The List 7312
To All,
.Good Wednesday morning |October 1. The day has dawned clear this morning and is supposed to hit 80 by 2 and stay sunny and clear all day. If you missed the Secretary of War's speech yesterday it was great. I have been looking for it on line with no luck.
I got to reading all this history this morning and finally had to stop so I could get this List out on time.
Have a great day
Regards
skip
.HAGD
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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
Today in Naval and Marine Corps History.
October 1
1800 - U.S. Schooner Experiment captures French Schooner Diana.
1844 - Naval Observatory headed by LT Matthew Fontaine Maury occupies first permanent quarters.
1874 - Supply Corps purser, LT J. Q. Barton, given leave to enter service of new Japanese Navy to organize a Pay Department and instruct Japanese about accounts. He served until 1 October 1877 when he again became a purser in the U.S. Navy. In 1878, the Emperor of Japan conferred on him the Fourth Class of Rising Sun for his service.
1880 - John Phillip Sousa becomes leader of Marine Corps Band
1928 - First class at school for enlisted Navy and Marine Corps Radio intercept operators (The "On the roof gang")
1937 - Patrol aviation transferred to Aircraft Scouting Force, a reestablished type command. With change five patrol wings were established as separate administrative command over their squadrons.
1946 - Truculent Turtle lands at Columbus, Ohio, breaking world's record for distance without refueling with flight of 11,235 miles.
1949 - Military Sea Transportation Service activated.
1955 - Commissioning of USS Forrestal (CVA-59), first of postwar supercarriers
1979 - President Jimmy Carter awards the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to former naval aviators Neil Armstrong, CAPT Charles Conrad, Jr., USN (Ret.), COL John Glenn, USMC (Ret.), and RADM Alan Shepard, Jr., USN (Ret.)
1980 - USS Cochrane (DDG-21) rescues 104 Vietnamese refugees 620 miles east of Saigon
1990 - USS Independence (CV-62) enters Persian Gulf (first carrier in Persian Gulf since 1974)
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Today in World History
October 1
331BC Alexander the Great decisively shatters King Darius III's Persian army at Gaugamela (Arbela), in a tactical masterstroke that leaves him master of the Persian Empire.
1273 Rudolf of Hapsburg is elected emperor in Germany.
1588 The feeble Sultan Mohammed Shah of Persia, hands over power to his 17-year old son Abbas.
1791 In Paris, the National Legislative Assembly holds its first meeting.
1839 The British government decides to send a punitive naval expedition to China.
1847 Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, discovers a comet and is elected the same day to the American Academy of Arts---the first woman to be so honored. The King of Denmark awarded her a gold medal for her discovery.
1856 The first installment of Gustav Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary appears in the Revue de Paris after the publisher refuses to print a passage in which the character Emma has a tryst in the back seat of a carriage.
1864 The Condor, a British blockade-runner, is grounded near Fort Fisher, North Carolina.
1878 General Lew Wallace is sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and write Ben-Hur. His Civil War heroics earned him the moniker Savior of Cincinnati.
1890 Yosemite National Park is dedicated in California.
1908 The Ford Model T, the first car for millions of Americans, hits the market. Over 15 million Model Ts are eventually sold, all of them black.
1942 The German Army grinds to a complete halt within the city of Stalingrad.
1943 British troops in Italy enter Naples and occupy Foggia airfield.
1944 The U.S. First Army begins the siege Aachen, Germany.
1946 Eleven Nazi war criminals are sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials---Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg.
1947 First flight of F-86 Sabre jet fighter, which would win fame in the Korean War.
1949 Mao Zedong establishes the People's Republic of China.
1957 "In God We Trust" appears on US paper currency as an act to distinguish the US from the officially atheist USSR; the motto had appeared on coins at various times since 1864.
1958 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) replaces the 43-year-old National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the US.
1960 Nigeria becomes independent from the UK.
1961 The Federal Republic of Cameroon is formed by the merger of East and West Cameroon.
1962 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson debuts; Carson will remain The Tonight Show host until 1992.
1964 The first Free Speech Movement protest erupts spontaneously on the University of California, Berkeley campus; students demanded an end to the ban of on-campus political activities.
1964 Japanese "bullet trains" (Shinkansen) begin high-speed rail transit between Tokyo and Osaka.
1971 Walt Disney World opens near Orlando, Florida, the second of Disney's "Magic Kingdoms."
1971 First CT or CAT brain scan performed, at Atkinson Morley Hospital in Wimbledon, London.
1974 Five Nixon aides--Kenneth Parkinson, Robert Mardian, Nixon's Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell--go on trial for conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation.
1975 Legendary boxing match: Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier in the "Thrilla in Manila."
1979 US returns sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1982 First compact disc player, released by Sony.
1989 Denmark introduces the world's first "civil union" law granting same-sex couples certain legal rights and responsibilities but stopping short of recognizing same-sex marriages.
1991 Siege of Dubrovnik begins in the Croatian War of Independence.
2009 The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom takes over judicial functions of the House of Lords.
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
October 1
Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear
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Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for "for 1 October . …..
1-Oct: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2347
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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The first H-Gram H-Gram 001: 7 December 1941—Pacific and Atlantic
Was published on 17 November 2016.
They are exceptional reads. If you have not done so go to the site and get lost in Naval History……skip
H-Gram 93 is out
Director Sam Cox's H-Gram 093 covers the loss of USS Jarvis (DD-393), one of only two U.S. destroyers lost with all hands during World War II. It also covers the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) and its recently discovered bow, blown off during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942 and unlocated until now, as well as the amazing damage control that saved the ship
This H-gram covers the loss of USS Jarvis (DD-393), one of only two U.S. destroyers lost with all hands during World War II. It also covers the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) and her recently discovered bow, blown off during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942 and unlocated until now, as well as the amazing damage control that saved the ship.
USS Jarvis (DD-393)
Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) collaborated extensively with Dr. Robert Ballard and his Ocean Exploration Trust team and other organizational participants aboard E/V Nautilus in their recent search of Iron Bottom Sound off Guadalcanal. During pre-mission briefings, I expressed my desire that the mission search for the wreck of Jarvis if time permitted, recognizing that the likely area of her sinking was outside Iron Bottom Sound with ill-defined coordinates. I even went so far as to have a reporter for a major U.S. newspaper primed to tell the story of Jarvis. Overall, the mission that took place this past July was highly successful; however, it was unfortunately shortened by equipment problems. Although Nautilus was able to make a cursory search of the area where Jarvis was lost, it did not locate the wreck. So, since no one from Jarvis survived to tell their story, I will.
On 8 August 1942, on the second day of U.S. landings on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, the Japanese launched a second major air counterattack. Jarvis was hit by an aerial torpedo that probably would otherwise have hit the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44). It is possible that Jarvis' commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander William Walter Graham, Jr. (USNA '25), deliberately interposed his ship between the torpedo bomber and the cruiser. The bomber was shot down, but the torpedo blew a 50-foot hole in the starboard side of Jarvis near the forward fireroom. Fourteen men were missing (later declared dead) and seven were wounded. In an effort to stay afloat, much gear was jettisoned, including the torpedoes and much survival equipment. Despite the severity of damage, Jarvis made it under its own power to the harbor at Tulagi (on the north side of the Sound from Guadalcanal). Although its radios were out, it was deemed seaworthy. The seven wounded were transferred to the amphibious flagship USS McCawley (AP-10); one of them subsequently died.
