United States Air Force Pararescue

Post 2.655

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and others.

Pararescuemen (AFSC 1T2X1) are United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Combat Command (ACC) operatives tasked with recovery and medical treatment of personnel in humanitarian and combat environments. They are the only members of the DoD specifically organized, trained and equipped to conduct personnel recovery operations in hostile or denied areas as a primary mission. Also known as “PJs” (Pararescue Jumpers), these special operations units are also used to support NASA missions and have been used to recover astronauts after water landings. They are attached to other SOF teams from all branches to conduct other operations as appropriate. Of the 22 enlisted Air Force Cross recipients, 12 are Pararescuemen. They wear the maroon beret as a symbol of their elite status, and to symbolize the blood shed by past PJs, as well as the blood current PJs are willing to shed to save lives. Part of the little-known Air Force Special Tactics community and long an enlisted preserve, the Pararescue service began commissioning Combat Rescue Officers early in the 21st century.

USAF Pararescue
United States Air Force Pararescue
Active	March 1946–present
Country	United States of America
Branch	United States Air Force
Type	Special Operations
Role	Personnel Recovery
Part of	Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Air Force Air Combat Command
Nickname	Maroon Berets, PJs, Rescue Rangers
Motto	That Others May Live

Maroon beret with Pararescue Flash

History

U.S. Air Force Pararescue personnel assigned to Baghdad International Airport (BIAP), perform a hoist extraction of a survivor during an Urban Operations Training Exercise (UOTE) at the Maltz training site, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003.

“My sheath held my knife in place at all times… On one mission when rappelling into a hot HLZ with a 70 lbs pack I went upside down and got drug when the Helo decided to split, my knife was there. Jay, I know of no other knife that you made that has seen so much action. From the first ever Jump mission conducted at the PJ School to the 2 OEF deployments 23 Combat missions in all; “not to forget multiple peace time missions”. When my life depends on my knife why carry anything but the very best. Thanks for building the best for the best.”–SZ (Super) USAF Pararescue

 http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

 Pre–World War II

As early as 1922 there was a recognized need for trained personnel to go to remote sites to rescue airmen. In that year, Army Medical Corps doctor Colonel Albert E. Truby predicted that “airplane ambulances” would be used to take medical personnel to crashes and to return victims to medical facilities for treatment. However, it was another two decades before technology and necessity helped to create what would eventually become Air Force Pararescue.

Even so, there were developments in critical technologies. In 1940, two U.S. Forestry Service Smokejumpers, Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson, showed that parachutists could be placed very accurately onto the ground using the newly-invented ‘steerable parachute.’ These parachutes and the techniques smokejumpers used with them were completely different from the techniques used by Army airborne units. It was in that year that Dr. (Captain) Leo P. Martin was trained by the U.S. Forestry Service Parachute Training Center in Seeley Lake, Montana as the first ‘para-doctor’.

 World War II

During the first months after America’s entry into the War, there was very little need for air rescue. As the war progressed a U.S. strategic bombing campaign was launched, and air rescue began to play a key role.

Rescue units were formed around the globe under the operational control of local commanders. While training, techniques and equipment varied, one rule was constant: “Rescue forces must presume survivors in each crash until proved otherwise.”

Search and rescue of downed aviators in the continental United States fell primarily to the Civil Air Patrol, a civilian aviation group under the command of the Army Air Corps. The CAP would usually send in ground crews after locating a crash site; however, they would sometimes land small aircraft and they did experiment with parachute rescue teams.

With Canada’s entry into WWII in 1939, former Canadian fighter ace Wop May was put in charge of training operations and took over command at the No 2 Air Observer School in Edmonton, Alberta. Edmonton was one of the common stops for A-20 Boston, B-26 Marauder and especially B-25 Mitchell bombers being flown to the Soviet Union as part of the lend-lease program. When these aircraft went down, typically due to mechanical or navigational problems, the crew often survived only to die attempting to make it out of the bush. May’s school was often asked to supply aircraft to search for downed planes, but even when one was spotted there was often little they could do to help. May decided to address this problem.

In early 1942 May asked for volunteers from his civilian servicing crew, and about a dozen agreed to join. With basically no equipment, the instruction consisted of “jump and pull” and windage was calculated by throwing an Eaton’s catalogue out the door. Early operations were comical, but in early 1943 May sent two volunteers, Owen Hargreaves and Scotty Thompson to the smoke jumpers school in Missoula, Montana to be trained by the U.S. Forestry Service. After six weeks they returned home with borrowed steerable equipment to train two other volunteers, Wilfred Rivet and Laurie Poulsom. Soon the unit was conducting operational jumps, and by 1944 May’s persistence had paid off and an official para-rescue training program started. For his work, May was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm in 1947 by the USAAF.

In the European Theater, there was very little opportunity for ground rescue. Most flights were over enemy-occupied territory, where a landing meant immediate capture. In the UK area of the European Theatre, the British military was at the time creating its own Royal Air Force Mountain Rescue Service which would be based largely on civilian mountain rescue doctrine. The RAFMRS has rescued many American aircrew, or recovered remains, from USAF crashes over its UK territory. Crashes during over-water flights created a great many casualties, the Eighth Air Force initiated a ‘sea rescue’ group. From its creation in 1943 until the end of the war, the recovery rate of aircrews downed at sea rose from less than five percent to over forty percent.

Pararescuemen must be competent in navigation, as many of their missions are in strange and foreign lands. Here, PJ students train in the rugged and confusing Zuni mountain range in New Mexico.  http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

In the vast reaches of the Pacific Theater, a plane crash meant almost certain death from exposure to the elements. The Army formed several squadrons in theater specifically to aid and rescue downed flyers — both at sea and on islands — with great success.

Curtiss C-46 ‘Commando’ over the Himalayas

The China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) was the birthplace of what would eventually become pararescue. Here was a unique combination of long overland flights through territory that was loosely held by the enemy and survivable. Dominating the flying in the CBI was ‘The Hump’ route: cargo flights that left India carrying thousands of tons of vital war supplies had to cross the spine of the Himalayas to reach their destinations in China. Every day thousands of flight crews and their passengers risked their lives making this passage in C-46 and C-47 aircraft. Many of these flights never arrived at their destinations due to mechanical problems, weather and mistakes. Crews forced to bail out or crash land faced weeks of hardship in tracing a path back to civilization, enduring harsh weather, little food, and the injuries they sustained during the crashes.

Capt. John L. “Blackie” Porter — a former stunt pilot — is credited with commanding the first organized air rescue unit in the theater. Known as “Blackie’s Gang” and flying out of Chabua, India, they were equipped with two C-47 aircraft. One of their first rescue missions was the recovery of twenty people who had bailed out of a stricken C-46 in August 1943 in the Naga area of Burma; an area that contained not just Japanese troops, but tribes of head hunters as well. Among the twenty was CBS reporter Eric Sevareid. The men were located and supplies were dropped to them. The wing flight surgeon, Lt. Col. Don Flickinger, and two combat surgical technicians, Sgt. Richard S. Passey and Cpl. William MacKenzie, parachuted from the search planes to assist and care for the injured. At the same time, a ground team was sent to their location and all twenty walked to safety.

Although parachute rescues were not officially authorized at the time, this is considered by PJs to be the birth of Air Force pararescue. Eric Sevareid said of his rescuers: “Gallant is a precious word: they deserve it”. A few short months later, Capt. Porter was killed on a rescue mission when his B-25 was shot down.

In 1944, General William H. Tunner took command of Air Transport Command operations in CBI. Declaring the rescue organization to be a ‘cowboy operation’, he appointed Maj. Donald C. Pricer commander of the 3352nd Air Search and Rescue Squadron and assigned him several aircraft for the mission. In addition to fixed-wing aircraft, early helicopters were deployed to the CBI for use in rescue, marking the start of a long association between rotary-wing aircraft and air rescue.

Pararescuemen with the 301st Rescue Squadron return with a downed pilot from a successful rescue mission 8 April 2003 at a forward deployed location in southern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

A pararescueman from the 66th Expeditionary Rescue Squadron provides medical attention to a wounded Afghan.

 Post–World War II

Recognizing the need for a unified organization to perform search and rescue, the Army Air Force formed the Air Rescue Service (ARS). Officially established on 29 May 1946, the ARS was charged with saving the lives of aircrews who were involved in aircraft disasters, accidents, crash landings, ditchings or abandonments occurring away from an air base, and with being world-deployable to support far-flung air operations.

