Air Power

Looking For a Binge-Watching Series on Memorial Day? Look No Further

Memorial Day preparations and programs are all going non-stop this weekend. In our small bucolic town in Central Massachusetts, our schools have all put together very nice programs to honor those members of our country who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Our high school put together a nice program where the students researched town members who had been killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Global War on Terror. They then read a brief bio on each to hit home the high cost of our freedoms.

Our vets from the local Veterans Council, VFW, American Legion, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Cub Scouts, as well as local citizens, went into our local cemeteries, placed flags on all of the military graves recently. Then we placed wreaths on all of the monuments around town.

Our local Memorial Day ceremonies will kick off at 8:20 today. Once that is over, we’ll partake in the traditional Memorial Day activities by grilling some food outside while giving thanks to those who made this all possible.

One of the other traditional fares on Memorial Day is the War Film marathons that are always on television. We’ve compiled a list of our favorites in the past, however, this year, we’re going to recommend a mini-series to binge watch and if you can last thru the entire thing, it will take some time.

Ken Burns produced some outstanding mini-series on PBS, his one of the Civil War back in 1990 was a classic. He later did one on Baseball in 1994 that was another must watch. But the one we’re recommending everyone dust off on Netflix is his marathon documentary on World War II, simply called ‘The War’.

Burns made this one in 2007 and it took six years of research to put together. Critics panned it because they said he tried to make it sound like the United States won the war alone. That is hogwash, Burns just eschewed the big picture and focused on the regular small town people of four communities and how the war was seen and felt down in Waterbury, Connecticut, Mobile, Alabama, Luverne, Minnesota, and Sacramento, California.

I was out of the country when it first aired and I missed it. It was put on my list of things to see but I never got around to watching it. Recently we saw it on Netflix and binge-watched the entire 15 or so hours over one weekend. And we were glad we did.

At the end of World War II, Eric Sevareid had reported to the people of the United States what he saw during the war years but after the war was over, he felt like he …and others like him failed to bring the true cost of it home. He wrote:

“Only the soldier really lives the war. The journalist does not — war happens inside a man — and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers. If, by the miracles of art and genius, in later years two or three among them can open their hearts and the right words come, then perhaps we shall all know a little of what it was like — and we shall know then that all the present speakers and writers hardly touched the story.”

What Burns showed in this masterpiece of filmmaking was while we all get to know several small-town Americans during the seven episodes, there is nothing ordinary about any of them. This isn’t a glossed over, sanitized version of World War II but a true first-hand look at the ugliness and cost of sending an entire generation off to war.

Burns often shows the brutality and the gruesome nature of how the war was conducted. With some never seen before footage. Troops being starved and beaten on the Bataan Death March, Japanese troops being burned alive by flamethrowers, the awful scope, and brutality of the Nazi death camps.

The remembrances of Quinten Aanonsen, a farmer’s son from Luverne are particularly poignant. He wanted to learn to fly to escape the family farm. He became a pilot of a P-47 Thunderbolt and as a close ground support squadron member, he saw up close what the awesome firepower of “the Jug” could bring on the enemy. He also watched many of his friends die. The girl he met while in flight school and their letters back and forth kept his sanity.

Two of the people who appear in the film have written books and they give a great look at the war in Europe and the Pacific. Paul Fussell was in the infantry fighting the Germans in France and Germany and his book “Doing Battle” was a definite page-turner. E.B Sledge from Mobile wrote the fantastic book, “With the Old Breed.”

“Something in me died at Peleliu,” Sledge wrote. “Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places who do not have to endure war’s savagery will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.”

The film also shares the plight of Japanese-Americans who were uprooted from their homes and ordered to internment camps. Then asked to serve the very country that treated them and their families as the enemy.

The treatment of the blacks both in the war factories and in the military gets spared nothing either. One of the more telling moments was that of a black Marine who was wounded and transported to a hospital ship, the only black man on board. And the ship’s barber refused to cut his hair.

“The War” is marvelously filmed with some outstanding action shots, the personal stories are both riveting and at times both funny and sad. And the narration by Keith David, who did the older Navy recruiting films, is first rate.

Take the time to watch “The War” which Burns brilliantly put together and when you see one of those bent-over WWII vets today, shake his hand and wish him well. After all, “The War” is their story.

Photo of US Pilot Quinten Aanonsen: PBS

Remembering MG John Frost, British Airborne Officer At Arnhem

Major General John Frost is best remembered as the battalion commander of a British airborne infantry battalion during Operation Market Garden. Frost’s battalion was part of the famous “Bridge Too Far” operation and his unit was able to capture one side of the famous and final Arnhem bridge and holding it for several days before being overwhelmed and captured by numerically superior German forces.

But Frost’s life was full of adventure from the time he was a little boy. He served with distinction throughout the Second World War and eventually retired as a Major General before passing away on this day in 1993 at the age of 80.

Childhood and Early Life:

Frost was born in India in December of 1912. His father was a Major in the British Army. According to his obituary, when he was just eight months old, his father shot a snake that was attempting to crawl in his crib. When he was just eight, he was riding a train in Baghdad, where his father was stationed and the train was attacked by men mounted on camels. While he thought it was great adventure, it was written that he took great delight in the fact that his governess was terrified.

He graduated from the British military academy at Sandhurst in September of 1932 and was assigned to the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Regiment. He was promoted to First Lieutenant three years later in 1935. Frost was assigned to the unit’s 1st Battalion and served in Palestine during the early stages of the Arab Revolt.

From 1938 to 1941 Frost served in Iraq and was promoted to Captain.

Early World War II Duty and Fame:

Upon returning to England during 1941, Frost was assigned coastal defense duties and was itching to get into the action. He volunteered for the Special Air Service and was sent to the Parachute Training School. After completing his required jumps, Frost was assigned to the new 2nd Parachute Battalion of the Parachute Brigade and given command of C Company.

Frost’s men were given the job of parachuting into the northern French coastal town of Bruneval and destroy a German radar installation there. They conducted “Operation Biting” flawlessly on February 27-28, 1942. The troops jumped in, took down the radar installation and brought back parts of the radar and were successfully exfiltrated by boat on the coast. They captured a German technician who was able to inform the British on the German advances of radar technology. Frost was decorated by Winston Churchill with the Military Cross for his actions there.

