Vol 12 08 through 15 March 2024
ABOUT FOD:
Fireball's Observations Of The Day, (FOD) remains an experiment. It’s intended to be a short collection of my observations of the moment. Generally I’ll try to provide some historical events that occurred on the dates of the current volume, with some personal observations for context. I hope you find it entertaining and a bit informative. If you have comments or thoughts you’d like to contribute, I welcome them as well or a personal event that occurred on a specific day drop me a line. Oh and I’m just getting used to the software involved, so you may see it take some different looks as I attempt to improve the format and content. Thanks, Fireball
FOD Saying of the Day
This excerpt has particular relevance to today’s political environment. It is part of his Gettysburg Address.
Lincoln described our great task, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”
FOD Trivia Question
Who became the Vice President and President of the United States without ever being elected to either office?
Previous Trivia Questions:
Trivia question 1: What is a group of ravens known as?
Answer: A flock of ravens might be called an 'unkindness' because ravens are associated with bad luck and in mythology, they are trickster birds. Other names for a group of ravens are conspiracy, rave, flock and unkindness.
Trivia question 2: Which of Newton’s Laws states that ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?
Answer: The third law of motion.
Baseball News
Now that Ronald Acuña Jr. is back in camp and completing normal baseball activities, there’s reason to wonder if last week’s right knee soreness should lead the reigning National League MVP to be a little less aggressive with his stolen-base attempts this year. “No,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s still young and he’s still at an age where he can still [steal a lot of bases]. He’s going to reach a time where he’s going to slow down on his own. For now, you've just got to let a kid like that loose and let him play his game.” That’s certainly good news for all the baseball fans looking forward to watching Acuña establish himself as one of the greatest power-speed talents the game has seen. We may never see another player join the 40-70 club that he established when he hit 41 homers and stole 73 bases last year. The Fireball opinion is the Braves will take time bringing Acuña back in the lineup in an unlimited capacity. There’s no need to rush his return.
While the Mariners are waiting for relievers to get healthy, they scored perhaps the best bullpen arm still on the market. Seattle signed reliever Ryne Stanek to a one-year deal on 10 March. To make room on the roster, right-hander Jackson Kowar was placed on the 60-day injured list and will undergo Tommy John surgery. “We are excited to add Ryne Stanek to our club. His combination of high-end stuff and durability adds to an already deep and talented relief corps,” said general manager Justin Hollander in a statement. “Ryne has a strong track record of pitching in leverage roles for championship-caliber teams.”
The concussion Anthony Rizzo sustained last season threw a wrench into what was shaping up to be a resurgent campaign. At the time of the injury, he was hitting .304 with 11 home runs; after, struggling with post-concussion syndrome, he hit.172 with a .225 slugging percentage and just one home run over his final 46 games before being placed on the IL for good on Aug. 3. Coming into camp, the extent to which that was going to affect him going forward was something of a mystery, but early on, there appears to be no cause for concern -- after struggling to see the ball down the stretch in 2023, he’s hitting .467 thus far this Spring.
The New York Yankees are preparing to begin the regular season without their ace.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters 12 March in Florida that it "would be difficult" to picture Gerrit Cole making the Opening Day start as he deals with an unspecified elbow injury. Cole, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, underwent an MRI on his right elbow on 11 March. Boone told reporters Cole will have more testing Tuesday. He said a prognosis is not imminent. The right-hander has yet to land on the injured list as a Yankee. The only time he has missed was in August 2021, when he tested positive for COVID-19. He hasn't spent time on the injured list for a non-COVID ailment since an elbow injury in September 2016 as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Cole went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA and 222 strikeouts last season.
A converted starter for most of the 2022 season, the Red Sox had moved Tanner Houck back into the rotation in 2023, where he got off to a shaky start before he was struck in the face by a line drive on June 16 and missed just over two months waiting on his facial fractures to heal. He did make 21 starts overall, but ultimately, the numbers weren’t much to look at (5.01 ERA, 1.37 WHIP). Famous “cheating with the Astros” Manager Alex Cora noted early on this spring that Houck had added the most velocity on the staff, which the right-hander acknowledged was a reflection of his return to full health. Houck, who came into Spring Training prepared to battle for Boston’s final open rotation spot, now looks like more of a lock, with his strong outings coming amidst the news that the Red Sox have already lost offseason addition Lucas Giolito to an elbow injury.
From the on-deck circle, Aaron Judge said he had the best view in the house for Juan Soto’s 447-foot, three-run homer on Sunday afternoon. But for the rest of the Yankees, there was no lousy vantage point from which to view that one. “Oh, my goodness. That was probably one of the farthest ones I’ve seen hit here in Spring Training,” Judge said. “I’ve seen some guys go down the line over that little bar over there, but for him to go right-center with ease, that was pretty impressive.” Soto’s fourth spring home run came off Patrick Halligan in the fourth inning of Sunday’s 9-8 Grapefruit League win over the Braves at George M. Steinbrenner Field, a blast calculated to come off the slugger’s bat at 112.2 mph. The ball came to rest adjacent to Dale Mabry Highway, where a passing bicyclist retrieved it. Yankee’s Captain Aaron Judge said that he has been ribbing Soto about not sprinting out of the batter’s box, telling him, “You’ve got to enjoy a couple of these.” Soto took Judge’s advice this time, savoring his trip around the bases. “In the dugout, everyone was excited,” Judge said. “They were just trying to look at the exit velo, they’re trying to see the distance, all that kind of stuff that we can see. So that was a nice one.” As manager Aaron Boone put it: “That’s how I used to not hit them.” Boone continued: “It’s amazing how much space he creates for himself. It’s just a really special swing. It’s a battle every time. It’s fun to watch him take an at-bat.”
And the biggest and most potentially scandalizing baseball story is an ongoing investigation. Baseball star Shohei Ohtani, who signed with the L.A. Dodgers after six years with the L.A. Angels, finds himself in the middle of a bizarre set of facts. Via Tisha Thompson of ESPN.com, Ohtani fired his interpreter on Wednesday afternoon in the midst of questions regarding the transfer of $4.5 million in Ohtani’s funds to an illegal bookmaking operation. My own pasta-and-meatballs gut reaction to the story is that Ohtani himself might have been doing the gambling, and that the interpreter is taking the fall. (That’s not a statement of fact. It’s my own opinion based on circumstantial evidence. And it merits further investigation by Major League Baseball, if MLB is so inclined.)
Random Thoughts
People are finding tiny unicorns around the city of Providence, RI. Finding a unicorn in Providence is like, well, finding a unicorn. Local residents have spotted the mythic beasts perched in window sills, sitting on steps and laying in plain sight on streets.
They elicit amusement from their claimants, who stash them away and carry them home. One took hers to drinks at a local bar. Their less than two-inch stature makes them easy to miss. But their neon hues and satin-like sheen catch the eye of the hunter, who might almost walk by before realizing they’ve stumbled upon a treasure. Such was the case with local Providence Journal reporter who, after two excursions through the city on a Monday, found one resting in the window of Nick-a-Nees, the South Street watering hole. No one is admitting to creating or distributing the plastic 3D-printed unicorns, but it’s a mystery bringing joy to local residents.
The US Navy Reserve in Seattle took possession of their first brand new Boeing P-8 Poseidon recently at Boeing Field. Fireball flew the P-8 as part of the development effort. The plane is based on the 737-800 with a 737-900 wing for extra load capacity.
