September 24 : This Day in U.S. Military History

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24 September
1683 – King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French possessions in America.
 1780 – Benedict Arnold flees to British Army lines when the arrest of British Major John André exposes Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point.
 1789 – The Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement. That day, President Washington nominated John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge, William Cushing, John Blair, Robert Harrison, and James Wilson to be associate justices. On September 26, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article 3 of the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which their constitutionality was at issue. The high court was also designated to oversee cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction. On February 1, 1790, the first session of the U.S. Supreme Court was held in New York City’s Royal Exchange Building. The U.S. Supreme Court grew into the most important judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the American political order. According to the Constitution, the size of the court is set by Congress, and the number of justices varied during the 19th century before stabilizing in 1869 at nine. In times of constitutional crisis, the nation’s highest court has always played a definitive role in resolving, for better or worse, the great issues of the time.
 1827 – Union General Henry Slocum is born in Delphi, New York. In 1852, Slocum graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, seventh in his class of 42. He remained in the military for just four years, serving in Florida and South Carolina. In 1856, he left the service to study law, and by 1858 he had established a practice in Syracuse. After serving in the New York State assembly, Slocum became a lieutenant colonel in the New York State militia. When war broke out, he received command of the 27th New York Infantry and was commissioned colonel. Slocum fought at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. Although he was wounded and his regiment suffered 130 casualties out of about 800 present, his star rose rapidly in the Army of the Potomac. He was promoted to brigadier general after Bull Run, and by the time the army embarked on the Peninsular campaign in May 1862, he was a major general. In October 1862, Slocum received command of the army’s XII corps. During the Chancellorsville campaign of May 1862, Slocum had developed an intense dislike for General Joseph Hooker, who was commander of the Army of the Potomac at the time. After the Yankees were dealt a humiliating defeat at the hands of an outnumbered Confederate army, Slocum participated in a movement to have Hooker removed. Although he played a key role at the Battle of Gettysburg in July, Slocum’s corps was placed under Hooker’s command in September in order to reinforce Union troops in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after the Battle of Chickamauga. Rather than serve under Hooker, Slocum resigned. However, his resignation was not accepted, and he was sent to command forces at Vicksburg, Mississippi. After Hooker left the army, Slocum returned to command his old corps, which was now part of General William T. Sherman’s army. Selected to command one wing of the Federal army during Sherman’s famous “March to the Sea,” Slocum remained with Sherman as the Yankees pacified the Carolinas, and was present at the surrender of General Joseph Johnston’s army at the end of the war. Slocum resigned his commission in 1865 and returned to New York. He practiced law in New York City and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1868 to 1873 and again from 1883 to 1885. He died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1894.
 1846 – During the Mexican–American War, US forces capture Monterrey. In the Battle of Monterrey (September 21–24, 1846) during the Mexican–American War, General Pedro de Ampudia and the Mexican Army of the North was defeated by the Army of Occupation, a force of United States Regulars, Volunteers and Texas Rangers under the command of General Zachary Taylor.
 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus against anyone suspected of being a Southern sympathizer.
 1864 – Under command of Acting Master William T. Street, wooden steamer U.S.S. Fuchsia, and side-wheelers Thomas Freeborn and Mercury proceeded to Milford Haven, Virginia, near which Con-federates were believed to be preparing a number of boats to attack the blockading force at the mouth of the Piankatank River. Leaving Fuchsia and Thomas Freeborn at Milford Haven, Street took armed boats in tow of Mercury and proceeded up Stutt’s Creek. Some three miles upstream a force of 40 sailors was landed, under Acting Master William A. Arthur and Acting Ensign Philip Sheridan. Four Confederate boats were destroyed, five were captured, and a fishery demolished. Though the Rappahannock River area was dominated by the Northern forces, Union ships had to be continually on the alert to prevent audacious Southern raids.
 1906 – The First US National Monument, Devils Tower, was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt. Devils Tower is a volcanic rock formation, rising 865 feet over a base of gray igneous rock at 1,700 feet, located in the Black Hills of Wyoming.
 1918 – Ensign David S. Ingalls, USNR, in a Sopwith Camel, shoots down his fifth enemy aircraft, becoming the first U.S. Navy ace while flying with the British Royal Air Force.
 1929 – U.S. Army pilot Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight.
 1941 – Representatives from 15 Allied countries sign the Atlantic Charter, including the UK, USA and USSR, as well as several Commonwealth countries and the European governments-in-exile.
