1.
United States
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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
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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.
Aerial reconnaissance
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Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. This role can fulfil a variety of requirements, including the collection of intelligence, observation of enemy maneuvers. The balloon found its first use in the 1794 conflict with Austria, moreover, the presence of the balloon had a demoralizing effect on the Austrian troops which improved the likelihood of victory for the French troops. After the invention of photography, primitive aerial photographs were made of the ground from manned and unmanned balloons, starting in the 1860s, an example was Arthur Batuts kite-borne camera photographs of Labruguière starting from 1889. In the early 20th century, Julius Neubronner experimented with pigeon photography, the pigeons carried small cameras with timers. Ludwig Rahrmann in 1891 patented a means of attaching a camera to a large calibre artillery projectile or rocket, Alfred Nobel in 1896 had already built the first rocket carrying a camera, which took photographs of the Swedish landscape during its flights. The first use of airplanes in combat missions was by the Italian Air Force during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912, on 23 October 1911, an Italian pilot, Capt. The use of aerial photography rapidly matured during the First World War, as used for reconnaissance purposes were outfitted with cameras to record enemy movements. At the start of the conflict, the usefulness of aerial photography was not fully appreciated, frederick Charles Victor Laws started experiments in aerial photography in 1912 with No.1 Squadron RAF using the British dirigible Beta. The dirigibles were eventually allocated to the Royal Navy, so Laws formed the first aerial unit of fixed-wing aircraft. Germany was one of the first countries to adopt the use of a camera for aerial reconnaissance, opting for a Görz, French Military Aviation began the war with several squadrons of Bleriot observation planes, equipped with cameras for reconnaissance. The French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders in record time, the camera was inserted into the floor of the aircraft and could be triggered by the pilot at intervals. In 1916, the Austro-Hungarian Empire made vertical camera axis aerial photos above Italy for map-making. In January 1918, General Allenby used five Australian pilots from No.1 Squadron AFC to photograph a 624 square miles area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front and this was a pioneering use of aerial photography as an aid for cartography. Beginning 5 January, they flew with an escort to ward off enemy fighters. In 1928, the RAF developed a heating system for the aerial camera. This allowed reconnaissance aircraft to take pictures from very high altitudes without the camera parts freezing, although this seems obvious now, with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking. They proposed the use of Spitfires with their armament and radios removed and replaced with extra fuel and this led to the development of the Spitfire PR variants
4.
Latin
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Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
5.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
6.
Distinguished Unit Citation
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The unit with the most Presidential Unit Citations is the USS Parche with 9 citations. The Army citation was established by Executive Order 9075 on 26 February 1942, superseded by Executive Order 9396 on Dec.2,1943, as with other Army unit citations, the PUC is in a larger frame than other ribbons, and is worn above the right pocket. All members of the unit may wear the decoration, whether or not they participated in the acts for which the unit was cited. Only those assigned to the unit at the time of the action cited may wear the decoration as a permanent award, for both the Army and Air Force, the emblem is a solid blue ribbon enclosed in a gold frame. The Air Force PUC was adopted from the Army Distinguished Unit Citation after the Air Force became a military branch in 1947. By Executive Order 10694, dated Jan,10,1957 the Air Force redesignated the Distinguished Unit Citation as the Presidential Unit Citation. The Air Force PUC is the color and design as the Army PUC but slightly smaller. The Citation is carried on the units colors in the form of a blue streamer,4 ft long and 2.75 in wide. For the Army, only on rare occasions will a larger than battalion qualify for award of this decoration. The Navy citation was established by Executive Order 9050 on 6 February 1942, the Navy version has blue, yellow, and red horizontal stripes, and is the only Navy ribbon having horizontal stripes. These are only worn by persons who meet the criteria at the time it is awarded to the unit, unlike the Army, those who later join the unit do not wear it on a temporary basis. The current decoration is known as the Department of Homeland Security Presidential Unit Citation. A Coast Guard version of the award was awarded to all U. S. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel responding to Hurricane Katrina by President George W. Bush for rescue, the United States Public Health Service Presidential Citation was established in 2015. The design was finalized by the Army Institute of Heraldry on 17 August 2015, two units of the Free French Forces were awarded Presidential Unit Citations during World War II. On April 22,1986, the 1st Fighter Group Força Aérea Brasileira was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions in the Po Valley region of Italy in World War II. The Brazilians, operating in Italy in support of Allied forces, destroyed in one day over 45 vehicles, strafed pontoon bridges on the River Po, eleven missions of 44 sorties were flown destroying nine motor transports and damaging 17. One Belgian-Luxembourgian battalion of the Belgian United Nations Command was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation once for actions during the Battle of the Imjin River, the Colombia Battalion received the citation while attached to the American 21st Infantry Regiment in 1951. One Dutch unit, the Netherlands Detachment United Nations, part of the Regiment Van Heutsz, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation twice for actions during the Korean War, the first citation was awarded after the battle near Wonju and Hoengson in February 1951
7.
Air Force Meritorious Unit Award
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The Air Force Meritorious Unit Award or is a mid level unit award of the United States Air Force. Established in 2004, the award recognizes those unit who demonstrate exceptionally meritorious conduct in support of combat operations. Eligible service is retroactive to 11 September 2001, the recommended unit must display such outstanding devotion and superior performance of exceptionally difficult tasks as to set it apart and above other units with similar missions. The degree of achievement required is the same as that which would warrant award of the Legion of Merit to an individual, superior performance of the normal mission alone does not justify award of the MUC. Service in a zone is not required, but service must be directly related to the combat effort. The Air Force MUA is worn immediately after the Gallant Unit Citation, additional awards of the MUA are denoted by bronze oak leaf clusters. The component commander will automatically consider all disapproved Meritorious Unit Awards for the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
8.
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award
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The Air Force Outstanding Unit Award is one of the unit awards of the United States Air Force. It was established in 1954 and was the first independent Air Force decoration created, the Air Force Longevity Service Award would follow in 1957 with most of the standard Air Force awards established in the early to mid 1960s. The Outstanding Unit Award is awarded to any unit of the U. S, multiple awards of the Outstanding Unit Award are denoted by oak leaf clusters on the ribbon. Until 2004, the Outstanding Unit Award was the senior most unit award in the U. S. Air Force and it is awarded to personnel who were assigned or attached to the unit receiving the award during the period it was awarded for. Non-USAF personnel personnel assigned to USAF units awarded the Outstanding Unit Award are also eligible to wear the ribbon on their uniforms, however, the ribbon does not come in the larger size of unit awards common to the U. S. Army
9.
9th Reconnaissance Wing
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The 9th Reconnaissance Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Twenty-Fifth Air Force. It is stationed at Beale Air Force Base, California, the wing is also the host unit at Beale. It is also assigned T-38 Talons for U-2 pilots to maintain flight hours due to limited U-2 aircraft and its 9th Operations Group is a descendant organization of the 9th Group, one of the 13 original combat air groups formed by the Army before World War II. During World War II, the 9th Bombardment Group was an air unit of the United States Army Air Forces. Active for over 60 years, the 9 RW was a component wing of Strategic Air Commands deterrent force throughout the Cold War, the 9 RW is commanded by Colonel Phillip A. Stewart. Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Chief Master Sergeant Leslie Gould, the 9 RW is responsible for providing national and theater command authorities with timely, reliable, high-quality, high-altitude reconnaissance products. To accomplish this mission, the wing is equipped with the fleet of U-2, RQ-4 and MC-12 reconnaissance aircraft. The wing also maintains a state of readiness in its expeditionary combat support forces for potential deployment in response to theater contingencies. Travis On 1 May 1949 the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing was activated at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, California, the Air Force also activated the re-designated 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Group and the 1st, 5th, and 99th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadrons. The 9th SRWs mission was to obtain data through visual, photographic, electronic. To carry out this mission, the wing flew RB-29 Superfortresses, the 9th Reconnaissance Technical Squadron also joined the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing on 1 May 1949. It also performed its mission with components of 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, the reconnaissance mission continued for only eleven months. On 1 April 1950, the Air Force redesignated the 9th SRW as the 9th Bombardment Wing, Heavy, with similar redesignations of the 9th Group and the 1st, 5th, and 99th Squadrons. Seven months later, on 2 November, the wing and subordinate units were again re-designated to Bombardment, Medium with the transfer of the RB-36s, in early February 1951, the Air Force realigned its flying operation and placed the flying squadrons directly under control of the wings. The Air Force, therefore, placed the 9th Bombardment Group in Records Unit status, on 4 January 1955, the Air Force bestowed upon the 9th Wing the honors of the inactive 9th Group, the operational headquarters unit before and during World War II. The 9th Bombardment Wing remained at Fairfield-Suisun AFB flying B-29s until 1 May 1953, on 1 May, the Strategic Air Command assumed jurisdiction of Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, from the Military Air Transport Service and transferred the 9th Bomb Wing to the base. Developed for bomber training during the war, Mountain Home AFB had recently been an Air Resupply And Communications Service special operations base for MATS, MATS wanted to use Fairfield-Suisun as a West Coast aerial port. Although some personnel began arriving at Mountain Home early in April, simultaneously, the 2d Air Refueling Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, became the 9th Air Refueling Squadron and transferred to the 9th Bombardment Wing at Mountain Home AFB
10.
Beale Air Force Base
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Beale Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately 8 miles east of Marysville, California. The host unit at Beale is the 9th Reconnaissance Wing assigned to the Air Combat Command, the 9 RW collects intelligence essential for Presidential and Congressional decisions critical to the national defense. The wing also maintains a state of readiness in its combat support. The 940th Air Refueling Wing is a tenant Air Force Reserve Command wing at Beale AFB flying the KC-135 Stratotanker, Camp Beale became a United States Air Force installation on 1 April 1951 and was renamed Beale Air Force Base. Beale AFB is the home of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, which serves as the host wing for the base. The installation is located outside of Linda, about 10 miles east of the towns of Marysville and Yuba City, Beale is a large base in terms of land and has five gates providing access on all sides of the base. Visitors enter the base through a gate that local merchants, individuals. The base is home for approximately 4,000 military personnel, Beale Air Force Base covers nearly 23,000 acres of rolling hills in northern California. The bases natural resources are as rich as its significant cultural and historical heritage, Native Americans lived on this land, the mortar bowls they carved into the bedrock lie embedded in a shallow stream. To preserve these and other areas, the base proudly maintains 38 Native American sites,45 homestead sites. The 9th Reconnaissance Wing is composed of four groups at Beale AFB, 9th Operations Group Consists of multiple squadrons and detachments. 9th Maintenance Group Consists of the 9th Maintenance Operations Squadron, the 9th Maintenance Squadron, the 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, the group is responsible for a $5.8 million annual budget. The group is also the Air Forces single focal point for providing mass ammunition production training, 9th Mission Support Group Provides trained combat support forces to theater commanders- in-chief worldwide. 9th Medical Group Consists of three squadrons, 9th Medical Operations, 9th Medical Support and 9th Physiological Support Squadrons and they provide for the medical needs of Beale AFB beneficiaries and support Beales high-altitude flyers in the U-2 aircraft. The Beale Clinic is located at 15301 Warren Shingle Road on a hillside near base housing. The clinics primary mission is to support the operational readiness. They provide comprehensive care, physiological and environmental support and promote health education. This outpatient clinic consists of both the 9th Medical Operations and 9th Medical Support Squadrons that provide primary care services with aerospace medicine, no inpatient or emergency services are available and minimal specialty services exist
11.
