The List 7267
To All,
.Good Thursday morning August 14… Still overcast and 64 now climbing to 83 by 3.
.The Hook is a week out
I hope you all have a wonderful day.
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/. Go here to see the director's corner for all 92 H-Grams
August 14
1813 In the early morning, the brig USS Argus, commanded by William H. Allen, battles HMS Pelican, off England's coast. During battle, Allens right leg is shot off, but he remains on station until fainting. As Pelicans men board, USS Argus strikes her colors. Allen died four days later.
1886 The Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney signs General Order 354 establishing the Naval Gun Factory at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.
1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill agreed to the Atlantic Charter at Argentia, Nova Scotia.
1945 USS Spikefish (SS 404) sink the Japanese submarine (I 373), in the Sea of Japan. Also on this date, USS Torsk (SS 423) sinks Coast Defense Vessel (No.13), and Coast Defense Vessel No.47.
1945 The Japanese accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and agree to surrender, ending World War II. It is known as V-J Day! Announcing the news to the country in the evening, President Harry S. Truman proclaims a two-day holiday. Explosive celebrations immediately follow as Americans and their Allies rejoice that World War II is finally over.
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Today in World History August 14
1457 The first book ever printed is published by a German astrologer named Faust. He is thrown in jail while trying to sell books in Paris. Authorities concluded that all the identical books meant Faust had dealt with the devil.
1559 Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna enters Pensacola Bay, Florida.
1605 The Popham expedition reaches the Sagadahoc River in present-day Maine and settles there.
1756 French commander Louis Montcalm takes Fort Oswego, New England, from the British.
1793 Republican troops in France lay siege to the city of Lyons.
1900 The European allies enter Beijing, relieving their besieged legations from the Chinese Boxers.
1917 The Chinese Parliament declares war on the Central Powers.
1942 Dwight D. Eisenhower is named the Anglo-American commander for Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.
1945 Japan announces its unconditional surrender in World War II.
1947 Pakistan becomes an independent country.
1969 British troops arrived Northern Ireland in response to sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1973 The United States ends the "secret" bombing of Cambodia.
1987 Mark McGwire hits his 49th home run of the season, setting the major league home run record for a rookie.
1995 Shannon Faulker becomes the first female cadet in the long history of South Carolina's state military college, The Citadel. Her presence is met with intense resistance, reportedly including death threats, and she will leave the school a week later.
2003 Blackout hits Northeast United States
2007 Four coordinated suicide bomb attacks in Yazidi towns near Mosul, Iraq, kill more than 400 people.
2010 First-ever Summer Youth Olympic Games open, in Singapore. Athletes must be 14–18 years old.
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
August 14
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
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 14 .August Three more F-105 losses
14-Aug: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=746
Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
By: Kipp Hanley
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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
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Thanks to Brett and VDH
. Commentary
Trump's Counterrevolution Is Succeeding Beyond Expectations
Victor Davis Hanson
August 13, 2025
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Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson
Victor Davis Hanson, a senior contributor for The Daily Signal, is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and host of "The Victor Davis Hanson Show." His website, The Blade of Perseus, features columns, lectures, and exclusive content for subscribers. Contact him at authorvdh@gmail.com.
Editor's note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today's video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson.
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. We're watching the greatest counterrevolution in some 90 years. We have not seen any president try to radically change the political calculus and the nature of government since Franklin D. Roosevelt did it, from the Left, during the New Deal of the mid-1930s.
And what do I mean by that? President Donald Trump closed the border. Nobody thought he could. He closed it. He has now deported over 100,000 criminal illegal aliens and 1 million have self-deported, of all statuses, who were here illegally.
He's basically declared war on DEI. And he's winning that argument. He has barred biological males from competing in women's sports. He has full public support for doing that and he's making enormous inroads.
The universities are rushing and competing with each other to cut a deal with Donald Trump, and to agree to not gouge the federal government on federal grants through their surcharges of way over 40% or 50%; to follow civil rights legislation, the Supreme Court, and not discriminate by race or gender, as they do in admissions, hiring, promotion, tenure; and to be disinterested and be fair and follow, as I said, free speech canons in the Bill of Rights on campus.
What am I getting at? Donald Trump is winning on all of these social and cultural issues.
