July 6 in U.S. military history
1911: Legendary aviation pioneer — and future five-star general — Henry H. “Hap” Arnold overcomes his fear of flight and receives his pilot’s license, becoming one of the world’s first military aviators. Arnold was taught at the Wright Brothers’ school in Dayton, Ohio. After graduating he sets up a flight school for military aviators with Lt. Thomas D. Milling at College Park, Md. (featured image).
1944: A month after the Normandy Invasion, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton finally arrives in France. The Germans held Patton in such high regard that kept their 15th Army in Calais, thinking that would be the site where Patton’s “phantom army” would be landing – the result of a successful Allied deception campaign. Patton’s Third Army will form the extreme right flank of the march across France.
That same day in the United States, 2nd Lt. Jackie Robinson, who one day will be famous for breaking Major League Baseball’s “color barrier” in 1947, refuses to move to the back of a bus. Military police meet Robinson at his stop, and investigators recommend a court martial. Although his commanding officer refuses to press charges, Robinson is transferred to another unit whose commander does pursue a court martial. His former unit, the 761st “Black Panther” tank battalion is sent to Europe, and Robinson will receive an honorable discharge.
1945: Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Keller E. Rockey, commanding the Third Amphibious Corps, accepts the surrender of 50,000 Japanese soldiers in northern China.
1947: Mikhail Kalashnikov’s iconic AK-47 assault rifle goes into production in the Soviet Union. Seven decades later, the rugged AK-47 remains the weapon of choice for communist governments and paramilitary forces worldwide.
1951: Joseph Stalin announces that the Soviet Union has developed an atomic bomb.
1961: American president John F. Kennedy advises Americans to construct fallout shelters in case of nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union.
1962: America’s first nuclear-powered frigate, USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25), is commissioned. In two years, Bainbridge will join the nuclear-powered vessels, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) and USS Long Beach (CGN-9) for a two-month unrefueled cruise around the world.