To All
Good Monday Morning February 12, 2024. A couple sunny days have helped to dry things out and we are going to get a few more until rain is forecast to return in a week. I hope that you all had a great weekend.
Regards,
skip
HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
This day in Naval and Marine Corps History February 12
1935—USS Macon (ZRS 5) crashes into the sea off Point Sur, CA, after encountering a storm that tears off her upper fin, effectively ending the Navy's trouble-plagued rigid-airship program.
1945—USS Hawkbill (SS 366) sinks the small Japanese cargo vessel Kisaragi Maru and the two large boats she is towing, at Lombok Strait, N.E.I.
1947—The first launch of a guided missile, the Loon, takes place on board USS Cusk (SS 348).
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This Day in World History
February 12
1294 Kubai Khan, the conqueror of Asia, dies at the age of 80.
1554 Lady Jane Grey, the Queen of England for thirteen days, is beheaded on Tower Hill. She was barely 17 years old.
1709 Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish seaman whose adventures inspired the creation of Daniel Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe, is taken off Juan Fernandez Island after more than four years of living there alone.
1793 The first fugitive slave law, requiring the return of escaped slaves, is passed.
1818 Chile gains independence from Spain.
1836 Mexican General Santa Anna crosses the Rio Grande en route to the Alamo.
1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is formed.
1912 China becomes a republic following the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty.
1921 Winston Churchill of London is appointed colonial secretary.
1924 George Gershwin's groundbreaking symphonic jazz composition Rhapsody in Blue premieres with Gershwin himself playing the piano with Paul Whiteman's orchestra.
1929 Charles Lindbergh announces his engagement to Anne Morrow.
1931 Japan makes its first television broadcast--a baseball game.
1935 The Macon, the last U.S. Navy dirigible, crashes off the coast of California, killing two people.
1938 Japan refuses to reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain.
1940 The Soviet Union signs a trade treaty with Germany to aid against the British blockade.
1944 Wendell Wilkie enters the American presidential race against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1949 Muslim Brotherhood chief Hassan el Banna is shot to death in Cairo.
1953 The Soviets break off diplomatic relations with Israel after the bombing of Soviet legation.
1966 The South Vietnamese win two big battles in the Mekong Delta.
1972 Senator Edward Kennedy advocates amnesty for Vietnam draft resisters.
1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army asks the Hearst family for $230 million in food for the poor.
1980 The Lake Placid Winter Olympics open in New York.
1987 A Court in Texas upholds $8.5 billion of a fine imposed on Texaco for the illegal takeover of Getty Oil.
1999 The U.S. Senate fails to pass two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. He had been accused of perjury and obstruction of justice by the House of Representatives.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 12 February 2024 and ending Sunday, 18 February 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 5 May 2019… "Ho Chi Minh Trail Reviewed: Vietnam Death March," by Keith B. Richling (Washington Post, 26 April 1990)
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 can read what happened each day to the aircraft and its crew. ……Skip
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "Monday 12 February
12: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=995
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.
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . 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--Super Bowl Wrap Up
Did you know it takes about 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs?
During the Super Bowl, there was another football game of note between the big animals and the little animals. The big animals were crushing little animals and at half-time, the coach made a passionate speech to rally the little animals.
At the start of the second half the big animals had the ball. The first play, the elephant got stopped for no gain. The second play, the rhino was stopped for no gain. On third down, the hippo was thrown for a 5 yard loss.
The defense huddled around the coach and he asked excitedly, "Who stopped the elephant?"
"I did," said the centipede.
"Who stopped the rhino?"
"Uh, that was me too," said the centipede.
"And how about the hippo? Who hit him for a five yard loss?"
"Well, that was me as well," said the centipede.
"So where were you during the first half?" demanded the coach.
"Well," said the centipede, "I was having my ankles taped."
Ms. Smith's class in Kansas City had a "Chiefs' Day" last week where the whole class came wearing Chiefs gear. All the kids came in their favorite blue and red jerseys and sweatshirts. All except Jimmy, who sported a 49ers jersey.
Mrs. Smith asked Jimmy, "Why are you wearing a 49ers jersey on Chiefs' Day?"
Jimmy replied "Well, I'm a San Francisco 49ers fan. My mother is a 49ers fan and my father is a 49ers fan. And so am I."
