TheList 7014

The List 7014     TGB

To All,

Good Saturday morning 23 November. I hope your weekend is off to a good start.

Lots to do around here to get ready for Thanksgiving next week. I did pick up a turkey the other day before the rush. But 50 bucks for a 20 pounder was sort of a shock. Looking forward to a few days off to get more things done around the house. The chicken that was injured died which puts us down to 5 hens and one mean old rooster.

The sun will be up in a few minutes and right now it looks clear but later this afternoon around 4 PM we going to be in for about 7 days of overcast skies and cooler temps.

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 23

1777—During the American Revolution, the Continental sloop Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, captures the British brig Mary. Two days later, Ranger captures the British brig George. The prizes are then sent to Bordeaux and Nantes.

1838—The sloop-of-war Vincennes reaches Rio de Janeiro enroute to the South Pacific during the U.S. Exploring Expedition.

1861—During the Civil War, CSS Sumter evades the steam sloop-of-war Iroquois at Martinique then steams for Europe.

1914—The title "Director of Naval Aeronautics" is established to designate the officer in charge of Naval Aviation. Capt. Mark L. Bristol, already serving in that capacity, is ordered to report to the Secretary of the Navy under the new title.

1940—President Franklin D. Roosevelt appoints Adm. William D. Leahy, then retired, as the U.S. Ambassador to Vichy France in an attempt to prevent the French fleet and naval bases from falling into German hands.

1944—USS Bang (SS 385) sinks Japanese freighter Sakae Maru and transport Amakusa Maru, USS Redfish (SS 395) sinks freighter Hozan Maru, and USS Picuda (SS 382) sinks freighters Fukuju Maru and Shuyo Maru. 

1981—In an effort to limit the amount of illegal drugs crossing into the US Border, the Navy is ordered to scout for drug smugglers. On this day in history the Mississippi (CGN 40) is the first U.S. Navy ship to assist in the seizure of drug smuggling vessel.

 

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This Day in World History

1248 The city of Seville, Spain, surrenders to Ferdinand III of Castile after a two-year siege.

1785 John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.

1863 Union forces win the Battle of Orchard Knob, Tennessee.

1863 The Battle of Chattanooga, one of the most decisive battles of the American Civil War, begins (also in Tennessee).

1903 Italian tenor Enrico Caruso makes his American debut in a Metropolitan Opera production of Verdi's Rigoletto.

1904 Russo-German talks break down because of Russia's insistence to consult France.

1909 The Wright brothers form a million-dollar corporation for the commercial manufacture of their airplanes.

1921 President Warren G. Harding signs the Willis Campell Act, better known as the anti-beer bill. It forbids doctors to prescribe beer or liquor for medicinal purposes.

1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt recalls the American ambassador from Havana, Cuba, and urges stability in the island nation.

1934 The United States and Great Britain agree on a 5-5-3 naval ratio, with both countries allowed to build five million tons of naval ships while Japan can only build three. Japan will denounce the treaty.

1936 The United States abandons the American embassy in Madrid, Spain, which is engulfed by civil war.

1941 U.S. troops move into Dutch Guiana to guard the bauxite mines.

1942 The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.

1943 U.S. Marines declare the island of Tarawa secure.

1945 Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.

1953 North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.

1968 Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.

1980 In Europe's biggest earthquake since 1915, 3,000 people are killed in Italy.

1981 US Pres. Ronald Reagan signs top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1990 The first all-woman expedition to South Pole sets off from Antarctica on the part of a 70-day trip; the group includes 12 Russians, 3 Americans and 1 Japanese.

1992 The first Smartphone, IBM Simon, introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

2005 Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president of Liberia; she is the first woman to lead an African nation.

2006 In the second-deadliest day of sectarian violence in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war, 215 people are killed and nearly 260 injured by bombs in Sadr City.

2011 Yemeni President Ali Abullah Saleh signs a deal to  transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity; the agreement came after 11 months of protests.

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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 Saturday November 23

November 23: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2037

 

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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Thanks to Shadow….

. THE LONGEST NIGHT

After the run in Blackjack had with the doggie Major… I, for one, was impressed with

what he had to say… as I said, for the first time in over a year, I decided to dig a hole. I

enlisted the aid of an FNG to dig a two-man hole.

Up to this point, I had been through at least 20 or more mortar attacks… They always

made you uneasy… it was an indiscriminant weapon. The damn things fell where they

did… and there was not a thing you could do about it. If the barrage was intense… or of

any duration… it could get pretty frightening.

Karl Aderrer told me about what happened one night at the Rockpile. He and two other

guys ended up in the same hole during one of the longer attacks… and they seemed to be

right in the middle of it. Karl said he tended to breath real heavy and loud during the

attack… One of the other guys starts gnashing his teeth… also loud enough for the other

two to hear… Then the third guy starts saying the Lord's Prayer out loud… and forgets

the words! After two re-starts… Karl and the other guy… both start screaming the

missing verse to this guy… Said they were afraid God might get pissed off and let one of

the 82's fall in their hole… if they didn't finish the prayer for him!

