The List 7381
To All
Good |Wednesday Morning December 10 2025 .
It is going to be clear all day again. The temps are supposed to hit 82 around 12. The next week will be clear for the most par.Tested at the San Marcos school last night Only one more class to go. On Thursday we have a demonstration and Pot Luck dinner and hand out belts and certificates and are done until January.
I have to run to a doctor appointment so this is a bit short this morning
.Regards
skip
.HAGD
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I do hope that this time they get it right….skip
Navy pilot who took out 4 Soviet jets in covered-up mission may get Medal of Honor
After-action inspections found 263 bullet holes in his F9F-5 Panther.
photo narration: Legendary Navy aviator Royce Williams, who shot down four Soviet MiG-15 fighters in 1952, is the inspiration for legislation that would make it easier for troops and veterans to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Photos via the U.S. Naval Institute and the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
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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 94 H-Grams.
December 10
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December 10
1843—The first steam ship with screw propeller, Princeton, is launched. In 1844, its guns explode during a demonstration and kill Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and several others.
1941—SBD aircraft from USS Enterprise (CV 6) attack and sink the Japanese submarine I-70 north of Hawaiian Islands. A participant in the Pearl Harbor Attack, I-70 is the first major Japanese combatant ship sunk during World War II.
1941—A PBY aircraft piloted by Lt. Harmon T. Utter is attacked by three Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 carrier fighters. Chief Boatswain Earl D. Payne, Utter's bow gunner shoots one down, scoring the Navy's first verifiable air-to-air "kill" of a Japanese plane in the Pacific War.
1994 – USS Mitscher (DDG 57) is commissioned at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., Cmdr. Roy J. Balaconis in command.
Dec. 10, 1864: Union Army forces under the command of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman reach the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia, a key Confederate coastal city which Sherman will present as a Christmas gift to Pres. Abraham Lincoln on Dec. 22. Sherman's famous "March [from Atlanta] to the Sea" (infamous to many Southerners, even today) is all but over. In the new year, Sherman's army will begin its fiery march up into South Carolina, the extraordinarily proud but soon-to-be defeated state where the whole thing started.
Dec. 10, 1898: The Spanish-American War ends with the signing of the "Treaty of Paris" (not to be confused with the 1783-1784 "Treaty of Paris" ending our War of Independence, nor the 1763 "Treaty of Paris" ending the Seven Years War, known here in the colonies as the French and Indian War). Spain gets the short end of the stick. We get Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, etc.
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This Day in World History
December 10
1817 Mississippi is admitted as the 20th state.
1861 Kentucky is admitted to the Confederate States of America.
1862 The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill creating the state of West Virginia.
1869 Governor John Campbell signs the bill that grants women in Wyoming Territory the right to vote as well as hold public office.
1898 The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Paris, ceding Spanish possessions, including the Philippines, to the United States.
1917 The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to the International Red Cross.
1918 U.S. troops are called to guard Berlin as a coup is feared.
1919 Captain Ross Smith becomes the first person to fly 11,500 miles from England to Australia.
1941 Japanese troops invade the Philippine island of Luzon.
1941 The siege of Tobruk in North Africa is raised.
1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.
1943 Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
1949 150,000 French troops mass at the border in Vietnam to prevent a Chinese invasion.
1950 Dr. Ralph J. Bunche becomes the first African-American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1977 On UN Human Rights Day, the Soviet Union places 20 prominent dissidents under house arrest, cutting off telephones and threatening to break up a planned silent demonstration in Moscow's Pushkin Square. Soviet newspapers decry human rights violations elsewhere in the world.
1978 President of Egypt Anwar Sadat and Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1983 Democracy is restored to Argentina with the assumption of Raul Alfonsin.
1989 Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
1993 The Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland, East England, closes, marking the end of the County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages
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1901 The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace on December 10, 1901. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Although Nobel offered no public reason for his creation of the prizes, it is widely believed that he did so out of moral regret over the increasingly lethal uses of his inventions in war.
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Stockholm in 1833, and four years later his family moved to Russia. His father ran a successful St. Petersburg factory that built explosive mines and other military equipment. Educated in Russia, Paris, and the United States, Alfred Nobel proved a brilliant chemist. When his father's business faltered after the end of the Crimean War, Nobel returned to Sweden and set up a laboratory to experiment with explosives. In 1863, he invented a way to control the detonation of nitroglycerin, a highly volatile liquid that had been recently discovered but was previously regarded as too dangerous for use. Two years later, Nobel invented the blasting cap, an improved detonator that inaugurated the modern use of high explosives. Previously, the most dependable explosive was black powder, a form of gunpowder.
