To All,
Good Monday morning October 30, 2023
I hope that you all had a great weekend
Regards
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Today in Naval and Marine Corps History thanks to NHHC
October 30
1799—William Balch becomes the U.S. Navy's first commissioned chaplain.
1863—The wooden side-wheel steam ship Vanderbilt captures the bark Saxon, which was suspected of having rendezvoused with and taken cargo from CSS Tuscaloosa at Angra Pequena, Africa.
1941—The oiler USS Salinas (AO 19) is torpedoed near Newfoundland by German submarine U-106. Without loss of life to Salinas' crew, the vessel returns to New York for repairs.
1944—USS Argus (PY 14) rescues all survivors of the U.S. freighter John A. Johnson, which was sunk by Japanese submarine I-12 the previous day, north of Oahu.
1944—USS Franklin (CV 13) and USS Belleau Wood (CVL 24) are hit by a Japanese kamikaze near the Philippines. The attack on Franklin kills 56 of her crew and the attack on Belleau Wood sees 92 of her crew killed or missing. Both ships return to the U.S. for repairs.
1979—An F/A-18 makes the first landing of a Hornet at sea aboard USS America (CV 66). The plane completed 32 catapult and arrested landings during five days of sea trials.
1989—An F/A 18A Hornet operating from USS Midway (CV 41) accidentally drops a 500-pound bomb on cruiser USS Reeves (CG 24), which wounds five sailors during night bombing exercises 32 miles south of Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory.
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Today in World History October 30
1270 The Seventh Crusade ends by the Treaty of Barbary.
1485 Henry VII of England crowned.
1697 The Treaty of Ryswick ends the war between France and the Grand Alliance.
1838 Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorian County, Ohio becomes the first college in the U.S. to admit female students.
1899 Two battalions of British troops are cut off, surrounded and forced to surrender to General Petrus Joubert's Boers at Nicholson's Nek.
1905 The czar of Russia issues the October Manisfesto, granting civil liberties and elections in an attempt to avert the burgeonng supprot for revolution.
1918 The Italians capture Vittorio Veneto and rout the Austro-Hungarian army.
1918 Turkey signs an armistice with the Allies, agreeing to end hostilities at noon, October 31.
1922 Mussolini sends his black shirts into Rome. The Fascist takeover is almost without bloodshed. The next day, Mussolini is made prime minister. Mussolini centralized all power in himself as leader of the Fascist party and attempted to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Hitler's Germany.
1925 Scotsman John L. Baird performs first TV broadcast of moving objects.
1938 H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds is broadcast over the radio by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre. Many panic believing it is an actual newscast about a Martian invasion.
1941 The U.S. destroyer Reuben James, on convoy duty off Iceland, is sunk by a German U-boat with the loss of 96 Americans.
1950 The First Marine Division is ordered to replace the entire South Korean I Corps at the Chosin Reservoir area.
1953 US Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves a top secret document to maintain and expand the country's nuclear arsenal.
1961 The USSR detonates "Tsar Bomba," a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb; it is still (2013) the largest explosive device of any kind over detonated.
1965 US Marines repeal multiple-wave attacks by Viet Cong within a few miles of Da Nang where the Marines were based; a sketch of Marine positions was found on the body of a 13-year-old boy who had been selling the Americans drinks the previous day.
1973 The Bosphorus Bridge is completed at Istanbul, Turkey, connecting Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus Strait.
1974 The "Rumble in the Jungle," a boxing match in Zaire that many regard as the greatest sporting event of the 20th century, saw challenger Muhammad Ali knock out previously undefeated World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman.
1975 Prince Juan Carlos becomes acting head of state in Spain, replacing the ailing dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
1985 Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off for its final successful mission.
1991 BET Holdings Inc., becomes the first African-American company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
2005 The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) that was destroyed during the firebombing of Dresden in WWII is rededicated.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
Skip… For The List for Monday, 30 October 2023… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 30 October 1968… Will Thieu take the Nixon bait?
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 Monday October 30
October 30: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1434
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 Al
Monday Morning Humor--Halloween
Just in case you have forgotten the rules for a safe and Happy Halloween!
1. When it appears that you have killed the monster, NEVER check to see if it's really dead.
2. Never read a book of demon-summoning aloud, even as a joke.
3. Do not search the basement, especially if the power has gone out.
4. If your children speak to you in Latin or any other language which they should not know, shoot them immediately. It will save you a lot of grief in the long run. However, it will probably take several rounds to kill them, so be prepared. This also applies to kids who speak with somebody else's voice.
5. When you have the benefit of numbers, NEVER pair off and go it alone.
6. As a general rule, don't solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.
7. Never stand in, on, or above a grave, tomb, or crypt. This would apply to any other house of the dead as well.
8. If you're searching for something which caused a loud noise and find out that it's just the cat, GET THE #*!! OUT!
9. If appliances start operating by themselves, do not check for short circuits; just get out!
10. Do not take ANYTHING from the dead.
11. If you find a town which looks deserted, there's probably a good reason for it. Don't stop and look around.
12. Don't fool with recombinant DNA technology unless you're sure you know what you're doing.
13. If you're running from the monster, expect to trip or fall down at least twice. Also note that, despite the fact that you are running and the monster is merely shambling along, it's still moving fast enough to catch up with you.
