Crabs and Beer!

On this day in 1961, the US Army began Operation Ranch Hand. It was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of Agent Orange during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called “Operation Trail Dust”.

Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 19 million U.S. gallons of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. According to the Vietnamese government, the chemicals have killed or maimed 400,000 people. The United States government has described these figures as “unreliable”.

Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971. The “Ranch Handers” motto was “Only you can prevent a forest” – a take on the popular U.S. Forest Service poster slogan of Smokey Bear. During the ten years of spraying, over 5 million acres (20,000 km²) of forest and 500,000 acres (2,000 km²) of crops were heavily damaged or destroyed. Around 20% of the forests of South Vietnam were sprayed at least once.

Four-plane defoliant run, part of Operation Ranch Hand

---

BE YOURSELF!

Thanks, Debra!

---

Today is the birthday, in 1947, of American singer Ronnie Spector, who co-founded and fronted the girl group The Ronettes who had the 1963 US No.2 & UK No.4 single ‘Be My Baby’. She married producer Phil Spector in 1968. Ronnie alleged in her 1990 memoir, Be My Baby, that following their marriage, Phil subjected her to years of psychological torment and sabotaged her career. Ronnie died on January 12, 2022, aged 78. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-dr1PZZMds

On this day in 1964, the US Congress passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

The USS Maddox, a U.S. destroyer, was conducting a electronic eavesdropping patrol in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin on August 2, 1964, when it reported being attacked by three North Vietnamese Navy torpedo boats. Breaking contact, the combatants commenced going their separate ways, when the three torpedo boats were then attacked by four USN F-8 Crusader jet fighter bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga.

President Johnson, fearful of being portrayed as soft on communism, ohnson wanted another “incident” where it was unambiguous that the North Vietnamese were the aggressors by attacking American warships in waters that the American regarded as international. ohnson ordered the Maddox to continue to cruise off the coast of North Vietnam, to be joined by another destroyer, USS Turner Joy, with orders “to attack any force that attacks them”. Two days later on a very stormy night on 4 August 1964, Maddox and the destroyer Turner Joy both reported to be under attack again, by North Vietnamese torpedo boats; during this alleged engagement, Turner Joy fired approximately 220 3-inch & 5-inch shells at surface targets showing on the radar. In response to the reported attack, aircraft from the Ticonderoga were launched, but the pilots reported no visual contact with any craft other than the two destroyers.

Early on the morning of August 4, 1964, Johnson told several congressmen at a meeting that North Vietnam had just attacked an American patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin in international waters and promised retaliation. A press release from the Defense Department accused North Vietnam of a “second deliberate attack” on American warships in international waters. Within hours, President Johnson ordered the launching of retaliatory air strikes on the bases of the North Vietnamese torpedo boats and announced, in a television address to the American public that same evening, that U.S. naval forces had been attacked.

On 5 August 1964, Johnson submitted the resolution to Congress, which if passed would give him the legal power to “take all necessary measures” and “prevent further aggression” as well as allowing him to decide when “peace and security” in Southeast Asia were attained. Johnson commented the resolution was “like grandma’s nightshirt-it covered everything”. Armed with the resolution, the United States gradually increased it’s commitment to the war in Vietnam to tragic consequences for both countries.

USS Maddox under way in 1964

---

Enjoy the weekend (sing along if you can!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMT698ArSfQ

On August 6, 1945, at approximately 8:15am, a United States B-29 Superfortress bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb detonated at an altitude of about 1900 feet. According to figures published in 1945, 66,000 people were killed as a direct result of the Hiroshima blast, and 69,000 were injured to varying degrees. Later estimates put the deaths as high as 140,000 people.

The effect of the explosion was blinding light, accompanied by radiant heat from the fireball. The Hiroshima fireball was 1,200 feet (370 m) in diameter, with a surface temperature of 10,000 °F (6,000 °C), about the same temperature as at the surface of the sun. Near ground zero, everything flammable burst into flame. Simultaneous fires were started throughout the blast-damaged area by fireball heat and by overturned stoves and furnaces, electrical shorts, etc. Twenty minutes after the detonation, these fires had merged into a firestorm, pulling in surface air from all directions to feed an inferno which consumed everything flammable.

Colonel Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, waving from its cockpit.

---

Trump posted this AI image last night on his Truth Social platform. The most common response is “stolen valor!” Trump never served in the military, although he was sent to a military reform school as a teenager. In fact, he never served a day in any public service position until he was elected president. Well, if AI can come up with that, it can come up with response images, too. Here are a few of them.

May 3, 1829 was the premiere of William Tell by Rossini. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIbYCOiETx0

On this day in 1888, Bertha Benz became the first person to drive an internal-combustion automobile over a long distance. She was field testing the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, inventing brake lining and solving several practical issues during the journey of 105 km (65 miles). In doing so, she brought the Patent-Motorwagen worldwide attention and got their company its first sales. Bertha Benz was not allowed to study in the Grand Duchy of Baden, and her financial and practical engineering contributions have long been overlooked until the 21st century.

On 27 June 1869, during an excursion by the Eintracht Club, she met and fell in love with machine lover and tinkerer Carl Benz, who was five years her senior and penniless, but had a head full of crazy ideas, and who could talk better about technology than about feelings. Eventually, in December 1885, they finished work on the first horseless carriage, 13 years into their marriage. Karl Benz applied for the patent, but Bertha could not legally apply alongside him despite her financial and practical engineering contributions.

On 5 August 1888, 39-year-old Bertha Benz drove from Mannheim to Pforzheim with her sons Richard and Eugen, thirteen and fifteen years old respectively, in a Model III, without telling her husband and without permission of the authorities, thus becoming the first person to drive an automobile a significant distance.

She left Mannheim around dawn, solving numerous problems along the way. She cleaned a blocked fuel line with her hat pin and used her garter as insulation material. A blacksmith had to help mend a chain at one point. When the wooden brakes began to fail, Benz visited a cobbler to install leather, making the world’s first pair of brake linings. An evaporative cooling system was employed to cool the engine, making water supply a big worry along the trip. The trio added water to their supply every time they stopped. The car’s two gears were not enough to surmount uphill inclines and Eugen and Richard often had to push the vehicle up steep roads. Benz reached Pforzheim somewhat after dusk, notifying her husband of her successful journey by telegram. She drove back to Mannheim several days later.

In 1926, Benz & Cie. merged with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach’s company to form Daimler-Benz, which became home to the Mercedes-Benz.

Bertha Benz

---

Here’s a little Tuba Skinny. Enjoy the day…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdMxFiUf9Q

August 4, 1693 is the date traditionally ascribed to Dom Perignon’s invention of champagne. He was a French Benedictine monk who made important contributions to the production and quality of champagne wine in an era when the region’s wines were predominantly still red.

The famous champagne Dom Pérignon, the prestige cuvée of winery Moët & Chandon, is named after him. The remains of the monastery where he spent his adult life are now the property of that winery.

Statue of Dom Pérignon at Moët & Chandon

---

Once upon a time…

---

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS!!

---

Here’s CHER… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n3A_-HRFfc