To All,
Good Wednesday Morning April 17.A beautiful sunny day has opened up here. Got a little bump in the road this morning. Over slept a bit and then looked at the clock and realized that I had not rolled out all the trash cans last night. Got that done and then came in and the List was going well. Had my cup of tea and that went Ok. The list was just about done so I decided to make my one cup of coffee for the day before I sent out the list. Got the water in the Keurig, hit the right buttons and turned around to clean a few things in the Kitchen and heard a different sound from what I was used to and realized that the machine was doing its thing but my big cup was beside it and not under it. I think I used a whole roll of paper towels cleaning it all up all across where it sits and all the glass had to come up because the coffee got sucked underneath and every where else. Fortunately it did not make the floor. So here I am and sending out the list. I hope your day has a much better start than mine has. OOPs I got to go let the chickens out and feed them.
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 17
1778 The sloop-of-war Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, captures British ship, Lord Chatham, in St. Georges Channel, during the American Revolution.
1808 Napoleon Bonaparte issues the Bayonne Decree, which authorizes the French seizure of all United States ships entering all ports of the Hanseatic League. Napoleon argues the decree will help the United States enforce the Embargo Act signed by President Thomas Jefferson in December 1807.
1915 Chief Gunners Mate Frank Crilley, a naval diver, rescues a fellow diver who had become entangled at a depth of 250 feet during salvage operations for USS F-4 submarine that had sunk March 25, 1915, with the loss of her entire crew. For his heroism on this occasion, he is awarded the Medal of Honor in 1929.
1918 USS Stewart (DD 13) is on escort duty in Quiberon Bay, France when nearby the American steamship Florence H suffers an internal explosion. Ships Cook Third Class Jesse W. Covington and Quartermaster Frank M. Upton dive overboard to save an exhausted survivor surrounded by exploding power boxes. For their actions, both sailors receive the Medal of Honor.
1942 USS Searaven (SS 196) begins rescue of stranded Australian sailors, airmen, and soldiers from Japanese-occupied Timor, N.E.I.
1944 Minesweeper USS Swift (AM 122) and patrol craft USS PC 619 sink the German submarine, U 986, in the North Atlantic.
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This Day in World History
April 17
858 Benedict III ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
1492 Christopher Columbus signs a contract with Spain to find a western route to the Indies.
1524 Present-day New York Harbor is discovered by Giovanni da Verrazzano.
1535 Antonio Mendoza is appointed first viceroy of New Spain.
1758 Frances Williams, the first African-American to graduate from a college in the western hemisphere, publishes a collection of Latin poems.
1808 Bayonne Decree by Napoleon Bonaparte of France orders seizure of U.S. ships.
1824 Russia abandons all North American claims south of 54' 40'.
1861 Virginia becomes the eighth state to secede from the Union.
1864 General Ulysses Grant bans the trading of prisoners.
1865 Mary Surratt is arrested as a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination.
1875 The game "snooker" is invented by Sir Neville Chamberlain.
1895 China and Japan sign peace treaty of Shimonoseki.
1929 Baseball player Babe Ruth and Claire Hodgson, a former member of the Ziegfeld Follies, get married.
1946 The last French troops leave Syria.
1947 Jackie Robinson bunts for his first major league hit.
1961 Some 1,400 Cuban exiles attack the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro.
1964 Jerrie Mock becomes first woman to fly solo around the world.
1969 Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
1970 Apollo 13--originally scheduled to land on the moon--lands back safely on Earth after an accident.
1975 Khmer Rouge forces capture the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.
1983 In Warsaw, police rout 1,000 Solidarity supporters.
1970
Apollo 13 returns to Earth
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 15 April 2024, continuing through Sunday, 21 April 2024…Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 14 April 1969… An ally concludes we failed in our war because we lacked "Unity of Command"…
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 "Wednesday 17 April
17 https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1705
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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Quite the rescue
Use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15MKTdiDeA&t=26s&ab_channel=ViralSea
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Thanks to Barrett
One of my favorite actors
Here's a detailed article about NavAv Robert Taylor:
https://roberttayloractor.blog/2015/05/24/lt-robert-taylor-united-states-naval-reserve-1943-1945/
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Thanks to NORDO
Something to make your Happy Tax Day!
