Eugene Burton Ely was born in Iowa, 1886, and was the first aviator to take off from a ship and land on a ship. He flew a Curtiss Model D bi-plane from a platform constructed on the bow of the cruiser USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia, on November 14, 1910. It was a rainy, foggy day but he was able to take off, dip so low that the plane actually touched the water but recovered and flew one and a half miles to land safely on shore.
Chad Underwood, retired Navy pilot, took this video of the unidentified flying object (UFO) in November 2004, from an infrared camera on the left wing of his F/A-18 Super Hornet. He was flying a training exercise, near San Clemente Island just off the coast to San Diego, from the USS Nimitz.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7 1941, and the entry of the United States into World War II, the following day, tension in the states were high, and rightfully so. The West coast was particularly nervous with rumors of Japanese submarines cruising the waters near Juneau Alaska and a Japanese aircraft carrier off the coast of San Francisco Bay Area.
There were five landing sites for the allied troupes on D-Day, Tuesday June 6, 1944. The Normandy Beach landing sites were Tanks, Utah Beach, Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, Juno Beach and Sword Beach. The German army fortified area at Pointe du Hoc was the highest point between the American sector landings at Utah Beach to the west and Omaha Beach to the east and was the target of the US Rangers. They scaled the cliff using ropes, ladders, and grapples while under heavy enemy fire.
Alberto Vargas, a renowned Peruvian painter of pin-up girls, was born February 9, 1982 in Arequipa. His father was photographer Max T. Vargas and Alberto started out trying to follow in his footsteps. With his fathers encouragement he turned more to airbrushing and painting, studying in Europe, Zurich and Geneva prior to World War I. A French magazine cover by Raphael Kirchner, on a La Vie Parisienne issue is said to be his main influence.
I was just a lucky kid who caught the right ride
Chuck Yeager
The 493D Fighter Squadron, nicknamed The Grim Reapers, is located at RAF Lakenheath, England flying the McDonnell Douglas F-15C/D Eagle within the USAF Europe since 1994. They started as the 56th Bombardment Squadron in WWII in January 1941 flying antisubmarine patrols. They were reassigned to the 493D Fighter-Bomber Squadron in 1943 flying the Republic P-47D Thunderbolt.
