To All,
Good Tuesday Morning April 2, 2024. The day has dawned clear and blue and we are supposed to get one more day like this until the rain returns on Friday. Classes started last night for the Spring Quarter and it looks like another Full school for the next three months. Be sure to read Kit's note below about Bubba Segars.
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 April 2
1781 During the American Revolution, the Continental frigate Alliance, commanded by John Barry, captures the British privateers Mars and Minerva off the coast of France.
1916 Lt. R.C. Saufley sets an altitude record for a Navy aircraft, 16,072 feet in a Curtiss pusher type hydroplane at Pensacola, Fla., bettering the record he set on March 29 that was set with a record of 16,010 feet.
1943 USS Tunny (SS 282) sinks the Japanese transport No.2 Toyo Maru west of Truk.
1951 Two F9F-2B Panthers of VF-191, each loaded with four 250- and two 100-pound general-purpose bombs, are catapulted from USS Princeton (CV 37) for an attack on a railroad bridge near Songjin, North Korea. This mission is the first US Navy use of a jet fighter as a bomber.
1960 After floods cause destruction at Paramaribo, Suriname, USS Glacier (AGB 4) begins 12 days of relief operations, providing helicopter and boat transportation and emergency supplies to the residents.
1991 USS Chicago (SSN 721) arrives at San Diego, Calif., homeport following Operation Desert Storm. During the six-month deployment, the attack submarine works with US and coalition forces deployed to the Southwest Asia area of operations, conducting surveillance and reconnaissance operations.
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This day in World history April 2,
1792 The United States authorizes the minting of the $10 Eagle, $5 half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins as well as the silver dollar, dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime.
1796 Haitian revolt leader Toussaint L'Ouverture takes command of French forces at Santo Domingo.
1801 The British navy defeats the Danish at the Battle of Copenhagen.
1865 Confederate President Jefferson Davis flees Richmond, Virginia as Grant breaks Lee's line at Petersburg.
1910 Karl Harris perfects the process for the artificial synthesis of rubber.
1914 The U.S. Federal Reserve Board announces plans to divide the country into 12 districts.
1917 President Woodrow Wilson presents a declaration of war against Germany to Congress.
1917 Jeannette Pickering Rankin is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
1931 Virne "Jackie" Mitchell becomes the first woman to play for an all-male pro baseball team. In an exhibition game against the New York Yankees, she strikes out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
1932 Charles Lindbergh pays over $50,000 ransom for his kidnapped son.
1944 Soviet forces enter Romania, one of Germany's allied countries.
1958 The National Advisory Council on Aeronautics is renamed NASA.
1963 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King begins the first non-violent campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.
1982 Argentina invades the British-owned Falkland Islands.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 1 April 2024 and ending Sunday, 7 April 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post of 23 June 2019… Two great Song Books of the Vietnam War: Lydia Fish and Joseph Tuso…
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
If you read the book or saw the movie this is about Bat 21 an amazing real life story of heroism and rescue.
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "Tuesday 2 April
April 2. https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2828
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 Service members 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 Dr. Rich and Billy
YHTBSM
Navy makes shocking aircraft carrier decision while China threat rises
Aircraft carriers could be delayed two years even though their deterrence value is higher than ever
By Rebecca Grant Fox News
What a shock. According to the newly released budget, the Pentagon wants to slow down America's aircraft carriers. You may be thinking: no carrier, no "Top Gun," no "Maverick." How we'd miss those thriller movies.
But the facts are even worse. Delaying aircraft carriers courts disaster at a time when their deterrence value is higher than ever. The Navy has a budget plan for new aircraft carriers that can launch drones, carry lasers and face down China, but President Biden's budget took out so much money that the whole aircraft carrier plan may fall apart.
I can't remember when I've seen such a policy and reality mismatch.
