To All,
Good Monday Morning September 2..Happy Labor Day. Some history as usual today and Monday Morning Humor from Al. The heart of today's List is about two men who are some of the finest I have read about and known…skip
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
September 2
1777 The frigate, USS Raleigh, commanded by Thomas Thompson, captures the British brig, HMS Nancy, while en route to France to purchase military stores.
1918 U.S. Navy ships and crews assist earthquake victims of Yokohama and Tokyo, Japan.
1864 During the Civil War, the 8-gun paddle-wheeler, USS Naiad, engages a Confederate battery at Rowes Landing, La., and silences it.
1940 As the Battle of Britain intensifies, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull agrees to the transfer 50 warships to the Royal Navy. In exchange, the U.S. is granted land in various British possessions for the establishment of naval or air bases, on ninety-nine-year rent-free leases.
1944 USS Finback (SS 230) rescues Lt. j.g. George H.W. Bush, who is shot down while attacking Chi Chi Jima. During this time, Lt. j.g. Bush serves with Torpedo Squadron Fifty One (VT 51) based on board USS San Jacinto (CVL 30). Lt. j.g. Bush later becomes the 41st President of the United States.
1945 More than two weeks after accepting the Allies terms, Japan formally surrenders, marking the end of World War II. The ceremonies, less than half an hour long, take place on board the battleship USS Missouri (BB 63), anchored with other United States and British ships in Tokyo Bay.
1989 USS Sentry (MCM 3) is commissioned. The Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship is the second to bear that name. USS Sentry moves to its new homeport of Ingleside, Texas, on Aug. 25, 1992.
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Today in World History September 2
1666 The Great Fire of London, which devastates the city, begins.
1789 The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander Hamilton, is created in New York City.
1792 Verdun, France, surrenders to the Prussian Army.
1798 The Maltese people revolt against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to take refuge in the citadel of Valletta in Malta.
1870 Napoleon III capitulates to the Prussians at Sedan, France.
1885 In Rock Springs, Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers are killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners.
1898 Sir Herbert Kitchener leads the British to victory over the Mahdists at Omdurman and takes Khartoum.
1910 Alice Stebbins Wells is admitted to the Los Angeles Police Force as the first woman police officer to receive an appointment based on a civil service exam.
1915 Austro-German armies take Grodno, Poland.
1944 Troops of the U.S. First Army enter Belgium.
1945 Vietnam declares its independence and Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaims himself its first president.
1945 Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Missouri, ending World War II
1956 Tennessee National Guardsmen halt rioters protesting the admission of 12 African-Americans to schools in Clinton.
1963 Alabama Governor George Wallace calls state troopers to Tuskegee High School to prevent integration.
1963 The US gets its first half-hour TV weeknight national news broadcast when CBS Evening News expands from 15 to 30 minutes.
1970 NASA cancels two planned missions to the moon.
1975 Joseph W. Hatcher of Tallahassee, Florida, becomes the state's first African-American supreme court justice since Reconstruction.
1992 The US and Russia agree to a joint venture to build a space station.
1996 The Philippine government and Muslim rebels sign a pact, formally ending a 26-year long insurgency.
1998 Jean Paul Akayesu, former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, found guilty of nine counts of genocide by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
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Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945.
The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.
After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.
Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration "with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler." The council obeyed Hirohito's acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States.
Early on August 12, the United States answered that "the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." After two days of debate about what this statement implied, Emperor Hirohito brushed the nuances in the text aside and declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a text accepting surrender.
In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender.
HISTORY Vault: World War II
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President Truman appointed MacArthur to head the Allied occupation of Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the site of Japan's formal surrender, Truman chose the USS Missouri, a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific and was named after Truman's native state. MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive.
On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.
Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past." Nine more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.
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OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT Thanks to the Bear
Skip… For The List for the week beginning Monday, 2 September 2024 and ending Sunday, 8 September 2024… Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION COMMANDO HUNT (1968-1972)
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com post of 1 September 1969… Wrap-up on "Balky Company A" and a NYT OpEd by James Reston, "A Whiff of Mutiny." The Nixon Dilemma: how do you keep troops fighting forward while you are pulling out and going home? We lost more than 20,000 American brave hearts (KIA) while fighting the last three years of this lost cause.
(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 2 September
2-Sep: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2991
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 Al
Monday Morning Humor--Labor Day
In the spirit of Labor Day, here is a collection of quotes tor your amusement, edification or to use however you see fit.
