To All,
Good Wednesday Morning August 14. Spent the afternoon taking down part of the chicken cage. The Temp was hot, the ground was hard and the chicken wire was deadly. The boss has something ordered to replace it…I can't wait. Have a great mid-week. Be sure to read YP's attachment from Shadow
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 14
1813 In the early morning, the brig USS Argus, commanded by William H. Allen, battles HMS Pelican, off England's coast. During battle, Allens right leg is shot off, but he remains on station until fainting. As Pelicans men board, USS Argus strikes her colors. Allen died four days later.
1886 The Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney signs General Order 354 establishing the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill agreed to the Atlantic Charter at Argentia, Nova Scotia.
1945 USS Spikefish (SS 404) sink the Japanese submarine (I 373), in the Sea of Japan. Also on this date, USS Torsk (SS 423) sinks Coast Defense Vessel (No.13), and Coast Defense Vessel No.47.
1945 The Japanese accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and agree to surrender, ending World War II. It is known as V-J Day! Announcing the news to the country in the evening, President Harry S. Truman proclaims a two-day holiday. Explosive celebrations immediately follow as Americans and their Allies rejoice that World War II is finally over.
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Today in World History August 14
1457 The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil.
1559 Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna enters Pensacola Bay, Florida.
1605 The Popham expedition reaches the Sagadahoc River in present-day Maine and settles there.
1756 French commander Louis Montcalm takes Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
1793 Republican troops in France lay siege to the city of Lyons.
1900 The European allies enter Beijing, relieving their besieged legations from the Chinese Boxers.
1917 The Chinese Parliament declares war on the Central Powers.
1942 Dwight D. Eisenhower is named the Anglo-American commander for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
1945 Japan announces its unconditional surrender in World War II.
1947 Pakistan becomes an independent country.
1969 British troops arrived Northern Ireland in response to sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1973 The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia.
1987 Mark McGwire hits his 49th home run of the season, setting the major league home run record for a rookie.
1995 Shannon Faulker becomes the first female cadet in the long history of South Carolina's state military college, The Citadel. Her presence is met with intense resistance, reportedly including death threats, and she will leave the school a week later.
2003 Blackout hits Northeast United States
2007 Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Yazidi towns near Mosul, Iraq, kill more than 400 people.
2010 First-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games open, in Singapore. Athletes must be 14–18 years old.
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Thanks to TR
Skip, I have 10 large, 20x30", high quality prints to give away. Some combat, one by artist Roy Grinnel signed by Jim Holloway, Tony Less, YP, Wynn Foster, Zeke Cormier, Stan Arthur, Harry Gann, Bob Rahn, Whizzer White, the Duke, others, Am looking for a home. I'm down sizing.
Please pass this to contacts, collectors, museums that would be interested, info me. Of course takers would have to visit me at Silvergate Retiremeny Community Rancho Bernardo. The beers on me. This is a good deal, don't pass it up. Roll ' em up in a tube for transport.
Interested email me; crusader791@gmail.com . Thanks, T R Swartz.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 12 August 2024 and ending Sunday 18 August 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of Dan Heller's world-class website rollingthunderremembered.com post for 10 August 1969… In the words of Robert McNamara in his 1995 book, "In Retrospect": "We were wrong." And he cites eleven reasons for our defeat in Vietnam.
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 14 August Three more F-105 losses
14-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=746
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 History Facts
Queen Elizabeth II
Few figures loom larger in modern history than Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96 on September 8, 2022, after reigning for a record-setting 70 years. A symbol of duty and stability both in her native England and abroad, the monarch born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was a ubiquitous presence even as she remained unknowable - an aura that allowed for a great deal of artistic license in fictional depictions such as the 2006 movie The Queen and Netflix's historical series The Crown. From serving in World War II to creating her own breed of dog to favoring the same $9 nail polish for more than 30 years, here are some fascinating tidbits about Her Royal Highness, whose impact on the world will be felt for generations to come.
She Probably Met More People Than Anyone Else in History With royalty comes ceremony, and the queen attended more than her fair share of them throughout her seven-decade reign. With all the weddings, foreign tours, and other public events that filled her calendar, it's probable that she met more people than anyone else in history - including 13 Presidents of the United States. Whether you consider meeting so many people a pro or con of her position likely depends on your own attitude toward large gatherings.
She Celebrated Two Birthdays
While the queen's actual birthday fell on April 21, she also had a second "official" birthday in the summer. It was marked with a ceremony called Trooping the Colour, a practice that has existed for over 260 years to ensure that British sovereigns whose birthdays fall during colder months also have a ceremony that happens during nicer weather. More than 1400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians participated in the military parade, which usually happened in June. (The "colors" in the ceremony's name refers to the hues of the flags used by regiments in the British Army; "trooping"
refers to officers marching up and down waving the flags.) The public turn out in droves to take part, and members of the royal family also joined the procession on horseback or in carriages.
