To All,
Good Thursday Morning September 26, 2024. Same weather different day. I am looking forward to joining my F-8 Crusader brothers for our 33rd Last Annual Crusader Ball LACB 33 tomorrow here in San Diego.
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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 Thanks to NHHC
September 26
1860 The sloop-of-war, USS Constellation captures the American slaver Cora with 705 slaves on board off the Congo River. The newly freed slaves are taken to Monrovia, Liberia.
1863 During the Civil War, the double-ender side-wheel steamer, USS Tioga captures Confederate steamer Herald near the Bahamas off the Florida Keys with cargo including cigars and sugar.
1918 After shepherding a convoy to the Irish Sea, while under the command of the U.S. Navy during World War I, Coast Guard cutter Tampa is steaming through the Bristol Channel when she is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-91. All those on board, 115 crew members and 16 passengers, are killed, resulting in the greatest combat-related loss of life suffered by the U.S. Naval forces during WWI.
1931 The keel to USS Ranger (CV 4) is laid at Newport News, Va. She is the first ship designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier.
1944 USS Pargo (SS 264) sinks the Japanese minelayer, Aotaka, off Borneo. Also on this date, USS McCoy Reynolds (DE 440) sinks Japanese submarine I-175 northeast of Palau.
1961 USNS Potomac (T AO 181) is damaged by fire and explosion while at Morehead City, N.C.
1963 First steam-eject launch of Polaris missile at sea occurs off Cape Canaveral, Fla., from USS Observation Island (EAG 154).
1987 USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) is commissioned at Port Everglades, Fla. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser is the ninth in her class and the second to be named after the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific.
1991 USNS Effective (T-AGOS 21) is christened and launched at Morgan City, La. The Military Sealift Command vessel is one of several ocean surveillance ships that conduct Surveillance Towed Array Sensory System (SURTASS).
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Today in World History September 26
1580 Sir Francis Drake returns to Plymouth, England, aboard the Golden Hind, after a 33-month voyage to circumnavigate the globe.
1777 The British army launches a major offensive, capturing Philadelphia.
1786 France and Britain sign a trade agreement in London.
1820 The legendary frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly at the Defiance, Mo., home of his son Nathan, at age 85.
1826 The Persian cavalry is routed by the Russians at the Battle of Ganja in the Russian Caucasus.
1829 Scotland Yard, the official British criminal investigation organization, is formed.
1864 General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his men assault a Federal garrison near Pulaski, Tennessee.
1901 Leon Czolgosz, who murdered President William McKinley, is sentenced to death..
1913 The first boat is raised in the locks of the Panama Canal.
1914 The Federal Trade Commission is established to foster competition by preventing monopolies in business.
1918 German Ace Ernst Udet shoots down two Allied planes, bringing his total for the war up to 62.
1937 Bessie Smith, known as the 'Empress of the Blues,' dies in a car crash in Mississippi.
1940 During the London Blitz, the underground Cabinet War Room suffers a hit when a bomb explodes on the Clive Steps.
1941 The U.S. Army establishes the Military Police Corps.
1950 General Douglas MacArthur's American X Corps, fresh from the Inchon landing, links up with the U.S. Eighth Army after its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter.
1955 The New York Stock Exchange suffers a $44 million loss.
1960 Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy participate in the first nationally televised debate between presidential candidates.
1961 Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan makes his New York singing debut at Gerde's Folk City.
1967 Hanoi rejects a U.S. peace proposal.
1969 The Beatles last album, Abbey Road, is released.
1972 Richard M. Nixon meets with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. President and a Japanese Monarch.
1977 Israel announces a cease-fire on Lebanese border.
1983 In the USSR Stanislav Petrov disobeys procedures and ignores electronic alarms indicating five incoming nuclear missiles, believing the US would launch more than five if it wanted to start a war. His decision prevented a retaliatory attack that would have begun a nuclear war between the superpowers..
1984 The UK agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.
1997 Two earthquakes strike Italy, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis to collapse, killing four people and destroying much of the cycle of frescoes depicting the saint's life.
