This Date in Military History:

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15 October

1789 – George Washington went to New England on the 1st presidential tour.

1813 – During the land defeat of the British on the Thames River in Canada, the Indian chief Tecumseh, now a brigadier general with the British Army (War of 1812), was killed.

1817 – Tadeusz AB Kosciusko (b.1746), Polish Lt-Gen. and American Revolution freedom fighter, died. Trained in military academies in Warsaw and Paris, he offered his services to the colonists in the American Revolution because of his commitment to the ideal of liberty. Arriving in America in 1777, he took part in the Saratoga campaign and advised Horatio Gates to fortify Bemis Heights. Later he fortified (1778) West Point and fought (1780) with distinction under Gen. Nathanael Greene in the Carolina campaign. After his return to Poland he became a champion of Polish independence. He fought (1792–93) in the campaign that resulted in the second partition (1793) of Poland. In 1794 he issued a call at Kraków for a national uprising and led the Polish forces against both Russians and Prussians in a gallant but unsuccessful rebellion that ended with the final partition of Poland. He was imprisoned, and after being freed (1796) went to the United States and later (1798) to France, where after the fall of Napoleon he pleaded with Alexander I of Russia for Polish independence. He died in Solothurn, Switzerland, and is buried in Kraków. His devotion to liberty and Polish independence have made him one of the great Polish heroes.

1818 – Irvin McDowell (d.1985), Major General (Union volunteers), was born. Union general in the American Civil War, b. Columbus, Ohio. He taught at West Point (1841–45) and was made captain for his service in the Mexican War. In the Civil War, McDowell, promoted to brigadier general in the regular army (May, 1861), commanded the Union troops at the first battle of Bull Run. After that defeat he commanded a corps under his successor, George B. McClellan. When the Peninsular campaign began, McDowell’s 1st Corps (then called the Army of the Rappahannock) was withdrawn from McClellan’s command to defend Washington. In the summer of 1862, McDowell’s force fought at the second battle of Bull Run. McDowell shared in the blame for that defeat and was removed from command. He later commanded various territorial departments until his retirement in 1882. He was promoted to major general in 1872.

1861 – The British steamship Fingal, purchased by James D. Bulloch for the US Southern Confederacy, ran into the Austrian brig Siccardi, which sank with her load of coal in England’s Holyhead harbor. The Fingal quickly sailed for Savannah. The Fingal was later converted to an ironclad and renamed Atlanta.

1863 – For the second time, the Confederate submarine H L Hunley sank during a practice dive in Charleston Harbor, S.C, this time drowning its inventor along with seven crew members.

1864 – Confederate troops occupied Glasgow, Missouri. While Maj. Gen. Sterling Price led his men westward across Missouri, he decided to send a detachment to Glasgow to liberate weapons and supplies in an arms storehouse, purported to be there. This combined mounted infantry, cavalry, and artillery force laid siege to the town and the fortifications on Hereford Hill. Before dawn Confederate artillery opened on the town and Rebels advanced on Glasgow by various routes, forcing the Yankees to fall back. The Union forces retreated out of town and up the hill toward the fortifications on Hereford Hill. There they formed a defensive line in this area, but the Confederates continued to advance. Convinced that he could not defend against another Confederate attack, Col. Chester Harding surrendered around 1:30 pm. Although Harding destroyed some Federal stores, Price’s men found rifle-muskets, overcoats, and horses. The Confederates remained in town for three days before rejoining the main column with new supplies and weapons and marching on towards Kansas City. The victory and capture of supplies and weapons were a boost to Price’s army’s morale.

1880 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists. Victorio Beduiat; born ca. 1825 was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, usually called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua.

1892 – US government convinced the Crow Indians to give up 1.8 million acres of their reservation (in the mountainous area of western Montana) for 50 cents per acre. Presidential proclamation opened this land to settlers.

1917 – USS Cassin (DD-43) torpedoed by German submarine U-61 off coast of Ireland. In trying to save the ship, Gunner’s Mate Osmond Kelly Ingram becomes first American sailor killed in World War I and later is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. He becomes the first enlisted man to have a ship named for him, in 1919.

1918 – Lieutenant Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan earned the Medal of Honor while leading his regiment, the 165th Infantry (formerly the 69th New York, the “Fighting 69th” of Civil War fame), 42nd “Rainbow” Division, in an attack to capture a German strongpoint. By acts of personal courage such as rallying platoons of soldiers decimated and about to break from enemy fire, he again led them forward. Though seriously wounded he refused to be evacuated and continued to command his men from a bomb crater. Eventually the Americans did have to withdraw after suffering devastating losses. Donovan started his Guard service by organizing his own cavalry troop which then commanded during its tour of duty on the Mexican border in 1916. He then joined the 69th New York just prior to the mobilization for World War I. Even before earning the Medal of Honor, in July 1918, he displayed extreme courage while leading a battalion in its attack on German positions in the Oureq River (called by the Irish of the 69th as the “O’Rourke River”) sector. For this action he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (the Army’s second highest medal for valor). In World War II Donovan organized and commanded the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of today’s CIA.

1940 – Major General Commandant Thomas Holcomb issued orders to mobilize the Marine Reserve for WW II.

1941 – The 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe.

1943 – In the US 5th Army offensive, the attack has moved beyond the Volturno River but the Germans have skillfully maintained their defensive front while being pushed back.

1944 – Around Aachen, elements of US 5th Army (part of US 12th Army Group) continue efforts to capture the city. To the south, the US 6th Corps, part of US 7th Army (part of US 12th Army Group), begins an offensive to the west of Epinal.

1944 – In the west, elements of US 5th Army gain ground near Livergnano and Grizzana. In the east, forces of British 8th Army also make progress.

1944 – US Task Group 38.4 conducts air strikes on targets north of Manila, on Luzon.

1946 – Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed.

1948 – First women officers on active duty sworn in as commissioned officers in regular Navy under Women’s Service Integration Act of June 1948 by Secretary of the Navy John L. Sullivan: CAPT Joy B. Hancock, USN; LCDR Winifred R. Quick, USN; LCDR Anne King, USN; LCDR Frances L. Willoughby, MC, USN; LT Ellen Ford, SC, USN; LT Doris Cranmore, MSC, USN; LTJG Doris A. Defenderfer, USN; and LTJG Betty Rae Tennant, USN.

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1950 – General MacArthur, in a meeting with President Truman on Wake Island, predicted that the war would be over by Christmas and China would not intervene.

1951 – Operation DECOY, a mock amphibious landing near Kojo designed as a feint, was led by the battleship USS Iowa along with six carriers, four cruisers and more than 30 destroyers. Throughout the Korean War, U.S. and allied naval forces maintained a tight blockade of North Korean waters so the enemy could not use the sea to transport troops and supplies. Control of the sea also allowed the UN command to threaten other amphibious landings in the rear of the Chinese and North Korean armies arrayed along the 38th parallel. The enemy took the threat seriously and positioned sizeable troop units along both coasts and far from the front lines where they were badly needed. To keep the enemy’s attention focused on the sea, the fleet executed a number of naval feints and demonstrations. In Operation Decoy, Navy aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers attacked Communist defenses around Kojo and Task Force 90 maneuvered as if to land elements of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division near Wonsan. The enemy rushed forces to the coast to defeat amphibious assaults that never came.

1956 – Fortran, the first modern computer language, is shared with the coding community for the first time.

1960 – USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) begins successful firing of four Polaris test vehicles under operational rather than test conditions. Tests are completed on 18 October.

1962 – Despite State Department denials, several sources report that US helicopter crewmen have begun to fire first on Vietcong formations encountered during missions with South Vietnamese troops.

1964 – It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev.

1974 – National Guard mobilized to restore order in Boston school busing. In June 1974, the courts had found the Boston School Committee guilty of willful segregation and called for forced busing of African-American students from Roxbury and other predominantly African-American neighborhoods, to predominantly white schools, including Hyde Park, South Boston, and Charlestown High Schools. Before the ruling, students were assigned to schools based on where they lived. As a result, schools were segregated based on the population of the students in the area. While in many schools the integration process went relatively smoothly, in Hyde Park, Charlestown, and South Boston, the integration plan resulted in anti-busing rallies and marches, as well as incidences of violence. October 7, 1974, a black man, André Yvon Jean-Louis was stabbed in an incident unrelated to the busing but still evidence of the racial tension, prompting Massachusetts Governor Francis W. Sargent to call in the National Guard. School boycotts, anti-busing marches, and violence continued.

1983 – US Marine sharpshooters killed 5 snipers at Beirut International Airport.

1993 – President Clinton sent six warships to the waters off Haiti to enforce trade sanctions in the face of defiant Haitian military rulers.

1994 – Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returned to his country, three years after being overthrown by army rulers. The U.N. Security Council welcomed Aristide’s return by voting to lift stifling trade sanctions imposed against Haiti. The US had led an invasion, Operation Restore Democracy, to restore Pres. Aristide. Emmanuel “Toto” Constant left Haiti for the US when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was reinstated as president.

1997 – NASA’s plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft rocketed flawlessly toward Saturn. It was destined to arrive at Saturn on July 1, 2004.

1997 – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerrillas detonated a massive truck bomb in the parking lot of a major hotel next to the new World Trade Center in Colombo, killing 18 persons and injuring at least 110 others. Among the injured were seven US citizens and 33 other foreign nationals. The explosion caused extensive damage to several international hotels and the World Trade Center. 15-20 youths were said to have taken part in the attack. The Liberation Tigers were reported to be led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, the son of a fisherman.

1998 – Pres. Clinton opened the Mideast summit talks in Maryland between Arafat and Netanyahu in Washington that resulted in the Wye River land-for-peace agreement.

1998 – Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said that Sudan will allow the UN to investigate any site alleged to be making chemical weapons.

1999 – In Kosovo Some 100 people were injured as they tried to force their way against NATO forces across a bridge in Mitrovica to the Serb half of town.

2001 – US warplanes carried out their heaviest bombings in 9 days over Afghanistan. The Pentagon called in the slow moving AC-130 Spectre gunships to targets around Kandahar.

2001 – Anthrax in a letter to a Reno Microsoft office was reported to be from Malaysia. 2 anthrax-tainted letters were reported to have been mailed from Trenton, New Jersey and 2 postal employees there showed symptoms. Anthrax spores were in a letter deliver to a Senate office. Officials announced that a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle had tested positive for anthrax, and that the infant son of an ABC News producer in New York had developed skin anthrax.

2001 – Following the anthrax attacks in Florida and New York the EPA requested Coast Guard assistance. Members of the Atlantic Strike Team deployed to Washington, D.C., while Gulf Strike Team members were deployed to Florida. Strike team members conducted entries into the affected areas, collected samples, and assisted in the cleanup of those areas. The AST members in Washington coordinated entries into the U.S. Capitol, Hart Senate Building, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Government Printing Office, among others. The GST members took samples and provided decontamination stations at the American Media Inc. headquarters building and post offices in Boca Raton, Florida, the site of the first reported anthrax attack.

2001 – It was reported that Sheik Hamoud bin Uqlaa al-Shuaibi (80), a militant Wahhabi in Buraydah, Saudi Arabia, called on Muslims to wage jihad on supporters of the US military action in Afghanistan.

2002 – Allied planes bombed a military command facility in the southern no-fly zone over Iraq after taking fire from Iraqi forces.

2002 – In Iraq Saddam Hussein won the presidential referendum for another 7-year term. He claimed a 100% victory the next day.

2002 – A judge opened a criminal case against embattled Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a day after U.S. and British experts began investigating allegations that he approved the sale of a radar system to Iraq.

2003 – In China Shenzhou 5 launched into orbit with air force Lt. Col. Yang Liwei (38) aboard, making China the third nation to put a human in space on its own, after the former Soviet Union and the United States.

2003 – In the Gaza Strip a remote-controlled bomb exploded under a US diplomatic convoy, ripping apart an armored van and killing three Americans.

2003 – Japan pledged $1.5 billion in reconstruction aid next year for Iraq and more down the line despite economic woes at home.

2003 – In Iraq the new dinar was launched. Exchange of the old currency was set to end Jan 15.

2003 – NATO launched its elite rapid-reaction force, a prototype unit that will eventually become a 20,000-member force able to deploy in short notice anywhere in the world.

2004 – US Marines launched air and ground attacks on the insurgent bastion Fallujah after city representatives suspended peace talks with the government over PM Ayad Allawi’s demand to hand over terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

2004 – US officials said 10 people, including a family of four, were killed when a car bomb exploded near a Baghdad police station.

2005 – Iraqis vote. The Iraqi public narrowly passes the draft constitution.

2005 – In a referendum, the new Iraqi constitution was ratified.

2014 – A second health worker tests positive for the Ebola virus in Dallas, Texas.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BATCHELDER, RICHARD N.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel and Chief Quartermaster, 2d Corps. Place and date: Between Catlett and Fairfax Stations, Va., 13-15 October 1863. Entered service at: Manchester, N.H. Born: 27 July 1832, Meredith, N.H. Date of issue: 20 May 1895. Citation: Being ordered to move his trains by a continuous day-and-night march, and without the usual military escort, armed his teamsters and personally commanded them, successfully fighting against heavy odds and bringing his trains through without the loss of a wagon.

DONOVAN, WILLIAM JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, 165th Infantry, 42d Division. Place and date: Near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, 14-15 October 1918. Entered service at: Buffalo, N.Y. Born: 1 January 1883, Buffalo, N.Y. G.O., No.: 56, W.D., 1922. Citation: Lt. Col. Donovan personally led the assaulting wave in an attack upon a very strongly organized position, and when our troops were suffering heavy casualties he encouraged all near him by his example, moving among his men in exposed positions, reorganizing decimated platoons, and accompanying them forward in attacks. When he was wounded in the leg by machine-gun bullets, he refused to be evacuated and continued with his unit until it withdrew to a less exposed position.

*INGRAM, OSMOND K.
Rank and organization: Gunner’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 4 August 1887, Alabama. Accredited to. Alabama. Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the presence of the enemy on the occasion of the torpedoing of the Cassin, on 15 October 1917. While the Cassin was searching for the submarine, Ingram sighted the torpedo coming, and realizing that it might strike the ship aft in the vicinity of the depth charges, ran aft with the intention of releasing the depth charges before the torpedo could reach the Cassin. The torpedo struck the ship before he could accomplish his purpose and Ingram was killed by the explosion. The depth charges exploded immediately afterward. His life was sacrificed in an attempt to save the ship and his shipmates, as the damage to the ship would have been much less if he had been able to release the depth charges.

VILLEPIGUE, JOHN C.
Rank and organization: Corporal, U.S. Army, Company M, 118th Infantry, 30th Division. Place and date: At Vaux-Andigny, France, 15 October 1918. Entered service at. Camden, S.C. Born: 29 March 1896, Camden, S.C. G.O. No.: 16, W.D., 1919. Citation: Having been sent out with 2 other soldiers to scout through the village of Vaux-Andigny, he met with strong resistance from enemy machinegun fire, which killed 1 of his men and wounded the other. Continuing his advance without aid 500 yards in advance of his platoon and in the face of machinegun and artillery fire he encountered 4 of the enemy in a dugout, whom he attacked and killed with a handgrenade. Crawling forward to a point 150 yards in advance of his first encounter, he rushed a machinegun nest, killing 4 and capturing 6 of the enemy and taking 2 light machineguns. After being joined by his platoon he was severely wounded in the arm.

*POMEROY, RALPH E.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company E, 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kumhwa, Korea, 15 October 1952. Entered service at: Quinwood, W. Va. Born: 26 March 1930, Quinwood, W. Va. G.O. No.: 97, 30 December 1953. Citation: Pfc. Pomeroy, a machine gunner with Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and indomitable courage above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. While his comrades were consolidating on a key terrain feature, he manned a machine gun at the end of a communication trench on the forward slope to protect the platoon flank and prevent a surprise attack. When the enemy attacked through a ravine leading directly to his firing position, he immediately opened fire on the advancing troops inflicting a heavy toll in casualties and blunting the assault. At this juncture the enemy directed intense concentrations of artillery and mortar fire on his position in an attempt to neutralize his gun. Despite withering fire and bursting shells, he maintained his heroic stand and poured crippling fire into the ranks of the hostile force until a mortar burst severely wounded him and rendered the gun mount inoperable. Quickly removing the hot, heavy weapon, he cradled it in his arms and, moving forward with grim determination, raked the attacking forces with a hail of fire. Although wounded a second time he pursued his relentless course until his ammunition was expended within 10 feet of the foe and then, using the machine gun as a club, he courageously closed with the enemy in hand-to-hand combat until mortally wounded. Pfc. Pomeroy’s consummate valor, inspirational actions and supreme sacrifice enabled the platoon to contain the attack and maintain the integrity of the perimeter, reflecting lasting glory upon himself and upholding the noble traditions of the military service .

ANDERSON, WEBSTER
Rank and organization: Sergeant First Class, U.S. Army, Battery A, 2d Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 101st Airborne Infantry Division (Airmobile). Place and date: Tam Ky, Republic of Vietnam, 15 October 1967. Entered service at: Winnsboro, S.C. Born: 15 July 1933, Winnsboro, S.C. Citation: Sfc. Anderson (then S/Sgt.), distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as chief of section in Battery A, against a hostile force. During the early morning hours Battery A’s defensive position was attacked by a determined North Vietnamese Army infantry unit supported by heavy mortar, recoilless rifle, rocket propelled grenade and automatic weapon fire. The initial enemy onslaught breached the battery defensive perimeter. Sfc. Anderson, with complete disregard for his personal safety, mounted the exposed parapet of his howitzer position and became the mainstay of the defense of the battery position. Sfc. Anderson directed devastating direct howitzer fire on the assaulting enemy while providing rifle and grenade defensive fire against enemy soldiers attempting to overrun his gun section position.

While protecting his crew and directing their fire against the enemy from his exposed position, 2 enemy grenades exploded at his feet knocking him down and severely wounding him in the legs. Despite the excruciating pain and though not able to stand, Sfc. Anderson valorously propped himself on the parapet and continued to direct howitzer fire upon the closing enemy and to encourage his men to fight on. Seeing an enemy grenade land within the gun pit near a wounded member of his gun crew, Sfc. Anderson heedless of his own safety, seized the grenade and attempted to throw it over the parapet to save his men. As the grenade was thrown from the position it exploded and Sfc. Anderson was again grievously wounded. Although only partially conscious and severely wounded, Sfc. Anderson refused medical evacuation and continued to encourage his men in the defense of the position. Sfc. Anderson by his inspirational leadership, professionalism, devotion to duty and complete disregard for his welfare was able to maintain the defense of his section position and to defeat a determined attack. Sfc. Anderson’s gallantry and extraordinary heroism at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

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16 October

1492 – Columbus’ fleet anchored at “Fernandina” (Long Island, Bahamas).