Mrs. Smith said, "Jimmy, if your mother was an idiot, and your father was an idiot, what would that make you?"
Jimmy replied, "A Chiefs fan."
Football quotes:
• "The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."--Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback and sports analyst.
• "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."--Frank Zappa
• "I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first."--New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season:
• And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skins say: "I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl," Matt Millen of the Raiders said, "To win, I'd run over Joe's Mom, too."
• Jim Finks, New Orleans Saints G.M., when asked after a loss what he thought of the refs: "I'm not allowed to comment on lousy no good officiating." (1986)
• Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins--"He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings." (1991)
• "Men, I want you just thinking of one word all season. One word and one word only: Super Bowl."--Bill Peterson, football coach
• Watching the Super Bowl pre-game, the camera cut to the Patriot's coach looking very concerned, to which John Madden comments: "Oh, if faces could only talk....!"
• Upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skin's say: "I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl," Matt Millen of the Raiders said: "To win, I'd run over Joe's Mom, too."
• "Because she's too @#$ ugly to kiss good-bye."—Former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips
• Watching the Super Bowl pre-game, the camera cut to the Patriot's coach looking very concerned, to which John Madden comments: "Oh, if faces could only talk....!"
If men ruled the world
• When your girlfriend really needed to talk to you during the game, she'd appear in a little box in the corner of the screen during a time-out.
• Breaking up would be a lot easier. A smack to the backside and a "Nice hustle, you'll get 'em next time" would pretty much do it.
• Each year, your raise would be pegged to the fortunes of the NFL team of your choice.
• Instead of an expensive engagement ring, you could present your wife-to-be with a giant foam hand that said, "You're #1!"
• The victors in any athletic competition would get to kill and eat the losers.
• The only show opposite Monday Night Football would be Monday Night Football from a Different Camera Angle.
Ways to Liven Up the Super Bowl
• Halftime entertainment? Televised invasion of Iran.
• Replace the football with a monkey on crack.
• Big halftime extravaganza featuring both East and West coast rappers.
• When refs blows a call, they do a shot of tequila.
• End-zone/touchdown dances must interpret one of the four seasons.
• Randomly set off fireworks right behind a coach to see how his quadruple bypass holds up.
Easing Super Bowl Relationship Stress
Yes, Super Bowl mania has led to the breakdown of marriages. And a California psychologist says wives and other "disinterested folks who have to put up with 'Super Bowl Madness' had better learn 'Super Bowl Etiquette.'" In short: find out what not to do when the game is on and how to keep your sanity and relationship intact.
Robert Butterworth says being married to a Super Bowl fanatic does not mean that one is obliged to watch the game, let alone understand and pretend to enjoy it. "Standard marriage vows were written well before the beginning of the Super Bowl phenomenon or they would have been amended," he says.
If anger and stress levels start to get out of hand, Butterworth advises game-hating spouses to buy an inexpensive football and pound on it with a baseball bat -- in a room well away from where fans are riveted to the TV set.
"You'll feel better afterwards and the cost of a damaged football is a lot cheaper than the cost of a visit to the 'shrink,'" Butterworth says.
Activities to avoid while the game is in progress include:
• Household chores or anything that requires running noisy electric appliances -- do them all on Saturday.
• Balancing the checkbook or any activity remotely related to finance or money matters.
• Activity with the children -- send the kids to a long double feature on Sunday afternoon.
• Conversations beginning with "You never talk to me..."; "Isn't football too violent..."; or "How many points did you say the team gets for a touchdown?"
• Any jealous remarks relating to the physical characteristics of the cheerleaders during the half-time festivities.
It was a particularly tough football game, and nerves were on edge. The home team had been the victim of three or four close calls and they were now trailing the visitors by a touchdown and a field goal. When the official called yet another close one in the visitors' favor, the home quarterback blew his top.
"How many times can you do this to us in a single game?" he screamed. "You were wrong on the out-of-bounds, you were wrong on that last first down and you missed an illegal tackle in the first quarter."
The official just stared.
The quarterback seethed, but he suppressed the language that might get him tossed from the game. "What it comes down to," he bellowed, "is that you stink!"
The official stared a few more seconds. Then he bent down, picked up the ball, paced off 15 yards, and put the ball down. He turned to face the steaming quarterback. The official finally replied, "And how do I smell from here?"
If your team won…GREAT! If your team lost…WAIT TIL NEXT Year.
