The Battle of Poyang Lake
Naval Calendar 2009
The Battle of Poyang Lake
by Joshua Gilbert
In late August 1363 AD the two main contenders for control of China, Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, faced off on Poyang (also called Boyang) Lake, the largest freshwater body of water in China. In the end Zhu Yuanzhang would win the battle and go on to found one of China’s greatest dynasties: the Ming. The circumstances that would lead to Poyang Lake are tied to the fall of the Yuan Dynasty. When Khubilai Khan founded his Yuan Dynasty in 1271 many of the Chinese resented it. In fact they never regarded the Yuan as a legitimate dynasty, but as a foreign occupation army. As time would show very few Yuan Emperors were capable and they became more decedent and sinicized over time. In the 1320s a massive famine swept China and 7 to 8 million people died of starvation. The inability of the Yuan to handle the crises was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Many secret societies devoted to the destruction of the Yuan popped up all over the land.
In 1325 the first rebellion broke out. The central Yuan government in Dadu (modern Beijing) was paralyzed and unable to act. Further the Yuan Army had denigrated into an ineffectual force. The wealthy landowning class realized the uprising, which was made of peasants, threatened them just as much as the Yuan. So they armed their own private armies and saved the Yuan from collapse. But the next time they would not be so lucky. In 1344 a flood broke the dams along the Huang He. The Yuan called up 170,000 peasants to fix the dams. But instead the peasants rose in revolt in 1352, and from there snowballed out of control. More rebellions broke out all over the country, and this time the landowners could not save the Yuan. By 1355 the dynasty was for all intents and purposes dead, although the Yuan Emperor remained in power until 1368.
Among the various rebel groups, many of which were religious in nature, the most powerful was the Song regime. The Song regime was originally a combined Buddhist-Manichean sect called the White Lotus, and became the Song regime in 1355. The titular leader was Han Lin’er, the Minor Prince of Brilliance, and the son of Han Shantong, the sect’s founding father. But true power lay in the hands of the so called Red Turban (the military arm of the White Lotus) generals and in particular with a former beggar named Zhu Yuanzhang.
Read Joshua Gilbert’s entire article on the Battle of Poyang Lake at Military History Online
Add comment October 9, 2008
Pathfinder Identifies Two Sunken Vessels During At-Sea Demonstration
Naval Calendar 2009
Military Sealift Command (MSC) oceanographic survey ship USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60) identified two sunken vessels during a joint, at-sea capabilities demonstration in Ukrainian territorial waters.
German coastal submarine U-18 was the first target the oceanographers identified using underwater video capabilities with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).
The second ship is believed to be RUS Prut, a Russian minelayer that sank during World War I in 1914.
“The sea floor is a resting place for brave sailors, regardless of the country they come from,” said Dr. Serge A. Gulyar, head of the Underwater Physiology Department at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, who participated in the search.
The ship’s civilian oceanographers used equipment such as a side-scan sonar, multi-beam sonar and ROVs to locate the vessels. The sonars use sound pulses on the ocean’s floor to locate possible shipwrecks. The ROV is deployed underwater to verify the sonars’ findings.
“It was interesting using all of the state-of-the-art equipment,” said Gulyar. “As a physiologist, it was nice learning about all the technical parts of the underwater exploration.”
Civilian surveyors from the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO), a team of civilian oceanographers from the U.S.-base Institute of Exploration (IFE) and Ukrainian sailors, historians and surveyors headed the joint, at-sea demonstration.
“I am happy with the amount of work that we were able to accomplish during this survey,” said IFE Chief Scientist Katy Croff. “During this exploration we discovered many sonar targets that we hope to investigate and identify during future projects.”
MSC operates more than 110 noncombatant, civilian-crewed ships that replenish U.S. Navy ships, conduct specialized missions, strategically preposition combat cargo at sea around the world and move military cargo and supplies used by deployed U.S. forces and coalition partners.
NAVOCEANO employs approximately 1,100 civilian, military and contract personnel and is responsible for providing oceanographic products and services to all elements within the U.S. Department of Defense.
Jenniffer Rivera (NNS)
Add comment October 9, 2008
MH-53s fly final combat missions
MH-53 Pave Low
Aircrews flew the remaining six MH-53 Pave Low helicopters on their last combat missions in support of special operations forces Sept. 27 in Southwest Asia.
