To All,
Good Wednesday Morning August 28.. Up early this morning and watching the light let me know that the sun is not far behind. The List is almost done and I have lots of chores to catch up on starting with taking the trash out and running and feeding the dogs. I hope your week continues going well. Testing went well last night. Got home last night in time to rescue a chicken that had trapped herself in the very top of the chicken cage. Stupid chicken.
Warm Regards,
skip
Make it a good Day
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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
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History
August. 28
1867 Capt. William Reynolds of the screw sloop-of-war, USS Lackawanna, raises the U.S. flag over Midway Islands and takes formal possession of these islands for the United States.
1891 During a period of political unrest at Valparaiso, Chile, Marines form boarding parties from cruisers USS San Francisco and USS Baltimore to protect American lives and guard the U.S. Consulate.
1942 120 women are commissioned as ensigns or lieutenant junior grades as WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and report to "USS Northampton," Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
1942 PBY Catalinas from VP-92 and Canadian corvette HMCS Oakville sink German submarine U-94. USS Lea (DD 118) and Oakville pick up the survivors. Previously, U-94 had sunk 26 Allied vessels while also damaging one Allied vessel, although none from the United States.
1952 USS Boxer (CV 21) launches an explosive-filled drone which explodes against a railroad bridge near Hungnam, Korea. This mission marks the first guided missile launched from a ship during the Korean War.
1965 - CDR Scott Carpenter and 9 aquanauts enter SeaLab II, 205 ft. below Southern California's waters to conduct underwater living and working tests
1991 A helicopter from USS America (CVA 66) rescues three civilian sailors who spent 10 days in a lifeboat 80 miles off Cape May, N.J., after their sailboat capsizes.
1992 - Navy and Marine forces begin providing disaster relief after Typhoon Omar hit Guam
1992 - Marines and Army forces begin providing disaster relief in Florida after Hurricane Andrew.
2004 USS Momsen (DDG 92) is commissioned at Panama City, Fla., before sailing to its homeport of Everett, Wash. The 42nd of the Arleigh Burke-class of guided-missile destroyers is the first to carry the remote mine hunting system and the first ship named after Vice Adm. Charles B. Momsen, the designer of the submarine escape breathing apparatus now known as the Momsen Lung.
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This Day in World History
August 28
1676 Indian chief King Philip, also known as Metacom, is killed by English soldiers, ending the war between Indians and colonists.
1862 Mistakenly believing the Confederate Army to be in retreat, Union General John Pope attacks, beginning the Battle of Groveton. Both sides sustain heavy casualties.
1914 Three German cruisers are sunk by ships of the Royal Navy in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first major naval battle of World War I.
1938 The first degree given to a ventriloquist's dummy is awarded to Charlie McCarthy--Edgar Bergen's wooden partner. The honorary degree, "Master of Innuendo and Snappy Comeback," is presented on radio by Ralph Dennis, the dean of the School of Speech at Northwestern University.
1941The German U-boat U-570 is captured by the British and renamed Graph
1944 German forces in Toulon and Marseilles, France, surrender to the Allies.
1945 Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-Tung arrives in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1963 One of the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, takes place and reaches its climax at the base of the Lincoln Memorial when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I have a dream" speech.
1965 The Viet Cong are routed in the Mekong Delta by U.S. forces, with more than 50 killed.
1968 Clash between police and anti-war demonstrators during Democratic Party's National Convention in Chicago.
1979 Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb explodes under bandstand in Brussels' Great Market as British Army musicians prepare for a performance; four British soldiers wounded.
1981 John Hinckley Jr. pleads innocent to attempting to assassinate Pres. Ronald Reagan.
1982 First Gay Games held, in San Francisco.
1983 Israeli's prime minister Menachem Begin announces his resignation.
1986 US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth given 365-year prison term for spying for USSR.
1986 Bolivian president Victor Paz Estenssoro declares a state of siege and uses troops and tanks to halt a march by 10,000 striking tin miners1993 Two hundred twenty-three die when a dam breaks at Qinghai (Kokonor), in northwest China.
2003 Power blackout affects half-million people in southeast England and halts 60% of London's underground trains.
2005 Hurricane Katrina reaches Category 5 strength; Louisiana Superdome opened as a "refuge of last resort" in New Orleans.
