TheList 7462

To All.

Good Monday Morning March 2 2026.

.Well the weather is going to be nice for the next week or so. With a lot of clear skies and comfortable temps in the low70s.

.Looking forward to Shadow and his wife's arrival on Wednesday

53 years ago today Worm and I flew off the USS Midway to then  NAS Miramar to end one of longest deployments to Vietnam. It was a great home coming. The Vietnam War was over and our POWs were coming home. In fact the ones that were shot down on our cruise almost beat us home.

All most a year before this Paul Ringwood and I had flown out to the USS Midway on a really nice Friday morning to get Carqualled. I was headed toward Catalina when I selected the TACAN for Midway the needlepointed north. So I headed that way and picked her up with a long wake behind her. I checked in and asked if there was still some CQ available. They answered that we were Charlie on arrival and I noticed in a bit that she was turning west and slowing down. No other aircraft in sight. I am thinking we are going to get a lot of traps. So I came in the pattern and trapped expecting to head toward the cat and start having some fun. Instead they parked me in front of the island. I initially thought that there was something wrong with my aircraft but then I noticed that they parked Paul next to me. As soon he landed the ship started turning north and accelerating. We soon found out we were going into Alameda and oh by the way we were confined to the ship. We left Alameda early Monday morning and came back Over 11 months later. Over the next two days every man and aircraft in the airwing was flown into Alameda and craned aboard. Many of the aircraft were flown in with major problems that would be fixed later. CNO came aboard very early that Monday morning to talk to us on the flight deck and told us we were headed to North Vietnam and Something about that if we can't take a joke we should not have signed up.

Got a bit done yesterday outside and Toni is doing a bit better.

Regards and I hope you all had a great weekend.

Sorry for being late but I watched President award the Medal of Honor to four deserving recipients. What caught my ear was the description of the army Master Sargent who was the ranking officer of a group that had been captured by Germans in WWII at the Battle of the Bludge. The SS officer ordered him to just line up the Jewish soldiers the next morning and there were 200. He refused and the German put his Luger between his eyes and the Sargent told him that they were all Jews there. He backed down and all were saved. I had the full story in the List a couple of years ago. The others had equally brave stories and some did not survive the action.

skip

HAGD

 

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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)

Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/.    Go here to see the director's corner for all 94 H-Grams. 

March 2,

1859 Launch of Saginaw at Mare Island, first Navy ship built on West Coast of U.S.

1867 Birthday of Civil Engineer Corps.

1945 USS Bowfin (SS 287) sinks Japanese transport Chokai Maru, and patrol bombers PB4Y-2 (VPB 119) sink transport Nichirin Maru in East China Sea.

1945, Barbara Miller Finch was the first female to enter an active combat zone. Four days later, Ensign Jane Kendeigh became the first female flight nurse to enter an active combat zone.

1952 During the Korean War, USS Endicott (DMS 35) silences enemy guns on the east coast of Chuuronjang, Korea, in a counter-battery engagement.  

1973 The first four female U.S. Navy pilots begin training. The women are: Lt. j.g. Barbara A. Allen; Lt. j.g Judith A. Neuffer; Ensign Jane M. Skiles and Ensign Kathleen L. McNary..

 

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Today in World History: March 2

1776 Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston.

1781 Maryland ratifies the Articles of Confederation. She is the last state to sign.

1797 The Directory of Great Britain authorizes vessels of war to board and seize neutral vessels, particularly if the ships are American.

1815 To put an end to robberies by the Barbary pirates, the United States declares war on Algiers.

1836 Texas declares independence from Mexico on Sam Houston's 43rd birthday.

1853 The Territory of Washington is organized.

1865 President Abraham Lincoln rejects Confederate General Robert E. Lee's plea for peace talks, demanding unconditional surrender.

1867 The first Reconstruction Act is passed by Congress.

1877 Rutherford B. Hayes is declared president by one vote the day before the inauguration.

1889 Congress passes the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming unassigned lands in the public domain; the first step toward the famous Oklahoma Land Rush.

1896 Bone Mizell, the famed cowboy of Florida, is sentenced to two years of hard labor in the state pen for cattle rustling. He would only serve a small portion of the sentence.

1901 Congress passes the Platt amendment, which limits Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

1908 An international conference on arms reduction opens in London.

1908 Gabriel Lippman introduces the new three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.

1917 Congress passes the Jones Act making Puerto Rico a territory of the United States and makes the inhabitants U.S. citizens.

1923 In Italy, Mussolini admits that women have a right to vote, but declares that the time is not right.

1930 Novelist D.H. Lawrence dies of tuberculosis in a sanitarium in Vence, France, at the age of 45.

1943 The center of Berlin is bombed by the RAF. Some 900 tons of bombs are dropped in a half hour.

1945 MacArthur raises the U.S. flag on Corregidor in the Philippines.

1946 Ho Chi Minh is elected president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1951 The U.S. Navy launches the K-1, the first modern submarine designed to hunt enemy submarines.

1955 Claudette Colvin refuses to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks' famous arrest for the same offense.

1956 France grants independence to Morocco.

1965 More than 150 U.S. and South Vietnamese planes bomb two bases in North Vietnam in the first of the "Rolling Thunder" raids.

1968 The siege of Khe Sanh ends in Vietnam, the U.S. Marines stationed there are still in control of the mountain top.

1973 Federal forces surround Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which is occupied by members of the militant American Indian Movement who are holding at least 10 hostages.