Karl said between the three of them… it was hilarious. One gnashing his teeth and

shaking like a dog trying to pass a peach pit… Karl breathing like a steam locomotive

and this idiot who is so scared… he couldn't remember a prayer he'd been reciting since

he was four years old! It was funny… but the truth be known… any of us could relate to

what happened.

Back to the hole… The ground in this area was as hard as a rock, perhaps because it had

such high mineral content, from all the previous explosions there (just kidding).

Regardless, it was slow going. Around six fifteen… I relieved the FNG for the third time.

We had managed to dig the hole about waist deep at this point… when a couple of guys

came over to rag on me a bit… that they'd never seen me dig a hole before and that I was

so short (referencing time left in country… at this point, being past my rotation date… I

was so short, I could fall off a dime)… I might not be able to climb out when we finished.

I was just telling them that if they'd heard what the doggie had to say… They'd be

digging too… All of a sudden… we all heard this new and strange sound… followed by a

huge explosion!

Note: I don't think there is any way I can describe the noise in written form… The only

thing I could relate it to… was the sound of a recoilless round… only ten times louder.

The NVA 152mm had a muzzle velocity about twice what one of our normal rounds had.

They were real screamers when they came in…. Kind of a riiiiiiiiip-boom!

The explosion was about 150 meters away in the Army compound… One of the guys

outside the hole yelled out, "Jeezus… What was that"? In a nano-second, I had my

helmet on, had dropped to the bottom of the hole and pulled my flack jacket on top of me

and said, "Incoming fuckers… find a hole"! A second later, I'm laying there with the

wind knocked out of me when the two old timers dove on top of my chest! The poor FNG

was running around like a chicken with his head cut off… not knowing whether to shit or

go blind… I finally yelled out for him to just lay down next to the dirt we dug from the

hole (after I got my breath back).

I was pinned in the hole with two guys on top of me, my left arm was extended up and

almost out of the hole. I can't even remember how it got that way… But for the next two

hours or more… that's where it stayed.

That first round was the precursor to what would be… the longest night of my life. I think

the first round hit about 6:20 PM… the barrage continued almost unabated… until 9:00

o'clock that night. I don't remember how many rounds we took… but it was somewhere

between 500 and 700 rounds before it was over! It was continuous and terrifying… They

just kept coming and coming and coming! Toward the end… they must have been

running low on HE, because they threw in a few White Phosphorus (Willy Pete's)and

then some VT fused rounds.

When the first VT round blew up… we initially thought it was a "short round" that had

cooked off… from one of our own artillery pieces returning fire. After two more went off

almost overhead… we realized that this was not the case and it added to the already

incredible tension. VT's exploded in the air… they are designed to spray shrapnel all over

the place. When one would go off… you could hear the ground being ripped up by the

shrapnel. The disconcerting part… was that you weren't safe from these rounds… even in

a hole. Toward the end… one seemed to go off right on top of us… I felt something hot

just below my left elbow (actually above it since my arm was up)… then I felt something

warm and wet coming down my arm toward my chest… I realized I'd been hit.

I said to the others, "Hey, I've been hit"! One of the guys said, "You can't be hit… you're

on the bottom"! I then said, "My arms up, I got hit in the arm"! "How bad"? "Fuck, I

don't know, I can't see it 'cause you two fucks are on top of me"! "Does it hurt"? "No,

just burns a little bit". "Well it can't be too bad then".

The point was… neither one of them was going to get out of that fucking hole for me to

check my wound unless I was in mortal pain… and I really couldn't blame them one bit!

There were priorities of life over there… and this was one of them. We all resolved to

wait it out… not that we had a whole lot of options.

Mercifully, sometime after nine… it finally stopped.

I think, that until Con Thien and Khe San ramped up… it was the longest artillery

barrage… ever suffered by American units in the entire Vietnam War. I'm not even sure

either one of them received the large number of rounds in one continuous barrage that we

did that night? I'm sorry to say I can't remember how many were killed… other than it

was surprisingly few for the number of rounds we took. It was a terrifying night.

By daylight… the battalion CP area looked like a "Prairie Dog" colony… holes and

mounds… everywhere! The digging continued in earnest during the day… everyone…

and I do mean everyone… dug like there was no tomorrow.

The FNG and I dug down about 3 more feet and I found an old piece of "Marston

Matting" that I drug over the top and covered with sand bags to protect us from the VT.

We spent a lot of time below ground for the duration of the operation. The FNG by the

way… did not get a scratch that first night… even though he was exposed the whole

time. Luck of the Irish, eh!

Beacon Hill II and Prairie III were eventful… and the battalion was engaged almost every

day we were in the field. Every unit we had in the field… was attacked except for Con

Thien. Regular NVA were all over the area and it indicated that the war as we'd known it

up to then was about to change… month's later… Tet would bear that out.

