The List 7425
To All
Good Saturday Morning January 24, 2026. The rain held off yesterday and none is scheduled for today. It is supposed to be overcast most of the day.
.
.
skip
.HAGD
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
To All
I received the following from the Bear
Skip… For your consideration… run this interview for a day or two with the daily invite to tap into the RTR journal… please review and let me know what you think… Bear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQcxP70jNMY
This is an amazing tribute. skip
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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.
. January 24
1942—During the Battle of Makassar Strait (Balikpapan), destroyers John D. Ford, Parrott, Pope, and Paul Jones attack the anchored Japanese invasion force in the harbor of Balikpapan, Borneo, sinking four of 12 transport ships.
1945—Submarine Blackfin (SS 322) sinks the Japanese destroyer Shigure in the Gulf of Siam.
1956—USS Jallao (SS 368) becomes the first U.S. Navy submarine to transit the Suez Canal traveling from the Mediterranean to Massawa, Eritrea, Ethiopia.
1991—Desert Shield/Desert Storm SEAL platoons from USS Leftwich (DD 984) and USS Nicholas (FFG 47) recaptures the island, Jazirat Qurah, the first Kuwaiti territory from Iraqis.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in World History
January 24
41 Shortly after declaring himself a god, Caligula is assassinated by two Praetorian tribunes.
1458 Matthias Corvinus, the son of John Hunyadi, is elected king of Hungary.
1639 Representatives from three Connecticut towns band together to write the Fundamental Orders, the first constitution in the New World.
1722 Czar Peter the Great caps his reforms in Russia with the "Table of Rank" which decrees a commoner can climb on merit to the highest positions.
1848 Gold is discovered by James Wilson Marshall at his partner Johann August Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma, California.
1903 U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert create a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.
1911 U.S. Cavalry is sent to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil War.
1915 The German cruiser Blücher is sunk by a British squadron in the Battle of Dogger Bank.
1927 British expeditionary force of 12,000 is sent to China to protect concessions at Shanghai.
1931 The League of Nations rebukes Poland for the mistreatment of a German minority in Upper Silesia.
1945 A German attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest is finally halted by the Soviets.
1946 The UN establishes the International Atomic Energy Commission.
1951 Indian leader Nehru demands that the UN name Peking as an aggressor in Korea.
1965 Winston Churchill dies from a cerebral thrombosis at the age of 90.
1980 In a rebuff to the Soviets, the U.S. announces intentions to sell arms to China.
1982 A draft of Air Force history reports that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War.
1935 First canned beer goes on sale
.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to the Bear and Dan Heller. 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 24 . .
January 24: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=3105
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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
. From Sons of Liberty to Devils in Baggy Pants by W. Thomas Smith Jr.
This Week in American Military History:
Jan. 17, 1781: Continental Army forces -- including infantry, cavalry, dragoons (horse-mounted infantry), and militia – under the command of Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, clash with a better-equipped, more-experienced force of British Army regulars and Loyalists under the command of Lt. Col. Banastre "Bloody Ban" Tarleton in a sprawling pastureland known as Hannah's Cowpens in the South Carolina upcountry. Celebrated today as the Battle of Cowpens, the engagement ends in a decisive victory for Morgan – who defeats Tarleton in a classic double-envelopment – and a near-irrevocable loss of men, equipment, and reputation for the infamous Tarleton and his "British Legion." Tarleton's boss, Gen. Sir Charles Cornwallis, will abandon South Carolina and in less than two months chalk up a pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse (N.C.). Meanwhile, word of Morgan's victory will spread like wildfire throughout the Carolinas and up into Virginia where – at Yorktown – Cornwallis' entire army (including Tarleton and his feared green-jacketed horsemen) will surrender to the combined American-French forces of Generals George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau on October 19, almost nine months to the day after Cowpens.
Jan. 17, 1991: Two-hundred-ten years to the day after the Battle of Cowpens; American, British, and French forces – this time all three on the same team – kick off what Iraqi Pres. Saddam Hussein predicted would be "the Mother of all Battles" with a series of blistering air attacks aimed at destroying the Iraqi Air Force, Iraq's air-defense forces and overall command and control. It is day one of Operation Desert Storm.
Jan. 18, 1911: Flying over San Francisco Bay in his Curtiss Pusher Model "D" aircraft, pioneer aviator Eugene B. Ely approaches the anchored cruiser USS Pennsylvania and manages to land onto a special platform fitted with a makeshift tailhook system aboard the ship. Upon landing, he purportedly says, "It was easy enough. I think the trick could be successfully turned nine times out of ten."
