The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Ripper - Korea, 1951 - Mar. 7th, 2003

http://www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/OpRipperArch.htm ^ | Maj Allan C. Bevilacqua, USMC (Ret)

[SAMWolf]

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Operation Ripper - Korea, 1951

Lieutenant General Matthew B. Ridgway, commanding the Eighth United States Army in Korea (EUSAK), was dissatisfied. While the recently concluded Operation Killer had attained its terrain objectives and interrupted the Chinese Communist Forces (CCF) plans for an immediate major offensive, it had not caused anywhere near the amount of enemy casualties Ridgway had desired. Ground taken today can be lost tomorrow, but an enemy soldier killed today has no hope of fighting tomorrow. LtGen Ridgway wanted blood, not land.

With the evidence that the Chinese were still attempting to conserve their forces and set themselves for another massive attack, Ridgway resolved to continue his own drive to the north, beating the enemy to the punch. Operation Killer had no sooner concluded than plans for Operation Ripper were set in motion.

Set to jump off on 7 March 1951, Operation Ripper had two primary objectives. The first was to inflict maximum casualties on CCF forces and by means of constant pressure all along the line keep them off balance and disrupt their offensive buildup. The second and lesser objective was to outflank Seoul, leaving the CCF with the choice of withdrawing or defending the city under unfavorable circumstances.

During Operation Ripper the First Marine Division would attack as part of the 8th Army's IX Corps, the 1st Cavalry Division on its left and the 2d Infantry Division on its right. The 2d Infantry Division was an old associate. It was as a part of that division, then designated the 2d Division United States Regular, that the famed Marine Brigade had fought in France in 1918. In Korea the First Provisional Marine Brigade had fought alongside the 2d Infantry Division in the defense of the Pusan Perimeter the previous summer.

Directly in the path of the IX Corps advance lay the towns of Hongchon and Chunchon. Both were important communications centers that would make the CCF's job of launching a new offensive much easier. Hongchon would be within the zone of action of the 1stMarDiv. Facing the division in its advance from Hoengsong would be the harsh terrain that so defines Korea: steep, rugged, wooded hills cut up by a tangle of rushing streams and minor rivers. The area was almost devoid of roads; the few that did exist were little more than oxcart trails. Dominating the whole, and just shy of the operation's initial objective dubbed Phase Line Albany, was the 2,900-foot mountain the Koreans called Oumsan. For the defender the area was a natural stronghold. For the attacker it was a truly nasty place.



If the difficulties posed by the terrain weren't bad enough, the weather, which had been so foul throughout Operation Killer, showed no signs of improving. Corporal Austin Stack, a machine-gunner in First Lieutenant James T. "Jim" Cronin's "Baker" Company, 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, remembered the period as the time of his lowest morale in Korea. Being constantly cold and wet, pelted by rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow, and slogging wearily through a mixture of half-frozen, boot-top-deep snow, mud and slush can dim the spirits of the most cheerful optimist and give pause to even the most determined masochist. A mess kit infrequently full of hastily prepared SOS turned into cold soup by a driving, icy rain can leave the diner looking for somebody—anybody at all—to belt over the head with that mess kit, soup and all. In spite of the daunting terrain and weather, Operation Ripper began well. On a cold, clear morning that quickly gave way to clouds and snow, the 1stMarDiv went into the attack with the 7th Marines on the left and the 1st Marines on the right. As in the early stages of Operation Killer, Chinese resistance was light, confining itself to scattered small-arms fire from the enemy's line of outposts. By nightfall the day's objectives had been secured at a total cost of seven Marines wounded.

The suspicions of the first day were confirmed on the second. The Chinese were continuing the withdrawal they had commenced the previous month, carefully picking their fights and giving battle only to cover the withdrawal of other units. They were falling back, but they were doing it very skillfully and under control. When it was required, they were ready to put up a blistering fight in one area in order to let units withdraw from an adjacent piece of ground.



First Lt Eugenous M. Hovatter's Able Co, 1st Bn, 7th Marines ran into one of those fights the next day during an attack on a rock-strewn hill just to the left of Oumsan. Well-aimed small-arms and mortar fire pinned the company to the ground 300 yards short of the final objective, knocking out Second Lieutenant Clayton Bush, who went down with a shredded right arm, and killing or wounding five other members of his 2d Platoon. The company remained stuck where it was until air attacks and the supporting 90 mm fires of a section of tanks allowed the infantry to gain the upper hand. Chinese resistance continued to be light and sporadic on the following day, 9 March, but not so light that Captain Robert P. "Bob" Wray's Charlie Co, 1/1 didn't run into a lethal hornet's nest on one of the mangled ridges before Oumsan. Sergeant John Chinner earned a Navy Cross, leading his machine-gun platoon through a storm of enemy fire coming from a carefully sited cluster of well dug-in bunkers.

Single-handedly and armed with only his .45-caliber M1911A1 pistol and a supply of captured hand grenades, Chinner stormed the ridge line through murderous fire, neutralizing five bunkers and either killing or forcing their occupants to flee. Darkness fell with Charlie Co in uncontested possession of the ridge. As they had done so often, the Chinese turned and pulled out.



Throughout the next two days Marine units devoted themselves to local patrolling, while friendly units on the right that had been outpaced by the Marine advance caught up. Then, early on 11 March, it was back to business, with the pattern of previous days repeating itself. In a brisk little engagement filled with the crackle and rip of rifle and machine-gun fire, a patrol from George Co, 3/1 attacked the defenders of Hill 549, guarding the southeastern approaches to Oumsan. Then 1stLt Horace L. Johnson's Marines, aided by supporting fire from a pair of tanks, closed to hand-grenade range and blasted the defenders from their well-camouflaged bunkers.

