To All,
Good Sunday morning July 7, 2024
I hope that you are all having a great weekend. Off again this morning to what we hope will be the last trip to the other house. I still have to unload two cars full of items from yesterday. I continually find items there that my brother in law John Grando used to make the many things that he built for himself and others. Going through his papers my wife found that he had 3 masters degrees. We also found a signed picture with a very nice note to him by the CEO of Convair GD of the Tel LCC program that he was given to get out of the red and way behind on deliveries. He brought it back and turned a profit for GD and then the SALT talks had them all broken up. He then ran the Atlas Missile program here for GD until it was sold to Martin Marietta and moved to Denver. He refused to move to a place that had snow. He traveled to the Cape every time there was a launch to watch his birds fly.
My wife found his Air Medal with 13 strike flight awards in a box and had never seen it or heard of him having it. He flew in OV-10s. I did hear a number of stories of his year in the bush in South Vietnam prior to that as a platoon commander. He loved his guys and they loved him. He always carried an M-79 grenade launcher so he could drop things out in front of his troops at first contact. He was a really good shot. When we used to go dove hunting he never carried a 12 gauge he took a smaller one to make it more interesting and hardly ever missed.
To many memories.
Warm Regards,
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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/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 83 H-Grams
This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
July 7
1798 Congress rescinds treaties with France, and the Quasi War begins.
1846 During the Mexican-American War, Commodore John D. Sloat, disembarks from his flagship frigate, USS Savannah, at Monterey and claims California for the U.S.
1915 Thomas A. Edison becomes the head of the Naval Consulting Board, which screens inventions for the Navy.
1948 The first six enlisted women are sworn into Regular Navy: Chief Yeoman Wilma J. Marchal; Yeoman Second Class Edna E. Young; Hospital Corpsman First Class Ruth Flora; Aviation Storekeeper First Class Kay L. Langen; Storekeeper Second Class Frances T. Devaney; and Teleman Doris R. Robertson.
1979 USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) is commissioned at her homeport of Norfolk, Va. The submarine tender is named after Adm. Emory S. Land, an officer noted for his designs of submarines.
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Today in World History: July 7
1742 A Spanish force invading Georgia runs headlong into the colony's British defenders. The battle decides the fate of a colony.
1777 American troops give up Fort Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, to the British.
1791 Benjamin Rush, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Non-denominational African Church.
1795 Thomas Paine defends the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in Paris.
1798 Napoleon Bonaparte's army begins its march towards Cairo from Alexandria.
1807 Czar Alexander meets with Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814 Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley is published anonymously so as not to damage his reputation as a poet.
1815 After defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, the victorious Allies march into Paris.
1853 Japan opens its ports to trade with the West after 250 years of isolation.
1863 Confederate General Robert E. Lee, in Hagerstown, Maryland, reports his defeat at Gettysburg to President Jefferson Davis.
1925 Afrikaans is recognized as one of the official languages of South Africa, along with English and Dutch.
1927 Christopher Stone becomes the first British 'disc jockey' when he plays records for the BBC.
1941 Although a neutral country, the United States sends troops to occupy Iceland to keep it out of Germany's hands.
1943 Adolf Hitler makes the V-2 missile program a top priority in armament planning.
1966 The U.S. Marine Corps launches Operation Hasting to drive the North Vietnamese Army back across the Demilitarized Zone in Vietnam.
1969 The first U.S. units to withdraw from South Vietnam leave Saigon.
1981 Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.
1930 Preliminary work begins on the Hoover Dam
On July 7, 1930, building begins on the future site of the Hoover Dam. Over the next five years, a total of 21,000 men would work ceaselessly to produce what would be the largest dam of its time, as well as one of the largest manmade structures in the world.
Although the dam would take only five years to build, its construction was nearly 30 years in the making. Arthur Powell Davis, an engineer from the Bureau of Reclamation, originally had his vision for the Hoover Dam back in 1902, and his engineering report on the topic became the guiding document when plans were finally made to begin the dam in 1922.
Deconstructing History: Hoover Dam
July 1930 marked the first phase of construction, on the railroad and construction roads, as well as a town to house all the workers for the project. Construction on the dam itself began the following spring.
Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States and a committed conservationist, played a crucial role in making Davis' vision a reality. As secretary of commerce in 1921, Hoover devoted himself to the erection of a high dam in Boulder Canyon. The dam would provide essential flood control, which would prevent damage to downstream farming communities that suffered each year when snow from the Rocky Mountains melted and joined the Colorado River. Further, the dam would allow the expansion of irrigated farming in the desert, and would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and other southern California communities.