2008 Yves Rossy, a Swiss pilot and inventor, is the first person to fly a jet-powered wing across the English Channel.
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ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Thanks to the Bear
I have provided access to archive entries covering Commando Hunt operations for the period November 1968 through mid-September 1969. These posts are permanently available at the following link.
https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/commando-hunt-post-list/
(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 26 September
26-Sep: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=3020
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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.From the archives "Öde to the DC-3 "
Thanks to Dr.Rich and Captain Billy
A tribute to the DC-3 Goony Bird. My first flight was in a Super Connie from La Guardia to Atlanta but my second was in a DC-3 from Atlanta to Biloxi Mississippi to meet my dad and begin our many moves from Air Force base to Air force base in the back of various Chevys. The Connie was smooth and quiet The DC-3 was loud and rattled and was bumpy and exciting….skip
It's too tough to die!
Now the DC3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules
'It groaned, it protested, it rattled, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death.
'Its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to earth with a great sigh of relief. But it flew and it flew and it flew.'
This is the memorable description by Captain Len Morgan, a former pilot with Braniff Airways, of the unique challenge of flying a Douglas DC-3.
It's carried more passengers than any plane in history, but - Now the DC-3 has been grounded by EU health and safety rules.
The DC-3 served in World War II , Korea and Vietnam, and was a favorite among pilots!
For more than 70 years, the aircraft known through a variety of nicknames --- the Doug, the Dizzy, Old Methuselah, the Gooney Bird, the Grand Old Lady --- but which to most of us is simply the Dakota --- has been the workhorse of the skies.
With its distinctive nose-up profile when on the ground and extraordinary capabilities in the air, it transformed passenger travel, and served in just about every military conflict from World War II onwards.
Now the Douglas DC-3 --- the most successful plane ever made, which first took to the skies just over 30 years after the Wright Brothers' historic first flight --- is to carry passengers in Britain for the last time.
Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee, the last two passenger-carrying Dakotas in the UK , are being forced into retirement because of --- yes, you've guessed it --- health & safety rules.
Their owner, Coventry-based Air Atlantique, has reluctantly decided it would be too expensive to fit the required emergency- escape slides and weather-radar systems required by new European rules for their 65-year-old planes, which served with the RAF during the war.
Mike Collett, the company's chairman, says: "We're very saddened."
The end of the passenger-carrying British Dakotas is a sad chapter in the story of the most remarkable aircraft ever built, surpassing all others in length of service, dependability and achievement.
It has been a luxury airliner, transport plane, bomber, fighter and flying hospital, and introduced millions of people to the concept of air travel.
It has flown more miles, broken more records, carried more passengers and cargo, accumulated more flying time and performed more 'impossible' feats than any other plane in history, even in these days of super-jumbos that can circle the world non-stop.
Indeed, at one point, 90 percent of the world's air traffic was operated by DC-3s.
More than 10,500 DC-3s have been built since the prototype was rolled out to astonished onlookers at Douglas's Santa Monica factory in 1935.
With its eagle beak, large square windows and sleek metal fuselage, it was luxurious beyond belief, in contrast to the wood-and-canvas bone shakers of the day, where passengers had to huddle under blankets against the cold.
Even in the 1930s, the early Dakotas had many of the comforts we take for granted today, like on-board loos and a galley that could prepare hot food.
Early menus included wild-rice pancakes with blueberry syrup, served on bone china with silver service.
For the first time, passengers were able to stand- up and walk- around while the plane was airborne.
But the design had one vital feature, ordered by pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, who was a director of TWA, which placed the first order for the plane.
The DC-3 should always, Lindbergh directed, be able to fly on one- engine.
Pilots have always loved it, not just because of its rugged reliability but because, with no computers on board, it is the epitome of 'flying by the seat- of- the- pants'.
One aviator memorably described the Dakota as a 'collection of parts flying in loose formation', and most reckon they can land it pretty well on a postage stamp.
Captain Len Morgan says: 'The Dakota could lift virtually any load strapped to its back and carry it anywhere and in any weather safely.'
It is the very human scale of the plane that has so endeared it to successive generations.
With no pressurization in the cabin, it flies low and slow.