Sometime around midnight on 8 August, Jarvis departed Tulagi without notification. Based on timing, it would have limped through the middle of the Battle of Savo Island, a surprise debacle in which heavy cruisers Vincennes (CA-44), Quincy (CA-39), Astoria (CA-34), and HMAS Canberra (D-33) were sunk and Chicago (CA-29) was damaged in exchange for negligible damage to the Japanese cruiser force. Jarvis was subsequently sighted later that night by USS Blue (DD-387) transiting down the west side of Guadalcanal, trailing an oil slick. Jarvis was sighted early the next morning by search aircraft from carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), presumably on the way to Australia for repair. Jarvis then vanished without a trace—no survivors, no floating debris—nothing.
Nothing was known of Jarvis' fate during the war, or even in the years afterward as Japanese records shed no light either. Finally in 1949, as Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison was preparing the multi-volume History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, the riddle was solved: It had resulted from the traditional bane of intelligence officers and historians alike—inaccurate aviator ship recognition. Japanese records of their own losses were amazingly accurate, but their claims of what they sank and damaged were almost invariably wildly exaggerated. Japanese reports of sighting and sinking HMNZS Achilles on 9 August had been dismissed because neither Achilles nor her New Zealand sister HMNZS Leander were in the area at the time. Actually, in silhouette, mistaking the Jarvis for Achilles is not the most preposterous misidentification in that they at least each have a single prominent stack.
As it turned out, Jarvis had exchanged fire with the Japanese destroyer Yunagi, with unknown damage to Jarvis, as the Japanese cruisers were sinking the Allied cruisers farther to the north. Yunagi reported engaging and hitting an Achilles-class cruiser (so it's not just an aviator thing) and was apparently close enough to note the torpedo damage. It is likely this exchange of fire is what lookouts on Chicago saw, which led to Captain Howard Bode taking his ship on a wild-goose chase to the west of Savo Island, for which he was probably unfairly criticized in the report of the court of inquiry and that resulted in him taking his own life.
The next morning (9 August), Japanese search aircraft reported a damaged cruiser limping down the west side of Guadalcanal. Sensing easy pickings of a high-value unit, the Japanese diverted a major strike by land-based aircraft—17 "Betty" twin-engine torpedo bombers (one apparently turned back) and 15 "Zero" fighters. Jarvis was of the U.S. destroyer class that had the heaviest torpedo armament (16 tubes), but initially the most paltry anti-aircraft armament: only four .50- caliber machine guns. The .50 caliber did not have the range or stopping power to down a torpedo bomber before weapons release. (Based on photographs, it does look like Jarvis received an upgrade of six single Oerlikon 20mm anti-aircraft weapons during her March 1942 refit at Mare Island, but I can't find documentation. This would have been a significant improvement, but still unable to take down a torpedo bomber or dive bomber before weapons release.)
Without air opposition, the Japanese fighters would have strafed the heck out of Jarvis to aid the torpedo bombers, and with reduced speed and maneuverability there was little Jarvis could do against 16 torpedoes. Nevertheless, Japanese loss records suggest Jarvis put up a fight: Two Japanese aircraft were shot down, a third ditched on the way back to base due to battle damage, and three more were lightly damaged. The Japanese reported only that Jarvis "split and sank."
Like USS Edsall (DD-219), USS Pillsbury (DD-227), and USS Asheville (PG-21), from which no crew survived sinking or captivity, there were no awards for valor for the Jarvis, the commanding officer, or any of the crew because there were no surviving U.S. witnesses. Although the names of the crew are listed on the missing-in-action tablets at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Manila, Philippines, and in some online sources, the wreck of the ship is the only marker for the courageous crew. Maybe someday this hallowed war grave of 233 men will be found.
Including the 15 killed as a result of the first torpedo hit, Jarvis lost 248 men.
For more on the Jarvis please see attachment H-093-1.
USS New Orleans (CA-32) Bow Found
On 6 July 2025, I was informed by Dr. Frank Thompson, the NHHC Director of Collection Management Division embarked on E/V Nautilus, that they had found the bow of heavy cruiser New Orleans, unlocated since it was blown off by a Japanese Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo during the Battle of Tassafaronga off Guadalcanal on the night of 30 November/1 December 1942.
This called to mind an encounter I had in August 2022 while visiting a very well-preserved museum ship, the former USS Slater (DE-766) in Albany, New York. I was amazed as a 96-year-old woman followed me down three vertical ladders to the engineering spaces, then from there up six ladders to the signal bridge without even being winded (she, that is). In conversation, she revealed that as a very young girl she was in the Far East when her father was a gunnery officer on USS Augusta (CA-31) when the-Captain Chester Nimitz was the commanding officer and the ship was the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. She produced a picture of herself on the knee of Chesty Puller, who was the U.S. Marine Detachment officer-in-charge on Augusta at the time. I asked what her father had done during the war.
"He was killed at Tassafaronga."
Awkward silence.
"He was the damage control officer on New Orleans."
She was Phyllis Hayter Townsend, and her father was Lieutenant Commander Hubert M. Hayter, (USNA '24), awarded a posthumous Navy Cross for his efforts in saving his ship and all the enlisted personnel in Damage Control Central, to include giving away his own gas mask to a junior sailor.
New Orleans suffered the most grievous damage of any U.S. cruiser in World War II and actually survive. A "Long Lance" torpedo struck it forward of the Number 1 8-inch turret and detonated the bomb storage magazine for the ship's scout planes, blowing off the entire bow including the Number 1 turret. Everyone in the two forward turrets was killed—183 men total— and the ship lost a quarter of its length. The detached bow of New Orleans scraped along the keel and port side of the ship, puncturing holes in the side and wrecking one of the port propellers. Thus, in the typical black humor of American sailors, New Orleans came to be known by its crew as the only ship to ram itself in the history of the U.S. Navy. Nevertheless, it was amazing damage control by the crew that saved their own ship. However, Hayter and two assistant officers remained in Damage Control Central until they were overcome and died from toxic fumes after ordering the enlisted personnel out through a recently installed escape scuttle. All three were awarded a posthumous Navy Cross.
The Japanese torpedo attack at Tassafaronga was arguably the most effective surface torpedo attack in history, sinking heavy cruiser Northampton (CA-26) and grievously damaging the heavy cruisers Minneapolis (CA-36) and Pensacola (CA-24) in addition to New Orleans—all out of action for about a year (light cruiser Honolulu [CL-48] was unscathed). (The contender for the most effective surface torpedo attack would be that of U.S. destroyers in the Battle of Surigao Strait on 24–25 October 1944, which sank the Japanese battleship Fuso and sank or crippled three destroyers. Another runner-up might be the Battle of Cape Bon in December 1941, in which four British destroyers torpedoed and sank two Italian light cruisers.)
As bad as Tassafaronga was (almost 400 total dead), it could have been worse in that the Japanese destroyers (the "Tokyo Express") were carrying supplies for troops ashore and six of the eight destroyers did not have their normal torpedo reloads. Otherwise, they probably would have sunk all four of the crippled heavy cruisers and Honolulu, too. Technically the U.S. task force accomplished the objective of preventing the Japanese destroyers from getting the supplies ashore, but at a cost of the second-worst defeat at sea in U.S. Navy history—despite the U.S. advantage of radar and a much more powerful force. The Japanese lost only one destroyer, Takanami.
Despite the debacle at Tassafaronga, the efforts of the crews of the crippled heavy cruisers in saving their ships are some of the most epic examples of damage control in U.S. Navy history. New Orleans made it into Tulagi harbor and was camouflaged with potted trees against air attack. The crew fashioned a temporary bow out of coconut logs. After 11 days, New Orleans departed Tulagi and backed the entire way over 1,000 miles to Sydney, Australia, for additional repairs, arriving on 24 December. With a temporary bow installed, New Orleans departed Sydney on 7 March 1943 and backed all the way across the Pacific to Puget Sound Navy Yard. New Orleans was back in the war by October 1943, earning a total of 17 Battle Stars (tie for third highest).
