Rao bulletin 15 September 2016 html edition this bulletin contains the following articles pg Article Subject

Guam Update 01 ► Where the US Military Is Revered and Reviled

Download 0.8 Mb.

Page	7/12
Date	20.10.2016
Size	0.8 Mb.
	#6049

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12

Guam Update 01 ► Where the US Military Is Revered and Reviled

The island of Guam is a central component of America’s growing military presence in the Asia-Pacific, an integral part of U.S. efforts to bolster its position in what U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter called “the defining region of our nation’s future.” With the island located around 2,500 miles east of the Philippines, and roughly equidistant to the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea, Carter described Guam as “an important strategic hub for the U.S. military in the Western Pacific.” Compared with Okinawa to the north, which houses over 25,000 U.S. troops, Guam’s military personnel contingent is lean at just over 6,000; but that number will nearly double when 5,000 Marines are relocated from Okinawa beginning in 2022. As the U.S. military plans to nearly double its presence on Guam, indigenous people say “no more.”
Regardless, numbers alone belie the depth to which the military permeates the U.S. territory. From the annual Liberation Day parade that marches down Marine Corps Drive to roadways like Army Drive and the Purple Heart Highway to the streets in the capital city named after naval governors and officers, the culture of the U.S. armed forces can be found throughout Guam. Just three times the size of Washington, D.C., roughly 28 percent of Guam is occupied by the U.S. military. Guam’s importance to the military was conveyed in 2010 when testifying before Congress, in a moment of candor, then-U.S. Pacific Command Admiral Robert F. Willard described Guam as “the farthest west U.S. territory that we own.” Therein lies the problem. For while the U.S. military sees Guam as an indispensable asset, something it owns, many on Guam see the military as a symptom of a greater problem — colonialism.
Politically, the United States defines Guam as an unincorporated territory. In United Nations’ parlance it’s a non-self-governing territory. Still others say Guam is a military colony and an unappreciated one at that. “I always have to remind people that Guam may look to the United States and the U.S. may be everything; when just about everybody in the United States looks at Guam, they see nothing. That’s the reality,” says Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua, an assistant professor of Chamorro studies at the University of Guam. He says for some Chamorro people, who make up approximately 37 percent of Guam’s population, their sense of identity is in conflict with the United States, whose citizenship they have (but not its full rights). Even if you imagine Guam to be an intimate part of the U.S., that sentiment is not reciprocated, Bevacqua says: “Your feelings of patriotism don’t create the reality that you think is there.”
Guam has among the highest recruitment levels in the nation. Military service is a generations-old tradition for many families, including Chamorros, who often serve alongside an older or younger relative. According to Bevacqua, Chamorros indigenize their military service, sometimes creating such a strong sense of identity that when serving alongside multinational forces (in Afghanistan, for example), others mistakenly assume the Chamorro soldiers represent the (non-existent) independent nation of Guam Guam is headquarters for Joint Region Marianas, which oversees Andersen Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam, and a 984,000 square mile testing and live-fire training area in and around the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Guam is also home to a naval ordnance annex, a naval computer and telecommunications station, home port for fast-attack nuclear submarines and, since 2013, a terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) missile defense battery.
Chamorro lawyer Leevin Camacho says, “There are lots of people impacted by the military presence. They tend to be the most disenfranchised even amongst the disenfranchised.” Camacho describes economically depressed housing conditions just beyond the fence surrounding Andersen Air Force Base. He recalls a public hearing he attended where one Chamorro man described jets flying so low over his house in the morning that his coffee mug shook and he could smell jet fuel. Speaking alongside Camacho is his colleague, human rights lawyer Julian Aguon, who adds, “Militarism is normalized on Guam. It’s part of our meat and drink. It’s a protein we have to work very hard to break down.” The two lawyers pivot back and forth reciting a litany of adverse impacts, from a military housing allowance they say makes housing unaffordable for non-military residents to the military discounts for everything from gasoline and milk to baby formula and toilet paper.
Camacho says military service is incentivized to the point that it encroaches on identity. “You have this culture on Guam where everyone is very proud of being Chamorro but on the other hand you have this constant exposure to the military and militarization… It’s almost part of the narrative on Guam: all these great benefits from being in the military.” Aguon adds, “In many young people’s minds the military service is the tried and true road to wealth and well-being and so they quickly get with the program.” With the military dangling financial incentives before Guam’s people, he says, it drives parents to encourage their kids to enlist. “What’s happening now is but one chapter in a long and complicated book about the breaking of a people,” Aguon says, adding that militarization and colonization are inseparable.
Not everyone in Guam is critical of the military, of course. In an emailed statement, Guam’s lone representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, said, “Guam, which has a historically symbiotic relationship with the military, will benefit significantly from the associated investments [from the U.S. Marine realignment] in our community.” Last March, Bordallo called for the development of an IT business sector on Guam, which she says, through strong military ties, could position Guam as a regional hub for IT infrastructure. “Further, if the Trans-Pacific Partnership is passed I think Guam can leverage its location to take advantage of potential business meetings and engagements to facilitate trade in the region,” she added.