Action flared in the zone of the 7th Marines as well. Battling forward against the prepared defenses of key ridges leading to Oumsan's southwestern slopes, Capt Jerome D. Gordon's Dog Co, 2/7 found itself staggered by the volume of fire directed at it from a maze of bunkers. At Yudam-ni in November, Dog Co, then commanded by Capt Milton A. "Milt" Hull, had been shot to shreds holding the vital height of Hill 1240. Thus most of the Marines going forward against the lower slopes of Oumsan were relative newcomers to Korea, but they lacked nothing of the fighting spirit of their predecessors.

[SAMWolf]

Master Sergeant George H. Butler had enough fighting spirit for three men. With Dog Co's leading assault platoon pinned down, MSgt Butler didn't hesitate. Leaving the relative safety of the company command post, he sprinted through a hail of fire to reach the beleaguered platoon whose platoon leader and platoon sergeant had fallen wounded. Charging forward up the narrow ridge line, he rallied the platoon by the time-honored expedient of getting out in front and leading, even though that meant leading through a hail of incoming fire.



Wounded in the face and blinded in one eye by grenade fragments, Butler continued his assault on the dug-in Chinese, bringing the rest of the platoon with him through the sheer force of his personal character and his display of fearlessness. When his rifle was shot from his hands, he picked up another, personally killing 10 defenders.MSgt Butler's one-man war ended only when the defenders of the ridge turned tail and fled. Only then would he allow his wounds to be treated. There are times when wounds don't count. George Butler's actions would in time bring him America's second highest award for military valor, the Navy Cross.

MSgt Butler would not be the only Dog Co noncommissioned officer to distinguish himself in front of Oumsan. The Chinese weren't quite ready to give up the fight, and a counterattack wasn't long in coming. Much of the brunt of it fell on an exposed squad of Dog Co Marines led by Sgt Jack Larson.

Temporarily forced out of his primary position by overwhelming pressure, Larson withdrew his men to a planned alternate site, only to lead them back once darkness had fallen. The squad was able to complete its preparation of the primary position none too soon, for shortly before midnight the Chinese struck with the force of a pile driver.

Larson's squad suffered serious casualties. Firing his own weapon into the ranks of the attackers, flinging grenades into their midst, reorganizing his men to compensate for casualties, directing the defensive fires, he scrambled from man to man to lend encouragement. Painfully wounded and bleeding profusely, Larson held the situation together for two hours until relief arrived. After the last of his wounded men had been treated, Larson accepted medical aid himself. Like the indomitable George Butler, Jack Larson would receive the Navy Cross.

Faced with men like Chinner, Larson and Butler and hundreds of other Marines cut from the same cloth, the Chinese continued to give ground and fall back to the north. Pressing forward for the next three days, by 14 March the 1stMarDiv was well established on Operation Ripper's first major objective, Phase Line Albany. On the following day, friendly units to the west found the ravaged city of Seoul abandoned by the back-pedaling enemy.

Even so, no one, from Major General Oliver P. Smith, the division's commander, to the most junior enlisted Marine, expected the Chinese to abandon the fight, turn tail and run. By the best available estimates there were some 385,000 CCF troops in Korea, along with 120,000 North Korean soldiers, reorganizing after the beating they had absorbed the previous year and beginning to appear in action once again. They were going to require some energetic rooting out. Scarcely pausing to catch its breath on Phase Line Albany, the 1stMarDiv jumped off toward Hongchon and Phase Line Buffalo early on 15 March.

It wasn't easy. Korea is a land of hills and mountains. Those hills and mountains grow increasingly higher from south to north. To scramble, scrabble, claw and battle up a steep, wooded hill to reach the crest against a determined enemy is to be confronted by the same enemy on another higher hill. The process never ends.

Then there was the problem of the roads. The few primitive dirt roads in the 1stMarDiv's zone of action quickly proved totally inadequate to handle the logistics traffic needed to keep a division supplied. They simply did not have the capacity to handle the number of trucks it takes to keep a division equipped in those things necessary to wage war. In thoroughly atrocious weather conditions, those trucks were grinding painfully along, hub-deep in mud. Despite the around-the-clock efforts of the division's engineers to keep the few roads passable, the entire supply system was bogging down. Only the efforts of the Korean Civil Transport Corps kept everything from becoming immobilized in the mud.

Thousands of Korean porters, utilizing the A-frame carrying rack used to transport heavy burdens since the beginnings of Korea, labored up and down the nearly vertical landscape, delivering ammunition, rations and fuel to the front- line units. Too much cannot be made of the contribution of the sturdy Korean peasants, some of them papa-sans in their 50s, who routinely muscled forward loads of 100 pounds and more to keep the advance moving. Cargadors they were called officially. Marines in the ranks, ever quick to borrow from the local language, dubbed them the yo-bo train, from the Korean word for the carrying device they mounted their loads on. By whatever name, they were invaluable.

[SAMWolf]

By one means or another the advance kept moving. Evidence that it was disrupting Chinese plans for a fighting withdrawal came in the form of an intercepted radio communication early on 15 March. "We cannot fight any longer. We must move back today. We will move back at 1400. Enemy troops will enter our position at 1300 or 1400. Enemy troops approaching fast." Late that afternoon the lead elements of Major Webb D. Sawyer's 1/7 entered Hongchon without a fight.



