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Cherokee Stand Watie exhibited bravery and leadership while fighting for two lost causes.

Always a clear-thinking man, even on a day when kinsmen were murdered and vengeful fellow Cherokees dogged his heels, Stand Watie knew that he had to maintain a straight face and stay calm if he wanted to remain alive.

The son of an old friend had ridden from one of three murder scenes and brought him a warning. The youth remained collected and spoke calmly with Watie, who was inside a small store he kept in northeastern Indian Territory. Knowing that enemies could be listening, the young man bargained loudly for sugar and softly told Watie what had happened and where to find the horse called Comet standing bridled and ready. Deliberately, Watie left the store and rode off safely. He would remain in jeopardy for almost six years.

The murders, which took place on the morning of June 22, 1839, pushed Watie into the leadership of a small and unpopular Cherokee faction for the rest of his life. The tribal majority blamed Watie and his faction for the removal of the Cherokees along what became known as the Trail of Tears. Watie's uncle, the prominent chief Major Ridge, Watie's cousin John Ridge and Watie's brother Elias Boudinot (also known as Buck Watie) all died that day in the new Cherokee Nation in the West. Stand Watie faced few worse days in his adventurous and violent life that saw him become a Confederate brigadier general. On the losing side twice in his life, he had intimate familiarity with dashed hopes and lost causes.

The Cherokees, linguistic kinsmen of the Iroquois, numbered about 30,000 in 1605 and lived in what is now Georgia, Tennessee and western North Carolina. Smallpox and other diseases struck often in the 1700s. By 1800, the Cherokee population was probably about 16,000. In the Georgia Compact of 1802, Georgia gave up the land that became Alabama and Mississippi with the understanding that the federal government would force the Cherokees west. The Cherokees refused, and Washington stalled. Most of the tribe decided that assimilation gave them the best hope to stay in their homeland. Cherokees began to take on white ways, seeking education, material profit and cultural interchange. Assimilation, though, didn't work as planned. Growing economic power on the part of the Cherokees enraged white Georgians, who redoubled expulsion efforts.

Major Ridge

To some natives the solution was obvious, and one-third of the tribe had moved west of the Mississippi River by 1820. They were eventually pushed all the way to what would become Oklahoma. The bulk of the tribe went to court, and the debate over relocation simmered. Meanwhile, the tribe (which numbered about 14,000 in the Southeast in the mid-1820s) began to suffer a debilitating internal split. Perhaps 20 percent of the Cherokee people successfully adapted to white lifestyles, some becoming affluent Southern slave-owning planters.

Among the most prominent slave-owning Cherokee aristocrats were the Watie and Ridge families. The faction of the tribe headed by the Ridges and Waties owned most of the estimated 1,600 slaves held by tribesmen. Cherokee slave owners tended to work side by side with their chattels, children were born free, and intermarriage was not forbidden. Only about 8 percent of tribal members (1 percent of full-blooded families) actually owned slaves. Because of the influence of mission schools, many Cherokees were intensely anti-slavery. Poorer than the Ridge-Watie faction, the traditionalists had neither the money nor the inclination to move West.

In 1827, the Cherokees created their first central government to better deal with the white world. At a convention the next year, John Ross was elected principal chief--a post he held until his death in 1866. Ross, born in 1796 in Tennessee, was mostly Scottish, having only one-eighth Cherokee blood. But he was Cherokee to the core and enormously popular.

His rivals turned out to be the sons of old-time full bloods. Major Ridge and his brother, David Watie (or Oowatie), were descended from warrior chiefs. Both men married genteel white women and rose in society, dressing and acting like planters. The family was close, and family members wrote more often and better than most whites of the time. Some 2,000 family letters were found in 1919. Following Sequoyah's development of a syllabary in 1821, Cherokees took enthusiastically to reading and writing. When Stand Watie began writing is not certain, but his only surviving letters date to the Civil War.

Stand Watie was born in Georgia, probably in 1806; his early life is obscure. He was educated at a mission school, but less thoroughly than his brother Elias Boudinot, who was born Buck Watie but took the name of a white benefactor. Elias became a newspaper editor, and Stand held the job briefly during his brother's absence. Stand Watie married several times, losing a number of wives and children to disease. The family did not record dates and details.

Watie's rivalry with John Ross, whose bywords were unity and opposition to removal, slowly began to grow after 1832. Most of the Cherokees who had not moved West in the removal treaties of 1817 and 1819 continued to be against relocation, and Ross was their spokesman. The Ridge faction thought relocation to be in the best interests of the people. Major Ridge, a full-blooded Cherokee, and his son John Ridge felt that the educated and wealthy Cherokees could probably survive in Georgia but that the others would be led into drunkenness and then cheated and oppressed. War would be the inevitable result. Each faction thought the other was corrupt. The Ridge-Watie party allied itself with U.S. President Andrew Jackson and his supporters, and connived behind the backs of the Cherokee councilmen, who usually opposed them.

Saladin Ridge Watie, son of Stand Watie, enlisted in the Confederate service at fifteen and rose to the rank of captain in his father's Confederate Indian brigade. He was cited for exceptional bravery by Gen. D.H. Cooper at the 1864 attack on Union forces at Fort Smith AR. He served on the Southern Cherokee delegation to Washington in 1866. Saladin died of a sudden illness at Webber's Falls in 1868 -- only 21 years old.

The atmosphere became poisonous as rival Cherokee delegations went to Washington, D.C., with different plans, and President Jackson played both sides against each other--fostering allegations of bribe-taking. In 1835 the issue came to a head. Ridge's faction helped draft a treaty that would require Cherokee removal west of the Mississippi in return for about $5 million. Ross and the council rejected the treaty, holding out for $20 million and other terms; they would not move on Ridge-Watie terms. By October it was clear that most Cherokees sided with Ross. It was also clear that the government would not pay $20 million.

Then, in December 1835, the Ridge-Watie party committed what amounted to suicide. Major Ridge, John Ridge and the Watie brothers were the only prominent Cherokees to sign the Treaty of New Echota, in Georgia, on December 29. A free-blanket offer attracted some 300 to 500 people--probably 3 percent of the tribe--to the signing place. Only about 80 to 100 people eligible to vote were present. Ross and the legitimate council were nowhere near. The treaty was roundly denounced--even by such unlikely allies as Davy Crockett and Daniel Webster. Cherokees in the East had to leave the Southeast in return for a payment of $15 million and 800,000 acres in Indian Territory (in what would become northeastern Oklahoma and part of Kansas). The Cherokees were to be removed within two years. The Ridge-Watie faction ("treaty party") thought the terms generous--that they had gotten a good price.