And unlike modern jets, it's still possible to see the world go by from the cabin of a Dakota.
(The name, incidentally, is an acronym for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft.)
As a former Pan Am stewardess puts it: "From the windows, you seldom look upon a flat, hazy, distant surface to the world.
"Instead, you see the features of the earth --- curves of mountains, colours of lakes, cars moving on roads, ocean waves crashing on shores, and cloud formations as a sea of popcorn and powder puffs.'
But it is for heroic feats in military service that the legendary plane is most distinguished.
It played a major role in the invasion of Sicily, the D-Day landings, the Berlin Airlift, and the Korean & Vietnam wars, performing astonishing feats along the way.
When General Eisenhower was asked what he believed were the foundation stones for America's success in World War II, he named the bulldozer, the jeep, the half-ton truck, and the Dakota.
When the Burma Road was captured by the Japanese, and the only way to send supplies into China was over the mountains at 19,000 ft, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek said: 'Give me 50 DC-3s, and the Japs can have the Burma Road .'
In 1945, a Dakota broke the world record for a flight with an engine out of action, travelling for 1,100 miles from Pearl Harbor to San Diego, with just one- propeller working.
Another in RNZAF service lost a wing after colliding mid-air with a Lockheed bomber. Defying all the rules of aerodynamics, and with only a stub remaining, the plane landed, literally, on a wing and a prayer at Whenuapai Airbase.
Once, a Dakota pilot carrying paratroops across the Channel to France heard an enormous bang.
He went aft to find that half the plane had been blown away, including part of the rudder.
With engines still turning, he managed to skim the wave-tops before finally making it to safety.
Another wartime Dakota was rammed by a Japanese fighter that fell to earth, while the American crew returned home in their severely damaged --- but still airborne ---plane, and were given the distinction of 'downing an enemy aircraft'.
Another DC-3 was peppered with 3,000 bullets in the wings and fuselage by Japanese fighters.
It made it back to base, was repaired with canvas patches and glue, and then sent back into the air.
During the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, a Dakota crew managed to cram aboard 98 Vietnamese orphans, although the plane was supposed to carry no more than 30 passengers.
In addition to its rugged military service, it was the DC-3 which transformed commercial -passenger flying in the post-war years.
Easily converted to a passenger plane, it introduced the idea of affordable air travel to a world which had previously seen it as exclusively for the rich.
Flights across America could be completed in about 15 hours (with three stops for refueling), compared with the previous reliance on short hops in commuter aircraft during the day and train- travel overnight.
It made the world a smaller place, gave people the opportunity for the first time to see previously inaccessible destinations, and became a romantic symbol of travel.
The DC-3's record has not always been perfect.
After the war, military-surplus Dakotas were cheap, often poorly maintained, and pushed to the limit by their owners.
Accidents were frequent.
One of the most tragic happened in 1962, when Zulu Bravo, a Channel Airways flight from Jersey, slammed into a hillside on the Isle of Wight in thick fog.
All three crew and nine of the 14 passengers died, but the accident changed the course of aviation history.
The local radar, incredibly, had been switched off because it was a Sunday.
The national air safety rules were changed to ensure it never happened again.
'The DC-3 was, and is, unique,' wrote the novelist and aviation writer Ernest Gann, 'since no other flying machine has cruised every sky known to mankind, been so admired, cherished, glamorized, known the touch of so many pilots and sparked so many tributes.
"It was without question the most successful aircraft ever built, and even in this jet-age, it seems likely that the surviving DC-3s may fly about their business forever."
This may be no exaggeration. Next month, Romeo Alpha and Papa Yankee begin a farewell tour of Britain 's airports before carrying their final passengers at the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford on July 16
But after their retirement, there will still be Dakotas flying in the farthest corners of the world, kept going with love, dedication and sheer ingenuity.
Nearly three-quarters of a century after they first entered service, it's still possible to get a Dakota ride somewhere in the world.
I recently took a DC-3 into the heart of the Venezuelan jungle --- to the "Lost World" made famous in the novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It is one of the most remote regions on the planet --- where the venerable old planes have long been used because they can be manoeuvred like birds in the wild terrain.
