To All,
Good Sunday Morning April 7, 2024. The sun did come out and the clouds did not show up and it was a great day yesterday. More of the same for the next week or so. It should be dry enough soon to go out and attack the weeds, The one tree that still has a bunch of bushels of leaves is yet to start dumping them but I think it will be soon.
I hope that you all are enjoying your 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
April 7
1776 The Continental brig Lexington, commanded by John Barry, captures the British tender Edward near the Virginia Capes after a fierce fight that takes nearly an hour.
1944 USS Saufley (DD 465) sinks the Japanese submarine I 2, west-northwest of New Hanover, while USS Champlin (DD 601) is damaged after intentionally ramming German submarine U-856 380 miles off Nova Scotia, Canada. Champlin then teams with USS Huse (DE 145) to sink U-856.
1944 USS Gustafson (DE 182) sinks the German submarine U 857 off Cape Cod, Mass.
1945 Fast Carrier Task Force 58 aircraft attack the Japanese First Diversion Attack Force, sinking Japanese battleship Yamato and light cruiser Yahagi west-southwest of Kagoshima, Japan, as well as sinking four Japanese destroyers and damaging four others in the East China Sea.
1990 The Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Albany (SSN 573) is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk.
1979 USS Ohio (SSBN 726), the first Trident submarine, launches at Groton, Conn. She is commissioned into the Navy in November that same year. Following a conversion to a guided-missile submarine in 2006, she is now SSGN-726. I was able to do a tour on this boat in the early 80s and it was very big and very impressive skip
1993 The Avenger-class mine countermeasure ship USS Warrior (MCM 10) is commissioned. The ship is currently based in Sasebo, Japan.
2017 On the orders of President Trump, USS Ross (DDG 71) and USS Porter (DDG 78) launch Tomahawk missiles into Syria April 7, in retaliation for the regime of Bashar Assad using nerve agents to attack his own people.
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This Day in World History April 7
1199 English King Richard I is killed by an arrow at the Siege of the Castle of Chalus in France.
1789 The First U.S. Congress begins regular sessions at Federal Hall in New York City.
1814 Granted sovereignty in the island of Elba and a pension from the French government, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates at Fontainebleau. He is allowed to keep the title of emperor.
1830 Joseph Smith and five others organize the Church of Latter-Day Saints in Seneca, New York.
1862 Confederate forces attack General Ulysses S. Grant at Shiloh, Tennessee.
1865 At the Battle of Sailer's Creek, a third of Lee's army is cut off by Union troops pursuing him to Appomattox.
1896 The Modern Olympics begin in Athens with eight nations participating.
1903 French Army Nationalists are revealed to have forged documents to guarantee a conviction for Alfred Dreyfus.
1909 Americans Robert Peary and Matthew Henson become the first men to reach the North Pole.
1917 The United States declares war on Germany and enters World War I on Allied side.
1924 Four planes leave Seattle on the first successful flight around the world.
1938 The United States recognizes Nazi Germany's conquest of Austria.
1941 German forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson authorizes the use of ground troops in combat operations.
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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
This man never stopped doing his job after being shot down and pursued by NVN soldiers.
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "Sunday 7 April
7 https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2834
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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From the List Archives
AWSOM STORY
Thanks to Mike "Quick Draw"McGraw Here is a short article he wrote for the Military Aviation Museum on some of the experiences that his father, Joseph D "Pogo" McGraw related to him about the "Battle off Samar" in 1944. This was Taffy 3. A group of three destroyers. Four destroyer escorts and a couple of small Jeep carriers that saved the beaches at Leyte gulf from being destroyed by a large force of Japanese battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
A Grumman FM-2 "Wilder Wildcat" Ace's Story
The Battle Off Samar 25 October 1944
It is early morning aboard the USS Gambier Bay (CVE-73) and the VC-10 pilots not launched on the dawn combat air patrol (CAP) mission head to the wardroom for coffee and breakfast. Their routine operations schedule is about to become a desperate fight for survival as the fog of war envelopes them, literally from an early morning fog and mist in the form of an overwhelmingly powerful enemy surface formation appearing unexpectedly on the horizon.
