TheList 7209

The List 7209

Good Monday morning June 16 .  The day is dawning clear and it will be 88. Yesterday it made it to 99 . I hope that you all had a great Father's Day.

Read the article below called "Peering through the Fog of War"

Warm regards,

skip

HAGD

 

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 91  H-Grams . .

Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/.

June 16

1943 At Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, Japanese aircraft conduct the largest raid since April 7. Although a large number of enemy planes are shot down, LST-340 and USS Celeno (AK-76) are damaged.

1953 During the Korean War, USS Princeton (CVS 37) launches 184 sorties against enemy front-line positions, a new record for offensive sorties flown from a carrier during the Korean War in a single day.

1959 A P4M "Mercator" is fired on by two North Korean MiG aircraft while on a routine flight over international waters off Korea. The attack wounds one crewman and damages the plane, forcing an emergency landing at Miho, Japan.

1965 The U.S. Navy schedules the reactivation of USS Repose (AH 16), which is the first hospital ship active for the Vietnam War.

1990 USS Monterey (CG 61) is commissioned at Mayport, Fla. The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser is named for the Battle of Monterrey during the Mexican-American War in 1846.

 

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Today in World History June 16

 

455...    Rome is sacked by the Vandal army.

1815...  Napoleon defeats the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny.

1858...  Abraham Lincoln, in accepting the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, declares that, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

1864...  The siege of Petersburg and Richmond begins after a moonlight skirmish.

1907...  The Russian czar dissolves the Duma in St. Petersburg.

1910...  The first Father's Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.

1925...  France accepts a German proposal for a security pact.

1932...  The ban on Nazi storm troopers is lifted by the von Papen government in Germany.

1935...  President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal legislation is passed by the House of Representatives.

1940...  French Chief of State, Henri Petain asks for an armistice with Germany.

1952...  Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl is published in the United States.

1955...  The U.S. House of Representatives votes to extend Selective Service until 1959.

1961...  Ballet star Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union while in Paris.

1971...  An El Greco sketch, "The Immaculate Conception," stolen in Spain 35 years earlier, is recovered in New York City by the FBI.

1977...  Leonid Brezhnev is named president of the Soviet Union.

 

One more

 On June 16, 1884, the first roller coaster in America opens at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, New York. Known as a switchback railway, it was the brainchild of LaMarcus Thompson, traveled approximately six miles per hour and cost a nickel to ride. The new entertainment was an instant success and by the turn of the century there were hundreds of roller coasters around the country.

 

Coney Island, a name believed to have come from the Dutch Konijn Eilandt, or Rabbit Island, is a tract of land along the Atlantic Ocean discovered by explorer Henry Hudson in 1609. The first hotel opened at Coney Island in 1829 and by the post-Civil War years, the area was an established resort with theaters, restaurants and a race track. Between 1897 and 1904, three amusement parks sprang up at Coney Island–Dreamland, Luna Park and Steeplechase. By the 1920s, Coney Island was reachable by subway and summer crowds of a million people a day flocked there for rides, games, sideshows, the beach and the two-and-a-half-mile boardwalk, completed in 1923.

 

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Thanks to Al

Monday Morning Humor--Fathers' Day Wrap-Up

Did you know that…

• Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, of Spokane, Washington, started the tradition of Father's Day in the honor of her dad.
• First local Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington.
• In 1916, US President Woodrow Wilson approved the idea of observing an annual Father's Day.
• In1924, President Calvin Coolidge made Father's Day a national event.
• In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a presidential proclamation declaring the 3rd Sunday of June as Father's Day.
• Father's Day is the fifth most popular card-sending holiday, with an estimated $100 million in card sales. Husbands, grandfathers, uncles, sons and sons-in-law are honored as well as father.

 

 

When God Created Fathers by Erma Bombeck

     When the good Lord was creating fathers He started with a tall frame. And a female angel nearby said, "What kind of father is that? If You're going to make children so close to the ground, why have You put fathers up so high? He won't be able to shoot marbles without kneeling, tuck a child in bed without bending, or even kiss a child without a lot of stooping."

     And God smiled and said, "Yes, but if I make him child-size, whom would children have to look up to?"

     And when God made a father's hands, they were large and sinewy. And the angel shook her head sadly and said, "Do You know what You're doing? Large hands are clumsy. They can't manage diaper pins, small buttons, rubber bands on ponytails or even remove splinters caused by baseball bats."

     And God smiled and said, "I know, but they're large enough to hold everything a small boy empties from his pockets at the end of a day...yet small enough to cup a child's face in his hands."

     And then God molded long slim legs and broad shoulders.

     And the angel nearby had a heart attack. "Boy, this is the end of the week, all right," she clucked, "Do You realize You just made a father without a lap?  How is he going to pull a child close to him without the kid falling between his legs?"

     And God smiled and said, "A mother needs a lap. A father needs strong shoulders to pull a sled, balance a boy on a bicycle, or hold a sleepy head on the way home from the circus."

     God was in the middle of creating two of the largest feet anyone had ever seen when the angel could contain herself no longer. "That's not fair. Do You honestly think those large boats are going to dig out of bed early in the morning when the baby cries? Or walk through a small birthday party without crushing at least three of the guests?" And God smiled and said. "They'll work. You'll see. They'll support a small child who wants to 'ride a horse to Banbury Cross,' or scare off mice at the summer cabin, or display shoes that will be a challenge to fill."

     God worked throughout the night, giving the father few words, but a firm, authoritative voice; eyes that saw everything, but remained calm and tolerant. Finally, almost as an afterthought, He added tears. Then He turned to the angel and said, "Now are you satisfied that he can love as much as a mother?"

     The angel shuteth up.

 

 

     If you think about it, Adam had more trouble than any of the rest of us buying his Father a gift for Father's Day. I mean, what do you get somebody who's Everything?

 

 

Ten Things You'll Never Hear a Dad Say

• Well, how 'bout that?  I'm lost!  Looks like we'll have to stop and ask for directions.
• You know Pumpkin, now that you're thirteen, you'll be ready for unchaperoned car dates. Won't that be fun?
• I noticed that all your friends have a certain "up yours" attitude ... I like that.
• Here's a credit card and the keys to my new car -- GO CRAZY.
• What do you mean you wanna play football? Figure skating not good enough for you, son?
• Your Mother and I are going away for the weekend ... you might want to consider throwing a party.
• Well, I don't know what's wrong with your car. Probably one of those doo-hickey thingies -- you know -- that makes it run or something. Just have it towed to a mechanic and pay whatever he asks.
• No son of mine is going to live under this roof without an earring -- now quit your belly-aching, and let's go to the mall.
• Whaddya wanna go and get a job for? I make plenty of money for you to spend.
• Father's Day?  Aahh -- don't worry about that -- it's no big deal.

