To All,
Good Wednesday morning January 1 the first day of 2025. I want to wish you all a happy New Year and many more. The weather is supposed to clear up for today and have temps of 42 to 70.
I got in a decent workout last night and finally got over 30 knuckle pushups. The stretching is slowly getting there. Classes start back on the 6th and looks like we are getting 3 full classes of 34 each again.
Only a little putzing in the yard yesterday. All the cans are full.
Next up or down as it were is the Christmas decorations. One dropped ornament and I am toast.
This is a Bubba Breakfast Friday here in San Diego. I hope to see many of you there to start the year off right.
Warm Regards,
Skip
Make it a GREAT Day
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Go here to see the director's corner for all 85 H-Grams
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
January. 1
1819—Smith Thompson takes office as the sixth Secretary of the Navy, serving until Aug. 31, 1823.
1943—USS Nautilus (SS 168) evacuated 29 civilians from Teop Island, Solomons. Also on this date, USS Porpoise (SS 172) attacked a Japanese convoy and sank the freighter Renzan Maru off northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan.
1944—PBY aircraft sink Japanese cargo ship Kanaiyama Maru near Lorengau, Admiralities.
1944—USS Ray (SS 271) sinks a Japanese gunboat at the mouth of Ambon Bay, while USS Puffer (SS 268) attacks a Japanese convoy at the western entrance of the Mindanao Sea, sinking an army cargo ship. On the same day USS Herring (SS 233) attacks a Japanese convoy, sinking an aircraft transport ship 220 miles off Tokyo Bay.
1950 - Mary T. Sproul commissioned as first female doctor in Navy
1959—The U.S. Naval Observatory introduces a system of uniform atomic time using cesium beam atomic oscillators. This measurement is adopted as standard by the International Committee on Weights and Measures.
1962—Navy SEAL teams are established with Teams One and Two formed with personnel from Underwater Demolition Teams.
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This day in World History
January 1
1500 The Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral reaches the coast of Brazil and claims the region for Portugal.
1586 Sir Francis Drake launches a surprise attack on the heavily fortified city of Santo Domingo in Hispanola.
1698 The Abenaki Indians and Massachusetts colonists sign a treaty halting hostilities between the two.
1766 The Old Pretender, son of James III, dies.
1788 The Times, London's oldest running newspaper, publishes its first edition.
1808 A U.S. law banning the import of slaves comes into effect, but is widely ignored.
1824 The Camp Street Theatre opens as the first English-language playhouse in New Orleans.
1830 William Lloyd Garrison publishes the first edition of a journal entitled The Liberator, calling for the complete and immediate emancipation of all slaves in the United States.
1863 Confederate General Braxton Bragg and Union General William Rosecrans readjust their troops as the Battle of Murfreesboro continues.
1863 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the Confederacy.
1891 Facilities opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the vast flood of immigrants coming into the United States.
1907 The Pure Food and Drug Act becomes law in the United States.
1915 The German submarine U-24 sinks the British battleship Formidable in the English Channel.
1918 The first gasoline pipeline begins operation. Along the 40 miles and three inches of pipe from Salt Creek to Casper, Wyoming.
1923 Sadi Lecointe sets a new aviation speed record flying an average of 208 mph at Istres.
1937 At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest wins $100 for naming a new canned meat--Spam.
1945 In Operation Bodenplatte, German planes attack American forward air bases in Europe. This is the last major offensive of the Luftwaffe.
1959 Fidel Castro seizes power in Cuba as General Fulgencio Batista flees.
1986 As the United States builds its strength in the Mediterranean, Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi threatens to retaliate if attacked.
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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 "Wednesday 1 January
January 1: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1526
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.
Vietnam Air Losses
Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend last week and I forgot to forward. The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
AUGUST 15, 2022
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Thanks to Brett
2024's Winners and Losers: Year in Review
For those of us in the news business, 2024 provided a steady stream of stories to cover—and rarely a dull moment. From the Republican primaries early in the year to the assassination attempts and political conventions this summer, our Daily Signal team stayed busy through Election Day and in the days that followed.
During his first term as president, Donald Trump provided a plethora of political and policy news for us to report. We expect the same will be true in 2025. But before we turn the page on this year, our team reflected on the winners and losers—compiling the following list (listed alphabetically).
How'd we do? Send us a note at letters@dailysignal.com to compliment us to complain about our choices. We welcome your feedback and look forward to hearing from you.
Winners
AI
In 2024, you couldn't escape artificial intelligence even if you tried.
Companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others released new AI models and expanded their capabilities. Their consumer-friendly tools like Claude and ChatGPT continued to become more powerful.
Elon Musk (also on this list) is building his own rival, rolling out improvements to Grok, his version of AI within X. "We will have something that is, for the first time, smarter than the smartest human," Musk has predicted.
With big questions about government regulation and its application in everyday life, this technology is truly, in Musk's words, "the most disruptive force in history."
Joe Biden
Yes, you read that right. What is left of President Joe Biden is a winner in the year of our Lord 2024. Even though Biden's own party threw a coup against him (the sitting president of the United States!) and removed him from the presidential race, the flip at the top of the ticket ended up being a flop.
Trump carried the Electoral College and the popular vote in his mandate victory. Now, it's a serious question as to whether Biden would have performed better in the places that mattered most to carry the presidential election—Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin.
Biden was a party man for half a century, but ever since Democrats switched Biden for Kamala Harris, Biden has seemingly helped Republicans at every turn and acted purely out of self-interest.
His loyalists leaked details of the coup and Democrat infighting to the press, he wore a MAGA hat, and he gave Republicans a last-minute turnout boost by calling Trump supporters garbage. And, of course, since losing the election, he's pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, after promising for years he would not. He's created one political mess after another, and the Democratic party will be left to clean it up. Meanwhile, the president and his son will be on the beach in Delaware.
Bitcoin
The price of bitcoin was $44,000 on Jan. 1 and exceeded $100,000 in the weeks following Trump's election.
With crypto-friendly officials dotting Trump's new administration, there's genuine excitement about its future. Paul Atkins is set to replace Gary Gensler as chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission and billionaire David Sacks, co-host of the "All In" podcast, will serve as Trump's AI and crypto czar.
Dennis Porter, CEO and co-founder of the Satoshi Action Fund, told The Daily Signal that cryptocurrency like bitcoin can combat inflation and preserve individual freedom.