Crown Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, later Queen Elizabeth II, with her pony, at age 10.Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images She Never Went to School British royals throughout history were often educated at home, and that included Queen Elizabeth. She was taught by private tutors, with a focus on British law and history. The young Elizabeth also learned to ride horses, and was privately instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The queen also studied music, art, and French throughout her life. (She spoke fluent French, often switching between English and French while delivering speeches in French-speaking countries.)
Princess Elizabeth in the A.T.S., She Served With the British Army During World War II In 1945, Queen Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) - the women's branch of the British Army - to serve as a subaltern (or junior officer) during World War II. During her time in the army, the queen learned to drive and to maintain vehicles as a truck driver and mechanic.
When the war ended, the then-princess and her sister, Princess Margaret, secretly joined revelers in the street to celebrate the Allied victory. She even did the conga at the Ritz. The queen later called it "one of the most memorable nights of my life."
90% of All Living People Were Born After She Became Queen There are many statistics that put the record-breaking length of Queen Elizabeth II's reign in focus, but none quite like the fact that nine in 10 living human beings were born after she became queen. The vast majority of people in the world, whether in England or anywhere else, had literally never known another British monarch until her son became king.
Queen Elizabeth II seen driving her Range Rover as she attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show.Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/ Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images She Didn't Need a Driver's License or Passport While the queen was often chauffeured around in a custom Bentley limousine, she also once enjoyed driving herself around in her beloved Range Rover. But unlike every other person who drives in the U.K., Her Royal Highness did not require a driver's license nor a license plate on her car. As the name in which British passports are issued, she also did not require a document of her own for international travel.
She Once Acted With James Bond
In 2012, the queen acted in a short video segment with Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond. Filmed for the London Olympics, the Danny Boyle-directed clip showed the queen doing her best 007 as she skydived from a helicopter into the stadium where the opening ceremony was being held. While the queen did have her own lines for the appearance - and was said to be a natural - the actual jump was performed by a stuntman.
She Didn't Eat Pasta, Potatoes, or Garlic. Darren McGrady, who served as the queen's personal chef for 15 years, revealed in 2017 that Her Royal Highness stayed away from starchy foods unless they were served at a state dinner. Instead, she ate an abundance of grilled fish, chicken, and vegetables, as well as salad and fresh fruit.
McGrady also said that she did not like food prepared with garlic or too many onions. Her daughter-in-law Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed the anti-garlic stance during an appearance on MasterChef Australia, saying it is common among royals due to their frequent public appearances.
Her Favorite Nail Polish Was a $9 Bottle of Essie Since 1989, the queen preferred Essie's "Ballet Slippers" as her nail polish of choice. The pale, almost translucent shade of pink became standard within the royal family, where it is reportedly against the dress code to wear dark or bright nail polish. According to Essie, "Ballet Slippers" remains one of the company's most popular colors, and a bottle of it is sold every two seconds.
She Owned More Than 30 Corgis and Invented the "Dorgi"
Throughout her life and reign, Elizabeth always kept corgis. She got her first corgi in 1933, when her father brought one home as a family pet. When she was 18, she got her own pet corgi, Susan, from which all her other dogs over the years would be descended. She has also owned almost a dozen "dorgis" - a cross between a dachshund and a corgi that was first introduced to the royal household when one of the queen's dogs mated with Princess Margaret's dachshund.
She Used Her Purse To Send Signals to Her Staff The queen was hardly ever seen without one of her signature Launer handbags; she was said to own about 200 of them. While she reportedly used her purse to carry a mirror, lipstick, mints, and reading glasses, she also discreetly sent signals to her staff with it. According to one royal historian, Her Royal Highness would switch her purse from her left arm to her right if she wished to be politely ushered away from a conversation. If she placed her purse on the floor, it meant she needed saving from an uncomfortable situation. And if the handbag ended up on the table at dinner, it reportedly meant she wished to be whisked away within the next five minutes.
She Drank a Glass of Champagne Before Bed It's only fitting that the queen of England would choose a classy nightcap.
Her first cousin Margaret Rhodes reportedly once said that Queen Elizabeth ended most days by enjoying a glass of Champagne before going to sleep - most likely Bollinger Champagne, the official supplier to the royal household. Her Majesty also reportedly enjoyed a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon before lunch, a glass of wine with lunch, and a dry martini in the evening.
15 Prime Ministers Served Under Her
Beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss, whom the Queen met just two days before her death, 15 prime ministers served under Queen Elizabeth II. The other 13 are, in order, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major (the first PM who was younger than the Queen), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson. After retiring, Churchill said of the Queen that "All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part."
