To All
. Good Wednesday morning April 29. We are clear this morning and sunny for the next three days with temps in the low 70s. So the weather for the Bubba Breakfast should be great
. Regards,
Skip
HAGD
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This day in Naval and Marine Corps History (thanks to NHHC)
Go here to see the director’s corner for all 97 H-Grams
Here is a link to the NHHC website: https://www.history.navy.mil/
. April 29
1814 American sloop USS Peacock and HMS Epervier engage in battle. Peacock takes two 32-pound shots in her fore-yard with the first exchange, but her return broadside smashes most of Eperviers rigging and guns. After 45 minutes, Epervier is captured. The battle is hailed as a tribute of American gunnery as Epervier has 45 shot holes in her port side.
1944 Task Force 58 begins a two-day attack on Japanese shipping, oil and ammunition dumps, aircraft facilities, and other installations at Truk following the support of the Hollandia landings in the Pacific.
1944 USS Pogy (SS 266) sinks the Japanese submarine I 183, 30 miles south of Ashizuri Saki, Japan.
1945 USS Comfort (AH 6) is hit by a kamikaze plane off Okinawa, which kills 28 persons (including six nurses), wounds48 others, and causes considerable damage.
1961 USS Kitty Hawk (CVA 63), an oil-fired aircraft carrier, is commissioned at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
1975 Commander Task Force 76 receives the order to execute Operation Frequent Wind (initially Talon Vise), the evacuation of U.S. personnel and Vietnamese who might suffer as a result of their past service to the allied effort.
2009 A destroyer formerly known as USS Conolly (DD 979) is sunk during the UNITAS Gold sinking exercise in the Atlantic Ocean.
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This Day In World History APRIL 29
1289 Qalawun, the Sultan of Egypt, captures Tripoli.
1429 Joan of Arc leads French forces to victory over English at Orleans.
1624 Louis XIII appoints Cardinal Richelieu chief minister of the Royal Council of France.
1661 The Chinese Ming dynasty occupies Taiwan.
1672 King Louis XIV of France invades the Netherlands.
1813 Rubber is patented.
1852 The first edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus is published.
1856 Yokut Indians repel a second attack by the 'Petticoat Rangers,' a band of civilian Indian fighters at Four Creeks, California.
1858 Austrian troops invade Piedmont.
1859 As the French army races to support them and the Austrian army mobilizes to oppose them, 150,000 Piedmontese troops invade Piedmontese territory.
1861 The Maryland House of Delegates votes against seceding from Union.
1862 Forts Philip and Jackson surrender to Admiral David Farragut outside New Orleans.
1913 Gideon Sundback of Hoboken patents the all-purpose zipper.
1916 Irish nationalists surrender to the British in Dublin.
1918 America's WWI Ace of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scores his first victory with the help of Captain James Norman Hall.
1924 Open revolt breaks out in Santa Clara, Cuba.
1927 Construction of the Spirit of St. Louis is completed.
1930 The film All Quiet on the Western Front, based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Im Western Nichts Neues, premiers.
1945 The Nazi concentration camp of Dachau is liberated by Allied troops.
1945 The German Army in Italy surrenders unconditionally to the Allies.
1946 Former Japanese leaders are indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.
1975 The U.S. embassy in Vietnam is evacuated as North Vietnamese forces fight their way into Saigon.
1983 Harold Washington is sworn in as Chicago's first black mayor.
1992 Four Los Angeles police offices are acquitted of charges stemming from the beating of Rodney King. Rioting ensues.
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April 27
Hello All,
Thanks to Dan Heller and the Bear
Links to all content can now be found right on the homepage http://www.rollingthunderremembered.com. If you scroll down from the banner and featured content you will find "Today in Rolling Thunder Remembered History" which highlights events in the Vietnam war that occurred on the date the page is visited. Below that are links to browse or search all content. You may search by keyword(s), date, or date range.