Moving two aircraft carriers into place was vital to bottling up Iran and protecting deployed U.S. forces after the Hamas attack on Israel. The first thing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin did was send the USS Gerald R. Ford from the Aegean Sea to a combat position near Lebanon. Next the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower surged from her homeport in Norfolk, Virginia, to add more firepower near the Red Sea.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford was the first of the new class of carriers. But sister ships could be delayed by
budget cuts. (Andrej Tarfila/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The deterrence value of Navy aircraft carriers has never been higher. Don't take my word for it. Back in December, Austin made a special trip to the USS Dwight Eisenhower, praising the action of her sailors and airmen. "Sometimes our greatest achievements are the bad things we stop from happening," Austin told the crew. "In a moment of huge tension in the region, you all have been the linchpin of preventing a wider regional conflict."
Right now, the Ike is still there and the F/A-18EF Superhornet fighter planes she carries are mounting continuous air patrols, knocking down Houthi drones and missiles. At the same time, the U.S. has two carriers on operations in the Pacific making sure China's navy and Coast Guard don't block off vital sea lanes or encircle Taiwan.
Deterrence in two major combat theaters is resting on these 100,000-ton ships. So, it's astonishing that the Navy's Fiscal Year 2025 budget just sent to Congress is going to slow down new Navy aircraft carriers by taking away shipbuilding funds for two years.
You know what else makes me mad? China is racing to build aircraft carriers. It makes me mad to see Chinese President Xi Jinping's admirals investing while the Pentagon backs off.
China's newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian is bigger and a technological leap ahead for China's navy. The Fujian started dead-load catapult testing last November. China is serious about launching aircraft carriers to compete with the Ford-class designs.
Their aircraft carriers are still not nuclear-powered, and overall are not as capable as the Ford-class, but they can cause plenty of trouble, especially for allies. If China keeps producing the Fujian class, Chinese carriers could lock out the U.S. and allies from the Strait of Malacca to the Sea of Japan.
So, the carrier slip is also damaging because it impacts the new carriers. Believe me, these are carriers you want the Navy to buy. The Ford class took lessons from decades of carrier operations and created a ship class with innovations and room to grow.
Take the new launch catapults and arresting gear – the wire apparatus that catches the plane's tailhook. Old steam catapults delivered a huge jolt to launch aircraft. Remember the grimace when Tom Cruise as Maverick and fellow naval aviators launched from the carrier in the "Top Gun" movies? That was old school.
The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) Carrier Strike Groups steam in formation, in the South
China Sea, Monday, July 6, 2020. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jason Tarleton/U.S. Navy via AP)
The Ford's electromagnetic catapults finesse the launch with gradually increasing power, and vary the speed for launching lighter airframes such as drones. Pilots do say it's strange not to see the iconic steam wafting up. However, the USS Ford generated 10,396 sorties in 239 days underway with the new catapults.
All that opens up new options. Retired Rear Adm. Michael "Nasty" Manazir (a real Top Gun pilot and aircraft carrier commander) once described the Advanced Arresting Gear for USNI News as still "a controlled crash, but relatively more softly." Navy planes had to be heavy to withstand the "cats and traps" getting on and off the ship. With the Ford-class carrier, "you can now start to do things with aircraft design that you couldn't do before," Manazir said.
Future carriers in 2040 in a heavy electromagnetic spectrum threat environment have many more options for the types of aircraft flying off their decks. But only if the Navy buys the carriers now.
Don't forget the Ford-class also has more electric power generation and can one day mount laser self-defense weapons.
Law mandates at least 11 operational aircraft carriers and the Navy always says they'd prefer 12. (Carriers can't all be deployed at once, due to maintenance, nuclear reactor overhaul, and training schedules.) Yet the Navy's plan delays CVN-82 and basically, every ship afterward. Older Nimitz class carriers have to retire when their nuclear reactors age out.
That may sound like Washington math, but it's the beginning of a death spiral. You can imagine how complicated aircraft carrier construction is. Right now, parts of three new aircraft carriers are in the assembly drydocks at Newport News, Virginia. If the Navy hits pause on CVN-82, the shipyards and suppliers can't catch up.
