To All,
Good Friday Morning October 11, 2024. I hope that you all have a great weekend. The painters are coming this morning to scope things out. We still have a lot of work to do to move everything 10 feet away from the house all the way around. Some bushes are going to take a hit.
Regards,
skip
Make it a good Day
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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 .
October 11
1776 Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnolds 17-ship flotilla is defeated in three long and separate actions at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain as they engage 25 ships under Capt. Thomas Pringle. Though defeated, the battle delays the British advance and causes it to fall back into winter quarters. It is nearly a year before the advance is renewed.
1841 Abel P. Upshur becomes the 13th Secretary of the Navy, serving until July 1843. Among his achievements are the replacement of the old Board of Navy Commissioners with the bureau system, regularization of the officer corps, increased Navy appropriations, construction of new sailing and steam warships, and the establishment of the Naval Observatory and Hydrographic Office.
1933 The rigid airship Macon (ZRS 5) departs NAS Lakehurst, NJ, for her new home on the West Coast at NAS Sunnyvale, CA. The airship followed the Atlantic coast down to Macon, GA, and turned westward over the southern route. The craft arrived at Sunnyvale on the afternoon of 15 Oct., completing the 2,500-mile nonstop flight in approximately 70 hours.
1940 Rear Adm. Harold G. Bowen, the technical aid to the Secretary of the Navy, proposes a program for the development of radio ranging equipment (radar). This formed the basis for the Navy's prewar radar development effort, which included an airborne radar for surface search in addition to identification equipment and ship based radar.
1942 A cruiser-destroyer task force led by Rear Adm. Norman Scott intercepts a similar Japanese Navy unit. In the resulting Battle of Cape Esperance, the Japanese lose the heavy cruiser Furutaka and destroyer Fubuki, with two more destroyers sunk by American air attacks the next day. The destroyer Duncan (DD 485) is the only loss from Scott's Task Force 64. This victory is the U.S. Navy's first of the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1944 USS Tang (SS 306) sinks Japanese freighters Joshu Go and Oita Maru in the Formosa Strait. Also on this date, USS Trepang (SS 412), in an attack on a Japanese convoy south of Honshu, sinks landing ship T.105 about 105 miles southwest of Tokyo Bay.
1956 An R6D-1 from VR-6 on scheduled Military Air Transport Service flight from Lakenheath, England, to Lajes, Azores, disappears over the Atlantic with nine crewmembers and 50 passengers aboard. Ships and aircraft searched during the following 14 days and find debris from the Liftmaster, but fail to locate survivors.
1968 Apollo 7 is launched. The first U.S. three-man space mission is commanded by Navy Cmdr. Walter Schirra, Jr. Donn F. Eisele is the command module pilot and Marine Corps Maj. Ronnie Cunningham serves as lunar module pilot. The mission lasts 10 days and 20 hours with 163 orbits. Recovery is facilitated by HS-5 helicopters from USS Essex (CVS 9).
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Today in World History October 11
1531 The Catholics defeat the Protestants at Kappel during Switzerland's second civil war.
1540 Charles V of Milan puts his son Philip in control.
1727 George II of England crowned.
1795 In graditude for putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France's National Convention appoints Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army of the Interior.
1862 The Confederate Congress in Richmond passes a draft law allowing anyone owning 20 or more slaves to be exempt from military service. This law confirms many southerners opinion that they are in a 'rich man's war and a poor man's fight.'
1877 Outlaw Wild Bill Longley, who killed at least a dozen men, is hanged, but it took two tries; on the first try, the rope slipped and his knees drug the ground.
1899 South African Boers, settler from the Netherlands, declare war on Great Britain.
1906 San Francisco school board orders the segregation of Oriental schoolchildren, inciting Japanese outrage.
1942 In the Battle of Cape Esperance, near the Solomon Islands, U.S. cruisers and destroyers decisively defeat a Japanese task force in a night surface encounter.
1945 Negotiations between Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and Communist leader Mao Tse-tung break down. Nationalist and Communist troops are soon engaged in a civil war.
1950 The Federal Communications Commission authorizes the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) to begin commercial color TV broadcasts.
1962 Pope John XXIII opens the 21st Ecumenical Council (Vatican II) with a call for Christian unity. This is the largest gathering of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in history; among delegate-observers are representatives of major Protestant denominations, in itself a sign of sweeping change.
1968 Apollo 7, with three men aboard, is successfully launched from Cape Kennedy.
1972 A French mission in Vietnam is destroyed by a U.S. bombing raid.
1972 Race riot breaks out aboard carrier USS Kitty Hawk off Vietnam during Operation Linebacker.
1975 Saturday Night Live comedy-variety show premiers on NBC, with guest host comedian George Carlin and special guests Janis Ian, Andy Kaufman and Billy Preston; at this writing (2013) the show is still running.
1976 The so-called "Gang of Four," Chairman Mao Tse-tung's widow and three associates, are arrested in Peking, setting in motion an extended period of turmoil in the Chinese Communist Party.
1984 Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan, part of the crew of Space Shuttle Challenger, becomes the first American woman to walk in space.
From yesterday
1985 Navy F-14's launch from USS Saratoga (CV 60), intercept an Egyptian 737 airliner over international waters, and direct it to Sigonella, Sicily. The airliner was carrying four Middle Eastern terrorists who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro Oct. 7 and murdered a U.S. citizen. The hijackers are taken into custody.
Thanks to Pence……VAW-125 helped conduct the intercept of the Tomcats with the Egyptian Airliner!
1987 Operation Pawan by Indian Peace Keeping Force begins in Sri Lanka; thousands of Tamil citizens, along with hundreds of Tamil Tigers militants and Indian Army soldiers will die in the operation.
1991 Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas begin.
