1.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
United States Air Force
–
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a branch of the military on 18 September 1947 under the National Security Act of 1947. It is the most recent branch of the U. S. military to be formed, the U. S. Air Force is a military service organized within the Department of the Air Force, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense. The Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, who reports to the Secretary of Defense, the U. S. Air Force provides air support for surface forces and aids in the recovery of troops in the field. As of 2015, the service more than 5,137 military aircraft,406 ICBMs and 63 military satellites. It has a $161 billion budget with 313,242 active duty personnel,141,197 civilian employees,69,200 Air Force Reserve personnel, and 105,500 Air National Guard personnel. According to the National Security Act of 1947, which created the USAF and it shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The stated mission of the USAF today is to fly, fight, and win in air, space and we will provide compelling air, space, and cyber capabilities for use by the combatant commanders. We will excel as stewards of all Air Force resources in service to the American people, while providing precise and reliable Global Vigilance, Reach and it should be emphasized that the core functions, by themselves, are not doctrinal constructs. The purpose of Nuclear Deterrence Operations is to operate, maintain, in the event deterrence fails, the US should be able to appropriately respond with nuclear options. Dissuading others from acquiring or proliferating WMD, and the means to deliver them, moreover, different deterrence strategies are required to deter various adversaries, whether they are a nation state, or non-state/transnational actor. Nuclear strike is the ability of forces to rapidly and accurately strike targets which the enemy holds dear in a devastating manner. Should deterrence fail, the President may authorize a precise, tailored response to terminate the conflict at the lowest possible level, post-conflict, regeneration of a credible nuclear deterrent capability will deter further aggression. Finally, the Air Force regularly exercises and evaluates all aspects of operations to ensure high levels of performance. Nuclear surety ensures the safety, security and effectiveness of nuclear operations, the Air Force, in conjunction with other entities within the Departments of Defense or Energy, achieves a high standard of protection through a stringent nuclear surety program. The Air Force continues to pursue safe, secure and effective nuclear weapons consistent with operational requirements, adversaries, allies, and the American people must be highly confident of the Air Forces ability to secure nuclear weapons from accidents, theft, loss, and accidental or unauthorized use. This day-to-day commitment to precise and reliable nuclear operations is the cornerstone of the credibility of the NDO mission, positive nuclear command, control, communications, effective nuclear weapons security, and robust combat support are essential to the overall NDO function. OCA is the method of countering air and missile threats, since it attempts to defeat the enemy closer to its source
3.
Strategic Air Command
–
At a lower echelon, headquarters divisions included Aircraft Engineering, Missile Concept, and Strategic Communications. In 1992, as part of an overall post-Cold War reorganization of the U. S. Planning to reorganize for a separate and independent postwar U. S. Air Force had begun by the fall of 1945, with the Simpson Board tasked to plan. the reorganization of the Army, SAC initially totaled 37,000 USAAF personnel. S. Air Force as an independent service, kenney, initial units reporting to the Strategic Air Command headquarters on 21 March 1946 included the Second Air Force, the IX Troop Carrier Command and the 73d Air Division. In addition to the bombing mission, SAC also devoted significant resources to aerial reconnaissance. An F-13 squadron, the F-13 later re-designated as the RB-29 Superfortress, was also established, SAC conducted routine aerial reconnaissance missions near the Soviet borders or near the 12-mile international waters limit, although some missions actually penetrated into Soviet airspace. The flight profiles of these missions—above 30,000 feet and in excess of 300 knots—made interception by Soviet air forces difficult until the Soviets 1948 introduction of the MiG-15 jet fighter. Project Nanook, the Cold War’s first Top Secret reconnaissance effort, used the first RB-29 missions for mapping and visual reconnaissance in the Arctic, later missions were Project LEOPARD along the Chukchi Peninsula, followed by Projects RICKRACK, STONEWORK, and COVERALLS. In 1946, the US possessed only nine atomic bombs and twenty-seven B-29s capable at any one time of delivering them, unfortunately, postwar budget and personnel cuts had had an insidious effect on SAC as its Deputy Commander, Major General Clements McMullen, implemented mandated force reductions. This continued to wear down SAC as a command and morale plummeted, as a result, by the end of 1947, only two of SACs eleven groups were combat ready. In terms of overall Air Force basing and infrastructure, SAC continued to acquire a share of USAF infrastructure. In 1947, before the USAF was established as an independent service, construction commenced on Limestone AAF, Maine, fort Dix AAF, New Jersey, Spokane AAF, Washington, and Wendover Field, Utah were also transferred to SAC between 30 April and 1 September 1947. Following establishment of the USAF as a service, SAC bases in the United States consisted of
4.
43d Airlift Wing
–
The 43rd Airlift Wing is an inactive United States Air Force unit last stationed at Pope Field, part of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where it was inactivated in March 2011. The wing performed en route operations support at Pope Field to include mission command & control, aircrew management, aircraft maintenance, aircraft loading, aircraft fueling and supply. Since the wings inactivation, the 43rd Airlift Group has tasken over airlift, maintenance and it was capable of deploying a self-sustaining, war-fighting package anywhere in the world at a moments notice and reflected Popes motto Ready Now. The wing traces its roots back to the 43d Bombardment Group, which was constituted 20 November 1940 and it operated primarily in the Southwest Pacific Theater as a B-17 Flying Fortress, and later a B-24 Liberator heavy-bomber unit assigned to Fifth Air Force. The 43d Operations Group carries the lineage and history of its highly decorated World War II predecessor unit, active for over 60 years, the wing was a component wing of Strategic Air Commands deterrent force throughout the Cold War. The 2005 BRAC Law directed that the mandates be completed no later than 15 September 2011, the 440th Airlift Wing stood up at Pope Air Force Base in June 2007, and, the active-duty squadrons were associated in June 2008. The transfer of the Pope-assigned 23rd Fighter Group A-10s was completed in December 2007, and, the 43d Bombardment Group, flying Boeing B-29 Superfortresses became its operational component. When the wing base organization was made permanent in 1948, the wing was redesignated as the 43d Bombardment Wing, Medium on 1 August. On 20 February 1948, a wing crew picked up a Boeing B-50 Superfortress at the factory, and these deficiencies were demonstrated in November when the wing deployed four B-50s to Alaska. One of the crashed, and, the others were grounded pending the results of the aircraft investigation. On 2 March 1949, a wing B-50A, the Lucky Lady II, commanded by Capt. James Gallagher, completed the first nonstop, the flight departed from and ended at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas. Boeing KB-29s of the wings 43d Air Refueling Squadron refueled the Lucky Lady II four times on this mission, the mission received both the Mackay Trophy from the National Aeronautical Association and the Vandenberg Trophy from the Air Force Association for this mission. The wing conducted strategic-bombardment training from 1946 to 1960, and air refueling from 1949 to 1960, the 43d set a new, jet endurance record in 1954 by keeping a B-47 airborne for 47,35 hours. Flew numerous training missions and participated in various SAC exercises and deployments with the Stratojet during the 1950s, in the late 1950s, the B-47 was considered to be reaching obsolescence, and was being phased out of SACs strategic arsenal. The 43d began reassigning its Stratojets to other wings as replacement aircraft beginning in 1959, the 43d Bombardment Wing moved to Carswell Air Force Base without personnel or equipment on 15 April 1960. At Carswell, it was manned and equipped from the 3958th Operational Test and Evaluation Group and the 6592d Test Squadron of Air Research and Development Command, which were discontinued. The wing immediately began training crews on the Convair B-58 Hustler, the worlds first supersonic bomber, the 43d was the first USAF B-58 wing. Aircraft number 59-2436, the first fully operational Hustler equipped with all systems, was delivered to the 43d on 15 March
5.
Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth
–
This military airfield is operated by the United States Navy Reserve. It is located in the cities of Fort Worth, Westworth Village, several United States Navy headquarters and operational units are based at NAS Fort Worth JRB, including Naval Air Reserve air wings and aviation squadrons, intelligence commands and Seabees. The Air Force Reserve Commands Tenth Air Force headquarters and its 301st Fighter Wing continue to be based at the installation, as well as the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard. A Marine Aircraft Group, several squadrons, and various ground units of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve are also co-located at NAS Fort Worth JRB. Recently, the U. S. Army Reserve also based a battalion of RC-12 Guardrail reconnaissance aircraft at NAS Fort Worth JRB, Carswell Air Force Base was named after Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. USAAF. Major Carswell was returning from an attack on Japanese shipping in the South China Sea on 26 October 1944 when he attempted to save a crewmember whose parachute had been destroyed by flak. He remained at the controls of his crippled bomber and died while crash-landing the B-24 Liberator near Tungchen, the base was renamed in his honor on 29 January 1948. Carswells origins date back to the years of aviation. In June, the War Department inspected 6 sites around Fort Worth, in August the War Department signed leases with the RFC on 3 sites around Fort Worth. Knows as the Flying Triangle, these sites were Hicks Field, Barron Field, in April 1918 these airfield were turned over to the Air Service, United States Army as training fields for American pilots. Hundreds of pilots learned their basic and primary flying skills at these airfields in the Fort Worth area during the war and they were closed in 1919 when the war ended. In 1940 the City of Fort Worth had filed an application with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, in May, General Jacob E. Fickel visited Fort Worth on an inspection visit. Fickel had learned to fly at Carruthers Field in 1918, at the same time, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was trying to convince aircraft manufacturers to build an aircraft assembly plant in the area. Consolidated Aircraft, wanting to build in the area, suggested to the Air Corps that they build an airfield adjacent to the heavy bomber plant they wanted to build in Fort Worth. On 16 June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to construct an airfield next to the Consolidated manufacturing plant. The Army wanted to have the airfield ready quickly before the plant was put into production and construction of the Lake Worth Bomber Plant Airport began almost immediately. However, after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army changed its plans and instead of being a base, Tarrant Field as the facility was called. The first unit assigned to the base was the Army Air Forces Training Command Combat Crew School on 1 July 1942, at the same time, the Consolidated plant began assembly of B-24D Liberator aircraft in May, with the first aircraft being assigned to the school in August
6.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
7.
