The FReeper Foxhole Studies U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers - Part 1 of 2 - January 25, 2004

US Navy ^

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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A Brief History of U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers


Part I — The Early Years



Nov. 3, 1909 - Lieut. George Sweet was taken up as a passenger in the first Army Wright aircraft by Lieut. Frank P. Lahm, USA, at College Park, Md. Lieut. Sweet is credited with being the first Navy officer to have flown in an airplane.


Sept. 26, 1910 - The Secretary of the Navy, George von L. Meyer, designated Capt. Washington I. Chambers, Assistant to the Aid for Material, as the officer to whom all correspondence on aviation should be referred. This is the first recorded reference to a provision for aviation in the Navy Department.


Nov. 14, 1910 - Eugene Ely, 24, a civilian pilot, took off in a 50-hp. Curtiss plane from a wooden platform built over the bow of the light cruiser USS Birmingham (CL-2). The ship was at anchor in Hampton Roads, Va., and Ely landed moments later on Willoughby Spit.


Nov. 29, 1910 - Glenn H. Curtiss wrote to Secretary Meyer offering flight instruction without charge for one Navy officer as one means of assisting "in developing the adaptability of the aeroplane to military purposes." On Dec. 23, Lieut. T. Gordon "Spuds" Ellyson, left in picture, was ordered to report to the Glenn Curtiss Aviation Camp at North Island, San Diego, Calif. He completed his training Apr. 12, 1911, and became Naval Aviator No. 1.


Jan. 18, 1911 - At 11:01 a.m., Eugene Ely, flying a Curtiss pusher, landed on a specially built platform aboard the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania (ACR 4) at anchor in San Francisco Bay. At 11:58 a.m., he took off and returned to Selfridge Field, San Francisco.


Nov. 5, 1915 - Lieut. Cmdr. Henry C. Mustin made the first catapault launching from a ship. He flew an AB-2 flying boat off the stern of USS North Carolina (ACR 12) in Pensacola Bay, Fla.


Jul. 11, 1919 - The Naval Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1920 provided for the conversion of the collier Jupiter into a ship specifically designed to launch and recover airplanes at sea — an aircraft carrier — later to be named Langley. The engineering plans for this conversion were modified in November and included catapults to be fitted on both the forward and after ends of the "flying-off" deck.


Mar. 20, 1922 - USS Langley (CV 1), converted from the collier USS Jupiter (AC 3), was placed in commission at Norfolk, Va., as the Navy's first aircraft carrier. The ship's executive officer, Cmdr. Kenneth Whiting, was in command.


Apr. 1, 1922 - The specifications of arresting gear of the type later installed in early aircraft carriers were sent to various design engineers. "The arresting gear will consist of two or more transverse wires stretched across the fore and aft wires ... [and which] lead around sheaves placed outboard to hydraulic brakes. The plane, after engaging the transverse wire, is guided down the deck by the fore and aft wires and is brought to rest by the action of the transverse wire working with the hydraulic brake."


Jul. 1, 1922 - Congress authorized the conversion of the unfinished battle cruisers Lexington and Saratoga as aircraft carriers and as permitted under the terms of the Washington Treaty.


Oct. 17, 1922 - Lieut. V.C. Griffin, in a Vought VE-7SF, like the one to the left, took off from USS Langley at anchor in the York River, Virginia, making the first take-off from an aircraft carrier.


Oct. 26, 1922 - Lieut. Cmdr. Godfrey deC. Chevalier, flying an Aeromarine, made the first landing aboard USS Langley underway off Cape Henry, Virginia. Lieut. Cmdr. Chevalier, Naval Aviator #7, died Nov. 14 in the Naval Hospital, Portsmouth, Va., of injuries suffered in a plane crash two days earlier at Lochaven, near Norfolk.


Nov. 18, 1922 - Cmdr. Kenneth Whiting, piloting a PT seaplane, made the first catapult launching from USS Langley (CV 1) at anchor in the York River.


Nov. 17, 1924 - Langley reported for duty with the Battle Fleet, thereby ending two years in an experimental status and becoming the first operational aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy. On 1 Dec., she also became the flagship for Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet.


Nov. 16, 1927 - USS Saratoga (CV 3) commissioned at Camden, N.J., Capt. Harry E. Yarnell, commanding.


Dec. 14, 1927 - USS Lexington (CV 2) commissioned at Quincy, Mass., Capt. Albert W. Marshall, commanding.


