TheList 7006

The List 7006     TGB

To All,

.Good Friday morning 15 November. .Well the weather guessers missed the boat again as it rained a bit late last night. I never saw a hint of rain in any of the forecasts. The skies are clearing up this morning and we are looking forward to cooler weather. By the way my weather report says there has been no precipitation in the last 24 hours and none scheduled. They do not even look out the window.

Fun classes last night we did some grappling and break falls. I feel it this morning.

The dog is getting better.

.I hope that you all have a great weekend

Make it a GREAT Day

Regards,

Skip

 

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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 84 H-Grams  .

..

 This day in Naval and Marine Corps History .

November 15

1836 Under the command of Lt. Henry H. Bell, the sloop-of-war Saint Louis conducts an exploratory expedition along the coast of Florida with four boats and 70 men.

1863 Fort Moultrie opens a heavy evening bombardment on Union Army positions at Cummings Point, S.C., which also results in the Union monitor Lehigh running aground. Still under Confederate fire in the morning, the monitor Nahant is able to release her. Five sailors from Lehigh receive Medals of Honor for their heroic line work that frees their ship.

1942 Navy SBDs (VS-10) and TBFs (VT-10), Marine Corps SBDs (VMSB-132), and Marine Corps and Army coast artillery and gunfire from USS Meade (DD 602) sink four Japanese transports off the northern coast of Guadalcanal.

1943 USS Crevalle (SS 291) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Kyokko Maru off San Antonio, Zambales province, Philippines.

1944 USS Frament (DE 677), while escorting captured Italian submarine Luigi Settembrini, collides with the sub 685 miles west of Gibraltar. Frament is damaged but Luigi Settembrini sinks. Frament rescues 14 survivors.

1944 USS Barbel (SS 316) attacks a Japanese convoy about 250 miles east of Tourane, French Indochina, sinks transports Misaki Maru and Sugiyama Maru, then escapes searches by minesweepers W.18 and W.20. USS Batfish (SS 310) sinks Japanese supply ship Kurasaki north-northwest of Cape Bolinao while USS Jack (SS 259) sinks transports Nichiel Maru and No.2 Yuzan Maru.

1960 The Polaris fleet ballistic missile weapon system becomes operational when USS George Washington (SSBN 598) gets underway with her principal armament of 16 Polaris A-1 missiles from NWS Charleston, SC.

1994 Cmdr. Donnie L. Cochran becomes the first African-American commanding officer of the Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels.

 

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THIS DAY IN WORLD HISTORY `15 NOVEMBER

November 15

1315    Swiss soldiers ambush and slaughter invading Austrians in the battle of Morgarten.

1533    The explorer Francisco Pizarro enters Cuzco, Peru.

1626    The Pilgrim Fathers, who have settled in New Plymouth, buy out their London investors.

1777    The Articles of Confederation, instituting perpetual union of the United States of America, are adopted by Congress.

1805    Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party reach the mouth of the Columbia River, completing their trek to the Pacific.

1806    Explorer Zebulon Pike discovers the Colorado Peak that bears his name, despite the fact that he didn't climb it.

1864    Union Major General William T. Sherman's troops set fires that destroy much of Atlanta's industrial district prior to beginning Sherman's March to the Sea.

1881    The American Federation of Labor is founded.

1909    R. Metrot takes off in a Voisin biplane from Algiers, making the first manned flight in Africa.

1917    Kerensky flees and Bolsheviks take command in Moscow.

1920    Forty-one nations open the first League of Nations session in Geneva..

1922    It is announced that Dr. Alexis Carrel has discovered white corpuscles.

1930    General strikes and riots paralyze Madrid, Spain.

1937    Eighteen lawsuits are brought against the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling for its dissolution.

1942     Having lost the second battleship in as many days, the Japanese navy withdraws from Guadalcanal. Following this three-day confrontation, the initiative at Guadalcanal, in the Solomons and the entire Pacific passes irretrievably from the Japanese to the Americans. [From MHQ—The Quarterly Journal of Military History

1946    The 17th Paris Air Show opens at the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysees. It is the first show of this kind since World War II.

1952    Newark Airport in New Jersey reopens after closing earlier in the year because of an increase in accidents.

1957    Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev asserts Soviet superiority in missiles, challenging the United States to a rocket-range shooting match.

1960    The first submarine with nuclear missiles, the USS George Washington, takes to sea from Charleston, South Carolina.

1962    Cuba threatens to down U.S. planes on reconnaissance flights over its territory.

1963    Argentina voids all foreign oil contracts.

1965    In the second day of combat, regiments of the 1st Cavalry Division battle on Landing Zones X-Ray against North Vietnamese forces in the Ia Drang Valley.

1969    A quarter of a million anti-Vietnam War demonstrators march in Washington, D.C.

1976    A Syrian peace force takes control of Beirut, Lebanon.

1984    Baby Fae dies 20 days after receiving a baboon heart transplant in Loma Linda, California.

1985    An Anglo-Irish Agreement is signed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.

1988    The Palestinian National Council proclaims an independent State of Palestine.

1990    The People's Republic of Bulgaria is replaced by a new republican government.

2007    Cyclone Sidr strikes Bangladesh, killing an estimated 5,000 people.

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Thanks to the Bear. .

OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER ….

. rollingthunderremembered.com .

 

Thanks to Micro

To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to the crew of the aircraft. ……Skip

 

From Vietnam Air Losses site for Thursday November 14

November 14: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2659

God Bless Joe

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 Service members 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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THE THIRD ONE FROM SHADOW

. SWEEP AROUND CAM LO MOUNTAIN

We broke camp the next morning and continued our sweep west. About two clicks from

the Rockpile, we turned north. The going was fairly easy to this point as I remember, in

that we'd really been following the road. Once we turned north however, it got a little

rougher. We had to cross a stream and went into the elephant grass, up the rolling hills. It

took us most of the day to get half way up, before we set in for the night. There was no

contact with the NVA to this point.

As I mentioned, I suspect this was Blackjack's first time in the field in ages. He was

visibly tired (we all were)… He was also not happy with our progress. I think the lineup

was as follows; Alpha or Bravo was the lead company, Delta was second, H&S was in the

middle and the other two companies were bringing up the rear.

The next day, right after the lead company reached the top of the elephant grass covered

hills… Blackjack called for a break. He also had me call for a helo in order to "recon" the

area ahead, before we moved into the canopy. A Huey was brought in and we flew up the

hills and looked at our planned route of march… He pointed out to me where we were

supposed to set in for the night and I immediately had doubts that we'd be able to cover

that much ground before dark.

Instead of going back to H&S… He had the helo drop us off on top of the highest hill…

where we promptly sat on our asses… and let the rest of the battalion walk through us.

That last hill was a ball buster…. And I felt it was in extremely bad form for him to

harass a couple of Marines for being out of shape… when we'd taken the easy way up.

Once the lead company got into the canopy… things started to unravel. They got lost.

Westerman got frustrated and ordered Delta to take the lead. Late in the afternoon,

Westerman calls for a second recon. The helo picks us up and we fly over the canopy

looking for the lead element. It was triple canopy and we couldn't see shit. We asked for

yellow smoke… and couldn't see that… finally someone climbed a tree, popped a smoke

and we located where they were. Westerman tells them they're not going in the right

direction toward the bivouac point, tells them to turn a little more north.

As we're circling, Blackjack spots a clearing about a mile north of Delta. He asks the

pilot if he can set us down there… The pilot said he didn't think it was a good idea, but

he'd go down and take a look. He hovers over this one small clearing and drops down.

Just as we touch down, I see the rotor blades whacking down some small trees… Jack

yelled, "Out"! He and I and his driver jump out and the Huey takes off before we even

clear the rotor area. We moved about twenty meters and stepped into the canopy.

In just twenty meters we went from bright sunlight to almost twilight… The hair went up

on the back of my neck… About ten more meters and I smell something… It wasn't

cordite… it wasn't gunsmoke… it was food! Warm food! I look off to my right and see a

campfire… smoldering. Suspended over it was a can, I assume what ever I smelled was

coming from it. We also saw a couple of crude hammocks, sleeping platforms and all

kinds of signs of human activity…. We'd been dropped off right next to a NVA

campsite… that I assume was occupied until just before we landed. (They probably didied

off to the north when the helo flew over their head.) As I was looking around… I

actually said out loud, "Oh shit".

I pointed this all out to Westerman and he immediately says, "Drop your packs….

Everything but the radio… Lets get out of here". With that, he reaches over and takes the

M-14 away from the driver and almost runs… toward where we last saw Delta. We

thundered into the jungle like a herd of elephants. As motivated and as hard as we

pushed… it still took about 15 minutes to hook up with Delta. After catching our breath,

Jack had a fire team go retrieve our packs… as we set off toward the bivouac point. We

didn't reach it until after dark.

We were there… But the rest of the battalion was not! They were strung out… God

knows… how far back into the jungle… In fact, not even Alpha Company was in contact

with our last man. After about an hour… we still hadn't seen anyone else from the rest of

the battalion. I believe it was about midnight, when Westerman calls me over and tells me

to back track down the trail… make contact and tell them how to get to the CP. I said,

"Yes Sir".

I'm about a 100 meters into the jungle when it becomes pitch ass black… Every once in a

while, a little moonlight would filter down just enough to make out the trail. As I moved

forward, it occurred to me that if the point man was as scared as I was, I stood a good

chance of getting shot by one of our own guys. About a mile into the trail, I came to a

little creek… I remembered that the trail was very steep from here… and decided that this

was a good place to stop. I moved off into the bush about ten feet and waited. I had a

little moonlight to see the trail by. After I'm sitting there for about ten minutes… I see…

before I hear (this guy was good)… the point man. He was stepping slowly and scanning

both left and right… I started to say something… but for some reason, I didn't move or

say anything (I was afraid if I startled this guy, he'd blow me away). Not until the fifth

guy came up did I finally say, "Keep moving, the CP is about a mile ahead, the trail is

clear… pass it on". This guy was not nearly as wired as the point and immediately turned

around and said behind him, "CP straight ahead… pass it on".