Northeast Air District
–
The First Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Air Combat Command. It is headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida and its primary mission is the air defense of the Contiguous United States, United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Its mission lineage can be traced to the Air Defense Command, during the war, its primary mission became the organization and training of combat units prior to their deployment to the overseas combat air forces. First Air Force is commanded by Lieutenant General R. Scott Williams and its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sgt. The command has responsibility for ensuring the air sovereignty and air defense of the Contiguous United States, United States Virgin Islands. As the CONUS Region for NORAD, the bi-national North American Aerospace Defense Command, 1AF is also the designated air component for the United States Northern Command. USNORTHCOMs area of responsibility includes the continental United States, Alaska, Canada and Mexico, the command is unique in both its mission and composition. First Air Force has been an Air Combat Command organization since 1 June 1992 and its subordinate units are located throughout the continental United States. It was redesignated First Air Force on 9 April 1941 with a mission for the defense of the Northeast, AAFSC would eventually expand that mission to the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean until the antisubmarine mission was taken over completely by the Navy in mid-1943. The First Air Force became predominantly a fighter OTU and RTU organization, most P-47 Thunderbolt fighter groups were trained by I Fighter Command, along with P-39/P-63 Airacobra groups, C-47 Skytrain and later C-46 Commando groups by I Troop Carrier Command. Air Defense Wings were also organized for the metropolitan areas along the northeast coast. By 1944 the likelihood of an air attack along the eastern seaboard was remote, and these air defense wings were reduced to paper units. By 1944, the vast majority of the USAAF was engaged in operations in various parts of the world, such as the Eighth Air Force in Europe. First Air Force Headquarters was located at Fort Slocum, New York, the command was originally assigned the region of the New England states, along with New York and New Jersey. The command was inactivated on 23 June 1958 for budgetary reasons, First Air Force was reactivated at Stewart Air Force Base, Newburgh, N. Y. on 20 January 1966 due to the inactivation of the ADC Air Defense Sectors. First Air Force assumed responsibility for the ADC 21st, 33d, 34th, 35th and it also was responsible for the air defense of Greenland, Iceland and parts of Canada. By July 1968, First Air Force had again assumed responsibility for the air defense of the eastern seaboard. On 16 January 1968 Air Defense Command was re-designated Aerospace Defense Command as part of a restructuring of USAF air defense forces, ADCOM reassigned the units under the inactivated First Air Force were reassigned primarily to the 20th, 21st or 23d Air Divisions
8.
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
–
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the air corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances, the B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The B-17 also participated to an extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II. From its prewar inception, the USAAC promoted the aircraft as a weapon, it was a relatively fast, high-flying. It developed a reputation for toughness based upon stories and photos of badly damaged B-17s safely returning to base, the B-17 developed a reputation as an effective bomber, dropping more bombs than any other U. S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million tonnes of bombs dropped on Germany, in addition to its role as a bomber, the B-17 was also employed as a transport, antisubmarine aircraft, drone controller, and search-and-rescue aircraft. As of May 2015, ten aircraft remain airworthy, none of them are combat veterans. Dozens more are in storage or on static display, the oldest of these is a D-series veteran of combat in the Pacific and the Caribbean. On 8 August 1934, the U. S. Army Air Corps tendered a proposal for a bomber to replace the Martin B-10. The air corps was looking for a capable of reinforcing the air forces in Hawaii, Panama. Requirements were that it would carry a useful bombload at an altitude of 10,000 ft for ten hours with a top speed of at least 200 mph. They also desired, but did not require, a range of 2,000 mi, the competition for the air corps contract would be decided by a fly-off between Boeings design, the Douglas DB-1, and the Martin Model 146 at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. The prototype B-17, with the Boeing factory designation of Model 299, was designed by a team of engineers led by E. Gifford Emery and Edward Curtis Wells and it combined features of the experimental Boeing XB-15 bomber with the Boeing 247 transport aircraft. The B-17s armament consisted of up to 4,800 lb of bombs on two racks in the bay behind the cockpit, and initially possessed five.30 caliber machine guns. It was powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines each producing 750 hp at 7,000 ft, the first flight of the Model 299 was on 28 July 1935 with Boeing chief test-pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. Richard Williams, a reporter for the Seattle Times, coined the name Flying Fortress with his comment, Why, when the Model 299 was rolled out bristling with multiple machine gun installations. The most unusual gun emplacement was the installation which allowed the single machine gun to be fired toward almost any frontal angle
9.
Douglas B-18 Bolo
–
The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American medium bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, based on its DC-2, by 1940, it was considered to be underpowered, to have inadequate defensive armament and to carry too small a bomb load. Many were destroyed during the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines in December 1941, in 1942, the B-18 survivors were relegated to antisubmarine, transport duty, and training. A B-18 was one of the first American aircraft to sink a German U-boat, U-654 on 22 August 1942 in the Caribbean. In 1934, the United States Army Air Corps put out a request for a bomber with double the load and range of the Martin B-10. In the evaluation at Wright Field the following year, Douglas showed its DB-1 and it competed with the Boeing Model 299 and Martin Model 146. While the Boeing design was superior, the crash of the B-17 prototype removed it from consideration. During the depths of the Great Depression, the price of the DB-1 also counted in its favor. The Douglas design was ordered into production in January 1936 as the B-18. The DB-1 design was essentially that of the DC-2, with several modifications, the wingspan was 4.5 ft greater. The fuselage was deeper, to better accommodate bombs and the six-member crew, added armament included nose, dorsal, and ventral gun turrets. Preston Tuckers firm received a contract to supply a remote controlled gun turret for the aircraft, the initial contract called for 133 B-18s, using Wright R-1820 radial engines. The last B-18 of the run, designated DB-2 by the company, had a nose turret. This design did not become standard, additional contracts in 1937 and 1938 were for the B-18A, which had the bombardiers position further forward over the nose-gunners station. The B-18A also used more powerful engines, deliveries to operational groups began in late 1937, the first being the 7th Bombardment Group at Hamilton Field, California. Production B-18s, with military equipment fitted, had a maximum speed of 217 mph, cruising speed of 167 mph. By 1940, most USAAC bomber squadrons were equipped with B-18s or B-18As, however, the deficiencies in the B-18/B-18A bomber were becoming readily apparent to almost everyone. To send crews out in such a plane against a well-armed, determined foe would have been nothing short of suicidal
10.
Lockheed Hudson
–
The Hudson served throughout the war, mainly with Coastal Command but also in transport and training roles as well as delivering agents into occupied France. They were also used extensively with the Royal Canadian Air Forces anti-submarine squadrons, in late 1937 Lockheed sent a cutaway drawing of the Model 14 to various publications, showing the new aircraft as a civilian aircraft and converted to a light bomber. This attracted the interest of various air forces and in 1938, on 10 December 1938, Lockheed demonstrated a modified version of the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra commercial airliner, which swiftly went into production as the Hudson Mk I. A total of 350 Mk I and 20 Mk II Hudsons were supplied and these had two fixed Browning machine guns in the nose and two more in the Boulton Paul dorsal turret. The Hudson Mk III added one ventral and two machine guns and replaced the 1,100 hp Wright Cyclone 9-cylinder radials with 1,200 hp versions. The Hudson Mk V and Mk VI were powered by the 1,200 hp Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp 14-cylinder two-row radial, the RAF also obtained 380 Mk IIIA and 30 Mk IV Hudsons under the Lend-Lease programme. By February 1939, RAF Hudsons began to be delivered, initially equipping No.224 Squadron RAF at RAF Leuchars, by the start of the war in September,78 Hudsons were in service. The Hudsons were supplied without the Boulton Paul dorsal turret, which was installed on arrival in the United Kingdom, although later outclassed by larger bombers, the Hudson achieved some significant feats during the first half of the war. On 8 October 1939, over Jutland, a Hudson became the first Allied aircraft operating from the British Isles to shoot down an enemy aircraft, Hudsons also provided top cover during the Battle of Dunkirk. On 27 August 1941, a Hudson of No, the Germans were taken prisoner and the submarine taken under tow when Royal Navy ships subsequently arrived on the scene. A PBO-1 Hudson of the United States Navy squadron VP-82 became the first US aircraft to destroy a German submarine, u-701 was destroyed on 7 July 1942 while running on the surface off Cape Hatteras by a Hudson of the 396th Bombardment Squadron, United States Army Air Forces. A Hudson of No.113 Squadron RCAF became the first aircraft of the RCAFs Eastern Air Command to sink a submarine, a Royal Australian Air Force Hudson was involved in the Canberra air disaster of 1940, in which three ministers of the Australian government were killed. In 1941, the USAAF began operating the Hudson, the Twin Wasp-powered variant was designated the A-28, the US Navy operated 20 A-28s, redesignated the PBO-1. A further 300 were built as trainers, designated the AT-18. Following Japanese attacks on Malaya, Hudsons from No, skilled and experienced pilots found that the Hudson had an exceptional manoeuvrability for a twin-engined aircraft, especially a tight turning circle if either engine was briefly feathered. Saburō Sakai, who would become among the highest-scoring Japanese aces of the war, praised the abilities of a lone. It was only after Sakai himself scored hits on the gun position that he was able to down the Hudson, its crew was killed. After skilled evasive manoeuvring at an altitude of less than 50 feet, by the Hudsons captain, Flying Officer George Gudsell, Hudsons were also operated by RAF Special Duties squadrons for clandestine operations, No.161 Squadron in Europe and No.357 Squadron in Burma
11.
