. Sleuths have since sought to recover the priceless artifact, with some following the dead-end trail of a "Sgt. Coldy Bimore" who supposedly took possession. Others are resigned to the idea that it sits in the dusty basement or attic of an unknown veteran's surviving family.
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Nazi Gold in Lake Toplitz
While the Japanese surrendered their treasures at the close of World War II, the Nazis supposedly hid theirs by dumping millions of dollars of gold into the Austrian Alps' Lake Toplitz. But while rumors of the lake being a Nazi repository gained steam when counterfeit Allied currency was found submerged there in the 1960s, divers haven't uncovered any of its alleged crates of gold. This is partly due to the difficulty of accessing the densely forested region, as well as the characteristics of the lake; frozen for much of the year, it also lacks oxygen in its deeper reaches, allowing the giant trees that fall in to remain preserved and block the path of explorers.
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The Dutch Schultz Stash
Famed gangster Dutch Schultz met his demise in a hail of gunfire at a New Jersey restaurant in October 1935, but not before delivering a stream of deathbed ramblings that reportedly included clues to a stash of loot hidden in the Catskill Mountains near Phoenicia, New York. Of course, the details of just what was squirreled away and where have changed over the years; it's either a load of cash, jewels, or bonds, and it's located near a sycamore ... or maybe a pair of pine trees. It's also worth considering the reliability of the source, who uttered such nuggets as, "Oh, oh; dog biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn't get snappy," as his life slipped away. However, the uncertainty hasn't stopped the treasure-seekers who regularly descend on Phoenicia with the hope of uncovering what could be upwards of $50 million in mob funds.
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Blackbeard's Treasure
Circa 1715, Captain Edward Teach (1680 - 1718), better known as Blackbeard. No list of missing treasures would be complete without mention of a long-lost pirate trove, and this infamous buccaneer reportedly left behind a haul worthy of his formidable reputation. After nearly two years of plundering vessels in the West Indies, Blackbeard's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, ran into a sandbar off North Carolina in June 1718. From there, it's believed he transferred his valuables to other boats, leaving little sign of his haul when he was killed a few months later by a British Royal Navy force. Although Queen Anne's Revenge was discovered in 1996, it seems the whereabouts of its captain's big prize became a massive mystery to all except, as Blackbeard once eloquently put it, the legendary pirate himself and the devil.
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Thanks to Brown Bear
You can not have any idea where this kind of deep friendship comes from if you have not read the Book "Bloody 16 "about three consecutive deployments to Vietnam of the aircraft Carrier USS Oriskany in the 60's….Skip
My Oriskany roommate, Norm Levy, was killed on 26 October 1966. Exactly one year later, Oriskany was again back on Yankee Station.
After flying my 5th mission against Hanoi in 72 hours, I rose from a restless night to scribble a note to Norm. I folded it into a paper airplane, walked back to the Oriskany's fantail, lit the paper on fire, and launched it into the darkness above the ship's wake. Norm and I would both have turned 90 this year. This is the 56th reiteration of that letter:
To: Lieutenant Commander Norman Sidney Levy, US Navy Deceased (1934-1966)
Good morning, Norm. It's 26 October 2023, 07:29 Tonkin Gulf time. Haven't talked with you for a while. That magnificent lady on which we went through hell together, USS ORISKANY, has slipped into the deep and now rests forever in silent waters off the Florida coast. Recall we shared a 6' by 9' stateroom aboard her during McNamara and Johnson's ill-fated Rolling Thunder, while our Air Wing 16 suffered the highest loss rate of any naval aviation unit in the Vietnam conflict. Three combat deployments, between May '65 and January '68, resulted in 86 aircraft lost from the 64 assigned; while 59 of our aviators were killed and 13 captured or missing from Oriskany's assignment of 74 combat pilots. Our statistical probability of surviving Rolling Thunder, where the tactics and targets were designated by combat-illiterate politicians, was less than 30%. The probability of a combat pilot being an atheist approached zero! Seems like a good day to make contact again. I've written every year since I threw that "nickel on the grass" for you. For several years, it was only a handwritten note ... which I ceremoniously burned to simulate your being "smoked." With the advent of the internet, I've shared annual emails to you with some of our colleagues. This is the 57th year since I last saw you, sitting on the edge of your bunk in our stateroom. You remember ... it was the 26th of October 1966 and we were on the midnight-to-noon schedule. There