During the fighting in North Africa, Frost now the acting battalion commander was ordered to attack a Tunisian airfield and destroy the aircraft there. When his troops arrived, however, they found no aircraft but heavy German armor. In the ensuing melee, Frost’s men were able to get away but suffered heavy casualties, 16 officers and 250 men were lost. Frost was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for that action.

Frost with the remainder of the 1st Parachute Brigade took part in the invasion of Sicily where the troops, like their American counterparts, were hopelessly scattered and forced to attack their targets piecemeal, and later in Italy, part of the 1st British Airborne Division.

Operation Market Garden:

After the invasion of Normandy, the Allies broke out of the hedgerows and began to push the Germans back across France. Field Marshall Montgomery proposed a bold, ambitious plan to knock the Germans out of the war by the end of 1942.

The Allies would lay an “airborne carpet” of paratroopers and seize several bridges over the Waal, Maas, and Lower Rhine Rivers. Then the British XXX Corps under General Horrocks would travel quickly thru the Dutch countryside, across the bridges and into Germany where they would invade the German Ruhr industrial area and cease the ability of them to supply the German war machine.

The intelligence was faulty from the start. Originally thought to be inhabited by “old men and boys”, Holland was, in fact, the exact spot that the Germans sent their SS Panzer units, battered in Normandy, to rest and refit. This development was later thought to be have been kept deliberately from the lightly armed paratroop units.

Frost’s battalion was to be the spearhead of the British 1st Airborne Division, commanded by Roy Urquhart. They were to take the final bridges at Arnhem over the Rhine. But due to antiaircraft positions near the bridges, the RAF was forced to land the British eight miles away. Their dropzones located in Oosterbeek would prove to be a major issue as they’d lose the critical element of surprise.

Still, the prevailing thought from the Allied side was unbridled optimism. Frost was so sure of quick success, he had his Batman pack his shotgun and golf clubs.

The Allied paratroopers landed in Holland on a beautiful Sunday in daylight hours without a cloud in the sky. Frost’s battalion landed without opposition but in moving thru Oosterbeek, they were slowed by thousands of Dutch civilians who came out in jubilation that they’d been delivered, it seemed from the German grasp. Soon, however, Frost and all of the men in the airborne carpet came to realize that the intelligence estimates were wrong. The airborne troops were encountering much stiffer resistance than was thought to be in place.

Just before dusk, the British paras of Frost’s battalion reached the southern end of the bridge and established a headquarters in buildings beside the bridge. Frost sent a force to take the opposite end but they ran into a pillbox and armored vehicles. The British paras knocked the pillbox with flamethrowers but more German vehicles stopped their advance cold.

Early the next morning the British were shocked to see an armored element of the 9th SS Panzer Division, which attacked the bridge. The British troops held but infantry on both sides of the river began taking a toll on the lightly armed paratroopers. German prisoners compounded the desperateness of the situation by telling the Brits that they were with the 2nd SS Panzer Corps which was placed in Holland.

Frost was an inspiration to his men, moving between positions, and encouraging them as their casualties mounted while ammunition, food, and water ran low. The Germans sent heavy armor across the bridge but the British anti-tank gunners stopped them once again. Despite their bravery, Frost’s men were cut off and isolated at the bridge from the rest of the division. They were in increasingly desperate fighting around Oosterbeek.

Frost was then wounded in both legs. His men held on for another day but then were nearly completely out of ammunition. German tank shells had set fire to the building. His battalion surgeon told him that they couldn’t douse the fires and the 200 wounded men in the cellar would likely burn to death. Which is when Frost requested a truce with the Germans and they surrendered.

The SS then helped the British evacuate their casualties. Frost spent the remainder of the war in a POW Camp until he was freed by American troops. He was awarded a bar to his DSO for his bravery at Arnhem.

Postwar Years:

Frost resumed command of the 2nd Parachute Battalion which was stationed in Palestine. He later attended the Staff College and was made a General Staff Officer (GSO 2) with the 52nd Lowland Division.

He served in Malaya in 1950 as a GSO 1 with the 17th Gurkha Division. He later commanded the 4th Airborne Brigade. He retired in 1968 as a Major General. During his time in Palestine in 1946, he met his future wife and they had two children.

During the filming of “A Bridge Too Far”, Frost served as a technical adviser and was portrayed on the screen by Anthony Hopkins. The bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem was renamed John Frostbrug (“John Frost Bridge”) in his honor in 1978.

Frost passed away on May 21, 1993, at the age of 80 and was buried at Milland Cemetery in West Sussex.

Photo: British Archives

Catch-22 Comes Close But Doesn’t Quite Stick the Landing

George Clooney takes on Joseph Heller’s dark, satirical novel that he penned in 1961, starring in it, directing two of the series six episodes and producing it as well. Trying to reproduce Catch-22 is no easy feat although the insanity of war and the weird characters that war produces lend itself well to the insanity we see on a daily basis today.

Unlike the novel, and the 1970 film that was directed by Mike Nichols, Clooney and his writers take on a more linear approach and play the events in more chronological order, something Heller himself disapproved of. In an interview he did with Rolling Stone back in the day, he said: “Put the events in chronological order, and you’ll find an uneventful story about a bombardier and a colonel who wants his men to fly more missions than anyone else.”

The problem with it is, like many adaptations, if you have read the book and remember it well, then you’ll be on the fence with it. Filmed mainly in Italy, where Clooney reportedly spends much of his time, the cinematography has a sepia-toned, dusty feel for the B-25 bases during the war.

The cast is excellent. Clooney as the mugging General Scheisskopf (Shithead) who rises from Lieutenant to Lieutenant General is a perfect foil. Kyle Chandler is outstanding as Colonel Cathcart, the tough-talking, an often idiotic commander who keeps raising mission-counts to buck for a promotion. Martin Balsam played the role brilliantly in the 1970 version. But if anything Chandler outdoes him. Hugh Laurie (House), and Daniel David Stewart as the uber-capitalist Milo Minderbinder, who is out to make a profit and doesn’t care where, whether it be from the Allied side or even the Germans. It was a not-so-subtle jab at firms like Haliburton et al in today’s world.

But the film revolves around Yossarian, the bombardier who’s only mission of note is to get out of the war at any price. He’s expertly played by Christopher Abbott. Yossarian takes everything about the war personally and his only way is to complete his mission total. But with the rising mission counts frustrating him, he seeks to plead insanity in a war gone insane that is run by lunatics straight out of the insane asylum.