1701 – Yale University was founded as The Collegiate School of Kilingworth, Connecticut by Congregationalists who considered Harvard too liberal.

1710 – British troops occupied Port Royal, Nova Scotia.

1780 – A raid on Royalton, Vermont and Tunbridge, Vermont are the last major raids of the American Revolutionary War. Just before dawn the town line of Tunbridge and Royalton was witness to the last major raid of the Revolutionary War in New England. In the “Royalton Raid” three hundred Indians led by British soldiers invaded from Canada along the First Branch of the White River. Part of a series of raids designed to terrorize frontier settlements, the result was the destruction of dozens of homes, crops and livestock necessary to survive the coming winter. Although women and girls were not harmed, 28 men and boys were taken captive and marched to Canada to be imprisoned. In the years that followed, many of the captives made their way back to their families, but some never returned. One resident, Peter Button, was killed in Tunbridge near the Royalton town line along what is Rte. 110 today.

1781 – General Cornwallis finding no way out from Yorktown seige. At about 4:00 A.M. Lt. Colonel Robert Abercromby led 350 British troops on a sortie to spike allied guns now in position on the second parallel. Abercromby was able to spike four guns after pretending to be an American detachment. Moving to another position along the parallel, the British were this time driven back to their lines by a French covering party. However, they had managed to spike two more guns, but the allies were able to get all the spiked guns back into action within six hours. That evening, General Cornwallis attempted to ferry across the York River to see about fighting his way out by way of Gloucester, but a storm frustrated these efforts.

1846 – American dentist, William T. G. Morton first demonstrated ether anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the Ether Dome.

1859 – On Sunday evening radical abolitionist John Brown and a tiny army of five black and 13 white supporters seized the Federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Convinced that local slaves would rise up behind him, Brown planned to establish a new republic of fugitives in the Appalachian Mountains. Brown’s plans immediately went awry when the expected slave rebellion did not happen and the townspeople trapped Brown’s men inside the engine house at the Federal arsenal. Within 24 hours, Brown and his four surviving men were captured by a force of 90 U.S. Marines under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown, quickly convicted of criminal conspiracy and treason and sentenced to death, was hanged on December 2, 1859. As he went to the gallows, Brown handed a note to one of his guards: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”

1861 – The Confederacy started selling postage stamps.

1909 – William Howard Taft and Porfirio Díaz hold a summit, a first between a U.S. and a Mexican president, and they only narrowly escape assassination. Frederick Russell Burnham, a private security officer, and Private C.R. Moore, a Texas Ranger, discovered a man holding a concealed palm pistol standing at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce building along the procession route. Burnham and Moore captured and disarmed the assassin within only a few feet of Taft and Díaz.

1940 – Benjamin O. Davis, became the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General. His promotion to Brigadier General aroused a brief but intense controversy, both on account of his race and because it came just a month before the presidential elections, it was viewed by some as politically motivated on the part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In command of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade at Fort Riley, Kansas, on promotion. He retired in 1941, but was immediately recalled to active duty and assigned to the Officer of the Inspector General of the Army. During World War II, he served in the European Theater of Operations as adviser on race relations in the Army. Returning to his post as Assistant Inspector General he retired again from the Army in 1948 after 50 years of service.

1940 – Registration begins for the draft according to the provisions of the Selective Service Act. The first drafts will be balloted on October 29th. This is the first peacetime draft in US history.

1942 – Near Guadalcanal, American aircraft from the carrier USS Hornet raid supply bases on Santa Isabel. On Guadalcanal, the Japanese increase their bombardment of American positions in preparation for a major attack.1943 – As the US 5th Army offensive continues, German forces conduct a fighting withdrawal to the Barbara Line, in accordance with Kesselring’s orders.

1944 – Around Aachen, troops of the US 19th and 8th Corps (elements of US 1st Army) link up to the east of the city, completing its encirclement. Farther south, the US 6th Corps (part of US 7th Army) encounters heavy German resistance around Bruyeres on the Moselle River. To the south, the French 1st Army begins new attacks.

1944 – Land-based aircraft of US 13th and 5th Air Forces, from Biak, Sansapor and Morotai, attack targets on Mindanao. US Task Group 77.4 (Admiral TF Sprague), with 18 escort carriers, launches air strikes on Leyte, Cebu and Mindanao.

1946 – Ten Nazi war criminals condemned during the Nuremberg trials were hanged. The defendants included: Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring, who was sentenced to death but committed suicide the morning of the execution; former deputy Führer Rudolph Hess, sentenced to life imprisonment; Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, hanged; head of the armed forces high command Wilhelm Keitel, hanged; writer and “philosopher” of National Socialism Alfred Rosenberg; U-boat Admiral Karl Dönitz, 10-year imprisonment; Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, life imprisonment; Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Shirach, 20-year imprisonment; procurer of slave labor Fritz Sauckel, hanged; and Alfred Jodl, chief of staff of the German high command, hanged. The hanging was badly botched as most Nazis slowly strangle to death. Also hanged were: Hans Frank, Governor-General of occupied Poland; Wilhelm Frick, Hitler’s Minister of the Interior; Julius Streicher, rabid anti-Semite editor of Der Sturmer; Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi philosopher and war criminal; Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Nazi leader of occupied Holland; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Austrian Nazi and SS leader.

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1962 – The Cuban missile crisis began as President Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba. Kennedy organized the Executive Committee of the National Security Council. These 19 men will help him through the coming crisis.

1964 – Red China detonated its first atomic bomb and became the world’s 4th nuclear power.

1973 – Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1987 – In the Persian Gulf, an Iranian missile hit a re-flagged Kuwaiti ship in the first direct attack on the tanker fleet guarded by the U.S.

1990 – US forces reached 200,000 in Persian Gulf.

1993 – The U.N. Security Council endorsed the deployment of U.S. warships to block arms and oil shipments to Haiti in an attempt to increase pressure on Haiti’s military leaders.

1997 – Pres. Clinton designated Argentina a “non-NATO ally” during a speech in Buenos Aires.

1997 – Bosnian Serb hard-liners launched a guerrilla-style TV broadcast and attacked the West’s efforts to silence them.

1998 – Serbian Pres. Milosevic was given an additional 10 days to withdraw forces from Kosovo and comply with UN demands.

1999 – A New York Air National Guard plane rescued Dr. Jerri Nielsen from a South Pole research center after she’d spent five months isolated by the Antarctic winter, which forced her to treat herself for a breast lump.

1999 – In Afghanistan the Taliban rejected the UN ultimatum to surrender Osama bin Laden and castigated the UN for threatening sanctions.

1999 – The 1st graduate class of the Kosovo Police Service School was honored in Pristina.

2000 – President Clinton launched a fresh effort to try to cool Middle East tensions at an emergency summit in Egypt that included Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as the leaders of Egypt and Jordan and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

2000 – Milosevic allies agreed to share power until elections. A German newspaper reported that the Milosevic family had $100 million in foreign accounts with some of the money from drug trafficking. Swiss authorities had already frozen 100 bank accounts worth $57 million linked to Milosevic and his allies.

2001 – A wing of the US Senate building was closed following confirmation that a letter to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., carried anthrax. It was later found that the anthrax contained the additive bentonite to enhance suspension in air. 12 Senate offices were closed as hundreds of staffers underwent anthrax tests.

2001 – Over 100 aircraft struck targets in Afghanistan and 2 gunships fired on Taliban and al Qaeda troops. U.S. bombs struck the Red Cross compound in Afghanistan, injuring a guard.

2001 – US Customs at JFK found $140,763 in the luggage of Basam Nahshal who was bound for Yemen. A 2nd man Ali Alfatimi claimed the money was his and was being smuggled to Yemen as part of his travel business.

2001 – Taliban leaders withdrew over $5 million from the Kandahar Da Afghanistan Bank.

2001 – Operation Active Endeavour is christened. It operates in the Mediterranean Sea and is designed to prevent the movement of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction as well as to enhance the security of shipping in general. It began on October 4, 2001 as one of the eight NATO responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was one of the first military actions taken by NATO in response to an invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty which provides for collective defense. The current operation is conducted by Standing NRF Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and Standing NRF Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2). Since its inception, the ships of Active Endeavour have monitored over 79,000 ships (as of April 12, 2006) and conducted voluntary boardings of over 100. They have also escorted over 480 ships through the Strait of Gibraltar until escorting was suspended in 2004.

2002 – The US offered a compromise proposal at the UN that called for serious consequences if Iraq does not comply with weapons inspections.

2002 – A Bush administration official reported that North Korea had told the United States it has a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 agreement signed with the Clinton administration.

2002 – Congress gives President George W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq to locate and destroy Saddam Hussein’s suspected stockpiles of Weapons of Mass Destruction. While the authorization encourages Bush to seek UN support for such action it did not require him to have it in order to attack Iraq. The war, known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, starts in March 2003.

2003 – Iraqi police backed by American tanks forced out the renegade Sadr City council.

2003 – Palestinian police arrested 7 suspects in Jebaliya for a deadly attack on US diplomats, briefly exchanging fire with the militants during a nighttime raid. The suspects were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group of dozens of armed men from various factions, former members of the security forces and disgruntled followers of Yasser Arafat.

2003 – The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at attracting aid to stabilize Iraq and putting it on the road to independence.

2004 – In Iraq a Fallujah delegation offered to resume peace talks with the government if the US ceases attacks against the city and releases the chief negotiator. 2 US Army helicopters crashed in Baghdad and 2 soldiers were killed.

2004 – Saudi security forces captured four suspected terrorists in the Khaleej neighborhood of Riyadh.

2006 – American and Russian scientists announce the discovery of a new chemical element with the atomic number 118, temporarily designated as Ununoctium.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

LONSWAY, JOSEPH
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 20th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Murfrees Station, Va., 16 October 1864. Entered service at:——. Birth: Clayton, N.Y. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Volunteered to swim Blackwater River to get a large flat used as a ferry on other side; succeeded in getting the boat safely across, making it possible for a detachment to cross the river and take possession of the enemy’s breastworks.

NEIBAUR, THOMAS C.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company M, 107th Infantry, 42d Division. Place and date: Near Landres-et-St. Georges, France, 16 October 1918. Entered service at: Sugar City, Idaho. Born: 17 May 1898, Sharon, Idaho. G.O. No.: 1 18, W .D., 1918. Citation: On the afternoon of 16 October 1918, when the Cote-de-Chatillion had just been gained after bitter fighting and the summit of that strong bulwark in the Kriemhilde Stellung was being organized, Pvt. Neibaur was sent out on patrol with his automatic rifle squad to enfilade enemy machinegun nests. As he gained the ridge he set up his automatic rifle and was directly thereafter wounded in both legs by fire from a hostile machinegun on his flank. The advance wave of the enemy troops, counterattacking, had about gained the ridge, and although practically cut off and surrounded, the remainder of his detachment being killed or wounded, this gallant soldier kept his automatic rifle in operation to such effect that by his own efforts and by fire from the skirmish line of his company, at least 100 yards in his rear, the attack was checked. The enemy wave being halted and Iying prone, 4 of the enemy attacked Pvt. Neibaur at close quarters. These he killed. He then moved alone among the enemy Iying on the ground about him, in the midst of the fire from his own lines, and by coolness and gallantry captured 11 prisoners at the point of his pistol and, although painfully wounded, brought them back to our lines. The counterattack in full force was arrested to a large extent by the single efforts of this soldier, whose heroic exploits took place against the skyline in full view of his entire battalion.

*BAUER, HAROLD WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: 20 November 1908. Woodruff, Kans. Appointed from: Nebraska. Citation: For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous courage as Squadron Commander of Marine Fighting Squadron 212 in the South Pacific Area during the period 10 May to 14 November 1942. Volunteering to pilot a fighter plane in defense of our positions on Guadalcanal, Lt. Col. Bauer participated in 2 air battles against enemy bombers and fighters outnumbering our force more than 2 to 1, boldly engaged the enemy and destroyed 1 Japanese bomber in the engagement of 28 September and shot down 4 enemy fighter planes in flames on 3 October, leaving a fifth smoking badly. After successfully leading 26 planes on an over-water ferry flight of more than 600 miles on 16 October, Lt. Col. Bauer, while circling to land, sighted a squadron of enemy planes attacking the U.S.S. McFarland. Undaunted by the formidable opposition and with valor above and beyond the call of duty, he engaged the entire squadron and, although alone and his fuel supply nearly exhausted, fought his plane so brilliantly that 4 of the Japanese planes were destroyed before he was forced down by lack of fuel. His intrepid fighting spirit and distinctive ability as a leader and an airman, exemplified in his splendid record of combat achievement, were vital factors in the successful operations in the South Pacific Area.

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17 October

1691 – Maine and Plymouth were incorporated in Massachusetts.

1777 – General John Burgoyne with British forces of 5,000 men surrendered to General Horatio Gates, commander of the American forces at Schuylerville, NY. In the fall of 1777, the British commander Gen’l. Burgoyne and his men were advancing along the Hudson River. After Burgoyne had retreated to the heights of Saratoga, the Americans stopped and surrounded them. The surrender was a turning point in the American Revolution, demonstrating American determination to gain independence. After the surrender, France sided with the Americans, and other countries began to get involved and align themselves against Britain.

1781 – Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown. Cornwallis’ options had been running out. He had even tried sending blacks infected with smallpox over enemy lines in an attempt to infect the American and French troops. After a futile counterattack, Cornwallis offered to surrender.

1814 – The crew of USRC Eagle, which had been driven ashore near Negros Head, New York in an encounter with the British brig HMS Dispatch, dragged the cutter’s guns up a bluff in an effort to continue the battle. The New York Evening Post gave an account of what happened next to the out-gunned cutter: “During the engagement between the Cutter EAGLE and the enemy, the following took place which is worthy of notice. Having expanded all the wadding of the four-pounders on the hill, during the warmest of the firing, several of the crew volunteered and went on board the cutter to obtain more. At this moment the masts were shot away, when the brave volunteers erected a flag upon her stern; this was soon shot away, but was immediately replaced by a heroic tar, amidst the cheers of his undaunted comrades, which was returned by a whole broadside from the enemy. When the crew of the Cutter had expended all their large shot and fixed ammunition, they tore up the log book to make cartridges and returned the enemy’s small shot which lodged in the hull. The Cutter was armed with only 6 guns, 4 four-pounders and 2 twos with plenty of muskets and about 50 men. The enemy being gone and provisions scarce the volunteers from this city left Captain Lee and his crew and arrived here on Thursday evening the 13th instant, in a sloop from Long Island. . .We have since learned that Captain Lee succeeded in getting off the Cutter and was about to remove her to a place of safety when the enemy returned and took possession of her. She was greatly injured, but it is expected that the enemy will be able to refit her to annoy us in the sound.”

1814 – Marines and Sailors landed on Grand Terre Island, Louisiana, to punish pirates. Pirate leader, Jean Lafitte’s activities threatened to monopolize the city’s import trade. New Orleans merchants goaded the new American governor, William C. C. Claiborne, into accusing him of piracy and posting a $500 reward. Lafitte made Claiborne a laughingstock with his own offer of $1500 for Claiborne’s capture, and to rub it in he hired District Attorney John R. Grymes as his counselor (for a reported $10,000). Lafitte would not be bought, bribed, or intimidated. In 1814 the British offered him $30,000 and a Royal Navy commission to help them capture New Orleans. The buccaneer turned them down and informed Claiborne of his wish to become a citizen and to give Claiborne his support, if his privateer followers were pardoned for all past crimes. Claiborne was ready to relent when the American Navy swooped down on the Grand Terre base and destroyed it. Fortunately for the infant United States, General Andrew Jackson sought out the buccaneer and agreed to honor his request.

1859 – Abolitionist John Brown leads a group of men in a raid to capture the federal arsenal located at Harpers Ferry, Virginia with the intent to arm slaves he would lead in revolt against their masters. His plans are foiled by local town’s people attacking his party and forcing it into the firehouse. They are soon surrounded by militiamen from Jefferson, Berkeley and Frederick counties. One such unit, the “Continental Morgan Guard” from Winchester, VA, is still an element in the Virginia Guard today. As word of the raid spreads other militia troops arrive by train, some from as far away as Richmond. However, U.S. Marines under the command of Army Colonel Robert E. Lee arrive and storm the “Brown’s fort” killing or capturing the raiders. Brown is captured and later tried for treason, convicted and quickly hung in Charlestown, VA (now WV). During this period he is guarded by several hundred Virginia militia against the possibility of other raiders trying to free him, though no such attack was launched. Because of his raid and the fear of other attempts to get the slaves to rise in revolt, the growth of volunteer militia units in the southern states rose sharply in the months leading up to the Civil War.

1871 – President Grant suspended writ of habeas corpus in nine South Carolina counties in enforcement of the Ku Klux Klan Act.

1877 – Brigadier General Alfred Terry met with Sitting Bull in Canada to discuss the Indians’ return to the United States. Sitting Bull and his followers had fled to Canada after the Little Big Horn. This meeting will fail.

1894 – Ohio national guard killed 3 lynchers while rescuing a black man. A mob gathered outside the Fayette County court house with the intent to lynch convicted rapist William “Jasper” Dolby. Gov. William McKinley ordered Ohio National Guard troops to subdue the mob. Oct. 17, 1894, the crowd battered the doors and was fired upon. Five men were killed. McKinley reaffirmed the National Guard troops decision, “The law was upheld as it should have been …but in this case at a fearful cost… Lynching cannot be tolerated in Ohio.” Bullet holes are still visible in the south court house doors.

1922 – LCDR Virgil C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF makes first takeoff from U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1) anchored in York River, Virginia.

1933 – Due to rising anti-Semitism and anti-intellectualism in Hitler’s Germany, Albert Einstein immigrated to the United States. He made his new home in Princeton, N.J.

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1941 – The U.S. destroyer Kearney DD-432 was damaged by a German U-boat torpedo off Iceland; 11 Americans were killed.