Guam’s spokespeople for the Army, Navy, and Air Force all declined requests for interviews, but in a written statement U.S. Pacific Command Public Affairs spokesman Commander Dave Benham said, “The military’s forward presence and engagement play an essential role in strengthening the capabilities of Pacific nations and partners to defend and secure themselves. Building strong partnerships in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region requires us to sustain and enhance American military strength in the region.” One military supporter eager to talk was Carl Peterson, a civilian aide to the secretary of the Army. He says Guam’s military presence is essential to the local economy as it reduces dependency on tourism. He asks, “The bottom line is how do you expand the economy?” Furthermore, Peterson says the military provides vital job skills training and regional security. Peterson points to Chinese-backed real estate development in the nearby Northern Marina islands saying, “If the U.S. left, it wouldn’t be long before China would run everything in Guam.” He suggests Guam’s strategic importance will only increase. “From the point of view that [Guam] is sovereign territory, it’s far more important than Okinawa… Guam becomes a place where the United States has a toehold in Asia and can justify their presence.”
The notion that the U.S. military is what keeps Guam safe is “very low-level, colonized thinking,” according to Dr. Lisa Natividad, an assistant professor of social work at the University of Guam. She see the military presence as a source of social and economic stress, saying it “vampires our best” through its universal recruitment in Guam’s schools. As for the Marine buildup she asks, “Why is the government of Japan willing to pay so much money to transfer Marines from Okinawa to Guåhan (the Chamorro name for Guam) if it’s such a great thing? It doesn’t make any sense.” Pointing to sexual violence against women and children in Okinawa, Natividad says. “I attempted to actually come up with a number [of crimes/rapes] but I gave up after the fourth or fifth page because each one of those cases is multiple numbers. It’s really obscene.”
When the Navy released a bulging 10,000 page Draft Environmental Impact Statement in 2009, concerned citizens divided up the report for review. Facing opposition and more than 10,000 comments, the Navy scaled back the original plans for 8,600 Marines and deferred controversial plans to dredge over 70 acres of coral reef and to build a live firing range complex at a historical Chamorro site. The firing range was instead moved to the Guam National Wildlife Refuge on the island’s northernmost tip. According to Leon Guerrero, co-chair for the Independence for Guåhan Task Force and a member of the Commission on Decolonization, business interests on Guam have constructed a false narrative suggesting the whole of the island is supportive of the Marine build up. “Those of us who have read through these [military] documents have realized that there really isn’t much economic gain to be had, especially the way the buildup has been downsized,” Leon Guerrero says.
She’s referring to the original announcement that 8,600 marines and 9,000 dependents would be relocated to Guam for four-year stints, during which time they could invest in the local economy and contribute to the community. Instead, two-thirds of the reduced number of Marines will be training on Guam and neighboring islands on six-month rotations. “The island will see a boom when we get a huge construction phase which will then suddenly bust… But what happens when construction ends?” Leon Guerrero asks. “These are not longstanding jobs. For us, that’s not something we’re interested in.” Rather than focusing on how to profit from the military, Leon Guerrero says Guam’s people should be working to build a self-sustaining economy that breaks what she calls a dependency on the military.
Dr. Carlyle Corbin, a U.S. Virgin Islands-based international advisor on governance who also teaches a course on political evolution for small island territories at the University of Guam, “Discussion of the fact that the United States has colonies is something that doesn’t resonate, especially… when there is a bit of a denial as to whether it’s a colony,” Corbin says. According to Corbin, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. mission to the UN project the image of Guam as having full self-government. “The point is not made that the governors are elected but their power is limited and the representatives in Congress are non-voting and only in one house of Congress and not the other… It’s easy to dismiss any concerns because of the very limited description that is often used to placate whoever may be asking the question.” Corbin continues: “There’s obviously a tendency to view [Guam] from the military side but not even giving consideration to the fact that there might be people there who have a different opinion… But very little attention, if any, is given to the fact that the people in the place should also be taken into account as well, in particular their political aspirations and their right to self-determination.”
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Carter has vowed the U.S. “will remain the principal security power in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come” and the military describes Guam in terms of providing “strategic global strike capability” and “ensuring consistency with force posture requirements.” At the same time, there are growing voices on Guam that demand a permanent and just resolution to what is seen as injustice. Reflecting on being a military colony, Natividad says, “America justifies its military might as the spread of democracy whereas here in Guam, which is currently still U.S. soil, democracy doesn’t exist. How can you justify doing that all over the world when in your own backyard you are doing just the opposite?” [Source: The Diplomat | Jon Letman | August 29, 2016 ++]
*****************************
Military Ranks Quiz 1 ► Did You Answer Correctly?
1. What is the order of generals, junior to senior?