It's a scary experience being strapped into a torn canvas chair, raked back at an alarming angle (walking along the aisle of a stationary Dakota is like climbing a steep hill) as you wait for take-off.
The engines spew smoke and oil as they shudder into life with what DC-3 fans describe as 'music', but to me sounded like the hammering of a thousand pneumatic-drills.
But soon you are skimming the legendary flat-topped mountains protruding from the jungle below, purring over wild rivers and the Angel Falls , the world's highest rapids.
Suddenly the ancient plane drops like a stone to a tiny landing strip just visible in the trees.
The pilot dodges bits of dismantled DC-3 engines scattered on the ground and avoids a stray dog as he touches down with scarcely a bump.
How did he do it without air traffic control and the minimum of navigational aids?
''C'est facile --- it's easy," he shrugged.
Today, many DC-3s live-on throughout the world as crop-sprayers, surveillance patrols, air freighters in forgotten African states, and even luxury executive transports.
One, owned by a Houston lumber company, had mink-covered door- knobs, while another belonging to a Texas rancher had sofas and reclining chairs upholstered with the skins of unborn calves..
In Jaipur, India, a Dakota is licensed for flying wedding ceremonies.
Even when they have ended their aerial lives, old Dakotas have become mobile homes, hamburger stands and hen houses.
One even serves as a football team changing room.
Clark Gable's private DC-3, which once ferried chums such as John and Bobby Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan, is in a theme park in San Marino .
But don't assume it won't run again. Some of the oldest hulks have been put back in the skies.
The ancient piston-engines are replaced by modern turboprops, and many a pilot of a modern jet has been astonished to find a Dakota alongside him on the climb away from the runway.
So what is the enduring secret of the DC-3?
David Egerton, professor of the history of science and technology at Imperial College , London , says we should rid our minds of the idea that the most recent inventions are always the best.
'The very fact that the DC-3 is still around and performing a useful role in the world is a powerful reminder that the latest and most expensive technology is not always the one that changes history,' he says.
It's long been an aviation axiom that 'the only replacement for the DC-3 is another DC-3'.
So it's fortunate that at least one seems likely to be around for a very long time to come.
In 1946, a DC-3 on a flight from Vienna to Pisa crashed into the top of the Rosenlaui Glacier in the Swiss Alps.
The aircraft was not damaged and all the passengers were rescued, but it quickly began to disappear as a blinding snowstorm raged.
Swiss engineers have calculated that it will take 600 years for it to slide- down inside the glacier and emerge at the bottom.
The most asinine ruling ever dreamed up by a nightmare bureaucracy!!! I especially appreciate the part requiring "escape slides". On it's belly, you can step down from the aircraft floor to the ground.
And the article left out the tale of the "DC-2-and-a-Half". After being shot-up by Japanese fighters, the damaged wing of a DC-3 was replaced with one from a DC-2. It was then loaded up with refugees, and flown to safety.
Sent from the apex of a Stearman loop
Just in from Buzz and Dr.Rich
Buzz Yep, but we didn't have a high blower for high altitude.
Only engine problems encountered was a prop governor cable break on takeoff and a short circuit in a generator turning it into a cutting torch (shut engine down) - both of these failures happened on the same day flying from Iwakuni, Japan to Osan, South Korea - actually we never landed at Osan - the generator failure occurred just east of the Korean ADIZ check in point (Whiting West). We had a 70 kt westerly headwind (winter) and approaching sunset flying over mountains, I decided to return to Iwakuni where our supply base (parts) was located.
Flying the "Hummer" from northern Japan , Korea, Taiwan and Philippines for a year wasn't a job, it was a gift. A piece of history - flew the last 2 C-117s at MCAS Yuma to the Boneyard in ''79
Buzz
Dr.Rich Wright 1820's like our T-28C?
On Sep 26, 2023, at 12:14 AM, Buzz Elliott
One of the C-117D's (Super DC-3) I got to fly based out of MCAS Futenma, Okinawa.
180KTAS @ 10,000ft burning 110gph with a full load of Marines supporting Team Spirit in 1978.