But, says the camp doctor Daneeka, who delivers his lines like a military Groucho Marx, played well by Grant Heslov, who also directed two of the episodes there is a catch….Catch-22.

“Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat isn’t really crazy, so I can’t ground him,” says Daneeka.

“Ok, let me see if I’ve got this straight,” asks Yossarian. “In order to be grounded, I’ve got to be crazy. And I must be crazy to keep flying. But if I ask to be grounded, that means I’m not crazy anymore, and I have to keep flying.”

“You got it, that’s Catch-22,” says Daneeka. “Whoo… That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian says… “It’s the best there is,” deadpans Doc Daneeka adds.

Giancarlo Giannini is perfectly cast as the old Italian pimp where the horny GIs like to spend as much time as possible. His lines, as a survivor of Italy’s long list of glorious losses in war, are perfectly delivered.

The bombing runs where Yossarian has a non-obstructed, first-hand view of the war, are something that is both beautiful and terrifying. One of my bucket list things to do was to fly in the nose (bombardier position) of a B-17. Of course, flying there in wartime is a very different proposition.

And every time Yossarian flies another mission, it takes a little piece of his own sanity with it. The officers who are insistent on sending the pilots up in the sky full of death are immune to both their suffering and the horrors of it, safely remaining on the ground. And while their bombastic aura of dealing with subordinates is tough sounding, they show their true colors when dealing with superiors of their own.

While satire is often hard to capture on the small screen, the funny lines are often too drawn out and could have benefitted from more snappy timing.

This series with the insanity that is war and the larger insanity of those behind it will lend itself well to the current events as the United States, already in endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, while still actively engaged in Syria and elsewhere is rattling its saber with Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and elsewhere.

Hulu, which released “Catch-22” on Friday, is taking aim at both Netflix and Amazon Prime with their original productions put out a worthy effort here. You will enjoy it without being wowed. It is good, because of the stellar cast but just misses hitting it out of the park.

Photo: Hulu

May 17, 1943, the Memphis Belle Flies Her 25th and Final Combat Mission

The “Memphis Belle” a B-17F Flying Fortress of the Eighth Air Force would become the most famous of the 12,750 B-17s produced by Boeing during World War II. The plane and her crew would become immortalized, first by the Army who filmed her crew for a documentary prior to a War Bond tour and later by Hollywood who made a fictionalized feature film on the exploits of her crew.

The casualty rates were so high, that the United States put a 25-mission limit on crews. If a crew flew 25 combat missions and survived, they were rotated back to the states. But none of the crews were surviving that long. The Memphis Belle was one of the first to do so.

Background:

The air war for the United States in 1942 and early 1943 was a bloody affair. The United States had entered the war just months before, and Britain decided to pressure the German war machine by bombing it around the clock. The British would bomb at night, the Americans by day.

The Allies didn’t yet have fighters that had the range to escort the bombers to their targets and back. The German Luftwaffe was a formidable adversary with very experienced fighter crews. The German anti-aircraft artillery which they called “Flak” was accurate and plentiful.

In the early days of daylight bombing, the Germans exacted a terrible toll on the new American formations. Casualty rates were appalling. It was here that Captain Robert Morgan and his crew would step into the war.

B-17F 10-BO, manufacturer’s serial number 3470, USAAC Serial No. 41-24485, was added to the USAAF inventory on July 15, 1942, and delivered in September 1942 to the 91st Bombardment Group at Dow Field, Bangor, Maine. The aircraft was deployed to Prestwick, Scotland, on September 30, 1942, and stationed at a temporary base at RAF Kimbolton on October 1, and then finally to her permanent base at RAF Bassingbourn, England, on the 14th of October.

The marking on the sides of the fuselage bore the unit and aircraft identification markings of a B-17 of the 324th Bomb Squadron (Heavy); the squadron code “DF” and individual aircraft letter “A.”

Morgan decided to name the plane after his sweetheart back home, a woman named Margaret Polk from Memphis, TN. Originally the plane would be named after Morgan’s nickname for Polk, which was “Little One” but after he and co-pilot Jim Vennis saw a film where the main character had a riverboat named the “Memphis Belle”, the name stuck. Morgan brought it up to the crew and they voted for it.

The drawing on the fuselage was from a pinup by artist George Petty that was in Esquire magazine in April of 1941 issue. Corporal Tony Starcer, copied the Petty girl pinup on both sides of the forward fuselage, depicting her bathing suit in blue on the aircraft’s port side and in red on the starboard. The Memphis Belle was born.

Air War Over Europe:

Morgan and his crew flew their first mission over Europe on November 7, 1942, at Brest, France. The command of the American Air Forces and the Pentagon set the incentive of 25 missions for crews to reach to be rotated back to the United States. But no one was reaching that threshold. Casualties among the bomber crews in those early dark days were at 80 percent.

In interviews much later, Morgan summed up the horror of the early days of the airwar in describing the awful casualties suffered by American aircrews in the first days of the bombing campaign.

“Eighty-percent losses means you have breakfast with 10 men and dinner with only two of them.”

Memphis Belle had her share of difficult scrapes with German fighter planes and flak and on five different occasions had an engine shot out. Another time, a diving German Focke Wulf Fw-190 came straight at the plane and riddled the tail with holes setting it on fire. After the fire was out, Morgan climbed back into the tail to survey the damage.

His comments, captured by History.net tell of the difficulty he had in bringing the ship back safely. “It looked like we had no tail at all,” Morgan said. “I got back in the cockpit and flew back to the base in two hours. It was tough flying, and tougher than that to set her down. The elevators were damaged so badly that the controls jammed. Somehow we managed to get down safely.”

The American bomb groups were taking on tough, well-defended targets including the Focke Wulf plant at Bremen, locks and submarine pens at St. Nazaire and Brest, docks and shipbuilding installations at Wilhelmshaven, railroad yards at Rouen, submarine pens and powerhouses at Lorient and aircraft factories at Antwerp.

During her 25 missions, Memphis Belle gunners were credited with shooting down eight German fighters with another five probable kills. They damaged 12 more fighters and dropped over 60 tons of bombs on the German war machine.

After their 25th mission, the crew which had been the subject of a war documentary by Hollywood director William Wyler, the crew was rotated home on a 31-city war bond tour. The men were treated as heroes wherever they stopped. Only one female was ever allowed to fly with the Belle. Stuka, a Scottish terrier bought by co-pilot Jim Vennis in England accompanied the crew and was spoiled with the rest of the crew.

