The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968)- My 16th, 2003

http://www.ehistory.com/vietnam/books/aiv/0029.cfm ^

[SAMWolf]

Dear Lord,

There's a young man far from home,
called to serve his nation in time of war;
sent to defend our freedom
on some distant foreign shore.

We pray You keep him safe,
we pray You keep him strong,
we pray You send him safely home ...
for he's been away so long.

There's a young woman far from home,
serving her nation with pride.
Her step is strong, her step is sure,
there is courage in every stride.
We pray You keep her safe,
we pray You keep her strong,
we pray You send her safely home ...
for she's been away too long.

Bless those who await their safe return.
Bless those who mourn the lost.
Bless those who serve this country well,
no matter what the cost.

Author Unknown

.

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

.

.................................................................................................................................

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Rolling Thunder
March 2, 1965 - October 31, 1968

ON 5 March, 1965, on orders from President Lyndon Johnson, the United States initiated a sustained campaign of aerial bombardment against North Vietnam under the code name ROLLING THUNDER. Less noticed, but of comparable military importance, U.S. air forces immediately thereafter started an air interdiction campaign, under the code names STEEL TIGER and TIGER HOUND, against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the communist supply lines running from North to South Vietnam through southern Laos.

From then until the final withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Vietnam in 1973,under President Richard Nixon, the use of U.S. air power against North Vietnamese targets was a major aspect of the war. In the event, America's seemingly overwhelming aerial might proved indecisive for reasons which remain as controversial today as was the bombing campaign at the time. Apparently mounted in response to renewed communist provocation - the Viet Cong attack on Pleiku air base on 7 February that had killed eight Americans and wounded 106 - ROLLING THUNDER and, to a lesser extent, the air campaign in Laos were the result of a prolonged debate within the inner circles of the Johnson Administration.

Lyndon Johnson

The decision to unleash American air power, a decision urged by the joint chiefs of staff and senior military leaders, had been hotly debated on military as well as political grounds. Some of Johnson's advisor who were the staunchest backers of American commitment to South Vietnam questioned the military efficacy of air attacks on the north and were reluctant to pay the diplomatic price that these would inevitably entail. Others, less willing to pay a heavy price for South Vietnam's independence, saw American air power as a quick and politically inexpensive way out.

The military commanders charged with planning and executing the attacks saw the problem from yet another perspective: given the American policy of preserving South Vietnam's independence and presidential willingness to bomb North Vietnam, they looked at the air offensive in classic military terms: How could air power most effectively influence the outcome of the war in the south? Like many of the President's civilian advisors, they started from the assumption that the war in the south would quickly wither away in the absence of reinforcement and replenishment from the North. They thus envisioned the air campaign as an attack on enemy sources of war materiel and on the lines of supply along which materiel and manpower moved south. To them, ROLLING THUNDER STEEL TIGER and TIGER HOUND were part and parcel of the same effort.


Robert Macnamara

To many of Johnson's senior civilian advisors, however, they were not. To Secretary of Defense McNamara, in particular, the purpose of ROLLING THUNDER was to deliver a message to North Vietnam. By gradually increasing the pressure on the north, the United States would firmly, and in a controlled and precisely graduated manner, make it clear to Ho Chi Minh and his colleagues that a negotiated settlement was preferable to an increase in aerial destruction. At what point that final, decisive increase would come was uncertain, but there could be no doubt that come it would. America's overwhelming might left no doubt on that score. In the meantime, theimportant thing was to proceed deliberately and non-provocatively, to telegraph to Communist China and the Soviet Union that the United States was in pursuit of a negotiated settlement in the south, and not an overthrow of the regime in the north.

The military leadership strongly disagreed with McNamara's assumptions, believing that his notions of graduated escalation were divorced from reality. They argued that air power should be brought to bear suddenly and in overwhelming force. On one point all parties were in agreement: once America's full military might was brought to bear, a favorable military decision could not be long in coming. Virtually no one high up in either the Johnson Administration or the military foresaw the possibility of a long and indecisive campaign, the length and indecisiveness of which would be increased by an impressive North Vietnamese air defense system. That system, present only in embryonic form in March of 1965, was to prove impressively capable and resilient.



North Vietnam's air defense system was based on batteries of Soviet-supplied anti-aircraft artillery (AM) ranging from pre-World War 1137 mm cannon to modern, radar-directed 57 mm and 85 mm pieces and even, in the immediate vicinity of Hanoi, massive 130 mm guns. And AAA was only the beginning. As the conflict dragged on, the Soviets supplied North Vietnam with MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighter aircraft, a sophisticated radar early-warning net and air intercept system and batteries of SA-2 radar-guided surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). The SA-2 had already been used in combat: one had downed Gary Francis Powers' U-2 over the Soviet Union in 1960 and another had accounted for Major Robert Anderson's U-2 during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. But radar- guided SAMs had never before been used in the mass as components of a sophisticated air defense system under attack by a determined and well-armed foe.

The men and machines who would implement ROLLING THUNDER and the interdiction campaign in Laos constituted the most impressive tactical air force the world had seen. Political considerations ruled out the use of Strategic Air Command's bombers, so the burden of the air war against the north would be borne by America's fighter jocks, Air Force and Navy fighter pilots, navigators and radar intercept officers. Volunteers, they were well trained, confident in their abilities and eager to get into the fray. The attitudes chronicled by novelist Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff, the story of the military test pilots who became America's first astronauts, were much in evidence; laconic and disciplined, their courage tempered with a dash of gallows humor, these men would do it if it could be done.



To be sure, there were deficiencies their training - the Air Force had all but eliminated training in air-to-air combat for reasons of safety - but they knew their aircraft and could use them well. For the most part their equipment was up to the task, though there were deficiencies here as well. Engineers had concluded that air-to-air missiles had made World War II dogfights a thing of the past, and of the U.S. fighters in service, only the Navy F-8 Crusader was armed with guns; the months ahead would show the value of those guns... and those of the North Vietnamese MiGs.

The principal Air Force fighter to take the war into North Vietnam, the F-105, had been designed to carry a nuclear weapon in an internal bay for use in Europe as a low-level nuclear penetrator, dependent on low altitude and speed to evade radar and SAMs. Lightly armored, however, it would actually have to operate over North Vietnam, in an intense AAA and small arms environment, carrying large loads of conventional bombs externally. Moreover, the F-105, like most of the aircraft which would bear the brunt of the war "up north" - Air Force and Navy F-4 Phantoms and Navy A-4 Skyhawks - could only bomb accurately by day. The sole exception was the Navy's A-6 carrier attack aircraft, just coming into service; although slow, the A-6 was designed for radar-directed, precision low-level attacks at night.



Both Navy and Air Force tactical aircraft were deficient in electronic warfare. Neither service had foreseen that fighters and attack aircraft would routinely penetrate airspace defended by radar-directed AAA and SAMs at medium altitudes, and both radar detection systems to provide warning and jammers to spoof gun-laying and missile radars were still on the drawing board. The Navy had an air-to-surface missile, the Shrike, designed to home in on enemy radars but this had not yet reached the fleet.

[SAMWolf]

The first attacks launched under ROLLING THUNDER were less than overpowering; this was in part because the structure for delivering them in full force was not yet in place, and in part because they were launched in unsettled weather as the dry monsoon gave way to the clouds and rain of the wet, southwest monsoon. More basically, the political constraints imposed by the strategy of graduated escalation dictated a bomb line that would creep gradually up from the south until the North Vietnamese gave in.



