This Day in US Military History

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10 December

1861 - American steamer Annie Taylor was wrecked at Sabine Pass, Texas. The crew was captured by the Confederates.

1862 - Carrying 500 soldiers of the 156th New York Infantry Regiment, the 905-ton steamer Menemon Sanford (or Memnorium Sanford) was wrecked without loss of life on Carysfort Reef off the Florida Keys 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 kilometres) south by west of Carysfort Reef Light. Blackstone (flag unknown) and the bark USS Gemsbok rescued everyone on board.

1863 – The following two ships were burned by Confederate States Army troops on Bayou Lacomb in Louisiana.
Schooner Josephine Truxillo
Barge Stephany (or Stepheny)

1864 - The 77-ton sidewheel paddle steamer CSS Ida was captured and burned by a detachment of the 150th New York Infantry Regiment near Argyle Island, Georgia.

1864 - Torpedo boat USS Picket Boat No. 5 sank in the James River opposite Jamestown, Virginia. She was raised, repaired, and returned to service.

1946 - A Curtiss R5C-1 Commando military transport plane, BuNo 39528, c/n 26715/CU355, (ex-USAAF 42-3582), of VMR-152, crashed into Mount Rainier's South Tahoma Glacier near the 9,500-foot level, killing 32 U.S. Marines. Wreckage not found until 22 July 1947. "Capt. A. O. Rule, commanding officer of Sand Point naval air station, said that the transport flew directly into the side of a sheer 3,000-foot cliff, exploded and threw parts and personnel over a wide area. 'In view of the nature of the glacier at the foot of this mountainside,' he said, 'little hope is entertained for the recovery of the bodies.' The ice and deep crevasses of Tahoma glacier high on Mount Rainier may have claimed forever the bodies of 32 Marines who died when their transport plane flew into the mountain last Dec. 10, it was indicated today (27 July) by the Navy and by searchers back from a second climb on the glacier. The climbers said they recovered additional evidence of the identity of the plane and saw much more wreckage that could not be reached but failed to locate a single body."

1947 - "WESTOVER FIELD, Mass., Dec. 11. (AP) - Six American soldiers were found still alive today beside the wreckage of a big transport plane which carried 23 others to death in a midnight crash Tuesday in the sub-Arctic wastelands of Labrador. Rescuers – moved overland by dogsleds and through the air by helicopter - reached the survivors, trapped in icy wilderness eight miles north of the R. C. A. F. airfield at Goose Bay. Air transport command headquarters here said meager reports from the scene gave no indication as to the condition of the survivors. Three doctors were flown in to the scene through a snow and sleet storm to give emergency treatment before the men are evacuated by helicopter to Goose Bay. The rough, rocky terrain made it impossible to bring the six survivors by land and preparations were being made to fly them out to a hospital in Goose Bay. One helicopter - sent to Labrador when the crash was first reported - has been making relay hops during the day. A B-17 dropped medical supplies and food. Visibility was only fair and fears were expressed that bad weather, preventing further flights, might close in before the men could be evacuated. A space has been cleared within a half-mile of the scattered, charred wreckage to allow a helicopter to land and a second helicopter is being sent to Westover field to assist in the rescue. The hilly, forested countryside - although within a few flight minutes of the Green Bay airfield -makes it impossible to use a larger plane." Douglas C-54D-5-DC Skymaster, 42-72572, c/n 10677, was destroyed.

1963 - Test pilot USAF Colonel Chuck Yeager out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, zoom climbs Lockheed NF-104A Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 56-0762, modified with rocket engine in tail unit, to 106,300 feet (32,400 m), but aircraft enters flat spin when directional jets in nose run out of propellant, forcing him to eject. He suffers injuries when his helmet collides with the ejection seat. This mission was very loosely depicted in the film The Right Stuff. Aircraft was originally built as Lockheed F-104A-10-LO.
The Crash of Yeager's NF-104

1964 – Test pilot Joseph Engle flew the X-15 to 34,503 meters (113,204 feet) and Mach 5.35.

1999 - A United States Air Force Lockheed C-130E Hercules, 63-7854, of 61st Airlift Squadron, 463d Airlift Group, crashes during landing at Ahmed Al Jaber air base, Kuwait City, Kuwait, killing three of the 94 people on board. The investigation report, released 31 March 2000, blamed crew complacency and failure to follow governing directives during approach to the runway, failing to monitor instruments, a critical function for night flying in reduced visibility.

2007 – Former USS Cruise (AM/MSF-215) was purchased by Beaufort Fisheries, Inc., Beaufort, North Carolina, and converted to a menhaden fisherman and renamed Gregory Poole, official number 558835. The ship was scuttled some 29.5 miles due east of South Bethany, DE., to help form an artificial reef.

 

[mhansen2]

11 December

1861 - Pizaaro was a Confederate steamer of 419 tons that went missing in the Gulf of Mexico after clearing the New Orleans Custom House.

1862 – An unidentified schooner was driven ashore on the coast of Florida at the St. Johns River by the sidewheel paddle steamer USS Bienville.

1863 - Bound for England with a cargo of cotton, turpentine, and possibly gold, the 824-ton Confederate screw steamer General Beauregard ran aground on the coast of North Carolina at Carolina Beach and was burned by the Confederates to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1863 - The following two ships were burned by Confederate Army troops on Bayou Bonfouca in Louisiana.
Union barge Helena 0f 33 tons
Union schooner Sarah Bladen of 43 tons

1937 - Consolidated PB-2A, 35–50, of Headquarters Squadron, 8th Pursuit Group, crashes at Langley Field, Virginia, during low formation pass, killing Army Air Corps Major Alfred J. Waller, a distinguished World War I combat pilot. Waller Army Airfield, activated in Trinidad on 1 September 1941, (later Waller Air Force Base), is named in his honor. Observer, Sergeant John Johnston, is seriously injured. Mass flight operations celebrated Langley Field's 20th anniversary.

1941 - American John Gillespie Magee, Jr., serving with newly formed No. 412 Squadron RCAF at RAF Digby on 30 June 1941, is killed at the age of 19, while flying Supermarine Spitfire AD291 'VZ-H', in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from RAF Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey. The aircraft collided in cloud cover at about 400 feet (120 m) AGL, at 1130 hrs. over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire. Magee was descending at the time. At the inquiry afterwards, a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open and died on impact. Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England. On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight.


1944 - The sole Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrocket, BuNo 1442, is written off after a gear-up landing.

1947 - USAF Douglas C-47B-28-DK Skytrain, 44-76366, c/n 32698/15950, of the 608th Base Unit, Aberdeen Army Air Base, Maryland, en route from Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, crashes five miles from Memphis Municipal Airport, Memphis, Tennessee, killing four crew and 16 passengers. The plane came down three miles S of the Memphis radio range. "The Atlanta CAA reported there was a ceiling of 1700 feet at 7:30 p. m. shortly after the crash." The plane was returning to Aberdeen Proving Ground. The pilot was H. J. Schofield.

1948 – 8 or 11 December. US Navy Douglas R5D-3 Skymaster, BuNo 56502, c/n 10643, returning from the Berlin Airlift, crashes in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt-am-Main S of Königstein, Germany. One crew of six aboard killed: AMM3 Harry R. Crites, Jr.

1949 - North American F-51D-25-NT Mustang, 45-11353, of the 192d Fighter Squadron, Nevada Air National Guard, crashes at Reno Air Force Base, Nevada, during a mock dogfight killing Reno native 1st Lt. Croston K. Stead (19 March 1922 – 11 December 1949) during training mission. Base is subsequently named Stead Air Force Base in January 1951 in his honor.

