The List 7409
To All
Good Wednesday Morning January 7, 2026 . The day has started out partly cloudy andhe weather guessers are predicting rain starting soon and lasting until noon.
.
.Regards
skip
.HAGD
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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.
7 January
1822 The schooner Porpoise captures six pirate vessels off Cuba and destroys their base, while USS Spark recaptures a Dutch sloop that had been taken as a prize by pirates. A landing party destroys the pirate's base in the West Indies.
1881 Nathan Goff Jr., took office as the 28th Secretary of the Navy, serving until March. A World War II destroyer was named for him.
1945 Destroyers Charles Ausburne (DD 570), Braine (DD 630), Russell (DD 414) and Shaw (DD 373) sink the Japanese destroyer Hinoki, 50 miles west-southwest of Manila Bay.
1945 Submarine Spot (SS 413) sinks the Japanese gunboat No.2 Nichiei Maru in the Inland Sea.
1995 Dock Landing Ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49) is commissioned.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Today in World History January
1327 King Edward II of England is deposed.
1558 The French, under the Duke of Guise, finally take the port of Calais from the English.
1785 Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American Dr. John Jeffries make the first crossing of the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon.
1807 Responding to Napoleon Bonaparte's attempted blockade of the British Isles, the British blockade Continental Europe.
1865 Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attack Julesburg, Colo., in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre.
1901 New York stock exchange trading exceeds two million shares for the first time in history.
1902 Imperial Court of China returns to Peking. The Empress Dowager resumes her reign.
1918 The Germans move 75,000 troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.
1934 Six thousand pastors in Berlin defy the Nazis insisting that they will not be silenced.
1944 The U.S. Air Force announces the production of the first jet-fighter, Bell P-59 Airacomet.
1945 U.S. air ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. is killed in the Pacific.
1952 French forces in Indochina launch Operation Violette in an effort to push Viet Minh forces away from the town of Ba Vi.
1955 Marian Anderson becomes the first African American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House.
1975 Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.
1979 Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge are overthrown when Vietnamese troops seize the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.
1980 US President Jimmy Carter signs legislation providing $1.5 billion in loans to salvage Chrysler Corporation.
1985 Vietnam seizes the Khmer National Liberation Front headquarters near the Thai border.
1985 Japan launches its first interplanetary spacecraft, Sakigake, the first deep space probe launched by any nation other than the US or the USSR.
1989 Prince Akihito is sworn in as Emperor of Japan, following the death of his father, Hirohito.
1990 Safety concerns over structural problems force the Leaning Tower of Pisa to be closed to the public.
1993 The Bosnian Army carries out a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.
1999 The impeachment trial of US President Bill Clinton opens in the US Senate.
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
.
. Thanks to History Facts
The ancient Egyptians were the first to divide the day into 24 parts.
24-HOUR SUNDIAL
Ever wondered why there are 24 hours in a day? We have the ancient Egyptians to thank, at least in part. The basis for our modern calendar dates back to the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt, around 1550 BCE to 1069 BCE. During this era — about a thousand years after the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza — the Egyptians became the first civilization to divide the day into 24 smaller parts — though with a couple of key differences to how we do it today. For starters, the ancient timekeeping system tracked daytime and nighttime separately, with each divided into 12 parts. Also, these parts — which were measured in various ways, including sundials and water clocks — were not hours as we think of them today. Known as temporal hours or daylight hours, their length changed with the total amount of daylight at different times of year: For instance, the daytime hours would be longer in the summer than in the winter. So why 12? There are a couple of theories. Ancient astronomical tables suggest that nighttime was divided into 12 hours based on how the stars moved across the sky over time, as well as the cycles of the moon. It's also possible these Egyptian timekeepers were following the duodecimal system, which is based on the easily divisible number 12, and was used in many ancient cultures. It wasn't until the second century BCE that the idea emerged to break the day into 24 parts of equal length, a concept first introduced by the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus. The 24-hour day became the standard for tracking time throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, and remains so to this day
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Brett
US Military Action in Venezuela.
Interesting addition on the Venezuela mission
In August, a clandestine team of C.I.A. officers slipped into Venezuela with a plan to collect information on Nicolás Maduro, the country's president, whom the Trump administration had labeled a narco-terrorist.
The C.I.A. team moved about Caracas, remaining undetected for months while it was in the country. The intelligence gathered about the Venezuelan leader's daily movements — combined with a human source close to Mr. Maduro and a fleet of stealth drones flying secretly above — enabled the agency to map out minute details about his routines.
It was a highly dangerous mission. With the U.S. embassy closed, the C.I.A.
officers could not operate under the cloak of diplomatic cover. But it was highly successful. Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference that because of the intelligence gathered by the team, the United States knew where Mr. Maduro moved, what he ate and even what pets he kept.
That information was critical to the ensuing military operation, a pre-dawn raid Saturday by elite Army Delta Force commandos, the riskiest U.S. military operation of its kind since members of the Navy's SEAL Team 6 killed Osama bin Laden in a safe house in Pakistan in 2011.