Even with Hoover's exuberant backing and a regional consensus around the need to build the dam, Congressional approval and individual state cooperation were slow in coming. For many years, water rights had been a source of contention among the western states that had claims on the Colorado River. To address this issue, Hoover negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which broke the river basin into two regions with the water divided between them. Hoover then had to introduce and re-introduce the bill to build the dam several times over the next few years before the House and Senate finally approved the bill in 1928.
In 1929, Hoover, now president, signed the Colorado River Compact into law, claiming it was "the most extensive action ever taken by a group of states under the provisions of the Constitution permitting compacts between states."
Once preparations were made, the Hoover Dam's construction sprinted forward: The contractors finished their work two years ahead of schedule and millions of dollars under budget. Today, the Hoover Dam generates enough energy each year to serve over a million people, and stands, in Hoover Dam artist Oskar Hansen's words, as "a monument to collective genius exerting itself in community efforts around a common need or ideal."
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for Monday, 1July continuing through Sunday, 7 July 2024…
Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 30 June 1969… "Fighting while talking," the Vietnam peace talks move forward with the speed of a "glacier."…Sulzberger…
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
(Please note the eye-watering ongoing revamp of the RTR website by Webmaster/Author Dan Heller, who has inherited the site from originators RADM Bear Taylor, USN, Retired, and Angie Morse, "Mighty Thunder")…
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. .Micro is the one also that goes into the archives and finds these inputs and sends them to me for incorporation in the List. It is a lot of work and our thanks goes out to him for his effort.
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 7 July When B-52s collide
July 7: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1228
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 History Facts
Abraham Lincoln's hat once caught a bullet intended for the President.
A t a towering 6 feet, 4 inches, President Abraham Lincoln easily stood out in a crowd, especially thanks to his proclivity for stovepipe hats, which pushed his physical presence to nearly 7 feet from crown to sole. In some ways, this sartorial preference made him an inviting target for his enemies, yet on one occasion, the President's conspicuous headgear may well have saved his life from an assassin's bullet.
In August 1864, Lincoln was traveling on horseback to his summertime cottage on the outskirts of Washington when an unidentified sniper apparently took aim at the war-weary President. A sentry later recalled hearing a rifle shot at around 11 p.m., shortly before a "bareheaded" Lincoln and his excited horse arrived at the front gate. Although the silk hat was soon found nearby with a bullet hole through the top, Lincoln dismissed it as the handiwork of an incompetent hunter, and told his men to keep quiet about the situation.
The experience rattled the President more than he initially revealed: According to his bodyguard, Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln described how he "heard this fellow's bullet whistle at an uncomfortably short distance from these headquarters of mine." Yet Honest Abe refused to accept the concept that someone was deliberately trying to kill him, and he continued attempts to slip off on his own in spite of efforts to beef up security. Lamon was famously out of town when Lincoln attended a performance at Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865. And the iconic stovepipe hat, his unlikely savior on a deserted path eight months earlier, was resting on the floor during the play, unable to halt the bullet that took the President's life.
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
1 through `13
Our Favorite Facts About American History
From sea to shining sea, a lot of history has taken place on America's shores. While you may think you're familiar with the country we call home, some of these facts may surprise you. Did you know that you used to be able to send children through the U.S. mail? Or that the Statue of Liberty was originally brown? We've collected some of our top facts about American history from around the site, so be prepared to wonder why you probably never learned any of this in school.
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The U.S. Actually Voted for Its Independence on July 2
In June 1776, the Second Continental Congress selected a Committee of Five — John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson — to draft a statement of independence that severed the colonies from British rule. When the draft was presented to Congress, only nine of the 13 colonies favored independence. However, the delegates largely fell into line from that point, and on July 2, Congress formally approved the resolution that proclaimed the United States of America as an independent country. Following additional edits, the Declaration of Independence was completed, adopted, and sent for printing on July 4, and on August 2, the rank-and-file delegates began adding their signatures to an engrossed version of the document.
According to historian Pauline Maier, the idea of commemorating the anniversary of independence didn't gain any traction in 1777 until it was too late to recognize the date of July 2. However, a pair of notable celebrations popped up on July 4 — fireworks in Boston, a military demonstration and more pyrotechnics in Philadelphia — setting forth an annual tradition.
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The Statue of Liberty Was Originally Brown
French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi dismantled his gleaming copper-skinned creation — a gift to the U.S. from the French people — into 350 pieces for its voyage across the Atlantic. The statue was eventually rebuilt atop Bedloe's Island (now called Liberty Island) in New York Harbor, but over the next two decades or so, the landmark underwent a prominent color change.
The now-familiar minty tint is actually a patina, a common coating that forms on copper as well as its alloys brass and bronze. The patina is a result of the chemical reactions the statue has endured in its environment, an urban center surrounded by water. Over the years, the copper has reacted to oxygen, sulfuric acid, chloride, and other components of the surrounding air and water, changing its mineral composition in a gradual evolution. Today, chemists believe the seafoam-green hue has stabilized. And while there's occasionally been talk of repainting the statue or polishing off her patina, public sentiment — and input from copper manufacturers — has kept "Liberty Enlightening the World" from being returned to her initial metallic sheen. Fortunately, the patina is protective, which means Liberty's chameleonlike qualities actually help preserve her.
