To All,
Good Sunday Morning August 11. I hope that you all have a great weekend. Busy day today here with good weather and lower temps.
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:
August 11
1861 USS Penguin, commanded by Cmdr. John L. Livingston, engages blockade-runner Louisa during the Civil War. The blockade-runner hits a sandbar near Cape Fear, N.C., and sinks
1877 Prof. Asaph Hall of the U.S. Naval Observatory discovers the first of two satellites of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, using the largest refractor of the time, a USNO 26-inch (66-cm) telescope.
1898 During the Spanish-American War, USS Cushing (TB 1), USS Gwin (TB 16), and USS McKee (TB 18) captured and burned the Spanish schooner Jover Genard at Carendas, Cuba.
1943 Aircraft from Composite Squadron One (VC 1) based onboard USS Card (CVE 11) sinks German submarine, (U 525), about 376 miles west-southwest of Corvo Island, Azores.
1960 USNS Haiti Victory (T-AK 238), using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recover Discoverer 13 satellite capsule in the Pacific Ocean, the first recovery of a U.S. satellite from orbit.
2001 USNS Benavidez (T-AKR 306) is christened and launched at New Orleans, La. The Bob Hope-class large, medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ship is part of Military Sealift Commands prepositioning program that serves as dry cargo surge sealift carriers.
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Today in World History: August 11
0991 Danes under Olaf Tryggvason kill Ealdorman Byrhtnoth and defeat the Saxons at Maldon.
1492 Rodrigo Borgia is elected to the papacy as Pope Alexander VI.
1792 A revolutionary commune is formed in Paris, France.
1856 A band of rampaging settlers in California kill four Yokut Indians. The settlers had heard unproven rumors of Yokut atrocities.
1862 President Abraham Lincoln appoints Union General Henry Halleck to the position of general in chief of the Union Army.
1904 German General Lothar von Trotha defeats the Hereros tribe near Waterberg, South Africa.
1906 In France, Eugene Lauste receives the first patent for a talking film.
1908 Britain's King Edward VII meets with Kaiser Wilhelm II to protest the growth of the German navy.
1912 Moroccan Sultan Mulai Hafid abdicates his throne in the face of internal dissent.
1916 The Russia army takes Stanislau, Poland, from the Germans.
1929 Babe Ruth hits his 500th major league home run against the Cleveland Indians.
1941 Soviet bombers raid Berlin but cause little damage.
1942 The German submarine U-73 attacks a Malta-bound British convoy and sinks HMS Eagle, one of the world's first aircraft carriers.
1944 German troops abandon Florence, Italy, as Allied troops close in on the historic city.
1965 A small clash between the California Highway Patrol and two black youths sets off six days of rioting in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
1972 The last U.S. ground forces withdraw from Vietnam.
1975 US vetoes admission of North and South Vietnam to UN.
1978 Funeral of Pope Paul VI.
1984 Carl Lewis wins four Olympic gold medals, tying the record Jesse Owens set in 1936.
1988 Al Qaeda formed at a meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
1989 Voyager 2 discovers two partial rings around Neptune.
1990 Troops from Egypt and Morocco arrive in Saudi Arabia as part of the international operation to prevent Iraq from invading.
1999 A tornado in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, kills one person.
2003 NATO assumes command of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, its first major operation outside Europe.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 5 August 2024 and concluding Sunday, 11 August 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 4 August 1969… A bit about Bob Scott's book "God Is My Copilot," with a link to Barrett Tillman's superb 2018 short bio: "Colonel Robert Lee Scott, Jr: God's Pilot."… also: remembering the hundreds of heroic Forward Air Controllers who were killed in action in SEAsia…
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.
Yesterday I gooned the dates again but Micro let me know
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 10 and 11 August
10-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2628
11-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=216
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
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Thanks to Dr. Rich and Billy
Good Mornin' — EYE CANDY con't…
Thanks to the contributions of William B "Bill" Scott noted author/test pilot & all-round good guy. His books are terrific reads. Some are shown below. His book about "Earthquake" Titus is especially good. Brigadier General Robert F. "Earthquake" Titus is a fascinating history of one of aviation's greatest. This coming December he'll turn 98! I've included a mention of Chris Hobson's book "Vietnam Air Losses" as well.