Wright 1820's - 54.5" MAP Take off, Climb at 45", cruise at 30" & 1800 RPM. The "Hummer" was a hoot to fly.
We could fly CH-46 rotor blades easily in the cabin - try that in a C-12 (Beech King Air)!
Buzz
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. Thanks to Carl
A long article but eye opening. Sounded more like witchdoctor medicine than anything else.
I read this because I had polio as a kid in Texas and spent a couple months in a hospital at Fort Hood . I was very fortunate and did not get it so bad that I needed an Iron Lung like others. All I remember was all the needles for blood draws every day. I got well and was able to start school in the Fall. Very Lucky. My mom signed me up for every polio vaccine shot that came out after that. By then I hated the sight of needles because a few months prior to that I was one of five kids bit by a big dog that got into our school yard on the base and bit five of us. I was the last one he got as I was climbing up a tall fence but not quite fast enough and he bit me on the butt. They could not find the dog and so we all got the rabies series It was awful and I still can't look at a needle…skip
How the Original Polio Vaccine Was Made
by Dr. Joseph Mercola September 26, 2023
Polio - Unconditional Surrender (1956) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXqA-xD1Ae0
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From the archives to good not to repeat
Flight Surgeon Humor
I was just about to hit send when this one showed up in my Inbox from Tweety
Some future flight surgeons and first year students at medical school were receiving their first anatomy class with a real dead human body.
They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet. The professor started the class by telling them, "In medicine, it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor. The first is that you should not be disgusted by anything involving the human body."
The Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the anus of the corpse, withdrew it and stuck it in his mouth.
"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students. The students initially freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the anus of the corpse and sucking on it.
When everyone finished, the Professor looked at the class and told them, "The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my middle finger but sucked on my index finger. Now learn to pay attention!"
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This Day in U S Military History
26 September
1918 – First Army of General John Pershing's American Expeditionary Force launches what becomes known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive to the north of Verdun. It is one of several attacks planned by France's Marshal Ferdinand Foch to drive the Germans from the defenses of the Hindenburg Line and precipitate their surrender. First Army, some one million men split between three corps, is holding a front of about 17 miles, extending from Forges on the Meuse River into the Argonne Forrest. To the left of the First Army is General H.J.E. Gouraud's French Fourth Army. The US forces are opposed by General Max von Gallwitz's Army Group, while the French are facing Crown Prince Frederick William's Army Group. The US and French deploy 37 divisions, while German forces comprise 24 divisions. The German's hold three strongly-fortified defensive lines in difficult terrain. The attack begins at 0525 hours and US forces make rapid gains, advancing 10 miles in the first five days of the offensive. French progress is more slow.
1918 – The Imperial German Navy's submarine UB-91 torpedoed and sank the CGC Tampa (formerly named Miami) which was escorting a convoy bound for Milford Haven, Wales, with all hands. 111 Coast Guardsmen, as well as four U.S. Navy, 11 Royal Navy, and five civilian passengers were killed. The bodies of two of the Coast Guard crew were recovered and buried in a small church yard in Lamphey, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Great Britain. One body was returned to the family in the U.S. after the war while one, who was never identified, is still interred in Lamphey's church yard to this day. Local residents care for the grave.
1931 – Keel laying at Newport News, VA of USS Ranger (CV-4), first ship designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier.
1972 – Richard M. Nixon met with Emperor Hirohito in Anchorage, Alaska, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. President and a Japanese Monarch.
1983 – Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averts a likely worldwide nuclear war by correctly identifying a report of an incoming nuclear missile as a computer error and not an American first strike. The nuclear early warning system of the Soviet Union twice reported the launch of American Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles from bases in the United States. These missile attack warnings were correctly identified as a false alarm by Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, an officer of the Soviet Air Defense Forces. This decision is seen as having prevented an erroneous data for decision about retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its NATO allies, which would have likely resulted in nuclear war and the potential deaths of millions of people. Investigation of the satellite warning system later confirmed that the system had malfunctioned.