Ely's landing is the first-ever airplane landing aboard a ship. Ely already had become the first man to take off from a ship in November. In July, he will be commissioned a second lieutenant in the California National Guard.
In October, he will be killed in a crash during an aerobatic demonstration in Macon, Georgia.
Jan. 19-20, 1770: The little-known but historically significant Battle of Golden Hill erupts in New York City between a group of angry Manhattan patriots and a contingent of British soldiers.
The clash begins when members of the patriot organization "Sons of Liberty" snatch a few of the King's men, who are cutting down wooden "liberty poles" (symbols of resistance against British rule) which had been erected by the "Sons." The redcoats also were reportedly posting bills condemning the Sons of Liberty as "the real enemies of society." A struggle ensues. Redcoats from the nearby barracks respond, and a bayonet charge is ordered. Several are wounded on both sides, and one civilian is killed. Less than seven weeks before the Boston Massacre, the Battle of Golden Hill is considered by some historians as the first armed clash of the American Revolution.
Jan. 20, 1914: Nearly three years to the day after Eugene Ely lands his airplane on USS Pennsylvania, "the cradle of Naval aviation" is born at Pensacola, Florida.
According to the American Naval Historical Center: "The aviation unit from Annapolis [Maryland], consisting of nine officers, 23 men, seven aircraft, portable hangars, and other gear, under Lieutenant J. H. Towers" arrives at Pensacola aboard the battleship USS Mississippi and the bulk-cargo ship USS Orion "to set up a flying school."
Jan. 21, 1903: The Militia Act of 1903 – also known as the "Dick Act"
(Congressman and Maj. Gen. Charles Dick authored much of the legislation) – is passed, establishing federal standards and greater federal control over state militias, essentially creating the modern National Guard.
Jan. 21, 1954: First Lady Mamie Eisenhower breaks a bottle of champagne across the bow of USS Nautilus in Groton, Connecticut, launching the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. The following year, Nautilus gets underway, begins breaking numerous sea-travel records, and becomes the first "ship" to cross the North Pole. Nautilus is the U.S. Navy's sixth vessel bearing the name. The first Nautilus, a schooner built in 1799, saw action against the Barbary pirates and in the War of 1812.
Jan. 22, 1944: Allied forces, including the U.S. VI Corps under the command of Maj. Gen. John P. Lucas (of Lt. Gen. Mark Clark's Fifth Army), begin a series of landings along a stretch of western Italian coastline in the Anzio-Nettuno area. Codenamed Operation Shingle, the Allies achieve complete surprise against – and encounter little initial resistance from – the Germans. But the landings kick off what will become one of the most grueling campaigns of World War II.
It is during the subsequent fighting (which continues for several months) that a dead German officer's diary is found, a portion of which reads:
"American parachutists – devils in baggy pants – are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can't sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere."
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Thanks to Nice News
. The right time to do the right thing
When Spokane, Washington's Bethany Presbyterian Church was damaged in a January 2022 fire, its team decided to tear it down, rebuild it, and act on a dream they'd had for a while: designating part of the land for affordable housing. So they collaborated with Proclaim Liberty, a housing nonprofit in the area, to sponsor a project that will build a church sanctuary and community center, along with 11 apartments offered to low-income families and 11 to a local homeless shelter. "We're very confident that what we're doing is the right thing," said rebuilding committee member Sharon Smith.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
Ryan Wedding, a Canadian who rose to fame as an Olympic snowboarder two decades ago, only to become what the authorities describe as one of the world's biggest drug lords
. By Norimitsu Onishi and Vjosa Isai
Norimitsu Onishi reported from Montreal and Vjosa Isai reported from Toronto.
Dec. 26, 2025
The target was a drug trafficker turned F.B.I. informant who didn't stand a chance. As he had lunch with friends at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, a hit man in a dark hoodie sneaked up behind him and shot him five times in the head.
The man who had ordered the hit quickly received a photograph of the body, the authorities said. He reshared it widely — boasting that he had killed "the rat."
The man behind the killing was Ryan Wedding, a Canadian who rose to fame as an Olympic snowboarder two decades ago, only to become what the authorities describe as one of the world's biggest drug lords. "El Jefe," as he was known, ran a drug-trafficking empire out of Mexico and was now one of the most wanted fugitives in the world.
The killing in Medellín in January of this year — detailed in a grand jury indictment in the United States, a State Department reward offer and two court documents filed in Canada — was the culmination of months of meticulous work by Mr. Wedding, the authorities said, to track down a Montreal-born associate who had flipped to become the U.S. government's star witness in a pending trial.
