.............
General Christian F. Schilt, a pioneer of Marine aviation and winner of the Nation's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor for bravery, retired from the Marine Corps on 1 April 1957. He saw action with Leatherneck air units in world Wars I and II, the Haitian and Nicaraguan campaigns and the Korean fighting, and served at Marine Corps Headquarters, Washington, D.C., as Director of Aviation and Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps for Air.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism from 6 to 8 January 1928, at Quilali, Nicaragua, where two Marine patrols were ambushed and cut off by rebel bandits. Then a lieutenant, he voluntarily risked his life to make ten flights into the besieged town, evacuating 18 casualties and carrying in a replacement commander and badly-needed medical supplies. To make a landing strip on the village's rough, rolling, main street, the Marines on the ground had to burn and level part of the town, and since the plane had no brakes they had to stop it by dragging from its wings as soon as it touched down.
Hostile fire on landings and take-offs, plus low-hanging clouds, mountains and tricky air currents, added to the difficulty of the flights, which the citation describes as feats of "almost superhuman skill combined with personal courage of the highest order."
In Korea, where he commanded the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing from July 1951 to April 1952, General Schilt earned the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal and his fifth Air Medal. He also holds the Legion of Merit with Combat "V," the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star Medal with Combat "V" and four Air Medals for World War II service. During that conflict he participated in the Guadalcanal campaign, the consolidation of the Southern Solomons and the air defense of Peleliu and Okinawa.
The general was born 19 March 1895, in Richland County, Illinois, and after attending Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, he enlisted in the Marine Corps 23 June 1917. As an enlisted man he served at Ponta Delgada, in the Azores, with the 1st Marine Aeronautical Company, a seaplane squadron assigned to anti-submarine patrol. This was the first organized American air unit of any service to go overseas during World War I.
Returning to the United States as a corporal, he entered flight training at the Marine Flying Field, Miami, Florida. He was designated an aviator 5 June 1919, and commissioned a second lieutenant five days later. That October, he began his first tour of expeditionary duty as a member of Squadron "D," Marine Air Forces, 2d Provisional Brigade, in Santo Domingo. He returned to the United States in February 1920, to enter the Marine Officers' Training School, Quantico, Virginia.
Completing the course in August 1920, he went overseas again the following month, joining squadron "E" of Marine Aviation Forces, 1st Provisional Brigade, at Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He was transferred to the 2d Brigade the following March to make an aerial survey and mosaic map of the coast line of the Dominican Republic. After completing that assignment he returned to Quantico in October 1922.
Except for service at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida, from January to July 1923, and completion of a three-month photographic course at the Air Service Technical School, Chanute Field, Illinois, in 1925, the general remained at Quantico for the next five years. While attached to that post he won second place in the Schneider International Seaplane Race at Norfolk, in November 1926, flying a special Curtiss racer at a speed of 231.3 miles per hour over seven laps of a triangular 50-kilometer course.
In November 1927, General Schilt was ordered to Managua, Nicaragua, where he joined Observation Squadron 7-M. It was during this tour of duty that he won the Medal of Honor. He returned to the United States in August 1929, and after commanding Fighter Squadron 5-N at Quantico, was named Chief Test Pilot and Flight and Aerological Officer at the Naval Aircraft Factory, Philadelphia. He served in that capacity for two years before returning to Quantico in June 1932, to enter the Company Officers' Course at the Marine Corps Schools. He completed that course in July 1933, and a month later entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Montgomery, Alabama.
Graduating from the tactical school in June 1934, the general began another four years at Quantico, where he was Air Officer on the Staff of the Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force, and later a squadron commander with Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force. He then served from May 1938 to June 1940, as Executive Officer of the Marine Corps Air Station at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. After that he returned to Quantico to complete the Senior Course in the Marine Corps Schools and serve with Base Air Detachment 1, Fleet Marine Force.
He left Quantico in May 1941, when he was assigned to the American Embassy in London, England, as an Assistant Naval Attache for Air. In that capacity he traveled through England and Scotland and served as a naval observer in North Africa and the Middle East. He returned to the United States in August 1941, and was assigned to Quantico as Engineer and Supply Officer of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing.
In September 1942, he arrived on Guadalcanal as Assistant Chief of Staff, 1st Marine Air Wing. After that he was commander of Marine Aircraft Group 11, Chief of Staff of the 1st Wing and Commanding Officer of the Strike and Search Patrol Commands, Solomon Islands. He returned to the United States in September 1943, and commanded the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, North Carolina, until March of the following year.