An item of importance is the recent incorporation of Task Force Omega (TFO) MIA summaries. There is a link on the homepage and you can also visit directly via https://www.rollingthunderremembered.com/task-force-omega/. There are 60 summaries posted thus far, with about 940 to go (not a typo—TFO has over 1,000 individual case files).
If you have any questions or comments about RTR/TFO, or have a question on my book, you may e-mail me directly at acrossthewing@protonmail.com. Thank you Dan
Thanks to Micro
To remind folks that these are from the Vietnam Air Losses site that Micro put together. You click on the url below and get what happened each day to the crew of the aircraft. ……Skip
For Tuesday 29 April. ..
April 29: https://www.vietnamairlosses.com/loss.php?id=1109
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 Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
(This site was sent by a friend . The site works, find anyone you knew in “search" feature. https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/ )
Wall of Faces Now Includes Photos of All Service members Killed in the Vietnam War
By: Kipp Hanley
AUGUST 15, 2022
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The Statue of Liberty used to be a lighthouse.
Lady Liberty has pushed her torch high into the New York City skyline since 1886, but at one time, the grand statue did more than just inspire Americans — it was also a lighthouse. The same year French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi oversaw completion of his copper creation (formally named “Liberty Enlightening the World”), President Grover Cleveland approved a plan for the statue to be lit as a lighthouse. Engineers believed the Statue of Liberty’s torch, at 305 feet above sea level, could act as a navigational tool for ships approaching the New York Harbor, and set to work installing nine electric lamps within the torch, plus more along Lady Liberty’s feet and in the statue’s interior.
At 7:35 p.m. on November 1, 1886, engineers flipped on the power switch, washing the Statue of Liberty in light for the first time. However, the lights stayed on for just one week due to a lack of funding, and it took two weeks of darkness before the U.S. Lighthouse Board could secure an emergency budget. Even once the lights were turned back on, some questioned the statue’s efficacy as a lighthouse: Newspapers reported that while the lights were initially planned to reach 100 miles or more out at sea, in reality the torch was visible just 24 miles from the harbor. By the early 20th century, the lighthouse was considered “useless” for boat navigation, and on March 1, 1902, the U.S. War Department, with approval from President Theodore Roosevelt, extinguished the light permanently.
Lady Liberty’s original torch was destroyed in an explosion.
Despite being nearly 140 years old, most of the Statue of Liberty’s copper frame is original. However, one portion, the torch, was replaced in the 1980s due to extensive damage caused by an explosion. In 1916, amid World War I, German saboteurs attempted to stop the U.S. from supplying Britain with ammunition, stores of which were held on Black Tom Island, not far from Lady Liberty in the New York Harbor. The saboteurs set the stockpile ablaze, resulting in an enormous explosion equivalent to a 5.5 magnitude earthquake, which was felt as far as Philadelphia. The Statue of Liberty took more than $100,000 in damage from shrapnel (about $2.8 million today), including structural mangling of the torch that led to its permanent closure (it was once open to visitors). In 1984, Lady Liberty underwent a multiyear restoration that included replacing the severely damaged torch, and today sightseers can see the original up close on ground-level at the Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island.
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Thanks to History Facts
Hollywood was established in Los Angeles to get away from Thomas Edison.
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HOLLYWOOD CLAPBOARD
Hollywood most likely wouldn’t be the movie mecca it is today if not for filmmakers traveling west to escape Thomas Edison’s stranglehold on movie production. In 1891, Edison positioned himself at the forefront of the budding film industry after patenting an early camera known as the Kinetograph and a viewer called the Kinetoscope. Two years later, he opened the very first movie studio, Black Maria, in West Orange, New Jersey. He went on to produce nearly 1,200 films over the ensuing decades (including the first Frankenstein movie). To ensure the success of his films, Edison formed an alliance with other industry patent holders to quash competition. Called the Motion Picture Patents Company, the group inundated independent filmmakers with copyright infringement lawsuits to ensure Edison’s iron grip over the industry.
