Military History by Month for November
Historian’s Report
https://americanlegionpost642.com/index.php?id=102
National Days and Months:
There is a neat description of November here with regard to the National Days where the rest of these links can be found. https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/november
MILITARY FAMILY MONTH – November to remember our Military Families who may have deployed members that need support. https://youtu.be/e7Jh6evB1Sw?si=usQ6uu7kR7utGYG1
PRIME MERIDIAN DAY - November 1 when the location was decided upon as the Royal Greenwich Observatory and where Greenwich Mean Time is derived. https://youtu.be/kKxKgSGoEbE?si=LcL7UDbA83Y6eAJG
DAY OF THE DEAD - November 1 The movie Coco is a good one to watch with your children or Grandchildren.
ALL SAINTS DAY - November 1 – If you recall Halloween is All Hallows Eve.
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS - First Sunday in November – remember to Fall Back on your clock.
WORLD FREEDOM DAY - November 9 – Berlin Wall Fell. https://youtu.be/A9fQPzZ1-hg?si=UW72SKcVLv8rgnIP
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS BIRTHDAY - November 10 – when the Marine Corps was founded in 1775 and recruiting took place at recruiting headquarters was in the Tun Tavern on Water Street in Philadelphia also known as the birthplace of the USMC. (It was reformed in 1798 after it was abolished at the end of the Revolutionary War. https://youtu.be/4AgvXD7Yduo?si=EpllJtWCQkBmIYM3
VETERANS DAY - November 11 – also Armistice Day when Peace declared at the 11th hour of the 11th Day of the 11th month for end of WWI (The War to End All Wars).
https://youtu.be/CqO9J-5y-dk?si=ZHUt_eCCBx0SUpWf
WORLD DIABETES DAY - November 14 – I believe that the PACT Act recognizes this as a presumptive condition with Agent Orange for Vietnam Veterans. https://www.va.gov/disability/eligibility/hazardous-materials-exposure/agent-orange/ https://youtu.be/8qNkMWTmOc8?si=079I0W9WvivlHmWk
WORLD PANCREATIC CANCER DAY - Third Thursday in November - I believe that the PACT Act also recognizes this as a presumptive condition with Burn Pit for Gulf War/Post 911 Veterans. https://www.va.gov/resources/the-pact-act-and-your-va-benefits/ https://youtu.be/YyfRSPU084M?si=pmSff1L6iJe_O5hv
Military History Notes: (A Marine Corps Theme for their Birthday)
Nov. 1
1942: On Guadalcanal, a machine gun section led by Marine Cpl. Anthony Casamento (http://vvww.victoryinstitute.net/blogs/utb/1942/11/01 /anthony-- casamento-medal-of-honor-citation/) is hit so badly during the fourth (and final) battle at the Matanikau River that all but Casamento were grievously
wounded or killed. Despite his own wounds (he was hit 14 times during the engagement), Casamento single-handedly held his position and repelled numerous enemy attacks. Casamento will be awarded the Medal of Honor in 1980 after surviving eyewitnesses to his actions are found. https://youtu.be/NtWeZEsN6x4?si=eUiD5ngqhkpmxXW8
1944: Japan launches the first of some 9,000 hydrogen-filled balloon bombs towards the U.S. and Canada. By war's end, only six Americans would be killed and a small amount of damage is inflicted by the bombs.
Meanwhile, the Tokyo Rose, a B-29 "Superfortress" modified for photo reconnaissance, makes the first U.S. flight over Tokyo since the Doolittle Raid in 1942.
Nov. 2
1783: Gen. George Washington delivers his "Farewell Address to the Army" near Princeton, N.J., in which he refers to the Continental Army as "one patriotic band of brothers." https://youtu.be/9PWuIOA75z4?si=KAawYT-75UnTt9if
Nov. 3
1783: The Continental Army is disbanded following the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The role of the national defense force returns to state militias, save a regiment on the western frontier and an artillery battery at West Point, N.Y. (which will soon become the U.S. Military Academy). These few "regular army" soldiers will become the Legion of the United States in 1792, and the U.S. Army in 1796.
Nov. 9
2001: During the Battle of Mazar-e-Sharif U.S. Army and Air Force special operations forces ride into combat on horseback - the first cavalry charge by the United States military since 1943. Hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are killed during the battle and another 1,500 are captured or defect. Although war planners figured it would take months to capture the strategic city and its airfield, the Taliban withdraw the following day. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iscjRK8yBAQ
Nov. 10
1775: On this day 242 years ago, the Marine Corps is born. The Continental Congress decrees that two battalions of Marines be raised in Philadelphia, consisting of "good seamen, or so acquainted with maritime affairs as to be able to serve by sea when required; that they be enlisted and commissioned to serve for and during the present war with Great Britain and the Colonies." Capt. Samuel Nicholas - commissioned just days before as the first Marine officer - sets up his recruiting headquarters at Tun Tavern.
