California State Military Museum

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the death of SFC Elis A. Barreto Ortiz of Morovis, Puerto Rico and assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne D...ivision. SFC Barreto was killed by a vehicle borne improvised explosive device in Kabul, Afghanistan on September 5, 2019. This loss is felt across the All American Division and we will forever remember our fallen. Remember, Paratroopers never die, they just slip away.

Please make plans to join VA NorCal Director David Stockwell and the Sacramento Veteran community for the City of Rancho Cordova Veterans Day Observance 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 11 at the Cordova High School Performing Arts Center.

On 7 July 2012, Iowa-class battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) opens to the public as a museum ship in San Pedro, CA. Pacific Battleship Center - Battleship USS Iowa, San Pedro, CA https://museumships.us/battleship/iowa

During this summer in 1776, Betsy Ross works as a seamstress and an upholsterer. At least according to legend, she would make the first American flag at the req...uest of George Washington. History remembers her as Betsy Ross, but would that seem funny to her? She was widowed twice and lived most of her life with other names. She was born Elizabeth Griscom to an abolitionist Quaker family, where she was the eighth of seventeen children. She attended a Quaker school and was then apprenticed to an upholster. It was during this apprenticeship that she met John Ross. There was just one problem. John was an Anglican. As a Quaker, Betsy was not supposed to marry outside her faith. The two must have been deeply in love, because they ended up eloping when she was only 21 years old. She was promptly expelled from her church. Tragically, John was killed less than three years into their marriage. As a member of the local militia, he was guarding an ammunition cache when he was mortally injured. He gave his life for the Patriot cause. Betsy was left a young widow, trying to run her own upholstery business. She also made extra money through seamstress work. She was alone, as the couple did not have any children before John's death. Mere months after John was killed, Betsy was apparently asked to make a flag with thirteen stars and stripes. This story has never been conclusively proven or disproven. But if it did occur, then it occurred in May or June of 1776. George Washington reportedly visited Betsy along with two other men, Robert Morris and George Ross. Betsy would have known George Ross because he was John’s uncle. And she would have known Washington because her pew in Christ Church was right next to his. According to Betsy’s daughter, [Betsy] was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag. As the story goes, Washington had a sketch in his pocket of a flag with thirteen stars and stripes. The stars in Washington’s sketch, however, had 6 points. Betsy suggested making a change. She showed the men that she could cut a 5-point star with just one snip of her scissors. Everyone agreed that a 5-point star would work for the new American flag. Sadly, Betsy lost her second husband during the Revolution also. She’d married a mariner, Joseph Ashburn, in 1777. In 1780, Joseph’s ship was captured by a British frigate. He was taken to a prison in England, where he died before he could return home. Joseph never knew that his first daughter passed away at only 9 months old. And he never met his second daughter, born while he was in prison. Instead, Betsy went through these two experiences alone. Late in 1782, Betsy received a visitor by the name of John Claypoole. He’d been a prisoner with Joseph, so he’d come to tell Betsy that she was a widow again. The two became friends and were married in May 1783. Betsy and Claypoole had a long, 34-year marriage, but Betsy ultimately outlived Claypoole, too. She spent the last three years of her life living with one of her daughters. By then, she’d gone completely blind. She died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 84. All in all, Betsy’s life is a tale of love, heartbreak, sacrificeand plenty of hard work. Whatever would she think of the uproar over her life today? ----------------------------------- If you enjoy these history posts, please know that it is important to interact with them. This site will weed these posts out of your feed otherwise. Please also know that I don’t make these rules. I am just letting you know how things work so you can take action, as needed. :) Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright 2013-2019 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the share feature instead of cutting/pasting. Permalink: http://www.taraross.com/2019/07/tdih-betsy-ross #TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

Lt. Michael P. Murphy was a United States Navy SEAL officer who was awarded the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during t...he War in Afghanistan. He was the first member of the U.S. Navy to receive the award since the Vietnam War. On June 28, 2005, Murphy, engaged in a fire fight, left his position of cover to get a clear signal with his satellite phone and request immediate support for his team, which exposed him to a hail of gunfire. He dropped the satellite phone after being shot multiple times, but picked the phone back up and finished the call. While being shot, he signed off saying, "thank you," then continued fighting from his exposed position until he died from his wounds. Destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), a U.S. 3rd Fleet ship, was named in his honor. Please take a moment to read of his incredibly heroic actions made in combat for our country. https://lnkd.in/eSq3RWj

Today, we honor and remember those who lost their lives during Operation Red Wings. LT. (SEAL) MICHAEL P. MURPHY STG2 (SEAL) MATTHEW G. AXELSON GM2 (SEAL) DANNY... P. DIETZ, JR. LCDR (SEAL) ERIK S. KRISTENSEN LT. (SEAL) MICHAEL M. MCGREEVY, JR. ITCS (SEAL) DANIEL R. HEALY FCC (SEAL) JACQUES J. FONTAN ET1 (SEAL) JEFFREY ALAN LUCAS HM1 (SEAL) JEFFREY SCOTT TAYLOR MM2 (SEAL) SHANE PATTON QM2 (SEAL) JAMES ERIK SUH SSG SHAMUS O. GOARE CWO COREY J. GOODNATURE SGT KIP A. JACOBY SFC MARCUS V. MURALLES MAJ STEPHEN C. REICH SFC MICHAEL L. RUSSELL CWO CHRIS J. SCHERKENBACH MSGT JAMES W. PONDER III NEVER FORGET.