For more on the Battle of Tassafaronga, please see H-Gram 013. For more on the discovery of New Orleans' bow, please see attachment H-093-2.
Published: Tue Sep 30 16:13:07 EDT 2025
H-093-2: The Bow of USS New Orleans (CA-32) and the Battle of Tassafaronga
Photo #: 80-G-216014 USS New Orleans (CA-32)
USS New Orleans (CA-32) camouflaged at Tulagi, Solomon Islands, some days after it was torpedoed during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942. Note that its stern is riding high, and that its forward end is low in the water. The torpedo and subsequent explosion had severed its bow between the Number 1 and Number 2 eight-inch gun turrets (80-G-216014).
H-Gram 093, Attachment 2
Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC
September 2025
The Iron Bottom Sound expedition of July 2025 was led by famed ocean explorer Dr. Robert Ballard and the Ocean Exploration Trust embarked on E/V Nautilus. Multiple organizations participated in the expedition, including the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC), which contributed to research in the planning phase. Dr. Frank Thompson, NHHC's Director of Collection Management Division (which includes the NHHC Underwater Archaeology Branch), embarked on the dive and provided expert commentary during much of the live-stream video. The purpose of the expedition was to use the most modern underwater technology to conduct the most detailed, systematic, and comprehensive sonar, video, and photographic coverage of Allied and Japanese wrecks in the waters around Savo Island and the sound between Guadalcanal to the south and Tulagi, 19 miles to the north, which came to be known as the Iron Bottom Sound due to the number of ships sunk in battle between August 1942 and early 1943.
Counting all manners of craft, over 100 vessels were lost in and around Iron Bottom Sound. Some of these wrecks were surveyed by Dr. Ballard in the 1990s and others by Robert Kraft and M/V Petrel in the 2010s. However, this most recent expedition provided more details than the previous dives and helped discover new vessels. Among the more prominent Allied ships sunk were four U.S. heavy cruisers, one Australian heavy cruiser, one U.S. light cruiser, twelve destroyers, and three destroyer transports (and other U.S. ships in the Guadalcanal area, including two aircraft carriers, a heavy cruiser, a light cruiser, and three destroyers). Japanese losses in the Iron Bottom Sound and near Guadalcanal included thirteen troop transports, eleven destroyers, six submarines, three heavy cruisers, two battleships, a light carrier, and one light cruiser. In total, the U.S. Navy suffered 5,041 killed and 2,953 wounded during the Guadalcanal Campaign, while the Japanese navy lost approximately 3,800 men, along with about 5,000 troops killed on sunken transports.
The Iron Bottom Sound Expedition was a media bonanza. The continuous live stream reached over 307,000 hits. It resulted in 12 videos and 409 published stories in 50 countries and 26 languages, with the potential to reach 3.73 billion people. There were 3.4 million social media impressions across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and X/Twitter. (Note, these numbers are still climbing.)
The Iron Bottom Sound Expedition surveyed the following ships:
1. USS Vincennes (CA-44)—Savo Island, 9 August 1942
2. USS Astoria (CA-34)—Savo Island, 9 August 1942
3. USS Quincy (CA-39)—Savo Island, 9 August 1942
4. USS New Orleans (CA-32) Bow—Tassafaronga, 30 November 1942 (new discovery)
5. USS Northampton (CA-26)—Tassafaronga, 1 December 1942
6. HMAS Canberra (D33)—Savo Island, 9 August 1942
7. USS Laffey (DD-549)—Night Surface Action, 13 November 1942
8. IJNS Yudachi—Night Surface Action, 13 November 1942
9. USS Dehaven (DD-469)—Air Attack, 1 February 1943
10. USS Preston (DD-379)—Night Surface Action, 14 November 1942
11. USS Walke (DD-416)—Night Surface Action, 15 November 1942
12. IJNS Teruzuki—PT Boat Night Action, 12 December 1942 (new discovery)
13. USS George F. Elliot (AP-13)—Air Attack, 8 August 1942 (sonar target at suspected coordinates, unable to verify)
14. USS Benham (DD-397)—Night Surface Action, 15 November 1942 (sonar target at suspected coordinates, nable to verify)
15. Seebee pontoon/barge off Henderson Field (inconclusive ID)
Of these, the Japanese destroyer Teruzuki and the bow of New Orleans were new finds.
Battle of Tassafaronga
On the night of 30 November and morning of 1 December 1942, a U.S. force of five cruisers and six destroyers (Task Force 67), under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, ambushed a Japanese "Tokyo Express" run consisting of eight destroyers (six of which were encumbered by hundreds of floating supply barrels) under the command of Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka. Although the United States was armed with intelligence that the Japanese were coming, made excellent use of the new SG radar technology aboard several U.S. ships, which detected the Japanese first (at 23,000 yards), had carefully absorbed and incorporated numerous lessons from the previous night's battles in the Iron Bottom Sound, possessed an overwhelming advantage in firepower, and opened fire first, the result was still one of the worst debacles in the history of the U.S. Navy.
At Tassafaronga, the U.S. Navy sank one destroyer; in contrast, the Japanese sank the heavy cruiser USS Northampton (CA-26) and grievously damaged the heavy cruisers USS Minneapolis (CA-36), USS New Orleans (CA-32), and USS Pensacola (CA-24), which were saved by the extraordinarily heroic and determined damage control actions by their crews and by the fact that six of the Japanese destroyers did not have their torpedo reloads aboard, preventing them from picking off the damaged U.S. vessels. All three damaged cruisers would be out of action for about a year. U.S. casualties included 395 sailors killed and 153 wounded.
The short version of the battle is that the U.S. ships, with their radar superiority, concentrated their fire on the closest Japanese destroyer and blew it to smithereens. Meanwhile, the other Japanese destroyers, hidden by the flames of the sacrificial Takanami, withheld their fire and launched a swarm of torpedoes at the U.S. cruiser line, lit up by their own gunfire flashes, like "mechanical ducks in a shooting gallery," as described by historian Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison. The result was arguably the most successful surface torpedo attack in history.
This H-gram focuses on the actions of New Orleans. For a more complete treatment of the Battle of Tassafaronga, please see H-Gram 013.
USS New Orleans (CA-32)
The heavy cruiser USS New Orleans was the second U.S. Navy ship named after the city of New Orleans. The lead ship of a class of seven ships, New Orleans was laid down at the New York Navy Yard on 14 March 1931 and commissioned on 15 February 1934. It was originally classified as a light cruiser (CL) due to its relatively thin armor plate in order to remain within the 10,000-ton limit as part of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, although it had a better armor scheme than the previous classes of 1930s "Treaty Cruisers," which were derisively known as "tin-clads." (These included two ships in the Pensacola-class, six in the Northampton-class, and two in the Indianapolis-class). However, as these cruisers were armed with 8-inch guns, compared to 6-inch guns for light cruisers, they were all reclassified as heavy cruisers. This would be the last class of U.S. cruisers to adhere to the treaty limit. (Of note, Ensign Thomas Moorer was a "plank-owner" on New Orleans—he would become Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1967 to 1970, after surviving being shot down in February 1942 near Darwin, Australia.)
New Orleans weighed 9,950 tons, just under the treaty limit. During the war, extensive measures to save weight would adversely affect all U.S. heavy cruisers built prior to 1941. (The Japanese blatantly ignored the weight limit.) The ship was 588 feet in length, with a speed of 32.7 knots. It was armed with nine 8-inch guns in three triple turrets, two superimposed forward and one aft. It also had eight 5-inch/25-caliber guns in single open mounts, four to a side. Its original anti-aircraft fit was an inadequate eight .50-caliber machine guns. Although its two aircraft catapults and hangar were moved a bit further aft than previous cruisers, they were still located amidships, which would prove to be a major design flaw in battle, resulting in catastrophic amidships fires.