"Billy, I've scribbled a couple more books, since we were last in contact. Cover images are attached, FYI. Gen. Bob "Earthquake" Titus lives here in COS, A "Reader's Digest" version of his amazing career was featured this week in Vintage Aviation News:"
Korea 1951 — Bob "Earthquake" Titus and his P-51 "Mustang"
"And per our telecon today:
* WESTERN MUSEUM OF FLIGHT
Canadair CL-600 Challenger Flight Test Accident April 3, 1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCfkISxzTDI
* Hangar Flying, -- RPM: Routine, Professionalism & Magic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycZi-WbvlzQ
Cheers,
Bill"
William B. Scott
EARTHQUAKE: Fighter Pilot | Test Pilot | Leader
Combat Contrails: Vietnam
The Permit
License to Kill: The Murder of Erik Scott
Video: "License to Kill"
SETP's review in its "Cockpit" Journal:
Here's a tremendous book by Chris Hobson published in 2001 in the UK.
Vietnam Air Losses
From Skip
The Vietnam Air losses book noted below has been put into a web site by Dave Lovelady and is available below in the list every day along with a note on an aircrew what was shot down on that day also available each day in the List
The Bear's Rolling Thunder and Commando Hunt are also available each day. The access is printed in the List each day.
Both of these men have spent many months and years making this information available to all at no cost
Regards,
skip
One can readily see from the extensive Bibliography the breadth and depth of the research that has gone into the book. Still, a great deal is not known about some of the events, and we are hoping that those that were there and have first-hand accounts will share them with us. Those that we feel add to the history will be added to the database, along with the original text.
With gratitude, it should be noted that Rear Admiral Jeremy "Bear" Taylor, USN (Ret.), who has a magnificent website at Rolling Thunder Remembered, suggested that Chris Hobson's book (Vietnam Air Losses, United States Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961-1973) was worthy of obtaining a copy. He suggested a few sources for tracking down used books. That search revealed that readers were being "gouged." The used copies were selling for many times the original price, up to as much as $896 through Amazon. The median price seemed to be at least $100 above the original price.
The information in the book is a treasure, particularly for the descendants, children and now grandchildren, of those that fought the air war. Sometimes, family lore and legend simply don't do justice to the memory of loved ones, nor are family members and friends able to fully appreciate the incredible bravery evidenced many times every day as men did their duty. In addition, unless one is a scholar of the war, willing to research and analyze without preconceived bias, it is difficult to conclude what really happened in the Vietnam War. Certainly, many history books and documentaries are inaccurate. And, unfortunately, there has been so much misinformation about the people that fought the war that often children and grandchildren won't ask veterans to tell their stories. Those veterans are too often reticent to lead the conversation, so the subject doesn't come up. But, if you get them at a military unit reunion or at a VFW or American Legion hall, the memories flood out. It's a shame that families may be the last to know.
Because such valuable information should not have to be paid for, particularly exorbitant sums, nor diligently searched for around the world, I contacted Chris and asked him if I could put the information online. He not only readily agreed to the project, but he asked if he could update the information. In the 18 years since publication, a great deal of additional information has been revealed, most notably the identification of remains through advances in DNA and the hard work of the search and excavation teams.
Accordingly, the information on this site has been updated substantially by Chris during 2019, and we hope to add more information as it comes available.
This site is an attempt to make all the information in Vietnam Air Losses available to a wide audience at no cost to them. It is most appropriate that I include Chris's Introduction from the book:
The Vietnam War is far enough in the past to be considered history yet recent enough to still have a deeply personal effect on millions of Americans, whether they be veterans, relatives of the dead and missing, or simply US citizens. There is a growing wealth of literature on the war, especially in recent years as the pain of the war recedes and the development of the Internet has given an added impetus to publishing.
As an aviation enthusiast and historian, the Vietnam War and its place in the development of air power technology, tactics and doctrine has always fascinated me. Virtually every available aircraft type and every weapon in the US arsenal, with the notable exception of nuclear weapons, was used during the war. The variety of aircraft and the multitude of roles, tactics and operations makes the Vietnam air war well worth studying. Yet perhaps because of its very specific nature, fought over mountainous or jungle terrain in a little known country against a shadowy enemy, the military lessons of the air war are sometimes intangible and difficult to relate to present day air power. Hopefully, this book may, in some small way, make the air war over Southeast Asia less intangible and may point the way to further research to ensure that the lessons of the air war are not forgotten.