Gambier Bay and VC-10, a composite squadron of FM-2 Wildcats (VF) and TBM-1C Avengers (VA) are supporting amphibious landing operations on the island of Leyte, Philippines. Rear Adm. Thomas L. Sprague's Task Group 77.4, consisting of 18 escort carriers organized in Task Units 77.4.1, 77.4.2, and 77.4.3, known by their voice radio call signs as Taffys 1, 2, and 3, respectively[i] are flying ground attack, close air support, CAP and anti-submarine patrol missions over the invasion fleet, beach head and advancing ground forces. Rear Adm. Clifton A. F. "Ziggy" Sprague's Taffy 3, including USS Gambier Bay, 5 sister CVEs, 3 DDs and 4 DDEs are stationed to the east of the island of Samar and closest to the opening of the San Bernardino strait into the Philippine Sea. A daring night transit of the strait by IJN forces under Vice Adm. Takeo Kurita will bring his 4 battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers (Center Force in the Sho-Go 1 Philippine defense plan[ii]) into violent contact with Taffy 3 at approximately 07:00 on October 25, 1944 beginning the "Battle off Samar".
On this day my father, then 20 years old Ens. Joseph D. "Pogo" McGraw was an FM-2 pilot in VC-10 who found himself embroiled in what will become perhaps the most surprising and lopsided naval victory in the Pacific. He will survive the war, fly F9F2 Panthers over Korea, test fly the XF4D Skyray, bomb forest fires with modified TBM Avengers and inspire me (his oldest son) to become a Navy fighter pilot. It wasn't until then that I got the story of this day as he lived it in his FM-2.
Ens. Joseph D "Pogo" McGraw. National Museum of Naval Aviation
Having flown the dawn CAP the previous day and scoring his second and third aerial victories downing 2 Kawasaki KI-48 twin engine bombers[iii], Pogo was one of those in the wardroom as general quarters sounded. "We ran to the ready room where the intel officer informed us that the enemy was in sight to the north west and man aircraft! Grabbing only my helmet I went to the flight deck finding an FM-2 on the fantail to man-up and was the last VF off the deck. The deck run takeoff was pretty dicey as I had to wait a long time for the deck to clear ahead of me and the ship was performing violent evasive maneuvers as I began my takeoff roll. High caliber munitions explosions were bracketing us and very close. Once airborne we found wingman of opportunity and attacked the enemy surface combatants[iv]." The standard tactic was to have the VF go in first to strafe and draw fire away from the VA who followed to deliver torpedoes. "I never thought I would be strafing a battleship in my little Wildcat, but there we were!"[v] Ens. McGraw made 11 low level strafing runs on a battleship, and 3 heavy cruisers in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire during his first flight[vi].
Huge geysers of water erupt around Gambier Bay as a Japanese cruiser, most likely Chikuma (barely discernable on the horizon on the right), fires at her, 25 October 1944. (U.S. Navy Photograph 80-G-287505, National Archives and Records Administration, Still Pictures Division, College Park, Md.)
Running low on fuel and out of ammunition Pogo went looking for his ship to recover and rearm. As he approached Taffy 3 he observed that Gambier Bay was mortally wounded and sinking, the other carriers were under attack and offered no chance of a landing. Diverting to overhead Tacloban field he realized that the field was in no condition to receive, rearm and refuel aircraft, there were several crashes on the field already and to stay in the fight he would have to find a Taffy 1 or 2 carrier for recovery[vii]. Flying to the last known position of Taffy 2 he found and recovered aboard the USS Manila Bay and reported to VC-80 ready for duty, he had 8 gallons of fuel remaining[viii].
Forty minutes later refueled and rearmed Pogo launched with VC-80 for more attacks making strafing runs against a battleship, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer[ix]. Recovering and rearming for the third time he launched again from Manila Bay as section leader on a CAP mission. After arriving on station and patrolling for 1.5 hours they were vectored toward a large boggy and encountered 18-20 Vals (Aichi D3A type 99 single engine bombers) escorted by 10-12 Zekes (A6M3 Zeros). During the ensuing engagement Ens. McGraw shot down one Val and one Zeke making him the first and only VC-10 Ace[x]. Recovering aboard Manila Bay after his third flight of the day and logging over 9 hours in combat he remained with VC-80 for the next 2 weeks flying missions (after arriving with only his flight suit and helmet) until USS Gambier Bay and VC-10 survivors were recalled. The gallant and determined actions of the Taffy ships and embarked aircraft through their relentless attacks "were instrumental in effecting the retirement of a hostile force threatening our Leyte invasion operations and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval service.[xi]"
In his later years Dad opened up about his experiences giving motivational presentations to wardrooms, ready rooms, and "dining out" functions. He was placed on the Top Gun travelling lecture circuit as "Zero Killer" and enjoyed having a continuing influence on Naval Aviation as a Fighter Ace. He would be the first to point out that in his opinion he didn't do anything that anybody else wouldn't have done and that the men who fought their DDs and DDEs so valiantly in the Battle off Samar and those who went down with their ships were the real heroes. I am honored to perhaps help him continue to influence Naval Aviation and those on the "tip of the spear" by telling his story. Thanks Dad and all who have and are serving.
