This day in military history..

October 17 US Naval History
1922 - LCDR Virgil C. Griffin in Vought VE-7SF makes first takeoff from U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1) anchored in York River, Virginia.
1941 - U-568 torpedoes and damages USS Kearny (DD-432)near Iceland, resulting in 11 killed and 22 injured.
1944 - Naval Forces land Army rangers on islands at the entrance to Leyte Gulf in preparation for landings.
1989 - Following San Francisco earthquake, 24 Navy and Military Sealift Command ships rendered assistance.
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Oct 17
1346 Battle of Neville's Cross. England's King Edward III captures King David II of Scotland & imprisons him for 11 years.
1448 2nd Battle of Kosovo
1777 2nd Battle of Saratoga. Gen. Burgoyne is defeated & surrenders his Army
1862 Battle of Lexington, Ky
1912 Bulgaria, Greece & Serbia declare War on the Ottomans, joining Montenegro in the Balkan War.
1917 1st British air raid on Germany
 
October 18 US Naval History
1812 - U.S. sloop of war Wasp captures HM brig Frolic.
1859 - U.S. Marines reach Harper's Ferry, VA and assault the arsenal seized by John Brown and his followers.
1867 - USS Ossippee and USS Resaca participate in formal transfer of Alaska to U.S. authority at Sitka and remain to enforce law and order in new territory.
1944 - 3rd Fleet Carrier aircraft attack Japanese ships in harbor and land forces around Manila.
1968 - In Operation Sea Lords, the Navy's three major operating forces in Vietnam (TF 115, 116, and 117) are brought together for the first time to stop Vietcong infiltration deep into South Vietnam's Mekong Delta.
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October 19, 1979

Fuel Farm Fire at USMC Camp Fuji Japan:

On 19 October 1979, Typhoon Tip, the strongest typhoon to hit mainland Japan in 13 years, brought 115 mph winds and a torrential downpour with it. More than 1,250 Marines of Battalion Landing Team 2/4 from Camp Schwab, Okinawa, and assigned here for training, were housed in Quonset huts in upper Camp Fuji.

The fuel farm, which consisted of two rubber storage bladders secured by a retaining wall, was located up the hill above the Quonset huts. The rains from Typhoon Tip eroded the wall and allowed a bladder to break free. Hoses were torn away from the bladder, releasing 5000 gallons of gasoline. Skimming the surface of the water, the gasoline ran across upper Camp Fuji into the Quonset huts. Then, around 1340, one of the quonset hut heaters ignited the fuel.

Fire fighting vehicles from the airfield crash crew arrived on the scene within 10 minutes. Additional support arrived from Takigahara Garrison as well as the following City of Gotemba firefighting units: Platoons #2 and #6 from Inno Village, Platoon #3 from Tamaho Village, and the Gotemba-Oyama Fire Station. By 1545, the fire was under reasonable control, but could not be extinguished completely.

Casualties were evacuated to local hospitals in Gotemba, Naval Airfield Atsugi, Naval Operations Base Yokosuka, Yokota Air Base, and eventually to Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. Vehicles and ambulances from Fuji Schools and Takigahara Garrison supported this movement. Headquarters, 3rd Detachment of the USS White Plains, a combat stores ship, stationed at Naval Airfield Atsugi, provided airlift support for helicopter evacuation operations which did not occur until the next day because of the torrential rains.

The Marines were airlifted by the 375TH AIR MOBILITY WING on 2-C-141 Starlifter aircraft's to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The 375 AAW coordinated the largest burn aeromedical evacuation in history evacuating 38 of 44 US Marine burn victims.

Despite the tremendous response of the local community and the military installations, 51 Marines and 3 Japanese nationals were injured, while fifteen Quonset huts were destroyed and several other buildings were damaged. Of the 54 people injured, 13 Marines died.
Most of the fire victims were new recruits, just out of boot camp.

Fire Deaths:
Cpl Colim Miller
LCpl Willie Davis, Jr.
LCpl Philip E. Dupont
LCpl Ernest E. Gutierrez
LCpl L. C. Malveaux
LCpl Orlando E. Sandoval
LCpl Robert V. Smith, Jr.
LCpl Stephen R. Turner
PFC Robert L. Brees
PFC Thomas J. Breunig
PFC Tyrone C. Elem
PFC Gregory L. Hassel
PFC Roger A. Larson

View the Official Memorial Web Site to view the Video Memorial for these Honored Men.

USMC Camp Fuji

Visit http://warriorsden.net/ and view photos and other details about the tragedy :salute2:

This post was made by the sister of PFC Gregory Lawrence J. Hassel, USMC
 
October 19 US Naval History
1843 - CAPT Robert Stockton in Princeton, the first screw propelled naval steamer, challenges British merchant ship Great Western to a race off New York, which Princeton won easily
1915 - Establishment of Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut.
1944 - Secretary of Navy orders African American women accepted into Naval Reserve.
1987 - Destruction of an Iranian oil-drilling platform used for military purposes.
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Oct 19
202 B.C. Battle of Zama
439 Visigoths take Carthage
1453 French recapture Boreaux
1812 Napoleon retreats from Moscow
1813 Battle of Leipzieg ends
1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, Va. St.Albans, Vt Raid: Confederates, entering from Canada, rob a number of banks.
1912 Tialy takes Tripoli from the Ottomans
1914 Battle of Ypres begins
1950 Communist China joins North Korea in the Korean War
 