Langley Air Force Base
–
Langley Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located adjacent to Hampton and Newport News, Virginia. It was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the entry of the United States into World War I in April 1917, on 1 October 2010, Langley Air Force Base was joined with Fort Eustis to become Joint Base Langley–Eustis. The base was established in accordance with congressional legislation implementing the recommendations of the 2005 Base Realignment, the Air Force mission at Langley is to sustain the ability for fast global deployment and air superiority for the United States or allied armed forces. It was used during World War I as a field, balloon station, observers’ school, photography school, experimental engineering department. It is situated on 3,152 acres of land between the cities of Hampton, NASA LaRC, and the northwest and southwest branches of the Back River, airPower over Hampton Roads is a recurring airshow held at Langley in the spring. Many demonstrations take place, including the F-22 Raptor Demonstration, Aerobatics, and parachute demos. The Wing is composed of the units worldwide, 480th ISR Group, Fort Gordon, Ga. 497th ISR Group, Joint Base Langley–Eustis, Va. 548th ISR Group, Beale Air Force Base. Langley also hosts the Global Cyberspace Integration Center field operating agency, Langley is also home to the F-22 Raptor Demo Team. This team, who travel all over the world performing different maneuvers used in air combat, is used to recruit for the United States Air Force. Performing at airshows and other events, the squadron is the only demonstration team to use the F-22 Raptor. Langley Field was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an aerodynamic pioneer, Langley began aerodynamic experiments in 1887 and formed a basis for practical pioneer aviation. He built and saw the first steam model airplane in 1896, both planes were believed to be capable of flight. He also built the first man-carrying gasoline airplane in 1903, which failed to fly on its first attempt and broke apart and crashed on its second. It was, after major modification eleven years later, flown successfully by Glenn Curtiss for a little over 3 seconds, traveling 150 feet through the air in 1914. Langley Field was the first Air Service base built especially for air power, is the oldest continually active air base in the world. In 1916, the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics, predecessor to NASA, established the need for a joint airfield and proving ground for Army, Navy and NACA aircraft. NACA determined that the site must be near water for over-water flying, be flat and relatively clear for expansion and the landing and take-off of aircraft, the Army appointed a board of officers who searched for a location. The officers sometimes posed as hunters and fishermen to avoid land speculation which would arise if the governments interest in purchasing land was revealed
12.
Mid-Atlantic states
–
The Mid-Atlantic, also called Middle Atlantic states or the Mid-Atlantic states, form a region of the United States generally located between New England and the South Atlantic States. Its exact definition differs upon source, but the region often includes New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, when discussing climate, Connecticut is often included with the Mid-Atlantic region. The Mid-Atlantic has played an important role in the development of American culture, commerce, trade and it has been called the typically American region by Frederick Jackson Turner. After the American Revolution, the Mid-Atlantic region hosted each of the capitals of the United States, including the current federal capital, Washington. But also interior cities such as Pittsburgh, Albany, and Buffalo, New York City, with its skyscrapers, subways, and headquarters of the United Nations, emerged in the 20th century as an icon of modernity and American economic and cultural power. By the 21st century, the areas of the Mid-Atlantic were thoroughly urbanized. Most of the Mid-Atlantic states rank among the 15 highest-income states in the nation by median household income, there are differing interpretations as to the composition of the Mid-Atlantic. Sometimes, the nucleus is considered to consist of Maryland, Delaware, other sources consider New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania to be the core Mid-Atlantic states, with others sometimes included. West Virginia and parts of Virginia are atypical of this region in several ways, although a few of West Virginias eastern panhandle counties are considered part of the Washington, D. C. MSA, the portion of the state is rural. Shipping and trade have been important to the Mid-Atlantic economy since the beginning of the colonial era, the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to see the region in 1524. Henry Hudson later extensively explored that region in 1609 and claimed it for the Dutch, jamestown, Virginia was the first permanent English colony in North America seven years earlier in 1607. From early colonial times, the Mid-Atlantic region was settled by a range of European people than in New England or the South. The original English settlements in the region notably provided refuge to religious minorities, Maryland to Roman Catholics, and Pennsylvania to Quakers, in time, all these settlements fell under English colonial control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities. The area that came to be known as the Middle Colonies served as a bridge between the North and South. The New York and New Jersey campaign during the American Revolutionary War saw more battles than any theater of the conflict. Philadelphia, midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates who organized the American Revolution, cities grew along major ports, shipping routes, and waterways. Such flourishing cities included New York City and Newark on opposite sides of the Hudson River, Philadelphia on the Delaware River, United, New York City FC, New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union, as well as two WNBA teams, New York Liberty and Washington Mystics
13.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
–
The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U. S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U. S. -held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, the attack commenced at 7,48 a. m. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese fighter planes, bombers, all eight U. S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but the USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service, the Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U. S. aircraft were destroyed,2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the station, shipyard, maintenance. Japanese losses were light,29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, one Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. The surprise attack came as a shock to the American people. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, the U. S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940, Roosevelt to proclaim December 7,1941, a date which will live in infamy. Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, over the next decade, Japan continued to expand into China, leading to all-out war between those countries in 1937. Japan spent considerable effort trying to isolate China and achieve sufficient resource independence to attain victory on the mainland, from December 1937, events such as the Japanese attack on USS Panay, the Allison incident, and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan. Fearing Japanese expansion, the United States, the United Kingdom, in 1940, Japan invaded French Indochina in an effort to control supplies reaching China. The United States halted shipments of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline to Japan, an invasion of the Philippines was also considered necessary by Japanese war planners. War Plan Orange had envisioned defending the Philippines with a 40 and this was opposed by Douglas MacArthur, who felt that he would need a force ten times that size, and was never implemented. By 1941, U. S. planners anticipated abandonment of the Philippines at the outbreak of war and orders to that effect were given in late 1941 to Admiral Thomas Hart, commander of the Asiatic Fleet
14.
New England
–
New England is a geographical region comprising six states of the northeast United States, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and south, the Atlantic Ocean is to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the south. Its largest metropolitan area is Greater Boston, which also includes Worcester, Manchester, ten years later, more Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony. Over the next 126 years, people in the region fought in four French and Indian Wars, until the British and their Iroquois allies defeated the French and their Algonquin allies in North America. In 1692, the town of Salem, Massachusetts and surrounding areas experienced one of the most infamous cases of hysteria in the history of the Western Hemisphere. The Boston Tea Party was a protest to which Britain responded with a series of punitive laws stripping Massachusetts of self-government, the confrontation led to the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, and the expulsion of the British authorities from the region in spring 1776. Each state is subdivided into small incorporated municipalities known as towns. The only unincorporated areas in the region exist in the populated northern regions of Vermont, New Hampshire. The region is one of the U. S. Census Bureaus nine regional divisions, the earliest known inhabitants of New England were American Indians who spoke a variety of the Eastern Algonquian languages. Prominent tribes included the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot, Pequot, Mohegans, Narragansett Indians, Pocumtuck, prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Western Abenakis inhabited New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as parts of Quebec and western Maine. Their principal town was Norridgewock in present-day Maine, the Penobscot lived along the Penobscot River in Maine. The Narragansett and smaller tribes under Narragansett sovereignty lived in most of modern-day Rhode Island, west of Narragansett Bay, the Wampanoag occupied southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. The Pocumtucks lived in Western Massachusetts, and the Mohegan and Pequot tribes in the Connecticut region, the Connecticut River Valley includes parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and linked different indigenous communities culturally, linguistically, and politically. As early as 1600, French, Dutch, and English traders began exploring the New World, trading metal, glass, on April 10,1606, King James I of England issued a charter for each of the Virginia Companies, London and Plymouth. These were privately funded ventures, intended to land for England, conduct trade. In 1620, Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts was settled by Pilgrims from the Mayflower, in 1616, English explorer John Smith named the region New England. As the first colonists arrived in Plymouth, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact, the Massachusetts Bay Colony came to dominate the area and was established by royal charter in 1629 with its major town and port of Boston established in 1630. Massachusetts Puritans began to settle in Connecticut as early as 1633, roger Williams was banished from Massachusetts for heresy, led a group south, and founded Providence Plantation in the area that became the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 1636
15.
Bangor International Airport
–
Bangor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport on the west side of the city of Bangor, in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Owned and operated by the City of Bangor, the airport has a runway measuring 11,440 by 200 ft. The airport owes its prosperity to its location on major air corridors between Europe and the East Coast of the United States, Bangor International is operated as an enterprise fund, which means that the expense of operating it comes from airport revenue. Revenues are generated by air operations, resident aviation-related industrial companies, real estate, cargo, international charter flights. One of three airports in the state, it serves the residents of central, eastern. It was designated by NASA as a landing location for the Space Shuttle. Bangor International Airport began as Godfrey Field in 1921, on land owned by local attorney Edward Rawson Godfrey, amelia Earhart was a celebrity pilot on some of the earliest flights for Boston-Maine Airways in the 1930s. The airport was equipped with floodlights for night flights as early as 1937, in 1940, Boston-Maine became Northeast Airlines, which eventually merged with Delta Air Lines in 1972. 1941 saw the first fatal crash of an aircraft in Maine. Just before World War II, Godfrey Field was taken over by the Army Air Corps and it was operated until 1968 as Dow Air Force Base, and still later as Bangor Air National Guard Base. In 1948, Bangor was one stop on the flight of Richarda Morrow-Tait. She landed at Dow but took off for the leg from the airport in nearby Old Town. The Canadian authorities refused her permission to hop the Atlantic and ordered her back to Bangor and she defied them and completed the trip. In the 1950s and 1960s, Bangor was a destination for Northeast Airlines before its merger into Delta, Northeast usually used the Douglas DC-6 for service between Bangor and Boston and New York. In 1965, there was still a single weekly DC-3 flight to Bangor operated by Northeast Airlines, in 1968, Dow AFB was closed as an active duty Air Force installation. Most of the base was purchased by the city and reopened the following year as Bangor International Airport, the portion of Dow AFB not turned over to the city became the basis for the current Air National Guard Base and the Maine Army National Guards Army Aviation Support Facility. In October 1969, a Trans World Airlines plane that had been hijacked in California refueled in Bangor on its way to Rome, where the hijacker was captured. Bangor was a refueling stop, and as a U. S. Port of Entry, passengers could go through customs
16.
