No. 38 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transport unit. Formed in 1943, the squadron ferried supplies and personnel during World War II between Australia and combat zones in New Guinea and Borneo, using Douglas Dakota aircraft. It was deployed to Singapore from 1950 to 1952, supplying Commonwealth forces engaged in the Malayan Emergency. It started flying de Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribous (pictured) in 1964. Throughout Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, the squadron prepared aircrew for operational service with No. 35 Squadron, and maintained a detachment in Papua and New Guinea to provide pilots with experience flying in tropical conditions. During the 1980s it provided search and rescue capabilities within Australia, working with Australian Army units. From 1999 until 2001, a detachment was deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led peacekeeping force in the newly independent nation. The squadron continued to fly the ageing Caribous until 2009, when it was re-equipped with eight Beechcraft King Air 350 aircraft. Currently stationed at RAAF Base Townsville, Queensland, it is responsible for light transport tasks and for training RAAF pilots to operate King Airs.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._38_Squadron_RAAF> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1816: HMS Whiting became wrecked on the Doom Bar, a treacherous shoal off the coast of Cornwall, England, that has caused over 600 known shipwrecks. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_Bar> 1862: American Civil War: Confederate forces captured the Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, taking more than 12,000 prisoners. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Harpers_Ferry> 1916: Tanks, the "secret weapons" of the British Army during the First World War, were first used in combat at the Battle of the Somme in Somme, Picardy, France. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme> 1935: Nazi Germany enacted the Nuremberg Laws, which deprived German Jews of citizenship, and adopted a new national flag emblazoned with a swastika. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Germany#Nazi_Germany> 1963: A bomb planted by members of the Ku Klux Klan exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, US, killing four children and injuring at least 22 others. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: scream queen: (informal) An actress who appears in many horror films. <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scream_queen> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: The demagogue is usually sly, a detractor of others, a professor of humility and disinterestedness, a great stickler for equality as respects all above him, a man who acts in corners, and avoids open and manly expositions of his course, calls blackguards gentlemen, and gentlemen folks, appeals to passions and prejudices rather than to reason, and is in all respects, a man of intrigue and deception, of sly cunning and management, instead of manifesting the frank, fearless qualities of the democracy he so prodigally professes. The man who maintains the rights of the people on pure grounds, may be distinguished from the demagogue by the reverse of all these qualities. He does not flatter the people, even while he defends them, for he knows that flattery is a corrupting and dangerous poison. Having nothing to conceal, he is frank and fearless, as are all men with the consciousness of right motives. He oftener chides than commends, for power needs reproof and can dispense with praise. He who would be a courtier under a king, is almost certain to be a demagogue in a democracy. --The American Democrat <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_American_Democrat> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
