#7
Fred, you've really gone and done it this time. Firmly entrenched in my memory is an image of her in a sweater with some milk shake stains on it. thank you.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/25/2008 10:37 Comments ||
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One of the pilots flying patrol reported - and not calmly, either! - that what looked to him like the whole damn Jap fleet was steaming through San Bernardino Strait, headed straight for our unit. Aboard the Fanshaw Bay, Rear Admiral C. A. F. Sprague, in command of our unit, hardly could believe the report. "Get verification," he ordered. It was true, all right - coming at us were four battleships, the Yamato, Nagato, Kongo and Haruna; seven cruisers and at least nine destroyers. . . .
These matters, of course, did not concern us aboard the Johnston. We had only one job - to fight - and we did it. Commander Evans was out of his sea cabin in ten seconds. I could see the man from my station in the gun director above the bridge, and I can swear his heart was grinning as he went into battle. There was not a moment's hesitation or delay on his part; even as he came out, he gave the order:
"All hands to general quarters. Prepare to attack major portion of Japanese fleet. All engines ahead flank. Commence making smoke and stand by for a torpedo attack. Left full rudder."
--LT Robert C. Hagen, USNR, "We Asked For the Jap Fleet and Got It," The Saturday Evening Post (May 26, 1945)
Posted by: Mike ||
10/25/2008 10:24 ||
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Posted by: Matt ||
10/25/2008 11:02 Comments ||
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#2
Mike, thanks for posting. Matt, ditto - that book is fantastic. Or I should say, the actual story it relates so well is inspiring and fascinating. (The other recent Pacific war naval history I think is a "must read" is Shattered Sword, which focuses on the Japanese side of the Battle of Midway)
For those in or visiting San Diego (FrankG probably already knows this), there are two monuments to this engagement in the area. At Fort Rosecrans cemetery there are several markers to the ships lost, and across from the USS Midway museum there is a full monument to the battle and the US ships lost there.
The whole story of the batttle - including Halsey's diversion to the north, the famous mishandled message from Nimitz that upset Halsey, the calculations of the Japanese commander, the heroism of the American sailors and pilots - encapsulates some of the key problems and issues of warfare better than most engagements one can think of.
#3
Although I can't find an online reference to it, I was at a parade New Orleans in 2001 that included some of the survivors of Gambier Bay, along with an amazing collection of other WW2 heroes such as this Marine. Quite the event.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/25/2008 11:48 Comments ||
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#4
Stlll..... do I go after the carriers or cover.......
#5
From Matt's link.... it don't get no... more awesome....
While on Guadalcanal he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the field on December 19, 1942. General Alexander Vandegrift presented Paige with the Medal of Honor in a special ceremony in Balcombe, Australia, on May 21, 1943 for his actions. Paige later served in the Korean War, retiring from active duty in 1959.[2]
#9
IIRC, the Japanese didn't have it all their own way even before they cleared San Bernardino Straits. The PTs hit 'em first, then wave after wave of carrier aircraft. Adm. Halsey's mad rush to the north to attack the carriers left the beaches vulnerable, defended only by "jeep" carriers and destroyer escorts. The heroism of those "small boys" cannot ever be disputed, with destroyer escorts fighting battleships and cruisers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/25/2008 13:13 Comments ||
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#10
Verlaine - I've seen both the one across the inlet by the Midway and the one at Ft Rosecrans (my Dad's inurned there).
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2008 14:32 Comments ||
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#11
Last Stand of the Tin Can Soldiers is a must read. I thought maybe, just maybe, it would be made into a movie along with The Greatest Raid (Ghost Soldiers is a great read as well).
#12
Today Hollyweird would make them out to be knuckle dragging semi-literate neo-Klansmen bent upon keeping the little brown Asian a colonial thrall just recently liberated by their Japanese Asian big brothers fighting the Man's machine of Western dominance. Throw in some gratuitous fictional atrocities and you'll have funding by lunch tomorrow.
The History Channel has already done a better job without the Left Coast neurotic loathing.
#14
The invasion of the Philippines could have been an unmitigated disaster for the US. Halsey took the bait and headed north for the Japanese carrier suicide bait fleet. That action could have had our forces wiped out on the beaches. Halsey's reputation saved him from from possible removal, IMHO. It was a series of multiple f*ck-ups on both sides, plus some good, agressive attacks by our naval forces, and a lot of sacrifices, witness the Tin Can Sailors, that saved our bacon and brought us victory in the battles of the Philippines in 1944.
Think about that Obama, when you will not say the Pledge of Allegiance, or properly present yourself during the playing of the National Anthem. A lot of good men sleep in the deep to give you the freedom to become the Marxist Socialist a$$h--- that you have become. They never had a chance to come home, marry, have families, grow old, and enjoy their grandchildren. Think about them.