It was a different story north of Hongchon, where for the next three days the Chinese fought bitterly, battling for every lump and bump in the ground. The division plan called for 5th Marines to pass through and relieve the 7th Marines on the left. The 1st Marines on the right had their hands full with Chinese fighting from a succession of skillfully sited bunkers and trenches. In a series of bloody hand-to-hand encounters, up close and personal, Marines had to shoot, blast and burn the defenders from their strongholds. On the infrequent occasions when the weather lifted, the treetop-level strikes of Marine close air support provided the element that turned the tables.

The 1stMarDiv's running gun battles with the Chinese continued to follow the pattern of alternately fighting and withdrawing. Slowly but surely, however, the Chinese were being forced backward, until on 20 March the advance had reached Phase Line Buffalo. Before darkness fell the 5th Marines, with the 1st Marines on the right and aided by deadly accurate air strikes by Marine Fighter Squadrons 214 and 323 (VMF-214, VMF-323), overran the Chinese main line of resistance with no friendly casualties.



If anyone had the urge to celebrate, there was no time for it. The drive northward resumed almost without pause with the 1st Korean Marine Corps (KMC) Regiment once again attached to the 1stMarDiv. The fighting qualities of the regiment could be summed up in the words of one of its young officers, 1stLt Kim Sik Tong. In his diary he wrote: "The KMC ideal is to complete the mission, regardless of receiving strong enemy resistance, with endurance and strong united power, and always bearing in one's mind the distinction between honor and dishonor." Men like that are handy to have around in a regiment that would have to fight its way through a virtual wilderness, devoid of the most rudimentary trails.

It was the KMC Regiment that ran up against the heaviest fighting in the advance to Operation Ripper's final objective, Phase Line Cairo. Sandwiched between the 5th and the 1st Marines, the Korean Marines worked their way through the tortuous jumble of ridges, gullies and ravines that fronted Hill 975, battling pocket after pocket of resistance in a continuing rattle and crash of point-blank fire punctuated by the detonation of grenades and mortar rounds. Supplied by airdrops and ably supported by Lieutenant Colonel William McReynolds' 3d Bn, 11th Marines firing in direct support, they slugged their way forward until the issue was decided on 24 March.



All the objectives of Operation Ripper were now controlled by the 8th Army, which had been attacking continuously since 21 Feb. Still, with evidence mounting that the CCF had not abandoned plans for a major offensive, LtGen Ridgway wanted to keep the pressure on.

Moving forward relentlessly, on 4 April the 1stMarDiv was among the first 8th Army units to recross the 38th parallel and enter North Korea. It was also on that day that LtCol Joseph L. "Moose" Stewart, the executive officer of the 5th Marines, began his journey back to the United States. Of all the original members of the 1stProvMarBrig to land at Pusan on 2 Aug. 1950, he was the last to leave Korea.

[SAMWolf]

As in Operation Killer, the primary objective of Operation Ripper was to destroy enemy forces and equipment and hamper his efforts to conduct a new offensive. Also, rather than make a direct assault across the Han to re-capture Seoul, Ripper was to outflank Seoul and the area north as far as the Imjin River. Then, Ridgway hoped to take Seoul by a flanking attack from the east or by sufficient threat to induce the enemy to withdraw.

In the event during Ripper, with 1st Cavalry Division providing cover, the 7th Marines took Hongchon which did indeed result in the CCF abandoning Seoul which was reoccupied by the ROK 1st Division, supported by the US 3rd Division, on March 15.