2000 NASA launches its 100th Space Shuttle mission.
2001 The Polaroid Corporation, which had provided shutterbugs with photo prints in minutes with its "instant cameras" since 1947, files for bankruptcy.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER (1965-1968)…
Thanks to the Bear
. From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
(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 10 and 11 October
10-Oct: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1985
11-Oct: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2362
.
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
. The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks and apologies to Newell. This got buried in a mountain of email in my In Box and I did not get back to it until I started ploughing through about 600 email from my trip.
skip
Family and Friends,
Broadcast- and print-news coverage of Johnny Cash's bronze statue being unveiled ceremonially in Washington D.C.'s Capitol Rotunda last week prompted personal memories of an extraordinary 1975 "THE MAN IN BLACK" event at the Naval War College. An event that I'll describe below in a trip down "MEMORY LANE."
But first, for those who may not have seen the news coverage honoring Johnny Cash, the following descriptions drawn from articles written by Audrey Gibbs, Kevin Freking and Andrew Demillo commend both the man and the ceremony. Also included are some familial details supplied by Johnny's eldest surviving nephew, CAPT Roy Cash, USN (Ret.).
JOHNNY CASH'S STATUE,
CEREMONIALLY UNVEILED
IN A U.S. CAPITOL ROTUNDA
Johnny Cash now stands among the most famous politicians, trailblazers and activists of American history, as he became the first professional musician to be honored with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.
At an unveiling ceremony in the United States Capitol Visitor Center, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, and Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined over 100 members of the Cash family to reveal sculpting-artist Kevin Kresse's bronze statue of Johnny Cash. The 8-foot-tall statue depicts the "I Walk the Line" singer with his head slightly downturned-forward, a Bible in one hand, and his other hand crossed over his chest, near his heart. His guitar is carried in his signature fashion, upside down, slung over his shoulder and across his back.
Known as the "The Man in Black," Cash was a deep-voiced storyteller who sang songs like "I Walk The Line," "Ring of Fire," "Jackson" and "A Boy Named Sue." So, the featured ceremonial-speakers shared their memories of a man who grew up on an Arkansas cotton farm, and turned his love of music into a decades-long career. A career that gave voice to the struggles and triumphs of everyday Americans.
CAPT Roy Cash, USN (Ret.), Johnny's nephew and eldest surviving Cash family member was unable to attend due to a conflicting-commitment. In Roy's stead, however, his son, RADM Carey Cash, USN, and his daughter, Kellye, a former 1987 Miss America, proudly attended. In addition, RADM Carey Cash, currently the Deputy/Chief of Navy Chaplains, delivered the Invocation Prayer to open the ceremony. His heartfelt message gave voice to the love that the entire extended Cash family affectionately holds for their "Man in Black."
Addressing the unveiling ceremony, House Speaker Mike Johnson said, "Some may ask: Why should a musician have a statue here in the halls of the great American republic? The answer is pretty simple. It's because America is about more than laws and politics. … And Johnny Cash is the perfect person to be honored in that way. He was a man who embodied the American spirit in a way that few could."
Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries commented that artistic creativity is an important part of the country's growth, and Cash's "substance" and "swagger" inspired generations of artists from every genre imaginable. Jeffries concluded his remarks with, "What a life, what a legend, what a legacy."
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she grew up in a musical family where, "After God and country, came Johnny Cash." She also mentioned how Cash had grappled with addiction, but that in his recovery he cleaved to a deep personal religious faith. She described the emergent man as a "hymn-singing Christian" who had struggled through difficult times. "When so much in today's world is fake," said Sanders, "Johnny Cash was very real."
Cash's daughter, Rosanne Cash, said her father would have viewed the statue "as the ultimate" honor in his life. "Words cannot come close to expressing our pride to see my dad accorded such a singular privilege, the first musician in history to be included in the Statuary Hall Collection," Rosanne Cash said on behalf of the whole Cash family. "I'm very careful not to put words in his mouth since his passing. But on this day, I can safely say that he would feel that of all the many honors and accolades he received in his lifetime, this is the ultimate."
Rosanne Cash concluded with, "This man was a living redemption story. He encountered darkness and met it with love."
Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas, a tiny town about 60 miles south of Little Rock. He died in 2003 at the age of 71. His achievements include 90 million records sold worldwide. His music spanned country, rock, blues, folk and gospel. He is among the few musical artists inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
When addressing my personal experience expressed below in MEMORY LANE: I neither seek nor intend any artificial "elevated status via association" by sharing my memories of a very special evening at the Naval War College in March, 1975.
In happenstance, a friend and fellow Navy fighter jock, LCDR Roy Cash and I were coincidently Naval War College classmates in the Naval Command and Staff curriculum. Roy would later be selected to command an east-coast Fighter Squadron, VF-31, which flew operationally from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. But today, while enjoying his retirement years, he is likely proudest of having subsequently earned a Bonus-Command tour: Commanding Officer of the Navy Fighter Weapons School. TOPGUN!
Newell
MEMORY LANE:
THE MAN IN BLACK,
JOHNNY CASH
AT THE NAVAL WAR COLLEGE
by Newell Tarrant
An officer's postgraduate schooling in the Navy was always a career highlight, because quality institutions like the Naval War College challenged us to think, rather than authoritatively telling us what to think. Consonant with that principle, the War College would invite a variety of guest lecturers to address the entire student body in the campus' spacious Spruance Auditorium every month or so. These prominent guest lecturers were drawn from diverse civil, military, political and social backgrounds. Moreover, they were encouraged to expertly and unabashedly address any subjects of their choosing. Their words, their experiences and their viewpoints always enriched both the faculty's and the student body's cultural exposure.
Words like "colorful" and "illuminating" became descriptive understatement to the candor and content of these extraordinary evening lectures. Spruance Auditorium would normally be filled, and the War College's enthusiasm for these intellectually stimulating evenings was palpable.