Because Edison’s operations were based on the East Coast, however, his sphere of influence was weaker in Western states such as California. This led independent filmmakers to seek refuge out West, and many settled in a newly incorporated neighborhood of Los Angeles called Hollywood. (The area was initially founded as a religious community before the migration of filmmakers.) Edison’s legal team, however, continued to hound West Coast producers until the 1915 Supreme Court case United States v. Motion Picture Patents Co. ruled that Edison could no longer use his patents to impede or disable rival moviemakers. With Edison’s monopoly finally busted, the film industry began to thrive in its new Hollywood home.
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From the archives
Thanks to Shadow
A couple of stories about Black…
When he was the C.O. At MATSG at Cecil Field… over all the Marines involved in transition to the F-18… Black had a top notch Admin Chief… who freed up Black to spend max time as an instructor with VFA-106. I swear he got more flight time each month as an 0-6 as he did when he was a Lieutenant!
As his retirement came near, he volunteered to take a Bombing Det to Fallon for his last hurrah. At the end of the Det, he called back to “Spock”, the Skipper of 106 and asked if Spock would mind if he borrowed one of his Hornets and took the Great Circle Route on the way back to Cecil. Of course, Spock said, “Sure Colonel, no problem”.
Well, I don’t think Spock realized that Jim meant what he said. His first leg was to Portland to see his mom… from there I think his next leg was El Toro to visit the Bubbas there… followed by MCAS Yuma and then I believe Hill AFB. Jim called me from there as he was fixing to leave and said he was headed for Memphis via Tinker AFB for fuel. About two hours after Jim called, my phone rang and Spock was on the phone and sheepishly asked, “Shadow, do you have any idea where Col. Lucas is? He’s got one of my Hornets and we’d like to get it back”. I told him I’d talked to Black a couple of hours ago and he was headed to Memphis via Tinker for fuel… you might be able to reach him there? Spock said thanks and hung up.
Now here is the fun part… Spock called Tinker and got ahold of Base Ops… a female answered the phone. Spock explained he was looking for a Marine Colonel, flying a Navy F-18 and he could be in a blue or green fight suit. The woman replied, “We have a Navy F-18 waiting for fuel, but there’s no way the pilot is a Colonel! He walked through here a while ago and all the women are going ga ga… ‘bout the most handsome young man we’ve ever had come through here! Spock then says, “THAT’S HIM”!
Eventually Spock got his plane back… he later told me, “When he said he was gonna take the Great Circle route home… I didn’t realize he was serious”!
His retirement and Change of Command was the neatest I ever saw. Jim insisted the troops be in utiitites instead of dress uniform. Just before the ceremony, he took an F-18 with six bombs, flew down to the range and dropped all six (all Shacks)… came into the break at warp nine… pulled into the line in front of the troops… climbed down, hung his harness and speed slacks on the boarding ladder, put on his piss cutter and said, “Let’s do this”!
The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, Jack Daily (Zorro) steps up in his flight suit and pinned the Legion of Merit on Black’s flight suit… Jim takes the Flag and they had his Harley Hack parked by the hangar. Jim yells out, everybody over to the Club, drinks are on me! And he rode off into the sunset! How cool was that!
A few days later he checked into Black Shadow… man, did we have a great run together!
Shadow
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. From the archives
A catchy tune from Dr, Rich
For you rotorheads ... "Pre-flight the Jesus Nut"
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Sadly we lost her a few months back. .
Grizzly bear 399, a highly recognizable and beloved figure in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, died on October 22, 2024, after being struck by a vehicle in Snake River Canyon, Wyoming. The death was an accident, and the driver was not cited. 399 was 28 years old and had a long, successful life, raising many cubs and becoming an icon for grizzly bear conservation.
Thanks to Dr. Rich….What an amazing animal
FYI: PBS viewers in USA will see documentary “Grizzly 399: Queen of the Tetons” on Wednesday, May 8th. This new documentary, featuring the work of noted 399 photographer Thomas Mangelsen, is the 15th episode of season 42 of PBS’ “Nature,” which has been on the air since 1982.
