Memory Lane, Part One

Your Humble Scribe, command pilot, The Olde Vermonter in the right seat.

That photo from a Christmas long ago, early 60s I'm guessing, shows Your Humble Scribe and kid brother, The Olde Vermonter, showing off their no doubt newly acquired Steve Canyon helmets, complete with visors and oxygen masks. As you'll note I am gripping the imaginary control wheel and am checking for bandits in the sun.

The Olde Vermonter, like good co-pilots everywhere, has his hands in his lap, keeping his mitts away from the controls, and is scanning a different quadrant than his pilot. Or he could be asleep, it was a long time ago. But he certainly was obeying the following dictum -

(Source)

Note as well that we're probably bomber pilots, B-52 I would guess, and we're in comfortable chairs. Though I wonder at the foreshadowing of me in a rocker. Yes, I'm old now, but I'm not that old. And yes, flight suits had plaid shirts back in the day, and jeans with suspenders, I'm sure of it.

While not a Christmas memory, I like the memory sparked by this picture -

Aerobatics and formation flying in an antique aircraft high above the forests of Massachusetts (near Fitchburg for those who are wondering). Thirty minutes of barrel rolls, split-Ss, loops, and Immelmann turns. Most fun you can have with your clothes on. (Ooh, did I just type-speak-write that out loud?)

But memories, I'm here to write about memories, specifically those surrounding this time of year. I was going to rerun this post, which is a really fond memory of the first time I spent a Christmas at my kids' place. The Nuke and The WSO were sharing a town house in Virginia Beach at the time, it was a lot of fun. My daughters were out on their own, living large. The Nuke had a little tree set up and lovingly decorated. Such good times. Go read that post, I'll wait here...

Back already? Let's continue.

The Missus Herself and I have spent a number of Christmases down in the Old Dominion, a few in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area and a few up in the DC area, to include last year's trip to Annapolis. One memory, which actually occurred after Christmas when we met up with The WSO and her tribe, to include her in-laws down from Michigan, at The Nuke's place for New Year's, always makes me chuckle.

We were being shown the sights of Alexandria, still decked out in Christmas lights, marveling at the actual gas lights which still adorn some of the houses in Old Town, when out of a side street, some idiot pulled right in front of us, nearly causing a collision.

Now know this, The Missus Herself seldom indulges in foul language or cursing (though when she's really mad at me, I've heard Korean words which I'm pretty sure would make a longshoreman blush). She almost never cusses in English, save for the very rare "damn it." But there we are, enjoying the Christmas lights and reminiscing about Christmases past when the kids were young, when suddenly we're nearly in a collision.

As the offending car sped away and we all sort of sat there in shock, out of the mouth of my lovely wife we all heard...

"Well, Merry freaking Christmas..."

To this day, whenever the season of good will on Earth and Peace and Joy comes around, The WSO, The Nuke, and I will look at each other and say -

"Merry freaking Christmas!"

The Missus Herself, though somewhat embarrassed by the memory of her blurting that out, will at least smile and shake her head. Whilst remarking that her two daughters and, of course, her husband, that would be Your Humble Scribe, are indeed, idiots.

May you find laughter and joy this holiday season.

I'm pretty sure I will...

Combined Arms

Combined arms attack on Beney, September 12, 1918
(Source)

Yesterday's post, wherein I sing the praises of the "lowly" infantryman, sparked some excellent (as always) comments. But the following excerpt from juvat got me to thinking (always a dangerous proposition).

I have underlined what I took to be the salient points -

• a war is won by a well-constructed, mutually supporting system
• a war cannot be won without infantry
• infantry is the key ingredient
• without logistics, all the combat arms are useless
• logistics
• logistics
• logistics

Yeah, I repeated that last bit three times as it's, how you say, muy importante. I actually had a post on that very topic, a post I called "Beans, Bullets, and Bandages." Now I'm not talking about unsere Bohnen*, no, I speak of actual legumes, the kind you eat. (And which are so darned good with rice.) You can read that post here.

One of the key points was this -

“Logistics...as vital to military success as daily food is to daily work.”
      -- Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, Armaments and Arbitration, 1912

The good captain being right up there with Clausewitz as a theorist and writer on des affaires militaires, that is, he was a really smart guy.

