[Featured image: at Edwards Air Force Base, a Navy B-29 mothership is lifted to so handlers can load the Douglas D-558-II “Skyrocket” (NASA photo)]
1820: Commodore Stephen Decatur – “America’s Lord Nelson,” the hero of Tripoli, and the author of the famous aphorism, “Our country, right or wrong” – is mortally wounded in a duel with Commodore James Barron near Bladensburg, Maryland.
Commodore James Barron (Naval Historical Center image)
In 1807, Barron commanded the frigate USS Chesapeake, which he surrendered to the British when HMS Leopard open fired on the unprepared American ship after Barron refused to let them board his vessel and search for alleged British deserters. Decatur, the highly acclaimed veteran of two Barbary campaigns, the Quasi War with France, and the War of 1812, sat on the court of Barron’s court-martial. Barron would be reinstated after five years, to the objections of his former subordinate Decatur.
Both men are wounded in the duel; Decatur is taken to his Washington home where he will die hours later, and in 19 years, Barron will become the Navy’s top officer.
1947: President Harry S. Truman announces that his administration will conduct a loyalty evaluation to ensure that there are no communists in the federal government.
1956: A P2B-1S (the Navy’s designation for a B-29 “Superfortress”) experiences a runaway propeller while preparing to launch a Douglas rocketplane. The prop breaks away, causing serious damage to the mothership, and the rocketplane has to abort its mission and glide to its landing site. Pilots Stanley Paul Butchart (a torpedo bomber pilot during World War II and NASA’s chief test pilot) and Neil Armstrong (future Apollo 11 astronaut) manage to safely land the damaged bomber using just one engine.
1968: After four years of leading Military Assistance Command-Vietnam, Gen. William Westmoreland is promoted to Army Chief of Staff. The Army’s most senior officer is replaced by his deputy, Gen. Creighton Abrams.
Gen. William Westmoreland (U.S. Army photo)
Before Vietnam, Westmoreland served in the European Theater in a field artillery battalion and commanded the 187th Regimental Combat Team during the Korean War. Abrams earned the Distinguished Service Cross twice as a tank commander during World War II.
