To All,
Good Tuesday Morning July 16. I hope you all have a great day. Sun will not show up for a couple hours today and will only heat up to about 80 so the weather guessers are telling us.
A few thing from the archives today.
Warm 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/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 83 H-Grams
This Day in Navy and Marine Corps History:
July 16
1862 Congress establishes the rank of Rear Admiral, with David G. Farragut named as the first Rear Admiral.
1863 The screw sloop of war USS Wyoming, commanded by Capt. D. McDougal, is fired on by shore batteries and Japanese ships of the Prince of Nagoya. During this action, Wyoming became the first foreign warship to take the offensive to uphold treaty rights in Japan.
1915 The first Navy ships, the battleships USS Ohio (BB 12), USS Missouri (BB 11), and USS Wisconsin (BB 9) transit the Panama Canal, steaming from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
1945 The first atomic bomb test, Trinity, is detonated at Alamogordo, N.M.
1957 An F8U 1P Crusader (Bu#144608), piloted by Maj. John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC, breaks the transcontinental speed record by crossing the country from Los Alamitos, Calif., to Floyd Bennett Field, N.Y., in three hours and 22 min., 50.5 sec. for an average speed of 723.517 mph. This is the first upper atmosphere supersonic flight from the West Coast to the East Coast.
Unfortunately the aircraft now lies on the bottom of the Tonkin Gulf as a result of a ramp strike on USS Oriskany in 1972.It had a nice bronze plaque on the side comerating the event and it already had a spot in the National Air Museum
1987 Republic of Korea Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Choe Sang-Hwa gives a model of the Korean Turtle "Kobuksan" to Secretary of the Navy James Webb Jr. as a symbol of the partnership between the two nations.
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Today in World History
July 16
1765 English Prime Minister Lord Grenville resigns and is replaced by Lord Rockingham.
1774 Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji, ending their six-year war.
1779 American troops under General Anthony Wayne capture Stony Point, N.Y.
1861 The first battle of Bull Run
1875 The new French constitution is finalized.
1882 Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of Abraham Lincoln, dies of a stroke.
1940 Adolf Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England.
1944 Soviet troops occupy Vilnius, Lithuania, in their drive towards Germany.
1945 The United States detonates the first atomic bomb in a test at Alamogordo, N. M.
1969 Apollo 11 blasts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, heading for a landing on the moon.
1999 A private plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. is lost over the waters off Martha's Vineyard, Mass.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 15 July 2024 and ending Sunday, 21 July 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 14 July 1969… The retreat from Vietnam began, the loss of brave hearts continued. Ten aircraft and seven aviators gone but not forgotten: Captain Jerry Coffee's brilliant poem for the ages: "One Last Roll For Me."…
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 16 July
July 16: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1247
Below is what you get when you click on the URL above. You are missing some real history if you have not been doing this…skip
Date: 16 July 1967
Aircraft type: F-8E Crusader
Serial Number: 150925
Military Unit: VF-162
Service: USN
Home Base: USS Oriskany
Name(s):
Lt Cdr Demetrio A Verich (Survived)
The Oriskany's Air Wing was having a rough return to combat, losing its third aircraft in as many days. In fact before the month was over, the Oriskany would lose a total of 10 aircraft in combat and three in accidents. Lt Cdr Verich was leading the flak suppression element of three F-8s during a raid by A-4s on the Phu Ly railway yard, 30 miles south of Hanoi. As the formation approached the target it came under attack from a SAM site. Lt Cdr Verich started a split-S manoeuvre to evade two of the missiles but his aircraft (call sign Super Heat) was hit by a third SA-2 as the Crusader was diving through 5,000 feet. The aircraft began to disintegrate and Verich ejected immediately. Considering that his position was only about 16 miles south of Hanoi when he landed, Lt Cdr Verich was most fortunate to be rescued by a Navy SH-3 of HS-2 from the Hornet at first light on the 17th after 15 hours on the ground close to an AAA position. The helicopter pilot, Lt Neil Sparks, was awarded the Navy Cross for his courage and skill in rescuing the pilot. The helicopter had spent a total of two hours and 23 minutes over North Vietnam during the rescue, much of that time under fire. 'Butch' Verich had also been shot down on 18 August 1966 during the Oriskany's second war cruise.
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 archives
Thanks to Wigs. A year ago He told me he had sent something special. He was correct. Please watch this one…..Skip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjAsM1vAhW0
Peter van Uhm: Why I chose a gun
http://www.ted.com Peter van Uhm is the Netherlands' chief of defense, but that does not mean he is pro-war. At TEDxAmsterdam he explains how his career is one shaped by a love of peace, not a desire for bloodshed -- and why we need armies if we want peace. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED ...