Lockheed U-2
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It provides day and night, high-altitude, all-weather intelligence gathering. The U-2 has also used for electronic sensor research, satellite calibration. Early versions of the U-2 were involved in several events through the Cold War, being flown over the Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, in 1960, Gary Powers was shot down in a CIA U-2A over the Soviet Union by a surface-to-air missile. Another U-2, piloted by Major Rudolf Anderson, Jr. was lost in a fashion during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The U-2 is one of a handful of types to have served the USAF for over 50 years. The newest models entered service in the 1980s, the current model, the U-2S, received its most recent technical upgrade in 2012. They have taken part in post–Cold War conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, after World War II, the U. S. military desired better strategic aerial reconnaissance to help determine Soviet capabilities and intentions. Richard Leghorn of the USAF suggested that an aircraft that could fly at 60,000 feet should be safe from the MiG-17, the Soviet Unions best interceptor, which could barely reach 45,000 feet. He and others believed that Soviet radar, which used American equipment provided during the war, the highest-flying aircraft available to America and its allies at the time was the English Electric Canberra, which could reach 48,000 feet. Air Research and Development Command mandated design changes made the aircraft more durable for combat. The Soviet Union, unlike the United States and Britain, had improved radar technology after the war and it was thought that an aircraft that could fly at 70,000 feet would be beyond the reach of Soviet fighters, missiles, and radar. Another USAF officer, John Seaberg, wrote a request for proposal in 1953 for an aircraft that could reach 70,000 feet over a target with 1,500 nmi of operational radius. The USAF decided to solicit designs only from smaller companies that could give the project more attention. Under the code name Bald Eagle, it contracts to Bell Aircraft, Martin Aircraft. Officials at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation heard about the project and decided to submit an unsolicited proposal, to save weight and increase altitude, Lockheed executive John Carter suggested that the design eliminate landing gear and avoid attempting to meet combat load factors for the airframe. The company asked Clarence Kelly Johnson to come up such a design. Johnson was Lockheeds best aeronautical engineer, responsible for the P-38 and he was also known for completing projects ahead of schedule, working in a separate division of the company, informally called the Skunk Works. Johnsons design, named CL-282, was based on the Lockheed XF-104 with long, slender wings, the design was powered by the General Electric J73 engine and took off from a special cart and landed on its belly
12.
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk
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The Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk is an unmanned surveillance aircraft. It was initially designed by Ryan Aeronautical, and known as Tier II+ during development, the Global Hawk performs a similar role as the Lockheed U-2. The RQ-4 provides an overview and systematic surveillance using high-resolution synthetic aperture radar. It can survey as much as 40,000 square miles of terrain a day, the Global Hawk is operated by the United States Air Force. It is used as a platform covering the spectrum of intelligence collection capability to support forces in worldwide military operations. According to the United States Air Force, the surveillance capabilities of the aircraft allow more precise weapons targeting. Cost overruns led to the plan to acquire 63 aircraft being cut to 45. Each aircraft was to cost US$60.9 million in 2001, the U. S. Navy has developed the Global Hawk into the MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance platform. The Global Hawk took its first flight on 28 February 1998, the first seven aircraft were built under the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program, sponsored by DARPA, in order to evaluate the design and demonstrate its capabilities. Demand for the RQ-4s abilities was high in the Middle East, thus, in an unusual move, the aircraft entered initial low-rate production while still in engineering and manufacturing development. Nine production Block 10 aircraft, sometimes referred to as RQ-4A, were produced, of these, the final Block 10 aircraft was delivered on 26 June 2006. In order to increase the capabilities, the airframe was redesigned, with the nose section. The modified aircraft, designated RQ-4B Block 20, allow it to carry up to 3,000 lb of internal payload and these changes were introduced with the first Block 20 aircraft, the 17th Global Hawk produced, which was rolled out in a ceremony on 25 August 2006. First flight of the Block 20 from the USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, developmental testing of Block 20 took place in 2008. The United States Navy took delivery of two of the Block 10 aircraft to evaluate their maritime surveillance capabilities, designated N-1 and N-2, four flights were performed, resulting in over 24 hours of persistent maritime surveillance coordinated with Abraham Lincoln and Bonhomme Richard. For the GHMD program, the Global Hawk was tasked with maintaining maritime situational awareness, contact tracking, images were transmitted to NAS Patuxent River for processing and then forwarded to the fleet off Hawaii. Northrop Grumman entered a RQ-4B variant in the US Navys Broad Area Maritime Surveillance UAV competition, on 22 April 2008, it was announced that Northrop Grummans RQ-4N had won and that the Navy had awarded a US$1.16 billion contract. In September 2010, the RQ-4N was officially designated the MQ-4C, the Navy MQ-4C differs from the Air Force RQ-4 mainly in its wing
13.
Beechcraft C-12 Huron
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The C-12 Huron is the military designation for a series of twin-engine turboprop aircraft based on the Beechcraft Super King Air and Beechcraft 1900. C-12 variants are used by the United States Air Force, United States Army, United States Navy and these aircraft are used for various duties, including embassy support, medical evacuation, as well as passenger and light cargo transport. Some aircraft are modified with surveillance systems for various missions, including the Cefly Lancer, Guardrail, the first C-12A models entered service with the U. S. Army in 1974 and were used as a liaison and general personnel transport. The aircraft was essentially an off-the-shelf Super King Air 200, powered by the types standard Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 engines, the cabin can readily accommodate cargo, passengers or both. It is also equipped to accept litter patients in medical evacuation missions, through 1982, the Navy ordered 64 of these aircraft. A U. S. Air Force variant of the plane for surveillance roles primarily over Afghanistan, as of 2013 the Liberty program had exceeded 300,000 combat flying hours. With its roles taken over by the growing MQ-9 Reaper fleet, Special Operations Command, which was completed by October 2015. The Air Forces final MC-12W deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom ended on 13 October 2015, to meet the needs of transporting larger groups, the U. S. Army purchased six C-12J aircraft, based on the Beechcraft 1900C commuter airliner. One of the military C-12Js is used for GPS jamming tests at the 586th Flight Test Squadron, Holloman Air Force Base, another is based at the 517th Airlift Squadron, Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. Three were based at the 55th Airlift Flight, Osan Air Base and they have been relocated to the 459th Airlift Squadron, Yokota Air Base, Japan. The remaining two are used by U. S. Army Aviation, C-12A Used by the U. S. Army for liaison and attache transport. Based on the King Air A200, Marine Corps version with an additional cargo door. Based on the King Air A200C, nC-12B U. S. Navy single-aircraft version, UC-12B BuNo 161311 equipped with four P-3C type Sonobuoy launchers. TC-12B U. S. Navy training version developed by conversion of UC-12B airframes, c-12C U. S. Army and U. S. Air Force version of the C-12A with upgraded engines. Based on the King Air A200, c-12D U. S. Army and U. S. Air Force version. Based on the King Air A200CT, changes include larger cargo door, rC-12D Special mission, SIGINT aircraft for the U. S. Army. UC-12D Based on the King Air A200CT, c-12E Upgraded C-12A aircraft for the USAF. 29 C-12As were retro-fitted with two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42 turboprop engines, C-12F U. S. Air Force transport version
14.
United States Army Air Service
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The Air Service, United States Army was the military aviation service of the United States between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of the U. S and its life was extended for another year in July 1919, during which time Congress passed the legislation necessary to make it a permanent establishment. The National Defense Act of 1920 assigned the Air Service the status of combatant arm of the line of the United States Army with a general in command. By the end of the war, the Air Service used 45 squadrons to cover 137 kilometers of front from Pont-à-Mousson to Sedan,71 pursuit pilots were credited with shooting down five or more German aircraft while in American service. Overall the Air Service destroyed 756 enemy aircraft and 76 balloons in combat,17 balloon companies also operated at the front, making 1,642 combat ascensions. 289 airplanes and 48 balloons were lost in battle, the Air Service was the first form of the air force to have an independent organizational structure and identity. Although officers concurrently held rank in various branches, after May 1918 their branch designation in official correspondence while on aviation assignment changed from ASSC to AS, after July 1,1920, its personnel became members of the Air Service branch, receiving new commissions. Airmen such as Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell supported the concept, the Armys senior leadership from World War I, the United States Navy, and the majority of the nations political leadership favored integration of all military aviation into the Army and Navy. Aided by a wave of pacifism following the war that drastically cut military budgets, opponents of an independent air force prevailed, the Air Service was renamed the Army Air Corps in 1926 as a compromise in the continuing struggle. The declaration of war against Germany on April 6,1917, putting the United States in World War I, came too quickly to solve emerging engineering and production problems. The reorganization of the Aviation Section had been inadequate in resolving problems in training, leaving the United States totally unprepared to fight an air war in Europe, the Aviation Section consisted of 131 officers,1087 enlisted men, and approximately 280 airplanes. The Board dispatched Major Raynal C, by the time the bill passed, the term Air Service was in widespread if unofficial usage to collectively describe all aspects of Army aviation. Even so, the Aircraft Board in practice had little control over procurement contracts, nor did the Equipment Division of the Signal Corps exercise such control. Though individual areas within the industry responded well, the industry as a whole failed. Efforts to mass produce European aircraft under license largely failed because the aircraft, at the same time the Aeronautical Division of the OCSO was renamed the Air Division with continued responsibility for training and operations but with no influence on acquisition or doctrine. In the end the process in aircraft procurement was badly fragmented. Borglum had exchanged letters with President Wilson, a friend, from which he assumed an appointment to investigate had been authorized. Both the U. S. Senate and the Department of Justice began investigations into possible fraudulent dealings, Kenly brought back from France to be its head, to separate supervision of aviation from the duties of the Chief Signal Officer
15.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
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The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing which was flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the largest aircraft operational during World War II and it was the single most expensive weapons project undertaken by the United States in World War II, exceeding the cost of the Manhattan Project by between 1 and 1.7 billion dollars. A manned tail gun installation was semi-remote, the name Superfortress continued the pattern Boeing started with its well-known predecessor, the B-17 Flying Fortress. Designed for the strategic bomber role, the B-29 also excelled in low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions. One of the B-29s final roles during World War II was carrying out the bomb attacks on Hiroshima. The B-29 served in roles throughout the 1950s. The Royal Air Force flew the B-29 as the Washington until phasing out the type in 1954, the Soviet Union produced an unlicensed reverse-engineered copy as the Tupolev Tu-4. The B-29 was the progenitor of a series of Boeing-built bombers, transports, tankers, reconnaissance aircraft, the type was retired in the early 1960s. The B-29 production total was 3,970 aircraft, dozens of B-29s remain as static displays but only two examples, Fifi and Doc, have been restored to flying status, with Doc flying again for the first time from McConnell AFB on July 17,2016. A transport developed from the B-29 was the Boeing C-97 Stratofreighter, first flown in 1944, followed by its commercial airliner variant and this bomber-to-airliner derivation was similar to the B-17/Model 307 evolution. In 1948 Boeing introduced a variant of the B-29 as the KB-29. A heavily modified line of outsized-cargo variants of the Stratocruiser is the Guppy / Mini Guppy / Super Guppy which remain in service today with operators including NASA, Boeing began work on pressurized long-range bombers in 1938, in response to a United States Army Air Corps request. Boeings design study for the Model 334 was a derivative of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with nosewheel undercarriage. Although the Air Corps did not have money to pursue the design, in April 1939, Charles Lindbergh convinced general Henry H. Arnold to produce a new bomber in large numbers to counter the Nazi production, Boeings previous private venture studies formed the starting point for its response to this specification. Boeing submitted its Model 345 on 11 May 1940, in competition with designs from Consolidated Aircraft, Lockheed, Consolidated continued to work on its Model 33 as it was seen by the Air Corps as a backup in case of problems with Boeings design. Boeing received a production order for 14 service test aircraft and 250 production bombers in May 1941. The B-29 featured a design with circular cross-section for strength
16.