Mike "QuickDraw" McGraw
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From the archives
Thanks to David and Dr. Rich
Just when you think you're pretty tough...
Five hurricanes and 240 days later: Australian woman rows 14,000km solo across the Pacific | Queensland | The Guardian
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Thanks to Mud
This is a very good one. Those in our generation have lived in an age which has allowed us to have experienced both the previous and current, a time when America was great and a time of steady decline. As I have said so many times, it's sad, and I feel for our children and grandchildren.
At the bottom of this article I have added a short commentary by Alexis de Tocqueville. It too is worth a read.
S/F,
- Mud
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/03/the_third_fall_of_rome.html
The Third Fall of Rome
The world is changing. In the West, we are no longer the same as we once were and doubt our right to be here. Sensing our weakness, "barbarians" from afar multiply at our borders (i.e. along the Rio Grande and in the Balkans). Harbingers of chaos, they crowd together and push to get inside. Of course, they are not deterred by a few dithering sentries. Dispossessed and coveting, they know very well where they are going; on the other side of the fence, they see a fat, docile cow waiting to be milked — and slaughtered. The pressure increases year by year. Rome is about to fall for the third time.
Telltale signs of what lies ahead are open to study everywhere in the West — on both sides of the Atlantic. The boundless optimism of yesterday, say, the early 1990s, is like the distant echo of hearty laughter. What we take for granted today — freedom, safety, and prosperity — we might have to fight to keep tomorrow.
In the outside world, e.g. the capitals of the so-called "BRICS" countries, preparations are made to end the hegemony of the West. Sure enough, we have paid indulgences for our alleged sins of colonialism for almost a hundred years. However, we should not expect forgiveness or pity on that account. In case we think that we have built "goodwill" with the third-world countries receiving foreign aid, we have seriously miscalculated. As far as they are concerned, our wealth is up for grabs.
The happy days are over. As Westerners, we are not marching confidently into the future, but bumping and tottering. Our place in history is threatened. In the shadowland of moral relativism, ideological confusion, and fatalistic cowardice, we have lost our bearings. It is as if we, children of the West, have been spoiled to such a degree that we completely neglect the origin of our success in history. This bodes ill for the future. The West is left open to invasion by those who know the struggle for life (i.e. immigrants by the millions from Latin America or Africa and the Middle East). If we become doubtful and leave a power vacuum, unsure of our own raison d'être, others are more than ready to fill it.
The abolition of the cardinal virtues (i.e. prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) in the de-Christianized, transitional societies of the West is approaching as a matter of fact. The body of thought that they represent form the sort of philosophical basis on which you may build an orderly society. Pillars of civilization, they have served us well in the past. The history of the European countries, North America, Australia, and New Zealand testifies to this salient point. Regrettably, however, those virtues have nothing like universal validity. Thus, it is not that they have been given to us by God like the laws of Moses. Neither are they derived from human nature as if inherent dispositions embedded in biology. Strictly speaking, they are unique to Western culture. They represent an arbitrary construct of history. Accordingly, they may not be understood, let alone accepted, elsewhere.
Even though we have ourselves formulated the cardinal virtues and lived by them for so long, taking them for granted as the basis of social cohesion, we may also lose them, suddenly challenged in numbers by non-West (and anti-West) foreigners with a culture of their own. That menacing prospect, spelling the conditions of complete alienation and civilizational dissolution, we ultimately owe to our own decadence and imprudence. We have slept on our watch.
Unfortunately, we have long since forgotten our own struggle for survival. If the Westerners of today had any historical awareness of the past, they would know that, since the dawn of time, we have fought against invasions from the East. The wealth and strength, which we have preserved so far, are due to the ingenuity of our ancestors, their courage and care for posterity. However, there is a general reluctance to face the real dangers of today and fight for our home in the West.