14. If your companions suddenly begin to exhibit uncharacteristic behavior such as hissing, fascination for blood, glowing eyes, increasing hairiness, and so on, kill them immediately.
15. Stay away from certain geographical locations, some of which are listed here: Amityville, Elm Street, Transylvania, Nilbog (you're in trouble if you recognize this one), the Bermuda Triangle, or any small town in Maine.
16. If your car runs out of gas at night on a lonely road, do not go to the nearby deserted looking house to phone for help. If you think that it is strange because you thought you had 3/4 of a tank, shoot yourself instead. You are going to die anyway, and most likely be eaten.
17. Beware of strangers bearing strange tools. For example: chainsaws, staple guns, hedge trimmers, electric carving knives, combines, lawnmowers, butane torches, soldering irons, band saws, or any devices made from deceased companions.
18. If you find that your house is built upon a cemetery, now is the time to move in with the in-laws. This also applies to houses that had previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion, or had inhabitants who performed satanic practices in your house.
19. If you find that:
a. your house is built upon or near a cemetery,
b. was once a church that was used for black masses,
c. had previous inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible fashion, or
d. had inhabitants who performed satanic practices in your house, MOVE AWAY IMMEDIATELY.
20. Don't fool with recombinant DNA technology unless you're sure you know what you are doing.
Two men were walking home after a Halloween party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery just for laughs. Right in the middle of the cemetery, they were startled by a tap-tap-tapping noise coming from the misty shadows.
Trembling with fear, they found an old man with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones.
"Holy cow, Mister," one of them said after catching his breath. "You scared us half to death -- we thought you were a ghost! What are you doing working here so late at night?"
"My family are such fools!" the old man grumbled. "They misspelled my name and here I have to correct it!"
Three vampires went into a bar and sat down. The barmaid came over to take their orders. "And what would you, er, gentlemen like tonight?"
The first vampire said, "I'll have a mug of blood."
The second vampire said, "I'll have a mug of blood."
The third vampire shook his head at his companions and said, "I will have a glass of plasma."
The barmaid wrote down each order, went to the bar and called to the bartender, "Two bloods and a blood light."
Two nuns, Sister Mary Agnes and Sister Mary Vincent, are traveling through Europe in their car, sightseeing in Transylvania. As they are stopped at a traffic light, out of nowhere, a small vampire jumps onto the hood of the car and hisses at them through the windshield.
"Quick, quick!" shouts Sister Mary Agnes, "What should we do?"
"Turn the windshield wipers on. That will get rid of the abomination," says Sister Mary Vincent.
Sister Mary Agnes switches on the wipers, which knock the mini-Dracula around. But, he hangs on and continues hissing at the nuns. "What shall I do now?" she shouts.
"Try the windshield washer. I filled it with holy water before we left the Vatican," replies Sister Mary Vincent.
Sister Mary Agnes turns on the windshield washer. The vampire screams as the water burns his skin, but he hangs on and continues hissing at the nuns.
"Now what?" shouts Sister Mary Agnes.
"Show him your cross," says Sister Mary Vincent.
"Now you're talking," says Sister Mary Agnes. She then opens the window and shouts, "Get the #*!! off our car!"
A vampire bat came flapping in from the night covered in fresh blood and parked himself on the roof of the cave to get some sleep.
Pretty soon all the other bats smelled the blood and began hassling him about where he got it. He told them to knock it off and let him get some sleep but they persisted until finally he gave in. "OK, follow me," he said and flew out of the cave with hundreds of bats behind him.
Down through a valley they went, across a river and into a forest full of trees. Finally he slowed down and all the other bats excitedly milled around him. "Now, do you see that tree over there?" he asked.
"Yes, yes, yes!" the bats all screamed in a frenzy.
"Good," said the first bat, "Because I DIDN'T!"
A couple was invited to a swanky masked Halloween Party. She got a terrible headache and told her husband to go to the party alone. He being a devoted husband, protested, but she argued and said she was going to take some aspirin and go to bed, and there was no need of his good time being spoiled by not going.
So he took his costume and away he went. The wife, after sleeping soundly for one hour, awakened without pain and as it was still early, she decided to go the party. In as much as her husband did not know what her costume was, she thought she would have some fun by watching her husband to see how he acted when she was not with him.
She joined the party and soon spotted her husband cavorting around on the dance floor, dancing with every nice chick he could, and copping a little feel here and a little kiss there. His wife sidled up to him and being a rather seductive babe herself, he left his partner high and dry and devoted his time to the new stuff that had just arrived.
She let him go as far as he wished, naturally, since he was her husband. Finally, he whispered a little proposition in her ear and she agreed, so off they went to one of the cars and had a good time. Just before unmasking at midnight, she slipped away and went home and put the costume away and got into bed, wondering what kind of explanation he would make for his behavior.
She was sitting up reading when he came in and asked what kind of a time he had. He said, "Oh, the same old thing. You know I never have good time when you're not there." Then she asked, "Did you dance much?" He replied, "I'll tell you, I never even danced one dance.
When I got there, I met Pete, Bill Brown and some other guys, so we went into the den and played poker all evening. But you're not going to believe what happened to the guy I loaned my costume to!"
This happened in a little town in Mexico, and even though it sounds like an Alfred Hitchcock tale, it's reported to be true!