Logistics is what makes fighting a battle, a campaign, and the entire war possible. If your troops aren't getting fed, have nothing to kill the enemy with, and can't patch themselves up when wounded, you can do all the fighting you want, you can have all the infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft, and ships you could ever want...

And you will lose. Those folks "in the rear with the gear" as the dumber operators might put it, serve a vital role, a critical role. Juvat argues that they, and not the infantry, are the "key" ingredient. He wouldn't be wrong either, but (and this is a rather big but, you in the back, stop giggling) all the beans, bullets, and bandages in the world can not win a battle. They make victory possible, sure, but they aren't doing the actual killing and breaking of things which is how you win a battle/campaign/war.

So Sarge, it's the infantry, right?

Well, yes and no. Even if they do call the chaps with the crossed rifle insignia, the Queen of Battle. Now before your mind goes places it should stay away from...

The earliest attributed quote credits Sir William Napier (1785-1860) with saying “Infantry is the Queen of Battles.” In a text by a Mr. G. Maspero, published in 1892, the army of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (7th century, B.C.) is described as follows: "There is, on an average one hundred foot soldiers to every ten cavalry and every single chariot; the infantry is really Queen of the Assyrian battles.” The expression hailing infantry as the queen of battle was widely in use at the time of Napoleon I (1769-1821).

The ascendancy of the infantryman has been dated as far back as the English victory at Crecy in 1346, and to the later Battle of Agincourt, scene of another English victory over the French, in 1415. The decisive weapon in both battles was the English longbow; at Crecy the French crossbowmen could not match the rate of fire of the bowmen, while at Agincourt the massed French cavalry fell before the waves of arrows fired against them by an outnumbered English army led by the young king, Henry V. Both battles were stunning affirmations of the power of capably led and properly armed infantrymen.

References to the queen of battle (or battles) continue to appear in doctrinal literature from the time of the First World War until today, and one of the most popular theories on the selection of the queen as symbol of our branch lies in the queen’s dominance of a chessboard, where she enjoys much more freedom of movement and mobility than any other piece. Her position as the most powerful piece on the board is indeed analogous to the role of the Infantry on the battlefield, and – like our branch – it is she who may well determine the final outcome. The king, on the other hand, is a vulnerable figure, and must rely upon others to protect him. (Source)

To continue the analogy of the chessboard, can you win with just a queen if the other player has all of his/her pieces? Well, if your opponent wasn't very good, and you were, then maybe you could pull it off. But all of those other pieces are there for a reason. They all contribute to victory, they are all components of a team, a combined arms team if you will allow me to put it that way.

In the first Gulf War airpower prepared the battlefield so thoroughly that Iraqi units were trying to surrender to helicopters for crying out loud. But still the infantry, accompanied by tanks and artillery, had to go in to finish what airpower had started.

Try to go up against an entrenched enemy with just infantry - can you say Passchendaele, the Somme, the Marne? (I knew you could.) Your infantry are going to die in their thousands, which they did. You need aircraft to find 'em, artillery to fix 'em in place, tanks to poke holes in the defenses, then your infantry has a chance of surviving. It takes a team.

Need to seize an island or assault a beach? You'll need ships to carry the combined arms teams to the beach, your ships to provide Naval Gun Fire Support (well, not so much these days) and transport supplies to that beach, your aircraft to establish air superiority so your troops can maneuver freely and theirs cannot. You use every tool in your arsenal so that the enemy can't fight effectively and yours can go in, kill the enemy and break his stuff.

Every tool in the armed forces' tool box has a role (well, except maybe for LCS, I still can't figure out what it's good for - until it gets its mine warfare module it's just a waste of parts and sailors who could be employed elsewhere). Each part has its tasks and missions, each part, to win in battle, must be used effectively and in concert with the other parts.

Combined arms, it's kinda like "scissors, rock, paper." Which (surprise, surprise) I wrote about here. (I swear a lot of my posts come from the comments you Chanters make, keep 'em coming.) While that post covered the Napoleonic era, the theory of combined arms has grown to encompass newer unit types and specialized versions of older unit types. For instance, a paratrooper is a descendant of the guys who walked to war, now they ride helos and jump out of aircraft to vertically envelop the enemy. They're in the enemy's rear before the enemy knows what the heck is going on, if you do it right. D-Day, they did it right, Arnhem, well you know how that worked out.