(https://buckrail.com/mangelsen-reflects-on-grizzly-399-ahead-of-free-doc-screening/),
Grizzly 399’s bumper crop of four cubs born in 2020) takes center stage in the doc, along with her status as ambassador of Grand Teton National Park.
https://buckrail.com/grizzly-399-on-the-move-highlights-the-need-to-be-bear-aware/(
Just wanted to let you know so you can DVR or schedule your evening’s entertainment.
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. From the archives
A catchy tune from Dr, Rich
For you rotorheads ... "Pre-flight the Jesus Nut"
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Thanks to Nice News
Brings back a lot of memories traveling back and forth across the country from base to base and all four corners of the country and in the middle in various Chevys from a 49 to a 56 with my two sisters in the backseat.
100 Years of Route 66: In Honor of the Highway’s Centennial, Take a Drive Down Memory Lane
Ted Soqui—Corbis/Getty Images
If you’re itching to hit the pavement this summer, there’s perhaps no better year to take a spin on Route 66. In honor of the iconic highway turning 100, cities and towns across the U.S. are celebrating throughout 2026, with official national events kicking off tomorrow.
Road trippers coasting along the famed thoroughfare won’t be bored: Route 66 boasts more than 250 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including diners, bridges, and historic hotels. But a century ago, it was just a patchwork of local, state, and national roadways made largely from materials like dirt, gravel, and bricks. Only 800 of its initial 2,448 miles were paved — it would take another 12 years to complete the rest
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Some bits from the Flyover
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2026
Good Morning! On this date in 2020, one of the world’s longest single lightning flash was captured by weather satellites. It stretched 477 miles across three states. (See Satellite Image)
A swarm of 10,000 bees decided that a bicycle parked outside a Paris metro station near the Louvre looked like the perfect spot to settle down on Saturday afternoon. The bike's owner had locked it up just half an hour before. We have the photos in Et Cetera below. 🐝
Today’s sponsor, RAD Intel, is offering a limited-time opportunity for investors to get in early on a fast-growing AI company before its share price increases.
Comey Indicted Over Seashell Post
Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted again Tuesday, this time over a 2025 Instagram photo of seashells spelling "86 47," which President Trump's allies said was meant as a threat against the president.
The indictment, filed in North Carolina, where Comey owns a beach house, marks the Justice Department's second federal case against him in seven months.
Comey deleted the post within hours, saying he didn't realize "86" could mean violence. Trump is the 47th president; "86" is slang for getting rid of someone.
A federal judge dismissed Comey's first indictment in November after ruling the prosecutor was unlawfully appointed.
UAE Announces Surprise Exit from OPEC
The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday it will depart OPEC effective May 1, dealing a major blow to the long-standing oil cartel.
The UAE was the third-largest producer in OPEC behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The loss could create disarray within the group, which has always tried to show a united front despite disagreements over production quotas.
The surprise announcement comes after the UAE was the target of missile and drone attacks for weeks by fellow OPEC member Iran. Its departure from the group frees the UAE from production quotas, giving it greater flexibility to increase output.
FCC Orders Early Review of Disney TV Licenses
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday ordered Disney's eight ABC stations to file license renewals years ahead of schedule, as part of a probe into Disney's DEI practices.
The licenses weren't due until 2028. Stations have 30 days to comply, with Chairman Brendan Carr calling the move "essential" under public interest rules.
The order followed President Trump's call to fire Jimmy Kimmel for his "expectant widow" joke about first lady Melania Trump, days before a shooting at last week's correspondents' dinner.
The agency's lone Democrat, Anna Gomez, called it "unlawful." No broadcast license has been revoked in 40 years.
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This Day in U S Military History…….April 29
1781 – British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique. The Battle of Fort Royal was a naval battle fought off Fort Royal, Martinique in the West Indies during the American War of Independence between fleets of the British Royal Navy and the French Navy. After an engagement lasting four hours, the British squadron under Sir Samuel Hood broke off and retreated. De Grasse offered a desultory chase before seeing the French convoys safely to port.