Cheers
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A bit on taxes thanks to Al
"The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."--President Ronald Reagan
"I shall never use profanity except in discussing house rent and taxes."--Mark Twain
"If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep."--Will Rogers
"America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation."--Laurence J. Peter (author of "The Peter Principle")
"The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose."--Former Treasury Secretary William Simon
"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors ... and miss."--Science--fiction writer Robert Heinlein
"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue."--Thomas Paine
"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today."--Herman Wouk
"People who complain about taxes can be divided into two classes: men and women."--Unknown
"Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the income--tax form than it does to make the income."--Alfred E. Neuman
"It was as true...as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them."--Charles Dickens
"Death and taxes may be inevitable, but they shouldn't be related."--Congressman J.C. Watts, Jr.
"The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government."--Senator Barry Goldwater
"A fine is a tax for doing something wrong. A tax is a fine for doing something right."--Unknown
"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery."--President Calvin Coolidge
"What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin."--Mark Twain
"The politicians say 'we' can't afford a tax cut. Maybe we can't afford the politicians."--Steve Forbes
"People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income."--Financial staffing expert Robert Half
"When I meet a government which says to me, 'Your money or your life,' why should I be in haste to give it my money?"--Henry David Thoreau
"The federal income tax system is a disgrace to the human race."--President Jimmy Carter
"The current tax code is a daily mugging."--President Ronald Reagan
"I have no intention of raising taxes."--President Bill Clinton
"Blessed are the young, for they will inherit the national debt."--President Herbert Hoover
"Don't steal. The government hates competition."--Bumper sticker
"Loophole: To liberals, any provision of the tax code that fails to claim money earned, inherited, saved, or otherwise pocketed by known taxpayers."--The Conservative's Dictionary
"The power to tax involves the power to destroy."--Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, 1819
"If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see it with representation."--The Farmer's Almanac
"Serfs in the Middle Ages had to give up 20 percent of their income yearly and that made them virtual slaves. Today the average American pays 47 percent. What does that make Americans?"--Kenneth Prazak, secretary of the Libertarian Party of Illinois
"It's a game. We [tax lawyers] teach the rich how to play it so they can stay rich--and the IRS keeps changing the rules so we can keep getting rich teaching them."--John Grisham
"For every $50 you earn, you get $10 and they get $40."--Jay Leno, explaining Form 1040
"All taxes are a drag on economic growth. It's only a question of degree."--Alan Greenspan
"Why does a slight tax increase cost you $200 and a substantial tax cut saves you 30 cents?"--Peg Bracken
"Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It's not fair that some men should be happier than others."--Oscar Wilde
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Thanks to John….I think
What a year! Early on he occasionally got "seat sick" as adjusting his seat to the proper position and then the quick turns from screen to screen with the occasional 'lean back' to check the top screen led to slight nausea but he managed to overcome it and still keep the UAV in proper 30 degree turns and the long boring straight and level. And the Nomex flight suit? Well, …. that might be classified.
S/F,
John
Oh, I didn't even want to bring up the dreaded carpal tunnel problems. I think that makes them eligible for a purple heart...
Meet the Marine aviator of the year ― an unmanned aerial vehicle pilot
Irene LoewensonApr 17 at 05:00 AM
On March 14, Marine Maj. Shane Gentry's phone started lighting up with text messages from friends and colleagues saying, "Congratulations."
The texts left Gentry scratching his head. Congratulations for what?
Then someone sent him a link to the Marine administrative message that announced him as the Marine Corps Aviation Association's aviator of the year.
The award came as a surprise to Gentry, 33, who flies the unmanned MQ-9A aircraft. But he said it made him proud to represent a squadron from the Marine Corps' unmanned aviation community.
"We're growing in preponderance," he said, noting that Marines working in unmanned aviation notched other awards from the association this year. "We're growing in impact."
Gentry is the first unmanned aerial vehicle pilot to receive the prestigious aviator of the year award since 2016 at the very least, according to the previous announcements available online. Named for Lt. Col. Alfred Cunningham, the Corps' first aviator, the award is the highest honor specifically for Marine aviators, according to a Marine news release about Gentry's award.
Already a seasoned pilot of other unmanned aerial vehicles, Gentry used his real-world experience flying the MQ-9A alongside an Air National Guard unit to get the other aviators in the Hawaii-based Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 up to speed on the new aircraft.
"His talent for imparting his impressive knowledge upon the next generation of pilots is unmatched," Lt. Col. Nicholas Law, the squadron's commanding officer, said in a statement to Marine Corps Times.