Three of New Orleans' sister ships would be lost in the Battle of Savo Island, including Astoria (CA-34), Quincy (CA-39), and Vincennes (CA-44) on 9 August 1942. San Francisco (CA-38) would barely survive a beating in the 13 November 1942 battle off Guadalcanal, and Minneapolis (CA-36) would be grievously damaged at Tassafaronga on the night of 30 November and morning of 1 December 1942 off Guadalcanal. Only Tuscaloosa (CA-37) came through the war unscathed.
After commissioning, New Orleans operated on both the U.S. East and West Coasts in major Fleet Battle Problems, transiting to the Panama Canal multiple times. It was assigned to the Hawaii Detachment in October 1939, before the rest of the Pacific Fleet was moved to Pearl Harbor in 1940.
On 7 December 1941, New Orleans was in the Pearl Harbor shipyard on the south side of Southeast Loch having its engines repaired and was reliant on shore power, which went out during the attack. Engineers worked by flashlight to bring up steam, while other crewmen fired at Japanese aircraft with rifles and pistols. As the ship was not in operational status, its anti-aircraft guns were not initially manned, and the locks on the ready-ammunition boxes had to be broken because the keys could not be found (this fact was widely publicized but was not the case on ships in operational status). The 5-inch guns had to be worked manually, but within ten minutes, they were in action.
Due to the lack of power, the majority of the crew formed lines to pass ammunition (54-pound shells) by hand from the magazines to the guns. As this was happening, the chaplain of New Orleans, Lieutenant Howell M. Forgy, gained immortality by repeatedly exhorting the crew to "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," which went "viral" and became a patriotic song in 1942. Several crewmen were wounded by fragments when a bomb exploded close aboard, but the ship was not seriously damaged.
After Pearl Harbor, New Orleans went to San Francisco for engine repair, installation of 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns, and a new search radar. New Orleans then joined Task Force 11 (TF-11) and participated in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942, screening the carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5). It then stood by the burning and sinking carrier USS Lexington (CV-2), with crewmen diving overboard to rescue survivors, and its boats risking showers of flaming debris to pick up other survivors. Ultimately, New Orleans rescued 580 crewmen of Lexington.
New Orleans then initially escorted the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) during the transit to "Point Luck" northeast of Midway Island before rejoining Yorktown when the carrier finished its emergency battle damage repair and joined with Enterprise and Hornet (CV-8) to lie in wait for the Japanese carriers to attack Midway Island in June 1942. New Orleans defended Yorktown during the two air attacks by dive bombers and then torpedo bombers from the carrier Hiryu during the climactic Battle of Midway on 4 June. Although no Japanese aircraft are known to have been downed by anti-aircraft fire from surface ships (the Japanese pilots were very good at finding the gaps in coverage between ships), the volume of fire certainly disrupted aim and damaged aircraft. Yorktown barely survived the air attack damage, only to be sunk by Japanese submarine I-168 on 6 June.
During the landings at Guadalcanal in August 1942, New Orleans screened the carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3), including defending the Saratoga during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, which involved carrier-versus-carrier action on 24–25 August 1942. Saratoga was not damaged in that battle, but on 31 August, it was hit by a torpedo from I-26 and immobilized. New Orleans provided escort as Saratoga was towed first to Tonga and then steamed to Pearl Harbor. New Orleans escorted Saratoga to Fiji once the carrier was repaired in November 1942 and then to Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, arriving on 27 November. New Orleans then proceeded to Guadalcanal.
Based on intelligence, the United States knew a Japanese "Tokyo Express" supply run (in Japanese, the "Rat Transport System") was due to reach Guadalcanal on the night of 30 November and morning of 1 December 1942. New Orleans was assigned to be part of Task Force 67 (TF-67), under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, embarked on the flagship Minneapolis with the mission to intercept and destroy the Tokyo Express. Neither Wright nor any of the four heavy cruisers in TF-67 had any experience in night surface combat, having served only as carrier escorts up to that point. Both navies were still licking their wounds after the vicious night battles of 13–15 November, and every heavy cruiser that had previously engaged in night combat off Guadalcanal had been sunk or damaged.
Rear Admiral Wright arrayed his cruisers in a line in the following order: Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pensacola (CA-24), Honolulu (CL-48), and Northampton (CA-26), transiting on a westerly course just north of Guadalcanal, heading toward Savo Island. Three miles ahead and offset to port (toward the Guadalcanal coast) were four destroyers led by USS Fletcher (DD-445). Two late additional destroyers trailed behind the cruiser line. By this time, most of the U.S. ships had the new SG search radar but had limited experience with it in a near-shore environment, where it was prone to false contacts. Nevertheless, the SG radar detected the approaching Japanese force before the Japanese lookouts sighted the U.S. ships, and for only the third time in the Guadalcanal campaign, the Japanese were caught by surprise.
The Japanese force consisted of eight destroyers, armed with a total of 64 24-inch Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo tubes. Unlike U.S. destroyers, Japanese destroyers carried torpedo reloads. However, in this case, six of the destroyers had offloaded their reloads, as they were configured with hundreds of barrels containing supplies, which would be rolled over the side to be fished out of the water by small boats from the Japanese-held portion of Guadalcanal. The six transport destroyers were heading east close along the shore of Guadalcanal, with one group of four in the lead, in line ahead, and a second group of two destroyers trailing in the back. Offset to seaward of the first group was the recently completed destroyer Takanami, acting as a defensive picket. Offset to seaward from the second group was the destroyer Naganami, flagship of Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka.
The lead U.S. destroyers gained a torpedo firing solution on the Japanese before the Japanese knew they were there, but a delay in receiving permission to fire from Rear Admiral Wright resulted in the torpedoes being launched after the Japanese had passed on a reciprocal course, resulting in a tail chase. It did not matter because Wright gave the order to open fire before the torpedoes had a chance to reach their targets. Japanese doctrine was to wait for torpedoes to hit (or be sure they missed) before opening fire with guns. As a result, as soon as the U.S. ships opened fire, the Japanese assumed torpedoes were inbound and took evasive actions.
The U.S. cruisers concentrated their fire on the largest and closest radar contact, which was the Takanami, although many shells were fired at the radar returns of splashes from previous shells. Takanami was subject to a deluge of 155 8-inch shells, 90 6-inch shells, and 180 5-inch shells. However, before Takanami was turned into a blazing pyre, it fired a salvo of "Long Lance" torpedoes and then gamely opened fire with guns, drawing even more attention. Of Takanami's crew, 197 were lost, including the commanding officer, Commander Ogura, and the embarked destroyer division commander, Captain Shimzu. Only 48 survived to reach the shore of Guadalcanal, of which 19 were captured.
Takanami's sacrifice enabled the other Japanese destroyers to be undetected in the darkness, as they then maintained fire and speed discipline (showing no tell-tale wake) and executed a series of well-aimed torpedo attacks against the U.S. cruisers, lit up (and blinded) by their own gunfire flashes.
Takanami got its revenge at 2327 when two of its torpedoes struck Minneapolis as it fired its ninth main-battery salvo. One torpedo hit aviation storage tanks just forward of Turret No. 1, and the other hit Fireroom No. 2. A huge explosion mangled the bow of Minneapolis forward of Turret No. 1, but the bow remained attached and folded against the ship, severely impacting speed and maneuverability. The rest of the night was a fight for the survival of the ship. Miraculously, only 36 sailors died, and an additional 37 were wounded.
