Good Sunday morning November 26, 2023
Another Clear blue sky this morning.
Yesterday it was cool and clear in the latter part of the afternoon so I attacked the Gully side of the lower yard. Some of the growths had reached a sizeable height of over 8 to 10 feet so armed with my machete and a pair of serious cutters I attacked it and got most of it down to ground level at least all the big stuff. There were a number of bamboo like plants that had 1 to 2 inch diameter trunks that were a challenge but all are now down. NO more places for coyotes or other animals to hide. A hot shower and a heating pad helped in my recovery as did a serious mound of Thanksgiving leftovers and this morning I feel pretty good.
Regards,
Skip
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
November 26
1776—During the American Revolution, the Continental sloop Independence, commanded by Capt. John Young, captures the British merchant ship Sam with $20,000 in coin aboard.
1847—Lt. William Lynch, in the ship-rigged sailing vessel Supply, sails from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea.
1863—The side-wheel steamship James Adger, commanded by Cmdr. F.H. Patterson, seizes British blockade runner Ella off Masonboro.
1864—The Sassacus class "double-ender" steam gunboat Metacomet, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. J.E. Jouett, captures Confederate blockade runner steamer Susanna in the Gulf of Mexico off Campeche Banks. Half her cargo of cotton is thrown overboard in the chase.
1941—Under the greatest secrecy, the Japanese armada, commanded by Vice Adm. Chuichi Nagumo, leaves Japan to attack the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. The armada includes all six of Japan's first-line aircraft carriers.
1941—USS Bonhomme Richard (CV 31) is commissioned.
1951—During the Korean War, Rear Adm. R.E. Libby relieves Rear Adm. Arleigh Burke as the United Nations delegate to the Panmunjom Peace Talks.
1941 FDR establishes modern Thanksgiving holiday
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Today in World History
November 26
1688 Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.
1774 A congress of colonial leaders criticizes British influence in the colonies and affirms their right to "Life, liberty and property."
1789 George Washington proclaims this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.
1812 Napoleon Bonaparte's army begins crossing the Berezina River over two hastily constructed bridges.
1825 The Kappa Alpha Society, the second American college Greek-letter fraternity, is founded.
1863 The first National Thanksgiving is celebrated.
1901 The Hope diamond is brought to New York.
1907 The Duma lends its support to the Czar in St. Petersburg, who claims he has renounced autocracy.
1917 The Bolsheviks offer an armistice between Russian and the Central Powers.
1922 Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, archeologists, open King Tut's tomb, undisturbed for 3,000 years.
1938 Poland renews its nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to protect against a German invasion.
1939 The Soviet Union charges Finland with an artillery attack on its border.
1941 The Japanese fleet departs from the Kuril Islands en route to its attack on Pearl Harbor.
1947 France expels 19 Soviet citizens, charging them with intervention in internal affairs.
1949 India becomes a sovereign democratic republic.
1950 North Korean and Chinese troops halt a UN offensive.
1957 President Dwight Eisenhower suffers a minor stroke.
1975 Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme is found guilty of an attempt on President Gerald Ford's life.
1979 Oil deposits equaling OPEC reserves are found in Venezuela.
1982 Yasuhiro Nakasone is elected the 71st Japanese prime minister.
1983 At London's Heathrow Airport, almost 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are stolen from a Brinks-MAT vault.
1998 Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament.
2000 Republican candidate George W. Bush is certified the winner of Florida's electoral votes, giving him enough electoral votes to defeat Democrat Al Gore Jr. for the US presidency, despite losing the popular vote.
2011 NATO forces in Afghanistan attack a Pakistani checkpost in a friendly fire incident, killing 24 soldiers and wounding 13 others.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
COMMANDO HUNT … WEEK TWO OF THE HUNT… 18-24 NOVEMBER 1968…
Skip… For The List for Monday , 20 November 2023 Through Sunday 26 November… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 18-24 November 1968… Settling in for a four year interdiction campaign to Slow the Flow on "Blood Road"…
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 Sunday November 26
November 26: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=907
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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/ )
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
Some old and some new
7 Puzzling Questions About the Calendar, Explained
For most of recorded human history, time has been carved up into various numbers of days, months, and years. Some ancient cultures relied on the moon to note the passage of days, and this ancient tradition still impacts the way we talk about the calendar (the words "moon" and "month" are actually related). Eventually, mathematicians and astronomers encouraged counting the days using another prominent feature of Earth's sky — the sun.