Whether or not the terms were generous, the treaty was a disgrace, as it was opposed by some 90 percent of the tribe. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the treaty invalid, but President Jackson refused to void it. The Martin van Buren administration did likewise. Ross and his "anti-treaty party" fought a losing court battle, and they were not well-prepared for removal when it began. In 1837, only about 2,000 Cherokees went West; most of the others held out, perhaps not believing they would be forced to leave their homeland.

The so-called Trail of Tears (the Cherokees called it Nunna daul Tsuny, "Trail Where We Cried") came in 1838, when Federal troops and Georgia militia removed the holdout tribe members to Indian Territory (about 1,000 avoided capture by hiding in the mountains). As many as 4,000 Cherokees may have died from disease, hunger, cold and deliberate brutality by volunteer Georgia troops and regulars led by a reluctant General Winfield Scott. The Ridge-Watie parties had been among the first to depart to the new country, arriving in 1837. They had gone in comfort and had located themselves on choice Indian Territory land. Because most of the Cherokees who followed suffered during the migration and after their arrival in the West, resentment against the Ridges and Waties grew.

More than 100 members of the anti-treaty party met at Double Springs on June 21 and pronounced death sentences in secret--outside the council and without vested authority--purportedly to keep John Ross from finding out about their plans. Either Ross had reached the end of his patience with his enemies--or he simply could do nothing to stop the killings.

On June 29, 1995, the U.S. Post Office issue a set of 20 commemorative stamps showign 16 individuals and 4 battles of the U.S. Civil War. Brigadier General Stand Watie (1806-1870) was one of the individuals selected to appear on the stamps. He is pictured here, on horseback, following a raid on a Union river boat.

Death came early and with ritual touches for John Ridge at his Indian Territory home on Honey Creek, near the northwest corner of Arkansas. About 30 killers dragged him from his bed and into his front yard around dawn on June 22. They knifed him repeatedly before his distraught family. Old Major Ridge, John's father, was ambushed a few hours later while riding past a small bluff on the road to Washington County, Ark. Rifle-toting bushwhackers opened fire, hitting him five times. Boudinot, at about the same time, was going about his daily work, helping a friend build a house near Park Hill, some miles from John Ridge's house. Three Cherokees approached him and told him they needed to get medicine. Because Boudinot's tribal responsibilities included providing medicine, he followed, unsuspecting. One of the men quickly dropped behind him and stabbed him in the back. Another axed him in the head.

Boudinot's brother, Stand Watie, was also apparently marked for death that day. But Boudinot's cries on being stabbed were heard by friends. The youth who delivered the warning to Watie was probably the son of the Reverend S.A. Worcester, a family friend. Watie's store was close to John Ridge's home.

Because John Ross was proud of his ties to the average Cherokee and was very popular among them, he was in a difficult position. He repudiated the murders, but he did not turn the killers in and may actually have hidden some of them. He denied complicity and does not appear to have been directly involved. Former President Jackson wrote to Watie and condemned "the outrageous and tyrannical conduct of John Ross and his self-created council....I trust the President will not hesitate to employ all his rightfull [sic] power to protect you and your party from the tyranny and murderous schemes of John Ross."

Old Cherokee National Capitol Building, Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Jackson didn't curb his habit of speaking from both sides of his mouth. He urged Watie to make peace but endorsed seeking vengeance if Watie didn't get what he wanted. Watie formed a band of warriors, and Ross complained to Washington that he had to go armed among friends. The government ordered Watie to disband his followers, to little avail.

Until 1846 the Cherokees were involved in a murderous internal feud. As chief of his segment of the tribe, Watie authorized retaliation, and vengeance murders were common. Legend has encrusted Watie's activities, giving him heroic courage and coolness and deadly fighting skills. His most documented exploit occurred in an Arkansas grocery where he confronted James Foreman, an alleged killer of Major Ridge. The two men had threatened each other frequently, but this day they bought each other a drink. A challenge was quickly issued, and the drinks were hurled aside. Foreman had a big whip, which he used against Watie. Watie stabbed Foreman when Foreman tried to hit him with a board. He then shot and killed the escaping Foreman. Watie successfully argued self-defense at his trial.

The tribal situation was brutal. In one letter to Watie, a relative recounted family news that included four treaty-related killings (and two scalpings), three hangings for previous killings and two kidnappings. The letter said that intertribal murders were so common "the people care as little about hearing these things as they would hear of the death of a common dog."

The Cherokees made internal peace in 1846--Watie and Ross reputedly shaking hands--and sought to rebuild tribal prosperity in the West. Times were improving until the Civil War. Stand Watie was a member of the Cherokee Tribal Council from 1845 to 1861. He declared his support for the Confederacy early on, but Ross resisted at first. The Confederacy was successful in seeking alliances with Comanches, Seminoles, Osages, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Creeks. Ross was finally forced into the Confederate alliance.

Watie raised a cavalry regiment and served the South with distinction and enthusiasm. Another Cherokee regiment served under John Drew. In all, about 3,000 Cherokee men served the Confederacy during the war. Watie was beloved by die-hard Confederates. Judge James M. Keyes of Pryor, Okla., said: "I regard General Stand Watie as one of the bravest and most capable men, and the foremost soldier ever produced by the North American Indians. He was wise in council and courageous in action."

Watie fought most of the war at the head of a band of very irregular cavalry. He led with dash and imagination as they ambushed trains, steamships and Union cavalry. He also fought in one major battle.

On March 7-8, 1862, Watie was part of Confederate Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn's army of 16,000 men. They were in the region of Fayatteville, Ark., trying to encircle the right flank of Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis' 12,000-man army. Curtis, who was on the defensive about 30 miles northeast of Fayatteville at Pea Ridge, discovered the plan and spoiled the offensive. Van Dorn withdrew after two days of stubborn fighting, but Pea Ridge cemented Watie's reputation. He captured a Union battery after a dramatic charge, and also proved skillful in withdrawal, helping to prevent a disaster. One of his soldiers said: "I don't know how we did it but Watie gave the order, which he always led, and his men could follow him into the very jaws of death. The Indian Rebel Yell was given and we fought like tigers three to one. It must have been that mysterious power of Stand Watie that led us on to make the capture against such odds."