For a long time, we have made self-denying decisions in a world of competing cultures. Survival in the long term is determined, not by whimsical standards of hypocrisy, to be sure, but the resolve to prevail. However, we possess neither the stoicism of the pagan Greeks nor the piety of the Christian scholastics. Morally corrupted by popular ideas of guilt and spoiled habits of consumerism, we have become extremely selfish, lazy, and pleasure-seeking. It seems that we live solely for the gratification of the present and give no thought to tomorrow. Our conceited thoughtlessness might cost us dearly in the end.
In fairness, we have but ourselves to thank for our current predicament. The origin of the treacherous attack on our society is the worldview of a nihilistic subculture at our universities, shared by ignorant, undisciplined, and self-aggrandizing students. Seduced into political activism by delusions of social justice and penance, they condemn the rest of us to eternal perdition because of a colonial past.
Our self-inflicted weakness, which is of a moral rather than material nature, exposes us to a determined enemy. It so happens that the threats to the West are piling up: there are the immigrants flooding our lands like the barbarians of Roman times; and there is the imminent threat of military attacks from totalitarian empires in Europe and beyond. In the centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. and the Eastern in 1453, brought about by the Huns and Turks, respectively, we had to fight for our identity and resist the danger of complete absorption by immigrant peoples.
After the mayhem caused by broken borders and uncontrolled immigration, a civilization based on reason, courage, and accountability (merit) rather than orthodoxy, savagery, and submission saw the light of day and thrived. As a response to the medieval doomsday mood (reflected in the aberrant ideals of the Gothic style), the classical ideals of antiquity, ranging from literature to architecture, eventually found their way back to the world of the living; the West was reborn.
Integrating Hellenistic-Roman and Jewish traditions, Christian culture laid the foundation for the Enlightenment, the unhampered pursuit of both scientific knowledge and artistic beauty, and an unparalleled progress in technology and industry. It saved a historical reverence for reason and individualism. Aligned with humanist principles — universal human dignity, individual freedom, and the importance of happiness (cf. the ideals of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" in the American Declaration of Independence) — its teachings stood in stark contrast to a dichotomous slave-master mentality endemic to other parts of the world.
A cultural decline and vulnerability to foreign influence, the likes of which have been unthinkable since the last days of Rome, are now evident in the West. Rather than a lack of wisdom and beauty in the church, however, they reflect the crushing victory of secularism in the twentieth century. Despite unrestricted access to knowledge, Westerners in a de-Christianized world behave like suggestible orphans; the denial of God has cut them off from their own lineage and driven them into the arms of ungodly, inhumane, and fraudulent movements such as modernism and totalitarianism (i.e. fascism, socialism).
Thought by some to represent the pinnacle of civilization, but deeply disorientated in moral terms, the so-called "secular society" is but an unstable and intermediate form characterized by unresolved disputes and upheavals. It has replaced godliness (i.e. Christian faith and tradition) and personal freedom, including the freedom of speech, with claims for "universal rights" (i.e. tantamount to unlimited immigration from third-world countries) and "tolerance of the intolerant" (i.e. selectively sparing overtly illiberal movements from criticism by prohibiting "phobic" views and zealously prosecuting violations).
The legacy of the Enlightenment is eroding. What we took to be immutable, the bulwark of our civilization, is crumbling around us. Civil liberties in society come under pressure from, not the government, at first, but those who strive for total domination, willing to exterminate anybody unwilling to submit.
If the anti-Western forces really succeed, it will be ever so quiet in the West. There will be no exchange of ideas between learned men and women. It will be the time of darkness, the time of cruelty and barbarism.
"
Image Public Domain
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." ¯ Alexis de Tocqueville
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." ¯ Alexis de Tocqueville
"Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." ¯ Alexis de Tocqueville
"Society will develop a new kind of servitude which covers the surface of society with a network of complicated rules, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate. It does not tyrannise but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." ¯ Alexis de Tocqueville
"Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom." ¯ Alexis de Tocqueville
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
7 Magical Facts About Dragons
If you've ever picked up a modern fantasy novel or movie, chances are you already know at least a little about some kind of dragon, whether it's the scaly and fire-breathing kind from Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings or the fuzzy, blessed beings in Spirited Away, Raya and the Last Dragon, and The Neverending Story.
Of course, dragons didn't just appear out of the mist — these fantasy beings evolved over millennia of folklore, myth, and spirituality. How did dragons enter the human imagination? Did people actually believe in them? What did "Here Be Dragons" really mean on old maps? Get ready to devour these seven dragon facts.