I finally felt sure enough to get back on the trail and caught up to the point just as he

reached the perimeter. I don't think we had all the stragglers come in until about 3 in the

morning.

The next day, we moved south a little, until we came to a river we had to cross. Jack pulls

his recon trick again and we got a helo ride to a road on the other side. We were to

rendezvous with the trucks there, for the ride back to Dong Ha.

Somehow Westerman had his jeep delivered too… He and I and the driver piled aboard

and we took off in front of the rest of the battalion for Dong Ha. Just as we get out of

sight, we go around a curve and these beautiful white parrots, with long white tails, start

flying right next to the jeep. Like I've had doves do on occasion. All of a sudden…

boom! Blackjack had his .45 out and was trying to shoot one… He missed… That just

about summed up the sweep to me.

Note:

I haven't dwelled a lot about the heat and how it sapped your strength… For what it's

worth, unless you've been to SE Asia… You can't have any concept of what it was like.

Take interior Louisiana in the summer and double it.

I also haven't talked about the elephant grass… How the shit would cut you and leave

what felt like a hundred paper cuts on your exposed skin… and that leeches by the

millions lived in the stuff and would get all over you if you didn't keep constantly

checking. That the grass was so high, it blocked any wind, making the heat that much

worse.

The canopy was equally difficult… fallen trees, steep terrain, visibility about 20 feet and

the ground always seemed muddy and slick… a perfect place for an ambush. I do

remember though, seeing one of the most beautiful hidden waterfalls I've ever seen in my

life there.

By the time we completed the sweep, my utes were torn to shreds… and I'd had it easy.

More tomorrow

 

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Thanks to YP

. RE: Flying along in flight, hiney, freezing off, of, Open cockpittery:

 

So, thoroughly gassed up, Puresome flew on to Missippi.  After 2:26 flight time, he was so cold he couldn't get out of the airplane and was sitting there on the ramp with nothing but sunglasses and bill of ball-cap sticking out of his deer-hunting outfit, trying to thaw out enough to unstrap.  Two good ole boys in a pick up roared up.  "Whut in the hale is

that you're flyin'? Where yew from?  What you gonna do with it?"  Youthly

kindly told them that it was on the eventual way to Rancho Delmundo, New

Mexico, was going to fly around and look at the spread.  "Don't even tell me

you don't deer hunt!"  Deer hunting got thoroughly discussed, and Puresome

finally got warm enough to get out and go see about some gas.  Inside there

was HOT COFFEE.  The kindly FBO operator volunteered to make another pot,

got Youthly some home-made German Chocolate Cake, and popped a bag of

popcorn for his frozen guest.  More deer hunting got discussed, including

proper garb for keeping warm feets, which two pairs of socks and Wellington

boots and not done for Puresome.  A corporate pilot volunteered that a

couple of trash bags duct-taped over the lower extremities might help.  Mr. FBO said,

"Hell, I got trash bags AND duct tape!"  So it was done.  Impeccably clad in

cammo deer hunting suit and trash bagged lower extremities, Puresome waddled

on out to Air Cam it on to Jefferson Parish airport in Louisiana.

 

YP

 

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 Thanks to History Facts

. 5 Facts About the Golden Age of Radio

.

It's easy to take for granted today, but the emergence of broadcast radio was a seismic shift in early 20th-century culture. Born out of ship-to-shore wireless telegraph communication at the turn of the 20th century, broadcast radio represented an entirely new pastime by the time it began to mature in the 1920s. The golden age of radio was the period from the 1920s to the 1950s when the medium was at its absolute peak in both program variety and popularity. Radio grew massively during this era: In 1922, Variety reported that the number of radio sets in use had reached 1 million. By 1947, a C.E. Hooper survey estimated that 82% of Americans were radio listeners.  In addition to the music, news, and sports programming that present-day listeners are familiar with, radio during this period included scripted dramas, action-adventure series such as The Lone Ranger, science fiction shows such as Flash Gordon, soap operas, comedies, and live reads of movie scripts. Major film stars including Orson Welles got their start in radio (Welles became a household name in the wake of the infamous panic sparked by his 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds), and correspondents such as Edward R. Murrow established the standard for broadcast journalism. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used the medium to regularly give informal talks, referred to as fireside chats, to Americans listening at home. But radio was also largely influenced by advertisers, who sometimes wielded control of programming right down to casting and the actual name of the program, resulting in some awkward-sounding show titles, such as The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour. The golden age of radio was a combination of highbrow and lowbrow content, offering both enduring cultural touchstones and popular ephemera — much like the television that eclipsed it. Read on for five more facts from this influential era.