2012 US Republican convention nominates Mitt Romney as the party's presidential candidate.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 26 August 2024 continuing through Sunday, 1 September 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)…
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post for 25 August 1969… Includes two great stories: The saga of "Balky Company A" and the 40 year search for her missing Marine by a wife who never gave up…
(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 28August
28-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=231
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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The Bear's response to Shadow's rant from yesterday
Shadow…
Thanks for sharing… Grades out as a "Super Rant," perhaps even achieves rating as a "Terrific Tirade." However, I have a hunch your superb summary of the catastrophic condition of our country has failed to achieve the purpose of a rant, which is to relieve the tension that torments you and restores your fighting spirit and smiley face. Your rant is my rant and I fear we are permanently wired to the pissed-off position where none of our rants and tirades provide either personal relief or make a difference where they are heard or read in our corner of the world. Let's face it: our rants are little more than mental masturbation. We aren't alone. We are surrounded by legions of learned men and women who write and speak of the catastrophic condition of our country and the world with equal fervor, but nothing changes, the slide into hell on earth continues. The Obama transformation of America marches on.
I await the "second addition" … Bear
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Thanks to the Smithsonian Magazine
Our Moon Was Likely Covered in a Magma Ocean Long Ago, and New Data From India's Lunar Rover Supports That Theory
Soil composition measurements from the Chandrayaan-3 mission reveal white rock called ferroan anorthosite, which would have floated to the surface in an ocean of magma
An artist's rendition of a magma ocean on a volcanic planet. Scientists have theorized that our moon was covered in a magma ocean for millions of years after it formed. Merikanto via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0
Roughly 4.5 billion years ago, a Mars-sized celestial body slammed into our home planet. The catastrophic collision vaporized the impactor, known as Theia, and tore a chunk out of the proto-Earth. These planetary fragments went into orbit and mixed together, eventually coalescing to form the moon.
According to this widely accepted lunar origin story, known as the impact theory, the newborn moon dissipated its leftover energy into heat, which melted its surface into an ocean of magma that remained for millions of years.
Now, new lunar soil composition measurements collected by India's Chandrayaan-3 mission add more evidence that the moon was once covered in a magma ocean. The findings were published in the journal Nature last week.
"The theory of early evolution of the moon becomes much more robust in the light of our observations," Santosh Vadawale, an X-ray astronomer and lead author of the study, tells BBC News' Georgina Rannard.
Last year, Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander touched down near the moon's south pole and released a rover called Pragyan. Over the course of ten days, Pragyan collected a plethora of data, including the chemical composition of the lunar regolith—or the loose surface material that covers the solid rock beneath—with an instrument called an alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS).
Back on Earth, the team of Indian astronomers analyzed data on the 23 regolith samples studied by the APXS to understand the soil's mineral composition. These were the first soil composition measurements ever registered from near the moon's south pole, and the scientists found that all of them included ferroan anorthosite, a type of white rock.
That finding supports the idea that the moon was once enveloped by magma. "A key prediction of the lunar magma ocean hypothesis is the presence of a largely anorthositic crust," Vadawale tells Popular Science's Tom Hawking. This is because during the moon's magma ocean phase, dense rocks—like magnesium-rich mafic rocks—would have sunk inward, while lighter rocks—like ferroan anorthosite—would have floated to the top.
The new lunar south pole samples align with findings from previous samples collected near the moon's equator during the Apollo 11 mission, which also contained ferroan anorthosite. And they match orbital data from the earlier Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2 missions—a consistency that makes scientists trust the orbital data sets more, per the Conversation's Vivian Lam.
"It's sort of what we expected to be there based on orbital data, but the ground truth is always really good to get," Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University who was not involved in the study, tells Nature News' Michael Marshall.
However, the team also found magnesium in the regolith, even though magnesium-rich rocks were expected to have sunk lower in the crust. They suggest the impact of a meteor crash—likely responsible for the giant ancient impact crater called South Pole-Aitken basin—may have dug up denser rocks from deep within the moon's mantle.
Pragyan's measurements also revealed a higher level of olivine than pyroxene, both of which are magnesium- and iron-bearing minerals, per Popular Science. This was unexpected, given that other samples from around the South Pole-Aitken basin have shown the opposite—more pyroxene than olivine—and scientists aren't sure why Pragyan's observations were different.
Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the Open University in England who was not involved in the study, tells Nature News that scientists will need more lunar samples brought to Earth to understand this difference—a formidable goal of the next Chandrayaan mission
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Thanks to Boris
Skip,
This is one of those coincidences worth passing on. From your post today, at the end is the full quote by Michael Norman. I have used it several times in regard to rememberedsky.
The first time was from an AF F-4 squadron reunion announcement and as did you, noted writer as anonymous. Almost immediately, I got a response from fellow VA-56 Champ Max Carey. Following is the story line.
First, the quote is the last paragraph in the book "These Good Men; A Chronicle of the enduring bonds forged in the fires of Vietnam – and the years after'" by Michael Norman. Briefly, it's the story of Norman's search and eventual reunion, for the members of his Marine platoon from early 1968 days around Tet and Khe Sahn events and an ambush they endured. Norman is a recognized writer and teaches at New York Univ(?). Lots of pieces to the story, too much to relay here but well worth reading, but not necessarily easy to find.