 

 

     "Hey Grandpa, can you make a noise like a frog?"

     "I think I can do that. Why?"

     "'Cuz Dad says when you croak, we're going to Disneyworld"

 

 

     My dad bought my mom a piano for her birthday. A few weeks later, I asked how she was doing with it.

     "Oh," said my Dad, "I persuaded her to switch to a clarinet."

     "How come?" I asked.

     "Well," he answered, "because with a clarinet, she can't sing."

 

 

     One day shortly after the birth of their new baby, the mother had to go out to do some errands. So the proud papa stayed home to watch his wonderful new son.

     Soon after the mother left, the baby started to cry. The father did everything he could think of to do but the baby wouldn't stop crying.

     Finally, the dad got so worried he decided to take the infant to the doctor.

     After the doctor listened to the father all that he had done to get the baby to stop crying, the doctor began to examine the baby's ears, chest and then down to the diaper area.

     When he undid the diaper, he found that the diaper is indeed full.

     "Here's the problem", the Dr. said, "He needs a change."

     The father was very perplexed, "But the diaper package says it is good for up to 10 lbs.!"

 

 

Rodney Dangerfield's Thoughts on His Father

• I'm so ugly...My father carries around a picture of the kid who came with his wallet.
• When I was born, the doctor came into the waiting room and said to my father, "I'm sorry. We did everything we could, but he pulled through."
• I remember the time that I was kidnapped and they sent a piece of my finger to my father. He said he wanted more proof.
• Once when I was lost, I saw a policeman, and asked him to help me find my dad. I said to him, "Do you think we'll ever find him?" He said, "I don't know kid. There are so many places he can hide."
• With my old man I got no respect. I asked him, "How can I get my kite in the air?" He told me to run off a cliff.

 

 

What Makes a Dad?

God took the strength of a mountain,

The majesty of a tree,

The warmth of a summer sun,

The calm of a quiet sea,

The generous soul of nature,

The comforting arm of night,

The wisdom of the ages,

The power of the eagle's flight,

The joy of a morning in spring,

The faith of a mustard seed,

The patience of eternity,

The depth of a family need.

Then God combined these qualities.

When there was nothing more to add,

He knew His masterpiece was complete,

And so, He called it ... "DAD!"

(Author unknown)

 

 

Every dad must have his day--the age gap and dad's knowledge

• At 4: Dad knows everything.
• At 7: Dad knows a lot.
• At 8: Dad does not know everything.
• At 12: Well, Dad won't know anyway.
• At 14: Dad is hopelessly old-fashioned.
• At 21: Oh hell, the man's time has long passed, how would he know!
• At 25: Dad knows something, but not very much.
• At 30: I'll just hear what Dad has to say anyway.
• At 35: Let's wait a while and hear what Dad's opinion is.
• At 50: I wonder what dad would have said.
• At 60: Dad, in actual fact, knew everything.
• At 65: I wish I could have discussed it with Dad.

 

 

• Today at work, the boss wanted to know when Father's Day was.  "Easy," I answered. "It's nine months before Mother's Day."
• A father's quote:  "If my son is getting half as much out of college as the college is getting out of me, he'll be a success."
• Father's Day was both a joy and a worry as my kids were growing up.  I was always afraid they were going to give me a present that I couldn't afford.
• I've got three TVs, cable, and a satellite dish; I have three phone lines in the house, a cell phone and one in the car, plus a pager. I use two computers, three ISPs and a fax.  I subscribe to two daily papers and one weekly one. I watch both the local and network news every evening.  And my kids have the nerve to tell me I'm out of touch.
• Another father's quote:  "Neither of my kids ever understood my logic.  Both of them failed to see why they had to go to bed when I was tired."
• A friend of mine had five kids.  When the youngest finally turned 16, and was the last one left at home, my friend posted a sign on the kid's bedroom door: "Check-out time is 18".

 

 

     This teenager lived alone with his father, and the two of them had a very special relationship. Even though the son was always on the bench, his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game. This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered high school. But his father continued to encourage him, but also made it very clear that he did not have to play football if he didn't want to. But the young man loved football and decided to hang in there.

     He was determined to try his best at every practice, perhaps he'd get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed a practice or a game, but remained a bench warmer all four years. His faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for him.

     When the young man went to college, he decided to try out for the football team as a "walk-on." Everyone was sure he could never make the cut, but he did. The coach admitted that he kept him on the roster because he always puts his heart and soul to every practice, and at the same time, provided the other members with the spirit and hustle they badly needed. The news that he had survived the cut thrilled him so much that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games.

     This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but he never got to play in a game. It was the end of his senior football season, and as he trotted onto the practice field shortly before the big playoff game, the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to the coach, "My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today?"

     The coach put his arm gently around his shoulder and said, "Take the rest of the week off, son. And don't even plan to come back to the game on Saturday."

     Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well. In the third quarter, when the team was ten points behind, a silent young man quietly slipped into the empty locker room and put on his football gear. As he ran onto the sidelines, the coach and his players were astounded to see their faithful teammate back so soon. "Coach, please let me play. I've just got to play today," said the young man.

     The coach pretended not to hear him. There was no way he wanted his worst player in this close playoff game. But the young man persisted. Finally feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in. "All right," he said. "You can go in."

     Before long, the coach, the players and everyone in the stands could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never played before was doing everything right. The opposing team could not stop him. He ran, blocked and tackled like a star. His team began to triumph. The score was soon tied.

     In the closing seconds of the game, this kid intercepted a pass and ran all the way for the winning touchdown. The fans broke loose. His teammates hoisted him onto their shoulders. Such cheering you've never heard!

     Finally, after the stands had emptied and the team had showered and left the locker room, the coach noticed that the young man was sitting quietly in the corner all alone. The coach came to him and said, "Kid, I can't believe it. You were fantastic! Tell me what got into you? How did you do it?"

     He looked at the coach, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Well, you knew my dad died, but did you know that my dad was blind?" The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile, "Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could do it.

 

 

     Her hair was up in a pony tail, her favorite dress tied with a bow. Today was Daddy's Day at school, and she couldn't wait to go.