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On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on March 07:
1543 Johan Casimir count of Rhine (occupied Gent)
1574 John Wilbye composer
1602 Kano Tanju Japanese painter (palaces, portraits)
1621 Georg Neumark composer
1659 Henry Purcell English organist/composer (Dido & Aeneas)
1663 Tomaso Antonio Vitali composer
1682 Johan W van Ripperda Dutch diplomat/baron/duke
1693 Clement XIII [Carlo Rezzonico], Pope (1758-69)
1707 Stephen Hopkins (Governor-RI) signed Declaration of Independence
1715 Ewald Christian von Kleist German lyric poet (Der Frühling)
1731 Jean-Louis Laruette composer
1762 Sebastiaan C Nederburgh director-general (East Indies Company)
1765 Joseph N Niépce French inventor (photography)
1769 Josef Alois Ladurner composer
1773 Tommaso Marchesi composer
1785 Alessandro Manzoni Italy, poet/novelist (Betrothed)
1792 John Herschel Slough England, William Herschel's son, astronomer
1797 Karl Schwencke composer
1799 Frantisek L Celakovsky Czechoslovakian poet (national anthem, folk song)
1807 Franz Grave von Pocci German poet/composer (Der Alchemist)
1811 Christian Heinrich Hohmann composer
1813 Judocus Smits Dutch Catholic newspaper pioneer/founder (The Time)
1820 Gustav Heinrich Graben-Hoffman composer
1822 Victor Masse composer
1827 Henry DeLamar Clayton Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1889
1831 John Bratton [Old Reliable], US physician/Confederate Brigadier General
1832 Orlando Metcalfe Poe Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1895
1837 Henry Draper Virginia, astro-spectro-photographer (Moon, Jupiter)
1841 Olegario Víctor Andrade Argentina, poet (El nido de cóndores)
1842 Anne van Diest Belgian physician/feminist
1844 Anthony Comstock New Canaan CT, anti-vice crusader/philatelist
1849 Luther Burbank Lancaster MA, horticulturist
1850 Tomás G Masaryk Czechoslovakia, Father/President of Czechoslovakia (1918-35)
1856 Matilde Serao [Tuffolina], Italian writer (Land of Cockayne)
1857 Julius Wagner von Jauregg Austria, psychiatrist (Nobel 1927)
1858 Nikolai Artzibushev composer
1866 Paul Ernst writer
1869 Ernst J Cohen Dutch chemist
1872 Piet Mondrian Holland, abstract painter (Broadway Boogie Woogie)
1872 Vasily Andreyevich Zolotaryov composer
1875 Maurice Joseph Ravel Cibourne France, composer (Boléro)
1883 Carl Deis composer
1886 Raymond Largay Wisconsin, actor (April in Paris, Variety Girl)
1887 Heino Eller composer
1888 Alidius van Starkenborch Stachouwer Governor of Netherland Indies (1936-45)
1891 Marcel Barger [Meyer Streliskie], cabaret performer (I keep Susy)
1895 Juan Jose Castro composer
1896 Erwin Bodky composer
1898 Jan Bata Czechoslovakian shoe manufacturer
1900 [Albert] Carel Willink Dutch painter (magic realism)
1900 Giuseppe Capogrossi Italian painter
1902 Heinz [Heinrich William] Ruehmann Essen Germany, actor/director (Der Hauptmann von Köpenick)
1904 Ivar Ballangrud Norway, Olympics speed skater (4 gold, 2 silver)
1904 Reinhard Heydrich German Governor (Bohemen/Moravia (Lidice))
1904 Virginia Downing actress (Gig, Butterfield 8)
1904 Willy Forst Austria actor/director (Vienna Blood)
1905 Vera Fjodorova Panova Russian author (Sputniki)
1906 Alejandro Garcia Caturla composer
1906 Hans Lachman composer
1907 Juan Francisco Giacobbe composer
1907 Mircea Eliade religious historian (Le Yoga)
1908 Anna Magnani Rome Italy, actress (Rose Tattoo, Miracle)
1908 Joop [Joseph] van Santen Dutch 1st chamber member (CPN)
1908 Tomas de Manzarraga composer
1909 Greta Schoon writer
1909 Leo Malet writer
1911 Stefan Kisielewski composer
1914 Morton DaCosta Philadelphia PA, director (Island of Love, Music Man)
1915 Jacques Chaban-Delmas French politician
1917 Davis Roberts Mobile AL, actor (Mr Johnson-Boone)
1917 Janet Collins ballerina
1917 Robert Erickson composer
1918 June Wayne artist/lithographer/teacher
1919 Jocelyn Olaf Hambro financier
1919 Mochtar Lubis Indonesian writer (Twilight in Djakarta)
1920 Willie Watson cricketer (England batsman & soccer international)
1924 Eduardo Paolozzi British sculptor (Hydra)
1924 Kobo Abe Tokyo Japan, playwright (Woman, the Dunes)
1930 Anthony Armstrong-Jones [Earl of Snowdon] London England, photographer
1930 James Broderick Charleston NH, actor (Brenner-Brenner, Doug-Family)
1931 C W Stubblefield music promoter
1931 Cornelis T "Cor" van de Molen director Social Businesses of Press
1931 Donald Barthelme US, writer (Snow White)
1934 King Curtis [Curtis Ousley], rocker
1934 Nari Contractor cricketer (Indian batsman & captain)
1934 Willard Scott weather forecaster (Today Show)