Gentry grew up in Stafford, Virginia, in a family with a legacy of Marine service. Both his father and grandfather had been in the Marine Corps, and he found himself drawn to the excitement and challenge of the service since elementary school, he said.
Gentry received his commission in 2014. After being in a class on unmanned systems as a newly minted officer at The Basic School, he put that field as his No. 1 choice on his job wishlist. He got it.
Gentry started out flying the RQ-7 Shadow and then moved on to the RQ-21A Blackjack.
In July 2021, Gentry began training on the MQ-9A, the large unmanned aerial vehicle that, according to the 2022 Marine aviation plan, the Corps plans to use primarily for surveillance and reconnaissance. The aircraft can lurk in the air for up to 27 hours at a time, according to the Naval Air Systems Command.
The aircraft is fairly new to the Marine Corps, which first leased two of them in 2018 and acquired the pair in 2021, with plans to acquire 16 more.
The newness of the platform means the Marines who operate it often have to puzzle through the problems it poses themselves. That can be frustrating, but it also means young Marines have leeway to take initiative and innovate, according to Gentry.
"There's really no textbook on how we're going to do it," Gentry said.
From January 2023 to June 2023, while Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 was receiving its first two of the MQ-9A aircraft, Gentry and three other Marines from the squadron were in Nashville, embedded with the Tennessee Air National Guard.
The Air Force reached initial operating capability with the MQ-9, which it calls the Reaper, in 2007.
Unlike the Air Force's Reapers, the Marine Corps' MQ-9A aircraft are not loaded with ordnance for carrying out strikes, Gentry said. The Corps is placing more emphasis on the aircraft's ability to take in many kinds of data and share that information across large distances, according to Gentry.
While working alongside airmen in Tennessee, Gentry remotely supported "real-world combat operations," completing 80 sorties and racking up more than 400 hours with the MQ-9A, he said. He discussed those efforts in very general terms to Marine Corps Times, but he noted that he engaged in missions against both larger adversaries and emerging regional threats.
When he returned to Hawaii, Gentry said, he helped squadron leadership develop its practices and training regimens for the MQ-9A. And he instructed Marines himself on aspects of flying the aircraft.
"As one of the most experienced instructors in our ready room, Maj. Gentry has made an outsized contribution to the proficiency of our aircrew," Law, the squadron's commanding officer, said.
Yet it wasn't just Gentry's mastery of the MQ-9A that made him stand out at Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3, Law said. There's also the fact that he volunteered to stand duty on both Christmas and New Year's.
"I'm a single officer, so I don't mind taking holiday duties," Gentry said.
Plus, he said, the squadron's hangar, which sits right on Hawaii's Kaneohe Bay, is a peaceful place from which to watch the fireworks.
Gentry now is the current operations officer at Marine Aircraft Group 24, of which Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 3 is a part.
He ultimately plans to give the trophy he will receive for the award to that squadron, he said. But first, he will let his parents have it for a bit.
Gentry said his dad, who had heard of the Alfred A. Cunningham Award during his own time in the Corps, was deeply proud — but also surprised — to learn that his son was the recipient.
"He pulled up the MARADMIN himself," Gentry said.
Irene Loewenson is a staff reporter for Marine Corps Times. She joined Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
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Thanks to Mugs….A shot of the real world
Victory and Failure in the Great American-Israeli Eastern Mediterranean Range Day MISSILEX of April 2024
We need praise and accountability…..
CDR Salamander
Apr 16, 2024
First of all, BZ to the generations of AAW professionals who built the integrated kill chain that brought this exceptional evening of anti-air excellence. This isn't exactly what you built it for, but close to it you glorious, geeky bastards;
All of the real fun information is in the SCIF, but there is enough open source for all to enjoy and be proud of.
Here are my Top-4 Quicklook observations. They're linked together.
1. Iran's goal was to swamp Israeli defenses via a multi-axis, multi-threat attack to generate mass casualties and have the Israeli government lose face. Their planning assumptions were flawed. They failed.
2. >From Tehran to Beijing (and my nogg'n too), everyone needs to re-evaluate their assumptions about the battlefield effectiveness of their cruise and ballistic missiles when facing a 1st-tier nation whose defensive systems are unchallenged and properly capitalized. Conventional or nuclear, having 99% of your weapons not reaching their targets is not acceptable.