In the book early on Norman relates his decision to drop out of Columbia and join the Marines. His last night is spent with his Columbia best friend Max Carey. Max introduced Michael to our fellow CAG 5 guy Jim Horsely and to me. But there's more, Norman's platoon commander was a big strapping, red headed guy, a year ahead of me in NROTC at Vandy. A for sure Marine, this battle would be his very first combat event and he had replaced a very experienced, up through the ranks guy. It was a very hard fought survival to say the least. He would opt for a second straight tour and was killed in an observer a/c. Just days before he had shared a few beers with another Vandy NROTC grad and my friend since grade school.
When I finally linked up with all these guys with the story, all the connections just didn't seem possible. Norman's visit with the young Marine Lt's parents, years later during his research is truly eye-watering.
As good a story on the Vietnam War as you can find.
These Good Men by Michael Norman
I now know why men who have been to war yearn to reunite. Not to tell stories or look at old pictures. Not to laugh or weep. Comrades gather because they long to be with the men who once acted their best, men who suffered and sacrificed, who were stripped raw, right down to their humanity.
I did not pick these men. They were delivered by fate and the Military. But I know them in a way I know no other men. I have never given anyone such trust. They were willing to guard something more precious than my life.
They would have carried my reputation, the memory of me. It was part of the bargain we all made, the reason we were so willing to die for one another. I cannot say where we are headed. Ours are not perfect friendships; those are the province of legend and myth. A few of my comrades drift far from me now, sending back only occasional word. I know that one day even these could fall to silence. Some of the men will stay close, a couple, perhaps, always at hand.
As long as I have memory, I will think of them all, every day. I am sure that when I leave this world, my last thought will be of my family and my comrades…..such good men.
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Thanks to Brett
Taliban Passes "Vice and Virtue" Laws Ending Female Freedoms in Afghanistan
These are the people President Biden let take over Afghanistan.
Associated Press: The Taliban's new vice and virtue laws that include a ban on women's voices and bare faces in public provide a "distressing vision" for Afghanistan's future, a top U.N. official warned Sunday.
Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in the country, said the laws extend the " already intolerable restrictions " on the rights of women and girls, with "even the sound of a female voice" outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers last Wednesday issued the country's first set of laws to prevent vice and promote virtue. They include a requirement for a woman to conceal her face, body and voice outside the home.
The laws empower the Vice and Virtue Ministry to be at the front line of regulating personal conduct and administering punishments like warnings or arrest if its enforcers allege that Afghans have broken the laws (Associated Press).
Riley Gaines: The Taliban passed a law banning women from: speaking in public, showing ANY skin, looking at men they aren't related to.
Where is the outrage? No protests on college campuses. No statement from the White House. Guess who's funding this? We are!
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This one was new to me and I have a Jeep but no duck…skip
Thanks to Interesting Facts
Jeep owners spread kindness by exchanging rubber ducks.
If you saw a Jeep with a rubber duck on its dashboard, you probably wouldn't think anything of it — until you saw several other Jeeps with ducks on their dashboards, too. This quirky, quacky tradition, known as "Jeep ducking" or "Duck Duck Jeep," started with one friendly Jeep owner placing a rubber duck on another Jeep. Like the "Jeep wave," in which Jeep owners acknowledge one another on the road by waving with two or four fingers, the "Jeep ducking" tradition quickly caught on among Jeep fans.
The tradition was started in July 2020 by a Canadian Jeep owner named Allison Parliament. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Parliament wanted to leave a note for the fellow owner of a Jeep Wrangler, but she didn't have any paper on hand. She did, however, have a rubber duck. So she wrote a cheerful note — "Nice Jeep, have a great day" — on the duck, and placed it on the Jeep. When the Jeep's owner caught her leaving the duck, he suggested they take a picture and post it on social media. The hashtag #DuckDuckJeep soon went viral as media outlets reached out to interview the woman behind the kind gesture, and the publicity spurred other Jeep owners to start exchanging ducks. Parliament's spontaneous act of kindness started a trend that quickly spread throughout Canada and the United States, as well as dozens of other countries, including Australia, China, and India. Parliament passed away on June 22, 2024, but her joyful and spontaneous tradition lives on, continuing to connect Jeep enthusiasts worldwide.