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Hopefully YP's attachment makes it through. It is great…skip
Thanks to Dr Rich and to YP
Al "Soapy" Carpenter was a member of VA-72, CAG-7 on CVA-62, the INDEPENDENCE, neighbors across the thin bulkhead that separated Ready Room Four into Ready Room Four Port for VA-72 and Ready Room Four Starboard for VA-86. There was a connecting door/hatch between the two sides, and some traffic, because VA-86 had Electronic Scoots as a Shrike Squadron and hosted the Bullpup electronic training machine, which was kind of an antidiluvian Pong game, and the Blue Hawks were straight A-4E's with guest privileges. We were friendly rivals who never missed a chance to play the game and pimp each other.
Al and I have been exchanging stories, and some of his are new to me and too good not to pass on. I will include some of my stuff from the same era.
Al got bagged on his second cruise and spent the rest of his SEA time as a guest of the Hanoi Hilton. He is the real deal, has great stories, and gets my hand salute!
YP
Al Carpenter:
Snakes and Bluehawks both had road recces on one particular day and, as occasionally happened, aircraft went down, on deck, and the dregs would get together and do SOMETHING, just to get "greenies" on the board and in the logbooks. Such was the case with Skip and me, on this day, and off we went to Laos, to see what we could stir up. Unsuccessful in spotting anything, until shortly before needing to head back, what should appear on a flat, wide-open road in the Laotian bush country, but a pile of brush conspicuously piled right in the middle of our red clay road! Something suspicious about that (ya think!), so we attacked it with all the MK-82s we had, but to no avail – closest hit somewhere around 100 ft. off target. Stalwart lead that he was, Skip then suggested unloading our incredibly vicious supply of 20mm (70 rds, I believe!) on the pile, which he proceeded to do. Can't recall whether he had guns jam, or just plain missed the brush, but no joy with his attempt, anyway.
In those days, the one thing I could do pretty well was strafe, so with sight set and guns charged, I made my low angle run and fired out, joyfully witnessing the heat path from the rounds passage through the air ahead, boring right into the middle of the brush pile! There was a slight heave, upon entry, then the whole thing went up in a huge fireball, with me and my trusty Scooter bouncing off the top of it, I having, of course, fixated on the target after firing, rather than taking appropriate evasive action as I should have!
Since we were running late, we didn't do extensive BDI, so I don't know exactly what was in there, but I rather doubt there was enough left to do more than guess about, anyhow! It was time to "go back sheep" and debrief. It remains, however, one of those treasured memories, so intermingled with a few truly claimable missions and associated ghosts.
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My recollection on the limited 20mm is that it related to the RadHaz clips we had to employ on the belting. Without them, we could go full on, but because of the distinct possibility of the ship's radar cooking off some rounds if no clips were installed, there was only room for 35 rds. Per gun.
Yes, strafing at Duck was fun! If you remember, Bob Crippen, later to become Chief Astronaut, was a squadron mate of mine. He received his callsign, "Slats", after one impressive run on the Duck strafing target, leaving the aircraft slats behind, at six o'clock to the banner, following his instinctive application of max G, doing just what I did on that target in Laos!
My most memorable strafing run though, was early one morning, somewhere around Thanksgiving, 1965, while supporting the Special Forces triangular fort near Plei Mei, SVN. It had been under attack all night, with a Spad and a helo shot down, as I recall. Just getting light as we got there with our flight of four, led by Lane Hubbard. The on-scene FAC had us dropping bombs adjacent to the fort, until, as the light got better, the gooks started to rush the fort, breaching one of the ditches which defined one border of it. The FAC called for emergency 20mm, but nobody had a working system except for me, and I was just pulling out of a bombing run. No sweat, employed proper switchology, reset the gunsight, and found I was in near perfect position to start my strafing run. Had to roll hard, past 90 degrees, to get the nose low and into the trench, relaxed G enough to charge the guns, then started firing. With a good 3G on I raked the sight through the trench, from one end to the other, and she was done when I hit the end - fired out, and what a show it was! You talk about HEI sparkling, etc., throw in some bodies flying from it launching a bunch of NVA troops, and being close enough in to see it all in slow motion!! The greatest transmission I ever received was the FAC's screamed comment, "You did it! You stopped 'em - spectacular!"
Great memories!