1941 – General Hideki Tojo (1885-1948) became Premier and Minister of War in Japan. When the bellicose war minister and most powerful man in Japan, Army General Hideki Tojo, became prime minister, there no longer was a chance of avoiding war with Britain and the United States. 1942 – A regiment of the US 32nd Division is airlifted from Port Moresby to Wanigela on the north coast.

1943 – The last operational German auxiliary cruiser, Michel, is sunk by the American submarine Tarpon off the Japanese coast. The German raider has sunk 17 ships during its cruise.

1943 – The advancing US 5th Army takes Liberi and Alvignano.

1944 – US 2nd Corps (part of US 5th Army) continues attacks toward Bologna, Italy.

1944 – As a diversion for the American attack on Leyte, the British Eastern Fleet sends 2 carriers, 1 battle cruiser and lighter ships on a raid of the Nicobar Islands. Air strikes and shelling are carried out, causing damage.

1944 – In France, US 7th Army continues its offensive around Luneville and Bruyeres.

1944 – US Task Group 77.4 (Admiral TF Sprague) continues air strikes on Leyte, Cebu and Mindanao. US Task Group 38.4 (Admiral Davison) arrives with 4 carriers and launches air strikes on Luzon. Also, American minesweeping in Leyte Gulf begin and there are minor landings, by elements of the US Rangers, on the islands of Suluan and Dinagat at the entrance to Leyte Gulf.

1945 – Iva Toguri D’Aquino, a Japanese-American suspected of being wartime radio propagandist “Tokyo Rose,” was arrested by 3 CIC officers in her Tokyo apartment.

1973 – Arab oil-producing nations announced they would begin cutting back on oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974 and caused oil prices to quadruple.

1974 – A meeting of the Boston Massachusetts School Committee is “stink bombed” by the Weather Underground to protest busing.

1978 – President Carter signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

1989 – An earthquake registering 7.1 on the Richter Scale hit Northern California, killing 67 people. Coast Guard units and 24 Navy and Military Sealift Command ships rendered assistance in rescue and relief operations.

1993 – Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, in a CBS interview, said he would offer legislation restricting President Clinton’s authority to send troops to Haiti.

1994 – Negotiators for the Angolan government and rebels agreed to a peace treaty to end their 19-year civil war.

1997 – The US Army used a Miracl (medium infra-red advanced chemical laser developed by TRW) laser beam to hit the MISTI-3 satellite in orbit. The laser test was prohibited by Congress in 1985, but the ban expired in 1995. The test failed to be recorded by sensors on the satellite.

1999 – US negotiators proposed to Russia an alteration to the 1972 ABM treaty to allow construction of defensive systems.

2001 – Federal officials reported that the anthrax strains in New York and Florida appeared to be identical. The House and 6 congressional office buildings were closed for tests after over 30 Senate staff members tested positive for exposure to spores.

2001 – Some 100 US land and sea-base planes hit targets that included Kandahar and Mazar-e-Sharif.

2001 – In Afghanistan Taliban forces seized UN food warehouses in Kabul and Kandahar. 2001 – In the Philippines gunmen abducted an Italian priest, Giuseppe Pierantoni (45), in Dimataling, Zamboanga del Sur. He was freed Apr 8, 2002.

2002 – In the Philippines bombings in Zamboanga killed 7 people and injured 152. Militants of Abu Sayyaf were suspected.

2003 – Pres. Bush stopped in Tokyo and thanked PM Junichiro Koizumi for aid to Iraq.

2003 – In eastern Afghanistan a bomb blew up a pickup truck on a dirt road, killing four people, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in a land mine explosion in the country’s south.

2003 – The EU pushed ahead with efforts to build its own defense arm but sought to ease U.S. concerns by insisting the plan would neither duplicate nor undermine NATO.

2004 – US forces battled insurgents around Fallujah. Militants ambushed and killed nine Iraqi policemen returning from training in Jordan. A suicide driver in Baghdad killed at least 7 people. More than 200 detainees were released from Abu Ghraib prison after a security review deemed them no longer a threat.

2004 – Jordan’s military prosecutor indicted Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the most wanted insurgents in Iraq, and 12 other alleged Muslim militants for an alleged al-Qaida linked plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Amman and Jordanian government targets.

2004 – The Tawhid and Jihad group, a militant group led by terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, declared its allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

2011 – Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson opens the world’s first commercial spaceport, Spaceport America, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. The SpaceShipTwo spaceplane is expected to begin commercial flights from the spaceport by 2013.

2014 – The President of the United States Barack Obama names lawyer and former political operative Ron Klain as “ebola czar” to coordinate US response to the Ebola outbreak. Klain will not begin in the job until March 2015.

2014 – The X-37B experimental spaceplane, lands at Vandenburg Air Force base after 675 days in space. OTV-3, the second mission for the first X-37B and the third X-37B mission overall, was originally scheduled to launch on 25 October 2012, but was postponed because of an engine issue with the Atlas V launch vehicle.[55] The X-37B was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral on 11 December 2012. The launch was designated USA-240.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BOYINGTON, GREGORY
Rank and organization: Major, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Marine Squadron 214. Place and date: Central Solomons area, from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Entered service at: Washington. Born: 4 December 1912, Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. Other Navy award: Navy Cross. Citation: For extraordinary heroism and valiant devotion to duty as commanding officer of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Central Solomons area from 12 September 1943 to 3 January 1944. Consistently outnumbered throughout successive hazardous flights over heavily defended hostile territory, Maj. Boyington struck at the enemy with daring and courageous persistence, leading his squadron into combat with devastating results to Japanese shipping, shore installations, and aerial forces. Resolute in his efforts to inflict crippling damage on the enemy, Maj. Boyington led a formation of 24 fighters over Kahili on 17 October and, persistently circling the airdrome where 60 hostile aircraft were grounded, boldly challenged the Japanese to send up planes. Under his brilliant command, our fighters shot down 20 enemy craft in the ensuing action without the loss of a single ship. A superb airman and determined fighter against overwhelming odds, Maj. Boyington personally destroyed 26 of the many Japanese planes shot down by his squadron and, by his forceful leadership, developed the combat readiness in his command which was a distinctive factor in the Allied aerial achievements in this vitally strategic area.

*VAN NOY, JUNIOR
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Headquarters Company, Shore Battalion, Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment. Place and date: Near Finschafen, New Guinea, 17 October 1943. Entered service at: Preston, Idaho. Birth: Grace, Idaho. G.O. No.: 17, 26 February 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy near Finschafen, New Guinea, on 17 October 1943. When wounded late in September, Pvt. Van Noy declined evacuation and continued on duty. On 17 October 1943 he was gunner in charge of a machinegun post only 5 yards from the water’s edge when the alarm was given that 3 enemy barges loaded with troops were approaching the beach in the early morning darkness. One landing barge was sunk by Allied fire, but the other 2 beached 10 yards from Pvt. Van Noy’s emplacement. Despite his exposed position, he poured a withering hail of fire into the debarking enemy troops. His loader was wounded by a grenade and evacuated. Pvt. Van Noy, also grievously wounded, remained at his post, ignoring calls of nearby soldiers urging him to withdraw, and continued to fire with deadly accuracy. He expended every round and was found, covered with wounds dead beside his gun. In this action Pvt. Van Noy killed at least half of the 39 enemy taking part in the landing. His heroic tenacity at the price of his life not only saved the lives of many of his comrades, but enabled them to annihilate the attacking detachment.

*DURHAM, HAROLD BASCOM, JR.
Rank and organization: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, Battery C, 6th Battalion, 15th Artillery, 1st Infantry Division . Place and date: Republic of Vietnam, 17 October 1967. Entered service at: Atlanta, Ga. Born: 12 October 1942, Rocky Mount, N.C. Citation: 2d Lt. Durham, Artillery, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the cost of his life above and beyond the call of duty while assigned to Battery C. 2d Lt. Durham was serving as a forward observer with Company D, 2d Battalion, 28th Infantry during a battalion reconnaissance-in-force mission. At approximately 1015 hours contact was made with an enemy force concealed in well-camouflaged positions and fortified bunkers. 2d Lt. Durham immediately moved into an exposed position to adjust the supporting artillery fire onto the insurgents. During a brief lull in the battle he administered emergency first aid to the wounded in spite of heavy enemy sniper fire directed toward him. Moments later, as enemy units assaulted friendly positions, he learned that Company A, bearing the brunt of the attack, had lost its forward observer.

While he was moving to replace the wounded observer, the enemy detonated a Claymore mine, severely wounding him in the head and impairing his vision. In spite of the intense pain, he continued to direct the supporting artillery fire and to employ his individual weapon in support of the hard pressed infantrymen. As the enemy pressed their attack, 2d Lt. Durham called for supporting fire to be placed almost directly on his position. Twice the insurgents were driven back, leaving many dead and wounded behind. 2d Lt. Durham was then taken to a secondary defensive position. Even in his extremely weakened condition, he continued to call artillery fire onto the enemy. He refused to seek cover and instead positioned himself in a small clearing which offered a better vantage point from which to adjust the fire. Suddenly, he was severely wounded a second time by enemy machine gun fire. As he lay on the ground near death, he saw two Viet Cong approaching, shooting the defenseless wounded men. With his last effort, 2d Lt. Durham shouted a warning to a nearby soldier who immediately killed the insurgents. 2d Lt. Durham died moments later, still grasping the radio handset. 2d Lt. Durham’s gallant actions in close combat with an enemy force are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

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1540 – Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto’s forces destroy the fortified town of Mabila in present-day Alabama, killing Tuskaloosa. When Hernando de Soto had first met Tuskaloosa at his home village, and asked him for supplies, Tuskaloosa advised them to travel to another of his towns, known as Mabila, where supplies would be waiting. A native messenger was sent ahead to Mabila, but when Tuskaloosa and the first group of Spaniards arrived, Tuskaloosa simply asked them to leave. When a fight broke out between one soldier and a native, many hidden warriors emerged from houses and began shooting arrows. The Spaniards fled, leaving their possessions inside the fortress. The full conflict that resulted is called the Battle of Mabila.

1676 – Nathaniel Bacon, who rallied against the Virginian government, died of fever at 29. Bacon’s Rebellion fell apart when he fell ill.

1767 – The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon. The two surveyors who mapped the line were Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon.

1775 – The Burning of Falmouth (now Portland, Maine) prompts the Continental Congress to establish the Continental Navy. The Burning of Falmouth was an attack by a fleet of Royal Navy vessels on the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts (site of the modern city of Portland, Maine, and not to be confused with the modern towns of Falmouth, Massachusetts or Falmouth, Maine). The fleet was commanded by Captain Henry Mowat. The attack began with a naval bombardment which included incendiary shot, followed by a landing party meant to complete the town’s destruction. The attack was the only major event in what was supposed to be a campaign of retaliation against ports that supported Patriot activities in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War. Among the colonies, news of the attack led to rejection of British authority and the establishment of independent governments. It also led the Second Continental Congress to contest British Naval dominance by forming a Continental Navy. Both Mowat and his superior, Vice-Admiral Samuel Graves, who had ordered Mowat’s expedition, suffered professionally as a consequence of the act.

1776 – At the Battle of Pelham Col. John Glover and the Marblehead regiment collided with British Forces in the Bronx. Sir William Howe, Commander-in-Chief of the British army, landed 4,000 English and Hessian troops near the stables on Pelham Parkway in an action which became the first permanent invasion of the American mainland in the American Revolution. Howe’s objective was to outflank the American army by marching west across today’s Bronx along the Boston Post Road. This would also cut off Washington’s vital supply route from New England and enable the British to surround Washington and quickly end the rebellion. However, 600 seamen from the Boston area, led by Colonel John Glover, and fighting from behind Pelham Manor’s stone walls put an end to Howe’s plan and saved Washington’s army. The main significance of the Battle of Pelham lay in the fact that it bought time for Washington to remove the American army from an extremely perilous position and to retreat to White Plains. It is for this reason that the Battle of Pelham has been called the battle that saved the American Revolution.

1779 – The Franco-American Siege of Savannah is lifted. The Siege of Savannah or the Second Battle of Savannah was an encounter of the American Revolutionary War. The year before, the city of Savannah, Georgia, had been captured by a British expeditionary corps under Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell. The siege itself consisted of a joint Franco-American attempt to retake Savannah beginning on September 16, 1779. On October 9 a major assault against the British siege works had failed. With the failure of the joint American-French attack, the siege failed, and the British remained in control of Savannah until July 1782, near the end of the war. More than 500 Haitian volunteers from Saint-Domingue, Haiti under the command of Comte d’Estaing, fought alongside American colonial troops against the British in the Siege of Savannah, one of the most significant foreign contributions to the American Revolutionary War.

1799 – In an action of the Quasi-War with France, USRC Pickering (70 men) captured the French privateer L’Egypte Conquiste (250 men).

1812 – U.S. sloop of war Wasp captures HM brig Frolic. Folic had been separated from a convoy by a storm. While repairing damage, the Wasp came into view and was at first taken for a part of the convoy. On October 18th the “Wasp” moved toward the British ship. The “Frolic” hoisted Spanish colors, this keep the strange ship from pursuing the convoy. At 11:30 a.m. the two ships were sailing no more than 60 yards apart. The “Wasp” fired her port guns, and the “Frolic” fired her starboard guns. The British ship fired rapidly, delivering three broadsides to the American’s two. Both crews cheered wildly as the battle became heated. The “Wasp” was landing more shot than the British ship. The ocean was very rough, the crew of the “Frolic” fired their cannon when they were on the crest of the waves. The Americans fired their guns on the lower part of the waves. But in spite of the weather both ships fire was well directed. At 11:36 a.m. the “Wasp’s” maintop-mast was shot away and fell with it’s yard. At 11:46 a.m. her mizzentop -gallant mast came down and by 11:52 every brace and most of her rigging had been shot away. The British ship however, had been severely damaged in her hull and lower masts. The “Wasp” gradually moved ahead and raked the “Frolic” with a devastating effect.

The American ship fired again, this caused many casualties on the “Frolic”. The ships came together, and after one failed attempt because of rough seas the Americans boarded the British ship. Not one Englishman was there to stop the crew of the “Wasp” from boarding. The man at the wheel was dazed but still at his post. Captain Whinyates and Lieutenant Wintle were wounded so severely that they could not stand without support. The crew of the “Frolic” could not fight any longer and Lieutenant Biddle lowered the flag at 12:15 just 43 minutes after the battle had started. The American ship had been damaged severely in her rigging but only two or three shots struck her hull. The American’s had 5 killed and 5 wounded. The British had 30 killed and 60 wounded. The American ship “Wasp” had a crew of 135 and carried 9 guns. The British ship “Frolic” had a crew of 110 and carried 10 guns.

1842 – US Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones sailed into Monterey, the Mexican capital of California, on the mistaken belief that the US and Mexico had gone to war.

1848 – Captain Douglas Ottinger, USRM, was designated by the Secretary of the Treasury to supervise the construction of the first Life-Saving Stations and the equipment and boats to be place at them.

1859 – U.S. Marines reach Harper’s Ferry, VA and assault the arsenal seized by John Brown and his followers. Colonel Robert E. Lee has Lieutenant JEB Stuart carry a note to Brown demanding his surrender. Brown refuses and closes and bars the doors of the Engine House. Stuart waves his hat up and down as a signal to begin the assault. The Marines attack the doors with sledgehammers, but to no effect. They find a heavy ladder and use that as a battering ram. In two blows, they create a small opening in the right hand door which is split, and they storm into the building. Lieutenant Israel Green, who leads the assault, attacks Brown with the dress sword he brought by mistake from Washington. The sword, which was never meant for combat, bends on Brown’s leather belt. Green grasps the sword by the ruined blade and hits Brown over the head with it, knocking him unconscious. The raid is over.

1862 – Morgan’s raiders captured federal garrison at Lexington, Ky. John Morgan and his cavalry surprised Union Major Seidel at Ashland and captured him and his command in broad daylight. After outfitting his command with new horses, colt revolvers and other captured goods, Morgan’s men burned the government stables and railroad depot before leaving Lexington.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1898 – The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island.

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1939 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt banned foreign war submarines from U.S. ports and waters.

1942 – In reaction to several incidents, Hitler orders that all prisoners taken from Commando or similar units are to be shot immediately whether in uniform or not and whether surrendering or not.

1942 – On New Guinea, American forces sent on a parallel trail to help the Australians cut off Japanese retreats down the Kokoda Trail, finally begin to reach Pongani. The trip has proved to be so difficult that the soldiers are in no condition to fight. In addition, the transport of troops by air from Port Moresby to the northern coast has made the land trip unnecessary.

1942 – Admiral Halsey is appointed chief of the Pacific Command Area, replacing Admiral Ghormley.

1943 – There is a heavy air raid on the Japanese air base at Buin on Bougainville.

1943 – In Italy, elements of the US 5th Army reach Dragoni, while other elements capture Gioia.

1943 – General Orders 27, 29th Infantry Division (DC, MD, VA) disbands the 29th Ranger Battalion (Provisional). Organized in December 1942 from volunteers drawn from the 29th Division, its 500-men undertook specialized training conducted by the famous British Commandos. The soldiers learned how to penetrate deep behind enemy lines, staging raids and gathering intelligence. When the battalion was organized it was planned by the Army to disband the unit so its men could return to their former companies and teach these advanced skills to other members of the division. Some veterans of D-Day and the Normandy campaign credit these added skills to saving their lives.

1944 – Lt. General Joseph Stilwell was recalled from China by president Franklin Roosevelt.

1944 – All able-bodied German males between the ages of 16 and 60 are now liable for conscription into the Volkssturm (the home defense force).

1944 – General McClain takes command of the US 1st Army on the western front. He replaces General Corlett.

1944 – The American escort carriers of TG77.4 concentrate air strikes on Leyte while the now 12 fleet carriers, in three groups from TF38, strike Luzon.

1945 – The first German War Crimes Trial began. The International Military Tribunal met at Nuremberg and lasted through to 1946. Ranking Nazi officials were tried and convicted of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. The proceedings were endorsed by the UN. William D. Denson (d.1998 at 85) was the chief prosecutor for the US.

1945 – The USSR’s nuclear program receives plans for the United States plutonium bomb from Klaus Fuchs at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1950 – US forces drove north across the 38th parallel into the Peoples Republic of North Korea.