Image
A restaurant called Mi Arepa behind a row of potted plants.
A hooded gunman approached a federal witness from behind at a restaurant in Medellín, Colombia, and shot him five times in the head, the police say.Credit...Federico Rios for The New York Times
Mr. Wedding placed a $5 million bounty on the turncoat and dispatched an underling to pursue leads from Mecca to Medellín, according to prosecutors. Government lawyers said he obtained key information from a panoply of people — a hit man nicknamed "Kim Jong Un," a reggaeton D.J. in Montreal, a crime blogger in Toronto, the head of a prostitution ring in Colombia and a sex worker in Miami — in exchange for cash payments and even promises of a down payment on a house and breast implants.
But the killing also catapulted Mr. Wedding, 44, onto the F.B.I.'s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List. U.S. and Canadian law-enforcement officials stepped up their investigation into Mr. Wedding — called "Operation Giant Slalom" — last month with the arrest of 10 associates in Canada, the United States and Colombia.
With a high-ranking Justice Department official saying that the killing of the federal witness "could not and did not go unanswered," the U.S. government raised the reward for information leading to Mr. Wedding's arrest and conviction to $15 million from $10 million. Mr. Wedding is not known to have a lawyer.
But there was even more ominous news for Mr. Wedding, who the authorities say is believed to be hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world's most powerful and feared crime syndicates. Court documents in the United States and Canada strongly suggested that someone even closer was now cooperating with the authorities: Mr. Wedding's right-hand man, Andrew Clark, a 34-year-old Canadian known as "The Dictator."
And on Wednesday, the authorities in Mexico announced that they had conducted multiple raids and seized items, including two Olympic medals and 62 motorcycles, belonging to a former Olympian who is among the 10 most wanted fugitives in the United States. (Mr. Wedding is the only one on the fugitives list matching that description.)
The F.B.I. recently released a new photo it said was of Mr. Wedding — lying in bed, a large tattoo of a lion on his bare chest, his head resting on a pillow, his eyes staring without emotion at the camera. The F.B.I. did not say how it had gotten the photo, but said it appeared to have been taken last summer in Mexico.
By contrast, an older publicly available photo shows Mr. Wedding racing downhill at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics — his red uniform against the whiteness of the powder, his youthful face visible under his goggles, his mouth open in excitement.
Image
A snowboarder in a red suit and large goggles prepares to slide past an orange cone.
Mr. Wedding came in 24th in the Parallel Giant Slalom event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.Credit...Jeff J Mitchell/Reuters
Mr. Wedding began snowboarding in Thunder Bay, a small town in Ontario, on a ski hill owned by his grandparents, according to a document filed in 2008 by his then lawyer in a U.S. court in San Diego where Mr. Wedding faced drug charges.
The lawyer, who accused the government of mishandling the case and sought to have it dismissed, emphasized Mr. Wedding's middle-class background: His father was a mechanical engineer with international experience, his mother, a registered nurse active in several charities. Mr. Wedding and his two sisters went to good schools and were fluent in English and French. His younger sister was a ballet dancer.
As for Mr. Wedding, he had studied business for two years at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and, the lawyer noted, planned "to complete this program in the near future to pursue his career in business."
He would never get his degree.
His second career began inauspiciously. In 2006, the Canadian police raided a vast marijuana farm in British Columbia, shutting down a business that Mr. Wedding owned with another snowboarder, according to media reports.
But two years later, when Mr. Wedding showed up in San Diego to buy 24 kilograms of cocaine, about 53 pounds, he displayed a ruthlessness and toughness that Brett Kalina, a retired F.B.I. agent, remembers to this day. After Mr. Wedding and two associates were arrested in a sting, the associates cooperated with the authorities — but not Mr. Wedding.
"He was different than any other subject I've ever arrested," Mr. Kalina, 55, who was the lead investigator in that case, said in a phone interview. "He was extremely arrogant. I think he felt he was invincible."
"When we arrest someone and they know it's the F.B.I., there's usually some contrition off the bat," Mr. Kalina said.
Image
A blue and white poster advertising a $15 million reward for information about Ryan Wedding.
The authorities are offering a cash reward for information about Mr. Wedding, whose network brings in more than $1 billion per year in illegal drug proceeds, they say.Credit...Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
But Mr. Wedding said little and insulted Mr. Kalina at times. The former Olympian used his imposing size — 6 feet 3 inches tall, with a frame that he had sculpted with bodybuilding — to try to intimidate law-enforcement officials, puffing out his chest, Mr. Kalina said.