Australia
–
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
17.
Fifth Air Force
–
The Fifth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Pacific Air Forces. It is headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan and it is the U. S. Air Forces oldest continuously serving Numbered Air Force. The organization has provided 70 years of air power to the Pacific since its establishment in September 1941. Fifth Air Force is the Headquarters Pacific Air Forces forward element in Japan, in addition,5 AF is the air component to United States Forces Japan. First, it plans, conducts, controls, and coordinates air operations assigned by the PACAF Commander, Fifth Air Force maintains a level of readiness necessary for successful completion of directed military operations. To achieve this mission, Fifth Air Force maintains its deterrent force posture to protect both U. S. and Japanese interests, and conducts appropriate air operations should deterrence fail, Fifth Air Force is commanded by Lieutenant General Jerry P. Martinez. With its origins going back over a century to 1912, the command was established on 6 May 1941 as the Philippine Department Air Force at Nichols Field, Luzon. Fifth Air Force was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force in the Pacific Theater of World War II, engaging in combat operations primarily in the Southwest Pacific AOR. During World War II, Fifth Air Force units first engaged the Japanese during the Philippines Campaign, rearmed, it engaged the Japanese in New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies and then as part of the liberating forces in the Philippines Campaign. In the postwar era, Fifth Air Force was the primary USAF occupation force in Japan, the United States Army Philippine Department was established on 11 January 1911 in the Unincorporated Philippine Territory. Fifth Air Force traces its roots to the Philippines with the activation of the Air Office of the Philippine Department in March 1912, the First Company, 2d Aero Squadron, was activated at Fort William McKinley, Luzon, on 3 February 1916. This unit was a school, operating Martin S Hydro seaplanes. The unit operated under the Air Office until 15 October 1917, in 1917 outside Fort Stotsenburg, Luzon, construction began on a half-mile long dirt runway, hangars and other support facilities to bring the local army units into the air age. A permanent Army Air Service presence in the Philippines began in December 1919 with the activation of the 3d Aero Squadron at the facility, the unit was initially equipped with de Havilland DH-4 medium bombers. The next year it moved to the new Clark Field on 15 October 1920 where, combined with support units. Clark Field became the Army Air Corps headquarters overseas, and was the only American air base west of Hawaii, when workmen at Rockwell Field outside San Diego, California opened one of the crates, they found a motor with a remarkable history. Built in Detroit, it went to France, back to the United States, then to the Philippines, with that, the 1st Observation Group at Clark was re-designated as the 4th Observation, and later the 4th Composite Group. The 4th Composite would be the mainstay of United States air power in the Philippines until 1941, in addition to Clark Field, additional airfields at Kindley Field on Corregidor in Manila Bay, and one at Camp Nichols were constructed
18.
Philippines
–
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 square kilometers, and it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. As of 2013, approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelagos earliest inhabitants and they were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic nations occurred, then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans. The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization, in 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion, during this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution. It is a member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines was named in honor of King Philip II of Spain. Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, during his expedition in 1542, named the islands of Leyte, eventually the name Las Islas Filipinas would be used to cover all the islands of the archipelago. Before that became commonplace, other such as Islas del Poniente. The official name of the Philippines has changed several times in the course of its history, during the Philippine Revolution, the Malolos Congress proclaimed the establishment of the República Filipina or the Philippine Republic. From the 1898 Treaty of Paris, the name Philippines began to appear, since the end of World War II, the official name of the country has been the Republic of the Philippines. The metatarsal of the Callao Man, reliably dated by uranium-series dating to 67,000 years ago is the oldest human remnant found in the archipelago to date and this distinction previously belonged to the Tabon Man of Palawan, carbon-dated to around 26,500 years ago. Negritos were also among the archipelagos earliest inhabitants, but their first settlement in the Philippines has not been reliably dated, there are several opposing theories regarding the origins of ancient Filipinos
19.
Papua New Guinea
–
Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua, Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. There are 852 known languages in the country, of which 12 have no known living speakers, most of the population of more than 7 million people live in customary communities, which are as diverse as the languages. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18 percent of its live in urban centres. The country is one of the worlds least explored, culturally and geographically and it is known to have numerous groups of uncontacted peoples, and researchers believe there are many undiscovered species of plants and animals in the interior. Papua New Guinea is classified as an economy by the International Monetary Fund. Strong growth in Papua New Guineas mining and resource sector led to the becoming the sixth fastest-growing economy in the world in 2011. Growth was expected to slow once major resource projects came on line in 2015, mining remains a major economic factor, however. Local and national governments are discussing the potential of resuming mining operations in Panguna mine in Bougainville Province, nearly 40 percent of the population lives a self-sustainable natural lifestyle with no access to global capital. Most of the still live in strong traditional social groups based on farming. Their social lives combine traditional religion with modern practices, including primary education, at the national level, after being ruled by three external powers since 1884, Papua New Guinea established its sovereignty in 1975. This followed nearly 60 years of Australian administration, which started during the Great War and it became an independent Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations in its own right. Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea around 42,000 to 45,000 years ago and they were descendants of migrants out of Africa, in one of the early waves of human migration. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 7000 BC, a major migration of Austronesian-speaking peoples to coastal regions of New Guinea took place around 500 BC. This has been correlated with the introduction of pottery, pigs, in the 18th century, traders brought the sweet potato to New Guinea, where it was adopted and became part of the staples. Portuguese traders had obtained it from South America and introduced it to the Moluccas, the far higher crop yields from sweet potato gardens radically transformed traditional agriculture and societies. Sweet potato largely supplanted the previous staple, taro, and resulted in a significant increase in population in the highlands. In 1901, on Goaribari Island in the Gulf of Papua, missionary Harry Dauncey found 10,000 skulls in the islands Long Houses, traders from Southeast Asia had visited New Guinea beginning 5,000 years ago to collect bird of paradise plumes
20.
Owi Airfield
–
Owi Airfield is a former World War II airfield located on Pulau Owi island in the Schouten Islands, Indonesia. The airfield was ordered built by General MacArthur on 6 June 1944 and it was constructed by the 864th Engineer Aviation Battalion with B Company initiating the construction on 8 June 1944. The rest of the battalion was on the island by 11 June and the field was completed and operational on 22 June, improvements were made until the end of the war. The island and the airfield were used as a command and control. The airfield was abandoned after the war and today is almost totally returned to its natural state, the construction proved to be a fairly simple concept, scrape off soil and expose the white coral - then level out the coral for a good, sound runway surface. Because the base was natural coral it was easy to maintain after the initial construction. Initially, Japanese pilots caused regular damage to the runway as they attacked the field, as the United States gained air superiority in the area the need for maintenance decreased and it became safe enough for support units to be placed on the island. On the linked satellite image the airfield is still visible over 60 years after being abandoned. afhra. af. mil/. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History. Www. pacificwrecks. com Photos of Owi Island Bob Hope @ Owi Airfield,1944
21.
Battle of the Bismarck Sea
–
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea took place in the South West Pacific Area during World War II when aircraft of the U. S. Fifth Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force attacked a Japanese convoy carrying troops to Lae, most of the task force was destroyed, and Japanese troop losses were heavy. The Japanese convoy was a result of a Japanese Imperial General Headquarters decision in December 1942 to reinforce their position in the South West Pacific, a plan was devised to move some 6,900 troops from Rabaul directly to Lae. On 28 February 1943, the convoy – comprising eight destroyers, the Allied Air Forces had developed new techniques they hoped would improve the chances of successful air attack on ships. They detected and shadowed the convoy, which came under sustained air attack on 2–3 March 1943, follow-up attacks by PT boats and aircraft were made on 4 March. All eight transports and four of the destroyers were sunk. Out of 6,900 troops who were badly needed in New Guinea, another 2,700 were rescued by destroyers and submarines and returned to Rabaul. The Japanese made no attempts to reinforce Lae by ship. Six months after Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, seizing the strategic initiative, the United States and its Allies landed on Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands in August 1942, beginning the Solomon Islands Campaign. The battle for Guadalcanal ended in victory for the Allies with the withdrawal of Japanese forces from the island in early February 1943, at the same time, Australian and American forces in New Guinea repulsed the Japanese land offensive along the Kokoda Track. Going on the offensive, the Allied forces captured Buna–Gona, destroying Japanese forces in that area, recognising the threat, the Japanese continued to send land, naval, and aerial reinforcements to the area in an attempt to check the Allied advances. Reviewing the progress of the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Buna–Gona in December 1942, Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, the commander of the Japanese Eighth Area Army at Rabaul, ordered Lieutenant General Hatazō Adachi’s XVIII Army to secure Madang, Wewak and Tuluvu in New Guinea. Following the decision to evacuate Guadalcanal on 4 January, the Japanese switched priorities from the Solomon Islands to New Guinea, on 5 January 1943, the convoy, which consisted of five destroyers and five troop transports carrying Okabe’s force, set out for Lae from Rabaul. Forewarned by Ultra, United States Army Air Forces and Royal Australian Air Force aircraft spotted, shadowed and attacked the convoy, the Allies claimed to have shot down 69 Japanese aircraft for the loss of 10 of their own. An RAAF Consolidated PBY Catalina sank the transport Nichiryu Maru, although destroyers rescued 739 of the 1,100 troops on board, the ship took with it all of Okabe’s medical supplies. Another transport, Myoko Maru, was so badly damaged at Lae by USAAF North American B-25 Mitchells that it had to be beached, nonetheless, the convoy succeeded in reaching Lae on 7 January and landing its troops, but Okabe was defeated in the Battle of Wau. Most of the 20th Division was landed at Wewak from naval high speed transports on 19 January 1943, the bulk of the 41st Division followed on 12 February. This plan was acknowledged to be risky because Allied air power in the area was strong, the XVIII Army staff held war games that predicted losses of four out of ten transports, and between 30 and 40 aircraft
22.