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.

1961 – General Maxwell Taylor arrives in Saigon for a one week fact finding tour. He is greeted by President Diem’s formal declaration of a state of emergency, a result of increased Vietcong activity and severe floods. Diem asks for tactical aviation, helicopter companies, coastal patrol forces, and ground transport, and reiterates his desire for a bilateral defense treaty with the United States. General Taylor perceives the disastrous flooding in the Mekong Delta as a potential cover for the introduction of 6,000 to 8,000 US combat troops, which might be withdrawn or augmented after the work of flood rehabilitation is completed.

1967 – A protest in Madison, Wisc., against recruiting by Dow Chemical, the maker of napalm and Agent Orange, turned violent.

1968 – In Operation Sea Lords, the Navy’s three major operating forces in Vietnam (TF 115, 116, and 117) are brought together for the first time to stop Vietcong infiltration deep into South Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

1987 – President Reagan summoned congressional leaders to the White House to announce he had decided on what action to take in response to an Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-flagged tanker off Kuwait two days earlier. (The next day, U.S. destroyers bombarded an Iranian offshore oil rig.)

1989 – The space shuttle Atlantis was launched on a five-day mission that included deployment of the Galileo space probe on a course for Jupiter.

1990 – Iraq offered to sell its oil to anyone—including the United States—for $21 a barrel, the same price level that preceded the invasion of Kuwait.

1997 – A $21.5 million memorial to honor the military service of US women was dedicated at entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

1999 – A US presidential panel recommended that Navy gunnery on the Vieques Island of Puerto Rico be reduced and abandoned in 5 years.

2000 – President Clinton honored the 17 sailors killed in a suicide bomb attack against the USS Cole as he attended a ceremony at the Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia.

2001 – CBS News announced that an employee in Dan Rather’s office had tested positive for skin anthrax.

2001 – Two new cases of anthrax were reported in New Jersey.

2001 – The FBI and Postal Service announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of anthrax mailings.

2001 – Four disciples of Osama bin Laden, convicted in the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, were sentenced to life in prison and ordered to pay $33 million in restitution to victims.

2001 – In Afghanistan the city of Kandahar was reported to have collapsed to “pre-Taliban lawlessness.” The first US Special Forces were reported to have begun operating on the ground in southern Afghanistan.

2001 – Germany issued an int’l. arrest warrant for Zakariya Essabar (24) for links to the bombing of the WTC.

2001 – Japan’s House of Representatives approved an anti-terrorism bill that defines a narrow role for its military to support US attacks in Afghanistan.

2001 – In the Philippines Pres. Arroyo lifted a moratorium on executions and said she would use the penalty on kidnappers.

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2002 – Two US Navy planes, F/A-18F Super Hornet jets, collided off the Big Sur coast of California and 4 pilots were killed.

2002 – Space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth following an 11-day mission to the ISS.

2002 – Five trucks carrying looted Kuwaiti archives left the Iraqi capital, bound for Kuwait.

2003 – Pres. Bush addressed a special joint session of the Philippine Congress in Manila. Some 290 families lost their homes in a shantytown of the Batasan Hills, which faced the building where the address was to be held. Bush promised to help the Philippines defeat terrorism by aiding in the modernization of its under-equipped military. Thousands of university students and other activists marched to protest Bush’s visit to Manila already tense over security concerns.

2003 – A new audiotape, purporting to be from Osama bin Laden and promised fresh attacks against the United States.

2003 – South Korea pledged to send more troops to Iraq.

2003 – Russia launched a Soyuz capsule from Kazakhstan with a 3-man crew for the int’l. space station. Aboard were an American, a Russian and a Spaniard.

2004 – In southeastern Afghanistan 5 people were killed when an explosive device hit a vehicle being used by election staff. Hamid Karzai’s chief rival Yunus Qanooni accused organizers of “robbing the people’s vote.”

2004 – Iraqi PM Allawi said that an exchange of weapons for cash will be extended across the country. A militant group in Iraq said it had executed two Macedonian men accused of spying for the US. Macedonia has 32 soldiers stationed in Taji, north of Baghdad. Saboteurs attacked a key oil pipeline in northern Iraq, setting it on fire.

2005 – Saddam Hussein’s trial begins.

2011 – Spaceport America officially opens in New Mexico as the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.

2011 – United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes an unannounced visit to the Libyan capital Tripoli, aiming to strengthen ties between the United States and the National Transitional Council, which has established itself as Libya’s ruling body following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

2014 – USS Detroit (LCS-7), a Freedom class littoral combat ship of the United States Navy, was launched and christened. The ceremonial “laying of the keel” was in early November 2012, at Marinette WI.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

THOMPSON, MAX
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company K, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Haaren, Germany, 18 October 1944. Entered service at: Prescott, Ariz. Birth: Bethel, N.C. G.O. No.: 47, 18 June 1945. Citation: On 18 October 1944, Company K, 18th Infantry, occupying a position on a hill near Haaren, Germany, was attacked by an enemy infantry battalion supported by tanks. The assault was preceded by an artillery concentration, lasting an hour, which inflicted heavy casualties on the company. While engaged in moving wounded men to cover, Sgt. Thompson observed that the enemy had overrun the positions of the 3d Platoon. He immediately attempted to stem the enemy’s advance single-handedly. He manned an abandoned machinegun and fired on the enemy until a direct hit from a hostile tank destroyed the gun. Shaken and dazed, Sgt. Thompson picked up an automatic rifle and although alone against the enemy force which was pouring into the gap in our lines, he ??fired burst after burst, halting the leading elements of the attack and dispersing those following.

Throwing aside his automatic rifle, which had jammed, he took up a rocket gun, fired on a light tank, setting it on fire. By evening the enemy had been driven from the greater part of the captured position but still held 3 pillboxes. Sgt. Thompson’s squad was assigned the task of dislodging the enemy from these emplacements. Darkness having fallen and finding that fire of his squad was ineffective from a distance, Sgt. Thompson crawled forward alone to within 20 yards of 1 of the pillboxes and fired grenades into it. The Germans holding the emplacement concentrated their fire upon him. Though wounded, he held his position fearlessly, continued his grenade fire, and finally forced the enemy to abandon the blockhouse. Sgt. Thompson’s courageous leadership inspired his men and materially contributed to the clearing of the enemy from his last remaining hold on this important hill position.

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19 October

1739 – England declared war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The War is known as the War of Jenkins’ Ear because a Member of Parliament waved a dried ear and demanded revenge for alleged mistreatment of British sailors. British seaman Robert Jenkins had his ear amputated following a 1731 barroom brawl with a Spanish Customs guard in Havana and saved the ear in his sea chest.

1765 – The Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.

1781 – Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrounded at Yorktown, Va., by American and French regiments numbering 17,600 men, surrendered to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau. Cornwallis surrendered 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and 840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had been light on both sides. Cornwallis sent Brig. Gen. Charles O’Hara to surrender his sword. At Washington’s behest, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln accepted it. Washington himself is seen in the right background of “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown” by artist John Trumbull. After conducting an indecisive foray into Virginia, Lt. Gen. Charles Lord Cornwallis retired to Yorktown on August 2, 1781. On August 16, General Washington and Maj. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, began marching their Continental and French armies from New York to Virginia. The arrival of a French fleet, and its victory over a British fleet in Chesapeake Bay, sealed the trap.

1800 – Marines participated in a tribute to the Dey of Algiers.

1810 – Cassius Marcellus Clay (d.1903), Major General (Union volunteers), was born. Cassius Marcellus Clay was born on his father’s plantation, Clermont, in Madison County, Kentucky, the son of Revolutionary War veteran General Green Clay and Sally Lewis. Clay fought for the abolishment of slavery, becoming one of Kentucky’s greatest anti-slavery crusaders in the years before the Civil War. While attending Yale University, Clay had been deeply influenced by a pro-emancipation speech of William Lloyd Garrison. Clay became one of the most prominent American abolitionists and statesmen, and was a proponent of Henry Clay’s American System. He rejected extreme measures pertaining to slavery and advocated gradual emancipation. In 1845 he founded a leading anti-slavery newspaper the True American, an anti-slavery weekly. When his printing equipment was seized by local opposition, he continued to publish the paper from Cincinnati, Ohio. Later, changing its name to the Examiner, he moved the operation to Louisville, Kentucky.

Clay served three terms in the Kentucky Legislature, from 1835-1840. He helped found the Republican Party in 1854, and gave his support to its’ Presidential tickets in 1856 and 1860. He was named Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia in 1861, during the Lincoln Administration, returning home for a brief period when he received a commission from the Lincoln Administration to serve as a Major General for the Union Army. Clay returned to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1863, to continue his diplomatic service as Minister to Russia until 1869. In his late years, he wrote an autobiography: The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay: Memoirs, Writings, and Speeches. As health failed due to advancing age, Clay confined himself more and more to his estate, White Hall, the remodeled estate built upon the original estate house structure of Clermont. Cassius Marcellus Clay died July 22, 1903, in the older section of the house, where he had been born ninety-three years earlier.

1818 – US and Chickasaw Indians signed a treaty. Andrew Jackson and Isaac Shelby represented American interests. The Chickasaws ceded their claims to lands in Tennessee.

1843 – CAPT Robert Stockton in Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenges British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which Princeton won easily.

1848 – John “The Pathfinder” Fremont moved out from near Westport, Missouri, on his fourth Western expedition–a failed attempt to open a trail across the Rocky Mountains along the 38th parallel.

1864 – Philip Sheridan and his gelding horse Rienzi made their most famous ride to repulse an attack led by Lt. General Jubal A. Early at Cedar Creek, Virginia. Sheridan had been on his way back from a strategy session in Washington, D.C. when Early attacked. The Union scored a narrow victory which helped it secure the Shenandoah Valley. Thomas Buchanan Read later wrote a poem, “Sheridan‘s Ride,” and created a painting immortalizing the Union general and his steed.

1864 – The northernmost action of the American Civil War took place in the Vermont town of St. Albans. Some 25 escaped Confederate POWs led by Kentuckian Bennett Young (21) raided the town near the Canadian border with the intent of robbing three banks and burning the town. While they managed to leave town and hide out in Canada with more than $200,000, their attempts to burn down the town failed. Most of the raiders were captured and imprisoned in Canada and later released after a court ruled the robberies in St. Albans were acts of war.

1901 – Arleigh A. Burke, admiral (WW II, Solomon Islands, Navy Cross), was born in Colorado. Although unable to complete his high school education because the school was closed during the flu epidemic in 1917, he competed successfully for an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. Convinced that the inadequacies of his secondary education put him behind other Midshipmen in his class, Burke decided that he could only overcome this deficiency by working more diligently at his studies than the others. This plan paid great dividends, and he graduated in 1923 in the top sixth of his class. Taking this lesson strongly to heart, he remained a believer in the benefits of sustained hard work throughout his Navy career. During the interwar years, Arleigh Burke honed his skills as a surface warfare officer, serving initially in the battleship USS Arizona, obtaining a postgraduate degree in ordnance engineering, and rising eventually to command a destroyer. It was in this formative period of his career that he learned the importance of the Navy adage “loyalty up, loyalty down”–if you expect loyalty from your people you must be loyal to them in return.

During World War II, Burke commanded Destroyer Squadron 23 (the “Little Beavers”) during combat in the South Pacific. Developing successful tactics to overcome Japanese advantages in night surface operations, he earned fame as “31-knot” Burke during the 1943 battles of Empress Augusta Bay and Cape St. George. It was in this period that his belief in the importance of thorough training was validated–as he explained to his subordinates, in combat your outfit could expect to do only about as well as it had trained to do beforehand. During Dwight Eisenhower’s terms as President in the 1950s, Arleigh Burke served as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) for six years. While CNO he initiated efforts such as the submarine-launched Polaris ballistic missile program that tremendously strengthened the U.S. Navy’s military capabilities.

1915 – US recognized General Venustiano Carranza (opposing Pancho Villa) as the president of Mexico, and imposed an embargo on the shipment of arms to all Mexican territories except those controlled by Carranza.

1915 – Establishment of Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut. In 1868, Connecticut gave the Navy land and, in 1872, two brick buildings and a “T” shaped pier were built and officially declared a Navy Yard. Today the Naval Submarine Base New London (SUBASE NLON), located on the east side of Thames River in Groton, CT, proudly claims its motto to be “The First and Finest.”

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1917 – The first doughnut was fried by Salvation Army (who would found the United Service Organization) volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I. The first of a group of 250 Officers and Soldiers of The Salvation Army to be posted to France to serve with General John Pershing’s American expeditionary force sailed from New York on August 12th 1917. General Pershing was far from convinced that The Salvation Army’s presence at the Front Line would benefit his troops and at first the Salvationists were treated with total indifference. At Demange, in the American first division sector, Salvationists toiled in pouring rain to build a hut 25 feet wide by 100 feet long for the troops benefit. No one gave them the time of day, much less a hand. What swung the troops to The Army’s side was their practical example. No task was too menial, none too dangerous or difficult. But The Salvation Army won pride of place in American hearts by a brain wave born of sheer necessity. At Montiers, after 36 days of rain, supplies were almost exhausted. Only flour, lard and sugar remained. Ensign Margaret Sheldon, from the Chicago slums made a suggestion which was to go down in history.

“Why don’t we make them doughnuts?” They had no rolling pins or cake cutters and gales had blown down their tent but Salvationists thrive on challenges. Along with Ensign Helen Purviance, Margaret Sheldon crouched in the rain to prepare the dough. An empty bottle did duty as a rolling pin and in place of a cutter they used a knife to twist the doughnuts into shape. The first doughnuts cooked over a wood fire were triumph of improvisation. On the first day they served up some 150 doughnuts. The following days batch topped 300. The traditional hole now being punched out with the inner tube of a coffee percolator. The doughnuts made by The Salvation Army Lassies were an instant success with the troops. Some lining up for hours in appalling conditions for their daily supply. Soon the troops came to realize that even in the firing line The Salvationists would not neglect them. When Lassies like Ensign Florence Turkington crawled under shell fire to deliver coffee an doughnuts to troops in the trenches, letters praising the work of The Salvation Army began flooding back home. Over night the bewildered lassies found themselves national heroines. Although often in great danger The Salvationists displayed tremendous courage. At Baccarat they worked so close to the German lines that they couldn’t even whisper for fear of being heard by the listening posts. The sermon that came with the coffee and doughnuts was a friendly squeeze on the shoulder.The Doughnut became a symbol of The Salvation Army in the U.S.A. Outside many of The Army rest rooms and hostels were hung giant “doughnuts”. The Army, by selfless example, had won the hearts of a nation. At the end of the war the American people subscribed an unprecedented 13 million dollars to meet the debts incurred by The Salvation Army in its’ war work.

1919 – The US Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to a woman for the 1st time. Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby, the first Director of the WAC, was the first woman to receive The U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.

1926 – John C. Garand patented a semi-automatic rifle. Civil Service employee John Garand was in a class all by himself, much like the weapons he created. Garand was Chief Civilian Engineer at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts. Garand invented a semiautomatic .30 caliber rifle, known as the M-1 or “the Garand,” which was adopted in 1936 after grueling tests by the Army. It was gas-operated, weighed under 10 pounds, and was loaded by an 8-round clip. It fired more than twice as fast as the Army’s previous standard-issue rifle and was praised by General George S. Patton, Jr., as “a magnificent weapon” and “the most deadly rifle in the world.”

1933 – Germany withdraws from the League of Nations.

1939 – Reichs Marshal Hermann Goering began plundering art treasures throughout Nazi occupied areas.

1942 – The Japanese submarine I-36 launched a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew reported on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft was lost at sea.

1942 – The War Department agrees to provide equipment for another thirty Chinese divisions.

1943 – Delegates from the U.S.S.R. met in Moscow with representatives from the Allied nations of Great Britain, the U.S., and China, in an attempt to hammer out a greater consensus on war aims, and to improve the rapidly cooling relations between the Soviet Union and its allies.

1943 – German forces defending Dragoni, Italy withdraw before a scheduled attack by elements of the US 5th Army begins.

1944 – The Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).

1944 – The American escort carriers of TG77.4 continue air strikes on Leyte. The US 15th Air Forces raids targets on Mindanao. The Japanese air forces suffer substantial losses in the ongoing American operations. Remaining aircraft are concentrated on Luzon in 1st Air Fleet (Admiral Onishi).

1944 – American attacks on Aachen continue. Farther south, forces of the US 7th Army capture Bruyeres. Nearby, other units prepare to assault St. Die.

1944 – Newly promoted Lieutenant General Raymond S. McLain assumes command of the XIX Corps. Two of the three divisions under his command are from the Guard; the 29th (DC, MD, VA) and the 30th (NC, SC, TN). But dealing with Guard units is no problem for McLain, himself a Guardsman who began his military career as a private in the Oklahoma Militia in 1912. In fact, he came from a background of Militia service. Several of his uncles had served in state volunteer units during the Spanish American War, including one who served with the 1st Volunteer Cavalry (commonly known as the “Rough Riders”) in Cuba. McLain’s unit, the 1st Oklahoma Infantry Regiment, deployed to the Mexican Border in 1916. In 1917 as his regiment was assigned to the newly organized 36th Division (TX, OK) for its deployment to France in World War I, McLain was promoted to captain. He saw combat in France, where he was gassed but recovered.

In the period between the wars, McLain returned to the Oklahoma Guard. Despite his lack of formal education-he never graduated high school, through determined study and effort, he earned the rank of brigadier general in 1937, commanding the 70th Field Artillery Brigade, which would become the 45th Division Artillery (AZ, CO, NM, OK) in 1942. During the war he had a variety of assignments including commanding the 90th Infantry Division then fighting in Normandy. He found the 90th in complete disarray and worked hard to restore its morale and discipline. When given of the command the XIX Corps he became the only Guard officer to command a Corps. On 6 June 1945, he was promoted to Lieutenant General to be come the first became the first Guardsman\Militiaman since the Civil war to hold this rank. The next Guardsman to hold three-star rank would also be an Oklahoman, Lieutenant General La Vern E. Weber, Chief National Guard Bureau 1974-1982.

1950 – Pyongyang, the capital of the People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), fell to the ROK 1st Infantry Division and the US 1st Cavalry Division.

1950 – The People’s Republic of China joins the Korean War by sending thousands of troops across the Yalu River to fight United Nations forces.