     But her mommy tried to tell her, that she probably should stay home. Why the kids might not understand, if she went to school alone. But she was not afraid; she knew just what to say. What to tell her classmates of why he wasn't there today.

     But still her mother worried, for her to face this day alone. And that was why once again, she tried to keep her daughter home. But the little girl went to school, eager to tell them all. About a dad she never sees a dad who doesn't call.

     There were daddies along the wall in back, for everyone to meet. Children squirming impatiently, anxious in their seats. One by one the teacher called, a student from the class to introduce their daddy, as seconds slowly passed.

     At last the teacher called her name, every child turned to stare. Each of them was searching, for a man who wasn't there. "Where's her daddy at?" she heard a boy call out. "She probably doesn't have one," another student dared to shout. And from somewhere near the back, she heard a daddy say, "Looks like another deadbeat dad, too busy to waste his day."

     The words did not offend her, as she smiled up at her Mom and looked back at her teacher, who told her to go on. And with hands behind her back, slowly she began to speak. And out from the mouth of a child, came words incredibly unique. "My Daddy couldn't be here, because he lives so far away. But I know he wishes he could be, since this is such a special day. And though you cannot meet him, I wanted you to know. All about my daddy, and how much he loves me so. He loved to tell me stories he taught me to ride my bike. He surprised me with pink roses, and taught me to fly a kite. We used to share fudge sundaes, and ice cream in a cone. And though you cannot see him, I'm not standing here alone. "Cause my daddy's always with me, even though we are apart I know because he told me, he'll forever be in my heart"

     With that, her little hand reached up, and lay across her chest. Feeling her own heartbeat, beneath her favorite dress. And from somewhere in the crowd of dads, her mother stood in tears. Proudly watching her daughter, who was wise beyond her years.  For she stood up for the love of a man not in her life. Doing what was best for her, doing what was right. And when she dropped her hand back down, staring straight into the crowd.

     She finished with a voice so soft, but its message clear and loud. "I love my daddy very much, he's my shining star. And if he could, he'd be here, but heaven's just too far. You see he was a fireman and died when airplanes hit the towers and taught Americans to fear. But sometimes when I close my eyes, it's like he never went away." And then she closed her eyes, and saw him there that day.

     And to her mother's amazement, she witnessed with surprise. A room full of daddies and children, all starting to close their eyes. Who knows what they saw before them, who knows what they felt inside. Perhaps for merely a second, they saw him at her side. "I know you're with me Daddy," to the silence she called out.

     And what happened next made believers, of those once filled with doubt. Not one in that room could explain it, for each of their eyes had been closed. But there on the desk beside her, was a fragrant long-stemmed pink rose. And a child was blessed, if only for a moment, by the love of her shining bright star. And given the gift of believing, that heaven is never too far.

---Bruce "Mick" Williams---

 

 

     A small boy is sent to bed by his father. Five minutes later, he hears, "Da-ad...."

     "What?"

     "I'm thirsty. Can you bring drink of water?"

     "No. You had your chance. Lights out."

     Five minutes later: "Da-aaaad....."

     "WHAT?" "I'm THIRSTY. Can I have a drink of water??"

     "I told you NO! If you ask again, I'll have to spank you!!"

     Five minutes later......"Daaaa-aaaad....."

     "WHAT!"

     "When you come in to spank me, can you bring a drink of water?"

 

 

     Personally, I think one of the greatest things about being a father is that I can say anything I want to around the house. Of course, no one pays the least bit of attention.

 

 

     There was a middle-aged couple that had two stunningly beautiful teen-aged daughters. They decided to try one last time for the son they always wanted. After months of trying, the wife became pregnant and sure enough, nine months later delivered a healthy baby boy.

     The joyful father rushed to the nursery to see his new son. He took one look and was horrified to see the ugliest child he had ever seen. He went to his wife and said that there was no way that he could be the father of that child. 

     "Look at the two beautiful daughters I fathered." Then he gave her a stern look and asked, "Have you been fooling around on me?"

     The wife just smiled sweetly and said, "Not this time."

 

 

     A six-year-old boy told his father he wanted to marry the little girl across the street. The father being modern and well-schooled in handling children, hid his smile behind his hand. "That's a serious step," he said, "Have you thought it out completely?"

     "Sure," his young son answered. "We can spend one week in my room and the next in hers. It's right across the street, so I can run home if I get lonely in the night."

     "How about transportation?" the father asked.

     "I have my wagon and we both have our tricycles," the little boy answered.

     The boy had an answer to every question the father raised. Finally, in exasperation, the man asked, "What about babies? When you're married, you're liable to have babies, you know."

     "We've thought about that too", the little boy replied. "We're not going to have babies. Every time she lays an egg, I'm going to step on it!!!

 

 

     The father of five children had won a toy at a raffle.  He called his kids together to ask which one should have the present. "Who is the most obedient?" he asked "Who never talks back to mother?  Who does everything she says?"

     Five small voices answered in unison, "You do daddy!"

 

 

Some thoughts about wives on Father's Day

• When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.--David Bissonette
• After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.--Sacha Guitry
• By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. --Socrates
• Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.--Anonymous
• The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want?"--Dumas
• I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.--Sigmund Freud
• There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking.   It's called marriage.--Sam Kinison
• I've had bad luck with both my wives. The first one left me, and the second one didn't.--James Holt McGavra
• Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming 
• Whenever you're wrong, admit it, 
• Whenever you're right, shut up.
• The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once.—Ogden Nash
• You know what I did before I married?  Anything I wanted to.--Anonymous
• My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.--Henny Youngman
• A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.--Rodney Dangerfield
• A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: 'Wife wanted'. Next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: 'You can have mine.'—Anonymous

 

 

Hope you had a great Fathers' Day,

Al

 

"Life was a lot simpler when what we honored was father and mother rather than all major credit cards."--Robert Orben

"It is a wise father that knows his own child."--William Shakespeare

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.--Mark Twain

 

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Rollingthunderremembered.com .

June 16

Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear

 Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.

     An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO) MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit directly via  https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/. There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo—TFO has over 1,000 individual case files).

.

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

For Monday June 16 

June 16:  https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1812

 

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From the Archives

Thanks to Dr.Rich….Take a look at the enclosed picture of the arming of a P-47….the rounds go almost to the wingtip

With its huge Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp 18-cylinder radial engine, the beefy Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was able to carry eight Brownings and a total ammo load of 3,200 rounds, far more than any other U.S. or Axis fighter. Firing at about 12.5 rounds per second per gun—nearly 100 shells a second—the Thunderbolt could fill the air with steel.

