Random News and Notes 17 June
British General Thomas Gage lands his troops on the Charlestown Peninsula overlooking Boston, Massachusetts, and leads them against Breed’s Hill, a fortified American position just below Bunker Hill, on this date in 1775. As the British advanced in columns against the Americans, American Colonel William Prescott reportedly told his men, “Don’t one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes!” When the Redcoats were within 40 yards, the Americans let loose with a lethal barrage of musket fire, throwing the British into retreat. After reforming his lines, Gage attacked again, with much the same result.
When Gage led his men up the hill for a third time, they reached the redoubts and engaged the Americans in hand-to-hand combat. The outnumbered Americans were forced to retreat. However, by the end of the engagement, the Patriots’ gunfire had cut down nearly 1,000 enemy troops, including 92 officers. Of the 370 Patriots who fell, most were struck while in retreat.
General George Crook was one of the most noted Indian fighters in his day. On this date in 1876, the Civil War Veteran met his match in Oglala war chief Crazy Horse. As part of the greater Sioux wars, Crook was in command of one of three columns of soldiers converging on the Big Horn country of southern Montana. A large band of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians under the direction of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and several other chiefs had congregated in the area in defiance of U.S. demands that the Native Americans confine themselves to reservations.
Around 8 a.m, Crook halted his force of about 1,300 men in the bowl of a small valley along the Rosebud Creek in order to allow the rear of the column to catch up. Crook’s soldiers unsaddled and let their horses graze while they relaxed in the grass and enjoyed the cool morning air. The American soldiers were out in the open, divided, and unprepared. Suddenly, several Indian scouts rode into the camp at a full gallop. “Sioux! Sioux!” they shouted. “Many Sioux!” Within minutes, a mass of Sioux warriors began to converge on the army.
28 men were killed and 56 were seriously wounded in the attack. Crazy Horse had lost only 13 men and his warriors were emboldened by their successful attack on the American soldiers. Eight days later, they would join with their tribesmen in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, which would wipe out George Custer and his 7th Cavalry.
On this day in 1994, the greatest Ford commercial ever was filmed. Orenthal James Simpson led the LAPD on a low speed chase along the Cali freeways. That chase would end in the football star’s arrest for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and a waiter named Ronald Goldman.
We start the news with a story that has flown under the radar for a couple of weeks. Back on May 22, Michael Salomon Rosario-Cruz, a 27-year-old Mexican national under DACA protections since 2015, drove his truck the wrong way on the highway, crashing into a Ford Fiesta carrying Kiercy Hickson, 20, Haliegh Salazar, 18, Quincy Jones, 19, and Brad Palmer, 18. All four of the kids in the Fiesta were killed in the crash.
The feds know who and where – or at least they are supposed to – all the DACA recipients are, it is time to go get them and send them home. All of them.
A NetJets Cessna Citation Latitude crashed on a highway short of the runway around 10 p.m. Six people were aboard; one died at the scene, while five survivors reached hospitals in stable condition after quick rescues by motorists and officers, who also suffered smoke inhalation. The Citation, flying from Mexico to Austin, diverted to Laredo International Airport due to an emergency.
I know it seems like flight is dangerous given the spate of incidents of late. It remains the safest way to travel by a long shot. More people are killed/die walking to their cars to drive to the airport every year than die because of an aviation accident.
President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act. In a memo issued today, the President delegated some of the Act’s powers to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to address munitions bottlenecks like limited rocket motors and guidance systems.
The move is expected to increase production to backfill for Operation Epic Fury’s heavy use of over 1,000 Tomahawks and 1,100 JASSMs.
Sticking with the military for a moment, the Department of War has – once again – redesignated the joint command in charge of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. PACOM is back. It had been INDOPACOM since 2018.
Like the dumb renaming of bases, this is window dressing at best, retarded at worst. I don’t know what it cost for the re-designation, but I do know what renaming Ft. Bragg twice in the same time frame cost: $28 million each time.