Abroad, we see that Iran no longer poses a nuclear threat for the immediate future; that Israel's enemies—whether Hezbollah or Hamas or Houthis—are in disarray or severely attrited; Iran is no longer a threat to the Gulf states or Israel, at least for the immediate future; and we see some progress with Ukrainian war.
People are angry about this counterrevolution for two reasons: It's succeeding and it's succeeding beyond anybody's wild expectation.
Naysayers, The Wall Street Journal news page said we would be in a recession now, the tariffs would cause a trade war, and we would see the stock market collapse. The opposite has happened: $15 trillion of foreign investment promised and $300 billion in tariff revenue anticipated.
We don't know the eventual effects of these new tariffs, but for now, all of our economists who predicted gloom and doom were wrong. All of our cultural critics who said the universities would be destroyed by Donald Trump, that he would arrest innocent people who just happened to forget to get a visa, and he wouldn't go after criminals—they are wrong too.
So, people are angry about this counterrevolution because it's working. But there's another reason why they're angry. He's not addressing the symptoms, as he did in the first administration.
He doesn't have people around him, as he did in the first administration—a Rex Tillerson; a Bill Barr, a good man, but Bill Barr was not on the MAGA agenda; Jim Mattis; people like "anonymous" Omarosa Manigault Newman—all of these people who thought that they knew better than Donald Trump and they would either stop what he was trying to do or reinterpret what he was trying to do.
In other words, he has a team that is devoted to his counterrevolution, and more importantly, to the symptoms of the progressive project.
The symptoms of the progressive project are not just the Democrats exercising power in Congress or holding the White House, it's how they get that power.
And they get that power through PBS and NPR, now defunded; cable news and slanted network news, now under assault when they lie and defame and face court ramifications; the universities that indoctrinate people, now facing large fines, tax on their endowments, a renewed way of a new government attention toward student loans, $1.7 trillion program surcharges, as I said, and segregation on campus in dorms, graduation ceremonies. The universities are now under scrutiny. We're seeing the Department of Education itself being questioned.
And I mentioned before, in addition to education and the media, Donald Trump is attacking the very idea that residency is synonymous with citizenship. That if you came here illegally, if you reside illegally, then you are eventually going to face a deportation—even if you have not been a violent criminal, and even if you haven't been served with deportation papers.
So, what he is trying to do is tell the American people that the Left exercises power, even when they do not control government, any branch of government. And they exercise power, even though on most of the issues, if not all of them, their constituency is only 40%. The majority of the American people oppose their agenda.
And they do this through the bureaucracies, through the media, through the universities, through the popular culture. And these are the very sources that Donald Trump is asking them to reform. And the government is going to shrink. The government's gonna get out of the media business. The government's gonna take a hard look at universities who want and obtain federal funds.
And we're going to see the counterrevolution, I think, succeed, with one caveat. We're going to see in the next year a frenzy, a frantic, almost out-of-mind reaction from the Left because they know that if this counterrevolution succeeds, it'll be very difficult for them to push down an unpopular agenda down the throats of the American people.
So, brace yourself. We're looking at the resistance coming up to the counterrevolution, and it's going to be fierce and unhinged.
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From the archives
Hopefully YP's attachment makes it through. It is great…skip
Thanks to Dr Rich and to YP
Al "Soapy" Carpenter was a member of VA-72, CAG-7 on CVA-62, the INDEPENDENCE, neighbors across the thin bulkhead that separated Ready Room Four into Ready Room Four Port for VA-72 and Ready Room Four Starboard for VA-86. There was a connecting door/hatch between the two sides, and some traffic, because VA-86 had Electronic Scoots as a Shrike Squadron and hosted the Bullpup electronic training machine, which was kind of an antidiluvian Pong game, and the Blue Hawks were straight A-4E's with guest privileges. We were friendly rivals who never missed a chance to play the game and pimp each other.
Al and I have been exchanging stories, and some of his are new to me and too good not to pass on. I will include some of my stuff from the same era.
Al got bagged on his second cruise and spent the rest of his SEA time as a guest of the Hanoi Hilton. He is the real deal, has great stories, and gets my hand salute!