1862 – Union troops officially take possession of New Orleans, completing the occupation that had begun four days earlier. The capture of this vital southern city was a huge blow to the Confederacy. Southern military strategists planned for a Union attack down the Mississippi, not from the Gulf of Mexico. In early 1862, the Confederates concentrated their forces in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee to stave off the Yankee invasion. Many of these troops fought at Shiloh on April 6 and 7. Eight Rebel gunboats were dispatched up the great river to stop a Union flotilla above Memphis, leaving only 3,000 militia, two uncompleted ironclads, and a few steamboats to defend New Orleans. The most imposing obstacles for the Union were two forts, Jackson and St. Phillip. In the middle of the night of April 24, Admiral David Farragut led a fleet of 24 gunboats, 19 mortar boats, and 15,000 soldiers large fleet of ships in a daring run past the forts. Now, the River was open to New Orleans except for the rag-tag Confederate fleet. The mighty Union armada plowed right through, sinking eight ships. At New Orleans, Confederate General Mansfield Lovell surveyed his tiny force and realized that resistance was futile. If he resisted, Lovell told Mayor John Monroe, Farragut would bombard the city and inflict severe damage and casualties. Lovell pulled his troops out of New Orleans and the Yankees began arriving on April 25. The troops could not land until Forts Jackson and St. Phillip were secured. They surrendered on April 29, and now New Orleans had no protection. Crowds cursed the Yankees as all Confederate flags in the city were lowered and stars and stripes were raised in their place. The Confederacy lost a major city, and the lower Mississippi soon became a Union highway for 400 miles to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
1918 – America’s WWI Ace of Aces, Eddie Rickenbacker, scored his first victory with the help of Captain James Norman Hall. He eventually racked up 26 victories before the end of the war.
1945 – U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime. A major Dachau subcamp was liberated the same day by the 42nd Rainbow Division. Established five weeks after Adolf Hitler took power as German chancellor in 1933, Dachau was situated on the outskirts of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich. During its first year, the camp held about 5,000 political prisoners, consisting primarily of German communists, Social Democrats, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. During the next few years, the number of prisoners grew dramatically, and other groups were interned at Dachau, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, and repeat criminals. Beginning in 1938, Jews began to comprise a major portion of camp internees. Prisoners at Dachau were used as forced laborers, initially in the construction and expansion of the camp and later for German armaments production. The camp served as the training center for SS concentration camp guards and was a model for other Nazi concentration camps. Dachau was also the first Nazi camp to use prisoners as human guinea pigs in medical experiments. At Dachau, Nazi scientists tested the effects of freezing and changes to atmospheric pressure on inmates, infected them with malaria and tuberculosis and treated them with experimental drugs, and forced them to test methods of making seawater potable and of halting excessive bleeding. Hundreds of prisoners died or were crippled as a result of these experiments. Thousands of inmates died or were executed at Dachau, and thousands more were transferred to a Nazi extermination center near Linz, Austria, when they became too sick or weak to work. In 1944, to increase war production, the main camp was supplemented by dozens of satellite camps established near armaments factories in southern Germany and Austria. These camps were administered by the main camp and collectively called Dachau. With the advance of Allied forces against Germany in April 1945, the Germans transferred prisoners from concentration camps near the front to Dachau, leading to a general deterioration of conditions and typhus epidemics. On April 27, 1945, approximately 7,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to begin a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee, far to the south. The next day, many of the SS guards abandoned the camp. On April 29, the Dachau main camp was liberated by units of the 45th Infantry after a brief battle with the camp’s remaining guards. As they neared the camp, the Americans found more than 30 railroad cars filled with bodies in various states of decomposition. Inside the camp there were more bodies and 30,000 survivors, most severely emaciated. Some of the American troops who liberated Dachau were so appalled by conditions at the camp that they machine-gunned at least two groups of captured German guards. It is officially reported that 30 SS guards were killed in this fashion, but conspiracy theorists have alleged that more than 10 times that number were executed by the American liberators. The German citizens of the town of Dachau were later forced to bury the 9,000 dead inmates found at the camp. In the course of Dachau’s history, at least 160,000 prisoners passed through the main camp, and 90,000 through the subcamps. Incomplete records indicate that at least 32,000 of the inmates perished at Dachau and its subcamps, but countless more were shipped to extermination camps elsewhere.