We finally left the field and moved south to Dong Ha. We were a ragged looking bunch

when we arrived. Our utilities took on the reddish tint of the ground we were living in

and we were a tired and dirty group of men. Almost immediately, I ran into Dick

Wendt… one of the Doctors at A Med who played bridge with Blackjack and the rest of

us when the Padre was on R&R. He gave me a clean uniform to wear until we could get

into our sea bags for fresh utilities.

Two days later I started the check out process. I went around and said my goodbyes and

had all my blocks checked… I then waited for a flight to Da Nang. Easier said than done.

Khe San was just cranking up… and almost every flight had wounded filling up all the

available space. I spent an afternoon with Blackjack… we tried to make peace… but a lot

of water had spilled over the dam… it was not a comfortable time for either of us.

I was particularly standoffish… because the SgtMaj had told me that my recommendation

for the Bronze Star had "disappeared" when I requested a transfer back to Delta after the

Rockpile… The reason the subject came up was that the SgtMaj had been awarded a

medal for throwing me the unit one… during the same incident. I asked if my award was

in the same transmission and he told me what had happened. Ce' la guerre!

On the third day of waiting, an Army Caribou landed at Dong Ha as I was coming back

from Alpha to tell Steve and the others goodbye. I asked the crew chief where they were

going and he said they were going back to Da Nang. I asked them to wait and hopped a

jeep over to the battalion CP, grabbed my shit and said "I'm outta here".

Westerman had his driver take me back to the strip… a million thoughts ran through my

head. I'm kinda glad everything happened in such a hurry… didn't have a lot of time to

become too emotional about the whole thing… The only really crazy thought I had… was

what if they called me at the last second and said they needed me… what would I do…

even as the thought flashed through my head… I knew the answer… I would stay.

Even though I'd served my time… I guess I felt guilty about leaving… I'm sure I was not

the only one who has felt that way… Hard to explain it to someone who was not there.

I knew that I had done a good job… I felt I could make a difference, whatever the

situation. The only analogy I could make was when I was really good at baseball… two

out in the bottom of the ninth and men on base… I wanted to be at bat… I wanted the

chance to hit… 'cause I felt I could do it… as good or better than anyone else. I gained

more self-confidence from Vietnam… than anything else I've ever done in my life. I'll

try to explain later.

I stepped into the Caribou and was surprised to find the interior floor looked like a shuffle

board game table. Hard wood with saw dust on it… weird. We taxied to the east end of

the runway and as we took off, I had my last glimpse of Dong Ha… it was like the first

plane ride I ever had. I knew the drill… we'd climb as rapidly as we could, then turn right

till we hit the river and follow it to the coast, make another right and fly down the coast to

Da Nang.

I was surprised when we continued west, past Cam Lo. I asked the crew chief why and he

said, "Got to make a quick stop at Khe San on the way back"… Holy shit! We flew past

the Rockpile and started an elevator approach to the new runway… as we touched down,

the crew chief yelled at me to help as he dropped the ramp and as we turned on the

taxiway… two Marines jumped up out of foxholes and we grabbed them and pulled them

in with out ever coming to a complete stop.

As soon as they were in, the pilot poured to coals to it and we took off from the

taxiway… going back out the way we came in. The ramp was still down and as we

rotated, we could see the first mortar rounds hitting near where we'd been… This was not

the route I'd have picked to go home… but we made it and the rest of the flight was

uneventful.

When we landed at Da Nang, I made my way over to the transit terminal and checked in.

I was assigned a flight the next day for Okinawa and told I'd get my orders there. I found

a bunk in the transit quarters and lay down to take stock of things… Mother nature

interrupted my thoughts and I sought out the closest four holer. I sit down and as I'm

doing my business… I start scratching… For the last week I'd felt like I'd come down

with a terminal case of jock itch… which I'd attributed to living in a hole for most of the

last operation.

I'm a goin'… and I'm a scratchin'… when I look down and see this little critter scooting

through the hairs of my upper thigh… "What the fuck"? I look again and there is a whole

posse of these little bastards…. Son of a Bitch… I had the crabs!

Amazing how your mind works… the only thing I could think of was that if any body

official finds out… I'd be quarantined until cured… the umbilical from 1-4 had been

cut… I had no allegiance to anyone else in Vietnam… I needed to be cured, but I was

damned if I would let anyone at transit, know about it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for someone I knew… someone who could hook

me up with a discrete Corpsman… I finally saw a guy I'd known in San Diego… told

him my problem and he took me to a Corpsman. When I told the Corpsman what ailed

me… the first thing he said was… I had to be quarantined… then he smiled and said no

big deal.

He gave me an ointment to put on and cautioned me to wash every 3 hours and re-apply. I

told him the flight to Okinawa was longer than that and he said to take a sailor bath in the

head of the plane… but burn any clothes I had worn since I'd started itching when I got

to Okinawa.

I dutifully followed his instructions and boarded the "Freedom Bird" the next morning.