The last mission, a SOF logistical resupply and passenger movement throughout central and southern Iraq, marks their last combat mission before the airframe retires after nearly 40 years in the Air Force inventory.
“We really feel like we are standing on the shoulders of giants,” said Lt. Col. Gene Becker, the 20th Expeditionary Special Operations Squadron commander and a MH-53 pilot of 13 years. “(We owe it to) the folks, who over the past 40 years, have built the capability of this aircraft and the mission. We were just the lucky ones to be here at the end.”
“We felt a great responsibility to close the MH-53’s remaining months in the Air Force in a professional, disciplined and safe manner,” he said. “At the end of the last mission, we felt like we achieved that goal. A goal, that we believe, was the best way to honor those (who contributed to) the last 40 years of this magnificent helicopter.”
HH-53s, with their unique special operations mission and capabilities, have played a vital role in several operations during a career spanning four decades. The MH-53 was the lead command and control helicopter during a raid of Son Tay prison camp in 1970, a mission linked to improving conditions for prisoners of war in North Vietnam.
Again, in 1990, MH-53s led the way for Army AH-64 Apaches during an airstrike, which opened the air war in Operation Desert Storm. And since March 2003, the MH-53 has played a crucial part in special operations missions supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The 20th ESOS MH-53 helicopters and their crews have provided much of the vertical lift, direct action and logistical resupply to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq.
According to Air Force Special Operations Command officials, the MH-53 costs too much to maintain, fly and keep in the fight because of its age. Although its flying safety record is good, it has reached the end of its service life.
“It is a bittersweet ending,” said Tech Sgt. Corey Fossbender, a 20th ESOS MH-53 aerial gunner and a crewmember on the lead helicopter during the final mission. “These birds have been around for so long. Our maintenance (teams) have basically been magicians keeping them in the air.”
Sergeant Fossbender, who has spent 13 of his 16-year career in the MH-53 community, said he will miss the camaraderie the helicopter crews shared the most.
“It wasn’t just a job, it was a brotherhood,” he said. “A legacy is going away. With all the history they have been apart of, it’s sad to see them go.”
The six-man MH-53 crew consists of two pilots, two flight engineers and two aerial gunners.
“Most of the MH-53 crewmembers will head to AFSOC’s new weapons systems like the CV-22 (Osprey), AC-130 (Gunship) … and (MQ-1) Predators,” Colonel Becker said. “Some will head over to Air Combat Command and fly the HH-60G (Pave Hawk), and a few will retire.”
Senior Master Sgt. Mark Pryor, the 20th ESOS superintendent, will retire after more than 28 years; half of which he served as a flight engineer on the PMH-53.
“I don’t think it has had an opportunity to sink in,” Sergeant Pryor said. “When I grabbed those throttles and pulled them off for the last time and realized this is the last time I will fly on the Pave Low and work with this group of guys, it was bittersweet. The MH-53s are retiring, and then I retire. It’s a perfect ending to a wonderful career.”
From Iraq, some of the MH-53s will become relics of the past when they become displays in Air Force museums. Others will go to the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.
“As the Pave Low goes on to retire from combat today. She goes out, as she came in — the very best,” Colonel Becker said.
Andrea Thacker (AFNS)
Add comment October 9, 2008
Defense contributions help NASA’s 50-year legacy
NASA began operations on Oct. 1, 1958, just a few days short of the one-year anniversary of the Soviet Union’s successful Sputnik I launch. Concerned about the race for technological superiority in space, U.S. officials debated long and hard over whether the space program should be placed under military or civilian control, historical documents show.
Ultimately, NASA was established as a new civilian agency that borrowed heavily from the Defense Department and other government organizations as it built its own capabilities.
One doesn’t have to look hard to see the deep connection between NASA and DOD, beginning with the astronaut program. In fact, President Dwight D. Eisenhower almost assured that connection when he decreed that all astronaut candidates be test pilots with college degrees.
All seven original astronauts — known as “The Mercury 7″ because they were chosen for Project Mercury, the nation’s first manned space flight program — came from the military. Alan Shepard, Walter Schirra and Scott Carpenter were Navy aviators; Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Gordon Cooper and Donald “Deke” Slayton were Air Force pilots; and John Glenn flew in the Marine Corps.
The long list of military members who became “firsts” at NASA didn’t stop there. John Glenn, who flew 59 combat missions during World War II and another 63 during the Korean War before joining the Naval Air Test Center, made history at NASA as the first American to orbit Earth on Feb. 20, 1962.
Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, got his initial flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., in 1949 and 1950, then went on to fly 78 missions over Korea during the Korean War. His words as he stepped from the Apollo 11 lunar module on July 20, 1969 — “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” — are an indelible mark in NASA’s history.
Neil Armstrong’s fellow Apollo 11 crewmembers had deep military roots, too. Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1951, before serving as an Air Force fighter pilot during the Korean War.
Michael Collins, who orbited the moon as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on its surface, also got his commission at West Point before joining the Air Force and receiving flight training at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss.
Thirty years later, Eileen Collins — no relation to the Apollo 11 astronaut — made NASA history in 1999 aboard the Columbia as the first woman to command a space shuttle. An Air Force colonel, she graduated from Air Force undergraduate pilot training in 1979. She was attending Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., when NASA selected her for its astronaut program.
Military members have participated in NASA’s great triumphs as well as its deep tragedies, including the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters.
Four servicemembers were among the seven Challenger crewmembers killed when a fuel tank exploded 73 seconds after launch on Jan. 28, 1986. Michael J. Smith, the pilot, was a Navy captain; Francis Richard “Dick” Scobee and Ellison Onizuka were Air Force lieutenant colonels; and Gregory Jarvis was an Air Force captain.
Again, five U.S. military officers, as well as an Israeli officer, died when Columbia disintegrated over Texas as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. That incident killed Navy Cmdr. William C. McCool, the pilot; Air Force Col. Rick D. Husband; Air Force Lt. Col. Michael P. Anderson; Navy Capt. David M. Brown and Navy Capt. Laurel Clark. Israeli Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon and Kalpana Chawla, the only civilian on the mission, also died.
But the connection between the military and NASA goes far beyond the astronaut program.
From its inception, NASA officials looked to the Defense Department and other interagency, academic, industry and international partners to build the agency’s capability, Roger D. Launius, curator for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum, noted in an article written for NASA’s 50th anniversary magazine.
The military had been looking to space and the development of rocket technology and expertise since the closing days of World War II, Air Force Space Command officials noted. NASA officials were anxious to tap into this expertise, and quickly absorbed several ongoing military efforts into its organization. These included the space science group of the Naval Research Laboratory in Maryland that would form the core of the new Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. NASA officials also incorporated the Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed for the Army by specialists at the California Institute of Technology, and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Ala., where Wernher von Baun’s engineering team was developing large rockets.
Shortly after its formal organization, NASA specialists took over management of space exploration projects from other federal agencies, including the Air Force.
“These activities relied fully on the expertise and resources of the U.S. Air Force in seeing them to fruition,” Launius wrote.
One of NASA’s earliest borrowings from the military came in the form of launch vehicles originally developed to deliver nuclear weapons.
“Most of the launchers used by NASA during its formative years originated as military ballistic missiles,” Launius wrote. “It was, and remains, the fundamental technology necessary for civil space exploration, and it came largely from the military.”
Meanwhile, officials at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, another organization Eisenhower created in response to the Sputnik launch, have provided critical expertise that has benefited NASA throughout its 50-year history.
Defense Department officials stood up DARPA to find and quickly develop advanced technology for the military so the United States would never again suffer a technological surprise by another nation.
Initially, DARPA scientists and engineers concentrated on the first surveillance satellites that ensured U.S. presidents had accurate intelligence information on Russian missile program activities, historical records show. But DARPA experts advanced other space projects as well, developing the Saturn V rocket that ultimately enabled the United States to launch the Apollo missions to the moon.
As they observe its 50th anniversary, NASA personnel can look back on its many accomplishments that have brought mankind a better understanding of the solar system and universe. As they advanced this research, NASA scientists and engineers, like those in the military services and DARPA, have pushed the technological envelope in everything from weather forecasting to navigation to global communications.
Speaking at the recent NASA 50th anniversary gala, Neil Armstrong looked back on the agency’s history and its future.
“The goal is far more than just going faster, higher and further,” he said. “Our goal, indeed our responsibility, is to develop new options for future generations, options for expanding human knowledge, exploration, human settlement and resource development in the universe around us.”
Add comment October 9, 2008
100th Anniversary of the Great White Fleet Commemorated in New York
Naval Calendar 2009
The U.S. Navy commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Great White Fleet in New York Oct. 7 at Grand Central Terminal with the opening of an exhibit that will run through the 2008 Columbus Celebration ending Oct. 17.