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Dragon Mythology Has Existed Around the World since Ancient Times
Nearly every region of the world has its own dragon myths, from the benevolent Chinese long to the medieval villains in Europe. Even the Western Hemisphere has ancient dragon myths.
The Rigveda, an Indian text that originated sometime around 1500 BCE, features a snake-like dragon in a creation story. In ancient Babylon, the Mushussu, a vast, cosmic dragon — mostly snake, but part eagle and lion — guarded the gates of Ishtar. The Greek drakon appears throughout ancient mythology. The Olmec people, an early civilization in the Americas dating back to at least 1200 BCE, have what archaeologists refer to as the "Olmec dragon," a powerful god that's part reptile, part jaguar, and part bird. The Rainbow Serpent deity of Indigenous Australians goes back at least 6,000 years.
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Nobody Knows How Dragon Myths Started, But Scholars Have Some Ideas
Although dragon myths are incredibly widespread, those who study ancient folklore can only theorize about how the idea of the dragon started. Most scholars say that these stories developed independently in different parts of the world, but there are a few things that could have caused big snakes — the root of most, if not all, dragon myths — to evolve into something more legendary.
Dinosaur fossils and whale bones may have played a role in imagining these giant creatures, since most of our ancestors would have had little idea what these objects really were. One anthropologist theorizes that the idea of the dragon evolved in human minds as an amalgamation of predators like elephants, pythons, and birds of prey, which humans became hard-wired to fear. Because so many early dragon myths concern water — most regions of the world have a story of a dragon that either controls the rain or guards a body of water — one linguist theorized that rainbows are the common origin. In many early cultures, rainbows are associated with supernatural serpents who guard stores of fresh water and cause the rain to cease by drinking it.
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The Medieval Western Dragon Came Along Relatively Late
For centuries, the dragon was thought of as a form of snake in Europe. But over time, the European medieval dragon — the model we typically now see in Western media like Game of Thrones and the Lord of the Rings series — evolved, especially as Christianity started spreading northward and mingling with Celtic and Germanic cultures. (Under the Christian influence, dragons often became associated with sin and Satan.)
One milestone was the epic Anglo-Saxon poem "Beowulf," which was written between the eighth and 11th centuries (the date of its creation is unclear). In the tale's final battle, the hero Beowulf faces a treasure-guarding, fire-breathing dragon that can fly, although the creature is still more snake than lizard. By the 13th century, winged, bipedal dragons had appeared in at least one bestiary.
This type of dragon is common in folklore throughout the European Middle Ages, but interest waned for a couple hundred years after that. The legends came back to life in the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks at least partially to the Grimm Brothers and, later, J.R.R. Tolkien, who modeled Smaug from "The Hobbit" on a few European dragons, including the Beowulf foe and the Norse dragon Fafnir.
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The Phrase "Here Be Dragons" Is (Mostly) Apocryphal
"Here Be Dragons" is a phrase that supposedly has its roots in old mapmaking, particularly before 1600 or so, as a way to indicate danger or the unknown. It's true that cartographers often used majestic, monstrous beasts as ornaments and markers, but only one or two known early globes reference dragons specifically. No known old paper maps write out a specific dragon warning (although a couple of them do have dragons among their adornments). Fantastical drawings — of dragons, sea monsters, and more — were, in part, added to sell more maps, which were then more of a luxury item than an everyday tool.
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"Puff the Magic Dragon" Was Inspired by a 1930s Children's Poem
"Puff the Magic Dragon," the now-classic 1963 song by Peter, Paul, and Mary, has an interesting backstory, and no, it's not about drugs. A few years before the song was recorded, a 19-year-old college student at Cornell named Lenny Lipton had just arrived at a friend's house for dinner. Before he left, he was reading the 1936 children's poem "The Tale of Custard the Dragon" by Ogden Nash, a relatively lighthearted tale of a scared little pet dragon that musters up the courage to kill and devour a pirate when his friends are in danger. Feeling inspired, Lipton sat down at a typewriter at his friend's house and wrote what would eventually become "Puff the Magic Dragon," a tale about growing out of childhood things like imaginary dragon friends.
"Pirates and dragons, back then, were common interests in stories for boys," he later told LA Weekly. "The Puff story is really just a lot like Peter Pan."
