7610
Good Thursday morning July 30, 2026 .We were overcast and Muggy again this
morning but are clearing up now and heating up to 87 by 1 and stay there
until 6 or so and dropping to 76 by 7.
Regards,
skip
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
July 30
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).
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 100 H-Grams. Still waiting for the
release of 99
July 30
1918 Headquarters Company and Squadrons A, B, and C of the First Marine
Aviation Force arrive at Brest, France, on board USS DeKalb (ID #3010), as
U.S. enters European Theater of World War I.
1919 During an inspection by a six-man maintenance crew, the submarine USS
G-2 suddenly floods and sinks at her moorings in Two Tree Channel near
Niantic Bay off the Connecticut coast. She goes down in 13 1/2 fathoms,
drowning three of the inspection crew.
1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the act establishing WAVES (Women
Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). During World War II, more than
80,000 officers and enlisted women serve in the WAVES.
1943 PV 1 aircraft from (VB 127) sinks German submarine (U 591) off
Pernambuco, Brazil. Also on this date, TBFs and F4Fs (VC 29) from USS Santee
(CVE 29) sink German submarine (U 43) in the mid-Atlantic, while (PC 624)
sinks German submarine (U 375) off Tunisia.
1945 A Japanese submarine sinks USS Indianapolis (CA 35), northeast of
Leyte. Only 316 of her 1,199 crew survive. Due to communications and other
errors, her loss goes unnoticed until survivors are seen from a passing
aircraft on Aug. 2. Four days earlier, she had delivered atomic bomb
components used on Japan in August.
2005 USS Halsey (DDG 97) is commissioned at Naval Station North Island in
San Diego, Calif. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer is named
after U.S. Naval Academy graduate Fleet Adm. William Bull Halsey Jr., who
commanded the U. S. 3rd Fleet during much of the Pacific War against Japan.
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This day in World History 30 July
1619 The House of Burgesses convenes for the first time at Jamestown, Va.
1787 The French parliament refuses to approve a more equitable land tax.
1799 The French garrison at Mantua, Italy, surrenders to the Austrians.
1864 In an effort to penetrate the Confederate lines around Petersburg,
Va. Union troops explode a mine underneath the Confederate trenches but fail
to break through. The ensuing action is known as the Battle of the Crater.
1919 Federal troops are called out to put down Chicago race riots.
1938 George Eastman demonstrates his color motion picture process.
1940 A bombing lull ends the first phase of the Battle of Britain.
1960 Over 60,000 Buddhists march in protest against the Diem government
in South Vietnam.
1965 President Lyndon Johnson signs the Medicare Bill into law.
1967 General William Westmoreland claims that he is winning the war in
Vietnam, but needs more men.
1975 Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa disappears, last seen coming out of a
restaurant in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan.
1988 King Hussein dissolves Jordan's Parliament, surrenders Jordan's
claims to the West Bank to the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
1990 Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent forces George Steinbrenner to
resign as principal partner of the New York Yankees.
2003 The last of the uniquely shaped "old style" Volkswagen Beetles rolls
off the assembly line in Mexico.
2012 Blackout in India as power grid failure leaves 300 million+ without
power.
21st CENTURY
2003
Last classic VW Beetle rolls off the line »
On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signs Medicare, a health
insurance program for elderly Americans, into law. At the bill-signing
ceremony, which took place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri,
former President Harry Truman was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary
and received the first Medicare card.
Johnson wanted to recognize Truman, who, in 1945, had become the first
president to propose national health insurance, an initiative that was
opposed at the time by Congress.
The Great Society
The Medicare program, providing hospital and medical insurance for Americans
age 65 or older, was signed into law as an amendment to the Social Security
Act of 1935. Some 19 million people enrolled in Medicare when it went into
effect in 1966.
In 1972, eligibility for the program was extended to Americans under 65 with
certain disabilities and people of all ages with permanent kidney disease
requiring dialysis or transplant. In December 2003, President George W. Bush
signed into law the Medicare Modernization Act, which added outpatient
prescription drug benefits to Medicare.
Medicaid, a state and federally funded program that offers health coverage
to certain low-income people, was also signed into law by President Johnson
on July 30, 1965, as an amendment to the Social Security Act.
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Rollingthunderremembered.com .
July 30
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).
.
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 Thursday July 30
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/ )
articles/wall-of-faces-now-includes-photos-of-all-servicemembers-killed-in-t
he-vietnam-war/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TMNsend&
utm_content=Y84UVhi4Z1MAMHJh1eJHNA==+MD+AFHRM+1+Ret+L+NC
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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. Thanks to Dr. Rich and YP
Thanx to John Trotti’s ODE TO E PLURIBUS UNUM!
For them have started out in wheezing Link Trainers and then Basic
Instruments and then Radio Instruments. Then at night and in all sorts of
weather, long before all the autopilots and magic chit. Night time in the
fleet was actual instruments. You got good at it or busted your hiney.
Those of us that continued into airline pukery did it in spades, but nothing
like being ALONE in a single engine single seater in the wx at night.
YP
My Walking Thoughts For Sunday July 28 2024
===========
Basic Instruments Training in the T-28
Ugh! I thought as I left the ground school classroom heading for the hangar
where Navy Lieutenant Winans was waiting to stuff me in the back seat under
a hood and see how I reacted to a world without sunlight…a world without a
horizon…a world made up in a bunch of silly gauges and dials. Yuch!
I mean real fighter pilots like John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, even James Bond
didn’t fight with their eyeballs in the cockpit. They flew with them focused
on the tips of their thousand mile stares while looking for enemies to
slaughter.
Well, if your eyeballs are filled with such scenes of Hollywood hogwash as
these, they’re as full of hooey as mine were…and as I was about to have
driven home to me with Lt. Winans’ incessant scolding chant, “scan…scan…keep
your eyes moving…scan.”
Unlike tales found in the creative press, I found very quickly that I can’t
multitask and instead was forced to create an iterative discipline called
scan where you jump from one gauge to another chasing like a bouncing ball
this notional condition of controlled flight.
In the beginning you learn to rely primarily on a wobbling gauge in the
middle right of the panel called the attitude gyro that displays to you your
aircraft’s nose and wing positions relative to an artificial horizon. It’s a
truly nifty dude that all by itself can pretty much keep you somewhere in
the middle of the air. Then if you add the heading indicator, altimeter,
rate of climb indicator, airspeed indicator, and needle/ball turn-and-bank
gauge, you’re ready to boogie in the deepest, darkest clouds that only
madmen of yore would have dared intrude.