YP
Al Carpenter:
Snakes and Bluehawks both had road recces on one particular day and, as occasionally happened, aircraft went down, on deck, and the dregs would get together and do SOMETHING, just to get "greenies" on the board and in the logbooks. Such was the case with Skip and me, on this day, and off we went to Laos, to see what we could stir up. Unsuccessful in spotting anything, until shortly before needing to head back, what should appear on a flat, wide-open road in the Laotian bush country, but a pile of brush conspicuously piled right in the middle of our red clay road! Something suspicious about that (ya think!), so we attacked it with all the MK-82s we had, but to no avail – closest hit somewhere around 100 ft. off target. Stalwart lead that he was, Skip then suggested unloading our incredibly vicious supply of 20mm (70 rds, I believe!) on the pile, which he proceeded to do. Can't recall whether he had guns jam, or just plain missed the brush, but no joy with his attempt, anyway.
In those days, the one thing I could do pretty well was strafe, so with sight set and guns charged, I made my low angle run and fired out, joyfully witnessing the heat path from the rounds passage through the air ahead, boring right into the middle of the brush pile! There was a slight heave, upon entry, then the whole thing went up in a huge fireball, with me and my trusty Scooter bouncing off the top of it, I having, of course, fixated on the target after firing, rather than taking appropriate evasive action as I should have!
Since we were running late, we didn't do extensive BDI, so I don't know exactly what was in there, but I rather doubt there was enough left to do more than guess about, anyhow! It was time to "go back sheep" and debrief. It remains, however, one of those treasured memories, so intermingled with a few truly claimable missions and associated ghosts.
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My recollection on the limited 20mm is that it related to the RadHaz clips we had to employ on the belting. Without them, we could go full on, but because of the distinct possibility of the ship's radar cooking off some rounds if no clips were installed, there was only room for 35 rds. Per gun.
Yes, strafing at Duck was fun! If you remember, Bob Crippen, later to become Chief Astronaut, was a squadron mate of mine. He received his callsign, "Slats", after one impressive run on the Duck strafing target, leaving the aircraft slats behind, at six o'clock to the banner, following his instinctive application of max G, doing just what I did on that target in Laos!
My most memorable strafing run though, was early one morning, somewhere around Thanksgiving, 1965, while supporting the Special Forces triangular fort near Plei Mei, SVN. It had been under attack all night, with a Spad and a helo shot down, as I recall. Just getting light as we got there with our flight of four, led by Lane Hubbard. The on-scene FAC had us dropping bombs adjacent to the fort, until, as the light got better, the gooks started to rush the fort, breaching one of the ditches which defined one border of it. The FAC called for emergency 20mm, but nobody had a working system except for me, and I was just pulling out of a bombing run. No sweat, employed proper switchology, reset the gunsight, and found I was in near perfect position to start my strafing run. Had to roll hard, past 90 degrees, to get the nose low and into the trench, relaxed G enough to charge the guns, then started firing. With a good 3G on I raked the sight through the trench, from one end to the other, and she was done when I hit the end - fired out, and what a show it was! You talk about HEI sparkling, etc., throw in some bodies flying from it launching a bunch of NVA troops, and being close enough in to see it all in slow motion!! The greatest transmission I ever received was the FAC's screamed comment, "You did it! You stopped 'em - spectacular!"
Great memories!
About the same time, as I recall, I was leading another recce, somewhere in western/central NVN, with a strange load – maybe for a SVN mission which got switched, for some reason (weather?), to NVN, instead. I remember only that I had full 20mm and NAPE, along with some bombs, I suppose! We were recce'ing a narrow river valley, where it exited the mountains and turned south on the flat, toward Than Hoa, perhaps. The river split, at a small village, making an island of a portion of the town and, right there, in the middle of everything, several barges were lined up alongside the mainland bank, on the south side of the river. Too yummy to resist!! Having already expended our bombs (except for my nape!), wingie stayed high, while I made a normal shallow angle nape run on the barges, pulling up all sorts of small arms, and one 37mm from somewhere nearby.
Just as I started my pullout, I looked downstream, to just out of town, where, "…what to my wondering eyes should appear", under a thick canopy alongside the steep bank, what seemed, in an instant, to be a large multi-level ferry of sorts, either scrapped or pulled in there for repairs or concealment, but it was VERY enticing, and I was almost too close, already, to set up to strafe it. Nonetheless, being strong of heart, quick of movement, and weak of mind, and despite being in a hard right turn, below canopy level, I quickly charged my guns, and completed my roll, firing all the way around, right into the middle of that sucker! It was frapping GLORIOUS!!!