1936 Georges Perec French writer (Seire Noire, Retour a la bien-aimee)
1937 Anne Kristen actress (Truth or Dare, Rachel-Dr Finlay, Sunset Song)
1937 Don Bonker (Representative-Democrat-WA, 1975- )
1938 Homero Blancas Houston TX, PGA golfer (1972 Phoenix Open)
1938 Janet Guthrie race car driver, 1st woman to race in Indy 500
1939 Marion Marlowe St Louis MO, singer (Arthur Godfrey & Friends)
1940 Daniel J Travanti Kenosha WI, actor (Frank Furillo-Hill St Blues)
1940 Harald Gerlach writer
1940 Rudi [Rudolf] Dutschke German student leader (Glasnost Berlin)
1940 Viktor Petrovich Savinykh USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-4, T-13, TM-5)
1942 Al[bert] Tanara WLAF defensive coach (Amsterdam Admirals)
1942 Michael Eisner Mount Kisko NY, CEO (Walt Disney)
1942 Paul Preuss US, sci-fi author (Medusa Encounter, Starfire)
1942 Tammy Faye Bakker gospel singer/wife of Jim Bakker (PTL)
1942 Tommy F Robinson (Representative-Democrat-AR, 1985- )
1942 U N Kulkarni cricketer (Indian pace bowler in four Tests 1967-68)
1943 Carole Peel Australian softball assistant coach (Olympics-bronze-96)
1943 Chris White rock bassist (Zombies-Never Even Thought)
1943 Leon Frank Sylvers rocker
1944 Elton Gallegly (Representative-Republican-CA)
1944 Jürgen Theobaldy writer
1944 Townes Van Zandt musician
1945 Arthur Lee rocker (Vindicator)
1945 John Heard Washington DC, actor (Cat People, Cutter's Way, CHUD)
1946 Matthew Fisher London, rock keyboardist (Procol Harum)
1946 Peter Wolf rock singer (J Giels Band-Centerfold, Freeze Frame)
1947 Donna Loren Boston MA, singer/actress (Beach Blanket Bingo)
1947 Lewis J Stadlen Brooklyn NY, actor (John-Benson, Savages, Windy City)
1947 Richard Lawson Loma Linda CA, actor (Eddie-The O'Neills)
1947 Robert O'Neill Crossman politician
1950 Franco Harris NFL fullback (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1950 Mark Pinter Decorah IA, actor (Karl-Behind the Screen, Another World)
1951 Linda Gibboney actress (Search for Tomorrow, Jessica-Generations)
1952 Ernie Isley US vocalist/guitarist (It's Your Thing, Heat is On)
1952 Lynn Swann NFL receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers)/sportscaster
1952 Vivian Richards West Indian master blaster
1953 Jules Shear rock musician
1953 Kathleen Sullivan Pasadena CA, newscaster (E!)
1954 Matt Frenette rock drummer (Loverboy)
1958 Rik Mayall comedian (Drop Dead Fred, Bottom, Little Noises)
1959 Thomas Edward Lehman Austin MN, PGA golfer (1994 Memorial Tournament)
1960 Ivan Lendl Czechoslovakia, tennis pro (US Open 1985-87)
1960 Joe Carter Oklahoma City OK, outfielder (Toronto Blue Jays)
1961 Mary Beth Evans Pasadena CA, actress (Katherine-General Hospital, Kayla-Days of our Lives)
1962 Taylor Dayne [Leslie Wunderman], Long Island NY, vocalist (I'll Always Love You)
1963 Mike Eagles Sussex, NHL center (Washington Capitals)
1963 Mohammad Ishaq cricketer (UAE batsman 1996 World Cup)
1964 Amy Baltus Bloomington IN, WPVA volleyballer (Nationals-13th-1992)
1964 Jeff Criswell NFL tackle (Kansas City Chiefs)
1965 [Willie] Flipper Anderson NFL wide receiver (Indianapolis Colts)
1965 Cameron Daddo Melbourne Australia, actor (Brian Petersen-Models Inc)
1965 Jesper Bo Parnevik Stockholm Sweden, PGA golfer (1995 Nestle-5th)
1965 Steve Beuerlein NFL quarterback (Jacksonville Jaguars, Car Panthers)
1966 Jeff Feagles NFL punter (Arizona Cardinals)
1966 Mel Rojas Haina Dominican Republic, pitcher (Montréal Expos)
1966 Terry Carkner Smiths Falls, NHL defenseman (Florida Panthers)
1967 Zheng Haixia WNBA center (Los Angeles Sparks)
1968 Jeff Kent Bellflower CA, infielder (New York Mets)
1968 Ricky Proehl NFL wide receiver (Seattle Seahawks, Chicago Bears)
1969 Anne Marie Lauck Rochester NY, marathoner (Olympics-10th-96)
1969 Anthony Davis NFL linebacker (Kansas City Chiefs)
1969 Brian Jamieson Livingston NJ, rower (Olympics-silver-1996)
1969 Geoff Smith Edmonton, NHL defenseman (Florida Panthers)
1969 Matt Blundin NFL quarterback (Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions)
1969 Sam Gash NFL running back (New England Patriots)
1970 Jacquelyn Doucette Miss Massachusetts-USA (1996)
1970 James Calvin Spivey Schiller Park IL, miler
1970 Kathy Gedney Indianapolis IN, WPVA volleyballer (US Open-25th-1994)
1971 Alison Herst Toronto Ontario, kayaker (Olympics-5-92, 96)
1972 Andrew Finch rower (Olympics-1996)
1972 Marina Hatzakis Australian rower (Olympics-96)
1974 Joost Volmer soccer player (FC Twente)
1975 Andrey Savenkov hockey defenseman (Team Kazakhstan Olympics-1998)
1975 William Hampton CFL defensive back (Calgary Stampeders)
1977 Ludmila Richterova Kosice Slovakia, tennis star (1995 Bournemouth)