• "Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken."—Bill Dodds
• "If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend."—Doug Larson
• "The problem is that those of us who are lucky enough to do work that we love are sometimes cursed with too damn much of it."―Terry Gross
• "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."—Maya Angelou
• "Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I will do what others can't."—Jerry Rice
• "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."—Arthur Ashe
• "Today's accomplishments were yesterday's impossibilities."—Robert Schuller
• "Either you run the day or the day runs you."—Jim Rohn
• "The road to success is always under construction."—Lily Tomlin
• "Sometimes, the most productive thing that you can do is to step outside and do nothing ... relax and enjoy nature."—Melanie Charlene
• "I never dreamed about success. I worked for it."—Estée Lauder
• "Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."—Coco Chanel
• "A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work."—Colin Powell
• "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."—Tim Notke
• "Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds."—Gordon B. Hinckley
• "If you care about what you do and work hard at it, there isn't anything you can't do if you want to."—Jim Henson
• "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen."—Michael Jordan
• "Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses."—Kobe Bryant
• "I learned the value of hard work by working hard."—Margaret Mead
• "Hard work keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit."—Helena Rubinstein
• "Dedication, hard work all the time, and belief."—Cristiano Ronaldo
• "You always pass failure on your way to success."—Mickey Rooney
• "Hard work should be rewarded by good food."—Ken Follet
• "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."—Dale Carnegie
• "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed."—Booker T. Washington, "Up from Slavery: An Autobiography"
• "There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something."—Henry Ford
• "Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe."—Gail Devers
• "There is more to life than making a living. Do not work more than you live."—Mokokoma Mokhonoana
• "Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes."—Liza M. Wiemer
• "Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want."—Ken Poirot
• "We fail the minute we let someone else define success for us."—Brené Brown, "Dare to Lead"
• "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard."—Kevin Durant
• "If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."—Shirley Chisholm
• "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."—Tom Hanks as Jimmy Dugan, "A League of Their Own"
• "It's not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention."—Conan O'Brien
• "Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible."—Carol Moseley Braun
• "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."—Herman Cain
• "I have a firm belief in the ability and power of women to achieve the things they want to achieve."— Eleanor Roosevelt
• "Sometimes you have to be satisfied. You try hard enough. Don't be so self-critical; don't be so hard on yourself."—Billie Jean King
• "What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose."—Margaret Thatcher
• "The only thing that's keeping you from getting what you want is the story you keep telling yourself."—Tony Robbins
• "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."—Abraham Lincoln
• "Your success and happiness lies in you."—Helen Keller
• "It's not about money or connections—it's the willingness to outwork and outlearn everyone when it comes to your business. And if it fails, you learn from what happened and do a better job next time."—Mark Cuban
• "Everything yields to diligence."—Thomas Jefferson
• "If we want people to fully show up, to bring their whole selves including their unarmored, whole hearts—so that we can innovate, solve problems and serve people—we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard and respected."—Brené Brown, "Dare to Lead"
• "Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition."—Abraham Lincoln
• "I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it." ― Thomas Jefferson
• "The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense." ― Thomas A. Edison
• "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." ― Beverly Sills
• "Sometimes there's not a better way. Sometimes there's only the hard way."—Mary E. Pearson, "The Fox Inheritance"
• "It doesn't matter how great your shoes are if you don't accomplish anything in them."—Martina Boone, "Compulsion"
• "Though you can love what you do not master, you cannot master what you do not love."—Mokokoma Mokhonoana
• "The best advice I can give anybody is to try and understand who you are and what you want to do, and don't be afraid to go down that road and do whatever it takes and work as hard as you have to work to achieve that."—Sally Ride
• "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other."—Abraham Lincoln
• "Persistence overshadows even talent as the most valuable resource shaping the quality of life."—Tony Robbins
• "Be the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment, own it."—Oprah Winfrey
• "It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country."—Franklin D. Roosevelt
• "I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it."—Margaret Thatcher
• "I think sometimes in life the biggest challenges end up being the best things that happen in your life."—Tom Brady
• "There's only one way to succeed in anything, and that is to give it everything."—Vince Lombardi
• "It doesn't matter how many times you fail. You only have to be right once and then everyone can tell you that you are an overnight success."—Mark Cuban
• "Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go."—William Feather, "The Business of Life"
• "Then give the world the best that you have / And the best will come back to you."—Madeline S. Bridges
• "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."—Theodore Roosevelt
• "You must work and do good, not be lazy and gamble, if you wish to earn happiness. Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction."—Anne Frank, "The Diary of Anne Frank"
• "The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work."—Richard Bach, "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah"
• "To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is gravy."—Bette Davis
• "No person who is enthusiastic about his work has anything to fear from life."—Samuel Goldwyn
• "My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it."―Abraham Lincoln
The problem is that those of us who are lucky enough to do work that we love are sometimes cursed with too darn much of it. Happy Labor Day!
Al
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Thanks to Capt Billy and Dr.Rich for providing this outstanding piece for all of us…..skip
This is the heart of this List today. First my friend Barrett Tillman who continues to write amazing books on aircraft and the men that flew them and the second is his article on Marion Carl. Fighter pilot extrordinare.
A special "Thank YOU" to Barrett Tillman for his story about one of America's greatest! Marion Carl was a great American, an extraordinarily gifted pilot and much more. But, first a bit about Barrett:
Barrett Tillman grew up on an Oregon wheat and cattle ranch where he was exposed to agricultural aircraft from childhood. He learned to fly at age 16 in 1965 and was involved in restoring and flying antique aircraft: a Navy N3N-3 biplane trainer and a Douglas SBD-5 dive bomber. The latter led to his first book, an operational history of the Dauntless published in 1976.
Graduating from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree in 1971, Tillman has worked as a freelance writer, book publisher, and magazine editor. First published at age 15, he has written 50 books (ten fiction) with contributions to 10 more, and 800 magazine articles. Since 1990 he has been a full-time author and novelist while appearing as a documentary TV commentator in the U.S. and Europe. His work has been honored with ten awards for history, biography, and literature. His prior activities include Eagle Scout, two state championships as a percussionist, competitive speech and debate titles, and leading a national champion shooting team.
Awards:
1978: Contributor's Award, American Aviation Historical Society
1981: U.S. Air Force Historical Foundation Writing Award
1987: North American Society for Oceanographic History (with John B. Nichols)
1994: Naval Order of the United States History Writing Award
1994: Admiral Radford Award for Naval Aviation History and Literature
1998: Tailhook Association Lifetime Achievement Award
2009: U.S. Naval Institute General Prize.