Twentieth Air Force
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The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command. It is headquartered at Francis E. Warren Air Force Base,20 AFs primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations. The Twentieth Air Force commander is also the Commander, Task Force 214, established on 4 April 1944 at Washington D. C,20 AF was a United States Army Air Forces combat air force deployed to the Pacific Theater of World War II. Operating initially from bases in India and staging though bases in China,20 AF conducted strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands and it relocated to the Mariana Islands in late 1944, and continued the strategic bombardment campaign against Japan until the Japanese capitulation in August 1945. The 20 AF 509th Composite Group conducted the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Twentieth Air Force headquarters is unique in that it has dual responsibilities to Air Force Global Strike Command, as the missile Numbered Air Force for AFGSC, 20th Air Force is responsible for maintaining and operating the Air Forces ICBM force. Designated as STRATCOMs Task Force 214, 20th Air Force provides on-alert, combined with the other two legs of the Triad, bombers and submarines, STRATCOM forces protect the United States with an umbrella of deterrence. Headquarters, Francis E. Warren AFB, Wyoming 90th Missile Wing, Twentieth Air Force was to be commanded by General Arnold himself at Joint Chiefs of Staff level. Twentieth Air Force was completely autonomous and its B-29s were to be independent of other command structures. In addition Twentieth Air Force was chosen to be the component of the Manhattan Project in 1944. However, in early 1944, the B-29 was not yet operationally ready, the aircraft had been in development at Boeing since the late 1930s and the first XB-29 flew on 21 September 1942. However, the aircraft suffered from a number of development issues. As a result, most of the first production B-29s were still held up at Air Technical Service Command modification centers, awaiting modifications, by March 1944, the B-29 modification program had fallen into complete chaos, with absolutely no bombers being considered as combat ready. General Arnold became alarmed at the situation and directed that his assistant, Major General B. E. Meyer, the resulting burst of activity that took place between 10 March and 15 April 1944 came to be known as the Battle of Kansas. The mechanics often had to work outdoors in freezing weather, as a result of superhuman efforts on the part of all concerned,150 B-29s had been handed over to the XX Bomber Command by 15 April 1944. See, Operation Matterhorn and XX Bomber Command for expanded history Operation Matterhorn was the name for the B-29 Superfortress offensive against the Empire of Japan from airfields in China, on 10 April 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff informally approved Operation Matterhorn. The operational vehicle was to be the 58th Bombardment Wing of the XX Bomber Command, the headquarters of the XX Bomber Command had been established at Kharagpur India on 28 March 1944. The commander was General Kenneth B, the first B-29 reached its base in India on 2 April 1944
17.
Texas City, Texas
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Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the US state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a deepwater port on Texas Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum refining. The population was 45,099 at the 2010 census, making it the third-largest city in Galveston County, behind League City and it is a part of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. The city is notable as the site of an explosion in 1947 that demolished the port. Three duck hunters in 1891 noted that a location along Galveston Bay, Shoal Point had existed since the 1830s, when veterans of the Texas Revolution were awarded land for their services. The name was applied to the community when a post office opened in 1878, the duck hunters were three brothers from Duluth, Minnesota named Benjamin, Henry and Jacob Myers. After they returned to Duluth, they formed the Myers Brothers syndicate, convinced investors to put up money to buy 10,000 acres of Galveston Bay Frontage. They renamed the area Texas City, by 1893, the investors had formed the Texas City Improvement Company, which plotted and filed the townsite plan. A post office opened in 1893 with Frank B. Davison appointed as the towns first postmaster, to serve approximately 250 people who had moved there from Minnesota and Michigan. TCIC also received permission from the Federal Government to dredge a channel in the bay from Bolivar Roads to serve Texas City. In 1894, the channel was first used commercially, TCIC eventually dredged the channel to a forty-foot depth and extended the length of the port to 1.5 mi. TCIC also built a 4-mi railroad to the Texas City Junction south of town, despite these successes, the TCIC went bankrupt in 1897. Its assets were reorganized into two new companies, Texas City Company, and Texas City Railway Terminal Company, TCC acquired 3,000 city lots and provided water, gas and electricity to the town. These companies were chartered on February 4,1899, a grid of streets and avenues was laid out during the 1890s and houses and other structures began to appear. The Davison Home, where the first childbirth in the town took place, was constructed between 1895 and 1897, as the TCIC, the TCC and TCRTC expanded, urbanization expanded. Permission was granted in the summer of 1900 to dredge the Texas City channel to a depth of 25 ft, the disastrous Galveston Hurricane of 1900 interrupted the project, washing the dredge ashore. However, the Texas City port remained open after the storm passed, even before the channel dredging was complete, the first ocean-goingship, SS Piqua, arrived at the port from Mexico on September 28,1904. Dredging was completed March 19,1905, when the U. S. government opened a house in Texas City
18.
1st Reconnaissance Squadron
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The 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is a United States Air Force squadron, assigned to the 9th Operations Group, Beale Air Force Base, California. The 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is the United States militarys oldest flying unit, the squadron has maintained an unbroken heritage of over a century from its founding. The 1st RS has flown 47 different aircraft while being stationed worldwide at 52 locations, the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is responsible for training all High-Altitude Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance aircrew for the U-2S Dragon Lady and the RQ-4 Global Hawk. Aircrew members consist of pilots and mission planners for the U-2S, training for all U-2S pilots includes additional qualification in the T-38A Talon, the companion trainer to the U-2S. The squadron flies over 5,400 U-2S/T-38A training hours and 2,400 RQ-4 combat support hours annually and this flight training program produces 24 U-2S pilots,48 RQ-4 pilots, and 36 RQ-4 sensor operators annually. The Chief Signal officer approved a table of organization for the unit on 7 January 1914, at the time of its formation, 1st Company consisted of Burgess Model H tractors S. C. 9,24,25, and 26, while 2nd Company consisted of Curtiss aircraft S. C, the initial composition of the squadron was short three pilots. A fatal crash occurred on 12 August, followed by a crash on 5 September after protests about its safety were overruled by squadron commander Capt. Benjamin D. Foulois. During the Mexican Revolution, hundreds of Pancho Villas horsemen crossed the United States border and raided Columbus, the town was looted and burned, and 17 Americans were killed. Wilson then ordered General John J. Pershing to pursue and disperse, despite the shortcomings, the squadron was ordered to send all available aircraft, pilots and personnel to support Pershing. There would be neither replacements nor a reserve, the squadron disassembled its aircraft and left Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, by train on 13 March. Two days later it arrived in Columbus with eight Curtiss JN-3 aircraft,11 pilots and 82 enlisted men, from Columbus, the squadron flew its first reconnaissance sortie on 16 March. On 19 March 1916, the squadron received orders to fly into Mexico, shortly after 17,00 the planes took off but one returned almost immediately with engine problems. Darkness proved a challenge and none of the aircraft completed the movement on the first day. Four landed near La Ascension, about halfway to destination, and completed the flight the next morning, another aircraft overflew Casas Grandes in the dark and landed in the desert, where it was destroyed by vandals. Two others landed in the short of Casas Grandes, where one continued on the next morning. Pershing had only five operational airplanes available for immediate duty and it was found that the squadrons 90 horsepower Curtiss JN-3 airplanes were unable to climb over the 10,000 to 12, 000-foot mountains of the region or overcome the high winds of the passes through them. Dust storms frequently grounded the aircraft and wooden propellers de-laminated in the heat, using its base in Columbus, the 1st Aero Squadron concentrated on carrying mail and dispatches between Columbus and Pershings Army columns moving south into Mexico
19.
Benjamin Foulois
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Benjamin Delahauf Foulois was a United States Army general who learned to fly the first military planes purchased from the Wright Brothers. He became the first military aviator as a pilot. He led strategic development of the Air Force in the United States, Benjamin Benny Delahauf Foulois was born on December 9,1879, in Washington, Connecticut, to a French-American pipe-fitter and a Boston-born nurse. At age 18, he used his older brother’s birth certificate to enlist in the Army to support the Spanish–American War, as an engineer, he fought off the rampant tropical diseases, and after five months, was shipped home and mustered out. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on July 9,1901, Foulois returned to the United States in 1902 and transferred to the 17th Infantry. Foulois attended the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1907, he married Ella Snyder van Horn, the daughter of Colonel James Judson Van Horn. His experience in surveying in the Philippines led to reassignment to the engineer of the force to perform military mapping. The struggle for supremacy in the air will undoubtedly take place while the armies are maneuvering for position. He forecast the replacement of the horse by the airplane in reconnaissance, as a result, the CSO selected Foulois for the aeronautical board designated to conduct the 1908 airship and airplane acceptance trials. After having selected the Thomas Scott Baldwin airship as the winner of the trial and he took his first flight on August 18 as engineer-pilot while Baldwin controlled the rudder at the aft end. Foulois first aviation assignment was duty with the Aeronautical Division, U. S. Signal Corps, in expressing this opinion to the Army General Staff, Foulois recommended no more purchases of dirigibles, the first of many disagreements with the military establishment. The Wright brothers spent ten months following the fatal crash making engineering improvements to the airplane, by July 1909, Orville was ready to complete the acceptance test for the Signal Corps. On July 30,1909, Foulois first flight in an aeroplane was the evaluation test flight from Fort Myer to Alexandria, Virginia. Pilot Orville Wright and Navigator Foulois broke previous speed, altitude and cross-country duration records, flying at 42.5 mph,400 feet, the Army purchased this Wright Model A Military Flyer, which became Signal Corps No.1. The final condition of the contract was to two pilots. He returned on October 23 to College Park, Maryland, where Wilbur Wright had begun training Lahm, Humphreys made the first military solo in an airplane on October 26,1909, followed by Lahm. Although not contractually obligated to do so, Wilbur took Foulois up and allowed him to handle the controls, then turned him over to Humphreys for instruction. Foulois totaled three hours and two minutes at the controls, virtually equaling the flight time of Humphreys and Lahm, but did not make any landings, on November 5, Humphreys and Lahm cartwheeled S. C
20.
John J. Pershing
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American forces first saw serious battle at Cantigny, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Soissons. To speed up the arrival of the doughboys, they embarked for France leaving the heavy equipment behind, the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, which the Argonne fighting was part of, contributed to Germany calling for an armistice. Pershing was of the opinion that the war should continue and that all of Germany should be occupied in an effort to permanently destroy German militarism. Allowed to select his own insignia, Pershing chose to use four stars to distinguish himself from those officers who held the rank of General. Some of his tactics have been criticized both by commanders at the time and by modern historians. His reliance on costly frontal assaults, long after other Allied armies had abandoned such tactics, has blamed for causing unnecessarily high American casualties. Pershing was born on a farm near Laclede, Missouri, to businessman John Fletcher Pershing, Pershings mother was of English descent. He also had five siblings, brothers James F. and Ward, when the Civil War began, his father supported the Union and was a sutler for the 18th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. Pershing attended a school in Laclede that was reserved for students who were also the children of prominent citizens. Completing high school in 1878, he became a teacher of local African American children, in 1880, Pershing entered the North Missouri Normal School in Kirksville, Missouri. Two years later, he applied to the United States Military Academy, Pershing later admitted that serving in the military was secondary to attending West Point, and he had applied because the education offered was better than that obtainable in rural Missouri. Pershing was sworn in as a West Point cadet in the fall of 1882 and he was selected early for leadership and became successively First Corporal, First Sergeant, First Lieutenant, and First Captain, the highest possible cadet rank. Pershing also commanded, ex officio, the West Point Honor Guard that escorted the funeral procession of President Ulysses S. Grant. Pershing graduated from West Point in the summer of 1886 and was commended by the Superintendent of West Point, General Wesley Merritt, for leadership skills. Pershing briefly considered petitioning the Army to let him study law and he applied for a furlough from West Point, but soon withdrew the request in favor of active Army duty. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1886, at age 26, graduating 30th in a class of 77. Pershing reported for duty on September 30,1886, and was assigned to Troop L of the 6th U. S. Cavalry stationed at Fort Bayard. While serving in the 6th Cavalry, Pershing participated in several Indian campaigns and was cited for bravery for actions against the Apache, during his time at Fort Stanton, Pershing and close friends Lt. Julius Penn and Lt. Richard B
21.