As we crossed the Vietnam coastline… a loud cheer went out in the plane… a few

expletives and catcalls followed… and then it was eerily silent all the way to Okinawa.

We landed at Kadena and were bussed over to Camp Hansen. We got a couple of lectures

and were issued new utilities and finally let out on liberty. The next morning we met with

some admin folks to fill out our dream sheets. I really got the bull's rush… from some

Gunny to extend for a year in exchange for orders to Hawaii… Now I would have loved

to go to Hawaii… but no way I was going to give them another year…

I selected LFTU Coronado, MCRD San Diego and MCAS El Toro as my three choices…

The next day, I received my orders to Force Troops, Camp Lejuene, North Carolina. Go

figure!

 

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. From the archives     Naval Aviators

 

Thanks  to Jim

Skip,

Given the Apollo 12 anniversary you mention in  "The List 6284" I thought you might find the following sea story interesting. 

It's an Apollo 12 story I sent to a bunch of folks awhile back, most not ex-Navy ergo some of the explanations:

Subject: A "two beer" Apollo 12 mission story

Yep, Apollo 12 not 11.  Given all the recent press coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission the following story relates an interesting connection between Neil Armstrong's "...one small step for man, one leap for mankind" comment and the Apollo 12 mission .   

Background.... Nov 1994.  I'm the CO of NAS North Island in San Diego and am advised that the NSF (National Science Foundation) wants to host a 25th reunion for Apollo 12 NASA personnel and crew at a Saturday night reception/dinner at the NAS North Island (NORIS) O'Club on base.  All three of the Apollo 12 crew, Pete Conrad, Allan Bean and Richard Gordon, were ex Naval Aviators so the NSF wanted the event at a Naval Air Station.  I've forgotten why they picked NORIS specifically.  Apollo 12 landed on the moon in Nov 69 after Apollo 11's July mission, ergo the Nov 94 25th anniversary date. 

So, I'm host for the semi-formal coat and tie event (SDB's ..Service Dress Blues for me).  First, a reception at the bar followed by a sit down dinner.  It's also important to note that it was a stag event, ergo it was a pretty wild affair after the group (forget exact size, but probably about 30 or 40 guys) had spent and hour or so powering down booze at the bar for the Happy Hour kick off. 

For the dinner, I'm seated at the head (round) table with Conrad, Bean and Gordon, Gene Kranz (who was the Master of Ceremonies and main speaker) and a couple of NSF honchos given NSF is paying for the event.  I forget what was on the dinner menu but *well* remember that there was plenty of booze, cigars and cigarettes consumed before and after dinner (again, it was 1994 and non-smokers were in the minority).  Kranz gave a speech, honors were rendered to different team members etc. then we sat around the table "shooting the breeze."

As I recall, it was the first time the crew (at least all three of them) and Kranz had all been together at one time in years.  So there was a lot of reminiscing going on around the table between them while myself and the NSF guys sat back and listened.  But while a lot was discussed and re-hashed (a lot of it being technie stuff *way* over my head!), I vividly remember a couple of stories/issues in particular that came up over the scotch and cigar smoke. 

One being about how Conrad chose what to say when he stepped down off the LEM as the 3rd man to walk on the moon.  At Wikipedia, the following is posted:  

".....When Conrad, who was somewhat shorter than Neil Armstrong, stepped onto the lunar surface, his first words were "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."[13][16] This was not an off-the-cuff remark: Conrad had made a US$500 bet with reporter Oriana Fallaci he would say these words, after she had queried whether NASA had instructed Neil Armstrong what to say as he stepped onto the Moon. Conrad later said he was never able to collect the money...."

But that's not the story I got from the crew at the table that night.  They recounted that a couple of months before their mission (and after the Apollo 11 mission) that they were in the USSR at the Russian space HQ and, while it was still during the cold war, that NASA had a pretty good relationship with the Russian space program and principals.   They said that one night they were out to dinner with a bunch of the Soviet space folks and over after-dinner drinks of vodka shots and cigars (you see a trend here?), one of the Russians asked Conrad,

"So Peter, vat are you to say after you step on to the moon, eh?  We know what Neil say, but what are your words to be?"

Conrad related that he said something like,  "Gee, I dunno ...I haven't really thought about it yet but you make a good point.  I'll have to come up with something in advance."  And one of the Russians says,  "Ah...but they of course *tell* you what to say yah?!  They tell you before of course."  And Conrad responded, "Oh no, I can say whatever I want, I just haven't thought about it."   The Russians all laugh and go..."But nooo, but course you be told what to say...yah!?!?" 

As I recall Conrad said he responded, "Nope, I'll say whatever I want.  What'da yah want to bet?!"   And one of the Russians said, "We bet you 150 thousand Rubles" !!  Or some such, which was about $15K or so in US $$ at the time they said.   And one of the crew members, said, "You gotta remember, this was in 1969 and we were still in the Navy and getting Navy pay!  The three of us combined didn't make that much a year"!!  