1953 - A USAF Convair B-36D Peacemaker, 44-92071, upgraded from a B-36B-5-CF, crashed into the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, Texas, at 14:37 MST (2137 GMT), during conditions of light snow and low ceilings. The crash report points to pilot error as the primary cause, but confusing instructions from GCA might also have contributed. All eight of the crew were killed: Lt. Col. Herman Gerick, Aircraft Commander; Major George C. Morford, Pilot; Major Douglas P. Miner, Navigator; 1st Lt. Cary B. Fant, Flight Engineer; M Sgt Royal Freeman, Radio Operator; A/1c Edwin D. Howe, Gunner; A/2c Frank Silvestri, Gunner; 1st Lt James M. Harvey, Jr., 492nd Bomb Squadron Staff Flight Engineer. Also killed was a passenger 1st Sgt Dewey Taliaferro. Lt. Col. Herman Gerick, Major Douglas P. Miner and A/2c Frank Silvestri had parachuted to safety in the 7 February 1953 missed-approaches crash of B-36H-25-CF, 51-5719, in the Nethermore Woods of Wiltshire County, England, UK.
B-36 Crash – Franklin Mountains 1953

2000 - The 18th Bell-Boeing MV-22B Osprey, BuNo 165440, of VMMT-204, with only 157.7 flight hours, crashes in a remote wooded area ~10 miles from MCAS New River, Jacksonville, North Carolina, killing all four crew members.

 

[mhansen2]

12 December

1816 – Brig USS Chippewa sailed from Boston to the Gulf of Mexico and ran aground on a reef not listed near Providenciales Island (Turk and Caicos) and sank. Wreck discovered by NOAA in 2008.

1862 – Gunboat USS Cairo struck a Confederate naval mine in the Yazoo River in Mississippi and sank. The wreck was raised in 1964 and put on display at Vicksburg National Military Park at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1864 - Under heavy fire by the 1st New York Artillery Regiment on the Savannah River in Georgia, the armed tug CSS Resolute was disabled in a collision with the gunboat CSS Macon and ran aground on Argyle Island, near Port Wentworth, where she was captured and burned later in the day by a detachment of the 3rd Wisconsin Veteran Infantry Regiment.

1917 - USS Elizabeth (SP-972) collided with the American steamship SS Northland and sank with the loss of two lives, but she was raised, repaired, and resumed her patrol duties for the rest of World War I and into 1919.

1937 - USS Panay (PR-5) was bombed in the Yangtze River upstream from Nanking by Japanese naval aircraft bombed the river gunboat until she sank. Three sailors were killed, with 43 others and five civilian passengers wounded. The Japanese government accepted responsibility and a large indemnity was paid in 1938 (approximately $33,021,277 in 2010 dollars).

1941 – US Army Major General Herbert A. Dargue, the first recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, en route to Hawaii to assume command of the Hawaiian Department from Lieutenant General Walter Short, is killed when his Douglas B-18 Bolo, 36–306, of the 31st Air Base Group, crashes in the Sierra Mountains, S of Bishop, California, in worsening weather conditions. One account states the wreckage not found until March 1942. (Joe Baugher cites discovery date of 5 July 1942.) Besides the general, seven are KWF, his staff, including Colonel Charles W. Bundy, Chief of the War Plans Division, and crew chiefs, critically needed in the Pacific.
Actual discovery date is 7 May 1942, when George B. Burns, a civilian from Spokane, WA., succeeds in locating the downed ship on Kidd Mountain which his son, Lt. Homer C. Burns, was co-piloting. Lt, Burns was commanding officer of the 18th Transport Squadron, March Field, California. Wirephoto shows aircraft was still wearing the red-centered star roundel. The body of Pvt. Samuel J. Van Hamme, radio operator, of Twin Falls, Idaho, is recovered on 10 May and taken to Big Pine, California, and onto March Field the next day. That is the only body immediately recovered, search efforts hampered by snow pack, and the evidence that the bomber struck initially a quarter mile from where the wreckage comes to rest. Lt. Burns' body, recovered in June, is cremated in California, with memorial services in Spokane on 18 June. A Liberty ship converted as an aircraft repair ship will be named Major General Herbert A Dargue.

1950 - A U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4 Skyraider of Attack Squadron 115 "Arabs", CVG-11, bursts into flame as the engine breaks off upon landing aboard USS Philippine Sea (CV-47). The Skyraider had been hit by enemy flak over Korea.

1953 - Test pilot Chuck Yeager flew the X-1A to 15,250 meters (50,035 feet) and Mach 2.44. Encountered severe instability above Mach 2.3. Inverted spin from apogee down to 7,624 meters (25,014 feet) before regaining control.

1957 - A U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52D Stratofortress, 56-0597 of the 92d Bomb Wing, crashes at either ~1602 hrs. PDT or 1700 hrs. on takeoff at Fairchild AFB near Spokane, Washington. All crew members are killed except the tail gunner. The incident is caused by trim motors that were hooked up backwards. The aircraft climbed straight up, stalled, fell over backwards and nosed straight down. Among the dead crewmen was the commanding officer of the SAC 92d Bomb Wing to which the aircraft was assigned, Col. Clarence Arthur Neely, 42, of Rockford, Illinois. The tail section broke away in the crash and the gunner, T/Sgt. Gene I. Graye, 25, Augusta, Kansas, survived a low-level ejection, relatively unscathed. All eight others on board perished, although four attempted ejection. Wreckage was strewn over a radius of more than 1,000 feet (300 m) in a stubble field about a mile west of the airbase.
One source states that the crash site was "in a field between the runway (05) and the hospital". Although the Air Force has never indicated whether or not nuclear weapons were aboard the aircraft, this crash was cited in a February 1991 EPA report as having involved nuclear materials. This was the seventh B-52 to be lost, and the first that was not serving with a training wing. Also KWF were: Maj. Ralph Romaine Alworth, 38, Oilton, Oklahoma; Capt. Douglas Earl Gray, 33, Guthrie, Kentucky; 1st Lt. James Dennis Mann, 33, Mountain View, California; Capt. Thomas N. Peebles, 33, Carson, Virginia; Capt. Douglas Franklin Schwartz, 37, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Capt. Herbert Henry Spiller, Jr., 32, Lowell, Arkansas; and 1st Lt. Jack Joseph Vainisi, 26, of Oakhill, Illinois.

1965 - While off Norfolk, a catapult launch off USS Independence (CVA-62) ruptured a McDonnell F-4B Phantom II's detachable fuel tank, spilling and igniting 4,000 gallons of jet fuel. Fire destroyed another Phantom and spread into aviation stores compartment before being extinguished. 16 sailors burned or injured.

1979 - USAF General Dynamics F-111E, 68-0045, of the 79th TFS, 20th TFW, based at RAF Upper Heyford, crashed in the sea off Wainfleet Range, UK, during night bombing practice, range staff witnessing it dive into the water before the crew could eject. Pilot Capt. R.P. Gaspard and Maj. F.B. Slusher killed while flying (KWF). Gale force conditions prevented discovery of any wreckage for two days.

1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285, a chartered Douglas DC-8-63CF, N950JW, crashes just after take-off from Gander, Newfoundland, Canada, killing 256 people, of whom 248 were soldiers in the United States Army 101st Airborne Division returning from overseas duty in the Sinai desert, Egypt. This remains the greatest peacetime loss of military personnel in US history.
Arrow Air Flight 1285 - Wikipedia

 

[mhansen2]

13 December

1864 - The armed screw steamer USS Daylight destroyed a large flat-bottomed boat and a skiff in the James River area of Virginia.

1935 - A U.S. Army Air Corps officer, Major Arthur K. Ladd, is killed "instantly" in the ~1400 hrs. crash of a Boeing P-12F, 32–100, c.n. 1676, '60', the 24th of 25 of the model built, of the 36th Pursuit Squadron, into a swamp near the Wimbee River on Heyward Island, ~3 miles E of Dale, South Carolina, in Beaufort County, while en route from Langley Field, Virginia, to Miami, Florida, for the eighth annual All American air maneuvers, an air race and exhibition held 13–15 December. "Major Ladd's body was badly mangled. Authorities from Parris Island removed the body about 5:30 this afternoon and carried it to Parris Island to await instructions. Major Ladd appeared to be between 40 and 55 years of age." (He was 45.) "Parris Island officers who visited the scene said they could not tell what caused the crash; neither did they know what Major Ladd's destination was, nor where he had come from. Fairbanks Air Base, Fairbanks, Alaska, is renamed Ladd Field on 1 December 1939.