Ahhh…but about the time you begin to get cocky about your instrument
capabilities, some rotten scoundrel like Lt. Winans secretly pulls the
circuit breaker on your magic window to the un-tented world and giggles as
things begin to go bonkers.
My diabolical instructor lived to insert his skullduggery while I was in the
middle of some other maneuver--maybe a climbing turn to a new altitude and
heading; perhaps a transition from cruise to the landing configuration--some
sort of transition that served to camouflage the loss of my primary
reference instrument. Then it was holy moly time with me playing catch up
with all the whirling, swirling mayhem that had suddenly enveloped me. I
might find, for instance:
• An airspeed indicator that moments before was settled at a sedate
140 knots passing through 200 knots despite my not having done anything with
the throttle.
• An altimeter not content to remain at the assigned 9,500 feet, busy
unwinding itself through 9,000…no…8300…uhh…6900 feet.
• The rate of climb indicator pinned to the ‘heading for the basement’
peg.
• The usually placid heading indicator spinning like a top.
• And not to be forgotten, the Turn and Bank indicator—that gauge
right in the center of the dash--two-blocked one direction or the other…or
perhaps flopping back and forth indicating a spin.
Meanwhile in the midst of all this madness the stately attitude gyro sits
there showing wings level, nose at the horizon, taunting me with this fat
dumb and happy stillness…and while all this is going on, I get to listen to
Lt. Winans screaming on the intercom, “Do something! Do something! Get this
bird under control.
So, I set out to work the problem, sorting things out one upset mode at a
time.
• Stop the rotation by reference to the turn and bank indicator
• Arrest the climb or descent by reference to the altimeter, rate of
climb, and airspeed indicators.
And once some sanity has returned to the situation
• Stabilize things by bringing the altimeter to a halt, then once in
control of breathing and bladder, figure out what to do next.
• Later in the solitude of my room, I promise myself—not to become
complacent or fixated on one instrument…ever…ever again.
Right.
***
In all my flying I have lost the attitude gyro only twice…both times in the
A-4B Skyhawk, both times because of generator icing in moist high-altitude
air. In these situations, both birds lost all electrical power, meaning that
along with gyro instruments I was proceeding sans radio, navigation gear or
cockpit lights. The first time I was flight lead in a two-plane sortie at
night over North Carolina. Dipping my wing, I passed the lead to my wingman
and he led me home…end of story
The other time I was tail end Charlie in a four-plane gaggle enroute to
Puerto Rico from MCAS Cherry Point, NC. We were in thick clouds at 40,000
feet when I found myself with the throttle pushed all the way to the stop
yet still losing ground to Number Three on whom I was trying to fly wing.
‘Trying’ was the operative word as he finally drew out of sight. Turning
away I went onto the instruments only to find the altimeter spinning down
madly with the airspeed indicator showing mach 0.93, a near impossibility
for the A-4 configured as it was with wing tanks and centerline bomb rack.
At 28,000 feet I popped out of the clouds into a hole that allowed me to see
all the way to the ocean below. The radio and nav gear were both dead as I
spiraled down finally breaking into the clear at 1500 feet above the water.
“Ok with that,” I grumbled aloud, “but where in hell am I?”
I had no clue other than the feeling I was closer to the destination than
where we started, so it seemed reasonable to head pretty much to southeast
and hope to come upon something that wasn’t water.
Presently I came up on a freighter pointed about 20 degrees further to the
east, so figuring he had to be going somewhere—hopefully San Juan rather
than Casablanca--I took up his heading and soldiered on estimating I had
another 40 minutes of fuel. After 15 minutes of nervous droning, I spied a
land mass…followed soon by a harbor…and yep, a runway -- San Juan
International I hoped, not Havana.
With no radio to contact the tower for clearance I made an overhead entry
and turned downwind looking for signal lights. Seeing none I slugged the
gear handle down then sighed in relief as I felt the three gear—deployed by
gravity and wind-- thud home. Then, as if to show me it had all been one of
Lt. Winans’ tricks, the generator came back online allowing me to lower my
wing flaps.
As I taxied up to the tower—yes it was San Juan International--I saw the
three other aircraft from my flight already parked, their crews waving to me
as I pulled up and shut down. They all had experienced the same generator
icing and gone through pretty much the same cluster flummox as I.
Those are my only attitude gyro failure stories and I’m happy to leave
things at that. Did my basic instrument training pay off? You betcha.
***
Join me next week when I add to my ‘under the hood’ challenges those that
arise under the banner of radio instruments…navigation and even more
insidious, communicating with the world of airline pilots and air traffic
controllers.
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. Thanks to Dr. Rich and YP
Thanx to John Trotti’s ODE TO E PLURIBUS UNUM!
For them have started out in wheezing Link Trainers and then Basic
Instruments and then Radio Instruments. Then at night and in all sorts of
weather, long before all the autopilots and magic chit. Night time in the
fleet was actual instruments. You got good at it or busted your hiney.
Those of us that continued into airline pukery did it in spades, but nothing
like being ALONE in a single engine single seater in the wx at night.
YP
My Walking Thoughts For Sunday July 28 2024
===========
Basic Instruments Training in the T-28
Ugh! I thought as I left the ground school classroom heading for the hangar
where Navy Lieutenant Winans was waiting to stuff me in the back seat under
a hood and see how I reacted to a world without sunlight…a world without a
horizon…a world made up in a bunch of silly gauges and dials. Yuch!
I mean real fighter pilots like John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, even James Bond
didn’t fight with their eyeballs in the cockpit. They flew with them focused
on the tips of their thousand mile stares while looking for enemies to
slaughter.
Well, if your eyeballs are filled with such scenes of Hollywood hogwash as
these, they’re as full of hooey as mine were…and as I was about to have
driven home to me with Lt. Winans’ incessant scolding chant, “scan…scan…keep
your eyes moving…scan.”
Unlike tales found in the creative press, I found very quickly that I can’t
multitask and instead was forced to create an iterative discipline called
scan where you jump from one gauge to another chasing like a bouncing ball
this notional condition of controlled flight.