1945 – The unofficial surrender of German forces in Italy is signed at Caserta. The German representatives are present here because of a secret negotiation between the head of the OSS mission in Switzerland, Allan Dulles, and SS General Wolff. These talks have been going on since much earlier in the year, but because of their clandestine nature, the German representatives at Caserta cannot guarantee that the surrender will be ratified by Vietinghoff, commanding German forces in Italy.
1945 – Adolf Hitler marries his longtime partner Eva Braun in a Berlin bunker and designates Admiral Karl Dönitz as his successor. Both Hitler and Braun commit suicide the following day. Eva Braun met Hitler while employed as an assistant to Hitler’s official photographer. Of a middle-class Catholic background, Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining herself by skiing and swimming. She had no discernible influence on Hitler’s political career but provided a certain domesticity to the life of the dictator. Loyal to the end, she refused to leave the Berlin bunker buried beneath the chancellery as the Russians closed in. The couple was married only hours before they both committed suicide.
1970 – U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launch a limited “incursion” into Cambodia. The campaign included 13 major ground operations to clear North Vietnamese sanctuaries 20 miles inside the Cambodian border. Some 50,000 South Vietnamese soldiers and 30,000 U.S. troops were involved, making it the largest operation of the war since Operation Junction City in 1967. The operation began with South Vietnamese forces attacking into the “Parrot’s Beak” area of Cambodia that projects into South Vietnam above the Mekong Delta. During the first two days, an 8,000-man South Vietnamese task force, including two infantry divisions, four ranger battalions, and four armored cavalry squadrons, killed 84 communist soldiers while suffering 16 dead and 157 wounded. The second stage of the campaign began on May 2 with a series of joint U.S.-South Vietnamese operations. These operations were aimed at clearing communist sanctuaries located in the densely vegetated “Fishhook” area of Cambodia (across the border from South Vietnam, immediately north of Tay Ninh Province and west of Binh Long Province, 70 miles from Saigon). The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, along with the South Vietnamese 3rd Airborne Brigade, killed 3,190 communists in the action and captured massive amounts of war booty, including 2,000 individual and crew-served weapons, 300 trucks, and 40 tons of foodstuffs. By the time all U.S. ground forces had departed Cambodia on June 30, the Allied forces had discovered and captured or destroyed 10 times more enemy supplies and equipment than they had captured inside South Vietnam during the entire previous year. Many intelligence analysts at the time believed that the Cambodian incursion dealt a stunning blow to the communists, driving main force units away from the border and damaging their morale, and in the process buying as much as a year for South Vietnam’s survival. However, the incursion gave the antiwar movement in the United States a new rallying point. News of the incursion set off a wave of antiwar demonstrations, including one at Kent State University that resulted in the killing of four students by Army National Guard troops and another at Jackson State in Mississippi that resulted in the shooting of two students when police opened fire on a women’s dormitory. The incursion also angered many in Congress, who felt that Nixon was illegally widening the scope of the war; this resulted in a series of congressional resolutions and legislative initiatives that would severely limit the executive power of the president.