Jan. 11, 1928 - The first take off and landing aboard USS Saratoga (CV 3) was made by the ship's Air Officer Cmdr. Marc A. Mitscher in a UO-1.

Jan. 23-27, 1929 - The carriers Lexington and Saratoga took part in fleet exercises, attached to opposing forces. Saratoga was detached from the main force, and with an escorting cruiser, was sent on a wide southward sweep before turning north to approach within striking distance of her target, the Panama Canal. On the morning of the 26th, while it was still dark, she launched a strike group of 69 aircraft which arrived over the target undetected shortly after dawn and completed the theoretical destruction of the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks without opposition. This demonstration made a profound impression on naval tacticians.


Apr. 9, 1929 - Operations aboard Langley and Saratoga confirmed that the fore-and-aft wires of the arresting gear were not needed. The Secretary of the Navy authorized their removal in September. All carrier aircraft, based on these tests, were equipped with brakes and wheel type tail skids.


Jan. 16, 1930 - USS Lexington (CV 2) completed a 30-day period in which she furnished electricity to the city of Tacoma, Wash., in an emergency arising from a failure of the city's power supply. The electricity from the carrier totaled more than 4.25 million kilowatt-hours.


Sept. 26, 1931 - The keel for USS Ranger (CV 4), the first ship of the U.S. Navy to be designed and constructed as an aircraft carrier, was laid at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Va. The ship was launched on 25 Feb. 1933, and commissioned 4 Jun. 1934 at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Capt. Arthur L. Bristol, commanding.


Nov. 1, 1934 - The Naval Aircraft Factory was authorized to manufacture and test a flush-deck hydraulic catapult, Type H Mark I. This catapult was designed to launch land planes from aircraft carriers and was the Navy's initial development of a hydraulic catapult, a type which was to be the primary means of launching land planes from carriers.


Apr. 21, 1937 - Following a four-month conversion period, the Navy's first carrier USS Langley was converted to a seaplane tender and reclassified as AV-3.


Sept. 30, 1937 - USS Yorktown (CV 5) was placed in commission at the Norfolk Naval Operating Base (NOB), Norfolk, Va., with Capt. Ernest D. McWhorter in command. The ship's keel was laid on 21 May 1934 and it was launched on 4 April 1936.


May 12, 1938 - USS Enterprise (CV 6) was placed in commission at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Newport News, Va., Capt. N. H. White commanding. The ship was launched 3 Oct. 1936.


Jun. 11-13, 1939 - USS Saratoga (CV 3) and the tanker USS Kanawha (AO 1) conducted underway refueling tests off the coast of southern California, demonstrating the feasibility of refueling carriers at sea.


Apr. 25, 1940 - USS Wasp (CV 7) was placed in commission at the Army Quartermaster Base, Boston, Mass., Capt. John W. Reeves, Jr., commanding. The ship's keel was laid 1 Apr. 1936, at Quincy, Mass., by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Co., and the ship was launched 4 Apr. 1939.


Jun. 2, 1941 - USS Long Island (AVG 1), the Navy's first escort carrier, commissioned at Newport News, Va., Cmdr. Donald B. Duncan in command. The ship was originally built as Mormacmail, a cargo ship, by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Chester, Pa., and converted in 67 days to a flush-deck carrier. She was reclassified as CVE-1 on 15 Jul. 1943.


Oct. 20, 1941 - USS Hornet (CV 8) was placed in commission in Norfolk, Va., Capt. Marc A. Mitscher in command. The ship was launched 14 Dec. 1940 at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company.


Dec. 7, 1941 - Carrier aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor and on the military and air installations in the area. The three aircraft carriers of the Pacific Fleet were not present. USS Saratoga (CV 3), just out of overhaul, was moored at San Diego. USS Lexington (CV 2) was at sea about 425 miles southeast of Midway toward which she was headed to deliver a Marine Scout Bombing Squadron. USS Enterprise (CV 6) was also at sea, about 200 miles west of Pearl Harbor, returning from Wake Island where she had delivered a Marine Fighter Squadron.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

The Escort Carriers



The Navy's escort carriers, called "Jeep carriers" or (by the press) "baby flat tops," never received the headlines or glory accorded their bigger sisters. Jeeps did the routine patrol work, scouting and escorting of convoys that their larger fleet-type counterparts couldn't do. Lightly armored, slower than the fleet carriers and with far less defensive armament and aircraft, they performed admirably when called upon.