2001: U.S.-led coalition forces defeat Taliban forces in Mazar-e-Sharif, scoring the first major victory of the war in Afghanistan.
Nov. 11
1918: The armistice is signed, ending World War I.
Nov. 14
1965: 450 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore are choppered in to assault the communist stronghold in the Ia Drang Valley. Upon landing, the unit is nearly overrun by three battalions (1,600 soldiers) of North Vietnamese regulars, resulting in hand-to-hand
combat, but the soldiers hold out for two days before being relieved -inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley is the first major battle between U.S. and NVA forces and one of the only setpiece battles of the Vietnam War.
2004: Nine days after launching Operation Phantom Fury — the Second Battle of Fallujah (Iraq) — U.S. Marines and soldiers (as well as a few British and Iraqi troops) begin the mopping-up phase of what has since been described as the most intense urban combat since the bloody battle for the Vietnamese city of Hue in 1968. It is during the battle for Fallujah, that a radio transmission is intercepted by U.S. forces in which a panicking al-Qaeda insurgent is heard exclaiming to his chief: "We are fighting, but the Marines keep coming! We are shooting, but the Marines won't stop!"
Nov. 19
1863: Four months after the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln addresses an audience with a brief speech honoring the fallen: "we cannot dedicate. we cannot consecrate. we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ... we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Lincoln's Gettysburg Address becomes one of the most famous speeches in American history.
1967: During the Battle of Dak To, Chaplain (Maj.) Charles J. Watters, "with complete disregard for his safety, rushed forward to the line of contact. Unarmed and completely exposed, he moved among, as well as in front of the advancing troops, giving aid to the wounded, assisting in their evacuation, giving words of encouragement, and administering the last rites to the dying. Chaplain Watters was giving aid to the wounded when he himself was mortally wounded." Chaplain Watters was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. https://youtu.be/1djR7gFrjWU?si=M7gqzv6PWvPdkXr3
Nov. 20
1918: The 369th Infantry Regiment receives the honor of becoming the first American unit to enter German territory for occupation duty. The famed "Hell Fighters from Harlem" fought with distinction under French command during World War I, spending more time in combat and suffering more casualties than any other American regiment during the war.
1943: A flotilla of over 100 warships, including 17 aircraft carriers and 12 battleships, hammers the Tarawa Atoll as the first of 35,000 Marines and soldiers land in the face of stiff Japanese resistance. Rear Adm. Keiji
Shibasaki, in command of the defenders, stated that "a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years." In fact, it will only take 76 hours to secure the islands.
The fanatical defenders will fight almost to the last man in the first heavily opposed U.S. landing in the Pacific. Many of the American casualties were due to low tide conditions that forced Marines to wade hundreds of yards across jagged coral reefs - under withering fire - to reach the shore. The resulting losses inspired the creation of the Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams to provide critical hydrographic reconnaissance and destroy obstacles for amphibious landings - the birth of what will become today's SEAL Teams.
Nov. 21
a 1943: USS Nautilus (SS-168) surfaces and disembarks Capt. James L. Jones and his Marine Amphibious Reconnaissance Company off the beaches of Abemama Atoll in the Gilbert Islands. The raiders board rubber rafts and paddle ashore under cover of darkness, spending the next several days wiping out the defenders and capturing the islands along with fire support from the sub. The Marine Corps' modern-day Force Reconnaissance companies trace their roots to Jones' team.
Nov. 22
1963: President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by former Marine radar operator Lee Harvey Oswald while the presidential motorcade travels through Dallas, Texas. Oswald also seriously wounds Texas Governor John Connally in the attack. Both Kennedy and Connally served in the Navy during World — War II - Kennedy as a PT boat skipper and Connally as a fighter plane director aboard aircraft carriers.
Nov. 23
1943: Japanese-held Tarawa falls to American forces despite the boast of its defending commander, Rear Adm. Keiji Shibasaki, that "a million men could not take Tarawa in a hundred years." It takes several thousand Marines and about 76 hours to seize Tarawa. Makin Atoll, 100 miles north of Tarawa, is also declared secure.
1963: Two days after assassinating Pres. John F. Kennedy, former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald is himself shot and killed by Jack Ruby - formerly a mechanic in the Army Air Forces, who served during World War II.
Nov. 25
2001: US Marines of the 15th and 26 Marine Expeditionary Unit land near Kandahar, becoming the first major combat force in Afghanistan.
Nov. 26
1789: Pres. George Washington issues a proclamation declaring 26 November "to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." This marks the first designated Thanskgiving Day by the United States government. https://youtu.be/R8ZFR_B4ogU?si=aUfd_NBrevoS1czS