The exhibit – which includes eight-foot models of battleships, artifacts, memorabilia from Sailors aboard the ships and photo displays that tell the story of an American naval mission – highlights aid provided by ships of the Great White Fleet to Italy in 1908 following a devastating earthquake.
“This is a great opportunity not only to recognize the accomplishments of the Great White Fleet but to also highlight our continuing Navy and Marine Corps mission to help keep international waterways safe and to reach out to those in need,” said Rear Adm. Terence McKnight, commander, Expeditionary Strike Group 2.
In 1907, then-President Theodore Roosevelt sent 16 battleships with the hulls painted white to circumnavigate the globe on a goodwill mission and display of American naval power. The ships were later known as the Great White Fleet.
When a devastating earthquake followed by a tidal wave hit Sicily and Southern Italy in late 1908, leaving an estimated 200,000 dead, ships from the fleet rushed to provide essential humanitarian aid and services.
The exhibit demonstrates the clear parallels between the Great White Fleet, sent on its deployment by Roosevelt, and today’s Maritime Strategy emphasizing increased global partnerships to promote peace and prosperity worldwide.
“Just as four ships from the Great White Fleet provided humanitarian assistance following an earthquake in Sicily [one] hundred years ago, our amphibious ships continue that important mission today,” said McKnight.
“USS Nassau (LHA 4)returned recently from relief efforts following Hurricane Ike, and USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) spent a great deal of time rendering aid to Haiti following tropical storms and hurricanes that affected that nation.”
“I have the great honor and privilege to inaugurate this very special exhibit in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of one of the world’s worst natural disasters and the humanitarian assistance rendered by the Great White Fleet of the United State Navy,” said Richard Greco, former assistant secretary of the Navy. “Together the Department of the Navy and the Columbus Citizens Foundation, along with many corporate and governmental sponsors, have all co-sponsored this exhibit because we believe it is a story that needs to be told.
“This is a story that cannot be forgotten, a story of unspeakable loss of life and misery but a story of great charity and love by one nation to another nation in a time of need.”
The 2008 Columbus Celebration in New York will feature the U.S. Navy while remembering the Great White Fleet and the aid provided to Italy. It is the largest celebration of Italian and Italian-American culture in the world. The Columbus Celebration is organized by the Columbus Citizens Foundation, which raises scholarship funds for students of Italian descent.
“The significance of the rescue efforts in Italy is important because it shows the close relationship between the United States and Italy which continues today,” said Lawrence Auriana, chairman of the board of governors of the Columbus Citizens Foundation.
Noreen Kirk, from Connecticut, and her 2-year-old son stopped by the exhibit at Grand Central Terminal.
“I didn’t know about the Great White Fleet, but this is very informative,” said Kirk.
“We had been here a few days ago and saw the announcement that this exhibit would be opening,” said Debbie Friedman, a native of Manhattan visiting the exhibit with her husband. “This is very impressive, and it describes a part of history that is not very well recognized today.”
The amphibious assault ship Nassau will visit New York for the Columbus Celebration with Sailors participating in the New York City Columbus Day parade. The ship will be open for public visitation Oct. 13.
The Italian submarine ITS Salvatore Todaro (S 526) will also be in port alongside Nassau as a sign of the enduring partnership between the United States and Italy. Though she will not be open for public tours, Todaro can be viewed from the pier during Nassau’s public visitation.”
Lesley Lykins (NNS)
Add comment October 9, 2008
The Phalanx
The phalanx was a rectangular shaped unit of soldiers standing tightly together several ranks deep. The men were armed with long spears or pikes, and frequently carried large shields as well.
The battle line was formed by placing one phalanx next to another. If manpower, allowed a second phalanx line was formed behind the first.
The first documented use of the phalanx is found on a Sumerian stele dating from 2450 BC. Egyptian Pharaoh’s armies also employed this formation.
Add comment September 30, 2008
Home sweet home for C-133 Cargomaster
Aviation Calendar 2009
In front of more than 80,000 spectators, the last flying C-133A Cargomaster returned home to Travis Air Force Base at the 2008 Travis Air Expo, Aug. 30.
The event was special for a lot of reasons said Master Sgt. Terry Juran, Travis Air Museum director.
“The arrival and retirement of the C-133 here really fills a void in our aircraft collection,” said Sergeant Juran. “Only two bases had the C-133, Travis and Dover. They have their aircraft and now we have ours.”