 

 

Machine Guns In The Sky-The evolution of fighter aircraft as a weapons platform advanced rapidly during World War II. - AMZ Newspaper

 

Machine Guns In The Sky-The evolution of fighter aircraft as a weapons platform advanced rapidly during World War II. - AMZ Newspaper

 

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Thanks to History Facts

There's a Russian proverb that speaks to the country's love affair with a certain spirit: "Vodka is our enemy, so we'll utterly consume it." Russia and vodka are almost synonymous with each other, for better or, sometimes, worse. The problems associated with overconsumption have been known to Russia's leaders for a long time — so long, in fact, that Tsar Nicholas II announced his intention to ban the liquor on September 28, 1914, in a telegram that read simply, "I have already decided to abolish forever the government sale of vodka in Russia." He did so at considerable financial risk, as the government's centuries-old vodka monopoly was responsible for a third of its revenue, but he felt it was important that the treasury was no longer "dependent on the ruination of the spiritual and economic forces of the majority of My faithful subjects."

 

The tsar's motivations weren't purely altruistic, however. Russia's 1905 loss in the Russo-Japanese War was attributed in part to soldiers' drunkenness, and Nicholas II didn't want to see a repeat of that in the looming conflict we now know as World War I. It didn't work: Vodka prohibition stunted the country's finances, infrastructure, and morale at a time when all three were of the utmost importance, and Russia was defeated in WWI as well. The prohibition law was repealed following the ascendance of Joseph Stalin, who reinstated the government monopoly in 1925.

 

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This is a great re3ade…skip

 

A very perceptive article from Feldman, a "female Victor Davis Hanson"!

 

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/06/peering_through_the_fog_of_war.html

 

June 15, 2025

Peering Through the Fog of War

By Clarice Feldman

In wartime, it's particularly difficult to ascertain what's happening. Governments have a natural and healthy instinct to hide from public eyes what is going on, even those fully democratic ones that in peace have some constraints on official censorship. Nevertheless, the fact that so many people around the world have video-capable mobile phones and access to the internet makes it harder to hide what is happening.

All week long I've been looking at these videos, reading official IDF reports and statements by leaders of involved countries, and they show that Stacey McCain and Lee Smith, whose takes I link to below, are in full accord with what I've seen. The Israelis pulled off the most astonishing, most brilliant offensive in modern military history; the President orchestrated a genius misdirection allowing the Israelis to cap off 20 years preparation for this attack; Iran's regime is on its back feet from which it will not recover; Israel has saved the world with the assistance of a number of Arab countries and the U.S.; Britain under Keir Starmer has earned the disregard of the western world and was prudently left entirely out of advance knowledge of the attacks. Obama and Biden's loony foreign policy gave the mullahs an almost two-decade opportunity to build their nuclear capacity, which Israel, with Trump's assistance, has destroyed. Finally, the war will continue for about a week or two, but I, at least, have no doubt about the outcome -- the end of the Mullahcracy.

Misdirection

Ido Hilbany wrote of the brilliant misdirection campaign Trump orchestrated with Netanyahu, which allowed Israel to get into position if, as was certain, the mullahs would dither in negotiations to end their nuclear enrichment program.

THE ART OF THE MISDIRECT:

I know some people are so broken they will never be able to muster a compliment for Trump, but the level of misdirection and coordination with Israel on this Iran attack was brilliant. Trump used his public platforms to lull Iran into complacency while privately coordinating with Israel. Trump and Netanyahu went so far as to meet privately this week to finalize things while publicly both leaking that Trump was urging restraint.

The problem here for the press corps is that so many of them hate Trump so much, they cannot nuance the cleverness of this. They must either approach it as Trump is a failure who even Israel does not respect or Trump is a liar who lied to everyone to get Iran.

The reality is everyone honest knows Iran has always been the liar, claiming it had no nuclear ambitions even as it plotted a bomb. The Obama/Biden policies helped Iran, which embedded agents within the Biden Administration. And Trump has turned the tables on it all, including probably taking advantage of Iran's embedded agents to amplify his misdirection.

And now Iran has been set back significantly and the world is safer today.

But scream about Orange Man Bad if you must. The press corps that does not deal with the truth of what happened is just going to further discredit itself. They couldn't detect Biden's decline and cannot accept Trump's calculated misdirection.

It's amazing what allies can accomplish when they actually act like allies.

He played a straight course between those in his party who wanted the U.S. to militarily intervene and those who said we should have nothing to do with this. He let Steve Witkoff play at allowing the Iranian regime to do its usual dithering while he said on April 11 that they had 60 days to end the enhancement program. Doubtless, they thought they were dealing with the Obama/Biden-type vanishing red line. They weren't. On the 61st day, Israel struck.

Lee Smith has been a longtime critic of America's Middle East policies. This week, he thinks Trump finally got it right:

At last, an American president kept his word. He was very clear about it even before his second term started: Iran can't have a bomb. Trump wanted it to go peacefully, but he warned that if the Iranians didn't agree to dismantle their program entirely, they'd be bombed. Maybe Israel would do it, maybe the United States, maybe both, but in any case, they'd be bombed. Trump gave them 60 days to decide, and on day 61, Israel unleashed Operation Rising Lion.

Until this morning, when Trump posted on Truth Social to take credit for the raid, there was some confusion about the administration's involvement. As the operation began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a statement claiming that it was solely an Israeli show without any American participation. But even if details about intelligence sharing and other aspects of Israeli-U.S. coordination were hazy, the statement was obviously misleading: The entire operation was keyed to Trump. Without him, the attack wouldn't have happened as it did, or maybe not at all.

Trump spent two months neutralizing the Iranians without them realizing he was drawing them into the briar patch. Iranian diplomats pride themselves on their negotiating skills. Generations of U.S. diplomats have marveled at the Iranians' ability to wipe the floor with them: It's a cultural thing -- ever try to bargain with a carpet merchant in Tehran? And Trump also praised them repeatedly for their talents -- very good negotiators! The Iranians were in their sweet spot and must have imagined they could negotiate until Trump gave in to their demands or left office. But Trump was the trickster. He tied them down for two months, time that he gave to the Israelis to make sure they had everything in order.

Has Operation Rising Lion enhanced America's peace? If it ends Iran's nuclear weapons programs, the answer is absolutely yes. When American partners advance U.S. interests, it adds luster to American glory.