The new plane is headed to a Squadron based out of Jacksonville, Florida. “We also have a local squadron at Whidbey Island which is Maritime Patrol Squadron 69 and although this aircraft isn’t going there, they will also receive new aircraft shortly," said Vice Admiral Mustin. "Ultimately, they’ll have five and they are also a globally deployable squadron.”
When the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford departed Naval Station Norfolk last May for its first combat deployment, the 23 new technologies installed on the warship weren’t the only novelty aboard the ship.
The voyage also marked the very first time an aircraft carrier em-“barked” with a trained dog as part of a new pilot program the Navy is testing to improve morale and lessen the stigma sailors might feel about seeking mental healthcare. Meet Sage, a yellow lab and very good girl who works with the Ford’s mental health and resiliency team. Formally known as the Navy’s Expanded Operational Stress Control Canine pilot program, Sage’s job is to help sailors cope and adjust to the mental and emotional stressors they face while underway. Along the way, leaders hope a friendly pooch will attract crew members to events where they can learn more about available mental health options. Come to see the friendly dog and stay for the talk! Another service dog, Demo, is currently deployed aboard the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Middle East, and another one, Ike, is expected to deploy in the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp later this year.
With the lunar touchdown of the Odysseus spacecraft on February 22nd, the world’s most expensive living artist has now earned a new, space-age superlative: His creation is now the first “authorized” work of art on the moon.
Exchanging the gallery space for a transparent box in space, the American artist Jeff Koons (photo left with Moon Phases} had a new sculpture series hitch a ride with Odysseus (also known as “Odie,” or IM-1), which began its journey on February 15. Attached to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and overseen by Houston-based company Intuitive Machines, Odie’s historic arrival marks the US’s first landing on the lunar surface in more than 50 years. It follows a failed attempt by the Peregrine spacecraft last month, which burned up in the atmosphere after a propellant leak prevented it from completing its mission. Posting to Instagram shortly after Odysseus touched down, Koons described the moon landing as “astounding achievement” and said he was “so honored” to be involved in the mission. In an earlier post, he had described the launch as “a spectacular event,” adding that “in person, the scale, the forces, the experience of space being penetrated was unbelievable!” So what is Koons exhibiting on the lonely lunar surface?
Contained in the aforementioned box are 125 mini-sculptures of the moon, measuring about one inch in diameter. Called “Moon Phases,” they show 62 phases of the moon as seen from Earth, 62 phases visible from other viewpoints in space, and one lunar eclipse. Though its arrival marks a milestone, “Moon Phases” is not the only art to touch down on the moon’s surface. In 1971, Apollo 15 crewmembers left an aluminum figure by the Belgian artist Paul Van Hoeydonck, as well as a commemorative plaque for 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who died in service. It’s also long been believed that six famous artists — Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg, Forrest Myers and David Novros — covertly sent a joint artwork aboard Apollo 12 two years earlier. Their collaborative piece, “The Moon Museum,” is a tiny ceramic tile scribbled with drawings from each artist, and reportedly remains attached to part of the lunar module’s leg to this day. Moon Phases debuted at Basel Art in Switzerland as the strongest showing of the limited number of “phygitals” (physical artworks accompanied by digital assets) there. ArtNet reports that all Moon Phases sculptures presented sold for $2 million each and are now on the Moon. So … if you find one or more for sale in the aftermarket, it’s an investment opportunity brought to you by FOD.
For years the fixed-price deals that Boeing signed for programs like the KC-46A Pegasus air refueling tanker and T-7A Red Hawk trainer have been headaches for the aerospace giant amid billions in losses stemming from delays, supply chain constraints and developmental woes. And now, according to the Air Force’s acquisition czar, more delays for both efforts could be coming. Testifying before the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee on Tuesday, Andrew Hunter said that an upgrade for the KC-46A’s long-troubled vision system RSV 2.0) would likely arrive in 2026, slipping past an already 19-month delayed projected fielding date of October 2025. After the hearing, he separately told reporters that the service would “probably” approve production of the T-7A trainer later than previously expected.
A rare cosmic eruption is expected to occur in the Milky Way in the coming months — an outburst so bright that a “new” star will seemingly appear for a short time in the night sky. The event, known as a nova, will be a once-in-a-lifetime skywatching opportunity for those in the Northern Hemisphere, according to NASA, because the types of star systems in which such explosions occur are not common in our galaxy. The stellar eruption will take place in a system called T Coronae Borealis, which is 3,000 light-years away from Earth. It contains two stars: a dead star, also known as a “white dwarf,” closely orbited by a red giant. Red giants are dying stars that are running out of hydrogen fuel in their cores; the sun in our solar system will eventually become one, according to NASA.
Amid Uncertainty Over This FY’s Budget DoD Requests $850B For FY25
The Pentagon released its fiscal year 2025 funding request, officially beginning one of the most chaotic budget seasons in recent memory. The top line for national defense is $895.2 billion, and the Pentagon’s share of that will be just under $850 billion, according to Defense News. These figures are lower than projected in the request for fiscal 2024, due to a deal struck to avoid a government default. That deal capped spending for the upcoming fiscal year, amounting to a small drop in defense funding when adjusted for inflation. Hence the inevitable question leading up to this year’s request was what accounts would have to slim down. The answer is mainly those for procurement and research, development, testing and evaluation. The previous year’s ask for those accounts was $315 billion. This year’s is $310.7 billion, and that doesn’t account for inflation. Divided out, the total includes $167.5 billion for procurement and $143.2 billion for RDT&E for FY25. Among the weapons systems trimmed to reach that lower-than-planned number are a Virginia-Class nuclear-powered submarine and a slew of F-35 fighter jets. The request for munitions also fell slightly — to $29.8 billion from $30.6 billion in FY24. And this munitions shortfall does not accommodate for the Biden Administration’s plan to provide $300M in additional weapons to Ukraine through Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which pulls weapons from existing US stockpiles. Every year’s budget request is a planned, but not final, roadmap that adjusts to direction from Congress. This year’s is even less certain, since the FY24 budget cycle has yet to close and could force more detours. Congress has yet to pass an FY24 defense budget, now almost six months into the government fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. For the Pentagon, this presents two major risks: a full-year continuing resolution and the threat of a sequester. According to last year’s default deal, if lawmakers fail to pass all of their annual spending bills by April 30, there will be an automatic government-wide spending cut of 1%. At the same time, the Pentagon is also trying to plan around a mammoth national security supplemental that’s also frozen in Congress. The FY25 request includes a 4.5% pay increase for DoD personnel and a drop of 7,800 authorized billets in the active component and an increase of 2,100 positions in the reserve component. That’s a 0.6% drop in overall end strength. The request drops the active force from 1,284,500 to 1,276,700, while growing the reserve component from 763,600 to 765,700. At a time when we need to be expanding our forces to meet the needs in the Indio-Pacific as well as additional funding needed support in the Middle East and the Red Sea. The U.S. Navy will postpone most of its planned development and purchases of large unmanned systems and next-generation ships and planes in fiscal 2025, citing spending caps. The Navy in its FY25 budget request seeks six ships instead of the previously planned seven in the proposal — including one attack submarine, (a Virginia class boat) compared to the planned two — and will trim its research and development budget by 2.7% and military construction spending by 26.1%. The Navy spent $2.3 billion from FY18 to FY23 to change that, hoping to not only get industry up to an on-time delivery rate of two per year, but then to a rate between 2.3 and 2.5 to support the AUKUS submarine partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom. The bill contains billions in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan along with money for the American defense industry. The department is counting on that money in part to continue support its partners in need during wartime and to pay back some of its own bills. Those include a more costly force presence in Europe during the war in Ukraine and some of the cost incurred by U.S. Central Command after war broke out in the Middle East. The department has about a $10 billion bill outstanding to replenish munitions sent to its partners around the world, said a senior defense official briefing reporters on the budget. “The big issue before us is: Is Congress going to pass the supplemental or not?” the official said.