As Minneapolis rapidly lost speed, New Orleans began a turn to avoid the burning ship ahead. Thirty seconds after Minneapolis was hit, New Orleans was also hit by a torpedo from Takanami. This torpedo hit the bomb storage for the scout planes. Amplified by the aviation gasoline storage, the fire quickly spread to the forward magazines. The massive explosion tore off 150 feet of the bow between the No. 1 and No. 2 main-battery turrets, killing everyone in both turrets and accounting for most of the 183 dead. Everyone in Turret No. 2 was killed by shock[JE1] , while the entire No. 1 turret went down with the bow, which scraped along the keel and down the port side, damaging the port inboard screw. Many on New Orleans thought they had run over the wreckage of Minneapolis. The bow, minus the turret, remained afloat as a collision hazard for at least a couple of hours. Flames went as high as the top of the foremast. The deluge of water from the geysers of the torpedo hits nearly washed overboard many of the gunners on the open 5-inch mounts.
With a quarter of his ship gone and surrounded by smoke and flames, Captain Clifford H. Roper quickly gave the order to abandon ship. However, the executive officer in Aft Control, Commander Whitaker F. Riggs, was unable to establish contact with the forward part of the ship and assumed that the captain was likely dead or incapacitated. Commander Riggs countermanded the abandon ship order and gave the order to "lighten ship." (Captain Roper would be awarded a Navy Cross and Commander Riggs a Legion of Merit for their actions.)
As Minneapolis and New Orleans were on fire, Pensacola swerved to the engaged side and was narrowly missed by the tenth and last main batter salvo from Minneapolis, which got off two salvos after being hit and before losing power. Unfortunately, Pensacola was silhouetted by the burning cruisers and was in turn hit by a Japanese torpedo and commenced its own fight to stay afloat, losing 125 men in the process as the 8-inch rounds in its aft magazine exploded, fortunately one at a time and not all at once. The light cruiser Honolulu wisely passed the three severely damaged cruisers on the disengaged side and continued her charmed life. Northampton followed Honolulu, but at 2348 it too was hit by two torpedoes, and despite desperate efforts by the crew to save it, Northampton went down at 0304 with a loss of four officers and 46 men.
Despite the loss of the bow, New Orleans was in less danger of immediate sinking than Minneapolis. Nevertheless, it took extraordinary damage control actions to maintain stability and keep the ship on an even keel. These efforts were directed by the Damage Control Officer (DCO) at Damage Control Central, located deep within the ship below the bridge, but perilously close to the break in the hull. The DCO was Lieutenant Commander Hubert M. Hayter, assisted by Lieutenant Richard A. Haines and Ensign Andrew Foreman. In addition to adjacent flooded compartments, toxic smoke began seeping into Damage Control Central, making the situation increasingly untenable. Ordered to wear gas masks as a result of the smoke, Hayter gave his to an enlisted sailor who did not have one.
Lieutenant Commander Hayter directed the enlisted personnel in the Damage Control Central and the adjacent plotting room to evacuate. There were only two means of escape. The primary route was through an escape trunk up to the main deck; however, Hayter knew this was flooded. The alternate route was a recently installed 3-foot diameter steel tube up to the Wardroom, which had a smaller diameter reinforcing collar. As the sailors made their escape, Hayter found his shoulders were too broad to fit, and he returned to his station. It is not known whether Lieutenant Haines and Ensign Foreman chose to stay or were asphyxiated before they could escape, but they perished along with Hayter.
Photo #: 19-N-80232 USS New Orleans (CA-32)
A formerly classified photo of USS New Orleans (CA-32) at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 8 March 1945. The city of Vallejo is in the background. Note the ship's welded bow structure (forward of its Number 2 8-inch/55-caliber triple gun turret). This replaced its original riveted-construction bow, which was lost during the Battle of Tassafaronga at the end of November 1942. Circles mark later alterations to the ship (19-N-80232).
The posthumous Navy Cross citation for Lieutenant Commander Hubert M. Hayter (USNA '24) reads:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Lieutenant Commander Hubert Montgomery Hayter, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession as DCO aboard the Heavy Cruiser USS NEW ORLEANS (CA-32) in action against the Japanese after the torpedoing of his ship in enemy-controlled waters during the Battle of Tassafaronga on the night of 30 November 1942. Lieutenant Commander Hayter directed the evacuation of all men when a torpedo hit exploded the magazine and gasoline storage. Although rapidly becoming affected by asphyxiating gas, he continued to direct evacuation and gave his own mask to an affected seaman. After clearing all compartments he kept at his duties until overcome. The conduct of Lieutenant Commander Hayter throughout this action reflects great credit upon himself, and was in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
The New Orleans' chaplain, Howell M. Forgy, would say of Hayter, "I wondered what he thought about in those final minutes, but I knew one thing; he was not afraid."
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1924, Hayter served as an ensign aboard the battleship USS Arizona (BB-39). He went on to serve as a gunnery officer on the Asiatic Fleet flagship, USS Augusta (CA-31), from 1933 to 1935. During this deployment, he received a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the Navy for the highest score for the 5-inch gun division of heavy cruisers. At the time, Augusta was commanded by then-Captain Chester Nimitz, and Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller was the Marine Detachment officer-in-charge. Lieutenant Commander Hayter was the commanding officer of destroyer minelayer USS Ramsay (DM-16) at Pearl Harbor from September 1939 to February 1941. He was then transferred to New Orleans and was on board during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. His wife and three children were ashore and witnessed the attack.
Lieutenant Richard Haines (USNA '28) and Ensign Andrew L. Foreman were also awarded the Navy Cross posthumously. All three had ships named in their honor. Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Foreman (DE-633) served from 22 October 1943 to 28 June 1946, earning five battle stars, and was hit by a bomb off Okinawa. Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Hayter (DE-212) served from 16 March 1944 to 19 March 1946. Hayter was converted to a fast transport and reclassified as APD-80 on 1 June 1945 and subsequently served in the Republic of Korea Navy from 1967 to 1986. Buckley-class destroyer escort USS Haines (DE-792) served from 27 December 1943 to 29 April 1946. Haines was converted to a fast transport and reclassified APD-84, earning one battle star. (Of note, Cannon-class destroyer escort USS Slater (DE-766) is a near-sister to the Buckley-class and is now a museum ship in Albany, New York, which is where I met Lieutenant Commander Hayter's daughter, Phyllis Hayter Townsend, in 2022.)
New Orleans was able to limp across the sound to the harbor at Tulagi, where it was joined by Minneapolis and Pensacola. Because its anchors were gone, New Orleans was held in place by the destroyer USS Maury (DD-401). All of the ships were camouflaged with vegetation, such that Chaplain Forgy claimed New Orleans looked like a "botanical garden." Fortunately, no Japanese air attacks occurred in the next few weeks. Tulagi was primarily an austere PT-boat base at that point, with very limited repair capability. Th repair ship USS Vestal (AR-4) arrived to assist, but the great majority of work was done by the ships' own crews in an environment of heat, humidity, and nasty disease-bearing mosquitoes and biting flies. Assisted by the 27th Naval Construction Battalion, the crews were able to cut down coconut trees for shoring and fashioned artificial bows from coconut logs for both New Orleans and Minneapolis.
New Orleans departed Tulagi on 12 December, sailing all the way to Sydney, Australia, arriving on 24 December. A temporary bow was installed at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, and the damaged propeller was replaced. It departed Sydney on 7 March 1943 and sailed all the way across the Pacific to Puget Sound Shipyard, where it underwent extensive repairs and modernization, including the installation of new air-search and surface-search radars and numerous 20 mm and 40 mm anti-aircraft guns. New Orleans arrived at Pearl Harbor on 31 August 1943 for combat training and commenced combat operations by bombarding Wake Island on 5–6 October 1943.
New Orleans would go on to earn a total of 17 battle stars, including actions at Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. This tied New Orleans for third place with San Francisco, Minneapolis, and USS O'Bannon (DD-450). Only Enterprise, with 20 battle stars, and USS San Diego (CL-53), with 18 battle stars, were awarded more.