Brigadier general, major general, lieutenant general, general is the order, from most junior to most senior rank.

2. What are the three groups Army ranks are broken down into?

Army ranks fall into three groups: junior enlisted, NCOs and senior NCOs.

3. Who are the brass?

Military "brass" are its high-ranking officers.

4. What is a mustang?

A mustang is an officer who was promoted from within the enlisted ranks.

5. Who is a plebe?

Freshman (the lowest class) are called plebes at the Naval Academy and at West Point.

6. True or false: The rank of private in the Marines does not wear a uniform insignia.

Neither privates in the Marine Corps or in the Army, seamen recruits in the Navy nor airmen recruits in the Air Force have a rank insignia.

7. Which Army rank is only used in time of war?

The rank of general of the Army is equal to or higher than those who command armies from other nations and hasn't been used since World War II.

8. How do you address a lieutenant general?

All generals are addressed as "general," whether brigadier, lieutenant, major or simply general.

9. What were captains called in the Roman army ranks?

Captains in the Roman army were called centurions, each commanding up to 100 men

10. If you're a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, what is the equivalent rank in the Army?

A lance corporal is the equivalent to a private first class in the Army. In the Marines, private first class comes before lance corporal.

11. Which rank is higher in the Marine Corps, sergeant major or master gunnery sergeant?

While they're the same pay grade (E-9), sergeant major is the higher rank.

12. Which is NOT a difference of insignia between a seaman recruit in the Navy and one in the Coast Guard?

In the Coast Guard, a seaman recruit has an insignia with one stripe, and Coast Guard insignia colors are different than Navy colors.

13. What is the difference between a commissioned and noncommissioned officer?

Commissioned officers have extra education (a minimum of a bachelor's degree and officer training), whereas NCOs do not.

14. True or false: Commissioned officers outrank all noncommissioned officers.

Commissioned officers outrank NCOs, but NCOs do command lower-ranking enlisted personnel.

15. Who is the only airman ever to hold rank of five-star general, as the general of the Air Force?

Henry H. Arnold who also became general of the Army in 1944.

* Military History *

Nazi POWs ► Jewish Avengers Poison Plot
Seventy years after the most daring attempt of Jewish Holocaust survivors to seek revenge against their former tormentors, the leader of the plot has only one simple regret — that to his knowledge he didn't succeed in killing any Nazis. Joseph Harmatz is one of the few remaining Jewish "Avengers" who carried out a mass poisoning of former SS men in an American prisoner-of-war camp in 1946 that sickened more than 2,200 Germans but ultimately caused no known deaths. A recently declassified U.S. military report obtained by The Associated Press has only added to the mystery of why the brazen operation did not kill Nazis, because it shows the amount of arsenic used should have been fatal to tens of thousands.
Still, the 91-year-old Harmatz says the message echoed into a rallying cry for the newborn state of Israel — that the days when attacks on Jews went unanswered were over. "We didn't want to come back (to pre-state Israel) without having done something, and that is why we were keen," Harmatz said in a hoarse, whispery voice from his apartment in north Tel Aviv. Despite a visceral desire for vengeance, most Holocaust survivors were too weary or devastated to seriously consider it, after their world was shattered and 6 million Jews killed during World War II. For most, merely rebuilding their lives and starting new families was revenge enough against a Nazi regime that aimed to destroy them. For others, physical retribution ran counter to Jewish morals and traditions. For even more, the whole concept of reprisals seemed pointless given the sheer scope of the genocide.