Conrad said he grabbed a cloth napkin and pen and came up with, and wrote down, the ".... a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me"  off the top of his head at a bar table in Moscow after powering down a bunch of vodka shooters.   They all shook hands over the bet and a few months later the crew, en route back from the moon, said they talked about what each was gonna do with the big $$'s from the Russki's.   Alas, Conrad said something like, "But those sorry ass Commie bastards *renigged* on the bet !!  We saw them several months later and they said...."Neyt...we of course not serious bet yah know.".  

I don't recall him talking about a bet with the journalist mentioned above, but just like a typical Naval Aviator, you'd have to give credit to Conrad and the others for trying to figure out a way to "optimize" their space flight given the only pay they were getting was Navy pay. 

But my favorite story they told was when one of the NSF guys asked them, "Did you guys take many personal items with you on the mission?"  And the response was they they couldn't take much, didn't need much and were limited of course by gross weight limitations.  They all said they of course had photos of their families and what not.  But one mentioned that without *question* the most important "personal" item they each had was a duplicate padlock key on a chain around each of their necks.   And the keys were for a padlock that was on one "extremely important" cruise box (metal collapsible footlockers used in the Navy).  The crew had filled it with "important personal items" that was pre-staged inside the "air stream" trailer where they were to be quarantined on the hangar deck of the carrier when they returned. 

The next question asked was, "why the 3 identical keys and what was in the cruise box"?  The response was, "Well, we each had a key in case something happened to the other two and only one of us made it back.   And the contents?....well, after we splashed down, got helo'd back to the carrier, went through all the hoop-de-do from the Navy brass and looked out the air stream window to talk to the President, we were ready to...hmmm?....."unwind" so to speak.  So, first thing we did was ask for a bucket of ice from the wardroom mess...." 

"....After we got the ice, we opened up the cruise box which was full of booze, cigarettes and cigars.  We had a Lt flight surgeon with us for the duration in the trailer, and it being against Navy regs to drink on a Navy ship, we told him we'd slit his throat if he said anything.  And we told him we'd claim in our defense we'd become true "lunatics" due to our exposure to the lunar sphere.  You gotta remember we hadn't had a smoke or a drink in over 10 days!!   The doc didn't argue our point and we all lit up and proceeded to get shit faced...all things considered" !!

In short, while they were NASA astronauts, they were first and foremost Naval Aviators !  ;-)  

The only keepsake I have from the event is the attached signed photo that they gave me.  The event had a NSF printed program with a lot of Apollo 12 information, photos, attendees names and mission roles, time line of the event with names of speakers etc.  So, you think I was smart enough to keep a copy of that?!?  nope... duh!     v/r  Jet

 

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.Thanks to Interesting Facts

Your sense of smell is strongest in the evening.

Smell is one of humanity's most important, and often overlooked, senses. It's intimately tied to taste and memory, and plays a pivotal role in detecting danger, whether from fires or rotten food. It may even play a role in how we choose our mates.

One little-known aspect of smell is how it fluctuates throughout the day. According to research conducted by Brown University and published in the journal Chemical Senses in 2017, our sense of smell is somewhat regulated by our circadian rhythm, the internal biological process that regulates a human's wake-sleep cycle. (If you've ever traveled across the ocean, the resulting jet lag is a disruption of this rhythm.)

The Brown study analyzed 37 teenagers for a week, and measured their sense of smell against their levels of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin. A rise in melatonin meant that the body's nighttime circadian rhythm was kicking in, essentially saying, "It's time to sleep." The results showed that the teens' sense of smell was at its highest in the evening, around 9 p.m., or what the researchers called the beginning of "biological night." Conversely, their sense of smell was at its lowest between the hours of 3 a.m. and 9 a.m., when the body has little need for sniffing. Scientists can only guess at why the body kicks its olfactory receptors into high gear at 9 p.m. — it may help humans ensure satiety following the last meal of the day, scan for nearby threats before sleeping, or act as a means for encouraging that aforementioned mate choice.

 

Smell in humans begins declining after the age of 30.

 

The animal with the strongest sense of smell is the African Elephant

 

Numbers Don't Lie

 

Estimated percentage of people who are anosmic, meaning they have no sense of smell

5

.

Year the first modern perfume was created, for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary

1370

.

Estimated frequency (in days) at which human olfactory receptor cells are replaced

60

.

Years ago that olfactory receptors emerged in nature, in fishlike animals known as lancelets

550 million                        

.

Humans are more sensitive than dogs when it comes to certain scents.

 

The human nose often takes a backseat to other famous sniffers in the animal kingdom. Dogs, pigs, and elephants have nasal biology jam-packed with olfactory receptors, which makes them particularly gifted at smelling scents. But no two odors are exactly alike, and research from Rutgers University argues that the human nose — with our measly 400 different kinds of olfactory receptors — can actually sniff out smells important to humans better than even the most skillful bloodhound. For example, human noses are more sensitive to amyl acetate, a main odorant found in bananas, because ripe fruit was important for our survival thousands of years ago. For dogs, finding such fruit was much less important, and thus biologically deprioritized. Human noses can also sniff out the smell of fresh rain on dirt, a scent known as "petrichor," better than a shark can smell blood in the sea, likely due to our essential need for fresh water. So don't write off your sense of smell — instead, take pride in what your nose knows.