This guy was on the side of the road hitch hiking on a very dark night and in the middle of a storm. The night was roiling and no car went by. The storm was so strong he could hardly see a few feet ahead of him.
Suddenly, he saw a car coming towards him and stop. The guy, without thinking about it, got in the car and closed the door - and only then realized that there's nobody behind the wheel!
The car starts very slowly. The guy looks at the road and sees a curve coming his way. Scared, he starts to pray, begging for his life. He hasn't come out of shock when, just before the car hits the curve, a hand appears thru the window and moves the wheel. The guy, paralyzed in terror, watched how the hand appears every time they are approaching a curve.
The guy, gathering strength, gets out of the car and runs all the way to the nearest town. Wet and in shock he goes into a cantina, asks for two shots of tequila, and starts telling everybody about the horrible experience he just went through. A silence enveloped everybody when they realize the guy was crying and wasn't drunk.
About half an hour later two guys walked in the same cantina and one said to the other, "Look, Pepe, that's the a##%ole that got in the car while we were pushing it!"
A man was walking home alone late one night when he hears a...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...behind him.
Walking faster he looks back, and makes out the image of an upright coffin banging its way down the middle of the street towards him...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...
Terrified, the man begins to run towards his home, the coffin bouncing quickly behind him...faster...faster...BUMP...BUMP...BUMP...
He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him. However, the coffin crashes through his door, with the lid of the coffin clapping...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...clappity-BUMP...on the heels of the terrified man...
Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, the man locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.
With a loud CRASH the coffin breaks down the door. Bumping and clapping toward him. The man screams and reaches for something, anything...but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!
Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the coffin...the coffin stops!
An old lady is very upset as her husband Albert had just passed away.
She went to the mortuary to look at her dearly departed & the instant she saw him she starts crying. One of the attendants rushes up to comfort her.
Through her tears she explains that she was upset because Albert was wearing a black suit and that it was his dying wish to be buried in a blue suit.
The attendant apologizes and explains that they always put the bodies in a black suit as a matter of course but he'd see what he could do.
The next day she returns to the mortuary to have one last moment with Albert before his funeral the following day.
When the attendant pulls back the curtain, she manages to smile through her tears as Albert is now wearing a smart blue suit. She asks the attendant "How did you manage to get hold of that beautiful blue suit?"
"Well, yesterday afternoon after you left, a man about your husband's size was brought in & he was wearing a blue suit. His wife explained that she was very upset as he had always wanted to be buried in a black suit," the attendant replied. He continued, "After that, it was simply a matter of swapping the heads"
Have a happy and safe Halloween tomorrow night,
Al
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From This Day in History
"The War of the Worlds"—Orson Welles's realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth—is broadcast on the radio on October 30, 1938.
Welles was only 23 years old when his Mercury Theater company decided to update H.G. Wells's 19th-century science fiction novel The War of the Worlds for national radio. Despite his age, Welles had been in radio for several years, most notably as the voice of "The Shadow" in the hit mystery program of the same name. "War of the Worlds" was not planned as a radio hoax, and Welles had little idea of how legendary it would eventually become.
The show began on Sunday, October 30, at 8 p.m. A voice announced: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in 'War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells."
Invention of the Radio
Sunday evening in 1938 was prime-time in the golden age of radio, and millions of Americans had their radios turned on. But most of these Americans were listening to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy "Charlie McCarthy" on NBC and only turned to CBS at 8:12 p.m. after the comedy sketch ended and a little-known singer went on. By then, the story of the Martian invasion was well underway.
Welles introduced his radio play with a spoken introduction, followed by an announcer reading a weather report. Then, seemingly abandoning the storyline, the announcer took listeners to "the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York, where you will be entertained by the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra." Putrid dance music played for some time, and then the scare began. An announcer broke in to report that "Professor Farrell of the Mount Jenning Observatory" had detected explosions on the planet Mars. Then the dance music came back on, followed by another interruption in which listeners were informed that a large meteor had crashed into a farmer's field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey.
Soon, an announcer was at the crash site describing a Martian emerging from a large metallic cylinder. "Good heavens," he declared, "something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me … I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it… it … ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it, it's so awful. The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate."
The Martians mounted walking war machines and fired "heat-ray" weapons at the puny humans gathered around the crash site. They annihilated a force of 7,000 National Guardsman, and after being attacked by artillery and bombers the Martians released a poisonous gas into the air. Soon "Martian cylinders" landed in Chicago and St. Louis. The radio play was extremely realistic, with Welles employing sophisticated sound effects and his actors doing an excellent job portraying terrified announcers and other characters. An announcer reported that widespread panic had broken out in the vicinity of the landing sites, with thousands desperately trying to flee.
The Federal Communications Commission investigated the unorthodox program but found no law was broken. Networks did agree to be more cautious in their programming in the future. The broadcast helped Orson Welles land a contract with a Hollywood studio, and in 1941 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane—a movie that many have called the greatest American film ever made
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Thanks to John
See it: the Marines deadly new 'robot goat'
We now can do away with privates and 2/Lt.'s...
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Thanks to Brett
Geopolitical Futures:
Keeping the future in focus
https://geopoliticalfutures.com
Daily Memo: The US and Iran's Not-Quite-Escalation
Neither has joined in on the Israel-Hamas conflict, but both have shown that they will not be ignored.
