A Brief History On February 21, 1945, while supporting the US invasion of Iwo Jima in the Pacific, the US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) was struck by 3 Japanese suicide planes known as Kamikaze. Not only did Saratoga survive those devastating hits, she was also hit by 5 aerial bombs, and suffered extensive damage, 123 men dead and 192 wounded. Thirty-six of her 70 aircraft were destroyed, and the battle was not yet over! Digging Deeper Only 2 hours later, the Japanese returned for another attack on the stricken ship, and Saratoga was hit again, and again refused to go…
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A Brief History On February 18, 2001, a nation of racing car fans was stunned when the biggest current star of NASCAR stock car racing, Dale Earnhardt, died in a high speed crash into a wall at the Daytona 500, the premier race of NASCAR. Digging Deeper Known as “The Intimidator” for his aggressive racing style, Earnhardt was born Ralph Dale Earnhardt (later Sr.) in 1951. Winner of the 1998 Daytona 500 and tied with Richard Petty with a record 7 Winston Cup Championships in 1994 (later tied in 2016). Dale Sr. also added 4 IROC Championships to his list…
A Brief History On February 15, 1898, at 9:40 p.m., the US Navy had one of its darkest and yet most memorable days when the armored cruiser USS Maine ACR-1 blew up and sank while docked in Havana Harbor, Cuba. Digging Deeper Sent to Cuba to protect American interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain, the Maine blew up and sank quickly, having experienced over 5 tons of gunpowder exploding in the forward part of the ship. The giant explosion and quick sinking cost 266 of the 374 man crew their lives. The Navy and the US in general was…
A Brief History On February 11, 1939, a prototype Lockheed P-38 Lighting twin engine fighter plane flew from California to New York in a then record 7 hours and 2 minutes. This new US fighter plane was the fastest fighter in the world at this time, the first fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight. So what was wrong with it? Digging Deeper Normally our articles about military aircraft extol the virtues of the subject plane, but here we digress to look at the shortcomings and criticisms of this venerable aircraft, one of the creations of Clarence “Kelly” Johnson,…
A Brief History On February 3, 1995, Space Shuttle mission STS-63 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral Florida for space with a woman pilot for the first time. Digging Deeper Eileen Collins, born in Elmira, New York in 1956, graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and economics from Syracuse University in 1979 and went on to earn a Master of Science degree in operations research from Stanford University in 1986 and a Master of Arts degree in space systems management from Webster University in 1989. A career in the Air Force was in this…