To All,
Good Sunday Morning October 13, 2024. I hope that you all have a great weekend. .
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 .
October 13
Today is the 249th birthday of the United States Navy.
1775 The Continental Congress votes for two vessels to be fitted out and armed with 10 carriage guns, a proportional number of swivel guns, and crews of 80 then sent out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This legislation, out of which the Continental Navy grew, constitutes the birth of the U.S. Navy.
1862 The Union yacht America seizes schooner David Crockett attempting to run the blockade out of Charleston with a cargo of turpentine and rosin.
1864 Union bark Braziliera and screw-steamer Mary Sanford, both with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, send out a boat expedition that frees a number of slaves from a plantation on White Oak Creek, Ga.
1941 The Bureau of Aeronautics directed the painting of all fleet aircraft non-specular light gray, except for surfaces seen from above, which were to be blue gray. Beginning in late December, this color scheme extended to shore-based airplanes, except trainers.
1944 TBF (VC 9) aircraft of escort carrier USS Card (CVE 11) sink the German submarine U-402, which had previously sunk 15 Allied vessels, including USS Cythera (PY 26).
Great story that has been around for a while. Not sure of the whole truth but entertaining and good for the birthday of the Navy from the days of wooden ships and iron men fortified by a few sips of rum.
LITTLE KNOWN TIDBIT OF NAVAL HISTORY... The U. S. S. Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers). However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, "On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum." Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each. By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky, and 38,600 gallons of water. GO NAVY
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Today in World History October 13
54 Nero succeeds his great uncle Claudius, who was murdered by his wife, as the new emperor of Rome.
1307 Members of the Knights of Templar are arrested throughout France, imprisoned and tortured by the order of King Philip the Fair of France. Thus began the story of Friday the 13th being bad luck ;Skip
1399 Henry IV of England is crowned.
1670 Virginia passes a law that blacks arriving in the colonies as Christians cannot be used as slaves.
1775 The Continental Congress authorizes construction of two warships, thus instituting an American naval force.
1776 Benedict Arnold is defeated at Lake Champlain.
1792 President George Washington lays the cornerstone for the White House.
1812 At the Battle of Queenston Heights, a Canadian and British army defeats the American who have tried to invade Canada.
1849 The California state constitution, which prohibits slavery, is signed in Monterey.
1903 Boston defeats Pittsburgh in baseball's first World Series.
1904 Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams is published.
1942 In the first of four attacks, two Japanese battleships sail down the slot and shell Henderson field on Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force.
1943 Italy declares war on Germany.
1944 Troops of the advancing Soviet Army occupy Riga, capital of Latvia.
1946 The Fourth Republic begins in France; will continue to 1958.
1958 First appearance of Paddington Bear, now a beloved icon of children's literature.
1967 First game of the fledgling American Basketball Association; Oakland Oaks beat Anaheim Amigos 134-129 in Oakland, Cal.
1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes Mountains, near the Argentina-Chile border; only 16 survivors (out of 45 people aboard) are rescued on Dec. 23.
1976 Dr. F.A. Murphy at Center for Disease Control obtains the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle.
1983 The Space Shuttle Challenger, carrying seven, the largest crew to date, lands safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
1990 The Lebanese Civil War ends when a Syrian attack removes Gen. Michel Aoun from power.
2010 After being underground for a record 69 days, all 33 miners trapped in a Copiapo, Chile, mine are rescued.
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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 12 October
12-Oct: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=3032
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
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. ROLLING THUNDER REMEMBERED Thanks to the Bear … Bear🇺🇸⚓️🐻
.
From the archives of rollingthunderremembered.com .
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..October 13 not a good pair of POWs
13-Oct: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1399
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.
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
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature.
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
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By: Kipp Hanley
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For your Sunday entertainment
Thanks to Dr. Rich
Thanks to Ed ...
I just happened on this one-day-old video while Youtube's AI recommendation algorithm highlighted videos related to my previous searches …
Enjoy!
As a kid I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Poor eyesight, miserable spatial awareness and an inability to understand even basic instructions knocked that idea on the head. But even as my career went down a different path, I retained an analyst's interest in aviation. In particular I like to try and understand the military-industrial systems in which aircraft were developed and the doctrines and concepts that governed their employment. This channel is a way of getting ideas and research from my head into some kind of organised form. I really hope you enjoy watching them as much as I enjoy making them. But please remember that this is my passion and my hobby. I am not a professional documentary maker and I am at best an amateur historian. Please forgive the inevitable mistakes!