The result was a tactically precise and swiftly executed operation that extracted Mr. Maduro from his country with no loss of American life, a result heralded by President Trump amid larger questions about the legality and rationale for the U.S. actions in Venezuela.
Mr. Trump has justified what was named Operation Absolute Resolve as a strike against drug trafficking. But Venezuela is hardly as big a player in the international drug trade as other countries. Officials had previously told congressional leaders that their objective in Venezuela was not regime change. And Mr. Trump has long said he opposes U.S. foreign occupations.
Yet on Saturday, the president proclaimed that American officials were in charge of Venezuela, and that the United States would rebuild the country's oil infrastructure.
In contrast to messy U.S. interventions of the past — by the military in Panama or the C.I.A. in Cuba — the operation to grab Mr. Maduro was virtually flawless, according to multiple officials familiar with the details, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the plans.
In the run-up, Delta Force commandos rehearsed the extraction inside a full-scale model of Mr. Maduro's compound that the Joint Special Operations Command had built in Kentucky. They practiced blowing through steel doors at ever-faster paces.
The military had been readying for days to execute the mission, waiting for good weather conditions and a time when the risk of civilian casualties would be minimized.
Amid the heightened tensions, Mr. Maduro had been rotating between six and eight locations, and the United States did not always learn where he intended to stay until late in the evenings. To execute the operation, the U.S. military needed confirmation that Mr. Maduro was at the compound they had trained to attack.
In the days leading up to the raid, the United States deployed increasing numbers of Special Operations aircraft, specialized electronic warfare planes, armed Reaper drones, search-and-rescue helicopters and fighter jets to the region — last-minute reinforcements that analysts said indicated the only question was when military action would happen, not if.
The United States had made other moves intended to ratchet up the pressure on Mr. Maduro and prepare for the raid to capture him. A week earlier, the C.I.A. had carried out a drone strike on a port facility in Venezuela. And for months, the U.S. military has conducted a legally disputed campaign that has destroyed dozens of boats and killed at least 115 people in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
In recent days, Mr. Maduro tried to head off an American raid, offering the United States access to Venezuelan oil, Mr. Trump said Saturday. A U.S. official said the deal, offered on Dec. 23, would have had Mr. Maduro leave the country for Turkey. But Mr. Maduro angrily rejected that plan, the official said. It was clear, the official added, that Mr. Maduro was not serious.
The collapse of the talks set the stage for the capture mission, which culminated with Mr. Maduro flown to the United States and jailed in Brooklyn to face federal drug trafficking charges.
There was likely little doubt in the Venezuelan government that the United States was coming. But the military took pains to maintain so-called tactical surprise, like it did with its operation over the summer to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.
Mr. Trump had authorized the U.S. military to go ahead as early as Dec. 25, but left the precise timing to Pentagon officials and Special Operations planners to ensure that the attacking force was ready, and that conditions on the ground were optimal.
The U.S. military wanted to conduct the operation during the holiday period because many government officials were on vacation and because significant numbers of Venezuelan military personnel were on leave, according to a U.S.
official.
Unseasonably bad weather pushed the operation off by several days. Earlier in the week, however, the weather cleared, and military commanders looked at a "rolling window" of targeting opportunities in the days ahead. Mr.
Trump gave the final go order at 10:46 p.m. Friday.
Had the weather not cleared, the mission could have been pushed off until mid-January, one official said.
The operation officially got underway around 4:30 p.m. on Friday, when U.S.
officials gave the first set of approvals to launch certain assets into the air. But that did not mean the full mission would be authorized. For the next six hours, officials continued to monitor the conditions on the ground, including the weather and Mr. Maduro's whereabouts.
Mr. Trump spent the evening on the patio at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida club, where he had dinner with aides and cabinet secretaries. The president's aides told him that they would be calling him later that evening, around
10:30 p.m., for the final approval. Mr. Trump did so by phone, then joined his senior national security officials in a secure location on the property.
Inside Venezuela, the effort began with a cyberoperation that cut power to large swaths of Caracas, shrouding the city in darkness to allow the planes, drones and helicopters to approach undetected.
More than 150 military aircraft, including drones, fighter planes and bombers, took part in the mission, taking off from 20 different military bases and Navy ships.
As the aircraft advanced on Caracas, military and intelligence agencies determined that they had maintained tactical surprise: Mr. Maduro had not been warned that the operation was coming.
Early Saturday morning, thunderous explosions boomed across Caracas as U.S.
warplanes struck at radar and air defense batteries. While some of the explosions posted on social media looked dramatic, a U.S. official said that they were mostly radar installations and radio transmission towers being taken out.
At least 40 people were killed in Saturday's attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians, according to a senior Venezuelan official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe preliminary reports.
Later, General Caine told reporters that the fighter planes, bombers and drones came into Venezuela to find and destroy the country's air defenses, to clear a safe pathway for the helicopters carrying Special Operations forces.
Even though Venezuelan air defenses were suppressed, the U.S. helicopters came under fire as they moved in on Mr. Maduro's compound at about 2:01 a.m. local time. General Caine said the helicopters responded with "overwhelming force."