By: Caroline D. Rose
October 30, 2023
Iran has spent the better part of the conflict in Gaza engaged in a war of words. Its foreign minister said as early as Oct. 15 that the conflict could spread into multiple fronts. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that Iran couldn't be expected to hold back if Israeli attacks continued. And the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Iranian-sponsored militia networks in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq are ready to strike if Israel oversteps in Gaza. In no uncertain terms, Iran's entry would mark a dramatic escalation in the conflict.
It's not clear exactly what Iran's red line is. And with the heavy cost of direct intervention against Israel – and, in that case, of inevitable confrontation with the United States – it's also uncertain whether Iran would make good on its promises if Israel persists in its unabated campaign in Gaza. But it is clear that Iran is ready to ratchet up the pressure if it needs to.
In 2014, U.S. forces re-entered Iraq and, for the first time, stationed forces in Syria to confront the Islamic State, which was rapidly consolidating territorial control throughout the region. The fight against IS fractured the organization and crippled its capacity to launch large-scale attacks, but it also resulted in an increased presence of Iranian-backed militias, which were able to gain a stronger foothold in Iraq proper and along the Syria-Iraq border. (Iran has long employed militias to act as proxies throughout the region to extend its security and political influence in neighboring countries, build rapport in the region and pressure adversaries like Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Israel.) This forced the U.S. to rethink its objectives in the Middle East in order to ensure that its presence in Iraq and Syria could also serve as a deterrent to Iranian ambitions.
The competition to achieve their respective goals naturally tends to produce a careful diplomatic dance of threats and tit-for-tat strikes on security forces. Over the past several years, they have exchanged rocket strikes on multiple occasions, with Iran targeting defensive assets but generally avoiding killing U.S. personnel so as not to escalate things past the point of no return. But things changed in January 2020, when the U.S. killed IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani, a key architect of Iran's proxy strategy. Iran responded with 12 direct missile strikes against U.S. forces stationed at the al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and the airbase in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, resulting in 110 casualties. The development prompted Washington to transfer assets throughout that spring and summer, consolidating the U.S. posture primarily to Irbil, Baghdad and a few other strategic posts in Iraq, reducing personnel to 2,500 and downgrading the mandate of Operation Inherent Resolve from a combat to an advisory role. Meanwhile, U.S. forces winnowed down the number of bases they had in northeast Syria and reduced their presence to 900 personnel, opting instead to rely on partners such as the Syrian Democratic Forces. Even so, U.S. forces continued to engage in occasional proportional strikes against Iranian-aligned militias.
Knowing that the situation in Gaza could escalate – and that if it does, it will almost certainly involve Iran – the U.S. sent a variety of assets to the region, including 2,000 Marines, two aircraft carriers and several warships. The idea was to deter Iran from tapping, say, Hezbollah to engage in large-scale attacks in northern Israel, and to have assets in place in case deterrence doesn't work.
Iran has yet to enter the fray, but as with the U.S. deployments, it has signaled that it will not be ignored. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched three ballistic cruise missiles and drones in the Red Sea, which were intercepted by a U.S. destroyer. (The U.S. said that they could have been directed at Israel.) In Iraq, U.S. forces stationed at the Ain al-Asad airbase, al-Harir airbase, Baghdad International Airport and elsewhere were targeted in drone and missile attacks. In Syria, U.S. forces stationed at the al-Tanf base were similarly targeted. No attack resulted in anything more than minor injuries, but they sent a clear message that if the U.S. sought to build up its presence in the region, Iran would do its best to make it as uncomfortable as possible. In these kinds of situations, it doesn't take much for carefully measured threats to lead to indirect confrontation.
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Marine barracks 1983; Tuttle never launched 'chip shot'
Thanks to Micro
Dutch:
There are a few more tidbits on this one, regarding going after the guys that planned the strike against the Marines in Lebanon. RADM Tuttle was raring to go, and it wasn't his decision not to launch. Here's the story from our standpoint:
I was CO of VF-143, World Famous Pukin' Dogs on USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Three of my 12 F-14 aircraft were TARPS capable (Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System). We had been pulled out of an exercise in Egypt when the Ambassador's residence and compound had been shelled, starting in August. Over time, the tensions subsided, and we slowly backed away until we could go into port in Naples. After we were there for about 24 hours, they hit the Marines with the car bomb, and we emergency sortied at midnight. Our next port was Norfolk, 101 days later. A lot happened in that 101 days.
One day, a Navy CDR in Service Dress Blue, needing a shave, stepped off a COD. About half an hour later, I was called to the Captain's Inport Cabin. Gathering were the Captain (Ed Clexton), CAG (Joe Prueher), the CO's of the A-6 squadron and the E-2 squadron, the mysterious CDR, and me. He was the courier that ADM Lyons mentioned in the article below. I don't remember if RADM Tuttle was there at the initial meeting or not.
The mission was so secret that they didn't want to trust the Top Secret communications system with the news. ADM Lyons states that he knew the Soviets were reading our messages, but we didn't know that at the time (at least at my pay grade).
We planned the strike on the dining room table in the inport cabin over the next week or so. Even CVIC didn't know what we were doing. RADM Tuttle had told us he "wanted to send a message." The A-6's bomb load totaled 144 MK-83, 1000-lb bombs. To hit a little square (I recall less than a square block perhaps) with barracks surrounded by a low stone wall in a little town. I've attached a Google Earth picture with the whole barracks complex outlined as best I remember it (it may just be the line of buildings along the southwestern side of the square). You can see the scale in the lower left (200 ft), so the compound I've outlined was about 500 x 800 feet, by my eye.