There's already lots of talk about Trump's deception campaign, and in the days and weeks to come, we'll have more insight into which statements were real and which were faked and which journalists were used, without them knowing it, to print fake news to ensure the operation's success. One Tablet colleague says it's the most impressive operational feint since the Normandy invasion. [snip] It's now clear that the insanely dense communications environment -- including foreign actors like the Iranians themselves, anti-Bibi Israeli journalists, the Gulf states, and the Europeans -- served the purpose of the deception campaign. But most significant was the domestic component. Did the Iranians believe reports that the pro-Israel camp was losing influence with Trump and that the "restraintists" were on the rise? Did Iran lobbyist Trita Parsi tell officials in Tehran that his colleagues from the Quincy Institute and other Koch-funded policy experts who were working in the administration had it in the bag? Don't worry about the neocons -- my guys are steering things in a good way. It seems that, like the Iranians, the Koch network got caught in its own echo chamber.

The Brilliant Israeli Military Campaign

Stacy McCain described what I saw: a brilliant military campaign by Israel. He compared what we saw to Michael Corleone's elimination of rival Mafia heads.

Can you imagine the kind of long-term surveillance and planning that went into this operation? Like, figuring out where the Iranian air force leaders would meet in an emergency, mapping out the location of that bunker, giving them some kind of signal of an impending attack, then watching them scurry to their bunker and -- WHAM! -- you took out the leadership at the outset of the campaign, so "that there was nobody to give the order" for the Iranian counter-attack. Meanwhile, you've got Mossad spies sneaking around all over Iran, ready to play their part in wrecking the enemy's air defenses, so that the Israeli Air Force can fly in without danger of getting shot down.

One standard deviation -- it's a lethal advantage.

He detailed some of the campaign:

As it became clear Israel was about to attack, the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' air force convened in a bunker to coordinate the response.

But Israel knew that emergency protocol, and the location of the bunker. They destroyed it, killing the overall commander and the heads of the drone and air defense forces. "The fact that there was nobody to give the order neutralized an immediate Iranian response," an Israeli official said.

They were among the more than two dozen Iranian commanders targeted in a sprawling attack on Iran's military command-and-control. The heads of the IRGC, the Iranian military, and Iran's emergency military headquarters were all eliminated in the opening salvo.

Another key target was Iran's air defense systems and radars. Israeli intelligence mapped their locations, and most were hit by the Israeli Air Force in the opening strike. That gave the IDF virtually unchallenged freedom of operation in Iran's skies.

Meanwhile on the ground, Israel's Mossad spy agency was conducting a series of covert sabotage operations deep inside Iran to take out air defenses and ballistic missile launchers...

In central Iran, Mossad commando units had positioned guided weapons systems in open areas near Iranian surface-to-air missile launchers.

In another area inside Iran, Mossad covertly deployed weapon systems and sophisticated technologies hidden in vehicles. When the Israeli attack began, these weapons were launched and destroyed Iranian air defense targets.

Iran Stood Alone

It helps that Iran really has no friends that matter.

The coordination went deeper, though. While it is unlikely that Arab nations in the region knew the time and scope of Israeli attacks, they were all prepared to help Israel beat back any Iranian counterstrike, and they did. While many of them are making noises about how unhappy they are regarding the Israeli attacks on Iran, they are also helping Israel defend itself against retaliation.

So far, around 100 Iranian drones have been launched against Israel, and none have hit anything important.

If your knowledge of the Middle East comes from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, or one of many loony U.S. universities, you may be astonished to realize how hated Iran's regime is.

"Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Azerbaijan, Qatar, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates allowed Israel to use their airspace and/or defended Israel against Iranian drone attacks last night. That also suggests Russia was likely OK with the Israeli strike and China at least knew about it." Apparently, left in the dark was onetime ally Great Britain.

One of the architects of Obama's disastrous policy on Iran reared his head, Ben Rhodes. The Great Iowahawk (David Burge) shot it off:

@Iowahawkblog

"No matter how absurd and lunatic the White House inner circle is right now, it will never top assigning a failed creative writing grad student and campaign van drivers [sic] -- to concoct a strategy of appeasing Iran with a billion dollar airdrop of $100 bills."

Iowahawk did, however, find some joy in this because some of this money went to Hezb'allah and was used by them to buy pagers which the Israelis had tricked out to blow up their private parts.

By week's end, numbers of Europeans who share a never-ending delusion that the Middle East is just like us marched, drove, and flew to Egypt expecting to be allowed to breach the border into Gaza to stand with Hamas. They were beaten up by Egyptian police and civilians and tossed out bodily, left in shock and tears. You must see this video of one of them on his knees to a group of Egyptians enforcing the border with Gaza as they roll their eyes at his stupid entreaty that all Islamic believers should stick together.

Israel now so completely controls the skies over Iran that, reportedly, it is refueling over Tehran. The IRGC is so weakened that its officers are not reporting and are being threatened with treason for not showing up. Elon Musk has activated Starlink over Iran so that civilians can more easily transmit outside the country after what's left of the government shut down internet access. I've seen videos of Iranians dancing in the streets, apparently no longer fearful of recriminations. Finally, there are reports of private airplanes ferrying out what's left of the regime elsewhere, perhaps to Russia, where they can play backgammon with Assad, who also fled there from Syria earlier.

 

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My favorite Tiger story is the one that makes it into the list every year or so. The tiger was raised by some special ops guys in Vietnam and they used him to make VC tell them where his buddies were. They put the VC in a chair and put a bag over his head then pulled the hood off and there was the tiger sitting in front of him. They had trained him to open his jaws wide and roar on que. The  VC always talked…skip

From the archives

Thanks to Newell and Cowboy for finding this info

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOI4FYI3FMs

 

BUBBA, The Asian Tiger Cub

(As told by a Special Operations (SOG) soldier,

Circa 1968)

 

We got him in Laos back in 1968 after his mom tramped on a land mine.  He was only two days old, but I had him in my jungle jacket wrapped in a towel, and when we were extracted from that mission, we fed him milk and raised him as if one of us.  He did well because he got much larger than the average Asian Tiger.

 

His weakness was beer (He had two cans a day.) which he slurped down, went to a corner of the hooch, rolled on his back, showed his junk, and snored like it was his last day on earth!