3. >From WWII through the Cold War ending roughly with the success of Desert Storm, everyone knew that any strike from the air required a robust, diverse, and leading Electronic Warfare (EW) component. Hard kill and soft kill. Ships, aircraft, and airwings were thick with all sorts of active and passive EW including VAQ, Wild Weasel, and all the funky USAF Raven Mafia cadre's toys. In the "Peace Dividend" era, most of them either atrophied into a rump capability relative to requirements or were "transformed" into non-existence. The diversion of resources to support imperial policing actions for the first two decades of this century only made the neglect worse. I'm not sure how many warnings we are going to be provided in this area. We will not be on the defensive or offensive against 3rd and 4th rate powers forever.
4. More. From the, again, superb demonstration of the real-world utility of multi-mission heavy fighters in the shape of the F-15E Strike Eagle, to the superb execution of mission by our layered defense built around our family of Standard Missiles, the last six months have shown us what needs more resources should this same need be called upon against a 1st-tier challenger west of the International Date Line. Think a few dozen ballistic and cruise missiles augmented by a few dozen low-tech attack drones are a challenge? Try moving the decimal point to the right and give it a mid-single digit multiplier. That is what the People's Republic of China has waiting for us from Guam, west.
So, there's our victory. Where is the failure?
Where does one start?
The Biden Administration inherited a Middle East spiraling towards peaceful co-existence. ISIS was hiding under a few isolated shadows under rocks. The Abraham Accords brought Arab nation by Arab nation to normal relations with Israel. Commerce flowed freely bringing goods safely to market at risk-free prices through the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. There's more, but that's enough for a blog post.
Where are we now? Biden brought in Obama's B-team with all their unfulfilled bag of bad ideas which in a few short years begat ISIS and Iranian proxies joining together in renewed strength in Syria and Iraq enough to attack US bases in Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Afghanistan is not only home again to Al Qaeda, but ISIS-K grows under the misrule of that besotted nation by the superpower defeating Taliban. From Lebanon to Yemen, Israel is under attack after suffering the largest slaughter of Jews since WWII. Iran and her proxies are seizing and attacking merchant ships and Western warships from the Gulf of Oman through the Red Sea. From Qatar to Saudi Arabia, nations are looking to secure a "Plan-B" by improving ties to Iran, Russia, and China.
The team Biden brought into power again in 2021 sent billions of dollars to Iran, loosened sanctions, and otherwise bolstered the Islamic Republic based on a failed and discredited theory of international relations. As bankrupt as its "Mirror-Mirror" theory that brought us to invade Iraq in 2003, and yet - no accountability or change. Neither theory survived in the wild outside academia and think tanks…and yet the Biden team's almost religious devotion to their own perceived intellect folded in with pigheadedness has prevented any self-reflection … at least yet.
Is anyone really shocked that American institutional and national weakness combined with billions of dollars to the Islamic Republic brought us to the events from October 7th to today?
Without accountability, there can be no learning. We have no accountability, so we have no learning. We remember everything but learn nothing. Our nation and her friends deserved a new national security team after the fall of Kabul and our negotiated surrender to the Taliban in 2021, but no - we got nothing but more chaos and conflict.
Pray for peace, because the world is full of dry underbrush and our firefighters are driving around the countryside throwing lit matches out of their windows.
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 17
1861 – U.S.S. Powhatan, Lieutenant D. D. Porter, arrived off Pensacola. Under her protecting guns, 600 troops on board steamer Atlantic were landed at Fort Pickens to complete its reinforcement. President Lincoln had stated "I want that fort saved at all hazards." The President's wish was fulfilled, and use of the best harbor on the Gulf was denied the Confederacy for the entire war, while serving the Union in¬dispensably in the blockade and the series of devastating assaults from the sea that divided and de¬stroyed the South.
1897 – The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897 when, according to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) is claimed to have resulted in a fatality from the crash and the alleged alien body is to have been buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery.