was a wall of thunderstorms over North Vietnam, with tops to 50,000 feet, but McNamara's civilian planners kept sending us on "critical" missions all night. At 04:00 they finally ran out of trucks to bomb, in that downpour, and we got a little sleep. Then, at 07:21, the ammunition locker, full of magnesium flares, exploded! You and forty-five other guys, mostly Air Wing pilots, didn't make it, Norm. I'm sorry. Oh, dear God, I am sorry! But we went home together: Norm Levy, a Jewish boy from Miami, and Dick Schaffert, a Lutheran cornhusker from Nebraska. nI rode in the economy class of that Flying Tigers 707, along with the other few surviving pilots. You were in a flag-draped box in the cargo compartment. Unfortunately, the scum media had publicized the return of us "Baby Killers," and Lindberg Field was packed with vile demonstrators enjoying the right to protest. The "right" you died for! Our wives were waiting in a bus to meet our plane. There was a black hearse for you. The protestors threw rocks and eggs at our bus and your hearse; not a policeman in sight. When we finally got off the airport, they chased us to Fort Rosecrans. They tried interrupting your graveside service, until your honor guard of three brave young Marines with rifles convinced them to stop. I watched the TV news with my family that night, Norm. Sorry, the only clips of our homecoming were the "Baby Killer" banners and bombs exploding in the South Vietnam jungle...although our operations were up North, against heavily defended targets, where we were frequently shot down and captured or killed. It was tough to explain all that to my four pre-teen children. The politically adjusted report, issued for the 100th Anniversary of U.S. Naval Aviation, confirmed that we and our brothers who flew in Korea have been written out of American history. The Wall, and our memories, are the only things many of us have left. We hold those memories dear! We band together in groups like the Crusader Association. We're damned few now! After 5,000 hours flying simulated and actual combat, and pulling at least 5 g's more than 25,000 times, those who are still around have ultrasounds resembling haunted houses on Halloween; with nerve bundles sagging like cobwebs, leaking valves, and ruptured pipes. We'll all be seeing you shortly, Norm. Put in a good word for us with the Man. Ask Him to think of us as His peacemakers, as His children.
Very Respectfully, Your Roommate Dick (Brown Bear) Schaffert
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From Humphrey's Solo to Thornton's Swim by W. Thomas Smith Jr.
10/26/2010
This Week in American Military History:
Oct. 25, 1812: The frigate USS United States under the command of Capt.
(future commodore) Stephen Decatur – hero of Tripoli and said to be the U.S. Navy's own "Lord Nelson" – captures the Royal Navy frigate HMS Macedonian under the command of Capt. John Carden in a brisk fight several hundred miles off the Azores.
In seven years, Decatur will be mortally wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron.
USS United States – the first of four so-named American Navy vessels and the first commissioned warship for the new U.S. Navy – will be seized by Confederate forces in 1861 and rechristened CSS United States.
Oct. 26, 1909: U.S. Army Lt. (future brig. gen.) Frederick Erastus Humphreys becomes the first Army aviator to solo in a heavier-than-air craft – the Wright Flyer – following three hours of instruction by Wilbur Wright.
Humphreys will write:
"From a military standpoint, the first and probably the greatest use [of the aircraft] will be found in reconnaissance. …
"The next use will probably be in carrying messages. …
"Another time where advantage might be taken of the speed of these machines is when officers of high rank might desire to give personal supervision at a distant point of the line or to go from one point to another for a council of war. …"
Interestingly, Humphreys adds: "Probably a large amount of damage could be done to the personnel of the enemy when in mass, or in a raid to the storehouses and depot, by projectiles dropped from a flyer. That any could be done to fortifications or ships is doubtful."
Oct. 26, 1922: Lt. Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier makes the first aircraft-carrier landing on the deck of America's first carrier, USS Langley, the first of two carriers named in honor of aviation scientist Samuel Pierpont Langley.
Readers will recall Eugene B. Ely's first-ever airplane-landing aboard ship on Jan. 18, 1911 (Ely's landing however was on a special platform mounted on a cruiser, not a carrier).
Both Chevalier and Ely will be killed in plane crashes weeks after their historic firsts.
Oct. 26, 1944: The Battle of Leyte Gulf – the last great naval battle of the Pacific during World War II – ends in a lopsided victory for the Americans. An epic three-day, four-part engagement fought in defense of the U.S. effort to retake the Philippines, the battle has all but ended the Japanese Navy's ability to fight as a substantive fleet. It is also history's last sea battle in which battleships engage one another in pitched battle.
