https://imgur.com/a/WOD4v8U
Posted on 10/12/2018 6:28:11 AM PDT by fugazi
Today's post is in honor of Capt. Dennis L. Pintor, who gave his life for our country on this day in 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq. The 30-year-old native of Lima, Ohio was killed when his vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. Pintor was assigned to the 20th Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division. Also killed in the attack were Spc. Jaime Moreno and Spc. Michael S. Weger.
1862: Confederate cavalry commander Gen. James Ewell Brown "J.E.B." Stuart completes his "second ride" around Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
1870: Five years after surrendering his Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Gen. Robert E. Lee passes away after suffering a stroke. The revered general served his country 44 years, fighting alongside Grant in the Mexican-American War, and against him in the Civil War.
1944: U.S. Army Air Force 1st Lt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager and his 357th Fighter Group surprise a flight of 22 Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters near Hanover, Germany. Yeager's P-51D "Mustang", named Glamorous Glenn II, Yeager will score five of the group's eight victories - two without firing a shot - becoming an "ace in a day." Yeager finishes World War II with 11.5 kills, and will go on to fly 127 missions during the Vietnam War. The former Army private will retire a Brigadier General in 1975, but continues flying for the Air Force and NASA.
That same day, aircraft from seven U.S. aircraft carriers of Carrier Task Force 38 attack targets on Japanese-held Formosa (modern-day Taiwan).
1945: President (and former artillery officer during World War I) Harry S. Truman awards the Medal of Honor to Cpl. Desmond Doss for saving the lives of 75 wounded soldiers on Okinawa's Hacksaw
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JEB Stuart literally rode circles around Maclellan.
1870: “Strike the Tents”.
Thanks for your service!
Thank you!!
That's not unusual in aviation because of driving laws. General Yeager probably knew how to drive, but was unlicensed, the same situation with my son, "Ace." He had to ride his bike to the airport to "solo." He had not completed the academic requirements yet.
He grew up dirt poor in West Virginia, so it’s possible he wasn’t around vehicles, but it would be interesting to know for sure. Fascinating that our country lept forward in technology so fast during Yeager’s life that we went from using animals for most of our transportation needs to flying many times faster than the speed of sound, and then created rockets to shoot us to the moon.
Question from ignorance: how does a fighter pilot drop an enemy plane without firing a shot?
Good question... When your tactics force them to crash. Without having looked at the report of Yeager’s actions, the Luftwaffe pilots probably dove low for cover and ran into the ground while trying to evade him, or its also possible the two planes collided.
Yeager was the first man to shoot down a jet. And he did it in a P-51.
He caught an ME-262 on short final and “dirtied-up” for landing. Gear down, flaps down and throttled back. Early turbojet engines had lots of “turbine lag,” which made them notoriously slow to spool up. So it was high on drag and low on power and it was going to require several seconds to change that.
It was a sitting duck. And he showed it no mercy.
OK, that makes sense; thank you!
Yep. Sad day for Honor.
Thanks, just cant believe it’s been 30 years since I went in. And, I’d do it again, if I could.
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