Al
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Thanks to Phil
I CAME ACROSS THIS ONE AND IT DESERVES A REPEAT…skip
Heckuva flying story!!
From: acmodeler
His Parachute Got Stuck on the Plane's Wheel and He Was Suspended in Midair with Little Chance of Survival—Then Another Plane Came to His Rescue
Almost 80 years after it unfolded in the sky over San Diego, a nearly impossible rescue mission remains one of the most daring feats in aeronautical history.
Courtesy Rick Lawrence (portrait), Shutterstock (4), archive.org (government document)
It began like any other May morning in California. The sky was blue, the sun hot. A slight breeze riffled the glistening waters of San Diego Bay. At the naval airbase on North Island, all was calm.
At 9:45 a.m., Walter Osipoff, a sandy-haired 23-year-old Marine second lieutenant from Akron, Ohio, boarded a DC-2 transport for a routine parachute jump. Lt. Bill Lowrey, a 34-year-old Navy test pilot from New Orleans, was already putting his observation plane through its paces. And John McCants, a husky 41-year-old aviation chief machinist's mate from Jordan, Montana, was checking out the aircraft that he was scheduled to fly later. Before the sun was high in the noonday sky, these three men would be linked forever in one of history's most spectacular midair rescues.
Osipoff was a seasoned parachutist, a former collegiate wrestling and gymnastics star. He had joined the National Guard and then the Marines in 1938. He had already made more than 20 jumps by May 15, 1941.
That morning, his DC-2 took off and headed for Kearney Mesa, where Osipoff would supervise practice jumps by 12 of his men. Three separate canvas cylinders, containing ammunition and rifles, were also to be parachuted overboard as part of the exercise.
Nine of the men had already jumped when Osipoff, standing a few inches from the plane's door, started to toss out the last cargo container. Somehow the automatic-release cord of his backpack parachute became looped over the cylinder, and his chute was suddenly ripped open. He tried to grab hold of the quickly billowing silk, but the next thing he knew he had been jerked from the plane—sucked out with such force that the impact of his body ripped a 2.5-foot gash in the DC-2's aluminum fuselage.
Instead of flowing free, Osipoff's open parachute now wrapped itself around the plane's tail wheel. The chute's chest strap and one leg strap had broken; only the second leg strap was still holding—and it had slipped down to Osipoff's ankle. One by one, 24 of the 28 lines between his precariously attached harness and the parachute snapped. He was now hanging some 12 feet below and 15 feet behind the tail of the plane. Four parachute shroud lines twisted around his left leg were all that kept him from being pitched to the earth.
Dangling there upside down, Osipoff had enough presence of mind to not try to release his emergency parachute. With the plane pulling him one way and the emergency chute pulling him another, he realized that he would be torn in half. Conscious all the while, he knew that he was hanging by one leg, spinning and bouncing—and he was aware that his ribs hurt. He did not know then that two ribs and three vertebrae had been fractured.
Inside the plane, the DC-2 crew struggled to pull Osipoff to safety, but they could not reach him. The aircraft was starting to run low on fuel, but an emergency landing with Osipoff dragging behind would certainly smash him to death. And pilot Harold Johnson had no radio contact with the ground.
To attract attention below, Johnson eased the transport down to 300 feet and started circling North Island. A few people at the base noticed the plane coming by every few minutes, but they assumed that it was towing some sort of target.
Meanwhile, Bill Lowrey had landed his plane and was walking toward his office when he glanced upward. He and John McCants, who was working nearby, saw at the same time the figure dangling from the plane. As the DC-2 circled once again, Lowrey yelled to McCants, "There's a man hanging on that line. Do you suppose we can get him?" McCants answered grimly, "We can try."
Lowrey shouted to his mechanics to get his plane ready for takeoff. It was an SOC-1, a two-seat, open-cockpit observation plane, less than 27 feet long. Recalled Lowrey afterward, "I didn't even know how much fuel it had." Turning to McCants, he said, "Let's go!"
Lowrey and McCants had never flown together before, but the two men seemed to take it for granted that they were going to attempt the impossible. "There was only one decision to be made," Lowrey later said quietly, "and that was to go get him. How, we didn't know. We had no time to plan."
Lt. Col. John J. Capolino, a Philadelphia artist, painted this scene of Osipoff's rescue in the 1940s. It belongs to the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia.
