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Posted on 05/30/2003 5:33:25 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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A Study In Heroism This week, as Canadians and Americans honor our war dead, remember the heros of `Taffy 3:'  At dawn, Vice-Admiral Takeo Kurita's Center Force of four battleships - including the world's largest, mighty `Yamato,' with 18.1 inch guns - 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, emerged off Samar. Before Kurita lay the entire US invasion fleet, horrifying unprotected: small escort carriers, troop transports, tankers, supply ships. Sink them, and US invasion force would be cut off and destroyed. All that stood between Kurita's capital ships and the beaches was a tiny American escort group: Task Group 77.43, better known as `Taffy 3:' 6 small escort, or `jeep' carriers(each with about 25 aircraft), 3 destroyers(DD), and 3 destroyer escorts(DE's). None had guns larger than 5-inch. Such small shells could not pierce the armor of Japanese battleships or heavy cruisers. As the Japanese bore down on the American ships, the jeep carriers launched their aircraft. Lacking armor-piercing bombs, these planes could only harass the Japanese warships with high- explosive bombs, some torpedoes, and machine-gun fire. Rear Admiral `Ziggy' Sprague issued an immortal order to the six destroyers: `small boys- intercept.'  The DD's and DE's made smoke to mask the carriers. Then, the escorts wheeled, and attacked the advancing Japanese fleet - six unarmored `tins cans' with popguns against the pride of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Not since Sir Richard Grenville took the HMS `Revenge' against the entire Spanish Armada had there been such a gloriously unequal battle at sea. DD-553 `Hoel, Cmdr Leon Kinterberger commanding, led the attack, followed by `Hermann' and `Johnston'. The three escort destroyers - led by `Samuel Roberts,' each with only 2x5-inch guns, followed. At 14,000 yards, the pagoda-masted Japanese battleship `Kongo,' opened fire on `Hoel' with its 14-inch main battery and secondary guns. The rest of the Japanese fleet raked the attacking destroyers, and pounded the fleeing jeep carriers. At 9,000 yards, `Hoel,' her bridge shattered by `Kongo's' 14-inch shells, launched torpedoes. Like nearly all of America's defective torpedoes, they missed. But they forced `Kongo' to turn violently, throwing off her gunnery and sowing confusion in the Japanese formation. Heavy and medium shells riddled `Hoel,' wrecking her port engine, and three of four turrets. Many of the big 14-inch armor-piercing shells passed completely through the thin skins of the unarmored destroyers without exploding.  Undaunted, the shattered, burning `Hoel' attacked a column of enemy heavy cruisers, firing five more torpedoes and her 40mm AA guns. A mortally wounded gunner held his spilling intestines in one hand while he rammed shells into the `Hoel's' last gun with the other. At 0855, after 40 more hits, `Hoel' sank, with 253 of her gallant crew, her battle flags still flying. While `Hoel' lay dying, the other DD's and DE's launched torpedoes at the Japanese battleships and heavy cruisers, charging in close to pepper them at close ranger with 5-inch rounds. The American tins cans were shredded by a storm of Japanese shells ranging from 5-18.1 inch. DD532 `Hermann' furiously attacked heavy cruisers `Haguro' and `Chikuma,' then battleship `Haruna,' then the monster, 71,000-ton `Yamato' with torpedoes, forcing the world's largest battleship to veer out of line. `Hermann's' gunfire, torpedoes, and air attacks from the jeep carriers finally sank cruiser `Chikuma.' Incredibly, `Hermann' survived to sail into Tokyo Bay for Japan's surrender in Sept, 1945.  DE `Johnston' attacked at point-blank range and was sunk. The other American ships were badly damaged. Enemy gunfire sank two of the jeep carriers. But the hopeless, unbelievably brave American attacks so confused and demoralized Adm. Kurita, he broke off the battle and withdrew, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Attacks on Kurita's force by US submarines and aircraft in previous days had sunk the admiral's flagship and broken his spirit. Hours before, Adm Jesse Oldendorf's old battleships, raised from the bottom of Pearl Harbor, crossed the enemy T at Surigao Strait, annihilating the second Japanese pincer, sinking two enemy battleships. History's greatest naval battle was won. Without the naval Thermopylae at Samar fought by the `small boys', Leyte would have been a disaster. A few courageous sailors turned it into a triumph that should be taught in every American school for as long as the republic survives. Eternal glory to heros of Taffy-3.