1988 – In a farewell speech to the U.N. General Assembly, President Reagan saw "a moment for hope" for peace in the world, citing a new U.S.-Soviet treaty to sharply reduce nuclear arms due during the following year.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
OBREGON, EUGENE ARNOLD
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps, Company G, 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division (Rein.). Place and date: Seoul, Korea, 26 September 1950. Entered service at: Los Angeles, Calif. Born: 12 November 1930, Los Angeles, Calif. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with Company G, in action against enemy aggressor forces. While serving as an ammunition carrier of a machine gun squad in a marine rifle company which was temporarily pinned down by hostile fire, Pfc. Obregon observed a fellow marine fall wounded in the line of fire. Armed only with a pistol, he unhesitating dashed from his covered position to the side of the casualty. Firing his pistol with 1 hand as he ran, he grasped his comrade by the arm with his other hand and, despite the great peril to himself dragged him to the side of the road. Still under enemy fire, he was bandaging the man's wounds when hostile troops of approximately platoon strength began advancing toward his position. Quickly seizing the wounded marine's carbine, he placed his own body as a shield in front of him and lay there firing accurately and effectively into the hostile group until he himself was fatally wounded by enemy machine gun fire. By his courageous fighting spirit, fortitude, and loyal devotion to duty, Pfc. Obregon enabled his fellow marines to rescue the wounded man and aided essentially in repelling the attack, thereby sustaining and enhancing the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
CAPTAIN HUMBERT R. VERSACE
UNITED STATES ARMY: for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty: Captain Humbert R. Versace distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism during the period of 29 October 1963 to 26 September 1965, while serving as S-2 Advisor, Military Assistance Advisory Group, Detachment 52, Ca Mau, Republic of Vietnam. While accompanying a Civilian Irregular Defense Group patrol engaged in combat operations in Thoi Binh District, An Xuyen Province, Captain Versace and the patrol came under sudden and intense mortar, automatic weapons, and small arms fire from elements of a heavily armed enemy battalion. As the battle raged, Captain Versace, although severely wounded in the knee and back by hostile fire, fought valiantly and continued to engage enemy targets. Weakened by his wounds and fatigued by the fierce firefight, Captain Versace stubbornly resisted capture by the over-powering Viet Cong force with the last full measure of his strength and ammunition. Taken prisoner by the Viet Cong, he exemplified the tenets of the Code of Conduct from the time he entered into Prisoner of War status. Captain Versace assumed command of his fellow American soldiers, scorned the enemy's exhaustive interrogation and indoctrination efforts, and made three unsuccessful attempts to escape, despite his weakened condition which was brought about by his wounds and the extreme privation and hardships he was forced to endure. During his captivity, Captain Versace was segregated in an isolated prisoner of war cage, manacled in irons for prolonged periods of time, and placed on extremely reduced ration. The enemy was unable to break his indomitable will, his faith in God, and his trust in the United States of America. Captain Versace, an American fighting man who epitomized the principles of his country and the Code of Conduct, was executed by the Viet Cong on 26 September 1965. Captain Versace's gallant actions in close contact with an enemy force and unyielding courage and bravery while a prisoner of war are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect the utmost credit upon himself and the United States Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for September 26, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
26 September
1911: Lt Thomas DeWitt Milling flew a Burgess-Wright airplane to a world three-man duration record of 1 hour 54 minutes 42 seconds for flight with two passengers at Nassau Boulevard. He also won the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy for this flight. (24)
1918: Between this date and 1 October, Air Service pilots shot down 74 German aircraft and 15 balloons.
1931: The keel of the USS Ranger, the first aircraft carrier designed and built as such, laid at Newport News. (21)
1945: At NAS Anacostia, the Navy demonstrated the Ryan Fireball FR-1, the first partially jet-powered airplane designed for carriers. (24) The Army's WAC Corporal missile, built by Douglas Aircraft Company and Aerojet-General Corporation as the first liquid-propellant rocket, completed its first development flight at the White Sands Proving Grounds. It reached 43.5 miles in altitude. (6) (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. While U.S. military forces from Inchon and Pusan linked up near Osan, Fifth Air Force support allowed ROK troops to move northward along the east coast toward the 38th parallel. The 22 BG dispatched 20 B-29s to bomb a munitions factory at Haeju, destroying the power plant and five related buildings. Other 92 BG B-29s raided the Pujon hydroelectric plant near Hungnam. These attacks marked the end of the first strategic bombing campaign against N. Korea. (28)
1957: A Lockheed Super Starliner made the first nonstop flight from New York to Athens, covering the 5,000 miles in 14 hours 38 minutes.