1943 – Lieutenant Ross P. Bullard and Boatswain's Mate First Class C. S. "Mike" Hall boarded the U-175 at sea after their cutter, the CGC Spencer, blasted the U-boat to the surface with depth charges when the U-boat attempted to attack the convoy the Spencer was escorting. They were part of a boarding party sent to seize the U-boat before the Nazi crew could scuttle it. The damage to the U-boat was severe, however, and it sank after both had boarded it and climbed the conning tower. Both men ended up in the water as it slipped beneath the waves. Nevertheless, they carry the distinction of being the first American servicemen to board an enemy warship underway at sea since the War of 1812. The Navy credited the Spencer with the kill. She rescued 19 of the U-boat's crew and her sister cutter, Duane, rescued 22. One Spencer crewman was killed by friendly fire during the battle.
1945 – U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Boris T. Pash commandeers over half a ton of uranium at Strassfut, Germany, in an effort to prevent the Russians from developing an A-bomb. Pash was head of the Alsos Group, organized to search for German scientists in the postwar environment in order to prevent the Russians, previously Allies but now a potential threat, from capturing any scientists and putting them to work at their own atomic research plants. Uranium piles were also rich "catches," as they were necessary to the development of atomic weapons.
1961 – The Bay of Pigs invasion begins when a CIA financed and trained group of Cuban refugees lands in Cuba and attempts to topple the communist government of Fidel Castro. The attack was an utter failure. Fidel Castro had been a concern to U.S. policymakers since he seized power in Cuba with a revolution in January 1959. Castro's attacks on U.S. companies and interests in Cuba, his inflammatory anti-American rhetoric, and Cuba's movement toward a closer relationship with the Soviet Union led U.S. officials to conclude that the Cuban leader was a threat to U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere. In March 1960, President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train and arm a force of Cuban exiles for an armed attack on Cuba. John F. Kennedy inherited this program when he became president in 1961. Though many of his military advisors indicated that an amphibious assault on Cuba by a group of lightly armed exiles had little chance for success, Kennedy gave the go-ahead for the attack. On April 17, 1961, around 1,200 exiles, armed with American weapons and using American landing craft, waded ashore at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. The hope was that the exile force would serve as a rallying point for the Cuban citizenry, who would rise up and overthrow Castro's government. The plan immediately fell apart–the landing force met with unexpectedly rapid counterattacks from Castro's military, the tiny Cuban air force sank most of the exiles' supply ships, the United States refrained from providing necessary air support, and the expected uprising never happened. Over 100 of the attackers were killed, and more than 1,100 were captured. The failure at the Bay of Pigs cost the United States dearly. Castro used the attack by the "Yankee imperialists" to solidify his power in Cuba and he requested additional Soviet military aid. Eventually that aid included missiles, and the construction of missile bases in Cuba sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, when the United States and the Soviet Union nearly came to blows over the issue. Further, throughout much of Latin America, the United States was pilloried for its use of armed force in trying to unseat Castro, a man who was considered a hero to many for his stance against U.S. interference and imperialism. Kennedy tried to redeem himself by publicly accepting blame for the attack and its subsequent failure, but the botched mission left the young president looking vulnerable and indecisive.
1970 – With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returns to Earth. On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell, John L. Swigert, and Fred W. Haise. The mission was headed for a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However, two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft. Mission commander Lovell reported to mission control on Earth: "Houston, we've had a problem here," and it was discovered that the normal supply of oxygen, electricity, light, and water had been disrupted. The landing mission was aborted, and the astronauts and controllers on Earth scrambled to come up with emergency procedures. The crippled spacecraft continued to the moon, circled it, and began a long, cold journey back to Earth. The astronauts and mission control were faced with enormous logistical problems in stabilizing the spacecraft and its air supply, as well as providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow successful reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Navigation was another problem, and Apollo 13's course was repeatedly corrected with dramatic and untested maneuvers. On April 17, tragedy turned to triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
2003 – US Special Forces captured Barzan Ibrahim Hasan al-Tikriti (5 of clubs), a half brother of Saddam Hussein. He was 3rd on the list of 55 former Iraqi officials wanted by the US.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
CRILLEY, FRANK WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Chief Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 13 September 1883, Trenton, N.J. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. (19 November 1928). Citation: For display of extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession above and beyond the call of duty during the diving operations in connection with the sinking in a depth of water 304 feet, of the U.S.S. F-4 with all on board, as a result of loss of depth control, which occurred off Honolulu, T.H., on 25 March 1915. On 17 April 1915, William F. Loughman, chief gunner's mate, U.S. Navy, who had descended to the wreck and had examined one of the wire hawsers attached to it, upon starting his ascent, and when at a depth of 250 feet beneath the surface of the water, had his lifeline and air hose so badly fouled by this hawser that he was unable to free himself; he could neither ascend nor descend. On account of the length of time that Loughman had already been subjected to the great pressure due to the depth of water, and of the uncertainty of the additional time he would have to be subjected to this pressure before he could be brought to the surface, it was imperative that steps be taken at once to clear him. Instantly, realizing the desperate case of his comrade, Crilley volunteered to go to his aid, immediately donned a diving suit and descended. After a lapse of time of 2 hours and 11 minutes, Crilley was brought to the surface, having by a superb exhibition of skill, coolness, endurance and fortitude, untangled the snarl of lines and cleared his imperiled comrade, so that he was brought, still alive, to the surface.