Pancho Villa Expedition
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The Pancho Villa Expedition—now known officially in the United States as the Mexican Expedition but originally referred to as the Punitive Expedition, U. S. The expedition was launched in retaliation for Villas attack on the town of Columbus, New Mexico, the declared objective of the expedition by the Wilson administration was the capture of Villa. The Constitutionalist forces used arms at the town of Parral to resist passage of a U. S. Army column, the U. S. mission was changed to prevent further attacks on it by Mexican troops and to plan for war in the eventuality it broke out. When war was averted diplomatically, the expedition remained in Mexico until February 1917 to encourage Carranzas government to pursue Villa, feeling betrayed, Villa began attacking U. S. nationals and their property in northern Mexico. On November 26,1915, Villa sent a force to attack the city of Nogales and in the course of the ensuing battle, engaged with American forces before withdrawing. On January 11,1916, sixteen American employees of the American Smelting and Refining Company were removed from a train near Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, brigadier General John J. Raids were so commonplace, however, that the rumor was not seen as credible. Ten civilians and eight soldiers were killed in the attack, the raiders burned the town, stole horses and mules, and seized machine guns, ammunition and merchandise, before fleeing back to Mexico. However, Villas soldiers had suffered losses, with at least sixty-seven dead. Many of the casualties were inflicted when the machine gun troop of the 13th Cavalry led by 2nd Lt. John P, about thirteen of Villas wounded later died of their wounds, and five wounded Villistas taken prisoner by the Americans were tried and hanged for murder. Local lore in Columbus holds that the attack may have been caused by a merchant in Columbus who supplied Villa with arms and ammunition. Villa is said to have several thousand dollars in cash for the weapons. The next day, acting on the recommendations of the commanders of his cavalry regiments and this can and will be done in entirely friendly aid to the constituted authorities in Mexico and with scrupulous respect for the sovereignty of that Republic. The 2nd Provisional Cavalry Brigade reached Colonia Dublán after dark on March 17, the entire squadron flew to the advanced camp at Colonia Dublán on March 19–20, losing two aircraft in the process. Pershing immediately sent the 7th Cavalry south just after midnight on March 18 to begin the pursuit, persistent winter weather through early April, particularly bitterly cold nights at high altitude, made both pursuit and logistics more difficult. An additional regiment of cavalry and two of infantry were added to the expedition in late April, bringing its size to 4,800 men. This was the first use of convoys in a U. S. military operation. His headquarters advanced as far as the 1st Aero Squadrons field at Satevó, southeast of Chihuahua City, before falling back at the end of April. Villa had a head start on the pursuit, all but ensuring that his forces would successfully break up into smaller bands
22.
Columbus, New Mexico
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Columbus is a village in Luna County, New Mexico, United States, about three miles north of the Mexican border. The population was 1,765 at the 2000 census, Columbus was established in 1891 just across the Mexican border from Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico, and named after 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus. In 1902, the village was moved three miles north when the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad built its Columbus Station and this Station is now converted into a museum run by the Columbus Historical Society. Around 1905, it was a small town with a community of a hundred residents. By this time, Columbus had only one store, a saloon. In time, a school was built, and Perrow G. Mosely established the Columbus News. By 1915, the town had seven hundred residents, the Columbus State Bank was built, four hotels were constructed, several stores, at that time, Columbus also possessed rich silver, copper, lead, and zinc deposits. Villas army burned a part of the town and killed seven or eight soldiers and 10 residents before retreating back into Mexico, United States President Woodrow Wilson responded to the Columbus raid by sending 10,000 troops under Brigadier General John J. Pershing to Mexico to pursue Villa. This was known as the Punitive Mexican Expedition or Pancho Villa Expedition, the expedition was eventually called off after failing to find Villa, who had successfully escaped. Camp Furlong activity was greatly reduced, the army decided to close their camp, and the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad stopped service in Columbus. After all these events the economy naturally faded over time, in the 1990s Columbus started to rise again, with the development of city and state parks, museums, RV parks, and all the history involving the city. A few artists showed up, and Columbus became a place to visit or perhaps to live. In July 2011, Columbus dissolved its police force after a scandal that involved its village officials. The mayor, a trustee, a former police chief. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney from El Paso, Texas before United States District Court Judge Robert Brack in Las Cruces, of the 11 people charged, ten pleaded guilty, with one person still at large. Sentences ranged from five years in prison to two years probation. Columbus is located at 31°49′51″N 107°38′30″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.8 square miles, all land. The village is three miles north of the international border between the United States of America and Mexico
23.
5th Reconnaissance Squadron
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The 5th Reconnaissance Squadron is part of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, assigned to Beale Air Force Base, California. It is stationed at Osan Air Base, South Korea as a Geographically Separated Unit, the squadron is the fifth oldest United States Air Force squadron, its history dating to 5 May 1917 as the World War I 5th Aero Squadron. The 5th Reconnaissance Squadron operates U-2 Dragon Lady aircraft conducting reconnaissance and surveillance missions, the squadron is tasked with a real-world reconnaissance mission reportable to the U. S. Forces Korea, United States Pacific Command, Air Combat Command, there are approximately 200 personnel assigned to the 5 RS. The 5th Reconnaissance Squadrons origins unofficially begin before the United States entry into World War I. In December,1916 the squadron was first organized as a unit at Rockwell Field, California, it being the fifth Aero Squadron authorized by the Aviation Section. After flight training, the squadron was organized on 5 May 1917 at Kelly Field. It was transferred to the new Souther Field, Americus, Georgia in April 1918 where it joined the 116th, 236th and 237th Aero Squadrons as Curtiss JN-4D flight training squadrons. Souther Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I in April 1917 and it consisted of warehouses, barracks, fifteen hangars and other structures. Eventually over eighty JN-4s were used for training, in July 1918, as part of a re-organization of training squadrons in the United States, it was disbanded and replaced by Squadron A, Souther Field which continued the flight training mission. The flying training at Souther Field continued until November 1919 when the War Department deactivated the field and sold its surplus airplanes to the public. One of the planes was sold to Charles Lindbergh who bought a JN-4 with a brand-new OX-5 engine, a new 5th squadron was established after World War I as part of the permanent United States Army Air Service in 1919. Authorized as the 5th Aero Squadron at Hazelhurst Field, New York, the squadron was equipped with war surplus Dayton-Wright DH-4Bs. The squadron moved to Mitchel Field, New York the following month, in 1921, the unit became the 5th Squadron and two years later the 5th Observation Squadron. In May,1921, the 5th was attached to General Billy Mitchells 1st Provisional Air Brigade at Langley Field, from May to October 1921, the squadron and other units of the Air Brigade bombed battleships off the eastern seaboard. Mitchell was determined to prove airplanes could sink warships, in July, in the well known SMS Ostfriesland incident, brigade airplanes sunk a modern, German-made battleship. General Mitchell proclaimed the era of battleships had ended and the age of airpower had begun, on 1 August 1922, the 5th Observation Squadron joined with the 1st Observation Squadron to form the 9th Observation Group, todays 9th Operations Group and the 9th Reconnaissance Wings predecessor. In 1928, the Army attached the 99th Observation Squadron to the 9th Observation Group, throughout the 1920s and early 1930s the 5th flew normal observation and training missions and participated in air shows
24.
Kelly Field Annex
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Kelly Field Annex is a United States Air Force facility located in San Antonio, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education, Kelly Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entry into World War I, being established on 27 March 1917. It was used as a field, primary flying school, school for adjutants, supply officers, engineers, mechanics school. As of 2006, there are some isolated USAF activities on Port San Antonio subordinate to Lackland. Several large warehouses on the grounds of Port San Antonio were cleared, cleaned and equipped with large air conditioning units to house evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. The first evacuees began to arrive on September 2,2005, Kelly Field Annex is named in honor of 2d Lieutenant George Edward Maurice Kelly. Lt. Kelly, who after a course of training at the Curtiss Aviation School, Rockwell Field, California, was ordered to Fort Sam Houston, near San Antonio. While attempting to land on 10 May 1911 in order to avoid running into a tent and thereby possibly injuring several others, died in a crash, the center was to be built for the Aviation Section of the U. S. Army Signal Corps. General Scriven described San Antonio as “the most important strategic position of the South, ” in response to the unrest resulting from the Mexican Revolution. S. ”In November 1915, when the newly created 1st Aero Squadron arrived at Fort Sam Houston after a cross-country flight from Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Problems experienced by the 1st Aero Squadron on that expedition and the war in Europe persuaded Congress to improve. It was quickly apparent that Fort Sam Houston had inadequate space for flying operations, especially with newer. Major Benjamin Foulois, with the support of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, bordered by the Frio City Road on the northwest, the site was also adjacent to the Southern Pacific Railroad, providing easy access by road and rail. In addition, the new site was relatively flat, and thus suitable for flying operations, initially, the site was called the South San Antonio Aviation Camp. On 5 April 1917, four took off from Fort Sam Houston, flew across San Antonio and landed on the new airfield. Tents had been erected as hangars, however a permanent presence at the airfield was not established until 7 May when 700 men arrived, a week later, the population had grown to 4,000. Construction of the facility was rapid, with the United States now at war, the ground was cleared and scores of buildings - hangars, barracks, mess halls, a street system, electrical and plumbing systems, warehouses, machine shops were all constructed during the summer. By the end of June, it was clear that Foulois original site, a committee of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce provided the necessary land and presented the proposition to the Aviation Production Board in Washington, D. C. in June 1917. A contract was signed in July 1917, comprising all of what was Kelly Field #2, Kelly soldiers organized approximately 250,000 men into Aero Squadrons during the hectic months of 1917 and 1918
25.
Battle of Saint-Mihiel
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The U. S. Army Air Service played a significant role in this action. This battle marked the first use of the terms D-Day and H-Hour by the Americans, the fighting was depicted in the 1927 film Wings. The attack at the St. Mihiel salient was part of a plan by Pershing in which he hoped that the Americans would break through the German lines and capture the fortified city of Metz. It was the first and only offensive launched solely by the United States Army in World War I, and this meant that their artillery was out of place and the American attack, coming up against disorganized German forces, proved more successful than expected. The St. Mihiel attack established the stature of the U. S, the U. S. attack faltered as artillery and food supplies were left behind on the muddy roads. The attack on Metz was not realized, as the Germans refortified their positions, Saint-Mihiel is a town in the Meuse department in northeastern France. Since the end of the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War, the town was no longer considered important strategically and this changed early in World War I with the town inside the battlefront. In 1914, the German command wished to take the Verdun fortifications which formed a point in the French lines. A first attempt, at Bois-le-Pretre, failed despite violent fighting, during two more attempts, German troops took Saint-Mihiel and the fort at Camp des Romains, but they were ultimately stopped at the Fort de Troyon to the south of Verdun. During the course of the war the front did not change much in this area, Saint-Mihiel formed a salient inside the French lines, blocking communications between Nancy and Verdun. The area near St. Mihiel would know much fighting, The Crête des Éparges, the Bois dAilly and the Tranchée de la Soif, isolated behind German lines, Commander dAndrés men fight three days without food or water before surrender in May 1915. Bois Brûlé, many casualties when German conquer a redoubt on December 1914 and it is here that the sub-officer Jacques Péricard pronounced the famous words, Debout les morts. on 8 April 1915. The forêt dApremont, the Tête à vache trenches, Calonne trenches… But despite French attacks the German forces were able to retain this strategic location until the last months of the war. General John Pershing thought that a successful Allied attack in the region of St. Mihiel, Metz, for this, he placed his confidence in a young First Infantry Division Major, George Marshall, to move troops and supplies effectively throughout the battle. After these goals were accomplished, the Americans could launch offensives into Germany proper, the American First Army had been activated in August and taken over the sector of the Allied line. Pershing had to persuade Marshall Foch to permit an American attack on the salient, the weather corps of Corps I Operation Order stated, Visibility, Heavy driving wind and rain during parts of day and night. This would pose a challenge to the Americans when the order to advance was given, in some parts of the road, the men were almost knee-deep in mud and water. After five days of rain, the ground was impassable to both the American tanks and infantry
26.