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Portland, Oregon, Was Named in a Coin Toss
What's the most you've ever lost in a coin toss? For Asa Lovejoy, it was the opportunity in 1845 to name the city he'd recently established with Francis Pettygrove. The men decided to settle their disagreement as to what their new land claim should be called with a two-out-of-three coin flip that Pettygrove won. Pettygrove chose "Portland" because he hailed from the city of the same name in Maine; Lovejoy had intended to name the place after his hometown of Boston. Now known as the Portland Penny, the one-cent piece used in the fateful toss was minted in 1835 and retrieved by Pettygrove after his victory. It remained with him when he founded Port Townsend, Washington, and was eventually given to the Oregon Historical Society, which now keeps it on display.
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Shirley Temple Was a U.S. Ambassador
Shirley Temple, the beloved child star who was Hollywood's No. 1 box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, announced her retirement from film at the age of 22 in 1950. It was anyone's guess what Temple would do next, but it's unlikely that many predicted her eventual diplomatic career. After she ran (unsuccessfully) for Congress in 1967, President Nixon appointed her as a delegate to the 24th United Nations General Assembly in 1969, and President Ford named her the ambassador to Ghana in 1974.
Temple's foreign service didn't end there. In 1989, just before the Velvet Revolution, President George H.W. Bush made her ambassador to the former Czechoslovakia, a post she held until 1992, as the country became a parliamentary democracy. According to Norman Eisen, who held the same role from 2011 to 2014, the "sunny confidence and optimism" that made Temple a movie star also helped her "really infuse the United States' role — as our representative here, in the Velvet Revolution — with that good cheer and that hope."
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Napoleon's Grandnephew Created the Forerunner of the FBI
A grandson of Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother Jérôme, Charles Bonaparte lacked his famous relative's ambition for world domination yet displayed a talent for visionary authority that might have impressed the Little Corporal. In the late 19th century, Charles Bonaparte, then a lawyer from Baltimore, came into the orbit of fast-rising New York politician Theodore Roosevelt through their shared interest in civil service reform. Bonaparte later became President Roosevelt's secretary of the Navy and then attorney general, a position that thrust "Charlie the Crook Chaser" into the spotlight as a face of the administration's trust-busting efforts.
Behind the scenes, the attorney general fumed at the lack of an established investigative team within the Department of Justice, which often led to the borrowing of spare Secret Service agents from the Treasury Department for investigating cases that involved federal law. Congressional leaders also frowned on what they felt was becoming an overreach of the executive branch, and in May 1908, Congress passed a bill that halted the DOJ's ability to commandeer Secret Service personnel. Seizing the opportunity, Bonaparte culled together a "special agent force" of 31 detectives, and on July 26, 1908, he issued an order that directed DOJ attorneys to refer investigative matters to his chief examiner, Stanley Finch.
Bonaparte's oversight of this unit was short-lived, as he exited the federal government at the end of the Roosevelt administration in March 1909. Nevertheless, his special agent force remained in place under new Attorney General George Wickersham, who began referring to the group as the Bureau of Investigation. By 1935, the now-renamed Federal Bureau of Investigation was firmly embedded as a U.S. law enforcement institution under Director J. Edgar Hoover.
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By Some Accounts, North Dakota Didn't Technically Become a State Until 2012
North Dakota was admitted to the Union as the 39th state on November 2, 1889, except it kind of sort of wasn't. Its constitution left out a key detail that, according to some, was enough of a technicality that North Dakota didn't actually become a state until 2012. A local historian by the name of John Rolczynski first noticed in 1995 that North Dakota's state constitution failed to mention the executive branch in its section concerning the oath of office, which he felt made it invalid; the United States Constitution requires that officers of all three branches of a state's government be bound by said oath, and North Dakota's only mentioned the legislative and judiciary branches.
This led to a campaign that included an unanswered letter to then-President Bill Clinton and ended with the successful 2012 passage of an amendment to Section 4 of Article XI of the state constitution, which fixed the omission.
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Before Time Zones Were Established in 1883, North America Had Over 144 Local Times
Before time zones were established in 1883, North America alone had at least 144 local times. Noon was when the sun reached its zenith, and in many places the only thing making time official was a town clock. This didn't affect many people's day-to-day lives, as it often took several days to travel from one place to another, but confusion intensified once the expanding railroad system drastically cut travel times. Because time wasn't standardized, coordinating schedules across multiple rail lines was nearly impossible, and travelers occasionally found themselves arriving at their final destination earlier than they'd departed. Sometimes, trains even collided.