"You are able to operate wholly on your own with no third parties, without asking permission, you are able to access the bitcoin network globally, anywhere in the world and be able to participate in the economy without asking permission," Porter said.
Tucker Carlson
After leaving Fox News and launching his own Tucker Carlson Network in 2023, the popular conservative commentator continued to influence the Republican Party's agenda under Trump.
Known for his populist and common-sense perspectives, Carlson propelled to the top of the charts with millions watching or listening to his interviews and monologues.
His trip to Russia for a two-hour conversation with Vladimir Putin has more than 20 million views on YouTube. Another interview with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has more than 5 million, reflecting Carlson's international reach.
Tucker Carlson Films expanded his content offerings even further. "The Art of the Surge," a series produced by Justin Wells, offered viewers a behind-the-scenes look at Trump's historic comeback, including shocking footage from the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt.
In September, Carlson hit the road for a cross-country speaking tour that featured conservative newsmakers, drawing sold-out crowds to hear from the likes of JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Dogs and Cats
At their only debate in September, Trump and Harris squared off on a range of policy issues. But the most memorable moment came amid reports of Haitian immigrants overwhelming the community of Springfield, Ohio.
"In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They're eating—they are eating the pets of the people that live there," Trump said.
ABC News anchor David Muir, who repeatedly interjected during the debate, attempted to correct Trump. But it didn't matter.
The story dominated the news for days as Americans saw Springfield as a representation of America's broken immigration system. An estimated 20,000 immigrants were living in the community of 60,000.
Fox News
In a year when other TV networks lost viewers—and respect—Fox News maintained its position as the leader in cable news.
"Fox News Channel obliterated competitors in 2024, finishing the year with its highest share of the cable news audience since 2015," Brian Flood reported for Fox News Digital.
Since the Nov. 5 election, Fox News has dominated its competition—both cable and network TV—with more than 4 million prime-time viewers (from 8-11 p.m. ET), according to Nielsen Media Research data. That makes Fox News the most-watched network, beating legacy media networks ABC, CBS, and NBC in prime-time.
In terms of market share, Fox News commanded 73% of the prime-time cable news audience as CNN's and MSNBC's ratings cratered following Trump's victory.
Podcasters and social media personalities are getting deserved praise for their growing influence, but Fox News Channel is still the go-to destination for political and election news.
Former immigration officials Tom Homan, left, and Mark Morgan answer questions Monday during a press conference at The Heritage Foundation's Policy Fest event at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal)
Tom Homan
Homan was among the first political figures Trump tapped for his new administration following his victory on Nov. 5.
After serving at the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the first Trump administration, Homan will now serve as Trump's border czar and lead the way on Trump's mass deportation plan.
Homan spent the last four years watching the Biden administration welcome over 10 million illegal aliens into the county, and now, with the full support of the president, he will have the opportunity to enforce U.S. immigration law and secure a border that he has spent his career defending, both in the Border Patrol and ICE.
Patrick and Brittany Mahomes
The three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs orchestrated an overtime victory in February and has his team positioned for another appearance in 2025.
Patrick's wife, Brittany, made headlines of her own when she liked an Instagram post of then-candidate Trump about the Republican Party's platform. After facing a backlash, she wrote, "Jesus didn't have to agree with people to be kind to them."
Two other members of the Mahomes family endorsed Trump: Patrick's younger brother Jackson and his mother Randi, who showed up to a Chiefs' game in a MAGA hat.
McDonald's
The iconic American fast-food restaurant found itself at the center of news on several occasions.
Donald Trump's October campaign stop at a McDonald's in the Philadelphia suburbs was a brilliant photo opportunity for the Republican candidate. But it also symbolized the difference between his appeal to working-class Americans in contrast to Kamala Harris.
Trump wore an apron and worked as a fry attendant. It was one of the most viral moments of the 2024 presidential election and a classic Trump move, particularly given Harris' questionable employment at McDonald's earlier in her life.
"As we've seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle. While we've not sought this, it's a testament to how much McDonald's resonates with so many Americans," McDonald's wrote after Trump's visit. "McDonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue—we are golden."
McDonald's made news again in December when a customer in an Altoona, Pennsylvania, restaurant spotted murder suspect Luigi Mangione, leading to his arrest.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter, and his transformation of the platform into the free speech engine that is X today, likely helped Trump's historic election victory. Musk also contributed to that victory by endorsing Trump and urging swing-state voters to sign his petition for the chance at winning $1 million.
Musk not only played a historic role in the election; he will also help lead the Department of Government Efficiency, an external advisory board to trim waste and prevent abuse in the federal government.
In December, Musk rallied Americans on X to oppose a must-pass government funding bill that had been stuffed with pork. His opposition to the bill grew naturally out of his work on the Department of Government Efficiency and his efforts led Trump to oppose the bill and House Speaker Mike Johnson to withdraw it from consideration.
Podcasters
Podcasting took center stage this year, with 2024 being the first ever "podcast election," and for good reason.
Over 53 million Americans tuned in to hear Trump's three-hour conversation with Joe Rogan covering everything under the sun—from tariffs to golfing to fixing the "wrongs" of his first term. America also watched Vance communicate Trump's vision for the country over the next four years with Theo Von—all while proving he can joke around and isn't "weird." Even Kamala Harris' failed campaign hopped on the podcast bandwagon with a 45-minute appearance on "Call Her Daddy."
But why the sudden interest in podcasts? Americans are fed up the corporate media lies, so they fled to a more uncensored platform. An October Gallup poll revealed that trust in the media hit a historic low, with 36% saying they have "no trust at all in the media," and 33% expressing "not very much" confidence.
Now, everyone and their mother—from CNN's Chris Wallace to former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley—are scrambling to hop on the podcasting wave. The Daily Signal launched a brand-new podcast this year, "The Signal Sitdown," where members of Congress explain how the sausage really gets made in Washington, DC.
Dennis Quaid
The longtime Hollywood actor starred in the hit movie "Reagan."
Based on Paul Kengor's book, "The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism," the movie was a box-office success. It made more than $30 million worldwide, far exceeding expectations.
Quaid's performance was a big reason for the movie's success.
"Dennis was always my first choice because he required almost no hair and makeup touchups to get him camera-ready," producer Mark Joseph told The Daily Signal. "He's a natural, and he has that great Reaganesque smile and persona. He's a busy guy, so it took some time to nail him down, but he was always the one for me."