SOUTHCOM Warns of Risk of Chinese Investment in South America and Caribbean
China’s ability to flip its big money investments in the Caribbean and South American – ports, 5G telecommunications networks, space infrastructure and clean energy – from civilian to military use is a growing security concern, U.S. Southern Command’s commander told the House Armed Services Committee on 12 March, according to USNI News.
“China is exercising our playbook” of being present economically and equipping the United States’ hemispheric neighbors militarily, Army Gen. Laura Richardson told the panel. (photo right) “The PRC understands the importance of economics and the intertwined role of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in achieving its Chinese Dream – the PRC reclamation of China’s central role in world affairs,” she said in her written testimony. “For 15 to 20 years, SOUTHCOM has been receiving less than 50 percent [of required] security cooperation money,” she wrote. Richardson called these funds, used for exercises, “more than once a year visits” and equipment, “my Number One lever … to provide counterbalance to the PRC [People’s Republic of China].” She added: “I don’t need to outspend the PRC to beat them” because “presence matters.” On the economic side, Richardson noted that 22 of the 31 countries in the command’s area of responsibility have signed onto China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. “We’ve got to be on the field for the tenders and contracts” for these economic development projects, Richardson said. HASC chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) cited the $3.6 billion mega-port to handle giant container cargo shipping at Chancay, Peru, as an example of growing Chinese influence. Richardson, in her written testimony, said Beijing boasts that the port will serve as the “gateway from South America to Asia.” But the Peru project is not the only one of concern to Rogers. He noted that Beijing, using state-owned enterprises, has invested in 40 port projects “from the Bahamas to the tip of South America” and at both entrances to the Panama Canal. Economic pressures are on these governments to act quickly, Richardson said. “They’re going to look for whoever has the cash and the loans.” the “PRC may also be exploring the development of conventionally armed intercontinental-range missile systems that could allow Beijing to strike targets in Alaska and the continental United States without crossing the nuclear threshold. Such systems, if fielded, would further erode strategic stability by challenging our ability to characterize an inbound attack and complicating our decision-making about an appropriate response.” Specifically, China’s “capabilities are growing rapidly” in nuclear weapons, advanced submarines and hypersonics. During oral and written testimony, Guillot said China “has launched the first two hulls of its new Shang III class of nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines (SSGN). If the PRC arms the Shang III with land-attack cruise missiles, the new SSGNs could provide Beijing a clandestine land-attack option beyond the Indo-Pacific region, potentially holding at risk critical infrastructure in Alaska and the U.S. West Coast. While Beijing’s intent for employing these long-range conventional strike capabilities is not fully known, in a future crisis, the PRC could use these weapons … to threaten or attack our critical defense infrastructure.”
Navy Destroyers in the Red Sea
FOD editors have periodically emphasized both the performance and capability of US destroyers in the Middle East arena. Military Times reports since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched dozens of missiles at cargo and military vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. The Houthi rebels claim it’s in support of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, but their targets have targeted vessels flagged from a variety of nations.
The Navy’s humble fleet of destroyers stands at the maritime spear tip of the effort to stop the Iran-backed militia and its attacks on the economically vital sea lanes. These workhorses of the American sea service, and the men and women that crew them, are now getting a surplus of real-world experience in how to use their expansive array of war systems to track and take out missiles and attack drones. Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers are the service’s longest-running ship program, first conceptualized to replace aging Charles F. Adams class destroyers that retired in the coming decades, according to the Congressional Research Service. Since Houthis began launching attacks in October, U.S. Central Command has confirmed the destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, Gravely, Mason, Laboon and Carney have all defeated at least one Houthi attack, according to Military Time’s Red Sea attack tracker. Although 92 destroyers have been ordered from industry to date, only 72 have been delivered to the service as of March 2023. An American destroyer makes for a fearsome foe on the high seas largely due to its AEGIS Weapons System. Named after the shield used by the Greek god Zeus, AEGIS allows destroyers to find and target enemies to an unparalleled level. Fireball can attest to the capabilities of the AEGIS system. From other sources FOD editors have heard there have been significant increases in reenlistments onboard these “Greyhounds” as sailors are doing the jobs they were trained to do. In laymen’s terms, AEGIS coordinates radar tracking with onboard ordnance, ensuring that everything works together fluidly. “[AEGIS] takes sensor inputs and allows efficient assignment of weapons to target,” said Bradley Martin, a senior researcher at RAND Corporation and retired surface warfare officer. “It says something like, ‘this thing over here is a problem, you need to shoot it.’” AEGIS can track more than 100 targets at a time, according to the Navy. Once a ship’s crew has found an enemy that needs shooting, a Navy destroyer has a bevy of options with which to fire. The Mark-41 Vertical Launch System uses one of the 96 cells to launch a variety of missile options. The vertical launch system, or VLS, has launched more than 4,200 missiles with a roughly 99 percent launch success rate since program inception, according to the service. In general, destroyers carry an array of missiles, such as tomahawks, SM-6, SM-3, and SM-2 missiles, MK-46 torpedoes, Enhanced Sea Sparrow Missiles and anti-submarine missiles, according to officials. While vertical launch systems and AEGIS provide a layered defense, letting destroyers take out Houthi missiles and drones well before nearing the ship, destroyers also sport weapons of last resort, such as the so-called “Close-In Weapons System,” or CIWS. “Certainly they don’t want to rely on it because the response time in at least one Red Sea incident, the destroyer USS Gravely shot down an anti-ship cruise missile that got within one nautical mile of the destroyer on Jan. 30. During that attack, the Gravely used its Phalanx Close-In Weapons System to take the missile out, a defense official later confirmed.e is minimal, but when it has needed to be used, it’s very effective,” Martin said.
Former US Military and Political Leaders Support Senate Ratification of Law of the Sea
An influential group of former military and political leaders are calling for the U.S. to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, in an effort to spur the country’s interest in deep-sea mining amid competition with China for critical minerals. In a draft letter seen by The Wall Street Journal, former U.S. statesmen and women and retired U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and intelligence personnel—including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte—are calling on Senate leaders to ratify the treaty in a bid for the country to stake its claim over areas of international waters where minerals such as cobalt and nickel, considered critical for the energy transition and in defense applications, can be sourced. “We have already lost two of our four “USA” designated deep seabed mine sites, each containing a trillion dollars in value of the strategic minerals of copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earths; minerals critical both for United States security dominance as well as the transition to a greener twenty-first Century,” the letter, addressed to Sen. Ben Cardin (D., Md.) and Sen. Jim Risch (R., Idaho), said. “Continued inaction on the Treaty means a likely quick loss of our remaining two “USA” designated sites.