… and many, many more.
https://www.youtube.com/@notapound/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=1
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Thanks to Carl
The Best Of Times
A great video!!
WHITE SPORT COATS & PINK CARNATIONS
This is such a great video. So, enjoy it. For those of you/us who experienced the iconic 1950's and early 1960's, a time that will never be repeated.
The cars are fantastic, the music was so wonderful, romantic, nostalgic, even magical. We were rich and did not know it! We were innocent and thought we were experienced.
We were very fortunate to have lived in such an era. Enjoy the past as revealed here. Who knows what the future will bring?
PS: The secret's out! They actually show where the gas filler is on a 56 Chevy!
http://biggeekdad.com/2013/01/the-best-of-times
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Thanks to History Facts
. Who Wrote the Constitution?
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In the spring and summer of 1787, a contingent of lawyers, businessmen, and other highly regarded state representatives met at the Pennsylvania State House to fine-tune the parameters of the shaky federal government that was established by the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first stab at a framework for government. Known as the Constitutional Convention, this meeting was perhaps the most momentous occasion in the short history of the United States following the end of the Revolutionary War. Even in the absence of founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were serving ambassadorships in Europe, the gathering boasted a formidable collection of the nation's leaders, including James Madison of Virginia, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and the elderly but still razor-sharp Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania.As described in The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, many of the 55 delegates carried with them a raft of ideas and some combination of deft oratory skills and a forceful personality to push others to action. As such, there was no shortage of passionate speeches and threats issued over clashing values, although it proved to be more of a challenge to find calmer voices willing to nudge the rest toward compromise, and an additional challenge to pull the oft-debated and revised proposals into a document with language that would stand the test of time.
James Madison's "Virginia Plan"
Four days after the Constitutional Convention officially commenced on May 25, 1787, Virginia Governor Edmund Randolph presented an outline of 15 draft resolutions under what became known as the "Virginia Plan." Largely authored by Madison, the plan proposed a three-branch federal government and two-house legislature, a system that heavily concentrated power in the latter and gave the national government the ability to veto state laws.The ambitious Virginia Plan touched off a series of debates within the convention, starting with how it represented a clean break from — as opposed to a means for improving — the system laid out by the Articles of Confederation. Even more contentious were the debates over how the states would be represented in Congress, and who had the power to choose the chief executive. Although an alliance of the smaller U.S. states later proposed a system that hewed closer to the Articles of Confederation, known as the "New Jersey Plan," the delegates ultimately rejected this version when the two plans were put to a vote in mid-July.
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The First Draft
Heading into an 11-day recess in late July, the delegates assigned the job of transcribing the first draft of the Constitution to a group known as the Committee of Detail, consisting of Nathaniel Gorham of Massachusetts, Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, James Wilson of Pennsylvania, Edmund Randolph of Virginia, and Chairman John Rutledge of South Carolina. The committee largely worked off the Virginia Plan, while also considering a separate draft previously completed by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, as well as portions of the Articles of Confederation and various state constitutions.With Randolph providing an initial outline before Wilson delivered a polished revision, the five-person committee tackled the difficult task of balancing state and federal powers, even as they took the bold step of introducing provisions that hadn't been formally discussed at the convention. Randolph's outline, for example, enumerated 18 specific powers accorded to Congress, while Wilson's version ensured that state constitutions could not supersede federal law.While the other delegates accepted most of the 23 articles delivered by the Committee of Detail, a few ideas spurred additional rounds of heated rhetoric. Among them was a provision that attempted to encode indefinite protection of the slave trade; while this never came to fruition, it exposed the divide between the convention's plantation owners and abolitionists, and rekindled the argument over how the Southern population of enslaved people affected representation in Congress.