In the area around an air base, the air base commander had search and rescue jurisdiction through the Local Base Rescue (LBR) helicopter units. However, these were limited to a 135-mile (217 km) radius around the base due to the range and payload limitations of the aircraft. In order to reach beyond this limitation, Pararescue teams were authorized on 1 July 1947, with the first teams to be ready for fielding in November. Each team was to be composed of a Para-doctor and four Pararescue technicians trained in medicine, survival, rescue and tactics. Pararescue was given the mission of rescuing crews lost on long-range bomber and transport missions and to support other agencies when aerial rescue was requested.

A mission earlier in 1947 was the final impetus for the formal creation of Air Force Pararescue. In May, Dr. (Capt.) Pope B. ‘Doc’ Holliday parachuted out of an OA-10 Catalina into the Nicaraguan jungle to aid a crewmember who had parachuted from a crippled B-17 Flying Fortress. His actions earned him the Bronze Star and made him another of Pararescue’s early legends.

Concealment is the reason for camouflage, and knowing just how to do that can keep a PJ alive in combat. In this photograph, there are five Pararescuemen http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

Shortly after Pararescue teams were authorized, the 5th Rescue Squadron conducted the first Pararescue and Survival School at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. The core of instructors were experienced officers and enlisted men who were recruited from all branches of service. The commandant of that first school was pilot Lt. Perry C. Emmons, who had been assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. At the close of the war, Emmons and six sergeants flew prisoners of war out of Thailand, earning his group the nickname “Perry and the Pirates”, after the popular comic strip Terry and the Pirates. After the war, Emmons completed Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia, becoming only the second jump-qualified Air Force pilot.

 Clobbered Turkey

In late 1947, the crash of the B-29 “Clobbered Turkey” in Alaska brought home the need for specialized, well-trained Pararescuemen. On 21 December, the “Clobbered Turkey” hit a mountain and when the wreck was spotted on the 27th, Medical Corps Lt. Albert C. Kinney, First Sergeant Santhell O. London and T-5 Leon J. Casey — none of whom were trained Pararescuemen — volunteered to jump onto the crash site, located 95 miles north of Nome. The team encountered poor visibility, extreme temperatures and high winds on the site and as a result, all three perished. Casey’s body was found seven miles (11 km) from the crash site, swept there by the surface winds. Two members of the crew of the “Clobbered Turkey” who set out to seek assistance also perished a few miles from the site. When ground rescue crews finally arrived at the crash site two days later, they found that the remaining six members of the crew—who had stayed with the aircraft—had all survived. Dr. Kinney’s body was not located until July of the next year.

Pararescue students in training, mountain rescue. As an incapacitated victim, the single human body is a 200 lb bag of water, tissue, and bone. Imagine how difficult it is to pull this up a cliff while keeping the victim stable, safe, and alive. Now imagine this type of extraction under fire and in combat. This is the reason I have the greatest respect and admiration for Pararescuemen

http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

In 1949, due to a shortage of available doctors, Medical Service Corps officers replaced Para-doctors on the teams, receiving the same training as the enlisted Pararescuemen. One of the first of these officers was John C. Shumate, a pharmacist, who was appointed commandant of the Pararescue and Survival School.

At this time the Air Rescue Specialist Course was created at the School of Aviation Medicine, Gunter Air Force Base, Alabama. Designed to teach Pararescuemen the skills needed to determine the nature and extent of injuries and to administer treatment, the course was taught by Medical Corps officers with previous Pararescue experience, including: Dr. Pope B.’Doc’ Holliday, Dr. Rufus Hessberg, Dr. Hamilton Blackshear, Dr. Randal W. Briggs and Dr. Burt Rowan.

Often, in combat, concealment can mean life or death. Here a sniper blends in, barely visible against the background, even though he is in full sunlight. If you’re not sure that you see him, look at the photo below.  http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

 Korean War

An SH-19A rescuing a downed airman off Korea, 1953.

As Pararescue grew, PJ teams were assigned to every Air Rescue Service squadron to provide global coverage. By 1950, the unification of all the formerly independent Air Rescue Squadrons under the umbrella of the Air Rescue Service was complete.

In 1950, North Korea attacked across the 38th parallel and began the Korean War. This was an opportunity for Air Rescue to put training into practice and to develop theories into policies. One of the key new concepts was rescue of stranded personnel from behind enemy lines. This, along with evacuating critically wounded men from aid stations close to the front, were Air Rescue’s primary missions.

Pararescuemen were a normal part of Air Rescue crews for these missions. Their medical and tactical skills made them invaluable for evacuation and rescue missions of this type.

Pararescuemen were often called upon to leave the helicopters that carried them in order to assist the personnel they were sent to rescue. This might call for an extended stay behind enemy lines and overland travel of several miles. The longest of these ‘Lone Wolf’ missions lasted seventy-two hours.

By the end of the war in 1953, Air Rescue had evacuated over eight thousand critical casualties and rescued nearly a thousand men from behind enemy lines.

 Vietnam War

An HH-53C lowering a PJ during a rescue mission, June 1970.

The Vietnam War was a pivotal conflict for the Pararescue teams. The Air Force’s scope of operations became so large that demand for Pararescue teams expanded as well. The use of helicopters caused new tactics utilizing the speed, distance, and support they could provide. Rescue “packages” were created utilizing FACs (Forward Air Controllers), rescue escorts (such as AH-1 Cobras or A-1 Sandys), protective fighter CAP (Combat Air Patrol), and the HH-3 Jolly Green Giant and HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopters to provide fast rescue for pilots shot down far behind enemy lines. Pararescue personnel were part of these packages to provide medical assistance for injured aircrew as well as the ability to patrol for missing aircrew that might have been unconscious or dead.

Pararescue team members would be inserted to conduct LSO (Limited Surface Operations) searches while the escorts maintained an aggressive patrol to provide instantaneous support. Sometimes they would be inserted to search for personnel who were being forced to escape and evade; in such cases the mission might last for days. The Pararescue teams racked up an impressive record; during the conflict only 19 Airmen were awarded the Air Force Cross. Ten of those were awarded to Pararescuemen.

 Pararescue training and structure

Airmen wear water-filled masks while performing over one thousand flutter kicks after 20 hours of non-stop physical training during an extended training day at the Pararescue Indoctrination Training Center.

The process of becoming a “PJ” is known informally as “the Pipeline” or “Superman School. Successfully completing it takes about two years of intense physical and mental effort. Of the many who begin the process, only the most determined will graduate; sometimes as few as four to six from a class of nearly 100. From start to finish the drop out rate is about 90 percent from each class, the highest training dropout rate in the entire U.S. Special Operations community.

Pararescuemen are trained for all situations in any weather condition. In this photo, the student is ascending the side of a cliff in a training exercise as a wet snow starts to fall. PJs respond to many civilian rescues as well as military, and whenever it is too much for civilians to handle, Pararescue is called in to help.http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

Pararescue trainees are required to attend the Pararescue Indoctrination Course. Following that is a long string of courses including Combat Dive School, Army Airborne, National Registry for Paramedic, Survival (SERE), and Military Free-fall Parachutist. Upon completing the aforementioned, a pararescue trainee is required to then complete the Pararescue Apprentice Course, which combines all the prior skills and adds a few more. Once a Pararescueman has completed the pipeline, they are assigned to a Rescue or Special Tactics team where they will receive informal On-the-Job training. Additionally if a pararescueman is assigned to a special tactics team they will receive additional training along with Air Force Combat Controllers in what is known as Advanced Skills Training.

• Pararescue/Combat Rescue Officer Indoctrination Course, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (9 weeks)

The mission of the Indoctrination Course is to recruit, select and train future PJs and CROs. At this school, participants undergo extensive physical conditioning with swimming, running, weight training and calisthenics. This course helps prepare students for the rigors of training and the demands of these lifestyles. Other training includes obstacle courses, rucksack marches, diving physics, dive tables, metric manipulations, medical terminology, dive terminology, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, weapons qualifications, history of PJs, and leadership reaction course. Graduation of this course is the “ticket to ride the pipeline” and begin learning the special skills that make PJs highly regarded special operators.

Pararescue students and instructor in tactical training exercise in the badlands of New Mexico. These guys learn an incredible amount in their time in the pipeline, and the student groups come from all over our country..http://www.jayfisher.com/USAF_Pararescue_Knives.htm

• Army Airborne School, Fort Benning, Georgia (3 weeks)

Students learn the basic parachuting skills required to infiltrate an objective area by static line airdrop. This course includes ground operations week, tower week, and “jump week” when participants make five parachute jumps. Personnel who complete this training are awarded the basic parachutist rating and are allowed to wear the Parachutist Badge.