Nitroglycerin remained dangerous, however, and in 1864 Nobel's nitroglycerin factory blew up, killing his younger brother and several other people. Searching for a safer explosive, Nobel discovered in 1867 that the combination of nitroglycerin and a porous substance called kieselguhr produced a highly explosive mixture that was much safer to handle and use. Nobel christened his invention "dynamite," for the Greek word dynamis, meaning "power." Securing patents on dynamite, Nobel acquired a fortune as humanity put his invention to use in construction and warfare.
In 1875, Nobel created a more powerful form of dynamite, blasting gelatin, and in 1887 introduced ballistite, a smokeless nitroglycerin powder. Around that time, one of Nobel's brothers died in France, and French newspapers printed obituaries in which they mistook him for Alfred. One headline read, "The merchant of death is dead." Alfred Nobel in fact had pacifist tendencies and in his later years apparently developed strong misgivings about the impact of his inventions on the world. After he died in San Remo, Italy, on December 10, 1896, the majority of his estate went toward the creation of prizes to be given annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The portion of his will establishing the Nobel Peace Prize read, "[one award shall be given] to the person who has done the most or best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." Exactly five years after his death, the first Nobel awards were presented.
Today, the Nobel Prizes are regarded as the most prestigious awards in the world in their various fields. Notable winners have included Marie Curie, Theodore Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and Malala Yousafzai. Multiple leaders and organizations sometimes receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and multiple researchers often share the scientific awards for their joint discoveries. In 1968, a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science was established by the Swedish national bank, Sveriges Riksbank, and first awarded in 1969.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decides the prizes in physics, chemistry, and economic science; the Swedish Royal Caroline Medico-Surgical Institute determines the physiology or medicine award; the Swedish Academy chooses literature; and a committee elected by the Norwegian parliament awards the peace prize. The Nobel Prizes are still presented annually. Each Nobel carries a cash prize of nearly $1,400,000 and recipients also received a gold medal, as is the tradition.
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Thanks to the Bear. We will always have the url for you to search items in Rolling Thunder
OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER …
. rollingthunderremembered.com .
Thanks to Micro
From Vietnam Air Losses site for ..December 10
10-Dec: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2782
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature.
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
By: Kipp Hanley
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. From the archives
F-14 Shoot down at Pt. Mugu
Thanks to Clyde
From: George Clark
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 11:30:19 AM PST
Subject: Fwd: F-14 Shoot down at Pt. Mugu
A great story from an ex Turkey Driver:
Pete Purvis tells his test flight Sparrow/Tomcat shoot down story......CB
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Thanks to Carl
(We recently re-watched this outstanding movie too. Joe Galloway, the war correspondent, is a remarkable story within the movie.)
We Were Soldiers … Who Supposedly Died for Our Country
By Jacob G. Hornberger
The Future of Freedom Foundation
December 7, 2023
I was watching the 2002 war movie We Were Soldiers a couple of night ago. I've seen it before but it's such a great movie that I periodically re-watch it. It stars Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Keri Russell, and others.
The movie is based on a true story. It dramatizes the Battle of la Drang in Vietnam, which was the first major battle between U.S. military forces and North Vietnamese forces. The battle took place in November 1965, two years after President Kennedy was assassinated and a year after Lyndon Johnson was elected president in November 1964.
Gibson plays U.S. Army Lt. Col. Hal Moore, who was ordered to lead his 400-man battalion in an attack on a North Vietnamese force that had recently attacked an American military base in Vietnam. U.S. military intelligence had no idea how large the enemy force was. After Air Calvary helicopters deposited Moore's troops into the la Drang Valley, a captured enemy scout informed them that they were facing a veteran North Vietnamese division of 4,000 men.
In the movie, the final words of a U.S. soldier who was shot and dying were something to the effect of, "I'm glad I am able to die for my country."
Of course, it was a nonsensical notion, but one that was inculcated not only in U.S. soldiers but also the vast majority of the American people, who, at that time, had a mindset of extreme and loyal deference to the U.S. national-security state.
The notion was that there was an international communist conspiracy to take over the world, including the United States. The conspiracy was supposedly based in Moscow, Russia — yes, the same Russia that U.S. officials are, once again, saying is hell-bent on coming to get us.