 1941 – The Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into five zones and calculate the number of battleships in each zone–and report the findings back to Japan. Relations between the United States and Japan had been deteriorating quickly since Japan’s occupation of Indo-China and the implicit menacing of the Philippines, an American protectorate, with the occupation of the Cam Ranh naval base only eight miles from Manila. American retaliation included the seizing of all Japanese assets in the States and the closing of the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. In September 1941, Roosevelt issued a statement, drafted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that threatened war between the United States and Japan should the Japanese encroach any farther on territory in Southeast Asia or the South Pacific. The Japanese military had long dominated Japanese foreign affairs. So, although official negotiations between the U.S. secretary of state and his Japanese counterpart to ease tensions were ongoing, Hideki Tojo, the minister of war who would soon be prime minister, had no intention of withdrawing from captured territories. He also construed the American “threat” of war as an ultimatum and prepared to deliver the first blow in a Japanese-American confrontation: the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In September 1941, Nagai Kita, the Japanese consul in Hawaii, was told to begin carving up Pearl Harbor into five distinct zones and to determine the number of warships moored in each zone. Little did Japan know that the United States had intercepted the message; unfortunately, it had to be sent back to Washington for decrypting. Flights east were infrequent, so the message was sent via sea, a more time-consuming process. When it finally arrived at the capital, staff shortages and other priorities further delayed the decryption. When the message was finally unscrambled in mid-October–it was dismissed as being of no great consequence. It would be found of consequence on December 7.
 1942 – Off Guadalcanal, the routine re-supplying done at night by the Japanese is disrupted by the Americans as they sink two Japanese destroyers and a cruiser.
 1942 – MCAS Mojave, California organized.
 1943 – The Coast Guard-manned USS LST-167 and the USS LST-334 with a partial Coast Guard crew landed troops during the invasion of Vella Lavella in the central Solomons despite fierce resistance from the Japanese defenders. Japanese aircraft attacked the invasion fleet, hitting LST-167 with two bombs that killed 10 of her crew and wounded 10. Five crewmen were reported as missing in action. The LST was later salvaged.
 1944 – On Peleliu, American naval bombardment and air strikes support new US attacks which fail to break Japanese resistance.
 1944 – US Task Force 38 conducts air strikes on Japanese targets on the Visayan islands. Twelve American carriers are involved. Since August 31st, TF38 is estimated to have destroyed 1000 Japanese aircraft and 150 ships of all types. The American forces has lost 72 aircraft, including 18 accidents.
 1945 – Japanese Emperor Hirohito says that he did not want war and blames Tojo for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
 1945 – General Jaques Philippe Leclerc, newly appointed as France’s military commander in Vietnam, arrives in Saigon to the general melee and a general strike called by the Vietminh.  Leclerc declares, ‘We have come to reclaim our inheritance.’
 1946 – Clark Clifford and George Elsey, military advisers to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, present him with a top-secret report on the Soviet Union that first recommends the containment policy. The report is a set of policy recommendations based on the Long Telegram, a response from the Deputy Chief of Mission to the USSR, George F. Kennan to the question of why the Soviets were not supportive of the newly created World bank and the International Monetary Fund. Among its most-remembered parts was that while Soviet power was impervious to the logic of reason, it was highly sensitive to the logic of force.
 1947 – The Coast Guard announced that it had virtually completed the return of United States buoys, lights, and other aids to navigation to a peacetime basis.
 1948 – Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio propagandist “Axis Sally,” pleaded innocent in Washington, D.C., to charges of treason. (Gillars ended up serving 12 years in prison.)
 1950 – In the south, Eighth Army’s 1st Cavalry Division took Sangju and Oksan. On the Inchon/Seoul front, the 7th Infantry Division entered Osan on a drive to link up with Eighth Army forces advancing from the south.
 1950 – Paratroopers of the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team, arrived at Kimpo Air Base from Japan. This 4000-man RCT was detached from the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., for service in Korea.
 1953 – In a speech that is by turns confrontational and sarcastic, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles declares that the United States will not “cringe or become panicky” in the face of Soviet nuclear weapons. Dulles’ speech indicated that although the Korean War had finally reached a peaceful conclusion, the United States would continue its policy of containing communist expansion, by force if necessary. Secretary Dulles began his speech to the American Federation of Labor by observing that he believed world peace was within reach, but was threatened by “communist leaders who openly repudiate the restraints of moral law.” The United States, he declared, “does not believe that salvation can be won merely by making concessions which enhance the power and increase the arrogance of those who have already extended their rule over one-third of the human race.” Acknowledging that the Soviets now possessed a nuclear arsenal, Dulles countered that the United States would not “cringe or became panicky.” Turning to the issue of labor, Dulles then spoke at length about what he called the communist “swindle.” The secretary spoke derisively of the “hoax” played on Russian workers by their own government. “The Russian worker,” Dulles stated, “is the most underpaid, overworked person in any modern industrial state. He is the most managed, checked, spied on, and unrepresented worker in the world today.” Dulles’ speech indicated that although the new administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower had recently finished negotiating a cease-fire in Korea, the United States was not backing off from its stated Cold War commitment to containing communism. The speech also hinted at two points that would become mainstays of the Secretary’s Cold War diplomacy. First was the idea that the United States would not back down from the Soviets simply because of the threat of nuclear war. This idea eventually became known as “brinkmanship”–the notion that the Soviets, if pushed to the “brink” of nuclear war, would eventually back down. Second was Dulles’ frequently repeated assertion that the people living in communist nations were essentially “captives” of repressive communist regimes. In the years to come, Dulles would expand on both ideas in more detail.