Moreover, China has moved forward to obtain five sites and the Russian Federation three and they are also moving to obtain a monopoly on refining of these strategic minerals,” the letter added. The Law of the Sea Treaty, which came into effect in 1994, is an international agreement establishing the legal framework for maritime and marine activities. The U.S. recognizes the treaty but never ratified it. In terms of mining the seabed, that means the country is not a voting member of the International Seabed Authority, the governing body for seabed activities in international waters. As a nonvoting member the U.S. has no say on laws pertaining to the seabed and also can’t be awarded exploration contracts to mine the seafloor in international waters. China currently has five. The ISA and its members are due to meet next week at its headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, where they will be hashing out the final parts of the mining code—the set of laws and regulations that will eventually govern seabed mining. Deep-sea mining remains controversial but its proponents argue that mining the seafloor for minerals avoids the kind of harm associated with land-based mining, both environmentally and socially. Its critics say, however, that it would be damaging an environment that is largely untouched by humans. The letter itself has 331 initial signatories, including Admiral Dennis Blair, former Director of National Intelligence and former Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command, and Admiral Jonathan Greenert, former Chief of Naval Operations.
Sweden Joins NATO
The Swedish flag has been raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels and across alliance buildings for the first time, as the alliance formally welcomed the Nordic nation as its 32nd member on 11 March. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Sweden “has taken its rightful place at NATO’s table under the shield of Article 5 protection, the ultimate guarantee of freedom and security.” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson thanked Stoltenberg for supporting the membership process. “We are humbled, but we are also proud,” he said. “We know the expectations for Sweden are high, but we also have high expectations for ourselves.” Discussing the contribution Sweden will make to the alliance, he said that Sweden brings “cutting edge capabilities” at both an armed forces and defense industrial level, and already spends more than 2 percent of its GDP on military funding, the target figure all allies are expected to meet. Operationally, Sweden will be directly involved in NATO’s “increased presence” drawn up in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and which continues to support the wider military aid effort by international partners to supply Kyiv with weapons. Stockholm pledged its largest arms package in February, valued at SEK 7.1 billion ($690 million), with weapons including 10 Saab Combat Boat 90 (CB90) fast assault craft, 20 Group Boats (G-Boats) and underwater weapons. Previous donations have included Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90) armored combat vehicles, NLAW anti-tank weapons and Archer self-propelled Howitzers. Stoltenberg said that allies must continue to “strengthen” Ukraine on the battlefield.
100 Years Ago First Submariner receives Medal of Honor
Their service is often silent, but valorous nonetheless, and exactly a century ago 08 March 1924, a Navy submariner became the first of his kind to receive the Medal of Honor. President Calvin Coolidge presented Torpedoman’s Mate 2nd Class Henry Breault the military’s highest military decoration.
Actions in the Panama Canal the year before led Breault to become the silent service’s first Medal of Honor recipient. On the Atlantic side of the canal, Breault was serving aboard the USS O-5 on Oct. 28, 1923, when a commercial vessel struck the sub, sinking it in less than a minute, according to his Medal of Honor citation. Breault was in the torpedo room at the time of the collision but managed to make it to the hatch and escape. “Upon reaching the hatch, he saw that the boat was rapidly sinking,” the orders read. “Instead of jumping overboard to save his own life, he returned to the torpedo room to the rescue of a shipmate whom he knew was trapped in the boat.” That shipmate was Chief Electrician’s Mate Lawrence Brown. The ship’s compartments were flooding fast, but Breault secured the watertight door to the torpedo room, giving the pair precious air and time. Breault locked himself and Brown inside. Safe there, they planned to wait for salvage divers. Brown’s account made it into an article called “The O-5 is Down!″ by Capt. Julius Grigore, Jr., published in a 1972 edition of the U.S. Naval Institute magazine Proceedings.
Hong Kong’s New National Security Bill Includes Stiff Penalties To Suppress Dissent
Hong Kong unveiled a proposed law that threatens life imprisonment for residents who “endanger national security” on 08 March, deepening worries about erosion of the city’s freedoms four years after Beijing imposed a similar law that all but d out public dissent. It’s widely seen as the latest step in a crackdown on political opposition that began after the semi-autonomous Chinese city was rocked by violent pro-democracy protests in 2019. Since then, the authorities have crushed the city’s once-vibrant political culture. Many of the city’s leading pro-democracy activists have been arrested and others fled abroad. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, and outspoken media outlets like Apple Daily and Stand News have been shut down. Hong Kong leader John Lee has urged legislators to push the Safeguarding National Security Bill through “at full speed,” and lawmakers began debate hours after the bill was released publicly. It’s expected to pass easily, possibly in weeks, in a legislature packed with Beijing loyalists following an electoral overhaul. The proposed law will expand the government’s power to stamp challenges to its rule, targeting espionage, disclosing state secrets, and “colluding with external forces” to commit illegal acts among others. It includes tougher penalties for people convicted of working with foreign governments or organizations to break some of its provisions.
Sir Paul McCartney
On 11 March in 1997, Paul McCartney, a former member of the most successful rock band in history, the Beatles, was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his “services to music.” With the other members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, they became widely regarded as the foremost and most influential act of the rock era.
McCartney, Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr all received appointment as Members of the Order of the British Empire in 1965. McCartney is also one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion. Rooted in skiffle, beat, and 1950s rock and roll, the Beatles later experimented with several musical styles, ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelic and hard rock, often incorporating classical elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways. In the early 1960s, their enormous popularity first emerged as "Beatlemania", but as the group's music grew in sophistication, led by primary songwriters Lennon and McCartney, they came to be perceived as an embodiment of the ideals shared by the counterculture of the 1960s. McCartney was largely a self-taught musician, and his approach was described by musicologist Ian MacDonald as "by nature drawn to music's formal aspects yet wholly untutored ... [he] produced technically 'finished' work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgment based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears. Often renowned as one of the greatest singers in pop music, McCartney was ranked the 11th greatest singer of all time by Rolling Stone, voted the 8th greatest singer ever by NME readers and number 10 by Music Radar readers in the list of "the 30 greatest lead singers of all time."
First Amphibious Landing in US history
On March 9, 1847, General Winfield Scott performed the first major amphibious landing in U.S. history in preparation for the Siege of Veracruz. A group of 12,000 volunteer and regular soldiers successfully offloaded supplies, weapons, and horses near the walled city using specially designed landing craft. Included in the invading force were Robert E. Lee, George Meade, Ulysses S. Grant, James Longstreet, and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. All these individuals would play significant parts in the American Civil War a few years later. Mortars and naval guns under Commodore Matthew C. Perry were used to reduce the city walls and harass defenders. After a bombardment on March 24, 1847, the walls of Veracruz had a thirty-foot gap. The city replied the best it could with its own artillery. The effect of the extended barrage destroyed the will of the Mexican side to fight against a numerically superior force, and they surrendered the city after 12 days under siege. The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War, the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. It followed in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory in spite of its de facto secession in the 1836 Texas Revolution. In 1845, James K. Polk, the newly-elected U.S. president, made a proposition to the Mexican government to purchase the disputed lands between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. When that offer was rejected, American forces commanded by Major General Zachary Taylor were moved into the disputed territory of Coahuila. They were then attacked by Mexican forces, who killed 12 U.S. soldiers and took 52 as prisoners. These same Mexican troops later laid siege to an American fort along the Rio Grande. This led to the war and the eventual loss of much of Mexico's northern territory. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and specified its major consequence: the Mexican Cession of the territories of Alta California and Santa Fe de Nuevo México to the United States. The U.S. agreed to pay $15 million compensation for the physical damage of the war. In addition, the United States assumed $3.25 million of debt owed by the Mexican government to U.S. citizens. Mexico acknowledged the loss of Texas and thereafter cited the Rio Grande as its national border with the United States. The territorial expansion of the United States toward the Pacific coast had been the goal of US President James K. Polk, the leader of the Democratic Party. At first, the war was highly controversial in the United States, with the Whig Party, anti-imperialists, and anti-slavery elements strongly opposed. A young Abraham Lincoln, a member of the House of Representatives opposed the war. Critics in the United States pointed to the heavy casualties suffered by U.S. forces and the conflict's high monetary cost. The war intensified the debate over slavery in the United States, contributing to bitter debates that culminated in the American Civil War.