Memphis Belle crew, pilot Robert Morgan (5th from left)

One of the stops was in Memphis where Polk was in attendance, although interestingly enough the two never did marry but did remain life-long friends. Morgan put on a stunt at his own hometown of Asheville, NC where he flew the Fortress down the main drag in town and turned it between two large buildings on its side.

General Henry “Hap” Arnold, gave Morgan the choice of any assignment he wanted. He chose to transition to B-29 bombers and bomb the Japanese. He took part in the first raid on Tokyo in November of 1944. After flying 50 missions he was sent home for good. He remained in the Air Force and retired as a Colonel.

Memphis Belle Not the First to Complete 25 Missions:

Unlike the feature film that came out in 1990, the Belle was not the first plane to fly 25 missions in Europe. That distinction belonged to Captain Irl Baldwin of the 303rd Bomb Group and the plane “Hell’s Angels” named after a Howard Hughes, Jean Harlow film from back in the day. Baldwin completed his 25 missions a week before Morgan did. Memphis Belle was the first to complete 25 missions and return to the United States. Baldwin and his crew would go on to fly 48 missions before returning to the U.S. for their own bond tour in 1944.

I met Baldwin at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum in Savannah, GA a few years before he passed away. And in talking to him, you got a great sense of how difficult life was for those bomber crews over Europe.

Asked which was worse, the fighters or flak he smiled and answered…”Yes!” He said, “it didn’t matter how large the group was when those German fighters were coming head-on into the group, you’d swear to God every one of them was firing at you.”

He added, “Once they’d open up it looked like they were winking at you and the next thing was those cannon shells ripping past.”

Irl Baldwin and the ground crew of Hell’s Angels

I asked how he managed to survive 48 missions where so many didn’t last long at all.

“Some of it is pure luck,” he said. “There is nothing you can do about flak and those German gunners were good. They’d get your range and it looked like you could walk from burst to burst with touching thin air.”

“But the other thing we learned right away was that we had to be better pilots. The only way we could survive the fighters was fly wingtip to wingtip. That way all of our guns could be trained as one. If the Germans could get in between the bombers of the group, and they were some great pilots, they’d cut you to pieces.”

Baldwin too transitioned to B-29s after his War Bond tour. But he never got the chance to fly in combat over Japan. “Right after I got there, we dropped the bomb,” he said with a shrug. “I got there a few days too late.”

Asked why he’d volunteer after already flying so many combat missions, he shrugged again. “We were at war and I felt I was better suited for it than other guys.”

“Besides,” he added, “ I figured the Germans were the best we’d go against. If they couldn’t get me I didn’t think the Japs could.”

Photos: US Archives

French Commandos Free Four Hostages From Terrorist, Two Soldiers Killed

An American citizen was among the four hostages that were freed from terrorists during a daring French Special Operations Forces (SOF) operation in Western Africa. French commandos took down the location in Burkina Faso which was considered a terrorist camp. Two decorated French commandos were killed in the operation which took place in the early morning hours of Friday morning.

At the time of the operation, it was believed that there were only two hostages, French nationals, Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas who had been kidnapped while on a safari in the Pendjari National Park in neighboring Benin. However, once the French SOF stormed the terrorist camp they found four hostages which included the American, one South Korean, and the aforementioned two French citizens.

“All our thoughts go to the families of the soldiers and to the soldiers who lost their lives to free us from this hell,” Laurent Lassimouillas said while meeting with President Roch Kabore.

The circumstances surrounding the other two hostages is unclear. The American citizen requested not to be identified for personal reasons. Both the American and South Korean hostages were women and had been held for 28 days. Neither the U.S. or South Korean government were apparently aware of their countrymen being held.

Four of the terrorists were killed, but two managed to escape in the fighting.

President Emmanuel Macron made a statement where he said the country, “bows with emotion and gravity at the sacrifice of our two soldiers, who gave their lives to save those of our fellow citizens”.

The French Ministry of the Armed Forces identified the two commandos killed in the operation were assigned to Commando Hubert, a naval SOF unit that is the French equivalent to U.S. Navy SEALs. The operators were identified as Petty Officers First Class (OR-6) Cedric de Pierrepont,32, and Alain Bertoncello, 27. The French Navy posted on their Facebook page that both men received numerous awards and recognition through their respective military careers, such as the Gold Level of the National Defense Medal.

Bertoncello’s parents, Jean-Luc and Daniéle Bertoncello, were interviewed by the media and said their son had wanted to join the navy since high school and that they were very proud of him.

“What he loved was the esprit de corps … he was doing what he wanted and he always told us not to worry,” they said during the interview. “They did what they had to do. For him it ended badly, for the others, it was a successful mission.”

Admiral Christophe Prazuck, the French navy’s Chief of Staff, issued a statement saying, “I admire their courage, I share the sorrow of their families and their loved ones.”

In a statement, the president of Burkina Faso, Roch Kabore, said that “the joint military intervention that allowed us to achieve these results shows our common engagement in fighting against the forces of evil.”

Intelligence reports state that the terrorists were enroute to Mali where they planned on turning over the hostages to the terror group Katiba Macina, an al-Qaeda affiliate.

“Once the hostages were in [Katiba Macina’s] hands it would have been impossible to rescue them,” Francois Lecointre, France’s army chief, said in a press briefing.

Islamic terrorism is on the rise in Burkina Faso, which has violence increase steadily since 2013. With militants spreading over neighboring Benin and Togo as well. Al-Qaeda offshoots are gaining ground in the area considering the porous border region of Mali and the abundance of weapons in Libya to the north.

The Sahel, the sub-Sahara region of Northern Africa has seen over 5000 people killed as it has grown increasingly unstable in recent years.

Florence Parly, the French defense minister, said, “Those who attack France and the French know that we will spare no effort to track them and take them out. We will never abandon our citizens.”

While no American troops were active on the ground during the operation, the United States did provide support in the form of overhead intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Parly thanked American allies for their “precious support” in the rescue. In a statement released on Friday, she thanked “the Beninese and Burkinabe for their cooperation,” adding, “I salute the precious support of our American allies in conducting this operation.”

The French military had been tracking the terrorists for several days since their two citizens were abducted in the national park in Benin on May 1.

French commandos launched a mission on May 7, inside Burkina Faso where they gathered vital intelligence on the hostage-takers who were thought to be heading for the Mali border and turn over the hostages to an al-Qaeda affiliate.