In the beginning you learn to rely primarily on a wobbling gauge in the
middle right of the panel called the attitude gyro that displays to you your
aircraft’s nose and wing positions relative to an artificial horizon. It’s a
truly nifty dude that all by itself can pretty much keep you somewhere in
the middle of the air. Then if you add the heading indicator, altimeter,
rate of climb indicator, airspeed indicator, and needle/ball turn-and-bank
gauge, you’re ready to boogie in the deepest, darkest clouds that only
madmen of yore would have dared intrude.
Ahhh…but about the time you begin to get cocky about your instrument
capabilities, some rotten scoundrel like Lt. Winans secretly pulls the
circuit breaker on your magic window to the un-tented world and giggles as
things begin to go bonkers.
My diabolical instructor lived to insert his skullduggery while I was in the
middle of some other maneuver--maybe a climbing turn to a new altitude and
heading; perhaps a transition from cruise to the landing configuration--some
sort of transition that served to camouflage the loss of my primary
reference instrument. Then it was holy moly time with me playing catch up
with all the whirling, swirling mayhem that had suddenly enveloped me. I
might find, for instance:
• An airspeed indicator that moments before was settled at a sedate
140 knots passing through 200 knots despite my not having done anything with
the throttle.
• An altimeter not content to remain at the assigned 9,500 feet, busy
unwinding itself through 9,000…no…8300…uhh…6900 feet.
• The rate of climb indicator pinned to the ‘heading for the basement’
peg.
• The usually placid heading indicator spinning like a top.
• And not to be forgotten, the Turn and Bank indicator—that gauge
right in the center of the dash--two-blocked one direction or the other…or
perhaps flopping back and forth indicating a spin.
Meanwhile in the midst of all this madness the stately attitude gyro sits
there showing wings level, nose at the horizon, taunting me with this fat
dumb and happy stillness…and while all this is going on, I get to listen to
Lt. Winans screaming on the intercom, “Do something! Do something! Get this
bird under control.
So, I set out to work the problem, sorting things out one upset mode at a
time.
• Stop the rotation by reference to the turn and bank indicator
• Arrest the climb or descent by reference to the altimeter, rate of
climb, and airspeed indicators.
And once some sanity has returned to the situation
• Stabilize things by bringing the altimeter to a halt, then once in
control of breathing and bladder, figure out what to do next.
• Later in the solitude of my room, I promise myself—not to become
complacent or fixated on one instrument…ever…ever again.
Right.
***
In all my flying I have lost the attitude gyro only twice…both times in the
A-4B Skyhawk, both times because of generator icing in moist high-altitude
air. In these situations, both birds lost all electrical power, meaning that
along with gyro instruments I was proceeding sans radio, navigation gear or
cockpit lights. The first time I was flight lead in a two-plane sortie at
night over North Carolina. Dipping my wing, I passed the lead to my wingman
and he led me home…end of story
The other time I was tail end Charlie in a four-plane gaggle enroute to
Puerto Rico from MCAS Cherry Point, NC. We were in thick clouds at 40,000
feet when I found myself with the throttle pushed all the way to the stop
yet still losing ground to Number Three on whom I was trying to fly wing.
‘Trying’ was the operative word as he finally drew out of sight. Turning
away I went onto the instruments only to find the altimeter spinning down
madly with the airspeed indicator showing mach 0.93, a near impossibility
for the A-4 configured as it was with wing tanks and centerline bomb rack.
At 28,000 feet I popped out of the clouds into a hole that allowed me to see
all the way to the ocean below. The radio and nav gear were both dead as I
spiraled down finally breaking into the clear at 1500 feet above the water.
“Ok with that,” I grumbled aloud, “but where in hell am I?”
I had no clue other than the feeling I was closer to the destination than
where we started, so it seemed reasonable to head pretty much to southeast
and hope to come upon something that wasn’t water.
Presently I came up on a freighter pointed about 20 degrees further to the
east, so figuring he had to be going somewhere—hopefully San Juan rather
than Casablanca--I took up his heading and soldiered on estimating I had
another 40 minutes of fuel. After 15 minutes of nervous droning, I spied a
land mass…followed soon by a harbor…and yep, a runway -- San Juan
International I hoped, not Havana.
With no radio to contact the tower for clearance I made an overhead entry
and turned downwind looking for signal lights. Seeing none I slugged the
gear handle down then sighed in relief as I felt the three gear—deployed by
gravity and wind-- thud home. Then, as if to show me it had all been one of
Lt. Winans’ tricks, the generator came back online allowing me to lower my
wing flaps.
As I taxied up to the tower—yes it was San Juan International--I saw the
three other aircraft from my flight already parked, their crews waving to me
as I pulled up and shut down. They all had experienced the same generator
icing and gone through pretty much the same cluster flummox as I.
Those are my only attitude gyro failure stories and I’m happy to leave
things at that. Did my basic instrument training pay off? You betcha.
I lost everything twice also to total electrical failure in the
F-8 and the rat did not help at all. One at night over a 24,00 foot overcast
that went down to maybe 1500 feet flying out of Okinawa and the other on
takeoff from Miramar on runway 6 into a solid over cast that topped out over
22,000 feet with both El Centro and Yuma had the same problem. Skip
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A couple from Nice News
Tech
________________________________________
The Quest to Create a Less Annoying Microwave Beep
Cris Cantón—Moment/Getty Images
If you suffer from misophonia (or just want to heat leftovers in peace),
this one’s for you. A two-person startup called Starling turned its
attention to the ear-piercing microwave beep we know all too well and, much
to the delight of our ears and wallets, found an affordable way for
manufacturers to change the sound.
The zen invention is thanks to the startup’s software tool, Microwave Sound
Bench, which replaces the beeps with more pleasant chirps and tones using
the appliance’s existing hardware rather than adding a speaker. That means
the tweak would be a low lift on the manufacturer’s end and simply require
new code in the device. “It’s theoretically compatible with any hardware
that’s in a microwave,” Joel Corelitz, one of the founders, told Wired.
Starling is willing and ready to partner with an appliance maker to bring
better sounds to everyday devices, but Corelitz and co-founder Colin Coogan
said their idea is also up for grabs. “It’s not a big fear that someone’s
going to steal this,” Corelitz explained, adding: “We just want to solve the
problem of going through the world hearing noises that are annoying and
don’t contain good information.” Listen to demos of better-sounding beeps.