The American people were told that the North Vietnamese attempt to unify their country under communist rule was part of this international communist conspiracy. If the U.S. did not prevent this takeover with military force, U.S. officials claimed, it would mean that America would be in greater danger of falling to the international Red conspiracy.
Perhaps one of the reasons I am attracted to this movie is that I too was a victim of this indoctrination. I was 15 years old when that battle took place. By the time I graduated high school in 1968, I was fully convinced that American soldiers who were being killed in Vietnam were dying for their country. In fact, if I had been drafted out of high school and forced to go to Vietnam to fight the Reds, my mindset would have been the same as that of that dying soldier in the movie. If I had been struck with a fatal wound, I too would have died thinking that I was dying for my country.
During my first two years at Virginia Military Institute, I maintained the same mindset. And then during my junior year, I achieved a breakthrough to the truth. I'm not sure what did it, but my hunch is that periodic announcements at dinner in the mess hall of deaths of VMI graduates in Vietnam were a big factor in causing me to question what we were being told.
I just recall coming to realization that that it was all a lie — a crock. American men, including those VMI grads, who were being killed in Vietnam weren't dying for their country. They were dying because of the ridiculous and paranoid mindset of the national-security establishment about the supposed international communist conspiracy that was supposedly based in Moscow. They were dying because U.S. officials were convinced that it was necessary for the U.S. to intervene in what was nothing more than a civil war in Vietnam to prevent the Reds from coming over here to get us.
How do we know that it was all a ridiculous and paranoid mindset? Because after killing more than 58,000 American soldiers, the North Vietnamese ended up winning the war several years later. And guess what: The Reds never made it to the United States with a successful invasion, conquest, and occupation of our country. Despite the North Vietnamese victory, the supposed international communist conspiracy that was supposedly based in Moscow had failed to achieve its purported goal of worldwide conquest.
In other words, if the U.S. government had never intervened in the Vietnam War, the result would have been the same as it ended up being — except that those 58,000 American men, many of whom were forced to serve the Pentagon, would still have been alive. Their deaths were a total waste.
Perhaps it's worth pointing out that today the U.S. government has extremely friendly relations with the Vietnamese communist regime. That, of course, could have been the case without the U.S. intervention in the Vietnam War. In fact, that was precisely what President Kennedy was striving for when he was killed in Dallas.
Despite that soldier's dying words in the movie, no American soldier who was killed in the Vietnam War died for his country. They all died for nothing. Or, to be more exact, they died for the Pentagon and the CIA and their ridiculous, paranoid, and baseless conspiratorial mindset regarding the Russians and the Reds.
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. If the URLs do not work Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
80 YEARS AGO 'this month
H-015-2: Guadalcanal Campaign—Battle of Rennell Island and Operation Ke
H-Gram 015, Attachment 2
Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC
February 2018
Most narratives of the Guadalcanal campaign tend to peter out after the Battle of Tassafaronga and jump to the final Japanese defeat and evacuation in February 1943. The reality is that the Japanese navy continued to fight with extraordinary audacity and tenacity, on several occasions inflicting serious losses to the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy continued to learn, albeit sometimes slowly, from its experience in night surface combat around Guadalcanal, aided by increasingly advanced technology, including airborne radar and variable-time (VT) fuzed anti-aircraft ammunition. In many cases, U.S. Sailors displayed incredible valor in the final months of the campaign, especially the U.S. PT-boats operating from Tulagi. Most of these actions have now faded into relative obscurity.
During the Battle of Tassafaronga on the night of 30 November–1 December 1942, the U.S. Navy, at great cost, had thwarted the Japanese navy's first attempt to resupply Japanese troops on Guadalcanal using the new floating supply-drum method. The Japanese tried again on 3 December, fighting off a 15-plane long-range U.S. air attack from Guadalcanal at dusk and proving that radically maneuvering high-speed destroyers were very difficult targets to hit. The ten destroyers dumped 1,500 drums of supplies just off Guadalcanal, but at dawn, strafing from U.S. aircraft sank most of the drums before Japanese troops could retrieve them.