2019: Naval History Author of the Year
THE NATURAL: MARION CARL
By BARRETT TILLMAN 6/15/2017
Major Marion E. Carl, left, and test pilot Commander Turner F. Caldwell, Jr., stand with the record-setting Douglas D-558-I Skystreak, on Muroc Dry Lake. (U.S. Navy)
NATURAL-BORN AVIATORS ARE EXTREMELY RARE. Humans aren't designed to operate in three dimensions, and learning to adapt to the vertical normally requires study, determination and practice. The innate ability to excel in flight is a gift granted to very few. Marion Eugene Carl had that gift.
Descended from Scandinavian immigrants, Marion Carl was born in a tent near tiny Hubbard, Ore., in November 1915. He lost his father as a youngster, and as the family's second son, assumed many of the duties on the family farm. But Carl soon began envisioning a future far beyond the Willamette Valley. As he later said, "I never had any affection for a cow."
Carl enrolled in Oregon State College in nearby Corvallis, studying aeronautical engineering while in Army ROTC. Along the way he earned a private pilot's license, soloing a Taylor J-2 Cub in the nearly unheard-of time of 2½ hours.
Upon graduation in 1938, he resigned his Army commission to apply for Navy flight training. At the time, this was an all-or-nothing gamble, as students who washed out went to the fleet as sailors. But Carl possessed a brand of confidence just this side of arrogance, and he felt certain he could complete the course. He received his wings of gold and a Marine Corps commission in December 1939.
Marion wanted fighters, and he literally raced to Quantico, Va. to take the only available seat in Fighting Squadron One (VMF-1). He reveled in flying Grumman F3F biplanes, especially aerobatics, tactics and gunnery. Though he impressed commanders with his exceptional ability, his laid-back attitude occasionally caused problems. Carl once told the story of "supervising" a detail at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during a gunnery exercise. Apparently while overseeing the bore-sighting of some F3F's guns, he did what wise lieutenants have always done: said "Carry on, Sergeant." With that he lay down for a nap, ignoring the engine noise and gunfire.When the squadron CO came by, the result was additional noise directed in Lieutenant Carl's direction.
After a year in "Fighting One," Carl returned to Pensacola, Fla., as a flight instructor. While he didn't relish his new assignment, he recognized that a year of teaching nascent golden-wingers could enhance his own mastery of his craft. As an instructor, he would leave indelible impressions on many of his students, including Dakota farm boy Joe Foss, who at one point cadged a ride with Carl during an unscheduled night hop. As Foss later recalled, Carl indulged in some nocturnal aerobatics, then asked the aviation cadet how he liked it. "Fine, sir," Foss burped. Then, as he related, "I upchucked the soles of my shoes." Their paths would cross again far, far from Pensacola.
Carl's next orders proved more to his liking. He joined VMF-221, where he again served under Captain Harold Bauer, whom he had known at Quantico. Flying Brewster F2A-3 Buffalos on the West Coast, their earlier relationship had been coolly professional, and by this time both were mature aviators. "Indian Joe" Bauer was considered perhaps the finest talent in Marine aviation, which meant there was a face-off to determine the pecking order. As Carl recalled it, "I finished inverted below the crest of a hill without either of us having gained an advantage." Thereafter, mutual respect grew into friendship.
On being promoted to major, Bauer rolled out to command his own squadron and VMF-221 continued training. On December 7, 1941, Major Verne McCaul's unit was alerted for immediate transfer to Midway Atoll. The Buffalos rode USS Saratoga to Midway later that month.
The ensuing period, involving hours of dull patrols, was pure boredom for then-Captain Carl. To liven things up, he once slow-rolled for an entire circuit of the lagoon. His wingman, obliged to follow him, was not pleased.
Late in May 1942, things began to perk up. VMF-221, then under Major Floyd Parks, received some F4F-3 Wildcats, and Carl's division took four of them. As it happened, he only had a few hours in the Grumman fighter before the Japanese arrived.
Early on June 4, more than 100 Japanese carrier aircraft staged an attack to neutralize Midway's defenses, anticipating seizure of the atoll—part of a wider scheme to draw the U.S. Pacific Fleet's carriers into a decisive battle. Radar gave the Marines enough warning to scramble before the enemy planes arrived, with the Wildcats and Buffalos clawing for altitude.
After bagging a Japanese Zero at the Battle of Midway, Carl would shoot down four more enemy aircraft over Guadalcanal to become the Marine Corps' first ace of WWII. (National Archives)
By then a 26-year-old professional with 1,400 hours in the air, Carl would need all his expertise to survive that day. After the initial interception, he was jumped by an A6M2 Zero. As he later noted, "The metallic resonance of bullets striking your airplane cannot be mistaken for anything else." He pulled into a tight turn, gaining enough time to dive vertically for a cloud. The Zero followed, and Carl abruptly slewed his Wildcat into an uncoordinated skid, forcing the enemy pilot to overshoot. Carl got a quick sight picture and triggered a burst. Under negative Gs all four guns jammed, but the Japanese pilot disengaged.
Carl tugged on the charging handles and got three guns working, then began stalking a lone Zero, diving into its pilot's blind spot. Closing the range, he recalled, "The fighter took a concentrated cluster of .50-caliber hits and dropped into a spin. It never recovered." Decades later, historians concluded that his victim was an enlisted pilot from the carrier Kaga.