The Second Veracruz Battle
A few years later, The United States again occupied Veracruz beginning with the Battle of Veracruz and lasted for seven months. This siege action was in response to the Tampico Affair of April 9, 1914. The incident came in the midst of poor diplomatic relations between Mexico and the United States, concurrent to the ongoing Mexican Revolution. A misunderstanding occurred on April 9, 1914, but developed into a breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two countries. As a result, the United States invaded the port city of Veracruz, occupying it for more than six months. This contributed to the fall of President Victoriano Huerta, who resigned in July 1914. Among those present for the siege and the second battle was a young Ensign Edward Orrick McDonnell. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1912. He received the Medal of Honor for actions at the United States occupation of Veracruz, 1914. Later, after this affair, on 10 March 1919 LCDR McDonnell flew a British-built Sopwith Camel off an overhauled gun turret on the USS Texas (BB-35) and thus became the first man to fly an airplane off a battleship. Soon after her commissioning, Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" mentioned above and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. When the United States formally entered World War II in 1941, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is now a museum ship near Houston, Texas (She is well worth a visit – add it to your list of great ships to visit.) She is also noteworthy for being one of only seven remaining ships and the only remaining capital ship to have served in both World Wars. Vice Admiral McDonnell died in the 1960 bombing of National Airlines Flight 2511 over Bolivia, North Carolina. The National Airlines Douglas DC-6 was carrying five crew members and 29 passengers, all of whom perished, when the aircraft exploded in midair on January 6, 1960. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation concluded that the plane was brought down by a dynamite explosion in the passenger cabin. No criminal charges were ever filed, nor was the blame for the bombing ever determined, though a suicide bombing is suspected. The investigation remains open today.
Monitor and Virginia meet in Battle of the Ironclads
Recently, FOD mentioned the Navy’s first ironclad ship, the USS Monitor was launched. And just a few weeks later, she sails in harm’s way. The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack (or Virginia) or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies.
It was fought over two days, March 8–9, 1862, in Hampton Roads, a roadstead in Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before it enters Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The major significance of the battle is that it was the first meeting in combat of ironclad warships, i.e., the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. The Confederate fleet consisted of the ironclad ram Virginia (built from the remnants of the USS Merrimack) and several supporting vessels. On the first day of battle, they were opposed by several conventional, wooden-hulled ships of the Union Navy.
On that day, Virginia was able to destroy two ships of the Federal flotilla, USS Congress and USS Cumberland, and was about to attack a third, USS Minnesota, which had been run aground. However, the action was halted by darkness and falling tide, so Virginia retired to take care of her few wounded—which included her captain, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan—and repair her minimal battle damage. Both sides used the respite to prepare for the next day. Virginia put her wounded ashore and underwent temporary repairs. Captain Buchanan was among the wounded, so command on the second day fell to his executive officer, Lieutenant Catesby Roger Jones. Jones proved to be no less aggressive than the man he replaced. While Virginia was being prepared for renewal of the battle, and while Congress was still ablaze, Monitor, commanded by Lieutenant John L. Worden, arrived in Hampton Roads. The Union ironclad had been rushed to Hampton Roads in hopes of protecting the Union fleet and preventing Virginia from threatening Union cities. Captain Worden was informed that his primary task was to protect Minnesota, so Monitor took up a position near the grounded Minnesota and waited. "All on board felt we had a friend that would stand by us in our hour of trial," wrote Captain Gershom Jacques Van Brunt, the vessel's commander, in his official report the day after the engagement. The next morning, at dawn on March 9, 1862, Virginia left her anchorage at Sewell's Point and moved to attack Minnesota, still aground. She was followed by the three ships of the James River Squadron. They found their course blocked, however, by the newly arrived Monitor. At first, Jones believed the strange craft—which one Confederate sailor mocked as "a cheese on a raft"—to be a boiler being towed from the Minnesota, not realizing the nature of his opponent. Soon, however, it was apparent that he had no choice but to fight her. The first shot of the engagement was fired at Monitor by Virginia. The shot flew past Monitor and struck Minnesota, which answered with a broadside; this began what would be a lengthy engagement. "Again, all hands were called to quarters, and when she approached within a mile of us I opened upon her with my stern guns and made a signal to the Monitor to attack the enemy," Van Brunt added. After fighting for hours, mostly at close range, neither could overcome the other. The armor of both ships proved adequate. In part, this was because each was handicapped in her offensive capabilities. Buchanan, in Virginia, had not expected to fight another armored vessel, so his guns were supplied only with shell rather than armor-piercing shot. Monitor's guns were used with the standard service charge of only 15 lb of powder, which did not give the projectile sufficient momentum to penetrate her opponent's armor. Tests conducted after the battle showed that the Dahlgren guns could be operated safely and efficiently with charges of as much as 30 lb. The battle finally ceased when a shell from Virginia struck the pilot house of Monitor and exploded, driving fragments of paint and iron through the viewing slits into Worden's eyes and temporarily blinding him. As no one else could see to command the ship, Monitor was forced to draw off. The executive officer, Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene, took over, and Monitor returned to the fight. In the period of command confusion, however, the crew of Virginia believed that their opponent had withdrawn. Although Minnesota was still aground, the falling tide meant that she was out of reach. Furthermore, Virginia had suffered enough damage to require extensive repair. Convinced that his ship had won the day, Jones ordered her back to Norfolk. At about this time, Monitor returned, only to discover her opponent apparently giving up the fight. Convinced that Virginia was quitting, with orders only to protect Minnesota and not to risk his ship unnecessarily, Greene did not pursue. Thus, each side misinterpreted the moves of the other, and as a result each claimed victory. Monitor foundered while under tow in December 1862 during a storm off Cape Hatteras. Monitor‘s wreck was discovered in 1973 and has been partially salvaged. Her guns, gun turret, engine and other relics are on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. It’s a nice museum and I recommend seeing it.
Pardo’s Push
Now, from the Phantastically Phamous Phantom Proven Pheats of Derring Do comes the proof of an encounter I had heard about, but had no substantiation until I saw this tidbit posted about “Pardo’s Push.”
Captain Bob Pardo (with rear pilot 1st Lt Steve Wayne) and wingman Captain Earl Aman (with rear pilot 1st Lt Robert Houghton) were assigned to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, 433rd Tactical Fighter Squadron, at Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. In March 1967, they were trying to attack a steel mill in North Vietnam just north of Hanoi. F-4Ds of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing from Ubon Royal Thai Air Force Base. On March 10, 1967, the sky was clear for a bombing run, but both F-4 Phantom IIs were hit by anti-aircraft fire. Aman's plane took the worst damage; his fuel tank had been hit, and he quickly lost most of his fuel. He did not have enough fuel to make it to a KC-135 tanker aircraft over Laos. To avoid having Aman and Houghton bail out over hostile territory, Pardo decided to try pushing the airplane. Pardo first tried pushing the plane using Aman's drag chute compartment but turbulence interfered. Pardo then tried to use Aman's tailhook to push the plane. The Phantom having been originally designed as a naval aircraft for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, was equipped with a heavy duty tailhook for landings aboard aircraft carriers. Aman lowered his tailhook and Pardo moved behind Aman until the tailhook was against Pardo's windscreen. Aman shut down both of his J79 jet engines.