The Japanese quickly adjusted their drum tactics and tried again with 12 destroyers on 7 Dec, under the command of Captain Sato, who had been so effective at Tassafaronga. Thirteen Marine SBD dive bombers attacked the Japanese destroyers at dusk, damaging one destroyer that had to be towed back by another, at the cost of the squadron skipper, Major Joseph Sailor, USMC. Sato pressed on with the remainder of his force and was met by eight U.S. PT-boats (including PT-109, not yet under the command of future President John F. Kennedy) off Savo Island. In the night battle that followed, which included PT-59 and the Japanese destroyer Kurushio exchanging machine-gun fire at a range of 100 yards, the U.S. PT-boats launched numerous torpedoes, which did not hit, but successfully drove off two attempts by Sato's destroyers to get close enough to Guadalcanal to deliver their drums. By driving off the Japanese, without loss, the PT-boats accomplished the same thing that had cost the U.S. Navy four heavy cruisers sunk or crippled the week before, one of the best showings by PT-boats in the entire war.
The next day, the Japanese navy announced to the Japanese army that it was terminating "Tokyo Express" supply runs effective immediately because continued losses of ships at the rate since November would preclude the Imperial Navy from being able to achieve victory in the great "decisive battle" that their Mahanian doctrine called for. The Japanese army, whose troops on the island were literally starving, was not amused, especially since they had been goaded by the navy into committing wave after wave of troops to the island in what was supposed to have been a definitive campaign. In the face of vociferous army protests, the Japanese navy agreed to one more Tokyo Express run to Guadalcanal. Relations between the Japanese army and navy, never good to begin with, only became more poisonous. Shortly after, U.S. Navy transports landed three regiments of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division on Guadalcanal (bringing U.S. troops on the island to near 50,000, while the Japanese could muster well less than 10,000 fit to fight.) On 9 December, Major General Alexander M. Patch, U.S. Army, relieved Major General Alexander Vandegrift, U.S. Marine Corps, in command of U.S. Forces on Guadalcanal. Most of the Marines of the 1st Division, exhausted by months of combat with Japanese and jungle diseases, were withdrawn.
The Japanese continued resupply efforts by submarine that had begun the previous month, making three deliveries in the first week of December, before U.S. Navy radio intelligence pinpointed the schedule for the next delivery. In the pre-dawn hours of 9 December, the Japanese submarine I-3 surfaced right between PT-44 and PT-59 waiting in ambush, and was hit and sunk by a torpedo from PT-59 (Lieutenant Jack M. Searles, commanding) which actually worked. Searles was awarded the Navy Cross. The Japanese suspended further submarine supply runs.
The last Tokyo Express run, under the command of Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka, commenced on 11 December with 11 destroyers, five of them as escorts. U.S. intelligence provided precise warning, and the Tokyo Express was met by 14 Marine dive bombers at long range at dusk. However, no hits were achieved. Once again, the U.S. PT-boats were waiting (five of them). This time, the Japanese managed to get 1,200 drums into the water just off shore, but as they were withdrawing, PT-37, PT-40, and PT-48 all launched torpedoes, one of which struck Tanaka's flagship, the destroyer Teruzuki, knocking the admiral unconscious. As PT-44 and PT-114 closed in on the flaming Japanese destroyer to finish off the kill, the destroyers Kawakaze and Suzukaze found the range on PT-44 (Lieutenant Frank Freeland, commanding), hitting her multiple times and sinking her. Only two of PT-44's crew of 11 survived. At 0315 on 12 December, the Japanese gave up trying to save Teruzuki and scuttled her. Although the mission was a "success," only 220 of 1,200 drums actually made it to shore, at the cost of a destroyer.
Beginning in mid-November, the Japanese attempted to secretly build an airfield at Munda, on the island of New Georgia about 170 nautical miles up the Solomon Islands chain to the northwest of Guadalcanal (which would considerably shorten the 500–nautical mile flight from Japanese bases at Rabaul). Despite elaborate deception efforts, U.S. aerial reconnaissance and Allied coast watchers detected the construction activity. Throughout early December, U.S. aircraft from Guadalcanal repeatedly bombed the incomplete airfield, but construction continued. The Japanese suffered a major setback when the U.S. submarine Seadragon (SS-194) torpedoed the transport Nankai Maru carrying construction troops intended to build an airfield on the island of Kolombangara, just to the northwest of New Georgia. While attempting to assist the immobilized transport, the destroyer Uzuki collided with the other ship and lost power as well. Four other destroyers took the two ships in tow, but one of the destroyers was hit by an air attack in the process and was seriously damaged. By 27 December, the Japanese gave up trying to complete the airfield on Munda, but continued to fly some planes from the airstrip. Also on that same day, the Japanese resumed submarine resupply missions to Guadalcanal.