/rant
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/25/2008 17:02 Comments ||
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#15
The PTs hit 'em first, then wave after wave of carrier aircraft.
The escort carriers didn't have the kind of ordnance who who would have enabled their planes to be effective against heavy ship. So what their planes did was basically bluff the japanese and delay them.
#16
AP, Obama doesn't care about the sacrifices of otehrs. Narcissist characteristic: you matter only in how you can benefit/affect them. He is so wrapped up in himself, he barely knows others exist
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/25/2008 17:40 Comments ||
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#17
The invasion of the Philippines could have been an unmitigated disaster for the US. Halsey took the bait and headed north for the Japanese carrier suicide bait fleet.
Halsey was abasent at Midway.
In the battle of Midway there were so many events where the US were unbelievebly lucky that I joke about it as a proof of God's existence and that he was acting.
And one of the signs where I tend to see God's fingerprints" was Halsey's illness who forced his replacement by Spruance. Spruance played carefully during the carrier battle and after it instead of pursuing the enemy like Halsey would have done (and possibly run into a night battle against Japanese battleships) he retreated. On t-he other side it is told that the real brains in Midway was Halsey's chief of staff who was at Midway with Spruance but not at samar after an affair with a married woman and the Navy forcing Halsey to part with him. So perhaps Halmsey wouldn't have lost at Midway after all. Anyway I am not sure his chief of staff would have ben able to persuade Halsey of going against his instincts.
One thing is sure: we don't know what would have happenned with Halsey but it is very easy to envision a worse outcome than the historical one and very difficult to envision a bigger victory than sinking four amjor carriers and about as important, killing of over a hundred of IJN's best pilots, the likes like them Japan would be unable to produce again.
#19
#14 Although, AP, it's ironically possible that a battle like the one off Samar -- Americans fighting bravely against heavy odds -- might be the exact military consequence of an Obama presidency.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/25/2008 19:10 Comments ||
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#20
This was when Halsey sent the famous message: "I've sent McCain".
This is such a famous message that Google is ignorant of it (when combined with Halsey). Linky?
#21
IIRC, McCain didn't wait for orders, he looked at the whole thing and immediately deduced that something was up when the first messages from Taffy-3 came down.
I don't remember what TF he had, but he brought them in and I think towards the latter stage of the battle, he started launching his aircraft at extreme range to make hits on the IJN force.
#22
Speaking of PT boats, I once met this man while I was at Bethesda (He'd just been recalled to active duty to head the Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey).
This is the clearest publicly-available case that shows how organized criminal groups and terrorist organizations are broadening and strengthening their links. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), responsible for several significant busts recently, led this one too.
The operation has been underway for several years, and has yielded a trove of information on Hezbollah's ties to the Lebanese diaspora in Latin America, and the money ring that stretches through Venezuela, Panama, Guatemala, Hong Kong, the United States, Europe and Lebanon. The size of the network, the ability to function across religious and ethnic lines, and ability of all groups to profit from the criminal enterprise should give one pause.
The profits from the sales of drugs went to finance Hezbollah," said Gladys Sanchez, lead investigator for the special prosecutor's office in Bogota, in an interview. "This is an example of how narco-trafficking is a theme of interest to all criminal organizations, the FARC, the paramilitaries and terrorists."
#3
With the drop in oil prices, there will be less money from there for terrorists activities. They will need to depend more on drugs, extortion, sex trade, etc., to keep up their activity level.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/25/2008 12:00 Comments ||
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#4
The predators are the politicians who keep drugs illegal.
If drugs were legal these people would be trafficking in whatever remained illegal, Nimble Spemble. When Prohibition ended the various Mobs turned to illegal drugs, because alcohol was no longer profitable enough. Bottom line, there will be illegal traffic, traffickers, and users, regardless the exact commodity.
(AKI) - A roadside bomb has killed three American soldiers and injured another in western Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday. In southern Uruzgan province, the coalition said 15 militants had also been killed on Wednesday in a clash with foreign soldiers. The NATO-led force also said their troops had killed a motorcyclist they suspected was about to carry out a suicide attack in Helmand province.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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A BLAST ripped through a train station in Spain's Basque Country early today and hours later another station was hit by molotov cocktails but no one was hurt in either incident, a police spokesman said.
The bomb exploded at about 12.30am local time (10.30pm GMT Friday) in the town of Berriz, causing considerable damage, a spokesman for Basque police said.
About two hours later two molotov cocktails hit another train station in Amorebieta, the spokesman said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Basque separatist rebels ETA have regularly planted bombs in their four decades of armed struggle for the region's independence, during which they have killed more than 800 people.