 

If the Bubster wanted to get in your bunk with you, you just rolled over and dealt with it.  It's such a shame so many tigers were killed over there, because most were killed for sport and not in human defense.  When our team cycled out-of-theater the question was what the hell do with Bubba?  He couldn't survive in the wild because he only knew of life with us, the SOG, SF, Seals etc.

 

Here is where we got creative.  We had access to things normal military didn't.  So we got creative, and a phone call went to a research zoo in Sidney, Australia, and they were asked if they wanted a free young Asian Tiger.  When the lady at the other end realized we were for real, she pissed her pants and said yes, but how do we get him?

 

I don't want to reference Air America, but we flew the Bubster to his new home, and I got off the airplane with him walking beside me like a dog on a leash.  They all went nuts when he walked up to the lady and heeled by her side looking at her for instructions.

 

He must have had a very good time and life there because he sired tons of babies.  When I was back in Sidney in '87, I saw a bronze plaque telling about the SF Asian Tiger that came to them in 1969 and had sired lots of great baby tigers.  That part of my life is gone like Bubba, who lived to '85, but every time I hear a Tiger make those special noises of theirs, my head and heart go back to a tiny baby tiger we found in Laos in 1968.  God, I miss him!

 

BTW, Bubba never lived in a cage.  He was always shown love from a bunch of very dangerous men whose hearts had melted when they found him.  To discipline him you grabbed a handful of hair and flesh on his shoulder and simply said no.  He never retaliated; he just complied.  When I said he never lived in a cage, the decision about the zoo where he ended up was a research zoo that was very excited [to have him] because of gene diversity.  It also had the new concept of no animals in cages.  People were the ones in cages or behind glass.

 

It took a bit for him to get back to being a tiger, but after he figured out the male female thing, nature took its course.  He was off to the races and made a ton of tiger babies, who were shared with zoos around the world.  God Bless!  To my knowledge Bubba became the only SF Asian Tiger in the history books.

 

An interesting side note is that SF and MAC V were in many ways involved with the CIA.  The coats and ties back in Langley, VA couldn't understand how our intel-gathering always proved to be so accurate.  

 

Short Explanation:  Picture an NVA prisoner strapped into a chair and being questioned.  Also picture the prisoner telling us in multiple languages to go F**K ourselves.  So, a hood goes back on his head, and the prisoner was told to spill the beans, or we were going to feed him to our tiger.  They all laughed their asses off and said we were crazy.  Enter the Bubster.  We placed his head about two feet in front of the prisoner.   We pull the hood off the NVA prisoner, and at the same time I would pinch the back of Bubbas neck.  He roared in the dink's face with his extremely nasty tiger breath.  The prisoner pissed his pants or worse, then he sang like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

 

God, I miss that stuff.  BTW, our intel-gathering proved so accurate that the pencil-necks were constantly amazed.  But those rear-echelon-pogues never found out why!

 

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From the archives

Thanks to Carl

Christopher Lee

 

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2015/06/fullbore-friday_12.html

Fullbore Friday

Sometimes we forget that we are surrounded by those who served.

We hear plenty about those who did not serve, but claim they had for psychological, monetary, or professional gain - but we often miss the order of magnitude more that served yet go about their lives more or less keeping it to themselves.

Service was part of what make them what they are, but does not define them. Most had standardesque service, some exceptional - but most do keep it to themselves unless it comes out in context of a conversation.

A perfect example is the man who, after a great and full life, recently passed on to his reward; Sir Christopher Lee.

Let's go to BadAssOfTheWeek for the right vibe:

He's also a 6'5" tall world champion fencer, speaks six languages, does all of his own stunts, has participated in more on-screen sword fights than any actor in history, served for five years defending democracy from global fascism as a British Commando blowing the shit out of Nazi asses in World War II, and became the oldest person to ever record lead vocals on a heavy metal track when, at the age of 88, he wrote, performed on, and released a progressive symphonic power metal EP about the life of Charlemagne ...

...

Christopher Lee was born somewhere in England in 1922. His mother was an Italian Countess who was actually descended from the line of Charlemagne, and she was so important that she was allowed to wear the royal seal of Frederich Barbarossa and so MILF-y she had her portrait painted by something like a half-dozen famous Italian artists. One of Lee's ancestors on that side was the Papal Secretary of State who refused to attend the coronation of Napoleon and is buried in the Pantheon in Rome next to Raphael (the painter not the ninja turtle), which seems like kind of a big deal. Lee's father, meanwhile, was a distant relative of Robert E. Lee and was multi-decorated war hero who'd served as a Colonel in the 60th King's Royal Rifle Corps during World War I and the Boer War. Growing up, Lee studied Classics at Wellington College, where he was also a champion squash player, a ridiculously-badass fencer, and spent his spare time playing on the school hockey and rugby.

...

... in 1939 when Christopher Lee quit his day job, caught a boat to Finland, and decided to enlist in the Finnish Army to help them fight off the Soviet invasion of Finland. Lee got geared up to kick some commie asses up and down the frozen wastes of mid-Winter Finland, but didn't see much action, returning home in 1940 to deal with a much bigger and more England-centric problem: Nazis.

 

Christopher Lee enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940, where he worked as an intelligence officer specializing in cracking German ciphers ... In North Africa he was attached to the Long Range Desert Patrol, the forerunner of the SAS, ... After working with the LRDP, Lee was assigned to the Special Operations Executive – better known as Winston Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare – a group that did shit like lead a twelve-man assault that destroyed the German top secret nuclear weapons development facility in Norway and assist brave Eastern European partisans and rebels sabotage Nazi supply lines to prevent them from bringing reinforcements up to fight the Soviets. ... Lee doesn't talk much about his service (when pressed on the subject, he reportedly asks his interviewer, "Can you keep a secret?". When they excitedly say yes, he leans in close and says, "So can I."), but we do know that by the time he retired as a Flight Lieutenant in 1945 he'd been personally decorated for battlefield bravery by the Czech, Yugoslavian, English, and Polish governments and was good friends with Josip Broz Tito, so draw your own conclusions.

Well played, sir. Well played and well done.

 

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From the archives

 Many Fathers did not return

Thanks to Dutch

from 7 years ago - thanks to THE Bear -

Happy Fathers Day – 19 June 2016 – Part I

June 19, 2016Mighty Thunder

THEY WERE OUR FATHERS – 19 JUNE 2016

 

Mighty Thunder is proud to post this documentary trailer from the studios of WRSE, sponsored by Pensacola State College and the following article from the Pensacola Gulf Breeze on the occasion of Father's Day 2016. RTR and Mighty Thunder are beholden to contributor Bruce Herman for providing this moving tribute to the Fathers who left their families to fight and perish during the Vietnam War, and the amazing children they left behind.