After the Battle of Pea Ridge, Drew's regiment deserted the Confederacy. Watie, though, stuck to the Southern cause. Untrained as a soldier, he had good sense and cunning and was an effective guerrilla. "Stand Watie and his men, with the Confederate Creeks and others, scoured the country at will, destroying or carrying off everything belonging to the loyal Cherokee," wrote 19th-century anthropologist James Mooney. Watie was promoted to brigadier general on May 10, 1864, and on June 23, 1865, was the last Southern general to capitulate. Watie returned to absolute devastation. (According to Mooney, the Cherokee population during the war was reduced from 21,000 to 14,000.) Watie then fought some losing postwar battles. He was rebuffed in his bid for federal recognition as Cherokee chief and was also rebuffed in efforts to rebuild his fortunes.

Watie's last years were careworn as his family dropped around him. All his sons died before he died on September 9, 1871, and his two young daughters followed in 1873. But Confederate veterans and sympathetic writers kept Watie's legend alive. He became the example of devotion to "the Cause." Even enemy Cherokees came to respect his devotion to his beliefs, and "Stand" and "Watie" became common Cherokee first names.

Watie had displayed unfailing courage, devotion, constant optimism and good humor--at least according to his friends. He never, they say, had a harsh word for his family and never gave way to despair or dejection. In reality he was not a shining cavalier--his Indian troops sometimes reverted to scalping and torture. He clearly was involved in shameful political skullduggery. But he was a man who fought hard for his beliefs and stuck to his guns even when the odds were against him. He had supported two lost causes--the Ridges and then the Confederacy--but he had never given up.

JIM STEBINGER (WILD WEST magazine)

Additional Sources:

members.cox.net/confed
www.lsb.state.ok.us
cherokeehistory.com
www.nostalg66.com
www.georgiahistory.ws
nativeamericans.com
ngeorgia.com/people
www.starshiplight.com
www.civilwaralbum.com
www.turtletrack.org
www.ehistory.com
www.south-art.com
www.ok-history.mus.ok.us
www.cville.com

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg	Freepers/Avg	Monthlies
52	Hawaii	20.00	1	20.00	44	0.45	45.00	3

Today's classic warship, USS West Virginia (BB-48)

Colorado class battleship

displacement. 33,590 t.
length. 624'0"
beam. 97' 3 1/2"
draft. 30'6"
speed. 21.0 k.
complement. 1,407
armament. 8 16", 12 6", 8 3", 4 6-pdrs., 2 21" tt.

The USS West Virginia (Battleship No. 48) was laid down on 12 April 1920 by the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. of Newport News, Va.; reclassified to BB-48 on 17 July 1920; launched on 17 November 1921; sponsored by Miss Alice Wright Mann, daughter of Isaac T. Mann, a prominent West Virginian; and commissioned on 1 December 1923, Capt. Thomas J. Senn in command.

The most recent of the "super-dreadnoughts," West Virginia embodied the latest knowledge of naval architecture; the water-tight compartmentation of her hull and her armor protection marked an advance over the design of battleships built or on the drawing boards before the Battle of Jutland.

During the 1920s and 1930s, she served in the U.S. Fleet, taking part in "Fleet Problems" and other exercises as part of the continuing effort to develop tactics and maintain the Navy's combat readiness. With much of the rest of the Fleet, she deployed to New Zealand and Australia in 1925 in an important demonstration of the Navy's trans-Pacific strategic "reach".

West Virginia's base was moved to Pearl Harbor in 1940, and she was there on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese attacked with an overwhelming force of carrier aircraft. In that raid, the battleship was hit by two bombs and at least seven torpedoes, which blew huge holes in her port side. Skillful damage control saved her from capsizing, but she quickly sank to the harbor bottom. More than a hundred of her crew were lost.

With a patch over the damaged area of her hull, the battleship was pumped out and ultimately refloated on 17 May 1942, and docked in Drydock Number One on 9 June. During the ensuing repairs, workers located 70 bodies of West Virginia sailors who had been trapped below when the ship sank. In one compartment, a calendar was found, the last scratch-off date being 23 December. The task confronting the nucleus crew and shipyard workers was a monumental one, so great was the damage on the battleship's port side. Ultimately, however, West Virginia departed Pearl Harbor for the west coast and a complete rebuilding at the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Bremerton, Wash.

The battleship emerged from the shipyard in July 1944 completely changed in appearance, with a wider hull, and massively improved anti-aircraft gun battery. West Virginia arrived in the Pacific combat zone in October, and soon was participating in pre-invasion bombardment of Leyte, in the Philippines. On 25 October, as a force of Japanese battleships and smaller vessels attempted to make a night attack on the landing area, she was one of the ships that stopped them in the Battle of Surigao Strait, the last time in World history when battleships engaged battleships with their big guns.

Subsequently, West Virginia took part in operations to capture Mindoro, Lingayen Gulf, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, using her sixteen-inch guns to support U.S. ground forces. On 1 April 1945, while off Okinawa, she was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze plane but was able to remain in action, continuing her bombardment duties there into June. After Japan's capitulation, West Virginia supported the occupation effort until mid-September. She participated in Operation "Magic Carpet" during the last part of 1945, bringing home veterans of the Pacific war. Inactive after early 1946, she was decommissioned in January 1947. Following twelve years in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, USS West Virginia was sold for scrapping in August 1959.

West Virginia (BB-48), although heavily damaged at Pearl Harbor and missing much of the war, nevertheless earned five battle stars.

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on January 05:
1592 Shah Jahan Mughal emperor of India (1628-58), built Taj Mahal
1759 Jacques Cathelineau French royalist/army leader
1769 Jean Baptiste Say French economist (Political Economics)
1779 Stephen Decatur US, naval hero (War of 1812)
1779 Zebulon Montgomery Pike explorer (Pike's Peak)
1787 John Burke Irish genealogist (Burke's Peerage)
1813 Thomas Neville Waul Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1903
1822 Joseph Brevard Kershaw Major General (Confederate Army), died in 1894
1828 August Valentine Kautz Brevet Major General (Union Army), died in 1895
1846 Rudolf Christoph Eucken Germany, Idealist philosopher (Nobel 1908)
1848 Khristo Botev hero of Bulgarian revolt against Turkey, poet
1855 King Camp Gillette inventor (safety razor)
1859 DeWitt B Brace inventor (spectrophotometer)
1874 Joseph Erlanger doctor (shock therapy-Nobel 1944)
1876 Konrad Adenauer Cologne Germany, chancellor of Germany (1949)
1895 Jeannette Piccard balloonist/Episcopal priest
1901 Mario Scelba premier Italy (1954-55)
1906 Kathleen Kenyon 1st person to place date on remains of Jericho
1914 George Reeves [George Lescher Bessolo], actor (Superman)
1918 Jeanne Dixon Medford WI, psychic (Gift of Prophecy)
1923 Sam Phillips musician/record company founder (Sun)
1928 Walter Fritz Mondale (Senator-D-MN)/42nd Vice President (1977-81)
1931 Robert Duvall San Diego CA, actor (Great Santini, Taxi Driver)
1932 Chuck Noll Cleveland OH, NFL coach (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1932 Umberto Eco author (Name of the Rose)
1938 Juan Carlos I king of Spain (1975- )
1938 Edwin Elliason Washington, US archer (Olympics-92)
1942 Charlie Rose Henderson NC, newscaster (CBS Night Watch)
1945 Sam Wyche NFL coach (Cincinnati Bengals)
1945 Jimmy Page (musician: group: Led Zeppelin)
1946 Diane Keaton Louisiana, actress (Annie Hall, Little Drummer Girl)
1953 Pamela Sue Martin Westport CT, actress (Nancy Drew, Fallon-Dynasty)