1974 A grand jury in Washington, D.C. concludes that President Nixon was indeed involved in the Watergate cover-up.

1978 Czech pilot Vladimir Remek becomes the first non-Russian, non-American in space.

1981 The United States plans to send 20 more advisors and $25 million in military aid to El Salvador.

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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 ..March 2 . .

March 2: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=2141 

 

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.

. Thanks to Carl

Good read

 

https://americanhandgunner.com/our-experts/ayoob-files-consummate-marine-chesty-puller-45-in-hand/

 

AYOOB FILES: CONSUMMATE MARINE CHESTY PULLER, .45 IN HAND!

By Massad Ayoob on Mar 01, 2022

 

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Thanks to Interesting Facts

For the Ladies

6 Everyday Inventions We Wouldn't Have Without Women

Women have created or improved near-countless contraptions, tools, and procedures, from fashion innovations to kitchen implements to life-saving medical advancements. But recognition of early female inventors was far from a given. Thanks to laws that governed women's legal rights to patenting, manufacturing, and property ownership, it wasn't unusual for a male spouse or relative to be credited for a woman's work.

Then, in 1809, Mary Dixon Kies became the first woman to receive a patent in the United States, for her weaving technique that paired straw and thread to produce trendsetting hats. Unfortunately, Kies' original patent has been lost to history, thanks to an 1836 fire that claimed thousands of documents in the nation's patent office. In the years since Kies' historic milestone, however, women have followed suit to patent-protect their innovations. According to a 2020 U.S. Patent Office report, more women are filing for patents than ever before. Many of those technological breakthroughs, like the ones explored below, have become common conveniences that make our lives easier and safer.

 

1 of 6

Disposable Coffee Filters

Melitta Bentz's invention is one coffee drinkers now take for granted, but it was revolutionary in the early 1900s. At the time, other home brewing methods required a lot of time and cleanup — not to mention a tolerance for bitter coffee and sludgy grounds at the bottom of your mug. While pricey cloth coffee filters were available, they were used like tea bags, steeping grounds in hot water that produced a subpar cup and an extraordinary mess. Many coffee connoisseurs brewed their morning java in percolators, but those could leave a burnt taste and failed to filter out smaller grounds.

Bentz, a German woman with an affinity for coffee, was determined to find a better brewing process that didn't require extensive cleanup. During one experiment, she reached for notebook paper as a potential liner, filling the makeshift filter with coffee grounds. She placed the filter inside a pot she had punched holes in and poured hot water over the grounds, allowing brewed coffee to cleanly drip through to a cup below. With the creation of drip coffee brewing, Bentz began producing the paper filters at home, and was granted a patent for her drip-cup apparatus in 1908. With help from her family, she launched a line of drip-coffee makers and filters in 1909, branding the items with her own first name. Bentz died in 1950, but her company — now run by her grandchildren — produces nearly 50 million coffee filters each day. 

 

2of 6

Modern Dental Fillings

Getting a filling at the dentist's office is universally dreaded, but thanks in part to Dr. Sumita Mitra's work, modern dental repair is longer-lasting and less conspicuous than ever before. Mitra, who was born in India, credits her father's job at a woodworking factory with jumpstarting her childhood interest in technology and science. As an adult, she immigrated to the U.S., where she received a Ph.D. in chemistry. While working for 3M, Mitra began exploring nanoparticles — ultrafine, microscopic particles — and their potential use in dentistry. Her research led to the development of Filtek, a stronger, tooth-like composite filling that could withstand chewing and brushing better than previous dental filling materials while also being safer. Filtek was first marketed to dentists in 2002 and is now used in fillings worldwide. Mitra also holds nearly 100 other patents, many related to dental technology, and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2018.

 

3 of 6

Non-Reflective Glass

Katharine Burr Blodgett's best-known invention is one you can hardly see, yet rely on all the time: non-reflective glass. Born in New York in 1898, Blodgett followed an unusual trajectory for a woman born at the turn of the 20th century. Her father, a prominent patent attorney, was murdered shortly before her birth, and Blodgett spent much of her childhood in France. She pursued an education in math and science, fields that women of the time were often dissuaded from, and completed a master's degree at the University of Chicago before becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate in physics from Cambridge University.

In 1918, Blodgett was recruited by General Electric's Research Lab, becoming the first woman scientist to work for the company. She specialized in monomolecular coatings — chemical compounds that adhere to surfaces while remaining incredibly thin. That research led her to create super-thin glass coatings that prevented glare and reflection. Her improved glass was used by filmmakers to shoot film with minimal visual feedback, and had a major impact on military actions during World War II. Engineers used the crystal-clear glass on periscopes and airplane spy cameras to improve intelligence gathering; in decades to follow, it would also become a popular coating for microscopes, glasses, projectors, and more. Blodgett received patents for her coated glass, as well as five other inventions, including a method to de-ice airplane wings.

 

4of 6

User-Friendly Diabetes Testing

Chemistry wasn't initially Helen Free's passion. In fact, the woman who co-invented glucose testing — a tool that helps people with diabetes manage their blood sugar — previously planned to become an English and Latin teacher. But with fewer men in college classrooms thanks to the World War II draft, women at some colleges were encouraged to pursue male-dominated majors. Free's interest in chemistry soon became her full-time field; after graduation, she worked as a quality control chemist monitoring vitamins. In the 1940s, Free met her husband, Albert, through her lab work, and the pair became married research partners and experts in urinalysis. Together, they created some of the first urine-based medical tests, including, in 1956, Clinistix, an at-home test for people with diabetes to monitor excess sugar in their urine. Free's dip-stick tests were used for nearly two decades before blood droplet testing was introduced in the 1970s.