Which begs the questions: How did Johnny Cash, the "Man in Black", fall into this particular academic "…ring of fire."? And what made that Saint Patrick's Day, 1975, evening so magical?
If memory serves me correctly, the first answer is easy. Johnny Cash was invited. His nephew, LCDR Roy Cash, Jr. was currently a student in the college's Command and Staff curriculum, and, through the years, the Cash family remained close. So, when the Naval War College President, VADM Julian LeBourgeois extended an invitation, augmented surely by Roy Cash's expressed enthusiasm, Johnny accepted. He accepted, however, with one caveat: Johnny said that he wasn't an especially good lecturer, and that his music was his most earnest message.
So, Johnny Cash generously chose to bring along his entire touring road-show. His family, his fellow country-music stars, his band and his music would then constitute his guest-lecturer appearance. Even after many interim years, vivid memories remain of that event's "Man In Black" magic.
An unassuming low-profile and personal humility characterized Johnny's arrival day and his evening performance. Purposely, there was no publicity, no advance community-wide press coverage, no Newport, Rhode Island fanfare for his road-show's arrival on campus, no general public attendance, no seeking of a splashy spotlight, no "Look at me doing something nice for the Navy!" PR, and not even a keepsake professional filming or professional recording of the event. The evening show was performed solely for the Naval War College audience.
Johnny Cash sang, joked and spoke as if sharing a special informal evening with friends.
There were many musical highlights, some from his well-known hit songs, some from lesser-known works. Our appreciative applause and cheering were constant. But about halfway through his performance, he shared a genuine show-stopper for this special audience. A patriotic poem. A music-backed talking-piece that most of us had never heard before, called, "Ragged Old Flag".
Got something in my eye that night just listening to him quietly giving his poetry a voice.
And I wasn't alone.
Magic.
Stars-and-stripes magic.
Now freshly curious after all these interim years, I looked up the Johnny Cash lyrics that had so emotionally touched many of us back in 1975.
RAGGED OLD FLAG
I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there.
I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit,
And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it".
He said, "Have a seat.", and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is."
He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that ragged old flag."
You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
And It got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it, writing, "Say Can You See".
It got a bad rip in New Orleans,
With Packingham & Jackson tugging at its seams.
And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag.
On Flanders Field in World War One
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun.
She turned blood red in World War Two
She hung limp, and low, a time or two.
She was in Korea, and Vietnam,
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.
She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit wavin' back here at home.
In her own good land here, she's been abused.
She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused.
And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout out the land.
And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' thin,
But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through that fire before,
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.
So, we raise her up every morning,
And we take her down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.
On a second thought, I do like to brag
'Cause I'm mighty proud of that ragged old flag.
Johnny could have ended his show right then, and sent all of us home feeling proud of the uniforms we wore, the communities from which we came, and the country we served.
But he didn't. No. Not yet. Johnny Cash had more of his life that he wished to share. So, the somber Man in Black utterly transformed the auditorium's mood. He figuratively scrubbed away any of our emotional tears by launching next into a rousing medley of country-music hits. An energetic medley that concluded with a frenzied fiddle rendition of "Orange Blossom Special".
The rest of his show became a whirlwind of more songs, charming duets with his wife, self-effacing humor, surprising personal introspection, and him candidly addressing the life-altering redemption of his spiritual faith and familial love. Especially, the love of June Carter Cash.
More of the man's true character revealed.
More personal magic.
Later, when the last song was sung, and our lengthy appreciative cheering and applause finally ended, all of us stood there as if momentarily of one mind. We did not want the magic to end.
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
From the archives
Thanks to Dr.Rich and Cowboy for finding a URL
: GUARANTEE you'll be amazed
https://youtube.com/shorts/ajs1aaRYVxk?si=-zaSTNvryWQ7KIey
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
. Thanks to NHHC
75th Anniversary of World War II
1. Guadalcanal: Victory at Cape Esperance (Sort of), 11/12 October 1942
"Bakayaro!" ("dumb ass") were the last words uttered by Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto as he was mortally wounded by American shells crashing into the bridge of his flagship, the heavy cruiser Aoba, just before midnight on 11/12 October 1942. Goto believed to the end that he was being fired upon by another group of Japanese ships. So convinced was he that no American force would dare to challenge the Japanese at night after the debacle of Savo Island (9 August 1942) that he refused to believe his own lookouts, who reported American cruisers crossing his "T." His ship kept flashing her recognition lights and the signal "I am Aoba," guns trained fore and aft, loaded with shore bombardment ammunition, until it was too late. Goto had some reason for confidence. At the moment that Rear Admiral Norman Scott's cruiser-destroyer force (TF-64) opened fire, ten Allied cruisers had engaged the Japanese navy in surface combat since the start of the war and nine of them were on the bottom of the ocean, with no loss to the Japanese. In the Battle of Cape Esperance, off the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, TF-64 would put one Japanese heavy cruiser (Furutaka) and a destroyer (Fubuki) on the bottom of Ironbottom Sound, for the loss of one destroyer (USS Duncan—DD-485—48 crewmen lost) lost to both enemy and friendly fire during a heroic solo torpedo attack. The light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) was put out of action by a hit in her 6-inch magazine, and only through the discipline and heroism of the crew (107 of whom died) and a lot of luck, did the ship not suffer a catastrophic explosion.