In reporting the facts of the war I have tried to steer clear of the politics of Vietnam, unless they have a direct effect on the air war. Being neither an American nor a serviceman I do not feel qualified to comment on the political issues or higher strategy involved nor is any such comment necessary in a work of this nature. This history is about men, aircraft and air operations. The more strategic aspects of the war have already been covered by many excellent authors in a host of publications. I have culled the information presented in this book from a variety of sources, both official and unofficial. Some of the sources disagree on minor points, and certain information, such as that relating to many of the men listed as missing in action, may be regarded as speculative. However, I take full responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies contained in the book.
I am very aware of the sensitivity of writing about events that are so recent and in particular about the people mentioned, the memory of whom is still fresh in the minds of loved ones, friends and colleagues. It is not my intention to characterise or criticise any individual in any way and it is certainly not my intention to cause pain to relatives and friends of the deceased listed in these pages.
A number of people have assisted in the research and production of this book. My wife Alison has helped greatly by compiling the index of personnel and by providing support when needed and my son Jonathan has helped with my numerous IT and Internet-related queries and problems. Sincere thanks are also due to Robert Daley and Peter Bird for their assistance in providing information on the C-130 Hercules and C-7 Caribou respectively. It is thanks to dedicated men such as these that superb websites on a whole variety of subjects are now available on the Internet.
This book was inspired, at least in part, by one of the men mentioned in the text, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Eugene Johnson. I knew Harry Johnson when he was a USAF exchange officer at the Royal Air Force Staff College in the late 1970s. His experience as a Wild Weasel electronic warfare officer made him a valuable asset as a military instructor but his experience as a prisoner of war made him something even more special. This book is dedicated to the dignity, bravery and sacrifice of the thousands of men like Harry Johnson who fought the war in the skies over Southeast Asia.
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Thanks to Newell and Brett
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
We need an American Leo Amery to stand up.
by Victor Davis Hanson
Britain slept in the 1930s as an inevitable war with Hitler loomed. A lonely Winston Churchill had only a few courageous partners to oppose the appeasement and incompetence of his conservative colleague Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
One of the most stalwart truth-tellers was a now little remembered politico and public servant, Leo Amery, a polymath and conservative member of Parliament. Yet in two iconic moments of outrage against the Chamberlain government's temporizing, Amery galvanized Britain and helped end the government's disastrous policies.
In the hours after Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, there was real doubt whether Chamberlain would honor its treaty and declare war on Germany. A Labour Party member, surrogate Arthur Greenwood, got up in the House of Commons to announce that he would be speaking for Labour on behalf of his ill party-leader, Clement Attlee.
Immediately Amery interrupted, shouting out, "Speak for England, Arthur!"
He was met with overwhelming applause, and soon public acclamation. After all, Amery was a political voice in the wilderness warning that neither his own party nor opposition Labour was speaking or acting for the real interest of the British people.
Amery, a shocked Greenwood, and others had finally had enough of the partisan nonsense, and demanded the nation unite against Nazi Germany.
Britain, hours later, declared war on Germany, the first major power to do so.
On a second iconic occasion, May 7, 1940, Amery voiced even stronger views — again, widely held by the public, but rarely voiced by the timid political class. The inept Chamberlain government had just lost a winnable Norway campaign to Germany.
Amery responded with a blistering attack on the incompetence of the conservative Chamberlain administration by quoting Oliver Cromwell's hallmark 1687 order to the Long Parliament:
"You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."
Three days after Amery's speech and the invasion of France, an ill Chamberlain and most of his advisors resigned. Churchill became Prime Minister.
The rest is history.
We need a voice like Amery's. Like Britain from 1939 to 1940, America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it. Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies both inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function Covid virus that killed a million Americans.
President Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years. In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions. Following Biden's humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon's WOKE agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement. The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable. They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that President Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator. Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but un-WOKE Pentagon. Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.
Somewhere out there an American Leo Amery is growing infuriated over what is being done to America. And if he finally stands up like Amery to call out our bankrupt political class, the American people will echo his famous order to this disastrous government:
"Depart, I say, and let us have done with you.
In the name of God, go."
– The following is quoted from Hillsdale College's Churchill Project by Bradley Tolppanen, who is Professor of Library Services, History Librarian and head of Circulation Services at Eastern Illinois University. He is the author of a definitive study, Churchill In North America, 1929.
"Amery's greatest moment came in the famous Norway Debate on 7-8 May 1940. The debate on the disastrous attempt to forestall Hitler's invasion of Norway quickly became a debate on the future of Chamberlain. Amery spoke on the first day, an annihilating attack on Chamberlain which astonished members. The criticism was made all the worse because Amery represented Birmingham, Chamberlain's home town.