However, as the bomb line moved north, the communists showed no inclination to negotiate; instead, the scope and sophistication of North Vietnamese defenses increased. On 4 April, MiG- 17s engaged a flight of F-105s that were attacking the Dragon's Jaw bridge near Thanh Hoa and shot down two of their number. The next day, an RF-8 reconnaissance aircraft from Coral Sea obtained photographs of a SAM site under construction fifteen miles southeast of Hanoi; it was the first of many such constructions.

Washington's response to the strengthening North Vietnamese defenses was symptomatic of future responses. The President refused to permit attacks on the MiG airfields and rejected impassioned pleas from military commanders to attack the SAM sites before they could become operational; word went out that they were to be struck only if they fired on U.S. aircraft, apparently in vain hopes of a quid pro quo. The first aircraft to be lost to a SAM went down on 24 July, but attacks on the sites were only authorized three days later. The early attacks on SAM sites, tightly controlled from Washington and therefore predictable, produced heavy tosses on the American side; these were not just to SAMs, but to the radar-controlled AAA, heavy automatic weapons and small arms which ringed the batteries. Indeed, U.S. aviators quickly learned that they could outmaneuver the missiles - if they could see them in time - and the main effect of the SA-2 was to force attacking aircraft down to medium and low altitudes, where they fell prey to AAA and small arms.

The Air Force and Navy response to the SA-2 was both technological and tactical. The Navy had the Shrike in service by mid-August, but the development of appropriate tactics took time and the first successful attack on a SAM site, by a flight of A-4s led by an A-6, was not until 17 October.

The Air Force fitted B-66 bombers with powerful transmitters to jam communist early warning and ground-controlled intercept (GCI) radars and developed jamming pods for fighters which denied range information to SA-2 radars. Next came cockpit-mounted radar warning devices. Finally, the Air Force developed specialized anti-missile hunter-killer aircraft, modified two-seater F-OOFs and later F-105Gs, with an electronic warfare officer (EWO) in the rear seat monitoring an array of radar detection equipment. Called IRON HAND generically and Wild Weasel by the Air Force, hunter-killer flights led by such aircraft successfully limited the SA-2's effectiveness. This success, however, was gained at a price, both in human terms, for IRON HAND duty was dangerous, and economically, for the equipment was expensive. Similarly, the Air Force and Navy put considerable effort into their attempts to shoot down MiGs, eventually achieving respectable kill ratios after a disappointing start. But, as with the SA-2, the main effect of the MiGs was to divert American resources.

The operational results of ROLLING THUNDER reflected the tension that existed between the success of military leaders in persuading President Johnson to permit attacks on targets they considered critical, many of them near Hanoi and Haiphong - power plants, manufacturing and POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) facilities, railroad lines and key bridges - and the constraining effect of graduated escalation and the periodic bombing halts - there were no less than seven - that Johnson offered the North Vietnamese as an inducement to negotiate.

Militarily, the high point of ROLLING THUNDER came in the summer of 1967 when Johnson overrode McNamara's objections and permitted stepped-up attacks in the Hanoi-Haiphong vicinity. On 11 August, F-105s attacked the Paul Doumer bridge crossing the Red River at Hanoi, severing the primary transportation link between Haiphong and the south. When the North Vietnamese returned it to operation in October, it was dropped again. Navy strikes on industrial and transportation targets kept up the pressure. From the vantage point of Washington, the attacks, while tactically successful, served mainly to produce adverse publicity, recalling the previous year's controversy over Harrison Salisbury's New York Times dispatches from North Vietnam which had accused the U.S. of deliberately attacking civilian targets thus fueling the protests of an increasingly robust anti-war movement.

In fact, ROLLING THUNDER was having a serious effect on the north and John Colvin, British charge d'affaires in Hanoi, was later to report that the North Vietnamese transportation system and economy was close to systemic collapse.

Whatever the reality, Johnson and his advisors were apparently unaware of the extent of the destruction U.S. air power had wrought. The campaign must be judged a strategic failure overall because, in the final analysis, it had no decisive effect on the war in the south. Moreover, it left numbers of shot-down American aviators in North Vietnamese hands: the largest single body of prisoners of war (POWs); they were to be important pawns in the peace negotiations which ended U.S.military involvement in the war. Military commanders and fighter jocks deeply resented Johnson's and McNamara's tight control of the tactical details of ROLLING THUNDER and, when the President announced the campaign's termination in the wake of the 1968 Tet Offensive, few mourned its passing.

[SAMWolf]

Operation Rolling Thunder

After a Viet Cong attack in February 1965 on U.S. Army barracks in Pleiku, the United States commenced Operation Rolling Thunder, a restricted but massive bombing campaign against North Vietnam. Protection of air bases then provided the rationale for introduction of 50,000 U.S. ground combat forces, which were soon increased.



On March 2, 1965 Operation Rolling Thunder commenced, a sustained bombing campaign intended to place increasing pressure on the North Vietnamese leadership to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the war. The idea was to strike targets just above the DMZ ( Demilitarized Zone ) and then progressively hit targets further north ( closer to Hanoi ) as the campaign went on.

F-105Ds from the 67th TFS bombed an ammunition depot at Xom Bong, 20 miles north of the DMZ. After a series of TDY deployments to Korat and Tahkli, two large F-105D wings were set up in Thailand--the 355th TFW which moved from McConnell AFB to Tahkli in August 1965 and the 388th TFW which moved to Korat in April of 1966 to replace the temporary 6234th TFW. The 355th and 388th Tactical Fighter Wings based in Thailand used the F-105D to carry the brunt of the air war to North Vietnam.



The majority of missions forOperation Rolling Thunder were carried out by U.S. Air Force planes based in Thailand and by Navy squadrons flying from Yankee Station, the code name for carriers based in the South China Sea. A line just below Vinh, North Vietnam formed the northern boundary above which air attacks were initially forbidden. Most North Vietnamese fighter bases and surface-to-air missiles fell within these restricted areas.

The rules of engagement placed many restrictions on the armed forces. Bombing was prohibited within 25 miles (40 km) of the Chinese border, within 10 miles (16 km) of Hanoi ( the capital ) and within 4 miles ( 6.4 km ) of Haiphong ( the major port.) By placing the capital, Haiphong and surrounding areas off limits the U.S. Air Force was prevented from attacking nearly all military targets crucial to the war effort of the enemy. Additionally, much to the annoyance of Air Force generals, no enemy air bases could be attacked for fear of killing Soviet technicians. During the early part of Rolling Thunder even the deadly surface to air missile (SAM) sites could not be attacked until they were fully operational ( firing SA-2 missiles at U.S. planes! )



On Dec. 24, 1965, President Johnson declared a bombing halt over North Vietnam to try to persuade Hanoi to discuss a political settlement. It lasted until Jan. 30, 1966. This halt followed one of six days the preceding May. Hanoi responded to neither, but used the time to rebuild its strength, repair previous damage, and send more troops and supplies southward. So, Rolling Thunder began again and U.S. aircrews not only had to attack the new targets, but also those they had already destroyed which had been rebuilt or repaired.

On Sep. 3, 1966, North Vietnam sent up its MiG-21s in force for the first time from five air bases which had not previously been attacked because of U.S. policy. By the end of the year, Rolling Thunder had progressed northward, reaching the Hanoi area.



Rolling Thunder continued from 1965 to 1968. In all, the US flies 304,000 fighter-bomber sorties and 2,380 B-52 sorties over North Vietnam, losing 922 aircraft and dropping 634,000 tons of bombs.