The battle went wrong for the U.S. forces from the moment of Scott's first command, but it went worse for the Japanese. Scott's battle plan was a model of the KISS ("keep it simple, stupid") principle; nine ships in a single column, and his first order was a column turn to port to reverse course. Every ship in the formation received and understood the order except his own flagship, the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco (CA-38), fourth in line, which executed a simultaneous turn, throwing the rest of the formation into confusion. Fortunately, the ships behind San Francisco followed the lead of the flagship instead of the admiral's order. As a result, the four U.S. cruisers and two trailing destroyers crossed the Japanese "T." Had the formation executed the order correctly, the inadvertent result would have been that the Japanese could have crossed the American "T," which probably wouldn't have done the Japanese much good given Goto's mindset. Unfortunately, the three U.S. destroyers in the lead steamed off into the darkness, and Scott spent most of the rest of the battle trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to get his ships to cease fire because he was not certain they were not firing on their own destroyers (and sometimes they were: Both USS Farenholt (DD-491)—and Duncan were hit by friendly fire, Duncan seriously). Because of uncertainty regarding the location of his own lead destroyers, Scott withheld giving the order to open fire until the opposing forces were within such close range that the junior radar officer on USS Helena (CL-50) commented, "What are we going to do, board them?"
The Japanese, however, were pummeled by numerous U.S. shells, many from what the Japanese subsequently would call the "machine-gun cruisers," Boise and Helena (CL-50), each with 15 6-inch/47-caliber guns in five triple turrets, which could put out a prodigious rate of fire (and the near-continuous gun flashes also made for good targets). The Aoba was severely mauled and nearly sunk. The second heavy cruiser in the Japanese line, the Furutaka, seeing the flagship in severe distress, valiantly maneuvered to interpose herself between Aoba and the American cruisers, and for her valor was hit over 90 times and sunk. The third (and last) Japanese heavy cruiser, the Kinugasa, took a less gallant course and turned opposite to the American course and disappeared into the darkness, whereupon she succeeded in scoring several effective hits on several U.S. ships, including the one that nearly sank the Boise, before she beat a retreat with one destroyer and the mangled Aoba.
At a cost of 163 lives and one destroyer, Scott had inflicted some degree of revenge for the defeat at Savo Island (Aoba, Furutaka, and Kinugasa had comprised three of the five Japanese heavy cruisers at Savo). The results of the battle came as an enormous shock to the Japanese, which was followed by much recrimination; Goto was probably lucky he was dead. The fact that the Japanese were so uncharacteristically taken completely by surprise caused the U.S. to learn some bad lessons about Japanese night-fighting capability, as well as the proper use of radar and tactical formations (particularly torpedo tactics), which would cost the U.S. in later battles. As one U.S. officer at the battle would later comment, Cape Esperance was a three-way battle in which chance was the major victor. Nevertheless, the victory was a huge morale booster for U.S. naval forces in the vicinity of Guadalcanal and for the Marines ashore, which would be short-lived, however. (For more on the Battle of Cape Esperance, please see attachment H-011-1.)
nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
H-011-1: Guadalcanal: Victory at Cape Esperance (Sort of), 11/12 October 1942
H-Gram 011, Attachment 1
Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC
October 2017
Although Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, was rightly known for his even-tempered, gentlemanly leadership style, it is less well remembered that he had nerves of steel and ice water in his veins when the situation required, and he was single-minded in his drive to engage with and defeat the enemy. Not long after the debacle at the Battle of Savo Island, as U.S. Navy forces were licking their wounds and had essentially ceded the night waters around Guadalcanal to the Japanese, Nimitz issued the following directive on 19 August 1942:
"Suitable targets present themselves only rarely to our guns, bombs and torpedoes. On those rare occasions our tactics must be such that our objective will be gunned, bombed or torpedoed to destruction. Surely we will have losses—but we will also destroy ships and be that much nearer to the successful conclusion of the war. We cannot expect to inflict heavy losses on the enemy without ourselves accepting the risk of punishment. To win this war we must come to grips with the enemy. Courage, determination and action, will see us through."
Since Sailors on ships don't get to decide when to fight, Nimitz's message was clearly directed at the Commander of U.S. Forces in the South Pacific Area, Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley; the commander of the U.S. carrier task force (CTF-61), Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher; and the commander of the U.S. amphibious force (CTF-62), Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, none of whom appeared to "get" Nimitz's intent. Although Turner sent multiple risky supply runs into Guadalcanal, Fletcher spent most of his time out of range of Japanese land-based aviation (and too far to provide regular close support to Guadalcanal), while steaming around in submarine-infested waters. To be fair to both commanders, a severe shortage of fuel oil adversely affected their operations, but after the Battle of Savo Island (and a couple of subsequent smaller night battles that went badly for the U.S. forces) Ghormley considered it too dangerous to risk U.S. surface ships in night action around Guadalcanal to interdict the frequent runs by the Japanese "Tokyo Express" bringing reinforcements and supplies by destroyer to the Japanese army forces on Guadalcanal that were attempting to dislodge the U.S. Marines. Although the Japanese army repeatedly underestimated the force levels required to eject the Marines, nevertheless the increasing numbers and supplies made it increasingly more difficult for the Marines to hold the island in the face of repeated Japanese attacks.
After what both Nimitz and CNO King viewed as a lackluster performance at the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, and after he was slightly wounded when his flagship USS Saratoga (CV-3) was torpedoed and put out of action on 31 August, Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher was promoted to Vice Admiral and then sent back to the States, where he never held combat command again. His successor as commander of the carrier task force, Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, didn't last much longer, being relieved after USS Wasp (CV-7) was torpedoed and sunk on 15 September. Ghormley's days were numbered, too. After a major command conference held on Ghormley's flagship, USS Argonne (AG-31) at Noumea, French New Caledonia, on 28 September 1942, Nimitz's concern increased that Ghormley (a close friend) lacked the fortitude and aggressiveness needed for the job, as well as the physical stamina. Nimitz then flew to Guadalcanal (where Ghormley had not yet been) to see for himself the conditions on the ground. Nimitz clearly recognized the extreme challenges in getting sufficient supplies to the island, but also identified a long list of things that could be done—and that weren't being done—to improve the situation, which Nimitz then handed to Ghormley on his way back to Hawaii. In response to pressure from Nimitz, Ghormley issued an order on 5 October to Rear Admiral Norman Scott to take a task group of cruisers and destroyers into the approaches to Guadalcanal and interdict the next "Tokyo Express" run.