All total, 282 U.S. and Japanese warships and 190,000 sailors on both sides have been directly involved in the battle. Four Japanese carriers, three battleships, six cruisers, 14 destroyers, and nearly 10,000 sailors have been sent to the bottom. The U.S. Navy has suffered the loss of three carriers, three destroyers, and one submarine.
Oct. 28, 1962: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev "blinks," ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Oct. 31, 1972: U.S. Navy SEAL Petty Officer (future lieutenant) Michael E.
Thornton; his commanding officer, Lt. Thomas R. Norris; and three South Vietnamese Naval commandos are conducting an intelligence-collection and prisoner-snatch operation deep behind enemy lines when they are discovered by a force that outnumbers them at least 10 to one.
Fierce fighting ensues. Thornton and Norris are both wounded, Norris badly.
As the team begins a fighting withdrawal toward the beach, Thornton learns that Norris is down, perhaps dead.
Thornton races back through a hailstorm of enemy fire to find and retrieve his commander – dead or alive.
Thornton finds Norris, kills two enemy soldiers who are standing over his wounded commander, then hoists Norris onto his shoulders and sprints back toward the beach for several hundred yards under heavy enemy fire.
When he hits the surf, Thornton ties Norris to his own body and starts swimming. When he sees one of the South Vietnamese commandos shot in the hip and unable to swim, Thornton grabs him too; swimming both men out to sea for more than two hours before they are rescued.
For his actions, Thornton will receive the Medal of Honor.
Norris will survive and receive the Medal himself for a previous action.
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Thanks to Boris
From his Remembered Sky series
Battle of Santa Cruise Post Game Analysis
The Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, [25–27 October 1942] was the fourth carrier battle of the Pacific campaign and was also the fourth major naval engagement fought during the Guadalcanal campaign.
On the morning of 26 October, during the attack on the Enterprise, Task Force 61 Commander Admial Thomas Kinkaid remarked with pardonable hyperbole to AP correspondent Eugene Burns: "You're seeing the greatest carrier duel of history. Perhaps it will never happen again."
Yet despite the task force commander's comment, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands is arguably either the forgotten or least noted of the carrier battles of that year or at best remembered as the battle where the USS Hornet was sunk and a Japanese victory.
And so, who actually won? As the two navies carrier battle groups retreated from the last carrier battle of 1942, the Japanese by multiple metrics could be judged to have won the day. Both sides were damaged greatly in similar manner, but for the Japanese, in a singular way that would be unrecoverable and thereby fatal when next Japanese and American carriers dueled – their experienced squadron and section leadership was decimated.
American observers take a variety of positions on the outcome at Santa Cruz. Marine General Vandegrift termed the battle a "standoff." Theater commander Admiral "Bull" Halsey wrote that "tactically, we picked up the dirty end of the stick but strategically we handed it back." Similarly, official Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison rated the battle a Japanese tactical victory that gained precious time for the Allies. And aviation historian John Lundstrom, author of the most detailed examination of the aerial exchanges, wrote of a "supposed" Japanese decisive victory. Robert Sherrod, chronicler of Marine aviation in the war, said Santa Cruz was a case in which "the box score is deceptive."
By many reasonable measures the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands did mark a tactical Japanese victory—and possibly a strategic one. The Imperial Japanese Navy had pursued Kinkaid's retiring fleet, indeed forced it away from the battle zone. The sinking of a U.S. fleet carrier, the Hornet, was a notable achievement. The day after the action, the Japanese possessed the only operational carrier force in the Pacific. In addition to having sunk more ships —of greater combat tonnage—the Japanese had more aircraft remaining and were in physical possession of the seas.
Admiral Yamamoto and the Combined Fleet would fail to exploit the success at Santa Cruz, but the fact that naval efforts later went sideways cannot diminish the Imperial Japanese Navy's achievement. Only the escape of the Enterprise with her own and most of the Hornet's aircraft prevented disaster. The Allies still retained the strategic advantage because of first, the Japanese 17th Army's failure to capture Henderson airfield and destroy the 1st MarDiv on Guadalcanal, and second, TF-61 had savaged the Japanese carrier air groups.
