1794: The first six officers of the new United States Navy receive their commissions: Captain John Barry (the first captain in the Continental Navy and considered the “father of the American Navy), Samuel Nicholson, Silas Talbot, Joshua Barney, Richard Dale, and Thomas Truxtun.
1917: The First Naval Aeronautical Detachment lands at Brest, France, becoming the first American military unit deployed for World War I. The Naval aviators, commanded by Lt. Kenneth Whiting, will conduct anti-submarine patrols throughout the war. The service collier USS Jupiter that carried the detachment across the Atlantic will be converted to the United States’ first aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1) in 1920.
1943: A year after suffering a major blow at Midway, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto is given a state funeral at Japan. At 1050, every Japanese citizen bows toward Tokyo to pay their respects for their fallen commander, who was ambushed over Bougainville two weeks ago by Army Air Force fighters during an inspection tour.
1944: As the sun sets on airfields across England, 13,328 American paratroopers with the 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions (along with nearly 8,000 British and Canadian paratroopers) board the C-47 transports and gliders that will carry them behind Nazi lines on “the Great Crusade.” 1,000 British bombers pound German defenses at the beaches of Normandy while thousands of ships carrying some 130,000 Allied soldiers steam towards France After months of planning, Operation Overlord is finally underway.
Earlier in the day, Lt. Col. Leon R. Vance led a diversionary bombing mission over Wimereaux, France. Anti-aircraft fire cripples his plane, killing the pilot and wounding Vance and several crew members. Despite only one engine still functioning, he regains control of the aircraft and continues to lead the formation as they successfully bomb the target. With the assistance of another airman, he applies a tourniquet to his leg and orders the crew to bail out of the fatally wounded bomber. When he learns that one of the airmen is too injured to bail, he ditches the aircraft in the English Channel to help give his comrade a fighting chance of survival. Vance is pinned in the cockpit as the bomber slips under the waves, but is blown clear of the bird by an explosion. Vance is awarded the Medal of Honor after being recovered by search-and-rescue crews.
A B-24 Liberator bomber from Vance’s 489th Bomb Group. Vance perished shortly after the actions that earned him the Medal of Honor when the plane carrying him back to the States crashes in the North Atlantic
Meanwhile, the B-29 “Superfortress” flies its first combat mission. Bombers flying out of airfields in India attack Japanese rail lines and other targets in Bangkok, Thailand.
1945: A day after the 4th and 29th Marines conduct an amphibious landing at Okinawa’s Oruku Peninsula, Marines capture the airfield at Naha, while a typhoon with 115-mph winds damages nearly every ship at sea. Kamikaze attacks cripple the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41) and the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28).
On Japan, 473 B-29 bombers drop some 3,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Kobe, destroying much of the city.
1948: A Northrop YB-49 “flying wing” experimental bomber crashes while conducting stall recovery tests at Muroc Air Force Base (now Edwards AFB – in honor of the YB-49’s copilot, Capt. Glen Edwards), killing all five airmen on board. The advanced warplane program will be scrapped, but designer Jack Northrop’s dream of a flying wing aircraft will become reality when Northrop’s B-2 stealth bomber makes its first flight 51 years later.
1951: Benjamin F. Wilson served as an infantry officer during World War II before resigning his commission. He re-enlists as a private shortly after leaving the service volunteers for combat in Korea. When Master Sgt. Wilson’s company is ordered to take the well-fortified Hell Hill, Wilson leads a bayonet charge that nets 27 dead Chinese soldiers. The enemy mounts a counterattack and Wilson makes a one-man charge that drives off the communists. The battlefield is littered with dead and wounded soldiers taken out by Wilson’s rifle, bayonet, grenades, and entrenching tool.
Benjamin F. Wilson retired in 1960 as a Major.
Just four days after the actions that would earn him the Medal of Honor, Wilson ignores his wounds and conducts another valiant one-man charge when his unit is forced to seek cover during another assault on an enemy-held hill near Nodong-ni, Korea. Wilson is again recommended for the Medal of Honor, but since Army policy forbids awarding the prestigious honor to the same soldier more than once, he is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
1971: Special Forces Staff Sgt. Jon R. Cavaiani’s platoon is attacked by a numerically superior enemy force at a camp in Vietnam. Cavaiani, acting as the platoon leader, delivers heavy fire on the enemy using a variety of weapons and when the decision is made to evacuate the camp, he organizes the withdrawal by helicopter.
Pres. Gerald Ford presents Jon Cavaiani with the Medal of Honor in 1974.
The next morning, the enemy attacks again before helicopters can lift out the remaining defenders. Cavaiani mans a machine gun and orders his fellow soldiers to escape. After inflicting severe losses on the enemy soldiers, he is captured and spends the next two years in captivity. Upon his return to the States, the Irish-born Cavaiani is awarded the Medal of Honor.