Fortuitously, Rear Admiral Scott, an aggressive commander in the mold Nimitz was looking for, had spent the previous several weeks in intensive night training, trying to make up for two previous decades in which the U.S. Navy mostly avoided such evolutions. In fact, U.S. doctrine specifically called for cruisers to avoid night fighting, and destroyers were to engage only when necessary (and withhold using their torpedoes for "high-value" units). Scott's efforts would get their test on the night of 11/12 October 1942.
The Japanese had quickly realized that any supply ships, even fast destroyer-transports, were at serious risk if they were caught during daylight by U.S. Marine and Navy aircraft flying from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. After a couple of night attacks by U.S. aircraft, the Japanese also determined that running the missions when the moon was full was a bad idea (reaching this conclusion at the same time that Brigadier General Roy Geiger, USMC, commander of U.S. aircraft on Guadalcanal, banned further nighttime attacks as too dangerous due to several operational losses). As a result, "Tokyo Express" runs were timed to go about every three days during the dark phase of the moon.
The Japanese planned for a major coordinated army and navy offensive to retake Guadalcanal timed for mid-October. To do so, the Japanese needed to get more reinforcements and at least some heavy artillery onto the island, and to suppress air operations from Henderson Field. So, the Japanese operation on 11/12 October was much more than the typical five- to six-destroyer "Tokyo Express" run. The Japanese sent two task groups: a reinforcement group and a bombardment group. For reasons that made sense only to the Japanese, the reinforcement group went first and the bombardment followed several hours later. The reinforcement group, consisting of the seaplane tenders Nisshin and Chitose (serving as transports, with cranes to get heavy artillery off) and six destroyers carrying hundreds of troops, was sighted by U.S. scout aircraft, although the seaplane tenders were misidentified as cruisers (so Rear Admiral Scott knew he was facing more than a normal "Tokyo Express"). Their speed was miscalculated so that they arrived off Guadalcanal faster than Scott expected, and before Scott arrived to interdict. So important did the Japanese consider this group that the last six Zeros providing air cover were ordered to stay on station until after nightfall and ditch when they ran out of gas; five of the pilots perished.
The Japanese bombardment group, under the command of Rear Admiral Aritomo Goto and consisting of three heavy cruisers (flagship Aoba, Furutaka, and Kinugasa, all among the victors at the Battle of Savo Island,) and two destroyers remained undetected by U.S. scout aircraft as they passed through a gauntlet of rain showers. When the reinforcement group arrived off Guadalcanal, they reported that there were no American ships present, which reinforced Goto's false sense of security.
In the meantime, Rear Admiral Scott's cruiser-destroyer force transited up the west coast of Guadalcanal, where it was sighted by the surprised Japanese submarine I-26, which submerged rapidly before issuing a contact report; when it resurfaced to do so it was too late. Scott's force consisted of nine ships in single line-ahead formation, with destroyers USS Farenholt (DD-491), USS Duncan (DD-485), and USS Laffey (DD-459) in the lead, followed by four cruisers: the flagship heavy cruiser USS San Francisco (CA-38), light cruiser USS Boise (CL-47) , heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City (CA-25), and light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50). Two destroyers, USS Buchanan (DD-484) and USS McCalla (DD-488), followed behind the cruisers.
Boise and Helena were each equipped with the newer SG radar (centimetric wave), which was much more accurate and less prone to false alarms than the older SC radars (metric-wave) on San Francisco and Salt Lake City (although the "older" SC radars were only a year old.) Scott had also been mistakenly informed that the Japanese had receivers that could detect the SC radar (they didn't), which would give the Japanese the edge on warning. As a result, Scott ordered the SC radars turned off so as not to give away his presence, an order that Salt Lake City either didn't get or ignored. Regardless, Scott did not have a radar picture onboard San Francisco until after the battle started. Scott had also previously ordered all four cruisers to offload all but one each of their catapult-launched scout float planes to avoid what happened at Savo Island, where burning float planes essentially divided the ships in two and served as beacons for additional Japanese fire. Scott ordered the remaining float planes to launch after dark to search for the Japanese. The plane from Salt Lake City caught fire and crashed immediately after launch, but fortunately the Japanese reinforcement group was already around the corner on the north side of Guadalcanal and did not see the flames—nor did the approaching bombardment group, which was in a rain squall. Helena didn't get the word to launch, and jettisoned her plane over the side. Boise's plane developed engine trouble and set down north of Guadalcanal, where it observed the rest of the battle from the water. At 2250, San Francisco's plane sighted the reinforcement group north of Guadalcanal and her report caused confusion because the Japanese were not expected to be there yet. The reinforcement group failed to report the presence of a scout plane to Rear Admiral Goto.
As Scott transited northward just west of the strait between Guadalcanal and Savo Island, the Japanese reinforcement group was already past him unseen to the east, while the Japanese bombardment group was approaching from the west—the direction from which Scott was expecting a Japanese force of some kind to come. The Japanese cruisers were in a line-ahead formation with Aoba in the lead, followed by Furutaka and Kinugasa, while the two destroyers screened slightly ahead on each flank. Right before Scott gave the order for his formation to conduct a column turn and reverse course to stay within the strait—and unbeknownst to him—radar on Helena and then Boise began detecting the Japanese ships approaching from the northwest. As related in the introduction, Scott's order immediately went wrong. Instead of following the lead destroyers into the column turn, flagship San Francisco immediately turned to port. Captain Edward J. "Mike" Moran on Boise, following behind San Francisco, had to make a quick decision: Either do what the admiral ordered and follow the destroyers into the column turn, or do what the flagship was doing and stay behind San Francisco into her turn. He chose the latter, as did the rest of the ships in the formation. Captain Robert Tobin, the destroyer squadron leader on Farenholt, then had to guess what he was supposed to do, so he led the three destroyers in a port turn to reverse course coming up alongside the U.S. cruisers, between them and the approaching Japanese, although Duncan spun out alone into the darkness.
