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Robert A. Lewis
Robert Alvin Lewis (October 18, 1917 – June 18, 1983) was a United States Army Air Forces officer serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. He was the co-pilot and aircraft commander of the '' Enola Gay'', the B-29 Superfortress bomber which dropped the atomic bomb Little Boy on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Military career Robert Alvin Lewis was born on October 18, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, where he attended Ridgefield Park High School, graduating in 1937. During World War II, he had to wait after enlisting to be processed into the USAAF Officer Candidate School (OCS). Lewis went on to be a multi-engine test pilot in B-24, B-26, B-17 and B-29 bombers, which later led to him as co-pilot and his crew being selected for the Hiroshima bombing mission. Lewis was field promoted to captain by General Curtis LeMay after demonstrating the B-29 and training the general on how to fly it. LeMay a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major (rank)
Major is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer military rank, rank used in many countries. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank above Captain (land), captain in armies and air forces, and one rank below lieutenant colonel. It is considered the most junior of the senior officer ranks. Background Etymologically, the word stems from the Latin word meaning "greater". The rank can be traced back to the rank of sergeant major general, which was shortened to sergeant major, and subsequently shortened to ''major''. When used in hyphenated or combined fashion, the term can also imply seniority at other levels of rank, including major general, denoting a low-level general officer, and sergeant major, denoting the most senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) of a military unit. The term major can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in Pipe-Major, pipe-major or drum-major. Links to major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Boy
Little Boy was a type of atomic bomb created by the Manhattan Project during World War II. The name is also often used to describe the specific bomb (L-11) used in the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress '' Enola Gay'' on 6 August 1945, making it the first nuclear weapon used in warfare, and the second nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity nuclear test. It exploded with an energy of approximately and had an explosion radius of approximately which caused widespread death across the city. It was a gun-type fission weapon which used uranium that had been enriched in the isotope uranium-235 to power its explosive reaction. Little Boy was developed by Lieutenant Commander Francis Birch's group at the Los Alamos Laboratory. It was the successor to a plutonium-fueled gun-type fission design, Thin Man (nuclear bomb), Thin Man, which was abandoned in 1944 after technical difficulties were discovered. Little Boy used a charge of co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colonel
Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army. Modern usage varies greatly, and in some cases, the term is used as an Colonel (title), honorific title that may have no direct relationship to military. In some smaller military forces, such as those of Monaco or the Holy See, Vatican, colonel is the highest Military rank, rank. Equivalent naval ranks may be called Captain (naval), captain or ship-of-the-line captain. In the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth's air force ranking system, the equivalent rank is group captain. History and origins By the end of the late medieval period, a group of "companies" was referred to as a "column" of an army. According to Raymond Oliver, , the Spanish began explicitly reorganizing part of thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is a shallow, landlocked, highly salinity, saline endorheic lake in Riverside County, California, Riverside and Imperial County, California, Imperial counties in Southern California. It lies on the San Andreas Fault within the Salton Trough, which stretches to the Gulf of California in Mexico. The lake is about at its widest and longest. A 2023 report put the surface area at 318 square miles (823.6 km2). The Salton Sea became a resort destination in the 20th century, but saw die-offs of fish and birds in the 1980s due to contamination from Agricultural pollution, farm runoff, and clouds of Particulate pollution, toxic dust in the current century as evaporation exposed parts of the lake bed. Over millions of years, the Colorado River had flowed into the Imperial Valley and deposited alluvium (soil), creating fertile farmland, building up the terrain, and constantly moving its main course and river delta. For thousands of years, the river alternately flowed i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curtis LeMay
Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a United States Air Force, US Air Force General (United States), general who was a key American military commander during the Cold War. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, from 1961 to 1965. LeMay joined the United States Army Air Corps, the precursor to the United States Air Force, in 1929 while studying civil engineering at Ohio State University. He had risen to the rank of Major (United States), major by the time of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the United States's entry into World War II. He commanded the 305th Operations Group, 305th Bombardment Group from October 1942 until September 1943, and the 3rd Air Division in the European theatre of World War II until August 1944, when he was transferred to the China Burma India Theater. He was then placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a Air raids on Japan, massive fire bom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Captain (United States O-3)
