Posted on 06/02/2017 6:50:35 AM PDT by fugazi
1865: Confederate Gen. Kirby Smith signs documents surrendering his 43,000-man Army of the Trans-Mississippi at Galveston, Tex. Although Smith is not the last Confederate officer to surrender to the Union, this ends all organized Southern military action in the war.
1942: As the U.S. Navy prepares for the upcoming Japanese invasion, Task Forces 16 and 17 merge 350 miles northeast of to the northeast of Midway Island, putting three aircraft carriers, eight cruisers, and 16 destroyers under the command of Rear Adm. Frank J. Fletcher. A picket line of 25 submarines waits for the Japanese. The Battle of Midway is less than 24 hours away.
1943: The "Tuskegee Airmen" of the 99th Pursuit Squadron fly their first combat mission against Axis forces on the island of Pantelleria, off the coast of Tunisia.
1969: At 3 a.m. off the coast of Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMS Melbourne runs into the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), cutting the American ship in half. The severed bow section sinks in less than five minutes and takes 74 sailors with her. A series of errors and the absence of running lights due to preparations for flight operations places the American destroyer directly in the path of the much larger vessel.
1972: U.S. Air Force Gen. John W. Vogt, Jr. effectively shuts down the air war in Vietnam to rescue Capt. Roger Locher, an F-4 "Phantom" weapons systems officer shot down behind enemy lines in North Vietnam. Locher has evaded capture for 23 days - a record for downed airmen during the Vietnam War. Gen. Vogt diverts all available resources - 150 aircraft - from a planned strike against Hanoi and tasked them with the rescue mission. Planes bomb a nearby North Vietnamese airfield while Locher is located and...
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
Lodge and Locher were perhaps the most experienced Phantom crew in theater at that time, with three MiG kills.
USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754). Yikes!
1969: At 3 a.m. off the coast of Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMS Melbourne runs into the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), cutting the American ship in half. The severed bow section sinks in less than five minutes and takes 74 sailors with her. A series of errors and the absence of running lights due to preparations for flight operations places the American destroyer directly in the path of the much larger vessel.
This incident led to an infamous Navy training video which gives us the purported famous quote: “It’s too close for mo-board we’ll have to eye-ball it in.”
Mo-board is short for maneuvering board and is a graphical method to geometrically determine the course and speed needed to assume a position relative to another ship in the most efficient way through the use of both actual and relative speeds and distances.
We usually sailed with the Enterprise in the Tonkin Gulf but in the summer of my last cruise, 1971, the U.S.S. America was brought from the Med as a replacement. Zero dark thirty one AM I was awoken in my rack by a sharp roll and get dressed and went up to the radio shack to see what was happening. My RD buddy on watch in CIC said that the America missed cutting us in half by less than a full pitching wedge. We were all maneuvering by voice commands over encrypted voice radio with the orders given from the carrier’s bridge. The guy on the birdfarm gave a “turn left” order when the maneuver was a “turn right” and we almost bought it since we were the closest tin can to the America. Its easy to die on the ocean.
Col Phil “Hands” Handley is still alive and active. Plays golf nearly every day.
Good man, solid leader, fearless and a true patriot.
Here is his webpage: http://nickelonthegrass.net/
Here is a webpage of the transcript and the event: http://nickelonthegrass.net/MiG_Kill.htm
Website that has audio of the engagement: http://nickelonthegrass.net/Handley_MiG_kill.mp3
Awesome audio! Neat to have something to listen to and not just read words on a screen. Really brings the story to life. Thanks!
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