While the battle ended in an American tactical defeat, it is necessary to look not only at the respective claims but also the nature of the end game statistics of the two navies for the Santa Cruz battle, particularly as neither side had any real notion of the strength of the other. Imperial General Headquarters and Combined Fleet consistently overestimated the numbers of their foe, deciding that four enemy carriers fought the battle and that all four sank, along with two battleships. That put the total carriers sunk since the outbreak of the war as eleven, with four others damaged. (Obviously the Americans must have had a lot of carriers.) But simple statistics reveal the grievous wounds suffered by the four Japanese carrier air groups.
Though the losses of aircraft were about equal—ninety-seven Japanese planes were lost against eighty-one U.S.—it was in personnel casualties that America gained a most striking if seldom-appreciated strategic victory. Despite good use of dive bombers and Torpedo carrier attack aircraft this was Japan's first concentrated exposure to state-of-the-art antiaircraft fire; 148 pilots and aircrew died—a third more than at Midway (110). Fully half of Nagumo's dive-bomber flight crews were lost while American squadrons suffered twenty dead on the day, plus four more rescued by the enemy and taken prisoner. The leadership in the IJN's squadron ready rooms took a severe blow; twenty-three squadron and section leaders were lost. By sundown that day, more than half of the pilots who had hit Pearl Harbor on December 7 had been killed in action. The carriers Zuikaku and Junyo, though not seriously damaged, were forced home to Japan for want of men to fly their planes.
With the evisceration of its naval aircrews, the Japanese suffered a critical deficit that they would never make up. An IJN Captain's assessment was a profound understatement: "Considering the great superiority of our enemy's industrial capacity, we must win every battle overwhelmingly. This last one, unfortunately, was not an overwhelming victory."
The caliber of experience and leadership could not easily be replaced.
Having exhausted their carrier forces in the seas east of Guadalcanal on October 26, the opposing fleets obviously needed to regroup. With differing context, Halsey's and Yamamoto's carriers were both sidelined for now. Even with the disparity in numbers, Yamamoto became extremely cautious with deployment of his carriers. In similar fashion, after the Battle of Santa Cruz, the United States would have not a single operable carrier task force in the South Pacific until the Enterprise could be repaired at Nouméa and placed back into service. Task Force 17 was dissolved with the sinking of the Hornet.
The question to be answered in the continuing contest for Guadalcanal in the coming weeks was: Which side's surface combat fleet would step up and control the seas by night? No matter how gallantly men might fight on land, they would not hold on long if their Navy finally failed them. In a few short weeks, the greatest challenge yet to the American position on Guadalcanal would loom in the dark waters of Savo Sound.
The only feasible way the Japanese had to deprive their enemy of air superiority was to destroy Henderson Field's air group with bombardment from the sea. And by that same reasoning, the only way the Americans could prevent a repeat of the devastating nighttime ordeal of mid-October was by pressing their surface forces into the fight and seizing control of the night. With the Enterprise going to the yard for repairs, the battleship South Dakota was sent to join the Washington in Task Force 64. The wartime "food chain" circled right back to the ancient art of ships grappling with one another on the sea.
Halsey was painfully aware that flight operations from his only carrier, the Enterprise, without the use of her forward elevator until near the end of the November, would be significantly constrained Nonetheless, he knew that whatever airpower she could throw into the coming fight would be indispensable. Accordingly, on the morning of November 11, Halsey ordered the Enterprise task force to sea and to operate north from Nouméa with instructions to take positions two hundred miles south of San Cristobál and strike Japanese shipping near Guadalcanal.
The two night November destroyer, cruiser, battleship engagements comprising The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal were eminent. Cactus Air Force and Enterprise pilots must play their role.
In closing, the Japanese "victory" was Pyrrhic. The true mark of the battle is that Japanese losses were so grievous that they withdrew from significant carrier participation, not to return until June 1944 - the next carrier vs carrier battle – The Battle of the Philippine Sea – the "Great Mariana's Turkey Shoot."
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This Day in U S Military History
1940 – The P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight. The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and other conflicts. The Mustang was conceived, designed and built by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a specification issued directly to NAA by the British Purchasing Commission. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed and, with an engine installed, first flew on this date. The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, matching or bettering that of the Luftwaffe's fighters. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin 60 series two-stage two-speed supercharged engine, and armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) M2 Browning machine guns. From late 1943, P-51Bs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's 2 TAF and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944. The P-51 was also in service with Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean and Italian theaters, and saw limited service against the Japanese in the Pacific War. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed 4,950 enemy aircraft shot down. At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang was the main fighter of the United Nations until jet fighters such as the F-86 took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber. Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After World War II and the Korean War, many Mustangs were converted for civilian use, especially air racing, and increasingly, preserved and flown as historic warbird aircraft at airshows.