Those problems more or less evaporated after November 18, 1883, when American railroads adopted the first four time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific) and all clocks in each zone were synchronized. The number of time zones rose to five with the passage of 1918's Standard Time Act, which added Alaska. (The act also established the use of daylight saving time in the U.S., to the chagrin of many.) Including its territories, the United States now has four more time zones — Chamorro (which is used in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Samoa, Hawaii-Aleutian, and Atlantic — for a total of nine.
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Tenth President John Tyler Still Has a Living Grandson
More than 200 years after the 10th President of the United States was born, one of his grandsons is still alive. As impossible as that may seem, the math — and biology — checks out. John Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became President in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office, had a son named Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853. This son was born to the then-60-something Tyler and his second, much younger, wife, Julia Gardiner. Lyon then had two sons of his own in his 70s (also with a much younger second wife), one of whom — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born in 1928 — is still gracing the Earth in his mid-nineties.
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Amelia Earhart Once Took Eleanor Roosevelt on a Nighttime Joyride
Although her aviation career lasted just 17 years, Amelia Earhart remains one of the most famous people ever to take to the sky. In addition to being renowned for her many firsts — including being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to the mainland U.S. — she's known for her 1937 disappearance and the many theories it spawned. Less well known but considerably more fun to imagine is the time she took Eleanor Roosevelt on a nighttime joyride from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on April 20, 1933. The brief flight took place with both of them in their evening wear following a White House dinner party.
"I'd love to do it myself. I make no bones about it," the First Lady told the Baltimore Sun after the flight. "It does mark an epoch, doesn't it, when a girl in an evening dress and slippers can pilot a plane at night."
In fact, Roosevelt herself had recently received a student pilot license and briefly took over the controls of the twin-engine Curtiss Condor, borrowed from Eastern Air Transport at nearby Hoover Field. Eleanor's brother Hall also ditched the dinner party in favor of the flight that night, as did Thomas Wardwell Doe, the president of Eastern Air Transport, and Eugene Luther Vidal (head of the Bureau of Air Commerce) and his wife Nina Gore, parents of author Gore Vidal. When the plane returned after the short journey, the Secret Service guided everyone back to the White House table for dessert.
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Memorial Day's Date Was First Chosen Because It Was When Flowers Would Be in Full Bloom
Deciding when to observe holidays isn't always an exact science. George Washington wasn't born on the third Monday of February, for example. Memorial Day's precise date on the calendar also shifts from year to year (though it's always the final Monday of May), but at least the reasoning behind it is sound: The late spring date was chosen because it was when flowers would be in full bloom. As adorning the graves of fallen soldiers with wreaths was once the most important part of the holiday, it's difficult to imagine Memorial Day taking place at another time of year — especially considering that it was first celebrated in the 1860s, when floristry wasn't quite as commercially developed as it is today. Originally celebrated on a state and community level, Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971.
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Jimmy Carter Was the First President Born in a Hospital
In his nearly 100 years on Earth, Jimmy Carter has set a number of records and achieved almost as many firsts. In addition to being the longest-living President in U.S. history, he was also the first one born in a hospital — an event that occurred on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. It was much more common for babies to be born at home in the early 20th century than it is now, but Carter's mother was a nurse at what was then known as Wise Sanitarium. There happened to be a room available on that fateful October night, and the hospital has since been renamed the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center.
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There Have Been 27 Versions of the American Flag
When it comes to the American flag, it's not just about 13 stripes and 50 stars — the number 27 also has an important meaning. That's how many different versions of Old Glory have been officially recognized since the nation began. The inaugural 13-star, 13-stripe flag was approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, and later underwent an update in May 1795. That redesign — due to Vermont and Kentucky joining the Union — featured 15 stars and 15 stripes. While the number of stripes initially continued to increase as more states were admitted, the government reverted back to 13 stripes in 1818, representing the original 13 colonies, and let the stars represent the number of states instead. The current and 27th official design was adopted on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii's admission into the United States. It is the only version in U.S. history to remain unchanged for over 50 years.
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You Used To Be Able To Send Children Through U.S. Mail
You can send a lot of things in the mail, but you can't send a person — at least not anymore. There was nothing preventing people from mailing their own children in the early days of the U.S. Postal Service's parcel post service, and at least seven families took advantage of it. That includes the Beagues, an Ohio couple who in 1913 paid 15 cents in postage to mail their newborn son to his grandmother's house a mile down the road. Beyond the novelty of it — when the parcel post service began on January 1, 1913, some were eager to see which packages they could get away with sending — it was a surprisingly practical way of getting one's kiddo from point A to point B.