When the Americans landed again, Midway was a wreck. The fuel storage tanks were ablaze, and the squadron area had been leveled. Carl's F4F was holed but still operational, as was one Buffalo that returned undamaged. The others were unserviceable. Worse, 15 of the 25 fighters that had scrambled that morning were missing. "Red" Parks and 13 of his pilots were gone forever.
Later that day Carl and Captain Bill Humberd scrambled in response to another alert—two planes against an unknown enemy. This time it turned out to be a false alarm: Douglas SBD-3s from the carrier Hornet were coming to roost at Midway. Word soon got around that squadrons from Yorktown and Enterprise had destroyed all four Japanese carriers and sunk a cruiser before the enemy withdrew. Yorktown succumbed to damage on June 7, but overall the Battle of Midway was a stunning victory for the Americans and a turning point in the war.
Though VMF-221 had been decimated, Carl demonstrated the emotional fortitude that would sustain him throughout his combat career. On the 6th he confided to his journal, "Feeling ready for another fight." That next fight was 10 weeks away.
Carl and a few other Midway survivors were quickly reassigned to VMF-223, formed by John L. Smith, a tough, rawboned Oklahoman. Smith, the newly promoted major who had never commanded a squadron, a faced a serious challenge: preparing a new, mostly green outfit for combat before the end of August. The squadron focused on the basics—tactics and gunnery—while sorting out the new F4F-4 Wildcats. Additionally, the Marines qualified for carrier operations, an indication that they would likely be headed for a forward deployment in the near future.
On August 20, Major Smith led 19 Wildcats off the short deck of the escort carrier Long Island with Lt. Col. Richard Mangrum's dozen SBD Dauntlesses of VMSB-232. The flying leathernecks duly arrived over their advanced base on the northern plain of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands, becoming plank-owners in the "Cactus Air Force."
"Cactus" was Guadalcanal's code name during Operation Watchtower, America's first offensive of World War II. The Solomons were strategically positioned either to interdict or protect sea lanes from Samoa to Australia, and the Allies aimed to prevent the Japanese from expanding their bases in the area. When Carl arrived, however, the new airfield on Guadalcanal—named for Major Lofton Henderson, who had died at Midway—was within range of enemy artillery. Land-based bombers frequently attacked from Rabaul, some 600 miles northwest. Smith's men lived under tents or shelter halves, eating canned food and Japanese rice, and performing aircraft maintenance in the open.
On the 24th VMF-223 tied into a formation of Nakajima B5N2 Kate bombers from the light carrier Ryujo plus twin-engine G4M1 Betty bombers. In a prolonged engagement, Carl gunned down four enemy airplanes, becoming the Marines' first ace. Later that day planes from Saratoga sent Ryujo to the bottom.
In all, Smith and company claimed 20 kills and probably got 12, losing one pilot. That day set the pattern for the CAF, which relied on coast watchers for warnings of inbound raiders. As Carl explained: "We needed about 45 minutes to start up, take off and climb to altitude to intercept the bombers. I liked to attack from an overhead position because directly above the target you were mostly immune to return fire. The tail gunner might get a shot at you as you dived past, but if you did it right, by then he was dead."
On August 26, Marion was entering Henderson Field's landing pattern when he was attacked by an audacious Zero pilot. Antiaircraft gunners protected the Wildcat, but as the enemy fighter made off Carl firewalled the throttle and cranked his wheels back up, determined to chase down the Japanese pilot. The Zero reversed course, approaching the F4F from overhead.
The Marine flier accepted his challenge. He pulled into a near-vertical climb with maximum power, tracking the Zero for a full deflection shot. It was an all-or-nothing gamble: If he missed, the Zero would have him cold. But Carl didn't miss. The enemy fighter exploded, showering parts along the beach. Later reports would show the pilot was Lt. j.g. Junichi Sasai, a 27-victory ace of the Tainan Kokutai (naval air group).
Carl and "Smitty" were soon engaged in a friendly rivalry for top score in the Cactus league. By September they were neck and neck at about a dozen each when Marion's plane was hit by an unseen Zero, and he had to bail out. Five days later he returned to Henderson, reportedly demanding that Brig. Gen. Roy Geiger ground Smith for a comparable period.
Besides his natural skill and frequent opportunities for combat, much of Carl's success at Guadalcanal was based on his ability to sleep anywhere, ignoring ambient noise as he had at Guantanamo. That knack, combined with rugged Nordic stamina, kept him alert and eager for combat.
When VMF-223 rotated out of Guadalcanal in early October, Smith and Carl were America's leading aces, with 19 and 16.5 victories, respectively. "John L." received the Medal of Honor, while Carl, promoted to major in early 1943, took over the squadron.
Guadalcanal heroes: On November 4, 1942, Major John Smith, Major Robert Galer and Captain Marion Carl were awarded Navy Crosses by Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. (National Archives)
Back at El Toro, Calif., Carl re-formed VMF-223, which was reequipped with Vought F4U-1 Corsairs. By that time he had married 19-year-old model Edna Kirvin, whom he met during a bond tour in New York. Their time together was limited. The squadron returned to the Pacific in July 1943, arriving at Vella Lavella, in the Solomons, in November. Late that year the Allies began a campaign against the Japanese naval air bastion at Rabaul, on New Britain, in which VMF-223 regularly participated.