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.
BURKE, FRANK
(also known as FRANCIS X. BURKE) Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, 15th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Nuremberg, Germany, 17 April 1945. Entered service at: Jersey City, N.J. Born: 29 September 1918, New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 4, 9 January 1946. Citation: He fought with extreme gallantry in the streets of war-torn Nuremberg, Germany, where the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry, was engaged in rooting out fanatical defenders of the citadel of Nazism. As battalion transportation officer he had gone forward to select a motor-pool site, when, in a desire to perform more than his assigned duties and participate in the fight, he advanced beyond the lines of the forward riflemen. Detecting a group of about 10 Germans making preparations for a local counterattack, he rushed back to a nearby American company, secured a light machinegun with ammunition, and daringly opened fire on this superior force, which deployed and returned his fire with machine pistols, rifles, and rocket launchers. From another angle a German machinegun tried to blast him from his emplacement, but 1st Lt. Burke killed this guncrew and drove off the survivors of the unit he had originally attacked. Giving his next attention to enemy infantrymen in ruined buildings, he picked up a rifle dashed more than 100 yards through intense fire and engaged the Germans from behind an abandoned tank. A sniper nearly hit him from a cellar only 20 yards away, but he dispatched this adversary by running directly to the basement window, firing a full clip into it and then plunging through the darkened aperture to complete the job. He withdrew from the fight only long enough to replace his jammed rifle and secure grenades, then re-engaged the Germans. Finding his shots ineffective, he pulled the pins from 2 grenades, and, holding 1 in each hand, rushed the enemy-held building, hurling his missiles just as the enemy threw a potato masher grenade at him. In the triple explosion the Germans were wiped out and 1st Lt. Burke was dazed; but he emerged from the shower of debris that engulfed him, recovered his rifle, and went on to kill 3 more Germans and meet the charge of a machine pistolman, whom he cut down with 3 calmly delivered shots. He then retired toward the American lines and there assisted a platoon in a raging, 30-minute fight against formidable armed hostile forces. This enemy group was repulsed, and the intrepid fighter moved to another friendly group which broke the power of a German unit armed with a 20-mm. gun in a fierce fire fight. In 4 hours of heroic action, 1st Lt. Burke single-handedly killed 11 and wounded 3 enemy soldiers and took a leading role in engagements in which an additional 29 enemy were killed or wounded. His extraordinary bravery and superb fighting skill were an inspiration to his comrades, and his entirely voluntary mission into extremely dangerous territory hastened the fall of Nuremberg, in his battalion's sector.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for April 17, 2021 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
17 April
1923: Lt Rutledge Irvine flew a Douglas DT with a Liberty engine to a world altitude record for class C airplanes with a load of 1,000 kilograms by reaching 11,609 feet over McCook Field. (5)
1923: Lt Harold R. Harris set a world speed record of 114.35 MPH for 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) in a DH-4L Liberty 375 at Dayton. He also set a speed record of 114.22 MPH for 2,000 kilometers in this flight. (24)
1943: Eighth Air Force made its first 100-plane attack on a single target at Bremen, Germany. (24)
1951: KOREAN WAR/Operation MiG. An intelligence operation behind enemy lines resulted in the recovery of vital components of a crashed MiG-15. A YH-19 helicopter flew a U.S. and South Korean team to the crash area south of Sinanju, N. Korea. Under friendly fighter cover, the party extracted MiG components and samples and obtained photographs. On the return flight southward the helicopter came under enemy ground fire and received one hit. The successful mission led to greater technical knowledge of the MiG. (28)
1954: The US Army announced that it was delivering the Corporal guided rocket and the Honest John ballistic rocket to troops for ground fighting. (16) (24)