• Air Force Combat Diver School, Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center, Naval Support Activity Panama City, Florida (5.5 weeks)

U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen from the 82nd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ, walk their Zodiac to the beach after jumping out of an MH-53 Pave Low helicopter.

Pararescuemen and a simulated “survivor” watch as an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter comes in for a landing.

The course is divided into four blocks of instruction: (1) Diving Theory, (2) Infiltration/Exfiltration Methods, (3) Open Circuit Diving Operations, and (4) Closed Circuit Diving Operations. The primary focus of AFCDC is to develop Pararescuemen/Combat Rescue Officers and Combat Controller/Special Tactics Officers into competent, capable and safe combat divers/swimmers. The course provides commanders with divers/swimmers capable of undertaking personnel recovery and special operations waterborne missions. AFCDC provides diver training through classroom instruction, extensive physical training, surface and sub-surface water confidence pool exercises, pool familiarization dives, day/night tactical open water surface/sub-surface infiltration swims, open/closed circuit diving procedures and underwater search and recovery procedures. The session culminates with a waterborne field training exercise.

http://discovermilitary.com/special-forces/united-states-air-force-pararescue/

• Navy Underwater Egress Training, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida (1 day)

This course teaches how to safely escape from an aircraft that has landed in the water. Instruction includes principles, procedures and techniques necessary to escape a sinking aircraft.

• Air Force Basic Survival School, Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington (2.5 weeks)

This course teaches basic survival techniques for remote areas using minimal equipment. This includes instruction of principles, procedures, equipment and techniques that help individuals to survive, regardless of climatic conditions or unfriendly environments, and return home.

• Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona (5 weeks)

Air Force Pararescuemen jump from an HC-130P/N in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

This course instructs free fall parachuting (HALO) using a high performance parafoil. The course provides wind tunnel training, in-air instruction focusing on student stability, aerial maneuvers, air sense and parachute opening procedures. Each student receives a minimum of 30 free fall jumps including two day and two night jumps with supplemental oxygen, rucksack and load-bearing equipment.

• Pararescue EMT-Paramedic Training, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (22 weeks)

This course teaches how to manage trauma patients prior to evacuation and provide emergency medical treatment. Phase I is four weeks of emergency medical technician basic (EMT-B) training. Phase II lasts 20 weeks and provides instruction in minor field surgery, pharmacology, combat trauma management, advanced airway management and military evacuation procedures. The airmen are then sent to Tucson, Arizona for hands-on medical training. Trainees work along side paramedics with the Tucson Fire Department as well as local hospitals. Graduates of the course are awarded National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians–Paramedic (NREMT-P) certification.

• Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (24 weeks)

Qualifies airmen as pararescue recovery specialists for assignment to any Pararescue unit worldwide. Training includes field medical care and tactics, mountaineering, combat tactics, advanced parachuting and helicopter insertion/extraction qualifications. At the completion of this course, each graduate is awarded the maroon beret.

 Pararescue Orientation Course

Since the 1950s, Air Force Pararescueman have provided training and mentorship for Civil Air Patrol cadets. This was formalized in 1977 with the introduction of Pararescue Orientation Course (PJOC) at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. PJOC was later taught at Fort Knox, Kentucky and George Washington National Forest, Virginia. The course teaches CAP cadets fundamental survival and rescue skills such as shelter building, land navigation, and rock climbing. Advanced Pararescue Orientation Course (APJOC) began in the 1980s and was taught only at Kirtland AFB. In 2003, both programs were cancelled. PJOC returned in 2004, but APJOC did not see its return until 2008 when the course was moved to Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona. APJOC builds upon the skills learned at PJOC and exposes cadets to life in an operational Pararescue or Special Tactics Squadron. It plays with a Combat Rescue Training Exercise. During APJOC, Cadets are administered the Pararescue Physical Ability and Stamina Test. For those who pass and meet all other enlistment requirements, they may be enlisted directly into Pararescue under the United States Air Force Guaranteed Training Enlistment Program. Both PJOC and APJOC are Civil Air Patrol National Cadet Special Activities provided by United States Air Force Pararescue.

 Traditions

 Pararescue Creed

“

It is my duty as a Pararescueman to save lives and to aid the injured. I will be prepared at all times to perform my assigned duties quickly and efficiently, placing these duties before personal desires and comforts. These things I do, that others may live.

”

Originally titled “The Code of the Air Rescueman”, it was penned by the first commander of the Air Rescue Service, (then) Lt. Col. Richard T. Kight and is also still used by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC).

 Green Footprint Tattoos

This tradition arose during the Vietnam War, at which point in time the most commonly used helicopter was the CH-3E, nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant due to its enormous size and olive drab exterior. The tradition came about when pilots or other military personnel were in need of rescue. After these personnel were rescued, they would proceed to receive the tattoo of the green feet on their buttocks due to the fact that the Para Jumpers “saved their ass.”

 Origin of term “Para Jumper”

The term “Para Jumper” is a retronym of the initials ‘PJ’ that were used on an Air Force Form 5 (Aircrew Flight Log) to identify anyone who is onboard in order to jump from the aircraft. Pararescuemen originally had no ‘in flight’ duties and were listed only as ‘PJ’ on the Form 5. The pararescue position eventually grew to include duties as an aerial gunner and scanner on rotary wing aircraft, a duty now performed by aerial gunners. Currently, aircrew qualified Pararescuemen will be recorded using aircrew position identifier ‘J’ (‘Pararescue Member’) on the AFTO form 781.

 Notable Pararescuemen

Pararescueman rappels from a helicopter during operational training in Iraq

• PJ Medical Service Corps Capt. John Shumate (who had been head of the Pararescue and Survival School at MacDill AFB) earned the Silver Star when he retrieved an injured pilot under enemy fire and carried him back to a waiting helicopter in October 1952.

• PJ Airman First Class William H. Pitsenbarger was awarded the Air Force Cross posthumously for his actions during the Vietnam War. His medal was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

• PJ Tech Sergeant Wayne Fisk earned a Silver Star for his role in the Son Tay Prison raid in November 1970, and another Silver Star for participating in the SS Mayaguez rescue in May 1975. During the Mayaguez rescue, Fisk was the last U.S. serviceman to personally engage the enemy in Southeast Asia. Other medals earned during his five tours in Vietnam include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, and the Air Medal with 17 oak leaf clusters.

• PJ Airman Second Class Duane D. Hackney was awarded the Air Force Cross for actions while recovering a downed pilot in North Vietnam, on 6 February 1967.

• PJ Sergeant Larry W. Maysey was awarded the Air Force Cross for actions in a night recovery of an infiltration team in which several recovery aircraft—including his own—were shot down in Southeast Asia on 9 November 1967.
• PJ Tech. Sgt. Tim Wilkinson was a recipient of the Air Force Cross for his heroic actions in the Battle Of Mogadishu, Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.

• PJ Senior Airman Jason D. Cunningham, was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross for actions on 4 March 2002, during the Battle of Takur Ghar.

• PJ Senior Master Sergeant John Brehm wrote the first ever book about the story of a PJ. The book, entitled That Others May Live copyright 2000, tells the story of SMSGT Brehm’s life in the military as a pararescueman and as a husband and father of five. Pararescue jumpers, or PJs, are the military’s most elite force, a highly trained group of men serving in the Air Force and the National Guard. In battle, they fly behind enemy lines to rescue downed pilots. In peacetime, PJs stay sharp with daring civilian rescues, recovering victims from scorching deserts, treacherous mountaintops, raging seas, and natural disasters. Their almost unimaginable courage first came to the public’s attention in Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, with that book’s riveting account of how a helicopter of PJs plunged into the Atlantic during a tragic rescue attempt. Senior Master Sergeant Jack Brehm was the PJ supervisor coordinating their dramatic efforts that night

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan

Post 2.654

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As of 3 April 2012 (2012 -04-03) there have been 2,853 coalition deaths in Afghanistan as part of ongoing coalition operations (Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF) since the invasion in 2001. In this total, the American figure is for deaths “In and Around Afghanistan” which, as defined by the United States Department of Defense, includes some deaths in Pakistan and Uzbekistan and the deaths of 12 CIA operatives.

In addition to these deaths in Afghanistan, another 31 U.S. and one Canadian soldier were killed in other countries while supporting operations in Afghanistan. The total also omits the 62 Spanish soldiers returning from Afghanistan who died in Turkey on May 26, 2003, when their plane crashed.