Nor was there time to get through to their commanding officer and request permission for the flight. Lowrey simply told the tower, "Give me a green light. I'm taking off." At the last moment, a Marine ran out to the plane with a hunting knife—for cutting Osipoff loose—and dumped it in McCants's lap.
As the SOC-1 roared aloft, all activity around San Diego seemed to stop. Civilians crowded rooftops, children stopped playing at recess, and the men of North Island strained their eyes upward. With murmured prayers and pounding hearts, the watchers agonized through every move in the impossible mission.
Within minutes, Lowrey and McCants were under the transport, flying at 300 feet. They made five approaches, but the air proved too bumpy to try for a rescue. Since radio communication between the two planes was impossible, Lowrey hand-signaled Johnson to head out over the Pacific, where the air would be smoother, and they climbed to 3,000 feet. Johnson held his plane on a straight course and reduced speed to that of the smaller plane—100 miles an hour.
Lowrey flew back and away from Osipoff, but level with him. McCants, who was in the open seat in back of Lowrey, saw that Osipoff was hanging by one foot and that blood was dripping from his helmet. Lowrey edged the plane closer with such precision that his maneuvers jibed with the swings of Osipoff's inert body. His timing had to be exact so that Osipoff did not smash into the SOC-1's propeller.
Finally, Lowrey slipped his upper left wing under Osipoff's shroud lines, and McCants, standing upright in the rear cockpit—with the plane still going 100 miles an hour 3,000 feet above the sea—lunged for Osipoff. He grabbed him at the waist, and Osipoff flung his arms around McCants's shoulders in a death grip.
McCants pulled Osipoff into the plane, but since it was only a two-seater, the next problem was where to put him. As Lowrey eased the SOC-1 forward to get some slack in the chute lines, McCants managed to stretch Osipoff's body across the top of the fuselage, with Osipoff's head in his lap.
Because McCants was using both hands to hold Osipoff in a vise, there was no way for him to cut the cords that still attached Osipoff to the DC-2. Lowrey then nosed his plane inch by inch closer to the transport and, with incredible precision, used his propeller to cut the shroud lines. After hanging for 33 minutes between life and death, Osipoff was finally free.
Lowrey had flown so close to the transport that he'd nicked a 12-inch gash in its tail. But now the parachute, abruptly detached along with the shroud lines, drifted downward and wrapped itself around Lowrey's rudder. That meant that Lowrey had to fly the SOC-1 without being able to control it properly and with most of Osipoff's body still on the outside. Yet, five minutes later, Lowrey somehow managed to touch down at North Island, and the little plane rolled to a stop. Osipoff finally lost consciousness—but not before he heard sailors applauding the landing.
Later on, after lunch, Lowrey and McCants went back to their usual duties. Three weeks later, both men were flown to Washington, DC, where Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox awarded them the Distinguished Flying Cross for executing "one of the most brilliant and daring rescues in naval history."
Osipoff spent the next six months in the hospital. The following January, completely recovered and newly promoted to first lieutenant, he went back to parachute jumping. The morning he was to make his first jump after the accident, he was cool and laconic, as usual. His friends, though, were nervous. One after another, they went up to reassure him. Each volunteered to jump first so he could follow.
Osipoff grinned and shook his head. "The hell with that!" he said as he fastened his parachute. "I know damn well I'm going to make it." And he did.
This article first appeared in the May 1975 edition of Reader's Digest.
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From yesterday's comment about the P-38
Thanks to George
Skip and all others,
I do not have my P-38 on my key chain, it is on the kitchen counter top because it is the only can opener I have ever used, even though I have inherited a variety of other civilian style can openers. The P-38 is more reliable and easier than any of the others. Doggedly I refuse to use anything but the P-38. In fact, though I brought home several back-up replacements, to this day I continue to use the very same P-38 I began using in March 1969 in basic training. It remains as sharp and effective as on its first can. It has accompanied and served me all these year, better than a whole series of far more expensive automobiles and other possessions. And it has never jammed or misfired for 56 years and counting. I intend that this faithful P-38 should accompany me into the grave and Eternity, with the reserve P-38s left to my heirs.
Thanks to Cookie
I loved mine and used it a lot, but later got one of the so-called P-58s which was twice the size and easier on the fingers!
