May 18 in U.S. military history
1775: Future turncoat Col. Benedict Arnold leads a successful surprise attack against a British fort and the adjacent shipyards at St. Johns, Canada. Among Arnold’s prizes is the British sloop HMS George which he renames Enterprise, the first of eight so-named American Navy ships.
1846: Gen. Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation captures the fortified city of Matamoros during the Mexican-American War.
1863: Union Army forces under the command of Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant move against the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vastly outnumbered Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John Pemberton fall back on prepared defenses, and Pemberton’s army is quickly surrounded. Grant strikes Pemberton’s positions the following day hoping to destroy his army before it is properly positioned. Losses are heavy among the ranks of the assault forces.
The siege of Vicksburg, which will last until July 4, has begun.
1902: Marines from the gunboat USS Ranger land at Panama City to protect American citizens.
1916: Kiffin Rockwell, one of the first American volunteers for the French Air Service’s Escadrille Américaine, overcomes engine troubles with his Nieuport fighter and shoots down a German plane over the Alsace battlefield –- the first aerial victory by an American pilot during World War I.
When war broke out, Kiffin and brother Paul volunteered for the French Air Service, and joined the French Foreign Legion as infantry instead of waiting stateside for a response. Both brothers will be wounded in combat.
1945: On Okinawa, the Sixth Marine Division has captured most of Sugar Loaf Hill, a 50-ft. tall, 300-yard long, heavily fortified hill. It takes the Marines 11 bloody assaults to finally secure the terrain, and after 12 days, over 1,600 Marines lay dead and 7,400 are wounded.
1953: (featured image) On his last day of combat, U.S. Air Force Capt. Joseph C. McConnell shoots down three enemy MiG-15 fighters. McConnell is the first American triple ace of the Korean War and his 16 victories are the most of any U.S. pilot (two Soviet pilots claim higher tallies). During World War II, McConnell flew 60 missions over Europe as a navigator on a B-24 Liberator bomber.
1969: A Saturn V rocket carrying Col. Thomas P. Stafford (USAF), Cmdr. John W. Young (USN), and Cmdr. Eugene A. “Gene” Cernan (USN) lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center. The Apollo 10 crew are the second to orbit the moon, conducting a “dress rehearsal” of the planned lunar landing two months later.