Jeep carrier crews, who joked that "CVE" (the Navy's designation for this type of ship) really stood for "Combustible, Vulnerable and Expendable," became experts at hunting, finding and killing U-boats in both ocean theaters. Jeeps and their crews also provided fighter and close air support for amphibious landings, and served as aircraft transports as the tempo of the carrier war in the Pacific mounted to a crescendo.

The need for escort carriers came early in the war when German submarines and aircraft were taking a devastating toll on convoy shipping. The heaviest losses occurred far at sea where land-based aircraft couldn't operate. The Royal Navy had experimented with catapult-launched fighter planes from merchantmen; while this was somewhat successful in combating the U-boats, the number of planes that could be embarked was limited. Something else was needed, and in a hurry. Great Britain appealed to the United States for help.

No real specifications had been developed for escort carriers at this time, although the Navy had looked into converting merchant ships for this purpose before the war began. Thus, the quick solution was to build the early CVEs on merchant ship hulls.

The first CVE was USS Long Island (CVE 1), converted from a Maritime Commission freighter. Due to a shortage of merchant ship hulls, four escort carriers were built on Cimarron-class fleet oiler hulls. These four, USS Sangamon (CVE 26), USS Suwanee (CVE 27), USS Chenanago (CVE 28), and USS Santee (CVE 29), were so successful in anti-submarine work and in covering amphibious operations that, after participating in the landings in North Africa, they were deployed to the Pacific. There, the fleet was in desperate need of carriers.



These early ships paved the way for a tremendous building program of Jeeps in the United States. Between June 1941 and April 1945, 78 escort carriers would be built and launched — a remarkable feat of wartime naval construction.

In the Atlantic, escort carriers originally stayed close to the convoys they were protecting. Over time, tactics evolved that enabled the Jeep carriers and their destroyer escorts to become independent "hunter-killer" groups. They could attack concentrations of U-boats at will and were no longer required to provide constant umbrella coverage for a convoy. This tactic was further refined by having the escort carrier groups concentrate their efforts in areas where U-boats met their supply submarines ("milch cows").



This operational phase was so successful that three Jeeps — USS Core (CVE 13), USS Card (CVE 11) and USS Bogue (CVE 9) [left] — and their escorting destroyers sank a total of 16 U-boats and 8 milch cows in a period of 98 days. During this time, U-boats sank only one merchantman and shot down only three planes from the escort carriers. This loss of submarines, particularly the milch cows, was a severe blow to the German Navy. With diminished capability for refueling U-boats at sea, and with no friendly bases in the area, Admiral Karl Doenitz, commander of the German U-boat fleet, was forced to withdraw his remaining supply submarines and cancel all U-boat operations in the central Atlantic.

Testimony indeed to the hard work, skill and dedication of the Jeeps and the men who served in them.

In the Pacific, Jeeps performed less glamorous but no less important duties. Whether providing air cover for amphibious landings, ferrying planes, resupplying the big carriers or performing tactical air strikes in support of ground forces ashore, the little flat tops did whatever work had to be done. With all of their versatility, however, they were never designed to go toe-to-toe with heavy enemy surface units in a running sea battle. They never had to — until Oct. 25, 1944, off the island of Samar in the Philippines.

Task Group 77.4 consisted of 16 CVEs organized into three task units: Taffy 1, Taffy 2 and Taffy 3, so named because of their voice radio call signs. These Jeeps were tasked with protecting the transports unloading in Leyte Gulf and supporting troops ashore by striking enemy fortifications and airfields.

The little escort carriers were preparing for another day when, early in the morning of Oct. 25, lookouts on board ships of Taffy 3 spotted Admiral Takeo Kurita's heavy surface force attempting to enter Leyte Gulf and attack the transports and beachhead. What Taffy 3 faced were four battleships and six heavy cruisers. Outgunned and outmanned, the Jeeps and their accompanying destroyers and destroyer escorts did the only thing they could in the face of such overwhelming odds and firepower — they attacked.



Taffy 3, which would bear the brunt of the fighting, began launching aircraft and making smoke. Taffy 2 and Taffy 1, further away, began launching their aircraft to come to the aid of Taffy 3. No heavy American surface units or carriers were in the area; the Jeeps were on their own.