Joseph Harmatz talks May 23 at his apartment in Tel Aviv, Israel, about his time as a Jewish "Avenger" who carried out a mass poisoning of former SS men in an American prisoner-of-war camp in 1946 after World War II.

But a group of some 50, most young men and women who had already fought in the resistance, could not let the crimes go unpunished and actively sought to exact at least a small measure of revenge. The Nuremberg trials were prosecuting some top Nazis, but the Jewish people had no formal representative. There was a deep sense of justice denied, as the vast majority of Nazis immersed themselves back into a post-war Germany that was being rebuilt by the Americans' Marshall Plan. While there were some isolated acts of Jews harming individual Nazis after the war, the group, codenamed Nakam, Hebrew for vengeance, sought a more comprehensive form of punishment. "We didn't understand why it shouldn't be paid back," said Harmatz, who was nicknamed Julek, and lost most of his family in the Holocaust. So the group set out with a simple mission. "Kill Germans," Harmatz said flatly. How many? "As many as possible," he quickly replied.

The first plan of action described by Harmatz was audacious. Initiated by the resistance fighter and noted Israeli poet Abba Kovner, the idea was to poison the water supply of Nuremberg, a plot that could have potentially killed hundreds of thousands. But there were deep reservations even among the Avengers that such an operation would kill innocent Germans and undermine international support for the establishment of Israel. Either way, when Kovner sailed for Europe with the poison, he drew suspicion from British authorities and was forced to toss it overboard before he was arrested. Following that setback, attention shifted toward Plan B, a more limited operation that specifically targeted the worst Nazi perpetrators. Undercover members of the group found work at a bakery that supplied the Stalag 13 POW camp at Langwasser, near Nuremberg, and waited for their chance to strike the thousands of SS men the Americans held there.
It came on April 13, 1946. Using poison procured from one of Kovner's associates, three members spent two hours coating some 3,000 loaves of bread with arsenic, divided into four portions. The goal was to kill 12,000 SS personnel, and Harmatz oversaw the operation from outside the bakery. While the mass death count of the first plan would have been disastrous for the Jewish people, the second's more direct route was easier to accept, since its targets were the worst of the worst, said Dina Porat, the chief historian at Israel's Yad Vashem memorial. She has written a biography of Kovner and is about to publish another book on the Avengers themselves. "The terrible tragedy was about to be forgotten, and if you don't punish for one crime, you will get another," she explained. "This is what was driving them, not only justice but a warning, a warning to the world that you cannot hurt Jews in such a manner and get away with it."
Even if they were ultimately unsuccessful, she said, the Avengers' act was seeped with symbolism for a burgeoning state of Israel fighting for its survival in a hostile region. "What is Zionism? Zionism is the Jews taking their fate in their own hands and not letting the others dictate our fate," she said. "This is what they wanted to show. You cannot get away with such a terrible deed." Under German regulations, authorities in Nuremberg later investigated Harmatz and Leipke Distal, who worked undercover in the bakery for months, after they appeared in a 1999 television documentary and revealed details of the operation. The prosecutors, in the uncomfortable position of having to investigate Holocaust survivors trying to kill Nazis, eventually concluded that even though there was an attempted murder they would not file charges because of the "extraordinary circumstances."
According to previously classified files from the U.S. military's Counter Intelligence Corps, which investigated the 1946 incident and which the Nuremberg prosecutors did not have access to, the amount of arsenic used should have been enough to cause a massive number of deaths. The files were obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request to the National Archives. In one memo from 1947 stamped "confidential," investigators write that at the bakery they found "three empty hot water bottles and a burlap bag containing four full hot water bottles." An analysis of the contents "revealed that they contained enough arsenic mixed with glue and water to kill approximately 60,000 persons." Another confidential report said a chemist called in to help in the investigation had determined "10 kilo of pure arsenic was present, mixed with water and glue for adhesive purposes."
Laboratory investigators found arsenic on the bottom, top and sides of the bread, and reported that doctors said the SS men exhibited symptoms "similar to cholera and included vomiting, diarrhea and skin rashes." The report added that the most amount of arsenic found on a loaf was 0.2 grams — which fell well within the range of 0.1-0.3 grams that would be 'in most cases lethal." To this day, it remains a mystery as to why the poison failed to kill Nazis. The prevailing theory is that the plotters in their haste spread the poison too thinly. Another is that the Nazi prisoners immediately sensed something was off with the bread and therefore no one ingested enough of it to die. After the attack, Harmatz, Distal and others had to flee quickly. At the border of Czechoslovakia they were met by Yehuda Maimon, an Auschwitz survivor from Poland who lost his parents in the camps and decided to join Nakam shortly after escaping a death march. He was responsible for smuggling the group out safely and bribing officials at the border. From there, they slipped into Italy before migrating for good to the Holy Land.
From the retirement home outside Tel Aviv where his grandchildren frequently visit him, the 92-year-old Maimon, who goes by the nickname Poldek, fixes a steely gaze with his piercing blue eyes. He looks back with satisfaction at carrying out his "duty" for revenge before starting anew in Israel. "It was imperative to form this group. If I am proud of something it is that I belonged to this group," he said. "Heaven forbid if after the war we had just gone back to the routine without thinking about paying those bastards back. It would have been awful not to respond to those animals." [Source: The Associated Press | Aron Heller and Randy Herschaft | August 31, 2016 ++]
*****************************
Military Former Punishments ► Laws Were Looser In the Olden Days
Next time you cry about having to work an extra CQ shift, remember that in the past you could have been flogged.