Joe Rogan
In the weeks before Election Day, Trump shunned CBS News' "60 Minutes" and other corporate media outlets in favor of modern-day influencers like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Logan Paul. Megyn Kelly, whose show is regularly among the top 10 podcasts, joined Trump on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh.
Trump's interviews with these influencers accumulated more than 100 million views—and reached voters who don't get their news from traditional media sources.
Donald Trump Jr. told Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles that he and his father discussed giving Rogan a press pass to the White House to shake up the status quo.
"I was sitting there, and we were talking about, like, the podcast world, and some of our friends, and [Joe] Rogan, and guys like you, and me to a lesser extent—I wouldn't be able to get a seat, that would be nepotism or whatever the hell," Trump Jr. said. "But we had the conversation about opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists."
Trump has disrupted the corporate media's business as usual, and Rogan appears to be coming out on top.
Josh Shapiro
Pennsylvania's Democrat governor was on the short list to become Kamala Harris' vice president. Instead, Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz after a few notable TV appearances
In retrospect, Shapiro should count his blessings.
After a strong debut in August, Harris failed to live up to the fanfare down the stretch. Walz will be an afterthought in the history books.
Shapiro, meanwhile, can now position himself for a future presidential run without Harris' baggage. He'll need to win reelection in 2026 and then overcome the left's fears about his support for Israel and past endorsement of school choice.
Donald Trump
After easily vanquishing his Republican rivals in the GOP primaries, Donald Trump did the same to the incumbent president. Joe Biden was no match for his predecessor after their June debate, setting into motion an unprecedented turn of events over the summer that resulted in Vice President Kamala Harris being anointed the Democrat nominee—without winning a single vote.
As if those political hurdles weren't enough, Trump also emerged unscathed from the Left's lawfare and then survived two assassination attempts on his life. A bullet came within mere centimeters of killing him in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
Heading into Election Day, legacy media outlets were convinced it was a toss-up race between Harris and Trump. Instead, it turned out to be a historic Trump mandate, sweeping all seven swing states, capturing the popular vote, and making major gains with blacks, Hispanics, and younger Americans.
As he departed the White House in 2021, Trump left at a political low point. Few pundits gave him a chance at redemption, and yet Americans witnessed in 2024 the greatest political comeback in U.S. history. With Biden already AWOL, Trump is wasting little time to make his mark, recognizing the precious little time he has to implement his policy engage, deliver on his promises, and finally drain the swamp in Washington, D.C.
Losers
College Presidents
Anti-Israel protests continued to rock college campuses. They also ended the careers of three Ivy League university presidents.
Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania resigned in December 2023, the first of three presidents to lose their jobs. Harvard's Claudine Gay stepped down in January and Columbia's Minouche Shafik in August.
Magill and Gay's downfall came after facing off against Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., at a congressional hearing. Shafik was unable to handle antisemitic protests at Columbia.
"THREE DOWN, so many to go," Stefanik said. "We will continue to demand moral clarity, condemnation of antisemitism, protection of Jewish students and faculty, and stronger leadership from American higher education institutions."
As the year drew to a close, George Mason University President Gregory Washington found himself under scrutiny for its own problems. Three of its students, all of Middle Eastern origin, had run-ins with the police over weapons and pro-terror material.
Mark Cuban
Best known for his role on "Shark Tank," the Dallas Mavericks owner was among the most vociferous defenders of Harris when she replaced Biden atop the ticket.
Cuban appeared at campaign rallies, on television, and regularly engaged online in support of the Democrat presidential candidate. He extreme rhetoric—calling Trump a "threat" with "fascist tendencies"—epitomized the left's hyperbolic language.
At one point during the campaign, he admitted to ABC News that "Harris is just not a good salesperson," prompting his own involvement in the race.
Some pundits speculated that Cuban wanted a high-profile job in a Harris administration, perhaps leading the Securities and Exchange Commission. Instead, he'll be watching the action from the sidelines.
After Trump's victory, Cuban wrote on Bluesky, "Don't expect any politics or speculation about what might happen for a while."
Nikki Haley
After suspending her political campaign in March, Haley has found herself somewhat politically homeless among a shifting Republican Party.
Haley was a fierce critic of Trump during the 2024 presidential race, despite serving as ambassador to the U.N. under a portion of his first administration. Though Haley made an appearance at the Republican National Convention, Trump was clear after his victory that there was no place for Haley in his administration.
"I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation," Trump wrote on Truth Social in November.
Haley is now working in the private sector at Edelman, a global communications firm.
Sunny Hostin
What was supposed to be a friendly question for Kamala Harris turned into a disaster. Appearing on "The View" in early October, Hostin asked Harris if she would do anything differently from Biden.
"There is not a thing that comes to mind," Harris replied.
The answer surprised even friendly Hostin, who followed up to give Harris another opportunity. After the election, Hostin admitted that Harris missed the mark.
"The reason I followed up was because that wasn't a gotcha question," Hostin said. "That was a layup, really."
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller pointed to the interview as a turning point in the campaign.
"I think this Kamala Harris strategy of going out and doing a whole bunch of media has really backfired. I mean, who would've thought that Sunny Hostin from The View really killed Kamala Harris' candidacy?" Miller said.
Legacy Media
Election Day was not just a high-stakes contest of competing visions for America's political institutions and future. It was about the future of our other commanding heights institutions as well—academia, finance, the media, and the like.
None of these institutions or industries had as high of stakes as the media: 2024's campaign cycle was a test to see if the corporate media could put an empty suit (whether by the name of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris) in the White House, or if alternative media could pose a real threat to the corporate media's power.
Trump's victory, not to mention conservative control of the House and Senate, proved the latter.
To add insult to injury, ABC has agreed to pay Trump $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit after George Stephanopoulos falsely claimed Trump was found "liable for rape." For some reason, the corporate press feels threatened by this settlement. "Trump is already delivering on his promise to go after the press," one Politico headline read.
If going after the press means the corporate media can no longer spread malicious lies with impunity, Americans ought to hope Trump delivers on this promise tenfold.
Mitch McConnell
Senate Republicans will have a new leader for the first time in 18 years—and there's palpable excitement on Capitol Hill for the changing of the guard.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stepped down from his leadership perch after pressure from conservatives and his own health problems. He'll serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in 2027.