1942 – The Battle of Santa Cruz. Both American and Japanese forces launch at dawn. Two hours later the Japanese attack reach and seriously damages the USS Hornet. Both attacks have been launched at the extreme edge of the aircrafts' range and the Japanese have the advantage as their range is longer. When the American planes find part of the Japanese force, there is not enough fuel left for an organized attack, however, the cruiser Chikuma of Admiral Abe's Vanguard Group is damaged. The remainder of the planes attack the carrier Shokaku and damage it heavily. A second wave of Japanese attackers severely damages the USS Enterprise but many of the planes are shot down by the antiaircraft guns of the South Dakota. The third wave of Japanese planes from the Junyo suffer the same fate. Enough though the Enterprise is made partially operational, Admiral Kinkaid decides to withdraw. The battle is considered a Japanese victory. The damaged USS Enterprise is now the only American carrier in the Pacific. However, the victory is costly as again loss of Japanese aircrew is high and the loss of aircraft has removed the effectiveness of the undamaged aircraft carrier Zuikaku. The loss of planes and crew also mean that no attack on Henderson Field airstrip is possible
One of my favorite stories….When I was around 6 or 7 I was already reading and had 40 or 50 Golden books. We were living on Fort Hood whose name had been changed from Camp Hood and my school was on the base. That year I got a super sized Golden book with pictures and lots of words. It had stories like building the ALCAN Hiway and first men to climb Mount Everst. I never forgot the story about the man who was Michael Page with dramatic pictures of him holding a machine gun and beating back the attack of the Japanese in a place called Guadalcanal . It was much later in life when I understood what that was all about and somewhere in my storage is that well worn book……skip
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
DOWN TO ONE MARINE
On Nov. 15, 2003, an 85-year-old retired Marine Corps colonel died of congestive heart failure at his home in La Quinta, Calif., southeast of Palm Springs.
He was a combat veteran of World War II. Reason enough to honor him.
But this Marine was a little different. This Marine was Mitchell Paige.
It's hard today to envision -- or, for the dwindling few, to remember
-- what the world looked like on 26 Oct 1942.
The U.S. Navy was not the most powerful fighting force in the Pacific.
Not by a long shot. So the Navy basically dumped a few thousand lonely American Marines on the beach at Guadalcanal and high-tailed it out of there.
Nimitz, Fletcher and Halsey had to ration what few ships they had.
I've written separately about the way Bull Halsey rolled the dice on the night of Nov. 13, 1942, violating the stern War College edict against committing capital ships in restricted waters and instead dispatching into the Slot his last two remaining fast battleships, the South Dakota and the Washington, escorted by the only four destroyers with enough fuel in their bunkers to get them there and back.
Those American destroyer captains need not have worried about carrying enough fuel to get home. By 11 p.m., outnumbered better than three- to-one by a massive Japanese task force driving down from the northwest, every one of those four American destroyers had been shot up, sunk, or set aflame. And while the South Dakota -- known throughout the fleet as a jinx ship -- had damaged some lesser Japanese vessels, she continued to be plagued with electrical and fire control problems.
"Washington was now the only intact ship left in the force," writes naval historian David Lippman. "In fact, at that moment Washington was the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet. She was the only barrier between Admiral Kondo's ships and Guadalcanal. If this one ship did not stop 14 Japanese ships right then and there, America might lose the Pacific war. .."
On Washington's bridge, Lieutenant Ray Hunter had the conn. He had just seen the destroyers Walker and Preston blown sky high. Dead ahead lay their burning wreckage. Hundreds of men were swimming in the water and the Japanese ships racing in.
Hunter had to do something. The course he took now could decide the war, Lippman writes. ''Come left, he said. ...
Washington's rudder change put the
burning destroyers between Washington and the enemy, thus preventing her from being silhouetted by their fires.
The move made the Japanese momentarily cease fire. Lacking radar, they could not spot Washington behind the fires. ... Washington raced through burning seas. Dozens of destroyer men were in the water clinging to floating wreckage. Get after them, Washington! one shouted
Sacrificing their ships by maneuvering into the path of torpedoes intended for the Washington, the captains of the American destroyers had given [ADM] China" Lee one final chance.
Blinded by the smoke and flames, the Japanese battleship Kirishima turned on her searchlights, illuminating the helpless South Dakota, and opened fire.