The push worked, reducing the rate of descent considerably, but the tailhook slipped off the windscreen every 15 to 30 seconds, and Pardo would have to reposition his plane. (painting right - “Pardo’s Push,” by S.W. Ferguson.) Pardo also struggled with a fire in one of his own engines and eventually had to shut it down. In the remaining 10 minutes of flight time, Pardo used the one last engine to slow the descent of both planes. With Pardo's plane running out of fuel after pushing Aman's plane almost 88 miles, the planes reached Laotian airspace at an altitude of 6,000 feet. This left them about two minutes of flying time. The pilots ejected, evaded capture, and were picked up by rescue helicopters. Pardo was initially reprimanded for not saving his own aircraft. Remember we’re talking the USAF here. However, in 1989, the USAF re-examined the case and awarded both Pardo and Wayne the Silver Star for the maneuver, two decades after the incident. Pardo and Aman eventually completed their Air Force careers, both retiring with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In later years, Pardo, learning that Aman was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and had lost his voice and mobility, he created the Earl Aman Foundation that raised enough money to buy Aman a voice synthesizer, a motorized wheelchair, and a computer. The foundation and the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Association later raised funds to pay for a van, which Aman used for transportation until his death. The flight maneuver was later the subject of an episode of JAG; the episode's credits "saluted" Pardo for his courage and ingenuity.
FJ-1 Fury Becomes First Jet Aircraft to Land On A Carrier
While it wasn’t a very successful carrier capable aircraft, the FJ-1 made the USN's first operational aircraft carrier landing with a jet fighter at sea on 10 March 1948 aboard USS Boxer, pioneering US jet-powered carrier operations and underscoring the need for catapult-equipped carriers.
The Fury was capable of launching without catapult assistance, but on a crowded flight deck the capability was of limited use. Taking off without a catapult launch limited the FJ-1 to a perilous, slow climb that was considered too risky for normal operations. The North American FJ-1 Fury was the first operational jet aircraft in United States Navy service, and was developed by North American Aviation as the NA-135. The FJ-1 was an early transitional jet and as I mentioned had limited success but which carried over similar tail surfaces, wing and canopy derived from the piston-engined P-51D Mustang.
The evolution of the design to incorporate swept wings would become the basis for the land-based XP-86 prototype - itself originally designed with a very similar straight-wing platform to the FJ-1 airframe - of the United States Air Force's enormously influential F-86 Sabre, which itself formed the basis for the Navy's carrier-based North American FJ-2/-3 Fury. Only 30 aircraft were actually built.
George Bancroft Becomes SECNAV
On March 11, 1845, the seventieth Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, takes office. At the time, he was a senior American diplomat in Europe. He was a classically educated scholar historian and educator.
Among his best-known writings is the magisterial series, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent. It’s not an exciting read. I couldn’t make it all the way through it. I tried it again a month or so ago, but gave up on it. During his relatively short tenure as U.S. Secretary of the Navy, as a Presidential cabinet member, Bancroft established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, creating a legacy of education and leadership. He ordered naval action that resulted in the occupation of California, and (as secretary of War) sent Zachary Taylor into the contested land between Texas and Mexico. This catalyzed the Mexican War, resulting in a United States success that resulted in its greatly increasing its territory in the Southwest. Refer to FOD articles above. Congress had never been willing to establish a naval academy, but Bancroft studied the law to assess the powers of the Secretary of the Navy.
He found that he could order "a place where midshipmen should wait for orders." He could also direct instructors to give lessons to them at sea, and by law instructors could follow the midshipmen to the place of their common residence on shore. The appropriation of the year for the naval service met the expense, and the secretary of war ceded an abandoned military post to the navy. He was a sea-lawyer of the first order. So when Congress came together, they learned that the midshipmen not at sea were to be housed at Annapolis, protected from the dangers of idleness and city life (whatever that might be), and busy at a regular course of study. Congress accepted the school, which was in full operation, and granted money for the repairs of the buildings. Bancroft introduced some new respected professors into the corps of instructors, and he suggested a system of promotion related to experience and achievements as well as age. Bancroft Hall, named for him is home for the entire brigade of 4,400 midshipmen, and contains some 1,700 rooms, 4.8 miles of corridors and 33 acres of floor space. All the basic facilities that midshipmen need for daily living are found in the Bandcroft Hall. "Mother B" houses offices for the Commandant of Midshipmen, six battalion officers, six battalion chaplains, thirty company officers and their senior enlisted leaders, a barbershop, bank, travel office, a small restaurant known as "Steerage," textbook store, general store ("The Midshipmen Store"), laundromat, uniform store, cobbler shop, the USNA Band, the USNA branch of the United States Postal Service, a gymnasium, spaces for extracurricular activities, and full medical & dental clinics as well as small optometry and orthopedics clinics. Bandcroft Hall has its own ZIP code (21412).
Navy LT Saves MacArthur’s Ass
In the early days of WW II, FDR directed General Douglas MacArthur to evacuate his ever worsening position in the Philippines.
John D. Bulkeley was a Navy Lieutenant (USNA ’33) in command of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three, a Philippine-based detachment of six motor torpedo boats. On March 11, 1942, he picked up General Douglas MacArthur, his family, and his immediate staff, from Corregidor and took them aboard PT 41 and other PT boats through over 600 nautical miles of open ocean. On arriving at Mindanao, MacArthur said, "You have taken me out of the jaws of death. I shall never forget it." MacArthur was evacuated to Australia by B-17 in the final days of the campaign. For this action and others in the days just after Pearl Harbor he was awarded the Medal of Honor. Bulkeley earned many of his array of decorations while in command of that squadron and a subsequent one. In 1944, he took part in the Normandy invasion. Bulkeley led torpedo boats and minesweepers in clearing the lanes to Utah Beach, keeping German E-boats from attacking the landing ships along the Mason Line, and picking up wounded sailors from the sinking minesweeper USS Tide (AM-125), destroyer escort USS Rich (DE-695), and destroyer USS Corry (DD-463). As invasion operations wound down, he received command of his first large ship, the destroyer USS Endicott (DD-495). One month after D-Day, he came to the aid of two British gunboats under attack by two German corvettes. Charging in with only one gun working, he engaged both enemy vessels at point-blank range, sinking both. When asked, he explained, "What else could I do? You engage, you fight, you win. That is the reputation of our Navy, then and in the future." Nuff said Lieutenant!
Boeing 707 Prototype First Transcontinental Flight
11 March 1957: The Boeing jet airliner prototype, the Model 367-80, N70700, made a transcontinental demonstration flight from Seattle’s Boeing Field (BFI) to Friendship National Airport (BWI), Baltimore, Maryland. The aircraft commander was Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin Melvin (“Tex”) Johnston.