In recent years, McConnell made more headlines for his clashes with Trump and the MAGA movement than any legislative accomplishments. Even on his way out, he couldn't help taking a shot at Trump.
"To pretend that the United States can focus on just one threat at a time, that its credibility is divisible, or that it can afford to shrug off faraway chaos as irrelevant is to ignore its global interests and its adversaries' global designs," McConnell wrote in Foreign Affairs. "America will not be made great again by those who simply want to manage its decline."
McConnell leaves his leadership job as one of America's most unpopular politicians.
His successor, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., won a three-way race for the top job. Even though he wasn't the first choice of MAGA voters, Thune has signaled support for Trump's agenda and nominees.
Planned Parenthood
Pro-life voters ended their losing streak at the ballot box, stopping three statewide constitutional amendments in support of abortion.
Those wins in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota give the pro-life cause a reason for optimism, even as measures passed in seven other states.
More importantly, the left's pro-abortion enthusiasm appeared to wane at the ballot box. Unlike the 2022 midterm election, when the issue halted the Republican "red wave," this time Democrats were on defense for a range of other issues, including inflation, border security, and crime.
With the incoming Trump administration poised to restore pro-life protections, Planned Parenthood will also be a target of Congress. The abortion giant relies on taxpayer funding for its operations.
In recent years, Planned Parenthood has expanded its portfolio to include transgender services. Abortion remains its priority, however. With approximately 200 abortions for every adoption referral, there's no mistaking this organization's evil intentions.
Taylor Swift
Among the major celebrities endorsing Harris, there was no one bigger than Taylor Swift. But just like her uninspiring 2018 endorsement of Sen. Marsha Blackburn's Democrat opponent in Tennessee, Swift's embrace of Harris ended with a loss.
Swift weighed in after the presidential debate between Harris and Trump in September.
"I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos," Swift wrote on Instagram. "I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate [Tim Walz], who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades."
She signed the note, "Childless Cat Lady," in reference to a comment Sen. JD Vance made in an earlier interview.
Swift should stick to her day job. Her popular Eras Tour was far more successful than her political picks.
The Woke Bureaucracy
As Tyler O'Neil's forthcoming book "The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government" reveals, the Left's dark money network props up a system of woke nonprofits that staff and advise the federal government, pushing the bureaucracy to support critical race theory (the notion that America is systemically racist against blacks and for whites), gender ideology, climate alarmism, and technocratic government.
The woke elites lost big in the 2024 presidential election, and woke activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign have been losing steam all year. Human Rights Campaign runs a Corporate Equality Index that acts as a shakedown operation, demanding cash and public celebrations of the LGBTQ agenda in exchange for protection from the woke mob. Many companies have opted to leave that index, and Human Rights Campaign lost a key ally when it became clear the Biden-Harris administration would not continue.
Woke bureaucrats are going to fight to maintain their grasp on power, but thanks to the incoming Trump administration and allies like the Department of Government Efficiency, those bureaucrats will be playing defense.
Bradley Devlin, Rob Bluey, Elizabeth Mitchell, Tony Kinnett, Tyler O'Neil, Virginia Allen and Fred Lucas contributed to this article. Reproduced with permission.
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Thanks to 1440
Our Most-Read Stories of 2024
2024 total solar eclipse over North America.
"Witnessing this year's solar eclipse was especially memorable as I experienced it alongside my kids and saw their amazement firsthand." —Ashley L.
Why it's so hard to correctly predict the weather.
"Think I'm not alone in being occasionally frustrated by the weather forecast catching me either without my umbrella or leaving my sunglasses at home. I could never understand why the forecast could be so inaccurate sometimes! This was the perfect background explainer that left me feeling sympathy for my local weather team." —Mitchell K.
Boy born deaf can hear again thanks to novel gene therapy.
"There's nothing sweeter to me in life than music and the voices of the people I love. So this incredible innovation bringing those gifts to this 11-year-old boy for the first time (and eventually, many others) made me happy and hopeful." —Teddy B.
100 small acts of love, told through stories by people in love.
"This heartwarming collection of stories showcases the beauty of everyday gestures and how love can be expressed in countless ways, reminding us that it's often the little things that make the biggest impact in our relationships." —Sony K.
Ohio twin sisters celebrate their 102nd birthday.
"I'm a sucker for our Humankind section, and as a mother of twins, I found this story to be so inspiring. It's such a blessing that these twins have lived 102 years together and it brought me so much joy to see them share their celebration." —Kellie S.
10 funny vintage slang words people should start using again.
"I realized there's no need to 'make fetch happen' when the vintage slang in this article already exists. I was grinning like a gigglemug thinking of these words coming out of my kids' sauce boxes. By the end, I felt arf'arf'an'arf from laughing so much." —Aaron E-L.
Do organ donors transfer memory?
"Such a refreshing read. Normally, I don't always understand science-related articles but it was fascinating to think about the mini lives our organs hold and what that means for our souls." —Lauren R.
Wild orangutan self-treats wound.
"This story reminds us how much we still have to learn about the natural world and the incredible behaviors of the species we share it with. Rakus' self-medicating act shows us that even in the modern age, nature continues to surprise us." —August M.
World's oldest cheese discovered.
"Sometimes you need to know how the stock market is doing, who won the election, and if we're putting people on Mars anytime soon. But sometimes you need to know about cheese. I loved the write-up on the 'World's Oldest Cheese' being discovered in Xinjiang, China. Things like this can be endlessly fascinating." —Scott J.
Notre Dame Cathedral bells ring for first time since 2019 fire.
"Paris is one of my favorite cities, and seeing Notre Dame in 2018 was breathtaking. Knowing this historical cathedral was saved and restored makes me even more excited to visit again." —Erika B.
... and Paris hosts the 2024 Olympics.
"I was thrilled to attend my first Olympics in Paris, along with my parents. France did a fantastic job hosting the games, which saw Team USA lead all countries with 126 medals, including performances by some of my favorites like Simone Biles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and Team USA men's and women's basketball." —Bobby A.
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Another from Brett
Devin Nunes Reemerges
December 30, 2024
Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
2024 proved to be the year of the reemergence of many once and unfairly pilloried public figures.