 

5 of 6

Dishwashers

Clearing away dinner dishes is easier (and faster) today than it was in 1886, when Josephine Cochrane patented the first mechanical dishwasher. As a frequent host of dinner parties at her Shelbyville, Illinois, mansion, Cochrane was concerned about maintaining her fine dishware's pristine condition. But as a busy socialite, she didn't want to do the tedious work of scrubbing each piece herself to ensure it stayed that way; instead, she relegated the task to servants whose work occasionally caused chips and cracks. Cochrane's solution was to create a dishwashing unit that kept her costly tableware out of the slippery sink and instead stationary while being sprayed with jets of water.

Cochrane, the daughter of an engineer and granddaughter of a steamboat innovator, was likely familiar with inventive tinkering despite lacking formal education in science or math. But after her husband's death in 1883 left her with looming debt and few resources to pay it off, her dishwashing contraption transformed from a timesaving idea into a path for financial security. Cochrane was awarded a patent for her dishwasher design three years after being widowed and displayed her innovation at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, where visitors marveled at the event's only machine created by a woman. With exposure from the fair, Cochrane began marketing her contraptions to hotels, restaurants, and hospitals. (The cost was often too much for homemakers.) After her death in 1913, Cochrane's company was purchased by Hobart Manufacturing Company, the original producer of KitchenAid brand products.

 

6 of 6

Home Security Systems

If you've ever checked in on your home from vacation or caught a porch pirate making off with a recent delivery, you have Marie Van Brittan Brown to thank. As a nurse in New York City in the 1960s, Brown worked irregular shifts that often had her coming home at odd hours while her husband, an electronic technician, was away. Concerned about crime in their neighborhood and a lack of help from law enforcement, the Browns worked together to create the first home security system.

Marie's design was extensive: It featured a motorized camera that could be repositioned among a set of peepholes, a TV screen for viewing outside in real-time (one of the earliest examples of closed-circuit TV or CCTV), and a two-way microphone for speaking to anyone outside her apartment. The security system also included a remote-controlled door lock and an alarm that could reach a security guard. (One newspaper account of the Browns' invention suggested the alarm could be used by doctors and businesses to prevent or stop robberies.) Brown was awarded a patent for her thoroughly designed security system in 1966 but never pursued large-scale manufacturing of her product. Regardless, she still receives credit for her ingenuity, with a significant number of security system manufacturers recognizing her device as the grandmother of their own security tool

 

 

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. From the archives

Thanks to Mike

Strenuous Activities

I'm exhausted just reading these……..

 

01)  Beating around the bush...

02)  Jumping to conclusions...

03)  Climbing up the wall...

04)  Swallowing your pride...

05)  Passing the buck...

06)  Throwing your weight around...

07)  Dragging your heels...

08)  Pushing your luck...

09)  Making mountains out of molehills...

10)  Hitting the nail on the head...

11)  Wading through paperwork...

12)  Bending over backwards...

13)  Jumping on the bandwagon...

14)  Balancing the books...

15)  Running around in circles...

16)  Eating crow...

17)  Blowing your own horn...

18)  Climbing the ladder of success...

19)  Pulling out all stops...

20)  Adding fuel to the fire...

21)  Opening a can of worms...

22)  Putting your foot in your mouth...

23)  Setting the ball rolling...

24)  Going over the edge...

25)  Picking up the pieces...

        Whew! That is some workout ! Now SIT DOWN, and...

 26)  Exercise Caution!

 

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.. Thanks to Shadow

More tales from Black Shadow Aviation

Jim Lucas and I were blessed with all the neat people that dropped by Black Shadow on a regular basis… Corky was one of them. From my boyhood idol, to a dear and great friend.

 

Never forget the first time he showed up at Black Shadow… I was at my desk, with my back to the door, think Jim was out in the hangar. I heard someone come in and this voice said… "I'm looking for some character called Shadow, can you help me"? I never turned around and said… "I might be able to help you if I knew who you were and what you want". The voice replied… "My name is Corky Meyer and I'm looking for some TBM parts"! Holy chit! It can't be! I slid back in my chair and before I even saw I I kinda yelled out… "The Corky Meyer"? And then I saw this elderly man that got a smile on his face and he said… "Well that depends on which Corky Meyer you're thinking about… The piano player in the cat house my dad used to brag about… or the Grumman employee I used to be"? Folks… what an introduction to my boyhood idol. Right away, I knew this was to be a legendary friendship!

 

We got along like two pees in a pod… had more fun than you could imagine over the years that followed. Jim will attest… he was a pure joy to have around! The stories and his observations were incredible. We talked about different planes and his great adventures. What a man… what a friend! He was one of those personal heroes that exceeded my expectations (and that's a rare breed).

 

Here's a sample of some of his more exciting tales:

 

Corky did a lot of the testing on the F8F… a product of Leroy Grumman and Corky's Flight Test Boss inspecting of a captured FW-190 in England. They came back and decided to build the smallest fighter designed around the P&W 2800. I think it was so light… it was the only Grumman WW II fighter that didn't have a plus nine and three negative "G" limit. Think it was around Six positive. Once it got to the fleet, there were a series of accidents where a wing failed on a rolling pull out, due to exceeding the positive "G" limit. Realizing they had a problem on their hands… Grumman engineers set about solving the problem… what they came up with was unique and crazy as far as I was concerned. Instead of beefing up the wing and adding precious weight… they came up with a bizarre solution of installing a explosive device that would shed the outboard section of one wing… if the other wing failed, thereby keeping the plane somewhat in balance so as to be able to get home in one piece. Honestly, I was blown away with this concept… WTF were they thinking?