Cookie
Thanks to Michael
I still carry the last one I had from the Marine Corps and today it makes more sense than ever, if we can have shortage of toilet paper I'm sure we could have a shortage of can openers. They were called a John Wayne it the Marine Corps but I don't know why.
TSA wanted to confiscate one from a buddy who had carried it since 67 and he would not give it up, he told them to call a supervisor and that he would miss the flight before he gave it to them. The supervisor must have understood because he let him board the plane with it.
Mike/Chulai37
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
5 Superb Facts About the Super Bowl Halftime Show
The year 1967 marked the debut of two major events that are now staples of American pop culture: the Super Bowl, and its star-studded halftime show. Though early halftime performances highlighted regional musical acts, the 1990s saw the show transition into a stage for music's biggest and brightest stars. Some even consider the halftime show to be as important as the big game itself. In honor of that, here are five superb facts about the Super Bowl halftime show.
1 of 5
The First Super Bowl Halftime Performers Were Marching Bands
Long before artists such as Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney headlined the event, the Super Bowl halftime show was primarily a showcase for college marching bands. At the halfway point of Super Bowl I in 1967 in Los Angeles, the University of Arizona Symphonic Marching Band, the Grambling State University Marching Band, and an Anaheim-area high school drill team took the field to perform for fans. The biggest name to grace the stage that day was trumpeter Al Hirt, who later returned for halftime performances at multiple Super Bowls in the 1970s.
Marching bands continued to dominate the halftime lineup for several years, though records are a little inconsistent for the earliest shows. Most accounts claim that the Grambling State band performed again at Super Bowl II in 1968, but Grambling itself has disputed the claim; according to an archivist from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, performers that year included seven Miami-area high school bands instead. Other early shows featured marching bands from Florida A&M, Southern University, and Southeast Missouri State.
The first celebrity halftime performers debuted in the 1970s, though, again, records are a little spotty. Some accounts have Broadway star Carol Channing singing in 1970, while others say she first took the stage at Super Bowl VI in 1972, alongside jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald. During the "Salute to Louis Armstrong"-themed show, Channing reportedly performed "When the Saints Go Marching In," and Fitzgerald blew audiences away with her version of "Mack the Knife," which Armstrong made famous in the 1950s.
2 of 5
An Elvis-Impersonating Magician Headlined the 1989 Halftime Show
Super Bowl XXIII's halftime show was notable for a few reasons, including the fact that it was the first to incorporate 3D glasses — the distribution of which proved to be a logistical nightmare. It also featured 2,000 choreographed dancers, a fleet of Harley Davidson motorcycles, and fireworks. However, the show was perhaps most famous for being headlined by an Elvis Presley impersonator named Elvis Presto. Presto was portrayed by Alex Cole, a last-minute addition who got the job when the previous actor quit a few days before the game to work on a commercial for Lee Jeans.
Though you'd think the focus of the performance would have been covers of hit Elvis songs, the '50s-themed musical medley mostly featured tracks by other artists. And the main spectacle was an interactive card trick involving the fans at Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium, who were tasked with using applause to "pick a card." The result, however, was extremely lackluster, as improper lighting and less-than-ideal camera angles produced a magic trick that was more confusing than impressive.
3 of 5
New Kids on the Block Were the First Contemporary Pop Headliners
Though the halftime show had previously featured big names such as Ella Fitzgerald and Andy Williams, they often played second fiddle to marching bands and dance teams. It wasn't until January 27, 1991, that the show began to resemble the star-studded spectacle we know today. On that date, during Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, New Kids on the Block became the first major pop recording act to headline halftime. But despite the pomp and circumstance surrounding their performance, the band's set didn't actually air live. Instead, it was preempted by news coverage of the ongoing Gulf War. Viewers had to wait until after the game to see NKOTB perform songs such as "Step by Step" and "It's a Small World." (The show was sponsored by Disney and featured Disney characters as well as hundreds of children dressed in traditional clothes from different countries.)
4 of 5
The 1992 Halftime Show Featured a Figure Skating Performance
After featuring a popular musical act in 1991, the halftime show returned to yet another weird and wacky theme in 1992. With the Winter Olympics set to occur the following month, Super Bowl XXVI featured a figure skating performance led by former Olympians Brian Boitano and Dorothy Hamill, who became the only non-football-playing athletes to perform at the Super Bowl. The show also included two 30-foot-tall inflatable snowmen, a forgettable rap song titled "Do the Frosty," and a musical finale by Gloria Estefan. Even with the latter, though, the event was a considerable flop, and 22 million of the 79 million viewers changed the channel for counterprogramming — including a special episode of the Fox sketch-comedy series In Living Color, which drew much of the audience's attention away from the game.