Additional Sources:

www.danshistory.com
www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil www.brooksart.com
memory.loc.gov
news.bbc.co.uk
www.67tfs.org

[SAMWolf]

Rolling Thunder failed because of two key factors:

Rolling Thunder was a conventional air effort applied to an un-conventional war, political constraints and negative objectives were too much an impediment for airpower to overcome. The Vietnam war prior to the Tet Offensive in 1968, was fought as a guerilla effort, primarily by the Viet Cong who fought on the average of 1 day a month, and who were easily re-supplied from very little material. Clodfelter accurately states it would have been virtually impossible to shut down the Viet Cong re-supply effort via air interdiction. Numerous negative objectives and political constraints applied—and most are attributable directly to the President. Vietnam distracted President Johnson who wanted to focus on his various domestic agendas. In essence, Vietnam was a problem, which got in the way of the President’s programs, whether the agenda was getting re-elected, or pushing his Great Society legislation through Congress.



President Johnson was very also concerned that a sharp a bombing attack on North Vietnam would have negative impact on the Soviets and China. Thus Johnson opted for a personally controlled, target restricted, small scale, limited bombing endeavor with a very gradual rate of increase. President Johnson’s personal insecurity led him to personally make many of the planning key decisions regarding Rolling Thunder campaign with the aid of a small ad-hoc organization of non-military people who provided military advice that failed to adequately consider ramifications or consequences. Mistrust of the military led to micro-management of the war from the White House.

Further, Johnson provided poor overall intent: President Johnson’s plan was to continue Rolling Thunder without committing to defining purpose, military objectives, or end-state of US Vietnam operations. The President’s administration supported his intent by continuing Rolling Thunder without critical regard to what the US was trying to achieve from the efforts. Johnson initiated and continued an aerial campaign with the bulk of the operational art being accomplished at the national-strategic level—the White House. Further, the campaign cobbled together methods of accomplishment, which literally disregarded every key aspect of the USAF doctrinal "Tenets of Airpower."

-- Maj Randy Kee,
USAF

[SAMWolf]

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[SAMWolf]

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning FOXHOLERS!
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[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Feather

[Valin]