During the first five years of the war, the vast majority of coalition deaths were American, but between 2006 and 2011, a significant proportion were amongst other nations, particularly the United Kingdom and Canada which have been assigned responsibility for the flashpoint provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, respectively. This is because in 2006, ISAF expanded its jurisdiction to the southern regions of Afghanistan which were previously under the direct authority of the U.S. military. As Robert Gates pointed out on June 10, 2011, in his “last policy speech” as U.S. Secretary of Defense, “more than 850 troops from non-U.S. NATO members have made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. For many allied nations these were the first military casualties they have taken since the end of the Second World War.Additionally, there have been 63 fatalities among troops from the non-NATO contributors to the coalition (Australia, Georgia, Sweden, New Zealand, Finland, Jordan, South Korea and Albania).

With 711 Operation Enduring Freedom and ISAF deaths, 2010 was the deadliest year for foreign military troops since the U.S. invasion in 2001, continuing the trend that has occurred every year since 2003.

In 2009, there were 7,228 improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in Afghanistan, a 120% increase over 2008, and a record for the war. Of the 512 foreign soldiers killed in 2009, 448 were killed in action. 280 of those were killed by IEDs. In 2010, IED attacks in Afghanistan wounded 3,366 U.S. soldiers, which is nearly 60% of the total IED-wounded since the start of the war. Of the 711 foreign soldiers killed in 2010, 630 were killed in action. 368 of those were killed by IEDs, which is around 36% of the total IED-killed since the start of the war to date.Insurgents planted 14,661 IEDs in 2010, a 62% increase over the previous year.

Coalition deaths in Afghanistan by country

USA: 1,827^* UK: 408 Canada: 158^* France: 82 Germany: 56 Italy: 50 Denmark: 42 Poland: 37 Spain: 34^* Australia: 32 Netherlands: 25 Romania: 19 Georgia: 15 Turkey: 14 Norway: 10 Estonia: 9 Hungary: 7 New Zealand: 5 Sweden: 5 Czech Republic: 5 Latvia: 3 Finland: 2 Jordan: 2 Portugal: 2 South Korea: 2 Albania: 1 Belgium: 1 Lithuania: 1

TOTAL: 2,854

Details regarding the fatalities

 United States

Main article: United States Forces casualties in the war in Afghanistan

Of the United States deaths, more than 1,500 have died in hostile action. Included in these numbers are 12 CIA operatives that were killed in Afghanistan: seven in a suicide bomb attack on a military base, two in an ambush, one in a shooting attack at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, one in a prison uprising in November 2001, and one in an accident.The independent website iCasualties has put the number of U.S. deaths at 1,827.This number is by six higher than the Department of Defense’s tally which is 1,823, when including the intelligence operatives.

As of March 16, 2012, 15,460 United States soldiers have been wounded in action in Afghanistan.Also, one U.S. soldier is currently being held as a prisoner of war since July 1, 2009.

Seems that a lot of veterans committed suicide. ^[13]. More than 50000 up to the begin of 2012.

 Albania

Albanian soldiers carry the coffin of Albanian Captain Feti Vogli, 31, as it arrives at Tirana’s Mother Teresa airport February 24, 2012. On February 20, Afghan gunmen clad in police uniforms opened fire on NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, killing Vogli and injuring two other foreign soldiers, according to Albania’s Defense Ministry.            REUTERS/Arben Celi (ALBANIA – Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST MILITARY TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

There has been one recorded fatality among Albanian troops. Captain Feti Vogli was killed in Herat.

 Australian

The reparation ceremony for Australian Private Gregory Michael Sher, killed in southern Afghanistan in 2009, making him the first Australian Defense Force soldier to be killed by indirect fire since 1992.

Main article: Operation Slipper

The Australian forces in Afghanistan have suffered 32 fatalities. 213 soldiers have been wounded.

 British

Main article: British Forces casualties in Afghanistan since 2001

British Soldiers patrol Helmand Province

As of April 8, 2012, the British forces have suffered 408 fatalities and 1,875 wounded in action, another 3,759 have suffered from disease or non-battle injuries. Of these, 368 soldiers were killed as a result of hostile action, while 40 are known to have died either as a result of illness, non-combat injuries or accidents, or have not yet officially been assigned a cause of death pending the outcome of an investigation. The vast majority of fatalities have taken place since the redeployment of British forces to the Taliban stronghold of Helmand province in 2006, as only five men died between April 2002 and early March 2006.

 Canadian

Main article: Canadian Forces casualties in Afghanistan

3PPCLI during Operation Cherokee Sky north of Qalat, July 2002

Canada’s role in Afghanistan, consisting of operations against the Taliban and other insurgents in southern Afghanistan (Kandahar Province), has resulted in the largest number of fatal casualties for any single Canadian military mission since the Korean War.

Canadian soldiers supporting Operation Enduring Freedom look out over Afghan landscape

A total of 157^* members of the Canadian Forces have died in Afghanistan between February 2002 and October 29, 2011. Of these, 132 were due to enemy actions, including 97 due to IEDs or landmines, 22 due to RPG, small arms or mortar fire, and 13 due to suicide bomb attacks. Another six Canadian soldiers died due to friendly fire while conducting combat operations. An additional 19 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan as a result of accidents or non-combat circumstances; 6 in vehicle accidents, 3 unspecified non-combat-related deaths, 3 suicide deaths, 2 in a helicopter crash, 2 from accidental falls, 2 from accidental gunshots and 1 death from an illness. 635 soldiers had been wounded in action and 1,412 received non-battle injuries since April 2002, up to their withdrawal in December 2011.

Canadian soldiers rise above the valley as they search for Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters

In addition to these troop deaths in Afghanistan, 1 Canadian soldier was found dead of non-combat-related causes at Camp Mirage, a forward logistics base in the United Arab Emirates near Dubai.

 Danish

Denmark, a NATO member, has about 750 troops in Afghanistan, mostly stationed in Helmand province as part of NATO’s International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF).

Denmark is the country in ISAF that has had the largest number of casualties compared to the country’s population. Out of all the countries, Denmark is also the nation which has the largest percentage of its soldiers who have died. Also, Denmark is also among the nations with most troops deployed relative to size.

Denmark’s first three deaths were the result of an accident during the disposal of a Soviet-era anti-aircraft missile in 2002. With a new mandate issued by the Danish parliament in 2006, Danish military operations transformed from relatively safe non-combat operations in the centre of the country to combat operations alongside the British contingent in the violent southern Helmand province. 36 soldiers have been killed in various hostile engagements or as a result of friendly fire, and 6 have been killed in non-combat related incidents, bringing the number of Danish fatalities to 42. More than 100 soldiers have been wounded in action.

 Dutch

A total of 25 Dutch servicemen were killed in Afghanistan.The first two Dutch fatalities were soldiers killed in an accidental helicopter crash in 2006. Since then, one pilot died in a non-hostile F-16 crash, and one soldier committed suicide at Kamp Holland.

In 2007, one soldier was accidentally killed when a Patria armoured vehicle overturned at a river crossing near Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan. After that 19 soldiers were killed in action between 2007 and 2010. Finally, the last soldier to die was from an illness a month before the contingent withdrew from the country in December 2010. 140 soldiers were wounded in action.

 Estonian

An Estonian soldier with local children in Afghanistan http://www.vm.ee/eng/nato/kat_359/7913.html

Nine Estonian soldiers have died in Afghanistan: eight have been killed in action and one in an accident. Over 60 soldiers have been wounded in action.

 French

Main article: French forces in Afghanistan

A total of 82 French soldiers have died thus far.^[28] 61 soldiers have been killed in action, of the others: seven have died in vehicle accidents,four were killed by an Afghan soldier who turned and fired their rifle on French soldiers during training, one in a helicopter crash, two committed suicide, two have drowned, one was killed by a lightning strike, two died from a non-hostile gunshot wound, one died in an accidental explosion, and one died of unknown causes.

The largest number of soldiers killed was when French troops were ambushed in the area of Sirobi, some 50 km (31 mi) east of Kabul, in August 2008. Ten French troops were killed and a further 21 wounded in the attack – the heaviest loss of troops France has suffered since deploying to Afghanistan in 2001.

 Georgian

The U.S. President Barack Obama visits the wounded Georgian LTC Alex Tugushi at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in March 2012

Georgia has thus far suffered 15 deaths and 38 injured. The first Georgian fatality occurred on September 5, 2010, when 28 years old colonel Mukhran Shukvani was killed in an IED attack. Corporal Alexandre Gitolendia was also seriously wounded in the attack, bringing Georgian casualties to 1 KIA and 1 WIA.^[31] Four more Georgian soldiers were killed by a landmine during combat operations on October 1, 2010, in Helmland. On February 21, 2011 Georgia lost another soldier, George Avaliani, while two others were wounded. On March 14, 2011, one of the two injured died in a hospital in Germany and on May 27, 2011 another soldier died.