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T. Rex Babies Were No Bigger Than House Cats—But Already Deadly
Rare fossils of young T. Rex are finally filling in a huge gap in the
dinosaur’s life cycle.
BY MATTHEW PHELAN
PUBLISHED JULY 24, 2026, 8:42 AM ET
READING TIME 3 MINUTES
An artist’s rendering shows a baby Tyrannosaurus venturing out from the nest
to actively hunt not long after hatching.
An artist’s rendering shows a baby Tyrannosaurus venturing out from the nest
to actively hunt not long after hatching. © Credit: Raul Martin / OSU
READ LATER
COMMENTS (9)
Paleontologists know very little about Tyrannosaurus rex babies. Given how
long these iconic carnivores have loomed over the public imagination, it
might surprise you to learn that the first fossilized remains of an embryo
belonging to any member of the tyrannosaurid family was only first confirmed
in the peer-reviewed literature back around 2021.
It’s a shame we didn’t know about this sooner (Spielberg will be kicking
himself), but it turns out that the baby T. rex was a vicious little
miscreant right out of the gate. A new study published this month in the
journal Biology has analyzed fossils from two tyrannosaurid hatchlings, some
classic T. rex and others from its close cousin Gorgosaurus libratus. Both
species, the researchers found, displayed persuasive dental and vascular
evidence that their little infant progeny were actually quite active and
quite lethal. And they really were small: At 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms),
baby T. rex was no bigger than a house cat.
“Tyrannosaurus were unsafe at any size,” study co-author and Oklahoma State
University anatomy professor Eric Snively said in a statement. “Babies were
quickly out of the nest and killing the heck out of things.”
“The babies were smashing into the bones of their food, just like giant
adults,” according to Snively, whose work applies biomedical engineering and
3D imaging to better understand the anatomy of groups as diverse as
dinosaurs and human athletes.
L’enfant terrible, tyrannique
Snively and his colleagues worked with fossilized T. rex and G. libratus
metatarsals, long bones found in the midfoot and toes. Snively’s colleague,
paleontologist Nicholas Longrich, had found the first of these fossils—the
metatarsals of a baby T. rex—buried within the collection of the Royal
Saskatchewan Museum’s T. rex Discovery Centre in Canada.
“Metatarsals of a baby Tyrannosaurus might tell us if the babies were
hunting right away or were in the nest for a longer time,” Snively
explained. “Sure enough, we found canals in the bone that indicate they were
quickly out of the nest and running around.”
Snively and his colleagues used a sophisticated version of X-ray computed
tomography (CT) scanning, known as synchrotron computed microtomography, to
confirm both of these dinosaurs’ relative ages and lifestyle. The T. rex
metatarsal revealed no growth rings, which confirmed that this fossil had
come from a nearly newborn member of the species. The scans also showed a
dense and intricate web of blood vessels coursing through the bone itself—a
strong indication that the specimen had been growing rapidly.
Highly Vascularized Baby Trex Bone
Synchrotron scans of T. rex metatarsals show highly vascularized bone
indicative of a very young and rapidly growing dinosaur. Credit: Longrich,
et al., Biology (2026)
The researchers also looked at fossilized teeth from these tyrannosaurids,
finding evidence of wear and tear (such as enamel worn away at a tooth’s
apex) consistent with the routine dental damage seen on adult fossils of
these species.
Based on this, as well as comparisons to the behavior of young crocodiles
and related birds, the researchers concluded that baby T. rex and baby G.
libratus “apparently left the nest soon after hatching and likely hunted as
well.”
The brood
Prior fossil evidence, combined with the team’s own findings, suggests that
T. rex laid around 20 to 30 eggs at a time. Longrich, the study’s lead
author, believes that number offers a clue to the dinosaur’s approach to
raising its young.
“Because animals have limitations in what they can invest in the next
generation, they can either invest in having lots of young, or invest a lot
in their young, but not both,” according to Longrich, a senior research
fellow at the University of Bath in England.
“The small size of tyrannosaurs suggests they pursued the first
strategy—they had lots of small young and had a light touch when it came to
parenting,” Longrich said.
“There was probably a fair amount of parental investment, like nest guarding
and guiding the young for a while, like in crocodilians and larger ground
birds like ostriches,” he added. “But the babies could fend for themselves
pretty soon after hatching.
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From the archives
Thanks to Tom
Rare North Vietnamese Air Combat Details For Their ' FIGHT ' TIL I D-I-E '.
. Fighter Pilot ACES
Sixteen [ 16 ] Vietnamese pilots earned that honor.
Nguyen Van Coc is also the Top Ace of Vietnam War with 9 kills : 7
planes and 2 UAV (Unmanned Airborne Vehicle) ' Firebees.' Among those seven
US planes, six are confirmed by US records, and we should add to this figure
a confirmed USAF loss ( the F-102A flown by Wallace Wiggins [ KIA ] on
February 3 1968,) originally considered a probable by the VPAF. His 7
confirmed kills qualified Coc as the Top Ace of the war, even after omitting
the downed UAVs.
Why so many Vietnamese Aces ? And why did so many VPAF pilots score higher
than their American adversaries ?
Mainly because of their numbers [ and tactics. ]
In 1965, the VPAF had only 36 MiG-17s and a similar number of qualified
pilots, which increased to 180 MiGs and 72 pilots by 1968. Those brave six
dozen pilots confronted about 200 F-4s of the 8th, 35th and 366th TFW, about
140 Thunderchiefs of the 355th and 388th TFW, and about 100 USN aircraft
(F-8s, A-4s and F-4s) which operated from the carriers on "Yankee Station"
in the Gulf of Tonkin, plus scores of other support aircraft ( EB-6Bs
jamming, HH-53s rescuing downed pilots, Skyraiders covering them,
etc.)
Considering such odds, it is clear why some Vietnamese pilots scored
more than the Americans; the VPAF pilots simply were busier than their US
counterparts. And they " flew till they died." They had no rotation home
after 100 combat sorties because they were already home. American pilots
generally finished a tour of duty and rotated home for training, command, or
flight test assignments. Some requested for a second combat tour, but they
were the exceptions.
What about the tactics of both sides ?
Because the USAF did not attack the main radar installations and command
centers ( it worried about killing Russian or Chinese advisers,) the
Vietnamese flew their interceptors with superb guidance from ground
controllers, who positioned the MiGs in perfect ambush battle stations.