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
–
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some models were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s. At its inception, the B-24 was a design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted. The wing gave the Liberator a high speed, long range. Early RAF Liberators were the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean as a matter of routine, however, the type was difficult to fly and had poor low speed performance. It also had a ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. While aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24, the B-24 was used extensively in World War II. It served in every branch of the American armed forces, as well as several Allied air forces and navies, along with the B-17, the B-24 was the mainstay of the US strategic bombing campaign in the Western European theater. Due to its range, it proved useful in bombing operations in the Pacific, long range anti-submarine Liberators played an instrumental role in closing the Mid-Atlantic Gap in the Battle of the Atlantic. The C-87 transport derivative served as a range, higher capacity counterpart to the Douglas C-47 Skytrain. The B-24 was produced in large numbers. At the end of World War II, the Liberator had been surpassed by more modern types such as the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the type was rapidly phased out of US service, although the PB4Y-2 Privateer derivative carried on in service with the US Navy in the Korean War. Two B-24s, one LB-30B and one Liberator V representing a B-24H, are airworthy as of 2016, the Liberator originated from a United States Army Air Corps request in 1938 for Consolidated to produce the B-17 under license. After company executives including President Reuben Fleet visited the Boeing factory in Seattle, Washington and this new fuselage was intentionally designed around twin bomb bays, each one being the same size and capacity of the B-17 bomb bays. In January 1939, the USAAC, under Specification C-212, formally invited Consolidated to submit a design study for a bomber with longer range, higher speed, the specification was written such that the Model 32 would automatically be the winning design. The program was run under the group, Project A. Although the B-24 did not meet Project A goals, it was a step in that direction, Project A led to the development of the Boeing B-29 and Consolidateds own B-32 and B-36. The B-24 had a shoulder mounted high aspect ratio Davis wing and this wing was highly efficient allowing a relatively high airspeed and long range
23.
Luzon
–
Luzon (/luːˈzɒn/, Tagalog pronunciation, is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. It is ranked 15th largest in the world, with a population of 52.99 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world, containing about 53% of the countrys total population. Luzon may also refer to one of the three island groups in the country. The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, from just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several Indianized kingdoms, notably among them those of Tundok and Namayan. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and these kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers and landlords or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied. These kingdoms were coastal thalassocracies based on trade with neighboring Asian political entities at that time, some parts of Luzon were Islamized when the Sultanate of Brunei expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state. In addition, other kingdoms like the Wangdom of Pangasinan had become tributary states to China and were largely Sinified kingdoms, certain kilns were renowned over others and prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time. The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng Hes voyages, China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongles reign, in the 1500s, people from Luzon were called Lucoes and were actively employed in trading, seafaring and military campaigns across Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were the first European explorers who recorded it in their charts as Luçonia or Luçon, edmund Roberts, who visited Luzon in the early 19th century, wrote that Luzon was discovered in 1521. Many people from Luzon had active-employment in Portuguese Malacca and his father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon, the surname of de Raja or diraja could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja. Pinto noted that there were a number of Lucoes in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century, the Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511, pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. However, the Luções did not only fight on the side of the Muslims, pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538. On Mainland Southeast Asia, Lusung/Lucoes warriors aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD, at the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Scholars have thus suggested that they could be valued by all sides
24.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
25.
Geography of Taiwan
–
Taiwan is an island in East Asia, located some 180 kilometres off the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of 35,883 km2 and spans the Tropic of Cancer, the East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest. There are several peaks over 3,500 m, the highest being Yu Shan at 3,952 metres, the tectonic boundary that formed these ranges is still active, and the island experiences many earthquakes, a few of them highly destructive. There are also many active volcanoes in the Taiwan Straits. The climate ranges from tropical in the south to subtropical in the north, the island is struck by an average of four typhoons in each year. The eastern mountains are forested and home to a diverse range of wildlife. The total area of the island is 36,193 km2 and it has a coastline of 1,139 km. The ROC claims an economic zone of 200 nmi and a territorial sea of 12 nmi. The main island of the archipelago is the island of Taiwan, the central point of the island is the Geographic Center of Taiwan in Puli Township, Nantou County. The southernmost point of the island is the Taiwan Southernmost Point in Hengchun Township, the island of Taiwan is separated from the southeast coast of China by the Taiwan Strait, which ranges from 220 km at its widest point to 130 km at its narrowest. Part of the shelf, the Strait is no more than 100 m deep. To the south, the island of Taiwan is separated from the Philippine island of Luzon by the 250 km -wide Luzon Strait, the South China Sea lies to the southwest, the East China Sea to the north, and the Philippine Sea to the east. The island of Taiwan was formed approximately 4 to 5 million years ago at a convergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. In a boundary running the length of the island and continuing southwards in the Luzon Volcanic Arc, most of the island comprises a huge fault block tilted to the west. The western part of the island, and much of the central range, in the northeast of the island, and continuing eastwards in the Ryukyu Volcanic Arc, the Philippine Sea Plate slides under the Eurasian Plate. The tectonic boundary remains active, and Taiwan experiences 15,000 to 18,000 earthquakes each year, of which 800 to 1,000 are noticed by people. The most catastrophic recent earthquake was the magnitude-7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake, on 4 March 2010 at about 01,20 UTC, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southwestern Taiwan in the mountainous area of Kaohsiung County. Another major earthquake occurred on 6 February 2016, with a magnitude of 6.4, Tainan was damaged the most, with 117 deaths, most of them caused by the collapse of a 17-story apartment building
26.
Iejima
–
Iejima, previously romanized in English as Ie Shima, is an island in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, lying a few kilometers off the Motobu Peninsula on Okinawa Island. The island measures 20 kilometres in circumference and covers 23 square kilometres, as of December 2012 the island had a population of 4,610. Most islanders live in Ie Village, which has a connection with the town Motobu on Okinawa Island. The most notable feature is a peak called Mount Gusuku at a height of 172 meters. The mountain resembles a volcano but is actually an erosion artifact, U. S. journalist Ernie Pyle died there during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. There is a monument dedicated to his memory on the part of the island. Every year on the weekend closest to his April 18 death there is a memorial service, the Youth Excursion Village accommodates campers for 400 yen a person and includes access to a good beach. The YYY Resort and Hotel located just east of the port is available for those who do not wish to camp. Iejima, then called Ie Shima by US military and media, was the starting point for the Surrender of Japan in World War II. All three groups were stationed there toward the end of the war, b-25 Mitchells of the 345th were assigned to escort the Japanese bombers from the Japanese mainland to Iejima, and P-38s were assigned the duty of top-cover. Japanese officials ordered the remaining Japanese Air Force to shoot down their own bombers, instead of flying directly to Iejima, the two Japanese planes flew northeast, toward the open ocean, to avoid their own fighters. However, the squadron of fighters were U. S. P-38 Lightnings assigned as top-cover, the 345th had been directed to send two B-25s as escorts. This proved to be excellent planning, as only the second of the three flights intercepted the Japanese and the top-cover, off-course and headed on a route that would not have them to Iejima. Seconds later he was surprised to find the Japanese tucked in tightly under his wings, to them it was the safest way to approach the island which had only days before been their target. The four planes arrived over Iejima in perfect show formation, the Japanese delegation split, with the less important delegates staying on Iejima overnight as the damaged plane was repaired, while the operable aircraft proceeded that evening. Ironically, and for some unexplained reason, that ran out of fuel some 130 miles from their destination and was ditched in shallow water. The emissaries waded ashore and arrived in Tokyo the next day, in 1955, the United States military embarked upon a wide-scale campaign to seize land from the farmers of Iejima. The campaign began in 1954 with a survey project
27.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
28.
Okinawa Prefecture
–
The larger are mostly high islands and the smaller ones are mostly coral islands. The largest of the islands is Okinawa, the climate of the islands ranges from humid subtropical climate in the north to tropical rainforest climate in the south. Precipitation is very high, and is affected by the rainy season, the islands beyond the Tokara Strait are characterized by their coral reefs. The Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, and Yaeyama Islands have a native population collectively called the Ryukyuan people, the varied Ryukyuan languages are traditionally spoken on these islands, and the major islands have their own distinct languages. In modern times, the Japanese language is the language of the islands. The northern islands are called the Satsunan Islands, while the southern part of the chain are called the Ryukyu Islands in Japanese. Following are the grouping and names used by the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard, the islands are listed from north to south where possible. Nansei Islands Satsunan Islands Ōsumi Islands with, Tanegashima, Yaku, Kuchinoerabu, Mageshima in the North-Eastern Group and they agreed on February 15,2010, to use Amami-guntō for the Amami Islands, prior to that, Amami-shotō had also been used. The English and Japanese uses of the term Ryukyu differ, in English, the term Ryukyu may apply to the entire chain of islands, while in Japanese Ryukyu usually refers only to the islands that were previously part of the Ryūkyū Kingdom after 1624. Nansei-shotō is the name for the whole island chain in Japanese. Japan has used the name on nautical charts since 1907, based on the Japanese charts, the international chart series uses Nansei Shoto. Nansei literally means southwest, the direction of the chain from mainland Japan. Some humanities scholars prefer the uncommon term Ryūkyū-ko for the island chain. In geology, however, the Ryukyu Arc includes subsurface structures such as the Okinawa Trough, the name of Ryūkyū is strongly associated with the Ryūkyū Kingdom, a kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands and subjected the Sakishima and Amami Islands. The name is considered outdated in Japanese although some entities of Okinawa still bear the name. In Japanese, the Ryukyu Islands cover only the Okinawa, Miyako, the northern half of the island chain is referred to as the Satsunan Islands in Japanese, as opposed to Northern Ryukyu Islands in English. Humanities scholars generally agree that the Amami, Okinawa, Miyako, there is, however, no good name for the group. The native population do not have their own name, since they do not recognize themselves as a group this size, Ryukyu is the principal candidate because it roughly corresponds to the maximum extent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom
29.