Buying an aircraft carrier every six or seven years is not economical. Obviously. Worse, it's probably not feasible. The precious workforce of American men and women who build carriers cannot stand around and they may drift away to other programs which have money. The Navy's own charts show the result is a fall to 10, then nine aircraft carriers in the next decades.
No carriers, no agile deterrence. Heck, we Americans invented the aircraft carrier and its Pacific tactics in World War II. China's navy is already bigger than ours. The advanced aircraft carriers are key to America's military edge that protects our way of life. This is not the moment to let China sneak ahead.
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Thanks to Kit
Today's The List talked about Bubba Segars, a larger-than-life, colorful character. Last year Skip included in The List the first chapter of my book, Flying Black Ponies: The Navy's Close Air Support Squadron in Vietnam, published by Naval Institute Press. The opening chapter described the flight in which Bubba was shot down, then evaded capture when some of the remaining bad guys whose AAA emplacement he just destroyed chased him into the ocean.
Bubba and I were very close. We served together in VAL-4 and later in VA-127. We flew a lot together. During the last year of its existence VAL-4's mission changed. SEALs were disbanded and sent home. The Navy's Riverine Forces (PBRs, Swift Boats, etc.) were "Vietnamized," i.e., turned over to the Vietnamese Navy. Previously, Americans had taken the boats out daily and often at nights, weekends and in bad weather. The Vietnamese turned out to be a "fair weather" navy. So, our close air support missions almost dried up. Bubba and I quickly developed a plan and the skipper agreed to it. We called it "business development." (Decades later I helped start two companies using business development, albeit without ordinance!)
Bubba and I set out to use all our connections with the U.S. Army advisors and the remaining Army ground and aviation units in the Mekong Delta. We went out to the forward fire bases on Army helos and spent time convincing them that we could help them by providing close air support 24/7. We integrated our two- and four-plane fire team flights into the Army Air Cav Pack (Huey gunships, "slicks," Cobras, and Loaches") missions with "big stuff," 20 five-inch Zuni rockets, 20mm cannon and CBU Fuel Air Explosive bombs. Our "business" quickly exploded (pun intended).
Lessons learned from Flying Black Ponies applied to the Iraq war.
Decades later, Congressman Duncan L. Hunter, the Chairman of US House of Representatives Armed Forces Committee, wrote a Second Forward to my Flying Black Ponies book. In the paperback addition of 2009, Naval Institute Press added Duncan Hunter's second Forward to Stephen Coonts' Forward (quoted in Monday's The List 6786). It is about a project to bring back the OV-10.
Here is Chaiman Hunter's Forward, published just after the facts about it (Task Force Odin and Combat Dragon II) were declassified:
Flying Black Ponies: The Navy's Close Air Support Squadron in Vietnam, by Kit Lavell
Forward to the 2009 edition.
When I read the firsthand accounts in Flying Black Ponies, I was struck by the vividness of the chronicles and the close connection between the Ponies amazing operations in Vietnam and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I gave my own modest service in Vietnam, I was always impressed with quote "those guys up there, "fast movers (jets), choppers, and fixed-wing aircraft that provided a lifeline to the men on the ground. Though I never worked with the Ponies, they clearly represented the best of American military innovation. The Black Ponies were custom made to solve challenges of "close in" war in Vietnam. The NV A and VC developed tactics that centered on ambushes and attacks at extremely close ranges. By getting up close and personal with an American unit before engaging it, the enemy could neutralize the firepower off U.S. artillery, bombers, and most tactical aircraft.
It became clear that the United States needed an air support capability that would "work the seams" that fifty-yard distance between friend and foe that might exist in a tight firefight. Such a capability required tough, slow moving, aircraft piloted by Americans who could operate with AK-47 rounds punching up their aircraft; men who could move across enemy ground forces at crop duster levels and keep their nerve. Kit Lavell and his colleagues were the men who fit that bill. They operated their OV-10 Bronco aircraft with courage and skill, saving countless lives in hundreds of tightly contested battles. They also killed more enemy soldiers than all of the carrier-based aircraft in the U.S. Navy, but the service of the Black Ponies didn't end with Vietnam.
