1.
Great Falls, Montana
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Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The 2015 census estimate put the population at 59,638, the population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area. Great Falls was the largest city in Montana from 1950 to 1970, Great Falls remained the second largest city in Montana until 2000, when it was passed by Missoula. Since then Great Falls has been the third largest city in the state, each falls sports a hydroelectric dam today, hence Great Falls is nicknamed the Electric City. Currently there are two undeveloped parts of their route, these are included within the Great Falls Portage. The city is home to the C. M, the local newspaper is the Great Falls Tribune. A Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index listed Great Falls as the most affordable area of 348 markets in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The first human beings to live in the Great Falls area were Paleo-Indians who migrated into the region between 9,500 BCE and 8,270 BCE, the earliest inhabitants of North America entered Montana east of the Continental Divide between the mountains and the Laurentide ice sheet. The area remained sparsely inhabited, however. Salish Indians would often hunt bison in the region on a seasonal basis, around 1600, Piegan Blackfeet Indians, migrating west, entered the area, pushing the Salish back into the Rocky Mountains and claiming the site now known as Great Falls as their own. The Great Falls location remained the tribal territory of the Blackfeet until long after the United States claimed the region in 1803. Meriwether Lewis was the first white person to visit the area, york, an African American slave owned by William Clark and who had participated in the Expedition, was the first black American to visit the site of the future city. Bridger and Major Andrew Henry led an expedition to the future city location in April 1823. British explorer Alexander Ross trapped around Great Falls in 1824, in 1838, a mapping expedition sent by the U. S. federal government and guided by Bridger spent four years in the area. Margaret Harkness Woodman became the first white woman to visit the Great Falls area in 1862, the first steamboat arrived at future site of the city in 1859. Politically, the site of Great Falls passed through numerous hands in the 19th century. It was part of the frontier until May 30,1854
2.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
3.
Admiral (United States)
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Admiral ranks above vice admiral and below fleet admiral in the Navy, the Coast Guard and the Public Health Service do not have an established grade above admiral. Admiral is equivalent to the rank of general in the uniformed services. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps has never had a hold the grade of admiral. However,37 U. S. C. §201 of the U. S. Code established the grade for the NOAA Corps in the case a position is created that merits the four-star grade. The United States Navy did not have any admirals until 1862 because many felt the title too reminiscent of royalty, such as the British Royal Navy. Others saw the need for ranks above captain, among them John Paul Jones and he also felt there must be ranks above captain to avoid disputes among senior captains. Two years later Congress authorized the appointment of an admiral from among the nine rear admirals. Another bill allowed the President of the United States to appoint Farragut to admiral on July 25,1866, when Farragut died in 1870, Porter became admiral and Stephen C. Rowan was promoted to vice admiral, there was one admiral in the interim, however. In 1899, Congress recognized George Deweys accomplishments during the Spanish–American War by authorizing the President to appoint him Admiral of the Navy and he held that rank until he died in 1917. Nobody has since held that title, in 1944, Congress approved the five-star grade of fleet admiral. The first to hold it were William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King, the Senate confirmed their appointments December 15,1944. Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey got his star in December 1945. The rear admiral got his two-inch stripe and one half-inch stripe in 1866, the sleeve stripes had been more elaborate. When the rear admiral rank started in 1862 the sleeve arrangement was three stripes of three-quarter-inch lace alternating with three stripes of quarter-inch lace and it was some ten inches from top to bottom. The vice admiral, of course, had even more stripes, on their dress uniforms the admirals wore bands of gold embroidery of live oak leaves and acorns. The admirals of the 1860s wore the number of stars on their shoulders as admirals of corresponding grades do today. During the 20th century, the ranks of the modern U. S. admiralty were firmly established, an oddity that did exist was that the navy did not have a one-star rank except briefly during World War II when Congress established a temporary war rank of commodore
4.
Chief of Naval Operations
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The Chief of Naval Operations is a statutory office held by a four-star admiral in the United States Navy, and is the most senior naval officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Navy. The office is an adviser and deputy to the Secretary of the Navy. The current Chief of Naval Operations is Admiral John M. Richardson, under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, the CNO also designates naval personnel and naval resources to the commanders of Unified Combatant Commands. The CNO also performs all other functions prescribed under 10 U. S. C. §5033, the CNO is typically the highest-ranking officer on active duty in the Navy unless the Chairman and/or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are naval officers. Like the other joint chiefs, the CNO is a position and has no operational command authority over United States naval forces. The Chief of Naval Operations is nominated by the President for appointment, however, the president may waive those requirements if he determines that appointing the officer is necessary for the national interest. By statute, the CNO is appointed as a four-star admiral, number One Observatory Circle, located on the northeast grounds of the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, was built in 1893 for its superintendent. The Chief of Naval Operations liked the house so much that in 1923 he took over the house as his own official residence and it remained the residence of the CNO until 1974, when Congress authorized its transformation to an official residence for the Vice President. The Chief of Naval Operations currently resides in Quarters A in the Washington Naval Yard, the position of CNO replaced the position of Aide for Naval Operations, which was a position established by regulation rather than statutory law. Lists of Commanding Officers and Senior Officials of the US Navy, archived from the original on 18 December 2007
5.