Aircraft from the Jeeps attacked and harassed the enemy, bombing and strafing. Pilots then made "dry" runs on the cruisers and battleships when they ran out of ammunition, in the hope of distracting the enemy gunners from shooting at the little carriers. The gutsy little destroyers, completely overmatched, bore in and carried out torpedo attacks, and fired at the massive battlewagons and cruisers with their relatively puny 5-inch battery guns. The escort carriers themselves were saved from utter destruction because of excellent maneuvering by their captains, and because, when hit, their thin armor permitted the Japanese shells to pass completely through without exploding.

Bold tactics on the part of the carriers, their planes and destroyers convinced Kurita that he had encountered a much larger force of heavy American surface ships and carriers. He had no idea that relatively little stood between his ships and the transports now unloading in Leyte Gulf.

With little knowledge of the situation, and with his ships widely dispersed after fending off the destroyer attacks, Kurita ordered his ships to break off the action and retire from the area. The fight, however, was still not over.



Following Kurita's withdrawal, ships of Taffy 2 and Taffy 3 came under attack from kamikazes, or Japanese suicide pilots. The kamikazes inflicted far greater damage on the little carriers than did Kurita's gunfire, which only managed to account for one carrier, USS Gambier Bay (CVE 73). Hits were scored on Santee, Suwanee, USS Kitkun Bay (CVE 71) and USS St. Lo (CVE 63). Of these four, St. Lo (left) was hit hardest, and she sank as a result.

This Battle off Samar, which lasted a little over two hours, wrote a glorious chapter in the history of the Jeep carriers. By the time Kurita broke off his attack and the kamikazes had been repulsed, more than 1,100 U.S. sailors were dead or missing. Two escort carriers were lost along with four of the gallant little destroyers. With no support from heavy American surface units or carriers, the Jeeps of Taffy 1, 2 and 3, their air crews and destroyers bravely and successfully defended the landing beaches and transports at Leyte Gulf.


Next Sunday we will continue our look at US Aircraft Carriers in Part II.

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Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:

Sources: United States Naval Aviation, 1910-1970 [NAVAIR 00-80P-1] Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
Falk, Stanley L. Decision at Leyte. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Vol. 10. The Atlantic Battle Won.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1956.
Morison. Vol. 12. Leyte, 1958.

[snippy_about_it]

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[snippy_about_it]

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[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning Snippy and everyon at the Freeper Foxhole. The rain missed by by a few miles. Parts of Southern Oklahoma and North Texas got some.

[The Mayor]

You shall have no other gods before Me. —Exodus 20:3

Gold can be a helpful servant but a cruel master.

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on January 25:
0749 Leo IV (the Khazar) Byzantine emperor (775-80)
1540 Edmund Campion London, saint/Jesuit martyr
1627 Robert Boyle Ireland, physicist/chemist/author (experiments with color)
1736 Joseph-Louis comte de Lagrange, Turin, French mathematician
1741 Benedict Arnold General /traitor (US revolution)
1759 Robert Burns Alloway Scotland, poet (Auld Lang Syne)
1796 William McGillivray Old Aberdeen, naturalist
1814 Francis Harrison Pierpont Governor (Union), died in 1899
1839 Seldon Connor Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1917
1860 Charles Curtis (R) 31st US VP (1929-33)
1874 Hewlett Johnson [Red Dean of Canterbury], English bishop
1874 W Somerset Maugham Paris, novelist/poet (Of Human Bondage)
1882 Virginia [Adeline] Woolf London, author (Jacob's Room, To the Lighthouse)
1891 William C Bullitt 1st US ambassador to USSR
1903 "Sleepy" John Estes, Blues Musician
1918 Ken Mayers actor (Robbie Robertson-Space Patrol)
1919 Edwin Newman New York City NY, newscaster/journalist/author (NBC-TV, Comment)
1924 Lou "The Toe" Groza AAFC, NFL tackle, kicker (Cleveland Browns)
1928 Eduard Shevardnadze Soviet Georgia, foreign minister of USSR (1985-91)
1931 Dean Jones Decatur AL, actor (Ensign O'Toole, Company, Love Bug)
1938 Etta James [Jamesette Hawkins], US singer (Roll With Me Henry)
1941 Elzie "Buddy" Baker race-car driver
1942 Carl Eller (football: Minnesota Vikings DE: Super Bowl IV, VIII, IX, XI; one of the 'Purple People Eaters')
1973 Elvis Presley Jr alleged son of Elvis Presley