Improvements in technology have made war more lethal. Individual unit lethality and mobility have increased to amazing levels, levels a soldier of the 19th Century couldn't begin to imagine. But the various components need to work together.

And yeah, they need to be supplied.

Combined arms, very sexy, logistics not so much. But they go hand in hand.

Or you will lose.

Thoughts?

* Our Beans, i.e. my fellow blogger here at The Chant.

The Infantry

American infantrymen in the Ardennes, 1944.

Set aside the bombers, the battleships, the aircraft carriers, the cruisers, the destroyers, the tanks, the armored personnel carriers (APC), the fighter jets, the big guns of the artillery, and all of the other trappings of modern war. All of those are simply there to support the infantry.

Ships can't occupy ground nor can aircraft. Tanks and APCs are virtually helpless in built up areas and forests. Visibility out of them is not that great and if you poke your head out of a hatch, count on some gravel agitator with a rifle to blow it off. A timber beam knocked from some ruined building is just the thing to immobilize your mighty steel beast. Gasoline in a bottle is nice for toasting tankers stuck in a broken down tank.

So what's an armor chap to do? Bring your own infantry, of course. Keep the enemy grunts from messing with you until you're back in the open and fight other tanks as is proper. (Though not the original mission of the tank which was to punch holes in the line - for the infantry to exploit - and then roam through the enemy's rear areas messing with his supplies, communications, and REMFs.*)

But Sarge, you might protest, Japan surrendered because we nuked them, twice. Carrier aircraft and Army Air Force bombers put paid to them. And submarines, don't forget the submarines sinking everything with a Rising Sun flag. No infantry necessary!

Ah, who do you think captured the islands where the B-29s launched from and could emergency divert to? Carriers and submarines need bases too, who captured those? The infantry, that's who. (Worth noting is that Marines are specialized infantry, for those who think the term "infantry" only applies to the Army. It doesn't.)

In days of yore it was the man with his shield and sword (or spear) who fought the battles and won the wars. Sure the cavalry galloped around and made themselves a nuisance but they couldn't storm a town or hold a building. Not to mention how expensive maintaining a man and a horse in the field was. Which is why many of the cavalry were some kind of noble or rich dude back in the day and which is why there weren't too many of them.

But Sarge (I hear your plea) what about the steppe barbarians, the Mongols, the Huns, and others of that ilk? They were mounted, they were cavalry, amirite? Yeah, but where are their empires now? Defeated in the long run, by infantry.

Now missile weapons (bows and arrows, slings, even just a guy chucking a rock) are useful at a distance. But if they walk to battle, yup, just a different kind of infantryman.

There are many weapon systems with massive amounts of firepower, that can move fast, and travel far, but once they get there what do they do? Aircraft can land and carry infantry you might say (even drop them from the sky) but what happens if the enemy shoots down your airplanes. Even if they don't, the guys they landed need to be relieved by marching infantry (legs as the airborne calls 'em) otherwise they eventually get worn down. They have to surrender or die at that point. Think Arnhem and a Bridge Too Far.

Infantry will always be necessary to defeat an enemy, eventually even the biological, chemical, and radiation effects wear off and you'll need to send your grunts in so that their infantry can't reoccupy the ground.

One could make the argument that most of the armed forces required by a nation are solely there to support the Poor Bloody Infantry. They don't get much in the way of headlines, but their importance can't be underestimated.

(Source)

God bless the infantry!





* REMF = Rear echelon mother fire truckers. Not a complimentary term by any means. But try fighting a war without them!

Bric-à-brac*

Am Trödelmarkt
Theo Mesker

I don't have much to offer today. Counting today, I have two more days of work until I start my Christmas break. A glorious seventeen days off, all for the price of just three vacation days. A good deal. But in the meantime I am grouchy and curmudgeonly to the extreme.

I urge the denizens of Congress to "get off my lawn." Sick of their antics I am. Oh well. By the way, Sarah Hoyt has an excellent rant on her website. Do read the whole thing. While I don't like to "look away," I plan to do so until the holidays are over with.