 

The First Commercial Jingle Aired in 1926

The first known radio advertisement was a real-estate commercial for the Hawthorne Court Apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens, broadcast by New York station WEAF in August 1922. There's a bit of disagreement over whether the duration of the ad was 10 minutes or 15 minutes, but fortunately for listeners, it wasn't long before the ad format was pared down considerably. In 1926, when General Mills predecessor Washburn-Crosby was looking for a way to boost the languishing sales of Wheaties, it turned to its company-owned radio station in Minneapolis (WCCO) for what ended up being a much shorter form of commercial. WCCO head of publicity Earl Gammons wrote a song about the cereal called "Have You Tried Wheaties?" and Washburn-Crosby hired a barbershop quartet to sing it, thus creating the first radio jingle. Due to limited recording capabilities during the first three years of the ad campaign, the Wheaties Quartet (as they were known) performed the jingle live at the station every time the commercial aired. The decidedly manual campaign worked, as it led to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area comprising more than 60% of Wheaties' total sales. When the ad campaign was expanded nationally, sales of Wheaties increased throughout the country, establishing the effectiveness of the jingle and the influence of advertising on the medium. By 1948, American advertisers were spending more than $100 million per year (around $1.2 billion today) on radio commercials.

 

The "Big Three" Networks Were Born in Radio

In 1926, RCA, the Radio Corporation of America, bought the radio station WEAF from AT&T and added the infrastructure to its New York and New Jersey station, WJZ. The combined assets established RCA's broadcast network, dubbed the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC. On November 1 that same year, NBC officially became two networks: NBC Red (extending from WEAF) and NBC Blue (extending from WJZ). The upstart networks soon had a competitor. In 1927, frustrated talent agents Arthur Judson and George Coats resolved their inability to land a contract to get their clients work with NBC by forming their own radio network, United Independent Broadcasters. The network quickly changed its name to Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting Company after a merger with Columbia Phonograph and Records. Unfortunately for Judson and Coats, they were no more effective as would-be radio network moguls than they were as radio talent agents: The network operated at a loss, and it wasn't long before Judson sold it to a relative who had been an initial investor, William S. Paley. On January 29, 1929, Paley shortened the network's name to Columbia Broadcasting Company, or CBS. The same year, NBC established the country's first coast-to-coast radio infrastructure, but in 1934, antitrust litigation resulted in the FCC ordering the company to sell either the Red or Blue network. Years of appeals followed, finally resulting in NBC electing to sell the Blue network to Life Savers and Candy Company owner Edward J. Noble. Noble renamed it the American Broadcasting Company, and ABC was born.

 

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A Ventriloquist Show Was One of Radio's Biggest Hits

A form as visual and illusion-based as ventriloquism seems like a poor fit for an audio-only medium, but from 1937 to 1957, The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show was an American radio institution. It was the top-rated show for six years of its run, and in the top seven for all but its final five years. Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen started in vaudeville, and it was his guest appearance on Rudy Vallée's Royal Gelatin Hourin 1936 that introduced him to the radio audience. The appeal of the show was Bergen's vaudevillian skill at performing multiple comedic voices, and his quick and salacious wit as Charlie, roasting celebrity guests and using the dummy's nonhuman innocuousness to get away with censorship-pushing double-entendres. Though the show included a live studio audience, Bergen all but dropped the traditional ventriloquism requirement of not moving his lips while voicing Charlie. As he reasoned, "I played on radio for so many years… it was ridiculous to sacrifice diction for 13 million people when there were only 300 watching in the audience."

 

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FM Radio Almost Didn't Take Off

Inventor Edwin H. Armstrong earned prestige for creating the regenerative circuit in 1912, a modification to the vacuum tube that led to the dawn of modern radio. In the late 1920s, he set out to find a way to eliminate static from broadcasts, and received initial support in the endeavor from RCA President David Sarnoff. Sarnoff allowed Armstrong to use the RCA radio tower atop the Empire State Building to conduct experiments, and Armstrong agreed to give RCA first rights to the resulting product. When Armstrong demonstrated his static-free invention in 1935, what he unveiled was an entirely new broadcast technology using frequency modulation (FM) instead of the existing AM band. Sarnoff, however, had wanted an improvement to AM, and saw FM as a threat to both RCA's existing AM infrastructure and the emerging television technology RCA was investing in: He feared it would render AM equipment obsolete, and that FM radios would compromise the nascent market for television sets. Instead of embracing FM, RCA withdrew its support of Armstrong. With no support elsewhere in the broadcast industry, Armstrong set up his own fledgling FM station in hopes of promoting high fidelity radio, but he spent years in court mired in a byzantine tangle of regulatory and patent battles. FM eventually caught on, of course, but not until after radio's golden age had passed: The FCC finally authorized an FM broadcasting standard in 1961.

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The Last Shows of the Golden Age Ended in 1962

On September 30, 1962, the final two remaining scripted radio shows signed off for the last time on CBS. The detective series Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar ended a run that day that began in 1949, and mystery-drama Suspense ended a 20-year run that had begun on June 17, 1942. As evidenced by its longevity, Suspense was particularly venerable; it was a Peabody Award winner whose scripts drew from classical literature, stage plays and screenplays, and entirely original material. Suspense attracted top guest stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Bela Lugosi, Rosalind Russell, and James Stewart. CBS even produced a television adaptation that began airing in 1949, but it was canceled in 1954, outlasted by the original version on the radio.