Second Battle of the Marne
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The Second Battle of the Marne, or Battle of Reims was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack failed when an Allied counterattack by French and American forces, including several hundred tanks, overwhelmed the Germans on their right flank, the German defeat marked the start of the relentless Allied advance which culminated in the Armistice with Germany about 100 days later. To shield his intentions and draw Allied troops away from Belgium, the battle began on 15 July 1918 when 23 German divisions of the First and Third armies—led by Bruno von Mudra and Karl von Einem—assaulted the French Fourth Army under Henri Gouraud east of Reims. The U. S. 42nd Division was attached to the French Fourth Army and commanded by Gouraud at the time. Meanwhile,17 divisions of the German Seventh Army, under Max von Boehn, aided by the Ninth Army under Johannes von Eben, Ludendorff hoped to split the French in two. The German attack on the east of Reims was stopped on the first day, the defenders of the south bank of the Marne could not escape the three hour bombardment. Under cover of gunfire, stormtroopers swarmed across the river in every sort of transport—30-man canvas boats or rafts and they began to erect skeleton bridges at 12 points under fire from those Allied survivors who had not been suppressed by gas or artillery fire. Some Allied units, particularly COL Ulysses G. McAlexanders 38th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd U. S, the British XXII Corps and 85,000 American troops joined the French for the battle, and stalled the advance on 17 July 1918. The Allied preparation was very important in countering the German offensive and it was believed that the Allies had the complete picture of the German offensive in terms of intentions and capabilities. The Allies knew the key points of the German plan down to the minute, There is a legend, possibly true, that engineer Cpt. Hunter Grant, along with the help of engagement coordinator and engineer Cpt, the Germans, on finding and being taken in by these plans, then adjusted their attack to thwart the false Allied plan. Consequently, the French and American forces led by Foch were able to unleash a different attack on exposed parts of the lines, leaving the Germans with no choice. This engagement marked the beginning of a German withdrawal that was never effectively reversed, in September 1918 nine American divisions joined four French divisions to push the Germans from the St. Mihiel salient. By May, Foch had spotted flaws in the German offensives, the force which defeated the German offensive was mainly French, with American, British and Italian support. However, the presence of fresh American troops, unbroken by years of war, floyd Gibbons wrote about the American troops, saying, I never saw men charge to their death with finer spirit. On 19 July, the Italian Corps lost 9,334 officers, nevertheless, Berthelot rushed two newly arrived British infantry divisions, the 51st and 62nd, threw the Italians straight into attack down the Ardre Valley. The Germans ordered a retreat on 20 July and were forced back to the positions from which they had started their Spring Offensives and they strengthened their flank positions opposite the Allied pincers and on the 22nd, Ludendorff ordered to take up a line from the upper Ourcq to Marfaux. Costly Allied assaults continued for minimal gains, by 27 July, the Germans had withdrawn their center behind Fère-en-Tardenois and had completed an alternative rail link
27.
Third Battle of the Aisne
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It was one of a series of offensives, known as the Kaiserschlacht, launched by the Germans in the spring and summer of 1918. The massive surprise attack lasted from 27 May until 4 June 1918 and was the first full-scale German offensive following the Lys Offensive in Flanders in April. The Germans held the Chemin des Dames Ridge from the First Battle of the Aisne in September 1914 to 1917, operation Blücher-Yorck was planned primarily by Erich Ludendorff, who was certain that success at the Aisne would lead the German armies to within striking distance of Paris. Thus, the Aisne drive was to be essentially a large diversionary attack, the defense of the Aisne area was in the hands of General Denis Auguste Duchêne, commander of the French Sixth Army. On the morning of 27 May 1918, the Germans began a bombardment of the Allied front lines with over 4,000 artillery pieces, huddled together, they made easy artillery targets. The bombardment was followed by a poison gas drop, the Kaiser came to inspect the progress of the battle. He interviewed captured British Brigadier-General Hubert Rees, the Kaiser was amused to learn that he was Welsh, the same nationality as Lloyd George. Taken completely by surprise and with their defences spread thin, the Allies were unable to stop the attack, Victory seemed near for the Germans, who had captured just over 50,000 Allied soldiers and over 800 guns by 30 May 1918. But advancing within 56 kilometres of Paris on 3 June, the German armies were beset by problems, including supply shortages, fatigue, lack of reserves. On 6 June 1918, following many successful Allied counter-attacks, the German advance halted on the Marne, much as the Michael and Georgette offensives had in March, the French had suffered over 98,000 casualties and the British around 29,000. German losses were nearly as great, if not slightly heavier, duchene was sacked by French Commander-in-Chief Philippe Petain for his poor handling of the British and French troops. The Americans had arrived and proven themselves in combat for the first time in the war, Ludendorff, encouraged by the gains of Blücher-Yorck, launched further offensives culminating in the Second Battle of the Marne. Chemins des Dames Ridge Evans, M. M. Battles of World War I,1918, A Very British Victory, Phoenix Books, London. A Young Mans War, Medlar Press
28.
Meuse-Argonne Offensive
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It was fought from 26 September 1918, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, a total of 47 days. American losses were exacerbated by the inexperience of many of the troops, the Meuse-Argonne was the principal engagement of the AEF during World War I. The logistical prelude to the Meuse attack was planned by then-Colonel George Marshall who managed to move American units to the front after the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, on 26 September, the Americans began their strike towards Sedan in the south. The next day British and Belgian divisions drove towards Ghent, and then British, the Meuse-Argonne offensive, shared by the U. S. forces with the French Fourth Army on the left, was the biggest operation and victory of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The bulk of the AEF had not gone into action until 1918, the Meuse-Argonne battle was the largest frontline commitment of troops by the U. S. Army in World War I, and also its deadliest. Command was coordinated, with some U. S. troops attached, the main U. S. effort of the Meuse-Argonne offensive took place in the Verdun Sector, immediately north and northwest of the town of Verdun, between 26 September and 11 November 1918. However, far to the north, U. S. Quentin Canal, the American forces initially consisted of fifteen divisions of the U. S. First Army commanded by then-General John J. Pershing until October 16, the logistics were planned and directed by then-Colonel George C. Marshall. The French forces next to them consisted of 31 divisions including the Fourth Army, the U. S. S. and French contributions in troops were considerable. Most of the equipment was provided by the European Allies. For the Meuse-Argonne front alone, this represented 2,780 artillery pieces,380 tanks and 840 planes, as the battle progressed, both the Americans and the French brought in reinforcements. Eventually,22 American divisions would participate in the battle at one time or another, other French forces involved included the 2nd Colonial Corps, under Henri Claudel, which had also fought alongside the AEF at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel earlier in September 1918. The opposing forces were wholly German, during this period of the war, German divisions procured only 50 percent or less of their initial strength. The 117th Division, which opposed the U. S. 79th Division during the offensives first phase, had only 3,300 men in its ranks. For example, divisions that served on the Eastern front would have high morale, while conversely divisions that had been on the Western front had poor morale. Resistance grew to approximately 200, 000–450,000 German troops from the Fifth Army of Group Gallwitz commanded by General Georg von der Marwitz, the Americans estimated that they opposed parts of 44 German divisions overall, though many fewer at any one time. The objective was the capture of the hub at Sedan which would break the railway network supporting the German Army in France. During the three hours preceding H hour, the Allies expended more ammunition than both sides managed to fire throughout the four years of the Civil War, the cost was later calculated to have been $180 million, or $1 million per minute
29.
Billy Mitchell
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William Billy Mitchell was a United States Army general who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and, by the conflicts end, after the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and he resigned from the service shortly afterward. Mitchell received many honors following his death, including a commission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a major general and he is also the only individual for whom an American military aircraft design, the North American B-25 Mitchell, is named. Born in Nice, France, to John L. Mitchell, Mitchell grew up on an estate in what is now the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. His grandfather, Alexander Mitchell, a Scotsman, established what became the Milwaukee Road railroad, Mitchell Park and the shopping precinct of Mitchell Street were named in honor of Alexander. Mitchells sister Ruth fought with the Chetniks in Yugoslavia during World War II and later wrote a book about her brother, Billy Mitchell graduated from Columbian College of George Washington University, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity. He then enlisted as a private at age 18 in Company M of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Regiment on May 14,1898, quickly gaining a commission due to his fathers influence, he joined the U. S. Army Signal Corps. Following the cessation of hostilities, Mitchell remained in the Army and he predicted as early as 1906, while an instructor at the Armys Signal School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, that future conflicts would take place in the air, not on the ground. A member of one of Milwaukees most prominent families, Billy Mitchell was probably the first person with ties to Wisconsin to see the Wright Brothers plane fly, in 1908, when a young Signal Corps officer, Mitchell observed Orville Wrights flying demonstration at Fort Myer, Virginia. Mitchell took flight lessons at the Curtiss Aviation School at Newport News, from 1900 to 1904, Mitchell was posted in the District of Alaska as a lieutenant in the Signal Corps. Brunnell, Lieutenant Mitchell oversaw the construction of what became known as the Washington-Alaska Military Cable, ironically, he appeared in August 1913 at legislative hearings considering a bill to make Army aviation a branch separate from the Signal Corps and testified against the bill. In June, he took flying lessons at the Glenn Curtiss Aviation School because he was proscribed by law from aviator training by age and rank. In July 1916, he was promoted to major and appointed Chief of the Air Service of the First Army, when the United States declared war on Germany on April 6,1917, Mitchell was in Spain en route to France as an observer. On April 24, he made the first flight by an American officer over German lines, before long, Mitchell had gained enough experience to begin preparations for American air operations. Mitchell rapidly earned a reputation as a daring, flamboyant, in May, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to the rank of colonel on October 10,1917 to rank from August 5. In September 1918, he planned and led nearly 1,500 British, French and he was elevated to the rank of brigadier general on October 14,1918 and commanded all American air combat units in France
30.
Battleship
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A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the battleship was the most powerful type of warship, the word battleship was coined around 1794 and is a contraction of the phrase line-of-battle ship, the dominant wooden warship during the Age of Sail. The term came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ironclad warship. In 1906, the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought heralded a revolution in battleship design, subsequent battleship designs, influenced by HMS Dreadnought, were referred to as dreadnoughts. Battleships were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, the launch of Dreadnought in 1906 commenced a new naval arms race. Jutland was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of battleships in the war, the Naval Treaties of the 1920s and 1930s limited the number of battleships, though technical innovation in battleship design continued. The value of the battleship has been questioned, even during their heyday, there were few of the decisive fleet battles that battleship proponents expected, and used to justify the vast resources spent on building battlefleets. Battleships were retained by the United States Navy into the Cold War for fire support purposes before being stricken from the U. S. Naval Vessel Register in the 2000s. A ship of the line was a large, unarmored wooden sailing ship which mounted a battery of up to 120 smoothbore guns, from 1794, the alternative term line of battle ship was contracted to battle ship or battleship. The sheer number of guns fired broadside meant a sail battleship could wreck any wooden enemy, holing her hull, knocking down masts, wrecking her rigging, and killing her crew. However, the range of the guns was as little as a few hundred yards. The first major change to the ship of the concept was the introduction of steam power as an auxiliary propulsion system. Steam power was introduced to the navy in the first half of the 19th century, initially for small craft. The French Navy introduced steam to the line of battle with the 90-gun Napoléon in 1850—the first true steam battleship, Napoléon was armed as a conventional ship-of-the-line, but her steam engines could give her a speed of 12 knots, regardless of the wind condition. This was a decisive advantage in a naval engagement. The introduction of steam accelerated the growth in size of battleships, the adoption of steam power was only one of a number of technological advances which revolutionized warship design in the 19th century. The ship of the line was overtaken by the ironclad, powered by steam, protected by metal armor, and armed with guns firing high-explosive shells. In the Crimean War, six ships and two frigates of the Russian Black Sea Fleet destroyed seven Turkish frigates and three corvettes with explosive shells at the Battle of Sinop in 1853
31.