The Man Who Wrote Most of the Final Language
After each of the 23 articles had finally been reviewed, a new five-person Committee of Style was tasked with incorporating the various resolutions that came out of the conventions into something close to a final product.Along with Chairman William Samuel Johnson of Connecticut and Rufus King of Massachusetts, the committee was marked by the notable presences of Madison, whose extensive work on creating and promoting this document earned him the moniker "Father of the Constitution," and New York's Alexander Hamilton, who missed much of the convention but was nonetheless admired for his formidable intellect.Yet it was Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania who wound up with the job of putting pen to paper, a weighty responsibility awarded on the basis of his writing talents, his ability to work quickly, and a willingness to accept the decisions of his colleagues even if they differed from his own impassioned views.Proving up to the task on all fronts, Morris streamlined the Committee of Detail's 23 articles into a concise list of seven over the course of about four days. He also wrote the celebrated preamble to the Constitution ("We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union..."), while largely avoiding the temptation of adding new material at this late stage of the game, save for one clause that prevented states from interfering with private contracts.
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The First Signatures
Presented to the rest of the delegates on September 12, 1787, Morris' draft underwent further discussion but minimal changes over the next few days. The final fix came courtesy of the Constitutional Convention's normally quiet president, George Washington, who sought one final tweak to the never-ending issue of congressional representation. Once the final draft was done, the official job of physically writing out the Constitution was undertaken by Jacob Shallus, assistant clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, who carefully engrossed nearly 4,500 words across four sheets of parchment.On September 17, 38 delegates scribbled their signatures on the freshly printed Constitution (with George Read signing for fellow Delawarian John Dickinson, who could not attend the signing ceremony due to illness). Although the launch of the new-and-improved federal government was not yet complete — nine states still needed to ratify the Constitution, with the Madison-authored Bill of Rights soon to follow — the tangible document stood as proof of the cooler heads that somehow shepherded four months of wildly divergent and oft-incongruent ideas into the law of the land.
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Thanks to History Facts
Before gas stations, drivers used to buy gas in a can from the pharmacy.
When the automobile was first taking off, gas pumps as we know them today didn't exist. In fact, the very first motor vehicles were powered not by gasoline, but rather by steam, electricity, or in some cases, kerosene. In the early days of oil drilling in the mid-1800s, when the first gas-powered cars were still decades away, oil companies were after kerosene for lamp fuel. Gasoline was just a byproduct of creating kerosene, and was often burned or discarded. The predecessor to the gas pump wasn't designed for cars; the first one was installed in a grocery store in 1885 to measure and dispense kerosene for lamps.
In the 1890s, car inventors realized gasoline made great motor fuel, and what was once disposable suddenly became valuable. In the early days of gas-powered vehicles, there weren't any gas stations to dispense the fuel, so customers bought gasoline the same way they bought kerosene: in a can at the pharmacy, blacksmith shop, or grocery store. Although its inventor, Sylvanus Freelove Bowser, didn't anticipate it at the time, the pump originally designed for kerosene ended up being extraordinarily useful for filling cars with gasoline. In 1905, Bowser added a long hose to one of his pumps so motorists could fill up curbside. While there's some disagreement on what the very first gas station was, the first drive-up service station is usually cited as the Gulf Refining Company pump that opened in downtown Pittsburgh in 1913.
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From the archives
October 13, 2023
13 Basic Facts to Defend Israel
. Thanks to Carl
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/10/13_basic_facts_to_defend_israel.html
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Why Are We So Scared of Friday the 13th?
From the Knights Templar to Norse mythology, here's how fear of the spooky date crept into popular culture
Kat Eschner, Updated by Sonja Anderson
Updated: October 11, 2023 | Originally Published: October 13, 2017
Another supposedly unlucky thing: black cats.
Americans have long harbored suspicion of the number 13. Some buildings "lack" a 13th floor—as in, they have one, but it's sneakily mislabeled in the elevator—and numerous airlines omit a 13th row in their planes. Fear of the number 13 is so prevalent that it has a scientific name: triskaidekaphobia. And at some point, this numeral-based uneasiness combined with a day of the week to create a new object of superstition: Friday the 13th.
In recent years, the date and its eerie reputation have pervaded popular culture. "Fear of Friday the 13th has spawned a horror movie franchise, its own hard-to-pronounce term … and a tradition of widespread paranoia when it rolls around each year," wrote Time's Melissa Chan in 2016. Fittingly, this superstition has mysterious origins. Here are some historic reasons for the day's spooky reputation.