French and American intelligence officials tracked them via drones until the terrorists stopped in the desert. This gave the French commandos the opportunity they were waiting for.

“It was an extremely complex operation, with extremely demanding timings,” General Lecointre said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in Romania for a meeting with fellow European leaders, approved the mission Thursday night. This prompted the 20 French commandos to deploy nearby by helicopter far enough away so that the sleeping terrorists wouldn’t hear them.

The commandos approached in silence under the cover of darkness, where they got past a guard and to within just a few meters of the four tents where the hostages were being held before finally being detected.

Out of concern for the hostages, the commandos ‘went inside without opening fire’, the French Chief of Staff said. “The commandos went inside the shelters without opening fire,” he said.

In the short ensuing firefight, two of the French commandos were killed at close range, four terrorists were also killed and two escaped.

“We are grateful for the safe recovery of hostages, including an American, during a recovery operation in Burkina Faso,” said Tibor Nagy, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa. “I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the French soldiers killed during the operation,” he posted on Twitter.

A memorial service for the French soldiers killed in the raid will be held on Tuesday.

Photos: French Navy

Ceasefire Reached After Rockets, Airstrikes Produce Bloody Weekend in Gaza

Op-Ed: Hamas wanted to send a message to Israel and in two days, they launched nearly 700 rockets into Israeli territory. Israel responded with heavy airstrikes and moved armor up to the border area in the latest outbreak of violence. When the smoke cleared, 24 Palestinians were dead with hundreds wounded and 4 Israelis were killed, with another 234 wounded.

The Egyptians brokered another ceasefire which began at 0130 hours local on Monday. They are trying to hammer out a long-term deal but the chances of that happening or ever coming to fruition are slim.

Hamas is trying to force the Israelis to ease blockade restrictions into Gaza and that it wanted to disrupt the upcoming music competition “Eurovision” which was slated to begin on Monday. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed to “prevent the festival” in statements released by each.

“We will prevent the enemy from succeeding in establishing any festival aimed at harming the Palestinian narrative,” Palestinian Islamic Jihad released in a statement. Then Hamas began the weekend by launching 150 rockets into Israel.

The Israelis then began a series of airstrikes in Gaza City at the site of the rocket launches as well as targeting Hamas military targets. And as is the norm for Hamas, they launched their rockets from the middle of crowded neighborhoods, knowing full well that the Israelis would immediately launch counter-strikes before the first rockets hit the ground. Many of the Hamas commanders and their fighters’ homes were targeted as well.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s office told David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and ambassadors from Europe that Hamas was “committing a double war crime by indiscriminately shooting at civilians from civilian centers.”

The resultant civilian casualties are always what Hamas counts on, including two pregnant women, two infants and a child — were killed, along with two unborn children. However, the Israelis were quick to point out one Palestinian woman and child were not hit by Israeli strikes but from a malfunctioning Hamas rocket. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the IDF, said in a statement that, “It was from internal fire,” he said.

The IDF said it struck rocket launchers, tunnel shafts, “terror squads and operatives,” and weapons-making factories belonging to Hamas, who controls Gaza, and the Iranian-funded group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Of the 690 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel, the IDF announced that their “Iron Dome” missile defense system, successfully shot down 240 of the rockets. In response, Israel targeted over 350 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza. The Israelis killed a senior Hamas commander allegedly involved in transferring Iranian funds to the group was killed during an airstrike.

On Monday, Netanyahu said that “the campaign is not over and requires patience and judgment. We are preparing to continue. The goal was and remains to ensure the peace and security of the residents of the south.”

This latest spate of violence began on Friday when Islamic Jihad fired across the border and hit two Israeli soldiers. The airstrikes in retaliation killed two Hamas militants. Then on Saturday, Hamas began launching missiles at Israel which further escalated events. The two sides had attacked each other in March before the Egyptians stepped in again to broker yet another ceasefire.

Among the dead on the Israeli side was a 68-year old man whose minivan was hit with a Russian made Kornet wire-guided, anti-tank missile. Hamas took credit for that and proclaimed “victory” in that Israel has promised to expand the fishing limits for Gaza fishermen, Israel will stop shooting at Palestinians during the weekly protests near the border, also known as the Great March of Return; easing the blockade on the Gaza Strip; allowing international relief organizations to assist families whose houses were destroyed in the last round of fighting; an end to Israeli targeted assassinations.

With the influx of tourists this week for Eurovision. Netanyahu was forced between a rock and a hard place. But for Israeli citizens who live close to the Gaza border and who provided the Prime Minister the edge in the latest election, they’re wanting a much harder line between the government and Hamas.

But this isn’t the end of this latest back and forth affair. Israel this week celebrates their Memorial Day followed by Independence Day. For the Palestinians in Gaza, this week begins the Holy month of Ramadan. Tensions always get high during this time frame.

Of course, as soon as the violence erupted, American Congresswoman and noted anti-semite Ilhan Omar jumped into the fray with this latest bit on social media.

@IlhanMN – How many more protesters must be shot, rockets must be fired, and little kids must be killed until the endless cycle of violence ends?

The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is unsustainable. Only real justice can bring about security and lasting peace.

She must have forgotten or doesn’t know (nor care) that Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza. The Israelis withdrew years ago leaving behind warehouses full of food and synagogues. Which the Palestinians burned… but the truth never got in the way of a good social media rant to incite the sheeple….right?

Photos of Offices of Hamas chairman Ismail Haniyeh – Rimal: IDF

Remembering Adm. John Thach, Naval Aviator, Died on This Day 1981

In the annals of Naval Aviation for the U.S. Navy, one of the pioneers for combat tactics was John “Jimmy” Thach who, during World War II not only came up with one successful tactic but two. He was credited with the “Thatch Weave” where U.S. fighters could successfully counter the better maneuverability and climbing ability of the Japanese. And later he perfected the “Big Blue Blanket” which defended the skies above the U.S. fleet from Japanese kamikaze attacks.

Thach would serve for forty years in the Navy and retired as an Admiral with a four-star billet as the Commander in Chief of Naval Forces Europe in 1967. He died on this day in 1981.

Thach was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in 1905. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1927. His first two years as an Ensign was aboard battleships. But Thach transitioned to Naval Aviation in 1930. He served as a test pilot and aviation instructor, having a reputation as an expert in aerial gunnery. He remained in those billets for the next ten years.

World War II Fame:

In the early days of WWII, the U.S. fighters were easily outclassed by the superior Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter, which was the Imperial Navy’s standard fighter aircraft.