1950 – Iran becomes the first country to accept technical assistance from the United States under the Point Four Program. The Point Four Program was a technical assistance program for “developing countries” announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address on January 20, 1949. It took its name from the fact that it was the fourth foreign policy objective mentioned in the speech.

1951 – President Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.

1960 – The United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.

1962 – Operation Morning Star, a major South Vietnamese effort to clear Tayninh Province, north of Saigon near the Cambodian border, ends in failure. Five thousand South Vietnamese troops ferried by US helicopters kill 40 Vietcong in eight days and capture two others. One HU-1A attack helicopter is lost. US officials call the operation a waste and disclaim any responsibility for it.

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1968 – Operation Maui Peak, a combined regimental-sized operation which began on 6 October, ended 11 miles northwest of An Hoa, Vietnam. More than 300 enemy were killed in the 13-day operation.

1973 – President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court decision that he turn over the Watergate tapes.

1987 – In Operation Nimble Archer, U.S. Navy warships disabled 3 Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf in retaliation for an Iranian missile attack on a U.S.-flagged tanker off Kuwait.

1990 – Iraq ordered all foreigners in occupied Kuwait to report to authorities or face punishment.

1993 – The United States intercepted its first ship bound for Haiti since an oil and weapons embargo was re-imposed by United Nations.

1993 – Two US Blackhawk helicopters are fired upon with RPG’s over Mogadishu.

1998 – In Colorado a series of arson fires were set at Vail. The Earth Liberation Front later claimed responsibility for the fires that caused $12 million in damage.

1998 – In Israel an assailant threw 2 hand grenades into the central bus station of Beersheba and injured at least 30 people. 67 people were wounded and the incident cast a pall over the peace negotiations in Washington. A Palestinian from the West Bank, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour (29), was caught and confessed. Israel suspended negotiations with the Palestinians on issues other than security after a bloody attack at an Israeli bus stop.

1999 – A 2-year Rand analysis concluded that the drug pyridostigmine bromide could not be excluded as a contributor to Gulf War syndrome. The drug was an experimental nerve gas antidote given to as many as 300,000 US troops during the Persian gulf war.

1999 – Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Rossello told a US congressional committee that live firing exercises on Vieques could not be resumed.

2000 – In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a suicide bomber detonated the explosives he was wearing near the town hall, killing four persons and wounding 23 others, including two US citizens, according to press reports. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were probably responsible.

2001 – Rangers and other Special Operations Forces (SOF) soldiers conducted airborne and air assault operations against several sites in Kandahar. Four MC-130 aircraft dropped 199 Rangers of the 3d Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment (-), onto a desert landing strip southwest of Kandahar, code-named Objective RHINO. Assisted by circling AC-130 Spectre gunships, the Rangers quickly secured their objective. Then the soldiers and attached psychological operations (PSYOP) loudspeaker teams moved toward a nearby enemy compound and cleared it without resistance. Having secured the landing zone, they assisted follow-on helicopter forces of SOF soldiers that had additional raids to conduct in the area. In all, the Rangers and SOF soldiers spent almost five-and-a-half hours on the ground with only a few minor injuries. Although the tactical results of the raid were mixed, the Taliban was shown that U.S. forces could strike anywhere and anytime and that no location in Afghanistan was a safe haven any longer.

2001 – Task Force (TF) DAGGER, under the command of Col. John Mulholland, comprised of 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), aviators from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), Special Tactics personnel from the Air Force Special Operations Command, and 1st battalion of the 87th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division (Light), launched its first twelve-man SF team into northern Afghanistan to the south of the key city of Mazar-e Sharif via helicopter.

2001 – Two US military personnel were killed in a helicopter accident in Pakistan.

2001 – The FBI identified the Trenton, NJ, mailbox from which the anthrax letters were sent to NYC and Washington. Two more people were reported to be infected bringing the total to 8.

2001 – In Philadelphia luggage, from a baggage locker that was deposited September 29th, was found to contain C-4 plastic explosives.

2001 – EU leaders pledged their continued support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.

2002 – In Ashland, Va., a man (37) was shot and seriously wounded in what appeared to be another sniper attack. The sniper left a note that included a request for $10 million and threats to focus on children.

2003 – Pres. Bush said he would consider a deal promising not to attack North Korea as long as the guarantee is not a formal treaty.

2003 – Colombian military killed Edgar Gustavo Navarro, the No. 2 leader of FARC, along with 10 others. The guerrilla commander was accused of kidnapping 3 US military contractors and carrying out a string of assassinations and bombings.

2004 – British prosecutors charged radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with incitement to murder for allegedly urging followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims. The indictment pre-empted a U.S. bid to extradite him on terror charges.

2005 – Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

2006 – Jendayi Frazer, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, accuses Eritrea of arming the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia and of attacking Ethiopia.

2007 – Four United States Air Force officers are relieved of command following an investigation of an incident where live nuclear warheads were carried on a B-52 bomber from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.

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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

BLUNT, JOHN W.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company K, 6th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at. Chatham, Four Corners, N.Y. Birth: Columbia County, N.Y. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Voluntarily led a charge across a narrow bridge over the creek, against the lines of the enemy.

CROCKER, HENRY H.
Rank and organization: Captain, Company F, 2d Massachusetts Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: California. Born: 20 January 1840, Colchester, Conn. Date of issue: 10 January 1896. Citation: Voluntarily led a charge, which resulted in the capture of 14 prisoners and in which he himself was wounded.

CROCKER, ULRIC L.
Rank and organization: Private, Company M, 6th Michigan Cavalry.
Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ohio. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 18th Georgia (C.S.A.).

DU PONT, HENRY A.
Rank and organization: Captain, 5th U.S. Artillery. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Wilmington, Del. Birth: Eleutherean Mills, Del. Date of issue: 2 April 1898. Citation: By his distinguished gallantry, and voluntary exposure to the enemy’s fire at a critical moment, when the Union line had been broken, encouraged his men to stand to their guns, checked the advance of the enemy, and brought off most of his pieces.

HENRY, WILLIAM W.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 10th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Waterbury, Vt. Born: 21 November 1831, Waterbury, Vt. Date of issue: 21 December 1892. Citation: Though suffering from severe wounds, rejoined his regiment and let it in a brilliant charge, recapturing the guns of an abandoned battery.

HOUGH, IRA
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 8th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Henry County, Ind. Birth: Henry County, Ind. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

LOVE, GEORGE M.
Rank and organization: Colonel, 116th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: New York. Birth: New York. Date of issue: 6 March 1865. Citation: Capture of battle flag of 2d South Carolina (C.S.A.).

LYON, FREDERICK A.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Burlington, Vt. Born: 25 June 1843, Williamsburg, Mass. Date of issue: 26 November 1864. Citation: With 1 companion, captured the flag of a Confederate regiment, 3 officers, and an ambulance with its mules and driver.

McGONNlGLE, ANDREW J.
Rank and organization: Captain and Assistant Quartermaster, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Cedar Creek. Va., 19 October 1864 Entered service at: Cumberland, Md. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 21 July 1897. Citation: While acting chief quartermaster of Gen. Sheridan’s forces operating in the Shenandoah Valley was severely wounded while voluntarily leading a brigade of infantry and was commended for the greatest gallantry by Gen. Sheridan.

PARKS, HENRY JEREMIAH
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 9th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Orangeville, N.Y. Born: 24 February 1848, Orangeville, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: While alone and in advance of his unit and attempting to cut off the retreat of a supply wagon, he fought and sent to flight a Confederate color bearer. After capturing the color bearer and leaving him in the rear, he returned to the front and captured 3 more wagons and drivers.

REIGLE, DANIEL P.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company F, 87th Pennsylvania Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Adams County, Pa. Birth: Adams County, Pa. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: For gallantry while rushing forward to capture a Confederate flag at the stone fence where the enemy’s last stand was made.

SCOFIELD, DAVID H.
Rank and organization: Quartermaster Sergeant, Company K. 5th N.Y., U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Mamaroneck, N.Y. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 13th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).

SWEENEY, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 1st Vermont Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Essex, Vt. Birth: England. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: With one companion captured the State flag of a North Carolina regiment, together with 3 officers and an ambulance with its mules and driver.

TAYLOR, RICHARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company E, 18th Indiana Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Martin County, Ind. Birth: Madison County. Ala. Date of issue: 21 November 1864. Citation: Capture of flag.

THOMAS, STEPHEN
Rank and organization: Colonel, 8th Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Montpelier, Vt. Birth: Vermont. Date of issue: 25 July 1892. Citation: Distinguished conduct in a desperate hand_to_hand encounter, in which the advance of the enemy was checked.

TRACY, AMASA A.
Rank and organization: Lieutenant Colonel, 2d Vermont Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Middlebury, Vt. Birth: Maine. Date of issue: 24 June 1892. Citation: Took command of and led the brigade in the assault on the enemy’s works.

WALSH, JOHN
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company D, 5th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: Recaptured the flag of the 15th New Jersey Infantry.

WAMBSGAN, MARTIN
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 90th New York Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: Cayuga County, N.Y. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 3 November 1896. Citation: While the enemy were in close proximity, this soldier sprang forward and bore off in safety the regimental colors, the color bearer having fallen on the field of battle.

WELLS, THOMAS M.
Rank and organization: Chief Bugler, 6th New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: DeKalb, N.Y. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: Capture of colors of 44th Georgia Infantry (C.S.A.).

WOODBURY, ERI D.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 1st Vermont Cavalry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, Va., 19 October 1864. Entered service at: St. Johnsbury, Vt. Birth: Francistown, N.H. Date of issue: 26 October 1864. Citation: During the regiment’s charge when the enemy was in retreat Sgt. Woodbury encountered 4 Confederate infantrymen retreating. He drew his saber and ordered them to surrender, overcoming by his determined actions their willingness to further resist. They surrendered to him together with their rifles and 12th North Carolina (C.S.A.) regimental flag.

PIERCE, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company 1, 22d U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near San Isidro, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 19 October 1899. Entered service at: Delaware City, Del. Birth: Cecil County, Md. Date of issue: 10 March 1902. Citation: Held a bridge against a superior force of the enemy and fought, though severely wounded, until the main body came up to cross.

RAY, CHARLES W.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company 1, 22d U.S. Infantry. Place and date: Near San Isidro, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 19 October 1899. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Pensacola Yancey County, N.C. Date of issue: 18 April 1902. Citation: Most distinguished gallantry in action. Captured a bridge with the detachment he commanded and held it against a superior force of the enemy, thereby enabling an army to come up and cross.

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HAJIRO, BARNEY F.
for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:
Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and 29 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on 19 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On 22 October 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man, heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners.

On 29 October 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as “Suicide Hill” by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro’s heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.

*WEINSTEIN, JACK
Rank and Organization: Sergeant. U.S. Army. Company G. 21st U.S. Infantry. Place and Date: October 19, 1951, Kumson, Korea. Born: October 18, 1928, Lamar, MO . Departed: Yes (04/20/2006). Entered Service At: . G.O. Number: . Date of Issue: 03/18/2014. Accredited To: . Citation: Weinstein is being recognized for his exceptionally valorous actions on Oct. 19, 1951, in the vicinity of Kumson, Korea, when his platoon came under enemy attack. He volunteered to stay back and provide cover while his men withdrew from their positions. Weinstein killed six enemy combatants and, after running out of ammunition, used enemy grenades around him to keep the enemy forces back. Weinstein held his position until friendly forces moved back in and pushed the enemy back.


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20 October

1786 – Harvard University organized the 1st astronomical expedition in US.

1803 – The US Senate voted to ratify Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.

1818 – The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settles the Canada–United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

1819 – Daniel Edgar Sickles, Major General (Union volunteers), was born. Always a controversial figure, after attending New York University and studying law, he appraised his chances for advancement in various fields and quickly chose politics. As a Tammany Hall stalwart he became the Corporate Consul of the City at the age of 28 but resigned the same year to be Secretary of the U.S. Legation in London. He then served as a New York State Senator and Representative in Congress from 1857 to 1861. He had first gained national attention when in 1859 he shot and killed, in the very shadow of the White House (on Lafayette Square), his young wife’s lover, Francis Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner. During the ensuing trial, in which he was represented by Edwin M. Stanton (who would become Lincoln’s Secretary of War), he for the first time in U.S. jurisprudence pleaded the “unwritten law” (self defense of one’s wife as his own property) and was acquitted. He subsequently enraged both critics and fans by publicly forgiving his unfaithful spouse. As a War Democrat in 1861, his offer of services was quickly accepted by the President and he was soon appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, ranking from September 1, 1861. He was assigned command of New York’s Excelsior Brigade, which he had been instrumental in recruiting.

His later career as a Division and Corps Commander, with his promotion to Major General to rank from November 29, 1862, found him often at odds with his superiors. However, he demonstrated many soldierly qualities and he was utterly fearless in combat. He fought on the Peninsula and at Sharpsburg in Joseph Hooker’s Division of III Corps; commanded a Division at Fredericksburg; and in the campaign of Chancellorsville commanded III Corps. In the latter battle, elements of his command reported that General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s celebrated flanking march, while it was still in progress, as a retreat. The subsequent advance of 2/3 of the Corps to pursue the “retreating” Rebels left Oliver O. Howard’s XI Corps on its right completely isolated and contributed largely to the ensuing debacle. At Gettysburg, his men were supposed to cover the Federal left in the vicinity of the Round Tops. Not liking the position and in defiance of direct orders to the contrary, he advanced the Corps into the famous Peach Orchard, creating a salient which was subsequently overrun by General James Longstreet’s assault. The end results were the virtual destruction and disappearance if III Corps, termination of his command in the field by virtue of a serious wound which cost him his right leg, and controversy with his superior, General George Gordon Meade. However, he was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for his services at Gettysburg.

After his recovery, during which he donated his amputated right leg to the Army Medical Museum in Washington – where it continues on display at that facility located at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, President Lincoln dispatched him on a tour of Union-held Southern territory for an appraisal of the effect of amnesty, Negro progress, and Reconstruction. He next performed a diplomatic mission to Colombia; served as Military Governor of South Carolina; and in 1869 retired from the Army with the rank of Major General in the Regular Army. At that time, President Grant appointed him Minister to Spain, where he was chiefly distinguished diplomatically by becoming the intimate friend of Isabella, the former Queen of Spain. He served again in Congress from New York, 1893-95; and for many years was the Chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission, a position from which he was removed in 1912 by reason of alleged misuse of funds. However, while in that position, he did much to bring about the National Battlefield Park at Gettysburg, a site he often visited during his life. An octogenarian relic of a bygone age, he became separated not only from family but from reality and died irresponsible on May 3, 1914 at his home in New York City. He is now buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.

1820 – Spain sold a part of Florida to US for $5 million.

1824 – U.S. Schooner Porpoise captures four pirate ships off Cuba.

1903 – The Joint Commission, set up on January 24 by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, ruled in favor of the United States. The deciding vote was Britain’s, which embittered Canada. The United States gained ports on the panhandle coast of Alaska.

1926 – President Calvin Coolidge ordered Marines to guard the U. S. Mail. In Elizabeth, New Jersey, on 14 October 1926, the brutal robbery and killing of a U. S. Mail truck driver forced President Calvin Coolidge to turn to the Marine Corps for assistance in the civil community. By Presidential Order, 2,500 Marines proceeded on duty to guard the mail. The Commandant, anticipating the Presidential Order, on 18 October had directed the Commanding General, Headquarters, Department of the Pacific, located in San Francisco, …You will organize a force from the 4th Regiment, to be known as the Western Mail Guards, under the command of Brigadier-General Smedley D. Butler…. Brigadier-General Smedley D. Butler, known as “Ol’ Gimlet Eye” to fellow Marines, brought a long record of combat leadership and two Congressional Medals of Honor to the Mail Guards. Veteran of both World War I and the guerilla wars of Central America, Butler’s easy-going manner hid his cold, methodical approach to the task given to the Marines. As the primary source of personnel for the Western Mail Guard, the 4th Marines initially would be spread throughout eleven states. Part of a twelfth state, Texas would be added on 22 October 1926. General Butler’s fully armed Marines soon became sobering influences throughout Post Offices, mail trains, and mail trucks in those areas. While Marines carried out their mail guard assignment, only one attempted robbery was recorded. That particular robbery involved an unguarded mail train carrying no mail at the time. Meanwhile, in San Diego, the base stood relatively empty with a reduced level of caretaker personnel awaiting the retum of the 4th Regiment. When normal operations returned to the U. S. Mail system as a result of the Marine guards, the need for continued assignment of such forces became less and less justified. The return of the 4th Marines to San Diego began on 10 January 1927 and by 18 February all personnel had been returned to their home bases as the Mail Guard Force disbanded.

1927 – Henry Ford hand stamped the very first Model A engine number. Even though the Model A was in production for only four years, it sold nearly five million units worldwide. The Model A was also one of the first affordable cars to take safety into consideration, with shatterproof glass, four wheel brakes and bumpers as standard equipment.

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1939 – The German government warns that neutral merchant ships joining Allied convoys will be sunk without warning. It is also announced that Hitler has signed a decree by which 3,000,000 Jews now living in Poland will get their own territory in eastern Poland, with a Jewish capital at Lublin.

1942 – The United States Congress passes the largest tax bill in the country’s history. It will raise $6,881,000,000 in tax revenue.

1943 – Elements of US 5th Army take Piedimonte d’Alife while other elements are advancing along the Volturno River.

1944 – Seventh Fleet lands over 60,000 Army troops on Leyte, Philippines while Japanese aircraft attack. Elements of the US 6th Army (Krueger) land on the east coast of Leyte. The 1st Cavalry and 24th Infantry Divisions of the US 10th Corps (Sibert) come ashore to the south of Tacloban; the 96th and 7th Infantry Divisions of US 24th Corps (Hodge) land around Dulag. A total of 132,000 troops are landed during the day. Naval support is provided by the US 7th Fleet (Admiral Kinkaid). Additional naval support is provided the elements of the US 3rd Fleet (Admiral Halsey). Additional air support is provided by the US 5th Air Force. The defending Japanese 16th Division conducts a fighting withdrawal from the beachheads to prepared positions inland to await reinforcements. American forces capture Tacloban Airfield during the day but are unable to link the two beachheads. A few hours after the initial assault troops land, General MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, comes ashore and makes a radio broadcast to the people of the Philippines, recalling his promise to return.