Over the course of a few millennia, the calendar has been shaped and rearranged to fit fleeting political whims, religious observances, bureaucratic challenges, and bizarre superstitions. The story of the calendar is the story of humanity, and the answers to these questions show why.
1 of 7
Why Are There 12 Months?
At its start in the eighth century BCE, Rome used a 10-month calendar traditionally believed to be created by its legendary wolf-suckling founder, Romulus. This was a lunar calendar: The beginning of a month, or a new moon, was called the "kalends," while a waxing half-moon around the seventh of the month was called the "nones," and a full moon around the 15th of the month was called the "ides." In this calendar, the year started with March, ended in December, and only added up to about 304 days. So what happened to the 60 or so days between December and March? Well, nothing — Romans just waited for the first new moon before the spring equinox to start the new year, meaning that much of the winter passed in a period without a calendar.
This system, understandably, didn't work well, and was soon reformed by Rome's second king, Numa Pompilius, around 713 BCE. Pompilius added additional months — now called January and February — to the end of the year, creating a 12-month calendar (they eventually moved to the front of the year by 450 BCE). The months totaled 354 days, but because of a Roman superstition around even numbers, an extra day was added to January. Since 355 days is still out of sync with the solar year and thus the seasons and celestial events, the king then added extra days, called intercalation, to the latter part of February in certain years. This made the Roman calendar's average length 366.25 days long — still off, but much better than Romulus' temporal train wreck.
Pompilius' creation was eventually undermined by Roman pontifices, or priests, who wielded intercalation like a political cudgel — extending the rule of favored politicians while curtailing the term limits of enemies. After 700 years, the Roman calendar was a mess, and the powerful general and statesman Julius Caesar decided to fix it. Following consultation with Rome's greatest mathematicians and astronomers, he implemented the Julian calendar in 45 BCE. Influenced by the 365-day Egyptian calendar and the mathematics of the Ancient Greeks, this calendar discarded Pompilius' even number superstition and added extra days equaling 365. But the most notable advancement of Caesar's calendar was that it embraced the sun as the basis of the calendar rather than the moon. Finally, after 700 long, horribly mismanaged years, the calendar was divided into our modern 12 months.
2 of 7
Where Do the Names of the Months Come From?
The short answer is Rome, but the long answer is much more interesting. Remember Romulus' 10-month calendar? Well, September, October, November, and December simply mean "seventh month," "eighth month," "ninth month," and "tenth month" in Latin, respectively. But these names no longer made sense after the later additions of January, named after the Roman god Janus, and February, named after the Roman purification festival Februa. As for the rest of the months, March is named for the Roman god Mars, April after the Greek goddess Aphrodite (though there's some debate about whether it might be based on the Latin word aperio, which means "I open" in relation to spring flowers), May after the Greek deity Maia, and June in honor of the powerful Roman goddess Juno.
The names of the last two months come from a few powerful Romans who got a little full of themselves. In 44 BCE, the month Quintilis (which means "fifth" in Latin) was changed to July in honor of Julius Caesar. His heir, Augustus, received the same honor in 8 BCE, when Sextilis (you guessed it, meaning "sixth" in Latin) was changed to August.
3 of 7
Why Is February the Shortest Month of the Year?
February has fewer days because of the superstitions of ancient Rome. In the late eighth century BCE, Romans — including their king Numa Pompilius — held a superstition that even numbers were somehow unlucky. Although he created a version of a 12-month calendar, Pompilius realized there was no mathematical way for every month to have an odd number of days and for the total number of days in the year to also be odd. So while the other months were either 29 or 31 days long, February became the unlucky month to have only 28 days, making Pompilius' calendar the apparently-less-scary number of 355.