At first, the Battle of Tassafaronga did not seem quite as bad as it was, as the United States claimed to have sunk four Japanese destroyers and damaged two more. The reality was that, except for the sacrificial Takanami, the rest of the Japanese destroyers made their getaway with minimal or no damage. However, the Japanese did fail in their mission, since few, if any, of the supply barrels made it to Japanese troops ashore, who by this time were quite literally starving. The Japanese claimed to have sunk at least one "Texas-class" battleship (misidentified Pensacola's high tripod foremast). Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison summed it up, "It is a painful truth that the Battle of Tassafaronga was a sharp defeat inflicted on an alert and superior cruiser force by a partially surprised and inferior destroyer force."
Extensive recriminations occurred following the Battle of Tassafaronga, but also significant learning. Rear Admiral Wright's career as a combat commander was over within days. Wright has been extensively criticized for squandering an opportunity to fire torpedoes first due to five minutes of indecision. The criticism is probably valid, but had the destroyers launched torpedoes when the Commanding Officer of USS Fletcher (DD-445), Commander William M. Cole, requested, the result probably would have been yet another example of the notorious unreliability of U.S. Navy torpedoes, the defects of which had still not been corrected or, in some cases, even recognized yet. (Wright would go on to preside over another controversy, the court-martial of 50 African American stevedores who refused to go back to work until safety measures had been improved following the disastrous Port Chicago ammunition explosion in California on 17 July 1944, which killed 302 mostly African American stevedores.)
The commanding officer of Fletcher, Commander Cole, who had brought his ship ("Lucky 13") unscathed through two of the most horrific battles of the war and rescued 646 sailors of Northampton, would be heavily criticized for his actions by Vice Admiral William Halsey (Wright would get a Navy Cross for the debacle, but Cole would not), which Halsey later admitted was unfair. Nevertheless, Cole went on to command Destroyer Division 44 in Destroyer Squadron 22, and his experience translated into future victories. The other Destroyer Division in Destroyer Squadron 22 was Destroyer Division 43, commanded by Arleigh Burke, and it was Cole's experience at Tassafaronga that led to Burke's standing orders to his own ships that "destroyers are to attack the enemy on first contact without awaiting orders from [the] task force commander," which were instrumental in Burke's success in the Battles of Empress Augusta Bay and Cape St. George.
Cole also influenced Commander Frederick Moosbrugger's tactics at the Battle of Vella Gulf, in which Moosbrugger withheld gunfire until his own torpedoes were observed hitting home, surprising the Japanese. Also using lessons learned in the battle of Tassafaronga, Rear Admiral Mahlon Tisdale (commander of the group of two cruisers, Honolulu and Northampton) and the executive officer of the destroyer Fletcher, Commander Joseph Wylie, would go on to play very prominent roles in the development of the Combat Information Center and U.S. Navy command and control doctrine that would guide U.S. Navy operations for decades.
Nevertheless, the one lesson that U.S. Navy leaders stubbornly refused to learn was that the Japanese Type 93 Oxygen Torpedo ("Long Lance") was significantly superior, despite the prewar intelligence (which had been ignored) and the late Rear Admiral Norman Scott's report following the Battle of Cape Esperance. In his post-battle report for Tassafarong, Rear Admiral Wright correctly noted that "it was improbable that [Japanese] torpedoes with speed-distance characteristics such as our own" could have inflicted damage such as was observed. Rather than concluding that the Japanese had superior torpedoes, Wright concluded that the United States losses were due to lucky shots from Japanese submarines (none were present). More U.S. ships would fall to the "Long Lance" in battles in the Central Solomon Islands in 1943 and 1944 as a result of the United States' failure to understand the enemy.
Sources include, "Naval History and Heritage Command's Dictionary of American Fighting Ships (DANFS) for U.S. ships and "combinedfleet.com" for Japanese ships. Other sources include Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle, by Richard B. Frank: Random House, NY, 1990; Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal by James D. Hornfischer: Bantam Books, NY, 2011; Morning Star, Midnight Sun: The Early Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign of World War II August–October 1942" by Jeffrey R. Cox: Osprey, 2018; Blazing Star, Setting Sun: The Guadalcanal-Solomons Campaign, November 1942–March 1943 by Jeffrey R. Cox: Osprey, 2020; History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 5, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, August 1942–February 1943, by Samuel Eliot Morison: Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1949; The Naval Battles of Guadalcanal 1942: Clash for Supremacy in the Pacific by Marke Stille: Osprey Publishing, 2013.
Published: Tue Sep 30 16:15:19 EDT 2025
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Thanks to Eagle
Subject: Fw: Commietown .... 3 minutes of toe-tapping music
https://rumble.com/v6znj2e-ted-nugent-posted-this-ai-vid-and-its-pretty-good.html?e9s=src_v1_upp_a
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Getting folks to read is a wonderful thing……skip
After 20 Years, "Reading Rainbow" Is Back to Inspire a New Generation of Book Lovers
John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images
It's a good day to be a book lover! After nearly 20 years off the air, Reading Rainbow is returning to our screens. Mychal Threets, aka Mychal the Librarian, will serve as host, ready to spark a new generation's love for stories, imagination, and all things reading.
If you're not familiar with Threets, he's a librarian and social media star from Fairfield, California, who has spent years sharing the powerful message that everyone belongs in the library. But his passion for reading goes back much further than his librarian career. In 2024, he told USA Today he "was practically raised by libraries," crediting the spaces for shaping his homeschooled education and sense of self.
Last year, Threets became the resident librarian at PBS, a gig that unfolds perfectly into this next chapter at the helm of Reading Rainbow, which ran on the network from 1983 to 2006 with LeVar Burton as host. Instead of returning to PBS, though, new episodes of the revamped series will be shared via Kidzuko, an educational YouTube channel from Sony Pictures Television.
While the premiere date is still TBD, the trailer gives a sneak peek into the star-studded guest lineup, which includes John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Adam DeVine, Gabrielle Union, and many more. For now, we'll stay tuned and await the butterfly in the sky …
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Thanks to 1440
Good morning. It's Wednesday, Oct. 1, and today, we're covering the federal government shutdown, Nepal's living goddess, and much more.
Need To Know
Shutdown Begins
The federal government shut down at midnight after Congress failed to approve a short-term funding bill, triggering the furlough of an estimated 750,000 federal employees each day and disrupting operations across multiple agencies.
Republicans had proposed a stopgap funding bill to maintain government funding mostly at 2025 levels through Nov. 21, while Democrats sought to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire this year. The Senate failed yesterday to pass either of the two competing measures. As a result, essential workers, including military personnel and TSA agents, will continue to work without pay, while nonessential offices such as the Labor Department and national parks are closed or operating at limited capacity. Separately funded programs such as Social Security and the Postal Service continue unaffected or with minor administrative disruptions. See a breakdown of federal spending here.
This marks the 15th shutdown since 1980, with the last major one lasting 35 days in 2018-19. Senators are scheduled to return Friday to keep voting on proposals to reopen the government.
Trump-Pfizer Deal
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer committed yesterday to lowering US drug prices and investing $70B in domestic manufacturing. Several of its medications will be sold at an average 50% discount on a forthcoming federal website, dubbed TrumpRX.
The announcements follow the Trump administration's Sept. 29 deadline for drugmakers to peg US prices to the lowest price across developed countries. In a May executive order, President Donald Trump accused drugmakers of leveraging US research funds and then upcharging Americans to subsidize lower prices abroad. US drug prices in 2022 were nearly three times higher than those in peer nations, according to a 2024 report. Pfizer's $70B pledge also exempts it from 100% tariffs on branded drugs, which took effect today for companies not building US facilities.