 

Corky was selected to prove the concept and take the Bearcat up, induce a wing failure and have the explosive device blow off the opposite wings outer section! As he's telling the story… I'm thinking… WTF was Corky thinking in accepting such a crazy concept? He spent days with then engineers and finally bought into the idea and on his first flight test… it seems the engineers had miscalculated the amount of explosive required to blow the small section of wing off. Corky manages to induce wing failure during a rolling pull, followed by a horrendous explosion in the other wing and instead of parting the wing cleanly… Corky is staring at a deformed wing from the explosion. He said it looked like a giant shotgun that exploded from having a plugged barrel! He was barely able to get the plane back on the ground. Back to the drawing board! Eventually, through trial and error… they finally got it to where it was fairly successful. Corky proved to me… he not only was a great test pilot… he had balls of steel! And was maybe a little bit crazy too!

 

He had a lot of stories about the F10F Jaguar, Grumman's first swing wing aircraft. Corky was fond of saying… he was the only. Human being that ever flew that airplane. He would go on to say that it was in his control only about 50% of the time… the rest of the time the "Big Guy Above" was flying it and Corky was just along for the ride! The funniest story was during a low level speed run… the canopy came off and all of a sudden the "Face Curtain" was beating him around his head and shoulders. In a panic, he slows down and made for the dry lake bed. He said the whole time he was worried the seat was gonna fire off and with him being so low, he'd never get a good chute. He manages to get it on the lake bed and as he's rolling out, he's still in a panic about the seat firing. He decides to unstrap and intended to bail over the side when the plane slowed down enough. He stands up and looks back and realizes that  going over the side was a bad idea because of the placement of the landing gear. Now he's standing up… still not out of harm's way from the hot seat… so he climbs over the canopy bow and then turns around holding on the canopy as he's sitting onto the nose of the airplane… facing backwards! And he stays there until the plane comes to a stop on its' own.

 

In his own self deprecating way… he said the crash crew took a life time getting him down, they were laughing so hard! They told him he looked like a backward cowboy that got turned around on a bucking bull…. What a sight!

 

BTW… the real problem with the F10F was not the wing… it was the horizontal stabilizer… they never figured it out. Also, the basic design of the wing sweep mechanism was later used on the F-11 and F-14… so something good came out of the program. He also told of putting on a demonstration for the Secretary of the Navy one day showing the advantages of the swing wing… when the engine quit when Corky was still almost a hundred feet above the lake bed… The aircraft slammed down and came to a stop in less that 200 feet on the soft lake bed. SecNav was so impressed he said he was gonna recommend buying hundreds of F10F's! Grumman had to eat crow and explain what really had happened. Shortly after that the program was cancelled. Corky said it probably saved his life.

 

He had so many stories it was hard to keep up… one of my favorites was about the F11F-1F… the MACH II Tiger. They took a stock F11F and exploded it in size and installed a J-79. Now everyone I've ever met that flew the stock F-11 loved the way it flew… had the best flight characteristics of any early jet fighter. It'd got past MACH 1, but just barely… and had no legs to speak of. They crammed as much fuel in the F11F-1F as they could and it had the same good flight characteristics as the stock airplane… and was capable of MACH 2! But still was woefully short on range. When Grumman touted that the new F-11 was MACH II capable… there was more than a few doubters… especially with the Pax River crowd. No way in hell would a F-11 go MACH 2 they said. Corky had busted MACH 2 many times and invited the Navy's top Flight Test guy to come out and fly it if he didn't believe him. Well they took him up on his offer and Grumman went along with it. The guy comes out and spent a day with Corky, going over the airplane… they next morning he was scheduled to fly it.

 

He manages to get the airplane started and takes off and set up for a speed run over the Edwards Range… he is gone less than 45 minutes and radios in that the airplane was a dog, had severe vibrations and he barely got it to MACH 1! He lands and as he taxies in… Corky and the Grumman ground crew were shocked at what they say. When he shuts down he's starting to give Corky some chit, when Corky points to the wing on his left… and he sees the mangled leading edge slats! Amazing he was even able to reach MACH 1! The great Test Pilot forgot to retract the slats after takeoff!. It was an embarrassing situation for the Pax River hot shot, to say the least. He was really worried about what would happen when his boss found out about it. Luckily for him… Corky's ground crew went to work overnight and by the next afternoon managed to cobble together another set of slats. They gave the Pax River guy another shot at it and he managed to easily bust MACH 2. No one ever told Pax River about the incident. Corky swore the F11F-1F was a better airplane than the F-104 and they seriously tried to market it with foreign countries… alas it was not to be.

 More later…

 Shadow

 

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 March 2, 2026            Website

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            An Early Military Analysis of the Iran Operation

How long the campaign lasts depends on the depth of Iranian defense.

 

By: Andrew Davidson

The opening phase of Operation Epic Fury was a coordinated strike campaign aimed at disrupting Iran's command continuity and degrading its retaliatory capability. Official statements seem to confirm as much: U.S. and Israeli leaders have said the operation was meant to degrade Iran's missile and nuclear capabilities and eliminate imminent threats to U.S. and Israeli forces. Others also mentioned regime change and, in doing so, urged the Iranian people to seize the moment for internal political transformation. Indeed, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as several senior security figures, were killed in the strikes.