On June 21 a ninth Georgian soldier died of injuries sustained during an attack. On August 31, 2011, junior sergeant Rezo Beridze was killed by sniper fire during a patrol mission, Corporal Besik Naniashvili died on December 30, 2011,January 6, 2012 Corporal Shalva Pailodze got killed, on February 22, 2012 Georgian Ministry of Defence announced death of Corporals – Beraia Valiko, Meladze Ruslan and Kacharava Paata, their combat vehicle exploded following an insurgent attack. This incident brought the total fatal casualties of Georgia to 15.

 German

Main article: German Armed Forces casualties in Afghanistan

German soldiers of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) receive flowers during a security transition ceremony July 23, 2011 in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province, Afghanistan. The Afghan government officially took control of security from NATO forces in the capital of the peaceful northern province of Balkh , part of an effort to begin handing over all security responsibilities to Afghan forces by 2014, next is the city of Kabul.  (Majid Saeedi/AFP/Getty Images

A total of 53 German soldiers and 3 police officers were killed. 245 service personnel have been wounded in action.

 Hungarian

Hungarian soldiers patrol the hill tops near Pol-e-Khomri, provincial … http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dsw8d8alMa7N

Seven Hungarians died in Afghanistan. Two EOD members were killed by IEDs. Two were killed in a convoy attack by the Taliban. Two died in a vehicle accident during a convoy-escort task. One died because of heart attack. Also, 14 Hungarian soldiers have been wounded in action.

 Italian

A total of 50 Italians have died in Afghanistan: 32 killed in action, nine died in vehicle accidents, two of a heart attack, one due to an accidental weapon discharge, four of illness, one in an accidental airplane crash and one committed suicide. Of the 32 who died in combat, one had died from injuries sustained a week before. The soldier had been captured and was injured in the raid to rescue him. One other Italian soldier was captured but he was rescued safely.

 Jordanian

nice photo of Jordanian soldiers leaving to Afghanistan  http://technoyugi.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

A member of the Jordanian spy agency Dairat al-Mukhabarat al-Ammah, was killed in the Forward Operating Base Chapman attack. Also, a Jordanian soldier was killed and three were wounded while escorting a humanitarian convoy in Logar province on May 22, 2011.

 New Zealand

Two New Zealand soldiers have been killed in Bamyan Province. Lieutenant Timothy O’Donnell was killed after his convoy was ambushed on a notorious stretch of road in the province. And Private Kirifi Mila when the Humvee he was in rolled down a 30-metre cliff. A member of the New Zealand SAS was killed in Kabul on August 18, 2011. Another member of the New Zealand SAS was killed on 27 September 2011 in Wardak province.

 Norwegian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/08/al-qaida-norway-bomb-plot

10 Norwegian soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan. 830 soldiers have been wounded in action or injured in accidents, of which, 26 were considered as trauma cases.

 Polish

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2010/09/28/967242_polish-soldier-killed-in-afghanistan

34 Polish soldiers (including a military civilian medic) have been killed in action, one died in a vehicle accident and two died due to a non-combat cause.At least 100 soldiers have been wounded in action.

 Romanian

Romanian president visits troops in Afghanistan |: http://www.army.mil/article/48768/Romanian_

19 Romanian soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan. More than 40 soldiers have been wounded in action.

 Swedish

Five Swedish soldiers have been killed in action since 2005. Three in two separate IED incidents and two in a ambush by a ANP uniform wearing insurgent. Several local translators working with the Swedish PRT have been killed.

 Spanish

Of the Spanish deaths, 17 died in August 2005 when the Eurocopter Cougar helicopter they were travelling in crashed, 12 were killed in separate attacks by insurgents, two died from natural causes, and two died in vehicle accidents. Another 62 died in a Yak-42 plane crash in Turkey on their way back to Spain from Afghanistan.

 South Korean

A South Korean officer was shot by a fellow officer for not following an order to speak quietly on the telephone. Another South Korean soldier, Sergeant Yoon Jang-ho, was killed in a suicide bomb attack at Bagram Air Base.

 Turkish

The Turkish Army suffered its first deaths on July 14, 2009, when two soldiers were killed in a road traffic accident in Faryab province, between Mazar-i Sharif and Kabul. One of the two killed was the commander of the Turkish contingent of ISAF troops in Afghanistan.  On March 16, 2012, 12 Turkish soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed into an house in Kabul.

 Out-of-country deaths related to the war

Coalition deaths in other countries as the result of the war Spain: 62 USA: 31 Canada: 1 TOTAL: 94

In addition to the 1,827 American deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, another 31 U.S. soldiers died in: Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Germany, Turkey, the Arabian sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, while supporting operations in Afghanistan. Among them are also a Marine, a civilian DoD employee and two military airmen who were killed in action while supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

A Canadian soldier was found dead of non-combat-related causes at a forward logistics base in the United Arab Emirates near Dubai.

62 Spanish soldiers died in a Yak-42 plane crash in Turkey on their way back to Spain from Afghanistan

Vajont Dam

Post 2.653

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Vajont Dam (or Vaiont Dam) is a disused dam, completed in 1959 in the valley of the Vajont river under Monte Toc, 100 km north of Venice, Italy. A 1963 landslide caused the overtopping of the dam and around 2,000 deaths.

Monte Toc, nicknamed the walking mountain by locals due to its tendency to landslide, is a mountain on the border between Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Northern Italy best known for the Vajont Dam, which was built at the mountain’s base in 1960.

On October 9, 1963, 260 million cubic metres of rock slid down the side of Mount Toc caused by a minor earth tremor and plunged into the reservoir created by the Vajont Dam at an estimated 100 mph, sending a wave of water 250 metres high over the dam wall and destroying the town of Longarone and its suburbs. 1,909 people were killed, 1,450 of whom were in Longarone.

One of the tallest dams in the world, it is 262 m (860 ft) high, 27 m (89 ft) thick at the base and 3.4 m (11 ft) at the top. Its 1963 over-topping was caused when the designers ignored the geological instability of Monte Toc on the southern side of the basin. Warning signs and negative appraisals during the early stages of filling were disregarded, and the attempt to complete the filling led to a landslide, which created a wave that brought massive flooding and destruction to the Piave valley below, wiping out several villages completely.

Piave
Origin	Monte Peralba, Valle di Sappada (Province of Belluno)
Mouth	Adriatic near Cortellazzo (frazione of Jesolo)
Basin countries	Italy
Length	220 km
Source elevation	2,037 m
Basin area	4,126.84 km²

On 12 February 2008, while launching the International Year of Planet Earth, UNESCO cited the Vajont Dam tragedy as one of five “cautionary tales”, caused by “the failure of engineers and geologists”.

Vajont Dam
Official name	Vajont dam
Coordinates	46°16′02″N 12°19′44″E / 46.26722°N 12.32889°E / 46.26722; 12.32889Coordinates: 46°16′02″N 12°19′44″E / 46.26722°N 12.32889°E / 46.26722; 12.32889
Dam and spillways
Height	262 m
Reservoir
Creates	Lago del Vajont
Capacity	Empty

Construction

The dam was built by SADE (Società Adriatica di Elettricità, English: Adriatic Energy Corporation), the electricity supply and distribution monopolist in North-Eastern Italy. The owner, Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata,

Giuseppe Volpi

had been Mussolini‘s Minister of Finances for several years. The ‘tallest dam in the world’, across the Vajont gorge, was conceived in the 1920s to meet the growing demands for industrialization, but not until the confusion after Mussolini’s fall during World War II was the project authorized on 15 October 1943.

The dam and basin were intended to be at the centre of a complex system of water management in which water would have been channeled from nearby valleys and artificial basins located at higher levels. Tens of kilometres of concrete pipes and pipe-bridges across valleys were planned. Because of the 1963 disaster and to smaller scale landslides in other basins in the zone, the system was never actually operated.

In the 1950s, SADE’s monopoly was confirmed by post-fascist governments and it purchased the land despite opposition by the communities of Erto and Casso in the valley, which was overcome with government and police support. SADE stated that the geology of the gorge had been studied, including analysis of ancient landslides, and that the mountain was believed to be sufficiently stable.