Deaths which occurred on January 05:
1066 King Edward the Confessor of England, dies
1387 Pedro IV king of Aragon/conqueror of Sicily, dies at 67
1477 Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy/writer, dies at 43
1589 Catherine de' Medici Queen mother of France, dies at 69
1796 Samuel Huntington US judge (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 64
1904 Karl A von Zittel German geologist/paleontologist (Libya), dies at 64
1922 Sir Ernest Shackleton Antarctic explorer (Endurance), dies aboard his ship at 47
1933 Calvin Coolidge 30th President (1923-29), dies in Northampton MA at 60
1943 George Washington Carver famous black American agricultural scientist dies at 81
1963 Rogers Hornsby baseball player, dies of a heart ailment at 66
1970 Joseph A Yablonski candidate for United Mine Workers president, murdered
1971 Sonny Liston World Champ heavyweight boxer (1962-64), found dead at 36
1982 Hans Conried actor (Bullwinkle Show, Make Room for Daddy), dies at 64
1982 Harvey Lembeck actor (Phil Silvers, Hathaways), dies at 56
1988 "Pistol Pete" Mavarich NBAer (Atlanta), dies of a heart attack at 40
1993 Westley A Dodd US murderer, 1st hanging in US since 1965
1994 Thomas P "Tip" O'Neill (D-MA)/Speaker of House (1977-86), dies at 81
1995 Yahya Ayyash PLO bomb maker, booby trapped cellular phone at 28
1998 Sonny Bono (Representative-R-CA)/singer (Sonny & Cher), dies skiing at 62

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1967 STRATTON RICHARD A.---QUINCY MA.
[03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 ANTON FRANCIS G.---WILLINBORO NJ.
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1968 BRIGGS ERNEST F.---DEVINE TX.
[NO SIGN OF CREW]
1968 FOULKS RALPH E.---RIDGECREST CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 12 JAN 93]
1968 FANTLE SAMUEL---SIOUX FALLS SD.
[09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV]
1968 GALLAGHER JOHN T.---HAMDEN CT.
[NO SIGN OF CREW]
1968 HAMILTON DENNIS C.---BARNES CITY IA.
[NO SIGN OF CREW]
1968 HARTNEY JAMES C.---FORT LAUDERDALE FL.
[REMAINS RETMAINS 11/20/89]
1968 JONES WILLIAM E.---FORT WORTH TX.
[REMAINS RECOVERED 08/14/85]
1968 LEWIS ROBERT III---HOUSTON TX.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 PFISTER JAMES F. JR.---INDIANAPOLIS IN.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 SCHULTZ SHELDON D.---ALTOONA PA.
[NO SIGN OF CREW]
1968 SCHWEITZER ROBERT J.---ORELAND PA.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED]
1968 WILLIAMSON JAMES D.---TUMWATER WA.
[NO SIGN OF CREW]
1970 BURNES ROBERT WAYNE---EDMOND OK.
1970 ROBINSON LARRY WARREN---RANDOLPH NE.
1971 CRAMER DONALD M.---ST LOUIS MO.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1463 French poet François Villon banished from Paris
1477 Battle at Nancy, Burgundy vs Switzerland, 7000+ killed
1500 Duke Ludovico Sforza's troops reconquer Milan
1531 Pope Clemens VII forbids English king Henry VIII to re-marry
1554 Great fire in Eindhoven Netherlands
1638 Petition in Recife Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues
1719 England/Hannover/Saxony-Poland/Austria sign anti-Prussian/Russian pact
1757 Failed assassination attempt on French king Louis XV by Damiens
1776 Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state constitution
1781 British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond VA
1800 1st Swedenborgian temple in US holds 1st service, Baltimore MD
1804 Ohio legislature passes 1st laws restricting free blacks movement
1815 Federalists from all over New England, angered over the War of 1812, draw up the Hartford Convention, demanding several important changes in the U.S. Constitution
1834 Kiowa Indians record this as the night the stars fell
1836 Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo
1841 James Clark Ross (UK) is 1st to enter pack ice near Ross Ice Shelf
1861 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Fort Sumter
1892 1st successful auroral photograph made
1895 French Captain Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, publicly stripped of his rank; later declared innocent
1896 German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen's discovers x-rays
1903 San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable opens for public use
1904 -34ºF (-36.7ºC), River Vale NJ (state record)
1904 -42ºF (-41.1ºC), Smethport PA (state record)
1905 Charles Perrine announces discovery of Jupiter's 7th satellite, Elara
1905 National Association of Audubon Society incorporates
1909 Colombia recognizes Panamá's independence
1911 Portuguese expel Jesuits
1914 James Cox of Ford Motor Co announces wages will jump from $2.40/9-hour day to $5.00/8-hour day
1916 Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro
1918 British premier Lloyd George demand for unified peace
1919 National Socialist Party (Nazi) forms as German Farmers Party
1925 Nellie Taylor Ross became Governor of Wyoming, 1st woman governor in USA
1927 Judge Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges that 4 games played between Chicago & Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to White Sox
1933 Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, on Marin County side
1937 Only unicameral state legislature in US opens 1st session (Nebraska)
1942 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
1945 Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Bros cartoon "Odor-able Kitty"
1949 President Harry S Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal"
1951 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Ponte Vedra Beach Women's Golf Open
1955 KMSP TV channel 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul MN (IND) 1st broadcast
1956 Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel"
1957 Eisenhower asks Congress to send troops to the Mid East
1959 "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres on TV
1961 US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
1964 Pope Paul VI visits Jordan & Israel
1968 U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation Niagara I to locate enemy units around the Marine base at Khe Sanh
1968 Dr Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate draft law
1970 Soap Opera "All My Children" premieres on ABC
1971 Harlem Globetrotters lose 100-99 to New Jersey Reds, ending 2,495-game win streak
1972 President Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on manned shuttle
1973 Mali & Niger break diplomatic relations with Israel
1976 "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" premieres on PBS
1979 Vietnamese troops occupy Phnom Penh and the Cambodian ruler Pol Pot is ousted from power
1981 "Nightline" with Ted Koppel extended from 20 minutes to 30 minutes
1993 Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame
1998 Ice storm knocks out electricity in Québec & Ontario
1998 Vandals decapitate Copenhagen's Little Mermaid