To start with, many people in rural areas knew their postal carriers fairly well, which meant the children were simply walked or carried on often-short trips. In other instances, children traveled on trains as Railway Mail, but with stamps instead of (usually more expensive) train tickets. The longest known trip of a child through the mail occurred in 1915, when a 6-year-old was sent 720 miles from Florida to Virginia — a lengthy trip that cost just 15 cents. Fortunately, there are no reports of children being injured by being sent through the mail. (Pictures of children in literal mailbags were staged.) The practice ended, as so many do, when certain higher-ups became aware of the loophole and decided to close it, also around 1915.
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From the Archives. My brain hurts just trying to take all this in…skip
OPINION
July 5, 2012, 6:57 p.m. ET
The Spark That Caused the Big Bang
There's a reason the newly discovered Higgs boson is called the 'God particle.' It started it all.
By MICHIO KAKU
Champagne bottles were being uncorked at particle accelerators around the world this week as physicists celebrated one of the great moments in scientific history: the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson. Hundreds of physicists and engineers were ecstatic, having devoted almost 30 years of their lives—and $10 billion—trying to track down this almost mythical subatomic particle.
In their press release, the scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, were careful to say they've only found evidence of a "Higgs-like" particle. But this is too modest. With 99.9999% confidence, they can claim to have found the Higgs boson itself.
The key to finding this particle is CERN's Large Hadron Collider, a monstrous doughnut-shaped machine 27 miles in circumference, so big it straddles the French-Swiss border and devours enough electrical energy to light up an entire city. Two beams of protons are shot through this colossal, circular tube in opposite directions. When they're accelerated to near light-speed velocities, they're forced to collide head-on, creating a huge burst of subatomic particles that scatter in all directions. The collision creates energies (up to 14 trillion electron volts) and blistering temperatures not seen since the Big Bang. That's why the collider is nicknamed "the window on Creation." It creates a tiny, mini-Big Bang at the instant of the collision.
For a fraction of a trillionth of a second, the Higgs boson appears at the collision site, before it rapidly decays into a shower of ordinary subatomic particles. Some of the largest supercomputers on earth are then used to shift though this immense amount of data to identify the telltale tracks of the short-lived Higgs boson. It's akin to smashing two grand pianos together at high velocity, completely demolishing them, and then using supercomputers to analyze the noise of the crash to reconstruct a detailed blueprint of each piano—but far more complicated.
For the past 50 years, this expensive process of smashing beams of particles has yielded an embarrassingly large zoo of hundreds of subatomic particles, which can be tediously reassembled like a jigsaw puzzle called the Standard Model of particles. More than 20 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to physicists who have pieced together parts of the Standard Model.
All the particles of the Standard Model had been found, except the last, central piece of the jigsaw puzzle—the Higgs boson. That is why so much was resting on finding the Higgs particle. (If it had not been found, many physicists, I imagine, would have had a heart attack.) The press has dubbed the Higgs boson the "God particle," a nickname that makes many physicists cringe. But there is some logic to it. According to the Bible, God set the universe into motion as he proclaimed "Let there be light!" In physics, the universe started off with a cosmic explosion, the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, which sent the stars and galaxies hurtling in all directions. But the key question is left unanswered: Why did it bang? The big-bang theory says nothing about how and why it banged in the first place.
To put it another way, what was the match that set off the initial cosmic explosion? What put the "bang" in the Big Bang? In quantum physics, it was a Higgs-like particle that sparked the cosmic explosion. In other words, everything we see around us, including galaxies, stars, planets and us, owes its existence to the Higgs boson.
The Higgs boson also answers another profound physical question. Why is the universe so unsymmetrical and broken? When you calculate the masses of the subatomic particles like the electron, proton, neutrino or neutron, at first they seem almost random, displaying no rhyme or reason at all.
The latest thinking is that, just before the Big Bang, the universe was very tiny but also perfectly symmetrical. All the masses of the particles were the same, i.e. zero. But the presence of Higgs-like particles shattered this perfect symmetry. Once the symmetry was broken, the particles were free to assume the various masses we see today.
With the discovery of the Higgs boson, a whole new chapter in physics opens up. CERN's collider could lead to the discovery of unseen dimensions, parallel universes, and possibly the "strings" in string theory (in which the Standard Model is just the lowest vibrating octave). In other words, the discovery of the Higgs is but the first step toward a much grander Theory of Everything.
Mr. Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at CUNY, is author of "Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by 2100" (Doubleday, 2011).
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2 pilots visited 48 US states in less than 48 hours, potentially breaking a world record …
Thanks to Dr. Rich
Two Delta Air Lines pilots say they visited 48 US states in under 48 hours, potentially breaking a world record, the Atlanta-based carrier reported. Captains Barry Behnfeldt and Aaron Wilson completed their goal of stopping in all 48 contiguous states in less time than they expected…
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This Day in U S Military History…….