On this Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on May 16:
1558 Andreas of Austria Bohemia cardinal/Governor of Netherlands (1598-1600)
1609 Ferdinand Austria, cardinal of Spain/Governor of Netherlands
1641 Dudley North financier/economist
1659 Campegius Vitringa Dutch theologist
1718 Maria G Agnesi Italy mathematician curves= x²y=a²(a-y)
1748 Antonius van Alphen apostolic vicar of De Bosch
1761 John Opie artist
1763 Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin chemist (discovered chromium, beryllium)
1782 John Sell Cotman water color artist
1788 Friedrich Rückert poet
1801 William Henry Seward Secretary of State (1861-69, buys Alaska at 2¢/acre)
1804 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody educator/founder (1st US kindergarten)
1806 George C Cadwalader Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1879
1816 Henry Hopkins Sibley Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1886
1819 Daniel Ammen Captain (Union Navy), died in 1898
1822 Eduard Hille Dutch composer/conductor
1824 Edmund Kirby-Smith Florida, West Point graduate/educator/General (Confederate Army)
1824 Levi Parsons Morton (R) 22nd US Vice President (1889-93)
1827 Petrus J H Cuypers architect (Amsterdam Museum, Central station)
1831 David Edward Hughes inventor (microphone, teleprinter)
1832 Philip Danforth Armour founder (Armour Foods)
1845 Dietrich Schäfer German historian (Deutsche Hanse)
1850 Arthur Henry Mann organist/composer
1857 Juan Morel Campos composer
1858 Frank Lynes composer
1858 Hanus Trnecek composer
1866 Ernest Watson Burgess US sociologist (ecological school)
1878 Taylor Holmes Newark NJ, actor (Tobor the Great, Beware My Lovely)
1880 Julius Tannen NY, comedian (Great Moment, House of Frankenstein)
1887 Bull Montana Vogliera Italy, actor (Brass Buttons, Victory)
1887 J van Hoddis writer
1889 Joan Collette Dutch (male) painter (New Church, Delft)
1892 Coenraad B van Haeringen linguist/etymologist (Dutch Dictionary)
1892 Richard Tauber [Ernst Seiffert], Austria/British, tenor/conductor
1893 José Calvo Sotelo Spanish minister of Finance (1925-30)
1893 Paul Amadeus Pisk composer
1897 Walther Geiser composer
1898 August de Schrijver Belgian politician/founder (CVP)
19-- Carolyn Conwell Chicago IL, actress (Mary-Young & Restless)
1902 Jan Kiepura Sosnowiec Poland, vocalist/actor (Her Wonderful Lie)
1904 Hugh Plaxton Canada, ice hockey player (Olympics-gold-1928)
1904 Lily Pons opera singer/actress (That Girl From Paris)
1905 H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates novelist (Feast for July, Love for Lydia)
1905 Henry Fonda Grand Island NE, actor (Mr Roberts, On Golden Pond)
1906 Arturo Uslar Pietri Venezuela, writer/minister (Lanzas Coloradas)
1906 Ernie McCormick cricketer (Australian quickie of late 30's)
1906 Nicholas Beriozoff ballet master
1907 Robert Tisdall Ireland, 400 meter hurdles (Olympics-gold-1932)
1908 Hilary Preston editor
1908 Mohammed Roem Indonesian foreign minister (Linggadjati)
1909 Charles Wislon principal (Glasgow University)
1911 Margaret Sullavan Norfolk VA, actress (Back Street)
1911 Olaff J de Landell [JB Wemmerslager van Sparwoude], writer
1912 Studs Terkel New York NY, author/host (Stud's Place, Working)
1913 Woody Herman jazz clarinetist/bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds)
1916 Adriana Caselotti cartoon voice
1916 Bernard Braden broadcaster/actor (All Night Lone, Full Treatment)
1916 Ephraim Katzir biophysicist/President (Israel)
1916 Irene Elizabeth Beatrice Ighodaro doctor/social reformer
1917 George Gaynes Helsinki Finland, actor (Henry-Punky Brewster)
1917 Geraint Jones conductor/organist
1918 Edward Thomas historian/intelligence expert
1918 Juan Rulfo Mexican writer (Pedro Páramo)
1918 Kevin Skelton Bishop (Lichfield)
1919 [Wladziu Valentino] Liberace West Allis WI, pianist (Liberace Show, Evil Chandell-Batman)
1919 Richard Mason author
1920 Martine Carol [Maryse Mopurer] Saint-Mande France, actress (Nana)
1921 Harry Carey Jr Saugus CA, actor (She Wore a Yellow Ribbon)
1921 Robert Croften Brown politician
1922 Colin Cole Principal King of Arms
1922 Russell Wood treasurer (Queen Elizabeth)
1924 Dawda Kairaba Jawara President (Gambia, 1970-94)
1924 Frank F Mankiewicz New York NY, columnist (Perfectly Clear)
1926 Jan Zimmer composer
1927 John Walford solicitor
1928 Billy Martin baseball 2nd baseman/manager (New York Yankees, Oakland A's)
1928 Reginald Askew dean (King's College London)
1929 Adrienne Cecile Rich Baltimore MD, feminist writer (Diamond Cutters)
1929 John Conyers Jr (Representative-D-MI, 1965- )
1929 Osmo Uolevi Lindeman composer
1930 Desmond Langley Governor (Bermuda)
1930 Don Conicannon government minister
1930 Friedrich Gulda Austrian pianist/composer (Hangman's Songs)
1931 Donald James Martino Plainfield NJ, composer (Noturnno-Pulitzer 1974)
1931 Donald Martino Plainfield NJ, composer (Noturnno-Pulitzer 1974)
1931 Jack Dodson Pittsburgh PA, actor (Howard Sprage-Andy Griffith Show)
1931 Lowell P Weicker (Senator-R-CT, 1971-88/Governor-D-CT)
1931 Peter Levi poet/writer
1932 Isaac "Redd" Holt US drummer (Young-Holt Unlimited-In Crowd)
1934 Anthony Walker commandant (Royal College of Defense Studies)
1934 Nicholas Goodison CEO (TSB Group)
1936 Philippe de Montebello Paris France, art exhibitionist (Treasures of Tut)
1936 Roy Hudd comedian (Blood Beast Terror, Vampire Beast Craves Blood)
1937 James Hunt Jr (Governor-NC)
1937 Yvonne Craig Taylorville IL, actress (Batgirl-Batman, Kissin Cousin)
1938 Anthony Walker commandant (Royal College of Defense Studies)
1938 Stuart Bell MP
1940 Bernardo Bertolucci Parma Italy, director (1900, Last Emperor)
1940 Gareth Roberts chancellor (Sheffield University)
1941 John McWilliams MP
1941 Maurice Henry Weddington composer
1943 Dan Coats (Representative-R-IN, 1981- )
1943 Jon Jost director (All the Vermeers in New York)
1944 Billy Cobham Panamá, jazz artist (Same Ole Love)
1945 Brewster H Shaw Jr Cass City MI, Colonel USAF/astronaut (STS-9, STS 61B, STS-28)
1945 James Moran (Representative-D-VA)
1945 Nicky Chinn English songwriter/producer (Chinn & Chapman)
1946 Jessi B Wilson Mississippi, murderer (FBI Most Wanted List)
1946 Roger Earl rocker (Foghat)
1947 Barbara Lee US singer (Chiffons, He's So Fine)
1947 Bill Smitrovich actor (Crime Story, Miami Vice)
1947 Rosie Barnes MP
1949 Jimmy Hood MP
1949 Rick Reuschel pitcher (New York Yankees)
1949 William Sputnik Spooner rock guitarist (Grateful Dead, Tubes)
1950 Jock Bartley rocker (Firefall)
1950 Johannes Bednorz German superconductivity physicist (Nobel 1987)
1951 Jonathan Richman rocker (Modern Lovers-New England, Egyptian Reggae)
1952 Pierce Brosnan Navan County Meath Ireland, actor (Remington Steele, James Bond-Golden Eye)
1953 David Maclean British minister of state
1953 Richard Page Los Angeles CA, rocker (Mr Mister)
1953 Rick Rhoden pitcher (New York Yankees)
1954 [Dafydd] Rhys Williams Saskatoon Canada, MD/astronaut (STS 90)
1954 Janet Maw actress (Sparrow, King John, Mayor of Casterbridge)
1955 Debra Winger Columbus OH, actress (Officer & Gentleman)
1955 Hazel O'Connor Coventry England, singer/actress (Breaking Glass)
1955 Jack Morris St Paul MN, pitcher (Detroit Tigers)
1955 Olga Korbut Grodno Belorussia, gymnast (Olympics-2 gold-1972)
1957 Joan Benoit Samuelson Cape Elizabeth ME, marathoner (Olympics-gold-1984)
1958 Glenn Gregory rock vocalist (Heeaven 17-Electric Dreams)
1959 Bob Patterson Jacksonville FL, pitcher (Chicago Cubs)
1959 Mare Winningham Phoenix AZ, actress (St Elmo's Fire, Turner & Hooch)
1959 Ty Armstrong Waxahachie TX, Nike golfer (1993 Anheuser-Busch-19th)
1960 Anne Parillaud Paris France, actress (Subway, Nikita, Innocent Blood)
1961 Nina Arvesen White Plains NY, actress (Cassandra-Young & Restless)
1962 Gary Crocker cricketer (Zimbabwe Test batsman)
1963 Jimmy Osmond rocker (Osmond Brothers)
1964 John Salley NBA star (Detroit Pistons)
1965 Brent Jasmer Portland OR, actor (Sly-Bold & Beautiful)
1965 Lori Sippel Stratford Ontario, softball pitcher (Olympics-96)
1966 Janet Jackson Gary IN, singer, Michael's sister (Control)
1966 Scott Reeves Santa Monica CA, actor (Ryan-Young & Restless)
1966 Sean Quilty Australian marathoner (Olympics-96)
1966 Thurman Thomas NFL running back (Buffalo Bills)
1968 Ralph Tresvant Boston MA, singer (New Editon)
1969 Marcel Schewe cricketer (Holland wicket-keeper 1996 World Cup)
1969 Steven Earl Lewis Los Angeles CA, 4X100/400 meter runner (Olympics-gold-1988)
1969 Tracey Gold New York NY, actress (Carol-Growing Pains, Incredible Sunday)
1969 Tricia Cast actress (Nina-The Young and Restless)
1970 Eric Lynch NFL running back (Detroit Lions)
1970 Gabriela Sabatini Argentina, tennis player (Olympics-silver-1988)
1971 Khari Jones CFL/WLAF quarterback (British Columbia Lions, Scottish Claymores)
1972 Keith Burns NFL linebacker (Denver Broncos-Superbowl 32)
1972 Matthew Hart cricketer (New Zealand lefty spinner 1994- )
1974 Conal Groom Northford CT, rower (Olympics-1996)
1974 Keith Thibodeaux cornerback (Washington Redskins)
1978 Vincent Larusso Livingston NJ, actor (Adam-Mighty Ducks, D2, D3)
1979 Evan Ferrante actor (Owen-Swan's Crossing)
1981 Jessica Ponzo Miss New Jersey Teen USA (1996)