1968 - U.S. Air Force Martin B-57E Canberra 54-4284 of the 8th Tactical Bombardment Squadron, 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, has mid-air collision with Fairchild C-123B-5-FA Provider 54-0600 over Xieng Khovang, southern Laos, all three crew of the B-57 KWF, pilot of C-123 survives bail-out, lands in tree, rescued by an HH-3, but six others are KWF.

1973 – Former USS Hammann (DE-131) was sunk as a target off Jacksonville, Florida.

1993 - USAF Lockheed U-2R, 68-10339, Article 061, of the 9th SRW goes out of control on take-off from Beale AFB, California, experienced U-2 Instructor Pilot but does not survive.

2016 - USMC MV-22B Osprey crashes on Tuesday in shallow water off Camp Schwab, Okinawa, Japan. All five crew members aboard the Osprey were rescued by the USAF 33d Rescue Squadron at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.

 

[mhansen2]

14 December

1953 - The crash of a Northrop F-89 Scorpion shortly after takeoff from Ontario International Airport, Ontario, California, kills the Northrop test pilot instantly and fatally injures the radar intercept officer.

1959 - Boeing KC-97G Stratofreighter, 53-0231, of the 384th Air Refueling Squadron, out of Westover AFB, Massachusetts, collides with a B-52 during a refueling mission at an altitude of ~15,000 feet. The aircraft loses the whole left horizontal stabilizer and elevator, the rudder, and the upper quarter of the vertical stabilizer. Crew makes a no-flap, electrical power off landing at night at Dow AFB, Maine, seven crew okay. "Spokesmen at Dow Air Force, Bangor, said the B52 [sic] apparently 'crowded too close' and rammed a fuel boom into the tail of a 4 engined KC95 [sic] tanker plane." Aircraft stricken as beyond economical repair. Two crew on the B-52 eject, parachute safely, and are recovered by helicopters in a snow-covered wilderness area. The bomber and remaining eight crew members continue to Westover AFB, where a safe landing is made.

1962 – Test pilot Robert White flew the X-15 to 43,099 meters (141,408 feet) and Mach 5.65.

1965 - A US Air Force RB-57F of the 7407 Support Squadron at Wiesbaden West Germany, was lost over the Black Sea, near Odessa. Pilot Lester L. Lackey and crew member Robert Yates were presumed killed. Recent investigations indicate that there might not have been any Soviet activity related to this loss. The crew probably perished from an oxygen system failure, since it took over an hour for the aircraft to spiral down from altitude and fall into the Black Sea. After 7 or 8 days spent searching for the aircraft, only small bits and pieces of wreckage were ever found.

 

[mhansen2]

15 December

1861 – While carrying general cargo including coffee, salt, shoes, and sugar, the 128-ton Confederate schooner Charity was wrecked at Hatteras Inlet on the coast of North Carolina while being pursued by the screw gunboat USS Stars and Stripes.

1864 - A boat expedition from the armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS Coeur de Lion and USS Mercury burned two scows and 31 boats on the Coan River in Virginia.

1970 - U.S. Navy Grumman C-2A Greyhound, BuNo 155120, of VRC-50, out of NAS Atsugi, crashes on takeoff from USS Ranger (CVA-61) in the Gulf of Tonkin. Stalled after catapult launch with a probable load shift of the cargo, reaches extreme nose-up attitude, goes into a hammerhead stall, and crashes off the carrier's port bow, 9 killed, 7 missing.

 

[mhansen2]

16 December

1864 – Confederate schooner G. O. Bigelow, in ballast, was captured and burned by the screw steamer USS Mount Vernon at Bear Inlet, North Carolina.

1916 – USS H-3 (SS-30) ran aground in Humboldt Bay, California. She was salvaged and returned to service, then decommissioned in 1922.

1932 - During a routine practice flight, Capt. J. L. Grisham flying Fokker Y1O-27, 31-599, '2', of the 30th Bombardment Squadron, is unable to get the port main undercarriage leg to extend more than one-quarter down, makes emergency landing in San Diego Bay off NAS San Diego, California. He and Sgt. Clarence J. King survive, aircraft salvaged, repaired and returned to service.

1935 - "Miami, Dec. 16 – U.P.: Second Lieutenant Robert L. Carver, [service number O-18890], twenty-eight, Barksdale Field , Shreveport, La., was instantly killed today when his 230-mile-an-hour P-26 army pursuit plane crashed in swamps twelve miles south of here. Carver was a former West Point football backfield star. He was attached to the fifty-fifth pursuit squadron that came here last week to participate in the general headquarters air force war games and the All-American air maneuvers."
This airframe was P-26A, 33–87, and it came down ½ mi NE of Chapman Field, Florida. The Aviation Archeological Investigation & Research website lists the P-26 as being assigned to the 79th Pursuit Squadron, 20th Pursuit Group, at Barksdale Field, and that the aircraft stalled and spun in with fatal results. It also cites the accident date as 15 December 1935. The 20th PG will fly P-26s until January 1938.

1940 - The Grumman XF4F-3 Wildcat prototype, BuNo 0383, c/n 356, modified from XF4F-2, is lost at Norfolk, Virginia under circumstances that suggested that the pilot may have been confused by poor lay-out of fuel valves and flap controls and inadvertently turned the fuel valve to "off" immediately after takeoff rather than selecting flaps "up". This was the first fatality in the type.

1945 - Second of two prototypes of the Douglas XB-42 Mixmaster, 43-50225, on routine flight out of Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., suffers in short order, a landing gear extension problem, failure of the port engine, and as coolant temperatures rose, failure of starboard engine. Maj. Hayduck bails out at 1,200 feet, Lt. Col. Haney at 800 feet, and pilot Lt. Col. (later Major General) Fred J. Ascani, after crawling aft to jettison pusher propellers, at 400 feet – all three survive. Aircraft impacts at Oxen Hill, Maryland. Secret jettisonable props caused a problem for authorities in explaining what witnesses on ground thought was the aircraft exploding. Possible fuel management problem speculated, but no proof.

1947 - "Norfolk, Va., Dec. 16 (AP) - Seven naval airmen were killed today when a Corsair fighter plane and a patrol bomber carrying a crew of seven collided in the air and crashed at the Norfolk naval air station. Naval spokesmen said the Corsair, attached to the carrier Coral Sea (CVB-43), collided at a 100-foot altitude with the right wing of the bomber, attached to amphibious group 3. The Corsair caught fire and its pilot burned to death. Sole survivor was a crewman aboard the bomber who was thrown from a gun blister when the plane crashed in swampy ground 300 yards from the Corsair. He escaped with cuts and bruises. Six bodies were recovered from the bombing plane."

1953 - A U.S. Navy Consolidated PB4Y-2S Privateer, BuNo 59716, of VW-3, COMFAIRGUAM, NAS Agana, Guam, makes a low-level (200–300 feet) penetration into the eye of Super Typhoon Doris, but while radioing a report at 2245 hours Zulu, the transmission is interrupted and attempts to reach the operator fail. A nine-day search turns up no trace of the aircraft or its nine crew:
Pilot J. W. Newhall, 39; Co-pilot S. B. Marsden, 29; Lt. Cmdr. D. Zimmerman Jr., 35; Ltjg. F. Troescher Jr., 26; AL1 F. R. Barnett, 26; AD1 J. N. Clark, 32; AD3 E. L. Myer, 20; AL2 N. J. Stephens, 23; and AO3 A. J. Stott, 23.

1955 - Republic YF-105A-1-RE Thunderchief, 54-0098, the first prototype, crash lands at Edwards AFB, California. Republic test pilot Russell M. "Rusty" Roth was forced to make an emergency landing after the right main landing gear had been torn away after having been inadvertently extended during high speed flight. Pilot uninjured. Although the airframe was returned to the factory, it was deemed too costly to repair.