From April to June 1944, General Schilt headed the 9th Marine Aircraft Wing during the organization of that unit. He then served for six months as Chief of Staff of the wing and for another month as its commander before returning to the Pacific theater in February 1945. This time he was Island Commander, Peleliu, from March to August 1945, and Commanding General, Air Defense Command, 2d Marine Aircraft Wing, on Okinawa until October 1945, when he took command of the 2d Wing.
Returning from Okinawa in March 1946, the general reported to the Naval Air Station at Glenview, Illinois, the following month. There he headed the Marine Air Reserve Training Command until July 1949, when he was ordered to Norfolk as Chief of Staff, Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic. He served in that capacity until he took command of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Korea in July 1951.
In April 1952, General Schilt returned from Korea to serve in Hawaii as Deputy Commander, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, until February 1953 when he became Commanding General, Aircraft, Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, at the Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California. He left El Toro in July 1955, and assumed his duties at Headquarters Marine Corps as Director of Aviation on 1 August 1955, as a lieutenant general. He served in this capacity until retirement from the Marine Corps when he was promoted to his present rank.
In addition to the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal with Gold Stars in lieu of four additional awards, the general's medals and decorations include the Presidential Unit Citation Ribbon with one bronze star; the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal; the World War I Victory Medal with Overseas clasp; the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal with one bronze star; the Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal; the American Defense Service Medal with Base clasp; the Asiatic-Pacific Area Campaign Medal with two bronze stars; the American Area Campaign Medal; the World War II Victory Medal; the Navy Occupation Service Medal with Asia clasp; the National Defense Service Medal; the Korean Service Medal with one silver star; the United Nations Service Medal; the Nicaraguan Medal of Merit with silver star; the Nicaraguan Cross of Valor; the Korean Order of Military Merit TAIGUK; and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.
General Schilt died 8 January 1987, and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
Today's Educational Sources and suggestions for further reading:
www.mca-marines.org/Leatherneck/schiltarch.htm
www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com/usmcnic.html
http://hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil/HD/Historical/Whos_Who/Schilt_CF.htm
Just looking at those Foss interviews again. Boy, you folks are in for a treat. Snip, you are going to love that guy. No lies in that man's heart.
Big fan of Merritt Edson, also. Another Guadalcanal Marine Medal of Honor. And "Manila John" Basilone, who did not want to stay back in the States doing war bond rallies but wanted to be with the guys. Killed on Iwo. Left a young wife, who was also a Marine. Wonder if she is still alive.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on October 10:
1486 Charles III Duke of Savoy
1731 Henry Cavendish England, physicist/chemist (discovered hydrogen)
1738 Benjamin West painter (Death of General Wolfe)
1819 Zebulon York Brig general (Confederate Army), died in 1900
1825 Paulus Kruger Pres of South African Republic (1883), Boer leader
1829 Dandridge McRae Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1899
1830 Isabella II Queen of Spain (1833-68)
1832 Theodore Shelton Bowers Bvt Brig General (Union Army), died in 1866
1834 Aleksis Kivi Finland, playwright (Kullervo, Seitsem„n Veljest„)
1861 Fridtjof Nansen Norweg Arctic explorer/humanitarian (Nobel 1922)
1900 Helen Hayes Wash DC, actress (Ceasar & Cleopatra, Happy Birthday)
1918 Thelonious Monk jazz pianist (Monk's Dream)
1924 James Clavell author (Tai Pan, Shogun) (or 1920)
1924 Edward D Wood Jr, Poughkeepsie NY, director (Plan 9 from Outer Space)
1926 Richard Jaeckel NY, actor (3:10 to Yuma, Sands of Iwo Jima, Gomer Pyle USMC)
1927 Dana Elcar Ferndale Mich, actor (Baretta, Baa Baa Black Sheep)
1930 Adlai Stevenson III (D-Sen-Ill)
1930 Harold Pinter England, playwright (Homecoming, Servant)
1941 Laurence Henry Tribe Shanghai China, Harvard Law professor