U.S. Army Air Service
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The Air Service, United States Army was the military aviation service of the United States between 1918 and 1926 and a forerunner of the United States Air Force. It was established as an independent but temporary branch of the U. S and its life was extended for another year in July 1919, during which time Congress passed the legislation necessary to make it a permanent establishment. The National Defense Act of 1920 assigned the Air Service the status of combatant arm of the line of the United States Army with a general in command. By the end of the war, the Air Service used 45 squadrons to cover 137 kilometers of front from Pont-à-Mousson to Sedan,71 pursuit pilots were credited with shooting down five or more German aircraft while in American service. Overall the Air Service destroyed 756 enemy aircraft and 76 balloons in combat,17 balloon companies also operated at the front, making 1,642 combat ascensions. 289 airplanes and 48 balloons were lost in battle, the Air Service was the first form of the air force to have an independent organizational structure and identity. Although officers concurrently held rank in various branches, after May 1918 their branch designation in official correspondence while on aviation assignment changed from ASSC to AS, after July 1,1920, its personnel became members of the Air Service branch, receiving new commissions. Airmen such as Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell supported the concept, the Armys senior leadership from World War I, the United States Navy, and the majority of the nations political leadership favored integration of all military aviation into the Army and Navy. Aided by a wave of pacifism following the war that drastically cut military budgets, opponents of an independent air force prevailed, the Air Service was renamed the Army Air Corps in 1926 as a compromise in the continuing struggle. The declaration of war against Germany on April 6,1917, putting the United States in World War I, came too quickly to solve emerging engineering and production problems. The reorganization of the Aviation Section had been inadequate in resolving problems in training, leaving the United States totally unprepared to fight an air war in Europe, the Aviation Section consisted of 131 officers,1087 enlisted men, and approximately 280 airplanes. The Board dispatched Major Raynal C, by the time the bill passed, the term Air Service was in widespread if unofficial usage to collectively describe all aspects of Army aviation. Even so, the Aircraft Board in practice had little control over procurement contracts, nor did the Equipment Division of the Signal Corps exercise such control. Though individual areas within the industry responded well, the industry as a whole failed. Efforts to mass produce European aircraft under license largely failed because the aircraft, at the same time the Aeronautical Division of the OCSO was renamed the Air Division with continued responsibility for training and operations but with no influence on acquisition or doctrine. In the end the process in aircraft procurement was badly fragmented. Borglum had exchanged letters with President Wilson, a friend, from which he assumed an appointment to investigate had been authorized. Both the U. S. Senate and the Department of Justice began investigations into possible fraudulent dealings, Kenly brought back from France to be its head, to separate supervision of aviation from the duties of the Chief Signal Officer
32.
Mitchel Air Force Base
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Mitchel Air Force Base also known as Mitchel Field, was a United States Air Force base located on the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York, United States. During the American Revolutionary War it was known as the Hempstead Plains, in the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War, it was a training center for Infantry units. During the American Civil War, it was the location of Camp Winfield Scott, in 1898, in the Spanish–American War, Mitchels site was known as Camp Black. Curtiss JN-4 Jennies became a common sight over Long Island in 1917 and 1918, hundreds of aviators were trained for war at these training fields, two of the largest in the United States. Numerous new wooden buildings and tents were erected on Roosevelt Field and Field #2 in 1918 in order to meet this rapid expansion, Mitchel Field continued to grow after World War I and between 1929 and 1932. Much of this still exists today, being used for non-military purposes. In the 1920s and 1930s, various observation, fighter, and it became a major aerodrome for both the Air Corps as well as various civilian activity. The 1920s was considered the age of air racing and on 27 November 1920. The race consisted of four laps of a 29 miles course, thirty-eight pilots entered and took off individually. The winner was Capt. Corliss Moseley, flying a Verville-Packard VCP-R racer, in October 1923, Mitchel Field was the scene of the first airplane jumping contest in the nation. During the same year, two worlds airplane speed records were established there, in 1924, the airmail service had its inception in experimental flights begun at the airfield. In September 1929, Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle, then a Lieutenant, in 1938, Mitchel was the starting point for the first nonstop transcontinental bomber flight, made by Army B-18 Bolos. Mitchel Field also served as a base from which the first demonstration of long-range aerial reconnaissance was made, in May 1939, three B-17s, with Lt. Curtis LeMay navigating, flew 620 miles out to sea and intercepted the Italian ocean liner SS Rex. This was a example of the range, mobility. On September 21 of that year the base was struck by the Long Island Express hurricane, flooding produced water that was over knee-deep, numerous trees were toppled and the glass was smashed atop the traffic control tower. During 1943, Mitchel AAF became an area for Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers. Mitchel Field was a source of supply in initial garrisoning and defense of North Atlantic air bases in Newfoundland, Greenland. From the airfield the planning for the air defense of Nova Scotia, Antisubmarine patrol missions along the Atlantic coast were carried out in 1942 by the United States Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command aircraft based at Mitchel
33.
99th Reconnaissance Squadron
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The 99th Reconnaissance Squadron is a squadron of the United States Air Force. It is assigned to the 9th Operations Group, Air Combat Command, stationed at Beale Air Force Base, the squadron is equipped with the Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft. The 99 RS is one of the oldest units in the United States Air Force, first being organized as the 99th Aero Squadron on 21 August 1917 at Kelly Field, Texas. The squadron deployed to France and fought on the Western Front during World War I as a Corps observation squadron, during the Cold War was part of Strategic Air Command equipped with B-47 Stratojet medium bombers, and later with the SR-71 Blackbird strategic reconnaissance aircraft. The 99th Reconnaissance Squadron is responsible for providing intelligence for use by the highest levels of the U. S. government. Squadron pilots fly the Lockheed U-2S aircraft as they train to upgrade from normal aircraft commander status to that of instructor pilot status. Pilots from the squadron frequently rotate overseas to support the various operating locations. The squadron has one of the highest TDY rates in the Air Force and this high operations tempo could not be effectively maintained without the crew chiefs assigned to the squadron who perform routine maintenance to keep the aircraft flying on a daily basis. In addition to the reconnaissance mission, U-2 pilots fly many humanitarian, search and rescue. The current mission statement of the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron is To deploy and employ warrior Airmen and execute effective, after training in the Sopwith Camel and the Salmson 2, the squadron began flying combat missions in June 1918. Assigned to the V Corps Observation Group, United States First Army Air Service and it served as a school squadron with V Army Corps Infantry Liaison School. On 19 July, was assigned to the St. Die sector during which time one flight of unit, operating in Vosges region of Alsace and Lorraine where it participated in combat with French XXXIII Corps. Between 12 and 16 September the squadron flew reconnaissance missions and directed artillery fire in support French 8th Army and it also participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive between 26 September –11 November 1918 when the Armistice with Germany was reached. However lack of funding for training and the feeling in the United States that the peace lessened the need for a strong military led to many of the combat veterans to leave the service. As a result, the proficiency of squadron aircrews deteriorated until the 99th had no one proficient enough to participate in the 1929 bombing, in 1927, the 99th moved to Kelly Field, Texas where it was assigned to the Air Corps Training Center. It was inactivated on 31 July, with the creation of the GHQ Air Force on 1 March 1935, the group became the 9th Bombardment Group and the 99th became a bombardment squadron. With the new mission came new airplanes, the new bombardment squadron received American-made Martin B-10s in 1936 and Douglas B-18s in 1938. Squadron members trained hard learning the tactics and maneuvers of their new aircraft and new mission
34.
Airco DH.4
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The Airco DH.4 was a British two-seat biplane day bomber of World War I. It was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland for Airco, and was the first British two-seat light day-bomber to have a defensive armament. It first flew in August 1916 and entered service with the Royal Flying Corps in March 1917, the majority of DH. 4s were actually built as general purpose two-seaters in the United States, for service with the American forces in France. The DH.4 was tried with several engines, of which the best was the 375 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. Armament and ordnance for the aircraft consisted of one 0.303 in Vickers machine gun for the pilot, two 230 lb bombs or four 112 lb bombs could be carried. The DH.4 entered service on 6 March 1917 with No.55 Squadron in France, the DH.4 was designed by Geoffrey de Havilland as a light two-seat day bomber powered by the new Beardmore Halford Pullinger engine. The prototype first flew in August 1916, powered by a prototype BHP engine rated at 230 hp, while the DH.4 trials were promising, the BHP engine required major redesign before entering production, and the Rolls-Royce Eagle engine was selected as the DH. 4s powerplant. The first order for 50 DH. 4s, powered by 250 hp Eagle III engines was placed at the end of 1916, the aircraft was a conventional tractor two bay biplane of all-wooden construction. The crew of two were accommodated in widely spaced cockpits, separated by the fuel tank and it was armed with a single forward-firing synchronised Vickers machine gun and one or two.303 in Lewis guns fitted on a Scarff ring fired by the observer. A bomb load of 460 lb could be fitted to external racks, as production continued, DH. 4s were fitted with Eagle engines of increasing power, settling on the 375 hp Eagle VIII, which powered the majority of frontline DH. 4s by the end of 1917. None of these engines could match the Rolls-Royce Eagle, however, in American production, the new Liberty engine proved suitable as a DH.4 powerplant. The Liberty was also to power the British DH. 9A. Production was by Airco, F. W. Berwick and Co, Glendower Aircraft Company, Palladium Autocars, Vulcan Motor and Engineering, a total of 1,449 aircraft were made in the UK for the RFC and RNAS. SABCA of Belgium made a further 15 in 1926, a total of 9,500 DH-4s were ordered from American manufacturers, of which 1,885 actually reached France during the war. After the war, a number of firms, most significantly Boeing, were contracted by the U. S. Army to remanufacture surplus DH-4s to DH-4B standard. Known by Boeing as the Model 16, deliveries of 111 aircraft from this manufacturer took place between March and July 1920, with 50 of them returned for further three years later. In 1923, the Army ordered a new DH-4 variant from Boeing and these three prototypes were designated DH-4M-1 and were ordered into production alongside the generally similar DH-4M-2 developed by Atlantic Aircraft. A total of 22 of the 163 DH-4M-1s were converted by the Army into dual-control trainers, the DH.4 entered service with the RFC in January 1917, first being used by No.55 Squadron
35.
Curtiss Falcon
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The Curtiss Falcon was a family of military biplane aircraft built by the American aircraft manufacturer Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company during the 1920s. Most saw service as part of the United States Army Air Corps as observation aircraft with the designations O-1 and O-11, or as the attack aircraft designated the A-3 Falcon. U. S. Navy variants were used initially as fighter-bombers with the designation F8C Falcon, Two later generations of Curtiss dive-bombers would also be named Helldiver. The type was introduced in 1925 and saw service in the United States until 1934. Curtiss Falcons fought in the Constitutional Revolution of 1932 in Brazil, the Falcon XO-1 prototype was evaluated by the USAAC along with eleven other prototypes in 1924 and the Douglas XO-2 was declared the winner of that competition. So Curtiss re-engined the prototype with the Packard 1A-1500 for the 1925 trials, the engine failed to live up to expectations and the O-1 ordered by the Army was fitted with the 435 hp Curtiss V-1150 engine. The aircraft was a conventional biplane design with wooden wings. The landing gear was fixed and the tail included a balanced rudder with a rear skid originally, the initial A-3 Falcon order was placed in the winter of 1927 and delivery of the first plane was in October 1927. A total of 76 A-3s were received, later, six aircraft were modified as pilot trainers with dual controls and redesignated A-3A. A second batch of 78 improved A-3Bs, based on the Curtiss O-1E, was purchased beginning in 1929, reasonably successful as an observation aircraft, Falcons flew primarily in the 1st, 5th and 99th Observation Squadrons of the 9th Observation Group, Mitchel Field, New York. The U. S. Navy introduced the F8C-1 and F8C-3 Falcon as a fighter in 1927-1928. They were later redesignated OC-1 and OC-2 for Marine Corps use as an observation/bomber, the F8C-4 Helldiver variant initially saw service with the Navy, and the first production batch of 25 was transferred in 1931 to the Marine Corps. A total of 34 F8Cs redesignated as O2C-1 observation aircraft were transferred to the Naval Reserve in 1931, serving with squadrons VN-10RD9, VN-11RD9. Most of the 63 newer F8C-5/O2C-1 Helldivers also served with the Marines, the type was featured in multiple Hollywood films, Flight and Hell Divers. Curtiss Falcon aircraft fought during the Brazil Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932, in Bolivia, the aircraft type also fought in the Chaco War, bombing Paraguayan troopers. The Colombian Air Force used Falcon F-8 and O-1 in the Colombia-Peru War in 1932-3. A-3 Model 44, attack version of O-1B, armed with two 0.30 in machine guns and 200 lb of bombs,76 built for the USAAC. A-3A Six A-3s converted into trainers, a-3B Model 37H, attack version of O-1E, with six machine guns, including two mounted in wings,78 built
36.