1975 – Operation Frequent Wind, the largest helicopter evacuation on record, begins removing the last Americans from Saigon. The North Vietnamese had launched their final offensive in March 1975 and the South Vietnamese forces had fallen back before their rapid advance, losing Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang, Qui Nhon, Tuy Hoa, Nha Trang, and Xuan Loc in quick succession. With the North Vietnamese attacking the outskirts of Saigon, U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin ordered the commencement of Frequent Wind. In 19 hours, 81 helicopters carried more than 1,000 Americans and almost 6,000 Vietnamese to aircraft carriers offshore. Cpl. Charles McMahon, Jr. and Lance Cpl. Darwin Judge, USMC, were the last U.S. military personnel killed in action in Vietnam, when shrapnel from a North Vietnamese rocket struck them as they were guarding Tan Son Nhut Airbase during the evacuation. At 7:53 a.m. on April 30, the last helicopter lifted off the roof of the embassy and headed out to sea. Later that morning, North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace. North Vietnamese Col. Bui Tin accepted the surrender from Gen. Duong Van Minh, who had taken over from Tran Van Huong (who only spent one day in power after President Nguyen Van Thieu fled). The Vietnam War was over.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
GUERIN, FITZ W.
Rank and organization: Private, Battery A, 1st Missouri Light Artillery. Place and date: At Grand Gulf, Miss., 28-29 April 1863. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 10 March 1896. Citation: With two comrades voluntarily took position on board the steamer Cheeseman, in charge of all the guns and ammunition of the battery, and remained in charge of the same for a considerable time while the steamer was unmanageable and subjected to a heavy fire from the enemy
HAMMEL, HENRY A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Battery A, 1st Missouri Light Artillery. Place and date: At Grand Gulf, Miss., 28-29 April 1863. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 10 March 1896. Citation: With two comrades voluntarily took position on board the steamer Cheeseman, in charge of all the guns and ammunition of the battery, and remained in charge of the same for considerable time while the steamer was unmanageable and subjected to a heavy fire from the enemy.
PESCH, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Battery A, 1st Missouri Light Artillery. Place and date: At Grand Gulf, Miss., 28_29 April 1863. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Prussia. Date of issue: 10 March 1896. Citation: With 2 comrades voluntarily took position on board the steamer Cheeseman, in charge of all the guns and ammunition of the battery, and remained in charge of the same, although the steamer became unmanageable and was exposed for some time to a heavy fire from the enemy.
WOON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate, U.S. Navy. Born: 1823, England. Accredited to: New York. G.O. No.: 17, 10 July 1863. Citation: Serving on board the U.S.S. Pittsburg, Mississippi River, 29 April 1863. Engaging the enemy batteries at Grand Gulf, the U.S.S. Pittsburg, although severely damaged and suffering many personnel casualties, continued to fire her batteries until ordered to withdraw. Taking part in a similar action after nightfall, the U.S.S. Pittsburg received further damage, but receiving no personnel casualities in the latter action. Woon showed courage and devotion to duty throughout these bitter engagements.
REED, JAMES C.
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Arizona, 29 April 1868. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 24 July 1869. Citation: Defended his position (with 3 others) against a party of 17 hostile Indians under heavy fire at close quarters, the entire party except himself being severely wounded.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for 29 April FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR APRIL 29 THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
1898: The first joint Army-Navy board on aeronautics submitted a report on Professor Samuel P.
Langley’s flying machine (at that time a model with a 12-foot wing span) to the War Department.
The report favored further support for Professor Langley’s experiments. (29) (See 25 March 1898)
1905: Using the Montgomery Glider, Daniel Malony began a series of glides. He took off from captive balloons. (24)
1918: Lt Edward V. Rickenbacker, who became the leading American ace of World War I, downed his first aircraft. (4)
1926: Ward T. Van Orman and W. W. Morton won the National Balloon Race at Little Rock by flying
848 miles to Petersburg, Va. (24)
1931: The Boeing XB-901 first flew.