During World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the US 6th army stepped ashore at Leyte in the Philippines. It was 2 1/2 years after he’d said, “I shall return.” He stepped ashore with Sergio Osmena, the president-in-exile, and Gen’l. Carlos Romulo, who later served as foreign minister. Many Coast Guard units participated in the landings. During the night, Japanese forces launch unsuccessful counterattacks against the beachheads.

1944 – A carrier fleet, including 1 large carrier, 1 small carrier, 2 seaplane carriers, and 2 hybrid carrier-battleships as well as small ships, sails for the Philippines as part of Operation Sho-go. This force, the Northern Force (Admiral Ozawa) is intended to draw off the main American naval forces operating around the Philippines, to the northeast. Meanwhile, the 2nd Striking Force (Admiral Shima) sets sail with 3 cruisers and 7 destroyers.

1944 – The US 19th Tactical Air Force breaches the dam at Dieuze, France, causing extensive flooding to the rear of German 1st Army, opposite US 3rd Army.

1945 – Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. A representative of Palestinian Arabs, although he did not sign the charter because he represented no recognized government, was given full status and a vote in the Arab League. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was granted full membership in 1976. Other current members include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea (pending in 1999), Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.

1947 – The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the U.S. Congress opens its investigation into communist infiltration of the American movie industry on October 20, 1947. Chaired by Congressman Parnell Thomas, the subsequent hearings focused on identifying political subversives among Hollywood actors and actresses, writers, and directors. A number of witnesses, including studio owners Walt Disney and Jack Warner, and movie stars Robert Taylor and Gary Cooper, gave statements decrying the communist influence in the film industry; some specifically named colleagues whom they suspected of communist affiliations or sympathies. Another group of witnesses, including writers Dalton Trumbo and Ring Lardner Jr., were less forthcoming, and loudly complained that the hearings were illegal, and that questions about their political loyalties were inappropriate. Eventually, the “Hollywood Ten,” as these protesting witnesses came to be known, were found in contempt of Congress and went on to serve jail terms.

1950 – President Harry S. Truman issued an executive order “activating” the Magnuson Act, which had been passed by Congress earlier that month. This act, authorizing the president to invoke the Espionage Act of 1917, tasked the Coast Guard with the port security mission.

1950 – In the first airborne operation of the Korean War, 2,860 paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team jumped between Sukchon and Sunchon, 25 miles north of Pyongyang. Far East Air Force C-119s and C-47s transported the assault force and F-80 and F-51 fighters provided air cover.

1952 – Task Force 77 establishes ECM Hunter/Killer Teams of 2 ECM equipped aircraft and an armed escort of 4 Sky Raiders and 4 Corsairs.

1952 – The destroyer escort Lewis was hit by shore fire off the West Coast of Korea. Seven sailors were killed and one wounded.

1955 – On the orders of the governor, Maryland Adjutant General, MG Milton A. Reckord issued the command to desegregate the Maryland National Guard. A headline in next day’s Baltimore Morning Sun heralded that Maryland would be the first southern state to desegregate its Guard. Reckord issued General Order No. 49, effective Dec. 1, opening the force to anyone “regardless of race, creed, or color.” It was not an overnight success. White units were assigned as wholes with the battalion, still separate but technically meeting the integration requirement, still separate units attached to the 29th Division. True integration woudl take more time, but the process had begun.

1955 – “No Time for Sergeants,” starring Andy Griffith, opened on Broadway.

1962 – Major General Donald McGowan, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau and the other Reserve Component directors are given a Top Secret briefing in the Pentagon on the impending crisis following the discovery on October 18th of Soviet nuclear missile sites being constructed in Cuba. President John Kennedy would announce this intelligence to the world in a televised speech on October 22nd, causing worldwide concern of a nuclear war. After the President’s speech a number of Guard units, primarily Air Guard fighter groups, were given alert notifications that they might be called up if the crisis deepened. All of these units began operating at an increased tempo (though officially in a training status), flying along American coastal areas keeping watch for anything suspicious. However, with the Soviet agreement to withdraw the missiles tensions began to subside and no Guard units were actually mobilized during the crisis.


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1964 – Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States (1929-1933), died in New York at age 90. Herbert Clark Hoover was born at West Branch, Iowa, on Aug. 10, 1874, the first president to be born west of the Mississippi. A Stanford graduate, he worked from 1895 to 1913 as a mining engineer and consultant throughout the world. In 1899, he married Lou Henry. During World War I, he served with distinction as chairman of the American Relief Committee in London, as chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, and as U.S. Food Administrator.

His political affiliations were still too indeterminate for him to be mentioned as a possibility for either the Republican or Democratic nomination in 1920, but after the election he served Harding and Coolidge as secretary of commerce. In the election of 1928, Hoover overwhelmed Gov. Alfred E. Smith of New York, the Democratic candidate and the first Roman Catholic to run for the presidency. He soon faced the worst depression in the nation’s history, but his attacks upon it were hampered by his devotion to the theory that the forces that brought the crisis would soon bring the revival and then by his belief that there were too many areas in which the federal government had no power to act. In a succession of vetoes, he struck down measures proposing a national employment system or national relief, he reduced income tax rates, and only at the end of his term did he yield to popular pressure and set up agencies such as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to make emergency loans to assist business. After his 1932 defeat, Hoover returned to private business. In 1946, President Truman charged him with various world food missions; and from 1947 to 1949 and 1953 to 1955, he was head of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government.

1967 – Operation Coronado VII began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam. A M-132-Al flame configured armored personnel carrier was shoe-horned into an ATAC of River Assault Division NINETY-TWO. Tests were initiated and the results were excellent. This weapon would prove to be a great asset in future combat operations. It would give yeoman service as a destroyer of offensive bunkers. This weapon was first put into play on Operation CORONADO VII (21-23 October) in the Rung Sat Special Zone. This operation was conducted to provide security to the Republic of Vietnam Lower House election conducted 22 October. The security provided by units of River Assault Squadron NINE and other elements of River Assault Flotilla ONE allowed 83.2 percent of all registered voters to move to the polls without incident. Numerous civilians reported that the presence of U. S. boats on the waterways of the district was a significant factor in providing reassurance to the voters. This indicates that extensive operations conducted by the Mobile Riverine Force in the district during the month were very successful in undermining the Viet Cong influence in the area.

1973 – Arab oil-producing nations banned oil exports to the United States, following the outbreak of Arab-Israeli war.

1973 – “Saturday Night Massacre”: United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Robert Bork.

1978 – The cutter Cuyahoga sank after colliding with M/V Santa Cruz II near the mouth of the Potomac River. Eleven Coast Guard personnel were killed.

1981 – Three members of the radical Weather Underground were arrested following a bungled armored truck robbery in Nanuet, N.Y., where a guard was killed. 2 police officers were killed when the getaway truck was halted in Nyack. Kathy Boudin was sentenced 20 years to life for assisting in the getaway. In 2003 Boudin was paroled.

1983 – Due to political strife, USS Independence (CV-59) ordered to Grenada.

1987 – Ten people were killed when an Air Force jet crashed into a Ramada Inn hotel near Indianapolis International Airport after the pilot, who was trying to make an emergency landing, ejected safely.

1992 – The host Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 in game three of the World Series, taking a two-games-to-one lead. This was the first World Series game to be played outside the U.S. During the pre-game ceremony, a Marine color guard presented the Canadian flag.

1993 – The Senate adopted a non-binding resolution saying Congress should give its approval before any U.S. troops were sent to enforce a Bosnian peace accord.

1994 – The Pentagon announced that more than 100,000 U.S. troops were being taken off alert for possible movement to the Persian Gulf because the Iraqi threat to Kuwait had abated.

1995 – France, the United States and Britain announced a treaty banning atomic blasts in the South Pacific—but only after France finished testing there the following year.

1995 – Space shuttle “Columbia” was launched on a research flight that had been delayed six times. The second United States Microgravity Laboratory (USML-2) Spacelab mission will be the prime payload on STS-73. The 16-day flight will continue a cooperative effort of the U.S. government, universities and industry to push back the frontiers of science and technology in “microgravity”, the near-weightless environment of space.

1998 – King Hussein of Jordan, at the invitation of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, joined Pres. Clinton to press for the Israeli-Palestinian compromise in Maryland.

1999 – The Cold War (1951-1977) locations of nuclear weapons minus their nuclear charges was partly revealed in a 1978 top secret Pentagon document titled “History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons.”

2000 – Egyptian-born Ali Mohamed, a U.S. citizen who’d served in the Army (1986), pleaded guilty in New York to helping plan the deadly U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. It was later reported that Mohamed, a former Egyptian Army major, had served as an FBI informant.

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[SHOOTER13]

2001 – US Special Forces struck 2 targets in Afghanistan that included an airfield and a command complex near Kandahar.

2001 – It was reported that the US was using a 40-year-old EC C-130 plane called “Commando Solo” to broadcast messages and music over Afghanistan.

2001 – Traces of anthrax were found in a US House of Representatives mail room. This became the 3rd Capital Hill building infected.

2002 – In the Philippines a bomb exploded at an open-air Christian shrine in the southern city of Zamboanga, killing one Marine and wounding 16 people.

2003 – Saudi authorities announced the arrests of terrorist suspects and the discovery of large quantities of weapons and ammunition during raids around the kingdom.

2004 – Reservist Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick (38), the highest-ranking soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal pleaded guilty to five charges of abusing Iraqi detainees, as a two-day court-martial opened at a U.S. base in Baghdad.

2011 – The former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and his son Mutassim Gaddafi are killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte while in the custody of NTC fighters.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

SEWARD, GRIFFIN
Rank and organization: Wagoner, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahva Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1863. Entered service at:——. Birth: Dover, Del. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

DICKENS, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

DONAHUE, JOHN L.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Baltimore County, Md. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

ELWOOD, EDWIN L.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: California. Birth: St. Louis, Mo. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

GEORGIAN, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Bravery in action.

HALL, WILLIAM P.
Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, 5th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Near Camp on White River, Colo., 20 October 1879. Entered service at: Huntsville, Mo. Birth: Randolph County, Mo. Date of issue: 18 September 1897. Citation: With a reconnoitering party of 3 men, was attacked by 35 Indians and several times exposed himself to draw the fire of the enemy, giving his small party opportunity to reply with much effect.

HARDING, MOSHER A.
Rank and organization: Blacksmith, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at:——. Birth: Canada West. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

JARVIS, FREDERICK
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Essex County, N.Y. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

KEENAN, BARTHOLOMEW T.
Rank and organization: Trumpeter, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Brooklyn, N.Y . Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

KELLEY, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

MEAHER, NICHOLAS
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Perry County, Ohio. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

MURPHY, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth. Ireland. Date of issue: Unknown. Citation: Gallantry in action.

OLIVER, FRANCIS
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Baltimore, Md. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Bravery in action.

PENGALLY, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company B, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: England. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

POWERS, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

RUSSELL, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action with Indians.

SCHROETER, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SCOTT, ROBERT B.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Washington County, N.Y. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, ANDREW J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: Baltimore, Md. Birth: Baltimore, Md. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, THEODORE F.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Rahway, N.J. Date of issue: 14 February 1879. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth. Boston, Mass. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, THOMAS J.
Rank and organization. Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: England. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at. ——. Birth. Bath, Maine. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SMITH, WILLIAM H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Lapeer County, Mich. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

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[SHOOTER13]

SPENCE, ORIZOBA
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: Tionesta, Pa. Birth: Forest County, Pa. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation. Gallantry in action.

SPRINGER, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at:——. Birth: York County, Pa. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

STEINER, CHRISTIAN
Rank and organization: Saddler, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SULLIVAN, THOMAS
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Covington. Ky. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action against Indians concealed in a ravine.

SUMNER, JAMES
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill., Birth: England. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action.

THOMPSON, JOHN
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: Scotland. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Bravery in action with Indians.

TRACY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: St. Paul, Minn. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Bravery in action with Indians.

WARD, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: Philadelphia, Pa. Birth: England, Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action with Indians.

WEISS, ENOCH R.
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 1st U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: At Chiricahua Mountains, Ariz., 20 October 1869. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Kosciusko County, Ind. Date of issue: 14 February 1870. Citation: Gallantry in action with Indians.

*CHOLISTER, GEORGE ROBERT
Rank and organization: Boatswain’s Mate First Class, U.S. Navy. Born: 18 December 1898, Camden, N.J. Accredited to: New Jersey. (Awarded by Special Act of Congress 3 February 1933.) Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of a fire on board the U S.S. Trenton. At 3:35 on the afternoon of 20 October 1924, while the Trenton was preparing to fire trial installation shots from the two 6-inch guns in the forward twin mount of that vessel, 2 charges of powder ignited. Twenty men were trapped in the twin mount. Four died almost immediately and 10 later from burns and inhalation of flames and gases. The 6 others were severely injured. Cholister, without thought of his own safety, on seeing that the charge of powder from the left gun was ignited, jumped for the right charge and endeavored to put it in the immersion tank. The left charge burst into flame and ignited the right charge before Cholister could accomplish his purpose. He fell unconscious while making a supreme effort to save his shipmates and died the following day.

*DREXLER, HENRY CLAY
Rank and organization: Ensign, U.S. Navy. Born: 7 August 1901, Braddock, Pa. Accredited to: Pennsylvania. (Awarded by Special Act of Congress, 3 February 1933.) Other Navy award: Navy Cross. Citation: For extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession on the occasion of a fire on board the U.S.S. Trenton. At 3:35 on the afternoon of 20 October 1924, while the Trenton was preparing to fire trial installation shots from the two 6-inch guns in the forward twin mount of that vessel, 2 charges of powder ignited. Twenty men were trapped in the twin mount. Four died almost immediately and 10 later from burns and inhalation of flame and gases. The 6 others were severely injured. Ens. Drexler, without thought of his own safety, on seeing that the charge of powder for the left gun was ignited, jumped for the right charge and endeavored to put it in the immersion tank. The left charge burst into flame and ignited the right charge before Ens. Drexler could accomplish his purpose. He met his death while making a supreme effort to save his shipmates.

*KURODA, ROBERT T.
Staff Sergeant Robert T. Kuroda distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 20 October 1944, near Bruyeres, France. Leading his men in an advance to destroy snipers and machine gun nests, Staff Sergeant Kuroda encountered heavy fire from enemy soldiers occupying a heavily wooded slope. Unable to pinpoint the hostile machine gun, he boldly made his way through heavy fire to the crest of the ridge. Once he located the machine gun, Staff Sergeant Kuroda advanced to a point within ten yards of the nest and killed three enemy gunners with grenades. He then fired clip after clip of rifle ammunition, killing or wounding at least three of the enemy. As he expended the last of his ammunition, he observed that an American officer had been struck by a burst of fire from a hostile machine gun located on an adjacent hill. Rushing to the officer’s assistance, he found that the officer had been killed. Picking up the officer’s submachine gun, Staff Sergeant Kuroda advanced through continuous fire toward a second machine gun emplacement and destroyed the position. As he turned to fire upon additional enemy soldiers, he was killed by a sniper. Staff Sergeant Kuroda’s courageous actions and indomitable fighting spirit ensured the destruction of enemy resistance in the sector. Staff Sergeant Kuroda’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

*WAI, FRANCIS B.
Captain Francis B. Wai distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action, on 20 October 1944, in Leyte, Philippine Islands. Captain Wai landed at Red Beach, Leyte, in the face of accurate, concentrated enemy fire from gun positions advantageously located in a palm grove bounded by submerged rice paddies. Finding the first four waves of American soldiers leaderless, disorganized, and pinned down on the open beach, he immediately assumed command. Issuing clear and concise orders, and disregarding heavy enemy machine gun and rifle fire, he began to move inland through the rice paddies without cover. The men, inspired by his cool demeanor and heroic example, rose from their positions and followed him. During the advance, Captain Wai repeatedly determined the locations of enemy strong points by deliberately exposing himself to draw their fire. In leading an assault upon the last remaining Japanese pillbox in the area, he was killed by its occupants. Captain Wai’s courageous, aggressive leadership inspired the men, even after his death, to advance and destroy the enemy. His intrepid and determined efforts were largely responsible for the rapidity with which the initial beachhead was secured. Captain Wai’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

KEEBLE, WOODROW W.
Rank: Master Sergeant, Organization: U.S. Army, Company: , Division: , Born: , Departed: Yes, Entered Service At: , G.O. Number: , Date of Issue: 03/03/2008, Accredited To: , Place / Date: Korea, 20 October 1951. Citation: Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with an armed enemy near Sangsan-ni, Korea, on October 20, 1951. On that day, Master Sergeant Keeble was an acting platoon leader for the support platoon in Company G, 19th Infantry, in the attack on Hill 765, a steep and rugged position that was well defended by the enemy. Leading the support platoon, Master Sergeant Keeble saw that the attacking elements had become pinned down on the slope by heavy enemy fire from three well-fortified and strategically placed enemy positions.

With complete disregard for his personal safety, Master Sergeant Keeble dashed forward and joined the pinned-down platoon. Then, hugging the ground, Master Sergeant Keeble crawled forward alone until he was in close proximity to one of the hostile machine-gun emplacements. Ignoring the heavy fire that the crew trained on him, Master Sergeant Keeble activated a grenade and threw it with great accuracy, successfully destroying the position. Continuing his one-man assault, he moved to the second enemy position and destroyed it with another grenade. Despite the fact that the enemy troops were now directing their firepower against him and unleashing a shower of grenades in a frantic attempt to stop his advance, he moved forward against the third hostile emplacement, and skillfully neutralized the remaining enemy position. As his comrades moved forward to join him, Master Sergeant Keeble continued to direct accurate fire against nearby trenches, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Inspired by his courage, Company G successfully moved forward and seized its important objective. The extraordinary courage, selfless service, and devotion to duty displayed that day by Master Sergeant Keeble was an inspiration to all around him and reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

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21 October

1774 – First display of the word “Liberty” on a flag, raised by colonists in Taunton, Massachusetts in defiance of British rule in Colonial America. The Sons of Liberty were in the habit of meeting under a large tree (most village greens had one), which was called the “Liberty Tree”. In cities or towns that lacked a tree big enough, the rebels would erect a tall pole as a symbolic tree. This flag was raised on one such “Liberty Pole.”