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

Bird Day (1905)
England : Glastonbury Thorn Day
Scotland : Handsel Monday
US : Diet Resolution Week (Day 5)
US : Pun Week (Day 2)
National Egg Month

Religious Observances
Christian : 12th Night, end of Christmas season (Denmark)
Christian : Epiphany Eve
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Telesphorus, 8th pope (125-136), martyr
Roman Catholic : Feast of St Simeon Stylites
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St John Neumann, bishop of Philadelphia
Lutheran : Commemoration of Kaj Munk, martyr
Jewish : Asarah B'Tevet (Siege of Jerusalem); Tevet 10, 5761

Religious History
1527 Swiss Anabaptist reformer Felix Manz, 29, was drowned in punishment for preaching adult (re-)baptism. Manz's death made him the first Protestant in history to be martyred at the hands of other Protestants.
1839 Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'There is nothing like a calm look into the eternal world to teach us the emptiness of human praise.'
1949 U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: 'Our Father in heaven, give us the long view of our work and our world. Help us to see that it is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.'
1922 Following her sensational divorce, popular American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, 32, resigned her denominational ordination and returned her fellowship papers to the General Council of the Assemblies of God.
1964 Following an unprecedented pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Paul VI met with Greek Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem. It was the first such meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in over 500 years (since 1439).

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"Skill is successfully walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Intelligence is not trying"

Question of the day...
A stitch in time saves nine what?

Murphys Law of the day...(Horngren's Observation,generalized)
The real world is a special case.

Astonishing fact #57,904...
The oldest word in the English language is "town"

Air Power
Boeing AH-64 "Apache"

The Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) (formerly Hughes) AH-64A Apache is the Army's primary attack helicopter. It is a quick-reacting, airborne weapon system that can fight close and deep to destroy, disrupt, or delay enemy forces. The Apache is designed to fight and survive during the day, night, and in adverse weather throughout the world. The principal mission of the Apache is the destruction of high-value targets with the HELLFIRE missile. It is also capable of employing a 30MM M230 chain gun and Hydra 70 (2.75 inch) rockets that are lethal against a wide variety of targets. The Apache has a full range of aircraft survivability equipment and has the ability to withstand hits from rounds up to 23MM in critical areas. The AH-64 is air transportable in the C-5, C-141 and C-17.

The AH-64 Apache is a twin-engine, four bladed, multi-mission attack helicopter designed as a highly stable aerial weapons-delivery platform. It is designed to fight and survive during the day, night, and in adverse weather throughout the world. With a tandem-seated crew consisting of the pilot, located in the rear cockpit position and the co-pilot gunner (CPG), located in the front position, the Apache is self-deployable, highly survivable and delivers a lethal array of battlefield armaments. The Apache features a Target Acquisition Designation Sight (TADS) and a Pilot Night Vision Sensor (PNVS) which enables the crew to navigate and conduct precision attacks in day, night and adverse weather conditions.

The Apache program may eventually evolve to four different models in service simultaneously. The models are, the current AH-64A, an AH-64+ with product improvements applied, and an AH-64D Longbow Apache with glass cockpit display, advanced engines, wiring for Longbow systems, radar interferometer, and the Longbow missile system. Approximately 1/3 of the Longbow fleet will also be equipped with the Longbow millimeter wave fire control radar. Converting an A model to a D model costs about $10 million. The Longbow radar adds another $3.6 million to the price tag.

As part of the reduction in the planned buy of the Comanche in late 2002, the Army was directed to formulate a service life extension program for the Apache. Although DOD did not provide the Army a specific end-date for the Apache, the AH-64 Longbow could remain in service until 2030.

The Apache can carry up to 16 Hellfire laser designated missiles. With a range of over 8000 meters, the Hellfire is used primarily for the destruction of tanks, armored vehicles and other hard material targets. The Apache can also deliver 76, 2.75" folding fin aerial rockets for use against enemy personnel, light armor vehicles and other soft-skinned targets. Rounding out the Apache’s deadly punch are 1,200 rounds of ammunition for its Area Weapons System (AWS), 30MM Automatic Gun.

An on-board video recorder has the capability of recording up to 72 minutes of either the pilot or CPG selected video. It is an invaluable tool for damage assessment and reconnaissance. The Apache's navigation equipment consists of a doppler navigation system, and most aircraft are equipped with a GPS receiver.

The Apache has state of the art optics that provide the capability to select from three different target acquisition sensors.
These sensors are:
Day TV. Views images during day and low light levels, black and white.
TADS FLIR. Views thermal images, real world and magnified, during day, night and adverse weather.
DVO. Views real world, full color, and magnified images during daylight and dusk conditions.

AH-64 aviators use the Integrated Helmet and Display Sighting System (IHADSS). The IHADSS helmet, at the time of its development, was lighter in weight and provided improved impact protection over the then-current SPH-4 series helmet. The IHADSS is the only helmet approved for the AH-64 and has been in use for over 20 years. A unique feature of the IHADSS helmet is that it serves as a platform for a Helmet Mounted Display (HMD). The HMD provides pilotage and fire control imagery and flight symbology. In order to view the HMD imagery, the helmet/HMD must be fitted such that the exit pupil of the HMD is properly aligned with the aviator’s eye each time it is donned. This makes the fit and stability of the IHADSS helmet critical considerations. Achieving a proper fit of the IHADSS helmet is complicated by its intricate system of straps and pads. A proper, customized, repeatable fit is required in order to maintain the exit pupil position and optimize the resulting full Field of View (FOV). Fitting of the IHADSS helmet typically takes several hours to complete. This fitting process must be repeated every time aviators are transferred to a new duty station, as they cannot take the IHADSS helmet with them. It is part of the AH-64 aircraft system and is unit property.

The Apache has four articulating weapons pylons, two on either side of the aircraft, on which weapons or external fuel tanks can be mounted. The aircraft has a LRF/D. This is used to designate for the Hellfire missile system as well as provide range to target information for the fire control computer's calculations of ballistic solutions.