About the same time, as I recall, I was leading another recce, somewhere in western/central NVN, with a strange load – maybe for a SVN mission which got switched, for some reason (weather?), to NVN, instead. I remember only that I had full 20mm and NAPE, along with some bombs, I suppose! We were recce'ing a narrow river valley, where it exited the mountains and turned south on the flat, toward Than Hoa, perhaps. The river split, at a small village, making an island of a portion of the town and, right there, in the middle of everything, several barges were lined up alongside the mainland bank, on the south side of the river. Too yummy to resist!! Having already expended our bombs (except for my nape!), wingie stayed high, while I made a normal shallow angle nape run on the barges, pulling up all sorts of small arms, and one 37mm from somewhere nearby.
Just as I started my pullout, I looked downstream, to just out of town, where, "…what to my wondering eyes should appear", under a thick canopy alongside the steep bank, what seemed, in an instant, to be a large multi-level ferry of sorts, either scrapped or pulled in there for repairs or concealment, but it was VERY enticing, and I was almost too close, already, to set up to strafe it. Nonetheless, being strong of heart, quick of movement, and weak of mind, and despite being in a hard right turn, below canopy level, I quickly charged my guns, and completed my roll, firing all the way around, right into the middle of that sucker! It was frapping GLORIOUS!!!
Unfortunately, nothing exploded, caught fire, or otherwise made the effort worthwhile – likely because I had fired out on a junked vessel from the days of French occupation – but the adrenaline rush was spectacular, searing the memory of those few seconds in the dark recesses of my mind FOREVER!!
"And its all true, I'm telling you – I swear by my tattoo!"
And This from YP:
A HOOK MAGAZINE Story:
Please see attachment
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Thanks to Interesting Facts
The world's shortest commercial flight takes less than one minute.
Geography
Passengers aboard Loganair Flight LM711, which travels 1.7 miles between the Scottish islands of Westray and Papa Westray, are airborne very briefly. On a good day, the world's shortest commercial flight takes less than a minute — as little as 53 seconds, in fact. There's no co-pilot, no lavatory, and only eight passengers aboard the Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander aircraft. Tickets for the journey, which is made just two or three times a day, cost roughly $22. Both Westray and Papa Westray are part of the Orkney archipelago, a sparsely populated set of islands that have proved popular with adventurous travelers in search of a scenic journey that happens to include a record-setting flight.
Scotland doesn't have an official national anthem.
IT'S A FACT
The country has never adopted an official anthem, and in 2015 the Scottish government announced it has "no current plans" to do so. However, "Flower of Scotland" continues to serve as an unofficial anthem at international sporting events.
Most of the world's other shortest flights are likewise between islands. Those who'd prefer not to take the hour-long ferry connecting the Greek isles of Karpathos and Kasos can instead fly between them in just five minutes. Meanwhile, passengers flying the 12 miles from Sint Maarten (one of the Netherlands' constituent countries) to Anguilla (a British Overseas Territory) can expect to be in the air for closer to 10 minutes.
Also
Thanks to Interesting Facts
It can take two weeks to make one jelly bean.
The next time you pop some jelly beans into your mouth, you may want to take a moment to appreciate just how much effort goes into producing these bite-sized delights. As explained by industry giant Jelly Belly, the process begins by heating a sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, and water mixture, known as a slurry, and adding fruit purée, juice concentrate, or other ingredients for flavoring. From there, the mixture is squirted into cornstarch-coated molding trays, and left to solidify into the chewy jelly bean centers.
The following day, the bean centers are sent through a steam bath and a sugar shower to keep them from sticking. They are then loaded into a spinning machine for a process known as "panning," in which sugar and syrup are manually applied over the course of two hours to slowly build each bean's candied shell. Following another settling period, the candies receive an additional syrup coating, before being polished with confectioner's glaze and beeswax. Upon earning a final thumbs-up by way of visual inspection and spot taste-testing, the beans are stamped with the Jelly Belly logo and shipped out into the world.
It's a lot of shower, rinse, rest, and repeat for a process that takes seven to 14 days to complete. And while that might seem like an outsized increment of time for such a tiny edible, the Americans who gobble down an average of 16 billion jelly beans every Easter seem to think it's worth it.
President Ronald Reagan had 720 bags of jelly beans delivered to the White House each month.
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Thanks to Dr. Rich
Thanks to Hoover Inst. … (apologies for duplicates…)
Why the U.S. Military
Needs to Imitate Ukraine's Drone Force
BY LORENZ MEIER AND NIALL FERGUSON
AUGUST 13, 2024 10:31 AM EDT
Meier is the Chairman of the DroneCode Foundation and founder and CEO of Auterion. He is a MIT 35-under-35 Innovator and creator of Pixhawk, the most widely used drone autopilot and MAVLink, the industry standard for communication, also used by the U.S. Department of Defense. He holds a PhD in computer vision and drone engineering.
Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author of 16 books, most recently 'Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.' He is also the founder of advisory firm Greenmantle and a founding trustee of the new University of Austin.