1958 - Convair RB-58A Hustler, 58-1008 accepted and delivered to the 6592nd Test Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing, for pod and suitability testing during October 1958. Crashed this date, the first B-58 accident, 38 nautical miles (70 km) NNE of Cannon AFB, New Mexico, due to loss of control during normal flight when auto trim and ratio changer were rendered inoperative due to an electrical system failure. Air Force pilot Maj. Richard Smith killed; AF Nav/bombardier Lt. Col. George Gradel, AF DSO Capt. Daniel Holland, both survive.

1969 - U.S. Navy Vought RF-8G Crusader, BuNo 145611, of Detachment 19, VFP-63, crashes into the Gulf of Tonkin ~60 miles E of Đồng Hới, killing pilot Lt. Victor Patrick Buckley of Falls Church, Virginia, while returning to USS Hancock (CVA-19) from a photographic reconnaissance mission. Cause of loss thought to be accidental.

1971 – Former USS Cronin (DE-704) was sunk as a target off Florida.

1982 - 57-6482, a B-52G, crashed after take-off from Mather AFB, nine killed.

1985 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15D-37-MC Eagle, 84-0042, c/n 0909/D050, of the 3246th Test Wing, Armament Development and Test Center, Eglin AFB, Florida, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 53 miles SE of Eglin. The Armament Division commander, Col. Timothy F. O'Keefe, Jr., and Maj. Eugene F. Arnold, an instructor pilot with the 3247th Test Squadron at Eglin, eject safely.

 

[mhansen2]

17 December

1917 - USS Carp (F-1 / SS-20) collided with USS Pickerel (F-3 / SS-22) while maneuvering in exercises off Point Loma, San Diego, California. Carp sank in 10 seconds, her port side torn forward of the engine room. Nineteen of her men were lost, while three others were rescued by the submarines with whom she was operating.

1927 - USS S-4 (SS-109) was sunk while surfacing off Cape Cod near Provincetown, Massachusetts, by being accidentally rammed by USCGC Paulding (CG-17) with the loss of all hands. The submarine was raised and restored to service until stricken in 1936.

1931 - Boeing P-12C, 31-164, of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, Selfridge Field, Michigan, has midair collision with Consolidated PT-3A, 29–115, of the same unit, 2 miles W of New Baltimore, Michigan, this date. Lawrence W. Koons in the P-12 and Charles M. Wilson in the PT-3 are both KWF. The trainer had previously been assigned at Wright Field, Ohio, as the sole XPT-8A, project number 'P-564', converted with a 220 h.p. Packard DR-980 diesel engine, but was restored to PT-3A configuration.

1953 - A USAF Boeing B-29MR Superfortress, 44-87741, built as a B-29-90-BW, making an emergency landing at Andersen AFB, Guam, fails to reach the runway and crashes into an officers housing area at the base, demolishing ten homes and damaging three more. Nine of sixteen crew were killed, as were seven on the ground – an officer, his wife, and five children. This aircraft had been searching for the PB4Y-2S lost on 16 December in Typhoon Doris when it suffered an engine failure.

1953 - A United Press report out of Reykjavik, Iceland, stated that a Lockheed P2V Neptune with nine crew aboard was reported missing and presumed down in the stormy North Atlantic this date. Wreckage of the patrol bomber was sighted on Myrdalsjokull Glacier with at least three survivors on 18 December. The plane had departed from Keflavik Airport. The 53d Air Rescue Squadron flies in an Icelandic ground rescue party, including expert skiers, to an airfield at the foot of the glacier. The wreckage was at the 4,000-foot level. Efforts to reach the crash site are hampered for several days by blizzards and high winds. When the site is reached on 21 December, all nine crew are dead and supplies dropped within 100 yards of the wreckage four days before are untouched.

1960 - A United States Air Force (USAF) Convair C-131D Samaritan, 55-291, of the 7500th Air Base Group, on take-off from Munich-Riem Airport for a flight to RAF Northolt, United Kingdom, comes down at 1410 hrs. in Munich, Germany, hits a tramcar at Bayerstraße/Martin-Greif-Straße. Fifty-three died in the Munich Convair crash.

1976 - A Boeing Vertol CH-46D Seaknight helicopter BUNO 153337 from a detachment of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Six (HC-6) embarked with USS San Diego (AFS-6) flying a night vertical replenishment (VERTREP) mission loses an engine on takeoff from USS Milwaukee (AOR-2) and lands in the Mediterranean Sea. While the crew is attempting to restart the engine, the aircraft rolls inverted and sinks 125 km E of Cagliari, Sardinia. Two pilots and one aircrewman are rescued. A second aircrewman is lost with the aircraft.

1994 - A US Army OH-58A Kiowa (71-20796), on a training flight near the Korean DMZ, strayed off-course and was shot down over North Korea. One crew member, David Hilemon, was killed. The North Koreans turned over his body to U.S. authorities five days after the shoot-down at the Panmunjom truce village. The other crew member, Bobby W. Hall II, was taken captive by the North Koreans and released 13 days later.

 

[whitehall]

12/16/44 the German Ardennes offensive aka the Battle of the Bulge which lasted through January 1945.

 

[mhansen2]

18 December

1936 - The sole Kreider-Reisner XC-31, 34-26, assigned at Wright Field, Ohio, receives moderate damage in a landing accident resulting in a ground loop, at Pittsburgh-Allegheny County Airport, Pennsylvania. Pilot was Joseph B. Zimmerman.

1940 - Boeing Y1B-17 Flying Fortress, 36–157, c/n 1981, formerly of the 2d Bomb Group, Langley Field, Virginia, transferred to the 93d Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, March Field, California, in October 1940, crashed E of San Jacinto, California, 3.5 miles NNW of Idyllwild, while en route to March Field. Pilot was John H. Turner. "Six officers and men of the army's 93rd bombardment pursuit squadron [sic], March Field, were killed yesterday when their 22-ton B-17 four-motored bomber crashed and burned at the 6,700-foot snow line of Marion mountain in the San Jacinto range. Four bodies were hurled from the giant flying fortress as it plunged into the boulder-strewn, heavily-wooded mountain slope, three miles northeast of Idyllwild, in the San Bernardino National Forest. The victims:
First Lieut. Harold J. Turner, pilot, Riverside, formerly of Corning, Iowa.
First Lieut. Donald T. Ward, co-pilot, Riverside, formerly of West Los Angeles.
First Lieut. Vernon McCauley, navigator, Riverside.
Staff Sgt. Thomas F. Sweet, engineer, Riverside.
Corp. Frank J. Jirak, assistant engineer, Salem, Ore.
Pvt. James C. Sessions, radioman, Bisbee, Ariz.

At 10:45 a.m. yesterday the plane appeared to encounter mechanical trouble. Ground witnesses at the Idyllwild inn and at Pine Cove, nearby, reported that it circled several times, its engines seemingly missing. Clouds closed in on the bomber at 8,000 feet, and in a few minutes, it roared earthward at full throttle. A rescue party arrived 20 minutes later from Pine Cove to find the plane a mass of red-hot, fused metal. Two bodies were in the smashed fuselage. The 105-foot wing had sheared through a big pine tree. Residents of the two resort towns said they had heard a loud explosion, indicating that the gasoline tanks ignited with the impact. The noise was heard as far as six miles. The crash occurred approximately 400 yards from the Banning-Idyllwild highway. It was the first accident to one of the new Boeing four-motored bombers since the army air corps adopted them as standard equipment, although the original model smashed up at Dayton, Ohio, in 1935. Members of an Army board of inquiry said at least two, and possibly three or all of the four motors were cut out at the time of the crash, although there was no apparent indication that any of the occupants had attempted to bail out. They expressed the theory that pilot Turner was attempting to shift gasoline tanks when he ran into a cloud bank that concealed the side of the mountain. Fliers in the squadron described the wrecked bomber as a ship which had caused difficulty in stalled motors twice in flights when it was stationed at Langley Field, Virginia. Lieutenant Turner was an army air corps reserve veteran with six years experience and was on a practice flight with the B-17. March Field operates 36 of these bombers. With a full load, they can climb to 30,000 feet.