5 of 5
Super Bowl Halftime Show Headliners Don't Get Paid
Shakira and Jennifer Lopez perform onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime With tens of thousands of people in attendance at the game itself, and millions more watching from home, the Super Bowl halftime show is one of the biggest stages in the world. It doesn't come with a big paycheck for performers, though — or any paycheck at all, really. League policy states that while the NFL will cover production costs — some of which can be quite substantial, as Jennifer Lopez and Shakira's 2020 performance reportedly cost around $13 million to produce — the headliners themselves do not receive any compensation. That's not to say they don't benefit financially, though. In 2018, Justin Timberlake saw his music sales rise 534% on the day of his halftime show, and the year prior, Lady Gaga's digital sales spiked 1,000%.
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Thanks to Robert
I have seen this before and glad to watch it again.
From a fellow Vietnam veteran. A powerful 14 minute video on a true WW2 hero you probably never heard of......
George
If you are unaware of Roddie Edmonds story in 1945, I urge you to watch this short video. Perhaps one of the best videos you'll ever see.
A very powerful and an incredible story of a very courageous man, who save the lives of over 200 POWs in WW-2 .
https://player.vimeo.com/video/198357872
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[TheList] 6735 Truk Atoll strike
Thanks to Barrett
Based on the mention of Jig Dog Ramage and VB-10:
I knew Jig longer than any of my other WW II contacts, dating from his time as ComFairWhidbey in '67. Bob Lawson and I conducted his Naval Institute oral history, which included his attitudes and philosophy as well as his varied activities.
He enjoyed flying the SBD, and he relished the VA mission. "I liked the idea of going out and killing people." (He was a Christian but I never knew him to overdo The Forgiveness Thing.) After sinking ships in Truk lagoon he put Bombing Ten in a wagonwheel orbit at 100 feet so the rear gunners could strafe life boats and groups of Japanese in the water. "If any of them survived it wasn't our fault."
Some of the ships sank within swimming distance of lagoon islets or even the shore, presumably justification for the hose-fest. Of course, by early 1944 the nature of the enemy was all too well known...
Marked contrast to Cdr "Mush Morton" of Wahoo fame killing Japanese sailors 250+ miles at sea from New Guinea in Jan. '43. He not only included it in his patrol report, but had color film, which is online. Thing is: nearly 200 allied POWs were killed in the sinking and shooting.
As ever
Barrett
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This Day in U S Military History
February 12
1935 – The USS Macon, the last U.S. Navy dirigible, crashed on its 55th flight off the coast of California, killing two people. After takeoff from Point Sur, California, a gust of wind tore off the ship's upper fin, deflating its gas cells and causing the ship to fall into the sea. Two of Macon 's 83 crewmen died in the accident. The U.S. Navy lost the airships Shenandoah in 1925 and Akron in 1933. Some considered airships too dangerous for the program to continue at that point, and work on them in the United States halted temporarily. The German zeppelin Hindenburg crashed and burned in 1936.
1945 – The US 11th Corps has closed the neck of the Bataan Peninsula and is advancing southward to clear the Japanese forces from it.
1945 – American USAAF B-24 and B-29 bombers raid Iwo Jima in preparation for the landings later in the month. They drop a daily average of 450 tons of bombs over the course of 15 days (6800 tons).
1945 – USS Batfish (SS-310) sinks second Japanese submarine within three days.
1973 – The release of U.S. POWs begins in Hanoi as part of the Paris peace settlement. The return of U.S. POWs began when North Vietnam released 142 of 591 U.S. prisoners at Hanoi's Gia Lam Airport. Part of what was called Operation Homecoming, the first 20 POWs arrived to a hero's welcome at Travis Air Force Base in California on February 14. Operation Homecoming was completed on March 29, 1973, when the last of 591 U.S. prisoners were released and returned to the United States.