JULY 7
1863 – Lt. Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson leaves Santa Fe with his troops, beginning his campaign against the Indians of New Mexico and Arizona. A famed mountain man before the Civil War, Carson was responsible for waging a destructive war against the Navajo that resulted in their removal from the Four Corners area to southeastern New Mexico. Carson was perhaps the most famous trapper and guide in the West. He traveled with the expeditions of John C. Fremont in the 1840s, leading Fremont through the Great Basin. Fremont's flattering portrayal of Carson made the mountain man a hero when the reports were published and widely read in the east. Later, Carson guided Stephen Watts Kearney to New Mexico during the Mexican-American War. In the 1850s he became the Indian agent for New Mexico, a position he left in 1861 to accept a commission as lieutenant colonel in the 1st New Mexico Volunteers. Although Carson's unit saw action in the New Mexico battles of 1862, he was most famous for his campaign against the Indians. Despite his reputation for being sympathetic and accommodating to tribes such as the Mescaleros, Kiowas, and Navajo, Carson waged a brutal campaign against the Navajo in 1863. When bands of Navajo refused to accept confinement on reservations, Carson terrorized the Navajo lands–burning crops, destroying villages, and slaughtering livestock. Carson rounded up some 8,000 Navajo and marched them across New Mexico for imprisonment on the Bosque Redondo, over 300 miles from their homes, where they remained for the duration of the war.
1865 – The trap doors of the scaffold in the yard of Washington's Old Penitentiary were sprung, and Mary Surratt, Lewis Paine, David Herold and George Atzerodt dropped to their deaths. The four had been convicted of "treasonable conspiracy" in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and had learned that they were to be hanged only a day before their execution. Shortly after 1 p.m. the prisoners were led onto the scaffold and prepared for execution. The props supporting the platform were knocked away at about 2 p.m. Assassin John Wilkes Booth had been killed on April 26, 12 days after Lincoln's assassination. Other convicted conspirators–Edman Spangler, Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin–were imprisoned. Surratt was the first woman to be executed in the United States.
1941 – The neutral United States moves closer to war with Germany when U.S. forces land on Iceland to take over its garrisoning from the British. From thereon, the U.S. Navy had the responsibility of protecting convoys in the nearby sea routes from attack by German submarines. With Iceland and its nearby sea routes under U.S. protection, the British Royal Navy was more free to defend its embattled Mediterranean positions. The occupation of Iceland came less than a month after President Franklin D. Roosevelt froze all German and Italian assets in the United States and expelled the countries' diplomats in response to the German torpedoing of the American destroyer Robin Moor. Much of the North Atlantic was now in the American sphere, and U.S. warships patrolled the area for German submarines, notifying London of all enemy activity. The United States officially entered World War II after Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii in December 1941.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*AGERHOLM, HAROLD CHRIST
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 29 January 1925, Racine, Wis. Accredited to: Wisconsin. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 4th Battalion, 10th Marines, 2d Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Saipan, Marianas Islands, 7 July 1944. When the enemy launched a fierce, determined counterattack against our positions and overran a neighboring artillery battalion, Pfc. Agerholm immediately volunteered to assist in the efforts to check the hostile attack and evacuate our wounded. Locating and appropriating an abandoned ambulance jeep, he repeatedly made extremely perilous trips under heavy rifle and mortar fire and single-handedly loaded and evacuated approximately 45 casualties, working tirelessly and with utter disregard for his own safety during a grueling period of more than 3 hours. Despite intense, persistent enemy fire, he ran out to aid 2 men whom he believed to be wounded marines but was himself mortally wounded by a Japanese sniper while carrying out his hazardous mission. Pfc. Agerholm's brilliant initiative, great personal valor and self-sacrificing efforts in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
*BAKER, THOMAS A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 105th Infantry, 27th Infantry Division. Place and date: Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. Entered service at: Troy, N.Y. Birth: Troy, N.Y. G.O. No.: 35, 9 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty at Saipan, Mariana Islands, 19 June to 7 July 1944. When his entire company was held up by fire from automatic weapons and small-arms fire from strongly fortified enemy positions that commanded the view of the company, Sgt. (then Pvt.) Baker voluntarily took a bazooka and dashed alone to within 100 yards of the enemy. Through heavy rifle and machinegun fire that was directed at him by the enemy, he knocked out the strong point, enabling his company to assault the ridge. Some days later while his company advanced across the open field flanked with obstructions and places of concealment for the enemy, Sgt. Baker again voluntarily took up a position in the rear to protect the company against surprise attack and came upon 2 heavily fortified enemy pockets manned by 2 officers and 10 enlisted men which had been bypassed. Without regard for such superior numbers, he unhesitatingly attacked and killed all of them. Five hundred yards farther, he discovered 6 men of the enemy who had concealed themselves behind our lines and destroyed all of them. On 7 July 1944, the perimeter of which Sgt. Baker was a part was attacked from 3 sides by from 3,000 to 5,000 Japanese. During the early stages of this attack, Sgt. Baker was seriously wounded but he insisted on remaining in the line and fired at the enemy at ranges sometimes as close as 5 yards until his ammunition ran out. Without ammunition and with his own weapon battered to uselessness from hand-to-hand combat, he was carried about 50 yards to the rear by a comrade, who was then himself wounded. At this point Sgt. Baker refused to be moved any farther stating that he preferred to be left to die rather than risk the lives of any more of his friends. A short time later, at his request, he was placed in a sitting position against a small tree . Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier's pistol with its remaining 8 rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker's body was found in the same position, gun empty, with 8 Japanese lying dead before him. His deeds were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army.