As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2005, I was focused on finding an answer to the roadside bombs that were producing the majority of U.S. casualties in Iraq. Roadside bombs, or IEDs, (improvised explosive devices), were the terrorist artillery of the Iraq war. They usually consisted of a 155-artillery round, rigged to be detonated by remotely operated electronic devices such as a garage door opener, short range radio, or cell phone. The enemy might pull up to a pile of roadside trash, take a 155-artillery round from the trunk of his car, camouflage the explosive, and move on. Later, another insurgent, perhaps without even a weapon, would wait for an American convoy to pass. When the U.S. vehicles were aligned with the hidden bomb, the insurgent would detonate it with his remote-control device and simply walk away or disappear into the crowd. The practice of killing Americans with roadside bombs was crude, simple, and effective. And, like the challenge of providing extremely close air support in Vietnam, it defied the technology wizards of the U.S. military industrial complex.
I had assembled a team of scientists in the House Armed Services Committee, and we agreed that we had to find a way to kill the roadside bombers while they were emplacing the explosives. Such an operation would require persistent aerial surveillance, carried out by expert pilots with small, quiet aircraft that could operate in rough conditions. My brother, Dr. John Hunter, told me about a legendary Bronco pilot from Vietnam, and Kit Lavell of 'Black Pony' fame, turned out to be a man of enormous experience. When we met in San Diego, California, Kit laid out a plan that a new team of Black Ponies, privately contracting with the Department of Defense, could execute.
The United States needed to put "eyes" over Iraq's major roads on a consistent basis. That meant fueling a team of aircraft like OV-10 Broncos, King Airs (Army C-12s), or bush planes equipped with with state-of-the-art, commercial off-the-shelf electro-optical infrared lens sensor/ camera packages. The surveillance aircraft would fly the roads, and when insurgents pulled their vehicle over, and unloaded their "bomb," the surveillance plane would vector in a shooter platform, such as an attack helicopter or fighter aircraft, which could then proceed to kill the bomber. Kit Lavell put together such a proposal and briefed myself, my Armed Services Committee team, and many military leaders, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. While the Black Ponies weren't reactivated, the basic plan caught on.
Dr. Harry Cartland and Steve De Teresa of my staff set up a demonstration of the "surveillance/ hand-off/shoot" plan using an aircraft equipped with the new surveillance technology. We briefed the plan to dozens of military leaders from the Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld on down. Ultimately, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody implemented the plan, initiating a program in which some of the Army's King Air aircraft were equipped with high-end surveillance gear and deployed to Iraq in 2006. The results were awesome.
Thousands of terrorists were killed, caught in the act of placing roadside bombs intended to kill American troops. The operation of devastating the roadside bombers in Iraq was called Odin. I have another name for it: The Black Ponies, Act Two.
Duncan L Hunter
U.S. Representative. (Retired)
Chairman, House Armed Services Committee.
Smithsonian "Air Warriors"
After VAL-4 Bubba and I were both IPs at VA-127. This is where Bubba ejected from his third A-4 when he lost an engine over Edwards AFB. I understand Bubba jumped out of an F-18 as a civilian acceptance test pilot near St. Louis, making him a "Black Ace!"
Sadly, Bubba flew west on his final flight last year. And with him, the mold was broken.