Test pilots James Russell (“Jim”) Gannett and Samuel Lewis (“Lew”) Wallick, Jr., completed the flight crew. (photo left - Pre-flight inspection at Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington. In the background are newly-built Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine). The flight covered 2,350 miles (3,782 kilometers) and took 3 hours, 48 minutes. Boeing had risked $16,000,000 in a private venture to build the Dash 80 in order to demonstrate its capabilities to potential civilian and military customers, while rivals Douglas and Lockheed were marketing their own un-built jet airliners.
Put into production as the U.S. Air Force KC-135A Stratotanker air refueling tanker and C-135 Stratolifter transport, a civil variant was also produced as the Boeing 707 Stratoliner, the first successful jet airliner. (photo right - Boeing’s Chief of Flight Test, Alvin M. “Tex” Johnston, updates a member of the cabin crew, a Pan American stewardess, on the progress of the Dash 80’s transcontinental flight. (Leonard Mccombe/LIFE Magazine). Though they look very similar, the 707 is structurally different than the KC-135 and has a wider fuselage. What’s even more interesting are the photos that were taken and appeared in Life Magazine.
FDR tweets – No – Begins “Fireside Chats”
President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his first fireside chat, on the banking crisis, eight days after taking office March 12, 1933.
On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his policies. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Roosevelt was a great communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high public regard throughout his presidency. The series of fireside chats was among the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which noted it as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people in 1933."
New York Highlanders Join American League
On March 12, 1903, the New York Highlanders are given the go-ahead by team owners to join baseball’s American League. The club began play in the AL in the 1901 season as the Baltimore Orioles (not to be confused with the modern Baltimore Orioles.) Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise (which had ceased operations) and moved it to New York City, renaming the club the New York Highlanders.
The team's new ballpark, Hilltop Park (formally known as "American League Park"), was constructed in northern Manhattan at one of the island's highest points between 165th and 168th Streets, just a few blocks away from the much larger Polo Grounds where the NY Giants played. The team came to be known as the New York Highlanders. The name was inspired by a combination of the team's elevated location in Upper Manhattan, and to the noted Scottish military unit The Gordon Highlanders. The press soon dubbed the team The Highlanders, but was officially renamed the "Yankees" in 1913. One of the most successful sports clubs in the world, the Yankees have won 18 division titles, 40 AL pennants, and 27 World Series championships, all of which are MLB records. 44 Yankees players and 11 Yankees managers have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra. The Yankees have garnered enormous popularity and a dedicated fanbase, as well as widespread enmity from fans of other MLB teams. The team's rivalry with the Boston Red Sox is one of the most well-known rivalries in U.S. sports. And with the new arrivals on both sides this year, it should be a great season.
National Good Samaritan Day
March 13 is National Good Samaritan Day. It reminds us to help those in need by showing kindness and compassion. Whether a small act that seems inconsequential or something big that means life or death, selfless acts of compassion help make the world a better place and strengthen human bonds.
The term "Good Samaritan" comes from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a parable told by Jesus in Luke Chapter 10. In this parable, a Jewish traveler is left for dead on the side of the road and is twice passed by. He is finally helped by a Samaritan, someone with different beliefs from Jews that normally wouldn't interact with him. (Painting right - The good Samaritan, after Delacroix by Van Gogh, 1890). The Samaritan saw the wounded traveler's humanity and showed mercy by stopping to help. Today, anyone who stops to selflessly help others for whatever reason is seen as being a Good Samaritan. Good Samaritan Day takes place on March 13 in honor of Catherine "Kitty" Genovese, who was stabbed to death in 1964 on that date. It is believed that her neighbors could have done more to help her after she was attacked, and if one of them would have acted as a Good Samaritan, Catherine most likely would have survived. Celebrate the day by acting as a Good Samaritan. Do something for someone else. Volunteer your time. Help a stranger, elderly person, someone who is hurting mentally, or someone who is in danger like Catherine Genovese was. Help someone you normally wouldn't come into contact with, or who may seem different from you in many ways. Acts of kindness may have a ripple effect that helps to better the whole world.
K-9 Veterans Day
March 13th is also K-9 Veterans Day for it was on this date in 1942, the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) of the United States Army begins training dogs for the newly established War Dog Program, or “K-9 Corps.” War dogs were used by the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Sarmatians, Baganda, Alans, Slavs, Britons, and the Romans. The Molossus dog of the Molossia region of Epirus was the strongest known to the Romans, and was specifically trained for battle. This ancient extinct breed of dog is considered to be the ancestor (in rivalry with the Alaunt, the dog of the Alans) of today's Mastiff-type dogs and of many other modern breeds. Among the Greeks and Romans, dogs served most often as sentries or patrols, though they were sometimes taken into battle. The earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Lydian dogs killed some invaders and routed others. During the Late Antiquity, Attila the Hun used molosser dogs in his campaigns. Gifts of war dog breeding stock between European royalty were seen as suitable tokens for exchange throughout the Middle Ages. Other civilizations used armored dogs to defend caravans or attack enemies. The Spanish conquistadors used armored dogs that had been trained to fight natives. In the Far East, Emperor Lê Lợi raised a pack of 100 hounds, this pack was tended and trained by Nguyễn Xí whose skills were impressive enough to promote him to the Commander of a shock troop regiment. Later on, Frederick the Great used dogs as messengers during the Seven Years' War with Russia. Napoleon also used dogs during his campaigns. Dogs were used up until 1770 to guard naval installations in France. The first official use of dogs for military purposes in the United States was during the Seminole Wars. Hounds were used in the American Civil War to protect, send messages, and guard prisoners. General Grant recounts how packs of southern bloodhounds were destroyed by Union troops wherever found due to their being trained to hunt men. Dogs were also used as mascots in American World War I propaganda and recruiting posters. Well over a million dogs served on both sides during World War I, carrying messages along the complex network of trenches and providing some measure of psychological comfort to the soldiers. The most famous dog to emerge from the war was Rin Tin Tin, an abandoned puppy of German war dogs found in France in 1918 and taken to the United States, where he made his film debut in the 1922 silent film The Man from Hell’s River. As the first bona fide animal movie star, Rin Tin Tin made the little-known German Shepherd breed famous across the country. In the United States, the practice of training dogs for military purposes was largely abandoned after World War I. When the country entered World War II in December 1941, the American Kennel Association and a group called Dogs for Defense began a movement to mobilize dog owners to donate healthy and capable animals to the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S. Army. Training began in March 1942, and that fall the QMC was given the task of training dogs for the U.S. Navy, Marines and Coast Guard as well. The K-9 Corps initially accepted over 30 breeds of dogs, but the list was soon narrowed to seven: German Shepherds, Belgian sheep dogs, Doberman Pinschers, collies, Siberian Huskies, Malumutes and Eskimo dogs. Members of the K-9 Corps were trained for a total of 8 to 12 weeks. After basic obedience training, they were sent through one of four specialized programs to prepare them for work as sentry dogs, scout or patrol dogs, messenger dogs or mine-detection dogs. In active combat duty, scout dogs proved especially essential by alerting patrols to the approach of the enemy and preventing surprise attacks. The top canine hero of World War II was Chips, a German Shepherd who served with the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Trained as a sentry dog, Chips broke away from his handlers and attacked an enemy machine gun nest in Italy, forcing the entire crew to surrender. The wounded Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart–all of which were later revoked due to an Army policy preventing official commendation of animals. Chips didn’t seek medals only appreciation from his handler and perhaps an extra treat. Dogs accompany special operations units to this day and one made the raid that found and killed Osama Bin Laden.