In 45 BCE, Caesar — disregarding Pompilius' fear of even numbers — added days to a number of other months, but not February. Some experts believe Caesar didn't want to disrupt the important festivals that took place in that month and so he just let it be. But with the introduction of the Julian calendar, February did receive a consolation prize in the form of an additional day every four years. Speaking of which …
4 of 7
Why Do We Need a Leap Day?
A year isn't 365 days, it's actually 365.24219 days. Because of our planet's frustratingly imperfect solar orbit, calendars need small adjustments as the years pass to keep in alignment with equinoxes and solstices. Ancient astronomers and mathematicians figured that waiting four years and then adding a day made the most sense. In 45 BCE, Julius Caesar introduced the modern leap year, which added an extra day in February every four years (though originally that extra day was added between the 23rd and the 24th). This moved the calendar closer to solar reality at 365.25 days. Close, but not close enough — which is where the pope comes in.
5 of 7
Who Made the Modern Calendar?
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII had a problem. As head of the Catholic Church, he realized that Easter — his religion's holiest day — had drifted 10 days off in relation to the spring equinox, which is supposed to be used to calculate Easter day. That's because Caesar's small mathematical error had grown exponentially larger when stretched across 1,600 years. Gregory XIII needed a very slight adjustment to the calendar, just enough to nudge it closer to that magical 365.24219 number. First, Gregory XIII lopped 10 days off the calendar to set things straight, then tweaked the leap year. Now, whenever a new century began that wasn't divisible by 400 (i.e. 1700, 1800, 1900), no extra day was added. This edged things just enough in the right direction that this new calendar, named the Gregorian calendar, was now 365.2425 days long — close enough. Catholic nations adopted this new calendar immediately, but the Protestant British Empire, along with its American colonies, didn't sign on until 1752. Today, the Gregorian calendar is used in nearly every country.
6 of 7
When Did We Start Using B.C. and A.D.?
Before the invention of A.D. ("anno domini," which means "in the year of our Lord") and B.C. ("before Christ"), years were often tracked by the reigns of pharaohs, kings, and emperors. In a way, B.C. and A.D. still reflect this system but focus on just one moment — the birth of Jesus. It's difficult to trace the exact origins of this system, but one of the earliest recorded uses of "anno domini" occurs in 525 with the work of Dionysius Exiguus, a monk who was trying to determine what days Easter would fall in future years. Crucially, he started his tables with the year 532, stating that this year was "from the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The conception of "B.C." is slightly murkier. Some believe the Venerable Bede, the famous medieval English historian, was the first to use it, or at least greatly popularized it in his 731 work, Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Others point to a 1627 work by a French Jesuit who used "ante Christum" to describe the pre-Jesus years. The terminology became more widespread during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, who used it as a standard form of dating across Europe in the ninth century.
Within the last few decades, more publications and organizations have opted to strip the years of their religious connotation, preferring BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) over the traditional B.C./A.D. system, although the move is not without some controversy. But this subtle change in phrasing doesn't alter the fact that the world still counts the years in accordance with the birth of Jesus.
7 of 7
Why Is a Week Seven Days?
The seven-day week is a timekeeping oddity. Unlike days, months, and years, the week doesn't align with any celestial reality, and it doesn't divide elegantly into existing periods of time. For example, there aren't 52 weeks in an average year — there are 52.1428571429. So how did this happen? Babylonians, the ancient superpower of Mesopotamia, put a lot of stock in the number seven thanks to the seven observable celestial bodies in the night sky — the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. This formed the seven-day week, which was adopted by the Jewish people, who were captives of the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE. Eventually, it spread to ancient Greece and elsewhere thanks to the battle-happy Macedonian Alexander the Great. Efforts have been made throughout history to reform the seven-day week, but this oddball unit of time has become ingrained in many religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, rendering any sort of tweak pretty unlikely.