The bad baker's dozen
The number 12 is a recurring motif in Western traditions. Our clocks have 12 hours, our years have 12 months, our feet span 12 inches and our Christmases last 12 days. Mathematically, 12 is one of the two "sublime numbers." As the standard "dozen," it also governs batches of muffins and cartons of eggs. Its neighbor, 13, primarily strikes us as odd because it lands just outside of our familiar mark.
In history and lore, 12-person feasts have turned sour with the addition of a 13th guest. An old Norse myth, for example, tells the story of a dinner party in Valhalla, the realm of the gods. As folklore historian Donald Dossey told National Geographic's John Roach in 2011, a dozen gods were eating together when an uninvited 13th guest arrived: Loki, the trickster. He used the venue to get up to his usual mischief, encouraging Hodor, the blind god of darkness, to shoot an arrow through Balder, god of joy. "Balder died, and the whole Earth got dark," Dossey said. "It was a bad, unlucky day."
A similar story appears in Christianity, at the famed Last Supper of Jesus Christ. That meal also featured 12 diners, until a last 13th guest arrived. It was Judas Iscariot, the archetypal traitor, who soon betrayed Jesus to the Romans.
Over the centuries, references to the number 13 slipped into popular culture. By the late 1800s, 13's reputation was so poor that one man decided to start advocating for it.
The vilified number had appeared throughout Captain William Fowler's life. He attended Public School Number 13 in Manhattan, belonged to 13 organizations, built 13 New York buildings, fought in 13 Civil War battles and performed several significant life events on the 13th day of the month. Proud to champion the widely disliked number, Fowler decided to start an anti-suspicion club in its honor. He held the Thirteen Club's first dinner on Friday, January 13, 1882.
The group would go on to gain numerous high-profile members, including four U.S. presidents: Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and Theodore Roosevelt. On the club's first anniversary, a scribe gaily reported, "Out of the entire roll of membership … whether they have participated or not at the banquet table, NOT A SINGLE MEMBER IS DEAD, or has even had a serious illness."
Thirteen's reputation can't take all the credit for triskaidekaphobia. Though most people around the world regard Friday positively—as the week's last workday or part of the weekend—it, too, has some ominous associations. After all, it was on a Friday, after Judas took the Last Supper's 13th seat, that Jesus was crucified.
Keeping with the biblical theme, the Book of Genesis contains other fateful Friday events. Eve supposedly gave Adam an apple from the Tree of Knowledge on a Friday, reports History.com, and Abel killed Cain on that same weekday.
"Cain Killing Abel," attributed to Francesco Maffei Honolulu Museum of Art via Wikimedia
References to Friday's unluckiness pop up as far back as the 14th century, in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, though without much explanation: "And on a Friday fell all this mischance," the poet and author wrote.
A star-crossed union: Friday and 13 come together
At some point, the sinister connotations of Friday and 13 united to produce the day we know and love to hate. Negative historical associations with Friday the 13th are sparse, but one significant group, today beloved by conspiracy theorists, did contribute to the legend of this unusually dark date.
The Knights Templar were a military order of medieval Christians. Author Dan Brown brought renewed attention to their story with his 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code.
The order's demise began on Friday, October 13, 1307, when some of its members were arrested after France's Philip IV accused them of heresy. (Really, the knights just had money and power, and the king didn't like that.) Over the coming days and weeks, many of the Templars were imprisoned, sparsely fed and brutally tortured. As historian Dan Jones writes in The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of the Knights Templar, methods of torment included shoulder dislocation, stretching on the rack, confinement to tiny pits and burning. Hundreds of Templars made false confessions.
Burning of Knights Templar
Friday and 13 were definitively linked in superstition by the early 1900s, when a novel titled (you guessed it) Friday the 13th debuted, noted Becky Little for National Geographic in 2016. Written by financier Thomas William Lawson, the 1907 book follows a stockbroker who incites a profit-making Wall Street panic on the day in question. The novel opens with the words "Friday, the 13th; I thought as much. … There will be hell, but I will see what I can do."
One of the 20th century's most influential musicians, Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg, had a special relationship with the date. Born on September 13, 1874, he spent his life in fear of the number 13, suffering "horrendous panic attacks" due to triskaidekaphobia, writes humorist Cynthia Ceilan in Thinning the Herd: Tales of the Weirdly Departed. Known for his 12-tone compositions, Schoenberg even skipped 13 when labeling measures, opting instead for "12a" between 12 and 14. It seems a cruel twist of fate, then, that he died at the age of 76, a number whose digits add up to 13, on Friday, July 13, 1951.