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This Week in American Military History:
From the flag's first action to the Japanese surrender by W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Aug. 28, 1862: The Second battle of Bull Run (known to many Southerners as Second Manassas) opens between Union Army forces under the command of Maj. Gen. John Pope and Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (Gen. Robert E. Lee in overall command).Within days, Confederate forces will drive Union forces from the field, not unlike what happened at First Bull Run /Manassas on July 21, 1861.
Aug. 28, 1972: U.S. Air Force Capt. Richard Stephen Richie, flying an F-4 Phantom, shoots down his fifth MiG over North Vietnam, becoming the Air Force's first ace of the war.
But to hear Richie tell it, it was just a ride. "My fifth MiG kill was an exact duplicate of a syllabus mission, so I had not only flown that as a student, but had taught it probably a dozen times prior to actually doing it in combat," he says.
Sept. 2, 1901: Medal of Honor recipient and U.S. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a speech at the Minnesota State Fair in which he says, "A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick – you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power."In four days, Pres. William McKinley will be mortally wounded by an assassin's
Sept. 2, 1945: A delegation from the defeated Japanese Empire sign the documents of surrender about the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.Gen. Douglas MacArthur , a Medal of Honor recipient and Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific, says, "Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always. These proceedings are closed."World War II is over.
Sept. 3, 1777: The Battle of Cooch's Bridge (a.k.a. the Battle of IronHill) – the only pitched battle of the American Revolution to be fought in Delaware – opens between Continental Army and militia forces under the command of Brig. Gen. William Maxwell and a combined force of British, Hessian, and Ansbach soldiers under the overall command of British Gen. Sir Charles Cornwallis (and under the immediate tactical command of Hessian Lt. Col. Ludwig von Wurmb).Though a British victory, which devolved into a savage close-quarters engagement, the Battle of Cooch's Bridge is significant as the first time the Stars-and-Stripes is flown in action.
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This Day in U S Military History
August 28
1565 – St Augustine Fla, oldest city in the US, was established.
1609 – Henry Hudson discovered Delaware Bay.
1867 – Captain William Reynolds of Lackawanna raises U.S. flag over Midway Island and took formal possession of these islands for the U.S.
1883 – John Montgomery (d.1911 in a glider crash) made the first manned, controlled flight in the US in his "Gull" glider, whose design was inspired by watching birds.
1898 – Marines defended American interests in Valparaiso, Chile.
1942 – At Guadalcanal, the Japanese received more reinforcements brought in by Admiral Tanaka's 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, nicknamed the "Tokyo Express."
1945 – Goring, Ribbentrop, and 22 others former Nazi government officials are indicted as war criminals. Hermann Goring heads the list of 24. Rudolf Hess, formerly deputy to Hitler, who has been a prisoner in Britain since May 1941, is next on the list, followed by Martin Bormann, the secretary of the NSDAP, who disappeared from the Berlin bunker. Others include Konstantin von Neurath, the first foreign minister to Hitler; Gustav Krupp von Bohlen, the industrialist; Franz von Papen, the vice-chancellor in 1933-34; and, Hjalmar Schacht, who served as the minister of finance in the Nazi government until falling out of favor with Hitler.
1945 – US forces under General George Marshall landed in Japan. This advance guard of 150 American technicians land at Atsugi airfield, near Yokohama. For the first time, the Allies set foot on Japanese soil. Their arrival has been delayed for 48 hours by the forecast of a typhoon.
1945 – Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung arrived in Chunking to confer with Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek in a futile effort to avert civil war.
1952 – Units on USS Boxer (CV-21) launch explosive-filled drone which explodes against railroad bridge near Hungnam, Korea. First guided missile launched from ship during Korean Conflict.
1963 – As soon as two U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker aircraft became reported as overdue at their destination, Homestead Air Force Base, Florida, the U.S. Coast Guard Eastern Area Commander initiated an intensive air search. It lasted through 2 September with as many as 25 U.S. Coast Guard, Air Force, and Navy planes participating. None of the 11 occupants of the two KC-135's were ever found, only wreckage, indicating that there had been a midair collision.
1965 – Navy CDR Scott Carpenter and 9 aquanauts enter SeaLab II, 205 ft. below Southern California's waters to conduct underwater living and working tests.
1966 – It is reported in three Soviet newspapers that North Vietnamese pilots are undergoing training in a secret Soviet air base to fly supersonic interceptors against U.S. aircraft. This only confirms earlier reports that the Soviets had initiated close relations with North Vietnam after a visit by Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin to Hanoi in February 1965 during which he signed economic and military treaties with the North, pledging full support for their war effort. The Soviets and North Vietnamese leadership planned military strategy and discussed North Vietnam's needs to prosecute such a strategy. The Soviets agreed to supply the necessary war materials, to include air defense weapons for the North and offensive weapons to be employed in the South. At one point in the war, the Soviets would supply 80 percent of all supplies reaching North Vietnam.