 

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Thanks to Brett

. The Trump Counterrevolution Is a Return to Sanity

Victor Davis Hanson

American Greatness

We are witnessing a historic counterrevolution after Trump's victory, far different from his first election in 2016.

The orthodox and the supposed scripted future are now suspect. And they are likely to be dethroned—from the trivial to the existential.

Critics claim Trump has no mandate to stage such a counterrevolution. They argue that he did not win 51 percent of the popular vote or achieve a Reaganesque landslide in the Electoral College.

Yet all the initiatives he advanced and won on polled landslide public approval.

Despite being the target of Democrat lawfare for years, a defiant Trump promised to end an open border, massive illegal immigration, rising crime, and soaring prices. He pledged to slash government and its administrative state, terminate racial and gender identity politics, and restore deterrence abroad.

The people overwhelmingly wanted those messages but were waiting for an unorthodox messenger who would actually deliver them.

The Trump messenger reassured weary citizens that they were not crazy.

Instead, they had good cause to be sick of being talked down to by a media, academic, bureaucratic, and political elite that never earned nor deserved such self-appointed status.

The FBI, the CIA, and the DOJ, not the massive crowds at rallies, were the ones truly out of control.

President Joe Biden was really suffering from dementia, not those who said he was.

Criminals with weapons are as deleterious to society as law-abiding citizens deprived of them.

It is not a thought crime to believe there are two sexes—not three or four or more. No one should be forced to buy an electric vehicle, disconnect their natural gas stove, or submit to racial or gender indoctrination sessions.

Americans should speak their minds and write what they wish without worry of being censored, blacklisted, ostracized, doxxed, or shadow-banned—or jailed.

Campuses are not oases of tolerance, disinterested inquiry, and free expression.

They instead increasingly became overpriced indoctrination centers that shred the Constitution and graduate indebted students who know less—but are far more biased—than when they enrolled.

Trump and his MAGA appointees promise to slash over a trillion dollars from the annual federal budget, disbanding entire agencies.

Is the objection that an ever-expanding government—$37 trillion in debt, running nearly $2 trillion in annual deficits—should keep growing?

Trump pledges to reform the Pentagon—ending DEI Pentagon commissars and revolving-door corporate generalship.

He vows to hold the 4-star class responsible for the catastrophe in Afghanistan and to reenlist soldiers who were driven out due to draconian vaccination mandates or woke intolerance. Trump envisions changing the entire system of military procurement.

Does the status quo object on the grounds that our military leadership has been winning our wars abroad?

Is the Pentagon currently awash in eager recruits?

Has it stockpiled a huge surplus of shells, bombs, and rockets?

Trump promises historic deportations of the 12 million who destroyed the southern border and surged in without health or criminal audits.

Trump vows to rescue swamped social services and stop crimes by illegal alien felons.

Is that really worse than the Biden administration's original massive importation of millions of illegal aliens, empowered by drug-importing and sex-trafficking cartels?

Who are the culpable? Those flagrantly mocking and breaking the law, or those vowing to enforce it?

Trump says he will deter enemies without bogging America down in "endless wars"—and did just that in his first four years as president.

Is the current alternative preferable to convincing enemies that there are few consequences to their aggression, sandbagging allies like Israel, or feeding the war in Ukraine without any plan of either winning or ending it?

The Trump revolution is also cultural and social. Shared class interests have replaced race, ethnicity, and gender chauvinism.

Athletes of all races are no longer taking a knee in protest of America's supposed systemic racism during the national anthem. Sometimes they celebrate their scoring by doing honorific Trump YMCA/golf-swing dances on national television.

Enlistments to help craft the Trump counterrevolution are not always predicated on degrees, conventional resumes, or past lengthy government service. Race and gender do not determine qualifications alone. Nor does class.

Common sense, successful lives outside of government, and a desire to end the current nonsense count instead as better prerequisites.

For Trump, party identification, titles, and traditional prestige matter less as he is surrounded by an ideologically diverse cadre including Elon Musk, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Dana White, Tulsi Gabbard, and Joe Rogan.

The country no longer must apologize incessantly for its past or present but can move on—content that it need not be perfect to be better than all the alternatives.

The age of flashing pronouns, renaming iconic landmarks, statue toppling, trashing the dead, vandalizing with impunity the campus library, or spouting anti-Semitic venom is passing.

So, another name for the Trump counterrevolution is a simple return to sanity.

 

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Military Milestones Thanks to Thomas W. Smith from Bloody Betio to Mao's Death Warrant

11/24

This Week in American Military History:

Nov. 23, 1863:  The battles of the Chattanooga campaign begin between newly appointed commander of the Western armies, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S.