Knowing he was no orator, Amery assiduously prepared his speech. Condemning Chamberlain's government, he called for a coalition to fight the war, as in World War I. "We are fighting today for our life, for our liberty, for our all. We cannot go on as we are," he declared. "There must be a change."
Although reluctant to be "drawn into a discussion on personalities," Amery said Britain needed "vision, daring, swiftness and consistency of decision."
Then, facing the government front bench, he administered the fatal blow:
I have quoted certain words of Oliver Cromwell. I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go."
Amery sat amidst the uproar. "I knew I had done what I meant to do," he later reflected. "I had driven the nail home." In the vote after the Norway Debate, Amery was among forty-two Conservatives who voted against the government, fatally wounding Chamberlain who resigned on May 10th. Winston Churchill thus became Prime Minister."
End Quote.
(Leo Amery, a height-challenged man, often spoke at length in Parliament. It was said, with a chuckle, that if Amery had been a half foot taller and his speeches a half hour shorter, he would have become Prime Minister.)
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From the archives
Thanks to Dick
From my friend, Bob
Subject: Fwd: How WWII ended with a Battle between Sailing Ships
For those of us who THOUGHT we knew our Naval history, a new one!
How World War II ended with a battle between sailing ships
The war was over. Japan had surrendered on August 15. There was no need for any more violence in the Pacific Ocean. But on August 21, a Japanese crew that did not yet know World War II was officially over launched an attack that would be the final battle of the war.
It was also the last battle between two ships under sail. And the last fight where an American crew would board another vessel, like in the early days of the American Navy.
This is the story of the last naval battle of World War II..
The American military had naval operations going on in China even before World War II. When the war broke out, that continued, hoping to disrupt Japanese operations in China and the surrounding seas. Navy Lieutenant Livingston Swentzel and Marine Lieutenant Stewart Pittman were in China for that very reason. Soon after Japan surrendered, they were on their way to Shanghai. They were in command of two Chinese junks, traditional sail-powered ships that between them were outfitted with more modern weapons: a 50 caliber and 30 caliber machine gun, two bazookas, multiple small arms and many, many grenades. Swentzel led one ship, Pittman commanded the other. The total crew wasn't big, seven Americans in all plus 20 Chinese guerillas who had been fighting the Japanese occupation.
The morning of August 21, they weren't expecting combat on their voyage. But they stumbled upon another junk, which suddenly turned and opened fire. It was a Japanese ship. The American and Chinese forces had twice the ships but the enemy junk was filled with 83 Japanese sailors, armed with six machine guns, 100 rifles, and most dangerously, a 75mm howitzer. That howitzer blasted to life, tearing apart the foremast of Swentzel's junk and also damaging its rudder. The battle was on.
In true naval tradition, Swentzel raised the American flag and he and Pittman's ships went on the counteroffensive. The American and Chinese forces unleashed their full arsenal, closing in on the Japanese-crewed ship. Swentzel's junk was damaged, but Pittman's was at full capacity and got up close and personal with the enemy.
The American and allied crews then started throwing their grenades at the Japanese vessel, using the explosives as cover to prepare a boarding party. Pittman and a few of his compatriots then leapt aboard the Japanese ship, guns at the ready. But it was already over. In 45 minutes the Chinese and American force had killed 44 Japanese sailors, wounded another 35 and captured the enemy ship. Their losses were much fewer: four Chinese sailors were killed, five were wounded and one American was wounded in the fight. In less than an hour, they had won the last naval battle of World War II. The Americans had ended the war with the brand new, destructive force of the atomic bomb, but the fighting ended in a throwback to naval warfare from the age of sails and cannons. Pittman's boarding party took the Chinese junk as a prize. The three ships then completed the voyage to Shanghai.
For their efforts, Swentzel was awarded the Navy Cross and Pittman a Silver Star.
That is how World War II finally ended. After the atomic bombs, after the unconditional surrender of Japan, three small ships ended the conflict with a boarding party.
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Thanks to Mud
I don't believe I'd want to be going anywhere aboard an Airbus anytime soon.