1946 John Prine Maywood Ill, country singer (Angel from Montgomery Sam Stone, In Spite of Ourselves)
1946 Ben Vereen Miami Fla, actor/dancer (Pippin, Roots, Webster)
1955 David Lee Roth rock singer (Van Halen-Jump)
1958 John M Grunsfeld Chicago Ill, PhD/astronaut
1958 Tanya Tucker Seminole Tx, country singer/actress (Follow that Car)
1959 Chris Lowe rocker (Pet Shop Boys-Left to My Own Devices)
1964 Maxi Gnauck German DR, uneven parallel bars (Olympic-gold-1980)
Deaths which occurred on October 10:
0019 Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commandant of Rijnleger, dies at 33
0413 Nicias, Athens politician (Peace of Nicias), killed at about 57
0732 Abd ar-Rahman, Yemenite general strategist (Bordeaux occupier), dies in Battle of Tours
1659 Able J Tasmania, navigator/discovered (Tasmania, NZ), dies at about 56
1797 Carter Braxton US boer/signer (Decl of Independence), dies at 61
1864 David Bullock Harris US Confederate colonel, dies of yellow fever
1886 David L Yule 1st Jewish US senator, dies
1964 Eddie Cantor comedian (Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater), dies at 72
1976 Connee Boswell singer (Pete Kelly's Blue), dies at 68
1978 Ralph H Metcalfe (Rep-D-Ill), dies at 68
1980 Bill Thomas actor (Buckwheat), dies
1983 Sir Ralph Richardson actor, dies at 80
1985 Orson Welles actor (Citizen Kane), dies at 70
1985 Yul Brynner actor (King & I), dies of cancer at 70
1990 Dick Jorgensen NFL referee, dies at 56
1995 Paolo Gucci, entrepreneur/accessories designer, dies at 64
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1965 DODD JOE L.
[10/25/65 ESCAPED]
1966 CONFER MICHAEL STEELE---MC COOK NE.
[ACFT EXPLODE NO TRACE PILOT]
1968 HANDRAHAN EUGENE A.---ST PAUL MN.
1968 HERREID ROBERT D.---AURORA IL.
1969 MAXWELL CALVIN W.---EDDY NM.
1969 WEISNER FRANKLIN L.---FORT BENNING GA.
1970 GRAZIOSI FRANCIS G.---ROCHESTER NY.
1972 CLEARY PETER M.---COLCHESTER CT
1972 LEONOR LEONARDO C.---ASTORIA NY.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0019 Germanicus, the best loved of Roman princes, dies of poisoning. On his deathbed he accuses Piso, the governor of Syria, of poisoning him.
680 Battle at Kerbela: Kalief Yazid beats pretender al-Hussein
0732 End of Battle of Tours
1631 Saxon army occupies Prague
1780 Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in Caribbean
1802 1st non indian settlement in Oklahoma
1845 The Naval School (now called US Naval Academy) opens at Annapolis
1846 Neptune's moon Triton discovered by William Lassell
1857 American Chess Association formed (NYC)
1863 Skirmish at Blue Springs, Tennessee (166 casualties)
1865 John Hyatts patents the billiard ball
1868 Cuba revolts for independence against Spain
1868 Declaration of the plan of Yara in Cuba
1874 Fiji becomes a British possession
1886 1st dinner jacket worn to autumn ball at Tuxedo Park, NY (the tuxedo)
1888 Teetotalers excursion train crushed, killing 64 (Mud Run Pa)
1908 Baseball Writers Association, formed
1911 The Panama Canal opens
1911 Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries overthrow Manchus (Taiwan Nat'l Day)
1913 Gamboa Dam in Panama blown up; Atlantic & Pacific waters mix
1914 German forces route Belgians in Antwerp Belgium (WW I)
1920 Phoenix Cardinals (then in Chicago) play 1st NFL game, a 0-0 tie
1920 Indian's Bill Wambsganns makes 1st unassisted world series triple play (World Series #17)
1920 Indian's Elmer Smith hits the 1st world series grand slam (World Series #17)
1921 NFL Decatur Staleys become Chicago Staleys, win 14-10
1924 Ibn Saud of Nedzjed captures Mecca
1924 Washington Senators win their 1st World Series beat Giants in 7 (World Series #21)
1932 "Betty & Bob" premiers on radio
1933 1st synthetic detergent for home use marketed
1935 George Gershwin's "Porgy & Bess" opens on Broadway
1938 Germany completed annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland
1941 German U-boat torpedoes US destroyer Kearney
1943 Chiang Kai-shek takes oath of office as president of China
1957 Braves' Lew Burdette beats Yankees for 3rd time in 1 world series (World Series #54)
1957 Milwaukee Braves beat NY Yankees, 4 games to 3 in 53rd World Series
1957 Pres Eisenhower apologizes to finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he is refused service in a Dover, Del, restaurant
1963 Treaty banning atmospheric nuclear tests signed by US, UK, USSR
1970 Fiji gains independence from Britain (National Day)
1970 October Crisis, the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ), a militant separatist group, kidnaps Quebec labor minister Pierre Laporte (Laporte's body was found about a week later.)