More recently, the infamous date was immortalized in the horror universe in 1980, when a movie called Friday the 13th arrived in theaters. It spawned one of the most successful scary movie franchises in cinema history, currently totaling 12 films.
The original is set at a summer camp on Crystal Lake, where a boy named Jason Voorhees drowned 20 years earlier. A group of camp counselors, including a young Kevin Bacon, arrive to prepare the site for its reopening. But one Friday the 13th—Jason's birthday—nearly all of them are murdered. The film's working title was A Long Night at Camp Blood, but director Sean S. Cunningham nixed it in favor of the snappy, familiar day of darkness. His movie gave rise to popular culture's most vivid spooky associations with Friday the 13th, as the ¬date thereafter recalled murder, gore and hockey-masked killers.
All in all, Friday the 13th's spooky reputation has been woven together from stray strands of history and religion. No statistics suggest it harbors more misfortune than other dates. But that hasn't stopped plenty of people from being consumed by triskaidekaphobia.
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This Day in U S Military History
13 October
1775 – Navy Founded. The Continental Congress voted to fit out two sailing vessels, armed with ten carriage guns, as well as swivel guns, and manned by crews of eighty, and to send them out on a cruise of three months to intercept transports carrying munitions and stores to the British army in America. This was the original legislation out of which the Continental Navy grew and as such constitutes the birth certificate of the navy. To understand the momentous significance of the decision to send two armed vessels to sea under the authority of the Continental Congress, we need to review the strategic situation in which it was made and to consider the political struggle that lay behind it. Americans first took up arms in the spring of 1775 not to sever their relationship with the king, but to defend their rights within the British Empire. By the autumn of 1775, the British North American colonies from Maine to Georgia were in open rebellion. Royal governments had been thrust out of many colonial capitals and revolutionary governments put in their places. The Continental Congress had assumed some of the responsibilities of a central government for the colonies, created a Continental Army, issued paper money for the support of the troops, and formed a committee to negotiate with foreign countries. Continental forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and launched an invasion of Canada. In October 1775 the British held superiority at sea, from which they threatened to stop up the colonies' trade and to wreak destruction on seaside settlements. In response a few of the states had commissioned small fleets of their own for defense of local waters. Congress had not yet authorized privateering. Some in Congress worried about pushing the armed struggle too far, hoping that reconciliation with the mother country was still possible. Yet, a small coterie of men in Congress had been advocating a Continental Navy from the outset of armed hostilities. Foremost among these men was John Adams, of Massachusetts. For months, he and a few others had been agitating in Congress for the establishment of an American fleet. They argued that a fleet would defend the seacoast towns, protect vital trade, retaliate against British raiders, and make it possible to seek out among neutral nations of the world the arms and stores that would make resistance possible. Still, the establishment of a navy seemed too bold a move for some of the timid men in Congress. Some southerners agreed that a fleet would protect and secure the trade of New England but denied that it would that of the southern colonies. Most of the delegates did not consider the break with England as final and feared that a navy implied sovereignty and independence. Others thought a navy a hasty and foolish challenge to the mightiest fleet the world had seen. The most the pro-navy men could do was to get Congress to urge each colony to fit out armed vessels for the protection of their coasts and harbors. Then, on 3 October, Rhode Island's delegates laid before Congress a bold resolution for the building and equipping of an American fleet, as soon as possible. When the motion came to the floor for debate, Samuel Chase, of Maryland, attacked it, saying it was "the maddest Idea in the World to think of building an American Fleet." Even pro-navy members found the proposal too vague. It lacked specifics and no one could