1972 – The U.S. Air Force gets its first ace (a designation traditionally awarded for five enemy aircraft confirmed shot down) since the Korean War. Captain Richard S. Ritchie, flying with his "backseater" (radar intercept officer), Captain Charles B. DeBellevue, in an F-4 out of Udorn Air Base in Thailand, shoots down his fifth MiG near Hanoi. Two weeks later, Captain DeBellvue, flying with Captain John A. Madden, Jr., shot down his fifth and sixth MiGs. The U.S. Navy already had two aces, Lieutenants Randall Cunningham and Bill Driscoll. By this time in the war, there was only one U.S. fighter-bomber base left in South Vietnam at Bien Hoa. The rest of the air support was provided by aircraft flying from aircraft carriers or U.S. bases in Thailand. Also on this day: Back in the United States, President Nixon announces that the military draft will end by July 1973.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
HARRIS, MOSES
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Smithfield, Va., 28 August 1864. Entered service at: New Hampshire. Birth: Andover, N.H. Date of issue: 23 January 1896. Citation: In an attack upon a largely superior force, his personal gallantry was so conspicuous as to inspire the men to extraordinary efforts, resulting in complete rout of the enemy.
RHODES, JULIUS D.
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 5th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Thoroughfare Gap, Va., 28 August 1862. At Bull Run, Va., 30 August 1862. Entered service at: Springville, N.Y. Birth: Monroe County, Mich. Date of issue: 9 March 1887. Citation: After having had his horse shot under him in the fight at Thoroughfare Gap, Va., he voluntarily joined the 105th New York Volunteers and was conspicuous in the advance on the enemy's lines. Displayed gallantry in the advance on the skirmish line at Bull Run, Va., where he was wounded.
*JIMENEZ, JOSE FRANCISCO
Rank and organization: Lance Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps, Company K, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Quang Nam Province, Republic of Vietnam, 28 August 1969. Entered service at: Phoenix, Ariz. Born: 20 March 1946, Mexico City, Mex. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a fire team leader with Company K, in operations against the enemy. L/Cpl. Jimenez' unit came under heavy attack by North Vietnamese soldiers concealed in well camouflaged emplacements. L/Cpl. Jimenez reacted by seizing the initiative and plunging forward toward the enemy positions. He personally destroyed several enemy personnel and silenced an antiaircraft weapon. Shouting encouragement to his companions, L/Cpl. Jimenez continued his aggressive forward movement. He slowly maneuvered to within 10 feet of hostile soldiers who were firing automatic weapons from a trench and, in the face of vicious enemy fire, destroyed the position. Although he was by now the target of concentrated fire from hostile gunners intent upon halting his assault, L/Cpl. Jimenez continued to press forward. As he moved to attack another enemy soldier, he was mortally wounded. L/Cpl. Jimenez' indomitable courage, aggressive fighting spirit and unfaltering devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the U.S. Naval Service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for August 28, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
28 August
1908: The Army accepted Dirigible No. 1 after flight tests at Fort Myer from Capt Thomas S. Baldwin. (21)
1909: Charles F. Willard, after receiving instruction from Glenn H. Curtiss, became America's first exhibition pilot by giving a show at Scarsborough Beach, Toronto, Canada. (24)
1919: Through 19 September, Lawson "Air Line," a 26-passenger twin-engine Liberty biplane, made a demonstration trip from Milwaukee to Washington DC, via Chicago, New York, and other cities. (24)
1942: The War Department directed the ATC to provide aircraft and equipment to evacuate sick and wounded American servicemen and women throughout the world. (2)
1943: The 482 BG, equipped with Oboe, H2S, and H2X blind bombing equipment, became the first radar-equipped Pathfinder unit in the US AAF. (4)
1944: Maj Joseph Myers and 2d Lt Manford O. Croy, Jr., from the 78 FG, Eighth Air Force, shared an aerial victory for a Me-262, the first jet to be downed in combat. At the time, Major Myers was leading eight P-47s flying top cover at 11,000 feet in the vicinity Termonde, near Brussels, Belgium, when he saw an aircraft flying low and extremely fast. Myers and Croy then made a 45- degree dive and caught up with the twin-engine Me262. Before they could fire on the jet, the German pilot scuttled the aircraft in an open field. He fled on foot, but was but killed by other P-47s as they strafed the wreck to destroy it. Nevertheless, Major Myers and Lt Croy both received half credit for an aerial victory. (20) (21)