1944 – 17-18 December: While U.S. Navy Task Force 38 attempts to refuel in the eastern half of the Philippine Sea between operations against Japanese airfields on Luzon, Third Fleet encounters a newly-formed, deceptively small, but extremely violent typhoon, of which it has virtually no warning. TF 38 is operating with seven Essex-class carriers and six light carriers, while the refueling group has five escort carriers with replacement planes. By 1500 on 17 December it becomes too rough for the escort carriers to recover CAP and in two fighters, waved off from their respective decks, the pilots are directed to bail out with rescue by a destroyer. In the storm the fleet carriers lose no planes, although seas are so heavy that the flight deck of USS Hancock (CV-19), 57 feet above waterline, scoops up green water. On the light carriers, plane lashings part on hangar decks and padeyes are pulled out of flight decks.
"Planes went adrift, collided and burst into flames. USS Monterey (CVL-26) caught fire at 0911 (18 December) and lost steerageway a few minutes later. The fire, miraculously, was brought under control at 0945, and the C.O., Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll, wisely decided to let his ship lie dead in the water until temporary repairs could be affected. She lost 18 aircraft burned in the hangar deck or blown overboard and 16 seriously damaged, together with three 20-mm guns and suffered extensive rupturing of her ventilation system. USS Cowpens (CVL-25) lost 7 planes overboard and caught fire from one that broke loose at 1051, but the fire was brought under control promptly; Langley rolled through 70 degrees; San Jacinto (CVL-30) reported a fighter plane adrift on the hangar deck which wrecked seven other aircraft. She also suffered damage from salt water that entered through punctures in the ventilating ducts.
"Captain [Jasper T.] Acuff's replenishment escort carriers did pretty well. Flames broke out on the flight deck of Cape Esperance (CVE-88) at 1228 but were overcome; Kwajalein (CVE-98) made a maximum roll of 39 degrees to port when hoveto with wind abeam. Her port catwalks scooped up green water, but she lost only three planes which were jettisoned from the flight deck; it took one hour to get them over the side. Three other escort carriers lost in all 86 aircraft but came through without much material damage." Total aircraft losses in the Fleet, including those blown overboard or jettisoned from the battleships and cruisers, amounted to 146. Three destroyers, unfueled and unballasted, were lost – USS Hull (DD-350), Monaghan (DD-354) and Spence (DD-512).

1953 - USAF Boeing TB-29 Superfortress, formerly Silverplate Boeing B-29-55-MO, 44-86382, of the 7th Radar Calibration Squadron, Sioux City Air Force Base, Iowa, destroyed by post-crash fire when pilot and co-pilot mistake Ogden Municipal Airport, Utah, for nearby Hill Air Force Base, put down on much shorter runway, overrun threshold, bounce across deep ditch, where it loses a wing and part of the undercarriage, a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) canal, crosses a state highway, ground-loops, and comes to rest in pieces, followed by immediate fire as the shattered landing gear puncture fuel tanks.
One fatality on crew, Capt. B. D. Wilson, 31, Chester, Pennsylvania, the co-pilot; two others injured. Pilot Maj. James Gewrick sustains severe cuts. "The survivors, in addition to Gewrick, were navigator Capt. W.D. Spicer, crew chief M. Sgt. G. L. Easterbrook, T. Sgt. W. E. Cracup, and S. Sgt. D. T. Price, radio operator Sgt. V. A. Clegg and J. L. Cater, a sailor who had hitched a ride from Kansas.

1953 - A North American F-86F Sabre crashes on takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport when the pilot fails to get fully airborne. It crashes through a fence and dissolves into "a flash of flame". Officials at North American Aviation, Inc. said that the jet had been accepted by the Air Force and was on its delivery flight. The pilot was identified as 1st Lt. Fred L. Hughes, 25. F-86F-30-NA Sabre, 52-5128, written off.

1964 or 1965 - A CIA operated P-3 Orion (149669, 149673 or 149678) is rumored to have shot down a MiG over the People's Republic of China with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile. These three P-3s conducted low-level nocturnal intelligence gathering missions over the PRoC.

1966 – Former USS Colahan (DD-658) was sunk as a target off California.

1969 - Lockheed SR-71A, 61-7953, Article 2004, crashes near Shoshone, California during a test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, while operating as mission callsign "Dutch 68". Test force director and pilot Lt. Col. Joe Rogers and RSO Lt. Col. Gary Heidelbaugh eject safely after the craft enters a deep stall as afterburners are engaged. Airframe breaks into three pieces as it comes down. It was fitted with the Optical Bar Camera (OBC) nose assembly for the first time on this flight. This SR-71 had accrued 290.2 flight hours.

1981 - USAF F-4E Phantom II crashed into the Atlantic, off Wilmington, NC. Lt. Michael Mattson, pilot, MIA. Lt Thomas Tiller, navigator, ejected and rescued from life raft 6 days later. Catastrophic electrical failure.

2006 - The Lockheed Martin Polecat UAV aircraft crashes due to an "irreversible unintentional failure in the flight termination ground equipment, which caused the aircraft's automatic fail-safe flight termination mode to activate", cited by Lockheed Martin.

 

[mhansen2]

19 December

1862 – A Confederate sloop and nine boats were burned at the head of Queen's Creek in Virginia by the gunboat USS General Putnam and the crew of a howitzer boat from the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Mahaska.

1864 - CSS Water Witch, a sidewheel gunboat was burned at White Bluff, Georgia, to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1944 - 2nd Lt. Robin C. Pennington of VMF-914 out of MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, is killed in the crash of Brewster F3A-1 Corsair, BuNo 04634, 'L69', while on a GCI training mission to intercept a North American PBJ Mitchell, his fighter coming down in a swampy area 1/4 mile E of Great Lakes, North Carolina, striking the ground left wing low. Privately recovered in 1990, there then follows a legal battle with the National Museum of Naval Aviation in 1994 which tries to lay claim to the rare Brewster-produced model (only 735 versus the 12,571 built by Vought) which is only finally resolved in the private individual's favor by an Act of the U.S. Congress in 2005.

1950 - First prototype Douglas XA2D-1 Skyshark, BuNo 122988, c/n 7045, crashes at Edwards AFB, California, on its 15th flight. Taken up by Navy Lt. Cdr. Hugh Wood for dive tests, the first was initiated from 30,000 feet. During the 5 g pullout from the second dive, begun at 20,000 feet, vapor begins trailing from the airframe, soon enveloping it, but stops when the ventral dive brakes are retracted. While turning back for a visual inspection from the ground, the XA2D begins losing altitude rapidly. Pilot attempts to land on the dry lakebed but is unable to flare properly and the dive angle is too steep. With the undercarriage in the down position, the airframe strikes the ground at high speed at a 30-degree angle, shearing off the gear, the prototype then sliding several hundred yards before burning, killing the pilot. Investigation finds that the starboard power section of the coupled Allison XT40A turboprop engine had failed and did not declutch, allowing the Skyshark to fly on the power of the opposite section, nor did the propellers feather. As the wings' lift disappeared, a fatal sink rate was induced. Additional instrumentation and an automatic decoupler are added to the second prototype, but by the time it is ready to fly on 3 April 1952, sixteen months have passed, and with all-jet designs being developed, the A2D program is essentially dead. Total flight time on the lost airframe was barely 20 hours.

1953 - The U.S. Air Force suffers its third B-29 loss in three days and second in the Pacific, when a search and rescue plane, returning from a mission with one engine out, aborts one landing attempt, only to drag a wingtip on the second try, resulting in the bomber cartwheeling and exploding N of Nagoya. Two crew die, and six injured, three seriously, in the Saturday night crash.