RTR and Mighty Thunder congratulate WRSE, Pensacola State College, and especially Jill Hubbs for providing a world class film on a subject near and dear to our hearts and purpose for taking up space on the Internet — to remember those who, we the living, left behind in Southeast Asia in a war fought 50 years ago….

Some 20,000 American boys and girls lost their fathers during the Vietnam War. In a new documentary film produced by WSRE, several of these Gold Star children, now adult men and women, share their stories which serve as powerful testimonies about the true cost of war. WSRE will premiere "They Were Our Fathers" with a special Father's Day broadcast at 7 p.m. on June 19.

The Gold Star designation is given to family members who have lost loved ones in United States military service during wartime. Every five years on Father's Day, members of Sons and Daughters in Touch, a group formed in 1990 to locate, unite and support Gold Star children who lost their fathers serving in the Vietnam War, gather at the nation's capital to honor their parents, reflect on their common grief and support one another, like no one else can.

Under the direction of Executive Producer Jill Hubbs, a WSRE production crew traveled to Washington, D.C. last June to document the gathering and record personal accounts.

The film is narrated in first person by Hubbs, whose father became missing in action during his second tour of duty in Vietnam on March 17, 1968. U.S. Navy Cdr. Donald Richard Hubbs was commanding officer of the VS-23 Black Cats and was stationed aboard the USS Yorktown in the Gulf of Tonkin when his S-2E Tracker reconnaissance aircraft disappeared off the North Vietnam coast.

U.S Navy Cdr. Donald Richard Hubbs with his wife Bereth and daughter Jill. Jill Hobbs is the executive producer of "They Were Our Fathers."

"Each of these sons and daughters has a unique story to tell. We are bonded together by tragedy, but also joined together in patriotism, honor and respect for the fathers we loved and lost," said Hubbs.

During Memorial Day weekend, Hubbs attended the retirement celebration for Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Vice President Joe Biden was a guest at that event.

Hubbs also accepted an invitation from the President of the United States to join him with a group of Gold Star children for breakfast at the White House on Memorial Day, where she presented President Barack Obama a copy of the documentary.

"They Were Our Fathers" was edited by James Roy. Ted King was director of photography. To learn more about the film, visit WSRE

               WSRE Documentaries | They Were Our Fathers

Over 20,000 American boys and girls lost their fathers during the Vietnam War.

video.wsre.org

 

WSRE Documentaries | They Were Our Fathers | WSRE PBS

               WSRE Documentaries | They Were Our Fathers

Over 20,000 American boys and girls lost their fathers during the Vietnam War.

video.wsre.org

 

When you open the site scroll down to the documentary "They Were Our Fathers"

 

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This Day in U S Military History…….June 16

1944 – US battleships, under the command of Admiral Ainsworth, shell Guam. The invasion of the island is deferred, however, because of the approach of the Japanese fleet. On Saipan, the elements of US 5th Amphibious Corps link the two beachheads by capturing Charan Karoa and Afetna Point. There is substantial use of artillery by the Japanese and American counter battery fire in addition to the infantry combat.

1944 – Admiral Clark leads two groups of US carrier forces raiding Iwo Jima, Chichi Jima and Haha Jima. The Japanese fleets link up and refuel. US patrols make two sightings.

1945 – On Okinawa, Mount Yuza is captured by the US 381st Infantry Regiment. Fighting continues on the south of the island. At sea, the Japanese air offensive against American ships slackens, but the Japanese still sink 1 destroyer and damage 1 escort carrier.

 

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

GREGG, JOSEPH O.

Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 133d Ohio Infantry. Place and date: Near the Richmond & Petersburg Ry., Va., 16 June 1864. Entered service at: ——. Born: 5 January 1841, Circleville, Ohio. Date of issue: 13 May 1899. Citation: Voluntarily returned to the breastworks which his regiment had been forced to abandon to notify 3 missing companies that the regiment was falling back; found the enemy already in the works, refused a demand to surrender, returning to his command under a concentrated fire, several bullets passing through his hat and clothing.

JACKSON, FREDERICK R.

Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company F, 7th Connecticut Infantry. Place and date: At James Island, S.C., 16 June 1862. Entered service at: New Haven, Conn. Birth: New Haven, Conn. Date of issue: 1863. Citation: Having his left arm shot away in a charge on the enemy, he continued on duty, taking part in a second and a third charge until he fell exhausted from the loss of blood.

LEWIS, DEWITT CLINTON

Rank and organization: Captain, Company F, 97th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Secessionville, S.C., 16 June 1862. Entered service at: ——. Birth: West Chester, Pa. Date of issue: 23 April 1896. Citation: While retiring with his men before a heavy fire of can1ster shot at short range, returned in the face of the enemy's fire and rescued an exhausted private of his company who but for this timely action would have lost his life by drowning in the morass through which the troops were retiring.

*McCARD, ROBERT HOWARD

Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 25 November 1918, Syracuse, N.Y. Accredited to: New York. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as platoon sergeant of Company A, 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division, during the battle for enemy Japanese-held Saipan, Marianas Islands, on 16 June 1944. Cut off from the other units of his platoon when his tank was put out of action by a battery of enemy 77mm. guns, G/Sgt. McCard carried on resolutely, bringing all the tank's weapons to bear on the enemy, until the severity of hostile fire caused him to order his crew out of the escape hatch while he courageously exposed himself to enemy guns by hurling hand grenades, in order to cover the evacuation of his men. Seriously wounded during this action and with his supply of grenades exhausted, G/Sgt. McCard then dismantled one of the tank's machineguns and faced the Japanese for the second time to deliver vigorous fire into their positions, destroying 16 of the enemy but sacrificing himself to insure the safety of his crew. His valiant fighting spirit and supreme loyalty in the face of almost certain death reflect the highest credit upon G/Sgt. McCard and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

*SARNOSKI, JOSEPH R. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Corps, 43rd Bomber Group, Place and date: Over Buka Area, Solomon Islands, 16 June 1943. Entered service at: Simpson, Pa. Born. 30 January 1915, Simpson, Pa. G.O. No.: 85, 17 December 1943. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty. On 16 June 1943, 2d Lt. Sarnoski volunteered as bombardier of a crew on an important photographic mapping mission covering the heavily defended Buka area, Solomon Islands. When the mission was nearly completed, about 20 enemy fighters intercepted. At the nose guns, 2d Lt. Sarnoski fought off the first attackers, making it possible for the pilot to finish the plotted course. When a coordinated frontal attack by the enemy extensively damaged his bomber, and seriously injured 5 of the crew, 2d Lt. Sarnoski, though wounded, continued firing and shot down 2 enemy planes. A 20-millimeter shell which burst in the nose of the bomber knocked him into the catwalk under the cockpit. With indomitable fighting spirit, he crawled back to his post and kept on firing until he collapsed on his guns. 2d Lt. Sarnoski by resolute defense of his aircraft at the price of his life, made possible the completion of a vitally important mission.