View of the historical center of Erto, in the Province of Pordenone

The Vajont disaster

Erto and Casso were the two villages in the Vajont (/vaˈjɔnt/) valley, above the artificial lake, before the Vajont Dam disaster on October 9, 1963. The landslide and flood killed almost 2,000 people in total, destroying five villages in the Piave valley but leaving Erto and Casso only slightly damaged. The two villages were cautionally evacuated within three days of the disaster and the valley stayed empty for three years thereafter. During those years, some of the survivors settled down in the Maniago municipality, creating what would become the new Vajont municipality from 1971.

http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/projects/geoweb/participants/Dutch/VTrips/Vaiont.HTM (click thee site more images )

Three years after evacuation, some other survivors, in spite of being forbidden to return to the valley, went back to their former houses and reformed the villages of Erto and Casso, which still form the municipality today

Construction work started in 1957, but by 1959 shifts and fractures were noticed while building a new road on the side of Monte Toc. This led to new studies in which three different experts separately told SADE that the entire side of Monte Toc was unstable and would likely collapse into the basin if the filling were completed. All three were ignored by SADE. In October 1959 construction was completed and in February 1960 SADE was authorised to start filling the basin.

Vajont Lake, Dolomites, Italy, as of Sept. 2009. On the left side, the village of Erto

 Early signs of disaster

Throughout the summer of 1960, minor landslides and earth movements were noticed; however instead of heeding these warning signs, the Italian government chose to sue the handful of journalists reporting the problems for “undermining the social order.

On 4 November 1960, with the level of the basin at about 190 m of the planned 262, a landslide of about 800,000 m³ collapsed into the lake. SADE stopped the filling, lowered the level by about 50 m and started to build an artificial gallery in the basin in front of Monte Toc, to keep the basin usable even when the expected further landslides divided it into two parts.

In October 1961, after the completion of the gallery, SADE restarted the filling under controlled monitoring. In April and May 1962, with the basin at 215 m, the people of Erto e Casso reported five earthquakes of ‘grade five’ on the Mercalli scale, though SADE downplayed their importance. SADE was then authorized to complete the filling up to the maximum level.

In July 1962, SADE’s own engineers reported the results of model-based experiments on the effects of further landslides into the lake, which predicted a devastating disaster if they happened when the basin was full. The management ignored these results as well.

View of the village of Longarone below the dam after the wave had passed through, showing the extent of damage

In November 1962, SADE was taken into the public ownership of ENEL.

In March 1963, the dam was transferred to the newly constituted public company for electricity, ENEL, but the management remained the same. In the following summer, with the basin almost completely filled, slides, shakes and movements of the ground were continuously reported by the alarmed population. On 15 September the entire side of the mountain moved down by 22 cm. On 26 September, ENEL decided to slowly empty the basin down to the level of 240 m, but in early October the collapse of the mountain looked unavoidable: one day it moved almost 1 m. There is no known record of any warning or displacement order being issued to the populace.

 Landslide and wave

The Vajont Dam as seen from the village Longarone in 2005, showing approximately the top 60-70 meters of concrete. The 200-250 meter wall of water that overtopped the dam and destroyed the village would have obscured virtually all of the sky in this photo.

On 9 October 1963 at 10:39 pm, the combination of ‘drawing-down the reservoir’ and heavy rains triggered a landslide of about 260 million m³ of forest, earth, and rock, which fell into the reservoir at up to 110 km per hour (68 mph). The resulting displacement of water caused 50 million m³ of water to over-top the dam in a 250 meter (820 foot) high wave. Despite this, the dam’s structure was largely undamaged — the top meter or so of masonry was washed away, but the basic structure remained intact.

 Before disaster http://www.vajont.info/prima&dopo.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Disaster  http://www.vajont.info/prima&dopo.html

The flooding in the Piave valley destroyed the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Faè, killing around 2000 people and turning the land below into a flat plain of mud. Many small villages in the territory of Erto e Casso and the village of Codissago, near Castellavazzo, were largely wrecked. Estimates of the dead range from 1900 to 2500 people, and about 350 families lost all members. Most of the survivors had lost relatives and friends along with their homes and belongings.

The villages near the landslide also suffered damage from the air displacement caused by the impact.

 Causes and responsibilities

http://www.vajont.info/scuse/prefACTION-SCHOOLS.html

Immediately after the disaster, the government (who now owned the dam), politicians and public authorities insisted on attributing the tragedy to an unexpected and unavoidable natural event.

The debate in the newspapers was heavily influenced by politics. The paper l’Unità, the Partito Comunista Italiano‘s mouthpiece, was the first to denounce the actions of the management and government, as it had previously carried a number of articles by Tina Merlin addressing the behaviour of the SADE management in the Vajont project and elsewhere. Indro Montanelli, then the most influential Italian journalist and a vocal anti-communist, attacked l’Unità and denied any human responsibility: l’Unità and the PCI were dubbed “jackals, speculating on pain and on the dead” in many articles by the Domenica del Corriere and a national campaign poster paid for by Democrazia Cristiana (DC). The catastrophe was attributed only to natural causes and God’s will.

The campaign accused the PCI of sending agitprops into the refugee communities, as relief personnel: most of them were partisans from Emilia Romagna who fought on Mount Toc in the Second World War and often had friends in the stricken area. ^[10]

Democrazia Cristiana, the party of prime minister Giovanni Leone, accused the Communist Party of ‘political profiteering’ from the tragedy. Leone promised to bring justice to the people killed in the disaster. A few months after he lost the premiership, he became the head of SADE’s team of lawyers, who significantly reduced the amount of compensation for the survivors and ruled out payment for at least 600 victims.

The DC’s newspaper, La Discussione, called the disaster “a mysterious act of God’s love”, in an article that drew sharp criticism from l’Unità.

Apart from journalistic attacks and the attempted cover-up from news sources aligned with the government, there had been proven flaws in the geological assessments, and disregard of warnings about the likelihood of a disaster by SADE, ENEL and the government.

The trial was moved to L’Aquila, near Rome, by the judges who heard the preliminary trial, thus preventing public participation, and resulted in lenient sentencing for a handful of the SADE and ENEL engineers. One SADE engineer (Mario Pancini) committed suicide in 1968. The government never sued SADE for damage compensation.

Subsequent engineering analysis has focused on the cause of the landslide, and there is ongoing debate about the contribution of rainfall, dam level changes and earthquakes as triggers of the landslide, as well as differing views about whether it was an old landslide that slipped further or a completely new one.

There were a number of problems with the choice of site for the dam and reservoir: The canyon was steep sided, the river had undercut its banks, the limestone and clay-stone rocks that made up the walls of the canyon were inter-bedded with the slippery clay-like Lias and Dogger Jurassic period horizons and the Cretaceous period Malm horizon, all of which were inclined towards the axis of the canyon. In addition, the limestone layers contained many solution caverns that became only more saturated because of rains in September.

Prior to the landslide that caused the over-topping flood, the creep of the regolith had been 0.4 inches per week. In September, this creep reached 10.0 inches per day until finally, the day before the landslide, the creep was measured at 40.0 inches (1 m).

 Reconstruction

Most of the survivors were moved into a newly built village, Vajont, 50 km south east on the river Tagliamento plain. Those who insisted on returning to their mountain life in Erto e Casso were strongly discouraged. Longarone and other villages in the Piave valley were rebuilt with modern houses and factories.

The government used the disaster to promote the industrialization of the North-East of Italy. Survivors were entitled to ‘business start-up’ loans, public subsidies and ten years tax exemption, all of which they could ‘sell-on’ to major companies from the Venice region. These concessions were then converted into millions of euros for plants elsewhere. Among the corporations were Zanussi (now owned by Electrolux), Ceramica Dolomite (now owned by American Standard), Confezioni SanRemo, and SAVIC (now owned by Italcementi).

Compensation measures did not clearly differentiate between victims and people who lived nearby, thus much of the compensation went to people who had suffered little damage, creating a negative public image.

A pumping station was installed in the dam basin to keep the lake at a constant level, and the bypass gallery was lengthened beyond the dam to let the water flow down to the Piave valley. The dam wall is still in place and maintained, but there are no plans to exploit it. The dry basin, filled with landslip, has been open to visitors since 2002.

The memorial church in Longarone – although its construction was strongly opposed by the surviving parish priest – is a late masterpiece of the famous architect Giovanni Michelucci.

 In the media

After the initial world-wide reporting the tragedy became regarded as part of the price of economic growth in the 1950s and 1960s.

Interest was rejuvenated by a 1997 television program by Marco Paolini and Gabriele Vacis, “Il racconto del Vajont”.