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Deaths which occurred on January 25:
1138 Anacletus II [Pietro Pierleone], Jewish anti-pope (1130-38), dies
1640 Robert Burton author (Anatomy of Melancholy), dies
1726 Guillaume Delisle French geographer (Atlas géographique), dies at 50
1906 Joseph Wheeler II Confederate General, dies at 70
1947 Al Capone Chicago gangster, dies of syphilis at 48
1978 Tango Duke dies in Australia at 42; oldest known thoroughbred horse
1982 Mihail A Suslov Soviet party ideologist, dies at 79
1990 Alexander Lockwood actor (Duel), dies
1990 Ava Gardner actress (Barefoot Contessa), dies from pneumonia in London at 67
1992 Mahmoud Riad Secretary-General of Arab League (1972-79), dies
1997 Jeanne Dixon psychic (Gift of Prophecy), dies of a heart attack at 79
1998 Mohammad Yusuf Khan prime minister of Afghanistan in (1963-65), dies
1998 Shinichi Suzuki, music teacher, dies at 99

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1967 WALLACE ARNOLD B.---SAN LEANDRO CA.

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

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On this day...
0844 Gregory IV begins & ends his reign as Catholic Pope
1327 King Edward III accedes to British throne
1348 Earthquake destroys Villach, killing 5,000
1494 Alfonso II replaces his father as king of Naples
1533 England's King Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn
1554 Sir Thomas Wyatt gathers an army in Kent, rebels against Queen Mary
1565 Battle at Talikota India Moslems destroy Vijayanagar's army
1579 Treaty of Utrecht signed, marks beginning of Dutch Republic
1721 Czar Peter the Great ends Russian-orthodox patriarchy
1775 Americans drag cannon up hill to fight British (Gun Hill Road, Bronx)
1787 Shays' Rebellion suffers a setback when debt-ridden farmers, led by Captain Daniel Shays, fail to capture an arsenal at Springfield MA
1799 1st US patent for a seeding machine, Eliakim Spooner, Vermont
1802 Napoleon "elected" President of the Italian (Cisalpine) Republic
1825 1st US engineering college opens, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Troy NY
1851 Sojourner Truth addresses 1st Black Women's Rights Convention (Akron)
1863 Battle of Kinston NC
1863 General Joseph Hooker replaces Burnside as head of Army of Potomac
1865 The CSS Shenandoah arrives in Melbourne, Australia
1870 Soda fountain patented by Gustavus Dows
1875 Anti-slavery society formed in NY
1877 Congress determines presidential election between Hayes-Tilden
1882 Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms
1890 Nellie Bly beats Phileas Fogg's time around world by 8 days (72 days)
1890 United Mine Workers of America forms
1894 James J Corbett KOs Charley Mitchell in 3 for heavyweight boxing title
1904 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick PA
1904 J M Synge's "Ruders to the Sea" premieres in Dublin
1910 Children initiate idea of planting trees in Jerusalem
1915 Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (New York to San Francisco)
1916 Montenegro surrenders to Austria-Hungary
1918 Russia declared a republic of Soviets
1919 Founding of League of Nations, 1st meeting 1 year later
1924 1st Winter Olympic games open in Chamonix, France
1932 1st commencement exercises at Hebrew University in Jerusalem
1937 Soap Opera "Guiding Light" premieres on NBC radio
1939 Earthquake hits Chillán Chile, 10,000 killed
1939 Joe Louis KOs John Henry Lewis in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
1940 Nazi decrees the establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz Poland
1945 Grand Rapids MI becomes 1st US city to fluoridate its water
1945 West Africa 82nd division occupies Myohaung, Burma
1946 United Mine Workers union rejoins American Federation of Labor
1949 1st Emmy Awards NBC's "The Necklace", Shirley Dinsdale & Pantomime Quiz (KTLA) win
1949 1st Israeli election - Ben-Gurion's Mapai party wins
1950 73ºF (23ºC) highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in January
1951 UN begins counter offensive in Korea
1955 Russia ends state of war with Germany
1955 Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years
1955 US & Panamá sign canal treaty
1956 96.5 cm (38.0") of rainfall, Kilauea Plantation, HI (state record)
1957 FBI arrests Jack & Myra Sobel, charged with spying for the USSR
1959 1st transcontinental commercial jet flight (American) (Los Angeles to New York for $301)
1959 Pope John XXIII proclaims 2nd Vatican council
1961 1st live, nationally televised Presidential news conference (JFK)
1961 Walt Disney's "101 Dalmations" released
1964 Beatles 1st US #1, "I Want to Hold your Hand" (Cashbox)
1964 Echo 2, US communications satellite launched
1969 US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris
1970 Robert Altman's "M*AS*H" premieres
1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of Tate-LaBianca murders
1971 Military coup in Uganda under General Idi Amin Dada
1974 South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard transplanted the first human heart without removal of the old one
1978 Muriel Humphrey (D-MN) appointed to fill late husband's Senate seat
1979 Pope John Paul II's 1st overseas trip as supreme pontiff
1980 Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN hovercraft
1980 Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail & deported
1980 Bani Sadr elected President of Iran
1981 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US
1981 Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death
1983 Infrared telescope satellite launched into polar orbit
1983 Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1988 Vice President Bush & Dan Rather clash on "CBS Evening News" as Rather attempts to question Bush about his role in the Iran-Contra affair
1988 15th American Music Award Anita Baker, Paul Simon & Whitney Houston
1989 Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his 5th season
1989 Yank owner George Steinbrenner meets with Pope John Paul II
1990 Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is transferred to a Miami jail
1991 Manuel Noriega is given access to assets frozen by US government
1992 Hubble space telescope optics finds NGC3862/3C264
1993 20th American Music Award Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey win
1993 Puerto Rico adds English as its 2nd official language
1993 Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales department after 97 years
1994 Accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy, Michael Jackson settles a civil lawsuit out of court
1994 US space probe Clementine launched