Imagine it is 2028 and there is a coordinated parallel attack executed by Russia on one of the Baltic states and by China on Taiwan. Under such a scenario, Russia would attempt to seize NATO territory and China would blockade Taiwan as a fait accompli to undermine alliance cohesion.
As things stand, NATO's conventional forces would struggle to withstand such a Russian assault. And it would take weeks, if not months, to deploy American troops to the Indo-Pacific region.
The Cold War solution to this kind of problem involved the threat of using tactical nuclear weapons. Small tactical nuclear weapons made it highly risky to mass mechanized formations for a large-scale assault, as they would become a perfect target for such nukes. They were crucial to the official NATO plan to defend against a Soviet onslaught through the so-called Fulda Gap in western Germany.
Such an onslaught from the East is once again possible. Russia is now building up two new armies larger than the armies of half of NATO combined. Soon, armchair strategists will have to learn about the Suwalki Gap—the area around the Lithuanian-Polish border, which would be the shortest route from Belarus to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Meanwhile, China is building roll-on, roll-off ferries that are nominally civilian, but have started to take part in military exercises. They are part of a sustained effort to amass the naval assets necessary for a prolonged blockade of Taiwan—and if necessary a war at sea.
But would whoever is U.S. President in 2028 be willing to meet such challenges with tactical nuclear weapons and all the associated risks of escalation to World War III? Have we no better deterrent than the old threat of Armageddon?
The good news is that we do now.
In contrast to nearly all predictions, when Russia's offensive was launched in February 2022, Ukraine not only thwarted the initial assault, but drove back and then held what was once considered the number two army in the world. It has stemmed the Russian tide not only through the heroism of its own troops but also by employing drones in the hundreds of thousands.
Ukraine is the first nation to have created a new military branch, the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine. This is a pivotal moment akin to the creation of the world's first air force, the Royal Air Force, formed on April 1, 1918, seven months before Britain's victory in World War I. Ukraine's use of drones is transforming warfare as fundamentally as airplanes once did.
NATO forces have, in comparison, small drone arsenals in the hundreds or low thousands. But that is changing. Earlier this summer, U.S. Indo-pacific Command revealed its "hellscape" strategy to fill the waters around Taiwan with tens of thousands of unmanned boats, submarines and drones in the event of a Chinese move against the island.
The Replicator Initiative, announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks a year ago, is intended to provide the manufacturing base that will enable hellscape. Six NATO countries recently announced their own version of hellscape to deter Russia: the European drone wall.
Unlike large standing armies, drones that are being held in reserve do not take up a lot of space, do not need to be fed, and are not drawing salaries. Unlike tactical nukes, drones do not produce fallout. But they can provide a comparable level of tactical deterrence.
An arsenal of millions of autonomous drones is a credible threat to a mechanized assault or a flotilla of ships. A state-of-the-art drone swarm could halt a Russian invasion or a Chinese blockade. Ukraine has proven this by blunting large-scale Russian mechanized attacks and crippling Russia's Black Sea fleet. Kyiv's expert use of drones is the reason it has been able to launch a surprise offensive deep into the Russian region of Kursk.
The implications for legacy military hardware are profound. Interestingly, the debate on tanks versus drones today echoes the one on battleships versus airplanes a century ago. Today's drones are the equivalent of the barn-built biplanes of World War I, which barely resemble their modern jet-powered counterparts. Far more formidable unmanned munitions are coming. We are already seeing so-called "deep-strike" drones: Iranian Shahed drones used by Russia and the long-range drones built by Ukrainian startups. En masse, such drones can overwhelm even advanced air defenses. It remains to be seen if Iran and its proxies have enough such weapons to overwhelm Israel's defenses in the coming days. If not, their recent threats will prove empty.
A similar revolution is underway in naval warfare. As Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis have argued, and as Ukraine has shown in the Black Sea, deep-strike drones can also be used against naval targets. Like tanks, large surface ships, including aircraft carriers, are at risk of obsolescence.
This year, for the first time in history, Ukraine and Russia are building drones on an industrial scale. The evolution is from one operator directing a single drone to one operator directing whole flocks. By the end of 2024, we shall see for the first time what we call autonomous mass—swarms of drones in the thousands being directed by a handful of operators, relying less and less on ground control.
The shift to unmanned warfare is unstoppable. That is the lesson we have learned from Ukraine. For the United States, however, the Replicator Initiative and hellscape plan are just a start. What we need now is to build the Unmanned Systems of America.
The alternative could be a catastrophic failure of deterrence on the watch of the next President.
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Thanks to History Facts
Hurricanes used to only be named after women.