1945: FEAF ARRIVAL IN JAPAN. An advance communications team flew in to Atsugi Airfield near Tokyo. Under the protection of Imperial Army units, this team set up the control tower and communication equipment necessary for occupation forces to land. On 30 August, the Mission 75 began, and it ended 13 days later without a single fatal aircraft accident. The 1,336 C-54 flights brought the 11th Airborne Division, the 27th Infantry Division, and advanced echelons of General MacArthur's headquarters, FEAF, the Eighth Army, and an initial ATC detachment into Atsugi Airport. (17)
1948: A Navy transport, the Caroline Mars, landed at Chicago after a record nonstop flight from Honolulu. It carried 42 people and a 14,000-pound payload in setting the 24-hour, 9-minute FAI record. (9)
1953: At Santa Susana, a complete liquid-rocket engine assembly (Navaho) having thrust in excess of 200,000 pounds was fired for the first time. (16) (24)
1957: The 1607 ATW at Dover AFB received the first Douglas C-133A Cargomaster. (18)
1958: An Atlas ICBM, launched from Cape Canaveral flew 3,000 miles and landed in the target area in the first test of a radio-command guidance system. (16) (24) RF-101 CONVERSION. The 15th TRS, 67 TRW, received its first new RF-101C, making the unit the first in PACAF to convert to this aircraft. (17)
1961: Lts Huntington Hardisty and Earl H. DeEsch (USN) flew a McDonnell F-4H Phantom II to a low-level record of 902.769 MPH over a 3-kilometer course at Holloman AFB. (9)
1963: First test of the Apollo program made with the launching of the General Dynamics/Convair Little Joe II rocket at White Sands Missile Range.
1964: A new weather satellite, Nimbus, launched. This 830-pound spacecraft offered two major improvements over the earlier TIROS. First its cameras faced the earth at all times during orbit, whereas TIROS could only photograph cloud coverage during a portion of an orbit. Second, it flew a near-polar circular orbit, which allowed it to view each section of the earth twice a day.
1970: SAC crews, using operational hardware and procedures, launched a Minuteman III on its first demonstration and shakedown operational test flight. (16)
1972: Capt Richard S. "Steve" Ritchie, with his backseater Capt Charles D. DeBellevue, shot down his fifth MiG-21 near Hanoi. He thus became the first USAF ace of the Vietnam War and first since the Korean War. For this feat, Ritchie shared the 1972 Mackay Trophy with Captains Jeffrey S. Feinstein, and Charles B. DeBellevue. (16) (17)
1981: SECAF Verne Orr selected McDonnell Douglas Corporation to develop the C-X aircraft. (12)
1984: A C-5 Galaxy delivered the first shipment of support equipment for GLCMs at Florennes AB, Belgium. (16)
1988: Shortages of hospital equipment and medical supplies on the island of Sao Tome off the west coast of Africa led the US to send a 20 MAS C-141 with 29 tons of supply items there. (26)
2005: AFFTC completed the RQ-4A Global Hawk UAV flight test program. The last three sorties supported an Air Combat Command decision process on the operational readiness of the Block 10 aircraft and their sensors. (3)
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Thanks to Boris
Battle of the Eastern Solomons thoughts
This is some reflection as follow-up to your posting Admiral Cox's H-Gram on the Battle on the List. Today this battle receives little attention as compared to Midway, but given the noted Chinese study of the "island war" in the Pacific, it seems worth considering the lessons the US Navy and Marine Corps learned the hard way.
Boris sends
MAKING SENSE OF THE EASTERN SOLOMONS
Comments including Extracts from John B. Lundstrom, Blackshoe Carrier Admiral: Frank Jack Fletcher at Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal., Naval Institute Pres
The exceptionally poor communications and numerous failures by search planes to report correctly the enemy's strength and position rendered Fletcher, "Thoroughly confused throughout the action." Fletcher thought there were at least two and very possibly three separate enemy carrier task forces with four flattops. Due though to the "incompleteness of last contact reports," he could not "fix with any degree of accuracy" their positions.
It is extremely noteworthy how different Fletcher's perception of the battle was from reality
Fletcher's 6 September 1942 preliminary report designated "Task Force A" the group of ships he thought included the light carrier Ryujo, which the Saratoga's aviators claimed to have sunk. He speculated the Ryujo launched the evening strike that fortuitously missed TF-61. East of Task Force A was "Task Force B" with the big carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, which likely dispatched the huge strike of eighty aircraft that hit TF-16. [One] U.S. mini-strike very likely targeted B's screen, possibly damaging a battleship and two cruisers. Fletcher supposed another light carrier force, "Task Force C," operated southeast of Task Force B and was the source of the Cactus-bound strike detected early that afternoon on radar.