Laws were looser back in the olden days of the U.S. military. If you were a soldier during the Civil War and you screwed up big time, you were looking at a truly painful consequence. It wasn’t uncommon to be flogged or tied up by the thumbs for your misdeeds back then — and it took our country nearly a century to realize that corporal punishment was probably bad for troops and morale. Here are 10 crazy punishments that used to be legal in the U.S. armed forces.

https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/buckgag.png

https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/thumbs.jpg

Viewing above and below (left-to-right) Bucking and gagging, Log-carrying to the point of exhaustion, Riding the Spanish donkey or wooden mule, Tying up by the thiumbs, Branding, and Sweat boxes

1. Bucking and gagging. During the Civil War, discipline was a huge problem among the soldiers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon. In order to set unruly soldiers straight, some commanding officers chose the humiliating and painful route of “bucking and gagging.” Under this penalty, the mischief maker would have to sit for long periods bent forward with his hands tied at his shins, his feet tied together at the ankles, and to top it all off — a rod or stick was shoved over the arms and under the knees, and he was gagged with a cloth. The worst part? Minor offenses — like insubordination — earned a troop this unusual punishment.
2. Log carrying. To this day, many branches perform log carries during PT to train strength, endurance, and teamwork. But during the Civil War, log carrying was a form of punishment. Those in breach of minor regulations would be forced to carry a large log around camp until they physically couldn’t stand anymore.
3. Wooden mule. Civil War commanders didn’t mess around. Minor offenses like straggling, fighting, or drunkenness could earn you an intensely painful ride on the wooden mule. The wooden mule — a narrow rail elevated just high enough so that the victim’s feet couldn’t touch the ground — is considered one of the most cruel torture devices of all time. The accused would have to sit atop the wooden mule with weights attached to his legs until he passed out. Sometimes, the wedge would actually slice through its victim.
4. Branding. During the Civil War, those who messed up were sometimes branded with the first letter of their crime on various parts of the body — usually the forehead — using a red-hot iron, according to American Civil War Society. The letter “C” was given to those showing cowardice under fire, “T” was reserved for thieves, “D” for deserters, and “W” for worthlessness. Painful, embarrassing, and permanent, this punishment probably acted as a deterrent for many troops.
5. Sweat boxes. Saunas are nice, but imagine being stuck in a sweatbox for hours without food or water. The U.S. Naval Institute states that during the 1850s a stint in the sweatbox was a punishment used for insubordination and “serious irregularities” among military members.
6. Flogging. Outlawed in 1861, flagellation or “flogging” is the beating of the human body with whips, lashes, rods, and similar objects. Troublesome troops were generally flogged on the backs and the bottoms of the feet for minor crimes.
7. Wooden wheel. If you were convicted of theft, sleeping on duty, or cowardice during the Civil War, you may face a punishment involving your body being spread-eagle tied to a large wooden wheel. According to the descriptions of Frank Wilkeson, a Civil War soldier, a piece of cloth would be placed around your head so that you couldn’t talk — and sometimes the wheel would be spun so you’d get sick. For moderate punishments, soldiers faced five to six hours tied to the wheel in upright position. If the punishment was severe, the victim would be tied to the wheel horizontally — and he’d have to use all of his strength to keep his weight from pulling hard on the rope.
8. Tying on the rack. A crippling punishment involving bondage, Wilkeson says men would beg for death over being tied to the rack. The accused would have all of his weight focused on chest, and his chest would be pressed into the edge of a piece of iron. The victim was gagged because there was always screaming involved. Major ouch.
9. Tying up by the thumbs. Another Civil War-era classic punishment was the tying up by both thumbs to a strong tree branch. Soldiers would be left hanging for hours to repent for the minor offences they committed — a punishment that seems to defy both human rights laws and the laws of physics.
10. Continuous dousing with sea water. According to the U.S. Naval Institute, dousing someone continuously with sea water was used on delinquents and those who showed insubordination as an alternative to flogging. Sounds a bit like waterboarding.
[Source: Task & Purpose |Tahlia Y. Burton | August 10, 2016 ++]
*****************************
Staff Sgt. Reckless Monument ► Ground Broke at Camp Pendleton
Camp Pendleton broke ground on the monument of a famous Korean War Horse 29 AUG outside the Pacific Views Event Center near the Marine Corps Memorial Garden. The life-size bronze statue of Staff Sgt. Reckless, a heroic horse who served with Camp Pendleton’s 5th Marine Regiment, will be installed in the center of the traffic circle by the event center over the next two months. The Mongolian mare became famous in the early 1950s during the Korean War when she carried ammunition through enemy fire to troops on the front lines and brought back the wounded. She was injured by shrapnel, but continued her duties and became a symbol of the valor of the Marines and a legend of the Korean War. She was awarded two Purple Hearts.
During the Battle for Outpost Vegas, in March 1953, Reckless is reported to have made 51 trips in one day climbing steep hills to firing sites, carrying more than 9,000 pounds of ammunition while bullets were pounding in at 500 rounds per minute. “Her heroism under fire supporting the 5th Marine Regiment during the Korean conflict earned her the love and respect of fellow Marines and brought her national fame,” said Col. Richard Rothwell, president of the Camp Pendleton Historical Society. The Camp Pendleton Historical Society and Robin Hutton, author of “Sgt. Reckless: America’s War Horse,” spearheaded the effort to build the monument at Camp Pendleton, where the mare spent her last 14 years at the Stepp Stables and where she had been buried in 1968. Hutton led an effort to build a similar Reckless Memorial Monument at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va., that was dedicated in July 2013.

http://www.sgtreckless.com/reckless/welcome_files/shapeimage_5.png

Reckless with Tech. Sgt. Joe Latham in Korea in 1953.

The monument by artist Jocelyn Russell, is estimated to cost $165,000. The nonprofit Camp Pendleton Historical Society is still fundraising and has donated $72,000, including $30,000 in matching funds. A total of $133,000 has been raised. Hutton donated a portion of her book and merchandise sales at the Sgt. Reckless store online at sgtreckless.com. A dedication ceremony for the monument is planned for Oct. 26. “I would like to think that in time the monument will be seen as a symbol of all Marines who have fought so bravely in that long ago war,” Rothwell said. Donations can be mailed to Camp Pendleton Historical Society, PO Box 5497, Oceanside, CA 92052. Make checks payable to Camp Pendleton Historical Society or CPHS and write “Reckless” on the memo line. For information, visit www.sgtreckless.com, www.camppendletonhistoricalsociety.org, or email rrothwel@cox.net. [Source: San Diego Union Tribune | Linda McIntosh | Aug. 30, 2016 ++]

*****************************
Times Square V-J Day Kiss Update 01 ► Recipient Passes at Age 92
c4659b7b0f9766c638650601dccc4e99