1971 1st game played at Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium, Phils win 4-1
1973 VP Spiro T Agnew pleads no contest to tax evasion & resigns
1974 Canadian John Hathaway begins 2-yr ride of 50,600 miles
1974 Israel formally signs Sinai accord with Egypt
1975 Liz Taylor's 6th marriage (re-marries Richard Burton)
1976 NJ Meadowlands' Giant's Stadium opens
1976 Greece's 98 year-old Dimitrion Yordanidis, is oldest man to compete in a marathon; he finishes in 7:33
1978 Pres Carter signs a bill authorizing the Susan B Anthony dollar
1979 Panama assumes sovereignty over Canal Area (ie Canal Zone)
1980 4,500 die when a pair of earthquakes strikes NW Algeria
1980 Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network dedicated
1980 Yanks lose 4-2 & are swept by Royals in the AL Championship series
1981 Anwar Sadat's funeral service is held in Cairo
1982 Pope John Paul II canonizes Rev M Kolbe, who volunteered to die in place of another inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp, a saint
1983 Israel's Knesset votes 60-53 to endorse Yitzhak Shamir as PM
1985 US fighter jets force Egyptian plane carrying hijackers of Italian ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, gunmen are placed in custody
1986 7.5 Earthquake strikes San Salvador, El Salvador
1986 Israel Prime Minister Shimon Peres resigns
1987 Bruce Springsteen releases his 9th album "Tunnel of Love"
1990 US 67th manned space mission STS 41 (Discovery 11) returns from space
1991 Ex-postal worker Joseph Harris kills 4 postal workers
1991 Greyhound Bus ends bankruptcy
1994 Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras, commander-in-chief of the Haitian armed forces, resigned to make way for the return of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
1996 President Clinton joined Vice President Al Gore in Knoxville, Tenn., where the president moved to broaden the sweep of the Internet at 100 universities, national labs and other federal institutions.
2002 Former President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was cited for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East and his commitment to human rights and democratic values around the world.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Afghanistan : Deliverance Day
Cuba : Yara Day/Beginning of War of Independence (1868)
Finland : Aleksis Kivi Day (1834)
Japan : Health-Sports Day (1964)
Namibia, South Africa : Kruger Day (1825)
Oklahoma : Historical Day (1802)
South Dakota : Pioneers' Day
Taiwan : Double Tenth Day/National Day (1911)
Wash DC : Samuel Fraunces Day Memorial Day
Western Samoa : White Sunday (2nd Sunday) (Sunday)
National Chimney Sweep Week (Day 6)
Get Organized Week (Day 6)
Mental Illness Awareness Week (Day 6)
US : National Metric Day.
Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month
National Sarcastics' Awareness Month
Religious Observances
RC : Commemoration of St Francis Borgia, confessor, Jesuit
Religious History
1560 Birth of Jacob Arminius, the Dutch theologian from whose writings and doctrines Protestants opposed to Calvinism have since been called "Arminians."
1821 Charles Finney, 29, claimed to have received "a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost," and was converted to a Christian faith. Finney soon abandoned his pursuit of law and embarked on a 50-year career in evangelism and higher education.
1838 Birth of Theodore Zahn, German Lutheran Bible and patristics scholar. Author of many monographs and commentaries, Zahn's leading work was his 3-volume "Introduction to the New Testament" (1899; 1909).
1841 Birth of William A. Ogden, American sacred composer. A student of Lowell Mason, Ogden became a well-known music teacher, and penned the hymns "Bring Them In" and "He is Able to Deliver Thee."
1851 Birth of W. Robertson Nicoll, Scottish theologian. At one time editor of five periodicals, his most enduring achievement was "The Expositor's Greek Testament," a series of 50 volumes of commentaries he edited and published between 1888-1905.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world."
Gender Dictionary...
COMMITMENT (ko-mit-ment) n.
A. Female...A desire to get married and raise a family.
B. Male...Not trying to pick up other women while out with one's girl friend.
Lesser Known Breeds of Dogs - Cross Breeds...
Collie + Malamute = Commute, a dog that travels to work
The Ultimate Scientific Dictionary...
Pilot Plant:
A modest facility used for confirming design errors before they are built into a costly, full-scale production facility.
Things you would like to say at work, but won't...
So you're a feminist. Isn't that cute.