The MIGs made fast and devastating attacks against US formations from
several directions (usually the MiG-17s performed head-on attacks and the
MiG-21s attacked from the rear). After shooting down a few American planes
and forcing some of the F-105s to drop their bombs prematurely, the MiGs did
not wait for retaliation, but disengaged rapidly. This " guerrilla warfare
in the air " proved very successful.
Such tactics were sometimes helped by weird American practices. For
example, in late 1966 the F-105 formations used to fly every day at the same
time in the same flight paths and used the same callsigns over and over
again. The North Vietnamese realized that and took the chance: in December
1966 the MiG-21 pilots of the 921st FR intercepted the "Thuds"
before they met the escorting F-4s, downing 14 F-105s without any losses.
That ended on January 2 1967 when Col. Robin Olds executed Operation "Bolo."
What about training? In mid-1960's the American pilots were focused on
the use of air-to-air missiles (like the radar homing AIM-7 Sparrow and IR
AIM-9) to win the air battles. However, they had forgotten that a skillful
pilot in the cockpit was as important as the weapons he uses.
The VPAF knew that, and trained its pilots to exploit the superb agility
of the MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG-21 - getting into close combat, where the
heavy Phantoms and " Thuds " were at a disadvantage.
Only in 1972, when the "Top Gun" program improved the skills in aerial
combat of USN Phantom pilots and the F-4E appeared with a 20 MM built-in
Vulcan cannon, could the Americans neutralize that Vietnamese edge.
Finally, the overwhelming US numerical superiority meant that, from the
point of view of the Vietnamese pilots, the aerial battlefield was a "
target rich environment." For the American airmen Vietnam was a " target
poor environment." The Americans could not find enough enemy aircraft to
pile up large scores simply because there weren't that many MiGs around; the
VPAF never had more than 200 combat aircraft.
All these factors created more Vietnamese aces than American, and
created opportunities for a few Vietnamese aces to pile up bigger scores
than their American counterparts. Officially, there were 16 VPAF Aces during
Vietnam War (13 were MiG-21 pilots, and three were MiG-17 drivers, there
were no MiG-19 aces). The number in parentheses indicates the kills
confirmed by US sources; they could be increased in the future.
Here are some accounts of deeds performed by those valiant pilots who
faced the most powerful air force in the world in defense of their homeland,
and who earned the respect of their enemies, the American airmen.
What about Colonel Toon ?
Readers familiar with American military aviation may have heard of the
legendary Vietnamese ace, Col. Toon (or Col. Tomb). Why is he not listed
here?
Because, he was precisely that . . "legendary."
No Colonel Toon ever flew for the VPAF; he was a figment of the American
fighter pilots' imagination and ready room chatter.
( " Col. Toon " may have been shorthand for any good Vietnamese pilot, like
any solo nighttime nuisance bomber in WW2 was called " Washing Machine
Charlie.")
Nguyen Van Bay
When the 923rd Fighter Regiment was created on September 7 1965, Nguyen
Van Bay was one of the students chosen to fly the MiG-17F Frescos. His
training ended in January 1966, and soon the young Lt. Bay saw action
against American aircraft.
On June 211966, four MiG-17s of the 923rd FR engaged an RF-8A recce
plane and its escorting F-8 Crusaders of VF-211. Even as the escorting
Crusaders destroyed two MiGs, Nguyen Van Bay opened his score when he shot
down the F-8E of Cole Black, who ejected to became a POW. Even more
important, the Vietnamese People's Air Force pilots achieved their main goal
; as Bay and his buddies distracted the escort, Phan Thanh Trung in the lead
MiG shot down the RF-8A. The pilot, Leonard Eastman, was also taken
prisoner.
A week later - June 29- Bay and three more MiG-17 pilots engaged
American F-105Ds heading for the fuel depots in Hanoi, North Vietnam and (
together with Phan Van Tuc ) Nguyen Van Bay surprised and shot down a
"Thud." His victim, the leader of the US formation, turned out to be Major
James H. Kasler, a Sabre Ace during the Korean War with 6 MiG kills.
However, his greatest feat happened on April 24 1967. Now a flight
leader, Bay scrambled from Kien An airfield and led his flight of MiG-17Fs
against a USN raid on the Haiphong docks. Bay closed on an unaware F-8C of
VF-24 and fired a burst of deathly 37 mm shells which broke it into pieces.
The F-8C -BuNo 146915, piloted by Lt. Cdr. E.J.Tucker- caught fire and
crashed. Tucker ejected and was captured (unfortunately he died in
captivity.) The escorting F-4Bs of VF-114 entered the battle and fired
several Sidewinders against Bay, but Bay's wing-man - Nguyen The Hon- warned
him, and Bay sharply broke off, evading all the missiles. Then, Bay headed
his MiG-17 Fresco towards one of the Phantoms and shot it down with cannon
fire. [ After ejecting ] the crew, Lt. Cdr. C.E. Southwick and Ens.
J.W. Land, was rescued.
They thought they had been downed by AAA.
The next day, April 25, his flight of MiG-17s scored again, shooting
down two A-4s with no losses themselves. Both kills are confirmed by the US
Navy: the first victim was the A-4C BuNo 147799 piloted by Lt. C.D.
Stackhouse (POW), who fell under the guns of Bay's MiG-17, and the second
was the A-4C BuNo 151102, piloted by Lt (jg) A.R. Crebo, who was rescued.
Bay was awarded the Hero's Medal of the Vietnamese People's Army for his
outstanding skill and bravery in combat and for his superb flight
leadership.
In early 1972 this Vietnamese MiG ace and his buddy Le Xuan Di were
trained by a Cuban advisor in anti-ship warfare, and they certainly were
good students, because on April 19 1972 they attacked the destroyers USS
Oklahoma City and Highbee,which were shelling targets in Vinh city. While
Bay caused only slight damage to the first one, Le Xuan Di hit one of the
Highbee's stern turrets with a 500 pound bomb. It was the first air strike
suffered by the USN 7th Fleet since the end of WW2.
Nguyen Doc Soat
One of the merits of the Vietnamese People's Air Force was that the more
successful pilots could transfer their combat exper-ience to the novice
students. That was the case of Nguyen Doc Soat. Originally this young MiG-21
student was assigned to the 921st FR, and his instructors were the hottest
VPAF pilots of the outfit : Pham Thanh Ngan ( 8 kills ) and the top
Vietnamese ace, Nguyen Van Coc ( 9 victories.) Soat couldn't ask for better
teachers. While he did not score kills at that time, he gained valuable
experience.