1797 – The 44-gun 204-foot U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, was launched in Boston’s harbor. It was never defeated in 42 battles. 216 crew members set sail again in 1997 for its 200th birthday. Although her construction is almost halted by a 1796 peace treaty with Algiers, the CONSTITUTION is launched-christened by visiting Capt. James Sever using a bottle of Madeira. It is actually the third attempt to launch her; the first was a month earlier, when the ship sticks after moving only 27 feet. Two days later she moves another 31 feet before sticking once again. For the third attempt, workers make the launching ways steeper, which finally enables a successful event. The public, which includes several French aristocrats, is warned beforehand that the launch of such a large ship might cause a dangerously large wave, but none actually materializes during the event.

1837 – Under a flag of truce during peace talks, U.S. troops sieged the Indian Seminole Chief Osceola in Florida. Osceola, who was sick with malaria, knew the Indians could fight no more. He went to the General’s fort at St. Augustine with a white flag. When Osceola went to General Jesup the General had his men surround Osceola. They threw the white flag to the ground and put chains on his hands and feet. The Seminoles were so angry with Osceola’s capture that they continued to fight for the next five years.

1861 – A Union assault across the Potomac River north of Washington, DC, at a site named Harrison’s Landing or better known to history as “Ball’s Bluff” was repulsed with heavy losses. While Confederate loses were rather light the Union forces suffered 223 men killed and more than 700 captured, several hundred of them wounded. Among the dead was Colonel and U.S. Senator from Oregon Edward D. Baker. Born in England he came to America as a child and spent his early life in Illinois, where he met and became life-long friends with Abraham Lincoln. While there he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1844. He resigned his seat in 1846 to command the 4th Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Mexican War. He commanded the unit at the Siege of Vera Cruz and Battle of Cerro Gordo in Mexico. After the war he moved to California. He later moved to Oregon and was elected as a one of its two new senators in 1860. When the war started in April 1861, he raised a regiment in New York, but soon after took a commission (while still seated in the Senate) as the commander of the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.

During the Battle of Ball’s Bluff his regiment found itself backed up against the river by Colonel William Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade (13th, 17th and 18th Mississippi regiments). Baker is killed instantly by a shot in the head. He was the only seated member of Congress to die in combat during the Civil War. Several other interesting notes stem from this battle. Due to Baker’s death and the high losses suffered in this operation, questions were raised in Congress about the Army’s leadership. A “Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War” was established to oversee how the war effort was being handled. On the military side, Barksdale’s Brigade would meet some of the very same units it fought at Ball’s Bluff again at Antietam and Fredericksburg in 1862. Among these were the 7th Michigan and the 19th and 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry regiments.

1867 – Many leaders of the Kiowa, Comanche and Kiowa-Apache signed peace treaties at Medicine Lodge, Kan. Comanche Chief Quanah Parker refused to accept the treaty terms. The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed between the United States government and southern Plains Indian tribes, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American settlement. The treaty was negotiated after investigation by the Indian Peace Commission, which in its final report in 1868 concluded that the wars had been preventable. They determined that the United States government and its representatives, including the United States Congress, had contributed to the warfare on the Great Plains by failing to fulfill their legal obligations and to treat the Native Americans with honesty. The U.S. government and tribal chiefs met at a place traditional for Native American ceremonies, at their request. The first treaty was signed with the Kiowa and Comanche tribes. The second, with the Kiowa-Apache, was signed the same day. The third treaty was signed with the Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho on October 28. Under the Medicine Lodge Treaty, the tribes were assigned reservations of diminished size compared to territories defined in an 1865 treaty. Because of the outstanding issues with the treaty and subsequent government actions, in the mid-20th century, the Kiowa, Arapaho and Comanche filed several suits for claims against the U.S. government. Over decades, they won substantial settlements of monetary compensation in the amount of tens of millions of dollars, although it took years for the cases to be resolved.

1872 – The U.S. Naval Academy admitted John H. Conyers, the first African American to be accepted.

1879 – Thomas Edison invents a workable electric light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J. which was tested the next day and lasted 13.5 hours. This would be the invention of the first commercially practical incandescent light. Popular belief is that he invented the first light bulb, which he did not.

1904 – Panamanians clashed with U.S. Marines in Panama in a brief uprising.

1916 – US Army formed Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). Congress recognized the need for an expanded military reserve to supplement the National Guard, and it passed the National Defense Act. The National Defense Act provided for the establishment of the Officers’ Reserve Corps, to be comprised of men trained in ROTC and in Army training camps. These officers not only served in World War I, but also went on to form the basis of the Officer’s Reserve Corps in the 1930’s. Consequently, when World War II broke out, ROTC was able to provide the necessary military leadership required for the Army to mobilize. Within six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, more than 56,000 Army ROTC officers had served our country. Later, in Korea and Vietnam, Army ROTC graduates reaffirmed our national commitment to a defense force, led in part by citizen soldiers who had been prepared for leadership on the campuses of our colleges and universities. Because of the conflict, Congress added additional strength to the program with the passage of the ROTC Vitalization Act of 1964. The act provided for the establishment of Army ROTC scholarships, the creation of the two-year program, and an increase in the amount of money ROTC students receive. These additional incentives stimulated enrollment in the program and introduced the rewards of military life to thousands of qualified young students.

1917 – Members of the First Division of the U.S. Army training in Luneville, France, became the first Americans to see action on the front lines of World War I. The first U.S. troops entered the front lines at Sommervillier under French command. During the night, a battalion from each regiment and designated batteries of the division moved in beside corresponding units of the 18th French Division and began training in caring for themselves in the trenches, in patrolling, observation, and artillery procedures. The battalions and batteries were rotated at ten-day intervals until all had been at the front.


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1942 – On Guadalcanal, the Japanese forces, mainly 2nd Infantry Division, under General Maruyama now number 20,000. The plan for the attack on the main American position involves simultaneous attacks to be made northward in the area between the Lunga and Tenaru Rivers, while secondary attacks are made on the American western outposts along the Matanika River. The Japanese lack accurate intelligence concerning the numbers and dispositions of the American troops.

1942 – General MacArthur orders the Australian troops fighting on Kokoda Trail advance to the main Japanese positions in Eora, New Guinea to speed up their advance.

1942 – Eight American and British officers landed from a submarine on an Algerian beach to take measure of Vichy French to the Operation Torch landings. The transports and escorts in support of the Allied invasion of French North Africa, sail. Despite the presence of 21 German U-boats in the waters off Gibraltar and the Moroccan coast, the transports are only mentioned vaguely in dispatches to Italy and Germany.

1944 – During World War II, U.S. troops captured the German city of Aachen. The Battle of Aachen was a major combat action of World War II, fought by American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany, beginning on 2 October 1944. The city had been incorporated into the Siegfried Line, the main defensive network on Germany’s western border; the Allies had hoped to capture it quickly and advance into the industrialized Ruhr Basin. Although most of Aachen’s civilian population was evacuated before the battle began, much of the city was destroyed and both sides suffered heavy losses. It was one of the largest urban battles fought by U.S. forces in World War II, and the first city on German soil to be captured by the Allies. The battle ended with a German surrender, but their tenacious defense significantly disrupted Allied plans for the advance into Germany.

1944 – Organized Japanese resistance on Angaur, Palau Islands ends. A total of 1300 Japanese are killed and 45 are captured. American forces have suffered 265 dead and 1335 wounded. US heavy bombers are operating from the airfield. The Japanese garrisons on the remaining islands in the group are left isolated.

1944 – Elements of US 24th Corps capture Dulag Airfield; Tacloban village is taken by forces of US 10th Corps. American forces are unable to link the two beachheads. Ships of the US 7th Fleet and one group of US Task Force 38 (part of US 3rd Fleet) provide naval and air support to the land battles. Meanwhile, two groups of TF38 launch air strikes against targets on Panay, Cebu, Negros and Masbate.

1949 – Northrop launches the YB-49 Flying Wing, big brother to the B-2 stealth bomber. The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered heavy bomber aircraft developed by Northrop Corporation shortly after World War II for service with the U.S. Air Force. The YB-49 featured a Flying Wing design and was a jet-powered development of the earlier, piston-engined Northrop XB-35 and YB-35. The two YB-49s actually built were both converted YB-35 test aircraft. The YB-49 never entered production, being passed over in favor of the more conventional Convair B-36 piston-driven design. Design work performed in the development of the YB-35 and YB-49 nonetheless proved to be valuable to Northrop decades later in the eventual development of the B-2 stealth bomber, which entered service in the early 1990s.

1959 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs an executive order transferring Werner von Braun and other German scientists from the United States Army to NASA. By the late 1960s their rockets were taking men to the moon.

1963 – The United Sates announces that it will deny funds to the Vietnamese Special Forces, which have been heavily use din attacks against the Buddhist populations, if they are used for purposes other than fighting the Vietcong, and will not renew the annual agreement supplying the government with surplus food which is sold to pay South Vietnamese troops.

1972 – US Sec. of State Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam reached a cease-fire agreement. It was signed Jan 27, 1973.

1983 – The United States sent a ten-ship task force to Grenada, one of the smallest independent nations in the Western Hemisphere and one of the southernmost Caribbean islands in the Windward chain. The Cuban government had decided to utilize the former British colony as a holding place for arms and military equipment, complete with a major airport. Eastern Caribbean nations fully understood the implication of the communist threat and called upon the United States for help. The response was Operation Urgent Fury, a multinational, multiservice effort. Commanding officers of the US Navy ships have not yet been told what the mission in Grenada–to evacuate U.S. citizens, neutralize any resistance, stabilize the situation and maintain the peace—will be.

1986 – Pro-Iranian kidnappers in Lebanon claimed to have abducted American Edward Tracy ( released in August 1991 ). Tracy, a self-described poet and author of children’s books, disappeared in Muslim west Beirut. The Revolutionary Justice Organization later claimed to have kidnapped him. Tracy spent most of his adult life traveling. At the time of his disappearance, Tracy’s mother said she had not seen her son for 21 years.

1991 – American hostage Jesse Turner was freed by his kidnappers in Lebanon after nearly four years in captivity. Jesse Turner, pale and slightly unsteady on his feet after nearly five years in captivity in Lebanon, was turned over to American officials in Damascus. `I am happy to be out, finally,’ he said in a soft voice. `I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends.’ The 44-year-old Mr. Turner, who was held by a pro-Iranian group called Islamic Holy War for the Liberation of Palestine, was an assistant professor of computer science and mathematics at Beirut University College when he was kidnapped by men posing as Lebanese police officers on Jan. 24, 1987.

1993 – NATO ministers endorsed a U.S. plan to form limited partnerships with Russia and other former East bloc foes, but stopped short of offering full membership.

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1994 – United States and North Korea signed an agreement requiring the communist nation to halt its nuclear program and agree to inspections.

1996 – President Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military survived its first Supreme Court test.

1997 – It was reported that The Energy Dept. and the Arthur D. Little company had developed a new fuel system for cars that uses fuel cell technology first developed by NASA. Electricity would be produced by extracting hydrogen from gasoline and combining it with oxygen.

1997 – Pictures of the Antennae galaxies, two intermeshed colliding galaxies, were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996 and revealed to the public for the first time.

1998 – A radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, claimed responsibility for fires that caused $12 million in damage at the nation’s busiest ski resort in Vail, Colorado.

1999 – Organizers called for a “Jam Echelon Day,” an effort to overload US National Security Agency (NSA) supercomputers with e-mail containing words such as “bomb.” Echelon was a worldwide surveillance network run by the NSA and partners in Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

2001 – US warplanes hit Taliban frontline troops north of Kabul in the fiercest hits to date. A 1000-pound bomb hit near a senior citizens home in Herat. US air strikes at Thorai killed 21 civilians.

2001 – A DC postal worker was diagnosed with the deadly inhalation form of anthrax. DC postal worker Thomas L. Morris Jr. (55) died. Officials began testing thousands of postal employees.

2002 – Pres. Bush said he would try diplomacy “one more time,” but did not think Saddam Hussein would disarm, even if doing so would allow him to remain in power.

2002 – APEC delegates, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam began meetings at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to discuss terrorism and the world economy.

2003 – Iran agreed to snap UN inspections of its nuclear sites and to freeze uranium enrichment.

2004 – Staff Sgt. Ivan Frederick, the highest-ranking U.S. soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib prison case, was sentenced to eight years in prison.

2011 – With the collapse of the discussions about extending the stay of any U.S. troops beyond 2011, where they would not be granted any immunity from the Iraqi government President Obama announced at a White House press conference that all remaining U.S. troops and trainers would leave Iraq by the end of the year as previously scheduled, bringing the U.S. mission in Iraq to an end.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

FREEMEYER, CHRISTOPHER
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

KAY, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company L, 8th U.S. Cavalry. Place and date: Arizona, 21 October 1868. Entered service at:—— Birth: England. Date of issue: 3 March 1870. Citation: Brought a comrade, severely wounded, from under the fire of a large party of the enemy.

KENNEDY, PHILIP
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

KREHER, WENDELIN
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Prussia. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

McCANN, BERNARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company F, 22d U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

McCORMlCK, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Rutland, Vt. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action .

McGAR, OWEN
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: Pawtucket, R.I. Birtil: North Attleboro, Mass Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

McHUGH, JOHN
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Syracuse, N.Y. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Cltation: Gallantry in action.

McLOUGHLlN, MICHAEL
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company A, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

McPHELAN, ROBERT
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company E, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.


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[SHOOTER13]

MILLER, GEORGE
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Brooklyn, N.Y. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

MONTROSE, CHARLES H.
Rank and organization: Private, Company I, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: St. Paul, Minn. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

ROCHE, DAVID
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company A, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

RODENBURG, HENRY
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Germany. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

ROONEY, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Private, Company D, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Birth: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

RYAN, DAVID
Rank and organization: Private, Company G, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

SHEPPARD, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Private, Company A, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: St. Louis, Mo. Birth: Rocky Hill, Conn. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Bravery in action with Sioux.

WALLACE, WILLIAM
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at:——. Birth: Ireland. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

WHITEHEAD, PATTON G.
Rank and organization: Private, Company C, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: ——. Birth: Russell County, Va. Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

WILSON, CHARLES
Rank and organization: Corporal, Company H, 5th U.S. Infantry. Place and date: At Cedar Creek, etc., Mont., 21 October 1876 to 8 January 1877. Entered service at: Beardstown, Ill. Birth: Petersburg, Ill Date of issue: 27 April 1877. Citation: Gallantry in action.

BIEGLER, GEORGE W.
Rank and organization: Captain, 28th Infantry, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: Near Loac, Luzon, Philippine Islands, 21 October 1900. Entered service at: Terre Haute, Ind. Birth: Terre Haute, Ind. Date of issue: 11 March 1902. Citation: With but 19 men resisted and at close quarters defeated 300 of the enemy.

*MOON, HAROLD H., JR.
Rank and organization: Private, U.S. Army, Company G, 34th Infantry, 24th Infantry Division. Place and date: Pawig, Leyte, Philippine Islands, 21 October 1944. Entered service at: Gardena, Calif. Birth: Albuquerque, N. Mex. G.O. No.: 104, 15 November 1945. Citation: He fought with conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity when powerful Japanese counterblows were being struck in a desperate effort to annihilate a newly won beachhead. In a forward position, armed with a submachinegun, he met the brunt of a strong, well-supported night attack which quickly enveloped his platoon’s flanks. Many men in nearby positions were killed or injured, and Pvt. Moon was wounded as his foxhole became the immediate object of a concentration of mortar and machinegun fire. Nevertheless, he maintained his stand, poured deadly fire into the enemy, daringly exposed himself to hostile fire time after time to exhort and inspire what American troops were left in the immediate area. A Japanese officer, covered by machinegun fire and hidden by an embankment, attempted to knock out his position with grenades, but Pvt. Moon, after protracted and skillful maneuvering, killed him.

When the enemy advanced a light machinegun to within 20 yards of the shattered perimeter and fired with telling effects on the remnants of the platoon, he stood up to locate the gun and remained exposed while calling back range corrections to friendly mortars which knocked out the weapon. A little later he killed 2 Japanese as they charged an aid man. By dawn his position, the focal point of the attack for more than 4 hours, was virtually surrounded. In a fanatical effort to reduce it and kill its defender, an entire platoon charged with fixed bayonets. Firing from a sitting position, Pvt. Moon calmly emptied his magazine into the advancing horde, killing 18 and repulsing the attack. In a final display of bravery, he stood up to throw a grenade at a machinegun which had opened fire on the right flank. He was hit and instantly killed, falling in the position from which he had not been driven by the fiercest enemy action. Nearly 200 dead Japanese were found within 100 yards of his foxhole. The continued tenacity, combat sagacity, and magnificent heroism with which Pvt. Moon fought on against overwhelming odds contributed in a large measure to breaking up a powerful enemy threat and did much to insure our initial successes during a most important operation.

*WILSON, RICHARD G.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Co. 1, Medical Company, 187th Airborne Infantry Regiment. Place and date: Opari, Korea, 21 October 1950. Entered service at: Cape Girardeau Mo. Born: 19 August 1931, Marion, Ill. G.O. No.: 64, 2 August 1951. Citation: Pfc. Wilson distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. As medical aid man attached to Company I, he accompanied the unit during a reconnaissance in force through the hilly country near Opari. The main body of the company was passing through a narrow valley flanked on 3 sides by high hills when the enemy laid down a barrage of mortar, automatic-weapons and small-arms fire. The company suffered a large number of casualties from the intense hostile fire while fighting its way out of the ambush. Pfc. Wilson proceeded at once to move among the wounded and administered aid to them oblivious of the danger to himself, constantly exposing himself to hostile fire. The company commander ordered a withdrawal as the enemy threatened to encircle and isolate the company. As his unit withdrew Private Wilson assisted wounded men to safety and assured himself that none were left behind.

After the company had pulled back he learned that a comrade previously thought dead had been seen to be moving and attempting to crawl to safety. Despite the protests of his comrades, unarmed and facing a merciless enemy, Pfc. Wilson returned to the dangerous position in search of his comrade. Two days later a patrol found him lying beside the man he returned to aid. He had been shot several times while trying to shield and administer aid to the wounded man. Pfc. Wilson’s superb personal bravery, consummate courage and willing self-sacrifice for his comrades reflect untold glory upon himself and uphold the esteemed traditions of the military service.


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22 October

1777 – British General William Howe requested that he be relieved. This request will be accepted.