Carl downed two more planes in December, running up his total to 18.5. But after the loss of noted Marine aces Greg Boyington (captured in January 1944) and Bob Hanson (killed in February), Carl's tour was cut short. He was assigned to the first class at the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Md., where he remained through the end of the war.
By then Carl's cockpit skills were legendary. While flying an F7F Tigercat at Patuxent River in 1945, he was jumped by an F8F Bearcat. The two Grummans chased each other around for a time, neither managing to gain an advantage. After landing, the Bearcat pilot, Lieutenant Alexander Vraciu—the Navy's fourth-ranking ace—called operations and asked who had been flying that F7F. On hearing it was Lt. Col. Carl, he said, "Oh, that explains it!" It shouldn't have been possible for the bigger, heavier Tigercat to maneuver with a well-flown Bearcat, but Carl had managed it.
Carl relished testing a variety of aircraft. He became the first Marine to land a jet on a carrier and the second leatherneck to fly helicopters, though he didn't apply for an official helo rating until much later in his career. During the late 1940s, when the Navy and Air Force were competing to become the first to exceed the speed of sound, Carl was among the naval aviators assigned to the Douglas D-558-1 project, flying the red Skystreak to a world record 650 mph in August 1947. He and Douglas designer Ed Heinemann were confident they could exceed Mach 1, but the Navy was unwilling to spend another $50,000 per flight. Air Force Captain Chuck Yeager broke Carl's record in the Bell X-1 two months later.
Carl went on to command the Marine Corps' first jet squadron, VMF-122, flying McDonnell FH-1 Phantoms in 1948. But he later returned to flight testing, and in 1953 piloted Douglas' sleek white D-558-2 to a record 83,235 feet and an unofficial speed record of 1,100 mph.
What could be considered Carl's ultimate test came one night in 1949, when he lost his electrical system—radio, lights and most instruments—while flying an F9F-2 from Los Angeles to San Diego. Then the engine quit. Rather than point the nose west and pull the handle, he accepted the challenge. He took advantage of excess altitude to buzz the North Island tower, hoping operators would illuminate the runway. But when there was no response from the tower, as he explained, "I pulled up from my pass at the tower and wrapped the Panther into a 270-degree turn. Everything was alright until the base leg, when the windscreen froze over. I had to skid the plane so I could look out one side, but I made a successful deadstick landing."
Carl hiked back to the tower and told the crew to arrange for a tow. The duty officer laconically answered, "Oh, I thought that was just somebody flat-hatting!"
With additional success came the inevitable setbacks. In April 1952, Carl logged his second emergency jump while testing the Grumman AF-2 Guardian anti-submarine aircraft. Without a recovery tail chute, the plane entered a flat spin. He pulled the handle, but the ejection seat failed, forcing him to bail out manually. It took him two attempts before he got out at the last second. He landed in the splash of the Guardian, and was initially thought to have died in the incident.
Later that same year Carl landed short in an F9F-5 that was beset by fuel and flap problems, fracturing a vertebra. He recovered from that mishap, but the Panther had to be written off.
Carl also became a player in the covert action integral to the Cold War. Commanding VMJ-1 in 1954, he was tasked by the Pacific Fleet with conducting clandestine recon missions over China, watching for hostile actions toward Taiwan. The squadron flew photo versions of the McDonnell F2H Banshee, and though Carl had no experience with the mission, he trusted his subordinates. He flew armed escort for the "photo Banos," which were intercepted by MiG-15s on one occasion. After exercising some world-class evasive aviating, he was surprised to find his wingman still with him. Later that lieutenant confided,"Colonel, I wasn't about to lose you over China!"
In the 1950s, Carl flew the photoreconnaissance version of the F2H Banshee on clandestine missions over China. (U.S. Marine Corps)
While leading Marine Air Group 33 in 1956, Carl enjoyed dogfighting all comers in free-for-alls over Southern California, even though full colonels were officially discouraged from indulging in such frivolities. He favored Douglas' sporty F4D Skyray for its climbing power and agility. At one point he was busted when a junior birdman reported a particularly aggressive "Ford" pilot wearing a red flight suit—a gift from Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer. Carl never wore it again.
In the late 1950s Marion became interested in the nascent manned space program. Given his flight test background, he was more than qualified, but his NASA career was scuttled before it began because at 6-foot-2 he was too tall for the cramped confines of a Mercury capsule. The Marine slot went to John Glenn.
As a brigadier general, Carl took the 1st Marine Brigade to South Vietnam in 1965. While there, he continued flying nearly everything in the inventory: A-4s, F-4s and F-8s, but mainly H-34 helicopters and UH-1 gunships. He relished the opportunity to support Marine infantry, but like most military professionals was not impressed with President Lyndon Johnson's conduct of the war. Long afterward Carl commented, "My biggest job was preventing us from doing something stupid."
Carl always insisted Edna got him his first star, but he liked to think that he earned the second on his own. In 1967 he assumed command of the 2nd Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point, N.C. Disappointed with the 9-to-5 attitude he found there, he tightened up the discipline considerably—resulting in some resentment—but also continued flying.On occasion, for example, he would transport the wing's band to performances via a Douglas C-54 transport.
His final assignment was as inspector general of the Marine Corps from 1970 to 1973—a dead-end position engineered by rivals competing for a third star. Major General Carl retired with 13,000 hours in the cockpit, about twice as much flying time as his most active contemporaries.