Boeing B-47 Stratojet
–
The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was an American long range, six-engine, turbojet-powered strategic bomber designed to fly at high subsonic speed and at high altitude to avoid enemy interceptor aircraft. The B-47s primary mission was to drop bombs on the Soviet Union. With its engines carried in nacelles under the wing, the B-47 was a major innovation in post-World War II combat jet design. The B-47 entered service with the United States Air Forces Strategic Air Command in 1951 and it never saw combat as a bomber, but was a mainstay of SACs bomber strength during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and remained in use as a bomber until 1965. The B-47 arose from an informal 1943 requirement for a reconnaissance bomber. In December 1944, North American Aviation, the Convair Corp, Boeing and the Glenn Martin Company submitted proposals for the new long-range jet bomber. The USAAF awarded study contracts to all four companies, requiring that North American and Convair concentrate on four-engined designs, while Boeing, the powerplant was to be General Electrics new TG-180 turbojet engine. In May 1945, the von Kármán mission of the Army Air Forces inspected the secret German aeronautics laboratory near Braunschweig, on von Kármáns team was the eminent chief of the technical staff at Boeing, George S. Schairer. He wired his home office, Stop the bomber design, analysis work by Boeing engineer Vic Ganzer suggested an optimum sweepback angle of about 35 degrees. Boeings aeronautical engineers modified their Model 432 design to include swept wings and tail, resulting in the Model 448, the Model 448 retained its four TG-180 jet engines in its forward fuselage, with two more TG-180s in the rear fuselage. The flush-mounted air intakes for the engines were inadequate, while the USAAF disliked the installation of engines within the fuselage. The Army Air Force liked this new configuration, and so Boeings team of engineers continued to refine it, with the engines being moved further inboard. As the landing gear arrangement made rotation impossible, the gear was designed so that the aircraft rested on the ground at the proper angle for takeoff. The USAAF was very pleased with the refined Model 450 design, and in April 1946, the first XB-47 was rolled out on 12 September 1947, a few days before the USAAF became a separate service, the U. S. Air Force, on 18 September 1947. The XB-47 prototype flew its first flight on 17 December 1947, with the test pilots Robert Robbins and it flew from Boeing Field in Seattle to the Moses Lake Airfield in central Washington state, in a flight that lasted just 27 minutes, with no major problems. In Feb.1949, Russ Schleeh and Joe Howell broke all coast-to-coast speed records flying from Moses Lake Air Force Base to Andrews Air Force Base and they averaged 607.8 miles per hour. During early tests of the XB-47 prototype, the canopy came off at high speed, the copilot safely landed the aircraft. This resulted in a redesign, and the hiring of pilot Tex Johnston as chief test pilot
30.
Thomas S. Power
–
General Thomas Sarsfield Power was commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command and an active military flier for more than 30 years. Thomas Sarsfield Power was born in the Bronx, New York City in 1905 and his parents were Thomas, a dried goods salesman and Mary, who had arrived in the USA in 1900. His parents were from wealthy farming stock but the best land and its livestock was destined for others in Tipperary, Power attended Barnard Preparatory School in New York and entered the U. S. Army Air Corps flying school February 17,1928. Upon graduation and receiving his rating, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps in February 1929. C. He completed his career at Maxwell Field, Alabama, as a student at the Air Corps Tactical School. He initially performed staff duties to September 1943 at Army Air Forces Flying Training Command headquarters in Fort Worth, following his promotion to colonel he was assigned as deputy commander of the 58th Bombardment Operational Training Wing at Smoky Hill AAF, Salina, Kansas. After returning to the United States in August 1944, he was named commander of the 314th Bomb Wing, Power moved his B-29s to Guam in December 1944 as part of the 21st Bomber Command. From Guam, he directed the first large-scale fire bomb raid on Tokyo, Japan, in a command aircraft, flying back and forth over Tokyo during the attack, Power was deeply impressed by the inferno of destruction playing out thousands of feet below. He later commented, True there is no room for emotions in war, but the destruction I witnessed that night over Tokyo was so overwhelming that it left a tremendous and lasting impression on me. On August 1,1945, General Carl Spaatz, then commander of the U. S. Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific and he served in this capacity during the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During Operation Crossroads, the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll, during the next six years, Power assisted General Curtis E. LeMay, then commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command, in building up SAC. He was then appointed commander of the Air Research and Development Command in 1954, when General LeMay was named vice chief of staff of the Air Force in 1957, Power became commander in chief of SAC and was promoted to four-star rank. When RAND proposed a strategy, which would require SAC to restrain itself from striking Soviet cities at the beginning of a war, Power countered with. Why are you so concerned with saving their lives, the whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win. Professor William Kaufmann from the RAND Corporation, losing his patience, noted, “Well, you’d better make sure theyre a man. On October 24,1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, SAC was ordered to Defcon 2, Raymond Garthoff, who was a participant in the crisis, noted that. The decision for this action was taken by General Thomas Powers, commander-in-chief of SAC
31.
Carswell Air Force Base
–
This military airfield is operated by the United States Navy Reserve. It is located in the cities of Fort Worth, Westworth Village, several United States Navy headquarters and operational units are based at NAS Fort Worth JRB, including Naval Air Reserve air wings and aviation squadrons, intelligence commands and Seabees. The Air Force Reserve Commands Tenth Air Force headquarters and its 301st Fighter Wing continue to be based at the installation, as well as the 136th Airlift Wing of the Texas Air National Guard. A Marine Aircraft Group, several squadrons, and various ground units of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve are also co-located at NAS Fort Worth JRB. Recently, the U. S. Army Reserve also based a battalion of RC-12 Guardrail reconnaissance aircraft at NAS Fort Worth JRB, Carswell Air Force Base was named after Medal of Honor recipient Major Horace S. Carswell, Jr. USAAF. Major Carswell was returning from an attack on Japanese shipping in the South China Sea on 26 October 1944 when he attempted to save a crewmember whose parachute had been destroyed by flak. He remained at the controls of his crippled bomber and died while crash-landing the B-24 Liberator near Tungchen, the base was renamed in his honor on 29 January 1948. Carswells origins date back to the years of aviation. In June, the War Department inspected 6 sites around Fort Worth, in August the War Department signed leases with the RFC on 3 sites around Fort Worth. Knows as the Flying Triangle, these sites were Hicks Field, Barron Field, in April 1918 these airfield were turned over to the Air Service, United States Army as training fields for American pilots. Hundreds of pilots learned their basic and primary flying skills at these airfields in the Fort Worth area during the war and they were closed in 1919 when the war ended. In 1940 the City of Fort Worth had filed an application with the Civil Aeronautics Administration, in May, General Jacob E. Fickel visited Fort Worth on an inspection visit. Fickel had learned to fly at Carruthers Field in 1918, at the same time, the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce was trying to convince aircraft manufacturers to build an aircraft assembly plant in the area. Consolidated Aircraft, wanting to build in the area, suggested to the Air Corps that they build an airfield adjacent to the heavy bomber plant they wanted to build in Fort Worth. On 16 June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved $1.75 million to construct an airfield next to the Consolidated manufacturing plant. The Army wanted to have the airfield ready quickly before the plant was put into production and construction of the Lake Worth Bomber Plant Airport began almost immediately. However, after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the Army changed its plans and instead of being a base, Tarrant Field as the facility was called. The first unit assigned to the base was the Army Air Forces Training Command Combat Crew School on 1 July 1942, at the same time, the Consolidated plant began assembly of B-24D Liberator aircraft in May, with the first aircraft being assigned to the school in August
32.
1st Photographic Group
–
The 1st Photographic Group is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. It was last assigned to the 311th Photographic Wing, stationed at Buckley Field and it was disbanded on 5 October 1944, but reconstituted in 1985 as the 358th Special Operations Group. Established in mid-1941 as a GHQ Air Force aerial mapping and reconnaissance group based at Bolling Field, mission was to conduct long-range photo reconnaissance after the pattern developed by the British. Each of the four initial assigned squadrons of the group was assigned to one of the four continental air forces, the unit had almost no opportunity for training because each of its squadrons was busily engaged in carrying out mapping missions for hemisphere defense. The Photographic Squadrons were largely equipped with short-range second-line aircraft from the 1930s and these squadrons were associated with the 1st Photographic Group for crew training in aerial photography and reconnaissance. These bomber reconnaissance squadrons were designed to provide a reconnaissance capability with each group. However, with the entry of the United States into World War II after the Pearl Harbor Attack, the bombers were needed for combat bombing missions more than for reconnaissance. In April 1942 these squadrons were absorbed by those groups and were redesignated as bombardment squadrons,10 Jun 1941 Peterson Field, Colorado,23 Dec 1943 Buckley Field, Colorado,2 July –5 Oct 1944. Motto, FIDELITER ET DILIGENTER —Faithfully and Diligently and this article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http, //www. afhra. af. mil/. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History
33.