October 20 US Naval History
1824 - U.S. Schooner Porpoise captures four pirate ships off Cuba.
1944 - Seventh Fleet lands over 60,000 Army troops on Leyte, Philippines while Japanese aircraft attack.
1952 - Task Force 77 establishes ECM Hunter/Killer Teams of 2 ECM equipped aircraft and an armed escort of 4 Skyraiders and 4 Corsairs.
1967 - Operation Coronado VII began in Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
1983 - Due to political strife, USS Independence (CV-59 ) ordered to Grenada.
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October 21 US Naval History
1797 - Launching of USS Constitution at the Hartts Boston shipyard, Boston, Massachusetts. The ship is now the oldest commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy.
1942 - British submarine lands CAPT Jerauld Wright, USN and four Army officers at Cherchel, French North Africa, to meet with a French military delegation to learn the French attitude toward future Allied landings.
1944 - Leyte Landings continue.
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1805 Battle of Trafalgar
1861 Battle of Ball's Bluff, Va
1895 japan invades Formosa
1912 Bulgaria liberates Kardzhadi
1944 1st intentional Kamakazi attack against HMAS Australia @ the beginning of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
 
Oct 22
1633 naval Battle of Kinmen Island Chinese fleet defeats Dutch East India Co. & Pirate fleet.
1707 Scilly Island Disaster 3 Royal Navy Ships-of-the-line & a fireship run aground killing 1400-2000 men, including the Admiral on board
1790 Miami Indians defeat US troops @ Ft. Wayne, Ind.
1862 Battle of Yanassee, S.C.
1944 Allies capture Aachen, Germany. 1st German city to be captured
1962 Cuban Missle Crisis: Kennedy orders a Quarintene of Cuba
2007 Tamil Tigers raid Sri Lankan Air Force Base destroying 8 & damaging 10 aircraft.
 
October 22 US Naval History
1846 - Miss Lavinia Fanning Watson of Philadelphia christens the sloop-of-war Germantown, the first U.S. Navy ship sponsored by a woman.
1951 - First of seven detonations, Operation Buster-Jangle nuclear test.
1962 - President John F. Kennedy orders surface blockade (quarantine) of Cuba to prevent Soviet offensive weapons from reaching Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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October 23 US Naval History
1944 - Battle of Leyte Gulf, a series of separate battles, begins with attacks on Japanese ships.*
1983 - A suicide truck bomber attacks the Marine barracks at Beirut airport, Lebanon killing 241 (220 Marines, 18 Sailors, and 3 soldiers)
1983 - Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada, West Indies) begins.

Beginning of a series of battles over the 23-26 October which were part of the Japanese Sho-1 Plan (for the defense of the Philippines).
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Oct 23
42 B.C. 2nd Battle of Philipi
1086 Battle of az-Zallaqah
1157 Battle of Grathe Heath Danish King Sweyn III killed, ending civil war
1641 Irish Rebellion of 1641 begins
1642 Battle of Edge Hill, 1st battle of English Civil War.
1739 England declares War on Spain
1864 Battle of Westport, Mo
1870 Siege of Metz ends with Prussian victory
1911 1st military use of airplane in War. Italian flies observation mission on Ottoman troops in Libya.
1912 Battle of Kumanovo
1941 Marshal Zhukov takes Command of the Red Army
1942 2nd Battle of El Alamein. Battle of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal
1944 Red Army enters Hungary
1972 Vietnam: Operation Linebacker II ends
1973 Yom Kippur War ends
1993 US Marine Barracks & French Army Barracks bombed in Lebanon
 
October 24 US Naval History
1944 - In air-sea battle in the Sibuyan Sea, carrier aircraft attack Japanese Center Force.*
1958 - USS Kleinsmith (APD-134) evacuates U.S. nationals from Nicaro, Cuba.
1962 - Atlantic Fleet begins quarantine operations to force Soviet Union to agree to remove ballistic missiles and long range bombers from Cuba.

*Admiral Halsey after "repelling" Japanese Center Force takes the 7Th Fleet after what he thinks is the main Japanese carrier fleet. He leaves the Leyte Landing fleet unprotected.

What happens on 25Th Oct could have been the worst Naval defeat in US History. But due to a few brave US Navy destroyers and escort (jeep) carriers, may well be the finest 2 hours in US Naval History.
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Oct 24
69 2nd Battle of Bedriacum
1147 Crusaders liberate Lisbon after a 4 month siege
1648 30 Years War ends
1812 Battle of Maloyaroslevets
1912 Battle of Kumanovo ends
1917 Battle of Caporetto begins
 
October 25 US Naval History
1812 - USS United States (CAPT Stephen Decatur) captures HMS Macedonian.
1924 - Airship, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1), completes round trip transcontinental cruise that began on 7 October.
1944 - During Battle of Leyte Gulf in Battle of Surigao Straits, U.S. battleships execute the maneuver of "crossing the tee" of the Japanese forces. In Battle Off Samar, escort carriers, destroyers and destroyer escorts heroically resist attacks of Japanese Center Force.* In Battle Off Cape Engano, 3rd Fleet carriers attack Japanese Northern Force sinking several small carriers.
1950 - Chinese Communist Forces launch first offensive in Korea.
1966 - Operation Sea Dragon logistics interdiction began.
1983 - U.S. Marines and U.S. Army troops land on Grenada to evacuate U.S. citizens threatened by the island's unstable political situation.

* This could be considered a gross understatement as this US Navy force consisted mainly of Taffy 3 compromising 6 escort carriers armed for land force support, 3 destroyers, and 4 destroyer escorts. Arrayed against the Japanese Center Force consisting of 4 battleships(including the Yamoto), 6 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 11 destroyers.

Taffy 3 held the Center Force at bay until the Center force Commander Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita broke off his attack.

During this battle is the only time a US carrier was sunk exclusively by naval gun fire. It was also the only time a US carrier scored naval gunfire on an enemy ship.
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