Thach who in command of Fighting Squadron Three (VF-3) aboard the U.S.S. Lexington knew the Americans had to overcome the superior performance of the Zero and had begun working on tactics to combat this disadvantage even before the United States entered the war.

He came up with a tactic that he called the “ Beam Defense Position” but one of his aviators called it the “Thach Weave” and the name stuck. Thach eschewed the normal three plane formation that the U.S. had been using and went to pairs of Wildcat fighters working in unison.

From Wiki: It was executed either by two fighter aircraft side-by-side or (as illustrated) by two pairs of fighters flying together. When an enemy aircraft chose one fighter as his target (the “bait” fighter; his wingman being the “hook”), the two wingmen turned in towards each other. After crossing paths, and once their separation was great enough, they would then repeat the exercise, again turning in towards each other, bringing the enemy plane into the hook’s sights. A correctly-executed Thach Weave (assuming the bait was taken and followed) left little chance of escape to even the most maneuverable opponent.

This maneuver allowed American pilots to fight the more agile Japanese fighters on much more equal terms, as they’d continue turning as a tandem with the enemy as if he tried to get on the tail of an F4F Wildcat fighter, he’d leave himself open for deflection shots, something American pilots became quite adept at.

Illustration of Thach Weave by aviation history

Success at Midway and Beyond:

Thach first attempted his new tactic while commanding VF-3 while flying off the Yorktown during the Battle of Midway in the early morning of June 4, 1942. He was leading a six-plane sortie of Wildcats from his squadron, escorting twelve Douglas TBD Devastators, the outdated and slow torpedo bombers of VT-3 led by Lieutenant Commander Lance Massey from Yorktown. This would be the last engagement that the Devastators would fly in, as they’d soon be replaced by Grumman TBF-1 Avengers.

The flight of aircraft discovered the main Japanese carrier fleet and were immediately set upon by 15 to 20 Japanese Zero fighters. Thach immediately pressed home his new tactic. His wingman Ensign R. A. M. Dibb was quickly set on by Japanese Zeros. Dibb, performing the weave perfectly, turned toward Thach’s aircraft, who dove under his wingman and fired at the Japanese plane’s belly, igniting the engine.

Although the American Wildcats were outnumbered and easily outmaneuvered, Thach quickly shot down three Zeros and while his wingman Ensign Dibb accounted for another, at the cost of just one Wildcat.

When the Japanese lost four of the top-of-the-line carriers at Midway, the cream of the Japanese naval aviators were also mostly gone with them. And thru attrition, their best aviators would soon be gone. The Americans had a better way. They pulled some of their best aviators out of the line to train the next group of aviators, giving them the benefit of their experience. With the updated American fighters soon coming, the Hellcat and Corsair for the naval aviators, the United States would soon wrest control of the skies over the Pacific.

Thach began to train other U.S. aviators in the best ways to combat the Japanese pilots, including the Thach Weave. When the Marines were fighting over Guadalcanal their pilots flying out of Henderson Field began to use Thach’s tactic. And it not only confused the enemy but infuriated them as well. One Japanese ace, Sub-Lieutenant Saburō Sakai flying out of Rabaul wrote this about the tactic.

For the first time Lt. Commander Tadashi Nakajima encountered what was to become a famous double-team maneuver on the part of the enemy. Two Wildcats jumped on the commander’s plane. He had no trouble in getting on the tail of an enemy fighter, but never had a chance to fire before the Grumman’s team-mate roared at him from the side. Nakajima was raging when he got back to Rabaul; he had been forced to dive and run for safety.

Thach would later create the “Big Blue Blanket” over the fleet to protect the aircraft carriers from Japanese kamikaze attacks. His plan was to have a constant presence of the blue-painted Hellcats and Corsairs over the fleet at all hours. He recommended larger combat air patrols (CAP) stationed farther away from the carriers, and a line of picket destroyers and destroyer escorts placed 50 or more miles from the main body of the fleet to provide earlier radar interception and improved coordination between the fighter director officers on board the carriers. Thach also called for the dawn to dusk fighter sweeps over Japanese airfields.

Thach would be credited with shooting down six aircraft during the war, making him an ace. He’d be promoted to Commander and later became the operations officer to Vice Admiral John S. McCain Sr., commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force. Thach was aboard the battleship Missouri for the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in September 1945.

Thatch while commanding the USS Sicily during the Korean War.

Korean War and Beyond:

During the Korean War, Thach would command two different aircraft carriers, the Sicily CVE-18 and later the Franklin D. Roosevelt CVA-42. After being promoted to Rear Admiral, Thach would play a key role in the U.S. anti-submarine warfare development.

His antisubmarine development unit, “Task Group Alpha”, with the aircraft carrier Valley Forge CVS-45 as his flagship became the cutting edge of this new type of warfare which was a primary focus at the time in the ongoing Cold War. An annual award was later established in his name for presentation to the top ASW squadron in the Navy.

Later at the Pentagon, he presided over the development of the A-7 Corsair before retiring from the Navy in 1967 with four stars and 40 years of service.

He passed away on April 15, 1981, just four days shy of his 76th birthday. Thach is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.

He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with “V” device, the Bronze Star with “V” device and the Navy Commendation Medal with “V” device.

Photos: US Navy, Aviation History

Israelis Blast Hamas Targets in Gaza After Latest Rocket Attacks

The Israeli Defense Forces launched a series of airstrikes in Gaza after the latest round of rocket attacks launched by militants in Gaza streamed toward Israel. Tensions are rising in the area as Israel called up some of their reserve Air Force, Intelligence and Special Forces units.

Things began badly on Monday when Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv, several Israelis were injured when a rocket hit their house. Israel responded with air attacks on several Hamas military targets.

Then on Tuesday night, around 9 p.m. Israel’s air raid sirens sounded in the southern half of the country when Hamas militants launched a rocket supposedly at the Eshkol Regional Council. Israel quickly responded with a series of blistering air attacks.

Hamas then countered with a barrage of rockets launched toward the southern city of Ashkelon. However, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad denied responsibility for the rocket barrage and blamed it on “rogue elements” in the Gaza strip.

Meanwhile, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov urged the United Nations Security Council in a rare move on Wednesday to condemn Hamas’ provocations in Gaza.