1956 - Seventeenth Lockheed U-2A, 56-6690, Article 357, delivered to the Central Intelligence Agency 21 September 1956, crashes in Arizona this date, Detachment C pilot Bob Ericson successfully bailing out after losing control due to hypoxia caused by a faulty oxygen feed.

1981 - United States Navy Grumman F-14 Tomcat, BuNo 159623, NG-205, of US Navy Fighter Squadron 24, VF-24, is lost during a carrier landing mishap aboard USS Constellation (CV-64), deployed in the Indian Ocean. Aircraft caught the #4 arresting cable, which was set for the wrong aircraft weight. Pilot and RIO ejected successfully and were rescued by an SH-3 flown by HS-8 (now HSC-8). The Tomcat sank after floating a few minutes.

 

[mhansen2]

20 December

19 – 20 December 1861 – Many Union ships were filled with stone and scuttled as blockships, in the Main Ship Channel of Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, as part of the "Stone Fleet."
Stone Fleet - Wikipedia

1862 – An unidentified Confederate schooner, in ballast, was burned on the Piankatank River in Virginia to prevent her capture by the approaching gunboat USS Currituck, armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Ella, and armed tug USS Anacostia.

1862 – Unidentified Confederate vessels, a 30-ton sloop, a scow, and eight boats were destroyed on Fillbates Creek in Virginia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Mahaska.

1863 - The British 563-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Antonica attempted to run the Union blockade by passing inshore of the armed sidewheel paddle steamers USS Connecticut and USS State of Georgia and the hermaphrodite brig USS Governor Buckingham and reach Wilmington, North Carolina. She carried a cargo of clothing, cotton, dry goods, general provisions, liquor and $1,200 in cash and ran aground on the western side of Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear, North Carolina. Her crew abandoned ship in her boats, and boat crews from Governor Buckingham captured 42 of her crew. Union forces could not refloat her, and she was abandoned. She broke up a few days later, becoming a total loss.

1863 - The British sidewheel paddle steamer Powerful was abandoned by her crew and captured at the mouth of the Suwannee River on the coast of Florida by the schooner USS Fox. Fox′s crew destroyed Powerful when they could not stop a serious leak aboard the British vessel.

1863 - Quincy was a Union screw steamer of 396 tons, built in 1857 at Buffalo, N.Y. that foundered at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with the loss of 16 hands.

1864 - CSS Isondiga was a Confederate cottonclad gunboat that was set on fire and blown up above a pontoon bridge near Savannah, Georgia, on the Black River to prevent its capture by Union forces.

1952 - A United States Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II, 50-0100, c/n 43238, crashed on takeoff from Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Washington, United States. 115 on board (105 Passengers, 10 Crew); 87 killed (82 Passengers, 5 Crew). This was the highest confirmed death toll of any disaster in aviation history at the time.

1953 - A U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-8 Skytrain, BuNo 17179, c/n 43346 (converted from ex-USAAF C-47A-15-DK, 42-108892, c/n
12768), from NAS Agana, Guam, searching for the Navy PB4Y-2S lost 16 December in Typhoon Doris, crashes in the cone of an extinct 3,166-foot-tall volcano on Agrihan Island in the Northern Marianas, killing all ten on board. The aircraft was last reported seen at 1000 hrs. in the Pagan Island area, N of Guam.

1954 - Grumman AF-2S Guardian, BuNo 124785, of VS-39, 'SN' tail code, suffers a forced landing in a field at East Killingly, Connecticut and is burned out in post-landing fire.

1961 – Test pilot Neil Armstrong flew the X-15 to 24,689 meters (81,004 feet) and Mach 3.76.

1962 – Test pilot Joseph Walker flew the X-15 to 48,890 meters (160,408 feet) and Mach 5.73.

1962 - NASA research pilot Milton O. Thompson, after making an X-15 weather evaluation flight for an impending launch in NASA Lockheed JF-104A-10-LO Starfighter, AF Ser. No. 56-0749, c/n 183-1037, makes simulated X-15 approach at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California, experiences asymmetric flap condition that results in uncommanded roll. Unable to resolve problem by repeatedly cycling the roll and yaw dampers, flap-selector switch and speed brakes, he ejects inverted at 18,000 feet after the airframe makes four complete rolls. Fighter impacts nose first on Edwards bombing range. Pilot descends safely and walks to near-by road where NASA Flight Operations chief Joe Vensel, speeding to the crash site expecting the worst as Thompson had not radioed that he was ejecting, finds him waiting uninjured. Investigation finds that the crash had most likely been the result of an electrical malfunction in the left trailing-edge flap.

1967 – Former USS Fessenden (DE-142) was sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor.

2004 - Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, 00-4014, c/n 4014, tailcode 'OT', of the 422d Test and Evaluation Squadron, crashes on takeoff at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, prompting the U.S. Air Force to ground most of its other F-22s. The pilot ejected safely from the Lockheed Martin-built jet, which smashed into the runway it was trying to leave at about 1545 hrs. local time and burned.

 

[mhansen2]

21 December

1861 – Two unidentified Confederate flatboats were captured and destroyed on the Rappahannock River in Virginia by the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS Coeur de Lion.

1864 – The following Confederate vessels were burned at Savannah, Georgia, to prevent capture by Union forces:

CSS Firefly was an armed tender and sidewheel paddle steamer.

CSS Georgia was an ironclad warship, serving as a floating battery.

CSS Milledgeville was an incomplete ironclad.

CSS Savannah was casemate ironclad.

Swan was a 316-ton screw steamer that was later raised in July 1865, refitted, and returned to service.

1941 - Curtiss XSB2C-1 Helldiver, BuNo 1758, destroyed after suffering a structural failure in the starboard wing and tail collapse while pulling out of a dive from 22,000 ft. Pilot Baron T. Hulse bails out. Airframe had previously crashed on 8 February 1941 due to engine failure during approach. Sustained damage to fuselage but was repaired.

1953 - "HONG KONG (AP) - A United States Navy plane on a holiday trip crashed and burned at Hong Kong's Airport Tuesday but most and probably all aboard were saved. A quick check among survivors indicated there were 14 aboard and all had escaped."

 

[mhansen2]

22 December

1861 – Confederate schooner Mary Willis was holed below the waterline by Union artillery fire during a voyage with a cargo of wood and run aground on the mudflats at Boyd's Hole on the Virginia shore of the Potomac River.

1943 - Lt. Col. William Edwin Dyess (1916–1943) is killed when the Lockheed P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 42-13441, of the 337th Fighter Squadron, 329d Fighter Group, he is undergoing retraining in catches fire in flight near Burbank, California. He refuses to bail out over a populated area and dies when his Lightning impacts in a vacant lot at 109 Myers St, Burbank, saving countless civilians on the ground. Dyess had been captured on Bataan in April 1942 by the Japanese but escaped in April 1943 and fought with guerilla forces on Mindanao until evacuated by USS Trout (SS-202) in July 1943. Abilene Air Force Base, Texas, is named for him on 1 December 1956.

1946 – Former USS Prinz Eugen (IX-300) sank at Kwajalein Atoll.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Prinz_Eugen#Service_with_the_US_Navy

1949 - USAF Boeing B-50A-30-BO Superfortress, 47–110, c/n 15794, of the 2d Bombardment Group, crashes into swamp land on the banks of the Savannah River ~7 miles above Savannah, Georgia, five minutes after take off at 2112 hrs. from Chatham AFB, 4 Miles ENE of the airfield. The bomber was on a training flight to Biggs AFB, El Paso, Texas. All eleven on board KWF. The crash site was less than two miles from U.S. Highway 17, which crosses the river just above Savannah, but it could only be reached by small boats guided by boatmen who knew the river. The Air Force waited until dawn to send a large crash boat with a score or more men, armed with shovels and ropes, to try to remove the bodies. They had to transfer to small, flat-bottomed swamp boats to get to the wreckage.
Capt. E. S. Harrison, public information officer, said the wreckage would cover a football field. Salvage workers sank up to their armpits in the mire. The men aboard the plane were identified as: Capt. George V. Scaringen, pilot, and aircraft commander, Columbia, South Carolina;
Capt. Andrew G. Walker, pilot, Norfolk, Virginia; Lt. Rogers Hornsby, Jr., 29, son of Rogers Hornsby of baseball fame; 1st Lt. Robert W. Beckman, bombardier, Birmingham, Alabama; Capt. Anthony C. Colandro, radar navigator, Baltimore, Maryland; 1st Lt. James W. Johnson, Jr., flight engineer, Wells, West Virginia; T/Sgt. Leonard B. Hughes, flight engineer, Denison, Texas; S/Sgt. Fred W. Cunningham, radio operator and gunner, New Orleans, Louisiana; S/Sgt. Manson L. Gregg, gunner, Meadow, Texas; S/Sgt. Garnell W. Myers, gunner, Franklin, Indiana; and S/Sgt. Billy C. Bristol, gunner, Tucson, Arizona.