One of the helicopters was hit. Two U.S. officials said that about half a dozen soldiers were injured in the overall operation.
The Delta Force operators assigned to capture Mr. Maduro were whisked to their target — on Venezuela's most fortified military base — by an elite Army Special Operations aviation unit, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which flies modified MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters.
The 160th, nicknamed the Night Stalkers, specializes in high-risk, low-level and nighttime missions like insertions, extractions and raids.
The unit conducted what the Pentagon called training missions near the coast of Venezuela in recent months.
Once on the ground, Delta Force moved quickly through the building to find Mr. Maduro. About 1,300 miles away, in a room inside Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump and key aides watched the raid play out in real time, courtesy of a camera positioned on an aircraft overhead.
As General Caine narrated the events on the screen, the president peppered him with questions about how the operation was unfolding.
"I watched it literally like I was watching a television show," Mr. Trump said on Fox News Saturday morning.
As the president monitored the raid from Florida, the Delta Force operators used an explosive to enter the building.
The U.S. official said that the Special Operations forces took three minutes after blowing open the door to move through the building to Mr. Maduro's location.
Mr. Trump said that once the Special Operations forces made it through the compound to Mr. Maduro's room, the Venezuelan leader and his wife tried to escape into a steel-reinforced room, but were stopped by the U.S. forces.
"He was trying to get to a safe place," Mr. Trump said during the news conference with General Caine, adding: "It was a very thick door, a very heavy door. But he was unable to get to that door. He made it to the door, he was unable to close it."
About five minutes after entering the building, Delta Force reported that they had Mr. Maduro in custody.
The military was accompanied by an F.B.I. hostage negotiator in case Mr.
Maduro had locked himself in a safe room or refused to surrender.
Those negotiations, however, proved unnecessary. The Delta operatives swiftly loaded the couple into the helicopters, which had returned to the compound. By 4:29 a.m. Caracas time, Mr. Maduro and his wife were transferred to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima, a U.S. warship in the Caribbean stationed about 100 miles off the coast of Venezuela during the operation.
The couple was transferred from the Iwo Jima to the U.S. Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, where the F.B.I. had a 757 government plane waiting to bring him to a military-controlled airport north of Manhattan.
Mr. Trump watched until the Special Operations forces were out of Venezuela, flying over the ocean, an official said.
Mr. Trump said that the United States was prepared to conduct a second wave of attacks against Venezuela, but that he did not think it would be necessary. He issued a warning to other Venezuelan leaders: He would be willing to come after them, as well.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Bill
Your Yearly Dementia Test! (only 4 questions this year)
This one has some different questions than last year.
Yep, it's that time of year again for us to take our annual senior citizen test.
Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles.
As we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert.
If you don't use it, you will lose it !!
#1. What do you put in a toaster?
Answer: 'bread.' If you said 'toast', just give up now and go do something else. And, try not to hurt yourself.
If you said, bread, go to Question #2.
# 2. Say 'silk' ten times. Now spell 'silk.' What do cows drink?
Answer: Cows drink water. If you said 'milk,' don't attempt the next question. Your brain is already over-stressed and may even overheat.
Content yourself with reading more appropriate literature such as Women's Weekly or Auto World.
However, if you did say 'water', proceed to Question #3.
# 3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from?
Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass.
If you said 'green bricks', why are you still reading this? PLEASE, go and lie down! But, if you said 'glass,' go on to Question #4.
# 4. Please do not use a calculator for this for it would be cheating: You are driving a bus from Jurong to Changi. At Bukit Batok, 17 people got on the bus. At Clementi, 6 people get off the bus and 9 people get on. At Outram, 2 people get off and 4 get on. At Marine Parade, 11 people get off and 16 people get on. And at Eunos, 3 people get off and 5 people get on. You then arrive at Changi.
Without going back to review, how old is the bus driver?
Answer: Oh, for crying out loud!
Don't you remember your own age?!?! It was YOU driving the bus!
If you pass this along to your friends, pray they do better than you.
PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions!
If you had fun with this, send it on. I did... I already know that even when you missed a question, you went on to the next one, didn't you?
Congratulations! Life is like that, even when you fail, you keep going and persisting. Failure is no reason to give up!
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
.
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 ..January 7
January 7: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2449
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This following work accounts for every fixed wing loss of the Vietnam War and you can use it to read more about the losses in The Bear's Daily account. Even better it allows you to add your updated information to the work to update for history…skip Vietnam Air Losses Access Chris Hobson and Dave Lovelady's work at: https://www.VietnamAirLosses.com.
.
This is a list of all Helicopter Pilots Who Died in the Vietnam War . Listed by last name and has other info https://www.vhpa.org/KIA/KIAINDEX.HTM
MOAA - Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Servicemembers Killed in the Vietnam War
The site works, find anyone you knew in "search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Mike
TO UNDERSTAND A MILITARY VETERAN YOU MUST KNOW - - -
We left home as teenagers or in our early twenties for an unknown adventure.
We loved our country enough to defend it and protect it with our own lives.