Re-assigned to the recently created 927th Fighter Regiment, when
Operation "Linebacker I" began in May 1972, Soat was ready to show his
abilities. On the 23rd he scored his first victory, downing a USN A-7B
Corsair II with 30 mm fire. His victim was Charles Barnett (KIA).
On June 24 1972 two MiG-21s flown by Nguyen Duc Nhu and Ha Vinh Thanh
took off from Noi Bai at 15:12 to intercept some Phantoms attacking a
factory in Thai Nguyen, North Vietnam. The American escort reacted rapidly
and headed towards them.
But those MiGs were actually only bait ; suddenly two MiG-21PFMs of the
927th FR appeared, piloted by Nguyen Doc Soat (leader) and Ngo Duy Thu
(wingman), who took the escorting F-4Es by surprise. Firing a heat-seeking
missile R-3S Atoll, Soat downed the F-4E of David Grant and William Beekman.
Both crewmen became POWs, as Thu [ caused ejection of ] a second Phantom
crew.
Three days later Soat and Thu scrambled from Noi Bai at 11:53 and headed
towards four F-4s, but knowing that eight more Phantoms were incoming, they
did not risk being "sandwiched" by the arriving US fighters.
They turned back, climbed to 5,000 mts ( 15,000 feet ) and waited.
Their patience was rewarded, and surprised the trailing pair of F-4s.
Both Soat and Thu bagged one Phantom each with
R-3 missiles. Soat's victim was one F-4E. And its crew ( Miller/McDow )
was captured.
On August 26 1972, Nguyen Doc Soat had the distinction of shooting down
the only USMC Phantom downed in air combat during the Vietnam War. The RIO
of the downed F-4J was rescued, but the unfortunate pilot -Sam Cordova-
died. The Vietnamese MiG Ace scored his last victory on October 12, when he
destroyed the F-4E of Myron Young and Cecil Brunson ( both POW. )
Along with Nguyen Van Coc and other VPAF vets, Soat is a living legend
in the country for which he bravely and skillfully fought 30 years ago.
Source : S. Sherman and Diego Fernando Zampini [ abridged ]
Other Sources :
Air War over North Vietnam, Dr. Itsvan Toperczer, Squadron/Signal
Publications Inc. 1998.
MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War, Istvan Toperczer, 2001, Osprey Military
MiG-17/19 Units of the Vietnam War, Istvan Toperczer, 2001, Osprey Military
© 1999- 2012, by Acepilots.com
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This Day in U S Military History…….July 30
1916 – German saboteurs blew up a munitions pier on Black Tom Island, Jersey
City, NJ. 7 people were killed. Damages totaled about $20-25 million. Now a
section of Liberty State Park (along Morris Pesin road including the park
office and Flag Plaza), Black Tom was originally a small island in New York
Harbor not far from Liberty Island. Between 1860 and 1880, Black Tom was
connected to the mainland by a causeway and rail lines terminating at a
freight facility with docks. The area between the island and the mainland
was filled in sometime between 1905 and 1916 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad
as part of its Jersey City facility. By the beginning of the twentieth
century, Black Tom was serving as a major munitions depot. Before the United
States entered the First World War, American businessmen would sell their
supplies to any buyer. However, by 1915, the British Navy had established a
blockade effectively keeping the Germans from being able to buy from the
American merchants. The German government, on July 30, 1916, orchestrated
the sabotage of freight cars at Black Tom, which were loaded with munitions
for the Allies in Europe. According to a recent study, the resulting
explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5
on the Richter Scale. Windows within a 25-mile radius were broken, the
outside wall of Jersey City’s City Hall was cracked and pieces of metal
damaged the skirt of the Statue of Liberty (it is because of this explosion
that the Lady’s torch has been closed off to visitors). Most of the
immigrants on Ellis Island were temporarily evacuated. Losses were estimate
at $20 million and seven people were killed. After the war, a commission
appointed to resolve American claims against Germany was established. It
took years before a decision was made, finally in June of 1939, the
commission ruled that the German Government had authorized the sabotage.
However, World War II interrupted any chances of arranging for restitution.
In 1953 the two governments finally settled on terms that the German
government would pay a total of $95 million for a number of claims including
Black Tom. The final payment was received in 1979.
1942 – The US passenger-freighter Robert E. Lee with 268 passengers was sunk
by the German U-166 submarine. 15 crew members and 10 passengers died. In
2001 wreckage of the U-166 was found in the Gulf of Mexico and it appeared
that it was sunk by Coast Guard PC-566 right after the attack. U-166 had 52
crew members.
1945 – Japanese warships sink the American cruiser Indianapolis, killing 883
seamen in the worst loss in the history of the U.S. navy. As a prelude to a
proposed invasion of the Japanese mainland, scheduled for November 1, U.S.
forces bombed the Japanese home islands from sea and air, as well as blowing
Japanese warships out of the water. The end was near for Imperial Japan, but
it was determined to go down fighting. Just before midnight of the 29th, the
Indianapolis, an American cruiser that was the flagship of the Fifth Fleet,
was on its way, unescorted, to Guam, then Okinawa. It never made it. It was
torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Interestingly, the sub was commanded by a
lieutenant who had also participated in the Pearl Harbor invasion. There
were 1,196 crewmen onboard the Indianapolis; over 350 died upon impact of
the torpedo or went down with the ship. More than 800 fell into the Pacific.
Of those, approximately 50 died that first night in the water from injuries
suffered in the torpedo explosion; the remaining seamen were left to
flounder in the Pacific, fend off sharks, drink sea water (which drove some
insane), and wait to be rescued. Because there was no time for a distress
signal before the Indianapolis went down, it was 84 hours before help
arrived. This was despite the fact that American naval headquarters had
intercepted a message on July 30 from the Japanese sub commander responsible
for sinking the Indianapolis, describing the type of ship sunk and its
location. (The Americans assumed it was an exaggerated boast and didn’t
bother to follow up.) Only 318 survived; the rest were eaten by sharks or
drowned. The Indianapolis’s commander, Captain Charles McVay, was the only
officer ever to be court-martialed for the loss of a ship during wartime in
the history of the U.S. Navy. Had the attack happened only three days
earlier, the Indianapolis would have been sunk carrying special cargo-the
atom bomb, which it delivered to Tinian Island, northeast of Guam, for
scientists to assemble.