A 2001 movie Vajont, La diga del disonore (“Vajont, The dam of dishonour” or La Folie des hommes [“The Madness of men”] in France), starring Michel Serrault and Daniel Auteuil, was released.

It was studied in the 2008 documentary series Disasters of the Century.

 Images at the Italian Wikipedia

• Aerial view of the ‘Valley-Vajont’ shortly after the disaster of 9 October 1963. The image shows the landslide of 260 million m³ of rock and mud that has detached from Mount Toc, then filled and overflowed the reservoir. The ‘over-top’ rock flow on the right side shows the origin of the minor damage to the top 2 m of concrete that is still visible in 2009.

• The ‘bell tower’ at Longarone shortly after the disaster of 9 October 1963. The bell tower that remained standing after the passage of the ‘wave of death’. The church at the base was completely swept away with the entire village.

The Vaiont (Vajont) landslide of 1963

 http://www.landslideblog.org/2008/12/vaiont-vajont-landslide-of-1963.html

For some 12 or so years I have maintained a set of notes on the amazing Vajont (sometimes spelt Vaiont) landslide of N. Italy. This is the most deadly landslide in Europe in recorded history. For a while I have been meaning to move the notes over to here – today I have finally got around to it, so here they are:

THE VAJONT LANDSLIDE Introduction The Vajont reservoir disaster is a classic example of the consequences of the failure of engineers and geologists to understand the nature of the problem that they were trying to deal with. During the filling of the reservoir a block of approximately 270 million cubic metres detached from one wall and slid into the lake at velocities of up to 30 m/sec (approx. 110 km/h). As a result a wave over topped the dam by 250 m and swept onto the valley below, with the loss of about 2500 lives. Remarkably the dam remained unbroken by the flood.
Location and background Vajont is located in the south-eastern part of the Dolomite Region of the Italian Alps, about 100 km north of Venice. It was built as a part of the on-going, post-war development of Italy in order to provide HEP for the rapidly-expanding northern cities of Milan, Turin and Modena. Whilst a proposal to site a dam at this location was made in the 1920’s, excavation of the site began in 1956 and the dam was completed in 1960. The completed doubly curved arch dam was, at 265.5 metres above the valley floor, the worlds highest thin arch dam. The chord of the dam was 160 m, and the volume of impounded water was 115 million cubic metres.

The dam was built across the Vajont Valley, a deep, narrow gorge. The geological setting of the valley was fully understood. In this area, the mountains tend to be characterised by massive, near-vertical cliffs formed in the Jurassic Dogger formation and underlying Triassic formations. The local valleys tend to be associated with outcrops of the weaker formations, particularly the Upper and Lower Cretaceous and Tertiary units, which contain more clays and are more thinly bedded. Thus the generalised geological structure is of a syncline cut by the valley. The syncline is based in middle Jurassic limestone, overlain with successive layers of upper Jurassic limestone with clay and Cretaceous limestones.

 Order of events The order of events should be examined in conjunction with this diagram (click on it for a better view in a new window):

1. Prior to the Completion of the Dam It appears that during the construction of the dam the chief engineer was concerned about the stability of the left bank of the dam, and a number of reports were compiled on this during 1958 and 1959, which identified a possible prehistoric slide on the right bank. Whilst there was considerable discussion of the stability of the valley walls in view of the inclined synclinal form of the strata and the possibility of old slides in this area, it was concluded that deep-seated landslides were extremely unlikely as (see Muller 1964 for a review of this):

• areas of weakness were not identified in the three test borings;
• it was assumed that any shear plane would have a ‘chairlike’ form that would exert a ‘braking effect’;
• seismic analyses had suggest that the banks consisted of very firm in-situ rock with a high modulus of elasticity.

Smaller slides in the looser surface layers were considered to be likely, although volumes and velocities of movement were expected to be low.
2. During the First Filling of the Reservoir Filling was initiated in February 1960, before final completion of the dam (which occurred in September 1960). By March 1960 the level of the reservoir had reached 130 m above the level of the river, when the first small detachment occurred. Continued filling of the reservoir occurred whilst monitoring of the movements in the banks was undertaken. In October 1960, when the depth of the reservoir had reached 170 metres, a rapid increase in the rate of displacement to approximately 3.5 cm/day was observed. At the same time a huge joint of 2 km length opened up, defining an area about 1700 m long and 1000 m wide, suggesting that a very large landslide had been mobilised. This is the crack:

On 4th November, with the depth of the reservoir at 180 m, a large failure occurred when 700,000 cubic metres of material slid into the lake in about ten minutes. As a result the level of the reservoir was gently dropped back to 135 m. At this point movement reduced to close to 1 mm/day. This is the 1960 failure:

It was realised by the designers of the dam that the large mass of the left bank was inherently unstable. However Muller (1964) stated that:
‘It appeared hopeless to arrest the slide artificially, because all means that would have had to be applied were beyond human bounds. It was also impossible to either seal the surface of the area, to shift the weight or to cement the rock by means of injections. On the other hand the possibility of accelerating the sliding movement in order to let the entire mass to slide down all at once had to be excluded. The danger arising for the formation upstream of the slide by an uncontrollable level of the storage lake would have been too great.’
Thus it was decided that an attempt could be made to gain control of the sliding mass by varying the level of water in the reservoir whilst controlling the joint water thrust within the rock mass by means of drainage tunnels. It was realised that this could lead to the blockage of that section of the reservoir by the landslide mass. However the volume of water in the unblocked (upstream) section would still be sufficient to allow the generation of electricity. Hence a bypass tunnel was constructed on the opposite (right) bank such that if the reservoir was divided into two sections the level of the lake could still be controlled.
It was assumed that by elevating the level of the reservoir in a careful manner movement of the large landslide mass could be initiated. The rate of movement could be controlled by altering the level of the lake. It was realised that a final sudden movement might occur, and it was calculated that, so long as the movement did not exceed a rate that would lead to filling of the reservoir by the landslide in ten minutes or less, over-topping of the dam would be avoided.
3. First Draw-Down of the Reservoir Creep had been initiated by the initial filling of the reservoir. As the level was subsequently drawn down, rates of movement decreased from a maximum of about 8 cm/day to 3 mm/day at a level of 185 m and less than 1 mm/day at 135 m. By this time the main landslide mass had moved an average of about 1 m.
4. Second Filling of the Reservoir From the beginning of October 1961 through to early February 1962 the water level was raised to 185 m, followed by a phase of slow impoundment such that in November 1962 the level had reached 235 m. During the early part of this phase velocities did not substantially increase, but by the end of the phase velocities had increased to 1.2 cm/day.
5. Second Draw-Down of the Reservoir In November 1962 a second lowering of the level was slowly undertaken, with the water depth decreasing to 185 m after four months. Initially displacements remained high but in December they began to reduce and, by early April when the water height had reached 185 m, the rate was effectively zero. The experiences gained from the second phase of filling and the subsequent draw-down confirmed to the engineers that control of the landslide was possible by altering the level of the reservoir. In consequence a third filling of the reservoir was undertaken.
6. Third Filling of the Reservoir Between April and May 1963 the reservoir level was rapidly increased to 231 m. Slight increases in velocity were noted, but rates never exceeded 0.3 cm/day. During June the level was increased to 237 m and the rate of displacement increased to 0.4 cm/day. In mid July the level reached 240 m and some of the control points indicated small increases in displacement to 0.5 cm/day. The level was maintained through to mid-August, but during this time velocities increased to 0.8 cm/day. In the latter part of August the level was increased once more such that by early September the depth of water was 245 m. In some parts of the slide velocities increased to as much as 3.5 cm/day. 7. Third Drawing Down of the Reservoir In late September the water level was slowly dropped to bring the rates of creep back under control. By 9th October a depth of 235 m was reached. However velocities of movement continued to slowly increase, and rates of up to 20 cm/day were recorded.
8. Catastrophic Failure At 22:38 GMT on 9th October 1963 catastrophic failure of the landslide occurred on the slope shown below.