Read the rest at
H-Gram 015
»
H-015-2 Battle of Rennell Island
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. From 27 November to 13 December 1950 this is what the Marines were doing in Korea. If you are not familiar with it you can read about it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chosin_Reservoir
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. Thanks to Wigs (RIP)….At the risk of a dupe
Story of Adam & Eve's Dog
Adam and Eve said, 'Lord, when we were in the garden, you walked with us every day. Now we do not see you anymore. We are lonesome here, and it is difficult for us to remember how much you love us.
And God said, 'I will create a companion for you that will be with you and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourselves.'
And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam and Eve. And it was a good animal and God was pleased.
And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and Eve, and he wagged his tail.
And Adam said, 'Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom, and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.'
And God said, 'I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.'
And Dog lived with Adam and Eve and was a companion to them and loved them. And they were comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.
After a while, it came to pass that an angel came to the Lord and said, 'Lord, Adam and Eve have become filled with pride. They strut and preen like peacocks, and they believe they are worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught them that they are loved, but perhaps too well.'
And God said, 'I will create for them a companion who will be with them and who will see them as they are. The companion will remind them of their limitations, so they will know that they are not always worthy of adoration.'
And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam and Eve.
And Cat would not obey them. And when Adam and Eve gazed into Cat's eyes, they were reminded that they were not the Supreme Beings.
And Adam and Eve learned humility. And they were greatly improved.
And God was pleased. And Dog was happy.
And the Cat . . .
didn't give a s#*t one way or the other...
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From the archives
The Pearl Harbor Niihau Incident And Origins Of Ruger's 22 Pistol
Thanks to Dick
From my friend, Tom H.
A story I'd never heard before.
Subject: Fwd: The Pearl Harbor Niihau Incident And Origins Of Ruger's 22 Pistol
I found this to be a very interesting story….SKIP.
https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/the-pearl-harbor-niihau-incident-a-tidy-little-war/ .
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This Day in U S Military History
December 10
1845 – President James Polk make a bold move to radically expand the burgeoning United States. Polk gave Congressman John Slidell the go-ahead to settle a border dispute concerning Texas, as well as to purchase New Mexico and California, from Mexico. As per Polk's demand, Slidell anted up $5 million for New Mexico and $25 million for California; however, Mexico refused the offer, emboldening the president to marshal a war effort in the name of "reannexing" the territory.
1864 – Union General William T. Sherman completes his "March to the Sea" when he arrives in front of Savannah, Georgia. Since mid-November, Sherman's army had been sweeping from Atlanta across the state to the south and east towards Savannah, one of the last Confederate seaports still unoccupied by Union forces. Along the way, Sherman destroyed farms and railroads, burned storehouses, and fed his army off the land. In his own words, Sherman intended to "make Georgia howl," a plan that was approved by President Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of the Union armies. The city of Savannah was fortified and defended by 10,000 Confederates under the command of General William Hardee. The Rebels flooded the rice fields around Savannah, so only a few narrow causeways provided access to the city. Sherman's army was running low on supplies and he had not made contact with supply ships off the coast. Sherman's army had been completely cut off from the North, and only the reports of destruction provided any evidence of its whereabouts. Sherman directed General Oliver O. Howard to the coast to locate friendly ships. Howard dispatched Captain William Duncan and two comrades to contact the Union fleet, but nothing was heard of the trio for several days. Duncan located a Union gunboat that carried him to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Supply ships were sent to Savannah, and Duncan continued on to Washington to deliver news of the successful "March to the Sea" to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. For ten day, Hardee held out as Sherman prepared for an attack. Realizing the futility of losing in force entirely, Hardee fled the city on December 20 and slipped northward to fight another day.
1905 – To evaluate its use in lighthouse work, radio equipment was installed experimentally on Nantucket Lightship in August of 1901. On December 10, 1905, while riding out a severe gale, Lightship No. 58 on the Nantucket Shoals Station sprang a serious leak. There being no recognized radio distress signal at that time, the operator could only repeatedly spell out the word "help". Although no reply was received Newport Navy station (radio) intercepted the call and passed it on to the proper authorities. The lightship tender Azalea was dispatched to the assistance of Lightship No. 58, and upon arrival at the scene passed a towline. The long tow to a safe harbor began, but after a few hours it was quite evident that Lightship No. 58 was sinking. Azalea took off her crew of thirteen men only minutes before she sank. This pioneer use of radio had indeed proved Its worth in rescue operations.