The Fleet Air Gunnery Unit (FAGU) at NAAS El Centro, California, held the first Fleet Air Gunnery Meet competition #OTD in 1956. FAGU eventually shut down, a c...ontributing factor cited by CAPT Frank Ault in the report that resulted in the establishment of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, more famously known as TOPGUN. See more

John Finn, Medal of Honor Winner, Dies at 100 New York Times, May 27, 2010 By Richard Goldstein... John W. Finn, the last survivor of the 15 Navy men who received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Thursday at a nursing home in Chula Vista, Calif. He was 100 and had been the oldest living recipient of the medal, the nation's highest award for valor. His death was announced by J. P. Tremblay, deputy secretary of the California Department of Veterans Affairs. On the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed the American battleships in Hawaii, plunging the nation into World War II, numerous acts of valor played out. Most of them took place aboard the stricken ships in some cases efforts by the wounded and the dying to save their fellow sailors. Amid the death and destruction, Chief Finn, on an airfield runway, was waging a war of his own against the Japanese. A few minutes before 8 o'clock, Japanese planes attacked the Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, about 12 miles from Battleship Row at Ford Island, hoping to knock out three dozen Navy aircraft before they could get aloft. Mr. Finn, the chief petty officer in charge of munitions at the naval station and a veteran of 15 years in the Navy, was in bed in a nearby apartment with his wife, Alice. He heard the sound of aircraft, saw one plane flash past his window, then another, and he heard machine guns. He dressed hurriedly, and drove to the naval station. At first, he observed the base's 20 miles-per-hour speed limit. But then, "I heard a plane come roaring in from astern of me," he recalled decades later in an interview with Larry Smith for "Beyond Glory," an oral history of Medal of Honor recipients. "As I glanced up, the guy made a wing-over, and I saw that big old red meatball, the rising sun insignia, on the underside of the wing. Well, I threw it into second and it's a wonder I didn't run over every sailor in the air station." When Chief Finn arrived at the hangars, many of the planes had already been hit. He recalled that he grabbed a .30-caliber machine gun on a makeshift tripod, carried it to an exposed area near a runway and began firing. For the next two and a half hours, he blazed away, although peppered by shrapnel as the Japanese planes strafed the runways with cannon fire. As he remembered it: "I got shot in the left arm and shot in the left foot, broke the bone. I had shrapnel blows in my chest and belly and right elbow and right thumb. Some were just scratches. My scalp got cut, and everybody thought I was dying: Oh, Christ, the old chief had the top of his head knocked off! I had 28, 29 holes in me that were bleeding. I was walking around on one heel. I was barefooted on that coral dust. My left arm didn't work. It was just a big ball hanging down." Chief Finn thought he had hit at least one plane, but he did not know whether he had brought it down. When the attack ended, he received first aid, then returned to await a possible second attack. He was hospitalized the following afternoon. On Sept. 15, 1942, Chief Finn received the Medal of Honor from Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet, in a ceremony aboard the carrier Enterprise at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nimitz cited Chief Finn for his "magnificent courage in the face of almost certain death." John William Finn was born on July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles County, the son of a plumber. He dropped out of school to join the Navy at age 17. He served stateside after he recovered from his Pearl Harbor wounds, became a lieutenant in 1944 and remained in military service after the war. He had been living on a cattle ranch in Pine Valley, Calif., about 45 miles east of San Diego, before entering the nursing home where he died. His survivors include a son, Joseph. His wife died in 1998. Ten of the 15 servicemen who received the Medal of Honor for their actions at Pearl Harbor died in the attack. Among them were Rear Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, commander of Battleship Division 1, who was aboard the Arizona when it blew up and sank; Capt. Franklin Van Valkenburgh, commander of the Arizona; and Capt. Mervyn S. Bennion, commander of the battleship West Virginia. Four of the Pearl Harbor medal recipients survived the war. Cmdr. Cassin Young, awarded the medal for reboarding and saving his repair ship, the Vestal, after being blown into the water, died in November 1942 in the battle for Guadalcanal. In 1999, Mr. Finn was among Pearl Harbor veterans invited to Hawaii for the premiere of the Hollywood movie "Pearl Harbor." "It was a damned good movie," he told The Boston Herald in 2001. "It's helped educate people who didn't know about Pearl Harbor and what happened there." "I liked it especially," he said, "because I got to kiss all those pretty little movie actresses."

In Memoriam: Fifteen years ago today, on June 22, 2004, First Lieutenant Andre Tyson was killed as a result of wounds received during an ambush while on patrol ...in Balad, Iraq. He was assigned to the California Army National Guard's 579th Engineer Battalion. Please take a moment of silence to keep Lt. Tyson, his family, friends and those affected by his loss in your thoughts and prayers as we remember the lives of our Fallen Comrades.

In Memoriam: Fifteen years ago today, on June 22, 2004, Sergeant Patrick R. McCaffrey, Sr. was killed as a result of wounds received during an ambush while on p...atrol in Balad, Iraq. He was assigned to the California Army National Guard's 579th Engineer Battalion. Please take a moment of silence to keep Sgt. McCaffrey, his family, friends and those affected by his loss in your thoughts and prayers as we remember the lives of our Fallen Comrades.

Happy 244th Birthday to the United States Army.