The C-133 flew at Travis from 1958 until its departure in 1971. According to Mr. John Lacomia, 60th Air Mobility Wing historian, the first C-133 arrived at Travis on Oct. 17, 1958 and was dubbed the “State of California” and was assigned to the 84th Air Transport Squadron of the 1501st Air Transport Wing. The last Cargomaster a C-133B departed Travis on July 30, 1971 for Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona.
The arrival of the C-133A has been more than 20 years in the making. Members of the Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Foundation, formally the Travis Historical Society, played a major role in the acquisition.
“We wanted to have this part of history here at Travis,” said Mr. Dave Floreck, foundation member. “This arrival means a lot to so many people.”
Mr. Floreck was an active duty Airman and worked on the aircraft while stationed in Korea. He, along with other C-133A crew members and maintainers, from as far away as Switzerland, made the trip to Travis to see the landing.
“It’s a great day for the aircraft,” said retired Lt. Col. Joe Fouts, a former C-133A pilot.
Colonel Fouts resides in Anchorage, Alaska, where the C-133 had been flying. He saw the plane take off from there and land during the show at Travis.
Colonel Fouts said he had many fond memories of the Aircraft. In particular was a mission that took his crew around the globe, flying heads of state and dignitaries in July, 1960.
“We planned for the trip to take 84 hours,” he said. “We took off from Travis and touched down in exactly that time.”
Colonel Fouts praised the Aircraft for its reliability but said they knew it was better to be safe than sorry.
“We took two extra engines, two props and an extra maintenance crew, just in case.”
The Travis Air Museum has plans to move the aircraft from its position on the ramp to a location near the David Grant Medical Center, closer to the base’s entrance and future site of the Jimmy Doolittle Air Museum.
“We really want to show off this aircraft to honor those who served and sacrificed.”
Because only 50 total C-133s flew in the Air Force, Sergeant Juran said he felt its history, and the history of its crewmembers had been overlooked.
“It’s such a small community of people who served on this aircraft. But they did a lot of work. I think we may have forgotten that, but with the arrival of this aircraft we can right that wrong.”
Shaun Emery
Add comment September 16, 2008
Military Aviation on the Eve of WW I
On the eve of the World War I, no country was prepared for using aircraft or had even admitted they would make an effective weapon of war. Several had experimented with dropping bombs from aircraft, firing guns, and taking off and landing from aircraft carriers, but no country had designed or built aircraft specifically for war functions.
Limited bombing operations had been carried out before 1914, but most thought that aircraft use was limited to reconnaissance or scouting missions. An October 1910 editorial in Scientific American, a respected publication, denigrated the airplane as a war weapon:
“Outside of scouting duties, we are inclined to think that the field of usefulness of the aeroplane will be rather limited. Because of its small carrying capacity, and the necessity for its operating at great altitude, if it is to escape hostile fire, the amount of damage it will do by dropping explosives upon cities, forts, hostile camps, or bodies of troops in the field to say nothing of battleships at sea, will be so limited as to have no material effects on the issues of a campaign….”
But some effort was made to use aircraft for military purposes. Some of the earliest efforts took place in Italy. In April 1909, the newly formed Italian aviation club, Club Aviatori, brought Wilbur Wright to Italy to demonstrate his Military Flyer at the Centocelle military base near Rome. Before leaving Rome, Wilbur trained the naval officer who would become Italy’s first pilot, Lieutenant Mario Calderara. In 1910, Italy set up its first military flying school at Centocelle.
Add comment September 15, 2008
McCain: A Tale of Two Admirals
USS John S. McCain
USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) is a US Navy Arleigh Burke Class AEGIS destroyer. It is jointly named after Admirals John Sidney McCain and John S. McCain jr.
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There is something about the naval service that the civilian simply doesn’t understand. That the men who go down to the sea in ships man the far distant pickets during peace-watching, listening for those perturbations in the political environment that may mean a future threat to the homeland. They are the first to hear the crackling of peace.
And when the clouds of war roll out of the horizon, it is they in their iron watch towers who bear and blunt the first shocks of malevolence.
In the meantime, they watch and wait, peering into the distance-usually unnoticed, often unappreciated in the times of peace. Not until the drums of war roll throughout the land do they get their due. But these men and women care less about this, because their reward is not the accolades, but the service itself.