1941 – Japanese air attacks and troop landings on Luzon. Attack on the naval base at Caite destroys weapons stocks. At Aparri, on the north coast, 2000 troops of the Tanaka Detachment land, while troops of the Kanno Detachment land at Vigan in the northeast. Both landings are well supported by naval forces.
1941 – Admiral Goto commands a Japanese force which captures the 300 man US garrison on Guam.
1941 – Aircraft from USS Enterprise attack and sink Japanese Submarine I-70 north of Hawaiian Islands. A participant in the Pearl Harbor Attack. At the time, I-70 is thought to be the first Japanese combatant ship sunk during World War II.
1941 – PBY piloted by LT Utter of VP-101 shoots down Japanese ZERO in first Navy air-to-air kill during World War II.
1941 – The US submarine Sealion was sunk in an air attack at Manila Bay. 10 crewman were captured by the Japanese and shipped to work in a Mitsubishi copper mine in northern Japan.
1941 – With no weapon larger than the .30 caliber MG, 153 Marines defended Guam until overwhelmed.
1950 – The U.S. Air Force Combat Cargo Command completed a four-day emergency mission in which it airdropped 1,580 tons of supplies and equipment and evacuated 4,687 casualties from the Hagaru-ri and Koto-ri areas near the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir.
1981 – A Coast Guard HH-52A landed on CGC Dependable's flight deck, marking the 5,000th helicopter landing on board the ship. According to AVTRACEN records, this was the most helicopter landings ever recorded aboard a cutter. The landing occurred off Dauphin Island in the Gulf of Mexico.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*PAGE, JOHN U. D.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, X Corps Artillery, while attached to the 52d Transportation Truck Battalion. Place and date: Near Chosin Reservoir, Korea, 29 November to 10 December 1950. Entered service at: St. Paul, Minn. Born: 8 February 1904, Malahi Island, Luzon, Philippine Islands. G.O. No.: 21, 25 April 1957. Citation: Lt. Col. Page, a member of X Corps Artillery, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty in a series of exploits. On 29 November, Lt. Col. Page left X Corps Headquarters at Hamhung with the mission of establishing traffic control on the main supply route to 1st Marine Division positions and those of some Army elements on the Chosin Reservoir plateau. Having completed his mission Lt. Col. Page was free to return to the safety of Hamhung but chose to remain on the plateau to aid an isolated signal station, thus being cut off with elements of the marine division. After rescuing his jeep driver by breaking up an ambush near a destroyed bridge Lt. Col. Page reached the lines of a surrounded marine garrison at Koto-ri. He then voluntarily developed and trained a reserve force of assorted army troops trapped with the marines. By exemplary leadership and tireless devotion he made an effective tactical unit available. In order that casualties might be evacuated, an airstrip was improvised on frozen ground partly outside of the Koto-ri defense perimeter which was continually under enemy attack. During 2 such attacks, Lt. Col. Page exposed himself on the airstrip to direct fire on the enemy, and twice mounted the rear deck of a tank, manning the machine gun on the turret to drive the enemy back into a no man's land. On 3 December while being flown low over enemy lines in a light observation plane, Lt. Col. Page dropped handgrenades on Chinese positions and sprayed foxholes with automatic fire from his carbine. After 10 days of constant fighting the marine and army units in the vicinity of the Chosin Reservoir had succeeded in gathering at the edge of the plateau and Lt. Col. Page was flown to Hamhung to arrange for artillery support of the beleaguered troops attempting to break out. Again Lt. Col. Page refused an opportunity to remain in safety and returned to give every assistance to his comrades. As the column slowly moved south Lt. Col. Page joined the rear guard. When it neared the entrance to a narrow pass it came under frequent attacks on both flanks. Mounting an abandoned tank Lt. Col. Page manned the machine gun, braved heavy return fire, and covered the passing vehicles until the danger diminished. Later when another attack threatened his section of the convoy, then in the middle of the pass, Lt. Col. Page took a machine gun to the hillside and delivered effective counterfire, remaining exposed while men and vehicles passed through the ambuscade. On the night of 10 December the convoy reached the bottom of the pass but was halted by a strong enemy force at the front and on both flanks. Deadly small-arms fire poured into the column. Realizing the danger to the column as it lay motionless, Lt. Col. Page fought his way to the head of the column and plunged forward into the heart of the hostile position. His intrepid action so surprised the enemy that their ranks became disordered and suffered heavy casualties. Heedless of his safety, as he had been throughout the preceding 10 days, Lt. Col. Page remained forward, fiercely engaging the enemy single-handed until mortally wounded. By his valiant and aggressive spirit Lt. Col. Page enabled friendly forces to stand off the enemy. His outstanding courage, unswerving devotion to duty, and supreme self-sacrifice reflect great credit upon Lt. Col. Page and are in the highest tradition of the military service.