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Deaths which occurred on March 07:
322 -BC- Aristotle dies
0161 Antoninus Pius [Titus Aurelius], emperor of Rome (138-61), dies at 74
1040 Harold I King of England (1035-40), dies
1111 Bohemund I of Tarente French ruler of Antioch, dies
1274 St Thomas Aquinas Italian thelogian dies at 48
1305 Gwijde van Dampierre count of Flanders/count of Namur, dies at 78
1719 Steven J Vennekool Amsterdam's master builder, buried
1724 Innocent XIII [Michelangiolo dei Conti], Pope (1721-24), dies at 68
1737 Guido Starhemberg Austrian earl/fieldmarshal, dies at 79
1750 Cornelis Troost Dutch painter (Beslikte Zwaentje), dies at 52
1761 Antonio Palella composer, dies at 68
1786 Frantisek Benda composer, dies at 76
1802 Johann Georg Witthauer composer, dies at 50
1804 John Wedgwood founder (Royal Horticulture Society), dies
1809 Johann Georg Albrechtsberger Austrian composer, dies at 73
1810 Albertus H Wiese Governor-General of Netherland Indies, dies at about 48
1833 Rahel Varnhagen von Ense-Levin German author, dies at 61
1842 Christian Theodor Weinlig composer, dies at 61
1862 Ben McCulloch US Confederate Brigadier-General (KIA), dies at 50
1862 John Baillie McIntosh US General-Major (Union Army), dies at 32
1862 William Slack US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle
1907 Victor Alphonse Duvernoy composer, dies at 64
1911 Antonio Fogazzarro Italian writer/poet (Il Santo, Leila), dies at 68
1924 Pat Moran manager (Cincinnati Reds), dies of Bright's Disease
1926 Jindrich Z Albestu Kaan composer, dies at 73
1931 Akseli V Gallen-Kallela Finnish painter/illustrator, dies at 65
1931 Theo van Doesburg [Christian Kupper], painter/architect, dies at 47
1932 Aristide Briand 11 x premier of France (Nobel 1926), dies at 69
1939 Amadeo Roldan composer, dies at 38
1941 Arnold Schering German musicologist, dies at 63
1941 Günther Prien German commandant (U-47), dies in battle
1945 Adolf Bartels German writer/racist, dies at 82
1951 Ali Razmara Shah of Iran (1950-51), assassinated
1951 Ivor Novello British writer (Keep the Home Fires Burning), dies at 58
1951 Shah Ali Razmara of Iran assassinated
1951 Shah Ali Razmara of Iran, assassinated
1955 Tom Dugan actor (Pick a Star), dies at 66
1959 Arthur C Pigou English economist (Economics of Welfare), dies
1959 Hinsdale Smith developer of roll-down auto windows, dies at 88
1961 Englebert van Anderlecht Belgian painter, dies at 42
1961 Max Hymans WWII resistance fighter/Head of Air France, dies at 60
1964 Franz Alexander Hungarian/US psycho analyst, dies at 73
1968 Yuri Aleksayevich Gagarin USSR cosmonaut (Vostok I), dies at 31
1973 André de Meulemeester Belgian WWI pilot [Eagle of Flanders], dies at 78
1975 Ben Blue actor (Accidental Family, Frank Sinatra Show), dies at 73
1975 Francine Larrimore actress (John Meade's Woman), dies at 76
1976 Erwin Kroll composer, dies at 90
1979 Guiomar Novaes pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), dies at 84
1979 Klaus Egge Norwegian composer (Fanitullen), dies at 72
1981 John Gnagy artist (Learn to Draw), dies at 73
1981 Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin Russian conductor/composer, dies at 67
1982 Charles Borromeo Mills composer, dies at 68
1983 Igor Markevich composer, dies at 70
1983 Robert Bray actor (Corey-Lassie, Simon-Stagecoach West), dies at 65
1985 George Schick Czechoslovakian conductor (Chicago Symphony), dies at 76
1985 Robert W Woodruff CEO (Coca-Cola), dies at 95
1985 Victor W Farris inventor of paper milk carton, etc, dies
1986 Jacob K Javits (Senator-Republican-NY), dies in Palm Beach FL at 81
1988 Divine [Harris Glenn Milstead] transvestite actor (Hairspray, Polyester, Pink Flamingos), dies in Los Angeles at 42
1988 Robert Livingston actor (Lone Ranger), dies at 83 of emphysema
1990 Max Neuhaus composer, dies at 50
1993 Arnold Franchetti Ital/US composer, dies
1993 Earl Wrightson singer/actor (Pinafore), dies of heart failure at 77
1993 Tony Harris cricketer (8 Tests for South Africa 1947-49, 100 runs), dies
1995 Don Cook British foreign correspondent, dies at 74
1995 Jaap van den Hurk TV-director (NCRV), dies
1995 Jacques Lefebvre Belgian air force general, commits suicide at 64
1995 John Arthur Neill Lambert composer teacher organist, dies at 69
1995 Paul-Emile Victor French pole explorer, dies at 87
1995 Thijmen Kuijt resistance fighter/co-found paper (Typhoon), dies at 82
1996 Aled Eames maritime historian, dies at 74