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From the Archives
Thanks to Peter via Ken and Dr. Rich
Navy Aviators Medal of Honor Awardees
There may be some other of Ward's clips available….skip
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Thanks to Carl
Tucker: The Car Company Big Auto Murdered
July 15, 2023
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/07/15/tucker-the-car-company-big-auto-murdered/
Preston Tucker's Speed Shop Explains the Genius Behind an American Tragedy
Published: 30 Apr 2022
Sean and Mike Tucker are identical twins who happen to be the great-grandsons of Preston Tucker. In collaboration with a noted collector and historian, they have embarked on a quest to preserve the legacy of Preston and the eponymous Tucker '48.
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'Thanks to Dr.Rich
That time a Marine mechanic stole an A-4M Skyhawk attack aircraft for a joyride
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
I learned to use chop sticks when I started going to the orient in 1968. Still use them on occasion ..skip
As common eating utensils, chopsticks in Asia are about 2,000 years older than the fork in Europe.
By the time most people in Europe started eating with forks, chopsticks had already been around in Asia for millennia. The versatile utensil is believed to have been invented in China roughly 5,000 years ago, although it was initially little more than twigs used for cooking rather than eating (compared to human fingers, chopsticks were a much safer way to grab food from boiling water). None other than Confucius is credited with helping to make chopsticks popular as eating utensils sometime after 400 BCE. A man who espoused nonviolence, the philosopher believed that knives evoked bloodshed and the "honorable and upright man … allows no knives on his table." (Chopsticks, then, were a more peaceful way to pick up food compared to spearing it with a knife.)
Chopsticks gradually made their way beyond China's borders and were the utensil of choice in other Asian countries such as Japan and Vietnam by 500 CE. Forks, meanwhile, slowly gained popularity throughout Europe after initially being used in their two-tined form by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians for cooking. Around the 11th century, they were introduced as eating utensils in Italy and France, after having initially been used in the Byzantine Empire — still in two-pronged form — but were widely frowned upon for centuries as unnecessarily luxurious or effeminate. Medieval Europe ate mostly with rounds of stale bread used as a platform for meat and vegetables, as well as with knives and spoons, which had been ubiquitous since ancient times. It wasn't until around the 18th century that the use of forks — finally with three and four tines — became commonplace in much of Europe, in a slow process befitting their status as a late-to-the-party addition to the table.
Numbers Don't Lie
Muscles involved in the use of chopsticks
50
Different parts of a fork
7
Disposable chopsticks used in China every year
45 billion
Kinds of forks in existence
35
National Chopsticks Day is celebrated on February 6.
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From the archives for my Phantom friends
THANKS TO NEWELL
I read with interest "Fantoomery" and Eagle's F-4 Flaws Assessment in today's THE LIST. Having spent my entire operational career in that wonderfully ugly beautiful beast (F-4B through F-4S), I am submitting the following for your posting in THE LIST. (Or, if you choose, THE BUBBAS.)
Scorpio
To: All Yesteryear Navy F-4 Jocks
From: CDR Newell Tarrant, USN (Ret.)
SUBJECT: HOMAGE TO THE PHANTOM
I received a widely shared email titled, "Phantom Farewell" in the winter of 2006. It was originally written as a tribute to the F-4 when the aging bird passed from our operational fighter inventory. Additionally, it appeared that this farewell had been written years prior to its 2006 email-recirculation, and by 2006 no one knew who had originally penned it. Although attribution-credit was not established, I judged from its content (and some specifically mentioned Squadron and Pilot-RIO callsigns) that it was likely written by an east-coast-based Navy fighter pilot.
Little matter from which American coast it came, because it was a fighter jock's heartfelt lament regarding the Phantom's passing. And for years it remained archived in my computer's "NAVAIR" folder.
A 2014 reunion of VF-161 "Rock River" squadron-mates hosted by Rear-Admiral Ted "Slapshot" Carter at the Naval War College prompted memories of our F-4's distinguished history, and tugged my attention back to that old "Phantom Farewell" document. But upon rereading it, I thought that more ought to be said. So, with a sincere tip-of-the-cap to its unknown original author, and consonant with the collaborative spirit of the Phantom's Stick-and-Scope cockpits, I rewrote it. My intentions were to include additional historical detail and to make it more generally inclusive of the whole bygone Navy F-4 community rather than highlight any individual Sticks or Scopes. No self-promotional agenda intended. This rewrite sought only to expand on the original writer's goals ― pen a meaningful tribute to our long-retired fighter, and voice a fond recall of how flying the Phantom from carrier flight decks profoundly affected our lives.
Many Navy fighter pilots transitioned to the initial F-4 squadrons from our F-8 Crusader community. Years later, many F-4 jocks transitioned from Phantoms to our newer F-14 Tomcats. And, later yet, to F/A-18 Hornets. Respect for those friendly-rival Navy fighter communities still abounds. This farewell tribute, however, only addresses the Phantom. Thus, submitted in remembrance as a toast to all long-ago, Navy F-4 brethren, "Phantom Reminiscence" follows this explanation of its origin.