San Francisco's mistake actually resulted in Scott being in position to cross Goto's "T." Had the U.S. ships correctly executed the column turn, which would have taken longer, the two forces would have approached each other on a perpendicular collision course, and Goto might even have crossed Scott's "T." Scott delayed opening fire while he tried to determine exactly where his lead destroyers were. The picture was further clouded as U.S. ships reported relative and true bearings of Japanese ships interchangeably. Goto remained convinced that the ships his lookouts were reporting ahead (initially at 11,000 yards) had to be the Japanese reinforcement group since American ships had not operated in force off Guadalcanal at night since their thrashing at Savo Island two months earlier. Goto was still not convinced even after his lookouts at 7,000 yards reported that the ships were the enemy, and he ordered his flagship Aoba to flash her recognition lights and signal her identity via flashing light. (For whatever reason, the U.S. ships did not seem to have seen this, apparently while staring at their radar scopes.)
As the two forces closed to within 4,500 yards, Captain Gilbert C. Hoover on Helena, convinced that the ships he was seeing to west were Japanese and not U.S. destroyers, requested permission to open fire. Hoover misinterpreted Scott's acknowledgment of the transmission as permission, and opened fire at 2345. Other U.S. ships followed suit. Scott then spent the next several minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to order a cease-fire. Farenholt, caught in the line of fire, received some damage from rounds impacting her masts and one in her hull that were intended for the Japanese cruisers beyond, while Laffey went to an emergency backing bell to get out of the line of fire.
Although Goto had ordered his ships to go to general quarters as a precaution, he was still caught by surprise and unprepared. His guns were still trained fore and aft, still loaded with antipersonnel bombardment rounds, when his flagship was savaged by repeated hits from the Americans. Furutaka turned to parallel in the same direction as the American course, valiantly interposing herself between the Americans and the Japanese flagship, and paid the price. Aoba would ultimately survive (with over 40 hits and 79 dead), but Furutaka would not. The Japanese destroyer on the starboard side of the Japanese formation, Fubuki, took a severe pounding and would sink too (Fubuki had been instrumental in sinking the heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30)—during the Battle of Sunda Strait on 1 March 1942). In a rare event by that time of the war, 111 of Fubuki's crew would be rescued by the Americans the next day and become prisoners of war.
As Aoba limped away under cover of a smoke screen, and Furutaka was smothered in U.S. shellfire (hit over 90 times, with 258 dead), the third cruiser in the Japanese line, Kinugasa, opted to turn parallel, but in the opposite direction as the American line, quickly taking her out of the close-range fight. Kinugasa then proceeded to give a demonstration of accurate Japanese nighttime shooting, and fired several torpedoes at Helena and Boise, which both ships successfully maneuvered to avoid. Kinugasa received only a few hits, much less than she inflicted. Kinugasa repeatedly straddled Boise forward, stressing her hull. Then, she hit and jammed Boise's number 1 turret and ignited a fire; as the crew of burning turret 1 attempted to abandon it, they were cut down by another hit. Another shell hit Boise below the waterline. This was a special Type 91 shell, which was specifically designed to do exactly what it did: hit short and hole the target below the waterline. In a freak combination, the hits were both devastating and saved the ship. The first hits resulted in a flash fire that incinerated the entire crews of turrets 1 and 2—over a hundred men—and threatened a magazine explosion. Only the discipline and training of Boise's crew in how they handled powder prevented an instant explosion. Captain Moran ordered the forward magazines flooded, but the men who would carry out that order were dead. However, the hole and cracks below the waterline flooded the magazine before it could detonate. Nevertheless, the fire was so great that observers on other ships assumed Boise was lost. Like Furutaka, Salt Lake City placed herself between the burning Boise and the Japanese, and took a couple hits from Kinugasa as a result.
As the battle was starting, the destroyer Duncan (second in line) had become separated from the other two leading destroyers, at which point she sighted Japanese ships, probably Kinugasa and a destroyer. Alone and lacking any orders, the skipper of Duncan, Lieutenant Commander Edmund B. Taylor, decided to conduct a solo torpedo attack. Just as Duncan was in position to launch her torpedoes, she took a devastating series of hits from both Japanese and American shells, which knocked out the gun director among other things, and one of her torpedoes actually launched into her own forward stack. With the flames forward out of control, the only means of escape from the advancing flames for the bridge crew was to jump directly into the water from the bridge. Meanwhile, the crew aft of the blaze continued to try to fight the fire, and fight the ship at the same time, guns still blazing. Eventually, however, the flames forced all the survivors into the water. The next day, the destroyer USS McCalla found the burned-out hull of Duncan still afloat, without her crew, and sent a boat with a damage-control party aboard to try to save the ship; they were driven off when it became apparent that the forward magazine was in danger of exploding. One hundred and ninety-five of Duncan's valiant crew were ultimately rescued, but 48 were lost. Lieutenant Commander Taylor would be awarded a Navy Cross. (Taylor's son, Captain Edmund R. Taylor Jr., would be killed in the same helicopter crash that took the life of Rear Admiral Rembrandt Robinson in the Gulf of Tonkin in May 1972.)