The weather was atrocious on Tuesday, delaying further work on Operation Marble Throne Room. The contractors do all their sawing and cutting outside so as to not disturb the inhabitants of the manse and so as not to generate too much dust. For that I am truly appreciative. But sawing and cutting outside is hard to accomplish in the mixture of sleet and rain that filled the skies on Tuesday.

Our contractor is doing a bang-up job and I'm pleased with the results so far, as is The Missus Herself. As she is the one who must ultimately be pleased with the final result, it's a good thing that she is happy so far.

Of course, she has switched directions in what she wanted a couple of times. She is much like the government in being unable to stick to a design and then wondering why the cost of the thing increases.

Ill-tempered sea bass, instead of sharks, I feel your pain Dr Evil, really, I do.





* Miscellaneous objects and ornaments of little value.

Last Roll of the Dice

American infantrymen of the 290th Regiment fight in fresh snowfall near Amonines, Belgium.

Seventy-five years ago, from the 16th of December, 1944, until the 25th of January, 1945, a massive struggle took place along what had been known as the Ghost Front. On the 16th of December, three German armies launched a counter-offensive in the Ardennes Forest along the fog shrouded border of Germany with Belgium and Luxembourg. Present for duty on that day were* -

The German Plan for Die Wacht am Rhein**

With the British 21st Army Group (Montgomery) mostly to the north of the Dutch-Belgian border, and the American 12th Army Group (Bradley) to the south of that line, the German plan would have neatly cut the Allied armies in two.With the bonus of seizing the major port of Antwerp further aggravating an already tenuous supply problem for the Allied armies in Europe.

Fortunately for the Allies, the German forces available in the West were by no means sufficient for such a Herculean task. Hitler's plan was something of a pipe dream and his generals tried to convince him to launch this operation as a spoiling attack, hit just hard enough to disrupt the Allied line to give the German military time enough to prepare their defenses along the Rhine River.

Hitler, of course, was having none of that.

Early in the war his generals had also been very cautious about launching a war with the Western Allies (France and Britain) assuming that the French Army alone would be enough to stop the new Wehrmacht dead in its tracks along the Western Front. They had been proven wrong. Hitler saw himself as a military genius, one of his nicknames (among his sycophants) was Gröfaz, short for Größter Feldherr Aller Zeit, the greatest general of all time. In the latter years of the war, German soldiers used the term in a derogatory sense. They'd been screwed by the Führer too many times to take that term seriously.

Hitler had been lucky in the early years of the war. It went to his head. Now, once again, the German soldier would pay the price for his leader's arrogance. (Not to mention all of the civilians in the path of the offensive.)

For most of the battle the weather was terrible, nullifying Allied air superiority. This allowed the Germans to build up forces close to the front without fear of detection or interdiction. While there were some indicators that a German offensive was in the works, many in the Allied intelligence services pooh-poohed the idea.

Many believed that the Germans were on their last legs, some even believed that the war would be over by Christmas. Far too many on the Allied side thought that the war was winding down.

The American front in the Ardennes was manned in many places by divisions new to the front, unseasoned by combat and posted in the Ardennes to "break them in," units like the Golden Lions of the 106th Infantry Division on the hills of the Schnee Eifel. Other American units had been badly damaged in the fighting in the fall, especially units like the 28th Infantry Division, the "Keystone" Division of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, which had seen serious casualties in the Hürtgen forest back in November. (My Great-uncle John had been wounded there while fighting in the 4th Infantry Division, the "Ivy" Division. A German colleague of mine in NATO told me that his father, fighting in the Wehrmacht, had been captured there. Small world...)

Some of the attacking German units were made up of battle hardened SS troops brought from the Russian Front for this battle, but a number of units were brand new, made up of new recruits and former airmen and sailors. Men not used to ground combat and barely trained for such duties.

The Germans had gathered a large number of armored vehicles, especially tanks, for this offensive. If they ran into difficulties, they could scarcely afford the loss in men and vehicles. While the Russian Front was quiet for the moment, the German intelligence services predicted a big Soviet offensive in January. Stripping that theater for troops to use in an ill-conceived offensive in the West probably shortened the war significantly. It denuded the Eastern Front which led directly to the horrors in that area after the war, under Communist occupation.