Trump said his administration is negotiating deals similar to Pfizer's with other drugmakers and threatened action against those that fail to lower domestic prices. Some industry experts caution that Trump's approach could stifle innovation and raise prices globally.
New Living Goddess
Nepal has selected its latest Kumari—a living child goddess revered by Hindus and Buddhists. For years, the girl—2-year-old Aryatara Shakya—will reside in a temple palace, rarely leaving except for festivals, during which devotees bring gifts and worship her.
The Kumari tradition dates back to the Malla Dynasty in the 17th century, when a rift between the goddess Taleju Bhawani and King Jayaprakash Malla is said to have spurred the goddess to be reincarnated in a series of young girls. Today, Buddhist families of the Shakya clan can bring their daughters to senior Buddhist priests and the royal astrologer for consideration. After undergoing tests (reportedly including whether the girl is afraid of the dark), one Kumari is selected. She spends almost all of her time in the temple with limited social interaction. Once the Kumari goes through puberty, another girl is selected.
Some Kumari face physical and social difficulties upon their reintegration into society as mortals.
Thanks to mike
Five Pages
How Much Every American Plane in WWII Cost To Build – 24/7 Wall St.
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This Day in U S Military History……. October 1
1874 – Supply Corps purser, LT J. Q. Barton, given leave to enter service of new Japanese Navy to organize a Pay Department and instruct Japanese about accounts. He served until 1 October 1877 when he again became a purser in the U.S. Navy. In 1878, the Emperor of Japan conferred on him the Fourth Class of Rising Sun for his service.
1878 – General Lew Wallace was sworn in as governor of New Mexico Territory. He went on to deal with the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid and wrote Ben-Hur.
1942 – Bell P-59 Airacomet fighter, 1st US jet, made its maiden flight. Development of the P-59, America's first jet-propelled airplane, was ordered personally by General H. H. Arnold on September 4, 1941. The project was conducted under the utmost secrecy, with Bell building the airplane and General Electric the engine. The first P-59 was completed in mid-1942 and it made its initial flight at Muroc Dry Lake (now Edwards Air Force Base), California. One year later, the airplane was ordered into production, to be powered by I-14 and I-16 engines, improved versions of the original I-A. Bell produced 66 P-59s. Although the airplane's performance was not spectacular and it never got into combat, the P-59 provided training for AAF personnel and invaluable data for subsequent development of higher performance jet airplanes.
1946 – Twelve Nazi war criminals were sentenced to be hanged at Nuremberg trials– Karl Donitz, Hermann Goring, Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachin von Ribbentrop, Fritz Saukel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Julius Streicher, and Alfred Rosenberg. Karl Donitz was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
1947 – The North American F-86 Sabre flies for the first time. The North American F-86 Sabre — sometimes called the Sabrejet — was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high-speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War (1950-53). Considered one of the best and most important fighter aircraft in that war, the F-86 is also rated highly in comparison with fighters of other eras. Although it was developed in the late 1940s and was outdated by the end of the '50s, the Sabre proved versatile and adaptable, and continued as a front-line fighter in numerous air forces until the last active operational examples were retired by the Bolivian Air Force in 1994. Its success led to an extended production run of more than 7,800 aircraft between 1949 and 1956, in the U.S., Japan and Italy. Variants were built in Canada and Australia. The Sabre was by far the most-produced Western jet fighter, with total production of all variants at 9,860 units.
1955 – Commissioning of USS Forrestal (CVA-59), first of postwar supercarriers. Forrestal (CVA-59) was launched 11 December 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. Newport News, Va.; sponsored by Mrs. James V Forrestal, widow of Secretary Forrestal; and commissioned 1 October 1955, Captain R. L. Johnson i n command. From her home port, Norfolk, Va., Forrestal spent the first year of her commissioned service in intensive training operations off the Virginia Capes and in the Caribbean. An important assignment was training aviators in the use of her advance d facilities, a duty on which she often operated out of Mayport, Fla. On 7 November 1956, she put to sea from Mayport to operate in the eastern Atlantic during the Suez Crisis ready to enter the Mediterranean should her great strength be necessary. She returned to Norfolk 12 December to prepare for her first deployment with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, for which she sailed 15 January 1957. On this, as on her succeeding tours of duty in the Mediterranean, Forrestal visited many ports to allow dignitaries and the general public to come aboard and view the tremendous power for peace she represented. For military observers, she staged underway demonstrations to illustrate her capacity to bring air power to and from the sea in military operations on any scale. She returned to Norfolk 22 July 1957 for exercises off the North Carolina coast in preparation for her first NATO Operation, "Strikeback," in the North Sea. This deployment, between 3 September and 22 October, found her visiting Southampton England, as well as drilling in the highly important task of coordinating United States naval power with that of other NATO nations. The next year found Forrestal participating in a series of major fleet exercises, as well as taking part in experimental flight operations. During the Lebanon Crisis of summer 1958, the great carrier was again called upon to operate in the ea stern Atlantic to back up naval operations in the Mediterranean. She sailed from Norfolk 11 July to embark an air group at Mayport 2 days later, then patrolled the Atlantic until returning to Norfolk 17 July. On her second tour of duty in the Mediterranean, from 2 September 1958 to 12 March 1959, Forrestal again combined a program of training, patrol, and participation in major exercises with ceremonial, hospitality and public visiting. Her guest list during this cruise was headed by Secretary of Defense N. H. McElroy. Returning to Norfolk, she continued the never ending task of training new aviators, constantly maintaining her readiness for instant reaction to any demand for her services brought on by international events. Visitors during the year included King Hussein of Jordan. Forrestal was decommissioned September 11, 1993.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day October 1
KEEN, JOSEPH S.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 13th Michigan Infantry. Place and date: Near Chattahoochee River, Ga., 1 October 1864. Entered service at: Detroit, Mich. Born: 24 July 1843, England. Date of issue: 4 August 1899. Citation: While an escaped prisoner of war within the enemy's lines witnessed an important movement of the enemy, and at great personal risk made his way through the enemy's lines and brought news of the movement to Sherman's army.
CLANCY, JAMES T.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 1st New Jersey Cavalry. Place and date: At Vaughn Road, Va., 1 October 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Albany, N.Y. Date of issue: 3 July 1865. Citation: Shot the Confederate Gen. Dunovant dead during a charge, thus confusing the enemy and greatly aiding in his repulse.
SCHWAN, THEODORE
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 10th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Peebles Farm, Va., 1 October 1864. Entered service at: New York. Born: 9 July 1841, Germany. Date of issue: 12 December 1898. Citation: At the imminent risk of his own life, while his regiment was falling back before a superior force of the enemy, he dragged a wounded and helpless officer to the rear, thus saving him from death or capture.
WRIGHT, ROBERT
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 14th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Chapel House, Farm, Va., 1 October 1864. Entered service at: Woodstock, Conn. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 25 November 1869. Citation: Gallantry in action.
THOMPSON, JOSEPH H.
