[A6BSTARM]

1947
29Jan- USS Philippine Sea, CV-47, from a position of 600 nm from the Antarctic coast launched eight R4D's with skis from her flight deck by Jet Assisted Take Off (JATO)bottles. The R4D is a USN version of the venerable C-47. These aircraft are flying as part of Operation Highjump, which is a continuation of research done in to the Antarctic continent by Adm. Richard E. Byrd. The R4D's were the heaviest aircraft to be launched from an aircraft carrier at the time since they averaged 26000lbs of take off weight.

1951
29Jan- Task Force 77's aircraft carriers begin a campaign to interdict the railroads along the East Coast of North Korea.

1955
27Jan-A FJ-3 Fury piloted by LCDR W. J. Manby of the USN set an unofficial climb record by reaching 10k ft from a standing start in 73.2 seconds.

1962
27Jan- VADM Hyman G. Rickover, then head of the USN nuclear propulsion program, reached the statutory age for retirement from the Navy when he turns 62. However, he will be retained on active duty until January of 1982.

1963
29Jan- In the first demonstration of the automatic TV guidance feature, a XAGM-62A Walleye air to surface bomb is launched by a YA-4B Skyhawk at the Naval Ordnance Test Station China Lake, CA. The Walleye makes a direct hit on the target. This event will usher in a new form of warfare and weapons development.

1966
29Jan- The US Selective Service will announce that for the first time since the Korean War it will again use national tests and a class standings in deciding student draft deferments

All the major elements of Operation Starlight being to receive briefings while moving to their marshaling locations off the coast of South Vietnam.

1967
27Jan- During ground testing of the Apollo 1 capsule a fire starts in the capsule and kills the three astronauts inside. Those astronauts are LTCOL Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, USAF; LTCOL. Edward White, USAF; LCDR Roger B. Chaffee, USN. The fire occurs while the capsule is sitting atop is Saturn Rocket at Cape Kennedy. The cause of the accident is finally attributed to a chaffing wire that ignited a 100 percent pure oxygen atmosphere inside the capsule. Following a Congressional and internal NASA inquiry major redesigns of the Apollo Space craft are incorporated.

At Bridgeport, Connecticut Sikorsky Aircraft and American Export Isbrandtsen Lines demonstrate the use of helicopters for discharging containers from a cargo ship. A Sikorsky S-64 Flying Crane is used to remove over 500 measured tons that are stored inside 20ft shipping containers from an offshore cargo ship.

1968
27Jan- In response to the Pueblo crisis, the US Navy diverts 2 aircraft carriers from relieving carriers off the coast of North Vietnam and activate 6 Naval Reserve carrier Squadrons. This is the first time since the Korean war that a USN Reserve carrier squadron is activated. The Pueblo crisis is approximately 5 days old when the USS Pueblo, AGER-2, an environmental research ship is seized in international waters by the North Korean Navy and the crew is interned as spies. This event also motivates one CWO-2 John A. Walker to take a series of keying materials and ciphers into the Soviet Embassy in Washington DC in exchange for money.

Various military reconnaissance units through out South Vietnam notice a sharp increase in traffic up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail. Large amounts of supply are streaming south from North Vietnam. On top of this a sharp decrease in Viet Cong activities is noticed.

1970
28Jan- The USS Mansfield, DD-728, provides naval gun fire support to the First Australian Task Force near Vung Tau, in South Vietnam's III Corps area. Battlefield intelligence assessment later shows that the 5in guns onboard the destroyer heavily damage enemy emplacements.

1971
27Jan- Cambodia recives eight river patrol boats from the United States Navy. These are the first US combat craft to be given to the Cambodian Government.

1973
27Jan- The US and North Vietnamese cease fire goes in effect.
Operation Homecoming begins today. A total of 591 US prisoners of war will be released through 1Apr73. 566 of these were military personnel and the remaining 25 were civilians.
US Navy Task Force 78 under command of RADM Brian McCauley begins minesweeping operations up and down the coast of North Vietnam. This is termed Operation Endsweep. This task force is composed of surface ships and the new squadron Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 along with some Marine medium lift helicopter squadrons. HM-12 flies the RH-53 Sea Dragon and the Marine units fly the CH-53 Sea Stallion, all of which will tow a variaty of mine sweeping sleds.
Secretary of Defese sends out the following message to the service secretaries: "With the signing of the peace agreement in Paris...I wish to inform you that the Armed Forces will henceforth will depend exclusively on volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. Use of the draft has ended." This will end the draft, which has been operating at various levels since the start of the Korean War. This also effectively marks the begining of the all-volunteer force for the US military.

1975
29Jan- President Sadat of Egpyt, announces a major shift in weapons poccurement for the country when they will start to buy Mirage F-1 fighter bombers from France. This marks a change from buying weapons systems only from the Soviet Union over to buying from NATO countries.

1980
28Jan- In the worst peace time accident for the USCG, a 180ft bouy tender is sunk in Tampa Bay Harbor by a tanker after a collision. The USS Blackthorn, WLB-391, collides with the S.S. Capricorn which is a 600ft full-loaded tanker. 23 USCG personnel drown when the Capricorn drags the Blackthron under the water after trying to back out of the tender. The resulting mishap board levels blame on both ships for drifting out of thier respective channels of navigation.

1986
28Jan- In the first mishap for the US Space Shuttle program, the US Space Shuttle Challenger explodes on take off during lift-off from Cape Canaveral, FL. All seven of the astronauts are killed onboard; Captain Mike Smith, USN; Major Francis Richard "Dick" Scobee, USAF; Ronald Erwin McNair, Ph.D. in Physics; LTCOL. Ellison Shoji Onizuka, USAF; Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe, High School Teacher; Captain Gregory Bruce Jarvis, USAF; Judith Arlene Resnik, Ph.D in Biomedical Engineering. Various USCG and USN units will begin an intestive search for survivors and collection of the wreackage. This includes ships such as the submersiable NR-1, USS Alvin, DSV-2. The ultimate cause of the accident is attributed to a failure of an O-ring on the external booster rocket. Another US Space Shuttle will not take off again unitl September of 1989. After 3 seperate inquiries it is found that a culture of safety mistakes are made at all levels of NASA and reforms are called for.

1991
29Jan- US Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) land by helicopter from the amphibious ship USS Okinawa, LPH-3, on the small Iraqi Island of Umm Al Maradim. This island is 12nm off the coast of Kuwait and had been recently abandoned by Iraqi troops.

1992
29Jan- Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces that Russian nuclear forces will cease targeting US cities.

[PaulN]

I love these posts , thanks A6-man , where do you get this stuff , a book or a website. Nevermind , keep it comming thks !