1953 - Pilot on a routine training mission from Eglin Air Force Base survives a crash landing in a Republic F-84 Thunderjet at Lee, Florida.

1954 - Capt. Richard J. Harer, test pilot with the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, belly lands a Lockheed F-94C-1-LO Starfire, 50-962, c/n 880-8007, on Rogers Dry Lake following engine problems, becomes trapped in the cockpit as the aircraft burns. Capt. Milburn "Mel" Apt, flying chase in another fighter, lands beside the failing F-94 and succeeds in pulling Harer from the burning jet, saving his life. Harer suffers a broken back, third degree burns and compound fractures of both legs that result in their amputation. Apt was awarded the Soldier's Medal for saving Harer’s life.

1960 - Three Navy men, none of them fliers, take a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor on an unauthorized flight from Naval Air Station New Iberia, Louisiana, ~75 miles to near Lake Charles, where they end up overturned in a ditch. None are injured. Authorities at NAS New Iberia identify the three as Airman Terry W, Stevens, South Norwalk, Connecticut; Mechanic C. W. Little, Stephenville, Texas; and Aviation Metalsmith John T. Ellerman, Hobart, Indiana. The T-34 comes to grief five miles E of Chennault Air Force Base.

1964 – Test pilot Robert Rushworth flew the X-15 to 24,750 meters (81,204 feet) and Mach 5.55.

1969 - A U.S. Navy Vought F-8J Crusader, BuNo 150879, of VF-194, crashes into Hangar 1 at NAS Miramar, California, during emergency landing, killing 14 and injuring 30. Pilot Lt. C. M. Riddell ejects safely. Five other fighters, including two McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs (F-4J-31-MC, BuNo 153863, of VF-92; F-4J-34-MC, BuNo 155771 of VF-96), are damaged in the repair facility fire that ensues. Helicopters and military and civilian ambulances were used to transport the injured to Balboa Naval Hospital, San Diego.

1969 - A U.S. Air Force General Dynamics F-111A, 67-0049, c/n A1-94, crashes near Nellis AFB, Nevada, killing both crew. The starboard wing fails in flight, wing carry-through box failure, resulting in the fifth grounding order since the type entered service. Fifteen F-111s had crashed previously.

 

[mhansen2]

23 December

1947 - A Boeing B-29 Superfortress on a long-range navigation training flight over northern Alaska with eight on board fails to return to Ladd Air Force Base at Fairbanks at the expected arrival time of 2200 hrs. Tuesday night. Search planes are launched on 24 December but are hampered by poor weather and the short hours of arctic daylight. Hopes dim for the missing crew as search planes have no success in locating the downed bomber N of the Arctic circle on the second day of the attempt.

1950 - U.S. Navy Lockheed P2V-3W Neptune, BuNo 124357, of VP-931, NAS Whidbey Island, crashes on McCreight Mountain, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Wreckage found 21 September 1961, according to Joe Baugher. Pilot Lt. Lalonde M. Pinne and ten crew KWF. Another source cites crash date of 18 December 1950. Yet another source lists discovery date as 21 October 1951, found by a Canadian aircraft that was off-course.

1957 - A T-33, with one crew member on board, was lost over Albania.

1975 - LTV A-7D Corsair II, 67-14586, while assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida's 3246th Test Wing, Air Development & Test Center for mission support, suffers engine failure on take-off from Tallahassee Municipal Airport, Florida and makes forced landing, coming down largely intact. Airframe is hauled back to Eglin AFB on a truck, where it is either scrapped or becomes a target hulk.

1975 - General Dynamics FB-111A, 68–290, crashes in the area of the Ashland forest in Maine, ~45 minutes after take-off from Loring AFB, Maine.

2002 - USAF RQ-1 Predator vs. IRAF MiG-25 – In what was the last aerial victory for the Iraqi Air Force before Operation Iraqi Freedom, an Iraqi MiG-25 destroyed an American UAV RQ-1 Predator after the drone opened fire on the Iraqi aircraft with a Stinger missile.

 

[mhansen2]

24 December

1861 – British schooner Prince of Wales, a blockade runner with a cargo of salt, fruit, and sundries, was set afire by her crew at the north end of North Island off Georgetown, South Carolina. Boats from the bark USS Gem of the Sea and the armed sidewheel paddle steamer USS James Adger capture her, but the boat crews burned her when Confederate rifle fire drove them off.

1863 - The British 799-ton bark Texan Star, carrying a cargo of rice and bound for Singapore, was captured and burned in the Strait of Malacca by the screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1864 - The floating battery CSS Arctic was scuttled as a blockship in the Cape Fear River off Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

1864 - The screw steamer USS Louisiana, packed with gunpowder, was deliberately blown up near Fort Fisher, North Carolina, in an attempt to reduce the fort. The clock mechanism intended to detonate the gunpowder failed, but a fire deliberately started aboard the ship detonated it instead. The explosion had no appreciable effect on the fort.

1864 – 22 or 24 December - During a voyage under charter to the United States Department of War, carrying 225 sick and wounded Union Army soldiers from New Orleans, Louisiana, to New York City, the 1,061-ton screw steamer North America foundered in the North Atlantic Ocean east of Georgia at 31°10′N 78°40′W with the loss of 197 lives.

1944 – The crash of Douglas A-26B-10-DT Invader, 43-22273, c/n 18420, of the 381st CCTS, Marianna Army Airfield, Florida, piloted by Benjamin F. Schoenfield, five miles S of Sardinia, Ohio, kills three crew and injures one.

1947 - Boeing B-17G-95-DL Flying Fortress, 44-83790, of the 1385th Base Unit, Bluie West One, Greenland, delivering presents and mail to isolated outposts on Baffin Bay, runs out of fuel on Christmas Eve and pilot Chester M. Karney makes a forced landing on snow-laden frozen Dyke Lake in Labrador. None of the nine aboard are injured and they are picked up on 26 December by a ski and JATO-equipped Douglas C-47. Officers at Atlantic Division headquarters of Air Transport Command, Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts, said that a snowstorm earlier in the day delayed one flight by the C-47 to fetch the seven crew and two passengers off the ice and that they had prepared to spend a third night in the sub-zero temperatures. But a successful rescue was achieved and the marooned flown 275 miles to Goose Bay. Fortress abandoned and sinks to the bottom of lake. Aircraft located in July 1998; recovered from the lake on 9 September 2004. Now under restoration to fly at Douglas, Georgia.

1957 - A US Air Force RB-57 was shot down over the Black Sea by Soviet fighters.

1968 –

"I watched this live and although I was never religious, the emotion of the moment was overwhelming. Still is"

 

[mhansen2]

25 December

1944 - Ten die and 17 are injured as Douglas C-47A-10-DL Skytrain, 42-23360, c/n 9222, hits fog-shrouded Roundtop mountain, five miles SE of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The fire department from New Cumberland, called by a local resident who reports a fire in the woods, arrives shortly after 0500 hrs., and has to cut survivors out of the wreckage with an ax. Some bodies had been thrown clear. "Fifteen of the injured, suffering fractures and burns, were brought to the Harrisburg General hospital, and the other two were taken to a New Cumberland army hospital."