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Army, 110th Infantry, 28th Division. Place and date: Near Apremont, France, 1 October 1918. Entered service at: Beaver Falls, Pa. Born: 26 September 1871, Kilkeel, County Down, Ireland. G.O. No.: 21, W.D., 1925. Citation: Counterattacked by 2 regiments of the enemy, Maj. Thompson encouraged his battalion in the front line of constantly braving the hazardous fire of machineguns and artillery. His courage was mainly responsible for the heavy repulse of the enemy. Later in the action, when the advance of his assaulting companies was held up by fire from a hostile machinegun nest and all but 1 of the 6 assaulting tanks were disabled, Maj. Thompson, with great gallantry and coolness, rushed forward on foot 3 separate times in advance of the assaulting line, under heavy machinegun and antitank-gun fire, and led the 1 remaining tank to within a few yards of the enemy machinegun nest, which succeeded in reducing it, thereby making it possible for the infantry to advance.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for October 1, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
1 October
1907: At Mrs. Bell's suggestion, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell formed the Aerial Experiment Association at his summer home in Beinn Breagh, Baddeck, Nova Scotia. The association included Dr. Bell, Frederick W. "Casey" Baldwin, John A. "Douglas" McCurdy, Glenn Curtiss, and Thomas E. Selfridge. (24)
1942: KEY EVENT. Robert M. Stanley flew the Bell XP-59A, the first U.S. turbojet aircraft, for the first time at Muroc Field. (21)
1947: North American's prototype F-86 Sabre (XP-86) first flew at Muroc Dry Lake. (20) (24)
1951: KOREAN WAR/Operation SNOWBALL. In an experiment, through 3 October C-119s from the 315 AD dropped 55-gallon drums filled with napalm behind enemy lines. (28) The USAF activated the 1st Pilotless Bomber Squadron at the Missile Test Center, Cocoa, Fla.
1952: Operation FOX PETER TWO: Through 14 October, in a second mass flight, 75 F-84Gs of the 27 FW, with Col Donald Blakeslee leading, extended air refueling over the western Pacific. The first refueling occurred between California and Hawaii and the second the 2,575 miles between Midway Island and Japan. The Fox Peter operations proved that fighters could be moved to the Orient quickly by air to avoid the corrosion potential of water transport. (18)
1955: The Navy started the super carrier age by commissioning the USS Forrestal, the first designed for jet aircraft. (7)
1957: USAF personnel launched their first intercontinental missile, the XSM-62 Snark, in a flight from Cape Canaveral. (16) (24) TAC received its first F-104C. General Thomas S. Power, the CINCSAC, decided to begin ground alert operations to counter the Soviet ICBM threat. Through 2 October, a Transworld Airlines Jetstream made the first nonstop flight over the Great Circle route from London to San Francisco.
1960: The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar post at Thule, Greenland, began operations. It was one of three planned warning sites against enemy attacks on North America. (16) (24) SAC activated the last Atlas E squadron, the 549 SMS, at Francis E. Warren AFB. (6)
1961: The last Atlas F squadron, the 556 SMS, activated at Plattsburgh AFB, N.Y. It was also the last unit activated for the Atlas program. (6)
1963: In a ski-equipped Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, Rear Admiral James R. Reedy (USN) made the first transpolar, nonstop flight from Capetown, South Africa, to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. This flight covered 4,700 miles in 14 hours 31 minutes and crossed the entire Antarctic continent. (5) (16)
1964: SAC phased out its Atlas-D program by taking the last missile off alert in the 549 SMS at Offutt AFB. (6) Exercise TROPIC LIGHTNING. Through 16 December, the first Tropic Lightning exercise provided live close air support training to soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division on Hawaii. The 18 TFW at Kadena AB sent six F-105Ds to Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station to participate in the training. They were replaced in late October by six F-105Ds from the 560 TFG at McConnell AFB. (17)
1965: When the USAF Aeronautical Station inactivated at Yokota, a 30-year era of Morse code in the USAF came to an end. Begun in 1935 with the creation of the Aeronautical (Airways) Station - Network, expanded greatly thereafter, and gradually reduced after the close of World War II, the requirement for this type of long-range communication ended with the transfer of WB-50 weather reconnaissance aircraft from Japan. Mariner IV, after broadcasting from a record distance of 191,059,922 miles in space, had its telemetry transmission halted by a radio command from the Goldstone Space Communications Station. The 1502 ATW logged its 600,000th accident-free flying hour, a record in aviation history. (16)
1968: REFORGER/CRESTED CAP. MAC moved 33,043 passengers and 3,796 tons of cargo during a four-month airlift to support this exercise. The airlift moved military personnel, dependents, and equipment from Germany to the US. (16)
1969: The C-5A Galaxy, world's largest aircraft at the time, took off from Edwards AFB with a 410,000-payload, heaviest ever carried by any aircraft. This load was also 21,000 pounds heavier than the C-5A's designed lift capability, and 28,100 pounds heavier than the record it set on 15 June.
1970: TAC made the bare-base concept a reality by establishing the first operationally-ready "heavy bare" squadron, the 336 TFS at Seymour Johnson AFB, NC. (16)
1971: General John D. Ryan, the CSAF, presented the 1970 Cheney Award to Maj Travis Wofford for an act of heroism performed as a helicopter pilot in SEA. (16)
1972: The USAF inactivated the last BOMARC missile squadron. These squadrons started operating in 1969.
1977: VOLANT OAK. The Air Force began a quarterly rotation of AFRES and ANG C-130 aircraft and crews to Howard AFB, Panama Canal Zone. (21)
1980: Operation ELF ONE. Four E-3A AWACS deployed to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to protect Saudi airspace during the Iraq-Iran war. C-141s airlifted supplies and personnel for the operation, while two KC-135s based at the Riyadh Royal Saudi AB refueled the E-3s. (4) (18)
1981: ATC conducted the first Euro-NATO Jet Pilot Training class at Sheppard AFB. The program provided combined pilot training for candidates from NATO nations. (16) 1981: At Mather AFB, ATC began a special program to train German weapons systems officers for duty in the Tornado fighter-bomber. (16) (26)
1983: The Air Force retired the B-52D from its inventory of operational aircraft. This aircraft performed most of the ARC LIGHT bombing missions in SEA from
1966 through 1973. (See 4 October 1983) (1)
1984: Peacekeeper test missile-6 launched at Vandenberg AFB. (12)
1986: The B-1 achieved initial operating capability at Dyess AFB, Texas. (16)
1987: PACAF retired its last T-33 two seat training aircraft. The retirement of 7 T-33 T-Birds at Hickam and 7 more at Clark AB ended 32 years of operations in the command. (16)
1990: AFSC turned Patrick AFB and the space-launch mission to AFSPACE. (21)
1991: MAC C-5s and C-141s delivered two Patriot antimissile batteries to Saudi Arabia to counter a threat from Iraq. (18)
1992: PACAF and USAFE assumed control of intratheater aeromedical airlift forces based in their theaters of operation from AMC. (18)
1993: The AFRES activated its first B-52 unit, the 93d Bomb Squadron, at Barksdale AFB. (16) (26) ACC and AMC swapped aircraft assets. In this exchange, ACC received C-130 Hercules from AMC in return for KC-135 Stratotankers. (16)
1999: The USAF deployed Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF) 1 to Southwest Asia. It was the first AEF to deploy under a new rotational system for 10 AEFs. The deployment integrated ANG and the Air Force Reserve with the active duty air forces. Prior to the deployment, the ANG had agreed to supply 10 percent of the planes and personnel for each AEF. (21) (32) The first ANG pilot with Detachment 1, Southeast Air Defense Sector, began flying with the activeduty 325th Fighter Wing at Tyndall AFB, Fla., under a new program to have ANG flight instructors train new active duty F-15 pilots.
2002: Gen John P. Jumper, USAF Chief of Staff (CSAF), ordered the deactivation of the Peacekeeper ICBM system. (21)
2007: The Air Force redesignated the 27th Fighter Wing at Cannon AFB, N. Mex., as the 27th Special Operations Wing. Thus, the 27th became the second active-duty special operations wing in the Air Force Special Operations Command. The 73d Special Operations Squadron's MC-130W Combat Spear aircraft was the first plane to move from Hurlburt Field, Fla., to Cannon. The MC-130W handled infiltration, exfiltration, and the resupply of special operations forces, while providing refueling capability for special operations vertical-lift assets like the CV-22 Osprey. (AFNEWS, "New Chapter for Air Force Special Operations Begins," 4 Oct 2007.)
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