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This Day in U S Military History  November 15

 

1806 – Approaching the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains during his second exploratory expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike spots a distant mountain peak that looks "like a small blue cloud." The mountain was later named Pike's Peak in his honor. Pike's explorations of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory of the United States began before the nation's first western explorers, Lewis and Clark, had returned from their own expedition up the Missouri River. Pike was more of a professional military man than either Lewis or Clark, and he was a smart man who had taught himself Spanish, French, mathematics, and elementary science. When the governor of Louisiana Territory requested a military expedition to explore the headwaters of the Mississippi, General James Wilkinson picked Pike to lead it. Although Pike's first western expedition was only moderately successful, Wilkinson picked him to lead a second mission in July 1806 to explore the headwaters of the Red and Arkansas Rivers. This route took Pike across present-day Kansas and into the high plains region that would later become the state of Colorado. When Pike first saw the peak that would later bear his name, he grossly underestimated its height and its distance, never having seen mountains the size of the Rockies. He told his men they should be able to walk to the peak, climb it, and return before dinner. Pike and his men struggled through snow and sub-zero temperatures before finally taking shelter in a cave for the night, without even having reached the base of the towering mountain. Pike later pronounced the peak impossible to scale. The remainder of Pike's expedition was equally trying. After attempting for several months to locate the Red River, Pike and his men became hopelessly lost. A troop of Spanish soldiers saved the mission when they arrested Pike and his men. The soldiers escorted them to Santa Fe, thus providing Pike with an invaluable tour of that strategically important region, courtesy of the Spanish military. After returning to the United States, Pike wrote a poorly organized account of his expedition that won him some fame, but little money. Still, in recognition of his bravery and leadership during the western expeditions, the army appointed him a brigadier general during the War of 1812. He was killed in an explosion during the April 1813 assault on Toronto.

 

1864 – Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines. For the next six weeks, Sherman's army destroyed most of Georgia before capturing the Confederate seaport of Savannah, Georgia. Sherman captured Atlanta in early September after a long summer campaign. He recognized that he was vulnerable in the city, however, as his supply lines stretched all the way from Nashville, Tennessee. Confederate raiders such as Nathan Bedford Forrest threatened to cut his lines, and Sherman had to commit thousands of troops to protect the railroads and rivers that carried provisions for his massive army. Sherman split his army, keeping 60,000 men and sending the rest back to Nashville with General George Thomas to deal with the remnants of General John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee, the force Sherman had defeated to take Atlanta. After hearing that President Lincoln had won reelection on November 8, Sherman ordered 2,500 light wagons loaded with supplies. Doctors checked each soldier for illness or injuries, and those who were deemed unfit were sent to Nashville. Sherman wrote to his general in chief, Ulysses S. Grant, that if he could march through Georgia it would be "proof positive that the North can prevail." He told Grant that he would not send couriers back, but to "trust the Richmond papers to keep you well advised." Sherman loaded the surplus supplies on trains and shipped them back to Nashville. On November 15, the army began to move, burning the industrial section of Atlanta before they left. One witness reported "immense and raging fires lighting up whole heavens … huge waves of fire roll up into the sky; presently the skeleton of great warehouses stand out in relief against sheets of roaring, blazing, furious flames." Sherman's famous destruction of Georgia had begun.

 

1906 – Curtis E. Le May, air force general and VP candidate, was born. Curtis Emerson Le May graduated from Ohio State University in 1928. He received his pilots wings at the Air Corps Flying School in 1929, the beginning of a thirty-eight year military career from a pilot in the elite First Pursuit Croup to Chief of Staff United States Air Force. "Curt" Le May was respected throughout his service for his vision, high order of discipline, and the professionalism he demanded of himself and his commands. From fighter pilot to bombardment pilot in the mid-1930's, he pioneered and became a leading expert in aerial celestial navigation. He proved his thesis on the 1938 B-17 Goodwill Flight to South America and the intercept of the ocean liner Rex, 800 miles off the U.S. coast in 1940. As Commander of the 305th Bombardment Group in England in 1942 and later as Commander of the 3rd Air Division, he developed the novel tactic of low altitude, non-evasive bombing. This was to become a major technique of World War II strategic air operations. In 1944, he assumed command of the struggling 20th Air Force B-29 operations in China. Later in 1945, he moved to the Marianas Islands in the Pacific to lead the 21st Air Force B-29's in low altitude operations in the final air assault on Japan. After the war, he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development and then Commander U.S. Air Forces in Europe where he organized the historic Berlin Airlift in 1947, employing air power for humanitarism. He led the Strategic Air Command from 1948 to 1957, when he became Vice Chief and then Chief of Staff of the Air Force in 1961. He led the Air Force through its transformation into an all jet force of great mobility, missiles, and high professionalism. General Le May retired from active service in 1965.

 

1960 – The first submarine with nuclear missiles, the USS George Washington, took to sea from Charleston, South Carolina.