---

Deaths which occurred on May 16:
0942 Saadiah Gaon head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, dies
1434 Pieter Appelmans Flemish architect/master builder, dies at about 60
1669 Pietro da Cortona [Berrettini], painter/architect, dies
1669 Reyer Anslo writer/poet, dies at about 42
1691 Jacob Leisler becomes 1st American colonist hanged for treason
1703 Charles Perrault author/fairy tale writer, dies
1754 Giovanni Carlo Maria Clari composer, dies at 76
1762 Ernst Chreistian Hesse composer, dies at 86
1768 Cornelis Writer fleet supervisor, dies at about 81
1777 Button Gwinnet US revolutionary leader, dies from wounds
1782 Daniuel Charles Solander botanist, dies
1805 Christian Brunings hydraulic engineer, dies at 68
1819 Alexander van Bylandt military, dies at 75
1829 William Congreve English officer, dies at 56
1830 Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier mathematician, dies
1835 Felicia Dorothea Hemans poet/hymn writer, dies
1847 Kaspar Ett German organist/composer, dies at 59
1862 Lev A Ms Russian nobleman/poet, dies at 40
1863 Lloyd Tilghman Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle at 47
1864 Lean Bear Cheyenne chief, murdered
1880 Karl August Krebs composer, dies at 76
1892 John Banvard painted world's largest painting (3 mile canvas), dies
1892 Theodoor J Canneel Flemish painter, dies at 74
1903 Eduard Rappoldi composer, dies at 72
1904 N I Bobrikov Russian Governor-General in Finland, dies
1910 Henri E Cross [Delacroix] French painter, dies at 53
1918 Eusapia Palladino Napolitan, dies at 64
1926 Mehmed VI Vahideddin (Mohammed Osman) last sultan of Turkey, dies
1928 Edmund William Grosse poet/author, dies
1929 Lilli Lehmann soprano, dies
1932 Ki Imukai premier of Japan (1931-32), murdered
1932 William Pember Reeves politician/poet, dies
1938 Stephen Fairbairn oarsman/coach, dies
1942 Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski anthropologist, dies
1944 George Ade US novelist/playwright (Counsel Widow), dies at 78
1944 Leone Sinigaglia composer, dies at 75
1944 Max Brand [Frederick Schiller Faust] western author, dies
1949 William Newzam Prior Nicholson painter/engraver, dies
1952 Alec Hearne cricketer (scored 9 in Test for England vs South Africa 1892), dies
1954 Clemens Krauss Austrian conductor (Vienna State Opera), dies at 61
1954 Werner Bischof Swiss photographer, dies accidentally at 38
1955 James Agee US critic/writer (Death in Family), dies in New York
1958 Jeroom Verten [Jozef F Vermetten] Flemish playwright, dies at 49
1959 Joe Cook Stage comedian, dies at 69
1966 Randolph Turpin boxer, shot dead in his home
1969 Johnny Jordan cameraman (You Only Live Twice), dies at 44
1972 Maxime Dumoulin composer, dies at 79
1973 A P Gütersloh writer, dies at 86
1975 Michael X [Abdul Malik] hanged in Trinidad, for murder
1979 Asa Philip Randolph labor leader & civil rights pioneer, dies at 90
1983 Carel Brons composer, dies at 52
1984 Andy Kaufman comedian (Latka-Taxi), dies of cancer at 35
1984 Irwin Shaw US writer (Rich Man, Poor Man), dies at 71
1985 Margaret Hamilton actress (Wicked Witch-Wizard of Oz), dies from a heart attack at 82
1988 Kay Baxter Best Bodybuilder in the World (1983-85), dies in car crash at 42
1988 Louise Wood director of Girl Scouts of USA (1961-72), dies at 78
1989 Hassan Khaled sheik of Lebanon, murdered
1990 Dag Drollet Cheyenne Brando's boyfriend killed by brother Christian
1990 Jim Henson muppeteer (Sesame Street, Muppet Show), dies of pneumonia at 53
1990 Sammy Davis Jr entertainer (Golden Boy), dies from throat cancer at 64
1991 Prudence Nesbitt British actress/TV producer, dies
1992 Marisa Mell actress (Hostages), dies of cancer at 53
1993 Marv Johnson US soul singer (You Got What it Takes), dies at 54
1994 Alain Cuny actor (Lovers, Emanuelle, Camille Claudel), dies
1994 Barbara Jean Jones fictional character on General Hospital, dies at 7
1994 Phani Majumdar film director, dies at 82
1994 Vasek Simek Czechoslovakia/US, actor (Green Card, Mistress), dies at 66
1995 Lola Flores singer/actress (Kuma Ching, Faraona), dies at 70
1995 Ragnhild Marie Hatton historian, dies at 82
1996 Edward McInnes German scholar, dies at 60
1996 Mike Jeremy Boorda Chief of Naval Operations (US Navy), commits suicide at 57
1996 Pierre Debizet resistance fighter/special agent, dies at 72

---

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1968 CROSSON GERALD J. NEW YORK NY.
1968 RICKEL DAVID J. FORT LAUDERDALE FL.
NO CHUTE OR BEEPER
1968 ROARK ANUND C. SAN DIEGO CA.
REMAINS RETURNED 5/31/68 ID 11/79
1968 ROMINE ALBERT W. BURLINGAME KS.
REMAINS RETURNED 5/31/68 ID 11/79
1970 CONNER EDWIN RAY HILLSBORO TX.
1970 SKEEN RICHARD ROBERT RIVERSIDE CA.
1971 CROOK ELLIOTT PHOENIX AZ.
1971 FARLOW CRAIG L. CLEVELAND OH.
1971 JACOBSON TIMOTHY J. OAKLAND CA.
1971 NOLAN JOSEPH P. JR. OAK PARK IL.