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Thanks to Carl
The Interstate Highway System
From 1949 to 1958 I traveled the roads of the country in the back seat of various Chevys' from 1949 to 1955. With my two sisters in the back seat with no A/C . The two lane Route 66 was one we used a lot.. Every so often we would go visit the relatives back East ( my mom had six sisters and 5 brothers) and the Pennsylvania turnpike was a four lane wonder. I remember many times we were stuck behind a big truck for miles going up hill and those old cars all had 6 cylinders and dad could not get enough power to pass on the few places that opened up to so that raised the level of frustration in the car.
Took Too Long & Over Budget, but Worth It
Taking an additional 24 years past the original estimated completion date (1992 instead of 1968), and running $89 billion over the original budget (almost one trillion in today's dollars), made our Interstate Highway System the world's most expensive construction project. It also had a profound effect on American society. Hear about that, its history, and how it works in these two videos.
The catalyst for President Dwight D. Eisenhower's support for the Interstate Highway System dates back to his days as a 28-year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the Army in 1919, as well as his service during World War II. Here's a video about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdfwNWiAul8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWsM6Hi0lQA
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From Dr. Rich
Thanks to Tam, our internet security expert ...
Stop. Think. Don't click that link!
Go out to the website in question (Google it for the URL/address) and stay safe from scammers and hackers! Don't use the link being displayed ...
Also be wary of texts with links.
Again, go to the website. Don't reply. Don't open link.
Tam
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-friday-shopping-scams-how-to-spot/
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Barrett's response to the story in yesterday's list
Thanks to Barrett ...
The incapacitated airline pilot story reminds me of an item we printed in The Hook long ago, probably 1980s. It recalled an Approach (?) article from years before.
A student naval aviator on a T-2 (night?) check flight realized that the IP was not responding on the ICS so decided to RTB. Upon landing the line crew discovered that the instructor was dead.
ACCORDING TO LEGEND, the SNA asked "Do I get an up?"
Barrett
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Thanks to Barrel
THIS IS THE BEST MAXINE
EVER, EVER, EVER!
RIGHT ON MAXINE!!!
This is the best analogy yet!
Leave it to Maxine to come up with a solution for the mess that America/Canada/UK/Germany/ Australia/NZ is now in economically.
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it
On my back porch and filled it
With seed. What a beauty of
A bird feeder it was, as I filled it
Lovingly with seed.
Within a week we had hundreds of birds
Taking advantage of the
Continuous flow of free and
Easily accessible food.
But then the birds started
Building nests in the boards
Of the patio, above the table,
And next to the barbecue.
Then came the shit. It was
Everywhere: on the patio tile,
The chairs, the table...
Everywhere!
Then some of the birds
Turned mean. They would
Dive bomb me and try to
Peck me even though I had
Fed them out of my own Pocket.
And others birds were
Boisterous and loud. They
Sat on the feeder and
Squawked and screamed at
All hours of the day and night
And demanded that I fill it
When it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even
Sit on my own back porch
Anymore. So I took down the
Bird feeder and in three days
The birds were gone. I cleaned
Up their mess and took down
The many nests they had built
All over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like
It used to be .... Quiet, serene....
And no one demanding their
Rights to a free meal.
Now let's see.....
Our government gives out
Free food, subsidized housing,
Free medical care and free
Education, and allows anyone
Born here to be an automatic
Citizen.
Then the illegal's came by the
Tens of thousands Suddenly
Our taxes went up to pay for
Free services; small apartments
Are housing 5 families; you
Have to wait 6 hours to be seen
By an emergency room doctor;
Your child's second grade class is
Behind other schools because
Over half the class doesn't speak
English.
Corn Flakes now come in a
Bilingual box; I have to
'press one ' to hear my bank
Talk to me in English, and
People waving flags other
Than "ours" are
Squawking and screaming
In the streets, demanding
More rights and free liberties.
Just my opinion, but maybe
it's time for the government
To take down the bird feeder.
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This Day in U S Military History November 26
1789 – George Washington proclaimed this a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God, to be celebrated by all the religious denominations. This date was later used to set the date for Thanksgiving.