As pedestrians watch, an American sailor passionately kisses a white-uniformed nurse in Times Square to celebrate the long awaited-victory over Japan. August 14, 1945.
The woman kissed by an ecstatic sailor in Times Square celebrating the end of World War II has died. Greta Zimmer Friedman’s son says his mother died 8 SEP at a Richmond, Virginia, hospital of what he called complications from old age. She was 92. Friedman was a 21-year-old dental assistant in a nurse’s uniform on Aug. 14, 1945. She went to Times Square amid reports that the war had ended. That’s when she was kissed by George Mendonsa celebrating Japan’s surrender. Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the moment. It became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. Joshua Friedman says his mother recalled it all happening in an instant. She will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to her late husband, Dr. Misha Friedman. [Source: Associated Press | September 10, 2016 ++]
*****************************
Pearl Harbor Heroic Pilots ► George Welch & Ken Taylor
At the beginning of December, 1941, Army Air Forces pilots Second Lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth Taylor had moved their P-40s away from the main airfield at Wheeler to a nearby auxiliary field at Haleiwa as part of a gunnery exercise. The vast majority of Army Air Forces fighters at Wheeler were parked in neat rows on the main flight-line; although war with Japan appeared imminent, it was decided that the possibility of sabotage from the ground presented a greater threat than a potential air attack, and it was easier to guard them while parked in neat rows than dispersed on the airfield perimeter. When the Japanese carrier-based sneak attack against Pearl Harbor and Wheeler and Hickam Fields came on the morning of December 7, 1941, the majority of the U.S. Army Air Forces fighters were easily destroyed on the ground, several of them when the first P-40 pilot attempting to take off to fight was hit and killed on his takeoff roll and his fighter went crashing down the flight-line at Wheeler.