 

2006 – The battle of Turki began after Lt. Col. Andrew Poppas, commander of the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry, a unit of the 82nd Airborne Division, and other soldiers flew over the area on a reconnaissance mission on November 12. From the helicopters, they spotted a white car covered by shrubbery and a hole in the ground that appeared to be a hiding place. The colonel dropped off an eight-man team and later sent other soldiers to sweep the area. Gunfire erupted on November 15 when C Troop paratroopers ran into an ambush near the village of Turki. Several insurgents feigned surrender to lure American troops out of their up-armored humvees and onto the ground. This tactic would be repeated to draw in members from A and B Troops in other locations. Officers said that in this battle, unlike the vast majority of engagements in Diyala, insurgents stood and fought, even deploying a platoon-sized unit that showed remarkable discipline and that one captain said was in "perfect military formation." Insurgents throughout Iraq usually avoid direct confrontation with the Americans, preferring to use hit-and-run tactics and melting away at the sight of American armored vehicles. The insurgents had built a labyrinth network of trenches in the farmland, with sleeping areas and significant weapons caches. Two anti-aircraft guns had been hidden away. The fighting eventually became so intense that the Americans called in airstrikes, provided by both helicopter gunships and F16s. American commanders said they called in 12 hours of airstrikes while soldiers shot their way through a reed-strewn network of canals in extremely close combat. The fighting lasted for more than 40 hours. High level terrorist leaders were thought to have been present. The stiff resistance from insurgent fighters was believed to have given these leaders time to escape. In the end the 5th Squadron managed to destroy the insurgent trench system established in the area. Six insurgent weapons caches were also uncovered during the battle. The caches included more than 400,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition, 15,000 rounds of heavy machine gun ammunition, five mortar bipods, three heavy machine guns, three anti-tank weapons, two recoilless rifles and numerous mortar rounds, grenades, flares and other artillery rounds. But many more insurgent training camps remain in the area. An American captain and a lieutenant, both West Point graduates, were killed in the battle along with 72 insurgents and 20 insurgents were captured.

 

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

 

BONG, RICHARD 1. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Army Air Corps. Place and date: Over Borneo and Leyte, 10 October to 15 November 1944. Entered service at: Poplar, Wis. Birth: Poplar, Wis. G.O. No.: 90, 8 December 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in the Southwest Pacific area from 10 October to 15 November 1944. Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Maj. Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down 8 enemy airplanes during this period.

 

BALDONADO, JOE R.

Rank and Organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company B, 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment.  Place and Date: November 15, 1950. Kangdong, Korea.  Born: August 28, 1930, Colorado.  Departed: Yes (11/25/1950).  Entered Service At: Santa Clara, CA. G.O. Number: .  Date of Issue: 03/18/2014.  Accredited To: .  Citation:  Baldonado distinguished himself on Nov. 25, 1950, while serving as a machine-gunner in the vicinity of Kangdong, Korea. Baldonado's platoon was occupying Hill 171 when the enemy attacked, attempting to take their position. Baldonado held an exposed position, cutting down wave after wave of enemy troops even as they targeted attacks on his position. During the final assault by the enemy, a grenade landed near Baldanado's gun, killing him instantly. His remains still have not been found.

 

*JORDAN, MACK A.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company K 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kumsong, Korea, 15 November 1951. Entered service at: Collins, Miss Born: 8 December 1928, Collins, Miss. G.O. No.: 3, 8 January 1953 Citation: Pfc. Jordan, a member of Company K, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. As a squad leader of the 3d Platoon, he was participating in a night attack on key terrain against a fanatical hostile force when the advance was halted by intense small-arms and automatic-weapons fire and a vicious barrage of handgrenades. Upon orders for the platoon to withdraw and reorganize, Pfc. Jordan voluntarily remained behind to provide covering fire. Crawling toward an enemy machine gun emplacement, he threw 3 grenades and neutralized the gun. He then rushed the position delivering a devastating hail of fire, killing several of the enemy and forcing the remainder to fall back to new positions. He courageously attempted to move forward to silence another machine gun but, before he could leave his position, the ruthless foe hurled explosives down the hill and in the ensuing blast both legs were severed. Despite mortal wounds, he continued to deliver deadly fire and held off the assailants until the platoon returned. Pfc. Jordan's unflinching courage and gallant self-sacrifice reflect lasting glory upon himself and uphold the noble traditions of the infantry and the military service.

 

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for November 15,  FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

15 November

1921: Capt Dale Mabry commanded the flight of the largest semirigid airship in existence to date, the airship Roma, during its initial flight at Langley Field. (24)

 

1939: The first night nonstop airmail pickups in history were made on the Pittsburg-Philadelphia route.

 

1940: The US Navy began air operations from Bermuda as an outgrowth of an earlier destroyer-bases deal between the US and Britain (See 2 September). (24)

 

1942: Lts Harold Comstock and Roger Dyar set a new speed record for planes when their P-47s power-dived at 725 MPH from 35,000 feet over an east coast base. (24) First women entered US AAF flight training. The Army designated the Women's Flying Training Detachment at the Houston Municipal Airport as the 319th Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment.