United States Army Air Corps
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The United States Army Air Corps was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941. The USAAC was renamed from the earlier United States Army Air Service on 2 July 1926, the Air Corps became the United States Army Air Forces on 20 June 1941, giving it greater autonomy from the Armys middle-level command structure. The separation of the Air Corps from control of its combat units caused problems of unity of command that became more acute as the Air Corps enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces, the U. S. Army Air Service had a brief but turbulent history. In early 1926 the Military Affairs Committee of the Congress rejected all bills set forth before it on both sides of the issue. They fashioned a compromise in which the findings of the Morrow Board were enacted as law, while providing the air arm a five-year plan for expansion and development. The legislation changed the name of the Air Service to the Air Corps, thereby strengthening the conception of military aviation as an offensive, the Air Corps Act became law on 2 July 1926. Two additional brigadier generals would serve as assistant chiefs of the Air Corps, previous provisions of the National Defense Act of 1920 that all flying units be commanded only by rated personnel and that flight pay be awarded were continued. The Air Corps also retained the Prop and Wings as its branch insignia through its disestablishment in 1947, patrick became Chief of the Air Corps and Brig. Gen. James E. Fechet continued as his first assistant chief. The Air Corps Act of 2 July 1926 effected no fundamental innovation, the change in designation meant no change in status, the Air Corps was still a combatant branch of the Army with less prestige than the Infantry. The Air Corps Act gave authorization to carry out an expansion program. However, a lack of appropriations caused the beginning of the program to be delayed until 1 July 1927. The act authorized expansion to 1,800 airplanes,1,650 officers, none of the goals were reached by July 1932. Organizationally the Air Corps doubled from seven to fifteen groups, but the expansion was meaningless because all were seriously understrength in aircraft and pilots. Air Corps groups added 1927–1937 ¹Inactivated on 20 May 1937 ²Redesignated 17th Attack Group, 17th Bomb Group As units of the Air Corps increased in number, so did higher command echelons. The 1st Bomb Wing was activated in 1931, followed by the 3rd Attack Wing in 1932 to protect the Mexican border, the three wings became the foundation of General Headquarters Air Force upon its activation in 1935. In 1927 the Air Corps adopted a new scheme for painting its aircraft. The wings and tails of aircraft were painted yellow, with the words U. S
37.
2d Bomb Wing
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The 2d Bomb Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command and Eighth Air Force. It is stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, the wing is also the host unit at Barksdale. The wing was assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command in February 2010 as part of the reassignment of Eighth Air Force. The 2 BW is one of only two B-52H Stratofortress wings in the United States Air Force, the other being the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. Its 2d Operations Group is the oldest bomb group of the Air Force, having fought on the Western Front as the 1st Day Bombardment Group during World War I and it After the war, it participated in Brigadier General Billy Mitchells 1921 off-shore bombing test. Active for over 60 years, the 2 BW was a component wing of Strategic Air Command s heavy bomber deterrent force throughout the Cold War, the 2d Bomb Wing is commanded by Colonel Ty W. Neuman. Its Command Chief Master Sergeant is Teresa W. Clapper, at the time of its activation, wing headquarters remained non-operational, its assigned 2d Bombardment Group being attached to the 43rd Bombardment Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. At the time of its activation, there was debate about where to station the new wing. Its planned station, Chatham Air Force Base, Georgia was a World War II training airfield with facilities deemed inadequate by SAC. Located approximately 10 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia, Chatham had an airfield for B-29 operations. Constructed to last for five years, the buildings had reached the end of their life expectancy, in addition, the buildings shortcomings also included outside latrines and potbellied stoves for heating. Work was begun to modernize the base from its World War II wartime configuration into a permanent Air Force Base with modern facilities, equipped with B-29 Superfortresses, the wings primary mission was training for strategic bombardment operations. In early 1949, the first B-50 Superfortresses began to arrive, a derivative of the B-29, the B-50 was designed for atomic warfare, had faster, more powerful engines and could fly at higher altitudes than the B-29. The facilities, however, at Chatham remained unsatisfactory to SAC leadership, Hunter Field was built in 1929 as Savannah Municipal Airport and in 1940 the Air Corps received approval to build a permanent base at the site. During World War II it was used both as a base as well as an antisubmarine airfield during the war. In June 1946, the airfield was returned to the City of Savannah, in addition, Headquarters, Eighth Air Force was established in Savannah in January 1942, and there was a strong desire to have an Eighth Air Force wing be stationed in the area. B-50 Superfortress operations continued until November 1953, when the 2 BW began receiving jet-powered B-47E Stratojet medium bombers, the B-47 was a fast bomber which relied on speed to penetrate the air defenses of the Soviet Union, and was produced in large numbers. It became the mainstay of the strength of SAC all throughout the 1950s
38.
Keystone B-6
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The Keystone B-6 was a biplane bomber developed for the United States Army Air Corps. In 1931, the United States Army Air Corps received five working models of the B-6 bomber, the Y1B- designation, as opposed to a YB- designation, indicates funding outside normal fiscal year procurement. Two of these were redesignations of LB-13s, three were re-engined B-3As, the Air Corps placed an order for 39 production models on 28 April 1931, with deliveries between August 1931 and January 1932. At the same time, an order was placed for 25 B-4As, despite their lower sequence number, the B-4As would be delivered last. These were the last canvas-and-wood biplane bombers ordered by the Air Corps, the performance of the B-6A varied little from the Martin NBS-1 ordered in 1921. Its successor, the bomber, had a hard time getting accepted. The Douglas Y1B-7 and Fokker XB-8 were originally designed as high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, the B-6A together with B-5A were front line bombers of the United States for the period between 1930 and 1934. Afterwards, they remained in service primarily as observation aircraft until the early 1940s, B-6 aircraft were used, along with many other Army Air Corps planes, as mail planes in what became the Air Mail scandal of 1934. On December 27,1935, six B-6 bombers of the 23rd Bomb Squadron based in Hawaii dropped bombs to divert lava flow from the volcano Mauna Loa away from the port of Hilo, lB-13 Seven aircraft ordered but delivered as the Y1B-4 and Y1B-6 with different engine installations. Y1B-6 Two pre-production aircraft and three converted B-3As, as the LB-10 but with two 575 hp Wright R-1820-1 engines, B-6A Production version of the Y1B-6,39 built
39.
Martin B-10
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The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to be regularly used by the United States Army Air Corps, entering service in June 1934. It was also the first mass-produced bomber whose performance was superior to that of the Armys pursuit aircraft of the time, the B-10 served as the airframe for the B-12, B-13, B-14, A-15 and O-45 designations using Pratt & Whitney engines instead of Wright Cyclones. A total of 348 of all versions were built, biggest users were the USA, with 166, and the Netherlands, with 121. The B-10 began a revolution in bomber design and it made all existing bombers completely obsolete. In 1932, Martin received the Collier Trophy for designing the XB-10, the B-10 began as the Martin Model 123, a private venture by the Glenn L. Martin Company of Baltimore, Maryland. It had a crew of four, pilot, copilot, nose gunner, as in previous bombers, the four crew compartments were open, but it had a number of design innovations as well. These innovations included a deep belly for a bomb bay. Its 600 hp Wright SR-1820-E Cyclone engines provided sufficient power, the Model 123 first flew on 16 February 1932 and was delivered for testing to the U. S. Army on 20 March as the XB-907. After testing it was sent back to Martin for redesigning and was rebuilt as the XB-10, the XB-10 delivered to the Army had major differences from the original aircraft. Where the Model 123 had Townend rings, the XB-10 had full NACA cowlings to decrease drag and it also sported a pair of 675 hp Wright R-1820-19 engines, and an 8 feet increase in the wingspan, along with an enclosed nose turret. When the XB-10 flew during trials in June, it recorded a speed of 197 mph at 6,000 ft and this was an impressive performance for 1932. Following the success of the XB-10, a number of changes were made, including reduction to a crew, addition of canopies for all crew positions. The Army ordered 48 of these on 17 January 1933, the first 14 aircraft were designated YB-10 and delivered to Wright Field, starting in November 1933, and used in the Army Air Corps Mail Operation. The production model of the XB-10, the YB-10 was very similar to its prototype, in 1935, the Army ordered an additional 103 aircraft designated B-10B. These had only minor changes from the YB-10, in addition to conventional duties in the bomber role, some modified YB-10s and B-12As were operated for a time on large twin floats for coastal patrol. With an advanced performance, the Martin company fully expected that export orders for the B-10 would come flooding in, the Army owned the rights to the Model 139 design. Once the Armys orders had been filled in 1936, Martin received permission to export Model 139s, and delivered versions to several air forces. For example, six Model 139Ws were sold to Siam in April 1937, powered by Wright R-1820-G3 Cyclone engines,20 Model 139Ws were sold to Turkey in September 1937, powered by R-1820-G2 engines
40.
Douglas B-18 Bolo
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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
41.
Panama Canal
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The Panama Canal is an artificial 48-mile waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for maritime trade. The original locks are 33.5 metres wide, a third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016. The expanded canal began operation on June 26,2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, Post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo, France began work on the canal in 1881 but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15,1914, Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The U. S. continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, in 1999 the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government and is now managed and operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, by 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal. It takes six to eight hours to pass through the Panama Canal, the American Society of Civil Engineers has called the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Such a route would have given the Spanish a military advantage over the Portuguese, during an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for its construction. Given the strategic location of Panama and the potential offered by its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other links in the area were attempted over the years. The ill-fated Darien scheme was launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up a trade route. Generally inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort, and it was abandoned in April 1700, another effort was made in 1843. They referred to it as the Atlantic and Pacific Canal and it was a wholly British endeavor and it was expected to be completed in five years, but the plan was never carried out. At nearly the same time, other ideas were floated, including a canal across Mexicos Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nothing came of that plan either. )In 1846 the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, negotiated between the U. S. and New Granada, granted the United States transit rights and the right to intervene militarily in the isthmus. In 1849, the discovery of gold in California created great interest in a crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Railway was built by the United States to cross the isthmus and opened in 1855
42.
44th Reconnai8ssance Squadron
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The 430th Bombardment Squadron is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was with the 502d Bombardment Group, based at Northwest Field and it was inactivated on 15 April 1946. Established as the 44th Aero Squadron in June 1917, just after the United States entry into World War I, the squadrons duties are unknown, eventually being assigned to Wright Field, Ohio apparently as a ground support unit. The squadron was demobilized in April 1919, reactivated in the Panama Canal Zone in April 1931 as the 44th Observation Squadron. It was the reconnaissance unit in the Canal Zone at the time. The 44th was the first Air Corps unit to occupy Albrook Field after it opened in 1932-33 and it was redesignated as a Reconnaissance Squadron on 1 September 1937, had the suffix designation added on 6 December 1939 and, on 20 November 1940 this was changed to. The status of the changed from assigned to Attached to the 16th Pursuit Group from 1 February 1940. Later, on 20 November 1940, the unit was attached to the 9th Bombardment Group, in June 1941, the Squadron began to receive Boeing B-17B Flying Fortress from units in the United States upgrading to the C or D models. The Squadron moved from Albrook to Howard Field on 8 July, there, with five B-18s, one B-18A and the B-17B, the Squadron commenced ultra-long range reconnaissance training in earnest. Unfortunately, conditions at Atkinson were not adequate to support the B-17B, from British Guiana, the squadron operated as an element of the infant Trinidad Base Command at Atkinson Field. In late 1941, with the coming of war, the unit immediately commenced far-ranging patrols with its remaining three B-18s and, now, two B-18As. The unit commander reported that he had no fully combat trained crews. Initially equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses for training, due to shortage of B-29 Superfortresses, moved to Harvard Army Airfield, Nebraska, in August 1944 and equipped with B-29B limited production aircraft. After completion of training deployed to Central Pacific Area, assigned to XXI Bomber Command, mission of the squadron was the strategic bombardment of the Japanese Home Islands. Dntered combat on 16 June 1945 with a raid against an airfield on Moen. Flew first mission against the Japanese home islands on 26 June 1945, flew primarily low-level, fast attacks at night using a mixture of high-explosive and incendary bombs to attack targets. Flew last combat mission on 15 August 1945, later flew in Show of Force mission on 2 September 1945 over Tokyo Bay during formal Japanese Surrender, inactivated on Guam 15 April 1946, personnel returned to the United States and aircraft sent to storage in Southwest United States. Combat Operations, Antisubmarine patrols, Dec 1941-Jan 1942 Combat in Western Pacific,23 June-14 Aug 1945, campaigns, Antisubmarine, American Theater, Air Offensive, Japan, Eastern Mandates, Western Pacific
43.