As example note that the confusion persisted long after the battle. The Ryujo was sunk but remained in the Cincpac intelligence bulletins for a week. The cryptanalysts were still not certain until January 1943, when they deciphered a naval message that deleted her from the IJN list.
The other fundamental question raised by the battle was how the Japanese carriers could reach the Solomons without radio intelligence predicting and confirming their movements. Fletcher discussed the intelligence failure with Nimitz when they next met. He brought up the Cincpac daily intelligence bulletin, received on 23 August, placing all Japanese carriers north of Truk, where instead, as many as four flattops had secretly closed within a few hundred miles of TF-61. Fletcher "cussed so loudly about the intelligence being bad. Even while the battle raged, Captain Steele's daily summary of radio intelligence had noted: "It now seems probable that Jap CVs are about to enter Truk. If this is so they can hardly arrive in the Solomons before August 27th, local date."
The day after the battle Rochefort's Hypo analysts admitted their bafflement. "Success of a large task force including carriers in reaching the Solomons without detection by R.I. indicates that radio security practices of the Japs are effective insofar as concealing actual movements is concerned." The experts finally deduced the initial inclusion of the carrier forces in the local communication net really meant they were already present instead of just enroute. Layton later decided the reason the expected carrier arrival report at Truk had not been intercepted was that, unknown to the Allies, the striking force bypassed Truk and kept going south. In the end, "You can't always be right," and "that's what RI is all about."
Despite that the Japanese forces turned back giving Fletcher an at least temporary strategic victory in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, many thought he should have done much better, taking advantage of what they perceived was a highly advantageous tactical position on the evening of 24 August. The extremely exaggerated claims of aircraft destroyed in the attack on TF-16 (at least eighty-four planes shot down by combat air patrol and antiaircraft), as well as tantalizing hints from radio intelligence of additional heavy plane losses, had mesmerized Nimitz. His preliminary report postulated that 24 August cost the enemy "the best part of three or four carrier groups destroyed in action, or most of the Japanese aerial striking force available that day." The eighty planes that were annihilated assailing TF-16 represented "at least one large and one small carrier group." Moreover, "The second attack group that missed locating Task Force 61 late in the afternoon could have been the other large carrier air group," whose "planes were later in the evening heard trying to home their carrier." Thus, Nimitz speculated, "Some or all of the group were lost."
Given confusing reports of twin-engine bombers attacking Cactus on 24 August, he was uncertain whether carrier planes also struck Henderson Field, whose defenders claimed eleven single and twin-engine bombers and seven fighters. "If so, the Japanese lost the best part of three carrier groups in the action of 24 August, and perhaps much of a fourth if a carrier group joined in the attack on Guadalcanal."
Consequently, "Not only was the enemy landing expedition turned back, but we had definitely won control of the air." At the same time Fletcher's own air losses (sixteen planes) were extraordinarily low. Despite damage to the Enterprise, "We still had intact practically two full carrier air groups."
At the same time, the "Wasp Task Force was fueled and proceeding North to join TF-61 as it retired southward. The Hornet Task Force was nearby enroute." Therefore, Nimitz strongly regretted that Fletcher withdrew the Saratoga group and wasted all 25 August refueling, while at the same time Noyes's TF-18 merely "took position in the general area southeast of Guadalcanal prepared to repel further Japanese attack."
The final Cincpac battle report, dated 24 October 1942, not only repeated the earlier comments regarding heavy enemy air losses, but also strongly questioned Fletcher's actions: "The withdrawal of the Saratoga Task Force on the night of 24 August broke off the engagement. At this time the enemy carrier air forces were depleted. Based on hindsight it appears that had the Saratoga group remained in the vicinity occupied on the 24th, they might have been able to strike the enemy with air and probably surface forces, since the Japanese heavy units continued to close during the night and did not reverse course until the forenoon (afternoon for some groups) of 25 August."
Cincpac described Japanese vulnerability on 25 August not only to carrier air attacks, but also surface combat from Fletcher's task groups. "We must use our surface ships more boldly as opportunity warrants." However, "The distances involved, the problem of coordinating widely scattered forces, along with inadequate communication facilities and training, together prevented the victory from being as decisive as it should have been had planes and surface forces come to grips with the enemy after his air forces were largely destroyed on the 24th of August."
The Cominch 1943 Battle Experience Bulletin echoed Nimitz's opinion of poor leadership at Eastern Solomons. "Task forces must anticipate repeated attacks and be prepared to repel them and not be in an unprepared and disorganized condition," referring to TF-11 on the evening of 24 August. "Our task force took the defensive more than the offensive," whereas "effort should be made to follow up initial successes in order to completely annihilate the enemy whether it is daylight or dark." On 25 August, however, the "attitude was too defensive," especially because "an offensive by Task Force 18 might have resulted in complete destruction of the enemy."