 

From a military perspective, the removal of senior leadership affects political command cohesion. However, the operational design of the strikes indicates a broader objective: Targeting integrated air defenses, radar and sensor networks, ballistic missile infrastructure, and maritime denial capabilities suggests a larger and longer suppression effort against Iran's retaliatory systems. The strike pattern also suggests a functional division of labor, with U.S. forces emphasizing large-scale suppression and degradation of retaliatory infrastructure and with Israeli personnel focusing on leadership and command nodes. The campaign's operational center of gravity, then, depends on the survivability and regeneration rate of Iran's mobile retaliatory systems under sustained suppression.

 

That officials have described this operation as a multiday campaign implies, in military terms, sequential strike cycles, battle damage assessment and reconstitution of force packages. The determining variable is tempo – that is, whether additional strike cycles continue to deepen earlier damage or whether operational momentum declines before Iran's capabilities are materially reduced.

 

Initial reporting indicates geographically distributed targeting inside Iran consistent with a suppression-oriented campaign. Strikes were reported in Tehran and surrounding districts associated with central command functions, alongside activity in the Isfahan region and western corridors historically linked to ballistic missile storage and deployment. Additional locations near coastal facilities suggest maritime denial assets were also included in the early target set. The dispersion across central, western and southern operational zones indicates an effort to degrade multiple layers of Iran's retaliatory system while simultaneously opening and securing operational access for follow-on strike cycles.

 

Iran quickly retaliated against the initial strikes. The response time indicates that Iran maintained preconfigured targeting packages and conditions for multiple targets. Ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial systems were launched toward Israel and U.S. military facilities in Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The geographic breadth of the response shows that elements of Iran's missile and drone forces remained operational and capable of multiaxial employment despite the opening suppression effort. Iran's response has consisted of sequential launch cycles rather than a single concentrated volley, indicating retained inventory and phased employment of missile and unmanned systems.

 

Though air defense systems intercepted many incoming projectiles, impacts were reported in civilian-military environments. Compared with the U.S.-Israeli targeting pattern inside Iran, Iran's pattern relied more heavily on saturation and geographic spread.

 

The onset of counterfire indicates that Iran's missile and unmanned systems are not wholly dependent on real-time centralized command authorization. Dispersed launcher brigades and contingency activation protocols allow retaliatory operations to proceed even under conditions of political disruption. As a result, decapitation alone does not eliminate launch capacity; durability will depend more on the survivability of mobile platforms and supporting logistics under continued suppression. Still, leadership disruption may weaken centralized control over escalation decisions. While decentralized structures sustain retaliation, they also increase the risk of uneven or poorly calibrated responses, complicating signaling and increasing volatility even if overall missile output declines.

 

The composition of the strike package indicates that operational access has been established and can be sustained beyond the initial window. Carrier aviation, stand-off naval strike capacity, aerial refueling, and persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance create layered delivery options against mobile launchers and reconstituting air defenses. Naval platforms in the Gulf and Eastern Mediterranean extend strike depth and reduce reliance on fixed regional airfields, though regional basing in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates remains essential for sortie regeneration and logistics. The durability of these facilities under continued missile pressure will shape operational tempo. Two U.S. carrier strike groups deployed to the region provide operational flexibility and strike depth without relying on fixed regional airfields. However, they are also high-value operational platforms within range of Iranian munitions and drones. Although layered air defense systems and mobility complicate targeting, sustained missile and drone pressure increases the defense burden and introduces operational risk. Significant damage to a carrier would constrain sortie flexibility and likely trigger rapid political and military escalation, intensifying domestic pressure for a decisive response while altering the campaign's operational trajectory.

 

Magazine depth and munitions expenditure will help determine how long the operation will last. Precision-guided munitions, stand-off weapons and interceptor stocks for regional air defense systems must support not only offensive cycles but also defensive counterfire protection. If Iran's launches remain sequential, U.S.-Israeli interceptor inventories are unlikely to face immediate exhaustion. However, sustained multiday exchanges would increase cumulative pressure on both offensive and defensive stockpiles.

 

The Israeli campaign against Iran in 2025 is instructive here. It showed the finite nature of both missile inventories and interceptor magazines under repeated launch cycles. Iran's preconflict ballistic stockpile – estimated in the low thousands – was susceptible to rapid drawdown at high tempo, while defensive systems used more interceptors than could be quickly replaced. In the longer run, sustainability will depend less on initial inventory size than on the relative pace of expenditure and resupply. Although Iran maintains indigenous missile assembly and engineering capacity, sustained regeneration depends on access to critical solid-propellant inputs that have historically required external sourcing.

 

In other words, how long the campaign lasts depends on the alignment between suppression requirements and sustainment capacity. If tanker availability, ISR persistence and munitions depth remain sufficient to support repeated strike cycles, U.S.-Israeli forces can progressively erode Iran's mobile launch capability and supporting infrastructure. If suppression falters or defensive burdens expand, operational tempo may decline before meaningful attrition is achieved.

 

The campaign now enters a decisive phase in which operational tempo will determine whether suppression produces structural degradation. If suppression pauses after initial disruption, Iran's dispersed missile brigades and affiliated networks will retain the capacity to regenerate coordinated counterfire. In that case, the campaign would function primarily as a means of coercion rather than as a concentrated effort to dismantle the regime.

 

A third pathway involves a protracted exchange in which neither side achieves decisive results or halts escalation. In that case, campaign durability and sustainment would depend on industrial replenishment, defensive stockpile depth and political tolerance for sustained risk. As the conflict expands to third-party assets – shipping, energy infrastructure and Gulf-based forces – it can also harden alignment among affected states, widening the coalition and raising the political costs of deescalation.