At the time, Lipton didn't put a lot of thought into it, and left his poem behind in the typewriter. It turns out his friend's roommate was Peter Yarrow — as in Peter, Paul, and Mary — who found it and adapted it into the popular song.
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A "Dragon" Skull Stood for 200 Years in an Austrian Town
The Lindwurm is a creature in Germanic folklore that's on the snakey side of dragon: a winged serpent with brilliant green scales. It's a troublesome beast, known for destruction and general carnage, and legend told of one that lived in the dense woods just outside Klagenfurt, Austria. So when some Klagenfurt residents found a "lindwurm" skull in a quarry in 1335, it was put on display in the town hall. An artist borrowed the skull to make a full statue of the dragon in 1582, which is still on display today in the town's central square, along with a fountain and a statue of Hercules. It's considered one of the first efforts to reconstruct the appearance of an animal from a fossil — even though the skull was not from a dragon, but from an Ice Age woolly rhinoceros. The skull itself is still on display in a local museum.
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Komodo Dragons Love to Play
Unlike the other creatures on this list, Komodo dragons are real. Sure, they're a little terrifying — they may drool deadly venom, are able to swallow a goat whole, and sometimes surprise people in the bathroom — but have you ever seen one playing with a bucket?
Play behavior is relatively rare in reptiles, but the world's largest lizard is exceptional. Researchers have observed play in captive Komodo dragons that includes tug-of-war and putting bags and buckets on their heads. Other captive Komodos can tolerate leashes, enjoy massages, and even come when they're called, proving that they're far more complex creatures than the killing machines they sometimes appear to be.
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Thanks to Dr. Rich
Top Gun with a cat
https://youtu.be/w3rQ3328Tok?si=uRDkzyXxDD03QE9m
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 7
1862 – Union forces led by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. Gen. Ulysses Grant after the Battle of Shiloh said: "I saw an open field… so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across… in any direction, stepping on dead bodies without a foot touching the ground." More than 9,000 Americans died.
1945 – In the East China Sea, the Japanese battleship Yamato is sighted by planes from the American carrier groups which attack the battleship in two waves, involving 380 aircraft. The Yamato suffers 10 torpedo hits and 5 bomb hits before sinking. Some 2498 Japanese are killed on board the battleship. The planes, from US Task Force 58, also sink the Japanese cruiser Yahagi and 4 destroyers accompanying the battleship. A total of 10 planes are lost.
1945 – Japanese Kamikaze attacks damage the carrier USS Hancock and the battleship Maryland as well as other ships
1954 – At a news conference while describing the importance of defending Dienbienphu in Vietnam, President Eisenhower articulates the "Domino Theory" of confronting Communist aggression. "You have a row of dominoes set up and you knock over the first one and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you have the beginning of a disintegration that will have the most profound influences.
1972 – The North Vietnamese offensive in Quangtri Province slows. Good weaher allows South Vietnamese pilots to bomb Communist troop concentrations. Communist troops take Locninh, a district capital in Binhlong Province. 15,000 ARVN troops are surrounded by NVA while retreating from Locninh to Anloc.
2003 – In the 19th day of Operation Iraqi Freedom US forces in tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the center of Baghdad, seizing Saddam Hussein's Sijood and Republican palaces. As many as 5 marines were killed. Many Iraqis died in constant suicidal attacks.
2003 – Capt. Harry Alexander Hornbuckle on the road to Baghdad led 80 US soldiers against 300 Iraqi and Syrian fighters. 200 enemy were killed with no US casualties.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
GALLOWAY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Commissary Sergeant, 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Place and date: At Farmville, Va., 7 April 1865. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 30 October 1897. Citation: His regiment being surprised and nearly overwhelmed, he dashed forward under a heavy fire, reached the right of the regiment, where the danger was greatest, rallied the men and prevented a disaster that was imminent.
LUDGATE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Captain, Company G, 59th New York Veteran Infantry. Place and date: At Farmville, Va., 7 April 1865. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: England. Date of issue: 10 August 1889. Citation: Gallantry and promptness in rallying his men and advancing with a small detachment to save a bridge about to be fired by the enemy.
COVINGTON, JESSE WHITFIELD
Rank and organization: Ship's Cook Third Class, U.S. Navy. Place and date: At sea aboard the U.S.S. Stewart, 17 April 1918. Entered service at: California. Born: 16 September 1889, Haywood, Tenn. G.O. No.: 403, 1918. Citation: For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H. The sea in the vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were repeatedly exploding. Jesse W. Covington, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself, fully realizing that similar powder boxes in the vicinity were continually exploding and that he was thereby risking his life in saving the life of this man.