Albrook Air Force Station
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Albrook Air Force Station is a former United States Air Force facility in Panama. It was located on the east side of the Panama Canal just south of Fort Clayton and north of the township of Balboa, beginning in January 1999, the air field initiated civilian air service as Albrook Marcos A. Gelabert International Airport. Airport is under Panamas Civil Aeronautics Authority, a number of shops, markets, mall and government agencies operate out of some of the old buildings and hangars, and most of the officers quarters are now private homes. The Civil Aviation Authority has its headquarters in Building 805 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. Maurer, Maurer, ed. Combat Squadrons of the Air Force, washington, DC, Office of Air Force History
44.
Panama Canal Zone
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The Panama Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory of the United States from 1903 to 1979, centered on the Panama Canal and surrounded by the Republic of Panama. Its border spanned two of Panamas provinces, when reservoirs were created to assure a steady supply of water for the locks, those lakes were included within the Zone. On February 26,1904, the Isthmian Canal Convention was proclaimed, from 1903 to 1979 the territory was controlled by the United States, which had built the canal and financed its construction. Proposals for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama date back to 1529, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, a lieutenant of conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, suggested four possible routes, one of which closely tracks the present-day canal. Saavedra believed that such a canal would make it easier for European vessels to reach Asia, although King Charles I was enthusiastic and ordered preliminary works started, his officials in Panama soon realized that such an undertaking was beyond the capabilities of 16th-century technology. One official wrote to Charles, I pledge to Your Majesty that there is not a prince in the world with the power to accomplish this, the Spanish instead built a road across the isthmus. Although additional canal building proposals were made throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a number of canals built. The success of the Erie Canal in the United States and the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America led to a surge of American interest in building an interoceanic canal. Beginning in 1826, US officials began negotiations with New Granada, jealous of their newly obtained independence and fearing that they would be dominated by an American presence, New Granadan officials declined American offers. The new nation was politically unstable, and Panama rebelled several times during the 19th century and his agreement was repudiated by the Jackson administration, which wanted rights to build a canal. In 1846, the new US envoy to Bogotá, Benjamin Bidlack, was surprised when, soon after his arrival, the resulting Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty allowed the United States to intervene militarily to ensure that the interoceanic road would not be disrupted. The treaty led the U. S. government to contract for service to Panama from ports on both coasts. When the California Gold Rush began in 1848, traffic through Panama greatly increased and this first transcontinental railroad opened in 1850. There were riots in Panama CIty in 1856, several Americans were killed, US warships landed Marines, who occupied the railroad station and kept the railroad service from being interrupted by the unrest. The demand was dropped in the face of resistance by New Granadan officials, through the remainder of the 19th century, the United States landed troops several times to preserve the railway connection. At the same time, it pursued a canal treaty with Colombia, one treaty, signed in 1868, was rejected by the Colombian Senate, which hoped for better terms from the incoming Grant administration. Under this treaty, the canal would have been in the middle of a 20-mile zone, under American management but Colombian sovereignty, the Grant administration did little to pursue a treaty, and in 1878, the concession to build the canal fell to a French firm. The French efforts eventually failed, but with Panama apparently unavailable, the Spanish–American War of 1898 added new life to the canal debate
45.
B-17B Flying Fortress
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The following is an extensive catalogue of the variants and specific unique elements of each variant and/or design stage of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. For a broader article on the history of the B-17, see B-17 Flying Fortress. The Boeing 299 was the bomber design made by Boeing to fulfill a request by the United States Army Air Corps for a bomber capable of carrying 2,000 lb of bombs 2,000 mi at 200 mph. In 1935, the Boeing 299 competed with entries by other companies at an evaluation at Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio. On its flight from Seattle)Washington to Wright Field for the competition, though it crashed to its destruction on takeoff during a demonstration, the crash was due to flight-crew error, not from any flaw in the airplane. Subsequent implementation of a mandatory checklist by the crew prior to take-off ensured avoidance of the flight crew error. Despite the crash, Air Corps leaders were impressed by the 299, Boeing was awarded with a development contract. The aircraft has since referred to as the XB-17 but the designation is not contemporary or official. Though still enthusiastic about the Boeing design, the Army Air Corps decided to cut its order for service test YB-17s from 65 to 13 after the crash of the original Model 299. On November 20,1936, the Army Air Corps changed the source of funding from normal funding to F-1 procurement, unlike its predecessor, which had used Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet radial engines, the Y1B-17 used the Wright R-1820 Cyclone that would become standard on the B-17. Several changes were made in the armament and the crew was reduced from seven to six, most changes were minor, the most notable was switching from double-wishbone to single-arm landing gear. On December 7,1936, five days after the first flight of the Y1B-17, the brakes on the aircraft fused during landing, though damage was minimal, the cumulative impact of this event and the crash of the Model 299 triggered a Congressional investigation. After the crash the Army Air Corps was put in notice, though they were meant for testing, the commander of Army General Headquarters, Major General Frank Andrews, decided to assign twelve Y1B-17s to the 2nd Bomb Group at Langley Field, Virginia. Andrews reasoned that it was best to develop heavy bombing techniques as quickly as possible, of the thirteen built, one was used for stress testing. In 1937, the twelve Y1B-17s with the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field represented the entire American fleet of heavy bombers, most of the time spent with the planes entailed eliminating problems with the aircraft. The most important development was the use of a checklist, to be reviewed by the pilot and copilot before takeoff and it was hoped that this system would prevent accidents similar to that which led to the loss of the 299. In May 1938, the Y1B-17s of the 2nd Bombardment Group, led by the lead planes navigator Curtis LeMay, coming into contact with the liner while it was still 610 mi out at sea, the demonstration was meant to prove the range and navigational superiority of the B-17. It also showed that the bomber would be a tool for attacking an invasion force before it could reach the United States
46.
U-boat
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U-boat is the anglicised version of the German word U-Boot, a shortening of Unterseeboot, literally undersea boat. While the German term refers to any submarine, the English one refers specifically to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role. Austro-Hungarian navy submarines were known as U-boats. The first submarine built in Germany, the three-man Brandtaucher, sank to the bottom of Kiel harbor on 1 February 1851 during a test dive, the inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer had designed this vessel in 1850, and Schweffel & Howaldt constructed it in Kiel. Dredging operations in 1887 rediscovered Brandtaucher, it was raised and put on display in Germany, there followed in 1890 the boats WW1 and WW2, built to a Nordenfelt design. The SM U-1 was a completely redesigned Karp-class submarine and only one was built, the Imperial German Navy commissioned it on 14 December 1906. It had a hull, a Körting kerosene engine. The 50%-larger SM U-2 had two torpedo tubes, the U-19 class of 1912–13 saw the first diesel engine installed in a German navy boat. At the start of World War I in 1914, Germany had 48 submarines of 13 classes in service or under construction, during that war the Imperial German Navy used SM U-1 for training. Retired in 1919, it remains on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, on 5 September 1914, HMS Pathfinder was sunk by SM U-21, the first ship to have been sunk by a submarine using a self-propelled torpedo. On 22 September, U-9 sank the obsolete British warships HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy, for the first few months of the war, U-boat anticommerce actions observed the prize rules of the time, which governed the treatment of enemy civilian ships and their occupants. On 20 October 1914, SM U-17 sank the first merchant ship, surface commerce raiders were proving to be ineffective, and on 4 February 1915, the Kaiser assented to the declaration of a war zone in the waters around the British Isles. This was cited as a retaliation for British minefields and shipping blockades, under the instructions given to U-boat captains, they could sink merchant ships, even potentially neutral ones, without warning. In February 1915, a submarine U-6 was rammed and both periscopes were destroyed off Beachy Head by the collier SS Thordis commanded by Captain John Bell RNR after firing a torpedo, on 7 May 1915, SM U-20 sank the liner RMS Lusitania. The sinking claimed 1,198 lives,128 of them American civilians, munitions that it carried were thousands of crates full of ammunition for rifles, 3-inch artillery shells, and also various other standard ammunition used by infantry. The sinking of the Lusitania was widely used as propaganda against the German Empire, a widespread reaction in the U. S was not seen until the sinking of the ferry SS Sussex. The sinking occurred in 1915 and the United States entered the war in 1917, the initial U. S. response was to threaten to sever diplomatic ties, which persuaded the Germans to issue the Sussex pledge that reimposed restrictions on U-boat activity
47.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
48.
Anti-submarine weapon
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An anti-submarine weapon is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, a weapon is usually a projectile, missile or bomb that is optimized to destroy submarines. Prior to about 1890, naval weapons were used against surface shipping. With the rise of the submarine after this time, countermeasures were considered for use against them. The first submarine installation of tubes was in 1885 and the first ship was sunk by a submarine-launched torpedo in 1887. There were only two ways of countering the military initially, ramming them or sinking them with gunfire. However, once they were submerged, they were largely immune until they had to surface again, by the start of the First World War there were nearly 300 submarines in service with another 80 in production. World War I marked the first earnest conflict involving significant use of submarines, in particular, the United Kingdom was desperate to defeat the U-Boat threat against British merchant shipping. When the bombs that it employed were found to be ineffective it began equipping its destroyers with simple depth charges that could be dropped into the water around a suspected submarines location. During this period it was found that explosions of these charges were more efficient if the charges were set to explode below or above the submarine, however, many other techniques were used, including minefields, barrages and Q-ships and the use of cryptanalysis against intercepted radio messages. The airship was used to drop bombs but fixed-wing aircraft were used for reconnaissance. However, the most effective countermeasure was the convoy, in 1918 U-boat losses became unbearably high. Most of the losses were due to mines but two were torpedoed, french, Italian and Russian submarines were also destroyed. Before the war ended, the need for forward-throwing weapons had been recognized by the British, hydrophones had been developed and were becoming effective as detection and location devices. Also, aircraft and airships had flown with depth bombs, albeit small ones with poor explosives. In addition, the specialist hunter-killer submarine had appeared, HMS R-1, the main developments in this period were in detection, with both active sonar and radar becoming effective. The British integrated the sonar with fire control and weapons to form a system for warships. Germany was banned from having a fleet but began construction in secret during the 1930s
49.
Piarco International Airport
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The airport is located 30 km east of Downtown Port of Spain, located in the adjacent town of Piarco. The airport is also the hub and operating base for the countrys national airline, as well as the Caribbeans largest airline. Piarco International Airport has direct scheduled service to destinations in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America and it is also a significant transit hub for the Southern Caribbean and serves as the primary connection point for many passengers travelling from Guyana. Piarco Airport opened on 8 January 1931, to serve Venezuelas Compagnie Generale Aeropostale, before this, the Queens Park Savannah, the Mucarapo Field, and the Cocorite Docks were used as airstrips to serve the island. In World War II the original airfield was used to house the Royal Navy Observer School HMS Goshawk, from 1942 it was also used by both the United States Army Air Forces Sixth Air Force and United States Navy air squadrons. The airport was used both as an airfield and also for antisubmarine patrol flights over the south Caribbean. It was returned to control after the war. The old airport building is used for cargo handling. Briko Air Services And Aerial World Services operate a school at the airport. In 2006 the Airports Authority of Trinidad And Tobago commissioned a study for land use planning, all-Inclusive Project Development Services Limited was commissioned to conduct the study. The study was completed in October 2007 and approved by the Board, in 2011, work on the infrastructure of the North Aviation Business Park began. At Piarco International Airport there are two high-speed taxiways and three connector taxiways and this technologically state of the art airport has 82 ticket counter positions that operate under SITAs fibre-optic C. U. T. E. System which exceeds the standards of ICAO and IATA. It also has a Flight Information Display System, which serves all airport users, the terminal is a fully air-conditioned, smoke-free building, equipped to handle peak-hour passenger traffic of 1,500 processing passengers through a fully computerised immigration system. The Customs Hall has four baggage/cargo carousels, an administrative/operations building for the Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard is being constructed at the Piarco Air Base. Also, a military airfield will be constructed near the air base, the control tower at the old terminal building is currently used for air traffic control. The tower at the new building is used for ramp control. A new nine-story control tower was opened in 2011, the new North Terminal consists of 35,964 m2 of building with 14-second-level aircraft gates for international flights and 2 ground level domestic gates
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