As a follow up to Duncan Hunter's Forward, here is a video on You Tube about the Smithsonian Channel's TV series Air Warriors episode about the Combat Dragon II OV-10's 2015 deployment to Mosul, Iraq. This was the culmination of what Duncan Hunter set in motion as the plan to kill the IED insurgents. Task Force Odin was very successful and led to the winding down of the war in Iraq. Duncan and I had briefed the Marines (the commandant liked the idea) but they and the Navy would have had to give up each of the $66m F-18s for each of the approximately $1m OV-10s! The Navy expressed the same. We did not approach the Air Force. Because Duncan Hunter got $20m in black money, and the situation on the ground in Iraq was dire, the Army jumped on the idea, as Duncan Hunter describes in his Forward. BTW, during the time that Task Force Odin was kicking the hell out of the insurgents, Bob Woodward was hawking his latest book, and he was being asked about "The Surge," the plus up of U.S. troops which looked as if they were having an effect in western Anbar Province. He said it was not The Surge, but a supersecret project he would not name (Task Force Odin, of course).
At 25 min 33 seconds into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ-24F6ncjk the Smithsonian interviewed me about one of the most unusual combat missions I had the opportunity to fly. I led a night mission with Bubba on my wing flying CAS for defenders of an outpost being overrun at night in thunderstorms. We expended all our ordnance and had been RTB when the good guys frantically radioed us to return. Immediately. We did, Winchester. And with only paraflares, we took care of the bad guys.
Kit
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I was thinking that for the home front the end of 1944 and the first 6 months of 1945 with the Batttle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima and then Okinawa it must have been pretty rough with all the casualties. It took a long time to get any information home from the front in those days. Fast forward to the Vietnam war and it took about two weeks to get a letter home and two more to receive an answer. Nowadays they have email and cell phones . I remember my last cruise on the USS Midway in 72-73. The news went out to home very fast on Shoot downs ( no names just aircraft type) and there were only 4 of us RF-8 PILOTS On The USS Midway so each time we lost one my parents did not know for weeks who was involved and we lost two. One POW and one picked up by friendlies. My dad said that it was a tough time at home not knowing the real story …..Skip
Thanks to Carl
The freezing hell of the Battle of the Bulge: Colorized images show resilience of US troops in snow camouflage advancing on Ardennes and tank crews huddling together in front of camp fires ahead of one of the most brutal encounters of WWII Germany launched the offensive against the Allies on December 16, 1944 - Hitler's last offensive of the war US troops fought back and held off the Siege of Bastogne but thousands of people including civilians died These colorized photographs show the freezing conditions soldiers fighting in the battle had to content with
More From Wikipedia
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, and took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg, towards the end of the war in Europe. The offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor.
The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance due to bad weather. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and, later, Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement) also sustained heavy losses. The Germans had attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of heavily overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, and in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops. The farthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant, being stopped by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division on 24 December 1944.[15][16][17] Improved weather conditions from around 24 December permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. On 26 December the lead element of Patton's U.S. Third Army reached Bastogne from the south, ending the siege. Although the offensive was effectively broken by 27 December, when the trapped units of 2nd Panzer Division made two break-out attempts with only partial success, the battle continued for another month before the front line was effectively restored to its position prior to the attack. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line.
The Germans' initial attack involved 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; 1,600 anti-tank guns; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles (AFVs).[4] These were reinforced a couple of weeks later, bringing the offensive's total strength to around 450,000 troops, and 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action, or captured. For the Americans, out of a peak of 610,000 troops,[18] 89,000[5] became casualties out of which some 19,000 were killed.[5][19] The "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II[20][21][22] and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.
Thanks to Carl
Air Force F-15 paint job honors WWII hero who gave up his parachute
BY MAX HAUPTMAN | PUBLISHED JUL 22, 2022 9:59 AM EDT
This is one slick looking F-15 Eagle.
Assigned to the Oregon Air National Guard's 173rd Fighter Wing, the aircraft's paint scheme is designed to honor the namesake of the 173rd Fighter Wing's Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base, 2nd Lt. David R. Kingsley, who received the Medal of Honor during World War II.
On June 23, 1944, Kinglsey was serving as the bombardier of a B-17 on a mission over the Romanian oil fields at Ploesti. During the raid, Kingsley's aircraft was heavily damaged and the tail gunner, Michael J. Sullivan, was wounded. Kingsley administered first aid to Sullivan and another wounded crewmember as the badly damaged B-17 lost altitude. The pilot eventually gave the order to bail out, but Sullivan's parachute had been damaged, at which point Kingsley removed his own chute and strapped in onto the wounded man. Kingsley then remained with the aircraft until it crashed.