In the months he was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego — a facility housing many foreigners on drug-trafficking charges — Mr. Wedding made connections and gained the know-how to establish a serious drug-trafficking operation, said Mr. Kalina, who listened to the calls he was making to the outside.
"We did hear comments that he would make about meeting interesting people and learning things," Mr. Kalina said, adding that he was not surprised by Mr. Wedding's trajectory in the drug world.
"He wanted to be the top dog," Mr. Kalina said.
After Mr. Wedding was convicted of conspiring to traffic cocaine, he was transferred to a federal prison in Texas. He served a total of about three-and-a-half years and as soon as he gained his freedom in late 2011, Mr. Wedding established his trafficking organization, according to a 2025 grand jury indictment. Prosecutors say he operated his drug network out of Montreal and then Mexico.
It was while in prison in Texas, according to the CBC, that Mr. Wedding befriended a fellow inmate also serving time for drug trafficking: Jonathan Acebedo-Garcia, a Colombian-Canadian born in Montreal, who would eventually join Mr. Wedding. He became one of his most trusted operatives — until he flipped and became an F.B.I. informant, or the "rat" Mr. Wedding gloated about killing.
Prosecutors say Mr. Wedding's organization is one of the world's biggest drug rings.Credit...Christina House / Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images
Mr. Wedding's organization grew to eventually generate more than $1 billion in illegal drug proceeds a year, U.S. law-enforcement officials said, importing cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and into the United States and becoming what investigators say was the biggest cocaine distributor in Canada.
The investigation into Mr. Wedding's network revealed Canada as an important market for the drug trade, said François Mathieu, a retired criminal intelligence policy expert at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and board member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a nonprofit.
"This notion that we're on the periphery, and kind of northern, frozen, sleepy, is not the case," Mr. Mathieu said.
Law-enforcement officials in the United States and Canada began their Operation Giant Slalom investigation after persuading Mr. Acebedo-Garcia, the Colombian-Canadian who became Mr. Wedding's associate, to become a federal witness in 2024, according to U.S. and Canadian documents.
That same year, Mr. Wedding and his second-in-command, Mr. Clark, were indicted on charges of running a transnational drug trafficking operation and of directing the killing of suspected rivals. Mr. Clark — who identified himself as an elevator mechanic and landlord in an interview in Toronto five years ago — worked with Mr. Wedding on the organization's weightiest matters, according to U.S. and Canadian documents.
Shortly after Mr. Clark was arrested by the authorities in Mexico in October 2024, he and Mr. Wedding received counsel from a longtime adviser, a Toronto lawyer named Deepak Paradkar, who once used the Instagram handle @cocaine_lawyer, according to a U.S. indictment.
The lawyer advised them that if the F.B.I. informant, Mr. Acebedo-Garcia, was killed, the charges against them and extradition proceedings would be dismissed, the indictment said. Mr. Paradkar has also been charged in the Wedding case, including with aiding and abetting a killing, and his legal license was suspended. Mr. Paradkar, whose lawyer has said that he intends to contest the charges in the United States, was released on bail on Tuesday pending his extradition hearing.
The police accused Deepak Paradkar, a Canadian lawyer, of tampering with a witness and conspiring in a murder to protect Mr. Wedding's drug trafficking organization.Credit...Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press
If Mr. Wedding bragged about killing "the rat" last January, his peace of mind would be short lived. Mr. Clark was extradited from Mexico to the United States a month later.
U.S. officials declined to comment on Mr. Clark's standing after his arrest. But a close reading of U.S. and Canadian court documents makes clear that Mr. Clark was now a "cooperating witness," who "met multiple times with U.S. authorities'' between last February and last month, according to an arrest warrant filed in Montreal.
The cooperating witness "had trafficked drugs with Wedding and assisted Wedding with committing multiple murders," the warrant read, adding that the witness now "agreed to assist U.S. authorities in the investigation of Wedding's organization."
Genevieve Glatsky contributed reporting from Cúcuta, Colombia, Emiliano Rodríguez Mega from Mexico City and Zachary Kamel from Montreal.
Norimitsu Onishi reports on life, society and culture in Canada. He is based in Montreal.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter for The Times based in Toronto, where she covers news from across Canada.
A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 27, 2025, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: From Olympian to Fugitive on Most Wanted List. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | .
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
On a lighter note
. Thanks to Eagle
The best story I have read in a long time
A LOT has been written about Indiana University football but this is one of the best .......