Threat identification through the FLIR system is extremely difficult. Although the AH-64 crew can easily find the heat signature of a vehicle, it may not be able to determine friend or foe. Forward looking infrared detects the difference in the emission of heat in objects. On a hot day, the ground may reflect or emit more heat than the suspected target. In this case, the environment will be "hot" and the target will be "cool". As the air cools at night, the target may lose or emit heat at a lower rate than the surrounding environment. At some point the emission of heat from both the target and the surrounding environment may be equal. This is IR crossover and makes target acquisition/detection difficult to impossible. IR crossover occurs most often when the environment is wet. This is because the water in the air creates a buffer in the emissivity of objects. This limitation is present in all systems that use FLIR for target acquisition.

Low cloud ceilings may not allow the Hellfire seeker enough time to lock onto its target or may cause it to break lock after acquisition. At extended ranges, the pilot may have to consider the ceiling to allow time for the seeker to steer the weapon onto the target. Pilot night vision sensor cannot detect wires or other small obstacles.

Overwater operations severely degrade navigation systems not upgraded with embedded GPS. Although fully capable of operating in marginal weather, attack helicopter capabilities are seriously degraded in conditions below a 500-foot ceiling and visibility less than 3 km. Because of the Hellfire missile's trajectory, ceilings below 500 feet require the attack aircraft to get too close to the intended target to avoid missile loss. Below 3 km visibility, the attack aircraft is vulnerable to enemy ADA systems. Some obscurants can prevent the laser energy from reaching the target; they can also hide the target from the incoming munitions seeker. Dust, haze, rain, snow and other particulate matter may limit visibility and affect sensors. The Hellfire remote designating crew may offset a maximum of 60 degrees from the gun to target line and must not position their aircraft within a +30-degree safety fan from the firing aircraft.

Powered by two General Electric gas turbine engines rated at 1890 shaft horsepower each, the Apache’s maximum gross weight is 17,650 pounds which allows for a cruise airspeed of 145 miles per hour and a flight endurance of over three hours. The AH-64 can be configured with an external 230-gallon fuel tank to extend its range on attack missions, or it can be configured with up to four 230-gallon fuel tanks for ferrying/self-deployment missions. The combat radius of the AH-64 is approximately 150 kilometers. With one external 230-gallon fuel tank the radius is approximately 300 kilometers. Both radii are dependent on temperature, pressure altitude, fuel burn rate, and airspeed. The addition of up to two wing tanks can further extend range; however, this configuration is currently authorized for ferry/self-deployment flights only. The Apache can attack targets up to 150 km across the FLOT. If greater depth is required, the addition of ERFS tanks can further extend the AH-64's range with a corresponding reduction in Hellfire missile carrying capacity (four fewer Hellfire missiles for each ERFS tank installed).

The Apache fully exploits the vertical dimension of the battlefield. Aggressive terrain flight techniques allow the commander to rapidly place the ATKHB at the decisive place at the optimum time. Typically, the area of operations for Apache is the entire corps or divisional sector. Attack helicopters move across the battlefield at speeds in excess of 3 kilometers per minute. Although dependent on mission, enemy, terrain, troops, time available, and civilian (METT-TC) considerations, typical planning airspeeds are 100-120 knots (185-222 km/hr) during daylight, and 80-100 knots (148-185 km/hr) at night. Speeds during marginal weather are reduced with respect to prevailing conditions.

The Russian-developed Mi-24 HIND is the Apache's closest couterpart. The Russians have deployed significant numbers of HINDs in Europe and have exported the HIND to many third world countries. The Russians have also developed the KA-50 HOKUM as their next generation attack helicopter. The Italian A-129 Mangusta is the nearest NATO counterpart to the Apache. The Germans and French are co-developing the PAH-2 Tiger attack helicopter, which has many of the capabilities of the Apache.

Apache production began in FY82 and the first unit was deployed in FY86. As of November 1993, 807 Apaches were delivered to the Army. The US Army ordered 821 aircraft (excluding prototypes), with the last Army Apache delivery was in December 1995. Thirty-three attack battalions are deployed and ready for combat. The Army is procuring a total of 824 Apaches to support a new force structure of 25 battalions with 24 Apaches for each unit (16 Active; 2 Reserve; 7 National Guard) under the Aviation Restructure Initiative. Army National Guard units in North and South Carolina, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Utah and Idaho also fly Apache helicopters. The Army has fielded combat-ready AH-64A units in the United States, West Germany and in Korea, where they play a major role in achieving the US Army's security missions.

The Army announced 05 November 1999 that all its 660 AH-64A and 83 AH-64D models must be inspected before their next flight. The hanger bearing assemblies fore and aft house the drive train, which passes turbine engine power to the tail rotor. A failure in the flange area will result in loss of tail rotor thrust and such a failure could be catastrophic. Army investigators had identified the bearing assembly problem while looking into a January 1999 accident at Fort Rucker, Ala., that destroyed an Apache and injured the two- man crew. Army officials said stress corrosion fractures resulting from a hardness heat-treat process used during manufacture may cause the bearing assemblies to fail. Hanger bearing assemblies produced after the Army changed the manufacturing process in 1993 do not have the potential for such fractures. Army officials determined that at least 400 of 743 AH- 64 Apache attack helicopters needed the new parts.

In December 2000 the US Army grounded its entire AH-64 Apache helicopter fleet as a precautionary measure, following the discovery of a faulty tail rotor swashplate assembly. Failure of a tailrotor swashplate assembly, which produces yaw control, could result in the loss of an aircraft and crew injuries. The Army ordered an inspection of all 742 AH-64A and D aircraft to locate specific swashplate assemblies identified as being potentially faulty, which will be replaced. This was the second time in just over a year that the Apache fleet had been grounded. In November 1999 crash investigators identified suspect rotor bearings and transmission units, and ordered the aircraft out of the skies until the problems were fixed.

In early 2001 the Apache community was operating under a shortage of M299 launchers and a Hellfire missile restriction. The M299 launchers, under contract to Boeing St. Charles, suffered a failure in recent testing and had been deemed unsafe. The power supply card must be redesigned, which was estimated to take 7-8 months to complete and qualify. Reverting to the old design was not an option; required components are no longer in production. DCSOPS had published a distribution plan. The PM-ARM is responsible for the development and fielding of the launchers and is working to correct the problems. The Hellfire restriction was driven by the new spacer in the motor impacting and damaging the stabilator and potentially the tail rotor.