1777 – American defenders of Fort Mercer on the Delaware River repulse repeated Hessian attacks in the Battle of Red Bank. The Battle of Red Bank was a battle of the American War for Independence in which a Hessian force was sent to take Fort Mercer on the left bank (or New Jersey side) of the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, but was decisively defeated by a far inferior force of Colonial defenders. Although the British did take Fort Mercer a month later, the victory supplied a sorely-needed morale boost to the American cause, delayed British plans to consolidate gains in Philadelphia, and relieved pressure on General Washington’s army to the north of the city.

1790 – Warriors of the Miami tribe under Chief Little Turtle defeat United States troops under General Josiah Harmar at the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Northwest Indian War. The Harmar Campaign was an attempt by the United States to subdue Native Americans in the Northwest Territory in the Autumn of 1790. It was led by General Josiah Harmar and was part of the Northwest Indian War. The campaign featured a series of battles that were all overwhelming victories for the Native Americans, and the losses are sometimes referred to as Harmar’s Defeat.

1824 – The Tennessee Legislature adjourned ending Davy Crockett’s state political career. Crockett died at the legendary siege of the Alamo in 1836.

1836 – Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1846 – Miss Lavinia Fanning Watson of Philadelphia christens the sloop-of-war Germantown, the first U.S. Navy ship sponsored by a woman.

1861 – The 1st telegraph line linking West & East coasts was completed.

1862 – Battle at Old Fort Wayne, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Brig. Gen. James G. Blunt and his troops attacked Col. Douglas H. Cooper and his Confederate command on Beatties Prairie near Old Fort Wayne at 7:00 am on October 22, 1862. The Confederates put up stiff resistance for a half hour, but overwhelming numbers forced them to retire from the field in haste, leaving artillery and equipage behind. This was a setback in the 1862 Confederate offensive that extended from the tidewater in the east to the plains of the Indian Territory of the west.

1916 – Congress passed the National Defense Act which provided for the establishment of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

1917 – U.S.A. seized raw material for war that had been purchased and stored by Germans in the U.S.A. during the first two years of the war.

1917 – 5th & 6th Marines and 6th Machine Gun Battalion become part of the American Expeditionary Force.

1918 – Fierce fighting by the Americans on both banks of Meuse, north of Verdun and in the Woevre in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. III and V Corps had secured the Bois de Foret and Bois des Rappes and had pushed to the norther and westen limits of the Bois de Bantheville. First Army prepares for final assault on Sedan.

1918 – The new Army Air Service (forerunner of the U.S. Air Force) was organized. Calling for volunteers, First Lieutenant Reed Chambers, who was mobilized with a Tennessee National Guard unit, joined up. He was assigned to the newly organized 94th “Hat-in-the-Ring” Pursuit Squadron, soon to become nationally famous for the headlines some of its members, including Chambers, would generate by their combat exploits over “no man’s land” in France. Among the men serving in this squadron was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, who would earn numerous awards for valor, including the Medal of Honor. Chambers, while not receiving the Medal of Honor, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with an Oak Leaf Cluster (2nd Award) for his success in shooting down enemy aircraft. His most remarkable feat occurred on this date when he downed two German Folker D-VII’s (often regarded as the best airplane used in the war) in less than five minutes. He ended the war as an ‘ace’ with a total of five kills, and remained in the Air Service at least as late as 1920.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, the Japanese attack again over the Matanikau River with a strong force of tanks and infantry. They are thrown back with heavy losses due mainly to the effectiveness of the American artillery.

1942 – To safeguard this Allied nation against a possible Japanese attack, the Guard’s 43rd Infantry Division (CT, ME, RI, VT) arrives to act as a garrison and to begin its jungle training before later deployments to combat in the Northern Solomon Islands, New Guinea and the Philippines.

1944 – On Leyte, US 10th and US 24th Corps both record advances. The US 7th Division, on the right flank, approach Abuyog. The Japanese fleet assembled at Brunei sets sail for the Philippines with the intention of destroying the American invasion fleet. The Center Force (Admiral Kurita) includes 5 battleships (including Yamato and Musashi), 12 cruisers and 15 destroyers. The Southern Force (Admiral Nishimura) includes 2 battleships, 1 cruiser and 4 destroyers. It is to rendezvous with the 2nd Striking Force (Admiral Shima) from Japan.

1951 – First of seven detonations, Operation Buster-Jangle nuclear test. This was a test of the Petite Plutonium fission bomb, designed by Ted Taylor. It consisted of a standard 60 inch, 10,000 lb. implosion system with the plutonium core reduced to what was estimated to be close to the minimum amount of fissile material for an appreciable yield. This was the lowest yield design yet tested, with a predicted yield of only 200 tons. It was a fizzle – the first actual failure of any U.S. nuclear device (the 18th exploded by the U.S.), and the first known failure of any nuclear device. Rather than being a sign of ineptness, this failure was indicative of the increasingly aggressive (and thus risky) U.S. experimental approach to weapon development. It established a close lower bound on the minimum amount of plutonium that could be used in a weapon to produce a significant yield, an important benchmark in weapon design. This was inadvertently a “zero yield” test. The device achieved supercriticality and produced detectable nuclear output, but the energy produced was negligible compared to the high explosive used. The tower was damaged but largely intact from the test. The first attempt to fire this device (on 19 October) was a true failure – nothing happened. The problem was traced to the control circuitry.

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1952 – USAF ace Major Robinson “Robbie” Risner, flying an F-86 Sabre out of the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, claimed his sixth MiG-15 of the war.

1954 – As a result of the Geneva accords granting Communist control over North Vietnam, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized a crash program to train the South Vietnamese Army.

1955 – The prototype of the F-105 Thunder Chief made its maiden flight. Republic Aircraft’s F-105 Thunderchief, better known as the ‘Thud,’ was the Air Force’s war-horse in Vietnam. In 1951, a design team under Alexander Kartveli at Republic Aircraft began work as a company venture on a new high-performance, single-seat low-level nuclear strike aircraft. The new aircraft, which was given the company designation of “AP-63”, where “AP” stood for “Advanced Project”, was to replace the Air Force’s Republic F-84F Thunderstreak. Many different design concepts were considered, gradually evolving towards something along the lines of a “stretched” F-84F with a bombbay for a nuclear weapon. The aircraft was to be fitted with an Allison J71 engine, though as it turned out, this powerplant would not prove powerful enough for the aircraft that finally flew and was never actually used. The AP-63 would also be able to carry air-to-surface missiles (ASMs) and air-to-air missiles (AAMs) on under wing pylons. It was to have a top speed of Mach 1.5 and would be capable of defending itself against enemy fighters.

The aircraft would have sophisticated combat avionics and mid-air refueling capability. Initial contracts were awarded to Republic in 1952 and 1953 for what at first was a total of 199 aircraft, with initial delivery in 1955. In reality, the USAF requirements were shifting at the time, and the company did not receive a solid contract until February 1955, for 15 aircraft. These 15 aircraft were finally completed as two “YF-105A” evaluation aircraft; three “RF-105B” reconnaissance aircraft, which were later redesignated “JF-105B” and used for “special tests”; and ten production “F-105Bs”.

1957 – US military personnel suffer their first mass casualties of the Vietnam War when 13 Americans are wounded in three insurgent bombings of MAAG and US Information Service installations in Saigon.

1962 – President John F. Kennedy announced that missile bases had been discovered in Cuba and they had the potential to attack the United States with nuclear warheads. Kennedy ordered a naval and air blockade on further shipment of military equipment to Cuba. The Russians had previously agreed not to bring new offensive weapons into Cuba, but after hearing Kennedy’s announcement, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev refused to cooperate with the quarantine. Following a confrontation that threatened nuclear war, Kennedy and Khrushchev agree on October 28 on a formula to end the crisis. On November 2 Kennedy reported that Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled.

1968 – Apollo 7 returned safely, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Apollo 7 accomplished what it set out to do- qualifying the command and service module and clearing the way for the proposed lunar-orbit mission to follow. And its activities were of national interest. A special edition of NASA’s news clipping collection called “Current News” included front page stories from 32 major newspapers scattered over the length and breadth of the nation. Although the postmission celebrations may not have rivaled those for the first orbital flight of an American, John Glenn in 1962, enthusiasm was high- and this fervor would build to even greater heights each time the lunar landing goal drew one step closer.

1972 – In Saigon, Henry Kissinger and South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu meet to discuss a proposed cease-fire that had been worked out between Americans and North Vietnamese in Paris.

1972 – Operation Linebacker I, the bombing of North Vietnam with B-52 bombers, ended. The U.S. ended all tactical air sorties into North Vietnam above the 20th parallel and brought to a close Linebacker I operations. This “gesture of good will” in terminating the bombing above the 20th parallel was designed to help promote the peace negotiations being held in Paris. US tactical air sorties during Linebacker I operations helped to stem the flow of supplies into NVN, thereby, limiting the operating capabilities of North Vietnam’s invading army. During the five and one-half month period of Linebacker I, the Navy contributed more than 60 percent of the total sorties in North Vietnam, with 60 percent of this effort in the “panhandle”, two large regions between Hanoi and the DMZ. Tactical air operations were most intense during the July-September quarter with 12,865 naval sorties flown. Most attack sorties in North Vietnam fell into two classes–armed reconnaissance and strike.

The former was usually directed against targets of opportunity with three main areas proscribed–near Hanoi, Haiphong and the Chinese border. Strike operations were preplanned and usually directed at fixed targets. Most types of fixed targets, not associated with armed reconnaissance, required approval by the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, or by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, prior to attack. Principal Navy aircraft were the A-7 and A-6, which accounted for roughly 60 and 15 percent of the Navy’s attack sorties, respectively. About 25 percent of the Navy’s effort was at night. Carriers participating in the initial May-June operations from Yankee Station were Constellation, Coral Sea, Hancock, Kitty Hawk, Midway and Saratoga.

1975 – Leonard Matlovich, who appeared in his Air Force uniform on the cover of Time magazine, challenged the ban against homosexuals in the US military. He was given a “general” discharge by the Air Force after publicly declaring his homosexuality.

1978 – Negotiators for Egypt and Israel announced in Washington they had reached tentative agreement on the main points of a peace treaty.

1979 – The U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.

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1992 – The space shuttle Columbia was launched on a 10-day mission that included deployment of an Italian satellite. Primary mission objectives were deployment of the Laser Geodynamic Satellite II (LAGEOS-II) and operation of the U.S. Microgravity Payload-1 (USMP-1). LAGEOS-II, a joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), was deployed on day 2 and boosted into an initial elliptical orbit by ASI’s Italian Research Interim Stage (IRIS). The spacecraft’s apogee kick motor later circularized LAGEOS orbit at its operational altitude of 3,666 miles. The USMP-1, activated on day one, included three experiments mounted on two connected Mission Peculiar Equipment Support Structures (MPESS) mounted in the orbiter’s cargo bay. USMP-1 experiments were: Lambda Point Experiment; Materiel Pour L’Etude Des Phenomenes Interessant La Solidification Sur Et En Orbite (MEPHISTO), sponsored by the French agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales; and Space Acceleration Measurement System (SAMS).

1993 – It was announced President Clinton would fly to Moscow the following January for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

1993 – Withdrawal of 750 Rangers from Somalia is complete. The move reflected the administration’s effort to shift the focus in Somalia toward pursuing a political settlement following the deaths of 18 Americans in the Ranger raid on Aidid loyalists Oct. 3rd.

1996 – In Bosnia municipal elections were postponed till the spring because Bosnian Serbs clung to their decision to boycott the vote.

1996 – In Canada the Godfrey-Milliken bill was introduced in response to the US Helms-Burton bill. It said that 3 million Canadian descendants of 80,000 uprooted loyalists from the time of the American Revolution have a right to compensation for their confiscated property.

1997 – Two US Air Force jets collided over Edwards Air Force Base in Ca. and two men in one of the planes, a T-38 trainer, were killed. The other jet, an F-16, managed to land safely. It was later determined that one pilot had attempted to avoid hitting birds.

1998 – In Kosovo 4 refugees, that included 3 children, were killed trying to cross the Albanian border. Pres. Milosevic claimed that he had met NATO demands to pull Serb forces out of Kosovo.

2000 – US Sec. of State Madeleine Albright arrived in North Korea to pave the way for a possible visit by Pres. Clinton.

2001 – Team Alpha, TF DAGGER, traveling on horseback in support of Dostum’s cavalry, decisively demonstrated to the Afghans the U.S. commitment to their cause. From an OP near the villages of Cobaki and Oimatan, team members began systematically calling in CAS missions. In one eighteen-hour period they destroyed over twenty armored and twenty support vehicles using close air support. At first the Taliban responded by reinforcing its troops, sending reserves into the area from Sholgara, Mazar-e Sharif, and Kholm. All that did was provide more targets for the CAS aircraft circling overhead and called into action by the SF team on the ground. Numerous key command posts, armored vehicles, troop concentrations, and antiaircraft artillery pieces were destroyed.

2001 – Team Bravo TF DAGGER, also mounted on horseback, moved south into the Alma Tak Mountain range to link up with one of Dostum’s subordinate commanders in the southern Darya Suf Valley and prevent the enemy from assisting its forces in the north. They would continue to interdict and destroy Taliban forces in these mountains until 7 November, destroying over sixty-five enemy vehicles, twelve command bunker positions, and a large enemy ammunition storage bunker.

2001 – A second Washington DC postal worker, Joseph P. Curseen (47), died of inhalation anthrax.

2001 – Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams urged the Irish Republican Army to begin disarming to save Northern Ireland’s peace process.

2001 – Pakistan reached an agreement with the Taliban to accept the return of thousands of refugees. The Taliban agreed to set up 2 refugee camps inside Afghanistan.

2001 – It was reported that Yemen had partially shut down its port of Aden after the breakup of a big anti-US protest. Militants were commandeering boats to ferry fighters out of the country and to Afghanistan.

2002 – The US added Jemaah Islamiyah of Indonesia to its list of terrorist organizations.

2002 – Allied planes bombed a military air defense site in the northern no-fly zone over Iraq after taking fire from Iraqi forces.

2002 – Special Forces in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia had captured 15 Arab militants linked to al Qaeda.

2002 – The Yugoslav government released a statement saying it had dismissed Jovan Cekovic, a former army general, and chief of Yugoimport following NATO evidence that it had engaged in exporting and refurbishing military equipment for Iraq.

2003 – President Bush praised Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, for battling terrorism.

2011 – North Korea agrees, for the first time in 6 years, to let the United States search for the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War.

2014 – Nineteen days after the first known patient in the United States is diagnosed and isolated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces that there will be a 21-day monitoring period for all travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.


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Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken This Day

RINGOLD, EDWARD
Rank and organization: Coxswain, U.S. Navy. Born: 1827, Baltimore, Md. Accredited to: Maryland. G.O. No.: 17, 10 July 1863. Citation: Served as coxswain on board the U.S.S. Wabash in the engagement at Pocataligo, 22 October 1862. Soliciting permission to accompany the howitzer corps, and performing his duty with such gallantry and presence of mind as to attract the attention of all around him, Ringold, knowing there was a scarcity of ammunition, went through the whole line of fire with his shirt slung over his shoulder filled with fixed ammunition which he had brought from 2 miles to the rear of the lines.

DALY, DANIEL JOSEPH (Second Award)
Rank and organization: Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. Born: Glen Cove, Long Island, N.Y., 11 November 1873. Accredited to: New York. Other Navy awards: Second Medal of Honor, Navy Cross. Citation: Serving with the 15th Company of Marines on 22 October 1915, G/Sgt. Daly was one of the company to leave Fort Liberte, Haiti, for a 6-day reconnaissance. After dark on the evening of 24 October, while crossing the river in a deep ravine, the detachment was suddenly fired upon from 3 sides by about 400 Cacos concealed in bushes about 100 yards from the fort. The marine detachment fought its way forward to a good position, which it maintained during the night, although subjected to a continuous fre from the Cacos. At daybreak the marines, in 3 squads, advanced in 3 different directions, surprising and scattering the Cacos in all directions. G/Sgt. Daly fought with exceptional gallantry against heavy odds throughout this action.

HAJIRO, BARNEY F.
Private Barney F. Hajiro distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 19, 22, and 29 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres and Biffontaine, eastern France. Private Hajiro, while acting as a sentry on top of an embankment on 19 October 1944, in the vicinity of Bruyeres, France, rendered assistance to allied troops attacking a house 200 yards away by exposing himself to enemy fire and directing fire at an enemy strong point. He assisted the unit on his right by firing his automatic rifle and killing or wounding two enemy snipers. On 22 October 1944, he and one comrade took up an outpost security position about 50 yards to the right front of their platoon, concealed themselves, and ambushed an 18-man, heavily armed, enemy patrol, killing two, wounding one, and taking the remainder as prisoners. On 29 October 1944, in a wooded area in the vicinity of Biffontaine, France, Private Hajiro initiated an attack up the slope of a hill referred to as “Suicide Hill” by running forward approximately 100 yards under fire. He then advanced ahead of his comrades about 10 yards, drawing fire and spotting camouflaged machine gun nests. He fearlessly met fire with fire and single-handedly destroyed two machine gun nests and killed two enemy snipers. As a result of Private Hajiro’s heroic actions, the attack was successful. Private Hajiro’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, his unit, and the United States Army.

*OLIVE, MILTON L. III
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Company B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry, 173d Airborne Brigade. Place and date: Phu Cuong, Republic of Vietnam, 22 October 1965. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Born: 7 November 1946, Chicago, Ill. C.O. No.: 18, 26 April 1966. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Pfc. Olive was a member of the 3d Platoon of Company B, as it moved through the jungle to find the Viet Cong operating in the area. Although the platoon was subjected to a heavy volume of enemy gunfire and pinned down temporarily, it retaliated by assaulting the Viet Cong positions, causing the enemy to flee. As the platoon pursued the insurgents, Pfc. Olive and 4 other soldiers were moving through the jungle together with a grenade was thrown into their midst. Pfc. Olive saw the grenade, and then saved the lives of his fellow soldiers at the sacrifice of his by grabbing the grenade in his hand and falling on it to absorb the blast with his body. Through his bravery, unhesitating actions, and complete disregard for his safety, he prevented additional loss of life or injury to the members of his platoon. Pfc. Olive’s extraordinary heroism, at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty are in the highest traditions of the U.S. Army and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.

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