Ken Taylor (left) & George Welch
Welch and Taylor had spent the evening of Saturday, 6 DEC, at a dance at the Wheeler Field officers club, followed by an all-night card game some distance away from their home base at Haleiwa. That fateful Sunday morning, as they discussed the merits of taking an early morning swim, they heard distant gunfire. Suddenly the Japanese swooped down on Wheeler Field, which was a center for fighter operations in Hawaii. Dive bombers seemed to appear out of nowhere. Violent explosions upended the parked planes, and buildings began to burn. Welch ran for a telephone and called Haleiwa as bullets sprayed around him. "Get two P-40s ready!" he yelled. "It's not a gag. The Japs are here." The two hopped into Taylor's car with machine-gun bullets from planes of the attacking Japanese aircraft kicking up dust around them. They reached speeds of 100 mph during the 16-mile dash to Haleiwa. Japanese Zeros strafed their car three times. When the two fliers careened onto the airfield nine minutes later, their fighter planes were already armed and the propellers were turning over. Without waiting for orders they took off.
As they climbed for altitude they ran into twelve Japanese Val dive bombers over the Marine air base at Ewa. Welch and Taylor began their attack immediately. On their first pass, machine guns blazing, each shot down a bomber. As Taylor zoomed up and over in his Tomahawk, he saw an enemy bomber heading out to sea. He gave his P-40 full throttle and roared after it. Again his aim was good and the Val broke up before his eyes, tumbling into the sea. In the meantime Welch's plane had been hit and he dived into a protective cloud bank. The damage didn't seem too serious so he flew out again - only to find himself on the tail of another Val. With only one gun now working he nevertheless managed to send the bomber flaming into a watery grave.
Both pilots now vectored toward burning Wheeler Field for more ammunition and gas. Welch later recalled: "We had to argue with some of the ground crew. They wanted us to disperse the airplanes and we wanted to fight." Unfortunately the extra cartridge belts for the P-40s were in a hangar which was on fire. Two mechanics ran bravely into the dangerous inferno and returned with the ammunition. After their second takeoff they headed directly into the enemy planes, all guns firing. This time Ken Taylor was hit in the arm, and then a Val closed in behind him. Welch kicked his rudder and the Tomahawk whipped around and blasted the Val, though his own plane had been hit once more. Taylor had to land, but George Welch shot down still another bomber near Ewa before he returned.
In the aftermath, the single American airfield to emerge from the battle unscathed was Haleiwa. Some speculated that this was because the Japanese did not know of its existence. More likely, it was because Welch and Taylor aggressively and continually drove off the attackers. One group of Japanese planes, their bomb cargoes expended, turned to strafe Hickam and Ewa airfields and the naval installations at Ford Island. One of those Japanese pilots saw an aerial melee in the distance that very likely included Welch and Taylor. The Japanese flier reported seeing several of his comrades' planes falling from the sky in flames. Taylor later recalled: "We went down and got in the traffic pattern and shot down several planes there. I know for certain I shot down two planes or perhaps more; I don't know." A total of 29 Japanese planes were shot down during the attack, and Welch and Taylor were officially credited with seven of them, four in their first sortie and three in the second.
In all, a total of five U.S. Army Air Forces pilots managed to get their planes off the ground and give battle that morning. One of them, a lieutenant named Sanders, led a group of planes through overcast skies at 6,000 feet. When a formation of six Japanese bombers was spotted attacking an airfield, the group chased them off. Sanders picked out the Japanese leader and sent the smoking enemy plane spiraling into the sea. Sanders then spotted a comrade in trouble. Lieutenant James Sterling had closed with an enemy bomber, but another Japanese plane had gotten on his tail and was pouring fire into him. Sanders pulled in behind Sterling's attacker, and all four planes went into a steep dive. Sanders was the only one to come out. Sterling lost his life, and both Japanese aircraft went down.