Damage to 19 of 43 Apache Helicopters was detected following Hellfire missile firing during the USAREUR training exercise VICTORY STRIKE in Poland 06-18 October 2000. Damage to AH-64A Helicopter horizontal stabilators was initially attributed to ground debris then later to the Hellfire missile. Two Apache units fired 385 AGM-114C model missiles and numerous 2.75 inch rockets and 30MM rounds without incident. PEO Aviation System Safety Risk Assessment (SSRA) assigns a Category I-A risk (Catastrophic Probable) if missiles are fired from any position other than position number 4 on right outboard pylon. The SSRA applies only to the AH-64D Helicopter. SSRA for other helicopters is a "due-out" from PEO Aviation. AMCOM IMMC worldwide suspension of Hellfire missiles with the deficient Alliant/Hercules motors remained in place as of mid-2001. All Hellfire missiles with this motor were in CC-N, emergency combat use only. This included the entire inventory of the Longbow Hellfire Millimeter Wave (AGM-114L) missile, and nearly 90% of the latest Laser production assets (AGM-144 K &K-2). TURBO CADS (TC) is a TRANSCOM administered, JCS funded, MACOM supported, joint live ammunition containerization exercise. TC involves the relocation, retrograde, and call forward of theater ammunition stocks. TURBO CADS 01 arrived Chinhae Korea on 07 June 2001 and Hellfire missiles (720 Longbow Millimeter Wave (MMW) and 280 Laser Hellfire (HFII)) were off-loaded from the MAERSK ALASKA and were enroute to storage areas at Chunchon and Uijongbu. Missiles will support the FUE in EUSA for 1st BN/ 2nd AVN. The Longbow Hellfire MMW remained in Condition Code N (CC N) – Emergency Combat use only, until modified by the PM ARM. EUSA will retrograde a total of 1,000 Laser Hellfire missiles (AGM-114 C) in CCA, which enables continuation of CONUS annual service practice training into FY02. PM ARM will design, develop and qualify a replacement ring grain spacer for Alliant-TECH/Hercules missiles. However, qualification and testing must be completed before the new design motors will be manufactured and inserted into the on-going Longbow Hellfire missile production line currently scheduled in Jan 02. An Unfinanced Requirement (UFR) of $35.718 million in FY02 Missile Procurement Army (MIPA) funds for retrofit of the ring grain spacer into extant inventory restricts the retrofit start date until 2QFY03. Only Longbow and HF II missiles will be retrofitted with a projected completion date for FY 05. This leaves some 45 percent of the remaining inventory of 12,000 missiles (AGM-114 A, C and F model) to remain unmodified for either consumption in training or to become DEMIL candidates. Commander 101ST AASLT Division is in process of requesting release of Longbow missiles for storage at FT Campbell, KY for the Division Ready Brigade aviation elements.

By the end of 2001 the crisis appeared to be over for the deliveries of the M299 Missile launchers. Deliveries were being accepted on schedule and the fielded units and units being fielded would have their full compliment of launchers by spring 2002. Lockheed Martin was being qualified to produce M299 launchers also. The current SDZ firing restriction on the Hellfire missile was being analyzed. AMRDEC was conducting limited testing on the system until sufficient funding is provided to go ahead full force. AMRDEC expected to complete the analysis by the end of February 2002. The hellfire motor retrofit effort is ongoing. Retrofitting of motor commenced in January of 2002 at the rate of about 60 missiles per month. A UFR has been submitted for the completion of 100% of all missiles requiring retrofit.

On 11 June 2001, an Israeli Air Force AH-64A experienced a catastrophic tail rotor failure in flight. The crew landed safely with no further damage to the aircraft. Investigation revealed that one of the four tail rotor blades had completely separated at the root area. Further investigation indicates that the blade failed due to metal fatigue cracking. Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) released Safety of Flight [SOF] message AH-64-01-04 on 15 June 2001. The SOF message established an interim 1,000 hour finite life (down from 6,201), for all AH-64A/D tail rotor blades (742 helicopters, four blades per helicopter). Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) released a follow up SOF message (AH-64-01-05) on 26 June 2001. This follow up SOF message established an interim recurring X-ray inspection of 125 hours. The X-ray inspection requires a specially trained technician certified to perform the procedure. This inspection is required before the next flight on tail rotor blades with 1000 hours or greater. For blades with less than 1000 hours, the X-ray inspection is due by 28 December 2001 or upon reaching 1000 hours, whichever comes first. AMCOM estimated that 51 percent of the blades required the inspection before the next flight. By July 2001 the Army was approaching 100 percent completion of inspecting all Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve AH-64 Apache tail rotor blades. As a precautionary measure, the Army deployed eighteen specially trained teams world wide to X-ray all Apache tail rotor blades. These teams have X-rayed over 99 percent of the over 3,000 tail rotor blades installed on aircraft and in the supply system, and have found none cracked. The teams proceeded to X-ray 100 percent of the tail rotor blades, to eliminate any possibility of a systemic problem. Although some Apache aircraft were grounded temporarily in the month of July, pending completion of tail rotor inspections, overall impact on the readiness of Army aviation was minimal.

Specifications
Contractors	Boeing McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems(Mesa, AZ) General Electric (Lynn, MA) Martin Marietta (Orlando, FL)
Propulsion	Two T700-GE-701Cs
Crew	Two
	AH-64A	AH-64D
Length	58.17 ft (17.73 m)	58.17 ft (17.73 m)
Height	15.24 ft (4.64 m)	13.30 ft (4.05 m)
Wing Span	17.15 ft (5.227 m)	17.15 ft (5.227 m)
Primary Mission Gross Weight	15,075 lb (6838 kg) 11,800 pounds Empty	16,027 lb (7270 kg) Lot 1 Weight
Hover In-Ground Effect (MRP)	15,895 ft (4845 m) [Standard Day] 14,845 ft (4525 m) [Hot Day ISA + 15C]	14,650 ft (4465 m) [Standard Day] 13,350 ft (4068 m) [Hot Day ISA + 15 C]
Hover Out-of-Ground Effect (MRP)	12,685 ft (3866 m) [Sea Level Standard Day] 11,215 ft (3418 m) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]	10,520 ft (3206 m) [Standard Day] 9,050 ft (2759 m) [Hot Day ISA + 15 C]
Vertical Rate of Climb (MRP)	2,175 fpm (663 mpm) [Sea Level Standard Day] 2,050 fpm (625 mpm) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]	1,775 fpm (541 mpm) [Sea Level Standard Day] 1,595 fpm (486 mpm) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]
Maximum Rate of Climb (IRP)	2,915 fpm (889 mpm) [Sea Level Standard Day] 2,890 fpm (881 mpm) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]	2,635 fpm (803 mpm) [Sea Level Standard Day] 2,600 fpm (793 mpm) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]
Maximum Level Flight Speed	150 kt (279 kph) [Sea Level Standard Day] 153 kt (284 kph) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]	147 kt (273 kph) [Sea Level Standard Day] 149 kt (276 kph) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]
Cruise Speed (MCP)	150 kt (279 kph) [Sea Level Standard Day] 153 kt (284 kph) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]	147 kt (273 kph) [Sea Level Standard Day] 149 kt (276 kph) [Hot Day 2000 ft 70 F (21 C)]
Range	400 km - internal fuel 1,900 km - internal and external fuel
Armament	M230 30mm Gun 70mm (2.75 inch) Hydra-70 Folding-Fin Aerial Rockets AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles AGM-122 Sidearm anti-radar missile AIM-9 Sidewinder Air-to-Air missiles
Mission Equipment	Target Acquisition and Designation System / Pilot Night Vision System
Reliability	The general objective of aircraft readiness is to achieve 75% Mission Capable.