Unfortunately, nothing exploded, caught fire, or otherwise made the effort worthwhile – likely because I had fired out on a junked vessel from the days of French occupation – but the adrenaline rush was spectacular, searing the memory of those few seconds in the dark recesses of my mind FOREVER!!
"And its all true, I'm telling you – I swear by my tattoo!"
And This from YP:
A HOOK MAGAZINE Story:
Please see attachment
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From the archives
. Thanks to History Facts
Queen Elizabeth II
Few figures loom larger in modern history than Queen Elizabeth II, who died at age 96 on September 8, 2022, after reigning for a record-setting 70 years. A symbol of duty and stability both in her native England and abroad, the monarch born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was a ubiquitous presence even as she remained unknowable - an aura that allowed for a great deal of artistic license in fictional depictions such as the 2006 movie The Queen and Netflix's historical series The Crown. From serving in World War II to creating her own breed of dog to favoring the same $9 nail polish for more than 30 years, here are some fascinating tidbits about Her Royal Highness, whose impact on the world will be felt for generations to come.
She Probably Met More People Than Anyone Else in History With royalty comes ceremony, and the queen attended more than her fair share of them throughout her seven-decade reign. With all the weddings, foreign tours, and other public events that filled her calendar, it's probable that she met more people than anyone else in history - including 13 Presidents of the United States. Whether you consider meeting so many people a pro or con of her position likely depends on your own attitude toward large gatherings.
She Celebrated Two Birthdays
While the queen's actual birthday fell on April 21, she also had a second "official" birthday in the summer. It was marked with a ceremony called Trooping the Colour, a practice that has existed for over 260 years to ensure that British sovereigns whose birthdays fall during colder months also have a ceremony that happens during nicer weather. More than 1400 soldiers, 200 horses, and 400 musicians participated in the military parade, which usually happened in June. (The "colors" in the ceremony's name refers to the hues of the flags used by regiments in the British Army; "trooping"
refers to officers marching up and down waving the flags.) The public turn out in droves to take part, and members of the royal family also joined the procession on horseback or in carriages.
Crown Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, later Queen Elizabeth II, with her pony, at age 10.Credit: Bettmann via Getty Images She Never Went to School British royals throughout history were often educated at home, and that included Queen Elizabeth. She was taught by private tutors, with a focus on British law and history. The young Elizabeth also learned to ride horses, and was privately instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The queen also studied music, art, and French throughout her life. (She spoke fluent French, often switching between English and French while delivering speeches in French-speaking countries.)
Princess Elizabeth in the A.T.S., She Served With the British Army During World War II In 1945, Queen Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) - the women's branch of the British Army - to serve as a subaltern (or junior officer) during World War II. During her time in the army, the queen learned to drive and to maintain vehicles as a truck driver and mechanic.
When the war ended, the then-princess and her sister, Princess Margaret, secretly joined revelers in the street to celebrate the Allied victory. She even did the conga at the Ritz. The queen later called it "one of the most memorable nights of my life."
90% of All Living People Were Born After She Became Queen There are many statistics that put the record-breaking length of Queen Elizabeth II's reign in focus, but none quite like the fact that nine in 10 living human beings were born after she became queen. The vast majority of people in the world, whether in England or anywhere else, had literally never known another British monarch until her son became king.
Queen Elizabeth II seen driving her Range Rover as she attends the Royal Windsor Horse Show.Credit: Max Mumby/Indigo/ Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images She Didn't Need a Driver's License or Passport While the queen was often chauffeured around in a custom Bentley limousine, she also once enjoyed driving herself around in her beloved Range Rover. But unlike every other person who drives in the U.K., Her Royal Highness did not require a driver's license nor a license plate on her car. As the name in which British passports are issued, she also did not require a document of her own for international travel.
She Once Acted With James Bond
In 2012, the queen acted in a short video segment with Daniel Craig in his role as James Bond. Filmed for the London Olympics, the Danny Boyle-directed clip showed the queen doing her best 007 as she skydived from a helicopter into the stadium where the opening ceremony was being held. While the queen did have her own lines for the appearance - and was said to be a natural - the actual jump was performed by a stuntman.
She Didn't Eat Pasta, Potatoes, or Garlic. Darren McGrady, who served as the queen's personal chef for 15 years, revealed in 2017 that Her Royal Highness stayed away from starchy foods unless they were served at a state dinner. Instead, she ate an abundance of grilled fish, chicken, and vegetables, as well as salad and fresh fruit.