Finally, as her own muzzle blasts illuminated her in the darkness, Admiral Lee and Captain Glenn Davis could positively identify an enemy target.
The Washington's main batteries opened fire at 12 midnight precisely.
Her radar fire control system functioned perfectly. During the first seven minutes of 14 Nov 1942, the "last ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet" fired 75 of her 16-inch shells at the battleship Kirishima. Aboard Kirishima, it rained steel. At 3:25 a.m., her burning hulk officially became the first enemy sunk by an American battleship since the Spanish-American War. Stunned the Japanese withdrew. Within days, Japanese commander Istook Yamamoto recommended the unthinkable to the Emperor -- withdrawal from Guadalcanal.
But that was still weeks in the future. We are still with Mitchell Paige back on the malaria jungle island of Guadalcanal, placed like a speed bump at the end of the long blue-water slot between New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago ... the very route the Japanese Navy would have to take to reach Australia.
On Guadalcanal the Marines struggled to complete an airfield. Yamamoto knew what that meant. No effort would be spared to dislodge these upstart Yanks from a position that could endanger his ships. Before long, relentless Japanese counterattacks had driven supporting U.S Navy from inshore waters.
The Marines were on their own.
As Platoon Sgt. Mitchell Paige and his 33 riflemen set about carefully emplacing their four water-cooled .30-caliber Brownings, manning their section of the thin khaki line which was expected to defend Henderson Field against the assault of the night of 25 Oct 1942, it's unlikely anyone thought they were about to provide the definitive answer to that most desperate of questions: How many able-bodied U.S. Marines does it take to hold a hill against 2,000 desperate and motivated Japanese attackers?
Nor did the commanders of the mighty Japanese Army, who had swept all before them for decades, expect their advance to be halted on some jungle ridge manned by one thin line of Yanks in khaki in October of 1942
But by the time the night was over, The Japanese 29th Infantry Regiment had lost 553 killed or missing and 479 wounded among its
2,554 men, historian Lippman reports. The Japanese 16th Regiment's losses are uncounted, but the [US] 164th's burial parties handled 975 Japanese bodies. ... The American estimate of 2,200 Japanese dead is probably too low.
You've already figured out where the Japanese focused their attack, haven't you? Among the 90 American dead and seriously wounded that night were all the men in Mitchell Paige's platoon; every one. As the night of endless attacks wore on, Paige moved up and down his line, pulling his dead and wounded comrades back into their foxholes and firing a few bursts from each of the four Brownings in turn, convincing the Japanese forces down the hill that the positions were still manned.
The citation for Paige's Congressional Medal of Honor picks up the
tale:
When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machinegun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire."
In the end, Sgt. Paige picked up the last of the 40-pound, belt-fed Brownings -- the same design which John Moses Browning famously fired for a continuous 25 minutes until it ran out of ammunition, glowing cherry red, at its first U.S. Army trial -- and did something for which the weapon was never designed. Sgt. Paige walked down the hill toward the place where he could hear the last Japanese survivors rallying to move around his flank, the belt-fed gun cradled under his arm, firing as he went.
And the weapon did not fail.
Coming up at dawn, battalion executive officer Major Odell M. Conoley was first to discover the answer to our question: How many able-bodied Marines does it take to hold a hill against two regiments of motivated, combat-hardened infantrymen who have never known defeat?
On a hill where the bodies were piled like cordwood, Mitchell Paige alone sat upright behind his 30-caliber Browning, waiting to see what the dawn would bring.
One hill: one Marine.
But "In the early morning light, the enemy could be seen a few yards off, and vapor from the barrels of their machine guns was clearly visible,"reports historian Lippman. "It was decided to try to rush the position."
For the task, Major Conoley gathered together "three enlisted communication personnel, several riflemen, a few company runners who were at the point, together with a cook and a few mess men who had brought food to the position the evening before."
Joined by Paige, this ad hoc force of 17 Marines counterattacked at
5:40 a.m , discovering that this extremely short range allowed the optimum use of grenades. They cleared the ridge.
And that's where the unstoppable wave of Japanese conquest finally crested, broke, and began to recede. On an unnamed jungle ridge on an insignificant island no one had ever heard of, called Guadalcanal.
But who remembers, today, how close-run a thing it was -- the ridge held by a single Marine, in the autumn of 1942?
When the Hasbro Toy Co. telephoned some years back, asking permission to put the retired Colonel's face on some kid's doll, Mitchell Paige thought they must be joking.