130 schools said no. He led the losingest program in college football history to its first national championship anyway.
A 2-star recruit who got rejected for a walk-on spot at his hometown school became the first Cuban-American to win the Heisman Trophy.
Fernando Mendoza was 17 years old.
Crying in his bedroom after another silent recruiting inbox.
He'd driven to 18 football camps across the country that summer with his dad. Introduced himself to every coach who would listen. Sent his highlights to over 100 programs.
Not a single FBS school offered him a scholarship.
Florida International was 20 minutes from his house. They didn't want him.
Florida Atlantic was down the road. They passed.
His only option was Yale. An Ivy League education. No scholarship. No path to the NFL.
Everyone told him to be grateful.
"You're a 2-star recruit. Know your place."
"Yale is a great school. Take the offer."
"The NFL isn't realistic for someone like you."
"Nobody makes it from the Ivy League."
He didn't listen.
Here's what Mendoza knew that everyone else missed:
The worst case wasn't failing at the highest level. The worst case was never getting the chance to try.
So he waited.
Then in January 2022, two weeks before signing day, his phone rang.
Cal's offensive coordinator had heard about a lanky kid in Miami with a live arm. Another quarterback had just decommitted. They needed a body.
Mendoza flew to Berkeley. Toured the campus. Got offered on the spot.
One school. One offer. Out of 134 FBS programs.
He took it.
But here's the part nobody talks about.
He showed up to Cal as the third-string quarterback.
Spent his entire freshman year on the scout team. Mimicking opposing quarterbacks in practice. Never seeing the field.
Then in 2023, both quarterbacks ahead of him got hurt.
Mendoza got thrown into the fire against Oregon State. Lost his first four starts. All against ranked teams.
People said he wasn't ready. That the late offer was a mistake. That he should have gone to Yale.
His offensive line was a disaster. He got sacked 41 times in two seasons. The fifth-most in the country.
But Mendoza kept getting up.
Every hit. Every loss. Every doubt.
He threw for over 3,000 yards. Matched Aaron Rodgers' school record for consecutive 250-yard games. Made the academic honor roll while getting destroyed behind a broken offensive line.
Then something happened.
Cal's coaching staff wouldn't commit to building around him. Brought in a transfer to compete for his job. The system wasn't designed to develop him into an NFL quarterback.
So Mendoza made a decision that shocked everyone.
He entered the transfer portal. Left the only school that believed in him.
Chose Indiana.
The losingest program in college football history.
Over 700 losses. More than any other FBS school. Three bowl wins in 120 years. A basketball school that treated football like an afterthought.
Everyone thought he was insane.
"You left Cal for Indiana?"
"That program is a graveyard."
"You just ended your NFL dreams."
"Nobody goes to Indiana to win."
Mendoza didn't care.
Coach Curt Cignetti told him one thing: "I'm going to turn you into the best Fernando Mendoza possible."
That was enough.
But Mendoza wasn't just chasing football.
His mother Elsa has multiple sclerosis. She's been fighting it for 18 years. Hid the diagnosis from her sons when they were young because she didn't want them to worry.
Now she's in a wheelchair. Can barely travel to his games.
Before every snap, Mendoza thinks about her.
"My mother is my why," he says. "To see her fight and overcome the struggle with the optimism that she has. She's been a great role model."
He started raising money for MS research.
Created the "Mendoza Burrito" at a Berkeley restaurant. The "Mendoza Bros. Burger" in Bloomington.
Over $155,000 raised and counting.
All while leading the most improbable team in college football history.
Indiana went 16-0.
Beat six top-10 teams.
Won their first Big Ten title since 1945.
Mendoza threw for 3,349 yards and 41 touchdowns. Led the nation in passing touchdowns. Won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide.
The first Indiana player ever.
The third Latino in history.
The first Cuban-American.
In his acceptance speech, he switched to Spanish to honor his grandparents who fled Cuba for the American dream.
"Por el amor y sacrificio de mis padres y abuelos, los quiero mucho. De todo mi corazón, les doy las gracias."
For the love and sacrifice of my parents and grandparents, I love you. From all my heart, thank you.
But Mendoza wasn't done.
Yesterday, in Miami Gardens, 40 minutes from where he grew up, Mendoza led Indiana to its first national championship.
27-21 over Miami.
On fourth-and-4 with nine minutes left, up by 3 but needing to put the game away, the coach called a quarterback draw.
Mendoza took the snap. Got hit at the line. Spun off two defenders. Dove into the end zone.
The kid 134 schools rejected scored the dagger touchdown on a fourth-down quarterback sneak.