1958: Following a course from Rapid City, S. Dak., over Douglas, Ariz., to Newberg, Oreg., two B-52 Stratofortresses from the 28 BMW at Ellsworth AFB set world speed records. Lt Col Victor L. Sandacz received credit for flying 10,000 kilometers in a closed circuit without payload at 560.7 MPH and 5,000 kilometers in a closed circuit without payload at 597.7 MPH. He also flew 6,233.98 miles for the longest nonrefueled jet bomber flight to date. (1) (9)
1959: TYPHOON VERA. After the typhoon devastated Nagoya, Japan, MATS C-124s delivered 200 tons of food, clothing, and other supplies to the area. (18)
1966: Pan American World Airway's fan-jet Falcon claimed a new speed record for business aircraft when it flew from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Lisbon, Portugal. It covered the 2,388 miles in 4 hours 38 minutes 28 seconds to break a 4-hour, 45-minute, 59.4-second record of 26 October 1963.
1971: Project STORMFURY. Air Weather Service WC-130s dropped silver iodide into Hurricane Ginger to decrease the storm's intensity. It was the service's first hurricane seeding attempt. (2)
1991: The USAF and MAC accepted the first C-27A Spartan, a militarized version of the Italian Alenia G222. The C-27As supported the United States Southern Command mission. (18)
1994: A B-52 Stratofortress, B-1 Lancer, and a KC-10 Extender landed at Poltava AB in the Ukraine. It was the first time that American bombers had landed there since World II. In World War II, Eighth Air Force B-17s used Poltava for shuttle bombing missions against Nazi targets in Germany and eastern Europe. (21)
2000: An F-15 team from Edwards AFB successfully used the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) to fire an AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile over the Navy's China Lake range. The missile destroyed an unmanned Phantom II drone. (3)
2001: Secretary of the Air Force James Roche announced the transition of the 116 BW (Georgia ANG) from B-1B to the E-8A JSTARS aircraft. The change would redesignate the unit as the 116th Air Control Wing. He also announced that the 184th Bomb Wing, Kansas ANG, would transition from B-1B bombers to KC-135 tankers and remain a unit equipped flying organization. (32)
On this day in Air Force History:
Moderated by Matt Jolley (national Edward R. Murrow Award winning feature reporter, and broadcaster).
Dale Stovall was raised in Toppenish, Washington. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1967 and became an All-American in track. He has an MBA from Auburn University and was a Senior Military Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. His senior leadership positions include Commander of the 1st Special Operations Wing at Hurlburt Field, Florida; Assistant Director of Plans and Programs at U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill AFB, Florida; and Vice Commander of the USAF Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field. His final assignment was as Deputy Commanding General of the Joint Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.
In 1972 then-Captain Stovall, flying an HH-53C Super Jolly Green helicopter, rescued 12 downed U.S. airmen from North Vietnam and Laos. His rescues include eight AC-130 gunship crew members (Spector 22) who were shot down in Laos; an OV-10 pilot, Captain Mahlon Long (Covey 219) in Laos; F-4 pilot Captain Lynn Aikman (Valent 04A) along with pararescueman SSgt Chuck McGrath in North Vietnam; and F-4 navigator Captain Roger Locher (Oyster 01B) who was downed in North Vietnam and evaded for 23 days.
General Stovall's combat decorations include the Air Force Cross (for the Locher rescue); Silver Star with OLC (Covey 219 and Valent 04A); Distinguished Flying Cross with OLC; and Air Medal with five OLCs. Stovall has over 4,000 hours in the C-141, MH/HH-53, T-39, H/M/A/C-130, UH-1N, HH-3, MH-60 and CASA 212.
https://www.afhistory.org/programs/war-stories/
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