1863 – The first of our modern annual Thanksgivings was held following the Oct 3 proclamation of Pres. Lincoln to assign the last Thursday in Nov for this purpose.
1941 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. The tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the weekday regularly set aside as "Lecture Day," a midweek church meeting where topical sermons were presented. A famous Thanksgiving observance occurred in the autumn of 1621, when Plymouth governor William Bradford invited local Indians to join the Pilgrims in a three-day festival held in gratitude for the bounty of the season. Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga. In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution. However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally. With a few deviations, Lincoln's precedent was followed annually by every subsequent president–until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day. Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some Americans refused to honor Roosevelt's declaration. For the next two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into law officially making the last Thursday in November the national holiday of Thanksgiving Day
1941 – Adm. Chuichi Nagumo leads the Japanese First Air Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike force, toward Pearl Harbor, with the understanding that should "negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland." Negotiations had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions. The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the Tripartite "Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese strike as retaliation-they just didn't know where. The Philippines, Wake Island, Midway-all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently headed for Indochina. As a result of this "bad faith" action, President Roosevelt ordered that a conciliatory gesture of resuming monthly oil supplies for Japanese civilian needs canceled. Hull also rejected Tokyo's "Plan B," a temporary relaxation of the crisis, and of sanctions, but without any concessions on Japan's part. Prime Minister Tojo considered this an ultimatum, and more or less gave up on diplomatic channels as the means of resolving the impasse. Nagumo had no experience with naval aviation, having never commanded a fleet of aircraft carriers in his life. This role was a reward for a lifetime of faithful service. Nagumo, while a man of action, did not like taking unnecessary risks-which he considered an attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor to be. But Chief of Staff Rear Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto thought differently; while also opposing war with the United States, he believed the only hope for a Japanese victory was a swift surprise attack, via carrier warfare, against the U.S. fleet. And as far as the Roosevelt War Department was concerned, if war was inevitable, it desired "that Japan commit the first overt act."
1943 – During World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed, including 1,015 American troops.
From H-Gram 022
The sinking of HMT Rohna, the Worst Loss of U.S. Life at Sea On 26 November 1943, a German Hs-293 radio-controlled, rocket-boosted glide bomb hit and sank His Majesty's Transport (HMT) Rohna off the coast of Algeria, resulting in the deaths of 1,149 crew and passengers, including 1,015 U.S. Army troops (plus 35 U.S. soldiers who subsequently died from wounds.) The loss of Rohna constituted the greatest loss of U.S. life at sea due to enemy action
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
SHERIDAN, CARL V.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company K, 47th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division. Place and date: Frenzenberg Castle, Weisweiler, Germany, 26 November 1944. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Baltimore, Md. G.O. No.: 43, 30 May 1445. Citation: Attached to the 2d Battalion of the 47th Infantry on 26 November 1944, for the attack on Frenzenberg Castle, in the vicinity of Weisweiler, Germany, Company K, after an advance of 1,000 yards through a shattering barrage of enemy artillery and mortar fire, had captured 2 buildings in the courtyard of the castle but was left with an effective fighting strength of only 35 men. During the advance, Pfc. Sheridan, acting as a bazooka gunner, had braved the enemy fire to stop and procure the additional rockets carried by his ammunition bearer who was wounded. Upon rejoining his company in the captured buildings, he found it in a furious fight with approximately 70 enemy paratroopers occupying the castle gate house. This was a solidly built stone structure surrounded by a deep water-filled moat 20 feet wide. The only approach to the heavily defended position was across the courtyard and over a drawbridge leading to a barricaded oaken door. Pfc. Sheridan, realizing that his bazooka was the only available weapon with sufficient power to penetrate the heavy oak planking, with complete disregard for his own safety left the protection of the buildings and in the face of heavy and intense small-arms and grenade fire, crossed the courtyard to the drawbridge entrance where he could bring direct fire to bear against the door. Although handicapped by the lack of an assistant, and a constant target for the enemy fire that burst around him, he skillfully and effectively handled his awkward weapon to place two well-aimed rockets into the structure. Observing that the door was only weakened, and realizing that a gap must be made for a successful assault, he loaded his last rocket, took careful aim, and blasted a hole through the heavy planks. Turning to his company he shouted, "Come on, let's get them!" With his .45 pistol blazing, he charged into the gaping entrance and was killed by the withering fire that met him. The final assault on Frezenberg Castle was made through the gap which Pfc. Sheridan gave his life to create.