F-4's and Dinosaurs Forever,
Scorpio
PHANTOM REMINISCENCE
There's no use in stonewalling this any longer. It's way past time to bid farewell to a once mighty, but bygone, warhorse. A farewell written as if a eulogy, because even the solicitation mailers for those large coffee-table books, whose words and pictures chronicled our stallions' service, have stopped arriving. In truth, those coffee-table book solicitations stopped arriving decades ago. A tacit proof that our formerly famous fighter is now nearly forgotten. Or if not quite forgotten, our metal-steed is, at best, relegated to our memories of the 20th Century.
Young once, we aged together. So, even these many years removed, I feel it is appropriate to voice an overdue homage, and to acknowledge belatedly that one of the most capable Navy fighter aircraft to dominate contested skies flies no more.
The F-4 Phantom.
Big.
Ugly.
Beautiful.
Beast.
Our Navy's Phantoms enjoyed a thirty-six-year operational run, bookended by combat in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm. Few airplanes in the history of aviation have adapted so well to warfare's changing tactical landscape.
The Phantom's departure ordained our loss of variable jet-intakes, of sawtooth-wing leading edges, of positive-dihedral wingtips, of negative-dihedral slatted-stabilators, and a high of 2.2 Mach topping a fighter cockpit Mach-number gauge. Departing F-4's also carried away a large chunk of what made my life fulfilling.
In retrospective, the plane was designed in the 1950's by the McDonnell Aircraft Company as a fighter-interceptor. A successor to the Navy's underpowered F-3 Demon, the new F-4 needed to be a more robust aerial platform, thrust by strong engines to power aloft an advanced, air-to-air, radar missile system. Bottom line, the Phantom was originally designed to engage high-and-fast inbound Bandits.
Which meant that initially the F-4 launched from Navy flight decks as a long-range air-superiority fighter designed to extend the horizons of fleet defense. The earliest Phantom missions were flown chiefly as fighter-interceptors flying Combat Air Patrol for the Carrier Task Group (CTG), and launching also to fly shotgun on the long-range Soviet "Bear" and "Badger" bombers seeking out the CTG. Then the Vietnam War exploded, and the F-4's missions expanded. Phantoms now carried bombs under their wings and proved they were capable of beating up the dirt as effectively as their A-4 and A-7 attack-aircraft brethren. Flying sorties into North Vietnam, the Phantoms were often tasked to speed ahead, and to strike the lethal SAM sites and anti-aircraft batteries before our slower attack-aircraft arrived over the target. Thus, for many years the Phantom, sporting a two-man crew and a sophisticated radar-system wedded to its high-speed strike-fighter capabilities, became the air-superiority platform of choice for any high-threat environment.
Time never sleeps, and the Phantom's decades-long superiority eventually ended.
My emotions still churn in the face of this reality, because we served and matured together. Thousands of hours of my adult life were spent strapped into the cockpit of that brutish fighter. It was there that combat was flown, life-long friendships were forged, and America's will, enforced. Airborne, from that lofty perch, I had gazed up star-struck at the heavens and had also looked down warily on hostile lands. I didn't always realize it then (youth, of course, being wasted on the young), but each F-4 sortie flown was a gift. Likewise, the time spent in the company of so many exceptional squadron-mates.
Phantom Phlyers.
Phantom Pherrets.
Phantom Phixers.
I remember the tie-down-chain laden Plane Captains and the hard-working Maintenance Technicians who respected the airplanes as much as we aircrews did. I recall the maintenance Chief Petty Officers who taught young nuggets like me not only how the Phantom's innards worked, but how to better acquit myself as an officer and a leader. Paid neither enough nor near their worth, our Phantom Phixers demanded little in return except for the opportunities to earn our flight-crews' respect for their professional contributions, and to serve our squadron well. Etched in the tired creases of their faces at the close of each demanding day, though, I read the depth of my commissioned leadership responsibilities.
As I flip through the yellowed pages of my tattered flight-logbooks and see the officers' names recorded there, I recall the requisite aircrew skills shared between the Phantom's two cockpits ― Pilot and Radar Officer, Stick and Scope, Phantom Phlyer and Phantom Pherret. The complementary teamwork between our front and rear cockpits was one of the unique qualities that made flying the F-4 so rewarding. Phantom Stick-Scope collaboration and operating from carrier flight decks were two of the most dynamic and defining characteristics of my aviation life. I know few things as surely as I know that U.S. Navy carrier-based aviators are the best in the world. It feels good to reassert that fact, even decades removed from the rigors of the experience, because it is not braggadocio if performance exceeds swagger.