Elon Musk weathered nonstop attacks on his X social media platform. Furor escalated over his newfound 2024 Trump advocacy—even as he ended 2024 with his iconic Tesla brand still the best-selling car in six states and the most popular electric vehicle in the entire nation.
Tesla's rising stock prices ensured by year's end that Musk was by far the richest man in the world with a net worth of well over $400 billion. His recyclable SpaceX Super Heavy starship rocket booster mesmerized the nation as it returned to the launch pad to be caught by a huge mechanical arm.
After January 6, 2021, the media swore that Donald Trump was supposedly washed up. He left office with a 34 percent approval rating. Over nearly the next four years, Trump would face 91 felony indictments and be liable for over $400 million in assorted fines.
Now he is a reelected president. Former oppositional world leaders traipse to Mar-a-Lago to seek his approval even before his tenure begins. His erstwhile critics at home are scurrying about in disarray.
The Trump-hating media who swore Joe Biden was "sharp as a tack" and "fit as a fiddle" are mostly discredited and are, for now, still bleeding audiences. And Trump's chief political adversaries, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Obamas are increasingly either unpopular or irrelevant—or both.
Yet one unremarked-upon return is that of former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who, after 20 years of representing Central California in Congress, retired on January 1, 2022, from the House to become CEO of the newly formed Trump Media & Technology Group, tasked to oversee its social media platform, TruthSocial.
Nunes has regained public attention over the last two weeks after Trump appointed him to become chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, which oversees the conduct and performance of America's intelligence agencies.
And once more he too is the target of tired residual left-wing venom, as a "pugnacious Trump loyalist" in the words of the New York Times.
Like almost all former chairs of this nonpaying advisory board, Nunes keeps his full-time job. His old critics claim he has conflicts of interest, given he serves Trump in both a private and public capacity.
Of course, these complaints come from those who saw no conflict of interest when Vice President Joe Biden flew to China with his son on Air Force Two to shake down foreign communist oligarchs and apparatchiks by using his office to enrich, tax-free, the Biden family syndicate. And no one alleges that Nunes ever became rich, in the fashion of the two Pelosis, who leveraged privileged congressional insider knowledge to make "wise" investments.
But more importantly, why would Trump not pick Nunes to enact the board's mission statement to oversee "the Intelligence Community's compliance with the Constitution and all applicable laws, executive orders, and presidential directives?"
After all, he shattered the Democratic hoax of Russian-Trump collusion between 2015 and 2018, even as his lead investigator, Kash Patel, the next FBI Director, was himself an object of FBI surveillance.
As Nunes once pointed out, why did Obama's non-intelligence officials, like UN Ambassador Samantha Power, seek to unmask dozens of names of U.S. officials, most of whom were political opponents?
So, who could Trump better trust to oversee the intelligence and investigatory bureaus than someone who knows all too well the descent of these agencies into Trump-Derangement-Syndrome-inspired chronic dissimulation and illegal surveillance?
After all, the former CIA Director John Brennan, the former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the former interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe all, by their own admissions, lied under oath either to Congress or federal investigators. Former FBI director James Comey pled amnesia or ignorance 245 times before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committee.
Trump himself, remember, was the object of a vile and fabricated hit "dossier" of Christopher Steele. Nunes proved Steele was a Democratic Party-paid opposition research functionary and an erstwhile FBI informant. Should not Trump have good grounds to want a known bulldog as an overseer of the suspect intelligence agencies?
Do we remember the "51 former intelligence officials?"
Some were hardly "former" at all, given they still had enjoyed contracts with government intelligence agencies. On the eve of 2020, they blatantly "misled" the nation that Hunter Biden's laptop, authenticated at the time by the FBI, had all the "hallmarks" of a Russian disinformation operation.
Such unapologetic election interference by our best and brightest—including former CIA Directors Leon Panetta and John Brennan—may well have played a role in the outcome of the 2020 election.
But what perhaps infuriates the left most is Nunes' resiliency and ability to sluff off its chronic hysterias. Again, as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he revealed to the nation that Christopher Steele's accusations were little more than gossipy fabrications from a discredited ex-British spy—at a time when the media and the Democrats in Congress had cited his "research" chapter and verse in near-biblical fashion.
Moreover, Nunes showed that Steele himself was hired by Democratic interests through the use of various paywalls—the DNC, the Perkins Coie law firm, and Fusion GPS—to help ruin the 2016 Trump campaign, on the false and ridiculous charge of colluding with the Russians to throw the election. His team further found that the dossier of Steele, again a one-time paid informant of the FBI, was used in part to obtain an FBI lawyer-forged FISA warrant to spy on American citizen Carter Page.
At the time, candidate and then President Trump was under unprecedented attack. At his inauguration, riots broke out. Madonna publicly declared to a crowd that she thought about blowing up the Trump White House.
Trump was branded a Russian "puppet" who should be removed just days after his swearing-in. Indeed, according to a Foreign Policy article by one Obama administration leftover official, the left was supposed to depose him quickly, either by impeachment, the 25th Amendment, or a military coup.
So those were certainly surreal times, at least until Nunes's committee issued a controversial memo that laid out most of the skullduggery but only earned him unprecedented media venom.
Only years later, with the issuance of Inspector General Michael Horowitz's investigative report, the conclusions of the House oversight committee investigations, and the reportage of a few bold journalists, did the public fully confirm there was never anything to the "Russian collusion" charge, other than a Clinton, and then administrative state, effort to destroy Trump by any means other than an election.
In those crazy times of 2017-2020, the media buzzed with predictions that special counsel Robert Mueller's "dream team" and "all-star" lawyers would consume Trump and his supporters.
Nunes himself was written off as a California dairy farmer way over his head, with legacy media headlines blaring, "Trump-Russia Investigation: A Former Dairy Farmer, Rep. Devin Nunes Leads Historic Probe!"
The media sought to contrast Nunes with supposedly brilliant, Harvard-law-trained Adam Schiff, the then-minority party's highest-ranking member on the Nunes committee. Schiff would supposedly devour the chairman—in what the media would boast would become a war between a supposed yokel from the Central Valley pitted against an Ivy League pro. Years later today, Schiff's prior insistence on a real Trump-Russian collusion effort in 2016 and his persistence that the Steele dossier was factual remain even more laughable. A farmer might editorialize that its takes far more savvy and resilience to run a dairy farm than it does to graduate from Harvard.