The F-15's paint scheme was unveiled in 2019, 75 years after Kinglsey's death. Kinglsey's portrait, set over Oregon's Crater Lake, is stenciled on the tail. The rest of the paint scheme is also reflective of the Army Air Corps of Kingsley's day. The mottled greens and browns are similar to those many B-17s had, and the F-15's wings are also painted with the distinctive black and white "invasion stripes" that were meant to denote allied aircraft. The nose is also stenciled with art from the squadron and group that Kingsley flew with.
At the unveiling in 2019, the 173rd Fighter Wing's commander, Col. Jeffrey Edwards, read from a letter Sullivan had written to Kingsley's oldest surviving brother in 1945.
"'Tommy, I am more than grateful that my life was spared by your brother Dave giving up his life so that I could live,'" read Edwards. "'I am not ashamed to admit when I think of Dave I also have tears come into my eyes, if it weren't for me getting wounded Dave's life would have been saved.'"
Born in Portland, Oregon, Kingsley grew up there and worked as a firefighter before enlistingin April, 1942. Commissioned a year later, he was eventually assigned as a bombardier in the 97th Bomb Group.
At the 2019 dedication of the F-15, Edwards described Kingsley's own account of his first mission on April 29, 1944.
"'lots of flak—got a piece in the nose and missed me by two inches it seemed like it was glass off the nose, then I come to the wing-fast and a piece hit me on the hand—the pain did not stay with me,'" read Edwards.
Kinglsey was flying his 20th mission when he was killed two months later. The Medal of Honor was presented to his family the following April.
The Air Force has no shortage of interesting and unique paint schemes for some of its aircraft, and this one can certainly take its place on the list.
The Medal of Honor citation for 2nd Lt. David R. Kingsley can be read in its entirety below:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, 23 June 1944 near Ploesti, Rumania, while flying as bombardier of a B-17 type aircraft. On the bomb run 2d Lt. Kingsley's aircraft was severely damaged by intense flak and forced to drop out of formation, but the pilot proceeded over the target and 2d Lt. Kingsley successfully dropped his bombs, causing severe damage to vital installations. The damaged aircraft, forced to lose altitude and to lag behind the formation, was aggressively attacked by three ME-109 aircraft, causing more damage to the aircraft and severely wounding the tail gunner in the upper arm. The radio operator and engineer notified 2d Lt. Kingsley that the tail gunner had been wounded and that assistance was needed to check the bleeding. Second Lt. Kingsley made his way back to the radio room, skillfully applied first aid to the wound, and succeeded in checking the bleeding. The tail gunner's parachute harness and heavy clothes were removed and he was covered with blankets, making him as comfortable as possible. Eight ME-109 aircraft again aggressively attacked 2d Lt. Kingsley's aircraft and the ball turret gunner was wounded by 20-mm shell fragments. He went forward to the radio room to have 2d Lt. Kingsley administer first aid. A few minutes later when the pilot gave the order to prepare to bail out, 2d Lt. Kingsley immediately began to assist the wounded gunners in putting on their parachute harness. In the confusion, the tail gunner's harness, believed to have been damaged, could not be located in the bundle of blankets and flying clothes which had been removed from the wounded men. With utter disregard for his own means of escape, 2d Lt. Kingsley unhesitatingly removed his parachute harness and adjusted it to the wounded tail gunner. Due to the extensive damage caused by the accurate and concentrated 20-mm fire by the enemy aircraft the pilot gave the order to bail out, as it appeared that the aircraft would disintegrate at any moment. Second Lt. Kingsley aided the wounded men in bailing out and when last seen by the crewmembers he was standing on the bomb bay catwalk. The aircraft continued to fly on automatic pilot for a short distance, then crashed and burned. His body was later found in the wreckage. Second Lt. Kingsley by his gallant and heroic action was directly responsible for saving the life of the wounded gunner.