Almost all of the Japanese-Americans who served in WWII, were assigned to the 442nd Infantry, a Hawaiian military unit which is now part of the Hawaiian National Guard, and which served in Italy and Southeastern Europe during WWII. They became the most decorated military unit in the U.S. Army during WWII, and served while many had members of their families who were held at Internment Facilities (such as Manzanar, in California). Almost all were "Nisei", or second generation, Hawaiian residents (decades before Hawaii became a state). The following two men probably are examples of this:
Another Nise below
*MOTO, KAORU
Private First Class Kaoru Moto distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 7 July 1944, near Castellina, Italy. While serving as first scout, Private First Class Moto observed a machine gun nest that was hindering his platoon's progress. On his own initiative, he made his way to a point ten paces from the hostile position, and killed the enemy machine gunner. Immediately, the enemy assistant gunner opened fire in the direction of Private First Class Moto. Crawling to the rear of the position, Private First Class Moto surprised the enemy soldier, who quickly surrendered. Taking his prisoner with him, Private First Class Moto took a position a few yards from a house to prevent the enemy from using the building as an observation post. While guarding the house and his prisoner, he observed an enemy machine gun team moving into position. He engaged them, and with deadly fire forced the enemy to withdraw. An enemy sniper located in another house fired at Private First Class Moto, severely wounding him. Applying first aid to his wound, he changed position to elude the sniper fire and to advance. Finally relieved of his position, he made his way to the rear for treatment. Crossing a road, he spotted an enemy machine gun nest. Opening fire, he wounded two of the three soldiers occupying the position. Not satisfied with this accomplishment, he then crawled forward to a better position and ordered the enemy soldier to surrender. Receiving no answer, Private First Class Moto fired at the position, and the soldiers surrendered. Private First Class Moto'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.
*O'BRIEN, WILLIAM J.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 1st Battalion, 105th Infantry, 27th Infantry Division. Place and date: At Saipan, Marianas Islands, 20 June through 7 July 1944. Entered service at: Troy, N.Y. Birth: Troy, N.Y. G.O. No.: 35, 9 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty at Saipan, Marianas Islands, from 20 June through 7 July 1944. When assault elements of his platoon were held up by intense enemy fire, Lt. Col. O'Brien ordered 3 tanks to precede the assault companies in an attempt to knock out the strongpoint. Due to direct enemy fire the tanks' turrets were closed, causing the tanks to lose direction and to fire into our own troops. Lt. Col. O'Brien, with complete disregard for his own safety, dashed into full view of the enemy and ran to the leader's tank, and pounded on the tank with his pistol butt to attract 2 of the tank's crew and, mounting the tank fully exposed to enemy fire, Lt. Col. O'Brien personally directed the assault until the enemy strongpoint had been liquidated. On 28 June 1944, while his platoon was attempting to take a bitterly defended high ridge in the vicinity of Donnay, Lt. Col. O'Brien arranged to capture the ridge by a double envelopment movement of 2 large combat battalions. He personally took control of the maneuver. Lt. Col. O'Brien crossed 1,200 yards of sniper-infested underbrush alone to arrive at a point where 1 of his platoons was being held up by the enemy. Leaving some men to contain the enemy he personally led 4 men into a narrow ravine behind, and killed or drove off all the Japanese manning that strongpoint. In this action he captured S machineguns and one 77-mm. fieldpiece. Lt. Col. O'Brien then organized the 2 platoons for night defense and against repeated counterattacks directed them. Meanwhile he managed to hold ground. On 7 July 1944 his battalion and another battalion were attacked by an overwhelming enemy force estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 Japanese. With bloody hand-to-hand fighting in progress everywhere, their forward positions were finally overrun by the sheer weight of the enemy numbers. With many casualties and ammunition running low, Lt. Col. O'Brien refused to leave the front lines. Striding up and down the lines, he fired at the enemy with a pistol in each hand and his presence there bolstered the spirits of the men, encouraged them in their fight and sustained them in their heroic stand. Even after he was seriously wounded, Lt. Col. O'Brien refused to be evacuated and after his pistol ammunition was exhausted, he manned a .50 caliber machinegun, mounted on a jeep, and continued firing. When last seen alive he was standing upright firing into the Jap hordes that were then enveloping him. Some time later his body was found surrounded by enemy he had killed His valor was consistent with the highest traditions of the service.