1988 – Two Soviet warships bump two U.S. navy vessels in waters claimed by the Soviet Union. The incident was an indication that even though the Cold War was slowly coming to a close, old tensions and animosities remained unabated. The incident between the ships took place in the Black Sea, off the Crimean peninsula. The American destroyer Caron and cruiser Yorktown were operating within the 12-mile territorial limit claimed by the Soviet Union. They were challenged by a Soviet frigate and destroyer and told to leave the waters. Then, according to a Navy spokesman, the Soviet ships "shouldered" the U.S. ships out of the way, bumping them slightly. There was no exchange of gunfire, and the American ships eventually departed from the area. There was no serious damage to either U.S. vessel or any injuries. In many ways, the incident was an unnecessarily provocative action by the United States. For many years, the United States had challenged the Russian claim of a 12-mile territorial limit in the waters off the Crimean peninsula. However, the timing and the use of the Caron in this particular operation made this a rather foolish act. The United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in negotiations to limit long-range nuclear weapons, and in December 1987, the important INF Treaty, by which both the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to eliminate their medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe, had been signed. The Caron was well known as an intelligence gathering vessel and its appearance in waters claimed by the Soviets would be seen as suspicious at best. For their part, the Soviets probably overreacted. American ships regularly moved through the area and were usually unchallenged. Perhaps the Soviet military felt a message should be sent that Russia, which was experiencing severe economic and political problems, was still a nation to be taken seriously as a major military power.
2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The mission succeeded in closing in with the asteroid and orbited it several times, finally terminating by touching down on the asteroid.
2010 – The United States successfully shoots down a launching ballistic missile using the Boeing YAL-1, a military Boeing 747-400F aircraft mounted with a chemical oxygen iodine laser weapon. The Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed (formerly Airborne Laser) weapons system is a megawatt-class chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) mounted inside a modified Boeing 747-400F. It is primarily designed as a missile defense system to destroy tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs), while in boost phase. The aircraft was designated YAL-1A in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Defense.
2013 – Following a seismic event recorded in South Korea, North Korea confirms that it has successfully tested a nuclear device, claiming that it is small enough to be weaponized.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*DELEAU, EMILE, JR.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 142d Infantry, 36th Infantry Division. Place and date: Oberhoffen, France, 12 February 1945. Entered service at: Blaine, Ohio. Birth: Lansing, Ohio. G.O. No.: 60, 25 July 1945. Citation: He led a squad in the night attack on Oberhoffen, France, where fierce house-to-house fighting took place. After clearing 1 building of opposition, he moved his men toward a second house from which heavy machinegun fire came. He courageously exposed himself to hostile bullets and, firing his submachine gun as he went, advanced steadily toward the enemy position until close enough to hurl grenades through a window, killing 3 Germans and wrecking their gun. His progress was stopped by heavy rifle and machinegun fire from another house. Sgt. Deleau dashed through the door with his gun blazing. Within, he captured 10 Germans. The squad then took up a position for the night and awaited daylight to resume the attack. At dawn of 2 February Sgt. Deleau pressed forward with his unit, killing 2 snipers as he advanced to a point where machinegun fire from a house barred the way. Despite vicious small-arms fire, Sgt. Deleau ran across an open area to reach the rear of the building, where he destroyed 1 machinegun and killed its 2 operators with a grenade. He worked to the front of the structure and located a second machinegun. Finding it impossible to toss a grenade into the house from his protected position, he fearlessly moved away from the building and was about to hurl his explosive when he was instantly killed by a burst from the gun he sought to knock out. With magnificent courage and daring aggressiveness, Sgt. Deleau cleared 4 well-defended houses of Germans, inflicted severe losses on the enemy and at the sacrifice of his own life aided his battalion to reach its objective with a minimum of casualties.
