Military History by Month for April
Historian’s Report
https://americanlegionpost642.com/index.php?id=102
National Days and Months:
There is a neat description of April here with regard to the National Days and also where the rest of these links can be found. https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/April Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, and South Dakota were all admitted to the Union in April. There are also quite a few culinary days like New Beer’s Eve on the 6th and followed by National Beer Day on the 7th, PB&J Day, Sour Dough Day, and quite a few others.
MONTH OF THE MILITARY CHILD - APRIL
https://youtu.be/oz2TvU-lk60?si=TunCOkwV1Tf5UJag
GOLD STAR SPOUSES DAY - April 5
NATIONAL FORMER PRISONER OF WAR RECOGNITION DAY - April 9
NATIONAL WINSTON CHURCHILL DAY - April 9
https://youtu.be/BTAMM41f1Rw?si=LXmvz3L8Oj2uGJUO
NATIONAL BORINQUENEERS DAY - April 13
https://youtu.be/gBCuL2PiIOc?si=3dUM_3rPLJFcQ28c
NATIONAL BABE RUTH DAY - April 27
https://youtu.be/dKQqSdyzPNk?si=DWm21mN5D9332Sp8
NATIONAL MILITARY BRATS DAY - APRIL 30
Military History Notes: Operation Baby Lift - Lt. Regina C. Aune. Moffett, Baseball
April 4
1933: During a storm off the coast of New Jersey, the Navy's massive helium filled airship USS Akron crashes into the ocean. 73 of the flying aircraft carrier's 76 crew members and passengers perish, mostly due to drowning and hypothermia. During the rescue operation the blimp, J-3 goes down, killing two more sailors. As a result
of the deadliest airship disaster in history, life preservers and life rafts are installed on the Navy's remaining airships. Among the lost is airship advocate Rear Adm. William A. Moffett, who earned the Medal of Honor during the Veracruz Campaign before becoming the Navy's first Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics. One of the three survivors is executive officer Lt. Cmdr. Herbert V. Wiley, who will go on to command Akron's sister ship USS Macon, which will crash in 1935, ending the Navy's rigid airship program.
1975: During the first flight of Operation BABYLIFT, an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport loaded with orphans from Saigon hospital experiences an explosive decompression and attempts an emergency landing at nearby Tan Son Nhat Airport. Captains Dennis W. Traynor, III and Tilford W. Harp fight to keep the plane airborne with only one aileron and the thrust of the engines. The C-5 crash-lands in a rice paddy short of the runway, killing 138 passengers.
Helicopters are unable to land in the soggy rice fields, and the crew has to carry survivors to rescue teams. 1st Lt. Regina C. Aune ignores a broken foot, leg, and back and carries some 80 babies to safety before finally collapsing. For her selfless efforts the Air Force makes Aune the first recipient of the Cheney Award, which is presented "for an act of valor, extreme fortitude or self-sacrifice in a humanitarian interest."
Pilots Traynor and Harp are awarded the Air Force Cross for what the commanding officer of Military Airlift Command calls "one of the greatest displays of airmanship I have ever heard related." Over the next few months, Operations BABYLIFT and NEW LIFE evacuate over 100,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees to Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, and then on to freedom in the United States. https://youtu.be/evg1Tm2E0_M?si=TaUOiuN72irNTEJ3
April 15
1947: Former 761st "Black Panther" Tank Battalion platoon leader Jack R. "Jackie" Robinson becomes the first player to break Major League Baseball's "color barrier." While Robinson is hitless against Boston Braves hurler (and Naval aviator during World War II) Johnny Sain, the Brooklyn Dodgers' rookie first baseman scores after reaching first on an error and also drives in a run. Robinson was recruited from the Negro Leagues by Branch Rickey, who commanded a chemical weapons unit that included fellow Hall of Famers Ty Cobb and Christy Mathewson during World War I. Rickey was looking not just for incredible black athletes, but one with "guts enough not to fight back" to racial animosity from players and fans.
April 18
1775: Paul Revere and William Dawes begin their famous "midnight ride" from Boston to Lexington, Mass., where they link-up with Samuel Prescott, who rides on to Concord. All three are sounding the alarm warning town leaders and alerting the
militia — that nearly 1,000 British infantrymen, grenadiers, and Royal Marines are advancing from Boston.
6 1942: At 7:38 a.m. a Japanese patrol vessel spots the task force bearing Lt. Col. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle and his raiders 650 miles east of Japan. The ship is sunk, but not before her crew can report the position of the American aircraft carriers. Their cover blown, sixteen specially modified B-25 Mitchell bombers have to launch from USS Hornet ten hours earlier than planned. The crews will not have enough fuel to return to the carrier after the first raid against the Japanese mainland of World War II, so they have been instructed to strike Tokyo and other targets on Honshu, then fly to China and pray they'll find suitable landing sites or bail out.
The one-way mission will be successful, but all aircraft will be lost. Eleven airmen will be killed or captured. Doolittle will be awarded the Medal of Honor.
1943: Naval intelligence intercepts communications that give them the travel itinerary of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto - the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, who is touring bases in the South Pacific to boost morale after the United States handily defeats Japan at Guadalcanal. A select group of pilots scramble from Guadalcanal on their secret mission personally authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt. The P-38 Lightnings ambush Yamamoto's "Betty" bomber and its fighter escorts over Bougainville, killing Japan's top naval officer.
1945: Across the globe, famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by a Japanese machine gun two days after landing with the 77th Infantry Division on le Shima, a small island northwest of Okinawa. President Harry Truman states, "No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told." Pyle is posthumously awarded the Purple Heart - rarely awarded to civilians.
April 20
2007: With U.S. military airlift assets stretched to the maximum, a Russian An-124 "Condor" lands at Moffett Air Field (Calif.) to transport the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing and their HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters to Afghanistan.
April 22
2004: Pat Tillman, who left a multi-million dollar career in professional football to join the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is killed while on patrol in eastern Afghanistan. Pat and his brother Kevin (a minor-league
baseball player in the Cleveland Indians organization before enlisting) served in both Iraq and Afghanistan with 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.
Apr. 26
1777: 16-year-old Sybil Ludington — "the female Paul Revere" — begins her 40-mile, all-night ride across an isolated circuit of New York Connecticut backcountry, warning villagers of a British attack on nearby Danbury, Connecticut.