 

1946: OPERATIONS MOUNTAIN GOAT AND ALISO CANYON. TAC used P-80 jets for the first time to provide close air support to ground forces in joint Army-Navy-Air Force exercises at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Six tactical groups flew 3,337 sorties, while troop carrier groups moved 1,052 people and 245,370 pounds of cargo to and from the maneuver area. (24)

 

1949: The Ryan Aeronautical Company released data on the first air-to-air missile, the XAAM-A-1 Firebird, a 10-foot, rocket-powered projectile. (24)

 

1955: Exercise SAGEBRUSH. The largest joint exercise since World War II to date, started to test USAF and Army capabilities to perform combat missions. (16) (24)

 

1960: The first submarine equipped with Polaris missiles, the USS George Washington, left Charleston for stations within some 1,200 miles of Soviet targets. It carried 16 missiles. (24) NASA pilot Scott Crossfield flew the North American X-15 research aircraft with the XLR-99 "Big Engine" for the first time at Edwards AFB. He reached Mach 2.51 and an altitude of 81,200 feet at a 50 percent power setting. (24)

 

1961: The USAF activated 2d Advanced Echelon, Thirteenth Air Force, in Saigon, Vietnam. This event signaled the official entry of the USAF into the Vietnam War. (21)

 

1965: Through 17 November, Jack L. Martin and four others flew a Boeing 707/320C around the world from Honolulu, Hawaii. They returned in 62 hours 27 minutes and average 420.75 MPH for the flight. (9)

 

1966: The USAF selected Hughes Aircraft Company and North American Aviation Corporation to start contract definition phase of the Maverick (AGM-65A) air-to-surface missile program. (12)

 

1967: Maj Michael J. Adams died in an X-15 crash. He was the first fatality in the program since its inception in 1959. (16) (26)

 

1968: COMMANDO HUNT. The USAF launched Commando Hunt, an extensive interdiction campaign in Laos, to partially offset the bombing halt imposed on the 1 November. Concentrated in the "Barrel Roll" and "Steel Tiger" areas, Commando Hunt drastically increased the sorties flown in Southeast Asia from 4,764 tactical and 273 B-52 sorties in October to 12,821 tactical and 661 B-52 sorties in November. (17)

 

1973: Arab nations friendly to Egypt cut off the supply of oil to the nations supporting Israel in the October War. The action significantly affected PACAF, which received almost 90 percent of its fuel from the Mideast. PACAF imposed restrictions on JP-4 fueled aircraft and ceased all sorties except combat missions, Medevacs, and other essential missions. (17)

 

1974: Vandenberg AFB launched a Delta rocket with three satellites on board: a US weather satellite, the amateur radio operator's satellite OSCAR 7, and Spain's first satellite, INTASAT 1. (7)

 

1976: First high-speed anti-radiation missile successfully fired from a manned aircraft. (12)

 

1985: Through 18 November, MAC C-130s airlifted 50 tons of relief supplies and 32 tons of fuel for US Army search and rescue helicopters to Colombia after a volcano erupted there. (16) (18)

 

2000: At Edwards AFB, the X-32A began field carrier landing practice to demonstrate its flying and handling qualities for low-speed aircraft carrier approaches. Cmdr Philip "Rowdy" Yates, the lead test pilot for the Boeing JSF program, flew the first approaches to a simulated aircraft carrier deck outlined on a runway and equipped with a shipboard-type Fresnel lens. (3)

 

2002: An AFFTC team flew a NKC-135E Stratotanker, with NASA researchers, and 42 astrobiologists from seven countries on board, from Edwards AFB to Spain to collect data on the Leonid meteor shower. The NKC-135E had special instrumentation and 11 quartz-crystal windows to facilitate the observations. NASA's DC-8 Airborne Laboratory aircraft also flew missions with the NKC-135E. (3) Dana Purifoy flew NASA Dryden Flight Research Center's Active Aeroelastic Wing F/A-18 made its first checkout flight at Edwards AFB. The Navy fighter had lightweight flexible wings to study improved aircraft roll control by means of aerodynamically induced wing twist. In other words, the F/A-18 used a high-tech version of the Wright Brothers' wing-warping principle. NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards, and Boeing sponsored Aeroelastic Wing program. (3)

 

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 Thanks to Brett

Some food for thought.

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Is Obama connected to the Dem panic about Hegseth as Defense Secretary?

By Andrea Widburg

I am delighted with the roster of people Donald Trump will have at his side as he heads into the White House. (Some more than others, of course, but all are good.) Trump 2024 is a far cry from the naïve neophyte who entered the White House in 2017 when the Republican establishment treated him as if he had the plague and left him dependent on people who proved to be weak or damaging. I don't even consider this "Trump 2.0." This is MEGA MAGA TRUMP, and the administration comes in loaded for bear, ready to rip apart the entire Democrat government infrastructure that is smothering America.

What I love most of all is Trump's decision to appoint Pete Hegseth to act as his Defense Secretary. The military is both America's last and first line of defense against foreign enemies inside and outside of America's borders—and for decades now, the Democrats have been chipping away at it.

Democrats have demoralized the military by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam (we won the Tet offensive), Iraq (we'd won until Obama pulled us out, leaving a vacuum for ISIS and Iran), and Afghanistan (we were at least maintaining until Biden gave us the most humiliating retreat in American history).