They considered the supposedly decimated Japanese easy pickings for the Saratoga and Wasp flyers had Fletcher only mustered the courage to stay and fight.
As so often, the operative word is HINDSIGHT. Reality was far different. The tactical situation Fletcher actually faced on the evening of 24 August was far less sanguine than Nimitz and King ever appreciated. In his ignorance of actual events, Nimitz was extremely unfair.
In fact, Cincpac vastly overestimated Japanese carrier plane losses. The actions on 24 August cost the Shokaku and Zuikaku just thirty-three aircraft. Far from having his air groups "largely destroyed," Nagumo enjoyed his full aerial torpedo capability of thirty-four carrier attack planes and retained half his dive bombers, as well as forty Zero fighters, and the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers led by Kondo and Abe were too formidable for Fletcher to take on alone in surface combat.
Just a spectator to the attack on TF-16, all Fletcher had to go on that evening, while he deliberated whether or not to withdraw TF-11, were the initial impressions of tired fighter pilots who landed on the Saratoga. That night it looked as if three of four enemy carriers remained untouched, and that powerful surface forces closed fast. He did not gain a fuller picture of the defense of TF-16 until after contacting Kinkaid the next afternoon. The compilation of victory claims only came after collating the action reports.
Criticism of Admiral Noyes as merely standing toward Guadalcanal instead of seeking to engage carriers to the north was extremely unjustified. Noyes went where he thought the enemy's main body would be. He did not find it, because the Japanese themselves pulled out. Nimitz's mention of the Hornet task force being nearby was especially misleading. During the battle TF-17 was fully one thousand miles away and could not possibly have intervened for several days.
The truth was that Fletcher's problems were far more profound than a great many senior commanders ever understood. Enjoying better, but by no means comprehensive, access to Japanese records than wartime analysts, Morison conceded when Fletcher "decided to call it quits for the day," he was "amply justified" in escaping the charge of Kondo's "sea-going cavalry force." Morison favorably compared Fletcher's decision to the wisdom Spruance demonstrated on the night of 4 June in backing out of harm's way at Midway. "It was not known whether the Japanese had had enough, but it was clear that their available gunfire power was much greater than Fletcher's, and night was no time to test the truth of this estimate. Fletcher's decision to withdraw was tactically wise; He did need to fuel his destroyers and the rest of TF-11, for that matter, to permit the extended high-speed operations that renewed battle would demand. He always had to keep in mind that only the intervention of the Japanese heavy fleet forces would ensure in the end whether or not the marines held Cactus. Their carriers were his primary objective. Kondo and Nagumo would be back, and Sopac ready to meet them, in part due to Fletcher's well-measured responses during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.
A fair assessment is that both Japanese and U.S. actions were cautious/unaggressive, largely from want of intelligence about the enemy.
Despite all Fletcher's perceived failures to take advantage of the situation, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons was "a victory that turned back the first major assault of the Japanese to regain Guadalcanal-Tulagi and gave us several weeks of valuable time to consolidate positions there."
Final comments
A week after the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, VADM Fletcher's flagship USS Saratoga was struck by a torpedo fired by Japanese submarine I-26 which caused a number of significant issues. After making temporary repairs at Tonga, Saratoga sailed to Pearl Harbor to be dry docked. It did not return to the Southwest Pacific until arriving at Nouméa in early December.
Admiral Fletcher was reassigned to shore duty command.
It should be noted that VADM Fletcher was the Task Force Commander of three of the four major naval battles in 1942 (Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomon Islands). His command sank 6 Japanese carriers; 1 at Coral Sea (Shoho), 4 at Midway (Soryu, Kaga, Hiryu, Akagi) , and 1 at Eastern Solomon Islands (Ryujo).He lost 2 American carriers; 1 at Coral Sea (Lexington) and 1 at Midway (Yorktown ). He spent all but 51 of the first 289 days of the Pacific War (7 December 1941 to 21 September 1942) at sea, most of that time in or near enemy-controlled waters.
In their analysis of the Battle of Midway, Parshall and Tully noted that failures of anticipation of what the U.S. Navy could or might do were a critical aspect of the IJN defeat. They point out, "The essence of a failure to anticipate is not mere ignorance of the future, for that is inherently unknowable. It is, rather, the failure to take reasonable precautions against a known hazard." It was clear to them as they researched Midway from the Japanese perspective that the Imperial Navy failed to anticipate as it went into the battle.
Frank Jack Fletcher was castigated roundly by King, Nimitz and later historians such as Morrison for not being aggressive enough… I.e., for not falling into that same trap of failure to anticipate possible enemy capability.
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