Grant, and Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg (yes, Fort Bragg, N.C. is named in his honor).

Within days, Union Army forces will attack and capture Orchard Knob, Lookout Mountain, and the Confederate works on Missionary Ridge. The "Gateway to the Lower South" will open, and within a year, Union Gen.

William Tecumseh Sherman will pass through the "gateway" enroute to Atlanta.

 

Nov. 23, 1943:  Japanese-held Tarawa -- "an elongated, sharply curving chain of little islands with a heavily defended southwest tip" known to U.S. Marines as "bloody Betio" -- falls to American forces despite the boast of its defending commander, Rear Adm. Keiji Shibasaki, that "a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years."

In fact, it takes several thousand Marines and about 76 hours to seize

Tarawa. But it is not without great cost. Marine casualties (including

sailors) number over 1,020 killed and nearly 2,300 wounded. Many are lost during the first few hours of the fighting as the landing craft are unable to get ashore, and Marines (carrying all of their equipment) are forced to wade toward the beach, stumbling over jagged coral reef for several hundred yards -- some falling into deep holes and drowning -- all the time under withering fire.

Lt. Commander Robert A. McPherson -- a Naval aviator flying above Tarawa during the battle -- will recall: "The water never seemed clear of tiny men, their rifles held over their heads, slowly wading beachwards. I wanted to cry."

Among the heroes is Col. David Monroe Shoup (future commandant of the Marine Corps) who will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions on Tarawa. At one point during the fighting, Shoup, wounded and leading his men forward, signals his superiors: "Casualties: many. Percentage dead: unknown. Combat efficiency: we are winning."

Veterans of Tarawa also will remember red-mustachioed Maj. Jim Crowe, swagger-stick in hand, calmly strolling his embattled lines, exhorting his men to fight. "All right, Marines, try and pick out a target and squeeze off some rounds," he shouts, as bullets and hot shell fragments zing past his head. "You better kill some of those bastards or they'll kill you. You don't want to die, do you? Come on, now, let's kill some of them!"

Of the 4,836 Japanese defenders on Tarawa, 4,690 are killed, many perishing during suicidal "Banzai" charges against the Americans.

Nov. 24, 1944:  U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 bombers (111 of them) based in Saipan attack the Nakajima Aircraft engine plant near Tokyo in the first attack on the Japanese mainland since Doolittle's raid (see Apr. 18, 1942).

Nov. 27, 1950:  The Battle of Chosin Reservoir opens when the Chinese 9th Army Group -- four armies under the command of Gen. Song Shilun -- surge across the Yalu River into Korea and attack numerically inferior U.S. Marine and Army forces.

Song has special instructions to destroy the 1st Marine Division. "The American Marine First Division has the highest combat effectiveness in the American armed forces," writes Premier Mao Tse-Tung in orders to Gen. Song.

"It seems not enough for our four divisions [sic] to surround and annihilate its two regiments. You should have one or two more divisions as a reserve force."

Moreover, orders specify that all other American and allied forces are to be eliminated to the last man.

But the Chinese will fail (see upcoming weeks).

 

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This Day in U S Military History

23 November

1874 – Farmer Joseph Glidden's patent for barbed wire was granted. Glidden designed a simple wire barb that attached to a double-strand wire, as well as a machine to mass-produce the wire. The invention was a welcome alternative to other types of fencing for farming on the arid Great Plains–wood fences and stone walls were difficult to construct because of the lack of sufficient rocks and trees, and the existing wire fences were easily broken when cattle leaned against them. The use of barbed-wire fences changed ranching and farming life. Farmers could keep roaming cattle and sheep off their land, but open-range cowboys and Native American farmers were restricted to the land and resources not claimed and marked by the new fences. As more settlers moved onto the plains, the amount of public, shared land decreased and open-range farming became obsolete.

1943 – On Tarawa Atoll, the battle ends by noon. The US marines have suffered 1000 killed and 2000 wounded. The Japanese garrison of 4800 troops has been annihilated. A total of 17 wound Japanese troops and 129 Korean laborers are the only survivors. On Makin Atoll, the battle is also completed. American infantry have suffered about 200 dead and wounded. The Japanese have lost about 600 killed, wounded or captured. Meanwhile, the escort carrier Liscomb Bay is sunk offshore by a Japanese resulting in the loss of 600 sailors.

1944 – On the right flank of the German line, the 15th Army falls back in Holland. Meanwhile, the German 7th Army launches attacks on forces of US 9th Army. To the south, French troops of US 7th Army reach Strasbourg.

1974 – Cornelius Ryan (54), war reporter, historian, author, died. His books included "A Bridge Too Far." Cornlius Ryan was one of the preeminent writers of the history of World War II. he was born in Dublin in 1920 and worked as a reporter covering the battles in Europe for Reuters and the London Daily Telegraph from 1941 to 1945 and then the final months of the Pacific campaign. His first book was The Longest Day, published in 1959, sold 4 million copies in 27 editions and was made into a 1962 film The Longest Day by Darryl Zanuck. His second book was The Last Battle published in 1966. He finished his third book A Bridge Too Far in 1974 while undergoing treatment for cancer that killed him in 1976. The film version of A Bridge Too Far was released in 1977 and re-released in DVD in 1998. In all his books, Ryan stressed realism and was meticulous in attention to detail and his extensive research notes.