*LONG, CHARLES R.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company M, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Hoengsong, Korea, 12 February 1951. Entered service at: Kansas City, Mo. Born: 10 December 1923, Kansas City, Mo. G.O. No.: 18, 1 February 1952. Citation: Sgt. Long, a member of Company M, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against an armed enemy of the United Nations. When Company M, in a defensive perimeter on Hill 300, was viciously attacked by a numerically superior hostile force at approximately 0300 hours and ordered to withdraw, Sgt. Long, a forward observer for the mortar platoon, voluntarily remained at his post to provide cover by directing mortar fire on the enemy. Maintaining radio contact with his platoon, Sgt. Long coolly directed accurate mortar fire on the advancing foe. He continued firing his carbine and throwing handgrenades until his position was surrounded and he was mortally wounded. Sgt. Long's inspirational, valorous action halted the onslaught, exacted a heavy toll of enemy casualties, and enabled his company to withdraw, reorganize, counterattack, and regain the hill strongpoint. His unflinching courage and noble self-sacrifice reflect the highest credit on himself and are in keeping with the honored traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for February 12, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
12 February
1912: Above New York harbor, Frank Coffyn took automatic aerial motion pictures from a seaplane. (24)
1921: First section of American "model" airways route from Washington DC to Dayton, Ohio, opened. (5)
1928: Charles (Speed) Holman set a new record of 1,093 loops at World-Chamberlain airport, Minneapolis, Minn. (24)
1931: The Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk first flew. (5) The Detroit News purchased a Pitcairn PC A-2. The transaction was the first sale of a commercial autogiro in the US. (24)
1935: The USS Macon (ZRS-5) crashed at sea off California's coast with the loss of two lives. This accident ended the Navy's rigid airship program. (21)
1947: The USS Cusk launched a Loon missile. It was the first guided missile fired from a sub. (24)
1951: KOREAN WAR. Far East Air Forces cargo aircraft airdropped supplies to an X Corps airstrip at Wonju. A leaflet-dropping C-47 aircraft, hit by enemy antiaircraft fire, crashed at Suwon. As a result, FEAF decided to conduct C-47 leaflet drops at night. While B-26s attacked enemy positions at night using air-dropped flares, two enemy planes used the same flares to attack UN positions. (28)
1958: The Department of Defense transferred the Jupiter Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile program from the Army to the USAF. (6)
1959: The Strategic Air Command retired its last operational B-36 Peacemaker (Tail No. 52-2827) from the 95th Bombardment Wing at Biggs AFB, Tex., and placed it on permanent display at Amon Carter Field in Fort Worth. That retirement gave the command an all-jet bomber force. (1) (21)
1960: A Delta Air Lines Convair 880 set a record from San Diego, Calif., to Miami, Fla., in 3 hours 32 minutes. (5)
1965: After almost seven years, Vanguard I appeared to be silenced when radio signals became too weak. (5) The Navy launched the second US satellite,
1958 Beta II, for the International Geophysical Year. This 6-inch, 3.25-pound sphere circled the globe every 134 minutes. (5) USAF scientists at Hanscom AFB, Mass., hit Explorer XXII with a ground-based laser, photographed the spot of reflected light, and recorded it photoelectrically in relation to the surrounding stars. (5) Operation ARC LIGHT. After a Presidential decision to deploy B-52s to Southeast Asia for conventional bombing missions, KC-135s arrived at Andersen AFB, Guam, to support the bombers. (18)
1967: The first production F-111A (No. 9) flew its first flight. (5)
1969: FORCE MODERNIZATION PROGRAM: The Strategic Air Command removed the last Minuteman Is from silos at Malmstrom AFB, Mont. Contractors then began upgrading the silos for Minuteman II missiles. (1) (6)
1970: The first of four C-124s arrived for duty with the 20th Operations Squadron at Clark AB, Philippines. Pacific Air Forces retained the C-124 for moving outsized equipment after the inactivation of all C-124 squadrons in the Military Airlift Command. (17)
1973: Operation HOMECOMING/MACKAY TROPHY. After N. Vietnam released its POWs, the 1st Mobile Communications Group and 1961st Communications Group at Clark AB, Philippines, provided communications to the C-141s returning the former prisoners to Clark. When the 566 POWs reached America, the 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing transferred them to various military hospitals. Altogether, the Military Airlift Command used 118 C-9A and C-141 missions to support the operation. This event earned the Mackay Trophy. (2) (17) (18) for theAIRCREWS For the diligent and dynamic efforts of each crewmember of Operation Homecoming, the return of the prisoners of war to United States control."
1998. Operation DESERT THUNDER. KC-135s from Air National Guard units in Mississippi, California, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Alaska, along with KC-135s from two Air Force Reserve units, set up a tanker task force at Eielson AFB, Alaska, to refuel B-52s from Barksdale AFB, La., deploying to Diego Garcia. The bombers deployed to Diego Garcia as part of a threatened bombing campaign to make Iraq comply with United Nations weapons inspections. Diplomatic pressures and the threat of military force allowed the United Nations to resume its inspections for weapons of mass destruction. (32)
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