 1954 – Forty-eight hours before the projected joint action of the anti-Diem forces, Diem announces the formation of a coalition government, including several of the opposition leaders, for form the Hoa Hso, and two from Cao Dai.
 1955 – President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver. The illness didn’t prevent Eisenhower from being re-elected to a second term the following year.
 1957 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect nine black students entering its newly integrated high school. The nicknamed “Little Rock Nine” consisted of Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942), Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (b. 1940), and Melba Pattillo Beals (b. 1941). Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High School.
 1960 – The USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, Va. USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, is a retired United States Navy aircraft carrier. She was the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed “Big E”. At 1,123 ft (342 m), she was the longest naval vessel in the world, a record which still stands. Her 93,284-long-ton (94,781 t) displacement ranked her as the 11th-heaviest supercarrier, after the 10 carriers of the Nimitz class. Enterprise had a crew of some 4,600 service members. The only ship of her class, Enterprise was the third oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy after the wooden-hulled USS Constitution and USS Pueblo. She was originally scheduled for decommissioning in 2014 or 2015, depending on the life of her reactors and completion of her replacement, USS Gerald R. Ford, but the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 slated the ship’s retirement for 2013, when she would have served for 51 consecutive years, longer than any other U.S. aircraft carrier.
 1962 – US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered James Meredith admitted to the Univ. of Miss. The University of Mississippi agreed to admit James Meredith as the first black university student, sparking more rioting.
 1963 – The U.S. Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing.
 1963 – Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrive in Vietnam. At President John F. Kennedy’s request, they were to determine whether South Vietnam’s military situation had deteriorated as a result of the continuing clash between the Ngo Dinh Diem government and the Buddhists over Diem’s refusal to institute internal political reform. Earlier in the month, Kennedy had sent Marine Corps Gen. Victor Krulak and State Department official Joseph Mendenhall to Saigon on a fact-finding mission. They returned with a conflicting report that left Kennedy unsure of the actual situation in Saigon. Consequently, Kennedy dispatched McNamara and Taylor in an attempt to clarify the situation. They were accompanied on the eight-day trip by William Bundy of the Defense Department, William Colby of the Central Intelligence Agency, White House advisor Michael Forrestall, and diplomat William Sullivan. Again, the individual perceptions of the group differed. Gen. Paul Harkins, commander of the U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) convinced General Taylor that the war against the Viet Cong was progressing on schedule, even to the point that Harkins thought that 1,000 advisors might be sent home by the end of the year. The civilians in the party were not so optimistic, agreeing with Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge’s assessment that the Diem government was very fragile. They were even more convinced when they met with Diem and he rejected any discussion of meaningful political reforms that might have quieted the growing unrest among the Buddhists. When the group returned to Washington in October, their report was an amalgamation of their differing views of the situation. While agreeing that some progress was being made in the field against the Viet Cong, they all agreed that the political situation threatened further progress. On the subject of a potential coup, the report said that there was only a slight chance and that the United States should not support any coup attempts “at this time.” They recommended selective economic and psychological measures to convince Diem to institute reforms to redress the political unrest. Unfortunately, when the recommended measures were taken, they had no effect on Diem and his policies. The United States made clear its dissatisfaction with Diem’s refusal to change his domestic policies, giving, in effect the green light to a coup by opposition military officers. A coup was staged on November 1, 1963, in which Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were murdered by South Vietnamese officers.
 1967 – In Saigon, Hue, and Da Nang, demonstrations are staged against the recent election of President Nguyen Van Thieu and Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky, led by the militant Buddhist faction, who charge that the elections were rigged and demand that the Constituent Assembly cancel the results. In the United States, the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) adopted a resolution against the Johnson administration’s policy and strategy in Vietnam, charging that in Vietnam the United States was “in league with a corrupt and illiberal government supported by a minority of the people.”