Before the 20th century, there was no uniform method for naming hurricanes in the U.S., though some other parts of the world saw creative naming conventions. Residents of the West Indies, for example, named hurricanes after patron saints. And 19th-century British meteorologist Clement Wragge used characters from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as the last names of his political enemies, for typhoons in the Pacific Ocean. He also began a tradition that eventually made its way across the Atlantic: using women's names for hurricanes.
Until the 1940s, hurricanes in the U.S. were generally referred to simply by the year and/or place they occurred, such as the "Great Miami Hurricane of 1926." That changed during World War II, when Navy and Air Force meteorologists began to name the tropical storms they tracked after their girlfriends and wives for easier reference. For a time, the U.S. military also experimented with naming storms after its phonetic alphabet — Able, Baker, Charlie, and so on — but this was replaced with a system thought to be less confusing and easier for the public to remember. In 1954, the National Weather Bureau chose to use women's names as the standard for hurricanes; that year saw Alice, Barbara, Carol, and others.
But why women's names, specifically? The decision was partially inspired by the trend that began during the war, though it was also rooted in sexist stereotypes about the temperamental nature of women. The practice continued in the U.S. until the 1970s, when members of the women's movement spoke out against the negative characterization of women that pervaded every facet of society, including storm-naming. In 1979, the National Weather Service and the World Meteorological Association changed the naming convention to include an even split of women's and men's names, using six groups of 26 names that rotate annually.
By the Numbers
Highest total rainfall (in inches) during 2017's Hurricane Harvey
60.58
Maximum wind gust (in mph) recorded during 2023's Hurricane Otis
205
Year of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history
2005
Total damage caused by tropical cyclones in the U.S. since 1980
$1.3 trillion
DID YOU KNOW?
The hurricane scale may need a Category 6.
The National Weather Service currently uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to classify hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5, based on wind speed. (Other factors, including storm surge, rainfall flooding, and tornadoes, aren't taken into account.) But the increasing risks posed by ever-stronger storms has led some members of the scientific community to suggest expanding the scale to include a Category 6. Atmospheric scientists note that the rise in global temperatures due to climate change has increased the ferocity, unpredictability, and spread of tropical storms. Warmer air contains more moisture, which could lead to an increase of up to 20% in precipitation and higher storm surges by the end of the 21st century. A Category 4 storm has winds of 130 to 156 mph, while Category 5 has winds of 157 mph or higher. Between 2014 and 2024, five storms have exceeded wind speeds over 192 mph, demonstrating the potential need for additional classifications as the strength of storms increases.
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This Day in U S Military History
14 August
1784 – On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska. The European discovery of Alaska came in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Russian hunters were soon making incursions into Alaska, and the native Aleut population suffered greatly after being exposed to foreign diseases. The Three Saints Bay colony was founded on Kodiak Island in 1784, and Shelikhov lived there for two years with his wife and 200 men. From Three Saints Bay, the Alaskan mainland was explored, and other fur-trade centers were established. In 1786, Shelikhov returned to Russia and in 1790 dispatched Aleksandr Baranov to manage his affairs in Russia. Baranov established the Russian American Company and in 1799 was granted a monopoly over Alaska. Baranov extended the Russian trade far down the west coast of North America and in 1812, after several unsuccessful attempts, founded a settlement in Northern California near Bodega Bay. British and American trading vessels soon disputed Russia's claims to the northwest coast of America, and the Russians retreated north to the present southern border of Alaska. Russian interests in Alaska gradually declined, and after the Crimean War in the 1850s, a nearly bankrupt Russia sought to dispose of the territory altogether. The czarist government first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the American Civil War. After the war, Secretary of State William H. Seward, a supporter of territorial expansion, was eager to acquire the tremendous landmass of Alaska, one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." In April 1867, the Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote. Despite a slow start in settlement by Americans from the continental United States, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory. Alaska, rich in natural resources, has been contributing to American prosperity ever since. On January 3, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th state.