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

---

On this day...
0955 Alberich II, illegitimate son of Octavianus elected pope
1165 Ramjbam & his family reach Acre Palestine
1527 Florence becomes a republic
1532 Sir Thomas More resigns as English Lord Chancellor
1547 Protestant German monarch surrenders to Karel in Wittenberg
1568 Mary Queen of Scotland flees to England
1571 Johannes Kepler, by his own calculations, is conceived at 4:37 AM
1584 7 Westfriese towns divide monasteries of Egmond/Blokker/St-Pietersdal
1605 Camillo Borghese elected to succeed Pope Leo XI becomes Paul V
1606 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia
1648 Battle at Zólty Wody: Bohdan Chmielricki's cosacks beat John Casimir
1747 Prince Willem V sworn in as Admiral-General of Netherlands
1763 Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer James Boswell in London
1770 Marie Antoinette (14) marries future King Louis XVI (15) of France
1792 Denmark abolishes slave trade
1795 Hedges Treaty: Bataafse Republic becomes French vassel state
1796 Lombardije Republic forms
1803 Peace of Amiens ends
1804 Senate & Tribune declare Napolean leader of France
1811 Peninsular War-Allies defeat French at Albuera
1817 Mississippi River steamboat service begins
1860 Republican convention (Chicago) selects Abraham Lincoln candidate
1861 Confederate Government offers war volunteers $10 premium
1861 Kentucky proclaims its neutrality
1862 Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir builds 1st automobile
1863 Battle of Champion's Hill MS-bloodiest action of Vicksburg Campaign
1864 Atlanta Campaign-battle of Resaca, ends (since May 13)
1864 Battle of Bermuda Hundred VA
1864 Last battles at Drewry's Bluff VA (6,666 casualties)
1866 Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer
1866 Congress authorizes nickel 5¢ piece (replaces silver half-dime)
1868 Bedrich Smetana's opera "Dalibor" premieres in Prague
1868 President Andrew Johnson acquitted during Senate impeachment, by 1 vote
1869 Cincinnati Reds play their 1st baseball game, win 41-7
1872 Metropolitan Gas Company lamps lit for 1st time
1874 1st recorded dam disaster in US (Williamsburg MA)
1875 Quake in Venezuela & Colombia kills 16,000
1879 Antonin Dvorák's "Slavic Dancing" premieres
1879 Treaty of Gandamak to set up Afghan state between Russia & English
1881 World's 1st elec tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin)
1882 8th Kentucky Derby: Babe Hurd aboard Apollo wins in 2:40¼
1884 10th Kentucky Derby: Isaac Murphy aboard Buchanan wins in 2:40¼
1888 CPR opens Hotel Vancouver, Vancouver British Columbia
1891 George A Hormel & Company introduce Spam
1894 Fire in Boston destroys baseball stadium & 170 other buildings
1901 Start of Sherlock Holmes "The Adventure of the Priory School" (BG)
1902 2 deaf-mutes face each other for 1st time as Dummy Hoy leads off for the Reds against Dummy Taylor of the Giants, Reds win 5-3
1903 1st transcontinental motorcycle trip begins at San Fransisco (George Wymann)
1910 US Bureau of Mines forms
1911 Remains of a neanderthal man found in Jersey UK
1911 Zeppelin "Deutscheland" wrecked at Dusseldorf
1914 American Horseshoe Pitchers Association organizes in Kansas City
1914 Ewing Field, near Masonic Street, opens
1916 41st Preakness: Linus McAtee aboard Damrosch wins in 1:54.8
1920 Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc) canonized a saint in Rome
1920 Spanish bullfighter Joselito is fatally gored fighting his last bull
1921 47th Preakness: F Coltiletti aboard Broomspun wins in 1:54.2
1922 White Star Line Majestic completes 5½ day maiden voyage
1924 108ºF (42ºC) in Blitzen OR
1925 1st network radiocast (WHAS) of Kentucky Derby
1925 51st Kentucky Derby: Earl Sande aboard Flying Ebony wins in 2:07.6
1927 New York Yankee Bob Meusel steals 2nd, 3rd & home
1927 Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax
1929 1st Academy Awards - "Wings", Emil Jennings & Janet Gaynor win
1930 6th Walker Cup: US 10-Great Britain/Ireland 2
1931 57th Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on Twenty Grand wins in 2:01.8
1932 Yankees 4th straight shutout to equal record set by Cleveland & Boston
1933 Cecil Travis becomes 1st player to get 5 hits in his 1st game
1936 1st British air hostess (Daphne Kearley) flight to France
1936 62nd Preakness: George Woolf aboard Bold Venture wins in 1:59
1938 1st animal breeding society forms (New Jersey)
1938 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire (Atlanta GA)
1938 In cricket Bradman scores 278 Australia vs MCC, 349 minutes, 35 fours 1 six
1939 1st American League night game, Philadelphia Shribe Park (Indians 8, Athletics 3 in 10)
1939 Food stamps are 1st issued
1940 Nazis forbid non-professional auto workers
1940 Prime Minister Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
1941 1st US/radio performance of Bennett's "Symphony in D for the Dodgers"
1941 Italian army under Aosta surrenders to Britain at Amba Alagi Ethiopia
1941 Last great German air attack on Great Britain (Birmingham)
1941 Nazis forbid Dutch Organization of Actors (NOT)
1942 1st transport of British/Dutch prisoners to South Burma
1943 German troops destroy synagogue of Warsaw
1943 Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends after 30 days of fighting
1943 RAF bombs Möhne & Eder (Battle of Ruhr)
1944 1st of 180,000+ Hungarian Jews reach Auschwitz
1944 Military police attack gypsies
1945 Violent battles around Sugar Loaf/Half Moon Okinawa
1946 Musical "Annie Get Your Gun" starring Ethel Merman premieres in NYC
1948 Botvinnik wins 5-player tournament to determine world chess champion
1948 CBS news correspondent George Polk's body is found in Greece
1948 Chaim Weizmann elected 1st President of Israel
1948 Egyptians enter the Gaza
1948 Israel issues its 1st postage stamps
1952 "New Faces (of 1952)" opens at Royale Theater NYC for 365 performances
1953 Phillies Curt Simmons gives up a single, then retires next 27 in a row
1954 Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA National Capital Golf Open
1954 Ted Williams gets 8 hits in 1st game (DH) since breaking collarbone
1954 WGAN (now WGME) TV channel 13 in Portland, ME (CBS) 1st broadcast
1955 Heavyweight Rocky Marciano KOs Don Cockell in 9 (San Fransisco) for heavyweight boxing title
1955 King Baudouin of Belgium visits Congo
1955 Ray Lindwall scores his 2nd Test Cricket century 118 at Bridgetown
1956 Egypt recognizes People's Republic of China
1956 Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Monte Bello Is Australia
1956 Kraft Theatre presents an act from "Profiles in Courage"
1956 Laker takes 10-88 for Surrey vs Australia at the Oval
1957 Major Irwin, USAF flies a Lockheed Starfighter to a record 1,404.18 MPH
1957 Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Invicti Athletae
1957 US launches its 3rd atomic submarine, USS Skate, at Groton CT
1957 Yankees involved in Copacabana Incident, leads to Billy Martin trade
1958 Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mexico
1958 Walter Irwin flies 2,259 KPH in F-104A Starfighter
1959 85th Preakness: William Harmatz aboard Royal Orbit wins in 1:57
1959 WTOM TV channel 4 in Cheboygan MI (NBC) begins broadcasting
1960 Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US
1961 13th Emmy Awards: Jack Benny Show, Raymond Burr & Barbara Stanwyck
1963 "Beast in Me" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 4 performances
1963 Gordon Cooper completes 22 orbits in Faith 7, ends US Project Mercury
1964 90th Preakness: Bill Hartack aboard Northern Dancer wins in 1:56.8
1964 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1964 Verne Gagne beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champion
1965 "Roar of the Greasepaint" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 232 performances
1965 Baltimore Oriole Jim Palmer's pitching debut, beats Yankees 7-5 & homers
1965 Bomb destroys USAF base Bien Hoa South Vietnam
1965 Spaghetti-O's 1st sold
1965 Susie Maxwell wins LPGA Muskogee Civitan Golf Open
1965 WNJU TV channel 47 in Linden NY (TEL) begins broadcasting
1966 Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" is released
1966 National Welfare Rights Organization begins
1966 Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
1967 Philadelphia voters approve a $13 million bond issue to build a new stadium
1968 Earthquake kills 47 in Japan
1969 Barbra Streisand appears at a Friars Club Tribute
1969 Students occupies Magden House Amsterdam
1969 The Who's Pete Townsend & Roger Daltrey charged with assault
1969 US sub Guitarro sinks at the pier at San Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA
1969 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1969 Venera 5 lands on Venus, returns data on atmosphere
1970 "Grover Henson Feels Forgotten" by Bill Cosby hits #70
1970 96th Preakness: Eddie Belmonte aboard Personality wins in 1:56.2
1971 1st class postage now costs 8¢ (was 6¢)
1971 Benjamin Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave" premieres in Aldwych
1971 Bulgaria adopts it's constitution
1972 "Don't Play Us Cheap" opens at Barrymore Theater NYC for 164 performances
1972 Greg Luzinski's 500' homerun hits the Liberty Bell monument in Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium
1972 Jane Blalock wins LPGA Suzuki Golf Internationale
1973 ABC Masters Bowling Tournament won by Dave Soutar
1973 AC Milan wins 13th Europe Cup II in Saloniki
1974 Helmut Schmidt becomes West German chancellor
1974 USSR performs nuclear Test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1975 India annexes Principality of Sikkim
1975 Japanese Junko Tabei became 1st woman to reach Mount Everest's summit
1975 Muhammad Ali TKOs Ron Lyle in 11 for heavyweight boxing title
1975 Wings release "Listen to What the Man Said" in UK
1976 Stanley Cup: Montréal Canadiens sweep Philadelphia Flyers in 4 games
1976 Sue Roberts wins LPGA American Defender Golf Classic
1977 5 die as New York Airway helicopter topples on the Pan Am Building in NYC
1977 Muhammad Ali beats Alfredo Evangelist in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1979 FC Barcelona wins 19th Europe Cup II in Basel
1979 National League approves Astros sales from Ford Motors to John J McMullen for $19 million
1980 34th NBA Championship: Los Angeles Lakers beat Philadelphia 76ers, 4 games to 2
1980 Brian May of rock group Queen collapses on stage with hepatitis
1980 Former Buggles members Geoff Downes & Trevor Horn replace Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman in Yes
1980 Paul McCartney releases "McCartney II" album
1981 "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes hits #1 for next 9 weeks
1981 107th Preakness: Jorge Velasquez aboard Pleasant Colony wins in 1:54.6
1981 Houston Astro Craig Reynolds hits 3 triples beating Cubs 6-1
1981 Pretenders' Martin Chambers weds Tracy Atkinson
1982 "Barnum" closes at St James Theater NYC after 854 performances
1982 "Is There Life after High School?" closes at Barrymore after 12 performances
1982 Columbia moves to Vandenberg Air Force Base for mating in preparation for STS-4
1982 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Lady Michelob Golf Tournament
1982 Salvador Jorge Blanco wins presidential election in Dominican Republic
1983 Lebanese parliament accept peace accord with Israel
1984 Guinea-Bissau adopts constitution
1984 Juventus wins 24th Europe Cup II in Basel
1984 Mackay pays $218,718 for 44,166 tickets to keep Twins in Minnesota; Twins sell 51,863 tickets but only 6,346 fans show up for the game
1984 Phillie pitcher Steve Carlton hits a grand slam homer
1984 US performs nuclear Test at Nevada Test Site
1985 Michael Jordan named NBA Rookie of Year
1985 Pope John Paul II arrives in Belgium
1986 "Top Gun" premieres
1986 Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) comes back from dead on Dallas
1986 Joaquín Balaguers PRSC wins Dominican Republic parliamentary election
1986 South African President P W Botha sends Coetsee to visit Mandela
1987 "Bobro 400", a barge carrying 3,200 tons of garbage, set sail from New York, beginning an unsuccesful 8-week search for a dumping site
1987 "Mystery of Edwin Drood" closes at Imperial NYC after 608 performances
1987 113th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Alysheba wins in 1:55.8
1987 Rocker David Crosby weds Jan Dance in Los Angeles
1987 Weird Al Yankovic performs live at 72nd National Orange Show
1988 Surgeon General C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin
1988 US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant
1989 Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev & Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ended a 30-year rift when they formally met in Beijing
1990 Dominican Republic President Joaquín Ricardo Balaguer re-elected
1990 Juventus wins 19th UEFA Cup in Avellino
1991 Daily Planet fires cub reporter Jimmy Olson (Superman character)
1991 Queen Elizabeth becomes 1st British monarch to address US congress
1992 "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al Yankovic hits #35
1992 118th Preakness: Chris McCarron aboard Pine Bluff wins in 1:55.6
1992 Polls show Perot, Bush & Clinton could be in a deadlock
1992 US space shuttle STS-49 lands (maiden voyage of Endeavour)
1993 "3 Men on a Horse" closes at Lyceum Theater NYC after 40 performances
1993 "Wilder, Wilder, Wilder" closes at Circle in Square NYC after 30 performances
1993 Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull
1993 Judd Nelson pleads no contest to kicking Kim Evans in the head
1993 Laura Davies wins LPGA McDonald's Golf Championship
1993 Süleyman Demirel elected President of Turkey
1994 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Orlando FL on WTKS 104.1 FM
1994 Jacqueline Onassis admitted to the hospital for cancer treatment
1994 Joaquín Balaguer (86) elected President of Dominican Republic
1994 Tennis star Jennifer Capriati arrested on possession of marijuana
1995 Japanese police arrest cult leader Shoko Asahara & charged him with Nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subways two months earlier
1996 Sammy Sosa is 1st Chicago Cub to hit 2 homeruns in 1 inning
1997 Atlanta Braves beat St Louis Cardinals, 1-0 in 13 innings
1997 Brandi Sherwood, (Idaho) replaces Brook Lee (Miss Universe) as Miss USA
1997 Brook Mehealani Lee, 26, of US crowned 46th Miss Universe
1997 Expos trailing San Fransisco Giants by 9 runs comeback to win 14-13
1997 St Louis Cardinals Gary Gaetti records his 2,000th hits
1998 124th Preakness: Kent Desormeaux on Real Quiet wins in 1:54.8

