This week in U.S. military history
Nov. 1, 1904: The new U.S. Army War College opens its doors to three majors and six captains, among them Capt. (future General of the Armies) John J. “Black Jack” Pershing.
Nov. 1, 1952: The U.S. tests the world’s first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll. The thermonuclear weapon, with a yield 1000 times greater than previous bombs, gave the United States a temporary advantage over the Soviet Union in the arms race. Read more
Nov. 2, 1783: Gen. George Washington delivers his “Farewell Address to the Army” near Princeton, N.J., in which he refers to the Continental Army as “one patriotic band of brothers.”
Nov. 3, 1941: The Combined Japanese Fleet receives Top-Secret Order No. 1 – ordering the fleet to attack the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor as well as Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines.
Nov. 3 1967: The Battle of Dak To begins, which would last for three weeks and was among the heaviest fighting seen in the Central Highlands area. North Vietnamese forces sustained heavy casualties and were denied their goal of destroying a U.S. unit.
Nov. 4 1979: Iranian students loyal to Ayatollah Khomeini storm the U.S. embassy in Teheran, taking 90 hostages and holding them in captivity for 444 days.
Nov. 5, 1915: Lt. Commander Henry Mustin catapults from the USS North Carolina in a Curtiss AB-2 flying boat, becoming the first American to make a catapult launch from a ship underway.
Nov. 5, 1917: U.S. Army Maj. (future Brig. Gen.) Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and his younger brother Lt. (future Lt. Col.) Archibald Roosevelt, both sons of former Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (a former U.S. Army cavalry colonel who will receive the Medal of Honor in 2001 for actions during the Spanish-American War), lead the first American patrol into “No Man’s Land” during World War I.
Nov. 6 1945: Ensign Jake West’s FR-1 Fireball touches down aboard the USS Wake Island, making him the first pilot to land a jet on an aircraft carrier.
The Week in American Military History is adapted (and abridged) in part from a regular feature of the same title written by W. Thomas Smith Jr. at Human Events.