But they weren't. That's his face on the little Marine they call "G.I.
Joe."
And you probably thought that was an ARMY Doll....!!!
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PAIGE, MITCHELL
Rank and organization: Platoon Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Place and date: Solomon Islands, 26 October 1942. Entered service at: Pennsylvania. Born: 31 August 1918, Charleroi, Pa. Citation: For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with a company of marines in combat against enemy Japanese forces in the Solomon Islands on 26 October 1942. When the enemy broke through the line directly in front of his position, P/Sgt. Paige, commanding a machinegun section with fearless determination, continued to direct the fire of his gunners until all his men were either killed or wounded. Alone, against the deadly hail of Japanese shells, he fought with his gun and when it was destroyed, took over another, moving from gun to gun, never ceasing his withering fire against the advancing hordes until reinforcements finally arrived. Then, forming a new line, he dauntlessly and aggressively led a bayonet charge, driving the enemy back and preventing a breakthrough in our lines. His great personal valor and unyielding devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
*SKINNER, SHERROD E., JR.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Battery F, 2d Battalion, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Korea, 26 October 1952. Entered service at: East Lansing, Mich. Born: 29 October 1929, Hartford, Conn. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as an artillery forward observer of Battery F, in action against enemy aggressor forces on the night of 26 October 1952. When his observation post in an extremely critical and vital sector of the main line of resistance was subjected to a sudden and fanatical attack by hostile forces, supported by a devastating barrage of artillery and mortar fire which completely severed communication lines connecting the outpost with friendly firing batteries, 2d Lt. Skinner, in a determined effort to hold his position, immediately organized and directed the surviving personnel in the defense of the outpost, continuing to call down fire on the enemy by means of radio alone until his equipment became damaged beyond repair. Undaunted by the intense hostile barrage and the rapidly-closing attackers, he twice left the protection of his bunker in order to direct accurate machine gun fire and to replenish the depleted supply of ammunition and grenades. Although painfully wounded on each occasion, he steadfastly refused medical aid until the rest of the men received treatment. As the ground attack reached its climax, he gallantly directed the final defense until the meager supply of ammunition was exhausted and the position overrun. During the 3 hours that the outpost was occupied by the enemy, several grenades were thrown into the bunker which served as protection for 2d Lt. Skinner and his remaining comrades. Realizing that there was no chance for other than passive resistance, he directed his men to feign death even though the hostile troops entered the bunker and searched their persons. Later, when an enemy grenade was thrown between him and 2 other survivors, he immediately threw himself on the deadly missile in an effort to protect the others, absorbing the full force of the explosion and sacrificing his life for his comrades. By his indomitable fighting spirit, superb leadership, and great personal valor in the face of tremendous odds, 2d Lt. Skinner served to inspire his fellow marines in their heroic stand against the enemy and upheld the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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This Day in Aviation History" brought to you by the Daedalians Airpower Blog Update. To subscribe to this weekly email, go to https://daedalians.org/airpower-blog/.
Oct. 25, 1979
The 5,057th and very last Phantom II—an F-4E-67-MC, U.S. Air Force serial number 78-0744—was rolled out at the McDonnell Douglas Corporation plant, in St. Louis, Missouri, and the production line was closed.
Oct. 26, 1921
A compressed air, turntable catapult launched an N-9 seaplane piloted by Naval Constructor Cmdr. Holden C. Richardson during the first successful test of the device from a pier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Richardson was Daedalian Founder Member #13115.
Oct. 27, 1918
First Lt. Russell Maughan, Daedalian Founder Member #547, received the Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with the 138th Aero Squadron, U.S. Army Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces, near Sommerance, France. The DSC citation read, in part: "Accompanied by two other planes, Lieutenant Maughan was patrolling our lines, when he saw slightly below him an enemy plane (Fokker type). When he started an attack upon it he was attacked from behind by four more of the enemy. By several well-directed shots he sent one of his opponents to the earth, and, although the forces of the enemy were again increased by seven planes, he so skillfully maneuvered that he was able to escape toward his lines. While returning he attacked and brought down an enemy plane which was diving on our trenches." Read more about him HERE. https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/27-october-1918-2/.
Oct. 28, 1925
The court-martial of Brig. Gen. William L. "Billy" Mitchell for insubordination began on this date. He was found guilty on Dec. 17 and sentenced to five years' suspension from active duty without pay or allowances. President Coolidge reduced it to five years' suspension at half pay. On Feb. 1, Mitchell resigned his commission. He was Daedalian Founder Member #12595.