Could the Germans have succeeded in the Ardennes? Could they have seized Antwerp, split the British from the Americans and at least forced a stalemate in the West? I suppose it was possible, after all it was just as big a shock to the Allies as the 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam came as a shock to the Americans. But it, like the Bulge, inflicted serious, irreplaceable casualties on the enemy.

Unlike 1968, however, the West was made of much sterner stuff in 1944. The enemy was defeated badly and we pressed on to win the war. Of course, the American public backed the war in 1944, the press didn't lie about the war in 1944, and there were far fewer traitors holding high political office in 1944. A large part of warfare is the will to succeed, couple that with the necessary resources and victory is practically assured.

The Germans had little of that in 1944.

Look at the comparative strengths in January, a month after the commencement of the attack -

Allied strength had more than doubled, German casualties were increasing, their tank strength had been halved, fuel was running short. The weather was better, the German Army was dying in the Ardennes.

A lot of men died to prove to Hitler that the war was lost in the West. But it took thousands of more casualties, military and civilian, to get the Germans to surrender. A horrible price to pay for the delusions of a sick and twisted man. The Germans finally quit shortly after Hitler shot himself in April of 1945, imagine the outcome if von Stauffenberg's bomb had succeeded in killing Hitler in July of 1944.

History is replete with "what ifs." But the harsh reality is death and destruction.

The cost of the Ardennes Offensive -

Twenty-one years ago, on this very date, I stood in this place with two of my fellow sergeants, pondering the enormity of those events so long ago, and contemplating the bitter cost.

The Malmedy Memorial, very close to where the massacre occurred.
(Google Street View)

Where the massacre took place, across the street and up from the memorial site.
(Google Street View)

The price of freedom, Baugnez, Belgium
(Google Street View)

Remember...

Lest we have to do it again.





* All statistics were drawn from this source.
** "The Watch on the Rhine," the original German name for the operation, meant to deceive the Allies into thinking it was a plan to defend the Rhine River.

Never Give Up! Never Surrender!*

Busy, Busy, Busy!  Christmas draws nigh and the juvat abode (not the Lair, that's still in the design phase) is approaching "Fully Decorated" status.  Johnson and Johnson stock has skyrocketed this past week based on increased sales. Ben Gay is remarkably effective in soothing aches in the knees, back and neck caused by climbing ladders, moving furniture and bending over to trace the one burned out bulb that causes the whole tree not to illuminate.

Ask me how I know.

But the week went by quickly, and since I've now been retired one year, I've come to realize there are only two days in a week.  Sunday and NotSunday.  Since I went to Church today, ergo it must be Sunday.  Which means I gotta post something, but the Ben Gay fumes are not conducive to cognitive thought about a subject to post about.

So...fully realizing that I'm raiding my fall back story bank for the second week in a row...I'm going to go here for a story.

The Medal of Honor Recipient I'm discussing was originally intended to be one of the last in the Air Force Medal of Honor series.  While I don't think there's any name on that monument that doesn't deserve to be there, I do feel that some are more deserving than others.  Is there any doubt that Lt Sijan, or BG Day, or Lt Femoyer, without a doubt, deserved the award?

I mean the criteria for the medal is "...risk of life above and beyond the call of duty..."  right?  As a fighter pilot, my job, my duty, was to shoot down as many enemy aircraft as possible and to keep doing that until I was relieved or the war ended.

So based on that, I had kinda postponed posting the stories of a couple of recipients. However, I learned something interesting recently about one of the recipients that I hadn't known before. While the incident occurred well after he was awarded the Medal, I think the circumstances filled the above criteria quite well.

Suffice it to say, Edward V. Rickenbacker led an "interesting" life.  Born in 1890 as Edward Rickenbacher, his formal schooling ended at seventh grade, but he self educated himself in engineering and mechanical fields.  Automobiles fascinated him particularly and he became  a race car driver participating in four Indy 500 races among others.

When WWI started in 1914, He changed his name by switching the H to a K to make it "Less German".  As an aside, which I thought descriptive, he also wrote his name 26 times with a different middle initial.  He thought Edward V. Rickenbacker looked  the best so he changed his name to Edward Vernon Rickenbaker.