ADM Crowe was CINCSOUTH, and he was sent aboard to take our briefing and to report to President Reagan whether or not we were ready to go (and if he had confidence in us). At one point, he asked me what the AOB (Air Order of Battle) was for Syria. I don't remember the exact number now, but it was several hundred MiG's, and I was using six fighters at that end of the ingress. He asked me if that would be enough, and I said I thought it was about even. We all chuckled, but he didn't, and I thought he might think we had a little too much "cowboy" in us, but he didn't say anything further. After all, it was a short ingress down the Bekaa, with a 15 mile egress, and we figured we'd catch everyone by surprise more with a small force than a huge one. Besides, if you believe anyone can get several hundred aircraft airborne from a non-alert posture, you're smoking something.
My TARPS birds were to get immediate BDA with IR and film to prove that collateral damage was minimal, because there would be all kinds of claims.
Came the day of the strike: We manned up and were shut down. President Reagan was in Japan, and his departure was delayed. So we heard, he didn't want to carry out such a strike when he was on foreign soil.
We sat around the Ready Rooms and waited for Air Force One to take off, while the airplanes were all topped off. Then, we manned up again. And we were shut down again. This time, it was cancelled.
It seems that Time magazine had just published an article that speculated where the bad guys were, with pictures of them. Their speculation was accurate, and intel reported that the bad guys were no longer there.
We were really pissed, of course. So close, and yet so far.
To my knowledge, we never have gotten these guys.
Micro
Subject: FW: marine barracks 1983; Tuttle never launched 'chip shot'
Thanks to ted -
LYONS: The Iranian origins of treachery
By James A. Lyons Jr.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
With all the media focus on the recently concluded talks in Geneva with Iran over its nuclear program, it's easy to overlook the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Marine barracks bombing in Beirut 30 years ago on Oct. 23, 1983.
On that day, 241 of our finest military personnel were killed, with scores more seriously injured. Almost simultaneously, a similar attack was carried out at the French military headquarters, killing 58 French paratroopers. We have positive proof that these attacks were planned and ordered by Iran using their Islamic Amal terrorist proxies — forerunners to Hezbollah — in Lebanon. It is astounding that we had the information to prevent these attacks, and even more astounding is the "reason" for not retaliating.
The National Security Agency issued a highly classified message dated Sept. 27, 1983, which contained the instructions that Iranian Ambassador Ali Akbar Montashemi in Damascus had previously received from Tehran and then gave to Husayn al-Musawi, the leader of the Islamic Amal. Those instructions directed the terrorist group to concentrate its attacks on the Multi-National Force but take a "spectacular" action against the U.S. Marines.
I was deputy chief of naval operations at that time, and I did not receive that message until Oct. 25, two days after the bombing. That same day, I was called out to the CIA's Langley headquarters because CIA Director William Casey wanted to see me. At the meeting, Casey asked me whether I would develop plans to take out the perpetrators if he discovered who they were and where they were located. I readily agreed.
The terrorist group, Islamic Amal, was located in the Lebanese Army Sheik Abdallah barracks near Baalbek, Lebanon. The organization had taken over the barracks on Sept. 16 with the help of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. I had the strike plans couriered to the 6th Fleet Carrier Strike Force for the commander, Rear Adm. Jerry Tuttle, because I knew then the Soviets were reading our communications.
Everyone had been briefed, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. According to National Security Adviser Robert McFarland, at the key meeting with President Reagan, Weinberger stated that he thought there were Lebanese Army groups in the barracks. This was false.
The president turned to Casey for clarification. Casey, who had just returned from an overseas trip, was not up to speed on such details. The president then said, "Get that sorted out." As it turned out, there were no Lebanese Army troops in the barracks. But Weinberger threw more dust into the air by stating that we will lose all of our Arab friends if we go ahead with this strike.
Consequently, we never received the execute order, even though the planes were loaded and ready to launch. In the words of the Carrier Strike Force commander, "This was a chip shot." The failure to retaliate was tragic, and we are still living with that mistake.
Compounding the problem, Reagan approved a combined strike with the French against the same target several days later. This time, the secretary of defense simply ignored the president's order and would not issue the strike order. Mr. McFarland and Secretary of State George Shultz both told me that they tried to get Weinberger to change his position but failed. The French were furious. They carried out the strike alone, but did no damage, contrary to Reagan's diary entry that stated the French wiped out the terrorists.
At the time of these "acts of war," President Obama was still a student at Columbia University and later at Harvard. He was probably more involved in absorbing the wisdom of the leftist agenda than on the tragic events carried out by Iran against our military. However, he is certainly aware today of the thousands of our military personnel who have died as the result of Iran's actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also must realize that Iran has provided material and training support to the September 11 hijackers. Iran was found guilty of providing such support by Judge George B. Daniels of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in December 2011. Previously, Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found Iran guilty in the Marine barracks bombing.