We said goodbye to friends and family and everything we knew.
We learned the basics and then we scattered in the wind to the far corners of the Earth.
We found new friends and new family.
We became brothers and sisters regardless of color, race or creed.
We had plenty of good times, and plenty of bad times.
We didn't get enough sleep.
We smoked and drank too much.
We picked up both good and bad habits.
We worked hard and played harder.
We didn't earn a great wage.
We experienced the happiness of mail call, and the sadness of missing important events.
We didn't know when, or even if, we were ever going to see home again.
We grew up fast, and yet somehow, we never grew up at all.
We fought for our freedom, as well as the freedom of others.
Some of us saw actual combat, and some of us didn't.
Some of us saw the world, and some of us didn't.
Some of us dealt with physical warfare, most of us dealt with psychological warfare.
We have seen and experienced and dealt with things that we can't fully describe or explain, as not all of our sacrifices were physical.
We participated in time honored ceremonies and rituals with each other, strengthening our bonds and camaraderie.
We counted on each other to get our job done and sometimes to survive it at all.
We have dealt with victory and tragedy.
We have celebrated and mourned.
We lost a few along the way.
When our adventure was over, some of us went back home, some of us started somewhere new, and some of us never came home at all.
We have told amazing and hilarious stories of our exploits and adventures.
We share an unspoken bond with each other, that most people don't experience, and few will understand.
We speak highly of our own branch of service, and poke fun at the other branches.
We know however, that, if needed, we will be there for our brothers and sisters and stand together as one, in a heartbeat.
Being a Veteran is something that had to be earned, and it can never be taken away.
It has no monetary value, but at the same time it is a priceless gift.
People see a Veteran and they thank them for their service.
When we see each other, we give that little upwards head nod, or a slight smile, knowing that we have shared and experienced things that most people have not.
So, from myself to the rest of the veterans out there, I commend and thank you for all that you have done and sacrificed for our country.
Try to remember the good times and make peace with the bad times.
Share your stories.
But most importantly, stand tall and proud, for you have earned the right to be called a VETERAN.
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Nice News
1 Year After the Los Angeles Wildfires, Community Members Keep Building
Mario Tama/Getty Images
Exactly one year has passed since historic Santa Ana winds drove wildfires through Pacific Palisades and Altadena, sparking two of California's three most destructive blazes on record. The recovery is far from complete, with communities continuing to reel from the losses — but still, there's no shortage of shining examples of resilience worth celebrating.
Some of the first fully rebuilt homes in the region were completed in late 2025 and, against the odds, Altadena put on its annual Christmas Tree Lane spectacle in December. This month, events are taking place across LA for people to share their stories, honor loved ones who died, and volunteer to help continue rebuilding what was lost.
If you happen to be in the area this Saturday, Habitat for Humanity's ReBuild LA program is hosting a "Volunteer Build Day and Community Celebration" to help restore a residential complex for seniors and families in the Palisades through planting, vegetation clearing, and landscaping.
"Each effort, big or small, helps bring pride back to the neighborhood and puts more of the community back together, one step at a time," the Greater Los Angeles sect of the organization said in a statement to Nice News. Learn more about how to get involved.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
A couple bits from 1440
. Need To Know
.
Iranian Protests Expand
The death toll from clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters reportedly rose to at least 36 people yesterday, as antigovernment demonstrations expanded to include a sit-in at Tehran's Grand Bazaar. More than 1,200 people have been detained across more than 50 towns and cities.
The unrest began Dec. 28 as Iran's currency fell to a record low of over 1.44 million to the US dollar. The rial has since plunged further, reaching another record low yesterday. Inflation reached 52.6% last month, according to official figures. The economic crisis comes after the UN reimposed sanctions in September following alleged Iranian violations of a 2015 nuclear deal, including an illegal ballistic missile test. The sanctions include restricting Iran's oil sales and access to global finance. Amid the currency free fall, the country's central bank last week ended exchange-rate subsidies for importers, a cost that will likely soon be passed on to consumers.
.
Sleeping with the Jellyfish
Jellyfish and sea anemones' sleep patterns are remarkably similar to humans', according to a study published yesterday. The finding suggests sleep evolved far earlier than previously assumed, in part to protect DNA and repair damage incurred while awake.
Although their evolutionary lineages diverged from human ancestors roughly a billion years ago, jellyfish and sea anemones spend about one-third of the day sleeping, similar to humans. When exposed to radiation that induced DNA damage, both species slept more; when deprived of sleep, they suffered greater DNA damage. The creatures also slept more when given melatonin, suggesting the hormone regulates their sleep cycles, as it does in humans (w/video). Together, the similarities between humans and these brainless invertebrates suggest sleep evolved before centralized nervous systems to support basic neural functions.
Sleep's origins have long puzzled scientists, given its costly trade-offs, including increased vulnerability to predators. ..
Leo XIV Ends Jubilee
Pope Leo XIV formally closed the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year yesterday, sealing the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica during an Epiphany Mass that capped a Jubilee drawing more than 33 million pilgrims from 185 countries—led by Italy, the US, Spain, Brazil, and Poland.