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

Uganda : 2nd Republic Day
Brazil : Sao Paulo Foundation Day
US : Meat Week Begins
Date Your Mate Month.

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Religious Observances
Christian : Commemoration of St Ananias of Damascus
Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran : Feast of the Conversion of St Paul the Apostle

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Religious History
1534 German Reformer Martin Luther gave his understanding of "conversion" in a sermon: 'To be converted to God means to believe in Christ, to believe that He is our Mediator and that we have eternal life through Him.'
1841 The Oxford Movement in England reached its apex with the appearance of John Henry Newman's Tract No. 90. The storm of controversy which ensued brought the series (begun in 1833) to an end. Later, Newman resigned his Anglican parish and in 1845 converted to Roman Catholicism.
1861 Missouri Synod Lutheran founder C.F.W. Walther wrote in a letter: 'The church, as a fellowship...of those who are born again... corresponds to the nature of living Christianity, whereas...the church as a fellowship of the orthodox, whether converted or unconverted, will necessarily lead to a dead Christianity.'
1944 In the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong and South China, Florence Tim-Oi Lee of Macao was ordained a priest in Kwangtung Province, China. Although considered an emergency wartime measure (owing to the lack of male priests in Macao), it nevertheless made Florence Tim-Oi Lee the first-ever ordained female Anglican clergyperson.
1959 Pope John XXIII, 90 days after his election, announced his intention to hold an ecumenical church council. (The Vatican II Council officially opened October 11, 1962 and closed December 8, 1965.)

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

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Thought for the day :
"You can tell the size of your God by looking at the size of your worry list. The longer your list, the smaller your God."

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Question of the day...
Why are hemorrhoids called "hemorrhoids" instead of "asteroids"?

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Murphys Law of the day...(The 50-50-90 rule)
Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

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Amazing Fact #.0074...
A fifteen year old cat has probably spent ten years of its life sleeping.

[aomagrat]

Woo Hoo! Aircraft Carriers! I like those big guns on the Lexington and Saratoga. With 8 8-inch guns, they were armed better than a lot of cruisers, the theory being that if the filght deck were disabled in combat, the ships could still be used as cruisers. However, since all of the guns were on the starbord side, the flight deck was subject to being disabled by the blast from their own guns firing to port. The 8-inch guns were replaced by 5-inch guns in WWII.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning and thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. I hope you've been doing well, we miss you when you're not here but figure you are busy with work and life!

We appreciate your posts when you have the time. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Aeronaut.

[WaterDragon]

Wow! Very impressive! My son served aboard the USS Wasp and the USS Enterprise. Are todays carriers with those names the same ships as in today's info?