Iran remains the world leader in state-sponsored terrorism. It is a rogue regime that will do anything to ensure the survivability of the corrupt theocracy. The mullahs have not spent billions to build underground nuclear facilities, as well as absorbing crippling economic sanctions, to simply negotiate away their nuclear weapons objectives. In August 1995, Russia offered to provide Iran with a 10-year supply of fuel for their nuclear plant at Bushehr for only $30 million. Iran adamantly rejected the proposal because Russia insisted that Iran return the spent fuel rods to Russia for reprocessing. Case closed. Iran, with enough oil and gas to last at least a few hundred years, doesn't need nuclear capability for electricity.
With Mr. Obama's eagerness to negotiate with Iran, it has been reported that he is weighing the possibility of unfreezing billions in Iranian assets in response to "potential" concessions by Iran. Such a move would be nonsensical. If Mr. Obama were to unfreeze billions of Iranian assets, then the money should not go to Iran, but to the surviving families of the Marine barracks bombing, as well as to the surviving families of the September 11, 2001, atrocity, as our courts have mandated.
Retired Adm. James A. Lyons was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and senior U.S. military representative to the United Nations.
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
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From the archives
Subj: FW: More on the Marine barracks 1983;RADM Tuttle never launched 'chip shot'
Thanks to Hal -
Dutch, would you pass this on to Micro, please. I can add a few tidbits of information about this.
We all know that Iran has been at war with us even before the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon. Unfortunately most of the American public does not. I even wonder if our president and C in C knows. He being a wee lad at that time in our history, and living in some other country. His naivete shows in his belief that Iran will cease their work on nuclear weapons if we loosen the embargoes.
Let me back up to the facts that were well-known BEFORE the attack on the Marines....on September 26th, four weeks prior to the bombing, our National Security Agency intercepted a message sent from the Iranian Intelligence headquarters in Tehran to Ambassador Mohtashemi telling him to contact Hussein Musawi, head of the terrorist group Islamic Amal and order him to take spectacular action against the US Marines, who were there only as peacekeepers and didn't carry loaded weapons. So the volunteers were recruited to blow up the barracks.
The man who made the bomb was Ibrahim Safa and he was a member of HezbAllah, the Party of God, and totally financed by Iran. He was working with the Pasdaran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The driver was an Iranian, Walid Asmail al-Askari, and working under the orders of the Iranian Ambassador to Syria, Ali Akbar Mohtashemi. I met Admiral 'Ace' Lyons some months after the attack at dinner at the Pacific Club in Honolulu while in the company of a Navy Medical Corps Captain who was a member of this exclusive club. The admiral was the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations and responsible for naval security worldwide. He said that the information about the NSA intercept did not reach him until two days after the attack, so he was unable to warn Colonel Tim Geraghty. As Micro points out, the fleet and special operators were all set to seek revenge for this, but then our Secretary of Defense, Caspar Weinberger, ordered everyone to stand down. The reason was that Secretary Weinberger said the intelligence he possessed was insufficient to order such an attack. He likely had not been shown the NSA intercepts that were now in the Military Chain of Command. His military aide would have had them and would have the option of showing him, or not showing him. His military aide was General Colin Powell. Some time after that, there was some action taken and I don't know much about that, but one of our A-6s was shot down over Beiruit and the BN was captured by the Syrians and taken to Damascus. He was a black Navy Lieutenant named Goodman and if you remember Jesse Jackson was running for president that year. So, he announced to the world that he was going to go "and get that boy out." At that time I was the hospital administraton consultant for the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces Hospital, Al Hada, at Taif. I received a call that day asking if I could be in Damascus when Jackson arrived. So I caught a Syrian Arab Airlines flight out of Jeddah that night and arrived in Damascus early morning and checked into the Cham Palace Hotel downtown. As we were at war with Syria, they were somewhat surprised when I showed up, but they treated me well. To Jackson's credit, however, he did get LT Goodman out of captivity and brought him home. One more thing I would add is that I used to fly British Air from London to Beiruit to catch Middle East Airlines onward to Dhahran as they had the very best food of any airline. But the last time I flew out, the crazies shelled the terminal two hours after I departed. They cratered the runway and every plane on the ground stayed there for months and nothing could fly in. Anyone who tried to repair the runway was shot by snipers. Beiruit used to be called the Paris of the Middle East. When last I saw it, it looked more like Dresden or Cologne or Berlin in WWII.
Hal
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From the archives
The American Minute
OCTOBER 29, 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashed.
Panic ensued as Wall Street sold 16,410,030 shares in a single day.
Billions of dollars were lost and America plunged into the Great Depression.
In a drive to aid private relief agencies, October 18, 1931, President
Herbert Hoover stated:
"Time and again the American people have demonstrated a spiritual quality
of generosity...
This is the occasion when we must arouse that idealism, that spirit, from
which there can be no failure in this primary obligation of every man to
his neighbor."
Herbert Hoover continued: "Our country and the world are today involved in
more than a financial crisis. We are faced with the primary question of
human relations, which reaches to the very depths of organized society and
to the very depths of human conscience...
This great complex, which we call American life, is builded and can alone
survive upon the translation into individual action of that fundamental
philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago." Hoover
concluded: "Part of our national suffering today is from failure to observe
these primary yet inexorable laws of human relationship...Modern society
can not survive with the defense of Cain, 'Am I my brother's keeper?'
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Before 1940, more than 85% of the U.S. population used drugless healers
Just 100 years ago in the United States, medicine was not a lucrative business. Scarce was a case of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis or Alzheimer's, and there were no pharmaceutically induced deaths.