Put the game out of reach. 24-14.
The losingest program in history became the best team in America.
16-0. The first perfect season since Yale in 1894.
All because a 17-year-old kid crying in his bedroom refused to believe that being overlooked meant being over.
He turned 134 rejections into the greatest underdog story in college football history.
He turned the program everyone laughed at into national champions.
He proved that the scouts, the rankings, and the recruiting services don't get the final word. You do.
What opportunity are you not pursuing because nobody's given you permission?
What dream are you abandoning because the "experts" said you weren't qualified?
What version of your future are you settling for because the door you wanted didn't open?
Mendoza couldn't get FIU to return his calls. Couldn't get a single FBS offer until two weeks before signing day.
Showed up to college as a third-stringer. Got sacked 41 times behind a broken offensive line.
Transferred to a program with over 700 losses. Got called crazy.
Led them to a perfect season anyway.
Because he understood something most people don't.
The ranking doesn't determine your ceiling. Your work does.
Being overlooked isn't a verdict. It's just the starting point for a better story.
The people who say no don't get to write your ending.
Stop waiting for the gatekeepers to open the door.
Start thinking like Fernando Mendoza.
Bet on yourself when nobody else will. Outwork the doubt. Keep showing up until they can't ignore you anymore.
And never let anyone convince you that where you start is where you finish.
Sometimes the biggest wins come from the paths everyone said were dead ends.
Because when they all say no, all you need is one shot and the guts to take it.
Don't quit.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
This Day in U S Military History January 24
January 24
1908 – Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain. In 1900, Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defense of Mafeking in the South African War. Soon after, Aids to Scouting, a military field manual he had written for British soldiers in 1899, caught on with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized elaborate games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a nonmilitary field manual for adolescents that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds. First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 adolescents to Brownsea Island in Dorsetshire where they set up camp for a fortnight. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, patriotism, and chivalry. Many of these lessons were learned through inventive games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scouts meeting was a great success. With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began springing up in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. In 1910, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization. The American version of the Boy Scouts has it origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce was lost in one of the city's classic fogs when a Boy Scout came to his aid. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations, specifically the Woodcraft Indians and the Sons of Daniel Boone, into the Boy Scouts of America. Incorporated on February 8, 1910, the movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia. In 1916, Baden-Powell organized the Wolf Cubs, which caught on as the Cub Scouts in the United States, for boys under the age of 11. Four years later, the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Baden-Powell was acclaimed Chief Scout of the world. He died in 1941.
1942 – Battle of Makassar Strait, destroyer attack on Japanese convoy in first surface action in the Pacific during World War II. Four Dutch and American destroyers attack Japanese troop transports off Balikpapan sinking five ships.
1944 – The Anzio beachhead continues to expand, albeit, slowly. To the south, along the German defenses of the Gustav Line, the Free French Corps (part of US 5th Army) attacks Monte Santa Croce. The US 2nd Corps (also part of 5th Army) continues attacking over the Rapido River, toward Caira.
1952 – Air Force Captains Dolphin D. Overton III and Harold E. Fischer Jr., both of the 51st Fighter-Interceptor Wing, became the 24th and 25th fifth aces of the war. They flew F-86's named "Dolph's Devil" and "Paper Tiger." In addition, Captain Overton set a record for becoming a jet ace in the shortest time of four days.
1964 – Studies and Observation Group ("SOG") is created. MACV headquarters in Saigon issued General Order 6, creating a highly secret new organization to execute clandestine operations. It was euphemistically called MACV's "Studies and Observation Group," known as MACVSOG or simply SOG. The operations were approved by President Lyndon Johnson three years after President Kennedy had called for a serious program of covert actions against North Vietnam. The plan, recommended by Robert McNamara and Dean Rusk, contained a total of 72 categories of action.
1966 – In the largest search-and-destroy operation to date–Operation Masher/White Wing/Thang Phong II–the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), South Vietnamese, and Korean forces ssweep through Binh Dinh Province in the central lowlands along the coast. The purpose of the operation was to drive the North Vietnamese out of the province and destroy enemy supply areas. In late January, it became the first large unit operation conducted across corps boundaries when the cavalrymen linked up with Double Eagle, a U.S. Marine Corps operation intended to destroy the North Vietnamese 325A Division. Altogether, there were reported enemy casualties of 2,389 by the time the operation ended.