Only One Pilot Aboard an Airbus
Pilot Groups Urge Airbus To Reconsider Single-Pilot Cockpit Proposal
Pilot associations are sounding the alarm on Airbus' proposal to move towards single-pilot operations in the cockpit. In an Aug. 6 letter to Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, Air Line Pilots…
AMELIA WALSH
Updated Aug 8, 2024 5:19 PM EDT
Pilot associations are sounding the alarm on Airbus' proposal to move towards single-pilot operations in the cockpit.
In an Aug. 6 letter to Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) President Capt. Jason Ambrosi urged the manufacturer to reconsider its proposal to reduce cockpit crew from two to one from entering the commercial aviation environment.
Ambrosi cited the recent CrowdStrike incident as an example of the risks associated with an over-reliance on technology. Ambrosi stated that technology should complement human expertise and monitored airline operations rather than replace it.
The letter states, "Technological advancements can and have enhanced aviation safety, but in order to maintain and enhance our current level of safety, technology alone will never replace the indispensable role of two pilots in the flight deck."
In addition to ALPA, the letter garnered support from leaders of the European Cockpit Association and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations, who represent tens of thousands of pilots around the world.
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Thanks to Burt ... and Dr. Rich
Steven Wright Quotes
The Quotes of Steven Wright:
1 - I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
2 - Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
3 - Half the people you know are below average.
4 - 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
5 - 82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
6 - A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
7 - A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
8 - If you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.
9 - All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
10 - The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
11 - I almost had a psychic girlfriend, ..... But she left me before we met.
12 - OK, so what's the speed of dark?
13 - How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
14 - If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
15 - Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
16 - When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
17 - Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
18 - Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
19 - I intend to live forever ... So far, so good.
20 - If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
21 - Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
22 - What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
23 - My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
24 - Why do psychics have to ask you for your name
25 - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
26 - A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
27 - Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
28 - The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
29 - To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
30 - The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
31 - The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
32 - The colder the x-ray table, the more of your body is required to be on it.
33 - Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film.
34 - If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
35 - If your car could travel at the speed of light, would your headlights work?
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
7 of History's Strangest Coincidences
In their 1989 paper "Methods for Studying Coincidences," math professors Persi Diaconis and Frederick Mosteller defined a coincidence as a "surprising concurrence of events, perceived as meaningfully related, with no apparent causal connection."
It's an apt definition, but it doesn't quite do justice to those coincidences that tie together people and places in a way that almost makes you wonder whether something supernatural is going on. Here are seven such coincidences — some of historical significance, others just downright mind-blowing — that have rational people questioning the odds of just how things could have unfolded that way.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Both Died on the 50th Anniversary of Independence Day
Founding Fathers John Adams and Thomas Jefferson seemingly shared some kind of cosmic connection. After striking up a friendship at the 1775 Continental Congress, they teamed up to draft the Declaration of Independence, concurrently served in Europe as American diplomats, and became the second and third U.S. Presidents, respectively, before partisan fighting drove them apart. But they reignited a regular correspondence in their golden years through the cusp of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1826. That day, as he lay on his deathbed, Adams reportedly delivered his final words, "Thomas Jefferson survives," not realizing his old friend and former rival had passed away a few hours earlier.
John Wilkes Booth's Brother Saved the Life of Abraham Lincoln's Son
It may seem off-kilter to conflate the names Booth and Lincoln for a story with a happy ending, but that's what happened during a near-disaster at a crowded New Jersey train platform around late 1863. Then a student at Harvard, Robert Todd Lincoln found himself pressed against a train that suddenly lurched forward and spun him onto the tracks before a quick-reacting good samaritan hauled him to safety. Lincoln immediately recognized his savior as the famous actor Edwin Booth, though it took a congratulatory letter from a mutual friend for Booth to realize that he had rescued President Abraham Lincoln's oldest son. Regardless, any goodwill between the two families soon vanished when Booth's pro-Confederate younger brother, John Wilkes Booth, fatally ambushed the President in April 1865.
Mark Twain Entered and Exited the World With Halley's Comet
Two weeks after Halley's Comet passed its November 1835 perihelion — the point of orbit closest to the sun — a boy named Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. Clemens went on to worldwide fame as Mark Twain, but there was no slowing the passage of time, and in 1909, the septuagenarian author told his biographer that he expected an astronomical bookending to his days. "It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet," he revealed. "The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" The Almighty must have listened, and on April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet again reached its perihelion, Twain died from a heart attack at age 74.