Oct. 29, 2004
NASA's modified KC-135A aerospace vehicle trainer, the "Vomit Comet," flew its final sortie. NASA used the "Comet" at Edwards AFB, California, to provide zero gravity training to students at the Aerospace Vehicle Test Course. The KC-135A performed its famed roller-coaster maneuver some 35,000 times.
Oct. 30, 1918
Known as the "Ace of Aces," Capt. Edward V. "Eddie" Rickenbacker shot down his 26th and final enemy aircraft of World War I; he was Daedalian Founder Member #169.
Oct. 31, 1956
The U.S. Navy R4D-5 Skytrain – "Que Sera Sera" – commanded by Rear Adm. George Dufek, became the first airplane to make a landing at the South Pole. The aircraft is on display at the Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola, Florida.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 26, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
26 October
1909: At College Park, Lt Frederick E. Humphreys became the first Army officer to solo the Army's first aircraft. Minutes later, Lt Frank P. Lahm became the second. They soloed after three hours of instruction by Wilbur Wright. (4)
1922: Lt Cmdr G. Chevalier used an Aeromarine aircraft to make the first landing on the carrier USS Langley, while underway off Cape Henry. (24)
1925: Lt James H. Doolittle won the Schneider Cup Race at Baltimore in a Curtiss R3C-2 floatplane racer. He averaged 232.6 MPH. (8: Oct 90)
1940: North American pilot Vance Breese flew the NA-73 (P-51 Mustang prototype) for the first time at Mines Field near Los Angeles. Following British specifications, the company designed and built the prototype in 117 days. (8: Oct 90)
1945: The Curtiss-Wright Research Laboratory announced that supersonic flying devices built for the government had reached 1,400 MPH. The new devices did not depend on propellers or atomic energy for power. (24) (Note: May have been Tiny Tim rockets)
1949: A Pan Am airplane, a Boeing Stratocruiser, claimed a 9-hour, 41-minute commercial speed record for a flight from New York to London. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. FEAF Combat Cargo Command C-119s delivered 28.5 tons of ammunition, fuel, and oil to friendly ground troops near Unsan, some 50 miles south of Chosan. (28)
1953: The Convair XF-102, a delta-wing supersonic interceptor made its first test flight from Edwards AFB.
1956: A TAC C-124 Globemaster became the first USAF aircraft to fly over the South Pole, when it flew a support mission for Operation Deep Freeze at Antarctica. During the flight, Maj Gen Chester E. McCarty, the pilot, radioed a report to Gen Otto P. Weyland, Commander of Eighteenth Air Force. (11) The Air Force received its first Thor missile from the Douglas Aircraft Company. (6) Bell pilot Floyd Carlson flew the XH-40 helicopter for the first time at Fort Worth. Later, the XH-40 became the UH-1 Iroquois, or Huey, one of the most useful helicopters in the Vietnam war. (21)
1962: SAC received its last B-52H Stratofortress (no. 61-040) and last three B-58 Hustlers (61-2078, 61-2079, and 61-2080) from the production lines. (1)
1963: A North American Aviation Sabreliner set a speed record of 4 hours 45 minutes 59.4 seconds for the 2,388-mile flight from St.John's, Newfoundland, to Lisbon, Portugal.
1966: The US Communications Satellite Corporation launched the Lani Bird satellite to handle communications between the Pacific region and the US.
1974: Rockwell rolled out the first B-1 at Palmdale. (12)
1976: Vandenberg AFB launched the 500th Minuteman missile. (12)
1979: McDonnell Douglas terminated the F/RF-4 Phantom production line. (16) (26)
1987: The USAF launched a Titan 34-D from Vandenberg AFB after an 18-month hiatus. A launch failure in April 1985 and in April 1986 caused this lapse in the US space program.
2001: The DoD announced its decision to go ahead with $19 Billion contract to produce LockheedMartin's Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, for the USAF, Navy, and Marines. The announcement officially ended the concept demonstration phase for the new Joint Strike Fighter. (3) (21)
2004: AFFTC and Navy evaluators measured the ability of a Navy N-1, a RQ-4A Global Hawk, to detect and track small aircraft in flight under a congressionally-mandated Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration. Navy contractor operators flew the 12.3-hour sortie from Edwards AFB over the Navy Pacific Ocean test range. (3)
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