---

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

Cayman Islands : Commonwealth Day
US : Armed Forces Day - - - - - ( Saturday )

---

Religious Observances
Unification Church : Day of Love of God
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Ubaldus, bishop/confessor

---

Religious History
1540 German reformer Martin Luther remarked: 'In the worst temptations nothing can help us but faith that God's Son has put on flesh, is bone, sits at the right hand of the Father, and prays for us. There is no mightier comfort.'
1850 Birth of Arthur H. Mann, English church organist. In addition to being an authority on Handel, Mann also composed a number of sacred hymn tunes, including ANGEL'S STORY, to which we sing today, "O Jesus, I Have Promised."
1866 Missouri Lutheran Synod founder C.F.W. Walther wrote in a letter: 'God carries on His work through men with whom it sometimes seems as if one would go to the right and the other to the left and the third one would hold back, and yet the work progresses.'
1920 Popular Baptist pastor and denominational leader George Washington Truett, 53, preached his famous sermon, "Baptists and Religious Liberty," to 15,000 people from the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C.
1929 The Shaffer Lectureship was established at the Yale Divinity School, in memory of Kent Shaffer, Ph.B., 1907. The lectures are concerned with some phase of the life, character and teachings of Jesus. Lecturers have included C.H. Dodd (1935); Ralph W. Sockman (1936); Martin Dibelius (1937); and James Moffatt (1940).

---

Thought for the day :
"America did not invent human rights, Human Rights invented America."

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning ms. feather and Sam.

[SAMWolf]

1606 2,000 foreigners murdered in Russia

Sounds like a slow weekend in Dade County now a days.

[SAMWolf]

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

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

[CholeraJoe]

Good Morning, SAM. You know how I love those Airpower Threads.

[WhiskeyPapa]

That is some great art on this thread.

Walt

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy.

[SAMWolf]

Morning CholeraJoe. Got some good Aircraft Prints on the thread for you.

[Johnny Gage]

Air Power
Republic F-105 "Thunderchief"

The Republic F-105 Thunderchief was the first supersonic tactical fighter-bomber developed from scratch. Apart from being the biggest single-seat, single-engine combat aircraft in history, the F-105 was notable for its large internal bomb bay and unique swept-forward engine inlets in the wing roots. The wing was highly swept and incorporated low-speed ailerons and high-speed spoilers for lateral control, and a droop-snoot leading edge.

Known as "the Thud", this greatest of all single-engine combat jets bore a huge burden throughout the Vietnam War, and was a deadly and effective tactical fighter-bomber. A supersonic jet, the Thud is characterized by two unique systems: it is the only jet fighter to refuel from a side-fuselage boom, and was the first jet fighter to employ a Vulcan 20mm "Gatling Gun" cannon. The D-model made more air strikes against North Vietnam than any other US aircraft, and also suffered more losses. During the war, the versatile Thud was also credited with 25 MiG kills.

The F-105 evolved from a project begun in 1951 by Republic Aviation at Farmingdale NY to develop a supersonic tactical fighter-bomber to replace the F-84F. The massive F-105 was intended primarily for nuclear strike missions. Designed from the outset as a fighter-bomber for long-range interdiction missions, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief was a large, heavy aircraft with Mach 2 performance. A unique feature for a fighter was the internal bomb bay intended to house a nuclear weapon.

The prototype first flew on October 22, 1955, but the first production aircraft, an F-105B, was not delivered to the USAF until 1958. After winning a flyoff competition with the North American F-107 in 1956, the F-105 first entered squadron service in 1958. With the designation F-105B came an engine change to a Pratt & Whitney J75-P-3. Other changes were made in this model too, including the use of a unique type of swept-forward air intake to control the shock-wave and introduction of “area rule” on the fuselage. A total of 75 F-105Bs were built.

The F-105D all-weather strike fighter and the two-place F-105F dual-purpose trainer-fighter were also built before F-105 production (833 aircraft) ended in 1964. No "C" or "E" series were produced and "Gs" were modified "Fs" outfitted with extensive electronic countermeasure equipment. F-105G aircraft were nicknamed "Wild Weasels" and specialized in jamming enemy radar and destroying surface-to-air missile sites.