Some Other Events From March 13:
π =3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510…
March 14 was International Pi Day. Above is π to fifty digits. The number π is a mathematical constant. Originally defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, it now has various equivalent definitions and appears in many formulas in all areas of mathematics and physics.
It is approximately equal to 3.14159. It has been represented by the Greek letter "π " since the mid-18th century, though it is also sometimes spelled out as "π". Ancient civilizations required fairly accurate computed values for π for practical reasons of construction, including the Egyptians and Babylonians. Around 250 BC the Greek mathematician Archimedes created an algorithm for calculating it. It was approximated to seven digits, using geometrical techniques, in Chinese mathematics, and to about five digits in Indian mathematics in the 5th century AD. The historically first exact formula for π, based on infinite series, was not available until a millennium later, when in the 14th century the Madhava–Leibniz series was discovered in Indian mathematics. In the 20th and 21st centuries, mathematicians and computer scientists discovered new approaches that, when combined with increasing computational power, extended the decimal representation of π to many trillions of digits after the decimal point. For most numerical calculations involving π, a handful of digits provide sufficient precision. According to Jörg Arndt and Christoph Haenel, thirty-nine digits are sufficient to perform most cosmological calculations, because that is the accuracy necessary to calculate the circumference of the observable universe with a precision of one atom. Accounting for additional digits needed to compensate for computational round-off errors, Arndt concludes that a few hundred digits would suffice for any scientific application. Albert Einstein was born on International Pi Day in 1879. What are the odds of that happening? 1 in 365! He was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). He used π on a daily basis in his work as a physicist. His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He is best known by the general public for his mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"). He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the effect”, a pivotal step in the evolution of quantum theory. And another theoretical physicist, cosmologist author, and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge was Stephen Hawking.
His scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. As part of another longstanding scientific dispute, Hawking had emphatically argued, and bet, that the Higgs boson would never be found. The particle was proposed to exist as part of the Higgs field theory by Peter Higgs in 1964. Hawking and Higgs engaged in a heated and public debate over the matter in 2002 and again in 2008, with Higgs criticizing Hawking's work and complaining that Hawking's "celebrity status gives him instant credibility that others do not have." The particle was discovered in July 2012 at CERN following construction of the Large Hadron Collider. Hawking quickly conceded that he had lost his bet and said that Higgs should win the Nobel Prize for Physics, which he did in 2013. Hawking had a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis "ALS" or Lou Gehrig's disease) that gradually paralyzed him over the decades. Even after the loss of his speech, he was still able to communicate through a speech-generating device, initially through use of a hand-held switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. He died on Pi Day on 14 March 2018 at the age of 76. What are the odds – well, again 1 in 365! But interesting don’t you think?
And On March 14:
Beware The Ides of March
The Ides of March, a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. It was marked by several religious observances and became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The death of Caesar made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history, as one of the events that marked the transition from the historical period known as the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire.
Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Senate. As many as 60 conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were involved. According to Plutarch, a seer had warned that harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March. On his way to the Theatre of Pompey, where he would be assassinated, Caesar passed the seer and joked, "The Ides of March are come", implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied "Aye, Caesar; but not gone.” This meeting is famously dramatized in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, when Caesar is warned by the soothsayer to "Beware the Ides of March.” Shakespeare’s version casts Caesar, when stabbed by his friend Marcus Brutus as uttering, “Et tu, Brute?” (And you, Brutus). The Roman biographer Suetonius identifies the "seer" as a haruspex named Spurinna. Suetonius doesn’t specifically call out Caesar’s last words, but sites others who claim his last words were the Greek phrase "καὶ σύ, τέκνον;” ("You too, child?" in English).
Caesar's death was a closing event in the crisis of the Roman Republic, and triggered the civil war that would result in the rise to sole power of his adopted heir Octavian (later known as Augustus). Writing under Augustus, Ovid portrays the murder as a sacrilege, since Caesar was also the Pontifex Maximus of Rome and a priest of Vesta. On the fourth anniversary of Caesar's death in 40 BC, after achieving a victory at the siege of Perugia, Octavian executed 300 senators and knights who had fought against him under Lucius Antonius, the brother of Mark Antony. The executions were one of a series of actions taken by Octavian to avenge Caesar's death. Suetonius and the historian Cassius Dio characterized the slaughter as a religious sacrifice, noting that it occurred on the Ides of March at the new altar to the deified Julius.
New Distance and Endurance Records Set By US Navy Blimp
With the Cold War heating up in the 1950’s, the US Navy needed a way to expand both anti-submarine warfare and airborne early warning (AEW) mission’s capabilities against the emerging Soviet oceanic presence. The platform of choice evolved from a line of non-rigid airships built by the Goodyear Aircraft Company of Akron, Ohio for the US Navy.
The initial version, designated ZPN-1, was a follow-on to the M-class blimp for patrol missions. The N-Class or “Nan ship” further evolved and used a significantly larger envelope than the M-ship although their overall lengths were similar. Two Wright R-1300 Cyclone 7 single-row, air-cooled radial engines powered the N-Class blimps. A new innovation for the Nan ship was the placement of its four fins, called ruddervators in an X pattern, controlled by a single control column. The decreased vertical span of the fins allowed greater ground clearance, allowing steeper takeoff angles then the previous standard cruciform arrangement of fins. You can see the different fin configurations in the photo above, with a M class blimp in the background and an N class in the foreground. Interestingly this same design was employed several years later on the experimental submarine USS Albacore (AGSS-569) which just shows ta go ya the laws of physics remain unchanged despite the media.
Operationally the ZPG-2W was used to fill radar gaps in the North American early-warning network between the Contiguous Barrier and the Inshore Barrier during the Cold War. One “blimp” had been involved in cold weather testing at NAS South Weymonth, MA (where I took my USNA Qualification Physical in 1969) and was given the name Snow Bird. (photo left - U.S. Navy ZPG-2 Bu. No. 141561, “Snow Bird,” prior to departure at NAS South Weymouth, Boston, Massachusetts, 4 March 1957 (NASM)). In a demonstration of the ability to stay on-station autonomously for considerably extended periods, ZPG-2 Snow Bird (BuNo 141561), pilot in command Cdr. Jack R. Hunt USN, supported by a naval crew of 12 plus a civilian flight engineer from Goodyear, made a record-breaking non-stop flight across the Atlantic and back. The airship departed NAS South Weymouth, Massachusetts, on Monday 4 March 1957, reaching the south-west tip of Portugal by the evening of 7 March despite adverse headwinds for some of the way, passed by Casablanca, Morocco, on the morning of 8 March, then turned back westwards over the Cape Verde Islands towards the Caribbean Sea, eventually landing at NAS Key West, Florida, on the evening of 15 March. The flight had covered a distance of 9,448 mi in 264.2 hours, and in doing so had not only broken the lighter-than-air distance record of 6,980 mi set by the Graf Zeppelin rigid airship in 1929 but also the aircraft endurance record without refueling. For his performance on the flight, the airship commander, CDR Jack R. Hunt, USN, received the Harmon International Trophy (e.g., Harmon Trophy) for Aeronautics. Commander Reed was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross by Fleet Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Jr., United States Navy. The cockpit from the control car for ZPG-2, Snow Bird, has been restored and is on display at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida. Following its deflation in 1962, the control car of ZPG-3W number 2, BuNo 144243, was stored for many years at NAS Lakehurst. New Jersey. It is currently recorded as in storage at the National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola, Florida awaiting restoration.
And On March 15:
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