1972 – After 28 years of hiding in the jungles of Guam, local farmers discover Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant who was unaware that World War II had ended. Guam, a 200-square-mile island in the western Pacific, became a U.S. possession in 1898 after the Spanish-American War. In 1941, the Japanese attacked and captured it, and in 1944, after three years of Japanese occupation, U.S. forces retook Guam. It was at this time that Yokoi, left behind by the retreating Japanese forces, went into hiding rather than surrender to the Americans. In the jungles of Guam, he carved survival tools and for the next three decades waited for the return of the Japanese and his next orders. After he was discovered in 1972, he was finally discharged and sent home to Japan, where he was hailed as a national hero. He subsequently married and returned to Guam for his honeymoon. His handcrafted survival tools and threadbare uniform are on display in the Guam Museum in Agana.
1982 – A draft of Air Force history reported that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War.
1986 – The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system. Uranus has puzzled scientists ever since the probe Voyager 2 did the flyby and found that its magnetic field appeared to break the planetary rulebook. In 2004 scientists noted that Neptune and Uranus have an interior structure that is different from those of Jupiter and Saturn.
2002 – John Walker Lindh transported to Alexandria, Virginia, to be tried in a civilian criminal court for conspiring to kill Americans. He makes his first appearance before a U.S. District Court. A criminal complaint lists four charges, including conspiracy to kill his fellow Americans in Afghanistan..
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
GREAVES, CLINTON
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company C, 9th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Florida Mountains, N. Mex., 24 January 1877. Entered service at: Prince Georges County, Md. Birth: Madison County, Va. Date of issue: 26 June 1879. Citation: While part of a small detachment to persuade a band of renegade Apache Indians to surrender, his group was surrounded. Cpl. Greaves in the center of the savage hand-to-hand fighting, managed to shoot and bash a gap through the swarming Apaches, permitting his companions to break free .
SMITH, WILHELM
Rank and organization: Gunner's Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 10 April 1870, Germany. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 202, 6 April 1916. Citation: On board the U.S.S. New York, for entering a compartment filled with gases and rescuing a shipmate on 24 January
*HANSON, ROBERT MURRAY
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 4 February 1920, Lucknow, India. Accredited to: Massachusetts. Other Navy awards: Navy Cross, Air Medal. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life and above and beyond the call of duty as fighter pilot attached to Marine Fighting Squadron 215 in action against enemy Japanese forces at Bougainville Island, 1 November 1943; and New Britain Island, 24 January 1944. Undeterred by fierce opposition, and fearless in the face of overwhelming odds, 1st Lt. Hanson fought the Japanese boldly and with daring aggressiveness. On 1 November, while flying cover for our landing operations at Empress Augusta Bay, he dauntlessly attacked 6 enemy torpedo bombers, forcing them to jettison their bombs and destroying 1 Japanese plane during the action. Cut off from his division while deep in enemy territory during a high cover flight over Simpson Harbor on 24 January, 1st Lt. Hanson waged a lone and gallant battle against hostile interceptors as they were orbiting to attack our bombers and, striking with devastating fury, brought down 4 Zeroes and probably a fifth. Handling his plane superbly in both pursuit and attack measures, he was a master of individual air combat, accounting for a total of 25 Japanese aircraft in this theater of war. His great personal valor and invincible fighting spirit were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
*PARRISH, LAVERNE
Rank and organization: Technician 4th Grade, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 161st Infantry, 25th Infantry Division . Place and date: Binalonan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 18-24 January 1945. Entered service at: Ronan, Mont. Birth: Knox City, Mo. G.O. No.: 55, 13 July 1945. Citation: He was medical aid man with Company C during the fighting in Binalonan, Luzon, Philippine Islands. On the 18th, he observed 2 wounded men under enemy fire and immediately went to their rescue. After moving 1 to cover, he crossed 25 yards of open ground to administer aid to the second. In the early hours of the 24th, his company, crossing an open field near San Manuel, encountered intense enemy fire and was ordered to withdraw to the cover of a ditch. While treating the casualties, Technician Parrish observed 2 wounded still in the field. Without hesitation he left the ditch, crawled forward under enemy fire, and in 2 successive trips brought both men to safety. He next administered aid to 12 casualties in the same field, crossing and re-crossing the open area raked by hostile fire. Making successive trips, he then brought 3 wounded in to cover. After treating nearly all of the 37 casualties suffered by his company, he was mortally wounded by mortar fire, and shortly after was killed. The indomitable spirit, intrepidity, and gallantry of Technician Parrish saved many lives at the cost of his own.