“A new conflict will be devastating for the Palestinian people, it will have consequences for Israelis, who live in the vicinity of the Gaza perimeter, and it is likely to have regional repercussions. This is why I ask you all today to join the United Nations in condemning the continued indiscriminate firing of rockets by Hamas towards Israel. Such acts of provocation only dramatically increase the risk of escalation and ultimately damage our collective efforts to support the people of Gaza and intra-Palestinian reconciliation. We must also call on all sides to exercise maximum restraint as the situation remains extremely tense.”

The IDF was having any of the talk about “rogue elements” and put the blame squarely on Hamas and held them solely responsible.

“The Hamas terror organization bears responsibility for everything in and around the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement. “The IDF is determined to continue protecting the Israeli citizens and is prepared for a variety of scenarios.”

The Israeli Air Force blasted sites of Gaza’s Hamas rulers and the smaller Islamic Jihad group. The targets included a multistory building in Gaza City that reportedly had served as a Hamas military intelligence headquarters and the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Hamas reported seven casualties in the strikes, all civilians.

This is a dangerous time in the region. We’re approaching the one-year anniversary of the March of Return protests, which began March 30, 2018. During these protests along the border between Gaza and Israel, 190 of the Palestinians were killed and even more wounded in the past year. Now, the terror group hopes to draw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the border to riot and try to breach the security fence with their most hated enemy. The goal is to ease the blockade but it has thus far been unsuccessful.

But Hamas didn’t plan on what unfolded just a week ago. Palestinians protested in the streets against Hamas, blaming the terror group for the dire plight the people are in right now. And they were cracked down on badly, Hamas men fired into the crowds, and beat up and arrested countless others.

As Hamas is encountering its worst problem in the 12 years that they’ve been in power, the blockade by Israel and Egypt, sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, and terrible governmental mismanagement by the Hamas leadership have left the region in tatters. Unemployment is running north of about 50 percent.

Also happening in Israel is the upcoming election where Benjamin Netanyahu is locked in a very tight race for re-election. With the election right around the corner on April 9, a new war in Gaza with Hamas could prove to be devastating for his reelection bid. He’s is getting criticism from both supporters and opponents for failing to contain Hamas.

But the savvy Netanyahu also knows that he can’t back down either. He raced home from the United States after the initial rocket attack and has made it clear that Israel will not stand for more.

“Hamas needs to know that we will not hesitate to go in and take all necessary steps, regardless of anything, any date, other than Israel’s security needs,” he said.

He later added, “I can tell you, we are prepared to do a lot more,” he said. “We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state.”

Palestinians weren’t taking any unnecessary risks after the air strikes, staying at home and indoors. Businesses and shops were closed, schools didn’t open. And if they needed a reminder, it was reported that despite the calm, Israeli drones stayed overhead, waiting for the next rocket launch and ready to pounce.

So with the Egyptian delegation in Gaza in long sessions with Hamas, they’ll try to hammer out something longer than just a ceasefire, but in reality, the peace will only be temporary here for quite some time.

As Israeli troops mass on the border, neither side wants another large scale protracted war, but it seems that their both being thrust into one anyway.

File Photo of Israeli tanks on the Golan Heights: IDF

Particle Ray Missile Defense? DOD Plans on Fielding Weapon by 2023

While a lot of the futuristic weapons talk seems like pie in the sky stuff from Marvel Comics, it seems that there is an increasing chance for many of these types of weapons to be actually fielded in the very near future.

NEWSREP’s Alex Hollings penned in an intriguing piece on what the Defense Department hopes to field in as little as three years. Unlike the old SDI initiative of the Reagan era, this is a missile defense system that may actually work.

Missile defense has been a priority in the United States for decades, in no small part because the threat posed by long-range, nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles remains as one of the few direct threats to the American mainland that could arise with little to no warning. In today’s world, it would be all but impossible to sneak up to American shores with a sizable military contingent. Still, for the most part, the only thing stopping a nation from flinging nukes at the U.S. from across the sea is the assurance America will retaliate in kind.
Now, with hypersonic missile platforms nearing service in both Chinese and Russian militaries and both nations fielding new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles designed specifically to circumvent America’s layered approach to missile defense, Uncle Sam is on the hunt for new ways to counter the threats posed by advanced missile platforms. Some believe it’s been found in a rather science fiction-sounding endeavor: deploying directed-energy weapons to engage and destroy missiles.
Particle beam weapons work, to a certain extent, like lasers and are often referred to as “heat rays.” However, unlike lasers, particle beams work by accelerating particles (usually neutrons) without an electric charge to near-light speed velocities. When that beam of accelerated particles hits an intended target, the neutrons fired knock protons out of the nucleus of particles they encounter, creating heat.
That means particle beams don’t just interact with the surface of a target the way lasers do, but instead, they can penetrate the surface and affect a missile’s internal systems as well. While reflective surfaces can be used as an occasional means to redirect lasers, particles beams have no such issue, penetrating directly though the mirrored surface and wreaking havoc on the intended target.
Deploying such a weapon in space would be no small task. In order to function, a neutral particle beam weapon would require far more than an extremely capable targeting system (to hit missiles traveling at thousands of miles per hour). It would also need a particle accelerator, a power supply capable of sustaining such a weapon, a means of power storage (batteries), and an extremely hardened communications system.
“It’s a very short timeline, first to even know where it (the missile) is coming from,” an unnamed official told Defense One about the project. “It’s less than a couple minutes before it leaves the atmosphere. So you have to have a weapon that’s on station, that’s not going to be taken out by air batteries and so we have been looking at directed-energy applications for that. But you have to scale up power to that megawatt class. You’ve got to reduce the weight. You’ve got to have a power source. It’s a challenge, technically.”
Despite these hurdles, the Pentagon seems confident it can have a weapon of this sort in orbit as soon as 2023.
“We’ve come a long way in terms of the technology we use today to where a full, all-up system wouldn’t be the size of three of these conference rooms, right? We now believe we can get it down to a package that we can put on as part of a payload to be placed on orbit,” the official said.
“Power generation, beam formation, the accelerometer that’s required to get there and what it takes to neutralize that beam, that capability has been matured and there are technologies that we can use today to miniaturize.”

To read the entire article, click here:

Photo: DOD

On This Day in 1942, Gen. Douglas MacArthur Gives the “I Shall Return” Speech

In the early, dark days of World War II, the United States military in the Pacific theater was reeling. After the disastrous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Japanese forces began a series of invasions across the Pacific and extended their empire nearly to the edges of Hawaii.