McGrady also said that she did not like food prepared with garlic or too many onions. Her daughter-in-law Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed the anti-garlic stance during an appearance on MasterChef Australia, saying it is common among royals due to their frequent public appearances.
Her Favorite Nail Polish Was a $9 Bottle of Essie Since 1989, the queen preferred Essie's "Ballet Slippers" as her nail polish of choice. The pale, almost translucent shade of pink became standard within the royal family, where it is reportedly against the dress code to wear dark or bright nail polish. According to Essie, "Ballet Slippers" remains one of the company's most popular colors, and a bottle of it is sold every two seconds.
She Owned More Than 30 Corgis and Invented the "Dorgi"
Throughout her life and reign, Elizabeth always kept corgis. She got her first corgi in 1933, when her father brought one home as a family pet. When she was 18, she got her own pet corgi, Susan, from which all her other dogs over the years would be descended. She has also owned almost a dozen "dorgis" - a cross between a dachshund and a corgi that was first introduced to the royal household when one of the queen's dogs mated with Princess Margaret's dachshund.
She Used Her Purse To Send Signals to Her Staff The queen was hardly ever seen without one of her signature Launer handbags; she was said to own about 200 of them. While she reportedly used her purse to carry a mirror, lipstick, mints, and reading glasses, she also discreetly sent signals to her staff with it. According to one royal historian, Her Royal Highness would switch her purse from her left arm to her right if she wished to be politely ushered away from a conversation. If she placed her purse on the floor, it meant she needed saving from an uncomfortable situation. And if the handbag ended up on the table at dinner, it reportedly meant she wished to be whisked away within the next five minutes.
She Drank a Glass of Champagne Before Bed It's only fitting that the queen of England would choose a classy nightcap.
Her first cousin Margaret Rhodes reportedly once said that Queen Elizabeth ended most days by enjoying a glass of Champagne before going to sleep - most likely Bollinger Champagne, the official supplier to the royal household. Her Majesty also reportedly enjoyed a gin and Dubonnet with a slice of lemon before lunch, a glass of wine with lunch, and a dry martini in the evening.
15 Prime Ministers Served Under Her
Beginning with Winston Churchill and ending with Liz Truss, whom the Queen met just two days before her death, 15 prime ministers served under Queen Elizabeth II. The other 13 are, in order, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major (the first PM who was younger than the Queen), Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson. After retiring, Churchill said of the Queen that "All the film people in the world, if they had scoured the globe, could not have found anyone so suited to the part."
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Thanks to History Facts
Hurricanes used to only be named after women.
Before the 20th century, there was no uniform method for naming hurricanes in the U.S., though some other parts of the world saw creative naming conventions. Residents of the West Indies, for example, named hurricanes after patron saints. And 19th-century British meteorologist Clement Wragge used characters from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as the last names of his political enemies, for typhoons in the Pacific Ocean. He also began a tradition that eventually made its way across the Atlantic: using women's names for hurricanes.
Until the 1940s, hurricanes in the U.S. were generally referred to simply by the year and/or place they occurred, such as the "Great Miami Hurricane of 1926." That changed during World War II, when Navy and Air Force meteorologists began to name the tropical storms they tracked after their girlfriends and wives for easier reference. For a time, the U.S. military also experimented with naming storms after its phonetic alphabet — Able, Baker, Charlie, and so on — but this was replaced with a system thought to be less confusing and easier for the public to remember. In 1954, the National Weather Bureau chose to use women's names as the standard for hurricanes; that year saw Alice, Barbara, Carol, and others.
But why women's names, specifically? The decision was partially inspired by the trend that began during the war, though it was also rooted in sexist stereotypes about the temperamental nature of women. The practice continued in the U.S. until the 1970s, when members of the women's movement spoke out against the negative characterization of women that pervaded every facet of society, including storm-naming. In 1979, the National Weather Service and the World Meteorological Association changed the naming convention to include an even split of women's and men's names, using six groups of 26 names that rotate annually.
By the Numbers
Highest total rainfall (in inches) during 2017's Hurricane Harvey
60.58
Maximum wind gust (in mph) recorded during 2023's Hurricane Otis
205
Year of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive storms in U.S. history
2005
Total damage caused by tropical cyclones in the U.S. since 1980
$1.3 trillion
DID YOU KNOW?
The hurricane scale may need a Category 6.