And what about the down times between our carrier sorties? I remember living shipboard with fellow junior officers in our six- or eight-man bunkrooms, where all manner of JO issues (be it work or play) were discussed and resolved. That tight comradeship reinforced mutual trust; it also taught me the worth of true friendship. My squadron-mates partnered with me in the long deployments at sea and in the dangers of combat. Moreover, in that shared performance crucible, I learned that I would weather well the unknown future ordeals of my life, because anything that I might do after my Navy flight career would, in comparison, be so much easier.
If via fond memories I hustle top-side from my below-decks JO bunk room to those yesteryear carrier flight decks, I can close my eyes and almost hear the clack-clack-clack of the catapult's shuttle as it moves aft to a ready-position for the next aircraft's launch. Then thundering jet engine roar soon eclipses all other sound.
My recall now freshly triggered, vivid recollections of Phantom flight-deck prelaunch dynamics gush forth. The Air Boss in Pri-Fly orders, "Start engines!" Jet exhaust stings our nostrils until we lower our canopies, shutting out the burnt JP-5 fumes. In a planned starting sequence, a "huffer" lights our Phantom to life. Our engines spool up and start. Our aircraft systems power on. Preflight checks are performed with our brown-shirted Plane Captain and our white-shirted Troubleshooters. Then comes a release of our aircraft tie-down chains. Pull our chocks. Taxi the deck. Soon we're spotted just behind the catapult, awaiting our turn for launch. We signal the green-shirted Weight-Board Bearer: thumbs-up on our bird's 56,000 pounds of launch-weight. 56,000 pounds. 28 tons of deadly fighter. Grasp that, if you can.
The plane in front of us launches, leaving wisps of steam whistling aft from the catapult track. The jet-blast deflector comes down, and, splitting the slotted cat track with our two nose-strut tires, we taxi over the shuttle and onto the catapult. We spread our folded wingtips. Then, despite years of this same prelaunch routine, our anticipation starts to spike as we whisk through the regimen unique to the Phantom's launch. The nose strut extends, granting our fighter the nose-high attitude of a predator preparing to leap into the air. The shuttle's launch-bridle is attached to our fuselage's twin belly-hooks located at the forward wing-roots. The shuttle slides forward, taking up the bridle-cable slack and tensioning our bridled bird against the holdback-fitting. Our hands are then held high, held visibly away from any cockpit switches as our squadron's red-shirted Ordnance-men scramble beneath the F-4 to pull our missiles' safety-pins and arm our weapons.
Our ordnance now fully armed and our flaps lowered, the yellow-shirted Catapult Officer signals us for engine run up. The bird's throttles are pushed forward to military power and controls cycled: stick forward, then aft, then left and right. Rudder, deflected left and right.
"You ready, Scope?"
"Right behind you, Stick."
The yellow-jersey clad Catapult Officer signals for full afterburner.
The throttles are pushed all the way forward into their AB detent. Gauges checked a final time. We're good to go.
We position our heads supportively back against the top of our ejection seats because it's going to be one helluva terrific kick in the ass when the holdback breaks and the steam catapult hurls us off the flight deck.
The Catapult Officer returns the F-4 pilot's salute. Then he points forward, reaches down and touches the deck to signal, "Shoot 'em." to the green-jersey-clad Catapult Crew stationed in the flight deck's catwalk.
One potato, two potato, and we're roaring down the cat.
Sweet shot. 1.2 seconds later (and in less than 300 feet of travel) 56,000 pounds of Phantom and two stoked flyers are airborne. Rotate the nose up a few degrees. Raise the landing gear and flaps. Come out of 'burner. Climb. Sweet bird.
And for the next couple of hours we stand ready to use this glorious Phantom, this mighty machine of American know-how, for whatever our aerial mission demands. Or perhaps today is not our day to save the world, so we barrier-patrol for our Carrier Task Group while running air-intercepts against our wingman. Later, our mission flown and fuel permitting, as we vector back for home-plate, we might honor one of the CTG picket-ships' request for a high-speed low-level fly-by. Or vaporize some hoarded fuel in a few minutes of post-patrol turn-and-burn dogfight head-to-head against our wingman. Or fly tail-chase together among the clouds. Or fly through a low-altitude rain squall a couple of times just to fresh-water wash our birds. Or push up the throttles and punch through the sound barrier for the same reason that a dog licks his balls … just because he can.
We are flying the Phantom. The finest aerial champion of its era.
Alas, these are recollections of days long past. Because all that remains of this once great fighter, a plane that gave my professional life its purpose, is now generally found as an empty-shell static-display bird in either aviation museums, or mounted outside in front of air-station main gates across America. In a thirty-six-year blink of an eye the Phantom became obsolete. Me too. Because I have become that balding, wrinkly-faced gent, who you might see wearing a weathered squadron ball cap and an ill-fitting old flight jacket. That garrulous elderly warrior who bores anyone within earshot with his tales of last-century fighter derring-do.