Taliban beheaded two men in North Waziristan after accusing them of spying for neighbouring Afghanistan, local officials said on Friday. The bodies of the men were found dumped near a road in Azam Warsak on Friday, a security official said. Their killers left a note in Pashto language claiming that the slain men, who were abducted five days ago, had confessed to being spies, said a local administration official. "During interrogation they told us that they had come after taking money from Afghanistan for espionage. They also disclosed the names of some of their colleagues," the official quoted the note as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Glad to see that the Taliban continue to follow the Geneva Conventions. Can you imagine the outcry we would hear from the illuminaties if we killed to known/convicted Taliban spies.
Police have arrested three Hindus on suspicion of planting a bomb that killed five people in a market crowded with Muslim shoppers last month, an official said Friday.
Public prosecutor R.J. Misar said the two men and one woman were suspected of planting a crude bomb on a motorcycle that killed five people and wounded 30 others on Sept. 30. The blast in Malegaon, 180 miles northeast of Mumbai, went off as Muslims were shopping, ahead of breaking their Ramadan fast.
Malegaon has long been the scene of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims, who make up 75 percent of the town's 500,000 residents.
A chief judicial magistrate ordered them held until Nov. 3.
Relations between Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of India's population, and Muslims, who account for about 130 million of India's 1.1 billion people, have been relatively peaceful since the bloody partition of the subcontinent into India and Muslim Pakistan at independence from Britain in 1947.
But there have been sporadic bouts of violence and distrust runs deep between the communities in some parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Four men have been arrested over last month's suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in the Pakistani capital, police said Friday. The four were suspected of "indirect involvement" in the massive blast at the hotel in Islamabad, the city's police chief Ahmad Latif said. They are the first known arrests in relation to the bombing.
The Sept. 20 attack killed 54 people and was a bloody reminder of the gathering threat posed by Islamist militants in nuclear-armed Pakistan.
Latif said the men were arrested in different parts of the eastern province of Punjab, but gave no more details. The men were brought before an anti-terrorism court on Friday where a judge gave police permission to question them for one week.
Militants in Pakistan have launched more than 90 suicide attacks on civilian, military and Western targets since July last year, killing nearly 1,200 people, according to military statistics.
Authorities have said they suspect terrorists based in the tribal regions close to Pakistan's border with Afghanistan of carrying out the Marriott blast.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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The security forces on Thursday killed 35 more militants and injured several others in overnight and daylong bombing by warplanes and gunship helicopters and shelling by artillery on militants' hideouts in various parts of the restive Bajaur Agency.
Military officials told The News that the security forces continued targeting the suspected hideouts of militants in different parts of the troubled tribal region. The officials said 12 militants were killed and several others injured during air strikes and artillery shelling on militants' positions in the Mamond Tehsil late Wednesday night.
Later in the day, they said the PAF jet fighters and the Pakistan Army gunship helicopters heavily pounded militants' suspected hideouts in Damadola, Badano, Chingai and Barkandey villages of the Mamond subdivision, Mulla Said Banda in Salarzai Tehsil and Charmang, Chinar, Kohi, Babra and Hashim areas of Nawagai Tehsil, 40 kilometres from the agency headquarters Khar.
The military officials said the total death toll in the daylong military campaign had mounted to 35. Moreover, officials said the security forces had taken control of the Loisam area, a stronghold of the militants.
They said large contingents of the law-enforcement agencies had been deployed in and around Loisam and had blocked the main supply line to the militants. The troops were also reported to be establishing roadside checkpoints and bunkers around Loisam on the main Peshawar-Bajaur road.
Backed by gunship helicopters, tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs), the troops started advancing towards Tangi and Lowi Jore areas, 22 kilometres southwest of Khar. The military authorities said several underground bunkers of the militants had been destroyed and a huge cache of arms and ammunition seized during the search operation.
They said the security forces were no longer facing stiff resistance in the areas, which were earlier said to be militants' strongholds. Hasbanullah Khan, a senior tribal journalist based in Khar, said the political administration, in pursuit of the militants and illegal Afghan refugees, on Thursday launched a search operation in Siddiqabad, Tauheedabad, Bilalabad, Serai, Nawa Kallay, Rehmanabad and other adjoining areas.
Officials of the political administration said besides arresting several suspects, they demolished the house of a militant commander in Siddiqabad during the operation. The administration also imposed curfew during the search operation.
Meanwhile, volunteers of the Salarzai Lashkar in their drive against the militants torched several houses owned by Taliban and their supporters. Residents of Badano village complained that militants had long ago left their positions in Mamond but the security forces were still bombing the villages by warplanes and choppers, flattening dozens of houses in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Coalition forces continued efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq car bomb networks, detaining eight suspected terrorists during operations in central Iraq Thursday and Friday, according to a U.S. army statement on Friday.