This great, gray, sleek ship… the men who bend back and mind to serve her…and the spirits of the two men for whom it is named…will be the newest spike in the floating steel veil that protects the land. And as we look at the pristine vessel it looks rather like some great predatory cat, doesn’t it? Crouched down, ears laid back in stalk- we know that its presence and its implied menace will more likely mean peace than war. But some day this ship may have to be in a fight. There will be the loud clang of “BATTLE STATIONS!!! ALL HANDS TO BATTLE STATIONS!!!”, and smoke, and missiles, and noise and that fierce coordinated focus that only comes to men in a battle.
The two McCain’s – John Sidney, Sr., and John Sidney, Jr., served both in the clamor of battle and the long days of keeping the peace. They sacrificed just as the crews of this ship will sacrifice, in peace and war. For that is the lot, and the privilege of the sailor. To serve.
Who these two men are is often obscured by the stars that studded their shoulder boards, and by the lofty commands they held at the ends of their careers. And this too short treatise is to present them not as Admirals and military luminaries, but rather I think how they would be remembered-as human beings. Leaders who were made, not born.
They were men who worked hard, studied their fellow man, made mistakes, learned, and tried again. Most importantly, these two men always told the truth – especially to themselves-because they knew that’s the only thing you can count on. As far as I can find out, they never quit, and they never laid down a responsibility, or tried to transfer blame to another pair of shoulders.
Doing this was no easier for those two men than they are for the rest of us. They just learned and accepted the reality that there is no way around doing you job. No magic, no special internal muses…just hard work and keeping an eye on those twin saboteurs of doing a job right- fear and irresponsibility.
It is an accident that the McCain’s even went to sea. Because in their Mississippi family, the eldest son always took over the family land, “Teoc”, and the second son went into the army. In fact, a McCain served on George Washington’s staff. Another served in the Civil War, was badly wounded, and came home to Teoc to die. Yet another was a three-star general in World War I- the Adjutant General of the Army. Still another was one of the last battle cavalry officers and served with “Black Jack” Pershing on his raid into Mexico trying to catch the elusive “Cucaracha”, Pancho Villa, and also became a general.
Trouble was, John Sidney McCain, Sr. was the third son. The second, Bill, was already at West Point, so “Sidney”, as most of his friends called him, went to “Ole Miss”, presumably to become a doctor, or lawyer or something useful. Still, he itched to put on the West Point gray. Bill approved and suggested he go up to the big city, Jackson, to take some entrance exams they were offering for the U.S. Naval Academy as practice for the rigorous West Point tests.
He did so well on the tests he got an appointment to Annapolis, and decided to go to the sea in ships. It changed McCain history. Since then, at least five McCain’s and blood kin have gone to Annapolis, and several others have joined the enlisted ranks. Nary an Army man in all that time.
John Sidney McCain, Sr. graduated in 1906 and joined a different Navy. A service of iron dreadnoughts belching black coal smoke, of swinging hammocks, and of under slung bows still evolving away from the ancient tactic of stabbing other ships beneath the waterline.
He was ordered out to the old Asiatic Station of song and legend, to serve on many classic ships now long gone to scrap yard and history- the battleship OHIO, the cruiser BALTIMORE, the destroyer CHAUNCEY, and the gunboat PANAY, whose “accidental” sinking by Japanese aircraft two decades later was to be one of the malevolent tidal events that inexorably pulled the United States towards the maelstrom of the Second World War.
Young McCain served on the battleship CONNECTICUT in Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, 16 battleships sent around the globe in 1907 to show the world the power of this muscular new nation in the Western Hemisphere. He escorted convoys through the teeth of the German “Unterwasserboots” in The Great War. More battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and gunboats- learning the ways of the sea, and the men who sail on it in ships of iron.
Almost unnoticeable in this formidable list of men-of-war assignments is a duty which became instrumental in forming his ideas of leadership. That duty was as Director of Machinist Mates School in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1912-1914. It is likely that it was here, as well as on those hard steel decks, that he understood that the career enlisted man is the heart of any Navy. A fact that must never be forgotten if an officer is to truly “lead”. His son, John S. McCain Jr.-second part of this story- was later to put that into a phrase that has become a One Commandment Bible of naval leadership.
In the 1930’s with the rapid expansion of the naval arm-the marriage of ship and warplane-the Navy had a bit of a dilemma. Plenty of naval officers were trained as pilots, but few trained for sea command. The Navy Department decided to look for experienced commanders who might be willing to go to the naval flight school in Pensacola. One of those asked was Sidney McCain, now a Captain- a more serious rank in the small and parochial Navy before World War II.
