Today’s post is in honor of Army Specialist Joseph V. White, who gave his life for our country on this date in 2009. The 21-year-old native of Bellevue, Wa. was one of three soldiers killed when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device. White was serving in the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2d Infantry Division.
1780: Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold learns that British spy Maj. John André has been captured, along with the evidence that would expose Arnold’s secret plot to turn West Point over to the British. He flees to the nearby sloop HMS Vulture, which carries him to New York. Gen. George Washington suggests a prisoner exchange: André for Arnold, but Gen. Henry Clinton refused. André is hanged and Arnold is commissioned as a brigadier general.
1918: U.S. Navy Ensign (future rear admiral) David S. Ingalls – on loan to the Royal Air Force and flying an RAF Sopwith Camel – shoots down enemy aircraft number five, becoming the first ace in U.S. Naval Aviation history, and the Navy’s only ace of World War I. Over the course of the war Ingalls is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross from the United States, a Distinguished Flying Cross from Britain, and made a member of the French Foreign Legion. When America enters World War II, he rejoins the Navy and will command the Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor.
1929: Lt. James L. “Jimmy” Doolittle boards his Consolidated NY-2 Husky at Long Island’s Mitchel Field and buttons himself in a completely blacked-out cockpit. He becomes the first pilot to take off, fly, and land “blind” – having to relying solely on the aircraft’s (newly developed) instruments.
1942: Navy and Marine Dauntless dive bombers take off from Guadalcanal’s Henderson Field and attack the Japanese destroyers Umikaze and Kawakaze, which are attempting a “Tokyo Express” resupply mission. The convoy has to turn back, and Umikaze is so damaged that she has to be towed to Truk for repairs.
That same day, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews constructing the Alaska Highway from the north connect with those working from the south. The strategic highway – stretching some 1,700 miles through remote and rugged Canadian and Alaskan terrain – will not be usable by vehicles until the following year.
1957: Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division land in Little Rock, Ark. for Operation ARKANSAS: ending segregationist governor Orval Fabus’ three-week standoff which kept black students from attending Little Rock’s Central High School. President Dwight Eisenhower also federalizes the entire Arkansas National Guard, taking control of the soldiers from Gov. Fabus.
1960: USS Enterprise (CVN 65), America’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (the eighth so-named vessel since 1775) is launched. At 1,123 feet, the “Big E” was the longest naval vessel ever built and was retired from service in 2012. Steel from CVN-65 will be used to build the next Enterprise, CVN-80, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2027.