1900 – During the Boxer Rebellion, an international force featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German troops relieves the Chinese capital of Peking after fighting its way 80 miles from the port of Tientsin. The Chinese nationalists besieging Peking's diplomatic quarter were crushed, and the Boxer Rebellion effectively came to an end. By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China's ruling Ch'ing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country's economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized military and millions died. In 1898, Tz'u Hsi, the dowager empress, gained control of the Chinese government in a conservative coup against the Emperor Kuang-hsu, her adoptive son and an advocate of reforms. Tz'u Hsi had previously served as ruler of China in various regencies and was deeply anti-foreign in her ideology. In 1899, her court began to secretly support the anti-foreign rebels known as the I Ho Ch'uan, or the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." The I Ho Ch'uan was a secret society formed with the original goal of expelling the foreigners and overthrowing the Ch'ing dynasty. The group practiced a ritualistic form of martial arts that they believed gave them supernatural powers and made them impervious to bullets. After witnessing these fighting displays, Westerners named members of the society "Boxers." Most Boxers came from northern China, where natural calamities and foreign aggression in the late 1890s had ruined the economy. The ranks of the I Ho Ch'uan swelled with embittered peasants who directed their anger against Christian converts and foreign missionaries, whom they saw as a threat to their traditional ways and blamed for their misery. After the dowager empress returned to power, the Boxers pushed for an alliance with the imperial court against the foreigners. Tz'u Hsi gave her tacit support to their growing violence against the Westerners and their institutions, and some officials incorporated the Boxers into local militias. Open attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians began in late 1899, and by May 1900 bands of Boxers had begun gathering in the countryside around Peking. In spite of threats by the foreign powers, the empress dowager began openly supporting the Boxers. In early June, an international relief force of 2,000 soldiers was dispatched by Western and Japanese authorities from the port of Tientsin to Peking. The empress dowager ordered Imperial forces to block the advance of the foreigners, and the relief force was turned back. Meanwhile, the Peking-Tientsin railway line and other railroads were destroyed by the Chinese. On June 13, the Boxers, now some 140,000 strong, moved into Peking and began burning churches and foreign residences. On June 17, the foreign powers seized forts between Tientsin and Peking, and the next day Tz'u Hsi called on all Chinese to attack foreigners. On June 20, the German ambassador Baron von Ketteler was killed and the boxers began besieging the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter of the Chinese capital. As the foreign powers organized a multinational force to crush the rebellion, the siege of the Peking legations stretched into weeks, and the diplomats, their families, and guards suffered through hunger and degrading conditions as they fought desperately to keep the Boxers at bay. Eventually, an expedition of 19,000 multinational troops pushed their way to Peking after fighting two major battles against the Boxers. On August 14, the eight-nation allied relief force captured Peking and liberated the legations. The foreign troops looted the city and routed the Boxers, while the empress and her court fled to the north. The victorious powers began work on a peace settlement. Due to mutual jealousies between the nations, it was agreed that China would not be partitioned further, and in September 1901 the Peking Protocol was signed, formally ending the Boxer Rebellion. By the terms of agreement, the foreign nations received extremely favorable commercial treaties with China, foreign troops were permanently stationed in Peking, and China was forced to pay $333 million as penalty for its rebellion. China was effectively a subject nation. The Boxers had failed to expel the foreigners, but their rebellion set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutions of the 20th century
1940 – Sir Henry Tizard heads a British scientific mission to the United States, carrying with him details of all of Britain's most advanced thinking in several vital fields. There are ideas on jet engines, explosives, gun turrets and above all a little device called the cavity magnetron. This valve is vital for the development of more advanced types of radar, including the versions used in proximity fuses later and the types working on centimetric wavelengths which will be vital at sea in the U-boat war. The US Official History will later describe this collection as the "most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
1965 – The advance units of the Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai, bringing U.S. Marine strength in South Vietnam to four regiments and four air groups. The Marines were given the responsibility of conducting operations in southern I Corps and northern II Corps, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Hanoi Radio broadcasted an appeal to American troops, particularly African Americans, to "get out." This was purportedly a message from an American defector from the Korean War living in Peking. In South Korea, the National Assembly approved sending troops to fight in South Vietnam; in exchange for sending one combat division to Vietnam, the United States agreed to equip five South Korean divisions.