tell how much it would cost. If Congress was yet unwilling to embrace the idea of establishing a navy as a permanent measure, it could be tempted by short-term opportunities. Fortuitously, on 5 October, Congress received intelligence of two English brigs, unarmed and without convoy, laden with munitions, leaving England bound for Quebec. Congress immediately appointed a committee to consider how to take advantage of this opportunity. Its members were all New Englanders and all ardent supporters of a navy. They recommended first that the governments of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut be asked to dispatch armed vessels to lay in wait to intercept the munitions ships; next they outlined a plan for the equipping by Congress of two armed vessels to cruise to the eastward to intercept any ships bearing supplies to the British army. Congress let this plan lie on the table until 13 October, when another fortuitous event occurred in favor of the naval movement. A letter from General Washington was read in Congress in which he reported that he had taken under his command, at Continental expense, three schooners to cruise off Massachusetts to intercept enemy supply ships. The commander in chief had preempted members of Congress reluctant to take the first step of fitting out warships under Continental authority. Since they already had armed vessels cruising in their name, it was not such a big step to approve two more. The committee's proposal, now appearing eminently reasonable to the reluctant members, was adopted. The Continental Navy grew into an important force. Within a few days, Congress established a Naval Committee charged with equipping a fleet. This committee directed the purchasing, outfitting, manning, and operations of the first ships of the new navy, drafted subsequent naval legislation, and prepared rules and regulations to govern the Continental Navy's conduct and internal administration. Over the course of the War of Independence, the Continental Navy sent to sea more than fifty armed vessels of various types. The navy's squadrons and cruisers seized enemy supplies and carried correspondence and diplomats to Europe, returning with needed munitions. They took nearly 200 British vessels as prizes, some off the British Isles themselves, contributing to the demoralization of the enemy and forcing the British to divert warships to protect convoys and trade routes. In addition, the navy provoked diplomatic crises that helped bring France into the war against Great Britain. The Continental Navy began the proud tradition carried on today by our United States Navy, and whose birthday we celebrate each year in October.
1942 – In the first of four attacks, two Japanese battleships sail down the slot and shelled Henderson field on Guadalcanal, in an unsuccessful effort to destroy the American Cactus Air Force. The bombers based there have become too effective and the Japanese dispatch the battleships Konga and Haruna to bombard the field. About 50 aircraft are destroyed in the attacks, more than half the field's complement.
1951 – Hill 851, the last peak comprising Heartbreak Ridge, was secured by the 23rd Regimental Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division after a fierce assault of bayonets, grenades and flame-throwers. Total allied casualties were over 3,700, more than 1,800 suffered by the 23rd Infantry RCT alone. Total enemy casualties were estimated 25,000. A total of 6,060 prisoners were taken.
1952 – In preparation for the Kojo amphibious demonstration, FEAF and USN aircraft hit enemy positions around Kojo, and USN surface craft shelled the beach area. After a respite of almost a year, the enemy, using small fabric-covered biplanes, hassled Cho-do and the Seoul area with "Bedcheck Charlie" raids.
2012 – Residents of Los Angeles watch in awe as U.S. Space Shuttle Endeavour inches through the city on a giant trolley, bound for a museum. Hundreds of trees in its path are chopped down
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
13 October
HYMER, SAMUEL
Rank and organization: Captain, Company D, 115th Illinois Infantry. Place and date: At Buzzard's Roost Gap, Ga., 13 October 1864. Entered service at: Rushville, Schuyler County, Ill. Born: 17 May 1829, Harrison County, Ind. Date of issue: 28 March 1896. Citation: With only 41 men under his command, defended and held a blockhouse against the attack of Hood's Division for nearly 10 hours, thus checking the advance of the enemy and insuring the safety of the balance of the regiment, as well as that of the 8th Kentucky Infantry, then stationed at Ringgold, Ga.