"Forces operating in Baghdad Thursday night captured a wanted man believed to be associated with one of the city's AQI car bomb cells. He and another suspect were detained without incident during the operation," read the statement as received by Aswat al-Iraq.
"Coalition forces also took aim at AQI car bomb networks during two related operations Friday outside Fallujah, about 55 km west of Baghdad. During the first operation, forces captured a wanted man who intelligence reports suggest is a car bomb facilitator in Fallujah with multiple connections to other facilitators throughout the region. Two men believed to be associates of the wanted man were also detained for questioning."
"During a subsequent operation in the same area, forces nabbed another wanted man believed to be associated with area car bomb networks. The man, who is also assessed to be an AQI weapons facilitator, was detained with two other suspected terrorists."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Four children were killed when a landmine exploded near them in southwestern Kut city on Friday, a police source in Wassit province said.
"A landmine left from previous wars during the former regime's time went off on Friday in the area of Zayn al-Qaws, southwestern Kut, killing four children," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The explosion, which was not the result of any acts of terror, occurred when the children tampered with the landmine," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: A joint Iraqi army-police force arrested in Najaf on Friday the former chief of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Diwaniya, the province's police media director said. "Hussein al-Taweel was arrested in a security operation in Najaf today based on an intelligence tips," Brig. Abdelaziz al-Salhi told Aswat al-Iraq. "The tips were offered by Ali al-Haddad, a wanted man on charges of murder and terrorism. Haddad was arrested on Thursday," Salhi said.
He added that Taweel is suspected of having committed murders and assassinations and planted improvised explosive devices.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Whoops! I thought just his head was arrested. Turns out, they nabbed the whole body.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/25/2008 11:55 Comments ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Joint Iraqi army and police forces on Friday arrested 15 suspects during operations conducted in Ninewa. "A force from Support battalion working on Ninewa Operations Command captured an individual forging credentials for gunmen in Bab al-Toob district, central Mosul," a security source said. "Army forces detained ten wanted individuals during raid-and search operations conducted in districts of Eden and Intisar," the source noted.
The security highlighted "four suspects and confiscate their car in al-Hamadaniya district, 25, east Mosul".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: Policemen in Kut on Friday found the body of a policeman in the southern part of the city, a police source in Wassit province said. "The body of a policeman showing signs of having been tortured and shot was found in the area of al-Hayakel, southern Kut," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "The corpse was removed to the al-Zahraa Hospital morgue," the source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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(Xinhua) -- Turkey's military said on Friday 25rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in cross-border airstrikes on their hideouts in northern Iraq last week.
Acting on intelligence services, 25 PKK rebels were killed in the air raid on Oct. 17, when Turkish fighters bombed the PKK dens in northern Iraq's Qandil region, Turkish army spokesman Gen. Metin Gurak said at a press conference.
Gurak said without elaborating that quite a few rebels were also wounded in the attack.
On Oct. 3, at least 17 Turkish soldiers were killed when PKK militants based in northern Iraq attacked Aktutun Gendarmerie Border Unit in Semdinli town in the province of Hakkari. About 23 PKK militants were killed in the clashes.
The tension is mounting after the deadliest attack in the year and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the military have pledged to intensify a campaign to crush the PKK, which was blacklisted by Ankara and the United States as a terrorist group.
The Turkish forces take tougher actions against the PKK after the country's legislature extended on Oct. 8 the government's mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels in northern Iraq.
Thirty-five rebels were killed on Oct. 14, when government troops attacked a group of PKK militants who were allegedly trying to infiltrate into Turkey from northern Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/25/2008 00:00 ||
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Authorities in Thailand say a policeman and two suspected Muslim terrorists militants have died after a five-hour standoff at a jihadi separatist hideout in the south of the country. They say the terrorists militants had refused to surrender to about 100 government security personnel laying siege to their hideout in Pattani. Government forces surrounded the house after its two heavily armed occupants shot at a police squad attempting to search the place, killing an officer and wounding four.
COMMUNIST guerrillas have ambushed security forces in the southern Philippines, killing six soldiers and wounding two others, the military said today.
New People's Army (NPA) gunmen set off landmines as the 14-member unit approached the mountainous village of Manurigao, on Mindanao island, yesterday, said their battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Sequitin.
The attack killed six soldiers including an officer who had been assigned to liaise with local officials ahead of a planned mission next month by military doctors in the impoverished hamlet, he said in a written report.
Two other soldiers were wounded, Lt-Col Sequitin said.
The NPA, a 5000-member guerrilla group, has been waging a Maoist-style insurgency for nearly 40 years.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