*MITCHELL, FRANK N.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Near Hansan-ni, Korea, 26 November 1950. Entered service at: Roaring Springs, Tex. Born: 18 August 1921, Indian Gap, Tex. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of a rifle platoon of Company A, in action against enemy aggressor forces. Leading his platoon in point position during a patrol by his company through a thickly wooded and snow-covered area in the vicinity of Hansan-ni, 1st Lt. Mitchell acted immediately when the enemy suddenly opened fire at pointblank range, pinning down his forward elements and inflicting numerous casualties in his ranks. Boldly dashing to the front under blistering fire from automatic weapons and small arms, he seized an automatic rifle from one of the wounded men and effectively trained it against the attackers and, when his ammunition was expended, picked up and hurled grenades with deadly accuracy, at the same time directing and encouraging his men in driving the outnumbering enemy from his position. Maneuvering to set up a defense when the enemy furiously counterattacked to the front and left flank, 1st Lt. Mitchell, despite wounds sustained early in the action, reorganized his platoon under the devastating fire, and spearheaded a fierce hand-to-hand struggle to repulse the onslaught. Asking for volunteers to assist in searching for and evacuating the wounded, he personally led a party of litter bearers through the hostile lines in growing darkness and, although suffering intense pain from multiple wounds, stormed ahead and waged a single-handed battle against the enemy, successfully covering the withdrawal of his men before he was fatally struck down by a burst of small-arms fire. Stouthearted and indomitable in the face of tremendous odds, 1st Lt. Mitchell, by his fortitude, great personal valor and extraordinary heroism, saved the lives of several marines and inflicted heavy casualties among the aggressors. His unyielding courage throughout reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
PITTMAN, JOHN A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kujangdong, Korea, 26 November 1950. Entered service at: Carrolton, Miss. Born: 15 October 1928, Carrolton, Miss. G.O. No.: 39, 4 June 1951. Citation: Sgt. Pittman, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. He volunteered to lead his squad in a counterattack to regain commanding terrain lost in an earlier engagement. Moving aggressively forward in the face of intense artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire he was wounded by mortar fragments. Disregarding his wounds he continued to lead and direct his men in a bold advance against the hostile standpoint. During this daring action, an enemy grenade was thrown in the midst of his squad endangering the lives of his comrades. Without hesitation, Sgt. Pittman threw himself on the grenade and absorbed its burst with his body. When a medical aid man reached him, his first request was to be informed as to how many of his men were hurt. This intrepid and selfless act saved several of his men from death or serious injury and was an inspiration to the entire command. Sgt. Pittman's extraordinary heroism reflects the highest credit upon himself and is in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the military service.