2007 – The deadliest single attack of the whole war occurred. Nearly 800 civilians were killed by a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the northern Iraqi settlement of Kahtaniya. More than 100 homes and shops were destroyed in the blasts. U.S. officials blamed al-Qaeda. The targeted villagers belonged to the non-Muslim Yazidi ethnic minority. The attack may have represented the latest in a feud that erupted earlier that year when members of the Yazidi community stoned to death a teenage girl called Du'a Khalil Aswad accused of dating a Sunni Arab man and converting to Islam. The killing of the girl was recorded on camera-mobiles and the video was uploaded onto the internet.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*HAMMOND, LESTER, JR.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company A, 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. Place and date: Near Kumwha, Korea, 14 August 1952. Entered service at: Quincy, Ill. Born: 25 March 1931, Wayland, Mo. G.O. No.: 63, 17 August 1953. Citation: Cpl. Hammond, a radio operator with Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Cpl. Hammond was a member of a 6 man reconnaissance patrol which had penetrated approximately 3,500 yards into enemy-held territory. Ambushed and partially surrounded by a large hostile force, the small group opened fire, then quickly withdrew up a narrow ravine in search of protective cover. Despite a wound sustained in the initial exchange of fire and imminent danger of being overrun by the numerically superior foe, he refused to seek shelter and, remaining in an exposed place, called for artillery fire to support a defensive action. Constantly vulnerable to enemy observation and action, he coordinated and directed crippling fire on the assailants, inflicting heavy casualties and repulsing several attempts to overrun friendly positions. Although wounded a second time, he remained steadfast and maintained his stand until mortally wounded. His indomitable fighting spirit set an inspiring example of valor to his comrades and, through his actions, the onslaught was stemmed, enabling a friendly platoon to reach the beleaguered patrol, evacuate the wounded, and effect a safe withdrawal to friendly lines. Cpl. Hammond's unflinching courage and consummate devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and uphold the finest traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 14 August, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
14 August
1911: Through 25 August, Harry N. Atwood flew from St. Louis to New York, covering 1,155 miles, in the longest cross-country flight to date. (24)
1917: Lt. E.O. McDonnell (USN) launched a torpedo from a seaplane at Huntington Bay, Long Island. Afterwards, the Navy became seriously interested in launching torpedos from aircraft. 1919: An Aeromarine flying boat delivered the first airmail to a steamer at sea, when it dropped mail off to the White Star Liner Adriatic. (24)
1942: When Lt Elza Shahn ferried his P-38 to England, he spotted a German FW-200 Condor near Iceland. These German long-range reconnaissance aircraft gathered data on weather and allied shipping to help U-boats attack ships in the Atlantic. Shahn turned and shot the Condor down, becoming the first American Army pilot to shoot down a German plane in World War II. (4)
1945: FINAL B-29 COMBAT MISSION AGAINST JAPAN. This Twentieth Air Force mission included a record number of effective aircraft: 754 B-29s and 169 fighters. One phase of the mission, against Tsuchizaka, produced the longest unstaged mission (3,650 miles) of the war from the Marianas. (21)
1954: Convair delivered the last B-36 to the Air Force.
1957: SAC's Deputy Director of Operations, Brig Gen James V. Edmundson, flew a 321 BMW B-47 nonstop from Andersen AFB to Sidi Slimane, Morocco. He set a B-47 record for distance: 11,450 miles in 22 hours 50 minutes. He used four refuelings from KC-97 tankers during his journey. (1)
1959: The last active B-17 left for stockpile at Tucson. Seven days earlier, the Air Force destroyed the last B-17 drone.
1963: At Edwards AFB, Maj Robert W. Smith flew Northrop's F-5A multi-purpose fighter in its first military test flight. (3)
1964: The first combat employment of the F-105D in Southeast Asia involved 36 TFS aircraft from Korat RTAFB. (17)
1968: PROJECT GIANT BOOST. The third attempt to launch a Minuteman II from an operational base, Grand Forks AFB, failed. (6)
1971: The first C-5A landed at Tan Son Nhut AB to deliver general cargo and pick up three C-47 helicopters. (18)
1974: Northrop Corporation rolled out the F-5F at Hawthorne. (12) 1978: Through 16 August, as part of flood relief operations, a C-141 Starlifter delivered 26 tons of supplies to Khartoum. (16) (26)
1980: A C-5A with modified wings made its first flight at Dobbins AFB. Under this contract, Lockheed-Georgia had to retrofit 77 C-5As with new wings by July 1987. (16) (26)
1992: Operation PROVIDE RELIEF. Through 28 February 1993, US airlifters moved over 23,000 tons of food, water, medicine, and other relief supplies in 3,000 missions to Somalia. The supplies helped thousands of starving refugees, who suffered from a prolonged drought and civil war. The airlifters flew over 3,100 missions to deliver 34,400 tons of cargo in the operation. (16) (18) (21)
2003: A B-2 flown by an AFFTC crew released two GBU-28 B/B bombs at the Utah Testing and Training Range. This was the first successful live drop of the newly upgraded 5,000-pound weapon, an enhanced version of the GBU-28 designed specifically for the B-2. (3)
2020: The current Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force is Chief JoAnne S. Bass. On 14 August 2020, Chief Bass became the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, the first female to hold the highest senior enlisted rank in any United States military branch, and the first person of Asian-American descent to hold the highest senior enlisted position in the Air Force.
The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force is a unique non-commissioned rank in the United States Air Force. The holder of this rank and position of office represents the highest enlisted level of leadership in the Air Force unless an enlisted airman is serving as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman. The CMSAF provides direction for the enlisted corps and represents their interests, as appropriate, to the American public, and to those in all levels of government. The CMSAF is appointed by the Air Force Chief of Staff and serves as the senior enlisted advisor to the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force on all issues regarding the welfare, readiness, morale, and proper utilization and progress of the enlisted force.
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