UPTON, FRANK MONROE
Rank and organization: Quartermaster, U.S. Navy. Born: 29 April 1896, Loveland, Colo. Accredited to: Colorado. G.O. No.: 403, 1918. Citation: For extraordinary heroism following internal explosion of the Florence H, on 17 April 1918. The sea in the vicinity of wreckage was covered by a mass of boxes of smokeless powder, which were repeatedly exploding. Frank M. Upton, of the U.S.S. Stewart, plunged overboard to rescue a survivor who was surrounded by powder boxes and too exhausted to help himself. Fully realizing the danger from continual explosion of similar powder boxes in the vicinity, he risked his life to save the life of this man.
COLALILLO, MIKE
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company C, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Untergriesheim, Germany, 7 April 1945. Entered service at. Duluth, Minn. Birth: Hibbing, Minn. G.O. No.: 4, 9 January 1946. Citation: He was pinned down with other members of his company during an attack against strong enemy positions in the vicinity of Untergriesheim, Germany. Heavy artillery, mortar, and machinegun fire made any move hazardous when he stood up, shouted to the company to follow, and ran forward in the wake of a supporting tank, firing his machine pistol. Inspired by his example, his comrades advanced in the face of savage enemy fire. When his weapon was struck by shrapnel and rendered useless, he climbed to the deck of a friendly tank, manned an exposed machinegun on the turret of the vehicle, and, while bullets rattled about him, fired at an enemy emplacement with such devastating accuracy that he killed or wounded at least 10 hostile soldiers and destroyed their machinegun. Maintaining his extremely dangerous post as the tank forged ahead, he blasted 3 more positions, destroyed another machinegun emplacement and silenced all resistance in his area, killing at least 3 and wounding an undetermined number of riflemen as they fled. His machinegun eventually jammed; so he secured a submachinegun from the tank crew to continue his attack on foot. When our armored forces exhausted their ammunition and the order to withdraw was given, he remained behind to help a seriously wounded comrade over several hundred yards of open terrain rocked by an intense enemy artillery and mortar barrage. By his intrepidity and inspiring courage Pfc. Colallilo gave tremendous impetus to his company's attack, killed or wounded 25 of the enemy in bitter fighting, and assisted a wounded soldier in reaching the American lines at great risk of his own life.
*JAMES, WILLY F., Jr.
Citation: For extraordinary heroism in action on 7 April 1945 near Lippoldsberg, Germany. As lead scout during a maneuver to secure and expand a vital bridgehead, Private First Class James was the first to draw enemy fire. He was pinned down for over an hour, during which time he observed enemy positions in detail. Returning to his platoon, he assisted in working out a new plan of maneuver. He then led a squad in the assault, accurately designating targets as he advanced, until he was killed by enemy machine gun fire while going to the aid of his fatally wounded platoon leader. Private First Class James' fearless, self-assigned actions, coupled with his diligent devotion to duty exemplified the finest traditions of the Armed Forces.