When Trump appointed Nunes the head of TruthSocial, the same sort of hick/rustic stories reemerged about Nunes. He was now again supposedly "over his head," as the blinkered rustic trying to make it in the cutthroat world of sophisticated social media.
We were told TruthSocial would meet the same fate as Parler. That ascendant 2020 start-up conservative alternative was sabotaged by the left-wing Twitter monopoly that had conspired to ban Trump and partner with the FBI to suppress news unfavorable to Biden's 2020 campaign.
It was left to the trifecta of Apple, Google, and Amazon to destroy Parler by denying its critical application platforms to the general public.
Over the last three years, the media gleefully reported, erroneously, that TruthSocial was nearly bankrupt, hemorrhaging users, piling up operating debt, without operating capital, and losing a critical merger bid. They high-fived the TruthSocial 30-month war with the SEC—one of the most drawn out and politicized in its history—which, in likely partisan fashion, had sought to delay or block TruthSocial's partnership with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC).
As in the case of the Russian collusion hoax, the media was both predictably hostile and wrong, as it serially predicted that Nunes and Truth Social would fail from its very beginning. For nearly three years, it sounded the same "walls are closing" doom and gloom hysterics where it had left off with 'Russian collusion."
We were assured that Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter meant that the huge social media platform would veer right and preclude any need for TruthSocial. For over three years, headlines in scare caps assured, as did a Bloomberg autumn 2022 screed, that "The Walls Are Closing in on Trump's TRUTH Social."
At about the same time, a giddy Washington Post boasted that "Trump once reconsidered sticking with Truth Social. Now he's stuck." And still, the chorus continued a year later with New York Magazine blaring the same narrative, "Trump's Truth Social Is an Unmitigated Failure." And on and on.
Certainly, when Musk purchased Twitter, renamed it the free-speech platform X, endorsed Donald Trump, and welcomed banned conservatives back to the now-reinvented old Twitter, it questioned the original reason-to-be of TruthSocial.
Yet despite media obituaries, 2024 ends with the Trump Media & Technology Group's stock price at some $35-37. In October, the company's worth soared to an incredible $10 billion in market capitalization—albeit a figure representative of speculative interest rather than the size of its profits or market share.
Still, unlike the old Twitter, TruthSocial had little overhead and ran a tight ship. It reportedly has some $700 million in cash on hand. And it enjoys something no other platform can quite rival—the near-exclusive domain of the President of the United States, 8.4-million of his followers, and over 600,000 investors. Most of the media's sensational stories about its massive operating losses were never borne out by its officially released filings.
Tens of thousands of Americans have invested in TruthSocial because of what it stands for and their faith in Donald Trump. In that sense, they confound Wall Street orthodoxies about the magnitude of company size and profitably in gauging stock prices.
There is a sort of nemesis theme to all these hubristic Nunes hit stories: the clueless bumpkin from a California dairy who turns out to have exposed one of the great scandals of political malfeasance in modern history, or the fumbling ex-farmer driving the ridiculous Trump media platform into, at one recent point, a $10 billion net worth—and multibillion-dollar profit for Donald Trump.
Critics are right that the TruthSocial stock is astronomically "overvalued", but seem clueless as to why that is and why it may remain more or less so.
It is a well-run company, and its inseparable brand, Donald Trump, is no longer the media's Satan but increasingly a widely admired, resilient, and indomitable figure, traits that even his exhausted enemies grudgingly concede.
So, looking back at the years of insanity, where now are all the officials and pundits who swore that Nunes was either incompetent or sinister?
Ryan Lizza, who in 2018 published a bizarre hit piece for Esquire by bird-dogging Nunes's parents on their dairy in Iowa, was fired for sexual misconduct from The New Yorker. He was recently embroiled in a messy, he-said/she-said courtroom psychodrama—replete with charges and countercharges of blackmail, theft, and physical intimidation—with his erstwhile fiancé, the peripatetic Olivia Nuzzi.
The dissimulator quad of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and McCabe has receded into irrelevancy, only occasionally reemerging in half-hearted fashion to reassert their stale first-term Trump accusations.
No one believes the pompous Schiff memo was more accurate than the Nunes brief it attacked.
No one vouches for the bogus Steele dossier, or that Steele himself was a skilled and professional ex-intelligence agent, or that Hunter's laptop was cooked up in Moscow, or that Carter Page was a Russian spy working to subvert the 2016 election.
No one trusts that Samantha Power had legitimate reasons to request the unmasking of nearly 300 Trump officials, many of them her political enemies, or that the FBI did not collude with social media to suppress news unfavorable to Joe Biden in 2020, or that the intelligence agencies initially were accurate in parroting the official line that the COVID virus was birthed by a bat or pangolin.
Yet the disillusioned public also wants to know what these intelligence agencies did not do when they were otherwise so busy hunting down fantasy conspiracy theories and knee-deep in domestic partisan politics.
Did they warn us that the entire U.S. effort in Afghanistan was about to collapse, in the greatest humiliation of the U.S. military in a half-century, as it abandoned over $50 billion in weapons to terrorists?
Did they have a clue about what Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah were up to before October 7?
Did they ever sense that Vladimir Putin was about to stage a massive attack on Kyiv on February 24, 2022?
Did they ever have any hint about what two near-successful Trump assassins were up to?
Did they ever honestly report what exactly was going on at the Wuhan virology lab and to what degree our own health officials were complicit in it?
And how does China keep producing state-of-the-art ships, warplanes, drones, and weaponry that seem eerily to resemble or replicate original American designs?
As in the case of the newly appointed reformist directors of the wayward FBI, Pentagon, or National Institute of Health, so likewise the intelligence agencies need and should welcome the civilian oversight of Devin Nunes and his new board—to ensure they start doing what they were tasked to do and not continue to do what they were not.