1960 through 1996 marked the halcyon years of the Navy's Phantom fighter squadrons ― the Chargers, Pacemakers, Silver Kings, Vigilantes, Fighting Falcons, Jolly Rogers, Pukin' Dogs, Grim Reapers, Top Hatters, Red Rippers, Sundowners, Freelancers, Tomcatters, Screaming Eagles, Aardvarks and Black Knights to name but a few of the many. Moreover, the Phantom thrilled airshow audiences worldwide during its five-year tenure as the thundering glossy bird of the Navy's Blue Angels.
Nowadays I hear assurances of a bright future for the Navy's newest strike-fighter, the F-35 Lightning, but my time in the arena was spent with the Phantom. And when an airplane possesses that much character and longevity, it ceases to be inanimate for those who strapped into it on a regular basis. We who knew it well miss its strength and raw power. In its day, it bowed to no other fighter.
Very Respectfully,
Scorpio
PS: For all of us who revered the Phantom, war-correspondent Ernest Hemingway's poetic words ― quoted from a 1944 Collier's Magazine article that he wrote while posting stories from London during WWII ― might best describe our sentiments.
"You love a lot of things if you live around them,
but there isn't any woman and there isn't any horse,
not any before, nor any after,
that is as lovely as a great airplane.
And men who love them are faithful to them
even though they leave them for others.
A man has only one virginity to lose in fighters,
and if it is a lovely plane he loses it to,
there his heart will ever be."
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This Day in U S Military History…….July 16
1769 – Father Juñpero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan missionary, founds the first Catholic mission in California on the site of present-day San Diego. After Serra blessed his new outpost of Christianity in a high mass, the royal standard of Spain was unfurled over the mission, which he named San Diego de Alcala. Serra came to Spanish America in 1750 and served in the Sierra Gorda missions and then in south-central Mexico. A successful missionary, he was appointed a member of the second Spanish land expedition to Alta California in 1769. When the party reached San Diego, Serra remained with a few followers to found California's first mission. The rest of the expedition continued on in search of Monterrey harbor, which had been previously used by Spanish sailors. Although the explorers failed in their aim, Serra succeeded in finding Monterrey in 1770, and there he founded his second mission–San Carlos Barromeo. Appointed president of the Alta California presidios, Serra eventually founded a total of nine missions, stretching from San Diego to present-day San Francisco. The Franciscan fathers built large communities around their missions, teaching Christianized Native Americans to farm and tend cattle, and directing their work. These agricultural communities enjoyed a considerable autonomy from first the Spanish colonial authorities and then the Mexican government, but with the coming of the Americans in the mid-19th century most were abandoned.
1916 – Captain Raynal Bolling commanded the 1st Aero Squadron, New York National Guard, when it was mobilized during the Mexican Border Crisis. Using a variety of privately owned aircraft the 1st was the first flying unit organized in the Guard. Though the unit was not deployed to the border before being released from active duty in November 1916, a large number of its members, including Bolling, joined the Signal Corps Reserve (then controlling all Army aviation) prior to the U.S. entry into World War I. During the war Bolling, now a colonel, was a leading planner of American air strategy. For instance, he determined and got approved the use of British DeHaviland's for observation and daylight bombing missions and British Bristol's and French Spads as America's lead fighters. While riding in a staff car near the front at Amiens, France on March 26, 1918, he was surprised by advancing German troops. Bolling and his driver, coming under enemy fire, jumped into a ditch, where Bolling returned fire with his pistol (the only weapon either man had). He killed a German officer and almost immediately was killed himself by another officer. His had to be one of the few pistol fights to have occurred in World War I! Bolling was posthumously awarded the French Legion of Honor and the American Distinguished Service Medal for his bold leadership and far-reaching vision of the role air power would come to play on the battlefield.
1940 – Hitler issues his Directive 16. It begins, "I have decided to begin to prepare for, and if necessary to carry out, an invasion of England." It goes on to explain the importance of the air battles for the achievement of this aim. At this stage in the planning the German army's views are dominant. They wish the Channel crossing to take place on a wide front with landings all along the south coast of Britain. They envisage that the force to be employed will be at least 25 and perhaps 40 divisions. They hope that the crossing can be protected by the Luftwaffe and mines on its flanks. This is not a very realistic plan.