1956 – US motto “In God We Trust” was authorized.
1971 – US Apollo 15 with astronauts Scott and Irwin landed at Mare Imbrium
on the Moon.
Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day
HOMAN, CONRAD
Rank and organization: Color Sergeant, Company A, 29th Massachusetts
Infantry. Place and date: Near Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered
service at:——. Birth: Roxbury, Mass. Date of issue: 3 June 1869. Citation:
Fought his way through the enemy’s lines with the regimental colors, the
rest of the color guard being killed or captured.
HOUGHTON, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company L, 14th New York Artillery. Place
and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864; 25 March 1865. Entered service
at: Ogdensburg, N.Y. Born: 30 April 1842, Macomb, St. Lawrence County, N.Y.
Date of issue: 5 April 1898. Citation: In the Union assault at the Crater
(30 July 1864), and in the Confederate assault repelled at Fort Haskell,
displayed most conspicuous gallantry and repeatedly exposed himself
voluntarily to great danger, was 3 times wounded, and suffered loss of a
leg.
JAMIESON, WALTER
Rank and organization: 1st Sergeant, Company B, 139th New York Infantry.
Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864; At Fort Harrison, Va., 29
September 1864. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: France. Date of
issue: 5 April 1898. Citation: Voluntarily went between the lines under a
heavy fire at Petersburg, Va., to the assistance of a wounded and helpless
officer, whom he carried within the Union lines. At Fort Harrison, Va.,
seized the regimental color, the color bearer and guard having been shot
down, and, rushing forward, planted it upon the fort in full view of the
entire brigade.
KNIGHT, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company I, 9th New Hampshire Infantry.
Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at Keene,
N.H. Birth: Keene, N.H. Date of issue: 27 July 1896. Citation. In company
with a sergeant, was the first to enter the exploded mine; was wounded but
took several prisoners to the Federal lines.
MATHEWS, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company E, 2d Maryland Veteran
Infantry. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service
at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: England. Date of issue: 10 July 1892. Citation:
Finding himself among a squad of Confederates, he fired into them, killing
1, and was himself wounded, but succeeded in bringing in a sergeant and 2
men of the 17th South Carolina Regiment (C.S.A.) as prisoners.
(Enlisted in 1861 at Baltimore, Md., under the name Henry Sivel, and
original Medal of Honor issued under that name. A new medal was issued in
1900 under true name, William H Mathew.)
McALWEE, BENJAMIN F.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company D, 3d Maryland Infantry. Place and
date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth:
Washington, D.C. Date of issue: 4 April 1898. Citation: Picked up a shell
with burning fuse and threw it over the parapet into the ditch, where it
exploded; by this act he probably saved the lives of comrades at the great
peril of his own.
SIMONS, CHARLES J.
Rank and organization. Sergeant, Company A, 9th New Hampshire Infantry.
Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at:
Exeter, N.H. Birth: India. Date of issue: 27 July 1896. Citation: Was one of
the first in the exploded mine, captured a number of prisoners. and was
himself captured, but escaped.
SWIFT, HARLAN J.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, Company H, 2d Mew York Militia
Regiment. Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service
at: New York. Birth: New Hudson, N.Y. Date of issue: 20 July 1897. Citation:
Having advanced with his regiment and captured the enemy’s line, saw 4 of
the enemy retiring toward their second line of works. He advanced upon them
alone, compelled their surrender and regained his regiment with the 4
prisoners.
WILKINS, LEANDER A.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company H, 9th New Hampshire Infantry.
Place and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at: ——.
Birth: Lancaster, N.H. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Recaptured
the colors of 21st Massachusetts Infantry in a hand_to_hand encounter.
WRIGHT, ALBERT D.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company G, 43d U.S. Colored Troops. Place
and date: At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864. Entered service at:——. Born: 10
December 1844, Elkland, Tioga County, Pa. Date of issue: 1 May 1893.
Citation: Advanced beyond the enemy’s lines, capturing a stand of colors and
its color guard; was severely wounded.
O’NEIL, RICHARD W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company D, 165th Infantry, 42d
Division. Place and date: On the Ourcq River, France, 30 July 1918. Entered
service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. G.O. No.: 30, W.D., 1921.
Citation: In advance of an assaulting line, he attacked a detachment of
about 25 of the enemy. In the ensuing hand-to-hand encounter he sustained
pistol wounds, but heroically continued in the advance, during which he
received additional wounds: but, with great physical effort, he remained in
active command of his detachment. Being again wounded, he was forced by
weakness and loss of blood to be evacuated, but insisted upon being taken
first to the battalion commander in order to transmit to him valuable
information relative to enemy positions and the disposition of our men.
*OZBOURN, JOSEPH WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 24 October 1919,
Herrin, Ill. Accredited to: Illinois. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry
and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as
a Browning Automatic Rifleman serving with the 1st Battalion, 23d Marines,
4th Marine Division, during the battle for enemy Japanese-held Tinian
Island, Marianas Islands, 30 July 1944. As a member of a platoon assigned
the mission of clearing the remaining Japanese troops from dugouts and
pillboxes along a tree line, Pvt. Ozbourn, flanked by 2 men on either side,
was moving forward to throw an armed handgrenade into a dugout when a
terrific blast from the entrance severely wounded the 4 men and himself.
Unable to throw the grenade into the dugout and with no place to hurl it
without endangering the other men, Pvt. Ozbourn unhesitatingly grasped it
close to his body and fell upon it, sacrificing his own life to absorb the
full impact of the explosion, but saving his comrades. His great personal
valor and unwavering loyalty reflect the highest credit upon Pvt. Ozbourn
and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.
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AMERICAN AEROSPACE EVENTS for July 30, FIRSTS, LASTS, AND SIGNIFICANT
ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THANKS TO HAROLD “PHIL” MYERS CHIEF HISTORIAN AIR FORCE
INTELLIGENCE, SURVEILLANCE, AND RECONNAISSANCE AGENCY
30 July
1909: The Wright plane completed its second test with a 10-mile flight from
Fort Myer to Alexandria and back at 42.583 MPH. The speed gave the Wrights a
$5,000 bonus (10 percent of a $25,000 base price for each MPH over 40) and
made the purchase price $30,000. (4) (12)
1935: Lt Frank Akers (USN) flew an OJ-2 from NAS San Diego and made the
first blind landing aboard the carrier USS Langley. He later received the
DFC. (24)
1939: The US regained the world payload carrying record when Maj Caleb V.