In retirement, he settled into life as an avid outdoorsman in his native Oregon near Roseburg, enjoying hunting, fishing and hiking. Those who met him then were usually astonished to learn about his military background, in part because he was extraordinarily quiet, almost to the point of shyness. In fact, Carl described aerial combat and milking cows in the same tone. He answered the phone with "This is Marion," and seldom if ever described himself as"General Carl."
Approaching age 80, Carl showed signs of impending Alzheimer's—a concern to Edna, as well as their daughter and son. Though his condition worsened as time went on, it didn't prevent him from rescuing a boater who nearly drowned in the Umpqua River near the Carls' home.
On the night of June 28, 1998, a 19-year-old intruder broke into their house. When 82-year-old Marion confronted the criminal while trying to protect Edna, he was killed by a shotgun blast.The murderer was caught in California, brought back to Oregon,convicted and sentenced to death. In 2012, however, Oregon's governor suspended all executions, and the following year a judge ordered a new sentencing hearing.
Wearing his dress blues, Maj. Gen. Marion Carl was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He rests there among fellow illustrious Marines, including Joe Foss, Ken Walsh and Greg Boyington.
Roseburg's municipal airport was subsequently renamed Major General Marion E. Carl Memorial Field. In 2001 Carl was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. MCAS Kaneohe, Hawaii,was also rededicated in his name in 2009.
The late general's impressive honors—21 combat decorations, triple-ace status and all the flight-test records—remain an inspiration to modern aviators. But even taken as a whole, they can't define the man. Had Marion Carl never flown in combat or strapped into an X-plane, he would still have been that rare phenomenon: a natural-born airman. And a natural gentleman.
Arizona-based aviation writer Barrett Tillman has authored more than 50 books and 650 magazine articles. His latest book is Forgotten Fifteenth: The Daring Airmen Who Crippled Hitler's War Machine. With Maj. Gen. Marion Carl he penned Pushing the Envelope: The Career of Fighter Ace and Test Pilot Marion Carl, which is recommended for further reading.
Originally published in the May 2015 issue of Aviation History
Blue Skies & Tailwinds….
Https://CaptainBillyWalker.com
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Thanks to John
Skip,
It's interesting that you included Boeing's problems on today's list. I sent this email to three longtime friends. Two are USNA Naval Aviators and the other is a Marine (they're all Marine) artillery officer who received the Silver Star.
To me, Boeing has rested on the past accomplishments too long and has a leadership problem. They've neglected to acknowledge their mistakes and have fallen into the trap that no one does anything wrong so no one ever needs correcting.
John Souders
I'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon (still in recovery mode from my hospital soiree) doing nothing when I check a news site and something about Boeing not being able to recover their Starliner with astronauts on board and they will have to wait until next year while the Starliner returns empty.
-Starliner
-POOR QA on 737 over wing hatch cover - bolts missing.
-Poor handling of 737 Max malfunction of their system to keep from over rotating with the big engines on the MAX and especially NOT telling airlines about it. They should have put it on the backs of the inept pilots of the two accidents and taken their lumps - especially with the second crash in Africa. (The pilots used the procedures that Boeing came up with after the first crash then proceeded to let the airspeed build to over 300 knots and them VERY STUPIDLY re-engaged the electric trim).
-T-7 Hawk WAY behind schedule.
-KC46 tanker problems YEARS after delivery.
-And who knows how many other problems they're having that haven't come to the forefront.
So what is the problem? They McDonnell bought Douglas to get rid of some competition and take advantage of their way of doing things but ended up not actually taking advantage of anything.
Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas for many of the same reasons but didn't realize they weren't getting anything near what they thought they were getting.
I know Boeing rested on their laurels for way too long. Especially when you realize some of their engineering. The first cockpit for the B-52 was a tandem trying to piggy back on the B-47. The nose section of the 707, 727, 737 are all the same. It is noisy and if you will look at the nose sections of all (that I can think of) that were built after, they are smoother. All of the Douglas and Airbus noses are more aerodynamic. First thing most pilots transitioning from the DC-9 to the 727 noticed or said anything about was the noise.
Boeing didn't realize that the best thing about McDonnell wasn't their fighters but their marketing department. All of the Navy guys I know that got a chance to fly the F-15 and the F-16 preferred the 16 - much more in line with what John Boyd envisioned. McDonnell forgot or disregarded that the best thing about Douglas was that they often used the "KISS" principle.
As a side note, I'll give an example of the Douglas economical way of doing things - KISS. When it came time to build the MD95 (called the B-717 after Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas), it was expensive to digitize an entire airplane. It had benefits in the long run but it cost money and took time. So what did Douglas do? They bought an old DC-9-30 in the desert, took the wings off and hauled it to Long Beach. They proceeded to cut the fuselage in parts where they would add a section to make it the length of their plans for the 717. The wing was attached at the new angle that it was to be for the 717. And the nose was left detached so they could fit all of the hardware in by trial to see that it would fit perfectly or if it would need a change.
As another side note, the increased weight of the Rolls Royce engines made it tail heavy and they were going to need ballast in the nose. At the suggestion of the VP of Ops for ValuJet (the kickoff customer), they added another row (window set) forward of the wing to the stretch of the basic -30. His suggestion was 2 or more but they only used 1. Later on, they wished they had used more of a stretch for capacity and whenever the aircraft was ferried, nose ballast was necessary. (yeah it was me).
So, three men who I admire for their intelligence, advanced education (2 law degrees and an MBA) and overall brilliance, what do you think is the problem and what is the solution?