1945 – The United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The official U.S. development of the atomic bomb began with the establishment of the Manhattan Project in August 1942. The project brought together scientists from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to study the feasibility of building an atomic bomb capable of unimaginable destructive power. The project proceeded with no small degree of urgency, since the American government had been warned that Nazi Germany had also embarked on a program to develop an atomic weapon. By July 1945, a prototype weapon was ready for testing. Although Germany had surrendered months earlier, the war against Japan was still raging. On July 16, the first atomic bomb was detonated in the desert near the Los Alamos research facility. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the project, watched the mushroom cloud rise into the Nevada sky. "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds," he uttered, reciting a passage from an ancient Hindu text. News of the successful test was relayed to President Harry S. Truman, who was meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Potsdam to discuss the postwar world. Observers at the meeting noted that the news "tremendously pepped up" the president, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that Truman almost immediately adopted a more aggressive tone in dealing with Stalin. Truman and many other U.S. officials hoped that possession of the atomic bomb would be America's trump card in dealing with the Soviets after the war. Use of the weapon against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 demonstrated the destructive force of the atomic bomb. The American atomic monopoly did not last long, though. By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb, marking the beginning of the nuclear arms race.
1945 – Cruiser Indianapolis left SF with an atom bomb.
1946 – US court martial in Dachau condemned 46 SS to hang for the Malmedy massacre of disarmed GIs.
1950 – U.S. Army Chaplain Herman G. Felhoelter became the first chaplain to earn an award for heroism and the first to lose his life in the Korean War. Voluntarily remaining behind with several critically wounded soldiers, he and his group was overwhelmed and killed by the communists. Chaplain Felhoelter was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
1969 – At 9:32 a.m. EDT, Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a historic journey to the surface of the moon. After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into a lunar orbit on July 19. The next day, at 1:46 p.m., the lunar module Eagle, manned by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, separated from the command module, where a third astronaut, Michael Collins, remained. Two hours later, the Eagle began its descent to the lunar surface, and at 4:18 p.m. the craft touched down on the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston a famous message, "The Eagle has landed." At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module. Seventeen minutes later, at 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke the following words to millions listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped off the lunar module's ladder, becoming the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. Aldrin joined him on the moon's surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. Nixon via Houston. By 1:11 a.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module, and the hatch was closed. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon–July 1969 A.D.–We came in peace for all mankind." At 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. on July 24. There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today's dollars). The expense was justified by President John F. Kennedy's 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished, ongoing missions lost their viability.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
COSTELLO, JOHN
Rank and organization: Ordinary Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 1850, Rouses Point, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 214, 27 July 1876. Citation: On board the U.S.S. Hartford, Philadelphia, Pa., 16 July 1876. Showing gallantry, Costello rescued from drowning a landsman of that vessel.
FORBECK, ANDREW P.
Rank and organization: Seaman, U.S. Navy. Born: 29 August 18,9, New York. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy during the battle of Katbalogan, Samar, Philippine Islands, 16 July 1900.
STOLTENBERG, ANDREW V.
Rank and organization: Gunner's Mate Second Class, U.S. Navy. Born: Boto, Norway. Accredited to: California. G.O. No.: 55, 29 July 1899. Citation: For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy in battle at Katbalogan, Samar, Philippine Islands, 16 July 1900.
DAHLGREN, JOHN OLOF
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 14 September 1872, Kahliwar, Sweden. Accredited to: California. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: In the presence of the enemy during the battle of Peking, China, 20 June to 16 July 1900, Dahlgren distinguished himself by meritorious conduct.
*FISHER, HARRY
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 20 October 1874, McKeesport, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: Served in the presence of the enemy at the battle of Peking, China, 20 June to 16 July 1900. Assisting in the erection of barricades during the action, Fisher was killed by the heavy fire of the enemy.
HUNT, MARTIN
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 9 July 1873, County of Mayo, Ireland. Accredited to: Massachusetts. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: In the presence of the enemy during the battle of Peking, China, 20 June to 16 July 1900, Hunt distinguished himself by meritorious conduct.
WALKER, EDWARD ALEXANDER
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 2 October 1864, Huntley, Scotland. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: In the presence of the enemy during the battle of Peking, China, 20 June to 16 July 1900. Throughout this period, Walker distinguished himself by meritorious conduct.
YOUNG, FRANK ALBERT
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 22 June 1876, Milwaukee, Wis. Accredited to: Wisconsin. G.O. No.: 55, 19 July 1901. Citation: In the presence of the enemy during the battle of Pehng, China, 20 June to 16 July 1900. Throughout this period, Young distmguished himself by meritorious conduct.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 16, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
16 July
1917: The Aircraft Manufacturers Association formed to solve aircraft patent problems facing US military aviation as war for America neared.