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This Day in United States Military History
1 January
1735 – Paul Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended North Grammar School. He served for a short time in the French and Indian War. After the war, he married Sarah Orne and entered his father's silversmith business. Paul Revere soon became interested in the issue of American liberty. He received lots of attention from political cartoons he drew. Paul Revere was a member of the "Sons of Liberty." On December 16, 1773, he took part in the Boston Tea Party. On April 18, 1775, Revere and William Dawes were sent to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock of British plans to march from Boston to seize military stores at Concord. A signal was established to warn if the British were coming by land or by sea. From the steeple of the Old North Church in Boston, two lanterns would mean the British were coming by sea, and one would mean by land. One lantern was lit. The British were coming by land. Revere left Boston around 10 PM. Along the road to Lexington, he warned residents that "the British are coming!" He arrived in Lexington around midnight riding a borrowed horse. At 1 AM, Revere, William Dawes, and Dr. Samuel Prescott left for Concord. Revere was captured. Only Prescott got through to Concord. Revere was released without his horse and returned to Lexington. At Lexington he joined Adams and Hancock and fled into safety in Burlington. Revere returned to rescue valuable papers in Hancock's trunk. When the British arrived on April 19, the minutemen were waiting for them. In 1778 and 1779, Revere commanded a garrison at Castle Williams in Boston Harbor. Revere left the service in disrepute. During and after the war, Revere continued his silversmith trade in Boston. He died on May 10, 1818
1945 – In Operation Bodenplatte, The German Luftwaffe makes a series of heavy attacks on Allied airfields in Belgium, Holland and northern France. They have assembled around 800 planes of all types for this effort by deploying every available machine and pilot. Many of the pilots have had so little training that they must fly special formations with an experienced pilot in the lead providing the navigation for the whole force. The Allies are surprised and lose many aircraft on the ground. Among the German aircraft losses for the day are a considerable number of planes shot down by German anti-aircraft fire. Allied losses amount to 300 planes opposed to about 200 German aircraft shot down. Meanwhile, the land battle in the Ardennes continues with the Allied counterattacks gathering force. The most notable gains are by the US 8th Corps. Farther south in Alsace the forces of German Army Group G begins an offensive in the Sarreguemines area (Operation Nordwind) towards Strasbourg. The US 7th Army retires before this attack on orders from Eisenhower.
1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1985 – The Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) is created. DNS is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. Most prominently, it translates easily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for the purpose of locating computer services and devices worldwide. The Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet.
2000 – The arrival of 2000 saw no terrorist attacks, Y2K meltdowns or mass suicides among doomsday cults, but instead saw seven continents stepping joyously and peacefully into the New Year.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
KERR, JOHN B.
Rank and organization: Captain, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At White River, S. Dak., 1 January 1891. Entered service at: Hutchison Station, Ky. Birth: Fayette County, Ky. Date of issue: 25 April 1891. Citation: For distinguished bravery while in command of his troop in action against hostile Sioux Indians on the north bank of the White River, near the mouth of Little Grass Creek, S. Dak., where he defeated a force of 300 Brule Sioux warriors, and turned the Sioux tribe, which was endeavoring to enter the Bad Lands, back into the Pine Ridge Agency.
KNIGHT, JOSEPH F.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Troop F, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At White River, S. Dak., 1 January 1891. Entered service at: – – – . Birth: Danville, 111. Date of issue: 1 May 1891. Citation: Led the advance in a spirited movement to the assistance of Troop K, 6th U.S. Cavalry.
MYERS, FRED
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company K, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At White River, S. Dak., 1 January 1891. Entered service at: Washington, D.C. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 4 February 1891. Citation: With 5 men repelled a superior force of the enemy and held his position against their repeated efforts to recapture it.
SMITH, CORNELIUS C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company K, 6th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Near White River, S. Dak., 1 January 1891. Entered service at: Helena, Mont. Birth: Tucson, Ariz. Date of issue: 4 February 1891. Citation: With 4 men of his troop drove off a superior force of the enemy and held his position against their repeated efforts to recapture it, and subsequently pursued them a great distance.
MacGlLLlVARY, CHARLES A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 71st Infantry, 44th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Woelfling, France, 1 January 1945. Entered service at: Boston, Mass. Birth: Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. G.O. No.: 77, 10 September 1945. Citation: He led a squad when his unit moved forward in darkness to meet the threat of a breakthrough by elements of the 17th German Panzer Grenadier Division. Assigned to protect the left flank, he discovered hostile troops digging in. As he reported this information, several German machineguns opened fire, stopping the American advance. Knowing the position of the enemy, Sgt. MacGillivary volunteered to knock out 1 of the guns while another company closed in from the right to assault the remaining strong points. He circled from the left through woods and snow, carefully worked his way to the emplacement and shot the 2 camouflaged gunners at a range of 3 feet as other enemy forces withdrew. Early in the afternoon of the same day, Sgt. MacGillivary was dispatched on reconnaissance and found that Company I was being opposed by about 6 machineguns reinforcing a company of fanatically fighting Germans. His unit began an attack but was pinned down by furious automatic and small arms fire. With a clear idea of where the enemy guns were placed, he voluntarily embarked on a lone combat patrol. Skillfully taking advantage of all available cover, he stalked the enemy, reached a hostile machinegun and blasted its crew with a grenade. He picked up a submachine gun from the battlefield and pressed on to within 10 yards of another machinegun, where the enemy crew discovered him and feverishly tried to swing their weapon into line to cut him down. He charged ahead, jumped into the midst of the Germans and killed them with several bursts. Without hesitation, he moved on to still another machinegun, creeping, crawling, and rushing from tree to tree, until close enough to toss a grenade into the emplacement and close with its defenders. He dispatched this crew also, but was himself seriously wounded. Through his indomitable fighting spirit, great initiative, and utter disregard for personal safety in the face of powerful enemy resistance, Sgt. MacGillivary destroyed four hostile machineguns and immeasurably helped his company to continue on its mission with minimum casualties.
*YANO, RODNEY J. T.