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From the archives….a bit of humor
Thanks to Newell
Most, if not all, of THE LIST recipients have probably served OUTUS tours. Wherein, they likely saw amusing signage similar to the following.
Newell
TORTURED ENGLISH
FOR TOURISTS
WELL-SPEECHED HERE!
(Taken from around the world.)
A greeting tacked inside the door of a Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the U.S.S.R.,
you are welcome to it.
A Brussels clothing store sign:
Come inside and have a fit.
A Rumanian hotel elevator notice:
The lift is being fixed for the next days.
During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
A German hospital sign:
No children allowed in the maternity wards.
A Scottish harbor sign:
For Sale boat, single owner green in color.
An Istanbul dentist's doorway sign:
American dentist, second floor.
Teeth extracted by latest methodists.
A Budapest zoo sign:
Please do not feed the animals.
If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
An Athens hotel concierge's desk sign:
If you consider our help impolite,
you should see the manager.
A Kowloon hotel notice to guests:
Is forbidden to steal hotel towels.
If you are not person to do such,
please not to read notice.
A Copenhagen airline ticket office sign:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
A Lisbon hotel room-service notice:
If you wish for breakfast, lift the telephone and ask for room service. This will be enough for you to bring your food up.
A Seville tailor's sign:
Order now your summer suit.
Because is big rush season,
we will execute customers in strict rotation.
A London eatery advertises:
Wanted: man to wash dishes and two waitresses.
A Rome laundry sign:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and
spend the afternoon having a good time.
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This Day in U S Military History April 2
1945 – On Okinawa, forces of the US 10th Army easily advance across the island to the east coast and make some progress to the north and south. At sea, in addition to the bombardment and air support missions performed by the US naval forces, there are attacks by the British carriers on Skashima Gunto Island. In Japanese Kamikaze attacks four US transports are badly damaged with many casualties among the troops aboard.
1975 – As North Vietnamese tanks and infantry continue to push the remnants of South Vietnam's 22nd Division and waves of civilian refugees from the Quang Ngai Province, the South Vietnamese Navy begins to evacuate soldiers and civilians by sea from Qui Nhon. Shortly thereafter, the South Vietnamese abandoned Tuy Hoa and Nha Trang, leaving the North Vietnamese in control of more than half of South Vietnam's territory. During the first week in April, communist forces attacking from the south pushed into Long An Province, just south of Saigon, threatening to cut Highway 4, Saigon's main link with the Mekong Delta, which would have precluded reinforcements from being moved north to assist in the coming battle for Saigon. This action was part of the North Vietnamese general offensive launched in late January 1975, just two years after the cease-fire had been established by the Paris Peace Accords. The initial objective of this campaign was the capture of Ban Me Thuot in the Central Highlands. The battle began on March 4 with the North Vietnamese quickly encircling the city. As it became clear that the communists would take the city and probably the entire Darlac province, South Vietnamese president Thieu decided to protect the more critical populous areas. He ordered his forces in the Central Highlands to pull back from their positions. Abandoning Pleiku and Kontum, the South Vietnamese forces began to move toward the sea, but what started out as an orderly withdrawal soon turned into panic. The South Vietnamese forces rapidly fell apart. The North Vietnamese pressed the attack and were quickly successful in both the Central Highlands and farther north at Quang Tri, Hue and Da Nang. The South Vietnamese soon collapsed as a cogent fighting force and the North Vietnamese continued the attack all the way to Saigon. The South Vietnamese surrendered unconditionally on April 30.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
There were 83 Medals awarded this date for actions in the Civil War and the Indian wars in the West. Here are a few of them.
SWAN, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: Private, Company K, 4th lowa Cavalry. Place and date. At Selma, Ala., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Mt. Pleasant, lowa. Born: 29 May 1838, Green County, Pa. Date of issue: 17 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag (supposed to be 11th Mississippi, C.S.A., and bearer.