The Car That Brought About WWI Also Predicted Its End
It was the event that triggered World War I, yet also seemingly carried a harbinger for when peace would return to the land. On June 28, 1914, Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were shot at point-blank range by Bosnian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip as they rode through Sarajevo in their touring car. While onlookers converged on the dying royals and their assassin, no one could have grasped the significance of the car's license plate, which read AIII 118. Read another way, with the I's switched to 1's and slight changes in spacing applied, and you have 11/11/18 — the date of Armistice Day, which formally ended the Great War.
Wilmer McLean Hosted the First Major Battle and Formal Conclusion of the Civil War
Northern Virginia plantation owner Wilmer McLean was happy to cede his grounds to pro-slavery Confederates for what became the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. However, he was tired of the destruction by the time his plantation was again used for the follow-up battle in August 1862, and he moved his family south to the isolated village of Appomattox Court House the following year. Turns out he didn't get quite far enough away from the action, as an aide to General Robert E. Lee requested the use of McLean's new residence for a surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865.
Two Versions of "Dennis the Menace" Surfaced on the Same Day
On March 12, 1951, "Dennis the Menace" appeared for the first time in the British weekly comic magazine The Beano. That same day, "Dennis the Menace" debuted in 16 American newspapers. Was it the same character arriving in different countries by way of an international distribution deal? Nope. The British Dennis, drawn by David Law, was dark-haired, scowling, and known to deliberately stir up trouble; American Dennis, from the hand of Hank Ketcham, was blonde, friendly, and more likely to foul things up through good intentions turned sour. It was reported that neither artist initially was aware of the other's work, and apparently, neither cared about any sort of copyright infringement, as both the British and American Dennis went on to long, successful runs in their respective countries.
The "Jim Twins" Led Remarkably Similar Lives
Finally, there's the case of James Springer and James Lewis, identical twins who went their separate ways as infants through adoption yet went on to live eerily similar lives before reuniting at age 39. Each grew up with a brother named Larry, had a pet dog named Toy, went into law enforcement, and named his first-born son James Allan (with slightly different spellings). And even if you chalk some of those matches up to genetic disposition, it doesn't quite explain how each twin somehow married a woman named Linda before following with a second wife named Betty, or how both settled on the same vacation spot at a small beach in St. Petersburg, Florida, more than 1,000 miles away from where they were separately reared in Ohio.
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Thanks to YP and Shadow
Wot a privilege to know and associate with!
Y'all musta been a pair.
YP
From Shadow
Dear Black,
You write better than I do! On top of that, I could never come close to your incredible Naval Aviation experiences. You were the man! A man's man.. a woman's dream. I knew you were a handsome SOB…. But one day I was talking to a female salesperson when you walked by and out into the hangar. When the door closed, she sighed and said…o "Every time I see that man, I can feel it in my bra"! No wonder the waitress at McGuire's came back to "card" you before delivering your beer! She just wanted a closer look. I think you're probably the only 0-6 to get carded by any bartender or waitress to make sure you were 21! And then there were the ladies at Base Ops at Tinker. When "Spock" called me to inquire as to your whereabouts… I told him I'd talked to you that morning at Hill AFB and you were on your way to NAS Memphis, via Tinker for fuel… you might catch him there. A half hour later, Spock calls back and says, "You're not gonna believe this one. I called Base Ops at Tinker and a woman answered the phone. I told her I was looking for a Marine Colonel, flying a Navy F-18. He may be in a green or blue flight suit". The women replies… "We have an F-18 out there, but that was no Colonel flying it, that is about the best looking young Lieutenant I ever saw… every woman in the office is going Ga-Ga over him"! Spock said, "That's him"!
There is so much more… Damn we had a ball at Black Shadow! Love you Black, best years of my life with you at my side!
Shadow
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Thanks to Dr. Rich now I know what to do , I watched a guy thump a bunch of watermelons the other day at the store and he was getting g lot of attention and he knew it and the one he picked had none of these traits I hope it was a bad one….. Skip
How to Pick the Perfect Watermelon, According to Farmers Who Grow Them
Hint: It doesn't involve thumping, our experts say.
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Thanks to Micro
Ronald Reagan pushing back hard.
https://x.com/mihaschw/status/
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This Day in U S Military History 11 August
1945 – US Secretary of State, James Byrnes, replies to the Japanese offer to surrender with a refusal to make any compromise on the demand for unconditional surrender. His note states that the Allies envisage an unconditional surrender as one where the emperor will be "subject to" the supreme commander of the Allied powers and the form of government will be decided the "will of the Japanese people."