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Air Cavalry Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. Place and date: Near Bien Hao, Republic of Vietnam, 1 January 1969. Entered service at: Honolulu, Hawaii. Born: 13 December 1943, Kealakekua Kona, Hawaii. Citation: Sfc. Yano distinguished himself while serving with the Air Cavalry Troop. Sfc. Yano was performing the duties of crew chief aboard the troop's command and control helicopter during action against enemy forces entrenched in dense jungle. From an exposed position in the face of intense small arms and antiaircraft fire he delivered suppressive fire upon the enemy forces and marked their positions with smoke and white phosphorous grenades, thus enabling his troop commander to direct accurate and effective artillery fire against the hostile emplacements. A grenade, exploding prematurely, covered him with burning phosphorous, and left him severely wounded. Flaming fragments within the helicopter caused supplies and ammunition to detonate. Dense white smoke filled the aircraft, obscuring the pilot's vision and causing him to lose control. Although having the use of only 1 arm and being partially blinded by the initial explosion, Sfc. Yano completely disregarded his welfare and began hurling blazing ammunition from the helicopter. In so doing he inflicted additional wounds upon himself, yet he persisted until the danger was past. Sfc. Yano's indomitable courage and profound concern for his comrades averted loss of life and additional injury to the rest of the crew. By his conspicuous gallantry at the cost of his life, in the highest traditions of the military service, Sfc. Yano has reflected great credit on himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 1 January, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
1 January
1914: Tony Jannus, flying a Benoist Flying Boat, started America's first regularly scheduled airline service with a flight between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Fla. This service lasted three months with two round trips a day. (5) (21)
1929: KEY EVENT--THE QUESTION MARK. Through 7 January, to test inflight refueling and crew and aircraft endurance, Maj Carl A. Spaatz flew the Question Mark, a modified Fokker C2-3 with a Wright 220 HP engine, to a world duration record of 150 hours and 40 minutes. The Question Mark-named for its unknown capacity to remain airborne-was an US Army Air Corps high-wing, trimotor monoplane with a large capacity fuel tank in the cabin, a large hopper in the cabin for receiving fuel, and lines and hand-operated pumps to transfer fuel to the wing tanks. The two modified Douglas C1 biplane tankers each had two 150-gallon cabin tanks and a 40-foot fueling hose. Flying between Santa Monica and San Diego in California, the tankers refueled the Question Mark 43 times, which allowed it to remain aloft until engine problems forced a landing. During the refueling, the tankers also passed 5,700 gallons of fuel plus oil, food, water, and other items (roughly 40 tons) to the Question Mark. All officers on the mission--Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, Harry Halverson, and Pete Quesada--became generals, as did two officers on the refueling aircraft: Ross G. Hoyt and Joseph G. Hopkins. MSgt Roy Hooe, the fifth crewman on the Question Mark, earned a reputation as the best crew chief in the Air Corps. The crewmembers of the Question Mark were each awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for the mission, while the refuelers received letters of commendation. (18)
1943: Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) equipment used in an emergency for the first time, when a snowstorm closed down Naval Air Station (NAS) Quonset Point Airfield, R. I., 30 minutes before a flight of PBY's were to arrive. The GCA crew used search radar and the control tower as a relay to talk one PBY into position for a contact landing. Nine days earlier, the GCA had completed its first experimental demonstration. (5)
1944: Project ORDCIT. Cal Tech's Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory began work on long range missiles. This project later produced the Army's Private A and Corporal missiles. (6)
1945: Operation HERMANN. 700-800 German fighters surprised Ninth Air Force and 2d Tactical Air Force (RAF) airfields in Belgium and northern France. They destroyed 30 American and 120 RAF planes, but lost 200 planes in the attack. (4) BOMBING IWO JIMA. Through 19 February, Seventh Air Force bombers continued its attacks on Iwo Jima in preparation for amphibious landings. The aircraft destroyed buildings and planes and blasted holes in the runways of the island's airfields, but did not affect the 22,000 deeply entrenched troops of Maj Gen Tadamichi Kuribayashi. (17)
1951: KOREAN WAR. When nearly 500,000 Chinese Communist and N. Korean troops launched a new ground offensive, Fifth Air Force responded with an air raid on enemy columns. (28)
1954: At Jacksonville, Fla., the U. S. Navy set up the Air Weapon Systems School. (24)
1958: The USAF moved the 1st Missile Division and the 704th Strategic Missile Wing to Cooke AFB (Vandenberg), Calif. The 704th was the Strategic Air Command's first ballistic missile wing. The 672d Strategic Missile Squadron also activated there with Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles. (6) I lived there with my family and were there the day they changed the name to Vandenberg. In my timer there I saw Thor, Atlas and Titan missiles launched and more than a few of them were spectacular failures both day and Night.
1962: First Titan II units, the 390th Strategic Missile Wing and 570th Strategic Missile Squadron, were activated at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. (6) (12) The Strategic Air Command activated the first model "B" Minuteman I wing, the 44th Strategic Missile Wing, at Ellsworth AFB, S. Dak. (6)
1965: Operation of Synchronus Communications Satellite (SYNCOM) II and SYNCOM III transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense furnished the communications ground stations used to relay transmissions via the two SYNCOMS for the past two years. SYNCOM III later proved useful in providing communications for Vietnam. (5) The USAF activated the 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif., to fly the SR-71. (16) (26)
1966: Air National Guard airlift units started flying about 75 cargo flights a month to Southeast Asia. Additionally, the guard flew about 100-plus flights a month to augment the Military Airlift Command's global airlift mission. (16) (26) At Tullahoma, Tenn., the Arnold Engineering Development Center established a large rocket facility to operate high-altitude test cells. (16) (26)
1967: The USAF received 140 CV-2 Caribou aircraft from the US Army. This event marked the first time that an entire inventory of an aircraft transferred from one service to another. The aircraft went to Seventh Air Force, which gave the NAF operational control over all fixed wing cargo aircraft in Vietnam. (5) (16) (17)
1969: The 71st Special Operations Squadron, Air Force Reserves, flew the first AC-119 gunship combat mission in Vietnam. (16)
1973: At Pease AFB, N. H., the 509th Bombardment Wing became the first FB-111 unit to use operational Short-Range Attack Missiles. (6)
1983: The US Mission Control Center, International Search and Rescue Satellite System, collocated with the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center at Scott AFB, Ill., began 24-hour test operations. Thereafter, mission control recorded worldwide satellite data from emergency electronic transmissions. (2)
1984: The Military Airlift Command assigned its 375th Aeromedical Airlift Wing to the Twenty-Third Air Force along with the aeromedical evacuation mission, C-9 aircraft, and the operation of Scott AFB, Ill. (2) Space Command assumed resource management responsibilities for the Global Positioning System. (26)
1988: The Strategic Air Command its crew assignment policy to permit mixed male/female crews in Minuteman and Peacekeeper launch facilities. The male and females were segregated before. (16) (26)
1995: The Air Force Reserve activated its first KC-135 Stratotanker unit, the 931st Air Refueling Group. (16)
1997: After a seven-year retirement from active service, the SR-71 Blackbird returned to mission ready status. The aircraft and its personnel operated from Edwards AFB, Calif., as a detachment of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing from Beale AFB. (3)
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