Captain in the U.S. Army (), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), U.S. Air Force (USAF), and U.S. Space Force (USSF) (abbreviated "CPT" in the and "Capt" in the USMC, USAF, and USSF) is a company-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first lieutenant and below major. It is equivalent to the rank of lieutenant in the Navy/Coast Guard officer rank system and is different from the higher Navy/Coast Guard rank of captain. The insignia for the rank consists of two silver bars, with slight stylized differences between the Army/Air Force version and the Marine Corps version. History The U.S. military inherited the rank of captain from its British Army forebears. In the British Army, the captain was designated as the appropriate rank for the commanding officer of infantry companies, artillery batteries, and cavalry troops, which were considered as equivalent-level units. Captains also served as staff officers in regimental and brigade headquarters and as aides ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battlefield Promotion
A battlefield promotion (or field promotion) is an advancement in military rank that occurs while deployed in combat. A standard field promotion is advancement from current rank to the next higher rank; a "jump-step" promotion allows the recipient to advance by two ranks. A battlefield commission is a commission granting an enlisted soldier a battlefield promotion to the rank of commissioned officer. The granting of a battlefield commission has its historical precursor in the medieval practice of the knighting or ennoblement of a plebeian combatant on the battleground for demonstration of heroic qualities in an exceptional degree. In the medieval context, this martial achievement was often one of the main restricted pathways into the sword-bearing feudal aristocracy. United Kingdom The last person to receive a battlefield promotion in the United Kingdom was Rifleman Gigar Das. Das was given a field promotion to lance corporal in 2014 after serving eight years in the 1st Battalion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II, used primarily in the European Theater of Operations, United States Army, European Theater of Operations. It is the List of most-produced aircraft, third-most produced bomber in history, behind the American four-engined Consolidated B-24 Liberator and the German multirole, twin-engined Junkers Ju 88. The B-17 was also employed in transport, anti-submarine warfare, and search and rescue roles. In a USAAC competition, Boeing, Boeing's prototype Model 299/XB-17 outperformed two other entries but crashed, losing the initial 200-bomber contract to the Douglas B-18 Bolo. Still, the Air Corps ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation, which were introduced into service in 1938. The B-17 evolved through numerous Boeing B-17 Flyin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin B-26 Marauder
The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations: Baltimore, Maryland, and Omaha, Nebraska, by the Glenn L. Martin Company. First used in the Pacific Theater of World War II in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe. After entering service with the United States Army aviation units, the aircraft quickly received the reputation of a " widowmaker" due to the early models' high accident rate during takeoffs and landings. This was because the Marauder had to be flown at precise airspeeds, particularly on final runway approach or when one engine was out. The unusually high 150 mph (241 km/h) speed on short final runway approach was intimidating to many pilots who were used to much slower approach speeds, and when they slowed to speeds below those stipulated in the manual, the aircraft would often stall and crash.Ethell 1995, p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models designated as various LB-30s, in the Land Bomber design category. At its inception, the B-24 was a modern design featuring a highly efficient shoulder-mounted, high aspect ratio Davis wing. The wing gave the Liberator a high cruise speed, long Range (aeronautics), range and the ability to carry a heavy Aerial bomb, bomb load. In comparison with its contemporaries, the B-24 was relatively difficult to fly and had poor low-speed performance; it also had a lower Ceiling (aeronautics), ceiling and was less robust than the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. While Aircrew#Military, aircrews tended to prefer the B-17, General Staff favored the B-24 and procured it in huge numbers for a wide variety of roles. At approximately 18,500 units – including 8,68 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Test Pilot
A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing of the Airplane.'' American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., 1996, p. 265 History Test flying as a systematic activity started during the World War I, First World War, at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in the United Kingdom. An "Experimental Flight" was formed at the Central Flying School. During the 1920s, test flying was further developed by the RAE in the UK, and by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in the United States. In the 1950s, NACA was transformed into the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. During these years, as work was done into aircraft stability and handling qualities, test flying evolved towards a more qualitative scientific profession. In the 1950s, test ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Officer Candidate School
An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and Enlisted rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. How OCS is run differs between countries and services. Typically, officer candidates have already attained post-secondary education, and sometimes a bachelor's degree, and undergo a short duration of training (not more than a year) which focuses primarily on military skills and leadership. This is in contrast with a military academy which includes academic instruction leading to a bachelor's degree. Australia Officer Cadet School of Australia – Portsea (OCS Portsea) commenced training officers for the Australian Army in 1951 and continued through to the end of 1985. Since OCS Portsea's closure in 1985, all Australian Army Officer training has been conducted at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra. During the Vietnam War, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