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This Day in U S Military History
September 2
1863 – Dahlgren, flying his flag in U.S.S. Weehawken, took the ironclads against Fort Sumter late at night following an intensive, day-long bombardment by Army artillery. Moving to within 500 yards of the Fort, the ships cannonaded it for 5 hours, "demolishing," as Brigadier General Ripley, CSA, reported, "nearly the whole of the eastern scarp . . . ." Confederates returned a heavy fire from Fort Moultrie, scoring over 70 hits on the ironclads. One shot struck Weehawken's turret, driving a piece of iron into the leg of Captain Oscar C. Badger, severely wounding him. Noting that he was the third Flag Captain he had lost in 2 months, Dahlgren wrote: "I shall feel greatly the loss of Captain Badger's services at this time." The Admiral broke off the attack as the flood tide set in, "which," Dahlgren said, had he remained, "would have exposed the monitors unnecessarily.
1945 – Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945. The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time, conceivably 10 times as costly as the Normandy invasion in terms of Allied casualties. On July 16, a new option became available when the United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more. After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki. Just before midnight on August 9, Japanese Emperor Hirohito convened the supreme war council. After a long, emotional debate, he backed a proposal by Prime Minister Suzuki in which Japan would accept the Potsdam Declaration "with the understanding that said Declaration does not compromise any demand that prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as the sovereign ruler." The council obeyed Hirohito's acceptance of peace, and on August 10 the message was relayed to the United States. Early on August 12, the United States answered that "the authority of the emperor and the Japanese government to rule the state shall be subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." After two days of debate about what this statement implied, Emperor Hirohito brushed the nuances in the text aside and declared that peace was preferable to destruction. He ordered the Japanese government to prepare a text accepting surrender. In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender. President Truman appointed MacArthur to head the Allied occupation of Japan as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers. For the site of Japan's formal surrender, Truman chose the USS Missouri, a battleship that had seen considerable action in the Pacific and was named after Truman's native state. MacArthur, instructed to preside over the surrender, held off the ceremony until September 2 in order to allow time for representatives of all the major Allied powers to arrive. On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature. Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed on behalf of the United Nations, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out the blood and carnage of the past." Ten more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds. The most devastating war in human history was over.
1969 – President Ho Chi Minh of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam dies of a heart attack in Hanoi. North Vietnamese officials announced his death the next day. Ho Chi Minh had been the heart and soul of Vietnamese communism since the earliest days of the movement. Born in 1890, he was the son of a Vietnamese government official who resigned in protest against French domination of his country. He was educated in Hue and as a young man worked as a cook on a French steamship, travelling to the United States, Africa, and then Europe, where he took work in London and Paris. In 1920, having accepted Marxist Leninism because of its anticolonial stance, he changed his name to Nguyen Ai Quoc ("Nguyen the Patriot") and helped found the French Communist Party. He traveled to Moscow in 1923 for study and training. In 1924, he went to Canton, China, to meet with Phan Boi Chau, one of the leading Vietnamese nationalists of the era. While in China, Ho played the leading role in the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1929. Ho spent most of the next 10 years writing and organizing, all while outside Vietnam. When the Japanese invaded Vietnam at the beginning of World War II, he changed his name to Ho Chi Minh ("Ho, the Bringer of Light") and moved his revolutionary group to the caves of Pac Bo in northern Vietnam. There, in May 1941, he organized the Viet Minh, a nationalist and communist organization created to mobilize the people. During the war, Ho and the Viet Minh entered into a loose alliance with the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS), helping to rescue downed American pilots. In 1945, when the Japanese surrendered, the Viet Minh seized power and proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam with Ho as president. However, the French, wanting to reimpose colonial rule, refused to grant independence to the Vietnamese. In late 1946, war broke out between the Viet Minh and the French. It lasted for eight bloody years, ending finally with the Viet Minh defeating the French at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. The subsequent Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into North and South Vietnam. Ho devoted his efforts to constructing a communist society in North Vietnam. In the early 1960s, a new war broke out in the South, where communist-led guerrillas mounted an insurgency against the U.S.-supported regime in Saigon. When the United States intervened militarily, Ho directed his forces in a protracted war against the Americans. During this period, Ho continued to provide inspirational leadership to his people, but as his health deteriorated, he increasingly assumed a more ceremonial role as policy was shaped by others. Still, he was the embodiment of the revolution and remained a communist icon after his death in 1969.
1972 – Phuc Yen, 10 miles north of Hanoi, and one of the largest air bases in North Vietnam, is smashed by U.S. fighter-bombers. During the attack, a MiG was shot down, bringing the total to 47 enemy aircraft shot down since the beginning of the North Vietnamese offensive. At this point in the war, 18 U.S. planes had been shot down by MiGs.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
HERRON, LEANDER
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 3d U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near Fort Dodge, Kans., 2 September 1868. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Bucks County, Pa. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: While detailed as mail courier from the fort, voluntarily went to the assistance of a party of 4 enlisted men, who were attacked by about 50 Indians at some distance from the fort and remained with them until the party was relieved.