The National Weather Service currently uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to classify hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5, based on wind speed. (Other factors, including storm surge, rainfall flooding, and tornadoes, aren't taken into account.) But the increasing risks posed by ever-stronger storms has led some members of the scientific community to suggest expanding the scale to include a Category 6. Atmospheric scientists note that the rise in global temperatures due to climate change has increased the ferocity, unpredictability, and spread of tropical storms. Warmer air contains more moisture, which could lead to an increase of up to 20% in precipitation and higher storm surges by the end of the 21st century. A Category 4 storm has winds of 130 to 156 mph, while Category 5 has winds of 157 mph or higher. Between 2014 and 2024, five storms have exceeded wind speeds over 192 mph, demonstrating the potential need for additional classifications as the strength of storms increases.
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This Day in U S Military History
14 August
1784 – On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska. The European discovery of Alaska came in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Russian hunters were soon making incursions into Alaska, and the native Aleut population suffered greatly after being exposed to foreign diseases. The Three Saints Bay colony was founded on Kodiak Island in 1784, and Shelikhov lived there for two years with his wife and 200 men. From Three Saints Bay, the Alaskan mainland was explored, and other fur-trade centers were established. In 1786, Shelikhov returned to Russia and in 1790 dispatched Aleksandr Baranov to manage his affairs in Russia. Baranov established the Russian American Company and in 1799 was granted a monopoly over Alaska. Baranov extended the Russian trade far down the west coast of North America and in 1812, after several unsuccessful attempts, founded a settlement in Northern California near Bodega Bay. British and American trading vessels soon disputed Russia's claims to the northwest coast of America, and the Russians retreated north to the present southern border of Alaska. Russian interests in Alaska gradually declined, and after the Crimean War in the 1850s, a nearly bankrupt Russia sought to dispose of the territory altogether. The czarist government first approached the United States about selling the territory during the administration of President James Buchanan, but negotiations were stalled by the outbreak of the American Civil War. After the war, Secretary of State William H. Seward, a supporter of territorial expansion, was eager to acquire the tremendous landmass of Alaska, one-fifth the size of the rest of the United States. On March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. Despite the bargain price of roughly two cents an acre, the Alaskan purchase was ridiculed in Congress and in the press as "Seward's folly," "Seward's icebox," and President Andrew Johnson's "polar bear garden." In April 1867, the Senate ratified the treaty by a margin of just one vote. Despite a slow start in settlement by Americans from the continental United States, the discovery of gold in 1898 brought a rapid influx of people to the territory. Alaska, rich in natural resources, has been contributing to American prosperity ever since. On January 3, 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th state.
1900 – During the Boxer Rebellion, an international force featuring British, Russian, American, Japanese, French, and German troops relieves the Chinese capital of Peking after fighting its way 80 miles from the port of Tientsin. The Chinese nationalists besieging Peking's diplomatic quarter were crushed, and the Boxer Rebellion effectively came to an end. By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China's ruling Ch'ing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country's economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized military and millions died. In 1898, Tz'u Hsi, the dowager empress, gained control of the Chinese government in a conservative coup against the Emperor Kuang-hsu, her adoptive son and an advocate of reforms. Tz'u Hsi had previously served as ruler of China in various regencies and was deeply anti-foreign in her ideology. In 1899, her court began to secretly support the anti-foreign rebels known as the I Ho Ch'uan, or the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." The I Ho Ch'uan was a secret society formed with the original goal of expelling the foreigners and overthrowing the Ch'ing dynasty. The group practiced a ritualistic form of martial arts that they believed gave them supernatural powers and made them impervious to bullets. After witnessing these fighting displays, Westerners named members of the society "Boxers." Most Boxers came from northern China, where natural calamities and foreign aggression in the late 1890s had ruined the economy. The ranks of the I Ho Ch'uan swelled with embittered peasants who directed their anger against Christian converts and foreign missionaries, whom they saw as a threat to their traditional ways and blamed for their misery. After the dowager empress returned to power, the Boxers pushed for an alliance with the imperial court against the foreigners. Tz'u Hsi