Democrats have structurally weakened the military by focusing on climate change, not defense.

And Democrats have corrupted the military at a core level by bringing racial identity politics to what was once the best-integrated institution in America and by flooding it with people who have a deviant sexual agenda.

Pete Hegseth promises to stand against all of that. The worst thing I can say about Hegseth is that he's Ivy League educated, which is always something to worry about in those who graduated after 1984 when those institutions became ideologically corrupted. His B.A. from Princeton and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government make him suspect in my eyes.

However, everything else about the man offsets those concerns. A member of the Minnesota Army National Guard (just like Tim Walz), Hegseth actually served as an infantry officer in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He eventually received two Bronze Stars and a combat infantry badge. Since leaving active duty, Hegseth has worked hard to improve life for military veterans. He's also written multiple books with strong conservative themes, including The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free, which attacks the Democrats' relentless war on troops and the military itself.

Just to provide a contrast, remember that the left loved Obama's Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, who served two years in the Army (1964-1966), and then spent the rest of his life as a politician and Deep State operative.

Speaking of Panetta, Hegseth is rightly opposed to Panetta's greenlighting women in combat roles. As I wrote when Panetta made this decision, it's an appallingly bad idea:

Hegseth also has practical solutions to achieve good outcomes without exposing the troops, such as giving Israel free rein in fighting Iran:

You can see why leftists would hate Hegseth.

Some of the attacks are funny, as with Elizabeth Warren's completely clueless take on his qualifications:

Joe Walsh, a NeverTrumper, sounded equally foolish:

However, there's a frantic fury to the attacks against Hegseth that goes beyond the usual leftist animus toward anyone Trump would choose. They're throwing everything at him—such as the fact he'll be immune to lobbyist dollars (which Democrats clearly see as a negative):

Other attacks on Hegseth's qualifications came from Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) ("I'm shocked... [B]eing a serviceman does not make you qualified to lead the Department of Defense..."); actor Wendell Pierce ("Pete Hegseth is the epitome of white privilege"); and the inimitable Joy Reid (who laughs about a Fox weekend morning show host helping to fill Trump's "clown car"). The rank and file are even bringing up Hegseth's obvious joke about washing his hands (and I say that as someone who is very OCD about clean hands).

 Reid may be laughing, but, as I said, there's more than a whiff of panic here; there's a stench. Why would that be? I think it relates to the CNN report that the Pentagon is mapping out ways to stage what is effectively a coup against President Trump by classifying his orders as "unlawful" and refusing to follow them.

Were I the only one saying this, I'd take me with a grain of salt. However, Lee Smith, one of the smartest political analysts you'll find, thinks that a coup is on the table, and he traces this to Barack Obama's last hurrah.

In a must-read essay entitled "Obama Isn't Going Anywhere," Smith examines how Obama has been running a shadow presidency since he left the White House in January 2017. It was he who seeded the Russia Hoax, got Biden into the White House when Kamala, his preferred candidate, flamed out in 2015, controlled Biden's policy, and gave Biden the boot to give Kamala a second chance. Obama also refused to leave D.C., breaking a presidential tradition going back to George Washington.

Looking back, every one of Obama's efforts failed to cement his legacy, as evidenced by the fact that he could not keep Trump—the new, fully-loaded Trump—out of the White House.

This is where we begin to see what will be Obama's last hurrah: Getting our constitutional military, once the most trusted part of the American government, to undermine President Trump, effectively staging a military coup (something previously unimaginable in America). Or as Smith writes, "Now Obama is looking for another play, and it appears that it involves splitting the armed forces."

Smith analyzes in some detail what the CNN report has to say about how Pentagon officials are gaming ways to prevent Trump from exercising his constitutional powers as president and commander-in-chief of U.S. military forces. While I urge you to read the whole essay, it's the conclusion that may explain the panic about Pete:

Does the resistance really intend to move pieces in place to split the military or are they just bluffing to get Trump to back off on campaign promises that will topple two of its pillars? It might seem strange to threaten to destabilize the country on behalf of defense bureaucrats and illegal aliens, but the former constitute a crucial part of Obama's network, and giving the latter the vote, as Trump's landslide victory shows, may be the Democrats' best chance to win national elections in the near future. It's tempting to read the Brooks scenarios and the CNN report as resistance porn—a performance of the rituals and motions that this class has accustomed itself to over the course of the past eight years, as it now braces for the return of the president it did its best and failed to destroy.

Would Obama fracture the military to once again cripple Trump's term in office? The former president is in a decidedly weaker position and facing a battle-hardened Trump. Still, it would be reckless to assume the best from the man who already proved his willingness to weaponize the national security apparatus against his political opponent. The president-elect shouldn't take any chances.

Trump's appointment of Hegseth, a battle-hardened veteran and a trustworthy outsider, shows that Trump isn't taking any chances. I just hope that Hegseth is prepared for the Pentagon rebellion he may be facing and, if it occurs, moves swiftly and courageously to end even the whiff of sedition or a coup.

 

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