[snippy_about_it]

Sorry to hear the rain missed you but at least you got a warm weather break. Look what we have in store for us. Grrr. Did I say I hate winter? (We already have 3 inches)


Today
A chance of snow this morning...then occasional snow this afternoon. Snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Highs in the lower 20s. East winds 15 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 100 percent.

Tonight
Snow and sleet in the evening...then freezing rain and sleet after midnight. Total snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches. Early lows in the lower 20s...then temperatures rising. East winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 100 percent.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

1950 73ºF (23ºC) highest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland in January

Global warming must have come and gone in 1950. al gore has his figures all wrong.

[snippy_about_it]

Oh no, they just keep the names.

There's been 10 Wasps, beginning in 1775 with the Revolutionary War. What you want to look for in identifying a ship is the number. For example their is a USS WASP CV-7, USS WASP CV-18, USS WASP LHD-1, and so on. A while back I did a thread on the naming of Navy ships and believe me it just added to the confusion.

The same is true for the USS Enterprise. There is the USS Enterprise CV-6 and CVN-65 and of course the Star Trek Enterprise. (just kidding)

Just key the ships name into google and see what you get. It really is interesting.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

Morning E.G.C. We have sunshine and clear skies for right now, forecasters missed it again they said rain possibly snow.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Mayor.

[SAMWolf]

"Destruction of Whale Ships off Cape Thaddeus Arctic Ocean June 23 1865 by the Conft Stmr Shenandoah"

Colored lithograph of an artwork by B. Russell, depicting CSS Shenandoah's assault on the U.S. whale ships in the Bering Sea area.

Individual items shown are (from left to right): brig Susan Abigail (burning); ship Euphrates (burning--distant); CSS Shenandoah; ship Jerah Swift (burning--distant); ship William Thompson (burning--distant); ship Sophia Thornton (burning); whaleboat going to warn other whalers (very distant); ship Milo which carried the destroyed vessels' crews to San Francisco; ice in the distance.

CSS Shenandoah, a 1160-ton screw steam cruiser, was launched at Glasgow, Scotland, in August 1863 as the civilian steamer Sea King. After the Confederate Navy secretly purchased her, she put to sea in October 1864, under the cover story that she was headed for India on a commercial voyage. Sea King rendezvoused at sea off Madeira with another ship, which brought Confederate Navy officers, some crew members, heavy guns and other equipment needed to refit her as a warship. This work was completed at sea under the supervision of C.S. Navy First Lieutenant (later Commander) James Iredell Waddell, who became the cruiser's first Commanding Officer when she was commissioned as CSS Shenandoah on 19 October.

Waddell took his ship through the south Atlantic and into the Indian Ocean, capturing nine U.S. flag merchant vessels between late October and the end of 1864. All but two of these were sunk or burned. In late January 1865, Shenandoah arrived at Melbourne, Australia, where she was able to receive necessary repairs and provisions, as well as adding more than forty "stowaways" to her very short-handed crew. Following three weeks in port, the cruiser put to sea, initially planning to attack the American south Pacific whaling fleet.

However, discovering that his intended targets had been warned and dispersed, Waddell set off for the north Pacific. He stopped in the Eastern Carolines at the beginning of April, seizing four Union merchantmen there and using their supplies to stock up for further operations. While Shenandoah cruised northwards in April and May, the Confederacy collapsed, but this news would spread very slowly through the distant Pacific. Following a month in the Sea of Okhotsk that yielded one prize and considerable experience in ice navigation, she moved on to the Bering Sea. There, between 22 and 28 June 1865 the now-stateless warship captured two-dozen vessels, destroying all but a few. Soon afterwards, Waddell started a slow voyage towards San Francisco, California, which he believed would be weakly defended against his cruiser's guns.

Though Shenandoah's late June assault on the whaling fleet was accompanied by many rumors of the Civil War's end, she did not receive a firm report until 2 August 1865, when she encountered an English sailing ship that had left San Francisco less than two weeks before. Waddell then disarmed his ship and set sail for England. Shenandoah rounded Cape Horn in mid-September and arrived at Liverpool in early November, becoming the only Confederate Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe. There she hauled down the Confederate Ensign and was turned over to the Royal Navy. In 1866 the ship was sold to the Sultan of Zanzibar and renamed El Majidi. She was variously reported lost at sea in September 1872 or in 1879.