It marked only the second time in history that one pope opened a Holy Year and another closed it, following the death of Francis in April. In his homily, Leo criticized what he called a distorted consumer economy and growing hostility toward migrants, urging Catholics to welcome strangers and warning against the seductions of political power. Leo will now host the world's cardinals at the Vatican for a two-day meeting on governing the 1.4 billion-member church.
Holy Years are typically held every 25 years, though Leo has announced a special Jubilee for 2033 to mark 2,000 years since the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, as described in the Christian faith. .
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
.
Thanks to CNBC
The Pentagon will cut the military retirement pay of Sen. Mark Kelly for what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the Arizona Democrat's "seditious" statements on a video with other members of Congress telling service members they have the right to refuse to execute illegal orders.
Hegseth also issued a formal letter of censure against Kelly, which the Defense secretary said details "reckless misconduct" by the retired Navy captain and astronaut.
Hegseth said the Defense Department has begun a proceeding aimed at reducing Kelly's rank in retirement, which would in turn lead to a decrease in retirement pay.
"Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline," Hegseth said in a statement on X.
"As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice," Hegseth said.
Kelly has 30 days to file a response to the decision to cut his rank and retirement pay, according to Hegseth's tweet.
The Pentagon in November announced a probe of Kelly for his involvement with the video, and said that further actions could include a recall to active duty and a court-martial proceeding.
Hegseth's statement on Monday suggests that the Pentagon has ruled out that more severe option.
But, in his tweet, Hegseth warned, "Captain Kelly's status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action."
Kelly, in a statement on X, vowed to fight the disciplinary action "with everything I've got," and called Hegseth "the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country's history."
"Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution – including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out," Kelly wrote. "I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that."
"My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head– all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder," Kelly wrote. "Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve.
"Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn't like, they will come after them the same way," the senator said. "It's outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that."
The video that Kelly spoke on was made in response to the U.S. military conducting 20 airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean against purported drug smugglers, killing scores of people
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Brett
Daily Memo: Russian Recruitment, Iranian and Cuban Condemnation
Foreign laborers are apparently being sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
By: Geopolitical Futures
Involuntary service. Russia is forcibly sending foreign laborers to the front lines in Ukraine, according to a report by Azerbaijani news agency APA. In one account, 250 construction workers in the occupied Donetsk region were taken on Dec. 13 to the Russian city of Voronezh, sent to a military unit in the Rostov region and given military uniforms. They're expected to be sent to the front lines in Ukraine, despite never agreeing to military service. The group includes 20 Azerbaijani nationals. Citizens of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan were also part of the same construction project.
Condemnation. The fallout from the United States' capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is still unfolding. The foreign ministers of Iran and Cuba, two countries which the U.S. president also threatened, spoke by phone on Monday. They condemned the seizure of Maduro and said Washington's "military aggression and destabilizing policies" constituted a gross violation of international law. The Iranian minister expressed his country's support for Cuba.
NATO strain. Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the United States' seizure of Greenland would mean the end of NATO. She made the comments after U.S. President Donald Trump said over the weekend that the U.S. "needs" Greenland for national security. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said no member of the alliance should threaten another, referring to Trump's Greenland statement. He stressed that solidarity would be undermined if internal coercion were tolerated and reaffirmed Europe's support for Denmark's position.
Reassurance. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to convey the message to Tehran that Israel does not intend to attack it, Israeli broadcaster Kan 11 reported, citing diplomatic sources. Netanyahu and Putin have spoken several times by phone recently amid tensions between Israel and Iran. In an effort to prevent a preemptive Iranian attack on Israel, Netanyahu asked Putin to assure the Iranians that Israel "will not attack them."
Political swing. The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has taken its biggest-ever lead over the governing Christian Democratic Union in a nationwide poll. The survey conducted by polling agency GMS found that 27 percent of respondents supported the AfD, while the CDU trailed at 24 percent. The results show a nine-point swing in opposite directions for both parties over the past 12 months. The AfD also garnered strong support in several key states set for elections in 2026, especially in eastern Germany.
Export block. China announced that it will strengthen export controls on dual-use items destined for Japan with immediate effect. All items that have both military and civilian applications, which include some rare earth elements, will be prohibited from export to Japan for military end users, military purposes or any other uses that contribute to enhancing Japan's military capabilities. The decision comes amid a growing rift between the two countries over the Japanese prime minister's comments on Taiwan in November.
Economic focus. Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Russian government and central bank to restore growth, increase investment and address structural economic problems in 2026. He made the demands last month during a meeting of the Council for Strategic Development and National Projects, a summary of which was recently released. According to Rosstat, Russia's economic growth in the third quarter of 2025 slowed to 0.6 percent year over year, down from 1.1 percent in the second quarter.
Shipbuilding shift. The Japanese Ministry of Transport has unveiled an ambitious plan to restructure the national shipbuilding industry. Under the plan, by the mid-2030s, Japan's many shipyards are to be consolidated into up to three large, competitive groups, in a move aimed at strengthening Japan's position in the global market. The goal is to double production capacity to 18 million tons and reduce ship production costs by 10 percent by 2034 through phased investments in capacity expansion and implementation of AI and robotics.