1940: First bombardier training in Air Corps Schools began at Lowry Field with the first class of bombardier instructors. (24)
1945: First atomic bomb, called the "Gadget," exploded near at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, N. Mex. This bomb had a yield of 19 kilotons. It was the prototype for the Fat Man bomb used against Japan. (8: Jul 90) (12)
1953: Lt Col William F. Barnes flew a F-86D Sabre over a 3-kilometer (1.86 miles) course at Salton Sea, Calif., to a world speed record of 715.74 MPH. (24) In a Cessna L-19B at Wichita, Kans., William Thompson set a world altitude record of 37,063 feet for light planes. (24)
1957: Maj John H. Glenn, Jr. (USMC) used a F8U-1P Crusader to break the cross-county speed record. He flew from Los Alamitos, Calif., to Long Island in 3 hours 22 minutes 50 seconds at 723.51 MPH. He also completed the first upper atmosphere supersonic, west coast-to-east coast flight. (9)
1964: The US Army's XV-5A, a "lift-fan" VTOL aircraft, made by General Electric and Ryan Aeronautical, made its first vertical takeoff and landing at Edwards AFB.
1965: Rockwell's OV-10A counterinsurgency aircraft flew its first test flight at company plant in Columbus. (12)
1969: APOLLO XI/FIRST LUNAR LANDING. From Kennedy Space Center, the Apollo XI manned lunar landing mission began for Astronauts Michael Collins, Neil A. Armstrong, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. On 20 July, Aldrin and Armstrong flew the lunar module Eagle to the Sea of Tranquility, where Armstrong took the first step on the moon. On 21 July, after 21 hours 36 minutes on the moon the module lifted off; 4 hours later it docked with the command module to return home. On 24 July, the module splashed down in mid-Pacific, 195 hours 19 minutes after launch. The astronauts set FAI records for greatest mass landed on the moon with 16,153 pounds and greatest mass lifted into lunar orbit from the moon with 5,928.6 pounds. For the USAF, Colonels Aldrin and Collins set two records—Aldrin became the second man to step on the moon, while Collins established a record of 59 hours 27 minutes 55 seconds in lunar orbit. (9) (16)
1999. Lockheed Martin Corporation of Marietta received a $370 million contract to produce seven more C-130J aircraft, including four for the ANG. (32)
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Thanks to Brett
https://victorhanson.com/the-biden-titanic/
The Biden Titanic
Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
Joe Biden's escalating dementia and the long media-political conspiracy to hide his senility from the public are the least of the Democrats' current problems.
Biden's track record as president may be more concerning than his cognitive decline. He has literally destroyed the U.S. border, deliberately allowing the entry of more than 10 million illegal aliens. His callous handlers' agenda was to import abjectly poor constituencies in need of vast government services without regard for the current struggles of a battered American middle class and poor.
The widespread poverty of a vast new cohort of illegal immigrants could serve as indictments of a "racist," "unequal," and "unfair" America—as if the residents of East Palestine, Ohio or inner-city Chicago had anything to do with the centuries-long corruption and oppression of Mexico and Latin America that daily drives thousands of their own poorest citizens northwards to a society founded on very different ideas than those of their homelands.
Note that the left, neither in Mexico nor in America, never asks why millions of these impoverished people prefer to break into a supposedly racist America. Much less do they even distinguish those principles and values that once made America prosperous, free, and secure from their antitheses that have sadly made much of Latin America mostly poor, without freedom, and insecure.
Biden inherited near-zero real interest rates and inflation at 1.4 percent. Almost immediately, in nihilistic fashion, Biden did to a sound economy what he had done to a secure border. So, he recklessly printed money at a time of spiraling, quarantine-ending demand and supply chain disruption. Middle-class wages never caught up with Biden's inflation, as prices for key staples are nearly 30 percent higher than when he took office.
The cost of servicing the ballooning national debt at high interest is now nearly $1 trillion per year. The world abroad is aflame, lit by Biden's inexplicable withdrawal from Kabul, his mixed signals to Vladimir Putin on the eve of his invasion of Ukraine, his deliberate alienation of Israel, his appeasement of Iran and China, and his cuts in the defense budget, coupled with his woke war on mythical "racists" in the military.
Energy prices soared, even as Biden's green agenda proved unworkable and prompted draining the strategic petroleum reserve and begging foreign oil despots before key elections. The "unifier" Biden by design needlessly alienated nearly half the country, and in his debate, he reiterated why Trump supporters do not deserve his concern. And more ominously and recently, Biden grossly told hundreds of his donors that "it's time to put Trump in a bullseye"—just days before the attempt on Trump's life.
The greatest absurdity of the Biden White House is the gaslighting talk of Biden's "achievements." Biden's actions over the last four years are not offsets for his senility that warrant his continuance in office, but again, sadly, they serve as force multipliers, furthering claims of his dementia and for his removal.
Joe Biden is not just non compos mentis and in a sane world, he would be subject to 25th Amendment removal. He also increasingly seems unpleasant and obnoxious, if not sometimes simply weird. To achieve momentary clarity, Biden either shouts at his audience or stoops over and whispers in an eerie fashion.