1961: The USAF Cambridge Research Center launched a constant-altitude balloon from Vernalis, Calif. It stayed at 70,000 feet for 9 days with a 40-pound payload. (16) (24)
1962: Maj David W. Crow flew a MATS C-135B to 47,171 feet to set new weight/altitude records for payloads of 33,069, 44092, 55,115, and 66,138 pounds. (24)
1964: Mrs. Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world when she landed her Cessna 180 Spirit of Columbus at Columbus after a 29-day, 11-hour, 59-minute flight. She made 21 stops in flying 23,206 miles and became the first woman to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific. (9)
1967: The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird set a record for the longest Mach 3 flight in history. The Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS) successfully launched a Minuteman II on its first attempt from Vandenberg AFB. (1)(6) At Bien Hoa AB, Vietnam, PACAF's 19 FS (Commando) transferred its F-5s to the Vietnamese Air Force's 522 FS. (17)
1969: After being dropped by a B-52, test pilot Maj Jerauld R. Gentry completed the X-24 Lifting Body's first free-flight over Edwards AFB. (3)
1970: SAC emplaced its first Minuteman III into a 91 SMW silo at Minot AFB. (6) 1988: MACKAY TROPHY. Through 23 July, improved relations between the Soviet Union and the US led to joint verification experiments to monitor nuclear testing. Refueled by KC-10s, C-5s carried test equipment and scientists from the US to Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. To complete the first mission to Semipalatinsk, Capt Michael Eastman and fellow crewmembers (Maj John L. Cirafici, Capt James Runk and Kelly Scott; SMSgt Arthur Vogt; MSgts Robert Downs, Charles Finnegan, James Maurer, and William Tobler; TSgts William Nunn Jr.; SSgt Timothy Hahn; and Sgts Andrew Benucci, Jr. and Thomas Siler) had to overcome a void of information and numerous obstacles. For that effort, they received the Mackay Trophy for 1988. (18)
1972: Apollo 16 carried John W. Young, Charles M. Duke, Jr., and Thomas K. Mattingly II from the Kennedy Space Center on the fifth lunar landing mission. The lunar module "Orion" touched down in the moon's Descartes region on 20 April, lifted off on 24 April, rejoined the "Casper" command module, and landed in the Pacific on 27 April after an 11-day, 2-hour mission. Apollo 16 experienced several minor glitches en route to the Moon. These culminated with a problem with the spacecraft's main engine that resulted in a six-hour delay in the Moon landing as NASA managers contemplated having the astronauts abort the mission and return to Earth, before deciding the problem could be overcome. Although they permitted the lunar landing, NASA had the astronauts return from the mission one day earlier than planned. (John Young saluting the United States flag while jumping up on the Moon, with the Apollo Lunar Module Orion and Lunar Roving Vehicle in the background. Young later piloted STS-1 in 1981).
1989: Lockheed delivered the 50th and last C-5B Galaxy transport to the USAF. (16) Through 18 April, Lockheed test pilots Jerry Hoyt and Ron Williams set 16 time-to-climb and altitude records in a NASA U-2C at the Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards AFB. After the flight, the aircraft retired to a museum. (20)
1996: Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY. The operation in Haiti officially came to an end. The US only lost one soldier to hostile fire in the 18-month operation in which US military forces dismantled a military dictatorship. (26) 1998: The USAF accepted the first of two C-38A Courier aircraft. Two ANG pilots from the 201 AS flew the aircraft from St. Louis to Andrews AFB to replace the older C-21. (32) The 20 SOS at Hurlburt Field, Fla., received the Air Force's first production-modified MH-53J Pave Low III helicopter from Lockheed Martin. (AFNEWS Article 980545, 25 April)
1999: Operation ALLIED FORCE. The USAF sent the RQ-1 Predator on its first flights into a combat zone to perform reconnaissance over Serbia. (21)
2000: Through 20 April, a 437 AW C-17 from Charleston AFB airlifted Polish soldiers and equipment from Strachowice AB in southwestern Poland to Mitrovica, Kosovo, to augment NATO peacekeeping forces in the Yugoslav province. In four days, Air Mobility Command moved 130 Polish troops and 205,000 pounds of equipment. A single C-17 Globemaster III, flown by several aircrews, performed the shuttle missions between Ramstein AB, Strachowice, and Mitrovica. (22)
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