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for January 24, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
24 January
1913: The Burgess and Curtiss Company delivered the first Curtiss tractor airplane (Signal Corps No. 21) to the Signal Corps Aviation School at San Diego, Calif. It was accepted on 20 June. (24)
1919: 1Lt Temple M. Joyce, Army Air Service pilot, made 300 consecutive loops in a Morane fighter over Issoudun, France. (20)
1925: Using the Navy airship USS Los Angeles (ZR-3), 25 scientists and astronomers chased a solar eclipse across the U. S. (8: Jan 90)
1944: Twelfth Air Force provided air cover for Allied units landing on Anzio beach in Italy. US control of the air played a major role in defending the beachhead. (5)
1947: For the first time in the U.S., telemetry is transmitted from a V-2 in flight to a ground receiving station which records its performance. This capability is part of Project HERMES which is ongoing at White Sands. V-2 #19 was equipped with an automatic pilot system developed by the General Electric Company. This special steering system, which could alter the altitude of the rocket in flight, was the forerunner of the first remote-controlled rocket.
1951: KOREAN WAR/OPERATION THUNDERBOLT. Close air support for United Nations ground troops remained a priority mission for Far East Air Forces in the Korean conflict. In the operation, a late January Eighth Army campaign designed to reach the Han River, T-6 Mosquito controllers patrolled ahead of friendly ground forces, notified ground forces of enemy strong spots, and called in air strikes by US fighter-bombers. Generals Matthew B. Ridgway and Earl E. Partridge reconnoitered the front lines in a T-6 prior to their 25 January dawn attack on Red Chinese forces. To sustain this offensive, in five days 68 C-119s dropped 1,162 tons of supplies, including fuel, oil, sleeping bags, C-rations, and signal wire, at Chunju. (17) (28)
1962: Two Navy F4H Phantoms, designated F-110A by the USAF, arrived at Langley AFB, Va., on a 120-day loan for orientation and evaluation. (24)
1965: The bulkiest object ever delivered by helicopter, the 2.5-ton 30-foot-tall Apollo spacecraft mockup, flew 1,000 miles from North American Aviation at Tulsa, Okla., to Cape Kennedy, Fla. (5)
1972: A remotely piloted vehicle flew for 21 hours continuously in a test at Edwards AFB, Calif. (3)
1973: The Spirit of '76, the VC-137 in which Lyndon B. Johnson became President in 1963, flew his body from Texas to Washington DC in a final tribute. (2) (26)
1978: The Tactical Air Command deployed eight F-15 Eagles from Langley AFB, Va., to Osan AB, Republic of Korea. This event gave the F-15 its first operational training deployment to the western Pacific. (16) (26)
1983: AHUAS TARA I. For this US-Honduran exercise, the Military Airlift Command moved 3,815 passengers and 2,528 tons of cargo on 65 C-141s, 156 C-130s, and 5 C-5s through 11 February. The exercise featured the airdrop of 516 Honduran paratroopers from nine C-130s. (2)
1985: FIRST ALL MILITARY SPACE SHUTTLE MISSION. Through 27 January, the Discovery flew the fifteenth Space Shuttle mission. Colonel Loren J. Shriver led a four-man crew on the Department of Defense's first dedicated mission to deliver an intelligence satellite. (8: Jan 90) (21)
1999: A Navy F-18 fired an AGM-154A Joint Standoff Weapon, built by Raytheon, for the first time in combat. The F-18 attacked an Iraqi air defense site. (21)
2002: An F-22 pilot from the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., fired an Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and destroyed a target drone over the Point Mugu Test Range. The challenging shot was a look-down tail chase with the Navy target drone pulling ahead of the aircraft. (3)
2003: Due to the impending Iraq war, the Global Hawk Systems Program Office at Edwards AFB, Calif., accelerated the "Reachback" capability testing. That reachback capability involved a Mission Control Element in a remote location operating a unmanned aerial vehicle in a theater of war through a tactical field terminal. (3)
2005: Through 4 February, about 620 American servicemembers participated in Thailand's Exercise Cope Tiger. F-15s from the Hawaii Air National Guard's 154th Wing and 18th Wing at Kadena AB, Japan, traveled to Korat AB, Thailand, to join F/A-18s from the USS Abraham Lincoln for the exercise. It featured one-on-one aerial combat and large coordinated air strikes. (32)
2006 Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. The Air National Guard deployed over 400 members of Indiana's 122d Fighter Wing, including 12 F-16s and some 35 pilots, to Ballad AB, Iraq. (32)
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
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/CACTjsm2f%3DjBDSEzaQBECDdg7NS-gBZyQDXMGfwkLq2i8ERO3Hg%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.