LEE, DANIEL W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Troop A, 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. Place and date: Montreval, France, 2 September 1944. Entered service at: Alma, Ga. Born: 23 June 1919, Alma, Ga. G.O. No.: 14, 4 February 1946. Citation: 1st Lt. (then 2d Lt. ) Daniel W. Lee was leader of Headquarters Platoon, Troop A, 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized, at Montreval, France, on 2 September 1944, when the Germans mounted a strong counterattack, isolating the town and engaging its outnumbered defenders in a pitched battle. After the fight had raged for hours and our forces had withstood heavy shelling and armor-supported infantry attacks, 2d Lt. Lee organized a patrol to knock out mortars which were inflicting heavy casualties on the beleaguered reconnaissance troops. He led the small group to the edge of the town, sweeping enemy riflemen out of position on a ridge from which he observed 7 Germans manning 2 large mortars near an armored half-track about 100 yards down the reverse slope. Armed with a rifle and grenades, he left his men on the high ground and crawled to within 30 yards of the mortars, where the enemy discovered him and unleashed machine-pistol fire which shattered his right thigh. Scorning retreat, bleeding and suffering intense pain, he dragged himself relentlessly forward He killed 5 of the enemy with rifle fire and the others fled before he reached their position. Fired on by an armored car, he took cover behind the German half-track and there found a panzerfaust with which to neutralize this threat. Despite his wounds, he inched his way toward the car through withering machinegun fire, maneuvering into range, and blasted the vehicle with a round from the rocket launcher, forcing it to withdraw. Having cleared the slope of hostile troops, he struggle back to his men, where he collapsed from pain and loss of blood. 2d Lt. Lee's outstanding gallantry, willing risk of life, and extreme tenacity of purpose in coming to grips with the enemy, although suffering from grievous wounds, set an example of bravery and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 2, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
2 September
1910: The first American woman pilot, Blanche Scott, soloed in a Curtiss Pusher over the Lake Keuka Field of the Curtiss Company at Hammondsport, N. Y. (20) (24)
1916: FIRST PLANE-TO-PLANE RADIO TRANSMISSIONFlying at North Island in San Diego, Calif., Lt William A. Robertson and Cpl Albert D. Smith sent radiotelegraphic messages from their plane nearly 2 miles to Lt Herbert A. Dargue and Capt Clarence C. Culver in a second plane. (4) (24)
1933: Lt Cmdr Thomas G. W. Settle and Lt Charles H. Kendall set a 51-hour duration record for balloons in the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race at Chicago, Ill. Their record spanned several subclasses: A-7 (1,600 to 2,200 cubic meters), A-8 (2,200 to 3,000 cubic meters), and A-9 (3,000 to 4,000 cubic meters). (9) 1938: Through 6 September, Merrill Phoenix and Howard Allen flew a Piper Cub from Syracuse, N.Y., to a world light plane endurance record of 106 hours 2 minutes. (24)
1940: The US agreed to trade 50 old destroyers to Great Britain for use against the German U-boats. In return, the US received rights to air and naval bases at eight strategic points in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas. (21) (24)
1945: Japan formally surrendered to the US on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. This marked V-J Day and the end of World War II. (17)
1953: In a Piasecki H-21 Workhorse at Dayton, Ohio., Capt Russell M. Dobyns set a 22,110-foot altitude record of for helicopters. (24) Using an F-86D Sabre, Brig Gen Stanley Holtoner set a 690.118 MPH world speed record on a 100-kilometer, or 62-mile, closed course at Vandalia, Ohio. (24) Capt Harold E. Collins set a 707.876 MPH speed record in an F-86D Sabre over a 15-kilometer (9.3 miles) straight course at Vandalia, Ohio. (24)
1956: At the National Aircraft Show, Oklahoma City, Okla., an Army H-13 helicopter set an endurance record of 57 hours 40 minutes in the air. (24)
1960: The Strategic Air Command declared the 564th Strategic Missile Squadron and its Atlas D missiles operational. This made the 564th the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile squadron in the command. (6)
1966: Exercise BAR FROST. USAF, Army, and Marine Corps units from the US participated in this joint combined exercise with British and Norwegian forces in Norway. The US Strike Command's forces traveled to Norway aboard Tactical Air Command and Military Airlift Command aircraft. (16)
1969: The Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory used its Lunar Laser Observatory to bounce a laser signal off a retroflector placed on the moon by Apollo 11 astronauts.
1977: First class of women pilots graduated at Williams AFB, Ariz. Five of the 10 new pilots were assigned to the Military Airlift Command. (16) (18)
1980: The Air Weather Service established a detachment at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex., to advise space shuttle personnel of environmental issues and provide meteorological support for orbital test flights. (26)
1982: After an 11.4-hour nonstop flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., a B-1B prototype landed at Farnborough, England, for static display. This was the aircraft's first landing at a site other than Edwards. (3)
1984: Through 3 September, air rescue units in Korea saved 148 people from flood waters. (16)
1996: Operation DESERT STRIKE. Through 3 September, 1 KC-10 from McGuire AFB, N. J., and 8 KC-10s from Travis AFB, Calif., joined 14 KC-135s from Fairchild AFB, Wash., in refueling missions to support a US bombing raid on selected military targets in Iraq. The tankers made four critical refuelings to enable two 2d Bomb Wing B-52s to travel 13,683 miles roundtrip from Barksdale AFB, La., on a 34-hour nonstop mission. Additionally, a Travis C-5 airlifted some 75 personnel and support equipment from the US to Guam to support the operation. (18)
2005: HURRICANE KATRINA. Air National Guard airlifters flew 389 sorties to transport 4,409 passengers and 1,605 tons of cargo in one day supporting hurricane relief efforts. (32)
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