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in U.S. Military History 7 January
1608 – Disaster strikes Jamestown. The fort burns and leaves the colonists vulnerable to attack by Indians and the Spanish.
1718 – Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War hero, was born. He planned the fortifications at the Battle of Bunker Hill and told his men, "don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."
1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1865 – Cheyenne, Arapaho and Sioux warriors attack Julesburg, CO, in retaliation for the Sand Creek Massacre. After the massacre, the survivors had fled north to the Republican River where the main body of Cheyenne were camped. The Cheyennes sent a messenger to the Sioux and Arapaho inviting them to join them in a war on the whites. In early January 1865, as many as 2000 Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho warriors shifted their camps closer to the South Platte Trail where it cut through the northeast corner of Colorado. On January 6, a small party hit a wagon train and killed twelve men. Just before sunrise the following day, the majority of the Dog Soldiers and their allies concealed themselves in some sand hills a short distance from Fort Rankin and Julesburg, one mile up the Platte River, while the Cheyenne chief Big Crow slipped up to the fort. At first light he rushed the sentries stationed outside the walls. A sixty man cavalry troop quickly emerged from the gates to give chase and as soon as they were clear of the fort they were cut off from their base as more than a thousand warriors dashed from the sand hills and began to empty the cavalry saddles. All but a few were killed. As the remaining garrison prepared to defend the fort, the Indians raced up the Platte to the undefended Julesburg where they plundered at will while the soldiers at Fort Rankin could only watch and harmlessly fire their howitzers.
1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".
1918 – In Arver v. United States, the Supreme Court finds that conscription during war is authorized by the Constitution which gives Congress the power "to declare war…to raise and support armies." There are several challenges to the government's power to draft armies which collectively become knows as the Selective Service Law Cases.
1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York, New York to London, United Kingdom.
1942 – The World War II siege of Bataan began in the Philippines.
1943 – On Guadalcanal, fresh American troops mount an assault on Mount Austen.
1943 – A Japanese convoy lands supplies and reinforcements at Lea, New Guinea despite air attacks.
1944 – The U.S. Air Force announces the production of the first jet-fighter, Bell P-59 Airacomet. 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 on October 1, 1942, 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 will produce 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.
1945 – U.S. air ace Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. is killed in the Pacific.
1945 – British Gen. Bernard Montgomery gives a press conference in which he all but claims complete credit for saving the Allied cause in the Battle of the Bulge. He was almost removed from his command because of the resulting American outcry. On December 16, 1944, the Germans attempted to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge (so-called because the Germans, in pushing through the American defensive line, created a "bulge" around the area of the Ardennes forest) was the largest battle fought on the Western front. The German assault came in early morning at the weakest part of the Allied line, an 80-mile stretch of poorly protected, hilly forest that the Allies believed was too difficult to traverse, and therefore an unlikely location for a German offensive. Between the vulnerability of the thin, isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat. Fresh from commanding the 21st Army group during the Normandy invasion, and having suffered an awful defeat in September as his troops attempted to cross the Rhine, Montgomery took temporary command of the northern shoulder of American and British troops in the Ardennes. He immediately fell into a familiar pattern, failing to act spontaneously for fear of not being sufficiently prepared. Montgomery was afraid to move before the German army had fully exhausted itself, finally making what American commanders saw as only a belated counterattack against the enemy. As the weather improved, American air cover raided German targets on the ground, which proved the turning point in the Allied victory. Monty eventually cut across northern Germany all the way to the Baltic and accepted the German surrender in May. Montgomery had already earned the ire of many American officers because of his cautiousness in the field, arrogance off the field, and willingness to disparage his American counterparts. The last straw was Montgomery's whitewashing of the Battle of the Bulge facts to assembled reporters in his battlefield headquarters-he made his performance in the Ardennes sound not only more heroic but decisive, which necessarily underplayed the Americans' performance. Since the loss of American life in the battle was tremendous and the surrender of 7,500 members of the 106th Infantry humiliating, Gen. Omar Bradley complained loudly to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who passed the complaints on to Churchill. On January 18, Churchill addressed Parliament and announced in no uncertain terms that the "Bulge" was an American battle-and an American victory.
1945 – The attacks of the US 8th Corps of US 1st Army, along the line of the Ourthe west of Houffalize, record progress around Laroche. German attacks in Alsace also continue with some success south of Strasbourg in the area around Erstein.
1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO. Previously, the news media often treated UFO reports with a whimsical or glib attitude reserved for silly season news. Following Mantell's death, however, Jacobs notes "the fact that a person had died in an encounter with an alleged flying saucer dramatically increased public concern about the phenomenon. Now a dramatic new prospect entered thought about UFOs: they might be not only extraterrestrial but potentially hostile as well." However, later investigation by the US Air Force's Project Blue Book indicated that Mantell died chasing a Skyhook balloon, which in 1948 was a top-secret project that Mantell would not have known about.