The FDA, NCI, ACS and AMA is an organized, medical monopoly which ensures a continuous flow of money to Big Pharma.
http://www.naturalnews.com/z042697_drugless_medicine_natural_remedies_holistic_healing.html
Originally published October 29 2013
Before 1940, more than 85% of the U.S. population used drugless healers
by S. D. Wells
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From the archives For all our lost brothers
Mark Berent wrote a fantastic series Called rolling thunder about the Vietnam War. If you flew there at all it is well worth your time to read them in order. Skip
1 - Rolling Thunder (Jun-1989) · 2 - Steel Tiger (May-1990) · 3 - Phantom Leader (May-1991) · 4 - Eagle Station (Jun-1992) · 5 - Storm Flight (Oct-1993)
Thanks to Bagjaws
Mark E. Berent
I wrote the following free verse based on St. X's work Wind, Sand and Stars when Larry Dietzen, F-4 WSO, Eglin, died of cancer in 1974. It applies to all of us. It was printed in the INTERCEPTOR magazine that year.
Dedicated to Dietz, cancer brought about what no opponent ever could.
When a flyer dies in harness
His death seems something inherent to flying itself, And in the beginning the hurt it brings Is perhaps less than the pain sprung of a different death.
Assuredly he has vanished, has undergone the ultimate mutation.
Yet his presence is still not missed immediately.
In flying we take it for granted that we shall meet only rarely, For flyers are widely stationed over the face of the world.
They land at scattered and remote bases, isolated from each other, Rather in the manner of sentinels between whom no words can be spoken.
It needs the coincidence of journeying to bring together, here or there, The dispersed members of this great professional family.
Round the table in the evening at Ubon, at Clark, Bitburg, or Nellis, We take up conversations interrupted by years of silence.
We resume friendships instantly to the accompaniment of buried memories.
And then we are off again.
Thus is the earth at once a desert and a paradise rich in secret hidden groves.
Groves so often inaccessible yet to which the craft leads us ever back, One day or another.
Life may scatter us and keep us apart,
It may prevent us from thinking very often of one another.
But we know that our comrades are somewhere "in the pattern."
Where, one can hardly say.
Silent, not quite forgotten, but deeply faithful.
And when our path crosses theirs,
They greet us with such manifest joy; shake us so gladly by the shoulders.
Indeed, we are accustomed to waiting.
Bit by bit, nevertheless, it comes over us That we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend.
That this one grove is forever locked against us.
At that moment begins our true mourning
Which though it may not be rending, is yet lonely and bitter.
For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion.
Old friends cannot be created out of hand.
Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, Of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations, Of generous emotions.
For years we nurture the seed of friendship, we feel ourselves rich.
Then come other years when time does its work And our groves are made sparse and thin.
One by one our comrades slip away, deprive us of their shade.
We who fly bear this special loneliness and grief.
At untoward moments a memory surfaces
And outsiders stare and mutter uneasily at the black frost in our eyes.
Not of the sky, they resent our loud actions and harsh laughter.
Then it arrives that after a certain flight we are quite silent and less stricken.
For far above the earth, near the infinite, we had found the perfect cloud.
We pulled to the white and, rolling, passed through the grand arches.
Burners echoing, climbed yet higher to loop --- and the twilight was purple.
In solitude we land and feel not as alone.
Our comrade received his flyer's salute.
With a humble thanks and a flyer's salute to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, MIA in a P-38 over the Med during WWII. This was published in the "Interceptor" magazine, Feb, 74, p30.
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.This Day in U S Military History
1961 – The most powerful nuclear weapon the world has seen was detonated by the Soviet Union. Tsar Bomba was 1,400 times Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined and ten times the entire combined fire power expended in WWII.The resulting fireball had a radius of nearly 10,000 vertical feet and its 210,000 foot tall mushroom cloud reached into the stratosphere. The light generated by the reaction could be seen from over a 1,000 km and the force of its explosion registered a 5.0 on the Richter scale. The shock wave generated air pressures topping 300 PSI, circled the Earth thrice, and cracked windows 900 km away in Norway and Finland. Buildings in the abandoned town of Severny 55 km away were leveled—all of them—and upon later inspection, ground zero was reportedly the texture of a skating rink. As one observer recalled, "The clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash. The sea of light spread under the hatch and even clouds began to glow and became transparent. At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers and down below in the gap a huge bright orange ball was emerging. The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter. Slowly and silently it crept upwards…. Having broken through the thick layer of clouds it kept growing. It seemed to suck the whole earth into it. The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, supernatural." This utter destruction is only half of what the Tsar Bomba was capable of. It was designed and built to deliver a staggering 100 megaton payload. The Tsar was supposed to utilize fast-fissioning uranium tampers on the second and third stages of the bomb, which would have allowed for a bigger reaction and subsequent energy release. However, just before the test was to take place, Soviet leadership ordered the tampers swapped out with lead replacements in order to prevent nuclear fallout from reaching populated areas of the USSR. These lead tampers cut the bomb's yield by 50 percent but they also eliminated 97 percent of the resulting fallout. As such the Tsar Bomba, the largest, most destructively powerful device ever built by man also holds the notable distinction of being the relatively "cleanest" nuclear weapon ever tested. Luckily, that record was only important for two years until the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty which brought an end to above-ground nuclear weapons tests.