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 Chief Petty Officer William Bridgeforth, a damage controlman assigned to USS San Jacinto, holds his four-month-old daughter for the first time May 23. San Jacinto returned to Norfolk after a six-month deployment with USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Force in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Marlowe P. Dix  Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Burden’s family members wave flags and hold signs welcoming him home from a six-month deployment aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt. Bruden is assigned to the “Bear Aces” of Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 124, which returned May 23 from deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Mark A. Martinez  Family and friends watch from the pier and wait to welcome home the crew of USS Donald Cook as it returns to its homeport of Naval Station Norfolk, Va. Donald Cook returned to Norfolk May 23 after a six-month deployment with USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Force in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Susan C. Milton  Families and friends wait in the rain on the pier at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., ready to welcome the crew of USS Harry S. Truman on a safe return to their homeport. Harry S. Truman and Carrier Air Wing Three are returning from a six-month deployment in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Patrick M. Keane  Staff Sgt. Wayne M. Storz, Command Element, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) greets his family after returning from a nine month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Jeff Sisto  Maj. Clint Nussberger, Command Element, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) greets his wife Leann, daughter Brittany and son Mark after returning from a nine month deployment and participating in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. Photo by: Cpl. Jeff Sisto  Petty Officer Charlie Piccolo, of Queens N.Y., gets a tearful hug from his mother Rosa, after his arrival aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt at the Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va., Thursday May 29, 2003. The nuclear powered aircraft carrier returned from a five month deployment where it took part in the war in Iraq. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)  Lt. j.g. Clarence Adkins, an officer aboard the USS Nassau, embraces his fiancee, Haniyyiah Hogan, right, after the ship returned to its home port at the Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va., after a nine-month deployment, Thursday, May 29, 2003. (AP Photo/Gary C. Knapp)  Suzy Durham, of Bountiful, Utah, welcomes her husband Cpl. Micah Durham back from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif. Thursday, May 29, 2003. Cpl. Durham is a student at Brigham Young University and a Marine reservist called to duty and subsequently sent to Iraq. (AP Photo/JT Lovette)
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 We Grieve with our Allies
 The Spanish flag-draped coffins of 62 Spanish peacekeepers stand on the tarmac before a funeral service at Torrejon's air base, near Madrid, May 28, 2003. A Ukranian Yak-42 plane which was carrying the 62 Spanish peacekeepers and 13 crew returning from Afghanistancrashed near Turkey's Black Sea city of Trabzon early May 26, as it tried to land in dense fog, killing all aboard. REUTERS/Sergio Perez  International peacekeepers with gather during a service at an air base in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, May 30, 2003 to pay tribute to dozens of Spanish soldiers who died in a plane crash on their way home the country. The 62 Spanish soldiers died Monday when their airplane hit a mountain slope near the Turkish town of Macka as they headed home after completing tours of duty in Afghanistan. Some 5,000 peacekeepers are in Kabul to ensure law and order, and to protect the government. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)  A soldier from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) weeps during a memorial ceremony for victims of a plane crash that killed many of their Spanish (ISAF) counterparts, in Kabul May 30, 2003. Following the completion of their mission in Kabul, the 62 Spanish soldiers were killed when their plane crashed in Turkey on Monday while they were heading home. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood  Spain's Queen Sofia consoles some of the relatives of the 62 Spanish peacekeepers during a mass at the Torrejon military airbase in Madrid, Spain Wednesday May 28, 2003. The Spanish troops were flying home to Spain after a four-month mission in Afghanistan when the Russian-made Yak-42D crashed last Monday on a mountain slope near the Turkish Black Sea port city of Trabzon. The crash was Spain's worst military accident ever. (AP Photo/Paul White)  Spain's King Juan Carlos, right consoles relatives of the killed 62 Spanish peacekeepers during a mass at the Torrejon military airbase in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 28, 2003. The Spanish troops were flying home to Spain after a four-month mission in Afghanistan when the Russian-made Yak-42D crashed last Monday on a mountain slope near the Turkish Black Sea port city of Trabzon. The crash was Spain's worst military accident ever. (AP Photo/Paul White)  Archbishop Estepa blesses some of the coffins of the 62 Spanish peacekeepers killed in a plane crash during a mass at the Torrejon military airbase in Madrid, Spain Wednesday May 28, 2003. The Spanish troops were flying home to Spain after a four-month mission in Afghanistan (news - web sites) when the Russian-made Yak-42D crashed last Monday on a mountain slope near the Turkish Black Sea port city of Trabzon. The crash was Spain's worst military accident ever. (AP Photo/Paul White)  Soldiers carry the coffins of their colleagues May 29, 2003, from the Brunete engineers regiment during their burial in Burgos May 29, 2003. Some 62 Spanish peacekeeping soldiers died while returning from Afghanistan (news - web sites) when their plane crashed in heavy fog near the Turkish town of Trabzon early May 26, killing all aboard, including 12 crew members. REUTERS/Felix Ordonez
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Broad-billed Hummingbird ~ Cynanthus latriostris
~ Arizona Highways Online Wildlife Portfolio - Birds
So is this!!! I have deleated all cookies and rebooted this computer enough to melt her down. If this posts 3 times the problem MUST BE AT FR!!! It works great everwhere else. Any help from FR would be appreciated.
Thanks
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