1950 – Maj Vivian Moses became the first casualty of Marine Air Group 33. He crash-landed his F-4U Corsair in a rice paddy after being hit with ground fire and was thrown from the cockpit. Knocked unconscious, Moses drowned minutes before an air rescue team could get to him.
1960 – USNS Longview, using Navy helicopters and frogmen, recovers a Discover satellite capsule after 17 orbits. This is first recovery of U.S. satellite from orbit.
1965 – What should have been a routine traffic stop in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles developed into one of the worst racial riots in American history. Tensions between the African American community and city law enforcement erupted into war-like acts as snipers and arsonists attacked the police and fire department personal sent to quell the disturbance. In one of the largest deployments of aid to civil authority in American history up to that time, 12,758 California Guardsmen, drawn from two divisions (7,560 men from the 40th Armored and 5,198 from the 49th Infantry), were put on the streets to help restore order and protect people and property. Air Guard units from California and Arizona flew a total of 18 C-97 and five C-119 transport aircraft to airlift the 49th Division's men from Northern California to the LA area. While a number of Guardsmen returned sniper fire, it remains unclear if any civilians were killed by the Guard. After six days and nights of terror the city's streets were restored to peace, but at a very high cost; 34 dead (no Guardsmen), more than 1,000 injured (including several Guardsmen), 4,000 arrested and over 1,000 buildings destroyed. Government and civic leaders, including some in the black community, praised the Guardsmen for their courage, devotion to duty and fair treatment of citizens regardless of race. Four Guardsmen were award the California Military Cross for bravery.
1967 – For the first time, U.S. pilots are authorized to bomb road and rail links in the Hanoi-Haiphong area, formerly on the prohibited target list. This permitted U.S. aircraft to bomb targets within 25 miles of the Chinese border and to engage other targets with rockets and cannon within 10 miles of the border. The original restrictions had been imposed because of Johnson's fear of a confrontation with China and a possible expansion of the war.
1972 – The last U.S. ground combat unit in South Vietnam, the Third Battalion, Twenty-First Infantry, departs for the United States. The unit had been guarding the U.S. air base at Da Nang. This left only 43,500 advisors, airmen, and support troops left in-country. This number did not include the sailors of the Seventh Fleet on station in the South China Sea or the air force personnel in Thailand and Guam.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*WHEAT, ROY M.
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 11 August 1967. Entered service a*: Jackson, Miss. Born: 24 July 1947, Moselle, Miss. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. L/Cpl. Wheat and 2 other marines were assigned the mission of providing security for a Navy construction battalion crane and crew operating along Liberty Road in the vicinity of the Dien Ban District, Quang Nam Province. After the marines had set up security positions in a tree line adjacent to the work site, L/Cpl. Wheat reconnoitered the area to the rear of their location for the possible presence of guerrillas. He then returned to within 10 feet of the friendly position, and here unintentionally triggered a well concealed, bounding type, antipersonnel mine. Immediately, a hissing sound was heard which was identified by the 3 marines as that of a burning time fuse. Shouting a warning to his comrades, L/Cpl. Wheat in a valiant act of heroism hurled himself upon the mine, absorbing the tremendous impact of the explosion with his body. The inspirational personal heroism and extraordinary valor of his unselfish action saved his fellow marines from certain injury and possible death, reflected great credit upon himself, and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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From Alvin York's Action to a Pillar of Purple Fire by W. Thomas Smith Jr.
08/10/
This Week in American Military History:
Aug. 8, 1918: Cpl. (future Sgt.) Alvin York captures "the whole damned German Army" – actually 132 German soldiers – in an action for which he will receive the Medal of Honor.
Aug. 9, 1945: The second – and thus far, last – atomic bomb used in war is dropped over the Japanese city of Nagasaki.
The bomb, code-named Fat Man, detonates approximately 1,840 feet above Nagasaki between the city's two Mitsubishi plants.
New York Times science writer William L. Laurence, an observer flying on the mission, will write:
"A tremendous blast wave struck our ship and made it tremble from nose to tail. This was followed by four more blasts in rapid succession, each resounding like the boom of cannon fire hitting our plane from all directions.
"Observers in the tail of our ship saw a giant ball of fire rise as though from the bowels of the earth, belching forth enormous white smoke rings.
Next they saw a giant pillar of purple fire, 10,000 feet high, shooting skyward with enormous speed."