OKUTSU, YUKIO
Technical Sergeant Yukio Okutsu distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 7 April 1945, on Mount Belvedere, Italy. While his platoon was halted by the crossfire of three machine guns, Technical Sergeant Okutsu boldly crawled to within 30 yards of the nearest enemy emplacement through heavy fire. He destroyed the position with two accurately placed hand grenades, killing three machine gunners. Crawling and dashing from cover to cover, he threw another grenade, silencing a second machine gun, wounding two enemy soldiers, and forcing two others to surrender. Seeing a third machine gun, which obstructed his platoon's advance, he moved forward through heavy small arms fire and was stunned momentarily by rifle fire, which glanced off his helmet. Recovering, he bravely charged several enemy riflemen with his submachine gun, forcing them to withdraw from their positions. Then, rushing the machine gun nest, he captured the weapon and its entire crew of four. By these single-handed actions he enabled his platoon to resume its assault on a vital objective. The courageous performance of Technical Sergeant Okutsu against formidable odds was an inspiration to all. Technical Sergeant Okutsu's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
SWETT, JAMES ELMS
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Marine Fighter Squadron 221, with Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing. Place and date: Solomon Islands area, 7 April 1943. Entered service at: California. Born: 15 June 1920, Seattle, Wash. Other Navy award: Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 Gold Star. Citation: For extraordinary heroism and personal valor above and beyond the call of duty, as division leader of Marine Fighting Squadron 221 with Marine Aircraft Group 12, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, in action against enemy Japanese aerial forces in the Solomons Islands area, 7 April 1943. In a daring flight to intercept a wave of 150 Japanese planes, 1st Lt. Swett unhesitatingly hurled his 4-plane division into action against a formation of 15 enemy bombers and personally exploded 3 hostile planes in midair with accurate and deadly fire during his dive. Although separated from his division while clearing the heavy concentration of antiaircraft fire, he boldly attacked 6 enemy bombers, engaged the first 4 in turn and, unaided, shot down all in flames. Exhausting his ammunition as he closed the fifth Japanese bomber, he relentlessly drove his attack against terrific opposition which partially disabled his engine, shattered the windscreen and slashed his face. In spite of this, he brought his battered plane down with skillful precision in the water off Tulagi without further injury. The superb airmanship and tenacious fighting spirit which enabled 1st Lt. Swett to destroy 7 enemy bombers in a single flight were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
I watched this episode on TV and he made the statement that not many people know what they are worth but he did. He was picked up by friendly natives and taken to a larger island and traded for a 10 pound bag of rice. So he knows that he is worth a 10 pound bag of rice....skip
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for April 7, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
7 April
1916: Mexican mounted Rurales fired on Lt Herbert A. Dargue at Chihauhau City, Mexico, where he had landed with dispatches from the US Consul. Capt Benjamin D. Foulois, who had left the plane before the incident, was arrested when he objected. (21) (24)
1945: Twentieth Air Force made the first fighter-escorted B-29 mission against Japan. The taking of Iwo Jima, within fighter range of Japan, made this raid possible. (21)
1955: First production-model Lockheed C-130A Hercules (53-3129) flight occurred at the company's facility in Marietta. (8: Apr 90)
1958: Operation JET STREAM. Through 8 April, Brig Gen William E. Eubank, Jr., 93 BMW Commander at Castle AFB, flew a KC-135 on an 18-hour flight from Tokyo, Japan, to Lajes Field, Azores, to set two records. The marks included longest straight-line distance without refueling, 10,229.3 miles in 18 hours 48 minutes; and speed, 492.262 MPH from Tokyo to Washington DC in 13 hours 45 minutes 46.5 seconds. (1) (9)
1966: A US Army OH-6A helicopter made a 2,213-mile, nonstop, nonrefueled flight from Culver City, Calif., to Daytona Beach, Fla., in 15 hours 13 minutes. This flight broke a record set on 5 March 1965 by a US Navy Sikorsky SA-3A helicopter.
1967: AFSC's 6511th Parachute Test Group dropped 50,150 pounds from a C-130 to claim an unofficial world record. (3)
1972: Operation CONSTANT GUARD I. To 9 April, the US answered North Vietnam's Spring offensive. For this operation, MAC moved personnel and cargo from McConnell AFB, Kans., and Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C. to Thailand. Through 13 May, the USAF moved 12 squadrons and 200 aircraft to Southeast Asia to fight off the North Vietnamese. (2) (21)
1995: Operation PROVIDE HOPE. A C-141 left McGuire AFB for Donetsk, Ukraine, carrying 40 passengers and six pallets of equipment and medical supplies. The passengers from the US European Command later taught hospital personnel in Donetsk how to use the donated medical equipment. (18)
1999: The USAF and DARPA selected Boeing to build two unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) for testing at the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB. (3)
2006: The Scaled Composites White Knight mothership dropped the X-37 at about 37,000 feet, and the UAV then flew to the Edwards AFB runway safely. Originally, the X-37 was a NASA flight demonstrator aircraft for the Future X orbital test and reentry research program in the 1990s. DARPA and Boeing revived it as an Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV). (3)
2007: Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. The 128th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron, one of three operational E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attacks Radar System squadrons, recently reached a milestone of 23,000 flight-hours in support of this operation. The JSTARS deployment began on 16 January 2003 when the aircraft flew missions for Operation SOUTHERN WATCH and then Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were first deployed to Prince Sultan AB, Saudi Arabia, and Royal Air Force Akrotiri, Cyprus. In May 2003, the unit relocated to the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing. (AFNEWS, "Joint Stars Exceeds 23,000 Flight Hours, 7 Apr 2007.)
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