As the remains of Goto's force withdrew to the northwest, Scott initially turned to follow, but believing that they had sunk more Japanese ships than were actually involved and concerned over the fate of Boise and Duncan, he opted to withdraw to the south. (Japanese sinking claims were just as inflated.) The Japanese force received orders to turn around and attack, which they were in no condition to do, and after a brief period of advance to save face, Kinugasa turned about to retreat. The Japanese did send two destroyers to search for survivors of Furutaka, which were caught and bombed by U.S. aircraft at dawn, and one (Murakumo) was immobilized. Two more Japanese destroyers came to the rescue, and they were also bombed, sinking Natsugumo before Murakumo finally sank, too, bringing total Japanese losses in the battle to one heavy cruiser, three destroyers, and 565 men, for the loss of one U.S. destroyer and 163 American dead. The loss of a heavy cruiser in a night surface action was a profound shock to the Japanese, who had come to believe themselves to be nearly invincible at night. It was also a huge morale boost to the U.S. Navy, who had finally proved that the Japanese were not invincible at night.
Nevertheless, the Americans took away some bad lessons. Most importantly, because of the surprise, the Japanese were not able to mount an effective torpedo attack, so the U.S. remained oblivious to the real power and range of the Japanese Long Lance torpedo—and a line of nine American ships all in a column would have made a great target (especially with Boise's and Helena's near-continuous gunfire flashes acting as beacons) had the Japanese not been thrown into total chaos in the opening moments of the battle. The U.S. would use that formation again and suffer for it several times. (To be fair, though, Japanese Rear Admiral Mikawa had used a single column formation to great effect at Savo Island, because it was the most simple to control, and even he lost control of it.) Scott's choice of San Francisco as flagship (the "traditional" choice since she was the largest ship in the force), which did not have the most modern radar, would also be repeated in future battles. Nevertheless, numerous practical lessons were learned about communications, gunnery, and ship-handling necessary to fight at night. Despite the chaotic aspects of the battle, Scott was the first U.S. commander who could claim to have engaged a major Japanese surface force in battle (night or day) and won.
Meanwhile, however, the Japanese reinforcement group successfully completed its mission unmolested, putting ashore hundreds of Japanese troops, and four 15-cm (approximately 6-inch) artillery pieces, which were the first that could reach the western end of Henderson Field from Japanese lines. They opened fire the next night, presaging a far more devastating bombardment to follow.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in U S Military History
October 11
1939 – Albert Einstein wrote his famous letter to FDR about the potential of the atomic bomb. Einstein, a long time pacifist, was concerned that the Nazis would get the bomb first. In the letter, Einstein argued the scientific feasibility of atomic weapons, and urged the need for development of a US atomic program. The physicists Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller, who were profoundly disturbed by the lack of American atomic action, had enlisted the aid of the Nobel prize-winner Einstein in the summer of 1939, hoping that a letter from such a renowned scientist would persuade Roosevelt into action.
1942 – In the World War II Battle of Cape Esperance in the Solomon Islands, U.S. cruisers and destroyers decisively defeated a Japanese task force in a night surface encounter sinking two Japanese ships while losing only USS Duncan (DD-485).
1951 – A Marine battalion was flown by transport helicopters to a frontline combat position for the first time, when HMR-161 lifted the 3d Battalion, 7th Marines, and its equipment, during Operation Bumblebee, northeast of Yanggu, Korea. This is the first battalion sized combat helolift.
1952 – Two USAF 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing F-86 Sabre jet pilots shot down enemy aircraft. It was future ace Captain Clyde A. Curtin's first aerial victory of the war. Captain Clifford Jolley chalked up his seventh and final enemy aircraft kill. Four other MiGs were destroyed in a series of battles over northwest Korea.
1968 – Apollo 7, The first manned Apollo mission, was launched from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard. It made 163 orbits. The mission lasted 10 days and 20 hours. Recovery was by HS-5 helicopters from USS Essex (CVS-9).
1972 – A French mission in Vietnam was destroyed by a U.S. bombing raid.
2000 – The shuttle Discovery with a crew of 7 lifted off from Cape Canaveral for an 11-day mission to the International Space Station. It marked the shuttle fleet's 100th mission. STS-92 was a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) flown by Space Shuttle
2009 – Luis Armando Pena Soltren, a suspect wanted for the 1968 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 281, is surrendered after more than 40 years. Pan Am Flight 281 was a regularly scheduled Pan American World Airways flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was hijacked on November 24, 1968, by 4 men from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba. US Fighter jets followed plane to Cuba. Soltren, lived as a fugitive in Cuba. He pleaded guilty to the hijacking on March 18, 2010. On January 4, 2011 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, without the possibility of parole.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*BLACKWELL, ROBERT L.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company K, 119th Infantry, 30th Division. Place and date: Near St. Souplet, France, 11 October 1918. Entered service at: Hurdle Mills, N.C. Birth: Person County, N.C. G.O. No.: 13, W.D., 1919. Citation: When his platoon was almost surrounded by the enemy and his platoon commander asked for volunteers to carry a message calling for reinforcements, Pvt. Blackwell volunteered for this mission, well knowing the extreme danger connected with it. In attempting to get through the heavy shell and machinegun fire this gallant soldier was killed.
HILTON, RICHMOND H.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company M, 118th Infantry, 30th Division. Place and date: At Brancourt, France, 11 October 1918. Entered service at: Westville, S.C. Born: 8 October 1898, Westville, S.C. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919. Citation: While Sgt. Hilton's company was advancing through the village of Brancourt it was held up by intense enfilading fire from a machinegun. Discovering that this fire came from a machinegun nest among shell holes at the edge of the town, Sgt. Hilton, accompanied by a few other soldiers, but well in advance of them, pressed on toward this position, firing with his rifle until his ammunition was exhausted, and then with his pistol, killing 6 of the enemy and capturing 10. In the course of this daring exploit he received a wound from a bursting shell, which resulted in the loss of his arm.