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On this day...
1138 Conrad II von Hohenstaufen re-elected German king
1530 King Henry VIII's divorce request is denied by the Pope Henry then declares that he, not the Pope, is supreme head of England's church
1560 Christian fleet under Gian Andrea lands at Djerba, N Africa
1573 Turkey & Venice signs peace treaty
1621 John Pieterszoon Coen's troops land on Lontor, East Indies
1633 Prince Frederik Henry appoints himself viceroy of Limburg
1644 Massachusetts establishes 1st 2-chamber legislature in colonies
1696 English King Willem III departs Netherlands
1774 British close port of Boston to all commerce
1778 Captain James Cook 1st sights Oregon coast, at Yaquina Bay
1801 Massachusetts enacts 1st state voter registration law
1808 Portugal's regent Dom Juan IV arrives in Rio De Janeiro
1824 Meyerbeers opera "Il Crociati in Egitto" premieres in Venice
1835 HMS Beagle returns from Concepción to Valparaiso
1843 1st Catholic Governor in US, Edward Kavanagh of Maine, takes office
1847 US General Scott occupies Vera Cruz Mexico
1848 In Hawaii, Great Mahele (division of lands) signed
1850 Daniel Webster endorses Compromise of 1850
1851 Poll tax levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia ends
1852 Dutch telegraph traffic regulated by law
1854 Charles Miller patents 1st US sewing machine to stitch buttonholes
1857 Baseball decides 9 innings constitutes an official game, not 9 runs
1862 Battle of Elkhorn Tavern, Day 2, Generals McCulloch & McIntosh killed
1865 Battles round Kinston NC
1870 Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1st pro BB team, begin 8-mo tour of Midwest & East
1872 -8º F in Boston MA
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents telephone
1876 Battle at Gura: Ethiopian emperor Yohannes beats Egyptians
1896 Gilbert & Sullivan's last operette "Grand Duke" premieres in London
1900 Battle at Poplar Grove South Africa, President Kruger flees
1900 Stanley Cup: Montréal Shamrocks sweep Halifax Crescents in 2 games
1902 Boers beat British troop in Tweebosch Transvaal
1906 Finnish Senate accepts universal suffrage, except for poor
1908 Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before city council & announced that, "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles"
1911 US sent 20,000 troops to Mexican border
1911 Willis Farnsworth, Petaluma CA, patents coin-operated locker
1912 Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole
1914 Prince Wilhelm von Wied becomes King of Albania
1917 1st jazz record "Dixie Jazz Band One Step", recorded by Nick LaRocca Original Dixieland Jazz Band, released by RCA Victor in Camden NJ
1918 H Carroll & J McCarthy's musical "Oh, Look!" premieres in New York NY
1918 President Wilson authorizes US Army's Distinguished Service Medal
1921 Red Army under Trotsky attack sailors of Kronstadt
1922 US Ladies Figure Skating Championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard
1922 US Men's Figure Skating Championship won by Sherwin Badger
1925 American Negro Congress organizes
1926 1st transatlantic telephone call (London-New York)
1927 Earthquake measuring 8 on Richter scale strikes Tango, Japan
1930 Georgetown High of Chicago defeats Homer 1-0 in basketball
1932 Riots at Ford-factory Dearborn MI, kills 4
1933 Game of "Monopoly" invented
1935 Saar incorporated into Germany
1936 Hitler breaks Treaty of Versailles, sends troops to Rhineland
1937 Bucharin, Jagoda & Rykov pushed out of CPSU in USSR
1939 Glamour magazine begins publishing
1939 Guy Lombardo & Royal Canadians 1st record "Auld Lang Syne"
1940 Montréal Canadiens lose record tying NHL 15th straight game at home
1940 Ray Steele beats B Nagurski in St Louis, to become wrestling champion
1941 3rd largest snowfall in New York NY history (18.1")
1941 50,000 British soldiers lands in Greece
1941 British troops invade Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
1942 15 Mk-VB Spitfires reach Malta
1942 1st cadets graduated from flying school at Tuskegee
1943 General-Major Patton arrives in Djebel Kouif Tunisia
1944 Japans begins offensive in Burma
1945 Cologne taken by allied armies
1945 US 9th Armoured Division attacks Remagen Germany, crosses Rhine
1945 Yugoslavia government of Tito forms
1946 "Three to Make Ready" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 323 performances
1946 Max Frisch' "Santa Cruz" premieres in Zürich
1950 World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in London won by Karol Kennedy & Peter Kennedy (USA)
1950 World Ladies Figure Skating Championship in London won by Alena Vrzanova (Czechoslovakia)
1950 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in London won by Richard Button (USA); this is his 3rd consecutive win
1951 Ezzard Charles wins 15-round heavyweight decision against Jersey Joe Walcott
1951 Lillian Hellman's "Autumn Garden" premieres in New York NY
1953 Jackie McGlew scores 255 vs New Zealand at Wellington
1954 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Open
1954 Russia wins title in their 1st international ice hockey competition
1955 7th Emmy Awards: Make Room for Daddy, Danny Thomas & Loretta Young
1955 Baseball commissioner Ford Frick says he favors legalization of spitter
1955 Mary Martin as "Peter Pan" televised
1958 Chicago Cardinals announce they will play their 1958 opener in Buffalo
1959 "Bells Are Ringing" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 925 performances
1959 1st aviator to fly a million miles (1.61 Mkm) in a jet (MC Garlow)
1959 West Indies all out 76 vs Pakistan at Dacca, Fazal Mahmood 6-34
1960 Dutch Builders strike for CLA
1962 Beatles made their broadcasting debut on BBC radio
1962 Launch of OSO 1, 1st astronomy satellite (solar flare data)
1965 Alabama state troopers & 600 black protestors clash in Selma
1965 Bruce Taylor takes 5-86 in debut innings for New Zealand after ton
1965 Christian-democrats win parliament in Chile
1966 "Wait A Minim!" opens at John Golden Theater NYC for 457 performances
1966 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 Clark Gesner's musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" premieres in New York NY
1967 Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa begins 8-year jail sentence for defrauding the union & jury tampering (commuted Dec 23, 1971)
1969 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1970 World Ice Dance Championship in Ljubljana won by Liudmila Pakhomova & Alexandr Gorshkov (USSR)
1970 World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Irina Rodnina & Alexei Ulanov (USSR)
1970 World Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Gabriele Seyfert (German Democratic Republic)
1970 World Men's Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana won by Tim Wood (USA)
1970 WXOW TV channel 19 in La Crosse WI (ABC) begins broadcasting
1971 Egypt refuses to renew the Suez ceasefire
1973 Comet (Lubos) Kohoutek discovered at Hamburg Observatory
1973 Sheik Mujib ur-Rahman's Awami League wins election in Bangladesh
1974 "Monitor" (US Civil War Ship) restored at Cape Hatteras NC
1974 1st general striking in Ethiopia
1975 Senate revises filibuster rule, allows 60 senators to limit debate
1975 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1976 Morocco & Mauretania break diplomatic relations with Algeria
1977 Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party wins elections
1977 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin meets President Carter
1978 Belgian baron Charles Bracht kidnapped
1978 Canuck's Ron Sedlbauer fails on 5th penalty shot against Islanders
1978 Dutch 2nd Chamber votes against neutron bomb
1979 Baseball exhibition season opens with semipro & amateur umpires
1979 Warren Giles & Hack Wilson selected to baseball Hall of Fame
1981 "Bring Back Birdie" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 4 performances
1981 1st homicide at Disneyland, 18 year old is stabbed to death
1982 Beth Daniel wins LPGA American Express Sun City Golf Classic
1982 Jarmilla Kratochvilova run world record 400 meter indoor (49.59 seconds)
1982 NCAA Tournament Selection televised live for 1st time
1983 TNN (The Nashville Network) begins on Cable TV
1985 IBM-PC DOS Version 3.1 (update) released
1986 South-Africa emergency crisis in Brabant & Limburg ends
1986 Wayne Gretzky breaks own NHL season record with 136th assist
1987 Gavaskar becomes 1st cricket batsman to score 10,000 Test runs
1987 Mike Tyson beats Bonecrusher Smith in 12 for heavyweight boxing title
1988 Howard Stern's 1st pay-per-view "Underpants & Negligee Party"
1988 Jim Abbott, 1-handed pitcher, wins 58th James E Sullivan Award
1989 Iran drops diplomatic relations with Britain over Salman Rushdie's book "The Satanic Verses"
1989 Partial eclipse of the Sun (Hawaii, NW North America, Greenland)
1990 3 passengers killed & 162 injured as subway train derails (Philadelphia)
1990 H Wayne Huizenga buys ½ Joe Robbie Stadium & 15% of Dolphins for $30M
1991 Iraq continues to explode oil fields in Kuwait
1992 Nicole Stevenson swims world record 200 meter backstroke (2 :6.78)
1993 23rd Easter Seal Telethon raises
1993 Diff'rent Stroke actor Todd Bridges arrested for stabbing a tenant
1994 8th American Comedy Awards: Carrot Top wins
1994 ANC chief Nelson Mandela rejects demand by white right-wingers for separate homeland in South Africa
1994 Charles Taylor resigns as President of Liberia
1994 David Platt appointed captain of English football team
1994 US Navy issues 1st permanent order assigning women on combat ship
1995 Dollar worth 1.5330 Dutch guilder (record)
1995 New York becomes 38th state to have the death penalty
1996 1st surface photos of Pluto (photographed by Hubble Space Telescope)
1996 British Steel in Workington wins Lithuanian multi-million £ order
1996 Magic Johnson is 2nd NBA player to reach 10,000 career assists
1997 11th Soul Train Music Awards
1997 5 sue Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, because his smoking has violated the country's constitution guaranteeing a wholesome life
1997 Athens, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Rome & Stockholm are finalists for 2004 Olympics site