1953 – In his final State of the Union address before Congress, President Harry S. Truman tells the world that that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. It was just three years earlier on January 31, 1950, that Truman publicly announced that had directed the Atomic Energy Commission to proceed with the development of the hydrogen bomb. Truman's directive came in responds to evidence of an atomic explosion occurring within USSR in 1949.
1960 – Launch of the first fully-guided flight of a Polaris missile at Cape Canaveral (flew 900 miles).
1960 – A small submarine, the Trieste, sets a new record for depth when it descends 24,000 feet into the Pacific off Guam.
1967 – The first elements of the Mobile Riverine Force reached Vietnam on when the USS Whitfield County (LST 1169) docked at Vung Tau. Training began immediately with the 2nd Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division. This unit, in preparation for the assignment to the Mobile Riverine Force, had gotten rid of their tanks, trucks, APCs and jeeps since there would obviously be little need for them in the Mekong Delta. In addition, some of their heavier artillery was also left behind since most of the necessary fi re support would be supplied by the assault boats.
1971 – Accompanied by Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird arrives in South Vietnam to assess the military situation. The purpose of Laird's visit was to check on the progress of the "Vietnamization" effort. In the summer of 1969, President Richard Nixon ordered that measures be taken to "Vietnamize" the war – he hoped to increase the capabilities of South Vietnamese forces so U.S. troops could eventually be withdrawn and the South Vietnamese could assume more responsibility for the war. This effort included a rapid modernization of South Vietnamese forces with new equipment and weapons, and a renewed emphasis on the American advisory effort. American troop withdrawals began in the fall of 1969 and continued on a regular basis. At the completion of his visit, Laird announced that the preponderance of U.S. "combat responsibility" would end by mid-summer. Upon his return to the United States, however, he warned President Nixon and his cabinet of "some tough days ahead." Admiral Moorer, who also had made a side trip to Phnom Penh, reported that the Cambodian situation was "deteriorating" as Premier Lon Nol's forces were being threatened by the communist Khmer Rouge forces and their North Vietnamese allies.
1968 – Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral. Surveyor 7 was the fifth and final spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing. The objectives for this mission were to perform a lunar soft landing (in an area well removed from the maria to provide a type of terrain photography and lunar sample significantly different from those of other Surveyor missions); obtain postlanding TV pictures; determine the relative abundances of chemical elements; manipulate the lunar material; obtain touchdown dynamics data; and obtain thermal and radar reflectivity data. This spacecraft was similar in design to the previous Surveyors, but it carried more scientific equipment including a television camera with polarizing filters, a surface sampler, bar magnets on two footpads, two horseshoe magnets on the surface scoop, and auxiliary mirrors. Of the auxiliary mirrors, three were used to observe areas below the spacecraft, one to provide stereoscopic views of the surface sampler area, and seven to show lunar material deposited on the spacecraft. The spacecraft landed on the lunar surface on January 10, 1968, on the outer rim of the crater Tycho.
1975 – Vietnamese troops take Phuoc Binh in new full-scale offensive.
1993 – Largest military confrontation of Restore Hope. 500 Marines engage in a shoot-out with Warlord Aidid's forces in Mogadishu. 15 Somalis are taken POW, no US casualties.
2002 – Tony Blair arrived in Kabul. He said the West would not abandon Afghanistan. 9 US senators also visited the area.
2003 – Police in London announced they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men in connection with the virulent toxin that has been linked to al-Qaida terrorists and Iraq.
2003 – Creation of the Select Committee on Homeland Security to help Congress coordinate oversight of the new Department of Homeland Security and to ensure implementation of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
2004 – L. Paul Bremer, the top American civilian official in Iraq, said U.S. authorities will release 506 low-level Iraqi prisoners while increasing the bounties for fugitives suspected of major roles in attacks against coalition forces.
2005 – A military jury at Fort Hood, Texas, acquitted Army SGT Tracy Perkins of involuntary manslaughter in the alleged drowning of an Iraqi civilian, but convicted him of assault in the January 2004 incident.
2005 – The nuclear submarine USS San Francisco ran aground 350 miles off the Pacific Ocean territory of Guam, injuring about 20 crew members. One died the next day.
2007 – President George W. Bush announces that he will send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq as part of a shift in American military strategy. Under this new strategy, labeled "the surge," American troops will pacify and protect individual neighborhoods rather than combat sectarian violence through mobile patrols.
2007 – The US intervenes in the Battle of Ras Kamboni, a battle in the 2006-2007 Somali War fought by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and affiliated militias against Ethiopian and the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces for control of Ras Kamboni, a town near the Kenyan border which once served as a training camp for the militant Islamist group Al-Itihaad al-Islamiya. The battle began on January 5, 2007, when TFG and Ethiopian forces launched their assault. The United States entered the conflict by launching airstrikes using an AC-130 gunship against suspected Al Qaeda members operating within the ranks of the ICU. The town finally fell to the TFG and Ethiopian forces on January 12, 2007.