United States Department of the Air Force
–
The Department of the Air Force is one of the three Military Departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Air Force was formed on September 18,1947, per the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of the Air Forces principal deputy is the Under Secretary of the Air Force. Only the Secretary of Defense has the authority to transfer of forces between Combatant Commands. The department has suffered many problems in aircraft acquisition over the years,2003, Darleen Druyun rigged plan to lease Boeing tankers. 2011, Department sends KC-X evaluations to wrong companies,2012, Error in paperwork requires Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance to be rebid. Department of the Air Force Airman Magazine, The Book 2010 – Personnel Facts, Airman Magazine, Volume 54 Number 3. Official site Department of the Air Force in the Federal Register
34.
Virginia
–
Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
35.
Maine
–
Maine is the northernmost state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the U. S. states and territories and it is bordered by New Hampshire to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the north. Maine is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States, and it is known for its jagged, rocky coastline, low, rolling mountains, heavily forested interior, and picturesque waterways, and also its seafood cuisine, especially clams and lobster. There is a continental climate throughout the state, even in areas such as its most populous city of Portland. For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European arrival in what is now Maine, the first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607, as Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maines territory during the American Revolution, Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become an independent state. On March 15,1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise, there is no definitive explanation for the origin of the name Maine, but the most likely origin is the name given by early explorers after a province in France. Whatever the origin, the name was fixed for English settlers in 1665 when the English Kings Commissioners ordered that the Province of Maine be entered from then on in official records. The state legislature in 2001 adopted a resolution establishing Franco-American Day, other theories mention earlier places with similar names, or claim it is a nautical reference to the mainland. Attempts to uncover the history of the name of Maine began with James Sullivans 1795 History of the District of Maine. He made the allegation that the Province of Maine was a compliment to the queen of Charles I, Henrietta Maria. MAINE appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 in reference to the county of Dorset, the view generally held among British place name scholars is that Mayne in Dorset is Brythonic, corresponding to modern Welsh maen, plural main or meini. Some early spellings are, MAINE1086, MEINE1200, MEINES1204, mason had served with the Royal Navy in the Orkney Islands where the chief island is called Mainland, a possible name derivation for these English sailors. Initially, several tracts along the coast of New England were referred to as Main or Maine, Maine is the only state whose name has exactly one syllable. The original inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Abenaki, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Penobscot, who had a loose confederacy. European contact with what is now called Maine started around 1200 CE when Norwegians interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade
36.
Essendon Airport
–
Essendon Airport is a 305 ha public airport serving scheduled commercial, corporate-jet, charter and general aviation flights. It is located next to the intersection of the Tullamarine and Calder Freeways, in the suburb of Essendon Fields of Melbourne. The airport is the closest to Melbournes City Centre, approximately a 13 km drive north-west from it and 8 km south-east from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport, in 1970, Tullamarine Airport replaced Essendon as Melbournes main airport. The area of the airport was known as St Johns. The airport was proclaimed by the Commonwealth Government in 1921, as Essendon Aerodrome, for some time prior to proclamation, the aerodrome had been used by the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Aero Club, having initially been based at Point Cook. The Aero Club remained at Essendon until the late 1940s when it transferred to Moorabbin Airport, originally the airport had grass runways with the first tenants moving in from December 1921, including H. J. Larkin, Captain Matthews, Bob Hart and Major Harry Shaw. The 1920s period saw the great pioneering aviation flights of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith who visited the airport on several occasions, the airport was extended with additional land during the 1930s. The grass was finally upgraded to concrete tarmac in 1946, Essendon became Australias second, and Melbournes first international airport in February 1950. The airport was renamed Melbourne Airport, and the first international commercial flight arrived from New Zealand a year later, in the 1950s Essendon Airport was too small for the larger pure jets, such as the Boeing 707. The airport was surrounded by housing and expansion was impossible, at this time, Essendon was no longer named Melbourne Airport, with the new airport rapidly taking shape. Commercial international flights were transferred to the new airport in 1970, the major passenger airlines using Essendon in the postwar years until scheduled air services were transferred to Tullamarine were Ansett Airlines and Trans Australia Airlines. Douglas DC-9s were introduced later in the decade, International flights departed mainly from Sydney during Essendons years of operation, and there were regular daily flights between the two largest metropolitan areas in Australia. Some notable arrivals at the airport include,1964 – The Beatles, upon arrival,1967 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson for the memorial service of Prime Minister Harold Holt. Johnsons aircraft Air Force One landed at Essendon Airport on 22 December 1967 then flew empty to Tullamarine as its weight when refuelled was too heavy for Essendons tarmac,1973 – Sir Robert Helpmann co-directed with Rudolf Nureyev, The Australian Ballet film of Don Quixote in F hangar. 1987 – Kylie Minogue filmed her first ever music video for her debut single Locomotion here, the airport also provides warehousing facilities, and a home to the Victorian Air Ambulance, Royal Flying Doctor Service and the Victoria Police Air Wing. In 2007, the airport was re-designed under a new master plan and this master plan caters for the future of the site for both aviation and non-aviation use. A new access road and off ramp was constructed from the Tullamarine Freeway to enter the airport precinct from the north and this has necessitated the construction of an Aero-Crossing as the new access road crosses a taxiway. Most of the users of the former Northern Hangars have moved to other sites on the airport with the notable exceptions of the Victoria Police Air Wing
37.
Longreach Airport
–
Longreach Airport is situated in Longreach, Queensland, Australia. The airport is 1.5 nautical miles northeast of the city, Longreach has played a major part in Australian aviation from 1919 onwards. In August of that year, a party left the town to travel overland to survey a route suitable for competitors in the first air race to leave England en route to Australia. The travellers included Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, two pilots who had both trained in the Australian Flying Corps during World War I. In December 1919, a Vickers Vimy landed, piloted by Ross and Keith Smith and they were the first to use the air route pioneered by Fysh and McGinness. The first overland flight across the Australian continent from Melbourne to Darwin passed through the airport in 1919 and this flight was undertaken by Captain Henry Wrigley and Sergeant Arthur Murphy, flying a B. E.2. In 1920, the first single engine aircraft to complete the flight from England to Australia arrived, the aircraft was an Airco DH.9, piloted by Ray Parer and John McIntosh. In late 1920, the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Service was founded, although founded in Winton, the first operational base for the airline, later to be known as QANTAS, was Longreach. Principal among the pioneers of the airline were Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, one of the original Qantas hangars survives at the airport to this day. Charles Kingsford Smith arrived in 1927, during a flight around the continent and his aircraft on this occasion was a Bristol Tourer. Amy Johnson landed her de Havilland Gipsy Moth, registered G-AAAH and she was the guest of honour at a dinner hosted by Shell at the Imperial Hotel in Longreach. Johnson had just completed the first flight by a woman from England to Australia, in 1941, the Department of Civil Aviation established the Longreach Aeradio station at the airport. This unit enabled air ground communication with the number of radio equipped aircraft operating throughout the country. During World War II, Longreach airport became, for a time in 1942. The airport was upgraded to cater for the weight of these aircraft. In May, these aircraft were flown from the town to engage the enemy in the Battle of the Coral Sea, used shell casings from the guns of these aircraft can still be found adjacent to the runways. By this stage, the airport had three operational runways, at one time in the 1960s, Longreach airport was one of the busiest inland airports in Australia. However, with drought and the downturn of the rural economy throughout the country
38.
Milne Bay
–
Milne Bay is a large bay in Milne Bay Province, south-eastern Papua New Guinea. The bay is named after Sir Alexander Milne, surveyed by Luis Vaez de Torres in July 1606. Surveyed by Captain Owen Stanley, R. N, by January 1944 about 140 vessels were in harbor due to congestion at the facilities. Congestion was relieved by opening of a port at Finschhafen and extensive improvements at Milne Bay, there were three planes ditched off the island in 1943, a P-38H Lightning, a P-38F Lightning, and a B-24D Liberator The Leila Belle. Battle of Buna–Gona Milne Force Operation Lilliput Condon-Rall, Mary Ellen, Cowdrey, the Technical Services—The Medical Department, Medical Service In The War Against Japan. United States Army In World War II, washington, DC, Center Of Military History, United States Army. Leighton, Richard M, Coakley, Robert W, the War Department — Global Logistics And Strategy 1943–1945. United States Army In World War II, washington, DC, Center Of Military History, United States Army
39.
New Guinea
–
New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
40.
Mareeba Airfield
–
Mareeba Airfield is an airfield located 4.3 nautical miles south of Mareeba, Queensland, Australia. Built in 1942 as a US Army Air Force base during World War II, after the war, much of the airfield reverted to agricultural use, while the southern runway remains as an active airfield. A major US Army Air Force Base during World War II, the Americans referred to it as Hoevet Field in honor of Major Dean Carol Pinky Hoevet who was killed on 16 August 1942. Today, the hosts a museum with several World War II vintage airplanes on display in a flyable condition
41.
Jacksons International Airport
–
Jacksons International Airport, also known as Port Moresby Airport, is located 8 kilometres outside Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea. It is the largest and busiest airport in Papua New Guinea and is the hub for Air Niugini. It replaced the original Port Moresby airport, in what is now the suburb of Waigani, whose airstrip remained until the 1990s but no trace of which is now there, the International Terminal features four aircraft parking bays, three of which are equipped with aerobridges. The two terminals are linked by a covered walkway, Air Niugini has its head office in the Air Niugini House, on the airport property. On 11 August 2009, Airlines PNG Flight 4684, flying from Jacksons International Airport, crashed into a mountain while attempting a go around at Kokoda Airport, all 11 passengers and 2 crew died in the accident. afhra. af. mil/. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II, maxwell AFB, Alabama, Office of Air Force History. Www. pacificwrecks. com A-Z World Airports, Jacksons International Airport Airport information for AYPY at World Aero Data, Data current as of October 2006
42.