 

Meanwhile, Tehran has more avenues of retaliation: its network of aligned non-state actors throughout multiple theaters. In Iraq, factions operating under the Popular Mobilization Forces umbrella have historically targeted U.S. facilities and could expand the conflict's operational footprint without requiring additional conventional missile launches from Iranian territory. In Lebanon, Hezbollah maintains a substantial rocket and missile arsenal capable of opening a northern front against Israel. In Yemen, Houthi forces retain the ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea, while naval elements within Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maintain asymmetric options in the Persian Gulf, including harassment operations, continued disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, and threats against U.S. naval assets. Iranian officials have framed U.S. and allied military installations and facilities as legitimate targets. Reports that offshore energy infrastructure in the UAE was struck indicate that oil and gas markets could be an additional lever of pressure. Continued pressure would widen the conflict and increase defensive burdens without directly restoring degraded missile capacity inside Iran.

 

Sustained suppression that materially degrades Iran's retaliatory architecture would diminish its ability to execute coordinated, high-tempo counterfire, shifting future conflict dynamics away from state-directed ballistic attacks and toward more decentralized or asymmetric avenues. This erosion, even if gradual, would weaken Iran's coercive leverage and reshape regional deterrence perceptions, affecting not only immediate conflict outcomes but broader strategic behavior in the Gulf.  

 

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. March 1, 2026          

 

 

            First Thoughts on the Attack on Iran

By: George Friedman

At about 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, the United States and Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran. It did not seem to be a surprise to Iran, which was able to carry out drone and missile attacks on U.S. bases in eight Middle Eastern nations (Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar). In fact, it should not have been a surprise to anyone. Both the U.S. and Israel have insisted that Iran abandon its nuclear development program. Israel cannot accept the existential threat posed by a nuclear-capable Iran. Nor, as I have written before, could the United States. After extended negotiations, it became clear to both that Iran was not going to abandon that program. Whether Tehran believed it needed a nuclear weapon, or whether it simply couldn't afford to back down from Washington is unclear and ultimately irrelevant. Tehran has said its program was meant only for civilian purposes, but given the ideology of the Iranian government, nuclear capability was unacceptable in any case. It can reasonably said that the U.S. and Israel did not believe the Iranian government.

Here is what we know so far. The U.S. has launched attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure before. These bought time but clearly did not destroy Iran's nuclear program. Crucially, yesterday's attack did not focus on nuclear facilities. It appears to have been designed primarily as a decapitation strike – an operation meant to destroy leadership and governing infrastructure and therefore open the door to a new government. Specifically, it seems that Israel's mission was decapitation while Washington's seemed more bent on destroying offensive missiles and drones. Some targets appear to have been bases belonging to Hezbollah and other nonstate actors. (This was an added imperative for Israel and only mildly important to the U.S.) Others belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force based on Islamist ideology and a foundation of the Iranian government's power. There were also operations carried out on the ground by Israeli intelligence that appear to have been intended to destroy some of the Iranian missile and drone capability and to identify the location of key government officials. Reports have also surfaced, including in Iranian state media, that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.

More will come to light, of course, but it seems clear to me that the purpose of the attack was regime change. Regime change is not easy. Destroying a government requires more than random assassinations; it requires the destruction of the physical infrastructure of how a government functions – office buildings, communications capabilities, computers that contain information on citizens, and so on. Decapitation and regime change require disabling the government from functioning and, at times, permitting chaos (dangerous if the public favored the government's ideology and policies). A new version of the old government might emerge, as could a regime even more hostile to the U.S. and Israel. What the public in Iran feels about the government is not clear to me, but if Iranians are hostile to Israel and the U.S., then the logic of regime change means that a new government must be imposed. Put simply, decapitation may not end the threat without an ongoing presence.

Under the Trump presidency, Washington has been careful to avoid long-term wars involving the presence of U.S. troops on the ground. This attack was aligned with that strategy, at least so far. The strategy seeks to avoid long-term involvement in managing and defending a defeated nation. Given these principles, a prolonged U.S. engagement in Iran is unacceptable, an Israeli-backed government is unthinkable, and there should not be a foreign military presence.

There are a few important takeaways from yesterday's episode. Iran's counterattack – undertaken without assistance and against U.S. partners – shows that it is isolated even in its own region. The attack on Saudi Arabia, as well as the possibility of policy-driven economic warfare from Tehran, could disrupt oil supply, demand and prices.

The most important issue is how the U.S. and Israel will try to prevent a similar regime from replacing the old one. Importantly, Iran has two armies. One is the IRGC, the other is the conventional armed forces, which were in place when the U.S.-backed shahs ruled Iran (until they were overthrown in the Iranian Revolution). The armed forces were never disbanded because they were essential to national defense. That army is less defined by Islamic ideology than the IRGC and, in fact, is sometimes hostile to the IRGC. Were Iran to evolve, it would seem likely that this army, more secular than the state, would have a major role in its governance. It survived as a secular force not because it was loved by the regime but because it was necessary. Perhaps that decreases the odds that a religious power could take control without an extended foreign military presence.

In the coming days, we will consider more closely the military response and the likely evolution in Iran and the rest of the Middle East.   

 

 

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Thanks to History Facts

The last surviving Civil War veteran died in 1956.

One Gettysburg memorial stands out for its strikingly modern appearance, featuring a man in a midcentury suit and tie, no musket or battle flag in hand. The statue honors Albert Henry Woolson, the last surviving Civil War veteran, as he appeared at age 106, nine decades after the war's end. At the time of his death in 1956, Woolson had outlived more than 2 million Union Army soldiers.