American and Filipino forces were under siege in the Philippines. The Japanese invaded soon after the Pearl Harbor attack. By early March 1942, they had bottled up the U.S. and Filipinos on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor.

President Roosevelt, fearful of one of America’s most successful and well-known generals being taken captive by the Japanese if Corregidor fell was too bitter a conclusion to contemplate. He ordered MacArthur to escape to Australia to take charge of Allied forces there. He left the Philippines on March 11.

However, contrary to public belief, MacArthur’s statement, “I Shall Return” was not given on the shores of the Philippines, but at an Australian train station, 10 days later.

Early Career:

MacArthur came from a military family, his father Arthur, was a Lieutenant General and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in the Civil War. The younger MacArthur graduated the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1903 at the top of his class.

During his early military career, he served as an aide to his father and to President Theodore Roosevelt. During World War I, he commanded the 84th Brigade of the famous 42nd (Rainbow) Division. He also was the Commandant of Cadets at West Point as well as the Army’s Chief of Staff.

MacArthur retired from active duty in 1937 and was given a commission as a Field Marshall in the Philippine Army, raising the level of training for the Filipino conscripts so that when the U.S. granted them independence, (slated for 1946), they’d be capable of defending their home islands.

He was recalled from retirement in July 1941 to become commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) at 61 and united the Philippine and United States forces under one command.

World War II Starts for the U.S.:

After the Japanese invaded, MacArthur, per pre-planning, declared Manila an open city and moved his forces to the Bataan Peninsula and to the island of Corregidor. His wife Jean and son Arthur IV remained with him on Corregidor.

Most of the surviving navy moved south, MacArthur had at his disposal on a submarine tender and sub rescue ship, three small gunboats, three minesweepers, five tugs and the PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three under the command of LTJG John D. Bulkeley. With the swift Japanese victories rolling into one another, the men of Bataan and MacArthur resonated with the American public, looking for heroes in those dark days of defeat after defeat for the Allies.

On February 23, Secretary of War Harry Stimson and Chief of Staff George Marshall sent MacArthur a message ordering him to leave the Philippines for Australia.

The President directs that you make arrangements to leave and proceed to Mindanao. You are directed to make this change as quickly as possible … From Mindanao you will proceed to Australia where you will assume command of all United States troops … Instructions will be given from here at your request for the movement of submarine or plane or both to enable you to carry out the foregoing instructions. You are authorized to take your chief of staff General Sutherland.

The original plan was for MacArthur to depart Corregidor by submarine, but he ended up changing his mind and going by surface ships in PT boats. The small PT boats were in need of an overhaul as they’d been in constant combat operations since the war began, Bulkeley did the best he could with spare parts at a premium since the loss of the Subic Bay naval base. Each PT boat would carry twenty 55-gallon drums of additional fuel on the deck. This would reduce the top speed of the boats to about 30 knots (56 kilometers per hour; 35 miles per hour).

And to make room for MacArthur’s family and staff that he was bringing with him, the so-called “Bataan Gang”, Bulkeley had to leave 32 of his sailors behind. They were turned into infantry troops on Bataan.

There would be four PT boats assigned to get MacArthur, his staff and his family out of Corregidor. PT-41 commanded by Bulkeley, would have MacArthur, Jean MacArthur, Arthur MacArthur IV, Ah Cheu, Major General Richard K. Sutherland, Captain Herbert J. Ray, Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L. Huff, Major Charles H. Morhouse on board.

PT-32 commanded by LT JG Vince Schumacher had Brigadier General Spencer B. Akin, Brigadier General Hugh J. Casey, Brigadier General William F. Marquat, Brigadier General Harold H. George, Lieutenant Colonel Joe R. Sherr, Major Curtis L. Lambert on his boat.

PT-34 commanded by LT Robert B. Kelly, carried Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall, Colonel Charles P. Stivers, Captain Joseph McMicking on board.

PT-35 commanded by Ensign Anthony Akers had Colonel Charles A. Willoughby, Lieutenant Colonel LeGrande A. Diller, Lieutenant Colonel Francis H. Wilson, Master Sergeant Paul P. Rogers on his boat. Rogers was the only enlisted man taken from MacArthur’s command because he was the command’s stenographer. Many of the enlisted men gave Rogers letters to mail for them.

MacArthur left Corregidor on March 11 at 19:45 and rendezvoused with the other three boats which left from Bataan 15 minutes later. During the night, the seas got rough and the four PT boats were separated.

They reached their first point, a cove on Tagauayan Island, the next morning. That night they made their way to Mindanao where MacArthur was hoping to catch air transport. Since PT-32 didn’t have the fuel to reach Mindanao, her passengers were then split on PT-41 and PT-34.

Due to the high seas, the PT boats didn’t make it to Mindanao until broad daylight where they would have been sitting ducks for Japanese aircraft that were known to overfly the area constantly.

The PT boats pulled up the wharf at Mindanao and MacArthur made clear his appreciation at the men who dared the mission to rescue him and his staff. He said to Bulkeley “I’m giving every officer and man here the Silver Star for gallantry. You’ve taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won’t forget it.”

Three hours later PT-35 arrived with her crew and passengers.

After a day on Mindanao while staying at the guest house, MacArthur sent off a message to Gen. Marshall in Washington as Admiral Herbert F. Leary had turned down their request for B-17s to fly them to Australia. Leary heard from Washington and the on March 17, they left in two B-17s at 01:30. Eight hours later they approached Darwin, Australia, but the Japanese were conducting an air raid so the planes were diverted to Batchelor Airfield arriving at 09:30.

There MacArthur boarded a DC-3 which finally took him to Alice Springs. He then boarded a special train. It was at Terowie Train Station where he uttered the famous phrase “I came through and I shall return“.

The reaction from the American and Filipino troops on Bataan was mixed. Some felt like MacArthur had betrayed them. He left LTG Jonathan Wainwright in command and even many officers in the remaining staff felt they’d been abandoned.

Bulkeley remained on Mindanao until he was flown out on April 13, as MacArthur put a high priority on getting the PT boat crews out. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt in the White House on August 4, 1942. He retired as a Vice Admiral after 55 years of service. His story was made into a book and a film in 1945, “They Were Expendable” starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed.

MacArthur’s “Bataan Gang” served as the staff of the GHQ of the Southwest Pacific Area. He and his staff would indeed return to the Philippines and would land on Corregidor three years later on four PT boats.

Photos: US Archives