 

The action below was known as the 4 motored dogfight and has been in the list before.

ZEAMER, JAY JR. (Air Mission)

Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Army Air Corps. Place and date: Over Buka area, Solomon Islands, 16 June 1943. Entered service at: Machias, Maine. Birth: Carlisle, Pa. G.O. No.: 1, 4 January 1944. Citation: On 16 June 1943, Maj. Zeamer (then Capt.) volunteered as pilot of a bomber on an important photographic mapping mission covering the formidably defended area in the vicinity of Buka, Solomon Islands. While photographing the Buka airdrome. his crew observed about 20 enemy fighters on the field, many of them taking off. Despite the certainty of a dangerous attack by this strong force, Maj. Zeamer proceeded with his mapping run, even after the enemy attack began. In the ensuing engagement, Maj. Zeamer sustained gunshot wounds in both arms and legs, 1 leg being broken. Despite his injuries, he maneuvered the damaged plane so skillfully that his gunners were able to fight off the enemy during a running fight which lasted 40 minutes. The crew destroyed at least 5 hostile planes, of which Maj. Zeamer himself shot down 1. Although weak from loss of blood, he refused medical aid until the enemy had broken combat. He then turned over the controls, but continued to exercise command despite lapses into unconsciousness, and directed the flight to a base 580 miles away. In this voluntary action, Maj. Zeamer, with superb skill, resolution, and courage, accomplished a mission of great value.

HOWARD, JIMMIE E.

Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant (then S/Sgt.) U.S. Marine Corps, Company C, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 16 June 1966. Entered service at: Burlington, Iowa. Born: 27 July 1929, Burlington, Iowa. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty. G/Sgt. Howard and his 18-man platoon were occupying an observation post deep within enemy-controlled territory. Shortly after midnight a Viet Cong force of estimated battalion size approached the marines' position and launched a vicious attack with small arms, automatic weapons, and mortar fire. Reacting swiftly and fearlessly in the face of the overwhelming odds, G/Sgt. Howard skillfully organized his small but determined force into a tight perimeter defense and calmly moved from position to position to direct his men's fire. Throughout the night, during assault after assault, his courageous example and firm leadership inspired and motivated his men to withstand the unrelenting fury of the hostile fire in the seemingly hopeless situation. He constantly shouted encouragement to his men and exhibited imagination and resourcefulness in directing their return fire. When fragments of an exploding enemy grenade wounded him severely and prevented him from moving his legs, he distributed his ammunition to the remaining members of his platoon and proceeded to maintain radio communications and direct air strikes on the enemy with uncanny accuracy. At dawn, despite the fact that 5 men were killed and all but 1 wounded, his beleaguered platoon was still in command of its position. When evacuation helicopters approached his position, G/Sgt. Howard warned them away and called for additional air strikes and directed devastating small-arms fire and air strikes against enemy automatic weapons positions in order to make the landing zone as secure as possible. Through his extraordinary courage and resolute fighting spirit, G/Sgt. Howard was largely responsible for preventing the loss of his entire platoon. His valiant leadership and courageous fighting spirit served to inspire the men of his platoon to heroic endeavor in the face of overwhelming odds, and reflect the highest credit upon G/Sgt. Howard, the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Naval Service.

 

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for June 16, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

16 June

1922: Lt Clayton Bissell initiated night cross-country flights from Bolling Field to Langley Field and back. (18) (24) Henry Adler Berliner made the first US helicopter flight of importance at College Park before representatives of the US Bureau of Aeronautics. (24)

1928: Successful tests made at Wright Field of superchargers designed to give sea level pressure at 30,000 feet, and a new liquid oxygen system for high altitude flying. (24)

1936: Seversky Aircraft Company received a contract to build P-35s for the Army. It was the Army's first single-seat fighter with a closed cockpit and retractable landing gear. (21)

1941: Consolidated's B-24 Liberator entered the Air Corps inventory. It flew faster and farther than the B-17. Eventually, more than 18,000 B-24s entered the inventory. (21)

1945: FIRST HELICOPTER MEDEVAC MISSION. Through 29 June, R-4Bs and R-6As of the 5th and 6th Aircraft Repair Units (Floating) evacuated 70 wounded soldiers from frontlines on Luzon, Philippines.

1953: North American delivered its 1000th T-28 Trojan to the Air Force. (20)

1959: The first F-105s arrived at Seymour Johnson AFB.

1961: Using simultaneous dynamite blasts, General Robert Lee of Air Defense Command and General Laurence Kuter of North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) symbolically broke ground on NORAD's new Combat Operations Center inside Cheyenne Mountain outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The new facility would host multiple space command and control centers over the years including the Space Defense Operations and the Space Surveillance Centers.

1965: AFSC directed its Aeronautical Systems Division to begin the prerequisite studies for the F-X fighter. (30)

1966: In the first Titan III-C launch from the Eastern Test Range, the USAF placed seven Defense Communications Satellite Program (IDCSP) repeaters and one gravity-gradient satellite into a random, near synchronous, equatorial orbit. This formed the nucleus of a world-wide military communications system that would have 15 other satellites. (26)

1971: The USAF and NASA signed an agreement to conduct joint Transonic Aircraft Technology (TACT) Program to explore application of supercritical wing technology to highly maneuverable advanced aircraft. The F-111 became the test bed aircraft. Operation BONNY JACK. Through 18 July, four C-130s from Pope AFB flew 308 sorties to support the humanitarian airlift of East Pakistani refugees from the Indian border state of Tripura to resettlement areas in Gauhati further inland. On return flights, the C-130s carried more than 1,750 tons of rice to feed refugees remaining in Tripura. On the deployment from the CONUS, the aircraft delivered one million doses of anti-Cholera vaccine to India. (16) (26)

 

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