2008 – Two United States Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets, a F/A-18E and two-seat F/A-18F, flying off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, crash in the Persian Gulf. The aviators were safely recovered. There was no indication of hostile fire.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
*SHOUP, CURTIS F
Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 346th Infantry, 87th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Tillet, Belgium, 7 January 1945. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Birth: Napenoch, N.Y. G.0. No.: 60, 25 July 1945. Citation: On 7 January 1945, near Tillet, Belgium, his company attacked German troops on rising ground. Intense hostile machinegun fire pinned down and threatened to annihilate the American unit in an exposed position where frozen ground made it impossible to dig in for protection. Heavy mortar and artillery fire from enemy batteries was added to the storm of destruction falling on the Americans. Realizing that the machinegun must be silenced at all costs, S/Sgt. Shoup, armed with an automatic rifle, crawled to within 75 yards of the enemy emplacement. He found that his fire was ineffective from this position, and completely disregarding his own safety, stood up and grimly strode ahead into the murderous stream of bullets, firing his low-held weapon as he went. He was hit several times and finally was knocked to the ground. But he struggled to his feet and staggered forward until close enough to hurl a grenade, wiping out the enemy machinegun nest with his dying action. By his heroism, fearless determination, and supreme sacrifice, S/Sgt. Shoup eliminated a hostile weapon which threatened to destroy his company and turned a desperate situation into victory.
*SPECKER, JOE C.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, 48th Engineer Combat Battalion. Place and date: At Mount Porchia, Italy, 7 January 1944. Entered service at: Odessa, Mo. Birth: Odessa, Mo. G.O. No.. 56, 12 July 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty, in action involving actual conflict. On the night of 7 January 1944, Sgt. Specker, with his company, was advancing up the slope of Mount Porchia, Italy. He was sent forward on reconnaissance and on his return he reported to his company commander the fact that there was an enemy machinegun nest and several well-placed snipers directly in the path and awaiting the company. Sgt. Specker requested and was granted permission to place 1 of his machineguns in a position near the enemy machinegun. Voluntarily and alone he made his way up the mountain with a machinegun and a box of ammunition. He was observed by the enemy as he walked along and was severely wounded by the deadly fire directed at him. Though so seriously wounded that he was unable to walk, he continued to drag himself over the jagged edges of rock and rough terrain until he reached the position at which he desired to set up his machinegun. He set up the gun so well and fired so accurately that the enemy machine-gun nest was silenced and the remainder of the snipers forced to retire, enabling his platoon to obtain their objective. Sgt. Specker was found dead at his gun. His personal bravery, self-sacrifice, and determination were an inspiration to his officers and fellow soldiers.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for January 7, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
7 January
1945: Far East Air Forces joined the 3d Fleet in air attacks on enemy airfields in northern Luzon, Philippines. This attack was the largest coordinated mission of light and medium bombers (132) to date in the Southwest Pacific. (24)
1960: An American Airlines Electra flew 540 miles per hour to set a record of 1 hour 11 minutes 30 seconds from Chicago, Ill., to Washington DC. (5)
1963: Bell Telephone Laboratory scientists repaired Telstar I in flight in an unprecedented ground operation. (5)
1966: The 4200th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif., received the first operational SR-71 (Tail No. 61-7957). (1) The US Junior Chamber of Commerce named Lt Col Edward H. White, a Gemini IV Astronaut, one of the 10 outstanding young men of 1965. (16)
1968: The National Air and Space Administration's Surveyor VII, the last spacecraft in the program to analyze the lunar surface, launched from the Eastern Test Range, Fla., on an Atlas-Centaur rocket (AC-15) on a 67-hour lunar intercept trajectory. It touched down on 9 January in Tycho crater after a 66-hour 35-minute flight and began sending the first of 21,274 detailed pictures back to earth. (5)
1989: Operation MEDFLY 89. Through 20 January, the 167th Tactical Airlift Group flew medical personnel and supplies aboard two C-130 Hercules to Liberia to support Medfly 89. This joint service humanitarian effort trained medical personnel in inoculating people against diseases and treating ailments. (16)
1995: Operation UNISOM II. Through 24 March, Air Mobility Command supported the withdrawal of United Nations forces from Somalia by deploying some U. S. forces to Kenya to cover the withdrawal and then returning the forces to the U. S. The returning flights stopped at Moron AB, Spain, which served as a stage base and refueling site for the operation. Besides Moron, Air Mobility Command units deployed to Mombasa and Nairobi, Kenya. The KC-135s at Nairobi refueled AC-130 gunships. Altogether, Air Mobility Command's airlifters and contracted commercial flights flew 59 missions to carry over 1,400 passengers and over 1,400 short tons of cargo. (18)
2005: Colonel Joseph Lanni, the 412th Test Wing Commander at Edwards AFB, Calif., delivered an F/A-22 Raptor to Langley AFB, Va. That Raptor, the fifth built, formed the nucleus of the first operational F-22 squadron. (3)
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SkipsList" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to skipslist+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skipslist/CACTjsm2D0ej%2B4LrZ8re%2BD00DY8JTaZ9t%2BX-8n85%3DS%3DCmkFXqgg%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.