So Captain McCain went down to Florida with a bunch of kids to learn how to strafe and dive bomb, and land on a pitching carrier deck- at the age of 50. Still a record. And in September, 1936, at the age of 52, some admiral or captain pinned the golden wings above his left breast pocket, 52!
Now an aviator, he commanded two naval air stations and the carrier RANGER, and in February 1941- the Second World War already mauling Europe- he was made Rear Admiral and put in command of the new combined scouting forces and fleet wings on the West Coast. When the Japanese made their terrible miscalculation in attacking Pearl Harbor, his command was the umbrella against the expected attack on the mainland.
May 1942, he took over command of all land-based naval aircraft in the South Pacific. His planes fought the battle of Guadalcanal and helped dent the Japanese effort to “finish off” the Americans in the Pacific.
After a stint back in Washington as Chief of Naval Aeronautics, where he got a third star, it was back to the war in later summer, 1944, as Commander of the Second Fast Carrier Force Pacific and Task Group 38.1. Three months later, he took over Task Force 38, Halsey’s cavalry. 
McCain, say the various accounts, became a sort of Jeb Stuart/George Patton of the ocean, dashing from flash point to flash point, attacking, attacking, and attacking. He was awarded the Navy Cross for putting his forces between the battered cruisers HOUSTON and CANBERRA, and a hornet’s nest of Japanese fighters trying to finish off the crippled ships.
In October, he was ordered to take his worn down men and planes for a rest, when a Japanese armada launched a thrust at the American invasion force in the Philippines. Halsey had been drawn Northward by a feint, and the landing troops were protected by only a light force under Admiral Sprague. McCain raced back to help, but his carriers were too far away for his beloved pilots to make it back to the carriers after the strike. He pressed onward, hoping for another hundred miles, but the reports from the beach told of increasing peril and cries for help.
Admiral McCain went down to his cabin to think a few moments. Then came up and said, “Turn into the wind”. The order that precedes an aircraft launch. His aircraft and Sprague’s heroic actions caught the Japanese force flatfooted, and the invasion was saved.
Add comment September 14, 2008
PAVE LOW dedicated into AF Armament Museum
An MH-53 PAVE LOW helicopter took its final flight Sept. 5, landing outside the Air Force Armament Museum near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
The helicopter, from the 20th Special Operations Squadron, 1st Special Operations Wing, will remain right where it landed as part of the museum’s collection, representing the fleet of MH-53s that will be retired from Air Force inventory Sept. 30.
“This is a wonderful aircraft that served its country proudly for over the past 35 years,” said George Jones, the museum director, who officiated the dedication ceremony.
The largest, most powerful and technologically advanced helicopters in the Air Force, the PAVE LOWs have service records dating back to the Vietnam War. They opened the air war in Operation Desert Storm, flew reconnaissance missions over Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, and have since been continuously deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism.
For MH-53 tail No. 73-1652, much of that history involves Lt. Col. Sean Hoyer, who piloted the aircraft en route to the museum. In fact, it carried him through his first combat mission in Bosnia almost exactly 11 years ago.
Hoyer later flew the same aircraft in Iraq. He said bringing it to its final resting place at the museum is “bittersweet.”
“All of us know it’s the end of an era,” he said. “I had a really good time. I was privileged to work with some of the best people I could ever know.”
The flight was also the finis flight, the last flight in the airframe, for Hoyer and Master Sgt. Jason Rushing, a flight engineer.
“It’s a fitting end,” Rushing said, “putting it in a place where other people can appreciate its history.”
The crew said 1652’s final flight was uneventful, but their squadron didn’t let it go without ceremony. Upon exiting the aircraft, Hoyer, Rushing and their crew were attacked from above – with a bucketful of water.
“I saw the bucket from afar, so I kind of figured it would happen,” Hoyer said.
The ceremonial dousing is tradition for finis flights.
The MH-53 is the first aircraft to be dedicated to the museum in almost 10 years. It’s also the only aircraft ever to be flown to its resting place.
“I think it will be a great thing to show friends and family when the time comes,” Hoyer said.
A handful of PAVE LOWs are still in use in the Middle East, and will fly their last missions in combat before being transported back to the U.S. The final local flight will take place Sept. 16.
Lauren Johnson
MH-53 Pave Low
1 comment September 13, 2008