The configuration incorporated a shoulder-mounted 45 sweptback wing with airfoil thickness ratios varying from 5.5 percent at the root to 3.7 percent at the tip. Trailing-edge Fowler flaps together with leading-edge flaps were used to increase the maximum lift coefficient of the wing. Roll control was achieved by shortspan outboard ailerons assisted by upper-surface spoilers. The all-moving horizontal tail was mounted in the low position to aid in preventing pitch-up. Careful fuselage area ruling reduced the magnitude of the drag rise as the Mach number increased from subsonic to supersonic values. A most unusual feature of the aircraft are the two-dimensional variable-area supersonic inlets mounted in the wing-root position. The speed brake was an unusual petal-type arrangement that surrounded the jet nozzle.

The internal bomb bay was designed to accommodate a nuclear weapon. Not long after the F-105 became operational, however, the concept of carrying a nuclear weapon in the aircraft was discarded, and the bomb bay was used to house additional fuel. A six-barrel Vulcan 20-mm rotary cannon was carried in the aircraft, and there were provisions for 12 000 pounds of external armament including bombs, rockets, and missiles. Such a large load could be carried only on short-range missions, however, with a more normal load being 6000 pounds. Combat radius for this load varied from 600 to 800 miles depending on the amount of external fuel carried. The F-105 was provided with all the necessary electronic equipment for full all-weather capability.

Maximum Mach number of the F-105D was 2.08, or 1372 miles per hour, at an altitude of 36 090 feet; at sea level, the maximum Mach number was 1.1, or 836 miles per hour. Normal cruising speed was 584 miles per hour. Sea-level rate of climb was a spectacular 38 500 feet per minute; only 1.7 minutes were required to reach an altitude of 35 000 feet. Ferry range with no war load was 2207 miles. With a maximum gross weight of 52,838 pounds, the F-105D is by far the heaviest fighter so far considered, nearly as heavy as the 55,000-pound, four-engine B- 17 bomber of World War II.

A total of 833 F-105 aircraft were manufactured before production ended in 1964. Extensively used in ground-attack operations in Vietnam, the Thunderchief continued to serve with the USAF for a number of years following the end of the conflict. Last of the F-105's was withdrawn from the Tactical Air Command in 1980, but a few remained in service with the Air National Guard.

F-105 Thunderchief Achievements:
The F-105D could carry a heavier bomb load than a B-17 bomber.
The F-105 flew 75% of the air strikes against North Vietnam during its first four years in the war.

Primary Function: Fighter-bomber
Contractor: Republic
Crew: One
Unit Cost: $2,136,668
Powerplant: One Pratt & Whitney J75-P-19W jet engine with 24,499 lb. (11,111 kg) of thrust

Dimensions:
Length: 67 feet (20.4 m)
Wingspan: 34 feet 11 inches (10.6 m)
Height: 20 feet, 2 inches (6.1 m)
Weights Empty: 29,393 lb (13,330 kg) - Maximum Takeoff: 54,580 lbs. (24,752 kg) -- gross

Performance:
Speed: 1,480 mph (mach 2.24)
Ceiling: 50,000 feet (15,239 m)
Range: 2,390 miles (3,848 km)
Armaments:
One M6-1 20mm Vulcan cannon plus 14,000 lbs. of ordinance including conventional bombs, rocket packs, missiles, and internally or externally carried special weapons.





All photos Copyright of Global Security.Org and the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB,

[SAMWolf]

Yeah, Brooksart.com has some great Aircraft Art available..

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for profiling the "Thud" Johnny.

She wasn't as sleek looking as the Phantom but she was a hell of a plane.

[CholeraJoe]

I noticed. For my money the F-105 is one of the sexiest aircrafts ever built.

[Light Speed]

Morning SAM

F-4G Advanced Wild Weasel

With the introduction of newer, more capable weapons systems, the F-4 mission narrowed to specializing in the suppression of enemy air defense. The F-4G "Advanced Wild Weasel," was the last model in the active Air Force inventory, until it was replaced by the F-16CJ/DJ in the role of increasing the survivability of tactical strike forces by seeking out and suppressing or destroying enemy radar-directed anti-aircraft artillery batteries and surface-to-air missile sites. F-4G's were E models modified with sophisticated electronic warfare equipment in place of the internally mounted 20mm gun. The F-4G could carry more weapons than previous Wild Weasel aircraft and a greater variety of missiles as well as conventional bombs. The primary weapon of the F-4G, however, was the AGM-88 HARM (high speed anti-radiation missile). Other munitions included cluster bombs, and AIM-65 Maverick and air-to-air missiles.

Although the role of defeating enemy anti-aircraft defenses dates back to World War II, the Wild Weasel tradition started in 1965 after a North Vietnamese SAM shot down an F-4C fighter near Hanoi. It signaled the dawn of a new era in aerial warfare where fighter aircraft were targeted by anti-aircraft artillery and SAMs. The introduction of the Soviet-built SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) ushered a new and deadly threat into an air war over Vietnam. Although the SA-2 was not an unexpected threat— having earlier shot down two American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft—the US Air Force’s tactical forces were largely unprepared. A counter had to be found, and that counter was the Wild Weasel. To defeat the SAMs, the Air Force converted seven two-seat F-100 Super Sabre fighters and pressed them into service as its first Wild Weasel jets. These specially configured F-100F aircraft were equiped with electronics for detecting and then homing on radar emissions from SAM sites. In combat, the Weasels would enter the target area ahead of a group of bombers or fighters to locate pinpoint enemy defenses. The Weasels would often set themselves up as bait and keep the enemy gunners and surface-to-air operators occupied in any way they could. They would often "taunt" the enemy by exposing themselves to hostile fire, which prompted the enemy to shoot at them versus the other fighters and bombers. The Weasel proved to be an effective weapon for suppressing enemy radar and SAM threats. Many changes occurred in the Wild Weasel program. The F-100F airframe was too slow to keep up with the primary attack aircraft of the day, the F-105, so the Weasel electronics were added to an F-105 aircraft designated the EF-105 and later redesignated the F-105G. That airframe had too little life left in it and was itself replaced by the F-4C.

Following the Vietnam War, the F-4C was replaced by the current Wild Weasel platform, the F-4G, a modified F-4E platform incorporating more capable electronic gear for employment against the mobile threats. Along with changes in aircraft came changes in weapons and tactics. The first Weasels employed rockets to mark the target for following attack aircraft who would destroy the SAM sites with bombs or cluster munitions. These tactics required the aircraft to over-fly the heavily defended sites, increasing the aircraft’s vulnerability to the SAMs and to AAA. The introduction of the Shrike antiradiation missile (ARM) negated the requirement to overfly the site, but its short range required further improvement. The improvement came in the Standard ARM, a missile that was followed by development of the high-speed antiradiation missile (HARM)—still the weapon of choice for the Wild Weasel.

The F-4G "Advanced Wild Weasel," which inherited most of the features of the F-4E, was capable of passing real-time target information to the aircraft's missiles prior to launch. Working in “hunter-killer” teams of two aircraft, such as F-4G and F-16C, the F-4G “hunter” could detect, identify, and locate enemy radars then direct weapons that will ensure destruction or suppression of the radars. The technique was effectively used during Operation Desert Storm against enemy surface-to-air missile batteries. Primary armament included HARM (AGM-88) and Maverick (AGM-65). F-4G's deployed to Saudi Arabia also were equipped with ALQ-131 and ALQ-184 electronic countermeasures pods.

Following their 90-day deployment supporting Operation Provide Comfort 15 December 1995, the F-4G Phantoms assigned to the Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron retired to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, otherwise known as the "boneyard," at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.