1946: Bell Aircraft Corp. received a contract to research and design a 100-mile range subsonic air-to surface missile. It later became the Rascal. (6) (24)
1960: NASA’s first test firing of all eight first-stage rocket engines on the Saturn produced 1,300,000 pounds of thrust. (24)
1965: Operation POWER PACK. The USAF used C-130s and C-124s to airlift 12,000 troops and 17,250 tons of equipment and supplies from Pope AFB to San Isidro, Dominican Republic. The airlift, as part of the operation, allowed the US to restore stability to the Caribbean island nation and prevent unfriendly elements from taking it over. Reserve transports and ANG communications aircraft also joined USAF fighters and reconnaissance aircraft in the operation. (21) The Air Force initiated the F-X (later F-15) program by directing AFSC to begin efforts toward acquiring a new tactical fighter. (30)
1967: President Johnson gave the go-ahead to build two prototype supersonic jet transports that could carry 300 passengers at 1,750 MPH. Boeing built the airframe and General Electric the engines at a total cost of $1.144 billion.
1970: APOLLO XI/THOMAS D. WHITE TROPHY. Neil A. Armstrong, and Cols Edwin W. Aldrin and Michael Collins received the trophy for the outstanding scientific and technological accomplishment in achieving the first landing of man on the moon. (See 6 May 1970). (5) (16)
1972: A C-141 airlifted 394 South Vietnamese refugees fleeing a Communist invasion of the Central Highlands to Tan Son Nhut AB. The passenger total was the greatest number transported on a C-141 to date. (18)
1974: SECDEF James R. Schlesinger redirected the lightweight fighter program as a competition between the YF-16 and YF-17 to become the new air combat fighter for the Air Force. (3)
1975: Operation NEW LIFE. Just before the fall of South Vietnam, MAC moved the last of 50,493 refugees from Saigon to safe haven bases in the Pacific on 201 C-141 and C-130 missions. Air Rescue and Recovery Service HH-53 helicopters airlifted another 362 evacuees from Saigon to the USS Midway. (2) (16) (18)
Operation NEW ARRIVAL. Through 16 September, MAC used 196 C-141s and C-130s to airlift 31,155 Vietnamese refugees from the Philippines to Guam, while commercial contract carriers began an effort to move 121,560 refugees from SEA to the US. (18) (21)
Operation FREQUENT WIND. Through 30 April, USAF, Marine, and Navy helicopters airlifted 6,000-plus people in the final evacuation of Saigon. This was the first major operation involving flights of USAF helicopters from an aircraft carrier, the USS Midway. (21)
1976: Through 15 May, USAFE aircrews participated in the first Allied Air Forces Center Europe Tactical Weapons Meet at Twenthe AB, Netherlands. (16) (26)
1983: First multinational staged improvement program modified F-16B flight accepted. (12)
1985: In the seventh Challenger mission, the Space Shuttle carried Spacelab-3 in the cargo bay. It returned to earth on 6 May.Through 17 May, USAFE units at Spangdahlem AB participated in Exercise Salty Demo, the first integrated basewide effort to measure all facets of an air base’s ability to survive attacks and generate post-attack sorties. (26)
1986: Through 7 May, MAC’s Weather reconnaissance squadrons carried over 700 air sample containers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident in the Soviet Union to the Air Force Technical Applications Center at McClellan AFB, Calif. (16)
1993: The Rockwell X-31A EFM Demonstrator made the first high-angle-of-attack, post-stall, 180-degree turn known as the Herbst Maneuver. The aircraft made the turn in a 475-foot radius. Two X-31 Enhanced Fighter Maneuverability demonstrators were test-flown during the early 1990s at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, to obtain data on control in the post-stall flight regime. The X-31 program demonstrated the value of thrust vectoring – directing engine exhaust flow – coupled with advanced flight control systems, to provide controlled flight at very high angles of attack. (20)
2006: A C-17 flew 110 Iraqi children, along with 97 parents and escorts, from Amman, Jordan, to Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, in support of “Operation Smile,” an international, nongovernmental organization that provides corrective facial surgery for children. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld approved the C-17 flight to keep the group from having to travel 22 hours by bus from Amman to Baghdad through Iraq’s volatile western provinces. (22)
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