BURT, JAMES M.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, Company B, 66th Armored Regiment, 2d Armored Division. Place and date: Near Wurselen, Germany, 13 October 1944. Entered service at: Lee, Mass. Birth: Hinsdale, Mass. G.O. No.: 95, 30 October 1945. Citation: Capt. James M. Burt was in command of Company B, 66th Armored Regiment on the western outskirts of Wurselen, Germany, on 13 October 1944, when his organization participated in a coordinated infantry-tank attack destined to isolate the large German garrison which was tenaciously defending the city of Aachen. In the first day's action, when infantrymen ran into murderous small-arms and mortar fire, Capt. Burt dismounted from his tank about 200 yards to the rear and moved forward on foot beyond the infantry positions, where, as the enemy concentrated a tremendous volume of fire upon him, he calmly motioned his tanks into good firing positions. As our attack gained momentum, he climbed aboard his tank and directed the action from the rear deck, exposed to hostile volleys which finally wounded him painfully in the face and neck. He maintained his dangerous post despite pointblank self-propelled gunfire until friendly artillery knocked out these enemy weapons, and then proceeded to the advanced infantry scouts' positions to deploy his tanks for the defense of the gains which had been made. The next day, when the enemy counterattacked, he left cover and went 75 yards through heavy fire to assist the infantry battalion commander who was seriously wounded. For the next 8 days, through rainy, miserable weather and under constant, heavy shelling, Capt. Burt held the combined forces together, dominating and controlling the critical situation through the sheer force of his heroic example. To direct artillery fire, on 15 October, he took his tank 300 yards into the enemy lines, where he dismounted and remained for 1 hour giving accurate data to friendly gunners. Twice more that day he went into enemy territory under deadly fire on reconnaissance. In succeeding days he never faltered in his determination to defeat the strong German forces opposing him. Twice the tank in which he was riding was knocked out by enemy action, and each time he climbed aboard another vehicle and continued the fight. He took great risks to rescue wounded comrades and inflicted prodigious destruction on enemy personnel and materiel even though suffering from the wounds he received in the battle's opening phase. Capt. Burt's intrepidity and disregard of personal safety were so complete that his own men and the infantry who attached themselves to him were inspired to overcome the wretched and extremely hazardous conditions which accompanied one of the most bitter local actions of the war. The victory achieved closed the Aachen gap.
*OLSON, ARLO L.
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Army, 1 5th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Crossing of the Volturno River, Italy, 13 October 1943. Entered service at: Toronto, S. Dak. Birth: Greenville, lowa. G.O. No.: 71, 31 August 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. On 13 October 1943, when the drive across the Volturno River began, Capt. Olson and his company spearheaded the advance of the regiment through 30 miles of mountainous enemy territory in 13 days. Placing himself at the head of his men, Capt. Olson waded into the chest-deep water of the raging Volturno River and despite pointblank machine-gun fire aimed directly at him made his way to the opposite bank and threw 2 handgrenades into the gun position, killing the crew. When an enemy machinegun 150 yards distant opened fire on his company, Capt. Olson advanced upon the position in a slow, deliberate walk. Although 5 German soldiers threw handgrenades at him from a range of 5 yards, Capt. Olson dispatched them all, picked up a machine pistol and continued toward the enemy. Advancing to within 15 yards of the position he shot it out with the foe, killing 9 and seizing the post. Throughout the next 13 days Capt. Olson led combat patrols, acted as company No. 1 scout and maintained unbroken contact with the enemy. On 27 October 1943, Capt. Olson conducted a platoon in attack on a strongpoint, crawling to within 25 yards of the enemy and then charging the position. Despite continuous machinegun fire which barely missed him, Capt. Olson made his way to the gun and killed the crew with his pistol. When the men saw their leader make this desperate attack they followed him and overran the position. Continuing the advance, Capt. Olson led his company to the next objective at the summit of Monte San Nicola. Although the company to his right was forced to take cover from the furious automatic and small arms fire, which was directed upon him and his men with equal intensity, Capt. Olson waved his company into a skirmish line and despite the fire of a machinegun which singled him out as its sole target led the assault which drove the enemy away. While making a reconnaissance for defensive positions, Capt. Olson was fatally wounded. Ignoring his severe pain, this intrepid officer completed his reconnaissance, Supervised the location of his men in the best defense positions, refused medical aid until all of his men had been cared for, and died as he was being carried down the mountain.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 13, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