His mechanical aptitude stood him in good stead as the US entry to WWI approached. He had enlisted in the Army and by the time he got to France was a Sergeant First Class.  Assigned as the engineering officer at the Army's flying school in France, he would "practice flying" in between fixing airplanes.  (The rules are different now.)  His proficiency at fixing aircraft kept his superiors from recommending his training to officially be a pilot.

Persistence won out and he was eventually transferred to the 94th Aero Squadron.

94 Fighter Squadron F-22's
Source

No, Beans, this was not what he was flying.  Although it is what the 94th Fighter Squadron is flying today.

He first flew Nieuport 28s, as hand-me-downs from the French, but eventually flew this.

Spad XIII
Source

Between April 29, 1918 and October 30, 1918, he scored  21 German Aircraft and 5 Balloons confirmed kills.  This total made him the highest scoring American pilot in the War.  For this he received 8 Distinguished Service Crosses.

One of those DSC's was converted to a Medal of Honor in 1930.

After the war, Rickenbacker had many careers.  He was a defense witness in the Courts Martial of Billy Mitchell.  He started his own Automobile manufacturing company, later bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as Eastern Airlines.

In February 1941, he was on board an Eastern DC-3 which crashed.  Severely injured, he was left on board soaked in aviation fuel, because rescue workers thought he was too injured to survive.  This same thinking again happened in the emergency room.  However, he did survive and, although it took several months, recovered.

I also loved this quote from the Wikipedia Source.

"Rickenbacker was adamantly opposed to President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal policies, seeing them as little better than socialism. For this, he drew criticism and ire from the press and the Roosevelt administration, which ordered NBC Radio not to allow him to broadcast opinions critical of Roosevelt's policies..."

Let's see...Democrat, New Deal, Socialism, trampling Freedom of Speech...Yep, not much has changed.

Stay on Target, juvat!

¡Sí, sí, permanecer en el objetivo, mi antiguo sargento de la Fuerza Aérea!

He also wrote a comic strip Ace Drummond.

All of which made him a very talented and interesting man.

However, the story I heard (viewed actually) happened in the early years of WWII.  He was dispatched by FDR to deliver a letter to MacArthur (a rebuke for the General's public criticism of the administration), as well as inspect the situation and conditions of the war in the SW Pacific. He departs Hawaii in a B-17 to fly to Australia with an enroute refueling stop at Canton Island.

The distances are so great, it was difficult to get all three points on a single screen shot

However, unbeknownst to the crew, the compass had been damaged in a taxi accident prior to takeoff and was unreliable.  They missed the island completely (even outside of radio range) and eventually ran out of gas forcing them to ditch the aircraft.  There were 8 men on board, including Rickenbacker, and only 3 small life rafts.

Rickenbacker assumed leadership and directs them to tie the rafts together to improve their chances of being spotted.  Food and water run out after 3 days.  8 days into the adventure, a seagull lands on one of the rafts and is caught.  That sustains them for a bit. Intermittent rain and an occasional bird or fish keep them alive...barely All were suffering from sunburn, dehydration and starvation.  One of the crew, knowing that it is harmful, drinks seawater.  He, shortly thereafter, dies and is buried at sea.

After 2 weeks, the search is about to be called off. However, Rickenbacker's wife manages to convince the Military to continue searching.  The survivors eventually decide to split up.  The pilot goes off in a single seat raft and is rescued on day 23.  The other raft with 3 survivors in it, makes it to a small inhabited island where the Natives are manning an Allied Radio Station.  On Day 24, a Navy OS2U Kingfisher spots the remaining raft off the coast of Nukufetau (far left dot above) and rescues them.

Never give up....Never Surrender!

Indeed.

Captain Rickenbacker's Citation(s):

   Edward V. Rickenbacker, Colonel, specialist reserve, then first lieutenant, 94th Aero Squadron, Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy near Billy, France, September 25, 1918. While on a voluntary patrol over the lines Lt. Rickenbacker attacked seven enemy planes (five type Fokker protecting two type Halberstadt photographic planes). Disregarding the odds against him he dived on them and shot down one of the Fokkers out of control. He then attacked one of the Halberstadts and sent it down also.

Medal of Honor citation, awarded November 6, 1930

First Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Montsec, France, April 29, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker attacked an enemy Albatross monoplane, and after a vigorous fight in which he followed his foe into German territory, he succeeded in shooting it down near Vigneulles-les-Hatton Chatel.