 

Born in New York in 1850, Woolson (like many young recruits) likely lied about his age to enroll in the Union Army in 1864. He was accepted into the ranks at age 14, served as a drummer boy and bugler, and eventually was stationed in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a commission that kept him from combat.

 

After the war, Woolson held a variety of jobs, including teaching both mechanical engineering and music. He also became a living link with history, speaking at local schools about his experience and receiving letters and visits from around the country. As a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternity for Union veterans, Woolson met with other surviving veterans; the group, which had more than 400,000 members in 1890, had whittled down to only 16 men by 1949. Six of the Civil War veterans met in Indianapolis that year, including Joseph Clovese, the last formerly enslaved soldier. Called the "Grand Old Men," the group paraded through the streets one final time. Woolson's funeral a few years later would also attract a crowd. More than 1,500 people attended the burial, including the grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, who helped lay the soldier to rest as an honorary pallbearer.

 

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This Day in U S Military History

March 2

1776 – Colonel Knox arrived near Boston with 80 sleds packed with cannons, mortars and other heavy equipment in February and General Washington saw his chance. Even though 2,000 of his 9,000 soldiers didn't have muskets, he figured out the perfect plan. On March 2 and 3, 1776, soldiers fired all night into the city of Boston from the west. This was a camouflage of what was really happening. South of the city there were hills named Dorchester Heights which reminded General Washington of Bunker and Breed's Hills. The men without guns moved the artillery brought by Colonel Knox south to Dorchester Heights and set them up so they could protect their gunners and could hit the British in the city.

1943 – U.S. and Australian land-based planes begin an offensive against a convoy of Japanese ships in the Bismarck Sea, in the western Pacific. On March 1, U.S. reconnaissance planes spotted 16 Japanese ships en route to Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. The Japanese were attempting to keep from losing the island and their garrisons there by sending 7,000 reinforcements and aircraft fuel and supplies. But a U.S. bombing campaign, beginning March 2 and lasting until the March 4, consisting of 137 American bombers supported by U.S. and Australian fighters, destroyed eight Japanese troop transports and four Japanese destroyers. More than 3,000 Japanese troops and sailors drowned as a consequence, and the supplies sunk with their ships. Of 150 Japanese fighter planes that attempted to engage the American bombers, 102 were shot down. It was an utter disaster for the Japanese–the U.S. 5th Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force dropped a total of 213 tons of bombs on the Japanese convoy. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill chose March 4, the official end of the battle, to congratulate President Franklin D. Roosevelt, since that day was also the 10th anniversary of the president's first inauguration. "Accept my warmest congratulations on your brilliant victory in the Pacific, which fitly salutes the end of your first 10 years."

1965 – Operation Rolling Thunder begins with more than 100 United States Air Force jet bombers striking an ammunition depot at Xom Bang, 10 miles inside North Vietnam. Simultaneously, 60 South Vietnamese Air Force propeller planes bombed the Quang Khe naval base, 65 miles north of the 17th parallel. Six U.S. planes were downed, but only one U.S. pilot was lost. Capt. Hayden J. Lockhart, flying an F-100, was shot down and became the first Air Force pilot to be taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese. Lockhart was released in 1973 when U.S. POWs were returned under provisions of the Paris Peace Accords. The raid was the result of President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision in February to undertake the sustained bombing of North Vietnam that he and his advisers had been considering for more than a year. The goal of Rolling Thunder was to interdict North Vietnamese transportation routes in the southern part of North Vietnam and the slow infiltration of personnel and supplies into South Vietnam. In July 1966, Rolling Thunder was expanded to include North Vietnamese ammunition dumps and oil storage facilities as targets and in the spring of 1967 it was further expanded to include power plants, factories, and airfields in the Hanoi-Haiphong area. The White House closely controlled Operation Rolling Thunder and President Johnson occasionally selected the targets himself. From 1965 to 1968, about 643,000 tons of bombs were dropped on North Vietnam. A total of nearly 900 U.S. aircraft were lost during Operation Rolling Thunder. The operation continued, with occasional suspensions, until President Johnson halted it on October 31, 1968, under increasing domestic political pressure.

1972 – Pioneer 10, the world's first outer-planetary probe, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet. In December 1973, after successfully negotiating the asteroid belt and a distance of 620 million miles, Pioneer 10 reached Jupiter and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the spectacular gas giant. In June 1983, the NASA spacecraft left the solar system and the next day radioed back the first scientific data on interstellar space. NASA officially ended the Pioneer 10 project on March 31, 1997, with the spacecraft having traveled a distance of some six billion miles. Headed in the direction of the Taurus constellation, Pioneer 10 will pass within three light years of another star–Ross 246–in the year 34,600 A.D. Bolted to the probe's exterior wall is a gold-anodized plaque, 6 by 9 inches in area, that displays a drawing of a human man and woman, a star map marked with the location of the sun, and another map showing the flight path of Pioneer 10. The plaque, intended for intelligent life forms elsewhere in the galaxy, was designed by astronomer Carl Sagan.

2001 – In Afghanistan the Taliban began the destruction of the giant Buddha of Bamiyan despite int'l. protests. The United Nations tried in vain to persuade Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to reverse its decision to destroy a pair of giant, ancient statues of Buddha and other Buddhist relics that the regime considered idolatrous.