1965 – Just miles from Da Nang, U.S. Marines repel an intense attack by successive waves of Viet Cong troops and kill 56 guerrillas. A search of the dead uncovered a sketch of Marine positions written on the body of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who had been selling drinks to the Marines the previous day. This incident was indicative of the nature of a war in which even the most seemingly innocent child could be the enemy. There were many other instances where South Vietnamese civilians that worked on or near U.S. bases provided information to and participated in attacks alongside the enemy. Also on this day: Two U.S. planes accidentally bomb a friendly South Vietnamese village, killing 48 civilians and wounding 55 others. An American civic action team was immediately dispatched to the scene, and a later investigation disclosed that a map-reading error by South Vietnamese officers was responsible. Also on this day: In New York City, military veterans lead a parade in support of government policy in Vietnam. Led by five recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor, 25,000 people march in support of America's action in Vietnam.
1970 – Fighting in the five northern-most provinces of Vietnam comes to a virtual halt as the worst monsoon rains in six years strikes the region. The resultant floods killed 293 people and left more than 200,000 homeless.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
ROSS, WILBURN K.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company G, 350th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near St. Jacques, France, 30 October 1944. Entered service at: Strunk, Ky. Birth: Strunk, Ky. G.O. No.: 30, 14 April 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty near St. Jacques, France. At 11:30 a.m. on 30 October 1944, after his company had lost 55 out of 88 men in an attack on an entrenched. full-strength German company of elite mountain troops, Pvt. Ross placed his light machinegun 10 yards in advance of the foremost supporting riflemen in order to absorb the initial impact of an enemy counterattack. With machinegun and small-arms fire striking the earth near him, he fired with deadly effect on the assaulting force and repelled it. Despite the hail of automatic fire and the explosion of rifle grenades within a stone's throw of his position, he continued to man his machinegun alone, holding off 6 more German attacks. When the eighth assault was launched, most of his supporting riflemen were out of ammunition. They took positions in echelon behind Pvt. Ross and crawled up, during the attack, to extract a few rounds of ammunition from his machinegun ammunition belt. Pvt. Ross fought on virtually without assistance and, despite the fact that enemy grenadiers crawled to within 4 yards of his position in an effort to kill him with hand grenades, he again directed accurate and deadly fire on the hostile force and hurled it back. After expending his last rounds, Pvt. Ross was advised to withdraw to the company command post, together with 8 surviving riflemen, but, as more ammunition was expected, he declined to do so. The Germans launched their last all-out attack, converging their fire on Pvt. Ross in a desperate attempt to destroy the machinegun which stood between them and a decisive breakthrough. As his supporting riflemen fixed bayonets for a last-ditch stand, fresh ammunition arrived and was brought to Pvt. Ross just as the advance assault elements were about to swarm over his position. He opened murderous fire on the oncoming enemy; killed 40 and wounded 10 of the attacking force; broke the assault single-handedly, and forced the Germans to withdraw. Having killed or wounded at least 58 Germans in more than 5 hours of continuous combat and saved the remnants of his company from destruction, Pvt. Ross remained at his post that night and the following day for a total of 36 hours. His actions throughout this engagement were an inspiration to his comrades and maintained the high traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 30, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
30 October
1918: Capt Edward V. Rickenbacker shot down his 26th and final enemy aircraft of World War I. (21)
1919: Reversible pitch propeller tested at McCook Field. It allowed aircraft to slow down and stop quickly on short runways. (18) (21)
1940: The 71st Squadron RAF (1st Eagle Squadron with American volunteers) became operational.
1941: Maj Alva L. Harvey made a record global trip in a B-24, covering 24,700 miles in 48 days. In this flight, he also completed a 3,150-mile nonstop flight from Great Britain to carry members of the Harriman Mission to Moscow. (9) (24) 1949: Lt G. A. Rullo and M. D. Kembro (Civil Air Patrol) flew a Sikorsky helicopter to an unofficial record of 755 miles in 10 hours 50 minutes. (24)
1961: Operation STAIR STEP. The first of 216 ANG fighters from units mobilized on 1 October . deployed across the Atlantic to European bases in response to the Berlin Wall crisis. (21)
1962: The first off-range launch of a GAM-77A Hound Dog missile began near Del Rio, Tex., and ended on the Western Missile Range about 400 miles away.
1964: NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker flew the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle's first flight. Total free-flight time was less than a minute, and the vehicle rose 10 feet. (5) (16)
1968: MAC pararescueman Sgt Duane D. Hackney received the Cheney Award for gallantry in action in Vietnam. (16)
1980: A C-5 received fuel from a KC-10A for the first time. (18)
1994: A C-141 flew 20 tons of medical supplies and other relief items from Kadena AB to Valdivostok, Russia, for victims of a Siberian flood. (16)
2003: An AFFTC B-1B aircrew dropped the first guided Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Separation Test Vehicle (STV) at the China Lake Naval Test Station. The STV collected data to certify the new weapon for further testing. (3)
2006: An LC-130 from the 109 AW, New York ANG, touched down at the South Pole to commemorate the 50th anniversary of first landing there on 31 October 1956. (AFNEWS Article, "109th Airlift Wing Commemorates First South Pole Landing," 3 Nov 2006)
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