FLEMING, JAMES P.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Air Force, 20th Special Operations Squadron. Place and date: Near Duc Co, Republic of Vietnam, 26 November 1968. Entered service at: Pullman, Wash. Born: 12 March 1943, Sedalia, Mo. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Capt. Fleming (then 1st Lt.) distinguished himself as the Aircraft Commander of a UH-1F transport Helicopter. Capt. Fleming went to the aid of a 6-man special forces long range reconnaissance patrol that was in danger of being overrun by a large, heavily armed hostile force. Despite the knowledge that 1 helicopter had been downed by intense hostile fire, Capt. Fleming descended, and balanced his helicopter on a river bank with the tail boom hanging over open water. The patrol could not penetrate to the landing site and he was forced to withdraw. Dangerously low on fuel, Capt. Fleming repeated his original landing maneuver. Disregarding his own safety, he remained in this exposed position. Hostile fire crashed through his windscreen as the patrol boarded his helicopter. Capt. Fleming made a successful takeoff through a barrage of hostile fire and recovered safely at a forward base. Capt. Fleming's profound concern for his fellowmen, and at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for November 26, 2020 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
26 November
1943: DISTINGUISHED FLYING CROSS. When a B-17 suffered an engine failure on the way to the target in Germany, enemy fighters repeatedly attacked the aircraft. TSgt Maurice V. Henry manned his guns, destroying one and damaging another. Then an incendiary shell hit the aircraft, and Henry put out the fire. Later, when the B-17 crashed in the English Channel, Henry helped the other crewmen from the sinking craft with utter disregard for his own safety. When he was last seen, he was still grasping the emergency radio, calling for rescue. For his courage, Henry received the DFC posthumously. (4)
1945: A TWA Lockheed Constellation set a west-east transatlantic commercial record by flying 2,000 miles from Gander, Newfoundland, to Rineanna, Ireland, in 6 hours 45 minutes. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. B-26s flew their first close air support night missions under Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) direction. The 3 BG flew 67 B-26 missions along the Eighth Army's bomb line in 5 hours. Nevertheless, Chinese forces pushed the Eighth Army and the X Corps southward. (28)
1952: A Northrop B-62 Snark, a turbojet-powered subsonic missile with 5,500 nautical-mile range, launched from Cape Canaveral for the first time on a zero-length launcher. (6) (24)
1955: An N-69D-configured Snark flew its first flight test at Cape Canaveral. It was the first to use a stellar inertial guidance system. (6)
1956: SECDEF Charles E. Wilson issued a "Roles and Mission" memo to the Armed Forces Policy Council to fix jurisdiction over missile development. This gave the USAF control of surface-to surface missiles with ranges over 200 miles and surface-to-air missiles with ranges over 100 miles, while the Army controlled missiles with ranges less than 200 and 100 miles, respectively. (1) (6)
1958: From Cape Canaveral, an operational Thor missile completed its first successful launch. (6)
1959: At El Paso, Max Conrad completed a 6,911-mile nonstop flight from Casablanca, Morocco, in a Piper Comanche airplane. (24)
1964: Four college students completed an experiment in which they lived for 28 days in a spacecraft-type capsule and for 14 days in a hospital isolation ward on a diet designed for consumption by astronauts during space flight.
1968: MEDAL OF HONOR. While flying a UH-1F helicopter, 1Lt James P. Fleming twice exposed his aircraft to intense hostile fire while rescuing a special forces reconnaissance patrol near Due Co, Vietnam. He later received the Medal of Honor for his heroic action. (21)
1975: The X-24B research craft flew its last flight at Edwards AFB. (3)
1976: Through 29 November, after an earthquake in Turkey, MAC launched one C-5, 14 C-141s, and 15 C-130s with 486 tons of supplies and equipment from Ramstein AB and Rhein-Main AB; RAF Mildenhall; Pisa AB, Italy; and Cigli AB, Turkey. C-130s also moved nearly 520 tons of supplies and airlift control element members fom Incirlik to Van Air Field, Turkey. (18)
1980: Through 2 December, MAC C-130s flew 18 missions to airlift 1,000 tents from Germany to Naples to help people made homeless by an earthquake in Italy. Commercial aircraft under MAC contract also moved relief supplies from the US to the disaster area, while USAFE provided blankets, tents, and C-rations. Air Force communications personnel from Monte Vergine gave intensive aid to local communities. (2) (4)
1985: Through December 3, the Space Shuttle Atlantis conducted its second space mission. Following the shuttle's liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, Lt Col Brewster Shaw led a seven-man crew through the deployment of three satellites and rehearsals of space station construction techniques. (8: Nov 90)
1986: The Navy launched its first Tomahawk SLCM in a capsule launch from a submerged submarine. In the test, the attack sub Pittsburgh launched an anti-ship SLCM over the Atlantic Fleet Weapons Training Facility Sea Test Range. The SLCM passed within lethal distance of its target before recovery.
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