 

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

 

SILK, EDWARD A.

Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Company E, 398th Infantry, 100th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near St. Pravel, France, 23 November 1944. Entered service at: Johnstown, Pa. Born: 8 June 1916, Johnstown, Pa. G.O. No.: 97, 1 November 1945. citation. 1st Lt. Edward A. Silk commanded the weapons platoon of Company E, 398th Infantry, on 23 November 1944, when the end battalion was assigned the mission of seizing high ground overlooking Moyenmoutier France, prior to an attack on the city itself. His company jumped off in the lead at dawn and by noon had reached the edge of a woods in the vicinity of St. Pravel where scouts saw an enemy sentry standing guard before a farmhouse in a valley below. One squad, engaged in reconnoitering the area, was immediately pinned down by intense machinegun and automatic-weapons fire from within the house. Skillfully deploying his light machinegun section, 1st Lt. Silk answered enemy fire, but when 15 minutes had elapsed with no slackening of resistance, he decided to eliminate the strong point by a l-man attack. Running 100 yards across an open field to the shelter of a low stone wall directly in front of the farmhouse, he fired into the door and windows with his carbine; then, in full view of the enemy, vaulted the wall and dashed 50 yards through a hail of bullets to the left side of the house, where he hurled a grenade through a window, silencing a machinegun and killing 2 gunners. In attempting to move to the right side of the house he drew fire from a second machinegun emplaced in the woodshed. With magnificent courage he rushed this position in the face of direct fire and succeeded in neutralizing the weapon and killing the 2 gunners by throwing grenades into the structure. His supply of grenades was by now exhausted, but undaunted, he dashed back to the side of the farmhouse and began to throw rocks through a window, demanding the surrender of the remaining enemy. Twelve Germans, overcome by his relentless assault and confused by his unorthodox methods, gave up to the lone American. By his gallant willingness to assume the full burden of the attack and the intrepidity with which he carried out his extremely hazardous mission, 1st Lt. Silk enabled his battalion to continue its advance and seize its objective.

 

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This Day in Aviation History" brought to you by the Daedalians Airpower Blog Update. To subscribe to this weekly email, go to https://daedalians.org/airpower-blog/.

Nov. 24, 1944

Eighty-eight Boeing B-29 "Superfortresses" made the first heavy bomb strike on Tokyo, Japan.

 

Nov. 25, 1920

Lt. Corliss Champion Moseley, Air Service, United States Army, won the first Pulitzer Trophy Race flying an Engineering Division-designed-and-built Verville-Packard R-1, serial number A.S. 40126. The race, the first of a series, started at Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York. Turning points were at Henry J. Damm Field, near Babylon, and Lufberry Field at Wantagh. The total length of the race was approximately 132 miles. Moseley was Daedalian Founder Member #208.

 

Nov. 27, 1917

Newly promoted Brig. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois gained an appointment as American Expeditionary Forces chief of the air service under Gen. John J. Pershing. Foulois was Daedalian Founder Member #321.

 

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for November 23,  FIRSTS, LASTS, AND

SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF

HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE

AGENCY

 

23 November

 

1935: Through 5 December, Lincoln Ellsworth and pilot Herbert

Hollich-Kenyon flew nearly 2,100 miles from Dundee Island, Weddell

Sea, Antarctica, to within 25 miles of Little America, Bay of Whales,

Ross Sea. (9) (24)

 

1947: The XC-99, world's largest land plane at that time, made its

first flight at San Diego. (24)

 

1957: The DoD authorized Cooke AFB to launch ballistic missiles during

peacetime. (6)

 

1960: TIROS II, NASA's second meteorological satellite, launched from

Cape Canaveral into a 200- to 500-year orbit. (24)

 

1963: SAC established a requirement for the SRAM. (6)

 

1981: EXERCISE BRIGHT STAR 82. SAC sent eight B-52s of its Strategic

Projection Force on the longest nonstop bombing mission in history to

date. After a 31-hour, 15,000-mile flight, the B-52s from the 319 BMW

at Grand Forks AFB and the 5 BMW at Minot AFB dropped bombs on a

simulated runway in Egypt. The bombers relied on three air refuelings.

(1) (26)

 

1983: The West German Parliament approved GLCM and Pershing II missile

deployments in West Germany. (4)

 

2002: The F/A-22 Raptor (No. 4007) accomplished its first guided

AIM-9M Sidewinder launch at 24,000 feet over the White Sands Missile

Range at Mach 1.4. The AIM-9 passed within lethal range of a QF-4

drone flying at Mach 1.0. (3)

 

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