Port Moresby
–
Port Moresby, also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, the city emerged as a trade centre in the second half of the 19th century. During World War II it was an objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43 as a staging point and air base to cut off Australia from Southeast Asia. In 2000 it had a population of 254,158, as of 2011 it had a population of 364,145, giving it an annual growth rate of 2. 1% over a nine-year period. The place where the city was founded has been inhabited by the Motu-Koitabu people for centuries, the first European to see it was Captain John Moresby in 1873. It was named in honour of his father, Admiral Sir Fairfax Moresby, although Port Moresby is surrounded by Central Province, of which it is also the capital, it is not part of that province, but forms the National Capital District. The Motuan people of the now known as Port Moresby traded their pots for sago, other food and canoe logs, sailing from Hanuabada. Their language, Motu, was the basis of Hiri Motu and it has been steadily in decline since the 1960s when Tok Pisin began to grow in popularity. The Hiri expeditions were large scale, as many as 20 multi-hulled canoes or lakatoi, crewed by some 600 men, carried about 20,000 clay pots on each journey. To the Motuans, the Hiri was an enterprise and it confirmed their tribal identity through its long. There was already an important trade centre on the site of Port Moresby when the English Captain John Moresby of HMS Basilisk first visited it and he sailed through the Coral Sea at the eastern end of New Guinea, saw three previously unknown islands, and landed there. At 10 a. m. on 20 February 1873, he claimed the land for Britain and named it after his father and he called the inner reach Fairfax Harbour and the other Port Moresby. In 1883 Queensland attempted to annex the south-eastern corner of the New Guinea Island, British authorities refused to approve the annexation following the German annexation of New Guinea in 1884, but four years later it established a protectorate over Papua as British New Guinea. In 1905 the recently federated Australian government passed the Papua Act which came into effect in 1906, the act transferred Papua, with Port Moreseby as its capital, to direct Australian rule. From then until 1941 Port Moresby grew slowly, the main growth was on the peninsula, where port facilities and other services were gradually improved. The first butchers shop and grocery opened in 1909, electricity was introduced in 1925, many Papuan residents of Port Moresby either returned to their family villages or were evacuated to camps when the threat of Japanese invasion loomed. Port Moresby became the capital of the new combined territory and a point for the expansion of public services. In September 1975, Papua New Guinea became an independent country with Port Moresby as its capital city, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, represented the Queen of Papua New Guinea at the celebrations
43.
Girua Airport
–
Girua Airport is an airport serving Popondetta, a city in the Oro province in Papua New Guinea. Girua Airport is located near Dobodura, to the north-east of the Embi Lakes, to the south is Mt. Lamington, a volcano that dominates the skyline. The airport was built during World War II as part of the Dobodura Airfield Complex during late 1942, during the war, the airfield had several names, including No. 7, West 7, or Horanda No.7 Airstrip or West 7 and it was also known as Kenney Strip, in honor of Fifth Air Force Commander General George Kenney. The main Dobodura complex had eleven airstrips, most interconnected for taxiing purposes, today, Girua is the only airfield still in use, the others being abandoned after the war. afhra. af. mil/. Www. pacificwrecks. com Accident history for PNP at Aviation Safety Network
44.
Lae Nadzab Airport
–
Lae Nadzab Airport is a regional airport located at Nadzab 42 kilometres outside of Lae, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea along the Highlands Highway. It is served by private and regional aircraft with domestic flights. The airport replaced the Lae Airfield in 1977, Nadzab is located on the Erap River,5 kilometres North of the Markham River. The settlements of Gabmatsung/Gabmatzung and Gabsonkek are located on the East side of the airport, in March 1942, the Japanese occupied Lae and Salamaua. Between April 1943 and July 1943, the Allied Geographical Section of South West Pacific Area conducted reconnaissance after the Japanese invasion, the Terrain Handbook states at page 18, Nazdab is located twenty-seven miles NW of Lae by road 900 yds by an indefinite width. Emergency landing ground for heavy freight planes, extension to 2000 yds thought possible. The first parachute jump for the 503rd Parachute Regiment was during the Allied paratrooper assault on 5 September 1943, in conjunction with the Amphibious Landing East of Malahang, was to be the start of the liberation of Lae from Japanese Occupation. After Lae was liberated, the United States Army built Nadzab airport, two parallel runways were built, running roughly east to west. Number 1 Strip was located to the north, parallel and to the south was Number 2 Strip, closest to the Markham River. Towards the end of the war, the 21st Air Depot Unit at Nadzab began to manage a storage and reclamation area for excess Allied aircraft, the CRTC flew out of the base into 1945 until it was turned over to the New Guinea government. In 1962, the strip at Nadzab was resealed by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Works and lengthened to make it suitable for Mirage fighters. However, it was maintained by the Australian Department of Civil Aviation as an alternative to Lae in poor weather conditions. Today, the former East Base or No.1 & No.2 runways are still in use by Air Niugini and for civil aviation, roads in the area were built by American forces. Nadzab airport was redeveloped by Australia in the early to mid 1970s as part of a gift from Australia to PNG which became independent in September 1975. The Australian Department of Housing & Construction, and Department of Civil Aviation undertook the work, specialised airport lighting was installed by DCA engineers Byron Sullivan and Frank Martinelli. The airport in Lae was operating at the time as Nadzab. Fierce political squabbling over the pros and cons of Lae and Nadzab continued until 1982, when, in an unsolved mystery, Lae airfield continued to be used by Air Niugini and other third-level airlines until 1987. It was also used as the base for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force until it was transferred to Port Moresby in 1992, on 18 November 1987, Douglas C-47B Skytrain P2-006 of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force was damaged beyond repair in an emergency landing shortly after take-off
45.
Schouten Islands
–
The Schouten Islands are an island group of Papua province, eastern Indonesia in the Cenderawasih Bay 50 km off the north-western coast of the island of New Guinea. The group consists of the islands of Biak, Supiori and Numfor. The first recorded sighting by Europeans of the Schouten Islands was by the Portuguese navigator Jorge de Menezes in 1526, on the voyage from Malacca to Maluku, via northern Borneo, he was further carried eastward by a storm and strong winds. Jorge de Menezes landed at Biak, where he was forced to winter, inspired by Malay, Moluccan or local Papuan names, he named the archipelago, and eventually the coasts of western Papua Islands of Papuas. Biak was thenceforth called in Portuguese maps Ilha de Dom Jorge or Ilha onde invernou Dom Jorge, the archipelago was also sighted by Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra who landed on Yapen on June 24,1528, when trying to return from Tidore to New Spain. The islands were named Islas de Oro, in 1545 they were visited by Íñigo Órtiz de Retes on board the galleon San Juan. The Schouten Islands were eventually named after Dutch explorer Willem Schouten, the Schouten Islands are among the most densely populated parts of Papua province. These small islands have been designated the Biak–Numfoor rain forests as having the most highly endemic avifauna of any area in the New Guinea region. The forest consists of similar types of trees to that on mainland New Guinea, there are over 100 bird species on the islands, of which 11 to 16 are endemic, that is, restricted to this small island group. As well as the birds, there are a number of endemic mammals, the islands also have a number of endemic butterflies and one endemic spider Diolenius angustipes|W. Much of the forest has been cut down for logging or to land for planting especially on Biak Island. However the logging industry may return, while birds are vulnerable to collectors, diving in the waters off Biak is a popular activity for tourists
46.
Dutch East Indies
–
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony. It was formed from the colonies of the Dutch East India Company. During the 19th century, Dutch possessions and hegemony were expanded and this colony was one of the most valuable European colonies under the Dutch Empires rule, and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th to early 20th century. The colonial social order was based on racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate from. The term Indonesia came into use for the location after 1880. In the early 20th century, local intellectuals began developing the concept of Indonesia as a nation state, Japans World War II occupation dismantled much of the Dutch colonial state and economy. Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Indonesian nationalists declared independence which they fought to secure during the subsequent Indonesian National Revolution, the word Indies comes from Latin, Indus. The original name Dutch Indies was translated by the English as the Dutch East Indies, the name Dutch Indies is recorded in the Dutch East India Companys documents of the early 1620s. Scholars writing in English use the terms Indië, Indies, the Dutch East Indies, the Netherlands Indies, centuries before Europeans arrived, the Indonesian archipelago supported various states, including commercially oriented coastal trading states and inland agrarian states. The first Europeans to arrive were the Portuguese in the late 15th century, following disruption of Dutch access to spices in Europe, the first Dutch expedition set sail for the East Indies in 1595 to access spices directly from Asia. When it made a 400% profit on its return, other Dutch expeditions soon followed, recognising the potential of the East Indies trade, the Dutch government amalgamated the competing companies into the United East India Company. The VOC was granted a charter to wage war, build fortresses, a capital was established in Batavia, which became the centre of the VOCs Asian trading network. Smuggling, the expense of war, corruption, and mismanagement led to bankruptcy by the end of the 18th century. The company was dissolved in 1800 and its colonial possessions in the Indonesian archipelago were nationalised under the Dutch Republic as the Dutch East Indies. From the arrival of the first Dutch ships in the late 16th century, to the declaration of independence in 1945, although Java was dominated by the Dutch, many areas remained independent throughout much of this time, including Aceh, Bali, Lombok and Borneo. Piracy remained a problem until the mid-19th century, finally in the early 20th century, imperial dominance was extended across what was to become the territory of modern-day Indonesia. In 1811, British forces occupied several Dutch East Indies ports including Java, Dutch control was restored in 1816. Under the 1824 Anglo-Dutch Treaty, the Dutch secured British settlements such as Bengkulu in Sumatra, in exchange for ceding control of their possessions in the Malay Peninsula, the resulting borders between British and Dutch possessions remain between Malaysia and Indonesia
This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency website http://www.afhra.af.mil/.
.svg)