Haynes and Capt W. D. Old flew the Boeing XB-15 to 8,200 feet with a payload
of 15 1/2 tons at Wright Field. (24)
In the 1930s, Haynes, a rated command pilot, led experimental long-range
over-water interception flights that were key to the development of U.S. air
defense doctrine. Haynes demonstrated by piloting one of the bombers that
intercepted the Italian liner Rex that enemy ships could be located and sunk
by American aircraft.
1944: VOGELKOP OPERATION. FEAF aircraft supported an amphibious operation,
the landings on the Vogelkop Peninsula on the western end of New Guinea.
Troops of the 6th Infantry Division met no opposition and began work
immediately on airfields at March and Sansapor. Middleburg and Amsterdam
Islands, just offshore, were secured, and an airfield on Middleburg was
ready for fighters on 17 August.
1948: North American Aviation delivered the first operational jet bomber,
the B-45A Tornado, to the Air Force. (21)
1950: KOREAN WAR. 47 B-29s bombed the Chosen Nitrogen Explosives Factory at
Hungnam on North Korea’s east coast. (28)
1951: KOREAN WAR/ATTACK ON PYONGYANG. Fighters participated in a coordinated
attack on selected targets in Pyongyang. The 91 F-80s performing flak
suppression, although hampered by cloud cover over the target, were
successful as no UN aircraft were lost to flak at Pyongyang during the day.
The 354 USAF and USMC fighter-bombers attacking targets around Pyongyang
reported fair results. (17) (28)
1952: KOREAN WAR. Following extended heavy rains, 3d Air Rescue Squadron
helicopters carried approximately 650 flood-stranded U.S. military members
and Koreans to safety. Flying over 100 sorties, five large H-19s transported
some 600 evacuees, while two H-5s carried the rest. In the I Corps sector,
two H-5s flew over 30 sorties to rescue 60 flood-stranded Koreans and U.S.
soldiers. (28) KOREAN WAR. Through 31 July, in one of the largest medium
bomber raids against a single target, 60 B-29s destroyed 90 percent of the
Oriental Light Metals Company facility, only four miles from the Yalu River.
The B-29s achieved the unusally extensive destruction of the target in spite
of encountering the largest nighttime counter-air effort to date by the
enemy. The attacking bombers suffered no losses. (28)
1959: The Norair N-156F (later modified into the F-5) twin jet tactical
fighter completed its first flight at Edwards AFB. (3)
1965: The 7-year Saturn I program ended with the launch of Pegasus III, the
tenth success in as many attempts for this booster.
1969: Mariner 6 flew by Mars.
1971: The last C-133 Cargomaster retired from Travis AFB to aircraft
graveyard at Davis-Monthan AFB to end a chapter in military airlift history.
It fell victim to the jet age and the jumbo airlift capability of the C-5A
Galaxy. This event ushered in the modern all-jet airlift fleet. (5) (18) The
last F-100 left Vietnam for the CONUS. Its departure ended a combat
employment, which began in 1964 and produced 360,283 combat sorties with 243
aircraft losses. (17)
1981: Through 9 August, MAC supported the Gambia evacuation. When Gambia’s
president attended the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in London,
leftist guerrillas attempted a coup. When loyal Gambian troops and their
Senegalese allies were unable to rescue rebel-held hostages and quell
rioting in Bangul, MAC sent two C-141s to Dakar, Senegal. On 8 August, the
rebel force surrendered and released its hostages. One C-141 evacuated 95
civilians from Bangul to Dakar. (2)
1984: Modified B-1A number four, avionics flight test aircraft, completed
its first flight at Edwards AFB. (12)
1985: The USAF Bomarc aerial target drone program ended. (16) (26)
1993: The VISTA NF-16 employed its multi-axis thrust-vectoring system for
the first time in a flight over Edwards AFB. That system enabled the
aircraft to achieve a 110-degree transient angle-ofattack and a sustained
angle-of-attack by September. (20)
1997: Captain Dewey Gay flew a F-16C Fighting Falcon (Tail No. 83-1164) from
the 62d Fighter Squadron at Luke AFB to history when he touched down after a
1.3-hour sortie that pushed the F-16 over 4,000 hours. It was the first
C-model to reach the 4,000-hour mark. The feat took 14 years. (AFNEWS
Article 970991, 13 Aug 97)
1997: The X-38 atmospheric test vehicle made its first captive-carry flight
aboard a B-52. The subscale, unmanned X-38 shape was joint NASA Dryden
Center and Johnson Space Center project to validate concept for a future
International Space Station emergency Crew Return Vehicle. The space
“lifeboat” relied on Lifting Body technology. (3)
1998: At Edwards AFB, testing on the C-141A Electric Starlifter came to an
end. The joint Air Force Research Laboratory Propulsion Directorate and
Lockheed-Martin/Lucas Aerospace testing program outfitted a large military
cargo aircraft with electrically operated Fly-By-Wire, PowerBy-Wire flight
controls for the first time in aviation history. The C-141A aircraft,
assigned to the 418th Flight Test Squadron, flew over 1,000 hours in the
program. It was the last C-141A in operational service. With the completion
of the test program, the Air Force retired the aircraft to Davis-Monthan
AFB. (AFNEWS Article 981113, 30 Jul 98)
2001: The DoD awarded Boeing a $485 million contract to engineer and
manufacture an Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and a separate $1
billion contract for aircraft modifications, support, and other services to
complement the AMP enhancements for 519 C-130s. The program would equip the
C-130 cockpits with flat panels, digital displays, multi-functional radar,
and a state-of-the-art communications system. (22) AETC’s C-141 aircrew
training school at Altus AFB officially closed to end more than 25 years of
C-141 training there. The closure came with the phased retirement of more
than 265 C-141Bs. The Air Force, however, modified 56 C-141Bs with
state-of-the-art glass cockpits and redesignated them as C-141Cs. (22) A
crew from Minot AFB delivered a B-52H to the AFFTC for transfer to NASA’s
Dryden Flight Research Center. It would be converted into an air launch
platform to replace Dryden’s venerable B-52B Tail No. 52-0008. (3)
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