gave her tacit support to their growing violence against the Westerners and their institutions, and some officials incorporated the Boxers into local militias. Open attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians began in late 1899, and by May 1900 bands of Boxers had begun gathering in the countryside around Peking. In spite of threats by the foreign powers, the empress dowager began openly supporting the Boxers. In early June, an international relief force of 2,000 soldiers was dispatched by Western and Japanese authorities from the port of Tientsin to Peking. The empress dowager ordered Imperial forces to block the advance of the foreigners, and the relief force was turned back. Meanwhile, the Peking-Tientsin railway line and other railroads were destroyed by the Chinese. On June 13, the Boxers, now some 140,000 strong, moved into Peking and began burning churches and foreign residences. On June 17, the foreign powers seized forts between Tientsin and Peking, and the next day Tz'u Hsi called on all Chinese to attack foreigners. On June 20, the German ambassador Baron von Ketteler was killed and the boxers began besieging the foreign legations in the diplomatic quarter of the Chinese capital. As the foreign powers organized a multinational force to crush the rebellion, the siege of the Peking legations stretched into weeks, and the diplomats, their families, and guards suffered through hunger and degrading conditions as they fought desperately to keep the Boxers at bay. Eventually, an expedition of 19,000 multinational troops pushed their way to Peking after fighting two major battles against the Boxers. On August 14, the eight-nation allied relief force captured Peking and liberated the legations. The foreign troops looted the city and routed the Boxers, while the empress and her court fled to the north. The victorious powers began work on a peace settlement. Due to mutual jealousies between the nations, it was agreed that China would not be partitioned further, and in September 1901 the Peking Protocol was signed, formally ending the Boxer Rebellion. By the terms of agreement, the foreign nations received extremely favorable commercial treaties with China, foreign troops were permanently stationed in Peking, and China was forced to pay $333 million as penalty for its rebellion. China was effectively a subject nation. The Boxers had failed to expel the foreigners, but their rebellion set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutions of the 20th century
1940 – Sir Henry Tizard heads a British scientific mission to the United States, carrying with him details of all of Britain's most advanced thinking in several vital fields. There are ideas on jet engines, explosives, gun turrets and above all a little device called the cavity magnetron. This valve is vital for the development of more advanced types of radar, including the versions used in proximity fuses later and the types working on centimetric wavelengths which will be vital at sea in the U-boat war. The US Official History will later describe this collection as the "most valuable cargo ever brought to our shores."
1965 – The advance units of the Seventh Marines land at Chu Lai, bringing U.S. Marine strength in South Vietnam to four regiments and four air groups. The Marines were given the responsibility of conducting operations in southern I Corps and northern II Corps, just south of the Demilitarized Zone. Hanoi Radio broadcasted an appeal to American troops, particularly African Americans, to "get out." This was purportedly a message from an American defector from the Korean War living in Peking. In South Korea, the National Assembly approved sending troops to fight in South Vietnam; in exchange for sending one combat division to Vietnam, the United States agreed to equip five South Korean divisions.
2007 – The deadliest single attack of the whole war occurred. Nearly 800 civilians were killed by a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the northern Iraqi settlement of Kahtaniya. More than 100 homes and shops were destroyed in the blasts. U.S. officials blamed al-Qaeda. The targeted villagers belonged to the non-Muslim Yazidi ethnic minority. The attack may have represented the latest in a feud that erupted earlier that year when members of the Yazidi community stoned to death a teenage girl called Du'a Khalil Aswad accused of dating a Sunni Arab man and converting to Islam. The killing of the girl was recorded on camera-mobiles and the video was uploaded onto the internet.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*HAMMOND, LESTER, JR.