June 8, 1940: the German battleship Scharnhorst scored one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history when a projectile struck HMS Glorious from almost 15 miles away. Very impressive. Scharnhorst and sister ship Gneisenau then moved closer and fired several salvos that sank the carrier with over 1200 lives lost. HMS Glorious was originally a battlecruiser and rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the late 1920s.
![[Image: BforYvg.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/BforYvg.jpg)
On June 8th, the commanding officer of Glorious was sailing to Orkney Islands, Scotland to hold a court-martial of his Commander, who had refused an order to carry out an attack on shore targets due to ambiguous target info.
June 8, 1967: 34 crew members were killed and 171 wounded when USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli forces. The official story: Israel apologized for the attack, claiming that the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Too badly damaged to be repaired, the Liberty was scrapped. There is evidence that IDF Gen. Sharon ordered the attack knowing that the ship was a US naval vessel.
You’ve got mail! June 8, 1959, in a publicity stunt crafted by the US Postmaster General and the Navy, a Regulus I cruise missile carried—in lieu of its nuclear warhead, 3,000 identical pieces of "missile mail" launched from the USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG-317 Balao-class submarine) to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at Mayport, FL.
![[Image: WpTlhWw.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/WpTlhWw.jpg)
Watch the Missile Mail launch:
The letters were addressed to President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, cabinet officers, senior federal officials, every member of Congress, Supreme Court justices, governors, the officers and crew of the USS Barbero, and postmasters general from other countries.
Philatelic souvenir:
![[Image: z3fwy1A.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/z3fwy1A.jpg)
Regulus Missile Mail
During a training mission off the east coast, the USS Barbero fired the Regulus I missile a little before noon. It arrived in Mayport (near Jacksonville) 22 minutes later. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield enthused about the possibilities of hyper-rapid mail delivery, but...
![[Image: quOraFN.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/quOraFN.jpg)
...the exercise (the only one of its kind) also sent a not-too-subtle message to the Soviet Union (and others) that at least with this particular missile—the United States was capable of delivering nuclear weapons on a target quickly and with precision.
The New York Times noted the stunt had been preceded by a proof-of-concept test off the Pacific Coast several months earlier, and that a Jupiter IRBM (Intermediate-range ballistic missile) launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the previous fall carried a letter to the commander of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
![[Image: bvcYEKO.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/bvcYEKO.jpg)
The Regulus I was deployed aboard five submarines from 1954-64 and four cruisers from 1955-61, and armed with either the W5 (10-47 kilotons) or W27 (2 Megatons) warhead. It had a range of 500 nautical miles. The Regulus I was retired once Polaris SLBMs became fully operational in 1964. Both Regulus I and Regulus II were used as target drones after 1964 under the designation BQM-6C.
![[Image: p9VGyBt.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/p9VGyBt.jpg)
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."
- Thomas Pynchon
June 8, 1966: one of only two XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 6-engine prototype super-bomber aircraft crashed in California following a collision with an F-104 Starfighter during a photo shoot arranged by the Air Force for General Electric, which wanted to showcase the five USAF planes powered by its jet engines.
![[Image: 5yTJnXK.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/5yTJnXK.jpg)
The collision killed NASA Chief Test Pilot Joe Walker, who was flying the F-104, and Carl Cross, the XB-70 co-pilot. Al White, the XB-70 pilot, ejected and survived, although he suffered serious injuries, including a crushed arm caused by the clamshell-like crew escape capsule.
See it in action:
The B-70 was designed in the late 1950s to replace the B-52, but its vulnerability to Soviet SAMs and the rapid growth of US ICBMs raised questions about its necessity. Despite pressure, JFK limited it to two prototypes in March 1961 and changed the program to a research project. Total cost was $15 billion (in 2023 dollars). Today we have a new bomber that looks like a flying saucer from the 50s.
![[Image: zaHhy9R.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/zaHhy9R.jpg)
$700 million per saucer and expected to cost $203 billion over 30 years.
Meanwhile, the remaining 72 Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (BUFF) still roars onward since 1952. That was also a big UFO year.
On June 8th, the commanding officer of Glorious was sailing to Orkney Islands, Scotland to hold a court-martial of his Commander, who had refused an order to carry out an attack on shore targets due to ambiguous target info.
June 8, 1967: 34 crew members were killed and 171 wounded when USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli forces. The official story: Israel apologized for the attack, claiming that the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Too badly damaged to be repaired, the Liberty was scrapped. There is evidence that IDF Gen. Sharon ordered the attack knowing that the ship was a US naval vessel.
You’ve got mail! June 8, 1959, in a publicity stunt crafted by the US Postmaster General and the Navy, a Regulus I cruise missile carried—in lieu of its nuclear warhead, 3,000 identical pieces of "missile mail" launched from the USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG-317 Balao-class submarine) to the Naval Auxiliary Air Station at Mayport, FL.
Watch the Missile Mail launch:
The letters were addressed to President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, cabinet officers, senior federal officials, every member of Congress, Supreme Court justices, governors, the officers and crew of the USS Barbero, and postmasters general from other countries.
Philatelic souvenir:
Regulus Missile Mail
During a training mission off the east coast, the USS Barbero fired the Regulus I missile a little before noon. It arrived in Mayport (near Jacksonville) 22 minutes later. Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield enthused about the possibilities of hyper-rapid mail delivery, but...
...the exercise (the only one of its kind) also sent a not-too-subtle message to the Soviet Union (and others) that at least with this particular missile—the United States was capable of delivering nuclear weapons on a target quickly and with precision.
The New York Times noted the stunt had been preceded by a proof-of-concept test off the Pacific Coast several months earlier, and that a Jupiter IRBM (Intermediate-range ballistic missile) launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, the previous fall carried a letter to the commander of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency.
The Regulus I was deployed aboard five submarines from 1954-64 and four cruisers from 1955-61, and armed with either the W5 (10-47 kilotons) or W27 (2 Megatons) warhead. It had a range of 500 nautical miles. The Regulus I was retired once Polaris SLBMs became fully operational in 1964. Both Regulus I and Regulus II were used as target drones after 1964 under the designation BQM-6C.
"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."
- Thomas Pynchon
June 8, 1966: one of only two XB-70 Valkyrie Mach 3 6-engine prototype super-bomber aircraft crashed in California following a collision with an F-104 Starfighter during a photo shoot arranged by the Air Force for General Electric, which wanted to showcase the five USAF planes powered by its jet engines.
The collision killed NASA Chief Test Pilot Joe Walker, who was flying the F-104, and Carl Cross, the XB-70 co-pilot. Al White, the XB-70 pilot, ejected and survived, although he suffered serious injuries, including a crushed arm caused by the clamshell-like crew escape capsule.
See it in action:
The B-70 was designed in the late 1950s to replace the B-52, but its vulnerability to Soviet SAMs and the rapid growth of US ICBMs raised questions about its necessity. Despite pressure, JFK limited it to two prototypes in March 1961 and changed the program to a research project. Total cost was $15 billion (in 2023 dollars). Today we have a new bomber that looks like a flying saucer from the 50s.
$700 million per saucer and expected to cost $203 billion over 30 years.
Meanwhile, the remaining 72 Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (BUFF) still roars onward since 1952. That was also a big UFO year.
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." – Thomas Sowell