2002 – U.S. and Afghan forces launched an offensive, Operation Anaconda, on al-Qaeda and Taliban forces entrenched in the mountains of Shahi-Kot southeast of Gardez. The Mujahideen forces, who used small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars, were entrenched into caves and bunkers in the hillsides at an altitude that was largely above 10,000 feet (3,000 m). They used "hit and run" tactics, opening fire on the U.S. and Afghan forces and then retreating back into their caves and bunkers to weather the return fire and persistent U.S. bombing raids. To compound the situation for the coalition troops, U.S. commanders initially underestimated the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces as a last isolated pocket numbering fewer than 200. It turned out that the guerrillas numbered between 1,000–5,000 according to some estimates and that they were receiving reinforcements..

 

Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

*CUTINHA, NICHOLAS J.

Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Company C, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Gia Dinh, Republic of Vietnam, 2 March 1968. Entered service at: Coral Gables, Fla. Born: 13 January 1945, Fernandina Beach, Fla. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. While serving as a machine gunner with Company C, Sp4c. Cutinha accompanied his unit on a combat mission near Gia Dinh. Suddenly his company came under small arms, automatic weapons, mortar and rocket propelled grenade fire, from a battalion size enemy unit. During the initial hostile attack, communication with the battalion was lost and the company commander and numerous members of the company became casualties. When Sp4c. Cutinha observed that his company was pinned down and disorganized, he moved to the front with complete disregard for his safety, firing his machine gun at the charging enemy. As he moved forward he drew fire on his own position and was seriously wounded in the leg. As the hostile fire intensified and half of the company was killed or wounded, Sp4c. Cutinha assumed command of all the survivors in his area and initiated a withdrawal while providing covering fire for the evacuation of the wounded. He killed several enemy soldiers but sustained another leg wound when his machine gun was destroyed by incoming rounds. Undaunted, he crawled through a hail of enemy fire to an operable machine gun in order to continue the defense of his injured comrades who were being administered medical treatment. Sp4c. Cutinha maintained this position, refused assistance, and provided defensive fire for his comrades until he fell mortally wounded. He was solely responsible for killing 15 enemy soldiers while saving the lives of at least 9 members of his own unit. Sp4c. Cutinha's gallantry and extraordinary heroism were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

 

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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for March 2,  FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD "PHIL" MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY

 

2 March

1906: Robert H. Goddard speculates that atomic energy might be used for space travel. His thoughts are preserved within the pages of his Green Notebook.

 1910: Lt Benjamin D. Foulois began solo flying at Fort Sam Houston. Foulois was the only pilot and only one with flying duty assigned to the Signal Corps at that time. (21)

1913: First flying pay authorized. Officers detailed on aviation duty received a 35 percent bonus over base pay. (11)

1931: A contract to Hamilton Standard Propeller Company for two fighter aircraft propellers initiated a development program that led to the adoption of variable pitch propellers. (5)

1943: BATTLE OF THE BISMARCK SEA. Through 4 March, Fifth Air Force aircraft smashed a 16-ship Japanese troop convoy in this battle. This ended the enemy's effort to reinforce Lae. The aircraft sank over 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping, including eight troop-laden transports and four of eighth escorting warships. They also destroyed between 50-60 enemy planes. Modified B-25s used low-level skip bombing for the first time. (21) (24)

1961: The USS Observation Island made the first shipboard firing of an advanced Polaris A-2 missile, while cruising 10 miles off Cape Canaveral. (24)

1962: Operation BRISTLE CONE. This 12-day exercise examined the USAF/Army capability to airlifting 40,000 combat troops from Fort Lewis, Wash., and Fort Riley, Kans., to George AFB, Calif. (24)

1965: North Vietnam shot down Lt Hayden J. Lockhart's F-100 during his raid against an ammo dump north of the demilitarized zone. A week later, he became the first USAF pilot taken as a prisoner of war. He was not released until 12 February 1973. (21)

1968: Lockheed rolled out the first C-5A Galaxy at its plant in Marietta. (8)(12)

1971: At Myrtle Beach AFB, S.C., the 511 TFS became the first operationally ready A-7D unit. (26)

1972: The Pioneer X Jupiter probe, launched from the Eastern Test Range, reached the highest launch velocity ever attained, 32,000 MPH relative to earth. This mission tried to get scientific information from beyond Mars by investigating the interplanetary medium, asteroid belt, and Jupiter and its environment. The 569-pound spacecraft was be the first to attempt the Jupiter probe. (5)

1973: The Boeing T-43, the USAF's navigation trainer, rolled out of the plant at Renton. (5)

1987: First F-15E arrived at Edwards AFB for flight testing. (11)

1997: Operation DEEP FREEZE. The 60 AMW's last scheduled C-141 mission in support of this operation left Travis AFB. For more than 40 years, Travis aircrews flew Deep Freeze missions from Christchurch, New Zealand, to McMurdo Station to resupply scientists near Antarctica's southern polar ice cap. The 62 AW at McChord AFB took over the mission. (22)

2003: The 118th Airlift Wing, Tennessee ANG, mobilized 300 members to serve at an undisclosed location in a possible war against Iraq. (32)

2007: Exercise KOA LIGHTNING. At Andersen AFB, Guam, B-52s Stratofortresses from the 96th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, 36th Operations Group, played in a Pacific Command exercise over the Hawaiian islands. The 6,880-nautical mile trip from Guam to the exercise area and back often exceeded 18 hours of continuous flight and required two air refuelings. In the exercise area, the aircrews tested their offensive and defensive skills with a wide variety of military units and aircraft from across the Pacific. (AFNEWS, "Andersen Bombers Participate in Koa Lightning Exercise," 5 Mar 2007)

 

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