Before failure

After failure

The entire mass slid approximately 500 m northwards at up to 30 m/sec. The mass completely blocked the gorge to a depth of up to 400m , and it travelled up to 140 m up the opposite bank. Movement of the landslide mass ceased after a maximum of 45 sec. At the time the reservoir contained 115 million cubic metres of water. A wave of water was pushed up the opposite bank and destroyed the village of Casso, 260 m above lake level before over-topping the dam by up to 245 m. The water, estimated to have had a volume of about 30 million cubic metres, then fell more than 500 m onto the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Villanova, Rivalta and Fae, totally decimating them. A total 2500 lives were lost. The image below shows the location of these villages after the flood. The valley floor, on which the villages were located, has been wiped clean by the water. The flood wave came down the Vajont valley, which can be seen in the upper right of the image:

However the dam was not destroyed and is still standing today. The by-pass tunnel is used for the generation of HEP.
Causes of the landslide Since the catastrophic failure, a huge range of work has been undertaken on the causes of the failure. Initially the was a large amount of speculation about the location of the sliding surface, but more recent studies have confirmed that it was located in thin (5 – 15 cm) clay layers in the limestone. It is claimed by some that as such it represents a reactivation of an old landslide (Hendron and Patten, 1985; Pasuto and Soldati, 1991), whilst others claim that it was a first-time movement (Skempton, 1966; Petley, 1996). It is likely that increasing the level of the reservoir drove up pore pressures in the clay layers, reducing the effective normal strength and hence the shear resistance. Resistance to movement was created by the chair-like form of the shear surface. Dropping the level of the reservoir induced hydraulic pressures that increased the stresses as water in the jointed limestone tried to drain. It has been estimated that the total thrust from this effect was 2 – 4 million tonnes (!?) (Muller, 1964). Failure occurred in a brittle manner, inducing catastrophic loss of strength. The speed of movement is probably the result of frictional heating of the pore water in the clay layers (Voight and Faust, 1982, 1992).

8 Gorgeous Nature Blogs for Earth Day

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by Erica

This Sunday, April 22nd will mark the 42nd observance of Earth Day. According to Earth Day Network, “More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.”

To inspire you to get in on this year’s celebration, here are eight amazing nature-related blogs on WordPress.com:

Birdlightwind.com

70degreeswest-explore.com

Leahyetter.WordPress.com

Drawandshoot.me

Beingmark.com

Beetlesinthebush.WordPress.com

Theblondecoyote.com

Lookingatthewest.com

So, how will you celebrate Earth Day 2012? Maybe Picnic for the Planet, or plant a tree? Whatever you do, be sure to share it on your blog! And don’t forget to tag your post with Earth Day to make it easier for others to find.

If Not Dark Matter, Then What?

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By: Natalie Wolchover, Life’s Little Mysteries Staff Writer

Date: 19 April 2012 Time: 03:16 PM ET

This artist’s impression shows the Milky Way galaxy. The blue halo of material surrounding the galaxy indicates the expected distribution of the mysterious dark matter, which was first introduced by astronomers to explain the rotation properties of the galaxy and is now also an essential ingredient in current theories of the formation and evolution of galaxies. CREDIT: ESO/L. Calçada

Astronomers mapped the motions of hundreds of stars in the Milky Way in order to deduce the amount of dark matter that must be tugging on them from the vicinity of our sun. Their surprising conclusion? There’s no dark matter around here.As the researchers write in a forthcoming paper in the Astrophysical Journal, the stellar motion implies that the stars, all within 13,000 light-years of Earth, are gravitationally attracted by the visible material in our solar system — the sun, planets and surrounding gas and dust — and not by any unseen matter.

“Our calculations show that [dark matter] should have shown up very clearly in our measurements. But it was just not there!” said lead study author Christian Moni-Bidin, an astronomer at the University of Concepción in Chile.

If the analysis of the data from Chile’s European Southern Observatory (ESO) is correct — a big “if,” several physicists say — it overturns the decades-old theory that dark matter permeates space in our region of the Milky Way. Dark matter is an invisible material thought to make up 80 percent of all matter in the universe. Although it doesn’t interact with light and so cannot be seen, its presence is invoked to explain why the outskirts of galaxies, including the Milky Way, rotate much more quickly than would be expected based on the gravitational pull of visible matter alone. Commonly accepted as fact, dark matter plays an essential role in models of galaxy formation and evolution, and several experiments are under way to detect dark matter particles on Earth.

But if dark matter isn’t here in the solar system, it may not be anywhere, because its distribution through the galaxy would have to be extremely peculiar to avoid this region in space. “Modern theories have serious troubles to explain the formation of a [dark matter] halo so curiously shaped,” Moni-Bidin told Life’s Little Mysteries.

Scott Tremaine, professor of physics at Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study, said, “If the authors’ conclusions are correct, this is indeed a serious blow to dark matter.”

Future astronomical surveys, such as the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, will clarify the situation by observing the movements of millions of stars, instead of just hundreds. But in the meantime, by calling dark matter into question, the new ESO finding invites discussion of a topic that hasn’t gotten much airtime in recent years: What other theories could account for the rotation of galaxies, as well as other observations explained by dark matter? If not dark matter — or, at least, not the dark matter we expected — then what? Experts have a few other options, though they’re not nearly as satisfying.

Gravity 2.0

If the force of gravity is a lot messier than Newton and Einstein thought, then it could account for the speedy rotation of spiral galaxies without requiring dark matter. For gravity to speed up stars on a galaxy’s edge, it must deviate from the “inverse-square law” — the rule that gravity decreases by the square of the distance away from something — at galactic distances. In other words, the force would need to suddenly spike at the edge of galaxies. But for it to act that way, gravity fields and the equations associated with them would have to be tremendously convoluted. [Top 3 Questions People Ask an Astrophysicist (and Answers)]

The theory is called “modified Newtonian dynamics,” or MOND. “The nicest of the alternative models for spiral galaxies is the alternative gravity theory MOND, as it seems to be able to [mathematically] reproduce the galaxy rotation curves with few assumptions built into it,” said Douglas Clowe, an astrophysicist at Ohio University who studies dark matter.

However, MOND doesn’t fill as many gaps as dark matter does: it works perfectly only for spiral galaxies, Clowe said. For elliptical galaxies, galaxy groups, galaxy clusters, and larger-scale structures, the theory doesn’t quite fit observations, and so it requires that extra matter — i.e., dark matter — be invoked once again. “So instead of just using an undiscovered particle to explain our observations of structures in the universe, MOND requires both an undiscovered particle and a modification to the gravitational-force law,” he said.

Another knock against MOND is that it, like the dark matter theory, doesn’t match the new ESO findings. According to Moni-Bidin, because the team members used Newtonian gravity in their calculations, MOND would predict a discrepancy to arise in the amount of mass they measured in the solar system. “MOND expects a ‘phantom disk’ of unseen matter to be detected in a work like ours,” he said — just as using Newton’s law to model the galaxy leads one to predict dark matter.

Fields of phions

John Moffat, a physicist at the Perimeter Institute for Advanced Study in Canada, has proposed a sub-theory of MOND called MOG, or “modified gravity.” He claims MOG explains the peculiar motion of galaxies, as well as galaxy clusters and cluster collisions, without invoking dark matter at any scale.

“I take Einstein’s gravity and I add to this three fields,” Moffat explained. One of the fields has a mass, and this introduces variations in the force law at different distance scales. However, in order to have a mass, the field must have a particle associated with it, which Moffat calls the phion. And, like dark matter particles, the phion’s existence has not been verified. [Smart Answers for Crazy Hypothetical Questions]

Warm and dark

If the ESO analysis is correct, it could just mean that dark matter behaves very differently — or is distributed very differently in space — than has been thought. “It would mean that dark matter would need to be distributed on a wider scale within the inner parts of a galaxy,” Clowe said, “which is [mathematically confirmed] if you make the dark matter particles less massive than the currently favored models.”

According to Douglas Spolyar, a dark matter theorist at the University of Chicago, the less massive variety is called warm dark matter. “People use it to explain two things — one that you would have a core in your dark matter profile, so dark matter stays constant inside some radius in the galaxy. Secondly, if you look at the dark matter sub-haloes in the Milky Way, the amounts [of warm dark matter] are much lower,” he said. That could explain why the ESO astronomers didn’t find any dark matter in our cosmic neighborhood. [What If Our Solar System had Formed Closer to the Milky Way’s Edge?]

However, the researchers said that cold dark matter particles are strongly preferred by cosmologists, because less massive dark particles would have problems forming galaxies quickly enough to match astronomers’ observations of the early universe.

New theory

If future surveys of the motions of stars bolster the ESO findings, strongly suggesting there really is no dark matter in our region of the galaxy, then cosmologists may have to scrap all the current theories and begin anew. “To date, a comprehensive relativistic theory alternative to the dark matter paradigm, able to explain the observations on all scales, from galactic rotation to the clusters of galaxies, is not known,” Moni-Bidin said.

Princeton’s Tremaine concurred: “I don’t think any of the alternatives to dark matter are very likely.”