Another NISE BELOW
*TANOUYE, TED T.
Technical Sergeant Ted T. Tanouye distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 7 July 1944, near Molino A Ventoabbto, Italy. Technical Sergeant Tanouye led his platoon in an attack to capture the crest of a strategically important hill that afforded little cover. Observing an enemy machine gun crew placing its gun in position to his left front, Technical Sergeant Tanouye crept forward a few yards and opened fire on the position, killing or wounding three and causing two others to disperse. Immediately, an enemy machine pistol opened fire on him. He returned the fire and killed or wounded three more enemy soldiers. While advancing forward, Technical Sergeant Tanouye was subjected to grenade bursts, which severely wounded his left arm. Sighting an enemy-held trench, he raked the position with fire from his submachine gun and wounded several of the enemy. Running out of ammunition, he crawled 20 yards to obtain several clips from a comrade on his left flank. Next, sighting an enemy machine pistol that had pinned down his men, Technical Sergeant Tanouye crawled forward a few yards and threw a hand grenade into the position, silencing the pistol. He then located another enemy machine gun firing down the slope of the hill, opened fire on it, and silenced that position. Drawing fire from a machine pistol nest located above him, he opened fire on it and wounded three of its occupants. Finally taking his objective, Technical Sergeant Tanouye organized a defensive position on the reverse slope of the hill before accepting first aid treatment and evacuation. Technical Sergeant Tanouye'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.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 7 FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
7 July
1897: Born on July 7, 1897, in Escambia, Ala., Blake served as a civilian employee of the Army Air Forces Air Service Command at the Miami Air Depot, Miami, Fla., now a part of the Miami International Airport, after World War II started.
Staff Sgt. Esther McGowin Blake enlisted in the U.S. Air Force on 8 July 1948, during the first minute of the first hour of the first day that women could join the United States Air Force, created nine months before on September 17, 1947. That date was 8 July 1948.
Seventy-five years ago, on June 12, 1948, President Harry S. Truman had signed the Women's Armed Services Integration Act (Public Law 625-80), which authorized women to serve as regular members of the U.S. armed forces.
During July, AFHF will celebrate the lives and careers of many notable women who have worn the Air Force blue.
1914: Dr. Robert H. Goddard, the "father" of American rocketry, received a US patent for a two-stage solid-fuel rocket. It was the first of 69 patents he received for inventions. (21)
1920: The Navy flew an F-5L seaplane by radiocompass from Hampton Roads to the USS Ohio located 94 miles away at sea. (24)
1929: Transcontinental Air Transport, Incorporated, inaugurated a 48-hour cross county train-plane service. (24)
1942: Flying a Lockheed Vega A-29 Hudson, Lt Harry J. Kane of the 396 BMS attacked and sank a German submarine (U-701) off Cherry Point, N. C., to make the first sure "kill" off the Atlantic Coast of the US. (4) (21)
1955: First test mission of Project Whoosh, which evaluated escape from high-speed aircraft at nearly Mach 2.
1944: Eighth, Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces hit petroleum, oil, and lubricant (POL) targets hard throughout the Theater. Of the approximately 3,000 sorties flown during the day, around 60 planes are shot down. (USAF Art program)
1960: Public Law 86-601 provided $311 million for airlift modernization, including an initiative to build the C-141 Starlifter. (18)
1961: NASA successfully fired the eight-engine Saturn SA-72 for the second time at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Hunstville, in a 119-second test.
1965: Rockwell rolled out the first OV-10A Bronco at Columbus, Ohio. (8: Jul 1990)
1971: SAC transferred its last C-47 "Gooney Bird" (Number 44-76326) from the 97 BMW at Blytheville AFB to the USS Alabama Monument Commission. (1)
1973: The McDonnell-Douglas TF-15, the two-seat trainer version of the F-15 Eagle, flew its first flight. (30) 1985: The 96 BMW accepted SAC's first operational B-1B (SN 83-0065) at Dyess AFB. (1)
1987: The 76th and last C-5A (number 66-8307) to receive stronger wings rolled out of Lockheed's Marietta plant to complete a $1.5 billion project that began in 1975. (12)
1991: The 436 MAW delivered 70 tons of food and relief supplies to N'Djamena, Chad, to help that country overcome a drought-induced food shortage. (16) (21)
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