5 MAY--This Day in US Military History

2015-05-05T08:45:51-04:00

1945 – In Lakeview, Oregon, Mrs. Elsie Mitchell and five neighborhood children are killed while attempting to drag a Japanese balloon out the woods.

Unbeknownst to Mitchell and the children, the balloon was armed, and it exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They were the first and only known American civilians to be killed in the continental United States during World War II.
The U.S. government eventually gave $5,000 in compensation to Mitchell’s husband, and $3,000 each to the families of Edward Engen, Sherman Shoemaker, Jay Gifford, and Richard and Ethel Patzke, the five slain children.
The explosive balloon found at Lakeview was a product of one of only a handful of Japanese attacks against the continental United States, which were conducted early in the war by Japanese submarines and later by high-altitude balloons carrying explosives or incendiaries. In comparison, three years earlier, on April 18, 1942, the first squadron of U.S. bombers dropped bombs on the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Kobe, and Nagoyo, surprising the Japanese military command, who believed their home islands to be out of reach of Allied air attacks.
When the war ended on August 14, 1945, some 160,000 tons of conventional explosives and two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan by the United States. Approximately 500,000 Japanese civilians were killed as a result of these bombing attacks.

https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/may-5/

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May 5

5 May 1494 - During his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus first sighted Jamaica and commented on the daily rains. Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica, which he name...

Response by CPL Rob N. made May 5 at 2015 9:05 AM

2015-05-05T09:05:03-04:00

They should have had Capt. Wild Bill Kelso on the prowl!

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 5 at 2015 12:21 PM

2015-05-05T12:21:49-04:00

Man, I did not know this. It is sad that I share my birthday with this sad event.

Response by LTC Stephen C. made May 5 at 2015 2:53 PM

2015-05-05T14:53:05-04:00

Incredibly sad, 1SG Private RallyPoint Member, especially when most of the U.S. is celebrating Cinco de Mayo for the wrong reasons, and for a country that really doesn't place much emphasis on the day themselves.

Response by SFC James Barnes made May 5 at 2015 7:13 PM

2015-05-05T19:13:30-04:00

funny that's right in the area I live in. I had already heard of this but still interesting. Kind of like the Japanese internment camp

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made May 6 at 2015 6:56 AM

2015-05-06T06:56:12-04:00

Great bit of History. Brilliant Concept, thoroughly Impractical Weapon though. Nature was very uncooperative for these things.