THOMPSON, FREEMAN C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company F, 116th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Monroe County, Ohio. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Was twice knocked from the parapet of Fort Gregg by blows from the enemy muskets but at the third attempt fought his way into the works.
TRACY, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Spotsylvania, Va., 12 May 1864; At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Springfield, Mass. Birth: Jewett City, Conn. Date of issue: 19 November 1897. Citation: At the risk of his own life, at Spotsylvania, 12 May 1864, assisted in carrying to a place of safety a wounded and helpless officer. On 2 April 1865, advanced with the pioneers, and, under heavy fire, assisted in removing 2 lines of chevaux_de_frise; was twice wounded but advanced to the third line, where he was again severely wounded, losing a leg.
TUCKER, ALLEN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 10th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Sprague, Conn. Birth: Lyme, Conn. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: Gallantry as color bearer in the assault on Fort Gregg.
VAN MATRE, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 116th Ohio Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Mason County, W. Va. Date of issue: 12 May 1865. Citation: In the assault on Fort Gregg, this soldier climbed upon the parapet and fired down into the fort as fast as the loaded guns could be passed up to him by comrades
WELCH, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company E, 37th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Williamstown, Mass. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 10 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.
WHITE, ADAM
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 11th West Virginia Infantry. Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Parkersburg, W. Va. Birth: Switzerland. Date of issue: 13 June 1865. Citation: Capture of flag.
WILSON, FRANCIS A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company B, 95th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 2 April 1865. Entered service at: Philadelphia Pa. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 25 June 1880. Citation: Was among the first to penetrate the enemy's lines and himself captured a gun of the 2 batteries captured.
DEARY, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company L, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Apache Creek, Ariz., 2 April 1874. Entered service at:——. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 12 April 1875. Citation: Gallantry in action.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for April 2, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
2 April
1915: President Wilson appointed the first members to the NACA.
1916: Lt Richard C. Saufley (USN), flying a Curtiss Hydroairplane at Pensacola, bettered his own American altitude record with a mark of 16,072 feet. (24)
1931: First contract for a Navy fighter with retractable landing gear, the FF-1 biplane, made with Grumman. (24)
1942: Maj Gen Lewis H. Brereton led three heavy bombers in the first Tenth Air Force combat mission to attack ships near Port Blair, Andaman Islands, in the Bay of Bengal. (24)
1944: The XX Bomber Command's first B-29 landed in India. 1954: To 6 April, the 59 ARS and its H-19 helicopters helped refugees in Iraq's flooded Tigris River Valley. In 66 sorties, the H-19s dropped 30,000 pounds of food to 4,000 victims. (2)
1959: Out of 110 candidates, NASA selected Air Force Capts L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and Donald K. "Deke" Slayton; Navy Lt Cmdrs Walter M. Shirra, Jr., and Alan B. Shepard, Jr., and Lt M. Scott Carpenter; and Marine Lt Col John H. Glenn, Jr., as the Project Mercury Astronauts. (20)
1963: Explorer XVII, NASA's stainless steel satellite, entered an almost perfect orbit after being launched aboard a Delta Rocket. It reported data tripling all previous direct measurement of neutral gases in the upper atmosphere.
1966: SAC inactivated the 576 SMS (ICBM Atlas), its last Atlas unit. (1) (6)
1976: The last C-118A Liftmaster in the active inventory went to Davis Monthan for storage. (16) (26)
1990: In the McDonnell Douglas NF-15B Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) Maneuvering Technology Demonstrator, Maj Erwin "Bud" Jenschke demonstrated in-flight thrust reversing for the first time over Edwards AFB. (20)
1997: A C-141 assigned to the 459 AW (AFRES) at Andrews AFB left Scott AFB for Sucre, Bolivia, with enough donated medical equipment to set up two surgical rooms. The Diocese of Joliet Peace and Justice at Romeoville, Ill., donated the cargo. (22)
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