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

California : Burbank Day/Bird & Arbor Day (1849)
Laos : Veteran's Day

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Religious Observances
Anglican, Lutheran, Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Perpetua & her companions, martyrs
old Roman Catholic, Lutheran : Commemoration of St Thomas Aquinas, confessor/dr [or 1321]

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Religious History
1638 Controversial colonial churchwoman Anne Hutchinson, 47, and nineteen other exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony settled in Rhode Island, at the site of modern Portsmouth.
1782 Ohio Territory militiamen began a two_day massacre of the Moravian Indian town of Gnadenhutten (modern New Philadelphia, Ohio). In all, 96 Christian Indians of the Delaware tribe were slaughtered, in retaliation for Indian raids made elsewhere in the Ohio Territory.
1802 In Washington, D.C., the first Baptist church was organized with six charter members. Their first pastor Obadiah Brown was hired five years later, and Brown remained in that pulpit while involving himself in every important local Baptist program for the next 43 years!
1825 Birth of Alfred Edersheim, English biblical scholar. Converted to Christianity from Judaism before age 20, Edersheim later published "The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah" (1883A90), a Christian classic still in print!
1867 Birth of Peter Cameron Scott, founder of the Africa Inland Mission. In 1895, Scott led the first band of missionaries to reach Kenya. He died in Africa the following year, at 29, of blackwater fever. Over 700 AIM missionaries have since followed in Scott's footsteps.

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Thought for the day :
"If you continually give you will continually have."

[SAMWolf]

1955 Mary Martin as "Peter Pan" televised

I remember seeing that, "I do believe in fairies". Before the term took on a different meaning.

[Valin]

If the difficulties posed by the terrain weren't bad enough, the weather, which had been so foul throughout Operation Killer, showed no signs of improving.

I am coming up on the 35th anniversary of one the worst nights in had in the AF.
March 24th
place Osan AFB
air temp., about 34 degrees
a mild spring zephyr blowing out of NK at about 847.3 mph
rain like it hasn't rained like the flood.
(my butt got wrinkled..[which is something I'm sure you wanted to know])
Me and Willy Good guarding the "special weapons" building.
A butter bar OD drives up cracks the window and in his freshly pressed fatigues asks us hows it going? Willy looks at him says (in a very quiet voice) leave...now..or die.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Cote.

When I was in grammar school my friends older brother was in Korea so even though I was too young to know what it was all about I new about Korea from him.

[SAMWolf]

A butter bar OD drives up cracks the window and in his freshly pressed fatigues asks us hows it going? Willy looks at him says (in a very quiet voice) leave...now..or die.

ROTFL!!

Thanks for your service and for going through miserable days like that for us Valin.

[GailA]

Afternoon FRiends. Today's graphic

[Jen]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

To be removed from this list, please send me a blank private reply with "REMOVE" in the subject line! Thanks! Jen

[SAMWolf]

Thank you, GailA.

I wish the Nation would start the tradition of hanging a blue start in the window for our young men and women in harms way again.

[SAMWolf]

Good afternoon, Jen

[EternalVigilance]

BUMP for later reading.

My father was there.

[A Navy Vet]

My apologies for not visiting more often. Bump for our Armed Services.