After the Pearl Harbor attack, Taylor was assigned to the 44th Fighter Squadron, and went to the South Pacific at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal. He was able to record two additional aerial kills: the first on January 27 and the other on December 7, 1943, two years after Pearl Harbor. This brought his total number of career kills to six, making him a flying ace. After 27 years of active duty, he retired as a colonel in 1967, and became the Assistant Adjutant General for the Alaska Air National Guard, retiring as a Brigadier General in 1971. After contracting an illness from a hip surgery two years prior, Taylor died on November 25, 2006 of a strangulated hernia at an assisted living residence in Tucson, Arizona. He was cremated and later buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in June 2007 with full military honors.
Welch remained in the Pacific Theater of Operations and went on to score 12 more kills against Japanese aircraft (16 in total), making him a triple ace. In the spring of 1944, Welch was approached by North American Aviation to become a test pilot for the P-51 Mustang. He went on to fly the prototypes of the FJ Fury, and when the F-86 Sabre was proposed, Welch was chosen as the chief test pilot.
In September, 1947, the F-86 project moved to the Muroc test facility (now Edwards AFB, California), the same base at which the Bell X-1 was being developed. North American was instructed by Secretary of the Air Force Stuart Symington that they were not, under any circumstances, to break the sound barrier before the X-1 achieved this milestone. However, Welch disregarded this order, and during a test flight on October 1, 1947, he entered a steep dive from 35,000 ft. During the dive, Welch observed symptoms compatible with Mach jump. However, due to problems with the landing gear, further full-speed flights were delayed. On October 14, the same day that Chuck Yeager was to attempt supersonic flight, Welch reputedly performed a second supersonic dive. This time he started from 37,000 ft., and executed a full-power 4g pullout, greatly increasing the power of his apparent sonic boom. Yeager broke the sound barrier approximately 30 minutes later.
To justify the investment in the X-1 program, the Pentagon allegedly ordered the results of Welch's flights classified and did not allow North American to publicly announce that the XP-86 had gone supersonic until almost a year later. The Air Force still officially denies that Welch broke the sound barrier first. Welch had achieved supersonic flight only in a dive, not in level flight, and his flights were unofficial and not tracked by NACA measuring equipment, making verification impossible. Welch went on to work with North American Aviation in the Korean War as Chief Test Pilot, engineer and instructor, where he reportedly downed several enemy MiG-15s while "supervising" his students.
After the war, Welch returned to flight testing - this time in the F-100 Super Sabre - with Yeager flying the chase plane. Welch became the first man to break the sound barrier in level flight with this type of aircraft, the first USAF fighter to achieve level supersonic flight, on May 25, 1953. However, stability problems with the aircraft arose, and on Columbus Day, October 12, 1954, Welch's F-100A-1-NA Super Sabre disintegrated during a 7g pullout at Mach 1.55. When found, Welch was still in the ejection seat, mortally injured. He was evacuated by helicopter, but was pronounced dead on arrival at the Army hospital. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Welch and Taylor were both nominated for the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions on Pearl Harbor Day, and the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Air Forces, General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, was reportedly anxious to receive the nominations. Unfortunately for the two heroes, the intermediate Chain of Command, whose pride was evidently smarting from having been caught off guard and suffering the devastation they did, reasoned absurdly that they had taken off without proper authorization and therefore could not be awarded the United States' highest military award. As a result, the awards were downgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross for both men. [Source: Together We Served | Mike Christy | August 2016 ++]
*****************************

Download 0.8 Mb.

Share with your friends:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12