Second Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), U.S . for extraordinary heroism in action over Richecourt, France, on May 17, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker attacked three Albatross enemy planes, shooting one down in the vicinity of Richecourt, France, and forcing the others to retreat over their own lines.

Third Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action over St. Mihiel, France, on May 22, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker attacked three Albatross monoplanes 4,000 meters over St. Mihiel, France. He drove them back into German territory, separated one from the group, and shot it down near Flirey.

Fourth Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action over Boise Rate, France, on May 28, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker sighted a group of two battle planes and four monoplanes, German planes, which he at once attacked vigorously, shooting down one and dispersing the others.

Fifth Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action on May 30, 1918, 4,000 meters over Jaulny, France. Captain Rickenbacker attacked a group of five enemy planes. After a violent battle, he shot down one plane and drove the others away.

Sixth Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in the region of Villecy, France, September 14, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker attacked four Fokker enemy planes at an altitude of 3,000 meters. After a sharp and hot action, he succeeded in shooting one down in flames and dispersing the other three.

Seventh Distinguished Service Cross citation

    The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to Edward Vernon Rickenbacker, Captain (Air Service), US Army, for extraordinary heroism in action in the region of Bois-de-Wavrille, France, September 15, 1918. Captain Rickenbacker encountered six enemy planes, who were in the act of attacking four Spads, which were below them. Undeterred by their superior numbers, he unhesitatingly attacked them and succeeded in shooting one down in flames and completely breaking the formation of the others. 





I didn't notice much difference between the MOH citation and the rest.
 
*Shamelessly stolen from a pretty darn good movie

Singing Second*

The Army three year win streak is over, the seniors at the Naval Academy will head to the Fleet knowing how it feels to Beat Army. If things had gone the other way, the Class of 2020 would join those from West Point who saw a long drought against the Navy.

My own involvement with the United States Navy began in the fall of 1997 when my son and I flew from Germany to New England. I watched with great pride as my son joined the ranks of Navy Midshipmen at the College of the Holy Cross, a school with a proud Navy tradition.

That involvement with the U.S. Navy continued after my retirement from the Air Force in 1999. Of course, The Naviguesser was still a Midshipmen but now I was employed by a company with a long history of supporting the Navy. I am still there, I am still working on projects directly supporting the mission of the Fleet.

In 2001 my son became an Ensign in the Navy. My oldest daughter, The Nuke, followed him into Navy ROTC at Holy Cross that same year. My youngest, The WSO, became a Midshipman a year later, also at Holy Cross. Whereas her two older siblings went to ROTC at Holy Cross, they actually attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) just across town, The WSO actually attended Holy Cross.

Both daughters joined the Fleet after their four years of college, The Nuke in 2005, The WSO in 2006. Both daughters married Naval Aviators, one of whom, Tuttle, is a graduate of the Naval Academy, (Big Time is a graduate of Western Michigan University. He received his commission via Officer Candidate School.)

Last year, a few days after Christmas, I had the opportunity to tour the Naval Academy, the tradition of the place is palpable. It's a beautiful campus and I full well understand the love those who graduated from there have for the place.

Bancroft Hall, USNA
"Mother B"

Dahlgren Hall, USNA

I will say this about the game, Army fought hard until the end, they never quit.

May God bless and watch over the men and women of the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy, in my book, they're all winners.

NAVY BLUE & GOLD

Now colleges from sea to sea

May sing of colors true,

But who has better right than we

To hoist a symbol hue:

For sailors brave in battle fair

Since fighting days of old,

Have proved the sailor’s right to wear

The Navy Blue & Gold.

So hoist our colors, hoist them high,

And vow allegiance true,

So long as sunset gilds the sky

Above the ocean blue,

Unlowered shall those colors be

Whatever fate they meet,

So glorious in victory,

Triumphant in defeat.

Four years together by the Bay,

Where Severn joins the tide,

Then by the Service called away,

We’re scattered far and wide;

But still when two or three shall meet,

And old tales be retold,

From low to highest in the Fleet,

We’ll pledge the Blue and Gold.

(Source)

There's always next year...




* Traditionally the team that wins the Army-Navy game sings their school song second, after the team which lost sings their school song. Singing second is good.