Aug. 12, 1898: Hostilities are suspended between the United States and Spain with the signing of an armistice all but ending the war (which will formally end within the year).
Spain basically caves, relinquishing "all claim of sovereignty over and title to Cuba." Puerto Rico and other Spanish-held islands in the West Indies are ceded to the U.S.
Manila will fall to American forces the next day.
Aug. 14, 1942: U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Elza E. Shahan, flying a P-38 Lightning, scores the first American aerial victory in the European theater of operations when he finishes off a previously damaged German Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor near Iceland.
(The 21st-century F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter is the namesake of the famous World War II-era P-38.)
Aug. 14, 1945: Nearly 47 years to the day after Spain hoists the white flag to American forces, Japan surrenders unconditionally to the same.
World War II is over.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 11 August, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
11 August
1906: Mrs. C. J. S. Miller became the first woman in the US to fly as an airship passenger. Her husband, Major Miller of Franklin, Pa., owned the 40-horsepower 22,500-cubic-foot airship. (24)
1910: Armstrong Drexel, an American, flew a Bleriot airplane to a FAI altitude record of 6,605 feet at Lanark, Scotland. (9)
1944: Eighth Air Force sent 956 heavy bombers, escorted by 578 fighters, to attack transportation facilities and military targets in eastern France. (4)
1950: KOREAN WAR. C-119 Flying Boxcars began airlifting trucks from Tachikawa AB to Taegu. (28
1950: Air Force detachable fuselage transport XC-120, built by Fairchild, completed its maiden flight. The Fairchild XC-120 Packplane was an American experimental modular aircraft first flown in 1950. It was developed from the company's C-119 Flying Boxcar and was unique in the unconventional use of removable cargo pods that were attached below the fuselage, instead of possessing an internal cargo compartment.
1954: The Air Force issued a requirement for the Atlas ICBM. (6)
1960: Navy frogmen recovered a 300-pound capsule ejected by Discoverer XIII. This marked the first recovery of an object ejected by an orbiting satellite. When the capsule came down outside the designated area, the planned aerial retrieval had to be abandoned. (16) (24)
1961: Aerojet-General Corporation fired an Aerobee rocket in a test basin at Azuza, Calif. This test included the first successful underwater launching of a liquid-fueled rocket. (24)
1962: The 1608th Transport Wing at Charleston AFB received the first C-130E Hercules for the MATS. (18)
1972: Northrop's Hank Chouteau flew F-5E international fighter on its first flight. This flight marked the beginning of Northrop's development, test, and evaluation program. (3)
1972: Northrop F-5E Tiger II flew for the first time. This upgrade included more powerful engines, larger fuel capacity, greater wing area and improved leading-edge extensions for better turn rates, optional air-to-air refueling, and improved avionics including air-to-air radar. Primarily used by American allies, it remained in US service to support training exercises. It has served in a wide array of roles, being able to perform both air and ground attack duties; the type was used extensively in the Vietnam War. A total of 1,400 Tiger IIs were built before production ended in 1987.
1977: Testing at Luke AFB revealed that the Missile-X buried trench basing mode could not withstand explosive pressures. This led the USAF to switch to a hybrid trench-basing concept. (6)
1978: In the Double Eagle II balloon, Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman completed the first balloon crossing of the Atlantic. They flew 3,100 miles from Presque Isle, Maine, to Miserey, France. (21)
1993: Through 15 August, three C-5s from the 436 AW airlifted 190 tons of bridge components from England to Nepal after a flood washed out bridges there. (16)
1994: GLOBAL ENTERPRISE. Through 14 August, in an ACC power-projection exercise, two Rockwell B-1Bs from Ellsworth AFB, S. Dak., flew to Europe, across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and around the Arabian Peninsula to land at a staging base in Southwest Asia. After a crew change, the B-1s then flew back to Ellsworth through Japan and over the Aleutians. The 37.3 hours for the total flight and 24 hours for the first leg were the longest flights to date by the B-1B. (20)
2003: A C-9A Nightingale (No. 68-10959) assigned to the 375 AW at Scott AFB performed the last scheduled C-9 aeromedical evacuation mission. The aircraft airlifted one litter patient, a few space-available travelers, and several soldiers wounded in Iraq to their home stations in the US in a 5.6-hour mission. (22)
2004: AFFTC conducted the final evaluation sortie on a new F-16 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) targeting system at Edwards AFB. The testers used a South Carolina ANG Block 50 F-16 to expedite the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) improvement. (3)
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