United States Second Fleet
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The United States Second Fleet was a numbered fleet in the United States Navy from 1950 until its disestablishment in September 2011. Second Fleets West Coast counterpart was United States First Fleet, prior to disestablishment, Second Fleet oversaw approximately 126 ships,4500 aircraft, and 90,000 personnel homeported at U. S. Navy installations along the East Coast. As of 2008, the Commander, Second Fleet, under the Commander, Fleet Forces Command, was also designated as Commander, Task Force 20. CTF-20 planned for, and when directed, conducted battle force operations in the Atlantic command in support of designated unified or allied commanders, until 2005, COMSECONDFLT had a permanent assignment with NATOs Supreme Allied Commander Atlantics chain-of-command, as the Commander Striking Fleet Atlantic. COMSTRIKFLTLANT commanded a force whose primary mission was to deter aggression. Striking Fleet Atlantic was tasked with ensuring the integrity of NATOs sea lines of communication, during its existence, Second Fleet was responsible for training and certifying Atlantic Fleet units for forward deployment to other numbered fleets, primarily U. S. Second Fleet’s main training and certification venues were the Composite Unit Training Exercise and Joint Training Fleet Exercise and these exercises served as a ready-for-deployment certification events for Carrier Strike Groups, Amphibious Ready Groups, as well as independently deploying units. In times of crisis and during certain exercises, Second Fleet became the Commander, when activated, Joint Task Force 120 was tasked to execute a variety of contingency missions. As CTF-20, Second Fleet oversaw several subordinate task forces, which were activated as needed, in January 1947, Eighth Fleet was renamed Second Task Fleet. Three years later, in February 1950, the command was redesignated U. S. Second Fleet, Second Fleet’s area of responsibility included the Atlantic coast of South America and part of the west coast of Central America. In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy called on Second Fleet to establish quarantine during the Cuban Missile Crisis, for more than a month, Second Fleet units operated northeast of the island, intercepting and inspecting dozens of ships for contraband. The operational control of the force was assigned to the Commander of the Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Alfred G. Ward. Task Force 136 included the support carrier USS Essex, effective deployment constituted a mammoth task to be accomplished in minimum time. To prevent future difficulties, plans had to be developed, ship captains briefed, supply ships dispatched, other Navy and Marine forces faced similar tough schedules. Marines, if not already engaged in landing exercises, were loaded on amphibious ships, at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, dependents were evacuated to the United States on 22 October, and Marine units were shipped by air and sea to reinforce the base. Task Force 135, including the carrier USS Enterprise, was sent to the south of Cuba, the carrier USS Independence and the supporting ships of Carrier Division Six stood by to provide additional support. Antisubmarine forces were redeployed to cover the quarantine operations, major exercises the fleet participated in during the Cold War included Exercise Mariner, Operation Strikeback in 1957, the maritime component of Exercise Reforger, and Northern Wedding. From February 9-12,1978, Task Group 21.6 visited Monrovia in Liberia, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan ordered the Second Fleet to the Caribbean to lead the invasion of Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury
6.
Carrier Strike Group 8
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Commander, Carrier Strike Group 8, abbreviated as CCSG-8 or COMCARSTRKGRU8, is one of five U. S. Navy carrier strike groups currently assigned to the United States Fleet Forces Command. Carrier strike groups gain and maintain sea control as well as project naval airpower ashore, the current group flagship is the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The other units of the group are the guided-missile cruiser USS Hué City, Carrier Air Wing Seven, during 1994, USS Hue City was a unit of Carrier Group 8. During 1999, the previous Carrier Group 8s flagship was Eisenhower, in May and June 1998, Vella Gulf completed a two-month BALTOPS Cruise, taking part in the 26th annual maritime exercise BALTOPS98 in the Western Baltic Sea from 8–19 June 1998. During the exercise, Commander, Carrier Group 8, commanded the exercise from the ship, fitzgerald was also serving as Commander Task Force 50 embarked in the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The group was established by redesignation of the former Carrier Group 8 on 1 October 2004, the Strike Group deployed on 2 January 2010 to the Middle East to help with operations by the U. S. 5th and 6th Fleets. Effective 1 October 2012, when not deployed, Carrier Strike Group 8 is part of the U. S, Fleet Forces Command, and its commander reports to Commander Task Force 80, the director of Fleet Forces Maritime Headquarters. Carrier Strike Group 8 is designated Task Group 80.3, Fleet Forces Command announced that the Carrier Strike Group 8 command staff would deploy with Truman, instead of Eisenhower, in accordance with the U. S. Navys Optimized Fleet Response Plan. This change does not affect the ships or units that are otherwise assigned to either strike groups
7.
VF-84
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Fighter Squadron 84 or VF-84 was an aviation unit of the United States Navy. Originally established on 1 May 1944, it was disestablished on 8 October 1945 and it was the first US Navy squadron to be designated as VF-84. VF-84 flew F4U Corsairs and was formed around a nucleus of veterans of VF-17, the new squadrons commanding officer was Lt. Cdr. Roger R. Hedrick, former officer of VF-17. VF-84 was assigned to the USS Bunker Hill, as part of Task Force 58, the carrier and Carrier Air Group 84 participated in the final drive across the central Pacific. Roger Hedrick was promoted to head CVG-84 on the loss of the air groups commanding officer. Raymond Ted Hill took over the fighter squadron, on 11 May 1945, while off Okinawa, two Japanese kamikazes struck the Bunker Hill in quick succession, with a bomb penetrating to the pilots ready room, killing 22 members of VF-84. Both the Bunker Hill and CAG-84 were knocked out of the war, although VF-84 was reformed in July 1945 as an F6F Hellcat squadron, the war ended while it was still in training. While in the Pacific, VF-84 was credited with 92 kills for a loss of 4 aircraft and nine of the squadrons pilots became aces. VF-84 History of the United States Navy List of inactive United States Navy aircraft squadrons Jacobs, Jan, Tillman, Barrett, The Wolf Gang, A History of Carrier Air Group 84, The Hook,18, the Survivor of a WWII Navy Pilot. U. S. Navy Fighter Squadrons in World War II
8.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
9.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
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