1944 - The crash of a U.S. Navy Douglas R4D-6 Skytrain of VRF-3, Naval Air Station Olathe, Kansas, piloted by W. H. Beck, in an Indianapolis, Indiana, suburb kills five and injures two. "The plane was bound for Columbus, O., after being turned back at St. Louis, Mo., on a flight to Olathe, Kas., naval air base. Everett Maxwell, Marion county deputy sheriff, said five bodies were removed from the wreckage. He reported the craft was apparently attempting to land at the municipal airport and overshot the field in a fog. It struck a tree as the pilot tried to pull up, Maxwell said. Three of the men killed in the crash were navy personnel attached to naval air transport squadron 3 with headquarters at the Olathe base. Others involved were army personnel."

 

[mhansen2]

26 December

1863 - During voyages from Singapore to British Burma, the 707-ton full-rigged ship Sonora and the 1,049 or 1,050-ton (sources differ) clipper Highlander were captured and burned at the western entrance of the Strait of Malacca by the screw sloop-of-war CSS Alabama.

1942 – “Eight men aboard an army medium bomber went missing last Saturday night on a flight from Barksdale field, near Shreveport, La., to its base at Walterboro, S. C." B-25C Mitchell, 41-12630, of the 489th Bomb Squadron (Medium), 340th Bomb Group (Medium), from Walterboro Army Airfield, piloted by Fred M. Hampton, crashes in Lafourche Swamp, Louisiana.

1943 – Sinking of German armored cruiser Sharnhorst.
The Scharnhorst: A Cursed Warship?

1950 - Two Soviet MiG-15 Fagots, flown by S.A. Bakhev and N. Kotov shared in the downing of a US Air Force RB-29 Superfortress.

1952 - A U.S. Navy Martin PBM-5 Mariner aircraft of Patrol Squadron 47 (VP-47), based at MCAS Iwakuni, Japan, crashes in the Sea of Japan 50 miles E of Kosong, North Korea, whilst on anti-submarine patrol, killing ten members of the crew of fourteen. The Navy in Tokyo announces on 29 December that two bodies had been recovered, and that four injured crew were rescued by USS Renshaw (DDE-499).

 

[mhansen2]

27 December

1862 – Two Confederate sternwheel paddle steamers, the 169-ton Key West and the 89-ton Violet, were burned on the Arkansas River at Van Buren, Arkansas, after their capture by Union forces.

1862 – (27 – 28 December) Confederate sternwheel paddle steamer Era No.6 (Era) was built in 1860 at Pittsburgh, Pa. She was burned after her cargo was removed under the orders of Major. General Thomas C. Hindman on the Arkansas River above Van Buren to prevent capture by Union troops.

1864 – The armed screw steamer USS Monticello forced the British 350-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Agnes E. Fry ashore on the coast of North Carolina about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Fort Campbell and about 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of Fort Caswell.

1864 - At Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, USS Monticello forced ashore and burned an unidentified Confederate schooner.

1992 – An IRAF MiG-25 crossed into an Iraqi no-fly zone and was shot down by a USAF F-16D with an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. It is the first kill with an AIM-120 and the first USAF F-16 kill.

 

[mhansen2]

28 December

1862 – Confederate side wheel paddle steamer Frederick Notrebe (Notre) was built in 1860 at Cincinnati. She ran aground in the Arkansas river one mile below Van Buren. She was captured by Union raiders and shelled by Confederates. Burned by Union forces the next day, she may have been raised and put back into Union service.

1862 - The Confederate 115-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Arkansas was burned in the Arkansas River above Lee's Creek Bluff in Arkansas to prevent her capture by Union forces.

1862 - The Union 170-ton sidewheel paddle steamer Blue Wing No. 2 was shelled by Confederate artillery and captured by Southern forces on the Mississippi River eight miles (13 km) below Napoleon, Arkansas. She was then, towed away and burned.

1864 – An unidentified sloop was forced ashore and destroyed by gunboat USS Kanawha on the coast of Texas near Caney Creek.

1918 – Transport USS Tenadores, after a voyage from New York, ran aground in fog on the north shore of Ile d´Yeu, 3 miles from Les Cheins Perrins Light, about 10 miles from Brest, France. Though all on board were rescued, the ship could not be saved and was soon broken up by the sea.

1921 - Second Lieutenant Samuel Howard Davis (1896–1921) is killed in the crash of Curtiss JN-6HG-1 (possibly USAAS serial 44796, seen wrecked at Carlstrom AAF, date unknown) in which he was a passenger, at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia, Florida. Davis-Monthan Landing Field, later Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, is named in part for him, 1 November 1925.

1942 - Martin B-26B-4 Marauder, 41-18101, of the 496th Bomb Squadron, 344th Bomb Group, Drane Field, Lakeland Army Air Base #2, Lakeland, Florida, piloted by William A. Booth, with six on board, departs Tampa for San Antonio, Texas, and vanishes over the Gulf of Mexico. Aboard as passengers are Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Third Officer Eleanor C. Nate, 36, and her husband, Maj. Joseph C. Nate.

1944 - At 1151 hours, FM-2 Wildcat, BuNo. 57039, out of NAS Glenview, Illinois, crashes into Lake Michigan in about 200 feet of water. The pilot was Ensign William E. Forbes. Ensign Forbes was in the process of making his third take-off of his aircraft carrier qualification off USS Sable (IX-81). Apparently, the engine checked out okay, however, on the take-off roll the engine began to "pop" and then "quit completely." The fighter rolled off the bow of the ship and sank. The accident was determined to be 100 percent material (engine failure). The National Museum of Naval Aviation at NAS Pensacola planned to recover the airframe in December 2012.

1948 - The pilot is killed when his Lockheed F-80A-1-LO Shooting Star, 44-85282, crashes at the village of Jeddo, Michigan. Papers on the body identify him as Lt. Joseph R. Thomis, of Paducah, Kentucky, assigned at Selfridge Field, Michigan.

1948 - Michigan Air National Guard Douglas B-26B-30-DL Invader, 41-39350, on "a routine navigational flight from McDill Field, Fla.", crashes three miles E of Willow Run Airport, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, killing four crew and, possibly, two civilian passengers, picked up at MacDill Field. Col. Donald W. Armstrong, commander of the Michigan air wing, said that he "believed" passengers were aboard. Names of victims were not immediately released.

1965 - CIA pilot Mele Vojvodich, Jr. takes Lockheed A-12, 60–6929, Article 126, for a functional check flight (FCF) after a period of deep maintenance, but seconds after take-off from Groom Dry Lake, Nevada, the aircraft yaws uncontrollably, pilot ejecting at 100 feet (30 m) after six seconds of flight, escaping serious injury. Investigation finds that the pitch stability augmentation system (SAS) had been connected to the yaw SAS actuators, and vice versa. SAS connectors are changed to make such wiring mistake impossible. Said Kelly Johnson in a history of the Oxcart program, "It was perfectly evident from movies taken of the takeoff, and from the pilot's description, that there were some miswired gyros in the aircraft. This turned out to be exactly what happened. Despite color coding and every other normal precaution, the pitch and yaw gyro connections were interchanged in rigging."

1989 - McDonnell-Douglas F-15C-41-MC Eagle. 86-0153, c/n 1000/C381, of the 59th TFS, 33rd TFW, based at Eglin AFB, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico, 40 miles SE of Apalachicola, Florida, pilot killed. The pilot was identified as Capt. Bartle M. Jackson, 31, Towson, Maryland. At the time of the crash, Jackson and three other pilots—a second F-15 pilot from Eglin and two Lockheed Martin F-16 pilots from Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, were taking part in a training mission the Air Force calls a 2v2, which pits two F-15s against two F-16s in a mock dogfight. It was not known whether the pilot had been able to bail out over the Gulf of Mexico. Other pilots in the area had not seen a parachute.