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for December 10, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
10 December
1941: Aircraft from the USS Enterprise sank a Japanese sub north of Hawaii. It was the first Japanese combat ship sunk by the US in World War II.-----Update The USS Ward sunk the first ship. The sub with a hole through the conning tower was recently found off the coast of Pearl Harbor that was hit by the Ward on 7 December 1941---Skip
(24) Five B-17s from the 93 BMS carried out the first heavy bombardment mission of World War II. They attacked a Japanese convoy as they landed troops on the northern coast of Luzon, Philippines. (21) In its first foreign operation, the ACFC ferried four B-24 bombers to the Middle East. (2)
1947: The National Aeronautic Association awarded the Collier Trophy for 1946 to Lewis A. Rodert for developing thermal ice-prevention systems. Lt Col John P. Stapp took his first rocket propelled sled ride. (24)
1950: KOREAN WAR. FEAF Combat Cargo Command finished a two-week airlift for surrounded U.S. troops in N. Korea by delivering 1,580 tons of supplies and equipment and moving almost 5,000 sick and wounded troops. Participating airlift units conducted 350 C-119 and C-47 flights. (28)
1954: On a rocket-propelled sled run, Lt Col John P. Stapp attained 632 MPH (equal to Mach 1.7 at 35,000 feet) and decelerated to zero in 1.4 seconds. He experienced the greatest G-force ever endured by man (40 Gs) in recorded tests. The test proved that humans could survive ejection from an aircraft at supersonic speeds. (16) (21)
1955: Ryan's X-13 Vertijet flew its first flight. (3)
1958: National Airlines began the first jet domestic passenger service in the US with a Boeing 707 flight between New York and Miami. (21)
1962: The Army successfully fired its Pershing rocket, a solid-fuel replacement for the Redstone, from Cape Canaveral and guided it through a series of zigzag maneuvers designed to test its guidance system. (16) (24)
1963: SECDEF Robert S. McNamara cancelled the X-20A Dyna-Soar Program and placed the near-- earth MOL project under USAF direction. (3)
1965: SECDEF Robert S. McNamara announced the development of the FB-111, a strategic and tactical F-111 bomber to replace the retiring B-58s and B-52s. (1) (12)
1967: MSgt H. B. Whitmore, wearing a passive pressure suit developed by the School of Aviation Medicine, set a new high altitude record during tests in a chamber simulating 112,000 feet in altitude.
1980: Operation CREEK SENTRY: In response to the Polish crisis, four E-3A AWACS aircraft deployed to Ramstein AB in an expanded Creek Sentry deployment. (4)
1986: An HC-130, a UH-60 Black Hawk, a CH-3 Jolly Green Giant, and a MH-53 helicopter rescued 19 survivors from the Norwegian ship Greco Alpha, a 300-foot seismographic research vessel that caught fire 30 miles from Destin, Fla. The survivors were flown to Eglin AFB to medical treatment. (16)
2000: In its Palmdale plant, Boeing completed structural mode tests on its X-32B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator. The X-32B would be used to validate Boeing's direct-lift approach to short take-off vertical landing flights. (AFNEWS Article 001827, 13 Dec 2000)
2001: Operation DEEP FREEZE. Through 20 January 2002, a 50 AS aircrew from Little Rock AFB, assigned to the 50th Air Expeditionary Squadron, flew the first wheeled C-130 mission from the Pegasus glacial runway in Antarctica to provide more airlift for the National Science Foundation. The 3 deployed wheeled C-130s flew 11 resupply missions between Antarctica and Christchurch IAP, New Zealand, in that period. (22)
2004: From Quonset State Airport, the 143 AW (Rhode Island ANG) deployed the first C-130J "Super Hercules" for Southwest Asian combat operations. Through 8 March 2005, two C-130Js and four crews from the 143d flew 625 sorties and logged 1,371 hours moving 7,031 passengers and 1,151 cargo pallets to locations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. (22) (32)
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