All information and photos Copyright of Global Security.Org

Found this report on Strategypages site written by an insider interviewing troops from the 3rd ID.

I can't tell the story of this fight in an email. It will take me at least an Infantry Magazine article, maybe a series of articles. The enemy at CURLEY turned out to be fanatical Syrian Jihadists, determined to die. They attacked incessantly for 12-14 hours, firing small arms and RPGs from buildings, trenches, bunkers, and rubble along side the cloverleaf intersection. They "charged" the US positions (the only word that fits), in taxis, cars, trucks with heavy machine guns mounted, and even in motorcycles with recoilless rifles tied to the side cars (not a war story, I saw one of them that the battalion captured). They drove cars loaded with explosives at high speed towards the US positions, hoping to take American with them in death when they exploded. The mortar platoon occupied the southern part of the objective with two tubes aimed north and two aimed south. They fired simultaneous indirect fire missions south and north, while the gunners on the .50 caliber machine guns fired direct fire to defend their positions. The mortar men continued to fire missions even while under ground assault and indirect fire. They fired over 20 direct lay missions against buildings housing enemy forces and against "Technical Vehicles" firing against the position. They supported the forces on the two other objectives with nine DANGER CLOSE missions, especially after the supporting FA unit fired a mission that struck US positions and wounded two soldiers. The Bn FSO was so angry at the FA that he ceased calling them and used the mortars exclusively for over 12 hours.

The Combat Engineers earned that title. They were magnificent both as Infantrymen and as engineers. They exposed themselves to incredible fire to blow light poles down to make Abatis to stop the suicide taxis. The ACE drivers went outside the perimeter, alone, to build berms and remove guardrails to allow movement between positions. They formed up scratch teams, along with radio operators and drivers, and cleared trenches and bunkers against fanatical defenders, at least one of who was a woman, armed and fighting to the death in the trench line.

Everyone fought! There was not choice, it is not overly dramatic to state that it was a case of "fight, or die". OBJ CURLEY had to be held. If it could not keep the MSR open, the rest of TF 3-15 and the two armor task forces further north would be cut off and isolated deep within the city. Already the BCT commander had ordered the tankers to shut off their engines in order to save the little remaining fuel. Everyone was critically short ammunition, but the company team fighting on OBJ MOE was "BLACK" on main gun, coax, and small arms ammo. If CURLEY fell, so would MOE, and TF 3-15 would face defeat in detail.

The Task Force commander called and asked the key question of CPT Hornbuckle..."Can TM Zan hold CURLEY and let the ammunition and fuel HEMMTs roll north to the other forces?" CPT Hornbuckle said that he thought he could hold, but the TF commander heard the stress and worry in his voice. He knew that CPT Hornbuckle was a fighter, but he worried that TM ZAN was facing a crisis and he needed to know for certain. He called the CSM and asked him, straight up, did the team need help? CSM Robert Gallagher, who had been wounded fighting with the 75th Rangers at Mogadishu, didn't hesitate. He told LTC Twitty that he needed to do something to help relieve TM ZAN, and he had to do it fast! At that time, CSM Gallagher was already wounded again, and he was standing on one leg beside his M88 firing his M4 carbine. The medics had armed themselves, and all the drivers and RTOs that could be spared were fighting to protect the company TOC against suicide attackers working their way through the rubble and along the off-ramps of the cloverleaf.

LTC Twitty had no other forces, but he did have the uncommitted elements of his last mech infantry Company, back a the FSB. Although they had been fighting a series of running fights themselves, they were ready to move. LTC Twitty called the Commander, CPT Ronnie Johnson, and told him get ready to send a platoon to CURLEY. CPT Johnson made a counter-recommendation. He wanted to take his entire company, the two mech platoons, the BFIST, and the Maintenance and 1SGS's M113s, all the armored fighting vehicles he could lay his hands on. This was probably the crucial decision of the battle. LTC Twitty agreed, and asked the BCT commander to release the company, which he did. B Co, 3-15 Infantry roared north, every gun in the convoy firing, to fight its way to Obj CURLEY. It arrived literally in the nick of time, although it lost a Scout HMMWV and one NCO KIA by an RPG. With the additional forces, CPT Johnson, who took over command at CURLEY, reinforced the defenders and pushed the perimeter further out, far enough that the vital re-supply convoy that was right behind him had a chance to make it through.

Even then, the situation was not secure. The sight of 20 heavy trucks loaded with ammunition and fuel reinvigorated the Syrian Jihadists attacking CURLEY. They opened up with renewed fury. In a moment, several trucks were burning, and the fire was spreading. A sergeant ran out into a hail of fire to try to start one of the trucks to move it away, but it was already too damaged to drive. At this time, LTC Scott Rutter, an old SGI from Fort Benning arrived with the lead elements of TF 2-7. He had been sent, with only an hour's notice, on a long circuitous route from his position near the airport to reinforce the 2nd BCT. He fought his way thru to the objective and assumed control at CURLEY. CPT Johnson moved the remaining re-supply trucks to MOE and LARRY with his forces, and then escorted them further north for the armored task forces, thus ensuring that they could stay in the city for the night and the next day. Scott had a hellava fight at CURLEY the next day, but after that, the heart had been cut out of the enemy forces, and the 3rd Infantry Division was in Baghdad to stay.

I have left out so much that I want to write, but there is only so much I can do. I have it in my notes, in my head, and in my heart. I have never in my life been more proud of the American soldier. I stand humbled before these men.

Hoo Ah!

Specifications