He insults reporters and his own staff. Every few sentences, without warning, he begins screaming. His face is fixed in a permanent, angry contortion. As a result, the public sees their president as an off-putting, angry old man—and in his selfish dotage, an increasingly unsympathetic one. Even after more than 40 months of media hagiography, Joe Biden still cannot poll over a 40 percent approval rating, given that his rudeness is fueled further by the day due to escalating mental confusion.
Biden is, to be candid, a serial prevaricator. It is not just his ad nauseam repetition of Trump's supposed slurs—the Charlottesville "both sides" lie, the "suckers" lie, or the "bloodbath" lie. He continues to peddle absolute falsehoods like the mythical nine-percent inflation he inherited and Trump's supposed intention to ban all abortions, or his whopper that after welcoming in 10 million illegal aliens, Biden would have had a closed, secure border if not for those selfish Republicans who, for some reason, did not trust his ridiculous eleventh-hour, election-timed immigration proposal.
When he hammers Trump as a "convicted felon," Biden has no clue that a majority of Americans equate that charge with Biden's own warped lawfare assault on ancient customs, as well as a reminder that his now closest advisor is likewise a "convicted felon."
When Biden rants near daily about the rich "paying their fair share," he reminds us that his son is also facing federal tax evasion charges for unreported foreign income in the millions of dollars and that as soon as Biden himself leaves office, as a recipient of the same foreign cash, he may find himself in the same legal jeopardy. So, to use a Bidenism, "how dare he" accuse affluent Americans of the very crimes that his own family is knee deep in?
Biden's prefaces of "no lie," "here's the deal," "no kidding," and "no joke" are little more than tics that forewarn us of complete fabrications about to follow, from the ridiculous story of an uncle supposedly eaten by New Guinea cannibals to his supposed heroics during the Civil Rights movement and his near childhood adoption by various minority communities.
In this regard, senility served oddly as a crutch for Biden. In the past, he paid dearly for his plagiarism, cheating, racist rants, and prevarications, losing three presidential bids and earning a reputation as the empty-suit blowhard of the Senate. Now his press handlers conveniently chalk up his long-standing habitual untruth as momentary mental "confusion."
Given all the above, remember that Biden was to be the "savior" of the Democratic Party. To this day, celebrities demanding his withdrawal from the race throw him the bone that "he saved the country by stopping Trump"—as if no wars, stability abroad, no inflation, low interest, and low energy costs were something to fear.
Yet Biden's four years pale in comparison to what in 2016 might have been a Harris, Buttigieg, Warren, Booker, or Sanders candidacy or presidency. No wonder Democrats concluded that there were no viable alternatives to a cognitively challenged Biden, precisely because Biden was the only available fig leaf to the new Democratic Party and its neo-socialist agenda—that, if transparent, would have terrified the country that it was soon to nearly destroy.
Biden's Democratic critics have it all wrong: removing Biden is wise and needed for the country's sake, but it will not solve the growing public anger at the left. Without the veneer of even a tottering old Joe from Scranton, there will be no camouflage. And then, the true leftist agenda will be served raw to the American people—open borders, woke/DEI racial polarization, transgendered obsessions, inflation/stagflation, wars a plenty abroad, an inert Pentagon, unaffordable energy, partial-birth abortions, and crazy ideas like packing the court and making Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, states.
So, what is the Democratic strategy to win the 2024 election? Certainly, an "open" convention would not produce a moderate Democratic nominee or even a suitable replacement façade. There are no moderates in contention. If there were any hale candidates to offer cover, the party would be in permanent war with its shrill and angry woke base. Joe is the last of his generation to offer a credible front. There are no more Diane Feinsteins or Bill Clintons to package the hard-left agenda. If Harris cannot serve as Biden's replacement, someone like her or further to the left would appear on spec.
The Democrats have no plans to run on their record. Their tripartite strategy is as simple as it is tired and worn. First, expect a third chapter to follow the 2016 Russian collusion caper and the 2020 laptop disinformation ruse—likely some October revelation from the administrative state's "experts" and "authorities" that Trump is a criminal, a traitor, or a spy or plans a coup, to destroy NATO or nuke something. Perhaps there is another Access Hollywood tape, a porn star on ice, anything to avoid discussing the damage done since 2017.
Second, there is still a last gasp to a dying lawfare. Never underestimate the last-gasp judicial effort to inactivate, gag, bankrupt, or jail Trump, however counterproductive such attempts so far have proved.
Third, when all else fails, remember that in many of the swing states, 70 percent of the electorate will not be voting on Election Day and will not be presenting IDs. Millions of their ballots will be harvested or cured by third-party activists. Last time around, the leftist journalist Molly Ball bragged about their "cabal" and "conspiracy" of big money and big tech that had "saved" Americans from Trump.
Those post-election confessions were not just high-fiving but also a confident forewarning of what is to come.
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