 1969 – The trial of the “Chicago Eight” (later seven) began. Demonstrations began outside the court house, with the “Weatherman” group proclaiming the “Days of Rage” in protest of the trial. The Chicago Eight staged demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to protest the Vietnam War and its support by the top Democratic presidential candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. These anti-Vietnam War protests were some of the most violent in American history as the police and national guardsmen confronted antiwar protesters. Five defendants (Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Rennie Davis) were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention; the convictions were ultimately overturned.
 1979 – CompuServe launches the first consumer internet service, which features the first public electronic mail service.
 1982 – US, Italian and French peacekeeping troops began arriving in Lebanon.
 1987 – President Reagan rebuffed congressional calls to limit U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and defended the recent U.S. attack on an Iranian mine-laying vessel.
 1991 – Iraq agrees to allow U.N. helicopters to make unrestricted flights over its territory.
 1992 – Acting Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe stripped three admirals of their jobs for failing to investigate aggressively the Tailhook sex abuse scandal.
 1994 – A firefight erupted between U.S. Marines and a group of armed Haitians outside a police station in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haitian; 10 of the Haitians were killed.
 1996 – The United States, represented by President Clinton, and the world’s other major nuclear powers signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty to end all testing and development of nuclear weapons but it has not entered into force due to the non-ratification of eight specific states.
 1998 – NATO instructed its generals to begin preparing for air strikes on Yugoslavia unless pres. Milosevic ends his attacks on ethnic Albanians.
 2001 – President Bush ordered a freeze on the assets of 27 people and organizations with suspected links to terrorism, including Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, and urged other nations to do likewise.
 2001 – The US received from Russia an essential go-ahead to use 3 former republics as bases for attacks on Afghanistan.
 2001 – In Afghanistan Taliban officials said they were dispatching 300,000 fighters to defend their borders. Analysts estimated Taliban strength at 45,000 fighters with 20,000 in action against the Northern Alliance.
 2001 – Kazakstan offered air and military bases to the US for attacks on Afghanistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were said to be negotiating use of their territory by the US.
 2001 – It was reported that at least 16 Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese citizens were arrested in Paraguay in the wake of the Sep 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
 2001 – Russia pledged support for US efforts and arms for anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
 2002 – Iraq dismissed a British government report that said Saddam Hussein is pursuing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
 2002 – Allied aircraft struck Iraqi air defence facilities again in a double strike at two southeastern installations. Precision-guided weapons were aimed at a radar facility near Al Amarah about 165 miles southeast of Baghdad and a defence communications facility at Tallil, about 170 miles southeast of the capital.
 2002 – U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thomas H. Collins announced the award of a $611 million contract to General Dynamics of Scottsdale, AZ, for the production, deployment and support of “Rescue 21,” a modernization of the National Distress and Response System. “Rescue 21” was planned to be the nation’s primary maritime “911” system for coastal waters of the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and navigable rivers and lakes within the United States. “Rescue 21” replaced the current system entitled the National Distress and Response System that monitored for distress calls and coordinated the search and rescue response. This system consisted of a network of VHF-FM antenna high-sites with analog transceivers that are remotely controlled by regional communication centers and rescue boat stations that provided coverage out to approximately 20 nautical miles from shore in most areas. The Rescue 21 deployment began in the Atlantic City, NJ, and Eastern Shore regions. Concurrently, the system will be deployed in the Seattle, Port Angeles, WA; St. Petersburg, FL; and Mobile, AL, regions. The deployment for the coastal waters of the continental U.S. was scheduled to be completed by September 2005 with all regions completed by September 2006.
 2004 – PM Ayad Allawi and President Bush declared that Iraq is on the road to stability, with the Iraqi leader saying elections would be possible in all but 3-4 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.
 2005 – Hurricane Rita made landfall just east of Sabine Pass, on the Texas-Louisiana line, as a Category 3 hurricane with top sustained winds of 120 mph.  Coast Guard units still in the area from Hurricane Katrina rescue and relief efforts responded, saving138 lives and evacuating 53 people.
 2009 – Thailand and the U.S. Army announce a breakthrough of a HIV/AIDS vaccine, after trials find it can reduce infection by 31%.
 2010 – Judge Ronald B. Leighton of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington rules on remand that the discharge of flight nurse Maj. Margaret Witt under the Don’t ask, don’t tell policy violated her constitutional rights.
 2011 – The decommissioned NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite re-enters Earth’s atmosphere without incident, after more than 20 years in orbit.
 2012 – The US military announces that two US Marines have been referred for trial for urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan and failing to stop other misconduct by subordinates.
 2014 – After 32 years of service to the nation, the last operational HU-25 Falcon, the only jet to ever be a part of the US Coast Guard’s air fleet, was retired in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Falcon played a significant role in search and rescue as well as counter drug missions and was a critical asset during the first Gulf War.
Congressional Medal of Honor Citations for Actions Taken this Day

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