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company A, 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. Place and date: Near Kumwha, Korea, 14 August 1952. Entered service at: Quincy, Ill. Born: 25 March 1931, Wayland, Mo. G.O. No.: 63, 17 August 1953. Citation: Cpl. Hammond, a radio operator with Company A, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and outstanding courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. Cpl. Hammond was a member of a 6 man reconnaissance patrol which had penetrated approximately 3,500 yards into enemy-held territory. Ambushed and partially surrounded by a large hostile force, the small group opened fire, then quickly withdrew up a narrow ravine in search of protective cover. Despite a wound sustained in the initial exchange of fire and imminent danger of being overrun by the numerically superior foe, he refused to seek shelter and, remaining in an exposed place, called for artillery fire to support a defensive action. Constantly vulnerable to enemy observation and action, he coordinated and directed crippling fire on the assailants, inflicting heavy casualties and repulsing several attempts to overrun friendly positions. Although wounded a second time, he remained steadfast and maintained his stand until mortally wounded. His indomitable fighting spirit set an inspiring example of valor to his comrades and, through his actions, the onslaught was stemmed, enabling a friendly platoon to reach the beleaguered patrol, evacuate the wounded, and effect a safe withdrawal to friendly lines. Cpl. Hammond's unflinching courage and consummate devotion to duty reflect lasting glory on himself and uphold the finest traditions of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 14 August, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
14 August
1911: Through 25 August, Harry N. Atwood flew from St. Louis to New York, covering 1,155 miles, in the longest cross-country flight to date. (24)
1917: Lt. E.O. McDonnell (USN) launched a torpedo from a seaplane at Huntington Bay, Long Island. Afterwards, the Navy became seriously interested in launching torpedos from aircraft. 1919: An Aeromarine flying boat delivered the first airmail to a steamer at sea, when it dropped mail off to the White Star Liner Adriatic. (24)
1942: When Lt Elza Shahn ferried his P-38 to England, he spotted a German FW-200 Condor near Iceland. These German long-range reconnaissance aircraft gathered data on weather and allied shipping to help U-boats attack ships in the Atlantic. Shahn turned and shot the Condor down, becoming the first American Army pilot to shoot down a German plane in World War II. (4)
1945: FINAL B-29 COMBAT MISSION AGAINST JAPAN. This Twentieth Air Force mission included a record number of effective aircraft: 754 B-29s and 169 fighters. One phase of the mission, against Tsuchizaka, produced the longest unstaged mission (3,650 miles) of the war from the Marianas. (21)
1954: Convair delivered the last B-36 to the Air Force.
1957: SAC's Deputy Director of Operations, Brig Gen James V. Edmundson, flew a 321 BMW B-47 nonstop from Andersen AFB to Sidi Slimane, Morocco. He set a B-47 record for distance: 11,450 miles in 22 hours 50 minutes. He used four refuelings from KC-97 tankers during his journey. (1)
1959: The last active B-17 left for stockpile at Tucson. Seven days earlier, the Air Force destroyed the last B-17 drone.
1963: At Edwards AFB, Maj Robert W. Smith flew Northrop's F-5A multi-purpose fighter in its first military test flight. (3)
1964: The first combat employment of the F-105D in Southeast Asia involved 36 TFS aircraft from Korat RTAFB. (17)
1968: PROJECT GIANT BOOST. The third attempt to launch a Minuteman II from an operational base, Grand Forks AFB, failed. (6)
1971: The first C-5A landed at Tan Son Nhut AB to deliver general cargo and pick up three C-47 helicopters. (18)
1974: Northrop Corporation rolled out the F-5F at Hawthorne. (12) 1978: Through 16 August, as part of flood relief operations, a C-141 Starlifter delivered 26 tons of supplies to Khartoum. (16) (26)
1980: A C-5A with modified wings made its first flight at Dobbins AFB. Under this contract, Lockheed-Georgia had to retrofit 77 C-5As with new wings by July 1987. (16) (26)
1992: Operation PROVIDE RELIEF. Through 28 February 1993, US airlifters moved over 23,000 tons of food, water, medicine, and other relief supplies in 3,000 missions to Somalia. The supplies helped thousands of starving refugees, who suffered from a prolonged drought and civil war. The airlifters flew over 3,100 missions to deliver 34,400 tons of cargo in the operation. (16) (18) (21)
2003: A B-2 flown by an AFFTC crew released two GBU-28 B/B bombs at the Utah Testing and Training Range. This was the first successful live drop of the newly upgraded 5,000-pound weapon, an enhanced version of the GBU-28 designed specifically for the B-2. (3)
2020: The current Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force is Chief JoAnne S. Bass. On 14 August 2020, Chief Bass became the 19th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, the first female to hold the highest senior enlisted rank in any United States military branch, and the first person of Asian-American descent to hold the highest senior enlisted position in the Air Force.
The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force is a unique non-commissioned rank in the United States Air Force. The holder of this rank and position of office represents the highest enlisted level of leadership in the Air Force unless an enlisted airman is serving as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman. The CMSAF provides direction for the enlisted corps and represents their interests, as appropriate, to the American public, and to those in all levels of government. The CMSAF is appointed by the Air Force Chief of Staff and serves as the senior enlisted advisor to the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force on all issues regarding the welfare, readiness, morale, and proper utilization and progress of the enlisted force.
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