13 October
1905: The Aero Club of America (later National Aeronautic Association) formed by the men who set up the Automobile Club of America. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, an international body for certifying air records, formed in Paris a day earlier. (8: Oct 90)
1915: William B. Thompson, Harry Payne Whitney, and T. Frank Manville purchased the Wright Company from Orville Wright. (24)
1922: Lt T. J. Koenig won the Liberty Engine Builder"s Trophy Race in a Lepere-Liberty 400 with a speed of 128.8 MPH over a 257.7-mile course at the National Airplane races at Selfridge Field. (24)
1939: Evelyn Pinckert Kilgore of San Bernardino, Calif., became the first woman to receive an airplane instructor's license under the Civil Air Authority. (20) (24)
1952: KOREAN WAR. In preparation for the Kojo amphibious demonstration, Far East Air Forces and US Navy aircraft hit enemy positions around Kojo, and US Navy surface craft shelled the beach area. After a respite of almost a year, the enemy, using small fabric-covered biplanes, hassled Cho-do and the Seoul area with "Bedcheck Charlie" raids. (28) SAC submitted a requirement for an air-launched decoy missile to defeat an enemy's radar defenses. This action led to the development of the GAM-72A Quail missile. (6)
1959: Explorer VII, a US Army satellite launched by a Juno II rocket from Cape Canaveral, entered an orbit expected to give it a life of 20 years. (24) A B-47 shot the last of 12 Bold Orion air launched ballistic missiles 1,000 miles down the Atlantic Missile Range. This ended the demonstration program for the system that became the Skybolt. (6)
1960: Near Ascension Island, three black mice (Sally, Amy, and Moe) were recovered in good condition after surviving a 5,000-mile flight in a nosecone of an Atlas booster launched from Cape Canaveral. They reached 650 miles in altitude and 17,000 MPH. (24)
1961: Discoverer XXXII, a satellite to study space radiation, launched from Vandenberg AFB into a polar orbit. The Air Force successfully recovered its capsule in the air on 14 October after the eleventh orbit. The Thor booster fired successfully for the 100th time in this launching. (24)
1967: President Johnson presented the Harmon International Aviation Trophy to Astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr. (USN), Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. and Alvin S. White, former NAA test pilot. Lovell and Aldrin received the award for the successful Gemini XII mission on 11-15 November 1965 during which Aldrin spent 5 hours 28 minutes outside the spacecraft. White received his award for a Mach 3 flight in the XB-70. (5) (16)
1968: The last HU-16B Albatross amphibians in PACAF left Naha AB, leaving search and rescue units with no long-range capability. Replacement HH-3E rescue helicopters arrived at Naha in December. (17)
1970: Training started for 203 airmen to serve as air marshals on US commercial aircraft. (16)
1972: MACKAY TROPHY. An F-4 weapon system officer, Capt Jeffrey S. Feinstein, shot down his fifth MiG-21 to become the third and final ace of the Vietnam War. For this feat, Feinstein shared the 1972 Mackay Trophy with Captains Richard S. "Steve" Ritchie and Charles B. DeBellevue. (21) (26)
1984: President Reagan signed an executive order that created a National Commission on Space to prepare a 20-year agenda for a civilian space program. (AFNEWS, 19 Sep 97)
1999: The USAF terminated its Enhanced Flying Screening Program for new pilots and ended its use of the T-3A Firefly. At this time, there were 110 T-3As in the USAF inventory. (AFNEWS Article 991881, 13 Oct 99). The X-43A, a Hypersonic Flight Research Vehicle and the world's first hypersonic air-breathing free-flight vehicle, arrived at Edwards AFB for testing by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The X-43 involved Supersonic Combustible Ramjet, or "Scramjet," technology. A successful flight in 2001 would make it the first vehicle with a non-rocket engine to fly at hypersonic speeds. NASA planned three test flights, two at Mach 7 and one at Mach 10, over the Western Test Range off the coast of southern California. Micro Craft, Inc., of Tullahoma, Tenn., built the 12-foot-long, unpiloted vehicle for NASA's Hyper-X program. (AFNEWS Article 992034, 5 Nov 99)
2000: ATTACK ON THE USS COLE. On 12 October, a bomb-laden terrorist boat exploded against the port side of the destroyer USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 sailors. On 13 October, a C-17 aircrew from the 315 AW (Associate), Charleston AFB flew the remains of 5 sailors from Aden to Ramstein AB and then to the DoD's port mortuary at Dover AFB. On 14 October, another C-17 aircrew from Charleston took the remains of eight more sailors to Dover, while a C-141 brought the final four remains there on 22 October. (22) The F-22 No. 1 completed its final test flight at Edwards AFB. On 1 November, the USAF transferred it to Wright-Patterson AFB to become a live-fire testbed aircraft. (3)
2006: After graduating its last class of F-117A Nighthawk pilots, the 49 FW closed its formal training school at Holloman AFB. The action signaled the beginning of the F-117's phase out from the active USAF aircraft inventory. (USAF Aimpoints, "F-117 Pilot School Closes," 26 Oct 2006)
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