KEARBY, NEEL E. (Air Mission)
Rank and organization: Colonel, U.S. Army Air Corps. Place and date: Near Wewak, New Guinea, 11 October 1943. Entered service at: Dallas, Tex. Birth: Wichita Falls, Tex. G.O. No.: 3, 6 January 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy, Col. Kearby volunteered to lead a flight of 4 fighters to reconnoiter the strongly defended enemy base at Wewak. Having observed enemy installations and reinforcements at 4 airfields, and secured important tactical information, he saw an enemy fighter below him, made a diving attack and shot it down in flames. The small formation then sighted approximately 12 enemy bombers accompanied by 36 fighters. Although his mission had been completed, his fuel was running low, and the numerical odds were 12 to 1, he gave the signal to attack. Diving into the midst of the enemy airplanes he shot down 3 in quick succession. Observing 1 of his comrades with 2 enemy fighters in pursuit, he destroyed both enemy aircraft. The enemy broke off in large numbers to make a multiple attack on his airplane but despite his peril he made one more pass before seeking cloud protection. Coming into the clear, he called his flight together and led them to a friendly base. Col. Kearby brought down 6 enemy aircraft in this action, undertaken with superb daring after his mission was completed.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 11, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
11 October
1910: Former President Theodore Roosevelt became the first President to fly in an aircraft, when he flew as a passenger with Archibald Hoxsey in a Wright biplane at St. Louis. (20) (21)
1927: While crossing the Atlantic, George Haldeman and Ruth Elder were forced to land in the ocean near a freighter. (9)
1945: The Army launched a US-made ballistic missile for the first time at White Sands Proving Ground. The Tiny Tim booster with a WAC Corporal rocket reached 43 miles in altitude. (21)
1947: The Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, a transport variant of the B-29 Superfortress, began service in ATC. It could be configured to transport materiel, troops, or casualties. (18)
1949: Bob Woodhouse and Woody Jongeward set a new endurance record of 1,124 hours 14 minutes in an Aeronca at Yuma. (24)
1957: A Navy A3D Skywarrior set a new speed record from San Francisco to Honolulu in 4 hours 29 minutes 55 seconds. (9) A Thor missile launched from Cape Canaveral became the second to be tested successfully in the program. It exceeded the designed 1,500-mile range and landed in the Atlantic Ocean some 2,000 miles away from the Cape. (24)
1958: The USAF launched Pioneer I, a lunar probe vehicle, to 80,000 miles in height before it fell back to earth on 13 October. (24)
1961: Maj Robert White flew the X-15 to 215,000 feet at Edwards AFB. PROJECT FARM GATE. President John F. Kennedy authorized a detachment from the 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron, later part of the 1st Air Commando Group, with 151 officers and enlisted men and eight T-28, four SC-47, and four RB-26 aircraft to deploy to South Vietnam as Project Farm Gate. The unit arrived in Vietnam on 14 November and flew its first T-28 strike mission from Bien Hoa on 26 December. The Farm Gate aircraft carried Vietnamese Air Force markings. The aircraft were used until 1 April 1964. (17)
1966: Lockheed Missiles and Space Company engineer Deke Sonnichsen claimed six world records when he flew a Quick Silver Libra II Piccard hot-air balloon to 21,250 feet. He then traveled from Tracy to Salida, Calif., and claimed altitude records in the AX-4, AX-5, AX-6, AX-7, and AX-8 categories, while setting a distance record of 20.24 miles. (9)
1968: APOLLO VII. The first manned mission in the lunar landing program launched from Kennedy Space Center Complex 34 on a Saturn IB booster. The crew, which included Maj Don F. Eisele, splashed down on 22 October after completing 163 revolutions of the earth. (16) (26)
1970: The USAF's first undergraduate helicopter pilot student entered training at Fort Wolters, Texas. The Army program was geared to train 225 Air Force pilots a year. (16) (26)
1972: In ceremonies at Littleton, Colo., Martin Marietta delivered the X-24B experimental lifting body to the USAF and NASA. 1984: MAC flew US Secret Service vehicles to Puerto Rico to protect Pope John Paul II during his visit to San Juan. (26)
1985: A 438 MAW C-141 Starlifter flew 11 American survivors from the hijacked Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro, from Cairo, Egypt to Newark Liberty International Airport, N. J. (16) (26)
1986: Through 16 October, the Air Force flew medicine and other supplies to El Salvador's capital city after an earthquake destroyed 96 percent of its buildings. (16) (26)
1990: Rockwell pilot Ken Dyson flew the X-31A Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability demonstrator for the first time above Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. (20)
1995: The F-111 Aardvark began flying to the aircraft graveyard at Davis Monthan AFB, Ariz., after a decision to retire all F-111s from service. (16)
1998: Operation PHOENIX DUKE. The violent repression of Albanians in Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia threatened to spark a war between Yugoslavia and the NATO states. AMC, ANG, and AFRC airlifters and tankers moved into position under this operation. Yugoslavia averted conflict by agreeing to cease operations against the Kosovar Albanians. Most of the command's assets returned to home station in early November. (22)
2001: The KC-135 manager at Wright-Patterson's Aeronautical Systems Center asked the AFFTC at Edwards AFB to accelerate testing of the C/KC-135 Multi-Point Refueling System (MPRS) to give the tankers a probe-and-drogue capability to refuel U.S. Navy and NATO aircraft. (3)
2007: Operation ENDURING FREEDOM. Two C-17 Globemaster III crews completed one of the largest single airdrops in Afghanistan since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. The 817th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron from Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, dropped more than 85,000 pounds in 62 bundles over the Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan to provide personnel on the ground supplies to operate with through the winter. Two C-17s replaced four C-130 Hercules aircraft on the mission. (AFNEWS, "C-17 Crews Make Record Airdrop," 16 Oct 2007.)
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SkipsList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skipslist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skipslist/CACTjsm1DFSDO3N0E%3DkmMqXDme%2BXy1PBChTRwiHZMJqC1LSw8vw%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.